Discussion Post: Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover, or a Narrator by their Voice

I'm so far behind on my goal for discussion posts this year.  I had lots of ideas, but ran out of time.  As I've been listening to an audiobook with one of my favorite narrators this past week, I started thinking about how much I want to know what this narrator looks like.  If you're a romance audiobook fan, then you probably will recognize the name, Sebastian York.  His voice, it's just wowza.  It's like sex on tape.  Reminiscent of Barry White you might say.

 

Sorry about that, but I've been waiting to use this Castiel gif forever.  

Anyway, as far as I know, Sebastian York is one of those narrator mysteries, like Joe Arden and Shane East (although I think the last one is actually a pseudonym for Steve West).  

Of course, all I can think about is my lessons learned when I was a kid with the people on the radio.  I'd picture someone based on their voice, and then when they actually were somewhere live, or on TV or something, they looked soooooooooooo different from what my brain had built up as I listened to them.  

First, listen to Sebastian York's voice:

In my head, I see a very tough, muscular guy.  Like the covers of some of the books he narrates.

In one of the books by Meghan March that I listened to, I pictured him like the movie star Shemar Moore:

And even though I've met Jonny James, and you can hear him speak in the videos he often does on Facebook, I sometimes picture Sebastian York's voice with Jonny's looks.

And then there are the pictures posted on his? Twitter account, that look a lot like Tyler Hoechlin, the actor from MTV's Teen Wolf TV series.

But, as with my radio personality lesson, I can't help but wonder how far off my brain and ears are when they decide what he must look like.   Is he really a scrawny, skinny, nerdy guy?  (Okay with me, I like nerdy guys too!)  Is he an old man with a deep voice?  You've always got the James Earl Jones/Darth Vader voice as well!  What in the world could he possibly look like?

Anyway, it doesn't really matter.  I wish I had a recording of his voice, that wasn't a book I was listening to and wanted to stay awake to hear it all.  I'd put it on and fall asleep with his voice playing, hopefully giving me the types of dreams I could really enjoy.

 

Oooh, that gif reminds me I could totally see his voice coming from someone who looks like Jensen Ackles.

Here comes the discussion part.  Are you an audiobook fan?  Do you have any voices that you enjoy listening to as much as I love Sebastian York's voice?  If you are a fan of him as well, what do you think he looks like?  I'd love to see your picture ideas!  Drop a picture or link in the comments below for me.  

Also, while you're stopping by my blog, I've got a giveaway going on for another week I think, my Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop post, go check that out HERE. 

Discussion Post: I Just Can't Seem to Get Enough - Books - Or When Should I Quit Entering Giveaways for Books?

As I mentioned in my discussion post earlier this week, about how you write your reviews, I am behind on my discussion posts.  So I got this second one done during my Mini-Blog Ahead that I participated in at the end of June.  I'm actually on my way to Orlando for my family vacation, probably while you're reading this.  So, I will definitely reply to all comments, but maybe not until I get back home on Tuesday. 

A reminder that the 2017 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.

The title of this discussion posts comes from a Depeche Mode song, Just Can't Get Enough.  If you're not familiar with it, enjoy the video:

I'm guessing that a lot of you are pretty much similar to me, self-proclaimed book addicts.  I have a TBR list on Goodreads that has almost 3,000 titles on it.  I have another TBR shelf on goodreads that is made up of the books I physically own or have free e-book copies of that is almost 1000 titles long.  Yet, whenever I hear about new books coming out by my favorite authors, or even debut authors that sound just like books I already love, I seem to HAVE to have them.  I have a physical book shelf at home, a five shelf tall bookshelf, packed full of books.  I now have three shelves on a smaller bookshelf in my bedroom packed full of books as well.  I will never get through all of these books.  And yet, I want more.  I can't seem to get enough!

 

While I've discovered in the past year the awesome $1 finds at the Dollar Tree stores, that keep me stopping into them every couple of weeks, all of the ones around where I live, I have realized it is a bit of an addiction just that.  I tell myself that since so many of the books I get are ones that I donate to the high school library where I work, it is okay.

