Black and White by Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge Book Give-away!

With thanks to Piatkus, I have seven copies of Black and White by Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge to give away!

You can read my review of this great Superhero book here.

All you have to do to be in with a chance to recieve a copy is post a comment telling me what you would want your superhero power to be!

Winners will be put into a hat and drawn randomly and closing date for this give-away will be 31st March.

I’m afraid due to posting costs, I have to restrict this to UK residents only.

Good luck and hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Kelley Armstrong free to read online book

I caught Kelley Armstrong’s Twitter announcement that her Teen Paranormal book ‘The Summoning’ is available to read online for free.  You can check it out at http://bit.ly/6OjAbg.

I still read young adult fiction if it appeals and being a fan of Kelley Armstrong’s, this is a series I wanted to check out so I’m happy I can now!

You can follow Kelley on Twitter and you can check out her other books in her author page on Bookthing, as well as the reviews of her books we have here.

Some thoughts on Books and E-Readers

Books and reading have always been a very tangible experience for me.  The smell of a new book or an old and much loved copy, the noise and sensation of turning a page, even turning down a corner of the page you are on (a crime to some I know!) if you need to put it down before the end.  I even prefer buying books in a store even though online shopping is so much easier.  I go into the shop with a sense of excitement about getting a new book, hoping they have one you want in stock or just choosing something new to read.  Mind you, I can rarely buy just one book and holding a few as you browse is part of the experience.  Then buying them and leaving the shop with a bag of books and a lot of anticipation.  Online you can usually get what you want but the wait for the delivery and then arriving in a box doesn’t bring about quite that same sense of excitement.

With the advent of E-readers, I’m a bit lost what to think.  I’ve never used one and only looked at ones for sale in Waterstones and online, so not had the experience for myself.  I can see the advantages – being able to carry a multitude of books on one device that is the size of one, but is that the only thing that would attract me?

Have I become so ingrained with my love of physical books since I was a young child that I wouldn’t be able to make the switch?  And would I want to? The other aspect that comes to mind as well is I use the computer for so many things already, my eyes like the break of reading text on paper.  Would I just feel as if I were still reading a computer screen?  The sun on a book page doesn’t really make much difference other than squinting slightly.  The sun on a screen is a totally different matter and makes it unreadable.

I’d be interested to know how people feel, who feel the same as I do about physical books but do use an E-reader anyway.  Or as I suspect I might be, are you too in love with paper books to want to do it a different way?

Comments – fixed

Looks like comments are broken at the moment folks, probably as a result of upgrading to Wordpress 2.9.

I’ll get right on it.

Edit: I think they’re fixed.

Happy New Year!

Being the absent minded individual that I am, I forgot to post a ‘Merry Christmas’ message.  So instead I shall simply say I hope everyone had a good New Year celebration and that 2010 will be a great year for all the readers of Bookthing!

As I happily recieved some book tokens for christmas and have just got home from spending them, I am about to update the Reading Pile.  Also there will be a few reviews coming in the next couple of days.  Christmas has found me majorly slacking ;)

Apologies!!

J. R. Ward Giveaway Finished!

Thanks to everyone who commented and apologies to those outside of Europe who wanted to enter.

The 4 books will be going to :

Sue Aitken
Tracey Risebrow
Donna Barrie
Jade Elliott

Congratulations and I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did!

Lover Avenged by J. R. Ward Giveaway!

I’ve fallen a little behind in reviews due to Tony being away last week, and me being a girly wuss who doesn’t like it when Tony is away and retreats into her little comfort hole.  I’ve still been reading so there will be 3 reviews appearing soon!

Now for the good news!

With huge thanks to Piatkus, I have 4 (yes 4!) copies of Lover Avenged by J. R. Ward to give away!  What do you have to do to be in with a chance of receiving one?

Post a comment on this blog post!  Can be anything – maybe your favourite character from the Black Dagger Brotherhood or your favourite moment, and if you haven’t read any of the books yet, well let me know what you like about Paranormal Romance.

The names of all commenters will go into a hat and the first 4 drawn will win a copy.  Unfortunately, due to postage costs, this offer is only open to people in the UK or Europe.

Don’t forget to leave a valid email address when you post, it won’t be published and will only be used in the event you are one of the winners.  Do not put your postal address in the comment, I’ll get in touch with you if you win and ask you to send it then.

Closing date will be 21st December at midnight UK time.  There’ll be a post sometime on the 22nd of December listing the winners.

Good Luck!

