Wishing you and your friends and family a happy holiday!

Recently, Book Wish Foundation reached out to make me aware of a writing contest that I think some of you may be interested in. Or perhaps someone you know might be looking for just this type of scenario.  From their press release:

“Win a literary agent or acclaimed author’s feedback on your unpublished manuscript for young adult or middle grade readers.  This rare opportunity is
being offered to the six winners of an essay contest recently announced by the literacy charity Book Wish Foundation.  See http://bookwish.org/contest for full
details.

You could win a manuscript critique from:

Laura Langlie, literary agent for Meg Cabot
Nancy Gallt, literary agent for Jeanne DuPrau
Brenda Bowen, literary agent and editor of Karen Hesse’s Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust
Ann M. Martin, winner of the Newbery Honor for A Corner of the Universe
Francisco X. Stork, winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for The Last Summer of the Death Warriors
Cynthia Voigt, winner of the Newbery Medal for Dicey’s Song and the Newbery Honor for A Solitary Blue

All that separates you from this prize is a 500-word essay about a short story in Book Wish Foundation’s new anthology, What You Wish For.  Essays are due Feb.
1, 2012 and winners will be announced around Mar. 1, 2012.  If you win, you will  have six months to submit the first 50 pages of your manuscript for critique
(which means you can enter the contest even if you haven’t finished, or started, your manuscript).  You can even enter multiple times, with essays about more
than one of the contest stories, for a chance to win up to six critiques.

If you dream of being a published author, this is an opportunity you should not miss.  To enter, follow the instructions at http://bookwish.org/contest.”

What do you think?  Wanna get on the publishing industry’s radar?  If you do give this a go, it sounds like a good way to get the word out on your work.

Welcome to my inaugural Top Ten Tuesday post.  In case you aren’t aware of what Top Ten Tuesday is I encourage you to hop on over to host The Broke and The Bookish to read up on it.  In summary, it’s a meme where participants are encouraged to make a top ten list based on certain topics and you know how I love me a list of ten!  Honestly, I don’t know that I’ll participate every week.  Most likely, as is the case this week, I’ll create a post around topics I feel I have an actual contribution to make. So keep tuned in!

This week’s prompt is timely.  It’s all about the gift giving.  See, I don’t do an annual buyers/holiday gift guide like many bloggers do.  So this week’s encouragement to create a list of the top ten books I want to give as gifts (and to who…even if you won’t actually give them!) is right up my alley.  I’ll start by saying that these books are gifts that I would give to anyone.  They are books that I strongly encourage you to give to yourself!

1.  The Piper’s Son by Malina Marchetta
Tragedy and romance create the perfect story of a boy and his family dealing with grief and their inability to adapt to the loss of a beloved brother/uncle/son/friend.  Friendship! Romance! Angst!  It’s fantastical in so, SO many ways.  Might even come up as my favorite book read in 2011.  Just sayin’.

2.  The Wolves of Mercy Falls Series by Maggie Stiefvater
Dude, I never thought a book about a girl falling in love with a wolf would be for me.  I balked, BALKED I tell you.  But man, when I say this is one of the best series out there I’m not lying.  Stiefvater’s writing is phenomenal — equal parts heart-warming and heart-wrenching in the best possible way. I would (and hopefully will at some point) read everything this woman has ever written.

3.  Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
This is a book that definitely took me out of my comfort zone.  It’s focus on the love story between a brother and sister should have had a high creep factor (and sure there were moments where it certainly did) but Suzuma wrote it so delicately and with such a level of respect that it was impossible for me not to be completely bowled over by it.

4.  Past Perfect by Leila Sales
When you grow up in New England it’s nearly impossible to have not visited some sort of colonial village or re-enactment community.  So this story hit particularly close to home.  BUT that doesn’t mean that if you haven’t experienced this grade school right of passage you won’t enjoy the book because you totally will.  It is down right fun and has a good moral to the story.  Oh and has loads of wit and personality.

5.  The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
DUH!   ‘Nuff said.

6.  Bumped by Megan McCafferty
An interesting (and satirical) take on sex, abstinence and teen pregnancy.  It’s got a bit of a dystopian vibe but really it’s a thought provoking, witty and entertaining look at a really serious subject.

7.  If I Stay/Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Oh.Em.Gee y’all.  These books are so full of win I can’t possibly put it into words.  Well I guess I can.  Heartbreaking in every imaginable way.  But in the best possible way.  Gah, another story that deals with the aftermath of loss and how to deal with picking up the pieces.  Amazing characters, amazing plot, amazing love story.  It’s definitely one to add to your collection.

8.  Divergent by Veronica Roth
A world where people are categorized into certain factions isn’t the kind of world I’d be particularly fond to live in myself, but experiencing it all vicariously through a strong and empowered girl?  Yea, that’s right up my alley. This one is action packed and filled with a diverse interesting cast of characters.

9.  Graceling/Fire by Kristin Cashore
Get the audiobook versions!  Fantasy is outside of my comfort zone (though I have been reading more of it in the last year) so when books like these pop up in one of my lists it means something.  Fantastic characters, amazing world building and just all around awesome plots allow the reader to enjoy another more fantastical world.

