Join Us in 25 Days of Jubilation!

Hello again everyone!

I am personally inviting you to join me as I celebrate the holiday season with an amazing group of bloggers! Cyndi at Dog-Eared & Bookmarked, Jacinda at The Reading Housewives, and Yani at The Secret Life of an Avid Reader are hosting the 25 Days of Jubilation December 1st-25th.

The hosts are kicking it off today with their posts and then for 25 days a different blog will post and include a giveaway, many are international.

I will be posting on December 24th, Christmas Eve! This has always been a favorite holiday in my household, especially while growing up. That's why I'm so tickled I was scheduled for this day. I will be posting about some Christmas Eve folklore and personal traditions that I've loved over the years. Who knows, if I can find them, hilarious pictures from my Christmas past may show up...

What will I be giving away?? That's a good question....

Here's a *suttle* hint at the star of my package:



It will also be signed if the event I will be attending allows multiple books to be signed...

There will also be some various swag and a couple little other surprises, too! You'll have to pop back in to see what is up for grabs!

Schedule:

Here's the line-up for everyone! Be sure to check each blog and enter in the giveaways!

Also, make sure you use the hashtag #25DaysofJ when tweeting about the event on Twitter!

Thursday, December 1st:
Christen at Goldilox and the Three Weres

Friday, December 2nd:
Molly at Surrounded By Words

Saturday, December 3rd:
Meridith at Mint Tea and A Good Book

Sunday, December 4th:
Sandie at Teen Lit Rocks

Monday, December 5th:
Shannon at Books Devoured

Tuesday, December 6th:

Bex at Becky’s Barmy Book Blog

Wednesday, December 7th:
Christi at Christi the Teen Librarian

Thursday, December 8th:
Jen at In the Closet with a Bibliophile

Friday, December 9th:
Sara O. at The Librarian Reads

Saturday, December 10th:
Ginger at GReads!

Sunday, December 11th:
Asheley at Into the Hall of Books

Monday, December 12th:
Tina at Tina’s Book Reviews

Tuesday, December 13th:
Heidi at YA Bibliophile

Wednesday, December 14th:
Jess at Gone with the Words

Thursday, December 15th:

Lisa at Lisa Is Busy Nerding

Friday, December 16th:
Jen D. at Not now…I’m Reading!

Saturday, December 17th:
Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner

Sunday, December 18th:
Andrea at The Busy Bibliophile

Monday, December 19th:
Karis at YA Litwit & Sarah at Workaday Reads

Tuesday, December 20th:
Katelyn at Katelyn’s Blog

Wednesday, December 21st:
Ruby at Ruby’s Reads

Thursday, December 22nd:
Jac at For Love and Books

Friday, December 23rd:

Asher at Paranormal Indulgence

Saturday, December 24th:
Nikki at Books Most Wanted

Sunday, December 25th:
Merry Christmas!

Enjoy the season, everyone!!

Waiting on Wednesday - November 30, 2011

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme from Jill at Breaking the Spine. To join in, share the book or books that you are currently drooling over as you await their release and report back to Breaking the Spine with the link to your post. The gorgeous badge above is brought to us by Lindsay at The Violet Hour!

I've read the first two books in this series over the past 2 days! I've not got to dig that deep into something in a while and love it! I won both books in a giveaway, but when they arrived I realized the author had sent so much extra swag to go with them. Captivating series and amazing author!

Forgiven (The Demon Trapper's #3)
by Jana Oliver
Expected publication: February 28th 2012

From Goodreads:

The days are growing darker for 17-year-old demon trapper Riley Blackthorne. With her father’s reanimated body back safely, Beck barely speaking to her because of her tryst with a hunky fallen angel and a deal freshly made with Lucifer, she has enough on her hands to last a normal teenage lifetime. Though she bargained with Heaven to save his life, her ex-boyfriend Simon has told the Vatican’s elite team of demon hunters that she’s working with Hell. So now she’s on the run, at the top of everyone’s most-wanted list.

