New Blog on the Block!

A friend of mine recently started a blog....like yesterday recent...Its a blog that is gonna focus on pop culture goodies like movies and tv since with an occasional book review tossed in for fun. She's really knowledgeable about actors and movies quotes and so you should go over check it out and give her a follow.

Destination Pop Culture

Vlog: Books to be released in January that I want

Hey everyone.

I am back with another vlog where I ramble on some more about books that will be coming out in January 2011 that I am looking forward to. This is in addition to the last vlog I did about books I'm excited in 2011 - and are in touching distance. This list wouldn't be as accurate or complete if it wasn't for Kristi over at the Story Siren for making a huge long compilation of books coming out in 2011...so thank you Kristi for that.

Now to the vlog! (one day I will learn to not ramble so much and make a short one...promise...till then, just remember how much you love me!)





For those who view via a reader that strips out the video you can click here to see on YouTube or copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT9uDYYpLsg

So that's what I am looking forward to in January 2011? What about you? Let me know in the comments below.

People mentioned in this vlog
Kristi from the Story Siren
Greg Taylor
Gloria Whelan
Elizabeth Eulberg
Erica from The BookCellar
Michael Northrop
Kim Harrington
Elizabeth Woods
Eileen Cook
Jenny Moss
Julia Karr
Sarah Jamila Stevenson
Alexandra Monir
Maurissa Guibord
Jeff Sampson

Fragment Friday (19): The Christmas Edition

Welcome to the latest edition of Fragment Friday, a weekly meme hosted by James from Book Chic Club where we vlog a small snippet from a current read. This weeks excerpt is from The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstup (illustrated by Matt Tavares) and The Christmas Giant by Steve Light both available now through Candlewick Press.

For those who view via a reader that strips out the video you can click here to see on YouTube or copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX8vMh5aAW8

I hope you enjoyed this weeks fragment...see you next week!

Contest: Across the Universe by Beth Revis - ARC (followers only)

Hello readers!

While looking through some 2011 books I have for a vlog I have planned I stumbled across a second copy of Across the Universe by Beth Revis. I really must be getting old if I am starting to forget when I get a duplicate of a book! Although this probably shouldn't surprise me considering just how many duplicates of books that I BUY as well. You'd think that being on Librarything and Goodreads would help with that....but no....they only work if I actually remember to enter in the books in the first place. *le sigh* I am hopeless lol

But I digress...you don't care about my serious lack of memory you are here because you want a chance to win Across the Universe! This one will be quick since the book is out in stores next month and I want to try and pop it in the mail to one lucky winner soon(ish). So onto the rules!

- In the COMMENT section please leave a comment on which planet or star system you would like to live in/on (real or fictional - just say where its from if not real) if you had to leave Earth behind.

- Fill out THIS FORM RIGHT HERE.

- Be an EXISTING follower. Welcome any new peeps who just joined because of this. I hope you stick around and like what you see. But I love reward existing readers so this one is just for them. I may ask for proof...so please don't try and cheat the system.

- Since this is for EXISTING followers its open up internationally. A name will be drawn via random.org

- Contest will end at MIDNIGHT EST on 31 Dec 2010 and winner announced a day or so after. (Hey its New Years so will need some time to recover from playing Apples to Apples and other games with friends.) (why yes, we really are THAT cool. You know you wanna be us!!)

Good luck to all who enter! And a happy holidays to everyone who is celebrating something!

Books I'm excited about in 2011....and that I'm lucky enough to have

I was bored and looking though my books. I found that I have a lot of titles of books coming out in 2011 and thought that I would share them with you. Plus I was bored and we all know that I shouldn't be allowed to vlog when bored....I come up with crazy ramblings like you have above. Not just that...but in the vlog I show a mock up of the Iron Knight cover....this will be the 4th (*squee*) book in Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series.

Anywho...this is in no way a complete list of books that I am excited for...there are so many that its impossible to contain in one vlog. So I might compile a list another day of 2011 books that I am pining for! But first you tell me...what books are you excited about in 2011?? Leave a comment and let me know!

Room by Emma Donoghue

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Source: Received from publisher for review

Publication Date: 13 Sept 2010

Series or Standalone: Standalone

ISBN: 0316098337

Format: Paperback (ARC)

Pages: 336

Websites:

Emma Donoghue - Official Site

Emma Donoghue - Blog

Emma Donoghue - Twitter

Place(s) Traveled to: Any town, Anywhere

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

First Line: Today I'm five.

