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Reading & Blogging Review for April and May

Natasha Maw — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:13:42 +0000

My biggest apologies for what appears to be a very overwhelming post! I never did a monthly review post for April so this is a combined April and May post. I still have books that I read in March in the review pile and many a interview, both with authors and other bloggers that I need to conduct. Highlights from the past two months were definitly the 24 Hour Read-a-thon, the LA Times Festival of Books, and BookExpo America.

Here’s a recap of what happened in April and May (although it looks like a normal one month and not two) here at the Maw Books Blog. As always, I don’t intend that you read this whole post but skim through and see what you missed.

Books Reviewed in April & May

Fiction

Young Adult Fiction

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Middle Readers

Picture Books

Non-Fiction

Author Interviews

Reader Spotlights

(Forgive me for taking a completely unintentional break from these feature. Will be coming back strong!)

Reader Spotlight: Come Meet Amy from Amy’s Haiku Haven!

Vlogs

Book Lists

Flashback: The Maw Books Blog a Year Ago

Books I reviewed a year ago April and May: Sirens and Spies by Janet Taylor Lisle, Zel by Donna Jo Napoli, The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari, The Tale of Desperaux by Shannon Hale, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, I Am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak, Walk On: A Guide for Babies of All Ages by Marla Frazee, Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies by Laura Amy Schiltz, Farworld by J. Scott Savage, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat, Mud City by Deborah Ellis, The Fiction Class by Susan Breen, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson, Slave, My True Story by Mende Nazer, The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, Sky Burial by Xinran, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy, Horns and Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson, The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Torn Thread by Anne Isaacs.

Looking Ahead to April

Upcoming Reviews. Still have Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher waiting for me to review. Hmm . . . yes, I will get to it this month. Lots and lots more in the review pile.

Upcoming Author Interviews. I’d love to tell you if I had anything scheduled, but I put my calender in my BEA box, which is somewhere in the middle of the country right now. Let’s hope I don’t have anything until after it gets here! That said, I have at least half a dozen authors that are expecting questions from me.

Features. I’ve got the nastiest author recipe to date and will be coming back in full swing with the reader spotlights. I will be giving away a Neil Gaiman book. Not just any book, but a signed one. If that isn’t exciting for Neil Gaiman fans I don’t know what it is! Seriously, can’t wait. And I must be the last one to write anything about BEA. So look for that too.

Challenge Updates

The Jewish Literature Challenge hosted by Callista ended in April. This was one of my FAVORITE challenges last year and I was SO excited to participate again. So how many books did I read? A big fat zero! And these are the type of books that I love to read! I am really embarrassed about this challenge and very sad.

I’m finding it hard to remember to update and post my links on the challenge blogs but I’ll keep plugging away. The challenges which I’m currently doing (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
New Author Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
Support Your Local Library Challenge
Themed Reading Challenge
War Through the Generations Challenge
Diversity Rocks! Challenge (still haven’t written up my official list yet but the challenge blog has details).
Non-Fiction Five Challenge (again, haven’t officially joined this challenge – I need to get in gear!)

Awards

Can I just say that I’m almost embarrased to post these? But I really want to acknowledge the bloggers who gave these awards. Because really, isn’t that what its really about. And just because I think it’s funny (and it’s almost midnight here and anything is funny), I pass the Sisterhood Award on to Chris and Bart. Maybe we aren’t as diversified as we thought?

Molly from My Cozy Book Nook and Shelly from Write for a Reader passed on the Your Blog is Enchanted Award which describes itself as awarding to blogs which are caring. Thanks Molly and Shelly! Can I tell you how sad I was to miss Molly at BEA?

Kristina from Kristina’s Favorites gave me the Friendly Blogger Award even though she knew I was unlikely to pass it on (I mean come on, how unfriendly of me is that!) Kristina is awesome, highly recommend you go check out her blog.

Serena from Savvy Verse & Wit passed on the Friendly Blogger Award as well. I met Serena at BEA and I loved putting a face to the name. Again, awesome blogger who I feel like enjoys a lot of the same things I do.

Lisa from Books on the Brain gave me the Proximidade Award which is described as going out of their way to build community. Considering that I don’t host a single book blogging community event, I’m thrilled anyways. I met Lisa at the LA Times Festival of Books and I can tell you that she’s simply wonderful and if you aren’t reading her blog, well, you should be.

Mel from Mel’s Reading Corner also passed on the Proximidade Award. I love Mel’s template and must admit that I even previewed it when I was thinking of starting a different blog. We’ve reviewed a lot of the same books, go check her out.

Bobbie from Bobbie’s Book Reviews and Texas Red from Texas Red Books both gave my blog the Proximidade Award. Thanks gals! Do check out their blogs.

Trish from Trish’s Reading Nook awarded the Sisterhood Award. Seriously, Trish is full of awesome. One of my life goals is to meet her. How’s that for stalk-ish?

