Utah Festival of Books

No, I didn't get to go to BEA, but instead, I got to participate in our own little local book celebration last Saturday! What fun it was!

First up was listening a bit to Kristen Chandler talk about her book Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me.... which I recently read and reviewed here. She also talked about what she has coming up which sounds pretty fun too. I only caught the last bit of her presentation, which was probably a good thing, because she had a really scary wolf with her! I'll see more of her next week at our library too, so that should be fun.

After that we listened to a panel talk about writing for just a bit. Brandon Mull was there, along with Rick Walton, Lisa Mangum, Tracy and Laura Hickman, and Kristen Randle. But Toto (12 years old) was bored with that quite fast, so then we went over and listened to James Dashner, who once again showed how well he relates to the younger crowd, getting the kids all involved in his talk with much enthusiasm. Very fun. He was, however, distracted by all the random strange characters walking past the tent during his presentation, which I got a big kick out of and it made me giggle.

We stood in his line for a bit afterwards because, strange thing, we found a book at our house that he hadn't signed yet! So we fixed that and got The Scorch Trials signed.

Then we nabbed some nice seats for the David Archuleta thing, and I made Toto sit there while I went over and listened to Kiersten White for a minute. She is just as funny as I thought she'd be... after reading her book (Paranormalcy) and follow her crazy tweets.

Then we waited for David and he finally came out, but sadly didn't sing for us. Instead they interviewed him about his book, a memoir on his life so far and his American Idol experience. I have yet to read it, but have great plans to do so. Daughter JJ joined us for this part of the day, being a huge fan of his. So afterwards, we stood in a massive line to meet him and get him to sign both his book, and two CDs we have. That was fun, even though they shoved us through as fast as they could and there was no time to really talk to him or have a connection. But we got some pictures and it was fun to see him close up. (A more detailed post on David A. coming in the future, by request of Ibeeeg!)

Toto and JJ pose with David Archuleta

After that we got Illusions signed by Aprilynne Pike, and The Forgotten Locket signed by Lisa Mangum. Then there was the women's author panel, which was a lot of fun and made us laugh. It was moderated by Ann Cannon, with Ann Dee Ellis, Jessica Day George, Kristen Landon, Kiersten White and Aprilynne Pike. They were great and now I need to add Kristen Landon's book, The Limit, to my need to read list.

Ann Cannon, Ann Dee Ellis, Kiersten White, Jessica Day George, Kristen Landon, Aprilynne Pike

Aprilynne Pike

Then we listened to Dan Wells talk for just a bit, followed by Elana Johnson. Then we followed them to their signing spots and got Dan to sign I Don't Want to Kill You (where I told him I loved, really loved, his character John Cleaver) and had Elana sign her brand new book, Possession, for us,  a book making a ton a buzz and one I look forward to reading!

Dan Wells

Elana Johnson

I bought two books there, and hauled the rest with me to get signed.

I took a ton of video so here's some footage of that edited down a bit, if you are interested in more:

All in all, a very fun day!

Top Ten Tuesday: Settings (Real and Not Real)

Interesting question about settings over The Broke and the Bookish today. The task is to list our favorite settings in books (real or not real.) And while I love most settings, when I actually think of my favorites, I tend to veto them all! Most settings are not ideal. Have you noticed? Most worlds and situations are rather depressing, sad, scary and awful! So this list is harder to come up with then you might think.

Top Ten Favorite Settings

1. Any Victorian mansion... you know... Pemberly, Thornfield Hall, etc.

2. That elf city in Lord of the Rings.... Rivendell... yeah that one!

3. The box car in the Box Car Children! I thought that was so freaking cool!

4. Hogwarts... of course!

5. Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. What a lovely place! Well, at least in the books, and I'm sure in real life too. Wait... is there really an Avonlea? Wait what? Is it fictional?!!?

(This looks kinda real....)

6. The Tower of London... a real place (and I KNOW this is a real place, a really cool place!) featured in lots of stories both fiction and non.

7. The world of color created by Brandon Sanderson in Warbreaker.

8. A big western log cabin house.... like perhaps the one featured in Kaki Warner's books.

Maybe it looked something like this?

9. Razo and Rin's place in the forest and/or Finn's place too.

10. King Aurthur's castle in Camelot!

Even better if a Merlin who looks like this is there!

Hmm.... a lot of castles and such. Interesting. What are some of your favorite settings?

Review: Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler

Book: Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler
Genre: YA (not fantasy, as you might think)
Rating: A-
For: Utah Author Month
From: Borders, with a coupon! :)

This one has been on my radar for awhile. I mean, with a title like that, you can't help but take notice! But of course, I assumed it was a werewolf sort of book. But it's not... it's just a wolf sort of book. So if you are like me and think wolves are cool, you should enjoy this one for sure.

It's about a girl who lives near Yellowstone Park. She's an outdoorsy sort. She lives with her dad who takes people on fishing trips. Now and then she gets to go, and sometimes they track down the wolf packs and watch them. She feels a kinship.

