The Big Book Club Getaway 2014 at the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino

The Big Book Club Getaway - returns to the Mohegan Sun!

Read my recap of last year's event HERE

Choose from over 20 exciting presentations 

by more than 70 bestselling authors!

Friday Events (check the event schedule HERE)

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Pillow Talk ~ Bestselling Romance and Erotica Authors

• Featuring: Eloisa James, Laura Kaye, Cathy Maxwell, and L. Marie Adeline

Literary Libations at the Lansdowne Pub

• Featuring: Tim Federle and Tom Acitelli

Saturday Events (check the event schedule HERE)

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A Hero’s Tale – Military Memoirs and Biographies

• Featuring: Artis Henderson, Jason “Jay” Redman, and Captain Glenn Sulmasy

Novel Ideas – Male Authors in Journalism and Fiction

• Featuring: Norb Vonnegut, Pete Hamill, and David Handler

Writers at Work

• Featuring: Christopher Castellani, Adam Sexton, Stuart Parnes, and Julia Pistell

Magical Fiction – Spirits, Mystery and Wonderment

• Featuring: Sarah Addison Allen, Karen White, and Suzanne Palmieri (Hayes)

The Way We Were – Historical Fiction

• Featuring: Charlotte Rogan, Stephanie Lehmann, Donna Russo Morin and Heather Webb

International Thrillers

• Featuring: J.E. Fishman, Kitty Pilgrim, and Nick Hahn

Steamy Stories – Bestselling Romance and Erotica Authors

• Featuring: Eloisa James, Laura Kaye, Cathy Maxwell, and L. Marie Adeline

A Conversation with William Mann ~ Hollywood Biographer

• Featuring: William Mann

The World’s Strongest Librarian – Josh Hanagarne

• Featuring: Josh Hanagarne

Now Boarding – Travel and Culture

• Featuring: Nina Sovich, Susan Conley and Eloisa James

Whodunnit? Mystery and Suspense

• Featuring: Jennifer McMahon, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Rosemary Harris and Hank Phillipi Ryan

Toil and Trouble – Witches and the Occult

• Featuring: Brunonia Barry, Marybeth Reilly McGreen, Maggi Smith Dalton, and Paul Caranci

Reflections in the Light – Christian Writers

• Featuring: Tessa Afshar, Allia Zobel Nolan, Carol Barnier and Lucinda Secrest McDowell

A Peek Behind The Curtains – Broadway Revealed

• Featuring: Susan L. Schulman, Jennifer Ashley Tepper and Peter Filichia

Kiss and Tell – Harlequin Romance authors

• Featuring: Kristan Higgins, Shannon Stacey, Natalie Charles and Kristine Rolofson

Telling My Truth – Memoir and the Self

• Featuring: Karen Dietrich, Mellini Kantayya and Diane Smith

Finding Our Way in The World

• Featuring: Qais Akbar Omar, Carlos Eire, Brando Skyhorse, and Christopher Castellani

Delicious Writing – Books with Food

• Featuring: Giulia Melucci and Suzan Colón

On Water and Relationships – River Journeys

• Featuring: David “Bugsy” Morine, Joseph Monninger, Dr. Cindy Lovell, and Wick Griswold

Ellora’s Cave ~ Erotica

• Featuring: Avril Ashton, Karen Stivali, Tara Nina, and Diana Hunter

Touring Connecticut ~ Tales and Travels

• Featuring: Diane Smith, Eric Lehman and Garrison Leykam

Addicted? Harvard Doctors Speak Out

• Featuring: Dr. Robert L. Doyle, Joseph Shrand, MD, and Dr. Sylvester “Skip” Sviokla, III, M.D.

New England in Fiction

• Featuring: Joseph Monninger, Nan Parson Rossiter, and Jane Green

Register and purchase your tickets HERE 

The Big Book Club Presents "Frighteningly Delicious" - A Fall Halloween Program

On October 27, 2013 the team that launched The Big Book Club Getaway at Mohegan Sun earlier this year is pleased to announce a brand new event  at The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (“The Kate”). 

This fall Halloween program will be "Frightfully Delicious" and includes a psychic medium and gourmet treats. 

Doors open at 10am and the event will conclude at 3pm

The fabulous line-up of authors that will be presenting that day includes:

Roberta Isleib aka Lucy Burdette, author of the Key West Food Critic murder mysteries, An Appetite for Murder, Death in Four Courses, and Topped Chef

Suzanne Palmieri aka Suzy Hayes, author of The Witch of Little Italy and I’ll Be Seeing You;

Brunonia Barry, author of The New York Times and internationally bestselling novel, The Lace Reader and The Map of True Places,

B.A. Shapiro, New York Times bestselling and #1 Indie pick author of The Art Forger.

 

Local authors, Paul Ferrante (Last Ghost at Gettysburg), Sydney Sherman (You are Not Alone), Eileen Kaplan (Laughter is the Breast Medicine), and Tedd Levy (Remarkable Women of Old Saybrook) will also meet guests and sign their books.

During lunchtime, an art activity will be offered by The Drunken Palette to benefit the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation. http://terribrodeurbreastcancerfoundation.org.  

A portion of the proceeds from all book sales will also go to Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation.

Psychic Medium Angelina Diana will speak about spirit communications and perform random readings throughout the audience.

Tickets are $55 each and include a gourmet boxed lunch and dessert sponsored by Bliss Gourmet of Westbrook.  

Cash bar and themed cocktails available.  

Books will be available for sale by R.J.Julia Booksellers.  

Other sponsors include The Day, the Bee and Thistle Inn, Middlesex Hospital, and Barnum Financial Group.  

Register at http://www.thebigbookclub.org/register-here/

Questions?

CONTACT:  Colleen Doyle LaFrancois at (860) 460-0875 or Susan McCann at (860) 767-1707

The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center

300 Main Street

Old Saybrook, CT 06475

860-510-0473

October 27, 2013
Event Schedule: 10:00am - 3:00pm

Click HERE for schedule details

The Big Book Club is a creation of LaFrancois Marketing Consultants and Essex Books. 

National Library Week 2013 - Communities Matter @ Your Library #NLW13

This year the American Library Association (ALA) celebrates its 54th annual National Library Week. (#NLW13)  Each year the ALA recognizes and highlights the contributions that libraries and librarians have made throughout the year.

This year, the theme for National Library Week is "Communities Matter @ Your Library"

Nowhere is that more apparent than at my local library, the James Blackstone Library in Branford, CT.

This beautiful gem, located in downtown Branford, is the media hub for the town. Not only does it feature an extensive collection of reading materials, computer stations and programs.

It also features seminars and workshops on a myriad of topics.

This month, there are talks on safety and survival, financial planning, horseshoe crabs, New England in the movies, and a guest instrumental guitarist.

For a link to their monthly calendar, click HERE.

For a link to children's events, click HERE 

During the past few storms that battered the CT coastline leaving many without power, the Blackstone Library flung open their doors, inviting residents in to charge cell phones, and connect with their neighbors.

Yes! Communities Matter @ Your Library! 

I've been a book lover all my life. I remember long after the lights went out I'd be reading under the  covers with a flashlight.  And I never complained about a long car trip, as long as I had a Happy Hollisters or Nancy Drew mystery book to read.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I never asked "are we half-way yet???"  (chuckle)

Luckily, both my parents were avid readers and instilled that love of reading in me.  My sister and I had so many books when we were young, and loved the library so much, that we created a home library of our own, where we would "stamp" books out. Yes. We "played library"!!

I hope your town has its own local library that serves as the learning hub for your community too!

This week, artists J. Timothy Quirk and Jessica Ponticelli take a whimsical look at libraries around Connecticut by featuring a local library for each day of National Library Week in their cartoon "Nutmeg Junction"!

Click on the Town or City name below to see Nutmeg Junction 's cartoons featured on Ann Nyberg's NetworkConnecticut

Sunday: New Britain

Monday: Torrington 

Tuesday: Vernon

Wednesday: Branford (Image below)

Note: This Copyrighted Image Has Been Used With Permission 

Thursday: Southington
Friday: Farmington
Saturday: TBA

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Do you have a favorite library or library story?
I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

Sweeties' Book Review Party with Krispy Kreme, Torani Coffee Flavors, and Books! #bookreviewparty

This weekend Sweeties Reviews held a Book Review Party (#bookreviewparty) with sponsorship support from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Coffee, Torani Coffee Flavors, and, of course, lots of authors' books!

The great folks at Krispy Kreme even sent travel coffee mugs for everyone to enjoy their coffee in and take home!

Although this was not my first time having a Krispy Kreme doughnut, it had been a long time since I had one!  And they were just as yummy, light and deliciously sweet as I remembered!

Krispy Kreme also sent some fun hats for everyone to wear, and they even donated some of the fresh ground dark roast coffee for us to try and some to take home!

As soon as I arrived I was amazed at the amount of books that Sweetie's Review received! Our event looked like we were holding it inside a book store!

There was a wide range of topics to choose from:  some self-help books, fiction, vampire, and children's books.  Click HERE for a list of the authors and titles that were offered.

I chose three books:

• The first by Jodi Cardin, titled "The Magnolia Man".  Jodi must have heard that it was a coffee and book review party, because she cleverly sent a single serving of coffee with her book!  
• The second, "Swimming with Maya: A Mother's Story" by Eleanor Vincent, that details the author's loss of her daughter. 
• The last, by Barbara McNally, "Unbridled: A Memoir" that is the story of the author's travel adventures and self-discovery after the break-up of her marriage.

The books I selected couldn't be more different from one another and I'm looking forward to reading them over the summer!  I'll post my reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.

I then settled down to my coffee, trying the Torani vanilla flavor syrup in my Krispy Kreme dark roast coffee.  It was so good, and I used it in lieu of the typical small teaspoon of sugar I usually add.  The vanilla flavor was aromatic and gave just the right amount of sweetness to my coffee.  Just how I like it! And yes. I had a SECOND Krispy Kreme doughnut!

Also available was some of the wonderful Brix Chocolate.  Uhhh, YES!  I admit I had a little of Brix's milk chocolate with a half a glass of wine!

About half way through the party we gathered some of the Connecticut Bloggers that were there and took an event picture. Unfortunately, some had already left - and others hadn't yet arrived!  I'm so bummed that we haven't had a picture taken yet that shows all of us together!

L-R: April, Bonnie, Wendy D., Wendy L., Nicole, Julie
Missing: Therese, Hilary, Natasha

And, just for good measure, Mr. Fluffy got in on the Krispy Kreme Action

How about you? What's on YOUR summer reading list? 

I'd love to hear about it in the comments below

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If you have an event you would like promoted or a product you would like reviewed by our group, 

please contact us at info@connecticutbloggers.com or http://sweetiesreviews.com/contact/  

Or contact me at homeplaceblogger@live.com

Thank you Sweeties Review for a wonderful event & to the companies who furnished products!  

We had a great time at the #bookreviewparty !

Disclaimer: The products featured in this post were provided by Sweeties Review through the following companies: Brix Chocolates, Torani Flavored Syrups, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Coffee, and the authors and publishers listed HERE