ABANDONED: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Okay. I'm putting this one back up on the shelf for awhile. I just can't get into it right now. The clipped, abbreviated writing style drives me crazy! I will try to pick it up again at a later date and see if I do better with it the second time around. I'm so disappointed! This sounded SO like my kind of book!

GIVEAWAY: Any Minute by Joyce Meyer

Synopsis

Sarah Harper is driven, pursuing happiness in all the wrong places. She wants to do good and not hurt the people she loves, including her son, Mitchell, and her husband, Joe. But her drive to succeed overrides all else.
It's not until she faces a chance encounter with heaven and spends time with the grandmother who prayed for her every day when she was a little girl that she begins to see how her own mother's bitterness created a hole in Sarah's life—a hole she has been trying to overcome for as long as she can remember.
For the first time, Sarah sees that God created her for a special purpose. When Sarah returns to her own life, she is a woman with a mission. And the unsuspecting world around her will never be the same again.

GIVEAWAY: Win a hard copy of Any Minute by Joyce Meyer

Rules (you knew there had to be some):

• You must be 18 years or older
  
• Open to US and Canada residents only
  
• To enter, just comment below. Be sure to leave your email address in your comment, or have it visible in your profile.
  
• For extra entries, follow my blog and/or blog about this contest. One extra entry for each. Sidebars are okay.
  
• Leave a separate comment for each entry.
  
• That's a total of 3 possible entries!
  
• Those who don't follow the rules risk being disqualified.

Deadline is January 10, 2010

Good Luck! Ready, Set, Go!

Poetry Sunday (11-29-09 edition)

In Summer's Heat
by: Ovid (43 BC-17 AD?)

In summer's heat, and mid-time of the day,

To rest my limbs, upon a bed I lay;

One window shut, the other open stood,

Which gave such light as twinkles in a wood,

Like twilight glimpse at setting of the sun,

Or night being past, and yet not day begun;

Such light to shamefaced maidens must be shown

Where they may sport, and seem to be unknown:

Then came Corinna in her long loose gown,

Her white neck hid with tresses hanging down,

Resembling fair Semiramis going to bed,

Or Lais of a thousand wooers sped.

I snatched her gown being thin, the harm was small,

Yet strived she to be covered therewithal,

And striving thus as one that would be cast,

Betrayed herself, and yielded at the last.

Stark naked as she stood before mine eye,

Not one wen in her body could I spy.

What arms and shoulders did I touch and see,

How apt her breasts were to be pressed by me,

How smooth a belly under her waist saw I,

How large a leg, and what a lusty thigh.

To leave the rest, all liked me passing well;

I clinged her naked body, down she fell:

Judge you the rest, being tired she bade me kiss;

Jove send me more such afternoons as this!




Translated into English by Christopher Marlowe

Book Giveaways in Blogworld (11-28-09 edition)

NOTE: I'm still busy, and not doing many giveaways. Additionally I just have so many books already that I need to slow down the flow of books coming into this house before they take me over!

However please feel free to email me about any giveaways that you are having, if you want me to blog them, and I'll be happy to try to post them even if I am not entering them. Just include a link to the giveaway, what you are giving away, how many copies are being given away, and the deadline in order to assure being included.

Here is a list of some giveaways going on in Blogworld*. Please note that new giveaways that were added this week are indented in Blockquotes:

The Latenier Group is having a Mega Contest! They are giving away at last count 30+ books and a $200 gift card to the Apple Store. Tell 'em nfmgirl sent you! Deadline is November 28.

Bookin' with Bingo is giving away 2 copies of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Deadline is November 29.

Libby's Library News is giving away 5 copies of It Happened One Night. Deadline is November 29.

A Book Blogger's Diary and Erica Bauermeister are giving away 2 copies of The School of Essential Ingredients to one lucky winner! Deadline is November 30.

Simply Stacie is giving away 5 copies of Sex, Drugs & Gefilte Fish. Deadline is December 1.

At Home with Books is giving away 2 copies of The Dolphin People. Deadline is December 6.

Simply Stacie is giving away 3 copies of I Survived a House Fire...I Wish My Stuff Had. Deadline is December 14.

Wrighty's Reads is giving away 5 copies of Dear John. Deadline is December 15.

Cheli's Shelves is giving away Decoding the Lost Symbol. Deadline is December 15.

The Book Resort is giving away a copy of Witch & Wizard. Deadline is December 31.

*Courtesy Note: Please keep in mind the many, many hours of work that goes into me compiling this list each week. Please be courteous and thoughtful, and do not steal my text. Either recreate your own list, or link to this list and direct your readers here for giveaway information. Thank you so much for your consideration!

WINNER: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

The winner of Julie & Julia by Julie Powell is...

#29 JAIME of Copper Llama Studio

Congratulations, Jaime! I hope you enjoy the book! I'll be contacting you by email.

Mailbox Monday (11-23-09 edition)

Mailbox Monday is brought to us by The Printed Page. In my mailbox last week I got:

Winnings...

9 Dragons by Michael Connelly
Won from Wendy's Minding Spot

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch is off the chain in the fastest, fiercest, and highest-stakes case of his life.
Fortune Liquors is a small shop in a tough South L.A. neighborhood, a store Bosch has known for years. The murder of John Li, the store's owner, hits Bosch hard, and he promises Li's family that he'll find the killer.
The world Bosch steps into next is unknown territory. He brings in a detective from the Asian Gang Unit for help with translation--not just of languages but also of the cultural norms and expectations that guided Li's life. He uncovers a link to a Hong Kong triad, a lethal and far-reaching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the U.S.
And instantly his world explodes. The one good thing in Bosch's life, the person he holds most dear, is taken from him and Bosch travels to Hong Kong in an all-or-nothing bid to regain what he's lost. In a place known as Nine Dragons, as the city's Hungry Ghosts festival burns around him, Bosch puts aside everything he knows and risks everything he has in a desperate bid to outmatch the triad's ferocity.


A Highlander's Temptation by Sue-Ellen Welfonder Won from Pudgy Penguin Perusals

Darroc MacConacher spends sleepless nights dreaming of a raven-haired beauty who makes him ache with desire. Then his dream comes true: the lady with her lush curves and fair skin appears shipwrecked on his shores. Darroc is immediately drawn to her strength and beauty, and from the moment she lays eyes on this powerful, broad-shouldered warrior, Lady Arabella MacKenzie knows she'll never want another man. But theirs is a forbidden love. The MacKenzies drove the MacConachers from their lands and destroyed their honor. Now, Darroc can use this sapphire-eyed seductress to shatter his foes. Yet how can he deny the passion that burns between him and Arabella, and ruin the one woman who touches his very soul?


Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby
Won from Readaholic

Theodore Mead Fegley has always been the smartest person he knows. By age 12, he was in high school, and by 15 he was attending a top-ranking university. And now, at the tender age of 18, he's on the verge of proving the Riemann Hypothesis, a mathematical equation that has mystified academics for almost 150 years. But only days before graduation, Mead suddenly packs his bags and flees home to rural Illinois. What has caused him to flee remains a mystery to all but Mead and a classmate whose quest for success has turned into a dangerous obession. At home, Mead finds little solace. His past ghosts haunt him; his parents don't understand the agony his genius has caused him, nor his desire to be a normal kid, and his dreams seem crushed forever. He embarks on a new life's journey -- learning the family business of selling furniture and embalming the dead--that disappoints and surprises all who knew him as "the young Fegley genius." Equal parts academic thriller and poignant coming-of-age story, LIFE AFTER GENIUS follows the remarkable journey of a young man who must discover that the heart may know what the head hasn't yet learned.

Evenings at the Argentine Club by Julia Amante
Won from Bookin' with Bingo

Victor and Jaqueline Torres imagined moving to the U.S. would bring happiness and prosperity-instead they found a world of frustration. While Victor put long hours into his restaurant business, Jaqui devoted her life to her daughters, until they grew up and moved on. Even their eldest, Victoria, is torn trying to reconcile being the perfect Argentine daughter and an independent American woman. Antonio and Lucia Orteli face the same realities, especially when their only son Eric leaves their close-knit Argentine community in pursuit of his own dreams. When Eric unexpectedly shows up at the Argentine Club-the heart of the Argentine community in southern California-he starts a series of events that will bring these two families closer than ever. New relationships are formed and old ones are put to the test, as everyone must learn how to balance different cultures-and different dreams-without hurting those they love.

Thanks so much to everyone for the giveaways!

GIVEAWAY: The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

Synopsis

Laurie Sandell grew up in awe (and sometimes in terror) of her larger-than-life father, who told jaw-dropping tales of a privileged childhood in Buenos Aires, academic triumphs, heroism during Vietnam, friendships with Kissinger and the Pope. As a young woman, Laurie unconsciously mirrors her dad, trying on several outsized personalities (Tokyo stripper, lesbian seductress, Ambien addict). Later, she lucks into the perfect job—interviewing celebrities for a top women's magazine. Growing up with her extraordinary father has given Laurie a knack for relating to the stars. But while researching an article on her dad's life, she makes an astonishing discovery: he's not the man he says he is—not even close. Now, Laurie begins to puzzle together three decades of lies and the splintered person that resulted from them—herself.

GIVEAWAY: Win a gently read hard copy of The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

Read my review here.

Rules (you knew there had to be some):

• You must be 18 years or older
  
• Open to US and Canada residents only
  
• To enter, just comment below. Be sure to leave your email address in your comment, or have it visible in your profile.
  
• For extra entries, follow my blog and/or blog about this contest. One extra entry for each. Sidebars are okay.
  
• Leave a separate comment for each entry.
  
• That's a total of 3 possible entries!
  
• Those who don't follow the rules risk being disqualified.

Deadline is December 6, 2009

Good Luck! Ready, Set, Go!