Then in school that year, she is assigned to write about the wolf packs for the school's newspaper column. In the process, she suddenly finds herself right in the middle of a major controversy regarding the wolves and should they even be in Yellowstone? Because now that they are, they are killing the livestock of local ranchers. Not a good thing!

Meanwhile, a new boy moves in for the school year, and it just so happens that his mom is quite the wolf expert. And it just so happens that he is an awesome photographer, and so they get assigned to go out and study the wolves together. And then stuff happens.

So I had fun with this story, learning about the wolves and all, trying to decide who was right and wrong in this issue.... the wolf people or the ranchers. You can see both sides, that's for sure. An interesting dilemma. My only complaint is that it did border on being a bit too political for my taste, and once again, I just wanted more character interaction and less talk on the issue. But despite that, I really enjoyed it and it was a fun quick and easy read.

Bottom line: I liked it a lot.

Other Reviews:

Books By Their Cover
Bubble Gum Book Reviews
Book Harbinger

Random Sunday Thoughts

I wanted to check in here, but I don't have time to do a "real" post, so it's just the random thought thing today!

** Wow, life has been crazy this week! Non-stop I tell you, non-stop! I knew it would be, but the reality was even crazier than how I pictured it! Let me just make a quick list:

• Rockapella concert on Monday
• 6th grade graduation on Tuesday
• Les Mis on Wednesday
• High school choir concert on Wednesday
• Elementary school dance festival on Wednesday
• Shopping on Thursday
• Final homework projects to help with on most days
• Book Festival all day on Saturday
• Dance recital all night on Saturday
• And what happened on Friday? I can't even remember, but I remember non-normal-ness!
• And today? After church. Birthday gathering.

** Yesterday at the book festival, I had so much fun! I took pictures! I took video! We met David Archuleta! Yes, you will have to wait for another post for all that excitement, but I will tell you about it all, never fear. But I just had share one picture I took:

Could this kid get any cuter? 

** I read a bit this week, finished Ship Breaker, started A Crown of Swords. I got The Forgotten Locket in the mail and read the prologue. And yesterday I bought two more books, because,  you know, I didn't have quite enough yet. 

** We now have five drivers at the house, and three cars. Should this be a problem? 

** Remember all that rain we were having? It went away this week and we had sun! It was hot! And it was weird!

** This next week should be calmer, but we will be getting ready for a trip. Then there's the trip after that, and then you really won't see me around much for awhile. I hope you are all still here when I come back! I hope to schedule a few posts. I had big plans for that, but I may have to scrap them for sanity's sake. 

** My long haired 16 year old son totally chopped all his hair off yesterday! We have a new kid at this house now and we keep doing a double take. I should have done before and after pictures. Maybe I can still figure that out. It's quite the transformation. He looks so good!

Okay, enough rambles. I need to move on to the next project of the day!

Music Stuck in My Head: Rockapella

We bought season tickets this year to our outdoor theater! This has been a tradition for years at our house, and we've seen some really awesome concerts, but it's been hit and miss for us ticket-wise for the past few years  Anyway, not this year! We have tickets, so you'll have to live it all with me!

Our first concert was this week on Memorial Day and we got to see, once again, Rockapella! They've come several times in past years and even though the members of their group have changed quite a bit, they are still so very cool and so much fun to listen to... and watch dance! Wow, smooth moves!

Here's what it was like:




Here's what made them famous:



And here's their new song, Bang, which I could only find in this Rock Band version (except for this teeny bit on a radio show):




Here's the older bunch singing one of our favorites, which we begged them to do at this most recent concert... and so they did!




So much fun! I loved it!

Book Sale Stack!

I thought I'd do another book stack picture. Everyone seems to enjoy those. So remember last week when I said was going to book sale? At least I said it somewhere anyway... here's what I bought... 25 cents per book! What do you think? Anything good? Anything crappy?

Ugh, can you even see it?

ttyl
The Last of the Mohicans
The Beloved Dearly
Tuesdays with Morrie
Icy Sparks
Things Fall Apart
Son of the Mob
Interpreter of Maladies
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

And yes I already have the Harry Potter book, but is just so happens it's the one that fell apart!

Hopefully I get in a better review mood soon so I can get caught up with those, and then get going on my next stack of books to read.

Review: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Book: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Rating: A
For: Fun
From: The library!

This book pretty much starts where City of Bones left off. The kids need to find the evil Valentine to stop him from killing four different creatures in order to take over the magic sword. We learn all sorts of more things about everyone. But.... who is really telling the truth? And then there's Simon. I KNEW something would happen to him! But this was not what I expected! And I'm kind of sad he didn't get to use his bow much this book. Next time perhaps?

Anyway, I can't really say much about the storyline itself without giving everything away. I felt much foreshadowing about the twist from the first book and is it really true..... and that question hanging there in itself will make me want to keep reading just to see what's going on!

For sure this is a book with non-stop action and many perilous, other-worldly moments. It's a crazy story! On to book three!

Bottom line: I enjoyed it a lot!

Other Reviews:

Love Vampires
That's What She Read
Fyrefly's Book Blog
Sarah's Random Musings