Elsewhere Online: October 2011

As you may have guessed from my In My Mailbox posts, I review for another website (bookloons.com). As I cannot post my reviews there and here, but I would still like to count the books I read for the challenges, I am going to have a post like this at the end of the every month listing the books I reviewed and what challenges the went towards.

Title: Queer

Author: Kathy Belge & Marke Bieschke

Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Title: Ghost Hunt

Author: Jason Hawes & Grant Wilson

Challenges: Horror & Urban Fantasy, 100 Books in a Year

Title: Bunheads

Author: Sophie Flack

Challenges: Debut Authors, Young Adult Contempory

Title: Ghost Hunt 2

Author: Jason Hawes & Grant Wilson

Challenges: Horror & Urban Fantasy

Title: The Masterwork of a Painting Elephant

Author: Michelle Cuevas & Ed Young

Challenges: Debut Author

In My Mailbox 10/23-10/29

For review (on Bookloons or Bitten by Books):

Fool's Mate by Laura Pederson

Die for Me by Amy Plum

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann

Wither by Lauren Destefano

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Won:

The Time in Between by Maria Duenas

Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein

Fairest of All by Serena Valentino

Swaps from Swap-Bot:

Murder Most Mellow by Jaqueline Girdner

This fun weekly meme comes from The Story Siren.
All images come from Goodreads.

Spooktacular Giveaway (USA/Can)

Halloween is my favorite time of year. I love to scare myself! However, the book I have chosen for this giveaway is more funny than scary - Fang Face by Norm Cowie. I had received this autographed copy for review a while ago and had a great time reading it, but it is time to clean off my shelves.

To enter:

Fill out the Form.

Extra entries for following on GFC or Goodreads.

Don't forget to check out the other great giveaways:

In My Mailbox 10/16-10/22

For possible review (on Bookloons):

Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

The Puppy that Came for Christmas by Megan Rix

A Pinch of Love by Alicia Bessette

Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory

Won:

The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen

Unleased by Emily Kimelman

Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe

Swaps from Swap-bot:

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

The Celery Stalks at Midnight by James Howe

Chibi Vampire Bites by Yuna Kagesaki

Sleepless by Thomas Fahy

Requested from Paperbackswap:

Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason

Bought from The Book Depository:

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This fun weekly meme comes from The Story Siren.
All images come from Goodreads.

In My Mailbox 10/9-10/15

Won:

Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Swaps on Swap-Bot:

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

This fun weekly meme comes from The Story Siren.

All images come from Goodreads.

Primal Desires

Title: Primal Desires

Author: Susan Sizemore
Publisher: Pocket Star
ISBN: 978-1-4165-1336-0
Why Read?: For Fun
Challenges: TBR Pile, iChallenge, Vampires, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: I like Sizemore's writing style. However, I really have no clue what this book was about. It was easy to read, but I think I started too late in the series although paranormal romance series tend to work as standalones. I was a little confused as to the relationships between all of the characters.
Rating: 2 stars

Little Women

Title: Little Women

Author: Louisa May Alcott
Publisher: ebook
ISBN: n/a
Why Read?: For Fun
Challenges: Classics, Show Me the Free, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: I have never read Little Women until now, but last year I did read a graphic novel version. The book was much longer and I think the graphic novel flowed better as a lot of the story was streamlined. Many of the chapters in the book seemed to almost stand on their own with a loose story holding them together. Overall, Little Women read like a morality tale, but it was cute.
Rating: 3 stars

In My Mailbox 10/2-10/8

For possible review (on Bookloons.com):

Trance by Kelly Meding

Bunheads by Sophie Flack

Won:

Under the Boardwalk by Linda Howard, Geralyn Dawson, Jillian Hunter, Miranda Jarrett, & Mariah Stewart

Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson & Marshall Karp

Requested from Paperbackswap:

Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce

This fun weekly meme comes from The Story Siren.

All images come from Goodreads.

A Visit from the Goon Squad

Title: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Author: Jennifer Egan
Publisher:Anchor
ISBN: 978-0-307-47747-7
Why Read?: Book Club
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: A Visit from the Goon Squad is definitely unique. It is closer to a short story collection of interconnected tales than a novel. Each of the thirteen chapters follows a different protagonist and is written is a different style. The three chapters that stood out the most to me are "X's and O's", "Great Rock and Roll Pauses", and "Pure Language". The rest were rather meh.
Rating: 3 stars

The Half Life

Title: The Half Life

Author: Jennifer Weiner
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ISBN: 978-1-4423-4187-6
Why Read?: For Fun
Challenges: Chick Lit, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: I am not sure if I would have liked this better if I read it rather than listened to it. As it was, I listened the whole time with my heart in my throat, hoping it would turn out one way (but then again, glad it didn't or I would have been pissed at Piper, the main character). If I had read it, I would have sped through it to find out the ending, but that is impossible to do with an audio book. Not a waste of my time, but definitely a story I could take or leave.
Rating: 2 stars

All These Things I've Done

Title: All These Things I've Done

Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: MacMillan Audio
ISBN: 978-1-4272-1358-7
Why Read?: For Fun
Challenges: 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: A future where chocolate and coffee are banded could be pretty bleak, and if your family is the US's top exporter of chocolate, that means your family is a bunch of crimials, a mob actually. This is the predicament that 16-year-old Anya Balanchine finds herself in. As if she does not have enough trouble keeping track of her older, mentally-challenged brother and her spunky younger sister while their guardian, their grandmother, is on life-support, she is accused of poising her ex-boyfriend with chocolate. And on top of all of that, she, a girl from a criminal family, finds herself falling for the new boy at school - who just happens to be the ADA's son. This is one dystopian full of teen angst, but it works. The world Zevin imagines is on the verge of another dark age which very little hope, and the reader of this audio book, Ilyana Kadushin, manages to capture this mood perfectly - but a little more than I would have if I had read it rather than listened, and this threw me some at times.
Rating: 4 stars

In My Mailbox 9/25-10/1

No clue why I received so many in one week...

For possible review (on bookloons.com):

The Masterwork of a Painting Elephant by Michelle Cuevas & Ed Young

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen & Rebecca Guay

Ghost Hunt by Jason Hawes & Grant Wilson

Ghost Hunt 2 by Jason Hawes & Grant Wilson

All the Earth Thrown to the Sky by Joe R. Lansdale

A Plague Year by Edward Bloor

The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall

Scored by Lauren McLaughlin

Empire of Ruins by Arthur Slade

You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan

My Beating Teenage Heart by C. K. Kelly Martin

Paintings from the Cave by Gary Paulsen

Unforsaken by Sophie Littlefield

The Lost Songs by Caroline B. Cooney

Catwalk by Deborah Gregory

Won:

After Obsession by Carrie Jones & Steven E. Wedel

Irma Voth by Miriam Toews

Six Moon Summer by SM Reine

All Hallows Moon by SM Reine

Sea Change by Aimee Friedman

Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Swaps on Swap-Bot:

Stay with Me by Sandra Rodriguez Barron

The Broker by John Grisham

Temperatures Rising by Sandra Brown

This fun weekly meme comes from The Story Siren.

All images come from Goodreads.