We have a winner!

First a giant thank you to everyone who entered our giveaway for Gregory Maguire's After Alice - we'll be having more contests, both here on the blog and over on our Instagram account, so follow us there for other fun stuff.

And now.....








Without further ado.......










We announce the winner.........









is.......












(are you annoyed yet?).......





Vicki!

Woohoo! We're so excited for you! You'll be getting an e-mail soon so we can get your mailing address and all that jazz and get the book in the mail for you.

Congratulations and happy reading!

Rory Says the Winners Are...

A giant thank you to all of our lovely readers for making everything we do on this blog worth it :)

And now (without further ado) we present...

The winners of the Blogoversary Extravaganza!!!!

Rory is excited.

So.... 

The winner of our Kool Kid/Terrific Teen Bundle is......

Martha!!!!

The winner of our Tantalizing Teen Titles Bundle is.....

Lisa!!!!

The winner of our Non-Fiction Novelties Bundle is......

Emi!!!!!

The winner of our Marvelous Mysteries Bundle is....

Sam P!!!!!

Yay! Congratulations to all the winners! You will be receiving e-mails soon so we can get address information and all that jazz :)

Blogoversary! Giveaways! Rory the Bookclub Cat!

Yesterday was our blogoversary! We can't believe we've been having fun sharing books and stories and experiences with you guys for a whole year. Even though the closing of Borders was sad and we would love to have our store back again, this blog is one good thing that's come out of it.

We never imagined that a book club/monthly get together to keep in contact would turn into something like this, but we are so glad it has. And we are so glad there are so many of you who have come along with us!

Rory came along right about the time the book club started and he's grown as much as our blog has! Check out the new tab up top to see all of his escapades!

To celebrate we have a whole bunch of fun stuff to give away. We corralled all the rest of our BEA goodies and put together 6 (yes, you read that right, 6!) fabulous book bundles - we've got a little something for any kind of reader.

So check out the bundles and then enter the contest below! You can enter just by answering our question in a comment on this post and letting us know which book bundle you've got your eye out. Then you can earn plenty of bonus entries by doing things like following us on Twitter or Facebook, spreading the word about the contest, or even making a video about what bookstores mean to you!

And check back over the next couple of weeks as we hope to have some updates on where some of our former booksellers are now, book reviews, and all the quirky fun you've come to expect of your lovable BWOBNY group :)

Kool Kid and Terrific Teen Bundle
includes the following:
How to Train Your Dragon Mix & Match book
Operative by Kate Kaynak
Vegas Tryout by Lorena Schultz Nicholson
STAT: Double Team by Amar'e Stoudemire
The No Dogs Allowed Rule by Kashmira Sheth
Assorted Swag

Tantalizing Teen Titles Bundle
includes the following:
Operative by Kate Kaynak
Skinny by Donna Cooner
Surviving High School by M. Doty
My Own Revolution by Carolyn Marsden
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Starting from Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow
Assorted Swag

Non-Fiction Novelties Bundle
includes the following:
Change Your Words, Change Your Life by Joyce Meyer
Does This Church Make Me Look Fat? by Rhoda Janzen
The World's Gone Crazy an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader
Buddy: How a Rooster Made Me a Family Man by Brian McGrory
Assorted Swag

Marvelous Mysteries Bundle
includes the following:
Live By Night by Dennis LeHane
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Beauty to Die For by Kim Alexis & Mindy Starns Clark
Schroder by Amity Gaige
The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
The Hollow Man by Oliver Harris
Assorted Swag

Fabulous Fiction Bundle
includes the following:
Zoo by James Patterson
Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
Oil by Jeff Nesbit
Murder by Moonlight by Vincent Zandri
Schroder by Amity Gaige
The Hollow Man by Oliver Harris
Assorted Swag

Riveting Romance Bundle
includes the following:
The Lost Prince by Selden Edwards
Wicked Pleasures by Penny Vincenzi
Does This Church Make Me Look Fat? by Rhoda Janzen
In Her Sights by Robin Perini
Diamond Dreams (autographed!) by Zuri Day
Courting Justice (autographed!) by Brenda Jackson
Sweet Southern Nights (autographed!) by Rochelle Alers
Assorted Swag

We're giving you plenty of time to spread the word and maybe even play with a video, so get going! Tell us how a bookstore impacted your life in the comments below!

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Vacation Reads! And a Winner!

I'm heading off to Virginia for a little R&R before school starts back up again and, as usual, I am packing way more books than I will ever have time to read. So here's a peek in my vacation book bag :)

This, btw, is a lame excuse for a post since I am actually working or driving all day Tuesday and don't know how much I'll be on line after that. But I know you forgive me anyway. At least I hope so.

First off I've got A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont. This was on the new shelf at my local library and I simply cannot resist any book that is related to Jane Eyre, which is one of my top 10 favorite books of all time. I'm about a quarter of the way through this one already and I'm really curious to see how it plays out.

Then I have Redshirts by John Scalzi. I've never read anything by him, but a premise that plays with the longest running gag in sci-fi history? As a Trekkie girl I felt I had no choice but to check this one out.

Next up is Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan. We got an ARC of this book when we were asked to take part in a blog hop for the release in September so check back for my review of this one.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi is going in the bag. I've already read it twice, but it's our book club book for the month, so Grammy T and I want to refresh our memory so we can add to the conversation.

Another book I've already read a good chunk of is Frozen by Mary Casanova. We got to meet her at BEA and she was super nice and explained how she stumbled across a local story that sparked the idea for the novel. Another one I'm itching to finish to see how everything comes together.

As I was poking around my bookshelf I came across Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow by Nathan Bransford. I can't believe I STILL haven't read this one! So that's coming along too.

And then I've got the series books that I bought, but haven't yet read and it's driving me crazy so I've got Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins, Timepiece by Myra McEntire, and Surrender by Elana Johnson.

Phew. I think that'll be enough to keep me busy. Oh! And don't forget that I've got to reread Shakespeare's Twelfth Night to brush up on for this coming semester.

So what are you reading on vacation? Anything I should add to my pile? All of the recommendations from the YA blog hop have been fantastic and a bunch of those are going on my TBR list for sure!

And speaking of the blog hop...

You're probably wondering who won our giveaway, aren't you?!

Well, I suppose we could tell you now.

The winner of the signed Witch & Wizard and the ARC of Angelfall

is....

Rabiah!!!!!!!!

Congratulations! Send us an e-mail at bwobny at gmail dot com with your address so we can send out your books! (um, so the books are at my house, so they won't go in the mail until after I get back from vacation, but they will go out soon. I promise!)

And if you didn't win we still want to thank you for stopping by and letting us know what you have been reading and liking us on Facebook and stuff. And we still have our Wee Free Men giveaway going on so if you are looking for another good read you could hop yourself over HERE to enter that one!

Happy Reading!

Young Adult Giveaway Hop ~ Signed Witch & Wizard + ARC of Angelfall

The fabulous Reading Teen and I'm a Reader Not a Writer are hosting this amazing blog hop where you have the chance to win books at every blog you go to! We are so excited to be a part of this and we have a great giveaway for you here :)

We live in the Newburgh area and very recently James Patterson came back to his hometown to speak at the library and do a book signing. So we managed to snag an autographed copy of the first book in his paranormal series Witch & Wizard for one of you lucky entrants!

Co-written with Gabrielle Charbonnet, Witch & Wizard is about brother and sister Whit and Wisty who find out quite suddenly that their parents have been keeping some pretty big secrets: mainly that the two siblings are a witch and a wizard. And on top of that The New Order has decided their whole family is its biggest threat. If Whit and Wisty can figure out how their powers work and who they can trust, The New Order just might be right.

ClaireBear absolutely loved this book and raved over it from the moment she read it. She's been working fifteen hour days at her day job, but we hope to have a fuller review of the book later this week so check back for that :)

But wait! There's more!

We're also giving away an advance reader's copy of Susan Ee's Angelfall. I (Rebecca T) picked this up at BEA and devoured it pretty quickly. It's a sort of dystopian/fantasy/Supernatural (the TV show that is) mix that was intense, engaging, and just overall a really enjoyable read.

Penryn is trying to survive the apocalypse with her little sister, Paige, who is in a wheelchair and a mother who probably belongs in a mental hospital rather than roaming the war torn streets. When Paige is kidnapped by angels Penryn finds herself with an unlikely ally and a burning desire to do anything it takes to get her sister back. Ee develops the characters and relationships really well. Penryn is a kick butt heroine with a legitimate (if bizarre) reason for being well trained in self-defense and quite a bit of offense and the adventure never lets up.

