Contest Time - The Good Father

Normally, I'd wait until I'm totally finished to post this contest, but I'm galloping along with this read and it's fantastic!! Joe Gallagher from Doubleday has graciously offered us 2 copies of this attention grabber to give away.  The publisher's blurb is on my original Monday Mailbox post. I'll be posting the final review when I announce the winners, but in the meantime, I'll give you some hints.

• If you are a parent and ever had one of those Ah-OH moments of "my child couldn't possibly have done THAT!", and if you start this book, you will not put it down. 

• If you are even semi-conscious in these days of Homeland Security and terror scares,and worry about government intrusiveness, and if you start this book, you will not put it down.

•  If you've ever watched an episode of "HOUSE" on tv, and had difficulty following the wacky diagnostic thinking, and if you start this book, you will not put it down. 

 SO... since I started the book, and I'm having trouble putting it down, I'll just say we're going to make this an easy one.
Contest: No PO Boxes, US residents only.
ONE COMMENT ONLY...leave me a comment, tell my why you want to win, and leave me an email addee.
That's it. Deadline is April 7th, 11:59PM.
Good luck, Stay tuned and remember, no forms, no extras, just one comment. Random will pick.
Back to reading....(hope nobody comes into the library today....I'm on duty, and I want to finish this book!!!)

A second chance for Jeffrey Archer

Wow!  How lucky can we get?  MacMillan audio saw the review last week for Jeffrey Archer's latest one, and offered to give me an audio version to review.  They are also giving us a copy for a giveaway.  So....If you really wanted to read this one, and you didn't win, here's your chance.  I'm going to make this one vey easy.  One comment, one chance per customer.  BUT....I'm not going to give it away until I get 20 comments.  So mention this one on your blog and encourage people to come over here.  If you do post it on your blog (and mention that there's no giveaway until we reach the magic number) then I'll give you an extra entry...you won't have to do a thing.

If you've never tried an audio book before, this would be a very good one to start with, and just to prove it, there's a substantial sample here on the Only Time will Tell page It's a great read, and I can't wait to get my copy to listen to the story and see if there was anything I missed first time around.  The best part of audio books is that you don't have to turn the pages....they just keep going for you.  You can get lost in a book very easily and not want to turn it off.

Remember - one comment, include an email address, no PO Boxes, and be sure to give me the link to your blog post. Good luck.

Giveaway - A Deadly Cliche (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

It's March giveaway time and this is really a fun one to help us all get in the mood to look forward to summer vacation.  (See what living in a snow globe does to your mind?)  Kaitlyn Kennedy from Berkley Prime Crime publishers has graciously provided me with a review copy and a giveaway. If you read the first one in  Ellery Adams' Books By The Bay series--A Killer Plot, you are probably waiting anxiously for the next.  My review for that one is here.  I'm about halfway through this one now, and it's even better than the first.

Olivia Limoges, out walking with her beautiful companion Captain Haviland--the poodle on the cover--discovers a dead body on her town's pristine beach.  At the same time, there seems to be a growing crime spree in her small town, giving Police Chief Rawlings more than enough to keep him busy, and the Bayside Book Writers Group lots of fodder for future stories. To complicate the plot even more, Olivia has just been given a clue that her father, thought to have been lost at sea over 30 years ago, may in fact still be alive, and she seems to be developing more than professional feelings for Chief Rawlings (in addition to or instead of her current lover????)

Enough to get you interested? If nothing else, that gorgeous doggie sure beats a bare-chested Lothario for cover art in my book.  And of course it has a lighthouse! I know I'm not going to be doing much else until I finish this one. I'll give you my final review when I announce the winners to our giveaway.

So let's get down to it.  We have one copy to giveaway, so I'm making this one very easy for you and me. One entry only. Just tell me whether or not you've read the first one, and leave me your email address in a comment. That's all.  EASY.

Deadline is March 31st, US addresses only, no PO Boxes.

Good luck, and if you haven't read it, go get A Killer Plot, so you'll be ready when you win this one!

A new one and a giveaway: Strange Relation

Strange Relation 

A Memoir of Marriage, Dementia and Poetry

by Rachel Hadas

I won this one in a contest on Rose City Reader, and the publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek is offering me three more copies to giveaway to readers.  It just arrived, and I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I'm taking it with me on vacation next week.  It sure looks like a winner.

