Loussin from The Dusty Bookshelves
Congratulations :)
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Forgive My Fins Winner
I apologise for being a little MIA at the moment. I am on holiday in New Zealand and I just haven't had the chance to blog. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be around for a little while longer. It will be around mid August but it could be September! I am so sorry but I am making it up to you by choosing a winner for the Forgive My Fins giveaway! The winner is.....
Sunday, 10 July 2011
In My Mailbox (10/07/2011)
In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren.
For Review
What did you get in your mailbox?
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Forgive My Fins Blog Tour & Giveaway
Hi guys :) Today I am presenting to you Forgive My Fins, a fabulous book about mermaids. Now this was my first mermaid novel but I am just addicted. Tera Lynn Childs did an interview with me and she is just the loveliest thing.
1. What compelled you to write a novel about mermaids?
I’ve been obsessed with mermaids ever since I was a little girl and first saw the movie Splash. I was a water baby and a competitive swimmer and I loved the idea of spending even more time under water. I got the idea when I was spending a lot of time on the beach one summer and starting wishing that a merman could walk out of the sea and turn me into a mermaid with a kiss.
2. How long did it take you to write “Forgive My Fins”?
Well, I first got the idea in the summer of 2006, but I sold Oh. My. Gods. shortly after that and had to put it away for a while. When I picked it back up and start writing again in 2008, I probably finished the first draft in about four months. From first idea to published book it took four years.
3. There don’t seem to be many mermaid books around. Have you read any good books containing mermaids?
Hopefully there will be more and more! One of my favorites lately is Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs. Her mermaids are extraordinarily different from mine, and their world is very dark and dangerous, but it’s a truly magical book.
4. Can you tell us a little about “Forgive My Fins”?
Forgive My Fins is the story of a half-mermaid princess who goes to high school on the mainland. She’s been crushing on the school swim god for three years and when she is about to confess her feelings… well, things go awry and she bestows her magical first kiss on the wrong boy.
5. Is there anything you must have when you’re writing eg. A food or a drink?
I have to be out of the house. I usually write in cafes and coffee shops, in a comfy chair with a tasty beverage at my side. I’m almost always listening to music. I scribble thoughts and ideas on sticky notes or in brightly colored markers. But mostly, I just need to be out of the house.
6. Where did you write most of ‘Forgive My Fins’?
At the Starbucks coffee shop around the corner from my old apartment in Houston, Texas. I was there so often that the baristas knew my favorite drinks and expected me to be there for a few hours every day.
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The book is just fabulous and I must get my hands on the next book immediately. My review for the book will be up next week but as a little teaser I gave it 5 stars.
And now on to the giveaway. You can win a beautiful shiny paperback copy of Forgive My Fins. All you need to do is leave a comment below in regards to the interview or the book along with your email and you will be entered. You must be a resident of the UK though (sorry!).
The next tour stop is at Book Passion For Life so make sure you check that out tomorrow!
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
The Queen Must Die Blog Tour
I'm excited to share with you an extract from The Queen Must Die by K.A.S Quinn. The book has been released recently so now is the perfect time to get a copy after having a little taster!-----
Think pink!
Katie Berger-Jones-Burg is a modern New York kid. She has a comfortable life; but her mum, Mimi, keeps getting divorced, remarried, divorced. Each time poor Katie is lumbered with a new name. And her dad has moved on to a new, younger wife. The only person who really seems to care for Katie is Dolores, the housekeeper. And with Dolores, it’s tough love.
Katie spends a lot of time in her bedroom. It’s very pink. I confess. I always wanted a pink bedroom. My teen lair had a Kelly green fitted bedspread, and curtains featuring large orange peace signs. But then I grew up in California in the era of peace.
Katie’s mother has bolted, the housekeeper is yelling at her, and her bedroom is her only sanctuary – and she hates pink. But the bedroom is the key to her time-travelling adventure – so pink or no – it’s a great place to be.
Extract
The Greek guy in the shoe repair shop was now tapping
on his window, so Katie moved on towards home. Mimi
liked to keep her busy, as this kept Katie out of her way, but
for once Katie didn’t have ballet lessons, tennis lessons,
yoga or t’ai chi. She ducked under the awning of her apartment
building, nodded to the doorman and punched the
elevator button for the eleventh floor. As she turned the
key in the lock, the sound of a Spanish soap opera greeted
her, loudly. Mimi couldn’t possibly be home, if Dolores had
the sound up that high.
