SYNC Summer 2016 Listening Week 2

Posted on by Cindy

syncaudiolego

SYNC is a free summer audiobook (2 titles avilable weekly) program available for young adults and really anyone who enjoys audiobooks. It runs from May 5th and goes until August 17, 2016. (15 weeks)

SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for teens 13+. Running May 5th – August 17th 2016, SYNC will give away two complete audiobook downloads a week (30 titles) – pairs of high interest titles, based on weekly themes.  In 2014, 26 titles were given away over 13 weeks. In 2015, 28 titles were given away over 14 weeks.

SYNC is dedicated to introducing the listening experience to the teen audience and demonstrates that Required Reading can be completed by listening.

You can go to this link http://download.audiobooksync.com/ to find out more about the audiobooks and download them.

This week’s picks are: (May 12th to 19th) [You should note that you are only able to download them within this time period.] [The day after two new titles will be available as of 7am EST.]

The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury.

A startling, seductive, deliciously dark debut that will shatter your definition of YA fantasy.

Sixteen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she’s engaged to the prince, no one speaks to her. No one even looks at her. Because Twylla isn’t a member of the court. She’s the executioner.

As the goddess-embodied, Twylla kills with a single touch. So each week, she’s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love her. Who could care for a girl with murder in her veins? Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to her touch, avoids her.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose playful smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he’s able to look past Twylla’s executioner robes and see the girl, not the goddess. Yet a treasonous romance is the least of Twylla’s problems.

The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies—a plan that requires an unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

Divine Collision by Jim Gash.

Los Angeles lawyer and law professor, Jim Gash, tells the amazing true story of how, after a series of God-orchestrated events, he finds himself in the heart of Africa defending a courageous Ugandan boy languishing in prison and wrongfully accused of two separate murders.

Ultimately, their unlikely friendship and unrelenting persistence reforms Uganda’s criminal justice system, leaving a lasting impact on hundreds of thousands of lives and unearthing a friendship that supersedes circumstance, culture and the walls we often hide behind.

I am currently listening to The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury and read by Amy Shiels. This has always been a book I have been wanting to read but just never got around to it. So I am excited to dig into this one.

What will you be listening to this week?

Armchair BEA/ Day 2 Its All About the aesthetics

Armchair BEA/ Day 2 Its All About the aesthetics

Posted on by Cindy
Armchair BEA
Good Morning and welcome to day 2 of Armchair BEA.
Today is all about aesthetics!
The Books: How often do you judge a book by its cover? How often are you surprised by what you find? Do you strategize and make sure every book in your series has the same cover design (as far as you are able to) and type? How important is it for the visual art on the outside of the book to match or coordinate with the literature art on the inside?
The Blog: As a book blogger, in whatever form that takes, branding is important. Your colors, your fonts, your style of review, all of these things come together to make the “brand” of your blog – something that makes your reviews and posts and websites, all your various content, immediately recognizable to the people looking for you. What do you do to create a brand on your site? Do you think about these things?
The Blog:
When I first started blogging back in August of 2008 I have to admit that I didn’t really put a lot of effort into my blog and branding and I went with what I thought was cute and fun at the time. During the time I think I went through blog themes and designs like it was tissue. I was constantly changing it. Fast forward a few years later and I realized that I really enjoyed blogging and sharing my thoughts about books etc so I invested in my blog and purchased my very first design which I am happy to say is still here. Then shortly after that with much poking and persuading from my old high school friend, he convinced me to make the leap into self hosting and I have to say I am so happy I made that leap.
I am so happy with the design and the way things look now. I don’t think there is anything I would change. Its made me who I am and its set me apart from everyone else. No one has a design like me and its unique to who I am.
I know what I like and what I don’t like when I visit other blogs and I try to reflect that here. A blog has to be fun, easy to read and engaging and I hope that you find that here.
The Books:
I have to admit that I don’t always base picking up books based on the cover but sometimes I do. Its so hard not to especially when you walk by a display that is showing casing a book that has a pretty cover or even a ugly cover.
Sometimes the cover can be a catch 22. It could have the worst cover but an incredible story  and then you have this beautiful book and its got a crappy story.  How many times has that happened to you? I have encountered it many times over the course of 8 years of blogging. So I try not to base it all on the cover alone.
When it comes to having books in my collection I am usually not specific about the look, version etc because I tend to pass on the books when I am finished reading them but for the rare ones that I do keep, especially when its a series I do like to have my books all look the same in version and size and style. So its rather annoying when publishers change the format (ie comes out in paper back first and then other books in the series comes in hard cover) and design (you start the series with one look and then half way through they revamp them).
Do you have any book pet peeves? What about blogger pet peeves?
Armchair BEA/ Day 1 Introductions

Armchair BEA/ Day 1 Introductions

Posted on by Cindy
Armchair BEA
Hi everyone. Please allow me to introduce myself in case you are new to my blog. My name is Cindy and I have been blogging from my little city in the burbs of Montreal (Quebec/Canada) since August of 2008.
This year I am not at #BEA16 which I have to say is a bit sad but I have to say that it just wouldn’t worked for me because of the exchange rate, flights, hotels, and shipping books back to Canada unless I had won the lottery so I will just have to hold onto #BEA17 in NYC.
I have actually been lucky to attend #BEA in NYC in 2010, 2012, 2013 and then 2015. In between those years I didn’t attend the actual #BEA I took part in the #ArmchairBEA. They are also so much fun and I am so happy they came up with this idea.