Here's the publishing blurb: 

In 2005 Rachel Hadas's husband, George Edwards, a composer and professor of music at Columbia University, was diagnosed with dementia at age sixty-one. Neurodegenerative ailments are a murky matter; it isn't clear even now whether George was suffering from Alzheimer's disease or frontotemporal dementia. Nor is it possible to determine when the illness began its slow, insidious course.
Strange Relation is Rachel Hadas's account of "losing" George. She begins her narrative when George's illness can no longer be ignored, and ends it in 2008, soon after his move to a dementia facility (when, after thirty years of marriage, she finds herself no longer living with her husband). Along the way, she offers flashbacks and digressions that draw us into their lives.
Hadas wrote most of Strange Relation during the years when she was living in a zone of deepening silence. Literature was often her most faithful companion, so this is, in part, a book about the books and poetry (hers and others) that helped her live her life. Within the cloudy confines of those murky years, years when reading and writing were an essential part of what kept her going, she "tried to keep track . . . tried to tell the truth."
Rachel Hadas is a professor and writer, the author of numerous books of poetry, essays, and translation. Her recent publications include The River of Forgetfulness, Laws, Indelible, and Halfway Down the Hall: New & Selected Poems, a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. She lives in Manhattan.

So here are the simple rules for entering:

1. Leave me a comment telling me why you want to win. Be sure you include your email address. NO EMAIL, No ENTRY.
2. Leave me another comment saying whether you're a follower or become a follower and tell me.
3. Blog about this on your blog (sidebars are OK) and leave me the link to your post.
4. I don't tweet or twitter, so you may leave one extra comment between now  and February 15th.  Just say "extra entry".  
5. US addresses only - no PO Boxes.
6. Deadline is 11:59PM February 23rd EST.

Time for another Giveaway - Sea Change

Sea Change

by Jeremy Page

published by Viking/Penguin Press.

This one is scheduled for publication December 6th- that's the week after Thanksgiving. I'm planning to spend the holiday weekend reading it, and will have my review posted by the pub date. In the meantime, here's the blurb

A stunning follow-up from the author of Salt--"thrilling and memorable" (Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times).
After experiencing a devastating tragedy, Guy sets out to sea in an old Dutch barge that has now become his home. Every night, he writes the imagined diary of the man he might have been-and the family he should have had.
As he embarks upon the stormy waters of the North Sea-writing about a trip through the small towns and nightclubs of the rural American South-Guy's stories begin to unfold in unexpected ways. And when he meets a mother and daughter, he realizes that it might just be possible to begin his life again.
Haunting and exquisitely crafted, Sea Change is a deeply affecting novel of love and family by an acclaimed young writer.

NOW...............Thanks to Langdon at Viking/Penguin press I have two copies of this to offer. We'll have the giveaway on December 6th to celebrate publication.

Here' the very simple rules:

1. Leave me a comment telling me whether or not you've read this author before. Be sure you include your email address. NO EMAIL, No ENTRY.
2. Leave me another comment saying whether you're a follower or become a follower and tell me.
3. Blog about this on your blog (sidebars are OK) and leave me the link to your post.
4. I don't tweet or twitter, so you may leave one extra comment between November 29th and December 6th.  Just say "extra entry".  
5. US addresses only -no PO Boxes.
6. Deadline is 11:59PM December 5th, EST.

Good luck and enjoy your holiday week.

Review and More Winners - What a Difference a Dog Makes

Author:  Dana Jennings
Format: hardback - 156 page
Subject: Bon mots from a dog
Genre: self-help 
Source: review copy from publisher


This one almost makes me want to get a dog. Author Dana Jennings has given us a wonderful, warm, sweet and gentle ode to his dog Bijou de Minuit (literally Jewel of Midnight). As he recovers from cancer, he learns to listen to doggie wisdom, and shares it with his readers. It is the perfect gift for dog lovers for the up-coming holidays. Even those of us who do not have a dog in their lives at the present time will find the short chapters and simple stories endearing.

