Discussion Post: I Will Always Love You or Do You Ever Begin to Get Over Favorite Authors?

So once again I've set my goal to do four posts for the year, and I'd say I'm behind, but getting this done this month would mean I'm still on track.  Last year I had tons and tons of ideas for posts, but either forgot to write the ideas down, or then just never had time to actually do the post.  I ended up with a day on my blog opening up due to a book I thought I was supposed to review, but never got the egalley for, so I am going to get this post done now!


Obviously we all know where the title for this post is from.  If not, I'll let you listen to the video below and get that line stuck in your head like it is in mine at the moment.

Lately, there have been authors that I have always devoured every book of theirs that I could find, but I've been maybe disappointed, or not as hooked completely with more recent books by them.  A few big ones I'll name, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, I just haven't been able to jump back into their books and be sucked in like I used to be.  In fact, I often read the synopsis on their new titles and think, eh, maybe if I have time.  And there was a time when I had to buy their books the day they came out and begin reading right away, often fighting with my mom on who got to read it first.

I'm not saying this doesn't still happen, just that there are some authors that I either no longer grab their books immediately, or even lately there are authors that I haven't been blown away by some of their latest books.

I'm not going to name names, because they are authors that I still love their books, they've written some of the best boyfriends you'll ever find, and it isn't all of the past books in the past year or two, just a couple.  But what do you do?  I don't want to ever give up on some of them.  And I'm kind of now sad that I can no longer say I've read all of Stephen King's books, or Dean Koontz's books.

I know there are new books coming out by some of the new authors I've found that sound really like what I came to know and love about them.  So I don't want to completely give up.

Do you ever have that happen?  Where there is an author you've devoured all of their books, and then either you no longer enjoy their new stuff, or it is too different from what you liked before?

How do you handle that?

Anyway, while you're visiting, you should make sure to go enter my giveaway for a book from my Books for Trade shelves full of ARCs as part of my Cleaning Up My TBR Post HERE.

Also, this gif may not really fit with anything, but my favorite Tumblr which has Supernatural gifs showed back up in December with some new ones, so I had to share.

Thanks to All the Supernatural Gifs for these!

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. 

Blogging Year Number Nine Has Been So Fine!

Wow, it's been nine years since I started blogging, and I feel like the last two years have been really great, and really busy!  I've been so busy this past year in fact, that right now, I am stressed about taking the time to do this post, because I've got a bunch of books to finish for reviews this week!  Gah! 

I am slowly working on my scheduling, and I thought I was getting better, and ahead, but let's just say I'm still working on my time management with review books every once in awhile. There are just so many good ones out there, and with publishers reaching out to me more these days, I have trouble saying no.  

 

That's how I feel right now with all the books I need to read!  So many e-galleys!  The thing that has stressed me out even more is that in the last two weeks I have somehow lost my Nook, so I've had to try to get them all read on my phone.  Which, don't get me wrong, I read on my phone all the time, but it isn't as quick as on an actual e-reader that is real book size.  At work today I gave in and bought a new Nook. With my luck, I will find my old one now.  

Let's talk about a few of the cool things from this past year.  Something little is that I switched to Direct TV and got Starz channel free for a short time, and so got hooked on the Outlander series, and finally started reading and loving the books.  In October I got to finally meet Colleen Hoover, and at that same event joined a Kansas City Book Club, which I haven't actually gone to a meet-up with yet, but I've seen several members at different book events.

In February I spent $100 to get this picture taken (worth every single penny):

At the second annual Kinky in Kansas City, I got to see Amy Daws again:

Then I was busy saving money for my two big trips this past summer.  First was my very first time at the American Library Association annual convention.  It was held in New Orleans, my third time visiting there, luckily I have a friend who has a place he lets me stay there for free, right in the French Quarter!  It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet some favorite authors:

Andrew Smith is the author of one of my favorite books, Grasshopper Jungle.

Tahereh Mafi, love her Shatter Me series.

Now, I actually met Julie Kagawa at my first BEA, but I hadn't read any of her books then.  Now that I have, it was so cool to get to tell her how much I loved her books in person.

You can check out my full post about ALA HERE. 

Then, I was back home for about a month, which was spent working a ton of hours at my part time job, to save money for my second big trip of the summer, Book Bonanza, in Denver. Book Bonanza was a new convention put on by Colleen Hoover and it had a TON of awesome authors!  Here are a few of my unicorn authors, that it totally made my day to get to finally meet them!

Helena Hunting, author of the Pucked series.  

Cambria Hebert, author of the #Nerd series.

