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Novel Places, the New Bookstore for You

One thing I always loved about Massachusetts bookstores was the old town feel, since quite a few are in older homes or businesses, and the combination of new and old and/or used books. There are certain things I would do when I went home to visit my parents — eat mom-and-pop place pizza and subs, eat my favorite Chinese food, and go to an indie bookstore.

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I’ve got my very own mom-and-pop pizza place and the best part is I can walk to it, which just opened here this year.  And now, I’ve finally found the equivalent of my favorite bookstores in Maryland!  It’s only taken me 10 years.  Novel Places is that bookstore, and their motto is very accurate!

My husband, “Wiggles,” and I took a little ride to visit this cute little store on Frederick Road in Clarksburg.  It’s not that far from where we live and its a cute little shop inside an old general store/post office.  I have a thing for older buildings, perhaps its growing up in a post-and-beam construction house that was always in need of  repairs and upgrades, especially when you find tree trunks in the walls with bark still on them.

Used Books in Novel Places

Novel Places has a great selection of used books from mystery/thriller to nonfiction and reference. There are a great number of new books as well, and there is a large section of children’s toys, including those wood peg puzzles. In addition to books, the store offers space for up to 25 people for gatherings, tournaments, and other meetings. When we were there, they had a Magic tournament going on. Now, if I ever get another book club going, maybe we could have our meetings there! So if there are any interested people in Maryland near Clarksburg interested in starting a book club, I’m all ears.

Currently, they are honoring Borders Rewards members, which came in handy for me when I wanted to pick up a cool book about my current city/town!  The store also offers Google ebooks downloading for those of you with ereaders, and you can get them to track down those hard to find books for you.  There are some great gifts like book covers made of various fabrics and one of my favorite finds was the nice Atticus Books display, which is one of my favorite local publishers in Maryland (though I still am waiting for Tracks to arrive!).  Check out these great photos from inside the store.  I can’t wait to see them expand upstairs!

Take the time to click on the Novel Places Logo at the top of the post, visit them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter to see what’s new.  You can also find the owner, Patrick on LinkedIn.  Come experience the quaint bookstore with me when you’re in town!

BBAW Winners and More Winners

The winner of The Gendarme by Mark Mustian was Jill of Rhapsody in Books.

 

The winner of Operation Blue Light by Philip Chabot and Laurie Anne Blanchard during BBAW is Emily of Emrelove.

 

 

The winner of Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles during BBAW was Florinda of The 3 Rs Blog.

 

 

The winner of Women Know Everything! by Karen Weekes during BBAW was Aths of Reading on a Rainy Day.

 

The winner of The Snow Whale by John Minichillo during BBAW was Amy of The House of Seven Tails.

 

 

 

The winner of When She Woke by Hillary Jordan during BBAW was Lauren of Shooting Stars Mag.

 

Congrats to all of you and I hope you enjoy the books.

 

 

Virtual Poetry Circle #115

The Other Man is Always French (page 38-40)
by Richard Peabody from Buoyancy and Other Myths (my review)

The other woman can be
a blonde or a redhead
but the other man
is always French.

He dresses better
than I ever will.

He can picnic
and stroll
with a wineglass
in one upraised hand.

Munch pate,
drink espresso,
and tempt with
ashy kisses.

He hangs out
at Dupont Circle
because the trees
remind him of Paris.

Did I mention sex?

Face it--
he's had centuries
of practice.

I'm an American.
What do I know?

He drives a fast car,
and can brood like
nobody's business,
while I sit home
watching ESPN.

He's tall and
chats about art--
I don't even want
to discuss that accent.

He's Mr. Attitude.

My fantasy is to call
the State Department
and have him deported.

Only he'll probably
convince you to marry him
for a green card.

No way I'm going to win--
the other man is
always more aggressive,
always more attentive.

The other man
is just too French
for words.

From now on
I'm going out
with statuesque German women

so next time we run
into each other
they can kick his butt
for me.

As part of the 115th Virtual Poetry Circle, I’d like to welcome you and hope you will read the above poem more than once.

I find reading poems out loud is helpful in understanding what they are talking about.

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Molly Peacock’s books are a great resource about how to examine a poem.  She suggests selecting a line, a stanza, sentences, and images and look at the poem in pieces.

I’m looking to you to describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of Peacock’s book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2011 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry.

Please contribute to the growing list of 2011 Indie Lit Award Poetry Suggestions (NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN through Dec. 31, 2011) and visit the stops on the National Poetry Month Blog Tour from April.

Above all, have fun and join the discussion.

She by Saul Williams

She by Saul Williams is a collection of interconnected musical poems coupled with a collection of images from Marcia Jones that tells a story about a woman and their journey together.  On his Website, he says, “This book chronicles my thoughts and feelings as a young man working through an early relationship with an amazing visual artist as we embark on adulthood and parenthood in the same breath.”

Each of Williams’ poems has a unique rhythm to it, and should be read aloud for effect.  Each is as expressive as you would expect Williams to be in real life, becoming an extension of himself and his digital, visual, and audio art.  Unlike other collections, Williams’ She is a story beginning to end with a prologue and epilogue and prose poetry.  The nameless She is integral to the journey, a connection to the past and the future, illustrated through short lines and “out loud” cadence that screams to be read aloud.

While readers could dip in and out of the collection and experience it in small chunks, it is best to read it cover to cover to grasp its full impact. Tackling issues of separatism, aging, and opposing desires, Williams pinpoints the harshest of realities and deals them a deft blow when he demonstrates the commonalities between us all. Because these poems do not have titles, the clear intent is to create a continuous narrative in which “calamity makes cousins of us all” (page 22) and “we live.” (page xi)

Nature imagery and personification can make the issues more vivid, “there is a gathering in the forest. the leaves have refused to change. they say that they are tired of things never remaining the same, of dying to be reborn, of winter’s dry withered hand.” (page 7) But lest the images become to heavy, there are moments of whimsy as well.

I have seen the truth
many times
but for the first time
she saw me

I wore suspenders
for the judgment
in my pants

(page 13)

As the relationship goes down hill, readers will not a dramatic change in the poems as the narrator struggles to let go for the sake of love. “I am a canvas/painted over/whether it be by your hand/or mine own.” (page 113) The images included in the book are unusual and appear to mix mediums, and often resemble pages from a scrapbook that a mother would keep of her children. In a way these pages resemble Williams’ play on words as he picks them apart and alters their definitions to explain the moment he is in.

Reading She alone in a room is not enough. It should be read aloud, shared with others, and most who pick up a copy will do just that. Seeing Saul Williams read it would make it even better, but its up to you to find out where he’s reading or performing next. There is not enough that can be said about this collection, except go read it!

Some reason Saul reminds me of Don Cheadle in this photo.

About the Poet:

Saul Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.

From Wikipedia about Williams and Marcia Jones’ relationship:

Williams and artist Marcia Jones began their relationship in 1995 as collaborative artists on the Brooklyn performance art and spoken word circuit. Their daughter, Saturn, was born in 1996. His collection of poems S/HE is a series of reflections on the demise of the relationship. Marcia Jones, a visual artist and art professor, created the cover artwork for The Seventh Octave, images through-out S/HE in response to Williams, and set designed his 2001 album Amethyst Rock Star.

This is my 24th book for the Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge.

 

 

This is my 54th book for the 2011 New Authors Reading Challenge.

BBAW, the Final Send Off

It has been a crazy week of book blogging and celebrations, and I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who voted, participated, commented, read, and brought the giveaways and posts to the community.  You’re all fantastic people and your voices have been heard.

I also want to thank you for voting for my blog as Best Poetry Blog.  I appreciated that more than you know.

Three Tips for Blogging:

1.  Be Creative:  Come up with your own events, challenges, review formats, weekly features, and interview questions.  Take inspiration from other blogs, television, your neighbors, strangers on the subway, and wherever else you find it.

2.  Try it Out:  Even if you try out an idea and it doesn’t work, you gave it a chance.  You should also give it more than a few weeks.  Keep the events, formats, and other stuff you try going for a month or more because the blogging world is so big, it takes more time to get noticed.  You can help that along by following tip #3.

3.  Spread the Word:  Facebook, Twitter, and commenting are your friends.  Its how you make connections, how you build a following, and how you inform others of what you are doing.  This works for your reviews, your interviews, your giveaways, your events, and more.  If you are starting your own challenge, you should submit the information to the Novel Challenge blog.

One of the latest things I’ve done is make a Facebook page for the blog, and use it to spread information about poets, interesting articles, and publishing updates and trends.  It’s been a great way to keep discussion going, and you don’t need to constantly watch it like you do Twitter.