The two lucky winners of this one are  Mrs.Shukra and Debbie.  I've sent them both an email and they have until Wednesday Nov 24th to send me their mailing address.

Thanks to Liz at Doubleday for making these copies available.

Giveaway: The Tower, the Zoo and The Tortoise

Giveaway

2 copies available

Doesn't this look like a "drop everything and drop into your favorite reading chair" book?  The UPS man just left, and while he may still be in his brown shorts, I'm settling in for a good read this afternoon because here in Maine it's a glorious chilly early autumn day, and this one begs to be read.  I especially love the affectionate nickname it's been given : "TZT".   Judy at Doubleday/Random House has offered us two copies to giveaway. It hit the NYT bestseller list and is getting rave reviews from everyone. So what's the buzz?

Brimming with charm and whimsy, this exquisite novel set in the Tower of London has the transportive qualities and delightful magic of the contemporary classics Chocolat and Amélie.

Balthazar Jones has lived in the Tower of London with his loving wife, Hebe, and his 120-year-old pet tortoise for the past eight years. That’s right, he is a Beefeater (they really do live there). It’s no easy job living and working in the tourist attraction in present-day London.

Among the eccentric characters who call the Tower’s maze of ancient buildings and spiral staircases home are the Tower’s Rack & Ruin barmaid, Ruby Dore, who just found out she’s pregnant; portly Valerie Jennings, who is falling for ticket inspector Arthur Catnip; the lifelong bachelor Reverend Septimus Drew, who secretly pens a series of principled erot­ica; and the philandering Ravenmaster, aiming to avenge the death of one of his insufferable ravens.

When Balthazar is tasked with setting up an elaborate menagerie within the Tower walls to house the many exotic animals gifted to the Queen, life at the Tower gets all the more interest­ing. Penguins escape, giraffes are stolen, and the Komodo dragon sends innocent people running for their lives. Balthazar is in charge and things are not exactly running smoothly. Then Hebe decides to leave him and his beloved tortoise “runs” away.

Filled with the humor and heart that calls to mind the delight­ful novels of Alexander McCall Smith, and the charm and beauty of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise is a magical, wholly origi­nal novel whose irresistible characters will stay with you long after you turn the stunning last page.

You want this. Right?
So here are the rules for the giveaway: 

1. For one entry, leave a comment telling me whether you've ever been to London before. If you have, did you go to the Tower? Include your email address (no email no win).
2. For an extra entry, leave a separate comment telling me you're a follower (or become one and let me know).
3. For another entry,  make a separate entry telling me you blogged about the giveaway, (sidebars are fine) and LEAVE ME THE LINK to the posting (if I don't get a link, the entry doesn't count).
4. Since I don't twitter, tweet, or FB, you can get extra entries by visiting my blog every day, and leaving a comment about the current post. Just leave your comment on the contest post and tell me something about that day's post. Say "daily entry and the date and blah blah blah about the daily post." If I didn't post that day, then say "no post yet today."
5. US addresses only, no PO Boxes.
6. Deadline is Oct 14 -noon EDT.

Thanks again to Judy at Doubleday for making this one available.

Great Giveaway: Rules of Betrayal by Christopher Reich

Doubleday Knopf just released this one earlier this week, and thanks to them we have two copies to giveaway. I'm thinking this is going to be one of the hottest thrillers of the season, based on all the buzz on Christopher Reich's website.

Here's the publisher's description:

The most riveting novel yet in Christopher Reich’s New York Times bestselling series—featuring Dr. Jonathan Ransom and his undercover-agent wife Emma, a dangerous woman with a mysterious past who has gone rogue in the high-stakes, serpentine world of international spies.
In 1980, a secret American B-52 crashes high in a remote mountain range on the Pakistan–Afghanistan border. Nearly thirty years later, and spanning locales from those peaks to New York City, a terrible truth will be revealed.
Jonathan Ransom returns as the resourceful doctor thrown into a shadowy world of double and triple agents where absolutely no one can be trusted. To stay alive, Ransom must unravel the mystery surrounding his wife—an enigmatic and lethal spy who plays by her own rules—and discover where her loyalties truly lie.
Rules of Betrayal is a masterfully plotted novel that cements Christopher Reich’s reputation as one of the most admired espionage thriller writers today.

I just got the first one in the series, Rules of Deception, and hope to get that one done by the time this review copy arrives.

So here are the rules for the giveaway: 

1. For one entry, leave a comment telling me whether you've read any of Reich's previous books. Include your email address (no email no win).
2. Bonus entry- go to Christopher Reich's website and then leave me a separate comment telling me something interesting you read there.
3. For an extra entry, leave a separate comment telling me you're a follower (or become one and let me know).
4. For another entry,  make a separate entry telling me you blogged about the giveaway, (sidebars are fine) and LEAVE ME THE LINK to the posting (if I don't get a link, the entry doesn't count).
5. Since I don't twitter, tweet, or FB, you can get extra entries by visiting my blog every day, and leaving a comment about the current post. Just leave your comment on the contest post and tell me something about that day's post. Say "daily entry and the date and blah blah blah about the daily post." If I didn't post that day, then say "no post yet today." YOU CAN DO THIS UP TO 10 times.   Altogether you could have up to 13 entries.
6. US addresses only, no PO Boxes.
7. Deadline is July 29th -noon EDT.

Thanks again to Judy at Doubleday for making this one available.

Review and Giveaway reminder - EASTERN STARS

Only one more week to enter....

Spring training has started, and I'm sure there is at least one player from San Pedro de Marcoris playing today.

Here's my review................

Author:Mark Kurlansky
Format: paperback galley 288 pgs
Subject; baseball; sugar cane; poverty
Setting: San Pedro de Marcoris, Dominican Republic
Genre: non-fiction
Source: ARC from publisher
Challenge: Completing ARCs

This is a fact-filled report of the town of San Pedro de Marcoris in the Dominican Republic. The author takes us back almost to Columbus, and marches forward through every 'owner/exploiter' of the town, explaining how economic circumstances changed as the sugar cane industry went thru a series of ups and down. The story presents more the history of baseball and stories of individuals and their struggles with baseball teams, terms, contracts, etc. I was especially interested in the impact the US embargo on Cuba has had on this whole issue, something I never realized before. There is also some discussion about how much impact baseball had on the town, and there is an excellent chronological listing of all the players who came to Major League american baseball from this town.

While I was personally disappointed not to find any mention of players from other towns in the DR, the author never stated that he intended otherwise. A good solid book for someone doing research on socio-economic development in the Dominican Republic, or someone who is a die-hard baseball trivia fan. Especially if your favorite team has one of the dozens of natives of San Pedro de Marcoris.

So step up to the plate and enter to win by clicking here.

Cleaning the Shelf Contests

I usually just post contests in the sidebar because there are so many of them, and the posts get lost over the days, but these two deserve a look.

Over at Rhapsody in Books, they're cleaning out some gorgeous shelves.  There's a giveaway for four different books, and some photos of some shelves that make even me jealous...I particularly like the hallway idea...ours is totally bare right now, and those 65 cartons in the attic are looking for a home.  Stop over and check out the shelves and the contest.  Deadline is October 29th.

Alyce of At Home with Books has begun having monthly book shelf cleaning giveaways.  I hope she keeps it up because one of these days I might win.  She always has some good pickin's.  Please stop by and check it out! This month's deadline is also October 29th.

Giveaway - The Bible Salesman

Little Brown has just published the trade paperback of The Bible Salesman, and has made 5 copies available to me for giveaway.  Don't you love the chance to get a free book to enjoy?  I haven't read it yet, but have seen several reviews that speak positively about it.  Here's the publisher's description:

Preston Clearwater has been a criminal since stealing two chain saws and 1,600 pairs of aviator sunglasses from the army during the Second World War. Back on the road in postwar North Carolina, now a member of a car-theft ring, he picks up hitchhiking Henry Dampier, an innocent twenty-year-old Bible salesman. Clearwater immediately recognizes Henry as smart but gullible, just the associate he needs--one who will believe Clearwater is working undercover for the F.B.I.; one who will drive the cars Clearwater steals as Clearwater follows along in his own car at a safe distance. Henry joyfully sees a chance to lead a dual life as a Bible salesman and a G-man.


