My 2010 Reading Year in Review & Reading Resolutions

I don't usually give too much thought as to which books are my favorite because often it's whatever book I most recently enjoyed. But with book bloggers everywhere putting up their lists of 2010 favorites I decided to give it a try and see if I could manage to pick out my own favorite reads from this past year.Just a note: The books listed are ones that I've read this year but were not necessarily published in 2010Fantasy:Since the majority of the books that I read are fantasy I wasn't surprised to see that most of my favorite books fell into this...

The Passage by Justin Cronin

When Justin Cronin’s eight year old daughter expressed her concerns that his books were not interesting enough, Cronin asked what she thought he should do about it. His daughter responded that he should write a book about a young girl (preferably red-headed) who saves the world.During the next few months father and daughter discussed some ideas for this hypothetical novel until Cronin decided to take the next step and see if this was a story that...

Look out for it...

If you enjoy writing short stories or have always wanted to give it a try, now is your chance.Stephanie, from Misfit Salon, and I will be hosting a really fun writing contest during the month of January.Stephanie has already designed this amazing button (which I am totally in-love with) which will give you a hint about the kind of contest it will be...More details to follow soon...

A Beautiful Story of Holiday Generosity

I discovered The Bloggess a couple of months ago when Jenny Lawson (the Bloggess) had written a post about meeting Neil Gaiman. Since then I have been a regular visitor to this blog due to Jenny's wonderfully hilarious posts that always leave me smiling. But last week Jenny veered away slightly from her regular irreverent style to offer free $30 gift cards to the first twenty people who leave a message on her blog. If you’re struggling for money...

Free ebook from ChiZine- Limited time only

ChiZine Publication has a special holiday gift for fans of dark fiction; a free ebook of your choice!Just email them by noon on December 26th with the title of the book that you want, and they will send it to you. Pretty awesome, no?From their website...A Free eBook of YOUR CHOICE Now that you’ve all unwrapped your shiny new Kindles and Kobos, we wanted to give you a very special present—a free eBook of your choice. Yup, totally free, no strings attached, just-because-we-love-you kind of free. Simply e-mail us at czpmas@gmail.com with a message...

An Author Name Pronounciation Guide

In a recent blog post, Books on the Nightstand linked to this handy author name pronunciation guide published in McSweeney’s book review section. To my chagrin I discovered that I have been pronouncing Michael Chabon's name incorrectly (it's SHAY-bahn) as well as Ayn Rand's (it's INE). I think this chart is a fantastic idea and that all book publishers should come up with such lists so that readers don't end up butchering some of those hard-to pronounce author names (can you say Paolo Bacigalupi, anyon...

New Scifi & Fantasy Releases: Week of December 26

A Girl's Guide to VampiresKatie MacAlisterGenre: Paranormal RomancePublisher: AvonRelease Date: December 28 (reissued)Joy Randall's Top 5 Tips for Vampire Hunters: Location, location, location. Vampires won't be caught dead (ha!) in places like discos, ten-minute lube shops, or Switzerland. Remember, if you wouldn't be there, neither would a bloodsucker. Trust your eyes. You know the handsome, annoyingly arrogant, self-assured man in the shadows...

My Mother She Killed Me, My Father, He Ate Me Edited by Kate Kate Bernheimer

Talk about an attention grabbing title! I’m enjoying telling people about this book just so that I can have the opportunity pronounce the titillating title, and watch the reactions of my friends. But no, My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me is not about cannibalism. Or at least, not all of it. But since the theme of this short-story collection is fairy tales, you can expect to encounter some pretty gruesome stories in the style of the original...

Things I Love as Much As Books

Things I Love as Much As BooksHosted by Brizmus Blog BooksHUGE GINGERBREAD HOUSES!I didn't know it until now but this is the one thing that I need to make my life complete.(Minus the little girl. I already have one of those)According to the Neiman Marcus catalog, the life-size gingerbread house includes giant cookies, lollipops, gummies, mints, gumdrops, and a candy-encrusted roof along with a lollipop tree inside. (Did you see that? A lollipop tree!!...

Magic at Target from Rants from Mommyland

One of my new favorite blogs, Rants from Mommyland, has a really wonderful post up today about magical moments at Target, and which I highly recommend that you take a minute to read.I have a thing for Target. Besides the fact that they have bulk sizes of Sharpies and kid gloves and scarves for ONE DOLLAR - which is awesome because then I don't lose my ever lovin' mind when one of the IHPs lose one forty-five minutes after they put them on - it's also becoming increasingly clear that magical things happen in Target.Last week I was in Lansing, Michigan....

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

A friend had been insisting for months that I must read The House of the Scorpion, which I had never even heard of before nor had I read anything by its author, Nancy Farmer. And so when I spied it at my favorite second-hand bookshop last week I decided to give the book a try and see if it is as good as my friend insisted. But even had it not already been so highly recommended to me, the blurb on the book's back cover would probably have enticed...

Sample Chapter of Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

While I've been pretty disappointed with Charlaine Harris's last two Sookie Stackhouse books I guess I still haven't given up on the series since I immediately rushed over to her site when I read that she had put up the first chapter of Dead Reckoning.To read it for yourself follow this linkIt starts off rather slow but gets a bit more interesting towards the end. I have my fingers crossed that this book will be an improvement over the last two,...

New SciFi & Fantasy Releases: Week of December 19

Hmm...I'm either really losing my touch or this is just a really slow week for new releases because all I could dig up were these five titles...Out for Blood (Drake Chronicles, Bk 3)Alyxandra Harvey Genre: Publisher: Release Date: December 21 Hunter Wild is the youngest in a long line of elite vampire hunters, a legacy that is both a blessing and a curse at the secret Helios-Ra Academy, where she excels at just about everything. Thanks to her friendship...