Thursday, May 3, 2012

CameraBag Covers

So last week I downloaded a free trial of CameraBag 2 and I've been playing around with it using different book covers.

  
                    Original                                        Edited

  
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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Shoved Through My Mailslot #1

Shoved Through My Mailslot is a bi-weekly meme here at a Book Lover's Ramblings, it's purpose is to showcase all the books (or bookish items) I got in the mail or bought over a two week period.

Last week: Mail
 
Awhile back I entered in a giveaway author Tiffany Schmidt had to celebrate her new book, Send Me a Sign, getting a cover. And while I didn't win, Tiffany sent me this swag pack for participating in the giveaway. The bookmarks are signed, and the Born Wicked and right Send Me a Sign covers are stickers! I put them on my MacBook (as seen above), along with a The Vicious Deep sticker I got from the author, Zoraida Córdova (but that was back in March).

I also got an ARC of The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting in the mail from HarperTeen. I won the book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

Last week: Bought
  
The Zombies vs. Unicorns anthology edited by Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier came out in paperback at the beginning of the month, and I was finally able to get my hands on it. Included are stories from Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, Diana Peterfreund, Scott Westerfeld, & more. The right pic is of the inside illustration, isn't it cool?

I went up north last weekend and bought The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting, Divergent by Veronica Roth, and Across the Universe by Beth Revis at Books-A-Million.


This week: Mail
I am apart of Bloggers of the Deep, which is the name of the blog tour for The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Córdova. I'm reviewing the book for my tour stop (which is May 22), so the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, sent me this ARC.

  
I ordered these from The Book Depository last week and they arrived Monday (Gluttony) & Tuesday (Perks). I got Gluttony because I picked up Sloth a couple weeks ago, and decided to started gathering up the series. I also got the UK edition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, because, as I stated in this post, I like the cover better.

This week: Bought
  
Went to Barnes & Noble yesterday and bought Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting, and The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan.

So that's it for the first ever Shoved Through My Mailslot. 
What did you get shoved through your mailslot in the past two weeks?
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Thursday, April 19, 2012

I've Been Thinking . . .

Of doing a bi-weekly "In My Mailbox"-type post (but not IMM because this isn't technically a book blog, so technically I can't participate in that. Also, I don't have a mailbox, I have a slot in the door that mail gets shoved through.) Maybe I'll call it "In My Entryway", you know, because that's where the mail is after it is shoved through the slot in the door. Oh, OR I could call it "Shoved Through My Mailslot"! Yes! Screw the first title, this is it! From Sunday on out, every two weeks (or whenever I remember) there will be a "Shoved Through My Mailslot" post displaying all the books I got in the mail or went out and bought in the time between posts.

Ah! I'm so excited! Now I'm off to make a graphic. Good day to you!
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Sunday, April 8, 2012

My Week in Review [4/2]

So this past week I have been in the Great Smoky Mtns. for spring break. And it's been so much fun! Although it did storm in the afternoon the last few days. I did a little hiking, a bit a shopping, and a lot of lounging around. I also took lots of pictures, which I'm gonna share here!

This is the view from our cabin.
This is the side of our cabin that I took as we were leaving, so it's a bit cut off.

This is part of the view from the Apple House, a restaurant we went to on Tuesday.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Exciting Book Stuff!

A lot of things happened this week in the book world that got me super excited. Now I shall list them off for you.

First, Cassandra Clare has talked for awhile about maybe writing another Shadowhunter series set in LA, titled The Dark Artifices. Well, this week it was announced as a go! Cassie signed a 3-book deal, with the first book, tentatively titled Lady Midnight, set to release in 2015. Hollywood Crush has all the details, including a small excerpt.


Second, the director for the City of Bones movie was announced, along with a filming start date of August 15. And Cassie Clare talked to Hollywood Crush again, this time about her meeting with the director, producer, and screenwriter of the movie.


Third, Aimée Carter announced a Goddess Test short story collection called The Goddess Legacy. It includes 5 novellas, each with a different narrator. The narrators are going to be Calliope, Ava, Persephone, Henry, and James. July 31 is the release date, and it will be in paperback as well as e-format.


Fourthly, Julie Kagawa's two Iron Fey novellas, Winter's Passage and Summer's Crossing, will be combined with a new novella, Iron's Prophecy, into a collection titled The Iron Legends. The collection will also include some exclusive content from the series, and will be released August 28 in paperback.


