Stacking The Shelves (#6) November

Stacking The Shelves (#6) November!

Stacking The Shelves (Hosted by Tynga's Reviews) is a monthly blog meme where I post about all the books I have bought, won, received for review, etc.)

So I had a big haul this month! Yay! Kind of like my big birthday present from everyone around the blogosphere (Sorry it's a late post!)

ARCs!

Here are the books I received for review!

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Tandem by Anna Jarzab

The Living by Matt de La Pena

Chasing Shadows by Swati Avasthi

The Dark Between by Sonia Gensler

The Beautiful & The Damned by Jessica Verday

Signed Books!

I won a signed copy of Purple Moon inside of a swag pack via a giveaway. HOWEVER, the signed, first-edition hardcover of Dark Talisman by Steven M. Booth was sent to me from Scott, thanking me for my ecstatic review of the ARC of the same novel found here. Thanks Scott!

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Purple Moon by Tessa Emily Hall (signed!)

Dark Talisman by Steven M. Booth (signed first-edition hardcover!)

Bought!

Only bought one book this month. I was so busy I didn't have time to make it to book stores!

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The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Swag!

I won all of the Purple Moon items inside of a giant swag pack (Thank you Tessa!)

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Confessions of The Private School Murders by James Patterson

Purple Moon Swag Pack-

Signed copy of the book

Notebook

Ribbon bookmark

Bookmark

Sleeping mask

Mocha Starbucks Insta-coffee (Yum!!)

Signed coffee mug

I also won this awesome matching T-Shirt along with a hardcover edition of the book!

Promotional Swag!

(2) Eye of Minds jumbo buttons

Mister Max jumbo button

(5) bookmarks

(2) Regular postcards

(1) signed postcard from Jessica!

A zombie-relocation letter for The World Without A Future!

(2) Business cards for TWWAF

(1) other business card

Gifted!

-All of these were gifted by my wonderful grandmother, who I adore!-

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Her Cinderella Heart by Ruth Scotfield

So, a recap on all the books I got! Eep!

12 Total!

(5 ARCs, 2 Signed, 2 reg. Hardcovers, and 3 reg. Paperbacks)

November Stacking The Shelves Stockpile!!

This everything total I received this month!

So it was a great month :) And I wanna know! What did you get?



Review: Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher

Title: Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Release Date: March 18, 2003

Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, Romance, Action

Medium: Paperback, Bought

Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes was a compelling read. Somehow, I forgot to write a review of this novel on my blog, so I will have to make this review shorter than usual.

The plot was strong and interesting, full of mystery and heartbreak. It tells the story of a girl who mysteriously had her entire face burned when she was young. Her father tells everyone she dumped a pot of spaghetti on herself, but this turns out to be a lie. Her only friend is known as a fat kid, but after he gets on the swim team and loses tons of weight, he is scared she will think he's leaving her behind. And when Sarah is suddenly admitted into a hospital because she won't speak or move, her friend makes it his job to find out what really happened. This plot was gripping, intense, exciting. It was emotional and hit very close to home. Full if mystery, action, romance, all within a contemporary setting, makes for an eventful novel.

The writing was great. It was very realistic and creative, staying very believable throughout the entire novel. It weaves a story of a girl's seventeen year fight to tell what really happened to her, all while knowing she would never be pretty and that more serious things would happen if she did tell. With underlying themes of consequences, sticking up for your friends, being truthful, friendship, and more, this novel makes you question all that you know and makes you think for yourself. A wonderful read for anyone of any age, Staying Fat Sarah Byrnes is a great contemporary read. Magnificent. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 2013

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Now, because it is a holiday and everyone is celebrating, I will make this a quick post.

I am thankful for...

God

My friends & family

My Life

And I'm thankful for my blogging life as well! I am thankful for each and every one of my readers.

I am thankful every GFC, every email subscriber, every Goodreads friend, every Facebook friend, every ML reader, RB friend, Google+ follower, all 1,270 Twitter followers, all 143 Facebook likes, everyone. You all make this blog what it is! 

