(I've seen this idea on several different book review blogs that I have been reading. This is where the idea Stacking the Shelves comes from Tanga's Reviews)
I ended up purchasing several new E-books this month. I really need to stop buying so many when I have so many books that I already own and need to read.
Oh my goodness. I didn't realize how many E-books I bought until I made this list. And I have only read a couple of them. Most of the time the E-books I buy are either on sale (1.99-3.99) or the Kindle Daily Deal. But this time there were several that I paid for that were regular price.
Title: The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) Author: Maggie Stiefvater Length: 468 pages Publisher: Scholastic Inc. Classification: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy Release Date: September 18, 2012
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant
mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them--until this year,
when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.His name is Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local
private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as
Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely
explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam,
the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce
soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher
who notices many things but says very little.For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that
she will cause her true love to die. She doesn't believe in true love, and
never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the
strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.
Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics.But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his will.Nobody fights the Epics . . . nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.And David wants in. He wants Steelheart—the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning—and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.
When my mother and grandmother were both in town visiting for the holidays, we took the girls to go see the movie. And I am so glad that we went.
Since seeing it, Cutie pie has been asking and asking for the music. And I can't lie, I enjoyed the music in the movie myself so I wanted to get the CD as well.
My brother bought us the CD one day when he was here and we have been listening to it since.
Both my girls love singing and dancing to the music.
Pooh Bear (my 3 year old) keeps pointing up at the CD player when we listen to the soundtrack and says "I watch that one. Please?"
Needless to say we will be buying the movie as soon as it comes out...in March!
I have a REALLY hard time picking a favorite song from the soundtrack. I like so many of them for different reasons.
And I love the voices. I think that Kristen Bell has a beautiful singing voice. I was a little surprised since I haven't ever really heard her sing before. But I love it! Love her! (She is one of my favorite actresses. Ever since seeing Veronica Mars for the first time!)
And I have always thought that Idina Menel has a BEAUTIFUL voice!
I also think that Jonathan Groff and Josh Gad did a wonderful job with their songs.
The title/popular songs make up the first part of the CD. Songs 1-9.
"Frozen Heart" This song is at the very beginning of the movie at the opening. I think it is a good opening song.
"Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" Such a good song. It is so heartbreaking listing to Anna sing this song to her sister. Wanting things to be fixed between them and go back to how things used to be.
"For the First Time in Forever" I like this song. It is full of excitement and hope. Then there is Elsa's side of the song where she is worried about the people coming into the castle for the first time in a long time. And they mesh well together.
"Love Is an Open Door" This song is cute and funny. The duet is good.
"Let It Go" AMAZING song! Cutie Pie loves singing the chorus as loud as she can. I think this song is powerful and moving.
"Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People" I think this song is funny. I love it!
"In Summer" I LOVE this song! I love Olaf the snowman and think this song is so cute. A snowman singing about how much he wants to enjoy summer. Definitely one of my favorites.
"For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)"
"Fixer Upper" Cute song. And I love how there are so many singers in the song. I think it was very well done.
So if you are a big fan of the movie (or have kids that love the movie) you should get this Soundtrack!
My 7 year old is obsessed with this CD. She listens to it on repeat every day. And she sings "Let It Go" all the time!
These are all on my I Want To Read These Books Someday list.
And hopefully I will either be able to buy them at some point in the future, or maybe my library will get them in.
And sadly, I could probably go on for at least 40 more books, that I can't believe I haven't had the chance to read yet. And it is mostly because I have been recently finding out about so many new (well new to me) authors and their books.
Here are some of my picks for a Fan Cast for Unremembered by Jessica Brody.
I know that some might be too old/young to play the parts. Or not have the right color eyes and be too tall/short or whatever.
After looking around the internet (for days...) these are some of the actors and actresses that I thought most represented the way that I saw the characters in my head.
Like I mentioned at the beginning, it might not be a perfect fan cast, but they are pretty close to what I pictured in my head for the characters while reading.
Title:Unremembered (Unremembered #1) Author: Jessica Brody Length: 352 pages Publisher: Square Fish Classification: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Time Travel Release Date: January 28, 2014 (Reprint paperback edition)
When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe. Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them. Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?From popular young adult author Jessica Brody comes a compelling and suspenseful new sci-fi series. The Unremembered Trilogy is set in a world where science knows no boundaries, memories are manipulated, and true love can never be forgotten.
