Jenn's Bookshelves

Yesterday, Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog posted an outstanding review of  Elissa Stein and Susan Kim’s fantastic book Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation.  Today she’s hosting a giveaway for one copy of the book! 

*WARNING*-if you are at all squeamish about a woman’s natural body processes stop reading here*

One of the things I enjoyed about Rebecca’s review is the discussion it started, both on her blog and on twitter.  Growing up, the whole topic of menstruation was an uncomfortable one to discuss (totally not faulting you, Mom!).  I grew up in a household with two younger sisters and an older brother.  Technically, since we out outnumbered the men we should have been free to discuss what we wanted.  But for some reason, we didn’t.  But then as we got older, we loosened up and became a bit freer in our topics of conversation.  When we needed Dad to pick up “supplies” at the store, we’d use code: B-52s were pads and tampons were referred to as “Thomases” (thank my little sister for that one!).  

Now that I’m adult (yikes!) I’ve definitely become a bit more open to discuss these sort of things.  Much to my husband’s dismay I talk to him about it all in great detail. Mostly it’s complaining. Not complaining about having a period because, don’t shoot me, I’m one of those women who LOVE to have their period.  It reminds me that I am equipt to carry a child! What a wonderous thing! But complaining about things associated with having  my period.  Here are a few of my top ones:

• Packaging: why must pads/tampons be sold in bright colored packages covered in flowers? Really??? Also…I don’t necessarily want THE WORLD to know when I’m on the rag.  Why is the individual wrapping so crinkly and noisy!?  There’s absolutely no chance of opening a pad or a tampon without everyone in the bathroom hearing, especially if there is an echo. 
• Why is there now an entire line of products referred to as “fresh”?  Apparently, they have a smell associated to them.  Are they insinuating I have an odor?  Because I should automatically want my crotch to smell like a field of wildflowers? If God wanted my crotch to smell like flowers then he would have created us all with a nice crotch bouquet. Besides,  a woman’s body keeps itself fresh..adding perfumes to it can cause serious health ramifications.
• “Sanitary disposal bins”–men, you are lucky enough to not have these in your public restrooms. These are the lovely bins attached to bathroom stalls for women to dispose of their “personal trash.” And really…they’re disgusting.  You open them up to drop something in and you can see what those before you have disposed of.  GROSS!  I guess it’s a good thing I’m in a bathroom stall at the time because I instantly start wretching.  Can’t they use something similar to a Diaper Genie? You drop something in, you turn the top, and away it goes, never to be seen again!
• Why must people (MEN!) assume that we are having our period if we are a bit cranky?  I don’t get cranky when I’m on the rag (my husband would say I’m cranky all the time).  Yes, a woman can get a little emotional once  a month due to all the hormones racing through her body, but really….what’s your excuse?

Ok, I better stop here before I get too carried away! Thank you, Rebecca, for inciting such a healthy conversation!

I’ve had such a wonderful time answering all these questions! I’ve learned quite a deal about myself! So, without further ado, following are the last of the questions submitted by you, my readers, for my “Get to Know Me Better” feature for my two-year blogiversary.  If you missed the first round of questions, you can view them here.

Note: There were some duplicate questions or questions with similar themes so I just lumped the answers all into one.

Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog asks: What was your biggest book nerd moment? If John wants to chime in w/ what he thinks it was, that would be great.

Believe it or not, I don’t think I’ve actually had a big book nerd moment.  Ok, maybe during BEA when I was literally surrounded by awesomemess: book bloggers & authors, all under one roof. But still, I was able to contain myself. I will confess that I was totally squealing on the inside.  

Probably the most recent “book nerd” moment was when I got the opportunity to interview Peter Straub, one of my favorite horror authors.  He’s one of my idols, his writing is outstanding. I learned over Christmas vacation that I would be given the privilege of interviewing Peter. We were visiting my parents and I vividly recall squealing aloud when I read the email.  I suddenly had the desire to reread all his (15+) books that weekend!  It was a wonderful experience.  Peter is so down to earth, very approachable.

And of course, John reacts to all of my “book nerd” moments the same way, by replying: “Ok, baby.”  He’s not a reader.  He has no idea.

Jen from Jen’s Book Thoughts asks: I’d like to know one goal (doesn’t have to be reading-related) you’d like to achieve – that you have not already – in your lifetime.