 

I used to enter every single giveaway I could.  But then I started winning.  I quit doing that on Goodreads unless I knew I was going to read it. But I still like to enter giveaways on blogs.  Often it will be for a book that I want to read, but also know my students will want to read, and even though I know I might not be able to get to it right away, I go ahead and enter, and then I can put it in my school library for my students to enjoy, and when I get time, it will be there ready for me.  And whenever I win, this is me below!

 

But I wonder sometimes if maybe a blogger as well-established as I am, one who holds their own giveaways, should stop entering other blogs' giveaways?

What do you think?  Do you still enter giveaways for books?  Do you think there is a time when people should stop entering and just accept what they have, or just buy instead of hoping to win a book?

Discussion Post: Say What You Want to Say and Let the Words Fall Out - or Is There One Right Way to Write a Book Review?

So, let's see.  My goal was to do 4 discussion posts for the year. That's one every 3 months.  So far in 2017, I've done a big old fat zero discussion posts.  Oh sure, I keep thinking of ideas to do, but then I run out of the time to actually sit and write them out.  Or I have so many other things I want to write, like my novel, or other blog posts to do, or books to read to actually review for my book review blog.  Anyway, I participated in the Mini-Blog Ahead in June, and so I decided to get some of my discussion posts done during that.  Also, I'm posting it this week because I'm getting ready to go to Orlando later this week, and I don't want to worry about my blog while I'm on a family trip.  Also, it's always fun to try to go out and find fun GIFs to add.  So enjoy those as well!

A reminder that the 2017 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.




Today my post is a kind of personal one really, and the title refers to the Sara Bareilles song Brave, the video that I've shared above.  Earlier this year I lost a friend.  In the email she sent me telling me why, she said that she didn't want me to write any more "book report" reviews on her books.  I was a little hurt at this.  In the past I've always done a recap of the story as my review, partly because it is how I would do a book talk for my students at the library where I work, in order to get them interested in a book.  It's also something I do occasionally to get customers interested in books at the bookstore where I work part time when they ask for recommendations.  At first I decided to kind of just ignore her little dig, as I have had many people comment that they liked how I wrote my reviews.  


via GIPHY

But then, just recently, I got sent a form to join another blog tour group, and one of the things on their application was about not writing a summary of the book.  Then this past week, I even saw an author say something about how a review was not a summary of the story.  Now because of how far behind I've been on reviews, I've just been sharing the synopsis of the book from Goodreads, and then what used to be the last paragraph of each of my reviews, where I tell what I did or did not like about the book.  

 

So I guess the question I am asking you, my fellow bloggers, is what you think about the format of someone's reviews.  I mean, I know that everyone has certain types of reviews that they prefer to read, as well as they have a certain way that they choose to write their own reviews.  But do you feel like it is anyone else's job to tell a blogger/reviewer how to review a book?  I feel like it should be up to everyone to review how they want. And as long as it is their own work, they haven't stolen any other reviews' words and passed them off as their own, and maybe no spoilers, why shouldn't they do it their own way?  What do you think?  Do you have a certain way you like to review?  What types of reviews do you prefer to read?  Am I being overly sensitive about this subject?

 

Discussion Post: I'm Yes Then I'm No, I'm In Then I'm Out - Or the Beloved Books That I Just Couldn't Seem to Love

As always I didn't get around to my discussion post till the end of the month.  Partly because of how busy it has been with school getting started back up. And partly because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to discuss.  Even now, my title isn't as good as I want it to be, but it was the best I could come up with at the moment, so hopefully it somewhat makes sense.  My discussion today is going to be about the books that either everyone seems to love and I tried, but just can't get into or don't quite get the fuss.   Of course I am going to throw in some GIFs because it is just so much fun to find them!

