Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Credit: Photobucket

The title and picture of this post says a lot about what this post is about. The past couple of months have been an off and messed up time for me here at the blog. There's been a lot going on at home and that's just not left much time or motivation for my beloved subscribers, but that's going to change.


Just a few short updates and I'll get to the point, but you guys know how much I love going off on my tangents and whatnot...


As most of you know, my year started off pretty rocky, and I really hadn't fully recovered from that, but throw in my best friend of about 8 years moving to the other side of the country, moving myself, my sister being sick, and my mother having another major surgery, I'm sure you can all understand or at least grasp why I've been all messed up. Last Thursday I took another hit...

Sassy and Batman...she loved to snuggle...

We lost Sassy. Another one of our babies. She became sick earlier last week and at first we just thought it was a bug, but since it didn't pass we were going to take her to the vet. But before we could, she left us. It was very unexpected, and has left us all completely heartbroken, even our other babies are in mourning (this does include the cat). They understand even less than we do and it breaks my heart even more to see them so sad and there's nothing I can do to make them understand why she's gone...


Anyways, now that I've managed to thoroughly depress you all and made myself cry...again....I'm going to get on with it. On top of that, my sister, now dubbed "Typhoid Mary," managed to spread the bug from hell throughout the house. I imagine something along the lines of the picture below running rampant on my immune system...

Credit: Suniedlite on Photobucket

Anyways, she's infected us all and it's made for a very icky couple of weeks in my house with five lovely people sick, but regardless of all of that. I have been reading (at least a little), and I do have some stuff planned and that plan includes me being back! Things might be a little slow for the next couple weeks as I get back in the swing of things and play catch up, but I'll get there.


Thanks for bearing with me, and I will have something special for you guys in the coming weeks!


XOXO


Samantha LeAnne

Question: Book Summaries

Do you prefer summaries written by the reviewer or taken from other sources such as GoodReads, Amazon, etc?

Last night I was trying to write some reviews, and I was having some issues. As you know, I write my own summaries and I always have, but sometimes there are just some books that I just can't seem to summarize myself. Sequels are generally damn near impossible and then there are just some books that no matter how hard I try or how much I loved them, I just can't seem to summarize. I was wondering what your thoughts are on the subject of book summaries in reviews.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments! Thanks!

Upcoming Review: Hobby Table from CSN Stores!!

The other morning I awoke to the surprise of an email from the wonderfully generous people over at CSN Stores with an offer to review one of their products.

Now if you haven't heard of CSN Stores, they are a fabulous company that has 200+ stores and carries everything from lights to massage chairs to espresso machines to shoes to pet furniture. I scoured their stores for HOURS today and finally settled on one thing (and trust me, it was not easy). A few things that I really liked, that I either couldn't afford, or just didn't make the cut were:

          Pet Bookcase Climber Saunder                                    King Chair Bean Bag Bed

But what I did chose is something that I think is totally awesome! I chose this:

The Martin Universal Design Ashley Creative Hobby Table with Stool!

I'm not much of a drawer, but I do like to sew and I think this table will be perfect for my sewing machine. And as an even bigger plus, my sister who is a drawer, will be able to make use of it too, along with my mother who likes to work with mosaics. So this is something that even my family will be able to make use of!

So keep on the lookout for a review in the next couple of weeks! And check out CSNStores.com, they've got just about everything! Including stuff you probably didn't even think about...and a lot of it has free shipping!

Seriously Bookish Awesomeness!

So the beautifully awesome creature that is Jackson Pearce (author of As You Wish and the upcoming Sisters Red) has posted another fantastic video on her YouTube channel. If you don't know about Jackson's YouTube channel, then you are totally missing something awesome. Anyways, here is the amazingness that Jackson has posted:

                                                                 

                       

I hope that awesomeness causes you to forgive my unannounced absence, but I moved and have been working like crazy, but I am going out of town this week for my mom's surgery and so I will have hours to sit in the hospital and get caught up on reviews and reading, so expect me to be back shortly!

<3

Book List! (Finally)

So I've been promising for like a month to post a list of the books I received at the Million Dollar Book Sale, and I have finally done it (with some help from my sister)! But first, I want to tell you a little about this book sale.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley has paired up with American Book Company to do a book sale a couple of times a year. The Boys & Girls Clubs is a fantastic organization that focuses on children and teens. They have facilities for kids to go after school during the school year and all day during the summer. They help teach different skills and help with homework, the have activities and fitness/sports, they give attention to the arts, life skills, health, leadership and character building, career development, and that's just some of what they help with. As a kid I went to one of the local clubs and it was one of the best times I had. American Book Company has decided to help them each year by sponsoring this event.

