The Terror by Dan Simmons Audiobook Giveaway

Another giveaway! I have 3 copies of this book to giveaway to some lucky people. You must live in either the US or Cananda and no P.O. Boxes please. This contest will end on January 24th - to enter, please leave a comment with a valid email address. Thanks and good luck!

About the Book:

A blistering winter voyage, complete with scurvy, starvation, and thrilling adventure, is the focus of this powerful and beautifully realized tale of exploration on the high seas. Simmons's writing is so vivid that narrator Simon Vance need only deliver the material with a clear and firm reading to capture the interest of listeners. Vance does this so well that the presentation sounds like a recorded journal entry and captivates listeners from start to finish as he plays his role with the utmost respect for Simmons's work. The result is a moving listening experience--perfectly executed--which transports listeners to the galley of the HMS Terror during its expedition through the Arctic Circle.

The Survivor's Club by Ben Sherwood Audio Giveaway

Yet another giveaway thanks to Anna Balasi at Hachette Book Group. This audio book will only be available for residents of the US and Canada and they will not ship to P.O. Boxes. To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment. I will pick 3 winners on January 24th. Good Luck!

About the Book:

Each second of the day, someone in America faces a crisis, whether it's a car accident, violent crime, serious illness, or financial trouble. Given the inevitability of adversity, we all wonder: Who beats the odds and who surrenders? Why do some people bound back and others give up? How can I become the kind of person who survives and thrives?

The fascinating, hopeful answers to these questions are found in THE SURVIVORS CLUB. In the tradition of Freakonomics and The Tipping Point, this book reveals the hidden side of survival by combining astonishing true stories, gripping scientific research, and the author's adventures inside the U.S. military's elite survival schools and the government's airplane crash evacuation course.

With THE SURVIVORS CLUB, you can alsodiscover your own Survivor IQ through a powerful Internet-based test called the Survivor Profiler. Developed exclusively for this book, the test analyzes your personality and generates a customized report on your top survivor strengths.There is no escaping life's inevitable struggles.

But THE SURVIVORS CLUB can give you an edge when adversity strikes.

2009 Pub Challenge

Well, here we go, another challenge. This one is right up my alley as well. Here are the details:

Here are the 2009 rules:
Read a minimum of 9 books first published in 2009. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audios, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2009, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country. For example, if a book was published in Australia, England, or Canada in 2008, and then published in the USA in 2009, it counts (if you live in the USA). Newly published trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks do not count if there has been a hardcover/trade published before 2009.
No children’s/YA titles allowed, since we’re at the ‘pub.’
At least 5 titles must be fiction.
Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
You can add your titles as you go, and they may be changed at any time.
Sign up at http://teddyrose.blogspot.com
Have fun reading your 2009 books

Not sure what my 9 will be yet, but will update as soon as I do:)

Drama and Diplomacy in Sultry Puerto Vallarta by Jenny McGill

Jenny McGill grew up in the Deep South in Mississippi. After schooling she moved to Dallas where she met her husband, Howard. Their love of Mexico brought them to an early semi-retirement in 1973 in Puerto Vallarta.

About the author:

Jenny and Howard, moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1973. She was appointed consular agent by the U.S. State Department in 1982 and spent fourteen years in that position.

Upon retirement, the McGills sought out the tranquility of the western Sierra Madres in the small village of Talpa de Allende, Jalisco. There she devotes her time to writing, promoting local artists and gardening. She says, "My love of robin-egg blue skies, breath taking sunsets that only God could paint, and music, which falls softly on my ear, is reason enough to be in Mexico."

You can visit her website at http://www.mjmcgill.com/.

About the book:

The non-fiction account begins in 1954 when an eager to see the world young woman looks for a path to explore.The first chapter, MEXICAN LOVERS, deals with meeting her husband and their retirement at an early age to a fast social life in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.She was removed from the fast lane with her appointment as consular agent by the U. S. Department of State, and placed into an even faster lane.

The majority of the book is compiled of vignettes of what the Foreign Affairs Manuals of the Department of State likes to call the 4 D’s: Death, Detentions, Destitutes, and Disappearances.The author has added a few D’s of her own: Dope, Dames on my Path, Dirty Old Men, to name a few. Primitive medicine, native superstitions, and sloppy bureaucracy mix and mingle within these pages, while visiting dignitaries such as Queen Elizabeth, ambassadors, secretaries, governors and movie stars rub elbows. Although the American flag is given the highest respect, diplomacy takes on a new meaning as the author slips and slides through the darker side of consular work on foreign soil.

WIN PRIZES!

DRAMA & DIPLOMACY VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR '08 will officially begin on December 1 and end on December 23. You can visit Jenny's blog stops at www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com.As a special promotion for all our authors, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away a FREE virtual book tour to a published author or a $50 Amazon gift certificate to those not published who comments on our authors' blog stops. More prizes will be announced as they become available.

My Splendid Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse

Join Lloyd Lofthouse, author of the historical fiction novel, My Splendid Concubine (iUniverse, Dec. '07), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in December and January on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion!

About the author:

As a field radio operator, Lloyd Lofthouse was a walking target in Vietnam in 1966. He has skied in blizzards at forty below zero and climbed mountains in hip deep snow.

Lloyd earned a BA in journalism after fighting in Vietnam as a U.S. Marine. Later, while working days as an English teacher at a high school in California, he earned an MFA in writing. He enjoyed a job as a maitre d’ in a multimillion-dollar nightclub and tried his hand successfully at counting cards in Las Vegas for a few years. He now lives near San Francisco with his wife, with a second home in Shanghai, China. Lloyd says that snapshots of his life appear like multicolored ribbons flowing through many of his poems.

This link takes you to Lloyd's 'Vietnam Experience' page filled with photos. He took many of them. Since Lloyd still has to edit the photos so they load faster, this page may load slow for older computers.

This link will take you to a media piece from a Southern California newspaper that Lloyd copied and posted on his Website that will give you an idea about his teaching years.

If you are interesting in learning more about Lloyd's teaching experience, you are welcome to read about it at AuthorsDen. 'Word Dancer' is a memoir of the 1994-1995 school year. He kept a daily journal that year. He is using that journal to write 'Word Dancer'. Everyday, when he arrived home, Lloyd wrote an entry in that journal. It sat on a shelf in his garage for fourteen years gathering dust. Spiders moved into the binder and built a nest. After all those years, Lloyd forgot he'd written it. When he was cleaning the garage, he found it again. Lloyd started reading, remembering and writing. Everything he writes in 'Word Dancer' happened. He's using a primary source as his guide. Memory may be faulty, but a daily journal written the day an event took place is as accurate as it can get from the author's point-of-view.

Accomplishments: Lloyd's short story "A Night at the Well of Purity" was named a finalist for the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards.

As a teacher, Lloyd found satisfaction in the number of students that published nationally and internationally while attending his English and journalism classes.

You can visit his website at http://www.mysplendidconcubine.com/.

About the book:

Driven by a passion for his adopted country, Robert Hart became the “godfather of China’s modernism,” inspector general of China’s Customs Service, and the builder of China’s railroads, postal and telegraph systems, and schools, but his first real love is Ayaou, a young concubine.

My Review:

What is a concubine? Concubines are women who cohabit with men but are not married to them. In ancient China it was common for successful men to have several concubines – the Chinese Emperors often kept thousands. Concubines’ situation ranged from pseudo-wives to poorly treated prostitutes. In this book, Robert Hart reveals the information about his concubine, Ayaou, to the Empress before he leaves China and heads back to die surrounded by his family.

Once again, I have found that historical fiction draws me in. I have to admit that I have never heard of Sir Robert Hart, but I have actually googled him to find out even more after reading this book. After reading the first few pages, the description made it easy to visualize the scenes the author was depicting in this story.

I have always had a fascination for the Chinese culture, and this book only piqued it more. Robert Hart leaves Ireland for a new beginning - he needs an escape from the disgrace that he has bestowed upon his family. He is thrust into a culture that he only slightly understands, but he vows that he will be a new man...an honorable man. Then he meets Ayaou.

Robert feels more for Ayaou than he has ever felt for any woman before. He is willing to do absolutely ANYTHING to be able to keep her company, and when he finds out that her father is selling her he decides that he must have her. But sadly, it is not to be. Instead, he ends up buying her younger sister - and at 14 she is quite young to be owned by a man not of Chinese culture. This fact may be disturbing to some readers, but this is a fact based novel, and it is tastefully written. I for one was fascinated.

I found it hard to believe that this was the first book by this author. It was evident that there was much research and hard work put into it. I look forward to reading his next book.

WIN PRIZES!

MY SPLENDID CONCUBINE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR '08 will officially begin on December 1 and end on January 30. You can visit Lloyd's blog stops at http://www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/ in December and January to find out where he is appearing!As a special promotion for all our authors, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away a FREE virtual book tour to a published author or a $50 Amazon gift certificate to those not published who comments on our authors' blog stops. More prizes will be announced as they become available. The winner(s) will be announced at the end of every month!

