Meme Spotlight: Friday-Themed Fun

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Fragment Friday, Follow Friday, & Book Blogger Hop! (Whoa, O_O)

 Woohoo! It's Friday!

First, welcome to Fragment Friday. It's an innovative, weekly meme that showcases books in a unique way. Generally what happens is every Friday James over @ Bookchicclub (who has a review for Tempestuous by Lesley Livingston posted as we speak) posts his FF vlog, where he talks a little bit about the book he has chosen for the week and then he reads a nice tidbit from said book. The idea is to get readers excited about books, all kinds of books. At the bottom of his post, he has a Mr. Linky where bloggers who participate in this meme sign up.

Fragment Friday will be officially starting up again January 21, 2011!

This week's vlog is rather long (so long in fact that I had to break it up into two parts), but that's because I'm reading THREE excerpts from three different books. Now, I don't expect you to sit there and watch both vlogs (the darn thing's like twenty minutes long combined)  so I've created a table of contents so to speak...

Excerpt from The Goblin Wood by Hilari Bell (Learn more»») in Part I, 1 min, 3 sec
Excerpt from Wildthorn by Jane Eagland (Learn more»») in Part I, 7 min, 17 sec
Excerpt from Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (Learn more»») at Part II,

There, you see, now you have the choice of a) watching both vlogs in their entirety, and I promise I won't bop you over the head with a blunt instrument if you decide you won't, which brings me to choice b) where you scroll through the video to the times listed above and get to hear the excerpt from the book you've selected.

Now, put your hands together for the TOTALLY, utterly interesting and fascinating vlog that I have created... And yes, I decided to finally reveal the awesomeness that is my face. Don't be too dazzled now.

Onto the video... 

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Must be so hard to look so good...

'Kay so I finally got a whiff of this feature called Follow Friday that centers around bringing the blogging community closer together right, which is hosted by this really neat blog Parajunkee's View (http://www.parajunkee.com/), and what happens is every Friday a blogger
guest posts on Parajunkee's blog to talk about themselves and their blog (like Shannon @ Stalking the Bookshelves). Then, there's this super cool part where a question gets asked like this one:

What book(s) have you discovered lately from someone's book blog?

From there, we bloggers post our answers...

And what do you know? I have an answer:

Well, since I snuck a peek at Bibliophile Brouhaha's Follow Friday post I just now discovered Human. 4, a creepy looking yet totally intriguing novel. And, because I read her review of Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, I now know that the book exists.

Thanks to Eleni at La Femme Readers, I recently discovered The Emerald Talisman and The Sapphire Talisman, both by Brenda Pandos, which seem like awesome vampire novels! Also, I found out a little more about Vampire Crush because of a fun interview with the author.

Sifting through the Small Review's to-read pile did some damage to my TBR pile, because I now want to read Fury by Shirley Marr, Voices of Dragons and Steel by Carrie Vaughn, and Knife by R.J. Anderson!

Due to my frequent visits to MundieMoms and my happening to see one of The Story Siren's tweets, I happened upon The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkins, which I'm thoroughly amazed by and really want to read.

"To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host {Parajunkee.com} and any one else you want to follow on the list
2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - http://stalkingthebookshelves.blogspot.com/
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
8. If your new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!"

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Ah, but we're still not done! But, alas, I'm too tired to write a little suttin' suttin' about the Book Blogger Hop I've decided to participate in, but don't worry I've got you Curious Readers in mind and covered:

"In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read! So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!

The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don't have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun! This is a weekly event! And stop back throughout the weekend to see all the new blogs that are added!" Go visit Crazy-for-Books to see more»»

Anyway, a question from Ivan who blogs at Ivan Bookworm was asked. He was wondering, "What book influenced or changed your life? How did it influence/change you?"

So, I'm gonna tell him:  The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson.


And here's why: Lennie, the main girl, is suffering from a suffocating grief that only happens when you lose someone precious to you to Death. In this case, Lennie lost her sister. Now, being that I have two evil tormentors for little twin sisters, I can relate to her, yet I can't even fathom her pain (I can't even imagine my life without those tiny twin devils). I've never been so attuned to a character like with Lennie in this novel.. The way she perceived life after the death of her sister was so real; she seemed so agonized. Watching her slowly emerge from the shattering, heartbreaking sadness and mourning touched my heart in a way no other book had or probably ever will, at least not in the same way. And now, I'm a little more conscientious of others, more mindful of the things I say and do toward the people who matter to me. 

"In the spirit of snippets, here's one from The Sky is Everywhere:
I'm the only person in the small hilltop cemetery and I'm glad. I drop my backpack and sit down beside the gravestone, rest my head against it, wrap my hands and arms around it like I'm playing a cello...I run my fingers across my sister's name, her nineteen years, then across the words I wrote on a piece of paper months ago and handed to Gram in the funeral parlor: The Color of Extraordinary...
I try to fend off the oceanic sadness, but I can't. It's such a colossal effort not to be haunted by what's lost, but to be enchanted by what was.
I miss you, I tell her, I can't stand that you're going to miss so much.
I don't know how the heart withstands it" (274-275).

& That's all for the Book Blogger Hop!

Smack me with your thoughts, but when you do please remember "Gently, gently, gently, Watson, be gentle with me--"!