Waiting On Wednesday #28

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -

The Testing - Joelle Charbonneau @Twitter
ISBN UK - 9781848776531
          US - 9780547959108
Publisher UK - Templar Publishing
                US - Houghton Mifflin Books For Children
Expected release date UK - August 1st 2013
                                    US - Out now!
Find - Book Depository/Goodreads

'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Isn’t that what they say? But how close is too close when they may be one in the same?

The Seven Stages War left much of the planet a charred wasteland. The future belongs to the next generation’s chosen few who must rebuild it. But to enter this elite group, candidates must first pass The Testing—their one chance at a college education and a rewarding career.

Cia Vale is honored to be chosen as a Testing candidate; eager to prove her worthiness as a University student and future leader of the United Commonwealth. But on the eve of her departure, her father’s advice hints at a darker side to her upcoming studies--trust no one.

But surely she can trust Tomas, her handsome childhood friend who offers an alliance? Tomas, who seems to care more about her with the passing of every grueling (and deadly) day of the Testing. To survive, Cia must choose: love without truth or life without trust.' - Goodreads

This is a) a kind of cheating WoW because although I really, really couldn't wait to read it I do now have an ARC of The Testing kindly sent to me by the UK publisher and b) more of a UK WoW because The Testing came out in the US yesterday! The picture above is the UK cover, the one below is the US cover, not sure which one I prefer as they're both good covers...

 
What are you waiting for this week?

Random Reads #1

Random Reads is a monthly meme hosted by Sarah at I’m Loving Books.  This feature is to get us reading a random book within the month that is in our TBR stack.

So, this is a new monthly meme I've been seeing on quite a few blogs and finally decided to take part in! My Goodreads 'to-read' list is currently hovering around 640 books, that's 640 unread books in my house that I own... Let's not even talk about my Goodreads wishlist which is at over 1300 books as of today. I am doing the Off The Shelf Challenge too (and failing miserably) but thought that this might actually get me picking up books I already own! Wishful thinking? Maybe...

Random Reads is a meme where we pick a random book from our shelf to read within the month. Feel free to do more than one per month, but since a lot of people have a lot of books to read each month, only one is “required” for the meme.

Want to join in on Random Reads?


It’s easy…

1. If you’re on Goodreads enable sorting to your to-read shelf (you should see numbers next to each book now).
2. Go to Random.org and type in the Min as 1 and the Max as how many ever books are on your to-read shelf.
3. Scroll down to the book matching the number Random.org picks.
4. Link up to your Random Reads post (below). If you choose more than one book per month, be sure to put a number by your name in the list so it doesn’t look like a duplicate.
5. Read and be merry!

Random chose number 567 for me which turned out to be -

Full Blooded - Amanda Carlson

This has only been on my 'to-read' pile since March 29th this year so it won't count for the OTS challenge but hey, it's one less book to read! Werewolves here we come...

Top Ten Tuesday #10

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely people at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is -

Top Ten Books Featuring Travel In Some Way

This one stumped me for a while but then I started thinking - travel, journey, time travel! So this is a top ten of books I've read involving (time) travel.

A Wrinkle In Time - Madeleine L'Engle

The Emerald Atlas - John Stephens

The Map Of Time - Felix Palma

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs

Obsidian Mirror - Catherine Fisher

The Man From Primrose Lane - James Renner

A Traveller In Time - Alison Uttley

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Outlander - Diana Gabaldon

The Sterkarm Handshake - Susan Price

Best Book Ever Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Best Books Ever Giveaway co-hosted by The Best Books Ever and I Am A Reader Not A Writer! One winner will get to choose a book from these lists over on The Best Books Ever - fairies, vampires, dragons, werewolves, fairy tales, steampunk or dystopian - as long as the book is available from the Book Depository and you live in a country that they ship to. To enter, simply follow the instructions in the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The hop runs until 12.01am on June 11th! Check out all of the other blogs taking part for more chances to win! Thanks for entering and good luck!

Reading RoundUp #24

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

An amazing week in terms of books and signings but an awful one in terms of reading... This is what I've read over the last seven days -

That's right... Zero, zip, nada, nothing, null and any other word for zero! I had an excuse while I was away, hard to read with twins poking you every five seconds but since I've been back I haven't so much as looked at a book. My excuse? The sun has finally decided to shine in the UK so I've been poddling about in my dad's garden trying to keep the place looking decent, he is not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination and my mum always did everything out there. Hopefully she'd be pleased with what I've been doing...

To Definitely Read/Finish This Week

The Crimson Shard - Teresa Flavin

Hysteria - Megan Miranda

A Ranger's Tale - Mysti Parker

To Start This Week

A Kiss At Midnight - Eloisa James

Working Stiff - Rachel Caine

NOS-4R2 - Joe Hill

I've got half-written reviews of The Testing, Don't Look Back, Witchstruck and Dead Ever After so I'm hoping to get at least a couple of those up this week and get the giveaway for Dead Ever After Started!

What have you been reading recently?

The One Where I Turn Into A Fangirl

So, this is where I was on Wednesday! And yes, those are Christmas trees on the table... Along with my very uninterested sister and two fractious toddlers I joined the queue of fans waiting to meet Joe Hill who is Stephen King's son for those who don't know and/or aren't fans. I've been a fan since 2007 when I read 20th Century Ghosts - a collection of short stories, and Heart-Shaped Box. I've also read Horns, which you should read soon if you haven't as they've made it into a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple, and the first three Locke & Key graphic novels illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez.

This event was for the release of NOS4R2 and Joe was doing a few events/signings around the UK, naturally I had to go as soon as I found out he was going to be in Reading! We were already in the bookstore as we had plans to buy books for the twins so lucky for me, I was third in the queue which was soon out the door. The lovely people who work there had this cookie made for Joe and he was kind enough to share it with everyone, he personally handed over chunks to F & E and automatically became their new best friend - although they're still not sure about the beard!

I got all my books signed, with an illustration in NOS4R2 and a little heart in Heart-Shaped Box but I wish I'd been able to get my graphic novels signed - unfortunately I couldn't carry any more but c'est la vie! Joe was absolutely lovely, really genuine, very sweet and one of the best author signings I've been to! I walked away with my author crush intact and I'd like to thank my sister for pointing out (in earshot of Joe) that I was a lovely shade of red and wasn't he cute!

If you follow Jon Weir on Twitter he took a picture of the queue which happens to feature the four of us quite prominently, I'm not linking the pic as it's awful but if you can find it that's your reward ;)

Roll on Friday June 14th for my next reading/talk/signing with the amazing Neil Gaiman!

Book Haul #27

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews and Letterbox Love is a UK edition hosted by Narratively Speaking. Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

I go nowhere near a bookshop, have no internet access or don't take much cash out with me and I still manage to buy books! There really is no hope for me...

Bought

The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes

Hero's Guide To Saving Your Kingdom - Christopher Healy

The City's Son - Tom Pollock

NOS-4R2 - Joe Hill

Envy - J R Ward

Rapture - J R Ward

Whispers Under Ground - Ben Aaronovitch

Mammoth Book Of Angels & Demons - ed. Paula Guran

Poison Heart - S B Hayes

For Review

Acid - Emma Pass

More on the Joe Hill book tomorrow, there's a whole post behind that one! I'm so glad I got Acid as it's been on my wishlist since I first heard about it and Poison Heart is the book I meant to buy last week but bought Don't Look Back instead...

What did you get this week?