FLYLeF's 2nd Anniversary Celebration and Giveaway

FLYLēF turns 2! To celebrate, an amazing group of bloggers and I have planned posts for you to enjoy, all centered around the theme...

FRIENDSHIP

Please make sure to visit them, and perhaps make a new friend along the way.

 FRIENDSHIP 

Friendship comes in all shapes and sizes.  And these days, with the internet and social media, a friend can even be someone you've never actually met in person.  I feel like I have made so many friends through blogging, and so when I do get a chance to meet them in person, it is even cooler!  I have so many fellow bloggers that stop by and visit me all the time, and I try to make sure to get back to them as well! Then there are those bloggers I follow by email and make sure to try to comment on their blogs when I get a chance as well.  Every year I blog I meet more and more great people as I find new bloggers as well as running across the blogs of those that have been around awhile.

Along with bloggers, I feel that I have been able to form friendships with authors through blogging as well. One of the first authors I feel that I really became friends with was Cara Lynn Shultz, author of Spellbound, Spellcaster, and The Dark World.  We bonded on Twitter over favorite songs, movies, and tv shows. When I went to NYC to visit my sister for the first time back in 2011, she followed my travels as I did the touristy thing, and then when I asked if she might want to meet up with me somewhere, I got the chance to hang out with her and I feel make a new friend.  Recently I feel there's another author that I've become friends with, Nicole Archer, author of Road-Tripped and Head-Tripped.  Again, I "met" her through blogging by reviewing her book and then just really communicating through Facebook with her.  I hope one day to get to meet her in person.

 TESTIMONIAL 

I "met" Lonna fro FlyLef last year when I found the Comment Challenge that she hosted along with Alicia from A Kernel of Nonsense blog.  Through that wonderful challenge, I've made many other blogger friends, people I might not have found without participating in this challenge.

  TOUR SCHEDULE  

❖ May 15th - Bookfever: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 15th - A Reader Writer: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 16th - Milky Way of Books: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 16th - Lisa Loves Literature: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 20th - A Kernel of Nonsense: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 21th - SUSANLOVESBOOKS: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 23th - fallxnrobins: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 27th - Utopia State of Mind: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 28th - Book Briefs: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ May 30th - Foxes & Fairy Tales: Spotlight / Giveaway
❖ June 1st - The Caramel Files: Spotlight / Giveaway

  ABOUT FLYLēF  

Lonna Yen is the creative mind behind FLYLēF, (pronounced like flyleaf) who enjoys reading late into the night to satisfy her insatiable addiction to mostly young adult and adult novels: romance (contemporary and historical), fantasy, and paranormal (especially vampires). She believes in the magic of spellbinding words coming together to build breathtaking worlds in our minds’ eyes. Happiness is just a book away, find it at FLYLēF.
She is also the host of FLYTIP and Book of Choice Giveaway Hop, and co-host of The Comment Challenge.

Find Lonna @ FLYLēF: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Google+ | Newsletter

  GIVEAWAY  

A one-month subscription box to Owl Crate, or $35 Amazon gift card for an international winner,
  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Goals/Resolutions For 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish.  The goals can be bookish, blogging, or anything else.  So here goes!

