I'm Back In A Whirlwind

Hi guys,

I know that I'm officially the lousiest blogger ever. I realize that the more often I take breaks from blogging, the harder it becomes to get back into the game. (And the higher my To-Be-Read pile grows, and the more emails I start to ignore, and the rustier I find myself at writing reviews, and the longer my break becomes.) It's like a self-perpetuating vicious cycle which I know has lost me quite some momentum in everything book-related except for my favorite pastime of reading (I'm still reading, never fear!), but the inertia of inactivity builds up and the time for me to snap out of it is

now!

Well, yes. In order to actually get some action done on this blog, I've decided to post do an update post on what you can expect from the blog in the next few months or so. So for those of you who still check back regularly (my page views say "yes"-- that there are some of you sweethearts who do that), read this and don't be disheartened by the lack of posts and please don't give up on this blog (I AM HERE FOR THE LONG RUN). 

So, here goes.

Current State of the Union

My Blog Tours

I am organizing several blog tours for some of the Young Adult debuts which I am highly anticipating! Most of them are YA Contemporary novels-- there is a good slate this year, and I'm pretty excited. But, the nearest blog tour is starring a YA historical fiction piece, PRISONER OF NIGHT AND FOG (Anne Blankman, April 22nd 2014 by Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins).

I will be opening sign-ups for that soon-ish on this blog and through my mailing list (to those of you who have signed up to be tour hosts, you will be getting an email about this!). Please support me, Anne and the marvelous story of a girl during Nazi Germany and the various secrets, romances and dark plots swirling around in a melting pot of scandals, conspiracies and propaganda. Gosh, the history geek in me is squealing.

Reviews

Well, if you take a brief look at my current e-reader, the titles are very contemporary-oriented:

1. Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern (Hmm… Is it just me, or does the cover and tone just remind you of Eleanor & Park? Which is not a bad thing to be reminded of.)
2. 17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen
3. How To Meet Boys by Catherine Clark
4. On the Fence by Kasie West
5. Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
6. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
7. What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin
8. Sekret by Lindsay Smith

If I finish reading the novel, I will review it. You can expect at least 4 to 5 reviews to come since these are all brilliant titles! But who knows, my interest in contemporary novels might wane and then you will see me reading Martin's A Game of Thrones (never!) or picking up Dostoevsky's Crime & Punishment again (I've been trying to find the right mood and setting to read this book for more than a month and I'm still not done with it).

What I've Read So Far (and have failed to keep track on Goodreads)

1. I've been re-reading the Harry Potter series, yay! It's so good, so funny, so familiar and homely and all things Hogwarts-ish that looking at it just makes me feel all happy and fuzzy on the inside. I'm currently in the middle of PoA, and I will be moving onto GoF which is my favorite HP book a few years back-- let's see how it stands now.

2. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (I heard it's Jenny Han's favorite book. It was lovely, but not great. On a side note, I think A LOT like Cassandra, it's freaky.)

3. Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally. (Fantastic. Makes me want to play football. Sam Henry is the love of my life.)

4. Prisoner of Night and Fog. (Haven't read a good WWII YA novel for ages, this one meets all expectations and more!)


TOTAL COUNT: 6 books 

All in all, not bad for one and a half months into 2014! 

Signing off for now, will be back soon with blog tour updates and a review :-)

Giveaway: Dare Yourself In the Spirit of Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

So these few days, I've been feeling a bit restless and have been idling around the household doing nothing-- so much that my mother's initial reaction has gone from annoyance to incredulity. 

But I've been brainstorming a lot about what to do on this blog for Christmas and beyond and I want to do something--

fun! 

silly! crazy! exciting! cute!

Because I'm bored out of my bones and this is what I do when I'm bored out of my bones (yes, I've watched The Hobbit 2, and Catching Fire, and Frozen and God-knows-what). 

Here comes the neat part.

I have been reading a wonderful book which has kept me in a warm, fuzzy, romantic holiday mood (think: snow flakes, pretty lights, fireplace, moleskin notebooks):

“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.

I love the entire idea of this book and so far it has been the only thing occupying my brain cells (other than Math homework). 

So, I've decided to hold a giveaway, titled (it has a long title, bear with it):

Dare Yourself In the Spirit of Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

The giveaway will last from 23rd December 2013 (most exciting day before the day before Christmas!) till 15th January 2014. The winner will win a copy of Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, but more importantly, every single participant in the giveaway will be emailed a crazy, bookish, silly dare to complete in 2014 by me personally. 

So it's a mixture of the Christmas mood of doing nice crazy things and also a New Year Resolution-ish sort of fun giveaway!

