Feature & Follow #43 ~ Reading Habits

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read where two blogs are featured. Click the links above to follow the hosting bloggers and the featured bloggers and enter the link to your own post in the linky. Hop around to as many blogs as you can - find new blogs to follow and gain some new followers as well. Mingle and make some new blogger friends! :D

Follow me any way you'd like but especially by Bloglovin' or email (feedburner to the left) and Twitter. Thank you! <3

I also just made a blog button, which you'll find to the left! Feel free to grab it, and if you do, let me know so I can grab yours, too! Thank you to Chene from Mean Who You Are who referred me to a tutorial on how to make one with a code! :)

  Q: How have your reading habits changed in the past few years? Did you get interested in a new genre? Do you read more? Less? Why do you think your habits changed, if they did. 

A: My reading habits have changed a lot. Several years ago, I used to not like reading books in a series back to back. Now, if I can, I prefer reading them back to back. 

Last year, the New Adult genre exploded onto the scene, and I found myself reading a lot more NA than YA for the first time ever. I still love YA - I'll always have a special place for YA in my heart forever and ever. ;) 

Since last summer, I've started reading a LOT more - I can read a book three hundred pages or less in one night. It'll take me about five or six hours, and I usually start around 10pm when the kids are in bed and everything is done for the night. I used to be a super slow reader because I thought I had missed something and would go back only to realize I hadn't missed anything at all. So essentially I was reading books twice over!

I was totally against eReaders when they first came out, but then I borrowed my friend's Kindle and changed my mind. I really believe if I hadn't gotten a Kindle, I might not have become a blogger or been able to discover so many awesome indie authors. Ninety-nine percent of the review books I receive are eBooks! There's room for physical books and eBooks in my life, lol. ;) 

eReaders and blogging are definitely the two biggest reasons my reading habits have changed, and I wouldn't want things to be any other way. I really couldn't imagine going back to my life before blogging. 

How about you? Have your reading habits changed, and why or why not? How have they changed or how have they stayed the same? 

Think Out Loud #30 ~ Wouldn't It Be Cool If...

Have something you'd like to talk about that's non-bookish? Join this meme hosted by Thinks Books! Get to know your fellow bloggers outside the bookish realm! Click here for the 411. Every Thursday or whenever you can! :D

While waiting on my daughter to get out of school, a sudden thought occured to me - 

My daughter and I were talking about it this morning. She said she thought it would be awesome. So many times she's had to lug home a giant Social Studies textbook that's three times bigger than her just for ten minutes of homework. Really? And it wasn't homework she could get done at school, so it isn't like she has much of a choice. 

It was like that for me when I was in school, too, as I'm sure for millions of other kids as well. Think of the back pain kids are experiencing because of these gigantic textbooks they're carrying home! It can't be good for their backs. It was super uncomfortable to lug home my math textbook, which I had to every night for homework. 

This year, my daughter picked out a Beemo (from Adventure Time) backpack from Hot Topic, and it's HUGE but always filled to the brim. I'd hate to think of what we'd do if her backpack wasn't so roomy. 

If you have kids, what do you think? Wouldn't it be cool if eReaders were made a bit bigger? I'd advocate for non-tablet eReaders since most kids are looking at computer screens a lot already at school and at home. 

My daughter said she thinks a ton of kids would lose them, but I pointed out eReaders are way cheaper than textbooks. When I was in college, some of my textbooks were close to $300 while most eReaders are around $100 or less. Plus textbooks would cost less for schools if they came in eBook format. 

Even if you don't have kids, did you have a ton of heavy textbooks to carry home? What do you think about eReaders taking the place of textbooks? 

Think Out Loud in the comment section below! :D

Think Out Loud #29 ~ New Color!

Have something you'd like to talk about that's non-bookish? Join this meme hosted by Thinks Books! Get to know your fellow bloggers outside the bookish realm! Click here for the 411. Every Thursday or whenever you can! :D

I promised a photo of my new hair, and I finally felt like I looked halfway decent enough to take one, lol. 

Here it is! 

Turquoise! 

What do you think??

Think Out Loud #28 ~ Friday I'm In Love

Have something you'd like to talk about that's non-bookish? Join this meme hosted by Thinks Books! Get to know your fellow bloggers outside the bookish realm! Click here for the 411. Every Thursday or whenever you can! :D

Friday night I got a hair cut. I get easily bored with my hair and it was getting really heavy. Plus it annoyed me at night when I was trying to sleep. There was just so much of it! 

I've also dyed it a new color!! Can you guess what? It isn't pink anymore for the time being. I love the pink so much that I'll go back to it sometime, but for now... 

Top Ten Tuesday #6 ~ Books That Will Make You Cry

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. 

This week's topic ~ Books That Will Make You Cry

The older I get, the more I seem to cry at the drop of a hat. Commercials, books, music, movies, TV shows...you name it, I'm probably crying at some point. Several times while watching Heroes, I'd cry prompting my husband to ask why in the world I was sad. For me, it was a combination of the music, the characters' angst and losses, and just thinking about the bigger picture in life. I'm a big baby. :)

1. The Replacement by Rachael Wade 

Buckets I tell you! Buckets! This book ripped me apart, and once the dam was breached, nothing and I mean NOTHING could have stopped the tears from falling. I don't think I've ever had a book hangover quite like the one I had after finishing this one. 

You can read my review here. 

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Okay, so I haven't read this one yet, but I KNOW it's gonna break me. Cancer is a very tender subject for us all, and I've lost so many family members to cancer, including my mom and grandpa - both died from brain cancer. So yeah, this is gonna wreck me. 

3. Witch by Christopher Pike

Even after reading this book several times it never fails to make me cry my eyes out. Something really sad happens to one of the characters, which is uncommon in a horror novel but worked in this story. My sister has also read this book, and she cries every time. And that girl has a heart of steel. ;) 

4. Branded (Sinners #1) by Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki 

I started when Lexi was branded, and from there I didn't stop off and on. It was so horrible and inhumane, like she was in a herd of cattle. Treated like an animal. Treated in ways animals shouldn't be treated. I thought about the Holocaust at times while reading this book, and how innocent people were punished in all sorts of inhumane ways, including death.   

You can read my review here. 

5. Jenny's Blue Velvet by A.C. Davis

Shocking with a sad twist, this book tore me up and was so good. It's the kind of story I want to read again and again. It's THAT good. Kind of trippy, too. 

You can read my review here. 

6. The Hunger Games (#1) by Suzanne Collins

There were moments in all three books really that I shed some tears. 

You can read my review here.  

7. Addicted to You (Addicted #1) by Krista Ritchie & Becca Ritchie

I can't stress enough how much I adore the Addicted series. This sister writing team are ah-mazing! 

You can read my review here. 

8. Holding On and Letting Go (The Ties That Bind Us #1) by K.A. Coleman (Pen Name Lucy Kelly)

A girl who has lost her little brother to cancer struggles to live her life in the aftermath. I related to her so much! After both my mom and grandpa died, I struggled with wanting to live, too. I'd ask myself what was the point since we all are going to die anyway? 

Still struggling with the desire to live to this day, it's been almost nineteen years since my mom died. So I really understood where this character was coming from when no one else did and no one else knew how to handle it. Her parents handled the situation in a really shitty manner, by the way. I really hated them!  

You can read my review here.

9. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Another story I could read over and over again where I believe I'd pick up more and more knowledge of the characters and events each time I read it. So many times I cried. A powerful and moving story and the first novel by Lauren Oliver I read. The writing just blew me away. 

10. Life of the Party by Christine Anderson

An intensely real and emotional read, so much happens to the main character in this book I couldn't help but cry for her. Parents who were no longer plugged into her life, friends who weren't willing to stick around, and her descent into heavy drug use and addiction combined to make for a heavy story. I had a book hangover for a few days after this one. 

Here's my top ten! Link me up with yours or if you don't have a TTT post, leave a comment if you'd like anyway! :D

Feature & Follow Friday #34 ~ The New & Unusual

I'm so excited to join Feature & Follow Friday!! This is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read where they each feature a blogger with an interview and also have a question or activity for all bloggers to participate in answering. Please click the links above to follow the hosting bloggers and the featured bloggers and enter the link to your own post in the linky. Hop around to as many blogs as you can - find new blogs to follow and gain some new followers as well. Mingle and make some new blogger friends! :D

I would be so happy and ever so grateful if you'd follow me any way you'd like but especially by Bloglovin' or email (to the left) and Twitter. Thank you! <3

 Q: Tell us at least one new or unusual thing you've done in 2013.

1. I got new glasses! 

2. I went to Austin City Limits! 

3. Because of ACL, I'm now obsessively in love with Passion Pit! 

4. We took the kids to their first Bengals game!

Nothing so unusual - I'd say more like new! How about you? :D

  

Feature & Follow Friday #32 ~ Tag, You're It!

I'm so excited to join Feature & Follow Friday!! This is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read where they each feature a blogger with an interview and also have a question or activity for all bloggers to participate in answering. Please click the links above to follow the hosting bloggers and the featured bloggers and enter the link to your own post in the linky. Hop around to as many blogs as you can - find new blogs to follow and gain some new followers as well. Mingle and make some new blogger friends! :D

I would be so happy and ever so grateful if you'd follow me any way you'd like but especially by Bloglovin' or email (to the left) and Twitter. Thank you! <3

 Q: You are It! We're playing #FF tag this week. Comment on as many blogs as you can, even if they aren't participating in #FF. Just say Happy #FF! at the end of your comment. Keep a running total if you want and update your post with it. The bigger the number the more impressed we will be!  

