Contest Roundup

Some interesting contests going on out there right now:

  • Mark Henry is hosting a contest with a variety of great prizes to celebrate the release of his second book – Road Trip of the Living Dead. Prizes include a Dinner and a Movie package, Coffee and Gas package and a basket of books. All you need to do is preorder his book and send a copy of the receipt to zombiestimulus@markhenry.us. Winners are announced Feb 24th, so try to enter before then.
  • So have you not heard about the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Basically Lizzy and Darcy meet and battle zombies together or something.

If that's not nutty enough for you, how about the movie "Pride and Predator"? Executive produced by Elton John, it's about Pride and Prejudice plus aliens (I'm still not convinced this isn't a hoax). Smart Bitches is having a 24 hour contest for a $25 gift certificate if you come up with another zany combination of a book with some nutty thing inserted into it like these two shining examples.

  • Ann Aguirre is having a Blue Diablo blowout to celebrate her newest release. This is the first book in her new Corine Solomon urban fantasy series. Some really nice B&N, Amazon and Lush gift cards are on the line – more than one prize, and more than one way to enter. Plus this contest is open for a while (you have about a month or so). Check it out! 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Anti-Valentines contest and Spiral Hunt Contest

Via ReadingAdventures I found out about this Anti-Valentine's Day contest at breezing through. Which is a blog I hadn't been to before (and I like it, so on my feed list it goes)! I'm always fond of reviews that are like a conversation between two people, and that's the format used most often there. Prize is your choice of three books from three categories.


Meanwhile I also saw a post by Marjorie J. Liu about a giveaway of a copy of Spiral Hunt by Margaret Ronald. I reviewed that book here. Contest ends Thursday so act soon. The link for that one is here.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Outback Stars Giveaway

Ok, I meant to post this before but life got busy (hmm, seemed to coincide with not being on vacation). I loved this book (my review is here), but I'm a soft cover girl, not a hardcover girl so I've already bought another copy. If you want this very nice clean copy of The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald, drop me an email at janicu AT gmail DOT com. You have till Saturday, January 17th, midnight EST. I'll announce who got it the next day and send them an email.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

That Dear Author Sony eReader contest is on

That contest I mentioned earlier has started over at Dear Author. I got a nice note from a reader reminding me about it this morning (thank you Darby)! The contest ends on the 11th and requires some research over at the Sony site to answer 16 questions about the eReader. I've entered and I'd dearly love to win – I've learned quite a bit about the eReader just from this contest and the more I learn, the more I like it. The newest generation looks particularly nice, its backlit and has a touch sensitive screen.. *drools*. Now just add wireless capability and I'm thinking best thing since sliced bread. Take me now sweet eReader, my husband doesn't need to know.

Head over to Dear Author to enter.

 

Good luck!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Two cool giveaways

Quick post before bed. I saw a couple of nice giveaways I wanted to highlight.

1) Ann Aguirre, who wrote Grimspace and Wanderlust, both of which I liked immensely, has just posted about a book that blew her away. This is The Eye of Night by Pauline J. Alama. I just love getting recommended a book and hearing how much the person liked it the way Ann seems to. She posted about this book at 3 am right after reading it!! Anyway, this one is an epic fantasy with romantic elements so head over there if that is a genre you like.  Ann Aguirre is giving away 10 copies of it so she can have people to discuss this book with!! I'm going to look for this one the next time I'm in a bookstore.

2) calico_reaction over on livejournal, who is one of my favorite reviewers, is having her annual top 10 giveaway. I won this last year and got a copy of Justina Robson's Keeping It Real which I completely loved. Head over there to enter and pick out one book you'd like to read from her top ten list for 2008.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Bookstores that support charitable works (and more contests online)

The Age of Kali
William Dalrymple

I got this book for mom for Christmas. It's SO HARD to shop for that woman. She will pretty much tell you off for spending money on her for something that you could get cheaper somewhere else on the planet (like Asia, despite the unlikeliness of you passing by there to shop). But this year, she actually told me to get her this book because she loves William Dalrymple's books on India and she hasn't read The Age of Kali yet. This made things easier for me until I decided to go buy it:

It's out of print!

And I waited till last week to order it (Thursday)!

Then ecampus emailed me on Monday (4 days later) to tell me they didn't have it and to cancel the order.

Arghghhhh.

Finally I found it elsewhere and ordered it Monday night. It arrived on Wednesday, which I'm really happy about. The store I got it from is the Housing Works Bookstore through Amazon, which also supports homeless New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. Cool! I'm very pleased and recommend them. Shop their bookstore here.

Another place that you can go to to support worldwide literacy through your book buying is BetterWorld.com. I've bought books through them before and have been happy with the transactions. They also offer FREE shipping in the US. From their about us page:

All books are available with free shipping to any location within the United States (or $3.97 worldwide). And in case you’re concerned about your eco-footprint, every order is shipped carbon neutral with offsets from Carbonfund.org.


