Michelle and I are pleased to announce the acquisition of the Book Blogger Convention by Reed Exhibitions (the folks who run Book Expo America (BEA))!

As many know, I have been organizing and running the Book Blogger Convention together with Michelle (and with the help of other bloggers) for two years now. It has been a labor of love, something that we created because it was something that WE wanted and thought other bloggers might enjoy as well. The support has been tremendous, and the responses after both years was thoughtful, insightful, and spurred us to new ideas.

Michelle ran the Book Blogger Convention this past year by herself. It was tough, but we were looking forward to planning the 2012 convention with the idea that I would be present. It quickly became apparent that with my having a new baby (and wanting more bebes) and Michelle dealing with some health issues, that planning another convention wouldn’t be feasible. We approached Reed about the possibility of purchasing the Book Blogger Convention. After quite a few discussions, it seemed like the best idea to have Reed run the Book Blogger Convention and Michelle and I would bow out.

We are confident in the direction that Reed will take the Book Blogger Convention, and we feel they will be able to do things with it that we were unable to do, either because we didn’t have the resources or we didn’t have the time.

Our hope is that the book blogging community embraces this new direction, and we look forward to seeing you in June at the Book Blogger Convention and Book Expo America!

***As I get back to blogging, one of my first tasks was to go through the drafts folder and weed out partially written posts. This post, though, is done, and there’s no reason not to publish it. So here ’tis!***

Mini-reviews!

L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais (mystery/suspense) – Recommended to me by Jen from Jen’s Book Thoughts, this is one of the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels. Joe Pike’s ex-girlfriend is found murdered, and her father asks Joe and Elvis to find her killer. If I was on a mystery/suspense binge, then I’d totally do Robert Crais. Highly recommended, despite a few things I found annoying in the beginning.

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist – Picked by my book club, though this had been on my radar for quite some time. This book takes place in the future in a dystopian society where, if folks reach a certain age (50 for women, 60 for men) and aren’t needed by someone else (a father/mother, a husband/wife, or children), they’re sent to a facility to live while their organs are harvested for people with families until they finally have to give away  an organ that they can’t do without. This book gave me a lot to think about in regards to what makes someone important in society. This book was translated from Swedish, and while it definitely had a foreign feel, I have no complaints about the writing and was thrilled I had the chance to read this book. Highly recommended.

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie – At times I felt this book was brilliant, at other times I felt this book was so utterly boring that I considered putting it down and never picking it up again. When the atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, Hiroko Tinaka was wearing a silk kimono with three black cranes across the back which are burned on to her skin during the bombing. The book follows Hiroko through most of her life, from losing her fiance in Nagasaki to falling in love again to having a son who gets caught up with terrorists. Unfortunately, the boring parts were too overshadowing of the brilliant parts, so I just can’t recommend this book.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – Just a freaking fantastic book set in the future, and there were numerous moments where I was like, Is what I think’s happening really happening? Ishiguro never really comes out and tells you This is what’s happening, which makes the book that much more intriguing. A great book for book clubs. Highly highly recommended.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick – I loved this book. Ralph orders a bride (“a reliable wife”) and Catherine responds. Both people have their own plans for the other: Catherine wants to marry Ralph and then kill him, and Ralph, well, he’s got plans as well, though he doesn’t plan on killing Catherine. I’ve got over 40 flags tagging various sentences/passages, which for me is a sign of a really great book. Highly recommended.

Good People by Marcus Sakey – This is the kind of mystery that would make a great book club pick. A nice couple find a load of cash, decide not to go to the police, and end up running from the criminals that it belongs to. It made me think a lot about what I’d do in that situation, and how I could best evade hardened criminals. Important stuff to think about, because you never know when you’ll find a sack full of money and need to run for your life. Fantastic book club fodder, no? Pretty highly recommended.

The First Rule by Robert Crais – This was the first book by Robert Crais that I read. This is what hooked me on him. A great storyline, fast pacing, and frankly not a whole lot of violence. A lot of implied violence, but we all know that our imagination is better than actually being told what happened. Highly recommended.

