Congratulations to auntdel42, who won our Melbourne Cup sweep this year! I’ve sent an email to all the particpants, so if you didn’t receive it, please let me know ASAP. I would hate to deprive auntdel42 of her books!

I also offered some consolation prizes to the second, third last place getters. (I gave away two last place prizes because, technically, Descarado didn’t finish.) Since I’m giving away review copies and free books I’m unlikely to ever get to in my TBR pile, I thought I’d give the books a bit of a plug here.

All of them sound good—it’s just that they don’t hit my sweet spot when it comes to books. And now, hopefully, I’ve found better homes for them! Check out our winners’ picks…

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Bookseller+Publisher reports that the local iBookstore has today launched the sale of Australian ebooks.

Publishers include Hachette Australia (finally!), HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan. (Penguin and Random House seem to be missing from the list.) Hachette Australia has indicated that they will release ebooks simultaneously for new releases. Here’s a sample of some titles and prices (categories in brackets as per iBookstore):

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (Fiction & Literature) — Free
Where Angels Fear To Tread and Other Stories of the Sea by Morgan Robertson (Classics) — $1.99
Hell Island by Matthew Reilly (Fiction & Literature) — $5.99 (#1 in the top paid books list)
Untouched by Anna Campbell (Romance) — $9.99

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Yes, it’s on again! Join our Melbourne Cup sweep to win some books! Champers optional.

Update: The first sweep has closed and I’ve posted the draw below. I’ll run a second sweep if we get another 23 people to sign up but you can only sign up via comments. I’m not taking sign ups from Twitter because it’s too cumbersome.

Update: Bauer (#18) has been scratched from the race, so there are only 23 horses in the running.

For non-Aussie readers who follow the blog, today we’re celebrating one of the biggest national events in Australia. That’s right, a long time ago someone came up with the brilliant idea of using a horse race as an excuse for boozy lunches and, in Melbourne’s case, a public holiday!

Our impromptu Melbourne Cup sweep last year was a huge hit, so we’re doing it again! Here’s how it works:

1. The first 24 23 people to comment here or tweet using the hashtag #btsweep are in. If you’re commenter #25, that’s okay—I’ll keep the comments open, and if we get another 24 people, I’ll run a second sweep.

2. Participants must sign up before 2pm AEDT to give me time to allocate your horses.

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Slice: Juicy Moments From My Impossible Life by Steven Herrick

In short: I loved this book.

Let me start by saying that Slice isn’t a book I would’ve picked up on a whim. The reasons I picked up my review copy had nothing to do with interest: it was skinny enough not to weigh down my bag; I love watermelons. Seriously, there’s something delightful about that cover.

This novel doesn’t have much of a plot, but Steven Herrick is such a fabulous craftsman that he manages to connect tenuously related vignettes about teenage life into a story I couldn’t put down.

Sixteen-year old Darcy admits he suffers from chronic ‘premature enunciation’. It’s not that he talks without thinking: ‘I mean what I say, I just shouldn’t say it aloud.’

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Decadence provides a recap of the most recent chat with J. R. Ward, including tidbits on the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Fallen Angels series.

On Saturday morning, J. R. Ward answered readers’ questions in her chat room from her newest release, Crave, second in the Fallen Angels series. Both the US and local editions should contain an excerpt from the upcoming Black Dagger Brotherhood release, Lover Unleashed (my local Piatkus does). Ward also discussed what’s coming for the Brothers, so please consider this a spoiler warning for both series. I’ve paraphrased the questions and tried to copy what Ward said as closely as possible, but anyone who has ever been to one of Ward’s chats knows that they can be chaotic. Any mistakes are mine.

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Today, the Australian Romance Readers Association confirmed that the 2011 readers’ convention will run from Friday, March 25 to Sunday, March 27 at the Swiss Grand, Bondi Beach.

Keynote speakers include Australian author Anna Campbell (historical romance), New Zealand author Nalini Singh (paranormal romance and urban fantasy) and US author Cindy Gerard (romantic suspense).

You can read more details about the keynote speakers at the ARRA blog.

I’M SO EXCITED! So … who’s coming to Sydney?

I wrote this article over a year ago for the ARRA newsletter. Some of the references were dated—I’ve updated them as much as I can—but I think the general sentiment holds true.

This will sound melodramatic, but it’s a great time to be a romance reader. Not only did our not-so-little corner of the literary market thrive during the recession, we’re at the forefront of some of the most exciting innovations in publishing today.

This is because we buy and read a lot of books. I thought my TBR (to be read) pile of five books was bad, until I met people at the Australian Romance Readers Convention (ARRC) who have rooms filled with unread books. Despite romance’s lack of prestige in literary circles, its readers spend billions of dollars worldwide each year.

Why do we love reading romance stories?

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Comrades by Dominic Knight

Dominic Knight’s second book has everything I love about his writing, but the subject matter—student politics—may limit its appeal for many readers.

Knight’s debut novel, Disco Boy, made it to my keeper list, so I was excited to get my hands on his next book. Comrades is a semester in the life of Eddie Flanagan, outgoing Student Representative Council (SRC) president, as he tries to reconcile his ideals with the reality of the political system.

Comrades was an interesting read but a bugger to review. Knight’s wit doesn’t disappoint, and there’s a gentle romance in the story that I found irresistible, but there are aspects of the book that other readers may struggle with.

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I usually wait at least six months before republishing articles I wrote for the ARRA newsletter. However, this one is about the 2010 Get Reading! campaign, and I thought I’d repost it so there’s time for you to grab a book (or seven) before it ends.

This is one of my favourite months for reading books. September is Get Reading! month—previously called Books Alive, it’s a month-long, nationwide campaign to encourage reading.

Each year the campaign publishes the 50 Books You Can’t Put Down Guide. Pick up a copy of any of the books listed from a participating retailer and you get a free book to go with it–either an anthology of short stories by well known Australian authors, or a children’s book of stories by Morris Gleitzman.

This year is particularly exciting for romance readers. The second book of the Black Cobra Quartet, The Elusive Bride, by Stephanie Laurens is listed in the guide. Yes, a romance genre book is in the guide! The free anthology also features a short story by Maggie Alderson, who was nominated for the Romance Book of the Year (R*BY) Award for Romantic Elements in 2009.

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Decadence gives us a run-down of Carrie Vaughn’s visit to Galaxy last Sunday.

Spoiler warning: So much happens in each book to further Kitty’s development that even reading the blurb on later books constitutes a spoiler. This post contains spoilers from the Kitty Norville series.

When I heard that Carrie Vaughn was coming to Galaxy for a signing, I visited her website and found an excerpt (click on the Werewolf Psychologist link and scroll down to ‘Dr. Kitty Solves All Your Love Problems’) that sold me on Kitty and the Midnight Hour, the first in her werewolf Kitty Norville series, which I liked so much, I glommed the rest of the series. This is a really good time to do that, with eight books published so far.

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