The Great Bookmark Swap

Just a quick update on my extended absence. The tech guy said this morning that they have to send someone to redo the cable (or something like that) so it looks like it's going to be a few more days (maybe even a week) before it's back to normal. Ugh. My blogoversary is this Wednesday but since it looks like I'm going to miss it, I'm planning a big giveaway as soon as I get back.

But onto the reason for this particular post. I'm on borrowed internet really quick (again) but since I got a lot of support for the idea of a bookmark swap in my post last week, I’ve decided that I’m going to give it a go.

So here’s the basic idea. Each member who participates in the swap will be responsible for sending out 5 bookmarks. Then as soon as everyone has gotten their packages mailed in, you will get a package in the mail back with 5 new bookmarks in it. They can be either store bought or handmade, it’s up to you. Packages need to be mailed by September 25th, which gives you three weeks-ish (in case you are making them). Registration to participate is $3 for US swappers, $4 for Canada and Mexico, and $5 for any other international participant (this is to cover return postage for your package back to you).

To limit the amount of space I spend on the blog on specifics, I’m going to do signups this way. I’ve created a form for you to sign up if you are interested in participating. This is not a commitment to participate, you are just indicating interest. After 1 week I will email those who have signed up with all the further details. From that point you can decide if you want to commit or not, and registration will be completed by email.

So if you think the swap sounds like fun, don’t forget to complete this form. And if you know anyone else (blogger or not) who likes bookmarks and may be interested, please spread the word. You can use the email button at bottom of the post to forward this to someone, or even post it on your blogs if you have one and would like to share.

Any questions? Leave ‘em in the comments or send me an email and I’ll get back to you ASAP. When my internet is working again anyway...

Gone for a bit

Hey everyone. My internet suddenly quit on me yesterday so I'm borrowing a few minutes on a public wi-fi connection to let everyone know I'll be gone the next few days until it's fixed. It really sucks it had to break over the weekend. :( Anyway, if you email me and I don't respond right away, now you know what happened.

Back when I can!

Time for a new swap?

One of my favorite things about reading doesn't have to do with books at all. It has to do with bookmarks. I love bookmarks. I love making them, collecting them, and giving them as presents.

So with Christmas coming up, I thought it would be fun to do a bookmark swap. I'd still have to work out the details, but the basic idea would be a group of fellow bookmark lovers would either make or purchase a certain number of bookmarks, one for each member of the group. Then everyone would send their bookmarks in, and get a package back that would have one bookmark from every member in the swap. So if we had 8 people participate, you'd send out 8 of your bookmarks and get 8 completely new ones back in the mail. Sound like fun to anyone?

Also, around this time last year I started a travelling book swap. Essentially, it was a box that travelled around the country to the swap participants. When you got the box, you would take out the books you wanted to keep, and replace them with books you were ready to get rid of before mailing it on to the next person.

I have a lot of books sitting around here lately that I'm done with, and I'm thinking it'd be fun to do again. So, I was wondering would anyone be interested in participating? The cost was $5 to help cover postage costs, and then of course whatever the postage charge was when you mailed the box.

We had a lot of fun the last time, and I've learned from the experience too. I think the main thing I'd like to do is keep the lines a lot shorter this time around so it doesn't take as long to get around to everyone.

Anyway, if you think either (or both) of these ideas sound fun, let me know. I'd love to do both eventually, but right now I'm mostly trying to gage interest. Of course, if no one seems interested, the idea will kind of die, so I figured it was a good thing to check before I started trying to organize it. :)

Waiting on Wednesday: 8.25.10

Waiting on Wednesday is another feature I haven't done for quite awhile. By now we'll just realize that my blog has been neglected and I'm getting back in to the swing of things on several levels.

Anyway, it's time for this week's pick. This one's going to excite those of you who, like me, love retold fairy tales. And the rest of you are probably getting sick of hearing me talk about them. Unfortunately, that's where we're going this week:

Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde

About the Book (from the author's website): "Presents eight twists on the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood, exploring such issues as why most characters seem dim-witted and what, exactly, is the theme."

