Are you curious as to what I've updated? Not wanting to go through pages and pages though? Then look no further. Pages I update will be posted here monthly.
Get excited, folks, as an old favorite is back! We'll be doing another round of book spine poetry for this year's Love-a-Thon. If you don't know what that is, it's basically taking a few of your favorite book titles and arranging them to form a poem. You can simply type out the titles, take a photo of the book spines or design a collage. Creativity is encouraged!
This is absolutely one of my favorite challenges to do for any event.
Mix & Match! All of us here love books, but there are other things we’re passionate about too! The challenge: Mash-up a non-bookish hobby / passion / talent / fandom with your bookish life. Do it through photos, art, videos, etc. Get as creative as you’d like!
If you read the Merry Meet Me intro from Yesterday then you probably know that one of the non-bookish things I like to do is paint glasses. I've gone and mixed bookish things with these glasses and painted them. I think they all have turned out pretty nice.
101 Dalmatians (I love how this turned out)
Beauty and the Beast (This was a present to a co-worker)
I Love Lucy (This was a Christmas present to my mom)
Ford Mustang (I made because my husband loves Mustangs)
Clifford the big red dog
Nancy Drew
Alice in Wonderland
Beautiful Creatures by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia
3. How did you get into blogging in the first place?
About 5 years ago I was browsing the web and came across The Story Sirens blog and then goodreads. After that the rest just fell into place.
4. How did you come up with your blog name?
I had another blog for about 20 days and it was okay. However it just wasn't catchy enough for my taste. One day I remember talking to my Sis-in-law, and she mentioned how I should join a group for bookaholics. Then it hit me AA. There should be a group of people sitting around talking about their book addictions. I was in love <3.
5. What genre do you read and review the most on your blog?
6. What other types of posts do you do on your blog, apart from reviews?
I'm a mess of a person so I don't always post regular things. I've tried things out and they seem to flop, but some of them are like most: Top Ten Tuesday, WOWs, and then I had a few of my own features like Are you a bookaholic, Reverse Thursday, Books I'd quit support group for, Questions? Answered! If you look at my list under bookish then those are others I do.
7. Best blogging experience so far?
I would have to say getting to go to Author signings. I know that's not blogging er say, but I would not have known about the signings if not for blogging.
8. Favorite thing about the blogging community?
9. Name the 5 books you’re most excited for this 2016!
The Rose and the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh
Sisters of Salt and Iron by Kady Cross
Meltdown by Kirsten Simmons
The Peculiar Night of the Blue Heart by Lauren DeStefano
Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (I already have, but I need to get reading)
10. Name the 5 books you want to read this 2016 that you didn’t get to in
previous years!
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
The Rose Society by Marie Lu
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
11. What’s an underrated book or series that you think everyone should read?
I'm not really sure I can think of one.
12. Which book boy or girl would be your book BFF?
Rose from Vampire Academy
13. Which book boy or girl would be your book boyfriend/girlfriend?
Dimitri from Vampire Academy (Are we sensing a theme?)
14. Who would you recruit for your apocalypse squad (5 characters max)
15. Apart from reading, what are your other hobbies or interests?
When I can find inspiration I love painting glasses.
16. Apart from book shopping, what else do you like shopping for?
Honestly I'm not big on shopping. I'll go into walmart to look around but that's about it. I love amazon shopping though. :)
17. At a party, the DJ suddenly changes the song – and it’s your song. What song
would be playing?
Right now I really like I got the boy by Jana Kramer
18. Pick out either a book you want turned into a film/TV show, or a film/TV
show you want turned into a book.
Landry Park/Jubliee Manor would make an interesting movie. It has the futuristic feel to it, but you also have the elegance of ball gowns, parties, and richness.
19. What would your dream library look like?
20. Author you want to meet and sit down to tea with?
AUTHOR: Jennifer Mathieu PUBLISHER: Roaring Books Press PAGES: 209 STAND ALONE/SERIES: Standalone SOURCE: Bought OUTLINE: Everyone knows Alice slept with two guys at one party.
But did you know Alice was sexting Brandon when he crashed his car?
It's true. Ask ANYBODY.
Rumor has it that Alice Franklin is a slut. It's written all over the bathroom stall at Healy High for everyone to see. And after star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, the rumors start to spiral out of control.
In this remarkable debut novel, four Healy High students—the girl who has the infamous party, the car accident survivor, the former best friend, and the boy next door—tell all they know.
But exactly what is the truth about Alice? In the end there's only one person to ask: Alice herself.
MY THOUGHTS
I thought that since this book was short that it would be an easy read, and things would go smoothly.
After reading it now I wish that could have been true for Alice's sake.
High school will be high school and you will always have the cliques. It takes a strong character to stand out and be different.
SETTING
The Truth About Alice is set in Healy, a small town that you either want to live in forever, or get the hell out of when high school is out. Just like in most small towns everyone knows everybody and their business so it's no surprise to anyone when the town quarterback says he slept with Alice and so did some college guy in the same night. Then the quarterback dies in accident a few days later. Guess who everyone blames? I mean it has to be the last person he was "with" right? So freaking typical!
I grew up in a small town in Texas so I know that feeling of everyone knows everyone. (I can't say it's small anymore though with time comes growth and changes.) I'm not sayin my town ever had these kinds of things happen, but I can imagine how it would be.
I enjoyed the small town feel. I can't say I don't agree with the characters when some want to leave it behind because I felt the same way. You want to get away from what you know, you want to go where no one knows your life story. Maybe, you want to be that little fish in the big sea. I left mine behind, but in the end it's still home.
