The holidays are coming up, and I'm FINALLY shaking off this cold enough to read. I'm planning on making a last-ditch attempt at getting close to my goal (holiday read-a-thon, anyone?). I know I probably won't meet it, but I'm going to try and get closer than 57% at least.

I have a ton of great books to read, but no idea which ones to read first! Luckily, I don't have to choose! The content on Squeaky Books is driven by YOU! This is where you come in. Would you mind taking a look at the books on my review pile below, and then voting for which ones I should read? You can vote for as many books as you'd like! I will read them in the order of votes they get. Good? Hurrah!

Enna Isilee (Squeaky Books)'s favorite books »

Here's the poll! (Psst! You can't see this in feed readers!)
VOTE FOR AS MANY BOOKS AS YOU WANT!

Guess what, guys. I have discovered something. It's something that's been around forever, but it's taken me a long time to get around to it:

Graphic Novels.

I have a friend who LOVES to read graphic novels, and she's been letting me borrow some of hers. I LOVE THEM! So far I've read The Five Fists of Science, Green Arrow: Year One, and I'm partway through Watchmen (which so far is pretty okay in terms of "graphic" content).

BUT I NEED MORE! Since this territory is unfamiliar to me, I'd love it if any of you have any suggestions on what to read. So far I've only read sci-fi/super-hero GNs, but I don't know if that's all that I like. So suggest any and all things!

Keep in mind that I cannot read manga. As in, I literally can't. I've tried the whole "reading backwards" thing and I always end up getting jumbled. I wish I could read manga because I love anime, but... my brain doesn't work that way.

So I'm begging you:


Thank you, squeakers and friends!

This is my 1,000th post. I wanted it to be awesome. I wanted it to be memorable, but not corny; give all my readers a million dollars, but not go into debt; funny, but not insincere, etc. etc.

I don't know how to do any of that.

So for my 1,000th post, I'm just going to say: thank you. Thank you to everyone who has been with Squeaky Books for the last five years. Thank you to those of you who only recently discovered it. Thank you to those of you who only came by once and never came back again. Thank you to my friends that I have made on the internet, and thank you to those friends who turned into friends in the "real" world.

Thank you to the publishers. Where would the authors be without you? Thank you to the authors. Where would the readers be without you? I know where I would be, and it isn't good.

Thank you to Twitter. You always are sure that I never have too much spare time. Thank you to audiobooks, without whom I would go insane. No thanks to Facebook, who blocked me as a spammer after just one day of liking my friends' pages.

Thank you to people who read. After going to college I have found that you are in the minority. And thank you to people who read YA with pride. Thank you to people who can disagree respectfully. Thank you to people who can agree enthusiastically. Thank you to people who share their books, I want to be as generous as you someday.

And thank you to dogs. Just 'cause I like them.

First of all, sorry for the lack of posting. Spring term is kicking my trash! I'm just managing to keep my feet under me. I hope to get some posts scheduled soon, though.

Now on to the REAL purpose of this post!

The Short Story: I need good adult fiction and non-fiction recommendations

The Long Story: A few weeks ago I applied for a "promotion" at the library I work at. I wanted to move from a page (someone who reshelves books) to an assistant librarian (someone who either helps people check out, or helps people with recommendations/research projects, etc.). Unfortunately, I didn't get the job. HOWEVER, my boss informed me that the reason I didn't get it is because I didn't quite have the broad spectrum of reading tastes as they were looking for. This totally makes sense. I only read YA fiction/fantasy. She encouraged me to expand my horizons, and then apply again when there was an opening. I intend to take the challenge!

That's where you come in.

I'm an expert in all things YA, but a total novice in things adult and non-fiction. Help! Do you know a great adult fiction or non-fiction book I should read? Please fill out the form! I'm open to any and all suggestions so long as they fit my content standards (no unnecessary profanity or vivid sexual scenes).

Thank you! I'm really looking forward to reading the books you guys recommend! (After I have time to read again, that is! Yeesh. At least Spring term is only 6 weeks long.)

It's that time of year again! The time where I ask my readers to help me make my site better! And I'm going to bribe you with the following prizes:


There are a LOT of questions, and EVERY ONE is required. But it will really help me out. Seriously guys. I will love you forever. The survey is ANONYMOUS. If you want to win the prize you have to fill out the survey and then the confirmation will give a link to a DIFFERENT form to enter to win. Understand? Feel free to ask questions in the comments, and...


