That Dear Author Sony eReader contest is on

Posted on January 5, 2009 by janicu

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!

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Two cool giveaways

Posted on January 4, 2009 by janicu

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.

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Bookstores that support charitable works (and more contests online)

Posted on December 19, 2008 by janicu

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!

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Contests up the Wazoo

Posted on December 19, 2008 by janicu

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. 🙂

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Contests

Posted on December 16, 2008 by janicu

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.

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Random stuff

Posted on September 18, 2008 by janicu

BookBloggerButton

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%…

Magic Strikes cover

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.

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More book giveaways in the blogosphere

Posted on September 10, 2008 by janicu

1) Ok if you didn't win the Jinx contest I posted about a couple of entries ago, never fear there is more.

Yankee Romance Reviews has an interview with author Jennifer Estep and a contest for her new release Jinx, here . All you have to do is comment, but do it soon, the deadline to enter is end of day today.

2) In the same vein, there is another Jennifer Estep novel up for grabs at "The Good, The Bad and the Unread" over here. That link is for an except of Hot Mama with what to do to win a copy along with a t-shirt, or a copy of Karma Girl and a t-shirt. Deadline for that one is Sunday Sept 14th.

3) Jeri Smith-Ready has an interview at "Patricia's Vampire Notes" with a contest to win her book Wicked Games. Contest details are here. Deadline is tomorrow night (midnight Sept 11th).

What I thought was pretty interesting from this interview was that for those of us who already read this book – there are some short stories online to tide us over until the second book of this series (Bad to the Bone) comes out. Oh and newsletter subscribers get these a week early :

Monroe’s story, “Crossroads”

Spencer’s story, “Rave On”

4) Jeri Smith-Ready again – you can win an advanced reader copy of her new book The Reawakened here. You just have to send her an email with your guess as to who the Raven character is. Which means you have to be a reader of her series. Hurry on this one, it also ends tonight. I may enter this myself!

MY REVIEWS:

Jennifer Estep

Karma Girl – livejournal | vox

Hot Mama – livejournal | vox

Jinx – livejournal | vox

Jeri Smith-Ready

Wicked Game – livejournal | vox

Eyes of Crow – livejournal | vox

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Jinx Contest

Posted on September 3, 2008 by janicu

Jinx (Bigtime)

Jennifer Estep

Do people want me to keep posting about interesting contests? If not, I'll just keep them on my google reader shared links.

For people who haven't read a Bigtime novel, Jennifer Estep is giving away copies of Karma Girl and Hot Mama (books 1 and 2) to celebrate the release of Jinx (book 3)

My reviews:

Karma Girl – livejournal | vox

Hot Mama – livejournal | vox

Here’s what you can win:

1) An autographed copy of Karma Girl (mass market)

2) An autographed copy of Karma Girl (trade paperback)

3) An autographed copy of Hot Mama (mass market)

4) An autographed copy of Hot Mama (trade paperback)

5) Autographed copies of Karma Girl and Hot Mama (trade paperback)

6) Autographed copies of Karma Girl and Hot Mama (mass market)

7) A Karma Girl T-shirt and autographed copy of Karma Girl (mass market)

8) A Hot Mama T-shirt and an autographed copy of Hot Mama (mass market)

All of the above come with autographed bookmarks, of course. Because you can never have too many bookmarks.

Click here

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Around the blogosphere

Posted on August 27, 2008 by janicu

1) Book Blogger Appreciation week is reving up at My Friend Amy's blog. This is for book bloggers – "Think of it as a retreat for book bloggers and a chance for us to totally nerd out over books together. And of course, shower each other with love and appreciation." There's also contests for readers too, so worth checking out if you're not a book blogger too.

This week nominations are starting for your favorite book blogs in a variety of categories. I'm planning to vote.

And there's a couple of giveaways related to books I've reviewed:

Wanderlust

2) Ann Aguirre has a contest on her blog where the prize is a $200 gift certificate to the bookstore of your choice – just buy a copy of Wanderlust and prove you've bought it. I've posted a review of this book before and recommend it. My review is here – vox | livejournal. The review of the first book in the series Grimspace, is here: vox | livejournal.

Hidden (Shomi Action Romance)

3) There's also a contest at book binge – win 7 shomi novels! I like the idea of this line. It's relatively new and it has a focus on futuristics with plenty of action and a little bit of romance. I've read:

Wired by Liz Maverick (link to my review: vox / livejournal)
Driven by Eve Kenin (link to my review: vox / livejournal)
Hidden by Eve Kenin (link to my review: vox / livejournal)

Of those three I'd say I enjoyed Driven the most. There are other titles out that I haven't had a chance to read yet. I've been eyeing Countdown by Michelle Maddox and Netherwood by Michele Lang.

Driven (Shomi)

To enter:

Leave a comment, or post on your own blog and Shomi a link, telling me what Shomi novels you've read or are interested in reading before midnight, Saturday August 30th and you'll be entered to win a major Shomi Prize package.

This contest is open to all (not just U.S. and Canada).

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July Book Blowout Challenge results

Posted on August 1, 2008 by janicu

OK so I finally joined a book challenge which was to read a much as I could in July. My goal was 7 books. I think I did well considering the whole wedding madness! Books read this month:

1) Frederica by Georgette Heyer

2) Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake

3) I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd have to Kill you/Cross My Heart And Hope to Spy by Ally Carter

4) Seraphs by Faith Hunter

5) Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre

6) Hotter Than Hell anthology edited by Kilm Harrison (still need to review this)

7) Dream Quest anthology edited by Linnea Sinclair and J.C. Wilder (also need to review)

8) Easy Connections by Liz Berry (again - need to review. This one left me a bit speechless).

Right now I started Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs (I'm happy so far and savoring it).

Not bad!! I can't decide if I was just more focused with time management this time, or if I was escaping the wedding plans, or if actually, it wasn't so bad with the wedding this month since we got the major things out of the way. I'll let you know how I feel once the family descends upon me.

Thank you everyone who signed up for the giveaway, passed along the information and sent well wishes. I really like hearing other people's wedding stories and advice too. Giveaway is of course still going on, so if you haven't entered, please do here (vox) or here (livejournal).

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