Tag: personal

• Goodreads Choice Awards 2012

  Posted at 10:08 am by Laura, on October 29, 2012

  It’s that time of year! Goodreads will be hosting the annual Goodreads Choice Awards starting Tuesday, October 30.

  The Categories

  Fifteen books will be nominated in twenty categories, which include Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Romance, Memoir & Autobiography, History & Biography, Nonfiction, Food & Cookbooks, Humor, Graphic Novels & Comics, Poetry, Young Adult Fiction, Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction, Middle Grade & Children’s Books, Picture Books, and Goodreads Author.

  The Voting Rounds

  1. Round One — October 30 – November 11 — Voting will be open to the fifteen books across the twenty categories, as well as write-in votes.
  2. Round Two — November 12 – November 18 — The top five write-in votes will join the original fifteen, making 20 options across 20 categories. Additional write-ins no longer accepted.
  3. Round Three — November 19 – November 27 — Slashed in half, voters will choose from ten books across twenty categories. Make your vote count!

  Winners will be announced December 4.

  Which Books I Predict Will Be Nominated

  I’m not a prolific reader, but I’m basing my predictions (in a handful of categories) for the nominations based on what I enjoyed and what I saw, as a bookseller, flying off the shelves.

  1. Fiction: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
  2. Romance: Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (I really don’t want this to happen, but I predict it will)
  3. Memoir & Autobiography: No Easy Day by Mark Owen
  4. Young Adult Fiction: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
  5. Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction: City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare
  6. Middle Grade & Children’s Books: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

  Log on tomorrow and start voting!!!

  Which books do you hope to see? Which books do you predict will be nominated?

  Posted in books, Update Post | 2 Comments | Tagged awards, goodreads, personal

• Byron Treasure Found — The Independent

  Posted at 9:19 am by Laura, on October 29, 2012

  Byron treasure found in gift to used bookshop — The Independent — Paul Gallagher

  Now a donation to the second-hand bookshop at Harewood House, in Yorkshire, has provided a unique insight into the Leigh family history and Augusta’s place in one of the biggest scandals to rock Georgian society. Although condemned to poverty for the last 33 years of her life, Augusta, the only daughter of Amelia Osborne and John “Mad Jack” Byron, the poet’s father, retained a passion for reading. Her rediscovered literary treasures, inscribed by Augusta and members of her family, belonged to a woman in her 80s who had had them for 40 years without realising their provenance. She acquired the books with a London house in the 1970s Ω the bookshelves were too large to move, so the seller left them, and their contents, behind.

  Volunteers at the bookshop were intrigued by an inscription in The Literary Life and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington, reading: “Augusta Leigh, St James’ Palace.”

  “That raised my eyebrows,” said Audrey Kingsnorth, the Harewood volunteer who led the research. “I had no idea who Augusta was… That’s when I started looking into the family and saw the [Byron] connection.”

  I think the funny part is that the donor was so excited about what the volunteers told her that she donated more rare books (Lilliputian books, small volumes to show off printers’ ability).

  Posted in books, Link, Update Post | 0 Comments | Tagged authors, books, genre: classics, genre: gothic, genre: poetry, history, news, personal

• Blogger Update: Grad School & Future

  Posted at 7:30 pm by Laura, on September 22, 2012

  As you may have noticed, it’s been a bit quiet on this blog. There are several reasons why, but it all boils down to graduate school.

  Graduate School

  I thoroughly enjoy all of my classes and love meeting new people. With a full-time position as a bookseller, 10 hours per week as a graduate assistant, and three classes, I’m barely making it out of each week in a calm and relaxed state. The time management and scheduling has been hectic. I’m in no way complaining — I like feeling busy — but it’s the only excuse I have for neglecting updating you on publishing news (if that’s what you’re even here for).

  Future of This Blog

  Now, to explain my earlier snarky comment “if that’s what you’re even here for”: With each passing hour in class, I’m realizing more and more how naïve I’ve been about the publishing industry and the news I’ve provided. This is great, though! I may have posted the wrong things, or paid attention to minor details, what have you — but this blog was intended as a learning experiment and it’s working! As such, I will be posting less and less on the publishing news until I’ve gotten the hang of the lingo and what is going on in the industry today. I feel that, as an inexperienced person, it’s best if I stand back a bit and observe more before I dive right in.

  However, I still fully intend to write book reviews. You may notice a change in the writing style for that as well, depending on what I’m learning and what I’ve noticed other reviewers do. My reviews and Upcoming Books posts will remain constant. It’s the publishing content that will be on the back-burner until further notice.

  Please bear with me as I immerse myself into this new experience! In the meantime, happy autumn! Enjoy a nice hot drink, snuggle under a blanket, and read to your heart’s content!

  Posted in Update Post | 0 Comments | Tagged books, personal, publishing

• Exciting new ARC opportunity!

  Posted at 7:04 pm by Laura, on September 8, 2012

  An ARC (Advance Reading Copy) is a book that publishers send to their employees, reviewers, bloggers, and booksellers to read, review, and send feedback. It helps to boost sales, promote awareness, and even help catch some last-minute errors before publication.

  I was able to get my hands on a DRC (Digital Reading Copy) of Kate Morton’s upcoming novel The Secret Keeper through Edelweiss. One of my managers at work knew I loved Victorian, Gothic, and neo-Victorian/Gothic literature, and had actually requested an ARC of The Secret Keeper for me! She was kind enough to let me have it!

  1959 England. Laurel Nicolson is sixteen years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.

  Fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress, living in London. She returns to Green Acres for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday and finds herself overwhelmed by memories and questions she has not thought about for decades. She decides to find out the truth about the events of that summer day and lay to rest her own feelings of guilt. One photograph, of her mother and a woman Laurel has never met, called Vivian, is her first clue.

  The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams, the lengths some people go to fulfill them, and the strange consequences they sometimes have. It is a story of lovers, friends, dreamers and schemers, play-acting and deception told against a backdrop of events that changed the world.

  Expected publication: October 9th. Atria. Hardcover. 480 pages.

  Posted in books, Update Post | 3 Comments | Tagged ARC, books, personal

• 

• Hello, I’m Laura!

  I'm a bookish bookworm and book hoarder. By day I'm a literary agent, and by night I'm forever rearranging my bookshelves. I could talk your ear off about Gothic literature, and in my past life people thought I'd become a professional musician. I have a fluffy black cat named Rossetti, I love to travel, tea is my drink of choice, British TV is the best, and I'm always down for chips-and-queso nights. Welcome to Scribbles & Wanderlust! Grab your favorite hot beverage and let's chat books!

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