Honestly, I can't believe how fast time has come and gone - I'm still feeling like the first semester of 2015 has just started. That goes to show how much school is having an impact on me, but let's not focus on that. Love is in the air - Valentine's Day is only two days away! Do you have your Valentine's Day cards ready? Or perhaps you have a special dinner date in mind? Anyhoo, today we have one of the characters from Bricks by John Davidson, sharing with you his favourite memory of Valentine's Day! It's going to be an interesting conversation, so for now I'll hand over the reins to John Davidson, the author of Bricks!
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'Tis the Season to Be Readin' is a month-long event in which Perusing Bookshelves is updated with Christmassy posts to spread the Christmas cheer and love of books. To know more, click on the graphic above! Love and Other Unknown Variables was a book that tore my heart open and made all my feelings go into overdrive. The author of this book, Shannon Lee Alexander, is a really inspring person. I love her posts on her website and how she emphasizes on hope and how important it is. Therefore, we have Shannon on PB today, talking about the books that inspired her! Let's give a warm welcome to Shannon and her book, Love and Other Unknown Variables!
Guest Post: Five Books that Inspired You and Gave You Hope Happy holidays, Perusing Bookshelves readers! I’m Shannon Lee Alexander, author of Love and Other Unknown Variables, a contemporary young adult novel about a math prodigy whose meticulously planned future is cast into chaos when he meets a girl with a tattoo of a mathematical symbol and a devastating secret. Love and Other Unknown Variables is a story of first love, heartbreak, and hope. Hope is important to me. It’s essential. It’s the piece of the grand puzzle that makes squinting over all those crazy tiny pieces worthwhile in the end. Hope carries you through to the moment that you set the last piece in, sit back, and think, Well, it all makes sense now! So I was thrilled when Kat asked if I’d share five books that have inspired me and brought hope into my life. Anyone who reads Love and Other Unknown Variables will immediately see that Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is at the top of the list of books that inspire me, but for this list, I wanted to pick out some other gems, some going waaayyy back in my life. 1. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams I have a stuffed bunny lovey, so of course, this book was right up my alley as a kid, because, of course, my bunny was really real. No doubt about it. When I was a young woman, the story took on a whole knew meaning as I was experiencing transformative love. And as a mother, watching my kids grow, succeed, and sometimes fail, I’m reminded that love is messy, exhausting, and sometimes bittersweet, but it lasts for always. 2. The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery This is another one of those books that has grown with me. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be treated like an adult. I wanted to be anywhere other than my own small hometown. Reading this book allowed me to travel wide and far, but also reminded me that perhaps being young wasn’t all that bad. As an adult, it helps me remember what an elephant looks like when it’s been eaten by a boa constrictor. 3. & 4. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: a Book of Womanist Prose & Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker Both of these books have gone missing from my shelves, which leads me to believe I loaned them to someone and haven’t gotten them back. I don’t remember who borrowed them though. If it was you, and you’re finished reading them, could I have them back, please? I read these books in my late teens, early twenties when I was in college. Alice Walker shook up my limited worldview. When I was living in Denver, she came to speak in this beautiful old theater. I sat in a balcony, sandwiched between two very different women, different both from each other and from me, and cried as she read to us. Cried because what she said was beautiful, but also because I wanted to find the courage to speak my mind just like her. 5. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness I read this book a few years ago, and when I was done, I flat out demanded that EVERYONE read it. Well, I demanded it once I had stopped sobbing enough to catch my breath and make intelligible sounds. For those unfamiliar with it, Ness picked up this story about a boy dealing with his mother’s cancer after Siobhan Dowd passed away. She had written a synopsis for the story, but her own cancer took her before she could write the rest. Ness wrote a brilliant, beautiful story that truly encompasses the emotional spectrum of love. Now EVERYONE go read it so we can talk about it more! Thanks for hanging out with me today. I’m always looking for hopeful books to add to my TBR list, so I’d love it if you’d share a few of your favorites with me in the comments. Here’s to hoping for happy holidays for all!
