"Sunday Scoop" The Gang's Weekly Column!

SUNDAY SCOOP

FIRST OF ALL- Make sure you read the book review posted today right below this scoop titled "The 13th Reality 3 - The Blade of Shattered Hope" by James Dashner. (please check it out - Dash is the man!)

We are just waiting for our giveaway copies of "The Big Book of Gross" and then we are going to launch that triple threat.  They are in the mail, so prob early this week, look for it- and be ready to enter!

Another contest that we will be running as part of another triple threat will be for #1 NYT bestselling author D.J. MacHale and his new book "Morpheus Road - The Light."  What's cool is it will be sponsored by our partners at Simon and Schuster and even cooler is that Lauryn will be doing the triple threat on her own!  Her first "Triple Threat" that she can totally own! GOOO LAUR!

The review and giveaway are almost sure things and we have given permission to go ahead and write up the interview, but are still waiting on final confirmation for the interview.  The guy is a best seller and is on tour... Hopefully we can get him to give us some of his time! 

Coming up from Mara this week will be what was earlier promised- "The Carrie Diaries" and Sami will be reviewing "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead! (She has been dying to read this for a while and blew through most of it this weekend! I love it when the kids find one that they are sooo enthusiastic about!  It's what it's all about.

 

As for me Dave, I know that I have a list the size of Alaska in my "to be read" pile, but I was wandering through B and N today for a little bit this morning and found 2 books that I have been soooo waiting for and just couldn't resist.  I am going to have to just temporarily (and yes, I'll be quick) put on hold the tbr list and read these 2.  Just can not wait.  I picked up 2 new releases- "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan (you have all seen that one I'm sure!) 

as well as "Cherub: Mission 1- The Recruit" by Robert Muchamore.

  Interesting enough Cherub is huge oversees and is trying to make it here in the US as a series.  Both have been eyed by me for quite some time.  Since being recently overwhelmed, I have not been "shopping" for books in a while and was psyched to go in today and see a whole new line up on the shelves!  Ohh, how I love it!!  Another that I think will be floating around shortly that I will be purchasing on release day is "Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx" by one of my ALL TIME favs- James Rollins.  Rollins-an action adventure writer, has hit a homer with his children's series "Jake Ransom" and it's a must own for my collection. Super excited about my near term reads!  Hope you guys are psyched too since I will be reading them fast and getting up the reviews as soon as they are done.

Well, this week I want to have a targeted little discussion on E-Readers.  The Gang gave away a Nook in one of our previous contests.  As well, we have our own Nook and an IPAD.  As much as we love them both, here is something that has been itching me to talk about, but just haven't yet.  I think it's time, and I would love the feedback from anyone who has an e-reader.  What has irked me so much is that on any of the e-readers you can not too many hot, brand new releases.  I might be crazy, but I just don't see the books that just come out.  I mean, there are some best sellers up there, but I am talking about in general.  For example, I would have preferred to get those 2 books today on the Ipad (and by the way, nothing against the Nook, but since we got the Ipad well, watch out Nook.  It's just that Apple did SUCH an aMaZiNg job with the "I-BOOKS" app, that it's second to none) and I wasn't able to.  "Will Grayson, WIll Grayson" is available by e-reader, but "Recruit" was not.  To be honest, I didn't see Will Grayson until after I purchased the hard copy, but again, no Recruit. 

As I have seen more and more available, and quicker... I still don't think we are up to par.  Perhaps we say it's a work in progress?  I just don't understand what's taking so long.  I am hoping that soon it can come to the point where I don't have to visit the store anymore.  Am I the only one seeing this?  What do you guys think. I mean, the E versions are cheaper and so much more convenient to get.... right?

Speaking of e-readers, what do you guys have and what do you think about it?  Although we don't have a Kindle, we have heard lots of good things about them and their owners are faithful and swear by them.  Personally, I love the Ipad.  Besides the e-reader, which is in color and just super cool to use, the Ipad basically does everything else too.  Granted, we had to save up for one and they are a bit costly (we got the middle wi-fi version), the many purposes it serves makes it worth it.  Essentially, I use it as a laptop.  Apple soooo needs to get over the "Flash Player" thing, and once they do (we hear they are working on something) it will totally rock as the end all to personal computing needs.  Oh yeah, and what's with the no camera thing Apple?  Besides those 2 minor set backs, worth every penny.  We's really like to get some feedback from you guys on the whole issue.  Share whatever you wish, just tell us how you feel about e-readers.

LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN

BEA!  That's all on that one!  Well almost... we hear that Suzanne Collins will NOT be issuing ARC's of "MockingJay" at BEA...  AARRGGHHH!!!   That book has sooo much hype, we guess we see your point.  Never fear, there are TONS more that we are expecting to uncover for you guys!

Here's to hopefully a busy week at TLGBRS!

Dave and the rest of the Lateiner Gang