GUEST BLOGGER POST: The Secret Side of Empty by Maria Andreu

Note from Susan: Generally, guests posting to this blog meet two criteria: They have a novel out, and they're a friend of mine. Well, I've never met Maria Andreu, and in fact, I've had no contact with her at all.  (The arrangements for this blog post were accomplished with the help of a third party.) Nor does she have a book out--yet. The Secret Side of Empty is coming in March 2014, so it's still six months away. The reason I agreed to invite Ms. Andrea to post here is that she has an amazing story, and I think she's got some interesting things to say. I'll look forward to eventually reading her fictionalized account of the life she led as an undocumented teen in America.

Now here's Maria...

My book wanted to be a YA novel. I was not happy with its decision at all. The story of an undocumented girl and what her life is like on the precipice, knowing that “real” life will begin for all her friends but not for her, was so intimately mine that I very much wanted to tell it as my story. But the book had other ideas.

I was born in Spain two months before my parents decided to bring me with them on their grand adventure of making it in America. They were Argentinian by upbringing, Spanish by citizenship. Although they projected both those things on me, what I really became was an American kid. I learned my English on Sesame Street. I loved my Baby Crissy doll with her magical, growing red hair. I wore bad 1970s bellbottoms and envied Marcia Brady along with all the other girls my age.

When I was six, my grandfather died in Argentina. Off my mother and I went to the funeral for what we thought would be a two-week stay. My father stayed behind in the U.S. to send us money. Two weeks turned into two years. Finally, out of ideas on how to reunite with his family, my father paid some coyotes to smuggle us across the Mexican border. In many ways I count that as the start of my story, looking across a border you couldn’t see, wondering why I wasn’t good enough to cross it except against the rules. I was 8 years old. It shaped my personality and world view like few other things have.

As I grew into a teenager I understood the real meaning of being undocumented. No social security number. No college. No job. No “normal” life like the one I saw my friends planning so happily. I looked into the future and saw a blank. And then, in a twist almost too cinematic to work in a book, an amnesty law was passed. Three months after I turned 18, I was put on a path to citizenship and my entire future changed.

I spent decades trying to forget all that, trying to “pass.” Finally, it was an angry pundit on the radio ranting about how we should kick out all the “illegals” that got me thinking. I was proof that people just want dignity and a chance at a good life, that we didn’t want to ruin America, but participate in it. Once I’d gotten a chance at that, I turned my back on the people who were struggling the way I had struggled. I still remember the exact spot of road on which I was driving when I understood that I needed to end my silence.

So I began to speak and write about my experiences. I wrote an essay that appeared in Newsweek, another in The Washington Post. I found my voice. I began writing my story as a memoir.

I shopped that version of the story for 4 years. I got rejected by more than 70 agencies. I fought off well-meaning friends who said, “Just self publish.” There is nothing wrong with self-publishing, but I knew that as someone who had felt so marginalized I needed to sell at least her first book the “traditional” way. I was doggedly, unreasonably determined. So I kept at it. I went to workshops. I got critiques. I rewrote. I got such lovely rejections filled with praise for my prose and my voice. Each one broke my heart and echoed with just how much I didn’t belong.

Finally, it was an impossibly young-looking agent at a pitch conference who told me, “The problem with your pitch is that all the action happens when the protagonist is a teenager. Your book wants to be a YA novel.” I thanked her and rolled my eyes internally. Didn’t she get I wanted to be a Real Writer? There was so much I didn’t understand about Real Writing and about the wonderful literature now finding its way out into the world as YA. It would be months before I’d be ready to understand that she was right.

Everything flowed almost as if by magic when I finally let it sink in. I opened up the big YA titles of the time and saw one agency name over and over again: Writers House. I sent a pitch to their slush pile. Within days I had a response from someone. I Googled her name and my heart started pounding when I learned that she was the same person who had pulled Twilight from the slush pile too. I had queried too soon – I only had 3 chapters, and here they were, asking for the whole manuscript. I pounded it out in 10 days. Of course I’d told many versions of this story, so it was ready to be told quickly. I kicked myself at probably blowing my chance… until they accepted me as a client. So, yes, technically I got the first agent I pitched. Their “we’d love for you to be our client” email still sits framed in my living room. They sold my book in a multiple-offers situation in the first round.

So I feel a certain peace with the story coming to the world as a YA novel. I am a big believer in “flow” and things happening as they should. I don’t know if I fully understand the mystery of why this book wanted to happen this way, but I can’t deny the unmistakable ease with which it did. If I were hard-pressed to come up with a theory it would be this: we all love stories. People may resist something that feels pedantic or is trying to push a certain worldview, as a memoir might have. As a novel, The Secret Side of Empty does none of that. It will appeal to anyone who has ever felt left out or who has ever faced a problem that has felt too big to figure out. The Secret Side of Empty lets you get a glimpse into a life you otherwise would probably never see. It has a love story, characters I hope people will like and, at its core, this very complicated problem of the restricted choices faced by undocumented people in general and kids in particular. But it doesn’t tell you what to think. It just lets you inside. Hopefully, that will spark conversations.