I hope everyone had a great time this week and found some more blogs to follow and enjoy.  Take the time to read through these new blogs and get to know the people behind them.  You’ll be richer for it.

What are your tips?

Since I received a second copy of When She Woke by Hillary Jordan, I’m going to pass one along to a book blogger. I haven’t read this yet, but it sounds fantastic.

All you have to do is comment and leave a link to your blog so I can visit.

This International giveaway ends Sept. 16, 2011, at 11:59PM EST.

Buoyancy and Other Myths by Richard Peabody

Buoyancy and Other Myths by Richard Peabody is a slim collection that gets at the heart of family drama broken into three parts:  Shooting Myself in the Foot, Kissing Games, and Between Funerals.  The narrator in these poems ages and matures from a young boy eager to help his father but afraid of falling short to an older man similarly worried about falling short, but more accepting of reality.

Unlike the young man in “Family Secrets” who is shaking sense into his brother, the man in the latter poems, like “Orbits,” comes to the realization that the past cannot be hidden and regrets do nothing but hold you back.  You must roll with the punches.  What is striking in some of these poems is the calmness of the narrator, even as violent thoughts or actions are being displayed.  For instance, in “Family Secrets” (page 11) — which is a powerful way to start a collection — “Music isn’t enough tonight./Scratching, clawing, eyes like stones./If I erase him I will expand./His sins wiped clean. Nowhere/for him to leer from. No perch/or receptacle that can hold that/particular weight. He gives up./”  Is his brother still living and he wishes that he didn’t have to remember him or is it what happened to his brother that he does not wish to remember and it would be easier to erase him entirely?

Nearing the end of the collection, it seems as though this narrator has found peace or at least outwardly demonstrates contentment, or is it resignation?  In “I Live Behind a Bakery” (page 55-6), “Only most days/it’s easier/to just read a book/with that smell/all around me/and think buttery thoughts.//”  Peabody has a lot of cutesy ideas that he plays with in his poetry, like living behind a bakery or dating vampires, but these images are metaphors for other things like the contentment that you find in the simple things of life or even in the relationships you have.  However, there is an undercurrent in these poems urging readers to move beyond contentment, leap into more dangerous and possibly fulfilling territory.

Guitar Player (page 36)

Fingers know secrets
that eyes can’t understand.

While not all the poems are memorable or strong, there are a few gems within the collection’s pages that are worth reading more than once. Some are simply powerful in a few lines. Buoyancy and Other Myths by Richard Peabody explores the nature of relationships and how they propel us to greater things to seek out new directions and yes, to grow.

About the Poet:

Richard Peabody, a prolific poet, fiction writer and editor, is an experienced teacher and important activist in the Washington , D.C., community of letters. Peabody is the editor of Gargoyle Magazine (founded in 1976), and has published a novella, two books of short stories, six books of poems, plus an e-book, and edited (or co-edited) nineteen anthologies including: “Mondo Barbie,” “Conversations with Gore Vidal,” “A Different Beat: Writings by Women of the Beat Generation,” and “Kiss the Sky: Fiction and Poetry Starring Jimi Hendrix.” Peabody teaches fiction writing for the Johns Hopkins Advanced Studies Program.

This is my 23rd book for the Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge.

 

This is my 53rd book for the 2011 New Authors Reading Challenge.

 

 

 

This is a stop on The Literary Road Trip since Richard Peabody is a local Washington, D.C., area poet.

Reading Changes…

As any reader can tell you, your reading habits will change with your mood or with the place you are in your life.  When you’re younger, you’ll probably read more about relationships and friendships, but as you age, your reading may take you into deeper topics about the environment, humanity, socio-political issues, war, and more.  This may not always be the case for some readers.  But reading also is driven by mood, like when you are in a bad mood and need a book that will pick you up out of the doldrums.  For instance, right now, I’m glad that the books I’m reading next — To the Moon and Back by Jill Mansell, One Day by David Nicholls, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Rigaud — are expected to be full of humor, romance, and fun since I’m in a poopy mood.

