Looking for a Geektastic Pen Pal?

I have a special place in my heart for pen pals. I had a lot of pen pals growing up and I have tons of fond memories writing letters and mailing out goodies to my friends. Sending and receiving mail is probably one of my favorite things!

That being said, I'm always on the lookout for a good pen pal program. There are quite a few I've done in the past (through the library, Forever Young Adult, and Postcrossing) but I think I've just discovered the best one yet. It's called the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club, and it's a pen pal matching club specifically for girls to get matched up with other like-minded book/movie/fandom/other nerdy thing loving girls!

AWESOME RIGHT?!

This idea was started by Emily Farquharson and Darling Stewie. If you want to, you can read the whole story of it's inception here. When they first opened submissions for round 1 they filled up all 1000 slots in 3 days. 3 DAYS. That's a crazy short amount of time! IGGPPC really took off. So the bad news is, round 1 is already full. The good news is, they have just about finished matching up all round 1 pen pals, and they are opening up submissions for round 2 today. You read that correctly: TODAY! So, if you've always wanted to have a geeky pen pal with similar interests to share your fandom love and awesome stationary with you are in luck! 

Submissions are not open yet, but they should be open anytime now. And yes, I may or may not be sitting at my computer studying while simultaneously refreshing the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club Facebook page to see if submissions have opened. What can I say, I am excited! I've been waiting for a pen pal program like this for well, FOREVER. Plus, now I can start using up my hoard of adorable stationary!

EDIT: SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN! SIGN UP NOW!

When you sign up for IGGPPC they want you to list your Top 5 Geek Loves to help match you up with a like-minded geek girl. In order to prepare myself for when submissions open I am trying to come up with my list in advance and I am having an extremely hard time choosing. It's like they're asking me to pick between my favorite kids or something! IT IS SO HARD. I'm thinking this may be what I'm list, but I'm not totally sure yet:

1. The Lord of the Rings
2. BOOKS. ALL THE BOOKS.
3. Musical Theatre
4. Dinosaurs
5. Pet Rats

But if I only list those things all I can think is "What about Harry Potter? Or Supernatural? Or the fact I love to cook? OR BEING A NERDFIGHTER?!?!" Yep, life as a geek is hard. :P

So what would you list? Do you plan on signing up for the pen pal program? Did you ever have a pen pal as a kid? Do you have one now?

Julia :)

Did someone say Book Madness?

If you're a basketball fan then you know that March Madness and it's crazy bracketting is in full swing. Well, just because you aren't a basketball fan doesn't mean that you can't get in on the bracket fun! Behold: Out of Print Clothing's Book Madness!!!!

Yes. What you see before you is a Book Madness bracket of the top 64 sci-fi/fantasy novels as suggested by the bookish public. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to fill out the bracket and pick the ultimate sci-fi/fantasy Book Madness winner! But beware, some of these match-ups are downright cruel and will have you choosing between your beloved favorite, or a cult classic.

Everyone has until March 25th to fill out a completed bracket of who they think will win Book Madness and send it to Out of Print Clothing. Then polls will be opened and the entire book loving public will be allowed to vote for their favorite titles. The people who get the most points by predicting correctly will win awesome prizes like a $500 Out of Print Clothing gift card! Let's be honest, there's no good reason for you not to enter. I mean, who doesn't want to win $500 of Out of Print Clothing products? ONLY CRAZY PEOPLE.

I've already filled out my own bracket, but I'm not 100% sure on it yet. I just need a bit more time to sleep on my decisions. IT WAS HARD GUYS! This was basically me while filling it out:

So if I fill out this bracket and guess correctly I can win a prize????

LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!!!

Wait.... The Hunger Games vs The Hobbit?

What's that? I can't pick both? WHAT KIND OF TORTURE IS THIS?!?!

Then of course there were a lot of random sci-fi/fantasy books that I didn't even recognize.

So I just sort of guessed for those ones.

Finally, countless Goodreads searches and a few cry fests later, I finally finished. YES.