Leave it to Jen to give me a doozy! I have a lot of goals, some of them attainable, many of them not. 

I’ve always been interested and excited about providing books to underprivileged children or getting reluctant readers excited about reading, so I definitely want to start volunteering more.  The looks in the children’s eyes when they get their first book, or the enthusiasm in their voice when they are reading their newfound favorite book, it pulls at my heartstrings.  So basically, I want to help put books into hands of children! I am currently working on an author event at my son’s school.  He goes to a Title 1 school, so most of the kids get free or reduced lunch.  Many don’t have access to the library or books at home, so I’m really looking forward to doing this event and getting them excited about reading.  Check back later for a post about this event!

Marie asks: Where do you get the time to read?  I’m curious how many hours a week you spend on reading?

I sort of answered this one in the first post, but basically I make time to read.  I think it’s important to indulge yourself sometimes.  So, I read during my lunch hour, at night before bed, etc.  During the average week (not counting weekends), I probably read for about 10 hrs.  Weekends are my reading time, so I’d say I spend at least 3-4 hrs a day reading on the weekend.

Freda asks: What is your favorite part of being a blogger?

Definitely the community!  I’ve met (IRL and online) a ton of amazing people since I’ve started blogging.  I’ve also been introduced to a wealth of outstanding books I probably wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.

Seawytch asks: If you could go back two years what would you do differently as a blogger of books/reviews knowing what you know now?

I’d definitely be more relaxed about blogging.  About halfway through my first year I became totally overwhelmed with review copies and obligations.  I had to step back and remind myself that blogging is my passion, my hobby.  Not a paying job.  So, I set realistic goals for my blog.  I don’t have to review EVERY unsolicted book I receive.  I can say no to a pitch email.  That’s the best advice I can offer

Michelle asks: What is the one thing you have learned from blogging that you think every new blogger should know?

This sort of goes along with my answer above.  Be true to yourself.  Blog for yourself, not for others.  Be unique, create a brand for yourself and stick to it!

Carol asks: What was the first book you fell in love with?

Hmm…I don’t know if I can recall the FIRST book I fell in love with.  I’m sure I could ask my mom and she’d remind me .  One of the first books I remember falling in love with is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  I still have my Little Women boxed set.  It brings back wonderful memories!

Cindy from Cindy’s Love of Books  asks: When you first started talking to bloggers what was your first impression? Then after meeting them, what did you think?

To be honest, when I discovered the world of book bloggers I was very overwhelmed! I’m still overwhelmed.  I thought it was great that a community of people who loved books existed! I was in heaven!  Now that I’ve met probably about a dozen book bloggers in person, I don’t think my feelings have changed.  The friendships and discussions we had online carried over into the real world.  The real perk-we can converse using more than 140 characters

Thanks again to all who submitted questions.  Feel free to continue to send me questions as they arise, either my sending me an email or via my Contact Me page.

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: The Chicken House (Scholastic); 1 edition (February 1, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 0545142997
• Source: Big Honcho Media

Jem is a fifteen-year-old British teen who has an unusual gift; she can predict the timing of an  individual’s death simply by looking them in the eye.  Their “date of death” is clearly displayed above them.  Jem has been virtually on her own after her mother died of an overdose. She was transported from one foster home to another.   For obvious reasons Jem is quite a recluse, until she meets Spider, another social outcast.  She reluctantly allows Spider a space in her life.  Suddenly, just as her life was beginning to feel relatively normal, things go very wrong.  While visiting the city with Spider, Jem predicts the death of dozens of people, deaths to occur all in the same place at the same time.  When she realizes what is about to take place, she grabs Spider and runs. A terrorist attack hits a tourist spot hard and heavy.  Witnesses report seeing two teens running from the scene.  Jem and Spider pack a few meager things and go on the run.

Numbers had a lot of great potential. The premise interested me immediately. Ward carried the suspense through the beginning, but midway through the “numbers” sort of fell by the wayside. Instead, it became a story of unlikely love despite unspeakable odds and living each day to its fullest. Once I got over this shift in storyline, I found the book to be quite the engaging read.

Numbers is geared toward teen girls, but given the language, sex, and mention of drug use, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone younger than fifteen years old.

I am looking forward to reading the sequel: Numbers 2-Chaos.  I think Ward’s writing has a lot of potential and I’m interested in reading more about how she plans on continuing the story.

