Explore This! Toronto, Ontario (Canada)

The ferry heading from the city to Toronto Island.

Today, we’re hitting up Toronto as our destination. Not only is Toronto (and its outskirts) home to authors like Margaret Atwood, Guy Gavriel Kay, Lesley Livingston, and Lila DiPasqua, but it is also the site where many Hollywood movies are filmed, especially ones that are set in New York. (Though there’s a running joke about how clean Toronto streets are in comparison and they need to be dirtied up for filming.) If you are a fan of the TV show Lost Girl, you’ve probably seen the CN Tower in one or two shots because that show is also filmed in the T-Dot. How do I have the inside scoop on Toronto? Because it is the city where I was born and grew up in…and The Danger Lover is also from these parts 🙂

Have I convinced you yet of Toronto’s …

The International Giveaways Café (34)

Welcome back to the café! I hope everyone has had a great week and will be able to find some well needed reading time over the weekend. Although we’re into March, it seems we haven’t been able to shake off Winter just yet (those of us in the Northern Hemisphere anyway.) Hopefully soon the weather will perk up and we can start seriously thinking about reading out of doors again. Bring on Spring, I say 🙂

There are lots of giveaways listed that go on through to mid-March, but there’s always room for more! And remember to let us know if you’ve won anything recently; the Book Lovers would love to hear! At Book Lovers Inc., it’s our pleasure to share the bookish love! Good luck to everyone and hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Here’s the fine print for entering your link:
Guidelines:
If you have a giveaway …

Elements in Lit 201: How to kill a Zombie

I’ve been hitting the Historical Romance themed posts pretty hard recently, so I thought I’d go in a very different direction today: the most effective ways to kill a zombie.

I hadn’t really thought much of zombies before, not seeing how a book could be interesting with just a bunch of re-animated corpses running around. But, my opinion has changed greatly with my new found love of the TV show, The Walking Dead, and also having listened to Max Brooks’ World War Z. What solidified my change of heart was a viewing of Shaun of the Dead the other night. Quirk in the apocalypse? For the win!

The thing that has fascinated me nearly as much as the personal stories of survival in these fictitious renderings, is the tools used for self-preservation. I thought we’d take a look at what weapons work best when faced with a brain eating mutant.

I …

The International Giveaways Cafe (34)

Welcome back to the café! I hope everyone has had a great week and will be able to find some well needed reading time over the weekend. There are lots of giveaways listed that go on through to mid-March (thanks in large part to the awesome Stella 😉 ) but there’s always room for more! And remember to let us know if you’ve won anything recently; the Book Lovers would love to hear! At Book Lovers Inc., it’s our pleasure to share the bookish love! Good luck to everyone and hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Here’s the fine print for entering your link:
Guidelines:
If you have a giveaway you would like to share with our other readers, the rules are simple:
1. The giveaway MUST be available to international addresses (Book Depository does count)
2. Add your link below, in the format shown. (Please use the URL for …

Review: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

Format read: Hardcover
Series: Book #4 in the Flavia de Luce series
Genre: Mystery
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Number of pages: 297 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Formats available: ebook, audio
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon

Book Blurb:

It’s Christmastime, and the precocious Flavia de Luce—an eleven-year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry and a penchant for crime-solving—is tucked away in her laboratory, whipping up a concoction to ensnare Saint Nick. But she is soon distracted when a film crew arrives at Buckshaw, the de Luces’ decaying English estate, to shoot a movie starring the famed Phyllis Wyvern. Amid a raging blizzard, the entire village of Bishop’s Lacey gathers at Buckshaw to watch Wyvern perform, yet nobody is prepared for the evening’s shocking conclusion: a body found, past midnight, strangled to death with a length of film. But who among the assembled guests would stage such a chilling scene? As the storm worsens and the list of suspects grows, Flavia must use …

Explore This!: Havana, Cuba

Today, I’m whisking you all off to Havana, Cuba. Personally speaking, Cuba has always been a place that I knew would have beautiful spots, but was also a country that invoked fear at the thought of visiting. The common knowledge (rumour?) that police walk around with machine guns and the fear of doing anything wrong (even by accident) just made it seem less than appealing as a vacation destination.

To be honest, my inspiration for today’s post, Peggy Blair’s The Beggar’s Opera (I believe it’s Canadian release only so far, but keep an eye out for it), doesn’t do much to allay my fears. It did make me curious, however, to check out the sites. If you all promise to hold my hand, when can begin our tour now:

Plaza de la Catedral

Chinatown in Havana

Playas del Este

Havana night life.

A British war ship in Havana Bay. It …

The International Giveaways Café (33)

Welcome back to the café! I hope everyone has had a great week and will be able to find some well needed reading time over the weekend. I keep hearing talk of a “snowpocalypse” from our European contingent, so I hope those of you dealing with it keep bundled up…perhaps even snuggled by a fire with a good book?

There are lots of giveaways listed that go on through to mid-March, but there’s always room for more! In fact, only 4 out of the 24 previously on the list have dropped off, so there’s got to be some awesome odds there, don’t you think? And remember to let us know if you’ve won anything recently; the Book Lovers would love to hear! (I won an audio copy of Darynda Jones’ Third Grave Dead Ahead this past week, which I’m I can’t wait to receive 🙂 ) At …

Elements in Lit 201: Exceptions to the Rules

I’ve finally just finished reading Sarah MacLean’s Love by Numbers series with the last installment of Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart and I’ve discovered some recurring ideas, character, themes that bring the taste of life at that time to us, through historical romance novels.

The Regency Romance is made that much more appealing to its readers by the descriptions of the strict rules of society and of course, the main characters attempts to thumb their nose at said rules. With this in mind, I bring to you the top 6 exceptions to real Regency era rules. as portrayed in romance novels:

1- I’m bigger than you! We talked about the hierarchy of the British peerage before, but even if one character out ranks another, if they are smaller in demeanor and have done something to displease the hero of any tale, an intangible thing like rank …

The International Giveaways Cafe (32)

Welcome back to the café! I hope everyone has had a great week and will be able to find some well needed reading time over the weekend. Personally speaking, there never seems to be enough time in the day to get things done, so I appreciate it all the more when I get the quiet time needed to read and relax. It’s just pure bliss!

Now’s the time to list your giveaway and I’m sure that there will be a lot out there that are romance themed. We’re a mushy bunch here at BLI, so we love the lovin’ 😉 And remember to let us know if you’ve won anything recently that you’ll get the chance to read now. The Book Lovers would love to hear! At Book Lovers Inc., it’s our pleasure to share the bookish love! Good luck to everyone and hope you enjoy the …

My Wishlist: The Series (Re-) Read Edition

I received an email from Audible with a great offer for ‘Book One’s’ of a bunch of series’ and it got me thinking about the ones I haven’t read yet…and also the ones I’d love to re-read, if time were available. There are just so many!

First, Anne Rice has a new book due out next week (which I will be reading ASAP), but in the news yesterday was the possibility of Tale of the Body Thief being made into a film. This would mean casting a new Lestat, which is an exciting prospect, I think. This got me thinking about how much and why I loved the Lestat books, fueling my desire to experience them again. Anne Rice was probably the first (and perhaps the best) author that worked history into her stories in such a convincing way. From working on a master piece in Italy, to a monk’s …