Author Meetings: Morgan Matson & Marissa Meyer

I've been to two different author signings/talks this year already so I thought I'd talk about them in a bit more detail here. (As opposed to the quickie posts on Facebook and Instagram.) Also, I'm going to the NTTBF again with my middle sister in April and I'm super excited about that! If you're in the DFW area, you should definitely go. :) Gayle Forman will be there!!

Okay, so at the end of January, my local library was having a "Daring Reads YA Panel". Jessica Brody, Lori Goldstein, Jenny Martin, Julie Murphy, and Morgan Matson were discussing their new & upcoming books and also what it meant to "read daringly". I 100% went just for Morgan Matson because I absolutely love her books, but I really enjoyed the panel overall. Julie Murphy is self-deprecating in a humorous way (at one point she covered her head with her jacket because she couldn't believe what she had just said) and I went away with a list of Jessica Brody's upcoming books that I wanted to buy. Also, there were cupcakes yum! (A book event with cupcakes is the best book event, in my opinion.) I got my copy of Amy & Roger's Epic Detour signed and picked up a couple of cute buttons. No pictures with Morgan, but she was so nice, as were all the authors even after I confessed I'd never read any of their books! It was a very nice, mellow event with just the right amount of people.

Unfortunately, the next signing I went to was NOT a nice, mellow event. A week after the above, Marissa Meyer was coming to the library and obviously, I wanted to go. I loved The Lunar Chronicles and very much wanted to pick up her short story anthology, Stars Above, which was going to be for sale at the event. My first sign that this was going to be a bit more crowded was that I had to get a numbered ticket for the signing ahead of time. I got to the library 2 hours early and picked up my ticket...numbered 253 O.o There ended up being well over 400 people and that library is just not equipped for those kind of crowds. They had the 2 big conference rooms opened up but they were absolutely packed in and there were STILL people who had to sit in the lobby and just listen to Marissa! I felt so bad for them, except the girl we heard shriek in the hall when she won the giveaway lol. And they sold out of the books before Marissa even came out so I ended up going to Half Price Books afterwards to pick it up. I'm not sure if I'll go to another event there, especially if it's ticketed.

Now that the bad stuff is out of the way, let's talk about Marissa. She was awesome and gracious and funny and if you get the chance to see her, you should. (Just get there super early!) She told the true story of The Little Mermaid which is sad and gruesome and I discovered that I've been saying Iko wrong all this time. It's EE-ko not Eye-ko. I hate when that happens. And she also told us a bit about the new graphic novel series she's writing, featuring Iko...so excited!! Oh and when she came out, we all sang Deep in the Heart of Texas to her (because "the stars are bright" lol.) Obviously I didn't wait around to get my book signed (I gave my ticket to some girls in the lobby who were in the 300+) and this is the only picture I got of her. The Lunar banner behind her was very cool. 

So that's the 2 events I've gone to so far this year. It's funny how into author events I've gotten in the last year. (Check out the "Author Signing" tag below to see them all.) I am still very choosy about what books I get signed, they really have to mean something to me and be something that I will treasure. And I'm not going to get a whole series signed, that just seems crazy to me. (But to each their own.) But I've really enjoyed listening to the authors talk about their work and personal lives. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings!

Review: "Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies: The Baby-Sitters Club #52"

 Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies: The Baby-Sitters Club #52 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

This is the one where Mary Anne finally becomes a teenage statistic and Logan is super excited. Oh, no wait, that's not right. She just becomes obsessed with babies and it's kind of weird. Dawn and Mary Anne start the book out by having a snack (healthy of course, for Dawn) and talking about those twin girls at their school that are like Mar-Car teens and their new baby brother. This gets them thinking that their parents could have another baby and Dawn's mom is totally young enough still. Then they discuss a new class they have to take, Modern Living, which is kind of like Life Skills. "it's important that we explore and experience the realities of being an adult in today's changing society." So, they get married and have to carry around an egg baby and create a budget and such.

Before we go into all the ways that is wrong, let's head over to the BSC meeting and get What Claudia is Wearing. A typical Claudia outfit might include a sequined shirt, stirrup pants (maybe black), low black boots, dangly turquoise earrings, and ribbons woven through tiny braids in her hair. And she wouldn't forget sparkly nail polish.

(click here for details & links)

Okay, back to baby-ville. Mary Anne gets a job sitting for twins Ricky & Rose from when they took that infant-care class a while back. (Trying to remember which one that was so I can link it...ah, it was The Baby Parade one, blegh.) She has tons of fun the first time, dressing them in cute frilly outfits and showing them off to the neighbors like they're her kids. Later, she & Dawn get caught by their parents talking about baby names and get shut down real quick. No babies here.

