11 Book GIVEAWAY - Easy to Enter, ALL Included

Here it is my friends. All you have to do is leave me 1 comment with your email address. All countries are included. Contest ends Saturday, October 1st, 2011 @midnight.

The winner will receive these 11 books, a canvas tote, bookmarks, and other author promotional medias.

Just my way of saying THANK YOU to those who stop by and read my blog.

-CYM

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Stay Tuned....

Stay tuned for a multiple-book giveaway tomorrow. The post should be live by noon. Oh yeah, this will be just a simple "love you guys" giveaway!

-CYM

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To Have and To Kill by Mary Jane Clark **Book Review**

To Have and To Kill
by Mary Jane Clark
Wm Morrow 2011

In this Wedding Cake mystery, Piper is an actress who had a long run on a soap, but her character dies. She is short on work. She moves home for a time. Her mother is a baker and her father is a preparedness freak.

The star of the show, Glenna, is set to be married to a private high school teacher, an heir to a supposedly rich Manhattan jewelry business. The bridegroom had a love affair with one of the other teachers, who had planned a charity auction to raise funds for her drama department. Once her former beau was engaged to Glenna, the star attraction of the actress transformed the event. Glenna had recently divorced from a man who has jealous and violent, had served time in prison for financial fraud, and believed that Glenna belonged only with him. There were other staffers from the soap in and out of the auction. In addition, the preeminent New York City photographer was present, as the event had been transformed into a social event.

Piper is in attendance, having agreed to make the wedding cake for Glenna. While her acting career had stalled, Piper had an interesting relationship with an FBI agent, Jack, who she met often for dinner.

The handsome co-star of the soap, Travis, and Glenna were the auctioneers. A glass of water was poured by Glenna. Travis took a drink. He collapsed on the floor in obvious agony.

With this cast of characters, Mary Jane Clark writes a wonderful, page turning mystery. The characters evolve as a series of murders occurs. There are hints and red-herrings along the path, which keep your mind turning on “who could have done all of this?”

The denouement comes in classic fashion. Like a wonderful Hitchcock movie, I did not see it coming.

To Have and To Kill is a lovely, well written story. It is suspenseful, imaginatively written, and thought-provoking. There will obviously be mores stories in the series. Making a series out of an actress turned wedding cake maker will require the same ingenuity displayed in this fine story. Will Piper and Jack become an item as they team up to solve the crimes on the horizon?

Warms, Cym

Resource Links:
Mary Jane Clark

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Winner of the Wednesday Blog Book Review Party and Blog Spotlight!

*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winner of the Amazon Gift Card ($15 value) from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to Enrique Freeque's Forum!




Be sure to check out Enrique Freeque's Forum and leave a comment!


Send me your email address for the Amazon eGC.

Warms-
CYM

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A Bookish Halloween

Boo!

Beachbrights

(guest blogger)

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Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list (& now check out book covers).

-CYM

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Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand **Book Review**

Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand
Random House 2010

In life, we are all tested. The peril that we face comes in all dimensions, internal and external. I have always been intrigued with why some people find sources of strength in the face of adversity to triumph, as others retreat to become victims. Is it confidence, love, athletic or mental prowess, faith, fate, or something else?

In Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand, tells the story of an Olympic athlete falling into the Pacific early in World War II when his bomber was disabled. Louie Zamperini had been an Olympic champion in long distance running. The fliers were all too aware of the sharks in the water. Three men commenced a voyage in two life rafts with few provisions. The food was eaten quickly by one man. The men were but food for the ever present sharks. Setting a world record for survival at sea, they survived by catching birds, albatrosses, and fish, washed down with periodic rain showers. For more than 40 days they drifted with the currents, ever Westward into islands controlled by the merciless Japanese.

Louie and his surviving partner became entombed in one hellacious prison camp after another, tortured and starved as slaves to the enemy’s war effort. Other groups of prisoners were executed, a fate these brave men awaited on a daily basis.

How long would you survive in the water? In the prison camps? Through daily torture and starvation? How about the tropical and sanitary diseases? Losing more than half of your body weight? Is it possible to respect the Japanese people after reading these harrowing stories?

You will ask yourself these questions as you turn the pages of this beautifully crafted story. Ms. Hillenbrand is a best-selling non-fiction writer for very good reason. Her work is meticulously researched and presented as an easily readable, even captivating story.

Mr. Zamperini came home to land a beautiful young lady as his wife, only to fall into alcoholic despair, perhaps unable to rid his mind of the images of the imprisonment.