This book is available in both print and e-book format and you can check out Ee's website HERE where there are also links to buy the book!

So how do you win these fantabulous books? Simply leave a comment on this post telling us a good book you read recently (this is the only mandatory part and we love to hear from our readers!) and enter the Rafflecopter form (where you have other options to increase your chances if you so choose) so we can get hold of you when the contest ends! This contest is open to anyone in the US and ends at midnight EST on August 14th.
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And here are the other blogs taking part in the blog hop too!

July Book Club: Wee Free Men, winner of Insurgent AND another giveaway!

NaomiRuth has been asking us to read Terry Pratchett ever since she discovered him a few months ago, so this month we went with Wee Free Men.

Tiffany is an ordinary nine year old. She enjoys making cheeses in her family's dairy, likes walking by the river, loves to learn, and is annoyed by her little brother, Wentworth. So when monsters appear in the river and little blue men start popping up all over the place, stealing sheep and speaking in riddles, Tiffany isn't quite sure what to do. Except smack the monster with a frying pan and look for answers at the travelling school that has come to town. When Wentworth is kidnapped by the fey, it's up to Tiffany to rescue him. Fortunately she joins forces with the Nac Mac Feegles - the tiny blue kilt wearing, sword wielding, ale drinking warriors that have claimed her as their kelda. Journeying into Fairyland and through a web of nightmares and dreams Tiffany has to draw on every bit of ingenuity and knowledge she possesses to survive.

Want to own it?
Barnes & Noble
Books-a-Million
Chapters
Find an Indie Bookstore
Enter our contest below!

What we thought about the book!

Eileen: I thoroughly enjoyed Wee Free Men. Although the book was published for children it has excellent storytelling that appeals to all ages. The unusual mixture of humor, fright, and satire will definitely keep me reading more Terry Pratchett.

Rebecca T: I really had fun reading this book. The Nac Mac Feegles are probably one of my new favorite fictional creatures. The dialect was fun and gave them real personality and I just loved all of the little details. Tiffany was developed well and behaved as a mature nine year old might, if you were a young witch thrown into the middle of Fairyland. I loved her hunger for words and knowledge and how do you not appreciate someone whose weapon of choice is a frying pan?!

And now I'm sure you are wondering who won the copy of Insurgent aren't you? After a bit of a delay (sorry about that!) the winner is

*drumroll please*

Martha! You'll be getting an e-mail from us soon or you can contact us at bwobny at gmail dot com so we can get your information and send you your book :D

AND we inadvertently ended up with an extra copy of Wee Free Men! So if you're curious about Terry Pratchett or the Nac Mac Feegles you could get a copy here! Winner will be announced with our next Book Club post.a Rafflecopter giveaway

The hardcover cover on the left
and the paperback cover
Aren't they gorgeous!

Next month we'll be reading Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me. Rebecca T and Rachelyons are SUPER excited to see what everyone else thinks about this book!

Extended Contest and a Book About Friends

Due to the sudden Insanity of my Life, I will be extending the contest from last week until next Thursday. If you like R.L. Stine run on over HERE and enter. (After you read this review, of course.)

Today I will be reviewing another book I picked up at BEA (one of the ones we picked up at the booth that gave us CUPCAKES) (That is not why I am reviewing this book.) (Though, I am not entirely against being bribed by cupcakes.) The book is Friends: Snake and Lizard, put out originally by Gecko Press (which is AUSTRALIAN and NEW ZEALANDAN which is AWESOME, and then put out by Lerner Publishing for us Americans and Canadians. It was written by Joy Cowley (her website is HERE) and was illustrated by Gavin Bishop (find out more about him HERE). It is the second book about Snake and Lizard. I have not read the first one yet, but I most definitely will.

Friends: Snake and Lizard was a whole lot of fun to read. It reminded me a little bit of those books like Mouse Soup, and Frog and Toad, and Owl at Home, which is the way animal stories should be told. I like very few stories with animals as the main characters. I don't know why. Especially dog stories. BUT, in this book the animals were in Australia, and they were fun to read about. It's a collection of short stories about these two friends and how they try to help the other animals around them. They are ridiculous (in a good way). They argue, and learn from each other, and are just a little bit sneaky. The illustrations are a perfect touch to the short stories. If you have a chance, definitely pick up this book!

