The Monday Mix (08)

While I did enjoy doing A Sunday Retrospective, I've made the decision to stop posting on the weekends. I rarely open up my laptop during that time, and I'd prefer to keep it that way. The only thing that made me really sad was the fact that I would no longer have an outlet to share my favorite links from the past week. I mourned that for all of ten seconds before realizing that I could just start a new feature - and so, The Monday Mix was born.

The Monday Mix basically gives me the opportunity to share with all of you the links I loved online from last week, everything from reviews to articles about writing and perhaps other things too. I've always valued the opportunity to share the great things I've read or seen, and this is my way to share the love.

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It's been two weeks since I've been able to do one of these, so be prepared for the explosion of awesome posts that you're about to encounter! BEA week definitely kept me busy, as I was attending lots of different events, signings and hanging out with blogger friends. I was hungover the whole week afterwards, so I didn't have time to put this together. That all changes this week though, so please check out these posts that you might have missed!

WARNING: There are a lot of posts!

1. Rachel has another cool BookBags post, this time dedicated to the girls of YAGB! I completely love the one she picked out for Taken, because the colors are very vibrant. I wouldn't mind getting any of them as a present though...

2. I may not have read a book by Sara Zarr yet, but this beautiful post about letting go just makes me more inclined to check out her stuff. (Thanks Jamie for sharing it!)

3. Susan Dennard is awesome at giving advice for aspiring writers, and here are her thoughts on writing and publishing, as shared on the NaNoWriMo blog. (I love her series, by the way -- so excited to get started on reading book 2!)

4. Missed out on seeing Theo James as Four in the Divergent film? Here's a link for you. He's looking mighty fine!

5. Twitter is one of my favorite social media sites, and I love holding conversations on there. Here are some great Twitter etiquette tips, as shared by Estelle who got it from Elena!

6. I adore Jodi Meadows and I love her series. Check out her awesome post revealing the title of the third book and the gorgeous cover!

7. The girls at Epic Reads have compiled this post where some of their authors demonstrate the different ways of doing a book shimmy. (My personal favorite is Kat Zhang!)

8. Everything Has Changed is one of my favorite songs off Taylor Swift's Red album, and also her collaboration with Ed Sheeran. The music video that came out last week was sincerely adorable!

9. Any and all interviews featuring the amazing Tamora Pierce are worth a read. This one is particularly fun! (And if you love her as much as I do, join us for PierceFest!)

10. I loved Golden by Jessi Kirby, and I think Rachel did a fantastic job writing her review. It made me want to re-read the book!

11. I finally met Michelle Madow at BEA this year! She put together an awesome recap video of her experience at BEA 2013.

12. I really adore The Immortals series by Tamora Pierce (as I generally love all things by her). See Gaby's introduction post to this month's celebration!

13. One of my favorite people, Anna, posted a really awesome and adorable video on her blog!

14. Writing is slowly but surely making itself a big part of my life again. Thanks to Estelle for sharing this awesome post about writing!

15. It is my mission to visit one of these places this summer. Perhaps the next time it's a beautiful sunny day? (Thanks for sharing with me Cassie!)

16. Steph Su is one of the coolest bloggers I know, and her experience at the Asian Festival of Children's Content sounds phenomenal.

17. What are the things you give up in order to read and blog? Chachic asks this question of her readers, and the answers are very interesting!

18. I loved Jellicoe Road, and the Epic Reads team shared some of their favorite quotes from it.

19. Here's some practical advice for writing reviews from Rachel Seigel, as posted on Pub(lishing) Crawl!

20. I've always enjoyed reading Nova Ren Suma's thoughts on writing. Here she shares about outlining, and how it can be writing before the writing.

21. Gearing up to promote your book? Jodi Meadows has some very sound tips for you.

22. I adore this post from Kristin Cashore about revising, and how it can sometimes be a tedious, chaotic process. (Thanks Jen for sharing!)

23. I basically agree with every single thing Elena says in her amazing review of Siege and Storm.

24. Magan and Estelle picked out two of my favorite places I've ever been for this post for their Sweet Summertime Reads feature with Ginger and Tara. Love it!

25. Estelle also reviewed The Mourning Hours, and I am completely fascinated by the sound of this book.

26. I've never read Tiger Eyes, but I may have to remedy that after reading Estelle's post about her experience seeing the film.

27. Alexandra Bracken answers a particularly interesting reader question on the Publishing Crawl blog. It certainly is something I think about, as an aspiring writer and hopeful publishing-related job hunter.

28. I absolutely love these 3 summer date ideas, inspired by Sean Griswold's Head. Estelle & Magan did a wonderful job putting this together.

29. Seeing this book trailer basically makes me want to re-read Crown of Midnight already!

30.  I'm very excited for the second installment of The Hobbit! While the trailer is epic and awesome (and HELLO THERE LEGOLAS!), there's also this awesome video of some of the actors watching some fangirls watching the trailer.

31. Mashable shared some really great summer reading suggestions. I highly support their recommendations of Seraphina, Divergent, The Book Thief, The Fault in Our Stars, Second Chance Summer, Shatter Me, The Raven Boys and Eleanor and Park.

32. I love Leigh Bardugo and this Goodreads interview with her is fantastic. YA FOREVER!

33. Marissa Meyer is one of my writing inspirations. I love the advice she offers on how to resist that shiny new idea that is tempting you away from your WIP (and I actually do the first one already!).

34. I'm quickly learning that Samantha Shannon dispenses some really cool writing advice. Here's a recent post she did about building worlds, which I'm definitely taking notes on. Loved her observations and suggestions!

35. The Epic Reads team always comes up with such fun topics! Here's a post they compiled of reader answers to questions about the #LitFamily.

36. Hannah has some great suggestions for reads to bring to the beach. She also made super cute graphics of them, with adorable beach bags.

37. I absolutely love this post from Ginger about the ingredients for a summer romance! It's so adorable.

 

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And in case you missed it, here are my posts from the last few weeks. I've taken the liberty of separating all the BEA-related ones for easy access.

BEA POSTS:

BEA 2013: A Series of AMAZING Events

BEA Spotlight: Book Blogger Picnic

BEA Spotlight: Young Authors Give Back

BEA Spotlight: Top 5 Books I Picked Up at BEA (A Vlog)

BEA Blogger Slam Book

REGULAR POSTS:

I absolutely adored Dare You To, and my review will tell you why.

Someday, Someday Maybe rode on a wave of praise from friends when I started it.

The Perfect Chemistry series was addictive, gripping and really, really fun.

I really wanted to like The Sweetest Dark.

If you're curious about what I got up to in May, here's my retrospective.

Sometimes, I like to read MG books for fun. Currently, I'm loving Tales from Lovecraft Middle School.

The Sea of Tranquility is a decent read, with a fairly compelling plot.

I liked Secret for a Song much more than I expected to.

Runes just didn't live up to the potential I saw in it.

Chantress appears to be only the beginning, and I'm interested in finding out more.

It Takes Two is back for June, and the Companion Novels Challenge is going strong (check this post).

I feel so lucky to be able to have the amazing Diana Peterfreund visit for An Author a (Mon)day.

Reading The Camp was an interesting experience, as it's different from my usual reads.

How To Be Almost Famous in Ten Days has tons of entertainment value.

In spite of my reservations, I did like Hidden.

Something Strange and Deadly was a delightful read! (Bonus: I reviewed A Dawn Most Wicked too!)

I hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as I did! Now it's YOUR turn - are there any posts (on your blog or other blogs) from last week that I missed out on? Please feel free to share links in the comments and I'll try to check them out.