In My Mailbox (31)

In My Mailbox
Haven't done this in a couple of weeks but here are this week's books.

Won from The Electrical Book Cafe...and More
~The Fallen 1: The Fallen and Leviathan by Thomas Sniegoski

BookMooch
~Mermaid Park by Beth Mayall
~Read My Lips by Teri Brown

Not Pictured: For Giveaway
~Sekrit Signed Book and Bookmarks

Win 2 DVDs from The Book Junkie's Shelf

Win New Moon and The Blind Side on DVD
The Book Junkie's Bookshelf



Here are the rules for this contest:
1. This contest is INTERNATIONAL.
2. Fill out the form.
3. The contest goes until NOON on April 1, CST.

Extra Entries
~ Follower
~ Blog Post
~ Side Bar
~ Retweet

Enter HERE

Contest at I Should Be Writing

Win Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
I Should be Writing

Rules:
* You MUST be a follower to enter.
- New followers get +1
- Old followers get +2
* Contest ends at 11:59pm EDT April 1, 2010.
* Contest is open to US and Canada residents only.

Extra Entries are available!

Enter HERE

March Madness Contest at Addicted 2 Novels!

March Madness Contest
Addicted 2 Novels!

Prizes:
All the books are shown above, but I wanted to list them out for you as well.

-Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
-Lock And Key by Sarah Dessen
-Looking For Alaska by John Green
-The Ex Games by Jennifer Echols
-Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (added 03/11)
-Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson (added 03/11)
-Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott (added 03/18)
-Ash by Malinda Lo (added 03/18)

Winners:
There will be a total of 4 winners. Here's the breakdown:

1st place: Picks Any 2 books
2nd place: Picks the next 2 books
3rd place: Picks the next 2 books
4th place: Receives the last 2 books

Rules:

*You must be a follower to enter
*You must fill out the form below
*Open to US residents only

Contest ends March 31st!

Enter HERE

An Apology

I would like to start by apologizing for the fact that I have not been very active lately and that certain posts haven't gone up when they've supposed to. For a little over two weeks now, I have not been feeling well at all. I've been tired and stressed and very overwhelmed with so much going on. I've been sleeping a lot more than usual and my migranes have been bothering me as well.

I am very sorry to those publishers I had scheduled post dates with. Particularly Paul with Sourcebooks for not having the Merlin's Harp review up yet and Karen for not having my Darklight review up yet. I hope ya'll can forgive me. Everything had been going great until one thing threw off my schedule and I guess I kind of panicked, causing the stress. The tiredness, well I'm not really sure why I've been so sleepy and tired lately. The feeling of being overwhelmed is from knowing I haven't gotten stuff posted on time, school work, trying to plan a big blogoversary celebration for you readers, and being so - pardon my french - damned confused about what the heck I'm going to do with my life. Not to mention the fact that it is taking FOREVER for these darn men to finish the bathroom in our apartment. Dagnabit I wanna take a hot shower and be able to...you know...go...whenever I want.

I should have been handling all of this better than I have and I plan to start to. Please do not think I'm using all of this as an excuse, because I'm not. I just didn't want ya'll thinking I've bailed out on ya'll or something. And trust me, starting April 17th, you'll be over it because you will be too consumed by all the awesomeness I've got planned for you. :P

Once again, I apologize and will be getting back to posting very soon. Stay tuned because I've got a post coming up that I think we should all take the time to read.

Contest Winners!

Ok so here are the winners of The Dark Divine Nail Polish.

1. Kassandra from Eternal Night

2. ~*Jessica*~

Winner of A Match Made in High School ARC and Swag

Erin from Bookish in a Box

I have already emailed Kassandra and Jessica. You will have 48hrs to respond to email or another winner will be chosen. Erin has already received her prize in the mail. Congrats to you all.

