Category Archives: Bookish

Visits to book releases, signings and any author or book related event.

Stuff I’m Liking

Posted in Bookish, Fashionista, Gadgets, Plateful, Thoughts by

As Blog Every Day in April comes to an end – I can’t believe I actually did it – I wanted to wrap things up with a post about the things I’ve found myself liking during the month of April.

Stuff I’m Liking — BEDA Edition

Steampunk Jewelry. In particular, my new Golden Snitch with working clock necklace. I don’t know what it is about this sort of jewelry that appeals to me. Perhaps it’s because it looks delicate, while still being tough. Perhaps it’s that antique vibe that it gives off. I don’t know, I just like them.

I’ve also found out that one of my favourite jewelry makers has opened a new website with jewelry based on Holly Black’s Curse Breakers trilogy! I loved Vivian Hebel‘s Mortal Instruments shop, now I’m loving her Curse Breakers shop. I’m especially liking her White Cat pendant, I might be getting it in the near future. Though the Curse Breakers shop isn’t steampunk, I’m still loving her designs.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you might not know that I have a new phone and that I LOVE IT! My HTC Thunderbolt is by far my favourite gadget this month! I have been finding new ways to make it work for me, from reading books to counting calories, this phone almost does it all.

I love the camera, it takes some really great shots! I also love the different Google apps that integrate seamlessly with the phone. If you’ve been living at the top of a mountain all alone, you might not know that I do almost everything with Google, so having a phone like this is a major advantage for me. My new favourite Google app? Why, that would have to be the Google Goggles. It’s a lot of fun to play with, I can’t wait to use it some more!

Twice. That’s the number of times I’ve been to Alice’s Tea Cup. Thrice. That’s the number of times I’ve had tea this month. Scones, tea, sandwiches and sweets. Those are a few of my favourite things all rolled up into the Tea Time Meal, how could I not like it!? I even got myself a bag of loose leaf so that I could make my own tea at home and yes, I do own one of those tea balls

Some great things happened at my book review blog this month. First I decided to do a Maureen Johnson themed week, since I follow her obsessively on twitter, and I was looking forward to the release of her Last Little Blue Envelope book. Also, she’s the creator of BEDA, so, I suppose that pretty much means that I think she’s cool.

Themed week was a great success! First, I was able to see Maureen’s craziness in person when I attended the Zombies vs. Unicorns debate and so I posted that video to the blog and Maureen retweeted it! Also, I created a map showing all the places Ginny went during 13 Little Blue Envelopes which she loved and retweeted as well. So with the help of Maureen, my little book blog had 1,035 unique visitors during that week! That might not seem like a lot to all the popular bloggers out there, but to an obscure blog that’s just a pet project for a year, it’s golden.

As a person not quite into fashion, I still found this site to be so much fun that once I stumbled on to it I signed up!

Polyvore allows you to create layouts with different fashion styles as though you were doing a magazine spreads. It’s really fun just to play around in and think of different outfits and pieces that go together. You can even try to search for things you’ve recently purchased and find accessories for them. Definitely a time waster for me, but a fun one nonetheless.

Did you watch the Royal Wedding? Were you up at 4a.m. to do so? Well, hats off to you, I preferred to sleep in a bit and look at pictures/video clips later. It was a cute wedding, but for some reason, even though it was a public affair, I didn’t feel fascinated by it. They don’t care about me, just the revenue I give to them by supporting the wedding. It wasn’t amazing in any way, just a normal ceremony and service steeped in tradition. I suppose my mind wasn’t blown by anything that went on there, and I think the biggest reason for that was that it wasn’t a wedding for someone I know and love. People get married every day, so what’s the big deal here?

There is one aspect of the Royal Wedding that I did find interesting and that was the parade of hats! I’ve always loved hats. I wish they were back in style, I’d wear them everyday! But in lieu of hats, I love the fascinator! The one pictured there is from Dillards.com. I hope this is one style that begins to trend again.

So it’s been a long month, I’ve posted a total of 38 posts, at least one post every day so I deem this a success. I have successfully completed BEDA.

There were days where I struggled to figure out what write about and would browse my RSS feed for some inspiration. There were days where I had so much that I wanted to write but not enough time to do so. I doubt I’ll be able to keep this every day momentum up. However, it’s been fun. April has been better for it. So much so that I finally got the domain shanella.com! Woot!

Fare thee well and have a lovely May.

I’m a fangirl

Posted in Bookish, Media, Social Media, Thoughts by

Fangirl; n.: a female who supports an idea, trend, company etc, with an intensity bordering crazy.

Here’s the deal, I’m not crazy (sorta, kinda). I just love books, and because I love books, I love the people who write those books. With the entry of Twitter to the world of Social Media, it’s become easy to have a conversation with authors who were otherwise unreachable – except when they tour. So when one of my favourite authors respond to my tweets well, I usually have a moment of excitement, then I carry on with whatever I’m doing.

So when Scott Westerfeld retweeted my Behemoth tweets? *yay*

BTW, the last book in that trilogy comes out this Fall! I hope Mr. Westerfeld goes on tour with his wife!

Then Justine Larbalestier responded to me when I made a comment about her name. I like Justine for a lot of reasons, she’s the reason I got into YA lit as  much as I currently am. I was looking for a Harry Potter fix between books and one of my friends mentioned a controversial book geared towards young people and of course, I had to check it out. After reading Magic or Madness, I decided to read the rest.  It’s also where I picked up the word widdershins. That’s a cool word.

Once I was finished with the Magic or Madness trilogy I found her blog and realised that she was the wife of Scott Westerfeld, whose Uglies books I remembered seeing on the shelves in the bookstores, but always passing them by because the name sounded superficial (yes, I was judging the book by its name). However, realising that Justine was made of awesome, I decided that her husband was probably made of awesome as well and bought the first Uglies book. I’ve been devouring his stuff ever since. Scott is most definitely made of awesome.