ABOUT The Secret Side of Empty

It's the story of a teen girl that is American in every way except for in one very important way: on paper. She was brought to the U.S. as a baby without proper documentation, so she's "illegal." As the end of the safe haven of her high school days draw near, she faces an uncertain future. Full of humor and frustration and love, The Secret Side of Empty speaks to the part in all of us that has felt excluded or has had a secret too scary to share. What M.T., the main character, finally discovers is the strength of the human spirit and the power that's unleashed when you finally live the truth.


Giveaway Info:

Maria is giving away two separate prizes on her tour, a $250 Amazon Gift Card AND a Kindle Fire.

1) For a chance to win the $250 Amazon gift card, OR the Kindle Fire leave a comment on her blog post for that day. Winners will be randomly selected on September 30th.

Maria Andreu’s Bio:

Maria’s writing has appeared in Newsweek, The Washington Post and the Star Ledger. Her debut novel, The Secret Side of Empty, is the story of an “illegal” high school senior. It was inspired by Maria’s own experiences as an undocumented teen. Since becoming a citizen, Maria has run her own business and has become a soccer mom. She lives with her 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son in northern New Jersey.

Links Maria Andreu’s website- http://mariaeandreu.com/
Maria Andreu on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WritersideofM
Maria Andreu on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maria.andreu.books

Preorder The Secret Side of Empty- http://amzn.to/17LaXLX

BLOG HOP GIVEAWAY: Sanctus by Simon Toyne

I'm so very pleased to be participating again in one of Judith's (Leeswammes) big, international blog hops!  I will be giving away up to three hardback copies of Simon Toyne's excellent debut thriller, Sanctus.  Regular readers of this blog will recall that I quite enjoyed this thriller.  But don't take my word for it.  Here's what Publisher's Weekly had to say:

In British author Toyne's stellar first in a projected trilogy, a thriller in the Dan Brown tradition, an ancient sect of monks who live in the Citadel, a church carved out of a mountain near the fictional Turkish city of Ruin, have been protecting a secret, "the Sacrament," since before the Christian era. A monk who knows the secret, Brother Samuel, escapes from the Citadel and throws himself off the mountain in full view of spectators and news crews. Later, American newspaper reporter Liv Adamsen learns that her phone number, carved into a small leather strap, has been found inside Samuel's stomach. The monk turns out to be her brother, whom she hasn't seen in years, so Liv travels to Ruin to try to solve the puzzle of his mysterious death. She and several other groups battle the deadly monks, who will stop at nothing to thwart their efforts to discover the Sacrament's secret. The truly mind-boggling revelation will leave astounded readers eager for the next installment.

I understand if a religious thriller is not your thing.  (I would have said the same thing.  I was pleasantly surprised by this book!)  The good news is that there are over 50 book blogs all over the world participating in this blog hop!  Here's a list with links to all of them:

Leeswammes Devouring Texts The Book Whisperer Seaside Book Nook The Scarlet Letter (US only) Rikki's Teleidoscope Bibliosue Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea The Book Diva's Reads Gaskella Lucybird's Book Blog Kim's Bookish Place The Book Garden Under My Apple Tree Helen Smith Sam Still Reading Nishita's Rants and Raves Ephemeral Digest Bookworm with a View The Parrish Lantern Dolce Bellezza Lena Sledge Blog Book Clutter I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (US only) The Blue Bookcase Book Journey (US only) The House of the Seven Tails (US only) In One Eye, Out the Other (US only) Read, Write & Live Fresh Ink Books

Living, Learning, and Loving Life (US only) Bibliophile By the Sea Laurie Here Reading & Writing Reviews Amy's Book World (US only) Teadevotee Joy's Book Blog Word Crushes (US only) Thinking About Loud! Kinna Reads Sweeping Me Minding Spot (US only) Babies, Books, and Signs (US only) Lisa Beth Darling Tony's Reading List SusieBookworm (US only) Tell Me A Story Close Encounters with the Night Kind Nerfreader Mevrouw Kinderboek (Netherlands, Belgium) Boekblogger (Netherlands) In Spring it is the Dawn No Page Left Behind Elle Lit

So, you may have noticed that I said that I'd be giving away up to three shiny hardback copies of this novel.  If 1-19 people enter this giveaway, I'll give away one copy.  If 20-29 enter, I'll give away two copies.  And if 30 people or above enter, I'll give away all three copies of the book--so the more the merrier!  Other than that, the usual rules apply--including that this giveaway is open only to U.S. mailing addresses.  Sorry about that!  Good luck to all who enter, and I encourage everyone to hop, hop, hop!

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below through Wednesday, October 19, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

A quick update

Hi readers,

Sorry to go AWOL this week.  My week was derailed by some unexpected and unpleasant medical issues.  During Litquake week, of course.  Grrr.

