Thankful for... Amelia Bedelia

New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis (whose debut Across the Universe I loved--see my review of it here) is hosting a giant and completely awesome giveaway during the month of November. All you have to do is include a link to the contest and share a book you're thankful for and why!

I'm thankful for...

AMELIA BEDELIA by Peggy Parish

The thing is, you guys, that I grew up in China. I read books in Mandarin. I really had no connection with the U.S. except for that one teacher who dared to attempt teaching my first grade class English (also--she quit. We were a lousy class.)

So imagine my surprise when, after a trip to the U.S., my mom came home with a stack of Amelia Bedelia books for me to read. IN ENGLISH.

You see, my mother is an awesome-blossom woman. She and my dad traveled back-and-forth between the U.S. and China, while my grandparents (who are the BEST grandparents EVER) raised me. In fact, my brother was born here in the U.S.

I digress. So. She brought me Amelia Bedelia. I had no idea how she expected me to read them and understand them. I mean, come on, I was in first grade and my English teacher just quit her job. So my mother started to take time out of her very very busy schedule and read the books to me, me trying to understand them through the pictures and my mom translating.

The point of all this? That was the first English book I have ever read, at least from what I remember. And I have to be forever thankful because now I'm reading so many English books that I may have never started without Amelia (okay, that's a lie--I love reading too much to ever let language become a problem. But still!). So basically, while everyone else who come to the U.S. look forward to trying out cheeseburgers and what-not, I was obsessed about lemon meringue pie.

What book(s) are YOU thankful?

The Scorpio Races

The Scorpio Races
By: Maggie Stiefvater

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

-Summary from Goodreads

It is the fourth day of November and so, today, I have finally found a book that (in my humble opinion) surpasses The Hunger Games.

Here's the thing: The Hunger Games was my ultimate favorite book. 

And then a little something called The Scorpio Races came along and I drowned in it. I drowned in it and I loved it. Loved it more than my favorite book.

That's right. The Scorpio Races is now  my favorite book of all time.

I can't tell you exactly what it is that made me fall in love with this story, because it's not just one thing, but so many things that together they started to blend and blend until the only coherent thought I had was that I am in love. This book is unlike anything you'll ever read--it was certainly the most original thing I have ever read. There is not just character development, but plot, twists, surprises, heartbreaks, hope. They are each a mountain and you journey with the characters to the top, where the skies swarm below you and the world lies beneath your feet and all you feel is this feeling of greatness that nothing else can fulfill. 

In fact, it seems to me that the more I think about this book, the more this feeling of... this feeling I've only felt with my most favorite books of all time (The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, etc.) bubbles up. And the thing is that I finished this book four days ago, on November 1st (also happens to be a very significant day in the book!), I sat on it for four days and I still love it beyond words. In fact, to ask me why I love this story is like asking wings why they fly. Because they do. Because I do. Because there is just no other way around it.

I'm trying to keep this review short and succinct, so you can go ahead and get this book already. But I feel like it's important that you know I have not previously read any of Maggie's books. I've heard of the Shiver trilogy and they've been on my TBR list for a long time, but I'm so overwhelmed with paranormal (vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc.) nowadays that I just never really felt compelled to pick it up.

I will now. Right now. I need more Maggie.

If there is one book you can get, get this one. There's just nothing else I can say except this: the sunset is an explosion of colors, and this book is an explosion of beauty. Pure magical. 

Phenomenal. And I never say this, truly, I never do, because I didn't believe in it. But I will say it now, because it is finally true:

Flawless.

Waiting on Wednesday {12}

 

This week, I'm waiting for...!!!!

Shine
By: Jeri Smith-Ready

No other love has burned so bright.

Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It's been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She's finally letting go of Logan's violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past. As the first in a generation that can see ghosts, Aura is convinced that she has a connection to the Shift. She's trusted Zachary, ever patient and ever by her side, with all that she knows. But when the government threatens his life in an attempt to learn Aura's secrets, she will stop at nothing to protect herself and the one she loves... even if that means betraying her own heart.

