Holiday Guide and Five Winners Book Giveaway!

Grab your favorite book this winter, a cup of hot cocoa, and a blanket to wrap up in.  This is my favorite thing to do when it gets cold outside.  I have a great Holiday Gift recommendation for the blanket.  Have you heard of Affirmawraps?  Well they are amazingly soft and warm fleece wraps with a message on each one.  Some of the messages are affirmations of Faith, Love, Hope and Strength. They come in beautifully vibrant colors.  There are also some beautiful baby blankets and motherhood blankets.  Great ideas for gifts for that special person in your life!  You can order Affirmawraps on their website www.affirmagy.com .  They have a some great Holiday specials going on including a four pack of the Limited Edition Affirmawraps, Joy, Compassion, Inspiration and Peace.

Okay fellow book lovers, I have the perfect gift idea for you!  I actually think you should buy one for yourself for Christmas, or put it on your wish list.  A Life Well Read is the perfect holiday gift for your family and friends, fellow book club members, students as well as being a great gift for birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. With this practical and easy-to-use journaling aid for book aficionados, you can organize a book collection, add to a book wish list, start a book gift list for friends and keep track of loaned out books and book club events. This modern, mobile and personalized solution for organizing your favorite book content contains everything a book lover would want all in a beautiful keepsake box that fits right on your bookshelf!

You can order A Life Well Read on their website www.alifeunplugged.com.

Here is what’s inside a Life Well Read

• An elegant, premium-quality keepsake box in the shape of a book which fits easily on your bookshelf to keep your personalized impressions for years to come. Share them with family and friends anytime!

• 50 pre-printed note cards to use as bookmarks and also record your “a ha’s!” about your favorite books

• Record your notes and impressions, quotes and page references, your personal rating, where you got the book, book club notes, lending history by title and author.

• 5 pre-printed (and 7 blank) dividers to organize your note cards into a an evolving readers’ journal of your best book content

• (All) My Books, My Favorites, Books I Want, Books On Loan, Books To Give and three additional customizable blank categories for you to define for your own needs. Categorize by title, author and subject.

• 56 elegant bookplates to personalize your books in your own personal library.

• 24 color gift labels to add a personal touch to your gifts of books to friends and family and fellow book club members.

• 3 double-sided gift-giving reminder cards which help you track to who and when you gifted a book

• A classic, heavy weight ballpoint pen which fits neatly into your keepsake box so you are always prepared to capture a lifetime of reading!

As much as I love to hold that wonderful book in my hands as I read sometimes I am just too busy, so I love to listen to audio books. I especially like to listen when I am in the car. MacMillan Audio has a wonderful selection of audio books for you and your children. My youngest is easily distracted when I pop in a great children’s book in the car. Audio books make great gifts for anyone in the family. We have been listening to “The One and Only Shrek” which is read by my favorite Meryl Streep and I have been getting in the Christmas mood with Donna VanLieres Christmas Hope series. The website is very informative and easy to navigate.  You can listen to samples of the audio books and also get an in depth information on the book and even listen to interviews from the authors.  Each audio book page has a recommendation of other titles you might like. You can purchase these great audio books and others at Macmillan audio.

Bookcharming (don’t you love the name!) are darling custom made bookmarks that would make a unique Holiday gift for the bookworm in your life.  Or for yourself!  Also each bookcharm is made with love by a mom and her twin girls.  Another great mom idea!  Let’s support mom products!  You must go look at all the cute charms! There are charms for boys, girls,, the Holidays and much more! I’m going to buy several and keep one for myself!  Here is what she has to say from the website:

It is our pleasure to present to you what we believe to be the best book marks out there!  Our BookCharmers are made with 100% silk thread and hand-chosen beads.  In addition to our pre-made, ready-to-ship book markers, we can custom make a BookCharmer to meet your personal taste!