Also, please note that since the survey is anonymous I won't be able to disqualify you if you just put jibberish into the different boxes or n/a or - or something. But that really isn't helpful to me. I know the survey is exhaustive. I feel like something has been off/wrong with Squeaky Books for a while, and I can't figure out what it is. I really need your help.

All right, I know I said that I'd have March releases up today, but... I'm having trouble finding them. The only ones I can find that are really standing out to me are The Savage Grace, Grave Mercy, and A Temptation of Angels. Everything else seems kind of blah (too much romance or contemporary). What do you think?


Thoughts?

WOW! I got a lot more questions than I expected. I've sorted them into four categories: Blogging, Reading, Personal, and Writing. Sorry that I have a tendancy to be long winded. But this was such fun!

• To be honest, I wish I could tell you that I don’t remember. But I do. The reason I become a book blogger was to get free books. Which is COMPLETELY THE WRONG REASON. You’ll see in a later question that getting free books is HARD and UNPREDICTABLE. What’s more important is why I chose to STAY a book-blogger. If I wasn’t a book-blogger, I probably wouldn’t read half as much as I do. I’m not very good at internal motivation. But if I know someone, somewhere wants to read my review, then I’m going to read more. Also, reviewing helps me organize my thoughts and remember how I felt about a book long after I’ve finished.

How did you make your blog so well known?

• “Well known” is a relative term. I still think this same thing about many other blogs. The simple answer is networking. Get to know other bloggers, host multi-blog contests, and just be persistent. It didn’t happen overnight. I was blogging for about 2 years before people actually started to notice me. A pretty blog design helps. *wink*

Who volunteered to sponsor your international contests? I mean, I don't want to know the person's name, but how it happened and how you know them and stuff.  I assume someone didn't just come up to you on the street... :)

• Actually… that’s kind of how it happened. Of course, it wasn’t a stranger. That would be crazy. I can’t say much for fear of giving away HER secret identity, but my international contest “sponsor” isn’t really a sponsor. I still pay for the books. But instead of ME buying them from the Book Depository, I pay HER and then SHE buys them. That way her name is on the packages instead of mine, thus protecting my secret identity. She’s someone I’ve known… forever, really. And not on the internet, in real life. And she has always been very supportive of my blog ‘cause she’s a fellow bibliophile. And… that’s the whole story.

How do you get ARCs? Every time I ask a blogger I get vague answers. "There's lots of different ways..." What ways do YOU know of? Especially getting ARCs in the mail.  That one seems the most mysterious to me.  A step by step process of your experience would be immensely helpful to me.

• Oh boy. I asked this question a MILLION times when I first started blogging, and the sad fact is that it’s really vague. But I’m going to be as specific as I can here. I can’t tell you how EVERYONE gets ARCs, but I will tell you the various ways I get mine:
• The #1 way I get ARCs is from TOURS. Namely, Around the World Tours. I don’t get to keep them, but I do get to read them pretty far in advance. Any blogger who meets the requirements can join tours.
• #2 The next most lucrative way is through Amazon Vine. This is Amazon.com’s reviewer program. Every month they send out a list of things and you can choose 4. They usually have some big-name books as well as smaller ones. Vine is invitation only. I found out about vine about 3 years ago and have just been DROOLING to get in ever since. People gave me tips, but nothing worked. I couldn’t get that stupid invite! Fast forward 3 years. This summer I got an invite. Just out of the blue. It might be because e have Amazon Prime. It might be because I post reviews on Amazon. It might be because I buy a TON of books through Amazon. Or all of the above. I don’t know! I really don’t!
• #3 The next way I get books is directly from publishers. I’m currently on the mailing list for Bloomsbury, Macmillan, and Tor. By mailing list I mean THEY send ME lists of books sometimes and let me choose what I want. How did this happen? I’m not entirely sure… I know Bloomsbury heard of me because I always sent them requests for Shannon Hale’s books, and I’m kind of a Hale super-fan. I was part of Macmillan’s “In Group” back when it still existed, and when it went away I guess I stayed on their list. Tor just randomly sent me an e-mail one day and asked if I’d like to be on their mailing list.
• #4 DUMB LUCK. In case it isn’t clear that most of this is dumb luck anyway, I’ll say it again. It’s DUMB LUCK. Some of my ARCs I get because I’m lucky enough to actually know the authors. Sometimes, though, they really do just show up. When A Million Suns showed up I TOTALLY wasn’t expecting it. Sometimes Candlewick just surprises me with books in the mail (which is awesome. I love everything from Candlewick). I’ve never gotten a Harper book for review from Harper. Never.
• So what’s my advice? BE LOUD. Tweet your reviews and include the publisher’s tag. E-mail them your reviews (do this for at least a few MONTHS before you request books). And then cross your fingers. Do I tweet at publishers? Nope. Do I e-mail them? Nope. But remember that it’s taken me over FOUR YEARS to get where I am. If you want to speed up the process, BE LOUD.
• But my even BETTER advice is to be happy with just blogging. If the only thing making you blog is getting ARCs, you should just stop now. You’re gonna end up being super-jealous of everybody all the time, and jealousy does not breed happiness. Just saying.