The good news is that I did make it out to see Christopher Moore and Flip Nicklin on Monday night, and I shot some notably bad video of their talks.  I'll try to post it in the near future.  I also got out to hear the awesome Chuck Klosterman speak, but alas, I was too far away to even attempt video.  I will tell you that the single most interesting thing I learned is that his surname is pronounced with a long "o."  Klost rhymes with toast.  Who knew?  I've been saying it wrong for years.

I was out of commission for Wednesday and Thursday, and I'm not confident I'll make it out to hear Jeffrey Eugenides tonight.  (A bookstore employee kindly offered to reserve me a seat, so we'll see.)  If I don't get video tonight, I've still got his talk from BEA up my sleeve.  And there are still several Litquake events tomorrow, including the final Lit Crawl.  So, I'll continue my coverage next week when I'm feeling a bit stronger.

Oh, two more good things...  A winner has finally been selected for The Dovekeepers giveaway.  Please check the posts' comments section if you entered.  Also, tonight I'll be posting a link to not only my next giveaway, but links to more than 50 other book blogs around the world hosting giveaways! 

So, that's all for now.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

Happy New Year, readers, Shana Tova!  On the Jewish calendar, year 5,772 begins at sunset this evening.  In celebration of Rosh Hashanah, we're delving into a little Jewish history this week.  It's not on sale until next Tuesday, but we're giving away a galley of Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers now.  Here's a description of the novel:

Over five years in the writing, The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman’s most ambitious and mesmerizing novel, a tour de force of imagination and research, set in ancient Israel.

In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and an expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.

The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets—about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love. The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman’s masterpiece.

In other words, a typically uplifting Jewish story.  So, the usual rules apply.  Good luck everyone, and have a happy and sweet New Year!

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, October 5 12, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

So, did you happen to see the love letter of a review I posted for this novel yesterday?  I've read about 80 books so far this year, and this is far and away my favorite so far!  And I'm thrilled to have a trade paperback galley of the novel to give away.  Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing Ms. Morgenstern on Friday, so hopefully it will be a signed galley!

Oh, and if you don't believe my raves, check out this starred review from Publisher's Weekly:

Debut author Morgenstern doesn't miss a beat in this smashing tale of greed, fate, and love set in a turn of the 20th-century circus. Celia is a five-year-old with untrained psychokinetic powers when she is unceremoniously dumped on her unsuspecting father, Hector Bowen, better known as Le Cirque des Rêves' Prospero the Entertainer. Hector immediately hatches a sinister scheme for Celia: pit her against a rival's young magician in an epic battle of magic that will [Spoiler redacted for your own good.--ST] What neither Hector nor his rival count on is that Celia and Marco will eventually fall in love. Their mentors--Marco's mentor, Alexander, plucked him from the London streets due to his psychic abilities--attempt to intervene with little success as Celia and Marco barrel toward an unexpected and oddly fitting conclusion. Supporting characters--such as Bailey, a farm boy who befriends a set of twins born into the circus who will drastically influence his future; Isobel, a circus employee and onetime girlfriend of Marco's; and theatrical producer Chandresh Christophe Lefèvre--are perfectly realized and live easily in a giant, magical story destined for bestsellerdom. This is an electric debut on par with Special Topics in Calamity Physics. (Sept.)

I've become a rêveur.  And I already want to read the book again.  So, the usual rules apply, and I wish you all good luck!

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, September 21, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: Lunch Wars: How to Start a School Food Revolution and Win the Battle for Our Childrens Health

Who am I kidding?  This is not a subject near and dear to my heart.  I mean, I don't even have kids.  But I know there must be a few parents reading this blog getting ready to send their kids back to school, making this a very timely giveaway.  Oh, and if this book isn't your cup of tea, do pass along the link to someone you know who may be interested.  It would be nice to put this title in the hands of someone who will really enjoy it!

Publisher's Weekly says of this book:

Kalafa, producer and director of the documentary Two Angry Moms, delves more deeply into the subject of school lunch, offering a step-by-step action plan for parents hoping to make changes in their child's school lunch room. The author explains how the project started, revealing that efforts to provide her daughter with healthy food at home were being "undermined" by unhealthy choices at school (according to the author, the school cafeteria may well be "a microcosm of American fake food culture"). Kalafa serves up some scary statistics, noting the link between childhood junk food and obesity, diabetes, and learning, behavioral, and other health problems, and soberly observing that "our children's life expectancy is now shorter than our own." Kids who buy lunch at school, she notes, don't do as well academically; better food means better grades. With plenty of convincing evidence in hand, she then urges parents to visit their children's lunch rooms, create partnerships with teachers, school staff, and the PTO or PTA, conduct surveys, audit the school food environment, create an updated school wellness policy, and take other steps toward change. Kalafa also provides plenty of positive examples of schools that have gone the extra mile, establishing farm to school and other innovative and nourishing programs. This meaty, practical offshoot of Kalafa's film will help parents turn anger into positive action. (Sept.)

