Two More Chances to Win a Copy of REQUIEM!

OMG DOES THIS BOOK COME
IN SUPER-LARGE PRINT?!!!!

Need one more chance to win one of our beautiful copies of Lauren Oliver's Requiem before it's released? Lucky you - we'll give you TWO*.

The trivia questions on this blog and on our facebook page have been answered - congrats to Mariah at Wylie East for answering the question here on the blog! If you didn't win, don't worry - we still have two more copies of Requiem to give away! Details:

• Two websites, two more questions: Check out our tumblr* for the next question, then go to our figment page on Friday for the last question
• Two ways to answer: come to the teen room at the library and answer in person OR leave a comment with your answer online on the site where the specific question you are answering is posted
• The first person to answer one of the remaining questions correctly wins!  Pick up your book at SPL in the teen room.

I think the question on tumblr is going up SOON - and there is no shame is sitting at your computer, constantly hitting the "refresh" button until it's posted.  

Annnddd don't forget to come meet Lauren Oliver here at SPL on Monday, March 11th, 3:30pm, BAM.

*UPDATE AGAIN!:
The trivia question on our tumblr has already been answered and the book has been claimed (by someone in Canadawhat?! Wow!).  There just one chance to win a copy of Requiem left!  Check our figment page on Friday (tomorrow, March 1) for the last trivia question and your last chance to win!

... aaannnndd may the odds be ever in your favor(?).

ZOMG! Requiem Book Giveaway

HEY GUYS THIS IS SO COOL.

WE'RE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF REQUIEM.

F'reals: we - Smith Public Library - are giving away a hardcover copy of Requiem, the not-yet-released third book of Lauren Oliver's Delirium trilogy.

Yes, not-yet-released, meaning you can get a FREE copy of the book everyone else is dying to read but can't even buy yet.

Yes, that's the Lauren Oliver who'll be HERE, AT THE LIBRARY, IN PERSON, OMG.

... buuuutttt we couldn't just make it too easy for you - first you have to answer a little trivia question from the trilogy's second book, Pandemonium.  Here it is:

TELL ME THIS, TELL ME TRUE: 

In Pandemonium, what was the number of the tattoo on Lena's mother ?

Know the answer?  Veronica (and Jenn, another Smithie you might recognize) will be at Wylie High tomorrow morning - the first person to tell her correct answer gets the super-awesome copy of Requiem!

And don't forget to bring your copies of Delirium, Pandemonium, and Requiem (if you're lucky) to Smith Public Library on Monday, March 11 at 3:30pm and have Lauren Oliver herself sign your books!!

UPDATE:
This trivia question has been answered and the book has been claimed - congrats to the winner!  If you didn't win, you still have one more chance to win - see the next post for more info!

EXTRA AWESOME MARCH!: Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby

Ah dang, next month is going to be crazy awesome.

I'm not just going on about the SUPER BIG DEAL AUTHOR EVENT (or SBDAE?) with Lauren Oliver again - oh no, mon frére, there's even more awesome to come. There are freebies and words with authors and stuffs.  Keep reading.

So our book for March is Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby.  And yes, you guessed it, it's about a wonder show - that's kind of like a circus (oooooo, whiiiimsicaaal). Now read the synopsis:

Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step inside Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to astound and amaze! But perhaps the strangest act of Mosco's display is Portia Remini, a normal among the freaks, on the run from McGreavy's Home for Wayward Girls, where Mister watches and waits. He said he would always find Portia, that she could never leave. Free at last, Portia begins a new life on the bally, seeking answers about her father's disappearance. Will she find him before Mister finds her? 

Oh, it’s not for the faint of heart folks. If you’re prone to nightmares or you've got a weak ticker, you’d best move on. Within these pages lies a tale of abandonment, loss, misfortune for the rich and glory for the poor (and a little murder doesn't hurt). It’s a story for the ages, but be warned: once you enter the Wonder Show you will never be the same."

Sounds... awesome.  And kinda creepy.  That, with some flour and eggs, baked at 375° for 30 minutes, should make a delicious soufflé of excellent reading.  Yummmm.

