Category Archives: Linkity linkity link

Contests, Gluten Free, Linkity linkity link

Beware – two weeks worth of linkity linkity link!

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For your chance to win a signed copy of the cookbook Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Modern Kitchen by Monica Bhide, leave Knit Think Amy a comment answering the questions that she poses in her post. Leave your comments through June 11.

Caption Noolie’s cute toddler picture for your chance to win some pretty blue Rowan 4-ply cotton. Contest is open through June 11.

Has anyone tried the new GF Valencia Orange Cake from Starbucks? What did you think? Sadly, orange anything (other than juice) isn’t a favorite, so I’ll pass. But I’m glad to see our options increasing!

Here’s some more info on the new Betty Crocker GF mixes. (Hey, trek, maybe I’ll actually have some box tops for Neatnik next time!)

I am definitely going to look for these gf frozen flatbread pizzas – don’t they sound tasty?!

Knittymama has a link to a great idea for saving money on groceries and using up some of that food in the back of your cupboards.

If you’re really into making perfect espresso at home, this looks like a must-read.

The Yarn Harlot made Consumerist!

I knew it had to be a conspiracy. Knitting related lolcat! Hmm… Oh, this must be why I can never remember the fourth one. Beware of rampaging napping hordes of bad luck! Hee hee – there’s Chaos on the far right.

lolcat your blog!

Did you hear that certain varieties of Nutro cat food have been recalled due to incorrect mineral levels that can make cats sick?

Some tips on keeping your kitties from scratching up your furniture. I swear by claw trimming!

Want to get better information or advice? Try carrying a notebook.

I haven’t tried this app yet, but it looks like it could be a good tool for speedy photo fixes.

Hmm – turning Altoid tins into mini toolboxes has definite holiday gift potential.

Besides using a laptop stand or cooling pad, cleaning your laptop can help save its life.

Oh oh… the question every parent fears:

“So, Mom, what do you do with all these pictures you take of me?” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

In which Mayhem attempts to select a book (and the contest thing gets insanely out of hand)

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Paula’s participating in the 2009 North Central Alabama Race for the Cure and is looking for donations. Every $5.00 you donate will get you an entry in a raffle for some sock yarn after she reaches her $250 goal.

Author Barbara Bretton is giving away two skeins of Elann Peruvian Baby Lace Merino in Irish Moss if you send her an email before the the evening of June 3 (aka today, so hurry up).

Author Jeaniene Frost is giving away four copies of the The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance, which is a great collection! Send her an email (info’s in the post) before 11:59 pm EDT, June 4, for your chance to win. (If I didn’t already own this book, I’d be all over this contest myself.)

Jen’s friend is about to go through her fifth birth, but first cesarean – leave some cheering comments for Jen’s friend (and vote in the baby name poll) for your chance to win a gorgeous skein of Yarn Pirate sock yarn.

For your chance to win a copy of the superhero novel Black and White by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge (reviewed below), stop by and comment at Deadline Dames.

Leave a comment at Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin’ Giveaways by June 12 for your chance to win one of several short story collections. These aren’t paranormals, for those who worry about such things. 😉

If you’d like to win a copy of the Blood Ties dvds (based on Tanya Huff’s Books of Blood series), you’ll need to do a tiny bit of research and send an email by June 15.

For your chance to win an advance reading copy of the young adult book Ghost Huntress (Book 1: The Awakening), leave a comment at J. Kaye’s Book Blog before June 27. Remember, winners will not be notified – you’ll have to keep an eye on that blog to see if you’ve won. Another contest of interest over at J. Kaye’s includes one for the audio cds of The Bourne Deception. (And thanks to J. Kaye for including me in the new book blog discovery post last week!)

Largehearted Boy’s giving away an eight-volume Buddha graphic novel series – leave a comment before midnight CDT, June 5, for your chance to win.

If you’d like the chance to win a signed copy of the new collection Tails of Love, which is a charity anthology to benefit needy animals and which features stories where animals play a key role in romance, leave a comment at Anna’s Book Blog before June 11.

