Blog Watch Wednesday & Added This Week & News

[Edit: I now realize it is, in fact, not Wednesday. What can I say? I am an overachiever, I guess? So no new BWW in two days; this will suffice for this week's edition.]

Hey guys!

I've been promoting my Pick Your Own Prize Giveaway pretty steadily the last few weeks. I've had an amazing response (so far 48 entries) and the end-date was supposed to be tomorrow, August 9th. However, last week, someone hacked into my computer and tried to steal my identity. Thankfully Wells Fargo Bank noticed immediately and put a hold on my account and cancelled my card. They told me it would be until the 9th until I had a new debit card, hence why the date has been moved. IF I receive the card before/on the 9th, the giveaway will proceed as planned. IF I do NOT receive it in time, I will still draw two winners on the 11th but the books will be shipped once I have the debit card.

I am sorry for the delay and/or confusion.

Now onto the Blog Watch:

Frequent Reader, Infrequent Blogger has a brand-new, fresh review on Fallen by Lauren Kate. I've not read this, but I seem to be drowning in angels so it's upcoming.  The review is detailed, thorough and well-written.

Did you know it is Book Blogger Appreciation Week? The Bookish Brunette has a very helpful post up, so head on over if you feel like showing some blog love to  your favorite bloggers.

The always excellent Pat's Fantasy Hotlist has three posts I'd like to direct your attention toward: an hour long video Q&A with George R. R. Martin and THE BLURB FOR SCOTT LYNCH'S REPUBLIC OF THIEVES. I'm sorry - got a bit excited there - I've only been waiting 4 years for this book. Lynch is a remarkable writer with the most charming incorrigble rogue of a main character. The first two (The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies were both funny, inventive fantasy tales.) 

There's also this fascinating discussion of epic fantasy at the same blog with authors Steven Erikson, Terry Brooks, Kate Elliott, Peter Orullian, Gaie Sebold, Erin Hoffman, Lou Anders, James Barclay, Elizabeth Bear, Trudi Canavan, Rowena Cory Daniells, David Anthony Durham, Ian Cameron Esslemont, Lynn Flewelling, Ed Greenwood, John Jarrold, N. K. Jemisin, K. V. Johansen, J. V. Jones, Paul Kearney, Juliet McKenna, Robin McKinley, Robert V. S. Redick, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Michael A. Stackpole, Victoria Strauss, and Gav Thorpe.

Two of the things I love most: Books and Barks. This is a blog I stumbled across and just loved the combination.

Libby Heily is at it again with her Flash Fiction! This week it is Poison Pills, and don't forget to check out her free book of flash fiction as well!

Young People are reading more than you. What I consider myself a young person?!

How Warner Brothers ruined Hermione Granger. (You knew there had to be HP-themed entry in here somewhere.) I'm not sure I agree with the author, but it is an interesting read.

Heard of the phrase Mary Sue before? This post goes into detail about the trope and famous examples. (coughBellaSwancough)

Literary characters bolt upright far more than actual people.

Reviews I've posted this last week:

Knight's Curse by Karen Duvall (supernatural/paranormal fantasy) 3.5/5 stars

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (young-adult, contemporary, sci-fi elements) 4.5/5 stars

And books I spent money on that I really really shouldn't have:

Pre-ordered Daughter of Smoke and Bone - out September 27, 2011

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

A girl who’s always been in the shadows finds herself pursued by the unbelievably attractive new boy at school, who may or may not be the death of her. Another girl grows up mute because of a curse placed on her by a vindictive spirit, and later must decide whether to utter her first words to the boy she loves and risk killing everyone who hears her if the curse is real. And a third girl discovers that the real reason for her transient life with her mother has to do with belonging — literally belonging — to another world entirely, full of dreaded creatures who can transform into animals, and whose queen keeps little girls as personal pets until they grow to childbearing age.
From a writer of unparalleled imagination and emotional insight, three stories about the deliciousness of wanting and waiting for that moment when lips touch.

I also added the third in George Mann's Newbury and Hobbes Investigation series, The Immortality Engine. I've really enjoyed the first two in this steampunk series (The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual), and the author has three free novellas in the same universe on his website. You can read The Brambleton Affair, The Shattered Teacup and What Lies Beneath immediately. They're all short (16 pages, 10 pages, 11 pages respectively) but they shed light on past events alluded to in the series.

Another screaming deal I came across: Sarah Ockler's ALA Teens' Top Ten Nominee Twenty Boy Summer is only $2.99 for Nook and Kindle!

"Don’t worry, Anna. I’ll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it."
"Okay."
"Promise me? Promise you won’t say anything?"
"Don’t worry.” I laughed. “It’s our secret, right?"

According to Anna’s best friend, Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy every day, there’s a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie–she’s already had her romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.

TWENTY BOY SUMMER explores what it truly means to love someone, what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every beautiful moment life has to offer

Over at goodreads, I also won an ARC for The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin.

In her national bestseller Alice I Have Been, Melanie Benjamin imagined the life of the woman who inspired Alice in Wonderland. Now, in this jubilant new novel, Benjamin shines a dazzling spotlight on another fascinating female figure whose story has never fully been told: a woman who became a nineteenth century icon and inspiration—and whose most daunting limitation became her greatest strength.

“Never would I allow my size to define me. Instead, I would define it.”
 
She was only two-foot eight-inches tall, but her legend reaches out to us more than a century later. As a child, Mercy Lavinia “Vinnie” Bump was encouraged to live a life hidden away from the public. Instead, she reached out to the immortal impresario P. T. Barnum, married the tiny superstar General Tom Thumb in the wedding of the century, and transformed into the world’s most unexpected celebrity.

Here, in Vinnie’s singular and spirited voice, is her amazing adventure—from a showboat “freak” revue where she endured jeering mobs to her fateful meeting with the two men who would change her life: P. T. Barnum and Charles Stratton, AKA Tom Thumb. Their wedding would captivate the nation, preempt coverage of the Civil War, and usher them into the White House and the company of presidents and queens. But Vinnie’s fame would also endanger the person she prized most: her similarly-sized sister, Minnie, a gentle soul unable to escape the glare of Vinnie’s spotlight.

A barnstorming novel of the Gilded Age, and of a woman’s public triumphs and personal tragedies, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is the irresistible epic of a heroine who conquered the country with a heart as big as her dreams—and whose story will surely win over yours.

 

That's it for this week's Watch! Have a great Monday.