Amanda! Who evidently never drove in the southern part of Indiana,where I'm from. Once you get to Bloomington you get hills, and past that the landscape is filled with mini-mountains (or really big hills) sometimes called "knobs." There's even skiing! So contrary to popular belief, Indiana is not all flat and boring. Just, most of it is.
I have to say though, while you guys did say some v.nice things, there are even more truly amazing things about Indiana that weren't mentioned. Some of these facts beat the pants off of that Dr. Jones you guys kept mentioning. For instance #29: Peru, Indiana was once known as the circus capital of the United States. Lots of actually cool famous people are from Indiana or did stuff in Indiana. Kurt Vonnegut and Charles M. Schulz were from Indiana. So was Orville Redenbacher (who my parents once met in a hotel elevator.)A metric ton of astronauts started in the Hoosier state. Let's not forget about my favorite sex researcher, and yours, Alfred Kinsey. What I'm saying here is; let's be honest about Dr. Jones, that last Crystal Skull movie wasn't even all that great!
Now that you've all been schooled in Hoosier pride, and the winner has been announced, this concludes my first contest. Thank you everyone who participated, or even thought about participating but couldn't think of anything to say about Indiana.
Many more contests to come, and soon! Check back next week, because if things go well, I might have a signed book to give away!
Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts
Monday, August 3, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Contested: Hoosier Pride.
Are y'all ready for this?
Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani
This is what it looks like when a book disparages my homeland and makes me too angry to finish. Each slur against Indiana made me angrier and angrier until finally there was a comment about a teacher not possibly being able to buy leopard print Sketchers in Indiana because they were too cool. (SKETCHERS? REALLY A-TRIG? Not only have I owned similar shoes (and numerous pairs of Sketchers) but I bought them all at reasonable prices and tax rates because I got them in Indiana!)
I gave this book more than enough chances, we are almost to Thanksgiving in the school year and still the Viola has little to nothing good to say about Indiana and so I'm done. I give up, and you get to reap the benefits of my ex-pat Hoosier pride.
You get to participate in my first ever book give-away contest to win this ARC! I think that my state-bias might be clouding my vision to the rest of the story. Especially since I rather liked Big Stone Gap. So, I'm ready to give this ARC on to someone else to read and review. To win this contest write a comment on this post filled with Hoosier love. By which I mean, it must state at least one reason why Indiana is great (or at least, not nearly so bad as A-Trig is making it out to be.) It can be something you experienced, heard about, learned in school, whateva. I will RANDOMLY choose a winner from the comments. Only one comment per person please.
I know my home state has flaws and parts of it smell funny. I know there are a lot of rednecks (so many that some in St. Louis have replaced the word for redneck with "Hoosier.")But, I also know that some awesome people have come from there, spent time there, or were born there (and no, I'm not even including just generally famous people like John Mellencamp or Dan Quayle in that list, but I am looking at you Will Shortz.)
Many of my friends and all of my immediate family live there, and I feel like many of the qualities I have that I actually like about myself come from being raised there and no where else in the world. So let's hear it for the Crossroads of America, and me passing this not even released yet book onto someone who can appreciate it more than I'm capable. The contest ends Monday, August 3rd at 7pm (EST)Indiana Time (well, most of Indiana time!) Don't forget to leave your email address or some other way for me to contact you if you've won!I'll also be posting the winner Monday night.
Commence to commenting!
Viola in Reel Life by Adriana TrigianiThis is what it looks like when a book disparages my homeland and makes me too angry to finish. Each slur against Indiana made me angrier and angrier until finally there was a comment about a teacher not possibly being able to buy leopard print Sketchers in Indiana because they were too cool. (SKETCHERS? REALLY A-TRIG? Not only have I owned similar shoes (and numerous pairs of Sketchers) but I bought them all at reasonable prices and tax rates because I got them in Indiana!)
I gave this book more than enough chances, we are almost to Thanksgiving in the school year and still the Viola has little to nothing good to say about Indiana and so I'm done. I give up, and you get to reap the benefits of my ex-pat Hoosier pride.
