Cookie's Book Club Annual Christmas Giveaway

The Cookie's Book Club Annual Christmas Giveaway is on now.

Introducing Dakota Franklin PLUS a giveaway: Be one of the first to read Le Mans!

For the past several months, I have been involved as a co-editor of a new series of books by first-time author Dakota Franklin.  

Today I am proud to have Dakota as my guest at Cookie's Book Club, and to announce the release of the first in her Ruthless to Win series, Le Mans.

I asked Dakota how it feels to now be a published author. Come and see what she had to say!

And enter to win a copy of Le Mans, the first published book in the Ruthless to Win Series.

The Jakarta Pandemic Book Review and Interview with Steve Konkoly Plus TWO GIVEAWAYS!

Today, at Cookie's Book Club, I review The Jakarta Pandemic and interview the author, Steve Konkoly. Stay tuned following the interview for an excerpt from Steve's newest book, Black Flagged.

Steve has also graciously offered to give away a copy each of The Jakarta Pandemic and Black Flagged to two lucky winners!

Visit Cookie's Book Club for details!

Nate Rocks the World Book Review and Interview with Karen Pokras Toz Plus a GIVEAWAY!

Do you have any kids on your Christmas list in the 7-12-year-old age range? Take a look at today's book review and author interview at Cookie's Book Club. Plus, welcome my newest guest reviewer, my nephew J!

Nate Rocks the World by Karen Pokras Toz is the story of 10-year-old Nathan Rockledge. 

"Armed only with his sketchpad, his imagination, and his wits, Nathan Rockledge navigates the perils of the fourth grade in style, to emerge heroic, as Nate Rocks, proving that even a ten-year-old can accomplish great things." ~ source: http://www.karentoz.com

Click here to read the review and 

interview with Karen Pokras Toz.

Be sure to enter the giveaway for a 

SIGNED copy of Nate Rocks the World!

Interview with Donna Fasano author of The Merry-Go-Round, Mountain Laurel, and An Accidental Family Plus a GIVEAWAY!

I'm pleased to welcome back Donna Fasano to Cookie's Book Club. Donna is a bestselling, award-winning author of over thirty romance and women's fiction novels. Today I'm talking to her about three of her books: The Merry-Go-Round, Mountain Laurel, and An Accidental Family.

Visit Cookie's Book Club for the full interview.

While you're there, be sure to enter the contest at the end of the interview to win a copy of Donna's most recent Kindle release, His Wife for a While.

His Wife for a While

Product Description (Source: Amazon.com) 

Desperate Bachelor

Ben Danvers was about to lose everything―unless he found a woman willing to become his wife. The terms of his grandfather's will were outrageous, but they were iron clad. Just when Ben was about to give up al

l hope, the last woman he ever expected to wed made a startling proposal.

Bargaining Bride

Chelsea Carson offered Ben a deal he couldn't refuse. He could keep the family fruit orchard if he would make her one and only dream come true. But there were to be no strings attached, no messy emotions when it was over. Their makeshift marriage would be perfect―unless Chelsea allowed love to bungle the plan.

Rated 4/5 stars on 2 reviews

Visit Cookie's Book Club to read the full interview and to enter to win a copy of His Wife for a While.

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BOOK GIVEAWAY! Two advance copies of The Golden Sky by EC Stilson

On November 18th, EC Stilson will release her new memoir, The Golden Sky.

This story is as real as it gets! Elisabeth Stilson tells the story of her journey through the pregnancy, birth and loss of her son Zeke. The text of the book is taken directly from Stilson's journals. We learn of the raw emotions and very real outcomes that follow the tragic loss of a child. It's a fascinating and touching read.

Visit Cookie's Book Club for details of the giveaway! 

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Spanish for Young Readers Guest post by Barbara Mascareno-Shaw

Today, I'm featuring guest blogger Barbara Mascareno-Shaw over at Cookie's Book Club. She has kindly agreed to provide us with some suggestions for good Spanish books for young Spanish learners. Come check out what she has to say about beginning to learn Spanish.

----> Spanish for Young Readers @Cookie's Book Club

Bull Canyon, a Boatbuilder, a Writer and other Wildlife.Book Review and Interview with Lin Pardey

Bull Canyon by Lin Pardey was a terrific read....This is a true story, yet it reads like the best of fiction. I learned a little about boat building, life in a secluded canyon without the amenities I take for granted, and what it meant to this couple to have the freedom to set sail to any destination of their choosing. What I enjoyed most about this story was the sense of adventure, bravery and optimism it portrayed...

Visit Cookie's Book Club to read more of my review as well as an interview with the author Lin Pardey.

Tips for Finding Reasonably Priced and Free E-Books @ Cookie's Book Club

Own a Kindle or other e-reader? Frustrated by some of the high prices you see for e-books? Want to know how to get e-books cheap or, better yet, free?

Come on over to Cookie's Book Club. 

Today I'm sharing my tips on how to find inexpensive and free e-books!

IDITAROD: a novel of The Greatest Race on EarthBook Review and Interview with André Jute

Hop on over to Cookie's Book Club today to read my review of IDITAROD a novel of the Greatest Race on Earth and interview with the author André Jute.

Children's Author Spotlight: Raffi

Today at Cookie's Book Club, I'm sharing a few of our favourite Raffi Songs to Read books.

I used to be afraid - very, very afraid - of Raffi, but I've come to love him! After all, he brings an immense amount of joy into my son's life, and so also into mine.

Click here to go to the spotlight at Cookie's Book Club!

The Shadow at the Gate: Book Review and Interview with the Author Guest Blogging at Kindle Obsessed

Today, I'm guest blogging at Kindle Obsessed. Pop on over to view my review of The Shadow at the Gate and interview with the author Christopher Bunn (click here for the review and interview).

Christopher has been featured on Cookie's Book Club before:
--> Click here to view my review of The Hawk and His Boy and interview with Christopher Bunn
--> Click here to view Christopher's Guest Post, "Moral Compass and Character"

Thanks to Misty at Kindle Obsessed for hosting me today. Her reviews are poignant and honest. She also regularly shares her finds on free and reasonably priced e-books. If you love books as much as I do, you'll want to check out her blog!

Repetition is Good for Kids: Books for Babies and Toddlers

Kids love repetition, and it's good for them. As parents, reading the same story over and over again might get to be a little boring, but we do our kids a disservice if we force them to read something different thinking it will expand their minds (and keep our own from turning to mush).

According to the February 2011 Frontiers in Psychology article, "Get the story straight: contextual repetition promotes word learning from storybooks", children who read the same stories repeatedly are more likely to increase their vocabulary as a result. In the study, 3-year-olds were either read the same story three times or were read three different stories. Each story contained the same novel (made up) words. Children who heard the same story over and over learned the novel words and retained the words over the long term, thus increasing their vocabulary, whereas the kids who were read the three different stories did not.

In addition to allowing your kids to choose the same book night after night and reading it to him two or three or four times in a row some days, you can choose books that are written to emphasize repetition.

For suggested books that use repetition, visit Cookie's Book Club.

Children's Author Spotlight: Sandra Boynton

If number of books by the same author is the benchmark, then Sandra Boynton is clearly the favourite author around here. She's a prolific writer of children's stories. Her subjects are adorable and silly animals such as pigs, cows, turkeys, cats, dogs, and her flagship hippos. There may also be the occasional monsters or dinosaur.

If you want a taste of Boynton's sense of humour, just visit the sandraboynton.com home and introduction pages. The silly doesn't stop at the text of the story itself. It's all the little details that make the difference in Boynton's work.

Often the stories are accompanied by, or may even have been born out of, a silly song.

To view the full Spotlight on Sandra Boynton, please visit Cookie's Book Club.

