Book Giveaway!

Over at GoodReads, there is a giveaway for a signed copy of Susan Wittig Albert's book Loving Eleanor.  Enter before July 7, 2016!

To be honest, I know very little about Mrs. Roosevelt.  So I am eagerly waiting to see if i win a copy of this book before I add it to my Audible library!  One way or another, I intend to devour this book very soon.  I "know" she played a huge role during her husband's presidency, but just how huge, I don't know.  Then, while listening to A Traitor to His Class by H. W. Brands, I learned just a little bit more about her and her personality and her relationship with two women who lived in a house, and ran a storm door company, near the Roosevelt retreat in upstate NY.  And most surprisingly, Jack Gantos wrote two novels for kids set in Norvelt, PA.  Norvelt is an "Eleanor Town" ... never heard about these places ...Great idea and extremely fun novels!

Now, I need to know more about Eleanor!  From the Good Reads description of "Loving Eleanor:"  When AP political reporter Lorena Hickok—Hick— is assigned to cover Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1932 campaign, the two women become deeply involved. Their relationship begins with mutual romantic passion, matures through stormy periods of enforced separation and competing interests, and warms into an enduring, encompassing friendship documented by 3300 letters.

I've listened to Susan's historical  novel "A Wilder Rose" -- loved every minute of it;  I expect to enjoy "Loving Eleanor" just as much!  I'll let you in on a little secret about these books -- if you like audiobooks as much as i do, both of these titles are "whispersync" ready -- meaning buy the kindle eBook at amazon and get the Audible narrated audiobook at an incredibly discounted price.  I don't like ebooks but occasionally take advantage of this kind of deal because it is just too good a price to pass by.  (I have even gotten free deals of the day in the cozy mystery category and the Audible audio version for under $3 ... a price you can't beat if you ask me!)

I don't mind if you enter the giveaway too!  You will be my competition to win a copy ... but i think you need to discover Susan Wittig Albert's historical novels, her China Bayles novels and other writings so much that I am willing to dilute my own chances of winning a copy of "Loving Eleanor" ... and while you are at it, hunt down copies of John Gantos' Norvelt books and be sure to read them both!!  So much fun to read!

And You May Like:

Jake's Uncle Joe getting
involved in helping me
with my embroidery ...
he thought he could
pick out the next color
I should use ...

When I was listening to The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert, I realized that it reminded me of many other books I have enjoyed since I "discovered" audiobooks in 2007.

For instance, the badger reminded me of The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame.  Many of the other animals reminded me of Brian Jacques' Redwall series, and of The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett.  And The Professor reminds me of Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne.

Events at the local school remind me very much of Battles at Thrush Green by Miss Read.

The Tale of Holly How is the second book in a cozy mystery series featuring Beatrix Potter as the amateur sleuth.  Details of Miss Potter's life are used but a lot is fictional extrapolation. 
I discovered the series recently when Susan Wittig Albert wrote a post at her author page at Facebook (Dec 24, 2015) concerning how it happened that the animals have speaking parts in the book -- which was not the original intention.  She said that it turned out that Mrs. Tiggywinkle, the hedgehog, had something she wanted to say -- and (sorry if I am infringing on Ms. Albert's copyright here, but I think what she says here is rather important and amusing so I wanted to share it ...) "But Mrs. Tiggywinkle appeared in the first book, with important things on her mind. When a character wants to talk, there's only one thing to do: LISTEN! (and start taking dictation)."

The facts of Miss Potter's life are available all over the web -- probably Wikipedia is a good place to start -- if you want to know more about her.  (And you probably will.)

The fact that she is the amateur sleuth in this series really isn't important (to me as a reader / listener).  The books are so well written, the characters all interact so well and the mysteries are well crafted -- that is what makes the series so likeable for me.  I am looking forward to getting into and through the rest of the series as soon as possible **grin**

Welcome to 2016 ... Lots of listening already :D

A move and computer problems have kept me away for a while.  Hopefully the 'puter will keep running long enough to "do" this post ...

While packing for the move, I lost track of the book(s) where I recorded the books I'd listened to in 2015 ... so decided to just not try to catch up with that list ... And I decided to start the list on 1-1 ... but forgot what was listened to in what order.  So, here are the books I listened to at the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016 ...
(I'm not 100% sure of the order ... Hubbby's computer croaked and we've been sharing mine and sharing "listening time" too ... I think this is the list of books since Christmas ...)

From the public Library's OverDrive service:

Also, books from our Audible libraries:
* Sea of Thunder by Evan Thomas
* Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn
* The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill
* The Chimes by Charles Dickens
* The Enchanted Files: Diary of a Mad Brownie by Bruce Coville
* The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert
* A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert
* The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert


I'll figure out what order they were listened in and start the "proper" book count, come back and edit ... also, I hope to give a short review or info about a few of the books -- such as other books in the "you may also be interested in" type info as well as anything else I think you may find interesting or helpful in determining if this is a book you may be interested in, too.