100!!!!

Ohmigod! THANK YOU! I just got my 100th follower!

Thank you so much! Ah, you don't know how much this means to me!

I'm also 100 or so away from 20,000 visits to my blog!

This means so much to me! You have no idea.

This mgiht mean a contest . . . Well, actually, I was going to have a contest soon anyways, but this gives me a huge reason to celebrate! Oh, and thank you to the author who offered the copies (Yes, COPIES!)

Stay tuned...

Cool Stuff For Hunted!

Here's a new trailer for the highly anticipated HUNTED by PC and Kristin Cast is here and I get the chance to share it today! There's also a little surprise at the end of the post too!

Hunted by PC and Kristin Cast: 3/10/09
The good news: Zoey’s friends have her back again and Stevie Rae and the red fledglings aren’t Neferet’s secrets any longer. The bad news: Ancient evil with the face of an angel has been let loose – that and various other nasties (whose faces aren’t so angelic). Grandma Redbird is in trouble. Heath is in trouble. The House of Night is in trouble. Okay, let’s face it – Zoey’s whole world is in trouble! But when the trouble comes from a being who appears to be beauty personified, will the world believe it? Especially when only a teenager and a group of misfits are the only ones who really understand the danger he brings. Will Zoey have the strength and wisdom to reveal the truth? Especially when, in the House of Night, the truth is often hard to come by…



To read the first chapter of HUNTED, please visit the House of Night website by clicking here.

And the anticipated second chapter below:


Hope you enjoyed it!

Admit it . . .

. . . You'll probably pick up a copy.

What I'm talking about.

You know you're interested even a tad. I don't watch The Hills, never have. But aren't you just a little curious about it? I mean she's a young celebrity and she's writing a book that isn't a memoir. I think that's pretty cool. I want to know if she is even a good writer. I'm just curious.

Oh, and Yan? This is for you. :) Just a few more details . . .

This Makes Me Happy.

I was seriously tearing up when I saw that Heath Ledger won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as The Joker in The Dark Knight. I was tearing up watching his mom, dad and sister giving the acceptance speech, and then seeing the other actors tearing up too for respect of him. It broke my heart that he wasn't there to accept it himself.

Heath Ledger was amazing in this role. It make me happy he won.

Mad at Myself . . .

You want to know why? Because I left my book, Swoon, in the Woods Room first hour yesterday, and since my teacher goes to the elementary school after second hour, I couldn't get it. I was going to get it this morning, but I'm sick and am staying home. So I can't. The worst part is there was less then 100 pages in it and I won't see it until Tuesday because of President's Day. So, I'm not done with Swoon, but I am reading Death By Latte as you can see in the right sidebar.

Anyhow, sorry for the rant. Just felt I had to get it out there.

Toodles!

New Email!

Hey everybody!

I just wanted to tell you guys that I made a new email for my blog, finally. I should've done this a long time ago. But I finally got it!

readingkeepsyousane@gmail.com

But don't worry. It's corresponded with my old one so I'll get the same in one place and I wont have to redo all my contacts and everything. But for this blog, on the left sidebar, it'll be the new one.

All I Can Say Is . . .

. . . Wow. Wow-wow-wow. Forever Princess was fantastic! I finished it a few hours ago and I just felt the need to say this, especially since you won't be seeing the review for awhile as I have a ton of reviews ahead of it.

But, the question is: What to read next?

I could read The Dust of 100 Dogs, that Carol told me to read, and have actually read a little of?

Or I could read, Swoon, which everyone is gushing over that I got it as I can tell in my In My Mailbox comments?

Or I could read In Too Deep, which is in my review pile and is first up because It was released in January?

Or you could look at the picture above of me TBReviewed pile (top) or my TBRead pile (bottom) and recommend one that I haven't mentioned here yet?

What say you?

I'm kind of leaning towards Swoon because you guys have made me very curious about it.

But put your opinions forward and I might listen! Also, look for another OTO post tomorrow with a very awesome author!

