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By: Sharon Ledwith,
on 2/1/2016
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Sharon Ledwith: I came. I saw. I wrote.
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What does Groundhog Day and Candlemas (a.k.a. Imbolc) have in common? Besides being celebrated on February 2nd, it’s also my birthday! And what better way to kick off the month of February than to have a Goodreads Giveaway for both my books, The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis, and the prequel to my young adult time travel series, Legend of the Timekeepers. It’s just one way I can thank my readers yearly, as well as give back to the reading community of Goodreads. Thank you, readers, I wouldn’t be doing what I love without you!
So here’s a little information about Candlemas/Imbolc and Groundhog Day, straight from the pages of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft (Second Edition):
“Imbolc (pronounced IM-bolk), which is often called Candlemas, is the time when Wiccans celebrate the renewing fertility of the Earth. The Goddess is seen as recovering from childbirth, and the God is a small child. This is also the time of ‘fire in the belly.’ There is the feeling that spring is coming, but a certain restlessness or cabin fever can set in. This can also be the bleakest time of the year when we start to fear that spring will never arrive. It’s no coincidence that many people celebrate Groundhog Day on this date. What is Groundhog Day but a way to let Nature reassure us that spring really will come? Sometimes, even though it is still cold, you can see early buds on trees on this date. This is another way that Nature reminds us to hang on; life is getting ready to burst forth.
Imbolc, a Greater Sabbat, is a time to celebrate with seeds, or with a newly germinating idea. Some covens like to initiate new members at this time of year. Imbolc is a holiday of purification and of the renewed fertility of the Earth. It’s a great time for some early spring cleaning, too. Get rid of the things you don’t need. Get ready for the spring season to come.”
Whatever day you choose to celebrate, here’s hoping for a short winter and early spring, so this Groundhog gal can shed her winter jacket for some lighter clothes! And if the groundhog energy moves you, please enter my Goodreads Giveaways below for a chance to win one of my autographed time travel tales. Cheers and thank you for reading my blog!
By: Shelley Workinger,
on 1/1/2016
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But What Are They Eating?
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Ah, yes. A new year means new resolutions (or goals, amibitions, false promises - whatever you choose to call them).
I have all the standard personal betterment aims: more time with family, exercise, sleep, veggies...you get the idea. Heck, it's your idea, too!
I also make all the usual writer pledges: I will finish one (at least!) of my pending manuscripts, launch it to the literary masses and sell a gazillion copies, etc., etc., etc.
But, as readers, I'm sure you're really only interested in my TBR list for 2016. In the spirit of full disclosure-ship, I admit that I do not believe I will summit this mountain of text. However, if I can manage to carve out even a third of the great book behemoth, I am planting a flag in my front yard. Or perhaps my
back yard, right by the spot where a new hammock should go to help me devour more delicious reads in 2017. ;)
Here's the list I've put together in the past 10 minutes:
Jeremy Bates - White LiesRobin Benway - Emmy & OliverCarin Berger - The Little Yellow LeafKate Jarvik Birch - PerfectedCynthia Blair - The Banana Split AffairKiera Cass - The HeirSandra Cisneros - The House on Mango StreetLisa Colozza Cocca - ProvidenceJames Dashner - The Journal of Curious LettersRichard P. Denney - A Girl's Guide to Falling in Love with a ZombieRachel DeWoskin - BlindAnita Diamant - The Red TentAnthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot SeeKathleen Duey - Sacred ScarsAlexandra Duncan - SalvageKate Forsyth - Bitter GreensE.R. Frank - DimeNeil Gaiman - The Graveyard BookBen Goldacre - Bad ScienceS.A. Harazin - PainlessCharlaine Harris - Dead Until DarkE.K. Johnston - A Thousand NightsMindy Kaling - Why Not Me?Clinton Kelly - Oh No She Didn'tJessi Kirby - Things We Know By HeartDarragh McKeon - All That Is Solid Melts Into AirRichelle Mead - SoundlessSusan Meissner - Secrets of a Charmed LifeFaye Meredith - Becoming EdwardStephenie Meyer - Life and DeathChristiana Miller - Somebody Tell Aunt Millie She's DeadEmma Mills - First & ThenBeth Moore - The Law of LovePaula Morris - RuinedMike Resnick - Witch FantasticCelia Rivenbark - You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start in the MorningDonald Rumsfeld - Known and UnknownSarah Elizabeth Schantz - FigRobin Schneider - Extraordinary MeansBen Sherwood - The Survivors ClubJackie Lea Sommers - TruestJoann Sowles - LaneyJames M. Tabor - Frozen SolidSabaa Tahir - An Ember in the AshesSuzanne Weyn - The Bar Code TattooNicola Yoon - Everything, Everything
By: Vikram,
on 6/12/2015
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The Official BookBuzzr Blog
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CoverMatcher is a simple game of matching book covers and has found a loyal following among book reviewers and bloggers. To date, the game has been played 835,201 times by avid readers.