‘Hey, Dolores,’ she called to their
long-time housekeeper ‘Qué pasa? No Mimi?’ Dolores had
set the ironing board up in the kitchen. In front of her was
a small television, making big amounts of noise. On the
screen was a young woman with a serious hairdo and lots of
eye shadow. She was crying and screaming as two solid,
expressionless policemen led her away. ‘What’s the crime?’
Katie asked. ‘Did she rob a bank? Or murder her boyfriend?’
‘This show is not for you,’ Dolores said, without taking
her eyes off the screen. ‘It’s for grown-up people who know
about these things. And don’t go saying “hey” to me. Hay
is for horses. Mimi says you’re way too slangy.’
Katie looked in the refrigerator: macrobiotic crackers,
Swedish seagrass yogurt, freeze-dried salt cod, and a jar of
Mimi’s face cream. Turning from the fridge, she rummaged
through Dolores’s handbag and found a Snickers bar.
‘Mimi’s not here,’ Dolores added.
‘That’s obvious,’ said Katie, ‘we’re both having way too
much fun. So where is she?’
‘Well, baby,’ Dolores said. This was not a good sign.
Dolores only called Katie ‘baby’ when she felt sorry for her.
‘Mimi’s gone.’
‘Gone?’
‘To Acapulco. You know that therapist she’s been seeing,
Dr Fishberg? You know how she’s been saying, at last here’s
a man who understands her? Well they seem to have
become real good friends, and…’
Suddenly the Snickers bar didn’t taste that great.
‘Oh Dolores, she can’t run off to Acapulco and get married
again!’ Then something even worse dawned on her. Katie
Berger-Jones-Burg-Fishberg. Picking up her rucksack of
books she fled to her bedroom. This one she could never
live down.
Katie’s room looked nothing like Katie. While Katie was
tall and awkward with her father’s bushy black curls, this
was a room designed for a very different child: a small, delicate
golden-haired child – the child of Mimi’s imagination.
‘Think pink!’ had been Mimi’s motto when briefing the
decorator. The carpet, the lampshades, the curtains, the
cushions spanned the hues from candy-floss pink to sunset
rose – or, as Katie saw it, from pale vomit to inflamed
sunburn. Katie could have lived with it, except for the
wallpaper. Hundreds, but hundreds of whimsical fairies
fluttered across Katie’s walls. These fairies were very busy
indeed: waving their little sparkling wands, hovering over
large (pink) flower blossoms, standing on tippy-toe and
giving each other big wet kisses. Katie had spent endless
hours, throwing a baseball against the wall, attempting to
knock out the fairies one by one. While many of them
sported a black eye or a broken wing, Katie had barely
made a dent in their sweet little world. She looked at the
carpet. It might be pink, but at least it didn’t have a bunch
of fairies kissing on it.
‘Now, this Dr Fishberg,’ Dolores was yelling from the
kitchen, ‘he doesn’t seem half bad. At least he’s not that
yoga instructor she was mooning over last year. Breathing.
All he ever talked about was breathing. As if we didn’t
know how to breathe. We wouldn’t be alive if we didn’t
know how to breathe.’
Dolores was right. Mimi’s men were as wide-ranging and
temporary as the rest of Mimi’s enthusiasms. There had
been the tennis pro, the enema expert, the guy with the
flotation tank and then the professor upstairs – the one
who went on and on about parallel being and the temporal
psyche of history. But still – Fishberg!
---
If that doesn't get you excited about The Queen Must Die I don't know what will! Keep an eye out of it in shops. The next blog tour stop is at
Above Average Below Special so be sure to check out the extract over there!
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Top Ten Tuesday (2)
Top Ten Bookish Websites/Organizations/Apps, etc.
1. Goodreads - this is something I use everyday to log the books I've read and to
2. The Book Depository - the perfect place to find books in pretty much all formats with free worldwide shipping. I use it for hardbacks mainly!
3. NetGalley - It is just fabulous. I can get arcs for my kindle and read them before release date! How awesome
4. S&S GalleyGrab - pretty much the same as NetGalley. Fabulous for arcs!
5. Audible - I haven't used it much but it looks like an amazing source for audiobooks. I think I need a yearly subscription!
6. Txtr - This enables me to put my S&S galleys onto my iPad! I don't know where I'd be without it.
7. readitswapit - a great book swapping site in the UK. It is simple and easy and just fab!
8. YA Lit - A great source for upcoming YA releases!
9. Kindle app - I can read all my kindle books on my lovely, pretty iPad. Score.
10. Bluefire app - I can put netgalley titles on my iPad. As you can tell I love reading on my iPad.
So that is is for me. What are your favourite bookish sites/apps?
