The Spooktacular Giveaway Hop started one day earlier than I expected, which kind of threw out my schedule for the end of the week. I’m booked nearly solid for the next several weeks, so Spaceman will be back sometime in the future. For reasons that I can’t go into, sometime before December 1.

Giveaway season has definitely begun. The Bugs & Hisses Giveaway Hop just ended, and Spooktacular has just begun. And it is far from the last giveaway hop of the season. I am also hoping against hope that the Black Friday Book Bonanza will hop again this year. The day after Thanksgiving is a perfect day for a giveaway hop. Everyone is either still sleeping off their tryptophan coma after the turkey extravaganza the day before, or they are thinking of the fast approaching present-giving season. A giveaway hop is possibly all the attention many of us can spare!

The year is rapidly drawing to a close. I’m already starting on my “Best of 2016” lists. There were a lot of great books this year! Whittling it down to a reasonable number is always the hardest part.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or Book in the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop
(1) $50 Amazon Gift Card and (5) $10 Amazon Gift Cards from Susannah Sandlin
$250 Prize Pack from Laughing Vixen Lounge in the Attack of the 14 Nights of Halloween Giveaway

Winner Announcements:

The winner of The Girl Who Fought Napoleon is Crystal G.
The winner of the $10 Gift Card or Book in the Bugs & Hisses Giveaway Hop is Jeryl M.

Blog Recap:

B+ Review: A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas
Attack of the 14 Nights of Halloween Giveaway
A- Review: Black Diamond by Susannah Sandlin + Giveaway
B+ Review: The Fourth Rule of Ten by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay
Spooktacular Giveaway Hop
Stacking the Shelves (207)

Coming Next Week:

Honor Bound by B.J. Daniels (blog tour review)
Gladiator by Anna Hackett (review)
Beauty and Attention by Liz Rosenberg (blog tour review)
The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick (review)
The Tides of Bara by Jeffe Kennedy (blog tour review)

This turned out to be story collection week. And while each of the collections was pretty darn good, it also reminded me that collections are not my favorite genre. That’s not anything against any of the authors or collections, it’s just that I definitely prefer a sustained narrative. With a collection, it feels like just as I get into a story, it’s over, and I have to start all over again with the next story.

There are not many hours left to enter the Bugs & Hisses Giveaway Hop, but fear not, there are two more giveaway hops starting this week. And as the year draws down, we are entering Giveaway Hop season. There will be plenty more to come for Thanksgiving and the December Holiday marathon.

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Bugs & Hisses Giveaway Hop
The Girl Who Fought Napoleon by Linda Lafferty

Winner Announcements:

The winner of The Life She Wants by Robyn Carr is Megblod

Blog Recap:

B Review: The Girl Who Fought Napoleon by Linda Lafferty + Giveaway
A- Review: Pets in Space by S.E. Smith and more
A- Review: Devil Sent the Rain by Lisa Turner
B+ Review: Echoes of Sherlock Holmes edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger
A- Review: Teeth Long and Sharp by Grace Draven, Antioch Grey, Aria M. Jones, Jeffe Kennedy and Mel Sterling
Stacking the Shelves (206)

Coming Next Week:

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas (review)
Attack of the 14 Nights of Halloween Giveaway
Black Diamond by Susannah Sandlin (blog tour review)
The Fourth Rule of Ten by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay (review)
Spaceman by Mike Massimino (review)
Spooktacular Giveaway Hop

I re-arranged last week’s schedule just so I could carve out a single night to read Anne Bishop’s Etched in Bone way, way, way ahead of publication. There’s just something about this series, or the world that Bishop has created, that I find absolutely irresistible. If you like urban fantasy with a touch of quirkiness and a fair amount of dark, and you have not read the first book, Written in Red, give it a try. And if you can figure out where she put in the crack, please let me know. I’m just hooked.

On the feline front, Freddie has discovered that the window over my desk provides the best kitty television in the house. Notice I said over my desk? I’m starting to do a lot of my blogging while facing a cat butt, complete with very twitchy tail. He’s so young, and the world is new and endlessly fascinating. Then he has a nap attack and is out like a light. But not for very long!

Current Giveaways:

The Life She Wants by Robyn Carr
2 copies of A Bollywood Affair and The Bollywood Bride from Sonali Dev
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Bugs & Hisses Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of Autumn in Oxford by Alex Rosenberg is Nadine S.
The winner of Snowfall on Haven Point by RaeAnne Thayne is Trish R.

Blog Recap:

B+ Review: The Life She Wants by Robyn Carr + Giveaway
B+ Review: A Change of Heart by Sonali Dev + Giveaway
Bugs & Hisses Giveaway Hop
A Review: Treachery’s Tools by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
A Review: The Tengu’s Game of Go by Lian Hearn
Stacking the Shelves (205)

Coming Next Week:

The Girl Who Fought Napoleon by Linda Lafferty (blog tour review)
Pets in Space by S.E. Smith, Susan Grant, Cara Bristol, Veronica Scott, Pauline Baird Jones, Laurie A. Green, Alexis Glynn Latner, Lea Kirk, Carysa Locke (review)
Devil Sent the Rain by Lisa Turner (blog tour review)
Echoes of Sherlock Holmes edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (review)
Teeth Long and Sharp by Grace Draven, Antioch Grey, Aria M. Jones, Jeffe Kennedy, Mel Sterling (blog tour review)

I have reached the “take my sinuses, PLEASE!” stage of a cold. I’m not really sick, but I’m not completely well, either. My nose just won’t stop running. And I wish it would run away already and leave me in peace! It makes reading seem like a good idea, but only if something grabs me right away. My attention span for anything serious is completely shot. Or snot.

The Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop ended a few hours ago. I love asking the question about which book are people most surprised to see has been banned or challenged, because the answers are always eye-opening. The clear winner of the OMG You’re Kidding Award is usually Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss, with The Bible running a close second. Everything offends somebody, but often not in the ways that one might expect. Which is, of course, the point.

Current Giveaways:

Autumn in Oxford by Alex Rosenberg
3 copies of The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
Snowfall on Haven Point by RaeAnne Thayne

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the UnBe-Leaf-Able September to Remember Giveaway Hop is Jill M.
The winner of the Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop is Krysta B.

Blog Recap:

A- Review: Autumn in Oxford by Alex Rosenberg + Giveaway
B Review: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
B+ Review: The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan + Giveaway
B+ Review: Snowfall on Haven Point by RaeAnne Thayne + Giveaway
A- Review: Apprentice in Death by J.D. Robb
Stacking the Shelves (204)

Coming Next Week:

The Life She Wants by Robyn Carr (blog tour review)
A Change of Heart by Sonali Dev (blog tour review)
Bugs & Hisses Giveaway Hop
Rejected Princesses by Jason Porath (review)
The Tengu’s Game of Go by Lian Hearn (review)

Today is the 15th anniversary of one of the days on which the universe changed. On 9/11/01 two planes were deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center, one crashed into the Pentagon, and one was retaken in its last moments by its hostage-passengers and crashed into a Pennsylvania field. The U.S. and probably the rest of the world, have never been the same. Just like the day that JFK was assassinated, or RFK’s assassination, or Martin Luther King’s, or the Challenger disaster, we all remember where we were when we heard the news, who we were with and what we did. And we always will.

Speaking of other, and considerably less fraught, milestones this week, September 8 was the 50th anniversary of the broadcast of the first episode of what was then a strange, weird science fiction TV series called Star Trek. This was a show that spawned a cultural revolution almost by accident. It changed the lives of many, including my own. Wired posted an absolutely fascinating article this week, “What If Star Trek Had Never Existed?” Even if you are not a Trek fan, I promise it will make you think.

And lastly, the naming of cats is a serious matter, as T.S. Eliot once said. We adopted a little boy kitten over the weekend. He’s about six months old, and he and Mellie are far from sure of each other at the moment. The shelter gave him the name “Alex” but that doesn’t feel right. So we are waiting to see what he tells us his name is. He looks a lot like the cat in the famous print, “The Favorite Cat” by Nathaniel Currier of Currier and Ives fame. Unfortunately the favorite cat in the famous print does not seem to have a name. So we’re watching little newbie cat to see who he is.

Current Giveaways:

3 copies of The Shattered Tree by Charles Todd

Winner Announcements:

The winner of The Buried Book by D.M. Pulley is Marjorie R.

Blog Recap:

Labor Day 2016
B+ Review: The Shattered Tree by Charles Todd + Giveaway
A- Review: The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman
A- Review: Finding Libbie by Deanna Lynn Sletten
A+ Guest Review: Documenting Light by EE Ottoman
Stacking the Shelves (201)

Coming Next Week:

Carry On by Lisa Fenn (blog tour review)
Mad Lizard Mambo by Rhys Ford (review)
Unbe-Leaf-Able September to Remember Giveaway Hop
The White Mirror by Elsa Hart (review)
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (blog tour review)

This week had several terrific books. Both The Buried Book and Last Chance Rebel were surprisingly good. A Great Reckoning lived up to my every expectation of a book in this series. Now I have to wait another year for another fix.

This coming week holds three books that I have been eagerly awaiting, based on the past performance of previous entries in their series; The Shattered Tree, the latest book in Charles Todd’s marvelous Bess Crawford series; The Masked City, the followup to the fascinating The Invisible Library, and finally The White Mirror, the sequel to last year’s unexpectedly excellent Jade Dragon Mountain. It’s going to be a great reading week.

But before I let you go back to your Labor Day weekend plans, one last note. Galen posted a lovely piece about our surprising Mellie-cat over on his blog at Meta Interchange. If you have feline overlords in your life, you will understand our delight in Mellie’s transformation. I just wish her vocabulary had a few more words. She suddenly has a lot to say, and we are in rather desperate need of a Mellie-to-human dictionary!

Current Giveaways:

The Buried Book by D.M. Pulley
10 copies of Last Kiss of Summer by Marina Adair
$25 Amazon Gift Card from Harlequin in the Last Chance Rebel Tour

Winner Announcements:

The winner of Always a Cowboy by Linda Lael Miller is Angelica

Blog Recap:

A+ Review: A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
A- Review: The Buried Book by D.M. Pulley + Giveaway
B+ Review: Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn
B- Review: Last Kiss of Summer by Marina Adair + Giveaway
A- Review: Last Chance Rebel by Maisey Yates + Giveaway
Stacking the Shelves (200)

Coming Next Week:

The Shattered Tree by Charles Todd (blog tour review)
The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman (review)
Finding Libbie by Deanna Lynn Sletten (blog tour review)
The White Mirror by Elsa Hart (review)