Loose Leafing: Reading, Mommies, and a Giveaway!

It's been a week, I'll tell you.  I screwed up my back like I do last Sunday and spent the week recovering at a glacial pace that's still glaciering a long even now.  Luckily (?), I have a job where I can work from home if the situation calls for it, and the situation called for it all week long.  The only upside of the busted spine situation is how much extra reading time it afforded me.  Happily, just as I was destroying my spine, I was also starting a run of great books.  The Sunshine Crust Baking Factory by Stacy Wakefield, Girl Underwater by Claire Kells, and Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum have kept me great company this week, distracting me from the misery of a major spine failure.  I'll write more about these after my spine heals a bit more and I find my missing blogging mojo.

Until, then, there are still more exciting things lurking in this post.  It's Mother's Day!  I'm not one, but I have one, so I'll be spending today celebrating her and my grandmother as well.  One of the things I'm the most grateful for about my mom is that she's a big reader, too!  We enable each other's book habits by pointing out the sales on BookOutlet.com and traveling to all the area library book sales, where we usually get more books than we can carry.

In honor of all the mothers who read, I've got a great giveaway from Penguin/Viking for a few titles they think will be big hits with moms.  I haven't read any of them yet (for shame!), but I'm excited to do so (as long as I don't have to hurt my back again to do it - LOL)!

I've got a copy of each of the following to give away (one winner for each book to increase your odds of winning!):


The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd - Freshly released in paperback, I know this novel based on the life of abolitionist and suffragist Sarah Grimke has been a favorite of a several of my blogging friends.

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes - A bunch of bloggers also loved this one, which is about a down on her luck mom taking her kids on an ill-fated road trip to the Math Olympiad, who finds an unlikely rescuer along the way.

Cut Me Loose by Leah Vincent - I haven't heard as much about, but it sounds interesting. It’s a memoir of a young woman’s self-destructive spiral after being cast out by her ultra-Orthodox Jewish family.

You can enter to win one of these books in the form below until next Sunday, May 17th at 8 PM EST.  The publisher is doing the shipping, so I'm afraid the giveaway is U.S. only.



Is your mom a reader?  If so, did you get her a great book this year?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! (Giveaway)

Greetings one and all!  The holidays are very nearly upon us, as you may have noticed.  I know there is one place my blog very often comes up short of late, and that would be giveaways. (If you said "content," I'm scowling at you right now, even though it's funny cuz it's true).  Since the season of giving is arriving, I, with great enthusiasm, have taken up Penguin on their very generous offer to let me give away a set of all five of their super-pretty (!!) Christmas classics.

They're compact, short on pages (long on Christmas spirit!), and (I may have mentioned with many exclamation points) super-pretty!

See?

Anyhow, they're great quick reading to get you in the spirit during a busy holiday season, probably most excellent for gift-giving (if you're not going to totally hoard them for yourself like yours truly), and they're also good for cuddling with creepily (if you're that weird book lover - don't forget to quietly murmur to them how pretty they are while you're at it.  I don't do that, though.  Okay, yes I do).

Here, we'll let Penguin do a better job of describing them, you know, minus the Ghost of Christmas Creepy thing I've got going on in this post.

Penguin Christmas Classics honor the power of literature to keep on giving through the ages. The five volumes in the series are not only our most beloved Christmas tales; they also have given us much of what we love about the holiday itself. A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Charles Dickens) revived in Victorian England such Christmas hallmarks as the Christmas tree, holiday cards, and caroling. The Yuletide yarns of Anthony Trollope popularized throughout the British Empire and around the world the trappings of Christmas in London (CHRISTMAS AT THOMPSON HALL: And Other Christmas Stories) . The holiday tales of Louisa May Alcott shaped the ideal of an American Christmas (A MERRY CHRISTMAS: And Other Christmas Stories). THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (Nikolai Gogol) brought forth some of our earliest Christmas traditions as passed down through folk tales. And THE NUTCRACKER (E.T.A. Hoffman) inspired the most famous ballet in history, one seen by millions in the twilight of every year.
 
Beautifully designed—with foil-stamped jackets, decorative endpapers, and nameplates for personalization—and printed in a small trim size that makes them perfect stocking stuffers, Penguin Christmas Classics embody the spirit of giving that is at the heart of our most time-honored stories about the holiday.

Enough talk, it's time to enter to win the lovely books.  If you want to win and have a US mailing address (sorry international friends), fill out the form below.  One entry per person, please.  No hoops to jump through, and I promise not sell your e-mail address for extra holiday cash.  Flattering comments will get you somewhere, but probably not closer to winning.  ;-)  Get your entry in by Monday, November 24th before 10:00 PM EST. 

Loose Leafing: The Spider Says I Love You (and some winners!)

Meet Herbert.

Herbert is my pet (fake) spider.  He hails from a toy store in London where, with the exchange rate at the time, he cost me the equivalent of around $12.  He was purchased for the purpose of frightening my best friend's then boyfriend who was so arachnophobic that when we placed Herbert on his pile of plates in the kitchen cabinet, he decided that plates were for chumps, and he didn't need one after all.  Herbert came back from London with me and has become a star of the household as my mom and I tuck him into hidden places in an effort to scare each other, or at least make each other laugh.  If you're not paying attention you may find him lurking in your box of instant oatmeal packets or in the bathroom cabinet embracing your deodorant...

