New Blog Design!!

I need to take a moment to give an epic shoutout to the amazing 

Livia at Butterfly-o-Meter Designs!

Livia is the reason this blog has a whole new layout and I absolutely love it to pieces!! She has been working with me for the past few weeks to come up with this amazing wonderfulness that you see before you! Livia is extremely talented in what she does as a designer and is absolutely great to work with. She was able to take my semi-vague idea and turn it into a wonderful work of art. I had a great time working with her. She patiently answered any and all of the questions I may have had and as a result brought this little blog to new heights!

If you're looking to redo your blog layout but are hopelessly talent-less in the graphic design and HTML parts as I am, do check her page out. Everything she offers is rather affordable and you are sure to not be disappointed with her work.

February Wrap-Up + Psst! I'm going to BookCon!!

To be honest, February was a really slow reading month for me. I'm now five books behind on my Goodreads Reading Challenge and I haven't read anything for my fairytale retelling challenge. After reading through all the Throne of Glass books in January, I started Assassin's Blade at the beginning of February, and I'm only half way through with it. It's not because I'm not enjoying it. Actually, it's quite the opposite. But I know that once I'm done with Assassin's Blade, I will have RUN OUT of books about Celaena and her adventures until Queen of Shadows comes out in the Fall. It's just so far away and I'm just not ready to let go!!

Also, another reason why I haven't been reading too much this month is I have found a new obsession and it's name is Pinterest. Oh my gosh, I just love it so much. Now, I've actually had a Pinterest account for a while but I never knew what to do with it and I never really got the whole point of it. UNTIL NOW!! I have 13 boards already - most of which are dedicated to my favorite fandoms and that's only the beginning! Now I have a place to gather all my favorite fanart and quotes and other lovely bookish things all in neat little piles. Which is amazing because A) fanart is amazing though it reminds me of my lack of drawing skills, B) going through quotes and gifs is like rereading my favorite books without actually rereading them, and C) they're all in neat little piles! Okay, they're called "boards" but same difference - they're organized and neat and that's what matters.

Now for the epically exciting news: I'M GOING TO BOOKCON!!!!

 

This year will be the second year for BookCon. It's something that was previously called Power Reader Day and is a part of the BEA Convention that happens every year for book industry professionals. However, BookCon is open to the public rather than just being for the pros so anyone can get tickets. I really wanted to go last year but I heard about it too late and wasn't able to get off work or get tickets in time - which doubly sucks because Rick Riordan was there last year and well, he's Rick Riordan. 

This year BookCon will be on May 30-31 at the Javits Center in New York. I heard some good and bad things about BookCon last year. Considering it was their first year though, I'm hoping they've worked a few more kinks out this second time around. This is year they are doing it a little differently mainly because the convention will be set up over the course of a full weekend (last year it was just one day) and I have tickets for both days. I'm so excited!! So many awesome authors will be there including Sarah J. Maas, Rainbow Rowell, Marie Lu, Alexandra Bracken, Sarah Dessen, Marissa Meyer, Leigh Bardugo, Libba Bray, and Jenny Han. Those are only the ones I'm most excited to see but there are so many more amazing authors who will be there. Major publishing companies like Random House, Penguin, Candlewick, HarperCollins, Hatchette, and Simon Schuster will also be exhibiting. As of right now, it's too early to know exactly what events will be held. Last year, there were author panels, Q&As, autographing sessions, special screenings, and trivia games. 

I'm sooooo excited - did I mention that already? Because it's true I am. I have no idea how I'm going to do everything I want because I want to do EVERYTHING.

That's all I have for updates right now. Is anyone else going to BookCon? Or did you go last year? Any pointers or words of wisdom to get to do all the things? I already know I have to get there early. That's one perk of living just across the river from New York City. I can get there in just ten minutes if there's no traffic. Though I'm always expecting traffic. 

Also, one last thing: a new layout design is coming and I'm so so so SO excited for that too. 

Update aka I'm back!!

Hello everyone! I'm finally back from my almost two month hiatus! I've definitely missed blogging but my hiatus was not remotely unproductive. Here's why:

1. As I mentioned in my last update, my boyfriend and I remodeled my kitchen. For future reference, I do not suggest remodeling your own kitchen no matter how easy IKEA furniture is to put together. Especially when you're two 24 year olds with full time jobs who have no actual contracting experience beyond just being fairly handy with tools. We ran into a bunch of random problems but after four weeks, it came out awesome and even more importantly, everything functions just as it's supposed to.

We went from this partially demolished horrible-ness:

(I should mention that my grandparents moved into this house in the 70s. Aside from the countertop which my uncle installed sometime in the 80s and the appliances, this was the kitchen that came with the house.)

To this loveliness:

All that's left is to tile the backsplash with the really pretty tiles I picked out. I tried to do it myself but I ended up cracking tiles in attempt to cut outlet holes. Oops.

 

 

2. If you live in the US and have a local BN that you frequent, you might have heard of the Get Pop Cultured Summer that was a three week long line-up of different events. As an employee of my local BN, I was thrust right in the middle of preparing/ running some of the events in it. Here's some stuff that made for it:

Several 3D snowflakes of varying sizes, an Olaf for our Pin the Carrot on Olaf game, and an ice palace for Elsa which was basically the same height as me all for our Frozen Friday event which had an insane turn out. The kids had fun though and I had fun making stuff for it.

 

 

 

I also did a Batman story time and got to dress up as Luna for our Page to Screen weekend. Sorry, I was not wearing a wig. I don't think I'd make a very good blonde. It's good to have fun at work sometimes.