I first started to hear about Room by Emma Donoghue during Book Expo America in May 2010. It seemed that everyone was talking about it and I was sad not to have been able to pick up a copy for myself. So when I got one in the mail later on that summer for review I was very excited. The book has a unique concept in which the story is told from the point of view of 5 year old Jack. What makes Jack so unique is that his first 5 years have been spent in a room the size of a garden shed with his mother. As details of the story unfold you learn that Jack's Ma was kidnapped 7 years earlier and held prisoner ever since. Room is a story that is at once a heartbreaking story and one that is filled with hope and promise for a better life. Ma manages to create a whole world for Jack and for the most part he is a healthy and well adjusted child. When you learn of the things that Ma has done for Jack to ensure that his childhood is as normal as possible your heart breaks for her.

I've heard criticism of this story on Twitter and GoodReads about how this story becomes less original and less good because it was based on something that actually happened to a girl in Austria. To me, it makes the story all the more tragic because its one thing to think of the events in the book as fiction. Its all the more difficult to sit in the comfort of your living room and know that someone out there actually lived something similar. Real events inspire books all the time and so I don't understand the comments that I have read over the internet that say it makes Room less of a story because Emma Donaghue didn't make up the story. Donaghue could have gone for a retelling of the events that happened in Austria but she didn't. Instead she took this horrible and unimaginable act and turned it into her own story. 

What I did have trouble with when it came to Room was that Jack was the sole narrator. I understand when Donaghue chose this path but because of it there were several instances in which Jack was far more aware and intuitive than he should have been. For me this book because a little weaker because of these moments as they jolted me out of the false reality that Donaghue had created. I think that the book may have been better if a 3rd person option was used or multiple viewpoints to tell the full story. That said though Room was a quick read and I managed to read large chunks of it in just a few sittings. I really enjoyed Room and have found myself recommending it to others since reading it. Its a story that has stayed with me and made me wonder what I might do if I found myself in that situation. I am not sure that I would be as strong as Ma. Ma is such a strong character and she was a source of love and strength for Jack. She held it together in a situation that was have seriously broken many. Room was my first book by Emma Donaghue but I don't think it will be my last. Have you read anything else by Donaghue? What book by her should I look into next?

Book Trailer Monday (56): Fall For Anything by Courtney Summers

Book Trailer Monday is where once a week I feature a trailer for a book that has captured my attention. This trailer might be for a book that is about to be published, or maybe its for a book that has already been released. There won't be any rhyme or reason to the trailer that I choose....the only common denominator will be that I liked it. That it made me stop or made me think or maybe it made me laugh. I do this mainly for my own enjoyment because I love book trailers. I find them fascinating and I hope that you enjoy the ones that I show here each week as well.

This weeks trailer is for Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers which will be released from St. Martin's Griffin on 21 Dec 2010. First off I have to say that I love love love Kim Huff's narration. I loved her voice for the Some Girls Are trailers and was so happy to hear it again on Fall For Anything. Even though the main characters in the two books are as different from each other as night is for day, Kim's voice really just seems to capture their essence. I also love the use of photographs in this trailer since they are such an important feature of the plot line...and the music just so sad and haunting...which is exactly how Eddie is at the start of this book. She is adrift, in limbo, searching for something, anything to make sense of how her life got to be where it is. This was a book that I loved and can't recommend enough.






What did you think of this weeks selection? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

If you know of a book trailer that you would like to see featured on Book Trailer Monday then please send me an email with a link to irisheyz_5 AT yahoo DOT com.

Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

Publisher: Razorbill

Source: Picked up at BEA

Publication Date: 14 Dec 2010

Series or Standalone: Standalone

ISBN: 159514353X

Format: Paperback (ARC)

Pages: 304

Websites:

Michele Jaffe - Official Site

Michele Jaffe - Blog

Michele Jaffe- Twitter

Place(s) Traveled to: Jersey Shore

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

First Line: The image is stark yet beautiful.

When I picked up Rosebush by Michele Jaffe off the showroom floor at BEA I wasn't really sure what to expect. What I knew was the cover was divine, truly I am in love with it, and the quick glance I gave to back made me curious enough to grab myself a copy. Rosebush is different from a lot of the YA currently on the market as its a dark murder mystery. There are no werewolves, vampires or other paranormal creatures to be found within its pages. So that was refreshing. What wasn't refreshing was another string of creepy, possessive YA boys that are initially presented as being "the perfect boyfriend."

