TALKING BOOKS TUESDAY on a THURSDAY THIS WEEK - CHAT ABOUT BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD - VLOG - 14TH MARCH 2013

TALKING BOOKS TUESDAY # 24

ON A THURSDAY THIS WEEK

with

Michelle

CHATTING ABOUT :

BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD

DELIRIUM SERIES

SWAG GIVEAWAY FOR ELISABETH STAAB

HAPPY READING!

Michelle

AWESOME INTERVIEW & SIGNED GIVEAWAYS WITH LAUREN OLIVER AUTHOR OF DELIRIUM SERIES , BEFORE I FALL AND LIESL AND PO

I would like to welcome Lauren Oliver to Novels On The Run and thank her for taking time to answer my questions. I would also like to thank her for totally braining us with Delirium and Pandemonium’s cliffhanger endings.....OMG!! * faceplant* ...then starts searching for Requiem’s countdown widget:D

Michelle:   Lauren , in 10 words or less could you please describe Lauren, the author to us?

Lauren:  Driven, passionate, melodramatic, silly. Likes good food and great company.

Michelle:   Please describe an average day in the life of Lauren Oliver?

Lauren:  There really is no such thing as an “average” day for me. When I’m in Brooklyn, I get up at 7:30 and try and get my writing done early. My days are often filled with meetings, publicity demands, gym time, and social obligations. In the evening I like to cook for friends or hang with my fiancé on the couch, and I always try and get to bed by 11 p.m. But I’m often travelling, and when I’m on tour, anything goes! Right now, for example, I’m typing this from an airport in Korea.

Michelle:  What character in either Delirium or Pandemonium was the hardest for you to give a voice to and why?

HODDER & STOUGHTON AUSTRALIA

Lauren:  I initially had trouble giving voice to Julian, because at the start of Pandemonium he is so strictly regimented in his views, so orthodox in his philosophy, and I had trouble sympathizing with him. I had to find his humanity within that.

Michelle:   I ask a lot of authors this, I find it very interesting their responses to the music. I like to find the lyric vids and put in my interviews. Becca Fitzpatrick gave me some wonderful songs for her characters.

What song would describe : Alex & Lena's Relationship, Lena & Julian's friendship, Lena, Alex, Julian?

Lauren:  Alex and Lena’s relationship 

 Romeo and Juliet, by Dire Straits

Lauren:  Lena and Julian’s friendship

 Lucky Now, by Ryan Adams

Lauren:   Lena  

Strong by Kelly Clarkson

Lauren:  Alex 

Resistance, by Muse

Lauren:  Julian 

 So Alive, by Ryan Adams

"So Alive"

Today I watched the boats
Moving through the harbor
Walking on water
In your arms I'd stay
Forever if I could
Forever if I may
Keeps me in your thoughts, don't disappear

I am on your side
And so alive
So alive it isn't real

If this is how I feel
Then nothing now is true
And nothing now can ever be taken away from you
Sinking in the past
The things that shouldn't last
Just put to bed and stand beside me
Stand beside me

Always on your side
I'm on your side
And so alive it isn't real

I am on your side
And so alive
And so alive
And so alive

I am on your side
I am on your side
I am on your side
And so alive
So alive

Michelle:    Both Delirium and Pandemonium are intense reads. I think Pandemonium more so. How did you ‘feel’ when you were writing Pandemonium? I was quite tense the whole time reading the book, I oftened wondered where an author goes to, to write such emotion into their writing?

Lauren:  I sometimes get emotional, definitely, although I think my primary emotional state is usually one of anxiety. I worry, especially during very important scenes, that I won’t be able to translate the vision in my head to the page—that the words I find will be insufficient or won’t convey everything I want to convey. This anxiety gets aggravated the more intense the scene. Sometimes I actually have to get up and walk around and give myself a break—otherwise, I get too paralysed with anxiety to write at all!