Fifthly, Rachel over at Fiktshun announced the date and time for the first Soul Screamers Reading Challenge spoiler chat with Rachel Vincent. The chat will cover only the events of My Soul toTake and the series prequel, My Soul to Lose. It's on March 18 at 2:30pm EST, and will be about an hour long.


Sixthly, Ally Carter's fifth Gallagher Girls book, Out of Sight, Out of Time, released this week! Here's the summary, though it may be a tad spoilery, so be warned.
The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family from the Circle of Cavan--an ancient terrorist organization that has been hunting her for over a year. But when Cammie wakes up in an alpine convent and discovers months have passed, she must face the fact that her memory is now a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and the dirt under her nails, and all she wants is to go home. 

Once she returns to school, however, Cammie realizes that even the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers. Cammie, her friends, and mysterious spy-guy Zach must face their most difficult challenge yet as they travel to the other side of the world, hoping to piece together the clues that Cammie left behind. It’s a race against time. The Circle is hot on their trail and willing stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.


Lastly, though this may just be super exciting for me, I found Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers in Barnes & Noble 3 weeks early! Grave Mercy is the first in the His Fair Assassin trilogy, and is due out on April 3rd. I haven't started it yet, but it sounds really good. (Nun Assassins FTW!!)
Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf? 

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. 

Ismae's most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

That's all for now. Hope you had a fantabulous week, too.

Best wishes,
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Saturday, March 10, 2012

It's Just—I Don't . . . UGHHH!!

I'm kinda disappointed that Stolen Away is taking me so long to get through (nearly 2 weeks). I'm about half way though it, and while something has happened, it doesn't feel like something happened. Maybe I was expecting there to be more fighting or freaking out or something that made what happened a big deal, and I think I was expecting that because that happens a lot in The Drake Chronicles, the first of Alyxandra Harvey's books I have read. In the Drake Chronicle books, there is A LOT of fighting and freaking and humor, all of which is practically nonexistent in Stolen Away.

So, I have been trying to make up for taking so long by reading other books. I read Torn by Amanda Hocking last week, and then yesterday and today I read Bumped by Megan McCafferty, and now I need to find another REALLY good book to read. Tonight's Grimm was about descendants from dragons, so I'm leaning towards starting Firelight by Sophie Jordan, but I don't know. . .

I'm feeling very off right now, I mean usually I feel a pull towards a certain book, but lately I haven't felt the pull at all, and I don't like that. UUUHHHHHHGGG, this is so frustrating!! I keep scanning and scanning my shelves, hoping something will stand out, and NOTHING! Nothing stands out, nothing even remotely calls for me to read it.

Sorry for the ranting, I didn't mean to do that, it just came out. Hope you're having a better reading experience than me right now.
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Sunday, March 4, 2012

My Week in Review [2/27]

So, lots of things happened this week. First, my cousin had her baby, a girl named Toren Madyson. Isn't she adorable?!


Second, a semi-truck tipped over on its side coming off the bridge on the southbound side of the highway, but they had to close all but one lane of traffic on the northbound side.
 That happened at 10 in the morning and they didn't get the truck righted again until around 2 pm. I had exams that day, and got out at noon, so had lunch then hung out at Barnes & Noble until the bridge was clear as I had to go southbound to get home. 


Third, a big car accident happened at the intersection right outside my house. Me, my mum, and our tenant were in the living room when we heard the crash.
 The SUV ran the stop sign and hit the Lincoln, which was crossing the intersection. The Fire Dept. had to take the roof off of the Lincoln to get the driver out.
 The really lucky thing was that the Fire Station and Hospital were only about 2 blocks away. As we were looking out the window, I saw a cop running down the sidewalk to the accident, then about a minute later cop cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance came to the scene. I never really found out how bad the guy that got hit was, but I do know that he was transferred to a bigger hospital in a much bigger city about an hour away.


And, last but not least, my aunt stayed over two nights after getting back from Tennessee to visit my cousin (the one who had the baby), because her home-county issued a State of Emergency alert because of the major storm blowing through.

On top of all that I had exams Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Hope you all had an interesting week, too.
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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Fantastical Magic of Leap Day!

Happy LEAP DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to do something exciting for the occasion. I'm reading three different books right now, as you can see if you look at my sidebar, and I've just decided to to do a Teaser Tuesday. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Silly girl on the internet, it's Wednesday,"and I'm here to tell you that through the magic of Leap Day, it is YOU who are wrong, for it really is Tuesday.

