FTC Regulations & Canada

Posted on by Cindy

I know right now alot of people have heard about the FTC and blogging and if you haven’t heard about it, where have you been?

Being a Canadian blogger, living in Canada but reviewing for a majority of American Publishers when I heard about this I began wondering how would this affect me and the way I blog. From my first post about this alot of other Canadian bloggers left comments or emailed me asking the same thing.

Thanks to Avis she found this link and sent it too me so I thought I would share this with my Canadian bloggers.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/10/05/ftc-blogger-disclosure-standards-fines.html

I have no problem disclosing where I get my books from and have stated so from day one. I guess if you are honest and upfront then I think we will be okay.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Simon’s Cat in his very own book Review

Posted on by Cindy

PUB DATE: September 24,2009

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Simon Tofield’s animations have taken YouTube by storm. Now, the feline Internet phenomenon makes his way onto the page in this first-ever book based on the popular animated series. SIMON’S CAT depicts and exaggerates the hilarious relationship between a man and his cat. The daily escapades of this adorable pet, which always involve demanding more food, and his exasperated but doting owner come to life through Tofield’s charming and hilarious illustrations.

MY THOUGHTS:

I have to admit I have no idea how to write a review for Simon’s Cat. The thing that makes it hard is there are no words to the book. Its full of drawings.

Michael loved watching the YouTube videos and asks to watch them all the time. He thinks they are so funny. He even made it a point to tell the secretary at our Doctors office about it on Friday when we were there. He was really happy when we got the book last week and it was a blessing when it came in because Michael was sick last week so this managed to distract him a little.

The illustrations are very well done and funny to look out. Michael gives the book a big two thumbs up.

Here are a few links that you can check out to see for yourself.

http://simonscat.com/ the official page
http://www.youtube.com/simonscat the YouTube page

Thanks Anna at HBG for sending the book to us. We loved it.

This book was provided for review by HBG USA.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

The Sound of Sleigh Bells Tour

Posted on by Cindy


ABOUT THE BOOK:
Beth Hertzler works alongside her beloved Aunt Lizzy in their dry goods store, and serving as contact of sorts between Amish craftsmen and Englischers who want to sell the Plain people’s wares. But remorse and loneliness still echo in her heart everyday as she still wears the dark garb, indicating mourning of her fiancé. When she discovers a large, intricately carved scene of Amish children playing in the snow, something deep inside Beth’s soul responds and she wants to help the unknown artist find homes for his work–including Lizzy’s dry goods store. But she doesn’t know if her bishop will approve of the gorgeous carving or deem it idolatry.

Lizzy sees the changes in her niece when Beth shows her the woodworking, and after Lizzy hunts down Jonah, the artist, she is all the more determined that Beth meets this man with the hands that create healing art. But it’s not that simple–will Lizzy’s elaborate plan to reintroduce her niece to love work? Will Jonah be able to offer Beth the sleigh ride she’s always dreamed of and a second chance at real love–or just more heartbreak?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cindy Woodsmall is the author of When the Heart Cries, When the Morning Comes, and The New York Times Best-Seller When the Soul Mends. Her ability to authentically capture the heart of her characters comes from her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families. A mother of three sons and two daughters-in-law, Cindy lives in Georgia with her husband of thirty-one years.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on by Cindy

Thanksgiving MySpace Comments and Graphics

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Books Bought # 22

Posted on by Cindy


Books Bought is a meme that I am hosting show casing the books I have bought recently. I just checked and its been almost a month since I bought books. I am really impressed that I have held off that long.

Anyways, there is no picture this week of what I bought because for some reason nothing wants to add to my blogger. Plus I am starting to feel a little sick.

So here is what I bought this week. What goodies did you buy if any?
For Michael I bought:
-Thomas’ Milkshake Muddle (found this at Dollarama for $1)
-Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

For Me:
-Precious Moments: Gift treasury (found this at Dollarama for $2. I love precious moments)
-Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (this was on the bargain table)
-Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (he is coming to town in Nov)
-City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (she is also coming to town in Nov)
-City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Evening Out…

Posted on by Cindy

For the past month I have been super excited for last night (Oct 8th). Kelley Armstrong the author of two YA books THE SUMMONING & THE AWAKENING, and several adult novels was coming to my local Chapters bookstore for a reading, Q&A and signing.

Last month I won BITTEN from Random House Canada via TWITTER and I was excited and then really excited when I heard that Kelley was coming to town.

I mentioned this to both Donna and Linda. To my surprise they both wanted to go with me. So we planned this as an evening out.

When Donna and I first walked in we saw a section with chairs so I went to grab us three seats. Donna went off to pick up a few of Kelley’s books to get signed and I was looking around and what did I spot?


Yes the seats were next to the calendar display. I had to snap that picture. Is that a sign or not?

Just before Kelley came out I looked around to see there was quite the crowd behind us. I am sure Kelley was pleasantly surprised and it ranged from the young to the old.

This is Kelley and she is just about to read from her brand new book Frostbitten. She was telling the audience that the title Frostbitten was submitted by her as a joke and they accepted the title for it.

Donna got to ask a question and she got this tshirt. Kelley was telling everyone before the Q&A that she bribes the audience to ask questions and if you are picked you get some goodies ie tshirts, bags and USB drives with a bunch of goodies on it.

After that was book signing time. I got my two books signed THE SUMMONING & THE AWAKENING. Kelley noticed that I had a bunch of post-its attached to the side of the book and was asking if those were all the pages with errors on them and I laughed and said no they are parts of the book that I enjoyed and wanted to mark them so I knew where they were when I wrote my reviews.

The book marks she was giving away were really nice. Thanks Kelley for the bookmarks.

Kelley graciously posed for tons of pictures with her fans.

