Waiting on Wednesday: Deadline by Mira Grant

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Tina

It’s the first day of December, and this means Christmas! And since it’s nearing Christmas, I think it may be just fitting to post something about a book I desperately want?

Okay, I’m just making excuses. Besides, even if I desperately want this book, I can’t get it until next year, so I would really still have to wait. Anyway, I was browsing through my friends’ wish lists yesterday in Goodreads when I saw that one of the books I am definitely looking forward to next year now has a cover. Excuse me while I squee. :D

Deadline (Newsflesh # 2) by Mira Grant
Out May 31, 2011

Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem as fun when you’ve lost as much as he has.

But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news-he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead.

Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.

[cover and blurb from Goodreads]

It’s no secret that I loved Mira Grant’s Feed this year, and it was the cover that reeled me in when I first saw it. When I saw that the next book’s cover is out, I wished that it was already available so I can have it in my hands. :D

I’m quite partial to the first cover:

But I think Deadline‘s is just as cool. :D What do you think?

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

One Hundred!

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Tina

I meant to blog about this earlier, but alas, life and NaNoWriMo and other non-shiny, non-reading stuff got in the way. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Since I have a long day at work today, I think I can afford to have a little break and a celebration. So…here we go:

I have read 100 books in 2010!

I'm not sure if there are 100 books in that image really. Let's just pretend it is. :) (image from wehearit.com)

I know that compared to other readers and book bloggers out there, 100 books is a small feat, but this is the first time I have actually reached that number in a year. I know it would be somewhat of an easy challenge, but I never thought I would finish it with a month and a few days to spare. :)

Of course, this doesn’t mean that I have made a huge dent in my TBR pile — in fact, it seemed to have grown bigger as I did this challenge. But oh well, I should not be surprised with that anymore.

I will still continue to read until the year ends of course. Let’s see how much I can reach before 11:59:59pm on December 31, 2010. :)

Will I do this again next year? Probably…not. I don’t want to set a number to reach anymore because I know I will keep on reading, no matter what. I initially set to read 50 books in 2008 because I felt like I don’t read enough then. Now that I know I read more than enough, I don’t think a number is necessary. A themed challenge again, maybe, but it depends on the mood.

On another note — I have four more challenges remaining, three of which I am not sure if I can still meet before the year ends. But it’s okay if I don’t reach them — the fact that I tried (even if it was just at the start) is already good enough. :)

In My Mailbox (11)

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Tina

I really did not mean to get any books these week (yes, I know I always say that), but Fully Booked Eastwood is on sale…so how can I resist? It’s not like Cyber Monday, but still. Resistance against books is always, always futile.

Oh, and I got some awesome galleys and some books I won arrived this week…and that’s totally free. I can’t help that too, right? ;)

In My Mailbox is a weekly book meme hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren, where bloggers post about what books received that week, be it via mailbox, library or store. Here’s this week’s stash!

BOUGHT:

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. I got the UK edition after Chachic, Aaron and I browsed it in Fully Booked Gateway during the last FBB meet up. This hardly looks like a book at all, with its layout and designs inside. Plus it’s pretty cheap for somewhat of a “hardcover”. Look:
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. Grace and I were browsing through the 80% off table in Fully Booked Eastwood when I saw a very familiar spine. I picked it up and yes! It’s this book! Hard cover, 80% off! :) Of course I had to get it. Talk about steal. :P
Naermyth by Karen Francisco. I was originally planning to get The Giver by Lois Lowry (yes, I haven’t read that yet!), but when I wandered over to the Filipiniana section in Fully Booked and saw this. I read the blurb and my pulse quickened — could it be? Local dystopian fantasy? It seems like it! I started reading this yesterday but my copy had a printing error so I returned it to Fully Booked. Now I have a proper copy and I can continue reading. Watch out for my review soon. :)

WON:

On the Edge and Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews

I got great news almost a month ago that I won Dee’s 100+ Follower Giveaway. I get to pick any book (or books) worth $15 from Book Depository sponsored by The Book Quoter. I was wondering when the package would arrive and I was kind of worried, too, since we moved to an apartment and I don’t know if they would get delivered to me. Friday was a good day, though, when I saw the packages waiting at my dresser. Yay! I now have more Ilona Andrews books to read! Thanks again Dee and Book Quoter. :)

FOR REVIEW:

Lots of awesome books from Netgalley and Simon & Schuster! :)

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa (currently reading The Iron Daughter, review of The Iron King up!)
My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent (must finish reading My Soul to Keep)
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Choker by Elizabeth Woods
Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton
Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves
Haven by Kristi Cook
Deadly by Julie Chibbaro

So many books, so little time! :o I have no idea when I’ll be able to read this and my mountain of TBR…but I guess I should be used to that already, right?

