I'm crossing the pond!

Oh Hai there folks, I know, I know I am totally failing at getting a blog routine going but with work kicking my ass mentally I just have no energy to write reviews :S But fear not as things might pick up around here in three short days when I hop a flight to the wonderful US of A!!

It's been nearly 3 years since I last got to go on a family holiday to Florida so you can understand that I am super-excited to be going for two and a half weeks. We're gonna be hitting up all the parks (cos we're crazy like that) and by damn if I'm not going to the Harry Potter park! They were still building it when I was last at Universal so I'm gonna be running round that place with the dorkiest grin on my face and I *will* be coming out of that place with at least a wand :P

What I'm also seriously looking forward to is actually not a park but the bookstores! There are a few bookstores near our villa which I will be dying to raid (luggage allowance permitting) so there will be some pretty cool IMMs over the next few weeks.

In the time when we're not at the parks we'll be chillin' at the villa so hopefully I'll be able to get quite a few reviews done, not to mention getting some good chunks of reading done. Heck knows I need to chill after two months of full-time work (I know there are people who work way crazier hours than I do but this is the first full-time job I've had so I'm still adjusting).

So just thought I'd update you lovely folk and let you know that I've not entirely left the blogosphere :D

See y'all on the flipside
LadyV

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Hows about a Fresh Start?

So regular visitors to the Library will have noticed that 2011 has been a bit of a bat-shit crazy fest for me and as a result my blog has suffered with frequent lapses in posting followed by short-lived binges.

Now as we're coming to the beginning of June I've had the realisation that I might need to shake things up around here - seriously -  to get myself back into a proper routine. My new job has left me with vastly reduced reading time (unless I get chance to read during my lunch break) and in the evenings I tend to plump for tv/dvd watching in lieu of spending more time on a computer after 8 hours of staring at a screen and answering phones. Don't get me wrong I am *immensely* glad that I have a job but I'm not wholly chuffed with the idea that I might literally become glued to a keyboard if I try to follow up work with blogging every day.

So what's the plan I hear you ask? Well first up shall be a good redecorating, I hope I can find another blog template that I love as much as this one but I think I need to change it not only for practical reasons (the centre column is just too narrow) but also for aesthetic ones. It feels quite dark and brooding and God knows I don't need to keep my blog looking almost funereal after what's happened this year.

After that I think I need to re-evaluate how often I post, and more importantly *what* I post. I continually run into problems with book reviews as I tend to read so quickly that by the time I get round to reviewing a particular book I've read 4 or 5 more since that one and my thoughts about the book are not as distinct. But I don't really make up for the general lack of reviews with other quality posts, I very rarely do discussion posts because I don't feel wholly confident in my ability to articulate my opinions on topics that I feel strongly about and because more often than not the topic has been covered by better bloggers than I.

The solution to this problem? I don't have a concrete plan as yet but I reckon if I try to do double-barrelled review/topic posts that are related somehow then they might add more depth to each other and I get two posts stemmed from one idea. I hope to think of more ways to add quality to my posts as I discover more of this new side of the metaphorical leaf.

I gotta give a massive thanks to the people who have been there for me during these past few months, I may have completely lost the plot without your support and while I may not have my shit together entirely just yet I know y'all will be at the ready to patch me up when cracks appear.

You guys rock, don't forget that.

Get ready for change
LadyV

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April Round-off

With being away from home this weekend I almost completely forgot that April was ending, even more strange was how I kept forgetting that May comes after April - for some reason I thought it was gonna be June instead :S.

April has been the hardest month, quite possibly of my life, with the death of my grandfather coming out of the blue back on the 7th. The two weeks that followed was the most bewildering time for my family as we tried to sort out all the bureaucratic bullshit that people just don't think about when you think of losing someone - you almost don't have time to grieve properly when you're running about making sure that all the accounts that were once in his name are now in my grandmother's and that anything that can't be transferred is cancelled.

When we had the funeral we finally had the chance to really reflect on how much Grandad meant to us, and although we would miss him terribly that we were thoroughly blessed to have had him in our lives. Despite the sombre occasion it was a beautiful day and it was wonderful to see how many people turned out to celebrate his life - my grandfather was a very popular man and it was wholly apparent in the number of sympathy cards that my Grandma received from people who had known him through Church or Choir.

