I’m going to start a new blogging idea tonight. I work with kids from age 5 to about 11 years old, and they are soooo funny. I live my job so much because even in the days where I teach the same exact lesson as the day before the students make the class periods a completely different experience.

My cousin, hi Tara, asked me over Twitter, if my students said anything funny/cute lately so I thought I’d share things like that with a blog topic. No names included and only the things I deem as too amazing to not share will be used lol

I’ll label these as tmss in the blog. There were some cute ones today

First, I had a little boy not looking at me during the story time, I was worried he was crying but I realized he was yawning. Our school doesn’t have room to have full day k classes, so this boy was part of the PM class. They came to school st 1:00 and came to library around 2:15 or so.

When I asked him what was wrong he said “I’m Was almost falling asleep…I’ve been in school FOR HOURS!!” it was too cute.

During the same class, the same boy was lifting himself up on the table and I told him he didn’t need to be any taller, as he was the tallest in the class already.

Little girl: “No, that’s you! You are the tallest in the class, Miss Chrusch!”

…that’s abnormal as I have second and third graders my height and talker and it made my day! But then I noticed that this was only true because my helper mom wasn’t standing up at the time.

Last week I was emailed by Kelly, from YAnnabe, asking for my help in a Secret Blogger project. I’m always in for anything excititing! Her goal, and now the goal of nearly 40 other bloggers including myself, is to shed some light on the YA books that we love, that aren’t sitting on the Target Bookshelves, or bestsellers. We’re trying to give the little guys (the lesser known books) a chance in this YA reading world.

For my part, I checked books that did not have as many users owning and reviewing them on Librarything.com and looked at books mostly from 2008 and earlier. Things that may have slipped through the cracks, or books you saw, meant to read, but forgot when a Twlight book or something sucked up your time (Vampires suck blood, Twilight sucks time. I like my Vampires snarky, not sparkly but that’s my own vampire opinion lol)

(If you want to read  more listsof great YA books you may have missed, please check out Kelly’s list and the links to other blogger’s lists here.)

HERE We Go…EDITED POST filled with random notes about my reading habits, haha, sorry.

Audrey, Wait! Robin Benway
Fun Fun Fun! Usually I stay away from YA books that aren’t paranormal, fantasy or mysteries….straight on teen life things bore me. This very well could be because I’m 10 years past being 17…but I was the same way in High School, but this one was faboo for sure. It’s a bit over the top, with all the sort of FACE PALM moments, but that’s what makes it GREAT! I actually liked reading about someone who had worse luck than I do haha. The relationship parts were cute, and were paced throughout the book, not just slapped in, and the entire book left me with the “I feel SO BAD for her RIGHT NOW…BUT I ALSO WANT TO LAUGH” feeling. ;)

Chalice by Robin McKinley
I wasn’t a reader in elementary school, not from the start at least. I was the I WILL TAKE EVERY KITTEN BOOK AND READ IT OVER AND OVER kid. I think I finally got hooked on fiction in 4-6th grade thanks to the trade books we did in class. In 6thgrade my teacher gave us a copy of “The Hero and the Crown” as the trade book…which he stopped reading less than halfway through, because, um high fantasy with 6th graders who are used reading books like “Sixth Grade can really kill you” (books about kids our age, in a school setting) doesn’t quite work if you just throw it out there. I was hooked though, I kept my copy, and read it over and over again, and it is officially my favorite book…the book I have parts memorized to. Um Edward Cullen, no Thanks, I’ll take Luthe, because Mages are far more awesome than Vampires :P I love Robin’s Fairy Tale retellings, but not as much as her Damar books….and I have to admit I didn’t read SUNSHINE or those Dragon Training ones. But I kept missing that vintage McKinley style of writing. The sense of wonder you get from reading her world building, and most importantly THE CHARACTERS, their interactions. CHALICE was a return back to that style. It’s not in my heart like her earlier works, but it is a satisfying read, that will suck you in with its magic, and beauty and the beast motif (less direct than her 2 retellings of Beauty and the Beast, but it is still there.)

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
I’m a fairy tale and fantasy girl, my entire high school reading was actually high fantasy and star wars books, back then being a geek wasn’t in style like now haha so if you give me a dragon book, I’m still so there. This great little number I found in my own school library, though it’s readers can range from 11 or so to 27, and beyond. I just say 27 for a fact because I have a 5th grader reading it now after 27 year old me recommended it. It’s clear that Jessica Day George read and loved many of the same books as me, Robin McKinley, Patricia C. Wrede, Gail Carson Levine, as this book matches up with them in both style and substance. While not as light as something by Wrede’s Enchanted forest, it also shows a great relationship between a girl and her unlikely friend, a dragon. I know my higher level readers love this one so please don’t let the fact that I picked this book from an Elementary Library scare you away, this is a great read for YA fantasy readers.

Devilish by Maureen Johnson
I love cupcakes. I love supernatural books. I love something written with a sense of humor, books that don’t take themselves that seriously. Maureen Johnson wrote this book, because it amused her, plain and simple…and it sure as heck amused me too.  The main character jumps off the page for you, I can totally see myself hanging out with her and rolling our eyes at the whole teen scene life of High School. I’ve seen many attempts at the whole HIGH SCHOOL IS HELL or SELLING YOUR SOUL concept, but Maureen does it so well in this book. It also…made me really really really hungry.

Enchanted, Inc. Shanna Swendson
Not labeled as YA as it is about  a 20 something in New York City, but I love this book and I know many teens, and YA readers would too… actually I think this series would have worked really well if it had been targeted for the YA audience. It’s about a normal texas girl who gets a job in NYC because she is just that, normal, regular, boring…. It makes her immune to magic, so she can work with wizards and other spell casting types and folks from fairy tales without having spells work on her. There are so many fractured fairy inspired books in YA right now, which makes me soooooo happy, that this cute series would be interesting to those readers. If you are the type of person who wishes Hogwarts was real, or that you could snag a prince after kissing a frog, grab this series! So cute and funny!!

Nobody’s Princess by Esther Friesner
I’m confused on why this did not show up on more Librarything lists, as I see this book, and it’s sequels displayed when I go to Borders, and I think I recall seeing it at Target too. Basically if you give me a retelling (fairy tale, historical based, anything) and mix it with a headstrong female main character, I am so there. This one is the story of Helen of Troy as a teenager…a really feisty teenager.

Ophelia by Lisa Klein
English major here…who was one class away from a Theater Minor in Undergrad…I’ll take any and all Shakespearian Revampings you want to send my way. I always felt poor Ophelia got the short end of the character stick…no boy is worth drowning for ;) But this reworking gives us a fleshed out Ophelia…we see what she feeling with the loss of her father, and what she actually liked in Hamlet, and what happened leading up to…and after the whole pond incident. Very interesting read.

Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale
I really love Shannon Hale’s books….”The Goose Girl” is my favorite by her, and on my list of favorite books in general. You probably have gotten the idea by now that if something is fairy tale based (or has snarky supernatural fun) that it will be a Melissa kind of book. I met Shannon Hale at ALA right after I first became a Librarian, and she told me such nice things about how I will change people’s lives and affect so many people. So maybe I am bias when I say you should read RAPUNZEL’S REVENGE….but so what, it’s awesome! A graphic novel that takes the familiar  Rapuzel story and sets it in the Wild West, Rapunzel’s Revenge is a wild ride, and great fun!

Story Time by Edward Bloor
As a teacher I have to tell you, I think Standardized Testing is evil, so, while this book is a satirical look at the American Education system and it’s testing pressure, I don’t think it would take much to convince me all those state tests went hand to hand with real Demons. I actually read this on the Beach in NJ a few years back, and while it’s no beach read (Girl and her similarly aged genius uncle get shipped off to a fancy school, where they are trained physically, and mentally for tests tests tests tests. The teachers and staff start to get possessed by a Demon, and all Hell Breaks loose as they say) It reminded me a bit of reading “The Book of Lost things” (WHICH I LOVE) as it reads on the surface as a basic children’s scary story, but is so much more.

Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess
As a teenager I wasn’t a YA reader, I mentioned that before, I don’t think it was as big then (late 90’s) or  maybe my library just wasn’t stocked up “(which is VERY possible, as I seemed to be the only one there to TAKE OUT BOOKS. Everyone else was trying to get out of study hall and wanted to play mine sweeper on a computer or the Oregon Trail.) But when I was in college I read “Speak” for the first time, it turned me on to the YA thing. “Such a Pretty Girl” is very speak-like in nature, as it deals with a girl trying to find strength after being abused (in this case by her father (who was just released from prison and is coming home.) I felt it was a very honest, an emotional look inside the mind of a broken girl.

14 mins of battery power left on the laptop, just enough time to close out on my Bloggiesta Weekend! I started on Saturday and was really going strong. Today, was less productive, but I took notes on some of the things I want to get to on my blog for next weekend. In general I think I learned so many little tips about blogging, not just tweaks on how the blog should look, but how it should be run. I got so much information from the Mini Challenges I participated in, and I plan to hit the ones I didn’t get to at another time (looking forward to finally understanding how to set up my gravatar for example.) I feel like I am bumbling around less, and I know of more resources, and blogs to check out when I do get stuck.

I am very happy that I took the time to redo the navigation on the site. My first attempt (having only the Book Blogging entries show on the main page) just didn’t feel right for me, so I changed it so everything shows when you first get here, then you can use the tabs to go more specific if you like. I’m a random person, but I like writing on many different topics, basically babbling about whatever I am thinking about that the time…usually it is books, but not always. For me I think having a personal blog with book blog elements just works better, but having it more organized for readers who might not enjoy the random so much, is a big help.

I added a bit new content, and had brainstorms for more blog posts to come, so this weekend really got me out of my blogging sleep.

I’m down to 10 mins, so here is a quick update on what I got done:

-got new widget codes to match the layout change
-updated my about me blurb and placed it on the sidebar
-added a footer with copyright information
-wrote two new posts
-changed how I wanted to deal with my reading Log (no longer a page I update with Goodreads information, but a link in the sidebar to my 2010 Goodreads shelves, and future reviews. I have no IDEA WHY I was using goodreads, and then rewriting all of that info directly into the blog last year, this will be such a time saver!
-Speaking of time savers, I made a cheatsheet in word of important links, and PASSWORDS…because I really do keep forgetting what my flickr password is, and it’s nice to have my FTP info a well. Yesterday I spent 20 mins trying to remember my windows password on my old PC for heaven’s sake!
-Deleted dead links
-Updated my NEPA/Friends Blog Roll
-Found new blogs that I want to add to my Book Blogger blogroll…that part still needs cleaning out, and adding.
-Cleaned up stray code issues in my css file
-tweaked my sidebar template in wordpress
-joined the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge and did my walking tonight during Chuck
-Visited new blogs, and commented
-replied to comments in my own blog
-Added some of the people I found to twitter

My goals I have yet to do are:
-Get a Gravatar
-Make decisions on the Tech Section and Quote Page, keep as RSS or actually use wordpress for that.
-Blogger Blogroll update
-Review How to Say Goodbye in Robot before I FORGET THE DETAILS (P.S. I really really liked it)
-Post -mini reviews on goodreads so they show up in my reading log
-Find a way to resize the youtube links so they don’t expand past my table…or make my table bigger

The Mini Challenges I completed were:
-The Dead Link Hunt
-The Footer/Copyright Challenge
-The Cheat Sheet Challenge
-The Tables/Labels Cleanup

Time Spent: 5 hrs yesterday 2 today

more information about the challenges can be found at: The Starting Line of the Bloggiesta!

4 mins left, and time to head over to the finish line. I know I was many leagues behind the bloggers who worked three days straight, but my site is still very small, and I review what I happen to have read, so I have no deadlines I have to meet other than my own GET IT DONE ALREADY pressure. I haven’t been reading much lately (AHHH!!!) so I haven’t had much to post on that front. I’m getting out of the Christmas drag session and back into real life so I should be reading more. I have two library books I just renewed (and here is where I need to plug in or the computer goes to sleep…made it pretty far!) “Poison Study” and “Bras and Broomsticks” so I should have something up about them pretty soon…but hard to talk about the books you are reading, when you aren’t actually reading at the moment.

Oh and HEY if you are still reading this, I do have an unrelated question….but this blog is called MELISCELLANEOUS for a reason, I can randomly be random :P My friend wants me to go on vacation with her this summer and the options she gave me are 1. Spain (which I hear is beautiful, but I know no Spanish) 2. London, Paris and the Netherlands 3. England (country side) Scotland and Wales I’ve never left the county other than Canada so I’m not sure what would make a best first vacation abroad, so suggestions would be welcome! I think my friend wants to buy Spanish Leather and I’m more of a Ghost Tours of Scottish Castles type of girl. But anything sounds amazing, and better than my usual Vacation of sitting at home, and maybe, if I am lucky, heading to the Jersey shore to get major sunburn. Melissa + Beaches =DISASTER.

As usual, I’m late to the party, the Bloggiesta party that is. Last weekend I went a bit nuts on updating my blog adding new sections, and a new layout, all of which I am very pleased with, but I still have a some tweaks I have yet to do. I kept seeing the hashtag # bloggiesta on twitter and realized that this weekend is a big blog updating party, and that I was missing out on the fun!

This weekend I am setting some time aide to get some things done around here, both little and bit:

-Update my widgets, they match the old layout

-Update my picture, and my about me page moved the about me to the sidebar instead, made more room for content

-Update my blogroll,

-transfer my Quote Page from Livejournal to Wordpress, probably it’s own subpage

-Blog entry: Book Review of “How to Say Goodbye in Robot”

=Blog Entry: Mel’s Musings (probably in the “I’m in Shape, ROUND IS A SHAPE” heading ;) )

-Update 2010 Reading Log

-Pick up some new blogs to follow

-Comment Comment Comment

-Join one (or more) mini challenges

-Try to hunt down a fitness challenge for my personal blog section, or challenge myself

perfect!! 100 Mile Fitness Challenge

-sidebar clean up

-reorganize site all entries show on main page, but Books, Diet/Exercise, Personal Blog, and Project 365 have tabs at the start that will only show those entries

I’m excited, the Blog is starting to look better, but with some tweaks, and some more CONTENT, I should be back in action. I have been updating my Project 365 daily, but everything else hasn’t been that consistent.

Mini Challenges:
Footer Mini Challenge
Labels/Tags Clean up
Dead Link Hunt
Hours:  5

I REALLY should be turning on one of my exercise dvds, or the Wii fit right now, since I am at my parents’ house for the Holiday, and they are at the YMCA. That should be inspiring me, and also…it’s my one chance at using their TV! So I’ll post this quickly.

Other than the 50 books in a year challenge I’ve never done a reading challenge before. When I saw the 2010 New Author Challenge I thought this would be a great one to start with. Since I got on twitter I’ve heard about so many great upcoming books, and got to chat with some new authors, and I really want to support book publishing in general. Best seller’s and famous authors are fun to read I guess, I usually hide from the trendy mass population books (anything with an Oprah sticker for example) haha, but I love to find new exciting things to read.

Here is the scoop on what I am going to be doing, as explained by Kristi, you can find more information at the Story Siren’s Site:

•The objective is to read a set number of YA (Young Adult) or MG (Middle Grade) novels from debut authors published this year.* I’m going to challenge everyone to read at least 12 debut novels! I’m hoping to read at least 30! You don’t have to list your choices right away, but if you do feel free to change them throughout the year. I will also be focusing on mostly Young Adult novels.
•Anyone can join, you don’t need a blog to participate. If you don’t have a blog you can always share your views by posting a review on Amazon.com/BarnesandNoble.com/GoodReads/Shelfari, or any other bookish site.
•The challenge will run from January 1, 2010- December 31, 2010. You can join at anytime!

Look at all the great books that will be coming out:
Debut Authors
The Tenners
Class of 2k10

Ahhh! So many new books, I guess I’ll never get to my TBR Shelf that I spoke about in my last post.