Do you ever give away the ARC's you get once you've read them? I've always wanted to have one, even if it's super old.

• Usually if I LIKED a book then I keep the ARC and don’t buy a finished copy. If I LOVED the book then I keep the ARC and buy a finished copy. But if I DON’T LIKE a book then things get hairy. I have a policy where I don’t ever give away anything I wouldn’t want to win. It drives me NUTSO when there are those blogs who have a MILLION contests but all they give away is crap they don’t want. If I’m going to hold a contest, it’s going to be for something that I think is worth winning. This usually means that I host all of my contests. I can’t remember the last contest I had that was publisher-hosted. So, I have a bunch of ARCs that I don’t want, but I don’t give them away. When they really build up then I usually put them up for trade or “pay shipping and it’s yours” or give away a “box of ARCs.” Some of my ARCs, though (like the ones I get from Amazon Vine) cannot be traded or given away. Either I have to keep them, or I have to destroy them. It’s in the Vine agreement. Kinda annoying.

I've always wanted to know what was the thing you had with bad language in books.

• I’ve talked about this before. The simple answer is that it just bothers me. Plain and simple. Call it a pet peeve. I grew up being told that profanity is what people used when they weren’t smart enough to fully express themselves. (I know that’s kind of extreme and not entirely true, but that’s what you get for growing up around a bunch of public schoolteachers). (You also asked about A Touch Mortal. To be honest, I can’t even remember what it was about. So sorry. Can’t answer you!)

How many hours per week do you spend reading YA novels?

• This is a hard question because it totally depends on the week. Do I have a test this week? Any required reading? Did a new Zelda game just come out? Are my friends in town? Am I in a reading slump? If you were to average my total reading throughout the year, then I read about 7 hours a week. But that’s an average. If you’re a math person you know that averages are not always super-reliable. The median is probably closer to… 12? In the summer I can read up to 20-30 hours a week.

Have you ever read any adult novels that you like, or do you ONLY like YA novels? (If you do like any adult novels, please list them! We'd like to know!)

• Um… usually I read adult books on accident (as in, I thought they were YA). Technically Maria V. Snyder’s books are adult books, and I love those. I also love Shannon Hale’s adult books. But… I think that’s it. I just think that YA novels are usually much more interesting, and they have less questionable content on average (in my brain at least), and they usually aren’t as preachy or fluffy. But this is coming from someone who has almost no experience with adult lit. I still don’t really consider myself an adult.

What's the most overrated YA book you've ever read? By that I mean: is there a book that everyone and their brother raved about, couldn't gush enough about, etc....but you didn't like it?

• Hm… I’m going to briefly mention Twilight, only because I read it before it was cool. I read it only a few months after it came out after the insistence of all my friends and neighbors and I thought it was SUPER lame. But, for a more modern example? Um… there are loads. I’ll just list some of them: Criss Cross, The Scorpio Races, Carrier of the Mark, The Replacement, Crown Duel (which I liked, but everyone promised me I’d LOVE).

What book from 2011 surprised you the most? By that I mean perhaps you thought you'd dislike it but wound up truly loving it.