Much of Jane and David's relationship is told in flashbacks and boy did it rub me the wrong way - especially the scene around Chapter 13 when he FORGAVE her for being late when she was being supportive of a friend who needed her. But this forgiveness came out after he belittled her, made her tell her how wrong she was to have canceled on him and after she gave him a gift of cupcakes and many apologies. No No No!!! These things are not ok. I am so tired of this seemingly growing trend in YA where there main leads are these creepy possessive boys. David is borderline abusive. There are scenes in which he is clenching his fists as Jane is apologizing....um yeah...this guy is a time bomb just waiting to happen. I know he's fictional but the warning signs are there. I watch Lifetimes movies...I know these things.*

Then there is Scott. The seemingly perfect friend and that one scene that really seems to come out of left field and made me ask aloud WTF is going on with this story?!?! Ollie, David's best friend, is also a creepy, if underdeveloped, side character who just seems to ooze slim. The only seemingly normal male character was Pete but he is so grossly underdeveloped that you really can't say all that much about him. He is totally forgettable which isn't a good thing in a character.

The female characters were no better, Jane is a doormat who never grows as a character. Kate is a bit vapid with no depth. In most scenes she's described as having a blank look in her eyes as she sort of cowers under the light that is Langley. The one thing I liked about Kate was her secret and wish that, that part of her was explored more in depth in the book. Langley is a bit over the top and just came across as fake and very two dimentional. Also, her overuse of the word freals began to make my eye twitch. This then brings me to Jane's mom who I swear suffers from multiple personality disorder.

In flashbacks to their life in Illinois, Jane's mom is a concerned parent who always wants to know where her daughter is and when she'll return. When they move to New Jersey she becomes distant and never checks up on her daughter giving her free reign to do what she wants. Then when Jane is hit by the care she fluctuates between Mommie Dearest moments to the overly concerned parent who wonders what she did wrong to make her daughter go crazy. I like how Rosebush is a YA book that actually features parents but never once does Jane's mother actually talk TO Jane. Its always about her and around her and she never listens to what Jane says about what happened and what she is thinking or feeling. Jane reacts like a typical teenager and is a bit surely and resentful of how her mother seems to care more about her press conferences than the fact that someone tried to run her over. That is until the end when it seems like there is this whole big happily ever after all is forgiven were a mom/daughter BFF team. Give me a break!

The story in Rosebush is told mostly in flashbacks as Jane is in the hospital after being hit by a car and suffering from some major head trauma. She struggles to remember the events of that night while dealing with phone calls from someone saying they want to kill her while the adults in her life all think that she is slowly going crazy. One adult character that gets under my skin is Officer Rowley who is supposed to be searching for who hit Jane but seems to blame her and thing she's responsible. Rowley aslo gets very judgmental when Jane will reveal memories - asking snottily why she waited so long to tell her certain facts....um...can you say amnesia brought on by severe head trauma Officer Rowley??? Jane was a victim and yet she was treated like a criminal. I felt for her during those scenes. Although sadly those were the only times I really felt anything for Jane. 

I also got annoyed with how overly descriptive the book was. Not to mention all the brand name dropping. Every piece of clothing mentioned was a blue Prada handbag from their spring line with a light blue satin seem and little gold buckles.** I think I prefer my descriptions detailed but generic if that makes sense. I like to have an idea of what a person is wearing/driving/etc - if it adds to the scene - but brand names and things like that just help to date a novel. Prada might be a big deal now, but five years from now? Ten? Who knows where it will be in terms of popularity. But it wasn't just the name dropping in descriptions that got to me...it seemed that every time a character would appear his or her entire wardrobe was described in minute detail. This just weighted down the scenes and became a distraction. 

Then there was the mystery. Which for me was predictable on who done it. The clues were pretty obvious especially since Jaffe kept mentioning them over and over. The motivation of the would be killer though - seriously?!?!? Talk about random and meaningless. I just didn't buy it. I felt like my time was wasted by reading this book. My only consolation was that it was a quick read and so I didn't waste too much time on it. I could go on as there are other things that I didn't like but then I just start to get nit picky and I've already rambled on enough for the time being. Rosebush was not a book for me and its not a book that I can recommend to others. Though like other books that I haven't liked I know several others have had a different opinion so will include those links below. If you have read and enjoyed Rosebush? Let me know and I'll add you to the list.

*And no my knowledge of abusive behavior isn't limited to Lifetime I took many Human Behavior and Psych classes in college. I am not an expert but I know the signs.

** Not a real description from book by similar to what you'll find.

People with opinions different than mine

Presenting Lenore

Forever Young Adult

Book Chic Club .