On a broader scale, has blogging influenced what I read?  Yes, somewhat.  Would I have still read poetry?  YES!  Would I still have read the wide variety of books I do now? YES!  However, would I have read the specific books I have in the last year?  Maybe or maybe not; it would have depended on if I found them in the bookstore through browsing or if they would have been recommended to me by others.  I’ve always been an eclectic reader, but some of the more obscure or specialized books I’ve read, ranging from photography to nonfiction war books, probably would not have made their way into my hands without bloggers.

Found this crazy snow whale photo on the Web and couldn't resist.

In that same way, my giveaway today has to do with recommending what I think is a great book, published by one of the local D.C. area presses, Atticus Books. 

I already read this gently used ARC, and now I want to pass it onto one of you to read and enjoy.  Remember this is a parody and you need not have read Moby Dick to enjoy it because I’ve never finished that “great” Melville work, and I loved The Snow Whale.

You must be a book blogger to enter and leave a link to your blog.  Deadline for this international giveaway is Sept. 16, 2011, at 11:59PM EST

BBAW Community Connections & Giveaway

Building community connections among book bloggers takes time, no matter if you are a blogger whose been on the Internet for one minute or three years.  From commenting on other blogs to participating in memes or in reading challenges, book blogging is time consuming, exhausting, and daunting, especially when you first start out.

Imagine being a reader, writer, and lover of poetry and wondering where to find all the poetry bloggers? That can be difficult, just as its difficult finding readers in the “real world” who read poetry.

I would love to provide other poetry lovers with a space they can use to share their poetry recommendations, reviews, and questions.  Wouldn’t that be fun?  I’ve met a few wonderful readers of poetry, but there are certainly more out there.

So if anyone has some tips they’d like to share to bring this part of the community closer together, feel free to leave it in the comments.  I’m all ears.

Beyond finding your own like-minded readers, its also good to participate in community events like BBAW and the Indie Lit Awards.  The Indie Lit Awards are particularly important because readers and book bloggers are gaining a voice, and in an effort to make that voice more powerful, the awards will be given to those books that WE feel are worthy of recognition.

I’m chairing the Poetry committee this year, and love getting the word out about awesome poetry books.  We’re looking for some great 2011 nominations, and hope that you’ll stop by between now and the end of the year to nominate your favorite poetry books published this year.

Now, for today’s giveaway.  I have 1 copy of Women Know Everything! by Karen Weekes, which I received from Quirk Books and want to pass along to someone else to enjoy. 

You must be a blogger to enter and leave your blog link in the comments.  Deadline is Sept. 16, 2011, at 11:59PM EST and is open internationally.

Ten Beach Road by Wendy Wax

Wendy Wax has an excellent beach read with substance in Ten Beach Road for those of you looking for an end of summer winner.  Ripped from the headlines, these three women find that their only remaining asset is a rundown beach house (Bella Flora) in Florida after Malcolm Dyer — aka Bernie Madoff — stole their life savings.  Madeline’s life has been flipped upside down when she realizes her investment advising husband not only lost his clients’ money in a giant Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Dyer, but also that of his family.  Meanwhile, Avery has discovered that her father’s estate was similarly lost just as her stint as a co-host of Hammer and Nail on HGTV as her ex-husband edges her out with his elbow.  Nicole’s situation is a bit different because she had a personal connection to Dyer and her trust was more born of that loyalty than a financial desire, which makes her financial crash all the more crushing.

“‘Yes, it’s a fine old home,’ the Realtor said as if their surprise had been of joy.  ‘And as you’ll see a large portion of it has been renovated.  It just needs a little tender loving care.’

‘More like hospitalization,’ Nicole said.  ‘Or a team of paramedics.'” (page 56)

Add to the mix, a former childhood male friend, Chase, who had the perfect family life that Avery wanted and an FBI agent, Giraldi, stalking Nicole and looking for Dyer, and you’ve got a bit of mystery and sexual tension.  Wax has a down-to-earth sense of humor that livens up the playful interactions of three strangers, who soon become friends offering advice and support as they deal with family drama.  Her characters are varied and out to prove themselves to one another, their families, and everyone else, demonstrating their strengths and hiding their weaknesses as best they can.  Avery is the degreed architect portrayed on television as an airhead; Nicole is the bombshell who makes her living pairing up the rich and famous; and Madeline is the trunk of her family tree, the one that holds it all together just as the hurricane is set to rip everything apart.

“The army had spread out to attack different sections of the garden.  John Franklin sat on a camp chair that had been placed near the fountain, a smile on his face as he watched his wife command her battalion.