A reminder that the 2016 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.  If you want to check out any of my earlier posts you can go to these links:

• Fiction is Fiction - Or Why I Believe Teens are Smarter Than We Give Them Credit For,   

• It's In the Stars - Or Why I Don't Give Ratings on My Blog,   

• This Review Should Come With a Warning - Or Is It Okay to Review New Adult, Adult, and Young Adult on the Same Blog,   

• Copy, Paste, Repeat - Or How Many Places Do You Post Your Reviews.

• To DNF or Not to DNF, That is the Question - Or How Do You Decide if You Should Give Up on a Book?

So, my title refers to the Katy Perry song, Hot n Cold, but of course my favorite use of the song is in the Twilight parody by the Hillywood Show, which was also my first introduction to the YouTube sensation.  But what I'm going for with this post is all the books that everyone else is so "hot" for, and they just left me "cold" or at least "lukewarm". 

 

The first one is a series, and I want to duck here, because I'm afraid a lot of you are going to be throwing things at me through the internets.  I am on the 2nd book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and I am just not feeling it.  

The first book, Cinder, was more interesting to me than this 2nd one, Scarlet, has been so far.  Even then, when I finished Cinder, I was still left a little bit unsure of what all the fuss was about.  It was okay, but nothing that I was now obsessed over.  But, I was able to get a copy of Scarlet for $4 at a Scholastic Warehouse book sale, and then I won the next three books in the series through a couple different giveaways.  I had heard from many people that book 2 was better than book 1, so I assumed by winning all those books that was a sign I was going to go on and be swept away once I started Scarlet.  Umm, no, it's not happening.  I started the book on August 6th, and since then I've read 4 other physical books, and that's not counting the ebooks I've read.  I usually keep a physical book up on my nightstand so that I will read that right before bed instead of staring at a screen, because I feel like it is probably better for my sleep.  But Scarlet has just not kept me reading.  I can't decide whether to push on through, or give up and then maybe just sell/trade all my copies of the books in the series as a big set.  

 

Next is the Heroes of Olympus series and The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan.  Now see, I loved the Percy Jackson series. 

But I had so much trouble keeping the characters straight in The Red Pyramid as each chapter went back and forth between them.  Which sucked, because I love Egyptian mythology and was so excited for that series.  

And then, when I struggled through The Lost Hero, all I could think was how many more words were used than were needed.  I looked at the size of the book, and thought about how if they'd left all those extra things out, it would have been probably the same length as the books in the Percy Jackson series, and still just as good as those.  Because of that I have not made myself read on, dreading the amount of time and extra stuff to skip over as I try to get to the main story.  

 

The last books I'm going to talk about that didn't blow me away are the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare. 

 I actually love the Mortal Instruments series.  And I love Magnus Bane!  But I tried picking up and reading the first one in the series, Clockwork Angel, and just couldn't get into it.  I think it was actually one of my very first ever Books for Trade deals too!  So I have the copy sitting at home.  I don't know that I want to give up though.  I feel like maybe now sometime I might go back and try it again.  Just don't know when.   

So, are any of these books one that you loved?  Do you have any books like this that you don't like but everyone else does?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please chime in below!

Sunday Post #66 and Stacking the Shelves August 14th, 2016

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news ~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.  Not to sound like a broken record, but as you can tell by how long it's been since I last did a weekend update like this, life hasn't slowed down any!  Here are the things that have been going on.

Last three weeks:

• Halloween in July Scary Book Readathon - Well, I tried this, but didn't get the three books read in the week like I planned.  It's not that I didn't do a lot of reading, just didn't get through the first scary book on my list before the week was over.  :-(
• Promo posts:  We Awaken by Calista Lynne (Author Interview), Day Zero (The Arcana Chronicles #3.5) by Kresley Cole, United (Alienated #3) by Melissa Landers (Giveaway), The Flame Never Dies (The Stars Never Rise #2) by Rachel Vincent, Every Little Thing (Hart's Boardwalk #2) by Samantha Young (cover reveal), Under a Million Stars by Rita Branches (Giveaway), and Defective (Outcast Book #1) by B. Austin
• Reviews:  The Architect of Song by AG Howard, Wake the Hollow by Gaby Triana (author interview), Wax by Gina Damico, The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater, Finding It (Losing It #3) by Cora Carmack (audiobook), Play (Stage Dive #2) by Kylie Scott (audiobook), Chasing Merlin by Sarah White (Author Interview), Too Many Rockstars by Candy J. Starr, and Pure (Covenant #2) by Jennifer L. Armstrong
• Discussion Post:  To DNF or not to DNF, that is the question - Or how do you decide if you should give up on a book?
• 2016 Beach Reads in August Giveaway Hop - ends tonight, Sunday the 14th.
• Waiting on Wednesday:  The Black Key (The Lone City #3) by Amy Ewing, and Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
• July End of the Month Wrap-Up Post
• Cover Characteristic:  Flags    
• There's No Seven Year Itch Going On Here! Happy 7th Blogoversary To Me With a Giveaway For My Followers!!

So, that's a lot of posts!  You can see that it was a busy three weeks!  With all of that, I was back to school last week having the meetings with the other teachers.  The kids start this week.  I actually got about 3 reviews a week done over the past three weeks.  The only thing about that though, is that I'm still way behind on reviews!  I have a stack of 9 books sitting next to where I do my blogging that are all waiting to be reviewed, not to mention the 10 free e-books I need to do a review post for, and the audiobook or two that still need reviews.  I had some internet issues this week at home, which kept me from doing what I wanted with reviews as well.  Gah!  There is another Comic-Con in my town this week, but even though there are a few authors there I'd like to go see, I think I've met them all before.  Next week though, there is a science fiction writer convention or something like that in my town, and there are some authors I've really been wanting to meet, so I'll be trying really hard to go to that!  But I've got another busy week coming up!  So who knows how much I'll get done.  

Another disappointment this past week is something that I found out about NOLA Story Con.  I had thought it said you could bring 10 books per author from home to get autographed.  I was very sad to find out that it is only 10 books total that you can bring from home.  I've been purchasing a lot of books just to get autographed!  Oh well.  I'm going to just look at it as those are books I want to keep for sure.  I know they want you to buy books from them, but it sucks because I get my discount at my bookstore, which saves me money.  I guess on the positive side, it means my suitcase won't be as heavy on the way there!  Another downside is that I may have to spend money on books while I'm there that I hadn't planned on spending.

Coming up this week on the blog:

• Promo Posts:  Arcana Rising (The Arcana Chronicles #4) by Kresley Cole, and Russian Tattoos:  Prisoner (Russian Tattoos #2) by Kat Shehata
• Waiting on Wednesday
• 5th Annual September is for Sequels Challenge sign-up post.  Check out last year's post to see if you might be interested! 
• Cover Characteristic:  Mountains
• Reviews:  Poison Princess by Kresley Cole, 10 Free or Cheap e-book reviews, Asa (Marked Men #6) by Jay Crownover, and  Leveled (Saints of Denver #0.5) by Jay Crownover
• Possible Review:  Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard

Only one of those reviews has actually been written, so I have to fit the other two in. And I'd like to get farther ahead.  Something I'm also debating is doubling up on reviews. What I mean, is that even though I prefer not to have more than one post a day, maybe on review days, I can post two.  I'm hoping that may help me get farther ahead in my reviews, so that the books I read I'm not waiting so long to have time for a review on. But we'll see how much time I have and if I can get it done with school and everything starting back up.  

Now, I've been trying to keep you updated with my walking goals.  Last week I had a terrible tragedy, my Fitbit Flex died.  I had thought at the end of July that I might go ahead and buy a new one, but then I decided to get a new laptop, and wait a while for a new Fitbit.  Guess that choice was taken out of my hands.  Even though  my warranty was up, when I contacted Fitbit to troubleshoot, which is how I found out it was broken, and wouldn't sync with anything anymore, they offered me a 25% off coupon, which made it so I could get the one I wanted, the Fitbit Alta, for under $100.  So I'm waiting on that to arrive!  I did still get all my walking done except for one of the three weeks, it just didn't get tracked in my Fitbit app the last week.

