Sunday Salon: One Thing I Love About my Library? Preloads!
I am currently reading Amy Tan's, The Kitchen God's Wife and it is excellent! I love getting the preloaded audio books from my library. Does every one's library have these? It is the size of a deck of cards and lighter and you just have to plug in your headphones and hit play. No need for an ipod or to put it onto your computer and then transport it into a different format to work on your MP3 player, it fab.This is what they look like:
It really is a great idea. So far I have listened to two of them, last week I listened to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, before that John Green's Paper Towns and this week I loving The Kitchen God's Wife. For my little ones I checked out The Island of Blue Dolphins, and Charlie and the Chocolate factory two books I enjoyed as a kid. Our library gets them through Playaway, and the quality is good, you can even mess with the settings and speed up the reading if you want. They are marketing to the military, schools and libraries, places where more than one person would benefit from the usage of the pre-loads, I tell you....I can't get enough!
I have enjoyed the online download audiobooks that our library has, but these are even way more fun!
What about your library? Do they embrace new technology or is your library slower to accommodate the changing times? Tell me something you love about your local library, I'd love to hear it!
Dreadlock Girl’s visit to a Powell’s Books Author Event: Luis Alberto Urrea!!
Even though June was one of the craziest months for us ever, I couldn't handle not heading to Powell's to see an author. And the choice was hard, last month they had Carlos Ruiz Zafon, David Sedaris, Lisa See, among many other equally exciting authors. However, after having twittered with them for months, I just had to choose Luis Alberto Urrea and his lovely wife and kids at the Powell's Books event on his tour to promote Into the Beautiful North. I warned them that I was a tad bit shy in person and they promised to be cuddly and they most certainly were. In all honesty I have never met an author like Luis Urrea, he was kind, attentive and he captured the audience with such ease, as he is just as good at public speaking as he is at writing. I loved him from the minute I saw him, and it was easy to see everyone else there did too. He was swarmed at the end, and he spent time meeting every person individually that wanted to talk or had questions.
Beyond how amazing of a public speaker, storyteller and writer Luis Urrea is, what I most enjoyed was seeing how personable he was with his adoring fans, and with his family. He is a real person, and I loved meeting him!!
When he explained his journey to writing Into the Beautiful North, what stood out to me the most was how he used bits and pieces of his family members, his friends, and people he has grown to admire or fear. Each character is based on someone, someone that has impacted Urrea's life and by sharing those characters with us, he shares them with his readers giving us segments of them as we read. And after finishing Into the Beautiful North I can say that it really works, by making them hold a hint of a real-life person, they become real, they are real.
What is he up to now? You want the full dish? He informed the peeps there that his book Hummingbird's Daughter is going to be made into a film, it is already on its way, and will start filming in January. Also he is working on a sequel to The Hummingbird's Daughter, so keep your eyes open for it.
Urrea is full of surprises and great ones at that!
For more bookie pictures go to my flickr album: All things BOOK related
Patchwork Style Winners
Winners:
Chris from Bookarama
Jen from Sew and Sox
Send me your snail mail addies and CONGRATS!!!
A Visit to the Chalupskys
Some days on this earth seem to have the fill of a week of joy. Days spent with the Chalupskys are days just like that. When every moment is packed with play and joy and the shuffling of little feet, that is when you know, when you really can get just how special life is and that there are friends that will always be friends.
More than friends, they are as close as family. I have known my closest friend Jessica since before I was married, she was my maid of honour, I was her matron on honour- after we were married we went camping with our spouses together, lived in the same house, cooked brownies for eachother. Now we both have a set of boys, and our kids love playing together. We go out to the Chulupskys and are so blessed, loved on encouraged and the good thing is that we can do the same for them, living life only matters when you pour out what good is inside you, and also when you learn to get rid of the bad.
More than a house, family, friends-- I have learned something from Anne of Green Gables, the Chalupskys are kindred spirits.
Thanks for the blessing that you are to us!
Blog Deleted. Beware and Back-up!
I am posting a letter that Gautami sent out, just so you all are aware of what could happen to your blog too. I am now going to back up all my stuff. I hope Gautami can find her blog again, and recover the files.
