I was browsing trailers on YouTube because that's what I do when I'm bored and I came across Beastly's new trailer/featurette thing. I'll let you see if for yourself.
At this moment, I'm furious and speechless because of how much they've changed the book. I read it early last year so I don't remember too much about it, but looking at that trailer I can see that they've...done something new with it. First, I just want want to know what they've done to Beast; that wasn't how he looked in the book! I don't know...this just doesn't work for me. I don't even know if I'll got see this in theaters because it looks like such a let-down.
What do you guys think of it? Like it, hate it? I want to know!
I'm so happy because this contest is like, my first official contest. Well, the first one that I've held, by myself. I'm such a nerd that I'm almost squealing...on the inside, of course.
I have a signed, finished copy of Wake (in paperback) and a load of swag up for grabs, all you have to do is enter the contest!
For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people’s dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie’s seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.
She can’t tell anybody about what she does – they’d never believe her, or worse, they’d think she’s a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control.
Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else’s twisted psyche. She is a participant…
What You Will Win:
Signed Copy of Wake by Lisa McMann
Forget-Her-Nots bookmark (signed)
Prophecy of the Sisters bookmark
The Cinderella Society bookmark (signed)
Shadowed Summer bookmark (signed)
The Forest of Hands and Teeth bookmark
The Iron King bookmark
Rampant bookmark
Fairytale bookmark
The Body Finder bookmark
In a Heartbeat bookmark (signed)
Princess for Hire bookmark (signed)
After discussion guide
If I Stay discussion guide
Wintergirls discussion guide
The Hollow postcard
Oblivion Road postcard
Forget-Her-Nots postcard
Two (2) "Fang" tattoos
The Hollow tattoo
Monster Reader tattoo
The Hollow card
Beautiful Creatures bookplate (signed)
Cool Halloween Pencils
Fairytale magnet
Breaking Dawn stickers
Fang preview
Beautiful Creatures necklace
Beautiful Creatures bracelet
Summer Court bracelet (Wicked Lovely series)
Theatre Illuminata bracelet (Eyes Like Stars series)
Picture of the prizes:
Rules:
All of this will go to one (1) winner.
Open to US residents only!
Contest ends March 19th and the winner will be picked on March 20th or 21st.
If you are under 13 years old, you must have permission from your parents or guardian.
Why yes, yes I did. Not only that, but I had the rockinest time doing it! She has to be one of the funniest, nicest, coolest authors that I have met since I started blogging. Though it may have something to do with the fact that I'm terribly fangirly over her trilogy.
So I show up to the signing super early, like two hours because I don't want to get stuck in traffic and be horribly late and miss the entire thing. I pretty much sit in Starbucks reading with my sister until Shalonda shows up. Once she gets there we walk over to The Little Shop of Stories because we only have about a half hour before the signing starts and we want to get good seats and Shalonda needed to buy a copy of Gone because she had trouble finding it at any bookstore. (Which is funny since I had the hardest time finding a copy of Wake; it seemed like everywhere I went they had Fade and Gone, but they were out of copies of Wake. Made me terribly angry.) Once she has her copy we just browse the YA section and catch up because we haven't seen each other for a couple of months now. She's been uber busy with her wedding planning!
After browsing for awhile one of the girls that works at the bookstore lets us know that everyone is upstairs already for the signing, so even though we showed up early we got seats in the back, which made it a little difficult for pictures. But I think I did well...and I got some video I know you guys will want to see!
Vania showed up just as I was running out of the store to grab the keys to the car from my parents because I forgot my books and the camera in it. She went inside and sat down while I ran like hell to the car. I was so afraid that I would miss something, but I didn't! I showed up just as Terra (as in Terra Elan McVoy, author of Pure and her upcoming book, After The Kiss) finished introducing her, great timing or what?!
So Lisa did a small reading from...her two unreleased books, The Unwanteds and Cryer's Cross! Even better? I got video of her reading from both of them! But I'll post those after I'm doing talking about the signing. After she read, she did a Q&A with the audience and people asked some really great questions. I wish I had taken video of the entire signing because it was so great! Lisa had everyone laughing incredibly hard during the whole thing.
