In My Mailbox

It's Sunday morning, so of course it's time for In My Mailbox! IMM is a meme started by Kristi at the Story Siren, and is a way of sharing which books you received this week.

What did you get this week?

~Ailsa

Hello, Bibliophiles!

Years ago in a wonderful internet forum, a girl named Sera met a girl named Emily. They became friends, joined by a few common obsessions, and eventually Emily invited Sera to join a blog she'd started called The Book Bundle.

"Sure!" Sera said. But then life got in the way, as life often does, and Sera never actually posted on Em's blog. (Yes, Sera is me. No, I don't know why I started this in the third person... O.o?)

Anywho, it is long overdue, but I am finally, officially joining The Book Bundle team! My entries will be cross posted on my personal blog Incandescent which covers a range of topics revolving around the literary world and little bits of randomness that I throw in just for the entertainment value.

Next week I will be posting my first book reviews, one a day for five days, but for now here's a bit of current news from the young adult fiction world:

Awards: Is It Better To Win Or Be Falsely Nominated?

It's already all over the internet, but more publicity is not a bad thing, especially in this case.

Visit the official site here.

Lauren Myracle was recently honored by the National Book Awards for her novel Shine, a story about a young sleuth who investigates a hate crime. Allowed to bask in the glory for only a few scant days, she was soon told that the announcement had been a mistake. The book they'd actually meant to nominate was Chime by Fanny Billingsley. Blamed on some sort of internal error (rumor has pinned it on either phone static or conspiracy), it still didn't stop the foundation from asking the unbelievable: “I was asked to withdraw by the National Book Foundation to preserve the integrity of the award and the judges’ work,” she explained to the NY Times.

Um... Excuse me?

Talk about adding insult to injury! Is her book really so far below your standards that you can't even leave her as a nominee, National Book Award judges? Yes, I'm talking to you. Do you not realize that this whole mess probably would have blown over and been forgotten if you had simply left Shine as a nominee?

Now, I have not read Shine (in fact, I honestly didn't even know it existed before this), but I've added it to my to be read pile. In fact, I think not winning the award has done Shine more good than winning ever could have done. Not only will the book's readership grow, but the National Book Awards has agreed to donate $5,000 (five times as much as she would have received as a winner) to the Matthew Sheppard Foundation, a not-for-profit aimed at "encouraging respect for human dignity and difference by raising awareness, opening dialogues, and promoting positive change."

The recap? Lauren Myracle walks away from this fiasco with dignity, the respect of the literary world and the media, and $5,000 for a charity that obviously means a lot to her. The National Book Awards judges look like total jackasses, have spent five times the amount they usually do for this single prize, and ruined the "integrity" of their precious award.

Lauren 1 - National Book Award Jerks 0

Want to read more? Here are some blogs and news articles I've found about Shine's withdrawal:
Lauren Myracle tells it like it is on Huffington Post
Libba Bray (Pardon Libba's French ;) )
Julianna Baggott
TIME Entertainment
The Guardian
LA Times
NY Times


Want to donate to the Matthew Sheppard Foundation? Click here.

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

I only got two books this week, so no video. I've been doing a lot of reading for classes, and haven't been reading so much in the evenings, which is when I normally get caught up in books.

"River Marked" by Patricia Briggs, which is the most recent book in the Mercy Thompson series - I've been wanting to read this for a while now! I'm about half way through, I hope to get a review up of this one early this week.

"Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins - book 2 in the Hunger Games trilogy - I read THG for the first time last week, and had to get book 2 as soon as possible. I've started it, but it had to get bumped down the TBR pile because other things are due back in the library soon *sigh*. I'll get to it as soon as I can. I don't think I'm going to review THG after all, because most people are already very familiar with it, and I don't have that much time for reviewing just now - I need to get myself more organised!

I also got a couple of ebooks for review this week:

"Legacy" by Molly Cochran, which is supposed to be about witches, and sounds pretty cool. It's from Simon & Schuster's 'galley grab' program.

"Hold Me If You Can" by Stephenie Crowe - I've almost finished this, but it doesn't come out for a while, so I'll hold off posting the review until the release date. From Sourcebooks, via NetGalley.

What do you think of any of these books, if you've read them? And what's in your mailbox this week?

