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Tuesday 26 July 2011

It's Monday! What are you reading?




"It's Monday! What are you reading?" is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey. This is copy & pasted directly from her site, to describe what it's about:-



It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! D This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!
I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited. **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Last week's Reading included:-
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
The Beginner's Guide to Living by Lia Hills
Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
Invitation Only by Kate Brian

Currently Reading:-
Untouchable by Kate Brian

Future Reading:-
Confessions by Kate Brian
Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater
Die for Me by Amy Plum
My Swordhand is singing by Marcus Sedgwick
The Kiss of Death by Marcus Sedgwick

So what have you read, currently reading and planning to read?

Sunday 24 July 2011

LC's Adventures in Library Land 500 Follower Giveaway!

LC's 500

LC's Adventures in Libraryland are having a 500 Follower Giveaway! There are going to be 3 winners, with the 1st place getting 2 books and the 2nd and 3rd place getting a book each, your choice amongst a great collection of YA novels. Anyone can enter so long as Book Depository sends to your home country.

So if your a lover of YA AND you want to support book blogs...enter and spread the word!!!

Saturday 23 July 2011

Feature & Follow Friday #1


"Feature & Follow Friday" #FF is a weekly event that is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison can read. This is the first time I'm joining...so here goes! There are rules to enter this weekly event, so please click on the pic/button above so you can see what you have to do. This weeks #FF question:-

Q. Name 3 authors that you would love to sit down and spend an hour or a meal with just talking about either their books or get advice on writing from?

There are plenty of authors that I'd love to meet and spend an hour with but since we can only write 3, here it is...in no particular order.

1. JK Rowling
2. Aprilynne Pike
3. Isobelle Carmody

I like each of the above Authors for the world that they created in their respective series. Their series'/books stand out from the rest for the originality of the world that they have created. It is so vivid, that one nearly wonders if such a world exists. Their creation simply lifts from the pages of their books. It's an extremely talented Author/s to be able to create a world so different from ours, and yet not once does the reader actually doubt the reality of such a place.

I cannot believe I forgot to mention my all time favourite author...Melina Marchetta! I like her books for a different reason; I love her deep meaning stories. When reading her stories you must take notes or re-read...it's a book that you can re-read numerous times and still not get bored of the story.

Here are the featured blogs this week

We Fancy Books


We Fancy Books are from the Philippines and they blog YA reviews!!! What a coincidence, I didn't realise that my home country had YA Book blogs...check em out!

Wednesday 20 July 2011

850 Follower Giveaway




Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me is hosting a "850 Followers Giveaway". I'm so very excited about this giveaway because:-

a) the books are an amazing collection to choose from

b) it's an International giveaway

Here are the fab prizes to choose from:-


Here are the entry requirements copy & pasted direct from Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me's blog. You can be directed to the form by either clicking on the link for the giveaway or clicking on the button on my blog bar.

Good luck!!!

To Enter:
You must be a GFC follower
You must fill in the form below
Ends August 15th
Open internationally to wherever The Book Depository ships (check here)
Please read my giveaway policy

Extra Entries:
[+2] Old GFC follower
[+1] New GFC follower
[+2] Subscribe via email
[+1] Follow me on Twitter (mssammydean)
[+2] Tweet: "Win 1 of 8 great books released May - July in part 1 of @mssammydean's 850 Follower Giveaway! INTL/ends August 15th http://bit.ly/nJS0dp"
[+2 each] Advertise this giveaway on Facebook, Goodreads, etc.
[+3] Blog about this giveaway
[+3] Put this giveaway button in your sidebar
[+3] Put my blog button in your sidebar/blogroll
[+2] Every single comment you make on my blog (including this post, old and new posts) until the end of the giveaway. Must fill in form first.


Saturday 16 July 2011

Giveaway:- Inside Out + Outside In + Swag!!!


HarlequinTeen Australia is hosting a giveaway in honour of their new Facebook page and Maria V. Snyder's upcoming trip to Australia.

One lucky Australian will have the chance to win Inside Out and it's sequel, Outside In, plus a signed poster of Inside Out and a few bookmarks.