And over in Modern Living, Mary Anne & Logan get married in class and she's totally embarrassed by it. This book is actually kind of refreshing, almost a "Very Special Episode" book. The teacher explains their assignments: "Despite how old or young you may feel, the truth is that you are now biologically capable of becoming parents." Wow, I wonder how many complaints this one got back in the day? Probably not as much as it would now. Although they kind of ruined it when the four remaining boys had to be paired up together and freaked out, not wanting to be the "wife". They have to discuss money & finances, decide if they could be financially independent (at thirteen years), and take care of egg babies just like they're real children. (I feel like they've done this already too? Can't remember. *Checked: guess not.) They get a rude awakening when they find out a 2 bedroom apartment is $2000 a month (which I find really hard to believe, back then). And when they find out how hard it is to watch an egg baby 24/7.

Mary Anne takes their baby (Sammie) with her to sit for the twins because "how much harder could three babies be than two?" Famous last words. The twins cry a ton and she gets pretty frazzled juggling 3 kids. That doesn't stop her from marking up the baby section in the Kumbel (Sears?) catalog later that night with Dawn. And they get caught again by their parents. Things start to go sour (not literally) for Mary Anne, Logan, and Sammie. They argue over who takes her and when they try to have a normal date night at the movie, they end up nearly squishing and losing Sammie, and get in an argument. Their whole class is falling apart really: divorce, lost egg babies, unable to finish the project. Good life lessons here, people. Mary Anne gets a double lesson when she has to care for the twins again, who are teething, drooling monsters.

In other sitter news, Kristy gets paired with the reprehensible Alan Gray but is pleasantly surprised when he takes the assignment seriously and even names their egg son, Izzy. I think Alan is actually really smart but hides it behind the pranks and sarcastic remarks. Maybe his parents put too much pressure on him and this is why he acts out. Okay, anyway, they create an "environment" for Izzy, giving him a mini piano and science charts and stuff. Alan calls Kristy on her sitting job with the Papadakises' to check up on him and they discuss his social development for so long that the real kids take off with Izzy and she doesn't even realize it. Stacey, on the other hand, is totally meh about her assignment and thinks it's a waste of time. But at least she realizes she doesn't want a kid any time soon, so I guess she learned her lesson. Mallory and Dawn have to deal with the Pike kids wanting in on the egg experience, which ends with half a dozen broken eggs for poor Mrs Pike.

In the end, everyone learns their lessons, no one wants to have kids, and they're all excited about the next course-Health. (They even mention Sex Ed...whoa, slow down there ghost writers!) Mary Anne & Logan go way overboard and write a 32 page, single spaced, paper on their project. And then Mary Anne & Dawn's parents almost give the girls a heart attack by having a sit-down talk with them about babies...but they were just telling the girls they could get another pet. Crisis averted.

Review: "Special Christmas: Sweet Valley High Super Edition #2"

Special Christmas: Sweet Valley High Super Edition #2 by Francine Pascal
4 out of 5 stars

Am I actually reviewing a Christmas book in March? Yes, I am, because I wrote it that long ago and I suck but I really wanted to get this review up still.

Before Reading: I was pretty excited to read a Christmas special *at* Christmas time. I've never read this one either, so it was all new to me! I always picture the twins with long (at least waist length) hair so the covers always throw me off.

The Main Plot in 50 Words or Less: It's Christmas time. Everyone is excited. Until the evil Suzanne Devlin shows up and ruins everything. Or does she?

The Second Plot in 20ish Words or Less: Liz can't wait to see Todd, who moved away to Vermont. (I haven't gotten to that plot yet, obviously.) Jessica wants to be Miss Something-or-Other Sweet Valley and so does Lila.

Opening Lines: "I give up." Mr Collins laughed, crossed his arms, and leaned back against his desk. "No one should ever try to teach English the day before Christmas vacation!"

Closing Lines: But Elizabeth's heart was too full to answer. It certainly was, she thought happily. Everyone was together, safe and healthy and glad. Christmas had arrived at last!

Best WTF Lines: [not too many this time, surprisingly!]
"I can't imagine Christmas in a cold climate. Poor Todd-stuck up north with all that snow!"

"It never hurts to stay involved with the prettiest, most fun-loving bunch of girls in the whole school."

Happenings in SV: It's Christmas time in Sweet Valley and the twins are ready to have "the best Christmas ever". Although they never really say how or why it's going to be the best? Elizabeth is in charge of passing out Secret Santa partners. Every. person. in. the. school. gets a Secret Santa. How does that possibly even work?? It would have been way more believable if it was just their grade or even just their English classes. Yeah, no way.