But it’s becoming clear that this is bigger than either Riley or Beck, and rapidly getting out of control. Someone's tampering with Atlanta's Holy Water, and it’s on Riley to figure out who. On top of that, there’s something wrong with the demons; they’re working together—and refusing to die. The trappers and hunters are doing their best, but civilians are falling in harm’s way.

Caught between her bargain with Heaven and her promise to Lucifer, Riley fears the final war is coming—and it may be closer than anyone thinks…

In My Mailbox - November 27, 2011

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. It is a great way for bloggers to socialize and network their blogs and to share upcoming releases! To join in all the fun, simply:

1. Make your own IMM post! You can post about books you've bought, gotten from the library, received for review... books don't have to arrive via your mailbox.
2. You can post weekly, every other week, or one week out of the month, it’s up to you and it doesn't have to be on Sunday.
3. Once you have your IMM posted, go to The Story Siren on her Sunday post and add your link to the list.
4. Comment on other bloggers IMM posts.

This is a LONG over due IMM. I've spent most of my Sundays this last month writing papers and other homework for grad school. Unfortunately, it's left me little time to think about the wonderful stack of books that has built up over the last month. I've been really fortunate on the giveaways this month and have caught a few deals here and there online as well.

Nook Books:

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey

Remembrance by Michelle Madow

NetGalley:












Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Giveaway Wins!

*Pitch Dark Days Fall 2011 Giveaway Pack
hosted by Kristin @ My World of Books

























A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies

Eve by Anna Carey

Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

Supernaturally by Kiersten White

Fateful by Claudia Gray

*500+ Giveaway at Rants-N-Scribbles

The Death Cure by James Dashner

*Giveaway & Release Day Event for Beautiful Chaos hosted by The Bookish Brunette

Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

*Haunted Halloween Event at Confessions of a Bookaholic

The Demon Trapper's Daughter & Soul Thief by Jana Oliver - signed

I also got a T-shirt, iron-on patch, and bookplates with the books! When I find my camera I'll upload a pic of all the goodies. (When one moves, some items tend to disappear for a little while.)

Waiting on Wednesday - November 23, 2011

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme from Jill at Breaking the Spine. To join in, share the book or books that you are currently drooling over as you await their release and report back to Breaking the Spine with the link to your post. The gorgeous badge above is brought to us by Lindsay at The Violet Hour!

I finished Anna Dressed in Blood last week....Amazing, absolutely amazing. I did not want it to end! I love the characters and plot that much. Yes, it does have the odd relationship similar to Hereafter/Arise by Tara Hudson, but it seems different. It may just be the way it is written or something, but this relationship feels more real to me. I will be counting down the days for this one...

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Hardcover

Expected publication: August 7th 2012 by Tor Teen

From Goodreads:

In this follow-up to Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas begins seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep, and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong. These aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor.

Waiting on Wednesday - November 16, 2011

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme from Jill at Breaking the Spine. To join in, share the book or books that you are currently drooling over as you await their release and report back to Breaking the Spine with the link to your post. The gorgeous badge above is brought to us by Lindsay at The Violet Hour!

I am really curious to see how the relationship goes in this book. I'm still skeptical because in Hereafter it seemed like it was just very impossible. Maybe it'll prove me wrong...

Arise by Tara Hudson

Hardcover, 400 pages

Expected publication: July 5th 2012 by Harper Collins Children's Books

From Goodreads:

Amelia—still caught between life and death—must fight for every moment of her relationship with the human boy Joshua. They can hardly even kiss without Amelia accidentally dematerializing. Looking for answers, they go to visit some of Joshua’s Seer relatives in New Orleans. But even in a city so famously steeped in the supernatural, Amelia ends up with more questions than answers…and becomes increasingly convinced that she and Joshua can never have a future together.Wandering through the French Quarter, Amelia meets other in-between ghosts, and begins to seriously consider joining them. And then she meets Gabrielle. Somehow, against impossible odds, Gaby has found a way to live a sort of half-life...a half-life for which Amelia would pay any price. Torn between two worlds, Amelia must choose carefully, before the evil spirits of the netherworld choose for her.

Waiting on Wednesday - November 9, 2011

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme from Jill at Breaking the Spine. To join in, share the book or books that you are currently drooling over as you await their release and report back to Breaking the Spine with the link to your post. The gorgeous badge above is brought to us by Lindsay at The Violet Hour!

Up and about because of The Story Siren's post about the Debut Author Challenge, I decided I would pick my WoW from that list this week. :)


Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
384 pages

Expected publication: January 31st 2012 by HarperCollins Publishers

From Goodreads:

NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life.

Love, LOVE the synopsis! It makes me sit back, look at it, and wonder...wth is going on with that?

Kids Need to Read Auction, Dolly's Imagination Library

While looking through Beth Revis' Giveaway, I came across her post about Kiersten White joining the auction for Kids Need to Read. Since I had just blogged about the importance of kids reading, I snooped around to get the jist of what they were talking about. What I found was an awesome cause with an amazing front man! I. <3. Nathan Fillion. Even more so since he's supporting this organization.

From the Kids Need to Read website:

Kids Need to Read is a national nonprofit foundation that promotes childhood literacy and addresses the crisis in library funding that currently exists in the United States. Providing inspiring books and literacy programs to schools, public libraries, juvenile offender facilities, dropout recovery programs, urban afterschool organizations, and special education classes, the foundation works to develop a lifelong love of reading and an awareness of social responsibility in all children.

The Kids Need to Read book donation list features the best of contemporary reading material to appeal to the sensibilities of today's youth, including the most reluctant of readers. Whether it is giving free comics and Highlights magazines to homeless children or providing the first books to a charter school with no library, Kids Need to Read focuses on one goal – getting kids to pick up something to read and never wanting to stop.

This organization is right up my alley. I'm going to be looking into it even further and see how it goes. In my opinion, there can't be enough programs like this. Visit them at http://www.kidsneedtoread.org/ or http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/

Locally, Dolly Parton has one of the top programs with her Imagination Library that provides an age appropriate book to every child under five years old.

They list how it works on the site:

A community must make the program accessible to all preschool children in their area. The community pays for the books and mailing, promotes the program, registers the children, and enters the information into the database.

From there The Dollywood Foundation takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home. You can find out more of the operational details on other pages in this website – so what are you waiting for! Hundreds of communities are providing books to hundreds of thousands of children.

I searched for affiliates in my area and got several responses. I encourage everyone to check these organizations out and support the causes. Reading could be the key to many of our children's futures. :)

Waiting on Wednesday - November 2, 2011

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme from Jill at Breaking the Spine. To join in, share the book or books that you are currently drooling over as you await their release and report back to Breaking the Spine with the link to your post. The gorgeous badge above is brought to us by Lindsay at The Violet Hour!

Yep, I'm definitely in a Sci-fi mood this week... *Sneaks away from homework to watch Firefly on Netflix*

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Hardcover, 400 pages

Expected publication: January 10th 2012 by Razorbill

From Goodreads:

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.

A Sweet Reminder to be Thankful from Beth Revis - Giveaway

Hey friends,

Beth Revis is hosting a giveaway in honor of Thanksgiving and those that were there for her during the writing and publishing process.

She states:

I've got a lot to be thankful for--this year, the dream I've held dear for most of my life came true with the publication of my first novel. And in all honesty--it's been even better than I dreamed.

So this month, in honor of Thanksgiving and all that I've got to be thankful for, I want to thank you, the wonderful people who've been with me on this insanely glorious journey. And to do that, I've turned to some of the fantastic friends I've made along the way.

