Giveaway: Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin

So, in the spirit of many book blogs that I follow, I have decided to do a giveaway of a book I have reviewed, Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin. Check out my original review of it here for a bit more information. Only entrants in the US/Canada please. This giveaway ends April 5, 2012. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments.

Shelfari: "A community powered encyclopedia for book lovers."

Shelfari, by Amazon, is a tool for readers to organize their bookshelves. There are dozens of these tools around the internet, and some are better than others. I've decided to write a quick review about it today, in lieu of a book review (truth: still not done with a book, though A Little Trouble With the Facts looks promising).

I want to start by saying that there is a lot to Shelfari. It provides ways to organize your books as well as detailed, user submitted information about each book. Some of the books do not have complete information, but it's easy to edit any book's page and editors are even ranked, so that you have a sense of accomplishment when you contribute. You can choose what cover displays on your bookself, include when you finished a book, rate the book, and other things.

Shelfari also contains a few other features. One of them is groups-pretty self explanatory, ways to connect with other users. Another feature is recommendations. Recommendations are a great idea in theory, but unfortunately they don't seem to have much of an algorithm going on. They make simple recommendations at best. Still, better than nothing. Shelfari also has the ability to ask and answer questions about a book. This has the potential to be useful, though most of the questions I saw were just of the "Should I read this book" variety. If you've ever tried to answer such a question before, you know it's not an easy task.

The last feature I want to discuss is reading stats. This has to be my favorite thing, simply because I love numbers. If you visit your personal reading stats page you can see all sorts of fun information, such as how you usually rate books, the subjects you read, and the page count of the books you've read.

Shelfari is definitely complex, and it can be a little hard to figure out at first. However, if you're looking for a way to organize all the books you've read, then it is definitely worth checking out.

Do you use an online tool to organize what you've read? What is it? Have you used Shelfari? Let me know!

Author Reply: Thomas Kaufman

Thomas Kaufman, author of Drink the Tea (original post) wrote back to me to tell me that Steal the Show, his second book, is even better. He's also working on a third Willis Gidney book called Face the Music, which is due in 2013.

Have I mentioned how much I love it when authors reply? Also, sorry-I still haven't finished School for Brides. It's a pretty heavy romance novel, and I just haven't been in the mood for that lately. I have another book that I might pick up instead though. It's called A Little Trouble with the Facts and it's by Nina Siegal. It's more of a mystery novel, so I'll probably be able to get through that better.

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

On My Wishlist (111)

On My Wishlist is a weekly event hosted by Book Chick City (click banner above or here to visit their website!)

My wishlist is never ending. However, I figured I'd post a few books that I've been eyeing lately. My usual method for finding books these days has been going to the library and pulling random books off the shelves. However, for my next library visit I think I'm going to try to be a little more organized and maybe look for some of these!

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

I admit, mostly I want this book for the title. I mean, come on-it's adorable. However, the story sounds delightful as well. It's about a girl named September who gets invited on an adventure by a Green Wind (who looks like a man in a green jacket). I've been eyeing this book for quite some time, but just never got around to purchasing it. I'll definitely have to see if my local library has it! (Amazon)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Futuristic fairy tales? What's not to love? This book stars Cinder, a cyborg & gifted mechanic who lives with her stepmother and is blamed for her stepsister's illness. Suddenly, her life becomes intertwined with a prince named Kai and she finds herself trapped in an intergalactic struggle and victim to a forbidden attraction. I have to admit, when I first saw the cover I was a little skeptical-redone fairy tales are very hit or miss. But reading the description makes me think this is definitely one worth picking up! (Amazon)

Summer Morning, Summer Night by Ray Bradbury

I really enjoyed The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, as well as Fahrenheit 451 and a few other assorted short stories. When I saw this cover I was immediately attracted to the book-finding out it's a Ray Bradbury book is just a bonus! This book is a set of short stories set in Green Town, Illinois, a common locale for Bradbury's tales. Hopefully I can find this at my library! (Amazon)

Have you read any of these? What's on your wishlist? Let me know! I'm always looking for new books!

Lara Tupper: "It started on a cruise ship, where nothing was exactly real."

A Thousand and One Nights (Amazon) by Lara Tucker is a book I read a few years ago, way before I began this project. However, I didn't finish the book I was going to review today, and so I decided to write about this instead.

A Thousand and One Nights is the story of a woman named Kate who dreamed of being a professional entertainer. So when she gets hired aboard the MS Sound of Music, it seems like her dreams are coming true. Before long, she meets Jack, a charming British man. They sing together and eventually fall in love. Then four years pass and all of a sudden Kate is a lounge singer, traveling the world with Jack. Unfortunately, this is nowhere near the life Kate wanted-it turns out being a lounge singer isn't as glamorous as it looks. Eventually Kate has to decide: Will she keep this life or find another?

This book is definitely a guilty pleasure sort of novel, no question about it. I would say it's the perfect beach read. However, it definitely goes deeper than the average guilty pleasure novel-Kate deals with some very real issues, and not all of them are about getting a guy to notice her or anything like that. Pick up this book if you're looking for something substantial but not too heavy.

Lara Tupper has a contact box on her website and this is what I wrote:

I read A Thousand and One Nights some time ago, and I just decided to write to you to tell you how much I enjoyed it. You combine the elements of a guilty pleasure novel with the journey of a young woman growing up very well. I hope to read more from you!

Maybe tomorrow I'll have School For Brides done! Who knows?!

Joe Meno: "Everything is good when your dad bothers to be around."

Hairstyles of the Damned (Amazon) by Joe Meno is a story about wanting to belong. It's narrated by Brian, a teenager at Catholic school who doesn't fit in and never has. His best friend is Gretchen, a girl known for her pink hair and tendency to get into fist fights with other girls. The story is told over the course of a year (October 1990-October 1991), and chronicles everything that Brian has to deal with during that year, including fighting parents, a crush on his best friend, and deciding how he feels about racism. It's pretty much just the story of how one boy grows up.

I really enjoyed this story. It's actually very similar to How I Paid For College (original post), but targeting a different set of people-punk rock kids instead of theater kids. I think that this book was a pretty accurate depiction of what kids go through in order to fit in, and what teenagers deal with in general. Anybody who feels like they don't fit in, or who felt that way in high school should check this book out.

There's no contact information for the author on his website, so no email today. I think next I'm going to read School For Brides by Cheryl Ann Smith, which will be a huge departure from the theme I seem to have lately. I'm kind of looking forward to it!

Author Updates

Hey everyone, I just thought I'd make a quick post with some news about various authors we've featured in the past.

Ally Condie, author of Matched (original post) released the sequel to Matched, called Crossed in November of last year. Check it out on Amazon. This is part of a trilogy. The third book will be called Reached and will be available in November of this year. Check out her blog post about it here.

John Green, author of Looking For Alaska (original post) just released a book called The Fault In Our Stars. It's about a young girl with cancer who falls in love with a boy she meets at a support group. I've heard it is incredibly sad, but very good. Apparently film rights have already been bought for this book! Check it out on Amazon.

Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (original post) will soon release a book called Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past, which is a non fiction book about found postcards. It's due to be released in April. Check it out on Amazon.

I'll try to do posts like this about once a week, maybe more, maybe less depending on the news. Don't be afraid to tell me what you think or tip me off on some new release!