You get to participate in my first ever book give-away contest to win this ARC! I think that my state-bias might be clouding my vision to the rest of the story. Especially since I rather liked Big Stone Gap. So, I'm ready to give this ARC on to someone else to read and review. To win this contest write a comment on this post filled with Hoosier love. By which I mean, it must state at least one reason why Indiana is great (or at least, not nearly so bad as A-Trig is making it out to be.) It can be something you experienced, heard about, learned in school, whateva. I will RANDOMLY choose a winner from the comments. Only one comment per person please.
I know my home state has flaws and parts of it smell funny. I know there are a lot of rednecks (so many that some in St. Louis have replaced the word for redneck with "Hoosier.")But, I also know that some awesome people have come from there, spent time there, or were born there (and no, I'm not even including just generally famous people like John Mellencamp or Dan Quayle in that list, but I am looking at you Will Shortz.)
Many of my friends and all of my immediate family live there, and I feel like many of the qualities I have that I actually like about myself come from being raised there and no where else in the world. So let's hear it for the Crossroads of America, and me passing this not even released yet book onto someone who can appreciate it more than I'm capable. The contest ends Monday, August 3rd at 7pm (EST)Indiana Time (well, most of Indiana time!) Don't forget to leave your email address or some other way for me to contact you if you've won!I'll also be posting the winner Monday night.
Commence to commenting!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
A post.
A band.
Do you know who it is easy to love? A little indie band called the wrens, that's who. They played a very packed Schubas. There was one awkward moment (probably because I was there, as I make things awkward with my very presence) when the mike was turned out to the audience during the last song of the encore "She Sends Kisses" and we collectively froze, then forgot the words to chorus. That didn't ruin the magic of seeing a band that doesn't often tour, and when they do, they put all of themselves into the shows. I've been to a lot of concerts in my life and the majority of them have just been like listening to the album but really loud with the musicians in the room, drunkenly not doing much to entice me to care about watching what they do onstage. This concert of middling aged indieguys from the East Coast was the exact opposite of that experience. Good times were had by all, because this band understand showmanship, and how to vary up sound, texture, distance and style to help make good music.
A challenge.
Abby and Liz have made me aware of the Color Online:Color Me Brown Book Challenge. I will be answering the call of the challenge, will you?
A discussion.
As part of the Year of Dangeresque Reads I joined a Literary Genre Study. Last week I went to the second of the Adult Reading Round Table literary discussions. This one was of Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. I went in thinking I was going to spend the majority of any time I spoke defending my position that the book was trite and could have been better. Instead I found myself drawn into a lively discussion about the fact that had it been a genre book it would have been panned by everyone, but because he was a credible literary author he must have made the decisions he did with the book very intentionally, perhaps to point out that very fact? It is hard to say what McEwan's motivations truly were, and that is when the conversation turned to leading book discussions generally. Some of the Librarians present like to introduce information about the author and facts surrounding the novels, some only like to discuss the book without outside information at all, some will bring up the topical info if the discussion itself isn't going well, it seemed like every single person at the discussion had an entirely different style of book club. Which, was really awesome when you think about it. I've had a couple of not-well attended book clubs over the summer and all of this information is serving to make how I lead discussions in the future much better. Of course, taking the info about book clubs geared towards adults and seniors and applying it to Teens is going to take some work.
A plan.
I'm forming a plan to do a giveaway this week of the last ARC I reviewed, Laura Ruby's Bad Apple. I haven't exactly decided how this is going to work out so please bear with me until I come up with a suitable book-themed contest.
A convention.
I just found out I'm going to Bouchercon! I'm trying to figure out a way to get my mom in just for one day to meet Michael Connelly who is one of her FavieFaves of all time. I'm totally excited about a weekend of whodunits, even though after ALA last week I swore off conventions for a while....oops.
A review.
