usagi @ birth of a new witch

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my husband is a programmer. He works for an international company with a high bar for its IT staff. 

I ran GR's latest nonsense--their claim that Booklikes is causing Goodreads content to be deleted--past him, and the verdict is that this is actually probably GR's fault. More than likely is has to do with flaws in their API code that are more like security holes than features. Other sites should never be able to delete GR user content. The fact that it may have somehow happened indicates that the blame lies with Goodreads, and they're trying to use Booklikes as a scapegoat.

What the actual fuck? SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK?

NOTE - I unconnected Booklikes and Goodreads when I found my BL updates were going to GR on different editions of the book. The only book I removed from BL were my 'bba' books because I couldn't have exclusive shelves at the time. My books are still on my GR list.

Edited to add: Yes, let's blame Booklikes for your screwups, Goodreads. Feeling a bit threatened?

It's time for Thursday Release and it's a feature many of you requested :-) Now when a given book doesn't fit any default status on your Shelf (Read, Planning to read, Currently reading) you can create your own exclusive book status.

How? You can create and organize your books with new statuses in several ways.

Go to your Shelf Page and create your new status with your name, e.g. Not finished. New status will be added and visible at once on your Shelf.

You can also create exclusive status directly in book pop up, select it and Save for a given title. The book will receive new status immediately. 

If you want to reset previously given status (Read, Planning to read, Currently reading), click on it and Save. It should go white (inactive) and notion "On Shelf" will appear instead. 

You can also create exclusive status on Table view of your shelf (the entrance is on Shelf page). It is also a place where you can re-arrange your books one by one:

or move several books at once:

You can still create thematic shelves which will be added to your Shelf on the left and organize them the same way in table view. 

This will always been one of the best moments on television, no matter what you say.

Usagi sez: "LOL I JUST BECAME A DRUG KINGPIN SO LET'S THROW A PIZZA ON THE ROOF!"

Title: “The Beautiful and the Damned (The Hollows #4)”

Author: Jessica Verday

Genre: YA Contemporary, PNR, Paranormal

Publication Date: October 1, 2013 (Simon Pulse – North America)

Source: Publisher-provided ARC

Synopsis: Cyn’s blackouts have deadly consequences in this sexy, suspenseful spinoff to the New York Times bestselling Hollow series.Cyn and Avian are far from a perfect match. She’s a witch who casts spells on men so she can steal their cars. He spends his time being judge, jury, and executioner to the truly evil in the supernatural realm.

When the blackouts Cyn’s been having ever since her time in Sleepy Hollow start escalating, she finds herself unable to remember where she’s been or what she’s been doing. Frightened, she seeks guidance at a local church, and it’s there she meets Avian.

The unlikely pair soon discovers that her blackouts are a side effect of what she truly is—an Echo—a conduit for souls of the dead. The only way to prevent Cyn from losing complete control is to return to Sleepy Hollow and vanquish the source of her power—but she may not survive the process. And if she does? She won’t ever be the same…

☆: 3.5/5 stars – A good standalone, but may lose people who haven’t read the original trilogy.

Review: Fair disclosure – I haven’t read the original “Hollow” trilogy, to which this book is a companion. But even so, “The Beautiful and the Damned” is a tightly-written, nice, short, companion book which gives the audience a small taste of the original “Hollow” world while creating an entirely new world with elements that were introduced or hinted at in the original text. Even if you haven’t read the original trilogy, if you’re looking for a read to devour in a short amount of time, I recommend “The Beautiful and the Damned”. Even if you may get a bit confused.

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Since many questions and some incorrect statements made by others occurred, BookLikes would like to clear things up. Here are several points that supplement and explain BookLikes Community Guidelines, which are still valid and in force. 

 and   

Each BookLikes member receives personal webpage with Blog, Shelf, Timeline which can be edited and personalized in particular tabs in Settings and Customization tab. 

Each BookLikes member is administrator and has access to admin mode of his/her webpage and Dashboard once he/she signs up and then logs into service. Public view of webpage is available with individual address yourusername.booklikes.com. You can also use your own domain with no fees. 

Supplement:

Each administrator is responsible for content published on his/her site.

 and 

Dashboard is a place where you see writings and bookshelf updates of people you follow. 

BookLikes Community can be found on Explore page. Blogs are put into categories. You can edit and change your categories in Settings/Blog.

Supplement:

It is the BookLikes member who decides who to follow (and see writings on Dashboard) and who to unfollow. It is the BookLikes member who decides how his/her webpage will be categorized on Explore page.

 and  

You can publish review, text, photo, video, URL of your choice and complement it with a book/books (up to 10). Inspiring and well written reviews are always encouraged, welcome and may be promoted. 

You can create posts and publish them on your webpage, however, if BookLikes members find it assaulting or violating they can block the user who might be removed from Follower list. This means that the person with inappropriate texts might receive lower priority and may not be presented in Explore page where we present BookLikes Community. 

