In My Mailbox- Week of May 25th Part 1

Now, this wasn't meant to be a Part 1, but ended up being that. I wanted to make a vlog last night and so I did, and part of it was to show off the final few books I got. But the majority of it is me rambling on about various things, and then I get cut off at the end cuz my camera's batteries died, lol.

Anyway, here's Part 1:



Here's the original Blonde of the Joke cover:



Isn't that much better?

Part 2 will be posted later. Also, tomorrow is the official start of my two year blogiversary month-long party, which will be held over on Myspace. There will be interviews, guest blogs, and giveaways, maybe even a couple reviews too, so go check it out!! :)

Youtube Views and Mini-Reviews

Youtube Views
So I was looking through all my Youtube videos and was surprised by some of the amount of views that I have on videos. I was shocked to see that some of my videos have passed the 100 views mark! Here's the list:

In My Mailbox (April 5) (I'm surprised an IMM vlog made it past 100- why is this one so special? lol)
VCA Vlog Trilogy Part 1

Those are the only 100+ views ones. Here are some other high ones:

FNV Excerpt- Take the Reins (93 views)
VCA Vlog Trilogy Part 2 (97 views)
Guest Vlog for Jocelyn (93 views)


Mini-Reviews
Twilight Movie

I figured I'd start off with this one cuz I'm watching the movie now with commentary. So Erika Lynn of Kiss My Book let me borrow her copy of the 2-disc Special Edition DVD- thanks Erika! :) It took me a couple weeks but I finally got around to watching it last Friday (yes, the same day the baby kittens were born) and my roomie, her bf, and I ordered pizza (it was SO GOOD.) and watched the movie. I enjoyed it- it was a good story and I'm excited to listen to the audio book of Twilight whenever that comes into the library for me. There were a lot of cute guys in this movie who were shirtless. I quite enjoyed that, lol. I think my favorite scene was the vampire baseball bit- it just looked SO COOL!! I was a bit put-off by all the close-ups of eyes and faces as well as all the smoldering and brooding looks- it really detracted from the movie. I loved how they made Edward sparkle- I watched the documentary on the making of the movie and it was cool how they did that (I think it was just from special effects done by a computer, but it's still cool.). I think that's all I've got to say. Does anyone have any questions about what I thought of certain parts or characters in the movie?

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Best Friends and Drama Queens by Meg Cabot

I thought this book was so cute! I love the Allie Finkle series- Allie is just so spunky, funny, and all-around awesome. I think her rules are the best. I read this book pretty quickly- just two days. I can't wait to read future books! :) Wow, this review is much more mini than I thought it would be, lol.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (audio)
I put off reading this book because I wasn't much into historical fiction. But lately, I've been getting more into it and so decided to start the Gemma Doyle series since I needed to find more audio books to listen to at work. I actually really liked it! I loved how Libba combined historic and paranormal and it really pulled me through the book (well, as much as you can while listening instead of reading). The narrator Josephine Bailey did a good job doing all the voices and narrating it- she's probably one of the best I've heard so far. Unfortunately, for some odd reason, my library doesn't have Rebel Angels in audio, but they have this one and Sweet Far Thing. How silly is that? They have RA in print though so I may just have to read it instead of listening to it.

Twitter

OK, I finally did it. I broke down and joined Twitter, only because I wanted to let people know what I was listening to, lol. We'll see how well I keep up with it. Anyway, here's the link to my profile, so you can start following me and seeing my bland tweets:

https://twitter.com/BookChicClub

I hope that's the right link and all... I really have no idea.

Anyway, back to work. Blah.

Seven Book Babes Vlog!

I forgot to do it last week, but I am back in full force this week! Here's the vlog:



Hope you all like it! I've got some mini-reviews scheduled for Friday, so keep an eye out for that!

Picture Post Part 2: Book Stalking

News- This is my 100th post here! :) How awesome is that?