Being avid book readers, my twin daughters and I just love this style of book-marks, sometimes referred to as “book floss.”  They are light weight, decorative, and always keep your page.  Our family activity of crafting led us to the desire to make these available to other passionate readers, on-line.

Our mission and goal is to also provide a source for book accessories, you can buy bookcharms, chaincharms (for glasses) and other book accessories on their website at www.bookcharming.com

Hachette Book Group wants to send FIVE of my Lovely Readers a Holiday Set of Books! They include some great cookbooks and a fun collection of short stories by the always hilarious David Sedaris!

The Flavor Bible by Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg
Katie Brown Celebrates by Katie Brown
I Like You by Amy Sedaris
Festivus by Allen Salkin
Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

For One Entry: Go to any or all of the websites listed above and come back here and tell me which gift or gifts you would like to buy!

FOR SECOND ENTRY: STUMBLE, TWITTER OR SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER (NEW SUBSCRIBERS) AND LINK IT BACK HERE IN A SEPARATE ENTRY.  U.S and Canada only.  Last day to enter is November 30th. I will e-mail the FIVE lucky random winners the next day.  Good Luck Everyone!  Don’t forget to enter my other Holiday Giveaways and come back tomorrow for another one!

NOVEL ADVENTURES NINE BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Novel Adventures is a new web original series for people who want to get out of the carpool lane and on to the open road… At the first meeting of the Women’s Classic Book Club in Los Angeles a rabid discussion is taking place about whether to read Jane Austen or D.H. Lawrence. As the merits of each of the great authors is debated in the living room, 4 women; Lizzie, Tamara, Amy and Lily find themselves in the kitchen snacking on crudités and some insanely delicious home-made carrot cake, each wondering “How do we get the hell out of here?” An afternoon adventure was brewing but to where? Somewhere…Anywhere. Instead of staying in and reading books about “classic” heroines’ amazing lives, Lizzie, Tamara, Amy and Lily choose to go out and live them. The offshoot of the Women’s Classic Book Club becomes the Classic Women’s Club. And so it begins. Four women, “classic” in their own right, hit the road in Lizzie’s new Saturn in search of their own novel adventure.  The next eight episodes will focus on a different novel and the adventures that the book inspires the four women to take.  The novels in the series include the following books:

• The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
• Girls Like Us (Sheila Weller)
• The Bourne Trilogy (Robert Ludlum)
• Monster of Florence (Douglas Preston)
• The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry (Kathleen Flinn)
• Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
• Life So Far (Betty Friedan)
• The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society (Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows)
• Knit Two (Kate Jacobs)

Have you seen the shows yet?  Well, you should, they are definitely cute and now one of you can WIN all the books featured in the show and watch them and read all the books along with the women in the show!  SERIOUSLY!   Thank you CBS and Novel Adventures!

FIRST ENTRY:       WHICH SHOW and (BOOK) FROM THE WEBSITE MOST INTERESTS YOU? ( IF YOU’VE WATCHED, WHICH ONE DID YOU LIKE THE MOST?)

SECOND ENTRY:  STUMBLE, TWITTER, OR SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER(NEW SUBSCRIBERS) ABOUT THIS CONTEST AND LINK IT BACK HERE!

U.S. Only please.  Deadline to enter will be December 1st and I will randomly draw one winner and e-mail them.  Good Luck and don’t forget to enter my other Holiday giveaways and come back tomorrow for another Holiday Givaway!  Hugs to all!

Cold Rock River Book Giveaway!

J.L Miles has generously sent me two copies of her wonderful book to give away!  I will be posting my review on Friday with a guest post by her.  Here is a synopsis of the book.  I really enjoyed it and I think you will too!  Especially if you like stories about strong women.  J.L Miles also wrote Divorcing Dwayne, which was hilariously good!  You can read my review of that book here and visit her website here.

1. For first entry leave a comment telling me you will come back for my Holiday Giveaways Nov 15-Dec 15th. and/or add my button to your blog:)

2. Come back on Friday and leave a comment on J.L. Miles guest post relevant to her post and you will get a second entry to win.

