In My Mailbox #43

IMM is a weekly meme inspired by Alea at the Pop Culture Junkie and hosted by the wonderful Kristi at The Story Siren.  All links are to Goodreads.

Remember last week I said I was NOT buying any books to save for BEA?  Well, I didn't spend a lot (many good deals in Amazon) and I received amazing books for review this week.

Library

Perception by Kim Harrington - Perception is book number two in the Clarity series and I love book one.  Can't wait to see what will happen in this one!

Purchased (or free) for Kindle 

I saw a tweet advertizing these amazing romances for $1.99 and I couldn't resist but getting at least two :)


My Irresistible Earl by Gaelen Foley 

I Love the Earl by Caroline Linden

                           


Peter and the Vampires  by Darren Pillsbury - This book has amazing reviews in Amazon and it sound different and very interesting.

On Little Wings by Regina Sirois - Don't you love this cover?  Is adorable, let you know if you read it.

Kristin Cashore eSampler by Kristin Cashore - I've read Graceling and Fire and, of course, I cannot wait for Bitterblue.  This sampler has exclusive content, from Kristin's blog: "plus an extra thingamajig: some (silly!) letters that Bitterblue, Katsa, Raffin, Bann, and Po wrote to each other during the spring before Bitterblue's 18th birthday (in other words, in the spring before the events of Bitterblue take place)."

For Review

Yesterday by C.K. Kelly Martin - This promises to be an amazing addition to dystopian books everywhere.

Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier - This appears to be a fey related fantasy and it sounds truly amazing, can't wait to read it!

Velveteen by Daniel Marks - Look at this cover!  Pretty awesome, right? And the premises of the book are great too, I'm curious to read a book where the main character is already dead :(

Flutter by Gina Linko - Flutter sounds like a great read, it has to do with time travel and there is a mystery involved too.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan - An imaginary friend turned real boy, sound like a fairy tale :)

Thank you to Random House and Konopf Books for approving these books for me in NetGalley!

Won (for review) from Goodreads

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins - Angels and demons are right up my alley, I love this type of book and the gorgeous cover doesn't hurt either.

Wrecked by Anna Davis - Another amazing cover and the book sound mysterious and full of awesomeness!


Thank you to Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster for these ARCs!

What is in your mailbox this week?

 Remember to enter Reading with ABC's Shower of Books Giveaway here

Discussion: Books versus eBooks

Two years ago my husband gave a Kindle for Christmas.  At the time he was in Iraq and he asked me what I wanted and I told him about the upcoming eReaders (in 2009 I only knew about the Kindle and the Sony) and wise man that he is, he decided on the Kindle.  Sadly my poor hubby thought that since I had a eReader, I would never buy a "real" book again. 


There are advantages and disadvantages to both eReaders and Books.  Here are some of the things I like and dislike about both:

Meet Billy, my book shelves 

Books

• I love to see the covers, in color and in all their splendor
• I can let my friends borrow my books and they can also enjoy them.  On the same token, I can borrow books (mostly from the library)
• I find it a lot easier to re-read books this way and it's also easier to bookmark my favorite parts
• I love going to the bookstore and spend a nice, quiet hour browsing about
• I don't like how bulky they can be 

eBooks (in this case my Kindle)

• It is so compact that it makes the ideal traveling companion
• I can fit an enormous amount of books (more than 150 books and counting) in a minimal amount of space 
• I have a Kindle App in my Android phone and in my husband's iPad, that way I always have a book available
• Books are more inexpensive and even free 
• You never loose your place as it bookmarks your last "page" and sincs to other devices you might have used

• On the other hand, it makes it harder to find my favorite part or back track when I'm confused about something
• Sometimes holding a book is just better

I'm not saying that one way is better than the other, only that they both have their good and not-so-good things :)  Still, my hubby cannot understand why we will have to go to Ikea soon and buy another "Billy" book shelf since I'm running out of space again (luckily we have a big basement!) At least this is a good addiction, right?

What do you think?  Do you prefer eBooks or Books?  Do you own an eReader? 

Remember to enter Reading with ABC's Shower of Books Giveaway here

Feature and Follow Friday

Feature and Follow Friday is an awesome blog-hop hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read

This week's features are Amy @ Amy's Book World  and Word Spelunking this week's question is:

Fight! Fight! If you could have two fictional characters battle it out (preferably from books), who would they be and who do you think would win?

This is a though one.... I don't think I ever consider this before.  I think that Ellie from Angelfire and Riley from The Demon Trapper's Daughter would have a great battle, both being used to hunt demons and they are both really awesome heroines.  Sorry that's all I can think of right now :)

Who would you pick for a battle?

Showers of Books Giveaway Hop

They say April Showers Bring May Flowers!

This April will find you showered in books during the "Showers of Books" Giveaway Hop!

Hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & One A Day Y.A.

Hop Rules:

• You must host a giveaway on your site, you are responsible for obtaining a prize for giveaway and taking care of the shipping charges.
• You must giveaway something a reader, author or blogger would enjoy.
• Your giveaway post must include the hop image & linky (or links to the host's sites if you can't get the linky to work).
• Please only 1 mandatory entry (up to 5 optional extra entries).
• Your post must be live by 12:01 EST on April 20th.
• The giveaway must be specifically for this hop.
• Your site must be family friendly - no erotica or 18+ sites.

Now to Reading with ABC's Giveaway!  You can win one of the awesome books below. Yes, the giveaway is international as long as The Book Depository delivers to you.

Team Abnegation $100 Giveaway!

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Series: Book #1
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books/ HarperCollins
Release Date: May 3, 2011


Book Summary:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

COMING SOON!

Title: Insurgent
Author: Veronica Roth
Series: Book #2
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books/ HarperCollins
Release Date: May 1, 2012

ONE CHOICE
A CHOICE BECOMES A SACRIFICE
A SACRIFICE BECOMES A LOSS
A LOSS BECOMES BECOMES A BURDEN
A BURDEN BECOMES A BATTLE
WILL YOU SURVIVE OR WILL IT DESTROY YOU?

To celebrate the release of Insurgent, Harper Collins is sponsoring a click through challenge. 50 Blogs have been selected to promote the release of Insurgent by driving traffic to specific links.

Team Abnegation's goal is to get the most clicks to these links:

Faction News Site: http://bit.ly/abnegationfaction
HarperTeen Insurgent Page: http://bit.ly/choose_abnegation



To help Team Abnegation reach our goal I Am A Reader, Not A Writer has organized this giveaway for a $100 Amazon Gift Code.

This giveaway runs from April 18th to 30th. You can enter daily to increase your odds of winning.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting on Wednesday: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale (Princes Academy #2)

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

in which we have the opportunity to let others know about books that we are eagerly waiting for.

Title: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale
Published by: Bloomsbury USA
Release date: August 21, 2012


Coming down from the mountain to a new life in the city seems a thrill beyond imagining. When Miri and her friends from Mount Eskel set off to help the future princess Britta prepare for her royal wedding, she is happy about her chance to attend school in the capital city. There, Miri befriends students who seem so sophisticated and exciting . . . until she learns that they have some frightening plans. They think that Miri will help them, that she should help them. Soon Miri finds herself torn between loyalty to the princess and her new friends’ ideas, between an old love and a new crush, and between her small mountain home and the bustling city. 

Picking up where Princess Academy left off, this incredible stand-alone story celebrates the joys of friendship, the delight of romance, and the fate of a beloved fairy tale kingdom.

Why I want to read it: I LOVE Princess Academy and I had no idea it was going to have a sequel. I also love Shannon Hale's writing, her stories are so good and her writing is beautiful.

What are you waiting for this week?

