Smugglers Stash & News

Happy Sunday, all! Hope you’ve had a great weekend, etc, etc, etc. Now, down to business…

Giveaway Winners:

First up, is our giveaway of Meljean Brook’s latest Guardians novel, Demon Forged. The lucky winner is:

Also, the winner of an autographed hardcover copy of Fire, Krsitin Cashore’s latest novel is:

Congratulations! You know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT the book smugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we’ll get your prize out to you as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone who entered both contests!

Around the Internets:

It’s Steampunk Month at Tor.com! For the month of October, the good folks at Tor.com, including authors like Cherie Priest and Lev Grossman and assorted bloggers will be posting articles of interest, giveaways, new short fiction, interviews, and much more – all centered around the increasingly popular steampunk motif. The month has already started and is going strong! Check out the post about George Mann’s new steampunk novel The Affinity Bridge – and there’s a giveaway too. Cherie Priest also has a great post about her new release, Boneshaker.

We’ll definitely be checking in all month. Keepin’ it brassy.

In other big book news, nominations for the 2009 Cybils are open! The Cybils Awards are Children’s and Young Adult Literary Awards, bestowed by book bloggers. The purpose of the awards is two-fold:

• Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators – let’s not forget them) whose books combine the highest literary merit and “kid appeal.” What’s that mean? If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussel sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.
• Foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature, highlight our best reviewers (and shamelessly promote their blogs) and provide a forum for the similarly obsessed.

From now until October 15th at 11:59 PM, you can nominate your favorite young adult novels for an award. You can only nominate ONE book per category, so make sure it is a book you are passionate about!

With that said, you can make your nominations with the online form HERE. For more information about the Cybils, make sure to check out the award website HERE.

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, Ana reviews Malinda Lo’s retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale, Ash.

Tuesday, Thea reviews another highly anticipated read of 2009, the long awaited book 2 in Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking series, The Ask and the Answer.

On Wednesday we double up, as Ana reviews Pastworld by Ian Beck, and Thea reviews Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

On Thursday, Thea reviews Ilona Andrews’ first book in a new Urban Fantasy series, On the Edge.

And on Friday, we close out the week with a joint review of Brandon Sanderson’s Well of Ascension (Mistborn book 2).

Phew. It’s another crazy week, and we hope you enjoy!

Until tomorrow…