Archive for June, 2009
Spice of Life Reading Challenge
June 28th, 2009 | 
Author: I ran across this site called Spice of Life that is doing a reading challenge. This one sounded right up my alley! Here are the details:
We all must eat everyday. Quantity of food may vary with our diets; holiday feasts may be rare. The quality of the food we eat may be sporadic, depending on who’s doing the cooking. Yet variety in food is a big part of the delight!
The most delightful part of food is eating something spectacular, making good food a part of our every-day life, and (for some us) learning to cook better.
The goal of the Spice of Life Challenge is to read and/or review books about food and eating our way through a good life. It will run from July 1, 2009 until December 31, 2009 so you can include all those scrumptious summer salads, savory fall soups, and yummy holiday books that get you in the mood for turkey dinner. Feel free to overlap your books with any other reading challenges you have. If you feel so inclined, share a favorite cookbook as well. The idea, however, is to find new favorites to fill our belly (and our minds!).
If you don’t have a blog, you can still join us for the meal! Feel free to leave your thoughts about your choices in the comments on the review pages.
I’ve created four categories:
- Cookbooks share recipes so we can recreate delicious meals. I love a good cookbook, and I’m always on the lookout for another favorite. I’d love to hear about your new discoveries! To count a cookbook for the challenge, please share a little bit about what types of recipes it contains, any of the favorites that you may have cooked, and what you liked or not about it. You obviously don’t have to read every page of a cook book or cook every recipe.
- Nonfiction books are about food in general, including history of any food, cooking and diet guides, and reference books. For reference books, as for cookbooks, you may not need to read every word, including those dense ones that you will be referring to again and again. Sometimes nonfiction books are best read in small bites; keep in mind you have six months to nibble through something!
- Memoirs, autobiographies, or essays are written by cooks or the everyday eater and are about learning to cook or about cooking or eating in general.
- Fiction captures the significance of food in our lives by making food a main part of the story. Define this as you will: if food is important to the story, it counts!
Note that some books will fit into multiple categories. Assign them to categories as you would like to meet your own personal challenge.
You can join the challenge in any of three levels of participation:
- A Taste: Joining the Spice of Life Challenge for “a taste” means that, although you love food and you love books about food, just a taste of food books will satisfy you right now. You’ll read and review just read two books from any of two of the above categories (different categories).
- A Sampler: Joining the Spice of Life Challenge for “a sampler” means that you want to balance your food book diet with variety, for variety is the spice of life. You will read and review a book from each category for a total of four books.
- A Feast: Joining the Spice of Life Challenge for “a feast” means that you want to fill yourself with good food books of all kinds this year! You will read and review six to eight books from at least three of the above categories.
If the thought of reading these books has made your mouth water, join by signing up in the comments below. You do not need to determine your books before you read them if you don’t want to, but do leave a link to your blog if you have one.
Also, feel free to add a button to your blog.
After you read and review your books, visit the review page and leave us a link so we can come and drool too.
Any questions? Ask in the comments below or send me an email at rebecca [at] rebeccareid [dot] com.
I’ve joined – hope to see some of you there:)
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Posted in Challenges | 
Tags: Cook, Cookbook, Eating, Food industry, Publications, Shopping, Spice of Life, Water | 
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Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
Once there were great magicians born to the Maghuin Dhonn; the folk of the Brown Bear, the oldest tribe in Alba. But generations ago, the greatest of them all broke a sacred oath sworn in the name of all his people. Now, only small gifts remain to them. Through her lineage, Moirin possesses such gifts – the ability to summon the twilight and conceal herself, and the skill to coax plants to grow.
Moirin has a secret, too. From childhood onward, she senses the presence of unfamiliar gods in her life; the bright lady, and the man with a seedling cupped in his palm. Raised in the wilderness by her reclusive mother, it isn’t until she comes of age that Moirin learns how illustrious, if mixed, her heritage is. The great granddaughter of Alais the Wise, child of the Maghuin Donn, and a cousin of the Cruarch of Alba, Moirin learns her father was a D’Angeline priest dedicated to serving Naamah, goddess of desire.
After Moirin undergoes the rites of adulthood, she finds divine acceptance…on the condition that she fulfill an unknown destiny that lies somewhere beyond the ocean. Or perhaps oceans. Beyond Terre d’Ange where she finds her father, in the far reaches of distant Ch’in, Moirin’s skills are a true gift when facing the vengeful plans of an ambitious mage, a noble warrior princess desperate to save her father’s throne, and the spirit of a celestial dragon.
I was born to the Maghuin Dhonn.
We are the folk of the Brown Bear and the oldest magic in Alba runs in our veins. Once, there were great magicians among us; men and women capable of seeing all the skeins of the future unwind in the great stone circles, capable of taking on the shape of the Maghuin Dhonn Herself.
Let me start off by saying that this book is part of a series of books – a series that I have not read. But, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am planning on getting the rest of the series so I can get caught up on the rest of the story (although it isn’t necessary in order to follow the book)
This books main character is Moirin. She iss a member of the secretive bear clan of Maghuin Dhonn. This clan are descendants of the original inhabitants of the islands. From an early age it is apparent that Moirin has special abilities and her conception was something that was destined by both the bear goddess and the gods of Terre d’Ange.
This book focuses on Moirin and how she tries to bring together the heritage that she has inherated from both her mother and father. In doing so she is hopeful that she will find out what path her life is supposed to take.
On her travels she meets many people, has romance with many of them, and realizes that some are not exactly who they appear to be. I really enjoyed the way this author wrote about this other land and am glad to have some more books to add to my ever growing TBR pile.
Jacqueline Carey’s previous publications include various short stories, essays, a nonfiction book Angels: Celestial Spirits in Legend and Art, as well as the nationally bestselling series Kushiel’s Legacy.
For more information please visit:
http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/
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Posted in Miscellaneous |
Tags: Arts, Books, Brown Bear, Hachette Book Group USA, Jacqueline Carey, Naamah, Shopping, Short story |
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Win “The Law of Connection” by Michael Losier on Audio
About the Book:
In LAW OF CONNECTION, Michael J. Losier gives you the key to successful communication. Using the principles of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), you will soon master the few simple skills needed to create better understanding with people in every aspect of your life.
I will be giving away 3 copies on July 25. Read the rules below:
Giveaway Rules:
• You must be 18 years or older
• US and Canada residents only
• Winners will NOT be notified by email. The winner will be posted here on July 25, 2009.
• Comment below and enter once
Multiple Entries for the Giveaway:
• Post about a giveaway on your blog and include the link with your comment and you’ll be entered again.
• Subscribed by email or with an RSS reader? Be sure to say so. That’s an additional entry. (You can subscribe easily by clicking on the big orange button on the top).
• Following me on Twitter? If you mention it, that’s another entry.
• If you post about this on Twitter, be sure to say so in the comment section. That’s another entry.
• Stumble this post enter again.
• Are you a member at Facebook? What about one of the Ning groups? Add me as a friend and that’s additional entries. Be sure to list which ones.
GOOD LUCK!
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Posted in Book Giveaways |
Tags: Canada, Facebook, Ning, On the Web, RSS, Social network, Twitter, US |
15 Comments »
Win “How Successful People Think” by John C. Maxwell
About the Book:
The perfect, compact listen for today’s fast-paced world, How Successful People Think (derived from Maxwell’s previous book, Thinking for a Change) will teach listeners the 11 secrets successful people know. Arranged in an easy-to-follow format, America’s leadership expert, John C. Maxwell, will teach listeners how to expand their thinking and achieve their dreams.
I will be giving away 3 copies on July 25. Read the rules below:
Giveaway Rules:
• You must be 18 years or older
• US and Canada residents only
• Winners will NOT be notified by email. The winner will be posted here on July 25, 2009.
• Comment below and enter once
Multiple Entries for the Giveaway:
• Post about a giveaway on your blog and include the link with your comment and you’ll be entered again.
• Subscribed by email or with an RSS reader? Be sure to say so. That’s an additional entry. (You can subscribe easily by clicking on the big orange button on the top).
• Following me on Twitter? If you mention it, that’s another entry.
• If you post about this on Twitter, be sure to say so in the comment section. That’s another entry.
• Stumble this post enter again.
• Are you a member at Facebook? What about one of the Ning groups? Add me as a friend and that’s additional entries. Be sure to list which ones.
GOOD LUCK!
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Posted in Book Giveaways |
Tags: Canada, Facebook, Ning, On the Web, RSS, Social network, Twitter, US |
16 Comments »
Win “Any Minute” by Joyce Meyer on Audio
About the Book:
Sarah Harper is driven, pursuing happiness in all the wrong places. It’s not until she faces a chance encounter with heaven and spends time with the grandmother who prayed for her every day when she was a little girl that she begins to see how her own mother’s bitterness created a hole in Sarah’s life. For the first time, Sarah sees that God created her for a special purpose. When Sarah returns to her own life, she is a woman with a mission. And the unsuspecting world around her will never be the same again .
I will be giving away 3 copies on July 25. Read the rules below:
Giveaway Rules:
• You must be 18 years or older
• US and Canada residents only
• Winners will NOT be notified by email. The winner will be posted here on July 25, 2009.
• Comment below and enter once
Multiple Entries for the Giveaway:
• Post about a giveaway on your blog and include the link with your comment and you’ll be entered again.
• Subscribed by email or with an RSS reader? Be sure to say so. That’s an additional entry.
• Following me on Twitter? If you mention it, that’s another entry.
• If you post about this on Twitter, be sure to say so in the comment section. That’s another entry.
• Stumble this post enter again.
• Are you a member at Facebook? What about one of the Ning groups? Add me as a friend and that’s additional entries. Be sure to list which ones.
GOOD LUCK!
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Posted in Book Giveaways |
Tags: Canada, Facebook, Ning, On the Web, RSS, Social network, Twitter, US |
20 Comments »
Win a Copy of “The Bourne Deception” by Robert Ludlum on Audio
About the Book:
After Bourne is ambushed and nearly killed while in Indonesia, he fakes his death to take on a new identity and mission- to find out who is trying to assassinate him. Across the globe, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt. A massive global team lead by Soraya Moore is assembled to investigate the attack. When Bourne’s search for his would-be assassin intersects with Soraya’s search for the group behind the airplane bombing, Bourne is thrust into a race to prevent a new world war. But it may already be too late.
I will be giving away 3 copies on July 25. Read the rules below:
Giveaway Rules:
• You must be 18 years or older
• US and Canada residents only
• Winners will NOT be notified by email. The winner will be posted here on July 25, 2009.
• Comment below and enter once
Multiple Entries for the Giveaway:
• Post about a giveaway on your blog and include the link with your comment and you’ll be entered again.
• Subscribed by email or with an RSS reader? Be sure to say so. That’s an additional entry.
• Following me on Twitter? If you mention it, that’s another entry.
• If you post about this on Twitter, be sure to say so in the comment section. That’s another entry.
• Stumble this post enter again.
• Are you a member at Facebook? What about one of the Ning groups? Add me as a friend and that’s additional entries. Be sure to list which ones.
GOOD LUCK!
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Posted in Book Giveaways |
Tags: Canada, Facebook, Indonesia, Jason Bourne, Ning, RSS, Social network, Twitter |
15 Comments »
Win “Swimsuit” by James Patterson on Audio
Thanks once again to Anna at Hachette Book Group I will be giving away 3 copies of this book on July 25. This contest is limited to the US and Canada only.
To enter, please leave a comment with a valid email address.
Thanks and good luck!
