Stacked is our sister-site's weekly mailbox-sharing feature.
Crikey, it's been a while! I've only acquired a handful of books since last time, which is good for the hoard, but I do also have a ton of news.
I'll try to bullet-point it and use lots of photos so you don't get antsy :) Sorry, not going to happen. I have a lot to say, I guess!
First off, I finally started hitting the bookstores near my parents' place in Manila. Did you know that in a recent study by the World Culture Score Index, the Philippines is the top 4 country in the world in terms of time spent reading per person? The US is #22 on
that list, though only a couple hours less per week on average.
In the mall near my mom's house alone there are at least 4 bookstores, that I know of anyway. One is inside the supermarket. In some of the malls the bookstores take up 3 or more floors! There's even one mall where I was getting so confused because the same company would have a store on the ground level and one on the third floor. Not just one company, but two different ones with multiple locations in the same mall. It's pretty crazy.
Anyway, here's one shelf from a store called Book Sale. It's basically a used bookstore (they sell some new books from local presses as well as magazines and assorted stationery like gift wrap and notebooks) and they are freaking everywhere. I was too embarrassed to take a photo of the store to show you what one looks like (I was already kind of lurking and surreptitiously taking pics). They basically cram everything into a tiny space, pile books on the floor, triple-stack them on shelves and tables with no real order. You just have to pick through and find something you might want to read. I think it's pretty fun! I ended up with Joan Didion's
The Year of Magical Thinking and Ann Patchett's
Bel Canto for about $2 each.
I also went to
Fully Booked at the GreenHills Promenade. I like them because the interior is kind of cool, they face out a lot of their books (especially in arts and design, where it matters so much!) though this isn't one of their coolest locations. Their kids/YA section was in disappointing disarray, but at least they have some nice huge display tables for new and bestselling YA. I even found some sale books for half off!
The thing they really have going for them is their selection. I just have to stop myself from going in and re-organizing their shelves. I will be doing a Shop Hop post soon (yep, bringing that back) where I will go into more detail.
Next up, I finally freaking finished the
Pasadena Teen Book Festival website! PHEW. I hope you'll take a look when you're done here.
Also, next weekend is the 3rd Annual
Yarn Crawl LA--our friends at
Unwind in Burbank will be hosting
Salina Yoon on Sat, Apr 5 from 11am-1 pm. There will be storytime, crafting, and snacks. My cousin and epic-level cake popper
Adri P. is bringing Penguin and Bootsy pops! Our very own
Thuy is running the show. Salina will show kids how to do finger-knitting, even though she admits she doesn't know how to knit for reals, haha!
Once Upon a Time Bookstore will be selling Salina's books, including the
Penguin titles and her latest book,
Found! Awesome yarnista and knitwear designer Heather Walpole of
Ewe Ewe Yarns created a scarf and hat pattern inspired by
Penguin in Love. You can
peek at the samples here and pick up the kit at Unwind during the Yarn Crawl! Last but not least, our favorite photographer
Katie Ferguson will be on hand to document the event. I can't be there, sadly, but maybe I can eat some cake pops while I look at the photos afterwards!
This weekend, I headed out to Glorietta Mall to meet up with some of the Filipino book bloggers (find them
#PHYAbookbloggers on Twitter). Thanks
Louisse (@
louisse_ang),
Kate (@
BookishBlurber), and
Jesselle (@
_jessellev) for hanging out with me! They actually had to run off to
Becca Fitzpatrick's blogger forum and OMG you have to go look at their photos because Black. Ice. ARCs. Who do I have to beg, bribe, or bake for at Simon & Schuster to get a hold of one of those?
My selfie skills were strained to the max, haha! You can see the rest of our photos on
my Instagram feed @frootjoos. I totally missed
Kai (aka @
amaterasureads) but I still hope to meet up with her and get a #PHYAbookbloggers t-shirt because how cool is that?!
Anyway, about the signing. I didn't get to go because I was going to have to work at 11 pm (I know, time zone madness) and the signing was at 4 pm. So what, you say? That's plenty of time!
