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Showing posts from January, 2011

REVIEW: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

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Synopsis In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future-between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death? About the Author Carrie Ryan was born and raised in Greenville, SC and is a graduate of Williams College and Duke University School of Law. A former litigator, she now

Book Giveaways in Blogworld (1-29-11 edition)

NOTE : A reminder that you are 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. Email me at nfmgirl AT gmail DOT com. 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: I Am a Reader, Not a Writer is giving away 2 copies of 33 Habits of a Really Good Man. Deadline is January 30. US only. A Myriad of Books is giving away the entire Iron Fey series. Deadline is January 31. US/Canada only. A Good Addiction is giving away a copy of Fixing Delilah along with some maple and Vermont-themed "goodies". Deadline is January 31. US on

I Wanna...Room by Emma Donoghue

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To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work. Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

Introducing...The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

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Introducing books through the first chapter or so... My mother used to tell me about the ocean. She said there was a place where there was nothing but water as far as you could see and that it was always moving, rushing toward you and then away. She once showed me a picture that she said was my great-great-great-grandmother standing in the ocean as a child. It has been years since, and the picture was lost to fire long ago, but I remember it, faded and worn. A little girl surrounded by nothingness. -- The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

What's Releasing (01-26-11 edition)

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Books available the week of February 1st: The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels-- A Love Story by Ree Drummond "That's when I saw him—the cowboy—across the smoky room." I'll never forget that night. It was like a romance novel, an old Broadway musical, and a John Wayne western rolled into one. Out for a quick drink with friends, I wasn't looking to meet anyone, let alone a tall, rugged cowboy who lived on a cattle ranch miles away from my cultured, corporate hometown. But before I knew it, I'd been struck with a lightning bolt . . . and I was completely powerless to stop it.  Read along as I recount the rip-roaring details of my unlikely romance with a chaps-wearing cowboy, from the early days of our courtship (complete with cows, horses, prairie fire, and passion) all the way through the first year of our marriage, which would be filled with more challenge and strife—and manure—than I ever could have expected.  This isn't just my l

RECIPE: Author Mary Burton's Merciless Peanut Butter Brownies

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New York Times Best Selling Author Mary Burton’s 2011 Valentine’s Day Recipe Whether she’s writing a bestselling romantic suspense novel or baking up a storm in her Rich­mond, Virginia kitchen, Mary Burton doesn’t do anything half-heartedly—and that includes her 2011 Valentine’s Day recipe, Merciless Peanut Butter Brownies.  This year she’s created a combo that’s mercilessly indulgent and deadly delicious.  Go ahead!  Feed it to your honey—by hand—on Valentine’s Day! Merciless Peanut Butter Brownies Love at First Bite Brownie Batter: ½ cup (1 stick) of butter 1 cup of cocoa 1 teaspoon of brandy 2 cups of sugar ½ teaspoon salt 4 eggs 1 egg yolk Filling : 1/3 cup of peanut butter 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar 1 teaspoon brandy Topping: 8 oz of melting chocolate Melt butter and pour over cocoa in a mixing bowl.  Add in brandy, sugar and salt.  Mix in eggs and yolk.   Set batter aside and mix together peanut butter and confectioner’s sugar.  Form into balls.  Evenly spread half the

REVIEW: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

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Synopsis The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.  Who do they think should pay for the unrest?  Katniss Everdeen.  The final book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins will have hearts racing, pages turning, and everyone talking about one of the biggest and most talked-about books and authors in recent publishing history!!!!  About the Author from her website Since 1991, Suzanne Collins has been busy writing for children’s television. She has worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo . For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald . She also co-wrote the critically acclaimed Rankin/​Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! Most recently she was the Head Writer for Scholastic Entertainment’s Clifford’s Puppy Days . While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children’s author James Proimos, who

I Wanna...Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes

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An incredible publishing story—written over the course of thirty years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, a New York Times best seller for sixteen weeks, a National Indie Next and a USA Today best seller— Matterhorn has been hailed as a “brilliant account of war” ( New York Times Book Review ). Now out in paperback, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s The Thin Red Line . It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself sur

GIVEAWAY: Senseless and Merciless by Mary Burton

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Press Release:   BESTSELLING AUTHOR MARY BURTON FOLLOWS HER SUCCESSFUL “COMPELLING THRILLER,” DYING SCREAM WITH BACK-TO-BACK SUSPENSE IN SENSELESS , ON SALE IN JANUARY AND MERCILESS , ON SALE IN FEBRUARY. New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary Burton kept the murder rate soaring in her hometown of Richmond, Virginia for three years as each of her recent highly praised suspense novels was published. Now, it’s Alexandria’s turn. Burton raises the city’s 2011 homicide statistics by six before the groundhog even thinks about seeing a shadow, when SENSELESS and MERCILESS are published back-to-back in January and February. The people of Mary’s Alexandria, Virginia Homicide Unit, including Detectives Deacon Garrison and Malcolm Kier, are just one of the connections between her stories. Protagonists Eva Rayburn, a convicted felon, and her half-sister Angie Carlson, a high-profile, high-priced criminal attorney, are part of both stories, as is King’s, a no-nonsense neighborhood b