Born of Ice – book trailer and info

St. Martin’s Press have released the following information about Sherrilyn Kenyon’s 3rd book in the League series,

New from St. Martin’s Press is #1 New York Times bestselling author, Sherrilyn Kenyon’s 3-book series, ‘The League’!  With over 19 million books in print, Sherrilyn Kenyon is renowned the world over as “the reigning queen of the paranormal genre that she pioneered long before the world had heard of Twilight.”  The third book from ‘The League’ series, ‘Born of Ice’, will be available December 1st, 2009.

As with the previous book, Born of Fire, they’ve published a movie-like trailer, which you can watch below or check it out here on YouTube.

There’s more info and the chance to read an excerpt on Sherrilyn’s main website, or this link should take you straight to it.

The excerpt has really whetted my appetite and this little nugget made me laugh out loud :

Oh. My. God.

The one who’d spoken had to be a good six foot four in height. Built in perfect proportions, he was lean and ripped. Broad shoulders tapered down to narrow hips and what had to be the fi nest butt she’d ever seen in her life—she could bounce a credit off that.

Or break a tooth biting it…

Piatkus are the UK publishers, and they’re releasing it on the 3rd December over here.

I really can’t wait to get my hands on it!  Check out the preview of the second book Born of Fire and don’t forget to read my review of the one that started it all, Born of Night.  And if you want to know why you should read Sherrilyn Kenyon… this is why.

The David Gemmell Legend Award For Fantasy – 2010

Stan Nicholls just sent over this press release, for next years (2010) David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy.

New Award Categories

When we established The David Gemmell Legend Award For Fantasy it was with the intention of subsequently introducing further award categories to cover other aspects of the fantasy genre. We are now pleased to announce two new, additional awards, to be presented at next year’s ceremony. They are -

The David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Newcomer

and

The David Gemmell Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art

The Morningstar Award will give recognition to emerging talent in the field of fantasy fiction. As David Gemmell always took a keen interest in new writers, and helped many onto the path to publication, we regard this as an appropriate category to add, and one we feel sure David would have approved.

The Ravenheart Award will honour the best fantasy book cover art. The importance of fantasy cover art deserves admiration, as do the artists who produce it, yet there is no major UK award acknowledging this. The Ravenheart Award will fulfil that role.

Like the Legend Award, the winners of these new awards, for best debut author and best cover/artist, will be decided by popular vote. The first Legend Award, for best fantasy novel of the year, presented at a ceremony in London in June of this year, garnered an incredible 11,000 votes from around the world. We are confident that the Morningstar and Ravenheart awards, which are being created with the full approval of the Gemmell family, will be greeted with no less enthusiasm.

Details of the process whereby these new awards will be administered can be found on our website.

Our aim is to establish, over time, a set of awards covering all aspects of the fantasy genre. Launching this pair of new awards takes us a step nearer to that objective.

The 2010 David Gemmell Awards ceremony will again be held at The Magic Circle headquarters in London, on Friday 18th June.

Please feel free to contact either of us if more information is needed.

Stan Nicholls (Chair)

Deborah Miller (Awards Administrator)

www.gemmellaward.com

Born of Fire – trailers and previews!

bornoffireSt. Martin’s Press (US) are gearing up to release the second book in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s The League series – titled Born of Fire.  I recently read, loved and reviewed the first book (Born of Night) and I really am very excited about the prospect of another chance to visit that world and meet a whole collection of new characters.

To support the release, St. Martin’s Press is offering people a chance to win a copy of the book (although it’s limited to US residents only), but if that includes you, then you can check out the competition here.

The book is out on November 3rd in the US, and November 5th in the UK (published by Piatkus, an imprint of Little Brown).  You can pre-order them both now on Amazon (US and UK versions).

There’s a bunch of additional promotional material coming along with the release.  You can check out an excerpt of Born of Fire on Sherrilyn’s official site.  I’ve read it and it’s exciting!  It has all of Sherrilyn’s hallmark writing, starting with a pair of adversaries and telling us their story!

On top of that there’s a promo video on YouTube which I’ve embedded below.  It’s pretty short, but it gives a good indication of the main characters and should immediately highlight the main difference between this series and Sherrilyn’s Dark Hunter series.

The League is not set on Earth and the technology is far more advanced, but judging by the excerpt and having loved Born of Night, it’s still classic Sherrilyn Kenyon.

From the press release:

New from St. Martin’s Press is #1 New York Times bestselling author, Sherrilyn Kenyon’s 3-book series, ‘The League’!  With over 19 million books in print, Sherrilyn Kenyon is renowned the world over as “the reigning queen of the paranormal genre that she pioneered long before the world had heard of Twilight.”  The second book from ‘The League’ series, ‘Born of Fire’, will be available November 3rd, 2009.

I’m itching to get my hands on this book after thoroughly enjoying the first one!

Here are the links if you want them all in one place!