Product Review: The Book Buddy II...(my new best friend!)

I was thrilled to receive a Book Buddy II for review from the wonderful Amanda Crawford Designs. This light and elegant pillow has ribbons attached that end in adjustable gold knobs. You slide your book covers into the vertical ribbons and hold the pages open (and mark your place) with the diagonal corner ribbons. All the ribbons can be tightened or loosened depending on the size of your book, easily holding all books from small paperbacks to large hardbacks.

There are several fantastic things about this product. It is so light that it is a joy to use. I don't know how it happens, but somehow it makes the book seem lighter than it is. The fabric is luxurious, it is so pretty to look at! (My Book Buddy is Papillon Gold, but it comes in designs to suit every taste...you can see them here.) It comes with a detachable clear desktop which makes writing notes a breeze (I KNOW I'll be using this for Christmas cards) and it makes setting your laptop on your lap much more comfortable!

The best part is that my hands don't fall asleep anymore. I used to have to switch hands and positions often, especially when reading in bed. Now my hands are free (okay, so I have to sit on them to keep from snacking....that's not my Book Buddy's fault!).

I wish I could take it with me on my travels! Unfortunately, I am a carry-on only girl and my Book Buddy is just a bit too big to take with me in my one small suitcase. It would be great if they made a travel version, maybe replacing the stuffing with an inflatable air pillow.

If you are a serious reader, I highly recommend The Book Buddy II. It makes reading (or writing, or working on your laptop) comfortable and effortless! The Book Buddy II is available for $29.95 from the website and at many bookstores. It has The Tome Traveller Seal of Approval!

Giveaway: Mix, Shake, Stir: Cocktails for the Home Bar by Danny Meyer

Summer is coming...who doesn't love to have friends and family over for cookouts and parties? Here's just the book to complete your summer get-togethers!

The bartenders at Danny Meyer's wildly popular restaurants are known for their creative concoctions. Guests at Union Square Café or Gramercy Tavern expect not only the finest cuisine but also Meyer's special brand of hospitality that often begins with a Venetian Spritz or a Cranberry Daiquiri. In MIX SHAKE STIR, Meyer offers all the tips and tools needed to become a masterful mixologist and supplements the cocktail recipes with gourmet takes on bar snacks. There are over 100 recipes of bar classics, signature favorites, and original, refreshing libations--from the Modern's elegant mojito made with champagne and rose water to Tabla's Pomegranate Gimlet. Shaken or stirred, straight up or on the rocks, these cocktails make this collection an invaluable resource for elegant entertaining.

I have three copies of Mix, Shake, Stir to give away. If you would like to enter, just leave me a comment here. Be sure to leave an email address where I can contact you if you win! Three extra entries to anyone who becomes a follower (or follows already), blogs about this contest or tweets it on Twitter (please leave me a separate comment if you do any of these). Enter until midnight eastern time on May 15. I will randomly draw three winners and notify them via email. Winners must have a US or Canada mailing address (no PO Boxes). Good luck!

Giveaway: The G-Free Diet by Elisabeth Hasselbeck

For years, Elisabeth Hasselbeck couldn't figure out what was making her sick. She asked doctors and consulted nutritionists, but no one seemed to have any answers. It wasn't until spending time in the Australian Outback, living off the land on the grueling Survivor TV show, that, ironically, her symptoms vanished. Returning home, she pinpointed the food that made her sick -- gluten, the binding element in wheat. By simply eliminating it from her diet, she was able to enjoy a completely normal, healthy life. But that wasn't all. Hasselbeck discovered the myriad benefits that anyone can enjoy from a gluten-free diet: from weight loss and increased energy to even the alleviation of the conditions of autism.

In this all-inclusive book, Hasselbeck shares her hard-earned wisdom on living life without gluten and loving it. She gives you everything you need to know to start living a gluten-free life, from defining gluten - where to find it, how to read food labels - to targeting gluten-free products, creating G-Free shopping lists, sharing recipes, and managing G-Free living with family and friends.

Read an excerpt.

I have five copies of The G-Free Diet to give away. If you would like to enter, just leave me a comment here. Be sure to leave an email address where I can contact you if you win! Three extra entries to anyone who becomes a follower (or follows already), blogs about this contest or tweets it on Twitter (please leave me a separate comment if you do any of these things). Enter until midnight eastern time on May 15. I will randomly draw five winners and notify them via email. Winners must have a US or Canada mailing address (no PO Boxes). Good luck!