Why, pray tell, am I writing you a blog post about a fake spider?  It may have something to do with the fact that I've spent most of the week away from the computer and so have no reviews written.  It's hard trying to nurse your piece of junk spine back to health while getting ready to spend most of the weekend away in NYC, so the spider's all I've got in the way of interesting things to tell you.  It may be because the spider has become a twisted way of showing love, and I think it's kind of sweet and worth writing about.  Do you have any weird ways of saying "I love you" or do you just, you know, say "I love you"? 

I don't have much to say about New York City except that I enjoyed walking the High Line which I never knew existed until I read Pete Hamill's book, Tabloid City.  I googled it and saved it up for a sunny day, which Saturday definitely was.  I navigated the subway without too much trouble, but we still walked blocks and blocks and blocks and blocks on purpose.  We visited the most ridiculously ornate CVS drug store I've ever seen and had a waiter in a restaurant that could, in my judgement, stunt double for Robert Pattinson in a crunch. 


And now for the winners of my blogiversary giveaway...

Sarah will be getting a copy of The Stolen Child

Vasilly won a copy of The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers

Meg snagged a copy of After You'd Gone

I will be e-mailing each of you shortly for your addresses.  Please write back! 

Thanks to everybody who entered and everybody who wished me a happy blogiversary.  I appreciate each and every one of you and thank you for reading!  I wish I could give a great book to all of you.  Maybe someday.  Until then, you'll have to settle for the gift of random posts about fake spiders.  ;-)

Leafing Through Life is 5!

 

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away or maybe just five years ago right here, the blog you see before you now was born with an abysmal post that was filled with too many ellipses and seemed doubtful that I'd continue at this for five months, much less five years.  Now I count people I've never laid eyes upon in person to be my friends.  I've read and reviewed countless books.  I've been to BEA not once but twice and put some faces to some friends and made some new ones.  My TBR pile is out of control and filled with books I would never have picked up without some helpful nudging.  My e-mail box runneth over in a way that I could never even have imagined with messages from people who, for some reason, want me to review their books.

I have been challenged, I've read-along, and I've been totally overwhelmed by my Google Reader.  I've got a bookish wish list that could reach about to the moon and back.  I've stayed up late into the night reading and cheerleading for Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon (and will again soon!).  I've seen bloggers come and go (and stay and stay!) and the book blogosphere go from a place where, even if you didn't follow everyone, you at least knew most people's names to a community where I couldn't even dream of even being passingly familiar with half the members.   I've been exhilarated and exhausted by it all.  Such is the life of a book blogger, and it's been my pleasure to be one for five years.  Thanks so much to everybody who's stuck with me and my blog even when I haven't been uber-dependable, and thanks all for inspiring me with your own blogs, for your great tastes in books, for commenting here and generally making book blogging the best hobby a person could have

 

Enough with all the sentimental windbagging, though.  Honestly, usually I forget my blogiversary.  I think of it a few weeks too late and let it pass without fanfare.  Who wants to hear me wax poetic about book bloggerdom anyway?  But five years, though, that's major, right?  So, I figure it's time for a giveaway of a few of my favorite books.  What better way to celebrate all the great books blogging has brought my way and my fellow bloggers and friends who have helped keep me at it all this time?  A few weeks back, I wrote a Top Ten Tuesday featuring the best ten books I've read since I started book blogging.  I'd love to send 3 different winners a new copy of one of those books, so check out the post, which has links to my reviews of the ten chosen ones.  Pick one out and fill out the form (Look, I learned how to make a form!  Who says an old dog blogger can't learn new tricks?) below if you want to win. It's open internationally, as long as The Book Depository ships to your country, until 8 am EST on October 21st, when I'll announce the winners.  There are no special requirements to enter, but if you wanted to spread the word, I'd sure appreciate it.  I'd like to, you know, actually have 3 winners.  ;-)

 

 

 

Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan (Review and Giveaway)

Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan totally took me by surprise.  When I was offered a spot on its blog tour, I took quite a while to decide in the affirmative.  Its blurb makes it sound like more of a mystery/thriller than the literary fiction I seem to prefer (actually, it's quite literary, thank you very much).  It's from a Canadian publisher that, as far as I know, is new to me (but maybe just because I live in a hole). I had no idea Newfoundland had a dialect (see above RE: hole dwelling), but apparently it does, and so, therefore, does the book (hit or miss much?).  I worried so much that I wasn't going to like it, and I was selling out my quest to take no chances with review copies.  Getting to the point, though, I need not have worried.  This might well be the best stuff of my reading year!

And Wilda considered then they weren't as fragile as she often imagined.  They weren't made of thin clear glass.  If she opened her hands, let them go, they wouldn't shatter on the floor.  Surely, they wouldn't.  In the golden moonlight, she saw that each one was just enough for the other.

