Bookship blog

Welcome to Terese Svoboda

2024-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

Hello everyone!

I’m pleased to welcome Terese Svoboda to our Meet the Author program, where authors make themselves available to join your book club meetings.

A Guggenheim fellow, Terese Svoboda has won the Bobst Prize in fiction, the Iowa Prize for poetry, an NEH grant for translation, the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize, a Jerome Foundation prize for video, the O. Henry award for the short story, and a Pushcart Prize for the essay. She is a three time winner of the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, and has been awarded Headlands, James Merrill, Hawthornden, Yaddo, McDowell, and Bellagio residencies. She’s won a lot of awards. I got tired just typing that! Even more - her opera WET premiered at L.A.’s Disney Hall in 2005.

Roxy and Coco

Roxy and Coco, sisters and glamorous harpies (mythical bird women), work to save the world by stopping child abuse, while also trying to evade capture. For readers of Neil Gaiman and Karen Russell.

https://www.thehawaiiproject.com/book/Roxy-and-Coco-A-Novel--by--Terese-Svoboda--653856

We’re pleased to welcome Terese to the program. Here’s a note from her introducing herself:

Hi, I’m a content provider. That is to say, I’ve published 21 books of fiction, poetry, translation, memoir and biography. Two new books of fiction are coming out Feb/March: Roxy and Coco about two wild harpies-turned-social-workers who sometimes throw child abusers off cliffs, and The Long Swim which won the Juniper Prize from U. of Massachusetts, a book about families, good and bad. Escaped lions are also involved.

It’s hard for me to read books for fun– Alice Sadie Celine, an LA novel about a mom who seduces her daughter’s best friend is what comes to mind, by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright. You can find me on twitter if you want to hear about any other book recommendations. Happy reading!

The Long Swim

A runaway circus lion haunts a small town where two lovers risk more than their respective marriages. A junket to Cuba and an ambassador’s dalliance with a niece hide dark secrets and political revolution. And more...

https://www.thehawaiiproject.com/book/The-Long-Swim-Stories--by--Terese-Svoboda--653894

Welcome 2024! Libby Search and Kindle Notes!

2024-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Hello everyone! Welcome to 2024!

A few new Bookship features to announce! Libby Search and Kindle Notes import.

For customers whose library uses Overdrive/Libby (mostly US libraries), you can search Libby directly from Bookship for your book! From a Book or Reading page, you will see the following icon:

Tap that and search for your Library (the main name is all you need, the branch is irrelevant). Tap your library when it appears to save it (see / edit them from the Account tab as well). Bookship searchs your library for the book and show you what it finds. You can have more than one Library, if you have more than one! Thanks to Christina for suggesting this feature, and to Tim Hayes for sharing his Libby searching code.

You can now upload your Kindle Notes to Bookship. In the Kindle app, go to the book and export your notes - under the Share menu (use Citation Style None). Email yourself the file and save it somewhere you can access it (e.g. the Files area of your device or Dropbox). Go to your reading of that book, pick the icon labeled Notes, pick your file, and you should see your comments appear (you may have to refresh the page). It is fine to upload this file multiple times as you add notes, it will not duplicate previous comments.

We have added many new free, readable books in the app. Most of them are from our friends at the wonderful Standard eBooks. Want something literary? Try In Search of Lost Time by Proust. Adventure? Try The Sea Hawk, by Rafael Sabatini, a classic pirate adventure. Or some fun science fiction from Andre Norton, or Samuel R. Delaney. If you like things medieval, I actually produced a book for them, the Lais of Marie de France, a collection of Arthurian myths and folktales. You can see the most recently added books by going to the Browse tab, then Read Free!, then New Free Books.

New year, new book recommendations! These are some great books from authors in our Meet the Author program and dear personal friends as well. Enjoy!

Live for a Living

Thinking about a new career in the new year? My good friend and professional colleague Andy Palmer and his co-author Paula Caligiuri have just released Live for a Living. A lot of sage advice for taking ownership of your career and finding meaning in your life and your career

https://www.thehawaiiproject.com/book/Live-for-a-Living-How-to-Create-Your-Career-Journey-to-Work-Happier-Not-Harder--by--Andy-Palmer--651382

The Other Princess

A stunning portrait of an African princess raised in Queen Victoria’s court and adapting to life in Victorian England—based on the real-life story of a recently rediscovered historical figure, Sarah Forbes Bonetta. If historical fiction, especially lost tales of interesting people is your thing, this might be for you.

https://www.thehawaiiproject.com/book/The-Other-Princess--by--Denny-S.-Bryce--639800

The Ninja's Oath

Lily Wong is a Chinese-Norwegian modern-day ninja, an ass-kicking heroine in Tori Eldridge's wonderful series, of which The Ninja's Oath is the latest installment. Plus Tori is an award-winning, national bestselling author, and has roots in Hawaii, where I live. Can't go wrong, check it out!

https://www.thehawaiiproject.com/book/The-Ninjas-Oath--by--Tori-Eldridge--649133

Foundry

Two spies in a locked room with a gun. Geopolitical warfare. Semiconductors. A near-future sci-fi espionage novel. Classic Peper, thoughtful but fast-moving.

https://www.thehawaiiproject.com/book/Foundry--by--Eliot-Peper--654159

Want a fast, elegant way to manage your reading list? Check out our TBR app.

TBR Bookmarker chrome extension released!

2023-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

Ever been looking a cool web page mentioning a bunch of books you want to remember?

The TBR Bookmarker chrome extension is just the thing!

The TBR Book Bookmarker finds books mentioned on web pages, and lets you save them for later. It’s like a Trapper/Keeper for books. You can also click out to the book’s Bookshop.org or Amazon page, or tap the book to read a description.

To install, go here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tbr-bookmarker-extension/fmejmbhmojmdkbdincpdemceagieomjl or go to the Chrome webstore and search for “TBR Bookmarker”.

This extension is a companion for the TBR Booklist Tracker app. Books you save here are also tracked in the app, and vice versa. But you do not need the app to use this extension.

Bookmarker “reads” the text of the web page you are on, figures out which books are mentioned, and gives you a beautiful little window with all the cover art for the books shown. You can “bookmark” those books, and they’ll go in your trapper/keeper of books. You can come back to them any time.

Come back to Bookmarker any time, hit the “gear” button, and hit “TBR list” and you’ll see the books you’ve been saving away. Your To Be Read list.

Enjoy!

To install, go here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tbr-bookmarker-extension/fmejmbhmojmdkbdincpdemceagieomjl or go to the Chrome webstore and search for “TBR Bookmarker”.

A guest post from Bookaholic Belle

2023-01-20T00:00:00+00:00

Here at Bookship, we love book bloggers. They spend so much time and energy writing about their book discoveries, helping all of us find better books to read! We’re happy to introduce quality book bloggers to our audience!

Today we welcome Bookaholic Belle. You can find her on Instagram here. She is also included in our directory of book sites on our sister projects The Hawaii Project and the TBR app, where you can find her in the News section! Read on where she introduces herself and her reading!

Hi! I’m a Bookaholic Belle. I’m a bookstagrammer and book blogger.

I write about books I read, create reading lists just for fun, and share my takeaways from nonfiction books I read. I also write spoilers on my blog only when I think the book is not worth the time and money.

I like to read romantic comedy books for more than a year now. It’s actually weird because years ago I wasn’t really a fan of rom-com books. I preferred mystery and thriller over romance back then.

I’m a mood reader, meaning I choose my next read based on how I feel. So maybe someday, I’ll be back to reading mysteries and thrillers. For now my mood is in romantic comedy.

You can find me on Instagram, or rather Bookstagram. I’m Bookaholic Belle there. If you have any good book recommendations, message me the title.

Interview with Marc Saltzman of Tech It Out!

2022-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

Had a chance to be interviewed by Marc Saltzman for radio (Radio America’s Tech It Out), airing tomorrow (Saturday afternoon). It’s also syndicated via podcast. You can read more about it and find links to your favorite podcast service in the link below. Or just listen to the upload down at the bottom!

We had a chance to chat about Bookship, our social reading app, our video chat feature, and our Meet the Author program.

Thank you for the opportunity, Marc!

https://marcsaltzman.com/podcasts

To listen here, just click the play button below.

https://blog.bookshipapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Bookship-10-15-Marc-Saltzman.mp3

Happy listening!

Last chance for a free TBR app!

2022-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

Hello everyone! We’re in the final stages of beta testing our forthcoming TBR app. TBR is a great place to keep your To Be Read list (and the books you’re reading now!). The app will be for sale in the future, but we’re offering the app free to our beta testers. If you want in, reply to this email and I’ll set you up. See some screenshots here.

There is a new Bookship available in your app stores, which fixes Facebook/Instagram sharing on Android, and makes startup much faster, particularly for accounts with many active Readings.

Our Meet The Author program connects you with authors who will meet virtually with your book club. A number of our authors have new books out! Read them with your book club and ask the author to join your meeting. (Don’t forget Bookship has built-in free, secure live Video Chat.)

Katya Cengel's experiences in the Ukraine and Latvia are very timely, and her book has recently been released in audiobook form. A gold medal winner (Foreword INDIES Award, Gold for Autobiography & Memoir).

From Chernobyl with Love on Bookship

From Kelly Simmons, the acclaimed author of six suspenseful novels published in twelve countries, comes her first historical fiction. It's the story of one family's struggle to comprehend not only their daughters' dark secrets, but their hometown's exclusivity and racism during the tumultuous 70s and 80s. Perfect for readers who enjoyed A Good Neighborhood or The Virgin Suicides. (And did you listen to her serialized podcast fiction? (free!)

The Last House Party on Bookship

Eliot Peper is the bestselling author of Veil, Breach, Bandwidth, Cumulus and other great books. He writes some of the most insightful near-future science fiction out there.

Nothing is what it seems in this speculative thriller about a quantum computer scientist, virologist, podcaster, venture capitalist, and assassin coming together to untangle a twisted enigma that will change the course of future history.

Reap3r on Bookship

"[A] highly entertaining, bone-chilling must read.”—Heather Gudenkauf, bestselling author of The Overnight Guest

"A diabolical tour de force."—P.J. Vernon, author of Bath Haus

From Hannah Mary McKinnon. Told with dark wit and a sharply feminist sensibility, Never Coming Home is a terrifying tale of duplicity that will have you side-eyeing your spouse as you dash to the breathtaking end.

Never Coming Home on Bookship

Amy Impellizzeri is a former corporate litigator, and her first courtroom drama is getting rave reviews!

"A gripping legal thriller that will grab readers from the get-go" -Kirkus (A Kirkus-starred review!).

In Her Defense on Bookship

The lives of two women living in Hong Kong more than a century apart are unexpectedly linked by forbidden love and financial scandal, in M. K. Tod's The Admiral's Wife. “Family secrets and personal ambitions, east and west, collide in this compelling, deeply moving novel." -- Weina Dai Randel, award-winning author ofTHE LAST ROSE OF SHANGHAI

The Admiral's Wife on Bookship

Emma gets a fresh Indian-American twist from award-winning author Sonali Dev in her heartwarmingly irresistible Jane Austen inspired rom com series. No one can call Vansh Raje’s life anything but charmed. Handsome—Vogue has declared him California’s hottest single—and rich enough to spend all his time on missions to make the world a better place. Add to that a doting family and a contagiously sunny disposition and Vansh has made it halfway through his twenties without ever facing anything to throw him off his admittedly spectacular game...

The Emma Project on Bookship

Thanks for reading and staying in touch. If you have any trouble with Bookship, please drop me a note!

New books, new authors, new app!

2022-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Hello and welcome to all the new Bookshipers!

Our Meet the Author program connects you with authors who will meet virtually with your book club. Browse our authors in Bookship by tapping Browse, then Meet the Author. Today we have new authors to announce, some great new books by authors already in the program, and a new app in beta test!

People Magazine picked Jessica Strawser’s new book The Next Thing You Know as one of April’s Best New Books! A musician facing the untimely end of his career. An end-of-life doula with everything, and nothing, to lose. Me Before You meets A Star Is Born in this powerful new novel from the author of A Million Reasons Why.

For something delightfully creepy, Tall Poppy Writer Kelly Simmons just released a (free!) serialized fiction podcast story called
Open The Window. A frightening incident from Lainey Thomas’s childhood collides with a suspicious message sent to her younger sister Kacey. In her mind, it all seems to point toward a series of murders unsolved for decades…

Publisher’s Weekly gave Diana Giovinazzo’s new book Antoinette’s Sister a Starred Review and said “
This sprawling tale of power, intrigue, and ambition is a winner.” Bursting with intrigue, adventure, and romance, Antoinette’s Sister brings to life one of history’s most formidable European monarchs: the Queen of Naples…

We’re pleased to welcome Bhaswati Ghosh as a new author to our program. Her novel Victory Colony, 1950 is the story of the resilience of refugees from East Pakistan, who found themselves largely unwanted on either side of the border following the partition of India in 1947. “
A compelling story, set against a Calcutta that’s vividly depicted in the smallest of details.” –Madhulika Liddle

Other Bookship authors with new books or books coming soon: Denny S. Bryce (In the Face of the Sun), Tori Eldridge (Dance Among the Flames), Amy Impellizzeri (In Her Defense), Sara E. Johnson (The Bone Track), Soraya M. Lane (Under a Sky of Memories), Tyler McMahon (One Potato), Dan Petrosini (The Preserve Killer), Suzanne Roberts (Animal Bodies), M. J. Rose (The Fashion Orphans), Aimie K. Runyan (The School for German Brides), Heather Webb (The Next Ship Home) and Dallas Woodburn (Thanks, Carissa, for Ruining My Life). Consider for your reading group!

We’ve added many beautiful Standard eBooks editions you can read for free right in Bookship: books by Agatha Christie and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, T.E. Lawrence’s The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (the source for the movie Lawrence of Arabia), Shakespeare’s MacBeth, and Henry IV, Zane Grey’s classic western, Riders of the Purple Sage, Lord Dunsany’s early classic fantasy, The King of Elfland’s Daughter, and Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt. And many many more. All free! Just Browse to our classics section.

Last: We are working on a new app, TBR, and looking for beta testers. TBR is a simple, elegant, and modern place to track your reading. The books you want to read (your TBR, To Be Read), the books you are reading, and the books you’ve read. Organize your books into custom lists of your own choosing. Get inspiration by browsing Book News from our 1000+ curated book news sources. TBR identifies the books in each story and easily let you save them, remembering where you found the book. A few screenshots below. To be a beta tester, reply back to this email and I’ll set you up.

Thanks for reading and staying in touch. If you have any trouble with Bookship, please drop me a note.

Some fun book Q&A

2021-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

There’s a bunch of fun Book Q&A over on Porch. Some discussion of ways to get into reading, how to read more books each month, and yes, how to start a virtual book club with Bookship :). I learned about some fun new sites there, check it out! You can find the article here: Top Tips for Book Lovers Q&A: Advice from the Experts!.

My book projects

2021-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

No secret to anyone that knows me, that I love books.

What might be a secret are the number of books-related projects I’ve made over the years. I thought it would be fun to collect them all.

Book Roulette

My most recent project, Book Roulette shows you an interesting new book each time you open a new tab in Chrome (or Brave!). It’s a Chrome extension. Get it here. And you can read more about it here:

Bookship

If you’re reading this blog, you surely know about Bookship already. Bookship is a social reading app. A virtual book club app. Read a book with your friends, family or book club, and keep in touch while you do it.

Get it here.

The Hawaii Project

The one that started it all. After I left Telenav, after the goby acquisition, I wanted to work on books. So I built The Hawaii Project, a personalized Book Recommendation engine. After working on that for quite awhile, I stumbled upon the idea for Bookship and went from there!

Try it out, here.

What Should I Read Next?

Using the recommendations engine from The Hawaii Project, I built an Alexa skill you can talk to, and get book recommendations. (Three years later, Amazon copied me and released their own What Should I Read Next … grr….). Get mine here.

BookTrap

BookTrap is a trapper / keeper for books you find on the web. It’s a Chrome extension. When you’re on a page and an interesting book is mentioned, hit the BookTrap button. We’ll scan the page and find the books mentioned, which you can then add to your account to remember them.

Get it here.

Enjoy!

Book Roulette: A little bit of fun

2021-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

I decided to take a day off “work” and have some fun. My kind of fun is probably not the same as most people….

So, I built a Chrome extension that shows you a different quasi-random book each time you open a new tab in Chrome. The books are pulled from the recent books in each Channel on Bookship / The Hawaii Project, so they aren’t completely random, they’re books somebody is talking about on the web right now.

You can install it here: Book Roulette, or just go search the Chrome webstore. It’s free. If you click through to Amazon or Bookshop and buy a book, we get a small commission.

Give Book Roulette a spin! (haha!).