Pass It On...

I've been thinking of what I can do with the books

I seem to be collecting since I've started this blog

and it's turned into a book blog.

I'm going to put a list of books in the side bar

and I will send them to you.

Some of the books have been read once

and some are from the used book store(re: read alot!)

But there are rules...

1.) Pick a book/author that you haven't read before.
2.) You can't keep it unless you asolutely LOVE it!
And I mean it has to be the "can't live without re-reading it" kind of LOVE it!
3.) When your finished, pass it along to someone who hasn't read the book/author.

That's it. See how easy?


You will need to email me which book you want, along with your address.
(I still have to make the list, look for it over the next couple of days)

Harlequin Art Exhibit at Openhouse Gallery

I received an email today from Abbie with Openhouse Gallery. Harlequin has an upcoming event that will be open to the public and FREE! Yes, I said it, FREE!!!

The dates it will be showing are May 30th through June 12. The exhibit will showcase their cover art from 1949-2009.
Anyone in or around the New York area on the dates listed should go, take pictures and post them! If you do, don't forget to come back here and leave a comment so I can check them out!

Who: Harlequin
What: Celebrating 60 years of cover art
When: May 30- June 12, 2009
Where: Openhouse Gallery,
201 Mulberry Street
New York, Ny 10012

Book Giveaway~Obama's Blackberry

When Obama stated that if elected, he would keep his Blackberry, debate echoed through Washington and among the ranks of the Secret Service. What would it be like to have a president who could Twitter, send text messages, and navigate the web with ease? What would it be like to receive a text message from inside the Oval Office and, most importantly, what would it say?Now, for the first time, We The People are privy to our new leader's epistolary back-and-forths on his wily hand-held device. We're about to discover that his emails (and the replies, from his wife and daughters, Biden, Palen, Rush, Hannity, the new first puppy, and even Bush) are so tuned in to the language of electronic correspondence they come hilariously close to the brink of legibility.This giftable, imagined glimpse into Obama's beloved Blackberry traverses the mundane and momentous contours of the Commander in Chief's life, from security briefings to spam, basketball practice to domestic bliss, and the panic of oops-I-hit-reply-all, to, of course, the trauma of dealing with the First Mother In Law.

About the Contest:

Open to US and Canadian address.

No PO Boxes please.

Three winners will be chosen on June 7th.

A special thanks to Hachette Book Group.

To Win:

Leave a Comment with your name & email address

For an added chance, be a follower!

I will notify the winners by

email and on my blog on June 8th.

Please respond within 24 hours with your mailing information!

Royal Romance Reading Challenge- Completed 08/18/09

Thanks again to Royal Reviews for a great challenge!

For this challenge you will need to read seven books in six months. To complete the challenge the title or author's name will need to begin with the letters R-O-M-A-N-C-E and must be classified as a romance novel (this includes as romance sub genre including contemporary, historical or paranormal).
You can change the your choice at any time, books can crossover with any other challenges but must be reviewed to be counted. This challenge begins on June 1st and finishes on November 30,2009, although you can sign up anytime.

R~ Rachel Gibson- Not Another Bad Date

O~One Scream Away by Kate Brady

M~My Forbidden Deisre by Carolyn Jewel

A~Ahern, Cecelia- P.S. I Love You

N~Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson

C~ Chasing Harry Winston by Jennifer Weiner

E~ Eternal Moon by Rebecca York

7 / 7 books 100% done!

The Love Bites Reading Challenge~

Thanks to Royal Reviews (again!) for this challenge!

Whether your preference is vamps, weres or something more exotic -

here's a challenge for all you paranormal/urban fantasy lovers!
All you need to do is read three paranormals with a romantic theme

between 1st April and 30th June 2009.
That's it! No other rules.

You can cross this over with another challenge and change your mind

on the books you'd like to read halfway through if you like.

1.) Lover Awakened (05/29/09)

2.) Lover Revealed (06/02/09)

3.) Eternal Moon (6/05/09)

3 / 3 books 100% done!

