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Sunday, July 10, 2011

It's Monday! What are you Reading July 11, 2011?

This meme starts at Book Journey!
What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

I finished six books again this week. I posted four reviews in conjunction with four of the six Blogoversary Author Spotlights and Giveaways.  Then there are the regular Friday Pick Giveaway; Saturday Sharing Beyond Books, and Sunday posts.

I did get to visit 11 (whee!) Monday What are You Reading posts early in the week and some blogs from Cym's Wednesday Review Party.
These were last week's posts plus there Winner posts not listed.
  • MBS Blogoversary Spotlight #18: Author Joyce DiPastena; Giveaway - Winner's choice Print for US or eBook for International; MBS also giving review copy of Loyalty's Web. Open US and Worldwide. Ends 7/22.

  Finished Reading: 
Print:
By Lydia Dare
This is a fun series.
I'll be posting the review
and ARC giveaway after the 18th 
when I have finished my blogoversary posts.
Sourcebooks read.

Print/Kindle
by Robin Lee Hatcher
Everyone in the church book club 
liked this lovely historical romance.
I'll post my review after Blogoversary is completed.
From my Book Club.
After a bit of a slow start
I liked this.
Review to come. 
From my Audible library.

Audible:
UNABRIDGED
Narrated by Jay Snyder
I picked this up at the $5.99 Audible sale to fill in until the 19th.  
I think this was my first Zombie read! Interesting. Another review to post after
blogoversary.
Product Description
Start intercept: Sporadic reports indicate chaos and violence spreading through U.S. cities. An unknown evil is sweeping the planet. The dead are rising to claim the Earth as the new dominant species in the food chain. Intercept complete.
In your hands is the handwritten journal depicting one man's struggle for survival. Trapped in the midst of global disaster, he must make decisions; choices that ultimately mean life, or the eternal curse to walk as one of them. Enter, if you will, into the world of the undead.

Print/Kindle
Another Audible picked up at the $5.95 sale.
Great premise but I found it flawed in reality.
Review to be posted after Blogoversary.
 Product Description
The murder of Krista Carmichael’s 14-year-old sister by an online predator has shaken her faith and made her question God’s justice and protection. Desperate to find the killer, she creates an online persona to bait the predator. But when the stalker turns his sights on her, will Krista be able to control the outcome?
Ryan Adkins started the social network GrapeVyne in his college dorm and has grown it into a billion-dollar corporation. But he never expected it to become a stalking ground for online predators. One of them lives in his town and has killed two girls and attacked a third. When Ryan meets Krista, the murders become more than a news story to him, and everything is on the line.
Joining forces, he and Krista set out to stop the killer. But when hunters pursue a hunter, the tables can easily turn. Only God can protect them now.

Kindle:
Dreamspell Steampunk Volume 1 (Dreamspell Steampunk Anthology)Dreamspell Steampunk Volume 1 (Dreamspell Steampunk Anthology) 
Provided by author Pauline Baird Jones for review.
I really enjoyed all of these stories.
I may post a review this week with Pauline's author Blogoversary Spotlight or it might be posted next week as I am posting other reviews for Pauline that are long overdue.
Product Description
Enjoy four Steampunk stories:
Steam Time by Pauline B Jones
The man formerly known as Tobias Smith hadn’t planned to ride along with Dr. Everly and his Medicine Show. Grifters gave him a pain their elixirs couldn’t heal. But he was headed to Marfa, too. And Everly’s son turned out to be a really a fine looking damsel—one in distress when the ghost lights of Marfa bump them into an alternate reality complete with an automaton gang and airships. Could he be the good guy? Be the hero, save the day and get the girl?

The Prometheus Engine by Chris Samson
When an airship is shot down over the desolate Kashmir landscape, seven survivors of disparate backgrounds must band together to escape. As a swarm of marauders approaches, the survivors’ only hope lies in the untested Prometheus Engine.

Steambot Rampage by Heather Massey
On the eve of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, a no-nonsense secretary and an intrepid reporter join forces to battle a bizarre automaton on a rampage.

Angelina by Linda Houle
Valerie is fascinated with an antique ruby and diamond pendant. Where did it come from and why was it hidden in a makeshift wall safe? An old log cabin on her new husband’s ranch holds the answers and a lot more, but once Val goes through a secret door will she ever find her way back home.


Line Edits/Releases:  
The Sweethearts In Bloom 
Anthology will be released this week.


Currently reading:
Print: 
Touch If You DareTouch If You Dare
By Stephanie Rowe
I like the characters but this gets busy sometimes.
I will be posting the review and ARC giveaway after the 18th.
Reading for Sourcebooks.
Product Description
He's just about the hottest warrior she's ever seen...

Reina Fleming really appreciates a man who's on a mission-especially when he's a badass warrior doing his best to impress her. And Jarvis is charmed by the way Reina's magic touch can soothe his dark side.