August also started my 2nd round of participating in the On the Same Page Secret Sister Project.  I've already received an awesome gift from my sister, and I'm putting the finishing touches on my first package to get sent on Monday to my new sister. 

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  So, let's just say I've downloaded a ton of free e-books.  I'll probably show those at the very bottom, so that you can decide whether you want to actually scroll through them or not, because there will be a ton of them.  Anyway, here are the books that have joined my library over the past three weeks.

Physical books:

All of these books were purchased at the Barnes and Noble where I work the last week in July.  You can see two bargain books, the new Harry Potter book, a new VC Andrews book that is the long awaited sequel to My Sweet Audrina, and then the last book in the On Dublin Street series that I'd read at that point. 

These are books that I purchased.  The standing book was at the Dollar Tree store.  The stack of three all came from Half-Price Bookstore.

I ordered these from The Book Depository.  Again, before I knew I couldn't take 10 books per author, although, I will want to own all of Armentrout's books!  While I can order them from the bookstore where I want, to get these covers I had to order from TBD, and I decided I wanted to get these two this way.

I bought Torn as a ship to home order from the bookstore where I work. The second book, Redeeming Trust is by my friend and former writing partner, Michelle Sodaro.  It is the sequel to her book Broken Trust, and will be the first sequel I read for my challenge in September.

All three of these are unsolicited ARCs that I received over the past couple of weeks.  The bottom two I was actually contacted by the author and publisher asking if I wanted a copy, and I said yes!  I'm very excited for all of these!

This is the BEA Mega Prize Pack that I won from Swoony Boys and Fiction Fare.  It's got some great things in it!

This is a prize I won from Mary at Bookhounds YA when the first winner chosen never replied to the announcement.  

I got my final gift from my first On the Same Page Secret Sister, and it was so wonderful!  A hardcover copy of The Conspiracy of Us, and an adorable little dachshund necklace!  Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction did a great job at picking out fun things and books that I loved over the last 6 months. 

And here is the first gift I received from my new On the Same Page Secret Sister.  This has been such a fun thing to participate in!  This time around I upped the amount I wanted to spend each  month because there were so many times with my last partner that I wanted to buy more!  But there are all different levels of this, and I'd recommend trying to participate in the next round in 6 months if you want!  Just go HERE to check out the information.  You can get started getting to know the hosts in the time up until then, so that you can get picked to join in!

The top two ARCs were unsolicited, but ones I'm excited for!  The Swan Riders is one that I got from a book tour, I requested the physical ARC to match the ARC of the first book in the series that I already have.  And then I walked into work at the bookstore one afternoon to find an ARC of The Thousandth Floor and I was so excited!  My manager thought I was weird when I squealed and danced around the break room.

E-galleys:

 The first five are all from Edelweiss. The last one I got from being part of a blog tour.  I also got an e-galley of Elementals 4:  The Portal to Kerberos by Michelle Madow for review.

Audiobooks:

It was a good deal, $2.95, from Audible.com, and so I decided to go for it!  I joined Audible again this summer when they had a two-three month deal for like $5 a month or something like that.  I used those months to get my audiobooks of the After series, because I need to own those in every format.  I already have physical copies, and I think I have them all in e-book, or at least most of them at the moment.  But audiobooks are expensive, so even though the membership is back to the $14.95 a month, I'm going to keep it long enough to get the rest of the series, then I'll cancel my membership again.

Free or Cheap E-books:

Okay, I'm not listing all of these right now, because there are a lot over the last three weeks.  I'll just list how many from and from what source for now.  Next week I'll pick back up on listing them.

• 82 from Amazon
• 1 from Barnes and Noble

Now to just work on going through and deleting all the ones I started reading but couldn't get into.  That will help me get through them.  Of course that takes time, and I don't have the time at the moment.


Alright, how was your last week?  What books joined your library recently?