Fall in love with a good book this Valentine's Day weekend!

I LOVE this graphic!

And I LOVE Valentine's Day!

I'm not really sure why I love V-Day. I have the most unromantic husband ever but I just really love everything about this time of the year. I don't know if it's the hearts or the red everywhere or just what it is. It all just makes me happy!

Love is in the air . . . and it can be on your Kindle, too!

Do you want to fall in love with a good book this Valentine's Day weekend? How about 9? Then don't miss this special promotion.

For four days only (February 14th - February 17th), 9 popular Chick Lit authors will be lowering the prices on their favorite rom-coms to 99 cents on Amazon.com! At that price, (a bottle of wine costs more!) why not sample them all? Some delicious literary treats await you, and unlike chocolates these goodies are calorie-free!

And guys: If your sweetie is a book-lover, you'll make her Valentine's Day by gifting her with one (or more) of our fun, romantic stories!

Finding Lucas by Samantha Stroh Bailey

Daytime talk show producer Jamie Ross is beyond fed up with her toxic bad boy turned metrosexual boyfriend. Spurred on by her gang of quirky friends, she goes on a hilarious, at-times disastrous, and totally life-changing hunt to track down the ”one who got away.” But are some loves best left behind?

Purchase from Amazon

In Need of Therapy by Tracie Banister

Handling the problems of hysterical hypochondriacs, lovelorn neurotics, and compulsive man whores is all in a day’s work for super-shrink Pilar Alvarez. But can she deal with her crazy Cuban family, a trio of unsuitable suitors, and a threat to her practice without ending up on the couch herself?

Purchase from Amazon

Rita Hayworth’s Shoes by Francine LaSala

Jilted bride Amy's down on everything until she convinces herself to purchase a cute, ridiculously expensive pair of second-hand shoes. Once she does, life starts looking up, and she falls into an unexpected new romance with the last man she'd ever expect to love. But can a pair of shoes really be magic? And is her new prince really just a frog?

Purchase from Amazon

Breaking the Rules by Cat Lavoie

When Roxy Rule shares a passionate kiss with her lifelong best friend, she must come to terms with her feelings for him while dealing with two sisters in full crisis mode, a boss who makes her want to stab herself with a letter opener and a fiancé who can’t wait to walk down the aisle. Can she keep it together–or will she break under the pressure?

Purchase from Amazon

The Green Ticket by Samantha March

College junior Alex Abrams scores her dream job at the ripe age of twenty, but her good fortune quickly turns disastrous when she realizes her job is filled with lies, betrayal, and cover-ups. Keeping up with classes, her girlfriends and a budding romance, Alex feels the pressure – but will she overcome the challenges?

Purchase from Amazon

Unmasking Maya by Libby Mercer

Disgraced New York fashionista, Maya Kirkwood, is fashioning herself a new life as an artist in San Francisco when she's hired to do an installation of her work by dorky, yet dashing dotcom executive, Derek. The sparks soon start to fly... But is this a good thing?

Purchase from Amazon

A State of Jane by Meredith Schorr

Jane Frank is newly single after nine years and looking for a second chance at love. But when she dives head first into the NYC dating scene and finds it infested with flakes who are interested today and gone tomorrow, it may be time for Jane to turn the tables!

Purchase from Amazon

True Love Way by Nancy Scrofano

When her high school sweetheart, Josh, suddenly returns after twelve years in Paris, Marlo Spencer travels to her hometown to try to rekindle their relationship. But when dreams of a blissful reunion are shattered as old secrets and betrayals are revealed, can she forgive and forget, or will true love find a different path to her heart?

Purchase from Amazon

Picture Perfect by Lucie Simone

Lauren Tate’s perfectly planned life quickly unravels at the seams when a smear campaign threatens her career as a top TV executive, but she learns just how cutthroat showbiz can truly be when the hottest scandal in Tinsel Town turns deadly and the Hollywood hunk who’s stolen her heart goes missing.

Purchase from Amazon

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

On Tour: News From Heaven and a Giveaway!

The bestselling author of Faith and The Condition returns with a collection of unforgettable short stories inspired by a Pennsylvania coal-mining town and the people who call it home.

When her iconic novel Baker Towers was published in 2005, it was hailed as a modern classic--"compassionate and powerful . . . a song of praise for a too-little-praised part of America, for the working families whose toils and constancy have done so much to make the country great" (Chicago Tribune). Its young author, Jennifer Haigh, was "an expert natural storyteller with an acute sense of her characters' humanity" (New York Times).