Australia Only
Ends July 31, 2011
+2 If you LIKE their Facebook page
+2 If you advertise this giveaway anywhere (twitter, facebook, goodreads, blog, sidebar, etc)



YA 80's & 90's Reading Challenge


The Book Vixen has hosted a Reading Challenge that I'm delayed in participating in. This will be the post I'll be editing to add my list of completed books. Here are the rules below:-

YA of the 80s and 90s Reading Challenge
hosted by The Book Vixen

  • Runs January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011 (books read prior to 1/1/11 do not count). You can join at anytime. You can sign up on The Book Vixen’s blog.
  • Read as many YA books that were originally published in the 80s and 90s as your heart desires. The only requirement is that the book(s) have to have been first published sometime between 1980 – 1999.
  • Books can be any format (bound, eBook, audio).
  • Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are fine.
  • You can list your books in advance or list them as you read them. It is not required that you review the books you read for this challenge but feel free to do so.
  • Post this reading challenge on your blog so you can keep a list of the books you’ve read for this challenge. Please include a link back to this post so readers can join the challenge too.
  • You do not have to be a book blogger to participate. You can keep tabs on books you’ve read for this challenge on Goodreads or LibraryThing if you’d like (maybe make a shelf for “YA of the 80s and 90s Reading Challenge”). If you are not on either of those sites then you can list the books you read for this challenge in the comments on my wrap-up post, which will be up at the end of 2011.


Thursday 14 July 2011

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011


Book Chick City, a blog I've been subscribing to for quite some time has been hosting the "100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011". Due to personal reasons, I think this year maybe my "reading" year and I may actually get 100+ despite me starting the count from June 2011. I'm going to hopefully be able to update my progress by putting a link on my blog sidebar monthly, but if not I'll be having another post with monthly progress of my completed books.


Here are the details of entry, copy & pasted directly from Book Chick City.



Sign Up Details

To sign up you MUST make a post on your blog about participating in the challenge this can be a post containing all your challenges, that's fine) - you then use the URL of the post to sign up to the challenge by adding it to Mr Linky below. DO NOT just add your blog URL - this will be deleted.

You must add the button to your sidebar - make sure that it links back to this post so others can join the challenge if they wish. Easiest way to do this is to copy and paste the code displayed below!


Challenge Details

Timeline: 01 Jan 2011 - 31 Dec 2011

Rules - Read 100 or more books in 2011

All books can crossover into other challenges you have on the go.

Only print books and ebooks count (no audiobooks).

You can join anytime.

At the beginning of Jan 2011, I will add a link so you can add your reviews but this is not obligatory.

You don't have to have a blog to join in - for those without a blog just FILL IN THIS FORM and I will add you to the list - just join the discussion in the comments section to let us know when you've read a book and what you thought of it! :)

You can also follow each other's progress and chat about the VC books you read on twitter too - just use #100BooksInAYear :)

If you have trouble adding your URL link below, please email me the name you want posted below with your URL link and I will add it for you.

Basically Amazing Read-a-thon mini-challenge




This is the 3rd day of Read-a-thon and one of Day 3's mini-challange is by Basically Amazing. I've got to recommend 2 books, 1 of my favourite and another that I've read during the Read-a-thon. So here goes...


Recommendation 1 - Favourite Book

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink


"Prophecy of the Sisters" is the debut book of a series by Michelle Zink. It's a story of two recently orphaned twins, Lia and Alice Milthorpe, in their journey as they unravel their individual roles in an ancient prophecy that has plagued their family for generations. From childbirth their part in the prophecy had been set; the twins are in opposing ends, one evil, one good. It's a race for each individual to end the curse, however, who will prevail? The evil or the good? Firstly they must find out which twin represents which.


This is a very original paranormal, horror, young adult book. I'm yet to see a similar storyline. This is one of my favourite books for it's originality, substance and impact. The characters and plot are complex which helps with the overall mystery. There were so many unexpected twists and turns which just had you turning the page. I had this completed in mere hours and couldn't wait to read the 2nd book in the series. This book is well written and had the right amount of background history, character growth and plot progression for the reader to never get bored and keep them glued to the book.


