Our Mini Challenge Winners!

The winner of Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study in our Favorite Fictional Couples mini challenge is:

Cait @ Escape Through the Pages

The winner of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones in our Crossover Couples mini challenge is:

Margi Borck @ The Maverick Crafter

Both winners have been contacted and have already responded.  Thank you to everyone who entered our Once Upon a Read-a-Thon mini challenges!  That was tons of fun!  :-)

Once Upon a Read-a-Thon Update

Hope everyone has been enjoying the Once Upon a Read-a-Thon!  Thank you to everyone who entered our mini challenge!  It has been so much fun reading through all of your awesome answers!  You guys picked fantastic favorite couples and such fun crossover couples!  Our internet connection has been inexplicably wonky these past two days, but it seems to be working again at the moment and I can't wait to read through the rest of your responses!  If you haven't entered our mini challenge yet, you still have until 11:59 PM tonight to do so.  :-)

Speaking of mini challenges, here are my responses to a few of the other read-a-thon challenges:

1.  Jenn at Book Crazy asked us to pick our favorite book and/or character and pair it with a song and/or photo that reminds us of the person or setting in the book.
Frances Hardinge's The Lost Conspiracy is one of my new favorite books and this picture strongly reminds me of the volcanic jungle setting:

 (photo credit goes to my BFF who snapped this beautiful fern-filled photo in Hawaii)

2.  Amanda at Not-Really-Southern Vamp Chick asked us to select six random books off our shelves (or use the books in our read-a-thon piles), take the first sentences from them, and use them to come up with the best four-sentence opening paragraph to a book that we could manage.  My entry:  

No one knew for certain when the trouble started at the Colgan school.  Camille clicked the latches down on her trunk and glanced out her bedroom window.   Flames shot high, turning the night lurid with carnival light.  The broken shutter in the window creaked a warning.  

My four sentences are from:
1. Heist Society by Ally Carter
2. Everlasting by Angie Frazier
3. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
4. Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

3.  Jessica at Confessions of a Bookaholic asked us to tell her what makes us most emotional when we are reading a book & which books have made us the most emotional.  

Death makes me more emotional than any other plot element.  Aside from that, characters living through torturous circumstances can make me ache with frustration, anger, or sadness on their behalf.  (WARNING : Spoilers ahead if you have not read Charlotte's Web, The House of Mirth, Jude the Obscure, The Hunger Games, Fire, Blood Promise, Spirit Bound, or City of Ashes)

A few specific scenes that made me cry:

1.  Charlotte's death in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web.  (I am physically incapable of reading that scene aloud because every word of it makes me bawl.  Just thinking about that scene makes me misty-eyed.)

2. The end of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.  

3. The murder/suicide of the children in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.

4. Rue's death in The Hunger Games.

A few books that made me emotional (aka miserable in a way that I secretly love):

1. Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series.   (The end of City of Ashes: "I'll just be your brother from now on" = me gnashing my teeth and whimpering in frustration.)

2. Kristin Cashore's Fire  

3. Richelle Mead's Blood Promise & Spirit Bound

Once Upon a Read-a-Thon Mini Challenge : Favorite Fictional Couples!

It's the first day of the Once Upon a Read-a-Thon!  Are you off to a good start so far?  I am excited to help kick off the read-a-thon with a two-part mini challenge today.   :-)  As I mentioned in my Reading List post, today happens to be my anniversary so my mind is on love and romance at the moment and this mini challenge is all about favorite fictional couples.

We are giving away two books featuring couples we love, and all you have to do to be eligible for both prizes is to post about your favorite fictional couple and a crossover couple that you would like to see.  A crossover couple is a pairing that brings together two characters from unrelated books.  You can post your responses on your blog, facebook, or twitter & then share the links to your responses in the Mr. Linky boxes below so that we can all stop by to read about your choices.  You are welcome to post about several of your favorite fictional couples and/or crossover couples, but each participant may only submit one link per mini challenge contest.  If you answer both questions in a single blog post, please share that link in both of the Mr. Linky boxes below so that you will be entered in each half of this mini challenge.  Thanks!  One winner will be selected at random  from each Mr. Linky list once the read-a-thon is over on July 14th, 2010 at 11:59 PM.  (Note:  This contest is international as long as the The Book Depository ships to your location.  You can check that here.)

Mini Challenge Part 1:  Post about your favorite fictional couple and enter to win a copy of Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder! 


