Congrats

Congrats to Anita Yancey and Christy Jan, winners of the Christmas Grab Bag sets. Each will get two Christmas themed romance titles. 

The next giveaway won't be until after the New Year. Check back for new recommendations and book blogs in the meantime. 

Christmas Grab Bag Winner

Check back here in a bit for the winner. I think I'm giving away two packs for this one, but I am totally beat and will have to do it after I get some sleep. I'll announce the winners here and e-mail them as well, if I have e-mail contacts. 

Thanks guys and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I'll be taking a break on giveaways until the new year after this one. 

New Releases 12/02

Agh, it's December already. Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week include:

King of Swords by Nick Stone - prequel to last year's award-winning thriller Mr. Clarinet

Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry - Cotton Malone uncovers the secret behind his father's death (I'm reading this one right now and it's fantastic)

Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell

Defending Angels by Mary Stanton - new cozy paranormal that earned a starred review from PW

Blood Island by H. Terrell Griffin

New on DVD:

Wanted - yay! I loved this movie! One of the best this year.

Prince Caspian 

Step Brothers

X-Files: I Want to Believe - yeah, and I wanted it to be good

New reviews up at Bookbitch.com:

Hot Blooded by Lisa Jackson

Blind Rage by Terri Persons

Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow

Succubus Takes Manhattan by Nina Harper

King of Swords by Nick Stone

And the Best of 2008 lists should also be posted soon. I'll put up my long list here later on in December (I still have some new reads that might make the cut for that one). 

For Someone Who's Hard to Shop For

Everyone has someone who is impossible to shop for. I have three - my dad, my brother, and my boyfriend. I don't know why I have such a hard time shopping for them, but I do. Fortunately for me, they all seem to have the same sort of interests and tastes. Sure, they vary on some points, but humor especially is where they are similar. 

Unfortunately, my suggestions in this blog are based on past gifts I've given them so I'm out of luck this year!

When my brother was younger, he really didn't read a whole lot. It was important to my parents that they instill a love of books in all of us, so when he discovered that he liked Terry Pratchett, my mom was willing to do just about anything to find them for him. This was, mind you, before the man really hit it big over here and you could only occasionally find a random title here and there. When I was a sophomore in high school, Good Omens began making the rounds. (Omens was published in 1990, but a mass market edition was re-released in 1996.) This was a collaborative work by Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - the first novel-length work from Gaimin, btw - and is a humorous book about the coming apocalypse. It's been on my to read list for quite some time, but my other recommends it to anyone and everyone.  

Pratchett, for those who aren't familiar with him, is a prolific fantasy author from the UK. He writes for both kids and adults and is most famous for his Discworld series. This is what my brother was reading. This is what I eventually turned my boyfriend on to. Gaiman is a bit different. He has a handful of novels (again kids and adults) as well as a slew of short stories in both fantasy and horror collections, and also does graphic novels. He's been called "the most famous author you've never heard of" per an article I read just recently. Most of Gaiman's books have some small connections but are essentially stand-alones.

So, add those to your list: Good Omens, Discworld books (they are connected in world mainly, some twos and threes, but mostly stand alones), and Neil Gaiman. 

Also great, if there is anyone out there who doesn't yet own the collection, are the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide and Dirk Gently books. Notice all these guys are brits? Let's add an American to the mix, too, though, in the form of Christopher Moore. My other loves Lamb (I've yet to read it, bad me) but my fave would have to be Dirty Job thus far. Another new one is Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys (new release last year and now out in pb as of August). 

All of these are perfect for guys (and gals) with a quirky sense of humor. If they can't take a joke, you probably shouldn't bother. Good luck shopping. I hope my recommendations are helping some of you. I still have my other and my brother left to shop for and am at a complete loss. My brother got a Twinkie cookbook and random items I picked up while in NYC for his birthday this year. My other got a gc for snowboarding paraphernalia for his. Now I have to think about Christmas, yikes. Dad's getting fancy olive oil. 

Play A Game

So I know everyone is promoting books as gifts (as am I) but one of our friends is a high school art teacher and he was telling us about how all his fellow teachers get together and play board games. You know, the ones with pieces you have to move by yourself instead of with a keypad and a joystick (yeah, I play a lot of video games!). 

Anyway, Monopoly and Scrabble and the basics are probably already in your home, but if you have young adults in your family who are just striking out on their own (like me) you might not think to get them games. If they have a group of friends to get together with, this might just be the perfect thing. 

I'd suggest Trivial Pursuit in its various forms, Totally 80s and Pop Culture are two of my faves. Of course Clue, Monopoly (classic not the new one), Scrabble, and Yahtzee (I love Yahtzee and rarely play) are great ones that everyone should have. 

Of the new games that I have played, Scene-It is a must if you have movie watchers in mind. Again, if they have people to play with. Cramium is apparently a big hit with our friend and his fellow teachers. And surprisingly, a game carried by BN called Apples to Apples. This is a family game, but he said the teachers all had super fun playing it. 

