Category: In My Mailbox

Good-bye to In My Mailbox

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blogging> In My Mailbox> plagiarism

I like the concept of In My Mailbox. I really do. The idea of giving an acknowledgement to the books that have come in, whether I’ve bought them or gotten them free or borrowed them or been sent them for review, is a neat way of acknowledging the authors and titles, even for stuff I might not be able to review.

I can understand why Kristi Diehm at The Story Siren thought it was a neat idea when Alea of Pop Culture Junkie originally inspired it. It’s been a very popular and successful meme at The Story Siren.

448 Blogs linked to In My Mailbox on April 22, including this one.

In the future, I will not be among them. I will miss the connections that come from linking to In My Mailbox, but I can’t in good conscience be a part of it any longer. Because I can’t condone the behavior of the blogger.

Plagiarism is wrong. It is not an accident. It is a mistake, and a deliberate one (Someone said there is no such thing as sleep copy and pasting).

Swift acknowledgement of that mistake can bring forgiveness, but that’s not what happened here. Instead there was a denial, then a cover-up and a plea for everything to be handled “quietly”.

This continuing saga has been covered, in detail, on multiple blogs, including at Smart Bitches, Trash Books, Smexy Books, Parajunkee’s View and Book Savvy Babe. This story is as compelling as any book you might review. All the more so because it took place in our own backyard.

As bloggers, our identities are made up of the words we write. If someone steals our words, they’ve stolen something precious.

 

In My Mailbox #6

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blog tours> book reviews> In My Mailbox

Books keep appearing in my mailbox. It’s magic!

Sometimes it’s really magic. One of my wishlist books was granted. Edelweiss presented me with a ebook ARC of Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King. This is the next book in the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series. I am ecstatic about this one. Now if only the magic would repeat and John Scalzi’s Redshirts would transport in…

 

My other arrivals this week:

From Sizzling PR for review:
The Risque Target by Kelly Gendron (ebook)

Book and Trailer Showcase for review and book tour:
Bad Girl Lessons by Seraphina Donavan (ebook)

From Bewitching Book Tours (you guessed it for review and book tour):
Night Walker by Lisa Kessler (ebook)

From the author:
The Whip by Karen Kondazian (print)
Under His Protection by Karen Erickson (ebook)

For Book Lovers Inc. for review:
Of Thieves and Elves by AP Stephens (ebook)

 

From NetGalley:
The Bewitching Tale of Stormy Gale by Christine Bell (ebook)
Untouched by Sara Humphreys (ebook)

From Edelweiss:
Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King (ebook)
The Vampire Shrink by Lynda Hilburn (ebook)

Purchased from Amazon (what can I say, I couldn’t resist reading the rest!):
Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James (ebook)
Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James (ebook)

In My Mailbox #5

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | In My Mailbox

If you remember the photos from last week’s In My Mailbox post you’ll understand why I tried to restrain myself this week.

I didn’t completely succeed. Hopefully someone will give me an “E for Effort”?

I subscribe to a few (several) newsletters about forthcoming books and the book trade. Shelf Awareness, Early Word and Publishers Weekly all cover books, bookselling, and publishing, but from different angles. Shelf Awareness is slanted a bit towards Indie Publishing, Early Word is aimed a bit a libraries, and Publishers Weekly, well, what they cover is pretty clear from their name!

Their email newsletters also offer contests for Advance Reading Copies in their sidebars. Every so often, I win one.

I won a print ARC of A Simple Murder by Eleanor Kuhns from one of the above. It’s a historical mystery set in a Shaker village in 1796. So neat setting, interesting premise. This book won an award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Best First Crime Novel. So it might be good. And the author is a librarian. Of course I’m interested!

 

Book Lovers Inc. sent me a request I couldn’t resist. I confess I didn’t read Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula when it came out. It’s just my kind of book, too. Alternate history with vampires! But it never quite made it to the top of the towering TBR pile. Kim Newman is re-issuing the sequel, The Bloody Red Baron, and asked BLI for a review. When the request was passed to me, I said I would, if I could get copies of both Red Baron and Anno Dracula. I got.

The only problem with alternate history is that doing it justice usually takes a lot of pages. Those two books are not short books. Either one. Oy!