Michelle:   Now, you don’t have to answer this but I have to ask...hehe!

Do you and the publishing team have a good ol laugh at us readers before the book is released, knowing the cliffhanger at the end of the book is going to almost kill the reader. Like seriously....I just face planted my desk and watched my grey hairs sprout on my head for the next year long wait...cruel ..people!! hehe! Seriously, it is a brilliant cliffhanger to wait out. And , yes this is a question, I just tangented.

Lauren:  No, I don’t laugh! I don’t take pleasure in a reader’s pain...at least, I don’t take very much pleasure in it. It’s funny, because I was so consumed with the arc of the book, and the act of writing and conceiving the trilogy as a whole, that I never stopped to think about the fact that the end of Pandemonium was such a cliffhanger! I know it seems improbable, but it didn’t really occur to me...I just knew I had to end the book that way.


Michelle:  Are you able to give us a non spoiler quote from ‘Requiem’? Just a tit bit for the pain we are all feeling for a year. I don’t need to know even who said what...just an itsy bitsy.....non spoiling tit bit with a big cherry please on top.


Lauren:  Sure! I’m not going to tell you who says it, though. 

“I remember feeling just like that. . .torn apart by feeling, split in two, caught between loyalties and desires. That’s how the diseased world is. That’s how it was for me, before I was cured.”


Michelle:   Australia, I need to ask a couple questions. You toured here recently and tried the wonderful food we have to offer. What is the weirdest or yuckiest food you have tried?

Lauren:  I came directly from the Philippines before arriving in Australia. There, I tried fried pig intestine and chopped pig snout on toast. So really, no Aussie food struck me as particularly strange.  I did try Vegemite, and I loved it! 

We have a winner! A Vegemite lover:)


Michelle:  What was the most delish Aussie food you tried and want a care pack every month delivered?


Lauren:  I love Lamingtons, although I admit I’ve had them before! I didn’t actually get to try Kangaroo steak and I’m quite upset about it, so I’d love that delivered in a care package.


Michelle:   What was the first thing you can remember an Australian saying to you and you just looked at them and asked them to please explain?

Lauren:  Shemozzle! I had never heard that word before and now I’m obsessed with it. (The usage was: “Well, that was a bit of a shemozzle, wasn’t it?) I also got confused when someone asked me if I wanted a durry!

AAhhh, yes, the shemozzle....bit of a mess, bit of confusion.

Durry = cigarette, rollie

Michelle : Thank you Lauren very much for answering my questions. I hope you had a lovely , fun trip here , sounds like the Vegemite was agreeable. Like seriously, nothing like a toastie with vegemite in it, or a bacon and vegemite baguette. Just don’t spread it like you are putting cream on a pavlova..... nice and easy is the way to go.

Michelle

GIVEAWAY TIME

I HAVE 3 SIGNED 6" X 8" PRINTS

3 WINNERS

INTERNATIONAL!!!

FOR THIS PARTICULAR GIVEAWAY I HAVE CHOSEN A COUPLE OF DIFFERENT EDITION COVERS FOR DELIRIUM SERIES. I HAVE MOST COVERS SIGNED BY LAUREN .

WITH FLASH ON

WITH FLASH OFF

THESE ARE THE EXACT PRINTS WINNERS WILL RECEIVE. IN MY MAD IMAGE EDITING SKILLS....HA! I MADE THE CORNERS ROUNDED. EACH PRINT IS REGULAR CUT CORNERS FOR FRAMING, LIKE PANDEMONIUM PRINT ( CENTRE)

PLEASE FOLLOW OUR BLOG

- GFC NAME IN COMMENTS

PLEASE LEAVE EMAIL ADDRESS

TELL ME WHAT PART OF INTERVIEW YOU LIKED THE MOST

GIVEAWAY STARTS NOW

ENDS 11TH MAY 2012 MIDNIGHT

GOOD LUCK!!

Michelle

BOOK REVIEW - PANDEMONIUM by LAUREN OLIVER - DELIRIUM # 2 - 4.75 STARS!!

By : Lauren Oliver
Published By: Hodder & Stoughton, Harper Teen
Released : 28th February 2012
Details: Paperback , 375 Pages

RATING : 4.75 DRIVE A STAKE THROUGH MY HEART STARS!!!

Book Blurb: Taken From Goodreads

I'm pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.

Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

BOOK REVIEW:

"It occurs to me, then, that people themselves are full of tunnels: winding, dark places and caverns; impossible to know all the places inside of them. Impossible even to imagine."  ( Lauren Oliver, Pandemonium)

Torturous

Heartache

Pain

Tense

Waiting to know....waiting to read...waiting, turning the pages and waiting....and waiting.....and then getting this massive slap that finally stops the waiting.... but then the waiting starts again.

Freakin’ awesome.

So intense

Suspenseful

Trust???

Strength

Determination

Escape

Survival

Heart just aches when reading.

I have one team and one team only.

That team is filled with pain.

In turn I am filled with pain.

Requiem 2013

*face plant* 

Michelle

BOOK TRAILER - LIESL AND PO by LAUREN OLIVER

The book has these beautiful drawings in it you see on the trailer.

We meet Liesl the night after the day her young father has died. That same day she is visited by a ghost, Po, an eight year old boy who lives on the other side, the territory between life and death that runs parallel to the living world. Po has come to tell her that her father is stuck on the other side, and that she is the only one who can help him cross over. A couple of wooden boxes. Some ashes. Some magic dust. A ghost, its pet, and a boy who forgot to wear a hat in the cold. From these seemingly odd, random characters Oliver weaves the enchanting story of how, with the aid of Liesl, these elements come together over the course of one week to restore love and luster to a world gone grey and heartless.

DUE FOR RELEASE 4TH OCTOBER HODDER STOUGHTON AUSTRALIA

Michelle

BOOK COVER - PANDEMONIUM by LAUREN OLIVER - DELIRIUM # 2

CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS BOOK!!!

PANDEMONIUM

DUE FOR RELEASE

6TH MARCH 2012

Michelle

BOOK REVIEW: DELIRIUM by LAUREN OLIVER

Title:  DELIRIUM
Author:   LAUREN OLIVER
Publisher:  Harper Teen
Pages:  441 pages (hardcover)
Acquired:  Digital Edition for review from NetGalley

RATING:    4 OUT OF 5 NUMMY NUM ALEX STARS!!!

Description from Goodreads:

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love

REVIEW:

Well I really enjoyed Delirium.  Admittedly I was a little hesitant as I had just finished reading Matched by Allie Condie and hadnt been overly impressed by it.  And to start, the similarities in the plot were very close.  Though the similarities in plot were there - the writing style and the overall "feel" of Delirium really captured me and I was easily drawn in to the world of a life without love - love being an illness - and the struggle for those who find it.

Lena (Magdalena) lives in a world where love is a disease and the cure is given once you turn 18.  She is a few months off her 18th birthday. The cure is just around the corner.......but then she meets Alex......and her world as she has always known it gets shaken up beyond her wildest dreams.

Lena has a best friend, Hana, who is a touch on the rebellious side and always willing to live outside her required square of life!  Lena sticks by the rules, not wanting to shake life up for herself whilst living with her Aunt Carol and cousins. Her own mother had succumbed to the amor deliria nervosa (delirium) disease and had apparently taken her own life!

When Alex enters her world, she fights against her emotions, the rules and many around her.  Can she survive the disease long enough to get the cure? Or will it take hold and change her world forever?

Delirium was packed with action, suspense, forbidden love and a whole new look at a loveless society. The dystopian genre has certainly come out in full force and Delirium certainly packed a few good POW's - and of course an ending that leaves you hanging and wanting more.

ENJOY!