Right Now, I really want Brightly Woven, as I am a sucker for High Fantasty. I have it pre-ordered. Hex Hall, Firespell, and Before I Fall, and 13 Treasures look like Melissa Books as well.

Instead of working organizing/cleaning the parts of my apartment that really need it I decide instead to focus on my living room. I have a tiny apartment, it’s larger than my last one in Binghamton which was 2 room, and the back half of a Funeral Director’s garage) but it’s in the basement of the building and very cold. Every other apartment has access from inside the building, and I have lovely wooden steps of doom that are very high and were once knocked down in a storm by a large wall (leaving me no way down to my apt.) Needless to say, I’m not going to be staying here forever. Where I live though getting an apartment is a miracle, there are only a handful of places, and there is a college right down the road, so I’m completing with lots of other interested parties (who are having parties.) I plan to stay here until I have tenure at my job (one more year!) and then look into something more settled, maybe renting/purchasing a townhouse in the area. I should probably stop probably buy less books so I can start saving ;)

So while my apartment isn’t the best thing in the world, it’s small and cute, and I like to decorate it. The focal point of my living room is the side wall, where there are two inset lights that can be turned on right above the spot. I decided to make this my reading corner, and plopped down a bookcase and my Pier One Pillow chair. But…This is also near my TV, so my bookshelf (also from Pier One) started to become a DVD shelf. I bought two more bookshelves, and also stole my brother’s that he used back in college. But this left basically one shelf per room, and everything in a bit of chaos organization wise.

I haven’t quite decided which books to put on what shelf, I change my mind often, but I do have my YA shelf all arranged in the computer room (it’s my tall shelf of course.) I was looking at my living room the other day and thought it looked a bit bare and I wasn’t getting enough use out of the space 9plus I had books that had been kicked off the shelf to make room for the DVDs that were now homeless, and laying on top of my old PC:

So I kidnapped the matching shelf from the backroom (computer and laundry room) and stuck them together in that spot. I grabbed many of the books I have yet to read from all the other bookshelves and make a TBR shelf (well the first two shelves, the last shelf is some of my favorites/classics:

I like the space better now, I guess Sadie does too. I still don’t know where to put those decorative wall shelves you see on my couch, but I’ll find a place, I mean it only took me a year to finish hanging my paintings. Yes, that is a Shirley Temple Poster on my wall, judge me all you want :P

Now, I am ashamed to post this, because I KNOW that trouble I will be in.  But here is a closeup of the To Be Read Shelf. I know there are so many great books on there, especially the conclusions to two of my favorite series (Funke and Bray…and my unread new Shannon Hale Book.) I know how bad this looks, but I was waiting until I got out of my reading slump to enjoy them, and then Library books happened and got in the way. No more excuses, posting this here will MAKE me finally get to those books on the shelf….after I finish my three Library Books I have out

-The Awakening

-Bras and Broomsticks

-Poison Study

Then I’ll start back to work on this pile:

If anyone is interested in new shelving, I would recommend these bookshelves. I have these two of the 3 shelves, and one of the 5 shelves. They have made moving (from State to State, or just moving from one room to another) much easier as they are folding shelves, but still very solid. They are from Pier 1 as I mentioned, there is a non-iphone photo you can view here

If you are really bored, or love to look at how people decorate (or fail to) I have a Flickr photo-collection of many of the apartments and rooms I have lived in. I have yet to update it with the decorating I did in the new place, but I will get to that next week, as I get to work on the rest of the rooms.
The Ghosts of Apartments Past

I spent much of the first day of 2010 tweaking css coding, trying to get my website into shape (I fully expect my own attempts at getting into shape will fail, so I’ll have to make do with my website.) Since bringing my site back after I…well, murdered it accidentally, I really never had a good picture of what I wanted it to be. At the time I was reading so many book blogs, that I felt this would be a great direction to go into, but I couldn’t get away from my personal blogging (ahem *babbling*) and felt the entire site was just a mishmash, and had no center.

Today I started breaking it apart. I was planning to perhaps made one book blog, and one personal, and I had already made a photoblog, when I had a thought: I have enough trouble keeping one blog going…three? really? Crazy much?

I happened upon, quite randomly, a plugin for Wordpress called Blog-in-Blog which has become a real lifesaver. It allows me post things from certain categories straight onto a wordpress “page” not the main /blog, so that when readers come they will mostly see my book related posts (from this point on) as soon as they get there. If they want to read about silly adventures my Day2Day Blog is available from the menu. Basically, things are more grouped, and you can pick what type of content you would like to read about, so it’s less of a mixed bag. I made sure you put the tag cloud wordpress tag back in, so one can use that to navigate as well. I’m pretty sure everything I post, in any category will be cross-posted to Livejournal per usual.

I changed the blog name to MELIScellaneous Reader since the first blog items available when you visit will be the Book-ish Content. I found this free template online that I tweaked color-wise and wordpress tag-wise. I made this background forever ago (using PaintShop Pro 7.0!) for myspace, but I have always loved how it looked, so I thought I’d get some more use out of it here. The whole site just feels more calm, less cluttered, and more me (except I am not calm, and AM very cluttered haha.) but color wise, it’s girlie without making me want to drown myself in pink glitter.

I also started Project 356 today, where you post one picture everyday for a year. I’ll mostly be uploading the pictures straight from my iphone using the Flickit ap. I can even blog them here from my phone directly. I’m trying very hard to streamline my web content, and how I produce it. I have the wordpress ap for my phone but…I don’t think I’ll want to be typing long posts on my iphone)

My goals for the site in 2010 are:

-More Content in general
-More Book Reviews, and have them be more detailed
-Less typing errors (*coughs* Typos and I are very close friends)
-Update Project 365 daily
-Transfer the Quote Page from LJ to Wordpress
-May Transfer my Education Blog to this wordpress account as well
-Get my blog out there more, often times I’m just talking to myself LOL

I did it! I met my 50 books in one year goal. I thought I was under, but I rechecked and found 2 books that I forgot to put in (The Summoning and Found) and decided since I put the work into reading my text books for class that they should count…unless I miscounted, which is very possible actually.

Last year I got to 48, so my goal for 2010 will be to beat my 51 from this year. I have three Library books out right now that I am looking forward to reading this week/weekend. I’m going to finish “The Awakening” tomorrow then move on to “Posion Study” probably…though the book Jeff got me for Christmas “The Seance” is looking very very tempting!

January:

1.) Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George 352 pages (4 stars)

2.) The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Standard Edition by J. K. Rowling (4 stars)

3.) A Lion Among Men (The Wicked Years, Book 3) by Gregory Maguire 336 pages (3 stars)

4.) Gifts (Annals of the Western Shore #1) by Ursula LeGuin (3 stars)

5.) Chalice by Robin McKinley 263 Pages (finished last 68 pages on Feb 1, during the Super Bowl) (4 stars)

6.) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (4.5 stars)

February:

7.) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (3 stars)

8.)  The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier (3 stars)

9.) Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn, David Levithan

10. Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner

March:

11.  Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell (4 stars)

April:

12. Kin (The Good Neighbors, Book 1) by Holly Black (3.5 stars)

13. Neverwhere: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (4 or 4.5 stars)

14. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (5 stars, not quite Speak, but excellent!)

15.  Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale (Graphic Novel of a Cowgirl Rapunzel, um, this can’t be anymore of a Melissa Book)

16 Amulet: Book 1 (Amulet) by Kazu Kibuishi

17. My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison

MAY

18.Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations into Veronica Mars (Smart Pop series)

19. Atlas: Poems by Katrina Vandenberg

20.  Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson (finished in June)

JUNE

21. Thirteenth Child (Frontier Magic Book) by Patricia C. Wrede

JULY

22. City of Glass (Mortal Instruments) by Cassandra Clare (4 star series, actually got into this even if the WTH factor of the first two books ha)

23. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black (I expected to love this one, as I am more of a fairy and magic person, than vampires/werewolves, but maybe I would say for me a 3.5, I couldn’t really get into it, it reminded me of so many other books, which is a shame because this is one of the books to start the big YA Urban Fantasy kick, and the books it reminds me of are really inspired by this one, I guess as a teenager I wasn’t at all like this, so I couldn’t relate, I think Holly Black in general is awesome though, she reminds me of me, if I were awesome)

24. Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow A new paranormal YA series that has potential, a bit like watching Supernatural, but with the main character as a teenage girl, nothing ground breaking, but enjoyable

25. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins finally, a book I can get emotionally attached to, I like to feel my books, and like everyone has been saying, this one is a winner. Interesting story idea, well written characters, highly recommended reading!