Fall For Anything by Courtney Summers

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Source: Received from Publisher for Review

Publication Date: 21 Dec 2010

Series or Standalone: Standalone

ISBN:  0312656734

Format: Paperback (ARC)

Pages: 224

Websites:

Courtney Summers - Official Site

Courtney Summers - Blog

Courtney Summers- Twitter

Place(s) Traveled to: Branford, Haverfield, Valleyview, Labelle, and Lissie (no state/country specified)

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

First Line: My hands are dying.

For the first time I didn't devour a Courtney Summers book in a single sitting. I wasn't kept up until the wee hours of the morning feverishly turning the pages racing to the end to see how it would all end. Instead I read this book over the course of a few days. Picking it up, reading a few pages and then putting it back down. Often to reflect on what I just read. No, Fall For Anything wasn't a book to be devoured. It was a book to be savored. Its a book in which grief is felt so strongly that I could almost taste it. Its a book that made my heart ache with loss. It reminded me of losses in my own life. The struggle to understand why someone you loved so much was just suddenly ripped away from you and was just gone. Gone with no explanation. 

Fall For Anything is about Eddie's struggle to understand her father's suicide. The need for answers is strong because she feels that if she can figure out why then she'll be able to move on. When someone near you takes there own life there is just such complete and utter confusion. The hole that gets torn in your heart is so rough and raw and one that never fully heals. When someone dies of an illness or an accident you have something concrete that you can point to and say THAT...THAT is why I no longer have x in my life. There is something to blame. But where do you place the blame with suicide? On yourself for not seeing the signs? You can't do that as that is just a horrible burden to place on your shoulders. When it comes to suicide there are rarely answers, there is rarely something you can point to and say THAT was the reason. So you just drift aimlessly in limbo struggling to move forward. 

Its this limbo state that Courtney Summers captures so well in Fall For Anything. My heart ached so much for Eddie and those around her. I felt Milo's helplessness in trying to find the right thing to say to make it all better. I felt for her mother who just wanted to retreat from the world in the hopes that time will stop and that it was all a bad dream. There were so many times when I wanted to reach into the book and just hug Eddie. To tell her that it does get easier and that she's only making it harder on herself to try and figure out why. Because sometimes there just is no why. Although without her struggle for answers we wouldn't have a book and its such a good book. As with Cracked up to Be and Some Girls Are my emotions were put into a blender and jostled about. There was that time on page 120 when I literally gasped along with the characters. It was something I'd wanted to see happen at some point and yet I got so wrapped up in the here and now of Eddie's grief that I was totally taken aback and surprised. I don't think a book has ever made me gasp before. 

Its always so hard to review a book by Courtney Summers. Nothing I can write here can ever truly capture the brilliance found within the covers a book she writes. Every book is so different from the other. Every book is unique and every book is filled with such raw emotion. My very first thoughts and what I tossed up on GoodsReads after reading the Fall For Anything was this:

Reading this book felt like Courtney reached inside my chest, ripped out my heart, tore it apart and then slowly put the pieces back together again. Which means its so freaking good I can't recommend it highly enough!

Courtney is extremely gifted in her word play that she can tune the reader into the exact emotions that her characters are feeling. I love how when a book of hers ends there is hope and possibility and no definitive answers. Her books are real and events are never all tied up in pretty little bows. There is also room for the reader to sit back and think about what the next few pages might be if Summers hadn't ended the book where she did. This contemplation is part of what makes Courtney Summers such a brilliant writer because the way she ends her books allows the reader to take the story and make it his/her own.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Source: Received from publisher for review

Publication Date: 02 Dec 2010

Series or Standalone: Standalone
Note: Companion novel to Lola and the Boy Next Door and Ilsa and the Happily Ever After  (2012)

ISBN: 0525423273

Format: Paperback (ARC)

Pages: 384

Websites:

Stephanie Perkins - Official Site

Stephanie Perkins - Blog

Stephanie Perkins - Twitter

Place(s) Traveled to: Paris, France // Atlanta, Georgia

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

First Line: Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amelie and Moulin Rouge.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is a book that I first heard about on Twitter where it seemed like everyone was buzzing about. This peaked my curiosity and I hated that I would have to wait until it was released to read it. Then the book gods smiled on me and not only did a friend send me her copy to read but I also received a copy for review from the publisher. I went from a serious Anna drought to positively bursting with copies and I knew I wouldn't be able to wait to read it.

For me, the book started off a little slow and I was wondering what all the fuss was about. Then at some point, I can't even begin to tell you when it happened, I just got so completely and utterly sucked into this story. I loved all the characters - Anna is just brilliant and Étienne is so flawed and confused and so totally swoon worthy. The supporting cast were also all so wonderfully drawn that everyone felt real and dare I mention the setting? Most of the book takes place in Paris, France where Anna is sent to boarding school because her father (a Nicolas Sparks-like author) thinks the experience will be good for her. Anna initially thinks this is a great tragedy because 1) she doesn't speak French and 2) its her senior year and she's been exiled from her friends, her almost boyfriend and her best friend. But then she meets Meredith, Josh, Rashmi and Étienne (known as St Clair to his friends.)
  