The Five Lost Days by William Petrick

Join William Petrick, author of the contemporary fiction novel, The Five Lost Days (Pearhouse Press, Nov. '08), as he virtually tours the blogosphere in December and January on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion!

About the author:

William Petrick is an Emmy Award-winning documentary producer/director who has created programs for National Geographic, Discovery, MTV, Court TV and many other cable and broadcast networks. He is currently a senior producer with Bill Moyers Journal on PBS. You can find out more about William's book by clicking here.

About the book:

Struggling documentary producer Michael Burns has traveled to the remote Maya Mountains of Belize to capture exclusive footage of the last surviving curandero. The traditional Mayan healer may hold the key to discovering new medicines among the vast, uncharted flora of the rain forest.

But with a violent civil war spilling across the border from neighboring Guatemala - and Burns inexplicably drawn to the aging curandero's American apprentice - the filmmakers stumble into a more explosive story than they ever could have imagined.

At once an adventure and an exploration into the nature of perception, THE FIVE LOST DAYS exposes the clash between modern culture and ancient beliefs.

REVIEW

“With spare prose, a fascinating location, strong characters and a damn good story, Petrick takes us into journalism’s heart of darkness; that is, the false sense of safety that comes with being the ‘outsider,’ the one who merely covers a story, versus the dangers of what might happen if one day you suddenly step away from of the middle of the road and fall into your story…”-- LINDA ELLERBEE, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR

WIN PRIZES!

THE FIVE LOST DAYS VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR '08 will officially begin on December 1 and end on January 30. You can visit William's blog stops at http://www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/ in December and January to find out where he is appearing!As a special promotion for all our authors, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away a FREE virtual book tour to a published author or a $50 Amazon gift certificate to those not published who comments on our authors' blog stops. More prizes will be announced as they become available. The winner(s) will be announced at the end of every month!

The Gate House by Nelson DeMille

Reviewed by Tim Gleichner

About the book:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille delivers the long-awaited follow-up to his classic novel The Gold Coast.

When John Sutter's aristocratic wife killed her mafia don lover, John left America and set out in his sailboat on a three-year journey around the world, eventually settling in London. Now, ten years later, he has come home to the Gold Coast, that stretch of land on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America, to attend the imminent funeral of an old family servant. Taking up temporary residence in the gatehouse of Stanhope Hall, John finds himself living only a quarter of a mile from Susan who has also returned to Long Island. But Susan isn't the only person from John's past who has reemerged: Though Frank Bellarosa, infamous Mafia don and Susan's ex-lover, is long dead, his son, Anthony, is alive and well, and intent on two missions: Drawing John back into the violent world of the Bellarosa family, and exacting revenge on his father's murderer--Susan Sutter. At the same time, John and Susan's mutual attraction resurfaces and old passions begin to reignite, and John finds himself pulled deeper into a familiar web of seduction and betrayal. In THE GATE HOUSE, acclaimed author Nelson Demille brings us back to that fabled spot on the North Shore -- a place where past, present, and future collides with often unexpected results.

Two phrases sum up my feelings about this book. The first would be the well know sports analogy "too little, too late". The second would be courtesy of Elvis Presley who asked for "a little less conversation, a little more action". Either one will do.

Now, to be fair, I didn't dislike this book. It's jus that a book that is nearly 700 pages long and has a Mafia Don looking to avenge his father's murder at the hands of his lover, who just happens to be the ex-wife of the main character, missed many chances to pump some life into the story.

The entire story comes to a climax in the last 30 pages or so, and that would be fine except that there is so much over written dialogue it takes 630 pages to get to that point.

Also, why take the time to develop a character like Mr. Nusim and imply that there may be terrorist danger, and then have nothing come of it.

And finally, while most things took quite awhie to develop, John and Susan got back together and decided to remarry after one meeting. I didn't get that at all.

"The Gate House" wasn't a bad book. Mr. DeMille would appear to be a talented writer whose style I quite enjoyed. In the end, the book was boring and even the big finish couldn't save it for me. It really was a case of too little, too late.

Thanks again to Miriam Parker of The Hatchette Book Group for sending me this book for review!

Cold Rock River by Jackie Lee Miles

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing (October 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1581826680
ISBN-13: 978-1581826685

About the book:

In 1963 rural Georgia, with the Vietnam War cranking up, pregnant, seventeen-year-old Adie Jenkins discovers the diary of pregnant, seventeen-year-old Tempe Jordan, a slave girl, circa 1963, with the Civil War well under way.

This is one of the most beautifully written stories I have read in a long time. This is actually two stories in one - that of Adie Jenkes and Tempe Jordan. Adie Jenkins hasn't had an easy life. After losing her sister at a young age to an accident her whole world seems to have fallen apart. Her relationship with her father will never be the same, and even though she takes the brunt of the blame for her sister's death, she knows deep down that her father was even more at fault than she was - in more ways than one. So, when Buck Jenkins starts to treat her nice, she jumps at the chance. Before you know it she is pregnant and living in Hog Gap with his mother and disabled brother.

Thanks to Murphy Spencer they get a "shack" to live in before the baby is born. Buck can't be bothered with it - he's too busy chasing after Imelda Jane, the daughter of the store owner where he works. Thankfully Adie meets Willa Mae - the black woman who lives in the nearby cabin. She is a wonderful friend and she eventually shows Adie the diary of Tempe Jordan - a young black woman living during the times of slavery and The Civil War. Adie becomes engrossed in the journal, even after the birth of Grace Annie and the departure of Buck to the military. There is just something that doesn't seem to add up - who is Heart in relation to Willa Mae? And what happened to her children - why were they drowned? And why are the pages at the end of the journal missing?

This story was so wonderfully woven, even if it was somewhat predictable that was ok. The characters were so warm and charming and you really can relate to all of them - even the ones you would love to hate. This is a book that I would highly recommend!

About the author:

J.L. (Jackie Lee) Miles, a resident of Georgia since 1975, hails from Wisconsin via South Dakota. She considers herself "a northern girl with a southern heart." Her paternal grandfather was christened Grant Lee by her great-grandmother in honor of the many fallen soldiers on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. Ms. Miles is a former D.I.A.L. Systems Engineer for Baker/Audio Telecom, one of the premier forerunners of voice mail. In addition to systems application, she provided voice tracks for several major companies, including Delta Airlines and Frito-Lay Corporation.

COLD ROCK RIVER VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR '08 will officially begin on October 1 and end on October 30. You can visit J.L.'s blog stops at www.virtualbooktoursforauthors.wordpress.com in October to find out more about her latest book!
As a special promotion for all our authors, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away a FREE virtual book tour to a published author or a $50 Amazon gift certificate to those not published who comments on our authors' blog stops. More prizes will be announced as they become available. The winner(s) will be announced on our main blog at www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.wordpress.com on October 30!

Willow in A Storm: A Memoir by James Peter Taylor

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Scarletta Press; 1 edition (September 28, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 097652015X
ISBN-13: 978-0976520153

Book Synopsis:

In this raw, unflinching memoir, James Peter Taylor, with the help of his wife Kathleen Murphy-Taylor, recounts the events of his unusual life, over forty years of which were spent incarcerated. Mentally and sexually abused by his adoptive father, Jim Taylor receives a life sentence at age 30 when he accidentally kills Kenneth Lindberg, a Minnesota banker and married father of four, during a robbery.

Taylor manages to survive in prison, despite the rampant violence, in part by playing a woman’s role, a gender switch that becomes second nature to him. After decides behind bars, a wiser and more spiritual Taylor is released in the 1990s back to civilian life, bolstered by his marriage to the book’s coauthor and former social worker, Kathy Murphy.

Willow in a Storm demonstrates hope even in the most dismal of circumstances.

James Peter Taylor's memoir, Willow in a Storm, is a testament to courage and what the human mind can endure and overcome. His crimes start out between the ages of 25-30 and his first arrest is due to his inpersonation of an FBI agent, all just to keep a girl out later than her given curfew.

These minor crimes continue, from bigamy to bad checks until he thinks he has come up with the perfect crime : robbing a bank and framing the bank manager. Things go terribly wrong and something that should have been simple turns into murder, leading James to prison for a 40 year sentence at the hands of a politician looking for something to boost his career.

Willow in a Storm gives detailed accounts of James' life, from his formative years which included abuse, to his attempts at getting paroled and finally to his release. The only criticism I have is that the book jumps around and can be confusing in the timeline of events. Overall this is a book that is an eyeopener for those who are unsure what the justice system is truly all about, and what prisoners go through on a daily basis.

About the author:

James Peter Taylor and Kathleen Murphy-Taylor have been married for 11 years. Jim managed to survive over 40 years in prison and was released at age 70, partially blind. Today, over a decade later, he faces further health battles, including dementia. Kathy received her MSW from the University of Michigan. She practiced social work for 32 years for private and public agencies. In her retirement, she devotes herself to caring for Jim. They live in Minneapolis.