J.D.: The Plot to Steal J.D. Salinger's Manuscripts Book Review and Interview with Patricia Sierra and John Philpin

Book Review

J.D.: The Plot to Steal J.D. Salinger’s Manuscripts, by Sierra Philpin, is a tale of mystery, intrigue and the consequences of behaving badly. 

Publisher: Feather Tunnel Publishing Co. (February 9, 2009)

Leonard Wellington Worthy, a professor with a wife and a simple life, has a plan to finally win the race to the finish line. The goal is to be the first to publish a book on J.D. Salinger, and he’s going to do it by stealing the manuscripts he believes J.D. has been working on for decades in seclusion. But soon Leonard’s plan begins to unravel and he finds himself a suspect in a murder investigation.

In a mere thirty-six hours my world had been transformed from a stable, predictable tranquility into a Kafkaesque nightmare of flux and phantasm.

Please visit Cookie's Book Club to read the rest of my review and interview with the authors.

Children's Author Spotlight: Barbara Reid

We discovered Barbara Reid, award-winning author and illustrator, through the book The Subway Mouse, a gift from Cookie's Aunt and Cookie's cousin's favourite book as a child. Barbara's plasticine art is awe-inspiring. In The Subway Mouse she creates a stunning underground world, and tells the story of a single courageous mouse who dares to believe and follows his feet to Tunnel's End.

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The Subway Mouse
Written & illustrated by Barbara Reid

Nib lives deep beneath the city, in a subway station the mice call Sweetfall. By day the trains thunder past. At night, the old mice tell stories of the mythical land known as Tunnel's End, where the air is sweet and the nests soft, but where scary, mouse-eating monsters roam.

 

To read the rest of my review of Barbara Reid's books, please visit Cookie's Book Club.

Children's Author Spotlight: Oliver Jeffers

One of Jack's favourite authors is Oliver Jeffers. According to the lovely woman who works in the children's book section of my local Indigo store, when she reads Jeffer's Once There Was a Boy books, the boys sit very still and listen very intently. Imagine! Boys sitting still! These books are categorized as preschool to grade 2, though we have enjoyed them since Jack was a toddler.

Our favourite is still Lost and Found, the first one we purchased. This first story in the series is about a boy who finds a penguin at his front door. He then sets out on a mission to find out where the penguin belongs. It's an endearing story of friendship.

To read the rest of my post on Oliver Jeffers' books, please visit Cookie's Book Club.

Great deals to celebrate mom!

This Sunday May 8th is Mother's Day. Celebrate mom by giving her something wonderful to read. Heck, at these prices, you can load up her Kindle for the year! (Don't forget to give her the precious gift of time too, so that she'll be able to enjoy her favourite book.)

Pride and Prejudice

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." -- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Amazon.com Product Description:
When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.

Also free from Jane Austen through Amazon (for US Customers only) are Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Canadian customers, check Project Gutenberg for free public domain titles.

Click here for more deals on popular books!

May 8, 2011 - Edited to add:  
Even more deals! These prices were too good for me to resist.

Northlight: Book Review and Interview with Deborah Ross

Recently I read the book Northlight by Deborah Ross. It's categorized as science fiction and fantasy, but it's light on the science fiction side. The world created by the author is fantastical, but also very similar to that on Earth. It's more realistic than it's categorization implies. As the author puts it, it's really "a tale of healing and adventure and some very cool horses" (Northlight Introduction).

Please click here to enjoy my review of Northlight and interview with Deborah Ross.

Women's fiction versus other genres of literature

Today I wrote a response to a recent discussion on romance and chick-lit novels. The discussion began as a differentiation between the romance and chick-lit genres. Very enlightening, in my opinion. Then the comments began to come in - one in particular criticized the genres for being 'silly' and 'boring' - and I felt the need to speak out to defend them... though admittedly I myself have always scrunched my nose up a bit at the romance genre. Come on over to the book club and let me know your thoughts.

Click here to view my post on Cookie's Book Club.

Retrieved April 16, 2011 from http://www.greetings.ca/are-you-aware-of-the-romance-023120.php