SPOOKTACULAR! O.o

BLOG HOP GIVEAWAY!!! Say what?!?!! 

That's right! I have joined a blog hop giveaway! Hosted by the FABULOUS I am a Reader, Not a Writer && The Diary of a Bookworm!! Woot! What does that mean for you? It means I am feeling super duper generous this week and giving away some books! 

It's Halloween time! So of course I am giving away at least 1 book that makes everyone at least sort of think about Halloween, and that would be of course the infamous Dracula by Bram Stoker!! 

I am also going to be giving away a copy of Blood Rights by Kristen Painter! 

ANNNDDD Ascension by Sable Grace! 

What does this mean?! It means there will be 3! yes, 3 winners!! This is the biggest blog hop I have ever participated in so lets hope for TONS of new fwiends and TONS of new book blogs to follow! 

The rules for this contest are the following:

Must be a GFC follower (yes, I will check O.o )

Must fill out form below to enter! (though comments are well loved!)

This contest will be INTL as long as the Book Depository ships free to your country. To check, follow this link  to see the list from book depository.

Contest is now closed! Good luck to all who entered!! 

Now continue hopping!! Enjoy! And HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! O.o

This week's recap :)

This week was a busy one for me. Started a different job (with a solid 40 hours and not 1 more) and its on a different shift. It was a busy week. BUUUTTTT I did get to READ!! And I haven't been so excited since! LOL

In my mail box this week was ::

Blood Rights by Kristen Painter -- LOVE this cover and the book is A-MAZ-ING! 

Sins of Angels by Linda Poitvein -- Just finished it, CAN'T WAIT for the next one! FANTASTIC author!

Also won The Pack and Bandits by LM Preston -- Going to read these at some point but my TBR pile is so huge as it is!! 

Just started Blood Law by Jeannie Holmes. Literally, I think I am 4 sentences in and broke away for some dinner. 

I will be starting to write my reviews again tomorrow. And stay tuned for some awesome giveaways this month here and at my other blog  One Reading Addiction at a Time !!

Banned Books Week

It's Banned Books Week! 

Did you know, on average, one book everyday gets challenged or banned from a school or public library in the United States?

Did you know that that censorship is completely against what the US is supposed to stand for? 

Don't get me wrong, I think, when it comes to younger people, there are types of media they are not ready to read/view. But to take the option away from everyone? Wrong. Just wrong. It is my right as an adult to decide what I want to read or watch or hear. And it is my job as a PARENT to know what content it available to my kids. 

I read my first fantasy book when I was 7 years old. People died. There was magic. It was most likely a little too old for me. But I understood it for what it was, fiction, pretend, imagination. 

My first banned book was Harry Potter. I read the first when it first came out. I was 12 years old (that was in 1999, whew that makes me feel old LOL). I knew that it wasn't real. I knew the difference. My future children will read that and more. 

I will agree that not all books belong in the hands of children due to content. But that's MY choice to make. Not a PUBLIC Library's. 

There is so much to learn from books, books can effect you and your life in many many ways. I could never tell someone not to read a book about <insert something> because I didn't like it, I thought it was too graphic, or any religious reasons. It's against that persons rights to take options away from them.

For more information on banned books visit ALA's new website.

Banned Books Week

THE WINNER IS....

The winner of Black Heart Loa is Cathy Garcia!!! 

Email has been sent, is there is no response by 12AM 9/13 a new winner will be chosen!! 

300 Followers!!! O.o

I have hit 300+ people who like to read my ramblings about books! 300+!!! Thank you so so much for liking me!! As a big thanks, I will be having my first book giveaway!! Which is....

Amazon
Good Reads

All you need to do to enter this contest is:

Leave a comment with your name and email
&&

GFC/NetworkedBlogs follow me

And if you want, I would love it if you:

Spread the word :)

The winner will be chosen by random.org on Sunday Sept 11th. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen. 

This contest is open Internationally.

Total SLACKER!!

Well, I've been completely slacking on the blog front. I'm sorry. Between building a website, yard work, house work, summer time, AND trying to enjoy some book time, I've had no time.

But I have managed to fry my brain with html code and forget to actually know how to do things... like blog about books! So, becuase I haven't been keeping up with this blog, I am going to do a recap of what I've read in the past few weeks.

Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. Loved it. Total epic fantasy at its finest!! And the series!! Oh my, it was so refreshing to not hate the series!!

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. I was a bit disappointed with the book to TV series, but the book was highly entertaining.

Dark Awakening by Kendra Leigh Castle. I LOVED this book. I love vampires, but the media is completely playing them out. This book was a very good vampire book!! A must-read!!

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire. I liked this book. It was an interesting story. Different view on the fae... Now reading #2 :D

WOOOOO!! Go NEW YORK STATE!!!