• [1 winner] Win a copy of Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

• [Everyone] Receive by email a personal book-related dare from me to complete in 2014

I'm not sure if that's actually an attractive incentive or a detractive one, but if you are in the mood for some daring bookish feats-- enter away!

Before I go, one more thing: I loved Frozen and it made my holiday magical-- take a listen, I hope this song does the same for you! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winter Buzz: My Love-Hate Relationship With This Blog, BookFest@Singapore etc.

I'm back!

And December is one of my favourite months of the year-- and also the month when I get the whimsical urge to write random posts on this blog about the fantastical, the outrageous or just the boring things that happen in my life OR I get weirdly reflective and just write strange things. Plus, I tend to get excited about the books I'm going to buy in my annual end-of-year book spree. So it's my favorite month, no doubt about that.

After being kind of missing in action since August (during which and subsequently, I have only steadfastly posted once a month), I think ought to talk a bit about what I was doing after my exams ended in October and also, to make this less of a palaver, to talk about my love-hate relationship with this blog (right now we are in our honeymoon period, yay!).

August

End of termly exams. I watched PHOTO (Phantom of the Opera) for the second time, read a lot of books, and stayed up late every night to finish the term papers all due at the end of the month (oh, the abject cruelty and caprice of providence).

September

Studied for Finals. 

October

Finals happened. Five-day break when I started planning a holiday camp for our school's Student Council. Received back my marks. End of school.

November

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a long long time, you might know that I occasionally mention an international academic tournament (this is my second year participating). I went to USA for the competition in November, and the tournament was at Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut)... AND THEN WE SPENT 3 MORE DAYS IN NEW YORK CITY.

In those 3 days in NYC, my life got a thousand times more exciting than usual:

1. I watched PHOTO for the 3rd time, but the first time at Broadway.
2. I visited MOMA, the Met, Top of the Rock, Liberty Island, Ellis Island etc.
3. On 19 November, I watched a Romeo & Juliet Broadway play--
4. And thereafter, I met Orlando Bloom and procured his autograph at approximately 9.30pm.

And if you don't know Orlando Bloom, please face the wall or go hide under a rock, and just to help you along on your path of reformation (because not knowing Orlando Bloom means you don't know Legolas or Will Turner-- and that, my friend, is a sin!), here's a photo my friend took of him:

He signed on my playbill.

I wrote a really long and emotional note on Facebook about the NYC trip after I landed back in Singapore and the last part neatly covers my feelings about the entire experience:

"One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years."   

Part of me is going to stay in NYC till I go back again. Because De Niro was right. There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.

That's it.

December

In December, I finally went to the holiday camp for Student Council which I had been faithfully planning with my friends since October.

And then, I went on a cruise named Superstar Virgo. It was huge and there were 10 restaurants, a cinema, a theatre, an arcade, a casino, a bunch of karaoke rooms, jacuzzis, two swimming pools and God knows what. It was a floating luxury resort which stopped at two island-ports and I got tanned, wore a straw hat and took loads of photos.

More than fifty percent of the time on the cruise was spent on eating since the restaurants were free of charge (it was covered in the ticket for the cruise) and were high-class buffets and à la carte dining. I even ate escargot (snails).

And what happened? I gained weight. Expectedly so. 

The cruise holiday ended on 12 December. When I finally got back home and began lounging in my room with an unfamiliar sense of idleness, soon realizing with sudden alacrity that for the first time in don't-know-how-many-months I was free with no deadlines, I knew it was time to blog.

So here I am.

Books vs. Real-Life

I think the reason why I thought of the term "love-hate relationship" was because there was this odd balance between books and my life. 

Amidst school, homework and tests, books were my means of escapist thinking-- of being somewhere else, some place when the protagonist does things that I perhaps never would do, both now and ever. It's not so much of wishful thinking on my part, but more of a tad bit of imagination and the willfulness to think myself into other's shoes.

But, the problem with me was that imagination could only go that far. After reading many travel-related YA contemporary novels like Just One Day, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Anna and the French Kiss, I got bitten by the wanderlust bug. 

It was an inextricable situation. 

And I think what was different this year was that I realized it couldn't be cured by just reading, but this time, the only thing to do was to hit the road. 

So this December, there's a feeling of coming full circle. Somehow, if I had not travelled, there was an empty void in one unknown part of me that could no longer feel for those books and the characters and places that I had read about. And conversely, simply because I had travelled, getting back into the comfortable rhythm of reading and blogging just feels right.

