Visit Svea's blog at The Muse in The Fog Book Review to start linking up your Sunday posts; Suddenly Sunday is a weekly event hosted by Svea whose purpose is to share all the exciting events that have occurred on your blog throughout the week.
Hey bloggers!
If you missed it amongst all the fun Armchair BEA posts from the blogosphere (are you under a rock?), I finally remembered to get a giveaway up...
So go to my Giveaway post if you want to be one of three winners of some cool books!!
I participated in a ArmchairBEA Twitter party and I won something! Last year I had won some books for the daughter also, but she has yet to devour them. She is her father's daughter. So this year I chose Sharon Lathan's new novel The Passions of Dr Darcy as my win.
A few weeks back I posted an editorial information post about the FTC and their guidelines... and I did formally ask the FTC to please explain the nature of their Endorsement Guides as they would relate to a book blogger or a book reviewer or a bookish person who talks about books. I mailed them a letter, directed them to my site asking them to clarify their view of blogger vs. endorser AKA ADVERTISER:
Long ten page response cut short: Bloggers are endorsers, even as some on twitter land debated that term.
Everything I have been doing is cool and you are probably safe, too. They pointed me to a link on their own site which is from 2010. Basically, everything we've been doing before is good as I hardly come across any book reviewers anymore who don't automatically disclose their source of the book in the review. As long as you are doing that, you are fine, end of story. They simply want you to disclose your source of the book, and not just have a graphic on your sidebar that links to your policy on another page that only then would state that you receive books for review for free; there should be a 'clear and concise' statement of your source and preferably at the beginning of your spiel. If you disclose within each review that you have received the book in exchange for an honest review, then we are all golden.
It's not rocket science, especially since folks like me who have been blogging about books for a number of years have already trained ourselves to be upfront with our blog readers. If you have a relationship with an author/publisher/marketing company/blogging for books company, your average internet hopper must know that relationship. It gets trickier with affiliate links, Amazon Associate stores, those who get help with hosting, or those who have a Paypal button, but if you are disclosing properly then I would simply move on and keep reading =)
The Armchair BEA also had a quick post about Ethics of Blogging which everyone should read and realize that it is better for the blogging community to blog 'ethically' and with full disclosure, to ensure our credibility as a whole, regardless of what country you blog from. "Those who refuse to be accountable or play by ethical rules would be exposed as biased or fraudulent. In the end, the readers and true bloggers would benefit greatly."
Mailbox Monday is a meme originally from Marcia's Mailbox and is being hosted by Bellezza @ Dolce Bellezza for this month. The Story Siren also hosts IMM, so we can find some cool YA titles there as well.
Since I'm being a really good girl and I am kinda hating the review schedule and by extension, BOOKS in general... I haven't gotten any physical books for Review. WHEEEEE!
But I did go to HalfPrice books and get a little stack of books to try and ease my woes. Shopping is fun, right? Especially if you have a gift card AND they're having a 20% off sale.
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- Heaven Help Us: The Worrier's Guide to the Patron Saints by Clare LaPlante (basically because I need all the saints help I can get right now cuz I'm depressed/lonely/sad/job woes/kid woes/husband woes/weather woes/house woes/you name it/help me)
- Katherine by Anya Seton (a really snazzy 1956 edition perfect for our July 12 read along, come join!)
- Mine Is the Night (Here Burns My Candle #2) by Liz Curtis Higgs (I think have all her novels for crying out loud I really need to get busy and actually READ one for God's sake)
- Voices of the Faithful by Beth Moore (*I'll start this next year, it's actually a daily devotional that starts in January. I probably wouldn't have gotten it if I had known that, but I've set a reminder for it!)
- Virgin and the Crab by Robert Parry (*I was very surprised to find this there as it's a self-published all the way from England. Looking forward to this someday.)
- Peter, Paul & Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History & Legend by Bart Ehrman (I had opened this one up and found myself reading passages at a time so I figured it was a keeper).
Featured eBook Download:
Broken Identity by Ashley Williams (basically since I feel broken
Drake Pearson, a narrow-minded 18-year-old barely enduring Missouri’s heat, is tired of feeling empty. Living conditions are about as cozy as a cardboard box, on account of his alcoholic father who can find nothing better to do than argue relentlessly with him. When Drake thinks he can’t take another blow, he is reminded daily of his mom who vanished twelve years ago. And now there’s a dead body. After a terrible accident turns into a protected secret, a twisted string of events brings Drake miles away from home to an elderly man’s front door. Every promising opportunity also brings new doubts and temptations to run away—this time for good. When the secret he has kept locked away threatens to reveal itself, Drake knows he must shield it with his very life, even if the love he has been shown undeservingly is about to be destroyed.
The What Are You Reading meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey where we keep track of what we are currently reading and plan to read.
"Heaven Help Us" is tons of fun.. here is a pic of my giggly fat face.. and some fun saintly facts if you are my FB Friend.. which I've been thumbing through.
I have been having a bit of a depressive lull invade my person in case you couldn't tell, so I was slowly reading Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck. If there is any way that you could be sad in your life, this book is not the best for it. It is a sad look at the pending demise of a marriage and how it affects others... but a very good book nonetheless, just bad timing for me personally. Sad sad sad. I posted my review here.
Then it was time to read Julie Lessman's newest, Love at Any Cost. I had seen mixed reviews for this one, as some did not like the passion/repetitive lustful thinking within a Christian historical, so I went into it with trepidation. And a few pages in holy hell annoyance with the descriptions of slanting lips, thin lined lips, flat lips, smile tipping, smile rebounding, then going crooked again. Or tilting. But the author is such a sweet lady I really hoped that I could let the book grow on me. So I dove in full force and spent my Saturday with it and now I need to formulate a formal review for HNS. Yuck. There was even a zagged smile in there.
Obviously, this is not a great time in my personal life to be talking about lips or smiles for some reason since they seem to be aggravating me to no end. Hope your reading week is better!
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