My Sunday Salon is depressingly late. Why? Because I have a job! This unfortunately affords me little time to come online and post reviews. No doubt I will get back into the swing of it in the next coming days, I just have to learn how to properly allocate my time. There are a lot of things I do that I can just… well, not do. With some small modifications I my day, I will be able to find ample time to book review.

As it is, I have finished two books that I have to find time to sit down and write reviews of. Maybe what I need to do is just get started on them and this will propel me forward.

Think so?

Maybe.

Yet, you know what is so amusing in all of this?

I am actually reading MORE. You see, by the time I come home from work, I am so tired that I can’t bring myself to do anything BUT sit or lie down and read a book. I am absolutely breezing through books now. Not to mention as soon as I take my lunch break (albeit 30 minutes), I am reading as much as I can. I’m not much of an eater. I’d rather sit down with a book for that 30 minute break than eat.

Hopefully I will be able to sit down and do those reviews this week before they start piling up even more.

And you know what I said as soon as I got hired? I said, “Now I can buy more books.” I’ll confess that I am a bargain book shopper. Some of my favorite books such as Medicus by Downie and Imperium by Harris were bought from the marked down section at Barnes and Noble. Also, I shop for used copies on eBay. There’s nothing wrong with buying a $5 used copy of a book from someone across the country! That was how I bought Roman Blood by Saylor. I don’t HAVE to head down to the bookstore and pay full price for a book at all.

Good news on the book front, though. Miriam Parker of the Hachette Book Group is sending me the entire Vaughn’s Kitty series to read and review. I just can’t wait to get those books and start reading them because I have been DYING to for so, so long. YEY!

Want to see what I got in the mail this week? A pretty good stack, definitely…

Until next week!

As some of you know, I won a $20 gift certificate for Wicked Wines Online from Theresa Meyers as part of a contest at Patricia’s Vampire Notes.

Well, I bought my package, paid the few bucks left over, and am now the proud owner of this:

As you can see, I went for the Vampire Cabernet Sauvignon and a Vampire wines wine glass. All together, it came to about $28 with shipping and handling.

Considering the delicate nature of what I had being sent to me, the package came in immaculate condition (as you can see). Not a single nick or crack in the bottle of the thin wine glass.

I forgot to post about this before St. Patrick’s Day!

In the mail, I got sent a lovely green St. Patrick’s Day package from IZEA, the guys who bring us PayPerPost and SocialSpark. It was a bit rattly, so I was worried that something inside was broken. When I got home and opened up the package, this is what was inside:

What was included? Man, TONS of stuff… I got a tshirt, a shamrock necklace, a green beer glass necklace, an Irish necklace, a lollipop, a sticker, a temporary tattoo, a pin, a pencil, a mint, four green fortune cookies, and two cans of Blu Frog energy drink.

Thanks IZEA!

I have been given the amazing opportunity to give out 5 copies of Do-Over by Robin Hemley.

Robin Hemley’s childhood made a wedgie of his memory, leaving him sore and embarrassed for over forty years. He was the most pitiful kindergartner, the least spirited summer camper, and dateless for prom. In fact, there’s nary an event from his youth that couldn’t use improvement. If only he could do them all over a few decades later, with an adult’s wisdom, perspective, and giant-like height…

In the spirit of cult film classics like Billy Madison and Wet Hot American Summer, in DO-OVER! Hemley reencounters paper mache, revisits his childhood home, and finally attends the prom–bringing readers the thrill of recapturing a misspent youth and discovering what’s most important: simple pleasures, second chances, and the forgotten joys of recess.

So now… GIVEAWAY!

Would you like the chance to win one of five copies of Do-Over by Robin Hemley? This is your lucky night. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbidromantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
6.) Comment on any of my previous blog posts and leave me a comment telling me that you have.

If you do all of the above, you will get six entries. That’s six chances to win.

Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on April 4th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. No PO Boxes. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.

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I have been given the amazing opportunity to give out 5 copies of I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giullia Melucci.

From failure to fusilli, this deliciously hilarious read tells the story of Giulia Melucci’s fizzled romances and the mouth-watering recipes she used to seduce her men, smooth over the lumps, and console herself when the relationships flamed out.

From an affectionate alcoholic, to the classic New York City commitment-phobe, to a hipster aged past his sell date, and not one, but two novelists with Peter Pan complexes, Giulia has cooked for them all. She suffers each disappointment with resolute cheer (after a few tears) and a bowl of pastina (recipe included) and has lived to tell the tale so that other women may go out, hopefully with greater success, and if that’s not possible, at least have something good to eat.

Peppered throughout Giulia’s delightful and often poignant remembrances are fond recollections of her mother’s cooking, the recipes she learned from her, and many she invented on her own inspired by the men in her life. Readers will howl at Giulia’s boyfriend-littered past and swoon over her irresistable culinary creations.

So now… GIVEAWAY!

Would you like the chance to win one of five copies of I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giullia Melucci? This is your lucky night. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbidromantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
6.) Comment on any of my previous blog posts and leave me a comment telling me that you have.

If you do all of the above, you will get six entries. That’s six chances to win.

Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on April 4th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. No PO Boxes. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.

I have been given the amazing opportunity to give out one copy of The Crimes of Paris by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler.

Turn-of-the-century Paris was the beating heart of a rapidly changing world. Painters, scientists, revolutionaries, poets–all were there. But so, too, were the shadows: Paris was a violent, criminal place, its sinister alleyways the haunts of Apache gangsters and its cafes the gathering places of murderous anarchists. In 1911, it fell victim to perhaps the greatest theft of all time–the taking of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Immediately, Alphonse Bertillon, a detective world-renowned for pioneering crime-scene investigation techniques, was called upon to solve the crime. And quickly the Paris police had a suspect: a young Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso….

So now… GIVEAWAY!

Would you like the chance to win a 1 copy of The Crimes of Paris by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler? This is your lucky night. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbidromantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
6.) Comment on any of my previous blog posts and leave me a comment telling me that you have.

If you do all of the above, you will get six entries. That’s six chances to win.

Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on April 5th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. No PO Boxes. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.