1.  Do you have a favorite book? If you cannot choose a favorite book of all time, pick your favorite book today – just this second. Remember that favorites are allowed to change if something affects you deeply enough. My all time favorite books are Anne of Green Gables because growing up on the east coast of New Brunswick everyone read them from the school library, then in high school I had to read Wuthering Heights and that was my favorite book out of all the reading we had to do and then it was the V.C Andrews because thats when my sister shared her love of reading with me and she would always send me a ton of books.

2.  What is your favorite genre and why? I tend to read alot of YA books but I have noticed that in the last few months (actually since Januar 2016) I am reading a mix of fiction, romance (I have always read some romance but it seems like its more) and mystery.
3.  Which day of ABEA are you looking forward to the most? I have to say the introduction day is my favorite day because you get to discover so many bloggers on this day.
4.  How do you arrange your bookshelves? Is there a rhyme or reason? Or not at all? (#ABEAShelfie) Whenever I rearrange my bookshelves I always try to come up with a way to organize them but it just never works out so there is actually no rhyme or reason to them. Their is actually only one shelf that has a rhyme or reason to it and that is the books I have bought this year. I have cleared a complete shelf and that is where I am keeping track of the books I bought so I know they have to be read. I am hoping that will curb my spending.

5.  What book are you most excited for on your TBR? What are you most intimidated by? I think I am excited for all the books on my TBR. I think this year there has been a ton of great books that have come out and the rest of the year is looking amazing. None of the books I have really intimidate me because I go in with a completely open mind. When I read them I just hope that I will like.

6.  What is the most interesting thing that you have learned through your reading this year so far? I think one of the most interesting things I learned so far this year is that its okay to dip into other genre of books and to expand your horizon. I have been reading books that I never thought I would and that is a good think.

I look forward to connecting with other bloggers this week. If you are new or even returning be sure to leave me a comment so I can pop over to your introduction.
If We Were Having Tea.... #27

If We Were Having Tea…. #27

Posted on by Cindy

hotcoffee_2

If we were having tea… I would tell you:

happymothersdayowl

If we were having tea… I would tell you that yes even though its mother’s day I am still up extremely earlier because I just couldn’t sleep. Everyone else is still sleeping.

If we were having tea… I would tell you that I have no idea what is planned for today but I am hoping to go out for lunch and I was thinking of driving to Hawkesbury to hit up the dollar tree and dollarama there in hopes of finding some planner decorating items

If we were having tea... I would tell you that yesterday I got to meet up with Tina from Bookshipper for breakfast and then we head to Costco.. man was that a huge mistake. Getting into the parking lot and store was no problem but exiting was awful. I think we waiting in line for about 20 minutes until I switched lanes and did the loop and came back and it was still another 15 minutes to leave that street..

If we were having tea… I would tell you that I am okay this week with not going to BEA 16 in Chicago. I ain’t gonna lie I miss not being able to go but I have justified it by saying it wasn’t worth it for me especially if I need to ship books back to Canada. To all those going have fun..

If we were having tea… I would tell you that I am in the midst of planning Michael’s confirmation. It happens the weekend of the 21st so we are just doing family nothing big and the cake has been ordered.

If we were having tea… I would tell you that it was great seeing you again this week and that I can’t wait until next week.

SYNC Summer 2016 Listening Week 1

SYNC Summer 2016 Listening Week 1

Posted on by Cindy

syncaudiolego

I just happened to notice the email from SYNC Audio Books announcing the summer listening challenge in my inbox and I thought I would share this with you and remind you to take part.

SYNC is a free summer audiobook (2 titles avilable weekly) program available for young adults and really anyone who enjoys audiobooks. It runs from May 5th and goes until August 17, 2016. (15 weeks)

SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for teens 13+. Running May 5th – August 17th 2016, SYNC will give away two complete audiobook downloads a week (30 titles) – pairs of high interest titles, based on weekly themes.  In 2014, 26 titles were given away over 13 weeks. In 2015, 28 titles were given away over 14 weeks.

SYNC is dedicated to introducing the listening experience to the teen audience and demonstrates that Required Reading can be completed by listening.

You can go to this link http://download.audiobooksync.com/2016-sync-titles/ to find out more about the audiobooks and download them.

This week’s picks are: (May 5th to 12th) [You should note that you are only able to download them within this time period.] [The day after two new titles will be available as of 7am EST.]

great-tennessee-monkey-trial-27571-sync2016-2400x2400

The Scopes Trial, over the right to teach evolution in public schools, reaffirmed the importance of intellectual freedom as codified in the Bill of Rights. The trial, in a small-town Tennessee courtroom in 1925, set the stage for ongoing debates over the separation of Church and State in a democratic society—debates that continue to this day. Peter Goodchild used transcripts from the trial to create this intense docudrama.

vivian-apple-at-the-end-of-the-world-97713-sync2016-1556x1556

Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed “Rapture,” all that’s left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country road trip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers. Because at the end of the world, Vivian Apple isn’t looking for a savior. She’s looking for the truth.

Sadly Vivian Apple isn’t available for download for me.

Meme/Waiting on Wednesday…. #56

Posted on by Cindy

waitingonwednesday

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking The Spine and its spotlights upcoming books that we are eagerly waiting for. I plan on including upcoming releases and books that are already released.

This week I am featuring:

Siren Sisters cover

Today I am featuring Siren Sisters by Dana Langer. This is an upcoming middle grade book scheduled to be released only in January 2017. This will definitely be a book I will want to get my hands on.

Its all about New England, ocean mythology, and sister relationships. Whats there not to love about this book?