The Suvudu free reads (all scifi or fantasy) for June have been posted. Smart Bitches have some links to romance ebook deals/promotions.

Head over to SciFiGuy.ca to see what urban fantasy, fantasy, paranormal, and scifi books are coming out the month.

Sydney found a new to me book holder.

Looks like BeBook’s going to have a wireless ebook reader available for sale by the end of this month (for $199).

Apparently Google’s planning to sell ebooks by the end of this year.

Woot! I won a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies over at Historic Fibers for my zombie haiku (#2 in this post). Thanks, Julia!

Reading Update
True Confessions (set in Idaho), See Jane Score (not set in Idaho!), Truly Madly Yours (set in Idaho), Daisy’s Back in Town (not set in Idaho), and It Must Be Love (set in Idaho) by Rachel Gibson. One more to go and I will have read all of Gibson’s books in a shockingly short time. Important Note: If you find yourself in a Rachel Gibson romance, please be aware that condoms always seem to break and prepare yourself accordingly.
Night and Day (Jesse Stone) by Robert B. Parker. Finally! I swear, if a critical bit of series progression hadn’t happened in this one, I wouldn’t ever pick up another book in this series. I barely nerved myself up to read this one.
Traveling Light by Diana Rubino. ebook. This was a time travel romance that takes place briefly in the present, but primarily in fifteenth-century England. Review posted at Fang-tastic Books.
Satisfaction Guaranteed by Lucy Monroe. Scorching hot and very good contemporary romance about people working for a super secret antiterrorism agency. Very scorching. Very hot.
Ready and Willing by Lucy Monroe. More scorchers from Monroe. Can you guess what the name is of the next book in the series? 😉
Come Up and See Me Sometime by Lucy Monroe. This was written a few years earlier than the other books of hers I’ve read. Let’s just say her writing has improved a great deal in the past several years. In fact, I spent so much time rolling my eyes while I read this one, I think I strained something.
Demon Can’t Help It by Kathy Love. Favorite line: “Oddly, I find it reassuring you haven’t put anyone’s soul in a house pet before.” (The guy on the cover of this totally creeps me out for some reason.)
Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang: A Dark Ones Novel by Katie MacAlister. Noticed a doozie of a typo on the “Also By” page – MacAlister’s book Zen and the Art of Vampires got turned into Zen and the Art of Dragons. Whoops. This book continues the story of Pia and Kristoff that began in Zen and the… and ended on a cliffhanger in that book. This book is still a bit all over the place, plus I spent way too much time wanting to slap Pia, Kristoff, and plenty of other characters. However, at least this one didn’t end on a cliffhanger – just with an open question or two. (Oh, and I have no idea what the cover art has to do with the book!)
Black and White by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge. Please note that I received this as a review copy/prize, so you’ll get a slightly longer reviewette than usual.

We have lots of metaphors related to white and black, good and evil. The line between good and evil is supposedly black and white. Good guys wear white hats and bad guys wear black hats. Good is light, bad is darkness. Black and White plays with those crisp delineations, showing us that things are never that clear, even when superheroes (or “extrahumans” as they’re called in 2112) are involved.

Black and White is told alternately from the perspective of two extrahumans, Jet and Iridium. The narrative weaves back and forth between the story’s present and five to ten years in the past, when Jet and Iridium were roommates at the Academy. Jet’s a Shadow power, yet completely focused on following the rules and being a model hero. Iridium, a Light power, is much more independent and much less interested in rules. Both had fathers who were considered insane or “rabid”, leading many to expect similar behavior from Jet and Iridium.

What starts out as a seemingly simple comic bookesque tale of good versus evil slowly develops into an involving tale about shades of grey, friendship, and betrayal. (In fact, in some respects, it reminded me of Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, which I also thoroughly enjoyed.)

Hmm. Mayhem seems to be having trouble selecting a book, as she stands on what are apparently her discards and contemplates The S3x Lives of Cannibals.