'Tis the Season to Be Readin' is a month-long event in which Perusing Bookshelves is updated with Christmassy posts to spread the Christmas cheer and love of books. To know more, click the graphic above! Hello, dear readers! You may or may not have rememberedthe time when I read The Silence of Six and enjoyed it. Either way that's totally fine. In The Silence of Six, we don't get to know much about Evan - because he killed himself. (Not a spoiler because it's included in the blurb) For some reason, I kept thinking about him and what he would do if he was alive. He'd be an interesting character, which leads me to my next point. Today we have the author, E. C. Myers, on Perusing Bookshelves to talk about Evan (and, of course, Max) which is awesome. What's even more awesome is that Myers has graciously offered to give away two signed hardcover copies of The Silence of Six (I'm sallivating myself) plus bookmarks or an electronic copy, which is so cool of him to do that. So grab a mug of hot chocolate and prepare yourself to know more about Evan and Max!
GUEST POST: If Evan could be alive on Christmas -just for one day, what would Max have planned for their time together? Thanks for inviting me to contribute this holiday guest post! If you’ve read The Silence of Six, you know that Evan was deeply sentimental and generous, which made Christmas his absolute favorite holiday. He hadn’t made many friends in real life, but he loved making the people he cared about happy, and he had a special knack for finding them exactly the right present — sometimes the gift they didn’t even know they wanted. Having Evan back for even a day would be the best Christmas present Max could hope for. As sentimental as Evan is, he wouldn’t want to dwell on their past mistakes and focus on making apologies, so Max would concentrate on enjoying every minute of their time together. Evan loves surprises and puzzles, and he’s very nostalgic, so Max would plan a sort of scavenger hunt that would remind his friend of the good times they had, knowing that Evan would figure out even his most complex clues fairly easily and lead him around on a fun adventure in their hometown. Christmas morning would start with a big breakfast at Denny’s, where they used to spend late nights hacking into corporate servers. Max would rent out the small local cinema for a special screening of It’s a Wonderful Life, which Evan watched religiously every year, and a couple of other movies that Evan missed out on that Max knew he would love. (Unlimited popcorn!) They would drive around their hometown of Granville talking and listening to a special music mix he made just for Evan. They would sneak into Granville High School to fix themselves a school lunch in the cafeteria. (For some reason Evan liked the school lunches. Weird, right?) In the afternoon, they would trim the tree at Evan’s house, drinking eggnog and eating pie, before going to Max’s house for dinner with his dad, Evan’s parents, and their friends Courtney, Penny, and Risse. Then it’s the gift exchange! Max’s present to Evan is a special photo album. Evan loved trains and had always wanted to visit the B&O Railroad Museum, the site of the B&O Railroad Depot, which received the first telegraph message in 1844. Evan never made it, so Max took a solo trip to the museum in Baltimore, Maryland and took photographs of him there with a cardboard standup of Evan. Penny’s present is Evan’s old laptop, which she had recovered so they could spend the rest of their day in the place Evan had always been most comfortable: the internet. Back to Denny’s for an all-nighter! Do they hack any sites? Well, Evan may leave some “STOP was here” messages on various sites like whitehouse.gov, panjea.co, and the consulting firm Sharpe & Company — just a little holiday going away present. If you want to read more about Evan, download the free prequel short story, “SOS”, on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iBooks. The Silence of Six is available now from Adaptive Books in hardcover and eBook wherever books are sold online. Learn more at http://ecmyers.net. E.C. Myers was assembled in the U.S. from Korean and German parts and raised in Yonkers, NY by his mother and the public library. He is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and a member of the prolific NYC writing group Altered Fluid. In the rare moments when he isn't writing, he blogs about Star Trek at The Viewscreen, reads constantly, plays video games, watches films and television, sleeps as little as possible, and spends far too much time on the internet. His first novel, FAIR COIN, won the 2012 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. Website I Twitter GIVEAWAY In case you need persuading (which you don't, this book is amazing), here's my review of The Silence of Six.