So yes, I book stalked again and got pictures of books out in the wild! :) I did have to wait a bit for this family to go away from the YA section but once that happened, it was just me and all those wonderful books. The YA section is a great part of the store because it's in a corner and there's some big bookcases obstructing the view from the cash registers, so I could've taken as many pictures as I wanted- MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Anyway, without further ado, here are the pictures, all taken at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC:



Yes, it's a picture of Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker facing outward (I had nothing to do with that) and one copy of Violet in Private next to it! And I also just noticed that Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters is just two over from Lovestruck Summer, lol. Also spotted are Scott Westerfeld books and paperbacks of the 9th Georgia Nicolson book (and I love how that middle copy is sticking out, lol).



A couple great books can be found here- as you can see, Lauren Myracle's newest book Peace, Love and Baby Ducks as well as the paperback for Thirteen are facing outward, coaxing customers to come and buy them based on their adorable covers! I mean, really, who can resist cute lil baby ducks? Also, right below Peace Love and Baby Ducks are two copies of Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler (also, my local bookstore has 4 copies of 20BS- it's all over the place!)! I can't wait to read both PLBD and 20BS!!



I mainly took this picture for Wings by Aprilynne Pike, who left a comment on my blog when I got her book and so I felt I should take a picture of her books in a store. Although it's not exactly news that this book is in stores since Wings reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list already, but hey, it is still photographic proof. Also, just a little further down from Wings is Nation by Terry Pratchett, which is a REALLY good book (as are all of Terry's books), so everyone should check it out sometime. :)



Now, there's a funny story about this. I started going through the YA section in alphabetical order before taking any pictures just to have an idea of what I would take pictures of. When I originally saw Susane's books, Waiting For You was spine out. So I go through the rest of the alphabet and take pictures down toward the latter end of the alphabet and then come back to the early letters and I find this. Someone put Waiting For You face out along with Take Me There (which was already face out). It made me giggle cuz I'm like "Ooo, another Susane fan was here!" Presumably. Although it could've just been an employee who was told to do that. I think I saw one skulking around at some point. Also in this photo is Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas (up at the top left- cover mostly cut off), Cassandra Clare books (top right) and Sarah Dessen books (at bottom).



This was mainly just taken to show off Jessica Burkhart's books. I can't remember if I took my photo before or after I grabbed a copy of Behind the Bit to buy. Probably before. But yeah, since I got pics of her first two books around their release days, I might as well continue the tradition. Hey, Jessica, maybe if you come down to VA in August, we can bookstalk your fourth book together! :)

That's all I have for now. But more pictures will be on their way later this week (maybe). If you saw my In My Mailbox vlog (which you should have, since it was way short, so you have no excuse now), you know that my roomie and I now have baby kittens! Our female cat Maya gave birth to 5 adorable little kittens last Friday afternoon. Pictures of them will be coming! But there are two videos up on my Youtube page (http://www.youtube.com/user/boothy0304) now of them, so feel free to watch those if you're impatient, lol.

In My Mailbox + Poll Results

Here's my In My Mailbox vlog this week, and it's probably the shortest it's ever been, lol. I go through like 12 books in less than 5 minutes. There's also some exciting news in there too!:



Books Mentioned:
Behind the Bit by Jessica Burkhart
The Oracles of Delphi Keep by Victoria Laurie
The Debs: Love, Lies and Texas Dips by Susan McBride
It's Not You, It's Me by Kerry Cohen Hoffmann
Red Carpet Riot: A Likely Story Novel by David Van Etten
Tempo Change by Barbara Hall
Guinevere's Gamble by Nancy Mackenzie
Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
For Better or Worse by Jill Amy Rosenblatt


And here's the poll results!:
1) Love You, Hate You, Miss You by Elizabeth Scott- 3
2) Being Nikki by Meg Cabot- 1
3) Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon- 5
4) The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong- 6
5) You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith- 2
6) Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti- 1
7) Hottie by Jonathan Bernstein- 2
8) Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas- 2
9) Chasing Blue by Jessica Burkhart- 1
10) Wings by Aprilynne Pike- 4

So it looks like I'll be reading The Awakening and Silver Phoenix next, and then just go down in descending order from there. Thanks for the help, everyone!!