In the opening pages of Glass Boys, abusive, angry Eli Fagan, discovers his stepson, Garrett, is hiding an unspeakable secret.  At the same time, Lewis Trench, the newly appointed constable of Knife's Point, Newfoundland and his brother Roy are getting drunk on potato whiskey.  The two families cross paths in one fateful, accidental moment, and Roy Trench is killed.  The incident is ruled an accident.  Eli Fagan returns to his wife and stepson and eventually has two daughters.  Lewis Trench meets a woman in a curio shop after the trial and takes her home to Knife's Point to be his wife. The couple have a pair of sons, sensitive, eager to please Melvin, and Toby, a less thoughtful but more enthusiastic boy.  Though the two families attempt to avoid each other and their shared sordid past, the past can't be escaped, and the years never seem to ease the pain and anger between the two men, until the incident's echoes reverberate into a new generation.

Glass Boys takes some getting used to.  For starters, Newfoundland has a dialect and Lundrigan has taken care to reflect it in her writing.  There are s's on the ends of words where every fiber of a sensible reader's being supposes there shouldn't be.  Lundrigan's prose relies on sentence fragments for emphasis.  The first few chapters are, as a result, confusing and a little hard to digest.

Once the first few chapters are past, however, a profound, if dark, multi-layered story emerges.  Lundrigan's characters are richly drawn and haunted by the secrets of their respective pasts which are spread out before us like a breadcrumb trail to an unexpected destination.  Lundrigan's story is undeniably gritty and doesn't shy away from the worst things the human heart has to offer, but at the same time, just the tiniest trace of magic runs through Lundrigan's tale, just a tiny trace of hope that the younger generation might just be able to untangle the knot of hate that binds the two families together, however they might try to avoid its legacy.  The feeling that redemption seems to always lie only a page away makes this literary work unputdownable.

Despite its darkness, Glass Boys is likely my favorite read of the year thus far.  Lundrigan's story is, at times, hard to read, simply because of its subject matter, but she gives voice to her characters so well that even when they are flawed and loathesome, they still attract our sympathy, except, of course, for the one that doesn't quite.  Mostly male characters figure in Glass Boys, and Lundrigan proves herself remarkably adept at portraying thoughts, feelings, and actions even from across the gender divide.  In my experience dark stories rarely have satisfying ends, but Lundrigan defied my experience ending the book in a way that doesn't trivialize the rest of her story by wrapping up too easily but also doesn't neglect the catharsis we crave after having our hearts broken along with the characters we've come to care for deeply.  Highly, highly recommended.

(Disclaimer:  I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.)

Seriously, I'm so impressed with this book, ergo I was very excited to find out that the author's publicist is providing a copy for me to give away.  This will help me get started in my quest to get everyone to read this book. ;-)

If you'd like to win a copy, and have a US or Canada address (no PO boxes), please leave a comment with your e-mail address by 9/17, midnight EST.  I'll draw a name at random, and e-mail the winner. (And next time I'll learn to use one of those fun Google Docs forms.  Promise.) 
      

Blogiversary Giveaway Winners!

With a guest appearance by Shoofly Pie! Okay, yes, that's kind of random, but on Saturday during the Readathon, I was munching on Shoofly Pie. This drew some curiosity from people who don't know what the heck it is and possibly a demand for a picture of said pie. Luckily, I hadn't quite finished it off, so here's a picture, because what Raych wants, Raych gets, and Raych wishes a picture of pie (okay maybe not this pie, but the other pie was previously devoured). ;-)



Okay, I didn't say it was a great picture. I was kind of in a hurry to eat it, you know. Anyway, Shoofly Pie is fluffy, molasses based pie. Most of the ones I've had have a kind of crumby topping, which is, it seems, not mandatory among Shoofly pies. It's apparently a Pennsylvania Dutch-y sort of dessert. My dad thinks it's "old" of me to like it, like I'm too young to appreciate a good Shoofly Pie.

Okay, enough about pie! I promised winners, and here they are!

Gwen B. wins a copy of The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Florinda gets the copy of The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

and

Amanda snags the copy of Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

Thanks to all who entered and wished me a happy blogiversary, I wish I had a book for all of you!

Four!

It's hard to believe this day has come. It's even harder to believe I remembered that it came and am writing a post about it seeing as I usually am off looking at shiny things or other such distractions for the attention span impaired while my blogiversary skates by with little fanfair. I'm not forgetting this year, though. That's right - this week Leafing Through Life is four. Four years old. It was four years ago today that I wrote my first book review for my own little corner of the interwebs. Little did I know the journey that I was beginning and that I'd still be at it four year later.

You see, I, as a person, am not blessed with a great deal of stick-to-it-iveness when it comes to things that life doesn't require me to do. With a flightiness I've more than likely inherited from my mother, I have the tendency to bounce from obsession to obsession. I'm all in for a little while, but once the thrill is gone, I'm on to the new thing. Not so with book blogging. I've finally found a hobby that stuck to me. It's had its highs and lows, and I've neglected it for other pursuits along the way, but I've never abandoned it completely, and with good reason - it is, by far, the most rewarding hobby I've ever put my hand to.

As I start my fourth year of blogging, I just want to thank all of you have taken the time to read some of my ramblings here, to befriend me, to encourage me whenever things haven't been going well, to send me a book, to make me feel like what I do actually matters and generally make this whole blogging thing the most worthwile of pursuits. Thanks, also, for making the book blogosphere the great place to be that it is, so that even when I think I might ponder giving it up, the connections, the recommendations, the friends keep me coming back.