Now, in this collection of interconnected short stories, Jennifer Haigh returns to the vividly imagined world of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town rocked by decades of painful transition. From its heyday during two world wars through its slow decline, Bakerton is a town that refuses to give up gracefully, binding--sometimes cruelly--succeeding generations to the place that made them. A young woman glimpses a world both strange and familiar when she becomes a live-in maid for a Jewish family in New York City. A long-absent brother makes a sudden and tragic homecoming. A solitary middle-aged woman tastes unexpected love when a young man returns to town. With a revolving cast of characters--many familiar to fans of Baker Towers--these stories explore how our roots, the families and places in which we are raised, shape the people we eventually become.

News from Heaven looks unflinchingly at the conflicting human desires for escape and for connection, and explores the enduring hold of home. ~~ from Goodreads

My thoughts about News from Heaven ~~

News from Heaven is a collection of short stories featuring some of the characters from Haigh's previous novel, Baker Towers. I really enjoyed reading Baker Towers and posted my thoughts about it here.

Bakerton is a struggling coal mining town full of rich characters. We come to know these characters in Baker Towers and get to watch them grow up and grow old. News from Heaven digs a little deeper into some of the character's back stories and we get to understand them a little more. It also gives us a peek into the lives of some of the other people of Bakerton who played minor roles in Baker Towers but did actually have their own full and exciting lives too.

Jennifer has written two, wonderful character rich stories about a important time in our history. I spent an amazing time in Bakerton, getting to know all these people and their neighbors. I highly recommend both of these books if you like reading character-driven, generational stories of times past.

Earlier this month, Jennifer was on Book Club Girl

talking about her book, News from Heaven.

You can listen to that interview here.

About the author

Jennifer Haigh is an American novelist and short story writer. Her most recent novel, FAITH (HarperCollins, 2010), tells the story of a beloved Boston priest accused of a molesting a child. Her previous novels include the New York Times bestsellers THE CONDITION and BAKER TOWERS, winner of the 2006 PEN/L. L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Her critically acclaimed debut novel MRS. KIMBLE won the 2004 PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction.

Jennifer Haigh's next book, a collection of short stories entitled NEWS FROM HEAVEN, will be published in February 2013. In it she returns to the landscape of Bakerton, the western Pennsylvania coal town that is the setting for BAKER TOWERS. Characters from that novel -- indomitable Joyce Novak, her eccentric sister Dorothy and mysterious younger brother Sandy -- will return for encore performances.

Haigh was raised in Pennsylvania and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2002. Her short stories have been published widely, in The Atlantic, Granta, Ploughshares and many other places, including the forthcoming Best American Short Stories 2012. She lives in the Boston area.

Connect with Jennifer

Website | Goodreads | Facebook

I have Baker Towers and News from Heaven to giveaway!

Both books are set in in Bakerton and I want one lucky person to have them both.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check out the sidebar for my other giveaways!

WWW Wednesdays February 13, 2013

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Clicking on the book covers will take you to Goodreads
for more information about the books listed below.

What are you currently reading?

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

This is the book selection for February's book group. I had never heard of it before. Have you? I hope I like it. 

The Next Always by Nora Roberts
(Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy #1)
(audio book)
I haven't read a Nora Roberts book in quite awhile. I think this one will be a good one to listen to in the car. 

What did you recently finish reading?

The Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers

I read Randy's first book The Murderer's Daughters and loved it! This one is just as good! My thoughts will be posted later this month. 

What do you think you will read next?

Touch by Alexi Zentner

I met this author at our book festival a year or so ago and got the book signed. I love this cover and I am not sure what they did, but the cover feels awesome too. This will be book #2 for my TBR Pile Challenge.

What's on your WWW this week?

Leave me a comment and

I'll stop by to check out your reads.

And be sure to check out the sidebar
for my current giveaways!

Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh

Bakerton is a community of company houses and church festivals, of union squabbles and firemen's parades. Its neighborhoods include Little Italy, Swedetown, and Polish Hill. For its tight-knit citizens -- and the five children of the Novak family -- the 1940s will be a decade of excitement, tragedy, and stunning change. Baker Towers is a family saga and a love story, a hymn to a time and place long gone, to America's industrial past, and to the men and women we now call the Greatest Generation. It is a feat of imagination from an extraordinary voice in American fiction, a writer of enormous power and skill. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

My thoughts about Baker Towers ~~

Jennifer Haigh is such a wonderful story teller. She is able to weave the lives of all these people who live in the small community of Bakerton, set in the 1940s. It was amazing to be taken back to that time period and live life along with all of them. Times were hard, living in a mining town but the people persevered and got through it.

