It’s time for Alison’s Best Reads of the Year Awards!

The rules are as follows:

1) I must have read these books for the first time in 2013, though they don’t need to have been published in 2013.

2) Books I read as ARCs in 2012 do not count, even if they came out in 2013. (Unfortunately, this eliminates all my critique partners’ books from the running… but I’ll give them their own special section at the end.)

3) Books are listed in no particular order.

4) I am not allowed to choose more than five books per category, but I can choose fewer.

5) Books may receive more than one award.

Here we go! [Read more…]

We’re all friends here, so I can confess something really nerdy to you, right?

Okay. Here goes.

I keep track of every book I buy and every book I read in a spreadsheet.

A color-coded spreadsheet.

I have gotten a LOT of grief about this from my friends, but the spreadsheet serves many purposes. It makes it really easy to remember what I’ve read recently when people ask for recommendations. It allows me to see if my reading is really unbalanced—I don’t want to be that person who reads ONLY YA because that’s what I write. It ensures I don’t forget any candidates when I do my Favorite Books of the Year blog post at the end of December. And most of all, it gives me hard evidence with which to shame myself about my book-spending habits so I can be more frugal in the future. (Just kidding, that never works.) [Read more…]

All right, UK readers, it’s YOUR turn to win some free books! My wonderful UK publisher, Quercus, is giving away FIVE gorgeous British editions of RED, which hits shelves on January 2! The competition will run from the 16th of December to the 6th of January. Here’s the gorgeous cover and synopsis, in case you need some enticement:

Top student. Beauty queen. Girlfriend of the hottest football jock: Felicity’s got everything. And it’s all down to her red, red hair. Felicity lives in Scarletville, the world’s only redhead sanctuary, where red hair is celebrated, protected – and the key to success.

But Felicity has a secret. A red hot secret. And if anyone finds out, she’s finished.

Because Felicity’s actually a natural blonde.
And in Scarletville, blondes need not apply.

 

Go ahead and enter: the competition is underway! (UK only, please.)

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