May 5, 2010
Publisher’s Description
Professor Happy Cat knows exactly what goes on in Dogs’ minds and he has IHasaHotdog.com to prove it. Now you can share this knowledge in a handy-dandy dog friendly–sized book.
I HAS A BWAIN!!1!
An you thawt we dint! Now Professor Happycat tells you what’s in it and, from I HAS A HOTDOG.com and beyond, lets over 200 LOLdogs loose on the world, all barking the truth about kibble, toys, and bad kitties. This collection of favorites and never-before-seen photos will have you barking for more!
For all you hoomins, a LOLdog is a kay-nine picture with a funny, misspelled caption.
Giveaway:
I have 3 copies of I Has a Hotdog
to give away, courtesy of the publisher!
Mandatory entry: Please comment on this post with your e-mail address.
Extra entries (please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for subscribing):
- Subscribe via email. You must verify the subscription. (2 entries)
- Enter another current giveaway and tell me which one you entered (1 entry each)
- Share this giveaway on a social network of your choice. Click the “share” button below (1 entry each)
This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on May 18th.
Giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by Hachette Book Group. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
May 3, 2010
Spurred by the disappearance of several blogs (taken down by Google for no good reason and with no warning to the owner), I’m contemplating a move to WordPress. Thank to Stacie at Simply Stacie blog, I found Jessica at iDesign who promises to make the move seamless for my readers.
I like the clean and minimalistic look of Luxury Reading, so I will do my best to keep it the same. However, WordPress runs differently from Blogger, and I need to select a theme that will be the “backbone” of the blog. This is where I really need my readers’ input! Let me know what you think of the themes below.
1. MinimaxWhite - this is a sample theme (ignore all the text). The big difference between this theme and the current Luxury Reading layout is that the posts will be in snippets. Basically, instead of seeing the entire post, you will see a snippet with an image and the first paragraph or so. You will then have the option to click to read more. This will allow more posts to be visible on the front page.
2. WP-Ellie – the sidebar here can be either on the right or left side. This theme has the option of having snippets (as I just discovered) or having regular blog posts. It can also be customized to have small thumbnail snippets as you see when you click on the link, or having more expanded ones. WordPress also allows me to place a “read more” break wherever I choose.
I do like the idea of having snippets and having more posts visible per page, but I could try to find a theme that is as close as possible to the current Luxury Reading layout…
Have any features or improvements you want to see on Luxury Reading? Let me know!
May 1, 2010
Reviewed by Vera (Luxury Reading)
The quaint town of Lumby is under assault. The famous Barnes of Lumby painting by artist Dana Porter mysteriously disappeared while in transport to London, leaving the residents of Lumby to fend off the journalists that descend on the town.
In Stealing Lumby
, the second book in the Lumby series by Gail Fraser, the reader is reacquainted with the pleasant characters introduced in The Lumby Lines
. While they are less than pleased with the onslaught of story-seeking journalists, the boost in business also keeps everyone busy. Pam and Mark Walker are booked solid at the Monty Inn and the local restaurants are packed with hungry out-of-towners. But no one is less trusting of the reports than Katie Banks, the young woman who lost her husband in The Lumby Lines and owner of the Lumby barns. Despite herself, Katie is drawn to Adam Massey, a handsome New York reporter charged with writing a biography of Dana Porter.
Amidst the chaos, one of the barns depicted in the painting disappears during the night. The theft has everybody on high alert, but also brings the town together in unexpected ways.
I felt that Stealing Lumby had too many unimportant conversations of “I did this” and “I did that” that prevented me from really understanding the characters or caring much about them. Every day in Lumby seemed filled with random accidents – a moose running loose, pipes bursting, more animals running loose – and after a while these accidents became less believable and more aggravating. Moreover, the romance between Katie Banks and Adam Massey felt contrived at best; the couple went from a singular evening spent together to declaring their love for each other.
Stealing Lumby was not my cup of tea, but it is likely to appeal to fans of cozy small town fiction. I got more engrossed in the story as the various clues of the mystery at hand began to come together, but found the first half of the book hard to get through.
Read our review of The Lumby Lines.
This book was provided free of any obligation by FSB Associates. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
May 1, 2010
As I announced before, Luxury Reading is one of the ten official book club bloggers for SheKnows Book Club. I was recently selected as Blogger of the Week and you can read all about me here!
SheKnows is an amazing website dedicated to women and covers everything from parenting, home and healthy living to pets, beauty and entertainment. For those of you who thought about joining a book club but did not find the time, the SheKnows Book Club provides the perfect opportunity to read great books and discuss them with others on your own schedule.
SheKnows Book Club will be selecting a new book every other month; the April/May selection is Jodi Picoult’s new novel House Rules
. I hope you will join us!
May 1, 2010
Thank you to everyone who entered the BLOGMANIA giveaway! I had a lot of fun running this event and participating in giveaways on other blogs!
