Book Blogger Hop: June 29-July 5

Posted on June 28, 2012 · 9 Comments

Welcome to the Book Blogger Hop!

A place to connect book bloggers and readers every week!

 

Book Blogger Hop

Grab the Logo!

Read the History and Rules of the Hop. This link also includes information on how to submit a question for the Hop and how to be a potential Host of the Hop!

Want to plan your posts in advance? Click this link to check out the future Hop questions!

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What to Do:
1. Post on your blog answering this question:

Do you have a keeper shelf for books you loved? What books are on that shelf and why?

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name, Genre you review, and direct link to your post answering this week’s question; failure to do so will result in removal of your link).

3. Visit other blogs in the list, spending quality time getting to know the people you are visiting. Don’t just visit the post with the question, but click around and read some of the blogger’s other content, too! This Hop isn’t about the number of people you can visit, but the quality of each visit. Readers – find a new blog to read by clicking through the links in the list!


My answer:
I do not re-read books, so I have a very small keeper shelf. In fact, there are only two books on that shelf – A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini and HIDDEN WIVES by Claire Avery. I loved both books and recommend them to anyone who asks me for a book to read.



A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS moved me to the core. It is such a powerful story of women in Afghanistan. The story is riveting, emotional, raw, and powerful. I could not put it down, even with tears streaming down my face. It is in my top 5 all-time favorite books.



HIDDEN WIVES is the first book that a part of my review for the book was quoted in! That is super exciting for a blogger! I really loved the book, too, so the quote was a bonus (it’s in the mass market paperback edition). It’s about girls living in a polygamist cult. Powerful stuff.

 

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Linky List

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Filed Under: Memes Tagged With:

Book Review, Giveaway & Bonus Scavenger Hunt: Finding Emma by Steena Holmes

Posted on June 28, 2012 · 5 Comments

Finding Emma
by Steena Holmes
Pub. Date: April 8, 2012
Source: Free review copy from WOW (Women on Writing) Book Tours for participation in a blog tour

*****

About the Book

Megan sees her daughter Emma everywhere. She’s the little girl standing in the supermarket, the child waiting for the swings at the playground, the girl with ice cream dripping down her face. But it’s never Emma.

Because Emma’s been missing for two years.

Unable to handle the constant heartache of all the false sightings, Megan’s husband threatens to walk away unless Megan can agree to accept Emma is gone. Megan’s life and marriage is crumbling all around her and she realizes she may have to do the thing she dreads most: move on.

When Megan takes a photo of a little girl with an elderly couple at the town fair, she believes it to be her missing daughter. Unable to let go, she sets in motion a sequence of events that could destroy both families’ lives.

My Thoughts

Megan is battling the worst nightmare of every parent – the disappearance of her 3-year-old daughter, Emma, from outside her home. It happened so fast. Megan had to do something inside her house, another daughter forgot to latch the door, and Emma walked outside and was never seen again. Two long years go by and Megan refuses to stop looking for her daughter. She sees her everywhere; every golden-haired child with curls gives her pause. Many awkward, humiliating, and anguishing moments follow when she confronts the child – and realizes it is not her Emma.  Her relationship with her husband and her other two daughters is almost nonexistent and severely strained. But she cannot stop. What if the one time she does not look is the time she could have saved her daughter?

Parallel to Megan’s story is the story of Jack and Dottie and their granddaughter. I fell in love with the character of Jack. He will do anything for his wife, who is beginning to battle dementia, and his granddaughter, who is the light of his life. But how does this elderly couple connect with Megan and her family?

Finding Emma is a heartwrenching story. Megan’s emotions are transparent on the page. Her fractured familial relationships are agonizing to read. Will this family ever find healing or a sense of closure? At 149 pages (PDF copy on my iPad), this is a very quick read and I guarantee you will not be able to put it down until you know the outcome (I couldn’t!). The only minor quibbles I have with this book are with the editing, especially toward the end. There were some proofing things that must have missed the editing process. As I said, they are minor, but it always bugs me when I see them in books (it is the nature of my day job to proof things, so I think I am over-sensitive to it!). It definitely did not detract from my enjoyment of the book and I would read more from this author in the future. I absolutely recommend this book to others.

Word of the Day: Tilt-a-whirl

*****

About the Author

Author of the new heart wrenching story “Finding Emma“, Steena is a woman who believes that ‘in the end, all things succumb…to the passions of your heart’. Steena’s life revolves around her family, friends and fiction. Add some chocolate into the mix and she’s living the good life. She took those passions and made them a dream come true by pouring her heart into each of her stories.

