Giveaway: Tell Me Something True By Leila Cobo

Tell Me Something True By Leila Cobo

Gabriella always loved the picture of her mother kneeling in front of a bed of roses, smiling, beautiful and impossibly happy. But then she learns that her late mother hated gardening; that she had never wanted the house in the Hollywood hills, the successful movie producer husband, and possibly, her only daughter. When Gabriella discovers a journal--a book that begins as a new mother's letters to her baby girl, but becomes a secret diary--the final entry leaves one question unanswered: the night her mother died, was she returning to Colombia to end an affair, or was she abandoning her family for good?

*Thanks to Miriam of Hatchette Book Group, I have an opportunity to pick a lucky winner for a copy of your own.* Why do you want this book? This giveaway is open until Friday, December 4th. This is open to US and Canadian winners, please provide your country of origin and an email address for contact.


Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...

• Add my blog to your technorati favs (left sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Networked Blogs (right sidebar)
  
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (right sidebar)
• Follow me on Twitter (right sidebar)
• Tweet this giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet)
  
• Join my Facebook Fan page
• Comment on other non-giveaway posts
• Blog about this giveaway
• Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar)
• Grab my giveaway button and link to my blog (right sidebar)
  

Leave an additional comment for each entry.

Giveaway: Miracle Girls #3: A Little Help from My Friends

Miracle Girls #3: A Little Help from My Friends by Anne Dayton & May Vanderbilt

Zoe is used to being overlooked. As the youngest and shyest Miracle Girl, she was happy to fade into the background last year. But when she sheds her baby fat and shoots up four inches the summer before her junior year, everything changes. Now she's turning heads at school, and this new attention is beginning to strain her relationship with her sweet, serious boyfriend, Marcus. Pressure builds when Zoe's assigned partner for history class is Dean Foster--a handsome New York transplant who isn't afraid to show her how he feels.

Just when she needs her three best friends the most, the Miracle Girls are suffering from boy troubles of their own. Even Zoe's rock-solid home life begins to shake underneath her when her parents' relationship frays in the face of serious financial burdens. As this uncertain year of growing pains comes to a frenetic head, the quietest Miracle Girl must find her voice at long last and take control of her own destiny . . . with more than a little help from her friends.

*Thanks to Miriam of Hatchette Book Group, I have an opportunity to pick a lucky winner for a copy of your own.* Why do you want this book? This giveaway is open until Friday, December 4th. This is open to US and Canadian winners, please provide your country of origin and an email address for contact.


Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...

• Add my blog to your technorati favs (left sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Networked Blogs (right sidebar)
  
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (right sidebar)
• Follow me on Twitter (right sidebar)
• Tweet this giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet)
  
• Join my Facebook Fan page
• Comment on other non-giveaway posts
• Blog about this giveaway
• Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar)
• Grab my giveaway button and link to my blog (right sidebar)
  

Leave an additional comment for each entry.

Giveaway: Locked In by Marcia Muller

Locked In by Marcia Muller

Shot in the head by an unknown assailant, San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone finds herself trapped by locked-in syndrome: almost total paralysis but an alert, conscious mind. Since the late-night attack occurred at her agency's offices, the natural conclusion was that it was connected to one of the firm's cases. As Sharon lies in her hospital bed, furiously trying to break out of her body's prison and discover her attacker's identity, all the members of her agency fan out to find the reason why she was assaulted. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes a locked-in detective, evaluating the clues from her staff's separate investigations and discovering unsettling truths that could put her life in jeopardy again. As the case draws to a surprising and even shocking conclusion, Sharon's husband, Hy, must decide whether or not to surrender to his own violent past and exact fatal vengeance when the person responsible is identified.

*Thanks to Miriam of Hatchette Book Group, I have an opportunity to pick a lucky winner for a copy of your own.* Why do you want this book? This giveaway is open until Friday, December 4th. This is open to US and Canadian winners, please provide your country of origin and an email address for contact.

Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...

• Add my blog to your technorati favs (left sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Networked Blogs (right sidebar)
  
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (right sidebar)
• Follow me on Twitter (right sidebar)
• Tweet this giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet)
  
• Join my Facebook Fan page
• Comment on other non-giveaway posts
• Blog about this giveaway
• Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar)
• Grab my giveaway button and link to my blog (right sidebar)
  

Leave an additional comment for each entry.

Giveaway: What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

What the Dog Saw by Malcokm Gladwell

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?

In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from TheNew Yorker over the same period.

Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.

"Good writing," Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head."What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary.

*Thanks to Miriam of Hatchette Book Group, I have an opportunity to pick a lucky winner for a copy of your own.* Why do you want this book? This giveaway is open until Friday, December 4th. This is open to US and Canadian winners, please provide your country of origin and an email address for contact.

Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...

• Add my blog to your technorati favs (left sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Networked Blogs (right sidebar)
  
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (right sidebar)
• Follow me on Twitter (right sidebar)
• Tweet this giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet)
  
• Join my Facebook Fan page
• Comment on other non-giveaway posts
• Blog about this giveaway
• Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar)
• Grab my giveaway button and link to my blog (right sidebar)
  

Leave an additional comment for each entry.

Giveaway: Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch is off the chain in the fastest, fiercest, and highest-stakes case of his life.
Fortune Liquors is a small shop in a tough South L.A. neighborhood, a store Bosch has known for years. The murder of John Li, the store's owner, hits Bosch hard, and he promises Li's family that he'll find the killer.
The world Bosch steps into next is unknown territory. He brings in a detective from the Asian Gang Unit for help with translation--not just of languages but also of the cultural norms and expectations that guided Li's life. He uncovers a link to a Hong Kong triad, a lethal and far-reaching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the U.S.
And instantly his world explodes. The one good thing in Bosch's life, the person he holds most dear, is taken from him and Bosch travels to Hong Kong in an all-or-nothing bid to regain what he's lost. In a place known as Nine Dragons, as the city's Hungry Ghosts festival burns around him, Bosch puts aside everything he knows and risks everything he has in a desperate bid to outmatch the triad's ferocity.

*Thanks to Miriam of Hatchette Book Group, I have an opportunity to pick a lucky winner for a copy of your own.* Why do you want this book? This giveaway is open until Friday, December 4th. This is open to US and Canadian winners, please provide your country of origin and an email address for contact.

Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...

• Add my blog to your technorati favs (left sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Networked Blogs (right sidebar)
  
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (right sidebar)
• Follow me on Twitter (right sidebar)
• Tweet this giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet)
  
• Join my Facebook Fan page
• Comment on other non-giveaway posts
• Blog about this giveaway
• Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar)
• Grab my giveaway button and link to my blog (right sidebar)
  

Leave an additional comment for each entry.

Giveaway: True Blue by David Baldacci

True Blue by David Baldacci

A mysterious high-profile homicide in the nation's capital collides with the dark side of national security in David Baldacci's new, heart-stopping thriller.

TRUE BLUE

Mason "Mace" Perry was a firebrand cop on the D.C. police force until she was kidnapped and framed for a crime. She lost everything-her badge, her career, her freedom-and spent two years in prison. Now she's back on the outside and focused on one mission: to be a cop once more. Her only shot to be a true blue again is to solve a major case on her own, and prove she has the right to wear the uniform. But even with her police chief sister on her side, she has to work in the shadows: A vindictive U.S. attorney is looking for any reason to send Mace back behind bars. Then Roy Kingman enters her life.

Roy is a young lawyer who aided the poor until he took a high-paying job at a law firm in Washington. Mace and Roy meet after he discovers the dead body of a female partner at the firm. As they investigate the death, they start uncovering surprising secrets from both the private and public world of the nation's capital.

Soon, what began as a fairly routine homicide takes a terrifying and unexpected turn-into something complex, diabolical, and possibly lethal.