Author Interview: Lesley Livingston

Hello everyone! Today, I would like to welcome you all to the wonderful Lesley Livingston, author of Wondrous Strange and Darklight, the first two books in an enchanting YA fantasy trilogy.

~~~~~~~
The Book Pixie: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Lesley Livingston: I'm a mythology geek with a love of shoes and shiny things. I'm a writer and an actor. I live in Toronto, Canada. I am an unrepentant egghead. I have a Master's Degree in English from the University of Toronto specializing in Shakespeare and Arthurian literature. For almost three years, I hosted weekly late-night movie marathons on the nationally broadcast television show, SPACEBAR, as the Waitron-9000, a sparkly holographic waitress with an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure B-movie trivia. I can be dangerously flail-y to sit next to during hockey games.

TBP: What three words would you use to describe your writing?

LL: Fantastical
Dark-sparkly (hyphenated words count as one, right?)
Dreaming

TBP: Do you believe in faeries?

LL: I think they would be very upset with me if I didn't!

Seriously - I think Shakespeare said it best when Hamlet says "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

I've been fascinated by faerie lore since I was a kid. The stories that intrigued me the most were never the ones that portrayed the Fae as tiny, sweet, sparkly things. Rather, I was drawn to the idea that these were the creatures that existed beyond the circle of firelight, or just on the other side of the threshold, or just over that far hill; things only ever glimpsed out of the corner of your eye - if you were lucky! I love the dangerous aspects of the Fair Folk. I always appreciated that you got that sense with Shakespeare's creatures pretty quickly. Those are the ones I believe in.

TBP: Did you always want to be a writer?

LL: I've always wanted to be a storyteller, certainly. I guess I sort of fulfilled that ambition two ways - through both the acting and the writing. I know they are two very different mediums, with very different disciplines but, to me, they've always felt connected. I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to develop my ear for language under as a great a tutor as Shakespeare. Once I started writing seriously - when I was in my late teens, I guess - I realized pretty quickly that this was something I wanted to do, probably the rest of my life.

TBP: What is your favorite thing about acting?

LL: The audiences. It is such an amazing experience to walk out on stage, hit your light, speak your lines, and actually be able to feel the audience response coming back at you, informing and shaping your performance. It's so cool. But - honestly - there are so many things I love about the theatre (film acting is a different animal altogether!). I love the heightened reality. The costumes, the sets, a good fight scene, a good love scene...

TBP: Aside from the final book in the Wondrous Strange trilogy, is there anything else you are currently working on?

LL: Yes! As a matter of fact, there is! I just recently signed on with Penguin Canada to write a novel called ONCE EVERY NEVER. It's a story about a modern teen girl who spirals back in time to Rome's bloody conquest of Britain - where she befriends the daughter of a fiery queen, falls for a fierce warrior prince, and discovers that she may be the only hope of averting a devastating blood-curse. I'm really excited about it! It should hit store shelves some time in late summer, 2011.
(Ugh, that is TOO LONG to wait. I'm so excited!)

TBP: What is a song you feel fits Wondrous Strange and Darklight?

LL: I actually have entire playlists that my boyfriend puts together for whatever project I'm working on so I have more than one! For a general overall feeling for the entire trilogy, I would say that the Roxy Music album Avalon captures that pretty well. For DARKLIGHT, there's a song called When Ye Go Away by The Waterboys that captures the mood of the book, and also one by INXS called Afterglow. For WONDROUS STRANGE, Manhattan by King of Leon and The Waterboys' Whole of the Moon. Throw in some U2, some Arcade fire, a little Blue October, Dave Matthews...there you have it! I also had a friend write and record a song for me based on the first book - which was awesome - and I listen to that a lot when writing.

TBP: What do you hope for people to take away from your books?

LL: A bit of a sense of wonder, I hope. Enjoyment of the story and the feeling that these characters are people they could see themselves befriending in real life (well, maybe not the leprechaun boys). Maybe a desire to check out some of the source material... like reading A Midsummer Night's Dream, or visiting Central Park to experience that magic first-hand.

TBP: What are some of your favorite YA fantasy books?

LL: I'm really digging Suzanne Collins' HUNGER GAMES series at the moment. Of course, it doesn't exactly qualify as "fantasy", but I thought I'd mention it anyway because it's just so good. Guy Gavriel Kay's FIONAVAR TAPESTRY series which came out when I was a teen has always been at the top of my fantasy faves list. Also, I'm looking forward to Lisa Mantchev's second book in her theatrical fantasy series, PERCHANCE TO DREAM. The first book, EYES LIKE STARS was tremendous fun!

TBP: What are your hopes and aspirations for the future?

LL: To keep telling stories that my readers enjoy. Because, honestly, it just doesn't get any better than that!

TBP: Anything else you'd like to add?

LL: How about a heart-felt appreciation to you and my readers out there? You guys - with your passion for books and reading and your willingness to share that passion with each other, in blogs and in person - you are awesome. You make this job ('job' she says - ha!) so totally worthwhile! Thank you!

