Pardon My Absence

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Jenn

For the past few weeks, I’ve been assisting with a bit of the Book Blogger Appreciation Week workload.  It’s left me without much time to read, let alone blog!  My current tasks will come to an end in the next day or so, so I plan on making up for lost time by having my own personal read-a-thon/bloggiesta over the three-day weekend!

Do you have any exciting plans (reading or otherwise) for the Labor Day weekend?

Oh, and don’t forget! Be sure to vote for your favorite blogs starting Monday, September 7th!

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Catching Fire Giveaway!

Posted on September 1, 2009 by Jenn

35769901Hooray!  At long last, it’s the release day for Suzanne Collins’ Catching Fire , the second in the Hunger Games series. And to celebrate, I’m giving a way a signed Advanced Readers Copy of the book!

To enter, tell me which character you are rooting for most, Peeta or Gale! And I promise, my preference will not influence the winner at all.

All comments must include an email address. Comments without email addresses will be automatically disqualified. For extra points, tweet and or blog (must be a blog post) about it. Be sure to include a link to your post or tweet in your comment. Winner will be announced on Monday, September 7th. Contest is open to US and Canada only.  Let the games begin!

Posted in Current Giveaways | 60 Comments

Review: Gaming Tower

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Jenn

Last week,  I posted about my fall organizing ritual.  I was invited by CSN Office furniture to review a piece of their furniture.  Instead of reviewing a bookshelf like other bloggers have done, my son and I decided to do a review of the Four-Tier Wire Gaming Tower. The tower arrived today and being the organizing freak that I am, I assembled it as soon as I arrived home.

The box it arrived it (yes, I should have taken a picture first!) was nice and compact.  When I opened the box I was initially overwhelmed at the number of pieces.  My fears soon vanished when I realized how detailed the assembly instructions were.  The instructions had large, accurate drawings of each stage of the assembly.  It was detailed in several different languages, and the English instructions were easy to find and decipher.  I had it assembled in about 30 minutes.  Ok, I admit,  it probably would have taken only 15 minutes had I not been watching yesterday’s episode of True Blood.

Now that it was assembled, we were ready to “install” it in my son’s room.  Let me warn you before showing you this picture.  This is, in fact, a picture of my son’s current video game area. No video games or video game consoles were harmed in this photo.

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As you can see, this is a disaster.  Games are everywhere, some are shoved in the drawers and others are just sitting on top of the piece holding John’s game cube.  The drawers below hold a jumbled mess of video games and DVDs.  This system only holds one of his consoles and the controllers really don’ t have a home, in most cases they are just hanging out of the drawer.

Now, for the after shot!

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It’s so beautiful and well-organized it brings a tear to my eye!  The bottom drawer pulls out and holds all of John’s Playstation games.  The middle drawer not only holds John’s Playstation (it’s there on the right, on it’s side), but it also holds his Xbox, VCR and DVD player.  Finally, the top shelf holds all of John’s DVDs.  And, my favorite part-on each side are two controller hooks.

You can see by the look on John’s face how much he loves this product!  His review: “I like this because it lets me get to my DVDs easier.  I can also find my games easier.  I don’t have to get down on my knees to get to my games, I can just bend over and slide out the drawer.  I can turn on my DVD player, Playstation 2, and Xbox easier as well.  Everything I need is together, not spread out all over my room. ”  This makes me very happy as well.  I hope this system helps to keep John more organized, and eliminates the arguments we have about the condition of his video games!

Thank you to CSN furniture for providing us this product for review.

Posted in Review, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week?

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Jenn

       

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week. It was created by J.Kaye’s Book Blog, so stop by and join in!

Books Completed Last Week

With all the BBAW judging I’ve been doing and my move over to this domain and self-hosting, I didn’t get nearly as much reading done last week as I would have liked.  I guess this week I’ll be playing catch up!

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly (audiobook)
Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse by Kaleb Nation

Currently Reading

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
No Mercy by John Gilstrap
Tomorrow, When the War Began (The Tomorrow Series #1) by John Marsden

Books to Complete This Week

Yikes! What a long list!

