Stand the Storm by Breena Clarke
June 30, 2008 by Tracy
Filed under Book Reviews
Click on the book cover to read my review and see the grade I gave this book. Below is a synopsis of the book.
Even though Sewing Annie Coats and her son, Gabriel, have managed to buy their freedom, their lives are still marked by constant struggle and sacrifice. Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood, where the Coatses operate a tailor’s shop and laundry, is supposed to be a “promised land” for former slaves but is effectively a frontier town, gritty and dangerous, with no laws protecting black people.
The remarkable emotional energy with which the Coatses wage their daily battles-as they negotiate with their former owner, as they assist escaped slaves en route to freedom, as they prepare for the encroaching war, and as they strive to love each other enough-is what propels STAND THE STORM and makes the novel’s tragic denouement so devastating.
Win a Year’s Worth of Books!
June 30, 2008 by Tracy
Filed under Book Contests
Another Great Contest going on is from HarperCollins. You can win a Year’s Worth of Books for Your Book Club! Just click on the box above to enter. Some of the books you would win are featured below. Wouldn’t hurt to try huh? Also if you haven’t visited Book Club Girls website, I highly recommend it! She is always offering free books for the radio shows she does and the shows are excellent interviews with great authors. Her website is here.
Huge Book Giveaway!!
For all of you who entered the read-a-thon drawings for fourteen books and didn’t win, well we have some more chances!!! Trish is giving away five sets of the fourteen books from Hachette books!!. Go here to enter! I must say they are a very generous publishing company!
Read a Thon wrap up questions
Here are the post-event survey questions:
1. Which hour was most daunting for you? 4:00 a.m. so I fell asleep
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? This Charming Man by Marian Keyes and Sleeping With Ward Cleaver by Jenny Gardiner and Beautiful Death by Joely Sue Burkhart. All three that I read were terrific!
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? None it was great!
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? A break every hour to do a challenge to win a prize was fun
5. How many books did you read? three ( one was a long one)
6. What were the names of the books you read? See question 2 for answers
7. Which book did you enjoy most? All three were different so can’t choose
8. Which did you enjoy least? none
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Yes for sure! I will be a reader again!
Read a Thon Update
Hi! I fell asleep at four am but am back for the last few hours. Am hoping to wrap up Sleeping With Ward Cleaver. Keep going everyone:)
Read a thon Update 4:00 am central
Read a Thon Update
Hi Everyone it is about 2:00 a.m. central time here and everyone is sleeping. I finally finished This Charming Man at 563 pages and am moving on to Andre Dubus novel The Garden of Last Days. It is another long one at 535 pages. If it proves to be too deep I might switch out for something lighter. Hang in there everyone!
Mini Challenge for Read a thon
This is a mini challenge to post a poem so here is mine
Emily Dickenson
A Bird Came Down the Walk
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,–
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.
Read a thon update
Here is the next mini challenge questions and my answers
1. What are you reading right now?This Charming Man by Marion Keyes
2. How many books have you read so far? One and a half
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? The Garden of Last Days by the author of House of Sand and Fog which is one of my favorite books
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?I just asked my hubby to help keep an eye on kids and he did for the most part:)
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?Kids and house chores. I just dealt with them and got back to reading
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?The sense of community. I think it’s so great.
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I think it’s been wonderful
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? It would be fun to get a friend and go to a hotel room like some of the readers did today
9. Are you getting tired yet?not yet, been drinking coffee:)
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?Nope everyone has been great!
Read a Thon Update
Okay, I haven’t read much the past few hours. Busy with stuff around the house and children. But now all are tucked away so I just need to stay awake! I am loving the buttons everyone has made for the mini challenge. Please tell me how sometime, I must know:) Talented group of readers I must say! Well I am back to reading This Charming Man and hope to finish up in the next few hours so I can move on to another book. I am at page 317 out of 563.
