Gabriella M Reads

Tucson Festival of Books 2019 This year I went to the Tucson Festival of Books yet again and I did it mostly solo. My friend Gwen joined me for part of day one, but like I said mostly a solo adventure. I met lots of great authors and was able to get most, if not all, of books signed. I think one of the greatest memories is of Gwen and I having Scott Magoon draw us a shark fighting a velociraptor. Gwen and I also got to meet the incredibly kind and funny Jonathan Stutzman. We joked around and talked about work before finally taking a picture together with Tiny the T-rex. I need to get myself a copy of his new book, Llama Destroys the World. The days were long and I got a bit of a sunburn, but I also had the pleasure of attending half of a Star Wars panel. I say half because I was that poor girl coughing up a storm in the front row and I kindly excused myself so that everyone else could enjoy the discussion. It was fun all the same and I got to see all of the authors

Once again, it's one of my favorite times of the year. The Tucson Festival of Books at the University of Arizona! It's a free two day festival filled with books, food, science, art, etc. There are so many booths it's hard to visit them all, try as I might. Day one started with some wonderful humans and equally wonderful books. My day didn't start off perfect, I got stuck in a parking garage and ended up being late. I was headed to a panel when I noticed a line was already forming for Victoria Aveyard. I decided not to chance it and to just jump in and wait for an hour. Very worth it if you ask me. She is so kind! I had made a friend last year and spotted her one line over waiting for Holly Black so with her permission I joined her. I've never read a Holly Black book, but I have heard amazing things about her writing. I bought The Darkest Part of the Forrest just for this event and am so excited to see what everyone has been talking about. Have you ever me

Armchair Book Expo is over for this year. I'm already ready for next year, although I am hoping to actually be at BEA for the first time ever. So we'll see how that goes. In a dream world I'd get to do both. Anyway, This is basically a post to say goodbye to all of my Armchair BEA friends until next year and wrap things up nicely. I've met so many great people this year! If you missed my previous posts we talked about diversity, good blogging habits, dining with authors and so much more. Feel free to go back and take a look, I love chatting with you. I'm still looking for more diverse recommendations so feel free to leave those in the comments. As always I am very grateful for this community and feel very lucky to have found it. Thank you for stopping by. Happy reading! Xoxo, Gabriella

Welcome to my final Armchair BEA post for 2017! Today is all about recommendations! Giving them and receiving them so let's get to it! My Recommendations! Every reader is different, but for those who enjoy contemporary and want to dive into the adult genre I tend to recommend The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley. This book made me cry and it was just so damn good. Not to mention the cover is gorgeous which is actually why I bought it. For a gritty non-fiction I recommend Riding in Cars with Boys by Beverly Donofrio. I used to watch this movie all the time when I was little and I never knew it was based on a true story. So naturally, I had to buy the book and it didn't let me down. I guess I should recommend some young adult huh? Paula Stokes. Any book of hers. Seriously, but I really loved Girl Against the Universe. The mental health aspect was done very well in my opinion. If you're into vampires, Thirst by Christopher Pike is wonderful. It's a good

It's day three of Armchair BEA and things are getting good. I hope everyone has been having a good time reading and sharing posts and chatting with each other. I know I have. On to today's topics. Delving Into Diversity I don't really have much to say regarding diversity because I don't read diversely enough. I'm trying to change that and would love any recommendations you throw my way so feel free to leave them in the comments. As for diversity in book format, I'm pretty into paperback novels. Hardcovers if I'm super excited about a book and cannot wait for the paperback to come out. I haven't tried an audiobook yet, although I own two of them. I just tend to zone out and would probably need a physical copy to follow along with. I also have read two graphic novels and am trying to buy/read more of them. I'm taking recommendations for these as well. And lastly, ebooks. I'm not the biggest fan because I don't like staring at a scree

Welcome to day two of Armchair BEA, the from home version of Book Expo America which I hope to attend someday. Let's just get straight into today's topics, shall we? What Do Readers Want? What I want as a reader is to be sucked in. I want a story to hold my attention and make me care. That is actually how I rate my books, based on how well they keep my attention. When it comes to events, I would like them to be spread out more. Maybe that's a weird way to say it. What I mean is, change the cities you visit. Don't always do the major ones, some of us can't make it to those. And if you insist on making them so far, can you make them at a reasonable time? Example: Most of the events are a two hour drive from me, but don't begin until 7 PM and on a week night. Let's say I only stay for an hour? I'm still not getting home until after 10 PM if I'm lucky. We all know well known authors might not get to everyone in a simple hour. This is why I rar