Meghan March, author of the Beneath series.

Now, I could go on and share a ton more pictures from that event, but if you want to see them, you can just go check out my post dedicated to that event HERE. 

Now, let's get to the part of a blogoversary that everyone looks forward to, the giveaway!  I've got three prizes this year.  One will be choosing three books from my books for trade piles in the pictures below.  Now, there may be more added once I finish them this month, since I will keep this giveaway open till the end of August, so I'll send the winner an updated photo then.  Also, this part of the giveaway is for US only.  Sorry, there will be an international part to this giveaway too.

I'll probably throw in some swag from my conventions this past year as well!

I'm going to give away a $9.00 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble, your choice.

And internationally you can pick one of my 5 star reviewed books listed below from The Book Depository, as long as they ship to your country.  Hint:  There will be an option in the Rafflecopter to comment on the reviews below for an entry, one a day!

• Between Shades of Gray by Ruth Sepetys
• Seduction and Snacks or Futures and Frosting by Tara Sivec
• Size Matters by Allison Bliss
• Pitch Please by Lani Lynn Vale
• Not the One, That One Moment, Keeper, or Endurance by Amy Daws
• Madness by Zac Brewer
• Beneath These Chains, Beneath These Lies, Beneath These Shadows, or Beneath These Scars by Meghan March
• Protected by Claire Zorn
• Kiss Me In New York by Catherine Rider
• Ultimate Sacrifice by S.E. Green
• Field-Tripped by Nicole Archer
• The Learning Hours or Switch Hitter by Sara Ney
• Greek Gods #squadgoals by Courtney Carbone
• Undressed by Kimberly Derting
• Royally Bad by Nora Flite
• Haven by Mary Lindsey
• Year One by Nora Roberts
• Unknown (any book in the series) by Wendy Higgins
• Pucked Up or Pucked Over by Helena Hunting
• Hollywood Roommates by Elizabeth Briggs
• Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
• Miss Me Not by Tiffany King
• Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
•  Slow Burn, Sweet Ache, Down Shift,  The Player, The Catch, or Cuffed by K Bromberg
• This is Not a Love Letter by Kim Purcell
• Drumline by Stacy Kestwick
• By a Charm and a Curse by Jaime Questell
• The Ex Lottery by Kim Sanders
• The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• Now a Major Motion Picture by Cori McCarthy
• Wait with Me by Amy Daws
• Savor You by Kristen Proby
• To the Stars or Trusting Liam by Molly McAdams
• Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova
• Chaser by Kylie Scott
• Bad Romeo by Leisa Rayven
• Felony Ever After a domino anthology
• Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong
• #murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil
• How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather
• Dr. Strange Beard by Penny Reid

Just fill out the rafflecopter below to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dicussion Post: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - Or When Should I Give Up on Blog Tours?

So, recently I've been feeling more and more overwhelmed by all the tours I keep signing up for. Not only that, there have been several that I have signed up to review, and then not enjoyed the book enough to keep reading/listening to it.

The title of this post comes from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

via GIPHY

A few weeks ago, I got an email from the person in charge of one of the tour companies letting me know that I had said I would review a book way back in March I think, and I never did it. So they were going to have to send a link to my review or I wouldn't be able to participate in any more until I did.  At first I could have sworn that I'd sent them an email saying I didn't enjoy the book and wouldn't be reviewing it.  But I went back and looked through all my own emails and couldn't find anything saying I'd sent that to them.  I do remember the book, and I remember when I gave up on it.  It was also right at the end of the school year, so I must have thought I'd emailed, but then forgot with all the crazy end of the school year stuff.  So I ended up just emailing back and saying it was fine if they just took me off of their list for promos.  I mean, the few books I'd gotten from them I hadn't liked enough to even finish, so it probably wasn't worth either of our times for me to stay working with them.

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However, after the tour manager reached out to me about another tour I'd signed up for, I emailed back saying I'd thought I wasn't able to participate.  She let me know that she had been sending out a lot of those emails, and doesn't know for sure why I got it, that she still had me listed to keep being a part of the tours.  So that issue is solved.   Who knows what end it was on, probably mine, but it is good to work with someone who is willing to work with someone who is usually dependable.

The other thing, is that there are some tours that have the posts already almost perfectly ready for you to post in an html that they send out, and I love those!  I will mention one that does such an awesome job of it, Xpresso Book Tours.  I love participating because her html documents are almost perfect.  I only usually have to change a few things that are personal preference for my own posts, or maybe insert a review or whatever the extra promo I've got from the author might be.