~~~~~~~~

And thank you, Lesley; I really appreciate you doing the interview. As to all my readers out there, I hope you all enjoyed this great interview and will show your love for Lesley in the comments. :D

Noteworthy Passages: Wondrous Strange

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Pub. Date: September 9th, 2009
Pages: 352
Age Level: 14+

Synopsis
Since the dawn of time, the Faerie have taken. . . .

For seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow, faeries are just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery, whose steel-gray eyes mask an equally steely determination to protect her.

Sonny guards the Samhain Gate, which connects the mortal realm with the Faerie's enchanted, dangerous Otherworld. Usually kept shut by order of icy King Auberon, the Gate stands open but once a year.

This year, as the time approaches when the Samhain Gate will swing wide and nightmarish Fae will fight their way into an unsuspecting human world, something different is happening . . . something wondrous and strange. And Kelley's eyes are opening not just to the Faerie that surround her but to the heritage that awaits her.

Now Kelley must navigate deadly Faerie treachery—and her growing feelings for Sonny—in this dazzling page-turner filled with luminous romance.

Wondrous Strange is a richly layered tale of love between faerie and mortal, betrayal between kings and queens, and magic . . . between author and reader.

Noteworthy Passages

Sonny; pg. 25
Then she began to mutter to herself and gesture to the empty air.
Oh. Sonny sighed. Just another Central Park crazy.

Kelley; pg. 91
"Trust you? You're lurking in an alley, for God's sake. You obviously followed me here from somewhere, and you were looking in my dressing-room window when I was getting changed! I don't think 'trust' is the issue here!"

Exchange between Alec and Kelley; pg. 114
Alec regarded her with a grin. "You are an odd, odd girl."
Kelley smiled back. "That's what I was thinking of writing for my bio in the show program. You know, that and only playing this part 'cause the real actress went snap..."
"Hey! Don't kid yourself--I think you're a smokin' Titania. And just between you and me? Before she went snap? I shuddered at the thought of having to do the bower seen with Crazy Babs every night. With you it'll be fun!" Alec leaned beside her against the wall. "Wanna go practice? It'll only take a second to grab my ass...uh...head. My ass head."

Kelly; pg. 189
Her heart in her mouth, Kelley gripped the reins, white-knuckled, and hazarded a look glance left and right. On either side of her, Herne's hunters rode, starry-eyed and ethereal in their beauty, with excitement-flushed cheeks, streaming hair, and expressions uniform in their fierce elation. Kelley had never seen anything so glorious, never done anything so exciting as ride through the skies with that shining host.