My Bookshelves!

So, Taren shared hers and wanted us to share ours. So here are my bookshelves. You might be surprised, or not. But here they are.

This is my review books on the top, and on the bottom are my personal books to read. Not as much, right? Don't mind the bear figurines on the top, I've been collecting them since I was a baby.

This is my one and only bookshelf. There's none on the bottom shelf because my cats like to lay there. Which is actually why I have books in the shelves on my dresser. On the top on the bookshelf is a container full of bookmarks, and stacks of library books.

This is it all. And you can see my cat, Tupelo, in the bottom of it. Are you surprised? Or no?

And because I feel, the need. this is my bed room. I'm standing in the corner where my door and books are. My room's really small as you can see, but it's cozy.

Here's my other cat, Dasher, in the bottom shelf of my bookshelf, like I said. Sorry he looks so funny with his eyes closed and all.

Here's Tupelo again.

So, what'd you think? It's not all of my books, I'm lending out about 10 books right now.

You Know Where I'll Be . . .

'Nuff said . . .

I Know I Said . . .

. . . That I probably wouldn't, but once I said it, I wanted to change my layout, so I did. What do you think? It's not really different, the colors are and the headers a bit, but that's about it. So What do you think? Tell me in the comments. Do you like this one, the old one? Or should I make a new one, and if so, what colors?

Questions and Answers

A few bloggers asked me some questions, so I thought I'd answer them then today, so here you go in all my honesty.

"What do you like to do besides read?" From Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag
-Thanks Lauren, well, I'm a bit of a TV-aholic. I love prime time TV, I also love to watch movies and such. I cook a lot and sometimes I have fun with it. My favorite thing to cook is chicken enchiladas for my family and I. I have fun on Photoshop, I like to create headers and I have even created a blogger template for someone. Really, I just love to create and imagine, writing is a big hobby of and almost like all of the book reviewers here I would love to become a writer.

"What was one of your MOST favorite ARCS to receive and read?" From Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag
-Oh, jeez, I don't know. I don't think I could pick a favorite. But, let's see . . . Well, I really loved my ARC's of WILLOW by Julia Hoban and WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson, those books are so fantastic, but I should have two ARC's coming in for ALONG FOR THE RIDE by Sarah Dessen and PERFECT FIFTHS by Megan McCafferty really soon so I think those will be right up there with WILLOW and WINTERGIRLS and I should be getting an ARC for ONE LONELY DEGREE by C. K. Kelly Martin around March that I am so excited for also. So those three books will without a doubt be up there with those other two books I mentioned.

"What do you hope to change in the blog in the next year, if anything of course?" From Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag
-Hmmm....Well, I'd like to think of another feature for my blog to get more viewers, I also hope to craft my reviews a bit better. I really just want to share my blog and reviews with everybody I can and I plan to think of ways to do so. I also might change my layout a bit but I'm quite fond of it right now so I might keep it longer then I usually do for my layouts.

"If you could only take 3 books to a desert island, which 3 would they be?" From Tina Ferraro
-Tough Question! Oh, I would probably take Hatchet by Gary Paulsen because not only is it an awesome and enjoyable story it also has survival techniques in it. Are they coming out with one big book with all the Harry Potter books in it? That would count as one more book right? I would definitely take that. And, hmmmm, I think I would take Marley and Me by John Grogan because it's funny and sad and excellent. A book I would never tire of.

Thanks so much for the questions! If anyone has any more questions today, I could edit it and add it in more. But, I would also like to thank everybody who congratulated me on my one year, it made my week! Truly, thank you so much, this blog couldn't be what it is without you guys!

One Year Today

Today is the day. Today is the day that one year ago, I was sitting at this computer that I am sitting at now, it was late and I was incredibly bored, but I had a love for books, and I had nobody to share my thoughts about them with. So I created Reading Keeps You Sane. I thought I might share some stuff with you.