I absolutely love playing CoverMatcher on Freado! It’s a great way to unwind after a stressful day, and unlike most games it has real prizes instead of virtual prizes! I love the selection of books available, and have been able to bid on books everyone in my family will enjoy – Teresa Delaney
Now based on the feedback that power readers like you have provided, we’ve taken CoverMatcher to a whole new level of awesome. You can now win, not just the best-seller that we list on the page, but also use the nifty search feature to hunt through Amazon’s book lists and select a book of your choice.
In case you’ve had your nose stuck in a book for the last few years and don’t know what CoverMatcher is …
CoverMatcher is a game where you can win a hard copy of your favorite best seller (priced $15 or less) by simply matching the most number of book covers in a day. We show the books of our participating authors in the game. The game is a form of advertising for them. As you play the game, you land up discovering new books. It’s a win for you. A win for our authors. And a win for us. Even if you don’t win the contest of the day, you will still enjoy the mental exercise and potential exposure to your next great read. Try it.
An eight-year-old Canadian girl has been asked to stop reading books on the school bus, after the driver told her that it could be harmful to other kids.
How is reading harmful? The bus driver claims that other students might want to see what she is reading and stand up or that she might get hurt herself if the corner of the book pokes her in the eye.
Her father complained. CBC News Montreal has the scoop:
The no-reading rule is not sitting well with her father, Daniel Abel. Abel says he’s proud of his daughter for loving to read, and wants to encourage her to do so as often as possible.
The board responded to the complaint, admitting that reading is not dangerous. However, they said that school bus rules are up to the driver.
How are libraries evolving to serve the public of the digital revolution? A number of these institutions are focusing on providing services for the homeless.
Here’s more from The Huffington Post: “In this digital age, many people who used to depend on libraries can find what they need online without leaving home. Menaced by budget cuts, many public libraries are effectively failing to justify their relevance, reducing their hours year after year. At the same time, libraries are more important than ever to people who can’t otherwise get connected: Nearly two-thirds provide the only free computer and Internet access in their communities, according to the American Library Association.”
The Nashville public library branches hosts drop-in hours where patrons can seek help from city social workers and mental health counselors. The Pima County libraries of Arizona receives regular visits from public health nurses; they perform blood pressure check-ups and counsel those who may require more medical attention. The Queens Public Library of New York City has developed a mobile phone application so people can access serves for emergency food, shelter, and legal assistance.
You bet they do! Authors know what buttons to push.
By ‘what buttons to push’ I mean what buttons do authors use to manipulate (yep, being honest) their readers’ emotions, to get them on side with the characters in their books. For example, perhaps the author creates unlikeable, evil antagonists and emphasizes the sterling qualities of his protagonists.
The most obvious ploy is the ticking clock. It not only lends urgency but it yanks the reader along at a rush, keeping him intrigued.
Then there’s characterization. Of course in this dynamic world, what worked ten years ago may not have the same appeal in 2014. The innocent 1960s virgin, so prevalent in romances of that time, would drive a reader from 2014 to drink. We are much more cynical, well-informed and downright demanding than we were then. Historically though, some classics retain their appeal because they are much more than the sum of their characters’ emotions. To Kill A Mockingbird’s racial tensions are still not outmoded today, and that lazy description of the syrupy south’s inbred attitudes is not far from the truth in some out-of-the-way places. And that is why books like these are classics. They endure not just because of the characters in the books but because of the settings and historical attitudes. And Harper Lee manipulated the readers’ emotions. Think of the way she pushes Scout’s lack of desire to be a ‘lady’ so that the reader is on Scout’s side.
Perhaps today’s writers manipulate the readers in more subtle ways. What of Dick Francis’s heroes who are often of the working class up against a criminal upper class or just up against class bigotry where he is on the outside looking in? Dick Francis does that so well that even if the protagonist is not your usual Everyman, the reader is still very much on his side. That’s right. The modern protagonist need not be a perfect hero as he has been in novels and movies of the past. Some have patchy backgrounds and they’ve made mistakes.
