In My Mailbox - April 10, 2010

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren :)

This awesome pile of books is brought to you by the Friends of the Library Book Sale! Woo hoo! I also got a couple of special books for some upcoming giveaways - but you don't get to see those ;)

Haunted: A Tale of the Mediator by Meg Cabot
Spellbound by Christopher Pike
Dates From Hell by Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Kelley Armstrong and Lori Handeland
The Monsters: Mary Shelley and The Curse of Frankenstein by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
The Watcher by James Howe
Firebirds Soaring: An Anthology of Original Speculative Fiction edited by Sharyn November
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin

Also this week:

From Other Shelf Tours

Freaksville Book One by Kitty Keswick
(from Goodreads)

High school is hard enough when you’re normal. There’s peer pressure, book reports, the in crowd and the enormous zit that has a life of its own. Having a family whose skeletons in the closet lean toward the paranormal is not a topper on anyone’s list. Sophomore Kasey Maxwell is busy juggling the typical teen angst. Add visions, ghosts and hairy four-legged monsters into the mix and you get FREAKSVILLE. It’s a wonder Kasey has survived. 

Every woman in the Maxwell family has the gift of sight. A talent sixteen-year-old Kasey would gladly give up. All she wants is a normal life. Shopping and talking about boys with her best friend and long-time sidekick Gillie Godshall consume her days. Until Kasey has a vision about Josh Johnstone, the foreign exchange student from England. The vision leads her into new waters, a lead in a play, a haunted theater…and into the arms of the Josh. Yet, both Kasey and Josh have secrets lurking in dark corners. Can Kasey’s new romance survive FREAKSVILLE?

From Other Shelf Tours

The Owl Keeper by Christine Brodien-Jones
(from Goodreads)

Maxwell Unger has always loved the night. He used to do brave things like go tramping through the forest with his gran after dark. He loved the stories she told him about the world before the Destruction—about nature, and books, and the silver owls. His favorite story, though, was about the Owl Keeper.

According to Max’s gran, in times of darkness the Owl Keeper would appear to unite owls and sages against the powers of the dark. Gran is gone now, and so are her stories of how the world used to be. Max is no longer brave. The forest is dangerous, the books Gran had saved have been destroyed, and the silver owls are extinct. At least that’s what the High Echelon says. But Max knows better.

Maxwell Unger has a secret. And when a mysterious girl comes to town, he might just have to start being brave again.

The time of the Owl Keeper, Gran would say, is coming soon.

So, what's in your mailbox?

Read-A-Thon Check in plus other Saturday Fun!

Happy Saturday everyone! What a great Read-A-Thon Week it has been. It's not quite finished yet so there is still time to participate in the fun activities. Check it out if you haven't already! (Come on, there are prizes and everything!).

***The Neverending Shelf Read-A-Thon***
*Bookworming in the 21st Century: - Activity #1: Clutter and Hording Rehab
*Red House Books - Activity #2: Review-A-Thon
*The Neverending Shelf - Activity #3: Share the Blog Love
*Teens Read and Write - Activity #4: Clear Out the Pack Rat Mentality and the TBR
*A Passion for Books - Activity #5: Declutter the Blog
*La Femme Readers - Activity #6: 2010 Books that have Blown Me Away
 
Some more great fun is happening over at Princess Bookie's today as
Contest Craze 2010 is in full swing. Great contests all day long.


I'm getting some reading done, entering some contests and working on my In My Mailbox post that I hope to have up later today (or tonight)
Hope everyone is having a fabulous Saturday!

Read-A-Thon Activity #5: Declutter The Blog

 

Another great activity! 

Declutter The Blog is brought to you by A Passion For Books

As Casey says: "Today, I am hosting Activity #3: Declutter the Blog. In this activity, I want you to make some goals, pertaining to cleaning up your blog. This can include anything you would like, as long as it has to do with your blog. For example: sidebars, review and/or author lists, etc."

 Ok, here is my list:

• Add favorite blog buttons to sidebar
• Add tour buttons to sidebar
• Work on adding pages
• Update Book Review Title and Author lists and links

The Read-A-Thon ends Sunday night so there is still time to join in on the fun! Check out The Neverending Shelf for all the goings on and for more information.

Read-A-Thon Activity #3: Share the Blog Love

Welcome to Read-A-Thon day number 3!
Have you all been reading your brains out? I think I've been doing pretty well myself :)

Today's activity is brought to you by Kate and I think it's a pretty cool one.

From Kate:

With new blogs popping up all the time, it is so hard to keep track with them all. So for today's activity, we are going to share the blog love.

To complete today's activity you must:

    * Create a post sharing with us 3 blogs that you love. They can be new, old, or just underappreciated.

    * Your post should include the blog's title, url link, and a small blurb about why you enjoy this blog so much.

    * Leave link to your post in Mr. Linky (on The Neverending Shelf) so that we can all see your picks. And hopefully, we can all discover a few new blogs that we did not know about.

Non bloggers and participate as well - head over to Kate's for more info.

Here are my picks!

Good Books & Wine -- April is supper sweet and I really enjoy visiting her blog :) Her reviews are honest and her posts feel more like conversations.

Rhiannon Hart -- Rhiannon is an Australian Blogger and I have found that we share a lot in common when it comes to books - like good horror, dystopian, fantasy and paranormal stories. 

Book Rat -- Misty is fun and spunky and I'm pretty sure I've loved everyone of her posts.

Ok - I'm really bad and talking about why I like things (have you read my reviews? :) BUT these 3 blogs really are fabulous and you should check them out.

Share the Blog Love!!

On My Wishlist - Tenners Edition

There are so many wonderful books coming out in 2010 and for some reason I seem to want them all! For those reasons, On My Wishlist posts for the rest of the year will be dedicated to upcoming 2010 Debut Authors!
Go Tenners!

On My Wishlist is hosted by Book Chick City :)

Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood by Jame Richards

Release Date: April 13, 2010

(from Goodreads)

Sixteen-year-old Celestia is a wealthy member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, where she meets and falls in love with Peter, a hired hand who lives in the valley below, and by the time of the torrential rains that lead to the disastrous Johnstown flood of 1889, she has been disowned by her family and is staying with him in Johnstown. Includes an author’s note and historical timeline.

(from publisher's website)

Sixteen-Year-Old Celstia spends every summer with her family at the elite resort at Lake Conemaugh, a shimmering Allegheny Mountain reservoir held in place by an earthen dam. Tired of the society crowd, Celestia prefers to swim and fish with Peter, the hotel’s hired boy. It’s a friendship she must keep secret, and when companionship turns to romance, it’s a love that could get Celestia disowned. These affairs of the heart become all the more wrenching on a single, tragic day in May, 1889. After days of heavy rain, the dam fails, unleashing 20 million tons of water onto Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the valley below. The town where Peter lives with his father. The town where Celestia has just arrived to join him. This searing novel in poems explores a cross-class romance—and a tragic event in U. S. history.