The beauty of this gift is that you don’t have to worry about exactly which books to buy, you simply sign up for the subscription and then the lucky recipient can choose his or her own books. The other good news is that the subscription doesn’t actually start until activated by the recipient, so you can get a head start on your Christmas shopping and sign up today!

There are two subscription levels to choose from: 2 books checked out at a time, or 4 books. Prices start at just $45.99.

There are countless books to choose from in numerous categories and they’re not all old obscure titles, I browsed around and found: Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion, One Silent Night (Dark-Hunter, Book 13) and Suite 606.

The process is simple too. You browse the site and add books to your queue. When they are available they are shipped directly to your door. And you can keep them for as long as you like (no late fees like the library!). When you’ve finished reading it, simply post the book back and they’ll send you something else from your list.

Sounds like an excellent idea to me - treat your loved ones this Christmas - or even treat yourself with a subscription to Booksfree.com.

5% off Booksfree.com Gift Memberships

Thank you for subscribing to updates from Blue Archipelago. I have designed some bookmarks for my subscribers. You can download them here.

Give the Gift of Books this Christmas

Related posts:

1. Aside | Best posts on Blue Archipelago from Nov 2008
2. Aside | RSS Awareness Day - May 1, 2008
3. The Pub (2008) | Reading books first published in 2008

Cover of One Foot In The Black

Crikey is it Sunday again already? The week’s are flying by and I can’t believe it will soon be Christmas. A couple of Sundays back I posted an interview with author Kurt Kamm and ran a little competition to give away a copy of his fantastic book: One Foot in the Black. I apologise for being a week late delivering the results but the winner - picked entirely randomly - is Alyce! Thanks to all who entered. If you weren’t lucky enough to win a copy why not buy one - or add it to your Christmas wish list: One Foot In The Black.

Things have been a little quiet on the reading front recently, I’m half way through Just in Case by Meg Rosoff and Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimanda Ngozi Adiochie; but I did just sneak seven (yes seven) books into my suitcase for our trip to the beach next week so I’m hoping to catch up! You’ll have plenty of reviews to read in the run up to Christmas if I manage to read my way through that little lot

The reason for my lack of reading these past few weeks is because I’ve been reading books of a different kind: eBooks. I’ve been running Blue Archipelago and my Disney World news and planning site since January this year and have enjoyed learning about blogging and getting my head around Wordpress. Now I’ve got my head around it all I want to see if I can make a little money online. I’ve been reading all kinds of eBooks on the subject and signed up for a few ‘get rich quick’ courses. It’s early days yet but I have just discovered some really good programmes that might help me get a foot in the door. If anyone is interested I’m charting my progress in niche marketing over at this little blog.

This post was written for the Sunday Salon. Read more about it here.

Thank you for subscribing to updates from Blue Archipelago. I have designed some bookmarks for my subscribers. You can download them here.

Sunday Salon | Are you a winner?

Related posts:

1. Sunday Salon | An interview with author: Kurt Kamm and a giveaway
2. Sunday Salon | A facelift and a giveaway
3. Sunday Salon | Rediscovering the library

• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - I’ve nearly finished this one so expect a review in the next day or two.
• Just in Case by Meg Rosoff - this one has to go back to the library on Sunday so I’ll have to tackle it next.
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - this is the last of my Herding Cats challenge books so I need to read it by the end of the month. I saw an interview with Adichie on The Book Show a couple of weeks back and can’t wait to read this now.
• Dating da Vinci by Malena Lott - this one is an ARC and looks like a really good chick flick. Might be a good one for my beach holiday in tenerife at the end of November.
• The Moon in Deep Winter by Lee Polevoi - another ARC and perfect for the winter months.
• Murder on the Downlow by Pamela Samuels Young - another ARC; a legal thriller this time but I expect it will come with me to the beach too.
• The Various Flavours of Coffee by Anthony Capella - a birthday gift from my dear friends The Greens and I can’t wait to read it.
• Mudbound by Hillary Jordan- another gift from The Greens and Richard & Judy’s New Writers Book of the Month so it should be a great read.
• Queen Vermita’s Visitors by Dawn Menge - last but by no means least a delightful kid’s book

Phew - I think I may be a bit busy!

