justin bieber

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: Urban Girl Reader is giving away a romance collection of books from Hachette! Deadline is November 27. US/Canada only. Libby's Library News is giving away $30 for The Pear Tree. Deadline is November 28. US only. Missy's Reads and Reviews is giving away a choice of book to 2 winners. Deadline is November 28. International! Musings of a Reader Happy is having a Gratitude Giveaway. Your choice of Becca Fitzpatrick or Cassandra Clare...

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Mirand...

Books releasing the week of November 30th: Rescue by Anita Shreve A rookie paramedic pulls a young woman alive from her totaled car, a first rescue that begins a lifelong tangle of love and wreckage. Sheila Arsenault is a gorgeous enigma--streetwise and tough-talking, with haunted eyes, fierce desires, and a never-look-back determination. Peter Webster, as straight an arrow as they come, falls for her instantly and entirely. Soon Sheila and Peter are embroiled in an intense love affair, married, and parents to a baby daughter. Like the crash that brought them together, it all happened so fast. Can you ever really save another person? Eighteen years later, Sheila is long gone and Peter is raising their daughter, Rowan, alone. But Rowan is veering dangerously off track, and for the first time in their ordered existence together, Webster fears for her future. His work shows him daily every danger the world contains, how wrong everything can go in a second. All the love a fat...

Chronicle Books wants you to have a Happy Haul-idays, as well as one very lucky reader of your blog! Just write a blog post about the Haul-idays giveaway along with a list of up to $500 worth of the books that you would like to win and then complete this form . Chronicle Books will randomly draw the name of one blogger to win the books on their list! How great is that? And know what's even better? One reader who comments on the blog post will also win $500 worth of their choice of books from Chronicle Books ! How great is that THAT?! Bloggers have until 12/14/10 to submit their blog post. Get the full official rules here . So here is my chosen list of books if I should be so lucky as to win: New Vegetarian: More Than 75 Fresh, Contemporary Recipes for Pasta, Tagines, Curries, Soups and Stews, and Desserts By Robin Asbell, Yvonne Duivenvoorden   $19.95 Rice Pasta Couscous: The Heart of the Mediterranean Kitchen By Jeff Koehler $29.95 Fresh from the Farmers' Market: Year-Round...

Sorry I haven't been around this weekend. I've been a little distracted by this guy. His name is Smeagol (pronounced Smee-goal for those not familiar with Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy), and he is the latest addition to our ZooCrew. I've been planning on getting a dog, but Smeagol is totally NOT what I had in mind! However is the greatest little dog, so there is no way I could ever regret getting him. He is thought to be about 4-5 months old chihuahua mix (actually he was sold to me as a "Chihuahua", but I knew that he looked like a mix and strongly doubted what the rescue was promoting.) You can learn more about Smeagol and see a video of him on my other blog , but in the meantime if you want to blame someone for my temporary absence, you can blame him... Good luck with that!

My Splendid Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse No Westerner has ever achieved Robert Hart's status and level of power in China. During the nineteenth century, driven by a passion for his adopted country, Hart became the "godfather of China's modernism," inspector general of China's Customs Service, and the builder of China's railroads, postal and telegraph systems, and schools, but his first real love is Ayaou, a young concubine.

Introducing books through the opening paragraphs... She didn't feel like wearing a garter tonight. Her gold-beaded dress, cascading in waves of crystalline fringe, covered the intersection between her sheer stocking and bare thigh. She slipped her right foot into one of her two-tone Mary Janes, her left foot into the other. The thin black straps went across her ankles, the silver buckles tightened with a pinch. From the munitions strewn across her vanity, she carefully selected her weapons and placed them in a gold mesh evening bag: vamp-red kiss-proof lipstick, silver powder compact, tortoiseshell comb, ivory cigarette case. She stated into the mirror. Everything was perfection: green eyes smoldering, cheekbones rouged and accented, lips outlined and plumped. Tonight, even her skin shimmered with something almost magical.

Well, Random.org has done its thing and selected the winner of Falling Home for me. And the winner is... Joanne of Jo-Jo Loves to Read Yay! I'm so happy for Joanne! I'll be emailing you for your mailing address, Joanne! Thanks to all who entered the giveaway. Stay tuned for more giveaways in the future!

