Armchair BEA: Giveaway Day - Win a mystery box of books (US only)!

Update 6/13/17: I'm changing the giveaway end date to tomorrow so that I can give the winner 24 hours to respond and then ship it out on Thursday when I have time, otherwise, it'll be another 2 weeks before I can do so! Thanks for understanding!

Dear All:
To celebrate the final day of Armchair BEA, I'm doing a giveaway of a mystery box of books to anyone that's interested, not just participants of Armchair so please sign up! These may have ARCs, finished copies, etc of adult, YA, or MG. It will be a mixed lot! This will be a good way to earn some brownie points with my husband who is always wanting me to clean my shelves and pass along the love! Enjoy!
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Armchair BEA Day 2: What do readers want and how do I connect with my book loving community?

Dear All:
Unsurprisingly, I'm late to the party with Armchair Book Expo. I'm always so jealous of those of you who get to go, but at least we can still party at home! The questions this year are great as they are always. Let's tackle the first set.

• What Do Readers Want?: What makes or breaks a book? How do we rate the books, or determine if it is good literature or a good story? What do we want from an author event? How does diversity representation fit into all of this? 

What makes or breaks a book? 
I think this really depends on the reader. But I think to generalize, there has to be a hook, something to draw the reader in, and the pacing has to be good to keep interest. Characters that are three dimensional and relatable are a huge plus, but I may care about this more than others.  A structured plot is important-- meandering for 400 pages without a story is a huge downer.

For me, specifically, I love character interaction and learning about characters, so this is vitally important to me. I really need to be drawn in by the first 100 pages, if not, it's really hard for me to continue. Extra pluses include: good science if it's a dystopian or science fiction book or anything related to science, a terrific three dimensional villain, a really swoony love story that is well done, a strong friendship, great dialogue. What breaks a book for me includes: no plot, lots and lots and lots of scenery with very little character interaction, cookie cutter characters, I really don't do books in prose well although I've tried it. Instalove is usually a no-no.

How do we rate the books, or determine if it is good literature or a good story? 
For me, if I'm still thinking about the book a few days later, that's a good sign it's going to get at least a 4 star if not 5 star. Even if I'm not in love with the book, the books that make me think and feel deeply are the ones that I'm going to rate highly. Beautiful prose is a high one for me as it's actually harder to find, especially in YA. Deftly drawn characters who are memorable and stand out are a huge plus. If you have some of my no-nos listed above, the book will get a lower rating from me.

What do we want from an author event?
I absolutely love author events. I think the best author events incorporate material that is totally different from what we can get online. Some tidbits that authors can share about their books that are unable to be found elsewhere. I also love when if it's a group author event if they start discussing a topic together, ramping each other up. I think it's important to have a moderator who has really interesting questions to get the conversation going. I don't particularly love readings from books, so I could totally do without that. I do love when authors give us an inside scoop about their process. A great question and answer session always makes an event that much better. A good audience is key.

How does diversity representation fit into all of this?
I think this is very important and something that I've become aware of more and more. So many characters are white in all of literature and yet, there are so many really diverse and wonderful cultures, why shouldn't it be reflected in the literature as well? Reading and books elevate us and join us together in a multi-cultural community, and we should embrace it. I love reading about characters and cultures different from my own (and also about my own! When I found Lara Jean, I was so thrilled!), and those that are from different cultures deserve characters that they can identify with. I do believe that authors should be sensitive to other cultures and try to incorporate them when they can into books.  

• Let's Collaborate & Listen: The online book community has changed so much over the years. How do we keep up within our own book-sphere as well as within the community as a whole (i.e., libraries, bookstores, authors, publishers, etc.)? 

Here, I just want to send a shout out to my local indie bookstore, Left Bank Books, who has been so amazing and has made me aware of the terrific local book scene in St. Louis. I am thrilled to continue working with them for author events and giveaways. They have been so generous in promoting authors with events and also donating books for giveaways to help boost them. Please please please, support your local bookstores! The cost you pay for book may be higher, but believe me, it's worth it for the quality of service and the experience of being inside of one!

#ArmchairBEA Day 4: Surviving Fictional Worlds and Giveaways

Last real day of #ArmchairBEA! I know the peeps at actual BEA in Chicago are having a blast! So lucky!!! I'm thankful for Armchair BEA letting me live vicariously though!

Today's question: We all know that sometimes, the worlds we love in fiction can be dangerous. Which fictional worlds would you want to live in? Which worlds do you never want to dive into? Which worlds are you content to stay behind the glass, so to speak, rather than wishing to dive through the page? And once you get there, what would you do?

This question is pretty easy for me. And I'm sure the answers for which world to live in will be pretty universal. I mean, who doesn't want to live in Harry Potter world and go to Hogwarts for school?  This is why I took an adult vacation to HP land in Orlando, FL. I've been meaning to do a bigger post on going there, so maybe it's time :-) Anyway, getting to use the interactive wands at the park was super fun and pretty darn amazing since you have to do the spell properly for it to work, and they are hidden all over the park. I recommend any HP fan to go there when they can!