“What to read, what to read… Mom, what are cannibals? What is s3x? Are there any black kitties in this book? I’m sure it’s not worth reading if there aren’t black kitties in it.” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Reading our lives away

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For your chance to win a set of six classic short story collections from authors such as Willa Cather, Leo Tolstoy, and Herman Melville), leave a comment at Largehearted Boy by midnight CDT, May 29.

If you’d like a chance to win an audiobook copy of James Patterson’s The 8th Confession, leave a comment at J. Kaye’s Book Blog before June 27. Please remember that J. Kaye doesn’t notify winners – you need to keep an eye on the blog to see if you’ve won.

Free download of The Guide to Pirate Parenting!

Smart Bitches had some great links recently, including to free audiobooks.

I definitely don’t write as much as I used to (since I seem to type most things now), but when I do handwrite something, it doesn’t take long for my hand to hurt. Maybe my grip is part of the problem.

Use six books (that you don’t like) to make invisible speakers.

How to make your very own book pillow to help you read in comfort.

Dear Author’s weekly tech roundup has some good stuff this week, including info on colorful new ebook readers and an ebook price comparison website (I’m definitely bookmarking that one!).

I thought these seven organization tips to help you reduce your TBR (to be read) pile were great in theory, but… I know I won’t do any of them. 🙂

If you’re trying to read more, maybe these 16 ideas will help – I know that not watching tv and speed reading probably help me the most. Missing from that list was making sure you always have something to read with you so you can take advantage of unexpected free time (such as when waiting in lines).

A look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Kindle 2.0 from an avid user after 100 days of use. Also, Kindle owners can now view their notes and highlights in a web browser and not just on their Kindles.

Reading Update
Just the Sexiest Man Alive by Julie James. This was a great contemporary romance about a Chicago lawyer who’s in LA to work on a big case when she gets stuck providing legal insight to a handsome movie star who’s researching his role in a legal thriller.
Undone (Outcast Season, Book 1) by Rachel Caine. This is a spin-off from Caine’s Weather Warden series. It features Cassiel, a fallen Djinn. Lots and lots and lots of open questions at the end of this one. *sigh*
The Immortal Hunter: A Rogue Hunter Novel (Argeneau Vampires) by Lynsay Sands. Ack. More of the lots and lots of open questions thing here. Hmph.
Dead Girls Are Easy, A Match Made in Hell, and You’re the One that I Haunt (Nicki Styx, Books 1-3) by Terri Garey. Nicki was dead for a few minutes in the ER and when she came back, she could see ghosts. Ghosts who want her to do things for them, ranging from the innocuous to the deadly. Overall, I enjoyed these, although there was a story arc that I found annoying and which I really hope was completed in the third book.
Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1) by Anya Bast. This book starts in Minneapolis! I’m always a sucker for that. I thought this was a good completely vampire and werewolf free read (also very steamy) – the next two books are already on my TBR shelf and I’m planning to pick up the latest book on June 6 at Uncle Hugo’s, when Ms. Bast will be there signing it.

“Wait, why did I think I missed you again? Obviously I forgot about the infernal flashing.” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link

Linkity blowout

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Leave Kristi a comment by midnight EST, May 31, for your chance to win a pdf of one of her cute kids sweater patterns.

Clever DIY idea for making a light box in a suitecase.

Like to build things from cardboard? This article has links to ten things you can make from cardboard, from a kitty chaise to a laptop stand to a starter macro photography kit.

Whoa. Good question.

Although the Gizmodo article’s a bit snarky, check out the pet photography tips from Li of Fat Orange Cat Studios. Yes, she does also blog at domesticrafts.

Oh my – a USB drive that transforms into a panther!

More IKEA hacks for hiding litterboxes.

Make your own deluxe kitty windowsill perch.

Hmm. Who does this print remind me of?

Doesn’t this look tasty? Gluten-free chocolate rootbeer cake. *nom nom nom*

You’re at the theater, watching a movie and you desperately have to pee but don’t want to miss anything. This website will help you figure out the best time to take your break.

