Letterbox Love #31

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

Yay book post 😀     

Received for Review:

Siege by Sarah Mussi

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

Thanks to Hodder for sending me these lovely copies! 

Shine by Candy Gourlay

I love surprise books! Thanks very much Random House.

Perfect Ruin by Lauren Destefano

Eek! I requested this a little while ago and Harper Voyager have kindly sent a manuscript. 

Geek Girl 2: Model Misfit by Holly Smale

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Perhaps my MOST anticipated book of 2013, I am absolutely dying to read this. Drop everything, this book is next to read 😀 Thanks Netgalley and Harper Collins. 

Bought:

Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle

Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman

Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom by Brendan Halpin and Emily Franklin

 Won:

Shipwrecked by Siobhan Curham

Thanks to Siobhan for signing and sending me this! I can’t remember where I actually won it from, so if it was you then let me know 🙂

Swapped/Gifted:

Winter Damage by Natasha Carthew

Drummer Girl by Bridget Tyler

Eep! Thanks Hawwa from It was Lovely Reading You for sending these over! Sooooooooooo excited for Drummer Girl! 

        

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile?  I’d love to hear from you! 

Letterbox Love #30

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

Finally cut down my income of books! (Event books don’t count, right?!)     

Bought:

Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

Double Cross by Malorie Blackman

 Won:

Love Is a Number by Lee Monroe

Thanks to Michelle from Much Loved Books and Hachette!

        

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile?  I’d love to hear from you! 

Bookish Events

This year I’ve been luckily enough to attend lots of bookish events. However, there are lots I missed out on but am planning for next year! I thought I’d just give you an overview of the types of event I have attended and the pros and cons of each. 

Usually reserved for popular books or authors, these signings are good for racking up signatures in books. Not usually so good for spending time with the author! 

The signings that I’ve attended like this include Cassie Clare, Stephenie Meyer and Michael McIntyre. While I was thrilled to be able to meet them and get a coveted signature, you do just feel like part of an assembly line. Often it doesn’t allow much time to speak to the author. It does, however, usually involve lots of waiting around in a queue beforehand!

I think so far this is my favourite type of event. The ones I have attended have mostly been at Waterstones Piccadilly, and involve one or more authors. They have an opportunity to talk about their book, answer questions and then have a signing at the end.

As well as getting a greater insight into the author and the story behind the book, it allows for talk with other bloggers while the signing line goes down!

Obviously exclusive for bloggers, these events are great in getting to communicate with authors and publicists. My first event as a blogger was Holly Smale’s Geek Girl party. Here I met some bloggers that I consider to be great bookish friends now, and often see at other events. It’s also nice to meet the publicists behind the emails and the proofs, and to get to know them personally. 

I can say the only real negative about blogger events is not getting invited to them, especially when it seems everyone else in the world is going. I’ve definitely experienced this more than once, but its still amazing to hear about them afterwards and see all the goodies! 

The bonus of launch parties is that friends of the author quite often attend. And those friends are quite often authors themselves. I discovered this when I went to James Dawsons’ launch for Cruel Summer, and found myself face to face with people such as Patrick Ness and Tanya Byrne. While I didn’t speak to these personally (I was too in awe!) it gives an amazing opportunity to meet lots of authors in one place. The other plus is that it is such a relaxed environment, usually involving drinks and snacks and lots of conversation. 

I haven’t yet attended a book festival. I’m planning to go to one day of Bath Kids Lit Festival, but I would love to spend a whole weekend or week immersed in books. Earlier this year I swooned over all the people over the ocean going to BEA, and I hope in the next couple of years I can make this dream a reality.

A bit closer to home, and I also missed out on the London Book Fair this year due to other arrangements. Faye wrote a post about her experience, and the seminars sounded like a really awesome insight into the book and publishing world. I am definitely putting it on my calendar for next year, so watch this space!

What events have you attended? What is your opinion on the best format? Any events that you would recommend? 

Letterbox Love #23

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

This week I’m doing something a bit different, and recording my first EVER vlog! I’ve got lots of books to showcase this week and figured it would be quicker. I love watching other book hauls via vlog so thought I’d give it a go. I’m still gonna link all the books to Goodreads below. Let me know in the comments if you like the vlog or prefer a blog post. I won’t take it personally! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD-mwL8SjoE

 Won: 

Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Beauty Queens by Libby Bray

Birthmarked by Caragh O’Brien

Wake by Amanda Hocking

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Grave Mercy by RL LaFevers

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

Thanks to Kate Ormand for all the above!

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Heart of Danger by Eliot Schrefer

Thanks to O’Dell from The Book Twirps for the TBD gift voucher!

