Presents for Book Lovers and More (Volume 1)

Perfect Christmas Mix

Since its almost time for Chrismas and the other holidays and  I know I have trouble finding presents for my friends and family so I always look for ideas online and here are some of the things that I have found. Some are DIY which are amazing and then there are some that are different price ranges. Some are perfect stocking stuffers and other supplemantaries to along with your gift. So here goes. As I find more items, I’ll post them as well.

1. Obviously BOOKS!
2. DIY projects
   1. Perfect Christmas Mix – a cookie mix inside a mason jar (idea from Hey Gorgeous Events blog)  This is awesome because you can customize this to make it the perfect cookie mix with the person’s favorite cookie mix. Just click on the link to take you to the site for instructions.
   2. Another easy one is a snow/glitter globe. I found this idea on pinterest and it looks super easy and fun.
      

      DIY Snow/Glitter Globe/Jar 🙂

      1. A great present for a person that loves taking baths and relaxing is Bath Bombs. I found this idea on pinterest as well. The pictures and recipe are from Sarah Titus. 
3. Projects that you could buy: 
   1. There is this wonderful scarf from the Etsy Shop – storiarts. It costs $48 and there are many different books that are used for it. Some of which are, Anne of Green Gables, Pride and Prejudice, Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland and more. Check it out HERE
   2. Anthology Candle which is called Old Books. This candle is amazing, its a soy candle and handmade. Its perfect becasue it is soy, it burns longer and produces minimal smoke. Cost is $16. Check it out HERE
   3. There is also a website online called Out Of Print Clothing, and they have clothing and accesories that are book inspired. Check out their stuff its gorgeous. Check it out HERE

Frankenstein Tee for Men at Out Of Print Clothing

 

School starting! :)

I am happy to say that this will be my first day of my final year of undergrad! I am happy about this but sad at the same time. I truly enjoyed my time in college. I made many friends and reconnected with some that I hadn’t seen since elementary school.

I had many new experiences such as my first outdoor concert in the quad and seeing many new cultural aspects from all over the world that was new to me such as bhangra dancing and seeing all the different ways that other student came up with to help charity organizations.

I will never forget my college experiences and I hope that for those of you entering college or still are, I hope you use your chance to utilize everything available to you. I hope this year will also be great! I can’t wait to meet new people again this year.

#Tbt – Mediator Series by Meg Cabot

I recently found out that Meg Cabot will be releasing another Mediator book and this one is for adults. I read the Mediator series when I was in my early teens and I can’t imagine what my childhood would have been like without those books. It was how I discovered Meg Cabot for the first time and I went to the 1-800-Where- R-U series and I still read them even now.

Anyways, the book will be called Remembrance, it will be the seventh book and it will take place after Susannah has graduated from college. The book is going to be for an adult audience which is good because the audience of those books when they were first published would be my age now and would want to know what happened as they aged along with Susannah. I already pre-ordered the book and can’t wait for its release.

In REMEMBRANCE (Mediator 7), the seventh installment of the Mediator series, all Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva).

But when she stumbles across an ancient murder, old ghosts—and ex-boyfriends—aren’t all that come back to haunt her.

REMEMBRANCE will be the first ever adult installment of the Mediator, published by William Morrow, the adult division of HarperCollins, the company that brought you the YA books in the series. – Meg Cabot Official Website

HERE is the official page from Meg Cabot about the book and here is the wedding invitation to Susannah and Jesse’s wedding. 🙂 The book will be released on February 14, 2016.

History of Genres!

Hello my dears,

I will be starting a new “series” of blog posts on here that I recently thought of and that is to do a “History of Genres.” This is going to be focused on different genres in literary fiction and nonfiction, just basically any kind of writing that has happened since the beginning of time. I will be starting with fiction and its different subgroups pretty soon and then move on to nonfiction and so on.

The way that I will  be writing these posts is that I will be writing a “history” of the genre and then I will give examples and link reviews to other blogs on books that cover that genre. During the week, I will post post a book review that goes along with the genre that I am focused on for the week/month in addition to my other reviews. I will also try to do giveaways of the books that are part of that week’s genre.