There’s Lee Child’s Jack Reacher who thrums a string in every male heart. They all want to be Jack with his freedom and lack of possessions but with an innate sense of responsibility. And of course Jack has been in the military and knows how to handle himself in vicious situations. Every man’s dream. There are a lot of wannabe Jacks out there. And Lee knows how to manipulate those readers.
Tami Hoag’s heroines are believably imperfect. They make mistakes and have hang-ups that readers can empathise with and they frequently have to form alliances with people they don’t trust. There’s that little brush of reality that lends credence to the stories.
So…empathy and sympathy are the buttons. And the harder those buttons are pushed by authors and movie makers, the more a reader/viewer becomes invested in the characters. We need to see how the protagonists get themselves out of a bind, or if the evil antagonists get their come-uppance. And the best books of all are where you know darned well that the author is pushing your buttons, but you just don’t care. The book is so good! ~Vonnie
Vonnie Hughes is a multi-published author in both Regency books and contemporary suspense. She loves the intricacies of the social rules of the Regency period and the far-ranging consequences of the Napoleonic Code. And with suspense she has free rein to explore forensic matters and the strong convolutions of the human mind. Like many writers, some days she hates the whole process, but somehow she just cannot let it go.
Vonnie was born in New Zealand, but she and her husband now live happily in Australia. If you visit Hamilton Gardens in New Zealand be sure to stroll through the Japanese Garden. These is a bronze plaque engraved with a haiku describing the peacefulness of that environment. The poem was written by Vonnie.
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Annie Holmquist over at BetterEd.org dug up the curriculum manual from a 1908 middle school reading list to compare it with modern reading lists.
She compared the 1908 document, which she uncovered in the Minnesota Historical Society archives, with a reading list for 7th and 8th graders from one of the Twin Cities’ best school district’s curriculum for this year.
In comparing the two lists, she identified three major difference in the reading lists: the time period, the themes and the reading level. For example, students today read more current selections, and 100 years ago they read more books that were at least 20 years old at the time. In addition, she identified that today young readers are given books with more familiar casual language and have less to dissect. (more…)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Percy Jackson series author Rick Riordan has unveiled a list of his favorite books that he read in 2014.
Riordan confesses that he reads “a wide mix of books. Some are middle grade, some YA, some adult, some fiction and some nonfiction.”
Riordan listed 21 titles in a blog post including Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky, The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber, and City of Bones (the Mortal Instruments series) by Cassandra Clare. What do you think?
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
What resolutions will you be making for the new year? The Book Riot team has issued the “2015 Read Harder Challenge.”
Bibliophiles are tasked with completing a series of 24 different tasks such as reading a book written by a person under the age of 25, reading a book that takes place in Asia, and reading a book that was originally published in another language. Participants can discuss their progress by sharing the #ReadHarder hashtag on social media and joining the “Read Harder Challenge” Goodreads group.
(more…)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
If your New Year’s resolution involves increasing your reading in 2015, you may want to consider taking on a reading challenge. Kindred Digital Books has created a challenge.
The challenge includes reading a Mark Twain novel, reading a banned book and reading a National Book Award winner, among other things. Kindred Digital Books is open to feedback on the list. Check it out: “Let me know any authors I should’ve included! Also, please let me know what you think is wrong with the list. When referring to the list, we ask you use the phrase “no, THAT list.” If, at any point, you feel as though the integrity of The List has been comprised, send us a tweet @kindredbooks!”
We’ve embedded their entire challenge after the jump. (more…)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Lisa Simpson is pretty well read for an 8 year-old cartoon character.
According to the Lisa Simpson Book Club on Goodreads, the animated character has read 63 books including: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis; The Bonfire of the Vanities
by Tom Wolfe and Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
BuzzFeed has taken this data to create a quiz to help you see how many books on Lisa’s list you have read yourself.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Thirteen year-old Shubham Banerjee has built a braille printer out of a robotic Lego kit to help blind readers print out texts to read.
The project has gotten a lot of attention and even earned investment from Intel. PBS News Hour tells the story in the above video.
(Via PBS).
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
The Onion’s A.V. Club has revealed its list of best books of the year list.
