The Land of Oz has been turned on its head by Danielle Paige

The Land of Oz has been turned on its head and it's up to the girl from Kansas to set things to right... No not that one, she's the problem and must DIE. Danielle Paige has delved into the dark side of magic in the first of her Oz series.

The mystery of who is good, who is bad and what or who really controls Oz is fascinating with twists and turns keeping me on the edge of my seat. The reveal at the end of Dorothy Must Die leaves me intrigued and impatient for book 2.

As Rumplestiltskin from Once Upon a Time says "magic always has a price." What is the price Dorothy must pay for her use of magic? Only Daniellle Paige can say.

Wondering how Dorothy got back to Oz? Check out Danielle's prequel No Place Like Oz. No little dogs were harmed in the writing of this blog.

Cross-Bred Reader Mutt

The polar vortex that has been keeping my state in the deep freeze, has me reading more voraciously than usual. Meeting my 100 book challenge this year will be a snap, as I've already read 25 books this month. Obvious I am an obsessive reader, but what other kind of reader am I? Laura E Kelly created this great infographic, “Which Book Reader SpeciesAre You?” 

What kind of reader are you? I totally fit the Situational Book Lover. I gleeful admit to being a App Happy, Kindle Convert, Travelling Reader who prefers being an Audiobook Listener, but when necessary will be a Bathroom Reader who ends the day as a Sleepy Bedtime Reader that guilty admits to sometimes crossing over to The Spoiler. This doesn't mean I'm a one category girl. Hi, my name is Kim and I'm a Compulsive Book Lover. As in a Compulsive Book Buyer... of free interesting e-books. I get daily e-mails detailing new freebies from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. I am also a Multi-tasker... I have an audiobook for the car & gym, books on my Kindle app & nook reader, and at least one genealogy book open on my computer. Time to hit the gym with the White Queen. Hope to see some comments on what kind of reader you are!

Overdrive is going all MP3 for Audiobooks

I wonder how Amazon via its audible.com is going to respond to Overdrive's announcement to do away with DRM audiobooks. Cory Doctrow has written an interesting piece on the latest win for audiobook listeners. I hope in the long run this will result in a decrease in audio production costs so that more books can be recorded.

Book Blitz Month

According to the B.U. Bridge, January is...

National Book Month and National Book Blitz Month. National Book Month, which is sponsored by the National Book Foundation, invites everyone to take time to read a book. National Book Blitz Month, which was created by a public relations executive to encourage authors to promote their own books, focuses attention on improving the relationships between authors and the media in order to create a best-selling book.

I have been inundated with free for a few days’ e-book offers, now I know why. And before you ask, no these are not from book stealers. These are offers from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Ihave taken advantage of the opportunity to tryout new to me authors. One thing I have noticed is most of these books are shorter than most of my reads. This works well for me. As mentioned in a previous post, my goal this year is to read 100 books. Books read in 2014 to date = 20. Thanks to Book Blitz month, I am well on my way to meeting my goal. 

New Year Goal - Let's Read!

Happy New Year! The ball has dropped, the party is over. The time has come to set goals for the coming year. One goal for me is easy: a commitment to read 100 books this year. I set and achieved this goal for the past few years. It is so easy to do. To double the fun, I create a post on Shelfari.com group 50 Book Challenge. Once I reach 50, I move on to the 100 Book Challenge group. Then I start to read. Cozy mystery and family history are my current favorite topics. 

Audio is my top choice for cozy mysteries and best sellers. My Audible.com wish list is long and growing. I'm happy to see that their list of cozy authors is growing as well. The Roxbury Library is helping feed my appetite as well. Besides their audio selections available via Overdrive, they have added another option: One Click Digital. Both of these sites will also allow e-book borrowing with your library card. 

When I have run out of audio choices, my next format choice is e-book. I've got a nook for the pool, a nook for reading by the fire and a tablet for reading on the go. The last one can also read Kindle books. I finally broke down and downloaded the app after I found a great new site Book Bub for free e-books. No this is not a site that cheats authors out of royalties. This site will send you an email alerting you to free book deals being offered by Amazon, B&N and others.
 
Keeping with my fiscal conservation in regard to reading, Google Books offers up a wide array of family histories that I tap into as I do my family tree. It is amazing how many genealogy books have been digitized by Google and others. It is exciting to find documentation of my connection to generations 6, 7, 8 back. It's even neater to find my grandpa in a book on a revolutionary patriots Alexander Alexander and Bancroft Woodcock.

The number 100 seems daunting at the beginning of the year. I look forward to the challenge of reading that many different books. Besides if it really gets tough, I can always read some kiddie books to my nephew to catch up.