What’s in your mailbox this week? :)

Kindle Ebook Gifting Program

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Tina

Earlier today I was contemplating on splurging on some ebooks on Amazon and I was just about to get one when I saw a very curious button, one I have never seen before:

Hmm...what does this button do?

Give as a gift? I wondered. So I tested it and got to this screen:

Sending a Kindle ebook as a gift

Imagine my excitement when I understood what this meant! Yes! It is possible to give an ebook as a gift from the Amazon Kindle Store!

From the press release (source):

Beginning today, just in time for the holiday season, customers can give Kindle Books as gifts to anyone with an e-mail address—no Kindle required. Kindle Books can be read on Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices. For more information or to give a Kindle Book as a gift, go to www.amazon.com/givekindlebooks.

“We are thrilled to make it easier than ever for our customers to give their favorite Kindle book to a friend or family member as a gift,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “We’re making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone – not just Kindle owners.”

To give a Kindle Book as a gift, customers simply choose a book in the Kindle Store, select “Give as a Gift” and send their gift to anyone with an email address. Notifications of Kindle Books gifts are delivered instantly via e-mail and the recipient redeems the gift in the Kindle Store to read on any Kindle or free Kindle app.

But what if you don’t have a Kindle, or the person you’re giving to doesn’t have a Kindle? According to the website, Kindle ebooks can be given as gifts as long as the recipient has an email address. The ebook can still be read through any of the free Kindle apps on PCs, Macs, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or Android Phones.

All ebooks available in the Kindle Store can be given as gifts, and in case the recipient doesn’t like or want the gift, it can be exchanged for Amazon.com gift cards.

This ebook gifting is a great way to save on shipping, IMO. It doesn’t beat receiving real books in post, of course, but it would be a great gift idea for friends who have Kindles or likes ebooks.

You know what this means, right? Time to start building my Amazon Kindle ebook wish list! :)

In My Mailbox (10): Hodge-Podge

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Tina

It’s been a while since I did an In My Mailbox post, and I’ve been meaning to do one for the past weeks but life has been a little bit hectic lately. So I apologize. Like I mentioned in one of my last posts, we moved to an apartment down the street because our house is being renovated. Moving is a pain when you have so many books, and I realized as I was packing that I do have a lot of books. More than I thought I owned!

This next picture is rather depressing, but I promised my books they’d have a better home once the house is finished by early next year (my parents promised me a bigger shelf in my room). I am planning to let go of some of my books though, but I’ll sort them out soon, probably after NaNoWriMo.

So, my books. In 9 huge plastic bags:

I’m pretty sure my favorite ones won’t be dented in those plastics.

Anyway, so the moving thing kind of stopped me from acquiring books since I really have no place to put it. But…does that stop me? Of course not. Especially when there are ebooks to get and read! And I’m using books as a reward for me to get to certain word counts in NaNoWriMo!

But now you also know why my word count is way behind. Shiny books = procrastination. :P

Anyway, here are the books I got for the past few weeks for today’s In My Mailbox post! In My Mailbox is a weekly book meme hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren, where bloggers post about what books received that week, be it via mailbox, library or store.