What about you? What books do you plan to finish the year off with?

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Aside | Upcoming Reviews

No related posts.

One Foot In The Black

Morning fellow Saloners.

Last week I read and reviewed Kurt Kamm’s One Foot in the Black - an ARC which I really enjoyed. Kurt got in touch after I posted the review and agreed to answer a few questions about the book and kindly offered up another copy of the book that I can giveaway to a lucky reader.

So without further ado here is the interview.

Clare: What inspired you to write One Foot in the Black?

Kurt: In 2004, I retired and moved to Malibu. I was looking for something new to do and a friend from the LA Times recommended a writing class. The first level class was all about writing spontaneously. We were urged to keep a journal, write each day, and read something in class once a week.

The class had 35 women and 2 men (!!). Each week the women read about how their fathers and husbands neglected them, abused them, and didn’t love them. Everyone in class cried except me. My funny, edgy pieces were totally ignored.

One day on my way home, I passed Pepperdine University. On the huge front lawn, an L.A. County Fire Helicopter had landed and the firefighter crew was standing around it. I wondered what the lives of these crew members were like – being ferried to wildland fires in a Blackhawk Attack Helicopter.

I went home and imagined a scene where I was a young man in Saginaw Michigan, growing up with an abusive father who was a firefighter. One day I told him that, after high school, I was going out to CA to become a Helitack firefighter. He hit me across the face, and told me once I left, never to come back.

When I read this piece in class, all the women cried, and asked me if I had ever reconciled with my father. I became intrigued with the scenario, and it became the basis for One Foot in the Black. The original paragraph is in the book on page 72.

Clare: What sort of research did you carry out for the book?

Kurt: Malibu, and all of Southern CA, have terrible fires every year. In Malibu there are several LA County fire stations, as well as Camp 8, which is an old Nike Missile base converted into a Helitack (helicopter firefighting) training camp. Camp 13, nearby, is a female inmate fire training camp.

Once I got interested in the fire story LA County Fire was incredibly generous. They adopted me. I went through the 30 day training academy at Camp 8, spent time with the inmates at Camp 13, and started going out to the fires. CalFire also invited me to their training facilities and academy. (By the way, I have some interesting blogs about the old Nike Missile Base and the Female Inmate Camp – http://www.kurtkamm.com/blog)

Clare: It’s interesting to hear that you went through the 30-day training programme, that must be one of the reasons why the book was so true to life; you had actually experienced fire fighting. Do you think this book gives an accurate portrayal of Californian wildland firefighting?

Kurt: Absolutely. The firefighters who have read the book love it because they say it is so realistic. It has been a success in their community because of its realism. I think the best compliment came from L. A. County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman. His secretary told me that he initially thought it was a true story.

Clare: As I said in my review I thought it was a true story too and was surprised to discover it was a work of fiction. Which scene in the book is your favourite and why?

Kurt: This is a good question. My favorite scene is the burnover – where Greg and his crew realize they are trapped on the mountainside by an approaching firestorm and nearly perish in their struggle to get away. It took me two months to write those 10 pages. I read several accounts of firefighters trapped in burnovers and finally tried to imagine what it would be like to be there.

Clare: That scene was pretty intense. It’s good to hear that youput a lot of thought into - it definitely felt real to me when I was reading. Now let’s move away from the book slightly - can you tell us about the first story you ever wrote?

Kurt: I won a prize in Jr. High School for a story about a peanut vendor who stood out on the street, but refused to sell anyone peanuts. It was his revenge for something society had done to him earlier in his life. (Those must have been simpler times!)

Clare: And are you reading anything at the moment?

Book cover via Amazon

Kurt: I have to be very careful because while I am writing, I often start to copy the style of something I am reading. To counter that, I try to read 2-3 books at once. Right now, I am reading an Icelandic mystery by Arnaldur Indridason, called The Draining Lake.

Clare: Ive heard other authors say the same thing; if you read too much while writing someone else’s voice creeps in to your writing. So it’s good to hear you are currently writing - what are you working on at the moment?

Kurt: I am just finishing Red Flag Warning, a novel about a serial arsonist setting fires in Los Angeles. It has some great characters including an emotionally injured arson investigator, a 911 dispatcher who wants to be a firefighter, a juvie who goes to fires dressed as a firefighter and steals equipment, and a fake priest who insists arson is the work of the devil.

Clare: I’m hooked on that idea already and will be keeping an eye out for it! Thanks for taking the time to tell us about One Foot in the Black and your writing Kurt.

Kurt also has a fantastic website with some truly spectacular fire photographs and a series called Words of Firefighters which are excerpts of things these people have written to him.

Would you like to win a copy of One Foot in the Black?

I really can’t say enough good things about this book, and as I said Kurt has kindly offered up a copy for one of my readers. So if you’d like to win a copy here’s what you have to do. Head over to www.kurtkamm.com and you’ll find a link to Kurt’s blog post about Camp 13; the women’s inmate camp. Read the post and then com back here and leave the answer to this question in the comments box: Approximately how many women are there in the camp?

You have until midnight (GMT) next Saturday November 15 to leave your answer. I’ll announce the lucky winner during next week’s salon.

One Foot In The Black

This post is part of the Sunday Salon.

Thank you for subscribing to updates from Blue Archipelago. I have designed some bookmarks for my subscribers. You can download them here.

Sunday Salon | An interview with author: Kurt Kamm and a giveaway

Related posts:

1. Book Review | One Foot in the Black by Kurt L. Kamm
2. Sunday Salon | Are you a winner?
3. Interview | Maria Murnane author of Perfect on Paper

Image by Qba from Poland via Flickr

I’m pretty sure that many of you have met Rob by now as he was a participant in the recent Readathon as well as a regular Sunday Saloner. But just in case you haven’t…

I spotted Rob on a non-book blogging site (gasp) a couple of months back when he posted about this 50-book challenge. I headed right on over to his site to introduce myself and find out more about his challenge. I have to admit I was impressed; while we share a 50-book challenge in common Rob’s aim is to read 50 ‘real’ novels!

Rob has a fantastic book-blog where he reviews those ‘real’ novels (all with a cute little 50 Novels in One Year tag on the book cover images). He also has some great features including On My Shelves, Book Shelf of the Week and Reader of the Week.

And this week guess who the Reader of the Week is? Little ‘ole me! And boy am I flattered; especially as Rob wrote some lovely things about me in his intro :blush:

So be sure to head over to Rob Around Books; find out a little bit more about me and see what fantastic content Rob has on offer - of and me sure to leave him a comment and let him know I sent you

P.S. I usually try to add related images to my posts - but I couldn’t pass up on that gorgeous sunset!

Thank you for subscribing to updates from Blue Archipelago. I have designed some bookmarks for my subscribers. You can download them here.

Aside | Readers - meet Rob

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This is just a message to anyone who stopped by yesterday that ‘radio silence’ on my recent posts prompted me to do some digging - and it appears my shiny new theme broke my comments!

The good news is that they are now fully operative. The even better news for those of you who hate CAPTCHA tests is that it appears that’s what broke the comments - so for the next few days I’m going to see how things go without it. If you are a first time commenter you will be moderated, hopefully regulars should be ok. And if I get a lot of spam I’ll have to try and reinstate the tool.

Sorry about the inconvenience - please revisit yesterday’s posts; especially the one where I need help reviewing the Lord of the Flies!

Thank you for subscribing to updates from Blue Archipelago. I have designed some bookmarks for my subscribers. You can download them here.