This contest will close on Saturday Nov 8th at midnight and I will announce the winners Sunday Nov 9th. And click HERE to enter the rest of the book giveaways for the carnival!

Testimony by Anita Shreve Giveaway!

At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. A Pandora’s box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices–those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal–that details the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment.  Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her own greatest work, Anita Shreve delivers in TESTIMONY a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. No one more compelling explores the dark impulses that sway the lives of seeming innocents, the needs and fears that drive ordinary men and women into intolerable dilemmas, and the ways in which our best intentions can lead to our worst transgressions.

The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters Book Review and Giveaway!

SYNOPSIS

When the four young Gabaldón sisters lost their mother, it was Fermina, the old Pueblo caretaker living in their house, who held them together with her love and protection. Upon her death, she promised the girls they would each receive a special gift, selected just for them. And as time passed, what she bestowed—hands that can heal, a skill for spinning stories, the ability to incite laughter, and the power to curse others—emerged bringing both blessings and tragedy. Now, twenty years later, unsure of whether the woman who had loved them so was a fairy godmother or a witch, the sisters delve into the patched and woven history of their family. Here shadowed secrets wait patiently to be released into the light…to show the gifted Gabaldón sisters not only who their guardian really was, but the truth about themselves.

THEMES IN THE BOOK

CLICK ON THE BOOK COVER OF THE GIFTED GABALDON SISTERS TO READ MY REVIEW AND SEE WHAT GRADE I GAVE IT!  I JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE TWO COPIES TO GIVE AWAY AND YOU CAN GO TO MY CONTEST PAGE TO ENTER.  I THINK THIS IS ONE YOU WILL LOVE!  THANKS AND GOOD LUCK!

Historical Fiction Two Book Giveaway!

CLICK ON THE BOOK COVERS TO READ MY REVIEWS AND SOURCEBOOKS HAS OFFERED TO SEND TWO READERS A COPY OF EACH BOOK!  YEAH!  GO TO MY CONTEST PAGE TO ENTER AND GOOD LUCK!

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin Book Review and Giveaway

WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT

From the moment he was born, Julian Wainwright has lived a life of Waspy privilege. The son of a Yale-educated investment banker, he grew up in a huge apartment on Sutton Place, high above the East River, and attended a tony Manhattan private school. Yet, more than anything, he wants to get out–out from under his parents’ influence, off to Graymont College, in western Massachusetts, where he hopes to become a writer.

When he arrives, in the fall of 1986, Julian meets Carter Heinz, a scholarship student from California with whom he develops a strong but ambivalent friendship. Carter’s mother, desperate to save money for his college education, used to buy him reversible clothing, figuring she was getting two items for the price of one. Now, spending time with Julian, Carter seethes with resentment. He swears he will grow up to be wealthy–wealthier, even, than Julian himself.

Then, one day, flipping through the college facebook, Julian and Carter see a photo of Mia Mendelsohn. Mia from Montreal, they call her. Beautiful, Jewish, the daughter of a physics professor at McGill, Mia is–Julian and Carter agree–dreamy, urbane, stylish, refined.

But Julian gets to Mia first, meeting her by chance in the college laundry room. Soon they begin a love affair that–spurred on by family tragedy–will carry them to graduation and beyond, taking them through several college towns, over the next ten years. Then Carter reappears, working for an Internet company in California, and he throws everyone’s life into turmoil: Julian’s, Mia’s, his own.

Starting at the height of the Reagan era andending in the new millennium, Matrimony is about love and friendship, about money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith. It asks what happens to a marriage when it is confronted by betrayal and the specter of mortality. What happens when people marry younger than they’d expected? Can love endure the passing of time?

