"The Scoundrel and the Thief" Cover Reveal

 

I like this cover. The guy has a handsome, slightly rakish face and the woman is just lovely. It's a romance, with what the publisher's website calls a "Happy For Now" ending. I'm glad they mentioned that as I usually expect a Happily Ever After. I don't mind HFN, as long it's not a surprise. I haven't read the book yet, so it may be that it works up to the HFN. The book releases on Tuesday, March 26th.

The author, K.B. Galore, is making her debut as a romance author but she's not a newbie. She has numerous stories and several full length novels to her credit, under another name.If you're a regular reader of my In My Mailbox posts, you may be able to guess who it is. She's not ready yet to reveal her other identity but stay tuned. More info will be coming.

Random Book News - Dr. Seuss, Censorship and an awesome indie bookstore

There were some really interesting bits of news today on the web so I've gathered up the ones that appealed to me so you could see them in all in one place. I also tweeted most of them.

First up, awards were being given out today at the Authors After Dark conference in Philadelphia. I caught a couple of announcements on Twitter; the Smart Bitches blog won for best blog (I don't know what the parameters were for the award but I do like their blog a lot so I was happy to hear the news) and Samhain Publishers won for best publisher. Again, I don't know what the parameters were but they do publish several of my favorite authors (Moira Rogers, Sierra Dean) and their website is fairly easy to navigate.

Over at the Book Lantern blog, there's an interesting post on censorship, sparked by an author's reaction to a reader's comment on her blog. I'm not a believer in censorship or banning, and for the most part I agreed with what the author had to say. However, the poster at Book Lantern also brought up some good point, particularly with respect to the author's analogy in defense of her work. I just discovered this YA blog today, thanks to a tweet on Twitter, but I will be visiting them often.


Random House announced that they will be publishing an anthology of lost Dr. Seuss stories called The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories. I loved the Dr. Seuss books as a child and I love them today as a teacher so this is awesome news in my utterly biased opinion. Dr. Seuss wrote books that were respectful of young children, were playful, blended fun with educational ideals and morals, and were pretty much timeless. The stories were originally printed in the womens magazine Redbook in 1950 and 1951. There are others from his magazine period but the selection was narrowed down to these seven. Because they were originally printed in magazines, the artwork was minimal and the vp's and publishers of Random House/Golden Books Young Readers Group made the decision to let the original artwork stand. For more details, see the PW article here.

And last, but certainly not least, PW Children's Bookshelf has an article about an independent South Carolina bookstore, Booklovers Bookstore, that took the initiative to help out their local school system. I say, next time you order a book, do it from this store and keep this awesome store in business. What exactly did they do? Here's a quote from the PW CB article:

...new initiative mandating dedicated reading time for all students has, despite its necessity, compounded a familiar problem for teachers: more to do and less time to do it in. Responding to the resource crunch, Booklovers Bookstore in Aiken, S.C.recently created a school liaison position for Pat Wood, a retired school librarian/media specialist with 32 years of experience in Aiken schools. Wood's job will be to help teachers "currently working on establishing a [book] collection to meet the needs of this new intitiative," which calls for each teacher to set aside specific time for reading. more

* Bolding added by me.*

I'm all for encouraging reading, but if you have ever dealt with a public school, you know that the demands on a teachers time are endless and time, of course, is not. Teachers have a difficult challenge already fulfilling all of the expectations and requirements but more and more gets dumped on them. This program has the potential to be a boon to the school and I hope that it works out well. 

Ok, that's it for now. There will be more random news posts, as I collect news and remember to post them, thus making them random in both content and occurrence. :D Now, back to finishing my book. The review is supposed to go up today; I don't know if that will happen. :P It may be tomorrow. 

Armchair BEA and nurturing relationships

Continuing with Armchair BEA, today's topic is nurturing relationships. How, as a blogger and book reviewer, do I do that? To be honest, I think that's an area where I could probably improve. I enjoy, mostly, the socialization part - chatting on twitter or via IM's, exchanging emails, but I'm not a social butterfly and sometimes drop the ball.

Twitter, which I initially resisted joining (Silly Bea!) has been a great medium for me - I've met and connected with other bloggers and reviewers, editors, authors and publishing houses. I've gotten chatty with Moira Rogers, who is really two people, Donna and Bree; it's mostly Bree that I chat with and she's wonderfully silly, plus very, very generous. I've also gotten chatty with authors Sierra Dean and Krista D Ball; we get silly but we also talk about book reviews, blind drunk monkeys, books, and authors who behave badly in public.

