Monday, October 31, 2011

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

Friday, October 28, 2011

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.

Monday, October 24, 2011

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:

Saturday, October 22, 2011

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.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

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.

Friday, October 14, 2011

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

Saturday, October 8, 2011

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.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

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

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

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

Saturday, October 1, 2011

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.