2009 Shelfie Update

You may remember my announcement about the 2009 Shelfie Awards over at Neverending Shelf a few days ago. Well, the nominations are now closed and you have until midnight CST to cast your votes. Head over to the Neverending Shelf to vote.

Good luck to the nominees!

Thank You

I can't believe I forgot to post this earlier, but when going through my blog archives I realized I hadn't. Ugh. I hate it when what's in my head never makes it to the page.

Anyway, I got two emails last week from the Book Blogger Appreciation Week committee telling me I had been nominated in two categories: Most Concise and Most Extravagant Giveaways. I have to admit that I had to look up what the first one meant exactly. Guess I'm not the chatty type?

So I just want to say thank you, especially to those out there who nominated me. Never in my wildest dreams would I think I would get nominated. And although I might not win (I probably won't), it touches my heart so much that you'd think of me anyway. It's all of you who've made this blog what it is, and I thank you very much for it.

So let me say it again: THANK YOU!

You really made my day. So you can continue to help out by spreading the word about the blog, leaving me comments, and most of all, keep reading. Because a blog without readers really feels kind of empty. :)

June Updates

Okay, so here's the post of updates I mentioned yesterday. Hopefully I'll have the sidebars finished and updated with this stuff soon!

First of all, let's start with the sidebars I do have done. The Books Completed in 2009 in the right sidebar, and Winner's Circle in the left sidebar have both been completely updated. So enjoy looking at those.

Next, here's a list of books featured pre-release date in the month of June that are now available for order. Only two this week, since most of the books featured lately still haven't reached thier pub dates yet!

These books are now available at a store near you:
A Sweet Disorder by Jacqueline Kolosov (Read original post here)
Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard (Read original post here)

And lastly, here's my updated wishlist for this month (up in the sidebar soon). If you want to sew what I have available to trade, you can see this post or send me an email and ask.

Added to my wishlist this month:
Betraying Season by Marissa Doyle
Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
Hannah (Daughters Of The Sea) by Kathryn Lasky
Winter's Child by Cameron Dokey
Time of the Witches by Anna Meyers
Sphinx's Princess by Esther Friesner
Nobody's Princess by Esther Friesner
Hawksmaid by Kathryn Lasky
Rapture of the Deep by L. A. Meyer
Lady Macbeth's Daughter by Lisa Klein
Ice by Sarah Beth Durst
Warrior Princess #2: Destiny's Path by Frewin Jones
The Pale Assassin by Patricia Elliott
Pichi Pichi Pitch 1: Mermaid Melody by Pink Hanamori
Emma: Volume 2 by Karou Mori
Beastly by Alex Flinn
Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney
Envy by Anna Godbersen
Splendor by Anna Godbersen
Gateway by Sharon Shinn
The Art of Reading by RIF
Dragonfly by Julia Golding
Forest Born by Shannon Hale
River Secrets by Shannon Hale
Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale
Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
The Walls Have Eyes by Clare B Dunkle
ArchEnemy by Frank Beddor
Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda
Geek Charming by Robin Palmer
Cindy Ella by Robin Palmer
Doomed Queens by Kris Waldherr

And last, but never least, I want to thank everyone who's very, very kindly nominated me for an award since I last rounded these up:

Celi.a has nominated for the Heartfelt Award.

Jessica granted we with the coveted Lemonade Award.

Cracking Spines & Taking Names has given me the beautiful Proximade Award.

Diana, The Book Pixie, and Kristen have all nominated me for the Kreativ Blogger Award.

Liyana has also nominated me for the Literary Blogger Award.

Genevieve also nominated me for the Splash Award.

Thank you so much everyone! I didn't know you cared. :) I'm all full of warm fuzzies now. If I missed one, I sincerely apologize. I've been so disorganized about keeping up with these. Leave me a comment below and I'll make sure you get your full (and deserved) gratitude.

Thanks for the Awards

It's Saturday, which means it's time to say goodbye to New Features week. Hmmm. That sentence makes me feel like I'm in the Mickey Mouse Club (and now it's time to say goodbye...)

Anyway, back on topic. I hope you've enjoyed the look at all the new stuff I'm implementing this month. Today I want to catch up on all the wonderful blog awards people have given me in the past few weeks. I'm shamefully behind on these, so I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you're reading this message consider yourself tagged for all these awards. You are all awesome in my book.

The reason this counts for New Features week is because these awards will eventually go into the sidebar (probably the left one) later to show my everlasting gratitude for everyone who made them available.

So without further ado, here we go:


Thank you to both Liyana and Bingo who gave me the One Lovely Blog Award.


Senfaye over at A Maze of Books passed on the Let's Be Friends Award. According to her post "blogs that received the Let’s Be Friends Award are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers." That's so sweet! Thank you Senfaye!


Wendy at Wendy's Minding Spot and Book ♥ Soulmates both nominated me for the Literary Blogger Award. This lovely award "acknowledges bloggers who energize & inspire reading by going the extra mile. These amazing bloggers make reading fun & enhance the delight of reading!" Thank you Wendy!

Liyana tagged a whole bunch of people for awards on her blog. Thank you Liyana, and check out her post to see if you're on the list too!

Thank you again to everyone! That concludes New Features week. Tomorrow will commence with the last monthly feature, the May Site Searches. From there on, who knows! Let me know what you think of all the new stuff too.

Blog Awards

So now that I'm feeling better I have a few awards I got to catch up on.

First up is the Zombie Chicken Award:The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all...

Thanks to Robin_Titan for the award! Well, I certainly don't wan't to tempt the wrath of zombie chickens. So I choose:
1. Becky's Book Reviews
2. Disney on the Brain (Yes, he's my brother. But I really would face zombies to read his stuff...)
3. Unshelved
4. Raucous Royals
5. Squeetus (Shannon Hale's blog)

Next up is the Splash Award:
The Splash Award is given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive & inspiring blogs. The Rules:
1) Put the logo on your blog/post.
2) Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.
3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.
5) Remember to link to the person from whom your received your Splash award.
6) Have F~U~N

Isn't it a beautiful award? Thank you to Wrighty for nominating me! And I splash The Story Siren. I figure the theme is right up her alley. :-) She inspires me to keep up with this blog as much as I can. Now if I could just figure out how to work in time to write more reviews...

Thank you again everyone! I'm truly touched.

A Slight Deviation of Plans

So I was planning on plunking out my "About Me" post where I answer all your questions this afternoon, but I got a pleasant surprise instead. So you'll just have to wait a few more days for that post.

Deltay has nominated me for the Your Blog Is Fabulous Award. And that was before I changed by layout (haha). Yay! My first blog award. Happy dance of joy! And cute badge, no?

Rules: List five things you are obsessed with/addicted to and then nominate five other fabulous blogs to pass on this award on to!

You probably guessed that Books would be 1-5 on that list. Okay, so let's do something a little differnt. Well, this smacks of the "guilty pleasures" introduction my American lit professor had us do. So I guess we'll go with that them for my five things. Here are five of my guilty pleasures, or five things I could live without, but probably wouldn't admit to the general public:

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups- Probably the reason my figure is *ahem* not what it could be. I went through entire bags of these things during finals every semester. I don't care if chocolate experts say you should never freeze chocolate. Frozen is the only right way these things should be eaten.

Bookmarks- Yeah, you read that right. In additon to having tons and tons of books about, I have lots and lots of bookmarks. I kinda collect them. I love the beaded ones you get from Borders by the checkout. Though I've probably worn the tassels off of most of them.

Jigsaw Puzzles- My other main hobby (besides reading). In fact, this is why I haven't done much reading lately. I go in spurts. I kind of collect puzzle too. I like puzzles that are unique in some way. I have a few that have unique borders, I have one that's made with real wood, I have one that's all edge pieces, I have one that has glitter on it, a photomosaic one, several round ones, you get the picture.

Sailor Moon- Yeah, you read that right. I'll admit to it. It was a middle school obsession, and I never quite let it go. I still enjoy watching the cartoons and reading the books (although the cartoons are too young for me now). It's something I associate with happy memories of my childhood. All of my friends picked a character, and we would role play during PE (hehe). I was Sailor Venus, though I look nothing like her, and she's still my favorite. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can google it.

Disney- Anything Disney, but especially Disney Princesses. Aurora to be exact. If you've paid attention to this blog for any length of time you are probably aware of this obssession. But I wonder if you know how obsessed I am... I have Disney books, over 300 Disney pins, lots of Disney movies, Disney calendars, Disney posters, and um, Disney puzzles (see above). And of course I love the Disney theme parks. My biggest dream is to someday make it to both Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland. But the princesses by far trump my obsession. Hey, college is your second childhood. :-) I even wear a tiara when I go to the parks. Much to my family's embarassment....

Now that you've learned about me (probably more than you wanted to know), it's time nominate other people!

Well, I have to include Miss Erin and Teen Book Review since they got me into blogging. Chances are they've already been nominated (they are that awesome) but, hey, this is my blog, my rules. :-) My fellow Cybils panelists Em's Bookshelf and The Compulsive Reader have great blogs too. And my last choice would be author Sarah Beth Durst. Unusual, maybe, to nominate an author, but you really should check her blog out. She is a hilarious and very talented lady. Her obscure fairy tale posts make my day everytime she posts them.

And thanks again to Deltay, the wonderful person who nominated me. I think I shall print out my award and frame it. Okay, maybe not, but it's fun to think about.