Exchange between Kelley & Sonny; pg. 236
"Sonny! What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you."
"You can't."
"You've learned the art of invisibility?"
"What? No!" She blinked, and stayed behind the door. "Wait. Can I do that?"
"Probably."
"Oh..."

~~~~~~~~

Well I hope you all enjoyed the Noteworthy Passages for Wondrous Strange. Please do feel free to comment as I'm always glad to hear my readers' thoughts. Also, you can check out my review of Wondrous Strange HERE








PLEASE NOTE: This is a feature hosted here at my blog in which I present you with selected passages or quotes that I deem Noteworthy from a book I've just reviewed. My hopes are of course, that these passages will make you want to pick the book up and read it. This feature was started and created by me in January in hopes of making my blog more unique. That being said, I would like to kindly request that you do not use this feature as it was intended to be for my blog only and is not a meme. If you see some one else using it, please know it is without my permission. Thank you.

Review: Wondrous Strange

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Pub. Date: September 9th, 2009
Pages: 352
Age Level: 14+

Synopsis
Since the dawn of time, the Faerie have taken. . . .

For seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow, faeries are just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery, whose steel-gray eyes mask an equally steely determination to protect her.

Sonny guards the Samhain Gate, which connects the mortal realm with the Faerie's enchanted, dangerous Otherworld. Usually kept shut by order of icy King Auberon, the Gate stands open but once a year.

This year, as the time approaches when the Samhain Gate will swing wide and nightmarish Fae will fight their way into an unsuspecting human world, something different is happening . . . something wondrous and strange. And Kelley's eyes are opening not just to the Faerie that surround her but to the heritage that awaits her.

Now Kelley must navigate deadly Faerie treachery—and her growing feelings for Sonny—in this dazzling page-turner filled with luminous romance.

Wondrous Strange is a richly layered tale of love between faerie and mortal, betrayal between kings and queens, and magic . . . between author and reader.

Review
Wondrous Strange is an utterly mesmerizing and darkly luminous tale of a girl discovering that there is far more to her than meets the eye.

Kelley was such a strong, sassy, and well written heroine. I thought she handled her circumstances very realistically; at first with disbelief, then caution, and then acceptance. I liked her right from the start and found her an easy character to connect with. As for Sonny, there was something about him I just really liked. I didn't quite love him; I did, however, love getting to know him and thought he was a great, witty, and valiant character. Odd as this may sound, the two characters that really stood out to me most were Bob and Lucky. They were both so original and really helped make this story as great as it was.

I absolutely fell in love with the Shakespearean aspect to Wondrous Strange; it was something that really helped set this book apart from your other YA fantasy stories out there. Though only my second faerie book, I'm finding myself completely enchanted by their magical and alluring world. Wondrous Strange was very well developed and there wasn't a dull moment to be found; because of this, I felt as though I had no choice but to keep the pages turning. My only real problem with this book was that I found it to be somewhat predictable. Other than that, a great story.

All I really have to say about the writing is that is was beautiful and lyrically done and I loved that she wrote both Sonny and Kelley's side of the story. I can't recall having any issues with it.

As for the ending, I felt Wondrous Strange ended just as it should, leaving me ready to grab up and delve into Darklight.

All in all, Wondrous Strange is an imaginative and impressive start to what I believe is going to be a remarkable trilogy. Two thumbs up to Lesley Livingston, a wonderful and very talented author. This is a book I definitely recommend. Now that I have finished and reviewed this lovely book, I'll be starting Darklight any minute now. As a matter of fact, by the time you actually read this I'll probably already be well into it.

Grade
Characters: B+
Writing: B+
Plot: B
Ending: A-
1st in Trilogy: B+
Enjoyment/Likability: B+
Recommendable: B+
Cover: A-

Overall: B+

The Dark Divine Nail Polish Giveaway!

Though I have an ARC of The Dark Divine, I haven't had time to read it. Despite that fact, I was very excited when asked to hold a giveaway for The Dark Divine nail polish. Isn't it lovely?

Rules:
~There will be two winners; each receiving one bottle of The Dark Divine nail polish.
~You MUST fill out the form to gain entry.
~Contest will end March 22nd at 11:59PM. Winners will have 48hrs to respond to email.
~Contest is only open to the US

For extra entries:
~For +3 into the contest answer TWO or more of the following three questions.

1. Have you read The Dark Divine? What were your thoughts on it?
2. Was there ever a time when you found it really hard to forgive someone? Why?
3. Why do you feel forgiveness is important?

Contest Winners!

Ok so here are the winners of Wherever Nina Lies.

1. Sandy from Pirate Penguin's Reads

2. aprilnichole from April Nichole's Blog

&

3. Mary Graef from The Graef Family

I have already contacted Sandy and April via twitter and received their addresses. Mary, I will be emailing you soon or if you see this, feel free to go ahead and email me first with your address. You will have 48hrs to respond to email or another winner will be chosen. Congrats to you all.

Noteworthy Passages: Peeps

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Sleuth RazorBill
Pub. Date: August 25th, 2005
Pages: 320
Age Level: 14+

Synopsis
One year ago, Cal Thompson was a college freshman more interested in meeting girls and partying in New York City than in attending his biology classes. Now, after a fateful encounter with a mysterious woman named Morgan, biology has become, literally, Cal's life.

Cal was infected by a parasite that has a truly horrifying effect on its host. Cal himself is a carrier, unchanged by the parasite, but he's infected the girlfriends he's had since Morgan—and all have turned into the ravening ghouls Cal calls peeps. The rest of us know them as vampires. And it's Cal's job to hunt them down before they can create even more of their kind. . . .

Bursting with the sharp intelligence and sly humor that are fast becoming his trademark, Scott Westerfeld's new novel is an utterly original take on an archetype of horror.

Noteworthy Passages

Cal; pg. 25
That's the interesting thing about Dr. Rat: She loves rats but also loves coming up with new and exciting ways to kill them. Like I said, love and hatred aren't that far apart.

Exchange between Lace and Cal; pg. 156
"Okay. Thanks. And, um, see you tonight, I guess."
I smiled. "See you tonight."
She didn't move for a moment, then shuddered. "Wow, all the discomfort of a one-night stand, with none of the sex. Later, dude."

Cal; pg. 294
"So you just infected me?" I closed my eyes, realizing how much this sucked. "God, you mean I lost my virginity to the apocalypse?"