CHARACTERS
This story is told in 4 and 1/2 POVS. I will explain the 1/2 POV in a moment.
The 4 and 1/2 POVS are basically the main characters. The ones who share their experiences with us.
I will start with the 1/2 POV which is Alice. Alice is the girl that everyone knows to have slept with two boys at a party and then caused the death of one of them. She's the one that takes constant criticism for being a slut, a murderer, a bad friend, and so many more things that as a girl, as a teenager could really do damage to her. No one wants to be blacklisted by people who are supposedly your friends, to be pushed aside as the black sheep of the town. These are times when a girl, or anybody could use their best friend, but instead this is what Alice's Best Friend is like...
Kelsie's POV is that of a former BF to Alice. I know characters have flaws, but Kelsie is the one character in this story who I couldn't stand, and that's saying something because a few others were ignorant and rude. I would have thought at some point Kelsie would have been like Alice is my BF and this shit talking has got to stop, but no it didn't. Kelsie stayed this selfish, wanting to please the popular group person. She may have thought about talking to Alice, but actions speak louder than words. I get that something bad happened to her, but if you're that ashamed about it, and no one knows think about how someone else feels when you tell everyone about her problems. Kelsie was a bitch--point blank.
Elaine's the queen Bee of Healy High so I didn't expect much from her. I knew she was going to be this girl who would be this stereotypical bitch, and I was right. That's okay though because she has these flaws and that's what makes her. I honestly thought I would hate her from beginning to end, but unlike the supposed best friend of Alice, Elaine grew a small bit true, but even a bit is more than nothing at all.
Kurt was one of the characters you just instantly adore. A typical nerd. He was definitely a sweet, kind-hearted guy. When no one else cared to nice and be nice to Alice..there was dear Kurt. The one person who knew the truth about Alice. (I didn't even mean to go there with that statement.) It hurt a little inside when things happened later on in the book, but we know that Kurt will not let us down. You keep being your awesome self Kurt.
I think Kelsie and Josh were the two characters I wasn't very fond of for the simple fact that both were cowards in my mind. Kelsie for obvious reasons stated above, and Josh because he led everyone to believe in other rumors surrounding Alice. Maybe, even starting one himself. Own up to your mistakes...man.
END
I also called Alice 1/2 a POV because in the end we get to hear her side of the story we get to see how she feels about situations. She gets the final chapter. The final say.
DOWNFALL
I hated all the slut shaming, and everything these kids did to Alice. The Slut stall...Really? I know it's part of high school, but this is why some many girls and boys have low self-esteem. This is real life and it sucks.
QUOTES “How much did it hurt? It was like a million paper cuts on my heart.”
This week the topic is Valentine's Day is next week...let's do a Valentine's Day themed freebie! Top Ten Books That Would Make Great Valentine's Day Reads (or anti-Valentine's day reads), Top Ten OTPs, Top 10 fictional crushes, top ten great love declarations in fiction, swoony quotes from books etc. Get creative!
I picked Covers that have hearts on them. :) I went a different route.
AUTHOR: Richelle Mead PUBLISHER: Razorbill PAGES: 272 STAND ALONE/SERIES: Series SOURCE: Bought OUTLINE: In a village without sound…
For as long as Fei can remember, no one in her village has been able to hear. Rocky terrain and frequent avalanches make it impossible to leave the village, so Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom.
When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink. Many go hungry. Fei and all the people she loves are plunged into crisis, with nothing to look forward to but darkness and starvation.
One girl hears a call to action…
Until one night, Fei is awoken by a searing noise. Sound becomes her weapon.
She sets out to uncover what’s happened to her and to fight the dangers threatening her village. A handsome miner with a revolutionary spirit accompanies Fei on her quest, bringing with him new risks and the possibility of romance. They embark on a majestic journey from the peak of their jagged mountain village to the valley of Beiguo, where a startling truth will change their lives forever…
And unlocks a power that will save her people.
MY THOUGHTS
This is VERY different then Richelle's other books. If you get one thing from this review, it's this don't go into this thinking it will be a typical Mead book. IT'S NOT! I can't stress this enough. I love how Mead portrayed the soundless-ness of the village in the book by letting us know when they were talking. I loved the concept of the idea, and I believe up until the end it was an interesting idea. I would of loved if this was maybe a duolgy or something because we're left with some many un-answered questions I think.
SETTING
I love that this takes place someplace very different then most books I read. I love the tiny village feel, and how everyone knows everyone. Mead did a good job at this setting and place she created.
CHARACTERS
I really loved Fei. I think Mead does an excellent job with her main characters, and making them enjoyable and kick-ass. I know that Fei and Rose are WAY different, and they come from VERY different backgrounds but they have a lot of the same qualities I love when reading. I love that these girls can be kick-ass and yet still have this heart of gold. The family connection between Fei and her sister is one of the qualities I loved. Fei would do anything for her sister and it shows through show much in this story. Fei tries to keep her sister from becoming something less.
Then we have Li Wei, who is a miner and going by their social standing is at the bottom of the chain. He was Fei's friend when they were little, and you could tell that they has chemistry from the start, but Fei kept denying her feelings because she was promised to someone else, but we all know how stories change, and once both them were in situations that they could be killed things change. I'm pretty happy that this was one of those stories where we know the love situation. Sometimes it better to have one love than many. :)
ENDING
It was way to easily tied up with a bow, and just seemed to quick and thrown together. There isn't much I can say without giving away the ending, but something about it kinda says cheesy. I kind of wish it had another story coming because I would have loved to see what happens with the characters more.