Twitter has also led me to read authors that I hadn't been before, and many authors will seek out reviewers by tweeting, which has led me to several ARC's. I follow many publishers on twitter, which I find to be an easy way to keep current on trends, hot topics, new books, etc.

I also chat with other bloggers on twitter, and those conversations are also a blend of book-related and personal.  Has_bookpushers, of the Book Pushers site, was one of the people responsible not only for my joining twitter but also for becoming a revewer and blogger. She is, as I like to call her, the Lady of the Links; she has an almost supernatural knack for links. They range from links for wooden dildos to a TARDIS shaped murphy bed to articles about movie casting and hot new books. She has a wicked sense of humor and is knowledgable, and opinionated, about many things.

Other fun bloggers I chat with sometimes are @BookaliciousPam, one of Armchair BEA's organizers; @jacabur1 who has been supportive, and @Susi_Sunshine, who I work with on the Book Lovers Inc blog, she's just crazy. :D

Building relationships with publishers has been slow going for me but I'm getting there. I've made some contacts through the Book Lovers Inc site and through an awesome book blog collective site, Book Blogs. That is an area I need to focus on and one that will be a goal for me for the remainder of this year.

Interview with Blogger & Reviewer Stella Ex Libris, part 2

And here we are, with part two of my interview with Blogger and Reviewer Stella, from Ex Libris. This is part of Armchair BEA's weeklong events. If you haven't read part one, you can see it here. The first part focused on Stella, the blogger; this part looks at Stella, the person.

Bea: Can you tell me a little bit about what your home life is like? Significant Other? Kids? House? Apartment? Urban? Rural? Cat? Dog? Klingon? Wookie?

STELLA: Lol, sure. I am a 26 years old Hungarian girl working by day as a junior lawyer, and moonlighting at night as a bookaholic blogger. I’ve always lived in big cities, born and (almost exclusively) raised in Budapest, capital of Hungary, then due to my dad’s work lived 2 years in Brussels (Belgium), 3 years in Bucarest (Romania), and then I’ve done part of my university studies abroad too: lived 1 year in Lille, a nice atmospheric little city in Northern France, and another year in Brussels again. Now I’m back in Budapest, working full time and preparing to pass my bar exam, so even less free time than before *sighs* I have two younger sisters, but since they study abroad and my parents didn’t want to remain alone in such a big house all alone, I postponed my plans of moving to my own apartment and live at home with them. I live in a nice house with a garden and terrace in a green suburb of Budapest, takes me 30 minutes to get to work, which is on the bank of the Danube, so a beautiful setting and panoramic view at least if I have to spend so much hours there ;-)

Bea: What do you do when you aren’t blogging?

STELLA: Besides work which takes up quite a lot of time? Besides reading my biggest passion is travelling! I love discovering the world and meeting new people, learn about their culture, traditions and eat foreign cuisine. I also love to cook and bake and of course love watching my fav TV series too. I love meeting up with my friends and go out to dine and wine or simply meet in a café and talk the night/weekend afternoon away.

Bea: On your blog, you mention that you can’t live without sunshine, clouds, laughter, water, reading and talking. What is so special or important about those things to you? How do you go about making sure that you have those in your life? 

STELLA: Sunshine is one of the most important things to me, coming right after my family and friends. I need the light, the warmth, the play of the light and shadows. I love having the sun in my eyes blinding me, and even sleeping with the sun shining on my closed lids. As you can see I’m passionate about sunshine :-D lol

Clouds: lol, no contradiction here with the sun: I love white, fluffy clouds, to wonder about their texture, shape, I love gazing up at the azure sky and look at them. If I were to become a professional photograph I could happily spend my time taking pictures of clouds all the time. Love how different they can be depending on the weather, the lights, the colours of the sky. Again a passion of mine. (as you can see I am quite passionate about a lot of things).

Laughter: I love to laugh and smile. I know it goes against netiquette to use lots of smilies, but I can’t help it (believe me I try real hard, these are already the lucky ones who were left to remain). Someone asked me whether I smile as much in real life as I use smilies in e-mails, and I told him even more. I’m a very smiling and positive person.

Water: I love looking out at the sea and ocean, but when I wrote this I was simply thinking of drinking still, mineral water. My favourite drink, I love the cleanness of it and how it quenches thirst. (I don’t like swimming in pools, so if I have to swim, I much prefer the sea or ocean.)

Reading: I think this is self explanatory for any book blogger. I’ve always read a lot, as soon as I learned how, and even before that I made my parents read to me tons of stories. I could never go without all the wonderful stories that exist!