To show my gratitude (and also because I just haven't done it in a while), I've got a few books to give away, because hey, what's a good celebration without presents?

I've got two gently used ARCs of a couple of my favorite reads from this year that I'd love to share with some other readers...

Sparrow Road by Shelia O'Connor (Read my review)
Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister (Read my review)

and also a pair of (never used) duplicate ARCs...

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

The giveaway is open internationally. You can enter for all 4, but you can only win one. Just leave me a comment letting me know which ones you're entering for as well as some way to get in contact with you should you win. I'll take entries through midnight (EST) on Monday October 17th and will announce winner shortly thereafter.

Free To Good Home: The Giveaway

Books....are....everywhere. Even ones I decided to get rid of long ago. There are piles in every room. There are A) the books I shouldn't have picked up at BEA, B) books I shouldn't have let people send me for review, C) books I shouldn't have purchased, D) books people gave me as gifts that I have no interest in, E) still lesser known ARCs that I've already read and F) random used books that I knew I probably wouldn't like and for some reason let people give to me anyway. They've all accumulated to produce an epic and mind-blowing explosion of books that is beginning to make living at my house among them and the rest of my assorted accumulated stuff a terror.

So fair readers, I am here to ask you a favor. Please take my books. This house is badly in need of a book purge, and my gain can also be your gain. I've chosen a random assortment to present to you in hopes that you'll take them off my hands. Some, I'd prefer went to bloggers because I somewhat mistakenly picked them up at BEA or accepted them as review copies only to find that they're not well suited to me, but I'd still like to see someone review them, even if that someone is not me. Others are fair game for everyone.

I've also decided that I'm not in the mood for a massive comment leaving, Random.org choosing, behemoth of a giveaway, so I'm going the first come first served route. If you see a book on the list and you want it, leave a comment to claim it, then send your snail mail address to toadacious1 at yahoo dot com. One per person please. Please note, all but the "BEA Mistakes" category stand the chance of coming with a Bookcrossing label in them. You, of course, are not required to journal them (even though I would like that), but I'd appreciate it if you would leave the label intact in case you ever happen to give the books away to people who might journal them. If the prospect of the book having a Bookcrossing label in it displeases you, please don't enter.

I love my international friends, but I also love having a few bucks in my checking account, so I will give away books to those outside the U.S., but only 3. Please put your country in your "book claiming" comment so that I will know when to cut off international entries. Also, please note, some books I've made U.S. only right off the bat because they're big heavy hardbacks or otherwise massive.

All right, I think I've covered all the rules and regulations and exceptions to the exceptions. Now, on to the books!

--------------------------
First the BEA mistakes. They look good, but not so good for me.

The first 4 are ARCs of middle grade titles coming in the fall from Little, Brown.

President of the Whole Fifth Grade by Sherri Winston
Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream by Jenny Han
School of Fear: Class Is Not Dismissed! by Gitty Daneshvari
Tumtum and Nutmeg: The Rose Cottage Tales by Emily Bearn

Then, a nice hardback book that came in a tote bag that I didn't know contained a book!

The 72 Names of God by Yehuda Berg

And a book that was pressed into my hands at the last minute that seemed a bit a lot too sci-fi for my tastes...

Redemption Corps (An Imperial Guard Novel) by Rob Sanders

A few books I meant to review, but it didn't work out so well between us.

The Girl Made of Cool by Alan Fox
Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan

Review copies I've Read/Reviewed that need new homes:

Canvey Island by James Runcie
First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite
Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham
Black Angels by Linda Beatrice Brown
The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown (US only)
Willing by Scott Spencer
The Widows of Eden by George Shaffner
In the Country of Brooklyn by Peter Golenbock (US only)
The Glister by John Burnside
American Rust by Philipp Meyer
A Painter's Life by K.B. Dixon
Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

Take them, please! If you don't want them, please tell all your friends, so they will take them. Thanks! =D

It's the Read-a-thon Bookpile! (and some winners!)

Next Saturday commences Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon (and I'm so excited!!). I've been involved before, but I've never actually read for the Read-a-thon. That is, until now (And did I mention how excited I am??). Yesterday, I had a great time shuffling through my stacks picking a bunch of books at random. Isn't it nice how they arranged themselves artfully and took a picture for you guys? The ones that made the cut are decidedly waaay more than I'll get read especially considering I don't plan to be awake for all 24 hours, but I'll have a lot of options! I tried to mix it up and get a good variety, and I hope I'm not paralyzed by all the options come Read-a-thon day. This crazy bunch of books doesn't even include the two books that I'm currently reading, so, who knows? Those might get some play, too. Anyway , here's the list, with assorted commentary.

First up we've got the short story contingent. I don't have the best record with short stories, so it's kind of small...

> Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (for R.I.P. too!)
> Imaginary Friends by Various Authors (hey, this one snuck into the pile after I'd finished picking!)

Next up, we have a category of books which I'll refer to as "Books Written in Unusual Fashion." You know, letters, news excerpts, interviews about the apocalypse, et cetera, et cetera. This category is made up of...

> The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty (I loved her Feeling Sorry for Celia, hope this one's as good)
> The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger
> World War Z by Max Brooks (Would be an unplanned edition to my R.I.P. challenge list if I got to it)

Next up, "books for grown-ups that I felt sort of obligated to choose."

