Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Harper Collins Publishers and Brunonia Barry I have a SIGNED, yes I said signed hard cover edition of this wonderful book to giveaway to one lucky winner!

Please see my glowing review of this book HERE.

Here's the published description from the front flap:

Every gift has a price . . .

Every piece of lace has a secret . . .

My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time. . . .

Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator of The Lace Reader, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations, but the disappearance of two women brings Towner home to Salem and the truth about the death of her twin sister to light.

The Lace Reader is a mesmerizing tale that spirals into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths in which the reader quickly finds it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction, but as Towner Whitney points out early on in the novel, "There are no accidents."

Sorry, this Giveaway is only open to residents of the US and Canada. No PO Boxes please.

Here are the rules on how to enter:

1. For one entry, leave a comment. Please be sure to include either your blog URL or email address so that I can contact you if you win.

2. For a second entry, post about this giveaway on your blog and leave link to your blog post in the comments. You will also get an entry for each person who tells me that they learned about this giveaway from you.

3. For more entries: You will earn an extra entry for each comment you leave on my past, present, or future blog posts until the end of this giveaway.

4. The deadline to get your entries in is Wednesday November 12, 2008 12:00 Midnight E.S.T. Once I notify you that you've won, you will have 3 days to respond. After that, I will need to choose a different winner.



Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Picture Perfect by Cheryl Kaye Tardif- An Amazon Short




Chilling Mystery

Caroline is just like any other older sister. She doesn't think that she should always have to look after her little sister Belle. Couldn't she just disappear?

The year is 1956 and Caroline is given $3.00 to take Belle to the Calgary Summer Carnival. She must go on rides the Belle wants to go on and pick the pink cotton candy from her hair. Everything is about Belle.

At the end of the street, the girls saw 'Grandpa's Tymeless Fotos.' This is where life changed Caroline’s life forever. As in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Caroline finds out what pictures can really do.

I enjoyed this short story immensely. Cheryl Kaye Tardif has the knack of making a suspenseful story sound believable.

Highly recommended!

5/5

Monday, October 27, 2008

Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst and Gods Behaving Badly By Marie Phillips- My First Giveaway Ever

I am hosting my first Giveaway ever, thanks to Hachette Book Group!

5 lucky readers will win a copy of Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst and 5 lucky winners will win a copy of Gods Behaving Badly By Marie Phillips!


About the Book:
A suburban mom, her troubled daughter, divorced brothers, former child stars, born-again Christians, and some young millionaires have all been selected to compete on LOST AND FOUND, a daring new reality show. In pairs of two, they will race across the world to compete for a million-dollar prize. The only question is not only who will capture the big jackpot, but at what price.

Carolyn Parkhurst is also the author of the bestseller The Dogs of Babel.
About the Book:
Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse-and none too happy about it. And they've had to get day jobs: Artemis as a dog-walker, Apollo as a TV psychic, Aphrodite as a phone sex operator, Dionysus as a DJ. Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees-a favorite pastime of Apollo's-is sapping their vital reserves of strength.

Soon, what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills. Two perplexed humans, Alice and Neil, who are caught in the crossfire, must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed-but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?

Sorry, this Giveaway is only open to residents of the US and Canada and Hachette Book Group cannot mail to PO Boxes.

Here are the rules on how to enter:
1. For one entry, leave a comment. Please be sure to include either your blog URL or email address so that I can contact you if you win. Also, be sure to tell me which book you would like to win.

2. For a second entry, post about this giveaway on your blog and leave link to your blog post in the comments. You will also get an entry for each person who tells me that they learned about this giveaway from you.

3. For more entries: You will earn an extra entry for each comment you leave on my past, present or future blog posts until the end of this giveaway.

4. The deadline to get your entries in is Tuesday November 4, 2008 12:00 Midnight E.S.T. Once I notify you that you've won, you will have 3 days to respond. After that, I will need to choose a different winner.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Book Giveaways Galore

There are a lot of book giveaways in progress right now.

Diary of an Eccentric is giving one copy of Capote in Kansas by Kim Powers. Kim Powers also guest blogged there, so go check it out and enter here! There is also a giveaway for Lydia Bennet's Story by Jane Odiwe. There is a very good interview with Jane Odiwe as well. Enter here.

Alyce at At Home with Books has one copy of Nefertiti and 2 copies of The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran to give away. Enter here.

Dar at Peeking Between the Pages is also hosting a giveaway for Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran. Enter here.

Amy at Passages to the Past is hosting a giveaway for To Hold the Crown by Jean Plaidy. Enter here.

Wendy at Musings of a Bookish Kitty is hosting a giveaway for The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. There is a great interview with Mr. Ebershoff. Enter here.

Alisonwonderland at So Many Books, So Little Time is hosting a giveaway for The Spanish Box by Andromeda Romano-Lax. Enter here.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson


Vivid and Beautiful


The year is 1954 and Kabuo Miyamoto a Japanese American fisherman is standing trial for murder in small town in Puget Sound Washington. Up until World War II, his family was growing strawberries and making payments towards owning the land they lived and worked on. With the onset so the war left for the land, they were sent away to a Japanese internment camp. After the war ended they came back to Puget Sound only to find the land that they had struggled for was sold.

The narrator of the story was the journalist covering the trial, Ishmael Chambers. As a child, he played with and later fell in love with Hatsue. When she was sent to the Japanese internment camp with her family, she sent Ishmael a "Dear John" letter. When she returned to Puget Sound, she was married to Kabuo Miyamoto.

