Geek Girl Blog Tour

Follow Friday & TGIF

I've been slacking this week. Dealing with personal issues, I haven't done much reading, writing or blogging. I'm still in the process of reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I hope I will finish this weekend. Even though I've been MIA most of this week, I'm going to participate in all my Friday stuff.

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee.  This weeks featured blog is Obsession with Books and the weekly question is:

 

Q. Do you have a favorite series that you read over and over again? Tell us a bit about it and why you keep on revisiting it?

 

Twilight is the only series I have read more than once. Mainly because I read all the books before New Moon, the movie, came out so I like to re-read them right before I see the next movie so that I can see what the little differences are between the books and the movies. In fact, I'm slooooowly re-reading Breaking Dawn for the November release of Breaking Dawn Part 1, the movie.

 

New Trailer!

OMGEEEEEE, I can't wait until November 18th!

I would love to get married where they got married in the woods. Sigh.

tgif is a weekly meme hosted by GReads!  This week's question is:

Reading Challenges: Did you sign up for any this year? 

How has your progression been?

 

I did and I suck. I signed up for the Chunkster Challenge and I think I read one. I also signed up for the Vampire Challenge and I've read three, I think. Anyways, yeah, I'm no good at challenges. When I decide I want to read something, I read it right then. I have a habit of picking something up and getting into even though I'm midway through another book.

 

Anywhoo, next week should be a MUCH better week in my world, hopefully. I will finish 13 Reasons Why and review it next week then get started on the next book which is....hmmm, I don't know yet : )

I'm also thinking about starting a weekly meme on Thursday about books or probably writing since there are so many memes on books. Would you participate if I did? Please?

Follow Friday & Book Blogger Hop & TGIF

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee.  This weeks featured blog is Librarian Mouse  and the weekly question is:

 

Q. It's that pesky magic book fairy again! She has another wish: What imaginary book world would you like to make a reality?

 

I still want to live in the land of the elves from Lord of the Rings. If I became a multimillionaire I would build that world with the trees, the water and the beautiful buildings and I would frolick barefoot. Anyone could live there with me as long as they agreed to frolick barefoot at least twice a day and stare pensively at the waterfalls.

 

Beautful! There should be more places like this in real life. Why live in a concrete jungle? I want to live here. Ok, I'm not going to off on a tangent.

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy for Books This weeks question is:

 

Q. As a book blogger, how do you introduce yourself in your profile?

I'm not very good at introducing myself, both in person and online. I tend to draw a blank on what I want to say. Nothing seems interesting enough and I end up being short and vague. I think I did a pretty good job here with introducing myself. I tend to want to include all of my interests and hobbies.

 

tgif is a weekly meme hosted by GReads!  This week's question is:

Q. Book Disappointments: Have you ever come across a book you were so stoked to read, but it failed miserably in your eyes? 

There are a few books I was excited about purchasing or recieving and then just couldn't get into it. I tend to have a short attention span unless something really gets to me so books have to grab me and grab me hard early on or I get bored. Two books really failed to grab me.

I have the first two book of both series. It seems like such a waste to have them and not read them. So one day I might come up with a challenge to read five books that I never finished or something like that.

Oh and Cut, I wanted to read this so bad, I ordered it and I was so disappointed.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Oh, did anyone else watch the season premiere of Vampire Diaries and Secret Circle? If so, let's discuss!

Tonight...

I. CAN'T. WAIT!!

This promo is awesomely sexy, by the way.

Who else will be watching?!?!

Teaser Tuesday (13) and Tune In Tuesday (9) and Top Ten Tuesday (5)

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Here are the rules: Grab your current read. Open to a random page. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page, and BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!

 

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

And what about you-the rest of you-did you notice the scars you left behind? No. Probably not. That wasn't possible. Because most of them can't be seen with the naked eye. Because there was no funeral, Hannah. (page 68)

 

Tune in Tuesday is hosted by Ginger at GReads. Hop on over there and join in the fun!

 

Evanesence is my absolute favorite group. LOVE LOVE LOVE Amy Lee, her vocals, her lyrics, her style, love her. I'm so excited that they are coming out with a new CD this year after all the upheavals and changes. I'm really feeling their new song.

 

Evanescence - What you want

The official (and totally cool) video is on VEVO and I can't post it here.

Click Here to see the official video.