MARISSA

BOOK REVIEW - DELIRIUM by LAUREN OLIVER - DELIRIUM # 1

By : Lauren Oliver
Published By : Harper Teen
Release Date : 1st February 2011
Details : Ebook , 305 Pages Adobe Digital Reader

RATING :  5 ANXIOUS ALEX STARS!!

Book Blurb : Taken From Goodreads

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love - the deliria - blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.


But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable........
 
BOOK REVIEW :
 
Firstly a big thankyou to Netgalley for this advanced read, much appreciated.
 
CHARACTERS:
 
Magdalena Haloway - Lena is 95 days away from being 'cured'. She will be 18.
 
Hana - Bff to Lena
 
Grace 6yrs old and Jenny 9 years old - Lena's cousin's children.
 
Rachel - Lena's older sister, needs a good slap.
 
Aunt Carol - Also in need of a good slap.
 
Alex - Gorgeous male lead with golden brown hair.
 
I had the best time reading 'Delirium', a  'dystopian' genre book.
( refer bottom of review for meaning of dystopian genre)

WOW!!! What an awesome, tense, exciting, nail biting read.
 What an interesting concept to come up with. Love is a disease, 'amor deliria nervosa'.

I am very excited for Lauren Oliver and this book. I highly recommend the read , the first in a trilogy.

I can so see this book as an exciting movie. Lauren writes with such clarity, visually , so easy to see the scenes. My heart was pounding on several occasions. I can not wait for book # 2 , 'Pandemonium'.


The ending to 'Delirium' , nearly killed me, in a good way, well kinda , it did nearly kill me..lol!! There were several scenes where I was literally holding my breath, reading, waiting ....... hoping. I want to talk about the story , but I just can't. There is too much to give away. If you feel unsure of the first couple chapters, where it's all going, just keep reading and the book blossoms into this emotional , rollercoaster ride. I loved Hana and the connection she had with Lena. Hana's daring personality shows Lena how to live a little, before the 'cure', slowly awakening within her thoughts that she should not be having. Sometimes I did want to give Lena a good shake. Then you realise as the reader, it's easy to want to snap somebody out of their brainwashed  mind, but living in that kinda society, is all about brainwashing the masses. It's only the more free thinking individuals that become anti , hence the 'resistance', is formed.


Rules....are meant to be broken.




FAVE QUOTES:


"Everyone is asleep. They've been asleep for years. You seemed... awake." Alex is whispering now. He closes his eyes, opens them again.
"I'm tired of sleeping."


For a while we stay there in silence. Alex rubs circles on my shoulders, arms and knees - anywhere he can reach, really, like he's desperate to maintain physical contact with me. I wish I could close my eyes and be blown into dust and nothingness, feel all my thoughts disperse like dandelion fluff drifting off on the wind.


"I love you. Remember. They cannot take it."






Following blurb taken from Lauren's page:


Fox 2000 has optioned the rights to Lauren Oliver's New York Times bestselling young adult debut novel Before I Fall. This is Oliver's second novel to be optioned for film, after her upcoming January 2011 release, Delirium, was picked up in June.



http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com/

Dystopian meaning,  taken from Wikipedia:



A dystopia (from Ancient Greek: δυσ-: bad-, ill- and Ancient Greek: τόπος: place, landscape) (alternatively, cacotopia,[1] or anti-utopia) is, in literature, an often futuristic society that has degraded into a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. Dystopian literature has underlying cautionary tones, warning society that if we continue to live how we do, this will be the consequence. A dystopia, thus, is regarded as a sort of negative utopia and is often characterized by an authoritarian or totalitarian form of government. Dystopias usually feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, a lack or total absence of individual freedoms and expressions and constant states of warfare or violence. Dystopias often explore the concept of humans abusing technology and how humans individually and collectively cope with technology that has evolved too quickly. A dystopian society is also often characterized by mass poverty and brutal political controls such as a large military-like police.

Michelle