SO HERE'S THE EXTRA AWESOME PART: 
So you know how we give out a free copy of the next meeting's book to the first ten people to sign up?  Yeah, well this month, it's the first, like, fifteen or twenty people to sign up.  Yep - extra free books. How do we have so many, you ask?  Wonder Show's awesome author (Hannah Barnaby) GAVE THEM TO US.  So. Stinkin'. Nice.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE AWESOME:
Speaking of Wonder Show's awesome author, Hannah Barnaby is going to Skype with us during the meeting.  F'reels.  You can ask her all your omigosh-dying-to-know questions about the book, about writing and being an author, whatever.  For more info on Hannah Barnaby, check out her website or this interview.

So if you haven't made it to a meeting yet - or you have a friend you've been trying to get to come - this is the meeting. Because there are extra books, there is an extra-special-author-skype-session-thing (OMGawesome), and there's more hype for Lauren Oliver's visit(!) happening a few days later.  So am I right or AM I SO RIGHT?! - March is going to be sooo crazy awesome.

Swing by the library, sign up for the next meeting and get your own copy of Wonder Show - and drag a friend along while you're at it.  And make sure to read Wonder Show and come to the meeting (March 7th, 6pm) with some author questions for Hannah Barnaby!

Marissa Meyer, author of Cinder, in Irving TONIGHT!

Remember Cinder, the book club pick for November?  Seriously, I KNOW you remember - some of you were CRAZY about that book (but if you don't remember, click here).

If you fall into that category - or need something free (and awesome) to do with your Friday night - you are so in luck.  Straight from Cinder's author herself, Marissa Meyer:

So looking forward to tonight's #ScarletTour2013 signing at the @irvinglibrary in Irving, TX! Come see me at 7:00!
— Marissa Meyer (@marissa_meyer) February 8, 2013

Awesome, right?! Okay, so Irving isn't exactly close, but compared to... Austin, or... Tulsa or whatever, Irving is kinda close, so I thought I'd fill you in just in case somebody's a fan of Cinder (and has a car).  Here's the official word from Irving Public Library's website:

"Marissa Meyer... provides a look into the world of Cinder and a sneak peek at its sequel, Scarlet. Ms. Meyer will be available for questions and autographs. Refreshments will be served and both books available for purchase."

The event for adults and teens and is my favorite admission price - FREE. It'll be held at Valley Ranch Library in Irving, tonight at 7:00pm.  To learn more, visit Irving Public Library's webpage for the event.

Are you going and super excited?  Need a ride to Irving (or already have a ride and need a friend to come with you)?  Can't go but want to go and in need of a place to vent about it?  Sound of in the comments!

And don't forget about our own SUPER BIG DEAL AUTHOR EVENT in March - bestselling Delirium author Lauren Oliver is coming to Smith Public Library, March 11th at 3:30pm!

UPDATE: In case you couldn't go, looks like Marissa Meyer posted pics from the event on her Facebook page.

Meeting tomorrow + a PREVIEW OF AWESOME!

More Maximum Ride puns?! RUUUNNNNNNN!!!

Are you MAXXED OUT yet on this month's read (are you MAXXED OUT on cheesy Maximum Ride jokes?  Yeahwelltoobad.)?  Have you finished the book yet?  Read up, my pretties - our meeting for February is TOMORROW at 6pm; come to discuss Maximum Ride: the Angel Experiment by James Patterson and get your free copy of next month's book, Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby.

Aside from the usual amount of incredible, this is a meeting you do NOT want to miss!  As I might have mentioned once... or twice... or twenty or so times, if you talk to me in person... our BIG DEAL AUTHOR EVENT with New York Times bestselling YA author, Lauren Oliver, is next month!  So, as a preview just you awesome book-clubbies, we have a few copies of Ms. Oliver's book Delirium, the first book in her Delirium trilogy, as well as a few advance copies of the unpublished final book in the trilogy, Requiem (yes, unpublished, as in the unavailable-in-stores-aren't-you-super-cool kind of unpublished).  We can't give them to y'all to keep - you'll have to read them, then pass them on to another person in the club - but you do have the chance to read Requiem before anyone else (before regular people, anyway).  Show up early to improve your chances of getting to read one of these copies first!

Maximum Ride!  Sneak peeks at Delirium and Requiem!  Aaaannnnnddd... maybe hot chocolate (?)! Tomorrow, February 7th, 6pm, library meeting room, BAM. Be there, be square, wear underwear.