New info on Book Signings- My signing that I'll go to August is now covered- Maggie Stiefvater is holding her book launch for Shiver on Friday, August 7 in Williamsburg, VA. I'm gonna do my best to go to it. Hey, maybe I can make it a habit to go to all of Maggie's launch parties. I was there for Lament's and now will be there for Shiver's. Since she lives in VA, it shouldn't be a problem at all. I'll be your launch party buddy, Maggie! LOL. :)

Picture Post Part 1: Book Signing

First off, my "What Should I Read Next?" is not working well. I've only gotten 4 comments, and none of them are repeats, so I still can't decide what to read next. :( So go back and comment on it and give me your suggestions please! :) It's the post right before this one.

So last night I went to a book signing in Durham, NC at the Regulator Bookshop. I got off work, came home for a bit, and headed out on the road. The trip wasn't too bad. I stopped at Bojangles for the first time ever for dinner- it was above average, though I didn't really like the fries. The chicken tenders and biscuit were really good. I still prefer Popeyes though- that's the best. I ended up being a bit late to the signing but that was ok since it hadn't even started yet.

I came in and sat down in one of the chairs. Cheryl was talking with someone else when I arrived, but after she was done talking with them, she came right over to me and said "Hi James!!" and went to hug me. I stood up and attempted to hug her back, but got intercepted by her son who came up running and hugged her around the waist. We hugged after that, lol, and we chatted a bit before she went off to mingle a bit more before starting the reading/QnA. During that time, I took a couple pictures, one of which I have to wait until Part 2 to show as it features a book and all my book stalking photos are gonna be saved for next time. The other picture can be shown:



I could've done a better job taking the photo, but I was a bit nervous with taking photos. This is the Breathing display that they had. The orange papers on the left talk about upcoming events, one of which I'll be going to! It's the Sarah Dessen one on her pub day for Along for the Ride! :) I'm excited about that one. Behind it is the podium that Cheryl spoke at during the event.

So Cheryl went up to the podium, talked a bit about the book, read from the book (the same excerpt I read in my excerpt vlog!), and took some questions from the audience. It was a really fun evening. Here's a picture of Cheryl at the podium speaking (I apologize for the blurriness):



After the QnA section, she was ready to sign books. I waited in line for a bit and deliberated over buying a copy of Breathing to have her sign for a giveaway but decided against it. The Regulator Bookshop has this new policy where if you bring a book to sign, you need to buy an equal amount of what you bring (so if you bring two books, you have to buy two). I'm not sure if that counts for ARCs since I got that for free, but that's ok; I wanted to buy Behind the Bit by Jessica Burkhart at some point anyway.

When I got up to Cheryl, she was so cute and sweet! She signed my book, and then as soon as she finished, she said "We need to get a picture! Where's a camera?" and started looking around. I had my camera ready to go and was planning on asking her myself a second later; her husband (I'm assuming here) took a picture of us with my camera and then with their camera. I thought it was so cute how much she wanted a picture with me, hehe. :) We said a few parting words, and then I went upstairs to book stalk, and those pics will come next week. Anyway, without further ado, here's the picture of Cheryl and I:



I really need to work on my smile for photos. That is just TOO big and it makes my eyes all squinty. Must practice in the mirror sometime. But doesn't Cheryl look so cute?! :)

Also, I have some exciting news, BUT you all will have to wait until Sunday to find it out. It'll be in my In My Mailbox vlog. You can check my Youtube page for the video tomorrow afternoon if you don't want to wait. It'll be a scheduled post and should be up by midnight on Sunday. This is actually a pretty short video for me, so be sure to watch it. It's less than 5 minutes, but I go through a TON of books.

