Commercial Break: Free Books!

Community,

I want take a moment to reiterate our commitment to connecting readers with books so this is a reminder about how to get free books from Color Online:

Participate in CORA Diversity Roll Call. Each month, we will draw a name randomly to win a book from our Prize Bucket. Participation is down and this bothers me. We run a new assignment roughly every two weeks, here or at Worducopia. Join us. It's fun and the exercise introduces participants to new reads and different perspectives on our reading habits.

Participate in Women Unbound. Great challenge and aren't we about women? I have not been shy. I'd like to color up the challenge. Join us. Once a month I draw a name.

The POC Challenge. Color Online is a sponsor. This is really simply. You review a POC title then post your link at the challenge. No count requirement. Post and bounce. How easy does it have to be?

Color Online Quiz. Every month we try to post four quizzes. Random monthly drawing.

Every week I post a query for Sunday Salon and we share what new books we have in our New Crayons post. Starting this week, if you comment to Sunday Salon or you post a New Crayons post on your blog, you'll be entered in a monthly drawing.

We also host giveaways. Stay tune for some wonderful giveaways in March for Women's History Month.

Deadline for A Wish After Midnight giveaway is Sunday.

Life is crazy busy for most of us. I don't always post four quizzes and sometimes I don't announce all winners but I am very serious about redistributing books. Our review policy says we connect readers with books. We honor that commitment.

Today I'm updating the Prize Bucket and the Book Loan page.

If you want to donate books to schools or Color Online, check our contact page. When we get requests or I hear about a school/program looking for books, I send them.

If you don't have books, send me $1 stamps. We don't have a fund. We have you and me, a sister with more passion than cents.

We all do what we can and my part includes shipping books. Special thanks to Barb who sent me a book of stamps. I'm off to the post office today.

Monthly Winners:

Quiz- Elizabeth (sanguinty)
Roll Call- Puss Boots
Color Me Brown review- Charlotte
Women Unbound- Melissa (Jan) Angela (Feb)

Happy reading,
S

Summer Madness Winners!

Community,
Please join me in congratulating our Summer Madness winners! We had a great turnout. Thank you all for expressing an interest in reading and supporting these writers. They are amazing. And our winners are:

A Wish After Midnight- Vasilly
Shine Coconut Moon- Robin
Apple- Jason
Children of the Waters- Melissa
White Bread Competiton- Diana
Throwaway Piece- Amanda
First Daughter- Jenny
The Rock and The River- Andromeda
Down To The Bone- Oyceter
Kinky Gazpacho- Gaby

Winners, please send me your snail address to cora_litgroup@yahoo.com.

To those of you who didn't win, please don't be too bummed. I love giving books away. Check out our weekly quizzes and our Color Me Brown Challenge. 3 winners will be drawn at the end of August for the challenge and quiz winners are chosen monthly.

August: Color Me Brown Book Challenge

CONGRATULATIONS, WINNERS: Rhapsody at Rhapsodyinbooks, Allison at Read Into This!, Erika at Made by Momma , Doret at Happy Nappy Bookseller and Liz at A Chair, Fireplace & ATea Cozy.

Originally, I said we'd have 3 winners but with 121 links, I increased it to 5. Thank you all for incredible participation. As I promised, there is more. Every Monday, begining September 7th, I will feature 5 links to CMB reviews I find across the blogosphere. Once a month, I'll select reviewer among these links to receive a free book from our Prize Bucket. You won't have to link back to us. You don't have to do anything except what you already are: reading and reviewing books that reflect the diversity of our world. To spread the loot, a reviewer can only win once a year for CMB. Of course, there are so many other ways to win free books here.

Thanks again to all of you for making this challenge a huge success.



Read and review POC books through the month of August. We'll have a random drawing for 3 reviewers at the end of the challenge. Drop us a link to your review to be eligible. +3 entries for any sidebar link/tweet or blog post about this challenge. Contest limited to US residents.

If you want books, here are some options:

1) Request your library buy it. Many will when a patron asks. I have a wonderful library system and every request has been purchased.

2) Look for dated POC on trade sites like Paperbackswap.com I understand folks can't buy every book they want to read. I know I can't.

3) Contact the author directly. Many will send you a copy. They don't have endless stashes but believe me they love being asked for books for review.

4) Send me a review of book by POC writer. Every month I do a drawing for a free book for reviews we publish.

