My 2011 Blogging Resolutions

So now that my blog is a few months old and I'm starting to get the hang of things, I have made some promises to myself about how I'm going to do better.  And I'm posting them here publicly so that I cannot slack off.  :)

So here are my 2011 Blogging Resolutions:

• Blog more!  This one seems so simple, but it is so effortless to get caught up in day to day life away from the blog.  I've had a rough holiday - a tumor was discovered in my Daddy's throat right before Christmas, and it has caused mass chaos in my family.  It shrouds me.  But still I feel guilty for not having my reviews posted, or participating in memes or tours.  So from now on I will try harder to stay ahead on my posting.  That way, when things like this come up and I am too busy to devote the time to my blog that I would like to, I will have some reviews ready to fill in the gaps.  Post scheduling will become one of my new best friends in 2011.
• Comment more!  I am such a lurker, y'all!  I love to read everyone's blogs and usually do it on the go or as I'm getting ready to walk out the door, and so I don't find myself taking the time to leave as many comments as I would like to, in order to let the other bloggers out there know how awesome I think that they are.  And yet I love getting meaningful comments from my readers.  I vow to do this more often.
• Features  I have a couple of ideas bouncing around in my head for some features that I would like to include on my blog in 2011.  Stay tuned.
• Touching Up  I have a lot of half-finished projects sitting around waiting to be fixed up and added to the blog.  Most of it is informational type stuff:  cleaning up my policies and adding more personal touches to the rest of it.
• Participate  in more blog tours and other fun events.  I am hoping that this will also help force me to fulfill my first promise of blogging more.

I will also continue to keep my reviews spoiler-free, and I hope that I can provide respectable opinions in which readers can trust without giving away surprises or ruining the fun of discovering a book for oneself.

In My Mailbox (6)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren, in order to bring books to the attention of readers and to encourage interaction between bloggers.  It's also a great way to discover new books to add to your ever-growing to-read list!  Stop by Kristi's blog to participate or to take a look at what bookish things everybody got this week.

Here are the books that I got this week:

For Review:
ARC of The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana Oliver
ARC of The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card

Bought:
Kindle Edition of Need by Carrie Jones ($1.99 on sale)


What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Review: Vixen by Jillian Larkin

Title: Vixen
Author: Jillian Larkin
Publisher: Delacorte
Publicatioin Date: December 14, 2010
Series: The Flappers #1
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Barnes & Noble First Look

Jazz . . . Booze . . . Boys . . .  It’s a dangerous combination.

Every girl wants what she can’t have.  Seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody wants the flapper lifestyle—and the bobbed hair, cigarettes, and music-filled nights that go with it.  Now that she’s engaged to Sebastian Grey, scion of one of Chicago’s most powerful families, Gloria’s party days are over before they’ve even begun . . . or are they?

Clara Knowles, Gloria’s goody-two-shoes cousin, has arrived to make sure the high-society wedding comes off without a hitch—but Clara isn’t as lily-white as she appears.  Seems she has some dirty little secrets of her own that she’ll do anything to keep hidden. . . .

Lorraine Dyer, Gloria’s social-climbing best friend, is tired of living in Gloria’s shadow.  When Lorraine’s envy spills over into desperate spite, no one is safe.  And someone’s going to be very sorry. . . .

This book brings the 1920's alive:  the bobs, the dresses, the mobsters, prohibition, speakeasies.  When I received this book, I was expecting it to be a little bit froofy, and full of fluff and drama, with lots of flapper dresses and jazz and sayings like "the cat's meow".  And that stuff is in there, but it is also more than that, which became apparent once I had read the prologue.

The woman's place in American society is shifting in this time period.  And you feel that struggle in the characters of Gloria, Clara, and Lorraine.  They are desperately trying to find themselves, to find happiness, to find freedom.  The characters in this book are trying to reinvent themselves.  They all are concerned with their appearances, especially in relation to the persons that they are trying to become and/or trying to conceal.  They all have secrets!

Clara was my favorite character of the three girls, even though the book feels like it is mostly about Gloria.  Gloria felt a little bratty to me for a good bit of the book, but she was dynamic and by the end I admired her more than in the beginning.  Lorraine is pretty much an attention whore even though there were times when I really felt sorry for her.  Clara felt the most down to earth and real.  She was flawed, but not as dramatically as Lorraine, and she had some class to her but without being as selfish as Gloria.  She felt like the happy medium between the two extremes.

Vixen is glamorous and dangerous and fun and dramatic, and it also deals with some interesting and important stuff:  secrets, appearances, identity, freedom, and prejudice.

Review: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Title: The Lost Hero
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: October 12, 2010
Series: The Heroes of Olympus #1
Related Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Book Depository
Source: Purchased

Jason has a problem. He doesn't remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently, he has a girlfriend named Piper, and his best friend is a guy named Leo. They're all students at the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids", as Leo puts it. What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Jason doesn't know anything - except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn't understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn't recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisker her, Jason, and Leo away to some place called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she's going to find out, whether she wants to or not.

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there's weird stuff, too - like the curse everyone keeps talking about, and some camper who's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them - including Leo - is related to a god. Does this have anything to do with Jason's amnesia, or the fact that Leo keeps seeing ghosts?

