Dreamers Often Lie Giveaway Winner!

Dreamers Often Lie Giveaway Winner!

Jacqueline West was the August Minnesota Author in the Spotlight on BookSnob and she is graciously giving away one copy of her fabulous Young Adult novel, Dreamers Often Lie. I'm thrilled to say we finally have a winner!  Several people did not respond to their emails unfortunately and so it took awhile to get that one special winner.

Anne B of New Mexico is the winner!

Congrats Anne.  Enjoy your new book.

Here is an excerpt from my book review:

The story is full of action and twisted plots and creative characters.  There is anger and intrigue and love triangles. Dreamers Often Lie is a quote from Romeo and Juliet as well as this awesome, page-turning novel.  This is a smart book and Jacqueline West conquers serious issues and situations with ease.
I was spellbound until the very last page.

Poem in My Post- Love and Other Hand Grenades by Danielle DeTiberus

Poem in My Post- Love and Other Hand Grenades by Danielle DeTiberus

I love poetry. Don't you?
I chose to feature a poem by Danielle DeTiberus today because I fell in love with her poem In A Black Tank Top.  I wasn't able to post it on my blog but you can read it here:  http://www.rattle.com/in-a-black-tank-top-by-danielle-detiberus/  Instead I chose this amazing poem called Love and Other Hand Grenades which won the Jane Moran Prize in 2012.  She will WOW you with this poem.

Danielle also has a great article on On Being about racism and segregation. You should seriously read it. Sooo good.  http://www.onbeing.org/blog/holding-a-sacred-space-of-many-silences/7722

You can find Danielle on her website: http://www.danielledetiberus.com./about/


Love and Other Hand Grenades

Love’s mess is as explosive as
survival—spark violent as ripe
pomegranates bursting seeds in fall.
Some days I hate that I love you
this much. It’d be easier, prettier if I could
pack up my books, leave
the cats and cast iron pans behind.
Stuck to the fridge a note without
punctuation about traveling on. How would I
look as a wanderer? My hair long,
smelling of someone else’s musk. The girl
with a hundred lovers: a brunette Joni Mitchell
without the dulcimer. The lives
we have to murder for each choice. Or
imagine we must because there’s no way to know
otherwise. Each day a fuse
sizzling towards detonation. We throw
sparks to one another like flirtations, like
dares. Save the biggest blasts
for the ones we know will put us back
together again. This is why we’re so
fragmented. Why it’s so exhausting to stay
in love. The real thing—not
the passion of battle. But the bandaging, the salve.
To love you this way is to keep our wounds
fresh. To toss our fragile shells
back and forth, like mistaking
a grenade for a hot potato. No surprise that
we long for the same feeling we run from.
Here are my insides, love. Promise to make me
whole. I am the wounded that needs to be
fixed. You are both doctor and enemy.
You’ve seen the places I cannot look.
It is hardest to be loved this way—and to love as if
there were no end. A gesture against extinction:
a hand bearing fruit, sowing fire in the holes.

©2012 Danielle DeTiberus

The Firebug of Balrog County Giveaway

The Firebug of Balrog County Giveaway

David Oppegaard is the Minnesota Author in the Spotlight here on Booksnob for the scary month of October.  He is giving away 3 signed copies of his YA novel, The Firebug of Balrog County to U.S. followers.  I'm in the middle of reading it and loving it so far.  You will want to win this book!

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

A firebug has woken inside my heart.

Dark times have fallen on remote Balrog County, and Mack Druneswald, a high school senior with a love of clandestine arson, is doing his best to deal. While his family is haunted by his mother’s recent death, Mack spends his nights roaming the countryside, looking for something new to burn. When he encounters Katrina, a college girl with her own baggage, Mack sets out on a path of pyromania the likes of which sleepy Balrog County has never seen before.

A darkly comic tour-de-force, The Firebug of Balrog County is about legend, small towns, and the fire that binds.

Giveaway Rules:
Enter on the form
U.S. residents only
Ends November 23rd at midnight
Good Luck!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dreamers Often Lie by Jacqueline West

Dreamers Often Lie by Jacqueline West

Dreamers Often Lie will knock your socks off with an unreliable narrator.  Jaye suffers a Traumatic Brain Injury and is seeing and talking to Shakespeare characters, namely Romeo and Hamlet and MacBeth is there too.. She is trying to convince everyone around her she is sane, including herself, as she gets ready to play a leading role in her high school play, A Midsummer's Nights Dream.