Whether you have religious faith or not, you will come to the end of Louie’s travail wondering why the resources that saw him through abandonment on the water and torture in captivity were absent in civilian life. Are the demons even greater? If one can be an Olympic and military champion, why can he not do the same at home in the arms of his sweetheart and holding his new baby?

Will he find faith after all that he has been through?

This is a simply wonderful story. Whether you like non-fiction or not, you will enjoy this experience. Ask yourself these questions as you enjoy a thrilling read.

Warms, Cym

Amazon

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2 Winners of the Wednesday's Blog Book Review Party and Blog Spotlights!

This week I am announcing TWO winners. ONE from August 31st & ONE from this week.

*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winners of the Amazon Gift Card ($15 value) from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to Colloquium and KnittingandSundries!








Be sure to check out BOTH these awesome blogs and leave a comment!


Send me your email address for the Amazon eGC.

Warms-
CYM

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Friday's Musings

Here is this week's collection of Internet Book Sightings!

1. USA Today / Books: E-books' popularity is rewriting the sales story. "It's been a watershed year for e-books," says Tina Jordan of the Association of American Publishers. "Any publisher will tell you that a best-selling title from a branded author can run upwards of 30% to 40% in digital sales."

2. Trends in Publishing: 15 People You Should Follow (and Why). Are you following who is on this list?

3. Country Home / Book Page Pumpkins. DIY, just in time for Halloween!

4. Finally, I leave you with this print. I do not know the source.

I hope everyone has a great weekend-

Beachbrights

(guest blogger)

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Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list (& now check out book covers).

-CYM

Read More

Winner of the Wednesday Blog Book Review Party and Blog Spotlight!

*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winner of the Amazon Gift Card ($15 value) from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to Colloquium!



Be sure to check out Colloquium and leave a comment!


Send me your email address for the Amazon eGC.

Warms-
CYM

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Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime 

by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin 

HarperCollins 2010

Have the political events of 2012 soured you on national politics?  Made you anticipate the 2012 Presidential election?  Or are you so fed up with the obvious inability of our political leadership to find common ground for the betterment of all of us in the United States and around the world?

Unless you have no interest in any of these questions, you will want to put this excellent, and readable exposition of the how the 2008 Presidential election evolved.  We all lived through this election and have our own views of the merits of the respective candidates.  It is now apparent that the 2012 election will be every bit as tumultuous as it was in 2008.  It may be that the stakes are even higher, as the United States has taken a dive off the stage of world leadership.

The characters in the 2012 Play will be many of those depicted in Game Change.  Like Bill Clinton, President Obama will win only if he can move to the center, unless the Republicans commit their own hari kari, as occurred in 2008 (the reasons for which are explained in fascinating detail in Game Change).

It was a pleasure to read and think about this even-handed exposition of the game in 2008.  I could not discern any political axe to be ground on either side, as the skills and periodic  fecklessness of each of the characters is laid in full detail.

Was your vote in 2008 well cast?  How will you vote in 2012?  I submit that each of us has a duty to think through our country is going, educate ourselves about how to vote, and learn from the past.  Game Change is a wonderful story, which just happens to have occurred.  You have more than a year to prepare for November 2012.

Warms, Cym 

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Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list (& now check out book covers).

-CYM

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**SPOTLIGHT** The Scorpion's Nest by Nate Granzow

Description:

Some secrets are worth dying over.

From the abhorrent and sadistic human testing conducted by the Nazis during World War II, a terrible virus with the potential to ravage the human body is discovered. Recognizing its promising lethality, a band of German scientists are sent on a clandestine mission—Operation Scorpion's Nest— into the American southwest to unleash it upon the population of the United States.

One near miss and 70 years later, Scott Kretschmer, an unemployed aircraft mechanic, witnesses a violent bank robbery. Uninterested in money, the thieves only take one thing: the last remaining logbook from the Nazi operation. Scott suddenly finds himself plunged into a race against time as a corrupt pharmaceutical company with a Nazi past works to replicate the virus, with plans to release it upon the world as the only provider of the antidote.

About the Author:

At 24 years old, Nate Granzow is young when compared to most professional writers—but his experience with the written word surpasses his years. A Drake University graduate, he holds dual degrees in English writing and magazine journalism, and his work has been published in over 10 professional publications. He currently works as an editor for a major woodworking magazine.
Nate lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with his wife, Traci.


Additional Resources:

Nate Granzow
The Scorpion's Nest on FB *Like for a chance to win a Kindle 3G

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