~~~~~~~~

I really enjoyed Peeps; I hope my Review and these quotes/passages are enough to make you want to pick it up and read it for yourself. Please feel free to comment with your fave from above. Ya'll know I love my comments. :D









PLEASE NOTE: This is a feature hosted here at my blog in which I present you with selected passages or quotes that I deem Noteworthy from a book I've just reviewed. My hopes are of course, that these passages will make you want to pick the book up and read it. This feature was started and created by me in January in hopes of making my blog more unique. That being said, I would like to kindly request that you do not use this feature as it was intended to be for my blog only and is not a meme. If you see some one else using it, please know it is without my permission. Thank you.

Review: Peeps

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Sleuth RazorBill
Pub. Date: August 25th, 2005
Pages: 320
Age Level: 14+

Synopsis
One year ago, Cal Thompson was a college freshman more interested in meeting girls and partying in New York City than in attending his biology classes. Now, after a fateful encounter with a mysterious woman named Morgan, biology has become, literally, Cal's life.

Cal was infected by a parasite that has a truly horrifying effect on its host. Cal himself is a carrier, unchanged by the parasite, but he's infected the girlfriends he's had since Morgan—and all have turned into the ravening ghouls Cal calls peeps. The rest of us know them as vampires. And it's Cal's job to hunt them down before they can create even more of their kind. . . .

Bursting with the sharp intelligence and sly humor that are fast becoming his trademark, Scott Westerfeld's new novel is an utterly original take on an archetype of horror.

Review
I would like to begin my review by saying, "I love you Scott Westerfeld! Woooot!" *clears throat* Now, I will apologize for my unprofessional outburst and fan-girly-ness and continue on with the actual review. Ready? OK! Peeps is one of the best science fiction books I've read. It was both engrossing and gross, humorous and horrifying, real and surreal; in other words, Scott Westerfeld did not disappoint.

I'm not really used to reading books from a male perspective but I found myself loving Cal and his personality. I feel that he was the perfect character to tell this story; he was funny, in a sarcastic kind of way, witty, and very believable. As for Lace, she was smart and interesting, but I had just one teensy weensy problem with her. She said the word 'dude' a tad bit too often. Other than that, I really liked her and the other characters were just as cool.

