Reading Is Fundamental Charity Drive

Each month, Swagbucks designates a charitable organization to which members of the Swag Nation (as we call ourselves) can donate their swag bucks. For example: last month's charity was the Make-A-Wish Foundation, with a total of 258,210 swag bucks donated by members of the community. That is approximately $2,000!

Swagbucks has chosen Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) as the charity for January 2012. I couldn't be happier about this choice for my swagbucks and have made my first donation for the month, to be followed by another each week throughout January.

You can read more about the Swagbucks gift of literacy and decide for yourself if you would like to make a donation that may instill a love of reading in a child.

If you are not yet a member of Swagbucks, I invite you to sign up now via my referral link.

Simply put--I Search and Earn with the Swagbucks toolbar. And, since I believe in tithing ten percent of my earnings, I donate a portion thereof.

A Novel In Pictures

First things first, allow me to wish you a Happy New Year and know that I am wishing you nothing but sweet reads throughout 2012!

To be honest with you, due to the hustle and bustle of the holidays I have read not a thing this past couple of weeks. However, I have rustled up a great book title to share with you today.

Back in November of 2011 (last year, oh my) I entered a book giveaway over at Pudgy Penguin Perusals that I really wanted to win and I won! Now, I wanted to win this book for a couple of reasons. One, the book is a story about a gal who dreams of becoming a writer. And two, the author used a novel idea in writing her novel! This beautiful hardcover edition is truly a novel in pictures! The story is told in a mix of typewritten tales with the addition of full-color vintage memorabilia on every page—storytelling in scrapbook format.

With no further ado, allow me to introduce to you, The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by author Caroline Preston.

With our next major holiday being that of Valentine's Day, I've chosen to share pages 76 and 77 with you:

Valentines (lack of)

Valentine's Day at Vassar makes me glum. The other girls get scads of cards from beaus and fathers. And roses. And velvet boxes from Tiffany's.

My senior year, I get ONE valentine. A handmade one, like the ones Lizzie, Bess, and I would send the boys in our class.

Who is my secret admirer?

I analyze the clues:

• Cornish postmark
• Typed address (because I would recognize handwriting?)

Conclusion:
I want to believe it is from Jamie. But Lizzie & Bessie probably sent it as a gag. Or my brothers.

There is no great love on my horizon.

***

Although I have typed the 100 word excerpt out for you, I urge you to click on the photo below to read and view the pages in scanned form to see the vintage beauty of the pages of this novel.

Share 100 words from a book you are currently reading. Blog hop along with WoW Weekly 100 Words. Just snag the hop badge and link, add it to your post on your blog, then return here to add your blog post to the linky list provided at the end of the weekly post.

Note: I use The Word Count Tool to count my book excerpts.