Happy 40th Birthday Tuck Everlasting!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most beloved books of all time, and a book that actually changed my life. When I was approached weeks ago about participating in this tour, I kind of freaked a bit and went off on a bit of a tangent about why this book is so personal to me. You see, this is no ordinary book for me. This book is ... everything. 

Over the next 40 days you will see dozens of bloggers participating in this tour and answering that crucial question: What if you could live forever? Instead of answering that question, I'm going to share with you why I love this book.

TUCK EVERLASTING has always had an extremely special place in my heart - it was the first book I ever re-read (and re-read multiple times), it's the first book that ever made me cry, and it's the first book I can remember sharing with other people, at the ripe old age of seven. This book is what I attribute my love of reading to. It all leads back to this book and the day my next door neighbor, an elementary school teacher, gifted it to me. 

This book is so much more than just a book to me. I don't even have the words to describe the memories and moments this book witness with me. I remember reading this book sitting on the sofa in the parlor of the funeral home where my grandmother was being laid to rest when I was 10. I remember it sitting on my lap as I moved from Maryland to Virginia at age 8, terrified of what would happen in a new school with new kids (I also learned I got carsick reading on this trip as a result). I remember countless times checking it out of the school library because I wanted to read it during lunch and left my dog-eared copy sitting at home on my desk.

Even now, as an adult, the magic and beauty of this book haven't been lost on me. That same original copy is now safely tucked into a special place amongst my books - it's over 25 years old now but I'll never part with it.

So maybe that's my answer. If I could live forever, read all the books until the end of the world, all roads would still lead back to the afternoon a friend, teacher, and mentor passed this book into my small hands.

I cannot wait for a new generation to fall in love with this book. Happy 40th, Tuck Everlasting - you haven't aged a bit.

Make sure you pre-order your copy: http://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250059291

Updates on Updates

I try not to post too much personal stuff on the blog, but there's been a notable absence around here lately. Totally wasn't our intention, but we all know life has a way of getting crazy, especially this time of the year.

Gabrielle is finishing her first semester at college (and I could not be more proud of her), and also works full time. And apparently also has to make time for her fiance, so you'll see more of her reviews once classes are done.

I did NaNoWriMo this past November and that sucked up a lot of my time (yes, another blogger who wants to be a writer - what are the odds?) in addition to work and a ton of book signings and things, which rocked but took away time from the blog.

It happens.

But now we're back, and we're so excited. Here's some stuff that you can expect around here in the next few weeks:

ARC Essentials: This idea was borne after I came back from PubCrawl 2013. I had a bunch of people, bloggers mostly, asking about ARCs and how to request them from publishers. I contacted a bunch of publicists I know from a variety of publishing houses and I'll be featuring a different one every week or two that will help break down in the ins an outs of requesting an ARC. 

(Some of you may remember The Story Siren did a similar series of posts called Dear Publisher a few years ago. When I started blogging, I devoured those posts, but a lot has changed since then. With Kristi's blessing, I'm hoping to update that info.)

BEA BLITZ 2014: Yes, the Blitz will be back this May. I will again be partnering with Lexie (Poisoned Rationality) and Nicole (Paperback Princess), as well as a few others to interview publishers, authors, bloggers, and more leading up to BEA 2014 this May.

I will also be updating my BEA Tips & Tricks posts when it gets to be time.

Speaking of BEA ... did y'all know you can register now?

http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/Register-Now/

Will I see any of you there?

My Life As a Blogger (the GIF version)

I've had a few friends (who aren't bloggers) and a couple newbie bloggers ask me about the life of a blogger, so I decided to tell you guys a story. Well, the story. About my beginnings as a blogger until now.

This all began in January of 2011, when I was starting to rediscover the YA genre and read a lot. A fellow friend from livejournal (Ashley) started talking to me about book blogging. The more we chatted, the more I wanted to start my own.

That February, I decided to go all in and I created The Irish Banana Review - you know, the blog you're currently reading. And it was a glorious day. But I was also a little scared.

It was in this moment I knew I would quickly own the blogosphere with my awesome ability to be ... awesome. Yeah.

But then suddenly (and by suddenly I mean 3 months later) it wasn't so glamorous. Where were the hoards of people that were supposed to adore my every written word? Where were these magical, mystical creations called "ARCs" that were supposed to arrive at my door?

And where were the other bloggers that were going to embrace me with open arms and welcome me into their fold?

So, my friends, this newbie blogger found herself at a crossroads. She could walk away from the blog (and really, who of the 56 followers she had amassed would notice? Surely not the robots that outsmarted the captcha to get here.) or she could dig in and keep going.

Spoiler Alert: I kept going! 

Even in the face of dire straits like no comments, minimal page views, and a low GFC number (because back in my day, kids, that was the only number that mattered), I decide to press onward.

I worked hard. I reviewed often, participated in enough memes/giveaways to bring in new followers, but not so many that I was one of "those bloggers" that I heard whispers and rumors about. And then, this one glorious day, a package arrived in my mailbox.

It was my first ARC. A shiny, advanced copy of Half-Blood by then-unknown author Jennifer L. Armentrout. It. Was. EPIC.

Not too long after this, the online world exploded in a flurry and fury of twitter fights, plagiarism scandals, and rampant cases of authors behaving badly. 

I took one simplistic approach that I try to maintain in my life: If it doesn't involve me, I generally stay out of it. 

Then, this one day, I saw this strange little word on Twitter: BEA.

After some careful research, I discovered that this was a place, really a mecca, for book lovers. And as a book lover, I would make my pilgrimage there the following year. So I kept working hard at my blog and decided to go to my first BEA. 

That week in NYC went something like this:

I met a lot of cool people and started making friends with other bloggers. Like, I started texting them, and tweeting them, and facebooking them, and stalking them. But we were friends now and that that made it OK.

But seriously, I came back from BEA and took a small break from blogging because of weddings and jobs and vacations ... But then I was refreshed and ready to go. And go I did; doubling and sometimes tripling the number of page views/visitors per month compared to what I had been averaging before.

Life was good ... but it was also getting overwhelming. I was getting burnt out, and was suffocating under a pile of unread books I had committed to reviewing.

Enter my partner-in-crime, Gabrielle. It's always a plus having a cousin you adore who is also a book lover. So Gabrielle became my co-blogger and helped shoulder a lot of the reviewing duties.

So with Gabrielle came a lot of freedom. I was able to read books for pleasure - not just like a mindless reviewing robot. And because things were going so well, Gabrielle accompanied me to BEA in 2013.

And of course by this time those people I had actually become real-life friends with were there. It was like an awesome reunion. With books! And there were even parties that I got to go to! It went like this:

That pretty much brings us up to now. Now, where I am a happy blogger who gets to do cool things, hang out with pretty awesome people and get the inside scoop in fantastical books.

Until next time, guys!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

Hey guys!

I know updates have been sort of sporadic lately, and there's a good reason for that. I took off a lot of July to focus on my writing. Specifically I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo. And while I didn't finish the 50K word-goal I had set in mind, it was the kick in the butt I needed to start writing again.

That being said, I know this blog suffered. Both Gabrielle and I have been busy reading ... but not so much busy writing the reviews. That's all about to change. We have a bunch of reviews, giveaways, blog tours, and other fun things coming up shortly.

Thanks for sticking around!

 &