Yep, that's really all there is for the description on this book. But I'm really excited for it anyway. Once of my favorite fairy tale retelling books is another of Vande Velde's work, The Rumpelstiltskin Problem (my review is here). This sounds like the same kind of thing, only with Little Red Riding Hood, and I am so all over that one.

And since Waiting on Wednesday wouldn't be complete without gushing about the cover... don't you just love that cover? There's something so mysterious about her expression, it totally grabs my interest.

Cloaked in Red with be released in October 2010, and is currently avilable for pre-order:

New Feature Coming Soon: How to Get Free Books

This is an idea I've been kicking around for awhile now, and I've decided it's finally time to act on it. One thing I've seen in the last year that I've been blogging is that the YA blogosphere has literally exploded. When I started blogging almost 4 years ago, blogs like mine were few and far between. But the last year or so has seen an enormous expansion in YA bloggers. This is great, and I'm happy for every new blogger I meet.

Unfortunately, however, there are some new bloggers out there who have started blogging as a way to demand free books and ARCs from authors, publicists and publishers. And while it's true that having a literature blog can eventually lead to getting you free books (wayyyyyy down the line of course) that's not the only source. I hate to have any blogger cast a bad light on the blogging world as a whole, which sometimes happens with these less-than-professional interactions with new bloggers.

Blogging is the inspiration for these posts, but these tips can be used by anyone, blogger (old or new) or just a regular book lover. The economy is finally starting to recover, but for many families (like mine) money is still really tight. And reading is an expensive habit. So what's a book lover to do? Over the last 4 years I've learned a few tips and tricks to get free (and very cheap) books. I don't pretend to be an expert on this kind of thing, but I'd like to share my information with all of you, my dear readers.

Please understand that these tips are not intended to take the place of buying books. Because, let's face it, if we stop buying books the authors won't make any money and they'll stop writing them. But if by following my advice you're able to save a bit of money here and there, you can save it up to buy those books you're absolutely dying to have too.

So expect the first post next week on Thursday, followed by one a week or so until I run out of ideas. Meanwhile, if you have any of your own suggestions for getting free (or nearly free) books, you can drop me an email at shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT)com. And I'd love to hear what you think of the new feature. I'm always open to suggestions, you know!

New Blog Alert: Girls Love Graphic Novels

Normally I don't do posts like this, but this is a new blog I had to share. Many of my longtime readers know that I love graphic novels, even if I don't always get around to reviewing them here. Three of my years on the Cybils committee have been spent on the graphic novels panel, and I've read some great books in those years. So if you like graphic novels too (or are just curious about the different types of graphic novels out there) you really need to check out Girls Love Graphic Novels.

Although there are many things I like about this new blog, the best recommendation I can give is this: If I were ever to be invited to participate in a group blog about graphic novels, this is the blog I would love, love, love to be a part of.

It's put on by two of my all time favorite bloggers, Kristen from Bookworming in the 21st Century, and Kate from The Neverending Shelf. These two ladies do a fantastic job with their own blogs, and the fact that they're taking even a small amount of time away from those blogs to focus on a new project amazes me. I value and trust their opinions, and I've loved the reviews of graphic novels they've done for months on their own blogs. They both have a knack for sniffing out treasures that have been overlooked, and I'm sure they're going to add a lot of things to my graphic novel To Be Read pile. In addition to that, they're also eventually going to get into a few anime reviews as well, something I'm always open for new suggestions on.

But enough of me gushing. Head over to Girls Love Graphic Novels and explore a bit yourself. And in the meantime, I've been inspired to do better about my own graphic novel reviews. So hopefully we'll see a few more of those around here too.

New Poll: Thoughts on Prizes

As I mentioned before, I'm currently trying to decide how to celebrate my blogoversary this year, which is coming up on September 1st. And of course you can't have a blogoversary without prizes. I have some great books to give away, but I'm curious about what you think.

Do you like contests with lots of smaller prizes for lots of winners? One big prize for one winner? A huge pile of prizes and a few winners who get to choose from the list? Some other type of suggestion?

