Get Caught Listening - June is Audiobook Month

Over the past two years I have been listening to an increasing number of audio books.  It all started one year earlier when I found 'Book Radio' on Sirius (channel 80).  I listened to it everyday while driving my son back and forth to school.  Once I found out that my local library offered online audiobooks I knew I had to figure out how to get those.  It didn't take long to download the free Overdrive Media Console and start downloading audiobooks.  I transfer them over to my ipod touch for easy listening.  Am looking forward to being able to transfer them to my BlackBerry Playbook, but that option is not yet available.

For my summer listening, I will be visiting Audiobook Community.  It is a free online group that works to promote and discuss audiobooks.  You can join in discussions with other listeners, check for new and upcoming releases and even talk about your favourite readers.

Once you sign-up at Audiobook Community, join the group called SYNC: YA listening.  Every two weeks throughout the summer they will be offering a free pairing of audiobooks that you can download and keep.  One is a current publication and the other a classic.  After listening, you are invited to join in the discussion.  Note, each set of books is only available for one week.

Below is the scheduled list of audiobooks:

Available June 23 - June 29

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare
Available June 30 - July 6
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The Trial by Franz Kafka

Available July 7 - July 13
Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

Available July 14 - July 20
The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney
Beowulf by Francis B. Gummere [Trans.]

Available July 21 - July 27
Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Available July 28 - August 3
Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari
Rescue: Stories of Survival From Land and Sea by Dorcas S. Miller [Ed.]

Available August 4 - August 10
Immortal by Gillian Shields
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Available August 11 - August 17
Storm Runners by Roland Smith
The Cay by Theodore Taylor

For those who decide to join up at Audiobook Community, please add me, Heather Pearson, as a friend.  I'd love to know what you're listening to and your thoughts.

Free Ebooks from Sourcebooks June 7-13, 2011

My friends at Sourcebooks are at it again.  They have a slate of new books hitting the store shelves today and they didn't want their readers to miss out.  As an enticement to read these books, for a very limited time, they are offering free ebook downloads of earlier works by these authors.    Scroll down to find out about both the new offering and the free books available.  These can be downloaded directly from Sourcebooks, or you can visit your favourite online retailer.

While you are at it, you are invited to become a  CasaVIP member at Sourcebooks.  It's a free group which delivers ebook offers and Romance information direct to your inbasket.

JUNE eBook Deals from Sourcebooks!

New York Times Bestselling Author, Grace Burrowes has the next book in her delightful regency romance series in stores this month: The Soldier. During this exciting time: The Soldier will be $2.99 for 2 weeks (06/07/2011 – 06/20/2011) and The Heir at $0.99 for 5 weeks (05/02/2011 – 06/06/2011)—so get them both while you can!

In honor of Terry Spear’s latest, Heart of the Highland Wolf, hitting stores Seduced by the Wolf will be FREE during the first week of publication of . Terry’s werewolves act like real wolves—including mating for life!

Have you ever met a hero that can purrrrrr? Find one in The Cat Star Chronicles, the out of this world sexy series by Cheryl Brooks! Book 7, Virgin, is in stores now! To celebrate, you can download Outcast for FREE during the first week of publication of Virgin! 06/07/2011 – 06/13/2011 only.

Read my review of Book 6: Hero

It’s Hannah Montana meets Project Runway! Get the first book in this great middle grade series, The Allegra Biscotti Collection, for FREE this week only, and meet Allegra Biscotti, a fabulous and famous fashion designer—only no one knows because she’s actually Emma Rose, and still in junior high! If you love this book, don’t get your threads in knot—book 2, Who What Wear! Is now available.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you could find out HIS side of the story? Matt Dunn, a women’s fiction author who just so happens to be a guy, tells all in The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook, which is free this week, in honor of Ex-Girlfriends United hitting stores! Did I mention he’s British?!

Christmas in June? Dating Mr. December by Phillipa Ashley is free for one week! Love her awesome wit, hilarious scenarios and super sweet love stories? Her brand new US release, Wish You Were Here is now available!

Did you know Georgette Heyer wrote two Gothic Regency Romances? The Quiet Gentleman is dark, moody, and not what anyone expects! Still craving the frothy, effervescent tone of Heyer? Get one of her most beloved, Cotillion, for free this week!

Thank-you to Sourcebooks for this wonderful assortment of new titles and free downloads.
Cover images courtesy of Sourcebooks.

Needlework Tuesday - The Challenge Unveiled

Welcome to the latest edition of Needlework Tuesday.  I encourage all my readers who have worked on a needlework project in the past week, or those who are needing a bit of encouragement to join me with a post.  Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your post and I'll add you to this group of happy stitchers.

Last week, I left you partway through my challenge for my local quilt guild.  To learn more about the challenge, check this post from last week.

Work continued at a rather frenzied pace, building to a climax on Sunday afternoon.  Remember, I needed this finished for Monday evening.

Next step was to fill in the gaps left around the edges.  My son suggested using black both for those triangles and for the large corner setting triangles.