*Thanks to Miriam of Hatchette Book Group, I have an opportunity to pick a lucky winner for a copy of your own.* Why do you want this book? This giveaway is open until Friday, December 4th. This is open to US and Canadian winners, please provide your country of origin and an email address for contact.

Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...

• Add my blog to your technorati favs (left sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Networked Blogs (right sidebar)
  
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (right sidebar)
• Follow me on Twitter (right sidebar)
• Tweet this giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet)
  
• Join my Facebook Fan page
• Comment on other non-giveaway posts
• Blog about this giveaway
• Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar)
• Grab my giveaway button and link to my blog (right sidebar)
  

Leave an additional comment for each entry.

Giveaway: The Blue Enchantress

The Blue Enchantress, Charles Towne Belles, #2 by M. L. Tyndall

Get swept away in a high-tide of romance and adventure from acclaimed author M. L. Tyndall. Trying to forget about a painful past, Hope Westcott plunges into Charles Towne society trying to find love and acceptance. Captain Nathaniel Mason is determined to build his shipping business and doesn t need a romantic entanglement especially with a woman like Hope. When Hope s adventure-seeking puts her freedom and her life in jeopardy, will Nathaniel turn his back or follow God s voice and sacrifice everything to save her?

Go back to read my review.

*Thanks to author MaryLu Tyndall, I have an opportunity to pick a lucky winner for a copy of your own.* Why do you want this book? This giveaway is open until Friday, December 4th. This is open to international winners, please provide your country of origin and an email address for contact.

Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...

• Add my blog to your technorati favs (left sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Networked Blogs (right sidebar)
  
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (right sidebar)
• Follow me on Twitter (right sidebar)
• Tweet this giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet)
  
• Join my Facebook Fan page
• Comment on other non-giveaway posts
• Blog about this giveaway
• Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar)
• Grab my giveaway button and link to my blog (right sidebar)
  

Leave an additional comment for each entry.

Giveaway: The Red Siren

The Red Siren, Charles Towne Belles, #3 by M. L. Tyndall

You'll be swept away by this latest historical romance by bestselling author M. L. Tyndall. Faith Westcott is a lady by day and a pirate by night. Can she garner the riches she so desperately needs before her secret is revealed? Captain Dajon Waite is determined to catch the fiery redhead who has been pillaging the Carolina coast. When Faith invites his courtship, she hopes his infatuation will shield her true identity and keep other suitors at bay. Can the love of a godly captain win her heart, or will she be forced to marry Sir Wilhelm Carteret, a man obsessed with taking her to wife?

Go back to read my review.

*Thanks to author MaryLu Tyndall, I have an opportunity to pick a lucky winner for a copy of your own.* Why do you want this book? This giveaway is open until Friday, December 4th. This is open to international winners, please provide your country of origin and an email address for contact.

Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...

• Add my blog to your technorati favs (left sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Networked Blogs (right sidebar)
  
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (right sidebar)
• Follow me on Twitter (right sidebar)
• Tweet this giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet)
  
• Join my Facebook Fan page
• Comment on other non-giveaway posts
• Blog about this giveaway
• Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar)
• Grab my giveaway button and link to my blog (right sidebar)
  

Leave an additional comment for each entry.

Giveaway: Look to the East

Look to the East, The Great War #1 by Maureen Lang

At the dawn of the First World War, the French provincial village of Briecourt is isolated from the battles, but the century-old feud between the Toussaints and the de Colvilles still rages in the streets. When the German army sweeps in to occupy the town, families on both sides of the feud must work together to protect stragglers caught behind enemy lines. Julitte Toussaint may have been adopted from a faraway island, but she feels the scorn of the de Colvilles as much as anyone born a Toussaint. So when she falls in love with one of the stragglers—a wealthy and handsome Belgian entrepreneur—she knows she’s playing with fire. Charles Lassone hides in the cellar of the Briecourt church, safe from the Germans for the moment. But if he’s discovered, it will bring danger to the entire village and could cost Charles his life. First in a three-book series.

Go back to read my review.

*Thanks to author Maureen Lang, I have an opportunity to pick a lucky winner for a copy of your own.* Why do you want this book? This giveaway is open until Friday, December 4th. This is open to US winners only, please provide an email address for contact.

Good luck all! And for the fun of it, after your MANDATORY entry above, any of the following will get you additional entries...

• Add my blog to your technorati favs (left sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
  
• Follow my blog through Networked Blogs (right sidebar)
  
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (right sidebar)
• Follow me on Twitter (right sidebar)
• Tweet this giveaway (come back and leave your status link - find this by clicking on your time of tweet)
  
• Join my Facebook Fan page
• Comment on other non-giveaway posts
• Blog about this giveaway
• Grab my button and link to my blog (left sidebar)
• Grab my giveaway button and link to my blog (right sidebar)
  

Leave an additional comment for each entry.

Product Review: Bummis #clothdiapers

Soon after finding out that we were pregnant with our AppleBlossom we knew that we were going to cloth diaper and so I went to my SisterL for advice. As you can read back on this post, she strongly prefers a Bummis system to cloth diapering. *Thanks to Shirley from Bummis, I was able to review an Infant sized Bummis Organic Cloth Diaper Kit* and I'm sold! This is my preference for cloth diapering pretty much for all the time. In the weeks to come I'll fill you in on other methods I also use and enjoy. But I love Bummis brand!




First off, what did I get in the kit?

The Infant size contains:

• 24 infant size Organic Cotton Prefold diapers (4 x 8 x 4 layers thick)

• 4 Super Whisper Wraps – small

• 2 Super Brites – small

• 3 rolls Bio-Soft liners – small

• 5 reusable Fleece Liners

• 1 Fabulous Wet Bag – large (available exclusively in the Kit!)

• User Guide

My only qualm with the kit is that it is that there are no Super Whisper Wraps with Snaps, they all have the hook and loop Velcro instead. And for those of you than are unaware, the Super Brites are covers that close with velcro as well. The kits are gender neutral in that they come with a blue wet bag (that has a zipper and draw strings), green Super Brite, white Super Brite, Celery SWW, Froggy Pond SWW, and a white Super Whisper Wrap. Not that there is any problems with those patterns, but if you want to girlify (Margaret-ism) your cover stash, you have to buy a Flower Print SWW separately. And now they have just made available some fabulous Limited Edition Star prints! I cannot wait to get some for my medium stash!!

(Froggy pond picture taken 3 wks)

So what to tell you about first? How to use the system? What I think? Here goes...

This type of diapering system consists of using a prefold DSQ (diaper service quality) cloth diaper and a waterproof cover. No Snappis or pins for me thanks! In my case I use the Fleece Liners for naps and night time (although these days a prefold does not quite handle all night, and she will wake up and request a change ever so politely...) and when I am expecting a messy diaper we will also prep with a flushable liner as well which makes clean up so much nicer. Being exclusively breastfed our AppleBlossom's diaper system is pretty simple. Take off the diaper, toss the cover (if not messy) in one pink bucket, toss the soiled prefold into another. If I'm using a liner I toss it in the trash bucket or toilet (which ever is closer). Pick up another prepped diaper and flip up the prefold and secure the cover, replace baby outfit and we're good to go. Pick up the soiled diaper pan and dump the diaper into my big (dry) diaper pail. If there is an extensively messy diaper, I will rinse it out before adding it to my pail. The plan in the future for when she starts solids is to get a diaper sprayer (DH - you listening??).

DH says that he likes these with prefolds better than pocket diapers, but that he likes all-in-ones better than these. He tells me that if I did not pre-assemble these, he would ignore them and reach for an AIO to skip the extra step of assembly. Yet when these are ready to go, he is more than willing to strap them on her little bum.

Assembly... Once I run a load of diapers. Okay explanation here. Prewash cold, wash cold with Charlie's Soap (tell them I sent you), wash warm, tumble dry low. Some times if there is more than usual, they will either need a second tumble or I hang them up in our bedroom on the drying rack. Now, once I run a load of diapers, I dump the basket on the bed and go to assembly. It takes about 15 minutes and is rather entertaining to my wee bairn (that's for you SisterB). I fold all the prefolds into a try fold, opposite the seams and make a stack. Then once all the diapers are separated out from the covers, I place a diaper in a cover fold it over properly and set it in my box ready to go. Once the box is filled onto the changing table shelf it goes and it's Daddy approved.

I love this system. It's so simple. Sure there is a few minutes effort to prep the diapers with assembly, but oh well I hardly even notice it anymore. I was able to use these diapers almost first thing home from the hospital and at four months and 12 1/2 pounds there is still lots of room left of the velcro tab for her to continue to use them on her itty bitty waist. Right now I'm starting my list of what I want for her medium size and wondering when we'll get there. So far I'm planning a Baby sized Organic Cloth Diapers Kit that will give me 18 baby size prefolds, 2 SWW - medium, 2 SBrites - medium, 1 roll Bio-Soft liners - large, 5 reusable Fleece Liners, and of course a fabulous wet bag and user guide. In addition to this I already purchased a medium Flower print, and plan to get at least one each of the Super Star print covers. I'm also not adverse to getting some more Fleece Liners so that I might be able to use one on every change and not have to "guess" which one will consist of a nap time.

(Flower print picture taken November 30th, 17 wks)

More details for those so inclined...

• I love these prefolds. In my stash I have some Under the Nile prefolds, a plethora of Gerber prefolds both 4x8x4 and the slim organic ones, some green edged Indian prefolds, a few Bambino Mio prefolds and the Bummis by far take the cake (although the Bambino Mio ones are pretty great too!). After washing they become more and more absorbent and shrink a bit, but from beginning to end they are so soft!
• The SWW are my favorite. The SB are nice, but they just aren't quite the same to me. The prints available in the SWW are so much more exciting and I prefer the inner cover layer over the wipe-able water proof material. These covers are a much better fit than the others I have tried and will never go back to anything else such as our past attempts of Polar Babies, Thirties, and so on.
  

I highly recommend everything in the Bummis Organic Cloth Diaper Kit and will definitely be using the next size kit when our AppleBlossom reaches the next size range.

As for just starting a deeper conversation, as I'm sure you're overwhelmed by all this... This system is the cheapest by far than any other cloth diapering system and it's organic! And for night time, we have started using Kissaluvs v1 and v2 inside a cover and love it! But that's for another time and day...

WHERE TO BUY: You can purchase your own Bummis products many places. My suggestions are to either click the button on the right side bar (through my affiliate link) to go to Kelly's Closet. OR go to Diaper Junction (their customer service is unbeatable and they are where I get all my duds!). On average the Super Snaps (white) cost about $11-12 and the print covers are all about $12.25-12.75. For starting out, you'll definitely get the best bargain in a starter kit.

Guest Review: Home for Christmas

Love Reunites Four Orphaned Siblings in Interwoven Novellas. "Heart Full of Love" by Colleen Coble, "Ride the Clouds" by Carol Cox, "Don't Look Back" by Terri Fowler, and "To Keep Me Warm" by Gail Gaymer Martin.

One distant, shared memory binds four siblings, separated early in life and reared in different families. This year, a new memory could begin for them as one determined friend, a short Internet message, and God's miraculous timing bring them Home for Christmas.

I would loved to have given this book 5 stars. However there were a
few inconsistencies with dates/timelines between the stories. I feel
that if authors are going to collaborate on a interweaving-timeline
story, even the tiny details should be correct. Overall they did a
great job! I loved each story and loved how everything happened. An
excellent read for any season, not just Christmas!

Amy K.