I’m all about the challenges today! In an effort to try and capture some of that Christmas spirit that is often so elusive to me, I like to read some Christmas novels in the month of December. Last year was the first time I tried this, and it actually worked quite well. So when I discovered the Christmas Reading Challenge, I couldn’t wait to sign up!

Michelle of the True Book Addict is hosting the Christmas Reading Challenge, and here are the details:

• The Challenge will run from Thanksgiving Day (November 26, 2009) through New Year’s Eve (December 31, 2009).
• You may choose 1 – 3 books.  It may seem like a small amount, but it’s a busy time of year and the challenge is only a little over a month.
• They must be Christmas novels, books about Christmas lore or a book of Christmas short stories. (Sorry, no children’s books, but YA novels are okay.)

I’ll list my Christmas books here as I read them.

1. All I Have to Give by Melody Carson (Nov. 29) Review posted!
2. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Dec. 8 ) Review posted!
3. Grace: A Novel by Richard Paul Evans (Dec. 19) Review posted!

Happy Thanksgiving Book Lovers! Although it’s not actually Thanksgiving for me, I still have plenty to be thankful for today…  like an abundance of chances to win FREE BOOKS!!

It seems like contests and giveaways are popping up all over today, so I thought I’d pass some of them on to you! Because who isn’t thankful for the opportunity to win free books?

Some of the awesome book bloggers I follow are giving away some great books! Check out:

Sheila from Book Journey is having multiple giveaways:

• Win 9 Dragons audio book by Michael Connelly.
• Win Permission Slips audio book by Sherri Shephard.
• Win Say You’re One of Them audio book by Uwem Akpan
• Win Lovely Bones audio book by Alice Sebold

J. Kaye’s Book Blog is having a number of giveaways as well:

• Win Soul Catcher (Book 1: The Outsider Series) by Leigh Bridger (US Only)
• Win The Accountant’s Story audio book by Roberto Escobar Gaviria 
• Win Cry for the Moon e-book by William Angelo Woodall
• Win School of Fear audio book by Gitty Daneshvari
• Win Ghost in the Machine by Patrick Carman
• Win Prose. Poems. A Novel. by Jamie Iredell

Zia at My Life in Not So Many Words is giving away 5 copies of 7th Heaven by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Jessica at A Book Lover’s Diary is having a huge giveaway with a chance to win an Amazon gift card! and/or a variety of books! Check it out here.

Dar from Peeking Between the Pages is giving away:

• A copy of After You by Julie Buxbaum (Hurry, this one ends soon!)
• 5 copies of Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan

Simon & Schuster Canada is having some great giveaways! (Sorry, these ones are for Canadians only.)

• Enter to win a basket of books worth $200!
• Enter to win an awesome Hush, Hush prize pack – or 1 of 5 signed copies of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

*And of course don’t forget our OWN With a Good Book giveaway! We’re giving away a copy of Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison.

Whew! That’s a lot of giveaways! Hopefully there’s something in there that piques your interest. Good Luck!

Do you know of any other giveaways we’ve missed? Please let us know in the comments below!

The Smart One and the Pretty One
by Claire LaZebnik

Well, once again I’m reminded that the straight up romance genre isn’t really for me. I don’t know when this happened, because I used to read almost exclusively romance novels when I was younger? But it seems a book needs a lot more than just a budding relationship to wow me these days.

Now, that isn’t to say that The Smart One and the Pretty One isn’t a good book. It was fine, really.  The story of two sisters trying to sort out their personal and professional lives amidst a bit of a family crisis, The Smart One and the Pretty One is an enjoyable read. Ava (the smart one) is all business, doesn’t spend a lot of time on her looks, and hasn’t really dated in a few years. Lauren (the pretty one) on the other hand, loves fashion, dates frequently, spends way too much on everything, and has hit a low place in her life. When a family tragedy brings the sisters back together, they find that they’re not so different after all, and that they each have something to learn from the other.  Throw in a few hot guys and watch love bloom… or in some cases, not.

The Smart One and the Pretty One is well written, with well-developed characters (even if they’re not all likable), and there are a few chuckles along the way. For those who like their romances light and fun, this book is for you.

*I won this book in a giveaway from the awesome Bellas Novella, courtesy of Hachette Books.

Our With a Good Book Club selection for November is Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. This is one of the lighter fantasy novels that we’ve picked for our book club, but we thought it was fun! Hopefully you enjoyed it as well and have some points to discuss with us.

Once again we were lucky to have questions already prepared for us and provided in the book, but we never just go with the flow, so we’ve made a few edits and additions to help keep things chatty!  As always, you’re not limited to the questions listed below — please feel free to interject with your own thoughts and questions! Bring up anything you wish to discuss about the novel.