As to which worlds I wouldn't want to go to, that's pretty much most of my reading as I love dystopian YA, my standard fare. So worlds like in Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched, etc, are worlds I'm okay with never setting foot on, but perusing from a distance is totally fine by me! My latest favorite dystopian is The Winner's Curse trilogy, which I highly recommend to everyone, but again, I don't really want to live in. 

Today is also GIVEAWAY DAY, yay!!! So, couple of things: I have a giveaway going on right now that has 2 more days-- signed copy of Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes courtesy of Left Bank Books, my local amazing bookstore, US only. 
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I will have a giveaway going up soon that will be featuring the Fierce reads tour and a giveaway of all of the books on tour, US only, so stay tuned for that. 

For this event, I'd like to add my own giveaway. I'm giving away a paperback of The Winner's Curse (or e-copy in any format that's easy for me to gift, whichever you prefer), my favorite recent read that goes along with today's prompt. This giveaway is INT-- INT winners will get a copy from Book Depository (so make sure they ship to your location before you enter!!!, or an e-copy.
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I had a blast at Armchair BEA 2016, I hope you did too!  Can't wait to see people's loot!

Armchair BEA Day 3: Beyond the Books & Beyond the Blog

Here we are for Day 3 of Armchair BEA! I loved both of these questions so I'm going to tackle both.

Question 1: Beyond the traditional form of the novel, what are your favorite alternative forms (graphic novels, audiobooks, webcomics, etc)? Do you have any favorite works within these alternate forms? How do you think the changing format affects the reading experience? 
So I love graphical novels, and this realization came in an unusual way. I was asked by Howard Shapiro, who works with Animal, Inc, an indie book company, that works to put out great indie material, to review his book The Stereotypical Freaks several years ago. I was at a stage of my blogging where I was grabbing any book I could, because I loved finding indie gems in the rough, and it was worth going through the rest of the not so great literature to find them. This book was one of them, and had such heart and warmth that I would usually only find in a really good contemporary YA novel. This book really opened my eyes, and I did the editing for the next few projects with Howard, and we've put out a couple more graphical novels since then. In order to do his work justice, I went to the classics, in particular BONE by Jeff Smith, which is a fantastic graphical novel (set of novels) in one huge tome (1300 pages!!!)-- I would describe it as a LOtR kind of world but oh so cute with the Bone clan. Having had to edit as well as read this medium, you can SHOW with pictures, and focus on good dialogue versus having to show with words. But the pictures can be so poignant and reveal a point so well. I've loved discovering how picture books for children can do this as well, for example Olivia by Ian Falconer is a great example of how the picture says it all.

Question 2: Our secondary topic, beyond the blog could focus on the ways you engage in talking about books outside of your blog. Do you participate in book clubs, take classes, meticulously maintain your goodreads profile? Let the world know!
I do several things, but I've had to put most of these on hold as my current job has basically taken over my life for the past year (and also my overactive toddler). I'm an editor as I described above, and I do some freelance work with that, which I love. I also write, and have a novel that is sitting on a shelf that I need to get back to eventually. I participate in Writer's Cramps on writing.com where people can enter prompt contests where they have to submit a story or poem within 24 hours and they get judged by other members, so it's a fun way to win and think creatively in a short period with quick feedback. I also work with Left Bank Books, our amazing local bookstore, to report on their bookish events. For example, I just interviewed the Fierce Reads authors on tour, which I'll post about probably next week with the interview transcript! And lastly, I'm fortunate to have met a lot of writers in St. Louis, so I go to dinner with them, and beta read, and basically get to hang out with some of the coolest people I've ever met. And a friend of mine and I are thinking of maybe co-writing a book one day, so keep an eye out for that!

BEA: Day 2, Judge a book by its cover?

Hey gang:
As stress relief from my crazy job, I needed to live vicariously through Armchair BEA since I once again have not gone to BEA although it's so much closer in Chicago. Hopefully, it's there again soon! 

There are themed questions each day to answer and here is today's:
 
The Books: How often do you judge a book by its cover? How often are you surprised by what you find? Do you strategize and make sure every book in your series has the same cover design (as far as you are able to) and type? How important is it for the visual art on the outside of the book to match or coordinate with the literature art on the inside? 

I would say I occasionally have cover lust like any other person, but it makes it even more disappointing if there is a fantastic cover and the book is not so much. Therefore, I care much much more about the inside words than the outside. I love my Kindle also, so many times I REALLY don't care about what the cover looks like, and sometimes buy hard copies only if I fall in love with the book electronically. That said, having both the cover and the book match in gorgeousness (say, the Winner's Curse trilogy or The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy) is a win-win for me, and I then want to match all the covers. Because man, a trilogy that is well matched like that is so incredibly aesthetically pleasing!  Until tomorrow!