Proceeds from each book will be donated to The Missing Children’s Society of Canada – an organization dedicated to reuniting families. Visit www.mcsc.ca for more information.

Author’s Website: www.steenaholmes.com

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Scavenger Hunt – Hunt for Words and Win Prizes!

Emma has invited all of us to the carnival for a Scavenger Hunt!

We’re on the hunt for all things related to carnivals.

At each stop along our Finding Emma tour there are clues. These might be words hidden in a guest post or a “word for the day” at the bottom of a book review. Each time you find a word submit it on Steena’s Scavenger Hunt page. http://www.steenaholmes.com/wow-scavenger-hunt/

Each entry equals one ticket to win.

Please enter only one “clue” per entry. Each entry earns another chance to win.

Prizes:

First Prize: Work with a Bestselling Author! Our Grand Prize winner will help create a character for Steena Holmes’ next book!

Second and Third Prize Winners will each receive a signed copy of Finding Emma and a journal.

Contest runs June 4 – July 7. Open to U.S. and Canada. In the case of an international winner, the prize will be an eBook copy of Finding Emma. Three winners will be chosen at random. Winners to be announced on July 9th. Winners will be posted on Steena Holmes’ website and notified by Steena Holmes via email.

For even more fun, visit the Carnival Board on Pinterest. Steena (and Emma) love the Carnival. Come see their pictures of favorite memories of summer fun and fairs and pin up some of your own! (Hint…the pics will give you a clue to the word for the day).

Link for Scavenger Hunt on The Muffin
http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2012/06/emmas-scavenger-hunt.html?tw_p=twt

Link to Steena’s tour launch on The Muffin
http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2012/06/steena-holmes-author-of-finding-emma.html?tw_p=twt

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Book Giveaway

Thanks to WOW Tours and the author, I have one (1) PDF or MOBI (Kindle) copy of Finding Emma to give away to a lucky reader!

Rules:

1. Please fill out your name and email address in the contestmachine widget below.
2. The giveaway will end on Thursday July 5 at 11:59pm EST.
3. One winner will be selected and contacted at the e-mail address provided in the contestmachine widget.
4. Failure to respond to my notification e-mail will result in forfeiture of your prize and another winner will be selected.
5. Please ensure that you can read either a PDF or MOBI (Kindle) version of this book before  you enter this giveaway. IT IS NOT FOR A PRINT COPY. The giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere as long as you can read one of these electronic versions of the book.

 

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Crazy Fabulous, Giveaway Tagged With: , , , , ,

BEA 2012 – The Books

Posted on June 25, 2012 · 7 Comments

So, here are the BEA books! In this Goodreads widget,  you can only see those with covers, so CLICK HERE to see the full list!

 



 
*****

Filed Under: Misc Ramblings Tagged With:

BEA Day #1 Recap

Posted on June 23, 2012 · 8 Comments

For those who are not familiar with it, BEA is an acronym for Book Expo America, a yearly event in New York City which brings together publishers, authors, reviewers, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, and other industry professionals to hear about new and upcoming titles, network with other professionals in the field, participate in educational programming, and to just talk about books with other people who love them as much as you do!

BEA is held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, a HUGE (and I mean GIGANTIC) convention center. And it is packed full with retailers and publishers who are marketing their upcoming titles, new technology, etc. There is so much going on in the Javits that your head can and probably will spin just trying to figure out what to do and where to go.

But I went in with an agenda, meticulously planned out and executed quite well, I must say. There are only a handful of things I was not able to attend, but I am okay with that. I checked a suitcase for $3 and I am SO glad I did that. It’s much better than lugging around heavy books all day. Definitely worth it.

BEA is exhausting and awesomely fun. You are literally on your feet all day and there are SO MANY PEOPLE, it’s practically impossible to find a breathing moment to relax and regroup, unless you truck back to your hotel. The author signing lines were way out of control. They wrapped around other booths, in the middle of aisles, such that no one really knew where the line began and ended. People were constantly policing the line so other people didn’t cut in. It was just out of control. And, for me, I really only wanted a copy of the book. I didn’t really care of the author signed it or not. For me to have to wait in a line like that for the author to sign the book was nuts. Yes, there were some authors I wanted to see, but others I did not care as much about. But, the publisher would not give out a copy of the book unless you joined the author signing line. I don’t know how, but I wish they could find a better way to manage the signings or maybe move them elsewhere within Javits.

But, anyway, here’s a brief recap of who I saw and what I did. This is definitely not a comprehensive list.