I love this! It's gonna be so much fun! :D
Check out the really cool graphic Parajunkee made for the occasion below! 
Happy #FF! 

My tally: 15 so far :)
Update #1: 33
Update #2: Whew! I made it through all 70!!! Found some great new blogs to follow and said hi to some old friends. :D  
Update #3: 74! A few more bloggers joined the party! :D   

Top Ten Tuesday #4 ~ Turnoffs

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. 

This week's topic ~ Top Ten Book Turnoffs 

1. Poorly written synopsis - If I'm not hooked by the synopsis, or if there are a ton of spelling/grammatical errors in there, chances are I'm probably not even going to be pick up the book. 

2. Instalove - Most of the time, it's not my cup of tea, lol. A relationship between characters seems more satisfying when it's been given time to grow.   

3. Weak characters no matter gender - Characters that are always like, "Woe is me," just don't cut it. Grow a pair! I'm in awe of characters who rise to the challenges they must face with grace and dignity. To weak characters, suck it up and just do what ya gotta do! ;) 

4. Lack of multicultural characters - I find it interesting to read about characters who are autistic or in foster care, or a different ethnicity from me. There's a lack of multicultural characters and stories in YA/NA just in my opinion. I just saw a book cover the other day where the story is about an African American girl, but the model on the cover was NOT African American. WTF? 

5. Unattractive book cover - Call me superficial (it's ok, I can take it) but if a book cover is truly ugly or it just looks slapped together at the last minute, then I tend to overlook it. The synopsis would have to be PHENOMENAL for me to give it a chance. I know, it's horrible to admit that. >.<

6. Info dumping - I want to be shown not told things while I'm reading. Some description and background is good to know. But if an author relies on dumping info on the reader, that's not good. Especially if I still have no clue what's going on.  

7. Too many typos/spelling/grammatical errors - Many books I read are ARCs, and so I know there's always the chance of a typo or some sort of error here or there. I don't judge the book based on that. But I've read some books before that hadn't seen an editor period, and I was pretty sure the author had just sent a rough draft. 

8. Fake/unrealistic characters - Sometimes I think as adults we forget how teenagers/young adults actually talk. I remember in high school in my group of friends we had our own slang and inside jokes that other people would look at us as if we were pretty strange (which we were). I think we tend to forget what the maturity/lack of maturity level is in teens/young adults. It's also important for a character to act in ways that make sense to that character. Sometimes as a reader I might roll my eyes or outright disagree with a character's actions, but if he/she does something completely out of left field, then I just won't get it.  

9. Rushed ending - This tends to happen especially at the end of a trilogy or series. It's almost as though the author was on a strict deadline with a lot of pressure and had to make something up just to finish on time. Mockingjay strongly comes to mind for me. I felt like The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were, well, on fire, but Mockingjay really disappointed me. It just felt like the trilogy fizzled out. I'm super curious as to what they're going to do with the movie, and I hope it beats the pants off the book. :)  

10. Formulaic plot - Sometimes I start reading a synopsis, and I can't but think been there, done that. There are a lot of books out there that seem to have the same basic plot. The Harlequin romance novels for adults my mom would read seemed to have the same plot over and over in them - girl meets guy, they hate each other over some simple misunderstanding, then they fall into bed somehow, then they hate each other again, and then they fall in love with a happily ever after. Romances like this tend to not be for me. 

So now that I've made myself like a complete bitch or at least a book snob, how about you? What things turn you off of some books? 

Feature & Follow #28 ~ Memories...

I'm so excited to join Feature & Follow Friday!! This is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read where they each feature a blogger with an interview and also have a question or activity for all bloggers to participate in answering. Please click the links above to follow the hosting bloggers and the featured bloggers and enter the link to your own post in the linky. Hop around to as many blogs as you can - find new blogs to follow and gain some new followers as well. Mingle and make some new blogger friends! :D

I would be so happy and ever so grateful if you'd follow me by Bloglovin' or email (to the left) and Twitter. Thank you! <3

 

 Q: What were some of your favorite picture books as a kid? If you have kids, what are your favorites to read to them?

Omigod, I love this question!!

Where the Wild Things Are  by Maurice Sendak

So many great memories of my mom reading this book to me growing up. One of my faves to read to my kids. <3

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

We have a joke in our house - when the kids start getting too loud, my husband and I tell them to hush with a bowl of mush. Works every time. Well almost. ;)  

The Cat in the Hat  by Dr. Seuss 

Well, anything by Dr. Seuss!! I love The Sneetches, too! :D

The Berenstain Bears Get Stage Fright by Stan & Jan Berenstain 

This was the very first Berenstain Bears book I read as a kid, and I've collected them over the years to read to my kids. They're a great way to help teach your kids basic social skills and ways to handle problems that crop up. 