You can’t see in the picture above but this was when Donna was getting her books signed. You can check Linda’s blog this weekend for her review of the event and her pictures. I think Donna is going to be doing a write up too.

Another highlight of the evening was meeting another local blogger. Earlier in the day I spoke with Lucy-Enchanted by Josephine on twitter and she mentioned that she would be in the area and might stop by.

I kept an eye out for her that evening. Just as we were about to leave Lucy walks in and we got to chat with her briefly. She is truly a delight to speak with and looking forward to getting the chance to meet up with her again and to talk a little longer. Perhaps she will come to a local meet up one day.

In the above picture (L-R) Me, Lucy and Linda.

That was our evening out and I think the next time we go to another author signing for Donna and I will be in two weeks when we go to our local library to see Claire Holden Rothman talk about her book THE HEART SPECIALIST and then the following week we will be going to see Bill Haugland talk about his book MOBILE 9.

Then in November, Scott Westerfeld, Cassandra Clare and Holly Black will be coming to our local chapters and all three of us have agreed that we will be attending this one. I already have UGLIES (Scott’s book), CITY OF BONES BK 1 & CITY OF ASHES BK2 of The Mortal Instruments in my hands to read before then and hoping to be able to get those signed.

I just wanted to point out because it was brought to my attention that Donna is mentioned but not shown in any pictures. The reason that Donna isn’t in the pictures is because she doesn’t like to have it taken. I respect her decision and thats why there is no pictures of her.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

The Summoning Review

Posted on by Cindy


PUB DATE: July 2008

ABOUT THE BOOK:

After years of frequent moves following her mother’s death, Chloe Saunders’s life is finally settling down. She is attending art school, pursuing her dreams of becoming a director, making friends, meeting boys. Her biggest concern is that she’s not developing as fast as her friends are. But when puberty does hit, it brings more than hormone surges. Chloe starts seeing ghosts–everywhere, demanding her attention. After she suffers a breakdown, her devoted aunt Lauren gets her into a highly recommended group home.

At first, Lyle House seems a pretty okay place, except for Chloe’s small problem of fearing she might be facing a lifetime of mental illness. But as she gradually gets to know the other kids at the home–charming Simon and his ominous, unsmiling brother Derek, obnoxious Tori, and Rae, who has a “thing” for fire–Chloe begins to realize that there is something that binds them all together, and it isn’t your usual “problem kid” behaviour. And together they discover that Lyle House is not your usual group home either.

MT THOUGHTS:
This is the first book in the Darkest Power trilogy. Book 3 The Reckoning is scheduled to be released May, 2010. I am so excited to read it and hoping it will answer a few questions that I have about the series. This is also Kelley’s first Young Adult novel. She is well known for her adult fantasy books.

When I was on twitter one day Random House Canada was doing a give away of Kelley’s first book Bitten and I was lucky enough to win it. I admitted to the rep that I have never read anything by Kelley before but I would love to. I love to discover new authors.

I quickly discovered that Kelley is a Canadian author (she lives in Southern Ontario) and I was really excited to read her book after discovering that. Then I discovered that Kelley would be coming to my local Chapters October 8th for a book signing (reading and a Q&A also) for her lastest book Frostbitten. So I rushed out to buy The Summoning in hopes of getting it signed as Bitten was already signed. (Check tomorrow for photos and info from the signing)

The Summoning is not like her adult books. There is more of a magical element to it with a twist in it. I would recommend this book to any young adult because there is no sex and what violence there is its toned down for the purpose of it being a YA book.

I was really surprised when I started to read the book at how fast I was sucked into it. As I was reading it I realized that I was having a hard time to put it down. I ended up reading this over a two day span. The first day I stayed up late reading it and thankfully the next day M. was sick so he stayed home from school and I was able to finish reading it.

The whole book had me sitting on the edge of me seat. (I love books like that.) Wondering what was going to happen and then when I got to the end I was like OMG (okay thats not really what I said but you know what I mean.) it can’t end like that! Major cliff hanger. (Just a note if you are going to read it then I suggest you buy/get book two The Awakening at the same time.)

The Summoning is told in first person by a 15 year old girl named Chloe. In the first part of the book we discover that Chloe sees ghosts. At first she thinks she is loosing her mind and when one day at school she seems a ghost she freaks out. She fights off the teachers who are trying to help her. She is carted off to the hospital where her aunt Lauren gets her into The Lyle House so that they can help her get better.

Its at Lyle House where the drs diagnose Chloe with schizophrenia. (Having a family member with schizophrenia I am so what familiar with it and I didn’t know that they saw ghosts I just thought it was people/images) So Chloe is given medication to control it but she still sees ghosts.

Lyle House also has other teens that are similar to Chloe and are labelled with mental health problems. They all know they don’t have mental health problems but something else. Unsure of what it is exactly. Some feel that if they take the medication it will make them better.

Derek, one of the kids in with Chloe convinces her she is in danger and that she should escape with his brother Simon so that they can look for his dad. His dad will know what to do. Chloe and Derek manage to leave one night to scope it out and to plan. When the weekend approaches Derek informs them that they need to leave that night.

When they are set to go Derek goes missing and Chloe stays back to look for him and when she finds him she is surprised at what she sees but not shocked. Will Chloe and Derek be able to leave before they are caught?

On the run the leave Lyle House and run to the factories that are close by. As they are leaving the factory Chloe cuts herself on broken glass. When the girls and boys must separate to throw the employees of their trails. Rae manages to convince Chloe she needs medical attention so they leave when its save to go to aunt Lauren’s.

When they get to her aunts Chloe realizes who she can and can’t trust and is shocked to discover the one person she thought she could trust in facts betrays her.

While I was looking around for images of the book I discovered this one. I personally like the top cover better.

This book was provided for review by myself. I bought this book to read and review.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.