The event itself is basically a huge room filled with tables and boxes of books, and for $40 you can go through and fill the box with as many books as you can fit. The only catch is the flaps have to close! Either way the boxes can hold anywhere from 30+ books! I went this past February, I spent about 3 hours there and came home with about 40 or so books (you can see that list here), so when I went this time I knew I'd do well.

This time though, the building was about twice the size as the last one and aside from the ares of kids books had no real sense of organization, so me and my best friend who agreed to go as long as I let him get a few books, set out in search of whatever we might find. So onto what we did find!

• A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (paperback)
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (paperback) [Somewhere around here I have a copy of The Kite Runner, so I figured I should go ahead and get it]
• Before I Die by Jenny Downham (hardcover)
• Blood Roses by Francesca Lia Block (hardcover)
• Cathy’s Book by Sean Stewart/Jason Weisman (hardcover) [I thought I'd check the first two out before I decided if getting the third book was worth it, plus they didn't have it :P]
• Cathy’s Key by Sean Stewart/Jason Weisman (hardcover)
• Cheating at Solitaire by Ally Carter (paperback) [Never read one of her's before!]
• Good Girls by Laura Ruby (hardcover) [I've read Play Me and I wanted to check out more of her stuff. Anyone read it?]
• Heat of the Night by Emma Holly (paperback)
• House of Dance by Beth Kephart (hardcover)
• If Andy Warhol Had a Girlfriend by Alison Pace (paperback)
• Likely Story by David Van Etten (hardcover) [He's a writer for One Life to Live, and I'm a sucker for it, so I had to check out at least the first book.]
• Manhattan Noir: The Classics 2 by Various authors (paperback)
• Marley and Me by John Grogan (hardcover) [It's also the Collectors one with the pretty cloth cover and ribbon bookmark, plus pictures of Marley. It's adorable!]
• Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (hardcover) [I bought a paperback way back when it first came out as one, and I loved it so much! So I just had to get the hardcover when I saw it!]
• Playing by Melanie Abrams (paperback)
• Pledged by Alexandra Robbins (paperback) [I actually got a hardcover of this last time, but I forgot!]
• Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (hardcover)
• Rumors: A Luxe Novel by Anna Godbersen (hardcover) [I've got a paperback already, but my copy of The Luxe is in hardcover and I like to be consistent.]
• Sisters in Sanity by Gayle Forman (hardcover)
• The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip (paperback) [I have a couple of her books, and I've heard they're great, so we'll see!]
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (hardcover) [Another book that I have a paperback copy of already]
• The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (paperback)
• The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance by Various Authors (paperback)
• The Scent of Your Breath by Melissa P. (paperback)
• Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde (paperback) [I have one of these Thursday novels already]
• Undead and Uneasy by Mary Janice Davidson (hardcover)
• Undead and Unpopular by Mary Janice Davidson (hardcover) [Last time I got one of these, so I'm collecting until I can get them all! So three down, five to go!]
• Violet and Claire by Francesca Lia Block (paperback)

I also got three or four cook books (a couple of which were diabetic cookbooks, because my dad was diagnosed as diabetic a few months ago and so we're trying to come up with stuff. So if anyone has any recommendations or recipes they would like to share, I would greatly appreciate it!). I got this really cute Art of Belly Dancing thingy that has the little finger cymbals in it (I wanted those darn cymbals!). And my best friend ended up with five or six books.

So all in all, I did about the same, give or take a couple. Either way, $40 is a steal for all the books I got! Now if I can just get my review pile down to a reasonable level, I can read a few! So when that happens, any suggestions on where to start? If you've read any of them, what are your thoughts?

And by the way, some of these will be for giveaways down the line, and some were intentionally bought to be given away, so there's an incentive to giving me your thoughts!

And now I think I'm just babbling...so I'm done!

♥♥♥

Just a bit of a warning/update thingy

Hey guys!

I just wanted to let everyone know that despite my computer issues (as explained in todays IMM), tomorrow I will be scheduling a few new reviews and when those go up I will be unveiling a new review system and the use of actual stars! And while that may or may not sound like much to you guys, for me getting some pretty little star graphics is fun and makes me happy. I've spent quite a long time looking through reviews and of other sites that I absolutely love and have come up with the categories that I think are most important in a review and I hope you guys will like what I'm doing. I would greatly appreciate any feedback you guys have :)

And I am about to start work on getting some pretty menu buttons to make my blog not only easier to navigate, but also look a bit more professional (at least that's my goal). So things will change up a little bit on that front too.

Thanks so much guys!
Samantha

The ABC's of ME!

I was tagged by Laina.
Wow, I seriously haven't done one of these things since...Myspace. lol. And that's been a loooong time since then.


The Rules:
- Link to the person who tagged you
- Share your ABCs
- Tag three people at the end by linking to their blogs
- Let the three tagged people know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website
- Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag.

Taken or single?
Single and quite happy being that way.

Best Friend? Hmm...his name is Jeff and he has been my best friend for about 6 years now.

Cake or Pie? Cake! I'm not a big pie person, but I looooove cake. And cupcakes!

Drink of choice?
Water mostly, otherwise it's sweet tea or sometimes coke. Although lately I've had a major thing for orange juice and I have no clue why.

Essential item for every day use? My cell phone. I feel so nakey without it!

Favorite color? Generally blue. Unless I'm wearing it, and then it's red.

Google? Nope, never. Haha. Of course I google! I use google every day, it's like an addiction!

Hometown? Knoxville, TN.

Indulgences? Snickers. I am such a sucker for a Snickers bar.

January or February? May. I don't like winter lol.

Kids and their names? Nope, nope, and....nope.

Marriage date? Not married. And not planning on it any time soon.

Number of siblings? Three.

Older siblings? All three are older.

Younger siblings? Don't got any of those...thank god!

Oranges or apples? Apples. I don't care much for oranges.

Phobias and fears? Spiders, hieghts, bugs, STORMS! Being alone at night, being outside in the dark without a flashlight (there's a busy road, street lights don't really work, and I have had a stalker before. My paranoia is justified.)

Fear of death? No. I'm not saying I particularly WANT to die, but I'm not afraid if it happens.

Quote for the day? I tried to think of something profound, but I haven't been on Twitter today, so it didn't work XD

Reason to smile? A new Shane Dawson video of YouTube! They make me giggle, check him out! But I warn you first, they are...explicit. There is your warning.

Season? Spring! It's not too hot, not too cold. And the flowers are all in bloom and pretty.

Unknown fact about me? I prefer silver over gold and costume jewelry over real jewelry. I own a white gold, diamond solitaire ring and yet my favorite piece of jewelry is something I put together myself, and spent about $6 to make.

Vegetable you hate? Brussel Sprouts. They are stinky and gross and just...ew.

Worst habit? When I'm nervous or anxious, I bite my nails. I click pens that have the clicker on top. I bounce my foot all the time. I don't like staying still.

Xrays you've had? Oh lord...both arms, both legs, right knee, right ankle, back, neck, both hands, left foot, and teeth. I don't know if that's it, but those are the only ones I can remember.

Your fave food? Chicken! Me looooves chicken.

Zodiac sign? Pisces.

Tag 3 people? Alright, how about:

Carrie at Carrie's YA Bookshelf
Sarah aka GreenBeanTeenQueen
Lizzie at The Book Obsession

Have fun!

Update! And just randomness!

Hey guys!
Well I know I promised a review of WInter Wood by Steven Augaurde, but that's not going to happen. I tried, I mean I REALLY tried with this book, but I just couldn't do it. It's not that it was badly written (it was actually written quite well) or anything, it was just the story itself. I couldn't read it. I think I made it like page 62-ish, but I couldn't make it past that. I didn't know it was the THIRD book in a trilogy I'd never heard of before, let along read, or whether it's because I couldn't grasps what these chacters had to do with one another. Either way, this is NOT a stand alone book at all. I was so bored and confused by the time I made it as far as I did that I simply couldn't go on, and that my friends' is somehting I haven't done since school (The Red Badge of Courage and The Scarlett Letter were the only two books this has EVER happened with). But not to worry!

I did however mange to finish Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers in about two hours last night and got the review written and sent into TRT and once that is posted there, I will also post it here. I was planning on starting Freaky Monday by Mary Rodgers & Heather Hach today, but it wasn't such a great day for me personally, so I will start it tomorrow. I should start posting more now, so that's good! I still don't think I will post every single day, but I will try to post much more often than I have been.

Now I pose a question for all you lovelies! How do you simply waste you time? I don't mean reading and the like, I mean to you play meaningless video games or anything like that. If so what do you play?

Personally, I play Free Realms
I am Loreli Moonbeam in game.

And I've also been spending quite a bit of time on ourWorld.
That is me! And if you guys click there and sign up and play, it helps me out too! (You know you want too, and thanks in advance)!

So those are a couple ways I waste my time, her lately it's been on ourWorld, but yea. And don't worry, both game are family friendly and have mods to make sure they stay that way. It's just fun and wa time waster. So.
How do you waste your time?

XOXO,
Samantha

Update, Knowing, and Up!

Hey guys!

It's been a little over a week or so since I posted my review on Bloodhound, and I know I haven't been around much, but in that time I have been keeping busy (sorry nothing majorly blog worthy, i.e. working, then got sick, then caught up on some BFF time with my best friend). But I did manage to read a book, only one, but still! I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

And I will have my review on that up shortly. I have to work tomorrow so maybe Wednesday lol. Anyone that works in retail (as I do) knows that it generally wipes you out, so shoot for Wednesday.

In other news though. Last week I went to the movies...twice. Once was at what we call the $1 movies, which is actually $2 now (it used to be $1, but as times have changed, so has the price) and they usually show movies that are out of the major theaters, but not on DVD yet. So we went and saw Knowing. For all who don't remember that one, it's the Nicolas Cage movie where they open a time capsule from 50 years before, and they find the page full of numbers that correspond to major disasters in the world, and he tries to be the hero (as Nicolas Cage does in all his movies). Anyways it was good, it was odd, it was a stretch of the imagination. Most younger audiences probably would care for it, and depending on how much younger probably wouldn't understand it (no offence to anyone, it just takes a knowledge of some things that aren't really taught until later in school, unless you study independently). And if you are easily offended when it comes to religion, then it's not the movie for you (it takes different aspects of the whole apocalypse and creation stories from different religions and combines then)But in any case, I would recommend renting it. But it's not something I would personally buy.

Now the second movie we went to see was by far superior to Knowing. We went to see Up! Another one of Pixar's masterpieces, and OMG! I loved it! I think we have all either seen, heard, or read something about Up, so I will skip the whole summary thing and get right to my thoughts. I love, love, love it! I generally love Pixar's movies in the first place, but this movie has cemented itself as my third favorite Pixar movie (The first being Finding Nemo and the second being Toy Story). The characters were so adorable and funny, the animation is just awesome, and the dialogue is HI-larious! But I do feel that I must say that after the first 15 or so minutes, it did leave me a bit depressed, but that was quickly rectified. I also think that if you are taking a young child to see it, that they at least know that people do not live forever, and that people do eventually pass away (there was a young child in my theater that apparently didn't know this, and since most younger children have no concept of whispering , we all had to listen to her repeatedly ask about what happened, why, etc. and that can be quite distracting and unfair to other the other people in the theater) Now this is a movie I not only recommend buying (once it comes out on DVD), but I also recommend seeing it in theaters. It is one of those movies that has something for everyone!

I know this is kinda long...sorrys! But as long as I still have your attention (I hope), then I will tell you guys what I got this week in terms of books! By the way, the reason I don't do the weekly "In My Mailbox" posts like most bloggers' do, is because, well I don't always get new books every week lol. But...I could start doing it for the weeks I do actually get books...hmmm. I don't know. Maybes, I will peruse the thought and see what I can come up with.

This week I got four books!

1. Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
2. Winter Wood by Steve Augarde
3. Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley
4. Ghostgirl: Homecoming by Tonya Hurley

So for my next book I will be reading Winter Wood, since that it a review book. It's a bit long, but I have a couple days off this week and so I should have some time to get some reading done. Well I think I have rambled long enough, and it's almost 5 AM so I better try to sleep a little bit. Bye bye guys!

Samantha

*Edit* June 16, 2009
I know I said I would have The Forest of Hands and Teeth review up by last Wednesday....but I sorry. I haven't had a chance to get it done yet. My aunt and cousin came in from NY and that only happens like once a year, so I haven't had much time at home, much less near the computer. I am hoping to get it up tomorrow night (I mean it this time!) I have to take my sister to the doctor in the morning, so it will be when I get home. Thanks for your paitence guys!

Update!

I am still in the process of reading Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce. I'm quite behind on my usual reading schedule, because not only have things been crazy here at home, but my allergies have been miserable! They have never been this bad before! Anyone else had that problem this year?

But anyways, I am going to my aunt's lake house for the weekend and since it is nice and quiet up there, hopefully I will be able to get some MAJOR reading done! I hope. I just wanted to let you guys know that I haven't forgotten about you or anything! hehe.