 

Here are my other two favorite Evanescence songs/videos

 

Evanescence - Call Me When You Are Sober

Evanescence - Sweet Sacrifice

Man, I could post every single one of the songs/videos but I won't, I'll just watch them.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic: Top Ten Books I Read Because of Another Blogger

Now I don't remember where I saw which book but many of the books that I have read/plan to read recently have come from reading other blogs and seeing books I had no clue about. 

 

I saw Vampire Academy in the stores but I wasn't sure about it until I read rave reviews about the series on blogs. Someone posted 13 Reasons Why as a Waiting on Wednesday post and I was so glad because I hadn't heard about it either.

The whole Black Dagger Brotherhood series I found through another blogger. I was introduced to the hot steamy world of paranormal romance.

I read reviews about Two-Way Street and Beautiful Creatures. I still haven't finished BC but I plan on it.

I feel left out of the book blog sister/brotherhood because I haven't yet read Hunger Games. It is on the TBR list because so many other bloggers love it. Same with...

Divergent and Clockwork Angel. These books are big in the blogosphere.

I'm two short but you get the point. Book bloggers/blogging has opened my widened my reading spectrum considerably.

LOVE YOU BLOGGERS FOR EXPANDING MY READING HORIZONS!!

Book Review: Columbine by Dave Cullen

Columbine by Dave Cullen
In this remarkable account of the April 20, 1999, Columbine High School shooting, journalist Cullen not only dispels several of the prevailing myths about the event but tackles the hardest question of all: why did it happen? Drawing on extensive interviews, police reports and his own reporting, Cullen meticulously pieces together what happened when 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 13 people before turning their guns on themselves. The media spin was that specific students, namely jocks, were targeted and that Dylan and Eric were members of the Trench Coat Mafia. According to Cullen, they lived apparently normal lives, but under the surface lay an angry, erratic depressive (Klebold) and a sadistic psychopath (Harris), together forming a combustible pair. They planned the massacre for a year, outlining their intentions for massive carnage in extensive journals and video diaries. Cullen expertly balances the psychological analysis—enhanced by several of the nation's leading experts on psychopathology—with an examination of the shooting's effects on survivors, victims' families and the Columbine community. Readers will come away from Cullen's unflinching account with a deeper understanding of what drove these boys to kill, even if the answers aren't easy to stomach.

Growing up in Denver, this is one tragedy that really hit home with me because I felt so close to the area. It felt like it happened in my backyard. I was under the impression that this was a school shooting, that these poor kids were bullied to the point where they snapped and took revenge on the jocks and bullies. That is so far from the truth it is ridiculous. This book opened my eyes to the truth. This wasn't just a school shooting and I believe that if the killers knew that that's all we were calling it, they would be insulted (well Eric anyways).

The psychology student in me dug into this book with both feet and lapped up every detail about manic depressives, psychopaths, and personality disorders. Dave Cullen was able to get into the very thoughts of both killers through their personal journals. Poor misguided Dylan. Sure, he was a killer but I think more than anything the boy wanted love. He repeated the word love in his journal more than anything else. He was suicidal, didn't see anything good about himself, not his looks, not his personality, nothing. He was worthless and looking for a way out. So how did he become a killer instead of just putting a gun in his mouth? Enter the psychopath. Eric was the mastermind. He had a vision of grandeur. He planned every detail of the massacre down to the exact moment when the largest number of people would be in the cafeteria to begin the carnage. We were all pathetic robots, empty humans beneath him and his brilliance. He wanted to create mass chaos and devastation on a scale larger than OKC. Good thing he sucked at bomb making. If Dylan would have successfully committed suicide weeks before Columbine like he planned, Eric would have just found another partner but this was going to happen. He was destined to be a killer, he'd decided.

Every detail I thought I knew about this tragedy was wrong. The media got it all wrong. Thisbook is very well written. It is intense, gripping and at times frightening. It started to drag a little at the end but that was the only downside (other than the subject matter). I especially like the way it began with the Principal of the school at the time talking to the students about being safe, making it through prom night and coming to school on Monday morning. He loved his students. That was obvious. He just had no idea the tragedy that was await on Tuesday. This book gave me a lot of insight into the way people think, how conclusions are drawn and how one wrong action/statement/mistake can cause a snowball effect. This book did give me nightmares though because it took me through the whole journey with intimate details and at times is almost read like fiction. I felt like I was there and relived the whole tragedy as a fly on the wall. It was scary and an amazingly eye opening experience at the same time.

If you think you can handle it, read this book.