Talking: Friends have often said that my family is like a loud, chatty, vivacious Italian family: we constantly talk and cut in on each other’s sentences. I’m a little miss chatterbox (if you haven’t noticed it by now seeing how much I wrote) {Well, I did ask a lot of quesitons, lol- Bea}. I love talking with friends, exchanging ideas, having passionate debates.

And regarding your last question, well I don’t know, somehow they are in my life because I consider them important and because they are a part of me. 

Bea: I noticed that you enjoy traveling. Is there a place that is your dream destination? What’s your favorite way to travel – alone, in a group, a tour, camping, backpacking, etc.?

STELLA: I have done all kinds of travelling: we travelled a lot with my family when I was younger, even in quite uncomfortable ways (spent 16-18 hours in the car with my 2 sisters and me in the back), and I am extremely grateful to my parents for always taking us to wonderful places and giving us the world. Since university I travelled a lot with girlfriends, we flew off to a destination and spent some days, weeks sightseeing. And then for my graduation gift my parents gave me a trip to China. It was breathtaking! So beautiful and amazing! I went there all alone to join a group trip, but everything turned out wonderfully as there were 8 of us in our early 20s so we had a blast. I only travelled alone to one place I think: for my 20th birthday I asked my parents for a week in Paris. One of my best trips: spent the week soaking up the atmosphere of the city, sitting in parks, drinking café au lait and seeing so many beautiful places! Paris is my favourite city. My dream destination? There are so many places I would like to see and visit, but the one I am yearning for the most is a Latin-America tour, especially Peru! Would love to see the Machu Pichu and other Aztec and Mayan ruins and temples.

Stella in China

Bea: You speak 6 languages, was that so you could travel, was it for work, you love languages…? Do you have a favorite language to speak in? How about to read in?

STELLA: No, learning languages came to me naturally, without even making it such a conscious question at first: both my parents and all my grandparents speak a couple of languages, it is a way for us of being open to the world and being able to go out there and get a glimpse into other cultures. I learned French when I was little thanks to my dad’s work, then I quite autodidactly taught myself English (through magazines and films and in big part thanks to my high school best friend who was passionate for anything to do with America). I always enjoyed learning languages, because then you feel like you got closer to that culture and people. There is a saying in Hungarian that says that you are as many persons as many languages you speak. And I agree. My favourite language to speak in? hm.. I love the way French sounds, I love hearing myself speak in French lol but my favourite language to read in? English! It has been years since I last read in anything but English I think.

Bea: What is the one thing in the world you would never give up?

STELLA: Independence of thought. I love to think and love to ponder a decision and then take it. I would hate it if someone took it from me.

Ok, now for some quickie, fun questions

Beer or wine? Wine, though I prefer cocktails
Margarita or daiquiri? Both! Lol let’s say strawberry daiquiri, have been eating strawberry for the past couple of days, love their scent and taste (Bea - If you lived closer, I'd say let's go out for strawberry daiquiris. :( )
Beach or forest? Oh, love both, depending on my mood. Let’s say beach if there is not too much people, don’t like it when it’s crowded. I love walks in the forest to think or simply enjoy nature.
Star Wars or Star Trek? Oohh *blushes* haven’t seen Star Trek yet. I saw the new 3 Star Wars movies, but wasn’t that impressed (don’t throw stones at me please!) (Bea- you haven't seen Star Trek? Ever?!?! We need to remedy that, STAT!)
Lost or X-Files? Watched the first 2 episodes of Lost and when I heard the growling of a polar bear (don’t know what it was at the end) I gave up. Was too young to be interested in X-files when it was on, so neither really.
Emily Dickinson or Robert Frost? Ooh both, but let’s say Emily Dickinson, women should get more recognition ;-)
Print book or ebook? Both! However since I have had my Kindle, I have read about twice or 3 times more ebooks than print.
Author you’d most like to meet? Ooh, let me see: Kelley Armstrong! Sonya Bateman, Laura Bickle, Erin Nicholas, Gini Koch, Diana Gabaldon, and if I could Jane Austen definitely!
Monopoly or Scrabble? Scrabble. Love the creativity behind it, and in my family we have Sunday Scrabble parties and there are always these big debates because my dad makes up words and wants to convince us they exist :-D
Fave food? French fries and anything that is dessert! :-D
Fave drink? Fresh still water

Stella, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I am delighted that I got to learn more about you. 


Now, go take a minute to check out Stella's blog, Ex Libris, and say "hi". And don't forget to check out Book Lovers Inc, where we both review.