 I still needed to fit in the fifth block.  There were very few rules for this challenge, but using five blocks was a major one.  Now, those rules didn't specify that the blocks needed to be 'complete' blocks.

On the paper pattern I drew two lines corner to corner, dividing the block into four new triangles.
This next photo shows how the block would look as designed, and the third photo shows it's new appearance when I 'blew it out of the box'.

 Now they sort of look like a bunch of geese in flight.  Next, to add a few more like size triangles to these, only in the earlier mentioned black....

This piece currently measures about 28 1/2 inches across.  It definitely needs at least one border if not two.  I am thinking of searching for a fabric that has all three colours, though that might be tough unless I want to use Sponge Bob fabric. I would appreciate any suggestions for the border.

I promised that I would show photos of the projects made by the other members of my guild.  They are mostly a very traditional guild that seems to resist change.  They do wonderful work, but it does tend to be 'safe', nothing 'out of the box'.

I don't know who did each piece as we remained anonymous for the viewer's choice voting.

 I did talk with Elsie who pieced this one.  The five blocks are set in the centre, and she has so far surrounded it with three fancy pieced borders.  She plans to add at least one more pieced border and then a wide print fabric one.  This quilt won 1st prize.

Table runners were the obvious choice.  That would never work for me as it would require me to move all the books and stacks of fabric from my coffee table so I could put the runner on it.

The use of the mauve with the yellow and green is very striking.  That runner won 3rd place.  Oh, did I forget to tell you that my quilt won 2nd prize.  Yippee.

Thanks for joining me for Needlework Tuesday and my mini challenge show. 

Did you make progress on your needlework project this week, do you need some encouragement, leave a comment with a link to your post and I'll share it here with all my readers.

I was just over visiting Lady Penguin at her Knitting Knotebook blog, and she has finished the coolest cuffs.  They are from a pattern 'Antique Alice in Wonderland Spats'.

Whole Foods to Thrive: Nutrient-Dense, Plant-based Recipes for Peak Health by Brendan Brazier

Thrive Blog Tour - A visit to the Thrive Juice Bar - Contest

Welcome to today's stop on the Thrive blog tour.  For a complete list of the stops on the tour, scroll to the bottom of this post.

For the past several summers, I have  volunteered at a series  of running races, The ENDURrun, which is attended by a variety of elite runners.  During the course of the week, they run seven races over some very challenging terrain, covering a total distance of 160 kms.

The greatest challenge of the week is feeding these runners in such a manner that they can recover quickly and run again the next day.  Add to this task that at least several of the runners have dietary restrictions such as vegetarian/vegan, lactose intolerance etc.

Author Brendan Brazier is himself a vegan who mostly relies on a raw food diet to supply his nutritional needs.  He is recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on plant based nutrition.

 I first heard about raw food cooking for a race participant last summer.  While reading this book, I was fascinated to learn that in almost every incidence, raw vegetables are much easier to digest than cooked food (exception starchy potatoes and sweet potatoes). 

In the first chapter, Mr. Brazier clearly explains why eating nutrient dense foods, such as vegetables, are important to our overall health.  It's not the number of calories we eat, but whether we are eating foods that are packed with the micro-nutrients that our bodies crave.

For the past few weeks I have been discussing this book with my teenage son who is an amateur body builder.  Food and protein is very important to him.  I am a runner and fencer and have different energy demands.  We are looking forward to trying a number of recipes that are directly aimed at the sports minded reader.

Lemon-Lime Sports Drink - contains coconut water which is perfect for electrolyte replacement
Sunflower Seed Hemp Milk - This was easy to make and tasted great.
Ginger Pear Smoothie - daughter and I enjoyed sharing this.  More ginger next time.
Green Energy Bars -  Looking forward to trying both these bars and hope they will replace the store bought bars that are usually less than appealing.
Walnut Cranberry Energy Bars -

As for the upcoming running races, I am planning on having ground flax seeds and hemp seeds on hand for inclusion in the post race smoothies. 

This book is jam packed full of nutritional information that is relevant even to non-vegetarians.  To learn more about this approach to eating, check out Brendan earlier books The Thrive Diet and Thrive Fitness.  You can also sign up for Brendan's free Thrive in 30 .

While browsing through the many delectable recipes I noticed that one of the contributorswas the Thrive Juicebar in Waterloo, Ontario.  The juice bar was named after Brendan's first book, Thrive Diet.  Since that is near to home, I decided that a field trip would be required.  Neither of us are vegetarians, though that didn't stop me from wanting to  visit this locale.

Vegetarian, vegan and other non-allergenic options rule the menu here.

 While waiting for our orders to arrive, we were surprised when these dainty looking drinks were placed on our table.  It's water with blueberries. 

Being a juice bar, we had to order from the extensive drink menu.  On the left is the Acai berry, pomegranate raspberry smoothie for hubby.  On the right is the blueberry, lavender, vanilla smoothie for myself.  They were both amazing.

For dinner, I opted for the vegan pad thai: rice noodles and mounds of fresh raw veggies, spicy peanuts and cashew with a topping of almond chili oil and mint lime vinaigrette.