Shakespeare lovers will adore this book.

The story is full of action and twisted plots and creative characters.  There is anger and intrigue and love triangles. Dreamers Often Lie is a quote from Romeo and Juliet as well as this awesome, page-turning novel.  This is a smart book and Jacqueline West conquers serious issues and situations with ease.
I was spellbound until the very last page.

Beyond the Book:

Here is an excerpt from the book:
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/03/dreamers-often-lie-excerpt

A review by the Minneapolis Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/review-dreamers-often-lie-by-jacqueline-west/374194111/

Twin Cities Book Festival

Twin Cities Book Festival

Saturday, Oct 15th was the annual Twin Cities Book Festival organized by Rain Taxi Review of Books. I went with a plan of action and my main goal was to meet and listen to A.S. King, who happens to be one of my favorite authors. Throughout the day I made a lot of author connections and added a bunch of titles to my TBR pile.

Here is an accounting of my day at the Twin Cities Book Fest.

10 am;  Arrival.  Filled out my contest form, got my schedule of events.

10:15 to 11:  Meet and mingle with Minnesota Authors.  I talked to Krista Tippett, Kelly Barnhill, Allen Eskins, Peter Geye, John Coy, Wing Young Huie and Su Smallen.  It was a busy and crowded space. It was nice to mingle and talk with these awesome Minnesota authors.

11 to 11:30:  Shop for books.  Went and bought books from several of the bookstores.  I bought 7 brand new graphic novels for 3-5 dollars each. A huge deal I couldn't pass up. Then I found 4 brand new children's books from 2-4 dollars each for my godson and nephews.  Then I bought two fiction books for my daughter and I to read. After I did this my bag was heavy so I had to walk a few blocks back to my car and drop them off.

Here is the list of titles.

Fiction:
Rooms by Lauren Oliver
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad

Children's Books:
Peck, Peck, Peck by Lucy Cousins
I Love Hockey board book
Good Dog Carl and the Baby Elephant by Alexandra Day
Old MacDonald had a Truck by Steve Goetz

Graphic novels and Manga:
The Inflatable Woman by Rachel Ball
Red. A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Ghetto Brothers. Warrior to Peacemaker by Julian Voloj
Tonoharu. Part One by Lars Martinson
Time Killers. Short story collection by Kazue Kato
Gangsta by Kohske
Tokyo Ghost. The Atomic Garden by Rick Remender

11:45- 12:15:  Walked back to the festival and ran into my friend Pamela. She said I had to see the Midwestern Panel with Mary Mack, Stephanie Wilbur Ash and Geoff Herbach.  Each author read from their latest work. It was hilarious and the whole audience was laughing.

12:15:  I ran into my friend and fellow book blogger Linda White and her son.  Linda blogs at BookManiaLife.  We visited and then I was off to buy 3 new books and to get through all the displays on floor in an hour. This was super ambitious of me since there was over 100 exhibitors.

I bought a copy of The Association of Small Bombs by Karen Majajan, from Magers and Quinn and Then I bought a copy of Still Life with Tornados by A.S. King and Glory O'Brien's History of the Future from The Red Balloon bookstore.  Now I had to wait for their presentations and then I could get in line to meet them.

1:10-1:20:  I met Beth Dooley at the Milkweed Press booth and asked her to be my featured author for November.  I got a review copy of her book: In Winter's Garden.  Growing Roots and Breaking Bread in the Northern Heartland.

Then I ran into one of my favorite spoken word poets, Guante and he was there with his new book of poems, lyrics and essays and squee, I was super excited to meet him.  I am going to feature him on my blog in April, 2017.  His new book is called A Love Song, A Death Rattle, A Battle Cry.  You need to check this book out!!

At 1:30 I went to The Personal and Political author Panel.  This was a great panel, with National Book Award Finalist, Karan Majajan, and Lidija Dimkovska and Derek Palacio.  This panel was excellent. Each author read from their books and answered questions about the political nature of their books.  I was really impressed and learned a lot from Lidija Dimkovska who lives in Slovenia and is Macedonian. Her novel, A Spare Life chronicles conjoined twins who are separated as Yugoslavia goes through their bloody and difficult separation. I definitely want to read her book.  Derek and Karan were awesome too, talking about Cuba and India and the problems these countries are currently facing.

At 2:30 I got in line to meet and get Karan Mahajan to sign my book and to talk to Lidija and Derek.  I wanted a picture with all of them but the table didn't really make this possible so I left without a pic.