Fathom by Cherie Priest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very long time ago on a Livejournal Community called Gothic Babes I saw a post by a writer calling herself WickedWish. She had written and published a book called Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I thought she was interesting and so I paid attention to her journal for a while, because even though her book wasn't a national bestseller and she still worked a dayjob I thought her writing style was interesting enough that she was going to publish something worth national attention. I was, of course, quite right and she's become quite the popular fantasy author. Good on Cherie. Now that I've regaled you with my tale of discovering her so long before you did, let me tell you about this book. It is dark and quick and epic and slippery. The point of view switches pick you up and drop you down into the important parts, there is not a lot of fat in this book. There is also no mercy. Characters you like will die; characters you hate will live.
I took away one star because I felt like there was more to this story, that there were some blank pages waiting to be filled in. But there were pirates, and sea monsters, and stone girls and gods and monsters, and murder and mayhem and what more could you as for really? Not much, if you ask me.
View all my reviews >>
Do you know who it is easy to love? A little indie band called the wrens, that's who. They played a very packed Schubas. There was one awkward moment (probably because I was there, as I make things awkward with my very presence) when the mike was turned out to the audience during the last song of the encore "She Sends Kisses" and we collectively froze, then forgot the words to chorus. That didn't ruin the magic of seeing a band that doesn't often tour, and when they do, they put all of themselves into the shows. I've been to a lot of concerts in my life and the majority of them have just been like listening to the album but really loud with the musicians in the room, drunkenly not doing much to entice me to care about watching what they do onstage. This concert of middling aged indieguys from the East Coast was the exact opposite of that experience. Good times were had by all, because this band understand showmanship, and how to vary up sound, texture, distance and style to help make good music.
A challenge.
Abby and Liz have made me aware of the Color Online:Color Me Brown Book Challenge. I will be answering the call of the challenge, will you?
A discussion.
As part of the Year of Dangeresque Reads I joined a Literary Genre Study. Last week I went to the second of the Adult Reading Round Table literary discussions. This one was of Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. I went in thinking I was going to spend the majority of any time I spoke defending my position that the book was trite and could have been better. Instead I found myself drawn into a lively discussion about the fact that had it been a genre book it would have been panned by everyone, but because he was a credible literary author he must have made the decisions he did with the book very intentionally, perhaps to point out that very fact? It is hard to say what McEwan's motivations truly were, and that is when the conversation turned to leading book discussions generally. Some of the Librarians present like to introduce information about the author and facts surrounding the novels, some only like to discuss the book without outside information at all, some will bring up the topical info if the discussion itself isn't going well, it seemed like every single person at the discussion had an entirely different style of book club. Which, was really awesome when you think about it. I've had a couple of not-well attended book clubs over the summer and all of this information is serving to make how I lead discussions in the future much better. Of course, taking the info about book clubs geared towards adults and seniors and applying it to Teens is going to take some work.
A plan.
I'm forming a plan to do a giveaway this week of the last ARC I reviewed, Laura Ruby's Bad Apple. I haven't exactly decided how this is going to work out so please bear with me until I come up with a suitable book-themed contest.
A convention.
I just found out I'm going to Bouchercon! I'm trying to figure out a way to get my mom in just for one day to meet Michael Connelly who is one of her FavieFaves of all time. I'm totally excited about a weekend of whodunits, even though after ALA last week I swore off conventions for a while....oops.
A review.
Fathom by Cherie PriestMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very long time ago on a Livejournal Community called Gothic Babes I saw a post by a writer calling herself WickedWish. She had written and published a book called Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I thought she was interesting and so I paid attention to her journal for a while, because even though her book wasn't a national bestseller and she still worked a dayjob I thought her writing style was interesting enough that she was going to publish something worth national attention. I was, of course, quite right and she's become quite the popular fantasy author. Good on Cherie. Now that I've regaled you with my tale of discovering her so long before you did, let me tell you about this book. It is dark and quick and epic and slippery. The point of view switches pick you up and drop you down into the important parts, there is not a lot of fat in this book. There is also no mercy. Characters you like will die; characters you hate will live.
I took away one star because I felt like there was more to this story, that there were some blank pages waiting to be filled in. But there were pirates, and sea monsters, and stone girls and gods and monsters, and murder and mayhem and what more could you as for really? Not much, if you ask me.
View all my reviews >>
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