But when Jarvis's attention puts her job, her home, and her family in danger, Reina has to decide whether love is worth the price...

Enter the nonstop, action-packed world of Stephanie Rowe's love stories-you'll never think of the manly arts in the same way again.

Print/Kindle
Cover Me
by Catherine Mann
I am just starting this which is another
Sourcebooks review for July.
Product Description
The 300 pararescue jumpers (PJs) in the world are the most elite force in the U.S. military, trained in high-risk rescue, and have never been featured in a romantic suspense series.
PJ Wade Rocha is fast roping from a helicopter into a blizzard to rescue stranded climbers when he meets beautiful Sunny Foster, who insists she can take care of herself just fine. As the snowstorm kicks into overdrive, she and Wade must take to the frozen wilderness in a race against time...and their own explosive passions

Audible:
Reading from my Audible Library.
I like this author and was ready to finish the Glass series.
Product Description
After siphoning her own blood magic in the showdown at Hubal, Opal Cowan has lost her powers. She can no longer create glass magic. More, she's immune to the effects of magic. Opal is now an outsider looking in, spying through the glass on those with the powers she once had, powers that make a difference in the world.
Until spying through the glass becomes her new power. Suddenly, the beautiful pieces she makes flash in the presence of magic. And then she discovers that someone has stolen some of her blood - and that finding it might let her regain her powers. Or learn if they're lost forever....

Audio:
Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success  Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success
by Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
This is really an excellent 
approach to change.
Reading For Hachette Review.
I hope to finish this tonight on the computer.

Audio:
The Screwtape Letters: First Ever Full-cast Dramatization of the Diabolical Classic (Radio Theatre)The Vision and Beyond, prophecies fulfilled and still to comeby David Wilkerson was put on hold.
We will be teaching this to  the young adult class starting in two weeks. I am reading a chapter a week to prepare.
Product Description:
From the award-winning audio drama team that brought you Radio Theatre’s Amazing Grace and The Chronicles of Narnia. In his enduringly popular masterpiece The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis re-imagines Hell as a gruesome bureaucracy. With spiritual insight and wry wit, Lewis suggests that demons, laboring in a vast enterprise, have horribly recognizable human attributes: competition, greed, and totalitarian punishment. Avoiding their own painful torture as well as a desire to dominate are what drive demons to torment their “patients.”
The style and unique dark humor of The Screwtape Letters are retained in this full-cast dramatization, as is the original setting of London during World War II. The story is carried by the senior demon Screwtape played magnificently by award-winning actor Andy Serkis (“Gollum” in Lord of the Rings) as he shares correspondence to his apprentice demon Wormwood. All 31 letters lead into dramatic scenes, set in either Hell or the real world with humans—aka “the patient,” as the demons say—along with his circle of friends and family. This Radio Theatre release also stars Geoffrey Palmer (Tomorrow Never Dies), Laura Michelle Kelly (Sweeney Todd), Eileen Page (The Secret Garden), and other world-class actors.
Includes 10 new songs inspired by the classic book, four behind-the-scenes video documentary featurettes, and a 5.1 surround sound mix. Four CDs, approx. 4 hours total.

I am also listening to The Listener's Bible NIV 
read by Max McLean. I am at 1 Chronicle 5, Song of Solomon 1 and Romans 5.

Line Edits: Editing the first of eTreasures' summer YA novellas.
Finalizing the Sword of Virtue by Joy Brooks  for release soon.
I am finalizing edits/formatting on Life After the Undead by Pembroke Sinclair; then Soylent Red by Jamieson Wolf.
 

July 2011 Scheduled reviews:
July 13 MBS Blogoversary Review and Author Spotlight for Pauline Baird Jones
Dreamspell Steampunk Volume 1 (Dreamspell Steampunk Anthology) - read.

July 23 for review and Giveaway!
Forever's hot Historical Romance Group Blog Tour
Lady of Seduction (Daughters of Erin) by Laurel Mckee
Tamed by a Highlander by Paula Quinn

July 27  So You Want to Write a Guest Post: An Author's Guide to Promoting with Guest Blogging 
by J.L. McDougall
July 28 The Fear Principle (Jaguar Adams) by B.A. Chepaitis
July 29 The Fear of God: Jaguar Series by B.A. Chepaitis

Unscheduled Review books: 
Audio: 
Working It Out: A Journey of Love, Loss, and Hope by Abby Rike

Sourcebooks 
In the Heat of the Bite - read
Touch If You Dare by Stephanie Rowe - reading now.
Cover Me by Catherine Mann - starting
A Gentleman Never Tells by Amelia Grey

Others:
Harlequin American Romance (a doctor story).
Quest for Magic by Jean Hart Stewart - August Release
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Sunday Words of Encouragement July 10, 2011

I vacillated today between two messages - one from the morning sermon or one from this week's Bible readings. I decided to go with the sermon and save the other thoughts for another day.