Titles on the list include: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell; The Martian by Andy Weir; Wolf In White Van by John Darnielle; Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyeyemi; and An Untamed State by Roxane Gay.
Here is more about how they came up with the list:
As usual, The A.V. Club invited our regular books writers to pick their favorite titles released in 2014. Since very few of our contributors read the same list of books each year, a ballot system doesn’t work as well. Here is a list of our 2014 book recommendations, from reviewed favorites to unsung gems. And don’t forget to vote for your favorite reads of the year in our readers’ poll.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Teens may be tech savvy, but they still prefer print books, according to new research from Nielsen.
In fact, according to the report, this demographic is less likely to buy an eBook than older readers. Twenty percent of teens reported that they would buy eBooks, less than the 25 percent of 30-44 year olds and 23 percent of 18-29 year olds that buy eBooks. Here is more from the Nielsen blog:
Several factors may play a role in teens’ tendency toward printed publications. Parents’ preference for print could have an effect or teens’ lack of credit cards for online purchases. But another explanation may be teens’ penchant for borrowing and sharing books rather than purchasing them, which is easier to do in print. Over half of teens are still looking for books on library or bookstore shelves. And in-store browsing is about level with browsing online for this group.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Bill Gates has unveiled a list of his favorite books that he read in 2014.
Some of the titles were not published this year because “sometimes I fall behind and don’t get to a book until well after it’s been published.” Gates’ five picks include Business Adventures by John Brooks, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, How Asia Works by Joe Studwell, The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion, and Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization by Vaclav Smil.
Here’s an excerpt from Gates’ blog post: “I didn’t really plan it this way. But as I look at the list of the best books I read this year, I see how a number of them touch on economics and business. That’s fitting, in a year when Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century put a big spotlight on inequality. In addition, with the Asian economies so much in the news, I wanted to read How Asia Works, which promised to explain why some of the continent’s countries grew so fast while others languished. And I got to brush up on an old favorite, the best business book I’ve ever read.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Have you ever given a book suggestion to a significant other? Food writer Helen Rosner posted an essay on Buzzfeed about recommending books to a romantic partner.
Rosner (pictured, via) talks about how this particular act can create great intimacy for couples. She feels that the books an individual enjoys can say so much about their personality. Here’s an excerpt:
“Finding someone whose favorite books move me inherently — and not just because I love him — has been one of the greatest, deepest, most unanticipated pleasures of my life. And so a year ago I revisited Jane Eyre (my copy, as it happens, given to me as a gift by an earnest litigator who desperately wanted to impress me with his appreciation for Brontë) and took my cue from the book’s best line: Reader, I married him.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Feeling a bit tense and anxious? Perhaps picking up a coloring book may be the solution.
Many psychologists recommend that adults cast aside the notion that only children should color. These experts theorize that “when we focus on a particular activity, we focus on it and not on our worries.” According to The Huffington Post, “the practice generates wellness, quietness and also stimulates brain areas related to motor skills, the senses and creativity.”
A number of publishers throughout Europe and North America have released these types of books for adult readers. Some of these publications have become bestsellers in France and the United Kingdom. What do you think?
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
550 dressed up Jane Austen fans came together for a Guiness World Record-breaking event during the Jane Austen Festival.
Organizers claim that this group has become the largest gathering of people dressed in Regency costume. The current record stands at 491 people. The event took place outside of the Assembly Rooms in Bath, Somerset.
Here’s more from The Telegraph: “When the announcement was made, cheers were heard around the tea rooms inside the Assembly Rooms, with the town crier calling out the results…Every year, thousands of people flock to the city from all over the world for the event, coming from over Europe and even as far as America. The event was part of the 10 day festival’s programme of activities which is a big tourist attraction in the city.” What do you think?
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Read on Wattpad - Serialized Novel
From September 11, 2014 - October 30, 2014.
Read one chapter/day.
Click on cover to read the first five chapters.
I am going to be serializing my novel, VAGABONDS: An American Fantasy, on Wattpad for the next 50 days.
Why Wattpad
Wattpad is a social media platform for readers and writers. Writers post stories and readers comment.
That’s almost enough reason right there to be on Wattpad:it’s a place where readers and writers connect.
The latest statistics say that 16.9 million readers find time to read at least 30 minutes/visit on Wattpad. These are not casual, glance at your website and five seconds later, they click off. When a reader finds a story that interests them, they read. They engage. They comment and vote up. Some call this the “YouTube of Writing.” Popular titles can have over 10M reads and more than 10,000 comments. WOW!