> The Aerialist by Richard Schmitt(in light of recent talk of circus books and all)
> The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker (one of her others was a speedy read for me, so what the heck?)
> My Pet Virus by Shawn Decker (This is the token non-fiction pick. It actually looks like an easy read despite it's heavy topic)

And last, but most certainly not least, a big bunch of YA!

> Black Angels by Linda Beatrice Brown
> The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher
> Intertwined by Gena Showalter (Lots of pages but otherwise looks pretty brain candy-ish)
> Indigo by Alice Hoffman (has the distinction of being one of the thinnest books on my shelves - a good morale booster, in other words!)
> Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Gosh, I've been meaning to read this for, like, ever)
> If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson (Seems like lots of bloggers I've been reading lately are very into Jacqueline Woodson, so I dug this one out of the pile)
> Trigger by Susan Vaught
> Wild Roses by Deb Caletti
> Freewill by Chris Lynch(to feed my innner Printz-aholic post-Fat Kid Rules the World)

There it is - my monster pile that's making me wish the Read-a-thon was going to start right now.

Have you read any of these? Are there any you think I should definitely ax? Do big book piles help you or hurt you on Read-a-thon day? (On one hand, it'll be nice to have the variety, on the other, I'm kind of worried about not being able to choose even of these few and losing time. LOL!) Do you start with a longer book or a shorter book or whatever takes your fancy when you sit down to read on Read-a-thon morning? Wow, isn't my mind inquiring today? ;-)

----------------------------

And now - what a few of you have been waiting for! Here are the winners of the blogiversary giveaway...

In the Beauty of the Lilies goes to Hazra of Advance Booking

The Cactus Eaters goes to Debi of Nothing of Importance (Muahahaha! Guaranteed point, Debi! LOL!)

The Wednesday Sisters goes to Debilyn of Debilyn Reads

and

Don't Call Me a Crook! goes to Alyce of At Home With Books


Thanks everybody for entering (and for your blogiversary wishes, as well!) and congrats to the winners. I'll send out e-mails, but if you winners happen to see this before I get an e-mail out to you, do send me your address, and I'll mail out the prizes this week.

Now I must skulk off to catch up on my book reviews before catching up on them is totally impossible!

Leafing Through Life is Two! And a giveaway!

Well, can you believe it? Here I am two days after my blog's 2nd blogiversary only just realizing it passed me by without any fanfare or my even remembering it at all. It could be that I was so busy reading Fat Kid Rules the World which was every bit as awesome as I expected. It could be that I went to the dentist yesterday and had all four of my wisdom teeth yanked out and have been a little hopped up on tylenol with codeine which, instead of making me sleep a deep blissful sleep, actually make me kind of paranoid and insane. No fair. This may also help to explain this post and how I'm not sure if it makes any sense and how it's definitely not profound in any way. Anywho, the point is I've gone and missed my own blogiversary.

And I feel bad. I feel like maybe I need to buy my blog some flowers...




Or perhaps some jewelry?




Maybe a cake?



Or some chocolates?



Or, better yet, some books to make up for my indiscretion!




Two years of me doing something I don't absolutely have to do is a very, very long time in Megan years. So truly, something must be done to celebrate this remarkable occasion, something that doesn't involve excessively morose self-reflection as has become so common around here.

*looks around for inspiration*

Ah-ha! I've got it! Since I probably wouldn't still be doing this if it weren't for all of the fine bloggers and enjoyers of this book blogging community, I'll celebrate by giving you guys the books I don't have room for any more! Well- maybe not all of them - just the ones that I've read. But which ones of those? Perhaps only ones that I've reviewed on my blog as this is my blogiversary and all. *shuffles off to find a few*

Okay, I've got a few here. Two reviewed this year and two favorites from last year!

In the Beauty of the Lilies by John Updike which I reviewed yesterday. Bought new, read once. See if you can uncover the nuggets of Updike's genius!

Don't Call Me a Crook! by Bob Moore - a once read review copy. And yes, he is a crook!

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton. I reviewed this ARC and then gave it to just about every woman in my family to read, so it's looking a little well-loved - because it is!

The Cactus Eaters by Dan White. Another of my favorites from last year - hilarious tale about this guy and his girlfriend who decide to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and get even more than they bargained for. My copy is kind of a "bare bones" ARC. It's bound kinda weird, but the pages look just like they would inside of a normal book!

Some or all of them might come with Bookcrossing labels in them. Journal them or don't, but don't be surprised to see the labels on the inside cover.

All right, four books to choose from. Enter for as many or as few as you like, however, the limit is one win per customer. Open worldwide. Leave a comment on this post to enter, and make sure you let me know some way to get in touch with you if you win. Enter by Friday, October 16, and I'll pick the winners over the following weekend. Oh, and since I'm doing this in part to celebrate the fact that in these two years people have actually been reading the crazy stuff I write and like being my friends and stuff, if you've ever left a comment in my two years on any post prior to this one (even if you leave it chronologically *after* I post this post - this one's for you, lurkers! Come out, come out wherever you are!), I'll give you an extra entry.

It's been a pleasure blogging with all y'all these two years, and here's hoping for another good year..and another...and another........ ;-)

This Was Supposed To Be a Book Review...

