Snapshot Saturday::Caturday edition

Snapshot Saturdays is hosted by Alyce of At Home with Books. Since I missed Cat Thursday, and I haven't written the FoB one, I thought I'd do a Caturday edition.

This is Roo, my youngest cat. He's a big boy so we got him a nice tall cat tower (though he could use a taller one to stretch out). But even before he got the tower, his favorite thing to do during the night is to open up the front blinds to look out. The tower just gives him a place to lounge while he opens the blinds. He is also a little bit of a terror. If you walk by him while he's there and aren't paying attention, you find at minimum your clothes stuck in his claws, if not your skin. Trick is you have to watch for the crazy tail. He lets me get away with more than anyone else in the family, since he's around me the most, and he knows I'm going to keep on pestering him. But he's mellowed out after he turned 3.5.

Southern California Young Adult Events

One of the things that happened at the Festival of Books was I kept running into the same people at signings, due to the YA binge. One of the people I met works for one of the area libraries, and she was telling people about events they are having. If you live in Southern California, and the author event starved Inland Empire, consider going to these. They are Free, so can't beat that.

Teen Book Fest
May 5th 1:00-4:00pm @ Ontario Senior Center
Jay Asher
Josephine Angelini
Anna Carey
Tahereh Mafi
Alexandra Monir
Download the Flyer for Teen Book Fest


May 9th @ 5pm Ovitt Family Community Library
Cornelia Funke


September 12th @ 3:30pm
Lauren Kate


Please spread the word about the events. If you want to share the flyer the librarian sent me please download it and post it to your own Google Docs account. You can also find some info on the events on the City of Ontario's website, in the Ontario Living Magazine.

Mailbox Monday: Festival of Books edition aka YA Binge

This weekend was the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and I was finally able to go. Up until the last year or two, it was held at UCLA, which is usually a 2 hour drive from where I live. Now it is held at USC near Downtown LA, which can be as little as an hour drive. So this is the FoB edition of Mailbox Monday, hosted by Cindy's Love of Books this month.

Left Stack::Previously Purchased Books ~ Got signed at FoB
Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (the couple I met at the Riggs signing told me to ask for the horse)
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Center Stack:: Purchased at FoB for Signings
Messy by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (ARC - They gave them away to the first few visitors at both signings)
Legend by Marie Lu
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (actually got at BN on way home since hadn't seen Saturday)
Starters by Lissa Price

Right Stack:: Unsigned Purchases or Pre-Signed
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Grave Mercy by R. L. LaFevers
Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
Daughter of Smoke and Bone

One of the indie bookstores that was at the festival had some already signed copies for sale in their tent, and the prices weren't marked up any. Both Beautiful Creatures books, Cinder, and When She Woke are all signed. Which solved a problem for me since Hillary Jordan's signing conflicted with another one I wanted to go to, and I didn't have to run back over to YA for the Beautiful Creatures authors signing.

I missed Josephine Angelini's and R.L. Fever's signings, since I had "paid" for tickets to both panels Deborah Harkness participated in, which was at the same time. But Josephine Angelini will be in the area in May for an appearance, so I'll go to that.

I also got some bookish shirts. From Literary Threads, Support your local bookstore and All you need is...books. From Novel-T, I got Mr. Darcy (it was soooo hard to pick one). And for the latter, $1 from each shirt sale goes toward 826nyc, founded by Dave Eggers.

I'll post some of the pictures I took come Saturday.

Audiobook Week Coming

I saw Devourer of Books's this morning, so after I get my quickie post done, I will be doling out audiobook reviews slowly, so to save up a few for Audiobook Month

Cat Thursday

Cat Thursday is hosted by The True Book Addict. You can join by sharing favorite cat macros, cat art or pictures of your own cats.

So the other day I was sitting at my desk, and I turned around in my chair to find this:

My oldest two cats, Pooh and Tigger (siblings), just staring at me. And it wasn't even lunch time yet. Or they hour and half before hand when Pooh starts asking for food. They incidentally are the reason the bed isn't made, since they like sleeping in much longer than I do, so just ignore that, m'kay?

Mailbox Monday and What I'm reading

I working on quick reviews of most of my audiobook listenings. I just don't seem to have much focus at a time lately (I'm going to just say I'm savoring Clash of Kings). Which is strange since work has been a bit non-existant this past week, so not had much doing there.

Mailbox Monday is currently hosted by Cindy's Love of Books.




From the Library

I also got for my birthday a Barnes and Nobles gift card, and cash to use at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this coming weekend.

What I'm Reading is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey

Finished:

Reading:

Up Next:

What I'm reading

No Mailbox Monday this week. I only got a couple special dietary needs cookbooks, which are rather boring until recipes are tried.

For What I'm Reading, as always hosted by Sheila @ Book Journey....

Last week I finished:


I am currently reading:


Next I'll read:
(continuing) (reread)

I'm not sure what print book I'll read once I finish A Clash of Kings. One of my waiting Early Reviewer books or some of the YA sitting on my shelf I think.

I'd like to draw your attention to the sidebar at right *points*. I've added a feedburner link there. I would encourage you, especially any new followers, to follow my blog that way. Once I can get my WP layout up and switch the blog, I will make sure feedburner will grab the posts from the new address.

Snapshot Saturday::Snakes in the Desert edition

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by Alyce of At Home with Books.

Monday I was surveying out in Lancaster for work. In the late morning, when the soil started warming up, I had to quick step away from a hole in the ground where a small green snake was sitting taking in the sun. I wasn't going to check to see what kind of snake it was, because if it was a rattler, the young ones are probably more dangerous than the adults.

So a transect and a half later, I was walking down to start the next one and spot a different bit of green in front of me. That fella up there ^ (just right of center- and this picture has been fiddled with so it stands out more). When the other three caught up with me, he started feeling threatened and entered the defensive position you see there.

That was the last snake I saw luckily, but it cut into my audiobook time.

Mailbox Monday and What I'm Reading for April 2nd, 2012

Mailbox Monday is a traveling meme, and is currently hosted by Cindy's Love of Books for April.

Posting this early since I will be on my way to Lancaster for work not so bright and early tomorrow.

I got tired of waiting for one of the libraries to have The Song of Achilles. So figures that a few days after I bought it, guess what popped up on the LA county overdrive? *rollseyes*

I also got myself some Nook books as an early birthday present to myself. Pottermore Shop has opened, so you can get e-books and audiobooks for download. Alas, you cannot get the UK ebooks when you live in the US.

What I'm Reading is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey.

Last week, I finished reading:

I am currently reading:

Up next is:

I'd love to have more to post today, but I've got a birthday party in a couple hours for my nephew and have to get things ready so I can 1) be able to leave the house by 5am tomorrow and 2)hopefully have time to watch Game of Thrones tonight. Will be working on another batch of mini-reviews of audio books for later in the week. And if you are curious, I did update my Where are you reading? page and map last night. Link is in the sidebar if interested.