This week I’m really excited to interview Sheila from Book Journey about her book club of almost 10 years! I met Sheila this year at BEA and instantly connected with her. Enjoy this peek into her book club!

How long has your book club been in existence?

We started in August of 2001

Does your book club have a name?

The Bookies

How many people are in your book club?

17

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

For the first time in January we put a freeze on members, we were just getting too big and limiting ourselves as to where to meet.

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?

Second Tuesdays of every month

What kind of books do you read?

Because we are so large we try to stick to newer releases so we can all find copies easy.  We read a mix of genres.  Every October we read a Classic.

How do you choose books?

We vote.  Each member is allowed to bring one suggestion.  They nominate it, share what it is about, and then we all go around and each get two votes.  (No idea why we stick to two votes each but we have always done it that way since we were a small group of 5 so that’s what we do

Which book generated the best discussion?

Over the years we have had some good ones.  We need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver brought out emotions I didn’t know our book club members had.  We were all over the place on how we felt about that one.  Summer house by Jude Deveroux is particularly memorable because we had a wonderful discussion on the road not traveled and I think we all cried during that meeting.

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?

Not as often as I would like.  We take turns choosing where we will meet and sometimes the area we are meeting in is hard to accommodate a phone conversation, although I would love to do more of that.

Do you have one person who moderates the discussion?

I usually create the discussion questions and keep us moving.

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

No, but that sounds cool.

How long does the discussion last?

We always do dinner with out meetings so we are usually done with dinner, book discussion, and chatting in 2 hours.

Do you eat food at your book club meeting?

We do. If we meet at a restaurant we order there, or if we meet in a member’s home we potluck and try to theme our food to the book.

How do you decide where the meeting will be held?

We hand out a schedule at the beginning of each year and someone different is responsible to choose a place each month.

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

Being such a large group we do events to keep things exciting.  Every July we have our Queen Event (you can see that on my blog – we just had that in July) where we dress up in formal wear and do speeches or rhymes, songs or whatever, on why we should be Queen.  It is a lot of fun – everyone participates and we vote in a Queen for a year.  The Queen breaks all ties on book votes and chooses our next meeting place if the member who is supposed to choose is not present.  It’s all in fun and builds great community.  This event came out of the book Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King.

If a book we read becomes a movie we try to organize going together.

In December we have a Christmas party, do a gift exchange and potluck at one fo the members homes.  We try to read a Holiday type book as well.

Thanks for sharing, Sheila! Your book club sounds like a blast!

Previous interviews:

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
Elisabeth from The Lit Chicks

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.

Whew! You sure haven’t seen me much around, have you? I’m barely holding my head above water as I finish some things for the Book Blogger Convention.

I wanted to alert you to the fact that the FREAKING AWESOME Sarah Pekkanen, whose book, The Opposite of Me, I reviewed, is giving away a trip to New York to attend BEA and the Book Blogger Convention. Now you know why she’s freaking awesome! Even if you’ve already made your travel plans, you can still sign up to win!

Here’s what you’ll get if you win:

• Up to $350 of travel expense reimbursed – including gas, train tickets, flights, etc. (winner must arrange own travel and submit receipts)
• Two nights in a NYC hotel (I’ll book the room)
• $50 cash toward meals
• 1 pass to the book blogger reception on Thursday, May 27
• 1 pass to the book blogger convention on Friday, May 28
• I’ll also bring the winner with me to Atria Books on Thursday afternoon for a meet-and-greet and chat about hot new books for the upcoming year (bring a bookbag as you’ll collect an armful of new releases!)

Enter to win the trip to New York

The other thing I wanted to tell you about is that the organizers of the Book Blogger Convention will chat with the host of That’s How I Blog, Nicole from Linus’s Blanket, on

Wednesday, May 12th at 6:00pm PST.

Please join us! You can ask us questions, chat with us, and maybe even find out stuff we haven’t told anyone.