BBAW Meme-Reading Habits

My first time participating in the BBAW festivities! This meme can be found here

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?

-I love food, especially chocolate so my favorite reading snack is water and any piece of chocolate.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of
writing in books horrify you?

-The idea of writing in books horrifies me! There's just something that seems wrong about writing on a crisp new page. I'll write down quotes/memorable lines in a notebook.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?

-Bookmark (often a scrap of paper or piece of junk mail!) or lay the book flat (bad for the spine I know!)

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?

-Both. Non-fiction-Memoirs, some history and government books. I really liked In Her Shoes by Deborah Reber, Letters to a Young Sister by Hill Harper, Leading Ladies by Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Cooking With Grease by Donna Brazilie.

Fiction-Historical, realistic, but I'll try reading any genre :)

Hard copy or audiobooks?
-Hard copy. I don't think I could listen to a book =/ Love my iPod though!

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you
able to put a book down at any point?

-Read to the end of a chapter. Confession: I read about halfway through a book and if I have to put it down, I read the end of the book. I know, I'm terrible!

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?

- No, I ignore it or guess it's meaning.

What are you currently reading?

-Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith and L.A. Summer by Sheryl Mallory-Johnson

What is the last book you bought?

-Who You Wit by Paula Chase-Hyman

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can
you read more than one at a time?

-Definitely more than one at a time. Some are better than others and if one book is shorter than the other, I can finish it and review it while still having another book to read. Then again, I think a book blogger always has something to read!

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?

-I'm a night owl, so I love to read at night. On the train or in my room.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?

-Stand alone. I don't deal well with suspense or cliff-hangers!

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?

Get your pen/shopping cart ready because these books are so buy-worthy!

-A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott, Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and anything by Julia Alvarez (especially In the Time of the Butterflies).

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)

-By genre I suppose. I have it in sections. Fiction-YA with POC (starting with AAs, Latino/as, Asians, Native Americans), then YA with white characters. Next, comes the classics, regardless of race. Finally, I have a section of nonfiction (consisting of mostly political biographies & autobiographies, books on race and gender issues, and books about teens).

This was such a good meme! I think readers really learned a lot about me and how odd I am :D

I believe you can tell a lot about a person, based on what they read.

102 & You! BBAW, Dictators, VMAS & Winners!

So I reached 102 followers! Wow. I'm so amazed, I honestly didn't think I would gain even 100 followers. I planned on having a celebration for reaching 101 followers (I thought having one more than 100 would be even cooler than 100), but between the time I took a shower this evening (about an hour ago) and started writing this post I got 102! Thank you so much everyone who follows me!! I have the most awesome readers in the world, someone always leaves a comment on a post so I know that I'm not talking to anyone (before I became a blogger I rarely commented on blog posts even if I agreed with them, now that I'm a blogger I try to always leave a comment on a blog I visit, especially if there is none on the post yet!) I'm going to have to think of something special to do. I'm not really sure since I already have contests going once a week throughout the month. Maybe I'll just throw in extra books for more winners, after all everyone loves good free books! So THANK YOU (best early birthday present from the book blogging community :)

My guest-post for BBAW is up! Please read it (and if you have time leave a comment sharing your thoughts). I'm so behind in all the BBAW festivities. Hopefully, I can catch up on a few tonight and Thursday.

I'm going to get the Rogelia's review up later tonight (after I finish my homework. Science and math are killing me!!)

Also, Kanye's behavior at the VMAS? Grrr. For the record I love his music (I can't think of a single song of his that I haven't liked). His personality, not so much. I don't like Taylor Swift's music, but she seems like a really sweet person. I agree with Katy Perry (I think she said it, I'm paraphrasing) "Attacking Taylor Swift is like kicking a kitten." I agree. Where is the civility in the world? First Rep. Joe Wilson interrupting the President of the United of the States, now this!

Oh my goodness I can't believe I forgot to post the winners of Gringolandia!

Here we go....
Da winnahs!!!!!!

1. book weirdo

2. barbrafl

Congrats you guys! I'll be emailing you shortly for your address. Thanks for everyone who entered and stay tuned for the next giveaway.
The most common response for dictator that you would work to defeat was Fidel Castro of Cuba. Osama Bin Laden came in second.
Sadly, there are way too many evil dictators to choose from. I would have to say that if I could work to defeat any dictator, I would choose Josef Stalin of Russia (he had over 20 million people killed) and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (treats his country terribly, inflation is high and there is so much rape and killing going on over there). Oh and unhonorable mention goes to Omar al-Bashir (hello genocide in Darfur!)

Here's Lyn's (the author of Gringolandia) choice
It is a tough decision to come up with one dictator, because they're all evil in their own way. I ended up going with Pol Pot not only because of the scale of his massacre in terms of Cambodia's population, but also because of his use of child soldiers and his destruction of the Buddhist holy sites. Others that made the short list for me: the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin, Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier in Haiti, Anastasio Somoza (father and son) in Nicaragua, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in North Korea, Idi Amin in Uganda, and reaching further into the past, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, responsible for the Spanish Inquisition.

I agree with all of them, except King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. It was interesting seeing everyone's various responses.

Finally, I've decided (based on an unanimous vote in my poll) to have a Middle Grade Book of the Month feature. I would like to have one up for this month, but I want it to have a Latino/a main character. Any suggestions? I'm excited about this new feature because many of these I will be reading for the first time since I started reading YA so young.

Hispanic Heritage Month Starts Tomorrow! BBAW Starts Today :)

No Male Monday post today because I haven't started Marcelo in the Real World or gone to the library for more books with a male main character :(

Hispanic Heritage Month starts tomorrow Sept. 15 and goes till Oct. 15. I'm going to try and have a book review up at least once a week with a Latino/a protagonist. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to post my review of Rogelia's House of Magic. Also my my next couple of giveaways (excluding the one that will start tomorrow) will be YA books with a Latina/o main character.

Throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, Bronzeword Latino Press ( I guest-blogged for them!) will give away a book every week with a Latino/a protag. All you have to do is review a book with a Hispanic main character or you can just do a post about one (like a Waiting on Wednesday post). I love the idea and I'm definitely going to try and participate! For more details, go here

BBAW started today! I'm going to try and participate in all the memes and posts. Also be on the lookout for my guest post!

Also, I received this email and I wanted to share the information with all of you (I just copied and pasted the email).

All across the nation, many Friends of the Library organizations hold book sales that feature cheap books that were either donated or removed from circulation. Typically these sales sell books, CDs, magazines, and DvD's for rock bottom prices. A typical sale will sell most of their items for under 3 dollars.

Being charity organizations, these Friends of the Library organizations often have limited resources to advertise and promote their sales. As such, many people are never made aware of the excellent deals they are missing within their own communities. That's where booksalemanager.com comes ins. We are attempting to bridge the gap between Organizations looking to more effectively advertise their sale, and people looking to find more places to get good deals on books and media.

Friends of the Library organizations and other non-profit groups can freely advertise their sale on our site. Our site currently has 2500 active listings, and we have been adding over 100 everyday.

People looking to find sales can use our powerful search tools to find these sales. They can search by state, zip code, sale size, and date ranged. Furthermore, people can create an account and save sales to their calendar to help them better track the sales they want to go to. You can also sign up for notifications to be emailed when a new sale in your area is listed, or a reminder email a few days before the sales on your calendar so you don’t ever miss a sale you want to attend.

I believe book sales are a great way to find bargain books and media while at the same time supporting the local libraries and non profits we all know and love. It's a total win-win.

Finally, my Gringolandia contest ends tonight at 11:59 PM! What are you waiting for? Go enter!

The Lipgloss Chronicles & Vote

The Lip Gloss Chronicles: The Ultimate Test by Sheila M. Goss Book 1
2009

Rating: 1/5

IQ "We almost failed the ultimate test: that boys may come and go, but a best friend is forever." Brittany

The Diva’s Creed: All for one, one for all; never let the other fall.

Ever since they met in their elite private school, Britney, Jasmine, and Sierra have lived by these words, but now that they’re entering their freshman year in a public high school, their bond is about to be put to the ultimate test.

The daughters of wealthy Texas socialites, these girls are used to getting whatever they want, so it’s no surprise to them when the gorgeous DJ takes them under his wing. Drama soon comes their way in the form of Tanisha, a jealous older student who thinks DJ’s attention should be focused solely on her.

Even Tanisha’s threats can’t intimidate these girls as they form a united front against her. They’re tighter than ever—until a sticky situation complicates everything. Jasmine and Sierra both fall head over heels in love with DJ. Could this really mean the end of their friendship?

I didn't like this book. I bought it because I wanted to read some more books about suburban African American teens, expand my reading habits. Well the Ultimate Test was not what I had in mind. I was thinking it would be a little like the Del Rio Bay Clique novels. No.

The writing is basic. I felt that the basic, short sentences, uninteresting dialogue and short chapters were insulting my intelligence. We young adult readers can handle long sentences, 'big' words, and more complex dialogue and characters. There's 51 chapters, but they are so short. The book wasn't even entertaining, it didn't suck me in. I didn't care how the book ended, I just wanted to finish it.

The three girls all annoyed me. Especially Sierra and Jasmine (the two fighting over the same guy). They were really mean to each other and it was like "you're supposed to be friends!" but what was even more frustrating was that they kept forgiving each other, even after they said some pretty bogus things (I would have dropped both of them as friends). The characters felt stereotypically (in a good and bad way) and the storyline was predictable. The characters all had the same interest as lots of other African American characters in other books, I want to see something different!

This book wasn't what I expected (although I don't think the plot was that great to begin with).
Age 14 and up. If you've read (or reviewed) this book and you disagree, leave a comment with a link to your review (or I'll post your comment). I'd be happy to post it up here so people can get an alternate opinion.

Also please vote for Color Online in the BBAW awards, voting ends tomorrow (Sept. 12). Color Online is nominated for Most Altruistic blog. Previously, I didn't know what altruistic meant, but I looked it up and I've decided to share it here. Altruism is the general pursuit of interests of others. I firmly believe Color Online fits this definition. Color Online is dedicated to promoting books about people of color which helps others. Susan (the creator of Color Online) regularly comments and encourages other bloggers as well, always looking to help others. Do check out all the blogs nominated in all the categories because they're all great and bring something different and interesting to the book blogging world.

Finally, my thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims of 9/11.