See you all Sunday! :)

GLBT Month News + What Should I Read Next?

First off, some GLBT Month news. Go over to the myspace blog to find a guest blog from author Josh Aterovis as well as my review of his first book Bleeding Hearts and a contest in which you can win a signed copy!!

Tomorrow night, I hope to post reviews of Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd as well as Without Sin by J. Tomas!

And now, another installment of What Should I Read Next? I do have my GLBT month books and one or two library books, but let me know what I should read next for review on here. The choices are:

1) Love You, Hate You, Miss You by Elizabeth Scott
2) Being Nikki by Meg Cabot
3) Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon
4) The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong
5) You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith
6) Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti
7) Hottie by Jonathan Bernstein
8) Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas
9) Chasing Blue by Jessica Burkhart
10) Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Now, since I have 10 choices, you can suggest two recommendations. Results will be tallied this Friday, May 22 at some point in the evening, lol.

Oh, and also, I'm going to a book signing on Thursday down in Durham, North Carolina. It's for the book Breathing by Cheryl Renee Herbsman! I'm so excited to be able to go, and will take lots of photos. And I may be meeting up with a fellow blogger, which will be very exciting!

By the way, I noticed that I seem to be going to at least one book signing a month. Here's what I have so far:

February- Ann Brashares (Annapolis, MD)
March- Maggie Stiefvater (Alexandria, VA) and Susan Rebecca White (Charlottesville, VA)
April- Kevin Roose (Lynchburg, VA)
May- Cheryl Renee Herbsman (Durham, NC)
June- Sarah Dessen (Durham, NC)
July- Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong (Richmond, VA)

Any authors gonna be in the MD/VA/NC area in August and beyond? If not, work on it. I need more signings to go to! :)

ETA- Another signing added for late June (the 27th, to be exact) where Claudia Gray and Elizabeth Scott will be signing at a B&N in Tysons Corner, VA! :) I'm so excited for it!

In My Mailbox- Week of May 11 (Vlog is up!)

Here's my In My Mailbox vlog this week and Youtube actually accepted it, despite it being over 10 minutes (almost 12 minutes actually):

ETA: While Youtube uploaded the whole thing, it's now been removed because it was too long. I don't know when I'll have the time to reshoot it, so you all may just have to go by the list below. I also forgot to mention that I got catalogs from Feiwel and Friends, and Square Fish- both imprints of Macmillan. Not only that, but I also got some fun swag from Lisa Schroeder! :)

ETA2: Vlog is reshooted and up! Forgot about the Lisa Schroeder swag, but ah well. Next week. Here's the vlog:



Books Mentioned in the vlog:

The Naughty List by Suzanne Young
Without Sin by J. Tomas
The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
Slept Away by Julie Kraut
One Lonely Degree by C.K. Kelly Martin
Jonas Brothers: Inside Their World by Brittany Kent
The Princess and the Bear by Mette Ivie Harrison
Karma for Beginners by Jessica Blank
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking and Other Natural Disasters by Lenore Look

Review- Dead is a State of Mind by Marlene Perez

News

Be sure to check out all the awesome guest posts and interviews this past week for GLBT Month on my myspace blog! Here are the guests I've had so far this month:

Jeannine Garsee
Saundra Mitchell
Lee Wind

And I've got a contest planned for Monday as well as a couple more throughout the month, so be sure to comment on posts to be entered to win a book! :)

Since I'm using the rest of this month on the Myspace blog for GLBT books, I'll be reviewing non-GLBT books here! :) Here's the first:

Review


Dead is a State of Mind by Marlene Perez
Welcome to Nightshade, California—a small town full of secrets. It’s home to the psychic Giordano sisters, who have a way of getting mixed up in mysteries. During their investigations, they run across everything from pom-pom- shaking vampires to shape-shifting boyfriends to a clue-spewing jukebox. With their psychic powers and some sisterly support, they can crack any case!