Firstly, how my blog title came to be. It's a little unusual, yes. It's not really a exciting story, but it's worth sharing at least. I hadn't really thought of getting a blog before the name came to be. On day, a few days before I believe, I was searching the internet for something, I'm not sure what, but I was, and I came across this picture of a dog, you know one of those dogs with the big eyes and nose or something that hallmark makes? This is the only picture I found:
I guess one picture I saw said something about insane or something on that order, and for some odd reason, I was like "Reading Keeps Me Sane" and then a few days later, I was creating a blog, and I was sitting there thinking up a name when I remembered the dog and the thing I thought of and I was like "Reading Keeps You Sane" and it does and Viola! Reading Keeps You Sane was born.

So there you have it. I just want to thank everybody for the fabulous year I had, and the hopefully years to come. To my 68 followers, and everybody that comments, and all the great friends I've made, and to all the awesome and creative authors I've gotten the chance to interview, and all the books I got to read. To everybody who has sent me free books to read. You have no idea how much of a joy ride I have had this past year. It's been fabulous and I can't wait until next year!

But if you have any questions about me that you want to aask, ask them below and I'll try to answer them on Staurday.

Thank you, thank you so very much. You have no idea what it means.

Blog Anniversary Week with Special Guest!

Hello!

So this week happens to be the the BIG week on my blog, it's very special and important to me. The week is the week I created this blog, the 1-year anniversary of this blog, Reading Keeps You Sane. More specifically it was born on January 21st of 2008. And this Wednesday marks one year from that time. SO this week it special we have a contest and a special interview with a new debut author. This authors debut novel actually release one day after my blog, you probably already guest who it is, but if you don't know, you will tomorrow. Just stay tuned and there will be special surprise for you all week long!

But I'll hold out on talking about my blog until Wednesday, but check back tomorrow for the contest!

Thanks everyone!

Beloved ___ of 2008!

Okay, so I saw The Story Siren doing this and since I haven't given you a review in a while (It's because I've been reading to many ARC's!) that I just thought I'd give you something today and this just popped in my mind from when Kristi did it. So here it goes.

Best Book of 2008:

The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.

Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.

I figure this was a shoo-in.

Favorites books of 2008:

Swimming With The Sharks by Debbie Reed Fischer
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Wake by Lisa McMann
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
The Dead & The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
House of Dance by Beth Kephart
Gone by Michael Grant
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert
Model: A Memoir by Cheryl Diamond
I Know It's Over by CK Kelly Martin
Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra
Paper Towns by John Green

Favorite Cover's of 2008:
(Some are books I haven't read, but have desperately wanted to.)

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
I Want to Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters
Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs
The Elite by Jennifer Banash
Rumors by Anna Godberson
House of Dance by Beth Kephart
Far From You by Lisa Schroeder
Bliss by Lauren Myracle
Undone by Brooke Taylor
Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr


Favorite Writers of 2008:
Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key, Just Listen, The Truth About Forever)
Elizabeth Scott (Living Dead Girl, Stealing Heaven)
Beth Kephart (House of Dance, Undercover)
Stephanie Kuehnert (I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone)
John Green (Paper Towns, Looking For Alaska)
Stephenie Meyer (The Host, Breaking Dawn)

So all in all, this was an excellent year for reading. Just keep in mind for some of the categories, I couldn't remember all of the amazing books and/or authors out there.

I hope everyone has an exciting and awesome New Years!

P.S. I finished You Are So Undead To Me, but the review won't be up for awhile, but I'm in the middle of Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson, so expect a review for the in a few days! And you should expect an On The Outside post sometime this week also!

My Christmas Haul!

Happy Boxing Day, everyone! I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or whatever you celebrate! Everyone's asking, so I thought I'd share what I got for Christmas, my main things at least.

I didn't get any books this year, which really didn't surprise me, haha. With all the books I've been getting these last few months, I swear my bookshelf is at least twice as big as when I started this blog. But, whatever, I got some great stuff this year.