5) Color Online runs trivia quizzes. Same deal. Enter the drawing win a book. And winners pick their prizes from our Prize Bucket.

6) Book Loan Program at Color Online. For all active members at Color Online, I will loan you a book. Just pay for return shipping. I run a library with more than 3000 books. Our collection is 90% women 80% POC. You can see a partial list of our collection here. Let me confess, cataloguing online has not been my priority. If you don't see a title, ask. I'll be happy to see if we own it. *You must be an active member. If you need clarification, write me.

I want books in readers' hands. If you commit to read and review, I'll send you the book.I think I have effectively addressed the access issue.

Read brown, people.

Please post book titles in your links.

Summer Madness: Multi-Book Giveaway!

One of the best things about summer is curling up with a good book and a glass of ice tea. And at Color Online, it's also about color. Yes, lets' get brown in the sunshine. Let me help you out with a good summer read. The following authors have donated a copy of their books. Tell me which book(s) you'd like to win and why and your name is entered in Color Online's Summer Madness Giveaway. Commit to review the book and you earn 5 extra entries. Yes, this is a promotion. These authors don't get enough exposure. Blog about the contest including Twitter or linking on your sidebar and you earn an additional 2 entries. I use random.org to select winners. Contest is open until July 30th. Winners announced July 31st. Books will be mailed immediately. Enter for one or all books. Repeat, you can enter for all, but you can only win one. You can respond in a single comment. Just do me a favor and list the points you rack up and do include your email address. If you tweet or link, provide the link in your post. Happy reading. Pick among these:

Children In The Waters by Carleen Brice.
...Billie, an earthy type who communes with her ancestors through the aid of herbs and essential oils, suffers from Lupus, an autoimmune disease that she keeps in remission with healthy eating, exercise, acupuncture and meditation. She’s just found out she’s pregnant but knows that her long-time partner—a marginally employed jazz musician—doesn’t want kids. Mall cops single out Trish’s son and accuse him of shoplifting, evidently because he’s biracial, sending him into an adolescent identity tailspin, complicated because he has a white mother. Trish, a junk-food eating homebody who is lonely and yearns for family, wants to make Billie into her instant sister when she discovers her, but Billie is taken aback, not wanting to accept a white person as a relative. Read more at Multi-Cultural.

A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott
Any book where a black teenage girl travels back to the time of slavery is likely to face comparisons with Octavia Butler’s Kindred. Elliott is telling a very specific story here though -- one about Brooklyn and what it faced during the 1863 draft riots and also what it would mean to be a young black person alive in that specific place and time. Genna does suffer horribly when she travels back and Elliott doesn’t flinch from the realities of slavery. But more importantly, readers will find not a historical tale so much as a story about how a very contemporary teen would see that time and how she would react to it. Read more at Bookslut.

Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger
As Samar gets to know her uncle, she begins to learn about Sikhism and gets to know her grandparents. She even visits a gurdwara, Sikh temple, for the first time in her life. This prompts her to start questioning her mother’s decision to raise her to think of herself “like everyone else.” She begins to question her identity; wondering whether she is a coconut — someone who is brown on the outside and white on the inside—someone who may physically appear to be Indian but doesn’t know who she really is. Read more of this review at Literary Safari.

Down To The Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole
...a wickedly funny and smart LBGT teen novel. It is a welcomed and needed addition to a genre that is sorely under represented in the media, libraries and book blogs. The issue of who we love is front and center here, and the writer doesn't deviate from the issue. That said this book isn't for gay teens only (I really wish we wouldn't overlook books just because they address a marginalized group). It is for everybody who knows and loves someone who is LBGT and I hope that people who judge members of this community will read it, too.
Read more of my review at Black-Eyed Susan's.

Apologies to An Apple by Maya Ganesan
Maya Ganesan’s poetry reveals a sensibility keen with joy at the world around her and of being alive in it—the changing of leaves on the trees, the sudden meeting of eyes through the window of a crowded restaurant, the sense of being in motion alone through the streets when nobody else knows where you are, the need to apologize to an apple sitting on a desk. Her perceptions are oblique and unexpected—her delightfully quirky worldview bespeaks great promise as a poet.
~ Carolyne Wright, Author of A Change of Maps and Seasons of Mangoes and Brainfire

White Bread Competition and The Throwaway Piece by Jo Ann Hernandez
Fiction. Latina American Studies, This novel takes place in the picturesque city of San Antonio, Texas, with its rich Mexican-American culture providing the ideal backdrop for the interconnected stories in this intriguing novel for young adults/teenagers. Luz, the young Latina protagonist, will represent her state in the upcoming national spelling bee and her participation signifies a substantial milestone of her community's sense of pride and achievement. However her success triggers a variety of emotions from her family and community as they come to terms with how they feel about Luz as a Latina participating in a national spelling bee. from Small Press Distribution.

The Rock And The River by Kekla Magoon
When they were children, Stick would reread Sam’s favorite story about the rock and the river. As a boy, Sam was certain who was the rock in their relationship, but when Stick joins the Panthers, Sam is no longer sure about anything. The more Stick closes him off, the more Sam pushes back. Sam is driven to prove he is his brother’s peer, that he, too, can affect change. But Sam struggles to find his way. In fact, his growth comes at significant costs. Read more at Black-Eyed Susan's.

First Daughter: An American Extreme Makeover by Mitali Perkins
Sameera, known as Sparrow, is the adopted daughter of diplomatic parents. She has lived all over the world but now she is headed back to America because her father is running for president. However, Sameera's Pakistani origins are seen as a bit of a headache for her father's entourage, who are determined to accentuate her American-ness, with the result that she becomes a cardboard cut-out of herself, a simpering pawn for the media - some of whom nevertheless continue to use her origins as food for negative publicity. Read full review at Paper Tigers.

Kinky Gazpacho by Lori L. Tharps
Review
From a young age, Tharps became infatuated with Spain; knowing that Spain was her destiny and that she would someday live there. While in college, she traveled to Morocco with the American Field Service, but later studied abroad in Spain, where she came face to face with the culture she never knew Spain to have. See review at MenstrualPoetry.


*Regrettably, contest is limited to US and Canada.

For The Reader In You Drawing

Friday Night special: Become a Color Online follower before midnight eastern standard time, and your name will be entered for free book from our Prize Bucket.

Leave a comment with your twitter name or blogger url and an e-mail address where I can contact you. Earn second entry if you add Color Online to your blog roll.

2 winners will be contacted and announced shortly after midnight here and at Twitter.

A Wish After Midnight Contest

Many of you may remember me promoting Zetta Elliott's book, A Wish After Midnight. Well, it's now available at Amazon! Buy one and win one by linking to this announcement about my upcoming interview with Zetta later this week. Link to this promotion, and your name will be entered in a drawing to win a signed copy. Come back and read the interview, and leave a question or comment, and you'll earn a second chance to win. Help me get this incredible read into the hands of young people, old people, educators and on library shelves and in classrooms. Enjoy the video and check out Edi's review at Crazy Quilts.

Interview will be published Friday, March 20th.

Post your link here in the comment section. To be eligible to win, you must provide me with contact information. You can write me privately if you don't want your addy posted here. Contest for US residents only. 3 winners will be randomly chosen from entries here and Black-Eyed Susan's. Deadline for entries is March 25th.

Announcing Our BHMW Contest Winners!

We are proud to announce the winners of our first Black History Month Writers' Contest. Please join us in congratulating:

1st place-Margaret Harney for her review of Passing by Nella Larson
2nd place- Stephanie Su for her review of Jason & Krya and Played by Dana Davidson
3rd place- Annette Bell for her bio sketch on Toni Morrison

Honorable mentions:
Patty Franz for her review of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Mahogany Howard for her review of Beloved by Toni Morrison

Links are provided below. If you haven't read these entries, we encourage you to read and comment.

Thank you to all contributors. We appreciate your readership and support.

From our judges:

Passing by Nella Larson
Review by Margaret Harney

I thought this was an in-depth review that made me want to pull the book off the shelf and read it right now. The author did a great job of capturing what the book is about, and the passages and details she included really motivated me to want to learn more about this story and this author. I appreciated her take on the different ways the title can be interpreted in the story. ~Carleen

Jason& Kyra by Dana Davidson
Review by Stephanie Su

I want to read this book and have my students read it as well! The reviewer did a good job revealing the story of these two unlikely love interests. She provides insight into the character’s desires, motivations, and obstacles that get in their way without revealing too much of the story. ~Tisha

The author of this review showed an awareness of the reasons why readers are interested in reviews. She highlights why Jason and Kyra is a cut above other romance novels, and then goes on to compare this novel to those written by a different author that she thinks readers might be familiar with. She gives just enough of a plot summary to pique interest without revealing too much of the narrative. Her tone strikes the right balance between friendly conversation and professional detachment. ~Christine

Toni Morrison
Bio sketch by Annette Bell

This essay is organized in a very clever way. The author begins with a quote from Morrison’s Nobel Prize speech, and ends with Kofi Anan’s words about the great writer. In between the references to the Nobel Prize, the author includes interesting facts about Toni Morrison I didn’t know, such as how she had changed her name as a young woman. The essay not only inspired me to revisit Morrison’s works, it also has instilled a desire to read more about Morrison’s life. ~Christine

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Review by Patty Frantz

The reviewer makes you want to read the book not only for the first time but re read it for new insights and listen to the audio for Ruby Dee’s soothing voice taking you on Janie’s journey. ~Tisha

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Review by Mahogany Howard

I chose Beloved because I appreciated how the author related her experience reading it to her personal life--the story of her grandmother giving her the book at such a young age (probably not having read it herself) was touching and told a whole other story about how slavery and oppression resonate in the black community. I also liked how she summarized her review w/pros and cons. ~Carleen

It's Raining Books: Congratulations, Winners!

We had a pretty busy month. Please join us in congratulating our following winners:

November Blues Giveaway winner-Shalonda
Link Promotion winner- Deb
Potpourri Winner- Sara

We appreciate all of our readers who participated in our contests this month. If you didn't win, don't fret. Potpourri is a monthly contest. In March we're launching our Around The Globe Challenge. It will run March through the remainder of the year. At the end of March, June, September and December, we will randomly pick a winner among participants. More details coming.

In honor of Women's History Month, we're launching The Sewing Circle. Provided we have 4 or more participants each month, we'll randomly draw a winner for this activity. The Sewing Circle is the adult equilivant of Shades of Love.

Lastly we're creating a treasure trove for our literary collectors- The Literary Chest. For every 5th review published, you will have the option of selecting a prize from this collection (or prize bucket, your choice). The LC will contain vintage books, the kind collectors and true biblophiles want on their shelves. Here, we'll offer classic women's literature.

And we have one more bonus for our frequent reviewers: you will enjoy book loan privileges from our exclusive book loan program. Find selections at our Shelfari virtual shelf. Every book listed under "own" is available. We will ship requests media rate. You may keep the book up to 30 days after receiving it. Two stipulations: You are required to return the book at your expense (media rate is fine) with delivery confirmation and the book must be returned in the same condition you received it. If you fail to return a book without notice, you'll loan privileges will be revoked permanently.

Our BHMW Contest Judges

We'd like to introduce our judges for our first Black History Month Writers' Contest. Each judge is a talented writer, reader and advocate for the literary arts. After you've read their bios, we hope you visit their respective sites. We'll announce the winners early next week.

Carleen Brice’s debut novel, Orange Mint and Honey(One World/Ballantine), was an Essence “Recommended Read” and a Target “Bookmarked Breakout Book.” For this book, she won the 2009 First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and the 2008 Break Out Author Award at the African American Literary Awards Show. Her second novel, Children of the Waters (One World/Ballantine), a book about race, love and family, is available for pre-order now and will be in stores on July 7th. You can read an excerpt at her website carleenbrice.com Check out Carleen's blog, White Readers Meet Black Authors.

After attending Emerson College and Brooklyn College, Tisha Brown taught 4th grade and then 6th grade English for ten years in New York City public schools. When she left the classroom, she worked for several years as a staff developer in New York City Public Schools supporting K-8 teachers, literacy coaches and administrators acquire and hone the skills they need to lead effective reading and writing workshops and improve the quality of their literacy programs. Tisha is currently a 6th grade reading and writing workshop facilitator for a private school. Read more at Tisha's blog, Thinking Aloud.

Christine Swint writes poetry, short stories, and personal essays in metro Atlanta, Georgia, where she lives with her husband, two sons, and her dog Duffy. Her poems and stories have recently appeared online in Mirrors, Postal Poetry, qarrtsiluni, Mannequin Envy, and Asphalt Sky. She edits a new poetry and art magazine, ouroboros review, with poet Jo Hemmant. She's also a columinist with readwritepoem.


Entries here:
Reviews
Bio Sketches