In My Mailbox Wannabe

This is the day of the week in which I get sad...
Cause every book blogger gets at least a book to review
(and to do their IMM post)
and I don't, cause I live far from the rest of them.

Far, as in very far.
Patagonia-end-of-the-world far.

If there's any author who is reading this,
I tell you:

You can send me a copy of your book,
and I promise you it will be reviewed!
And I'll pass it along to all of my friends, and they will end up liking it too :o)
(I do that a lot)
It doesn't matter that it takes 2, 3 weeks to get to me,
I can wait :o)
(winning books in giveaways and waiting for them taught me to be patient)

Cause there are some books I am dying to read.
Such as:

BEWARE
*LONG LIST OF WANTED BOOKS AHEAD*

*The Maggie Stiefvater books
*Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margie Stohl
*Hush, Hush, by Becca Fitzpatrick
*Ash, by Malinda Lo
*Crazy Beautiful, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
*Another Faust, by Daniel and Dina Nayeri
*As You Wish, by Jackson Pearce
*Rampant, by Diana Peterfreund
*Give Up The Ghost, by Megan Crewe
*Every Vampire Academy book, by Richelle Mead
*The David Levithan books (haven't read any, sadly)
*The Immortal Series, by Alyson Noël
*Oh.My.Gods and Goddess Boot Camp, by Tera Lynn Childs
*The Cinderella Society, by Kay Cassidy
*Ballads of Suburbia, by Stephanie Kuehnert

*Never Slow Dance With a Zombie by E. Van Lowe

And many, many more...

So, if you, by any chance, said: "Oh! That Argentine blogger might want this book,
even if it is a bit battered"
Go on and send it!
I don't care if you spilled some coffee over it, just as long as I can read it :o)

THANK YOU!
***

On another note, I signed up to read online ARCs (thanks to whoever invented this!)
and so, I'll be reading:
-Crazy Beautiful, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
-Once a Witch, by Carolyn MacCullough
- Flash Burnout, by L. K. Madigan
-Front and Centre, by Catherine Murdock

I'm gonna go read Graceling now.

September Zombie Week!

(from septemberzombies.blogspot.com)

One solid week devoted to zombiness... Yes, that's a word. There will be book reviews, giveaways, contests and lot's of cool zombie related activity. Oh, yes, and my first YA novel, Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, has just come out. I will be talking about it later in the week. I'm so excited I could suck somebody's brains right now--I know, gross. But you get my point. I am extremely excited about my new book and about Zombie Week. So let the fun and games begin. You'll be hearing from me again tomorrow. Buahahahaaa! That's my sinister laugh. I know, zombies don't laugh. At least not any that I have encountered. Well guess what? This week, zombies can laugh. How cool is that?

I'll be joining this week by posting zombie related posts,
and you should do the same!
Films, books, and everything zombie!

Check out the cool giveaways at September Zombies!

Are you joining?

Waiting on Wednesday #3

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking The Spine

Summary: (from Amazon)

Gabry lives a quiet life. As safe a life as is possible in a town trapped between a forest and the ocean, in a world teeming with the dead, who constantly hunger for those still living. She’s content on her side of the Barrier, happy to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. But there are threats the Barrier cannot hold back. Threats like the secrets Gabry’s mother thought she left behind when she escaped from the Sisterhood and the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Like the cult of religious zealots who worship the dead. Like the stranger from the forest who seems to know Gabry. And suddenly, everything is changing. One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. Now Gabry only knows one thing: she must face the forest of her mother’s past in order to save herself and the one she loves.

This is the sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth!

Release Date:
March 9, 2010
(not so far from now, YAY!)

Happy Birthday Pretty Book!

Today's the release date for these amazing books!
Happy Birthday to all of you!
Can't wait to read you!

Love is the Higher Law, by David Levithan

Snap, by Carol Snow

Blood Promise, by Richelle Mead

Diary of a Witness, by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Rampant, by Diana Peterfreund

As You Wish, by Jackson Pearce

Another Faust, by Daniel & Dina Nayeri

(all links lead to Amazon)

Living Your Five Worldwide Site Launch!

These awesome four authors have joined forces and created a site with a unique purpose:

Living Your Five is all about knowing what matters most to you and making a difference in your world in ways large and small.

Alyson Noël, Becca Fitzpatrick, Kay Cassidy and Tera Lynn Childs

will be posting their Fives (or goals) this week, so stay tuned!

Because of this being the site's launch week,
the authors are holding a BIG giveaway
in which you can win:

The lucky grand prize winner will win:

A $100 Barnes & Noble gift card
(because we know you love books!)

A $100 donation in your name to the non-profit of your choice
(because we know you love making a difference!)

And the latest book (or ARC) from each Founding Fiver
(that's four signed books!)

That is really cool!
Just imagine all the books you could buy with those 100 dollars!

But that's not all!

You can also enter to win the latest book (or ARC) from a Founding Fiver by commenting on her debut Five post this week. Here's the launch week schedule:

** Tuesday - Kay shares her Five
** Wednesday - Alyson shares her Five
** Thursday - Becca shares her Five
** Friday - Tera shares her Five

All winners of the daily contests will be announced on Saturday 29th along with the grand prize winner.

So get over to LivingYourFive and make a difference!

Sunday Edition

Here are some of the most talked about things in the book blogging world right now:

1. Bree Despain, author of The Dark Divine, is having a very cool giveaway on her blog.

Qualified participants will be entered into a drawing to win one of three prizes:

1. A pedicure kit complete with my new THE DARK DIVINE nail polish! + An autographed ARC of THE DARK DIVINE + $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble.
2. Signed copy of MY BIG NOSE AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS by Sydney Salter + Signed copy of LIFE IN THE PIT by Kristen Landon
3. A $30 gift card to Barnes & Noble

So, get over to Bree's blog and enter now! Contest ends midnight Aug. 29th.

2.
Everyone's talking about the meaning of this very cute T-shirt.
For those of you who don't know, R.U.H? means Are You Haunted?, which does allusion to Jessica Verday's The Hollow.
What I don't know is the meaning of that 2 over the H. Hmmm.
(picture by Khy @ Frenetic Reader)

3. Harlequin is having a HUGE, and when I say huge I mean massively giganticaly huge (I just made that up), contest in which you can win 10,000 dollars! And a complete Harlequin TEEN prize pack, including a copy of Intertwined, My Soul to Take, Elphame's Choice, an Intertwined t-shirt and a My Soul to Take t-shirt! Now that is amazing!
Unfortunately for me I can't enter, not being a US resident.
But if you live in the US, you most certainly need to enter now!

(i can't enter to win, but i might have lied a little to get this widget here. please grab it and post it on your blog, by just following a simple registration)


4. IHeartMonster is holding a really cool contest, where all you need to do is take a pic of yourself reading a book and send it to her. and you're already participating to win awesome prizes. Click on the button to enter.

5. Kristi @ The Story Siren has posted a very funny vlog on her page, full of mistakes when trying to record a vlog for her IMM feature. I'm sure that most of the people who record this vlogs have had a few mistakes too. Go over to her blog and watch as she tries to make a cool vlog, but fails time and time again.

And Maggie Stiefvater has done the same over at her blog. But she was not recording for an IMM, but to show us the many things she can do, besides from writing. And it's HI-LARIOUS! Go and check it out!

6. Many congratulations to the nominees for the BBAW!

A lot of my favourite blogs have been nominated and I'm super happy for them!
I can't wait to see the final list of nominees!

7. (from popsyndicate.com):

And now for the best: Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely), Alyson Noel (The Immortals series) and Kelley Armstrong (The Summoning) just might be the most incredible chicks ever. Not only do they represent three of the most popular teen authors, not only are they all New York Times Bestsellers, they’re all going on tour. Together.(!)

Got goose bumps yet? It gets so, so much better. In September of 2010, these three ladies are hitting the book tour circuit and eight different cities, and they’re bringing some of their friends. They call it the Smart Chicks Kick It tour, and here are just a few of the brilliant minds joining them: Rachel Vincent (The Morganville Vampires, Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tithe), Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments) and so many more. For the constantly growing list, and to make a desperate plea to have the ladies hit your town, check out their Facebook page: http://bit.ly/FnTGV

I sooo wish I could be there!! Arghhhhhhhhh! Why do I live so far from these amazing people/events/book stores, signing, etc., etc.?

What have you been doing this week?
Are you going to enter these giveaways, cause you'd be a fool if you didn't!

xo,

On Author Interviews

I'm sending e-mails right now to several different authors, trying to get them to answer me a few questions to post up here.

Have you ever done this before? If you have, does is take long for the author to get back to you?
I know I won't get an answer right away, authors are busy people, but who do you think could answer my e-mails?

I'll keep my fingers crossed!
I have some interesting questions for some of them. Hopefully I will at least have one of them answering me.

Cross your fingers for me, and you might look forward to some very cool new features!

Thanks,

My First Teen Tuesday!

(From my post at Teen Tuesday)

Hi everyone! I'm so happy to be posting here for the 1st time!
I had been thinking about what to post over here today, and the idea of Sequels came to mind.

I recently read Marked by PC and Kristin Cast, and I really liked it. (click here to read my review).
Once that one was finished, I started listening to the audiobook for the 2nd part of the series, Betrayed.
Let me tell you that I was really disappointed. I listened up to the 12th chapter, and just put it aside because it wasn't appealing to me at all.
The main character, Zoey, was constsntly reminding us of what had happened in the first book, and that could go on for several minutes.
It's ok to refresh our minds, maybe we've forgotten something, but I felt like half of the book were explanations of why this was happening, and how it was connected to a previous event.

I mean, if we're reading the 2nd book in a series that usually means we've read the 1st. Right? We don't need to be reminded every second of what happened before, or how something came to be.

Another thing I didn't like, was the AB narration. It felt completely drained of emotion, and it was really hard to listen to the female narrator without falling asleep.

This was the only sequel I've ever had problems with. I thought I was going to love it, as I love the 1st book, but then I got my bubble burst.

I'm going to give it one more chance, but if the situation doesn't speed up, I'm going to have to give up on it completely.


Thanks for reading,
leave a thought,
click here to visit Teen Tuesday.

xo,

New Ballad Trailer, by Maggie Stiefvater!

It looks awesome!
Maggie is a very crafty woman :o)
I'd love to read this book, but I don't think it'll come to Arg in the near future.
(it took ten years for the Vampire Diaries to be published in Spain and Arg!)

But I'll try to obtain it by other means!

xo,

I'm sure you all know, but still

Did you know that as part of a promotion for Scott Westerfeld’s new book “Leviathan” set for release on 10/06/09, his book “The Uglies” is available for free download in pdf form from August 5-September 5, 2009?
I already downloaded a copy of this file to read. Word is SW is a great author, and I haven't read any of his books yet. Hopefully this first will make me want to find more of his work!

Click here to go to Simon and Schuster's free download site.

For more information visit ScottWesterfeld.com.

Uglies summary (from scottwesterfeld.com):

Uglies is the first book of the trilogy. The second book is Pretties and the third is Specials. It's about a world in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them supermodel beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny. This seems like a good thing, but it's not. Especially if you're one of the uglies, a bunch of radical teens who've decided they want to keep their own faces. (How anti-social of them.)

Can't wait to start reading it!



ps: have you visited my new blog Monkey Ella?
Go, and take a look at some of my photos!

Take a look at my New Personal Blog!

I will be posting anything random, not book related, over there.
It was time I created it!

Please, go and take a look!
It only has one post, but there will be more, I promise!

Bye!

Today's Book: The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan

Trailer:


How awesome is that!
This is one of the best book trailers I've ever seen!
Amazing!

My Opinion:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a very exciting book, filled with mystery, romance, action, and of course, zombies -or how Carrie called them: the Unconsecrated.
The postapocalyptic world that Ryan created was very believable, and I was able to relate to Mary's longing to see the Outside world, her dreams to see the ocean, a thing that sounded like something out of a fairy tale, too beautiful to be real.
I loved how driven Mary was, she always knew what had to be done in order to get what she wanted. However, she never left those whom she loved aside, but instead, she pushed them forward, made them keep going. Reminded them that hope was not at all lost, that they could -and would- find it once more.
Whatever obstacles Mary encountered, she always knew how to get past them, and this made me root for her throughout this book.

Ryan wrote a very dynamic tale, and when you thought you knew what was coming, she'd spin the story into something else, something either beautiful or very frightening.

If you still haven't read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, shame on you!

Monkey Rating: 5 Monkeys!

Monkeyshines:

*I thank Diane @ The Book Resort for this book, which I won in one of her giveaways.
Thanks Diane!*

Author's Website?
www.carrieryan.com
http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/ (blog)

Fun Facts:

Movie News!
Seven Star Pictures has picked up the film rights for The Forest of Hands and Teeth! Publishers Weekly has more information on the deal here where they report that "Supposedly Seven Star is developing the project for an-as-yet-unnamed A-list starlet, and fast-tracking the project with a first draft of the screenplay already in the works." More information on the Seven Star Pictures website here.

Statistics:

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (March 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385736819
• ISBN-13: 978-0385736817
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces

Get It!
-From Amazon
-From Powell's Books
-From B&N

Love,

Random PhotoBlog

i <3 to take pics.
i <3 my family.
i <3 my friends.
i <3 my mates.

so, i thought to share them all with you.

everyone says they like how i prepare my mates, so i always end up
being the one who serves them
-look at that pastafrola (can you say pastafrola?). mmm, yummy-

look at him. doesn't he look crazy to you?
that's my little brother, I.
he is definitely crazy, but i still heart him <3

another crazy person,
my friend deb
she's pretending to be strong here
deb, honey, we all know you're not
but we still heart you <33

eating this, mmm, good times

-me, flor, and mica-
i look like i'm high, flor looks like she's wondering what the hell she doing here, and mica, well that's just the way she is...

i took this by mistake, but i still heart it <3
to me, it looks like part of an ad or sth

that's it for today
do you have any pics for me to see?
cause i'd love to see them :o)

later!

A thought on YA Lit

This morning (morning for me :p) I was going through my list of the blogs I follow and came across a title that called my attention. It was a post @ The Story Siren, of one of my favourite book blogs out there, that was named "The Dark Side (of Blogging)". So I read it. And couldn't believe what it said.

Someone had had the brilliant idea of sending Kristi a hate mail, telling her she was a bit old to be reading YA, and that she was getting a lot of books, which she shouldn't cause she already had so many, so please, "save some for the rest of us". And that she had to stop blogging and give teen bloggers a chance at getting heard.

Um, hello. I am a teen, I'm 17, and I can guarantee that I get heard. If I want to I can make anyone hear me. Another thing, I love YA Lit, and I don't think I'll stop reading it in a few years, when I'm 30, or 46. If I like a genre, I'll read it. Period.

Like Maggie Stiefvater said on her blog today:

• There's no "this is right for this age." "this is wrong for this age."
• There's this: "This book is right for me." "This book isn't my thing."

They're saying this all started cause Kristi posted a negative review on her blog. I'm assuming "Lena" (hate mail-er) is a friend/supporter of the author's work.

Scrolling down on her blog, I realized she had 220 comments (so far), and that not all of them were nice and supportive.

This comment really stroke me:

"This is not Lena. We are the ones that sent the letter. You all are just desperate to put a label so you assume that this is Lena when it is not.

Story Siren is a selfish, greedy bitch that shouldn't review books. She doesn't know anything about young adult books and her reviews are a failure. Teen bloggers deserve YA books more than she does. Publishers are idiots for sending books to her when the majority of the people that read the books are teenagers.

She is also very petty to put that post up just to get people to defend her. Her review on Immortal is incorrect and she is purposely giving bad reviews because she knows that all her dumb followers will listen to her and not read the book."

Look at that last sentence, saying Kristi's review on Immortal was incorrect. This tells me that I'm right assuming "Lena" is what I said earlier.

You want to know what I think of this? I think these "Anons" (if you had a bit of decency you'd comment with your name, or at least a fake one) have nothing -nothing- better to do, and I'm sure they wanted to draw so much attention to themselves like they are doing, so that this could become a Book Blogging Battle between Kristi's Army and The Anons.

So, I'm not going to pay anymore attention to these people.
Kristi, you shouldn't either. You rock. Period.

Love,

Feliz Día del Niño! (+ Review)

(or: Happy Kid's Day!)

(this bird/duck/animal of some sort looks like it's on crack,
but I love it :P )

Today in Argentina it is Kid's Day, so I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Day, cause even if you're 19, 25, or 47 you'll always have a child within you :o)

And since it's Kid's Day, I have a special review for today.


A Stinky Surprise for Jake the Snake by Shelly Nicholson

Summary:

Jake the Snake is having the “worstest” year of his whole entire life. With an “all day kind of school,” a scary school nurse, a new first grade teacher, plus a stinky new baby; how could things get any worse? All Jake the Snake wants is a shiny new bicycle. Except Mom is too busy decorating for the stinky baby to go shopping for a snazzy bike with dangly streamers. When Jake the Snake barfs all over the clean floor on the first day of school and has to visit scary Nurse Pickadilly, he is sure life couldn’t get any worse. That is, until Grandma Nelson announces that Mom and Dad have gone to the hospital to get the stinky baby! Find out what other stinky surprise is in store for Jake the Snake.

My Opinion:

I loved this book! It was one of the " bestest" children's books I've read in a while.
I could really picture my brothers when they were little in Jake's shoes, wanting a bike instead of a sister! The entire book was very fun to read, but it also touched themes that sometimes worry parents, such as the birth of a new baby, already having a 4/5-year-old, and how their children will react to the new baby. Jealousy is always in these parents' minds, and Shelly's book is a great example of that.
Jake is a very funny, but insecure, kid, who's scared that his Mummy and Daddy won't love him anymore. He'll learn that this is not the case, and will get a few "stinky" surprises along the way.

I Recommend this book to such Parents -the ones who have small kids, and are waiting for a new addition to the family-.

Monkey Rating: 4 Monkeys!

Shelly's Page on Book Blogs
Shelly's MySpace

The Vampire Diaries Challenge

Amy @ My Friend Amy is hosting the L. J. Smith Reading Challenge, which will be a year long challenge, so you can join anytime.

Amy says: "Let's get something out of the way first, though. The Vampire Diaries is NOT Twilight. It's better. It's not a Twilight rip-off. It came first. Okay."
I agree.
But I still love Twilight though, just in a different way.

So here are all the details to this challenge:
What are we reading? L.J. Smith's The Vampire Diaries!
What are we watching? The Vampire Diaries on the CW!
When do we start? September 1st!
When do we have to finish? August 31st, 2010

The only thing that bothers me here, is that, having read the first two books in the series, I know Elena's meant to be blonde, and Nina Dobrev is far from being that.
(left to right: Paul Wesley as 'Stefan Salvatore', Nina Dobrev as 'Elena Gilbert', Ian Somerhalder as 'Damon Salvatore')

Here are the books in the series:
The Awakening (here's my review)
The Struggle (here's my review)
The Fury (here's my review)
Dark Reunion
And the ongoing story in
The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall

She's also having a Button Contest, where you can create a button for this Challenge, and win the 1st book in the series if your button gets chosen!

So, are you joining?
Cause I am, in case you didn't notice... :P

Later,


ps: also, where's Meredith?

I'm in love with...

...this film!
I just finished watching it, and it is now my favourite film of this year (so far).
I liked it even more than HP & the Half Blood Prince (yep, I said HP)
It's funny, and cute, and gross sometimes too... LOL
Now I wanna read the book!
Kat Dennings and Michael Cera make a beautiful couple,
I'd like to read the book to compare film-Nick and Norah to book-Nick and Norah.

Have you seen this film, or read the book?

Anyway, it had been a while since I last saw a film that made me feel like this (not sure how I'm feeling, a mixture of warm and fuzzy, and wanting to kill those mean characters -Tris and Tal find something better to do!-).

Congrats Kat and Michael!
You've made this a film I won't soon forget.

Do you have a film that makes you want to punch those mean characters who get in the way with our main and lovely characters? Cause I really wanted to punch Tris some times (and even Nick for falling into her traps).

I'm downloading the soundtrack right now!
xoxo,

Blogger Interview!

I was interviewed by Jo @ Ink and Paper, a fantasy book reviews blog.
Here's my book blogger interview.
It was really fun to answer her questions. If you'd like to know a bit more about me, and how I started blogging about books, go over to her blog and read the interview!

Enjoy!

Coral (a mini-short story)

Inspired by "wild turkey"'s post on SoGoPro.com, I wrote this little story.
You could read his story before reading mine, or after. I urge you to do it cause it's really nice.

wild turkey's character is a man of the seas, and this is the girl of his dreams.

Coral (by me) :)

There once lived a woman named Coral.
And she loved a man named Red.
He didn’t know she loved him,
But she did anyway.

She was not your average woman,
A very dark secret she kept.
On land she was the most beautiful thing men had ever seen.
But her true nature was shown
When water touched the legs that were not her own.

She’d first seen her love on high seas, and given her heart to a man she’d never met. But their love could never be. It was not right. It was not allowed. Forbidden to speak of.

She’d been watching him every day, always waiting for him at a different bay.
And when she saw him, her heart started pounding,
Never minding what people said about him.
Because she knew his soul, many times she’d seen it.
It was as clear and free and hopeful
As she expected it to be.

For loving a lonely man, she herself was alone. Swimming away from home. Chasing a romantic daydream to the end of the world.
Many times she thought of showing herself in his sight,
For the thing she longed the most, was to be wrapped in his tight
But lovely embrace.

One stormy night, when she was watching the reflection of the stars on the waters, she saw something that set her mind.
She would not lose him, even if that meant letting her loved one see who his saviour was.
What she really was.
She swan quickly to his now sinking ship,
and then he saw something, but only a tip
of her other half.

Could it be? The one he’d been waiting for.

Instead of trying to hide, to run, to scream, he just jumped.
Into the waters.
Toward his love.

xo,

Give Up The Ghost Book Trailer!

Isn't it a great trailer? I think so.
Want to know more about GUTG? Go to Megan Crewe's blog and read all about it!
You can also take a Quiz to see which character you are (I'm like Cass!)

xo,

Create your Debut YA Novel cover!

Thanks to NotNessie @ Today's Adventure, I found this really cool game.
All you have to do is follow the instructions, and you'll have you YA book cover in minutes!

1 – Go to "Fake Name Generator" or click http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/
The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to "Random Word Generator" or click http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml
The word listed under "Random Verb" is your title.

3 – Go to "FlickrCC" or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php
Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

Let 100 Scope Notes know that you made one by commenting here, and it'll be added to the gallery!

Here are my covers (I created more than one, so the 1st is my "debut", and the others are the next ones I "published", LOL):

I really like how this one turned out, and my writer alter ego's name is cool.

Guess who this is?
Clue: it's an artist.

I don't know what to think of this one.
I like how the fonts look, but the back of the girl...

Now you give it a try!
If you do, let me know! I'd love to see your YA debut novel's cover! LOL

xo,


I think I'm going to keep doing this, it was so much fun!
Next ones will be for my short stories!