THEMES IN THIS BOOK

CLICK ON THE BOOK COVER OF MATRIMONY TO READ MY REVIEW!  JOSHUA HAS GENEROUSLY OFFERED TO SEND ONE COPY OF HIS BOOK THAT IS NOW OUT IN PAPERBACK.  YOU CAN GO TO MY CONTEST PAGE TO ENTER.  THANK YOU SO MUCH JOSH FOR ALL OF YOUR AMAZING SUPPORT TO BOOK BLOGGERS!  Check out the author’s website here. Discussion questions can be found here or downloaded here: matrimony_reading_group_guide.  You can also download this essay (henkin-book-group-essay) that Joshua Henkin wrote that originally appeared here.   Joshua talks about his book here.

Immortal by Traci L. Slatton Giveaway

I have Two copies of Immortal by Traci L. Slatton to give away!   This is the book pick for The Literate Housewife’s  Online Book Club.  I’m sure she would love for you to join in if you win!  Please click here to my new contest page to enter and Just follow the directions to enter!  Sorry U.S. and Canada only.  Below is a Q and A with the Author of Immortal,  Traci L. Slatton

1. Tell us about your book, Immortal.

Immortal is a rags-to-riches-to-burnt-at-the-stake story. It’s a journey of spirit and an education of the heart. That said, it’s the story of a mysteriously gifted street urchin who undergoes the darkest moments possible and still goes on to find true love, deep friendship, hope, faith, and ultimately the deepest secrets of his origins.

1. Why did you write this book?

I love to tell stories! I was working on a non-fiction book about science and spirituality. ( Piercing Time & Space, ARE Press, Virginia Beach, VA: 2005.) It was fascinating research, but I found myself longing to write fiction, to create characters and wrap myself around adventure, conflict, and obstacle. Story lust drove me.

1. The book takes place in Florence during the Renaissance: What inspired you to choose this setting?

This goes back to the previous question. Renaissance Florence is a character in this novel–it’s inextricably interwoven into the story. It’s why I wrote THIS book. More explicitly, I am married to Sabin Howard, who is one of the foremost classical figurative sculptors working today. (www.sabinhoward.com)  Think Michelangelo’s work: that’s what my husband’s work resembles. Moreover, Sabin is half-Italian; his mother is from Torino and he is completely fluent in the language. So, for him, Renaissance Italy is alive and well. It’s a part of our everyday discourse. I was always interested in Renaissance art but it’s become a passion because of living with Sabin.

Also, Florence between 1300 and 1500 was an intense and extraordinary place, almost unequalled in history. Art, philosophy, learning, commerce, banking, and government were all burgeoning and concentrated into this small city, making it the center of Europe. Out of Florence radiated invention and innovation. One of the popes called it “The fifth element of the universe.” Only Paris between the two world wars comes close to the fervor of creativity that was taking place in Florence during the Renaissance. It’s a powerful time to write about.

1. How did you come up with a protagonist like Luca?

I wanted a character who would meet and make an impression on my two great Renaissance heroes: Giotto and Leonardo. This character had to be the kind of man who could inspire love, lust, envy, admiration, and riveting hatred in other people. And he was going to face terrible challenges, so he had to have personal resources to help him through. And his suffering would make him humble and give him a hunger to love and be loved.

1. Lucas plays many different roles – orphan, companion, healer – throughout the story, which do you personally relate best to?

Perhaps to the healer and the companion. I was a hands-on or spiritual healer for many years, and Luca gets to do what I always longed to do: lay hands on and cure someone completely, even bring a dying man back to life.

I have four daughters, and in the best moments of parenting, there is a companionable aspect to it. There are moments when all the little stuff falls away, all the blah-blah-blah about messy bedrooms and parties and grades and allowances and health concerns, and my children and I are friends, laughing together. Even my little one, who is 3, sometimes sits and chats with me as if we were two good buddies. I treasure those moments.

1. Luca meets da Vinci, Botticelli…“immortals” whose impact on society is still apparent.  Can you talk to us about some of those figures, and the way they still shape modern society?