Once she was done with the Q&A it was time for the signing! I was an huge nerd because I brought the top to one of the cardboard stands for Gone so that she could sign it, but I don't care because it looks rockin'. While she was signing my books, we talked a bit and I'm supposed to give all you bloggers a message from her:
When you go to a signing, tell the author who you are! They feel horrible when they find out you were there after the fact and they never knew because you never told them who you were. Capiche?
After we got our book signed, Shalonda had to leave because she had to get home to her new puppy! So she left but Tori, Vania, Shelli (author of Grace Under Fire and On the Brigh Side), and I went to eat out and just hang for the rest of the night.
So needless to say, I had loads of fun and if Lisa is stopping by your town anytime soon you should totally plan on going because you will have fun.
Oh, and I'm supposed to tell you guys, my readers, that Lisa says hi!
Time for pictures!
(Reading the very first part of Wake that she wrote.)
(Isn't her hair wonderful? It looks so soft and flippy!)
(The very first book that she wrote! It's an adorable little picture book)
(Signing a book)
And now the moment you've all been waiting for! The videos of Lisa McMann reading from her two unreleased books!
Reading from The Unwanteds
Reading from Cryer's Cross
Hope you enjoy the videos!
P.S. Sorry if the videos were a little shaky but my arms were getting tired!
I just wanted to remind everyone one last time about the Lisa McMann signing tomorrow just in case someone who lives in the Atlanta area hasn't heard yet. Tomorrow at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Lisa McMann, author of the NYT Bestselling Wake series, will doing a signing at 6:30pm. So make sure you head on down there for an awesome time! Stay tune for some pictures and video of the signing (and maybe a contest)!
I can't even remember the last time I did an IMM post on my blog; it's been months, I'm sure. But after washing the car today (the Peanut Car is so clean) I decided I was going to post one, so here it is!
Bought:
Stargazer by Claudia Gray
Leftovers by Laura Wiess
For Review:
Hourglass by Claudia Gray (this was sent to me out of the blue, but I thought it was perfect since she's going to be here next month!)
Saving Maddie by Varian Johnson
The Dark Days of Hamburger Haplin by Josh Berk
Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
So that's what I received/bought this week! What did you get?
How I love Barnes and Noble! I could rave about their awesomeness of tonight for DAYS...and I probably will to my family. But I shall tell you the story just once.
Obviously I went to B&N tonight and when Tori and I got there we headed for the YA section (of course). And they had two rockin cardboard stands--one of Gone and another one of Heist Society. Being the nerd that I am I asked if I could have both but the manager wouldn't let me have Gone because he had gotten it in only a couple of days ago. He let me have Heist Society though! WOOHOO! So now I have my Ally Carter books on it. (It's the dresser from Beauty and the Beast!)
And then we went and sat down and on the intercom they were advertising for the game of Bingo they were playing in the children's section and how winners could get free tickets to go see The Lightning Thief. I guess nobody went back there because they got on the intercom again and practically begged for people to come back and play...and they said they had Oreos! They had Tori with that one, and I just wanted to play Bingo!
So we played, but we didn't know it was The Lightning Thief Bingo so we kind of sucked but the two other kid's there would tell us the answers so we didn't totally suck at the game. Tori and I lost but the two kids won at the same time, so I yelled Bingo for them. That was why I went really...just to yell Bingo in a bookstore. But the nice man gave Tori and I tickets anyway! So we both have two admission tickets so we may go see it twice or we may invite our parents to go with us. (I got a smexy boy on my ticket!)
And then we got an awesome poster! FUUUUN!
On top of that I finally bought Leftovers by Laura Wiess, so now I own all of her books! You wouldn't believe how much trouble I've had trying to find this. This made me happy beyond belief!
In the Teen section they had a cardboard stand for the James Patterson's upcoming book Fang, but they also had little preview books. So I grabbed five! Would anyone be interested in a contest for these? I don't know how easy it is to get them, but if you can find it at any bookstore there's no reason to do it. Let me know
Anyway, that was my visit made of awesome. Barnes and Noble is my love!
Last night my momma made me the happiest girl in the world, but she would probably take it back if she knew I was posting about it on my blog. But before I tell you about it I will have to give you the background story.
Several months ago (probably like six months) I made a book deal with my mom, like the one I'd made with her over a year ago. The deal was that I would read a book that she picked out for me, and she would do the same. I'd already chosen a book for her to read, The Hunger Games. But my mom had the hardest time trying to figure out what she wanted me to read, and then she remembered one but it was out of print so that was shot down. Two months passed by and she still didn't have a book for me so we made another deal--she would go ahead and read The Hunger Games and when she finally picked a book then I would read it.
Fast-forward four months and she still hadn't read it; she hadn't even touched it! I was getting desperate so one night while eating at the table my sister, Tori, grabbed the book and started reading to her but that didn't really go over well with her. She basically ignored us. So about a week ago while we were sitting down on the couch Tori and I came up with a sneaky plan: I would sit on mom and Tori would read to her! That way she couldn't walk away and ignore us!
The plan worked and I continued that for a couple of days, but we were only a couple of pages in. Then last night, miracle of all miracles, my mom asked for it and read it before she went to bed!!! You have no idea how happy that makes me! Tori and I were smiling like idiots when I gave the book to her. She read quite a bit of it, I think she said she got to the part where Peeta and Katniss meet Haymitch.
So I just had to share my happy news with you guys! Hopefully she'll continue reading it and realize what a loser she's been this whole time!
Edit: For lunch she sat down and read it some more! She's seventy pages in already. Good girl.
Title: Heist Society Author: Ally Carter Pub. Date: February 9th Publisher: Disney Hyperion Pages: 304 Copy Received: From Publisher
When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre . . . to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria . . . to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own — scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.
Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster’s priceless art collection has been stolen and he wants it returned. Only a master thief could have pulled off this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.
For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and, hopefully, just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s (very crooked) history — and with any luck, steal her life back along the way.
In Ally Carter’s latest book, Heist Society, she strays from the path of spying and turns to robbery, and though they may seem somewhat similar they couldn’t be more different.
Katarina Bishop’s life has been chosen for her since the day she was born. It comes as no surprise since her parents are two of the most (in)famous thieves in the world. But as Kat grows older she comes to resent the cards she been dealt and decides to do something about it. So she steals one last thing—a life. She steals the life of someone able to get into a prestigious boarding school, Colgan, in one last attempt for normalcy.
At the start of Heist Society, Kat is expelled from Colgan School for a crime she didn’t commit; a crime for which she was framed. A short while later we who the real culprits were: Hale, her lifelong childhood friend and former partner-in-crime; and Gabrielle, the cousin she despises. But for a good reason, if you ask me!
Five, insanely rare, paintings have been stolen from Arturo Taccone, a man in the business of evil and he will do anything to get them back. The one (and only) suspect in the crime? Her father. So Katarina is given an ultimatum—get the paintings back in two weeks or her father will be killed…So Kat sets off in search of the real thief and the paintings and with the help of her friends she may be able to do it.
I am a huge fan of Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girl series, so it comes as no surprise that I easily fell in love with Heist Society. I can’t remember the last time I had such a blast reading a book! Like the series, there was so much action in it. There were countless moments in which I would gasp, or my jaw would drop, once I even had trouble breathing!
One thing that I wasn’t expecting was the countdown pages. I got to the first one and was like, “That’s so cool!” and then went to show them to my sister. (So easily amused, I know!)
I’m so glad Ally tried something different and that it turned out so well! I must say that I will be happy to return to the series though.
Today I'm featuring Daniel Water's awesome book Generation Dead (ZOMBIES!!!) and Horrorpops. These two fit together like...something that goes together really well.
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters
Phoebe is just your typical goth girl with a crush. He's strong and silent.and dead.
All over the country, a strange phenomenon is happening. Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead. They are coming back to life, but they are no longer the same-they stutter, and their reactions to everything are slower. Termed "living impaired" or "differently biotic," they are doing their best to fit into a society that doesn't want them.
Fitting in is hard enough when you don't have the look or attitude, but when almost everyone else is alive and you're not, it's close to impossible. The kids at Oakvale High don't want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn't breathing. And there are no laws that exist to protect the differently biotic from the people who want them to disappear-for good.
With her pale skin and Goth wardrobe, Phoebe has never run with the popular crowd. But no one can believe it when she falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids. Not her best friend, Margi, whose fear of the differently biotic is deeply rooted in guilt over the past. And especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team. Adam has just realized his feelings for Phoebe run much deeper than just friendship. He would do anything for her, but what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy?
Yesterday we took my dog to the vet again for something that happened last week because we had no idea what it was and wanted to be absolutely sure that it wasn't another seizure.
Tuesday morning of last week (which we thought was really weird that it happened again almost exactly a week later) my baby woke me up again as he was trying to lay down on my pillow. So I scootched his butt up onto the pillow and he just splayed out, taking up the entire thing. Obviously, I couldn't put my head on the pillow so I picked him up and layed him down next to it; once I did that he kind of buckled his back legs and fell down. I noticed that didn't look right so I picked him up again and that's when I realized that his front legs were tucked into his chest and they were rigid and incredibly stiff. Not only that, but he was shaking and slightly swaying.
It lasted longer than the last episode but he bounced back from it quicker.
So yes, it was another seizure and the vet is now trying to get us to put him on anti-seizure medicine but we aren't all too sure about that yet. Because what if they were two flukes? What if it never happens again? If we do put him on this medicine then it will be something he has to take for the rest of his life, twice a day. So I think we've decided to hold out on the medication and see what happens next. If it happens againt then we will start him on the meds. The vet also wants us to take him in later for x-rays to make sure that a brain tumor isn't causing his seizures.
I'm a little terrified now because my dog is like my kid and if something happened to him I don't know how I would get over it.
I hate to do this but I'm going to have to take a break from my blog for the next five weeks or so. On March 13th, I'll be taking the SATs and until then I'm going to be needing to study every second of every day. Wish me luck and concentration!
But I'm still going to the Lisa McMann signing on the 24th, so you can at least expect some kind of update on that!
Early, early this morning, like around 1:20, I awoke to the feeling of my dog kicking me...repeatedly, which isn't weird for him because he does that when he needs more space on my bed. But then he fell off of my bed, and it's pretty high up, so I jumped off my bed, looked at my dog only to realize he was having a seizure. Like a full-on seizure, he was flailing, spasming, and rolling around on the ground. I have never been so scared in my entire life.
If you know me then you know that my dog is like my baby. I've only had him for two and a half years but we are inseperable. He sleeps with me in my bed every night and if he doesn't then I don't sleep well. If I'm sitting down he has to lay down so that he's touching me or in my lap. We are attached at the hip.
So, like I said, I jumped out of bed to see him like that and the first thing I do is grab him because I don't want him to slam into something and really hurt himself. He's still flailing around in my arms and by this point I'm scared shitless. I race out of my room and start banging on my sister's door, once she's awake I let her know what's going on. She's now hold him and he's rocking back and forth ever so slightly now.
I leave him with her to knock on my parent's door to wake up my mom. She gets up and I tell her what has happened. She closes the door so she can get proper and before she comes out Tori starts freaking out because Runtford has peed all over her and her bed. I've watched enough tv shows to know that urinating is a side effect of a seizure.
My mom comes out and now we're all huddled around him in the living room and then...he throws up...twice. It's like the bad just keeps on coming. So we all throw on some clothes and take him to the emergency clinic.
There they do some bloodwork on him and everything comes back clear (doesn't seem like it would take that long but we were there for almost two hours). We decide that he will come back home with us and then in the morning we will go for a checkup at his regular Vet's office.
So anyway, he's fine now but the cause for the seizure was never discovered so we have to keep a close eye on him for the next 24-48 hours and hope that nothing else goes wrong.
Now, for your viewing pleasure a couple of pictures of my boy!
The summer after we got him and he was still a tiny little fluffball!
This was the day after we got him and he was playing around in the front yard. Such a cutie!
And my boy a month ago, holding onto his slobbery chew-stick for dear life.
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