Hello dear readers! Today I'm excited to have Courtney Rice Gager, author of Tess in Boots talking about her dream Christmas vacation spots on PB. All of her dream vacation spots are perfect and Christmassy picks, so sit back, read, and enjoy!
book trailer: This guest post is also one of the featured posts in the 'Tis the Season to be Readin' event on PB. To know more about this event, you can click on the graphic below: Guest Post: 5 Dream Christmas Destinations for 2014 Thanks for having me on your blog, Kat! My new release, Tess in Boots, is all about a girl who goes on a journey. Tess leaves her city apartment for a remote vineyard in North Carolina, where everything is different from what she knows. In the spirit of journeys, and Christmas (I adore Christmas), today I'm sharing my top five dream Christmas destinations for 2014. Without further ado, if I could take my family anywhere this Christmas, my top five choices would be: 5. Hawaii I mean sure, it's a long plane ride... and I have a two-year-old. But if I'm dreaming of taking my family to Hawaii this Christmas, then I'm also dreaming of flying first class with my husband while our dreamt-up nanny sits in coach keeping the little one happy with a ten-hour Dora the Explorer marathon. Mele Kalikimaka! 4. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Wyoming Forbes rated this the number one ski resort for three years in a row, and I've always wanted to spend Christmas at a ski resort. Not because I like to ski (clumsy people shouldn't ski and I learned this the hard way in 2004), but because I like the idea of sitting in a lodge and watching people ski. I'm a very enthusiastic people watcher. Plus, I picture this involving several adorable cozy winter outfits and bottomless cups of steamy beverages. It looks very blissful in my mind, so it's going on the list. 3. Buford, Wyoming I know, I know. Two Wyoming destinations in one list, but hear me out. This past year has been an absolute whirlwind for my family. Part of me (a small part, but a part nonetheless) would love to spend a week hiding out for Christmas. This is the perfect hiding place, because I understand this town has a population of one. And yeah, apparently it also has freezing winds that reach up to 70 mph, but that's a minor detail because we'll be hiding out inside anyway. Buford, Wyoming - we're coming for you. And we're bringing Christmas presents for the whole town! 2. Disney World It's Disney World. It's Christmas. It's Disney World at Christmas. No further explanation needed. 1. My Mom's House This is the first year ever that I won't be spending Christmas at my parents' house - which at Christmastime, I call my mom's house because Christmas is sort of her thing. Sorry, Dad, but you know it's true. My mom makes Martha Stewart look like an amateur. No one decks the halls quite like her, and she makes a peppermint ice cream cake that blows my mind year after year. This Christmas we will be missing out on peppermint deliciousness because we are expecting a new baby and I'd really prefer not to give birth in the car. But rumor has it my parents are visiting and bringing an entire peppermint ice cream cake just for me (hint, hint). And there we have it. Wherever you spend Christmas this year, I hope you'll consider curling up with your favorite cup of steamy deliciousness and a copy of Tess in Boots, available now!
g i v e a w a y: follow the rest of the tour! 11/18 Katie's Clean Book Collection http://www.katiescleanbookcollection.blogspot.com 11/18 Babs Book Bistro http://www.babsbookbistro.net/ 11/19 Maiden Ink http://angelamcaldwell.wordpress.com/ 11/19 Biblio Belles http://www.bibliobelles.com 11/20 Reviews and Opinions http://reviewsbymarybeth.blogspot.com/ 11/21 Living the dream http://mhsusannematthews.wordpress.com/ 11/21 A booklover's retreat http://www.abookloversretreat.com 11/22 Paula Rose Books http://paularosebooks.com/ 11/23 Flirting With Romance http://flirtingwithromance.blogspot.com 11/23 CBY Book Club http://cbybookclub.blogspot.co.uk 11/24 My Book Addiction and More http://www.mybookaddictionandmore.com 11/25 Literary Wonders! The Author's Hideaway http://theauthorshideaway.com 11/25 Wonderous Reviews http://wonderousreviews.blogspot.com 11/26 The Phantom Paragrapaher http://www.thephantomparagrapher.blogspot.com 11/27 Wishful Endings http://www.wishfulendings.com/ 