Sidenote: There was a lot of information about the victims and my lack of acknowledgment of them in my review is in no disrespect to what happened to the 13 souls that lost their lives that day. This was like a psychology text for me. I must know the whys, the motivations. I can't fathom the pain the victims families felt that day and to this day.

RIP Spartacus

RIP Andy Whitfield.

You were the best Spartacus ever.

I was so sad to find this out this morning. I had a crazy slight obsession with Spartacus and when it came out the he had cancer, I was shocked. He looked so strong and healthy, I just knew he would fight cancer and win. I can't believe that didn't happen. You just never know. Anyways, my condolences to his family. Still can't believe it.

Follow Friday & Book Blogger Hop & TGIF

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee.  This weeks featured blog is Pedantic Phooka and the weekly question is:

Q. Have you ever wanted a villain to win at the end of a story?  If so, which one??

I haven't had to deal with this often. Usually the bad guys are really bad and gross and I want them destroyed. However, the "bad guy" in Insatiable by Meg Cabot, Lucien Antonescu wasn't that bad and I wanted him to end up with Meena.

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy for Books This weeks question is:

Q. “Many of us primarily read one genre of books, with others sprinkled in. If authors stopped writing that genre, what genre would you start reading? Or would you give up reading completely if you couldn’t read that genre anymore?”

I jump between genres, mostly YA, YA paranormal and Adult fiction. If I couldn't read any of those, I would probably read more historical fiction.

Waiting on Wednesday (16): Enshadowed by Kelly Creagh

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

 

Enshadowed by Kelly Creagh (TBR January 17, 2012)

While Varen remains a prisoner in the dream-world, Isobel is haunted by his memory. He appears to her in her dreams and soon, even in her waking life. But is she just imagining it? Isobel knows she must find a way back to Varen. She makes plans to go to Baltimore. There, she confronts the figure known throughout the world as the Poe Toaster—the same dark man who once appeared to Isobel in her dreams, calling himself “Reynolds.” Isobel succeeds in interrupting the Toaster’s ritual and, in doing so, discovers a way to return to the dream-world. Soon, she finds herself swept up in a realm which not only holds remnants of Poe’s presence, but has also now taken on the characteristics of Varen’s innermost self. It is a dark world comprised of fear, terror, and anger. When Isobel once more encounters Varen, she finds him changed. With his mind poisoned by the dream world, he becomes a malevolent force, bent on destroying all—even himself. Now Isobel must face a new adversary, one who also happens to be her greatest love.

Teaser Tuesday (12) and Tune In Tuesday (8) and Top Ten Tuesday (4)

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Here are the rules: Grab your current read. Open to a random page. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page, and BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!

 

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

"Why am I listening to this? I mean, why put myself through this? Why not just pop the tape out of the stereo and throw the entire box of them in the trash? I swallow hard. Tears sting at the corners of my eyes. Because its Hannah's voice. A voice I thought I'd never hear again. I can't throw that away." (page 15-16)

Tune in Tuesday is hosted by Ginger at GReads. Hop on over there and join in the fun!

 

I don't listen to a lot of rap music but there are a few artists that catch my ear like Jay Z, Lil Wayne, Common, Mos Def, BEP, people like that. But lately I'm loving Nicki Minaj. She is weird and I love that. She's like the black Lady Gaga. I could totally see her rocking a meat dress although it would probably be BBQ'd. I swear she has multiple personality disorder.

 

Nicki Minaj - Super Bass

 

 

Will.I.Am feat. Nicki Minaj - Check It Out

Love this song!

 

 

Nicki Minaj  feat. Drake - Moment for Life

I don't really like this song that much but the beginning of the video cracks me up. This girl is nuts! Love it!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic: Top Ten Sequels I'm Dying To Read.

I'm not sure if I have ten but I do have quite a few sequels I'm looking forward to.

 

1. Frostbite by Richelle Mead. Sequel to Vampire Academy.

2. Enshadowed by Kelly Creagh. Sequel to Nevermore.

 

3. Torment by Lauren Kate. Sequel to Fallen. (I'm a little nervous about this one. I haven't heard great things.)

 

4. Rules of Attration by Simone Elkeles. Sequel to Perfect Chemistry.

 

5. Overbite by Meg Cabot. Sequel to Insatiable.

 

 

6. Sacrifice by Mayandree Michel. Sequel to the Descendants.

 

7. The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa. Sequel to Iron King.