Rest easy, citizens of Boston – your police department promises to alert you when the zombies attack.

I had no idea LEGO was making an Architecture line – check out the Fallingwater kit!

Feline Strategy #2 for Dealing with Unexcused Human Absence:

“Oh, did you go somewhere? I didn’t notice.” -Chaos

Contests, Linkity linkity link

LinKitty

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Wendy’s giving away some of the new Lorna’s Laces WendyKnits Sunrise sock yarn – leave her a comment by 4 pm EDT, May 21, for your chance to win.

Head over to moderncat before May 17 for your chance to win a year’s supply of the World’s Best Cat Litter. You can leave a comment on this post if you’d like the chance to win a kitty catnip boomerang, too.

Confused about sunscreen SPF? You’re not alone.

An interesting option for those holey old handknit socks that you can’t bear to throw away.

Heh – ya think?!

Yet another option for a homemade laptop stand – this time from cardboard.

*tilts head quizzically*

Thanks to Karen for alerting me to this photo of an adorable black jaguar kitten! Look at those clodhoppers, eh?

Whoa. This is my household! Can you figure out who’s who? 😉 (Today’s kitty photo caption won’t make sense unless you follow this link.)

“I hope you recognize that I’m not the silly one. I’m the thoughtful one!” -Chaos

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Go forth and write zombie haiku

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You may or may not ever have noticed, but I’m not much for the zombie books. However, that didn’t stop me from writing a zombie haiku when Margene pointed me to this contest. Head on over to Historic Fibers if you’d like to win a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or if you simply like a good haiku challenge. Contest closes midnight PDT, May 15.

Speaking of Margene, stop by and welcome her to the world of gluten-free knitters. She has good friends and family like I have good friends and family, so I know she’ll be fine and do well!

Limedragon pointed out that Handknit Heroes is having a mask design contest, which closes July 15. You could win $150 and have your patten published in the Fall 2009 issue of Handknit Heroes.

And speaking of Handknit Heroes and Limedragon, our very own dragon had a pattern published in the latest issue of Handknit Heroes! To celebrate, she’s giving away some copies of the comic to a few lucky commenters who leave comments before midnight CDT, May 14.

For you fans of young adult books, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist is giving away three copies of Tad Williams and Deborah Beale’s The Dragons of Ordinary Farm.

It can be painful, but many of us have had to do it – break up with a formerly beloved series of books. (The bit about why post author Sarah broke up with the Anita Blake series? Too funny – and too true. I also enjoyed reading the comments on this post.)

Have you heard about the controversy surrounding Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s new book, The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide? Do read a bit about the concerns before you buy the book!

I love the idea of invisible floating bookshelves, but I’ll never do it.

Sony might be releasing a larger ebook reader to compete with the Kindle DX by the end of this year.

FiledBy is a new site that allows authors and readers to connect. I haven’t had a chance to look at it, so I can’t say anything else about it!

Reading Update
Burning Alive: The Sentinel Wars by Shannon K. Butcher. This was a strong start to a new paranormal romance series about the Sentinels, who are guarding humans from demons. (If that name “Butcher” seems familiar, it should.)
Forbidden Nights with a Vampire (Love at Stake, Book 7) by Kerrelyn Sparks. Yup, I just read book 6 a week or so ago! Again, this continues to be a well done, not too heavy paranormal series.
Over My Dead Body (Broken Heart, Oklahoma) by Michele Bardsley. The latest book in this paranormal series about the unusual residents of Broken Heart, Oklahoma, is a decent read. This is another not too heavy paranormal series.
Edge of Danger (Primal Instinct #2) by Rhyannon Byrd. This was as intense a paranormal as the first book in the series, Edge of Hunger. Although these characters were pretty angsty, too, I didn’t get overwhelmed with annoyance by their intermittent TSTL behavior.
One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 2) by Jeaniene Frost. The second book in the Night Huntress series is as well-written and involving as the first. Crispin (aka “Bones”) may be my new vampire crush.
Smart Mouth by Erin McCarthy. Contemporary romance about an FBI agent and a reporter. Very, very steamy. *fans self*
Crap. No abs. Um… Here’s a link to a book I know nothing about, included simply because it has abs on the cover and I suspect (but can’t verify) that said abs belong to NK.
Getting What You Want and Wanting What You Get (The Stepp Sisters, Books 1-2) by Kathy Love. Extremely involving and well-done contemporary romance about the Stepp sisters of Milbrook, Maine. Um, I may have cried a bit near the end of the second book.
Promises in Death by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts). Another solid Eve Dallas and Roarke mystery.
Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof (Dixie Hemingway) by Blaize Clement. Hmph. I’m cranky about being left hanging by the ending. You know how that annoys me.