*Samsung Juke in Teal, which I was a little hesitant about at first because it's so tiny but now that I've been playing with it for a day, I am totally and completely in love with it.
**Creative Zen mp3 player, I had a 1 GB mp3 player from Creative for about two years now, and one GB is just not enough with all the songs I've turned to love these last few years. I had found myself rotating songs I felt like listening to on at that moment, but now this is a 4GB player, plus my dad gave me a memory chip of sorts (I'm not good with that type of stuff, lol.) that is another 4GB. I love the big screen and the vivrant colors to it. I just love it all.
***Twilight Movie Soundtrack, so when my mom and I were heading out of the theaters last November 21, we had just finished listening to Decode by Paramore, which I believe is the last song in the movie, and i told her I wanted the soundtrack for Christmas, and I got it! I've only listened to about half of it so far, but I love it.
****Twilight Shirt which if you can't read it, it say: "It's a Twilight Thing, You Wouldn't Understand." It's pretty much the same story as above except earlier. When we first sat in our seats at the theater there was a big group of girls and I noticed they were wearing Twilight shirts, so I told my mom I wanted one, and Ta Da! I got it!
*****The Hershey's Mint Kisses identify my stocking stuffers. I got a ton of the kisses at the bottom of my stocking, along with a People Magazine, a new wallet because my dog chewed up my old one, some fancy mechanical pencils, a big bunch of hair ties because I'm always losing them, and a few other things I can't remember right now.

So, yes I loved my Christmas Haul this year and am very happy with it.

Tell me what you got in the comments or tell me if you made a post like this and have a link there!

I'm off to get something to eat and get ready to go see Marley and Me in theaters today!

Happy Mail!

Today is a Happy Mail Day! Which is kind of like Christmas from the mailman, but of course it's not really from the mailman. I actually got the name from my mom who is a scrap Booker and when she and her other friend get a scrap booking kit or something they call it Happy Mail. For me it's books. Let me share with you what I got this week courtesy of the amazing Penguin. (All are linked to Amazon page):

Willow by Julia Hoban (April '09)
Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas (April '09)
If I Stay by Gayle Forman (April '09)

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith (January '09)
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (March '09)
The Kings Rose by Alisa M. Libby (March '09)

Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson
Triple Shot Bettys in Love by Jody Gehrman (January '09)
Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Beautiful Americans by Lucy Silag (January '09)
Paisley Hanover Acts Out by Cameron Tuttle

I also got three books from BookSwim.com on Monday:

Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Pretty Face by Mary Hogan
Take Me There by Susane Colasanti

So, yes, I think this is definitely like an early Christmas for me. Now, all the ARC's i won't post reviews for until right before, on, or after the release date, so you might not get that many reviews from me because I'll be eating these yummy things up! Also, I have already read Audrey, Wait! and have my own copy, along with Beautiful American's....so, do you know what that might mean? Hint, hint. :)

~~~On another note, Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

Turkey Day! And a New Blog.

Happy American Thanksgiving! How's everybody doing today? Me, I'll probably start helping my mom cook real soon for the dinner. I already cook some Pumpkin Pies (Yum!) and Pecan Pies (Yuck!) last night and prepared my dad's green bean casserole for today, and my mom made a quiche for this morning yesterday that was delish! So, anyways, I hope everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving this year, and who's going shopping tomorrow for Black Friday? Anybody watching the Macy's Parade? I think Ashanti's singing on a float right now, and hey, there's Beethoven, the St. Bernard!

~~~

Okay, now for that New Blog surprise, I have created a new blog, called Sane Headers. It's a blog for customized and specialized headers. I've made Headers for a few blogs already and I gust thought, if more people wanted them, they could, so I made a blog just for headers. I will keep updating with new header designs every while. So check it out if you want a header for your blog! HERE.

ALSO: Expect a review for Secrets of My Suburban Life tomorrow.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Theatrical Trailer!