1.   I want to continue to do at least 2 book reviews on my blog every week.  Along with that, I want to try to have a post every day of the year.  To do that, I am going to try to do as many scheduled posts as I can.  Possibly to try to have at least 10 ready to go at all time, and when one is used, then I will make another one.  
2.   My Goodreads goal was 125 this year, as of the time that I am posting this, I've read 136 books, and the year is not over.  For 2015, I want to bump it up to 130.  I know that is below how many I ended up reading this year, but I hate to set a too high goal.  What do you think?
3. I'm participating in the Winter 2014-2015 COYER Challenge to help clean out all those e-books that I download when they're free.  I will probably try to participate in this if it is offered for other times during the year.
4. I haven't signed up yet, but I think I will sign up for another TBR Pile Challenge, I have a lot of books I really need to get to.
5. I'm up in the air about my September Sequels Challenge.  I think I need to do it, but it really messed up my schedule of reading this past year.  Partly because it interrupted my getting through the ARCs I'd picked up at BEA.  So, that is in the air, but I will probably do it again, as I am not going to BEA this year, so won't have that same issue.
6. I am working with an artist friend of mine to re-do the banner and button for my blog.  I want to add the dogs I have now, and make a few other changes.  Only issue will be with how to add it, and if I'll have to have the person who did my current design add them or if I can figure it out.  What I like is that for the price my friend quoted me, I will have the image of the banner that I can then use for a Facebook page, or for business cards, etc.  My current banner I do not have the image for, so when I tried to use it for my Facebook page, I was unable to use it.  That's the reason I don't really have a Facebook page for my blog.
7. I want to work more on my Instagram presence.
8. I need to start my walking 20 miles a week again, and working on what I'm eating.  I'd really like to lose some weight.  Even if I don't lose any weight, I have a goal that by summer I will be able to be okay enough with myself that I can wear a swimsuit in public.  I am tired of not doing any swimming because I hate the site of myself in a swimsuit.  So that is working on my brain more than just my body itself.
9. I want to start saving money so that I can attend the Annual ALA Convention in the summer of 2016 because it is in Orlando.  I want to go down a week early, or stay a week after the convention so that I can go to the Harry Potter park and all the other Disneyworld and Universal Studio attractions.  
10. Revise the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo this past year enough to where I feel okay letting someone else read it to tell me if it is even worth working on anymore.

So those are my goals.  I would love to put something about getting more ARCs requested from publishers, but I don't know how to go about that, and feel weird asking for them.  I feel greedy to email and ask. What are your goals for the year?  Bookish or otherwise?

Feature and Follow #11 2013

Feature and Follow Friday is sponsored by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.  The purpose of this event is to learn about the two featured bloggers each week, as well as to increase your own blog following by joining in on the fun! This week's question/activity is:

Share something you’ve learned about book blogging or just blogging in general in the last month.

Hmm, this is a hard one.  I guess I learned that THE "Linky" site costs money, and I don't have money to pay for it, so I found a different one in order to run my September is for Sequels giveaway hop.

Speaking of giveaways, make sure while you're here that you check out my 4th Blogoversary Giveaway, as well as my Authors are Rock Stars Featuring Tessa Gratton giveaway.

Remembrance by Michelle Madow

During my BEA 2012 experience, I did get to meet the author of this book.  I'd heard of her books on several blogs, and knew what she looked like from following her on Twitter and such.  And then the first day, for the Blogger's Day of the convention, she was standing in line behind me waiting to get it!!  I turned around and asked her if she was who I thought she was, and I was right.  She was really nice, and even talked to me for a little bit, and let me join into the conversation with her and  her friend.  I only wish I'd asked to have my picture taken with her at the time so that I could share that in this post, as well as adding it to my Hall of Fame photo album on Facebook, and I think I may even start scrapbooking all my author meetings and pictures, and I'm not really into scrapbooking. 

But anyway, on with my review of the book.  After my yearly review at the bookstore where I work part time, the manager who reviewed me said that my knowledge of YA and teen books was really good, and that I should always order in books I thought would be good sellers.  Well, since I'd never seen Michelle's books in the store, I looked in our computer at work, and found I could order both the first and second book in the Transcend Time Saga.  So I ordered them in.  And then of course I purchased one of each for myself.  While I had some e-galleys I needed to get read on my Nook, one day I decided it would be easier to carry a physical book around with me on my errands instead of worrying about leaving my Nook in my car.  So I took Remembrance with me.  It had a good start, and hooked me right away!  When I got home that evening, I intended to move back to reading the e-galley I'd started, but unfortunately Adobe Digital Editions had decided to no longer authorize my Nook.  So I didn't have the time to mess around with that, so I just continued reading Remembrance.  