Corduroy by Don Freeman 

Omigosh, how could you not love this book?? So cute! 

There are so many more I could list, but then you and I would be here all night, lol. How about you? What were your favorites growing up? 

Think Out Loud #20 ~ The Last One I Adopt - I Promise!!

Have something you'd like to get off your chest? Want to talk about anything? Join this meme hosted by Thinks Books ! Get to know your fellow bloggers outside the bookish realm. Click here for the 411. The posts go up every Thursday or whenever you'd like. :D

A lot has been going on lately, and I have so much to tell you all since I've been sucking at doing TOLs lately. >.< 

~ The New Addition ~

This poor kitty was just dumped by somebody last week on my street, and my mother-in-law (who lives across the street from us) had been feeding him. He kept following us home, and he hung out with us while we had a garage sale last Saturday. I saw him sleeping on my husband's lap and knew he had fallen in love with the kitten, too, lol. See below. ;D 

We've taken him in, and my husband named him Billy. This is the last one, I swear! I am not turning into a crazy cat lady!! No way! 

First came Charlie:

Next came Charlotte: 

After that came Beau:

Now we have Billy:

My rationale is since we're eventually going to get a bigger house, there'll be more room for four pets. But that's it. A lady tried to talk us into getting a puppy from her, and I was like no way lady, lol!

~ Steps to Selling Our House ~ 

1. Rent a large dumpster and rid out the garage - check!

2. Have a garage sale to get rid of the nicer things and try to make some money for paint, etc. that we need to spruce up the house - sorta check! We only made $60. Where the hell was everyone??? 

3. a. Take whatever doesn't sell to Goodwill - check!

b. Take kids' clothes to Once Upon a Child to sell/donate 

4. Rent a small dumpster and clean out the house once more

5. Buy the supplies to fix up the house

6. Make an appt. for the real estate lady to see how much our house is worth

7. Put the house up for sale

8. Live for a long time with a "For Sale" sign out front of our house, lol 

Well, everything's coming along. Every weekend we're doing something. :)

~ Band ~ 

Yay!!! Janie has her trumpet, and this past Monday was her first class! Kids here start band in 5th grade, and at the end of school last year, Janie tested highest on the trumpet and flute. She chose to play the trumpet. It's funny because I played the trumpet (sold it to my friend's brother, lol), and my sister played the flute. We're renting a trumpet for Janie, and she's doing so well already! I'll try to take some pictures of her with her trumpet if she'll let me. ;D 

How are you guys doing? Love you guys for commenting!! I appreciate each and every one; they make my day! :D

Top Ten Tuesday #2 ~ Top Ten Books I'd Love to See as a Movie

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. 

This week's topic ~ Top Ten Books I Would Love to See as a Movie/TV Show (set in a perfect world...in which movies don't butcher the books we love.)

(Clicking on the book titles will take you to Goodreads)

In no particular order

1. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver 

I was changed after this book. I looked at the world differently after this book. Need I say more? :) 

2. If I Stay (If I Stay #1) by Gayle Forman

I loved this book!!! It would make my day to see it made into a movie. An awesome, kick ass movie with nothing cut out! 

3. Splintered (Splintered #1) by A.G. Howard

How gorgeous would this be on the big screen? If the right people (director, visual effects, costume designer, etc.) took on this project, it would be epic. That's all I'm sayin'. I'd love to see Natasha Lyonne cast as Alyssa. 

4. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

How cute would this book be as a movie?? A release on Thanksgiving would be perfection. 

5. Taking on the Dead (The Famished Trilogy #1) by Annie Walls

If you haven't read this book, then what are you waiting for??? ;) Zombies, splatter, gore...I'd go see this opening night! 

6. Speak Easy (Speak Easy #1) by Melanie Harlow

I could easily see this as a movie, and it totally would be right down the alley of The Great Gatsby fans. 

7. Pretty When She Dies (Pretty When She Dies #1) by Rhiannon Frater

A college age girl wakes up in a hole in the ground. And that's just the beginning. This book as a movie would be fantastic. I'd love to see who would be cast, and the beginning would be a scene to remember!!

8. All Our Pretty Songs (All Our Pretty Songs #1) by Sarah McCarry

This book received a lot of negative reviews; however, I loved it. I think it would be darkly beautiful (*cough* Donnie Darko *cough*). 

9. Addicted to You (Addicted #1) by Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie

I'd like to see this as a TV series. There's a goldmine of material here to make several seasons, and there's more to come. 

10. The Wild Wood (#1) by Julie Anne Nelson 

A town turns against seven girls, who were all born on the same day at the same time. If you thought seven was a lucky number, think again after you read this one. I'd totally see this one opening night, too. Easily one of my favorite books of the year.