Manic Monday Recaps [Week 3/19/12]

 [via WeHeartIt]

Well hello there!  It's was almost 2 weeks since my last post and so much has happened since then.  But I must confess,  I have several things to blame for my non-existent blog posts:  Work (it just got real busy there for a while); Pinterest (because I'm OCD about it and can't stop pinning everything, as some of you may already know); and Christian Grey (ahem).  That's right for the past couple of days all I've done on my spare time - is read, dream and think of Christian Grey.  Yes, I know he's a fictional character... but a girl can dream, right?!  Luckily, my husband is not the jealous type.  For those of you who don't know who Christian Grey is, please let me introduce you to him.

About a week ago, I had the opportunity to meet several authors that were down in Miami for the Dark Days tour.  My friends, and I (and the hubby, who's my official photographer) all went down and had a ball learning more about Lauren Oliver, Claudia Gray and Dan Wells.  Here are some pics from that night:

Here's what I plan on reading this week:

 

Here's what I read over the past two weeks:

- Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

- Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James

- Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James

Have a great week friends. Happy Reading!

Carrie Ryan!! eek!!

I am a big Carrie Ryan fan. I've been for years now. I actually discovered The Forest of Hands and Teeth earlier than most and after I read it I knew just how big it was going to be.  Needless to say, many moons and two sequels later, I am one of Carrie Ryan's fangirls.  So obviously I was absolutely thrilled when I found out she would be in town to kick off her tour for her latest and final installment in her Forest series - The Dark and Hollow Places.  

Here are some of the pictures I took for your viewing pleasure:

Here you'll see Carrie speaking about how she became a "New York Times Best-Selling Author." She gave us a lot of information on why she chose to write about zombies, her ten-year plan, tips, quirks and more zombie awesomeness...  Love it!  After reading us a quick entry out of her  new book she agreed to sign all of our books and take pictures and just pretty much hang out with us.  She was awesome!  (duh)

 

This picture is hilarious!  That there is my spankin' new, shiny and oh so gorgeous All About {n} business card.  It just so happened that I received them in the mail that afternoon and was so excited when she wanted my blog information.  That's Carrie showing her excitement over my spectacular business card. :)

And there you have it folks, from one fangirl to another, Carrie Ryan and her books are amazing.  I was so happy to have met her (squees!!).  Now I must leave you so that I may finish off The Dark and Hollow Places (which I started reading late last night and am now a few pages before its conclusion).  Toodles.

Dark Days of Supernatural Tour in the M..I..A..

I was one of the lucky one's who was able to attend the Miami tour stop of The Dark Days of Supernatural Tour.  Woo me!  I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we had.  Not only were my friends and I able to sit first row and "ooh" and "ahh" like the fangirls we are, but we were able to meet three of the nicest authors evah!  Our stop featured authors Claudia Gray (Evernight series), Kimberly Derting (The Body Finder series) and Courtney Allison Moulton (Angelfire).  These ladies read a little bit from each of their books and then they sat thru a slew of questions from the live audience plus some online guests.  It was all very cool.

Here are the pictures I took for your viewing pleasure. :)

The funny and charming Claudia Gray reading from
her newest title in the Evernight series - Afterlife.

Kimberly Derting (who I'm a total fangirl of)
reading from Desires of the Dead.

Courtney Allison Moulton reading from Angelfire.
She was so young and funny - I absolutely loved her!

This is my total "happy camper" face.  

Oh yes, I was stoked to have these lovely ladies come out and meet us.  

Not to mention Vanessa asked how they felt about bloggers and they had such nice things to say.  Yep, we were total BFF's by the end of the night!

My besties Isalys & Vannessa - a/k/a mine and your Book♥Soulmates with their haul. 

This is our new partner in crime Ash from Smash Attack Reads! 

We met Ash that night since she was driving down for the event and she fit right into our group.  Tell me she isn't the cutest thing evah?!  She is.   

Here's our whole group (from left to right) Isolda (Isaly's mom and part of the Book♥Soulmates crew); Me; Isalys; Jen (Not Now... I'm Reading); Ash (Smash Attack Reads) and Vanessa.

Some of the other lovely bloggers we met.  Author Michelle Maddow; Tiffany (For Those About to Read), Harmony (Radiant Reads) and Jami (YA Addict).

From there we went out for dinner and drinks at the local pub with our new friends... cuz that's how we roll.  Needless to say we had a great night.

What fun!  I personally had a blast!  I cannot wait for the next event.  Carrie Ryan - be prepared because I am coming for you!  mwahahaha

Manic Monday Recaps (Week 11/1/10)

I don't know about you guys, but I'm actually pretty freaked out that it's November.  I just saw Christmas aisles in Target... what's up with that?  The year is over!!  Ugh.  I had a very hectic month with tons of events every week.  So here's a pictorial of my month:

My little girl's 5th Birthday - she wanted a Halloween themed costume party 

Halloween Horror Nights with our BFF's - Universal Studios

Orlando, FL

Pumpkin Patch Fun

 

Halloween

Here's what I plan on reading this week:

Last week I read the following:
- The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire [review]
- The Ivy by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur
- Ecstasy in Darkness by Gena Showalter [review/giveaway]
- Jane by April Lindner
- Backstage Pass by Olivia Cunning [review]
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle  

I reviewed the following:
- Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John [review]
- The Twin's Daughter by Lauren Baratz-Logsted [review]
- Rise Again by Ben Tripp [review]

I hope you all had the wonderful, funtastic October that I had.   Various winners were chosen for outstanding giveaways over the weekend, but just in case you missed the post and my e-mail, here's a link to that post again.  If you haven't yet, please make sure to send me your info.  

I also wanted to take a minute to thank Missie for asking me to participate in the Trick or Treat for Books event.  I had such a fun time - plus I also wanted to thank my other lovely co-hosts Tara at 25 Hour Books and Felicia at Geeky Blogger's Book Blog.  For those of you who participated in the giveaway, the winner was chosen and you can you find out who it was over at Missie's (it just might be you!).

More giveaway results coming soon as well as the first post including early sign-up post for the Holiday Reading Challenge (which was a big hit last year!).  Tomorrow on the Bookcase of the Week we have an Author Edition - we meet author Antony John (Five Flavors of Dumb) and see his bookcases as well as some of his favorite writing spots.  So stay tuned for that plus a very special giveaway from Antony. 

Have a great week friends!