During his hilarious and scary adventures, Henry grapples with doubts about the Bible's accuracy, and we learn of his fundamentalist upbringing, an upbringing that doesn't prepared him for his new life. As he falls in love with the captivating Marleen Green and questions his religious training, Henry begins to see he's being used--that he is on his own in a way he never imagined.

So now for the rules,,,I'm keeping this one simple too


1. ONE entry only - just give me a comment, say if you're a follower (an extra point), and if you blog about this you'll get 2 points for a post, and 1 for a sidebar (give me the link please).
2. Include your email address- no email, no entry.
3. Entries by Oct 20th, I'll draw at 12:01 Oct 21, and must have a reply by Oct 23, or next person gets drawn.
4. Open only to US and Canada, no PO Boxes.

AGAIN ===Please only one entry....I'll assign the extra points from your entry....just follow the rules.

Now sit back and keep your fingers crossed....

Giveaway- True Compass

I am absolutely thrilled that Brianne at the Hachette Book Group has given me 3 copies of Ted Kennedy's memoir True Compass to giveaway.  I can't wait to get my copy to review.  I've always been a fan of the Kennedy family, and this insider look promises to be special.

Here's the description from Hachette:

In this landmark autobiography, five years in the making, Senator Edward M. Kennedy tells his extraordinary personal story--of his legendary family, politics, and fifty years at the center of national events.

TRUE COMPASS

The youngest of nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, he came of age among siblings from whom much was expected. As a young man, he played a key role in the presidential campaign of his brother John F. Kennedy, recounted here in loving detail. In 1962 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he began a fascinating political education and became a legislator.

In this historic memoir, Ted Kennedy takes us inside his family, re-creating life with his parents and brothers and explaining their profound impact on him. For the first time, he describes his heartbreak and years of struggle in the wake of their deaths. Through it all, he describes his work in the Senate on the major issues of our time--civil rights, Vietnam, Watergate, the quest for peace in Northern Ireland--and the cause of his life: improved health care for all Americans, a fight influenced by his own experiences in hospitals.

His life has been marked by tragedy and perseverance, a love of family, and an abiding faith. There have been controversies, too, and Kennedy addresses them with unprecedented candor. At midlife, embattled and uncertain if he would ever fall in love again, he met the woman who changed his life, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Facing a tough reelection campaign against an aggressive challenger named Mitt Romney, Kennedy found a new voice and began one of the great third acts in American politics, sponsoring major legislation, standing up for liberal principles, and making the pivotal endorsement of Barack Obama for president.

Hundreds of books have been written about the Kennedys. TRUE COMPASS will endure as the definitive account from a member of America's most heralded family, an inspiring legacy to readers and to history, and a deeply moving story of a life like no other.

About Author

Edward M. Kennedy has represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate for forty-seven years. In 2004 he began interviews at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia for an oral history project about his life. Since then, he has drawn from his fifty years of contemporaneous notes from his personal diaries and worked closely on this book with Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Powers, coauthor of Flags of Our Fathers and author of Mark Twain: A Life.

So here are the rules: 

Each of these must be a separate entry.

1. Leave a comment WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS saying you want to enter.
2. Tell me if you're a follower - if you're not, then sign up and tell me and you'll get the extra entry.
3. Post this on your blog and LEAVE ME A LINK to the post.  Sidebars count, but I'd still like the link. (You'll get 2 entries for a blog post, one for a sidebar--but you only need to make one comment here).

Deadline is midnite EDT, October 9, 2009.
Same as before - no PO Boxes, open to US/Canada residents only. (Hachette's rules, not mine.)
I'll draw names on October 10, and the winners will have 48 hours to claim their prize or I'll draw again.

Once again, thanks to Brianne and the Hachette Book Group for this wonderful opportunity.

Sand Sharks - The Winners

Well Random.org has done its job again.  No names in a cereal box for me...I let the computer do the picking. Thanks to everyone who entered, and I hope you continue to visit here and all the sites on the contest sidebar. If you didn't win this one, your chance is still out there for the next one.

So without further ado or to-do, here are the winners!

Nonnna (Cheli)

Debbie F

Karen K

All of the winners have been notified by email, and they have until Midnite Friday nite (September 18th) to send me their mailing addresses.  If I wake up Saturday and still have not heard from anyone, I'll pick replacement winners.