I've added a poll to the top of the right sidebar to let me know your thoughts. It'll close on August 29th, and I'll decide what I'm doing on the 1st from there. As always, ideas in the comments are appreciated!

LOL of the week: OCD Kitteh

It's been awhile since I've done one of these, and I'd like to get back in the habit. I've missed posting my LOLcats, and hopefully you've missed it too. And if not, oh well, because I'm posting them anyway. :)


If you'd like to learn more about LOLcats, you can check out the website, or read my review of the book.

Have a great week!

Plot vs. Character

I know this is a subject that's been thrown around a lot in the blogging world, but I guess I've decided to throw my two cents in.

More and more lately I've noticed that there seems to be two types of trends in the books I read. This seems particularly true for young adult lit, but I'm sure goes for lots of different types of books as well. And the trend I've noticed is mainly this: when it comes to focusing on a particular aspect, books tend to focus on plot or characters.

Now this isn't to say you can't have a plot book with great characters. That's very possible. But character books (i.e. books that focus on the growth and development of their characters rather than specific events/conflicts) often don't have very strong plots.

Or at least in my opinion, because I've decided I'm a plot-driven reader. When I look back on something I've read and try to remember whether it was a like or a dislike, the thing I think about most is the plot. A book can have great characters, writing, etc. but I always think about the plot first. Likewise I tend to find character centered books very boring because I feel like they can be very episodic and as a result the book feels disjointed to me.

So how does this affect me as a reviewer, as well as a reader? One thing I see thrown around in reviews a lot, especially in the blogosphere, is comments about characters not being real, or relationships between characters not having any depth. Or complaints about the type of writing/dialogue featured in the book. Often these kind of statements lead to lower ratings for a book in that reviewer's opinion. But I find that for me personally if the book has a great plot, I can suspend disbelief in the reality of the characters (and their relationships) or overlook mediocre writing enough to thoroughly enjoy the book anyway. So the book would still get a high rating from me, even if there were flaws in other aspects of the book.

Of course, this doesn't apply across the board. There are some books with excellent plots and horrific characters that I didn't end up liking, just as there have been a few character driven books that I have liked as well. But it's an interesting subject to think about. So which do you prefer, plot or character?

And now that's enough rambling for me...

I'm Back!... Sort Of

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know I'm back in California after my Disney program. So why is this is important? It means more posts. Yay!

Unfortunately, things are still going to be a little sporadic over the next few days. Because I still have to:

1. Finish unpacking
2. Follow up (and announce) the winner of the book battle
3. Empty and organize my Google Reader (there are currently over 4000 posts I have to go through O.o)
4. Get a replacement filling in my tooth for the one that fell out
5. Help my brother finish his summer reading homework before Tuesday morning
6. Finish a few bookmarks that people won as prizes
7. Judge a category for Book Blogger Appreciation Week
8. Organize my upcoming blogoversary

... just to name a few things. And speaking of my blogoversary, it's coming up very soon, just a couple weeks. I'm kind of short of ideas this year, especially after the big celebration I had last year for my third. So any big ideas on what you'd like to see?

Also, for those of you who read my Disney blog, I have a lot to catch up on over there too. I still need to talk about Canoe Races of the World, my family visiting, the closing of it's a small world, and my last day to name a few. So be sure to check out that blog if you'd still like to hear some stories from this past summer.

Anyway, I'm off to go work on that long list, so leave me your ideas for the blogoversary and I'll see you all real soon!

Happy Squee!

Hey, sorry I've been absent lately. Work the last month has been brutal and my family was here last week, so I was entirely without internet at our hotel. So now it's time to play the catch up game. Hehe.

Anyway, remember when I mentioned I was registering for Book Blogger Appreciation Week? Well, I happened to take a look at the longlists today, and I'm proud to announce that The Shady Glade made the long list for both Best Eclectic Blog and Best Written Blog. Yahoo! I'm totally not expecting to make the shortlist at all, but I am so honored to make it to the long lists. There were A LOT of blogs registered in both categories, so to have my name up there at all was a big surprise. You can see the longlists yourself if you'd like.

So thank you to you, my readers, for getting me this far. Now I'm off to catch up some more so I can hopefully have more time to blog later!

