Monday, March 03, 2008
March Pay It Forward Book Exchange- 11 books up for grabs!
UPDATE: The winners of my books were announced right here. My next giveaway will be held on Tuesday, 1 April. Please join me again then!
It's time for another one of my free Pay It Forward book giveaways!
For those who may have missed out, please read about the guidelines right here.
So, I have two books to give away this month.
1) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.Editorial Review by Amazon.com:
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the "roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time." The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides, whose elegant and haunting 1993 debut, The Virgin Suicides, remains one of the finest first novels of recent memory.
Eugenides weaves together a kaleidoscopic narrative spanning 80 years of a stained family history, from a fateful incestuous union in a small town in early 1920s Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit; from the early days of Ford Motors to the heated 1967 race riots; from the tony suburbs of Grosse Pointe and a confusing, aching adolescent love story to modern-day Berlin. Eugenides's command of the narrative is astonishing. He balances Cal/Callie's shifting voices convincingly, spinning this strange and often unsettling story with intelligence, insight, and generous amounts of humor:
Emotions, in my experience aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." … I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic traincar constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." ... I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever.
When you get to the end of this splendorous book, when you suddenly realize that after hundreds of pages you have only a few more left to turn over, you'll experience a quick pang of regret knowing that your time with Cal is coming to a close, and you may even resist finishing it--putting it aside for an hour or two, or maybe overnight--just so that this wondrous, magical novel might never end. --Brad Thomas Parsons
I'm not suprised that this book was chosen to be a part of Oprah's Book Club! It was good and I had a tough time setting it down.
2) Hope's Boy: A Memoir by Andrew Bridge.I was given this book by one of my co-workers. Since it was a memoir from a former foster child that aged out of the system, I started it immediately and had it read within two days of receiving it! It really liked it and I think you will too!
Editorial Review by Publishers Weekly:
In this memoir of a decade spent in foster care, Bridge illuminates the horrors of a system that, in its clumsy attempts to save children, he argues, all too frequently condemns them to physical and emotional abuse. The child of a teenage mother who divorced her abusive husband soon after Bridge was born, he watched helplessly as his mother disintegrated under the impact of isolation and poverty. At the age of seven, Bridge was dragged away from his mother, literally, by police and warehoused in an enormous California juvenile facility patrolled by armed guards. The state eventually transferred him to a foster family dominated by an obese, bullying Estonian woman who had survived imprisonment in Dachau as a child. At 17, as he prepared to leave foster care for college and freedom, Bridge finally had a reunion with the mother he never stopped missing. In his narration of this unending nightmare, Bridge shows particular skill in portraying his isolation and the defenses he constructed to survive it. He also has a talent for grotesques, particularly that of the monstrous foster mother who revisited the misery of her upbringing on her foster children. Bridge's obsessive focus on his loneliness and his two mothers is so intense that a more balanced picture of his life fails to emerge and his attachment to another foster child remains unexplained. Yet Bridge, a Harvard Law School graduate who has devoted his career to children's rights, has provided remarkable insights into a dark corner of American society.
If you'd like to win either of these books, here is what you must do:
1. On your blog, write a post about this giveaway, using my "Pay It Forward" button, and then link back to my post. I am sure your readers would appreciate learning about the chance to win a book. You must complete this step to be put in the drawing, unless of course you don't have a blog!
2. Sign the Mr. Linky (the Mr. Linky is that list of names at the end of this post - just type your name in the box) with your name and the specific URL of your PIF post. Note: If you are not a blogger, you may still enter to win. Just sign your name on the Mr. Linky without a URL and then email me your contact information. Please note on your email that it is for the PIF book giveaway.
I'll announce the winners on Saturday morning, 22 March, so be sure to check back.
Best of luck!
If you have any books you'd like to Pay It Forward yourself this month, please leave me a comment and I'll link you in this post!
Additional Pay It Forward Giveaways:
1) Kathleen Marie at The Open Window is giving the book, Highland Legacy, which is actually 4 stories in one book, on 24 March. Stop by her blog to enter to win. Thanks, Kathleen Marie!
2) Paige at Yes, I would really like to be thin is giving away the book, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green on 30 March. Stop by her blog to enter to win. Thanks, Paige!
3) Nikki at Angels of Heart is giving away the book, Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts on 31 March. Stop by her blog to enter to win. Thanks, Nikki!
Cloudscome at a wrung sponge gave away the book, The House of Djinn Suzanne Fisher Staples on 14 March. Thanks, Cloudscome!
Cynthia at Springmont Cottage gave away the book, The Amen Sisters by Angela Benson on 16 March. Thanks, Cynthia!
Betsy at The Homeschool Way gave away three books to one lucky winner, Lady’s Big Surprise by JoAnn S. Dawson, Star of Wonder by JoAnn S. Dawson, and A Star Discovered by JoAnn S. Dawson on 21 March. Thanks, Betsy!
Tamy at 3 Sides of Crazy gave away the book, Purity in Death by J.D. Robb aka Nora Roberts on 31 March and I was her winner! Thanks, Tamy!
Labels: bloggity goodness, books/reading, giveaways, Pay It Forward
17 Comments:
Thanks for hosting this!
Thanks! Count me in please. I'm not a blogger so will be emailing you my contact info. ~ :)
Hello, Sounds like a very good book! Please enter me in your drawing. Thanks,Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
My book giveaway is posted along with a link to yours.
Thanks!
I would love to be entered in your contest. I tried to link up with you with my book last month, but it didn't work, so I have a book to give away this month at
http://liketobethin.blogspot.com/2008/02/free-books.html
I'm giving away The House of Djinn at A Wrung Sponge. It's a Young Adult novel, sequel to Shabanu, both by Suzanne Fisher Staples.
This does sound interesting! Sign me up. Mine is posted as well. I pray all is going well for you. I can imagine you are super busy! Hugs!
Oh, please count me in for Middlesex, and I'll host my own PIF soon!
Both of your books sound enjoyable to read. Thanks for hosting such a wonderful PIF every month. Please enter me in the drawing for both of your books! Thanks,Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
Is this open to international bloggers or just American bloggers? I understand if it is American only as shipping internationally can be pricey.
I just added my blog to your linky telling about the pay it forward. I have no idea what is going on but our server won't allow me to copy your button, I hope it's still okay to enter.
Sarah
SeekingHim@gmail dot com
http://forgetfulone.blogspot.com/2008/03/pay-it-forward-book-exchange.html
I've posted about the pay it forward book giveaway on my blog. I don't have time to do a book giveaway right now, but I will be back with one in April. I'd love to win either of your books, especially the one about the foster child.
I would love to be included - I haven't read either of them!
off to post my entry about this! :D
I would love to be included in your Pay it Forward books. I have not read either of the books. Thanks!
mmdrier@gmail.com
I would love to win either book! Thanks!
These books sound very interesting!
Thanks for the great idea.
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