Supplement:

All users who assault or harass other BookLikes members may be blocked by BookLikes users and reported to BookLikes Team. Each complaint will be evaluated by BookLikes Team who can decide whether to block a given user or not. If user's behavior is inappropriate he/she can receive Ghost status, his/her rates and reviews will not be counted to overall book statistics and will not be promoted on BookLikes pages visible for all members: Explore Page, Dashboard, Book Page. Users who follow member with Ghost status will still view his/her writings on Dashboard. BookLikes will not unfollow anyone from your Following list.

No text, review or any other post will be removed from personal webpage. Inappropriate and assaulting texts can be hidden from BookLikes Community Dashboard but will stay on personal public blog. Remember that opinions in posts are those of the post's author and not BookLikes.com.

Supplement: 

No text, review or any other post will be removed from personal webpage even when user received Ghost status. Ghost status refers only to pages of BookLikes Community, not personal webpages. 

Comments under posts can be moderated by author of the post. Author of the post can delete comments if he/she finds comment inappropriate.

and  

You can import books from Goodreads (export your library to csv file),LibraryThing (export your library to csv file), Lovely Books and Lubimy czytać in Settings/Import. You can also sync your Goodreads account with your BookLikes profile - then books and reviews published on BL will be also visible on GR.

BookLikes Team releases new feature once a week every Thursday.  All updates and news can be followed on BookLikes Blog and our social media. If you have any questions, requests, suggestions or concerns, just mail us. We're open to new ideas and appreciate all the feedback.

Supplement:

BokLikes Team will do it's best to keep the service a positive and friendly place for all kind of book lovers and authors. Please don't hesitate to contact us with any question or concern. 

Books and Readers on BookLikes - Official Statement

Our mission is to create the best place for book lovers on the web. We’ve been and still are creating BookLikes with and for our users and we believe that being frank and open is something crucial in every discussion, including book discussions. For that reason we strongly believe in freedom of speech and individual opinions and we’ll be sticking to those rules in our service. At the same time we would like to kindly ask you to respect other BookLikes users and readers, both in reviews and discussions. Positive, interesting and valuable discussion is something what will be promoted and welcomed on BookLikes. We would like to assure you that we won’t remove any content unless legal situation forces us to do so.

We’re aware that freedom of speech on the internet may be difficult and sometimes tricky.From time to time we experience harsh criticism and sometimes unfair and untrue opinions about ourselves and our service. This happens and can happen to everyone. What we are always determined to do is to face a charge and explain wrongful statements which often take origin from lack of knowledge or wrong assumptions. We would like to keep this rule on BookLikes as well.

However we want you to feel comfortable and safe on BookLikes. That’s why we have given you possibility of blocking other users - then they will not follow your writings or comment your posts. In very particular cases we may not share those posts among BookLikes Community if we consider them harmful and meaningless. Remember, though that we’re not interfering into your content on your private BookLikes websites as it is you who is responsible for published content there.

All data presented by BookLikes is done in accordance with the law. This refers to book information which follow Affiliate programs guidelines of particular book sources.

We would like also to confirm that BookLikes is independent, doesn't support or is linked in any kind with STGRB community, or any other.

Finally, we believe that we can create awesome community for book lovers from all over the world engaged into respectful and open book discussions. Remember that we’re building BookLikes with you, we are still curious of your ideas and suggestions and counting on your active participation in making BookLikes the best positive place for book lovers.

Thank you and one more time welcome to BookLikes :-)

Title: “Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)”

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: High Fantasy, Magical Realism, Mystery, Paranormal, AWESOME

Publication Date: August 27, 2013 (Bloomsbury – North America)

Source: NetGalley review copy

Synopsis: An assassin’s loyalties are always in doubt.

But her heart never wavers.

After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king’s contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.

Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king’s bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she’s given a task that could jeopardize everything she’s come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon — forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice.

Where do the assassin’s loyalties lie, and who is she most willing to fight for?

☆: 5/5 stars – MY FEELS. THEY HURT.

Review: After finishing this book, it feels like my heart went five rounds and lost, hard, face down on the floor. After "Throne of Glass", it feels like Maas has made a huge leap from the writing in all technical aspects, which was originally setting us up in her world with her characters in book one, to making them feel so very, very real and full and there in book two. Definitely in my top ten for 2013 so far, "Crown of Midnight" is everything I could have possibly wanted in a sequel for "Throne of Glass" and more.

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I heard through the vine that the CEO of this site might be in cahoots with (even though it's inaccurate, I REALLY wanted to use that phrase, but now I fixed it) bowing to STGRB. At a friend's prompting, I took my proxy and went to investigate.

It doesn't look good. (By the way, there are links and not images because the images were too big to fit in this post. I tried, trust me.)