Aside | Comments are now working

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Coraline Graphic Novel

Rating

3 stars - a slightly spooky tale of a girl who finds herself in another world

Coraline is about…

A young girl who goes exploring in her apartment and opens a door to another world where her ‘other mother’ tries to kidnap her and her parents.

I’ve heard fantastic things about this book over recent months and thought it would be a good opportunity for me to experience my first graphic novel - but I think it will unfortunately be my last. I just didn’t get it.

Image via Wikipedia

The story is obviously told through illustrations as well as snippets of text but I think I’m a lover of words more than pictures and found the book lacking in atmosphere. Sure the illustrations of the ‘other parents’ and their world were slightly freaky looking but I think if I’d have read the ‘real version’ of this book I would probably have been more spooked. Luckily I’ve enjoyed Gaiman previously so this hasn’t put me off him as an author and I’m looking forward to The Graveyard Book.

The movie is due for release sometime soon and I believe they’re re-releasing the paperback version to tie- in; perhaps I’ll wait awhile and then give that one a try instead.

Have you reviewed this book?

If you have reviewed this book on your site please fill in the boxes below to link me up to your review - don’t forget to link to the specific post to make it easy to find:

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Book Review | Coraline by Neil Gaiman (Graphic Novel)

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One Foot In The Black

Rating

5 stars - so realistic I thought it was a bio

One Foot in the Black is about…

A teenage boy who leaves home to escape an abusive father and trains to be a Californian wildland fighter.

I received a review copy of this book a couple of months back and thought I’d better get stuck in and read it. The book tells the story of a young man called Greg who moves to California from Michigan to be a wildland firefighter.

The book opens with the following line:

“A year ago, I saw a man go up in flames.”

The prologue goes onto explain that Greg and his crew are trapped on the side of the mountain, and that while most of the crew escaped the fire, one member perished.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

From that point Kamm takes the reader on two journeys, one covers the months up to that fateful fire as Greg trains to be a firefighter. The other goes back to Greg’s childhood and covers his relationship with his abusive father.

I was hooked from that very first line and thoroughly enjoyed this book. In a move away from most novels the whole story is pretty much told using dialogue between the characters rather than any descriptive narrative. This works perfectly and I felt like I was right alongside Greg, through the training, the beatings and the fires.

I was quite surprised when I finished the book to find this was a work of fiction; I was so sure it was a biography. Every year we hear on the news about the wildfires burning in California; next time I will definitely spare a moment to think about the brave men who risk their lives to save the locals, while understanding a bit more about how they go about it.

If you’re looking for a gripping read that’s a little different from the norm I can highly recommend One Foot in the Black by Kurt L. Kamm.

Have you reviewed this book?

If you have reviewed this book on your site please fill in the boxes below to link me up to your review - don’t forget to link to the specific post to make it easy to find:

Thank you for subscribing to updates from Blue Archipelago. I have designed some bookmarks for my subscribers. You can download them here.

Book Review | One Foot in the Black by Kurt L. Kamm

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2. Sunday Salon | Are you a winner?
3. Book Review | The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

Image by YOGURINHA BOROVA via Flickr

I’ve had a bit of a wordpress themefest this weekend. Yesterday I was looking for a theme for a couple of new sites I’m working on and I decided that Blue Archipelago was looking a little tired. One of the great things about Wordpress is the number of free themes that you can find just by doing a little Google search. The only downside is that just like clothes shopping something that looks good on the hanger looks awful on your site! So I tried out a few themes and finally settled on this one. I hope you all like the new look.

I’ve also given my homepage a facelift at www.clareswindlehurst.com and my Disney World planning site has been spruced up too; if you’re planning a trip to Walt Disney World be sure to stop by and say hi.

Thank you for subscribing to updates from Blue Archipelago. I have designed some bookmarks for my subscribers. You can download them here.

Aside | Blue Archipelago gets a face lift

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