Cathy from Kittling Books gave me the Grasshopper Award. First of all, I must say that this might be on the cutest awards, for some odd reason. Cathy’s favorite feature of mine is where she spotlights bloggers physical blogging space. I love seeing where everybody blogs. Which reminds me . . . I haven’t turned mine in yet.

Britt from Confessions of a Book Habitue passed on the Let’s Be Friends Award which is funny because we live near each other, so I’d like to become a real IRL friend. Just gotta make it happen.

Melissa from One Librarian’s Book Reviews also gave me the Let’s Be Friends Award. She’s another great Utah blogger who I hope to be able to catch up with in real life at some point. Like the title suggests Melissa is a librarian and she reads a lot of YA.

Kathrin from Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic awarded the Lovely Blog Award. Kathrin is hosting the Mystery Read-a-thon which will be on June 7th. If you like mysteries, it might go well with MotherReaders 48 Hour Book Challenge at the same time. Two birds with one stone?

Mrs. V from Mrs. V’s Reviews, Julie from Jule’s Book Reviews, Wendy from Wendy’s Minding Spot also all gave me the One Lovely Blog Award. Looking forward to getting to know these three bloggers better..

Desert Rose awarded the beautiful Literary Blogger Award which describes itself as acknowledging bloggers who energize and inspire reading by going the extra mile. So sweet.

Carnivals

Lots of carnivals and I didn’t submit a single review! But check out the ones who did.

Christ’s Bridge, Love Romance Passion, Literary Menagerie and Mysteries in Paradise all hosted the Book Review Blog Carnival. Get your review in before the 7th for the next carnival at The Symposium by submitting at the Book Review Blog Carnival site.

The 30th Edition of the Bookworms Carnival is being hosted by Michelle at Biblio.me which is books about books! Kristen at the Book Club Classics had the 28th Edition of the Bookworms Carnival which celebrated Pulitzters. Julia over at Book News and Reviews gave us a little taste of Murder Mysteries with the 27th edition. Michelle at 1MoreChapter hosted he 26th Edition of the Bookworms Carnival, which was book awards. The next edition will be hosted on the Bookworms Carnival blog and is paranormal fiction. Check out the Bookworms Carnival website for info.

Other Items of Note

Book Giveaways. Carey at The Tome Traveller won my Savvy by Ingrid Law giveaway. I should have brought the book to NYC because I met Carey there! Will send book as soon as I ask for an address (I swear I’m behind on everything!). Louise won a copy of The Secret Keeper by Paul Harris. Alyce from At Home With Books won a signed Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and Mari from Mari Reads won seven signed Jodi Picoult books. I have yet to announce my The Chosen One and the BEAtwittyparty giveaway which I’ll do in the comments there in the next couple of days.

Blogging Tips Group on the Book Blogs Ning. I have lots of posting to do over at the blogging tips group but if you haven’t been go check out how to get a favicon, blog design mistakes you should avoid, how to market your blog offline (timely with BEA), and how to link with anchor text.

MotherReader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge. The 48 Hour Book Challenge is coming up THIS weekend, June 5-7th. You can find all the details on the sign up post. I’m participating. I haven’t told my husband though yet. So somebody please pray for me. He probably won’t be happy! I’ll be posting some updates, so make sure you stop by.

Book Expo America and the LA Times Festival of Books. I mention the LA Times Festival of Books because I still have one post in draft mode. Will it ever see the light of day? And of course, it was very exciting to attend Book Expo America (BEA) this past weekend. I feel still like I’m recovering. The highlight was sitting in on the Book Bloggers Panel! Details to come!

Not subscribed at all? As you can see from this recap, there is always something going on. Don’t miss any of it by receiving updates via email or through your favorite reader. Think you want to know even more about me? Follow me on Twitter.

And somebody shoot me for doing two months in a wrap up post. Never again! Why do I submit myself to this torture.

What a Week – BBAW Comes to a Close

Natasha Maw — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:03 +0000

Wow, what a week. The first Book Bloggers Appreciation Week comes to a close. It’s been a wonderful time even though I admit that I wasn’t able to participate fully in the posting, visiting, and giveaways. Maybe next year I won’t have as much going on. Thank you to everybody who nominated and awarded the Maw Books Blog as having the Most Extravagant Giveaways and the Most Altruistic Blog. It’s been a blast.

But most especially, I, along with all of the other awesome book bloggers must thank the wonderful Amy from My Friend Amy who not only conceived such a wonderful community building event but carried it out with amazing style! Amy, you are truly the Queen of the Book Bloggers! This one is for you. Many thanks! You are going to make this an annual event, right?!

Eeek! Thank You for BBAW/Most Altruistic Blog Award!

Natasha Maw — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:47:09 +0000

Oh my goodness! I’ve won again! THANK YOU for voting the Maw Books Blog the Most Altruistic Blog for the very first Book Blogger Appreciation Week hosted by My Friend Amy!

Wow, oh wow! What I love about the whole thing is that it’s not about me, rather it’s about the people that I try to highlight. And what’s even more great is that everybody is so supportive!!! It wouldn’t be very altruistic if nobody pitched in and helped. So I very sincerely and humbly give my thanks to you.

Wow! I’ve Won BBAW/Most Extravagent Giveaways!

Natasha Maw — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:56:07 +0000

Wow! I honestly didn’t know if I could win this one but THANK YOU!! I’ve won the Most Extravagant Giveaways for the very first Book Blogger Appreciation Week hosted by My Friend Amy! I’m tickled to death!! Could I use any more explanation marks?! Nothing like a self esteem boost for the night. I’ve been known to spend hours and hours of inputting entries into spreadsheets so it means a lot that you enjoy the giveaways as much as I enjoy doing them. Yay!

In fact I’m right in the middle of a HUGE giveaway, so if you have not gotten involved in my Reading & Blogging for Darfur campaign, then please do. To be eligible for prizes you must either post about the campaign, place the button in your sidebar, read a book about Darfur or watch a video about Darfur. To be eligible for the grand prize (one of everything given away) than you must sponsor me a penny a page, 50 cents a post or either. It’s open internationally. Click over for all of the details.

I’m hoping to get my next update on my progress up either today or tomorrow. Normally, I would reveal more prizes then BUT I decided that with BBAW going on this week, they’ll just get lost amongst all the other giveaways. So I’ll post the final list of prizes on a separate post this Sunday. Hint: TWO sets of all of Stephenie Meyer’s books are included (again!) in addition to TONS and TONS of other books.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I’ll try to live up to the reputation (and if only I can work on getting prizes mailed out in a timely manner . . . )

I Made the Finals! Come Out and Vote!

Natasha Maw — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:12:11 +0000

A little happy dance!! I made the finals for the Book Blogger Appreciation Awards in two categories!

You can see all of the winners on Amy’s post here (I swear she must be exhausted by now!) and voting has commenced on this post here. Anybody can vote, so I encourage you to hop on over and vote for your favorite blogs. Voting is open until September 12th with a huge party on September 18th!

I was so excited to see many bloggers whom I nominated make the finals for their categories and would like to say THANK YOU for those who did the same for me! I’m nominated for the Most Altruistic Blog and the Most Extravagant Giveaways! I’m in good company.

Since it’s election season, I thought I’d give my little speech for those who are visiting for the first time (because, wow, there were a lot of blogs, I’ve never visited) and tell you why you should consider voting for the Maw Books Blog.

Let’s start with Most Extravagant Giveaways. I was really excited about this one because I really try to come up with something creative when I do my giveaways. I have a lot of fun doing them. And it hasn’t gone past my notice that a lot of bloggers have adopted some of my “how to enter” rules. Since I started this blog ten months ago, I have given away approximately 40 books. Is that a lot or a little? I actually don’t know but I know people have fun entering them!

In addition to random giveaways here and there, I had a lot of fun with my 100th post giveaway and TONS of fun with my Stephenie Meyer giveaway with more than 800 people entering. And let’s not forget when I had ten winners in my giveaway celebrating the opening for the Book Bloggers Book Reviews database (and yes, I’m very aware that I haven’t updated it in a while).

What’s going on now? I’m currently giving away a boatload of prizes (although they really haven’t been revealed yet) for my Reading & Blogging for Darfur campaign, and you can also make a guess on when I pass the 100,000 hits mark to win a gift certificate to the online bookstore of your choice.

Perhaps my biggest weakness is actually making it to the post office in a timely manner, but with an almost three year old and a 16 month old, I refuse to take them, so try to wait until I can go by myself.

I’m really touched with the Most Altruistic Blog nomination because this one really isn’t about me, it’s about others who need our attention. It hit me a while back, that if I’m going to take the time and effort to blog, I should at least try to make a difference while I was doing it. So thank you for thinking of me, it means that you are paying attention.

This is also a good reminder that I need to sit down and make my donation to the Clinique Monique in Mali. I was really hoping for 50 comments on that post (I’m donating a dollar a comment) but have received 33. I know we can do better than that! Jen from Devourer of Books has even offered to double the donation! So I’ll put this post up and give it a couple more days.

And if you are not involved in Reading & Blogging for Darfur, then get involved!! It’s really easy to help spread the awareness about the genocide in Darfur by doing a few simple things. Thank you for everybody who have and to those who haven’t yet, what are you waiting for? Seriously?

So there you go. There’s my election speech. THANK YOU! It’s a thrill! And I hope you get out and vote for your favorite blogs. I swear Amy is the coolest, Book Blogger Appreciation Week is something I wish I had come up with. It’s that cool.

So take out your dancing shoes and let’s get ready to party!

VOTE!

P.S. This is what your child looks like after you’re done blogging. There is rice pudding in his hair everywhere! Off to the bathtub for us.