So here's to you guys and here's until next Thanksgiving! May you fill your stomach with good food while surrounded with great friends and family.

Review: Under The Watson's Porch by Susan Shreve

 

Title: Under The Watson's Porch by Susan Shreve
Publisher: Yearling
Release Date: April 11, 2006
Genres: Middle Grade, Romance, Contemporary, Drama
Medium: Paperback, Won (For setting the Most-Books-Read-Record at school long ago)

Under the Watson's Porch was a fun, innocent, middle grade read. It was short, poignant, sweet, and a nice break from all the serious young adult I've been reading lately (I read Before I Die and The Fault In Our Stars. These books were both very serious and were very much tear-jerkers.) It was nice to get away from all the seriousness. This novel is the simple story of a girl and her new friend, whom her parents don't like. He's known around the town as a bad kid, although the girl sees another side of him, his good side. Together, they create a sort of weekly daycare for the neighborhood children, hidden under the Watson's porch. This plot makes for a look into the wonderful mind that is a child's. It's comedic, interesting, and sweet. Very enriching. Perfect for fans of Bridge To Terabithia and C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia style writing.

The writing was simple, yet kept the novel interesting and had it flowing at a great pace. Within the novel, you found yourself falling for the characters and caring for them, becoming angry when someone treats them different, especially when they treat the boy differently for being a "trouble-making foster-child." He writing is universal and ageless, a nice read for any age, anywhere. Perfect for fans of classic children's lit. It's also not too cutesy-cutesy as I expected it to be. It's richly written and (may I put it, ages like find wine?) Even though I am not in the age range the writer intended it's audience to be, I still enjoyed it. It was beautiful, refreshing, and timeless, also great for reading to siblings and all younger relatives and acquaintances.

This novel is original, cute, and refreshing. Perfect for younger children. Three stars.

NaNoWriMo 2013: Update 3

It's that time again, my blogglings! (That word sounds like aliens to me, for some strange reason. Anyway...)

It's the end of week three of NaNoWriMo 2013 and we are closing in on the end. I am so happy to have participated in my first year of NaNoWriMo, and I will definitely be doing it again next year! Next week, I will be bringing you the finale and (hopefully) be telling you that I completed the challenge of 50,000 words!

This week I have written considerably less. I did not write on the weekdays (actually, this entire month I have only written on weekends) because of school, extracurricular activities, family, etc. And this weekend, when I planned to write, I had my birthday to look forward to instead! Friday night, I picked up my friends and we all went to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on it's official release night! Then, we went shopping and they spent the night with me. The next morning, we went to the Santa Train, a tradition in my region, and I got to meet Kree Harrison (runner up of the most recent season of American Idol) and she wished me happy birthday! So this entire week, I have only gotten to write for one day: today. But, in that measure of time, I got quite a bit done.


So, the first time I wrote and edited this novel, the final first edition came out at:


 346,091 Characters - 63,905 Words - 4,368 Sentences - 2,216 Paragraphs - 15 Avg. Sentence Length - 28 Chapters


 Now, three weeks into rewriting it, I have written:


 156,274 Characters - 29,066 Words - 1,857 Sentences - 817 Paragraphs - 16 Avg. Sentence Length- 9 Chapters


 And to recap, I'll begin editing in December, and start querying again in January, just in time for the big publishing boom. So fingers crossed and stay tuned for next week's update! :)
Now, I am beginning week four. This entire week, I am going to write every single day. It's the homestretch. I have only 1 3/4 days of school this week, since they are letting out early on Tuesday for the holiday. I will write my fingers to the bones in order to write the last 21,000 words. This may sound like a lot, but I've written 29,000 in just three weekends. A complete week is more than enough time to finish this bad-boy.

So stay tuned. Next week, I'll be giving the final update for NaNoWriMo 2013 and signing off it until next year. Also, be on the look out for a movie review of Catching Fire, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, and more (possibly even The Spectacular Now!) and more book reviews!