Wow, that sounds so San Francisco.  Anyway, I've got a lovely trade paperback galley of this fine book to give away.  All you have to do is post a comment below.  Usual rules apply.  Good luck to all!

The Usual Rules:

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, September 7, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: Eyes Wide Open by Andrew Gross

Despite my best intentions, I have not had a chance to read this novel this week, so we will have to rely on this starred review from Kirkus:

Inspired by the death of the author’s nephew, this is a grim psychological thriller sure to shock readers.

Nothing is evil if it’s done out of love. Such is the mantra of a convicted murderer’s cult followers. A troubled teenager falls from a cliff, an apparent suicide. But why would the boy remove one sneaker before jumping? And where is that sneaker? Evan Erlich’s distraught father Charlie is convinced that Evan did not kill himself even though the family had serious internal conflicts. Charlie himself had once led a drug-addled life, and he and his wife Gabby depend on others for their support. Narrator Jay Erlich is Evan’s brother and a successful physician with a loving wife and family and far better circumstances in life. He is drawn deeply into a tangle of fear in which Evan’s death is only the beginning. Jay initially seeks to comfort his brother and sister-in-law over their son’s death, but like any good hero he asks too many questions and never knows when to quit. He crosses paths with Susan Pollack, who has just been released from prison after more than 30 years. Her lover, Russell Houvnanian, is an unrepentant killer with a magnetic personality and a long memory. Houvnanian lingers forever in a super-max prison at California’s Pelican Bay and rarely even sees daylight. What can these people possibly have to do with poor Evan or with the other victims who turn up? And what about the eyes carved into the bodies? Trouble piles on trouble, and absolutely no one is safe, even when it seems that no more disasters can happen.

An emotional, frightening study of evil with believable characters and a relentless pace. Readers who wear pacemakers will want to check their batteries before they open the book.

Other than that, for more info on Eyes Wide Open there's a great interview between Andy and Lisa Gardner on the novel's Amazon.com page here.

I am looking forward to reading and reviewing this novel in the immediate future, and hopefully I'm not the only one, because I have a shiny, new hardback copy to give away to someone who posts a comment below by Wednesday, August 31, 2011.  Usual rules apply.  Good luck to all!

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

Hi Readers,

Sorry to leave you hanging this week.  I've been super busy, working night and day, so we're going to make this a quick and dirty post. 

This week's giveaway is a signed, trade-paperback galley of the recently published debut novel Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close.  Here's what some are saying:

"Mixed in with the trials and tribulations of the protagonists are humorous vignettes from the lives of some of their other friends and acquaintances—many of whom are on their way to the altar or trying to find a way to get there. . . . Reminiscent of Melissa Bank’s The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing. It is modern and funny, with original, wry observations. Close’s debut novel will appeal to both fans of contemporary women’s fiction with a hip vibe and readers who enjoy old-school chick lit." —Library Journal (starred review)

I have to admit that I also thought of Melissa Bank as I read this novel of stories.  While there was a lot of humor within the pages, I felt like there was more going on than just chick lit fluff.  It's about being a woman in your 20's, and the growing you do during that decade and the mistakes and detours you make along the way.  My own 20's bore little resemblance to what was depicted in the book, nonetheless, there was a universality to that period of life that I absolutely recognized and could enjoy looking back upon from the greater confidence and security of my 40's.  When I finally write a review, I'll be giving it a solid 4 stars.

So, that's the book up for grabs.  If you want it, please leave a comment saying so below by Wednesday, August 24th.  Same old rules.  I don't have the time to cut and paste them right now, but you guys know the drill.  Good luck!

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

I sincerely hope that it is no secret that I'm a big fan of Lev Grossman's novels.  I absolutely loved his 2009 novel, The Magicians.  And I was delighted by the sequel, The Magician King.  I'm not the only one.  Amazon.com picked it as their spotlight Book of the Month for August, where they wrote:

The second volume in Lev Grossman's celebrated series picks up just after the events of its 2009 prequel, The Magicians. Quentin, Eliot, Janet, and Julia are now the High Kings and Queens of Fillory, a fantastic realm not unlike Narnia, where they pass their days "deliquescing atom by atom amid a riot of luxury." To ease his royal boredom, Quentin embarks on a quest with Julia. Despite his romantic visions of heroic feats and easy accolades, the quest goes horribly awry, and they find themselves back in the depressingly real world of Chesterton, Massachusetts. With the help of seedy underground magicians, a dragon, and a young boy named Thomas, they undertake a desperate journey back to Fillory. Grossman's writing is sharp and self-aware, and the characters feel like people you actually know, but cooler: they are delightfully profane and dripping with irony, arrogant and shallow, finding their way in a magically perfect world that somehow still lets them down, and learning to fight for the things they love. The Magician King is a triumphant homage to modern fantasy writing, and a must-read for grown-up fans of Narnia and Harry Potter.