Again thanks for entering.  Go hug a blogger today.

Non-review and quickie giveaway: No Mad

Notnessie at Today's Adventure has come up with a terrific way to handle reporting on books that just didn't make it to the finish line, i.e., for whatever reason, we just didn't read the whole thing, but have read enough to get a flavor of the writing. She calls them "Non-Reviews". I've been calling them "Abandoned books" over on LT, but that sorta sounds like I've left them on the roadside for the crows. In some cases, I intend to come back and try later; in other cases, like Sam Moffie's No Mad, I realize that this is just not my cuppa tea. Sam asked if I would review this, and was gracious enough to send me a copy, so I feel an obligation to get it to someone who can appreciate the author's hard work. Sam has suggested that I find another home so someone else can enjoy it. So first my few comments, then the rules for the giveway.. I didn't finish this book; after 60+ pages, I felt it was going nowhere, and I got tired of the moanings, fantasies and self-centered musings of an adolescent masquerading as an adult male. The premise (if I read the back cover blurb) appears to be that said male finds his wife in bed with his brother, so he takes his belongings and his dog and sets off to find himself or abandon his previous life and see the world and/or d) wallow in sex whereever he finds it?? I got that far, but nothing seemed to indicate this journey would ever end... Moffie writes well, his sentences are often humorous, but I kept finding myself saying "and? and? get on with it." I couldn't find the point....but that may be just me---I'm not a middle aged male. I'd be happy to have someone else give it a look and enjoy it. So drop me a comment, and I'll pick from entries received by September 19th. Be sure to leave me an email so I can get in touch with you about mailing instructions.

Contest Reminder

Don't forget I'm giving away 3 copies of Sand Sharks on Sept 16th. Get those entries in by leaving your comments here.

They're Everywhere!!

As you can see , my TBR shelf is full--in fact it's grown to four shelves.

Since I confess to being someone who likes to seem like I'm in control, I decided to take today to prioritize things so I could leave town next week with a clear conscience:

• I have my sister Cheli lined up to do a guest review of one of the books she 'borrowed' from my TBR pile
• I'm taking my last 999 book (Saudade by Katherine Vaz) with me to finish while cruising (or flying over the Atlantic)
• I've been trying to straighten up the office and blog space because my daughter is going to house-sit/vacation/work here, and I'd like her to have a place to put a coffee mug at least.

So what happens when I return on Labor Day?

Although I'm participating in several personal reading challenges, I'm going to give priority to ARCs and Early Review copies I've agreed to read and review.

First priority: I have four books that I personally received from the authors:

• Susan Vaughan, a local author who has written several suspense romances, gave us a copy of her latest book Primal Obsession. Knowing how difficult it can be for Indie presses to get wide coverage, I offered to review for the blog. It's first up when I get back.
  
• Sam Moffie offered me a copy of No Mad. I confess it wouldn't be something that I would normally go out and buy, but I have been trying to expand into new genres and this looks like it will be interesting.
  
• Circle of Souls was sent by Preetham Grandhi -- another story with a young psychiatric patient with visions, her pyschiatrist, a murder, art therapy; the book cover calls it a "Stunning pyschological thriller". After reading The Rapture I think I can handle this and am looking forward to it.
  
• The Saint and the Fasting Girl was sent by the author Anna Richenda. It arrived just as I finished Sacred Hearts and I wanted to put some space between the two. It will be an excellent read for my 2nd 999 challenge's Historical Fiction category.
  

Then there are two Early Reviews I received from LT-- they will be the next up. Both are books I really wanted because the suspense thriller is a genre I am coming to enjoy more and more.

• Rizzo's War by Lou Manfredo
  
• Guardian of Lies by Steve Martini
  

Shortly after those, I have to get to ARCs I've received from publishers, and I'm going to try to behave myself and not request any more (unless they are to die for!) until I get this pile under control. In no particular order they are...

