Saturday, August 2, 2014

Stacking The Shelves and Other Lovely Things.



I am linking up with Tynga @ Tynga's Reviews again this week! Ok so if you've been following and reading my posts for the past couple weeks, you've probably noticed that I've accumulated a ton of books. I have so many books to read right now that the phrase "a ton of books" might even be literal, I haven't measured. I feel really awful about it. I can't really get excited again about several of them and it's really stressing me out having so many sitting there just staring at me, reminding me that I should be reading them, not doing other more productive and let's face it more fun things! Which of course makes me avoid them all like the plague, even thought I'm actually really excited to read some of them! So sorry guys, I'll try to do better. I'm putting myself on a book ban, and I'm trying to force myself through a book a day, whether I think it still sounds exciting or not. I pinkey promise a whole lot more reviews will be coming your way in a bit, but first I have to take a blogging break and actually, you know read the books. Shocking and horrifying I know, but I promise everything will turn out ok.

Ok, this might be confusing. It's ok. I just said I'm on a book ban right? And that I have like a billion things to read before I can do anything else? Well, I may have accidentally  acquired some more books this week. It wasn't really an accident, but kind of, it was just the timing really. I recently joined Net Galley! Shocking I know, and truth be told I feel rather guilty about it because I have such a great thing going with Liberty Bay Books, but I was on a trip and needed more reading material and I realized in a few years I'll be at college, not near Liberty Bay, and I won't be able to steal all their books anymore. So I decided I could start building up my profile and "street cred" (Yes I just said street cred. Shhh, this is a judgement free zone....) on Net Galley so that if ( more like when) I'm still blogging in college I have the reputation built on Net Galley and with publishers so that I can still receive ARCs, and don't have to work on building it up right away/then/in the future/ in college and adult life. So yeah. I went bonkers and requested a bunch figuring that I'd be declined for like 99% of them at first, and I did get declined on a few, but then I got accepted for like three! Which is very exciting, but all of the sudden I have three books to read that come out in the next month or less, that need to be read and reviewed, but I'm supposed to be on a book ban! So yeah, that happened.

Here is what I got from Net Galley and publishers:

Thanks Egmont USA for being the first publisher to accept me and send me an ARC! You guys are pretty cool....


Amity is as horrifying as it gets and in case you didn't know this about me, I eat horror for breakfast. As long as it's a book and not anything in life or on screen 'cause that is just scary and gross and super not ok. I've already read and reviewed it and it should come out some time in the next few weeks!

Thanks Entangled Publishing, LLC for the opportunity to try reading The Winter People. I'm sorry if my snark genius and passion was too much for you guys, I couldn't help it, there were too many feels, but I tried to be nice.


The cover and synopsis had me dying to get my hands on it. Also, the whole leaving gifts thing reminded me of the milk in Fablehaven and I totally loved that. My review of this is up on Goodreads and I'll be posting it here as well sometime in the next week, but it will probably be the same thing that's on Goodreads for the most part because I'm to lazy to write an entirely new one, also because I could and should be using that time for reading all my other stuff. Anyways, this one should be out around September 2nd.

Thanks Amazon Children's Publishing for the ARC! I don't really have anything brilliant or even just generic to say to you guys other than that yet...sorry?


I'm really excited about this one and I just started reading it so I'm excited to really dig into it. Also, I decided to try and pick up painting so I feel connected to it or something strange, cool, and philosophical like that. Yay for painting! I'm not really sure where this story is going to go or what things are going to get tied in, but I'm excited to find out. I feel the drama building already! This comes out September 12th-ish if I remember correctly. Goodreads!

--OH--
 I also just remembered that my mom bought me a book because she's awesome like that. I didn't forget she bought me it, I just forgot that was this week. Don't judge me I have a lot going on up there. 


That's right! SHE GOT ME UNHINGED! I picked it out,but she dished out the money for it so it was a team effort. Anyways, this was a gift as a "thanks for being an awesome Auntie and helping out with the kiddos this past week." So thanks Mom, I'm glad you see me for being as awesome as I really am. That's good. I think we'll continue getting along well if this continues, praise, book buying, realization of my true awesomeness, you're doing good! ;) I love you mommy! 

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OTHER LOVELY THINGS! Right, so I mentioned we were going to talk about other lovely things, here we go, topic one: I'M SO SORRY!

I'm so, so, sorry that I forgot to post a Figments Friday yesterday! It totally slipped my mind!
Also, I'm sorry about all the crazy formatting due to the construction that is lasting longer than I anticipated. 

Topic two: promises! As I mentioned above I promise to post plenty more reviews this month. (Savor it because after that school hits and I have no time for reading, which makes me cry inside.) Also, I have a ton of exciting things coming up! Something exciting is starting on the 8th so get ready for that! (It's a very special day ;) ) I also have something special planned that will last a whole week! But as of now it is still top secret and I can't tell you guys more until it is closer to happening, but I promise it'll happen before the end of the month (at least that is the goal) and that you guy's will find it fun and helpful! 

Topic three: OPINIONS! I'm going to ask you guys for your opinions on a few things again.

 First off, what do you guys think of the new look? Good? Bad? Thumbs up or down? What should I change? (No formatting suggestions right now please, because I am working on fixing that stuff right now. I'm just asking about colors and aesthetics.) 

Secondly, do you guys like my discussion posts? Should I do more of them? Is there anything in particular you want me to discuss?

Thirdly, if you guys have topic recommendations or requests FOR ANY of my features let me know! I'd be excited to hear from you!

Fourthly, (that's a weird word fourthly...is that a word?) you may have noticed I've been playing around with how I format and write reviews. I'm going to link to a few of my different ways and I want you guys to tell me what you found easiest to read through and liked best. I like to use different formats for different books so I'm not promising that I'll use the most popular format 24/7 but it will help give me an idea of what's working. 

Option One: The List Method. Example seen in this review

Option Two: The Paragraph Topic Stated Before Paragraph Method. Ex. here.

Option Three: My Normal Bold Topic/Important Word Method. Ex. here.

Option Four: Good vs. Bad Method. Ex. here (similar but different from option one.)

You can vote below and comment too! Also, is there anything else you think I should address in my reviews? Typically I talk about the writing style and mechanics and voice, the characters, the character development, the plot, the general concept, and anything else that jumped out at me when I read it. 

Thanks guys!


What review format do you like most?
  
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2 comments:

  1. Yep, this is your mom. Thanks for the parental kudos. I DO think you are pretty awesome alright, and I DO admire your reading and writing achievements. Glad to have this summer with you. Love ya!. . . MORE! ;)

    ReplyDelete