Read It, Watch It, Rate It~ Book vs Movie Challenge~

Thanks to Royal Reviews for this challenge!

The rules are simple:
In 2009 read a minimum of 6 books that have been made into movies and then watch the movie. Write a review on the Book vs the Movie and be honest about whether or not you think the film-maker was successful in translating the book to film. Please keep in mind that it is impossible to convey everything. You must both read the book and watch the movie within 2009. All genres are acceptable and it doesn't matter when the movie was made.

I found a great list of books 2 movies here!

1.)Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

2.) Cider House Rules by John Irving

3.) Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

4.) The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks ~06/19/09

5.) P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern ~ 07/01/09

6.) Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

edit note: I changed one so far. I took off "Of Mice and Men" changing it to "The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks. Its my all time favorite movie and I've wanted to read the book.

2 / 6 words. 33% done!

0 / 6 books- 0% done!

1st in a Series Challenge~

Thanks to J.Kaye's Book Blog for hosting this great challenge!

Guidelines for 1st in Series Challenge 2009

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.

2. Read 12 books that are the first in any series.

You may read & list your chosen books any time during the year.

3. Challenge begins January thru December, 2009.

4. You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.

I will be posting my books as I read them!

1.) Marked

2.) Servant: The Awakening

3.) Evermore

4.) Blue Bloods

5.)Vampire Academy

6.)Eternal Pleasure

7.)The Summoning

8.) Dark Lover

9.) Beyond The Highland Mist

10.) Dark Embrace

11.) You Slay Me

12.)Seduced By A Laird

8 / 12 books- 67% done!

Book Giveaway! The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos

About the book:
In 1985, the body of a 14-year-old girl turns up in a Washington, D.C., park, the latest in a series of murders by a killer the media dub "The Night Gardener." T.C. Cook, the aging detective on the case, works with a quiet, almost monomaniacal, focus. Also involved are two young uniformed cops, Gus Ramone, who's diligent, conscientious and unimpressed by heroics, and Dan "Doc" Holiday, an adrenaline junkie who's decidedly less straight.Fast forward 20 years. Detective Ramone, now married with kids of his own, investigates the murder of one of his teenage son's friends. The homicide closely resembles the earlier unsolved Night Gardener murders. Holiday, now an alcoholic chauffeur and bodyguard, follows the case on his own and tracks down Cook, long retired but still obsessed with the original murders. While the three work together toward a suspenseful ending, Pelecanos emphasizes the fallacy of "solving" a murder and explores the ripple effects of violent crime on society

About the Contest:
Open to US and Canadian address.
No PO Boxes please.
Five winners will be chosen on June 10th.
A special thanks to Hachette Book Group.

To Win:
Leave a Comment with your name & email address
For an added chance, be a follower!
I will notify the winners by email and on my blog
on June 11th.
Please respond within24 hours with your mailing information!

Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts

Lutie McFee's history has taught her to avoid attachments...to people, to places, and to almost everything. With her mother long dead and her father long gone to find his fortune in Las Vegas, 15-year-old Lutie lives in the god-forsaken town of Spearfish, South Dakota with her twelve-year-old brother, Fate, and Floy Satterfield, the 300-pound ex-girlfriend of her father. While Lutie shoplifts for kicks, Fate spends most of his time reading, watching weird TV shows and worrying about global warming and the endangerment of pandas. As if their life is not dismal enough, one day, while shopping in their local Wal-Mart, Floy keels over and the two motherless kids are suddenly faced with the choice of becoming wards of the state or hightailing it out of town in Floy's old Pontiac. Choosing the latter, they head off to Las Vegas in search of a father who has no known address, no phone number and, clearly, no interest in the kids he left behind.MADE IN THE U.S.A. is the alternately heartbreaking and life-affirming story of two gutsy children who must discover how cruel, unfair and frightening the world is before they come to a place they can finally call home.