2:40:  I saw Mary Casanova at the University of Minnesota Press and talked to her about featuring her on my blog.  I have been wanting to read her books for a long time.  She gave me a review copy of her newest title, Ice Out. Looks super good.  Hoping to review the book in November/December.

2:50- I went in to the Teen area to wait for A.S. King and I pretty much thought it would be standing room only because the whole world should know how awesome her books are and want to meet her right?  Dang, I was wrong and this made me kinda sad but I took a front row seat next to a woman named Jolene Wilson whom I would later learn is a book blogger. She drove over 3 hours to get to the Twin Cities Book Festival and blogs at https://jolenewilsonblog.wordpress.com/

3pm.  The Books for Thought Author Panel

This panel was lead by Shannon Gibney, author of the MN Book Award for her novel, See No Color.  Lara Avery (The Memory Book), Kathleen Glasgow (Girl in Pieces) and A.S. King (Still Life with Tornado) were all present on the panel.  I think this was the best author panel I have ever seen.  All of these woman authors are amazing and I wish it would have been standing room only because many of the points they made about young women and the problems that we are facing as a society were profound.  They discussed the lack of diversity in publishing, in author panels, the anxiety and sexism girls face on a daily basis, and so much more.  I decided I need to read all of their books.  I'm planning to feature Shannon Gibney on my blog in May and Kathleen'Glasgow's Girl in Pieces in June.  You all need to read a least one of the authors on this panel.  I'm serious.

4 pm:  I got my picture taken with A.S. King and all my books signed. Talked to all the authors and lined them up to be featured on my blog.

4:15pm  Decided it was time to go home. I had a horrible headache and was exhausted and hungry and my book bag was heavy with awesome books.  Lucky for me I ran into my friend Pamela Klinger-Horn who works the Festival and is a prolific reader.  She gave me a bag of books to take home for me or my high school students to read.  There were 5 books in the bag.

The Memory Book by Lara Avery  (Yes!)
The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens (another Yes!)
Children of the World by Alexander Weinstein.  (signed copy of short stories)
An ARC of History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund
Luck, Love & Lemon Pie by Amy E. Reichert

Oh my gosh, I had a great, wonderful, busy day.  Thank you Rain Taxi.
Can't wait for next year.

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

A short review.

A really great story about five friends living in a small Wisconsin town named Little Wing.  Told from five different points of view, one of them grows up to become a world famous rock star.  Shotgun Lovesongs is a homage to the midwestern lifestyle, a love letter to the land and small towns.  It is memorable, moving and packed with memories and music.  Shotgun Lovesongs is the soundtrack to the lives of the people who populate this beautiful story.

This book has made me feel really nostalgic for the days when I ran free with my friends and for all the times I spent on my grandparents farm in a small Wisconsin town called Shell Lake.  I wonder what the soundtrack of my life would sound like.  Hmmm.  I might have to create a playlist.

You can find Nickolas Butler on his website:  http://nickolasbutler.com/

Go Beyond the book with the links below.

You need to watch this 3 min video done by New York Times on Butler and his book, Shotgun Lovesongs.  Its excellent.

Here is a book review done by NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/review/shotgun-lovesongs-by-nickolas-butler.html?_r=0

Here is a review from one of my favorite authors, Peter Geye, printed in the Star Tribune.
http://www.startribune.com/shotgun-lovesongs-a-true-blue-midwestern-tale-by-nickolas-butler/248913411/

Poem in my Post: The Camperdown Elm by Marianne Moore

Poem in my Post
The Camperdown Elm by Marianne Moore.

I chose this poem today because I am in love with trees. I live in the woods on a lot in St. Paul. It is rare to find an urban area where there are a lot of trees anymore.  It seems one is lucky if they have only one tree in their yard. So if trees are currency, then I am rich with trees, too many to count.  I am surrounded by Pine, Elm, Cottonwood, Crabapple, Sugar Maple and Oak.  I do not have an Camperdown Elm in the woods here but I am drawn to this poem and poet because she saved a Camperdown Elm tree with her poem that was in danger of dying of neglect in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.  She wrote her ode and it mobilized a community to care for trees in the park.
This poem was written in 1967.

