Book Haul: Mid-January 2015

Hey there! Welcome to this week's Stacking the Shelves! This awesome meme is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and we get to show each other the books we acquired this week whether bought, from the library or for review!

It's a book haul! I haven't done a book haul in so long! I didn't get books for Christmas (well, one book) but I did get a lot of Amazon gift cards! And I've used them. Here's what I've bought:

Bought:

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Jellicoe Road by Malina Marchetta

Get Even by Gretchen McNeil

The Rose Project by Graeme Simsion

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Snow Like Ashes by Sarah Raasch

As You Wish by Cary Elwes (the one book I got for Christmas)

Amulet, Vol. 1 by Kazu Kibuishi

Amulet, Vol. 2 by Kazu Kibuishi

Amulet, Vol. 3 by Kazu Kibuishi

From the Library:

Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee

Runaway by Alice Munro

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

The Glass Casket by McCormick Templeman

That's all for me! I hope you guys had an awesome week in book and happy reading! 

Giveaway Friday: The Mara Dyer Trilogy!

Hey readers! Welcome to Giveaway Friday! I decided to start this weekly giveaway because I need to unload myself of some books! I'm getting married toward the end of this year which is very exciting. But that also means I will have to share my space with another human! So I'm trying to downsize my collection of books before that happens.  So come back every week to see what I'm giving away!

Rules and Terms and Conditions

• Giveaway will start Friday 12:01am (pacific standard time) and will last until Thursday 11:59pm (pacific standard time)
• Must be 13 years or older to enter
• US residents ONLY
• I am not responsible for any packages lost, stolen and/or damaged in the mail
• One set of entries per household
• PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION IN THE COMMENTS
• Winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter and will be notified the day after the giveaway ends
• Winner will be notified by email and given 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen
• If you have any questions or concerns about the giveaway, you can contact me by email
• My only requirement is that you follow the link to Facebook and like my Facebook page
• any extra entries are optional and are not required to be entered into the giveaway

This Week's Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

Title: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns)
Author: Mindy Kaling
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Release Date: January 01, 2011
Source: Purchased
Find it Here: Amazon // Goodreads

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”

Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

My Thoughts:

I'm a big fan of Mindy Kaling. I watched The Office from the beginning when everyone thought it was a pretty weird show. But I loved it and I especially loved Mindy. After The Office came The Mindy Project (poorly titled, IMHO) which has forever cemented my love for Mindy! Learning more about Mindy Kaling by reading Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me and seeing where she had come from was pretty awesome! She worked really hard to get where she is and it shines through in her book!

Mindy is so funny and I really like how she can poke fun of her past and her struggles.  She is a woman of color who has embraced that part of herself and has used it to be the funny woman that she is now. I definitely enjoyed reading about her memorable childhood moments and her unlucky in love relationships. She puts a funny spin on everything and makes it very fun to read. I love that she didn't change her body to meet what is usually considered the "standard" for women in show-business. To me, she really represents the average woman and she's not afraid to eat what she wants.

I love Mindy's character on The Mindy Project and if she's anything like her character in real life, then she seems like a really fun and awesome person to know! Mindy always seems to have an adventure up her sleeve and I'm so glad she's writing another book! It's definitely going on my must read list!

Waiting on Wednesday (140)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This is one of my favorite memes because not only is my TBR pile so much bigger at the end of the night but also the covers are always amazing!

Title: Even When You Lie to Me
Author: Jessica Alcott
Hitting the Shelves: June 09, 2015

Charlie, a senior, isn't looking forward to her last year of high school. Another year of living in the shadow of her best friend, Lila. Another year of hiding behind the covers of her favorite novels. Another year of navigating her tense relationship with her perfectionist mom.

But everything changes when she meets her new English teacher. Mr. Drummond is smart. Irreverent. Funny. Hot. Everyone loves him. And Charlie thinks he's the only one who gets her.

She also thinks she might not be the only one with a crush.

In this stunning debut, Jessica Alcott explores relationships-and their boundaries-in a way that is both searingly honest and sympathetic.

Why I want this: I would have to say that Even When You Lie to Me is one of my most anticipated contemporary releases this year! A girl in high school and the forbidden relationship of a teacher. I think this story just sounds so interesting and I can't wait to eat it up! I'm definitely interested to see how this story plays out and how much scandal is actually written into it! I can't wait to get my hands on it! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Everyone Liked but I Didn't

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

This week's topic is top ten book published in 2014 that we meant to read but didn't get to. I feel like we just did this topic so I decided to do the books that everyone loves but I don't. I think a lot of book are over-hyped and even though I give them their fair chance, I don't always love them like everyone else. So here are a few of them: 

1. The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

2. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

3. Panic by Lauren Oliver

4. Landline by Rainbow Rowell

5. Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd

6. Blood Red Road by Moira Young

7. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

8. These Broken Stars by Amy Kaufman Megan Spooner

9. The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

10. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

I don't mean to step on anyone's toes with these books but I can't like what I don't like and we all have our own opinions and prefrences.  Do you sometimes feel this way with over-hyped books but feel afraid to say so? I sometimes feel afraid to say anything but it's important to speak up. Like I said, we're all entitled to our own opinions! 

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon Wrap-Up

Bout of Books 12 read-a-thon is now over and my reading was absolutely terrible! I only finished two books and they were graphic novels! 

As for total number of pages read the whole week it's probably pretty low but I'm still going to do a breakdown:

Amulet, Vol. 1: 192

Amulet, Vol. 2: 224

The Bone Season: 33

The Winner's Crime: 82 

Total pages read: 531

I also did a lot of audio book listening and I listened to 4 out of 5 parts of My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece (did you know it's narrated by David Tennant!!!!!). So I also listened to about 6 1/2 hours of book. Which I think is pretty good since I had almost no motivation to read at all! 

I also completed four out of the eight challenges which was what I really focused on during the week. Out of all the other Bout of Books read-a-thons that I participated in I never did any of the challenges before and I have to say they were really fun! I'm already getting excited for the next Bout of Books read-a-thon because participating in the challenges was really rewarding! 

If you guys participated in Bout of Books 12 I hope you did way better than I did but most importantly that you had a good time! Happy reading and until next time Bout of Books! 

Giveaway Friday: Legend and Champion by Marie Lu

Hey readers! Welcome to Giveaway Friday! I decided to start this weekly giveaway because I need to unload myself of some books! I'm getting married toward the end of this year which is very exciting. But that also means I will have to share my space with another human! So I'm trying to downsize my collection of books before that happens.  So come back every week to see what I'm giving away!

Rules and Terms and Conditions

• Giveaway will start Friday 12:01am (pacific standard time) and will last until Thursday 11:59pm (pacific standard time)
• Must be 13 years or older to enter
• US residents ONLY
• I am not responsible for any packages lost, stolen and/or damaged in the mail
• One set of entries per household
• PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION IN THE COMMENTS
• Winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter and will be notified the day after the giveaway ends
• Winner will be notified by email and given 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen
• If you have any questions or concerns about the giveaway, you can contact me by email
• My only requirement is that you follow the link to Facebook and like my Facebook page
• any extra entries are optional and are not required to be entered into the giveaway

Today's Giveaway:

I would have included Prodigy but I don't own it. I figure since I've owned Champion for over a year now and haven't read it, I'm probably never going to read it. But if you want to read it I want to give you that opportunity! One lucky winner will win one hardback copy of Legend and one hardback copy of Champion! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway