Archive for April, 2010

Friday, April 30th, 2010

April/May Early Reviewer Bonus Batch!

Surprise! We just sent out the April Early Reviewers winners. But we have the opportunity to give out a few more books quickly. So here it is: A tiny bonus batch, closing on Tuesday.

  • The deadline to request a copy is Tuesday, May 4th at 6PM EST.
  • Canadians: Both books are available to you, and one is for you alone!

The War Memoir of (HRH) Wallis, Dutchess of Windsor by Kate Auspitz

“Was it the greatest love story of the twentieth century or a bloodless coup?

She was the first person to be named Woman of the Year by Time magazine. Yet Wallis Simpson is one of the most reviled women in history. The social climbing divorcĂ©e was portrayed as a snob and a voluptuary who came close to destroying the British monarchy. But could she have been the pawn of Allied statesmen determined to remove a Nazi sympathizer from power?”

The book comes to us from Viking Canada.

Gnoll Credo by J. Stanton

From a world in which Avatar is Fight Club instead of Disney’s Pocahontas, James Tiptree, Jr. wrote The Dice Man, and magic doesn’t work any better than it does here…
…we bring you The Gnoll Credo. Sell that ‘enchanted’ sword and come join the hyena-people. Don’t wear your good clothes.

The book comes to us from 100 Watt Press, and also appeared in our March batch, when it was requested 820 times.

How to participate. First, make sure to sign up for Early Reviewers. If you’ve already signed up, please check your mailing address and make sure it’s correct.

Then request away! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

Eligiblity: Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to the US and Canada.

Labels: early reviewers

Monday, April 19th, 2010

April’s State of the Thing

I’ve just sent out the April State of the Thing, our monthly newsletter. Sign up to get it, or you can read it online.

This month’s State of the Thing introduces some of the new LibraryThing babies, gives book recommendations from Robyn Okrant and David Lipsky (featuring all the David Foster Wallace you could want), and beings an exclusive author interview with Anne Lamott:

Anne Lamott’s Imperfect Birds is the third in a series about the characters Elizabeth and Rosie (and now-husband James). In Imperfect Birds, the first-person narrative shifts between mother and teen daughter. Elizabeth is simultaneously dealing with her own demons of depression and alcoholism while dealing with her child’s growing freedom. Rosie pushes boundaries to the breaking point, with serious drug use and lying forcing Elizabeth to view the unpleasant realities of her daughter’s actions and her own desire for polite fiction over impolite truth. Anne’s previous books also include the non-fiction Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year and Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith.

Next month, I’ll be interviewing Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, about his new book Beatrice and Virgil. I’ll also be interviewing David Baldacci, who’s new novel, Deliver Us from Evil, will be out April 20th.

Have a question for Martel or Baldacci? Post them in the Author Interviews—you ask the questions group.

(Photo is of me reading in a cherry tree, taken by me.)

Labels: state of the thing

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Hello, Lulu!

Many congrats go to LibraryThing developer Mike and his wife Rebecca, on the birth of their daughter, the already impressive Lulu!

Mike liveblogged the event, so you can check out even more cute photos.

If you’d like to send happy thoughts, well wishes or scones, there’s a thread here.

Lulu is the third LibraryThing baby born in the past month (Max and William joined the LibraryThing team at the end of March), and we still have two to go (myself, and Chris Catalfo) before July.

If you’d like to see all of the LibraryThing newborns, check out the rest of the LibraryThingBaby birth announcements.

Labels: LibraryThing babies

Monday, April 5th, 2010

The April batch of Early Reviewer books is up!

The April 2010 batch of Early Reviewer books is up! We’ve got 93 books this month, and a grand total of 2,098 copies to give out.

First, make sure to sign up for Early Reviewers. If you’ve already signed up, please check your mailing address and make sure it’s correct.

Then request away! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Friday, April 23rd at 6PM EST.

NOTE: Two of the ebooks this month are available to read online-only, so make sure before you request that you are willing to read the book on your computer, online (as opposed to downloaded, on your computer/ereader/phone/etc.), because you’re responsible for reviewing any book you win.

Eligiblity: Publishers offer books country-by-country. Make sure to check the flags by each title to see if it can be sent to your country.

Thanks to all the publishers participating this month!

Kregel Publications Penguin Putnam Books
Grand Central Publishing Henry Holt and Company Ballantine Books
Canongate Books Bell Bridge Books Tundra Books
WaterBrook Press The Permanent Press Del Rey
Doubleday Books Demos Medical Publishing Frog Legs Ink
PublicAffairs Hol Art Books PublishingWorks, Inc.
Hesperus Press Faber and Faber W.W. Norton
Hyperion Books Picador Seven Stories Press
HarperCollins Harper Paperbacks Avon Books
North Atlantic Books Pomegranate Wild Wolf Publishing
St. Martin’s Griffin Zed Books Chalice Press
Bantam Dell Candlewick MIRA
Chin Music Press Harlequin Teen

Labels: early reviewers