My list of favorite books I am hankering for is constantly changing, but I thought that I would highlight a few of my current favorites. Here is today's Top Ten list of books I want to get: Smonk by Tom Franklin It's 1911 and the townsfolk of Old Texas, Alabama, have had enough. Every Saturday night for a year, E. O. Smonk has been destroying property, killing livestock, seducing women, cheating and beating men, all from behind the twin barrels of his Winchester 45-70 caliber over-and-under rifle. Syphilitic, consumptive, gouty, and goitered—an expert with explosives and knives—Smonk hates horses, goats, and the Irish, and it's high time he was stopped. But capturing old Smonk won't be easy—and putting him on trial could have shocking and disastrous consequences, considering the terrible secret the citizens of Old Texas are hiding.  The Dead Path by Stephen M. Irwin Do you remember the last time a book gave you the chills? The Dead Path is the ghost story we’v...

Life of Pi by Yann Martel Yann Martel's second novel, Life of Pi , appeared in Canada in 2001 to enthusiastic reviews and moderate sales. A year later, it came out of nowhere to win the Booker Prize and became an international publishing phenomenon (and Amazon.ca's first blockbuster). In a wonderful display of storytelling verve, Martel takes a distinctly unpromising premise--a "story that will make you believe in God" about a boy trapped on a lifeboat with an enormous tiger--and pulls it off with complete and winning confidence.

Well, I have signed up once again for the Book Blogger Holiday Swap . If you haven't signed on already, you have until November 14th to get on board Santa's sleigh! Join in on the fun!

  It's that time of year! 5 Minutes for Mom is having their annual Christmas Giveaway November 8-30th. Full of giveaways and ideas for Christmas gifts, you won't want to miss a day! Check their blog for all of the details . Then prepare to go Christmas shopping!

One Second After by William R. Forstchen New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP).  A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies. Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach , Fail Safe and Testament , this book,...

An introduction through the first chapter or so... It was a big fire. Although it did not have the dimensions that turn a blaze into a subject of historical proportions, it did manage to destroy the old tenement. The fact that a body was found next to an expensive camera mounted on a tripod: a Dalian cross, mechanical icon of twentieth-century drama, increased the curiosity of the media which reported on the incident for three days. Then, it was all forgotten. And then, maybe not.

This morning I was thinking of one of my favorite old folk songs, as performed at Woodstock by Joan Baez: Joe Hill . It got me to wondering more about the history of who Joe Hill really was, so Wikipedia to the rescue! Joe Hill was an immigrant labor activist, as well as a songwriter. He was, most feel unjustly so, accused of murder and executed by firing squad in 1915. As his last will and testament, he left this behind... My will is easy to decide, For there is nothing to divide. My kin don't need to fuss and moan, "Moss does not cling to a rolling stone." My body? Oh, if I could choose I would to ashes it reduce, And let the merry breezes blow, My dust to where some flowers grow. Perhaps some fading flower then Would come to life and bloom again. This is my Last and final Will. Good Luck to All of you, Joe Hill

What's available the week of 11/9/10: Decision Points by George W. Bush President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions of his presidency and personal life. Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America’s 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life.  In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings listeners inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century.  President Bush w...

The winner of The Queen's Pawn is... #7 Deb of Shady Lady Congratulations, Deb! I'll be emailing you for your information. You'll have 72 hours to get back to me, and I will then forward your information onto the author for shipment of your book. Thanks everyone! And don't forget my current giveaway for Falling Home !

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading . Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read Open to a random page Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS ! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Today's Teaser: John smiled and drove away, looking perplexed. Addeo knew she exerted an attraction in him difficult to shed. She also knew that he felt uncomfortable not being able to establish a firm control over the development of events and feelings, and she knew that his mind was giving rise to wild ideas and images. She was enjoying it. -- Purgatory Inn by Ernesto Jose Herrera (page 18)

Image licensed from bigstockphoto.com Copyright stands Mailbox Monday is brought to us by The Printed Page . Here are just some of the books I've received over the last few weeks: Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden Won from Knitting and Sundries In a debut novel that blends the rich, earthy atmosphere of the deep South and a voice imbued with spiritual grace, Bernice L. McFadden tells the story of two women: a modest, churchgoing wife and mother, and the young prostitute she befriends.. "When Sugar arrives in 1950s Bigelow - waltzing down the main square of the sweltering tiny Arkansas town as if she has every right to be there - no one tosses out the welcome mat or invites her in for a Coke. The Bigelow women hate her from the minute they lay eyes on her - on the bouncing blond wig and red-painted lips that tell them she has never known a hard day's work. All they know is they want her gone, out of their town, and away from their men.. "But Sugar has traveled ...