2012 Book Blogger Challenge!

I just saw something about a 2012 Book Blogger Recommendation challenge that I thought looked really interesting! This challenge is to read a certain number of book from the 266 book list that 34 bloggers have recommended. You can find out more about this challenge at Reading with Tequila. This is my post saying I want to join this challenge! I just decided there are many books on the recommended list that I'm planning on reading anyway- I might as well join the challenge! :) For now I'm going to join on the first level at 5 books- I may up my pledge later if I have time but for now, I'm going to say just 5. If you don't want to join the challenge then you can just check yourself against the list and see how many you've read and look for new book suggestions! 


I've read 20 books from the entire list and 6 books from the top 25 list! Right now my plan is to read 3 more books from the top 25, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, and something else! :) 

 The Top 25 

1.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
2. Divergent by Veroncia Roth 
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
4. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins 
5. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare 
6. Graceling by Kristin Cashore 
7. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare 
8. The Stand by Stephen King 
9. Delirium by Lauren Oliver 
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling 
11. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 
12. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini 
13. The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco 
14. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 
15. The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal 
16. The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle 
17. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 
18. Enclave by Ann Aguirre 
19. Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson 
20. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead 
21. Poison Study by Maria V.Snyder 
22. The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa
23. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater 
24. Dark Lover by J.R. Ward 
25. The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I've included the top 25 lists with the books I want to read bolded- have you read any of the top 25? Do you have any books you wish had made the top list? Leave me a comment and let me know! :) 

Losing Clementine Review!

As promised, here is my review of the wonderful Losing Clementine by Ashley Ream! I loved this book and I hope y'all will too! 

In thirty days Clementine Pritchard will be finished with her last painting and her life.World-renowned artist and sharp-tongued wit Clementine Pritchard has decided that she's done. After flushing away a medicine cabinet full of prescriptions, she gives herself thirty days to tie up loose ends—finish one last painting, make nice with her ex-husband, and find a home for her cat. Clementine plans to spend the month she has left in a swirl of art-world parties, manic work sessions, and outrageous acts—but what she doesn't expect is to uncover secrets surrounding the tragedy that befell her mother and sister. In an ending no one sees coming, will we lose Clementine or will we find her?

A bold debut from an exciting new voice, Losing Clementine is a wonderfully entertaining and poignant novel about unanticipated self-discovery that features one of the most irresistible, if deeply flawed, characters to grace contemporary fiction in years.

When I first got this book in the mail it actually looked a little depressing- a bit appropriate for the grandaughter of someone who has decided it's his time. But I didn't find this book depressing at all! I laughed far more during this book than I cried- actually I only cried when she had to say goodbye to Mr. Chuckles. 

I thought this was a great book. It is about a smart, funny, artist who has given herself 30 days to live. I thought at first she would have an incurable disease- and she does but not something like cancer. I was surprised that she decided to end it after hearing what disease she does have- is it a secret? I'm just going to tell you, she's manic depressive and I thought it was something that was liveable with but then I heard her back story- loved this! and I realized why she has decided to flush her pills down the toilet and end it all in 30 days. This isn't a kids book by any means- but if you were going to die in 30 days would you want to keep your life PG? I wouldn't- I'd be cursing, loving, and doing whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to because what consequences will I have to deal with when in 30 days I'm dead? 


I loved all the characters in this book and there were so many twists and turns! She decides to find her father who abandoned her family when she was in elementary school and when she tracks him down you learn something that made me go *gasp!*


And the ending! Let me just tell you, the ending was SO cool. When I first read it I was a little.... disappointed? Not disappointed but I didn't expect it at all! I let the ending settle in my mind for a day or two and now I love what happened! :D 


Y'all really need to read this book- I think this is the longest review I've written so far because there was so much I wanted to say about this book. I highly recommend Losing Clementine for this adult readers that want a great fiction book. This book can be explicit sex but it's not a romance, it has some sleuthing but it's not a mystery, it's got great friends but its not chick lit! I really cannot recommend it enough!


Buy this book at Amazon here, Books A Million here, and and Barnes and Noble here!


Have you read this book, are you planning on reading it? Leave me a comment and let me know! :D 

Etsy Finds Friday!

I think I'm going to start something new for Fridays! I love Etsy so much and I'm on there all the time looking at different things so I thought, why not have a post for all the great things I find. I know I'm a book blogger mostly but book lovers have to do mundane things too- like eat, get dressed, cook, etc. :) So I have one shop already that I'm talking to about a post this Friday- you're going to want to look for this because there may be something starting with a G and ending with away, if ya know what I mean. :) I've sampled something from this shop and I loved it! I can't wait to tell you all about this shop! :) Leave me a comment letting me know what you think of this! Are you cool with me not being a strictly book blogger?
 

Teaser Tuesday!

It's that time again! I thought I would do something a little different today so there are going to be two books I'm currently reading on my teaser Tuesday and I'm taking my page numbers from the fact that I as of right now, have had 2,395 page views! Thank y'all SO much! :D
(If you don't know what teaser Tuesday is the image above should lead you to Should be Reading where you'll learn all about it. But basically, its a meme where you post 2 teaser sentences from a random page in a book!)


My first book I'm going to tease you with is an indie book I promised to review Soul and Shadow by Susan McLeod. This book has a 124 pages so I took the 95 from my page views and came up with this: 

"Then I practically ran into the main hallway. There were few people about at this hour to notice my strange behavior." 

"My mind could not process everything that had happened." 

This is shaping up to be a great mystery and I can't wait to find out what's happening here! (I'm a good 30 pages away from this page!) 

