The Bitching: I’m so abysmally behind on posts, reviews, and reads that it’s quite possible I shall never catch up. My review pile has grown out of control- so much so that I had a mini panic attack that went something along the lines of “OH NO. I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO READ A BOOK JUST FOR FUN EVER AGAIN!” So the smart thing to do is quit accepting review copies until the pile shortens. Plus I want to start a reread of all the Harry Potter books and I’ll need a nice window for that. And it’s time to read Pride and Prejudice, I Capture the Castle and Scarlett again for the year. Some things just take precedence.

My reason for being behind is a REALLY good one though- I got married! I ran off to Jamaica and married a marvelous man who buys me books and doesn’t mind (too very much) when I pet books in public.

The Books: I didn’t make it to BEA this year (again….one day) because of the aforementioned marriage and even with all the wonderful surrounding me, yeah, I was still a bit bummed. I can’t wait to go and see and meet and do and breathe that marvelous book air. It will be my turn next year. Still, I have a wonderful book fairy looking out for me and she sent me the most amazing BEA wedding present:

Shadows (Ashes #2) by Ilsa Bick
Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
Paris in Love by Eloisa James
As well as a signed copy of The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James (who remembered me! I went all fangirl crazy over that) and Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart by Sarah MacLean.

A much appreciated gift. Bookmarks, bags, pens, chocolate and so much BEA goodness. Love it.

For Review:

First Comes Love by Katie Kacvinsky (which is god-awful btw)
What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang
Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo
Something Like Normal by Trish Doller
The Siren by Tiffany Reisz

Bought:

Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
Hourglass by Myra McEntire
Undone by Lila DiPasqua (which I DNF)

The Baking: Are you kidding me? It’s far too hot to turn on the oven. I made these instead:

The Bitching: Not much to say in this section. I have been, as Phil says “Happy happy happy.” I leave for Jamaica in 10 days and get married in 12. I have everything I need to look like a classy lady person in my wedding pictures. SO I HAVE NOTHING TO BITCH ABOUT…NOW.

The Books: I didn’t want to waste space bitching because I’m going to need the majority of the room in this post for THIS SECTION.

First, I’ve been on a search for Megan McCAfferty’s Fourth Comings with a particular cover now for awhile. Everywhere I’ve looked it’s been all about the edition with the green cover and that one DOES NOT MATCH MY OTHER ONES and things like that set off my OCD. So I found one, in Destin, in the Barnes and Noble. Lookie here:

Then, when I got home from Destin, there was a big box of awesome waiting for me at my door. In it were the wonders below:

This stack of beautiful comes from Miss Becky @ Stories and Sweeties who possesses a large share of the world’s awesome at the moment. I love her blog- it’s so happy and friendly and yummy.

For review, I snagged a copy of Improper Relations by Juliana Ross. It’s quite good and has NAUGHTY BITS IN IT. We’ll talk about it a little later on.

The Baking: NOTHING. I have to get into a wedding dress in less than two weeks.

“I’m on this new diet. Well, I don’t eat anything and when I feel like I’m about to faint I eat a cube of cheese. I’m just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.”
-Emily, The Devil Wears Prada

That’s totally a joke. Don’t be stupid and starve yourself.

It’s May 25th and it’s a very special day. Why? Well for one, today is Towel Day, the day in which any hitchhiker worth his (or her) mettle, proudly displays his preparedness with a towel! It’s from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams.

From The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Douglas Adams left Earth to start out on his own tour of the galaxy on May 11, 2001. His leaving was the first time that I ever realized that my heart could break from the lose of someone I never even knew. This book was my first introduction to that dry, sarcastic English wit that I so love today. Honestly, I don’t think I would love books nearly as much as I do now if it weren’t for him. There are several books in his famous “trilogy” as well as others penned by him, and you need to read them all. So be sure to remember him today by locating and loving your trusty towel.

And while you’re sporting your towel, don’t forget to Wear the Lilac today. We wear the lilac in remembrance of those brave members of the Night Watch and The People’s Republic of Treacle Mine Road.

If you’re a fan of the Discworld series by Sir Terry Pratchett, you’ll understand the importance of the revolution in the books. But in the real world, for those of you not in the know, Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2007, and we wear the lilac on May 25th in tribute to Terry and to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s.

I can’t say much here that I haven’t already said about Pratchett in the past. He is my favorite author. I have learned more about life (how to live it better, how to see it from different angles and how to accept the fact that I do not believe in certain things the same way the people around me do) from his books than I could ever have learned on my own. They are that important to me. He spends a great deal of time on belief, the power of words and the undeniable ability a story has to change the past, present and future of just about anything. I get a little choked up when I think that one day he will leave us for that marvelous flat world that rides through space on the back of a great turtle and deny me any more of his life lessons. In him I have a god anchor.

So do it. Grab your towel, wear the lilac and celebrate. If not for Adams and Pratchett, than for the fact that there are dedicated silly days for the things readers love most of all- books.

The Bitching: So there are some posts floating around declaring that anyone who advertises the books they received, purchased or acquired by African swallow, must give credit back to TSS, which is apparently the source from which all book advertisement springs forth. I’m going to give you a moment to reflect on the silliness of that implication and then do with it what you will. Seriously, she was the FIRST PERSON EVER TO DO THIS? But for those of you who can’t wrap your minds around the idea that YA book bloggers did not invent the internet or the promotion of books- wait, you are aware that there is life beyond Blogspot, right? For those few of you that crave rigid boundaries in YA BOOK BLOGGING, I hereby credit, hmmm…let’s see…Johannes Gutenberg who was quite handy with old fashioned, lettered Legos with the inspiration for the “Books” part of this post. I’d like to give a big shout out to Stone Age Man for discovering fire and thereby making the following baked goods possible. And finally, let’s see…for bitching…you may nominate your favorite bitch in comments and I promise, the next time I complain about something, I’ll make sure ALL the credit goes to her.

The Books: I got up bright and early Tuesday morning (which is the name of a store, so by all means let me give credit) and drove up to Lemuria Books, where I met with the fabulous children’s manager, Emily and picked up my very own copies of Bitterblue and Divergent. I have of course, already devoured Bitterblue- the light is lovelier in Cashore’s world.

For review, I received Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo and Spark by Amy Kathleen Ryan. Spark is the second book in the Sky Chasers series and I’ve really been looking forward to it.

The Baking: Not much this week as I was moody and disagreeable and didn’t feel like going to the grocery store, so we just ate a lot of take out. But I did get off my butt and make one thing:

It took me a while to really jump on the social networking bandwagon. I had Facebook, but didn’t use it. I had no idea what Tumblr was and I really thought that Pinterest sounded like something old ladies would enjoy. Turns out I -AM- an old lady and now I love me some Pinterest. Anyway, I’ve slowly but surely plopped myself in the middle of some commonly used social networking whatsits and I couldn’t be happier with some of the book blogger interactions I’ve had as a result. I’ve also been trying to add you guys when I find you, so bear with me if I have yet to stumble upon you elsewhere on the web. Please feel free to give me a gentle nudge in your direction.

Now for a little shameless self-promotion:

I love everything there is to love about Goodreads. As a book lover, it’s quite possibly the most extraordinary tool for keeping track of everything bookish. I’ve found so many books to love because of it. The app is invaluable when you are in a bookstore and need a quick reminder of what is on your wishlist.

And of course, since this is a WordPress site and is therefore not GFC friendly, please feel free to grab my FEED