Armchair BEA! Welcome to my second year of participating in Armchair BEA, the online version of Book Expo America. We talk books an blogging and celebrate the community. This is day one, I hope you enjoy! Introduction I'm Gabriella and I'm 22 years old, almost 23. I love to read, hike, watch television, and just relax. My current read is Freeks by Amanda Hocking and I'm enjoying it so far. My summer plans include reading, adventuring, and visiting with my friends from out of town. That's about it. Day One: Best Practices Within the Online Book Community Some of my best practices include kindness (which honestly goes a long way, especially with everything going on lately) and persistent use of my Twitter to stay involved. I think we all know there can be a lot of hurtful things, rude people, and general negativity within the community and I try my best to be one of the positive people. It's not hard to be supportive of one another. Honestly. As far

Aesthetic Concerns: Books I judge books by their cover, there I said it. Mostly I rely on the cover to pull me in when I'm browsing. I know I'm probably missing out on a ton of great books because of this, but it's the sad truth about advertising. If I know and like a synopsis ahead of time then the cover doesn't really matter because I know what kind of story I'm in for. I wouldn't say I'm often surprised, while a cover pulls me in, the synopsis is what keeps me around. I can't name a single book that I bought strictly because of the cover without reading the back. As for how things look on my shelf, I definitely want my books to match. If it's not possible then I obviously have to deal with that. If I can get matching covers in matching formats that's a top priority for me. For example, I bought and loved the paperback copy of Winger by Andrew Smith and the sequel came out last year, but, as it often is with new releases, it was only

Armchair BEA! Hello and welcome back to my blog! For those of you who don't know, Armchair BEA is the online version of Book Expo America held for those who cannot attend the live event. I personally hadn't heard of it until this year and I was in a definite need to join. So let's give this a shot! Introduction Questions! What is the name you prefer to use? You can call me Gabriella. How long have you been a book blogger? I started blogging a little over a year ago, but about a month ago I decided to switch blogs. Have you participated in ABEA before? This is my first time doing Armchair BEA and I am quite excited about it! Do you have a favorite book? My all time favorite book is Water for Elephants and I am definitely do for a reread really soon. If you could recommend one other book blogger who would it be and why? I would recommend Grace from Grace Lucy Reviews . Her reviews are very thorough and in my opinion, she deserves more attention than sh

Tucson Festival of Books March 12th & 13th of 2016 If you've been around for a while, then you'll know that last year I went to the Tucson Festival of Books for the very first time and had an absolute blast. I've been waiting for it to be time again ever since. I never knew that my city hosted an event full of my people, crazy right? This year was absolutely amazing and I am left waiting for the same great experience next year. Day one I went with my cousin and his girlfriend as we all planned to see R.L. Stine . My favorite quote from his presentation happened to come after some story telling, "I always make up my true stories." This earned a laugh from the audience. Afterwards, the plan was to meet him and get my copy of Eye Candy signed, but after 45 minutes in line we gave up. Turned out that his line was going to be around 3 hours long and I had other things to do! It's still quite the bummer though. While I stopped at the Sweet Sixteens &

Tucson Festival of Books March 15, 2015 This year was my first year attending the festival and I had an awesome time. I planned my schedule out beforehand and was able to do most of the things that I wanted to. Day one didn't go as planned at all! In fact, because of work schedules Tyler, Logan, and I missed Mitch Albom! However, we did get to walk around and stop at a few tents which was cool. Big tip: Wear sunscreen and drink a lot of water. Day two was just Logan and myself. The first thing we did was walk down to the Education Kiva to see the Girl Power seminar featuring Ally Carter, Jenny Han, and Sarah Mlynowksi. I was genuinely interested in what these ladies were saying. One of the things being that if the cover of The Hunger Games had a female on it, fairly less people probably would've read it. It's a sad thing to think about. Girls can be strong and tough, not just boys. I really hope one day we'll be seen as equals. My favorite thing discussed