One of the first things I did Tuesday morning was get in line for Heather Gudenkauf’s book signing of ONE BREATH AWAY. I LOVE her books, so I was super excited to meet her and get her latest book. The one thing I did NOT want to do was be all fangirl-like. So, you know what I did? I told her how I much I loved her books and said I was a fangirl. Yup. I didn’t say FAN, I said fanGIRL. *smack forehead* I’m in BEA 10 minutes and I’ve already made an idiot out of myself in front of an author. The pic below is of me and Heather. I’m the one with the curly hair.

I happened to be walking by the Hachette booth and spotted Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee signing the second book in their Book of Mortals Series, titled MORTAL. I enjoyed the first book in the series, FORBIDDEN, so I was really excited to snag this book. And these two are a hoot! I asked them what it was like to write together and Ted jokingly said “Well, she’s a pain in the a**!” They are awesome and I really enjoyed meeting them.

Next I jumped in line for Andrew Gross’s signing of 15 SECONDS.

One author I really wanted to meet is Chris Bohjalian. He became a must-read author of mine many years ago when I read MIDWIVES. He was kind enough to say that I did not look old enough to have been reading his books for many years (thanks, Chris!). He also touted his latest book, THE SANDCASTLE GIRLS, as the most important book he’s ever written. I’m looking forward to reading it!

On a side note, I’ve heard a loud raucous about Fifty Shades of Grey and apparently a character in the book is named Christian Gray. Although I have zero interest in reading this book, I did spot Christian Grey on the floor of BEA while I was waiting on line for Chris Bohjalian… (Look at the guy with the glasses in the background and then at his nametag. Click the picture for a close-up view.)

I made it at the very last minute for Jen Lancaster’s signing of JENERATION X. I have all of her books, but have yet to read any of them. People keep telling me they are hilarious. I hope to read them someday soon! The pic below is of me and Jen. As you can tell, the hair is back, it’s getting hot walking around the Javits, and I’m starting to look a little beat!

I’ve been reading James Patterson for a very long time. I was thrilled to get a copy of the newest book in his latest teen series, CONFESSIONS OF A MURDER SUSPECT. This was also another author fail. I asked him if I could take his picture and when I went to take the picture, I clicked the button and realized I had the video camera part of my camera on, so I was actually taking video instead of a picture. I felt like such an idiot that I said “Thanks” and ran away to the side and snapped this actual picture.

To wrap up Day 1, I waited on line for an autographed copy of THE SHOEMAKER’S WIFE by Adriana Trigiani. She is such a cool person. I just love her!

Yes, folks, all of the above happened on DAY 1 of BEA. I was completely exhausted and could barely move my body by the time I stumbled back to the hotel. All of the signings listed above were in addition to me wandering around and picking up books as they sparked my interest. There is always so much going on. I wanted to go to an event at the New York Public Library that night, but I just could not do it. I ended up laying in bed and watching a Law & Order: SVU marathon with my roomies all night!

I think this post is long enough, so I’ll call this the Day 1 Recap and create another post to share the rest!

*****

Filed Under: Misc Ramblings Tagged With:

Just Started: The Orphanmaster by Jean Zimmerman

Posted on June 22, 2012 · 3 Comments

The Orphanmaster
by Jean Zimmerman
Viking Adult
June 19, 2012
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Review copy from publisher

Amazon Synopsis:

From a debut novelist, a gripping historical thriller and rousing love story set in seventeenth-century Manhattan.

It’s 1663 in the tiny, hardscrabble Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, now present-day southern Manhattan. Orphan children are going missing, and among those looking into the mysterious state of affairs are a quick-witted twenty-two-year-old trader, Blandine von Couvering, herself an orphan, and a dashing British spy named Edward Drummond.

Suspects abound, including the governor’s wealthy nephew, a green-eyed aristocrat with decadent tastes; an Algonquin trapper who may be possessed by a demon that turns people into cannibals; and the colony’s own corrupt and conflicted orphanmaster. Both the search for the killer and Edward and Blandine’s newfound romance are endangered, however, when Blandine is accused of being a witch and Edward is sentenced to hang for espionage. Meanwhile, war looms as the English king plans to wrest control of the colony.

Jean Zimmerman brings New Amsterdam and its surrounding wilderness alive for modern-day readers with exacting period detail. Lively, fast paced, and full of colorful characters, The Orphanmaster is a dramatic page-turner that will appeal to fans of Hilary Mantel and Geraldine Brooks.

First sentence:

On the same day, two murders.

Book Trailer:

Check out the trailer, narrated by the author, for some fun historical facts that inspired the book.

*****

Filed Under: Just Started Tagged With: , ,
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