Books, Movies, and Chinese Food

Today's meme question deals with trying out a new book or series based on the influence of another blogger. Last year, I wrote about how I discovered THE HUNGER GAMES thanks to the recommendations of TONS of bloggers and tweets. It was a book I would have never had even gone near yet thanks to all the praise I kept hearing from actual readers (and not just professional reviewers), I read it and loved it. This year, thanks to reading other blogs, I discovered my newest obsession: Cozy Mysteries. What is a cozy mystery you ask? Well, think of Murder She Wrote, as a book. Yes, there actually are Murder She Wrote Books written by Jessica Fletcher herself (with a little help from Donald Bain) For a more formal and in depth definition, read here . From, reading reviews from S.Krishna's Books and Booking Mama , from the oh so informative and incredibly in depth website Cozy-Mystery.com , and then being able to participate in the Cozy Mystery Challenge , it was a combination o...

Today is the second day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week and it's been a blast already. Today is Interview Day with Another Book Blogger! I know all of you remember my totally awesome interview with My Friend Amy from last year. Well this year I decided to branch out and meet a new book blogger and I did! Today I am please to introduce to you to Sya from The Mountains of Instead . She's a YA blogger from Scotland (which already makes her cool in my book). She's actually eaten REAL Chinese food because she used to live in China but unfortunately the stuff in Scotland doesn't even come close. So without further adieu, here is an Books, Movies and Chinese interview with Sya from The Mountains Instead. 1. Describe yourself using only ice cream flavors. Gak. I hate ice cream (yes, yes, I know) but here goes: Mint chocolate chip, because it seems straightforward but then surprises you. Pistachio because it's a little odd. Rocky Road, because it sums up my li...

Today marks the first full day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. It's going to be an exciting time where we recognize and honor our fellow book bloggers! Today's meme question focuses on what new book blogs we've discovered since BBAW last year. There have been a TON of blogs that I've discovered since last year especially after being able to go to BEA and meeting lots of other bloggers. I can't chose them all (also mainly because I didn't label what date I discovered them in my Google Reader so I'm not quite sure where the cutoff date is) so I'm going to pick this one: The Zen Leaf I'm not quite sure how I hadn't heard of this blog before BEA but I'm glad now that I do. I met Amanda at Book Blogger Con. She was on the panel for writing and building content. To be honest, even though the other panelists gave out informative answers, Amanda stood out the most because she talked about Harry Potter and how she finds discrepancies betw...

What I like about my blog is that I get to choose what books I want to read and review. I've expanded the reviews on my blog to include now mainstream chick lit and YA which are two genres I dearly love. I'm enjoying myself and I've told myself (jokingly) I'll stop blogging when my TBR pile disappears. Which might be a while as I have 600 + books... A year from now, hopefully I'll still be blogging. I'm almost positive I will be, but I don't know how my career will be like then so we will have to see. The biggest thing I want to accomplish is that I hope to eventually self host my blog or at least get my own domain name. Either way I'm really proud of my blog, next week is my 3 year blogiversary and I'm planning something really special so stop by again next Monday!

If it wasn't for book bloggers and Twitter, I would have never discovered this wonderful series. I had never heard of The Hunger Games or Catching Fire before. While I read YA fiction, I tend to read more of the YA chick lit type books. Therefore this series totally would have passed me by. However thanks to all the recommendations and praise I kept hearing about left and right, I finally decided, well if all these people are talking about it, it must be good. And boy were they right. When I read The Hunger Games, I finished it in about 2 hours. And LOVED it. So see, book bloggers DO make an impact. You may say, well it's a popular book, bookstores have it featured everywhere, yada yada. Well just because a bookstore says it's good, that doesn't mean I'm going to read it. Only because of people I know and trust did I read this book. Book bloggers give a personal touch when they read, review and recommend books. This is why book bloggers are important. So ...

It's Day 3 of BBAW and today we're all answering memes about our reading habits. I think i have some weird reading habits but you can be the judge of that! Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack? -It depends. If the book talks about food, I like to find whatever I'm reading about and eat it. I have found though that reading about food while you're eating something, no matter what it is, makes it taste a lot better. So if you're having trouble eating, say frozen spinach, read a cookbook. It'll help it go down easier. Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? -I can't bear to write in any books. How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open? -I'm guilty of laying the book flat open. Otherwise I use a bookmark -but not real bookmarks, I use anything around me, magazine subscription cards, envelopes, clothes. Fiction, Non-fiction, or both...

So how did I end up being lucky to interview the BBAW mistress herself? (Possibly b/c I happened to stay up late one night on twitter and Amy rea lized that she didn't have an interview partner...but I'm not saying anything). If you know me then you know I like going off beat and ask t h ose c razy questions no one else does. So if you're expecting a serious interview with Amy, well...you thought wrong. And without further adieu, an interview with My Friend Amy .... (BTW she interviewed me too so check out her blog and see what ramblings I had to say) (The face that's behind (ok actually in front of) the computer. Isn't she just adorable?) 1. You’ve been magically transported to the island from Lost. All the characters are there including a shirtless Sawyer. It appears you have arrived d uring the end of Season 4 (island disappears, ship blows up). You know what’s going to happen and you can help all the islanders prepare for what’s coming ahead. However you are w...

Acclaimed authors Holly Black ( Ironside )and Cecil Castellucci (Boy Proof ) have united in geekdom to edit short stories from some of the best selling and most promising geeks in young adult literature: M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, John Green, Tracy Lynn, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Barry Lyga, Wendy Mass, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfield, Lisa Yee, and Sara Zarr. With illustrated interstitials from comic book artists Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley, Geektastic covers all things geeky, from Klingons and Jedi Knights to fan fiction, theater geeks, and cosplayers. Whether you're a former, current, or future geek, or if you just want to get in touch with your inner geek, Geektastic will help you get your geek on! I will not lie. I am a total geek. I have admitted this many times and I will not be ashamed. I am a Star Wars nerd, I watch Lord of the Rings marathons, I read the entire Harry Potter series at least once a year, I know e...

Today marks the first full day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week . It's going to be an exciting time where we recognize and honor our fellow book bloggers ! Of course not every blog could make the shortlists for the BBAW awards and while there are MANY great blogs that made there, there were others that didn't. Today I want to talk about some of my favorite blogs that didn't make the lists. Relz Reviews - Rel was one of my first blogger friends when I first started blogging way back in the day. Her site is a gem when it comes to Christian fiction, with her reviews, interviews, and spotlights. She does really comprehensive author interviews especially when her book club is able to talk to the author on the phone. This is no small feat because they are located in Australia so the author usually has to wake up early in the morning to call! Rel also has a wonderful series on character spotlights where she and the author write out biographies to flesh out the main cha...