Your favorite books and Winners!

Your Favorites of 2009 (so far!)

 Books:

The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak

Paper Towns by John Green

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Age Before Beauty by Virginia Smith

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson

The Associate by John Grisham

When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson

The Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner

FaeFever by Karen Marie Moning

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

Going To Far by Jennifer Echols

Ghost in Love by Jonathon Carroll

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County Tiffany Baker

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth

The Shack by William Young

Envy by Anna Godberson

Model Spy by Shannon Greenland

Down to the Wire by Shannon Greenland

My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison

A Lion Among Men by Gregory MacGuire

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Street Lawyer by John Grisham

Neurology of Angels by Krista Tibbs

Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Kill for Me by Karen Rose

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Evermore by Alyson Noel

The Creme Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke

Dark Pursuit by Brandilyn Collins

A Child's Journey Out of Autism by Leeann Whiffen

Who By Fire by Diana Spechler

Undone Season by Rachel Caine

Naked in Death by JD Robb

Yadda Yadda Prayer Group by Neta Jackson

Rites of Spring (Break) by Diana Peterfreund

Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Brownsville by Oscar Casares

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen

The Laughter of Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters

Cry in the Night by Colleen Coble

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

The Appeal by John Grisham

Supernatural: The Diary of John Winchester by 

Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint

Soulless by Christopher Golden

The Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris

 The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

Morning After by Lisa Jacobson

Authors:

Laurell K Hamilton

Charlie Huston

Linda Leal Miller

Brandilyn Collins

Sarah Dressen

Ray Blackstock

So many great books and authors on this list. Thank you all for sharing. I now have an endless number of books to choose from! 

Now on to business. The Winners! With the help of the handy-dandy Random Number Generator our two winners are:

The Disappearance goes to micaela6955/Michele P

ttyl goes to Estela

Congratulations!! Please send me an email with your address to marireadsATyahooDOTcom and I will get those to you as soon as possible. ENJOY!

Thank you to Tracy of Book Room Reviews for hosting another great Book Giveaway Carnival.

Book Review- Sandry's Book by Tamora Pierce

Sandry's Book by Tamora Pierce

Three young kids from different walks of life are brought together at the Winding Circle by the mage, Niko. Sandry, Briar, Tris and Daja are so different from each other but they all have magic within them that they need to develop and control. During there time in Discipline House, they also find time to become friends.

There wasn't much more to the book than the development of the characters. Most of the book is spent getting to know their backgrounds and their magical abilities. There was a bit at the end when they have to work together to save what they have found in their new home. Perhaps this is the setup for the action to come in the next few books.

I fear this is sounding like I didn't enjoy it but I really did. I read until I finished late into the night. I wouldn't have done that if it didn't grab my interest.

The best part, in my opinion, was how spinning yarn from wool was magic. It so is!

3/5

YA Challenge

Serial Readers Challenge

Skeleton Creek Webcast and a giveaway

Have you read Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman yet?

Would you like to?

It is a fun, creepy, interactive, mixed media book that I am sure you would enjoy. If you haven't heard about it, there are video clips that you watch online while reading. The actress who plays one of the characters will be featured on the third webcast/chat on Monday. 

Check it out! Info below.

I have a copy (paperback, ARC) to share with one lucky person. If you are interested just leave me a comment. I will select a winner on Sunday. You have until midnight (CST) on Saturday, March 7th to enter. This will be open internationally.

**Contest is closed. Thank you all for entering.

Click Here to Find out More about Skeleton Creek

Live Webcast with Amber Larson – Monday March 9th at 4:30 PM (PST) 

Amber Larson plays Sarah Fincher in Skeleton Creek – watch the live webcast and ask questions via chat here:

http://www.mogulus.com/skeletoncreektv 

Skeleton Creek on iTunes!

Sarah Fincher's videos are now available on iTunes to download for your iPod or computer, just search for "Skeleton Creek" in the iTunes store or click here to subscribe.

Skeleton Creek has gone mobile!

You can now access sarahfincher.com from any iPhone,iPod Touch, or Windows Mobile device. Just go tosarahfincher.com on your device's browser and enjoy!

Are you an Early Reviewer?

Were you aware of the Early Reviewer Program? Have you received any books from the program? If you have, how have you liked the book(s)? Any other thoughts on the LTER program?

I have been very lucky with the Early Reviewer's program at LibraryThing. I joined in September and since then I have received and reviewed the following books:

Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland

Fault Line by Barry Eisler 

The Disappearance by Efrem Sigel

I also recently got in the mail The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer New Unabridged. Haven't gotten to that one just yet. Soon, I hope.