Todd is coming back from Vermont for 2 whole weeks and Liz is ecstatic. But the visit turns kind of weird and awkward. Suzanne Devlin is also back in town, but she wants to make amends for her last visit. The twins don't believe it for a second and are determined to make her visit miserable. Suzanne is hiding a big secret though and eventually wins over everyone, even Jessica, just in time for Christmas.

Jessica and Lila both want to be Miss Christmastime in the parade and scheme and connive their way thru the season, as usual. Jessica's Secret Santa gives her amazing gifts and she's convinced it's the hot new foreign exchange student, Hans. It, of course, turns out to be nerd boy Winston Egbert.

Fashion Icons: But that day they were wearing matching outfits-navy cotton skirts and light blue short-sleeved sweaters that showed off their tans perfectly. Even the gold lavalieres dangling from their necks were identical-presents from their parents on their sixteenth birthday.

[This is long but it's a good one!] Jessica was dressed as an elf. She was wearing kelly-green tights and green slippers with curled-up toes and bells jangling from their tips. She had made a strange little suit out of a green plastic garbage bag, cutting leg holes in the bottom and arm holes in the sides and stapling the whole thing up at the shoulders. Something-probably newspaper, from the look of it-was being used as stuffing to make her look round. Underneath the sack she wore a red long-sleeved T-shirt. There was green paint on her face. "I need some sort of hat," Jessica announced calmly, ignoring the looks on her brother's and sister's faces. "What's the matter?" she added, taking a small green plastic tomato basket out of the trash and tying long red ribbons on each side. "Hasn't either of you ever seen an elf before?"

Suzanne was too distracted about the night's party to realize she had never looked so beautiful in her entire life. The blue velvet dress she had borrowed from Elizabeth had a high neck, edged in cream-colored lace. It made her look like the heroine of a Victorian novel. A simple strand of pearls at her throat completed the look.

Elizabeth looked terrific in a shimmery, peach-colored dress with spaghetti straps. And she herself was wearing her new blouse with a pair of black satin pants. [This is to the Christmas party. Is it just me, or should these outfits be switched?]

Twin Hijinks: Not many hijinks in this one. The twins do dress identically to go take a Christmas portrait for their parents. My sister and I did that once (not twins though). It was a great gift.

Other Thoughts: It was a little weird reading this one, because it's ahead of where I am in the books. I've only read up to #19, I think, and I totally didn't remember Todd moving away!  I haven't read about Suzanne yet either, but she sounded horrid. I have to say though...the whole "I have multiple sclerosis" "oh wait, no you don't, you just had mono all this time!" thing was kind of ridiculous. I still teared up. Whatever.

The Next Book*: Not one since it's a Super Edition!

*(not necessarily what I'll be reading)

Book Haul: Christmas+

Time for another haul post! This is from Christmas to now...I was pretty good between my last haul post and Christmas apparently. I'm trying to "read my shelves" again because last weekend, I realized that the book I was currently reading, and had checked out from the library, was also on my bookshelf. Oops. (click pics to make bigger & check out the details)

First up is Christmas gifts...my family knows me so well! The newest Saga, Baby-Sitters Club, and Winter? Great! Plus an owl coloring book? Perfect! I also got the Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone Illustrated Edition (shown in last post). I really hope they make the entire series, does anyone know if they plan to?

Next up, I went thrift store shopping with mom & sis on mom's birthday and came away with an excellent stack of books! (Plus a stack of romance books for mom.) The 2 Steinbeck & The Bell Jar are from Half Price Books, but the rest I found at the thrift store. Some classics, some romances, and even a Christmas anthology... score!

In January, I won this amazing stack of classic books from Forgotten Bookmarks. They are lovely and smelly, just like old books should be. :) This gorgeous edition of The Scarlet Letter almost makes me want to try reading it again. (Bad memories junior year.) And you should definitely check out their Facebook or Twitter, because they do giveaways like this and of their own published books each week! (Not sponsored, I just really like them.)

Next up, more single issue comics (I'm addicted, I tell ya!), graphic novels, and a random Half Price Books trip. I'm reading The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street right now and it's really good! I'm so excited to read The Boy Most Likely To, hopefully this month. I really enjoyed My Life Next Door, it was almost a 4 star read, and can't wait to get back into that world.