• Aha! An easy question! Blood Red Road. I didn’t even really want it, but Amazon offered it to me and I wasn’t gonna say no to a free book. Then I got it and saw that it was HUGE and without quotation marks AND written phonetically and I was like “NOOOOOO!!!!!!” It ended up being my favorite book of 2011.

I love the fairy tale type of books. I also hate ANY profanity or sex scenes at all. What book like that is your absolute favorite that you would recommend?

• If you’re looking for totally clean, and AMAZING books then you must read Shannon Hale’s books (though Book of a Thousand Days and Enna Burning do have very, very slight nudity[and they tie for my favorite book of all time]). Others would be Heather Tomlinson’s books, The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott (but if you’re that sensitive then avoid Shadows on the Moon), Beauty by Robin McKinley, Sun & Moon, Ice & Snow by Jessica Day George, Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, and… oh. I could go on for hours.

If you owned only copy of your all time favorite book left in the world and someone came up to you offering you ten thousand dollars for it, would you sell it?

• WHAT KIND OF TERRORIST ARE YOU!? This is hard for me to imagine because I have about 6 copies each of my favorite books (Book of a Thousand Days and Enna Burning). To be honest… I’d probably find some way to contact Shannon. I do know someone who can contact her directly. :) Maybe if I gave Shannon $5,000 then she could write me a new one.

Thoughts on Mockingjay?

• All I’ve ever said and all I’m ever going to say is that it was a necessary evil. She couldn’t make everyone happy, so she decided to make no one happy, and it kinda worked. In a crappy, necessary-evil way.

• Ugh. Hard. I’m not very good at it. My problem is that I always let reading suffer the most. If I have a ton of homework, then I feel like I can’t read for pleasure, but I don’t want to do my homework, so I’ll waste time online or something. I need to be better than that.

Are you going to see the Austenland movie?

• Nah. It sounds super-lame. I mean, Keri Russell? Fer real? Psh. She’s not in ANYTHING. And she’s certainly not in Waitress which is certainly not my FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME. And Shannon Hale isn’t all that great. I mean, it’s not like she’s my favorite author and actually co-wrote the screenplay or anything. What kind of question is this? *wink*

What size are your feet?

• This is actually a crazy story. My feet USED to be a size 9, but now I can wear as low as a size 7 and prefer and 8. What’s up with that?!

What are some of your favorite movies?

• My favorite movie of all time is Waitress with Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion. I also love Baby Mama, anything by Hayao Miyazaki, Jean De Florette, and Inception. Let’s see… am I missing anything big? I don’t think so.

Do you like proofs?

• NO! BIG FAT NO! For one thing, no one actually does proof like it’s meant to be done! For another, at my school the proofs professors are all codgerly old men who love math more than people and are very nice but have no idea how to teach it. It’s hard to love proofs when you don’t know what you’re proving.

What is one unusual trait you would like to find in a husband?

• I’ve been musing over this one ALL DAY. Unusual trait? He has to be tall enough so I can wear heels (Thank you Shannon Hale for making me realize how important this was). I’m not a big fan of freckles. He has to care about how he looks, but not be vain. And, oh yeah, he has to EXIST. That’s pretty unusual for me.

What classes are you taking this semester?

• Mathematical task design (I love this class already, seriously), Theoretical Literary Analysis (everything I hate about English in one class. Blah!), multicultural education, theatre teaching strategies, a religion class, and… one other that starts in second block. I can’t remember. My last semester was so crazy, and I’m taking spring semester classes this year, so this semester is pretty light.

How did that job at the library work out? Are you still stocking shelves or are you a librarian?

• I’ve never wanted to be a librarian (well, not professionally). I’m technically still employed at the library, but when school got to be too crazy I went from part-time to on-call. So they only call me in if they need me.

You've said that you're a Christian, but I was wondering what type and how much does it play into what you will and will not read?

