Book Giveaway - All books are taken

Those of you involved in the Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group will know I was contemplating including Charles Butlter's book, The Fetch of Mardy Watt in this year's schedule, but I've been hesitating because of the issue of availability in the US. However, Charlie is generously offering seven Signed and FREE copies to the first seven people who contact me ! So if you want a copy email me with your postal address - it's purely a case of first come, first served, so get your skates on if you want a signed copy of a terrific book that I'm desperate to discuss !

Edited to add - as of 7pm GMT there are only six copies left to claim.

Edited to add - as of 5 am, March 22, there is only one copy of The Fetch of Mardy Watt left.

Edited to add - as of 2.15 pm March 22, all the books are now gone.

Congratulations to everyone who will be receiving a copy.

Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group Reading Schedule

It occurs to me that not everyone will necessarily have seen my post over on my Spoiler Zone Blog that I've finalised the reading schedule, more or less (I'm still not sure about the Charles Butler book), for the Book Discussion Group, so here's the list in calendar order:

April 3, 2007: Terry Pratchett - A Hat Full of Sky (This is the second in the Tiffany Aching series, so you may want to read The Wee Free Men first.)

May 1, 2007: Garth Nix - Lady Friday

June 5, 2007 Philip Pullman - The Ruby in the Smoke

July 3, 2007: Louis Sachar - The Boy Who Lost His Face

August 7 (through September as well), 2007: J K Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

October 2, 2007: John Gordon - The Giant Under the Snow

November 6, 2007: Alan Garner - The Owl Service

December 4 (through January 08 as well): Charles Butler - The Fetch of Mardy Watt

If anyone has any queries, comments or (I hope not!) complaints about the schedule, let me know. But we're definitely going to be reading A Hat Full of Sky in April!

Blogs Updated

The second Scholar's Blog Book Discussion group has kicked off over on the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone - please join in if you've read Penelope Lively's The House in Norham Gardens.

And the second of my Tenth Doctor Who short stories is now up on my Who Fiction Blog.

Enjoy !

Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group

This is just a quick reminder that discussion of Penelope Lively's The House in Norham Gardens will begin on Tuesday, March 6 over on the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone. Everyone's welcome to participate.

See you there !

Book Discussion Group: King Of Shadows

The Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group has started over on my Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone. Please feel free to join the discussion if you've read Susan Cooper's timeslip tale, King of Shadows.

Book Discussion Group: King Of Shadows

Just a quick reminder that the first discussion for the Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group begins next Tuesday, with The King of Shadows by Susan Cooper. It's not too late to "sign up" - just leave me a comment on the post linked above and get ready to chat ! I'm looking forward to this and hope that we can have a great discussion... And rest assured, you don't need a degree to discuss the book - just an interest in books, reading and discussion !

Susan Cooper's King of Shadows is available from Amazon.co.uk and from Amazon.com.

Book Discussion Group: King Of Shadows

Positive responses from a range of kidslit Bloggers mean that the Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group will begin in February. We will start by reading King of Shadows. King of Shadows is also available from Amazon.com (though with a rather less dramatic cover !)

My review was a Poetry Friday piece, if you want to take a look before committing yourself to participation. It's a combination of fantasy and historical novel - and I found it totally gripping. Discussions will be over on the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone and will begin on February 6. I'll post an announcement here to let you know they've started as well as posting on the Spoiler Zone. I look forward to seeing you over there and hope that you enjoy the book...

Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group

This is something I've been wondering about for a while, and the experience of being on the Cybils nominations committee and discussing children's and YA books with such a diverse group of people has made me decide to at least propose it. I'm thinking of starting a book discussion group and hosting it on my Blog - specifically over on the Spoiler Zone Blog (then our spoilerish discussions won't worry anyone who hasn't yet read the book under discussion !)... Is anyone interested in participating ? The idea I had is to nominate a book at the beginning of the month and then at the end of that month/beginning of the next, initiate a discussion which would then continue in the comments ? I will try to nominate books that are available here and elsewhere. I want to discuss older books as well as new ones, which one cannot always do in other contexts. I don't plan for the discussions to be intensely scholarly, so don't be put off if you don't have a literature degree - and it's in no way intended to be an onerous task ! The aim is to have a friendly, intelligent discussion of some good books.

Please let me know if you'd be interested in participating...