Sunday, 26 June 2011
In My Mailbox (26/06/2011)
In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren.
For Review
Undead by Kirsty McKay
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Library
What Happened To Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
Audiobooks
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares
All American Girl by Meg Cabot
All American Girl: Ready or Not by Meg Cabot
Artichoke Hearts by Sita Brahmachari
If any of you have audible subscriptions can you tell me whether you like it, if there are any drawbacks etc? It would be really helpful :)
What did you get in your mailbox?
Friday, 24 June 2011
Read, Review, Recommend (8)
Friday has rolled around again. Sorry for being MIA, I had my last exam this week (YAY) and had a little maths party in pizza express. So, busy week. Today I have Tessa from From The Bookshelf of T.B. with her recommendation
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Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie
Author: Jordan Sonnenblick
Publisher: Scholastic
5 out of 5 stars
“Will you just leave me alone!” You slam the door in your little brother’s face. Taking deep breaths, you close your eyes and try to calm down. But you just can’t when you open your eyes and see the destruction he’s caused. You hear your brother start to cry and run downstairs to mommy. Ugh, what an annoying little twerp. Your whole room is trashed… and I mean everything. Purple paint is splattered on your walls, your books are all torn in half with pages scattering the floor, and most of all, your drumsticks are broken in half and tossed on the floor! He touched your precious drumsticks! You can’t contain your rage as you scream into your pillow, letting it all out. You don’t know how long it’s been, but later your mom walks in and says through her tears, “Honey, your brother has cancer.” Suddenly, the world spins…
Steven Alper knows exactly how this feels. His little brother, Jeffrey is the MOST annoying little boy on planet Earth. He does everything possible to bother and irritate Steven, and yet Steven is always the one who gets in trouble for everything. After all, Jeffrey is only five years old. And what’s worse, not only is Jeffrey adorable, but he also adores Steven. The only problem is that in the process he destroys everything. But how can you stay mad at a cute little boy like Jeffrey?
Steven not only has Jeffrey to deal with, but as an eighth grader he has school, girl issues, and playing the drums to focus on. Life can be rough at times, and extremely hectic, but Steven’s life is about to be turned upside down. It was just a normal morning at home, but after a sudden nose bleed, Jeffrey was rushed to the hospital. Who knew that something was wrong, how could there have been a way to know? Jeffrey was diagnosed with cancer, at only five years old. What will this mean for Steven, and how will Jeffrey take it? Where’s that annoying little brother when Steven needs him the most? All is revealed in Jordan Sonnenblick’s heart-wrenching, yet laugh out loud story of one boy’s journey learning to cope and deal with the impossible in, Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie!
This book is an absolute must-read for anyone looking for a fun read that touches on serious and deep issues. Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie made me feel raw emotion, and I was surprised at how easily I could shift from crying with tears dripping onto the page, to suddenly smiling through the tears and chuckling along. Jordan Sonnenblick’s writing had this magical affect on me, and I was able to feel everything that he was trying to get across the page. A fantastic read for pre-teens and teens alike with its heart-warming story.
I think one of the main reasons why I enjoyed this book so much was the fact that the writing felt very easy-going and it was as if a boy in the eighth grade was truly talking to me right then and there. The writing in Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me mad and it made me hopeful. It was extremely humorous to read about Steven’s retellings of many of Jeffrey’s crazy incidents. It was also very cute to read the parts of the dialogue that were Jeffrey’s. His five-year-old cuteness was evident, and there was nothing to do but smile.
The story behind Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie was very real as well. I was able to relate extremely well with Steven and what he was going through. My own grandpa was diagnosed with cancer, and within a couple of months he passed away. I really felt like I had a connection with Steven, like how suddenly the news was thrust upon me, and who knew how it would all turn out. Also, during the story Steven is in the eighth grade, just as I am. It was a cinch connecting with the stresses of junior high that Steven experienced. I’m sure many readers can relate to Steven and Jeffrey’s own story.
I would actually have enjoyed to have seen this book be a bit longer though. I felt like my journey with Steven and Jeffrey was over much too soon. I can’t wait to read some more of Jordan Sonnenblick’s other books such as, Notes from the Midnight Driver.
To sum it all up, Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie is a powerful book that will have you feeling an array of emotions. With a lighthearted take on everything, this read will be sure to have you laughing along even in the most saddening of times. Join Steven as he learns what really matters in life and just how important family is in, Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie!
-This is T.B. with Another Book Back on the Shelf…
Until Next Time, Keep Reading!
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Thanks so much Tessa!
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