Math for Readers...

Math for Readers....a.k.a. "The Book Hook"

I recently came across a "conversation" about reading books... and what you do when you just don't like what you're reading. An elderly woman (she was 82) remarked that at her age she doesn't have time to waste on books she's not enjoying. SO, she has a little mathematical equation that she applies to any new book she starts to read!

Here it is:

1. Subtract your age from 100
2. The number you get after subtracting your age from 100 is how many pages it should take for your book to hook you.

So at 82, if our friend isn't hooked by page 18 (100 - 82) She put's it down. Could you do this? Or do you have to finish a book you start no matter?

Personally I hate to not finish a book, although there have been moments.... What about you? Is there a book you put down? And what do you think of Math for Readers?

Happy reading......
Suzanne

Giveaway : One Deadly Sin ...by Annie Solomon

"Coming Home is Murder..."

One Deadly Sin by Annie Solomon Giveaway!

" Revenge. Edie Swann has hungered for it since she fled her hometown as a little girl. Now she's returned ready for payback. Armed with a list of names, she leaves each suspect a chilling sign that he has blood on his hands. Her father's blood. What happens next turns her own blood cold: One by one, the men she's targeted start dying....

Sheriff Holt Drennen knows Edie is hiding something. She has a haunted look in her eyes and a defiant spirit, yet he can't believe she's a murderer. As the body count rises and all evidence points to Edie, Holt is torn between the town he's sworn to protect and the woman he's come to desire. But nothing is what it seems. Long-buried secrets begin to surface, and a killer won't be satisfied until the sins of the past are paid in full - this time with Edie's blood."

Annie Solomon is well known for her romance suspense novels. And her newest novel, One Deadly Sin, will not disappoint you. Revenge, lust, passion, regrets, and a simple plan gone deady! Someone is helping Edie fulfill her revenge on the townspeople she feels are responsible for her father's death, but who? When things start to turn deadly Edie is caught in the middle, and so is Holt the sheriff and single father who has fallen hard for Edie.

I liked One Deadly Sin. The story was good and kept my attention. Enough suspense and passion to satisfy the most picky romance reader! The characters were well written and likable. Especially Edie! Her transformation from revengeful 'prankster' to a more sensitive & tender person, especially towards the sheriffs daughter Miranda, shows that there is much more underneath her tattooed, Harley riding exterior. Holt finds this out on their first date when Edie takes him to a concert- he expects Metallica but gets Brahms!

Read an excerpt from One Deadly Sin HERE! Want to know a little background on how Annie Solomon came up with the story for One Deadly Sin? Visit Annie Solomon's website HERE for all the details! And just for fun you can listen to that first date song over on my side bar under "Eddie & Holt's first date" ( it's Brahms 4th symphony...) Holt said it he had a life altering experience after listening to it, what do you think?

NOW about the GIVEAWAY! I have 3 copies of One Deadly Sin by Annie Solomon to give away to my readers courtesy of Anna Balasi of Hachette Book Group! Thanks Anna for letting me share this great book!

To Enter this giveaway...

• For one entry, leave a comment below with your email address.
• For another entry, become a follower! And let me know in a comment that you just became a follower.( If you already follow, you'll get an extra entry automatically by just entering!)
• For another entry Blog or Tweet about this giveaway and leave me the link.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only.(No PO boxes). The books will be shipped to the winners directly from the publishers. Contest ends 11:59pm EST on June 28th, 2009. I will randomly pick the winners the next day and email them! Good Luck!

Congratulations To Our Winners ! :

MaryBeth, Dina & Throuthehaze! And Thanks! to EVERYone for joining in the fun and entering the giveaway! Stop by often, there's always something for everyone!

Books with Buzz...

Books with Buzz....

So Many Books..... So Little Time.... Here are a few books you should keep a lookout for! A Special Thanks to Ayelet Gruenspecht and Sarah Reidy of Pocket Books for sending the first two Books with Buzz my way! What a treat! Especially when I started reading thru the pages! Here we go...

First up we have The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips. Christi is well known for her historical fiction and the Devlin Diary is her follow up book to The Rossetti Letter. The Devlin Diary is a "dazzling novel of intrigue, passion and royal secrets that shifts tantalizingly between Restoration-era London and present-day Cambridge."

"London, 1672. The past 12 years have brought momentous changes; the restoration of the monarchy, a devastating plague and fire. Yet the city remains a teeming, thriving metropolis... Although women enjoy greater freedom they are not allowed to practice medicine, a restriction that physician Hannah Devlin evades by treating patients that most other doctores shun: the city's poor. But Hannah has a special knowledge that Secretary of State Lord Arlington (and King Charles II) needs... when 2 influencial courtiers are found brutally murdered, their bodies inscribed with arcane symbols, Hannah is drawn into a dangerous investigation that may conceal a far-reaching conspiracy and may include Hannah's late father and the king himself.

Jump to 2008, Cambridge. Claire Donovan is "teaching history at Trinity College ,a dream come true - until one of her colleagues is found dead. The only key to the professor's unsolved murder is a 17th century diary kept by his last research subject, Hannah Devlin, physician to the king's mistress....." And so starts this wonderful tale! I started reading it and was drawn in immediately! The writing is wonderful! If you are a historical fiction lover pick this up! I will write a full review later in the month for this!!! Thank you again Sarah for sharing this with me!

Next we have Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein.

"Powerful and suspenseful, Zoe Klein's unforgettable debut novel is a richly evocative and boundless love story that reverberates from biblican times to the modern world."

"Brilliant archaelogist Page Brookstone is convinced bones speak, yet none of the ancient remnants she has unearthed during her 12 years of toiling at Israel's storied battlegrounds of Megiddo has delivered the life-altering message she so craves. Which is why the story of Ibrahim an Aisha Barakat, a young Arab couple who implore Page to excavate the grounds beneather their house in Anatot, instantly intrigues her... The Barakats claim the ghosts of two lovers haunt their home, overwhelming everyone who enters with love and desire...."

So starts this wonderful story. As I started reading thru the pages I was also drawn in by Zoe's wonderful writing and look forward to getting further into the story! Look for this review later in June! Thank you again to Ayelet for sharing this with me!

Finally, Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton. "Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators, and overjoyed Afghans thronged the streets. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn...Until now the full story of the Horse Soldiers has never been told. Doug Stanton received unprecedented cooperation from the U.S. Army's Special Forces soldiers and Special Operations helicopter pilots, as well as access to voluminous after-battle reports."

This book has gotten rave reviews and even though it's not the 'norm' of what I usually read, I do enjoy true tales of adventure, and this should fit the bill. Have you thought about Father's Day?! This might be a good selection for your bookish men! I am looking forward to reading this too!

Hope I mentioned a few books here that you were unfamiliar with- always nice to be able to share something new with someone! Any books you think I would like to hear about!! Leave a comment and make some suggestions! Love to chat about books!

Happy Reading..... Suzanne

Announcing the Winner of .......................... Take A Bite Out of This Book Giveaway!

Thanks to everyone who entered Take A Bite Out of This Book Giveaway!

It was an amazing success! And the lucky winner is....

Susan H.! She picked out The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers by Angie Fox! Her book is on it's way (along with a lil something else for being my first winner!) ..... Angie Fox also emailed me to say hello and say how happy she was that there was so much interest in her book! When I read it and post my review, she has a little surprise giveaway for my readers! But it's a secret til then.... keep your eyes open for the post....

Happy reading.... and don't forget to enter the other giveaways posted on the left sidebar!

The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax... Virtual Book Tour!!!

“Who knew the truth would make such great fiction?"

About the Book...

"Once upon a time four aspiring authors met at a writers’ conference. Ten years lat

er they’re still friends, veterans of the dog-eat-dog New York publishing world.

Mallory St. James is a workaholic whose novels support her and her husband’s lavish lifestyle. Tanya Mason juggles two jobs, two kids, and a difficult mother. Faye Truett is the wife of a famous televangelist and the author of bestselling inspirational romances; no one would ever guess her explosive secret. Kendall Aims’s once-promising career is on the skids—as is her marriage. Her sales have fallen, her new editor can barely feign interest in her work—and her husband is cheating.Under pressure to meet her next deadline, Kendall holes up in a mountain cabin to confront a blank page and a blanker future. But her friends won’t let her face this struggle alone. They collaborate on a novel none of them could write by herself, using their own lives as fodder, assuming no one will discover the truth behind their words. No one is more surprised than theyare when the book becomes a runaway bestseller. But with success comes scrutiny and scandal. Now all bets are off….as these four best friends suddenly realize how little they’ve truly known each other....”