26. Troy High by Shana Norris (3.5-4 stars)

27. Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink (5 stars)

28. The Summoning (Darkest Powers, #1) by Kelley Armstrong

August

29. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

(4.5 )-Usually I hide from realistic YA fiction, especially the one with random faceless girls on the cover, I’m not a girlie book lets talk about boys and our period type of reader. If I did not already know Maureen Johnson is freakin’ hilarious I might have passed on this book. Glad I didn’t. Okay, so there is some talking about boys, one in particular, but he’s got an accent, so I’m good! haha I love mysteries, and this one kept me thinking “Okay what random and insanely funny thing will happen next?” Loved it. :D

30.  The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

(2.5 )-Oh how I wanted to love this book, It had all the classic Melissa Elements…magic, pretty dresses, thieves,  pretending to be what you aren’t and having it nip you in the bud, cinderela-like qualities, a donkey that acts like a dog. It wasn’t even the WTH orign of the “witch” (because I already knew that from an amazon review, I don’t mind spoilers really) It just fell flat for me, not enough characterization, or really details. It was a quick little thing, and Okay book but nothing to write home about sadly. Someone compared it to things by Gail Carson Levine, and while it’s probably a good fit from those readers Middle School and my late elementary princess book crowd, Gail Carson Levine’s works seem much stronger. This left me with a okay, that was….cute and all but I need some Robin McKinley to remind myself how real YA fantasy feels.

31.  Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

Solid YA fantasy, with all the right elements, to make it a young adult fantasy lover happy (danger! forbidden magic! cute boy with dark side! trees that can kill you! hints of romance and star-crossed love!) Liza, the main character, lives in a town run by her father’s strong fist, a fist that has come down on Liza many times along with his belt. The story is set after the great way between the Faerie people and Americans (? the world?) Liza is taught by her father that all magic is evil, and must be purged from society but when her own sister is born with Fae characteristics and Liza herself begins to experience magical abilities her father’s view of the world begins to make less and less sense. As she travels in search of her missing mother, she must try to unravel terrifying visions, and learn to trust in what she was taught to fear and hate.

32. Murder Mysteries by Neil Gaiman Graphic Novel Version of Gaiman’s short story of the same name from “Smoke and Mirrors” I do love me some creepy Gaiman with murdered angels, and a pointless starting narrative which becomes way less pointless after reading the murdered angel bit- that man’s mind must be a scary scary place…and yet he is always so cheery, hmmm…

33. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

34. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

35. The Stolen One by Suzanne Carlisle Crowley

36.  Wings by Aprilynne Pike

37.  You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay

September

38. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

39.  Catching Fire (Hunger Games, #2) by S. Collins

40.   Snow White And Rose Red by Patrica C. Wrede

October

41.  Dreaming Anastasia: A Novel of Love, Magic, and the Power of Dreams by Joy Preble

42.  Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

43. Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1) by Maggie Stiefvater (5 stars, tied for favorite book this year, along with Hunger Games and The Forest of Hands and Teeth)

44. Found (The Missing, #1) by Margaret Peterson Haddix

November:

45. Eyes Like Stars (The Théâtre Illuminata: Act 1) by Lisa Mantchev Really interesting theater based (as in Characters from Shakespeare and other plays made appearances) YA book. It’s the start of a series. I can’t wait to keep reading, since it’s so unique (4 stars)

46. Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe I remember liking this book as I read it, but now (Dec 31) about a month after reading it I can’t remember the details of it very well at all…not a good sign haha, but I remember it was cute, if you want some light YA ghostly fun this quick read would work well.

47. The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going finally getting to some of my books I bought at the book fair, which willbw donated by myself into my library collections at school. This one looked good to me, as it had religious allusions, and ghosts. Slightly eerie middle reader that I know some of my students would enjoy

48. Sent (The Missing, #2) by Margaret Peterson Haddix I never read “Among the hidden” and the books by Haddix in that series, but I am loving her new series (The Missing) they are part science fiction, part historial fiction, and part mystery.

December

49. The Maze Runner (Maze Runner, #1) by James Dashner Loovvved it! Complete, WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE, but <3!

50. Suddenly Supernatural: Scaredy Kat by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel Another Book Fair pick,  read book 1 and really enjoyed it, as I was one of those kid’s glued to the screen watching “Are You Afraid of the Dark” back in the 90’s, so this really worked for me. Sure it’s for 12 year olds, but it’s spooky I swear lol

51. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink Read for a Class

51.5 . The Awakening (Darkest Powers, #2) by Kelley Armstrong Only half done with this one, but really enjoying it. An hour left in the year, but I’m going to spend it playing scrabble with Pam instead of finishing, because I am a bad bad person :D

I did pick up some books today, so I thought I’d show you all my goodies a la The Story Siren’s In My Mailbox meme.

I went to Barnes and Noble to celebrate my start of school, and used my teacher discount for the first time. I think they had to be for school books, but often I donate my YAs to the Middle School or HS librarian so it sort of counts, maybe? I bought “The Forest of Hands and Teeth” and gave to Vanya as part of her birthday present, because who wouldn’t want to receive a Zombie/love story in the mail for their birthday. I seriously loved that book, Zombies are beating Vampires in my mind now.

For myself, I bought “Snow White and Rose Red” by Patricia Wrede, because when I was in 7th grade I discovered her Enchanted Forest books, which made turned me on to the whole fractured fairy tale kick that is still going on. I love her Regency Fantasy books as well, so her doing a turn on one of my favorite fairy tales that gets little love in the retelling game makes me a happy.

The other BN purchase was “Shiver” if you watch the video I posted last time I opened wordpress you’ll quickly see why. It looks fabo for sure.

From Amazon this week I picked up “Prom Dates from Hell” because I was looking for some paranormal fluff, after just finishing “You are SO UNDEAD to me” and enjoying it. This is a series so hopefully I will like it and can read the rest during these first months back to school, my brain can’t handle much more than funny fluff at the start of the school year.

Also got “Another Faust” from Amazon, because it sounds amazing, thinking what the modern teen or twenty something might sell their soul for…my choice would be cheese doodles. Never. Ending. Supply. without. weight. gain. :D

And Goodreads sent me a book! An ARC of “Alice I have been” which takes the character of Alice from Alice in wonderland and re-imagines her as a historical character and what becomes of her after childhood.

I have to read “Wings” first though, it’s due back to the Library Thursday (uh but it will be a day late because I checked it out from Lackawanna Co, and I won’t be there until Friday)

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I haven’t blogged or posted to LJ in a good while, mostly the prep for back to school, then the actual back to school sort of ate me alive. Had a great first week back, even though I was at the school that made my head spin last year (no time to get things done) they gave me a part time aid for an hour a day, which sounds like not much, but has been a life saver. I start my first week at my second school tomorrow. Maybe this work one week in one school, then go to the other school will make more sense to me this year, it was tough to keep my lessons flowing when I don’t see the kids every week and my teaching assistant can’t do the admin or lessons side of things. Still getting things down, but in general I feel more calm. I think it’s because last year I came in after having about 400 kids I saw every week, to now 2,000 kids every other week, and who I did not know AT ALL. This year, I know a good amount of names, and if not the names the personalities. Plus already the kids have told me I look prettier this year (I lost weight) and that I’m “The funny person, the funny library teacher!” meant in a HAHA funny way, I promise

I’ve been curling my hair, every day, we’ll see how it keeps up. Usually I chop my hair for the start of school to look professional and teachery, this is the first year I’ve gone in with long hair. I’m rather enjoying it though, I feel more like myself with med hair like this, and short cuts and bobs make me look more like a student than a teacher.