The other night I was looking for something light and fun to read. So instead of wading through my TBR piles, I bought myself a treat-a copy of Stacey Kennedy’s Supernaturally Kissed. All the reviews I’ve read said it would be just the ticket. The next day I joined Stacey Kennedy’s Street Team and because I couldn’t resist the temptation to get a review copy of the next book in the series, Demonically Tempted.

I’m a tour host for Goddess Fish Tours, and I asked for review copies of books for two tours I’m hosting in May and June. Seized, an urban fantasy by Lynne Cantwell, and Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire, a Regency romance/alternate history by K. Reed

 

Finally, I admit it, I gave in and bought Fifty Shades of Grey. I listened to myself dissing a book I’d never read and realized that I wasn’t being fair. I needed to either shut up, or read the book. I read the book. Now I have dissing rights. Which doesn’t mean I’m going to totally use them. You’ll see.

 

 

 

In My Mailbox #4

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly feature, started by The Story Siren, as a way to give a shout-out to the books we received the previous week.

From the author:
The Key by Pauline Baird Jones (ebook)
Geared for Pleasure by Rachel Grace (print) I won this in a drawing at The Smutketeers.

From the author or publicist for review for Book Lovers Inc.:
The Cinderella Blues by Obren Bokich (ebook)
Blind Traveler Down a Dark River and Blind Traveler’s Blues by Robert P. Bennett (ebook)
On One Condition by Diane Alberts (ebook)

From Samhain Publishing:
The Lawman’s Surrender by Debra Mullins (ebook)

From Angry Robot Books as a member of the Robot Army:
Suited by Jo Anderton (ebook)
vN by Madeline Ashby (ebook)

 

 

From NetGalley:
Amped by Daniel H. Wilson (ebook)
The Unholy by Heather Graham (ebook)

And I received the second box of books and ARCs I sent myself from PLA, so I opened the boxes. Here’s the picture of my PLA haul. Pictures, plural. There were too many for one picture to do them justice.

 

 

In My Mailbox #3

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | In My Mailbox

I have this vision of all the virtual mailboxes marching, marching, marching…right behind, or maybe in front of, all my virtual nightstands. And they’re ganging up on me!!!!!

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren so that readers and bloggers (there’s a big overlap there) can share the books they received, bought or borrowed that week.

I keep telling myself I need to do something about my NetGalley addiction. And then fate intervenes in one way or another, and well, weeks like this happen.

Curiosity Quills Press does this neat feature every week where they spotlight a book blog. The interviews are fascinating! And many of the blogs are blogs that I rely on for reviews for Ebook Review Central, so, when I found a call for bloggers willing to be featured, I jumped on it. Reading Reality will be featured on April 22.

But back to my mailbox. Curiosity Quills is hosting a giveaway, from now until May 1, 2012, with the prize of an Apple iPad3. You get three entries in the giveaway for posting a review of one of their books on Amazon. You can get more entries in the giveaway for reviewing more books and doing other things, just like other giveaways. (But this has to be the coolest prize ever!)  CQ publishes a lot of very quirky urban fantasy-type books. Which I generally like. And remember, one gets extra entries in the giveaway for each review.

CQ is on NetGalley. I picked up two books. Shadow of a Dead Star and The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse, which I would have read anyway, just for the title.

Because I loved Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series, I also grabbed The Immortal Rules from NetGalley. This is kind of a repeat, because this is one of the books I’m absolutely positive is in the box from PLA that LaZorra the Feline Empress is guarding in last week’s photo.

I’m participating in the First Flights, the Penguin Debut Author program from Penguin Books and Early Word. The first book is The Orphanmaster by Jean Zimmerman and the first Galley Chat for the book is April 11. I asked for the NetGalley and I received a print galley too!

During the Reading Romances Blogoversary chat, Victoria Vane was chatting about her latest book, A Wild Night’s Bride, and said she was looking for reviewers. Several of us volunteered on the spot! It’s on my iPad.

Another “real” book, The Minefields by Steven C. Eisner for a review on Book Lovers Inc. and possibly also for hosting a tour stop on Reading Reality. This one is business fiction, which is a little outside my normal reviewing, but some of the description sounded a lot like my family!

You Have No Idea by Vanessa Williams from NetGalley for the BlogHer Book Club for May. And I have no idea how I managed to get into this one, but wow!

