Top 10 Books I’m Looking Forward to in 2012

In no particular order...

1. The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

2. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

3. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

4. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

5. Black Dawn by Rachel Caine

6. Fear by Michael Grant

7. Dreamless by Josephine Angelini

8. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

9. The Selection by Kiera Cass

10. Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

There you go! All of the links lead to Goodreads. :) What books are you most looking forward to in 2012? I'm sure I could have listed... ohhh 1,000 more.

Top 10 Books I’ve Read in 2011

Sorry these are late--I’ve had an awful cold all week. So I’m going to post Days 1-3 today and then get back to the normal schedule tomorrow. For me, these don’t have to be 2011 releases, but I made them books that I’ve read for the first time in 2011. Also, these are in no particular order since there is no way I could have decided on that!

1. Gone by Michael Grant

This was such a good book and I can’t believe I haven’t started the rest of the series yet. I need to change that in 2012.

2. Sean Griswold’s Head by Lindsey Leavitt

I’m sure you’ll see Sean again on my crush list. This was a very, very cute book!

3. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

I can’t wait to finish this series. These books leave me with about 1,000 questions. I also don't know why I never review these. Hm.

4. Lockdown: Escape from Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith

This book was creepy. Super creepy. Awesome.

5. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Ah, I was obsessed with this book! You’ll probably see this on the cover love post as well.

6. The Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard

Two words: Guilty pleasure.

7. Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

I never thought I would like a zombie book, but here you go!

8. Stirred by J.A. Konrath

Obsessed with this series and sad that this is the last one. However, I’m glad it was left open for new spin-offs!

9. Hobin Luckyfeller's Fieldguide: Demoni Vankil by Jaime Buckley

These books are awesome. I also find it interesting that half of my list has male lead characters! Yay!

10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Yay for dystopians! I’ve only read the first two, but I must finish these!

This was really hard. I'm going to come at you with the Top 10 Book Covers in 2011 in a little bit and then finish off the day with the Top 10 Book Boyfriends in 2011! Did any of these make your list? Let me know!

A Transmedia Experience with Michael Grant

You guys should know by now how much I enjoyed Gone by Michael Grant. Well, he has a new series coming out this winter! Super exciting. It’s going to be a whole interactive experience with the readers... which is amazing. Seriously. This is the best time to be alive! Reading is now becoming a social experience and I am so pumped about it. I just had a nerd moment here. Excuse me. Here is the description:

The missing son of a U.N. diplomat... the reemergence of a strange organization... a pair of society twins caught in the middle... this is just the beginning of "Go BZRK," a new transmedia experience from author Michael Grant.


If you're ready to take the plunge in an interactive story like you've never experienced before, visit societytwins.com and register with nexushumanus.com to take your first steps in a strange and compelling universe.


Filled with video, puzzles, community collaboration, and more, "Go BZRK" put YOU the player right in the middle of the action as you join Nexus Humanus and unravel a mystery that may hold the key to the fate of all mankind.

Sounds really fun, right? Now, to give you a better idea, here is a Q and A that was sent to me with the author, Michael Grant.

What is “Go BZRK”? Is this a book or some kind of interactive story? Both. The book comes out this winter, but the interactive part starts now.  One leads up to the other, but they're part of a complete package. 

Why “transmedia”? There are different approaches to transmedia.  Most people take a single story and reproduce it on various platforms.  My philosophy has been to make each element - ARG, app, web, book - a thing unto itself, each revealing some aspect of the world of BZRK.  I've been fascinated with this is as a new way to tell stories.  The book remains central, but now I can reach beyond the book and create a much more complete world.  I can tell stories that enhance the book, and stories that parallel the book, and stories that are offshoots of backstory.  I guess the answer to "why" is "because it's fun." 

Is this the future of publishing? I began a few years ago reaching out to publishers and saying we collectively needed to understand that the old models were dead or dying.  I want publishing to survive, and of course I'd like my own career to thrive.  So Egmont Publishing and my partners and I certainly hope this is a part of the future of publishing.

How long is this running? Is this part of a larger picture? We'll be running this in several chunks between now and the book release this winter. Because these things have a hard start/stop point, August is a ramp-up phase. There'll be a lot of content coming out, but the experience really gets underway at the end of the month… just in time to distract the kids from their schoolwork.  

What if someone wants to follow the story but doesn’t want to participate? You don't have to do anything.  You can do one thing and not another.  But the deeper you plunge the wetter you get.  I think every part of this is fun, I think people will enjoy the ARG, the app, the site and the books. 

App? You've mentioned that a couple times now. Just wait and see. 

What can you tell us about the story? What is “BZRK”? It's a battle for the soul and freedom of the human race carried out simultaneously in the world we know, and in a world that you're not going to expect. It's a world where if you make a false move, you're going to lose your mind. 

Insanity… is this something you have a personal familiarity with?
The line between writer and crazy person is very thin.  Both go around holding long, involved conversations with people who aren't there. 

What’s this other world thing all about? Do you really want spoilers? I'll tell you this. We'll be going "down in the meat." It's going to be vast, bloody, and beautiful. 

Wait… isn’t this supposed to be for kids? Adults like to flatter themselves that kids won't get, won't understand, won't be able to handle, more intense, more complex stories. That's nonsense.  It's the adults who are easy to creep out or scare.  Say the word "biopsy" in a room full of adults. Or "audit."  See?  Easy to scare.  Kids are a tougher audience because kids think they're immortal.

I love his comment about kids being a tougher audience than adults. It’s so true that kids see no end to their lives. I did so many stupid things as a teen. So many.


How cool does this sound? You should totally sign up at the websites! What do you think.. is transmedia something you are excited about?

Gone by Michael Grant Review

Title: Gone (Gone #1)

Author: Michael Grant

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Fantasy

Page Count: 576 pages (575 KB)

Book Type: ebook (Kindle)

Publisher: HarperTeen

ISBN: 9780061448788

ASIN: B0029PBVKM

Picture from Amazon

From Goodreads: In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE.

Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.

It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else...

My Review: The cover for this one is fine. I like the blue color scheme, but it looks as if the people on the cover are older than the almost 14-year olds they are supposed to represent. Perhaps my age calculator is off. They are pretty similar to how I pictured them, though. The tagline, “This is the way the world ends” is pretty interesting and ominous!

This is a long book, but it didn’t feel quite as long as it actually was, which is a good thing. I can’t imagine what I would do if suddenly everyone over the age of 14 disappeared and then people started to develop all kinds of crazy powers. Probably about 75% of people under 14 are not mature enough to handle this. Some of the children find ways to handle this unimaginable scenario they are thrown into and I have a few favorites. Lana had to survive all by herself when everyone went “poof” and I thought that her segments were some of the more interesting ones. Edilio seemed like an all around good guy and I really started to care for him. Edilio is faithful and genuinely nice. Sam and Astrid are also among my favorites. There are a lot of characters, but as a reader, you really do get to know the majority of them. 

Just like with Lord of the Flies, there are power struggles and fights throughout the book. Some people are forced into a power position while, on the other hand, some people want to forcefully take the power positions away from others. This book has a little bit of everything: science fiction, fantasy, romance, action and so much more. I found it really nice that Gone switched points of view. A nearly 600 page book could get monotonous with a single narrator, but this one stayed fresh. I am very excited to read the rest of this series and the fourth one, Plague, was just released April 5. 

Have you read this series yet? Which is your favorite in the series?