• The Maze Runner, by James Dasher - due out in October. I'm trying to expand and read more YA, and fantasy: genres I don't normally read. This one really caught my attention.
• The Weight of Silence, a book about children lost in the woods by Heather Guedenkauf. After I survived reading Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,I guess I can do this one without fainting.
• Half-Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage that Redrew the Map of the New World by Douglas Hunter. I love biography, and this book is a topic that really interests me.
• The Boy who Harnessed the Wind LP: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba. Set in Malawi, this is a true story of courage and inventiveness. I have enjoyed the previous books I've read this year set in various countries of Africa, and this will be another to help expand my knowledge. I'm hoping this will also be suitable for the YA group in our library.
  
• An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkerson by Andro Linklater. I requested this one because it's set in a period I love to read about- the American Revolution- and it's about someone I'd never heard of. Curiosity is a great reason for picking books...
• Sand Sharks by Margaret Maron. I love the Deborah Knott series, so when Hachette Books offered me the chance to review and run a contest to share this one with others, I could not resist.
  
• The Christmas Cookie Club: A Novel by Ann Pearlman. I am a Christmas cookie nut...I go absolutely crazy baking for weeks before the holidays, and if I'm not going to be with people, I actually mail giant boxes of them. I'm always looking for new recipes and new mysteries, so in spite of the plain red cardboard wrapper on the galley proof, this one looks great. I'm hoping to be able to try some of the recipes as I read it, so I can share the results in my review.
• The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright. I honestly don't remember requesting this one, but it is an area in which I read a lot. I've tried three times to read Karen Armstrong's History of God but just couldn't get into it. Maybe this one will be better.
• South of Broad by Pat Conroy. Another of my favorite writers, and settings.
• The Brutal Telling (An Armand Gamache Novel) by Louise Penny. Another of my favorite authors. I was thrilled to be able to be among the first to get this one. My sister also wants it, so I may try to eek out a spot in the luggage to take it along for the cruise. The Armand Gamache books are some of the best in the genre today. I hope this one doesn't disappoint.

And finally, there are three others that I received as prizes from other people's contests that I am itching to get to:

• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe.
• The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden by William Alexander.
• The Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths by Charlotte Gordon.

So if you are OCD and counted the books in the pictures, there are 75 there. The ones that are left after the ARCs, and ERs are books that were on my original list to be read for various challenges during 2009. I'm not sure I can finish all 75 of them before New Years but I'm going to have a wonderful time trying.

The Winners!!!

Well , here are the winners of our latest giveaway: The Lost Dog, by Michelle de Kretser goes to Debbie. I just got my review copy in the mail yesterday, and it really looks like it's going to be a good one. The lucky winner of the Blue Star by Tony Earley is Etirv. I can't wait to get my copy. The winners have been notified by email, and have until midnite Monday, August 17th to give me a good mailing address for Hachette. If they don't get back to me, or decline the prize, we'll draw another name. In the meantime, if you didn't win, there's still time: check out the Contests and Sweepstakes page of Hachette Book group for more sites featuring these and many other giveaways.

Giveaway: The Sand Sharks

Ok all you Margaret Maron fans! I have 3 copies of her latest Sand Shark available for giveaway. If you're not familiar with Maron's books, you are in for a treat. This is a series with a believable gutsy main character Deborah Knott, a wonderful caste of side characters, terrific fun-in-the-sun southern settings, and always well-plotted stories that keep you guessing. Can you tell she's one of my favorites? Here's the blurb on this new one from Hachette --it sounds terrific!

When Judge Deborah Knott travels to Wrightsville Beach for a summer conference for North Carolina District Court Judges, she stumbles upon the body of one of her colleagues. Meanwhile, Deborah's husband, Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, is in Virginia with his son, tying up loose ends left by the death of his first wife. When another judge is found murdered at the conference, it soon becomes evident that Deborah may be the killer's next target. Her relaxing trip to the seaside soon transforms into a harrowing experience, and she must summon all of her strength and investigative expertise to track down the culprit before she becomes the next victim.

So let's make this fun... to enter:

1. Leave a comment - give me either your favorite Margaret Maron book, or state that you're new to this author.
2. Leave an entry if you're a follower (or become a follower and tell me.)
3. Blog about the contest and leave me a link in a third comment. (sidebars are OK).
4. No PO Boxes, US and Candadian residents only.
5. One of your entries (or your blog profile) must have an email address so I can contact you.
6. Contest ends September 15th.