'Course you can go the card route as well. Poker is a big thing right now and my other got a poker set one Christmas that he and his friends take out to play. I love UNO myself. And you can always get a regular old deck of playing cards with some of the various card game books out there. I found an old one with variations on solitaire that's pretty neat and can be played alone. 

Mancala is another one I recommend. You only need two to play and it's kind of hypnotic. The peg game is great for one and can consume hours of time, trust me I know. Handheld Tetris is great as well, if you know someone who is obsessed with it like I am.

Of course most of my recs above are all based on personal preference. There are a ton of new and old board games to choose from. Get someone started on Go or Backgammon (neither of which I actually know how to play). Like I said, there's a whole mess of games to choose from out there. I did find a great site that has a bunch to choose from, and even if you don't want to order online it can give you some ideas. There's even Donkey Kong and John Deere Jenga on here!

Anyway, if you're wondering what to get people on your list, consider a game. But just remember, if you gift it, you must be willing to play it!

Gift Recommendations

My mom took my little sisters Christmas shopping yesterday and I got to play bookseller via cell phone. As the Junior Junkies came across stuff they were interested in, they had me look it up and tell them if I knew anything about it - they still hate taking total chances on books, especially Christmas gift, and always want a second opinion as to whether they should get it. It was fun for me, though. 

I thought I would take some time to make some recommendations now, based on things that they've really liked. I'll do adult ones as well but thought I would start with some teen choices. 

First up, Wake by Lisa McMann. If you've got teens who love paranormal teen reads, this is one they should definitely not miss. I first heard about Wake on Rachel Vincent's blog (she loved it and I thought even if I didn't have the time for it, my sisters would love it). Here's the link. So, since I haven't read it and my sisters have yet to be coaxed into writing their own reviews, here's the PW review:

The trick to getting hooked on this highly satisfying first novel is to look past its disjointed opening. The initial chapters consist of flashbacks into which are woven a series of repetitive scenes wherein Janie Hannagan is unwillingly sucked into others' dreams and nightmares, and suffers debilitating side effects. But as soon as McMann establishes Janie's strange skill, she throws just the right teen-centric ingredients into the story to propel it forward and grab readers. Tough and strong Janie, now 17, seems totally independent, charting a future that will lead away from her welfare mother's alcoholism. Her turbulent relationship with Cabel, the unwashed stoner boy-turned-handsome, pulsates with sexual tension-problematized by Janie's knowledge of his insistent dreams about killing a man. But then Cabel learns to communicate his desires to Janie through lucid dreaming at just about the same time that Janie finds out that she can influence the dreams she enters. The plot twists keep coming, even if one or two are shopworn, and the writing has a Caroline Cooney-like snap that's hard to resist.

Hopefully I'll have time to read my sisters' copy while I am home for Christmas. We shall see. I knew this one was a winner when my little sister called me begging for the sequel, only to be irritated by being told that it doesn't come out until February (she thinks everything should be released based on her wants and needs - hey, who doesn't). 

More gift recs coming soon! 

What I'm Reading

So it should be a bit obvious that I'm in a sort of funk lately. Not really sure what's going on with me. I'm not sleeping all that much and when I do I don't really feel rested. I'm playing WAY too much Fallout 3 and am going to have to nip that in the bud right now. I think that's a big part of my problem. I zombie out in front of the xbox and then I feel completely non-productive and lazy. 

I also have not been finishing books. Agh. The last book I finished was early last week and now I have three in progress and it's driving me nuts. I have to finish a book before I start another, but since I'm so moody right now, I'm even having trouble with that. 

To try and help boost myself out of the grey, I began reading a book that's not due out until February. I've been looking forward to it since I read the last in the series, and my sisters are seriously harassing me to finish up with it so they can read it. I promised I would read it and write my review so that they can have it by Christmas. Course they're out of school this week and there's no way I could possibly get it to them, and they want it now.

What is it? The latest in Rachel Vincent's werecat series, Pride. I love, love, love this series. I can't get enough of it. 

*Spoilers if you haven't read Stray or Rogue (and I highly suggest you do so!)

The book begins with Faythe on trial for having accidentally infected her human ex-boyfriend and then killing him. Of course the council doesn't believe that Faythe could have partially shifted and accidentally infected the man. Creating a stray is against the laws of the pride and Faythe must be punished. The council also seems to believe that Faythe killed him, not out of self-defense as she says, but in order to cover up what she'd done. None of it is true, but Faythe's determination to lead an independent life outside of the pride may prove to be her downfall as her worth as a tabby is weighed over a possible death sentence. For better or worse, a bruin busts in in the middle of the proceedings claiming that a pack of strays is roaming around his territory and becoming a nuisance. It also appears that the strays may have killed two missing hikers and a cop on the search team. Faythe is granted a brief repreive and even allowed to help on the hunt, but her freedom still hangs in the balance.

*Spoiler end*

Like I said, I love this series. I'm only partially in after reading until 2:30 this morning. Will keep you guys posted, but I know it's going to be a great ride. If anything can get me out of my mood, it's this book. Now I have to go read so my sisters will stop nagging me. And you should see what all of the fuss is about as well and read this series if you haven't.