my review~
Here is another author that I have never read before, but will again.
I couldn't stop reading once I stated becase I was "trapped" in Lutie & Fate's world. I cried, I laughed and I think I might have even threw the book (which I NEVER do, cause you know, it's a book and they should be respected). I was exhausted after living in Lutie's world for the 9 hours it took me to read this book.
This book was so detailed, you were running from the cops, you were living on the streets in Las Vegas, you were trying to scrape and /or con your way into being able to eat that day, right along with Lutie & Fate.
At first I found Lutie to be a very unlikable 15 year old girl, then I remembered, oh yeah, 15 year old girls are usually unlikable. But this book also showed that when they have to be, kids can & will be resilient. They will make their way through situations that will make any parent shudder.

Read it, you won't be disappointed.

Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs

Chicago cartoonist Sarah Moon tackles life's real issues with a healthy dose of sharp wit in her syndicated comic strip "Just Breathe". As Sarah's cartoon alter ego, Shirl, undergoes artificial insemination, her situation begins to mirror Sarah's own difficult attempts to conceive. However, Sarah's dreams of the future did not include her husband's infidelity: snag number two in Sarah's so-called perfect life.With Chicago, and her marriage, in the rearview mirror, she flees to the small Northern California coastal town where she grew up, a place she couldn't wait to leave. Now she finds herself revisiting the past, an emotionally distant father and the unanswered questions left by her mother's death. As she comes to terms with her lost marriage, Sarah encounters a man she never expected to meet again: Will Bonner, the high school heartthrob she'd skewered mercilessly in her old comics. Now a local firefighter, he's been through some changes himself. But just as her heart is about to reawaken, Sarah discovers she is pregnant. With her ex's twins.It's hardly the most traditional of new beginnings, but who says life and love are predictable...or perfect? The winds of change have led Sarah here. Now all she can do is just close her eyes...and breathe.

my review:
An excellant read!! I loved this book! I have never before read a book by Susan Wiggs, but I really enjoyed Sarah, Will & Aurora. But I especially liked her Grandma June & Aunt May. It was a roller coaster ride for me. There were a couple of times I just had put the book down, because I wasn't sure I would like were Sarah was going with certain decisions she was having to make. (Would she really think she needed to go back to that cheating boob, Jack?) Then I had to pick it back up again, because I knew in the end she would be ok, no matter what her decision was. This book shows how easy it is to become someone else, to fit into someone elses life, to let them make the decisions for your, to the point that you loose yourself. But it also shows you that it is possible to get back to being you.
This book, IMO, was one of the best stand alone reads I've come across lately. I will be picking up another Susan Wiggs book, very soon!

And The Winners Are...

The winners for the free copies of

Made in the U.S.A by Billie Letts are:

Linda

Janet

Alexa

I have sent emails to each of you.

Please email me your address as soon as possible.

Hachette Book Group will be mailing your book to you!

Thanks for participating!!

The Lemonade Stand Award!

An Award for Bloggers who showAttitude and Gratitude!

Thanks go to Bookin With Bingo for the Lemonade Stand Award!

It's to remind us all that when life gives us lemons, make Lemonade!

If your not already reading Bookin With Bingo, be sure and check it out.

Now here are the blogs that I am passing this award on to with hopes that they will post it and pass it on appropriately and continue to charm us with their sweet, not sour, blogs---

and they are also new blogs, or new to me, that I am following and want to show support for! So please go visit them!

Luxury Reading

Alaine-Queen of Happy Endings

Maggie Reads

Hopes Bookshelf

For The Love Of Books

The Optimistic Pessimist

Bookfan Mary

Books By Their Cover

Breaking The Spine

The Novel Bookworm

What the winners need to do for the award:

Here are the rules:

1) Put the Lemonade Award logo on your blog or post

2) Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude

3) Link to your nominees within your post

4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog

5) Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award

Thank you for your new, or new to me, blogs and I look forward to following you every day as you are now part of my blog list and I thank you for the joy you bring to so many!