I bought new Librarian glasses yesterday, I never did plastic frames before, or square-ish ones because I have a small, but ROUND face and they never look right, usually are just too big. These matched my hair, so I went with it. I took those extra grad classes so I get a little raise this year, decided to use it towards glasses.

I’ve been helping clean out my grandmother’s house. This tuesday they put it for sale, by Friday a woman had made an offer, on Saturday my dad accepted the offer, sometimes these things fall though, but in general, 5 days to sell a house is INSANE. My grandmother was in the hospital for 5 days too, so this quick AHHH WHAT IS HAPPENING is a trend to this situation.

Saturday was my grandmother’s birthday as well. While mom and I were out to Red Lobster to celebrate my grandmother (it was her favorite place to go with us, just us girls) the call came in about the woman officially wanting the house, so I am guessing this is all a good sign.

I brought Sadie to my grandmother’s house to hold her there until my Landlady comes in monday and tues with someone to fix my sink, apparently my dad failed to mention this, as the woman was started to find a cat in the closet when touring the house on saturday. Yeah, oops. I also had to give a tour to the woman’s sister and father who came over to look at the house last night, which was upsetting. I was 100% in chipper tour guide mode, but before and after I felt very low, my poor dad hasn’t even been in the house since they listed it for sale. Everything is happening so fast.

So Now I’m cleaning up a storm before they come, trying to pretend that my apartment ALWAYS LOOKS LIKE THIS. I also got bleach on my new purple dress because I lack common sense.  My bedroom still needs much help, the never ending clothes pile is trying to eat me, I tossed everything on top of my bed, this usually makes me buck up and get it done so I can sleep, but I have a feeling some of this monster will end up being placed ever so nicely (TOSSED) into the closet.

I attempted to restart running last night, but it was mostly a no-go, I took a month off and now I feel back to my old RUNNING IS SCARRYYYY mind set, I was actually starting to enjoy it for a bit there. I’m going to join the ladies from work with their after school T and TH exercise club, running the track, and doing exercise tapes and such, should help, plus I should probably use that expensive machine I bought myself with my money from working After School Program at HCS when I worked there. I hang my clothes on it to dry…

Okay, yes, I have a thing for Faerie/Fairy Books, you can have your sparkly Vampires (Oh, I will finish the Twilight Series…um, someday, Book three keeps sitting there all big and filled with Sullen Cullen, but someday!) So I think I will be loving “Ballad” when it comes out. I know some of my BEA pals picked up “Shiver” and I’ve only heard good things so far. And yes, this book SOUNDS AWESOME:

Nuala is part muse, part psychic vampire. While the freedom to sing or write or create is denied her, her mark across history is unmistakable: a trail of brilliant poets, musicians, and artists who have died tragically young. She has no sympathy for their abbreviated life spans; every thirteen Halloweens she burns in a bonfire and rises from her ashes with no memories of what has come before other than the knowledge of how her end will come.

James is the best bagpiper in the state of Virginia—maybe in the country—plus he’s young and good-looking: just Nuala’s thing. But James, supremely confident in his own abilities and in love with another girl, becomes the first to ever reject Nuala’s offer. He’s preoccupied with bigger things than Nuala: an enigmatic horned figure who appears at dusk and the downward spiral of Dee, his girlfriend-who-isn’t.

It becomes obvious to James that Nuala’s presence, the horned king of the dead, and Dee’s slow self-destruction are all related, and that Dee is the center of a deadly faerie game. While James struggles to unwind the tangled threads of the story, Nuala shadows him, seeing her conflicted, dual nature reflected back at her in him. She finds herself lending him inspiration for nothing. Not quite for nothing—for the hope of requited affection. But even as James begins to realize his feelings for both Dee and Nuala have changed, the thirteenth Halloween descends, with its bonfires and rituals for the dead, one deadly to Nuala and the other to Dee. James can only save one.

But I think what I love the most is that Youtube video. I always wanted to be able to draw, but I can’t very well, I can’t even hold my pencil right or draw a straight line, and I have no musical ability….ask my piano teacher, ask my music teacher if I rocked out the Flute-a-phone (I did not), ask my band director who told me it was pointless to continue flute lessons about 3 weeks in. I have talents, the musical arts aren’t one of them, nor the visual arts. But man, I can appreciate.

This is one worth appreciating. In general though, this idea of Book Trailers is so cool! While the ones done by bloggers and authors are amazing, there is also this super cool trend of kids doing them, I know many Librarians are using digital media in the classroom with students, and the results are so creative, but I also noticed that some students are making their own fan videos and fan trailers for books, just BECAUSE. This makes me want to jump up and down!

Oh, and here is the one she made for SHIVER. Amazing right?

I’m so jealous of artistic-ness *whines some more*

I think, while we all know I love YOUTUBE more than most other things, it would be sort of fun to see Book Trailers on the TV mixed in the movie trailers, or before a movie during the PREVIEWS. Am I getting crazy now?

Fun New Idea  from: That’s a Novel Idea, It will work like this: Each Saturday You will post the answer to these questions. The number indicates the number of answers you will provide.

1 Book you read and/or reviewed this week
2 Words that describe the book
3 Settings it took place or characters you met
4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it
5 Stars or less for your rating?

1 Book Read: Audrey, Wait by Robin Benway

2 Words to Describe it: Fantastically Frantic

3 Places and/or Characters: Audrey, unintentionally famous due to her ex-boyfriend’s catchy song (*that recounts their their breakup and generally bashes her) and not loving the fame one bit.  Victoria, BFF to Miss Audrey, who thinks Audrey should stop complaining and start soaking in the fame (free stuff!) and James, sweet guy who works at Scooper Dooper (ice cream shoppe) with Audrey, is a bit OCD about the ice cream cones and can drive like James Bond when needed.

4 Things I liked or disliked:
1. I liked the realism of the characters, even BG characters like Victoria’s boyfriend Jonah had solid characterization/distinct personalities.

2. Music Obsessed and hyped up Victoria reminded me of one of my college pals, so, while the story was HS based it brought me right back to college, and the few concerts she dragged me too.  She would have been all over this OMG BOY WROTE A SONG ABOUT YOU, EVEN IF HE IS TRASHING YOU, IT’S SORTA AWESOME!!! Ah, College…

3. Someone complained about too many F bombs at goodreads, but actually I think it was authentic, teens and 20-somethings are pretty random about when the cuss words fly, reading the book was a bit like talking to my 22 year old brother actually.

4. It was seriously funny, I don’t usually laugh out loud when I read, but this book switched between the asburdly funny over the top situations (at the concert, and record store for example) to the normal/random/funny life of the American teenager. Most of the humor came from Audrey’s Sarcasm and the verbal quips back and forth between characters, even the parents were well written and funny in this book! Audrey and James together were witty (and yes, super cute), which made me love them, and not want to bang my head on the desk like some lovely dovey teen books.

5 Stars or Less? I’d day 4.5 Stars, if you like YA contempary fiction you’d probably find this cute and well written. If you don’t read YA you might think the characters’ interactions are funny, but the situation and teen drama might not appeal.  I enjoy to be amused, so it worked very well for my Summer Reading

Want to know more about Audrey, Wait? Check out the official website to read the first an excerpt

I put my name in several “hats” to win “Catching Fire” from the Book Blogging world, but alas it is not to be, I guess I should have taken the Friday off to go to BEA, or attacked Katie and Artuso and ran away with their copies :D I wouldn’t…well…probably not ;) but I am impressed with the amount of contests going on right now for my favorite things in the world, boooookkksss.

A great resource for these contests is: from Kristin’s Site, Bookworming in the 21st Century.