People, this was the line at
National Bookstore at 8 am for this 4 pm signing:
This was the bottom floor of the bookstore (which has 4 floors I think, I didn't get to them all) at 1 pm:
Scheiße! American YA fans, you don't even know. I think we sometimes take these events for granted, since so many YA authors actually live there. On the other hand, publishers, this is where you should send YA authors. Pinoys read! They read widely. We love fantasy as much as we love contemporary. We love Andrew Smith as much as we love Cassandra Clare--yes, they've read and loved
The Marbury Lens. We are equal-opportunity readers. We buy books (libraries aren't really a big thing here) and we wait patiently in massively mind-numbingly long lines. We fangirl like it's going out of style (you would know how over the top we go if you had been here the year Michael Jackson died--I swear I didn't enter a single mall, jeepney, or restaurant that didn't have MJ songs playing or being performed by avid karaoke singers).
In case you're wondering, here's who I heard they want to see the most: Rainbow Rowell, Jennifer E. Smith, and Leigh Bardugo.
I actually really wanted to see Kate Evangelista (
Til Death, Entangled Teen 2014) but I had to work that day, too. Bummer! Her launch party looked like it was a lot of fun. I did buy her book at National yesterday.
National actually books auditoriums for some visits, where they expect way more people than will fit in their store. Example:
Anyway, I'm sad I didn't get to see Becca, but I have already met her 3 times, and hopefully she'll tour in SoCal when
Black Ice when it hits the shelves on October 7, 2014.
Crap, I just thought of three more book-related things to tell you. But this post is way over tl;dr already so I'll just leave you with this:
Folks, I legit fell off a futon when I read the email telling me to expect one in the mail. Like I wasn't excited enough to get
Ruin & Rising when it releases on June 17! Anyway, my husband took a photo of the package contents with my lil' Darkling-wannabe John Carter, but he refused to read me the chapter sampler over FaceTime. *frowny-face*
Inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and The Story Siren,
Stacked is our sister-site's weekly post where we share with you the books that we've bought, borrowed or received for the week.
This is actually an Unstacked post since the ratio for books bought to books given away was 1:50 this week. As you may have read recently, my mom had a stroke and I went home to the Philippines to help out. My dad, brother, and aunt all work during the day, and my little sister isn't 100% capable of watching over our mom and doing all the chores etc. (Though she is a hero, since she figured out how to call for help when Mama passed out in the hallway. For someone who is considered to be fundamentally a toddler all her life, she's one smart cookie.)
Anyway, I was checking on my mom when I happened to open my dad's closet and notice that there were a ton of dusty, moldy books in the back. The closet had been built on top of a bookshelf in my mom's signature, just put it on top of everything else style of interior decorating.
I was really sad to see lots of my favorite books pretty much begrimed and crumbly due to the terrible sun/air conditions in Manila, as well as my family's low-level hoarding tendencies, but what can you do? Keep them in plastic tubs? (Actually, that's a good idea, but plastic tubs weren't exactly common when I left the books here.)
Anyway, I figured now is as good a time as any to let some stuff go. You can see some of my favorites in the Unstacked image above. My uncle has a school in the province, and my aunt is coming by tomorrow and will be passing the school, so I'm sending them away. There's some great stuff in there: classics like P.G. Wodehouse, James Thurber, Douglas Adams, and Chinua Achebe; the occasional anthology, random old ARCs. I saved one book from the pile:
A Woman Named Smith by
Marie Conway Oemler. It's so old that the cover has long since disintegrated. It's a fun romance and it used to belong to my grandfather, so I'm hoping it's not too far gone to repair, or reproduce in some way. If you're curious, you can get the
Kindle copy for free. (Yes, it's
that old.)
The one book I picked up was actually an eBook,
The Shadow Society by
Marie Rutkoski. The
Kindle edition was on sale for $2.99. Marie's new YA novel,
The Winner's Curse, is out now. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I recognize that there will probably be quite a few people who will like it a lot better than I did. I like her writing style, but I didn't care for the plot and characters in
The Winner's Curse. I'm hoping that
The Shadow Society will be a bit more like my cup of tea.
It looks like I will be here a while, so I'll keep you posted regarding further hoard management and possibly a YA author
event or
two I will be attending. Anyway, that's it for me and book acquisitions/donations this week. If you want to catch up with what I've been doing in the Philippines, follow @
frootjoos on Instagram.