Interview with Blogger & Reviewer Stella Ex Libris, part 1

As part of Armchair BEA's events this week, and to help participants become acquainted, we were offered the opportunity to interview a fellow participant. I had to laugh when I received the email telling me that I'd been paired with Stella - we work together on a group blog, Book Lovers Inc. Despite that, I didn't really know a lot about her. So, I visited her blog and spent some time poking around, getting a feel for her and coming up with questions. As those of you who come around often know, I tend to ask a LOT of questions. :D Stella patiently answered them all, even the ones I marked as optional. As a result, it's a long interview, so I've broken it up into two parts - this first part focuses on Stella the blogger, while part two focuses on Stella the person. Some of the questions fit into either category so I used my judgment. Stella reviews book at her blog, Ex Libris; you can also find her at Book Lovers Inc as The Latin Lover.

Bea:  Hi Stella, thanks for taking the time to do this. You participated in last year’s Armchair BEA also, right? What brought you back, why take time out of your busy schedule to do this?

STELLA:  As I live outside the US I can’t attend BEA. About this time last year I kept seeing all the posts buzzing with excitement of all those lucky bloggers who were attending BEA, all the preparations, joy at meeting each other face to face and of course all the great books they got, I was sad I had to miss out. So when I heard that some enthusiastic bloggers started a virtual version I wanted to participate to share the fun! 

Bea: What made you want to start blogging?

STELLA: My assistant  at work told me about cooking blogs and after a few days I wondered if there were blogs where people talked about books. Oh, I had no idea!  So I googled it and happened upon tons of book blogs! I debated for about 1 week whether to create one of my own, whether I would have the time and whether I could contribute anything besides so many great blogs, but I wanted so much to talk about books I have read, that I thought, what the hell, I’ll start and we’ll see. And it has been almost 1.5 years since then.

Bea: What is your favorite thing about being a book blogger?

STELLA: The community! The wonderful blogger friends I have made. That I met so many wonderful authors! I never would have thought they were so friendly and approachable! And of course NetGalley is also in my top 10 reasons ;-) lol (Bea here - I agree about NetGalley, so helpful and awesome)

Bea: What is the significance of your blog name, Ex Libris? Why did you choose it?

STELLA: I have always loved Latin. Learned it in high school and liked Latin aphorisms ever since. Choosing a name for my blog was one of the hardest things when I started. I pondered for days and days and then Ex Libris just popped into my head and it was perfect. It sounds classy, chic, smart and unique (at least I think so) ;-) It literally means “from the books”. It was used to say when something was quoted from a book, or to mean that a book was the possession of someone/was from the library of someone. But in respect of my blog I gave it another meaning: when I’m reading I’m completely immersed in the story, I’m in my own bubble where the characters and setting step out “from the books”.

Bea: Have you ever read a book that you just hated? What did you hate about it?

STELLA: Oh yep, had a few of those, especially this last year. I hate it when the author thinks the reader is stupid and breaks down everything and becomes didactic repeating things over and over and especially telling the reader how to feel and what to think. Great authors show us the way and readers decide whether to go along or not. I hate it when there are big inconsistencies in the story, and I’m not talking about a character first having brown then later blue eyes, though that can be jarring, what I hate are holes in characterizations: if a heroine is made out to be someway and then she says or does something completely out of character and in sharp contrast with everything she was before. 

Bea: You read a lot of genres, is there anything that you won’t read?

STELLA: Hm.. let me think, before I started blogging I even read a couple of memoirs (though interesting ones, of former Geisha for example), but no self-help books I would say. But reading and reviewing are different. I wouldn’t review memoirs, self-help books, political or religious books.

Bea: Do you have certain types of books that you only read before bed, or a book that is only for when you are out and about or anything like that? Or do you just sit down to read and pick a random book from your reading pile?

STELLA: No, I don’t have different books for different locations. I usually read the same book on the bus, in my lunch break (if I’m not meeting with friends or colleagues) and in bed until I have finished it. But I tend to read several books at the same time (about 3 books simultaneously). However there was one horror I had to review, and though I’m not one to easily scared as I was alone at that time, I didn’t read it at night in the dark, didn’t want any strange noise to give me a heart attack. (oh and of course I only read erotica novels at home, wouldn’t be able to get into the story on the bus or anywhere public *blushes*)

Bea: How many books do you read in a typical month?  

STELLA: About 13-16. When I started last year I read about 8.

Bea: What is your favorite bookstore (online or brick & mortar)?

STELLA: Online: Book Depository, love that they ship worldwide for free! In my city: love Libri (www.libri.hu) and Alexandra (www.alexandra.hu), especially their reading corners with armchairs and sofas. But lately I don’t go much there since I don’t buy books in Hungarian.