And last up, a mini library haul, which I still have out. (Heavily edited due to sunshine, but isn't the view pretty?) We Were Liars blew my mind (as I'm sure it has most of you as well), PS I Still Love You was sugary sweet, Hold Still left me kind of cold unfortunately, and Brown-Eyed Girl is the latest book in the Travis' family, which I have loved and can't wait to read.

Update Part 2: A new year!

Oh hi, more picture updates yay! Since the beginning of the year, I've read 25 books already. Not too shabby. And my cat has been on or around me for nearly every book. :) I've really gotten into the single issue comics (which I do NOT count towards my Goodreads goal, discussion?) I even had to come up with a new filing system because they were crowding my bookshelf. I got these clear open-top file boxes from Container Store and the boards from Amazon (I tried cutting my own but it was a huge pain) and they fill it in nicely. I am loving all of these pictured below but am always up for suggestions! I'm not totally comfortable in my local comic book shop yet, but getting there. (Except game night, that was scary.)

Pictured: Groot, Jem & The Holograms, SIP Kids, Ms Marvel, 

My Little Pony, Gotham Academy, Helena Rose

I'm really loving Jem and already bought the first volume of it. You should definitely check it out! And look at this lovely watercolor from Helena Rose, I can't wait to see where it goes.

Twilight Sparkle is my spirit animal pony

In non-comics, I finished The Lunar Chronicles series (LOVED)...oh wait, that's kind of comic news too, because Marissa Meyer just announced recently that she's going to continue the story in graphic novel form with Iko! I finally read We Were Liars and was blown away. I decided to read the Bridget Jones series because the 3rd movie is coming out this year. I read the first 2 way back when they first came out and just rediscovered the 1st movie a year ago, so it was fun to dive back into this world. And I related to Bridget a lot more this time around lol.

 

I squealed over the new Harry Potter play book news, like everyone else. (It's not a prequel.) Are you going to buy each edition as it comes out or wait for the final, polished version? I also discovered a fanfic story that's been very enjoyable so far. After the End by Sugar Quill is set after the war and takes liberties on who actually died and who lived (which I, personally, am happy about).

I went to the Dallas Museum of Art and picked out some new bookshelves. :)

And I had fun taking super nerdy pictures lol.

That pretty much brings us up to the present! I'm currently reading The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street at work and the 12th Black Dagger Brotherhood and the 53rd Baby-Sitters Club book at home. :) So, now it's your turn! Update me on what you're reading right now, what your best read of the year is so far, what I should read next, anything.

Yet Another Update: End of 2015

This is what happens when you have another nearly 4 month blogging slump. :( More picture updates. I hope you don't mind! And I actually have to split this into 2 posts so it's not picture top-heavy. So what was I up to, book-wise, from my last update til the end of the year? (Click any of the pics to make bigger & follow me on Instagram for more current updates!)

Well, I took this pretty picture of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, read 65 pages, and decided I just couldn't do it. :p Some classics are not meant to be, for me. So I picked up a childhood favorite instead, The Dollhouse Murders, and LOVED it! This book terrified me as a kid and did a pretty good job as an adult!

I read a few holiday themed books, not as many as last year, but a good amount. I mostly just took pretty pictures of them. I did read a Sweet Valley High Christmas Special though, and I'll have a review of it up next week.

 

I rediscovered my theme song, Beauty & The Beast's Belle. It's perfect, no? And I sing it constantly lol.

I had a strong urge to reread a massive amount of books off my shelves. So I decided to finally tackle the Pretty Little Liars series in November. I read the first 9 back in 2010-2011 but still bought them occasionally, because my sister was reading them. When the last one finally came out and it looked like it really was the end (hah, likely story!), I decided it was time. I read all 16 books (plus the prequel, so 17) in right at 2 1/2 months at work. Not too shabby.

I started rereading the Black Dagger Brotherhood series too because I needed some yummy vampires again. I'm about to start #12 and I even got my mom to start the series last week! She has never read any paranormal romance so I was pretty shocked she even tried it, but she is loving it so far. :) And I finished the Twilight series and even bigger shocker, actually enjoyed it overall!

I had a wonderful Christmas with my family and while I will be doing a haul post soon, I had to show off the illustrated Harry Potter and stationery (I have the worst time spelling this word!) set that my sister got me. She knows me so well. :) And now I have the perfect paper to write letters and use the Hogwarts stamps that my wonderful penpal sent me!

 

So that brings us to the end of the year. How about some mini-stats to end us with? Because I am so not doing another end-of-year post in March. I read 172 books total, 113% of my goal woo! 12 5 star books, 6 of them new reads. 44 eBooks, 14 graphic novels, 55 rereads, 4 Baby-Sitters Club books.