Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Teaser Tuesday: Forbidden (Oct 4, 2011)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
  • Then visit MizB and add your link!


Whatever this virus had done to humanity, the alchemists had found a way to undo it in him.  The chaos of emotions had come roiling back into veins and neurons too tepid to house their fire, and Saric wasn't sure if he wanted to kill the alchemists or thank them for it.  (p23, Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee)

















Forbidden (The Books of Mortals)
Publisher/Publication Date: Center Street, Sept 2011
ISBN: 978-1599953540
384 pages

Monday, October 3, 2011

Book Tour: The Story of Noah's Ark: Wall Clings (Oct 3-7)


The Story of Noah's Ark
Story book and wall clings

Lori C. Froeb; illustrated by Luana Rinaldo

The story of Noah and his ark is one of the most beloved stories in the Bible.  With this deluxe set, kids can use the wall clings to recreate the awesome scene of all the animals boarding the ark. As they read about Noah and his adventure, children can stick the vinyl clings on any painted wall to retell the story.  The clings peel right off, so kids can rearrange them however they choose -- over and over again.

About the author: Lori C. Froeb lives and works in Westchester County, New York. As a children's book editor, Lori has had the opportunity to write many books for kids -- which she finds both challenging and rewarding.  Lori tries to carry God's promises with her every day and it was a blessing to write this book. Her other titles include A Child's Book of Parables, The Acorn and the Oak Tree, and The Newborn King puzzle book.

About the illustrator: Luana Rinaldo has authored and illustrated many picture books for babies and children. Her work has been translated into more than 14 languages.  Luana's illustrations have also appeared in magazines and on greeting cards and children's clothes.  Luana lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland. 
The Story of Noah's Ark: Wall Clings
Publisher/Publication Date: Kregel Kidzone, July 2011
ISBN: 978-0825455520
Ages 4-8




Book Tour: Spin the Plate by Donna Anastasi (Oct 3-7)


Spin the Plate
by Donna Anastasi

Spin the Plate is the story of Jo, a woman who has come through a traumatic childhood not battered and broken, but powerful and enraged. A tattoo artist by day, she roams the streets of Boston nightly to forget her past and feed her two passions: rescuing mistreated creatures and inflicting bodily harm on their perpetrators. Unassuming and unafraid, Francis, a man harboring his own back story, is the one person Jo can't seem to scare off. Right from the start, he sees clearly the caring soul buried deep within Jo's hard exterior and puts into motion a succession of life-altering happenings for them both.

It is hard to imagine two characters as unique as Jo and Francis, yet Anastasi places them so convincingly in the world we know that it makes you take a fresh look at the people you pass on the street and wonder about what back story they may be hiding. Every character in this book, including the minor ones, has a distinct personality and practically jumps off the page into your world.

GOLD MEDAL WINNER, Women's Fiction, 2011 Living Now Book Awards
SILVER MEDAL WINNER, Contemporary Romance, 2011 Readers Favorite Book Awards
International Book Award Finalist, Romance
International Book Award Finalist, Women's Literature

Touring with Walker Author Tours.
Spin the Plate
Publisher/Publication Date: Black Rose Writing, May 2010
ISBN: 978-1935605393
198 pages



Sunday, October 2, 2011

Frightful Fall Read-a-thon! Oct 3 - 9, 2011



It's time for another read-a-thon!  Hopefully I will be more successful at this one than at the last one!  Except for work and normal "taking care of family" stuff, I don't have a lot else going on this week (for a change!) so I might actually be able to read a little more!  Michelle from Castle Macabre (and A True Book Addict) will be hosting this read-a-thon.  Rules/details are as follows:

-Dates: Monday, October 3 at 12:00am through Sunday, October 9 at 11:59pm (your time zone).
-To go along with the scary theme, this time I will have a requirement. You must read at least ONE scary book during the read-a-thon. If you are not a horror fan, then make it a thriller or a mystery, as long as the book has some kind of spooky premise to it. Those of you who fulfill this requirement, and sign in at the starting line, will automatically be entered in the participant giveaway.
-Read as much or as little as you want. You do not have to join in all week. Start during the week or just do the weekend. It's your decision. Just be sure to sign in at the starting line when you start reading.
-Michelle will be hosting a scary themed mini-challenge and hopefully will have other mini-challenges and/ or giveaways
-Hashtag for Twitter will be #frightfall
-Sign up by visiting Castle Macabre.  If you don't have a blog, use Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads. Having a blog is not required.

So jump in and sign up!  You know you are going to be reading anyway!

I Am Never Alone

Click Here For Images  

It's Monday! What are you reading? (Oct 3, 2011)




What are you reading on Mondays is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too! 


Currently Reading:
How Can You Not Laugh at a Time Like This by Carla Ulbrich
Never Been Bit  by Lydia Dare (I know it is October, but I am just not in the mood for a vampire book - I have loved this series, but I am having a hard time with this one. . .)