“I will vaporize you if you don’t stop looking at those books and feed me right now.” -Chaos

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

In which I manage to include abs and will hopefully escape with my life

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Trek’s having a contest to guess how many quarters are in the tea tin. Contest ends when the tin is full; I think the prize will be cool bag and some other goodies.

Here’s hoping the comments work today. Having the comments shut off randomly seems to be about as predictible as the WYSIWYG editor not working. Thank you, WordPress/Firefox 3.0. Only not so much.

The big ebook news of the week is Amazon’s Kindle DX, which has a larger screen and native pdf support. However, it also has a nearly $500 price tag and looks to be as fragile as the Kindle 2. According to Smart Bitches, it’s already picked up the Twitter tag of #dud. Gizmodo has had some good information on the Kindle DX that’s worth checking out, too. (And did you know that 20% of Kindle owners are over 40?)

BookArmy is another book recommendation/social site. I’m sticking with LibraryThing. 🙂

Did Twilight create the new YA genre of abstinence p0rn?

Thanks to Naomi for this link about art made from old book covers.

SciFiGuy has a list of all the May releases for urban fantasy, paranormal romance, fantasy, and scifi.

Check out the Suvudu free ebooks for May, which include a paranormal title (Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian), scifi (Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham), and fantasy (Elric: Stealer of Souls by Michael Moorcock).

You can pick up the first book in the Jaz Parker vampire series by Jennifer Rardin (Once Bitten, Twice Shy) as an ebook for $1.00 (or so, depending on the format) this month.

This is so perfectly Chaos!

Crap. No abs in this post, either. I might have a rebellion on my hands. (Don’t believe me?! Go read the comments from my last reading update and get back to me.) *sounds of rummaging through shelves* Whew! NK to the rescue with a book I won recently. (Strangely, I’ve won all four books of this series, although I haven’t read any of them yet.)

Reading Update
Secret Life of a Vampire (Love at Stake, Book 6) by Kerrelyn Sparks. This continues to be a nice, not too heavy paranormal series.
Midnight Cravings (Silhouette Bites) by Michele Hauf, Karen Whiddon, Lori Devoti, Anna Leonard, Vivi Anna, and Bonnie Vanak. Six stories about creatures of the night (mostly, but not entirely, werewolves). I enjoyed all the stories, but wasn’t that excited about finishing the one by Vanak.
Tempting Adam (Seattle Steam #2) by Shelli Stevens. ebook. I won this non-paranormal romance in a contest and discovered it was an engaging and, well, steamy read. 😉 I’ll definitely read more by Shelli Stevens.
Arousing Suspicions by Marianne Stillings. A fun contemporary romance about a San Francisco dream interpreter and an SFPD detective. This is the first of Stillings’ Darling Detectives trilogy (next is Satisfaction and then Killer Charms). I read these totally out of order. Whoops.
Animal Instincts by Gena Showalter. Another fun contemporary romance about a woman with a few trust issues who’s been reading a self-help book on freeing her inner tigress. (Nope, it’s not a paranormal, either.)
Seduced by the Night, Tempted in the Night, and Lord of the Night (Night Slayer, Books 2-4) by Robin T. Popp. Waaaaah! I got totally sucked into this series, but I see that the most recent book, Lord of the Night, was published in 2007. It doesn’t look good for more books, does it?
Modern Day Vampires: Vampire 101 by Paige Taylor. ebook. Nicely done (and steamy) paranormal romance – you can read a longer review at Fang-tastic Books, where I’ll periodically be reviewing paranormal ebooks.
Seducing the Darkness (Darkness Series, Book 1) by Shiela Stewart. ebook. This should show up on Fang-tastic Books sometime in the near future, too. Another vampirey ebook, this is the first in Stewart’s Darkness series. I hope the choppiness and other editing issues are smoothed out as the series progresses, because I thought the premise was intriguing.
Wishful Thinking: The Swann Sisters Chronicles, Book 1 by Evangeline Anderson. ebook. What a fun book about having a fairy godmother! (Hint: it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.) Recommended. You can read a more lengthy review on LibraryThing.
Men of Alaska: Animal Attraction by Paige Tyler. Very steamy and well-done paranormal about a reporter who travels to Alaska and meets a very special guy…