I couldn't have said it better myself, but, you know, I tried.

This book doesn't go on sale until August 9th, but I'm giving away a gorgeous trade paperback galley right now!  Listen, I hate to beg people to let me send them a free bestseller.  If we have less than five entrants, I'm afraid this galley is going straight to my face-to-face bookgroup.  I've been holding all my hottest titles for you guys, and that's not fair if there's really no interest.  But I hope there is, because these books are AWESOME!  I stated a caveate a couple of weeks ago, and I'll state it again here.  This is the second book in a trilogy.  Do enter the contest, but please don't try to read The Magician King before reading The Magicians.  And that's all.  Normal rules apply.  Good luck to all!

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, August 10, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: Dominance by Will Lavender

So, earlier this week, I read my first Will Lavender novel, and I have to say it was a lot of fun.  I posted a review mere moments ago HERE.

Are you intrigued?  Do you like a good puzzle?  Are you ready to play the Procedure?  Well then, it's your lucky day, because Dominance is this week's Humpday Giveaway.  All you have to do is post a comment below, and you may be the winner of a pristine trade paperback galley of this newly released hardback novel.

Other than that, the usual rules apply.  Good luck to all who enter!

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by August 3, 2011. (Thanks for pointing out I forgot to update the date!)
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield

Do you find yourself intrigued that every second blog post I write contains the name Sophie Littlefield?  Did you read Aftertime and get hooked like me?  Is a good apocalypse what you need to complete your summer?

Well, then do I have good news for you!  This week's Humpday Giveaway is a signed trade paper galley of Rebirth, the second novel in Sophie Littlefield's Aftertime Trilogy.  I posted a review of this excellent novel here yesterday, and a review of Aftertime here several months ago.  I can't recommend these books enough--though not perhaps for every reader.  I'll be the first to admit that they are bleak and harsh and not for the faint of heart.

And there's a caveat with this giveaway.  Definitely enter the contest, but don't read Rebirth before reading Aftertime.  In this trilogy, the second is dependent on the first, in my opinion.  So, that said, it's the usual rules.  You guys are kind of hard to give free stuff to, so I do hope there's more interest in this book than there was in last week's title.  But, whatever, less shipping for me if you're not.  Good luck to all who enter!

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, July 27, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: French Lessons by Ellen Sussman

In honor of Bastille Day tomorrow, I'm giving away a trade paper galley of this little book.  I've only just begun reading it myself, but I'm finding it to be charming.  In a recent review, EW gave it a B+ and wrote:

Imagine the film 
Before Sunrise with three times the 
participants and a bit less subtlety, 
and you get the gist of Sussman's sexy travelogue French Lessons. Three couples, each composed of a hot young French tutor and an attractive, emotionally bruised American student, spend a day strolling, café-ing, and conjugating through the streets of Paris. And since they're in the City of Love, chatting in the language of love, secrets of the heart are revealed and beds are fallen into. Sussman certainly knows her way around a boudoir scene — and when those boudoirs are in Paris, well, you end up with some sizzling escapist reading.

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, July 20, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

I am going to stop there, because I am going to go hear the author speak and read tonight, and with any luck, I'll come back to the blog with some fun video to entice you to enter this giveaway.  For now, I'll simply say that the regular rules apply, and will wish you all bon chance!

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: The Vault by Boyd Morrison

Well, the Blog Hop Giveaway has been a blast!  Normally I choose winners for my giveaways early on Wednesday, but I'll give stragglers until midnight to enter to win In the Garden of Beasts.  I'll post the names of the winners tomorrow morning, and since just about everyone left an email, I'll notify winners that way, too.

Now, however, it's time for business as usual around here.  And business as usual means the Humpday Giveaway!  (What else is there to look forward to on Wednesdays?)  I came home to a pleasant surprise yesterday, a shiny hardback of Boyd Morrison's novel The Vault--which doesn't even go on sale until next week.  Thanks, Simon & Schuster!  Now, I have a reader who's been begging me to give away a copy of this book for months.  Kerry, this is your week.  Go for it!

It is no secret that I've been a big Morrison fan for about five years now.  That's not bad, considering he's only been in print for about a year.  I was what you'd call an early fan, and I'm in good company--James Rollins, Douglas Preston, Chris Kuzneski, and Steve Berry are among his earliest supporters.  My enthusiastic review of this novel can be seen HERE.  But I'm not alone in my praise for The Vault.  In their starred review, Publisher's Weekly wrote:

Originally published as an e-book in 2009 (The Adamas Blueprint), Morrison's excellent third thriller (after The Ark and The Rogue Wave) finds series hero Tyler Locke, aided by TV journalist and Greek scholar Stacy Benedict, trying to defuse a time bomb aboard a Seattle to Bremerton, Wash., ferry by solving an ancient puzzle created by Archimedes. That is merely the first task devised for Locke and Benedict by criminal mastermind Jordan Orr, whose ultimate goal is to locate the tomb of King Midas and the secret of the Midas touch that transmutes base metals to gold. With the lives of their loved ones at stake, the pair embark on a series of increasingly dangerous jaunts to England, Germany, Greece, and Italy to collect and decipher pieces of a puzzle that will allow them to locate the tomb buried among the miles of tunnels underlying Naples. Compelling action more than compensates for improbabilities and lack of character development in this electrifying blend of history, myth, and science.

"Electrifying"--they don't say that about just any book.  (Never mind that they got their facts slightly confused.  This was never published as an ebook, and is not the novel formerly known as The Adamas Blueprint.)  I'm just saying that you want to read this one, whether you win it from me, or, say, rush to the bookstore when it goes on sale next Tuesday.  For now, to enter this contest, all you have to do is leave a comment below.  Standard rules apply.  For extra winning karma, go to Amazon and vote the review I just posted "helpful."  Other than that, good luck!

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, July 6, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

 

BLOG HOP GIVEAWAY: In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Well, as promised, In One Eye, Out the Other is participating in it's very first Blog Hop.  I don't know about you, but I'm excited!  This is one of seventy-three separate book blogs that's doing a book giveaway between Saturday, June 25th - Wednesday, June 29th.  You can read all about it here, at organizer Leeswammes' Blog.  That's a whole lot of chances to win a great book!  And I encourage you to visit each and every one of the participating blogs.

For first-time visitors to this blog, I'll mention that there's a new giveaway here most Wednesdays.  I call it the "Humpday Giveaway."  This blog covers all different types of books, so you never know what will be up for grabs from week to week.  Additionally you'll find book reviews, author interviews, guest blogger posts, literary gossip, and more.  I invite you to look around while you're here, and please do visit again.  Now, here's this week's offering:

Perhaps best known for his book Devil in the White City, the full title of Erik Larson's latest work of narrative non-fiction is In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin.  After five weeks, it's still #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list.  Amazon named it one of their Best of the Month, and in a starred review, Publisher's Weekly wrote:

In this mesmerizing portrait of the Nazi capital, Larson plumbs a far more diabolical urban cauldron than in his bestselling The Devil in the White City. He surveys Berlin, circa 1933–1934, from the perspective of two American naïfs: Roosevelt's ambassador to Germany, William Dodd, an academic historian and Jeffersonian liberal who hoped Nazism would de-fang itself (he urged Hitler to adopt America's milder conventions of anti-Jewish discrimination), and Dodd's daughter Martha, a sexual free spirit who loved Nazism's vigor and ebullience. At first dazzled by the glamorous world of the Nazi ruling elite, they soon started noticing signs of its true nature: the beatings meted out to Americans who failed to salute passing storm troopers; the oppressive surveillance; the incessant propaganda; the intimidation and persecution of friends; the fanaticism lurking beneath the surface charm of its officialdom. Although the narrative sometimes bogs down in Dodd's wranglings with the State Department and Martha's soap opera, Larson offers a vivid, atmospheric panorama of the Third Reich and its leaders, including murderous Nazi factional infighting, through the accretion of small crimes and petty thuggery.

I've got several shiny, new hardback copies of this book, so we're going to do the same thing we did a couple of weeks ago.  The more people that enter this contest, the more copies I'll give away.  If ten people enter, I'll give away one copy; twenty people, two copies; and so on, up to a maximum of five copies.  Other than that, the usual rules apply:

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, June 29, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner(s) will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

Good luck to everyone, and thanks for playing!  And now that you've entered my giveaway, I invite you to visit all of the fine sites below.  Each of these sites will have their giveaway posted by Saturday, June 25th.  I jumped the gun by a few hours, but these sites are in all different time zones, so if the giveaway isn't posted yet, it soon will be.  Good luck times seventy-three!

List with all the Participants:

Leeswammes (Int) The Book Whisperer (Int) Kristi Loves Books (Int) Teadevotee (Int) Bookworm with a View (Int) Bibliosue (Int) Sarah Reads Too Much (Int) write meg! (USA) My Love Affair With Books (Int) Seaside Book Nook (Int) Uniflame Creates (Int) Always Cooking Up Something (Int) Book Journey (Int) ThirtyCreativeStudio (Int) Col Reads (Int) The Book Diva's Reads (Int) The Scarlet Letter (USA) The Parrish Lantern (Int) Lizzy's Literary Life (Int) Read, Write & Live (Int) Book'd Out (Int) The Readers' Suite (Int) I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (USA) Ephemeral Digest (Int) Miel et lait (Int) Bibliophile By the Sea (Int) Polychrome Interest (Int) Book World In My Head (Int) In Spring it is the Dawn (Int) everybookhasasoul (Int) Nishita's Rants and Raves (Int) Fresh Ink Books (Int) Teach with Picture Books (USA) How to Teach a Novel (USA) The Blue Bookcase (Int) Gaskella (Int) Reflections from the Hinterland (USA) chasing bawa (Int) 51stories (Int) No Page Left Behind (USA)