1. Kendra was generally a rule keeper, Seth a rule breaker. How did their attitudes evolve over the course of the book? What are advantages to both attitudes? Disadvantages?
2. Many of the problems in Fablehaven arose as a result of decisions the characters made, often with good intentions. Sometimes, what we don’t know can hurt us. How was that true for Kendra and Seth? Are there similar examples in the world around you?
3. It can be a challenge to find the courage to do what we fear the most. What enabled Kendra to do something that terrified her? What circumstances do you find most intimidating? How do you find the strength to make it through difficult situations?
4. Circumstances arose where many of the characters in Fablehaven had to risk their lives. Do you think you would risk your life for anything? If so, what?
5. Many of the creatures in Fablehaven have roots in various mythologies, particularly Greek. Can you identify which creatures come from which mythologies?
6. Several of the creatures of Fablehaven personified specific attributes. What did the fairies seem to personify? The satyrs? The cliff troll? What are the strengths and weaknesses of those characteristics?
7. Lena spent part of her life as a naiad, in an unchanging state. What aspects of mortality did she like? What did she dislike? How do you think she felt about being returned to the water? Was it fair for the fairies to do that?
8. Fablehaven existed to help protect and conserve vanishing magical species. Why would that be worthwhile? Why do you suppose Grandpa Sorenson even wanted to protect the dangerous creatures? What non-magical plants or animals in our world are in danger of extinction? What are we doing to protect them?
9. There is a promise at the front of the book that none who enter Fablehaven will leave unchanged. How did their experiences at Fablehaven change Seth and Kendra? What do you take from the book?
10. Did you enjoy Fablehaven? Will you be reading the next book in the series?

To further immerse yourself in the world of Fablehaven visit Fablehaven.com.

And don’t forget to check our upcoming Book Club Selections for December and January!

ETA: Just wanted to point out that we’ve now added the ability to subscribe to comments in specific posts. We thought it’d be helpful to keep the conversation flowing, especially for our book club discussions, if you knew when others have added their responses. To be notified of new comments, check the “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” checkbox at the bottom of the comment form when leaving your comments!

Time to exercise the brain muscle and expand the vocabulary! No more assuming the meaning of unfamiliar words based on context! In an effort to better grasp this great language of ours, I’ve been turning to the dictionary to make sure I really understand what I’m reading. And why not share this knowledge with you?

Each week I’ll post words that I’ve looked up and their meanings. From words I’ve never encountered before, to ones that I thought I knew but didn’t, or sometimes just ones that I found interesting. But they’ll all be words that were found in something I read the previous week.

If you’ve encountered some new or interesting words, please share them with us in the comments below. We’d love to hear what words stood out for you too!

Here are the words for this week:

From The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik

• Sartorial: of or pertaining to tailors or their trade
  - of or pertaining to clothing or style or manner of dress

Use in book: The casual slip-on shoes she wore – basically slippers – were the only sartorial concession she had made to her illness.

• Quiescent: being at rest; quiet; still; inactive or motionless

Use in book: Or like he was exploding. Then he’d be quiescent again.

Click to read the rest of the words for this week

Happy Friday Book Peeps! This week our Friday Freebie is all about the desktops. It seems that books are almost as popular as vampires who sparkle right now, and because of this wonderful trend, authors and publishers are offering us more and more shiny things to accompany the books we love.

As I’m currently smitten by this gorgeous Fablehaven desktop that adorns my office computer, I thought perhaps my fellow book lovers would like to decorate their computers too! So here are a few of my favourite book related desktops:

• More from Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven
  (Click on Downloads)

• Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan
  (Scroll down to downloadables)

• Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely
  (Click on Enchanting Extras)

• Cassandra Clare’s City of Glass

Have you found any other neat book-related desktops/wallpapers? Please share them with us in the comments below.

Do you have any favorite books that you’d like to decorate your world with?

Bit the Jackpot (Vegas Vampires #2)
by Erin McCarthy

Another great addition to the Vegas Vampires series! I picked up the first book in the series pretty much because the bright cover drew me in, and because I’m always on the lookout for a good vampire series.  I wasn’t sure what to expect since ‘pretty cover’ is really no guarantee of a good book! But, after finishing and enjoying High Stakes, I was eager to read Bit the Jackpot, the second installment in the series.

We get a slightly different focus this time as the story centers around Seamus (who was a secondary character in High Stakes) and his new “friend” Cara. We still get to touch base with Alexis and Ethan – the central couple from the first book, although they’re the supporting characters for Seamus’ story this time around.  I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy these new characters as much, but expanding to feature a variety of characters works for this series. It keeps things fresh by creating new stories, and helps make the Vegas Vampire world more interesting because it’s populated by a variety of fully fleshed out characters.

Bit the Jackpot is a fun, quick read with likable characters, lots of chuckles and a bit of a mystery. The story is by no means deep, but if you like vampires, mystery and romance with the occasional steamy scene, then this series may be for you.