“What if the hokey pokey really is what it’s all about?” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link

The reason you can’t leave anything unattended around here

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Comments are now on! Thanks for the heads up.

Go read Mary Lou’s sad story of a stolen handknit baby blanket and share your knitting/yarn-related sob story with her for a chance to win three skeins of deep olive green Misti Alpaca Chunky.

Amy’s having a contest to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the release of her book Minnesota: Land of 10,000 Lakes. Leave a comment before midnight CDT, May 10, for your chance to win a signed copy of Amy’s book and some Minnesota goodies.

Win a (discontinued) gluten-free angel food cake mix from Gluten Free Food Reviews. Leave a comment by 11:59 pm, May 9, for your chance to win.

Don’t forget that you have until May 23 to donate to help send the Olympia Choral Group to Carnegie Hall. Donations are tax deductible and for every $10 you donate, you’ll get an additional entry in Teyani’s contest for your chance to win some pretty amazing prizes.

Frank at Chromewaves is giving away a pair of tickets to the 10,000 Lakes Festival, which takes place in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, from July 22-25. (Let us ponder on a guy in Toronto giving away tickets to a music festival in northern Minnesota…) Anyway, you have until June 23 to send him an email if you’re interested in winning the tickets. Musical guests at the festival include Wilco, Gomez, the Dave Matthews Band, and more.

Have you seen Domesticat’s Sundara Yarn Print cards? Lovely.

Lifehacker has ten tips to help you get more battery life from your gadgets.

If that origami business card earbud winder didn’t work out for you, maybe this one will.

Online social life getting a little hard to keep track of? Here are some suggestions for regaining control.

Yes, there is a science of concentration and understanding it can help you be more productive.

Do you know if your cats are right- or left-pawed? *must go stare at cats to study this and freak them out*

Truth.

“Mmmmm… yarn label…” -Mayhem

“Thank you for that tasty yarn label, Jeanne. Now, I’ll need to sample the yarn to see if it lives up to the label…” -Mayhem

Linkity linkity link

*happy May Day Friday dance*

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Warning: Nearly guaranteed you’ll get a cute burn from this one, but it’ll be so worth it!

Hee hee – I say variations of this all the time…

If you have arachnophobia, think twice before following this link.

Trying to make more of your holiday gifts? Homemade coffee liqueur sounds pretty tasty, but you should get started soon, as it needs to sit for a few months.

Gutter gardens look like a very clever way to do some gardening when you don’t have much space.

The Indoor Cat Initiative has lots of great information about keeping your indoor cat happy and healthy.

Another interesting charging station. I desperately need to get some sort of charging station in place! *time passes* Ok, I ordered this one.

Who knew you could make cute little journals from paper and an old cereal box?

Thanks to CursingMama for the heads up that today is Buy Indie Day!