If you want to join in on the Book Madness fun (which I'm sure you do!) you can find out all the official information and rules here.

Are you gonna enter? What book do you think will win? If you are entering let me know and we can compare how we did at the end of the voting process! I doubt I'll win anything, but it's still fun to try right?

Julia :)

Book Review: Pretty Girl-13

Pretty Girl-13
by Liz Coley
344 pages
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: March 19th 2013
Source: ARC from Wastepaper Prose
Add this book to your shelf on Goodreads

Reminiscent of the Elizabeth Smart case, Pretty Girl-13 is a disturbing and powerful psychological mystery about a girl who must piece together the story of her kidnapping and captivity.

Angie Chapman was thirteen years old when she ventured into the woods alone on a Girl Scouts camping trip. Now she's returned home... only to find that it's three years later and she's sixteen - or at least that's what everyone tells her.

What happened to the past three years of her life?

Angie doesn't know.

But there are people who do - people who could tell Angie every detail of her forgotten time, if only they weren't locked inside her mind. With a tremendous amount of courage, Angie embarks on a journey to discover the fragments of her personality, otherwise known as her "alters." As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: When you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the parts of yourself that are responsible?

Pretty Girl-13's summary doesn't make it sound like an "easy" novel, but I was still surprised by how dark the story was. Seriously, this book is dark. Angie's story is no walk in the park and I'd imagine that it could definitely be triggering for people with a history of abuse. That being said, it was an engaging and completely unputdownable read. I raced through this book. It was so addicting, and not because it was dark and edgy, but because the psychological mystery was just so fascinating. I loved it.

Angie Chapman disappeared for 3 years, only to reappear with no memory of the time while she was gone. Instead, she has alternate personalities that took over while she was abducted. Angie, with the help of her awesome psychiatrist Dr. Grant, use a myriad of psychological tricks to get the alters to talk so they can piece together the missing 3 years.

I know it sounds a bit weird, but I have always been interested in kidnapping stories and multiple personalities. There's something so intriguing and mysterious about both situations. Out of all the books that I've read involving kidnappings, Pretty Girl-13 is probably my favorite because it's so much more than just a kidnapping story. It's a psychological mystery, and a tale of one girls journey to self discovery. It's dark yes, but it also has light, and that is what makes it so great. It isn't just a kidnapping story for exploitations sake. Pretty Girl-13 has depth, and a purpose beyond the mystery.

Overall I would recommend this book, but with reservations. It's definitely one of the most mature YA novels I've read, and the subject matter, which is already quite dark to begin with, is not glossed over or sugar coated in anyway. Liz Coley is not afraid to have the reader face everything head on, so if you're sensitive to stories involving sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, not to mention the whole kidnapping aspect, I would probably skip this one. I also would only really recommend it to older teens and adults, just because the subject matter is so dark. That being said, if you're looking for a novel that has a great psychological mystery, and is emotionally gripping I would definitely give Pretty Girl-13 a read.

I'm giving away an ARC copy of Pretty Girl-13! Want a chance to win? Enter here.

Julia :)

Giveaway: Pretty Girl-13

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an ARC copy of Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley thanks to the wonderful Susan over at Wastepaper Prose, and now that I've read this fantastic novel I want to pass it on for someone else to enjoy! Check out the summary of Pretty Girl-13, and then enter to win an ARC of it below.

Reminiscent of the Elizabeth Smart case, Pretty Girl-13 is a disturbing and powerful psychological mystery about a girl who must piece together the story of her kidnapping and captivity.

Angie Chapman was thirteen years old when she ventured into the woods alone on a Girl Scouts camping trip. Now she's returned home... only to find that it's three years later and she's sixteen - or at least that's what everyone tells her.

What happened to the past three years of her life?

Angie doesn't know.

But there are people who do - people who could tell Angie every detail of her forgotten time, if only they weren't locked inside her mind. With a tremendous amount of courage, Angie embarks on a journey to discover the fragments of her personality, otherwise known as her "alters." As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: When you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the parts of yourself that are responsible?

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Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor! Julia :)