Posts tagged under Books. Show all posts.
Just last Friday, Sarah and I joined the SavvyMom sales team for the annual Ad Club Internet Day lunch. It’s consistently the biggest networking event of the year (and by the way our very own Myra Thompson is on the committee) where each year media planners, media buyers, publishers and marketers come together to enjoy a stimulating, motivating and inspirational luncheon. That’s the idea, but this year’s speaker threw people for a bit of a proverbial loop, you might say.
The keynote speaker was Adam Penenberg, author of Viral Loop, a book about social networking and the power of virility for brands and their audiences. Despite the fact that he upset most of the people in the audience with his statement claiming that “banner ads just don’t work” (seriously, he actually said that to a room full of digital media buyers and salespeople), he did have some very interesting points to make.
I was pleased that it shone a favourable light on the strength of SavvyMom as a way to reach a highly engaged niche audience, and that our strong suite of integration with the right partners for our readers is already taking us beyond the banner. I’ll leave you with a few bullet points of what I took away from the address:
I don’t want to dwell too much about the fact that he said advertising doesn’t work (that’s just crazy talk), but I don’t think anyone is going to jump in and say that banner ads are the best thing to happen to digital media, either. I think we all know that as an industry, we can do better and SavvyMom for one is constantly looking for new and creative ways to reach our readers and help our brand partners.
Thank you to the entire committee for putting on a delicious meal and an entertaining and lively debate.
If you loved last summer’s Best Friends Forever (we read it in one day!) by Jennifer Weiner, you’ll want to enter for your chance to win 1 of 10 copies of Fly Away Home, which tells the story of a politician caught in a sex scandal, and the impact of the fallout on his long-suffering wife, Sylvie Woodruff, and his two daughters. One daughter is a high-achiever trapped in an unhappy marriage, the other a recovering addict trying to get her life on track. As each woman faces challenges related to the men in their life, they make their separate way to the family cottage in Connecticut where together they reclaim their voices, their purpose and the power they’ve had all along. Enter for your chance to win 1 of 10 copies of the book, courtesy of Simon & Schuster Canada!
We moms definitely don’t have as much time as we used to for reading (unless you’re talking about homework agendas, notes from the preschool teacher or parenting handbooks on sleep training), but there’s nothing like a good book to take you away from it all. So I still try to carve out some reading time every week, even if that means waking up a bit early or staying up a bit late. And holidays usually provide me a little extra time to get through a book or two, especially now that my kids are old enough to entertain themselves when we fly out west to visit my in-laws, and I get a few hours on the plane with nothing to do but read.
So I’m already stacking up the books that I’ll aim to get through this holiday season. My list includes finishing The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, the last of ‘The Girl’ trilogy (which I am half-way through and dying to finish to find out what happens to Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomquist), and Beyond the Mountain by Steve House, an autobiographical account from one of the world’s best high-altitude mountain climbers. Coming from a mountain-loving family, I am always inspired by great alpine adventure tales as this one is sure to be. And of course, there is The Distant Hours, the next sure-to-be bestseller from Kate Morton, which I am looking forward to reading, too.
That should be enough for me—but how about you? We’ve got 10 copies of The Distant Hours to give away—just leave us a comment here and tell us what your reading plans are for the holidays.
(Winners will be chosen by random draw. Contest closes December 10.)
Finally - having kept my copy of “The Dragon Riders of Pern” away on a shelf for far too long.. I think I may have enough time over the holidays to finally wipe away the dust & emerse myself in dragonlore.
Such great book ideas from everyone! I was glad to see I had read at least some of them and am very relieved I finally managed to carve out some time to finish The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest last weekend.
We’ve got our winners and you should be hearing from us by email to coordinate delivery of your book.
Congratulations to Cheryl Embrett, Marti, Claudia Carson, Brenda, Cathy, Fay Meling, Melissa, Vanessa, Sandra B and Anne Miller! Enjoy your copy of The Distant Hours courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
Happy holidays to everyone and hoping you find some time to read.
My favourite books as a small child were The Little Engine That Could and The Paper Bag Princess. Or maybe I think they were my faves because I loved reading them to my own kids so much. Whatever the answer, my heart skips a beat when I think of those books. Like right now.
I know you have some favourite books too and I want to know what they are. If you’ll tell us your favourite kids’ book below, we’ll enter you into a draw to win the most recent collection of Robert Munsch stories—Mad About Munsch—put together by Scholastic Canada. The draw closes on January 21.
Books by Robert Munsch are a staple of every child’s book collection and a favourite among parents and kids. They’re fun, frivolous and downright silly. And they just keep getting better.
So tell us your favourites—is it Munsch, Seuss, Dahl or Carle? We would love to know. You might even see your name on SavvyMom one day!
Read full contest rules and regulations here.
My son favourite book is Somthing Good by Robert Munsch. I manage to get this book at a steep discount of less than half the price by using http://dealsforkids.ca on deals on kids.
I know the contest closed but I have to say, my all time favourite book from when I was a child to when I read it to my son, 14 yrs. ago to now that I’m reading it to my 2 yr. old daughter is: Winnie the Pooh, House At Pooh Corner. The classic, original Pooh Stories. We also used to listen to the tape cassette talking book read by an amazing story teller from the BBC. But we wore out the tapes! Makes me smile, just thinking about it.
Jody Picoult’s latest book, Sing You Home explores what it means to be a family, along the way addressing the questions of infertility, adoption, marriage, parenthood and what really makes up a traditional family in this day and age. And the book even comes with a CD of original songs with lyrics by Jodi.
She is an internationally bestselling author (and a mom of three no less) but I must confess this was the first of her 17 books I have read—but it won’t be the last. I could not put it down—it’s heart-wrenching and beautiful.
If you’re a fan of Jodi Picoult’s, you may be excited to know that she is coming to Canada as part of her book launch and will be in Toronto on March 10 at the Bram and Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library and in Vancouver on March 13 at St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church.
Wanna read Sing You Home? We’ve got 10 copies of this great book to give away. Just leave a comment on the blog here before March 31 and we will conduct a random draw from all of them.
For complete contest rules and regulations, click here.
And we have our winners:
I’ve heard a lot about this book, and can’t wait to read it!
I’ve seen some great reviews. I haven’t read anything by this author yet, but looking forward to reading this one!
One of the first things we teach our kids is how to recognize colours. But ‘green’ isn’t as simple as it once was. It’s now a whole way of living that impacts everything we do as well as our planet.
So how do you explain that?
E Is for Environment by Ian James Corlett is a great way to start.
Also the author of E Is for Ethics, and writer of many popular kids’ TV series such as Being Ian and Rolie Polie Olie, Ian knows lots about kids and speaking their language.
This sweet book is a series of stories following Lucy and Elliot as they learn environmental lessons at home, school and at play. Each story is followed with questions for you to share with your own kids as a discussion starter. It’s also filled with interesting enviro-facts that kids are sure to glom onto. You can learn more about Ian and his book through this video and you can also check out a chapter excerpt of his book.
Because this month we’re all about ‘green’, we’re giving away five copies of E Is for Environment to our readers. To enter, simply post a response to this blog before April 30 sharing a tidbit on how you have helped to teach your kids how to help the environment. We’ll conduct a random draw from all of them to choose our winners.
For complete contest rules and regulations, click here.
Thank you to everyone who submitted their comment, sharing their favourite eco-friendly tip. Congratulations to Siobhan K., Sabrina W., Tracy P., Suzanne C. and Judy W., winners of Ian James Corlett’s new release, “E is for Environment”.
We started a worm composter and our son loves it!
Angela Flood, part of our sales team, shared her experiences of the last of the great Harry Potter series when she and her kids went on opening night:
“It’s been a week since I experienced the midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 with my children and the magic is still very much alive in our house.
I am not sure if it was the anticipation of the event, the full moon (they do not miss a trick) on a brilliant summer night in Toronto, the throngs of people young and old dressed for the show, or the sheer magic of the story that made the Harry Potter viewing one of the most talked about events in our home.
Harry Potter has prompted so many discussions on so many levels. The blood relationship between Harry and Voldemort launched an entire dinnertime conversation about family lineage. The character transformation of Neville Longbottom from shy and introverted to outright hero demonstrated anyone can achieve greatness. The sheer magnitude of the franchise has generated conversations about entrepreneurship and the business of movie making. Reading the reviews of movie critics has encouraged our children to formulate their own opinions and mini movie critiques. And there have been many a conversation about certain scenes in the movie straying from the book that will forever reign as the authoritative source for all things Potter.
The sad thing is that this movie marks the end of an incredible series that was launched in June 1997. Over these past 14 years, I have watched my three children be entertained for endless hours by the books and movies. It is a magical thing that Harry Potter has created and that magic will forever be part of their childhoods.”
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Angela, and thanks for sharing.
Two summers ago, I discovered author Jennifer Weiner and whiled away a cottage weekend reading Best Friends Forever (naturally a tale of two best friends). Then last summer, another cottage weekend was entirely occupied by Fly Away Home, a story of a mother and two daughters who find themselves closer than they ever have been after a series of complicated family problems.
So this summer I was excited to discover that Jennifer’s writing has kept up with my reading (because summer seems to be the only time I can actually get through an entire book) and that she had a new title that addresses surrogacy, egg donorship, the rights of a parent and what it means to be a mother, through a fast-moving story of that brings together the lives of some fascinating characters—a student, a housewife and a socialite.
We’ve got five copies to give away to you, dear readers, so just leave a comment here about your favourite place to read in the summer (the hammock, the dock, the treehouse?) until August 31, 2011, and we will conduct a random draw from all of them.
Congrats to our winners: Karen W., Zoe K., Sheryl M., Tammy C. and Kim B.
summer reading is ALWAYS the best, we have a big old comfy lazy boy that sits facing the lake infront of large sliding glass doors, it is the best to curl up in that chair with a favourite book so you can gaze out at the lake while engrossed in a great book. This book is of particular interest as it deals with infertility, something very personal to me and my spouse!
At the cottage by flashlight just before drifting off to sleep. It makes me feel like a kid again (like I am staying up past my bedtime!).
What if… it’s a question we all ask at one point or another. It’s the question that grips the three women in Ellen Hopkins’ latest book, Triangles. We asked Ellen if she would share her thoughts on why this book would appeal to our mom readers, and here was her response:
“Triangles explores what it means to be a woman approaching midlife, when all those annoying questions hit. Most of them start with, ‘What if…’ What if I would have gone to college, or to a different college, or not gone at all? What if I would have married my first boyfriend, or not married him, or not married at all? What if I would have had children younger, had them older, not had them at all? Second guessing our decisions is a universal human trait, and Triangles is all about three women—two sisters and a best friend—second guessing their lives. Holly, Marissa and Andrea are all moms, struggling to make sense of where their decisions have led them. Their children have issues of their own. Sometimes the women notice. Sometimes they don’t, even when they keep reminding themselves that they need to be proactive. This is parenting, of course. No woman rates one hundred percent job performance, despite every best intention. I think moms will love Triangles because they’ll see reflections of their friends, sisters, mothers, or maybe even themselves—of who they are, were, or maybe will become. And they’ll better understand the importance of being a mom. Even one with flaws.” - Ellen Hopkins
Congratulations to Louise C., Sandro S., Pam F., Diane O., Ellisia H., Jennifer G., Doris D., Michelle M., Mary N., Amy R. who all won a copy of Triangles to enjoy!
Would love to read this book Triangles…here’s hoping for the win!!
What, just one book!? Soul Cravings is a book I am trying to finish; it is about our quest to fill an ache inside of us that the author details is filled by God. I am reading (slowly but surely) How to have a new husband by Friday by Dr. Leman (but don’t let the title fool you. I also have Grisham’s The Associate on my reading table, but I haven’t gotten very far in that either.
It’s only the second week of my return to the blog and so much has caught my attention. Here are my top five radar-worthy things this week.
What’s on your radar this week?
There is much to report. Google’s self-driving car, pregnancy must-haves, more Fifty Shades of Grey, mason jars and sandwich bags—they all caught my attention this week.
1. The movie What to Expect When You’re Expecting is coming out next week. With a star studded cast (Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez), it’s sure to be a hit with moms. We’re excited—especially after we received a nice big package to the office promoting the movie. What did we find inside the box? Condoms and a Trojan Vibrating Touch (that would be a mini-vibrator that attaches to your finger—yes). Pregnancy must–haves? The promoters did include a few other items such as a very large pickle, a First Response pregnancy kit and some Nair hair removal products. I’m not sure about all of you, but pregnancy seems a whole lot more fun than what my memory serves. Babymoon, anyone?
2. Google just announced that the first ever self-driving car passed its drivers test. Let’s review. A car that drives itself. Think of the hands-free opportunities this provides for moms. Did the baby keep you up all night? Have a nap in your car. Hungry toddlers, dropped toys and sibling spats can all be solved without having to turn around and drive off the road. Finally, all that pesky traffic isn’t your problem. You can watch a movie with your kids, text, sext, read, apply makeup, surf and parent all at the same time. A world of opportunity awaits you in your car. Note that you have to live in Nevada first—it’s the only state that will allow it for now. (Side bar: what would we do without the state of Nevada?)
Let’s wait to see who slaps the first Baby on Board sticker to their Google car. Britney?
3. The fascination with Fifty Shades of Grey just isn’t going away anytime soon. Apparently, well over 2,000,000 copies of the book have been sold and even more on Kindle. Here’s a hilarious skit on SNL I wanted to share with you. Is mommy porn the new reality TV? I suppose things could be worse.
4. Have you stuffed anything into a mason jar recently? If you have, then apparently you’re on trend. Foodies and decorators can’t get enough of this classic container. It seems that everywhere I look these days, I see them. What’s amazing is the speed at which their popularity has risen. Should we be crediting Pinterest for this? Whatever the reason, I’m definitely going to dig out my old jars and use them.
5. Worried about your kids’ lunch getting stolen or traded? Tired of not being able to control the lunch situation? Make sure they eat what you pack with these handy disposables. The Anti-Theft Lunch Bags might not be the most eco-friendly option but you can be sure nobody else will touch your kids’ lunch. Helicopter mom or hilarious mom?
LOL! I love the sandwich bags! Hillarious. And the self driving car… sign me up! Any extra nap time I can get is welcomed!
another great round up! OK - gotta go google that SNL skit!!
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Thank you for taking the time to enter our Savvy Summer Read contest. We hope our ten lucky winners can find some quiet time over the next two weeks to crawl into a hammock and enjoy this wonderful read. Congratulations to Marla P., Terry I., Toby C., Sheila T., Francine F., Fran S., Courtenay E., Dal L., Darlene B. and Kathy A.