BBAW Interview Swap: Beth from Yes, folks. I run like a girl.

Hi everyone! Today I had the pleasure to interview Beth from Yes, folks. I run like a girl. as part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week!

Please introduce yourself-

I'm Beth, and I wear many hats: I'm a college instructor, a runner, a frequent flier, a data geek, a cook, a problem solver, and I'm a voracious reader. I blog at "yes, folks. i run like a girl." I also write for Examiner.com.

What made you want to start a blog?

After 10 years of living in Southern California, I picked up and moved to the South (Pensacola, Florida, to be exact). I wanted to document my experiences in moving, and I also had a lot of free time on my hands when I first moved because I didn't know anyone yet!

What is your favorite genre to read?

I used to be a fiction junkie, reading almost every book by Isabel Allende and almost all of Stephen King's early work. But as I've gotten older I've fallen in love with non-fiction. I particularly like historical/biographical non-fiction. 'Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt got me hooked on biography. I also really enjoyed 'Dearest Friend: The Life of Abigail Adams' and 'Long Walk to Freedom' which is Nelson Mandela's autobiography.

I see you love to run! What has been your favorite race to run so far?

I really loved the Gulf Coast half marathon in Gulf Shores, AL last winter. The race only had about 400 people, the course was beautiful - winding through a park that took us past the beach and through marshes - and the food and festivities after the race were spectacular. The race was hosted at a place called Lulu's Home Port. Lulu, the owner, is Jimmy Buffett's sister and man can she throw a party! There was live music, comfortable seating, and plenty of good food. (Of course I love running, but being able to kick back and relax after the race is part of the fun!)

Besides running do you have any other hobbies?

Does reading count as another hobby? In all seriousness, when I'm not reading, running, or working, I travel as far and as often as I can. Some days that means visiting a nearby state park or historic site I haven't been to before, some days it means flying hundreds of miles to explore a new city. So if "travel" counts as a hobby, it's my favorite one!

I also love food. I enjoy both cooking and trying unique local dishes on my travels. Some of my favorite books have been food histories, like "Hungry Town: A Culinary History of New Orleans, the City Where Food is Almost Everything." That book captured many of my passions under one cover: travel, culture, and cooking... if there had just been a section on running, it would have been perfect!

Favorites Round

Food- Peanut butter!
Song- My taste in music depends on my mood and what I'm doing. I have a huge collection of hip hop and techno for running. Arcade Fire, Florence + The Machine, and The Black Keys are on repeat on my iPod. I also love blues, big band jazz, and zydeco, and I go to the symphony a couple of times a year... So I really do listen to a little bit of everything! But if I had to pick just one song, U2's Beautiful Day always makes me happy.
Movie- Honestly, I know this is going to sound sad, but I don't have a favorite movie! One movie I'll watch over and over again is the Batman movie 'The Dark Knight.' Loved that one!
Color- Red
Actor/ Actress- I don't watch enough movies or T.V. to have a strong favorite, but I really like Tina Fey. A friend gave me a copy of Bossypants for my birthday, and I can't wait to start reading it!

It was so awesome to get to know you Beth! I love to cook also, and Tina Fey totally rocks!

You guys can catch Beth over at her blog, Twitter , Pinterest , Facebook and StumbleUpon !

Giveaway- Sweet Shadows by Tera Lynn Childs

I'm hosting a contest as part of
Enna Isilee's Birthday Bash 2012

 Presented by SqueakyBooks

 

From August 22nd until September 22nd Enna Isilee at Squeaky Books is having a HUGE bash to celebrate her birthday! There’s a giveaway nearly EVERY DAY, tons of author interviews,and guest posts from some YA book bloggers. And I get to host a giveaway!

I get to give away a SIGNED copy of Sweet Shadows by Tera Lynn Childs!Entering is simple, just fill out the rafflecopter. THIS GIVEAWAY IS OPEN TO US ONLY! You have until September 21st at 11:59pm EST to enter. All winners willbe announced on Enna Isilee's birthday (September 22nd) on Enna Isilee's blog(SqueakyBooks). And today, Ennalee interviewed Tera Lynn Childs at SqueakyBooks. You should totally go check it out.

Enter to win below! May the odds be ever in your favor :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In My Mailbox (22)

Hi guys! Welcome to this weeks In My Mailbox, a meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren! I attended the Decatur Book Festival last weekend, but I managed to restrain myself and only bought one book. I had a few holds come in at the library!

