The Divorce Party winner

I am very sorry that it took me a little longer to announce the results but I have just come back from an unexpected but very pleasurable trip to Lake George, NY.

I am unoriginal and used random.org to pick a winner. And the winner is lucky commenter no. 8:

Belle from Ms. Bookish!

Congratulations to Belle! And thank you to all of you for entering this giveaway. I will be having a lot more giveaways in the future so pleasure make sure you come back and try your luck again.

Another great giveaway - Mary Jane Clark's Dying For Mercy

Even though I will be away for a few days, I am very thrilled to offer my faithful readers an awesome giveaway. Katrina A. from Wiredset has graciously offered to give away two copies of a new release by Mary Jane Clark Dying For Mercy. This is what the publisher says about the book:

When death shatters the serenity of the exclusive moneyed enclave of Tuxedo Park, New York, Eliza Blake, cohost of the country's premier morning television show KEY to America, is on the scene. While attending a lavish gala at her friends' newly renovated estate, Pentimento, Eliza's host is found dead—a grotesque suicide that is the first act in a macabre and intricately conceived plan to expose the sins of the past involving some of the town's most revered citizens.

Determined to find out the truth, Eliza and her KEY News colleagues—producer Annabelle Murphy, cameraman B.J. D'Elia, and psychiatrist Margo Gonzalez—discover that Pentimento holds the key. Nestled in the park's sprawling architectural masterpieces, picturesque gardeners' cottages, and lush, rolling landscape, the glorious mansion is actually a giant "puzzle house," filled with ingenious clues hidden in its fireplaces, fountains, and frescoes that lead them from one suspicious locale to another—and, one by one, to the victims of a fiendish killer.

As Pentimento gives up its secrets, it becomes clear that no amount of wealth or privilege will keep the residents of Tuxedo Park safe. But just when Eliza unearths one final surprise, she comes face-to-face with a murderer who believes that some puzzles should never be solved.

I am sure that many of you are familiar with Mary Jane Clark and her thrillers and I hope that many new readers will get to enjoy her books as well. To help you decide if you'd like the book here's the book trailer:




And now for the rules:


1. This giveaway ends on Wednesday, August 12.


2. All you have to do is leave me a comment with your email address.


3. The giveaway is open to all.

4. There will be two (2) winners.

Good Luck!

In case the luck is not on your side, you can always order the book here.

"KIKI" Magazine - for girls with style and substance

When I went to Book Expo America 2009 back in May, I didn't fully realize the wide range of products I'd encounter there. It was amazing and I decided that, while all the major authors were already discussed, the publishers, authors and other products I learned about that have not received their fair share publicity in the blogosphere deserve a spotlight on my blog.

First one I want to tell you about is "KIKI" magazine. I don't usually talk about anything other than books on my blog (actually, it's more like never) but there were a few factors that made my decision to discuss this magazine pretty easy.

First of all, the people representing "KIKI" in the booth were one of the nicest and most friendly group I got to talk to at BEA. The enthusiasm for their product was obvious and quite contagious, I think they were a perfect example of what true passion can do to promoting a product. I really just wanted to stay there for the remainder of the day and chat.

Secondly, I am a mom of a girl who will soon be entering the world of teens. She is 10 right now and I think this age is one of the most important but also one of the most confusing to girls. They are trying to find themselves in the world and sadly the mass media, even the ones targeting this age specific audience, is doing more harm than good. I cannot tell you the countless times when I'd actually consider taking Karolina (my daughter) to the grocery store because of all the crazy magazines flooding the register area, many of them displaying all the dirty laundry and indecent pictures on the front pages. Even magazines for girls her age are filled with unreal images of teen celebrities, all rich, gorgeous, successful but all of them also discussing their intimate relationships with opposite sex starting at the very early age, wearing atrocious amounts of make-up, showing off hair done better than even I will ever dream of having and most importantly they all look like clones!

