Bookish links for Saturday, April 18, 2009

Giveaways:

~ Lori at Lori’s Reading Corner is celebrating her 20,000th post by giving away a $50 gift card to Barnes and Noble. 20,000 posts – that’s quite an accomplishment!

~ Toni at A Circle of Books is giving away five copies of Testimony by Anita Shreve. I thought this book was fascinating, dealing with an unpleasant subject from the point of view of all the participants and their parents. Very thought-provoking.

~ Kristen at BookNAround is holding a massive book giveaway: five copies each of Jantzen’s Gift by Pam Cope, Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch, and The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilynn Jackson.

~ Kristi at Books and Needlepoint also has five copies of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming for giveaway.

~ And yet another chance to win The Girl Who Stopped Swimming at Peeking Between the Pages.

~ Shelly at Write for a Reader is holding a Tax Relief Giveaway: five copies of The Man’s Book by Thomas Fink, five copies of a set of beauty books, and five copies of – you guessed it – The Girl Who Stopped Swimming.

~ Booking Mama is giving away Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz. I shouldn’t really tell you, though, because the more people who enter, the less chance I’ll win – and I really want this book.

Freebies:

~ I have heard good things about Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels, but haven’t had a chance to read any yet. You can download a pdf file of the first volume of Sandman at Vertigo.

Author interest:

~ Alexander McCall Smith has an excellent article called Lost in Fiction at the Wall Street Journal. He writes about how personally some readers become involved with fictional characters – and how that can complicate the life of an author.

~ Judith R. Hendricks has a post at 5 Minutes for Books: Failing Creatively. Her book The Laws of Harmony is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.

Reviews:

~ Devourer of Books has a review of First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite, a witty and entertaining memoir.

~ Beth at Beth Fish Reads has a review of Zamora’s Ultimate Challenge by M.K. Scott, plus an interview with the author. This sci-fi book about two boys who enter the world of a video game sounds like something my boys would love – I have a feeling it will make it into someone’s birthday present pile.

Conversation starters:

~ Amy at My Friend Amy posts about why she blogs about books. I’ve been enjoying a lot of posts lately about the whole idea of cool vs. not-cool book blogs, or top-tier blogs vs. those of us who… well, aren’t. Read Amy’s post – she and I have similar reasons for blogging about books.