Then I started reading Scott’s blogs, and reading the blogs of the authors Justine and Scott recommended and the rest is history.

I’m not sure who did it, but somewhere along the line Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty was recommended. I bought it. I read it. I loved it! Then I became a Libba Bray fan. I don’t know what goes on in the mind of Libba Bray, but I can hypothesis and it’s scary but wonderful. After reading her Going Bovine novel, I wondered if that wasn’t more an autobiography than a work of fiction. She’s insane. She’s funny. She’s ingenius.

Enter Holly Black. I saw her books in the bookstore a number of times, then one day started thumbing through Tithe. I got as far as the title page, I’ve been reading Holly’s books ever since. She’s a master of world crafting, faery lore and now, mobster fantasy. Wow. Impressed. *hat off* *confetti*

This can go on, but I’ll conclude now with …

Two fangirl moments etched into my brain.

2nd moment: I cannot tell you how happy I was that Maureen saw my Ginny European Tour map and loved it! I spent a lot of time on that map and I seriously want to visit all the places she described in her book 13 Little Blue Envelopes. So, to see your work appreciated by an author who worked hard to present a good book? Priceless.

1st moment: Not only did Holly Black say that she loved my steampunkesque necklace during the ZvU debate signing, but Justine Larbalestier, yes, THE Justine, recognised my twitter handle (first name) and even remembered my profile picture. I might have been smiling like a loon, I don’t know, but it was the best. fangirl. moment. ever.

Meeting The Pioneer Woman

Posted in Bookish by

Ree Introduced

I’ve recently started reading Ree Drummond’s blog → The Pioneer Woman. I have crossed it a few times in thepast, one post was about her daughter and their love for each other, which I found endearing, and a few of her recipes. However, I didn’t get pulled in by her charm until I decided to make Chocolate Truffles for Christmas. After a successful run with the Truffles, I decided to check out some more recipes, which lead to me checking out her confessions section, which lead to me reading about her lodge renovations which ultimately lead to Pioneer Woman joining my RSS feed.

Ree speaks

After Christmas she mentioned the release of her book, From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. I saw that herbook was being released Feb 1st and that Barnes and Noble in Union Square was hosting her for a book signing, so I just had to go!

Ree and I

Ree was very pleasant, witty and even though she seemed somewhat nervous she still manage to answer a few of our questions with the same charm that you canfind on her blog. You can read the first two parts of Black Heels to Tractor Wheels on her website, I’ve read it and it’s a great story of how she met and married her husband.

Definitely looking forward to reading this book! I’m happy I got to go to the signing.

A Tea Party and a Book Release

Posted in Bookish, Plateful by

The day started out pretty normal. Gloomy weather, tons of traffic and many sighs of frustration as I navigated my way into Manhattan. An hour and a half later, I was at work. Work was as wonderful as work could be, then we found out that the rail – which I usually take – was suspended, and later operating with serious delays. The work day ended and as I walked to my car, being rather thankful that I sat through the extra hour of traffic to have my car with me, I couldn’t help being a little charged for the tea I was about to consume.

I met with Anna, Christina and Rebecca; we sat for tea at Tea and Sympathy, on Greenwich (pronounced GREH nich) Avenue. Tea and Sympathy is a pretty small store, they seat 21 people in the entire restaurant, so going on a Monday evening has the two perks of finding a great parking stop right in the front of the store, as well as being able to get a seat rather quickly.

We shared our meal of scones with jam and clotted cream (yum!!), bangers and mash and chicken and leek pie (pretty much the yummiest pie I’ve ever tasted!). I had the blackcurrent tea, which I like to take without milk and sugar. For dessert we shared the spicy ginger cake with a bit of whipped cream on the side and a treacle pudding immersed in custard.

Around 8 p.m., Anna and I walked over to Books of Wonder and stood in line for an hour and a half. Frans joined us and we passed the time talking with the 7th grade teacher behind us about YA books and what we liked/disliked about different series. Harry Potter is everyone’s all-time favourite and, if you’re familiar with the YA world, you wouldn’t have to think too hard to figure out which series was the least appreciated. We discussed the overuse of love triangles in books and of course, discussed the series of the night, the Hunger Games.

When we finally made it inside, we had to wait in another line to receive the welcome package that included a raffle ticket (#214), a number for collecting the book at midnight (#262) and a certificate showing that I did receive the book and it was stamped by Suzanne Collins (#321). There were jugglers, a tarot card reader, a spinning board(?) trivia game and a make up artist who was painting mockingjays and other such things on people’s body parts. We took part in the eating of cupcakes in the attached bakery. Frans had to leave, but Anna and I stayed and talked about books!

They gave out raffle prizes throughout the entire night. In the first batch the called #213, in the last batch they called #218! The probability of my number being called was pretty low, then about a minute later, they called #214 and I whooped! I got a Mockingjay bag clip, it’s just a little dangler that you put on your bag.

At 11:30 p.m. David Levithan, editorial director at Scholastic and one of the authors of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, introduced Suzanne Collins. Suzanne read a few lines from Katniss’s interview in Catching Fire, and then she read the first chapter of Mockingjay. By then it was midnight and they set up tables and called everyone up by number to receive the book and then get it stamped by Suzanne. She didn’t do a signing because she had hurt her hand. Anna took a picture while I was at the table, but I’m a bit unsure of the posting policy, there were people taking photos, but there was one point where they said something about not taking photos/videos; I’m not sure if that only meant during the reading, but I figure I’ll just post a picture and if I need to take it down I will.

IMG_0527

Thus concluded an epic Monday night and my first book release and book signing.