Dashing Through the Snow by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark – Audiobook Giveaway (Sound Bytes)

Dec 092011

Dashing Through the Snow by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark, narrated by Carol Higgins Clark
Published in audio by Simon Audio

From the publisher:

America’s Queens of Suspense, Mary & Carol Higgins Clark have written a humorous holiday mystery set in the small New Hampshire town of Branscombe. Narrated by Carol Higgins Clark, DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW begins as the townsfolk are all pitching in to help prepare for the festival when a group of co-workers learn that they have won half of the mega lottery. Two lottery tickets were purchased within ten miles of one another. No one knows who purchased the second ticket; but it appears that something is “not quite right.” The Reillys and the Meehans are just the people to find out what is amiss. So much for a quiet weekend…

When I was in high school, I was a huge reader of Mary Higgins Clark, and occasionally her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark. I found their mysteries to be addictive, and always intriguing. When Simon Audio offered me a chance to pick a few different audiobooks from their list to give away as holiday gifts from them and myself to my readers, I simply couldn’t resist adding the Mary and Carol Higgins Clark title (last week I gave away A Christmas Carol, and over the next two weeks I’ll be giving away 11/22/63 by Steven King and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson).

If after reading the description above you are unsure if Dashing Through the Snow is right for you, you can listen to this clip of the audio:

I have up to five copies to give away to blog readers with US mailing addresses. Enter by 12:01 am Eastern on Friday, December 9, 2011. If I have at least 15 entrants, I’ll give away 3 copies, 25 entrants and I’ll give away 4 copies, more than 35 and I’ll give away all 5 copies. You can enter by doing any one (or more) of the options below:

soundbytes picture Buy this book in audio from:
Powells*
Indiebound*
Amazon
iTunes

I encourage you to review any audiobooks you review on Fridays and include the link here every Friday. If you have reviewed an audiobook earlier in the week, please feel free to link that review as well. Thanks to Pam for creating the button.

Thanks to Simon Audio for providing a copy of this book to give away.

January BOOK CLUB giveaway – Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron

Dec 062011

5256159881 7ba9c432e6 m picture It is that time again! We are gearing up for this month’s discussion of Maman’s Homesick Pie by Donia Bijan (Tuesday, December 13th, on Nicole’s blog), but it is also time to give away next month’s BOOK CLUB selection. In January we will be reading another offering from Algonquin Books, Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron.

runningtherift picture

We will be discussing Running the Rift on Tuesday, January 24th on my blog.

From the publisher:

Running the Rift follows Jean Patrick Nkuba, a gifted Rwandan boy, from the day he knows that running will be his life to the moment he must run to save his life, a ten-year span in which his country is undone by the Hutu-Tutsi tensions. Born a Tutsi, he is thrust into a world where it ‘s impossible to stay apolitical where the man who used to sell you gifts for your family now spews hatred, where the girl who flirted with you in the lunchroom refuses to look at you, where your Hutu coach is secretly training the very soldiers who will hunt down your family. Yet in an environment increasingly restrictive for the Tutsi, he holds fast to his dream of becoming Rwanda ‘s first Olympic medal contender in track, a feat he believes might deliver him and his people from this violence. When the killing begins, Jean Patrick is forced to flee, leaving behind the woman, the family, and the country he loves. Finding them again is the race of his life.

If you would like to be considered as a participant for January, please fill out the form below by Tuesday, December 13th, 2011. Your mailing address will be discarded if you aren’t selected to participate and used to mail you the book if you are. I do not share or retain any personal information. Only those selected will be contacted by email.

We receive no compensation – other than the book to read – for running BOOK CLUB.

Thankfully Reading Weekend: Leftover Challenge

Nov 272011

thankfullyreading picture This has been a weekend of pure deliciousness, but at this point we’re all learning that sometimes you can have enough of a good thing. I mean, who could POSSIBLY consume all of that? It just isn’t humanly possible!

Oh, did you think I was talking turkey? I meant all the books you’ve all been reading for Thankfully Reading Weekend! Let’s face it, when it comes to how many books we think we can read, most of us usually have eyes bigger than our, well, eyes. As the weekend is drawing to a close, it is time to come to terms with the fact that some of the books we so anxiously wanted to be will basically be leftovers.

What are your leftovers today? And, forgive me for stretching this metaphor farther than it should probably go, how will you find ways to consume them in the coming week? Or will they be put in the metaphorical freezer, for you to come back to perhaps months from now, a little frost-bitten but still basically good?

Okay, seriously, I’m stopping now, but you get the drift!

