Book Blogger Hop

Book Blogger hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy for Books. I found this while browsing blogs and thought this was a great way to meet bloggers that love books as much as I do.

This week's question: Do you ever wish you would have named your blog something different?

Sometimes I do. Sometimes I wish I called it something a bit more serious, but then I think, where would the fun be with that? I hate trying to think of names, and it took me so long to think of Justified Lunacy. I have no idea what I would call it if I were to change it.

So, what about you? Do you like the name you've called your blog? If you don't, what else would you name it?

The Crowded Hat Rack

In life, do you sometimes feel stretched to the limits and that there's not enough hours in the day to get everything done? Well, that's exactly how I'm feeling at the moment. I really need to petition to get the extra hour in the day... I'm actually losing 1 hour each day (stupid day light savings) so I really need that extra hour.

Today my uni started back up and I'm studying 3 courses externally. I'm mainly doing this because I'm at a high school teaching 3 English classes for 2 more weeks and can't get to uni to actually attend classes. This isn't usually a big problem, but I live on the border of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, and Queensland doesn't have day light savings. So, while I'm at school I've got to get up an hour earlier and leave at 6:30 to get to school. This is making me incredibly tired by the end of the day.

I did try working one night, but by the time it got to 10 p.m. I was a zombie... luckily work hasn't been busy.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has to find time to wear "many hats" that are required in the day. I'm terrible with organisation, but I finally realised that having a big calendar sitting in front of me while I'm at the computer is an excellent reminder of anything that's due.

Colour coding is also a great way to keep track of all the obligations. Having each "hat" in a different colour will be easier to see what sort of task or area the obligation is from. I need one for work, teaching, uni, family and even my critique group.

So, how do you manage with the different roles and obligations you have in your life? Do you find it easy to prioritise or get everything done on time?

Review: The Marbury Lens

The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury. 

There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he’s trying to kill them.

Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he’s losing his mind.
 
Conner tells Jack it’s going to be okay. But, it’s not. 

Andrew Smith has written his most beautiful and personal novel yet, as he explores the nightmarish outer limits of what trauma can do to our bodies and our minds.

When Jack escapes from a deranged man's house after being kidnapped, the only person he tells is his best friend, Connor. Since he is going to England, he doesn't see the need in telling any one else. Jack leaves for England, a couple of days before Connor, and he meets a strange man who says he knows him from a world called Marbury. He gives Jack a pair of glasses, which when he puts on takes him to the world of Marbury where there is a great war going on.

The more Jack visits Marbury, the more he's losing touch with reality, but he can't stop himself from returning. Andrew Smith has created a story that questions what is real and what is just an effect of trauma.

The story is told through Jack's eyes and intermediately the reader is drawn into his world and his experience as he's tied to a bed in Freddie's house. As the novel progresses and Jack questions what is reality and what is just an after effect of the kidnapping, the emotions are portrayed exceptionally well, which made me wanting to read on to find out what was happening to Jack.

Both worlds, the real world and the world of Marbury, have been vividly painted and it's easy to imagine what they look like and how the characters feel towards each of the world's.


The Marbury Lens is a pageturning rollercoaster, that will keep any reader on the edge of the seat. Andrew Smith has created a wonderful story that delves into a nightmarish world and explores the effects that trauma can have on a person.




Recommend: I haven't read anything like this before. I would recommend to anyone who likes dark and thrilling stories.
2011 YA Reading Challenge: #9 of 50

How do you get your books?

There has been a lot of news about the trouble book stores are in on the television at the moment. I don't know whether it's coincidence, but the day after Borders in the US announces they are in trouble, the Borders stores in Australia (as well as our other big book store, Angus and Robertson) announces that they are also in trouble.

They are blaming online book stores and e-readers are the main problems for people not buying enough books. And, I can see why. I was so happy when a 2-level Borders opened up just around the corner from me, but that excitement is wearing off because most of the books in there cost $20-$30 or more... most of the ones I want are on the upper price.

Since I can't live without my books, I really have to start looking at the prices. In a supermarket the books are around $10 (not as big a range as Borders, but still cheaper).