Alex Cross’s TRIAL by James Patterson
Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain
Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Fragment by Warren Fahy
The Lion’s Eye: Seeing in the Wild by Joanna Greenfield
School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari
 
 What are you reading this week?
 

 

 

Posted in It's Monday What Are you Reading This Week | 13 Comments

Blog Tour & Review: Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse by Kaleb Nation

Posted on August 30, 2009 by Jenn

HambicAt the age of six years old, Bran Hambric was found inside a sealed bank fault. He had no memory of how he had come to be in the vault. As a matter of fact, he couldn’t remember anything. The only clue that lead to his identity was a torn piece of paper found with him, which stated: “Bran Hambric, born June 17.” Hambric was found by Sewey Wilomas, an employee of the bank.

Eight years later, Hambric is living with the Wilomas family. The Finder’s Keepers Law required that, since Sewey Wilomas found Bran, he is theirs “forever or until the End of Time, whichever comes later.” Bran lives in the attic of the Wilomas home. He and Rosie (Mabel Wilomas’ distant cousin) are essentially the Wilomas’ servants.

The Wilomas’ live in the City of Dunce, a town where magic and magical creatures have been outlawed. The slight mention of magic or mages (those that practice magic) can result in imprisonment.

One night Bran and Sewey are attacked by a creature who refers to himself as Shambles. During his attempt to take Bran, he mentions the name Emry Hambric, Bran’s mother. This is the first Bran has heard anything about his past.

For the first time, Bran begins to question his origin. It doesn’t take him long to discover he is not a normal boy. His mother, Emry Hambric, was a mage who risked her life to save Bran’s. Emry helped create the Farfield Curse, a curse known to be powerful but hasn’t been spoken of for the past eight years. The mages who helped create the Curse are now after Bran, for he is the only one that can awaken the horrible power that can unleash this curse. Bran must stop at nothing to prevent this Curse from occurring.

Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse was a very thrilling tale. The suspense builds and builds and comes to a powerful climax near the end. I literally read this is one night, nothing was able to pull my attention away.  While technically considered a YA novel it is one that can be enjoyed by adults as well. Now, I would be remiss not to mention the similarities to the Harry Potter books. They do exist, but Kaleb is able to hold is own on this one.

The most impressive thing about this book is the author, Kaleb Nation. Kaleb was only fourteen years old when he started writing Bran Hambric, and it took most of his teenage years to complete it. This is a truly impressive feat.  The dedication and focus Nation gave to his writing is clearly evident in this book.

Thank you to Sourcebooks for providing a review copy of this book.

Check out the other blogs participating in this blog tour:

Monday, August 31st

StevenTill.com
Dolce Bellezza
Bobbi’s Book Nook

Tuesday, September 1st

The Looking Glass Review
Edward-Cullen.net
Beth Fish Reads
SMS Book Reviews
James Holder’s YouTube Channel

Wednesday, September 2nd

Bookalicio.us
Reading Rumpus
Katie’s Literature Lounge
Ultimate Bookhound

Thursday, September 3rd

Brimful Curiosities
Charlotte’s Library

Friday, September 4th

BriMeetsBooks.com
Bran Hambric by Kaleb Nation
 
Saturday, September 5th

Library Lounge Lizard
Sarah’s Random Musings
Saulchichas
GreenFyr.com

Sunday, September 6th

Cindy’s Love of Books

Monday, September 7th

Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf
Grasping for the Wind
Life After Twilight vlog channel

Tuesday, September 8th

Shooting Stars Magazine
Mrs. Magoo Reads
Lori Calabrese Writes

 
Wednesday, September 9th

The Brain Lair
Dulemba.com
The Children’s Book Review
TV Watch Online

Thursday, September 10th

The Friendly Book Nook
Book Journey
Stephanie’s Written Word
Home School Buzz
Spidurmunkey.com

Friday, September 11th

The Inside Scoop With Chandelle
Booking Mama

Saturday, September 12th

Zoe’s Book Reviews
Lit for Kids

Sunday, September 13th

Never Jam Today
A Bibliophile’s Reverie

Monday, September 14th

Café of Dreams
Marta’s Meanderings
Galleysmith.com
A Book Blogger’s Diary
The Reader’s Quill

