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Giveaway Winners + Another Giveaway: Pat Conroy’s MY READING LIFE

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend whether or not you celebrated Thanksgiving. I think we should treat every weekend as a holiday, and by that I mean we should sleep in, never change out of our pajamas, do movie marathons and behave in a general lazy manner.

But it’s Monday so let’s get down to business.

First, let’s get the winners of The Harry Bosch Novels: Volume 3 out of the way. The three randomly selected names are:

Laura Benedict
jenn
Jann

Congrats! Please hit the “contact” button at top of page or red envelope icon in sidebar on right and let me know where you’d like your books sent. If I don’t hear from you by Wednesday midnight PST, alternate winner(s) will be selected.

If you entered but didn’t win, don’t despair. I thought I’d go ahead and post my next giveaway now since the holidays are approaching fast and it might be nice for you to win a gift for someone or yourself.

I have up for grabs two copies of Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life, a recent release from Doubleday. From the dust jacket:

Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a life-long companion, reading has been Conroy’s portal to the world, both to the furthest corners of the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any mesmerizing tale of his native South. He has for years kept notebooks in which he records words and expressions, over time creating a vast reservoir of playful turns of phrase, dazzling flashes of description, and snippets of delightful sound, all just for his love of language. But reading for Conroy is not simply a pleasure to be enjoyed in off-hours or a source of inspiration for his own writing. It would hardly be an exaggeration to claim that reading has saved his life, and if not his life then surely his sanity.

I haven’t had a chance to read this yet but intend to soon. I always love hearing about how people’s reading life began.

To enter, leave a comment telling me what/who first got you interested in books. You also have to:

be a subscriber or Twitter follower (tell me which if you’ve never left a comment or entered a giveaway before)

have U.S./Canada address (no P.O. boxes)

Giveaway ends next Monday, Dec. 6, 5 p.m. PST. Winners will be randomly selected then announced here and on Twitter. I won’t be e-mailing you so please check back to see if you win. Alternate winner(s) will be chosen for any prize(s) not claimed within 48 hours.

Now, tell me about your beautiful reading life!

7 Comments

Book Giveaway: Michael Connelly’s THE HARRY BOSCH NOVELS, VOLUME 3

Thanks to Hachette Book Group, I’m giving away three copies of this new omnibus which includes three complete Harry Bosch novels: A Darkness More than Night, City of Bones, and Lost Light. Perhaps you already have individual copies of the books but they’re in paperback and are getting tattered. Or you know someone who only recently discovered Connelly’s work and doesn’t have these titles yet. Either way, this is a handsome hardcover edition to add to your or some lucky person’s collection.

Speaking of giving, I’d like to try something this season which was inspired by what the folks over at Concord Free Press are doing, which is giving away the books they publish and only asking that you consider making a charitable donation in return. I don’t publish anything but would like you to think about giving a small amount to your favorite charity if you win one of these books. When I say small, I mean $5 or $10 or some canned goods for your local food drive. (Lest you think five bucks don’t amount to much, my local soup kitchen says $2 will feed 3 people for Thanksgiving.) How about donating some of your used books to the library? That won’t cost anything at all. You’d come out on top since the omnibus retails for $21.99.

I want to be clear this is completely optional. If you win and make no donation, it’s perfectly fine and I won’t know about it anyway. No proof of good deed will be required before you get your prize (I’d love to hear, though, if you do donate something). This is simply my way to hopefully stimulate a little giving for the holidays.

So, back to the giveaway. To enter, leave a comment telling me what you’re relentless about since Connelly has used that word often to describe Harry Bosch. It could be something big or small. I was once in New York City freezing my tail off during its coldest day in 85 years. I got this craving for chicken noodle soup and was relentless about finding it. For whatever reason, no restaurant was serving it that day, just split pea or lentil or cream of one thing or another. I jumped on and off the subway, ducking into different places until I found the perfect chicken noodle and it was worth it.

To be eligible, you also have to:

be a subscriber or Twitter follower (tell me which)

have U.S./Canada address (no P.O. boxes)

Giveaway ends next Monday, Nov. 22, 5 p.m. PST. Winners will be randomly selected then announced here and on Twitter. I won’t be e-mailing you so please check back to see if you win. Alternate winner(s) will be chosen for any prize(s) not claimed within 48 hours.

Now, let’s see how relentless you are!

