"Sunday Scoop" The Gang's Weekly Column, Featuring Our New Scoop's Ending- "REALLY???" - A MUST READ!

SUNDAY SCOOP

featuring our new Scoop ending...

"REALLY???"

WHAT A WEEK!!! Thanks again to reporter Susan Feinstein of the New York Times for seeing the true value in reading, reviewing, and educating our children. We also want to thank all of you from around the world (YES, you heard right...around the world) who have either posted a comment or emailed us personally supporting our cause. 

HOUSEKEEPING

For those of you who have emailed us requesting a book review and have not received an answer, please please please understand that we have been overwhelmed this week with requests that it is just physically impossible to get to them now. We promise that as soon as we have a free minute, we will go through the emails 1 by 1 and see what you are all offering out there. Keep in mind that with the relationships we have with publishers and the demand for timely reviews, we are already backed up with books to review. As well, keep in mind that although diverse, we have to be somewhat selective of what we read since there are so many kinds of books out there and we have passions for certain genres. Ok...moving right along...

WHAT'S NEXT??

Since we took a bit of a break and are now back full force, we have a bunch of books that will be reviewed over the next several days.  Let's see... to name a few, we have "Sapphique" by Catherine Fisher which is the sequel to "Incarceron" which we reviewed not too long ago. Also, we have coming up "Knightley Academy" by Violet Haberdasher (provided for review by Simon and Schuster), "Once A Spy" by Keith Thomson, an ARC of "The Billionaire's Curse" by Richard Newsome (provided for review by Harper Collins) and more!  Those were some of the books Dave will be reviewing and Mara and the girls have a few of their own that are almost ready to be posted.

   

If you remember, we were working on something special with author Frank Beddor, who wrote "The Looking Glass Wars" trilogy and we are almost ready to get that going....be on the lookout for a nice "Triple Threat" that Frank was awesome enough to work with us on.

Now, many of you know that James "Dash" Dashner is one of Dave's FAVORITE authors. Besides writing the awesome "Maze Runner" which should rocket Dash to fame (oh yeah, a movie deal looks like it is in the works....nothing final yet that we know of, but it definitely is looking good!) Dash has written a wonderful series called "The 13th Reality" of which book 3 "Blade of Shattered Hope" hit shelves this past week. Since Dave dropped everything when it arrived from Shadow Mountain this week and is almost done with it, expect a review asap! What's SuPeR cool is the cover as well as some pics inside are illustrated by the magnificent Brandon Dorman, who we interviewed on the site last year. His work is just stellar and keeps getting better with every new piece he does.

Speaking of Dashner and Maze, we have a pic of what the cover to the sequel to Maze, called "The Scorch Trials" should look like. I don't think its 100% confirmed, but  it looks cool regardless. Scorch is due out in October and is probably THE # 1 book Dave is waiting to read in 2010. That and Suzanne Collins ultra highly anticipated finale in the "Hunger Games" trilogy, "Mocking Jay".

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON??

As we mentioned before, TLGBRS has decided that to give back to all of you out there who have supported us and given us the strength to carry on, we are planning another TLGBRS MEGA CONTEST once we return from BEA at the end of May. As well, we are trying to put together a Mini Mega Contest (wait, that makes no sense at all, but who cares) and give away a ton of books and ARC's that we have received over the last few months from all of your favorite pubs. It is nice to have a book collection, but ours is sort of getting out of hand. If we keep up at the rate we are going, we will start printing library cards for our bookshelves! We couldn't think of a better way to clear up some space then to give to you guys! Most, if not all are hot titles that have either just been released or are about to. As well, we are going to incorporate another of our favorite authors into the contest, "Laura Bingham" who wrote the fantastic fantasy "Alvor" which we have also discussed on the site many times before. Keep your eyes open as we are just trying to figure out what to give away and how to run the contest.

NEW ENDING TO THE SCOOP

"REALLY???"

As many of you know, the Gang, especially Dave, likes to "tell it like it is" when it comes to reviews or just about any form of communication at all. It is what makes us who we are. Well, how many times have you been in a situation where you just shake your head and wonder "REALLY???".... You know, those situations where you can not believe what is actually going on. Did that "REALLY" just happen??? Seriously?? You MUST be kidding me!.... From now on, we are going to end our SCOOP with one of those situations in a short story and let's see how many of you can relate. For our first "REALLY???" moment, we give you...

 "The Parking Lot"

by:

Dave

First of all, let me tell you that this has happened to me a gazillion times. This weekend, The Gang went to the mall to hang out. As we completed most of what we came for, Mara and the girls had to run to one or two more stores quickly and then we were heading home. It happened to be a beautiful day out, so I decided to go wait by the car and make a call or 2 and possibly get a few pages of "13th Reality 3" in if time permitted. With 3 women in the family, sometimes I need a break from shopping and don't mind at all hanging out and waiting for them. I go out to the car since I know they will not be too long, grab my phone and book, and go sit on the trunk and just enjoy being outside.

As I am sitting and chatting with my dad (actually, about a review book I got that I thought he would love to read and guest review on Charlie Chaplin) a car pulls up, sits there for 2 minutes, then rolls his window down and asks me "Hey! Are you going out??" Although by my car, I was sitting AND talking on the phone. I simply looked up at him and with a smile on my face replied "not yet!" to which the guy shook his head, rolled up his window, and kept going. It didn't bother me that much as I did understand that I was at my car. I personally would not do that if I saw someone sitting on his trunk AND on the phone. Common sense would say that the guy is not ready to leave yet, but that's just me.

Then, the car behind him stops and does the same thing. Over the next few minutes, several other cars do it as well. It gets to the point that when I see a car slowing down by me, I simply shake my head in the universal gesture for "No, I am NOT going out." At this point, I am now wondering why if you saw the car in front of you just ask me if I am going out, to which I obviously reply that I am not, and then drive off, why even bother to stop and ask?

So, a few minutes go by, and that very first guy who asked me, yes the one who shook his head at me when I said "no" happens to pull up again and stop. I noticed it was the same car I had seen and at this point I was already off the phone with dad and into 13th Reality, which I was happy to get in a few minutes of reading with. Since I figured he could see I was in no more of a position to be leaving than the first time he asked, I didn't even bother to look up at him and shook my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the window roll down again. STILL not looking up, (you know when you are reading something you REALLY are into and you want to do nothing other than to keep reading and not b e interrupted every second?) the guy says to me, "You gonna leave or what?"...

He definitely got my attention now and I looked up and said, "My family is still inside and I'd rather not leave without them" and returned to reading. Not satisfied with my answer, he replied, "If you are not going to leave, get off your trunk and go find somewhere else to hang out".... Ummmmm, REALLY??? Now, even taking into consideration that this is New Jersey and people might be a little more tense and strung out than elsewhere, are you kidding me? I am 34, married with 2 children AND not breaking any laws. Are people that obnoxious? I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I sort of understood why he asked me the first time around if I was leaving- popular mall, weekend, jam packed, and no open spots- worth asking in case I was actually planning on leaving any minute. But to get angry at me for not leaving and actually tell me that I need to find somewhere else to "hang out", I must ask....

REALLY???

(remember that show??)

If you have ever been in a similar situation or even a different one where you find yourself saying "REALLY??" or "Did that just happen??" or "You have to be kidding me!"- share it with us. It just amazes me how some people treat others or how you can end up in some situations that you do. For the purposes of our site, we are sharing these for a good laugh, but they will all be true situations. All too often, they occur (and trust me, I have a whole slew of them for you now that I think about it!). I suppose the word we are lacking in all of them is respect or sometimes simply- common sense. Regardless, we would love to hear from you and hope you enjoy the fact that we are just talking about those things that do actually happen to all of us. Things happen, people talk about them, (you know you have all gabbed about similar things like this that have happened to you to your friends, family, and coworkers many times over...) and now we are sharing them with you. It really does amaze me sometimes the lack of common sense people have. I suppose it is what makes us all well... us.

DAVE