I love the idea that the author was inspired from seeing a video.  In this case it was from the Taylor Swift music video:  Love Story.  Which, by the way, I love that song anyway!  I've  never seen the video, but intend to go watch it after I finish my review!  The main character is Lizzie.  She seems to have an almost perfect life.  A great best friend, and one of the most popular boys in school as her boyfriend, a soccer star, and they've been dating for a long time.  But this year, with his being a co-captain of the soccer team, he seems to have changed, so there is trouble in that paradise.  A new guy, Drew, transfers to their school, and from the moment he walks in the door, Lizzie feels a strange connection.  Now, I'm not a fan of the whole "insta-love" thing, but this isn't necessarily done like that.  He's a cute guy, so I'm okay with instant physical attraction, that's just real.  But the connection she feels is just at first that she knows him, and she doesn't of course, at least not in this lifetime.  Soon Lizzie begins having memories or images popping into her head from a time period similar to the book she's reading for her class, Pride and Prejudice.  And Drew seems to feel the connection too.  Or something.  But, Lizzie is dating Jeremy, problems or not.  And her best friend Chelsea has her eye on Drew from the first day.  And Lizzie can't hurt her best friend.  But things keep happening, and it seems more and more that Lizzie and Drew were meant to be together.  Despite Drew trying to keep them apart for some reason, and the fact that there are other people involved.  

The story is really good.  I like the way it works.  That Lizzie and Drew don't really ever cheat on their significant others until they are officially broken up, and even then, it doesn't really go far because they want to be honest with Chelsea before they go public.  Really the story seemed realistic, I can see people acting the way the characters did. My only complaint, and I only mention it because it stuck out several times, is the use of one word.  Smirk.  Nothing wrong with the word.  It is a very good choice for figurative language.  A "showing" word as we might say in my Communication Arts class that I teach.  BUT, I feel as if it is used a lot in this book.  And once or twice, it is used in a situation that I don't think it fits that well.  But hey, what do I know?  I can't even finish any of the stories I've started!  

If you haven't read it, read it soon!  The 2nd book was really short, I was kind of worried it was maybe just a sampler, but from what I read in the back  of this book, it was just a short story.  So now I'll also be needing to get the 3rd book, although I don't know that I can order it in to my bookstore.  So may have to order it online.

Featured Blog: It's the Little Things

My next featured blogger as part  of my 3rd Blogoversary Celebration isn't a book blog, but it is such a neat, inspiring blog, and a good friend of mine, so I really wanted to share it.  My friend Amanda did such an awesome job with the little write up I asked her for, I almost don't really want to spoil it with too much of my own stuff.  So without further ado, I'll let her take over my blog now.

Happy blog anniversary Lisa! What a special time for you and your readers. Thank you for having me here today to chat about a fantastic book I read over the summer called Bloom by Kelle Hampton. But before I delve into why I love this book so much, I want to give your readers a little background about our relationship and who I am.

My name is Amanda, and I am the writer behind our family's blog, It's the Little Things, about this fantastic little thing called life! Our tiny corner of the internet is your glimpse into ourendless giggles, yummy meals, park excursions, bebe letters, colorful crafts, and heaps of love, with bits and pieces of what inspires us along the way. Something parenthood has taught us so far, is that the little things in life aren't so little after all; they are, in fact, quite big and beautifully important. We invite you to our neck of the woods to enjoy a peek at some of the treasured moments in our lives as a itty-bitty family of four.

How do I know Lisa? Well, we are both middle school teachers at the same school, and up until this year, have taught the same grade right across the hall from each other. Those crazy 8^th graders provided us with some unforgettable moments and have bonded us into becoming friends. I admire her love for reading and am happy for her new adventure as a communication arts teacher!

So let’s talk about Bloom. I have been into memoirs of late, so Kelle’s book about her family’s unexpected journey intrigued me from the start. At the moment of giving birth to her second daughter Nella, Kelle learns that she has Down syndrome. From that point on, her gripping and expressive memoir goes on a wild roller coaster ride of emotions that ultimately reveals how this distraught mother overcame her grief and watched life blossom, or bloom, right before her eyes as she uncovered it’s beauty. This memoir is about growth in a time of pain, and how honesty and optimism can help someone make the most of any difficult situation.

From the first few sentences I was glued to Kelle’s journey and I now hold her and her loved ones in a special place in my heart. As a new mama myself, I could really connect to this story on many levels. What has really stuck with me is Kelle’s positive outlook on life, and I know it is one that I will refer to when I am faced with something unexpected or difficult. I highly recommend this book to all parents, teachers, and anyone that is in the process of overcoming ahardship in their life. 

This book sounds really good Amanda!  I'm not sure about reading it, as with recent issues with my brother and sister-in-law and my first niece, don't know if I'm ready to read about this story.  But some day I would like to read it, and so it is on my TBR list.  I have loved working so closely with Amanda, and am a little sad to not be working across the hall from her this year.  But I'm sure I'll still see her at school, especially when all the communication arts teachers in the building meet!  And I'll keep up with her adorable daughter through Facebook, and of course her awesome blog!  

My 5 Favorite Things About Blogging

Continuing in the 3 year Blogoversary celebration, I'm using an idea I saw on Red House Books blog when they had their blogoversary last month.  Mine is a little different, I think hers was about her least favorite things about blogging.  And maybe I'll do something like that later this month.  But here are my 5 things.

1.  First, as I am still waiting to find someone to take a chance on me and hire me as a school librarian, I love that this is a way I get to share my love of books with others.  In some cases it is my fellow book bloggers and lovers.  But in other cases, it may just be family members or friends, who see a post show up on my Facebook timeline and want to check it out.
2.  In a way, it gives me one more excuse to spend extra time reading.  If I'm to keep my blog up to date and keep it going, I must keep reading books to have more to review, right?  :-)
3.  I've made a lot of new friends through blogging.  Some are more just Internet friends.  And some I got to actually meet in person at BEA this year.  I was disappointed that some I know and hoped to meet at BEA I didn't get the chance to meet up with them.  But that's okay, I got to meet others that I hadn't followed before, and now I have new awesome blogs to follow!
4.  Along with making new friends this way, I feel like I get to learn about books and authors I might not have heard of without following other people's blogs.  With all the drama about Independent authors lately, I have to say this is one way I have heard about them, whereas even with my part time job at the bookstore I might not have had a chance to hear of them.
5.  Finally, in a way, I feel like blogging has helped me meet or talk to authors online, in a way I might not have without it.  In fact, just the other day I emailed a link to my review of a book to the author, and he came and commented on my review!  So cool!  And then I feel like I get to talk to other authors on Twitter, or through their blogs, Facebook, etc.  And it even led to me meeting one of my favorite authors in New York City last November.  And then I feel like we got to be friends, as we hung out for several hours and had drinks and talked about all kinds of things!  And now I have my sister in NYC who has someone to know as well.  And I got to see her again when I was there for BEA.  You can see us all in the picture below, along with one of my new blogger friends!

Cara Lynn Shultz(author), Nancy DiGirolamo(blogger), me and my sis.

So, what do you think of my 5 reasons?  Are any of them things that are your favorites?  Or what do you enjoy?  I'd love to hear about it!  And again, stay tuned for my big giveaway which will start on Thursday, and I promise there will be some smaller ones coming up soon!