 

 

Bought-

 

Every Day by David Levithan- Guys, David Levithan totally rocked my socks when he spoke at the festival, so of course I HAD to buy his book. I had been ogling it for a while anyway and I have heard it is super fantastic. Even my mom wants to read it!

 

Library-

 

Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter- I adored the rest of the Gallagher Girls books, so I of course I had to request this one. I actually picked this book up at the libarary a while ago, but never got to it.

 

First Comes Love by Katie Kacvinsky- I read Awaken a while ago and remember liking it, so I decided to try out another one of her books. It's only 200 pages so it should be a pretty quick read. Oh, and the cover is kinda awkward. Definitely not bringing this one to read at school!

 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Author- Ransom Riggs
Published- June 7th, 2011
Quirk
352 pages
Obtained from PBS

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. Fiction is based on real black and white photographs. The death of grandfather Abe sends sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and explores abandoned bedrooms and hallways. The children may still live.

I really surprised myself by liking this book. Usually weird is not my thing. I don't typically gravitate towards horror or fantasy for that reason. Somehow though, this book really sparked my attention and grabbed hold of me until the last sentence.

I think the cover of this book is really neat. Throughout the story there are many gorgeous and quirky photographs of peculiar children. I love how they took one of the photographs for use on the cover. It really matched the story well and did a great job of attracting me, the reader.

The concept of this book and it's overall layout is pretty cool. We start out in America where we meet Jacob and his aging grandfather. Jacob is just a typical teenage boy, except for the fact that his family owns a bajillion drugstores and is mega rich. He hates working, but loves to hang out with his friends. And his Grandpa is just your typical Alzheimer's-crazed-but-completely-awesome grandfather. He loves to tell stories about this peculiar home in the UK that he escaped to during WWII.

One night Jacob finds his Grandfather dead in the woods behind his house and starts to go a little crazy with grief. He decides it would be best to travel to his Grandfathers roots and see if all of the crazy stories his Grandpa had told him were really true. He ends up travelling with his dad to the itsy bitsy island where the home supposedly was. That is where all of the craziness begins!

We are introduced to a group of people suspended in the 1960's who continue to live the same day every day. Time resets, so no one ever ages. I really loved this concept! It added a great dimension to the book because it almost added a completely different plot line that was merged somewhere towards the end.

The characters were all so unique. Each had a peculiar quality that was really neat! It went anywhere from being able to float to being able to bring inanimate objects to life to being invisible. How cool is that! Each person had a unique voice and you were definitely able to distinguish who was speaking even after the introduction of so many characters.

This book read super fast. The story was written in such a way that it flowed effortlessly and was coupled with pictures to complete your vision of the character being described. When I was little I loved reading books with pictures, so the fact that and adult book was written with pictures too is awesome to me!

At the end of the story there was this incredible plot twist that I never saw coming. Seriously, it made the whole book! I was seriously wondering how the author was going to bring the book to a close in such a short span of pages. But he did, and he was even kind enough to provide a huge cliff hanger.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The concept was unique, the characters were cool and I love the time travelling aspect. It definitely wasn't a tear-your-heart-into-a-million-pieces type of book, but it was still worth the read.

 

September TBR

Hi guys! Now that August decided to leave us behind, I am here with my September TBR. Most of these books I HAVE to read, either because I promised them to people, they are coming out soon, or have a library due date coming up. I am thinking 8 is a pretty manageable number, so I am hoping to get them all knocked out this month!

 

• Unearthly by Cynthia Hand- I had this requested from me last month and I couldn't get to it, so I will definitely be reading it this month. Lots of my friends have read and loved this book, so hopefully I will also!
   

• Incarnate by Jodi Meadows- Another book that was requested from me. I have also heard great things and I absolutely LOVE the cover!
   

• Nolichuck by Jackson Keene- I received this one for review a few months back and I still have yet to read it! It looks cute and the font is pretty big, so I will be knocking this one out this month.
   

• Beneath the Glitter by Elle and Blair Fowler- I got this book of of Netgalley last week and then I found out they were coming to my local mall for a book signing. I need to get this book read so I can determine if I want to go to the signing or not.
   

• Starters by Lissa Price- I have been wanting to read this book for a while now and I got it from the library 2 weeks ago. I am trying to get it read before it is due!
   

• Roots of Insight by Breeana Puttroff- I read the first book, Seeds of Discovery, a few months back and really liked it so I decided to join the blog tour for this one! I need to have it read by the end of the month so my post will be ready for early October.
   

• Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter- I loved the first four books in this series, so I am excited to get to this one! It is due back at the end of the month so I am pushing to get it read!
   

• First Comes Love by Katie Kacvinsky- I remember really liking Awaken when I read it, so I decided to try out another of Katie's books. It is a pretty short read, so it should be no problem to get read.

That's it for me! How many books are you hoping to read in September?

Decatur Book Festival- Recap

Hi everyone! I attended the Decatur Book Festival last Saturday, so now I am sharing with you my haul along with the pictures I took with all of the authors.

 

I had an awesome time, but Georgia decided to unleash its deadly heat/humidity combination. I was a pool of sweat most of the day, but thank goodness for the air conditioning (when I could get to it!).

The festival started around 10 AM, and the first event I attended was a Meet Up/ Q&A Session with Meg Cabot. Meg was absolutely hilarious and she had everyone in fits of laughter. We got a few tid bits about her upcoming works and future projects. Then I stood in an hour long line to get my books signed! It didn't really start heating up until noon, so I still look presentable in this picture...trust me, it gets worse.

Then I headed over to the Teen Stage where I hung out for the rest of the day. We had some great authors presenting, so there was no where I would rather have been!

My mom and I stopped in for a quick lunch at Sammiches (I had a delicious Reuben!) which was right by the stage, then we ventured out of the AC to hear the authors speak.

David Levithan presented first. He was absolutely hilarious in his quirky way. He read a little bit of Every Day and the time he talked flew by so fast. By the end my mom even wanted to read Every Day! Luckily I had bought a copy of the book before the event started because when it came to signing time they were all sold out! Oh, and I absolutely love how he signed my book!

By then we were scorching and had some time to kill, so we popped into FroYoLo to get some frozen yogurt and cool down. It was delicious!

After that it was time to head back and see Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl present. They were fantastic (and crazy!). We got to know a lot about the upcoming Beautiful Creatures movie and how they came to become a writing team. Once they finished up it was a mad dash to the signing booth! Example A of the terrible sweaty mess pictures. I even caught Margaret as she was saying "I'm blind!"..haha

After that we had about an hour to kill, so we decided to just walk around and see what was going on. We popped in the Little Shop of Stories, this adorable indie bookstore in downtown Decatur. Then we stopped by a few artsy boutiques. I found this little deer head flower pot that was so adorable and I snapped a picture to show my dad (who just happens to be a hunter- poor Bambi :(


Finally, around 4 PM, Neal Shusterman spoke. He talked a lot about his inspiration behind Unwind (current news in England, abortion laws, etc.) and he read a little bit of UnWholly. By then we were all so tired there wasn't much of a mad dash to the signing line....more like a slow ambling. Neal was so nice and he even gave out signed posters for the Skinjacker Trilogy! Oh, and he warned me try and stay whole. I'll try Neal!

I had an awesome time, but I'm not sure if I would have been able to go back on Sunday, even if I wanted to! I couldn't wait to shower and put my feet up! I am really excited to go next year! Hopefully it is as fabulous as this years event was!

I hope y'all had a great Labor Day weekend!
 



In My Mailbox (21)

Howdy! Welcome to this weeks In My Mailbox, a meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren! I have stumbled across quite a few deals this week, so of course I had to snap them up! Also, I am headed to The Decatur Book Festival this weekend and will potentially be acquiring more books, so look out for that! I am super excited to be attending! This will be my first year and I am pumped to meet the numerous YA authors attending!

 

Bought-

• Enclave by Ann Aguirre- This book was on sale for 2.99 on Amazon, so of course I bought it. I have been meaning to read this book for a while, so now that I own it I won't have to keep paying library late fees for it!
   

• Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey- I got this one for FREE on Amazon, and I have heard great things. Hey, I can't reject a free book, isn't that like against the law or something ;)

• Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi- This one was a no brainer. I had to pre-order it and it was only 2.99. I am soooo excited, I absolutely loved Shatter Me. Plus, the new covers are gorgeous!

From NetGalley-

• Beneath the Glitter by Elle and Blair Fowler- I am still not quite sure about this book. It was written by two YouTube fashion gurus whose videos I enjoy watching, so I had to request it. I'm just not quite sure how good their book writing skills are. I guess I shall see!

 

That's it for me! What did y'all get in your mailboxes?

 

Happy Labor Day!