Yikes! It's Raining Books

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Last week I received two boxes of books via UPS and today I received a single book in the mail for a total of eleven brand new books. The two boxes were from Hachette Book Group, the sponsor of the Jacquelyn Mitchard giveaway here at Joystory last month. The single book was from its author and unrelated to Hachette. More about the latter towards the end of this post.

The really, really excellent part is that I paid zero for all of these books. But that doesn't make them free. I'm meant to review them and promote them here at Joystory. And I'm sure the preference of Hachette and the authors is that I do so in a timely fashion--as in not too awfully far removed from the release dates which I think were all this summer. But eleven books read and reviewed is likely to take me as many weeks and that pushes right up against NaNoWriMo which I haven't started preparing for yet.

I've spent the last week carrying that box of books back and forth between bedroom, front porch and living room--my three work stations at various times of the day. At the moment it is 2:30AM and I'm working on the front porch as it is still too warm in the house. Last night I was able to move inside by midnight and set up in the living room until Ed and his folks got up between five and six and then I moved back to the bedroom and worked until three. We're having a heat wave here again this week and I am choosing deliberately to sleep during the heat of the day because I am useless for anything else anyway. I slept until seven this evening and set up my work station on the porch at nine as everyone else headed to bed.

Anyway, I think I've come up with a solution to my dilemma. For the Hachette books, instead of formal reviews written after reading each one, I'm going to put up one post for each over the next week or two in addition to my regular daily posting at least on the meme days (TT Poetry Train, WG) and my theme days (Sunday Serenity, Friday Forays in Fiction) on the two days each week free of meme or theme, the book post might stand alone. Instead of calling these posts Book Reviews I'm going to call them Book Blurbs. They will consist of the book's vital info, an image of its cover, links to its page on the Hachette site and a brief blurb which I may mooch off the Hachette site's promo material. And some comments regarding my first impressions after handling the book, reading the blurbs and promo materials and dipping into the first chapters.

Then over the following months as I read each one, I will post a more formal review. Ed has offered to help by reading and providing guest reviews for several that have caught his attention. He is a much faster reader than I am. And it isn't just because he has better eyes.

Below I'm going to list each of the ten Hachette books. Anyone who would like to see a certain one featured sooner rather than later--leave a comment and I'll bump it towards the head of the line. Anyone who has already reviewed one of these, may send the permalink to their review to my email (see sidebar) and I'll include that link in my blurb and/or review for that book. Use for subject: My review of (title). This will help immensely with my record keeping.

Now the list:

1. Globality: Competing With Everyone from Everywhere for Everything by Harold L. Sirkin, James W. Hemerling, and Arindam K. Bhattacharya. Non-fiction: Business; Economics; International Trade; Competition
2. Trespassers Will Be Baptized: The Unordained Memoir of a Preacher's Daughter by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock. Non-fiction: Memoir
   
3. Soot the Moon by Billie Letts. Fiction.
4. Right Livelihoods by Rick Moody. Fiction
5. Hooked: A Thriller About Love and Other Addictions by Matt Richtel. Fiction.
6. Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand. Fiction
7. North River by Pete Hamill. Fiction.
8. rush home road by Lori Lansens. Fiction.
9. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. Fiction
   
10. The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Fiction.
11. The Choice by Nicholas Sparks. Fiction.
12. by George by Wesley Stace. Fiction.
    

Update 8/21: two more novels arrived from Hachette since I posted.

Now for the last one, the one that came in the mail today. I saved it as a reward for whoever is patient enough to read to the end of this post. You get a head's up on my next giveaway scheduled for the last week of August week of September 22 at the author's request. The book is Matrimony: a novel by Joshua Henkins. Its original release was last fall. The giveaway is in honor of the release of the paperback this month.

I intend to pick up Matrimony as soon as I finish Purple Hibiscus (which is already a week overdue at the library *sigh*)

I will prepare a more formal review of this book for the giveaway post. My mind is tying itself in knots already. Ed says to just relax, nobody is expecting a college level essay. That may be so for the ten listed above and it even may be so for Henkins book. But how can I be blase about the prospect of reviewing a novel at the request of its author who is also a professor of creative writing at the prestigious Sarah Lawrence College? He may not be expecting a college essay but that doesn't mean I can 'just relax' and throw a few hundred words of blather together at the last minute.

But when have I ever done anything not last minute. I mean this was supposed to be Thursday's post and I started working on it at 10 PM and here it is 4:30 AM Friday as I prepared to click publish. *shaking head at self*