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But I have had to make myself stop signing up for more than one tour a day, for a while this year I got kinda crazy.  Even still, these are all the groups I still get emails from and occasionally post for:

1.  Xpresso Book Tours
2.  Rock Star Book Tours
3.  Jean Book Nerd Blog Tours
4.  YA Bound Book Tours
5.  Social Butterfly PR
6.  InkSlinger Pr
7.  Enticing Journey Book Promotion
8.  Fantastic Flying Book Club Tours
9.  Pump Up Your Book
10.  Silver Dagger Book Tours
11.  Book Unleashed Tours
12.  Reading Addiction Blog Tours
13.  Audiobookworm Promotions

Now those are all I can think of at the moment, so you can see why I feel like Castiel in the gif above.  And I'm not even listing when publishers contact me to participate in tours, or authors themselves ask me to promote their book. Then there are blog tour groups that have gone out of business, one of which was a favorite of mine. And I've not  listed the one that I mentioned above, since I will no longer be working with them anyway.

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So, I hate to give up several of them, because I never know when they might have a book I really want to read or be a part of their promotion.

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What blog tour groups do you work with?  Have you had any really good or really bad experiences you want to share?  Any thoughts on this post at all, I'd love to hear from you!

Now, excuse me while I go do some more writing to reach my goal during NaNoWriMo!!

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Let's Celebrate Year Number Eight!

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Guess whose blog is turning eight?  You got it!  Lisa Loves Literature, ME!!!  I can't believe it has been that long.  But I've had a great time!  This past year has had some ups and downs, more ups than downs though.  Since my last blogoversary:

• I attended NOLA Storycon and got to meet a bunch of my new favorite authors.

Samantha Young

Jay Crownover (she takes the best selfies)

Jennifer L. Armentrout, the main reason I bought a ticket for NOLA Storycon

• Attended the very first Kinky In Kansas City Romance Author convention and met some other  new favorite authors and hot cover models.

Jonny James (cover model)

Amy Daws

Kayti McGee

• Got to be a volunteer at Apollycon in Orlando and meet other favorite authors (as well as other hot cover models)!!!!  While there, I also got to visit the Harry Potter park at Universal Studios.

Kylie Scott

Anna Todd, the main reason I first signed up to be an ApollyCon volunteer

All the hot cover models from JLA's books, along with JLA herself!

Butter Beer, the first thing I HAD to get at Universal Studios

• In November I won NaNoWriMo for the 2nd time!  I didn't finish my novel that I'd started, but I am still working on it.
• I also got a couple cool sponsors for my blogs, one was UberPrints.com - who let me design a free t-shirt to show how easy and fun it is.  The other was USB Memory Direct, and I got some cool USB drives to pass out as business cards with my blog design in them.   
  
  
  
  
   
• I got to meet so many more authors than what I showed you above.  I got a trip to New Orleans for NOLA StoryCon, a trip to Orlando for Apollycon, but I also visited Albuquerque, New Mexico for a school related conference, and went to back Orlando with my family - specifically to see my 5 year old niece's first time at Disneyworld.
  
  Not all things were great though.  I did lose a friend.  My former writing buddy, one that I've shared her self-published books here on my blog in past Blogoversaries, as well as my own reviews.  She didn't like the way I reviewed her books, but didn't bother to read the reviews once I sent her a link, waited months afterward when someone else pointed them out.  Anyway, it's a long story, and time for me to move on.  And then last month, stupid Photobucket changed how they worked, and now my background and other things on my blog are all messed up. The problem is that someone designed it all for me, and I can't get ahold of them through email or any way anymore, so I don't know how to fix it!
  
  Since it is my 8th Blogoversary, I want to give away 8 prizes.  Here are the options:
  
  
  1. Your choice of any Alice Clayton book under $10 from The Book Depository (INT)
  2.  Any of the mass market copies of the Stage Dive series by Kylie Scott (TBD) (INT)
  3. Two winners will get to pick 2-3 books from my Books for Trade pile.  Here is the  most recent photo, although there may be more or different books there by the end of the month. US only, sorry, I can only afford so much postage.
     
     
  4.   E-book copies of two of my favorite books by a new favorite author Nicole Archer:  Road-Tripped and Head-Tripped. (Open to anyone who can accept a Kindle or Nook e-book)
     
     
  5. $5.00 Amazon Gift Card or Barnes and Noble if you'd prefer
  6. Coloring Book (US only, sorry, I can only afford that postage) 
     
  7. Samplers and Swag - Swag not pictured (US only, postage is too expensive) 
     
  8. Your choice of any book I've read since last September from The Book Depository. (INT) Check out those books on my Goodreads page, just scroll back till you get all the way to last September to get an idea of what books, it is a lot to choose from!  
  