...and maybe it will be once I get to the end of the post. Wait for it...wait for it...

You know, I'm beginning to find my blog ironic. You see, I feel like I'm posting less and less. I review fewer and fewer books and yet more people are following me and subscribing to my feed on Google Reader than ever before - not vastly more, but more nonetheless. I'm pretty sure this is not how it's supposed to work, unless, you people, like me, enjoy the merits of an infrequently updated blog. Some days, I tell you, I do. For one, then my Google Reader doesn't explode with like 50 zillion posts I don't have time to read...like it kind of is exploding now. But then the book blogosphere would be a mighty boring, lame place if everybody blogged like me. What I mean to say is, of course, hello new people and old people, it's a pleasure to have you here reading and commenting and generally being awesome despite my distinct lack of awesomeness.

Today I am contemplating the difficulty, yet again, of reviewing a book that I feel kind of ambivalent about. I pretty much need to review every book I read here because I read like a turtle (and turtles can't even read!) and therefore don't get many books read and therefore don't have many to review. Ah, but it's so hard to be really enthusiastic about reviewing those books that don't naturally create a great feeling of enthusiasm, which is not to say that they're bad, just that they're not super awesometastic enough to jolt me from my general book reviewing laziness.

Also, it's helpful when reviewing books to, um, actually have understood them. This brings me to an informal discussion (but if you're running a challenge that I'm taking part in, we're calling it a book review!) of a book that I barely remember! (This is the part where I attempt to create enthusiasm on both your and my parts with the use of exclamation points!!! Is it working?!?!?)

Anyhow, The Glister by John Burnside. I read it in March, somewhat hungrily devouring its mildly overblown prose thinking that once I reached the end I would understand what it was all about. Like pretty much everyone else whose reviews I have read, I didn't really get it. I thought for a time that maybe I was getting it, but I was fooling myself. I then came upon a sort of problem because I find it hard to frame a review for a book that I didn't understand. Upon reaching the end and trying to formulate some sort of review in my mind, I realized that without at least a basic understanding of what exactly the book was getting at, I don't really have a way to organize or give any sort of theme to my review (imagine that!). Then I realized how important it is to me to have my reviews be cohesive and revolve around some sort of main point, and I don't even know if people or if I even realize I do that. So, this book that would count for two challenges has languished (and languished and languished) on the to be reviewed pile because I'm just...stumped. Ah, but wait, I think I may have something after all...

The Glister is more the story of a town than it is of any one person. Innertown has been decimated by its chemical plant. With the demise of the once successful chemical plant, the town seems to deteriorate and fall in on itself. The plant leaves behind a town populated with ineffectual adults unable to recover from chemical induced ailments or trapped with the grief of losing loved ones and a generation of disaffected children who haunt the abandoned and disintegrating chemical plant property in search of meaning or maybe just a way out of their dismal futures. While the adults seem to be caught up in their own lowgrade misfortune, young boys are disappearing. Instead of seeing this for the problem that it is, all choose to believe that the young teenage boys have simply found a way to escape their fates in Innertown.

I can't tell you much more, except that there's quite a bit of violence, a few teenagers that are actually even h-rnier than you would expect of teenagers, and a good deal of bad language. And this wouldn't have bothered me if it had all added up to something in the end. Instead the book just seems to trail off in yet one more mystery that doesn't seem to make any sense. As it so happens, so much of this book would be promising if only it had all come to something.

If there is indeed a main character for this book, it is Leonard, a teenage boy whose father is dying and whose mother has walked out on them. Leonard's narration crackles and pops with teenage cynicism and wit. He's a good character with a unique and consistent voice. And the atmosphere. The atmosphere in the book is stunning. Burnside manages to create an impression in the reader that Innertown is a place where the sun never shines, where the town's misfortunes cover it like blanket. Even though there are scenes where the sun is actually shining, one can't shake the feeling that this is a place where it is perpetually overcast, and no light shines in. All these things kept me reading in hopes of a fascinating resolution despite my intense dislike of Leonard's freakishly h-rny girlfriend and the various and sundry gratuitous things you would find in an R-rated movie. As you may have guessed, I was ultimately disappointed. The end just doesn't quite come together satisfactorily. It's a little like being led into a maze by someone who knows where they're going and being left halfway through to find your own way out. While I can handle an ambiguous ending, The Glister ultimately leaves too many questions unanswered without so much as a clue to lead its readers to any real resolution.


Hey, wait - I think it is a book review after all! Yay! That was hard. I have to wander off and look at shiny things now. K, bye.

Okay, wait. I've got an ARC of this book that I'd love to unload on the unsuspecting public in hopes that, perhaps, said member of the unsuspecting public could read it and explain it to me. Well, you don't really have to do that if you don't want to, but I'm still giving away the copy. So if you want to have a try at it (now that I've gone to all this trouble convincing you to read it....hardee har har), leave me a comment with your e-mail address. International is okay. I'll draw the name next Saturday, May 16th, so uh, enter before then.

Giveaway Winners!

Thanks everybody for coming by to enter the giveaway and for eight of you for taking these eight books off my hands. My shelves thank you! Without further ado...the winners are...

*drumroll and everything*

The Lady and the Unicorn goes to Clenna.

Turning Angel goes to Demmi.

