Friday, April 15, 2011

Ditto Doubles: Plucked from the Same Garden?


Is it just my imagination,
or are these covers all plucked from the same garden?

I love them all, regardless!







O.K. So maybe THE RETURN is a bit of stretch, but I can see that red flower coming from the same garden as the others!

Has anyone read any of these?  What did you think?
IMPATIENT WITH DESIRE recently came out in paperback, and I'll be posting my review soon.
(Hint: Loved it!)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Waiting on Wednesday: MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ranson Riggs


"WAITING ON WEDNESDAY"
is hosted by Jill from

Join in and tell us . . .

What are you waiting for?

My pick for this week is . . .


by Ranson Riggs

Pub. Date: June 2011
Publisher: Quirk Publishing
Format: Hardcover , 352pp
Age Range: Young Adult
ISBN-13: 9781594744761

Description (from the publisher):
A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography,
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Q&A with Mingmei Yip and Book Giveaway: SONG OF THE SILK ROAD

GIVEAWAY CLOSED.
I previously posted my review of Mingmei Yip's latest novel, SONG OF THE SILK ROAD. Click here to read my review.
Today I am pleased to share with my readers this Q&A with Ms. Yip (which was provided to me by her publicist) as well as offering you a chance to win a copy of this fascinating novel.

Which part of SONG OF THE SILK ROAD was the most enjoyable to write?  
There are a few. First, the love-making scene in the desert, imagining golden singing sand dunes, the unrelieved heat, the passion…all aphrodiasical.    

Another sequence I particularly enjoyed is the protagonist Lily Lin’s platonic love with one of her admirers – an Ughur healer who loves and protects her without asking anything back from her. Later, upon learning his tragic story she discovers she can open her yin eye to see beings from the realm of the dead.  

Who is your favorite heroine?
Sacrlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, one of the all time great survivors.

Are you working on anything else at the moment?       
Yes, my fourth novel set in the 20ies Shanghai about a woman spy working for a gangster. I am also writing and illustrating my second children’s book. 

Can you tell us something about yourself that not a lot of your readers don’t  know?       
Besides my hectic writing schedule, that I still manage to take time to perform the Chinese zither (guqin) professionally – last year I was invited by Carnegie Hall to play at its Chinese Music Festival -- and teach calligraphy workshops.
 
What is your favorite part of the writing process?       
After I labor through getting down the first draft, as I polish up my writing, I begin to enjoy my characters and their trials and struggles as they work towards a happy ending.  In my writing, I meet people like the Chinese herbalist and blind fortune teller in Song of the Silk Road, whom I might never meet in real life.

(This Q&A was provided to me by the author's publicist.)

RULES FOR ENTERING THE GIVEAWAY:

MANDATORY ENTRY:  Leave a comment on this post telling me you would like to win AND whether you have read any of Mingmei Yip's previous novels (if so, which one(s)). Include an email address with your comment so that I can contact you if you do win. Use a spam-thwarting format such as geebee.reads AT gmail DOT com or geebee.reads [at] gmail [dot] com

You must leave an email address in order to qualify. If I can't contact you, you can't win!

• You can earn an extra entry by being or becoming a Follower or Subscriber of this blog and telling me about it in a separate comment.

• Blog about this contest and provide me with the link to the post in a separate comment, and I'll give you yet another entry.

• Tweeting about this contest and providing me the link in a separate comment will get you one more entry. I've added a Retweet button at the bottom of every post.

• Stumble this blog, Digg it, or Technorati Fave it, whatever, and leave a separate comment for another entry.

• Winners must provide a U.S. or Canadian street address. The publisher is unable to deliver to P.O. Boxes.

• PLEASE NOTE: One win per household. If you win this title in another contest hosted at another blog, the publisher will only send one copy per household address.

Deadline for entry is 11:59 p.m. EST on Saturday, April 16, 2011.

• Winner will have 24 hours to respond to my email announcing that they have won; if I don't hear from the winner, I will draw another name.

• Winner will be determined using the sequence generator at Random.org.