     They have left a legacy of art and ideas which is the foundation of western        civilization. Petrarch, who is a friend of Luca’s in Immortal, articulated the notion of the individual self (see Ascent of Mount Ventoux) on which we built the United States: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” This is a radical change from the earlier systems of society, and it came out of the Renaissance. The great Cosimo de Medici who led Florence from 1434 to 1464 established the Platonic Academy, which formulated the ideals of humanism which are now axiomatic in our worldview. Even our pop philosophy, eg The Secret, has its roots in Pico della Mirandella’s Oration on the Dignity of Man: “O highest and most admirable felicity of man to whom it is granted to have whatever he chooses, to be whatever he wills!”

     The great artists like Leonardo and Botticelli left us ideals of beauty that are still unparalleled. Leonardo left behind a prototype of a polymath genius as the highest aspiration.

1. Part of what makes Luca’s story so beautiful is the time period it is set in and the people he encounters. Do you think it would have had the same significance had it been placed at another time, such as the present? 

     Renaissance Florence is such an integral part of the story that it’s hard to say. I am, however, considering bringing Luca back in a future book that is set in Paris between the two world wars. Readers who love Luca can stay tuned…..

1. Luca witnesses many important historical events throughout his life.  What kind of research did you conduct for these?

            I read a million books (okay, maybe a hundred), searched on-line, spoke with friends and relatives with extensive historical knowledge (my husband is a Renaissance sculptor and my father-in-law is a history teacher with a PhD), and I corresponded with, or spoke to, a couple of professors. I also like the History channel for shows on history! And we visited Italy several times, spending much time in the Medici chapel in Florence and the Pinacoteca Vaticano in Rome.

     No one but me is to blame for inaccuracies, distortions, and out right fallacies.

1. What are your future writing plans in writing?

      I am working on the sequel to Immortal right now.

1. Any advice you could give to beginning novelists out there?

Persist! And know who to trust with your work.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson Book Giveaway

I know I seem a bit giveaway crazy lately but I had to share my extra ARC of The Gargoyle because I loved it so much and I know you will too!  You can read my review of The Gargoyle here  Just leave me a comment to enter.  Sorry U.S. and Canada only.  I will draw a winner in two weeks on August 26th.  Make sure you check out my other giveaways.  Also you can watch this fantastic book trailer below with the author Andrew Davidson telling you a story from the book. 

Interview and Giveaway of Sweetsmoke by David Fuller

David Fuller, the author of Sweetsmoke has graciously offered to give away a copy of his new novel which comes out August 26th.  To enter all you have to do is leave a comment letting David know why you want to read his book!   Maybe he will even answer your question if you have one.  I will draw a winner on August 26th. If you want to blog or stumble or this for an extra entry it would be much appreciated too!   You can read about how David came to write this wonderful novel below and also read some glowing reviews from  Literate Housewife , Peeking Between the Pages,  A Bookworms Dinner   Devourer of Books  Medival Bookworm   If I missed yours please let me know so I can post it also.  You can pre-order Sweetsmoke here.

The year is 1862, and the Civil War rages through the South. On a Virginia tobacco plantation, another kind of battle soon begins. There, Cassius Howard, a skilled carpenter and slave, risks everything-punishment, sale to a cotton plantation, even his life-to learn the truth concerning the murder of Emoline, a freed black woman, a woman who secretly taught him to read and once saved his life. It is clear that no one cares about her death in the midst of a brutal and hellish war. No one but Cassius, who braves horrific dangers to escape the plantation and avenge her loss.

As Cassius seeks answers about Emoline’s murder, he finds an unexpected friend and ally in Quashee, a new woman brought over from another plantation; and a formidable adversary in Hoke Howard, the master he has always obeyed.

Q: What brought you to write this novel? 