Review & Blog Tour: Follow Me by Joanna Scott

Sally Werner is sixteen years old in the fall of 1946 and has spent her life working hard, her parents are farmers and evangelists. At a church picnic, her twenty three year old cousin Daniel offers her a spin on his motorcycle. Impulsive Sally is thrilled to go but after a short ride he forces himself on her. Of course, pregnancy follows. She is smart enough to resist the offered (insisted on) marriage.

But she can't stand the aftermath and when her baby boy is only two days old she leaves him in his basket on the kitchen table and runs. Following the course of the Tuskee River north from its source, not even going very far, she ends up in Fishkill Notch, Pennsylvania. There she finds caring, helpful folks who open their arms and homes to her. Then she meets a young man named Mole and she is convinced her life is just beginning.

When tragedy strikes Sally pulls herself together and moves north again, into New York and farther up the river, inventing a new name for herself. This pattern will be repeated each time bad luck or hard times come into her life.

Along the way she has another child, a daughter and eventually a granddaughter, too. The guilt Sally carries over the abandonment of her son eventually prompts her to search for him and the consequences of that search will change not only her life but the lives of those she holds dear.

This is the story of a woman who, though she is far from perfect, spends much of her life trying to redeem herself for a mistake she can't forget.

The author's writing has a lovely tone to it and the narrative just sweeps the reader along. It is a well written, thoughtful story about the decisions that must be made in life and the paths through the consequences.

Follow Me is published by Little Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-05165-1

Many thanks to Miriam at Hachette Book Group for sending me this review copy!

Here are some of the other stops on the blogtour (I wish I could list them all, but it is a very long list!):

Medieval Bookworm
Bermuda Onion
Peeking Between the Pages
Write for a Reader
Drey's Library
Marta's Meanderings
My Friend Amy
S. Krishna's Books
Savvy Verse and Wit
Diary of an Eccentric
A Novel Menagerie

Review: What Would Jane Austen Do? by Laurie Brown

Costume designer Eleanor Pottinger is thrilled to be attending The Jane Austen Society's conference at Twixton Manor where she can indulge in the world of her favorite author while promoting her line of Regency dresses.

After a long flight Eleanor arrives, weary and rumpled, only to find that there is no record of her reservation. So she is given the only room left, the haunted Tower Suite. Since she doesn't believe in ghosts and only wants a place to sleep, it seems to be the perfect solution.

Resident ghosts Mina and Deirdre have their own plans. For centuries they have been trying to figure out what has been keeping them at Twixton Manor. They have decided that they need to stop the death of their half-brother, who dies in a duel with Lord Shermont. The duel was over the girls' honor and they hope they can change the outcome by sending someone back that can intervene. And here is Eleanor, dropped into their laps and perfect for the job. She even has her own outfits!

Of course, when the ghosts wake Eleanor and outline their plan, she doesn't believe them. She thinks they are a product of her travel-weary brain and goes back to sleep. When she wakes up it is in Regency England at a very different Twixton Manor. Here she finds the real Mina and Deirdre and meets the devilishly handsome Lord Shermont, who immediately captures her interest. How is she ever going to manage to fit into the complicated world of an 1814 manor house? By asking herself the same question each time she is in doubt: What would Jane Austen do?

This is a great book for the summer and would make a perfect travel or beach read. I read it on the plane to London! It is fun and light, it made my six hour flight zip by. If you like time travel romance novels, this one is for you!

What Would Jane Austen Do? is published by Sourcebooks. ISBN 978-1-4022-1831-6 (My thanks to Danielle at Sourcebooks for sending me the review copy!)

You will find a great guest post by the author at Romance Junkies and Laurie's website is here.

Here are a few other reviews:

Genre Go Round
Novel Thoughts
All About Romance

Saturday Suggestions: London!

We just got back from five days in London, it was a wonderful trip! It is easily my favorite city, I love being steeped in history. The architecture is beautiful, everywhere you look there is something interesting to see. And we were blessed with the most beautiful, sunny days! No rain at all and temps in the seventies. It was lovely, I never tire of spending time there. If you ever get the chance, GO!

The official reason for the trip was to attend the London Book Fair. I have never been to a trade show before and I had assumed that LBF would be similar to what I have heard & read about Book Expo America but I wasn't sure what to expect.

I can say that it was a very interesting experience. There were booths from all over Europe, representing every conceivable facet of the publishing industry. Most big British publishers were represented and many smaller ones, too, all with their latest and upcoming titles on display (mostly on posters or graphics, there weren't that many actual books around).

Statue of Boudicca, warrior Queen, on the banks of the Thames

Maybe it was because I didn't know anyone there, but I didn't really enjoy it much, unfortunately. There didn't seem to be much of a focus on authors or readers, I saw scheduled perhaps ten or twelve author interviews/signings/appearances over the entire three days. (The lists of author events at BEA that I have seen so far exceeds 500). My badge said "Book Reviewer/Blogger" and people were definitely looking at badges but not one person initiated a conversation with me. The people I spoke to were all very nice but it seemed to me that the focus was all on the selling (which is completely understandable) and not at all on the publicity aspects, which one would think was important, too.

So, I am very much looking forward to BEA. I am hoping that the experience will be a bit different, since I know a lot of bloggers and publicists that will be attending.

Plaque at 84 Charing Cross Rd, site of Marks & Co. Booksellers

We did quite a bit of sightseeing and then went book shopping...I can't go to London (or anywhere, actually) without shopping for books!

This is my favorite guide to book shopping in London, it is packed with every new and used bookshop in the city, plus outdoor bookstalls, libraries, book fair info and much more.

We bought some great books and had to buy and extra bag to pack them into to get them home!

Giveaway: Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts

The bestselling author of WHERE THE HEART IS returns with a heartrending tale of two children in search of a place to call home.

Lutie McFee's history has taught her to avoid attachments...to people, to places, and to almost everything. With her mother long dead and her father long gone to find his fortune in Las Vegas, 15-year-old Lutie lives in the god-forsaken town of Spearfish, South Dakota with her twelve-year-old brother, Fate, and Floy Satterfield, the 300-pound ex-girlfriend of her father.

While Lutie shoplifts for kicks, Fate spends most of his time reading, watching weird TV shows and worrying about global warming and the endangerment of pandas. As if their life is not dismal enough, one day, while shopping in their local Wal-Mart, Floy keels over and the two motherless kids are suddenly faced with the choice of becoming wards of the state or hightailing it out of town in Floy's old Pontiac. Choosing the latter, they head off to Las Vegas in search of a father who has no known address, no phone number and, clearly, no interest in the kids he left behind.

MADE IN THE U.S.A. is the alternately heartbreaking and life-affirming story of two gutsy children who must discover how cruel, unfair and frightening the world is before they come to a place they can finally call home.

If you would like to enter to win one of five copies of Made in the U.S.A., just leave me a comment here. Three extra entries will be given to anyone who becomes a follower (or follows already), blogs about the giveaway or tweets on twitter. If you do blog or tweet please leave a separate comment letting me know. Please be sure to leave me your email address so that I can contact you if you win! Contest will run through midnight eastern time on May 12. Winners will be drawn at random and must have a US or Canada mailing address (no PO Boxes). Thanks for entering! And many thanks to Valerie at Hachette for providing the books for both giveaways!

Giveaway: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

Lauren Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother keep family skeletons in the closet or sewing her acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister, Thalia, is her opposite, an impoverished actress who prides herself on exposing the lurid truths lurking behind middle class niceties.

While Laurel's life seems neatly on track-- a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, a lovely suburban home-- everything she holds dear is threatened the night she is visited by the ghost of her 13-year-old neighbor Molly. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly, floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is an unseemly mystery that no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Laurel enlists Thalia's help, even though she knows it comes with a high price tag.

Together, they set out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about their family's haunted past, the true state of Laurel's marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

If you would like to enter to win one of five copies of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, just leave me a comment here. Three extra entries will be given to anyone who becomes a follower (or follows already), blogs about the giveaway or tweets on twitter. If you do blog or tweet please leave a separate comment letting me know. Please be sure to leave me your email address so that I can contact you if you win! Contest will run through midnight eastern time on May 12. Winners will be drawn at random and must have a US or Canada mailing address (no PO Boxes). Thanks for entering!