Peeps is definitely more of a plot-driven book. I found it to be very fast-paced; it contained action, adventure, and even the slightest touch of romance. This is one of the few books out there that has sucked me in from page one. Everything was revealed in appropriate timing, keeping me guessing right up until the end. Something I found to be a very original aspect to this book was how all the even numbered chapters were short, informative but entertaining sections about various parasites. Now you may think, "Ew, gross." or "How dull." I will admit that, yes, they could be gross, but I found myself strangely intrigued by them. Another thing I loved about Peeps was the unique, and more scientific, take on vampirism that Westerfeld provided.

The writing wasn't really anything fancy or complicated yet I still enjoyed it. Everything was well described, leaving me feeling like I was actually there. The reasoning behind the peeps and the way he depicts them almost had me believing that they could actually be out there. And who knows, maybe they are. *makes spooky noises and wiggles fingers*

The ending left me wanting so, so much more. I can honestly say this was not a book I had easily figured out, so I was not really expecting the ending; honestly though, I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting. In general, I thought the ending was great. It was left open and as I'm sure most of you know, there is a companion novel, The Last Days, that follows this one, but with different characters. I am really going to miss Cal, Lace and Cornelius, Cal's kitteh. Yes that's right, I'm going to miss the cat.

All in all, Peeps was a highly original, unforgettable, and exciting read that I absolutely adored. I think this is a story that could easily be enjoyed by both guys and girls, teen and adults; I highly recommend Peeps to those fans of sci-fi, apocalypse, Westerfeld's other great works, or anyone just looking for a new take on vampires. I'm so proud to own this book and am really looking forward to The Last Days and re-reading Peeps.

Grade
Characters: A-
Writing: B+
Plot: A
Ending: B
Enjoyment/Likability: A
Recommendable: B+
Cover: B+