A few of my favorite fictional couples include:
1. Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables
2. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice
3. Alanna of Trebond and George Cooper from the Song of the Lioness series
4. Clary Fray and Jace Wayland from City of Bones
5. Yelena and Valek from Poison Study

Favorite Fictional Couple Links:

1. Mrs DeRaps (DeRaps Reads) 2. Grace(Simply Grace) 3. Josh (iNinja) 4. Alessandra (Out of the Blue) 5. Ashley @ Ashley's Bookshelf 6. Alison (LostinBelieving) 7. Mel's Books and Info 8. Raelena (Throuthehaze Reads) 9. Nicole Hicks 10. Daniele (With A Book) 11. Emily (It's Just Life As I Know It) 12. Caitlin (Vision Quest Fail) 13. Sophia 14. Morgan (Smitten With Books) 15. Heather (A Bibliophile's Paradise) 16. Reading Angel 17. Christina at Books Are Life 18. Khelsea @ Once Upon a Review

19. Bev 20. Cass (GBU Book Reviews) 21. Diana (Books by their Story) 22. Proud Book Nerd 23. Andrea (A Chick Who Reads) 24. Margi Borck 25. Pure Imagination 26. Mystee {A Moment With Mystee} 27. April Nichole's Blog 28. Candaces Book Blog 29. Marissa Lynn ( Through the Radio) 30. Riv Re 31. toothybooks 32. Jan (Eating YA Books) 33. Patty (Yay! Reads) 34. Amy @ i heart reading 35. Beverly @ The Wormhole 36. Karen @ GHHS Library

37. McKenzie (The Book Owl) 38. Shari(My Neurtoic Book Affair 39. Cait (Escape Through the Pages) 40. Birdie (Feathered Nest) 41. Cade (Braintasia Books) 42. Caitlin (ScarrletReader) 43. Kailia (Reading The Best of The Best) 44. Kristen (Bookworming in the 21st Century) 45. Jessica (Confessions of a Bookaholic) 46. Ashley (Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing) 47. Veronica 48. Nina (JadorehappyEndings) 49. Kisha 50. Bianca (Wicked Good Books) 51. Truth Be Told Blog 52. Kate @ I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read! 53. Jada(Moonlight Reviews)

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Mini Challenge Part 2:  Post about a crossover couple you would love to see and enter to win a copy of City of Bones by Cassandra Clare!


A few crossover couples I would like to see:
1. Isabelle Lightwood from City of Bones & Nick Ryves from The Demon's Lexicon
2. Bertie from Eyes Like Stars & Puck from The Iron King
3. Maia from City of Ashes & Derek from the Darkest Powers series
4. Katsa from Graceling & Silas from Sisters Red
5. Claudia from Incarceron & Cassel from White Cat


Favorite Crossover Couple Links:

1. Amber 2. Mrs DeRaps (DeRaps Reads) 3. Alessandra (Out of the Blue) 4. Ashley @ Ashley's Bookshelf 5. Alison (LostinBelieving) 6. Raelena (Throuthehaze Reads) 7. Nicole Hicks 8. Caitlin (Vision Quest Fail) 9. Sophia 10. Melissa @ Mel's Books and Info 11. Heather (A Bibliophile's Paradise) 12. Reading Angel 13. Josh (iNinja) 14. Lizzy

15. Khelsea @ Once Upon a Review 16. Cass (GBU Book Reviews) 17. Diana (Books by their Story) 18. Andrea (A Chick Who Reads) 19. Margi Borck 20. Pure Imagination 21. Candaces Book Blog 22. Riv Re 23. toothybooks 24. Patty (Yay! Reads) 25. Amy @ i heart reading 26. Beverly @ The Wormhole 27. Karen @ GHHS Library 28. McKenzie (The Book Owl)

29. Birdie (Feathered Nest) 30. Cade (Braintasia Books) 31. Caitlin (ScarrletReader) 32. Kailia (Reading The Best of The Best) 33. Jessica (Confessions of a Bookaholic) 34. Ashley (Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing) 35. Nina (Jadorehappyendings) 36. Kisha 37. Bev 38. Truth Be Told Blog 39. Veronica 40. Kate @ I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read!

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Once Upon a Read-a-Thon Reading List

The Once Upon a Read-a-Thon begins today!  Hooray!  What books are you planning to read?  I will be posting daily reading updates here for the next couple of days and would love to hear about what all of you are reading too.

A few of the books I have set aside as read-a-thon options include:

Everlasting by Angie Frazier

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles  (I am planning to start with this book.)

Heist Society by Ally Carter
The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy
Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

My goal:
To have fun reading and help reduce the size of my TBR pile.

Outlook:
Today just happens to be my 13th anniversary, and my husband and I are celebrating by spending the day at the beach.  That probably means I will be getting a fairly slow start on my pile of read-a-thon books today, but I plan to read a little in between building sandcastles and checking out tide pools and we will be back home tonight, so I should be able to find lots more time for reading on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Happy Reading!  :-)

Flower Friday - Gaillardia + Read-a-Thon Reminder

Gaillardia 'Fanfare'

This week's featured flower is - Gaillardia 'Fanfare'!  Also called 'Blanket Flowers', these bright, sunflower-like flowers bloom all summer long.  This perennial loves sunshine and blooms best in full sun with regular dead-heading.  Gaillardia can tolerate dry conditions and it is a fairly short plant (around 16" tall), so it is perfect for the front edge of sunny garden borders.  You can learn more about Gaillardia 'Fanfare' at Heritage Perennials or at Gaillardia Fanfare.com.

Read-a-Thon Reminder:

The Once-Upon-a-Read-a-Thon starts  Monday and anyone can join in, so be sure to stop by and sign up here.  We will be hosting one of the mini challenges here at The Eager Readers on Monday, and we'd love to have you drop by and participate.  We'll be talking about some of our favorite fictional couples and giving away a couple of awesome books!  :-)