People who liked the Percy Jackson books will love this first installment of the new companion series. It follows three new heroes and is set in the same world as Percy Jackson, a couple of years later. Riordan makes a switch from the first person view of Percy to a third person, rotating POV featuring the three new heroes:  Jason, Piper, and Leo. I really like this switch. It works great with the new characters and made them feel equally important to the story. There are also cameos by some favorite PJ characters which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Piper is my favorite character! I don't know why, but she is. Maybe it's a girl power thing, but I found myself looking forward to her chapters the most. Leo has mad skills with gadgets and some of the stuff that he does is pretty sweet. I'm so glad that Riordan added in this goofy, tech savvy character and highlighted his abilities. I found him to be a really cool and interesting addition to the group. Jason feels like the 'main character' of the three. He didn't interest me quite as much as his counterparts, but that is probably because he has amnesia and therefore has no memories which makes it difficult for him to have a proper personality outside of struggling to remember things. I still cared about him though, so that is good. I look forward to future books and to seeing Jason really develop as a character because I think that, the more he grows and remembers, the more that I will like him. As a trio, these characters are great fun and I really liked reading about them.

The plot follows archetypal hero quest plot lines, which is fine by me because I could read about heroes on quests forever and probably never get bored - especially when the characters are awesome. The story in this one was pretty cool, but it is clear by the end that the follow-ups will be pretty epic, and now I can't wait to get my hands on them.

In My Mailbox (5)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren, in order to bring books to the attention of readers and to encourage interaction between bloggers.  It's also a great way to discover new books to add to your ever-growing to-read list!  Stop by Kristi's blog to participate or to take a look at what bookish things everybody got this week.

It's been a couple of weeks since I've done an IMM post, so here are the books that I've gotten since last time:

For Review:
ARC of The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
ARC of Wither by Lauren DeStefano
A big thanks to Random House and Simon & Schuster for these!

Won:
Omnibus of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (from Goodreads)
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer (from Julie @ Manga Maniac Cafe)
The Monstrumologist and The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey (from Angela @ Dark Faerie Tales)
Paranormalcy (signed) - You can read my review here.

I am really excited about the books that I received this time around!

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Follow Friday & Book Blogger Hop (5)

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee's View.

Check it out to sign up and participate, or to discover some awesome book blogs!

This week's question:
What do you do besides reading/reviewing as a hobby?

I enjoy video games and sports.  I'm addicted to watching football (American) - you are sort of born into this one around here.
I enjoy photography as well, but I am not awesome at it.

 The Book Blogger Hop is a meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books.

Check it out to sign up and join in, or to check out some great book blogs!

This week's question:
What very popular and hyped book in the blogosphere did you not enjoy, and how did you feel about posting your review?

I can't really think of a book I've read recently that was hyped up that I genuinely disliked.  I actually try to pay less attention to the hype, and more attention to whether or not it would be something that I would enjoy.  If I am unsure about a book, then I will get opinions from those with whom I have a history of agreeing. When I do dislike a book, I am honest in my review and give my reasons for disliking it, but I also try to point out some positives and assist in steering people toward the right books for them, especially if it seems that my reaction is in the minority.  I won't beat myself up over my opinion, but I am not needlessly mean in reviews, so there is never really a reason that I should feel badly or guilty for having a particular reaction to a book.

Welcome to all of the new faces, and welcome back to the old ones!
Here is some of what has been happening on my blog since last time:

Reviews:
Matched by Ally Condie
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Extras:
My 2011 Debut Author Challenge Goals
Books for the Holiday Season

Thanks for stopping by!

Books for the Holiday Season

What better way to spend part of your holidays than curled up with a good book, a hot drink, and a soft blanket?  Here are some wintry holiday reads to warm your hearts on cold days:

Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

Sparkling white snowdrifts, beautiful presents wrapped in ribbons, and multicolored lights glittering in the night through the falling snow.  A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you see only in movies.  Well, kinda.  After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss from a charming stranger.  And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House through four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend.  Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks.  Thanks to three of today's bestselling teen authors John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle the magic of the holidays shines on these hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance, and breathtaking kisses.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares.  But is Dash that right guy?  Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York?  Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions?  Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions? 

My Review

Winter Shadows by Margaret Buffie

Cass feels the long winter shadows on her heart.  Her mother died of cancer and her father has remarried a woman who has moved into their old Manitoba house with her nasty, babyish daughter and an attitude that's very hard to take.  Christmas promises to be a miserable time.
More than a century earlier, Christmas is proving to be difficult for Beatrice, too, for she has shadows of her own.  Some are cast by her circumstances.  She sees the growing prejudice against people like her who are of mixed Cree and Scottish backgrounds.  And like Cass, she has a stepmother.  Her father's new wife is threatened by Beatrice and is driving a wedge into the family.  Beatrice can only be sure of her beloved Cree grandmother, relegated to a room upstairs.  When a way of escape presents itself to Beatrice by way of an eligible bachelor, she is torn by the choice it offers her.  Should she settle for a man she doesn't love or address the problems at home?  Through her journal, she explores the answer and, at the same time, inspires Cass to find the strength she needs to face her own situation.

My Review

Do you have any winter holiday reading suggestions that you would like to share?