ALBANY — New York lawmakers narrowly voted to legalize same-sex marriage Friday, handing activists a breakthrough victory in the state where the gay rights movement was born.
New York will become the sixth state where gay couples can wed and the biggest by far.
“We are leaders and we join other proud states that recognize our families and the battle will now go on in other states,” said Sen. Thomas Duane, a Democrat.
Gay rights advocates are hoping the vote will galvanize the movement around the country and help it regain momentum after an almost identical bill was defeated here in 2009 and similar measures failed in 2010 in New Jersey and this year in Maryland and Rhode Island.
Though New York is a relative latecomer in allowing gay marriage, it is considered an important prize for advocates, given the state’s size and New York City’s international stature and its role as the birthplace of the gay rights movement, which is considered to have started with the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village in 1969.
The New York bill cleared the Republican-controlled state Senate on a 33-29 vote. The Democrat-led Assembly, which passed a different version last week, is expected to pass the new version with stronger religious exemptions and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who campaigned on the issue last year, has promised to sign it. Same-sex couples can begin marrying begin 30 days after that.  
The passage of New York’s legislation was made possible by two Republican senators who had been undecided.  
Sen. Stephen Saland voted against a similar bill in 2009, helping kill the measure and dealing a blow to the national gay rights movement.
“While I understand that my vote will disappoint many, I also know my vote is a vote of conscience,” Saland said in a statement to The Associated Press before the vote. “I am doing the right thing in voting to support marriage equality.”
Gay couples in gallery wept during Saland’s speech.
Sen. Mark Grisanti, a GOP freshman from Buffalo, also said he would vote for the bill. Grisanti said he could not deny anyone what he called basic rights.  
The effects of the law could be felt well beyond New York: Unlike Massachusetts, which pioneered gay marriage in 2004, New York has no residency requirement for obtaining a marriage license, meaning the state could become a magnet for gay couples across the country who want to have a wedding in Central Park, the Hamptons, the romantic Hudson Valley or that honeymoon hot spot of yore, Niagara Falls.
New York, the nation’s third most populous state, will join Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C., in allowing same-sex couples to wed.  
For five months in 2008, gay marriage was legal in California, the biggest state in population, and 18,000 same-sex couples rushed to tie the knot there before voters overturned the state Supreme Court ruling that allowed the practice. The constitutionality of California’s ban is now before a federal appeals court.
While court challenges in New York are all but certain, the state — unlike California — makes it difficult for the voters to repeal laws at the ballot box. Changing the law would require a constitutional convention, a long, drawn-out process.
The sticking point over the past few days: Republican demands for stronger legal protections for religious groups that fear they will be hit with discrimination lawsuits if they refuse to allow their facilities to be used for gay weddings.  
The climactic vote came after more than a week of stop-and-start negotiations, rumors, closed-door meetings and frustration on the part of advocates.
Online discussions took on a nasty turn with insults and vulgarities peppering the screens of opponents and supporters alike and security was beefed up in the capitol to give senators easier passage to and from their conference room.
The night before, President Barack Obama encouraged lawmakers to support gay rights during a fundraiser with New York City’s gay community.
The vote also is sure to charge up annual gay pride events this weekend, culminating with parades Sunday in New York City, San Francisco and other cities.
Despite New York City’s liberal Democratic politics and large and vocal gay community, previous efforts to legalize same-sex marriage failed over the past several years, in part because the rest of the state is more conservative than the city.
The bill’s success this time reflected the powerful support of Cuomo and perhaps a change in public attitudes. Opinion polls for the first time are showing majority support for same-sex marriage, and Congress recently repealed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that barred gays from serving openly in the military.
In the week leading up to the vote in New York, some Republicans who opposed the bill in 2009 came forward to say they were supporting it for reasons of conscience and a duty to ensure civil rights.
Pressure to vote for gay marriage also came from celebrities, athletes and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Republican-turned-independent who has long used his own fortune to help bankroll GOP campaigns and who personally lobbied some undecided lawmakers. Lady Gaga has been urging her 11 million Twitter followers to call New York senators in support of the bill.
While the support of the Assembly was never in doubt, it took days of furious deal-making to secure two Republican votes needed for passage in the closely divided Senate.
Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox rabbis and other conservative religious leaders fought the measure, and their GOP allies pressed hard for stronger legal protections for religious organizations.
Each side of the debate was funded by more than $1 million from national and state advocates who waged media blitzes and promised campaign cash for lawmakers who sided with them.  
But GOP senators said it was Cuomo’s passionate appeals in the governor’s mansion on Monday night and in closed-door, individual meetings that were perhaps most persuasive.  
The bill makes New York only the third state, after Vermont and New Hampshire, to legalize marriage through a legislative act and without being forced to do so by a court.  

Read more: http://auburnpub.com/news/state-and-regional/article_a7201928-9ee4-11e0-ba8e-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1QIWhneEP

Can I just say, finally?!