Chronicle Books Haul-idays giveaway

Chronicle books is running it's 2nd annual giveaway, where 1 lucky blogger will win their choice of $500 worth of books.  They are also giving away $500 worth of books to one lucky person who comments on someone's blog post about the giveaway.  They are also offering $500 worth of books to the winning bloggers
charity of choice.

This means you can take part in one of two ways:

If you have a blog:
Post a list of Chronicle Books valued at up to $500 that you’d like to haul in, and you’ll be automatically entered into a drawing to WIN your list of books! And, one of your readers who comments on the post will win the list too!
Last day to submit entries is December 2nd!

Check out the publisher’s Web site and make a list of books up to $500.

AND, officially sign up at the Chronicle site with your post url here.

If you don't have a blog, or are simply looking for my entries:
Visit other blogs for your chance to win a haul of Chronicle Books! Each of these blogs has posted a list of books valued up to $500! One blogger and one commenter on the winning post will each WIN the list!

so, here are my picks:

Setting the Scene - $60.00

F in Exams - $9.95

Kokeshi Kimonos - $17.99

Hong Kong Comics - $25

The Games We Played - $24.95

The Art of Vintage DC Comics - $18.95

The Jedi Path - $19.95

The Art of Pixar - $50.00

Cartoon Modern - $40.00

The Art of Instruction - $35.00

Wookiee Cookies - $18.99

The Wildlife of Star Wars - $22.95

Art of the Modern Movie Poster - $75.00

Rogue Leaders - $60.00

The Art of Star Wars Comics - $18.95

That is $497.68 worth of books.  Not quite as close as last year (I had $499.59 then), but I'm still pretty close.

If you've posted your list on your blog, please let me know in a comment, I'd love to take a look.

The book I'm most thankful for

Author Beth Revis is having a great, amazing giveaway on her website, and all you have to do to enter is write a blog post about the book that you are most interested in, and fill in the form on this POST.




So, What book am I most thankful for?  Well, I could say Harry Potter because I fell in love with that series, and never tire of the story, bit I think I need to go back a little further than that.  If you've followed my blog, you may have seen this book on one of my Childhood Favorites reviews.  Its the book that made me fall in love with reading and storytelling, written by an author who is one of my all time favorites: Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Why do I love this series?  Well it's kind of hard to say what first made me fall in love with it.  I was young when I first read it, but I remember falling in love with both Anne and the plot of the story.  I loved her friends and adored her love interest.  It set the ground work for what I look for any any story of any genre that I read.  (A good plot and good characters)

My Top 5 things about Halloween

I love fall and I love Halloween, so what are my favorite things about Halloween?
5. Dolloween...ok, no one outside of my small group of doll collectors in Michigan has ever heard about it, but when I think of Halloween it is always associated with what we called Dalloween.  A Halloween party by all of the Michigan ball-joined doll collectors, where we all brought all of our dolls, the only time of year you'd ever see that many dolls in one place at one time.. 

4. The Candy.  I mean, really, who doesn't love the Halloween candy?  I don't go Trick-or-treating anymore, because I'm too old, and I don't pass out candy because I live in an apartment with a locked security door, but I work at a grocery store and get to eat lots of candy during our Halloween events.

3. Which leads directly into my next favorite thing about Halloween...Trick-or-treating.  I use to love getting dressed up and going around the neighborhood with my friends, and not just for the candy, but the whole experience.  As I got older, I loved being on the other end of that experience, being the one passing out the candy.

2.  The costumes.  The cool looks that others come up with , the chance to be someone else for a brief moment, its what Halloween is all about.

1. my absolute favorite thing about Halloween, though, are the pumpkins.  I love carving them (one year my roommate and I carved about 10-15 of various sizes) and I love seeing what others are able to do with them, especially those who can sculpt the flesh of a pumpkin into things I never knew a pumpkin could be...

2 Weeks, 3 Book Signings, Total Awesomeness

This has been a great couple of weeks, and it makes me so happy that I live in Lansing.
It started out with the "Smart Girls Kick It" tour, which made its final stop in Lansing. I was thrilled when I heard they were coming, since I missed Kelley Armstrong the first time she came through this area. I was beyond thrilled when I realized that this was the only stop where Carrie Ryan joined them. I got there an hour before the signing, and stayed four hours after it started, so I could get all of my Armstrong books signed. It was a great signing, they women were all entertaining, and had a great banter. I really hope that they make it this way again sometime. I don't want to go into what they discussed since I can't remember what they wanted kept secret. I will say that they did a lightening round of questions, where you could ask anything (the more embarrassing the better) that they could answer in thirty seconds. Very amusing. One of the great things about the signing (and there were many) is that almost all of the authors there had a story in Enthralled, so it was like having a souvenir of this signing in particular, getting them all to sign it.

This signing was followed by a signing last Thursday with Lisa McMann, promoting her new books, The Unwanteds.

It was really interesting listening to her talk about how involved her family is in her writing process.  Her son even drew a postcard that she is giving away as a limited edition with the book, and she's hoping that will be giving away new limited edition cards with each subsequent book in the series (looking like 7 right now).  I was so worried that my copy of The Unwanteds wouldn't arrive in time for the signing, since I ordered it from Barnes & Noble's website, on a 1-3 day shipping, and it took 5 days to arrive!  It arrived the day of the signing. 

Today, I was lucky enough to go to another signing.  This time Mike Mullin came promoting his debut novel, Ashfall.  Only four people showed up for the signing, but this meant that we really got to have a great discussion with him, learning a lot about his passion for Super Volcanoes, his writing process, his research, and what dystopian novels he'd recommend (including The Hunger Games, Epitaph Road, XVI, and Bumped, as well as classics like Z is for Zachariah).  He did a taekwondo brick break for us, at the beginning and the end of our discussion.  When he signed our books, he also signed a piece of the broken cement for us all, its definitely the most unique souvenir from a signing that I've ever gotten.  It might make a good bookend. 

Collection of Ball-Jointed Dolls

Another contest on Princess Bookie's blog.  This time you write about what you collect and why. 
Well, I do love to collect books and manga of course, and I have tons of them.
 The one thing that I really love to collect though, is Asian Ball Jointed Dolls.  I adore all of mine, and often wonder where I can get money to buy more.  
Here are a few pictures of my collection:


cause this is a book blog, how about a doll in front of a book (cause my little vampire looked cute in front of it)


Trying to help me get money for more dolls and books...lol


some of my dolls and some of my manga


a large part of my collection


just cause he's cute...lol

Yeah, I love my collection of dolls.

Mini-challenge: Favorite 5 of 2011

Another challenge at Princess Bookie.  This time, you have to tell the top five books that you've read in 2011.  And the winner will receive a mystery box of books.

My favorites are:

1. The Hunger Games (the whole series, I'm counting it as one)

I don't really think that I have to explain why this made my list.  My friend kept telling me that I needed to read these books, and I kept thinking I would eventually.  I'm really glad I finally did.

2. Leviathan (and Behemoth)

I bought this book because I loved the cover.  When I finally read it I absolutely fell in love with it.  The whole world is beautifully built and described, and I love the pictures in it.

3. Firelight

I seriously wanted to read this book, and couldn't really explain why.  I'm just glad that I did, because i really enjoyed it.

4. Forgotten

At first I didn't have any interest in this book, but I picked up a free sample of it at my local bookstore and it intrigued me.  To my surprise I really enjoyed it. 

5. The Gathering

I am a huge Kelley Armstrong fan, and this first book in her new YA series was not a disappointment.  It just makes me want to read more.

Mini-Challenge: Scariest Word

As Part of Princess Bookie's Contest Craze, The Non Reluctant Reader is hosting a mini-contest called Scariest Word.

For this mini-contest you had to:

• Open a book you are currently reading.
• Turn to page 13th Chapter.
• Scan for the scariest word.
• Type the word into a Google Images search, and select a picture that you can stand.

My Book is Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong.

The scariest word in my chapter was Zombie

Mini-Challenge: Lucky Number 7

As Part of Princess Bookie's Contest Craze, The Elliot Review is hosting a mini-contest called Lucky Number 7.
For this mini contest you have to:

• Open a book you are currently reading.
• Turn to page 7.
• Count to the 7th word.
• If the word is an article (a, an, the, etc), go to the next real word.
• Type the word into a Google Images search, and select a picture that you can stand.