A Little About Wendy...A native of St Petersburg, Florida, Wendy has come a long way since her days at Sunshine Elementary School. As a child she read voraciously, was a regular at her local library, and became fast friends with Nancy Drew and Anne of Green Gables. Her love affairs with language and storytelling paid off beginning with her first shift at the campus radio station while studying journalism at the University of Georgia.

The mother of a toddler and an infant when she decided to change careers, she admits it was not the best timing in terms of productivity. “I’m still not certain why I felt so compelled to write my first novel at that particular time,” she says, “but that first book took forever.” Since then she’s written six more books, including Single in Suburbia and THE ACCIDENTAL BESTSELLER. Her work has been sold to publishers in ten countries and to the Rhapsody Book Club. Her novel, Hostile Makeover, was excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine.

What did I think?! I loved The Accidental Bestseller! The writing was great! The story was fun! And I really enjoyed the time I spent with Kendall, Mallory, Tanya & Faye. These women were flesh & blood - realistic and they reacted to situations just like I would! They were believable. With a wry sense of humor and a touch of magic The Accidental Bestseller made me laugh & want to share the comfort of a good cry. The book is a testament to the deep friendships women develop with each other and how those friendships can sustain us in our darkest moments and lift us higher in the happiest of times . It was an interesting look at the book publishing industry and made me so happy that authors go thru all that stress to give us these pages to escape into! Thanks Wendy for a great read! Want to read the first chapter?! Here's the link: Chapter 1.

Visit Wendy at her website: www.authorwendywax.com

Be sure to check out the other stops on Wendy's Virtual Book Tour below! And remember Wendy's book is now available in stores!

Jenn’s Bookshelf l So Many Books So Little Time l Marta’s Meanderings l This Book for Free l Bookworm with a View l Girls With Books l A Book and a Chat l Ramya’s Bookshelf l The Book Stacks l Cafe of Dreams l As the Pages Turn l The Review from Here l A Bookish Mom l Luxury Reading l Book Escape l Dear Author l Blogcritics l The Epic Rat l The Writer’s Life l Book Talk with J&J l Introducing WRITERS with Kim Smith l New York Broowaha l Divine Caroline l American Chronicle

Book Tour sponsored by Pump Up Your Book Promotion "We take book promotion to the virtual level"

Giveaway : The Link by Colin Tudge

Giveaway : The Link by Colin Tudge

The Ultimate Chick Lit Book!

On May 19th of this year "Scientists have announced the discovery of a 47-million-year-old human ancestor. Discovered in the Messel Pit, Germany, the fossil is twenty times older than most fossils that explain human evolution. Known as “Ida,” the fossil is a transitional species, showing characteristics of the very primitive nonhuman evolutionary line (prosimians, such as lemurs), but even more closely those of the human evolutionary line (anthropoids, such as monkeys, apes, and humans). This places Ida at the very root of anthropoid evolution—when primates were first developing the features that would evolve into our own"

Meet Ida - she died when she was less than a year old while standing next to Maar Lake (aka The Messel Pit). Speculation paints her innocently leaning over to get a drink of water at Maar Lake, breathing in a poisonous layer of gas released from the lake and dying. Thus falling into the Lake to be eventually preserved for all of us to see -

47 MILLION years later!

The Link follows the discovery, excavation and preservation of Ida. Plus we get the full story on why Ida is such a revolutionary discovery! At 95% complete, Ida is practically a miracle in the scientific community! So complete we can see she has opposable thumbs and toes, nails instead of claws and what she ate before she died.

For 2 years, Dr. Jorn Hurum, associate professor in vertebrate paleontology at the University of Oslo along with a select team of specialized scientists, carefully studied, researched and documented Ida. They wanted to be thorough before revealing to the scientific community and the world what they had and that Ida was validated beyond reproach. The discovery of Ida doesn't start with Dr. Hurum, but with the German government in 1971 declaring that the Messel Pit, which was being mined for its shale and then the shale being converted to raw petroleum, an eyesore. They were going to convert it into a landfill! A fury of activity began as scientists and collectors tried to get any and all fossils out of the pit. A private collector stumbled upon Ida while on a day expedition to the Messel Pit. He carefully wrapped her up and put her on a shelf for 25 YEARS! Then in 2006 the anonymous collector (who wanted to remain annoymous for fear of criticism from the scientific communtiy) decided to sell Ida off. Dr. Hurum met with a reputable dealer at an annual fossil fair in Germany and the rest is history- literally!