First up is a line from Torn by Amanda Hocking.
"Yes, talking to a beautiful Princess—what a rough lot in life you have in life," Loki said dryly, and Matt snorted behind me.

Next a line from Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey.
"Just in time." The phone rang. He looked at it like it was a bomb he couldn't figure out how to diffuse. "Help. It won't stop doing that."

And lastly, but not leastly, Torment by Lauren Kate.
In Heaven, eighteen was the luckiest, most divine number: a life-affirming tally of two sevens (the archangels and the cardinal virtues), balanced with the warning of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

*All quotes were taken from around where I am currently reading in the books*
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

I ♥ Trylle


I absolutely love this series by Amanda Hocking!!!! I first really discovered it when St. Martin's Griffin sent me an Advanced Reader's Copy of Switched. Before that the books were self-pubbed e-books, so they were on my to-read list, but pretty low on my want scale (b/c they were e-books, not b/c they were self-pubbed). I loved Switched, and my only disappointment was that, because I read an ARC, I had to wait longer before I could get Torn, which just came out today. I picked up Torn and am about 50 pages in, and so far I love it. I hope to finish it by the end of the day tomorrow, and then the wait for Ascend begins, which comes out April 24. A bonus is that each of the books come with an exclusive never-before-published Trylle short story. Also, aren't the covers just gorgeous!!

Description of Switched:
When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right.  She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her.  Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit.  But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth:  Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.

Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening.  And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…


And if you want, you can read an excerpt of Switched on Amanda's website and Macmillan's website.


*The Amanda Hocking link goes to her website, all other links go to their respective Goodreads pages, with the exeptions of the excerpt links, which go to where the excerpts can be found.*

**Also, WOW! I don't I have included so many links in one post before, EVER! ANYWHERE!**
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My Current Obsessions


The reason I am up after midnight the day of exams is because of Tiny Tower. I started the game yesterday, and already I have 10 floors, and 20 residents, 1 of which is in his dream job. I have 4 apartment floors, a sushi bar, a bookstore, a planetarium, a soda brewery, and a laundromat in my tower. I really, really like this game.



I'm also really into Scramble With Friends, so much so that I got my mom, cousin, and aunt kinda addicted to it as well. I'm kinda good at it too, which makes me happy because I'm never really good at any type of word games.
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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The Statistical Probability of Me Getting Better Before Exams

Well, I'm still sick, and it really sucks. I'm soooooo bored. I went for a half day yesterday, and found out I don't have much make-up work to do, but I am exactly 3 weeks away from exams. I missed a few grammar lessons in Spanish, and I can't do the work because I have no idea what is supposed to happens to certain words when put with certain other words. And I'm soo confused.

I'm considering getting the book The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, hence the title of this post. I was on Goodreads and saw a positive review for it from one of my friends, but at the moment I'm entered in a couple giveaways for it, so I'll wait till those end before I go get it. 

I have this feeling like I'm not reading as much as I should be, like with the Debut Author Challenge I'm in, I feel like I should have read at least two books by now, when I haven't read any. Same thing with the TBR Pile Reading Challenge. I have 25 book set to read, and I've only read 3 of them, but I feel like I should have more done.

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Monday, February 6, 2012

Weekend Read-a-thon Wrap-Up


So, I didn't make my 3-book goal and, honestly, I didn't really expect to. I knew that if I set my goals higher I would be more likely to read more to try and get closer to my goal. The books I finished were Frostbite and Shadow Kiss. I was going to read The Iron Knight, but when I finished Frostbite, I didn't want to leave the VA world just then. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm quite surprised that I was able to finish Shadow Kiss on time. V kept popping up, and I had to concentrate to keep her out of the story. Nonetheless, I finished 2 out of 3 books, when I expected only 1½ to be read. ACCOMPLISHMENT!!!!

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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Weekend Read-a-thon

While I was browsing through my blogroll today, I came across a couple of read-a-thons going on this weekend, and about an hour ago I decided I was going to have my own read-a-thon this weekend. Starting at 10:30am until 10:30pm today and tomorrow, I am going to try a read as much as I can. My goal is to read 3 books this weekend, and the ones I plan to read are:
1. Frostbite by Richelle Mead
2. The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa
3. My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent
I'm thinking that every so often I'll have one of these, and I'll put the cute little button I just made on all related posts. I'll post progress updates over on my goodreads & twitter accounts, and then do a wrap-up post here.
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