My book is Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

The 7th word was to, so I went to the next word: Constantinople.
My picture:

How I said goodbye to Borders

Borders hasn't exactly been my bookstore of choice for years.  There was never an actual Borders here, and Waldenbooks closed about four years ago.  Still, I would go to Ann Arbor frequently for the shopping (gotta love the used bookstore there...Dawn Treader) and we never failed to stop at Borders.  So when I heard it was closing I vowed to visit there as much as I could before they closed.  My total savings at Borders was about $700.

When the sale was at 60% I didn't pick up much, just three books (not pictured):
       Changeless by Gail Carriger;  Blameless by Gail Carriger; Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

When I went back the signs said 70%, but I actually got everything for 80% so I bought quite a bit more (Oh and by buying 10 or more items I saved an extra 15%).  Including these YA books:
         Wither by Lauren DeStefano;                   Possession by Elana Johnson; 
          Forgotten by Cat Patrick;                        Hourglass by Myra McEntire; 
         The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith;      Crossing Over by Anna Kendall
         Rotters by Daniel Krauss
And these manga:
       Arisa 4-5; Love*Com - 6; Shaman King - 24




The final time that I went back all YA books and manga were $1.00 so my friend and I hit up three different Borders (one was still at 80%) and I totally cleaned house (at the two stores with $1.00 books I also saved an extra 15%)  The most I paid was 3.30 on three manga, the least I paid was only $0.40!!! 
I picked up these books (all for $1 or less): 

     The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier              Heartless by Gail Carriger

     Silver Zombie by Carole Nelson Douglas           Timeless by Alexandra Monir

     Spice & Wolf vol. 2 by Isuna Hasekura             Gone by Lisa McMann

     Red is for Remembrance     AND        Silver is for Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz

     The Line by Teri Hall                                        

     Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

     Monster High                      AND        The Ghoul Next Door by Lisi Harrison

     Tangled Threads by Jennifer Estep                               

     The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the seas by Fuyumi Ono

     Daywatch by Sergei Lukyanenko                                

     Leven Thumps and the Ruins of Alder by Obert Skye

     Original Sin by Lisa Desrochers                          XVI by Julia Karr

     Misfit by Jon Skovron                                        Siren by Tricia Rayburn

     Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton           

     In Dreams Begin by Skyler White

     The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana Oliver; The Dark Devine by Bree Despain

     Angelfire by Cournety Allison Moulton              

     Revelations by Melissa De La Cruz

     13 to Life by Shannon Delany                           

     Guardian of the Gate by Michelle Zink

And these manga at 80%:
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle - 28; Love*Com - 5; Peace Maker Kurogane - 4

And these manga at $1.00 or less!
             13th Boy - 2;                   Angel Diary - 13;                Black Bird 2, 5; 
             B.O.D.Y. 5-8, 10;            Demon Sacred 1-3;            Dengeki Daisy 1-3;  
             Dragon Girl -1;                Hero Tales - 2;                    Honey Hunt - 5; 
             Legend - 3, 6, 9-10;        Oh My Goddess 36-37;      Mixed Vegetables 7-8; 
             Nana 17, 19;                   Ouran High School Host Club - 14; 
             Panic X Panic - 2;           Papillon - 5/6;                    Portrait of M & N 1, 3
             Rin-ne - 4-5;                   S*A - 9-12;                        Sakura Hime - 3; 
             Sand Chronicles - 8;        Shaman King - 27-29, 31;   
             Spiral Bond of Reasoning - 6-7;                              
             The Stellar Six - 1         
             Stepping on Roses - 2-4;                                           Sugarholic - 2; 
             Tsubasa those with wings - 2-3;                                 Vampire Knight 8-9; 
             Very! Very! Sweet - 1, 6;                                          Zombie-loan 7-8, 10

Mini-Challenge: Top five 2012 books

As part of a mini challenge at http://www.princessbookie.com/2011/09/contest-craze-mini-challenge.html

I'm writing a post about the top five books that I'm looking forward to in 2012.
1. The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong due out April 2012

2. Fever by Lauren DeStefano due out in February 

 3. When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen due in February

4. Cinder by Marissa Meyer due out in January

5. Insurgent by Veronica Roth due out in May

I'm back after a really long absence

Thank you all for still following, even though I have been absent for awhile.  I know my last post promised that I was back and would start posting soon, but unfortunately my family suffered a loss shortly after that post was written, and I've been dealing with that.  I believe that I'm back now, though things will be slow at first, just a post or two a week for awhile.  Hopefully I'll do a giveaway in a month or so.  Winners from my last giveaways were contacted, and were Heather and Tenku. If you have won a giveaway and haven't received your book, just let me know and I'll see what I can do, its possible someone got missed in the jumble.  

Sorry about the absence

I'm really sorry that I've been away a lot recently and haven't even posted the winners of the last two giveaways.  I will have that done by the end of this week, for sure.  What ever virus I have has been hitting me hard and I haven't had a lot of energy to do much, but I'm optimistic that I can get back on track soon, so I hope that you'll stick with me a bit longer.  I have a few books that I really enjoyed that I'll be reviewing very soon, as well as some manga.  And of course there will be a giveaway coming up in a few weeks. 

Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Book Giveaway

Ooops this was supposed to be posted last night.  Not sure if I'll get back on the list for the hop or not, but I'll post this at least for my blog followers anyway. :)

ts Time for another Awesome Giveaway Hop.  I'm so glad that you stopped by!!!

For this giveaway I decided to giveaway one of the books that I am looking forward to buying in May, as well as two that I just purchased that are out this month.  This will be ordered from the Book Depository if you are international.  If you are in the US, I reserve the right to order the book from a store of my choice.


So what Book have I decided to giveaway?  How about one of these:

  To enter all you have to do is fill out this FORM!
Since this is a quick hop, I'll make it easy.  Just be a follower and tell me what book you want if you win.  You'll get 5 extra entries if you were a follower before March 1.  Good luck, and don't forget to check out all the other blogs!

 

Favorite Manga #1: Sailor Moon

Synopsis: 
Usagi is a normal, ditzy high school girl, until she finds out she's the reincarnated Princess of the Moon, with the power to transform into the magical girl, Sailor Moon.  With the help of the other senshi (warriors) who are all named after the planets, and are the reincarnation of her soldiers on the moon, she fights to save Earth, and later the galaxy.  All while dealing with school and falling in love!

Review:

Characters:
Usagi (Sailor Moon): In the beginning, Usagi is a ditzy, crybaby.  She's not the brightest girl.  But she's kind and understanding.  While she might not enjoy fighting at first, she loves her new friends, and eventually embraces her role. 







Ami (Sailor Mercury): A classmate of Usagi, she's a shy, extremely smart bookworm.  She's also the most level headed of the group, and wants to take care of people.  She's also the technophile of the group.





 


Rei (Sailor Mars): She's serious, and often gets annoyed by the fact that Usagi is such an air head.    She works as a shinto priestess which gives her special powers to dispel evil spirits even before she became a senshi.







 
Makoto (Sailor Jupiter):  The athletic member of the group, she's very tall and strong.  She lives by herself since her parents died years before, and enjoys domestic duties as well.

Minako (Sailor Venus):  She was the leader of the four guardians and dreams of becoming a pop idol, and actively pursues this dream.








Plot:
***Sailor Moon has been out of print in the US for a few years, but starting in September of this year it's being re-released by a new company, which will hopefully mean better translations, and of course it won't be flipped.***
Sailor Moon was the first anime that I watched, the first manga I read, and even one of the first J-dramas I ever saw.  I'll admit the stories all meld a bit in my head, since its been a couple of years, and I sadly borrowed the manga instead of buying it, so I can't reread it, yet.  But one thing will always hold true.  I love this story and I love these characters.  Yes, the magical girl defending the Earth has been done before and since, but there's something about Sailor Moon that draws you in and makes you remember it.  There's a reason that you go to an anime convention today, 14 years after Sailor Moon ended in Japan, and still find Sailor Moon goods at most booths.  I am a serious fan, probably obsessive at one point, since half my walls were covered with Sailor Moon posters (I still have a few hanging up).  I highly recommend if you like manga, especially manga for girls, that you read this one. 

Art:

I started with the anime and I'll admit that the manga art was a bit jarring at first, since it is a slightly older series.  There are manga out now that are prettier than this one, but I still enjoy the art style here.  It really grows on you.  I'd give it a 4 out of 5.