Mailbox Monday and Giveaway

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! I also have a new giveaway this week and three winners of last week's giveaway.  Keep reading through the post to find all the goodies.

MAILBOX MONDAY

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. (Library books don’t count, but eBooks & audiobooks do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists!

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here). I am very pleased to host this month.

Please leave the link to your Mailbox Monday post with Mr. Linky. If you do not have a blog, leave your mailbox list in a comment.

GIVEAWAY WINNER

I had THREE advanced reading copies of House Arrest by Ellen Meeropol to give away last week.

THE BOOK: House Arrest is set in Western Massachusetts and on an island in Penobscot Bay, Maine.  The story is told from the alternating points of view of Emily, Pippa, Sam, and Gina. House Arrest explores the meaning of family loyalty when beliefs conflict, and questions the necessity of sometimes breaking rules to serve justice.

THE WINNERS:  Using random.org, I picked the following winners of this fascinating new novel:

• Teddy Rose at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time (random #8)
• Amy at The House of Seven Tails (random # 39)
• CT Mom at Inspired by Savannah (random #1)

Congratulations to the three winners and a huge THANK YOU to all who participated. 

I'll email the three winners shortly to get mailing information.

THIS WEEK'S GIVAWAY

Again thanks to book publicist extraordinaire, Mary Bisbee-Beek, I have three copies to give away of Strange Relation: A Memoir of Marriage, Dementia, and Poetry by Rachel Hadas.  This looks like an incredible book.  A tear-jerker, I suspect, but incredible.

THE BOOK: In 2004 Rachel Hadas's husband, George Edwards, a composer and professor of music at Columbia University, was diagnosed with early-onset dementia at the age of sixty-one. STRANGE RELATION is her account of "losing" George. Her narrative begins when George's illness can no longer be ignored, and ends in 2008 soon after his move to a dementia facility (when after thirty years of marriage, Hadas finds herself no longer living with her husband). Within the confines of those difficult years, years when reading and writing were an essential part of what kept her going, she "tried to keep track....tried to tell the truth."

RULES: The contest is open until Sunday, January 16, 2011. To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a comment for each one:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must include a way to contact you (email or website address in your comment or available in your profile). If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway. (Posting the giveaway on your sidebar is also acceptable.) Leave a separate comment with a link to your post. (1 entry)

3. Subscribe to my rss feed, follow me on blogger, or subscribe via email (or tell me if you already are a subscriber or follower). Leave a separate comment for this. (1 entry)

4. Tweet this post on Twitter. Leave me a separate comment with your twitter user name. (1 entry)

5. Stumble this blog, digg it, technorati fave it, or link it on facebook. Leave a separate comment. (1 entry)

There are a lot of ways to enter (maximum of five entries), but you must LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each one or they will not count. I will use random.org to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Sunday, January 16, 2011. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Mailbox Monday post for January 17, 2011.

MY MAILBOX

The Descent of Man by Kevin Desinger



The wonderful Caitlin Hamilton Summie of Unbridled Books was kind enough to send me the ARC of what looks like a riveting new novel.

Product Description by Bob Shacochis

One night Jim, a quiet wine steward, wakes to find two men trying to steal his car. Against the petitions of his wife, he goes outside to get the plate number of the thieves truck. Instead, something comes over him and he drives away in their truck until he recovers his wits and realizes what he's done. When Jim learns that the two would-be thieves are brothers with a history of violence, he soon finds himself over his head in a mire of sinister events and must risk everything to regain what he can of his life before that night.

There are books that you can't put down, and there are books that won't go away even after you put them down, the force of their moral conundrums haunting the stories of our own lives. The Descent of Man is a spectacular showcase for both literary virtues the riveting tale of a modest but perfect life under assault, and a resonating challenge to our own self-knowledge, the authenticity of that knowledge, which can only be confirmed through crisis. Who are we when push comes to shove? What are we capable of? Do we have the fortitude to save ourselves from the bad things in the world, and the backbone--the strength of mind and spirit to protect those we love from harm? Kevin Desinger confronts us with these questions in the steady, quiet voice of Everyman, a decent guy sitting in a parlor chair, calmly narrating a firestorm that's consuming his house and family. He has written a novel that is flawless, masterful, unforgettable, and chilling in its dramatization of the way we live in fragile grace each day in America, our blessings balanced on the edge of violence and loss. 

As good as this looks, I am sticking with my New Year's reading resolution to get a handle on my Guilt List and I have passed this on to the wunderkinder at Reading Local, who will treat it with the prompt respect it deserves.  Kevin Desinger is a Portland author, so he and his book will be treated well by the Reading Local crew.




365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life by John Kralik

The senior partner at my firm gave me this for Christmas.  I guess my first Thank You goes to him.