A Little Bit About Me and Why I Started Blogging

My 1st book t-shirt idea

August 9th will be my 3rd year blogoversary, and as I feel like I've really gotten into the blogging this past year, I'm going to do a whole month celebration. And I figured the most important thing to start with was why I do this in the first place.  A while back I began blogging, mostly as kind of a diary thing.  I talked about all kinds of things, my life, movies, books, tv shows, etc.  It was part of another website, one I'm not sure if I can even log into even more.  I teach middle school kids, and back in 2003 I got my Master's Degree in library science and information services.  And I also work part time at Barnes and Noble.  I've been trying to get a school library position since 2005, but have yet to actually get one.  So the bookstore is one way I kind of get to do what I want, a lot of the time I get to work in the kids department, so it is almost like I'm a school librarian.  And even within my own classroom I'm always talking to my students about what they're reading, and sharing about what I'm reading and my love of reading.
I moved my blog to Blogspot about 4 years ago.  And I continued kind of with the "diary" style of blogging.  I did do some book reviews and movie reviews still.  One of my friends from the bookstore, who I will be featuring her on Sunday hopefully, was also blogging, and hers was all books.  I really admired her blog, and talked to her all the time about books, so about 3 years ago, I decided to narrow down my blog.  At first I planned to do movies, books, and tv, and that is why my address for my blog is not quite the same as my blog title.  It was about miscellaneous reviews.  When I did decide to change to just books, I named it Lisa Loves Literature.  But I don't think I'm able to change the web address without losing all my posts, so I'm stuck with what it is for now.  I only know basic html, so that is one reason that I love Blogspot.  It makes it really easy for me to blog.  About a year ago I decided to pay someone to create my background, and that was Amber Laha.  I wanted a girl, with lots of books, with a dachshund.  My dachshund at the time was my Sydney, who I lost last January.  I do have another dachshund now though named Dora.  And I debate on either changing the dog picture to look more like Dora, or maybe to just add another one, so I can leave the Sydney dog.
I really got into reviewing when I was helping our state library association, MASL, choose books for their yearly award nominees.  This was a great way to keep track of my thoughts for the final rating, as well as I could share with my students my thoughts on what I'd read.  Then I remember finding that on Twitter, there were lots of authors.  Every time I read a new book, and liked it, I would look for that author on Twitter and follow them.  Oftentimes they would follow back, and that was the coolest thing in the world to me!  My  new motto was that authors are my rock stars.  (Which fits in well with the hop I'm participating in this month!)  Some authors I may not have read at the time I started following, but I followed them because I saw their books were popular in the Teen department.  And I've tried to read at least one of their books since that point.  I do still have a few I need to read one of their books.
I now blog mainly for my love of books.  I love to read, and I love to talk about what I've read.  I have a couple friends I can talk to about my books, and I do love to share my knowledge at the bookstore when I get a chance with customers, or at school with my students.  But in the book blogging world, I've found my kind of people.  I have met some of the nicest people, and get to talk books ALL the time with them!  And they don't think I'm weird when I talk the way I do about books and book characters.  I also have gotten some awesome opportunities to meet authors!!  I've been getting "free" books with ARCs as long as I've been working at a bookstore, I think about 10 years total between B. Dalton and Barnes and Noble.  But I've had a chance to win actual books from my fellow bloggers, and that has been great!  As well as learning of Netgalley, and when I got my Nook, all the e-galleys I get to read.  I honestly have only purchased about 5 or 6 books for my Nook, mostly what I read on there are e-galleys.  And the Shelf Awareness newsletter where I can keep up on the book world news as well as often get chances to get ARCs as well.
I hope you'll all keep up with me this month.  I'm going to try to post every other day, if not every day.  My Lazy Days of Summer Giveaway will end tonight at midnight.  And I know for sure my big giveaway will start on the 9th, with other giveaways spread throughout the month.  Thanks for following me, and giving me blogs to follow back, I've learned about so many books I may never have known about thanks to you guys!

BBRAW 2012: An Introduction and Thanks!