I tracked down every author I thanked in my acknowledgements--the ones who blurbed me, the ones who critiqued me, the ones who became my friends, and I got a signed copy of each of their books. Add that to a copy of Across the Universe and an ARC of A Million Suns, and this giveaway is...HUGE. 19-signed-books-plus-swag-and-more HUGE.

It includes:

*SIGNED Advance Reader Copy of A Million Suns

*SIGNED paperback of Across the Universe

-Swag: bookmarks, bracelet, pin button, and poster

*A box of Turkish Delight (to celebrate the book I am most grateful for)

*SIGNED paperback of Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

-Signed bookmark of Supernaturally

*SIGNED hardback of Graveminder by Melissa Marr

*SIGNED paperback of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

-Swag from Carrie

*SIGNED paperback of When Mike Kissed Emma by Christine Marciniak

*SIGNED paperback of Solstice by PJ Hoover

*PRE-ORDER of Incarnate by Jodi Meadows, with SIGNED bookplate

-Stickers for Incarnate trading cards for Solstice

*SIGNED hardback of Memento Nora by Angie Smibert

*SIGNED hardback of The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

*SIGNED hardback of Possession by Elana Johnson

*SIGNED paperback of XVI by Julia Karr

*SIGNED hardback of Hourglass by Myra McEntire

*SIGNED hardback of The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell

-Bookmarks, swag, and a signed bookplate from Saundra

(which you could use for the sequel, The Springsweet)

*SIGNED hardback of The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

*SIGNED hardback of Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

*SIGNED hardback of Wither by Lauren de Stefano

-That includes a hand-written sneak-peek of the sequel, Fever!

*SIGNED hardback of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

*SIGNED paperback of The Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker

-Swag from Matt Blackstone, Keri Mikulski, Stacia Kehoe, Helen Landalf, Caroline Starr, Carrie Harris, Sonia Gensler, Ruta Sepetys, Terry Johnson, Kristen Hubbard, Sara Bennet Wealer, and Kim Harrington--much of is signed!

Not only will one lucky person get this amazing package, but there will also be four runner-ups with their own packages!

Entering is easy, just tell people about a book you're thankful for, include a link to the contest on her blog, the graphic up top, and you're qualified.


This one took me awhile to figure out. I've always been surrounded by books in one form or another. So, narrowing it down to a few was difficult, let alone one. Finally, I picked one that really brought my family together.

The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

I was in high school at the time of its release. My brother was in 5th grade and his class was reading chapters from the book daily. I'd never dipped into the "young adult" section of books before and really didn't think much about it. However, my brother was not an avid reader. He always had something better to do than sit down and read a book. I realized there might be something with these books when I came home from after-school practice and found him on the couch with the book in his lap. I was actually quite floored. I made a mental note to get around to the book then. (Overachiever, barely had time to breathe in high school.)

It wasn't until the first movie came out that I got suckered into reading it. My Mom and brother saw the movie in the theater with a couple of his friends. When they got home, Mom was so fidgety and hyper! I can remember her saying to me, "Nik, you are going back with me to see this movie! You are just like the girl in it. She has 'I read it in...' in every one of her sentences!"

I read Goblet of Fire that weekend, went to the Tuesday night showing of the movie, and bought the first three books on Wednesday. I was completely enthralled with the series and genre itself. For the first time a book had brought me and my brother together on common ground and introduced me to a new line of books that was so fun to read. After this period of time, all three of us rotated the next new book around and it really set the scene for many books/series that came out later.

The connection and introduction that this book gave me to my family and the genre is what makes me thankful for it. It's also a series that got many children back into the spirit of reading in a time that technology was just beginning to take over our every day lives. My mom drilled the advice of "Being able to read is the key to an education, Nik. An education is something that will always help you in some way and it's very hard to take away from you." I will always support books in general for that reason. It makes me thankful that they are there to encourage
literacy by the wonderful worlds that are created by the authors!