New Book Releases September 2010

September is here and that means the beginning of the fall publishing season. There are new books coming from John Stewart, James Patterson, and Janet Evanovich, plus two big authors—Audrey Niffenegger and Diana Gabaldon—are releasing graphic novels in September. The upcoming book I’m looking forward to the most is David Sedaris’ new book of animal fables, which will be out at the end of the month. So check out the September book releases I think you’ll be interested in. The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger Available September 1, 2010 (Order on Amazon) From the publisher: Audrey Niffenegger, the New York Times bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, has crafted her first graphic novel after the success of her two critically acclaimed “novels-in-pictures.” First serialized as a weekly column in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, The Night Bookmobile tells the story of a wistful woman who one [...]

AUTHOR: Kristen

POSTED ON:

Sep 1

2010

COMMENTS: 2

CATEGORY: Book Releases, Featured

TAGS: Ape House, Audrey Niffenegger, By Nightfall, Chuck Hogan, David Sedaris, Diana Gabaldon, Don't Blink, Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race, Fall of Giants, Guillermo Del Toro, Howard Roughan, James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Jon Stewart, Ken Follett, Lauren Kate, Michael Cunningham, Mini Shopaholic, Naked Heat, Nicholas Sparks, Richard Castle, Safe Haven, Sara Gruen, Sophie Kinsella, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel, The Fall: Book Two of the Strain Trilogy, The Night Bookmobile, Torment, Wicked Appetite

SICK CITY by Tony O’Neill

Sick City by Tony O’Neill Publisher: Harper Perennial Pages: 384 Buy on Amazon SICK CITY by Tony O’Neil Review (3.5 out of 5 Stars) The first thing that caught my eye about the latest Tony O’Neill novel, Sick City, was a quote on the cover. “I loved the whole F**ked-up journey”-Slash Now, you know Slash has seen some stuff. So for him to say this was a messed up book was enough to get me intrigued. Well folks, Slash was at least partially right. It is in fact a f**ked-up journey. Did I love it? I don’t think so. I mean it was a good book, but its not something I’d ever want to read again. In fact, I’d really like to have some of the contents erased entirely from my memory. You’re probably asking yourself what this book is about. Well the plot is fairly simple. Two guys, Jeffrey [...]

AUTHOR: Amie

POSTED ON:

Sep 1

2010

COMMENTS: 3

CATEGORY: Featured, Reviews

TAGS: Sick City, Tony O'Neill

MOCKINGJAY Discussion and Spoilers

SPOILER ALERT: Warning! Major spoilers for Mockingjay ahead! This post is intended to be a place to discuss everything that happened in Mockingjay. If you haven’t yet read Mockingjay, check out our spoiler-free review. So now that we’ve finished Mockingjay we’re (Jose and Kristen) dying to talk about it! Let’s start with our general thoughts about the book and then move on to some of the specific events. Jose: Well, I talked about my feelings about the book in my review, but overall I have to say that I really liked it and thought it was a great piece of dystopian writing. Kristen: Mockingjay just blew my mind. I mean, what an EPIC way to end a trilogy. It was hard to read at times, but I respect the fact that Suzanne Collins didn’t try to sugarcoat the war or make Katniss warm and fuzzy. She genuinely surprised me too. [...]

AUTHOR: Jose

POSTED ON:

Aug 30

2010

COMMENTS: 13

CATEGORY: Book Chat, Featured

TAGS: Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins

Bookstore Bingo: People Say the Dumbest Things

Have you seen the Bookstore Bingo hashtag (#bookstorebingo) on Twitter? Booksellers have been sharing the most ridiculous comments and dumbest questions they get from customers, and, oh my god, they are hilarious. I mean, how do you even respond to questions like “Who wrote Jane Austen?” or “Do you have the sequel to The Diary of Anne Frank?” The Shelf Awareness blog and The Huffington Post have good roundups of the comments, but here are a few of my favorites. This first one is from Kelly O’Connor McNees, author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott. Aren’t these hilarious/disturbing/mind-boggling? The one about the bible is my favorite—it had me laughing so hard I was practically crying. What’s your favorite? Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

AUTHOR: Kristen

POSTED ON:

Aug 27

2010

COMMENTS: 1

CATEGORY: Book Chat, Featured

TAGS: Bookstore Bingo, Twitter

EAT PRAY LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert

Book Title by Elizabeth Gilbert Publisher: Penguin Pages: 352 Buy on Amazon EAT PRAY LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert Review (3.5 out of 5 Stars) Excited by the interesting looking movie trailer for Eat Pray Love I decided to first read the book, adhering to the old rule that the book tends to be better than the movie. Eat Pray Love:One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia is a true story that chronicles Gilbert’s recovery from a very nasty and drawn out divorce. One night, while she’s still married, Elizabeth hits rock bottom. She doesn’t want to be married anymore and she doesn’t know where to turn. She ends up on her bathroom floor praying to God. This brings her some comfort and becomes sort of a nightly ritual. After Gilbert finally separates from her husband she decides what she needs is to get away from her life [...]

AUTHOR: Amie

POSTED ON:

Aug 24

2010

COMMENTS: 0

CATEGORY: Featured, Reviews

TAGS: Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, Non-Fiction

Trend Alert: Amish Romances Are Hot

If you think all romance novels have covers displaying a shirtless Fabio clone embracing a woman with heaving bosoms and are filled with torrid sex scenes, think again. The hottest trend right now in the romance genre is the “Amish inspirational,” which are books with chastely dressed women on the front and no sex inside. Yep, that’s right, kissing is about as racy as it gets in an Amish inspirational. But, for many readers, that’s very appealing. As a recent article in USA Today says, “In our sex-soaked society, nothing seems to inflame the imagination quite like the chaste.” USA Today isn’t the only publication to notice the rise in Amish romances. The Wall Street Journal and Business Week have also written about the publishing trend. From reading the articles, it seems like an Amish woman falling in love with an outsider is the basic plot of most of these [...]

AUTHOR: Kristen

POSTED ON:

Aug 18

2010

COMMENTS: 1

CATEGORY: Book Chat, Featured

TAGS: Amish Inspirational, Autumn's Promis, Beverly Lewis, Cindy Woodsmall, Courting Ruth, Emma Miller, Lydia's Charm, Shelley Shepard Gray, The Bridge of Peace, The Thorn, Wanda Brunstatter

The Hunger Games – Team Peeta vs. Team Gale

Mockingjay, the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy, comes out in less than a month (August 24th!), and Jose and I are both super excited. Seriously, we haven’t anticipated a book this much since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In preparation for Mockingjay, we thought we would address the one question burning through the Hunger Games fandom: Who should Katniss end up with–Gale or Peeta? Jose is Team Peeta and Kristen is Team Gale. Jose: I think that Katniss should end up with Peeta, he’s gone into a death match with her twice, and was still trying to save her instead of his own skin. That’s true love. Kristen: Well, he was trying to save himself too. He’s so good at lying and playing to the cameras that I just don’t trust him. And I don’t think Katniss trusts her feelings for him either. On the other hand, [...]

AUTHOR: Kristen

POSTED ON:

Aug 3

2010

COMMENTS: 35

CATEGORY: Book Chat, Featured

TAGS: Mockingjay, The Hunger Games

New Book Releases August 2010

The upcoming August book releases are a mix of blockbusters, beach reads, and, toward the end of the month, a few heavier books that signal the transition into fall. The highly anticipated third book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, is out this month, as well as new books from Charlaine Harris and James Patterson. So take a look that the August releases I think you’ll be interested in: Death’s Excellent Vacation edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner Available August 3, 2010 (Order on Amazon) This collection of short stories includes a new story that Charlaine Harris says involves “Sookie and Pam and the stripper pole.” From the publisher: The editors of Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and Many Bloody Returns deliver a new collection-including a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story. New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Katie MacAlister, Jeaniene Frost-plus Lilith Saintcrow, Jeff Abbott, and more-send postcards from the [...]

AUTHOR: Kristen

POSTED ON:

Aug 1

2010

COMMENTS: 1

CATEGORY: Book Releases, Featured, News

TAGS: Artemis Fowl, Brandon Sanderson, Cassandra Clare, Charlaine Harris, Clockwork Angel, Death's Excellent Vacation, Eoin Colfer, Fragile, Freedom, I Am Number Four, James Patterson, Jonathan Franzen, Kathy Reichs, Kristina Riggle, Last Night at Chateau Marmont, Lauren Weisberger, Lisa Unger, Liza Marklund, Lost Encyclopedia, Mockingjay, Paul Terry, Philippa Gregory, Pittacus Lore, Spider Bones, Suzanne Collins, Tara Bennett, The Atlantis Complex, The Life You've Imagined, The Postcard Killers, The Red Queen, The Way of Kings, Toni L. P. Kelner

How to Store and Preserve Your Precious Books

It’s been a hot and humid summer where I live and these two things—heat and moisture—are the enemy of books. If you are a bibliophile like me, you probably have a few special books that you want to keep in good condition because they have sentimental value. There are a few simple steps you can take to protect your paper collectibles—books, comic books, photographs, scrapbooks, sticker collections—and extend their longevity. Here are a few tips I picked up in a Preservation and Conservation course I took in library school. Heat, Humidity, and Sunlight Are the Enemies Heat, moisture, and sunlight are some of the most common ways books are damaged in the home. Warm, humid conditions promote mildew growth, while cold, dry conditions make paper brittle. The ideal storage conditions for paper collections are: At a temperature of 70° F A relative humidity of 50% Out of direct sunlight, which [...]

AUTHOR: Kristen

POSTED ON:

Jul 30

2010

COMMENTS: 0

CATEGORY: Book Chat, Featured

TAGS: Conservation, Preservation

Amazon Picks Best Books of First Half of 2010

Now that we’ve entered July, the year is half way over and the editors at Amazon have released their picks for the top ten books so far this year. Amazon’s “must-reads” include a mix of fiction and non-fiction books. Here is their list: The Passage by Justin Cronin The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald Country Driving by Peter Hessler The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson The Big Short by Michael Lewis Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Just Kids by Patti Smith The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall The only book I’ve read on Amazon’s list is The Passage, and I also agree that it’s the best book I’ve read so far this year. Their list got my thinking about the books I’ve read over the past six months (that were published in [...]

AUTHOR: Kristen

POSTED ON:

Jul 14

2010

COMMENTS: 0

CATEGORY: Book Chat, Featured

TAGS: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Ann Brashares, Justin Cronin, Marian Keyes, My Name is Memory, Seth Grahame-Smith, The Brightest Star in the Sky, The Passage, The Tale of Halcyon Crane, Wendy Webb

Daemon's Books

New Book Releases September 2010

SICK CITY by Tony O’Neill

MOCKINGJAY Discussion and Spoilers

Bookstore Bingo: People Say the Dumbest Things

EAT PRAY LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert

Trend Alert: Amish Romances Are Hot

The Hunger Games – Team Peeta vs. Team Gale

New Book Releases August 2010

How to Store and Preserve Your Precious Books

Amazon Picks Best Books of First Half of 2010

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