 

 

And four from NetGalley, just for fun.

Worldsoul by Liz Williams (this was on my Wishlist!!!!)
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine (steampunk)
Powers by James A. Burton (superheroes, demons, gods, urban fantasy)
Sword & Blood by Sarah Marques (The Three Musketeers as Vampires!)

What’s in your mailbox?

In My Mailbox #2

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren as a way for bloggers and readers to share the books they bought, borrowed or received that week.

When this meme started in 2008, I suspect the mailbox was an actual mailbox, whether or not it looked like the one in the graphic. For me, the mailbox is mostly an email inbox. But the principle still applies.

And sometimes it’s real mail. You’ll see.

Ebooks I received from their authors or publicists:

Wreck of the Nebula Dream by Veronica Scott
A Hint of Frost by Hailey Edwards
Intangible by J. Meyers
Lowcountry Punch by Boo Walker
Third Rate Romance by Tim Martin
The Mine by John A. Heldt

Ebooks I received for reviews for Blog Tours (Tour company name in parens):

Wanted: Handsome Alien Abductor by Myra Nour (BTS)
Staring into the Eyes of Chance by Kay Dee Royal (Bewitching)
Finding My Faith by Carly Fall (Bewitching)
The Zurian Child by Jessica E. Subject (Sizzling PR)
Sunrise Point by Robyn Carr (Little Bird Publicity)
The Great Outdoors by Becky Moore (Sizzling PR)

 

One new assignment for Book Lovers Inc.

Auraria by Tim Westover

 

 

 

Five from NetGalley. I’ve been trying to resist but the April Carina Press books were posted, there was lots of SFR or SFR-ish, and I caved. And Pern was the first SFR I ever read, so yes, Sky Dragons does fit in this list.

Sky Dragons by Todd McCaffrey
Desert Blade by Ella Drake
Darkest Caress by Kaylea Cross
Zero Gravity Outcasts by Kay Keppler
Cruel Numbers by  Christopher Beats

 

 

 

 

 

And nearly last, one steampunk from Edelweiss

Tarnished by Karina Cooper

 

 

 

Last, but definitely not least, the big box I shipped from PLA arrived. I haven’t opened it yet, because, well, it’s under the cat. She thinks I got it for her!

In My Mailbox #1

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | In My Mailbox

“In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.  Every week (or so), book readers and bloggers get to share what books they bought, borrowed, or received.”

For this blogger, that “or so” is going to be every week. Let’s be real here, people!

I’ve been thinking about joining In My Mailbox for quite a while as a way to do a shout out to the books I’ve picked up but might not get to read for a bit, or might read but not review. I’ve always acquired books faster than I can read them, and it’s even more true now.

There are at least two shipments coming from PLA.  Yikes! But they aren’t here yet. They will be in my mailbox when they actually arrive. (Lalalalala)

These are this week’s actual arrivals:

The first of the many PLA pickups…(because it somehow ended up in my suitcase)

After Life by Rhian Ellis: print book giveaway at a lunch at PLA. For the librarians, this is the second book in the reprint series Amazon is publishing with superlibrarian Nancy Pearl, as one of her Book Lust Rediscoveries.

 

 

Only one from NetGalley this week. (It’s an addiction. But I’m trying to cut back.)

Railsea by China Miéville.

 

 

 

Jade Lee sent out coupons to pick up the prequel novella free for her new Bridal Favors series. I “cashed in” the coupon and got this book:

Engaged in Wickedness by Jade Lee.

 

 

 

 

For my reviewing gig for Library Journal, I received:

Random Acts by Alison Stone: ebook from Samhain.

 

 

 

Courtesy of the author I have the following ebook:

The Watchmaker’s Lady ARC by Heather Massey. I requested a copy from Heather because I loved Queenie’s Brigade.

 

 

 

And last but not least, I bought this ebook-only prequel novella from Amazon. I’m reviewing Brockmann’s Born to Darkness (finished this morning) and I just couldn’t start it without reading the prequel first. And yes, the prequel story is worth the 99 cents.

Shane’s Last Stand by Suzanne Brockmann.

 

Question: What do you think? Should I hope the boxes from PLA arrive soon, or should I hope they take a while in transit?