Science fiction, YA, and Fantasy. Over 20 genres are represented on Wattpad, but the most popular categories are science fiction, YA, and fantasy. VAGABONDS definitely fits the popular genre of fantasy, and should have appeal to teen readers. I describe it as a “Watership Down with armadillos.”
The platform provides statistics on how many people read each chapter. In other words, if you have a 50 chapter book and you lose readers after chapter 23–you have valuable feedback on when and where you went askew in your story.
2014 has been a year of experimentation for me. I’ve tried multiple ways to connect my books with the right readers and this seems like a reasonable thing to try. I’ll report in November how the month went. In the meantime–go to Wattpad and read the six chapters. Vote it up!
Reading a print book is better for comprehension than reading on a computer, according to a new report out of Norway.
Researchers from at the Reading Centre of the The University of Stavanger conducted a study on a group of 10th graders and formed this conclusion. For the study, students were divided into two groups — those reading books and those reading on computers. Both groups were given the same two texts, one fiction and one nonfiction. After they read the text, the students were quizzed for comprehension. Those that read print books did better on the tests than those that read on computers, even when accounting for their reading skills and vocabulary going into the study.
Why? The researchers concluded that reading print texts helps the brain form mental maps. ScienceNordic.com has more: (more…)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Ralph Lauren has initiated a Children’s Literacy Program.
According to the press release, the company executives have produced a “Literacy Capsule Collection” which includes t-shirts, a journal, a tote and bag charm. Buyers can choose from two different t-shirts; the limited edition one showcases a “runway sketch” and the other features “a new Polo Pony designed to promote childhood literacy in 12 languages.”
The company plans to release these items for sale starting in late August. The On Our Minds blog reports that “25% of the purchase price from items in the Literacy Capsule Collection will be donated to Reach Out and Read in the United States, with up to 100,000 books fulfilled by Scholastic.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
What is Bill Gates‘ favorite business book? Business Adventures by John Brooks, a 1960s collection of New Yorker stories which profiles different companies.
Warren Buffett recommended the book to Gates back in 1991, and Gates says that the book is still relevant today. He reviewed the out-of-print title in The Wall Street Journal today, pointing out that while business times may have changed, human nature has not.
Here is an excerpt: “Unlike a lot of today’s business writers, Brooks didn’t boil his work down into pat how-to lessons or simplistic explanations for success. (How many times have you read that some company is taking off because they give their employees free lunch?) You won’t find any listicles in his work. Brooks wrote long articles that frame an issue, explore it in depth, introduce a few compelling characters and show how things went for them.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab have invented a tool that makes it easier for visually-impaired people to print read books. The FingerReader is a ring-like tool that these readers can wear to help them read printed text.
Here is more about how it works from the MIT Media Lab website: “Wearers scan a text line with their finger and receive an audio feedback of the words and a haptic feedback of the layout: start and end of line, new line, and other cues. The FingerReader algorithm knows to detect and give feedback when the user veers away from the baseline of the text, and helps them maintain a straight scanning motion within the line.”
We’ve embedded a video demo of how it works after the jump. (more…)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll are among books that have been given a new life in London this summer. The National Literacy Trust in Britain has developed a public art project that commemorates 50 books in an new and innovative way: as public benches.
The project is called Books about Town. Artists have been asked to adapt famous books into benches which have been placed throughout the city. The “BookBenches” project is designed to encourage reading. Readers can find four different literary maps of these sculptures online and use them to guide their literary treasure hunts. The routes include: Greenwich Trail, Bloomsbury Trail, City Trail and Riverside Trail.
The exhibition is up through September 15th.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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“Imbolc (pronounced IM-bolk), which is often called Candlemas, is the time when Wiccans celebrate the renewing fertility of the Earth. The Goddess is seen as recovering from childbirth, and the God is a small child. This is also the time of ‘fire in the belly.’ There is the feeling that spring is coming, but a certain restlessness or cabin fever can set in. This can also be the bleakest time of the year when we start to fear that spring will never arrive. It’s no coincidence that many people celebrate Groundhog Day on this date. What is Groundhog Day but a way to let Nature reassure us that spring really will come? Sometimes, even though it is still cold, you can see early buds on trees on this date. This is another way that Nature reminds us to hang on; life is getting ready to burst forth.