The thing to do, like I vaguely recall from the film Stuck in Love (which is awesome by the way and has both Lily Collins AND Logan Lerman; and it talks about how when writers fall in love, things are made beautiful and complicated) is to live, to get out there. Because books come from people. And even when imagination allows us to empathize with people whose experiences we had never experienced before, to walk the streets of a foreign town and have a beggar perform poetry at the traffic light junction transforms me as a reader. 

The stories within dog-eared pages became more than just fiction, they became possibilities. And I fell in love with reading all over again. Expectedly so :-)

What's happening next

BookFest@Singapore 

A books and stationery festival featuring leading publishers and distributors from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. It is a one-stop venue for a comprehensive range of the best and latest publications, together with stationery, electronic peripherals and educational aids. -- From the official press release.

This will be happening from the 13-22 December at Suntec City Convention & Exhibition Centre, Halls 401-405. It's quite Asian-based in nature, so for Singaporean friends, feel free to drop by any time!

The BookFest is in its 7th year and I was actually pretty excited for a book signing by a famous Taiwanese author who wrote and directed You're the Apple of My Eye (which was adorable and heartbreaking).

It isn't often that Singapore has literary festivals, but it is getting more and more frequent in recent years. And as a literary person, I'm doing my part to spread the love (so Singaporean book-lovers, let's support the local talent!)-- click here to take a look at the multi-national lineup of activities/talks from local and international authors.

Christmas Plans

I'm catching up on all my reading, and I went on an Edelweiss downloading spree. The current books on my Reader are all so good, and I'm trying (and failing) to follow according to the chronological order of their release dates-- but one or two keep waving their hands at me and saying "Read me first!". Gosh. I have no discipline.

I have a Showcase Sunday post (for next week) done up to show you the current state of my reading plate (it's a pretty messy sight, but lovely all the same because it's BOOKS) and I have more Christmas news for you regarding what I'm going to roll out on this blog.

So that's all, lovelies! I'm really happy to be back :-)

And before I go, here's a nice quote I found on Pinterest:

xoxo,

Sel

Current State of the Union: What's up with the blog?

I'm off on a three-week hiatus for the month of July, dealing with my exams :) I haven't been reviewing much lately, but don't fret, I am currently reading an excellent selection of books (and the reviews will come out at the end of the hiatus; I have so many thoughts burning in my mind, but I just haven't had the chance to sit down and pen them down into a coherent review). 

Just to give you a sneak peek, the books I'm reading/I've just finished reading/I'm going to read right away:

I. Eleanor and Park (read--review half done)

II. All Our Yesterdays (reading)

III. Fangirl (going to read ASAP)

IV. The Social Code (The Start-Up, #1) (reading)

V. One Night That Changes Everything (read--review not done yet)

VI. The Lonely Hearts Club (reading)

Since I like pretty book covers and this post would be horribly lacking a certain something if I do not put up a picture, here's one gorgeous cover to keep all of us happy!

      A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Lots of love,
Sel

Young Adult Fiction Set All Around the Globe

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”

― James Baldwin

Every book opens another door to a whole new world, with new sights, sounds and wonder beyond your wildest imagination (sounds cheesy but it's true).

So here are a list of places/countries which you can explore through books, listed in alphabetical order. Whether you live in New York, Singapore or the Federated States of Micronesia, there are some real exotic countries out there for you to travel to through the words of talented authors:

Afghanistan: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 

Brazil: The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson 

China: Bound by Donna Jo Napoli

Denmark: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry 

Egypt: Sphinx's Princess by Esther M. Friesner

France: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins            

Greece: Cruel Summer by Alyson Noel 

Hawaii: Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

Italy: My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century by Rachel Harris

Japan: Ink by Amanda Sun

Korea: Prophecy by Ellen Oh

Los Angeles: Vain by Fisher Amelie 

Malibu: Blonde Ambition by Zoey Dean

Nantucket: Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland

Orleans, New: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Pakistan: An Infidel in Paradise by S.J. Laidlaw

Quebec: A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

Russia: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

Singapore: Return to a Sexy Island by Neil Humphreys

Turkey: Behemoth (Leviathan, #2) by Scott Westerfield

United Kingdom: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

These 24 books would be a good way for you to kick-start your worldly travels. Not all are contemporary and hence, these books will offer you peeks into a country's past and future.

Leave your footprints all around the world from the comfort of your armchair.

The world is yours for the reading.

xoxo,
Sel

This is a repost from the original guest post I made on Armchair BEA 2013 while serving as the International Liaison. Read the original guest post here. 