Love Medicine goes to Deltay.

Songs for the Missing goes to Irene Yeates.

The Rest of Her Life goes to toohotforturtle.

Even the Stars Look Lonesome goes to PeachyTO.

Twilight goes to Michele P..

and finally...

A Tranquil Star goes to Sarah.


If I don't e-mail you first, you can send your addresses to me at toadacious1 at yahoo dot com, and I'll be making a trip to the post office soon!

Oh - and how about some creepy giveaway trivia? I was #107 on the Mr. Linky for the Giveaway Carnival at Book Room Reviews, and I ended up cutting off the entries at 107 and comments. Oh, and Random.org just loved a bunch of you people in the middle of the list. Several of you in a row won! Which seems very unrandom but is probably just a fluke. Oh well. Anyhow, if you won, send me your address pronto so I can enjoy an exciting outing to the Post Office, mmmmmkay?

Take This Book and Get it Out of My House!

Sooo, it's come to my attention that I've been winning a lot of cool books from a lot of cool bloggers lately. This reminds me that A)I have no place to put more books B) I promised to host some sort of giveaway in those lengthy draggy months that stand between Christmas and springtime, and C) I've got a bunch of books that are duplicates or that both my mother and I have read that are ready to be cast off upon the unsuspecting public in one way or another. So, in this case, I'm hoping that my "trash" is your treasure and I can interest you in some books that need new homes, so that I can make space for the new (or even the old that I don't quite have space for...)!

First, the duplicates. I haven't read these, but I keep buying them.

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier

Turning Angel by Greg Iles

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

And then the ones I've read and want to pass on...

Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan - I wasn't terribly in love with this one as you might be able to tell from my review, but I know it made a lot of blogger "Best of" lists last year.

The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty - A book that I didn't think I liked upon finishing it but found myself thinking about long after, another one that a lot of people seem to like more than I did.

Even the Stars Look Lonesome by Maya Angelou - An essay collection that had its moments.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer - That's right everybody, I'm giving away my paperback copy of Twilight. I wanted to buy the rest of the series, and it was cheaper to buy the box set of all four than to buy the last three individually, so if there's one person left out there that wants to read this book and hasn't, why here's your chance!

A Tranquil Star by Primo Levi - This is a nifty little book of largely satirical short stories, I guess you could say. Oh no, this means I've read more short stories than I thought, but I forgot about them! Here's my review.


The Nitty Gritty: All eight are used, some more gently than others, but all in totally readable condition. Songs for the Missing and The Rest of Her Life are ARCs. I register all my books on BookCrossing, so I can watch them travel. You certainly don't have to journal them if you don't want to (though I'd like it if you did!), but expect them to come with a BookCrossing label stuck inside the front cover. I'm willing to make the giveaway international, but will send a maximum of three of these books outside of the U.S., so there can be as many as three winners who don't live in my country. I want to give everybody a chance, but I don't want to spend more money getting rid of my books than I do acquiring them, so I'm thinking this seems like a fair trade-off.

To enter, leave me a comment here. Tell me which of the books you're interested in winning and leave me an e-mail address or some means of contacting you. You can enter for as many of the books as you please, but you'll only win one, unless, um, nobody wants my books in which case the rules might be bent ever-so-slightly. Please get your entry in by March 6th (yes, I've extended the deadline!), and I'll draw the winners over the weekend sometime. Also, please specify if you're in the U.S. or not to make it easier on me. I should have specified that from the start, but I kind of didn't - so if you're entered already, don't worry about it, but if you're reading this sentence, please do! ;-)

Okay, now take my books, mmmkay?

P.S. My giveaway told me that it wanted to play with all the other giveaways at the Book Giveaway Carnival, and I just couldn't say no since it's been such a good little giveaway.

A Matrimonial Giveaway

Serendipitously in conjunction with my 1 year blogiversary, Joshua Henkin has generously offered me a signed copy of his New York Times Notable book, Matrimony, which has recently been released in paperback, to give away here. While I've yet to read the copy of it waiting for me on my bookshelf, I've heard countless great things about Matrimony and I'm excited to have the opportunity to host this giveaway!

Book Description:

It's the fall of 1986, and Julian Wainwright, an aspiring writer, arrives at Graymont College in New England. Here he meets Carter Heinz, with whom he develops a strong but ambivalent friendship, and beautiful Mia Mendelsohn, with whom he falls in love. Spurred on by a family tragedy, Julian and Mia's love affair will carry them to graduation and beyond, taking them through several college towns, over the next fifteen years. Starting at the height of the Reagan era and ending in the new millennium, Matrimony is a stunning novel of love and friendship, money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith. It is a richly detailed portrait of what it means to share a life with someone-to do it when you're young, and to try to do it afresh on the brink of middle age.


A few of the many blogger reviews:

Musings of a Bookish Kitty
The Literate Housewife Review
Devourer of Books
The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness


If you're interested in winning Matrimony, just leave a comment on this post any time before midnight (EST) next Monday, October 13th. For a second entry, link to this post from your blog and let me know that you've linked it. Please make sure that your comment includes some way for me to get in touch with you if you win, whether it's your blog URL or an e-mail address.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week

Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.
- Unknown


Say, if you've been living in a cave for the past few weeks, I suppose it's possible that you haven't heard about Book Blogger Appreciation week. Well, it starts Monday with all sorts of festivities including a mind numbing amount of giveaways of books and other good stuff on My Friend Amy and a plethora of other participating book blogs. Check out the following for details on giveaways that will soon ensue, and be sure to head over to My Friend Amy to keep up with all the cool stuff going on in the book blogosphere in connection with BBAW throughout the coming week.




