Lots of activity on the RainTown blog!
Reviews:
Anna and the French Kiss
Across the Universe
Sisters Red
Slice of Cherry
With more to come. Check them out!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Lucy, where the hell did you go?
Ok, I realize it's very uncool to completely move my blog, only to disapear just a few weeks later. So, in like of an apology, let me explain.
I work for a small YA press in Portland, OR, called RainTown Press. I'm the acquisitions editor, but a few months ago I also became the designated Blogmaster (yes, it's going on my business cards). Originally, I had every intent of maintain my own blog in addition to the RainTown blog, but the last month has shown me that this just isn't feasible. The two blogs are just too similar--they both revolve around YA books, and cover essentially the same things.
So, for now, Adventures in Bookland is going on hiatus. I'll still maintain a personal website, but it will be at the old address, and it will fairly boring.
The good (even great?) news is that, if you like my reviews, you can keep following me at the shiny new RainTown Press blog. I'll be slowly transferring my old reviews onto there, but new reviews will be going up every week as well. I'll still be participating in the same memes, plus a few special features of our own. And, I'll occasionally be joined by my awesome co-workers, as they share the great books they've been reading. Best of all, we'll be talking production and process of our own upcoming titles. Trust me, it's gonna be awesome.
To follow me at RainTown Press' new blog, click here.
I work for a small YA press in Portland, OR, called RainTown Press. I'm the acquisitions editor, but a few months ago I also became the designated Blogmaster (yes, it's going on my business cards). Originally, I had every intent of maintain my own blog in addition to the RainTown blog, but the last month has shown me that this just isn't feasible. The two blogs are just too similar--they both revolve around YA books, and cover essentially the same things.
So, for now, Adventures in Bookland is going on hiatus. I'll still maintain a personal website, but it will be at the old address, and it will fairly boring.
The good (even great?) news is that, if you like my reviews, you can keep following me at the shiny new RainTown Press blog. I'll be slowly transferring my old reviews onto there, but new reviews will be going up every week as well. I'll still be participating in the same memes, plus a few special features of our own. And, I'll occasionally be joined by my awesome co-workers, as they share the great books they've been reading. Best of all, we'll be talking production and process of our own upcoming titles. Trust me, it's gonna be awesome.
To follow me at RainTown Press' new blog, click here.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
In My Mailbox (1)
In My Mailbpx is a lovely meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren. These meme gives us a chance to share what books (or bookish things) we've picked up over the last week.
Books
Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins
The DUFF, by Kody Keplinger
City of Ashes, by Cassandra Clare
Cold Magic, by Kate Elliot
Bookish Things
I got a Nook for Christmas, and here it is in all its glory. It's sitting on the protective sleeve I knit for it. I'm really excited to have it. Although I love books, and will never stop buying and reading physical books, the Trekkie in me has been wanting a datapad since I was about five years old, and ereaders are like all my dreams coming true. Next goal: holodecks.
Ok, I'll admit this is a bit of stretch, but I love books, and I love tea...so there you go. Anyway, my old hot pot died about a week ago and, since I don't actually own a normal tea kettle (because of the hot pot...see the cyclical problem here?) I've been having to heat water on the stove in a normal sauce pan, which just lacks so much of the razzle dazzle. So I went to Target and picked up this adorable electric hot pot. It's everything I could want, plus ridiculously cute.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Moving On Up
Welcome to the new home of Adventures in Bookland! I decided to move my blog for a few different reasons.
1 - I wanted the title to appear in the url, instead of my initials
2 - I wanted to differentiate my review self from my professional self
3 - I wanted to learn Blogger
I'm going to talk for a bit about this last reason. I love Wordpress and actually much prefer it to Blogger, at least for the internal controls. It's just so much easier to do everything you want, and to control everything from a meta level. However, there are a few key things which Wordpress can't do, and they were important enough for me to switch over.
