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I meant to type up this post yesterday, but time got away from me. By that I mean, if I think for even two seconds about the Mockingjay release date, time slows to a crawl and I want to go to bed and not wake up until 11:59pm on August 23rd. So I’m purposefully NOT thinking about it because when the day comes I think I might pee my pants I’m going to be so excited.

Did I mention I’m taking August 24th off of work? Yeah, I’m not messing around.

But in the meantime, I wanted to do a giveaway. A big giveaway, because it’s going to be international.

Mmhm.

INTERNATIONAL.

I’m giving away one copy of Mockingjay to two different winners anywhere in the world. And the reason I’m doing the giveaway *now* is because I will send the books out on August 24th so that I can get them to the winners as soon as possible.

The rules! One entry per household. Fill out the form below, and make sure you fill it out perfectly, because any entry that doesn’t have all the information will automatically be deleted. Open worldwide. Contest will close at 11:59pm PDT on August 23, 2010, and winners will be notified via email.

Of course, when you get the book, please be mindful of Ms. Collins’ wishes:

One of the most important things to me is that everyone in the world is going to be able to experience the final book of The Hunger Games all at the same time, and be able to discover what happens in the book without hearing about it elsewhere first. Word will certainly travel fast, but I urge you – before or immediately after August 24th – to please respect the other Hunger Games fans worldwide and avoid sharing any spoilers, so that the conclusion of Katniss’s story can unfold for each reader the way it was meant to unfold.

I think that’s it! Good luck! And may the odds be ever in your favor.

This giveaway is sponsored by me. Suzanne Collins doesn’t know who I am, nor does Scholastic. I wanted to do this to help my international friends and because I have a few extra bucks.

Welcome to District 6! Come in! Come in! Rest your feet while I tell you a little bit about your host today.

District 6 hasn’t been discussed much in either The Hunger Games or Catching Fire, but we’re not without our fame! We were the district that had the tribute that went savage during one of the hunger games and started eating the hearts of other tributes he killed. I know that’s a little extreme, and I can’t say we were proud, but he didn’t end up winning because he was killed in an avalanche. Half of our district is relieved that he died, the other half is angry because we certainly could have used the gifts and food that Panem lavishes on the winner’s district! We all agree, though, that the avalanche was no doubt manufactured by the Gamemakers. Having a lunatic win The Hunger Games would have made a mockery of what they are.

*cough*

Admittedly, this cannibal is probably what we’re most famous for in The Hunger Games, but we’ve done our fair share of trying to keep Katniss and Peeta alive! Both of our morphlings gave their lives for Katniss and Peeta. I hope those two live up to what Haymitch said they would do, otherwise our morphling’s deaths will have been in vain.

I’m sure you’re wondering what we do here, since you know what some of the other districts specialize in. Unfortunately, it’s a secret and if I told you I’d have to kill you.

On to the topic at hand! If you think Katniss and Gale’s relationship is a secret, then you don’t understand the way word can spread here. I know, I know. Katniss and Peeta are shown together during the Games, but let me tell you why I love Gale, and why I think he’s better for Katniss:

1. Gale’s a survivor. Sure, I guess baking bread works if you have a roof over your head and a place to bake the bread, but with Gale you never have to worry about food, because he can hunt and gather.

2. Gale’s known Katniss for years and knows her better than just about anyone else, even if he didn’t fight in the Games with her.

3. Gale’s a scrapper. He hasn’t led the privileged life that Peeta has, which means he knows how to get by, and dare I say it? He has more character.

4. Gale can make Katniss smile and laugh when no one else can. Connections like that aren’t easily replaced or replicated. Men like Gale are few and far between.

5. Gale’s a man. He’s been taking care of his family for years, taking on the tessera and hunting and gathering in the woods.

And here’s who I’d cast for Gale (I know he’s a little old, but when has that ever stopped Hollywood?):

Ben Barnes. Aw yeah.

Gale has straight black hair, olive skin, and grey eyes. Obvs Benny needs a little work to make him Gale, but I don’t think he’s far off.

Team Gale!

Are you Team Gale or Team Peeta?

We in District 6 can’t wait to find out how this story ends. We are declaring August 24th a national holiday so that everyone can read Mockingjay. Will you be reading it with us?

And now for the giveaway!

I have 50 (FIFTY!) stickers to give away. *points up* Aren’t those cool? I’m so jealous of everyone who’ll win. I haven’t had a sticker in a long time, but I would LOVE this one! *dies*

All you have to do is fill out the form below with your name, mailing address, and email address by SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2010 at 11:59pm PT (the reason I’m getting your mailing address now is so that I don’t have to collect 50 addresses later. Once the winners are announced and a few weeks have gone by to ensure they’ve received their sticker, I will delete the form and all the entries.). I will announce the winners Sunday, August 22, 2010.

(On that Sunday, I will also be opening a contest that will be sponsored by me for a copy of Mockingjay. The contest will only run a few days so the winner can get Mockingjay as soon as possible. This contest will be open internationally.)

But back to this contest! This contest is only open to folks in the United States (sorry international folks!).

If you haven’t yet, please be sure to ‘like’ The Hunger Games on Facebook. (Shouldn’t Facebook have other options besides like? I would definitely click ‘obsesses over’ if that was an option.)

Also! The next stop on this totally rad tour is Monday, August 16 — District 7: Novel Novice.

I will try to keep my cool while I write this post, but every time I discuss this topic I get red in the face and my blood pressure rises. You will probably see lots of all caps words. The passion I have for this topic makes me want to write this WHOLE POST in all caps, but I know how annoying that is to read, so I’ll try to be judicious in using all caps.

I’ve meant to talk for a while about why I don’t buy from Amazon and never will again, but the recent drop in the price of Kindle has prompted me to write this post. I’ll try to organize my thoughts, but it’s likely that they’ll be scattered. I fear that I won’t be able to accurately articulate  my frustration, my fear, and my anger, but I’ll try.

The Basics

While I might choose to shop at my local independent bookstore (and wish more pople did the same), ultimately I have no problem with people going to a big chain bookstore to purchase books. Even chain bookstores are INHERENTLY INTERESTED in the future of publishing. But if publishing went south tomorrow? Amazon wouldn’t even BAT AN EYE. THEY DO NOT CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO BOOKS.

Everyone knows that Amazon sells books at a deep, deep discount, particularly hardcovers, new releases, and bestsellers. Why would they do that? It’s not because they’re philanthropic. It’s because once they’ve got you at their store, there’s a good chance you’ll buy something that they DO make money on, i.e. electronics and other things they actually make money on. In business terms, this is called a loss leader. E-books have also been a loss leader for Amazon so it can “gain loyalty and market share.” So the industry that I’m so invested in, the industry that supplies my hobby, that makes me think outside of the box, that entertains me, that teaches me, that helps me connect with other people, that industry? Amazon would only care if books died because they’d have to find a new loss leader. That is not a company that has the best interests of publishing at its heart.

________

Amazon is a big bully.

You can read about the whole kerfluffle from Charles Stross and John Scalzi, but here’s the gist: Macmillan said, ‘We want you to charge x amount for our ebooks.’ Amazon said, ‘Fuck you. We want to charge less.’ Macmillan said, ‘No, these are our books, we think you’re setting an expectation with readers about ebook prices that we can’t sustain, and we want you to charge x amount for ebooks.’ Amazon’s response? Remove ALL THE BUY BUTTONS FROM ALL OF MACMILLANS titles. Effectively saying, Let’s see if we can make you do it OUR WAY by taking away your ability to sell your books through the biggest book retailer on earth.

HOW IS THAT OKAY?!!! Sure, I can let big companies duke it out, but I WILL NOT support a company that plays dirty (which is why I also don’t shop at WalMart).

This is a great article: The Trouble With Amazon. The article is well worth reading, but the part that made me recoil in horror is the story that one publisher has of trying to stand up to Amazon, refusing to give Amazon such a deep discount on books because it’s ILLEGAL. What did Amazon do?

“I was at the Book Expo in New York and two guys from Amazon came to see me. They said that the company was watching what we were doing and that they strongly advised us to get in line. I was shocked at how blatant the pressure was.” Within a couple of days Johnson noticed that the buy buttons for his books had been taken off Amazon’s site, making Melville’s titles unavailable.

WHY would I support a company that for all intents and purposes is a Mafia-like organization?

________

Last year at BEA I won a Kindle from GetGlue. Shortly after this MacMillan business went down, I gave the Kindle away because I couldn’t stomach supporting a company that I consider to be evil. Even reading free books off of their device seemed wrong.

I may someday buy a Nook or an iPad, but I will never ever buy a Kindle.

I mentioned that I won’t buy books or anything else at Amazon. The reason I was buying from Amazon before was because it was cheap and convenient. But I’ve decided that if I’m not going to support Amazon, then I AM going to support locally owned businesses or the actual business on the Internet that is supplying the ‘thing’ that I want to buy that I would have previously bought from Amazon. Guess what I’ve found? That buying locally/directly isn’t cost prohibitive for me. I paid $5 more for my messenger bag that I use every day by buying it directly from the supplier as opposed to ordering it from Amazon. $5 to me is nothing. It’s throwaway money. But to a business? That’s profit that I’m putting in A PERSON’S POCKET, as opposed to filling Amazon’s coffers. Supporting a person versus supporting a corporation? Do I really need to answer that?

And if I want an electronic device, I’ll go to Best Buy or Costco, but I don’t need cheap prices enough to turn a blind eye to what Amazon is doing. Nothing is worth that.

________

In this article titled In Defense of Amazon, said that Amazon is only providing people with what they want: cheaper products. But have we not learned that cheaper isn’t always better? And when has a company with as much power as Amazon has ever been a good thing?

You will not convince me that cheaper prices evolving the way Amazon has pushed the industry is beneficial to anyone.

________

I know that my not buying from Amazon and telling all my friends I won’t buy from Amazon won’t hurt them in the least. But I will not support what Amazon represents by buying books or anything else from them.

(Thanks to @KatherineBoG for helping solidify my opinions about Amazon.)

I’m was so excited when Elisabeth emailed me and told me she’d be happy to answer these questions. I think I’m telling my husband we have to move so I can be in Elisabeth’s book club. This may require some plotting…

Also, I CANNOT get enough of these interviews. I’m addicted. So if you’d like your book club to be featured, just email me at trish(at)heylady(dot)net.

How long has your book club been in existence?

We have been in existence for 14 years.

Does your book club have a name?

Our name is The Lit Chicks. (I love this name. Can I borrow it?)

How many people are in your book club?

We currently have 9 members but have had as many as 13.

Is your book club open to new members? How do new members end up in your book club?

We are open to new members, although we like the group as is.  New members are brought in by current members who know the person who would like to join.

When do you meet? Is it a set day every month, or do you work it out so it’s on a different day but convenient for everyone?

We try to meet on the third Wednesday of every month.  We are flexible though, so if that day does not work for us, we will switch.

What kind of books do you read?

We mainly read fiction, but always read one classic a year.  We also occasionally dabble in non fiction.

How do you choose books?

Books are chosen once a year at our January or February meeting.  We bring suggestions to the meeting, and also choose books from our annual holiday book grab bag.( Every December when we go out to a restaurant for our meeting, every member brings a gift wrapped paperback book.  The books go in the center of the table and everyone picks.)   The books we want to read,  has to be agreed upon by all and not read by anyone.

Which book generated the best discussion?

The books that garner the best discussions are usually the ones where we are divided on whether we liked or disliked the book.  We have a lot of good discussions but one of our best ones was The Thirteenth Tale.  Our most recent book that generated a good discussion was The Year of the Fog.

Do you invite authors to join your discussion when you discuss their book? How do you handle having the author in on your discussion if some or all of the members didn’t absolutely love the book?

Never had an author come to a meeting, although we do have a member who has published.

Do you have one person who moderates the discussion?

We are a very informal group and have no one person who leads us, although technically I am our “leader”, since I started the group.

Have you ever had a professional moderator moderate one of your meetings?

Nope, never hired anyone.

How long does the discussion last?

The length of the discussion varies.  Books where we are divided tend to be longer.  We also digress from our talks and then return later to revisit.

Do you eat food at your book club meeting?

There is always food and drink.  Very important!!!

How do you decide where the meeting will be held?