Without further delay, the 20 winners are (the winners are listed in order of prize preference, i.e. the first winner will have the first choice of prizes):
#241 Mim
#91 Jodi
#430 Lacey
#321 xxsquigglesx
#246 Carol M
#448 Benita
#132 janetfaye
#3 crush.blog
#304 lovelyritaann
#307 amandawk
#45 Tori (Book Faery)
#193 Emmi
#445 MarthaE
#220 Shelly
#84 Marianna
#54 cynthial11
#13 Linda Henderson
#195 Christine H
#156 Nise’
#441 Dina
Reminder: this giveaway was open to US residents only. If you don’t live in the US and don’t have anyone who can accept the prizes for you, please let me know ASAP.
I will contact each winner individually to sort out the prizes. Please wait until you hear me – it may take a few days.
April 29, 2010
WELCOME TO BLOGMANIA!
My Blog is 45 of 123
You’ve arrived at exactly the right time to explore lots of new blogs that are GIVING AWAY THOUSANDS OF PRIZES FOR ONE DAY ONLY!
We’ve done all the work for you. No hunting or surfing. Each blog will have a number. These numbers will help you to keep track of the blogs you have already visited. Why not take a moment to make a list of blog numbers 1-123 and check off the blogs as you go.
I know you’ll want to visit as many blogs today as you can. So, if you see something that interests you on any of our participating blogs, please bookmark or follow that site. Later, when you have more time, you can discover all its fabulous treasures.
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
MY GIVEAWAY and RULES:
The first 100 entrants will all receive a copy of Anthropology of an American Girl
by Hilary Thayer Hamann, courtesy of Random House. All you have to do is comment. (I will weed through the extra entries and pick 100 initial comments)
FOR THE REST OF THE PRIZES…
There will be a total of 20 winners
Winner #1 will receive all his prize selections. Then I’ll start going down the list: if winner #2 selected some of the same items as winner #1, he will be asked to pick back-up choices. And so on until all the prizes are claimed. Since there are multiple copies of certain books, these copies will be allocated among winners, i.e. if there are 15 copies of one book left and the first 5 winners did not request it, the last 15 winners will all get a copy.
Certain books are available in multiple copies (as stated next to each title).
Any questions? Email me!
To enter:
2. Mandatory Entry: Comment on this post. You must include your e-mail address or have a profile that contains an e-mail address.
3. Extra entries (post a separate comment):
- Follow or subscribe by e-mail (1 entry each)
- Tweet about this giveaway (1 entry each, limit to 3)
This giveaway is open to US residents only. If you live outside the US, you must have a friend/relative who can accept the prize for you.
This giveaway will end at 11:59pm EST on April 30th.
MORE BLOGMANIA BLOGS TO VISIT:
April 29, 2010
Welcome to first bi-annual Blogmania Event!
Please wait until 12am EST for official entry instructions. Comments left on this post will not count as entries.
There will be 20 winners and 8 prizes for each winner. You will have to select 8 prizes from the book and Etsy selections in your mandatory entry, so feel free to browse early!
Without the generous contributions of many publishers, authors and companies, we would not have been able to have such a wonderful giveaway for the following books.
Please note: The first 100 entrants will receive ARC copies of Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann, courtesy of Random House.
by Tracy Raver and Kelley Ryden
by Best Friends Animal Society
by Timothy Ferriss
by Mitch Albom
by Malcolm Gladwell
(
by Stephen Benatar (
(
(
(from my personal collection)
(from my personal collection)
by Erin Healy
by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma
by Eric Wilson
by Dawn J Ranck
by Jamie Buchan
by Chloe Rhodes
by Katie Crouch (
by Ted Dekkman (
by Frederick Reiken
by David Baldacci
by Neil Landau
by Matthew Frederick and Alfredo Cabrera
in Louis Eguaras
by Will Adams
by Carey Goldberg, Beth Jones and Pamela Ferdinand
by Dean King
by Stephenie Meyer
by Anita Shreve (
by Kristin Armstrong
by Regina Brett
by Iris Gomez
by Terra Elan McVoy
by Michele Dominguez Greene
by Lauren Barnholdt
by Thomas E. Sniegoski
bind-up by V.C. Andrews
by Rhonda Stapleton
by Lisa McMann
by Lynn Weingarten
by Elizabeth Eulberg (
by Paula Morris
by Jamie Carie
by Justin Cronin (4 ARC copies)
by Ellen Rakieten and Anne Coyle (15 copies)
by Alan Beard and Alec McNayr (15 copies)
by April Winchell (15 copies)
Simply Reading Kindle Giveaway
Review: The Life O’Reilly by Brian Cohen
Simply Reading Kindle Giveaway
Review: She’s So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott
Review: The Last Goodnights by John West
Giveaway Winners!
Review: Bulletproof Mascara by Bethany Maines
CSN Giveaway (and My Scratching Post Story)