I read one person's comment about Baker Towers who said she really didn't care for the book because there wasn't much of a plot. Life is the plot in this book. This is a story centered around the characters and Jennifer does an amazing job of character development. There are so many people in this story and the reader gets to know all of them and gets to understand how their lives are all connected.

This would be a wonderful book for a book group to read and discuss. There would be so much to talk about. I loved Baker Towers and I love Jennifer's stories. I will definitely be reading more of her books!

On Thursday, I will be posting my thoughts about Jennifer's newest book, News from Heaven, so you will want to come back for that.

And .... I am going to be holding a giveaway for one lucky person to win both Baker Towers and News from Heaven from me. Since the two books are both about Bakerton, I want them to go together to the same person. My thoughts about News from Heaven will be posted on the 14th, so come back then to see what I have to say about it and to enter the giveaway.

About the author

Jennifer Haigh is an American novelist and short story writer. Her most recent novel, FAITH (HarperCollins, 2010), tells the story of a beloved Boston priest accused of a molesting a child. Her previous novels include the New York Times bestsellers THE CONDITION and BAKER TOWERS, winner of the 2006 PEN/L. L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Her critically acclaimed debut novel MRS. KIMBLE won the 2004 PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction.

Jennifer Haigh's next book, a collection of short stories entitled NEWS FROM HEAVEN, will be published in February 2013. In it she returns to the landscape of Bakerton, the western Pennsylvania coal town that is the setting for BAKER TOWERS. Characters from that novel -- indomitable Joyce Novak, her eccentric sister Dorothy and mysterious younger brother Sandy -- will return for encore performances.

Haigh was raised in Pennsylvania and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2002. Her short stories have been published widely, in The Atlantic, Granta, Ploughshares and many other places, including the forthcoming Best American Short Stories 2012. She lives in the Boston area.

Connect with Jennifer

Website | Goodreads | Facebook

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and a Giveaway!

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery....

Narrated by Death, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist – books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever they are to be found.

With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, Liesel learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

My thoughts about The Book Thief ~~

I 'had' to read this book for one of my book groups a while back. I will be honest. I was not looking forward to reading it and actually was dreading it. Why do some women pick such horrible books when it is their turn to select one? But I sucked it up and read it. I really do try to read all the books selected before we meet, broaden my horizons, right? Step out of my comfort zone?

Well, let me tell you! I loved this book! Surprise! Surprise! The story really drew me in and I found myself flying through the book.

And then guess what? My other book group selected it to read just recently. I was running short on time and was not able to re-read it but the night before we met, I did skim through it to refresh my memory. I found myself really wishing I would have taken the time to read it again. It's that great of a story.

I rarely read a book more than once, there are so many books out there waiting to be discovered. But The Book Thief is going on my list of books to visit again, someday.

About the author

Markus Zusak is the author of five books, including the international bestseller, The Book Thief, which has topped bestseller lists ranging from the New York Times in America, the Sunday Times in the UK, as well as countries in Europe, South America and Asia.

His first three books, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe and When Dogs Cry, released between 1999 and 2001, were all published internationally and garnered a number of awards in Australia.

The Messenger, published in 2002, won the 2003 CBC Book of the Year Award (Older Readers) and the 2003 NSW Premier's Literary Award (Ethel Turner Prize), as well as receiving a Printz Honour in America.

In 2005, The Book Thief was released and is now translated into over thirty languages. As well as receiving awards in Australia and overseas, The Book Thief has held the number one position at Amazon.com, the New York Times bestseller list, as well as in Brazil, Ireland and Taiwan. It has been in the top five in the UK, Spain, Israel and Korea, and is still set to be released in many other territories.

The Age calls it ‘an original, moving, beautifully written book’. The Guardian: ‘A novel of breathtaking scope, masterfully told’. The New York Times: ‘Brilliant and hugely ambitious...the kind of book that can be life-changing’.

Markus lives in Sydney, Australia.

Connect with Markus

Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr

Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win this amazing book!
And be sure to check out the sidebar for my other giveaways!

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