Every member hosts for one meeting.  We always go out for our holiday meeting in December.  We have just recently downsized to nine, we have one open month and we will be meeting at Panera’s.  Next year, we will have to decide what to do about that extra third month.

Is there anything else about your book club you’d like to share?

We are not only a book group but friends.  We do movie nights where we have read the book and then we meet on a Friday to watch the movie.  This is in addition to our regular meetings.  Best of all though is we love to go away on trips.  We try and go in the fall and the spring.  Our fall trip this year is  to to Saratoga, New York.  Our last trip was to Mystic, Connecticut.  We have a blast!!!  We laugh and laugh and talk about everything from soup to nuts, shop, play games and of course eat out!

Since I love Elisabeth’s book club name, I’m wondering if your book club has a name? Mine doesn’t, and I’d love to hear yours and/or cool names for book clubs! For a while our book club was called Gin and Phonics, but I just didn’t *love* it.

Leslie, my friend from high school
Ti from Book Chatter and her Valencia Library Book Group
Michelle
Kelly from Yannabe and her OPRA Book Club
Heather from A Lifetime of Books and her book club Storie delle Sorrelle
Helen from Helen’s Book Blog and her TWO book clubs

I was really excited to read Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. All I knew is that you get the story doled out to you while the main character is talking to her therapist. I was sold.

Annie, a real estate agent, is closing down her open house when someone pulls up and wants to take a look inside the house she’s showing. This man abducts her and takes her to a remote cabin where he holds her hostage, rapes her, and terrorizes her. The reader is doled out the story as Annie goes to therapy sessions, so you know she escaped or was released, but how that happened you won’t know until Annie gets to that part of the story with her therapist. Parallel to this, Annie is also dealing with the investigation that’s going on. She didn’t know who her captor was, where she was being held, or why she was abducted.

I couldn’t put this book down.

Could.

Not.

Put.

It.

Down.

Still Missing is such an engrossing book that I found myself up late at night wanting to read one more chapter. I love books that suck me in and won’t let me go until the last page, which this book definitely did.

I sympathized with Annie most of the time, but was put off by her attitude towards her therapist. I imagine that to get through something as horrific as an abduction and rape, you have to shut a part of yourself off, but her attitude was still grating:

But don’t get me wrong, just because you look like someone’s grandmother — you should be knitting, not taking notes — doesn’t mean I like being here. And telling me to call you Nadine? Not sure what that’s all about, but let me guess, I have your first name, so now I’m supposed to feel like we’re buddies and it’s okay for me to tell you stuff I don’t want to remember, let alone talk about? Sorry, I’m not paying you to be my friend, so if it’s all the same to you I’ll just stick with Doc.

And while we’re getting shit straight here, let’s lay down some ground rules before we start this joyride. If we’re going to do this, it’s going to be done my way. That means no questions from you. Not even one sneaky little “How did that make you fell when…” I’ll tell the story from the beginning, and when I’m interested in hearing what you have to say, I’ll let you know.

Annie loses a little of that chip on her shoulder as the book progresses, and I know why she’s so bitter and angry, but this attitude didn’t do anything to endear me to her in the beginning.

This is a very plot driven novel, as many mystery/thriller/suspense books are. I liked the pace with which the plot progressed, and I especially liked the WTF twist that the plot took towards the end. It wasn’t something I was expecting, and while it was a little out there in the believability realm, it was actually something that I could see happening.

When Annie escapes from her abductor and there’s an ongoing investigation, Annie naturally becomes attracted to one of the investigators on her case. I was disappointed that the author let them strike up a…rendezvous. I know these things happen, but I was hoping for a little more moral fiber from the investigator (even though my heart was like Heck yes! Get it on!).

Still Missing is an extremely impressive debut, and I look forward to Chevy Stevens’ next book (who I hope can write FAST).

Rating: 92 for plot, 85 for characters and how I felt about them, so…88.5.

Chevy Stevens’ website: www.chevystevens.com.

I’ve got FIVE copies of Still Missing to giveaway! Just leave a comment telling me your favorite mystery/suspense/thriller book, and you’re entered to win! Contest closes on Saturday, August 5th at 11:59pm PST. Contest is open worldwide.