Giveaway: The Lost Dog

This one looks to be a real page turner. I can't wait for my review copy. Hachette is giving us a copy of The Lost Dog by Michelle deKretser. They catch our interest with this blurb:

Tom Loxley, an Indian-Australian professor, is less concerned with finishing his book on Henry James than with finding his dog, who is lost in the Australian bush. Joining his daily hunt is Nelly Zhang, an artist whose husband disappeared mysteriously years before Tom met her. Although Nelly helps him search for his beloved pet, Tom isn't sure if he should trust this new friend. Tom has preoccupations other than his book and Nelly and his missing dog, mainly concerning his mother, who is suffering from the various indignities of old age. He is constantly drawn from the cerebral to the primitive--by his mother's infirmities, as well as by Nelly's attractions. THE LOST DOG makes brilliant use of the conventions of suspense and atmosphere while leading us to see anew the ever-present conflicts between our bodies and our minds, the present and the past, the primal and the civilized.

About Michelle de Kretser Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Australia when she was fourteen. She was educated in Melbourne and Paris and has worked as an editor and a book reviewer. The Hamilton Case, her second novel, received the Commonwealth Writers Prize (SE Asia and Pacific region), and the Society of Authors’ (U.K.) Encore Award for best second novel of the year. It was also first runner-up for Barnes & Noble’s Discover Award in Fiction, and a New York Times Notable Book. The Lost Dog is her third novel. It was a finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and received the 2008 Christina Stead Prize for fiction. So these are the rules:

• Leave a comment here -one comment to a customer : include

1. your email address,
2. if you are a follower,
3. the link if you post the giveaway on your blog,

• Open to US and Canadian addresses only (sorry no PO Boxes)
• Comment no later than August 12th. I'll draw on August 13th.

Giveaway : The Blue Star

Hachette Books is offering us another great opportunity. This time we're giving away a copy of The Blue Star by Tony Earley. Scott Turow from the New York Time Book Review praised THE BLUE STAR saying, "I galloped through the novel and relished every page….Earley's simple prose is always informed by Jim's good heart….'The Blue Star,' like its hero, is irresistible." Here's how Hachette trumpets the book:

Seven years ago, readers everywhere fell in love with Jim Glass, the precocious ten-year-old at the heart of Tony Earley's bestseller Jim the Boy. Now a teenager, Jim returns in another tender and wise story of young love on the eve of World War Two. Jim Glass has fallen in love, as only a teenage boy can fall in love, with his classmate Chrissie Steppe. Unfortunately, Chrissie is Bucky Bucklaw's girlfriend, and Bucky has joined the Navy on the eve of war. Jim vows to win Chrissie's heart in his absence, but the war makes high school less than a safe haven, and gives a young man's emotions a grown man's gravity. With the uncanny insight into the well-intentioned heart that made Jim the Boy a favorite novel for thousands of readers, Tony Earley has fashioned another nuanced and unforgettable portrait of America in another time--making it again even realer than our own day. This is a timeless and moving story of discovery, loss and growing up, proving why Tony Earley's writing "radiates with a largeness of heart" (Esquire).

About Tony Earley Tony Earley is the author of four books: Here We Are in Paradise, a collection of stories; the novel Jim the Boy; the personal essay collection Somehow Form a Family; and The Blue Star, a novel released in Spring, 2008. A winner of a National Magazine Award for fiction, he was named one of the twenty best writers of his generation by both Granta, in 1996, and The New Yorker in 1999. His fiction and/or nonfiction have appeared in Harper's, Esquire, The New Yorker, The Oxford American, The New York Times Book Review, Tin House, Best American Short Stories, New Stories from the South and many other magazines and anthologies. He is a native of western North Carolina and a graduate of Warren Wilson College and The University of Alabama. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and daughter, where he is the Samuel Milton Fleming Associate Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. Interview with Tony Earley Read a chapter excerpt So these are the rules:

• Leave a comment here: one comment to a customer :include

1. your email address,
2. if you are a follower,
3. the link if you post the giveaway on your blog,

• Open to US and Canadian addresses only (sorry no PO Boxes)
• Comment no later than August 12th. I'll draw on August 13th.