~Ailsa

Mini review: Flirt, by Laurell K. Hamilton

*Sometimes I don't have much to say, but still want to talk about a book, so I'll do a mini review instead*

Title: Flirt

Author: Laurel K. Hamilton

Publisher: Headline (UK)/Berkley (US)

Release date: 2010

Source: library

Notes: book 18 in the Anita Blake series. Novella.

Description from back cover: I am Anita Blake, vampire hunter and necromancer, and when I meet with Tony Bennington, who is desperate to have me reanimate his recently deceased wife, I feel sympathy for his loss. After all, I know something about love, and I know everything there is to know about loss. But I also know that what I can do as a necromancer isn't the miracle Tony thinks he needs. The creature that I could coerce to step out of his late wife's grave would not be the lovely Mrs Bennington. Not really. And not for long.

I have been relaxing just a bit with the men in my private life. The affectionate warmth of being with them seems to bring out something softer in me, a sense of safety I can almost trust. They do love me; that part is for ever and for sure. But flirting with feeling safe is a dangerous thing...

My thoughts: I'll be honest, I didn't really like this book. I think it's because the pacing doesn't quite work for me. At the start of the story, we get to see a bit of a normal day for Anita. She meets an awkward client, then goes out for lunch with Micah, Nathaniel, and Jason, and they flirt a little with one of the waiters. Then she has a second awkward customer in the afternoon. The similarity of these two scenes made the second one a little boring, and while it's kind of interesting to see some of the people Anita meets in her everyday life, I don't think it was really necessary to show both meetings. A couple of weeks pass before the next chapter, and suddenly the action starts, with Anita being kidnapped. I won't spoil who does the kidnapping, but they threaten Anita that if she doesn't cooperate, they will shoot one or several of her men.

I really felt like what happens from that point on in the book happens far too quickly for the length of the story. The consequences are too big for the series - I feel like, if Anita is continuing to add to her 'menagerie' of people to feed from, then it deserves a bigger book, and we should have been able to meet this character a little more before what happened, happened. I guess my overall feeling is, I don't like the outcome at the end because of the speed things happened.

I give this book 4 out of 10

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

Sorry I only got one review up this week, and a mini one at that! This week coming will be better, I promise!

What did you get in your postbox/mailbox this week?

~Ailsa

Mini review: Rules of Attraction, by Simone Elkeles

*Sometimes I want to talk about a book, but don't have much to say - at those times I'll do a 'mini review' with just a few thoughts about the book*

Title: Rules of Attraction

Author: Simone Elkeles

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books

Release Date: October 2010

Source: won from Book Chick City

Description: Carlos Fuentes isn't happy about leaving Mexico to start the "new" life his older brother, Alex, has planned for him. Carlos liked his freedom: living life on the edge and carving out his own path - just like Alex did.

Kiara Westford doesn't talk much; preferring instead to shut the world out. And when Carlos bounds into her life she struggles to understand him and his wild ways. Carlos is sure that Kiara thinks she's too good for him, which is just fine because he's not interested anyway, right? But when they finally open up to each other, the connection they fell shocks them both. Can the overcome their fears and realise that sometimes opposites really do attract?

My Thoughts: I did enjoy Rules of Attraction, possibly more than the first in the series, Perfect Chemistry. It's not really the sort of thing that I would usually pick up, but I was pleasantly surprised by both books.

I thought Carlos was really annoying at the beginning of the book - he's just so rude to Alex & Brittany (Alex's girlfriend), the kind of rudeness that I just don't like in other people. I was so glad when he started to appreciate what people around him were doing to help him, and started being a little nicer.

Kiara on the other hand is someone I could immediately relate to. She is the quiet girl in class who likes to wear baggy t-shirts and go hiking at the weekend. I found her much more likeable than Brittany had been in Perfect Chemistry. She's the sort of person I would have been best-friends with in high school because we're very similar. I was very glad when Carlos started to realise how nice she was, and to notice that she was pretty, too.

A sweet story with interesting characters, Simone Elkeles' "Rules of Attraction" is an enjoyable, quick read, even if the final ending is a little predictable. I give it 5/10 stars.

In My Mailbox

Welcome back to In My Mailbox! IMM is a weekly meme from Kristi at The Story Siren, where you can show which books you got this week.

I'm sorry about the static sound on this - I really have no idea what that's from.

Please do check out the reviews further down the page as well!

And what did you get in your mailboxes/postboxes this week?

~Ailsa