Sounds interesting no? :) The other teaser I have for you is from the book The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry. I'm super excited to be reading this book and my kindle version has locations not pages so I was able to go to location 2,395! 

" She carried the heavy plants up the short steps to their blue front door, the only bright colors used to ornament the outside of Irish homes." 


"Whoever made blue the national color of Ireland was colorblind. Ben out to write about that in the paper and wake the dead, she thought." 


I love books in Ireland and I do believe these teasers show you how beautiful her writing is! :) 


So these are my teasers! :) What do you think of them? What book are you currently reading? Leave me a comment below! :) 

Be on the lookout! Losing Clementine Review

Be on the lookout for my review of the book Losing Clementine: A Novel by Ashley Ream! I just finished it about 30 minutes ago and it blew me away! I totally wasn't expecting what happened and there were so many twists and turns. You're going to want to look for this review! :) 

Let me show you a bit about Losing Clementine! This book comes out March 6th but you can pre-order it from Amazon here!

In thirty days Clementine Pritchard will be finished with her last painting and her life.
World-renowned artist and sharp-tongued wit Clementine Pritchard has decided that she's done. After flushing away a medicine cabinet full of prescriptions, she gives herself thirty days to tie up loose ends—finish one last painting, make nice with her ex-husband, and find a home for her cat. Clementine plans to spend the month she has left in a swirl of art-world parties, manic work sessions, and outrageous acts—but what she doesn't expect is to uncover secrets surrounding the tragedy that befell her mother and sister. In an ending no one sees coming, will we lose Clementine or will we find her?
A bold debut from an exciting new voice, Losing Clementine is a wonderfully entertaining and poignant novel about unanticipated self-discovery that features one of the most irresistible, if deeply flawed, characters to grace contemporary fiction in years.

    

Feature and Follow Friday!

I just discovered Feature and Follow Friday and it looks like a great way to meet some new bloggin' buddies! If you're not familiar with this either, this is hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee.

The rules are you follow Alison, Para, and the blog they are featuring. Then you hop through a long list of blogs and follow for follow you get to meet new people! They also apparently have a question or activity and this weeks is...

Q: Activity!!! Take a picture or describe where you love to read the most... 

 This one is a bit of a toughy. I love reading outside but it's gray and cold today so I couldn't take a picture of that! I found this picture online of the front of my campus showing the front lawn where I love to chill out and read. I also love reading on my bed but I'm at my dorm with my pretty uncomfy bed that I'm currently sprawled across- so no pic of that! I also love reading in my green armchair in my bedroom while it's thunderstormy outside but I can't show you that since I'm not at home!

So what about you? Where do you love to read? Leave me a comment with your blog link and I'll visit and we can follow each other! If you don't have a blog then I'd still love a follow or comment. Or both! :)

Book Inspired Jewelry? Bracelets!

If you're on this site I would say it's safe to assume you love books right? You've had a night where you didn't go to bed until 2, 3, 4, 8AM because you just couldn't put that great book down right? You've agonized over decisions with your characters, you've fought heroic battles, you've found love, you've lost love ones, you've stood up to bullies, you've cried with friends- all within the pages of books. Well how far does this extend? Are you a secret bookaholic or do you shout out your love?

I'm very much a shout of my love kind of bookaholic- I have a pair of hand-drawn shoes with Severus on them with quotes and the coolest doe patronus on them that I got in a swap. If you're like me and you shout out your love, does that extend to jewelry? I want some jewelry that will just embody my love of reading and because I'm also an etsyaholic I went there to look for some pieces!

I want to show y'all some pieces I found that might make you shout out loud- and a significant other cry while they watch your bank account dwindle. :) I started this post with the idea of including several different types of jewelry- from bracelets to necklaces but I found so many bracelets that I love that I decided to leave this post to wonderful book-inspired bracelets and move onto necklaces and such on a later post.

If you see a bracelet you want to see a bigger picture of or you would love to own, just click the picture and it should lead you to the etsy page! I would also suggest looking through each shop to find other jewelry that didn't make this post but is your favorite book!

If you're in love with Harry Potter you should look at:

Are you a fan of the Hunger Games? You are right?! If so, you can show off your love with bracelets such as these: 























If you're into Twilight then there are some other bracelets you might like!

"and so the lion fell in love with the lamb"

If classics are more your style then your covered because there is a great Jane Austen bracelet as well as the Bronte sisters with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights:

If you're into classics then I suggest you visit the rest of this shop because I see Shakespeare, Little Women, Scarlet Letter,  Poe, and more bracelets!

More awesome random bracelets:

Junie B. Jones

Dr. Seuss!

I <3 Mystery 

I think they all look pretty amazing right?! I just found so many bracelets that I'd love to have and wear to shout out my love of reading! Leave me a comment letting me know what you think and if you're a hidden or shout it out kind of reader! :)

Dirty Little Secret Time Again!

It's Thursday which means Dirty Little Secret time again! For those new to the meme, check out Under the Covers, follow them, and then post up your own answer to this question!

These ladies come up with some toughies! The question this week is:
It's lent and time to give up your favourite things for 40 days and 40 nights (or sneak some when no one is looking!) What series of books would you have to give up, and why?

Well, I'm not Catholic so I don't have to give up anything, thank goodness! To answer the question however, I couldn't give up the Hunger Games series for 40 days. The movie comes out in 30 and I have to be able to reread the series before the movie! I'm not in too many other series right now but my friend would kill me if I didn't reread the Hunger Games before the movie! So I'll guess I'll give up Harry Potter for 40 days, I'll just have to reread that series later on! :)

What about you? What is your favorite series that you'd have to give up on? Leave me a comment and let me know!