Ok so on to MORE online contests this week. Over at Reviewer X (a high school sophomore, so lots of YA books featured), Girl Week is going on. She has so much going on, I'm not sure she sleeps. She has 12 giveaways going on and a bunch of author interviews with Melissa Walker, Libba Bray, Megan McCafferty and a few others whose names are new to me. Good thing she has a table of contents with everything organized. This is the list of her contests (the first few are already over though):

1. Signed copy of I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert (trade paperback)
2. Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee (ARC format – already released)
3. Win one of five TESS lip glosses (donated by Melissa Walker).
4. I Know It's Over by CK Kelly Martin (hardcover)
5. Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen (ARC format – already released)
6. Signed copy of Braless in Wonderland by Debbie Reed Fischer (hardcover)
7. Signed copy of Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher (hardcover)
8. Signed ARC of Willow by Julia Hoban (ARC format – out in April 09)
9. ARC of Triple Shot Bettys in Love by Jody Gehrman (ARC format – out on Jan 22nd, 09)
10. Signed set of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray (all three books)
11. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway (ARC format – already released) [contest over]
12. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (hardcover)
13. Signed Leftovers by Laura Wiess (trade paperback)
14. Signed Jessica Darling series, books 1-4, by Megan McCafferty (all four books)

I can say that I don't know most of these books but I thought Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings were keepers though they didn't make me want to go through High School again. I want to read the rest of the series. I also liked Sarah Dessen's This Lullaby but she's another author whose backlog I haven't had a chance to read yet. I also keep hearing good things about Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy. I read the first book a few years ago but haven't read the other two.

I think this ends in a couple of days so get cracking and enter!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Contests up the Wazoo

EVERYONE seems to be giving away things this week! If you surf around, most of the group blogs seem to have something for the holiday season. Here are some of the ones I thought were interesting:

1) Books on Board is giving away a red Sony eReader.. Man, I would love to have an eReader but the price seems way too much for me right now to justify it or even ask for it as a gift. Especially since I don't read many ebooks right now. If I won one, that wouldn't be too bad. To enter you have to write a short essay about why you like reading ebooks and books on board, or you can link about the contest. Details here.

2) AustenBlog has a signed copy of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. I've reviewed this book here (LJ) and here (vox) and I do recommend it for Austen fans. Info on that contest is here.

3) Ann Aguirre (one of my favorite authors right now) is giving away a few books on her blog. They all run until this Sunday at midnight. I've entered a couple:

4) Linnea Sinclair (another fav) has Hope's Folly swag over at The Book Smuggler's blog. I am looking forward to Hope's Folly coming out soon. Information on the book and the contests are over on the blog – link is here.

5) Jeri Smith Ready is over at Harlequin's Paranormal Romance blog and giving away the winner's choice of an Aspect of Crow book. This is a good series I'm in the middle of right now. My review of Eyes of Crow is here (LJ) and here (vox)

6) Finally Paperback writer is still giving away prizes every day on her blog. Prizes vary. She put up a free ebook on there for everyone today.

 

OK I'm tired now. 🙂

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Contests

OK so a few book contests going online, some of these end soon:

1) Jennifer Estep is giving away the following, but announcing winners tomorrow (Wed), so comment here with the worse present you ever received fast:

  • Copy of Karma Girl and T-shirt
  • Copy of Hot Mama and T-shirt
  • Copy of Jinx

 

2) The Book Smugglers are offering a Lisa Shearin giveaway – "autographed copies of both Magic Lost, Trouble Found and Armed and Magical, as well as postcards, bookmarks, and magnets of MLTF, A&M, and TTWD." – open till this Saturday Dec 20th. Enter here. I've entered this one, dying to win because I keep hearing good things about these books.

 

3) Paperback writer is giving away EIGHT surprise bags – just name a book or story that surprised you by midnight tonight here.


So how is everyone's holiday shopping coming along? I lost 2 weeks for the honeymoon and at this point, I'm in trouble! Sigh.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Random stuff

Ack, been in a class for work all week and too pooped at the end of the day to blog. So it's near the end of the Book Blogger Appreciation week that I mention – yeah it's BBAW at My Friend Amy! Lots and lots of givaways going on, check that out here and here. I have to say I had lots of fun doing the puzzle for the logic puzzle ebook giveaway. I can't walk away from a logic puzzle – quite a sickness. Lots and lots of giveaways there, I haven't even looked at more than what seems like 5%…


The cover for Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews got revealed today. My reaction is a mental "Eee!!". This one comes out April 2009.


Giveaways/Freebies:

  • Did anyone get the Any Given Doomsday book by Lori Handeland I posted about? I got mine today, but no one emailed me that I was going to get it, so if you signed up at Shelfari, chances are good.
  • Lesley's Book Nook is giving away a copy of Cry Wolf – just need to comment on her review here by 6pm GMT friday (that's soon…)
  • Via Dear Author – Tor is giving away free ebook copies of Emma Bulls' War for the Oaks – really recommend this book, so if you haven't read it, it's worth a download.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend