You are browsing the archive for December 2009.
2009 was a great year for LLBR. We started off by adding Dan Marvin to our review team. We celebrated our one year anniversary. We changed the look and name of our blog. We broadened our short list to include a handful of other POD companies outside of Lulu. Then, we threw the short list out the window and opened ourselves up to all POD books! Oh yeah, and we reviewed 77 titles this year too, not counting Julie’s Quick Picks.
It was perfect timing that David Hennessey queried us with his book, A Cricket’s Christmas, last week. This time of year I usually enjoy searching Lulu.com for holiday publications, but I’ve somehow let this month get away from me without doing that. Once I’d read the preview of A Cricket’s Christmas, I immediately wanted to read more and was glad that David provided the manuscript so quickly. And who doesn’t enjoy a good holiday story where the main characters are all animals!
With a title like that, I just had to take a look at Chazda Albright’s book. Being a fellow poet and artist, the title alone definitely captured my attention. Chazda introduces the book with an explanation about her medium:
It is always wonderful when we hear of someone who has been reviewed on the LL Book Review having some success, either through sales or critical acclaim. Today it is Linda Welch’s turn.
Words That Define Me by Antonio Bostic
I’m sure all of us can relate to such heartache throughout our lives some time or another.
Great rhythm and emotive words strung to make us think.
I’ll admit it, the frenzy over the 2012 movie convinced me to check out this book. For those of you who have been living under a rock, the year in question was predicted by one of the Mayan calendars to be the last year.
While I lean more toward surfing GoodReads, Facebook, Twitter, and my fellow reviewer’s sites on a regular basis more than all the other Creative Writing sites that have popped up recently, WEBook is one that I did sign up for this year but haven’t taken full advantage of due to lack of time and interest. However, this site did launch an interesting program recently called Agent InBox.
Jack Regan captured me from the get go with his young adult fantasy T’Aragam, which is aimed at the tween age group (9-13).
About a year ago, I received an email from a college-going complete stranger on MySpace who had been recommended my first book, The Other Side of What, because a friend of his thought the storyline of the lead character sounded a bit too much like his own life. We corresponded very briefly, and while I was flattered, I hopefully convinced him that the book was not based on any events in his life because (1) I had never met this person and (2) We established I wrote the majority of the book before those certain events in his life had even taken place. I think he was disappointed.
I will admit that a “romantic mystery” is not my first choice for a book I’d read for review here or for pleasure. But what convinced me to give Kit DeCanti’s book a sincere try was a YouTube video that she posted of herself reading the prologue. Proof that book trailers and author videos on the web do work! Not only does Kit do a good job at it and has a good voice for reading out loud, but I admired the unique and uncommon attention to certain details that might otherwise be overlooked. I was immediately captivated, like a small child in the library who just sat down for storytime.
C.V. reviews Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater by Brent Michael Kelley
Shannon reviews The Boston 395 by Jason Derr
Susan reviews Appraisal for Murder by Elaine Orr
C.V. reviews Hellwatch by Larime Taylor (February's 1st review)
Jaime reviews The Parrot's Perch by Karen Keilt
Susan reviews Dark Mind by Jennifer Chase
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