Pick Your Prize Giveaway

Lisa, over at Minds Alive on the Shelves, has a really great giveaway going on at her site. She's got five books up for grabs, and you get to select which one you'd like to win. If she gets 60 entries (she's really close), she'll give away all five books. The books she's offering are:

• Abbeville by Jack Fuller
• The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
• Months and Seasons by Christopher Meeks
• The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss
• So Long at the Fair by Christina Schwarz

The deadline is Friday, September 26, so go here now to enter. And, if you've not visited her blog before - take a look around. She's got a lot of great reviews and other bookish content.

And the Winner Is....

I had planned on doing the drawing and announcing tomorrow, but I couldn't wait. So, here goes.

First, here's how the winner was determined. I gave each entry a number. Starting with the comments and blog postings - there were a total of 106 entries that way. Then, I numbered the book snippet answers. There were a total of 35 correct answers, bringing the total number of entries to 141. Using random.org's integer generator (I asked for 2 numbers between 1 and 141, just in case the first person never responds), I got:

127

70

The winner of The Time Paradox and the Barnes and Noble gift card is....

127. Holly Isaacson with her entry answer for book six.

Congratulations, Holly! I will be emailing you to get your mailing information. Thanks to everyone for participating.

For those of you who'd like to know the answers to the snippet part of the giveaway, here they are:

BOOK ONE

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Dicamillo

BOOK TWO

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

BOOK THREE

A Common Life by Jan Karon

BOOK FOUR

The Stand by Stephen King

BOOK FIVE

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

BOOK SIX

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

BOOK SEVEN

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

BOOK EIGHT

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Nearly everyone who guessed a cover knew that Book Seven was Inkheart. Nobody guessed Book Two (A Common Life) or Book Eight (Fried Green Tomatoes). If you're wondering how or why I chose these particular covers, it's because these are some of my favorite books. If you haven't read some of them, I'd highly recommend them all.

I hope you enjoyed the game.

Some Great Giveaways

There are loads of great contests and giveaways going on right now. Here are just a few of them:

• Ruth over at Bookish Ruth is having several contests. She's got a chance to win The Sally Lockhart Mystery Series by Phillip Pullman HERE. And, she's giving away the first three Percy Jackson and the Olympian books by Rick Riordan HERE.
• On Jenn's Bookshelf, you'll find a giveaway of The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold.
• You can enter to win a copy of The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay over at Blue Archipelago.
• Fresh Ink is giving away a copy of Christine Belvins' Midwife of the Blue Ridge.
• The Tome Traveller's Weblog is having a giveaway of Second Chance and Swapping Lives by Jane Green.
• And it's not too late to sign up HERE to win a copy of The Time Paradox and a $10 gift card.

Book and Gift Card Giveaway

Having just finished and thoroughly enjoyed Eoin Colfer's latest Artemis Fowl novel, The Time Paradox, I thought I would host a contest and give away a new harcover copy of the book. Then, I decided to make it more interesting and also give the winner a $10 gift card to Barnes and Noble. In honor of BBAW, this giveaway is open to everyone - I will ship to wherever you are!

For this giveaway, I thought I'd do something a little different. I saw something similar on another blog, and it looked like fun, so I figured I'd give it a try here. To enter the contest, here's what you do:

• First, post a comment here. That'll get you one (1) entry.

• Second, guess the book covers (in EMAIL, please). I've taken snippets of eight different book covers (all fiction, and all published within the past 30 years - you didn't think I was going to make it too easy, did you?). What you have to do is figure out what book the snippet comes from and EMAIL ME your answers here (Please don't put any answers in your comments!). For each correct answer, you'll be awarded one (1) entry. If you get all eight correct, I'll give you two extra entries. If you don't know some or any of them, guess!

• Finally, if you blog about this contest, I'll give you four (4) entries. So, if you do everything, you'll get a total of fifteen entries!

And, again, this is open to everyone - I'll ship worldwide. Happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week, everyone!!

Here are the book snippets:

BOOK ONE

BOOK TWO

BOOK THREE

BOOK FOUR

BOOK FIVE

BOOK SIX

BOOK SEVEN

BOOK EIGHT

Contest will run through the Book Blogger Appreciation Week (for more info on BBAW, go here.) Comments and emails must be submitted by September 20 at 10:00 p.m. (EST). The winner will be announced on September 21. Good luck!!

And the winners are....

Using Random.org's integer generator (which is wicked cool, by the way), the winners were chosen for my First Daughter Giveaway this morning. Congratulations to:

• SweetSue

and

• Caite

I will be contacting you today to coordinate shipping. For those of you who didn't win, if you'd like to purchase the book, Amazon has it here for $17.13. Also, check back here soon. In the next couple of weeks, I plan on having another giveaway (for a hardback copy of one of my favorite series books - not telling you'll just have to come back to find out).