A wonderful interactive and content-rich site has been launched at: Revealing The Link. Check it out and check the book out too : The Link- it has many wonderful photographs of Ida as well as a great story of the earth's family tree. I myself found the book very interesting and Ida herself to be amazing - the Ultimate Chick!

NOW about the giveaway! I have 3 copies of The Link by Colin Tudge for a giveaway to my readers courtesy of Anna Balasi of Hachette Book Group. Thanks Anna for letting me share this great book!

To Enter this giveaway...

• For one entry leave me a comment with your email address.
• Become a follower (if you are a follower you'll get an extra entry)
• For another entry, Blog or Tweet about this giveaway and leave me the link.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only.(No PO boxes). The books will be shipped to the winners directly from the publishers. Contest ends 11:59pm EST on June 20th, 2009. I will randomly pick the winners the next day and email them! Good Luck!

The Winner's Are.....

Heidi V, throuthehaze, & A Reader

Congrats to the winners! And thanks to everyone who joined in the fun and entered!!

Giveaway : Stand the Storm ...by Breena Clarke

Giveaway: Stand the Storm by Breena Clarke

From the back cover:

"Even though former slaves Annie Coats and her son Gabriel have managed to buy their freedom, their lives are still marked by constant struggle and sacrifice - Washington's Georgetown neighborhood where the Coatses operate a tailor shop and laundry, is supposed to be a "promised land" for former slaves but is effectively a frontier town, gritty and dangerous, with no laws protecting black people.

The remarkable emotional energy with which the Coatses wage their daily battles - as they negotiate with their former owner, as they assist escaped slaves en route to freedom, as they prepare for the encroaching war, and as they strive to love each other enough- is what propels Stand the Storm and makes the novel's startling denouement so powerfully affecting."

The story you walk into when you open Stand the Storm is simply wonderful. Breena Clarke's writing is like bits of poetry that produce amazing images when read out loud. From the first few sentences of the book " There are endless stitches to count. Handwork promotes calculation. Gabriel watched his mother pause in her knitting to rest her fingers for the briefest moment - a pause most observers wouldn't notice..." I wanted to see what Gabriel's mother was working on. I learned along the way that Sewing Annie, Gabriel's mother, was working on much more than her knitting - she was working on a life of freedom & dignity for herself and family.

Stand the Storm follows Sewing Annie from her humble beginnings on the plantation after her "mam was sold south" when she was assigned to learn to knit & sew on the Ridley Plantation under the watchful eye of "Knitting Annie" to her eventual life as a free woman. We are there when she falls in love, gives birth and fights for the rights every human being should be entitled to. We become part of her family and watch her son & daughter grow up and become strong individuals in their own right. We see how the desire for freedom is rarely spoken in words and how dangerous even the thought can be. We see how their experiences as slaves and even as 'freed slaves' shape their thoughts and actions. We go to war for them as well as with them when the Civil War begins and the Union & Confederacy fight.

This novel is unusual in that it portrays the Coatses not as slaves working out in the fields, but skilled craftsmen. And because of this the Coatses become integrated in the community and the story allows us to take a long look at slavery from the perspective of their own experiences as they try and live in harmony with those around them.

*Book Clubs - There is a reading group guide available! And what a great discussion Stand the Storm would make... the interaction of the characters, slave life in the 19th century, the Underground railroad... just to name a few topics. And I know as a book club member, I am always looking for a book that will first of all hold my attention but also have enough substance for a lively talk - this book does both. Take a look at the reading guide: Here . Read an excerpt : Here. I loved the book! And I especially loved Sewing Annie!

NOW for the Giveaway! I have 3 copies of Stand the Storm by Breena Clarke for a giveaway to my readers courtesty of Valerie Russo of Hachette Book Group. Thank you Valerie for the opportunity to share this wonderful book!

To Enter this giveaway...

• For one entry leave me a comment with an email address.
• For another entry, follow my blog and leave a comment to let me know you just became a follower. (if you already are a follower you will get an extra entry!)
• Blog or tweet about this giveaway and leave me the link.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only.(No PO boxes). The books will be shipped to the winners directly from the publishers. Contest ends 11:59pm EST on June 27th, 2009. I will randomly pick the winners the next day and email them! (please check your email... winner must reply to me within 3 days! Thanks!) Good Luck!

Thanks to EVERYone who entered the giveaway! AND CONGRATS to the winner's! The Winner's are: Beth, Sara & Casi !