Like always, never enough days in the month.  I reviewed 17 books, shared three author interviews, two author recipes,  two reader spotlights, two video chats, and have two amazing giveaways in progress.

Here’s a recap of what happened this past month here at the Maw Books Blog:

Books Reviewed in March

Fiction

Yikes!  None this month.  Did read a couple but still in the review pile.

Young Adult Fiction

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki, Illustrated by Steve Rolston
• Chiggers by Hope Larson
• Fade by Lisa McMann
• Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott
• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Middle Readers

• Jellaby by Kean Soo
• Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
• Longhorns and Outlaws by Linda Aksomitis
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney
• The 13th Reality: The Hunt for Dark Infinity by James Dashner
• Holbrook: A Lizards Tale by Bonny Becker
• My Brother, The Robot by Bonny Becker

Picture Books

• Mary Veronica’s Egg by Mary Nethery, Illustrated by Paul Yalowtiz
• A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker, Illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
• An Ant’s Day Off by Bonny Becker, Illustrated by Nina Laden
• The Christmas Crocodile by Bonny Becker, Illustrated by David Small

Non-Fiction

Nothing reviewed this month although I did read a memoir that I’ll review in April.

Author Interviews

• Linda Aksomitis, Author of Longhorns and Outlaws
• Mary Nethery, Children’s Author and Co-Author of Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival
• Bonny Becker, Author of A Visitor for Bear and More!

Reader Spotlights

• Trish from Trish’s Reading Nook!
• Jen (aka Ladytink_534) of The Movieholic & Bibliophile’s Blog

Video Chats

• Video Chat: Talking About Signed Books (A Show and Tell)
• Video Chat: Talking More About Book Destruction (A Show and Tell)

Book Lists

• New York Times Bestsellers – March 29th
• New York Times Bestsellers – March 22nd
• New York Times Bestseller List – March 15th
• New York Times Bestsellers – March 8th

More Posts During January

• More on Meeting Laurie Halse Anderson and a Signed Wintergirls Giveaway!
• An Open Letter to Laurie Halse Anderson
• On Meeting Jodi Picoult and an AMAZING Giveaway!
• Reading for a Cause: The Ides of March Madness Charity Book Reading Tournament
• Butter Bean Cookies from Shana Burg’s Debut Novel, A Thousand Never Evers
• Have You Ever Caused or Been On the Receiving End of a Book/Reading Related Accident?
• Mmmm . . . Mrs. Perez’s Drop-Dead Delicous Lemon Squares from Donna Gephart’s Debut Novel, As If Being 12 3/4 Isn’t Bad Enough My Mother is Running For President
• February Search Terms – The Crazy Stuff That Brought People to My Blog
• Reading & Blogging Review for February

Flashback:  The Maw Books Blog a Year Ago

Books I reviewed a year ago March: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult, Bee Season by Myla Goldberg, The Fiction Class by Susan Breen, Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata, Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis, Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis, Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat.

Looking Ahead to April

• Upcoming Reviews.  My husband and I both read The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker and I’ll be posting my first joint book review with him.  I can’t wait.  Other outstanding reviews to look for are Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguiz, Losing Kei by Suzanne Kamata , Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson, The Scent of Sake by Joyce Lebra.  I’ll be on tour with The Mechanics of Falling by Catherine Brady. Plus I have a whole slew of picture books that I really, really need to review.  And of course, whatever else I manage to read this next month.

• Upcoming Author Interviews. I hope to have at least three interviews in April with Suzanne Kamata, author of Losing Kei, Emily Wing Smith, author of The Way He Lived and maybe Catherine Brady, author of The Mechanics of Falling.

• Features. Plan to have at least two more video chats and 3-4 reader spotlights.  I’ve also made two new author recipes that I hope to write about, a yummy sandwich and a pasta dish.   And because I really, really need to post about it, if I write it down maybe I’ll do it:  meeting Richard Peck with a signed book giveaway.

• The 24 Hour Read-a-Thon!!!!!!!! Seriously, so excited!  I’ve never been able to participate before, but the calender is looking clear!  I finally broached the subject with my husband who simply said, “Okay, tell  me when and I’ll watch the kids!”  How cool is he?  He watched me watch the last two read-a-thons with dejection.  So I think he knows how much I want to do it!  Go sign up!!

Challenge Updates

No challenges completed this month.  The Jewish Literature Challenge ends in April and while I did really well last year, I don’t think I’m going to do so hot this year.  AND I must figure out a system to actually go over to the challenge blogs and link my reviews because I’m really, really behind.  Most of all the books I do read fall into one challenge or another.  They are (click to be taken to my list and then to be taken to challenge blog):

• A-Z Author & Title Challenge
• Dewey’s Books Reading Challenge
• Jewish Literature Challenge
• New Author Challenge
• Read Your Own Books Challenge
• Support Your Local Library Challenge
• Themed Reading Challenge
• War Through the Generations Challenge

Awards

Melissa from BooK Nut gave me the Zombie Chicken award which cracks me up.  “The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence is all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all …”  I definitely don’t want to risk the wrath of zombie chickens, so I’ll take the easy way out (simply because there was five) and pass it on to the bloggers below.

Amy from My Friend Amy gave me the Sisterhood award.  I love having so many sisters in this community and I’m thrilled that Amy thinks the same.

Jeane from Dog Ear Diary passed along the Proximade award which is described as:  this blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.

Sharon from SherMeree’s Musing gave me the I Love Your Blog award.  After connecting with each other on our blogs, Sharon joined our face to face children’s lit book club.  It was fun to meet and I can’t wait to get to know her even more!

Alyce from At Home With Books gave me the Butterfly award.  And she fixed the wording.  Yay!

Molly from My Cozy Book Nook passed on the Your Blog is Fabulous award.  Thanks Molly!

Carnivals

Lots of carnivals going on this month!  Lots of book reviews all in one place.

• Stacy at book:thirtyis hosting the current Book Review Blog Carnival.  I totally forgot to submit something this time around but I did manage to submit to the 13th Edition of the Book Review Blog  Carnival which was hosted by Ruth at Bookish Ruth with my book reviews of  Chains, Speak, and Laurie Halse Anderson’s newest book, Wintergirls.

• Quiverfull Family is hosting the 25th Edition of the Bookworms Carnival which focused on parenting books.  Being the unorganized person that I was this past month, I also missed this carnival. Check out the Bookworms Carnival website for info on all upcoming editions.

• The March Edition of the Carnival of Children’s Literature is hosted by Jenny’s Wonderland of Books.  One of these days I’m going to remember to submit a post to it.

Other Items of Note

• One of the highlights from this past month was receiving an email from Jacqueline Woodson telling me I had a fabolous blog and a beautiful family.  I gave a little squee when I realized it was the Jacqueline Woodson.  So thrilled.

• My favorite posts this month? If I’m not thinking book reviews, definitely my open Letter to Laurie Halse Anderson and videos that I took.  The Jodi Picoult Q&A was fun to share as well as the butter bean cookies and lemon squares recipes.  Loved the reader spotlights too.

• Book Giveaways. There is still plenty of time to enter into my two huge giveaways, but you don’t want to forget!  Right now I’ve got a signed Wintergirls from Laurie Halse Anderson as well as seven signed Jodi Picoult books.  Seriously.  I just said seven. Go enter now.

New Archives Page.  Just a heads up that I’ve set up a pretty thorough archives page. This has been on my to do list for approximately forever.  You should now be able to find most anything that you are looking for.  Take a look and tell me what you think.

• Feed Not Updating. A lot of my subscribers have not been receiving updates.  I still can’t find a rhyme or reason to it as it seems to be pretty random across readers and such.  But everybody who had problems told me that unsubscribing and resubscribing has fixed whatever problem it was.  So if the last post that showed up in your reader was Fade by Lisa McMann, then please resubscribe.  Sorry about the mess.  I’m clueless.

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