There’s a gorgeous new guy at Nightshade High: Duke Sherrad, a fortune-teller claiming to have descended from Gypsies. Even though she’s psychic herself, Daisy is skeptical of Duke’s powers. But when a teacher who was the subject of one of his predictions ends up dead, she begins to wonder if Duke is the real deal after all. Maybe if Daisy can track down the teacher’s killer, she can find out the truth. The only trouble is, all signs point to the murderer being of the furry persuasion. Is Daisy any match for a werewolf? Maybe she is . . . in more ways than she bargained for!

I really enjoyed the first book in this series (Dead is the New Black) and was looking forward to continuing it. I got this book from my library, which I was excited about, and read it fairly quickly. Like the first book, the pace isn't too fast or slow, but enough to keep the pages turning. I liked seeing how the romance between Daisy and Ryan played out, though when Ryan reveals his big secret, it falls flat as Daisy easily accepts it, and it's not talked about much past that event in the book. Another problem I had with it was that the climax happened in the last 10 pages, so the ending just felt really rushed. Aside from those complaints, it is a fun, quick read with a good mystery at the heart of it. Daisy and her sisters are great detectives and it's a pleasure to read about their adventures in solving paranormal crimes.

This book is available in bookstores everywhere now (actually, all three are out now), or can be ordered on Amazon here.

Funny Tidbit

Just a quick post cuz something amusing happened at work just a little bit ago.

So I'm listening to A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and my portable CD player was getting low on batteries. It's near the beginning of Chapter 6 when Anne talks about this Lucy book and Gemma says "That's poppycock!" Right after that, my CD player ran out of batteries and stopped the audiobook with a short beep. It struck me as funny because Gemma had just cursed and then my CD player turned off.

It's more funny if you'd actually heard it, but hopefully it's still funny just reading about it. Let me know in the comments.

Seven Book Babes Post- Jonas Brothers and Books I've Read

Hey, here's my SevenBookBabes post for this week. In it, I talk about the Jonas Brothers and who I find cute in that band. Also, I chat about the books I've been reading and ones I will be starting.





Anyway, all I wanted to say about Bleeding Hearts by Josh Aterovis was that I am starting it and that it'll be reviewed on Friday for GLBT month! :) And Josh is going to be giving away a copy of Bleeding Hearts too! Will be fun.

And one more link today- Steph/Reviewer X posted a followup question to Kristi's question about the blogger/author relationship here. Go check it out and get in on the discussion! :)

That's all for now. Back to House.

Some YA Blogosphere Links!

First off, go check out the official start of GLBT month on the myspace blog with a guest post from Jeannine Garsee as well as a review and contest for her book Say the Word.

And here's the unofficial start of it with a He Said She Said of Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan on GuysLitWire.

Find out more about GLBT month and who I've got coming by in this vlog here!

And now time for other blogs!

Check out Steph/Reviewer X's EPIC CONTEST OF AWESOME for The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams here!

You saw my bookshelves a while back and now you can see Kristi's (aka The Story Siren) bookshelves in an awesome vlog she posted today! Not only that, but she also posted a really interesting discussion today as well about the author/blogger relationship. I'm going to be commenting on it later tonight (maybe- if not tonight, definitely within the next day or so), and I hope you all will join in on the discussion!

And that's all I have for you guys right now. Tomorrow, I've got my Seven Book Babes post which I'll post on here with an addendum (my camera lost battery power and turned off when I was almost done so I have to post a tiny bit after the vlog explaining what I would've said after it cut me off.), but you can view the video tonight on the SBB Youtube page here: http://www.youtube.com/user/sevenbookbabes

In My Mailbox- Week of May 4th Part 2

Here's the thrilling conclusion to my In My Mailbox post for this week. Check out Part 1 in the previous entry.




Books talked about in this vlog:

Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
Snap by Carol Snow
Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
The Immortal Realm by Frewin Jones
Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison
Coraline by Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell
Riding the Universe by Gaby Triana

In My Mailbox- Week of May 4th Part 1

Unfortunately, Julia Hoban had an emergency come up and couldn't send me her guest blog, so we don't get to see it today. But she has agreed to give me one for my two-year blogiversary in June, so keep an eye out for it then. :)

But this all works out anyway cuz I got a TON of books this week and so had to do my vlog in TWO parts. Been a while since I've had to do that, huh? Here's the first part, in which I make funny faces and pet a cover!:



Books talked about in this vlog:

The Greatest Power by Wendelin van Draanen
The Coffin Club and Royal Blood by Ellen Schreiber
My Name is Jason. Mine Too.: Our Story, Our Way by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin
Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker
How It Ends by Laura Weiss
Ash by Malinda Lo
Bad Apple by Laura Ruby
How to Buy A Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson
Summer Boys by Hailey Abbott


Hope you enjoyed the first part and the second part will be up tomorrow! :)

Fresh New Voice of YA- Danielle Joseph Interview

News
1) Go check out Danielle Joseph's guest blog here on the Myspace blog!

2) Little Willow and I have posted another He Said, She Said on GuysLitWire for Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan! Read our discussion here and leave a comment!

1) How did you get the idea for Shrinking Violet?

I wanted to write about something that I loved—music—and the idea grew from there. The main character of a shy girl that really wants to be a DJ soon came to mind. I was eager to tell the story of a girl that even though she was shy, still wanted to be involved in something that she loved and was good at. I have always been interested in writing a story about someone that remains true to herself against all odds.

2) Are you similar to your character Teresa at all, or are you more similar to another character? How much of yourself do you put into your characters?

I do have some similarities to Tere, but she was not based on me. Rather I drew on some of my past experiences. We both share a love of music and radio. I was shy growing up but not nearly as shy as her. I also would not let anything stand in the way of my dreams but I did not face as many obstacles as her. I definitely believe in the saying, “write what you know” but at the same time I would never stop there.

3) Are you working on anything right now? Can you tell us anything about it?

My next novel, Indigo Blues is scheduled to be released from Flux in Fall 2010. It is told in two points of view, in which a songwriter's hit tune tells the world about his break-up with his girlfriend, but the two have no concept how much their lives are going to change. I will start edits on that soon. In the meantime, I am working on a novel called Graveyard Shift that involves love, spirits and humor.

4) What's your favorite Jelly Belly jelly bean flavor?

Either cinnamon or green apple—spicy and tart!

5) What are you reading right now, or are about to start?

On my nightstand are Bad to the Bone by Jeri Ready-Smith and the arc of Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert. They are both Simon & Schuster novels by fabulous authors that I can’t wait to dig into!

6) Are you new to the YA genre, or have you been a fan of it for a while?

I have always loved young adult novels and movies and TV shows centered around teens. That’s probably why I chose to write for this age group because I never truly left high school—lol!

7) Teresa is able to shed her shy exterior when she lands a spot as a DJ on a local radio station. Did you ever work at a radio station, or did you have to do some research to understand what goes on there? How did you conduct your research, if you had to do any?

I worked at my college radio station for five years as a world music DJ. I also interned at several top radio stations in Boston during those years. I used both of these experiences to help me write this novel. Then as I was writing, I visited a local radio station and interviewed the general manager to make sure all my facts were current. Since radio has a lot to do with technology, a few things had changed.

Excerpt Vlogs- Willow and Shrinking Violet

Here are the excerpt vlogs! I hope you'll excuse my obvious sickness when doing these, lol. Also, for some reason, the Willow vlog is a tad blurry... Hmm. Ah well.

First off, Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph:



And then Willow by Julia Hoban:




Hope you all enjoyed this! And please check out my interview with Julia that I posted yesterday on myspace here!

A Little Update

I decided to do this post because I realized that I haven't been doing much actual blogging here lately, as it's mostly been vlogging instead. I also noticed that I have had three vlogging posts in a row and tomorrow, the excerpt vlogs will be up. So I felt I needed to break up the vlogs with actual words! So here's some updates on me, my blog, and whatever comes to mind really:

1) I love Red Lobster. I went there today to meet a friend for lunch and it was FABULOUS. I hadn't been there in a while, so I was so excited to go ever since we made the plans to meet there like last Thursday, lol. I got the Cajun Chicken Pasta (like usual- yes, I go to a seafood restaurant and get chicken, lol) and it was so good. I also enjoyed catching up with my friend Joe who I hadn't seen in a long time.

2) BEDA fell through in the last week and a half. I realized that I just couldn't keep up and plus, hardly anyone was commenting on my posts, so there wasn't really any motivation there. I had hoped to do a vlog in which I read an excerpt from Suite Scarlett the day before its paperback release (April 30) so that I could be featured on the Ning, but never got a response back from Maureen about it. So that didn't happen. Plus, I ended up being too busy as I started work that week, which brings me to...

3) Yes, I have a job! How awesome is that? It's with the same company I worked for back in Dec. and Jan. and it's the same job (data entry). I work first shift now (7am-3pm) and I've been through one week of it so far. I actually have today and tomorrow off (hence the lunch meetup) due to the fact that the people in Boston that are scanning the documents for us to do data entry on are being slow, and so we keep running out of assignments to do. So our boss called the project manager and the advice given was that he would give us Monday and Tuesday off and then hopefully by Wednesday, there would be enough there to keep us busy and therefore would keep us from running out of assignments until the project is completed.

The other good thing here is that I've been brought on at the beginning of the project rather than toward the end. The previous project lasted about 5 months, so hopefully this will last that long, or maybe longer. But as long as I can make it to July 1, when the hiring freezes at some places (like the local library and my old college) will be over, it'll be all good. And then I can get interviews at those places and then hopefully a permanent job there. I really hope I can work in the library; I love volunteering there and would love to work there full-time. I heard that some of their shelvers and pages are leaving, so there should be some spots open soon then. And everyone seems to like me there, so that should give me a leg up. But we will see.

4) I am reading Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan right now in preparation for the He Said She Said discussion on GuysLitWire this Thursday that Little Willow and I will be doing. I am also reading Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph, who is one of the two featured books and authors being spotlighted this week on my blog. The other is Willow by Julia Hoban.

5) Last night, I did several vlogs in which I finally answered the questions left in comments on the last Ask Book Chic Edition done back in November. It was quite fun, and the first of them should be coming up maybe the middle of next week? And I'll prolly ask for more questions when each one is posted, so start thinking of new ones now! :)

And that's all I've got. Other than I've been watching a lot of House lately. In fact, I am watching an episode now. And now it's snacktime. Yay for popcorn!

In My Mailbox- Week of April 27

Here is this week's In My Mailbox vlog. This has something new for me- I did my first annotation! It's near the end though so you'll have to watch the whole thing or wait for the whole thing to load and then watch the last minute or so. Your choice.




Books and people mentioned:

The Hollow by Jessica Verday (Amazon and Website)
Twilight Movie 2 Disc Special Edition
Erika Lynn- Kiss My Book
My So-Called Family by Courtney Sheinmel
Confessions of a President's Daughter by Cassidy Calloway
Let It Snow by Various
Undercover by Beth Kephart
Frannie in Pieces by Delia Ephron
Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jen Bryant
The Other Half of Life by Kim Ablon Whitney
Winter Wood by Steve Augarde
Khy (Frenetic Reader)
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Sisters in Sanity by Gayle Forman
Dormia by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski


Whew, that was a LOT of links. Now, time to play Mario Party 8!! :)