Top Ten Tips for New Book Bloggers

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish

I still consider myself to be a “New Blooger” even though Reading with ABC will turn a year next month.  Amazing huh!  I have an awesome celebration in the works for all of you, so stay tuned.  Sorry for the rambling, so back on topic, these are some of the things that I found helpful:

1.  Care about your readers – Most of us have a blog because we like to share our love for books and reading with others, make sure that shows!  Reply to comments, visit other blogs, make friends. 

2.  Google is your best friend – if you don’t know how to do something, use Google!  I’ve found amazing tips on blogging and on Blogger this way.

3.  Make your blog a pleasant place to be – Yes, you should love your blog appearance, but keep in mind that you are not the only person that has to look at it.  For the most part people don’t like clutter (think about visiting a friend’s house for the first time and how you will be judging everything).  Make your blog an expression of yourself, but make an effort to make it pleasant, easy to navigate, easy to find, easy to load, and easy to comment.  This is probably common sense, but be professional and respectful.

4.  If you can’t do it yourself hire someone to do it for you – I am not the most technical oriented person in the world.  I wasn’t happy with my blog’s appearance so I hired the fabulous Hafsah from Icey Designs to make a custom design for me.  It was a painless, fast and inexpensive process and I love my blog now! (I hope you do too :-)

5.  ARCs don’t fall from the sky – If you started a book blog just to get ARCs, I suggest you re-think your motives.  I started my blog at a moment in my life that I know if was going to be challenging to do so (I’m taking my last class for a graduate certificate now), so I really don’t have time to request ARCs from publishers.  I do enjoy ARCs in eBook format from NetGalley, and that is a nice perk.

6.  Having a blog is hard work that you do for free – If I told you that your boss wants you to work 10 extra hours a week for free, would you do it?  I can hear you saying “of course not”, but this exactly what book bloggers do.  I believe that I work on my blog for about 10-15 hour a week and I still feel like I’m not doing a good job keeping up, but I just don’t have the time right now if I still want to read. 

7.  If you can, turn captcha off! – Both Blogger and Wordpress have spam detectors.  I don’t know about you but sometimes I can’t figure out what those weird words are and by the time I have to try it three times, I just won’t comment.  If you have to use one, be nice about it like The Muggle’s Magical Book Blog, she has something called ‘sweet captcha’ that is actually fun to use (versus annoying).

8.  Use spellchecker and proofread – English is my second language, so I probably need more help than most, but I typically write my posts in Word first.  Word catches most of my spelling and grammar errors, which is fantastic.  I try to proofread and edit as I go too, I’m sure I still make mistakes, but I try my hardest not to.

9.  Followers are great, but they are not everything – Don’t get me wrong I LOVE my followers; I love comments, feedback and suggestions.  BUT numbers are not everything.  Don’t get obsessed with getting bigger numbers if it means you are compromising quality or molding your blog to be something you never intended it to be.  

10. Use other sites and social media to network – Your blog is wonderful (after all is all yours, right?), but you should also take advantage of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook.  Link your reviews to automatically post to your Twitter account. Sign up for Networked Blogs and Linky, provide easy was for people to follow you. Post your reviews in at least Goodreads and Amazon.  Get out there and make friends!!

I hope you find the information helpful!  What is in your Top Ten this week?

Bookmark Monday #5

I don't know about you but I probably own a good number of bookmarks.  I think this might be the case of all bookish people, but the problem is that I can never find one when I need it.  I end up using whatever I can find - receipts, post-in notes, ribbon, take out menus - because I really don't like to bend the pages of my books (and I often borrow them from the library.)

I though it would be fun to share with you what exactly I am using as a bookmark every Monday.  Today I'm reading The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams. I am using a an actual bookmark that "C" brought home from school that says "April".

Please leave a comment to share your bookmark with me! Oh, and let me know if you like to see this feature every week or even see it as a meme /hop. If you are reading an eBook, please comment about your eReader's cover or on what iinteresting things in your cover or case.

What are you using as a bookmark today?