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My Favorite Blogs, Not on the Shortlist

September 14, 2009 by

Book Blogger Appreciation Week has kicked off, and all week long there are activities, scavenger hunts, and memes. Savvy Verse & Wit will be offering a ton of giveaways this week, and we hope that you will participate in BBAW, read reviews, enter giveaways, and other activities.

Today, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite book blogs that I read everyday. These are blogs that did not make the shortlists this year.

Let’s start with my nomination for Best New Blog: Book Chick City

She has a great color scheme and the sidebars and post sections are streamlined. Enough of aesthetics though, what I really love best are her reviews. I wanted to provide you with some of the best reviews I’ve read on her site, and I hope you will check them out and add Book Chick City to your reader.

1. She’s already started participating in the community here and here.
2. Passionate book reviews.
3. Insightful interviews.

Another blog that I feel should have been shortlisted this year is The Literate Housewife Review.

Jennifer’s blog has a great design for her blog with a unique representation of herself, and this blog is easy to navigate as well. I love her honesty and her anecdotes about her girls and family. You really feel at home reading her blog, like you’re sitting down to tea with her. Here are some of my favorite posts:

1. Her Dog Days of Summer challenge was exceptional.
2. Read her post about BBAW.
3. And she is creative in other ways, with her bookmark of the month club.

Have you checked out Bookgirl’s Nightstand?

Iliana is one of the most creative bloggers I’ve come across, and you can easily check out her journal-making skills at her Etsy shop or on her blog. Her blog has a great color scheme and nice set up, where you can easily find what reading challenges she’s joined and the progress she has made. Here are some of her latest, greatest posts:

1. A book review in pictures.
2. Her post on foreign bookstores.
3. Adventures in Bookbinding

You must have known I would talk about my buddy, Anna’s blog, Diary of an Eccentric.

She works hard on her blog and on our joint venture War Through the Generations (but we’re not talking about that because it is on the shortlist). Not only is Anna reviewing books, interviewing authors, and offering guest bloggers the spotlight, but also she shares her blog, on occasion, with her daughter, known as The Girl! Reading their joint reviews is fun, but let’s not forget her hidden talent, knitting. Ok, enough blabbing, check out her posts for yourself.

1. Review of He Was My Chief
2. Knitting–maybe I’m biased since those are my feet modeling the goods.
3. A review by The Girl

Finally, I wanted to highlight is Everything Distils Into Reading.

Gautami has phenomenal tastes in books and poetry, she even writes her own. Yes, we have another multitalented blogger on our hands. Everything Distils is a reimagination of her blog that was “disappeared” earlier this year, and it has been a hard road back, but she has never let that slow her down. I, for one, am glad she decided to keep her blog going and build it back up. Here are some great posts:

1. Can of worms?
2. Wait Until Twilight
3. Mermaids and poetry

What are some of your favorite blogs that didn’t make the shortlists?


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: BBAW, Events

Winners of Millie’s Fling

September 13, 2009 by

Out of 33 entrants to the Jill Mansell giveaway for Millie’s Fling, Randomizer.org selected #28 and #9:

Wanda and Amanda (aka fitz12383)

Congrats to the winners.

Stay tuned for future giveaways in honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week.

All of the giveaways posted here on Savvy Verse & Wit this week will be international.

Also, I want to remind you that any purchases of books made through my Amazon.com Affiliate links will earn 5 additional entries into each giveaway (all you have to do is email me an order # or invoice).


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: winners

Mailbox Monday #47

September 13, 2009 by

Yes, it is Mailbox Monday, sponsored by Marcia of The Printed Page, on Sunday again!

Not too many books arriving in the mailbox these days, but I did head out to my local library sale and picked up some goodies for me and for Book Blogger Appreciation Week.

1. Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino; if you missed my joint review of the movie with Anna of Diary of an Eccentric, click on the link.

2. More of Me Disappears by John Amen from the poet.

3. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin from Delacorte Press, which I believe I saw in Shelf Awareness.

4. Apologies to an Apple by Maya Ganesan, which Color Online let me borrow for review.

5. Seduce Me by Robyn DeHart, which I won from Pudgy Penguin Perusals.

From the library sale:

6. Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews

7. Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan

8. The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

9. Solstice by Joyce Carol Oates

10. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

11. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

12. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

13. Never Let Me Go by Kazou Ishiguro

14. The Greatest Generation Speaks: Letters and Reflections by Tom Brokaw

I’m sure you are wondering which of these books are for BBAW giveaways, but I’m going to leave you in suspense. You’ll just have to come back during the week to find out.

All week, I’m trying something new for giveaways. If you order through one of my amazon affiliate program images, you will get 5 extra entries into each giveaway and for each book you buy. You just have to email me an order number/invoice.

What did you get in your mailbox?


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: BBAW, Events, mailbox monday

12th Virtual Poetry Circle

September 12, 2009 by

Don’t forget about the Verse Reviewers link I’m creating here on Savvy Verse & Wit.

Send me an email with your blog information to savvyverseandwit AT gmail DOT com

And now, for the twelfth edition of the Virtual Poetry Circle:

OK, Here’s a poem up for reactions, interaction, and–dare I say it–analysis:

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

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Today’s poem is a contemporary poem from Rosemary Winslow‘s Green Bodies (click on the link for my review) on page 71.

Transport

Without visible wings
pearled the
hummingbird suspends
at flower’s nipple
and her heart beats mightily
as she draws the nectar up
the artery of her strange mouth

This is the way I watch her
every morning coming and going
from five to eight
it must be the same one
I’ve read they’re so pugnacious

Her mate flies in a wide arc
up to a twig in the pine
and waits for her
his head a miniature sun
on the branch’s horizon

still as night I sit near the laurel
along the porch I look and look
past the house wall past him
into the dark sensation of woods
I see nothing

more alive
than this
pure desire
for sweetness
their

electric humming
as they stand in air–
everything
they want
is now

They are so filled
when he comes down to her
their green bodies
two shimmering leaves
soft fire

then flash
over the briars
disappear–
every morning all
disappear
return

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles, check them out here. It’s never too late to join the discussion.


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: virtual poetry circle

And the Award Goes To. . .

September 11, 2009 by

Earlier this month, Chocolate & Croissants bestowed upon me the Heartfelt Award. Thank you very much.

Here are my awardees:

1. It’s All About Books
2. She Is Too Fond of Books
3. Diary of an Eccentric
4. Maw Books
5. Peeking Between the Pages
6. Book Chick City
7. Literaturely Speaking
8. Beth’s Book Review Blog
9. A Bibliophile’s Bookshelf

I received this award from Beth Fish Reads and Books and Movies. Thanks! This award comes with a meme in which you’re supposed to list 7 of your favorite things, and pass this award along to 7 other bloggers.

1. Charlee, my Keeshond
2. Bookmarks of all shapes and sizes
3. Books that make me laugh out loud in public
4. Creative writing
5. Photography
6. Lounging on the couch
7. Summer

Here are my 7 bloggers:

1. S. Krishna’s Books
2. J. Kaye’s Book Blog
3. West of Mars
4. Booking Mama
5. BookFan
6. Life in the Thumb
7. Presenting Lenore

I received the Zombie Chicken Award from Rebecca at Lost in Books, which says:

The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all.

So, here are my five awardees:

1. My Friend Amy
2. Angieville
3. Literary Escapism
4. The Bookworm
5. Bookgirl’s Nightstand

I received the Super Comments Award from Book Chick City. I’m glad that she enjoys my comments because I love leaving them.

Here are my five selections:

1. Bermuda Onion
2. You’ve Gotta Read This!!
3. Find Your Next Book Here
4. The Literate Housewife Review
5. The Eclectic Reader

I also recently received the Honest Scrap Award from Missy’s Book Nook. This award requires me to pass it along to seven bloggers and then list 10 honest things about myself. Here are my awardees:

1. The Book Smugglers
2. Reading Adventures
3. The Trillionth Page
4. Debbie’s World of Books
5. Luxury Reading
6. Trish’s Reading Nook
7. Ramya’s Bookshelf

Ten honest things about me:

1. I’m very passionate about politics and debate.
2. I love when people take my advice about reading great books.
3. I hate when my husband leaves his clothes on the bedroom floor when the hamper is just a few more steps.
4. Because I have high standards for myself, I expect everyone to follow them.
5. I still have a hot temper, but I’ve learned to tame it some.
6. I’m very protective of my purse and prefer people ask permission before they touch it.
7. I hate wearing reading glasses because they make me feel old.
8. Sometimes I wish my reading habits would rub off on my husband.
9. I tend to bite off more than I can chew, but still manage to finish it all.
10. I really hate wearing shoes and socks.

I think that’s all the awards I’ve received recently. Enjoy them and continue to celebrate book bloggers.


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: awards

Business Card Winners

September 10, 2009 by


Randomizer.org helped me select the winners of the 500 business card giveaway from Digital Room and UPrinting.com.

Randomizer.org selected #2 and #7 out of 8 entrants.

The winners are:

Lu of Regular Rumination

Tiffany of Tif Talks Books

Congrats to them and thanks to everyone who entered.


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: winners

Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas

September 10, 2009 by

“I’d sneaked away from my parents and gone to the depot, too, because I’d never seen any Japanese. I expected them to look like the cartoons of Hirohito in the newspaper, with slanted eyes and buckteeth and skin like rancid butter. All these years later, I recall I was disappointed that they didn’t appear to be a ‘yellow peril’ at all. They were so ordinary.” (Page 2)

Sandra Dallas’ Tallgrass is set in Colorado in 1942 just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The book is narrated by Rennie Stroud, who was a 13-year-old girl when the Japanese are rounded up and placed into an internment camp–known as Tallgrass Ranch–in Ellis, Colorado. Many of the Japanese in the camp just up from the Stroud’s farm had been evacuated from their homes in California and their presence causes a major stir.

“They’d heard the sirens, too, and said it wasn’t anything, but I feared that somebody had gone under the bobwire surrounding the camp and was going to break into our house and kill us.” (Page 17)

Readers travel along with Rennie as she uncovers the truth about humanity regardless of color or creed and as she discovers the truth about her family. She grows into a woman more quickly than her parents would like, but given the rationing, the war effort, the harvest, and the increasing racial tension, Rennie has little choice but to mature.

“Things were tense even for the kids in the camp who never came in contact with people from Ellis. Little boys there played war games, just like the boys in Ellis. Daisy told us she’d watched a group of Tallgrass kids pretending they were fighting in the South Pacific and heard one complain, ‘How come I have to be the damn Jap all the time?'” (Page 238)

Readers will enjoy growing along with Rennie and getting into trouble with her and Betty Joyce. Dallas does an exceptional job of rounding out Rennie’s character from her naivete to her compassion and empathy for the plights of those less fortunate, like the Japanese and her friends. However, Tallgrass is more than a coming of age story; it also touches upon the harm caused by wrong-headed government policies, the fear that leads to prejudice and hatred, and the impact a war can have on everyone.

While readers may see some holes in how one of the main mysteries is resolved, Dallas’ resolution is in tune with the narrator she chose, a 13-year-old who is not privy to serious adult conversation. Overall, Tallgrass is a novel about WWII, family, growing up, and learning how to build a community even when differences exist.


This is my 6th book for the War Through the Generations: WWII Reading Challenge.

Thanks to Staci at Life in the Thumb for reviewing Tallgrass with several other WWII books that I had to pick up from the library and read all together.

Also Reviewed By:
Adventures in Reading
Jo-Jo Loves to Read!!!
Life in the Thumb


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: borrowed copy, historical fiction, Read in 2009, reviews, WWII Reading Challenge Tagged With: ,

Winner of Michelle Moran Giveaway

September 10, 2009 by


Out of 65 entrants to the Michelle Moran Giveaway for Cleopatra’s Daughter and The Heretic Queen, Randomizer.org selected #2:

Drey of Drey’s Library

Congrats to her and thanks to everyone who entered.

Stay tuned for another chance at Cleopatra’s Daughter in a Book Blogger Appreciation Week giveaway next week.


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: winners

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

September 9, 2009 by

Cathy Marie Buchanan’s The Day the Falls Stood Still, like the Niagara River and the falls, flows powerfully with majestic danger. Elizabeth “Bess” Heath is a seventeen year-old woman on the brink of the falls contemplating the beauty of the river and feeling its power pushing her forward. Her family is well-positioned, but a turn of the current pushes them down river and leads to tragedy and redemption for Bess.

When she leaves her school life behind at Loretto Academy, she is thrust into adulthood and embarks upon a journey where she comes into her own, earning the pluck Tom Cole, grandson of the famous riverman Fergus Cole, sees in her during their brief encounters at the gates of Glenview.

“As he walks he holds his head in a way that makes it seem he is listening to the river. His intensity is such that to speak would be to interrupt. ‘It’s worked up tonight,’ he says.” (Page 15 of ARC)

Buchanan prose is calm, providing readers with an anchor amidst the rapids and whirlpools that threaten to toss Bess out on the streets and into the ditches emotionally and financially. Tom becomes her rock to which she anchors herself, and he provides her with focus, love, desire, and strength, just as the river does for him. However, with the outbreak of WWI and troops sent abroad to fight from Canada at the behest of Great Britain and the rise of hydroelectric power, Bess must find the strength on her own to survive without Tom’s guidance and to care for their budding family.

“My Dear Bess,

I am sorry I’ve taken so long to write, but I have been putting it off, waiting for my mood to change. I am not sick in any way, but I am feeling beaten down–by the smell, the smashed men twitching like squashed charred insects the upright corpses mistaken for living men, the landscape of barren, earth without so much as a blade of grass. I am feeling alone, lost, and I can’t figure out how to feel like myself again.” (Page 183 of ARC)

As much as The Day the Falls Stood Still is about the impact of industrialization on the Niagara River, the falls, and the community, it also touches upon the environmental impacts of development, the loss of family, the dangers of progress, and the commitment of a man and wife to their family and their principles. Buchanan has created an emotionally charged novel based upon a real legendary riverman, William “Red” Hill. Complete with mock newspaper articles and historical photos and drawings depicting a variety of major events along the river from Bellini tightrope walking across the falls to the collapse of Table Rock.

Buchanan’s debut novel is undeniably memorable for its historical references and emotional ties to Bess’ family and the Niagara River. The Day the Falls Stood Still will haunt readers after the final page is turned.

Also Reviewed By:
Presenting Lenore


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: amazon vine program, historical fiction, Read in 2009, review copy, reviews Tagged With: ,

Winners. . . Come on Down!

September 9, 2009 by

I’ve been remiss in posting my winners. There was some confusion on my part regarding the UPrinting greeting card giveaway, but Randomizer.org selected

Jennifer of Literate Housewife and Sandy of You’ve Gotta Read This!!

If they have not received their UPrinting coupon codes, I will substitute a prize. Sorry, ladies.

Randomizer.org also helped me select the winner of The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry:

Barb of Maximizing Dreams and meditative reading.

Congrats to all the winners.


Copyright of Serena M. Agusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit 2007-2010. This is not original content, this content is owned and copyrighted by Serena M. Agusto-Cox
Filed Under: winners