I also wanted to give an extra special "THANK YOU" to Fantastic Book Review for her "5 Star Review" contest, in which I won a copy of The Forest of Hands and Teeth! YaY!

Must get some sleep now, since it's 2:30 AM and I have to be up early to do some things around the house and pack my stuff before I leave at 1 tomorrow, ARGH! lol. Hope to be farther along in a few days! Bye guys! XOXO!

I hate when this happens!

So at the end of last summer, I stopped at a yard sale (a great place to pick up books cheap) and I bought a whole stack of books from Christine Freehan's Dark Secrets series. I've had plenty of other stuff to read and whatnot the past few months, but today I decided to see which ones of the series I had, hoping that I could start reading them soon.

Well I went on Wikipedia, to get a list of her books in order and boy was I surprised to find that there are 19 books in the series, so far! Number 20 comes out in September. But anyways, back to my point. My plan to begin reading was largely derailed quit quickly...

I not only have 8 out of the 19, but they aren't even in order! Gah! lol. These are the one's I have:
Dark Desire (2)
Dark Magic (4)
Dark Fire (6)
Dark Legend (8)
Dark Guardian (9)
Dark Destiny (13)
Dark Secret (15)
Dark Demon (16)

You guys would not believe the look on my face when I realized, not only do I not have the books in order, but that I didn't even have half of them! Don't you just hate when that happens?

I hate reading books out of order, I always feel like I've missed something by not reading the first book. But right now I am reading Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce and I didn't read Terrier. I'm still in the first couple of chapters, but I get it for the most part. I just think I missed out on some back story and some details by not reading Terrier. But it's for a review, so I can't really put it off and go find, buy, and read Terrier at the moment, so I am just going to read Bloodhound and be happy! :)

Well anyways, now that I have officailly ranted a bit, I want to pose a question to you guys!

Do you prefer to read books in series order, or does that not make a difference?

Book List!

Last night I promised a list of the books I got from the Million Dollar Book Sale and now I am going to make good on that promise. Any thoughts on which I should read first are welcome! Here's my list:

• Amazing Grace by Megan Shull
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
• Atop an Underwood by Jack Kerouac
• Austenland by Shannon Hale
• Belinda by Anne Rice writing as Anne Rampling
• Candy Girl by Diablo Cody
• Chasing Tail Lights by Patrick Jones
• Fairyville by Emma Holly
• Girls That Growl by Mari Mancusi
• Goddess of Love by P. C. Cast
• How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot
• If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period
• It’s called a Break up Because It’s Broken by Greg Behrendt & Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt
• King Dork by Frank Portman
• Like This and Like That by Nia Stephens
• Midnight Reign by Chris Marie Green
• Mina by Marie Kiraly
• Mona Lisa Blossoming by Sunny
• More than Friends by Katherine Spencer
• Number 8 by Anna Fienberg
• Pledged by Alexandra Robbins
• Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (I have NOT read Uglies. Is it necessary to read Uglies first, or does it work as a stand alone?)
• Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
• Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block
• Saint Iggy by K. L. Going
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (I’ve read it before, but still)
• The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
• The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
• The Devil’s Wind by Richard Rayner
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
• The Executioner’s Daughter by Laure E. Williams
• The Faerie Path by Frewin Jones
• The Fold by An Na
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• Undead and Unappreciated by Mary Janice Davidson
• Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
• Witch Child by Celia Rees (I read it a few years ago and it’s awesome)

I also got a few others a biography of Slyvia Plath, a book of Shakepeare quotes, and a book about Marilyn Monroe. But the ones listed are the ones that are actually novels and such. So let me know where I should start and what you guys think. Thanks!

Million Dollar Book Sale

Okay, so last weekend I went to a local benefit thing called the Million Dollar Book Sale. For $30 you get a box and you get to fill that box with the books of your choosing out of over 250,000 titles. You put whatever you want in the box as long as it still closes in the end. So I went and OMG! I got a ton of books and I actually want to go back this weekend, but that's not going to happen, so in the spirit of things, I am going to post a list of all the books I got in the sale and I'm going to allow you guys to tell me which books I should read first. I will read and review all of them (for the most part). I am still trying to compile the list, but as soon as I do, I will post it here and see what you guys think! Thanks!

Sorry I'm running behind on my review for In the Meantime, I'm just running behind on everything else too. So I will try to get that out tonight or tomorrow morning.