Book Battle Round 4 Winners

Here we are folks! The penultimate Round of the book battle is over, and the judges have made their decisions. So which two books are battling it out in the Final Round? Let's turn to the results and see...

Bracket 22:
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler VS. The Season by Sarah MacLean
Judged by Kristen of Bookworming in the 21st Century and Jasmyn of Jasmyn's Stuff

As we get closer and closer to the ending round in this battle, the decisions get harder and harder. Here we have two books that have been clearly been judging favorites since the beginning. But alas, only one can move on. So which will it be? Here's what Judge Kristen had to say:

"So, it was a tough decision - I loved both of these books, but Jasmyn and I decided we both were leaning towards one."

And so without further ado, the winner is... The Season by Sarah MacLean!

Certainly not the expected winner, at least for me anyway. If someone had asked me when the battle started if I thought The Season would make it this far I would have said no. But there you go!

And here's what Judge Jasmyn had to say about her reasoning:

"While I enjoyed the story of Twenty Boy Summer, I could not relate to or really get behind any of the characters. They seemed a little too extreme, their actions a little too predictable, and much of the dialog seemed forced. The storyline couldn't find it's focus. At first it seemed about grief, then about moving on, then about best friends, then it was all about forgiveness. I know these have a lot to do with each other, but they weren't linked or tied together very well in the book.

The Season had several very typical characters to historical fiction, the ahead of her times females, the overly chivalrous males that try to hold her back, the somewhat oblivious parents, but there was something about the way these characters interacted that had me falling into their world while I was reading. I was glad to see the three girls didn't succeed at everything on their own, but did end up working with their male counterparts to save the day, solve the mystery, and move on with their lives. The romance in the book was at a perfect level. It was there, it was nice to read about, but it wasn't shoved in your face and down your throat."

Bracket 23:
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (Revived) VS. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Judged by Jan from Eating YA Books and Elizabeth from Thinking of Thinking

In this bracket, the Revived title came head to head once again with Before I Fall for a second chance at redemption. Did it beat out it's opponent this time? Here's what Judge Jan had to say about both books:

"Needless to say it was a very difficult decision to choose between these phenomenal debut novels. Both have uniquely original plots, but being from different genres (fantasy vs contemporary fiction) made a decision much harder. While I love Kagawa evocative and poetic prose, and characters, Oliver's realistic setting and authentic YA issues are very appealing too."

And Judge Elizabeth had this to add:

"Before I Fall grabbed my attention immediately with it's interesting topic and twist on the usual story line of popular and unpopular kids in high school. I felt that the characters were well crafted and interesting to read about and I looked forward to see what was going to happen next.I have been a long time fan of fantasy books and fantasy world so The Iron King was right up my alley. I thoroughly enjoyed the twist of the usual fey/faery story line with the addition of a modern take and an environmental concept."

So what was the final result? The winner of this bracket is... Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver!

So once again The Iron King gets left behind, but kudos to it for being revived for this round! If a fan favorite had to be named for this battle, The Iron King would be it, so it certainly receives the popularity award!

So who are the ultimate contenders for the final round? Before I Fall will meet The Season head on in the next round to determine who the judges pick as the Best Debut Book from 2009 (and a little of 2010)! Stay tuned to find out who wins!

Registering for Book Blogger Appreciation Week

I know I'm coming late to the bandwagon, but I've decided to register for Book Blogger Appreciation Week after all. I know the chances of me actually winning anything are pretty slim, but I think it's a good exercise in reflection of your blog as well. So if, like me, you haven't registered yet, check out the Book Blogger Appreciation Week homepage to get started.

I've decided to register in the "eclectic" category, because although my focus is Young Adult lit, I do a lot of other things besides just YA reviews, especially when looking over the reviews I've done in the past year since the last BBAW. And here's my examples of why I feel I fit eclectic:

• I enjoy doing reviews of graphic novels and/or comics like this one about The Haunted Mansion.
• I occasionally do children's/middle grade books like this post about the Holly Claus books.
• I really had fun with this review, which featured not only my thoughts but my family's as well.
• And of course, I also do Young Adult reviews too, like this one for Never After.