Thank you to Mingmei Yip and her publicists from making this giveaway possible.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Teaser Tuesday: THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS: A Memoir


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish memehosted by Miz B. of Should Be Reading.


"The desert killed people who didn't know how to find shade or water. But it didn't hate them or prey upon them, the way dads sometimes preyed on their daughters."
by Tracy Ross

Pub. Date: March 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Format: Hardcover , 304pp
ISBN-13: 9781439172971

Click here to read an excerpt.

Want to play along?  Here's what to do:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Book Review: SONG OF THE SILK ROAD by Mingmei Yip




Pub. Date: April 2011
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Format: Paperback , 352pp
SBN-13: 9780758241825
ISBN: 0758241828

Description (from the publisher):
In this richly imaginative novel, Mingmei Yip--author of Peach Blossom Pavilion and Petals From the Sky--follows one woman's daunting journey along China's fabled Silk Road.
 
As a girl growing up in Hong Kong, Lily Lin was captivated by photographs of the desert--its long, lonely vistas and shifting sand dunes. Now living in New York, Lily is struggling to finish her graduate degree when she receives an astonishing offer. An aunt she never knew existed will pay Lily a huge sum to travel across China's desolate Taklamakan Desert--and carry out a series of tasks along the way.
 
Intrigued, Lily accepts. Her assignments range from the dangerous to the bizarre. Lily must seduce a monk. She must scrape a piece of clay from the famous Terracotta Warriors, and climb the Mountains of Heaven to gather a rare herb. At Xian, her first stop, Lily meets Alex, a young American with whom she forms a powerful connection. And soon, she faces revelations that will redefine her past, her destiny, and the shocking truth behind her aunt's motivations. . .
 
Powerful and eloquent, Song of the Silk Road is a captivating story of self-discovery, resonant with the mysteries of its haunting, exotic landscape.

MY RATING:  4 out of 5 Stars

MY THOUGHTS:
Is it possible or even sane to be jealous of a fictional character?  I so wanted to be Lily Lin, the main character in Mingmei Yip's newest novel, SONG OF THE SILK ROAD. Lily is offered the opportunity of a lifetime when an aunt she has never heard of offers her an inheritance of $3-million if she will successfully trace the aunt's earlier travels along China's Silk Road. With $50,000 to get her trip underway, Lily doesn't have much to lose: she is currently struggling to finish her first novel, waiting tables to pay the rent, and waiting for her married lover to leave his wife. (O.K. So, at this point in the story I wasn't yet jealous of Lily!)  Armchair traveler that I am, I would have undertaken this trip for far less than $3-mil!

I really like deserts, and a good part of the Silk Road is through the Taklamakan Desert.  It follows some of the most isolated and remote parts of the world. This doesn't prevent Lily from meeting extraordinarily interesting people and experiencing life-changing adventures. The author has a wonderful descriptive ability which transported this reader thousands of miles and allowed me to see through Lily's eyes. Here's a bit of Yip's description of the fearsome beauty and danger of the Taklamakan:
". . . flat, immense horizon with no foreseeable vanishing point . . . dunes of golden sand . . . robust, curvaceous women; sleeping dragons; even ruined cities with long-forgotten names . . . in a cobolt blue sky, a few clouds swam like shiny white fish and exotic birds chirped their shamanic chants . . . Not a car or truck was in sight. For thousands of years, these same sands, like huge whales, had swallowed caravans entire---merchants, wives, children, camels, goods for sale, everything . . . Over the centuries, desert explorers . . . met horrible deaths from thirst, heatstroke, starvation, sandstorms, bandit attacks, poisonous snakes, even demons. It was told that in the Tang dynasty, merchants and adventurers could simply follow the trail of skeletons . . ." (page 222, advanced reading copy)
Mingmei Yip has created some of the most memorable characters I've come across in fiction.  I absolutely love this passage describing Lily's first meeting with the herbalist Lop Nor:
"The creases on his forehead read like abstruse philosophical truths etched in an esoteric language waiting to be deciphered . . . His eyes, though sad, also emanated strong yang energy.  However, what really caught my attention and made my heart ache were his hands---large, brown, leathery, scarred.  His fingers were thick, calloused, tipped with nails lined with faint dark ridges.  What had this man done with those hands---just collecting herbs on the mountain, or digging graves to house ghosts?"  (page 74, advanced reading copy)
My only complaint about SONG OF THE SILK ROAD is the author's too frequent use of the F-word. For me, it rendered scenes that could have been luxuriously sensual to being clinical at best and crass at worst. Perhaps it was meant to reveal a frank and open attitude toward sexuality, but I found the overuse of the word to be clunky in comparison to the refinement and sensitivity of other passages.