Where she lists book contests like her own for an ARC of “Ash”

Or this one from Brooke’s Reviews for “The White Queen”

Oooh and I keep hearing good things about “Hush Hush” and Sara at The Hiding Spot has a contest up.
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Some other great contests starting up this month include:

- a 3-2-1 YA giveway from Karen on her Livejournal which has three different prizes, any of which I would love! The Magic Study series and Evernight, and even The Thief, have been on my Wishlist for a bit now, it looks like an awesome contest.

-A contest Danielle, The Book Blogger is running to win one of three new YA books looks exciting too!

Doubt I’ll win anything, but it is fun to try, some of the contests have very creative ways of winning things too. I’m enjoying reading all these blogs by teens, those who work with YA, and those who love YA just because it’s awesome. I know I know, I am an elementary librarian, but YA is my weakness…and I look 15 so it’s fine, right?

School starts in a week and a half, and I didn’t even put a dent in my Summer Reading, but this week I did but in some good effort, finishing three books, all YA, because this has become my Summer of YA I guess :P

Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

(4.0) Solid YA fantasy, with all the right elements to make  a young adult fantasy lover happy (danger! forbidden magic! cute boy with dark side! trees that can kill you! hints of romance and star-crossed love!) Liza, the main character, lives in a town run by her father’s strong fist, a fist that has come down on Liza many times along with his belt. The story is set after the great way between the Faerie people and Americans (? the world?) Liza is taught by her father that all magic is evil, and must be purged from society but when her own sister is born with Fae characteristics and Liza herself begins to experience magical abilities her father’s view of the world begins to make less and less sense.

As she travels in search of her missing mother, she must try to unravel terrifying visions, and learn to trust in what she was taught to fear and hate.”The War is Over” is a line repeated throughout the book, Liza, her father, and their town, live as if they are still on the front lines of war, where only the strong deserve to survive, and magic=evil. Because Janni Lee Simner is trying to focus on the aftermath of the war, and how it impacted both worlds (people and nature wise) she does not focus on the specifics of the Faerie War. I understand why she made this choice, it fits, but I’m curious and would have loved to read more about the history from when the BEFORE became the NOW. I’m just nosy like that. The author wrote in a casual, matter of the fact, this is life now, way, which worked well for this story.

The concept of this book was inventive, and enjoyable and the plot moved along quickly, giving you enough time to get a sense of something, or someone new, before they were off moving again, or attacked by something else. The author seemed to make a specific choice to focus on the characters’ reaction to what was happening around them, and not on the past, which worked well for the book… I am a HOW and WHY person so that briefly distracted me, and those questions were glossed over purposefully to show how pointlessly destructive War can be, especially when 20 years later the main character (and her town members) can’t even tell you what the War was about or what the “bad guys” looked like for sure.

Recommended to those teens who love their fairy stories just a little dark.

View all my reviews >>

Also finished two other Library Books this week, so it’s Mini Review time, basically quick thoughts I jotted down right after reading these two:

. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

(4.5 )-Usually I hide from realistic YA fiction, especially the one with random faceless girls on the cover, I’m not a girlie book lets talk about boys and our period type of reader. If I did not already know Maureen Johnson is freakin’ hilarious I might have passed on this book. Glad I didn’t. Okay, so there is some talking about boys, one in particular, but he’s got an accent, so I’m good! haha I love mysteries, and this one kept me thinking “Okay what random and insanely funny thing will happen next?” Loved it. :D

27. The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

(2.5 )-Oh how I wanted to love this book, It had all the classic Melissa Elements…magic, pretty dresses, thieves, pretending to be what you aren’t and having it nip you in the bud, cinderella-like qualities, a donkey that acts like a dog. It wasn’t even the HUH? origin of the “witch” (because I already knew that from an amazon review, I don’t mind spoilers really) It just fell flat for me, not enough characterization, or really details. It was a quick little thing, and Okay book but nothing to write home about sadly. Someone compared it to things by Gail Carson Levine, and while it’s probably a good fit from those readers Middle School and my late elementary princess book crowd, Gail Carson Levine’s works seem much stronger. This left me with a okay, that was….cute and all but I need some Robin McKinley to remind myself how real YA fantasy feels.

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

Prophecy of the Sisters from Vania S on Vimeo.

I feel rather special, as this book is being released in…oh -3mins, so I guess I’m early, haha. The Library called and I went to pick up four books this week, Michelle Zink’s Debut YA novel being one of them, I had heard good chatter from the Book Blogger crowd, and Michelle Zink is sweet as anything, you can follow her on twitter like I do @michellezink Not sure why this book moved so quickly from being ON ORDER and PROCESSING to my hand, but I’m all for it :D and ready with my review as I finished it up this evening

I may be bias on this one, as anything that is a Gothic style Historical Fiction with supernatural elements is automatically a “Melissa” book,” Michelle Zink mixed magic, mystery and mythology to craft this wonderful new addition to the Paranormal YA Genre. I have a review where someone labeled  this book as slow moving, does that have to be a bad thing? I personally loved the sense of foreboding and suspense that was built throughout the book, and, as this clearly will not be stand-alone book, why rush things?

This first book focused mostly on the puzzle that is the Prophecy, readers being introduced to, and learning more about it as Lia, the main character does as well. I enjoy trying to work out puzzles and reading about complex and well thought out mythologies, so it didn’t bother me that there wasn’t a monster attacking on every other page. This book is very deliberate on revealing its secrets in a balanced way. Even on the last few places we are still gathering more information and tucking it away for the next book.

The Mystery does not simply revolve around the mythology though; there are also wonderful shades of gray in the relations of the characters, Lia and her twin sister Alice, one sister born to protect and another to destroy. The sisters are not your standard GOOD VS. EVIL however, while Lia is questioning her own role in the prophecy, readers are left to question Alice. Alice as a character is unique, she is written into a position of being the villain, but there seems to be a disconnect between her words and actions at times, and certainly between her given role and desires, giving the reader the sense that things really may not be as they seem, and we will have to keep reading to see where Alice, and even Lia land on the Good vs. Evil scale in the end. The relationship between the two sisters is central to Michelle Zink’s entire plot and it seems we have only had a glimpse of what is to come.

I consider this book to be an excellent example of story crafting, with it’s focus on exposition, and Lia’s own self questioning and discovery, I’m only guessing, but I think, as Michelle fleshes out her continuing story the focus will move away from information sharing, and more on the relationships in the story, Lia and Alice especially but I also see interesting directions for Lia and her friends, and don’t forget there is pretty boy in the mix! You know James, if Lia doesn’t make it, I know someone who loves books just as much as you….is 27 too old for you?

The Library called again, another book for me to pick up, yesterday I picked up three, and I renewed another, pretty soon my collection of books from the Library will  topple off my book shelf and kill me in my sleep. Fitting way to go, as I am a librarian :)

BUT before I can dive in, I needed to finish the book I was reading before my two weeks o’doom, an ARC of a fun little retelling of the Trojan War set on the High School Football Field :

Troy High
by Shana Norris

When I was at BEA, I picked up the ARC of Troy High, which looked cute and fluffy, I finished it last night, and I have to say, while it was both cute and fluffy, it was also smart, and well written. The allusions to the Trojan War were done perfectly, it was a pretty straight on retelling, but the connection didn’t overpower the story, I KNOW the story of the Trojan War, but I still wanted to know what happened in this story, I didn’t assume that since I knew a bit of the Iliad that this one could be written off as predictable.

The character of Cassie was well developed and while there were the stereotypical HS characters (pretty cheerleader, jealous football player, outcast…) it’s interesting to think of how these stereotypes can be applied to historical and literacy works like the Iliad, if Helen of Troy was alive now it’s not a big leap to assume she would be a popular cheerleader.

It was a good read for the mood I have been in, dealing with a Death in the family, my brain couldn’t handle anything too intense or drama filled, but I also can’t read something that is completely devoid of intelligence. This was a perfect fit, a smart, fun, quick read that shows that High School isn’t all that different than War at times…

My father works for the State, as a Supervisor for Blindness and Visual Services, and one of the lady’s he supervises was driving elsewhere in the state with a contracted engineer and to pass the time the Gentleman was telling her about his son. Since he was three years old he has had a purpose in life, to be a life guard, which they always thought was cute that someone that young already was declaring what he wanted to do. Age 3, 4, 5, 6 and now, as a first grader he suddenly has a new desire. This little first grader wants to to be a Librarian.

