And because I’ve been playing The Beatles: Rock Band most of the weekend…

As part of BBAW a whole bunch of book bloggers agreed to interview each other. It was kind of like a secret santa of book blogging interviews. I was given Carleen over at White Readers Meet Black Authors a blog that specializes in books by African American authors.

What inspired you to start your blog White Readers Meet Black Authors?
Talking online with other black authors about the hurdles we face trying to market books to wider readership.

Did you blog before WRMBA?
Yes, I have a personal blog, The Pajama Gardener. There I write about writing and gardening, books, movies and other stuff.

How do you think a person’s race effects their writing?
I don’t know that race affects writing very much. Though there may be some differences in voice and characters, I think stories and people are universal.

Do you think book stores should create a special section specifically for African American authors?
I am of two minds about the African American fiction section. I think it has its benefits and its drawbacks, like just about everything in life. My blog readers seem to be either passionately for or against it.

What are some blogs that you regularly follow?
Blogging in Black, Color Online, The Bottom of Heaven, Galleycat, Pubrants, Editorial Ass, Diversity Rocks, Black Girl Lost in a Book, ringShout, Literary Obama.

What are some rules you try to follow when you blog?
Fairness. If I use info that I found on another site, I give whoever hipped me to it the credit.
Brevity. Though sometimes I break this rule, but I realize long posts are harder to read than shorter posts.

It’s 2nd Annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week! What does this mean? Well I am not really sure. I do know that it was started by My Friend Amy last year and she continues the hosting duties this year. This year I am sure is bigger and better than ever which really should be that hard considering there is only one BBAW to compare it to.

So to celebrate and to do my part, let me right now vocally appreciate some book blogs! These are a few of the ones that I follow regularly and get a kick out of.

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing
What I like about this blog is that he talks a lot about E-Book publishing which is a topic I am interested in. He is also a published author and you can find his books on his Amazon page.

Awful Library Books, Book Covers Anonymous, The Book Design Review
I like blogs dedicated to book covers.

Georgia McBride
I like her blog. She had me at Twitter Poems.

let’s talk about writing
She’s a fellow Portlander and writer.

litpark
Only gets updated a few times a month but when it does it normally has interviews from various authors or other people of interest.

Reading Local: Portland
THE source for all things book-ish in the Portland, Oregon. Not from Portland? Reading Local recently expanded to offer Seattle and are currently looking to set up shop in other major cities. Maybe you could offer them a hand?

Stuff Dreams Are Made On…
I like the books he reads and I enjoy his posts.

Naturally, this is not the complete list of blogs I read. But it’s almost my bedtime so it will have to do for right now.

Feel free to recommend any blogs you feel are noteworthy.

Penguin has been nice enough to give me the opportunity to give you the opportunity to win a copy of Paper Towns by John Green which is being released in paperback next week (Sept 22). In case you have forgotten, I called Paper Towns a “fantastic novel”. In fact, after re-reading what I wrote about it, I used “fantastic” twice to describe the book. Hm, I guess need a thesaurus. Anyway, It’s a great young adult book that you should check out.

Description from Powells.com:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues and they are for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

Since I have never done a giveaway before, I’m just going to play this by ear and copy how other blogs I follow do giveaways.

Here is how you can enter to win a copy:

1) Reply to this entry and leave a comment.
2) Post on your blog or twitter about it while providing a link to this entry. Then e-mail me or leave a comment here with a link to your post.

You can earn one entry for (1) and an additional entry by completing (2) for a total of two entries per person. Deadline is September 22nd, 2009 and a winner will be announce the following day. Include some way for me to contact you if you win.

I’ve been playing a lot of Tales of Monkey Island on the Wii lately. It’s been a blast. If you haven’t played any of the Monkey Island games you should totally check them out (assuming you enjoy pirate themed point-and-click adventure games as much as I do). If you don’t feel like playing it, you can watch this animated recap of the first game The Secret of Monkey Island.

One of my literature weak spots is the pulp fiction/noir genre which is why I am a big fan of the Hard Case Crime series. When HCC debuted back in 2004 I immediately scooped up their initial offerings and submerged myself in their gritty world of dames, gumshoes, and murder. It was a welcome change from the CSI crime solving style that I fear is slowly taking over mystery novels. When Portland Noir was released back in June, I had to have it simply because I love Portland and I love Noir. Really this is just basic math. Put two good things together and you get something even greater. This book seemed perfect.

Portland Noir spans 16 stories that each take place in a different Portland neighborhood. From the pretentious, dog filled Montgomery Park area to the shady 82nd Avenue where the women walk the streets. Each story has a distinct feel to it and none of them feel as if they are telling the same story.

One of the defining characteristics of Portland Noir is that it features all local authors/illustrator. Some of these authors I am familiar with, some are new to me but I now I want to check out in the near future.

I worry that this book will only appeal to Portlanders. Luckily, the publisher (Akashic Books) has put out many books in the Noir series that take place in other big cites like Las Vegas or Seattle. But those books don’t interest me because Portland Noir was filled with so many little references to the city that I call my home. The authors don’t spend much time going in to detail about the locations but because I am familiar with them, I can picture them in my mind. It’s pretty much a given that Portlanders will get the most out of this book while readers who have never been visited this fine city wont know what a Burnside is.

On that note, I now feel compelled to read Portland Confidential.

Second Opinions:
Feminist Review

Last night I met with various writers who responded to an ad on Craigslist for a writers group. I responded because I am still on the search for a group of local writers that I could talk writing with, preferably over beer. There were seven of us total who met at the Lucky Lab Brew Pub. We were a diverse group in terms of everything. Gender, age, writing style, etc. It was nice and I good a few comments from the short piece that I read. Anyway, it was good. We’ll see if this group manages to stick around.

After 26 years, Reading Rainbow will be ending. It’s a little sad. I remember watching this show when I was little.