One of the things Wordpress can't do is use the Google Follow widget. This wouldn't be a big deal, except that most reviewers right now use Blogger, and thus the Google Follow feature, and it's pretty much becoming the standard. But also, Wordpress won't allow flash or much programing in its widgets, which also means things like Goodreads bookshelves won't show up no matter what you do. I think if you get a paid account, you can use more of these features, but it wasn't worth it to me at this point. I weighed my options, and I'm happy with my choice.
So, if you're think of starting a review blog, go with Blogger. But if you're looking to set up a personal website (perhaps as an author), definitely go with Wordpress, it's much easier to use and has a lot more control. However, Blogger does have a more versatile design program, but it's not perfect. I would have definitely stayed with Wordpress has it offered all the widgets I needed.
So, welcome to the new site! I'm still working on getting my Archived set up, but most everything else in functional!
1 - I wanted the title to appear in the url, instead of my initials
2 - I wanted to differentiate my review self from my professional self
3 - I wanted to learn Blogger
I'm going to talk for a bit about this last reason. I love Wordpress and actually much prefer it to Blogger, at least for the internal controls. It's just so much easier to do everything you want, and to control everything from a meta level. However, there are a few key things which Wordpress can't do, and they were important enough for me to switch over.
One of the things Wordpress can't do is use the Google Follow widget. This wouldn't be a big deal, except that most reviewers right now use Blogger, and thus the Google Follow feature, and it's pretty much becoming the standard. But also, Wordpress won't allow flash or much programing in its widgets, which also means things like Goodreads bookshelves won't show up no matter what you do. I think if you get a paid account, you can use more of these features, but it wasn't worth it to me at this point. I weighed my options, and I'm happy with my choice.
So, if you're think of starting a review blog, go with Blogger. But if you're looking to set up a personal website (perhaps as an author), definitely go with Wordpress, it's much easier to use and has a lot more control. However, Blogger does have a more versatile design program, but it's not perfect. I would have definitely stayed with Wordpress has it offered all the widgets I needed.
So, welcome to the new site! I'm still working on getting my Archived set up, but most everything else in functional!
Waiting on Wednesday (1)
First WoW on my new blog! ”Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, which spotlights the upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.
This week I'm waiting for yet another 2011 Debut Author Challenge book--but I won't have long to wait, because it comes out this month!
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| January 25, 2011 |
Emily Webb is a geek. And she's happy that way. Content hiding under hoodies and curling up to watch old horror flicks, she's never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for midnight parties. And she's definitely not the kind of girl who starts fights or flirts with other girls' boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that . . . the same night one of her classmates--also named Emily--is found mysteriously murdered.
The thing is, Emily doesn't know why she's doing any of this. By day, she's the same old boring Emily, but by night, she turns into a thrill seeker. With every nightfall, Emily gets wilder until it's no longer just her personality that changes. Her body can do things it never could before: Emily is now strong, fast, and utterly fearless. And soon Emily realizes that she's not just coming out of her shell . . . there's something much bigger going on. Is she bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely--something not human?
As Emily hunts for answers, she finds out that she's not the only one this is happening to--some of her classmates are changing as well. Who is turning these teens into monsters--and how many people will they kill to get what they want?
PoC Reading Challenge
"PoC" stands for Persons of Color, and the challenge is to read a goal number of books about PoC characters, and you can find the original site here. I'm really excited for this challenge, since I think there's a frightening lack of diversity in the YA market, and we need to do everything we can to encourage diverse characters and discourage white-washing. Sadly, since this is the third challenge I signed up for, I'm aiming kind of low to start out, but I hope to highly exceed my expectations.
I'm starting out at Level 1: 1-3 books, and I'll be picking from the list below.
I'm starting out at Level 1: 1-3 books, and I'll be picking from the list below.
YA Historical Fiction Challenge
This is a challenge being run by YA Bliss. The goal is to read a number of YA histrorical fiction books in 2011. I'm aiming for Level A: 5 books. I'm not normally big on historical fiction, so I figure I should ease myself in. You never know, I may fall in love with the genre.
Here's my generous list, I'll pick 5 from here, and maybe even more!
Here's my generous list, I'll pick 5 from here, and maybe even more!
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