But I also do a lot of other things on this blog besides just reviews. From my LOLcat of the Week feature, to blogosphere memes, to random ramblings. Of course, my favorite example of this right now is my YA Bloggers Debut Book Battle, which is my current project.

So that's my blog in a nutshell, at least over the last year. Here's to see what other good posts we have in store for the next time BBAW rolls around!

Happy 4th of July (and a video!)

Happy 4th of July to all my celebrating readers! So I kind of have made it a tradition to post a video on this holiday... not sure why but I have. So today I have a new one to share with you!

I actually first saw this back in May, and I've been dying to share it since then. But I waited until today because since it's about the Declaration of Independence it's pretty much perfect for today. So here you are:



Thanks to Katy from A Few More Pages for sharing it first.

Thoughts on Eclipse (the movie)

Yeah, I know your Google Reader is probably flooded with these right now. Sorry about that.

I think I need to start off by saying that I enjoyed the books, and I will probably reread them at some point, but I am not a diehard Twilight fan. I liked them, even loved them, but I don't even come close to obsessing.

That being said, I had no intention of seeing Eclipse yesterday. I didn't really like the first two movies (too much drama and lukewarm acting) and I never see a movie in the first week it opens anyway. But I kind of got roped into it by some friends and somehow found myself headed to the theater.

So now that I'm back, I have to say I'm kind of glad I went. It wasn't anything I couldn't have waited until it came out on DVD to see, but I liked it 100 times better than the first two books. The main reason is they broke up a lot of the drama with some humor, which was a nice change. And it probably shows in my favorite parts of the movie.

***SPOILERS (for those who haven't read the books and don't want to know anything about the movie)***

Best scenes (in my opinion, and in no particular order):

1. When Jacob kisses Bella and she smacks him, followed by the conversation with Charlie afterwards.

2. The tent scene with Jacob and Edward. Because it was so awkward it was funny.

3. When Charlie tries to have "the talk" with Bella.

4. Edwards comment (about Jacob) "Doesn't he own a shirt?"

***End Spoilers***

Anyway, for those of you who are going to go see it, enjoy. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Book Battle: And the Winner Is...

For those of you who haven't seen the poll yet, the revived book for Round 4 is.... The Iron King!

Even with our few emailed votes, The Iron King was a strong winner, with Eyes Like Stars close behind. So now The Iron King stands to do battle with Before I Fall once again. Will the results be different this time? Stay tuned to find out!

Book Battle: Round 4 Mystery Book

Now that we've reached Round 4, you may have noticed we have 3 finalists and 4 spaces. So it's time to fill in that final space... by reviving an eliminated book! One of the titles that previously didn't make it will have a final chance to make it to the finals in Round 5.

While all our judges have been working hard reading their two assigned books, the team from Teens Read & Write have been working their way through the eliminated books to choose which one will move on. And it's been a daunting task. They've read every single book to make a decision, and they even did it ahead of schedule! So let's give Alyssa, Jake, and Gregory a huge, huge round of applause!

In the end, they were only able to narrow it down to six books, just because there are so many great titles in competition here. So now, you get to help them out!

Below you'll find a list of the six finalists for that mystery spot and the judges comments for why they chose each one to be on this list. YOUR task is to pick one and vote! I've created a new poll for our Goodreads group to pick the winner. Just visit this link, become a member of the group (if you aren't already) and pick your favorite.

If you don't do Goodreads, you can also email me your vote at shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT)com with the subject line "Revival Vote". The book with the most votes by June 26th will be the winner.

So if you have a favorite book from this group, vote for it. And then tell your friends to vote too. Because the more votes a book gets, the better chance it has!