I vaguely remember reading about this some time ago, but it seems that Candace Bushnell is releasing a YA prequel to Sex and the City titled The Carrie Diaries.

The book will give us a glimpse into Carrie’s life back when she was in high school, and presumably back before she met the 3 ladies who would become such a huge part of her (and our) life.  It will touch on how Carrie began her writing career, and of course some of her early relationships. Would we expect anything less from Sex and the City?

Entertainment Weekly has a first look at the newly released cover of The Carrie Diaries, which will go on sale April 27, 2010.

I must admit that I’ve never read the first book, but I loved the show (and the movie) so I will definitely be checking this one out! What about you… Were you a fan of Sex and the City? Will you read The Carrie Diaries?

We kind of skipped our official post announcing Fablehaven as the November Book Club selection, but hopefully we’ve been talking about it enough that everyone is aware that it is indeed our November book!  The discussion post will go up next week. It’s a fun and easy read, so you still have time to check it out.

In an effort to make it even easier for folks to join us in the Book Club discussions, I thought perhaps we’d share the next few months selections so that everyone can be prepared.  I know sometimes there’s a waiting list at the library, and some of us take longer than others to finish a book, so hopefully by listing the titles a few months in advance like this we can ensure everyone has an opportunity to get their hands on the books and get them read.

I’d also like to try something new with the Book Club in January, and I believe having plenty of advance notice will help make this work! Instead of selecting just one book for the January Book Club Discussion, I’d like to try and discuss a whole series of books!! Now, don’t panic… this is actually a fairly short and easy to read series, which I finished in a little over a week. But, I haven’t’ been able to stop thinking about Uglies since I read it, and I feel that there’s a lot more to discuss when you can take the whole series as a whole into consideration.

So without any further rambling, here are the WAGB Book Club selections for the next three months:

November: Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

For all the details on Fablehaven, check out our post here.

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December: Grace: A Novel by Richard Paul Evans

I’ve read 2 of Evans’ previous Christmas novels and was completely smitten by them, so when I saw Grace: A Novel on the sale shelf at my local Chapters, I snagged it immediately.  After how much I enjoyed the other 2 novels, I thought this would make an excellent December Book Club choice.  (Check your local bookstore to see if they have it on sale!) Here’s a bit about the book:

She was my first kiss. My first love. She was a little match girl who could see the future in the flame of a candle. She was a runaway who taught me more about life than anyone has before or since. And when she was gone my innocence left with her.

As I begin to write, a part of me feels as if I am awakening something best left dead and buried, or at least buried. We can bury the past, but it never really dies. The experience of that winter has grown on my soul like ivy climbing the outside of a home, growing until it begins to tear and tug at the brick and mortar.

I pray I can still get the story right. My memory, like my eyesight, has waned with age. Still, there are things that become clearer to me as I grow older. This much I know: too many things were kept secret in those days. Things that never should have been hidden. And things that should have.

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January: The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld

Here’s a bit about the series from Scott Westerfeld’s website:

Uglies is the first book of the trilogy. The second book is Pretties and the third is Specials. It’s about a world in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them supermodel beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny. This seems like a good thing, but it’s not. Especially if you’re one of the uglies, a bunch of radical teens who’ve decided they want to keep their own faces. (How anti-social of them.)

Midnighters fans will know that I love a good action sequence, and this series is of full of hoverboard chases, escapes through ancient ruins, and leaps off tall buildings in bungee jackets. It’s the sort of fast-paced book I couldn’t get enough of when I was young (still can’t).

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February: Most Romantic Book Competition!

Here’s where you get to help! Let us know your suggestion for the MOST romantic book, and we’ll select our February book from the options provided by you! Suggestions are open from now until the end of January. Just leave a comment below to suggest your most romantic book of all time!

Good Monday Morning. How was everyone’s weekend? Despite being fairly busy over the last 2 days, I still managed to time for plenty of reading. I finished the Battlestar Galactica Official Season 4 Companion and am working my way through The Smart One and The Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik.  What did you read this weekend?

The reason I managed to find so much time to read this weekend? I’m pretty sure it has a lot to do with the fact that I actually convinced my non-reading boyfriend to pick up a book! Yay me!

This of course made me realize that if I could only get him to read more, I could in turn read without all the interruptions. So here’s where I thought I’d ask my fellow book lovers for assistance… Can you help me with some suggestions of great books for guys?

Now, this request gets even tougher when you take into account my guys’ description of his preferred book genre – “shady PI’s who swear a lot”! (One of his favorite authors is Carl Hiaasen.) Seriously, this is what he tells me when he asks for books!  Of course this isn’t a firm requirement, as he enjoyed Marley & Me, No Country for Old Men, and is currently enjoying The Spellman Files.

So, who has a man who loves to read in their life – or even better if you ARE a man who loves to read! – and can suggest some good books for boys?