Asian Festival of Children's Content

I live in Singapore which isn't exactly a country known for its vibrant literary scene. Therefore, for a Young Adult literature enthusiast, Singapore does not provide much avenues for a first-hand access to Young Adult authors (local and/or abroad) or are there many opportunities for forum discussions and conferences about YA.

But, not too long ago, a very exciting book festival was made known to me-- The Asian Festival of Children's Content. And the best part is that there are some very heavy doses of YA and a huge focus on book bloggers in its six day jam-packed event schedule.

Since this got me really really excited, and I do know several Singapore-based book bloggers who might be interested in this, here's a brief outline of what exactly I will be looking out for in this festival and how some of the content might make its way onto this blog :)

Enjoy! (It might be all the more exciting if you are from Singapore!)

Illustration by Emila Yusof, illustrator, Malaysia

ASIAN FESTIVAL OF
CHILDREN’S CONTENT

25 – 30 MAY 2013
NATIONAL LIBRARY BUILDING,
SINGAPORE

AFCC is a festival that brings together content creators and producers with parents, teachers, librarians and anyone interested in quality Asian content for children around the world.

With a mix of professional conferences, masterclasses and workshops, rights fair and media mart, and public events, AFCC is a unique and popular event right here in Asia that provides an opportunity for writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, distributors, parents, children, teachers, and librarians to meet, learn, develop their craft, and discover business opportunities.

The National Book Development Council of Singapore has been organising the highly popular Asian Children’s Writers & Illustrators Conference for the past ten years. Leveraging on its success, the conference was expanded to form AFCC which has emerged as a very popular professional and trade event since 2010.

AFCC impacts 1.5 billion children in Asia as well as their parents, professionals, and businesses involved in their development.

The two conferences which I will be attending are:

Credits: AFCC 2013

THE WRITERS & ILLUSTRATORS CONFERENCE

Over the course of the two-day conference, writers and illustrators come together with publishers, editors, literary agents, and other industry professionals in celebration of children’s content from Asia and around the world. This year’s conference will have an added emphasis on Young Adult literature and children’s works in translation. 

THE MEDIA SUMMIT 

Credits: AFCC 2013

The AFCC Media Summit gathers content creators and media professionals from around the world for a one-day conference focusing on Asian children’s media content, a forum for sharing ideas and knowledge, skills training and development, and networking. The Summit will focus on maximising content through transmedia storytelling.

*

I will be looking out for Wendy Orr (the New York Times bestselling author of Nim's Island, which was also adapted into a film starring Jodie Foster), fellow blogger Stephanie (who blogs at Steph Su Reads) and Holly Thompson (YA author of Orchards and The Language Inside, published May 2013 by Delacorte) amongst many other speakers in an impressive line-up (you can take a look here).

For Singaporean bloggers who would love to be part of the conference, passes and tickets can be found here. Hope to see you guys there! 

Do drop me a comment below if you are indeed attending (And you might just hear me squeal over the Internet)! As for the US bloggers who are going for BEA, have the amazing time you deserve :) For other international bloggers like me, we will be doing Armchair BEA this year, so do join in on all the fun if you are missing out on BEA too!

xoxo,

Sel

A Question For You

My exams are coming up in the month of April so I will pretty much be away then with only occasional posts for blog tours and some of the reviews written a million years ago which are hibernating in my archive.

I won't be around much at all, especially since some pretty big life-changing things have happened in the past month and I'm pausing from a lot of things to take a breather :)

But, don't worry, books are still the only things that keep me sane nowadays. As long as I keep on reading, there is no way I will ever stop blogging. And quoting my mother who thinks that "[I] read more than [I] eat", I will be blogging for a long long time to come.

Now, onto the main point of today's post. I have this huge question weighing on my mind lately that's been causing me quite some dilemma. I'm almost afraid to say it but...

I'M GETTING TIRED OF YOUNG ADULT BOOKS.

It's just that I've been in this reading slump as of late and it has been ages since I even finished reading a YA novel. Here's a peek at my recent selections:

Life After Theft

Renegade

Legacy of the Clockwork Key

I'm not saying that these are bad books per se, but they are only entertaining me aloofly at this point in my life when I feel like I need serious engagement. I need books that can be an immersive experience, one that can probe at my thoughts, reshape and redefine certain things in my life and most importantly, make me feel something more than just a reader.

And I don't like feeling this way about Young Adult books, which indisputably holds the title of having been my favourite genre ever since I was eleven. 

So, right now, I need some help from you-- bloggers, authors or just book-lovers, in short. 

Have you experienced this "reading slump" before?

