Utah Book Month- Blogger Spotlight!

It's time for my Utah Blogger Spotlight!  I have The Reading Fever... the blogger Penelope.   Let's learn about her shall we????

What books does The Reading Fever love?

 She reads many types of books, but especially love Urban Fantasy, Dystopia, and Historical Fiction (even better if any of them are combined).  She's a Hunger Games and A Song of Ice and Fire fanatic.

Why did she start blogging?

 The fever first caught hold when she was 18 and realized for the first time since Nancy Drew, that reading is fun...and addicting. From then on,  she experiences a constant stream of symptoms leading up to the final diagnosis. You know, the usual stuff: Increased heart rate, delusions, inability to function until done reading, loss of sleep, crying, etc.. she finally got around to thinking about these symptoms and decided that reading fever is a classifiable medical diagnosis. Probably the only diagnosis that is actually sought after...by sane people, anyway. Thus, The Reading Fever was born; an outlet for her love of reading, and a way to keep her fever alive and burning. In the process of blogging about books, she hopes her readers will catch a little fever themselves.

What does her blog feature:

I found on her blog some fun features.  She interviews authors , some great reading challenges,  and what she calls fever inducers.   I know that she even went to BEA! I tried to reach out to her but I think she might be on a blog hiatus since June. If she gets back to me I will update this post.



Where to find the Reading Fever:  Twitter   facebook  blog

Utah Book Month -author spotlight Kristen Chandler

Hello all!  Hope you are having fun checking out the Utah Book Month!  If you are wondering what it's all about click here to go to the website and see the schedule.  Today I am doing an author spotlight on a Utah author, Kristen Chandler.

I am excited to check out her two books Wolves, Boys and Other Things that Might Kill Me and Girls Don't Fly.  I just picked up both books from the library so I should be getting started on them soon.  Turns out that Kristen is a birder and loves to be outside.  This made me smile because I too am a birder.  She told me that "  Like most people I've dreamed I could fly, a lot, and I have wondered  why. I finally decided that its because there are ways that we do fly in our lives and I wanted to capture that feeling in a story. I also wanted to write about the conflict girls feel between following their dreams and looking out for the people they love. So I put the stories together!  I'm not a hard core birder but for research I spent time with bird folk and caught the fever a little. My favorite aspect of my research was when I had the honor of being shown around Utah Lake by Merrill Webb, the premier bird guru in Utah and a hilarious story teller to boot. He allowed me to sit in on his AP biology classes for a few days and I adored his students."   I love birds so much so this is exciting for me to read about.


Kristen enjoys writing Young Adult books.  She says she loves teenagers so it's not a big stretch to write for them.  She loves all age groups of people but teenagers are the awesome because they are on the edge of their lives. Kristen says "You do so many things for the first time in such a short time span when you are a teenager. It's freakin' DANGEROUS. I love books that capture that vulnerability and have a great voice. I also love books that make me think and grow and ache inside. I'm all about the ache."

So what's next for Kristen's books? She is working/obsessing/loving on a book about a girl that goes to live at a dude ranch after being raised in a very "inside the lines" kind of situation. It's kind of like White Fang for teenage girls with hot cowboys.  That's a joke!  It's a story about love and mustangs and wide open spaces. Are you swooning yet? That's what she's going for here!

Would would Kristen recommend to all of us to read for great YA??  Well she has a huge list of course! She says "if you want to read realistic YA you should sample John Green, Francisco X Stork, Matthew Quick, Carol Williams, Sherman Alexie, Daniel Handler, Stephanie Perkins, Laurie Halse Anderson, Sara Dessen, Sara Zarr, Martine Leavitt and me. I'd love it if you read me, for entirely selfish reasons of course .There are fifty other authors I should be naming here but I have a deadline and you're making me feel awkward."  I am totally in!

Of course I had to ask her about Utah!  Kristen says she "loves being a Utah Author. It's amazingly supportive. I love every author in the state. Even the ones I don't know. Except James Dashner. Him we all like to make fun of. Actually I think he's great! But you knew that. What do I love most about Utah? How it smells. Like in the morning when I'm running in the foothills behind my house and the mint and sage give the air a sharp edge that makes me feel five and immortal all at the same time. I also like my family and friends. They smell good too."  I have to agree with her.. I love the smell of Utah.. until the lake smell covers everything.  Then I just want to run inside.


Be sure to watch out on my blog this month for the reviews of both her books!  I loved the Q&A with her... I felt like I was talking to a REAL person.  She is just great to chat with.  For real guys.. we all need to check out these books!

Find Kristen on twitter, her blog,  and facebook.

Utah Book Month - Salt Lake City Library!

This past Spring I went back to Utah for a visit with my family.  While there I made a special trip to the The City Library at Salt Lake City, UT.  It was amazing.  This library was opened in 2003 but I never made time to go and visit it when I lived there back then.  I am so glad I did.  The architecture is pretty magnificent.

If you ever get a chance to go to Salt Lake City, the library is a MUST see.  I still can't believe how gorgeous it is.   There was even a girl who was getting her photos done in there.  There is a garden/balcony at the top of the building that unfortunately I was unable to visit because it was closed.  They told me about 30 minutes but I didn't think it would only be 30 minutes and there were a few more places in Salt Lake that I wanted to go and see so I missed it.

In the main entry way into the building there is a wonderful piece of art that you see above.  This art is a bunch of little books that for a face. I love it.. it is in that picture of the entry way at the top of the blog post but it is hard to see there.  Above is a shot of it from the staircase.

 This is a close up of the art... little book butterflies!!!  I was so amazed by this.  The entire building is just beautiful art.  The children's area had just lovely reading spaces for kids. The library had neat little book club kits you could check out.  It also had some amazing bike racks outside.

I would love it if this was my local library.  The only downfall is that you have to pay to park there and since I go to my library at least once sometimes twice a week that would add up.  There is no way for me to capture in pictures the beauty of this library.  The wonderful water cascades outside, the shape of the building (it's hard to get a picture of the whole building because it's in the middle of several buildings so I couldn't find a spot to take a good photo).

 

I wish I had taken the time to go to the library sooner.. but I am glad I took the chance to get out there and visit it.  Honestly take the time if you are in the area.  Watch my blog for more Utah fun this month!!

Utah Book Month

August is a month full of celebrating all things books for Utah!  Utah Book Bloggers, Utah Authors, Utah Books, and anything else that has to do with Utah. I discovered this event last year, and even though I don't live in Utah anymore I still love the state. For the whole schedule and other fun things about this month visit Utah Books.  

My schedule for the month is :

August 7th feature on Salt Lake Public Library (amazing building)
August 12th author spotlight on Kristen Chandler
August 27th blogger spotlight Penelope at the Reading Fever
I'll be participating in the challenges as well this month. 

For those of you interested I participated in the Reading Road Trip and featured Utah there adding lots of facts about the state!

I plan on reading and reviewing :

Both books are by Chandler and I thought they would be perfect to review since I am spotlighting her this month.  Look for the reviews this month!