Sunday, February 24, 2013

Abducted by my Levithan Loveathon status





So far I have only had three entries for each of my giveaways which means your chances to win are very high!

I normally don't like to write apology posts after I take long absences from posting on my blog, but since I'm supposed to be hosting an event this month and yet I have failed to write on my blog in almost 2 weeks, I felt like it was necessary. I do apologize for not posting in so long but please don't let that stop you from signing up to win one of my two giveaways that are ending on Thursday!

I feel awful that I have neglected my blog this month since all of my friends have been so supportive! I just had no idea how busy I would be.

I started school in January which has kept me extremely busy. I knew that it was going to occupy some of my time but I am completely baffled by just how much time it eats up. It is like when you say you want to climb Mount Everest. You can plan and plan and plan and read all the books and take all the classes to completely prepare yourself and you tell yourself over and over again that it is going to be hard and dangerous and it is absolutely going to hurt. But then when you actually do it you are like "Oh crap! This is really f-ing hard."

Add that with the fact that my job has gone completely nuts! My job used to have a ton of down time! I mean like...a ton! I read almost the entire book The Realm of Possibility in one day when I was at work once. But now the down time is completely gone. I'm now working none stop from the moment I get there until I leave. Believe me, I'm not really complaining. I mean it is my job and actually working is a part of that. But it has definitely been an adjustment not having all that free time anymore.

Anyway, I wanted to write this post to simply say that the giveaways are still open for submissions so spread the word.

And I will be trying to post as much as possible these next five days...but since I have two projects due Tuesday and one on Thursday, I make no promises.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Abducted By Music On Mondays 2.11.13

A couple of the blogs I follow have music themed memes and I decided to incorporate that into my Levithan Loveathon!

I love music. I really do. And there are three bands that I am pretty obsessed with.

The first one being U2.

The only problem is that U2 tend to be... controversial. But I don't care because I die for them. They are my favorite band ever! If you have any negative U2 thoughts you feel like sharing in my comment section...save it! They are awesome!

Another is Coldplay. But I mean come on, who doesn't love Coldplay.

And the other is Dashboard Confessional.

Dashboard Confessional is one of those bands that not everyone has listened to or even heard of. That only means that I love them on a much more personal and intimate level.

So it is easy to see that when I read the Realm Of Possibility by David Levithan, I almost died when I found a reference to one of my favorite Dashboard songs.

To understand this quote all you really need to know is that these two guys are in a relationship, and one of the guys makes mix cds for the other themed around their time together.

"The whole time I've been talking, the radio
has remained silent. I've loaded the disc changer
with mixes set at random, so when I press play,
the result is a collage of our knowing references,
raspberry swirl and a case of you,
as cool as I  am and galileo,
the places you have come to fear the most,
lucky denver mint, wonderwall,
all I want is you."

Now, I do love Oasis so I love the Wonderwall shout out, and I want to believe that "All I Want Is You" is for the U2 song but I'm just not sure because I've heard other songs of the same name that are different.

But there is only one "The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most" and it is a powerful and beautiful song.

Here is the clip of the band performing the song on MTV's Unplugged.







Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Abducted??? Hell no!!!


This is the first time that I have ever had to post this kind of a review but it was absolutely needed.


In 2012 I became obsessed with Jennifer Cruise. Every time I finished one of her books I couldn't wait to start the next one. And recently I was excited to start the audio version of Wild Ride, a novel co-written by Cruise and Bob Mayer.

Unfortunately, the book quickly went down hill for me.

First of all, the audio narrator does perfectly normal voices for every character EXCEPT for the main girl Mary. Mary’s voice comes across low and masculine…like the voice Mira Sorvino uses for Romy in Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. And I just don’t understand why she chose to do that because she uses her natural voice for the narrations and the other female characters, so why make your main character sound all strange?

Second of all, this annoyance is far more personal than my other grievances with this books but you have your main guy character carrying a gun with him everywhere he goes!

Here is the thing, a few years ago I had a bad experience with a gun. Now is not the place to get into what happened, but basically I don’t like guns. I’m all for other people owning guns and going shooting as a hobby or having a gun to protect themselves, that is all fine and whatever. But I DO NOT like hearing stories about people not handling guns with respect and caution. When people are careless or casual about their guns it makes me extraordinarily uncomfortable. And in this book they have the main male character, Ethan, carrying a gun with him all the time. Because he feels that because he is ex-military that this is ok. Only he has been either drunk or hung over in every scene I've seen him in so far and he tries to pull the gun out with every little bump or noise or shadow that comes across him.

Third of all, pretty early in the book Ethan gets shot by someone that he is convinced is some special ops guy and yet NO ONE calls the police!!! WTF!!!