Hello friends,
As of now my blog http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com has been deleted without any information or intimation. I am in some kind of shock. As all of you know, our blogs are our tiny worlds, our family. And loss of a book blog is like cutting of the intellect side.
I have lost 650 posts. Out of which more than half were book reviews. Starting from scratch seems like a burden. But I will do that if I am unable to retrieve it in a couple of days.
I was thinking of having a mirror blog for my book review blog like I have for my poetry blog but before I got around it, it was deleted. Why/how, I can't answer it.
I have gone to the help forum but I don't know if they will help me. As I see it, lots of blog have been deleted over the weekend.
King Rat did send me a website for searching and retrieving. I am still trying to get around it without much success.
Meanwhile I need your support love and lot more.
AND ALSO THAT TO WARN OTHER BLOGGERS TO HAVE BACKUPS OF SOME KIND.
I will leave messages on my poetry blog. Please do visit me there:
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com
You can also direct people there
Thanks,
Gautami
Loser of:
http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com
In the middle of the read-a-thon!!
Would you like to see the torture and fun of the read-a-thon??
I am in the middle in it right now! It started at 5am PST.
Updates will not come on this blog though, go to B&b ex libris to keep track (if you are interested). I will be doing updates every 3 hours or so!! Comment if you'd like...I'd love to hear how crazy you think this is. It really is nuts I have no doubts about that. HA!
B&b: Contact and Book Review Policy
Contact B&b:
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B&b ex libris book review policy:
I love reading and reviewing books, but I want to be sure that any authors, publishers or publicists contacting me know where I stand up front:
Book genres that I am interested in reading and reviewing are craft books (quilting, crafting in general, sewing, knitting, kid crafting, crafting for kids), fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, international fiction, memoirs, self-help, young adult fiction, woman's fiction, fantasy, children's books, educational materials/books. The books that I love to review the most are: natural lifestyle books, craft books of all kinds, and anything about a place that I can dream of far, far away. I love audio books as well. I am not interested in science fiction, horror, or any types of futuristic books. I am not accepting e-books at this time.
No matter what genre, I do not review books that contain explicit sex scenes, graphic and/or ongoing child abuse (physical, mental or sexual), or are just overly gruesome and dark. I don't feel the need to submerge myself in that while I read about it, and if your book contains any of the above I reserve the right to not finish it.
If I accept your ARC or RC that is not a guarantee that I will write a review. Any book that I receive I will give it a fair shot for 70 pages. If after 70 pages I cannot get into the plot at all or if the characters are not speaking to me, I will try my best to pass it on to another interested blogger for review on their blog, however this is not always possible. That said, I have only not finished two books out of over 200 I have read and reviewed so far on my blog, because it is usually not hard for me at all to fall in love with a book.
My reviews include the cover of the book, a picture of the author, and if I can find a youtube book trailer or author presentation I will include that as well. I try to find the author's website and place a link on the review, and sometimes links to other review so of the book as well. My reviews are honest and straightforward. If I didn't like the book I will certainly say so, while constantly remembering to be gentle and kind in my dislike. I will mention the reservations I have about it. I feel it only fair that my readers believe that my reviews are my actually opinions and not something that I am guilted into. So, honesty is most important on my blog, and I will stick to it.
I will try to review the books in a timely manner, but I am not always able to do it as soon as the sender would like. For ARC's with a release date, in most cases I will try to publish the review on the release date, or very close to it. For reader copy (already released) books I will review them in a matter of 2-6 months. If this is an issue for you you can send me an email and sometimes I make exceptions. Blog tours are an exception, if I accept to be on a blog tour I will post a review on the proposed date.
I receive no financial benefits from writing this blog, I do not receive money from publishers, publicists or authors. I have chosen to have it be ad free (except for Powell's links because I am a indie bookstore believer) because I don't want to feel that anyone is entitled to a positive review in order for me to make a buck.
If you are interested in my stats and would like to know my numbers, please contact me.
Thank you so much for your interest in B&b ex libris book policies, have a great day!!
In order to send me a book, email me with some basic information and I will get right back with you.
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