I got this idea from Miss Remmer's Reviews.  I think it is a great idea, especially as I'm working to build my following.  I know that it makes me feel good when I reply or respond to another blogger's post, and I get even more excited when I get a comment on a review that I've posted.  It has been so great following people, and I learn so much from those bloggers.  And I have really appreciated all of you who have stopped by and read my posts and shared your opinions on those books.  So, I'm going to do my very best to keep up with all the prompts this week.  The first one is: 
Introduce yourself for new readers that will be stopping by. Take today to explain what BBRAW means to you. This is the ideal time to thank your readers for their comments, support, and post a giveaway if you plan on having one. Remember, as BBRAW is supposed to celebrate readers, requiring a "follow" for the giveaway would be in relatively poor taste.
Well, again, taking my lead from Miss Remmer, I began this blog back on August 9th, 2009.  I had blogged on and off, but without any real theme.  Then as you can read in the blog link, a movie inspired me to blog more regularly. I didn't quite keep up with my goal of blogging every day, especially once I established the main theme of book blogging.  I got my first comment about a month later, September 5th, 2009. What helped me really get into blogging all my books was that I was helping my state library association pick the award nominees for the following year, so as I read them, I blogged about them, and helped myself keep track of what I thought. 
I am a middle school science teacher, and I have a library science master's degree, and hope one day soon to get a school library job.  I love inspiring my students to read.  In fact this year I've had two separate parents thank me for getting their students to read, and that is what makes my heart happy.  I've loved reading my whole life, and want others to feel some of the joy I feel when reading.  I want to thank all of my readers for making this more worthwhile.  Yeah, I would keep doing it with no one reading, but it wouldn't feel as important.  So thanks to all of you, and I hope you'll stay with me as I continue to read and review and improve my blog.

Follow Friday #13

It is time for this week's Feature and Follow Friday, hosted by Parajunkee, and Allison Can Read. This is a blog hop that expands your blog following by a joint effort between bloggers.
This week's question is:

It's Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., so we want to know what you are thankful for - blogging related, of course! Who has helped you out along the way? What books are you thankful for reading?

First I am thankful for all the years I have been employed by the Barnes and Noble book company. It is through them that I got my first ARCs. I also met my friend Charlotte, who has her own blog: Charlotte's Web of Books and kind of inspired me to start blogging about books. Along my journey, I've learned lots about book blogging from people like The Story Siren, and even Parajunkee. Even non-book bloggers have helped, like another of my friends from the bookstore, Greg at The Confounded Cook, inspired me with his consistency and dedication to his blog. So many authors that I've met and talked to online through Twitter keep me going too. I also am a big fan of Netgalley.com, another site I learned about from my friend Charlotte, that helps me get to read egalleys of books. And finally, I have to once again thank my bookstore job, as they allowed me to have a table in the store this past summer and fall that had my book recommendations as well as a sign advertising my blog. So that was really cool! And I want to thank Parajunkee for letting me be a featured blogger, and helping me to increase my blog following. I'm thankful for all the great bloggers I meet who share new book titles that I may not have heard of before.

So, what are you thankful for in your book blogging world?

Book Blogger Hop #4 and Follow Friday #2

First off is the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Crazy for Books at Crazy-for-books.com. (Sorry, still having issues with blogger posting correctly, so can't link sometimes.)

This week's question is:

Share your favorite blog post from the last month and tell us why it's close to your heart.

I guess it would have to be from May 15th, my blog about Abandon by Meg Cabot, because it reminds me of getting to meet her when I got that book. It is also when I decided that I was going to try to set a goal to meet 12 authors this year, one a month, because I met her in April, and she was the 4th author I'd met this year.


And for the 2nd time, I'm going to participate in Follow Friday hosted by parajunkee at parajunkee.com.





This week's question is:

What are you doing to prepare for the upcoming zombie apocalypse and/or the return of Mel Gibson to the silver screen?

Well, I have been reading a lot of zombie books in the past year or so it seems. And seen a few zombie movies. I must admit that I often think about how could I survive in my house if this happened. There also used to be a house in the city I live in that I always thought I'd go to during a zombie attack because it's like the whole house was up high, with just a small side of it that I assume had an elevator or stairs above a garage. I figured it'd be safe. Not easy for zombies to climb, but lots of windows so you could see what was going on outside. Not quite sure about Mel Gibson, I will have to think about that one.

My First Blog Award!

Just joined Book Blogs, and right away met a really neat blogger who gave me this award. The blog is titled "A Three Way Tie" and you should really go over and follow her as well! Along with this I'm supposed to name 7 random facts about myself, and then nominate 15 more blogs. I will have a hard time just picking 15 as I am currently following so many awesome blogs. And I know a few of them no longer accept awards, so I'm hoping the ones I pick are okay with getting this.

1. I love dachshunds. I can't imagine ever not having one. I love all puppies and dogs, but if I see a dachshund, I just can't help myself with wanting to go pet it and talk to the owner.

2. Have you seen the movie Good Luck Chuck? In a nonsexual way, I embody that character. Every guy I get a crush on seems to immediately find the perfect woman for them shortly after my crush really gets going.

3. To me, authors are like rock stars. I currently have a kind of fun goal for the year to try to meet a total of 12 authors, one per month. I'm currently 2 behind as I've only met 4 so far this year, but 4 awesome ones! I will be meeting an author/reality tv star on Monday though, so that will get me a bit closer to my goal.

4. Wow, random facts are hard to come up with. Let's see, I am a very loyal person. If I support a show, a team, a school, etc., I will always be loyal to them. It takes a lot to get me to break away. I've stuck with American Idol up until this year, I miss Simon.

5. I record and watch The Young and the Restless soap opera every day.

6. I'm obsessed with certain tv shows and book series/movies. Love The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, and Harry Potter.

7. And, finally, I am a huge Kevin Smith fan, which is funny, because I used to think swearing in movies was so unnecessary, and I'm so opposed to drugs. But the characters in his movies just crack me up.

Alright, here are the 15 blogs I chose to pass my award on to:

1. Charlotte's Web of Books(http://charlotteswebofbooks.blogspot.com/)
2. It's Like a Whirlwind(http://judesenglish10.blogspot.com/)
3. LA FEMME READERS (http://lafemmereaders.blogspot.com/)
4. A Cupcake and a Latte(http://mochalattereads.blogspot.com/)
5. Bloggin' 'Bout Books (http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/)
6. Books, Sweets, and Other Treats(http://bsaot.blogspot.com/)
7. That Bookish Girl(http://thatbookishgirl.blogspot.com/)
8. Sophistikatied Reviews(http://www.sophistikatied.com/)
9. Curling Up by the Fire(http://curlingupbythefire.blogspot.com/)
10. Ex Libris(http://exlibrisandrea.blogspot.com/)
11. I Live in a Fictional World(http://iliveinafictionalworld.blogspot.com/)
12. Just One More Chapter...(http://www.just-one-more-chapter.com/)
13. Crazy For Books(http://crazy-for-books.com/)
14. My Book Addiction(http://mybookaddiction.blogspot.com/)
15. A Corner of my Bookshelf(http://acornerofmybookshelf.blogspot.com/)

All of these blogs have great reviews, some have contests or memes to do as well. I hope my followers will check any of these out that they don't already follow. Congratulations to the blogs nominated!

Allison Hewitt is Trapped: A Zombie Novel by Madeleine Roux

I have to start with when I first started reading this book. I was sitting in the break room at the bookstore I work at reading about the main character, Allison Hewitt, sitting trapped in the break room at the bookstore she worked at. The name of her bookstore was Brooks & Peabody. The name of my bookstore, Barnes and Noble. She's trapped with the store manager, and two of the assistant managers. One of the assistant manager's name is Matt, so is one of my store's. The other assistant manager is Janette, well, our other assistant manager is named June, or we also have Jolynn. She's also trapped with two regular customers. Their break room, like ours, has no windows. The nice thing about her's though, is that it has a bathroom in it. We unfortunately have to share with the customers. Which can be a real pain on really busy days.

So anyway, they are trapped by zombies. Somehow the people have changed to zombies, and these are the people left. Allison has her laptop, and is able to log into an internet called SNet. On here she blogs about what is going on. And there are other people around who follow her blogging as well as comment and tell what they are also dealing with where they are.

Well soon, they decide they must leave, in search of food, etc. There are apartments above the store, so they decide to go up there. Once up there, there is a guy named Zack that they find in one of the closets, and he becomes a part of their group. Until, one of them is killed by a squirrel that bites her and turns her into a zombie. And when they are done mourning her, they return to their apartment to find that Zack has taken off with all their supplies. In the meantime they've heard a voice on the radio inviting them to come to the college campus nearby for more supplies and other people and safety. So they decide to head there, but first Allison and Ted decide to go after Zack to get their supplies back. Turns out Zack was also a thief that stole from the college campus people. Allison gets her first look at how this situation can change what you would do.