Last but not least,
Pasadena Teen Book Festival is coming up! We are now on
Facebook,
Twitter,
Tumblr,
Instagram, and you can still get free tickets at
Eventbrite. Blogger friends, more info on the upcoming blog tour is on the way, I promise! I was just really hard at work to get the tote bag design done so we can order them from the screen printers. The first 100 people to arrive at the event will get the tote for free :)
Thanks so much to Courtney Saldana from
Ontario's Ovitt Family Community Library for inviting us to their annual Teen Book Fest! My friend David from
YABC and I attended yesterday to meet Stephen Chbosky, Andrew Smith, Leigh Bardugo, Ann Stampler, Marie Lu, Gretchen McNeil, Lex Thomas, Morgan Matson, Sara Wilson Etienne, Jessica Brody, Jennifer Bosworth, and Carrie Arcos. Sadly Glenn Olsen could not make it, but he affirms that he'll be there next year! Traditionally published YA authors who are interested in attending next year's event should probably contact
Courtney.
Gretchen McNeil, Jessica Brody, Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies
Andrew Smith, Lex Hrabe, and Thomas Voorhies + moderator :) Just the boys!
I couldn't get the last panel photo with Suzanne Lazear, Jennifer Bosworth, Leigh Bardugo, and Lex Thomas -- the sun kept streaming through the window behind them and I couldn't make out the faces on most of the photos, so I deleted them. Sigh!
I came away with a copy of
Winger by Andrew Smith--which won't be released until Tuesday!--
Quarantine by writing duo Lex Thomas, and Jessica Brody's
Unremembered. I also picked up Jessica's
52 Reasons to Hate My Father. I'm really glad they had the paperback--I hated the hardcover art! The paperback is way cuter... actually all of the new paperbacks of her books have better covers than before! If you're looking for summer beach reads, look no further.
If you had to get just one book, I'd say go with
Winger.
Unless you don't like having feelings.
What's in your book stack this week?
This week was really all about quality vs. quantity.
For review:
Can I get a SQUEE!?
This called for an awesome manicure with Shadow & Bone nail polish (two coats and a helping hand from
nail expert Thuy because I can never get my left hand done correctly especially with an unforgiving formula like this blue-gray matte). Trust Leigh to have the BEST swag ever.
Another one of the most coveted ARCs of the year...
Game by Barry Lyga (
I Hunt Killers, Book 2)
Now
Aly can send her copy to her dad back east and we can share this copy (what are work-wives for if not book sharing?). Thanks, Little Brown BFYR!
Netgalley:
I think this is one of those you-have-to-be-invited deals on Netgalley, so I want to thank
Elizabeth Ross for the invitation to read her debut novel,
Belle Epoque!
Won:
So I almost never win things on blog hops but not only did I win a copy of
Born of Illusion by Teri Brown from
Stories & Sweeties (thanks, Becky!), I also got
Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman sent to me from
Little Library Muse (thanks, Latoya!).
Outgoing:
Uh, giant piles of books to bring to the Sat, March 16
YA Book Swap.
Downloaded:
I took on a super-fun project last week for our librarian/author friend
Tammy Blackwell.
I redid her website and she posted an interview about my methods/madness.
I downloaded her Timberwolves books (I'd already read the first one) from
Amazon.com... visit her site and click on the covers in the fancy highlighted box at the top!
That's it for me this week. What's in your mailbox?
I know, I know. Super late. I have a good reason.
Signed:
I just went to three signings in three days.
My new Barnes & Noble member card has just paid for itself.
The one most likely to make me cry:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Also the book that has most consistently saved my life since 1999. The brilliant movie version is now on DVD & Bluray! (I bought one of each but have to wait until
Aly comes over to watch the film again because I know I am going to cry a lot during. If you haven't seen it yet, get ready to feel ALL the feelings.)
The sequel: Was Marie Lu's
Legend this steamy? Because
Prodigy is...
whooo! (Bought)
The one I didn't want to put down even though page 70 is missing from the ARC:
Rift -- the sequel is
Rise -- by Andrea Cremer. (Bought the latter)
I don't think I can actually read faster than she writes; she has 4 books coming out this year.
Missing from this photo:
Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff because I already loaned it out.
I think I loaned it out last year and never got it back. Maybe next time. (Bought PV)
Now if I can just figure out where I stashed the first two books I'll be all set. -___-
Middle Grade:
My English teacher from 9th grade--who inspires me still!
These were all the amazing authors who were so kind to help us with our mystery event,
Get a Clue!
The shop still has signed copies and will ship, so give them a call at 818 248 9668.
But I want it now!
For review:
These look scrumptious. And I may have dropped a cat treat in their general vicinity.
Illustrated by Francesca Carabelli
This was, in fact, in my mailbox--if you review picture books and would like to be on the blog tour, please let me know! Email frootjoos at gmail dot com.
Downloaded from Audible:
Read by Rebecca Soler
Ok, I know I keep telling people I hated
Cinder. I did! I threw my iPod across the room a few times. (Good thing it's so tough.) It was a good book though... and it had a good reader, so I'll listen to the sequel.
Read by Shannon McManus
They had me at the title. I don't actually know what it's about. This better be good!
All right, I think I'm done for the day. What did you get in your mailbox?
Hey y'all!
Stacked is our sister site's
mailbox sharing weekly feature. We got a ton of great stuff from
Netgalley this week.
Dark Triumph by
Robin LaFevers - You have no idea how excited I was when HMH followed through and let me download this one. It will be out on April 2 and I'm hoping Robin will come down to LA again for LATFoB so I can buy a signed copy. I've already read it and am contemplating reading it over again. It was so good! The full review will come out closer to the publication date.
Hey, if I get lucky I'll buy two and raffle off the 2nd one to you guys! ;)
The Different Girl by
Gordon Dahlquist - I loved Dahlquist's adult fantasy novel
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (well, part one, anyway--part two was really hard to get into). He's got one hell of an imagination. I hope I will like his YA debut, too. It looks... different.
Peregrine Harker & The Black Death by
Luke Hollands - I don't pick up small press books very often, and frankly the "blurbs" for this book are a little heavy-handed with the comedy.
“Somebody give the boy a medal!” – King Edward VII
“What a brain! Never have I seen such an ego.” – Sigmund Freud
“A little too revolutionary for my liking.” – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
And so forth. You get the picture? Still, the synopsis sounds pretty good:
MURDER. SPIES. EXPLOSIONS. REVENGE.
Peregrine Harker is about to learn you're never too young to die.
London 1908: A secret society stalks the murky streets, a deadly assassin lurks in the shadows and a series of unexplained deaths are linked by a mystery symbol…
When boy-detective Peregrine Harker stumbles across a gruesome murder he sparks a chain of events that drag him on a rip-roaring journey through a world of spluttering gas lamps, thick fog, deadly secrets and dastardly villains.
They had me at "MURDER." I'll let you know if it lives up to its own hype. Bonus points for having a cover that does not make me want to claw my own eyes out.
That's it for me this week. What did you get? Share links in the comments below.
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do i like having feelings? not sure...
glad you had fun. sorry i had to miss it but i was doing bridesmaids duty. i totally want to try and go next year. and awesome that there are guy authors there. i know they exist but it feels like many of these events are heavily female. and i know andrew smith is always cool.
i'll have to drool over your books the next time i see you.
Sounds like you had a fun. :)
*gasp* SO MANY AMAZING AUTHORS! For a second I thought this was in Ontario, Canada and I was about to bang my head on the wall for not knowing about it and not going, but *phew* that isn't the case. I've heard a ton of things about Winger, but I'm not much into comedy books.. I heard this is a comedy? :P
- Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf
Dark comedy if anything, Juhina. All of the Andrew Smith books I've read so far involve horror and crying.
I did! Was getting a little heat-stroke later in the day but worth it.
I know! There were guy teen readers too. It was like sighting a bald eagle. Wish more people would listen to Andrew who contends male readers are not scarce, that boys DO read. They read and write as much as any girl and love for books is human, not feminine.
or a unicorn! hahaha. but i agree that reading is universal. sure there are guys who don't like to read but there are definitely girls who don't like to either. the perception that reading is not cool for boys might be keeping some of them from following that passion. my goal is to spread the love of reading to everyone, not just boy or girls.