This is STGRB's post about it, which uses posts from Rick Carufel's site.They don't link to Rick's site for these because the two had a tiff and never want to see each other again, but it took about a minute's worth of investigating to figure it out. His profile as shown here links to BookLikes. Not any specific profile. Just BookLikes.

Here are Dawid's comments on Rick's post.

Here is where Dawid's profile links from Rick's post.

STGRB's MO, from my experience, is simply a manipulation of the facts by presenting some while omitting others. Their decisive commenters and supporters-in-email are usually anonymous. If this is them trying to manipulate us once again, they've changed their MO significantly by outright impersonating this man on one site or both.

Make your own judgments. We will hopefully have word from Dawid soon on if he really made these statements or if these people are making up his comments and impersonating him.

There are quite a few tutorials on how to change the layout of your BookLikes blog. I figured it's good to have them all in one post, and I'd like to thank all who put a lot of work into making them so others can enjoy BookLikes. 

- - - - - - - - - - 

Oh goody, as basically no site is free from bully mollycoddling.

How can anyone justify going out of their way to appease a group of people who have BEEN PROVEN to be stalkers, harassers and the very thing they claim to be against? All you have to do is Google the site and Foz Meadows's wonderful Huffington Post piece comes up on the first page! 

Has Dawid or anyone at BookLikes said anything else about this? They know exactly why so many people left GoodReads to join their site and they should know better than to pat the backs of the very group that spoiled blogging for so many good people.

For all those wondering why the heck so many Goodreaders have migrated to BookLikes.

Usagi sez: Okay. I'm getting closer to just deleting my account. This is getting ridiculous. No, fuck that, it got ridiculous long ago. I just need to archive my JP language book reviews and get my ARC swap people's contact info.

Co-blogger Ashleigh Paige has given me an idea for a post on the blog - on why I'm keeping my GR account. It'll explain full length, but basically?

I'm doing it for archival reasons. I have 3-4+ years' worth of reviews on there, and I don't want those to go. Librarything only has so much space for free users, and shelfari...well, shelfari is a hot mess, and I archive there when I can.

Let me be clear: I don't like what GR's done with the place, and I don't like their plans that they're implementing as we speak. I don't agree with any of it. I want everyone to know that.

But I also need a place to store my older reviews, especially for the Japanese language books that I can't seem to put anywhere else aside from the blog.

I hope that I haven't lost any respect from esteemed friends and bros out there in the community for keeping it.

Hugs all around. <3

This post. All of this. My sentiments exactly. I could not have said it better. 

This is exactly the kind of person I want to read.

This is the last thing I wanted to see: https://www.facebook.com/jenniferlaurensauthor?hc_location=stream

I will not be reading her books.

Title: “Find Me”

Author: Romily Bernard

Publication Date: September 24, 2013 (HarperTeen – North America)

Genre: YA contemporary, crime, mystery, thriller

Source: Publisher-provided ARC

Summary: “Find Me.”

These are the words written on Tessa Waye’s diary. The diary that ends up with Wick Tate. But Tessa’s just been found . . . dead.

Wick has the right computer-hacking skills for the job, but little interest in this perverse game of hide-and-seek. Until her sister Lily is the next target.

Then Griff, trailer-park boy next door and fellow hacker, shows up, intent on helping Wick. Is a happy ending possible with the threat of Wick’s deadbeat dad returning, the detective hunting him sniffing around Wick instead, and a killer taunting her at every step?

Foster child. Daughter of a felon. Loner hacker girl. Wick has a bad attitude and sarcasm to spare.

But she’s going to find this killer no matter what.

Because it just got personal.

☆: 4/5 stars – a nice cyberpunk-lite mystery for those just dipping their toes into the cyberpunk pool genre of YA.

Review: “Find Me” was a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting the incredibly tight writing and quick pace, as well as the plot-driven elements to this book. While coming in at a short 288 pages (in ARC version, at least), this was a fun read to devour in more or less one sitting. However, I still had a few issues with it, but even so,  “Find Me” is a fun cyberpunk-lite mystery that will definitely leave you wanting more.

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Title: "The Dream Thieves (Raven Cycle #2)"

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA contemporary, Magical Realism, Mystery, Paranormal, AWESOME

Publication Date: September 17, 2013 (Scholastic Press – North America)

Source: Publisher-provided ARC

Synopsis: Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life.

Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after…

☆: 4/5 stars – Not quite as amazing as “Raven Boys”, but still pretty damn good.

Review: If “Raven Boys” was Gansey’s book/the intro book, “Dream Thieves” is definitely Ronan’s book,  100%. We also get a lot of juicy details about backstory about Ronan and his brothers, as well as some new characters, and new mysteries to solve in order to get the boys back together, and back to business at hand. Yes, while “Dream Thieves” had a little more introspection than its predecessor, it’s still a really good sequel, and it’s making me froth at the mouth for book three.

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