I will just list the titles of books I've read this week.
Flunked by Jen Calonita. Fairy Tale Reform School?
Ruddy Gore by Kerry Greenwood, a Miss Phryne Fisher mystery - for adults. I love the PBS series and the books are, well, almost as good - and occasionally better.
Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones. With a title like that, how could I resist?
The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall. Well, finally, here's a family that I can love as much as Hilary McKay's Casson family and without as much worry. The Penderwick parents are a bit less scattered than the Casson parents.
More on these and on the last two TOON books in my stack.
JEN CALONITA has interviewed everyone from Reese Witherspoon to Justin Timberlake, but the only person she's ever wanted to trade places with is Disney's Cinderella. She's the award-winning author of the My Secrets of My Hollywood Life series.
What makes a villain a villain? I’ve always been a fascinated—and a little bit terrified—of villains, especially in fairytales. As a child, I couldn’t get enough of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs even if the old witch sent me diving into our couch cushions to hide my eyes.
Jen Calonita shared a fun Cover Story here a while ago,
for Reality Chick, and she's back, yay! The first book in the
Belles series is, well,
Belles. Here's Jen to talk about the cover:
"Designer Tracy Shaw has worked on all my
Secrets of My Hollywood Life covers and did
Sleepaway Girls as well so to be honest, I wasn't really worried about the design--I knew she'd come up with something beautiful.
"The team is always nice enough to tell me what they're thinking, and I figure they know best so go with it! The only concern I had when they were doing this cover was who the cover model was going to be. I had hoped she'd resemble one of the two protagonists--Mira or Izzie. This cover definitely feels like Mira to me--a true Southern belle. There will be four books in the Belles series and each cover will feature a different girl from the series. Hopefully Izzie will get her turn at some point! The Winter White cover (Belles 2, out this October) features a girl who looks like Savannah, Mira's best friend (well, best friend when we start out in book one!).
"The girl on the cover is a real model! I know that because she actually friended me on Facebook and told me this was her first photo shoot..."
Read the rest of
Jen's Cover Story at melissacwalker.com.
A special announcement from author Jen Calonita:
SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE AND I WANT TO GIVE AWAY SOME BOOKS!
I cannot wait to get into the pool or head down to the beach and just enjoy the fine weather. When I was in junior high and high school we spent our summers on the east end of Long Island (the very East End that Reality Check is set in) and back then I hated the beach. No joke. Sand in my Walkman (yes, Walkman), in my turkey sandwich, sticking to me along with the sunscreen. I just hated going down to the shore. Oh, how times have changed. But back then the only way I could survive those days down at the beach with my sun-loving parents and younger sister was to read. I would pretty much read a book every few days. I'm not kidding--what else did I have to do really? I dare say we didn't even have cable back then (how did I ever survive?)! I would devour this series called Sweet Valley High. Thankfully there were over two hundred books in the series along with all these super special books that were double the length. Basically I had plenty to read and I read A LOT. I drove my parents nuts begging them to drive me to the local independent bookstore to get another book several times a week. My paperbacks worked hard for me -- they had watermarks from being read in the pool with wet fingers. They had sunscreen smears on the book jackets and sometimes even food fell on them, but that's the beauty of a paperback -- it takes a licking and keeps on ticking!
I hope you have as memorable of a summer as I had when I was growing up. To help you celebrate, I'm giving away one of my books in paperback a week, every week from July 3rd to August 29th. It could be a Secrets novel, or the new Reality Check paperback that just came out, or maybe it will be Sleepaway Girls, but it will always be a surprise! (No grumbling if you don't get your pick, okay?) Every week starting on July 3rd a new winner will be chosen at random and there are a bunch of ways you can enter to win. Here's how:
Each of the following will earn an entry:
• Follow Jen Calonita on Facebook and leave a comment saying, "I'm entering the Jen Calonita summer paperback-a-week giveaway!"