Hubby choose a more meaty seeming dish of grilled portobello, tempeh and spinach sandwich.

The next two photos show the smoothie and drink preparation area.

I am definitely planning a return visit to the Thrive Juice bar.  Those sandwiches looked so good and there are many more juice combinations to try.

I hope that you have enjoyed my review and comments about Brendan Brazier's new book Whole Foods to Thrive: Nutrient-dense, Plant-based Recipes for Peak Health. Now is your chance to win a package of his drink products.  The winner will receive either an assortment of Vega Smoothie or Complete Whole Food Health Optimizer. 

To enter, leave a comment telling me your favourite smoothie combination. Be sure to leave an email contact and stat that you are Canadian. Contest open to Canadian residents only.  Prizes will be mailed directly by the publisher, Penguin Books.  Contest closes June 10, 2011.

Update: June 3, 2011 10pm - I have decided to add a prize for my American and international readers.  I am hoping to find some sort of smoothie recipe magazine.  Same rules apply, leave a comment and tell my your fav smoothie combination and you'll be entered.

Blog Tour Participants

May 24 Jacob’s Beloved  
May 25 In the Next Room
May 26 Tales of a Ranting Ginger  
May 27 Library of Clean Reads  
May 30 Lavender Lines  
May 31 A Bookworm’s World  
June 1 Rowangarth Farm
June 3 Books and Quilts 
June 6 Book Blab  
June 7 Jennifer’s Story  
June 8 Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea  
June 9 Simple Stacie   http://simplystacie.net/
June 10 Rayment’s Readings, Rants and Ramblings   http://raymentsreadingsrantsandramblings.blogspot.com/
note: I will continue to update links as they become available.

Thanks to Vega  and Penguin.ca  for my review copy and for sponsoring the contest.

Fade by Lisa McMann

Janie and Cabel are now in their final term of high school.  Just a few more months and they'll graduate.  Janie has been working hard to learn to better navigate the dream world and is meeting with success.  She's no longer totally at the mercy of someone else's subconscious.  Unfortunately the dreams are starting to take a larger toll on her health and she doesn't know if there is anything that can be done about that.

At the same time, the Captain calls them into her office.  Seems that there might be some inappropriate behaviour among the teachers at the school.  The two are asked to try and find  out what's happening and who is involved.

I listened to the audio version of this story and found it to be just as captivating as Wake, the first book in the series.  I am firmly rooting for Janie and Caleb as a couple.  We learn more about Captain as the story progresses, and she really is the type of person you would want involved in your child's life.

Like the first audio book, Fade is wonderfully read by Ellen Grafton.  5 hours 22 minutes.

Titles also in this series:
1 Wake
3 Gone

Thanks to Brilliance Audio for the cover photo.

Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner

Set in Sydney, Australia in 1880's, seven children get into all sorts of mischief even though they are trying their best to behave.  Ranging in ages from sixteen to one year, the Woolcot children are mostly left to their own devices.  Their step-mother Esther, the birth mother of only the youngest, is just twenty and has no experience with children.  Their father is a military man and expects his children to behave and only to show up when he expects them to.

I have been wanting to read this book for several years.  I was able to download a copy to my Playbook and read most of this adorable story in one sitting.  I really don't want to start telling you about the events that happen in the childrens' days, but I can assure you that they didn't set out to get into trouble, those things just seem to happen in this family.  I suppose it might have been different had they had a nanny to see to their needs.

Author Ethel Turner wrote over 40 novels and has been the longest in print author in Australia.  She also wrote further about the Woolcot children in: The Family at Misrule, Little Mother Meg, and Judy and Punch.


Article about Ethel Turner at Australian Children's Literature.

Thanks to Chapters.ca and Kobo for the cover image.

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

This is the first in  a series of stories that revolve around lawyer Michael (Mickey) Haller.  Mickey lives and works in Los Angeles, though his doesn't have a traditional office, he works out of his Lincoln Town Car.  For a driver, he employs a past client who still owes him for his legal help.  His life changes the day he gets a lead on a new client, Louis Ross Roulet.  This is one who can easily pay the full bill.  That's what matters to Mickey, the bill getting paid not whether his client is guilty or not.

As he starts to examine the evidence in this case, Mickey comes to realize that this could be the one type of client that he has always feared, an innocent one.  Loved the self debate that Mickey has on whether to use all evidence and wind up this case quickly for his seemingly innocent client, or to stretch it out and milk it for every penny.

I wanted to see the movie version of this book, but was determined to read the book first.  My library happened to have an audio version and I downloaded it right away.  Great choice.  Sam Grupper is the reader for this book and he really does bring it to life.  Within minutes of starting, I didn't want to stop, I also knew at that moment that there was no one else that could play the roll of Michael Haller than Matthew McConaughey was the perfect choice.  After finishing all 11 hours and 36 minutes of the audio, I still feel that this is a must read/listen to book.  One that you should book time off to read and not be interrupted.  I can't wait to read more about the legal exploits of Mickey Haller.

Thanks to Hachette Audio for the cover image.  Visit Hachette to listen to a excerpt.