Overall: A-

Author Interview and Book Birthday: Lauren Oliver

Hello everyone! In honor of her debut YA novel, Before I Fall, releasing today, I would like to treat you all to an interview with the awesometastic Lauren Oliver. And the crowd goes wild. *cheers*

~~~~~~~~
The Book Pixie: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Lauren Oliver: Well I'm 5'9", with brown-black hair, and I like champagne and long walks on the beach...No, for real, let's see. Um...I grew up in a small suburb outside of New York very similar to the town depicted in Before I Fall. In high school I was kind of artsy, I guess; I was into art and dance and theatre, and I wore thick black wedge boots and, like, tight pleather pants and believed it was a fashion statement. I was a very good student (I have always been a nerd at heart) but also had kind of a bad attitude (I have always had an ambivalent relationship to authority).
I went to college at The University of Chicago, and graduate school at NYU, where I studied writing.
Those are the basic broad-stroke stats of my life. Other thing about me: I drink tons of coffee (ten cups a day), adore ketchup (I eat it on toast), and my spirit animal is either a newt or a greyhound (I have big eyes spaced pretty far apart, and I like to curl up when I sleep). My first tattoo was a pi symbol (told you I was a nerd!) but I now have nine others, which my mother hates.
I love to run and work out and be outside, but I also love to read in my house with a blanket over my legs. I believe in being nice, but not in being mistreated, and I am a very loyal friend. Sometimes, I still like to dance on tables, and I get all my music from the iTunes Top Ten. It's actually kind of embarrassing.

TBP: Give us a brief summary of your book.

LO: Samantha Kingston, the main character, seemingly has the world at her fingertips: she is pretty, popular, and she is dating one of the hottest guys in school. In other words, she has everything she could ever want. Friday, February 12th, should be just another day in her charmed life.
But instead it turns out to be her final day.
In the very first chapter (the prologue, actually), Samantha is in a fatal car accident. The catch is that Sam continues to wake up and relive the day of her death over and over, and the book follows her attempts both to figure out why she is caught in a continual time loop, and try to save her own life. On a deeper level, it is about a girl who is given the chance to re-evaluate her choices, actions, and desires in the context of her death. In that way it's kind of like a YA modern version of It's a Wonderful Life.

TBP: What is it you love most about writing?

LO: Wow. That's a tough question. I think what I love most about writing is the way that it enables you to be constantly in touch with a story and an experience and characters apart from whatever it is you are experiencing in real life; writing gives you the chance to kind of fold your life in two, to double it, so you can exist on two different planes simultaneously: the real and the fictional. I know that's a weird answer, but writing really is a form of escape for me. I write when I'm unhappy, or lonely, or feeling disconnected, and I get immersed in some other world in which I'm totally connected and distracted from any real-world problems. I also write when I'm happy, of course, but I do think that at base I see writing as escapism.

TBP: If you weren't an author, what is another career you believe you'd enjoy?

LO: A reality TV star sound pretty good...JUST KIDDING! I think I would enjoy acting though, or being a star on Broadway (presuming I had any talent, which I don't, particularly, although I did love to act and sing in high school, and college). But honestly, if I weren't a writer I think I'd like to be a cookbook author and a restaurant owner. I know that's a little bit of a cheat because I would still be writing, but what can I say? It's in my blood. And I love messing around in the kitchen and experimenting and feeding people. I also like to eat. A lot.
Actually, my ideal job would probably to be a restaurant critic. (But that involves writing too...like I said, I just can't stop!)

TBP: What inspired the idea for Before I Fall?

LO: I think a lot of different things inspired the book, actually. First of all, I've always thought about what my perfect day would be: a day i could relive over and over and still be perfectly happy. When I was younger it used to be a kind of game of mine, when I couldn't fall asleep, to try and imagine a moment or event or day of perfect happiness in as much detail as possible. Obviously this is an issue Sam addresses in the book, as she relives her last day over and over.
Additionally, right as I was starting to think about the book I was put in touch with a guy I'd "known," essentially, my whole life; we'd gone to elementary, middle, and high school together. I put "known" in quotation marks because what occurred to me once I started talking to him in my adult life was how little the impressions I'd always had of him -- impressions formed, I suppose from years of reported gossip, or half-truthful stories, or vague prejudices, or whatever it is the mechanism is by which we feel we know people in high school without actually speaking to them -- had been completely and one hundred percent wrong. He was literally the opposite of the person I had always thought him to be. (And he's now one of my closest friends.)
This got me thinking about a girl who would have a chance to cycle deeper and deeper into the minutiae of her everyday experiences, and thus begin to see them in a different manner.

TBP: How long did it take you to write Before I Fall?

LO: Writing the proposal--essentially, the first fifty pages, plus an outline--took about three months. The remainder of the book took about another five months to write.

TBP: What song would you say best fits Before I Fall?

LO: When I was writing the book, I listened to a song by Evanescence called "Bring Me To Life" a lot. It really only reflects the central section of the book, when Sam is feeling desperate and unhappy, and kind of railing against the time-loop that seems to have ensnared her by acting out.