Ishmael never stopped loving Hatsue and may be the only one to be able to uncover the truth and set Kabuo free. Will he let his feelings get in the way of doing the right thing? My lips are sealed.

This is a book of love, friendship, betrayal, honor, tradition, and racism. David’s Guterson’s characters ring true to me. His writing flows beautifully as he peels away the layers of the town and it’s inhabitants. This is a fast reading book that I didn’t want to put down. I highly recommend it!

4/5

Note to my fellow bloggers who also reviewed this book: If you would like me to link your review at the bottom of my review, please leave a comment with the link to your review.

Six + Seven Random Things about Me

Ana T. of Aneca's World tagged me for this meme. I did it once before a long time ago, but I don't mind doing again. I'll try to come up with something new.

Here are the rules:
Rules:1. Link back to the one who tagged you, write these rules in your post.
2. Post 6 or 7 facts about yourself, positive, negative or just plain weird!
3. Tag 6 or 7 people at the end of the post by name and blog link.
4. Let them know they were tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Six Random Things about Me and a Photo:

1. I hate to clean, but I love a clean house.

2. I was born and raised into a conservative Jewish family, but as an adult I don’t observe or believe in any organized religion. Don’t worry though, as I am a good person and believe in human kind. I always have made it a point to phone my parents on holidays, as they believe.

3. My husband and I have a CD music collection of over 700. We love music and have similar tastes.

4. I find any kind of shopping a chore, except for yarn shopping. I love to knit with good yarn.

5. I watch very little TV. I see it as cutting into my reading time.

6. Before we had Robbie, we had Hoochie and I still miss her too.

Hoochie

Since this meme has been going around for such a long time, I am not going to tag anyone in particular. However, if you haven’t done this meme or want to do it again, consider yourself tagged.


Thursday, October 23, 2008

Finding Jesus by Barry Aitchison




Fun and Thought Provoking

Father Padraic O’Casey will be 80 years old next month. He would like to retire, but the higher ups refuse to let him. They don’t want make someone else take over a diminished parish.

Recently, the church crucifix has gone missing off of its hanging place and shown up in different and unusual places around the church. Is someone playing tricks? That’s what the church thinks. However more and more parishioners are coming back to church, looking for a miracle. Things spiral out of control as more and more people show up and the media get involved.

When I first heard about this story, I couldn’t help but think about the toast with the resemblance of Jesus that turned up on Ebay. Bids were in the thousands of dollars. That is a true story and it seems to me that this one pokes a bit of fun at it.

Aitchison writes with a thought provoking sense of humor that pokes a little fun at all sides. With his little twist of an ending he had me laughing out loud. Aitchison at the same time writes in a respectful manner that won't offend.

4/5

Note: If you would like to read this short story, it is only available on Amazon.com, for 49 cents. However, Aitchison does offer a free download of one featured short story per month on his website. Here is the link.


Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Longest Journey by Diana Patterson and Rita Turner



An Amazing Journey and Amazing Historical Fiction!


As a young child, Elspeth lived with her father, the groundskeeper of the estate of Lord Reginald Westerna. When her father died, Lord Westerna took her in and bought her up as a Lady. She was the daughter he never had.

As a young woman, Elspeth’s wealthy English gentry’ world collapses when Lord Reginald Westerna dies and leaves her alone with her cruel stepbrother, Warwick. His jealousy and hatred of her brings him to accuse her of a crime she didn’t commit and she is sentenced to deportation to Australia.

There, the Governor of the Colony, Sir Rossmore, employs her. He is widowed and once he learns Elspeth’s story, she rises in station and a romance between the two begins.

This is a beautifully written story, that really captures the time and place of both England’s and Australia’s rich gentry. We also get a glimpse at the dark "underbelly" of the two countries. It is a story of love, courage, adversity, and romance. It has a fine cast of characters and a well thought out plot. A lot of research must have gone into writing this story and describing the costuming of the day.

I highly recommend this wonderful book.
5/5

Thanks to Diana Patterson and Rita Turner for an advance reading copy!

Note to my fellow bloggers who also reviewed this book: If you would like me to link your review at the bottom of my review, please leave a comment with the link to your review.

2009 READ & REVIEW CHALLENGE

MizB is hosting the 2009 READ & REVIEW CHALLENGE.

Since I make a effort to review every book I read, this challenge is perfect for me.

Here's how the challenge works:

For the 2009 READ & REVIEW CHALLENGE, you need to:
* review each book you read between January 1st and December 31st, 2009


* PLEASE keep your reviews clean & respectful ~ these books we read are the hard work of an author, and we don’t need to be mean. Even if you didn’t like the book, please try to find something you can say that would be encouraging to the author.

Reviews can be as short, or long, as you wish

You MAY overlap with other challenges

eBooks and Audiobooks ARE allowed.


If there will be spoilers in your review, please note this in the subject line of your post so that those who don’t want to read them can skip that review. Thank you.

If you would like to join this challenge as well, click on the link HERE.


Monarchy Mania! Book Giveaway

Fashionista Piranha having this awesome book giveaway.

Here's what she says about it:
I am a sucker for good historical fiction (perhaps you have noticed?) and I am especially fond of historical fiction centering around kings and queens. The intrigues of royalty fascinates me, and besides, all the princesses always have the nicest, jewel-encrusted dresses! I haven't done a big contest in a while, so it's time for another extravaganza - for every fifty entries I receive, another book will be added to the lot. There will be multiple winners in a random drawing, and each winner gets to pick one item from the following:







Everyone knows that I am a sucker for good historical fiction too! So, I had to get in on this.

Click here to find out details and how to enter.

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