Leave your answer in the comments below, either in the body of the comment, or as a link to a post on your blog. One person who responds today will win a random book grab bag from my shelves.

Post-Turkey Malaise (Sound Bytes)

Nov 252011

So, I don’t generally post anything the day after Thanksgiving, so I have no audiobook review for you this week. I didn’t want to abandon Sound Bytes, though, so there is a Linky below for anyone who posted an audiobook review today (or any other day this week). See you all on the other side of this turkey coma!

soundbytes picture

The Heroine’s Bookshelf Now Available in Paperback!

Nov 232011

heroinesbookself picture Hey, do you remember when I gushed and gushed about The Heroine’s Bookshelf last year, because it is amazing? Well, if you couldn’t swing it in hardcover, or if you just never got around to picking up a copy, you’re in luck: it is now out in paperback! It makes a fabulous Christmas present (and paperback is in stocking stuff price range!) for the bookish women in your life from 13 to 113.

Erin joined us on What’s Old is New recently to talk about the book (and everything any of us have ever thought about books and reading, evidently), check it out!

And if that wasn’t enough Erin for you, she also talked to us last year about Jane Eyre, so you can listen to that AND you can join Erin’s Their Eyes Were Watching God readalong, which starts Monday!

Gobble Gobble

Nov 202011

We have reached the time of year when Americans traditionally stuff their faces with as much fattening food as they possibly can. Viva the American holiday season! Thanksgiving is approaching this Thursday, and family is already heading in. I had a big uptick in reading this week, versus last week when we were all sick and miserable, but that will likely slow right back down, as we do FAMILY and HOLIDAY things, like eating too much turkey, and going to mobbed stores for mediocre deals. Ah, well, whenever I can I’ll be sneaking in a little Thankfully Reading Weekend. I’ll have a mini-challenge on Sunday, so be sure to stop back by!

Speaking of book blogger-y things, this past week blogger Beth Fish Reads announced the categories for her What’s in a Name challenge 2012. I already made my preliminary list over on my Tumblr, but chances are that will change before I actually get through everything.

Anyway, not much else to report, trying to finish a few last 2011 books so I can start the beauty that is my Holiday Hiatus Reading (more about that on December 5), I’m hoping to be all done by the end of the month. My original deadline was Thankgiving but yeah, that’s not going to happen with the plague we all had. Still, I made good progress this week, and finished some really good books:

catherinethegreat picture thetaker 1 picture themarriageplot picture

christmascarol picture

Actually, I reviewed some pretty good stuff this week, too:

I also had a really amazing BOOK CLUB discussion on Tuesday about The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate. If you’ve read the book, please feel free to stop on by and add your own two cents!

Sicky McSickertons

Nov 132011

So, my birthday was last Saturday, and we’ve basically been sick here since then. So far my husband has escaped the plague, but between Daniel and I, at least one of us has felt icky for at least the last week. As a result, I’ve finished all of one book this week, Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I don’t hold a whole lot more hope for this coming week, as I’ve got two podcasts to record, a ton of posts to write, and a live chat to attend. The highlight of last week was getting to have lunch on Friday with author Erin Blakemore. I tried my best not the breath on her, so hopefully she won’t get sick too.

Ah, well, onto a better week next week!

Luckily, I had a lot of last week’s posts already written, so I did get things reviewed:

The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate – Book Review

Nov 072011

The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate
Published by Algonquin Books, an imprint of Workman Publishing

Josie Henderson wants nothing more than to leave her family and the legacy of addiction behind her. She’s married now, a successful scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Still, though, she is terrified that if anyone at work new about her family she would go from being the only black female scientist to be the black girl whose daddy used to be a drunk and whose brother is in rehab. Life had been going more or less smoothly, but now her brother Tick’s release from rehab forces Josie to once again face her family. When a new scientist with a background similar to Josie’s own joins the staff at Woods Hole, it quickly becomes apparent that Josie’s carefully constructed life is simply a veneer, and that what is underneath is not as solid as she believes.

Martha Southgate creates with The Taste of Salt a moving picture of the ramifications of growing up in a dying Midwestern town, and the long echoes of alcoholism on a family. Neither Josie nor her mother realize just how much the alcoholism of the men in their family has damaged them, and their inability to confront these realities and ask for help from a program such as Al-Anon wreaks devastation on their lives. Josie in particular is somewhat broken by the experience of growing up with an alcoholic father, and as a result has intimacy issues of her own. Interestingly, Southgate mirrors Josie’s disconnect from her husband Daniel by making him the character kept at the greatest difference from the reader; he appears in The Taste of Salt as little more than a faint reflection of Josie, and it is by his virtual absence that the reader comes to grips with the true loneliness of Josie’s life.