The Camperdown Elm by Marianne Moore

I think, in connection with this weeping elm,
of “Kindred Spirits” at the edge of a rockledge
overlooking a stream:
Thanatopsis-invoking tree-loving Bryant
conversing with Thomas Cole
in Asher Durand’s painting of them
under the filigree of an elm overhead.
No doubt they had seen other trees—lindens,
maples and sycamores, oaks and the Paris
street-tree, the horse-chestnut; but imagine
their rapture, had they come on the Camperdown elm’s
massiveness and “the intricate pattern of its branches,”
arching high, curving low, in its mist of fine twigs.
The Bartlett tree-cavity specialist saw it
and thrust his arm the whole length of the hollowness
of its torso and there were six small cavities also.
Props are needed and tree-food. It is still leafing;
still there. Mortal though. We must save it. It is
our crowning curio.
— Marianne Moore

Here is an article from Brain Pickings about how this poem by Marianne Moore saved one of the world's rarest trees.  You just need to read it.  No doubt about it.

https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/08/13/marianne-moore-camperdown-elm/?mc_cid=6c73834c6e&mc_eid=78ab7a7fe7

Read more of her poetry here at Poets.org
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/marianne-moore

October Author in the Spotlight

October Author in the Spotlight

Happy October!
Things are cooling down in Minnesota, I think we might get frost tonight so I have to cover my flowers.  I'm so sad to see the sun go south for the winter.  I'm already lamenting the fact that I won't be able to sit outside on my porch swing with my beloved dog and read.

Looking forward to the Twin Cities Book Festival on Saturday and I just returned from a reading retreat in the north woods run by two amazing ladies who started the Women's Press.

My life has been pretty busy lately and I have been re-thinking how to continue to write this book blog so stay tuned for some changes here. One thing I know for sure, I want to keep featuring amazing Minnesota authors, like David Oppegaard.  I just discovered David's novels last year, when one of my book buddies handed me his new Young Adult book. and I'm so glad she did.

Here are some of many books he has written and their synopsis from Goodreads:A firebug has woken inside my heart.

The Firebug of Balrog County

Dark times have fallen on remote Balrog County, and Mack Druneswald, a high school senior with a love of clandestine arson, is doing his best to deal. While his family is haunted by his mother’s recent death, Mack spends his nights roaming the countryside, looking for something new to burn. When he encounters Katrina, a college girl with her own baggage, Mack sets out on a path of pyromania the likes of which sleepy Balrog County has never seen before.

A darkly comic tour-de-force, The Firebug of Balrog County is about legend, small towns, and the fire that binds.

The Suicide Collectors:

The Despair has plagued the earth for five years. Most of the world’s population has inexplicably died by its own hand, and the few survivors struggle to remain alive. A mysterious, shadowy group called the Collectors has emerged, inevitably appearing to remove the bodies of the dead. But in the crumbling state of Florida, a man named Norman takes an unprecedented stand against the Collectors, propelling him on a journey across North America. It’s rumored a scientist in Seattle is working on a cure for the Despair, but in a world ruled by death, it won’t be easy to get there.

Wormwood, Nevada

Tyler and Anna Mayfield have just relocated from Nebraska to the sun scorched desert town of Wormwood, Nevada. They find themselves in a strange new landscape populated with old school cowboys, alien cultists, meth dealers, and doomsday prophets. Loneliness and desperation pervade Wormwood, and when a meteorite lands in the center of town, its fragile existence begins to unravel as many believe the end of the world is near, while others simply seek a reason to believe in anything at all.

The Ragged Mountains

The Hollow is a peaceful village, a farming backwater among the free cities of the Western Lands, but when a local girl named Penelope Bell is kidnapped from her home in the middle of the night, that peace is shattered.

Unwilling to accept the loss of Penelope, a young striker named Gabriel Rain joins Penelope’s brother and sister on a quest to bring her home. Their journey takes them across the dangerous Grasslands and as far as the legendary Ragged Mountains themselves, where they find themselves caught between two sides of a bloody war. Along the way, they face dark wizards, ancient gods, and discover that the Ragged Mountains always take as much as they yield.


The third novel by Bram Stoker nominated David Oppegaard (author of The Suicide Collectors (St. Martin's Press) and Wormwood, Nevada (St. Martin's Press) The Ragged Mountains is a dark YA fantasy in the tradition of The Hunger Games, The Warded Man, the Earthsea Trilogy, and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.

This month you can expect a book review, an author interview, a giveaway and hopefully a guest post.  You can find David on his blog at https://davidoppegaard.com/  

Happy Reading and Happy Fall.