22 Comments

Book Giveaway: Joseph Wambaugh’s HOLLYWOOD HILLS

Little, Brown is releasing Joseph Wambaugh‘s Hollywood Hills on November 16 but generously letting me throw three copies out into the crowd now. This is the latest in the author’s Hollywood series which started with Hollywood Station and it features characters from the previous novels.

The product description:

The legendary Hollywood Hills are home to wealth, fame, and power–passing through the neighborhood, it’s hard not to get a little greedy.

LAPD veteran “Hollywood Nate” Weiss could take or leave the opulence, but he wouldn’t say no to onscreen fame. He may get his shot when he catches the appreciative eye of B-list director Rudy Ressler, and his troublemaking fiancée, Leona Brueger, the older-but-still-foxy widow of a processed-meat tycoon. Nate tries to elude her crafty seductions, but consents to keep an eye on their estate in the Hollywood Hills while they’re away.

Also minding the mansion is Raleigh Dibble, a hapless ex-con trying to put the past behind him. Raleigh is all too happy to be set up for the job–as butler-cum-watchdog–by Nigel Wickland, Leona’s impeccably dressed art dealer. What Raleigh doesn’t realize is that under the natty clothes and posh accent, Nigel has a nefarious plan: two paintings hanging on the mansion’s walls will guarantee them more money than they’ve ever seen.

Everyone’s dreams are just within reach–the only problem is, this is Hollywood. A circle of teenage burglars that the media has dubbed The Bling Ring has taken to pillaging the homes of Hollywood celebutants like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, and when a pair of drug-addled young copycats stumbles upon Nigel’s heist, that’s just the beginning of the disaster to come. Soon Hollywood Nate, surfer cops Flotsam and Jetsam, and the rest of the team at Hollywood Station have a deadly situation on their hands.

Hollywood Hills is a raucous and dangerous roller coaster ride that showcases Joseph Wambaugh in vintage form.

Want a copy? To enter, leave a comment telling me which Hollywood home you’d like to, ah, sneak into if you were a member of the Bling Ring. Me, I’d like to see the inside of Spielberg’s home because he might have cool memorabilia from his movies. If the Ark of the Covenant is just sitting around in the den, I’m taking it for sure.

To be eligible, you also have to:

be a subscriber or Twitter follower (tell me which)
have U.S./Canada address (no P.O. boxes)

Giveaway ends next Monday, Nov. 8, 5 p.m. PST. Winners will be randomly selected then announced here and on Twitter. I won’t be e-mailing you so please check back to see if you win. Alternate winner(s) will be chosen for any prize(s) not claimed within 48 hours.

Now, let’s hear your thieving hypotheticals!

14 Comments

Yet Another Giveaway: John Le Carré’s OUR KIND OF TRAITOR

Because we’re at the weekend and it’s time to party, I’m giving away another free book. Woo-hoo! Loverboy’s got nuthin’ on me. (Yes, I know that’s an ancient reference to a cheesy ’80s band. Your point is?)

Today’s title is John Le Carré‘s latest, Our Kind of Traitor, being released Oct. 12 by Viking. Thanks to the generous folks there, I have one copy to give away. I haven’t read this one yet but it’s been getting rave reviews, including starred ones from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus. From the product description:

Perry and Gail are idealistic and very much in love when they splurge on a tennis vacation at a posh beach resort in Antigua. But the charm begins to pall when a big-time Russian money launderer enlists their help to defect. In exchange for amnesty, Dima is ready to rat out his vory (Russian criminal brotherhood) compatriots and expose corruption throughout the so-called legitimate financial and political worlds. Soon, the guileless couple find themselves pawns in a deadly endgame whose outcome will be determined by the victor of the British Secret Service’s ruthless internecine battles.

Who wants it? You know any novel that contains internecine battles has to be good.

To enter:

be a subscriber or Twitter follower (tell me which—new subscribers get 1 entry, current followers automatically get 2)
leave a comment about someone who betrayed you
have U.S. address only (sorry!)

Giveaway ends next Saturday, October 16, 5 p.m. PST. The winner will be randomly chosen via Random.org then announced here and on Twitter. I won’t be notifying via e-mail so please check back to see if you’ve won. Winner will have 48 hours to claim the prize before an alternate name is chosen.

4 Comments

Book Review + Giveaway: Michael Connelly’s THE REVERSAL

Mickey Haller for the People.

Say what?

Haller, the renown defense attorney who fiercely stands for the accused, decides to prosecute a convicted murderer in Michael Connelly’s latest, The Reversal (Oct. 5, Little, Brown).

Will Sherlock Holmes become friends with Professor Moriarty next?

The reversal isn’t just Haller’s; the title also refers to a twenty-four-year-old guilty verdict in a murder trial being thrown out. Jason Jessup had been convicted in 1986 of kidnapping and killing a twelve-year-old girl but new DNA evidence reveals the semen found on her dress was not his.

To avoid any semblance of prejudice, the Los Angeles district attorney brings in Haller as an independent prosecutor to retry Jessup. Haller puts together a crack team consisting of his ex-wife, deputy DA Maggie McPherson, as second chair and Harry Bosch as his investigator. But they face an uphill battle as they find that many witnesses from 1986 have died and the most important one, the victim’s sister, has gone off the grid. Meanwhile, Jessup is out on bail and behaving in mysterious ways, making Haller and company fear something ugly is about to go down, something which may involve their own little girls.

This book is like an adventure featuring the Justice League or the Avengers, an all-star lineup of lead players from previous stories. Besides Haller, Bosch and McPherson, FBI Agent Rachel Walling also shows up to profile Jessup. (I kept expecting Jack McEvoy the journalist to make an appearance, too.) While it’s exciting to see them all in one place, they form a team that’s almost too powerful, giving them less to overcome in the courtroom (not that everything goes as planned).

The suspense and obstacles come more from Bosch’s detective work in tracking down former witnesses and shadowing Jessup during his nocturnal activities. Connelly’s meticulous attention to procedural details puts the reader right in Bosch’s shoes. We feel his frustration when he hits road blocks in the cold case and experience his excitement when he makes new discoveries. Connelly also guides us through Los Angeles with a sure hand; his descriptions of Mulholland Drive and the Santa Monica Pier at night are both seductive and sinister.

But the most important thing is Connelly’s ability to convince us that Haller would work for The Man after two decades representing the underdog. It turns out Haller isn’t all about clever lawyerly tactics—his passion for “a true and just verdict” burns as strongly as Bosch’s. He retains a healthy distrust of the DA’s office while getting schooled by his ex in how the prosecution works. His actions aren’t only believable, they make him a better lawyer and give new depth to his character.

Nerd verdict: Bosch and Haller join forces for strong Reversal

The book doesn’t come out until next week but the fantabulous Miriam at Hachette Book Group is allowing me to give away three copies. To enter:

be an e-mail subscriber or Twitter follower (tell me which—new subscribers get 1 entry, current followers get 2)
leave a comment about something you were sure was true but found out later it wasn’t
have U.S./Canada address

Giveaway ends next Friday, October 8, 5 p.m. PST. Winners will be randomly chosen via Random.org and announced here and on Twitter. I won’t be notifying via e-mail so please check back to see if you’ve won. Winners will have 48 hours to claim the prize before alternate names are chosen.

Let’s hear about your reversals!

22 Comments

Book Review & Giveaway: THE GLAMOUR OF GRAMMAR

How much of a nerd am I? I spent last Saturday night at home reading a book on grammar and considered it a good time. That’s because Roy Peter Clark makes it fun in The Glamour of Grammar, a book of writing guidelines. As introduction, Clark says “this book invites you to embrace grammar in a special way, not as a set of rules but as a box of tools…It doesn’t shout at you, ‘No, no, no,’ but gives you a little push and says, ‘Go, go, go.'”

And that it does. It helps that I’ve always loved grammar and language in general. I don’t like the term “grammar snob” because I don’t think I’m better than anyone. I simply want to put my best foot forward when speaking and writing and avoid sounding like an idiot. If my blog were full of mistakes, I imagine you wouldn’t be reading this.

So yes, I have an interest in this book’s subject matter but wouldn’t have necessarily enjoyed it if it weren’t for Clark’s breezy, witty, friendly voice. There’s no stuffy preachy tone here. Unlike William Strunk and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style, which has great advice but is bare bones in delivery, Clark offers anecdotes along with his tips on how to write more effectively. Even if you never dangle modifiers, split your infinitives or confuse “lie” and “lay,” this book can help you take a more conscious approach to language. Haven’t we all said or written something then later claimed, “That’s not what I meant!”?

I like how Clark encourages us to break rules whenever necessary to avoid “hypergrammar,” syntax that’s correct but calls too much attention to itself, e.g. “for whom are you looking?” instead of the more common “who are you looking for?” I heartily agree when he writes:

As writers, we should never be satisfied with the words we inherit, the ones that already appear in our dictionaries. Learning to use them correctly is the license we need to bend them, stretch them, and blend them with others, as context, meaning, and audience allow.

If you’re thinking, “OK, you’ve convinced me I need a copy of this book even though I’m already brilliant,” you’re in luck. Hachette Book Group is allowing me to give away two copies. To enter:

be a subscriber or Twitter follower (tell me which; new subscribers/followers get 1 entry and current ones get 2)
leave a comment about what grammatical issues trip you up the most
live in U.S. or Canada, no P.O. Box, per HBG’s request

Giveaway ends Tuesday, September 7, 5 p.m. PST. Winners will be chosen via Random.org and only announced here and on Twitter. I will not contact you personally so please check back to see if you win. Winners have 48 hours to claim the prize before alternate names are chosen.

30 Comments

Winner of IN THE WOODS + Another Giveaway!

My randomly selected winner for a paperback copy of Tana French’s In the Woods is:

Paulette

Congrats! Please hit the contact button and let me know where I should send it. If I don’t hear from you by 7 p.m. Friday, August 6, I’ll choose another winner.

If you didn’t win, don’t despair because I’ve got another giveaway starting…now!

Thanks to Dana at Kaye Publicity, I get to give away THREE free copies of Marcus Sakey‘s recently released e-anthology called Scar Tissue: Seven Stories of Love and Wounds. Marcus is the accomplished author of four novels, three of which have been sold to Hollywood. Scar Tissue is a collection of his previously published short stories, a great way to sample his work if you haven’t already done so.

Here’s the product description:

Marcus Sakey has been called “the new reigning prince of crime fiction,” (Chicago Tribune) and “exactly the electric jolt American crime fiction needs” (Dennis Lehane). Now from the bestselling author of The Blade Itself and Good People comes an anthology of seven short stories:

* “The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away” (nominated for Thriller and Macavity awards)
* “The Days When You Were Anything Else”
* “No One”
* “Gravity and Need”
* “As Breathing”
* “Cobalt”
* “The Time Before the Last”

These stories of men and women pushed to—and beyond—the ragged edge demonstrate why National Public Radio declared Sakey writes “crime drama for the 21st century.” Includes excerpts of Sakey’s previously published novels, as well as an exclusive teaser of his next book, coming June 2011.

Sound good? You know you want it. Before I get to the giveaway rules, I want to reiterate this is an e-book. If you win, you’ll get a code for a free download. You don’t have to own an e-reader; the anthology can be downloaded onto your computer as a PDF file.

To enter:

be a subscriber or Twitter follower (tell me which if you’ve never left a comment before)
leave a comment telling me about a favorite scar of yours or someone else’s if you don’t have one (mine is on my right middle finger from being sliced by a razor blade used by someone cutting my hair)

That’s it. This is open to international readers!

Giveaway ends next Tuesday, August 10, 5 p.m. PST. Three winners will be randomly chosen via Random.org and only announced here and on Twitter. I won’t contact you personally so please check back to see if you win. Winners will have 48 hours to claim the prize before alternate name(s) are chosen.

Now, show me your badass scars!

12 Comments

Penguin Books 75th Anniversary Giveaway

When I was new in the U.S. and first started reading classics, I noticed the penguin logo was on every paperback I read (couldn’t afford hardcovers back then) and assumed it was on all paperbacks. Of course, I found out later this wasn’t true but my little black and white friend was certainly the symbol of a good book.

Today Penguin Books officially turns 75 but all summer, the Penguin Mobile has been touring the country and driving its authors to celebrations at bookstores in their hometown. The final event will take place in September in New York City, where the Mini Cooper will be auctioned off with proceeds going to the New York Public Library. If I had the cash, I would bid on it in a heartbeat. I’d then take it on a car chase like in The Bourne Identity but that’s another story.

Since I can’t get to NYC, I’m celebrating here by giving away a paperback of Tana French’s In the Woods, which won the 2007 Edgar for best first novel. I haven’t read it but intend to very soon due to all the good reviews her books have received (check out this one by Picky Girl).