Book Lover,

Katie

P.S. If you want to do your own post on any genre, please let me know and I can link you. 🙂 

 

A Look Back… #tbt

I was looking through my bookshelf yesterday and my gaze stopped on my favorite author growing up and I picked up the book with the most creasing on the spine and I read the book once again, I remembered why the book was a favorite.

Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech

Hardcover

Published February 27th 1997 by HarperCollins Publishers

Zinnia Taylor has looked at those words, embroidered on a sampler hanging in her aunt Jessie’s kitchen, for as long as she can remember. In her 13 years Zinny has rummaged through the spaghetti of her life, hoping for a meatball, but often finding lumps of mud instead. Zinny lives in Bybanks, Kentuckey, with too many brothers and sisters — a mess of “tadpoles” and “pumpkins” is what her uncle Nate calls them. When Zinny discovers a mysterious, overgrown trail that begins on her family’s farm, she’s determined to clear it, from start to finish. She’s finally found a place of her own, a place where she can go, away from her family, to hear herself think. But what Zinny didn’t realize is that the mysteries of the trail are intertwined with her own spaghetti of unanswered questions and family secrets, and that the trail — and her passion to uncover — is leading her on a journey home.

Newberry Medal winner Sharon Creech’s new novel is a powerful, beautifully crafted story about a young girl discovering that life is a tangle of mysteries, surprises and everyday occurrences — a journey that often needs unravelling and that sometimes must be traveled alone. – Goodreads

This was my favorite book growing up. Sharon Creech was my favorite author and I still sometimes read the book every once in a while along with Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech as well. As I grew up the context of the book changed as I grew and changed. The meaning of the book changed along with me. As she discovered little by little the pathway, I learned little by little about myself.

The writing is still amazing and the story makes me nostalgic. I can also still see the the little stains of fruit I left on the pages because I couldn’t put it down. I loved this book so much that I even dog eared the pages, which is something I abhor when reading. My books are my children, they are all important to me. I learned early on to take care of my books after that I think.

This was an important of growing up for me so I wanted to share it with you.

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Do you have a book that when you think about your childhood, you also think of it? What is it?

I’m Back!

Hello my fellow book lovers and reader!

This year has been the most hectic out of my undergrad and as you can see my reading and reviewing has suffered because of it. However, I’m back! I have a great book to start off my return and you will hear all about it Thursday. I can’t wait to share it with you.

P.S: Is that Image not great!? I love the Walking Dead and this is a little symbolic, its almost as though I’m coming back from the grave… or not (ignore that lol)! You will be getting great material and come back tomorrow and this weekend because I will be hosting a giveaway!!!

~ Katie

Mind Games Winner!

 

The Winner of Mind Games is Terri M.

Guest Post and Giveaway: Tahsha Wilson, Writers Cube

Hey everyone,

My name is Tahsha, and I’m a member of Writers Cubed. I’m here to talk about something I think is downright amazing:Teenagers.Particularly teenage authors.

Did you know that there are tons of teen writers out there? There are. And guess what? They are freaking good at writing! Good chance is you are one of those teen writers, or maybe you want to be but you’re hiding behind your facade of coolness, not believing that you actually have the skills to be a writer.

That was true for me (though I’m not a teenager-even though I act like one half the time.) I always wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t believe I could. In fact, I was embarrassed to admit that I wanted to be. Silly, I know.

Then I found an awesome writing group, (feel free to pause and go to our website if you want to know just how cool we are–I’ll wait for you.) and we started learning how to write together. We attended classes and conferences that taught us that there is more to writing then just romantic tension.

Guess what we discovered through the process? There wasn’t much available to help the super talented teenage writers that we were friends with. So, with our combined brain power, super awesomeness, and freaking hard work… Voila! TEEN AUTHOR BOOT CAMP WAS BORN!!!

The boot camp, held in Orem, UT, has been so popular in the past, that this year Writers Cubed wanted everyone out there a chance to be a part of it, even if you live in the middle-of-no-where and even if you are just a teenage wanna-be like me. So we are introducing the first EVER LiveStream of Teen Author Boot Camp.