GIVEAWAY: First Daughter by Eric Van Lustbader

I have two copies of Eric Van Lustbader's political thriller First Daughter to give away.

You can read my review here.

Jack McClure has had a troubled life. His dyslexia always made him feel like an outsider. He escaped from an abusive home as a teenager and lived by his wits on the streets of Washington, D.C. It wasn't until he realized that dyslexia gave him the ability to see the world in unique ways that he found success, using this newfound strength to become a top ATF agent.

When a terrible accident takes the life of his only daughter, Emma, and his marriage falls apart, Jack blames himself, numbing the pain by submerging himself in work. Then he receives a call from his old friend Edward Carson. Carson is just weeks from taking the reins as president of the United States when his daughter, Alli, is kidnapped. Because Emma McClure was once Alli's best friend, Carson turns to Jack, the one man he can trust to go to any lengths to find his daughter and bring her home safely.

The search for Alli leads Jack on a road toward reconcilliation...and into the path of a dangerous and calculating man - someone whose actions are as cold as they are brilliant, and whose power and reach are seemingly infinite.

Faith, redemption, and political intriguq play off one another as McClure uses his unique abilities to journey into the twisted mind of a stone-cold genius who is constantly one step ahead of him. Jack will soon discover that this man has affected his life and his country in more ways than he could ever imagine.

-taken from the cover of First Daughter

To enter to win one of the two advance release copies of First Daughter, do one or more of the following:

1. Comment on this post for 1 (one) entry. Make sure you provide a way for me to contact you (a link to your blog is fine).
2. Comment on my review of First Daughter to receive 1 (one) entry.
3. Blog about this contest to receive 3 (three) entries. Be sure to comment with a link to your post.

The contest will run until August 31 at 10 p.m., and I'll notify the winners on September 1.

First Daughter Giveaway

Bookish Ruth is giving away a copy of First Daughter by Eric Van Lustbader on her blog. It looks like a good one!

Sometimes the weakness we fear most can become our greatest strength...Jack McClure has had a troubled life. His dyslexia always made him feel like an outsider. He escaped from an abusive home as a teenager and lived by his wits on the streets of Washington D.C. It wasn’t until he realized that dyslexia gave him the ability to see the world in unique ways that he found success, using this newfound strength to become a top ATF agent.When a terrible accident takes the life of his only daughter, Emma, and his marriage falls apart, Jack blames himself, numbing the pain by submerging himself in work. Then he receives a call from his old friend Edward Carson. Carson is just weeks from taking the reins as President of the United States when his daughter, Alli, is kidnapped. Because Emma McClure was once Alli’s best friend, Carson turns to Jack, the one man he can trust to go to any lengths to find his daughter and bring her home safely.The search for Alli leads Jack on a road toward reconciliation . . . and into the path of a dangerous and calculating man. Someone whose actions are as cold as they are brilliant. Whose power and reach are seemingly infinite.Faith, redemption, and political intrigue play off one another as McClure uses his unique abilities to journey into the twisted mind of a stone cold genius who is constantly one step ahead of him. Jack will soon discover that this man has affected his life and his country in more ways than he could ever imagine.

Fantastic Book Giveaway!!

Trish over at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? is hosting a fabulous contest in which you could be the lucky recipient of 14 (that's right FOURTEEN!) books - good books, too, from the looks of the covers, by which one should never judge a book, but for these purposes herein I will...

So, you should head over there right now, and sign up. Well, you can wait, but the contest ends on July 12th, so get over there by then. Or, better still, don't go over there, and you'll up my odds of winning. Yeah, do that one.

Book Giveaway - Stephanie Meyer Collection

Natasha over at Maw Books Blog is hosting a huge giveaway of Stephanie Meyer books. Here are the details:

Five winners will win one copy of The Host by Stephenie Meyer, a I Heart Ian button, a I Heart Jared button and a Twilight Lexicon Magnet.
One grand prize winner will win Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and The Host by Stephenie Meyer, a I Heart Ian button, a I Heart Jared button, a Twilight Lexicon Magnet, and a t-shirt of your choice from the The Twilight Lexicon Shop. What a package!
All entries must be in by midnight MST on June 30th, so get a move on if you want to be included.

Free Books for Review

Penguin Classics has a terrific program being offered at the moment through which you can receive a free randomly chosen book from their published 'classics' in exchange for a review that will appear on their Classics Blog. When you register, you agree to read and review your book within 6 weeks of receiving it, and then you'll get an email telling you which book was chosen for you. I've seen on Library Thing people getting books like Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Memoirs of Hardrian. I feel really fortunate - my selection was The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle. Having never read any Sherlock Holmes, I'm extremely excited by this choice.

For more information, or to sign up for the program, go here.

Many thanks to Devourer of Books a.k.a. jlcardwell for the information!