Armchair BEA - Blogging on Blogging

Blog is such a fun word to say. Bloooooog. Blog blog blog blog. It always makes me think of Bob Loblaw's Law Blog on Arrested Development (best TV show ever).


I couldn't find a clip of him talking about his law blog, but you get the idea.

For blogging on blogging day, I'd love to pose the question - what do you look for in a blog? My friend Allison touched on being personal and getting to know the blogger through their posts. But where do you draw the line? I do get somewhat personal on Twitter, but I almost feel as if I can't here. I want to keep things professional because I want publishers to take me seriously. I want them to respect me. I feel that if I start writing about my personal life or my career as a voice actor that I might diminish their view of me as a professional book blogger. I try to let my personality shine through in my reviews. I think it is what makes me stand out as a reviewer and I know it's what I look for when reading reviews - personality. I like to read reviews that have a life of their own and aren't just straightforward critiques.

How do you guys feel about this? What do you look for in a review?

Armchair BEA - Nurturing Blogger Relationships

Like my podcast co-host, Allison of Reading Everywhere, I'm pretty new at this blogging thing. It all started because of my reading addiction and now has become a major part of my day to day activities. I love reading and reviewing books. I'd love to hear how other bloggers got started. I know some of you talked about it in your bios, but I'd love to hear more.

So.. I'd like to spark a discussion on here.
- What is your favorite part of blogging? Are you an ARC addict like me? (I swear, I chant "arc arc arc" on my way to the mailbox everyday and I get excited when I hear the UPS truck! I'm a dork.)
- Do you blog about any genre in particular and why? (For me, I'm addicted to reading YA so that's why I blog about it. It has nothing to do with the YA hype.)
- What do you do to spread the word about your blog? I've tried posting comments on other's blogs when I get time, I do a lot of marketing with Twitter & Google, but I would love to hear how others increase their traffic.
- How do you feel about giveaways? It's something I've been thinking about doing once a month, but I don't know. For now, I'm going to leave that to our podcast.
- Do you work with your local bookstores to promote the books you review?
- Have you ever gotten a negative reaction from an author or publisher?

I cannot wait to see what you guys have to say. I have so much love and respect for my fellow bloggers. :D Let's chat!

Armchair BEA - My top 5 of 2011 (so far!)

So today for Armchair BEA, we're supposed to write about our favorite books that we've read so far in 2011. THIS IS SO HARD. OH MY GOODNESS. I have read so many good books this year! I've cut down the list to just my top 5, in no particular order.

1. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini - my review - I cannot wait for "Starcrossed" to come out next week so I can read it again. I've already purchased a handful of copies for my friends and family. We're also giving away an autographed copy over at AuthorsareROCKSTARS.com. I just love it so much! It's such a fun, cinematic read. I'm an action junkie and Ms. Angelini writes some AH-MAZING action scenes. Plus the romance.. ahh.. so angsty and delicious.

2. The Curse Workers series by Holly Black - my review - Okay. This is technically two books, but I had to include them both. This series is great! It is film noir meets magic. Plus it's YA told from a male character's POV. Love it.

3. The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa - my review - What can I say? I love fairies, I love love triangles, and I love action. This series has it all. Everyone I know who has read it has loved it. If you haven't read it yet, go get a copy right now. The first book in the series is "The Iron King".

4. Across the Universe by Beth Revis - my review - I really enjoyed this book. Science fiction is another one of my favorite genres so "Across the Universe" was on my must read list for 2011. My husband even liked it and he's not a YA fan! It's just that good.

5. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray - my review - this is just so different from anything else I've read this year. It was a lot of fun and had me laughing out loud the entire time.

Gosh!! There are so many more I want to list, but I promised myself I'd limit it to five. So there you go. Let me know what you think about my choices. I'd love to hear from you!

Edit: Also FYI, no E's Pick of the Week this week due to Armchair BEA. :) It'll be back next week!

Armchair BEA - My introduction post

Wow! This is so cool. So for those of you who aren't book bloggers or part of the publishing world, there is this MAJOR event going on this week in NYC called BookExpo America (or BEA for short). Since there are a lot of us that aren't able to attend, some lovely bloggers got together and created "Armchair BEA". They've gotten tons of sponsors, are doing fun giveaways, etc. You can check it all out on their website. What sweet and totally awesome people! I love my fellow bloggers.

Anyways, I'll be participating as much as I can this week. Today's project is to post an introduction about me and this here blog o'mine. :) So here goes! My name is Michelle. I started blogging because I love to write. I'm too scared to write fiction so I just write ABOUT fiction. Hah! I'm addicted to reading. I blame my mother-in-law. She was my elementary school media specialist and she got me hooked! My favorite genre is young adult fiction. It's what I blog about and it's what I read most of the time. I do read some non-fiction (mostly about food and health), but other than that, it's YA. :) I just love the quick pace of young adult fiction. I cannot stand reading books where it is obvious that the author just likes to read his own writing. Boooooooring. You can't pull those kind of stunts in YA. You'll lose your readers. So, it's perfect for someone like me who has limited time, but wants to read as many stories as possible.

As far as some info about me, well, I'm a mom of an almost 2 year old son. Every week, he gets in on the blogging action and chooses a "Pick of the Week". When I'm not reading or spending time with my son, I'm voice acting. It's pretty much the best job ever. I refuse to grow up (hence the name of my blog!) and my job allows me to play pretend for a living. It's amazing. Today, I played two young teen girls for a cartoon audition, a 20 something for a book trailer audition and then a 40 year old woman for a commercial. I love not knowing what tomorrow may bring. It's exciting! Hrmm... what else what else. I like to garden, though I'm still having a hard time adjusting to gardening in SoCal. (I'm originally from Wisconsin.) My husband and I are a bit "hippie dippie". We're very into organic foods and nutrition. I have a semi-active blog with recipes over at TastyBytesCooking.com. OH AND I RUN A SUPER COOL PODCAST with Allison called Authors are ROCKSTARS! and you should go check it out right now. We interview YA authors and share kick butt music!

Okay seriously, enough blabbering about me! So excited to be participating in Armchair BEA! :)