If you follow along for the festivities of BBAW at My Friend Amy, you will find many chances to win LOTS of goodies! Like what? Well have a look below. All of these things will be given away between September 15-19. There will be a huge variety of ways to win them and giveaways will be announced constantly throughout the week. So be sure to check in often!


A HUGE thank you to Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group USA, Harlequin, The B&B Media Group, Shera of SNS Blog Design, WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, Catherine Delors, Pamela Binnings Ewen, Andromeda Romano-Lax, Ceceilia Dowdy, Sormag, Book Club Girl, Savvy Verse and Wit, Cafe of Dreams, Fashionista Piranha, and Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?.

Daily Raffles:
Monday--Books and Chocolate sponsored by My Friend Amy and Hey Lady! Whatcha' Readin?
Tuesday--Books and Going Green sponsored by My Friend Amy
Wednesday--Books and Coffee sponsored by My Friend Amy
Thursday--Books and Charity sponsored by My Friend Amy and Fashionista Piranha
Friday--Books and Movies sponsored by My Friend Amy

Win a Book Club Girl Hostess Survival Kit!
Do you find it's your turn to host book club and not only do you not know what to serve but you don't know what books to offer up for the next month's selection?! Let Book Club Girl come to your rescue with the Book Club Girl Hostess Survival Kit.

One lucky winner of the kit will receive:

* A basket of cheese, crackers, cookies and wine for up to 12 people
* 5 great book group books to vote on for your group's next pick. And Book Club Girl will then donate 12 copies whichever book is chosen for your entire group to read.
* 12 Book Club Girl mousepads to give out as party favors that night
* 12 Book Club Girl bookmarks to mark everyone's favorite passages
* 12 Book Club Girl coasters to protect your coffee table from all those wine glasses!

TWO SORMAG Goody Bags containing books and more!


A Special Pamper Me Basket from Cafe of Dreams!
From Avon Foot Works
~ Inflatable watermelon shaped foot tub
~ 3.4 FL oz Watermelon Cooling Foot Lotion
~ 3.4 FL oz Watermelon Exfoliating Foot Scrub
~ 12 count Watermelon Effervescent Foot Tablets
~ An ARC of So Long At The Fair by Christina Schwarz
~ A variety of Hot Chocolate and Tea mixes

A pre-made blog template from SNSDesign!

A Subscription to Poetry Magazine from Savvy Verse and Wit!

BOOKS
Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors
The Moon in the Mango Tree by Pamela Binnings Ewen
The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax
John's Quest by Cecelia Dowdy
Confessions of a Contractor by Richard Murphy
Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley
A Tale Out of Luck by Willie Nelson with Mike Blakely
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
Exit Music by Ian Rankin
The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
Gunmetal Black by Daniel Serrano
Isolation by Travis Thrasher
The Miracle Girls by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt
Every Freaking! Day With Rachell Ray by Elizabeth Hilts
Dewey by Vicki Myron
The Shiniest Jewel by Marian Henley
Keep the Faith by Faith Evans
The Book of Calamities by Peter Trachtenberg
A is for Atticus by Lorilee Craker
After the Fire by Robin Gaby Fisher
Mike's Election Guide by Michael Moore
War as They Knew It by Michael Rosenberg
Fixing Hell By Col. (ret.) Larry C. James
Wild Boy: My Life with Duran Duran by Andy Taylor
The Last Under-Cover: The True Story of an FBI Agent's Dangerous Dance with Evil By Bob Hamer
Border Lass by Amanda Scott
Insatiable Desire by Rita Heron
Hungry for More by Diana Holquist
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
Trespassers Will Be Baptized by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Trish Ryan
Never Surrender by General Jerry Boykin
Dream in Color by Congresswoman Linda Sánchez, Congresswoman Loretta Sánchez
Beyond Belief by Josh Hamilton
Cobain Unseen by Charles R. Cross
Doing Business in 21st Century India by Gunjan Bagla
Branding Only Works on Cattle by Jonathan Salem Baskin
Launching a Leadership Revolution by Chris Brady, Orrin Woodward
How to Hear from God by Joyce Meyer
Knowing Right from Wrong by Thomas D. Williams
Pope John Paul II: An Intimate Life by Caroline Pigozzi
Pure by Rebecca St. James
He Loves Me! by Wayne Jacobson
So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobson and Dave Coleman
Move On, Move Up by Paula White
The Rosary by Gary Jansen
Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
Right Livelihoods by Rick Moody
by George by Wesley Stace
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh
Dead Boys by Richard Lange
The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters by Lorraine Lopez
Sisterchicks Go Brit! by Robin Jones Gunn
Beyond the Night by Marlo Schalesky
With Endless Sight by Allison Pittman
Harlequin Titles: To Be Announced

Many other blogs are giving away books and prizes for BBAW as well! You can see the links to all of these giveaways here.