Mailbox Monday (01-17-11 edition)

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Image licensed from bigstockphoto.com Copyright stands Mailbox Monday is brought to us by The Printed Page .   Here are some of  the books I've received in the last week: Lockdown: Escape from Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith  Won from Reading Extravaganza Furnace Penitentiary: the world’s most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, sentenced to life without parole, “new fish” Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries. Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood-drenched tunnels below. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerfu

I Wanna...The Moral Lives of Animals by Dale Peterson

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The Moral Lives of Animals by Dale Peterson Wild elephants walking along a trail stop and spontaneously try to protect and assist a weak and dying fellow elephant. Laboratory rats, finding other rats caged nearby in distressing circumstances, proceed to rescue them. A chimpanzee in a zoo loses his own life trying to save an unrelated infant who has fallen into a watery moat.  The examples above and many others, argues Dale Peterson, show that our fellow creatures have powerful impulses toward cooperation, generosity, and fairness. Yet it is commonly held that we Homo sapiens are the only animals with a moral sense—that we are somehow above and apart from our fellow creatures.  This rigorous and stimulating book challenges that notion, and it shows the profound connections—the moral continuum—that link humans to many other species. Peterson shows how much animal behavior follows principles embodied in humanity's ancient moral codes, from the Ten Commandments to the New

REVIEW: Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey by Jane Goodall (audiobook)

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Synopsis Dr. Jane Goodall's revolutionary study of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe preserve forever altered the very definition of "humanity." Now, in a poignant and insightful memoir, Jane Goodall explores her extraordinary life and personal spiritual odyssey, with observations as profound as the knowledge she has brought back from the forest. As a toddler she was entranced by all living things, and over the years the little girl inspired by Tarzan and The Jungle Book became the woman who found herself working with famed paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey; accomplished scientific breakthroughs in Gombe; and, ultimately, became a champion of the environment. It has been a life blessed with faith, resolve, and purpose, though not without its crises. Jane Goodall endured the horrors of the London blitz and World War II, postwar hardships, vicious rumors and "establishment" assaults on the integrity of her work, a terrorist attack and hostage taking

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

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Introducing books through the first paragraph or so... I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather. This is where the bed I shared with my sister, Prim, stood. Over there was the kitchen table. The bricks of the chimney, which collapsed in a charred heap, provide a point of reference for the rest of the house. How else could I orient myself in this sea of gray? Almost nothing remains of District 12. A month ago, the Capitol's firebombs obliterated the poor coal miners' houses in the Seam, the shops in the town, even the Justice Building. The only area that escaped incineration was the Victor's Village. I don't know why exactly. Perhaps so anyone forced to come here on Capitol business would have somewhere decent to stay. The odd reporter. A committee assessing the condition of the coal mines. A squad of Peacekeepers checking for returning refugees. -- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

What's Releasing? (01-12-11 edition)

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Available the week of 1/18/11: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown A major new talent tackles the complicated terrain of sisters, the power of books, and the places we decide to call home.    There is no problem that a library card can't solve.  The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected. Caribou Island by David Vann The prize-winning author of Legend of a Suicide delivers his highly anticipated

Delirium and book thong giveaway at Lauren Oliver's!

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What a big, awesome giveaway that is going on over at Lauren Oliver's ! She is giving away 5 signed copies of the up and coming Delirium, along with 5 book thongs by The Book Pixie ! Contest runs through the end of the month. While you're at her website , why not get a Delirium countdown widget or check out the contest on her blog ?

Mailbox Monday (01-10-11 edition)

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Image licensed from bigstockphoto.com Copyright stands Mailbox Monday is brought to us by The Printed Page . Here are some of the books I've received over the last week or two: Ansel Adams in the National Parks Won through Dewey's Read-a-thon With more than two hundred photographs - many rarely seen and some never before published - this is the most comprehensive collection of Ansel Adams' photographs of America's national parks and wilderness areas. For many people, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, and other iconic American wildlands exist in the mind's eye as Ansel Adams photographs. The legendary photographer explored more than forty national parks in his lifetime, producing some of the most indelible images of the natural world ever made. One of the twentieth century's most ardent champions of the park and wilderness systems, Adams also helped preserve additional natural areas and protect existing ones through his photographs, essay

REVIEW: Under the Dome by Stephen King

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Synopsis On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when — or if — it will go away. Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens — town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing — even murder — to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because t

Book Giveaways in Blogworld (1-8-11 edition)

NOTE : A reminder that you are 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. Email me at nfmgirl AT gmail DOT com. 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: Suko's Notebooks is giving away $25 for Amazon. Deadline is January 9. International! Stiletto Storytime is giving away a box of books chosen with you in mind! Deadline is January 9.  Larissa's Bookish Life is having a big blogoversary giveaway! Deadline is January 11. International! Girls Without a Bookshelf is having a New Year's Resolution Giveaway! 5 books from 2011 are bein