Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer Leaked on Internet
Maw Books pointed out on her site about the situation with Stephenie Meyer and I wanted to discuss it here as well. Stephenie Meyer is a successful author on the scale of almost a rock star status. That is rare in the literary world. Her first book Twilight and the books that followed have a rampant teen following. The book she was currently working on is called Midnight Sun and is supposed to be a companion to Twilight but told through the eyes of Edward, the vampire. Stephenie’s hope was it would “give you further insight into Edward’s head and add a dimension to the Twilight story.” Unfortunately according to her statement on her site a partial incomplete draft was released and is making the rounds on the internet. As a result Stephenie “feels her heart is no longer in writing Midnight Sun and she will be moving on to other projects.” If you want to read the partially completed rough draft, Stephenie has put it on her own website and hopes everyone will read it instead of of the leaked draft. If you want to read Midnight Sun I encourage you to click here to read the version she put up. I am sure it is much better then the other since she clearly states the writing is messy, flawed and full of mistakes. You can read her statement here. What do you think of this situation? Were you looking forward to Midnight Sun? Do you plan on reading the Rough Draft and if so what are your thoughts?
Book Review Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster
August 30, 2008 by Tracy
Filed under Book Reviews
WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT
Set in Brisbane during the stultifying 1950s and moving to grubby London in the 1970s, Feather Man is about Sooky who, ignored and misunderstood by her parents, is encouraged to make herself scarce and visit Lionel, their elderly next door neighbor.
The early pages of Feather Man are full of images of suburban life in Brisbane in the 1950s. The Thor washing machine thunders away. A kookaburra is perched on the oven door. Sooky's mother is often chained to the treadmill of her sewing machine. The novel follows Sooky through four relationships with men and her entry into the art world, but the truth is, she is never able to survive unless a relationship is providing the context, however bad it may be.
THEMES IN THIS BOOK
CLICK ON THE BOOK COVER OF FEATHER MAN TO READ MY REVIEW AND SEE WHAT GRADE I GAVE IT!
The Responsibility Project
- MOMMY REVIEW
What’s your idea of a responsible parent? A responsible employee? A responsible friend? Well, that’s what The Responsibility Project wants to know.
From the site: “We believe that the more people think and talk about responsibility, and even debate what it means, the more it can affect how we live our daily lives. And perhaps, in this small way, together, we can make the world just a little better.”
It all started with a little commercial by Liberty Mutual that grew into an overnight sensation. You know, the one where total strangers did nice things for each other and a good deed got passed on and on. I love that commercial. The Responsibility Project site showcases short videos where every day people like you and me – kids and adults – made the choice to do the right thing. You’ll find these stories to be touching, educational, and truly inspiring. This site also helps parents share the idea of personal responsibility with their children through videos, discussion guides, and blog posts. It is really a nice website to spend some time on. Some great topics to bring up during family time also (for all ages). Take a few minutes to visit The Responsibility Project and see what you think. Thanks to MomCentral for letting me know about this fantastic resource as well.
Mommy Review Vusion
- MOMMY REVIEW
Unfortunately moms have to deal with diaper rash at one point or another. Both of my boys have sensitive skin, especially when they were babies. My youngest suffered from diaper rash and we tried several things from the pediatrician until we finally found a cream that worked.
Back To School Huge Book Giveaway!
August 29, 2008 by Tracy
Filed under Book Contests
Guess What? Hachette Book Group is offering another amazing giveaway. In celebration of going Back To School they will send Five people a box of Ten books. There are multiple chances to enter by going to my new contest page. Just click here! These are the books you will win. I will say that “Say You’re One of Them” was one of my favorite books so far this year. You can read my review here. Also there is a great buzz building about Dewey. I have it on my TBR pile and will get to it soon. There are many great non-fiction titles also that would make great Christmas presents! It’s never too early to shop! You have until September 17th to enter and U.S and Canada only. No P.O. Boxes either.
1. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World By Vicky Myron , Bret Witter ISBN: 0446407410 $19.99 Audio book, eBook, large print also available
2. The Book of Calamities: Five Questions About Suffering and Its Meaning
By Peter Trachtenberg ISBN: 0316158798, $23.99 eBook also available
3. Say You’re One of Them By Uwem Akpan ISBN: 0316113786 $23.99 Audio Book, eBook available
4. Bo’s Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership By Bo Schembechler , John Bacon $13.99 ISBN: 044658200X Audio book, ebook also available
5. Knowing Right from Wrong: A Christian Guide to Conscience By Fr. Thomas D. Williams $19.99 ISBN: 0446582018 eBook also available
6. Titanic’s Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler By Brad Matsen $27.99 ISBN: 0446582050 Audio book, ebook also available
7. A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative By Roger von Oech (25th Anniversary) $16.99 ISBN: 0446404667
8. Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs To Know By John Maxwell $9.95 ISBN: 0446578096 Audio book, Audio book, ebook also available
9. The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance By Polly Young-Eisendrath $25.99 ISBN: 0316013110 Audio book, ebook also available
10. Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey By William Least Heat-Moon $27.99 ISBN: 0316110256 Audio book, ebook, large print also available
FieldReport
The wonderful book blogger Dewey clued me in on this great new website I thought you might want to check out. If you’re interested in an online community where everyone both writes and reviews other people’s writing, check out FieldReport, a site that gives cash prizes to what the community determines are its best writers. Here is a little more info about the site:
A FieldReport is a true story from your life, of 2000 words or less. Each month, our community holds qualifying contests to determine the best FieldReport in 21 categories, with $1000 awarded in each category. In December, qualifiers will compete for grand prizes awarded January 1—including the $250,000 FieldReport Prize for Experiential Reporting, and a $25,000 TeenReport Scholarship Award. Choose a category below for more details. Also see our Quick Start Guide.
What I really liked about the site is the Teen Report, which encourages teens from the ages of 13 to 17 to utilize their writing skills. I only read a few of their reports and thought they were amazing! So if you love writing and reviewing it’s worth looking into. Below is a great video about a woman who won $20,000 writing on FieldReport.
Oprah’s Next Book Club Pick??
Hmm….I read on the website Early Word that Oprah will be announcing her new book for her book club on September 19th. Love em or Hate em, the next Oprah Book Pick will be a big deal. According to Early Word the book is coming from HarperCollins. Listed below is the ISBN number if anyone wants to do any detective work and figure out what the book is. Also it is only available in Hardcover and Large Type so it must be a newer title. Any guesses?
Hardcover
- Harpercollins
- 9780061768064
- $25.95
Large Type
- HarperLuxe
- 9780061768088
- $25.95
Pick Them, Choose Them, Love Them
The Lovely Amy from My Friend Amy had this cool idea to hold a Book Blogging Appreciation Week and this week is nomination time. If you have a favorite book blog, I know I have many, then go ahead and show em some love! Here is the list and info:
It’s time to open nominations for Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards 2008!
Listed below are the categories of awards. There are many. You may not have a nomination for each award. It doesn’t matter. Nominate up to two blogs per category and send an email to BbawawardsATgmailDOTcom with your choices. You DO NOT have to have a blog to make nominations. Comments left on this post will NOT be accepted as nominations. Each category will be narrowed to the top five blogs by number of nominations received, so don’t be shy!!! Support your favorite blogs and bloggers! Nominations will close on August 31st.
And the categories for the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards 2008 are:
Best General Book Blog
Best Kidlit Blog
Best Christian/Inspirational Fiction Blog
Best Literary Fiction Blog
Best Book Club Blog
Best Romance Blog
Best Thrillers/Mystery/Suspense Blog
Best Non-fiction Blog
Best Young Adult Lit Blog
Best Book/Publishing Industry Blog
Best Challenge Host
Best Community Builder
Best Cookbook Blog
Best History/Historical Fiction Blog
Best Design
Most Chatty
Most Concise
Most Eclectic Taste
Best Name for a Blog
Best Published Author Blog
Best Book published in 2008
Best Meme/Carnival/Event
Most Extravagant Giveaways
Best Book Community site
Just added:
Most Altruistic Blog
Funniest/Most Humorous Blog
Best Sci-fi/fantasy/horror/spec-fic blog
Best Commenter/commentator
Write In–think we missed something? Write in your category and nomination and if there are enough other write-ins of the same category it will be added!
Black and White by Dani Shapiro
August 28, 2008 by Tracy
Filed under Book Reviews
WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT
Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter.