-Summary from Fictitious Delicious, the wonderful blog that revealed the cover here! 

Release date: May 1st, 2012

OMG ISN'T THE COVER JUST GORGEOUS? If you don't know yet, the covers for the series are getting re-designed! See more information at the link I provided above to the awesome Fictitious Delicious girls!

I. Seriously. Can. not. wait. for. Shine. I absolutely adore this series (see my review of Shift here), and Jeri is one of the nicest people I know. For those of you who don't like ghost stories, please trust me when I say that this story is more unique than you'll ever guess--and this is coming from the girl who once started a petition to banish all things ghost-y (yeah, I know, I know, you hate me now. Whatever. Just go read the book).

I'm so excited for this book! SO excited, I tell you! :D

What are YOU waiting for this week?

 Juli

Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska
By: John Green
Reported by: Juli Helms

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A stunning debut, it marks John Green's arrival as an important new voice in contemporary fiction.
  
-Summary from Goodreads

This book destroyed me.


Every single tear I could possibly have spilled out and I swear I fell asleep crying more and more. Looking for Alaska is an emotional ride that will shake everything you feel out of you and leave you no, not empty, but drained, and then you'd just want to cry more because everything that happened just couldn't possibly have happened and they did and you're just like, no, this is all a joke.


I loved this book and then I hated it. Not because of the writing or the characters, for in that aspect this book is a masterpiece.


It was, in fact, a major event that happens that divides the book into Before and After that had me wanting to rip the book to shreds, because I just couldn't stand it, you know? 


I'm trying to talk about how amazing this book is. Hopefully that is conveyed. But the thing with Looking for Alaska is not how realistically John Green portrayed teens or how the book is simply fascinating, but rather that the messages in this book will leave you horrified, touched, amazed, destroyed. 


I'm going to read other John Green books--truth to be told, I just can't not read them, because maybe there's a part of me that's hoping what happened didn't happen, that John will tell us all it was just a joke in another book.


But the other reason is that this book made me a reader again. I didn't scold or care about the writing technique, inflicting conflicts play-out, etc., which I now tend to do with books and analyze them. No. This book flipped the clock around like what The Hunger Games did to me, and that was enough. I want to be able to read without stressing over punctuation. 


I don't know if this book should be starred. I want it to be, but it destroyed me, so on that account I can't. Maybe one day when I re-read it I will analyze it again, and give it a star. Or maybe it will destroy me again and again and again.


I don't know. But I do know that I am going to get out of this labyrinth of suffering one way or another, and only then can I love this crooked book with my crooked heart.
 

Queryometer and hiatus WHAT?

H-H-H-HIATUS

You guys. YOU GUYS.

I'm going on a hiatus.

"Wait, WHAT?" you say? I know, I know. I really don't want to, and I'll still be updating the blog at least once a week (so I guess it's not really a hiatus...) but here's the reason why:

I go to school. I write. I'm the debate captain. I have activities involving music. I need to wash those dishes. I need to finish my papers. I-

need to do a lot of stuff. And even though I want to try and balance all of this, it just doesn't work. For the past three MONTHS I've been sleeping at midnight every night, and I just can't do that anymore, so... yeah. I'm really sorry. :(


QUERYOMETER

Now, some of you may know that I have started querying my YA Fantasy novel. I want to share with you guys my successes and failures, so you know it's normal to get rejected, and that you shouldn't ever ever let that make you give up!

I'm going to start officially querying in November, but I've sent out one query so far. I also entered this pitch contest where the agent requested my full! YEEEP!! So, yeah. Basically, I will have a QUERYOMETER gadget on the right sidebar of my blog, and there I will post the number of rejections, partial requests, full requests, offer of rep, total, etc. Let's travel this journey together! :D


OTHER NEWS

In other news, I recently did a guest blog on the Midnyte Reader. Check that out here! Also, don't forget to vote for my friend Amy's trailer for the SLJ Trailee awards here (Amy's trailer is under the Adults category--Incarceron by Catherine Fisher)! Trust me, you won't regret it.

And that's it! Thanks for tuning in, all. YOU ROCK! \m/