11/28 Shelf full of books http://kathrynsshelffullofbooks.blogspot.com 11/29 Iola's Christian Reads http://christianreads.blogspot.com/ 11/29 Curling up with a good book http://curling-up-with-a-good-book.blogspot.com 11/30 Beachbound Books http://www.beachboundbooks.com 12/1 Cheekypee reads and reviews http://cheekypeereadsandreviews.blogspot.co.uk/ 12/1 Krysten Lindsay Hager, author http://www.krystenlindsay.com/blog 12/3 Just Contemporary Romance http://www.justcontemporaryromance.com/ 12/4 The Book Junkie http://www.thebooknerd2013.blogspot.com/ 12/5 Bookish http://evie-bookish.blogspot.com 12/5 Melinda Dozier Contemporary Romance Author http://melindadozier.blogspot.com 12/6 I Am A Reader http://www.iamareader.com 12/7 Musings From An Addicted Reader http://musingsfromanaddictedreader.wordpress.com 12/7 This is me... http://joshsmama05.blogspot.com 12/8 Swooning Over Books http://swooningoverbooks.blogspot.com 12/9 Red Cheeks Reads http://redcheeksreads.com/ 12/10 True Story Book Blog http://www.truestorybookblog.com/ 12/10 Angela Schroeder, Author http://angelaschroederauthor.blogspot.com/ 12/11 Bookworm Lisa http://lisaisabookworm.blogspot.com/ 12/12 Kit 'N Kabookle http://kitnkabookle.blogspot.com 12/12 Perusing Bookshelves http://www.perusingbookshelves.weebly.com/ 12/13 Book Briefs http://bookbriefs.net 12/14 Fiction Zeal http://www.fictionzeal.com 12/15 Library Mistress http://librarymistress.com/ 12/16 Susana's Morning Room http://susanaauthor.wordpress.com/ 12/16 Breathless Ink http://breathlessink.com Thank you for following the Tess in Boots Tour! Anaiah Press http://www.anaiahpress.com http://twitter.com/anaiahpress http://anaiahpress.wordpress.com/ Hello everyone, I hope you're having a good day! Today we have a guest post by the author herself - Amy Smolcic! This guest post is also a featured post in the 'Tis The Season to Be Readin'! event on PB to spread the Christmas cheer. In case you missed the initial post explaining what that is all about, you can click the graphic above. But for now, let's give a warm welcome to Amy Smolcic and her book, Someone Like You!
Guest Post: 5 Characters You'd Love to Spend Christmas With I’ve been given the challenge to plan which book characters I would invite to Christmas. At first, I found this challenging. Then I thought about my Christmas’ I have spent with my loved ones. All Christmas gatherings have a diverse group of people – some are loud, some are great cooks, and there is always one person who has partied too much. Here is my list of characters that I would want to spend Christmas with. Cam from Wait For You by Jennifer Armentrout – My sole purpose for choosing him is because I think he’s the ultimate book boyfriend, so why wouldn’t I want to spend Christmas with him? Jack from The Wrong Girl by Zoe Foster – My favourite part of celebrating Christmas is the food. Christmas means engorging in all sorts of delicious (and naughty) foods such as roast lamb, turkey, potatoes, and pavloa (a yummy Australian cake!). It’s important that there’s at least one person who knows how to create an amazing feast. This is where Jack would be important. Juliet from Calling Romeo by Alexandra Potter - If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that people who work in PR make excellent planners. They’re pros in making sure everything is running smoothly. This is where a Christmas party needs Juliet. Someone has to make sure everywhere is well decorated and all events are running on time. Jenny from the I Heart… series by Lindsey Kelk – Jenny is the type of character that makes sure everybody is having a fun time. There’s nothing worse than a boring Christmas party. Noah from Before He Was Famous by Becky Wicks – Music makes everything better, so Noah would be the one creating the beautiful tunes. Christmas isn’t the same without carols. What are the characters you would like to spend Christmas with?
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Kat is a voracious reader who enjoys nothing more than losing herself in a good book. Fantasy is definitely her cup of tea. She often complains about never having enough time to read and constantly struggles with keeping her TBR pile a considerably decent size. Read more or keep up with her bookish whims on Goodreads or bloglovin.
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