This morning our youth Pastor delivered a message entitiled The Cross: The Center of God's Message.  Paul wrote that although the message of the cross may seem foolishness to men who are dying, to those who [believe and] are being saved, it is the power of God. 1 Cor 1:18-20. What man sees as foolish, God share's as wisdom.

Remember the story of Naaman who thought it was foolish to go wash himself seven times in the Jordan to be cured of leprosy. But his servant questioned him saying wouldn't you do what the man of God directed if he told you to do something important then why not try what he tells you to do? When Naaman did as directed, he was cured. 2 Kings 5.

People are always seeking salvation, the fountain of youth which is ultimately eternal life. Man cannot save himself by his own works; man can never be good enough. The only way to God is through the Cross, the death and resurrection of Christ. We might wonder: why do atheists argue so strongly against something they say does not exist?

As often happens,
I was looking for one song but was led to
another that fits the message for me. :-)


A Verse for Today:
1 Corinthians 2:2
New International Version (NIV)
2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 

There seems to a lot of confusion, even in religious communities, regarding the wisdom of the Bible and the gospel message. This morning we prayed for God's wisdom to reach the minds and hearts of people and leaders in our world.
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Saturday, July 9, 2011

Sharing Beyond Books #4; July 9, 2011

Thanks again for all your comments! Although the genre choice were varied mysteries did get mentioned by 10 people! That sort of surprises me but it's good.

It looks like two of you, Mystica and Mary, are experiencing winter but most of us are coping with heat. Linda gets lots of heat and little rain... I don't think of California being that dry.

I must not have been clear as I meant book quotes you liked, not necessarily your favorite quotes! However the quotes given were great!  I can relate to fading memories so I jot down book quotes as I am reading. :o)

The Winner from last week's comments is: #5 Mary P.  There are still 9 'love' books to pick from, 8 Christmas choices and 6 Summer titles below. So Mary - please choose a book from the remaining Love Books List for Giveaway or remaining Christmas Giveaway Books and let me know your choice, your address and a choice of bookmarks by completing the WINNER FORM.

WEEK #4 Questions
 
Q1. Do you listen to music while reading?  What type of music?
I hardly ever listen to music. Even in the car I am more apt to be listening to an Audio book. About the only time I do listen to music is when we have a new choir book and I listen to learn my alto part.

Q2. What is your state (or Country's) bird or flower?
Florida's bird is the mockingbird and the flower is the orange blossom.

Q3. Now here is the first question from the suggestion list. Jennifer C asks: What five books would you wish to have with you on a deserted island?  eReaders do not count...LOL
#1 is very easy for me - The Bible
There rest were more difficult!
#2 Girl Gone Nova by Pauline Baird Jones
#3 Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
#4 A Survival Guide - okay I'm on a deserted island I figure I may need help!
#5 This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti
Then I would hope I am not on the island long because what would I do without a computer and more books??!??
~~~~

I am getting some question suggestions now. Thanks! DON'T FORGET any of you might have good questions you'd like to ask. Input suggestions in this  Suggested Question Form.  At the beginning of each month I will draw from the suggestions I used the month before and that person will get a book choice or GC. 

Your turn to share: 
1.  Do you listen to music while you read?
2.  What is state/country bird and/or flower?
3.  What five books would you want on a desert island?

SBB Comment Winners can choose a selection from the remaining  Valentine and "Love" books or the remaining Christmas Giveaway Books - there are still about 16 books available to choose from plus 6 more summer title below.
Here are some Summer titles to choose from:

Secrets of a Summer Night (The Wallflowers, Book 1)Secrets of a Summer Night (The Wallflowers, Book 1)
The one I have is hardcover.

One Reckless Summer: A Destiny Novel 

This book is brand new, but will be gently
read if I get to read it!
Under the Boardwalk: A Dazzling Collection of All-New Summertime Love Stories (Sonnet Books)
Under the Boardwalk: A Dazzling Collection of All-New Summertime Love Stories (Sonnet Books)

My paperback is from 1999 and
has a beach image.

My copy is a paperback from 2006
with a different cover.
The Summerhouse

 Hmmm - this has a bit of magic in the plot.

A Summer Affair (Calhoun Chronicles) 

I love Susan Wiggs historicals!
Six choices additional choices.

Rules: a) Must be a follower; b) Share a comment on any (or all) of the three questions above.
Open internationally and an international winner may get a smaller book or a $5.00 GC if I decide the mailing is too much.
I will pick a Comment winner from all comments made by Friday, July 15 at 10PM central. 
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Two Winners of Demons Prefer Blondes

Thank you to all those who entered and commented on the Interview.
CONGRATULATIONS
to TWO WINNERS of
Sidney Ayers 
Demons Prefer Blondes

Cool text generator



Jolene and Wendy please fill in the Winner's Acceptance Form or email me to confirm your win and send your snail mail address information so I can submit to Sourcebooks for mailing.
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