Also: this was one of my favorite quotes in the book, which is also featured on the back of the book:

"I absolutely LOVE eggs!" Snake said. "You know that."
Lizard replied, "You mean you like eggs. We do not use the word love for food."
"I do."
"Love," said Lizard, "is a word for relationships, not for things. You can't have a relationship with your dinner."
"I can," Snake replied.

Have a FANTASTIC week, enter the CONTEST if you haven't yet, and if there are any middle grade books you want reviewed LET ME KNOW in the comments below. Check back next week for the winners and for a review on a picture book.

RL Stine: Review and Book Give Away!

Hello, Down Unders! (And those not-as-under). Later I will be giving away two books by RL Stine, but first! The review!

I did not grow up reading RL Stine. I kind of skipped over a lot of middlge grade, which is one of the reasons why I love reading them now that I'm a little bit older. So last year I read one, and wasn't too excited. I had been able to guess the ending and I was a little bit bored.

Then I went to BEA and picked up two books by RL Stine to giveaway on the blog, so, of course, I had to read them first. The first one I read was ZombieTown, which was part of a series he wrote back in like, the fifties, but they are now being re-issued by AmazonPublishing. It was short, fun, and easy to get through. After reading this one and keeping in mind the first book I read of his, it reminded me a little bit of a bag of surprise flavor candy. They're enjoyable, they're quick, and they're just enough of the creepy.

The second book was the Wanted: The Haunted Mask book. I enjoyed this one the best. The book is divided into three sections, the first about an old man, the second about a young girl who gets stuck inside a mask that takes over her personality (terrifying to think about), and the third is about a young boy living out in a pumpkin farm. I loved how everything was twined together, and how the three stories came together in the end. I liked the characters. I especially liked the pumpkin one. It reminded me of JT Petty's book, The Squampkin Patch, which I'll be reviewing at a later date. The book was a lot of fun.

For kids looking for a bit of a scare and a good thrill, I most definitely recommend RL Stine. PLUS he has like a bazillion of them, so if you like him you have a lot to choose from and you don't have to worry as much about being sad when they're all over.

NOW for the giveaway details. I will be giving away both of these books. There will be two winners. The first will win the ZombieTown book, and the second drawn will win the Wanted: The Haunted Mask one. To enter fill out the form from Rafflecopter AND in the comments share something bizarre that you were scared of when you were little. Or. Not so little. Especially the weird ones (if you feel so inclined). OR, if you weren't scared of anything bizarre when you were little, leave a comment of something EXTREMELY WEIRD that you are glad you were never afraid of.

This is for fun and a judge-free zone. To prove to you that I don't care how bizarre your fears are I will share with you something I am STILL afraid of TO THIS DAY. Ahem. Ready? I am afraid of mustaches flying off of men's faces and attacking me. For reals. I am not making this up. I still am. I blame it all on Robin WIlliams. When I saw his face I just knew his mustache was going to jump off and attack me and I have been terrified of bushy mustaches ever since. IT IS HORRIBLE.

TERRIFYING. Apparently they have mustache CONTESTS. *faints*

I found this terrifying picture HERE where there are mustaches ready to kill people EVERYWHERE.

The contest will be open starting now until Wednesday at midnight. Feel free to tell your friends!

THIS CONTEST HAS BEEN EXTENDED AN EXTRA WEEK! Yay! *throws sparkles* It will now end at midnight on July 4th.

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Spring Into the Future Recap AND Giveaway!

Rebecca, Jenn, Rachel
Posing in front of the display!

On Sunday, Rebecca, Jenn, and Rachel met up and took the train into New York to go to the Spring Into the Future book signing at Books of Wonder. We were so excited to get to meet these fabulous authors!

Tahereh Mafi was signing her novel Shatter Me, Anna Carey was signing her novel Eve, Veronica Rossi was signing her novel Under the Never Sky and special guest Lauren Oliver was specifically touring for Pandemonium the sequel to her dystopian Delirium. It was definitely a dystopian bunch and it was great to hear them weigh in on why they write about the end of the world and why they think the genre has gotten so popular.

First off, Books of Wonder is the cutest little book store ever. And all those kids books had the three of us practically drooling. We each said "ooh! I should get this!" about 4,000 times. Unfortunately we could not buy that many books, but we managed to spend a bit more than we probably should have anyway.

Delicious burger and fries!

We got there pretty early and managed to get good tickets. Jenn was 007, which made us all dorkily happy. After grabbing lunch at a yummy burger place we returned and found a spot of floor where we had a good view of the table. It also happened to be at a spot where we could see into the back room where the authors were waiting and it was really tempting to just act nonchalant and wander back there and then fangirl. But we didn't want to get thrown out, so.....

The Authors! (and emcee - whose name I cannot remember! eek!)
L to R Lauren Oliver, Anna Carey, Tahereh Mafi, Veronica Rossi

Tahereh and Veronica

Anna and Tahereh - and Lauren's ear :)

Each of the authors read a snippet from their book, which was really fun and then they did a Q&A. These women are hilarious.

We found out that Tahereh would like to be her antagonist, Warner, for a day, even though it would be awkward... since he's a boy, that Anna Carey loves reading survival manuals so she will be able to take care of herself during the apocalypse,

Lauren

Anna, Tahereh, Veronica

that Veronica Rossi once lost her sketchbook on a plane (I think it was) and it got returned to her, but she was miserable for the month it was missing, and that Lauren Oliver is all for using boys as slave labor.

We got SWAG!
Showing off our Shatter Me necklaces :D

We also learned that, while we may act like crazy adolescent girls, we are not and sitting cross-legged on the floor for so long is not a pleasant experience anymore. Yes, we were the ones staggering to our feet and trying to work circulation back into our legs when the Q&A was over :)

It was really nice to talk to each of the authors during the signing and how giddy were we over Tahereh's swag?!

AND, because we're super nice, we even snagged a signed copy for one of our lucky followers! Jenn also picked up an extra one of the Spring Into the Future tour posters, plus we're throwing in a Hunger Games bookmark. We would have loved to give away a book from each author, but it just wasn't feasible this time, so we had to choose one. And since Rebecca found out about the tour because of Tahereh, we decided to give away a copy of Shatter Me!

Here's what we thought of the book (we'll stay clear of spoilers for you!):

Jenn N: Tahereh does a wonderful job of putting you inside the mind of Juliette. You feel her the fear and confusion of her wrongful imprisonment right along with her. When Juliette learns to fight back, you'll be just as dazed and amazed as she was. Tahereh also does a great job of layering her characters - can Adam really be trusted? Is Warner truly evil? Read this book and decide for yourself.

Rebecca T: Juliette is an outcast a menace to society a lonely, broken, seventeen year old girl. She can't touch anyone because of her curse gift and now the Reestablishment wants to exploit utilize her talent. So Juliette has to fight for her life, for freedom, for love, and for the very soul of humanity that is being destroyed. With characters that live vibrantly on the page and in your mind, a premise that's intense and a little too real, and a style that will suck you into the story and not let go, this is a book you don't want to miss.

Claire: Such a good book. I thought that the crossing out would bother me at first, but the more I read, it was either the less I noticed or maybe the more it helped. Either way it was so different from anything I have read. So good!

Rachel: This book was a breath of dystopian fresh air. I was prepared for another fluffy YA book but found a love story that made my bones ache and an adventure that made my heart race. Tahereh was so inspirational and approachable and I feel privileged to have met her.

Stay tuned - You could very well see some reviews of the other books from the tour once we've had a chance to read and think about them! For now you can check out Stacey's review of Lauren Oliver's Delirium, the first book in the series!

To enter you just have to leave a comment on this post, letting us know what extra power you would want to have, and fill out the Rafflecopter so we can contact you if you win! (In some views there is a "view more" link below - you'll have to click on this to view the Rafflecopter and to enter the contest) This is our first time using Rafflecopter so if there are any problems please let us know! There are also chances for extra entries :) We love all our readers, but we have to limit this drawing to the US and Canada for shipping reasons. The contest will run through the end of the month - April 30th - and we'll announce the winners during our May 1st Laydown Lowdown! May the odds be ever in your favor! (oh wait, wrong book!)

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