Submitted by Bethanne on Sat, 02/27/2010 - 12:37pm Giveaway: Let Us Now Praise Two Famous Male Authors
Pete Dexter and Richard Russo are two of contemporary literature's best, and I've been fortunate to meet them both in person. They are both quite different -- Dexter is sardonic, Russo ebullient; Dexter lives mainly in Arizona, while Russo lives mostly in Maine -- yet they do have a few similarities, including their mustaches and their ways of capturing the American Male.
Ten of you, randomly selected, will receive copies of both Dexter's "Spooner" and Russo's "That Old Cape Magic," as long as you leave an answer below in the Comments to this question:
What's one defining quality or trait of that singular species, The American Male?
Submitted by Bethanne on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 10:00am Giveaway: Historical Fiction Bundle
Ten of you will win a three-book bundle of historical fiction -- and let me be the first to say all three books in this giveaway are great reads! From Tracy Chevalier's "Remarkable Creatures" to C.M. Mayo's "The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire" to Jeff Shaara's "No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II," these titles will keep you happily reading for at least a couple of weeks...
To be eligible for our giveaway, please leave an answer to the following question in our Comments section:
What's your favorite spot for reading?
This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the winners:
Jennifer L.Katy F.Susan B.Kathy R.Mary Louise R.Pamela M.Reeca E.Debbie P.Elissa H.
Submitted by Bethanne on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 11:23am Giveaway: Memoir Bundle
We've got a bundle of three books, all memoirs, that will go to 10 lucky readers who leave a response to the following question in the Comments section below:
What's the last book you absolutely loved?
This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the winners:
Michelle S.Sandy J.Carrie C.Bonnie M.Julie P.Dona P.Emily M.Valerie Z.Kimberly O.
Submitted by Bethanne on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 5:04pm Giveaway: "Role of a Lifetime" by James Brown
We've got ten copies of "Role of a Lifetime: Reflections on Faith, Family, and Significant Living" by James Brown -- yes, THAT James Brown, meaning he of The NFL Today, not he of music.
THIS James Brown continues to grow in the path he's following, so this week's giveaway question is:
What is the next goal you'd like to meet -- personal, professional, or spiritual?
This giveaway has ended.
Submitted by Bethanne on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 3:03pm Friday Reads Giveaway: And the Winner Is...
Our winner of last week's #FridayReads giveaway will receive TEN new hardcover books from our major major stash at The Book Studio. (I told you that if we got to comments from 500 unique commenters, that I would do this -- and we reached 503!)
That winner, chosen with the help of Random.org, is...
@WriteMeg!!!!
Congratulations, Meg -- Please email your real name and snailmail addy to me: TheBookMaven at gmail dot com. I'll make sure your box of TEN books is on its way to you quickly.
Thank you all for contributing, participating, and supporting #FridayReads. We'll do more giveaways in the months to come.
Submitted by Bethanne on Sun, 01/31/2010 - 5:20pm Giveaway: In the Confessional
Just because I'm calling this giveaway "In the Confessional" doesn't mean it's about Roman Catholicism. Anything but! Acclaimed novelist Mary Gordon, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, now knows her father was Jewish and practices a sort of mindful Christianity that acknowledges many other paths to faith. Frank Warren, the man behind the wildly successful "PostSecret" series, has a new book that includes the word "Confessions" in its title -- but the book has more to do with individual submissions to the project than to any religion in particular.
"Reading Jesus: A Writer's Encounter with the Gospels" is Gordon's attempt to come to terms with why those four Biblical books have remained so important, while "PostSecret: Confessions About Life, Death, and God" is Warren's compilation of other people's perspectives on the essentials -- but both books will help readers to enter their own intellectual confessional.
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Submitted by Bethanne on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 6:52am Giveaway: Friday Reads Challenge!
If you're reading this, you may be a #FridayReads regular on Twitter -- or you may just be wondering what the heck a #FridayReads is.
Let me explain: #FridayReads is a "hashtag," an identifying hack that allows people to search for all related responses quickly and easily within Twitter. All that "#FridayReads" means is that a tweet contains the answer to my question "What are you reading this Friday?" I started asking last fall, and I quickly realized that the answers I was receiving were so interesting and diverse that I wanted to add them to The Book Studio.
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Submitted by Bethanne on Fri, 01/22/2010 - 3:49pm Giveaway: "Emma" by Jane Austen, the MASTERPIECE Edition
I just may have mentioned that the Masterpiece Classics production of Jane Austen's "Emma" (starring Romola Garai and Michael Gambon) premieres this Sunday evening on your local PBS station.
Just in time, we've got TEN copies of the Masterpiece Edition of "Emma" to give away to randomly selected Janeites who respond to this question in the Comments:
If you could go back to Jane Austen's England, what would be your favorite thing there?
This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the winners:
Juliet K.Sara P.Felicia S.Katherine C.Christine H.Susan K.Bethany F.Jo M.
Submitted by Bethanne on Sat, 01/16/2010 - 10:05am Giveaway: History Bundle!
What a treat for readers of history and nonfiction -- three completely different, yet incredibly readable books. From James Reston, Jr., comes "Defenders of the Faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe 1520-1536" about the struggle between Islam and Christianity. Acclaimed popular historian Simon Schama's essays on our country are collected in "The American Future: A History" and the rather shocking details of President Andrew Johnson are told by David O. Stewart in "Impeached! The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy."
We've got one copy each of these three to give to five randomly chosen answers from responses in the Comments section below to this question:
If you wrote a history book, about your own life or someone else's, what would it be called?
This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the winners:
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Submitted by Bethanne on Sun, 01/10/2010 - 7:48am Giveaway: "Magnificent Desolation" by Buzz Aldrin
A person becomes an icon through an almost alchemical process, a mysterious blend of achievement, fame, and attention that can't be predicted or manufactured. We know icons when we hear their names, though: The Queen. Cher. Michael Jordan. Julia Child.
Buzz Aldrin, astronaut on the Apollo 11 team and Neil Armstrong's partner on the first moonwalk, is an icon whose achievement was stellar and fame meteoric (please forgive the use of cosmic adjectives; they're apt, here) -- but his personal life suffered under the attention that followed. In "Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon," Aldrin details how difficult it was in the first decades after returning from that mission. His story of alienation, depression, alcoholism, recovery, and sobriety is at once familiar and strange, and it's also fascinating.
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