Sunday Salon ~ May 3rd, 2009

Hotels, limbo and waiting.  They all suck when combined like they are for us.  We are staying in a hotel while waiting in limbo to fly back to the states in a little over a week from now.  I have been doing a lot of reading, both of review books and book blogs, watching CNN out of Hong Kong, renting The Tudors Season 2 as well as The Other Boleyn Girl and eating out for almost every meal.  (I feel very full.) 

I read/reviewed/posted an author Q&A and am hosting a giveaway (enter by Wednesday, May 6th @ Midnight EST HERE) of Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland and am now reading Belong To Me by Marisa De los Santos for review.  I enjoyed Mistress of the Sun and am finding that Belong To Me is just fabulous. 

Of course I am spending too much time browsing the Internet while in the hotel.  Rocky sometimes gets jealous that I pay so much attention to the one eyed monster and brings over a toy to play or lays in my lap to distract me.  I just searched author events in the DC area and am  excited about what I found.  If you live in the DC Metro area there are some awesome author events coming up. 

The following authors will be reading and signing their new books at the Baileys Crossroads Borders:

~ Michael Connelly on May 26th @ 7:30 pm

~ George Pelecanos on June 3rd @ 7:30 pm

~ Jeffrey Deaver on June 22nd @ 7:30 pm

~ David Sedaris on June 26th @ 7:30 pm

Emeril Lagasse will be at the Tyson’s Corner Borders on June 6th @ 2 pm for a signing event, and the event I might just be the most excited about is Annie Barrows, co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society, will be at the Tyson’s Corner Barnes & Noble on June 10th @ 7 pm. 

I am also looking forward to taking some cooking classes at the Sur La Table store at Pentagon Row and learning some new recipes and techniques.  We are also planning on attending a few concerts at Nissan Pavilion and Wolf Trap.   It will be a busy, fun filled and exciting summer and I am ready to dive in with both feet.  What are you looking forward to doing this summer? 

 

You Can Mail That Book To…

During the two weeks that I was in the States last month, I received ARC’s from authors and publicists at four addresses.  My FPO, AP military address, my Japanese address, my in-law’s house in Virginia and my parents house in Maryland.  The stack I accumulated from these packages was added to by the shopping I did at Borders and Barnes & Noble. 

One day I spent two and a half blissful hours all by my self, just browsing the shelves at the White Flint Borders in Rockville, MD.  I worked as a music seller and then the store’s Corporate Accounts Representative from August 1997 to August 1998 so that store holdstons of sentimental value and memories for me.  It really was one of the best jobs I have ever had and the friends that I made while working there have remained in my life ever since.  You know who you are.

One thing I noticed while looking for books on my wish list was the amount of titles that faced out on the shelves are either books I have read and loved, are on my ARC TBR shelf (I’m a little late on reading/reviewing some), or have graced the pages of this blog as well as your book blogs.   As I started to recognize more and more books I decided to write down all the titles to share with you here.  Also, at the end of the list is a pic of my stack I accumulated in two weeks.

The Painter From Shanghai

Pillars of the Earth 

Baby Proof

Water for Elephants

Matrimony

Between Here & April

My Best Friend’s Girl

Man of the House

My Husband’s Sweethearts

The Last Summer of You and Me

The Summer of Naked Swim Parties

Boomsday

One Fifth Avenue

The Gargoyle

The Red Tent

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water

The 19th Wife

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Dewey

Bitter Sweets

Middlesex

The Historian

Free Food For Millionaires

House & Home

The Reading Group

The New Yorkers

Time of My Life

American Wife

Immortal

The Art of Racing in the Rain

Just Breathe

Thank You! And as a Sign of My Appreciation…

If you have been a devoted reader of my book blog, Planet Books, thank you!  If you are new to Planet Books, thank you!  If you are just visiting this book blog for the first time right now, thank you!  Last week Planet Books surpassed 10,000 hits in the mist of BBAW (Book Bloggers Appreciation Week) and to show my appreciation for your readership I would like to offer one lucky winner a $25 gift card to Borders Books Stores.  I wish I could afford to give each of you a gift card but that isn’t realistic on my husbands salary at this point in time.  (Maybe one day!) 

I will run this giveaway like the rest and ask you to leave a comment on this post including your e-mail address.  In order for your comment to be eligible though I would like to ask you to answer one question.  What do you like so much about Planet Books that keeps you coming back?  Is it the book reviews?  The author guest posts?  My occasional feature called “Today’s Favorite Song?”  This giveaway will conclude on Friday, September 25th at Midnight EDT.

I’m just curious to know how Planet Books got to over 10,000 hits in just under a year.  Planet Books’ first post on WordPress was October 1st, 2007.   Thank you again for your patronage and I look forward to a bright future in the world of books and experiencing it with you.

XOXO-Karen

My New Hobby

As you may know, I have an iPod and I can’t live with out it.  I download free Podcasts on iTunes (by the way, you DO NOT have to have an iPod to utilize the free downloaded iTunes software and listen on your computer) and listen to them in the car or when I’m getting ready for bed.  Recently I discovered the box in the bottom right hand corner of the iTunes Store Podcast page titled “Topics In Focus”.  One of the topics is “Book Lovers” so of course I clicked on that immediately.  There I found Podcasts about books and authors.  There are thirty-eight different Podcasts to subscribe to (for free) so I narrowed it down and selected “Amazon Wire”, “iTunes: Meet The Author”, “Book Lust With Nancy Pearl” and “B&N Meet the Writers Audio Interviews”.  So far I have listened to interviews with James Patterson, Stephenie Meyer, Henry Winkler, Michael Connelly and Judy Bloom.  Listening to these interviews is so interesting because I am reminded that these people have goals, self-doubt, and lives just like anybody else.  Did you know that Stephenie Meyer didn’t even plan on publishing the TWILIGHT books until her sister suggested that she do it?  She had written the first book, TWILIGHT, in just three months and her husband didn’t even know she was doing it.  She wrote it to entertain herself and the idea for the story came from a dream she had had one night. 

Another great place to find interviews with authors is B&N Studio and Borders Media.  Personally I think that Barnes & Noble has a better system for this and has much more selection on their site.  These interviews are viewed through the web site.  So, if you would like to get to know some of your favorite authors a little better, I highly recommend checking out these great resources.

If you haven’t gotten your copy yet…

… you can go to the NY Times Magazine article titled “After Life” by Joan Didion that is an excerpt from her book, “The Magical Year of Thinking”.  I am still finishing up my other book club selection, “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter”by Kim Edwards but I am really looking forward to reading TYOMT when I’m done. 

If you have thoughts on TYOMT as you are reading it, please feel free to share them with us.  I hope you are enjoying the new site here and find it easier to access.  I have been playing around and learning some of the bells and whistles that WordPress offers me as the administer.  I am really loving the tool that allows me to link to other web sites through the post.  I also like what I’m finding in other WordPress blogs. 

I hope your weekend is going well.  Check ya later!