I guess I should start with the books in picture, first. :)

Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Fully Booked). I gave in to curiosity because I know a lot of people like this and recommend this. The only reason I’m hesitant to jump in this series is because it has 11 books — too much investment, IMHO. But let’s see. Got this as a reward for myself in reaching 12,000 words last week. :P
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (Libreria). I’ve been eying Robin McKinley books in Fully Booked ever since I’ve heard praises about her from Chachic, so I was really planning to buy Sunshine first (the sparkly vampire book LOL). But I never got around to it, then Chachic reviewed her latest book, Pegasus, and she said that she recommends reading other McKinleys first before reading that, especially Beauty and The Blue Sword. Just my luck, I got to visit Libreria earlier with some Filipino Book Bloggers (more detailed accounts of that in Jason‘s and Blooey‘s blogs), there was a copy of The Blue Sword. :) I call that fate. :P
Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly (Fully Booked). This one is an impulse buy, really. I don’t know why I got it, except I know it’s really a reprint of a YA book published in 1942. I guess I was feeling the need to read some contemporary books, and this one just jumped out at me. I know Chris from Ficsation liked this one, so I thought it was worth a try. :)
Skin by Ted Dekker (Book Sale). I’ve been wanting to buy more Dekker books, but some of them are just too expensive. I saw the hardcover of Skin in Booksale, and well…I didn’t let it go. :)

Not in picture:

The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell (Book Depository). My first Book Depository order is a zombie book. Not surprising, of course. I’ve been looking for this book for ages but I can’t find it here, so I got it online. And I think I love Book Depository already, especially for hard to find books. :) There’s a more detailed post on how to order in Book Depository in Ariel’s blog if you’re curious.

Ebooks (no more background stories for this one, since I’m a bit tired of writing…plus I don’t think I should explain why I got free ebooks, right? :P):

Awaken by Kate Kacvinsky (NetGalley)
Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann (Simon and Schuster Galley Grab)
The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell (NetGalley)
Savannah Grey by Cliff McNish (NetGalley)
Deceit by Brandilyn Collins (Amazon)

Pretty hefty mailbox. Of course, I have no idea when I’ll be able to read this, but I think that’s a given already. Mt. TBR, hello!

So, what’s in your mailbox this week? :)

In My Mailbox (9): Enders and Dust

Posted on October 24, 2010 by Tina

Thought I’d do a quick post before I hit the sack again. Today I ran another 10 kilometer race, and my knees are killing me. I was slower by almost ten minutes from my personal record, but that’s probably because I didn’t have enough sleep (then again, I never had enough sleep before a race), and because there was just something wrong about how the entire event was organized. I’ll rant post about it in my personal blog sometime this week. :)

This week is a pretty small stash, but I did get a lot of awesome emails and did a lot of orders so there should be a pretty sizable stash next week. I’ve been very good with resisting to buy, too, especially after I’ve spotted a bunch of new books that I am interested in getting. I just keep on reminding myself three things:

I still have a lot waiting to be read
I have to save money for NaNoWriMo ML duties
I’ll be packing up my books soon to move because we’ll be having our house renovated, and adding a bunch of books on the shelf will just make it hard to move out.

I’ve been a good girl, yes? :) So, just two books this week!

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Everyone has been recommending this book to me, but for some reason I can’t find a copy. So one day, I posted it on a wish list in our Goodreads group, and one of my new friends there kindly sent me a copy. Thanks Monique! :) I am not a sci-fi reader so normally I wouldn’t get Ender’s Game, but when people who don’t normally read sci-fi say this is good…well I’ve got to find out why for myself, too.What’s funny though, is now that I have it, I saw two copies of the book in National Bookstore. What up, world. :))
Dust City by Robert Paul Weston. After posting this on as my Want Books entry a little over a week ago, I saw a copy of it in Fully Booked Eastwood the following weekend. I wasn’t supposed to get it, but I had it reserved so I can mull over it the next day if I will get it. Well, of course, I ended up getting it. And true to what Chelle said in her review, the cover is pretty:You’d actually have to touch it to see how nice it is. :)

Oh, the books behind the two books I featured this week are old books I haven’t read yet. You’re seeing the foot of my Mt. TBR. :P

I also got some pretty awesome emails this week! The best one is probably when Dee of e-Volving books told me I won her 100+ Follower contest! This is my first time to win a book contest that I actually really wanted to join, and the $15 from Book Depository sponsored by Book Quoter is a really awesome prize. :) I’ll post about the books once they get here, of course.

And finally, I received the One Lovely Blog Award (my second one!) from Kate of Literary Explorations. Thank you! :)

I should hit the sack now if I want to catch up on lost sleep and help my poor aching legs recover. I hope you all had a great weekend (long weekend for us in the Philippines!), and I leave you with the note that Monique wrote on the wrapping of the book she sent me:

Have a great week everyone! :)

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