 

What I was not remotely productive about this summer was reading. I started reading Code Name Verity at the beginning of July for a book club I'm in but I never got past page 50. What's worse is I'm a mod for that book club. Oops again. I'm not usually one to DNF a book but this was my second time trying to read it. I know, people really love this book but maybe I was just too busy or too tired (I barely slept most of July) to get into it.

Oh well, third time's a charm, yeah?

 

Before my hiatus, I meant to write a review of Eleanor and Park but it's not fresh enough in my mind anymore for me to do it justice. I will say that I whole heartedly loved the book and I need a sequel or at least a movie to tide me over until a sequel is written because that last line... not cool. I was fully expecting to flip the page and see another chapter.

I need to know what was said!!!

Anywho, I'm back on my regular trek through books now so expect reviews and other bookish fun to come! Also, anyone know of some good layout sites? I'm looking to get an original layout done. I'd do it myself but I'm mediocre at best with my knock off photo editing program and I basically suck at HTML/CSS. I have someone in mind but it's a little over my price range. I'm open to any suggestions =)

Update! aka I haven't fallen off the face of the earth!!

Hello blogosphere!

Apparently I've taken a highly unanticipated hiatus from blogging which sucks because I had a bunch of blog topic ideas  that I wanted to get out there. Plus a review for Eleanor and Park which I absolutely loved, by the way. My unintentional hiatus began with my week long beach vacation - had a great time but after, however, life struck and my time for blogging went out the window.

Why you may ask? I shall explain via gifs:

This is me minding my own business: 

 

 

Enter my mom: "Hey, I'm going away two weeks. In the mean time, can you remodel the kitchen?"

 

 

My reaction:

 

 My boyfriend's reaction:

 

[Note the differences there.]

[ Note also that no, I don't think my boyfriend is Ian Somerhalder but how freaking crazy would that be?! But my boyfriend is definitely not a geeky book nerd like me. ]

 

Long story short, this is my kitchen right now:

And this is me because I still have work and I have no place to cook or eat:

 

Or make coffee:

 

 

And that is why I haven't been blogging. I'll be back to bother you all again with my reviews and all the stuffs soon.

 

Until then, happy reading! =)

Hello 2014!

It's three days into the new year. I've never been one for New Year's Resolutions but this year I'm making some (and hopefully sticking to them). There's just something very promising about a new year that makes the inner dreamer in me particularly optimistic.

Now, I don't know if I can call my resolutions "resolutions" per say because none of them are really things that need to be resolved. Maybe "goals" is a better word for them. Resolute goals. We'll go with that.

#1 - THIS BLOG - Blogging is something that I've considered doing for a while now but have never actually done. However, recently, my considering has turned into a definitive want as I've started following different blogs and vlogs of people who have the same interests in reading as I do. So with that said, my first goal of the new year is to blog. This blog will be used for book reviews, thoughts, and general comments about the wonderful worlds of books, reading, and writing. For the most part, I'll probably be posting reviews of books I'm reading but it will probably also include tidbits about authors I like, quotes on reading and writing, notes on any book-a-thons I enter, and other things of that nature.

#2 - READ - Clearly, I love books otherwise I wouldn't be starting a book blog. I typically read a lot of YA fiction with a focus on fantasy, adventure, dystopia - those sorts of genres. I'm going to try the 100 book challenge this year and see how far I get. According to my Goodreads profile I only read 26 books in 2013 but I have a feeling that I left a few out. Still, rounding up to 30-35ish books, that's a long way off from 100 but that's my goal. Read 100 books. Read new authors of which I have plenty in mind including John Green who I've never read. (I know! That's practically YA blasphemy.) And maybe even read more adult fiction just to change it up.

#3 - WRITE - Now, of course, I can't blog about writing until I actually start writing. Therefore, my second goal for the year is to write more. I need to stop passively saying I want to be a writer and actively actually write something. Who cares if what I write is crap? That's what revisions are for... and second revisions and thirds and fourths. If every writer's first draft was immediately published... well, there'd be a lot of bad books out there. Plus, I have too many ideas floating around in my head that I need to do something with instead of just making mental notes to write down. Maybe, just maybe, I'll even be able to wrap up the year with a complete manuscript. Blogging-wise, I plan on posting at least twice a week to start with and maybe more as I fall into the flow of blogging.

#4 -  BE MORE SPONTANEOUS - Now I don't mean, random bursts of craziness that are likely to get my already klutzy, accident-prone self hurt. (Good god, I just thought of myself doing an extreme sport and envisioned the painful ending that would likely ensue.) I mean, live life to the fullest. Go out more. Have more fun. Do more things. I live less than 10 minutes from New York City for goodness sakes and I never go there! There's a logical reason for that though - the thought of traversing the subways gives me anxiety. Put me in London on the tube and I'll be fine; places and directions are labeled clearly. But put me in New York with subways named only with letters that crisscross directions everywhere and we'll have problems. Maybe I should add that to my goals.
Sub-goal: Conquer fear of the New York subway system.

That's it for now. Those are my resolute goals for the year. Thanks for reading and welcome to my blog!

- Jazzie Kings aka The Book Dancer

Currently reading: Legend by Marie Lu
Progress: page 87
Thoughts so far: A bit slow on the uptake. I could have gone without knowing beforehand from reading the inside flap that Metias was going to die. All in all, I'm liking it though I'm not at the point of loving it yet. I like reading from June's POV more than Day's but that's only because Day's habit of using terms like 'goddy' or 'cousin' seem very stilted and are off-putting to me. Probably, because I've never heard anyone using those terms - ever.