I think that the day of the funeral marked the turning point of fortunes for this year as it was on that morning that I got a call offering me a job to start the very next day. In the midst of such a sorrowful event came a ray of hope that things might now get better and although I've yet to work a full five-day week with all the bank holidays and Royal Wedding shiz going on, I feel that in the last two weeks of April I have been in far better state of mind than I have been in months. I finally have a job and I'm really enjoying it although it does mean that I have neglected my blog for a while but I'm hoping that once I'm settled into a routine and gotten used the early mornings and long days that I can still keep up somewhat with my reading and reviews.

Now that I have rambled on considerably I shall get to the point of this post - rounding-off this month's reading and what few other things I've posted.

Books Read in April
51. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (1/4/2011 PM) Re-read
52. Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales (3/4/2011 PM)
53. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare (9/4/2011 AM)
54. Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt (10/4/2011 AM)
55. Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce (10/4/2011 PM) Re-read
56. In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce (11/4/2011 AM) Re-read
57. Pretty Bad Things by C.J. Skuse (11/4/2011 PM)
58. Rockoholic by C.J. Skuse (13/4/2011 PM)
59. A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow by George R.R. Martin (15/4/2011 PM)
60. Wood Angel by Erin Bow (17/4/2011 PM)
61. Changeless by Gail Carriger (18/4/2011 PM)
62. The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong (20/4/2011 AM)
63. Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin (23/4/2011 PM)
64. Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter (24/4/2011 PM)
65. The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller (27/4/2011 PM)
66. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty (28/4/2011 AM) Re-read


Alas I have not reviewed *any* of those books yet which I know is appalling but I will try my best to review the ones that aren't re-reads in the coming weeks.


Books Reviewed in April
Tortall and Other Lands by Tamora Pierce
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Temeraire by Naomi Novik
Lament by Maggie Steifvater


Other Posts of Interest in April
Braaaaains, Rock Salt and other bizarre ways to cope - My slightly off-kilter post about odd methods of coping with grief and other difficult situations. 


Fav Book of the Month

So soon after my Grandad's death I at first wondered if reading this would really be a good idea as on the very first page it's mentioned that Jody's grandfather has just died. Thankfully this book was so full of light and laughter that it lifted my mood right out of the gloom. C.J. Skuse you're officially one of my new favourite people. Thank you so much for writing such an awesome book.
Honourable mention goes to Wood Angel by Erin Bow which was a beautiful and heart-breaking read.
Oh and if you didn't know both of these books were published by Chicken House which in my opinion is one of the most awesome UK children's publishers (no I am not being coerced to say this, I just really love the books they publish), y'all should really check out their books :D


What to expect in May
As you may remember way back at the start of April I got a super-amazing package full of goodies from the lovely Sasha Soren for my participation in the Random Magic blog tour which will be kicking off in a couple of weeks. For this tour I will be reviewing Sasha's book Random Magic (in both written and vlog form) and I'll be doing a reading from the book to fit the tour theme of Pirates. There's also going to be other fab and funky piratically themed posts to entertain y'all and who knows what else? I don't currently have a schedule of who else is going to be posting what and when but as soon as I know I'll post about it so anyone who is interested can have a nosy round all the different posts going up over the tour.


So that's been April and I'm sorry this post is so long. Here's to May being a better month for everyone.
LadyV

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A few changes and a request!

Aft'noon all I just wanted to do a quick post and let you know about some things that you may have only noticed if you were staring at my sidebars yesterday and also to ask you lovely people for some assistance.

First off, as most people know this weekend is Bloggiesta but as you can see by the lack of update posts I am not officially signed up, *however* I have been doing a few housekeeping tasks about the Library in the spirit of Bloggiesta. Nothing too major like layout change because I am very much attached to my header and the whole rigmarole of finding another design that I really love and installing it properly would be rather tedious.

I've got all my reading lists up-to-date with links to reviews and you can find them either by looking at the Pages section just at the top of the left sidebar (I would love to have them across the top of my blog but alas there is no tab functionality with this design), or by scrolling down past the list of favourite authors (now with links to the author's websites) where there's a simplified list of the books I've read so far in 2011.

On the opposite sidebar I haven't done much, just added the button to the third reading challenge I've signed up for - British Books Challenge and down-sized my blog roll to just the UK bloggers I follow although I will add a list of some of my favourite International Bloggers at some other time.

One thing I want to announce is that I shall no longer be accepting awards on this blog. Although I am very grateful to all the people who have left me comments telling me I have an award over on their blogs, I simply don't have the time or energy to scour through my blog reader finding umpteens more blogs to pass them on to. I've not actually done an awards post in months but I thought I'd best make it official so that folk know not to pass them on to me anymore.

Another thing I want to announce is that I'm thinking of putting myself on a book buying ban for at least 3 months and making a feature out of it during February with the tentative title of Frugal February. Basically I want to not buy any books be they new or second-hand for at least a whole month and dedicate myself to reading only from my bookshelves since my TBR pile has probably crested 200 books now. So I'm making a plea for Guest Bloggers to contribute their plans for keeping to their book buying bans, reading Off the Shelf, or just budgeting themselves wisely enough to be able to buy the essential books.


So if anyone wants to contribute to this feature then please email me with a possible post subject to libraryofladyviolet(at)gmail(dot)com. I would love to have 3 or 4 people sharing their opinions on book buying bans and I want to make this feature actually last the whole month (unlike my Favs Fortnight :S)

That's all for now folks!
LadyV

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In My Mailbox #36

Hey everyone Sunday has rolled around once again (seriously how are we already half-way through January?) so you know what's coming next.

In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie



Books Acquired this Week
Reading like a Writer by Francine Prose *snort*
Across the Universe by Beth Revis *snuggles* LOVE IT! Review forthcoming
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill
Firespell by Chloe Neill
Birthday book for JessHeartsBooks (Not Shown)


So a pretty decent haul this week, and I'm looking forward to reading my library books soonish.
Important News: Keep your eyes peeled for a special post later today! *hint* It could be to your benefit! Super Cool Special Post


That's what I got, What's in Your Mailbox This week?
LadyV

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New Feature Launching Next Week!!

Well howdy there! Ain't this a special occasion? What I have for you today is the start of a new feature which has emerged tonight from a *very* bizarre Twitter discussion with my bestie Jess of Jess hearts books. We're the kind of crazy people who drool excessively over sublimely pretty book covers (and the Fuentes brothers :P) and we gots a-talking about which covers are so unbelievably gorgeous that we would be willing to lick them.

Thus the idea for a feature was born...

Next Thursday on both my blog and Jess's we will be launching our new joint feature -

  Covers So Lovely We'd Lick Them 

We know it's an insane name but it's from the mind of two insane people. Every Thursday we will choose one book cover which we particularly adore and proclaim loudly to the world why we'd be very happy to lick it. 

If that sounds worth a look then pop back next week for the first post of our Fab New Feature! 

Muchos Love

LadyV

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Apologies for the hiatus! And News for the Future

Ok folks I just thought I'd re-appear real quick to explain why I've suddenly gone all quiet and whatnot.
Tomorrow I've moving into my new flat for my second year of University and like an utter idiot I left my packing far too late and today I'm gonna be working like a madwoman getting all my clothes and books sorted out (first I better decide what books I'm actually taking :S).
So that's why I've not been posting this week, partly because I'm lazy and I've also been doing other chores (ironing and watching ridiculous amounts of Stargate in order to finish my summer marathon).

Another thing, I'm probably not gonna get broadband set up at the flat until the end of September so posts are gonna be kinda sporadic on here until then. I am going to try and get some stuff typed up and then transfer it to Blogger when I go somewhere with free wi-fi so that the whole blog doesn't drop off the face of the earth.

So sorry again for the vanishing act and I hope y'all can be patient with me and I promise that once I have internet back that a reasonably normal schedule of posting will resume - for the first two weeks of October I'm gonna be doing a series of reviews of some Favourite books of mine - conveniently titled "Favourites Fortnight" so if other people want to get all nostalgic and re-read some of the *their* favs please feel free to link to reviews in the comments when I get the first post up.

Oh and once October begins, I will be starting down the scary, stress-filled road to NaNoWriMo and I'll try and do quick daily or alternate days posts updating on the planning stages. When we get to November then everything will go mad and normal blogging will be suspended while I try and juggle uni work and the intense writing mahem of NaNo. I will do update posts and try and figure out how the heck to get a word-counter widget on here so you can keep up with how I'm doing (hoping I don't flake out after the first week- I really want to do this). My reading in November will probably be very minimal so I may do the odd review *if* I read anything.

Don't Forget! My Birthday Bonanza Contest is still going until the 7th of October so you still have three weeks to enter! Fill out the form Here to enter!

I hope to be posting again soon (I have a couple of posts in draft atm so I'll try to finish them) but for now I better get packing!
LadyV

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