This is where "KIKI" steps in. It's a magazine for girls 8 and up and I read a whole issue and I can tell you than it's easily appropriate for even 12 year-olds. All the girls shown in this magazine are girls you see everyday on the street, at school and what girls should look like, no crazy make-up, very natural, and not crazy, skinny 'bamboo sticks' the celebrity world would want my daughter to believe is the norm. "KIKI" shows that it is not. As a matter of fact, its main mission is to give girls an alternative, a way out of the plague of body image, social status and material lifestyle issues. And I'm all for it.

Lastly, "KIKI" is really a cool, fun magazine (although I'm not sure if I'm even supposed to use 'cool' anymore).

Here are some samples of what "KIKI" is all about from their summer issue:

That's 'Biz Buzz' with fun instructions on how to create your own website (something tells me I could use it myself).

And this is 'World Beat' with articles on Henna and Bindi, since the summer issue of KIKI visits Hong Kong and talk all about Mumbai.

*It has a great variety of topics: art, design, history, personal hygiene, profiles of girls from around the world and of all ethnicities, even business and finances.

*It gives girls learning opportunities in "design-you-own" activity section, and it's not only clothes they're designing, they can plan vacation, learn to build their own businesses and even design sports equipment.

*The design of the whole magazine is very lively but very put together too. It's easy to navigate the pages and the combination of photography, fun graphics and interesting content makes it a pleasurable read.

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead, visit their website: http://www.kikimag.com/ and judge for yourself if you don't believe me. And make sure you read the letter to parents from Jamie Glyche Bryant, the founder of "KIKI".

2009 Audio Book Challenge Completed

Yay, another challenge down (I don't want to count how many more to go, although I'm sure it's still not as many as most of you signed up for). Anyway, I enjoyed this challenge, which is hosted by one and only J.Kaye, and I am definitely signing up for next year's edition. The only problem I had was with reviewing. I have learned that reviewing audio books is one of the most difficult tasks for me. There several reasons but mainly I felt that the books I listened to were probably much better read because the choice of narrators was simply bad. I don't know if authors have any say in choosing who will narrate their books. I hope that in the case of books I felt were ruined by narrators, the authors didn't choose them. Also, while listening to the books on audio I have noticed certain things that I would not pay so much attention to if I were reading them:

a) shaky to bad dialogue

b) excessive use of adverbs

c) repetitive use of certain words throughout the book.

The worst books of the bunch were High Profile by Parker and The Forrest of Hands and Teeth by Ryan. First one made me want to shoot myself when listening to the dialogue parts and the second one made me want to pull over and fall asleep. The best book was The Life and Times of Thunderbolt Kid by Bryson. I think the fact that Bryson chose to read his own book was a good one because he read it in exactly the way he wanted it to be read.

2009 Audiobook Challenge

1. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

2. One For the Money by Janet Evanovich

3. High Profile by Robert B. Parker

4. Hard Truth by Nevada Barr

5. Death of a Dreamer M. C. Beaton

6. The Life and Times of Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

7. Twenty Seven Bones by Jonathan Nasaw

8. The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

9. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

10. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

11. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

12. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

Booking Through Thursday on Friday

I know that it's a day late but yesterday was hectic and I have no choice but to post it today (better late than never). This week's BTT theme is Preference.

Which do you prefer? (Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date)

*It was actually extremely difficult to give short answers so I strayed a little here and there.

•Reading something frivolous? Or something serious?

Serious (although it really depends on my mood, sometimes I just need silly)

•Paperbacks? Or hardcovers?

Both

•Fiction? Or Nonfiction?

Fiction

•Poetry? Or Prose?

Definitely prose (I became averse to poetry back in college and still remain this way)

•Biographies? Or Autobiographies?

I'm not a fan of either, memoirs are my preference.

•History? Or Historical Fiction?

Historical Fiction

•Series? Or Stand-alones?

Both

•Classics? Or best-sellers?

Classics (I got burned by best-sellers too many times)

•Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose?

Lurid prose, when it's well written and straight-forward but not basic prose.

•Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness?

Plots.

•Long books? Or Short?

Long

•Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated?

Non-illustrated

•Borrowed? Or Owned?

Owned (the only books I borrow are audio books)

•New? Or Used?

Both