I know some of you have seen it already since it was introduced with Twilight in theaters yesterday, but I say nobody posted about it yet, so here it is! I saw it before the movie was out on IMDb but when I went back to look for it right before I left for Twilight they had taken it off-line and I couldn't find it anywhere, but it's here now:



That last part just breaks my heart knowing what happens at the end . . .

Twilight Movie Review

Okay, special edition review for the Twilight Movie, of course I had to!(I like this cover better even though the date wrong, ignore it.)

Okay, the movie was just beautiful, I just have to comment on the scenery, it was GORGEOUS, one of the most beautiful locations ever! The film stay so very close to the book, you can even hear a bunch of quotes from the book! It was hilarious, way more then expected. I loved it.

Kristen Stewart, I have to be honest, disappointed me. It's true. She was very uh, um, huh . . . fidgety as an actress, and I was watching her on all of her interviews yesterday on Today and Letterman and it just isn't her acting, it's her. So, it kind of bothered me. But she was clumsy, beautiful and acted like Bella.

Rob Pattinson was the PERFECT Edward. His acting was superb and just fantastic. He was beautiful, true to Edward, and like I already said, perfectperfectperfect. I just don't know what else to say about him . . .

Taylor Lautner had, like, four different spots in the film, so not really much to say about him but that I think he is a very good Jacob and I fully look forward to seeing way more of him in New Moon.

Billy Burke a.k.a. Charlie was AWESOME, he was the perfect choice for Charlie, one of my favorite characters. He was really just a hilarious character bringing humor into every scene he's in, well almost.

The Cullens: Carlisle-Peter Facinelli was a great Carlisle, he was funny, clever, and a mysterious and humorous character. Esme-Elizabeth Reeser didn't have much of a roll and she was okay, nothing really special about her. Alice-Ashley Greene was hilarious, cute, witty, and awesome loved her scenes and her pitching, plus, OMG!, look at her go! Emmett-Kellan Lutz was the perfect Emmett, PERFECT. He was hilarious and she the perfect Emmett you can think of, but I knew that already. Rosalie-Nikki Reed was very anti-Bella and showed it well, she was gorgeous like so in the book and I loved the chot of her and her 5-inch heels! Now . . . Jasper-Jackson Rathbone-uh, the worst cast. He looked like he was in pain the ENTIRE movie and he like said two words and I don't think his acting was good and uh, he just ruined the image of the perfect Jasper in my head.

The Enemies: James was the right choice, definitely. He was evil, and viscious, and cynical, and spooky. Same with Victoria. Rachelle Lafevre and Cam Gigandet were great, and Vitoria left it at a scary note!!! Laurent was weird and unusual like so and he was played good by Edi Gathegi.

The Friends: Hilarious. They like were the most hilarious, I just loved them. Mike and Jessica especially. Mike was a very straight-forward and fun character and Jess was kind of a dumb but funny and right fit for the character.

Overall: The movie was fantastic, especially the last hour of it. I especially loved the baseball scene and the ballet studio fight scene, AH! It was just PERFECT (I know that word is used a lot! But it was!)! It started right and ended right. I just loved it and anyone not having read the book will love it also because a bunch of my friends hadn't read the book, went and LOVEDLOVEDLOVED it, so if you don't plan to read it, I would so go, you'd probably like it more then us who have read the book already.

So, yes, GO SEE IT!

Also, there were some girls in the row in front of us with Twilight shirts on and i already asked my mom for it for Christmas and i also asked for the soundtrack! LOVED Bella's Lullaby, by the way. Also, I'll be seeing it again, next Sunday I think I planned it. Just so the hype gets down a bit more and I can see it in peace.

Twilight!

Who's excited? I am! My mom bought us tickets last Wednesday! My movie will be starting at 6:45! I seriously don't know how I'll get through Math, English, Science, etc . . . I'm gonna be jumpy, and hyper all day lllloooonnnggg................. (I'm typing this up on Thursday.)

How's your Twilight Day going for you?