That is not to say that The Taste of Salt is completely bleak. The positive side of Josie’s life essentially coming apart at the seams is that she is forced to consider, for the first time in a long time, exactly who she is and what it is that she wants from life, other than her career. Too, Josie is made to confront her family’s past, going so far as to imagine for the reader what her parents’ life together was like before she came along, a narrative pieced together from stories and impressions from her childhood. All of this forces Josie to grow as a character and leaves the reader with a feeling of hope for her future.

The Taste of Salt is a lovely book, and an incredibly discussable one. Recommended.

If you would like to discuss The Taste of Salt, come back here on Tuesday, November 15th for our BOOK CLUB discussion. Also, check out our BOOK CLUB giveaway for December: Maman’s Homesick Pie by Donia Bijan

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher, for BOOK CLUB.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

December BOOK CLUB giveaway – Maman’s Homesick Pie by Donia Bijan

Nov 062011

5256159881 7ba9c432e6 m picture It is that time again! We are gearing up for this month’s discussion of The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate (Tuesday, November 15th, right here on my blog), but it is also time to give away next month’s BOOK CLUB selection. In December we will be reading another offering from Algonquin Books,Maman’s Homesick Pie: A Persian Heart in an American Kitchen by Donia Bijan.

mamanshomesickpie picture

We will be discussing Maman’s Homesick Pie on Tuesday, December 13 on Nicole’s blog. Please note this date is a week earlier than normal to avoid conflict with people’s holiday plans.

From the publisher:

For Donia Bijan’s family, food has been the language they use to tell their stories and to communicate their love. In 1978, when the Islamic revolution in Iran threatened their safety, they fled to California’s Bay Area, where the familiar flavors of Bijan’s mother’s cooking formed a bridge to the life they left behind. Now, through the prism of food, award-winning chef Donia Bijan unwinds her own story, finding that at the heart of it all is her mother, whose love and support enabled Bijan to realize her dreams.

From the Persian world of her youth to the American life she embraced as a teenager to her years at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris (studying under the infamous Madame Brassart) to apprenticeships in France’s three-star kitchens and finally back to San Francisco, where she opened her own celebrated bistro, Bijan evokes a vibrant kaleidoscope of cultures and cuisines. And she shares thirty inspired recipes from her childhood (Saffron Yogurt Rice with Chicken and Eggplant and Orange Cardamom Cookies), her French training (Ratatouille with Black Olives and Fried Bread and Purple Plum Skillet Tart), and her cooking career (Roast Duck Legs with Dates and Warm Lentil Salad and Rose Petal Ice Cream).

If you would like to be considered as a participant for December, please fill out the form below by Monday, November 14th, 2011. Your mailing address will be discarded if you aren’t selected to participate and used to mail you the book if you are. I do not share or retain any personal information. Only those selected will be contacted by email.

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz – Book Review

Nov 012011

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
Published by Mulholland Books, an imprint of Hachette

For the first time ever, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Estate has authorized a new Sherlock Holmes novel and chose author Anthony Horowitz to write The House of Silk.

When Edmund Carstairs approaches Sherlock Holmes with his story of intimidation and robbery, it seems like nothing more than a bit of a challenge for the brilliant detective. An unexpected murder throws a wrench into the works, however, and leads to the disappearance of Rpss, one of the young boys in Holmes’s Baker Street Irregulars. Almost before they know what is happening, Holmes and Watson find themselves on the trail of an insidious and well-connected organization called The House of Silk, an organization that is willing to protect their secrets at any cost.

The House of Silk is a good continuation of Conan Doyle’s reluctant legacy;* Holmes and Watson are much as they have always been, Watson a bit of a dolt – even when he thinks he is being clever – and Holmes clever beyond belief. Horowitz’s special Sherlockian flourishes will keep fans reading intently. Of particular interest are Sherlock’s escape from his captors and the subtly placed appearance of a character who is particularly well-known to Holmes’s fans.

The story Horowitz tells is interesting partly for its layers; I found that, by the middle of the book, I had become so involved in the mystery of Ross and the House of Silk that I had all but forgotten about Carstairs and the murder that set everything in place. That being said, the actual reveal of what happened in the House of Silk seemed rush, over-explained, and not particularly thrilling. This slight disappointment with the climax is not enough to negate the overall enjoyment of the book, however.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes should be very pleased with this new release. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

*If you want to know more about Arthur Conan Doyle’s unhappy relationship with his famous creation, please see our What’s Old is New show on Sherlock Holmes.

Source: Publisher.

* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.