Top Ten Tuesday : Book Sites

Today's Top Ten is another hard one , as trying to come up with ten booksites , I know I visit about or definitely more but writing them down, I had to think about them.

1. LibraryThing - http://www.librarything.com/ - Great for recording your books down, recommendations etc - Similar to Goodreads.
2. Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/ - I was on LibraryThing but as a 40-70 books a month girl, I found I could store more things on Goodreads and it was a free account whereas after the first 100 or so on LibraryThing you have to pay.
3. Netgalley - http://www.netgalley.com/ - For all those who love reading ARC's and don't mind Ebooks this site is amazing , I love it to pieces :)
4. Booksneeze - http://www.booksneeze.com/ - Similar to Netgalley , Booksneeze deals just with Christian Fiction and Non-Fiction, they also give you the choice of Print or Ebook
5. The B&B Media Group - www.tbbmedia.com - They offer Christian Fiction and Mainly Christian non-fiction to review and most of the time it is print copies but they do offer Ebooks.
6. VOYA - http://www.voya.com/ - This stands for the Voice of Young Advocates and is a Library Journal for Teens , you can read it online.
7. MyKindaBook - www.mykindabook.com - A site for the latest teen books and bits and bobs .
8. Forever Young Adult - http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/ - For those who are a little less Y and a bit more A.
9. FictFact - http://www.fictfact.com/ - Keeps a list of the latest releases in favourite series and by authors , sends you regualr emails etc
10. FantasticFiction - http://www.fantasticfiction.com/ - Has all the latest releases in months , genres etc . Type in an authors name and you can find a list of every single book they have written. Awesome Reader's advisory tool I use all the time at work.

Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurences - Pip Ballentine and Tee Morris

Are you into Steampunk ? Or are you sitting there reading this going , what the hell is this thing called Steampunk ?

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Specifically, steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; in other words, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.

Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk and shares a similar fanbase and theme of rebellion, but developed as a separate movement (though both have considerable influence on each other). Apart from time period and level of technological development, the main difference between cyberpunk and steampunk is that steampunk settings usually tend to be less obviously dystopian than cyberpunk, or lack dystopian elements entirely.

Synopsis: Phoenix Rising : A Ministry of Peculiar Occurences Novel - Pip Ballentine & Tee Morris - May 2011

The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, with its head office located at the heart of the Empire, London, is here to solve these mysterious happenings that leave normal law enforcement officials baffled.

Located in a secret location near the river Thames, this is the Ministry that protects all citizens of the Empire from the occult, the paranormal and from secret societies bent on bringing down Old Blighty.

We take only the best, the brightest and the bravest men and women from all the dominions and outposts of civilisation. They are here to protect everyone of the citizens of the Empire from threats that would haunt their dreams…if they but knew.

Website : http://www.ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com/ 

Phoenix Rising

These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the river Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences- the Crown’s clandestine organisation whose baliwick is the strange and unsettling- will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest..and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books along with her into the perilous fray.

For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun- he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices- must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot… or see England fall to the Phoenix

Review: Tales from the Yoga Studio - Rain Mitchell

Are you looking for a friendship novel ? Into Yoga ?



Review: Tales From the Yoga Studio- Rain Mitchell- December 2010

Do you enjoy reading those books that brings together a set of friends ,who otherwise may not have met and through their connection and in this novel it is through Yoga , they become the best of friends and help each other through their problems and become the better person they are inside. Meet The Yoga Studio friends. We have Lee who runs the local Yoga Studio - her life at the moment is slowly crumbling as her marriage is deteriorating and with her husband as co-owner , she is not sure how long she can continue to run the Yoga studio as their finances start to slowly leak out . We have the studio's masseuse Katherine , sick of being alone -Katherine has meet the perfect guy, but only now is the big question Can Katherine keep him as she holds a reputation of trying to sabotage every relationship that she gets close too , Graciela is a dancer who hurt herself with an injury , as a dancer this injury could be the end of her career - can Lee help Graciela overcome her injury in preparation for an audition that could change her life , we have Hollywood actress Imani who had it all - a successful marriage , a wonderful career , everything she could ever ask for until tragedy struck and she suffered a miscarriage. With the introduction of Yoga and her newfound friends , Can Imani recover from the tragedy and learn to deal with the grief and move on and lastly Stephanie , a screenwriter and wanting to get a big break it seems that Stephanie may just be pushing herself to hard , when the cracks start to show in Stephanie's life - Can her friends get together and help Stephanie before she develops a breakdown ?

A fun novel filled with excercise , Yoga and friendships - true friendships. I think the tagline for Tales from the Yoga Studio should read "When the going gets tough and the tough gets going at least you still have Yoga and Friends".

The Secret in Thier Eyes - Eduardo Sacheri

      

Synopsis : The Secret In Their Eyes - Eduardo Sancheri - October 2011

Benjamín Chaparro is a retired detective still obsessed by the brutal, decades-old rape and murder of a young married woman in her own bedroom. While attempting to write a book about the case, he revisits the details of the investigation. As he reaches into the past, Chaparro also recalls the beginning of his long, unrequited love for Irene Hornos, then just an intern, now a respected judge. Set in the Buenos Aires of the 1970s, Sacheri’s tale reveals the underpinnings of Argentina’s Dirty War and takes on the question of justice—what it really means and in whose hands it belongs.

This book was also made into a film in 2009 , it is an Argentinan film . The Link to about the film is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_in_Their_Eyes. For me , personally I tried to read it but I struggled as I have never really been one who can get into foriegn books especially when they have been translated , however If Foriegn films are your forte , then you will enjoy The Secret in Their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri.

  

Review: She's Gone Country- Jane Porter

Wanting a nice chick-lit novel , one that has instead of from rags to riches , city to country ?