Recommendation 2 - From the Read-a-thon

Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris


Dead until Dark is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris. I personally rarely find first books in a series gratifying, the story never seems to climax until the second book or at the very least the end of the first. However, this book is really different in many ways. For starters in the current world filled with so many vampire books Harris has stood out where her story has vampires revealed to humans, living amongst humans but as a minority and living on synthetic bottled blood.


Sookie Stackhouse is a barmaid and a telepath in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Vampire Bill is the new vampire in town and also her newly acquired lover, who, due to him being a vampire she cannot read his mind, what she has been waiting for her whole life...a man she can be with, without hearing his thoughts.


However, since Vampire Bill's arrival to Bon Temps women are dying! The things in common between these women? They all work in low-paying jobs, they all associate with vampires and they've also been intimately involved with Sookie's brother and town playboy, Jason. Sookie is now forced to use her "gift" to find the identity of the true killer before the town decides to stake her Bill, arrest her brother or even worse, the killer finds her first!


The book is fast-paced, an easy read, a page-turner with an unexpected ending, which a great mystery book must have. It has paranormal elements, horror, love story, action and even a sprinkling of comedy for good measure. Harris has great imagination and her series is certainly set apart from all the other vampiric-stories. If you must choose to read only one vampire series I'd be recommending this.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

YA Bliss Mini-Challenge



As per my previous entry, each day of the Read-a-thon 2 mini-challenges are posted. I'm participating in YA Bliss' mini-challenge, rules and further information can be found here.


I've got to name 3 book "love triangles" so here's my pick:-


1. Bill - Sookie - Eric from Sookie Stackhouse Series' by Charlaine Harris


2. Stefan - Elena - Damon from The Vampire Diaries Series by LJ Smith


3. Simon - Chloe - Derek from The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong


4. Heath - Zoey - Erik from Marked by PC & Kristin Cast*


*Added #4 just in case my #1 doesn't count. Not sure if YA Bliss is specific about it being only YA (Young Adult) books.


Once Upon A Read-a-thon


It's now 8 hours into Day 2 of the Once Upon a Read-a-Thon; which kicked off at 12.01 AM (US EST time) July 11 and will end at 11.59 PM on July 13; hosted by Candace's Book Blog, Pure Imagination and Reading Angel.

This Read-a-thon has been so much fun! I've been updating my progress in my Twitter account.

As part of the Read-a-thon there are 2 mini-challenges posted daily that you can participate in. Today's 2 mini-challenges are hosted by YA Bliss and The Bookish Type.

Day 3 and the final day of the Read-a-thon's mini-challenges will be hosted and posted by Wicked Awesome Books and Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing so don't forget to check those out tomorrow! Remember Read-a-thon rules is that you must participate in at least ONE of the mini-challenges.

Day 1's Mini-Challenges were hosted by IB Book Blogging and Musings of Almybnenr. Both I participated in, the latter being quite difficult but a great challenge nonetheless. What's a challenge if it's not challenging?

For the Read-a-thon I wanted to see how far in the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris I get. I purchased the latest book "Dead Reckoning" so wanted to re-read the entire series first.

Completed Books:- (apologies couldn't find the sam size pics)






Thursday 7 July 2011

2011 MS Readathon


http://register.thenovelchallenge.org.au/The-Novel-Challenge/Angelica19/&utm_source=individual_widget&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=MS_Queensland

18,000 Australians are affected by MS (multipleschlorosis). MS Readathon takes place yearly to raise money for MS. For those in Australia, many would have participated as children whilst at school. However, they have now opened it to adults...HOORAY! So we can now participate in the Readathon.

If your a reader like myself and would be reading anyhow, may as well do what you love and raise money for such a great cause please register! It takes place during the months of July - September, you can choose to read for one of those months or for the entire three months, it's your choice. You can even participate in teams! Books are not specified, it's your choice!

If you are not into reading but would still like to participate you may donate online or you can support my efforts by sponsoring me by simply clicking the link at the start of this post.



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