Tuesday, September 15th

a book in hand
MistiSchindele.com
Not Just for Kids

Wednesday, September 16th

Write for a Reader
CumpulsiveReader.com

Thursday, September 17th

Howling Good Books
The Written World

Friday, September 18th

Always Riddikulus
YA Books Central

Saturday, September 19th

Ms. Bookish
Into the Wardrobe

Posted in Kid-Lit/Middle Grade, Review | 4 Comments

Winner of Babydoll!

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Jenn

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The winner has been contacted. Thanks to all who entered! Check back next week for some exciting new giveaways!

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Welcome to Jenn’s Bookshelves!

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Jenn

Although this new design only took me two days to complete, it was a long time coming!   I created Jenn’s Bookshelf over a year ago.  My collection of books has quadrupled in size in this time and it seemed appropriate to name my new blog Jenn’s Bookshelves!

Thank you to new followers as well as followers that made the  leap with me to self-hosting!  There are a few people who I must thank as well.  I couldn’t have made this move without them!  First, I have to thank Heather from A High and Hidden Place designed my header, and Natasha from Maw Books Blog and Trish from Hey Lady, Whatcha Readin’? both gave me great advice and assistance during my move!  Thank you, Heather, Natasha, and Trish!

Check back in the next few days for some great giveaways to celebrate my move!!

Posted in Uncategorized | 38 Comments

Change Is In The Air!

Posted on August 26, 2009 by Jenn
Within the past few months, I’ve discovered a few blogs that use the same template as mine (sob). It’s a template I’ve grown to love and have spent countless hours customizing. I’ve branded Jenn’s Bookshelf around this template. It’s to be expected, I suppose, given it is a free (and fabulous) template!
But, the time has come for me to change it and personalize it a bit more, create something that is truly mine. So, in the next few weeks, Jenn’s Bookshelf will have a completely new look. At the same time, I will switch to self-hosting. It make sense to make all these big changes at one time.
Thank you to all of those that have complimented the look of Jenn’s Bookshelf! I hope you all will be just as happy, if not more, when the new look is unveiled.
Thank you for being a dedicated follower and for all of your support!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 15 Comments

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril…IV!!!

Posted on August 26, 2009 by Jenn


I was so excited to see Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings had posted about his famous RIP (R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril) Challenge, September 1-October 31! I’ve wanted to participate for some time, but this is the first I’ve been able to. I always try to read a lot of great horror and thriller during the Halloween season, and this challenge gives me another excuse!

RIP challenges you to pick books from the following categories:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

There are also certain levels (perils) to this challenge. I will be participating in:

Peril the First states that I must read four books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories.

Now, since my favorite genre is horror, I have a huge bookshelf that is literally packed (I’m talking at least 200 books) full of horror fiction. So, I have a great pool of books to choose from.

Following is my tentative list. I will be adding to this list, I’m certain, depending on the mood I’m in!



Any suggestions for other books I should add to my pool?

Posted in RIP | 5 Comments

National Book Festival is a Month Away! Sign Up for the DC Tweetup!

Posted on August 25, 2009 by Jenn

The National Book Festival is being held September 26, 2009 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. There is an amazing line-up of authors scheduled to appear, including some of my favorites:

Shannon Hale
Mo Willems
David Baldacci
Lee Child
James Patterson
George Pelecanos
Judy Blume
Patrick Carman
Rick Riordan
John Grisham
John Irving
Katherine Neville
Jodi Picoult
Nicholas Sparks
Jeannette Walls

(for a full list, visit the Library of Congress Web site).

Several local bloggers are working together to plan a DC TweetUp, which is basically a get together for anyone that will be in town to attend the National Book Festival. If you will be in DC that weekend, and are interested in joining up with us, please sign up for the DC Tweetup group. We’re also planning a tour of the Library of Congress Building, so sign up for the group to receive updates as they become available!

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments