Release Day Blitz & Giveaway: The Wrath & The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

I am so excited that The Wrath & The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh releases today and that I get to share the news, along with a special introduction from Renée herself! If you haven’t yet heard about this book, be sure to check out all the details below. And don't forget to scroll down to the bottom of the post for a giveaway, which includes a chance to win signed copies of the book and some beautiful book inspired scarves, courtesy of Renée, Penguin Teen, and Rockstar Book Tours. 

A letter from Renée Ahdieh

There are not enough words to express how thrilled I am to share The Wrath and The Dawn with you! From the moment I typed the first word, I felt connected to Shahrzad and her world in a way that carried me through the long process of publication to where we are today. 

Everything about this process has been a dream come true, and hope you love my book half as much as I enjoyed writing it. In celebration of release day, I'll be giving away a signed, first edition hardcover of the book, as well as a gorgeous scarf . . . or two!

Always remember to make it a story worthy of you!

Renée

About The Book

Title: THE WRATH & THE DAWN

Author: Renée Ahdieh

Pub. Date: May 12, 2015

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Pages: 388

Find it: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Goodreads

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend. She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all. 

About Renée

Renée lives in North Carolina (Go Heels!) with her husband Victor and their dog Mushu. Her YA fantasy novel, THE WRATH AND THE DAWN, will be published on May 12th, 2015. In her spare time, she likes to cook, dance salsa, and wreak havoc on the lives of her characters.

She’s also a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, as well as an active member of theScience Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

WEBSITE| TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS | TUMBLR  |PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM

And now for the giveaway. 3 winners will receive a hardcover of The Wrath and The Dawn and a beautiful book inspired scarf (IMAGES BELOW)! US Only. Ends on May 22^nd at Midnight EST!

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Musing Mondays (28)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB(Jenn) at A Daily Rhythm, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

And I’m back to blogging! I hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday. So, moving right along, this week my musings have to do with DNFing books. It’s a topic I haven’t really spoken much on before, so I thought I would do a post about it.

Usually, if I feel the need to DNF a book it’s because I’m not personally enjoying my reading experience. I give the books the first 100 pages, sometimes even a little more, to impress me enough to want to keep reading. But on some occasions I just give up and move on. It could be for a number of reasons—sometimes its the story itself despite the writing, which could be some of the best I've ever come across, it just depends.

I have no problem DNFing a book or sharing my reasons for doing so. Think of it this way. Why would I want to spend hours finishing something that I’m not enjoying? I have a bunch of books sitting on my shelf that are practically calling my name—I figure that it would be better to spend time reading what I enjoy rather than the other way around. I used to be the kind of reader that tried to finish every book I ever started, but by doing that—even trudging through books I didn’t like, from start to finish—I ended up in too many reading slumps.

The bottom line is that DNFing when necessary works for me, especially when I don’t have the enthusiasm to continue on with the book in question.

So, what are your thoughts on DNFing? Do you feel the need to finish every book you start?

A Quick Update...

I'm writing this post just to let you guys know that this week is going to be really slow here at Our Thoughts Precisely. I'm not sure if I'm going to be posting anything for the next few days, but I will be back next week. I will still make the occasional post on twitter, tumblr, & pinterest during this week. Thanks for stopping by!

The Friday 56 (25)

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

This quote comes from page 52, which is close enough. This quote is talking about Jeanne Villepreux-Power “the mother of aquariophilly.” I reviewed this book earlier in the week, so you can check out the review HERE

“The newly minted naturalist knew that there was only so much one could learn by plucking a creature from its briny environment. So in 1832 she invented a container that would facilitate her observations by keeping aquatic creatures alive in their own ecosystem—even while extracted from the ocean. She designed a glass case, the first recognizable aquarium.”--Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science and the World by Rachel Swaby

What's on your page 56 this week? Leave your post link in the comments below and I'll drop by your blog.

Review: Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science and the World by Rachel Swaby

Title: Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
Author: Rachel Swaby
Source/Format: Blogging For Books, Paperback
More Details: Nonfiction, Science
Publisher/Publication Date: Broadway Books, April 7, 2015

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Summary from Goodreads...

In 2013, the New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill. It began: “She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job, and took eight years off from work to raise three children.” It wasn’t until the second paragraph that readers discovered why the Times had devoted several hundred words to her life: Brill was a brilliant rocket scientist who invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites in orbit, and had recently been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Among the questions the obituary—and consequent outcry—prompted were, Who are the role models for today’s female scientists, and where can we find the stories that cast them in their true light? Headstrong delivers a powerful, global, and engaging response. Covering Nobel Prize winners and major innovators, as well as lesser-known but hugely significant scientists who influence our every day...

When I first saw this book available for review I was more than excited for it. I previously knew about a few prominent female figures like Sally Ride, and I was looking to expand my knowledge. I wanted to know more about the accomplishment of women in the scientific field.

Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science and the World by Rachel Swaby offers a brief look at 52 woman who changed the fields they worked in—offering summaries of their accomplishments and general facts about them. This book covered subjects from Medicine, to Genetics and Development.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite the fact that only a few pages were dedicated to each woman and her major accomplishments. Headstrong does a great job highlighting each person by offering facts about their upbringing and schooling, even some of the hardships they faced in their respective workplaces before—sometimes even after—achieving acclaim for important discoveries. It was everything from opposition coming directly from prominent colleges refusing to admit them, to their names being omitted from work they spent their life on.

My only real complaint is as I said above, that the profiles were a little short, and I would have liked to know more about each person. But overall, I really liked Headstrong, and I read the book in a few days. I definitely recommend picking it up if you’re looking for a way to get introduced to more female scientists beyond what you might already know.

Top 5 Favorite Profiles...

• Jeanne Villepreux-Power "the mother of aquariophily" (p.52).
• Rita Levi-Montalcini "In 1986, she and Cohen were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology for their work." (p.107).
• Rosalyn Sussman Yalow "Over the course of conducting their insulin research, Yalow and Berson measured the antibodies generated as a result of the hormone." (p.149).
• Yvonne Brill "Her electrothermal hydrazine thruster was still used in satellites when she died in 2013." (p.171).
• Florence Nightingale "Through observation and statistical analysis of census data, Nightingale designed a curriculum for nurses that would provide them with adequate training for the very first time." (p.187-188).

I received this copy of the book from Blogging for Books for this review, thank you!

Rachel Swaby is a freelance journalist. Her work has appeared in theRunner’s World, Wired, O, The Oprah Magazine, New Yorker.com, Afar, and others. She is a senior editor at Longshot magazine, the editor-in-chief of The Connective: Issue 1, a former research editor at Wired, and a past presenter at Pop-Up magazine. She lives in Brooklyn. Visit her website HERE