First Fall Giveaway

A teetering tower of titles

My collection of paperback galleys is reaching critical mass.   Worst thing?  I can't stop myself from clicking on the "Click here to receive a free galley" buttons. 

What's left of my BEA stash!

And then there are the e-galleys.  But we are not really talking about them right now.

I am prepared to part with the following galleys:
The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron
Safekeeping by Karen Hesse
The Inquisitor's Apprentice by Chris Moriarty
The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y. S. Lee (The Agency #3)
AND This is the piece de resistance!
 a NON-galley HARD BACK copy of The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison.
These are all Young Adult novels and I have read and enjoyed them, each and every one.  So the books are "lightly used".
BTW, these books are now available for sale in your bookstore.  But the store won't send them to you for nothing!!!

Expect a review of Safekeeping by Karen Hesse tomorrow.  And I apologize for not reviewing The Inquisitor's Apprentice.  I know it made my booklists for a number of review sessions.  It is an awesome book.

SO HOW DO YOU WIN????  Simple.  Post a comment on this blog asking to win.  You get another entry if you share this post on Facebook and come back and comment by saying Shared! or some such thing.  Please use an identifiable user name somewhere in your comment.  If you already belong to Blogger, no worries.  I will put all entrants' usernames into the Chobani Oracle Cup and Announce the Winner (and request an email with mailing address) on Wednesday, Sept. 19th.  The Deadline is Monday, September 17th at 11:59 pm. 

Rectangles to the Rescue

I get Artizen Magazine in my inbox.  It is very artsy.  I found some conical knit alien thingies in one of the recent issues and they reminded me of my rectangles.  Remember those crocheted rectangles?  The ones that I don't know what to do with?

Today I did something with three of them - something so simple and so commonplace that I am embarassed it took me so long to come up with this plan.

Thing #1:
My son called me today to tell me that I kept calling him.  I was purse calling him, it appears.  That happens when the outside pocket of my purse - where I put my cell phone - bumps against my hip as I walk and my phone calls someone.  So, I decided to move everything to my Fall/Winter purse and I decided to make a cell phone cozy to protect my phone!  So simple!  Here it is.

That only used up ONE rectangle.  The blue stripe was already on the rectangle.  But it looks like I did it on purpose.  Just a bonus.

Thing #2
My Fall/Winter purse is big.  Actually, it is capacious!  So capacious is this purse that more than once I thought I lost my wallet because it slid to the very bottom of the purse.  I wanted to get something to  hold my wallet and pens and my calendar and change purse - those things I need to find in a hurry.  Rectangles to the Rescue!!

This little purse-in-a-purse used up two rectangles, one of which was two-toned, sort of.

Those knit conical aliens were so cute, I wish I could make something like that with my rectangles.  Hmmm, I must work on that.

Confession time

I skipped to the end of a book last night.... I HAD to!  It was 1 am and today is babysitting day.  I had to get some rest.  But I needed to know so many things about the book before I could go to sleep.

The book is The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron.  Just think of that title.  Does it bring up images of shadows and gothic towers and icy fingers?  Put a synonym for dark into your title and, whoosh!, interest will soar.

One of the reasons I couldn't sleep is that the blurb on the back of the galley hinted at a lurking evil.  There were lots of noises in the night and things mislaid and forgetfulness and awful nightmares but a little past the halfway mark - and midnight - I began to suspect a good old fashioned conspiracy.  So I skipped to the end.

And I can't tell you what I found there.  But I will tell you my questions:

Is this the beginning of a series?  Well, there are a couple of threads that could  be followed but this book can stand alone. In other words, wait and see.

Is there magic in this book?  I will have to go back and read what I skipped. 

Is character X a good guy or a bad guy?  Ah, now that would be telling, wouldn't it?

Does our heroine follow her heart and best impulses or fall back on "only doing what I was told" as an excuse?  What do you think?

Who was running around the empty mansion?  ??? IDK  Why do the portraits move around?  IDK  Where did all the hair come from?  I don't know, I tell you.

Is Uncle Tully really an idiot savant of clockwork creations or is he faking it?  I have to read what I skipped.  He's adorable, either way.

Does a certain nasty aunt get what she deserves?  Well, I do know the answer to that one.

Does the path of true love run smooth?  This book is not a fairytale, hints of magic notwithstanding.

For a darkly (that word again) atmospheric look at a magical early Victorian country estate and a story of family dysfunction and loyalty, you have to read this book.  The characters are quirky, genuine and mysterious. Except for the villains...they are just awful.  Well, to give them the benefit of the doubt, the villains are products of their time and culture.  There.  Now, I have to go back and fill in the blanks. 

Applewhites!

The Applewhites at Wit's End by Stephanie S. Tolan. 
The world has ended.  At least, that is how Randall Applewhite announces the family's recent  disaster.  When their financial planner absconds with their money, the artistic Applewhite family and their lone non-family student, Jake Semple, are faced with losing Wit's End, the motel-turned-artist's-colony that they so love.

But Randall is not the Head of the Family for nothing.  His plan to turn Wit's End into a camp for creative children will save them all.  He's sure of it. 

When Randall refuses to admit the daughter of a local arts patron to the camp, letters threatening to close the camp appear surreptitiously.  Compound this with a small group of headstrong kid campers and the Applewhite family's own oddities and this just might be the longest summer in the lives of Edie Applewhite, the non-artistic organized one, and Jake Semple, whose former life as a juvenile delinquent stands him in good stead. You know that these two get stuck with most of the problems.  And maybe they can admit they like each other - a little?

Via the Applewhites!  May they return with more crazy, artful, outside-the-box adventures.  And may they put on a show at the end of every book! 

Book Fountain

I want one of these.

Thanks to Betsy Bird and A Fuse #8 Production.  She posts the BEST stuff.

3+ for KBWT

From Jama's Alphabet Soup's blog. I love the little feet!

 This is such a pretty blog!  Excellent lay-out, lovely photos and scads and scads of book reviews.  Add Jama's Alphabet Soup to your list of Kids Book Websites.  You won't be sorry.

I found Jama's blog by looking at THIS site, 100 Best Book Blogs for Kids, Tweens and Teens.  What a treasure trove of literary superb-ity!  BTW, while you are looking at all those amazing blogs, click on Study Hall to find ALL kinds of education related links - about nutrition and Twitter feeds and history blogs and websites and teacher resources.  Onlineschools.org looks pretty darn interesting.  I must investigate further.

Jama's blog appears to concentrate on picture books.  (On a closer look, I realize it covers a lot of different things.) Onlineschools concentrates on everything.   For book reviews of elementary through high school titles, check out BooksForKids.  This blog features excerpts of the books, an excellent marketing device.  Picture books for primary grades, "chapter" books (is that actually a literary designation, or just what kids call them?) for older readers, the blogger offers a potpourri of book selections. 

Heavenly Days

Yesterday was a heavenly day!  Hub and I got our granddaughter to ourselves for almost four hours.  Such a pretty, smart, funny and just perfect little girl!!  How very, very lucky we - her parents and grandparents - are.

So, when I saw this video posted over on GottaBook, I had to share it.  Every child is beautiful.  Every parent feels challenged.  But some of us have been "blessed" with more challenges than others.  My heart goes out to parents with differently-abled children and I doff my virtual hat to them in respect.

Cherish each joyful moment no matter how fleeting.  Fill your memories with those patches of brightness to carry you through any long dark days.  Love, peace and courage to parents everywhere.