But seriously though, wear underwear.

Get MAXxed Out in February: Maximum Ride by James Patterson

Holla kids!  February's meeting is coming fast, so if you haven't started reading our next book yet, GIT ON IT.  We'll be reading the first book of James Patterson's popular Maximum Ride series - are you ready to get MAXXED OUT?!

Here's the synopsis:

Maximum Ride by James Patterson

"In James Patterson's blockbuster series, fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride, better known as Max, knows what it's like to soar above the world. She and all the members of the "flock"--Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel--are just like ordinary kids--only they have wings and can fly.

 It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time...like when Angel, the youngest member of the flock, is kidnapped and taken back to the "School" where she and the others were experimented on by a crew of wack jobs. Her friends brave a journey to blazing hot Death Valley, CA, to save Angel, but soon enough, they find themselves in yet another nightmare--this one involving fighting off the half-human, half-wolf "Erasers" in New York City. 

Whether in the treetops of Central Park or in the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family take the ride of their lives. Along the way, Max discovers that her purpose is save the world--but can she?"

Ugh! jealous - I wish I could fly... then again, I don't think the whole being-hunted-by-crazy-scientists thing would be much fun, so I'll keep to the ground for now.  This book is hard to put down, and it goes FAST, so get to reading!

If you're already done (thank you...) OR if you're just starting, sound off in the comments - tell us what you're looking forward to in the book or what you just HAVE to talk about at the meeting!  NO SPOILERS, though, pleaseandthankyou - this is a series, so if you've already read past the first book, don't spoil the other books for others!

And don't forget to come to the meeting on February 7th, 6pm at the library!

December After-Meeting Mint: Heads Will Roll! ... Maybe!

This is classy monocle cat.  He would never be
 late with a blog post. Sorry, classy monocle  cat. 

Remember reading Throne of Glass?  Yeah, I know, that was a while ago (SO last month).  Sorry.  See the previous blog post for my reason for putting off this post (it's actually a pretty cool reason).  But if you still want to talk about Throne of Glass, here's a summary of December's meeting for Throne of Glass and your opportunity to sound off in the comments.

Apparently, like me, most of you liked Throne of Glass - yayforbooks. But a lot of you had trouble getting into the story because of the crazy, hard-to-read names (note to the publishers:  include a pronunciation guide with the book).  Also, this was the second book we've read that's an adaptation of the story of Cinderella, though most of the club didn't realize this about Throne of Glass; anybody spotted similarities between Cinderella and this book since the meeting? (Comments!)

Celeana, an assassin, was the heroine of Throne of Glass.  Most of us liked Celeana - she's fierce and independent like Katniss from The Hunger Games and isn't whiny and insecure like Bella from Twilight.  And despite being REALLY fat-headed, she's just so likable: she's fashionable, she's cool, she's super deadly - basically, she's a female Han Solo.

Speaking of Celeana being deadly: even though we're used to NOT rooting for assassins - they're usually villains - the club didn't have a problem with an assassin as a heroine, as long as she only killed the bad guys.  What we DID have a problem with was an assassin who didn't do any assassinating.  Seriously, I think Celeana's kill record for this book was something like "mythical creatures: 1, humans: 0".

The club didn't really mind that there was a love triangle, or how that story played out.  Celeana is in a relationship with another character for only a short time in the book before dumping the guy; most of us thought that this was a pretty accurate picture of real-life teen relationships.  Bigger question, though: Prince Dorian vs. Chaol, Captain of the Guard? Most of the club turned out to be Team Chaol: he's flawed, he's gruff-with-a-gooey-nice-guy-center, he's swoon-worthy - basically, he's totes dreamy. 

So what did YOU think?  Did you love or hate Throne of Glass, and will you be looking out for the sequel?  Are you Team Dorian or Team Chaol (quick, make your t-shirts NOW!)?  How to feel about the whole assassin-who-doesn't-assassinate thing?  Is Celeana your new literary BFF, or did she totally get on your nerves?  Sound off in the comments!

And keep watching this space - a summary of our January meeting for A.C. Gaughen's book Scarlet is coming soon!