I can understand why Ethan wouldn't call the cops because he would be all “I’m military. I can take care of this all by myself because I am a bad ass.” But neither his mother or any of the other people around him react, at all! They are all just like “Oh, you gut shot Ethan. That’s nice. Pass the waffles.”

Fourth and finally, my biggest grievance of all is the forced chemistry among the characters.

I've listened to enough Jennifer Cruise novels to know that no matter how ridiculous the plot may seem in the beginning, the chemistry by the end will make it all worth while. That is Cruise’s best quality as far as I’m concerned. The promised chemistry between the two love interests in the book is what keeps me coming back for more and more of her novels.

And because I've listened to so many of her books, I know from the very beginning with about 98% certainty that Ethan is going to end up with Mary in the end. But at the point where I got in the book Cruise and Mayer where trying to convince me that Mary was going to end up with a guy named Joe and Ethan is going to chase after a girl named Ashley. The chemistry between these two pairings comes across as so forced and fake that I couldn't take it any more.


Every time Ethan thought about how sexy and hot Ashley was, I wanted to puke. Every time Mary got all swoony over Joe I was full on gagging! It was awful! I made it through three out of eleven discs but I just couldn't take it anymore! I had to make it stop!

There have been several times when I have stopped reading a book because I didn't have time for it or because other books had to take priority. But I honestly can’t remember the last time I walked away from a book because it was just that bad. But Wild Ride by Jennifer Cruise and Bob Mayer…it really was.

I think I'm going to take it back to the library and see if I can get a Rachel Cohn or Andrea Creamer book on audio since they are both authors who have co-written a book with David Levithan.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Abducted By Music on Mondays 2.4.13

A couple of the blogs I follow have music themed memes and I decided to incorporate that into my Levithan Loveathon!

nickOne of my favorite movies is Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. The film is based off the book that was co-written by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. To be perfectly honest the book itself had one too many “f”words in it for my taste, but the movie is awesome!

I have been wanting to download the soundtrack to the movie for years but for some reason I just never got it. They sell it on amazon but it was $10, which okay…granted that is the pretty standard price of an album...but still...I just couldn't bring myself to get it.

On Friday I finally gave in and decided I would splurge and go ahead and get it. But when I brought it up on amazon guess what I found! It had been marked down to $5.99!!! I was so excited that of course I bought it, downloaded it to my phone and have been rocking out to it ever since!

Here is the video for Bishop Allen’s Middle Management song that is featured in the film!


Sunday, February 3, 2013

Abducted by Sundays in Bed With…2.3.13

SundaysInBedWithSmall

Sundays In Bed With…is hosted by Kate over at Midnightbookgirl.com. It gives us a chance to share what books we are reading on Sundays, or which books we wish we were reading!

This week I am still trying to finish Ask the Passengers by A.S. King. But since this is the second Sunday that I’m reading it I thought I would feature it with one of my favorite coffee mugs.

20130203_081256
for those of you looking really really closely that is a picture of my friend Ame, me, Kate, and her hubs in the background)

That is my Global Warming coffee mug that my mom got me for Earth Day a few years back. Now look closely…

download

OH NO!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO FLORIDA!!?!!?!!?!!

Don’t worry! Everything came back as soon as I poured in some coffee creamer.

Actually…Ohio and Michigan are still not looking so good.

LOVEATHONAnyway, like I said I am still reading through Ask the Passengers. I’m really loving it and trying to make time for it as much as possible. I’ve gotten into the rhythm where with every half hour of solid studying I do I get to take a break and read a chapter. It helps me stay focused because I really want the half hour to go by fast so I can pick up my book again.

I’m hoping to finish this one tomorrow so that I can start on How They Met And Other Stories as part of my Levithan Loveathon.

Speaking of which…follow the link HERE to enter to win one of the two giveaways I’m having!

Have a great Sunday!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Abducted By 2013 Levithan Loveathon!!!

I know this post is going up a day late but please forgive me! I have been super busy lately, but none of that matters now because I am soooo excited about this years Levithan Loveathon!



I have a lot of awesome stuff planned for this month and I cant wait to get started!

Here is a look at what is to come:

2 reviews on books recommend by David Levithan
3 David Levithan book reviews
1 Literary Tattoo
4 Monday Music posts
1 food related post
and 2 giveaways!!!

And without further ado...

Here are the links for the two giveaways:

(if you need more information about the two giveaways I'm having follow the link HERE)

TO WIN ONE OF THE FIVE BOOKS I READ:



AND HERE IS THE FORM FOR THOSE WHO REVIEWED A DAVID LEVITHAN BOOK ON THEIR BLOG (or ASK THE PASSENGERS or ENDANGERED)

 
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