Silver's Reviews (USA) Nose in a book (Int) Lit in the Last Frontier (Int) The Book Club Blog (Int) Under My Apple Tree (Int) Caribousmom (USA) breienineking (Netherlands) Let's Go on a Picnic! (Int) Rikki's Teleidoscope (Int) De Boekblogger (Netherlands) Knitting and Sundries (Int) Elle Lit (USA) Indie Reader Houston (Int) The Book Stop (Int) Eliza Does Very Little (Int) Joy's Book Blog (Int) Lit Endeavors (USA) Roof Beam Reader (Int) The House of the Seven Tails (Int) Tony's Reading List (Int) http://thinkingaboutloud.blogspot.com/ Rebecca Reads (Int) Kinna Reads (Int) In One Eye, Out the Other (USA) Books in the City (Int) Lucybird's Book Blog (Europe) Book Clutter (USA) Exurbanis (Int) Lu's Raves and Rants (USA & Canada) Sam Still Reading (Int) Dolce Bellezza (Int) Lena Sledge's Blog...Books, Reviews and Interviews (Int) a Thousand Books with Quotes (Int)

Today's HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY is delayed for an excellent reason...

So, as you know, most Wednesday's I post a book giveaway on the blog.  I have several shiny hardback copies of a current New York Times bestseller that I'm looking forward to giving away this week--but I'm going to have to beg your patience for a few more days.  The reason is that In One Eye, Out the Other will be participating in a huge, international book giveaway blog hop!

I've never done anything like this before, but it should be fun.  It's being organized by my friend Judith over at Leeswammes's Blog.  (Yeah, I don't really get the name of her blog either, but it might make more sense in Dutch.  She's over in the Netherlands, but writes more eloquently in English than I do!)  You should absolutely check her excellent blog out, and that's the beauty part of this blog hop.  Like 60 or 70 different book blogs aound the world will be participating with giveaways, and I'll link to them all here.  You can jump from post to post and enter as many of the giveaways as you like.  It should be all kinds of fun, with dozens of winners, and best of all, you may discover some awesome new literary blogs along the way.  I know I'm looking forward to checking them all out!

So, this week's giveaway will be posted on Saturday.  Please check back then!  In the meanwhile, please feel free to speculate on which book I'll be giving away...

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates From Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain by Jim Lehrer

This week's giveaway is a special request from reader Care.  I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Lehrer speak about this forthcoming title at BookExpo America a few weeks ago, and I grabbed a couple of galleys to bring home.  So, that's what's being offered this week, a trade paperback Advance Reader's Edition of this book which won't be published until September 13, 2011. 

I could try to describe this book, but I think I'll let the author do so himself.  The quality of this video is only a marginal improvement over the Charlaine Harris video from last week, alas.  As I explained then, the borrowed Flip Cam I was using wasn't designed to focus at that distance.  But, if you're interested in hearing what Mr. Lehrer had to say, it's perfectly audible.

The rules are the same as always, with one slight variation.  I always reserve the right to cancel any giveaway with fewer than five entrants.  In this case, please know if there are fewer than five entrants than Care is the default winner.  So, please don't hesitate to enter, and good luck to all!

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).  
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, June 22, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

Yes, I promised this was coming, and here we are.  This is the 11th book in Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series, which is, of course, the basis for the HBO series True Blood.  Either you want this book or you don't, and I don't think there needs to be any selling on my part.

So, here's what I'm going to do that's a little different this week...  I'm hoping this will be a popular giveaway, as the book is at the very top of the bestseller list.  So the deal is, the more people that enter this contest, the more copies I'll give away.  If ten people enter, I'll give away one copy.  If 20 people enter, I'll give away two.  Right up to five copies.  I doubt we'll have more than 50 entrants.  (But it would be awesome if we did!)  Other than that, normal rules apply:

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, June 15, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner(s) will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

And a final bonus:  This is a few minutes of the speech Charlaine Harris gave at BEA two weeks ago.  I'm sorry it's totally out of focus.  Flip Cams aren't designed to focus at that distance.  However, you can hear everything she says, including her response to all the publishers who passed on her books.  Enjoy!



HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

The very kind Megan at HarperCollins sent me a galley of Laura Lippman's wonderful stand alone thriller I'd Know You Anywhere in honor of the book's trade paperback release last week.  What she didn't know is that I read the book when it was released in hardback last year.  It was my first Lippman, and I loved it.  Here's what I wrote at the time:

Once upon a time, Eliza Benedict was Elizabeth Lerner. Elizabeth became Eliza at the age of 15, after she was abducted for 39 days by spree killer and rapist Walter Bowman. She was the only girl who survived. In the years since that autumn, she’s carefully guarded her privacy and done everything possible to move on with her life—with more success than most people who have never been traumatized. She’s happily married to her college sweetheart, and the contented stay-at-home mom to two.

All of that changes with the posting of a letter. After 22 years on Virginia’s death row, Walter Bowman has seen her photo in Washingtonian Magazine, and as he writes, “I’d know you anywhere.” This first communication is the beginning of increasingly escalating contact from the inmate and his associates. What really happened all those years ago? And what does Walter want today? These are the questions that Laura Lippman sets before readers in this well-written, richly-characterized novel of suspense. The story being told unfolds beautifully, and as disturbing a character as Walter is, he’s equally fascinating. And at times, I wasn’t even sure if he was the biggest monster in the book.

After her long, celebrated career, this was my introduction to Laura Lippman’s work. It won’t be the last novel I read. How delightful to know she has an extensive backlist now waiting to be explored.

It's actually one of my more concise reviews.  Okay, my mom really wants to read this book, so if there aren't at lease five people vying for this trade paper galley, it's definitely going to her.  Otherwise, same old rules as always.  Happy reading and good luck!

Rules:

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, May 18, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

Mother's Day Double Giveaway: Secret Daughter & Original Sin

In honor of Mother's Day falling this Sunday, I've decided to do a double giveaway this week, of two books that deal with the subject of what it is to be a mother very differently.  Intriguingly, they're both set in San Francisco, where I live, but that's where the similarity ends.  Of Original Sin, Library Journal says:

McMullen's debut introduces Lucy Hamilton, stay-at-home mom by day, spy by night. After giving up a stellar career as a government agent (code name: Sally Sin), Lucy finds herself drawn back into the underworld when her old nemesis, an arms dealer, resurfaces—and she's apparently the only one who can bring him to justice. High-spirited fun that will appeal to readers who enjoy sassy mystery heroines.

This book won't be released until July 12, 2011, so this is a trade paper pre-publication galley I'm giving away.

Secret Daughter, on the other hand, is full of exotic locations, culture, and melodrama.  In the Washington Post, Wendy Smith wrote:

Shilpi Somaya Gowda strikes a pleasing balance in her first novel, which draws upon the hot-button issues of female infanticide and overseas adoption…Secret Daughter tells a nuanced coming-of-age story that is faithful to the economic and emotional realities of two very different cultures…Gowda doesn't neaten up the messy complications of family life as she warmly affirms the power of love to help people grow and change.

This novel was published in hardback last year.  I am giving away a finished trade paperback.  You do not need to have given birth to a child in order to win (but if you have, that's a bonus).  Other than that, the usual rules apply:

• The winner of this giveaway is welcome to choose either or both of these titles.  If the winner wants only one, a second winner will be chosen, until both books are in the hands of someone who will enjoy them.  Other than that, the regular rules apply:
• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, May 11, 2011.
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread.
• Please check back to see if you've won. If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to respond to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face-to-face book club.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.
• Finally, if at all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.

Good luck, happy reading, and happy Mother's day to all the moms out there!

HUMPDAY GIVEAWAY: The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure

A few weeks ago when I received the galley of this book, I discovered that there are a lot of people with much stronger feelings about the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder than me.  As lovely a book as The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House of the Prairie by Wendy McClure appears to be, I'm convinced that there's someone out there who will enjoy it a whole lot more than I will.  (Please note: I am giving away a trade paperback galley, not a finished hardback.)

In their starred review of this book, PW wrote:

Obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books about an 1880s pioneer family, children's book editor and memoirist McClure (I'm Not the New Me) attempts to recapture her childhood vision of "Laura World." Her wacky quest includes hand-grinding wheat for bread, buying an authentic churn, and traveling to sites where the Ingalls family attempted to wrest a living from the prairie. Discovering that butter she churned herself was "just butter," McClure admits she "felt like a genius and a complete idiot at the same time." Viewing a one-room dugout the Ingallses occupied that was "smaller than a freight elevator" prompted McClure to admit that "the actual past and the Little House world had different properties." McClure finally tells her boyfriend, "I'm home," after recognizing that her travels stemmed from her reaction to the recent death of her mother. Readers don't need to be Wilder fans to enjoy this funny and thoughtful guide to a romanticized version of the American expansion west.

Other than that, the giveaway rules are the same as always:

• The giveaway is open to anyone with a U.S. mailing address ('cause I'm footing the postage).
• To enter, all you need to do is post a comment below by Wednesday, May 4, 2011.  
• At my discretion, if there are less than five respondents, I can cancel or extend the giveaway.
• Generally, giveaways start on a Wednesday, and end one week later.
• Winner will be chosen by me with the help of a random number generator, and will be announced in the comments section of this thread. 
• Please check back to see if you've won.  If you have left a way to contact you, I will do so.
• The winner has one week to response to me at suetu@yahoo.com with a mailing address, or I will choose a new winner.
• If a second winner fails to respond, the book automatically goes to the lovely members of my face to face book club.
• Finally, if all all possible, please comment below only if you're entering the giveaway.
• Previous giveaway winners are welcome to enter.

Good luck!