Review: She's Gone Country - Jane Porter - August 2010

Returning home for most people can prove to be disastrous or at most an adventure , for Shey Darcy it proved to be both a challenge and a life-changing decision. What should have been her seventeenth wedding anniversary turned into a separation as her husband dropped on her the bombshell that he was gay. Packing up her things and her teenage boys, Shey hightails it back home to Texas - home of the country life , a place she hadnt been back since she was sixteen and now here she is at thirty-nine years old. Unfortunately, her life in Texas starts off to a rough beginning as her brother Cody dies of a drug overdose. Left to raise her boys, Shey decides that she has to be strong but her boys aren't settling in well here with her son Bo having depression and her oldest Hank wanting to move back to New York to live with his father , her only saviour seems to be her 12yr old son Cooper. If that wasn't difficult, Dane Kelly is still in town and Shey discovers she still has strong feelings for him. Dane was Shey's first love . Though if Shey thought welcoming Dane back was easy she has another thing coming ,as her two brothers can't stand Dane and blame him for Cody's death and it seems Dane is dating a rich texan heiress named Lulu.
After a one-night stand with Dane , Shey falls pregnant and we are left to read whether Shey keeps the baby and B) will she tell Dane and what will happen between Dane and Lulu ?

Find out what happens when a former country girl whose been living in the city for so long moves back to Country life.

If you are a fan of Rodeos , horses and bucking bronco's -then this is the book for you.

Review: This Girl is Different - JJ Johnson

Looking for a teen novel that is about firsts and what happens when you stand for something ?

Review: This Girl is Different - JJ Johnson- April 2011

Have you watched the movie Mean Girls or those teen movies where a new girl starts at school and it's her first proper school as she has been homeschooled all her life ? Well, this book is one of those in a way. Meet Evie, she has been homeschooled all her life and finally she has talked her mum Martha into letting her attend regular school , as Evie decides that she better have the experience before heading off to college -so she heads off to the local school for Senior year. Evie though who has always been different , is about to discover that in high school -you are all different . We read as Evie who is pro-environment starts to take a stand for what she believes in only to be riducled as a hippie freak . This Girl is different is a teen novel about really discovering yourself and that there are so many firsts that one can have happen and for Evie, unlike regualr schooled kids , she is about to get bombarded with them from first friendships to love to trouble with teachers etc.

Can Evie find herself in the sea of high school or will she end up regretting the decision to attend ?

Find out in this coming of age teen novel "This girl is different".

A Butterfly in Flame - Nicholas Kilmer

Are you interested in Art ? Wanting a mystery ?

Synopsis: A Butterfly in Flame - Nicholas Kilmer - November 2010

Stillton Academy, a small art college on the New England coast north of Boston, is in financial trouble, and its days are numbered unless someone provides extraordinary help. The final straw may be the sudden disappearance of an instructor with a female student, daughter of the Academy’s only significant donor.

Fred Taylor, called in to trouble shoot, goes undercover as a member of the faculty and shortly finds himself enmeshed in the conflicting motives and designs of faculty and students, as well as those of a board of trustees whose interest in the long term survival of the operation seems lazy, misguided or – perhaps – a good deal more sinister.

Meanwhile, as the town of Stillton, Massachusetts, is visited by murder, the motives of Fred’s employer, the collector Clayton Reed, remain obscure. What is there in the town, or at the college, that whets his acute acquisitive instincts? He will not say, beyond his hermetic instructions, “Trust no one. Look at everything.”

And everyone. Fred’s assignment takes him to the Life Room, where his students sometimes moonlight as life models. Are his temporary colleagues on the faculty eccentrics or just artists?

Clayton Reed collects art. That’s what he lives for. In sleepy Stillton, a town ripe for development, though suspiciously backward and un exploited, what hidden treasure is Clayton hoping for? And can Fred find it before the college goes up in flames?

                                                                        

Review: Sazerac Seduction -Eden Elgabri ( R18 Read)

Wanting a quick erotic legal thriller to read ?

Review: Sazerac Seduction -Eden Elgabri - Ocotber 2010

Sazerac Seduction is a short story which includes sex and the law. Meet Cynthia , she has come to the small island under the pretense of an environmental law suit to supposedly close down Crawdaddy's which is a resturant cover for a whorehouse of sorts but the truth is her cousin has turned up missing and the last seen place was at Crawdaddy's and Cynthia wants to know what went on and where her cousin is . Enter Remy, he works for his father's law firm and his father and him have been seen to enjoy Crawdaddy's on the odd occasion , it is Remy's job to make sure Cynthia doesn't turn up to the court date . So his plan involves kidnapping, sex and lots of Sazerac alcohol. When the truth comes out though, it seems that Cynthia may be on to something and it involves her much more than she initially realised as one of the last men to see her cosuin was her ex-husband whose running for state senator. Overall, it was a good erotic fiction but unfortunately what annoyed me was that the story abruptly ended , I think it may have ended a bit too quick.

Review :Big Box for Ben - Deborah Bruss

Wanting a book that you can read to your baby or toddler ?

Review: Big Box for Ben - Deborah Bruss - February 2011

To a Child a box can be the most favourite toy as have you ever heard the tale of the child who got an expensive present for Christmas , but all that he really wanted to play with was the box itself , not the toy. To a child , a box has a neverending array of imagination attached , it can be anything that they want it to be as we discover when we read through the book Big Box for Ben. Only 18pgs long and filled with colourful pictures and action words for each creation, this is the perfect read for your baby or toddler.
If , you had a box and it could be anything in the world, what would you make it ?

Read and discover what Ben and his dog Wags created in Big Box for Ben.