But there is a line in the song, a kind of plea, that I do think encapsulates Sam's emotional state through most of the book: "Wake me up inside." At the start of the book, Sam is really a girl who is disconnected from her own wants and needs, but because she seems to have everything in an external way (looks; popularity; a boyfriend), she doesn't realize how numb she is inside, and how badly she needs to be awakened.
(Awesome choice! I can totally see how that song fits. I absolutely love it and it is the 12th most played song on my iTunes out of 1572.)

TBP: You are stranded on a deserted island and can only take books by one author. Which author would you choose?

LO: Dumas, but only because over 400 books have been attributed to him and it would give me a lot of material!
(And by the way, what kind of a sick, sick person would strand me on a deserted island without at least giving me access to a library?! Or a kindle at the very least?? Terrible to contemplate.)

TBP: Your house has just caught fire? What do you grab first?

LO: My computer! Or my external hard drive. And then probably a wooden box filled with all of the notes and letters and cards I have received from family, friends, and boyfriends since I was about seventeen. Actually, I keep the wooden box and all of my old notebooks in another wooden box--a sort of milk crate thing given to me by my friend Forest in college--so I would probably just grab the whole milk crate.
Now I'm thinking I should just put my hard drive in there, as well, for easy access in case of emergency!

TBP: Anything else you'd like to add before you go?

LO: Nope--just a big old thank you! Interviews make me feel special. :D

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That, my friends, was the embodiment of awesomeness that is Lauren Oliver! I hope you all enjoyed the interview and will show your love by commenting. And on another closely related note...

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY LAUREN AND BEFORE I FALL!!!

Buy It NOW

Noteworthy Passages: The Heart is Not a Size

The Heart is Not a Size (ARC) by Beth Kephart
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: March 30th, 2010
Pages: 256
Age Level: 12+

Disclaimer: Please note that this is an ARC and passages and quotes below are subject to change in the final copy.

Synopsis
Georgia knows what it means to keep secrets. She knows how to ignore things. She knows that some things are better left unsaid.... Or are they? When Georgia and her best friend, Riley, travel along with nine other suburban Pennsylvania kids to Anapra, a squatters village in the heat-flattened border city of Juarez, Mexico, secrets seem to percolate and threaten both a friendship and a life. Certainties unravel. Reality changes. And Georgia is left to figure out who she is outside the world she's always known.

Beth Kephart paints a world filled with emotion, longing, and the hot Mexican sun.

Noteworthy Passages

Georgia; pg.87
I was going to say that every time I read about our destination, there were fuzzy collisions of optimism and despair, opportunity and danger, welcome and barbed fences. The ghosts of murdered women. The faces of children left behind. The chance to help. The possibility of being helpless.

Georgia; pg. 130
You can't help people who won't help themselves.
You can't chase vanishing acts.

Georgia; pg. 137
Riley didn't so much as rustle her sheets. I couldn't tell if she was sleeping, couldn't know what she was thinking, couldn't confront her, because this is a fact: Silence defeats like nothing else does. There is no fighting it.

Georgia; pg. 231
And that night, as the sun went low on the hills beyond, I remembered Mack, down in the basement in that Main Line space, talking about seeds; and I thought of how responsibility is not just a weight but also those things that you're given the privileged chance to see. To snap into your camera for later, when your home, when time is still the future.

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I hope you all enjoyed my Noteworthy Passages picks for The Heart is Not a Size. Please feel free to comment with your favorite one. :D

My Review








PLEASE NOTE: This is a feature hosted here at my blog in which I present you with selected passages or quotes that I deem Noteworthy from a book I've just reviewed. My hopes are of course, that these passages will make you want to pick the book up and read it. This feature was started and created by me in January in hopes of making my blog more unique. That being said, I would like to kindly request that you do not use this feature as it was intended to be for my blog only and is not a meme. If you see some one else using it, please know it is without my permission. Thank you.

A Match Made in High School (ARC) Giveaway

Hi everyone! Since I thought A Match Made in High School was such a great book, I've decided to pass on my ARC along with some awesome swag to one lucky winner. If the fact that you'd be getting it for free isn't enough to convince you then you can find a link to my review below.

Here is the synopsis:
When the principal announces that every senior must participate in a mandatory year-long Marriage Education program, Fiona Sheehan believes that her life can’t get any worse. Then she marries her “husband”: Jerky jock Todd, whose cheerleader girlfriend, Amanda, has had it in for Fiona since day one of second grade. Even worse? Amanda is paired with Fiona’s long-term crush, Gabe. At least Fiona is doing better than her best friend, Marcie, who is paired up with the very quiet, very mysterious Johnny Mercer. Pranks, fights, misunderstandings, and reconciliations ensue in an almost Shakespearean comedy of errors about mistaken first impressions, convoluted coupling, and hidden crushes.


Useful Links:
Book website
My Review of A Match Made in High School
My Noteworthy Passages of A Match Made in High SchoolAuthor Interview with Kristin Walker

Contest Details:
~There will be 1 winner receiving my ARC copy of A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker and the above pictured swag.
~You MUST be a follower to enter this giveaway.
~This book giveaway is open to participants with a United States or PR mailing address only. Sorry folks but I'm broke. (International readers can enter if they have a friend in the States who can accept their prizes by mail.)
~Contest will end March 15th at 11:59PM EST. Winners will be announced the following day and will have 48 hours to respond to email.
~Comments, though appreciated, do not count as entries. YOU MUST FILL OUT THE FORM.