Isn’t that cute? I had an awww moment, until my father continued his story. The child wants to be a Librarian because he has a new Librarian at his school and he wants to grow up to be like her, and he is reading all summer because he can’t wait to tell Ms. Chrusch about what he read when he gets back to school. The engineer lives in Dallas, and I am the new librarian in question

Wait, what? me? You’ve given up being a life guard for me? The dad said a Librarian is a step up from a life guard pay scale wise so he’s happy haha.

Well I need to stop getting down at myself, next time I do I will just have to remind myself of this story.

I had a blast at Book Expo today. if you follow me on twitter, are a facebook or LJ friend, or just know me in person, this will not shock you, but for any reader’s who don’t know me, I am naturally a nervous wreck, especially when the situation involves planning, or decisions. It is 100% certain that I will have some form of freak out when planning a trip, and generally a major one right before I leave.

This year my freak out was mostly due to me leaving my phone in Dallas and not feeling confident about traveling around NYC without it, and the phone numbers of my other NYC bound friends. A late night facebook/AIM scrambled saved the day but I had to still brave the bus. I didn’t start to feel sick until the girl in front of me pushed her seat back on where I was seated, right in my face and the whole bus filled with people, so I had a guy next to me. The last hour or so like that made me stir crazy and dizzy, but the ride back allowed me a seat to myself, and I actually got an hour of sleep in.

I am decently comfortable with the part of NYC BEA was held, after being Port Authority bound many times in my life, so once I got off the bus my nerves lifted and it was time for some fun. I found Lauren and we hit BEA. Lauren and Katie had both been there Friday, and last year, so they knew the Ins and Outs of what to do and where things were, and I had been to Conference Center for Comic Con with those two last year so I knew the building layout.

I’m too tired to go into major detail, but I did have a great time, it was librarian central! I saw a woman I remember from Albany and another who was on the NY BOCES Library Council with me, and got to meet many more great people as we stood in lines. I had a chance to see friends I haven’t actually spent time with in forever (Well, this is the second time this month for Lauren, bet she is sick of me :P) and get some really exciting books signed. I couldn’t make BEA on Friday, so I missed out on many of the Children’s authors for my school kids (and the YA’s and Neil Gaiman for me, sad.)

I would have loved to get to meet Libba Bray or Jane Yolen, and get a picture book from Neil Gaiman, but I will not lament, because I saw some pretty awesome people today, like R. L. Stine (I went into a bit of shock I think, I was a baby of the 80’s, but a child of the 90’s, Fear Street was influencal in my reading development and really helped create the type of reader I am today, one who loves a good ghost story, mystery, or dark comedy)

(I tookt he pic before he was ready, uh oops, he was friendlier than he looks in that picture lol)

Kate DiCamillo was so nice as well. Katie and I were Maureen Johnson’s fans, starting the line a half hour or more before it was her time, then rushed over to get “Geektastic” signed by Holly Black, Kelly Link and Carissa Clare. I steered away from Kathy Lee Gifford and Nicholas Sparks, because, it’s just not me, but I did get the sequel to Graceling in ARC, not out until the fall.

Signed books from BEA:

Books (ARCs mostly) from BEA (not autographed):

My Collection of Autographed Books so far:

So that Blog every day in April thing, not really working for me I guess. But I am READING at least one blog every day in April, that’s another way to look at the situation, don’t you agree? Yes, I am pushing it. My big order of Library books is in, so you should expect my Library Log to start fill up with Upper Elementary Books that I want to read in order to book talk them to the kids (lie! it will fill up with upper elementary books because I WANT to read them.) I finally got my hands on “Rapunzel’s Revenge” by one of my favorite Upper Elem/YA writers, Shannon Hale. It was really funny, and well drawn. I think I should focus more on Graphic Novels, I am only starting to get into that, which is odd since I love online comics so much. So any recommendations for Graphic Novel Reading will be greatly appreciated. I think I want to try out “Fables” next, as I keep hearing good things about that, and we all know I love my twisted fairy tales, be they twisted in fluffy funny ways, or twisted…as in twisted.
I very happily read “Wintergirls” the new book by Laurie Halse Anderson. I was talking to my friend, a fellow YCP English major, her being a HS English Teacher, and me taking the Librarian route, who told me she loves Anderson’s books that are…not…”Speak-like” like Prom, which I did read, and “Twisted” (didn’t get to yet) but didn’t really like “Speak”, and would not be very interested in “Wintergirls.” I am the opposite type of reader. I don’t mind the dark, uncomfortable, the misery. “Speak” was one of my favorite books, not one of my favorite YA books, favorite books overall. I think it is because it didn’t just tell a story, it took you somewhere authentic, and really awful, but left you with hope.

“Wintergirls” does the same thing. It wasn’t “Speak” for me, as the ending just came together too well, but overall, watching the downward spiral of this young girl, and to see through her own eyes and her warped perceptions about her weight, you can see why so many young girls get “Eating Disorders.” Often we look at them from our end and think “Can’t they see how insane it is, How can they think that 80lbs looks good? I just don’t get how you could force yourself to not eat…” But being inside Lia’s head makes you understand things from their point of view. The sense of power and well being she gets from seeing the scale go down, or putting things past her family. You have to catch yourself at times, and remember that Lia’s trumphs are actually distructive, the power of Anderson’s writing makes you almost believe Lia’s twisted view of the situation.

I did some things with my eating that, while not anything that would kil me like Lia, bordered on the unhealthy. I have been told by several people that they thought I was EDNOS due to my inconsistant eating, and how I dropped 30lbs in not the best way. I did see myself in Lia to a lesser extent, I could see what I was doing at that time, but only now looking back do I realise that my lack of eating, and exercising multiple times a day, and my pattern eating of only rice kripsies and mandrine oranges for a year, and getting dizzy at work because I had not eaten anything other than a rice cake for a couple days…was…bad. At the time I was so thrilled by seeing the scale drop, that nothing else really mattered. I’m just lucky that I got so stressed by senior year of college and lost the willpower to get skinny, which counteracted the 3 years of unhealthy near disordered eating.   I still lack eating skills, not eating all day then eating Jelly Beans for dinner or something strange. I think I need a nutrionist actually…

Laurie talking about what a “Wintergirl” is:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mBR84KI4N5BRO

I choose to pass no Twilight judgement  I read book one, and two, and watched the movie twice…the first time in the theater and the second the day the DVD came out at a friend’s Twilight party. I was one of the few people at the party who did not dress up in Twiight related t-shirt, actually even the toddlers were twilight-ifed at the party. I chose to toss on my “Librarian” Sweatshirt (my “She blinded me with Library Science” t-shirt was in the wash I fear) so I pretend that counts. But this article made me want to both laugh and cry at the same time:

http://contemporarylit.about.com/b/2009/02/05/stephen-king-calls-stephanie-meyer-not-very-good.htm

It’s more the comments that worry me, like:

Team Stephanie =D says:

R U freakin stupid or r u just platying stupid man Stehanie Meyer is one of the BEST writers in HISTORY!!! ( we talkin’ long time ago buddy)well if you don’t like her it’s probably cuz u ain’t got a soul maybe your feelings drained out of u . well i fell sorry for chu cuz u r missing out on alot =’( (tear)well gotta go i neeed to read ECLIPSE FOR THE 3RD TIME!!!!

February 19, 2009 at 10:33 pm

(4) TWILIGHT !!!!!!! XD says:

AND.. THIS GUY WROTE WAT… I HAD NEVA HEARD OF HIM!!!

I feel for America’s children, mostly because the spell and typo worse than me, which is impressive. I don’t read Steven King, but I thought it was funny that they never even heard of him. It also makes me sad that S. Meyer is the best writer in history,  Twilight is fun, it’s soap-opera-ish, it;s teen hormones, it’s shiny vampires, but it’s not Literature, with a capital L. So many great books out there, hopefully reading Twilight will be a gate way reading drug to other books and create a generation of Readers. Should I cross my fingers on that on?