  
  Just fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter.  And even if you don't want to enter, I'd love to get a comment from you below!
  
   

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Discussion Post: Copy, Paste, Repeat - Or How Many Places Do You Post Your Reviews?

I'm a bit late this month with my 4th discussion post, as I just got too busy to get it done.  Wow, this summer is not slowing down from the school year!  Anyway, the 2016 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight. My first one was all about if teens are really as dumb as we think, and will expect what happens in books to be real life.  My second one was about giving ratings in your reviews.  My third one was about reviewing different age levels of books on the same blog.  You can go read my thoughts and then share what you think on those three HERE, HERE, and HERE.  This month I want to find out just where everyone posts their reviews.

I've always done on my blog for sure.  For awhile I would post the reviews on Goodreads and then use the html from that to put the review over on my blog too.  For the most part I do my full reviews still here on my blog.  But sometimes an author, especially the independently published ones, ask for you to also post your review on other sites like Amazon or Goodreads.  When they ask me to, I always do.  Of course since I work for Barnes and Noble, I then go post the review there as well, because I feel like I have to.  I just do.

But I always wonder if it is too repetitive to just copy and paste the exact same review straight from my blog.  Should I just post part of it and link back to my blog to drive the traffic back here?  I often do that on Goodreads. But I don't think I can do that on either Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  Plus, my blog reviews don't have really creative titles, but on Amazon it seems like you want your review title to be catchy so you get people to read the review.  And since on my blog my review almost always contains my own little personal synopsis of the story, do I need to do that on Amazon?  Or should I just put only the opinion parts of my review?

 

Since I've been reading so many more indie authors as free e-books lately, I feel like I need to make sure I not only review on my blog, but back on Amazon too.  But I don't always get it done, because so many of my reviews are scheduled in advance now that I am a bit behind on reviews.

So, my discussion today is really because I need your input and opinions on what you do, and how important you feel this topic is.  Please, please chime in below and help me figure this out!

Discussion Post: This Review Should Come With a Warning - Or is it Okay to Review New Adult, Adult, and Young Adult on the Same Blog?

Today I'm doing my 3rd discussion post as part of the 2016 Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight. My first one was all about if teens are really as dumb as we think, and will expect what happens in books to be real life.  My second one was about giving ratings in your reviews.  You can go read my thoughts and then share what you think on those two HERE and HERE. Today I want to talk about the different age levels of books and how to review them on blogs.

So, recently I've started reading books that I would definitely not recommend to my high school students because of their sexual content.  It's not that in any way I want to censor what they read, I just know what is appropriate for me to suggest, and what isn't any of my business.  The reason I am thinking about this is because up until these past few months, the majority of what I read and blogged about was YA.  Once in awhile I'd throw in a nonfiction, memoir, or a Stephen King type of book.  None of which I would have an issue with a student of mine reading about.  But as I started this paragraph out saying, I seem to have gotten a bit of a trend with the types of books that I'm reading, and it all kind of started with the After series by Anna Todd.

I'm a 43 year old woman, so there's nothing wrong with what I read.  And I don't intend to be very explicit with my reviews.  I plan to talk about the story just like I would with any other book.  But since I usually only review books that I liked and finished, I will be saying good things about them.  So I guess my question to anyone who decides to join into my discussion post here is, should I be worried about who reads my posts?  I've started doing an "NA" in front of the new adult books I read, and then "YA" in front of the teen/young adult books.  Although some of my romances I'm reading aren't necessarily NA, but I feel silly putting the word "Adult" by itself in front of a review title.  I mean, I would have to do that with Stephen King and Dean Koontz, etc.

 

So tell me, what do you think about all this?  Do you think for me to review both types on the same blog is a horrible idea?  Do you think the way I'm differentiating in the titles is a good thing?  Or do you think I need to be worried about any of this if I don't intend to actually put the explicit stuff within my review?

I'm feeling a bit conflicted on this, because as a high school librarian, it is very possible that I might have students who want to follow my blog.  And then I don't know if it is bad for me to post things that I wouldn't tell them outright they should read.  Of course it could just be my silly brain that won't stop dwelling on the thought.

I'd love to hear your thoughts if you'd like to join into the discussion.  And this last gif is because I can't resist a Supernatural one any time I do a post like this.