‘Mrs. Franklin wanted to get started before it got too hot,’ Avery said.  ‘I don’t think a single one of them is under seventy-five.  They’ll fill in with some new plantings after the house has been pressure washed and painted.’

Nicole moved down the hall to peer out the rear windows above the loggia; that was the one advantage in being last in line — she didn’t need to hold on to her spot.  Only her bladder.  ‘Good God, that woman is climbing up that tree.  I think she’s got a . . . ‘

The whir of an electric saw drifted p to them followed by the crash of a limb landing on concrete.”  (page 237)

What makes this novel more than women’s fiction is the mystery of where Malcolm Dyer is and how tragedy can either pull families apart or bring them together.  Readers searching for a summer read to close out their holiday season should seriously consider Wendy Wax’s Ten Beach Road for its tropical locale — Florida — its hot men — Chase and Giraldi — and the triumph of its female leads as they find their inner strength and pursue their dreams of redemption.

This is my 52nd book for the 2011 New Authors Reading Challenge.

BBAW Interview Swap: Gautami of Everything Distils Into Reading

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that one of my favorite activities is interviewing other bloggers. For this year’s interview swap as part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gautami of Everything Distils Into Reading.

She and I share a love of writing and reading poetry, and I love to check out her poems from time to time, which she posts online for her readers.  She’s very prolific, and wouldn’t it be grand if another blogger were to publish a poetry book, like Sandra of Fresh Ink Books?

Without further ado, here’s my in-depth interview with Gautami:

1. Everything Distils into Reading is not your first book blog, but why did you decide to keep going and how did you come up with the name for the new incarnation?

I lost my blog, My Own Little Reading Room, to malware in April 2009. It was a very big loss. I kind of felt as if something was cut of from my body. I decided the only option was to keep going. My life revolves around books. I am a teacher, so my work too is reading related. That is how the name of my blog came up.

2. How do you determine which blogs to read on a regular basis and how often do you read them?

I have stuck to the old bloggers. I like to read Crime Fiction, Literary Fiction and poetry. So I kind of only read those blogs and a few others which are mix of all. I read via Google Reader!

3. I know you recently went through a reading slump (and may still be), but could you provide readers and bloggers alike with some tips on how to overcome that slump?

My reading slump persists. I am unable to read novels. But I am reading a lot. Scientific papers. Poetry. Global news. Non-fiction. Short pieces hold my interest. I say, do what works best for you!

4. As a writer of poetry, do you keep writing for yourself? Do you submit to magazines (online or print)? And what keeps you inspired?

I write poetry only for myself. I do have a blog, rooted. I write from writing prompts. Never submitted my poetry any where.

5. If you had to choose one book (of poetry or otherwise) from the 2011 publication year to nominate for the Indie Lit Awards in September, what would it be?

I can’t answer that. Mainly because I have not explored. Being an Indian, all those awards don’t have much meaning for me!

Thanks, Gautami, for sharing a bit of yourself and your blog with us.  Feel free to leave a question for Gautami or myself or leave a link to your BBAW interview swap.

Want to check out Gautami’s interview with me, head on over to her blog.

Today’s giveaway is for Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles. You must be a blogger to enter and you must leave your blog address. Open internationally; deadline ends Sept. 16, 2011, at 11:59PM EST.

Mailbox Monday #143 & BBAW Welcome

Mailbox Mondays (click the icon to check out the new blog) has gone on tour since Marcia at A Girl and Her Books, formerly The Printed Page passed the torch.  This month our host is Amused by Books.  Kristi of The Story Siren continues to sponsor her In My Mailbox meme.  Both of these memes allow bloggers to share what books they receive in the mail or through other means over the past week.

Just be warned that these posts can increase your TBR piles and wish lists.

Here’s what I received this week:

1. Little Black Dress by Susan McBride, which I won from The Girl in the Ghetto.

2. The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore, which I won from Booking Mama

3. The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson from Shelf Awareness.

What did you receive this week?

Today is also the first day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, so be aware that there will be multiple posts from me this week, which we all know is not the norm. Please click on the button to find out this week’s daily topics.

I’d like to talk a little bit about community. Online communities like that of the book blogging community inevitably grow, but in our case, we’ve grown exponentially. There are so many great people from real life friends who blog together, people who became friends and work together on a variety of projects, to those of us who have never met in person.

While Dewey of The Hidden Side of a Leaf encouraged me to keep with my blog and spread the poetry love, the rest of you have kept me going through the years. While I haven’t met everyone in the community, not have I seen your blog before, just knowing you are there is a comfort to me.

I encourage people to leave your blog link in the comments, and I will try to visit and comment if I haven’t done either before. Thanks again to everyone.

Today’s giveaway is for Operation Blue Light by Philip Chabot and Laurie Anne Blanchard.

You must be a blogger to enter and you must leave a link to your blog. Open Internationally and deadline is Sept. 16, 2011, at 11:59PM EST.

Appreciating Bloggers

Book Blogger Appreciation Week starts Sept. 12 and runs through Sept. 16 with a variety of giveaways and activities for the blogging community.  Each year, I take the opportunity to visit bloggers I don’t really know or have never seen before, and that’s how I find gems, like Unabridged Chick.

In appreciation of my fellow book bloggers, I’m going to offer up some books for giveaway throughout the week, starting tomorrow.  You must be a blogger to enter, which means you must leave me your blog address in the comments to be entered.

So you can plan ahead, these are the books I’ll be offering this week:

1.  Operation Blue Light by Philip Chabot and Laurie Anne Blanchard, which is a memoir and I didn’t feel interested in; I want to pass this along to someone who would enjoy it.  Here are the details from Amazon:

In Operation Blue Light: My Secret Life among Psychic Spies Philip Chabot reveals for the first time the powerful story of his growing psychic ability and the government s growing interest in him. Mr. Chabot details a type of psychic ability he calls spoken telepathy and tells how it came to steal away a summer of his young life. Philip Chabot recorded his memories of the experience three years after the story ended but kept those tapes private until after he retired. After forty years of keeping his and the government s secret he now tells what lead to that hot summer afternoon in Lebanon, Missouri. He reveals how his psychic abilities had grown to such a state that he was actually interrupting intelligence efforts around the world.

2.  Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles, which I recently read and reviewed for the U.S. Civil War Reading Challenge at War Through the Generations.  Here’s part of the description from Amazon:

For the Colleys of southeastern Missouri, the War between the States is a plague that threatens devastation, despite the family’s avowed neutrality. For eighteen-year-old Adair Colley, it is a nightmare that tears apart her family and forces her and her sisters to flee. The treachery of a fellow traveler, however, brings about her arrest, and she is caged with the criminal and deranged in a filthy women’s prison.

But young Adair finds that love can live even in a place of horror and despair. Her interrogator, a Union major, falls in love with her and vows to return for her when the fighting is over. Before he leaves for battle, he bestows upon her a precious gift: freedom.

3.  Women Know Everything! by Karen Weekes, which I received from Quirk Books and want to pass along to someone else to enjoy.

With more than 3,000 quotations on everything from fashion and feminism to men, marriage, friendship, history, technology, sports, and more, this massive compilation proves once and for all that women know everything! Each page offers wisdom, wit, and inspiration from a host of legendary women—from Jane Austen and Colette to Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Toni Morrison, Liz Phair, Ellen DeGeneres, and Naomi Klein.

4.  The Snow Whale by John Minichillo, which I reviewed earlier this year.

When John Jacobs, a mild-mannered suburban office worker, takes a DNA test and discovers that he is part-Inuit, he so embraces his new identity that he declares it his Inupiat tribal right to set forth on a whale hunt.

So begins this postmodern satire, a seriocomic, quirky adventure set in the oldest continuously settled town in North America, in the North Slope of Alaska, on the frozen Chukchi Sea, literally at the top of the world, where the inhabitants and their ancestors have depended on subsistence whaling for thousands of years.

5.  When She Woke by Hillary Jordan, which I received 2 copies of and have an extra copy to pass along to one of you.

Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family, but after her arrest, she awakens to a nightmare: she is lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a new and sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder. The victim, according to the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she’s shared a fierce and forbidden love.

I hope you’ll all be stopping by and entering the giveaways, but most of all checking out new blogs this week and most of all enjoying the community.  Don’t enter here, but on the posts throughout the week.  There are also 2 other giveaways in the sidebar for all readers.

Also, please take a moment today to remember the people who died on Sept. 11, 2001, and who died after helping people out of the rubble and more.