Teaser Tuesday & GIVEAWAY: Public Trust

She wore a brown and orange wrap, with a South American or tropical design -- he wasn't sure which. In one hand she held a bottle of red wine and a plastic goblet, in the other, a bouquet of maidenhair fern and scarlet and yellow monkey flowers.

-- Public Trust by J. M. Mitchell.  This is mystery with a National Park story-line.  It has a romance going too, as you can see in this scene . . . .  

Thanks go to book publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek for my copy, and copies for a giveaway!

THE GIVEAWAY

This is a "leap-frog" giveaway.  This means that I have three (3!) copies to giveaway to Rose City Reader readers, and each winner will get to host another giveaway for an additional copy.

The contest is for readers in the USA and Canada and is open until Labor Day Monday, September 3, 2012. There are five ways to enter and each one is worth a chance to win.  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. Post this on facebook, pin it on Pinterest, Stumble it, digg it, technorati fave it, or otherwise put it out there in the social network. Leave a separate comment with a link or explaination. (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 Labor Day Monday, September 3, 2012. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Teaser Tuesday post for September 4, 2012.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

The team at 5 Minutes for Books is hosting in August.  Please stop by this eclectic group blog to find dozens of reviews and several giveaways.
I got one book last week that I really wanted:



Fortune's Deadly Descent by Audry Braun

This is the second in a series that started with A Small Fortune.  If this one is even half the rip-roaring fun of the first, it's going to be a hit.

Braun is the pen name of novelist Deborah Reed, author of Carry Yourself Back to Me, a Best Book of 2011 Amazon Editors' Pick.

MORE LINKS

My Rose City Reader review of A Small Fortune
My Rose City Reader review of Carry Yourself Back to Me
My Rose City Reader interview of Audry Braun
The Deborah Reed/Audry Braun website

2012 Challenge Completed! Battle of the Prizes, American Version

Having finished and reviewed my second National Book Award winner, I have now completed the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version.

This challenge pits winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction against the winners of the National Book Award. Participants can read one Pulitzer winner, one National winner, and one double dipper, or read two of each.  The challenge runs through January 2013, so there is still time to sign up!

My Pulitzer choices:

•  A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here)
• Tinkers by Paul Harding (reviewed here)   

My National choices:

• Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here)
• The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (reviewed here)

I am still trying to decide whether to host again in 2013, but assuming I do, I already have a list of possible books from my TBR shelves:

Pulitzer possibilities include:

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
• One of Ours by Willa Cather
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry 

National possibilities include:

• The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
• Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist
• Them by Joyce Carol Oates
• Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers

For details about the challenge or to sign up, please visit the challenge page, here, or click the page tab in the bar at the top of the blog. 

Book Beginnings: Public Trust

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

 "Please, promise me they won't let it burn," the woman said."  

-- Public Trust by J. M. Mitchell.  This is mystery with a National Park story-line.  Of course, if it starts off with a forest fire, it is immediately captivating. 

Thanks go to book publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek for my copy.

Review: Witness

 


Whittaker Chambers was an American communist and Soviet spy who broke with the Communist Party in 1938 and later denounced the other members of his underground cell to the House Un-American Activities Committee and a New York grand jury. His testimony eventually lead to the 1950 perjury conviction of Alger Hiss and launched a decades-long battle between the Left and Right over which man was the real villain. The controversy seems to have petered out, at least in the mainstream, since both the US Russia released formerly-classified Cold War records identifying Hiss as a Soviet agent.

In 1952, Chambers published Witness, his autobiography and apologia. Starting with his childhood, Chambers explains his attraction to communism, his involvement in the communist movement in America – first in the open party as an organizer and writer for the Daily Worker, later in the underground – how his growing Christian faith lead to his break from the party, and how his Quaker principles lead to his testimony against his former fellow-travelers.

Chambers spent ten years as a writer and editor for Time Magazine, so he knew how to wield a pen. His story is organized, his arguments persuasive, and his writing is moving, sometimes even beautiful. The drawback is that Chambers took his serious subject seriously – there is not a glimmer of humor in the whole 800 pages. Still, it is an amazing story and much of it reads like a spy thriller, well, an egg-heady spy thriller. 

Witness isn't a quick or easy read, but as a first-hand account of a fascinating episode in American history, it is worth the effort. Christopher Caldwell summed it up well when describing the book:

Confession, history, potboiler -- by a man who writes like the literary giant we would know him as, had not Communism got him first.

OTHER REVIEWS

Cindy Simpson for American Thinker (2010)
Brothers Judd (2001)

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

Witness is on the National Review list of Top 100 Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century.  It counts for several of my 2012 challenges: Chunkster, Tea & Books, Mt. TBR, Off the Shelf, TBR Pile, and Memorable Memoirs.