10.  Fixing Delilah by Sara Ockler
More family drama.  I’m sensing an unintended theme in my list, lol.  At any rate even with the drama-rama (mother/daughter discord a plenty along with other familial issues) this book brings there is also a really sweet romance and swoon worthy potential book boyfriend.

I gotta tell you, it’s hard to pick just ten.  And as you can see I kind of skirted the rules a bit because doing the math here I’m actually focusing on fifteen books given several on my list are series.  I just can’t keep away from them!  Not only that, but don’t think this is an exhaustive list because I could add a good ten more.

Which books would you give as gifts?

The Sunday Salon

Good morning!  Another grueling work week is behind us and here we are on, customarily, the day set aside for rest, relaxation and preparation for another go round.  Once again, I know you’re expecting tv recaps but I am still behind on my DVR, heck even more so than before.  So here is what I’ve decided.  I’m going to go on a holiday hiatus with the recapping.  This will give me an opportunity to catch up on episodes and do my best to try and enjoy time with friends and family during the holidays.  I’m sure everyone knows how difficult it is to stay on schedule and routine during this time of the year so easing up on expectations of myself and building in some flexibility is sometimes helpful.

For the rest of the month I’m going to try and read loads of books, catch up on reviews I need to write, do some posts on how this year in reading went for me and get all set up (well as much as possible) for 2012.  I want to go into the new year organized, refreshed and ready for fun.  I want to really look at what my goals are for the coming year and refocus and re-energize where needed.  Again, I want to be more involved in the community and to have fun though participation.

Can you believe it’s already so close to the holidays?  This time is going to go by faster than we all know it!  What are your pre-holiday plans for blogging, routine and whatnot?

Good morning fine friends!  I know you’re probably expecting the usual tv chatter but once again I’m behind on my DVR watching.  Thankfully there were only a few select shows with new episodes this week so it should hopefully be fairly quick to catch up.  That and you all aren’t missing much by my inability to share recaps this week.

In it’s stead I’m gonna gab a little to catch up on other things.  How does that sound?

First, I’m excited to announce I finished up my first List of Ten!  I can say that I found the initial experiment to be quite a success.  Though I didn’t necessarily increase my reading speed (which wasn’t the point) I did minimize the amount of time procrastinating my next read and was able to diversify the stacks.  I have to say I like this method a lot and am encouraged to keep going with it.  As a result here is my new list — also shown in my sidebar:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare – audio
Bunheads by Sophie Flack – ARC
Finnikin of the Rock by Malina Marchetta – backlist
A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker – backlist
The One That I Want by Jennifer Echols – can’t wait to read
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr – ARC
Shine by Lauren Myracle – new release
Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard – ebook
Bitter End by Jennifer Brown – new release
Lament by Maggie Steifvater – series

I’m pleased that this idea has drawn such attention and that it’s encouraging others to possibly trying the same.  I’d love to hear if you’ve found it successful as well.

This week has had me thinking a lot on the status of my blog and what my particular goals are for the coming year.  Some of you may have seen me mention on twitter that I want to make 2012 more fun and that I hope to become more involved in the community again.  Sure, I’m out and about and do involve myself but because of work and other non-blog obligations I’ve been a bit more disconnected.  In 2012 I hope to change that.  Get better about commenting and participating on your blogs, enjoy participating in some of the fun features you all have like Top Ten Tuesday and TGIF.  I even hope to start sooner than later!

Another way to get involved is to take on a few challenges this year.  I’m notoriously bad at follow through, mind you, but I believe 2012 will be the year I turn that around.  Particularly since the three challenges I’m taking on are fantastic.  I strongly encourage you to check out The Story Siren‘s Debut Author Challenge, and Chick Loves Lit‘s Completely Contemp Challenge and Sophomore Reading Challenge.  I know there are a lot of similar challenges out in the blogoshphere and it’s difficult to suss out which is best to join but when I say these are three of the best out there focusing on YA fiction I’m not lying.  Great bloggers running them, fantastic events and prizes associated with them and just all around fun!  Oh, and you can check out my lists on my Challenge Me! page.

OH! A small group of non-blogging friends and I are playing a game with our reading goals in 2012.  Here’s how it’s gonna work. Every person is going to contribute $5 a month into a pot.  We’ve devised a point system.  Then each book read earns points and the person with the highest point value gets the book stipend for the month! Fun right?  I’m totally going to lose every month because I read slow but it does give me additional incentive to read certain books like backlist, challenge and others.

I’ve also stumbled upon (thank you again Twitter!) a new group called The Nerdy Book Club.  It’s a group dedicated to the love of books (children’s lit in particular) and is currently taking nominations for their list of the Best Books of 2011.  Get thee to the form and nominate away!  Speaking of nominations the time where The Cybils shortlists are announced is coming ever closer!  In the beginning of January I will start my duty as a round two judge and will read all of the books on the shortlist so that I can join the other judges on my panel in determining a winner.  I am so honored and thrilled to be participating again this year it’s a fantastic experience that I’m grateful for.

So those are my plans.  What’s on your agenda?