Anna adjusts to life in France and delights in learning all the wonders that the city holds. She also becomes drawn to St Clair and he to her. But this isn't your straight boy meets girl love story because St Clair has a girlfriend. You then get this tragically beautifully story where everyone is trying to do the right thing...or what they think is the right thing...and so there are denials and miss-communications and even some missed opportunities. As a reader you want there to be a happily ever after but at the same time you don't want any of the characters to become a douche and hurt anyone else just so that they can find happiness.

Stephanie Perkins is such an amazingly gifted writer and she conveys so much information about each character without them saying too much about themselves. Through their actions she shows all their little quirks and mannerisms and its these little details that really turn the characters from 2D words on a page into 3D people that you see just out of the corner of your eye as you read. In the end, Anna and the French Kiss, made my heart ache. Not in a bad way but in that oh so wonderful way it does every time I read Pride and Prejudice. I am so glad that Perkins wrote this book and that I was able to read it. I am so glad that its now out there in the world so that other people can know just how wonderful this story is. This is a book that I had to run out and buy when it was released because just having the ARC wasn't enough. Its a book that I have bullied people to read and one that has made my Top 12 List. 

I am truly amazed that Anna and the French Kiss is Perkins's debut novel because its just so brilliantly executed. Anna is one of those few books that I could gush about forever. Its earned its place on my permanent bookshelf and I know that it is a book that will be re-read several times. Its a story that I wished would never end because I don't think that I could ever get tired of these characters. Which is why I'm so excited that even there will be two companion books, titled Lola and the Boy Next Door (Fall 2011) and Isla and the Happily Ever After (2012). I can't wait! But until those books are in stores you really should go out and buy Anna. I think that everyone should read it and I can't recommend it enough. So go forth and now the awesome that is Anna and the French Kiss.

Book Trailer Monday (55): Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Book Trailer Monday is where once a week I feature a trailer for a book that has captured my attention. This trailer might be for a book that is about to be published, or maybe its for a book that has already been released. There won't be any rhyme or reason to the trailer that I choose....the only common denominator will be that I liked it. That it made me stop or made me think or maybe it made me laugh. I do this mainly for my own enjoyment because I love book trailers. I find them fascinating and I hope that you enjoy the ones that I show here each week as well.

This weeks trailer is for Across the Universe by Beth Revis which will be released from Penguin/Razorbill on 01 Jan 2011. Can I just say wow?? Seriously I LOVE this trailer. The narration is just so amazing. I love the voice! I really hope that they person that voiced the trailer does the audio because that would be so kick ass. After watching this trailer I am now even more jazzed for Across the Universe than I was before!





What did you think of this weeks selection? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

If you know of a book trailer that you would like to see featured on Book Trailer Monday then please send me an email with a link to irisheyz_5 AT yahoo DOT com.

Fragment Friday (18): Wither by Lauren DeStafano

Welcome to the latest edition of Fragment Friday, a weekly meme hosted by James from Book Chic Club where we vlog a small snippet from a current read. This weeks excerpt is from Wither by Lauren DeStefano which will be available in March 2011 from Simon & Schuster.

For those who view via a reader that strips out the video you can click here to see on YouTube or copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHIk_0aA4ZI

I hope you enjoyed this weeks fragment...see you next week!

If you want to read more of Wither but don't want to wait until its released then be sure to enter my contest - details can be found here.

Contest: ARC of Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Regular readers know that November was not a good month here on Ticket to Anywhere. I was sick with a bad case of the flu and so I spent my month sleeping and rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel on Netflix Instant View. I hate when I get sick because it interferes with my ability to read and post on my blog both of which are two of my favorite things to do. So to make it up to my readers for sticking around through the silence with a contest for a highly anticipated book for 2011:

Wither by Lauren DeStefano!!!

(Click the link to be taken to Goodreads for a description)

Rules of entry

- Contest will end on 31 Dec 2010 at midnight EST
- Contest is open to those with a US/Canada address only
- Winner will be chosen by random.org at some point after 31 Dec.
- Prize was sent to me by the publisher and will be mailed by me

TO ENTER CLICK HERE AND FILL OUT THE FORM

As always blogging and tweeting about this contest is always appreciated! Good luck to all who enter.