After finishing this book I read the author’s notes and noticed she mentioned being inspired by Robin McKinley, and Patricia C. Wrede, and it really shows. If you enjoy the works of McKinley and Wrede you will surely enjoy this book. It has some of the light-hearted fun of “Dealing with Dragons” in the relations between the main character, Creel, and the dragons…as well showing the Dragons’ quirky personalities. A very solid fantasy for YA and Middle Readers (and Librarians who love sassy main characters and dragons)

“Even though it looks to be a hefty book, I found it a quick read, mostly because it was a bit addicting, the characters were interesting, no real deep characterization here the characters often represent one thing… though I liked seeing Elizabeth through other people’s eyes, and then through her own thoughts..how everyone thought she was perfect, or bland and really she was forcing herself to be perfect. There is nothing really new here, the themes of keeping up appearances, What is friendship, social/family pressures, not judging people, being true to yourself…add in backstabbing “friends”, an outsider looking in, unrequited love, falling for someone not in the same social class…and mix it all together with pretty dresses, Hey I like pretty dresses. So again, like the other posts mentioned if you are a Gossip Girl fan this book will be right up your alley. I found it an entertaining way to spend my evening.”

“I just finished listening to the audio book in my car (voiced by the woman who does the voice of Misty on Pokemon) and I really enjoyed it. It’s a cute little book, with a bit of bite in the form of a non-sappy and non-glittery Fairy Godmother in training. The narrator’s voice held the right emotion, but it was a bit too cute and perky when fit with this confused and sometimes sarcastic lead character. The book has several laugh out loud moments, plenty of wit and creativity (the names of the characters are wonderful for example “Twisted Ankle” “Frantic Search” “Lemon Droppings”) Overall a fun read (or listen) for those who enjoy fairy tales with a twist. If you enjoy this book I would also recommend Patricia C. Wrede’s “Enchanted Forest Chronicles ” to continue your fractured fairy tale fix.”

“Hale has a lovely writing style and the ability to create characters you can really rally behind. Ani’s tranformation from shy and insignificant to regal was not done in a cliche way, and she remained true to her character (her slightly anxious character) all the way through. I enjoy introspective characters and Hale is excellent at creating them. Do not pass off Hale’s work as “Princess Fluff” as all of her YA and Middle Reader novels have a rich writing style, moral conflicts, and even a dose of ugliness (murders, battles, abandonment) that keeps her books feeling real, despite the magical elements. ”

“I was looking for something interesting to listen to as an audiobook for a road trip and picked up “The Case of the Missing Marquess” expecting it to be something I would enjoy: I love mysteries and YA fiction….and the main character is Sherlock Holme’s sister, what could be better? Well, less detail for one thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love descriptive text, and since this is a historical fiction book you know there will be details about the times, the clothing, the cities…usually I love that, but in this case it often wasn’t “descriptive text”, it was more like long lists. (“She saw this, that, this, that, another one of those, this, that, this, this, that, and him” “I felt this, this, this, this, a bit of this, but mostly that.” ) Nancy Spinger I accuse you of using too many adjectives, and bogging down a plot that was actually interesting. I think this book would have been better if I had read it, not listened to it, so I will try the next in the series in print.

Yes, I know I am late on the Lovely Bones reading band wagon, as this was all the rage when I was in college. But I did finally get to it, and found I enjoyed it, I was in a crying mood, you know sometimes, against your better judgment you have a strong desire to turn on a lifetime movie, it’s like that feeling. I was afraid this book would have pulled out the weep reflex too often, but I found, mixed in with my desire to cry, or cringe, or yell at the characters the way I would if watching a movie (“Don’t Go Down There! AHHH!!!) that the book made me laugh a few times, it showed how life goes on, and life is not always full of purpose, sometimes it is random, and silly, and we had a chance to see that mixed in with the drama, mostly it was the weepy that won out though

I love anything by Shannon Hale, while this is not my favorite (that was would “Goose Girl”) it did not disapoint. I love how soothing her writing style is, not to say her books are not exciting, this one had a hint of magic (less than any of her other books really)but there were wars, and wild animal attacks, and I think the scene when the main character, a Lady’s Maid forced to pretend to be the Lady herself, goes off to face the villian, is very well written–you can’t help liking a character with that much loyalty and bravery. I’ve mentioned this in other reviews, but the reason I like Shannon Hale’s work so much is that she mixes in some darkness (“Enna Burning” is a great example) so they are something other than just another princess story. This story also had that slight dark edge, but it’s best qualility is the first person narrative, and the creation of a character who is rooted in the normal day to day things, and pushed to become more than she ever thought possible.

My blog joined a league of zombies, yes it did. It’s some form of living dead. I saved my blog entries, but the blog re-set itself, but I saved this and I wanted to share it, mostly because it had me insanely happy. Last November I was checking my blog and noticed I had comments, not a big shock because spam seems to love me, but when I clicked to read it I found THIS is reply to my Sahara Special Blog:

Esme
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm edit

I was very touched by your post. I’m glad you enjoyed my books, and I’m glad for what the generous candor in what you shared. Rooting for you!

How sweet is that? The author of the book found my tiny blog and left me a comment, it’s been months and this still find this awesome. I’ve been to ALA and I have met some of my favorite authors, but I am still in “OMG ROCKSTAR!!!” mode when I get replies from people whose books I read, or whose careers I follow. A similar story would be back in 06 I went to ALA and I missed my chance at meeting John Green for a book signing, and in general was really bummed because I had heard he was so nice in person (he was sick that day and didn’t make it for signage) after getting back to PA I added John to myspace and received a personal message from him when he accepted my friendship request, and, even though he is a normal person, probably 2 years older than me, I was jumping up and down to know that he took the time to communicate with little ol’ me. Since then I have been following his blogging, and vlogging career very closely, watching all his insightful and funny as heck youtube videos and those of his brother Hank as well, and have had the chance to talk with both of them briefly during blogtv chats, but I still get giddy.

If you haven’t seen the pure wonder and awesome that is brotherhood 2.0/ Vlog Brothers I need to drag you over to youtube ASAP:

Which reminds me, I went to a Twilight party this week, complete with VAMPIRE COOKIES (sugar with raspberry filling, complete with bite marks) and Pomegranate Martinis with Red Rock Candy Syrup all along the outside, very bloody. I am a bad librarian though, having only read book 1 and book 2 of the series. I would cite as my excuse that I am an Elementary Librarian, but it’s all lies since all I ever read for fun is YA…YA fantasy and YA paranormal…and YA paranormal romance, so I have no excuse what so ever.

“…I was proud, really proud of my mom not being afraid of failure. I am. I’d sooner not try than fail They might think I’m stupid, but I’m not. Knowing I’m not stupid is enough for me, I’m enough for me.”

-Page 12

Has Esme Raji Codell been reading my secret journals, because that could have came straight from my brain.

We had an Ice day in New York. I am in the process of reading “The Time Traveler’s Wife” (Yes, I am behind the times) but I grabbed the copy of “Sahara Special” off my kitchen table instead.

As an educator, I’ve been enjoying Esme’s Raji Codell’s books, because of how true they are, I can relate to the classroom antics…I often wish I could get up the nerve to be her when I finally grow up

But this book was different, I didn’t read it as a teacher, I read it as the little girl whose 6th grade teacher would toss the contents of her messy desk into the hallway, who would get sick to her stomach every math class, who was given extra time in college to take tests, but never used it out of fear of people she didn’t even know thinking she was stupid…. the girl who would pretend to be invisible in class, who would think the answers but never say them aloud…I understood exactly how it feels to have your wrist twitch, wanting to raise your hand, but failing. I am still that girl, now at 26, but I am trying to be more..or maybe not more, but to see that the more is already there.

“I am a writer.”

“A writer writes.”

I need to start living up to that advice.

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