Next Up:
Hello, Hollywood!: A Novel (Backstage Pass)  by Janice Thompson
The Last Blind Date  by Linda Yellin
Safe from the Sea  by Peter Geye

Audio Book:
A Discovery of Witches: A Novel  by Deborah Harkness

E-Book:
Forbidden (The Books of Mortals)  by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee
An Accidental Mother  by Katherine Anne Kindred

Bathroom Book:
Good Graces  by Lesley Kagen


Reviewed Since Last Post:



Waiting for Reviews:
 The Place of Belonging by Jayne Pearson Faulkner
The Blackberry Bush by David Housholder
The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman
Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Airmail by Naomi Bulger
Pie Town by Lynne Hinton
Chasing the Red Car by Ellen Ruderman
Whistling In the Dark  by Lesley Kegan
Darkness, My Old Friend: A Novel by Lisa Unger
Atonement by Ian McEwan

E-books waiting for review:
Sudden Moves by Kelli Sue Landon
This World We Live In (The Last Survivors, Book 3) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Children's Books waiting for review:
Pearl's Wisdom by Auntie LuLu
Bug Meets His Friend (Bug's Adventure Series) by K.M. Groshek
Multiply on the Fly by Suzanne Slade
Ten for Me by Barbara Mariconda
Animalogy by Marianne Berkes
Prairie Storms by Darcy Pattison

READY - SET - READ!

Book Tour: The God Girl Bible (Oct 2-8)

God Girl Bible
Snow White/Pretty Pink
Tree Design Duravella
Hayley DiMarco


Now the popular God Girl Bible is available in a fantastic new color! The perfect companion to the #1 CBA bestseller God Girl, the God Girl Bible merges GW with incredible new material that helps a girl become the woman she was meant to be. Jam-packed with special features created just for them, the God Girl Bible offers teen girls

  • Book Intros: including quick facts about author, audience, themes, and more God Girl Stories: 26 full-page profiles of women in the Bible
  • Know This Devotions: 200 half-page devotions on topics related to becoming a God Girl
  • Ask Yourself: sidebars that encourage girls to consider how God's Word applies to their lives on a practical level
  • Prayers: 40 timeless prayers rewritten in language today's teen girl understands
  • Quick Relief: index of helpful verses on topics and issues teens face
  • GodGirl.com: a site where girls can interact with Hayley and other God Girls diving even deeper into their Bible study

Available September 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

    Saturday, October 1, 2011

    Book Tour: Hello Hollywood by Janice Thompson (Oct 2-8)

    Say Hello to Hollywood!
    Find out just how funny life can be when you try to script it.

    Popular romance author and screenwriter, Janice Thompson, is charming her readers once again with a behind-the-scenes look at life in Hollywood. Her new book, Hello, Hollywood! (ISBN: 978-0-8007-3346-9, $14.99, 288 pages, September) is the second installment in the Backstage Pass series. This time, Thompson takes her readers inside the writer’s room.

    At 28, Athena Pappas has a pretty great gig. She’s the head writer of one of the most popular sitcoms in television history, Stars Collide. Yet, something’s still lacking: her love life.

    Athena finds nothing wrong with still living at home with her large, wacky Greek family and making her bed with the same Strawberry Shortcake sheets she had as a kid. None of that has prevented Athena from plotting her characters’ romances. So why is her own love life so hard to script?

    Athena’s love life gets the shakeup it needs when her boss hires up-and-coming Vegas comedian, Stephen Cosse, to help boost the show’s sagging ratings. Feeling her position as head writer threatened, she starts to doubt her talents, and the fact that Stephen is as good looking as Adonis doesn’t escape Athena’s attention either.

    Sparks fly as the competition—and attraction—between the two heats things up. While they struggle to create conflict and comedy for their characters on the page, Athena and Stephen develop a relationship they never would have scripted for themselves and discover that not being in control of the plot of their lives may just be the best thing that’s ever happened.

    Hello, Hollywood! delights readers with its charm and humor. Every character will jump off the page and into the readers’ hearts.

    Janice Thompson is a seasoned romance author. An expert at pulling the humor from the situations we get ourselves into, Thompson affords an inside look at TV land, drawing on her experiences as a screenwriter. She is the author of the Weddings by Bella series and lives in Texas. To learn more about Janice visit her at: www.janicethompson.com

    Available September 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

    The Crown on Your Head by Nancy Tillman - Giveaway!


    The Crown on Your Head
    by Nancy Tillman

    We know our children are special, and now the incomparable Nancy Tillman expresses this universal feeling in the most touching of ways: Every child is born with a crown. The crown is everything that gives us unique value. Our crown will always be with us wherever we go, whatever we do.



    I have one copy of this wonderful children's book to giveaway courtesy of Zeitghost Media.  The giveaway is open to US/Canada only and will end on Saturday, October 8, Midnight CST.   Just fill out the form to enter - must be a GFC follower please - extra entries are available!


    Mailbox Monday (Oct 3, 2011)


     Mailbox Monday's host for October is Savvy Verse and Wit. In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren. Please visit these posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week! 