To read more about Rachel Ward and read an excerpt from the book, visit: http://www.scholastic.com/numbers/

On to the giveaway!  Three lucky individuals will win a hardcopy of Numbers!  To enter, fill out the form below.

Winners will be announced on Monday, March 29th.  Residents of US and Canada only, no PO Boxes please.

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week comes from Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn:

“The book was heavy and seemed fragile. Somehow, it had survived time and being carried in the claws of a dragon.”

What is your teaser this week?

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (March 2, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 006172680X
• Source: Publisher

Samantha Kingston has it all: the perfect boyfriend, the right friends, seemingly everything. It’s February 12, Cupid Day, and her only thoughts are of how many roses she’s going to receive by the end of the day.  But by the end of the day, Sam is dead.

Normally, a person only gets to relive their last day once.  Sam relives the last day of her life seven times.  She’s been given a week to see just how much power she has to influence the lives and futures of others. Each day, Sam struggles to understand the impact of decisions she used to take so lightly.  She’s given a gift that people normally don’t have: the chance to right the wrongs one has created in life.

Before I Fall is Lauren Oliver’s debut novel. It is a very blunt, no-holds-barred look at high school peer pressure and the impact of social circles. The characters Oliver creates are not likeable, not in the least bit.  Sam and her friends are a bunch of insensitive snobs who don’t think twice about verbally harassing and berating students  who are below them on the social food chain. I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that Sam and her friends are a spoiled, vain bitches!

Each day Sam relives, she sees the impact of her actions literally affecting the lives of others. It is invigorating to see the transformation Sam takes from the first day to the seventh. Each day is a new step, a different action Sam takes in hopes of changing the futures of those around her.  She truly becomes a new person by the end of this journey. I don’t recall ever reading a transformation of a main character that is as extreme as Samantha’s.

To be honest, when I started reading Before I Fall I thought I was going to be the only person who didn’t enjoy it.  Reliving the same day, over and over again? How dull is that?  IT’S NOT!  Oliver does an outstanding job providing suspense through the entire book.  Not once did I wonder when the book was going to end or when something exciting was going to happen.  Her writing is so emotional, so heartbreaking, so powerful.  It left me with tears streaming down my cheecks and my body covered in goosebumps. At the beginning I was cursing Samantha, but by the end I was begging for her redemption. Before I Fall has earned a spot on my Top Reads of 2010! I can’t wait to read more from this author.

I’ve already treated myself to a few (ok several!) books to celebrate my two-year blogiversary. I thought it would be great to do the same for my readers. I decided to bring back a very successful contest I held during BBAW last year–the Win the Book of your choice giveaway!

Just like the title states, this contest grants you the chance of winning the book of your choice (maximum cost $20 USD).  To enter, comment below.  In your comment you must specify which book you would like to win and why. Be sure to include your email address so I have a way to contact you if you win. If you fail to answer the question or include your email address, your entry will be deleted.

Contest ends Monday, March 15th.  Oh, and did I forget to mention THIS CONTEST IS OPEN INTERNATIONALLY!  Good luck!

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions for my “get to know me better” feature for my blogiversary celebration.I received a wide range of questions to answer and I had a great time trying to answer them all! To break things up a bit, following are my answers to the first half of the questions!

Saray asks: What´s the best dystopian novel you have ever read and what makes it so special?

It’s only been the past year that I’ve really been reading dystopian novels.  And after quite a bit of thinking, I can’t narrow it down to one book, but an entire series.  That series is the Tomorrow series by John Marsden.  It’s my favorite because Marsden does an outstanding job with his characters. They are accurately portrayed as teens going through a catastrophic point in time. I listened to the entire series on audio and I can’t recommend them enough.

Heidi from TBC-Theblackcell.net asks: What is your favorite author and why?

That’s a very hard question!  I have several favorite authors, probably too many to name, but I’d say my all time favorite author is Stephen King.  His work introduced me to the world of horror fiction.  I followed his life through his novels.  As he progressed and changed, so did his novels.  My favorite King novel would have to be The Stand. As a matter of fact, I’m catching up on the TV movie now!

Michelle from mybooks.mylife asks: As a working mother, where do you find the time to read?

This has got to be the question I answer the most!  I fit in time to read at every moment I can: at night while the boys are sleeping, early in the morning while everyone else is still asleep, during my lunch break at lunch, and when the boys are playing independently in their rooms. If we leave the house to run errands, I have my Sony reader with me along with a regular book.  If I find that I have a few minutes to read, I pull out my book and fit in as much reading as I can!

Kathy from Bermudaonion’s Weblog asks: Do you have any hobbies besides reading?

In addition to reading, I enjoy making jewelery (although since my youngest was born I don’t exactly get a lot of time to devote to this!). I mainly work with glass beads.  I’ve made several pairs of earrings, bookmarks, necklaces.  I’m going to try to spend more time on this hobby now that my youngest is getting a little older.  It’s very relaxing and allows me to be creative.

Kristin asks: What are your top 10 favorite books of all time? What are your top 10 favorite books of the past year?

Wow…this is another tough question!  I started reading at a very young age, so it’s virtually impossible to limit it to ten books.  So, the list below are ten of my favorite books of all time.

The Stand by Stephen King
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

And to answer the second part of the question, following are ten of my favorite books that I’ve read since March of 2009:

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center
Angels of Destruction by Keith Donohue
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
Dragon House by John Shors
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Dianne asks: Where do you get most of the books you’ve read….library, new books, book sales, review copies etc?

I’d say about 50% of the books I read are review copies, 40% are self-purchased, and 20% are library books.

hcmurdoch asks: How do you find time to do Twitter? Do you use Tweet Deck or something similar?

Just like reading, I tweet when I have the free time.  I do use TweetDeck, it makes tweeting so much easier.  I can’t access Tweetdeck at work, so I use Seesmic web while working.

Jill from Rhapsody in Books asks: Do you still read aloud to your boys? Do you try to influence their reading choices?

Yes, I still read aloud to both of my boys.  John has been reading independently for the past few years but I still set aside time to read aloud to him.  Justin will start kindergarten next year and prefers to look at the illustrations in books and come up with his own story.  He will occasionally let me read to him aloud.

While I recommend books that I think they’ll enjoy, I let each boy pick out what books they want to read. It try to do whatever I can to make reading fun!

Swapna from S.Krishna’s Books asks: What does John think of the amount of time you spend reading/blogging/tweeting?

HA!  I sent this question to my hubby, and following is his response:

My feelings about Jennifer’s reading/blogging/tweeting change from day to day (sometimes moment to moment) and I’m sure that she’s anxious about what I might say here.  Any answer I give would only be a snapshot in time and reflect how I feel about it at that particular moment.  That reflection could seem to show an overly praising or overly critical view of her endeavors.  So… drawing on my Political Science background, I’ll answer the question this way.  I’m extremely proud of her accomplishments and the respect that she’s earned in the blogging community.  Anything that truly bothers me, I express to her and we work together to find a compromise.

He’s right!  We have worked out a compromise regarding my blogging/tweeting time.  After 8 pm on week nights, I “unplug” from blogging/tweeting/etc.  That time is family time

Candace from Beth Fish Reads asks: If you could travel to any fictional place, where would you go? Which book describes that place? Why would you pick it?

I’ve always enjoyed historical fiction, and I’m a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series.  The series takes place in 18th Century Scotland, a time period I’ve always been interested in.  It wasn’t the safest time/place to live in, but the country was going through a number of changes during this period.  It would have been interested to witness it!

Ok, that wraps up the first half of the questions!  Check back later on in the week when I answer the remaining questions!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week. It was created by J.Kaye’s Book Blog, but is now being hosted by Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of  Books so stop by and join in!

Books Completed Last Week

The Cold Room by J.T.Ellison
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Currently Reading

Echo Burning by Lee Child (audio)
Hornsby Joe Hill
Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn

Books to Complete This Week

Numbers by Rachel Ward
Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror

What are you reading this week?

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating. The  book I’m waiting on this week is Angelology by Danielle Trussoni. Isn’t the cover just stunning!?  That alone makes me want to rush out and buy the book!

Here’s a summary, taken from Amazon:

A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time- between a hidden society and heaven’s darkest creatures

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.
Genesis 6:5

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.

For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.

Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.

Luckily, I don’t have to wait long for this one! Angelologyis scheduled for release by Viking Adult on Tuesday, March 9!

Congratulations, Sheila! I’ll pass your address on to the publisher!  Thanks to all who entered!