Here’s the synopsis from French’s website:

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children, gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled shoes, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox – his partner and closest friend – find themselves investigating a case with chilling links to that long-ago disappearance. Now, with only snippets of buried memories to guide him, Rob has the chance to unravel both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

To enter:

be a subscriber or Twitter follower (tell me which)
leave a comment telling me which author you’d like to spend some time with in that cozy little car (perhaps while parked in the woods?)
have a U.S. address

Giveaway ends next Wednesday, August 4, 5 p.m. PST. A winner will be randomly chosen via Random.org and only announced here and on Twitter. I won’t contact you personally so please check back to see if you win. The winner will have 48 hours to claim the prize before an alternate name is chosen.

Now, let’s party in the car and start fogging up the windows!

16 Comments

Winners of Aimee Bender’s THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE

Random.org selected the following winners:

A Bookshelf Monstrosity
jenn (aka picky_girl)

Please click on my contact form and let me know where you’d like Doubleday to ship your book. If I don’t hear from you by 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 21, I’ll select alternate winner(s).

Thanks to all who entered and shared your answers. I loved hearing about all the hope and joy you’d taste in your own cooking. If we can only get the whole world to eat it…

Buy The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake from Amazon
Buy from Barnes & Nobles
Buy from Powell’s Books

5 Comments

Book Review + Giveaway: THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE

Aimee Bender‘s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a bittersweet piece of literature that is both filling and light, with a satisfying secret ingredient I’m not sure I can identify but am happy to consume.

Right before her ninth birthday, Rose discovers she can taste her mother’s despair in the lemon cake she made. Besides the shock of realizing she now has this strange ability to taste people’s true emotions in the food they create, Rose is surprised to learn how her mother really feels beneath her always sunny facade. Turns out everyone in her family has secrets—her genius brother who often seems to disappear into thin air, her father who has a strange aversion to hospitals—and Rose just isn’t prepared to know them. She goes out of her way to consume only factory-processed foods, e.g. snacks from the school vending machine, as she tries to navigate life while knowing—and feeling—too much about the people around her. The most important revelation comes when she finally eats a meal she cooks herself.

I feel as if I didn’t just read this book; I absorbed it. It washed over me in a lovely, melancholy way that left me moved but not sad. It deals with unrequited love, unfulfilled potential and imperfect family dynamics, but all are ingredients of life and I could only nod and think, It happens. Though it contains magical realism, many scenes and emotions ring very true. Bender has a way of stringing ordinary words together to form enchanting sentences that made me envy her skill. In Rose, she has a vulnerable yet resilient character who may have an extraordinary power but is absolutely relatable in her struggles to find her way and place in the world.

Thanks to Doubleday, I’m giving away two copies of this book. That’s right, it can be yours for the incredible price of FREE.

To enter:

be a subscriber or Twitter follower (tell me which—new subscribers/followers get 1 entry, current ones get 2, you get 3 if you tweet about this)
leave a comment about what emotions you’d taste if you had Rose’s power and ate your own cooking right now (I’d taste wanton lust for a beautiful house I just saw that’s way out of my price range)
have U.S. address, no P.O. Box, per Doubleday’s request

Giveaway ends Monday, July 19, 5 p.m. PST. Winners will be randomly chosen via Random.org and only announced here and on Twitter. I will not contact you personally so please check back to see if you win. Winners have 48 hours to claim the prize before alternate names are chosen.

Now, let’s hear how tasty your cooking is!

21 Comments

Winners of Carolyn Parkhurst’s THE NOBODIES ALBUM

Random.org selected my two winners: Novelwhore and Carol Wong! You’ll each get a hardcover copy of Carolyn Parkhurst’s sublime The Nobodies Album. Please hit the contact form above before July 8 midnight PST and let me know where you’d like it sent.

Thanks to all who entered. Stay tuned for another great giveaway very soon!

1 Comments

Winners of Scott Turow’s INNOCENT

I’ve been MIA the past few days because friends are in town for the L.A. Times book festival. I was also sacked by a two-day migraine that made me want to self-lobotomize with a melon scooper.

But enough excuses. Below are the 5 winners of Scott Turow’s Innocent (read my review here), his sequel to Presumed Innocent. The names were randomly selected by random.org and the first one on the list gets a copy of both books, courtesy Hachette Book Group.

le0pard13
Vicki
WotV
Sarah E
Naomi Johnson

All winners must contact me by midnight PST, Tuesday April 27, with a mailing address or alternate name(s) will be chosen.

Thank you all for entering and sharing your stories about being falsely accused. They made me want to strap on a cape and slap some justice into this world.

Innocent comes out May 4 and you can buy it from Amazonor from an indie bookstore.

4 Comments

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