At age eighteen, sick of her notoriety as “the girl in the pictures,” Clara fled New York City, settling and making her own family in small-town Maine. But years later, when Ruth reaches out from her deathbed, Clara suddenly finds herself drawn back to the past she thought she had escaped. From the beloved author of Family History and Slow Motion, a spellbinding novel that asks: How do we forgive those who failed to protect us?
THEMES IN THIS BOOK
CLICK ON THE BOOK COVER OF BLACK AND WHITE TO READ MY REVIEW AND SEE WHAT GRADE I GAVE IT!
Literary Peace Prize Finalists Named
Celebrating the power of literature to promote peace and non-violent conflict resolution, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Committee announced the ten finalists for the 2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. It was founded in 2006 as an outgrowth of the Dayton Peace Prize, which commemorates the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords ending the war in Bosnia. Each year, it recognizes a Lifetime Achievement recipient and adultfiction and nonfiction authors whose works promotes the cause of peace. Written by first-time authors (Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel) and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists (The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz), the 2008 finalists explore a diverse range of topics ranging from the aftermath of war (The Ocean in the Closet by Yuko Taniguchi) to the dangers of empire (Are We Rome? by Cullen Murphy). Reflecting the Dayton Literary Peace Prize’s mission to promote global understanding, the nominated books are also set in locations around the world – from Haiti (Brother I am Dying by Edwidge Danticat) to West Africa (Song for Night by Chris Abani) to the South Pacific’s coral reefs (Fragile Earth by Julia Whitty). The full list of finalists can be found below and at: http://daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/2008-finalists.htm. “Each of this year’s finalists inspire readers to rethink how the pressing issues facing our planet can best be resolved,” said Sharon Rab, chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. “In these increasingly uncertain and violent times, they remind us that the pen truly is mightier than the sword, and that lasting peace can be achieved through dialogue and knowledge.” The committee previously announced that Civil Rights and Martin Luther King, Jr. historian Taylor Branch (Partingthe Waters, At Canaan’s Edge, Pillar of Fire) will be the recipient of the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award, a distinction he shares with Studs Terkel (2006) and Elie Wiesel (2007). 2007 winners were Brad Kessler’s Birds In Fall (Fiction Winner) and Mark Kurlansky’s Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (Nonfiction Winner). A winner and runner-up in fiction and nonfiction will be announced in early September.
The 2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize fiction finalists are:
- The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Penguin Group):
Mixing pop culture and political criticism, this critically acclaimed novel is an
astonishing vision of the contemporary American immigrant experience and
the endless human capacity to persevere.
- Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill): Set
during the Civil War, Coal Black Horse is a brutally honest novel depicting a
boy’s search for his father and the horrors of war.
-
Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon (HarperCollins Publishers): Taking place in
a nameless South American country, this powerful story illustrates war’s
devastating impact on a society transformed by violence.
- The Ocean in the Closet by Yuko Taniguchi (Coffee House Press): A
touching novel portraying a young woman’s journey as she helps her family
heal and recover from the damages of both the Vietnam War and World War
II.
- 
Song for Night by Chris Abani (Akashic Books): Trained as a human mine
detector, a West African boy soldier witnesses and takes part in unspeakable
brutality.
The 2008 nonfiction finalists are:
-
Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel (Beacon Press): An American Muslim from India
recounts the journey that led him to embrace religious pluralism and reject hatred.
-
Are We Rome? by Cullen Murphy (Houghton Mifflin Company): Comparing
the politics and culture of Ancient Rome with that of the contemporary United States, Murphy reveals lessons on how America can avoid Rome’s demise.
- 
Break Through by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus (Houghton Mifflin
Company): The two young environmentalists behind the controversial 2004 essay, “The Death of Environmentalism,” articulate a new politics for solving the world’s ecological crisis.
-
Brother, I am Dying by Edwidge Danticat (Knopf Publishing Group): A moving memoir of Danticat’s Haitian immigrant family’s struggle to stay connected in spite of living apart.
- 
Fragile Edge by Julia Whitty (Houghton Mifflin Company): Fragile Edge takes readers on an underwater journey to explore the threats facing coral reefs and why they are vital to human survival.
