In My Mailbox #4 + Update

In My Mailbox is hosted my Kristi at The Story Siren

I got a few books from the library this week. So now I have about 7 or 8 books that all have to be returned in one month. Really good Olivia -.- All the links go to the book's Goodreads page.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff I'm really looking forward for this one. Sounds good and creepy ..

Frostbite by Richelle Mead  It feels like I'm the only one who hasn't read all the Vampire Academy books yet. And that I'm the only one who doesn't love them. I own the first one and I liked it, but not so much that I would want to spend money on the next one.

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr I've read lots of good reviews on this series and my best friend liked it a lot and begged me to read it.


Before I Die by Jenny Downham I've been meaning to read this for a long time and once almost bought the swedish copy. But for some reason I never did.


I'm going to Finland today and won't be back until on Friday! But I'll write a few posts and but them on timer! And I'm sorry for the lack of blog posts this week, even though I promised to blog a lot. But actually (and this is no excuse to not do it) our Internet went down.

Noteworthy blog posts (#3)

Hello! I'm here again with a Noteworthy Blog Posts post and five new blog posts from different bloggers I think you should read. It was a long time ago I made on of these, so I decided on just a few really good I'd like to share with you. You've maybe read them, maybe not.

Dystropia really is the big trend this year. And I'm love it, as you may know. A dew weeks ago Liz at Consumed by Books wrote a guest post on here. I like it. Go and read it.

In your dystropian novels you, of course, need to have some awesome new vocabulary. Are you writing a dystropian novel? Or are you just interested in how to come up with new cool words? Then check out this post with a few great tips.

And yes, of course a post about eBooks. Or more of a article about wether 2011 will be the year of the eBooks or not. Read it here.

Veronica Roth, the author of Divergent (I'm so excited for this book, only 59 days left till the release!) has written a blog post about sequels.

And the last post is another by a author. Ally Condie! It's just a beautiful post about her writing. She's done it for eight years now. Congrats!

Booking Through Thursday - Cheating

Do you cheat and peek at the ends of books? (Come on, be honest.)

- Booking Through Thursday

Well, I usually can't resist reading the last sentences in a book. Which is really bad since those sentences can spoil the whole book for you. But I'm trying to stop doing it. I hope I can stop doing it.

I know, I had a really short answer this time. Please link your answers in the comments! :)

Funny book related things

Yesterday, I was watching the Oscar's. It wasn't particularly fun to watch and definitely not staying-up-the-whole-night-until-6-am worthy. Which I had to do, since I live in Sweden. Time zones, you know? But I watched the whole thing and can without a doubt say that this auto tuned musical thingie was the best thing that happened during the whole night. And I figured that it is book related, since Harry Potter, Twilight and The Social Network are based on books.



This post was originally supposed to be all about that video, but then I found this funny picture which shows the rights of a reader. So I decided to throw that one in here as well.

February 2011

Hello book lovers! I hope you've had a wonderful February! Mine hasn't been the best, I've been sick almost the whole time. At one point I had to stay home for one week and couldn't do anything more than sleep and watch tv. So no reading or blogging for that week. And the first half of February was filled with lots of student council meetings for our big party on Valentines Day. So hardly any reading or blogging for those weeks either.

I made myself a new layout, which I like a lot. I've read 19 books for my goal of 70, which is 27%! I think I'll have to make a new goal if I continue at this speed ... And I've gotten lots of awesome books this month! I've also officially went on a book buying ban, something I'm not as excited about ..

Books I've read this month (6):
The Awakening - L.J. Smith
The Struggle - L.J. Smith (I'll be reviewing these two books in one review, which is coming soon. I've actually already written the review but not posted it yet, oddly enough.)
Gossip Girl the Carlyles - Cecily von Ziegesar
Håpas Du Trifs Bra I Fengelset - Susanna Alakovski (A Swedish title, won't review it.)
Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver (Review is maybe coming soon. I really liked it, but can't really remember much about it.)
Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green & David Levithan (LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE <3 <3 <3 <3)


Favorite books this month:
Do you really have to ask? Look at the last book in the read-this-month list. Still don't know? Will Grayson, Will Grayson of course!