The keynote address by Newbery Winning Author Shannon Hale will be free for anyone to watch. It will be on March, 16th, 2013 at 9 a.m. MST. A subscription to the Live Broadcast costs $4.99 and includes the following:

9 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.—Writers Cubed: Welcome

9:15 a.m. to 9:55 a.m.—Keynote by Newbery Award winner Shannon Hale (Princess Academy)

10 a.m to 10:45 a.m.—Tyler Whitesides (Janitors)  Class: Imagine and Create.

10:55 a.m. to 11:40 a.m.—Janette Rallison (My Fair Godmother)  Class: Bad dialogue can kill a story.

12:50 a.m. to 1:35 p.m.—NYT bestseller Kiersten White (Paranormalcy)  Class: Plot Like a Villain.

1:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.—J. Scott Savage (Farworld)  Class: Finding Your Voice.

2:50 p.m. to 3:25 p.m.—Journey to Publication Panel: Agent Amy Jameson & authors Chad Morris, Tess Hilmo, J. Scott Savage, Cindy Bennett

3:35 p.m. to 4:20 p.m.—NYT bestseller Aprilynne Pike (Wings)   Class: World-building is the invisible foundation to your book.

4:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.—Writers Cubed: Winner of the First Chapter Contest and closing remarks.

If you just can’t get enough of TABC, there is also an All Pass Subscription to the rest of the conference (including more than fifteen awesome presentations, including mine–haha). That only costs $9.99 and, as if it wasn’t a sweet enough deal already, you can watch the whole conference whenever you want for an entire year.

To register to watch Shannon Hale’s Keynote for free, visit www.teenauthorbootcamp.com and click on Livestream. It only takes a minute. While you’re there, check out the other presenters who will be teaching at the conference under the tab “Drill Sergeants.”

Stay tuned for details on how to win a subscription to the TABC Live Broadcast for FREE on this blog.

Tahsha Wilson is a co-founder of Writers Cubed, a group of Utah writing activists who created the Teen Author Boot Camp in 2010. Please visit her website at www.writerscubed.com.

Also, I am running a contest for a free subscription to the TABC Live Broadcast. (Value $4.99) If the winner decides he or she would like to upgrade to the All-Pass subscription, then they will receive a $5 off coupon to the cost of an all-pass (normally $10).

Birthday Giveaway!

Its my Birthday on Wednesday and I want to do a giveaway for you guys!

I’m gonna give you guys a list and the winner gets to pick 2 books they would like to have.

ARCs:

• The Iron Thorn
• The Nightmare Garden
• 20 Boy Summer
• Fixing Delilah
• Passion
• Nerve
• Everyday
• Strange Angels
• Jane
• Huntress

Finished:

• The Giver
• The Black Dahlia

Rules:

1. MUST be a follower (email or wordpress)
2. MUST comment on a post other than a meme (review or interview)
3. Other follows +2 each (Twitter, Goodreads, Google)
4. Spread the word +5
5. Giveaway Ends Feb. 3rd.
6. US only

In My Mailbox (43)

IN MY MAILBOX is a meme hosted by The Story Siren. Its about sharing what you got in the mail or borrowed from the library, friend, or bought. Its a great way to share what you will read in the near future.

Review:

• Flicker and Burn – T.M. Goeglein
• White Lines – Jennifer Banash
• Phoenix – Elizabeth Richards
• My Wolf’s Bane – Veronica Blade (Blog Tour)
• Wicked Kiss (Night Watchers #2) – Michelle Rowan
• Stolen Nights – Rebecca Maizel

Bought:

• This World We Live In – Susan Beth Pfeffer
• Personal Demons – Lisa Desrochers
• Sophocles: the Complete Plays
• Double Crossed  – Ally Carter (For free on Amazon!)

Won:

• Reached – Ally Condie
• Eyes Like Stars – Lisa Mantchev
• Beauty – Lauren Conrad
• Starstruck – Lauren Conrad

Gifted:

• Legend – Marie Lu
• Divergent – Veronica Roth
• Alchemystic – Anton Strout
• To Your Success – Dan Zadra