“Sweetsmoke is a story I was driven to tell. That there was an African American slave at its core was simply the factual basis upon which to build the story. Cassius is an outsider to his world, and it was but a small step to tell the story from his perspective, as writers tend to be outsiders to their worlds. Research taught me to understand his environment, to know the hardships he had to endure, but being a fellow human being allowed me to see the world through his eyes. Imagination and empathy are the tools of the writer. I’d like to think that the fact that a writer can empathize with another man in dire circumstances is a small step to understanding and brotherhood. Lest that sound naïve and uplifting, let me just say on a personal note that I had just as much difficulty imagining his courage and strength as I did seeing through his eyes as a slave in the 19th Century.

Good stories on big topics don’t come around very often. There are a few lucky writers who seem to continually come up with them, but for me, they are few and far between. When I initially imagined a slave acting as a ‘detective’, a great landscape opened up inside of me. The story was immediately evident even without the necessary specifics. I was not interested in telling a detective story. I was interested in discovering the world of a slave. I was also curious as to how a man who does not have the personality of a victim survives in an environment where he has no power. But by using a loose detective story structure, I was able to touch on different aspects of a world that intrigued me. I was able to visit the world of slaves spying against the Confederacy; I was able to imagine an important Civil War battle; and I was able to examine the idea of how one seemingly unimportant death, occurring against the enormous canvas of a violent war, can take on great significance.

I wound up doing at least eight years of research on the novel. I attempted at one point to put together a bibliography, and found that I had read at least fifty books on the subjects of slavery, America in the 1800s, the Civil War, particularly Antietam, and other related subjects like tobacco and the currency of the time. To this day I am coming across books I dipped into for some tidbit of information that did not make the list. I traveled to hundreds of Internet sites, and watched countless hours of documentaries and other related programming. I found that children’s books were helpful, as they come with pictures.

That said, most of the incidents that happen to Cassius did in fact happen to slaves at one time or another. The most surprising to me was that there were slaves who refused to be beaten or whipped. They would stand up to white overseers, and get away with it. There is at least one story told of a slave who would not be beaten, the white man let him be. but told the other whites that he had beaten him terribly in order to save face. I worried that readers would not believe the moment when Cassius faces Otis Bornock in the rain, but that incident is based on fact.

We must all pay a great debt of gratitude to the writers who have come before us. I count as my obvious influences on this particular book Mark Twain and Toni Morrison. In no way do the flaws in this novel reflect back on Ms. Morrison or Mr. Twain, as it is my imperfections alone to be blamed for any and all mediocrity, but I did at times find myself reaching for BELOVED, HUCK FINN and PUDDINHEAD WILSON to hear rhythms in speech and dialogue.

I am also indebted to Patrick O’Brian. Any devotee of his Aubrey/Maturin series will recognize my occasional homage to him, through words and phrases that rang true for me and helped keep me in the 19th Century. While I was unable to physically read Mr. O’Brian when writing Sweetsmoke — he was a brilliant writer, and reading him would drop me into a deep well of envy — I revisited him by listening to audio versions of his books, via the wonderful voice of Patrick Tull. A fellow writer and mentor of mine, Carter Scholz (RADIANCE), spoke of having a writer on your shoulder watching you as you work. O’Brian was the writer on my shoulder.

I eventually sold a script, and soon after partnered with Rick Natkin. Rick and I had a long and excellent run. For seven or eight years, I think we sold everything we wrote. We had six projects made, some of which we even put our real names on. Rick once said that his best stuff was gathering dust on the shelf in his office, his okay stuff was sold but not made, and the bad stuff was up on the big screen for everyone to see. Our most commercial script sold for a lot of money, and then was rewritten so that not one word we wrote ended up in the film. But every screenwriter has horror stories, so I will leave it at that. The important thing is that screenwriting is a surprisingly difficult skill and is significantly undervalued. It teaches you structure and pace, and it teaches you to focus your stories. I’ve written over fifty screenplays, and I’m still learning.

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