Here are some books for review sent by Random House, which are sitting in my to-be-read pile.
This week’s mailbag is a bonanza, thanks to Mills and Boon Australia, who sent us a box of assorted titles (though I detect a distinct YA bias). Some of these are series books, so I’m torn on reading them or catching on the series first. I’m particularly keen on the Rachel Vincent, after reading her Soul Screamers series. (If you’re a fan of this series, would you recommend starting the series properly, or can I just jump straight in?)
All of these titles will be out in Australia in July.
For Maria V. Snyder fans, don’t forget that she’ll be in Australia in August. From what I’ve gathered, the tour will focus on meeting her younger readers, but there may also be a few opportunities to see her with a more adult crowd. (This is not say I don’t like mingling with younger readers. But as an oldie, I don’t really want to barge into an author event that’s focused on school kids!) I’ll post more if and when I know the details.
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BOOKMARKED
We’ve set up a paper.li account linked to the @BookThingo Twitter account (managed by Kat). This is an easy way to get a summary of the links and bits of news (mostly book related) posted on Twitter.
Click here to view the latest edition. If you click on the subscribe button, you’ll automatically receive a daily summary in your Inbox.
Are you a member of the Australian Romance Readers Association?
ARRA membership renewals are due, and if you haven’t signed up yet now’s the time! The cost is $20 for the year and you get discounts to events and participating bookshops, free subscription to the newsletter, the opportunity to get in touch with other romance readers, and most importantly, voting rights for the Australian Romance Reader Awards, which I like to call the ARR Awards. (Pirates! Arr!)
This year, ARRA is also offering associate membership to readers and authors outside Australia. The cost is $15 and includes everything but voting rights to the awards.
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Aussie Author Month giveaway winners
Congratulations to Anna Cowan, who won two ebooks by Jess Dee for her answer to our question on which playing card is the sexiest:
I’d have to pick the Jack for the sexiest card. He is young, he’s hungry to get to the top, and the queen’s standing in his way. As far as I can see, the quickest way to the top is seduction…
Congratulations also to Gaile Hughes, who won two Christine Darcas books for her answer to our question on which dance style is the most romantic:
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Mea culpa
I apologise for the silence on the blog for the past few weeks. Life away from blogging got very busy very suddenly, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish off our Aussie Author posts. However, I will be making up for it by posting the remaining author quickies over the coming months. (It will be impossible for me to sustain the pace we kept in April!)
So from next week, new posts should be going up again, and we’ll be announcing the giveaway winners from April.
Melbourne book blogger meet-up
Marg over at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader is organising the first ever Melbourne book blogger meet-up. Bloggers, tweeters, authors and any other bookish people are welcome to come along.
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A weekly round-up of Aussie Author Month activity around teh interwebs.
This week has been a bit slow at Book Thingo—my fault entirely as I haven’t been able to keep up with the reading, blogging, editing and link compilations—but Aussie Author Month continues to grow, with more reviews and contests around the blogosphere.
At Book Thingo, we reposted Decadence’s review of Border Watch by Helene Young. This book won the Australian Romance Readers Award for Favourite Romantic Suspense in 2010. I also posted my much-delayed Mixed Bag for April, which features a variety of Aussie Authors that we haven’t previously reviewed at Book Thingo.
Next week, look out for loads of author quickies—I have a backlog of them to get through and they will all be posted in April, so it’s going to be a busy fortnight. Also look out for book giveaways courtesy of some fabulous Aussie authors.
Fundraising total: $211.50
Again, a quick reminder that, as part of Aussie Author month, we’re also promoting the Indigenous Literacy Project. I encourage you to support them in whatever way you can. If you’d like to make a donation, you may do so via Go Fundraise and help us reach our goal of $1000 by the end of the month.
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ARRC 2011 round-ups
ARRA has posted some round-ups of ARRC 2011 on it blog. Take a peek at what happened at the convention on the Thursday (volunteers hard at work), Friday (volunteers at work), Welcome reception, Silent auction.
Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader has also posted part 1 of her round-up.
For a round-up of all the round-ups, check out our ARRC 2011 page.
RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award winners
The RT Reviewers’ Choice awards were announced at Los Angeles last week. Click here for a list of winners. Congratulations to A/NZ authors Nalini Singh (Best Shapeshifter Romance for Play of Passion) and Tina Duncan (Best First Series Romance for Da Silva’s Mistress).
Congratulations also to Valerie Parv, who was awarded a Pioneer of Romance Award.
Source: Maggie Nash and Romance Writers of Australia
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A weekly round-up of Aussie Author Month activity around teh interwebs.
Aussie bloggers have not lost the momentum of last weekend, and Aussie Author Month continues to highlight many authors and books I hadn’t heard of before. I hope you guys have discovered new books to try this week.
A quickie with…
At Book Thingo, we’re running a Q & A-type series of posts featuring Australian authors who write romance fiction or fiction with romantic elements. Each post will feature the same set of questions or prompts, and we readers can enjoy the variety of responses. We tried to make it fun for authors and readers. If there are any romance authors you’d like to see featured here, leave a comment and I’ll see what we can do. (Bear in mind that some authors may not have the time to respond with such short notice.)
Our first quickie was with R*BY Award winning urban fantasy author Tracey O’Hara. I forgot to mention this in the quickie post, but Tracey was one of the pioneers of the ARR Awards Bling-Off. You can read her responses here.
The fundraising page for the Indigenous Literacy Project is up!
As part of Aussie Author month, we’re also promoting the Indigenous Literacy Project. I encourage you to support them in whatever way you can. If you’d like to make a donation, you may do so via Go Fundraise and help us reach our goal of $1000 by the end of the month.
And now, here’s a round-up of this week’s Aussie Author Month posts. If I missed yours, leave a comment with the URL and I’ll add it to next week’s round-up. Enjoy!
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2011 Get Reading! campaign launched
The Get Reading! campaign was launched this week, and the list of 50 Books You Can’t Put Down seems to be causing angst among local booksellers and publishers, many of whom believe that the list includes too many overseas titles. (It would be nice if they updated the website to coincide with the launch so I could include a link!)
Good news for readers who love outback romance. North Star by Karly Lane is included in the list and I believe it has romantic elements. (Lane was a panelist ARRC and is a member of RWAus.) Did I miss any other romance titles?
The list includes I Came To Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington, which I reviewed a few days ago. Also of interest are The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Passion by Lauren Kate and book six of the Vampire Academy series, Last Sacrifice, by Richelle Mead. These teen/YA titles are popular among romance reading circles.
This year the free anthology, which you can get when you buy one of the books on the list, will be available as an ebook.
ARRC 2011 posts
We at Book Thingo have been very slack about posting our summaries. They’re still works in progress at this stage, but they will be posted. One day. In the meantime, here’s a round-up of the ARRC 2011 posts by other attendees. If I missed yours, please let me know!
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