Currently reading and will read next:
I'm reading a swedish fantasy novel at the time (Där drömmar blir till by Emma Andersson). I've got about 50 pages left and actually like it. Even though I only bought it because the main character is named Olivia (just like me!)
I've got about five books from the library that have to be returned in one month. So I'll be reading those. I'll probably start with If I Stay or Parasite Positive (also known as Peeps)


Expectations for March:
I'm currently on my "sports break", a thing that we have here in Sweden. So I don't have to go to school for this whole week, wihoo! That means lots of blogging and reading! The week after I'll go to Finland for a exchange student program, which means no blogging for a week. (Sad face) 


Hope you'll have an awesome March!

2011 Debut Author Challenge

Very spontaneously I decided to participate in the Debut Author Challenge hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. You have to sign up before tomorrow, March 1st. So if you haven't done it yet, what are you waiting for?

If you've never heard of the DAC (which I have really hard to believe) the rules are simple. Read a minimum of 12 books by 2011 debut authors. If you want to know more you can click here.

Books I wish to read:
This list will be updated every time I read books for the challenge. I'll cross the titles I've read.


Sister mischief - Lara Goode
Paranormalcy - Kiersten White
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin
The Iron King - Julie Kagawa
Unearthly  by Cynthia Hand
Wither - Lauren DeStefano
Across the Universe  - Beth Revis
Spellbound - Cara Lynn Shultz
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Enclave - Ann Aguirre
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
Prelude to a Hero by Jaime Buckley
The Summer I Lost it - Natalie Kath
Between Shades of Gray - Ruta Sepetyss
Röd Skymning - Fredrik Lindblom

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - Review

Will Grayson, Will Grayson
by John Green and David Levithan
Rating: 5/5

Goodreads | David's website | John's website | John's Twitter | David's Facebook page | John's Youtube channel  <-- most important of all the links!

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both them legions of faithful fans.

This book is fricking awesome. It's really hard for me to hold back and not write "OMG, lovelovelove !!!11!!!!11!, <333 YOU HAVE TO READ! best book evaaaaaah!11!!! <3333" over and over again. But I'll try to write a review that makes sense. Not that you don't get the message from my crazy rambling, but I want to do this properly. 

The story is told in double narratives by two Will Graysons (John Green writes the straight Will Grayson's, properly written, odd numbered chapters. David Levithan writes the gay Will Grayson's, without any capital letters, even numbered chapters.) with very different lives. The straight Will Grayson tries to live his life without drawing any attention to him. He's friends with Tiny Cooper, who's not the world's largest person nor the world's gayest person, but "the world's largest person who is really, really gay" and "the world's gayest person who is really, really large". And he does not want to live his life without being unnoticed. In fact, he's putting up an big autobiographical high school musical. The other Will Grayson lives together with his single mom and has only one good thing in his life, the online friendship with the stranger Isaac. 

One night the two Will Graysons meet in a porn shop, a place where no one of them thought they would ever find themselves being. And after that meeting, their life takes unexpected turns.

One thing that not many books make me do is laugh. Like really laugh out loud. But this book, oh God. Reading on my lessons was really hard since I could any minute possible burst out in a non controllable laugh and get caught for reading. And on the metro on my way home people stared at me like I was some kind of psyco. This book is hilarious.

 I read this 300 paged book in one (school!) day, which is really unusual. But I just couldn't stop reading. It's an amazingly hilarious book about finding yourself and accepting what you find. I highly recommend this for everyone, girls, boys, teens, adults. Just read it, please. 

DFTBA!

If you're confused by these five little letters that make an awesome combination, you should watch John and his brother Hank's youtube videos. Or go to this link. And now while we're here in this non official review spot, I would just want to remind you that when you read this book, don't skip the acknowledgments in the end. Just as the rest of the book, they're awesome.

Featured in Behind the Blog at The Babbling Bookworm

Alyssa at The Babbling Book Worm has this awesome feature in which you get to know different book bloggers a little better. I was featured in it a few days ago, so if you'd like to read the interview click here.

You should really visit her blog and follow, she's a relly good blogger!

A little side note here in this post. I know I haven't blogged in a while, but we've had 4 exams this week! We even have a rule at our school which says that we can't have more than 3 exams a week, but obviously no of the teachers respects that. So I've been busy with studying. School goes before the blog, sorry. But next week we in Sweden have this thing called "Sports Break", which means no school for one week, and therefore more blogging! Hooray!

2011 dystropians I'm dying to read!

2009 was the year of the vampires. 2010 was the year of the angels. And 2011? It is the year of the dystropians!

I personally love dystropians and am really pumped for this year. Lots of wonderful new dystropians will be released so I decided to try to sort down my list to 6 books that I'm really looking forward to! Some of them are already released, some are not. But everyone are/was released in 2011.

(And yes, I do know that this post is really similar to Brent's from The Naughty Book Kitties post. But I planned to write this a long time before he posted his. So, no. I'm not copying him or something.)

All the links go to Goodreads.

Plague (Gone #4) by Michael Grant

Release: April 5th

Oh my god, you guys. The fourth part of Gone. I'm really excited! I haven't read the third part yet, though. But I bought it yesterday! If you've read my reviews of Gone and Hunger, you know that I'd literally marry these books. That's how much I love them.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Release: May 3rd

To be honest I don't know much about this book, more than that bloggers are going crazy over it and the cover is gorgeous. Reasons enough to include it in this list, right?

XVI by Julia Karr

Already Released!

This book sounds so awesome! Horrible, but awesome. Being tattooed with the letters XVI on your sixteenth birthday, which means that any guy who want to can do whatever he wants to you sexwise. Again, horrible, but the book sounds awesome!

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Release: March 22nd

Holy shit what a cover! The model, the colours, the font, the dress .. Everything looks amazing! If I had a cover of the week kind of feature, this cover would be featured. Every. Fricking. Week!

0.4 by Mike Lancaster

Already Released!

"'My name is Kyle Straker. And I don't exist anymore.' 

So begins the story of Kyle Straker, recorded onto old audiotapes. You might think these tapes are a hoax, but perhaps they contain the history of a past world....If what the tapes say is true, it means that everything we think we know is a lie. 

And if everything we know is a lie, does that mean that we are, too?"

Awesome blurb, or what?

The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

Already Released!

This book both looks and sounds awesome. Like, trying to live without water? Hell no! I would go crazy!

The Carlyles - review

The Carlyles (Gossip Girl: the Carlyles # 1)
by Cecily von Ziegesar
Rating : 4/5

Website | Goodreads

Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen were tha reigning princesses of the Upper East Side.

Until now.

In Gossip Girl, Tha Carlylwa the inimitable Gossip Girl introduces the most fabulous sixteen year-old triplets to ever inhabit the Upper East Side. When the Waldorfs move from their apartment at the end of Don't You Forget About Me, the Carlyle triplets Owen, Baby and Avery move in. In the new titles of the Gossip Girl series, we will follow the Carlyles, plus three other teenagers living in gorgeous apartments, attending the most exclusive private schools - the familiar Constance Billiard School for Girls and St. Jude's School for Boys - and treating New York's Upper East Side as their personal playground. Welcome to the new era.

Lucky for you, Gossip Girl is there to wisper all their juicy secrets ...

I haven't read the original Gossip Girl books, but I've watched the TV show. So from what I know about the TV series, Gossip Girl the Carlyles and the original Gossip Girl are pretty similar. You get all the drama, love and backstabbing. And of course Gossip Girl is there to tell us all about it. The stories are even set in the same places. The only things new are the characters.

Owen, Avery and Baby are triplets. They've just moved from Nantucked to the most luxurious part of Manhattan. Avery is ready to do whatever it takes to be popular, but after an incident in a high brand fashion store with the school's most popular girl watching, her attempts crash with her popularity status.

Baby hates it in Manhattan. And she's ready to do whatever it takes to get out of there, back to her boyfriend in Nantucket. Owen is a womanizer, a real player. He's barely ever had any real friends since he's always been busy with all the girls. But last summer he met a girl he just can't get out of his mind. A girl that he's probably never going to meet again, because the only thing he knows about her is her name, Kat. And that she's the only one he wants.

I thought that this would only be a decent read, but I really, really enjoyed it. The drama was wonderful, the pranks amazingly cruel. I felt sorry for Avery the whole time and got mad every time the bad girls were planning something new. I just couldn't stop reading to find out what would happen next. 

Overall this was a very fin light read with a lot of drama. If you like the Gossip Girl TV series I imagine you would like this. At least I did.