 Ok, that's it for Stella the blogger. Stay tuned for part two, where we learn about Stella the person. :)

My Favorite Books of 2011 So Far

So today's Armchair BEA topic is our favorite books so far in 2011. Surprisingly, that wasn't easy to decide at first. But after thinking about it, I came up with some. So, in no particular order, my fave books so far in 2011:

"These Things Hidden" by Michelle Gudenkauf - It grabbed me from the first page and I didn't put it down until I finished it. By turns, agonizing, hopeful, emotional and coldly rational, it was a fascinating read about families, choices, and what we do in the name of love.

"Shackled" by Morgan Ashbury - A sweet mix of erotica and romance that's also a nice intro to the world of bandage and dominance and 
submission. Not perfect, but well done.

 "The Gathering" by Kelley Armstrong - Sigh. I wouldn't change a single thing about this book. Do you like YA? Do you like Urban Fantasy? Want a break from vamps and weres? READ THIS BOOK.

"How to Flirt with A Naked Werewolf" by Molly Harper - Slightly misleading title, but fun story, well written. A light read but not silly or stupid and lots of likable characters.

"The Survivor" by Sean Slater - Grim, gritty, full of twists and turns and multi-layered, this is not your basic murder mystery or procedural (though it was fun me, a US citizen, to learn about Canadian police procedures), it's not a happy feel-good but it's smart, solid, and hard to put down.

Very good and very HAWT. This is a well written, engaging book. Cleansing, lots of yummy smex, solid, well written, and not a blind drunk monkey anywhere in sight, lol

Heh, I read this after I read an incredibly badly written romance that left me needing to cleanse my mind. This book sure fit the bill. :D













These aren't the only good ones this year, it's actually been a good year for books so far. I hope the rest of the year will be as good.

Welcome to Armchair BEA Week 2011!

This week I am participating in Armchair BEA. What is that you ask?

Well, it's an offshoot of BEA, Book Expo America, a huge annual event where publishers, editors, authors, reviewers. etc come together for a week. New and upcoming books are revealed, there are panels and workshops, book signings, and many many more book-related events. It's a big deal. But of course, not everyone who wants to attend is able to. This is where Armchair BEA comes in.

Armchair BEA was formed in 2010 by 5 bloggers who were disappointed to be missing BEA and decided to do something about it.They thought that with today's technology, that they, and we, could still experience BEA from the comfort of their own homes ... and Armchair BEA was created!


This year, 350+ bloggers signed up top participate, including myself. Each day this week, Monday through Friday, I will have a post related to Armchair BEA up. The Armchair BEA blog and site will also have posts up every day, giveaways, and opportunities to network.


So why did I sign up?

Well, since going to BEA wasn't a viable option due to work and finances, this seemed like a good way to participate and maybe meet some new people. I looked at the list of blogs and only a few were familiar to me so I hope that I will find new to me blogs and make new friends and acquaintances.


I'll be joining in this week on my laptop, after work. I'll have to pop in and out, due to other commitments but I'll be around as much as I'm able. If I were at the "live" BEA I'd be spending most of my time at the booths, checking out the books and talking to authors. Since I can't do that, I';; spend my Armchair time reading posts on other blogs, talking to other bloggers and reviewers and generally being social. That's not exactly one of my strengths but I'm going to try.


Now, for those of just stopping by, who don't know anything about me, the obligatory intro:

I have been reviewing books for about a year now. I started out doing some guest reviews at The Falcata Times; then, with advice from Has at The Book Pushers, I began doing some reviews that were posted at my personal blog and then I started this blog, just for reviews and other book-related items. I review pretty much anything that I read, I don't really have a specialty. Lately I've been reading a lot of fantasy, particularly urban and paranormal fantasy so that's been reflected in my reviews. Also, romances, eroticas, mysteries, and some childrens and non-fiction. Just about anything is fair game. :D I also review over at Book Lovers Inc under the name The Charmed Lover.

When I'm not reading or blogging, I teach two and three year olds at an early childhood center. I occasionally volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, am not as active as I should be in my church :P, and make and sell soaps and other body care products at Bea's Bubbles. I enjoy playing and snuggling with my cat, hanging out with my friends, watching movies, and being lazy. I also mod on a couple of author discussion boards.

I don't remember how old I was when I started reading but I can't remember NOT reading. My mother was an English teacher and both she and my father enjoyed reading. We had books all over the house and made regular trips to the library. Reading has always been both a hobby and a passion for me.

So, that's the story of me and my blogging and what I hope to get out of Armchair BEA. What about you? :)