Random Stuff Friday

1) It took until Thursday for me to realize I hadn't blogged all week. Not even a quote! I'm sorry guys. After the Great Blogger Crash of Friday the 13th coinciding with Sarah Dessen Day (at least in my world) , along with a weekend filled with family and friends and little kids birthday-ing, well, things have been a bit crazy.

2) Speaking of Sarah Dessen Day ... so she was here last Friday at The Kings English in Salt Lake City and it was probably one of the BEST Friday nights ever! She's one of my heroes, you see. A queen of contemporary YA and such a sweet, Southern gal. I'll have my pictures up next week to share!

3) See, now I feel like I need to have 2 weeks worth of random stuff to share, except, I can't remember all the random stuff from last week and even this week's stuff is a bit overshadowed by the INSANE hailstorm that pummeled our house last night. To the point where 5yo woke up and yelled "Mommy! The house is going to fall down!"

4) While the weather may not be cooperating with the whole summer thing, the office is! I came in this morning to an email from Bossman saying we're starting our summer hours next week. What does this mean, you ask? This means, we work a little extra Mon-Thu and get half day Fridays every week! I'm so in.

5) And lastly, I thought I kicked my coffee habit. I hadn't had any for a good long while. Then, at our Laos New Year Festival about three weeks ago, my mom and aunts had a booth selling food, Thai tea and iced coffee and I had a little. Now I feel like I need some every day, though I've been good and have only given into the craving about 3x a week.

*raises cup of iced mocha* Hope your weekend is sunny and bright! (Hope mine is too!)

Quote of the Week

"You can't always get the perfect moment. Sometimes,

you just have to do the best you can under the circumstances."

Sarah Dessen

Recent Reads: Bikes, Beaches / Ghosts and Guilt

In case you haven't been able to tell, I've been reading. Like a maniac! It's awesome. I'm in that lull right now after just finishing what I think are some major revisions and then starting a new project. Plus, I've had the opportunity to read some ARCs and omg. There are some amazing books coming out this year!! That doesn't mean there were not fantastic books that have already come out though.

Book: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Count: 7
Genre: YA Contemp
Auden doesn't sleep at night. At least not since her parents split up, but she's adapted, focusing on not making waves and achieving academically. Now, the summer before she starts college is here and she's spending it in a tiny beach town with her father, his new wife and their new baby. Very quickly Auden ends up with a job at her stepmom's trendy boutique that introduces her to a world of girlyness she's never known. And then there's Eli, a former star on the bike circuit who can't seem to sleep at night either. A lot can happen between sunset and sunrise. Anything can happen. So, Sarah Dessen's totally one of my heroes. If you didn't already know, I'm a serious fan. This is another one of hers to add to my fave list.

Book: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate
Count: 8
Genre: YA Contemp
Natalie Hargrove will be Palmetto Princess. She'll do anything to get the title and truly leave her wrong side of the tracks past behind her for good. But when a prank to secure the title goes horrifically wrong, the guilt starts to gnaw away at her. Ghosts from her pasts suddenly appear and now she has to decide if being royal is really worth all the regret. This is a far different story from Lauren Kate's Fallen. The way the summary was written made me think it was a paranormal. It's not. It was still a good book though.

Recent Reads: L & K, I<3U, Glass

Yes, yes, yet another, let's play catch up, post. I read far faster than I can put up RR posts, so I'm just going to keep doing my best to keep up with these and sometimes the posts will be multiples.

I can't help it. There are way too many good books out there that I want to share about!

Book: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Book Count: 13

The story of a girl who finds out what home and love really are.

In Lock and Key Ruby is discovered living in a house where her mother abandoned her. She's still underage, so instead of finding herself in foster care, Ruby is sent to live with her much older estranged sister and her husband.

Once Ruby's moved in, she befriends the cute neighbor guy, works on rebuilding a relationship with her sister and finds out that one of the hardest parts of letting people in, is letting people go.

Great book. Great Read. Go get it! It's Sarah Dessen. You can't really go wrong here.

Book: I Heart You You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

Book Count: 14

Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy dies. Girl can't let go. Neither can boy.

Yep, that's about it. Yanno, with some more detail and stuff. Her dead boyfriend's ghost comes back to be with her because she can't let go of the guilt, blaming herself for his death, so she can't let him go. But how do you have a "real" relationship with a ghost?

I really thought the premise of this was great, but the execution was a bit off for me. It just felt like there wasn't enough. For a book written in free pose, much like Ellen Hopkins's novels, this book felt a thin. The characters were not developed enough for me. For me, I guess the easiest way to put it is: I didn't feel what she was feeling.

If it didn't only take me about 45 minutes to read, I probably wouldn't have finished it. The premise got me. The actual story lost me.

Book: Glass

Book Count: 15

Ahh, yes, another Ellen Hopkins book. Issues galore. This is the sequel to Crank and what a sequel it is. As usual, written lyrically and in free pose, Glass sucks you back into Kristina's world. Now seventeen with a baby, the lure of an even stronger form of meth calls out to her.

In this sequel Ellen Hopkins deals even more with the ramifications of an addicts actions on their families and it is heartwrenching. Especially when there are children involved. She doesn't gloss over the story, which makes it more real and more difficult to read. The difficulty does not lie in the writing, but in the actual story and how harsh reality is.

This is the second part in a based on real life story that Ms. Hopkins's family has faced. As you read this book, you can tell there's more to the words than in some of her other works. There's more behind the story and it breaks your heart just a little bit more.

Maybe not something to read if you're having a downer day, but definitely a good book.

That's it for now. Happy Reading!

Recent Reads: Dreamland

Book: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

Genre: YA Fiction

Book Count: 5

Ahhh, the first book in my new Recent Reads format.

So I'm a huge Sarah Dessen fan. Love her. Thanks to my sister V for introducing us.

I once received a compliment from someone that some of my writing was very "Sarah Dessen-esque." Yeah, I printed that comment and have it pasted in my writing journal.

Okay, anyway, back to the book.

For a long time I didn't want to read this one. No real reason. When my sister babysits for us, we pay her in books - there's a reason I'm telling you this, I swear. I think this actually costs us more money because we all go to the bookstore and then my daughter and I almost always get a couple books too. Anyway, this was one of the books my sister picked up and as it would be, I ran out of reading materials and this book dropped into my lap.

I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was about how much I liked it. I have yet to read one of Ms. Dessen's books that I don't like. She just makes things so believable and vivid, as though you're the one walking through the pages. Her characters are real and could be the girl next door, the one down the street, your best friend or your sister and in Dreamland, Caitlin is no different. The story of a girl struggling to escape her perfect sister's shadow, in Dreamland Caitlin learns that life for the "perfect" maybe isn't so great.

Though it is not my favorite Sarah Dessen book (that slot is still reserved for This Lullaby because I Dexter), I did enjoy Dreamland.

And as for Sarah Dessen books in general ... I'm excited to pick up the paperback of Lock and Key when it comes out. (I've had to wait for paperback because I'm a dork and need to have all my books in a "series" match. )