• Became a fan of the upcoming Belles series on Facebook, post on the wall, and leave a comment there saying, "I'm entering the Jen Calonita summer paperback-a-week giveaway!"
• Follow Jen Calonita on Twitter @jencalonita and leave a comment saying "I'm entering the Jen Calonita summer paperback-a-week giveaway!".
• Become an email subscriber of Jen Calonita's newsletter.
Winner will be chosen randomly each week and notified via email. Good luck and happy summer!
To enter the giveaway, follow the instructions above and visit/join/comment at Jen's Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Drop by
Jen's blog to say hi!
To learn more about Jen Calonita and her bestselling novels, visit
http://www.jencalonitaonline.com
I'M GOING TO LET YOU IN ON A LITTLE SECRET...
From March 1st through March 26th, you can have your copy of There's No Place Like Home by Jen Calonita autographed and get an exclusive Secrets bookmark!
HOW?
Here's the scoop from Jen Calonita herself: If you purchase There's No Place Like Home during those dates, AND you live in the U.S., then you can send Jen an email with your name (which is the name she'll assume you want on the autograph dedication -- but tell her if it is otherwise!), and address, and Jen will send you a personalized bookplate, which is a sticker. The sticker goes right inside your book on the title page and the bookmark, well, you guys know how those work!
Email Jen: [email protected]
WHAT'S THE CATCH?
To prove you're reading the final book, you have to answer one question correctly: What role does Alexis Holden, Kaitlin and Sky's nemesis, get in this book?
WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?
Jen says: "There's No Place Like Home, the final Secrets novel, is in stores now (or if it's not, it will be any day!) and it's a bittersweet moment for me. I'm so thankful to all of you for sticking with Kaitlin (and me!) for six books and I wish I could tell you all that in person! Since I can't, I wanted to find a way to thank you and this seemed like a great way to do it. I hope you enjoy this giveaway as much as I do!"
Learn more about the author at her official website:
http://www.jencalonitaonline.com
Learn more about There's No Place Like Home.
Read an excerpt of the book. (PDF)
Read all of the books in the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series.
We are adding a new category to our blog posts…drum roll please…
FRIDAY’S FOCUS!
Every Friday we will give you a brief rundown of the books we received over the course of the week. We will “focus” on the books that are jumping into our To Be Read pile. So without further ado…
Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows’s insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients’ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie’s intuitive gift proves useful to the case—and also dangerous.
Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene’s disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community years ago when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.
“I know how a moment can spiral out of control,” Jones says to a shocked Maggie as he searches Rick’s room for incriminating evidence. “How the consequences of one careless action can cost you everything.”
As she tries to reassure him that Rick embodies his father in all of the important ways, Maggie realizes this might be exactly what Jones fears most. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene’s disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret—one that could destroy everything she holds dear. This thrilling novel about one community’s intricate yet fragile bonds will leave readers asking, How well do I know the people I love? and How far would I go to protect them?
Release Date: August 3, 2010
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Pages: 336
He was a tough-guy Welshman softened by the affections of a breathtakingly beautiful woman; she was a modern-day Cleopatra madly in love with her own Mark Antony. For nearly a quarter of a century, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were Hollywood royalty, and their fiery romance—often called “the marriage of the century”—was the most notorious, publicized, and celebrated love affair of its day.
For the first time, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner and acclaimed biographer Nancy Schoenberger tell the complete story of this larger-than-life couple, showing how their romance and two marriages commanded the attention of the world. Also for the first time, in exclusive access given to the authors, Elizabeth Taylor herself gives never-revealed details and firsthand accounts of her life…
.jpg?picon=590)
Awesome! This is a great give-a-way, and I've completed all of the options to enter! Crossing my fingers now :)
I'm going to have to do this when I'm not working.
Eastern end of Long Island? Fancy? We went to Crabmeadow Beach in Northport. Not as fancy. But still - beach.
I read tons when I was a kid and teen. Ahh, Sweet Valley High.