• I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I don’t mention this specifically very often because I don’t feel like it’s very important to my blog. It doesn’t matter what religion I am or you are if you read my blog. And does it play into what I will and will not read? Um… not directly. I’ve NEVER said “I won’t read this because my religion tells me not to.” That’s a silly thing to say. I also don’t read LDS fiction because it’s usually so cheesy I want to gag.
• However, my religion has definitely affected my life and my life affects what I read. For example, I don’t hate swearing because Mormons don’t swear (and sometimes we do. Hey! We aren’t perfect!). I hate swearing because I was raised to believe that profanity is what people used when they weren’t smart enough to fully express themselves. I don’t like explicit sex in books because I think that intercourse is a very private act. Do I still read books with pre-martial sex? Absolutely! You can’t escape it. And I’m not naïve enough to think that grit doesn’t exist in the real world. I have no problem reading books with witchcraft or devils, BECAUSE IT’S FICTION. Silly goose. But I know some people do, and that’s fine!
• I don’t believe in “blind faith.” I think that you should always find the truth for yourself. If my religion has an effect on what I read, it’s because I really believe in what it tells me. Not just because it tells it to me.

Are you ever going to write a book? I'd love to read it when you do!
Have you ever tried to write a book?
Have you ever written a book? If so, would you ever consider publishing it or sharing it? If not, would you ever consider writing a book?

• When I was in high school I KNEW I wanted to be an author when I grew up. I idolized them. They were my heroes. And they still are. But writing… has become less important to me. I don’t “write” per say, but I do have a TON of ideas. My longest attempt at a novel before I stopped ended up around 20,000 words. I’ve already mentioned that I have a hard time with internal motivation. If I had a critique group, I could probably write a book. Because I would know that there were people counting on me to keep writing. But I don’t know how to find a good critique group, and as I am now, I just don’t have the motivation. There is something I want to be more than a writer, and that’s a teacher. I’m working toward that goal right now. But writing might happen someday.

WOW! That was FUN! I've gotta do this more often. I LOVE talking about myself! And this was a great writing exercise. Excuse me while I go find a quiet place to pop my ego.

I found it! Thanks to your suggestions I was able to find it through GoodReads. Here it is:


I'm so excited to be reunited with this book. Now I have to go track it down. To the library!

I have a question for y'all. And I'm REALLY interested in your answers. Want to know if I'm weird.

Some of you know that I've REALLY been wanting to make Squeaky Books bookmarks. However, Living Social has a deal (expires soon!) where you can get $50 to VistaPrint for only $10. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE. VistaPrint doesn't do bookmarks, but since this is such a fab deal, I'm willing to switch to business cards. Those are like mini-bookmarks, right? But before I print a bajillion cards, I'd like to get your opinion on them. So here they are, click to enlarge:


What do you think? I know the quote is really tiny. If the print quality is good enough it SHOULD still be readable, though.

Also, I can't decide which business card holder to get. What say you?

Being sick TOTALLY put me in a reading slump. I just have no drive to read. And so, I need your help. I've created a poll where YOU can decide what I read next. I'm not sure if it's too early to read some of these (like Divergent & Wolfsbane) but if you guys want to see a review now, then I'll read them now. Please vote! I honestly don't think I can choose without you. Here's the poll: (p.s. Those of you in feed readers can SEE the poll, but not vote. I just discovered this. Sorry.)

What should I read next?

• The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancy
  
• Divergent, Veronica Roth
  
• Wolfsbane, Andrea Cremer
  
• Fire, by Kristin Cashore
  
• A Conspiracy of Kings, by Megan Whalen Turner
  

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Thank you!

Now the majority of this post is going to be for my benefit, as I'm going to be reporting the results of the survey. If you just want to see who won, go ahead and scroll down to the bottom. But if you're interested, feel free to check out my charts!




Age of Squeaky Readers

How interesting that well over 50% of my readers are 18-35. I read for young adults, which I've always equated with teens, and yet the majority of my readers are NOT teens. I'm cool with that, though. Since I fall into that 18-35 category and yet I prefer YA. If you guys are reading, I don't really care WHAT age you are! And I know that my parents wouldn't have been too thrilled with me going on the Internet to blog-hop when I was 13-ish.

How many books do you read per year?

How do you attain your books?



What do you want to see LESS of on Squeaky Books?


One last chart for you. Here's the distribution of what books people would like to win. I'm not very surprised since there seems to be a correlation between when the book was released, and how many people want to win it.

Which book would you like if you win?


And the winner is...



And she chose Across the Universe.


Thanks so much to everyone who filled out the survey. It was really helpful. Is it going to drastically change the way things are done here? No. But I will keep it in mind.

Have a great weekend!