Friday, April 23, 2010

April Giveaways

I'm giving away (2) gently read ARCs:
  • Imperfect Birds; Anne Lamott and The Long Song; Andrea Levy.

If you are interested in a chance to win either of these books, just leave a comment with your email address, letting me know your preference (you can enter twice if you are interested in both books). 
  • Open to bloggers inside and outside of the US.
  • Winners Will Be Selected Next Saturday: May 1st
 

(amazon)...It is sobering to think that Rosie Ferguson is your typical teenage girl. On one hand, she’s in the throes of her senior year in high school: concerned with body image and boyfriends, BFFs and boredom, and, of course, the daily trauma of living with parents who are so hopelessly, well, hopeless. On the other hand, she is an adept addict who’s never met a substance she wouldn’t abuse or a male she wouldn’t seduce. Juggling these two worlds demands bigger and more frequent scores, and more facile lies, while Rosie’s parents, recovering alcoholic Elizabeth and workaholic stepfather James, are reluctant to enforce even the lamest disciplinary rules for fear of losing Rosie’s love—until one night when her world comes crashing down, and Elizabeth and James have no choice but to send Rosie to a wilderness rehab program. Reprising characters from her previous novels, Rosie (1997) and Crooked Little Heart (1998), Lamott intuitively taps into the teenage drug culture to create a vivid, unsettling portrait of a family in crisis. As she eschews the cunning one-liners and wry observations that had become her signature stock-in-trade, Lamott produces her most stylistically mature and thematically circumspect novel to date




(amazon).....A distinctive narrative voice and a beguiling plot distinguish Levy's fifth novel (after Orange Prize–winning Small Island). A British writer of Jamaican descent, Levy draws upon history to recall the island's slave rebellion of 1832. The unreliable narrator pretends to be telling the story of a woman called July, born as the result of a rape of a field slave, but it soon becomes obvious that the narrator is July herself. Taken as a house slave when she's eight years old, July is later seduced by the pretentiously moralistic English overseer after he marries the plantation's mistress; his clergyman father has assured him that a married man might do as he pleases. Related in July's lilting patois, the narrative encompasses scenes of shocking brutality and mass carnage, but also humor, sometimes verging on farce. Levy's satiric eye registers the venomous racism of the white characters and is equally candid in relating the degrees of social snobbery around skin color among the blacks themselves, July included. Slavery destroys the humanity of everyone is Levy's subtext, while the cliffhanger ending suggests (one hopes) a sequel.

31 comments:

  1. I'll throw my hat into the ring for the second book!!

    stacijoreads@gmail.com

    Thanks Diane!

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  2. Love me some Lamott. Thanks for the offer.

    camp1974@gmail.com

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  3. I'd love to be entered for Imperfect Birds. Thanks! milou2ster(at)gmail.com

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  4. I would like to win either of the books! They're both on my reading wishlist :) Great giveaway.

    fitz12383(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  5. I'd love a chance for the Andrea Levy book.

    mystica123athotmaildotcom

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  6. Please add me for the Anne Lamott book. I actually just read several reviews of it, looked at it on Amazon, & added it to my "to read" list :)

    jlauren.mcneal@gmail.com

    Thanks so much!

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  7. I would like to read Imperfect Birds. It sounds like an engrossing story.

    JHS
    Colloquium

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  8. I would love to win The Long Song

    rereadinglives (at) gmail.com

    thanks

    Mel u

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  9. I am in love with Anne Lamott and have not read this latest book so enter my name in that basket. Thanks for the giveaway.

    mcmholt@gmail[dot]come

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  10. Yep The long song I think for my preference!

    seapaper80@yahoo.com

    thankyou!

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  11. As these are both authors I've been meaning to try, I'd love to be entered for both. Thank you so much for opening it internationally! untuneric at gmail dot com.

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  12. Please enter me for the Andrea Levy book.
    ristaut@gmail.com

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  13. I would love to read Imperfect Birds, please count me in. Thanks for a great giveaway!

    alongtheway at telus dot net

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  14. I'd adore to win Imperfect Birds. Please enter me!

    constance.reader@gmail.com

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  15. I'd like to enter for Imperfect Birds. Thank you.

    stephaniet117 at yahoo dot com

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  16. I would love to try for The long Song. Thank you.

    freda.mans[at]sympatico.ca

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  17. Diane - please enter my name for IMPERFECT BIRDS - thanks!!
    dawn [at] sheistoofondofbooks [dot] com

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  18. I'd love to win The Long Song. Thanks for the opportunity!


    nomadreaderblog at g mail dot come

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  19. I'd like to read either one. They both sound good.

    hewella1@gmail.com

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  20. I love reading Lamott! So, can I please throw my hat in for that one?

    BTW - I finally got a copy of Making Rounds with Oscar...so, I'll be reading it...

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  21. Hi Dianne,
    I'd love to read Andrea Levy's book.

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  22. Me please, I would like to read this !

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  23. I want the Lamott one, Diane. Thanks!

    teh(dot)alice(at)gmail(dot)com

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  24. The Long Song sounds amazing. I would like to be entered for that one please. thank you.

    michwerm@gmail.com

    :)

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  25. I love the Levy book. Thanks for the offer.

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  26. I'd love to be entered for The Long Song! Thanks! =)

    toadacious1 at yahoo dot com

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  27. I'd love a chance to win either of these books, so count me in! Thanks so much for being generous with these contests!

    zibilee(at)figearo(dot)net

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  28. I would love The Long Song! Thanks for sharing.

    s.mickelson at gmail dot com

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  29. I would relish an opportunity for Lamott's book Imperfect Birds. It looks wonderful! Thanks for throwing out the chances. My email, by the way, is bellezza.mjs@gmail.com. Just on the off chance...;)

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  30. Hi there! I am returning the compliment and calling by your blog.
    Despite the fact that I had decided NOT to sign up for any more book blogs from the USA, I could not resist:)

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  31. I would love to win THE LONG SONG. THANKS.

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Thanks for taking the time to visit and double thanks for any comments. If you ask a question in your comments, I will try to reply to it here, or by email if your settings allow me to do so. Thanks again for visiting.