The Revival Finalists:
(judges comments are in italics)
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Eliminated in Round 1
Great imagination, lots going on, humor, enjoyable characters and good romance

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Eliminated in Round 1
Great bad boy, fun romance, interesting premise

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Eliminated in Round 2
Another great premise, sweet romance, likable characters and enjoyed it from the male perspective

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
Eliminated in Round 2
Original idea, hilarious characters, humor, fun love triangle, strong heroine, great twists on old stories

Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey
Eliminated in Round 2
Fun romance, great family vampire drama, spunky heroine, sassy repartee, bursting with action and intrigue

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
Eliminated in Round 3
Terrific fantasy, fun new world, good twists, vivid setting, lots of magic, capable heroine, sweet romance

And there you have it. Which one do YOU think deserves a second chance? Cast your vote and let your voice be heard!

Book Battle Round 3 Winners

Here it is, as promised, the latest results of the YA Bloggers Debut Book Battle! We ran into a few snags this round that delayed the results a bit, but we're now going to make up for it by not keeping you in suspense any longer! So here we go...

Bracket 19:
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler VS. Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard
Judged by Steph Su of Steph Su Reads

I must admit, I was kind of surprised the Prada and Prejudice had made it this far into the battle. That is a book I definitely need to read soon! But did it have what it took to stand up in another round of competition? Here's what Judge Steph had to say about this bracket:

"Of the two books, both had charming moments, but only one had the emotional resilience to make it memorable for me. The winning book breaks hearts, mends them, breaks them again, then mends them again, leaving you, ultimately, stronger and better than when you started reading. Even though it was a reread for me, I was still delightedly surprised by how absorbing the story was. It truly is a read for any age and season."

And which book is she talking about? The winner is... Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler!

And Twenty Boy Summer sails through again! It moves on to Bracket 22, where it will face the challenge of competing with the winner of our next bracket, which is:


Bracket 20:
The Season by Sarah MacLean VS. Eighth-Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Judged by Mariah from A Reader's Adventure

Eighth Grade Superzero is another book that few expected to come this far. But will it survive another round? Let's see what Judge Mariah had to say about this match up:

"It was a really hard decision! Both of these books were very good and were so different. The Season was a great love story with mystery, had witty banter, and encouraged girls to use their intelligence whether it is deemed good or not. 8th Grade Superzero was also really good, the subjects it brought up were very important and it encouraged me to get out and help with my community."

Want to know what the winner is? The winner of this bracket is... The Season by Sarah MacLean!

And it's The Season that goes on to Round 4. It joins Bracket 22 where it will meet up with Twenty Boy Summer for a spot in the 5th and final round. And that leaves us with just one bracket left...


Bracket 21:
Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken VS. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Judged by Alicia L.

First of all, I want to point out Alicia is our one resident non-blogger judge. She managed to keep up with all us blogging judges, so a round of applause to her!

And now let's turn our attention to the books. There were two really strong contenders here, both of which have gotten tons of praise throughout the battle. So which one came out on top? The winner for this bracket is...

Here's what Judge Alicia had to say about it:

"Although I enjoyed Brightly Woven I fell in love with Before I Fall so this was a really easy choice for me."

Short and sweet! Nothing else to say. :)

So the recap for Round 3 sees Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, The Season by Sarah MacLean, and Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver moving on to battle it out in Round 4, while Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard, Eighth-Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, and Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken all drop to the background.

Once again, here's the updated graphic for the battle. And if you look forward to Round 4, you'll notice a bit of a mystery. More on that later...

Date Change for Round 3

Due to some difficulty in getting a hold of books for our judges, Round 3 needs to be extended another week. Announcements for this round will now come out sometime after the 19th of June.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Books Read in May (and April)

So it's time for my monthly slide show of the books I read in the past month. I know I'm about a week late getting this up, but oh well. My work schedule has been insanely crazy. But better late than never! And speaking of never, I missed April's books completely. So I've combined the two months into one slide show. I also tried something a little different this time around and uploaded it to YouTube instead of Google Video. So those of you who had trouble viewing these before shouldn't have problems now.

Lots of rereads over the past two weeks. I've been slowly working my way through all of Tamora Pierce's books again, as well as reading new stuff. Since I take the bus to work now I've actually been doing a lot of reading there, so hopefully I'll have a nice long show next month too.

The music this month is a tribute to my new job. :)

Anyway, without further delays, here it is. Enjoy!



As always, let me know what you think. Until next month...