Amber Stults – Book Reviewer and Writer

I so wish it were possible to give everyone a gift certificate from CSN but I only have one.

Random.org chose #28 – Edmonton jb at Mom of Boys With Toys.  Congratulations!

We moved into our house on 7/4/2007 and were furniture shopping three days later during the Lucky Seven sales that were happening everywhere.  The furniture didn’t get delivered until October.  We bought three lamps shortly afterwards from CSN Lighting which all arrived quickly and in good shape. 

I was excited when the opportunity came up to hold this giveaway for a CSN Stores $60 Gift Certificate for my readers because I had such a positive experience with the lamps we bought.  After three years the house isn’t entirely the way we’d like it.  We’ve talked about replacing our dishware but first I want to get new dining room furniture to help set the tone.

With over 200 CSN Stores to choose from, I don’t think it would be difficult to find something to spend the $60 on.  Maybe you want a new writing desk or some mixing bowls to make your favorite cookies.  It doesn’t matter, just know that if you’re shipping address is in Canada the item(s) you order may have additional shipping or international charges with your order.

All you have to do to sign up for the giveaway is leave a comment to let me know you’re interested.  I’ll pick a winner on August 1st at 11:00pm using my favorite randomizer, random.org.

Good luck!

Congratulations to the three winners of the I Has a Hotdog! giveaway!  Gerri, Ron Roseborough and Kathy (aka Bermudaonion) are the winners.  Look for a follow-up email in your mailboxes from this evening. 

Thank you to The Hachette Book Group for providing the books for the giveaway!

I Has A Hotdog! is popping up all over since it was released this week. Hachette Book Group has been kind enough to allow three of my readers the opportunity to win their own copy.

Here are the rules:

1. This is open to US and Canadian addresses (no P.O. Boxes) only.
2. Random.org will choose a winner Friday, April 30th, 6pm Eastern from the entries.
3. Leave a comment naming your favorite fictional or real dog. (The canine can be from a book, movie or painting.)

While you think about #3, here is a link to Anna Balasi’s Blog Talk Radio interview with Professor Happycat (aka Ben Huh).  You may recognize some of the names of people with questions.

Forget Lassie and Benji.  One of my all-time favorite dogs is Skippy.  You know him best as Asta from The Thin Man movies and he was also in Bringing Up Baby.  I’ll take an intelligent dog that can make me laugh any day of the week.

Note: This is a sticky post – there may be newer posts below this one.

On Monday I’ll have a review up for Rhonda Parrish’s Shades of Green.  Then on Tuesday you can read an interview with her about the novellette.  In the meantime, between now and February 1st Rhonda’s holding a contest giving away a copy of Shades of Green.  It’s easy to enter so don’t miss your chance to win it.

In November last year, I posted my review of Liza Palmer’s A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents.

This Friday at 1pm Eastern, Liza Palmer has a live interview on Blog Talk Radio.  Stop by to listen in or call with a question.

In conjunction with the interview, Hachette Book Group has been kind enough to allow one of my readers the opportunity to win their own copy of A Field Guide To Burying Your Parents. 

Here are the rules:

1. This is open to US and Canadian addresses (no P.O. Boxes) only.
2. Random.org will choose a winner Friday, January 8th, 2pm from the entries.
3. Grace Hawkes, the main character, walks away from her siblings after their mother dies.  Leave a comment on what you would want to walk away from, if you could.

I think I would want to walk away from a clock.  It would be great if I could show up at the library or bookstore at 3am when I can’t fall asleep.

Note: This is a sticky post – there may be newer posts below this one.

My site was offline for a day or two but I decided to not extend the giveaway.  Instead, I’ll have another giveaway when I return from vacation.

The winner of Norah Labiner’s book, German for Travelers, is SFP at Pages Turned.  Congratulations, SFP!

The winner of Dave Egger’s book, Zeitoun, is Karen at Bookin’ With “Bingo“.  Congratulations, Karen!

I made a pledge earlier that for BBAW I would have book giveaways from small book publishers.  Here’s the post for it!

Coffee House Press – where good books are brewing – was founded in 1984.  They publish only a few titles a year.  The staff size is small.  Coffee House Press is a nonprofit publisher and will welcome donations.

The book I’ve chosen from them is one on my TBR pile by a Minneapolis author, Norah Labiner.  German for Travelers should be an interesting read.

From the back of the book:

In Search of the key to unlock a great family mystery, Lemon Leopold, a Hollywood starlet, and her cousin Eliza, a romance writer, set off for Berlin.  Soon they are on a trail that leads back to their great-grandfather, Jozef Apfel, a Jewish pioneer of psychoanalysis in early twentieth-century Germany.

Alternating between the great doctor’s household, the mysterious case of his patient Eliza Z., the rise of Nazi Germany, mid-century Detroit, and modern-day Berlin, this is a story about a girl whose dreams reveal the future, a family beset by ghosts, and the place that haunts them all.

McSweeney’s was founded in 1998 as a literary journal by David Eggers.  It’s expanded into a few different divisions.  The book division has a book of the month club.  Several times a year they have some wonderful sales.  Dave Eggers is one of my favorite authors and I’m giving away a copy of his book, Zeitoun.

From the McSweeney’s description of Zeitoun:

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the days after, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. But, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared. Eggers’s riveting nonfiction book, three years in the making, explores Zeitoun’s roots in Syria, his marriage to Kathy—an American who converted to Islam—and their children, and the surreal atmosphere (in New Orleans and the United States generally) in which what happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun became possible. Like What Is the What, Zeitoun was written in close collaboration with its subjects and involved vast research—in this case, in the U.S., Spain, and Syria.

The giveaway is open to addresses in the United States and Canada.  You can only enter to win one book so leave a comment with the name of the book you’d like to win.  I will make a spreadsheet with the names and have my husband draw the winning names out of a hat.  Giveaway ends Tuesday, September 22nd at 8pm Eastern.  Good luck!

Just a reminder – Book Blogger Appreciation Week begins tomorrow.  The celebration of book bloggers is an idea that My Friend Amy came up with last year.  She did nearly all of the work herself and it was very well run.  This year it has it’s own web site and even merchandise to show off your appreciation of book bloggers all year round. 

The theme this year is Celebrate Books.  I will have posts during the week on this theme and you’ll find giveaways of books here too.

Congratulations to Joyce Sterling Scarbrough for winning her own copy of “Sister Margaret” by Rhonda Parrish! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to have more giveaways and author visits soon.