We’ll be having another group read discussion in August of Kim Green’s Live a Little! Once again, the publisher (Hachette Book Group USA) has offered to give a copy to one lucky reader. Here are the rules:

1) Leave a comment agreeing to participate in the group discussion August 27-29.
2) For two extra entries, post about this giveaway on your blog and leave a comment here with your link.
3) This will be open until July 23rd. At that point, we will choose a winner. That is the same day the book will be available in stores.

Here’s a little about the book from the publisher’s site:
-What do you do if you have two bratty teenage kids who don’t give you the time of day?
-What do you do if your husband is more interested in his remote than you?
-What do you do if you’re forever being compared to your perfect sister–who just happened to marry your perfect boyfriend?
-And what do you do if you’re told you have stage 4 breast cancer?
Well, if you’re Raquel Rose, you tell your family your diagnosis, and then you watch them go from treating you like dirt to treating you like a queen. Then you go on to raise unprecedented amounts of money for breast cancer research. You fulfill your early artistic promise. And you find you love this new life of yours, no matter how fleeting it may be.

So when the doctor calls to tell her that there was a mistake and she’s actually perfectly healthy, instead of sharing her good news, Raquel can’t relinquish the sudden attention and love from her family. Soon Raquel’s lie by omission snowballs and the wise-cracking 40-something becomes a sought-after figure on her sister’s popular talk show, elevating her “illness” to local rock star status. Her mistaken diagnosis becomes the fated opportunity to fix the glaring problems in her life–her stalled career as an artist, her lackluster marriage, her unappreciative children, and her highly dysfunctional family.
And while she wants to tell the truth, she’s afraid to give it all up–would her family go back to taking her for granted? Would the donors rescind their checks if they think she was a fraud? In the end, it’s up to Raquel to find her real “cure”: an ending that befits the second chance she’s been granted.

Since you guys haven’t had a chance to read the book, yet, we’ll push the rest of the discussion to next weekend…does that sound good?  Be sure to let anyone else interested know!

June 23rd-27th The Friendly Book Nook will be having a Summer Reading Extravaganza! Each day we will have a topic about summer reading that we encourage you to post about on your blog! It should be a great chance to get a lot of ideas for books to read over the summer as well as ways to encourage your children to spend some of their time reading.There are also prizes! Through regular participation you will have the chance to win one of the following:1) Inspirational Fiction Lot: Includes Skizzer by A.J. Kiesling, A Mending at the Edge by Jane Kirkpatrick, In the Dead of Winter by Nancy Mehl, To Trust a Friend by Lynn Bullock, and a special cross bookmark made by Rabuna Fi.2) A brand new signed copy of Stealing Athena by Karen Essex.3) A ten dollar Amazon gift card!

If you would like to donate some prizes to add to these, please contact Amy at thefriendlybooknook AT gmail DOT com.

Here’s how to be eligible to win one of these prizes:

For bloggers:
1) Post a message on your blog inviting your readers to join in the Summer Reading Extravaganza. (required)
2) Participate in the Summer Reading Extravaganza. For each day you participate, you will receive an entry!
3) For a bonus entry, write a wrap-up post at the end of the week linking to your favorite posts from the week.
4) Add the button to your sidebar for another bonus entry!

For non-bloggers:
1) Participate by leaving comments on participants blogs. For each comment you will receive an entry.
2) Send an email at the end of the week to thefriendlybooknook AT gmail DOT com with links to the posts you commented on.

Thanks you all for helping us make it the best it can be!

The group discussion for The Girl Who Stopped Swimming will be moved to June 28-30 to give our winner time to read her book!  Our winner is Cheryl!  Congrats Cheryl!  Even if you didn’t win, I hope you will consider joining in the conversation.  You might check your library to see if they have the book.  Some of you have asked how it will be conducted.  This is a blog, so we’ll hold the discussion blog style in comments.  But on the last day you can write your concluding thoughts on the book and we’ll link up!   I’m also working on a button you can put on your blogs, so stay tuned.

Don’t forget about the Summer Reading Extravaganza Carnival!  It will be June 23-27!  Each day we’ll have a theme that you can write about on your own blogs or respond to in comments (if you are a non-blogger).  We’ll cover everything from your favorite beach reads to summer reading lists for the kiddos.   I’m working on a prize basket (of books, what else?) as well for participation.

(If anyone out there wants to contribute something, do contact Amy at thefriendlybooknookATgmailDOTcom)

Thanks everyone and happy reading!

Courtesy of the publisher, we have a copy of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson to give away!

Here’s how to enter!

1) Agree to participate in the Group Discussion if you win the third week of June and leave a comment. (one entry)

2) Blog about the Group Discussion and invite your readers to join in with a link back to this giveaway! (two entries)

By the way, I’m reading it now and it’s unputdownable. Thanks everyone! I’ll leave this open for a week.

Hi everyone!

 In June, we will be having a group discussion on the site.  We (Sally, Leah, Amy) will all be reading The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson and then discussing the book over three days.  We would love to have you join us!  Think of it as a virtual book club and be sure to bring some virtual snacks!

 Please note that this book probably has a PG-13ish rating.  More details to come!

The winner of The Moon in the Mango Tree is Carole!  Carole please email thefriendlybooknook At gmail dot com with your address!

And just a reminder that if you link to The Friendly Book Nook and would like a reciprocal link please  let me know via email or leave a comment.  Thanks everyone!

….is Deborah! Congratulations, Deborah, I’ll be emailing you for your contact information.

If you didn’t win, don’t despair, there’s a book giveaway starting tomorrow and another contest in the works! Thanks so much for entering and linking everyone, we really appreciate it!

By the way, I added a bunch of books to my TBR pile after reading your comments…if you’re looking for something to read, check out the comments on the contest thread.

The March Contest winner of a 25 dollar gift certificate to Amazon is ABookBlogger! Please email me at thefriendlybooknook at gmailDOTcom with the email address you want your certificate sent to!

The runner ups (winners of suprise books) are:

Bunny B

Krista

A Snodgrass

Please email me your snail mail address and I’ll get your surprise books in the mail!

There is an April Contest!

I (Amy) obtain books at a rate faster than I can read them. I’ve bought books in lots off eBay, get them in mass amounts through freecycle for my students, and of course, well, buy them. I sometimes get duplicates (and triplicates) and I sometimes get books I’m not interested in or can’t use. So the grand prize winner of the April contest will get a box of books! A box of surprise books! These books will be in varying condition, I may or may not have read them and I can’t guarantee you will love them all. But I bet you will like some of them!

The rules are simple!

If you are an email subscriber you are automatically entered!

If you leave a comment on this post and tell us about a book that surprised you, you get an entry!

If you blog about this contest on your blog you will get two entries! You must link back here.

Finally, you must have a US mailing address to keep postage costs manageable. Thank you so much and good luck!

If you link to the Friendly Book Nook please leave a comment to let us know and we’ll add you to the blogroll!