Earlier today I found out I would be getting another book soon. Yay! It was my first choice and I can't wait until it gets here. I am a huge fan of Pan's Labyrinth which makes me even more excited to be getting The Strain by Guillermo del Toro.

Current Read and a Teaser

A couple weeks ago I received my first Tamora Pierce book through BookMooch. I have heard only great things about her books and was excited to see one of her books available for mooching.  Sandry's Book is the first in the Circle of Magic Quartet. 

From the back cover:

With her gift of weaving silk thread and creating light, Sandry is brought to the Winding Circle community. There she meets Briar, a former thief who has a way with plants; Daja, an outcast gifted at metalcraft; and Tris, whose connection with the weather unsettles everyone, including herself. At Winding Circle, the four misfits are taught how to use their magic - and to trust one another. But then disaster strikes their new home. Can Sandry weave together four kinds of magical power and save herself, her friends, and the one place where they've ever been accepted?

I am only a couple chapters in, but am already intrigued by these kids and what is going to happen to them. This is a book I can lose myself in for a little while. Here's a little teaser for you...

"A gust of wind bowled them onto their rumps before it whipped around the room, pulling covers off beds, scouring belongings off the small shelves. By the time it roared out of the room, all the girls but Tris were screaming." page 17, Sandry's Book (Circle of Magic) by Tamora Pierce.

Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers!

New Challenge

Thanks, Serena, for letting me know about this one. Who knew I had been participating without even knowing. :) Since I read Sarah's Key, I have been very interested in reading more books about/set during WWII.

Books read for the challenge:

1. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

3. The Reader by Bernard Schlink

4. An Obsolete Honor by Helena P. Schrader
5. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

 Others that may get read:

 Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose
 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Time for a Giveaway!

It is time for a book giveaway. Yay! For the last Book Giveaway Carnival, back in November, I had so much fun visiting new blogs and getting a chance to win some great books. I also gave away four books here and got a great number of book recommendations (see list) in return.

I love getting recommendations so I am going to ask for you all to do it again.

The prizes:



The Disappearance by Efrem Sigel (paperback, ARC)
ttyl by Lauren Myracle (paperback)

Both have been gently read and recently reviewed. Click on the covers if interested in seeing my reviews.

The deal: Just leave me a comment and let me know your favorite book so far this year. Also, let me know which book(s) you are interested in. Two books, two chances to win!

The timeline: You have until midnight (CST) on Friday, March 6th to enter. I will announce the winners that weekend. I will be randomly picking two winners from the comments. I will not be sending out an email notification so be sure to comeback and see if you are a winner or subscribe. :)

This giveaway is open internationally.

** Contest is closed. Go here to see the winners. Thank you all for entering.

New Layout

I am giving this one a try. Not sure if I like it yet. What do you all think? It is very different. Thanks, Dar, for the link so I could make 3 columns.  I had been wondering how to do that. 

Color scheme work with header? (Still working on getting it fixed. I just might have the un-cropped version some where.

Books , books and more books

The Amazon box arrived on my doorstep Wednesday afternoon. Yay!

What did I get?

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
The Luxe by Anna Godberson
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (with its shiny gold Newberry Award Medal)
ttyl by Lauren Myracle

Also on the doorstep was An Obsolete Honor- A story of the German Resistance to Hitler by Helena P Schrader (for review)

A bit different from the first four but I am just as excited about this one. After reading Sarah's Key I have been very interested in books set during WWII.

On Friday I was surprised to find a package in the mailbox with another book. This one came from Shannon of Confuzzled Books. Refer a Book Friday is a weekly giveaway that I won awhile back for recommending The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. My prize was the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver.

I need the husband to impose another ban! 

Hosted By Marcia of The Printed Page

Spring has Sprung (Sunday Salon)

It is hard to believe that Spring is already here. It is only the first day of March and already the trees have blossoms and the sun is shining. It was actually 90 degrees here on Friday! That's more like summer than spring. Well, I am loving how pretty our tree is looking right now. This is when it is at its best. Pretty, huh?

Well, since it is spring it is time for a little spring cleaning. I started this blog 6 months ago and have made very little changes to it since then. So I am asking for some help to improve it. Any suggestions? Please leave me a comment on my previous post. Thanks so much. :)

The Book Giveaway Carnival hosted by Tracy of Book Room Reviews gets under way tomorrow. I will be participating again so come back tomorrow to see what books I will be giving away.  A lot of other bloggers will be giving away books this week so be sure to click on the button to find a list to all those participating! 

I know this past month has been a bit slow on the review posts. Sorry. I have a feeling March will be a much better month for reading. February was a bit slow. Too many chunksters! I should have joined that Challenge! 

Hope you are all enjoying your Sunday. 

Cheers!