At the moment most of my books come from :

• Netgalley... I don't mind reading on my computer
• Kindle... I read on my iPhone, so I have a book wherever I am
• Audible.com ... what would I do without audio books? I can drive while reading, that's fantastic
• Amazon... here's a fact; it costs less to ship a book from the US to Australia than it does to buy a book in Borders. I also follow a lot of international authors who's books don't release here quick enough.
• Book depository... I just started shopping here. Free worldwide delivery, there's nothing wrong with that.
• Australian supermarkets (mainly BigW... think Target)... when I really need a book and it's on special for $10.

So, I can definitely see that I do a majority of my shopping overseas. But, in all honesty, there are some books that I can't wait the additional year for it to be released over here that I just need to.

Where do you mainly get your books from?

NaNoEdMo

What is NaNoEdMo? Well, it's where a crazy person agrees to spend 50 hours in one month editing a novel.

Why would I want to do something like that? Because I got some feedback about the ending of the novel I've been working on, and after a page full of notes about what's "NOT" working, I realised that I need to seriously fix it before I can start submitting.

So, do you have anything that you need to get done or have been putting off?

Review: John Belushi is Dead

John Belushi is Dead by Kathy Charles

Synopsis (From Goodreads): IN THE END WE ALL FADE TO BLACK. 

Pink-haired Hilda and oddball loner Benji are not your typical teenagers. Instead of going to parties or hanging out at the mall, they comb the city streets and suburban culs-de-sac of Los Angeles for sites of celebrity murder and suicide. Bound by their interest in the macabre, Hilda and Benji neglect their schoolwork and their social lives in favor of prowling the most notorious crime scenes in Hollywood history and collecting odd mementos of celebrity death.


Hilda and Benji’s morbid pastime takes an unexpected turn when they meet Hank, the elderly, reclusive tenant of a dilapidated Echo Park apartment where a silent movie star once stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. Hilda feels a strange connection with Hank and comes to care deeply for her paranoid new friend as they watch old movies together and chat the sweltering afternoons away. But when Hank’s downstairs neighbor Jake, a handsome screenwriter, inserts himself into the equation and begins to hint at Hank’s terrible secrets, Hilda must decide what it is she’s come to Echo Park searching for . . . and whether her fascination with death is worth missing out on life.

Hilda has always felt a bit odd. Together with her best friend, Benji, they prowl the sites where celebrities have died, sometimes taking away a piece of history to remember it. When one apartment they come across has an old man living there, Hilda and Hank form a bizarre friendship. When Hank's downstairs neighbour, Jake, brings himself into the equation, Hilda starts to discover that Hank is hiding a dark secret. As Hilda's new relationships grow, she starts to question whether her fascination with death is making her miss out on life.

I did not know what I was getting myself into when I opened the first page of John Belushi is Dead, but I was not disappointed. From the first page, the reader is introduced to Hilda and her macabre friend, Benji. The two have a bizarre fascination with the dead - especially dead celebrities. All the characters are well thought out and believable, which made some parts of the story gut-wrenchingly realistic. I loved Hilda (and her pink hair) and the journey she took throughout the novel was full of enough twists and turns to keep me reading.

The premise of this story is unique, and even though some of the scenes were confronting and graphic, I couldn't put it down. Besides the melancholic tones, there's also the subtle romance that blooms between Hilda and Jake. His introduction to the story turned the whole plot upside down, which is a good thing because I was never able to see where it was going.

This is an emotional story which will appeal to anyone with the slightest bit of morbid curiosity, or anyone who has ever been interested in a death of a celebrity.

Recommend: Girl Saves Boy by Steph Bowe
2011 Aussie YA Reading Challenge: #1 of 12
2011 YA Reading Challenge: #8 of 50

The Liar Society Giveaway

Jill over at Jill Scribbles is giving away an arc of Lisa and Laura's novel, The Liar Society. For those that don't know what this book is about, here is the blurb from Goodreads:


Kate Lowry didn't think dead best friends could send e-mails. But when she gets an e-mail from Grace, she’s not so sure.

To: KateLowry@pemberlybrown.edu
Sent: Sun 9/14 11:59 PM
From: GraceLee@pemberlybrown.edu
Subject: (no subject)

Kate,
I'm here…
sort of.
Find Cameron.
He knows.
I shouldn't be writing.
Don't tell.
They'll hurt you.

Now Kate has no choice but to prove once and for all that Grace’s death was more than just a tragic accident. But secrets haunt the halls of her elite private school. Secrets people will do anything to protect. Even if it means getting rid of the girl trying to solve a murder...

This is a book I definitely can't wait until it gets released.