Thanks to Ruth for the heads up on this new-to-me online knitting magazine, PopKnits: Vintage Knitting Redux.

If you’re looking for some affordable web design and/or blog tweaking, go pester Van of FuriousBall. He’s doing a few “under the hood” things here at SoC that none of you will actually notice but that will make things easier for me. 🙂

“Really, you have no idea how stressful it is being a gorgeous panther princess.” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Keep on bookin’

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How did I not know about the Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge?! You can join any time before December 31, 2009. There are three levels: read 12, read 25, or read 50 books from your local library in 2009. Um, looks like I hit the third in March and April alone… *blink blink* I’ve read over 100 library books so far this year.

There’s another Hachette audio book giveaway over at J. Kaye’s Book Blog (and there will be one each day this week *hint hint*) – leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of the nonfiction audio book The Age of the Unthinkable by Joshua Cooper Ramo. Make sure you read the rules, or you could win and not even know about it!

Here’s an updated list of many current book blog contests – and they aren’t just for paranormals. 😉

Are ebooks ruining cultural snobbishness? (Woot if they are!)

Interesting – a machine to print books on demand while you wait in the bookstore.

Brace yourselves – after several weeks of abdomen extraordinaire, there are no abs whatsoever in this week’s reading update! Unless you click on that Lauren Dane Cascadia Wolves link. But you might get more than you bargained for at that point. You have been warned. (I swear, warning y’all is akin to daring you…)

Reading Update
Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich. The Stephanie Plum Between-the-Numbers books are never my favorites in this series, but this one wasn’t too bad – probably because Ranger and Joe played a more active role than they usually do in these.
Tri Mates, Wolf Unbound, Standoff, and Fated (Cascadia Wolves, Books 3-6) by Lauren Dane. ebooks. I’m totally sucked into this series about werewolves in the Pacific NW. S3x and political intrigue – what more could you ask? Hmm – maybe more books, now that I’ve read them all? If I was rating steaminess on a five jalapeno scale, this series would probably merit an off-the-scale habanero meltdown.
Eternal Moon (Moon Series, Book 10) by Rebecca York. This continues to be a well-written werewolf series, but I think the time has come for the Moon Series and I to part ways. I’ve been enjoying the series less and less since the whole parallel universe aspect was introduced – I keep hoping that particular thread will die out, but it seems unlikely to happen.
Out of the Night (Night Slayer, Book 1) by Robin T. Popp. I know, I’m shallow – I picked this up because of the Nathan Kamp cover, but it was a surprisingly good read about chupacabras and vampires.
Some Girls Bite (Chicagoland Vampires, Book 1) by Chloe Neill. This was a really, really good book about a grad student turned into a vampire without her consent. Unlike many paranormals, it’s not filled with graphic s3x or anything, either. Definitely recommended and I am already looking forward to the next book.
Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 1) by Jeaniene Frost. Cat Crawfield is half-human, half-vampire and looking to rid the world of vampires when she discovers that things aren’t as black and white as she’d believed.
Edge of Hunger (Primal Instinct, Book 1) by Rhyannon Byrd. Conceptually intriguing and I sort of enjoyed it, but I spent so much time being pissed at the “hero” and thinking he had a whole lot of TSTL (too stupid to live) going on that I really couldn’t get into the book. Apparently there’s a limit to the amount of hero angst I can take. But hey, I did finish the book, which counts for something.
The Monster of Minnesota (News from the Edge, Book 1) by Mark Sumner. I couldn’t resist this title when I saw it in the used section at Uncle Hugo’s over the weekend. Think tabloid journalism and the Loch Ness Monster on a Minnesota lake. Sort of. 🙂
Mouth To Mouth by Erin McCarthy. Another sweet and steamy romance from McCarthy, this time about a Cleveland cop and the woman he meets under unusual circumstances. Somewhat unexpectedly, this book has some nice insights into deaf culture and the challenge of living between two worlds.

“Mmmm… is there anything tastier than furry mouse tails?! I don’t think so!” -Mayhem