Blog Birthday Giveaway

My blog is now 2 years old! Being an extrovert (see previous post) it would like to have an enormous party and invite everyone over...it will have to be happy with a book giveaway.

I started blogging after cruising around the various blogs looking for books I thought it would be fun to buy for my local public library. I'm the president of the Friends, and I reward myself for the long and dusty hours I put into the booksales by using a bit of the money to buy books I would like the library to have...Soon I decided that I wanted to be part of the blogging fun myself, so I started my own. Being too shy to leave many comments on other blogs, it took a while before anyone actually read what I wrote, which is perhaps a good thing, since I didn't know what I was doing (for instance, I didn't know that you had to click "resume editing" for the spelling mistakes to actually be fixed. Shudder).

It is gratifying these days that every month more people visit. It is even more gratifying that I have been able to pass on over 200 books to my library, courtesy of various publishers, to whom I am very grateful. I hope that people reading my reviews have gone on to enjoy the books; I know they've been enjoyed by many patrons.

To celebrate, here is a small book giveaway. There are three children's books, and one ya/adult book--if you want one or the other, please mention that in your comment, otherwise you'll be entered for both. Please leave your comment by 7:30am EST this Friday, the 6th of February. I'm sorry, but I can't afford to send the books overseas (will they ever bring back Surface Mail? I miss it so).

The children's books, courtesy of Little,Brown are:




South, by Patrick McDonnell. An utterly charming book in which Mooch the cat helps a lost little bird on his journey south.








Willow Buds #2: When Toady Met Ratty (No. 2), written and lavishly illustrated by Mary Jane Begin.








AMERICA: The Making of a Nation, by Charlie Samuels, an engrossing non-fiction book with lots and lots of pictures and flaps.





The young adult/grown up book is The Ghosts of Kerfol, by Deborah Noyes. This one is courtesy of Candlewick Press, who very generously sent out Cybils review copies (thanks!!!) I think this is the most beautiful piece of a girl on any cover of 2008.

Here's what I said about the book in an earlier post: This is a series of five stories, moving forward in time from Edith Wharton's classic ghost story, "Kerfol," which tells of a young Frenchwoman accused of murdering her jealous husband. His body was found at the bottom of the stairs, savaged by dogs. But there were no dogs alive at the manor house of Kerfol that day...Gothic horror combined with great writing makes this one a page turner. I am not at all sure why this is marketed as a Young Adult book, because I think it is a better fit for grown ups. Although certainly many teenagers, in particular those who like their books dark and Gothic, will enjoy it as well. Not a book to read on a cold, dark night, especially if you are staying by yourself in an old French mansion.

So. Thank you, everyone who has read and commented on my blog, and thank you, publishers who have sent me review copies!