Received for Review:

The Soterion Mission by Stewart Ross

Diary of a Mall Girl by Luisa Plaja

Thanks to Curious Fox for both the above.

Bought:

Invisibility by David Levithan and Andrea Cremer

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Paper Towns by John Green

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Freebies:

Metawars 1.0 by Jeff Norton. Thanks very much to Jeff and Canada House.

Pieces of Me by Darlene Ryan. Thanks to Canada House for the freebie selection.

 Ebooks: 

        

The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden by Philippa Dowding. Thanks to Dundurn and Netgalley.

The Diaries of Bluebell Gadsby: After Iris by Natasha Farrant. Thanks to Faber and Faber and Netgalley.

Day One by Nate Kenyon from St Martins Press and Netgalley.  

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile?  How do you like a book haul vlog as opposed to an actual post? I’d love to hear from you! 

Letterbox Love #20

Letterbox Love is a meme hosted by Lynsey of Narratively Speaking whereby book lovers can exhibit the books they received this week.

This is actualy a 4 week post. I didn’t have time before my holiday to post the haul, and I’ve been away for two weeks! Luckily I haven’t bought a lot of books. I did, however, have masses of books to pick up from my library. For such a small authority (only 16 libraries) they get really great teen books, and I am excited about lots of these. 

First up is You Don’t Know Me by Sophia Bennett. This sounds like a really fun book AND it has blue edges. Win! Kite Spirit by Sita Brahmachari also looks like a good summer read.

There are lots of YA action/thrillers this week, which is something I’m really pleased about. I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga is about the son of a serial killer, and Bodyguard: Hostage by Chris Bradford features a 14-year-old professional bodyguard. 

Two books that sound quite sad are Heroic by Phil Earle and Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid. Both these books have gotten good reviews from fellow bloggers, so I’m very excited to read these. 

Shadow Runners by Daniel Blythe looks very similar to Alex Scarrow’s Timeriders series, so it intrigued me as this is a series I love. A book that I’ve had on my ebook shelf for a while is Hysteria by Megan Miranda. I ordered the paperback from my library to push myself to read it! 

Lastly, two adult chick fic books, to lighten the mood from all that hard hitting YA. Both authors I have read before, Country Loving by Cathy Woodman and Happy Families by Janey Fraser are books I will save for when I need a laugh. 

  I also got some books of my own. Shooting Stars by Allison Rushby was a book I ordered way back in Jan/Feb when Bloomsbury had a sale. Unfortunately the publication got delayed and I’ve only just received it! I couldn’t resist a trip to The Works where I snapped up Blood Red Road by Moira Young. I love this series and can’t wait till the third book comes out, which isn’t till 2014, so I will probably need to reread this nearer the release date. Even though I haven’t read Veronica Rossi’s first book yet, I decided to buy the second one, Through the Ever Night, as it is so cheap I didn’t want to miss out and I can always give it away if I don’t enjoy the first. I also picked up The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda as it sounded really cool. Having just looked on Goodreads, I think I may actually already have a copy of it but with a different cover. Damn those cover changes! 

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway for two signed Sarah Dessen books, What Happened to Goodbye and The Truth About Forever. I don’t think I have actually read any of her books, so this will be perfect in getting me started on her collection. Extra special thanks to Winterhaven Books for the giveaway, for signed books and for shipping it all this way for me! Thank you so much. 

 Now for those Ebooks:

I got an invitation to review Nowhere by Jon Robinson from Netgalley and Penguin. Described as a ‘fast-paced conspiracy thriller’ featuring teenagers locked inside a cube, I had to have it. Although the cover looks quite simple, I love the hands in the title! Its like the story is just seeping out the pages. Many thanks for the opportunity to read this 🙂

I love boarding school books, so The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani was a cert for me. Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for this.

A book that I have been waiting to come out for ages is Unbreakable by Elizabeth Norris. I loved Unravelling (review here), so will try and fit this in soon! And I love the UK cover much more than the US 🙂 Thanks Netgalley and Harper Collins once more.

I couldn’t resist requesting a couple when I got back from holiday (I have no willpower, sue me). I adore the cover of Acid by Emma Pass, and I love action YA so I am really looking forward to this. Thanks for the speedy approval Random House!

It seemed like the whole world was getting proofs of Malorie Blackman’s Noble Conflict and I was itching to see what it was like. So when it popped up on Netgalley there was no hesitation before requesting! Many thanks Random House.

Happy Birthday To Me by Brian Rowe sounds like a funny and intriguing book about a boy who ages a year every day. Thanks to Brian for the Netgalley approval!

What did you receive this week? Have you read any of my books and do you think it should be at the top or the bottom of my to read pile?  I’d love to hear from you!