    Since it is October - have to start out with my "ghostly" books!


    Ghost Files
    by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson


    In this hair-raising omnibus, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, founders of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (T.A.P.S), reveal the memorable and spinetingling cases featured in their smash-hit collections, Ghost Hunting and Seeking Spirits.  From their never-seen-on-television adventures as budding paranormal investigators to the behind-the-scene accounts of heart-pounding supernatural encounters featured on their popular show, these fascinating and frightening real life tales will keep you up at night!




    Ghost Trackers
    by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson


    In this spine-tingling new series, the stars of TV’s GHOST HUNTERS introduce readers to a team of paranormal investigators who reunite to defeat a sinister force they unleashed long ago. . . . 

    For fifteen years, Amber, Drew, and Trevor have barely been able to recall—let alone explain—what happened the terrifying night they decided to explore the old, abandoned Lowry House. According to local legend, the house was cursed by a dark past and inhabited by evil. It burst into flames on the night of their visit, leaving the friends traumatized and nearly dead with only vague memories of the frightening events they had witnessed inside. Now, on the eve of their high school reunion, they have gathered to reopen their investigation and figure out, once and for all, what took place that fateful night . . . before the supernatural entity they escaped threatens to overtake them again.



    In the King's Arms
    by Sonia Taitz


    Lily Taub is the brilliant, beautiful and headstrong American daughter of Holocaust survivors. Seeking relief from their traumatized world, Lily escapes to Oxford University, where she meets Julian Aiken &mdash black sheep of an aristocratic English family. When Lily is invited to the family’s ancestral home over Christmas vacation, her deepening romance with young Julian is crossed by a shocking accident that affects them all. Julian must face the harsh disapproval of his anti-Semitic family, who consider Lily a destructive force, not only in Julian’s life, but to their own sense of order. In the King's Arms is a lyrical, literary novel about the healing possibility of love.


    The Christmas Shoppe
    by Melody Carlson

    The small town of Parrish Springs is not quite ready for Matilda Honeycutt.  A strange woman with scraggly hair and jewelry that jangles as she walks, Matilda keeps busy stocking and arranging her new shop on the town's quaint and lovely Main Street.  When rumors start to fly about what might be going on behind the papered-up windows and the locked door, the image-conscious residents start looking for a way to get this woman and her wares out of their town before Christmas.

    But Matilda Honeycutt has a little something for each one of them sitting on those cluttered shelves, just waiting to be discovered.


    Knit with Love
    by Lisa Bogart

    The rhythm of knitting brings peace and joy to life.  Knitters love to share stories, skills, and even their stashes of elegant yarn.  And they love finding new outlets for their talents.

    Knitting can't feed the hungry, fight crime, or stop global warming.  But a hand-knit sweater warms a cold child.  A cozy scarf eases a homeless night.  A tiny hat comforts a new baby's head.  A lovely prayer shawl wraps a worried patient in peace.

    Through inspiring stories and gentle encouragement, Knit with Love reveals the many ways you can, with your own two hands, bring joy and comfort to those around you. 




    One More River
    by Mary Glickman

    Bernard Levy was always a mystery to the community of Guilford, Mississippi. He was even more of a mystery to his son, Mickey Moe, who was just four years old when his father died in World War II. Now it’s 1962 and Mickey Moe is a grown man, who must prove his pedigree to the disapproving parents of his girlfriend, Laura Anne Needleman, to win her hand in marriage. With only a few decades-old leads to go on, Mickey Moe sets out to uncover his father’s murky past, from his travels up and down the length of the Mississippi River to his heartrending adventures during the Great Flood of 1927. Mickey Moe’s journey, taken at the dawn of the civil rights era, leads him deep into the backwoods of Mississippi and Tennessee, where he meets with danger and unexpected revelations at every turn. As the greatest challenge of his life unfolds, he will finally discover the gripping details of his father’s life—one filled with loyalty, tragedy, and heroism in the face of great cruelty from man and nature alike.


    A captivating follow-up to Mary Glickman’s bestselling Home in the Morning, One More River tells the epic tale of ordinary men caught in the grip of calamity, and inspired to extraordinary acts in the name of love.




    Home in the Morning
    by Mary Glickman

    Jackson Sassaport is a man in the middle. Torn between Stella, his beloved and opinionated Yankee wife, and Katherine Marie, the African American “hired girl” who first stole his teenage heart—as well as between following his prominent Jewish family’s imperative to not stand out in the segregated South and standing up for his beliefs—Jackson learns to balance the secrets and deceptions of those around him. But one fateful night in 1959 will make him reconsider his obligations and initiate a chain of events that will change the lives of those around him forever. Home in the Morning follows Jackson’s journey, from his childhood as a coddled son in a house filled with black servants, to his struggle as a young man eager to find his place in the civil rights movement. Filled with beautifully rendered characters and charged with vivid prose, Mary Glickman’s riveting novel traces the ways that race and prejudice, family and love intertwine to shape our lives. This ebook features rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection. 



    What books came home to you this week?



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