Okay, so in new RoboCop
Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is a detective instead of a regular beat cop and
his partner Lewis is now male (Michael K Williams) and plays, I would say, a
slightly larger role then the original. ED-209 doesn’t growl, there’s no Kenny
getting shot, no Clarance Boddicker, no Dick Jones, Murphy gets to see his
family, drives a motorcycle instead of a car, has a human right hand, OCP
doesn’t own the cops, etc.
FOR THE NEW FANS:
OmniCorp, run by evil Steve Jobs (Michael Keaton), wants to
put robots on the street but the government and public won’t let him. What they
need is a robot that knows what its like to be human. They need a cyborg or in
this case a RoboCop. Enter the top candidate:
Alex Murphy is a good cop with a wife and son who gets
seriously injured by a car bombing attempt on his life. His wife agrees to have
him subjected to the RoboCop program to give him a better life. Problem?
OmniCorp doesn’t need a slow thinking human they need a machine and will do
whatever they need to to make Alex just a machine with an on/off switch for
human interaction. Will Alex be able to trace down his attempted killer? Will
he be able to master the machine or will the machine master the man? Watch to
find out!
MOVING ON:
The original RoboCop
is a movie for its time: its ultraviolent, heavily concerned with the power of
corporations and rampant crime. I think the new RoboCop scaled up for our times as well: it touches on terrorism,
corporate control, safety and a lot of times RoboCop doesn’t shoot people he
just hits them with a tazer (as you may know use of force is a bit different
know then in the 80’s). A major ball and chain though is its PG-13 rating which
limits the amount of blood, curse words and of course violence.
Also, ladies, there’s really nothing of particular interest
for you: there’s no six packs, no love triangles, and not much drama. Alex
loves his wife and she loves him.
Samuel Jackson turns in a great performance as Bill O’Riley
with hair, Michael Keaton is great as evil Steve Jobs (though I couldn’t stop
seeing Beetlejuice in his performance), and Gary Oldman does a good job as Dr. Dennett Norton.
Unfortunately, overall, the new RoboCop could be boiled down to another action flick with some
moments that make you think. It’s a good movie but it’s not great. It is better
then the Total Recall remake not that
that was particularly difficult to accomplish but since the originals were both
directed by Paul Verhoeven the comparison is worth mentioning.
If you like action movies, corporate intrigue and don’t mind
cops I recommend this new RoboCop movie.
It’s not great but its good and I don’t think you’ll feel that your money was
wasted by seeing it.
Tune In Tuesday is a weekly feature in which bloggers get to
showcase another one of their loves, music! This feature was originally created
by Ginger over at GReads! but you can now find it at Kate’s Tales of Books andBands. If you would like to participate in this weekly feature, make a blog
post showcasing a song (or a few!) Then link up with Katelyn's Tune In Tuesday blog post if you want!
I just found this today, so I missed part 1.
I love music. So I decided that this will be fun!
There are a lot of songs about love that I LOVE. So it was
hard to narrow it down to just a few.
But here are a few of my favorite songs about love:
4. Veronica Mars-The Movie is coming out in theaters:
March 14, 2014
I HAVE to see this movie. HAVE to. I am a huge VM fan. I LOVE the show. Cried when it was cancelled. Screamed and jumped around when I heard it was becoming a movie. *Flails arms* I am SO excited!
And now conveniently I have included the trailer here so you could watch it. :D
5. Panic by Lauren Oliver: March 4, 2014
I like Lauren Oliver's other books, and I think that this one sounds interesting. So I am excited that I will be able to read it.
6. A Veronica Mars Book!!! Yes Please! March 25, 2014The Thousand Dollar Tan Line
Okay, so I don't know what the cover will look like. But it is written by Rob Thomas (the creator/writer of Veronica Mars) so I want to read it. Because like I said before. I love Veronica Mars. Oh so much! I am a Marshmallow.
Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Their blog can be found here.
I have decided to participate in a new feature/meme. Top Ten Tuesday was a very popular recommendation that I found through the Love-A-Thon, so I thought I would start participating in it. February 18: Top Ten Reasons I Love Being A Blogger/Reader Reader: 1. I can be transported to a different place and time. I love how when I read a book, I can feel like I am transported there. There are times where the surroundings that I read in the book come so clearly in my mind. I can even picture the characters clearly. It is amazing being able to see things from another perspective. How else would I travel to Hogwarts? I wouldn't be able to go into the Still Blue. I wouldn't meet zombies like R. I wouldn't have been able to travel through space to find a sweet girl that is trapped in a satellite, or battle Lunars. I think you get my point... 2. The characters are like friends and family. I don't know about anyone else, but I can become pretty ATTACHED to characters. When series end and there are characters that I have to say goodbye to, I sometimes cry. And I get this hollow feeling in my chest. But lucky for me, I can visit them whenever I want to, simply by re-reading the book. But I love how characters can feel so real and important. 3. I love, love, love, sharing my LOVE of books. I own so many bookshelves (and if my house were bigger I would own probably at least 10 more) full of books. I love being able to share this passion with my kids. My 7 year old (Cutie Pie) is excelling at reading at her school (at least that is what her teacher keeps telling me) and I think it is because I am teaching her here at home to love to read. And that is important for her future. I got my love of books from my mom and I will FOREVER be grateful to her for that. So I just want to keep the tradition alive and hope that my girls get this from me. 4. I need to read to live. I don't think I could survive without books. I really hope that nothing happens that creates our reality into a Dystopian, because they don't really have time to read since they are usually fighting for their lives and stuff. I have been reading for as long as I can remember, and I don't think I could picture my life without being able to read.
5. Reading is also a way that I can de-stress. When I read a book, I tend to forget about any problems or stress that I have going on in my life. I find it as a wonderful way to relax. It help clears my mind.
Blogger:
6. I really like the challenges. Like the Love-A-Thon that Katelyn and Alexa hosted. It was amazing. And I loved how the book blogger community came together and gave each other support, love, and advice. It really raised my spirits and made me feel so happy and loved at the same time. It also helped me feel less alone. And I am hoping to make some online friendships with some fellow bloggers.
7. I get to spread my love of books past just my friends and family. Which I think is pretty cool. I love getting to share my thoughts and ideas about a book. My friends don't read all the books that I read, so I tend to not have anyone to talk to about them. So it is fun to have a place to do that.
8. I like that I am going to be able to grow as a writer. One of the reasons (besides sharing my love of things) that I started this blog was because one of my best friends told me that it could be a good way for me to share my writing. Now, I am not sure when I will do that. I haven't even finished my story from NaNoWriMo 2013 yet. But I am hoping that I will be able to share my short stories, and maybe even longer ones on here when I feel it is time.
9. I love being able to discover new books from other blogs. There are several books that I have added to my TBR list that I might not have found out about if it wasn't for other bloggers that I follow on Twitter and blogs. Which also makes it cool to be able to maybe share books that other bloggers hadn't heard of or read before.
10. I also like blogging on my blog because I am also going to share my love for different TV shows, movies, and games. (I have a lot of interests.)
Wow. What an overwhelming and intense weekend (in a wonderful way) for me! It was so much fun being a part of the Blogger Love-A-Thon! I has been without a doubt one of my favorite things I have done so far this year!
A big THANK YOU to the host of the event Katelyn and Alexa! They are awesome. So nice too! And their blogs are pretty great. If you are just coming across this post and haven't been to their blogs yet, you definitely should. Just stop reading this right now and go check them out!
We had some awesome mini challenges to complete during the Love-A-Thon
Interview: I joined too late, so I answered the interview questions myself. But other blogs were able to post interview questions from a fellow blogger. Here's mine. Mini Challenge #1: Book Spine Poetry. I had never done anything like this before and I think that it was my favorite. I had so much fun trying to think of awesome ways to put the titles together to make a poem. Love it! Here's mine. Mini Challenge #2: Love Letter/Valentines to Book Boyfriends. Oh my. So much fun. It was hard for me to decide which boys I wanted to write my letters to. Otherwise, it would have taken me forever to complete this challenge. In the end my top two favorites won out. Thorne and Roar. Here's mine. Mini Challenge #3: Mad Libs! So much fun. And a good story. It was so fun being able to try and come up with some words without knowing the story involved. I remember loving Mad Libs when I was little. I had so much fun, it makes me think maybe we could start a Mad Libs type monthly challenge.Here's mine. Mini Challenge #4: Mash Up! This challenge was a little hard for me to come up with something. But I decided to share my love of making finger puppets and my love of music. I made a couple of playlists for some books that I love. Here's mine. Mini Challenge #5: Letter to Self. I chose to write a letter to my future self to remind myself how I am here to blog for me. For me to do what I love. Here's mine. Mini Challenge #6: Awards. This was a tough one for me, I ended up picking several blogs that I already had been following. But there were a couple new ones. It was hard to just come up with a couple. There are so many awesome blogs out there! The book blog community is so amazing! Here's mine.
So as you can tell. I had A LOT of fun.
And now I am following at least 15 more blogs. (probably a lot more than that!) I added a bunch of new blogs to my blog roll list (found on the side of my blog).
And I decided on a monthly or biweekly thing that I want to see if anyone would be interested in. More details on that will be posted soon. :D
I hope everyone had as much fun as I did!
Thank you everyone that has started to follow me on Twitter and this blog through GFC! You all are AWESOME! Also, thank you so much for leaving me comments and just visiting.
It has been the best two days! And I definitely feel the LOVE! Just makes me smile. *hugs you all*
Mini Challenge #6: Awards. There are so many awesome blogs. I feel so overwhelmed. I had a hard time picking out some for all the categories, so I only picked a few. I like so many new blogs and I am sorry I can't pick everyone. But here are a couple favorites that I have been reading and some new ones that I am going to begin reading. You all are awesome. (Even those that I didn't list!!! <3)
Mini Challenge #5: Write a letter to either your past blogger or future blogger self.
Dear Future Stephanie,
I hope that you have gotten better at this whole blogging thing. I know right now it is still pretty new. Just remember why you started to blog in the first place: to have a place where you can write and share your love of books (and a lot of other things too.) It isn't about how many people visit the blog everyday. Or the fact that your only follower is a relative. No. Just remember any time you feel like you want to just give up and quit because you feel like no one cares...it isn't about the followers. This is about you doing something that you love to do.
There are a lot of things that will make this blog better and hopefully by now you have done them. But in case you haven't I am going to list them here for you:
Write your reviews SOON after your finish reading a book. Really need to stop and write a review while the book is still fresh in your mind, instead of diving into the the next book and having a LONG list of reviews that need to be written.
Start participating in some blog features/memes. Maybe even come up with a feature yourself.
Host a giveaway. It will be cool to be able to have a giveaway at some point.
Participate in more challenges. They are fun to do!
Create a weekly/bi-weekly/once a month type of feature where book lovers can get together on Skype or something to type and discuss about books. Talk about spoilers and what we think of books. Pick a new book each time.
Participate in a book tour. Which would be pretty cool.
Those are just a few ideas.
Just remember, you'll doing this for you. So have fun and keep enjoying what you do!
Mini Challenge #4: Mash-Up. For this challenge we have to mash our non-book lives with book-lives by picking a hobby/interest and putting it together with books.
This one was hard for me. Hopefully my post will fit the requirements.
Not only do I have my young adult/adult book life. I also have a book life of reading Children's Books. I have two girls and we read a lot together! I love being able to share my love of reading with the girls.
And I have two favorite hobbies/interests that are not Reading: Crafts and Music.
First we will start with Crafting.
I LOVE to make finger-puppets out of felt.
So I am going to share a couple of my favorites that I have made with you!
First: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My oldest daughter loves TMNT! She watches the cartoon from the 80's and the newest one that comes on Nick. We also have a lot of TMNT books. Some from my childhood that belonged to my brother and some that we have bought more recently. We also have some of the newer comic books. She loves them.
So I made some TMNT finger-puppets for her.
Winnie the Pooh: My youngest has been obsessed with Winnie the Pooh since she was pretty much a baby. My mom bought her (what became her lovey) Pooh bear when she was about 6 months old and she has loved it (well) since then.
We love reading Winnie the Pooh books, watching the movies and just anything related to Pooh bear. So I made her a Pooh and Piglet finger-puppet. (Still working on the others...finger-puppets can be time consuming!)
Sesame Street: I know Sesame Street is more of a TV show, but we do have a lot of books about these characters too! We have books that date all the way back to when I was a little girl. So I made some Sesame Street finger-puppets. (These have been slowly since I have been making two sets.)
There is also a Cookie Monster, but he isn't pictured.
Minnie Mouse: I eventually (hopefully by the end of 2014) will have most of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang finished. Right now it is only Minnie.
So there they are. I enjoy making them. Even if they take a while. I hand cut all the pieces and then sew them together by hand.
Now I will go to something that is more related to my Young Adult/Adult book life. Music-
I have been obsessed with Music since I was a girl. My dad passed to me his love of music while my mom passed on to me her love of books. They have been my two loves/interests since I can remember.
I haven't really made a bunch of playlists before to go along with books. But there have been several times when I hear a song and I am reminded or think of a certain book. So I will share some of those now.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Girl on Fire- Alicia Keys
Set Fire to the Rain- Adele
Revolution- The Beatles
Another One Bites the Dust- Queen
We're Not Gonna Take It- Twisted Sister
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Counting Stars- One Republic
Across the Universe by The Beatles
She's the One by The Ramones (How Wolf feels for Scarlet)
Speechless by The Veronicas (How Cress feels about Thorne)
The Madman's Daughter/Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd
