I won quite a few book contests these last few days, so I'd like to express appreciation and just a short write up about the books.
Bookin' With Bingo:
Bunco Babes Tell All by Maria Geraci
Here's the blurb from Amazon:
A hot, sassy, Southern romance about girlfriends, gossip, the game of love— and the game of Bunco.
Woman cannot live by Bunco alone . Meet the Bunco Babes of Whispering Bay. Every Thursday night they roll dice, drink frozen margaritas, and catch up on all the gossip in their small north Florida town. Kitty Burke is the only Bunco Babe who is still single—which is okay—but she’s thirty-five and may need to face the fact that her image of Mr. Right is all wrong.
Take Steve. Very sexy—but on paper, with three failed marriages and a shady career, maybe not great husband material. And yes, his ring tone is “Freebird.” Fellow Babes Shea and Pilar definitely vote thumbs down. But maybe there’s more to Steve than meets the eye. Is it time for Kitty to roll the dice and hope that she can be as lucky in love as she is in Bunco?
If you'd like to read more about this book, here's the
link to Bingo's review or visit her site Bookin' With Bingo at http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com/2009/05/bookin-bingo-review-bunco-babes-tell.html
Thank you so much, Bingo!
So Many Precious Books, So Little Time:
Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched The World
by Vicki Myron
Here's the blurb from Amazon:
DEWEY is the heartwarming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa, as told by his owner and companion of nineteen years, Vicki Myron, the librarian who found him on a frigid January morning when he was abandoned as a kitten in the book drop slot. It is also the story of a remarkable small town, which burned down at the beginning of the Depression, only to rebuild itself, and which was almost shuttered during the farm crisis of the 1980s, before regrouping and rededicating itself to small town American values. Dewey's local charm and worldwide fame became a symbol of hope for this recovering town. Through Dewey's antics, we come to know and love many of the colorful and inspiring people of Spencer. But perhaps the most inspiring person in Spencer is Vicki Myron herself, a single mother who survived the bankruptcy of her family farm and working in a box factory to put two of her brothers through college to become one of the leaders of the Iowa library system. Dewey is one lovable, roguish cat who managed to transform an entire town and inspire people across the globe.
Thank you, Teddy and Anna at Hatchette Book Group!
http://teddyrose.blogspot.com/2009/05/winners-audiobook-giveaway-dewey-small.html
Dar's Peeking Between the Pages
Jantsen's Gift by Pamela Cope and Aimee Malloy
Here's a short description from the Hatchette Book Group:
Nine years ago, Pam Cope owned a cozy hair salon in the tiny town of Neosho, Missouri, and her life revolved around her son's baseball games, her daughter's dance lessons, and family trips to places like Disney World. She had never been out of the country, nor had she any desire to travel far from home. Then, on June 16th, 1999, her life changed forever with the death of her 15-year-old son from an undiagnosed heart ailment. Needing to get as far away as possible from everything that reminded her of her loss, she accepted a friend's invitation to travel to Vietnam, and, from the moment she stepped off the plane, everything she had been feeling since her son's death began to shift. By the time she returned home, she had a new mission: to use her pain to change the world, one small step at a time, one child at a time. Today, she is the mother of two children adopted from Vietnam. More than that, she and her husband have created a foundation called "Touch A Life," dedicated to helping desperate children in countries as far-flung as Vietnam, Cambodia and Ghana. Pam Cope's story is on one level a moving, personal account of loss and recovery, but on a deeper level, it offers inspiration to anyone who has ever suffered great personal tragedy or those of us who dream about making a difference in the world.
http://peekingbetweenthepages.blogspot.com/2009/05/winners-of-jantsens-gift.html
Thank you, Dar!
Books Books & More Books:
Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
http://ruthiesbookreviews.blogspot.com/
Ruth shared the blurb on the back of the book:
The twelve Greek gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London town house - and none too happy about it. For Artemis (goddess of hunting, professional dog walker), Aphrodite (goddess of beauty, telephone sex operator), and Apollo (god of the sun, TV psychic), there's no way out - until a meek housecleaner, Alice, and her would-be boyfriend, Neil, turn their world upside down. When what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills, Alice and Neil must fear not only for their own lives but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed - but can these two ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heros and save the world?'
If you'd like to read Ruth's review, please click here or go directly to http://ruthiesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/12/gods-behaving-badly-by-marie-phillips.html
Thank you, Ruth!
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review:
Give Me Back My Legions by Harry Turtledove
http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com/2009/05/give-me-back-my-legions-competition.html
Here's the blurb from Amazon:
Publius Quinctilius Varus, a Roman politician, is summoned by the Emperor, Augustus Caesar. Given three legions and sent to the Roman frontier east of the Rhine, his mission is to subdue the barbarous German tribes where others have failed, and bring their land fully under Rome’s control.