                      Have you ever had this sudden change in attitude towards Young Adult Novels?

And the biggest question:

What are some Young Adult books which rekindled your interest in reading or even made you fall in love with reading?

Thank you so much for sticking with me through my whole book blogging journey so far. It's been full of ups and downs and I will be the first to admit that I haven't exactly been the most regular blogger. I love book blogging because for the first time in my life, I realized that there was a group of people out there who valued my writing and was always there to listen to what I had to say (which were sometimes random strings of words that jumped out after being mind-blown by a book). I was doing something more than reading, I was furthering that interest by helping people discover that one book that will change their life or make them see the magic in words

So, thank you!

I'll be back :)

Xoxo,

Sel

My Thoughts on Strange Chemistry

I rarely review self-published books, hence, the publishers I work with are pretty much limited to the Big Six-- Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Random House, Hachette, Macmillan and Penguin-- as well as Harlequin. They have amazing books under them and I've realized that almost every single one of my favourite novels before I came into book blogging were from one of these seven publishers. 

Sometimes, when the occasional unfamiliar name pops up under the publisher's label, they are most often imprints of the already established publishing houses (that caused some confusion on my part initially). For instance, Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins. And I think that's why I almost never encounter new publishing houses in my search of new books to read. 

Here's when Strange Chemistry comes in.

It appeared out of nowhere in September last year and its books just kept on popping up in my radar. They had some really good titles of more than decent quality and I started unknowingly requesting them on Netgalley, only discovering afterwards that they were not from one of the Big "Sevens".

A few titles that I can recite off the top of my head would be:

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond

Shift by Kim Curran

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Broken by A.E. Rought

Pantomime by Laura Lam (which I'm reading now!)

The Holders by Julianna Scott (I'm planning on reading this soon)

Do any of these sound familiar to you? :)

Apart from the interesting premises, one of the reasons why their books catch my eye is the cover. And I'm a total sucker for good covers! They are the first thing that draws my attention to a book and more often than not, my favourite books have gorgeous covers to match their brilliant plot-lines.

Strange Chemistry has covers that are quite different in style and tone from most of the covers under traditional publishing houses, and they are refreshingly simple!

And what brought on this post was one of the latest covers which really took me by surprise! 

It's beautiful :)

I'm a reader who believes that the efforts that go into a cover often reflects the standards of publishing and the value of the work that is churned out by the publishing house. In the case of Strange Chemistry, their covers just keep getting better each time round!

Here's to a Young Adult imprint that is slowly gaining ground! *Cheers* For me, it's really exciting to see a publishing house slowly grow into something big and established right before our eyes :)

One thing for sure, this is one publishing house that has inched itself onto my look-out list and I'm pleasantly surprised. I bet they will have a lot more good stuff coming along!

Are there any new imprints that caught your eye? Have you read any books by Strange Chemistry? 

xoxo,
Sel

2013 Challenges

The Debut Author Challenge is hosted by the Hobbitsies and this is my first year joining!

The list of debuts that I'm planning on reading are as follows:

January-- Uses of Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt

January-- The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd 

January-- Cinders & Sapphires by Leila Rasheed 

February-- Pantomime by Laura Lam

March-- Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson 

March-- The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett
March-- The Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey 

April-- In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters 

May-- Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan

May-- The Falconer by Elizabeth May 

June-- Ink by Amanda Sun

July-- After Eden by Helen Douglas
August-- Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke
December-- These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagen Spooner

The 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge is hosted by Evie@ Bookish, Rachel @ Fiktshun, Justin @ Justin's Book Blog, Tiffany @ Escaping…One Book at a Time, Bonnie @ Words at Home and Emily @ Doodle's Book Blog. This is also my first year joining!

I'm aiming to go for A Sweet Kiss, which is around 21 to 30 books.

Here is the list of books in my TBR pile that I am going to finish in 2013:

1. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

2. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

3. Illuminate by Aimee Agresti

4. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

5. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

6. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

7. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

8. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

9. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

10. The Selection by Kiera Cass

11. Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb

12. Warm Bodies by Issac Marion

13. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

14. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

15. Harbinger by Sara Wilson Etienne

16. Throne of Glass by Sara J. Maas

17. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 

18. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

19. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

20. The Diviners by Libba Bray

21. My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century by Rachel Harris

22. Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

23. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

24. Delirium by Lauren Oliver 

25. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

The above are all books that I own or have been given to me by publishers in 2012. This year, I'm going to finish them all!

I will be updating this page as I find more books in the nooks and crannies of my room or on the ever amazing Goodreads :) Challenges do make you organized!

Love,

Sel