Allison gets a message from her mother on the internet, and that makes them decide to wait on her before they go to the college, but her mother never shows up, so Allison goes to the college hoping maybe her mother got that far and couldn't get out to Allison.

The book follows Allison through all the stops on her search to find her mother. Clear to Colorado. Along the way there are zombies, she falls in love, then has a setback with that. She has to do surgery on a friend, and set up a big rescue mission.

This was a really fun read. I wish I'd been in on the internet beginning of this before it became a book. I feel kind of out of it. But that's okay. The book was good. And I read at the end there is going to be a sequel called Sadie Walker is Stranded. So I'll be looking out for that.

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 1.5

Last night I found two really great books! I also have a few that I forgot to talk about in my last Hazards post, and I'm not even sure if I posted after I worked Saturday night either. Now the funny thing is that the two I found last night weren't even in the store. I was looking for some kind of blank book that was for helping a blogger with organizing. Like, for instance, sometimes when I go to do a Waiting On Wednesday post, I can't remember if I've already listed that book. So I want to keep track of a list in a special book. But, couldn't find any such blank book set up for that. Which is really okay, because I am such a weirdo about buying cute little notebooks, that I'm sure I have one in my office/2nd bedroom that I can use. And enough with that, on with the books I discovered last night.

First is Little Blog on the Prairie:

The main character is Gen, and her family goes to a summer camp where they are "living" in the 1890's. She is able to email her friends about the "little hell on the prairie" existence, even though all modern day equipment was taken away. And her friends post it in a blog. I think this book sounds really cute! Can't wait to read it! Not sure if it is in my store, but I will get it soon.

Second is Dead Girl's Blog:

This books is an e-book only as far as I can tell. It's about a very popular girl who gets bitten by a "deader" and so of course becomes a zombie. This is two short stories. And is actually an introduction to a full length book coming out by Donna Burgess, called Diary of a Dead Girl. This actual book will come out in the later half of 2011 supposedly. So, next time I check out the Nook, I'll be reading this right away. And then looking forward to the full length book later this year.

I've decided 3 books per Hazards blog is probably good enough, so I'm only going to go back to one I forgot to do a week ago because I noticed it again last night.

Third is The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir:

Since I first saw the movie and read the book The Other Boleyn Girl I got extremely interested in that whole story. Then of course there was the tv series The Tudors, really good as well. So this is a book that gives a possible look at what Anne's last days were like. It is based of course on many sources from the Tudor era. And I like that it gives evidence for both her guilt and innocence. It will probably be one I pick up soon. I will probably buy it since as I said, it is something I'm extremely interested in. With nonfiction books like this, I need to take my time reading it, getting all the details. Unlike how with fiction, I often just read through fast to get the story, and then if it is really good I go back and re-read and get the details.

The Hazards of Working at a bookstore Vol. 1.3

So I worked 2nd floor again last night, and saw several new books. One I didn't get a chance to write down before the name slipped my mind close to when we were getting ready to close. So I have two to talk about. First off I want to mention that one of the books I posted in an earlier Hazards entry, Ill Wind, was one that I found someone else had looked at and then set down somewhere else for me to of course pick up and put away. I thought that was interesting as it's not on a display anywhere.

Okay, first book is another teen one, The Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore. It's main character is Sylvie, who was a ballerina until she broke her leg. Her father dies, her mother remarries, and moves her away from Manhattan where she's grown up to Alabama. In Alabama there are two boys that she is intrigued by, the golden boy, and a cousin's mysterious foreign guest. Then she starts seeing things, and that is what gets me interested. The book is not new, this is the paperback release, but the paperback cover is so much more attention grabbing as you can see in the picture I've posted. The hardcover had just a flower covering the entire cover. Kind of boring.

The 2nd book is The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean. The part where our main character, Dora, has a crush on her flirtatious coffee shop manager, is something that is familiar in my life. Also I've read that this book started on the author's blog, which also intrigues me.