Arminius, a prince of the Cherusci, is playing a deadly game. He serves in the Roman army, gaining Roman citizenship and officer’s rank, and learning the arts of war and policy as practiced by the Romans. What he learns is essential for the survival of Germany, for he must unite his people against Rome before they become enslaved by the Empire and lose their way of life forever.
An epic battle is brewing, and these two men stand on opposite sides of what will forever be known as The Battle of the Teutoberg Forest—a ferocious, bloody clash that will change the course of history.
Thank you, Graeme! I'm very glad to have discovered your site.
Aside from these wonderful prizes, I have also received two ARCs to review:
The Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley
Courtesy of Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers
Here's the blurb from Amazon:
Your Direction, not Your Intention, Determines Your Destination.There is often a tension between where we want to end up in life and the path we choose to get there. We fail to see that having good intentions is never good enough. Like Charlie Brown, we wrongly believe there's something to be said for trying hard. We need to understand why, in spite of our good intentions, we may have ended up at the wrong destination with our finances, our marriages, our careers, or a host of other dreams. So how do we get from where we are to where we truly want to be? The Principle of the Path is a road map to proper direction and discipline.
Includes Extensive Study Guide.
Thank you, Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers for this copy of The Principle of the Path.
Dangerously Innocent: When Looks Really Deceive by Nesrine Joseph
from Bostick
Here's the blurb from Amazon:
Two detectives, one case and many dead....Senior Sergeant Detectives Luther James and Rochelle Trevelyan are two people out to find a maniac on a killing rampage who has used gruesome force to attack and take the lives of his victims.Played out in the suburbs of Sydney, Luther and Rochelle need to keep their cool and try to capture at least one suspect to fit the profile of what s been dubbed as the Slicer Case .
As their fourth victim becomes the target of the killer and so does their very first witness, Marissa Martin a beautiful doctor with a common cause of loneliness in her heart who owns more than one secret and a shadowed past that constantly comes back to haunt her.
Ready to take action and determined to get their culprit, Luther and Rochelle set out to prove that when it comes to capturing their man, detectives are smarter than they look.
About the Author
Australian born Nesrine Joseph spent her entire life in Sydney, where at a young age was fortunate to discover the city s beauty and create a world of her own.
In her young years, Nesrine enjoyed telling stories to her siblings and friends but it wasn't until her late teens she had started writing her first story. For almost a decade she worked on her first novel and a few other stories but was unaware what to do next as her timings were really tough for her.
She then realized in late 2006, she couldn't hide her passions for being an author and decided to join the Literature world as she opted for a better life for herself and her family. She decided to take a chance to achieve her ambitions and now has her first book Dangerously Innocent released.
This novel won't be her first and only book because she is currently working on her second novel which will be out in 2009.
Thank you, Bostick Communications for this copy of Nesrine's first novel.
And the Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club Selection arrived this weekend!
Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan
Here's a short description from Barnes & Noble:
Reminiscent of Keith Donohue's The Stolen Child, Erick Setiawan's richly atmospheric debut is a beautiful, engrossing fable of three generations of women in two families; their destructive jealousies, their loves and losses, their sacrifices and deeply rooted deceptions, and their triumphs.
Of Bees and Mist is the tale of Meridia -- raised in a sepulchral house where ghosts dwell in mirrors, she spends her childhood feeling neglected and invisible. Every evening her father vanishes inside a blue mist without so much as an explanation, and her mother spends her days venomously beheading cauliflowers in the kitchen. At sixteen, desperate to escape, Meridia marries a tenderhearted young man and moves into his seemingly warm and charming family home. Little does she suspect that his parents are harboring secrets of their own. There is a grave hidden in the garden. There are two sisters groomed from birth to despise each other. And there is Eva, the formidable matriarch whose grievances swarm the air like an army of bees. In this haunting story, Setiawan takes Meridia on a tumultuous ride of hope and heartbreak as she struggles to keep her young family together and discovers long-kept secrets about her own past as well as the shocking truths about her husband's family.
Readers of magic-realist fiction will instantly be captivated by this richly evocative fairy tale. Of Bees and Mist takes place in a nameless town during a timeless era, where spirits and spells, witchcraft and demons, ghosts and clairvoyance -- both real and imagined -- are an everyday reality. Setiawan skillfully blends the real and the fantastical as he follows our heroine over a 30-year time span in which her love, courage, and sanity are tested to the limit.
Thank you so much, Barnes & Noble for the copy of Of Bees and Mist.
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