What I liked best about this novel is the way Mingmei Yip has woven the story of a young woman discovering her own strength and character with fascinating Chinese history, folklore, and culture and also mixed in mystery and romance. SONG OF THE SILK ROAD is a multi-layered and satisfying story full of images and characters that will linger in my mind for a long time. 

I'm still jealous of Lily Lin and wish I could follow her trail along the Silk Road, but for now I'll have to content myself with reading the author's previous novels. I have a feeling treasures await me along that path as well.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Click here to visit the author's website.

About the author (from the publisher):
Mingmei Yip was born in China, received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, and held faculty appointments at the Chinese University and Baptist University in Hong Kong. She's published five books in Chinese, written several columns for seven major Hong Kong newspapers, and has appeared on over forty TV and radio programs in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and the U.S. She immigrated to the United States in 1992, where she now lives in New York City.

FTC Disclosure: Not only did I not receive $3-million for this review, I didn't receive any monetary compensation. I did receive a free advanced reading copy in order to provide my honest opinion of the book.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Giveway Winners: Galley Copies of CALEB'S CROSSING by Geraldine Brooks


Graphic courtesy of Cupcakes for Clara.

!!  CONGRATULATIONS !!

The winners of galley copies of
CALEB'S CROSSING by Geraldine Brooks are:

#10  Susan M. Heim

#42  Melanie L

I have also emailed the winners. Please contact me by 10:00 a.m EST on Sunday, April 10, 2011 with your snail mail information. If I have not heard back from you by then, your win will be forfeit and I will select a new winner.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Waiting on Wednesday: THE BRIDE'S HOUSE by Sandra Dallas


"WAITING ON WEDNESDAY"
is hosted by Jill from

Join in and tell us . . .

What are you waiting for?

My pick for this week is . . .


Pub. Date: April 2011
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Format: Hardcover , 384pp
ISBN-13: 9780312600167

Description (from the publisher): 
From the New York Times bestselling author of Whiter Than Snow and Prayers for Sale comes a novel about the secrets and passions of three generations of women who have all lived in the same Victorian home called the Bride’s House.

It’s 1880, and for unassuming seventeen-year-old Nealie Bent, the Bride’s House is a fairy tale come to life. It seems as if it is being built precisely for her and Will Spaulding, the man she is convinced she will marry. But life doesn’t go according to plan, and Nealie finds herself in the Bride’s House pregnant---and married to another.

For Pearl, growing up in the Bride’s House is akin to being raised in a mausoleum. Her father has fashioned the house into a shrine to the woman he loved, resisting all forms of change. When the enterprising young Frank Curry comes along and asks for Pearl’s hand in marriage, her father sabotages the union. But he underestimates the lengths to which the women in the Bride’s House will go for love.

Susan is the latest in the line of strong and willful women in the Bride’s House. She’s proud of the women who came before her, but the Bride’s House hides secrets that will force her to question what she wants and who she loves.

Sandra Dallas has once again written a novel rich in storytelling and history, peopled by living, breathing characters that will grab hold of you and not let you go.


Click here to visit the author's website.

About the author (from the publisher):
Sandra Dallas is the author of ten novels, including Whiter Than Snow, Prayers for Sale, Tallgrass, and New Mercies. She is a former Denver bureau chief for Business Week magazine and lives in Denver, Colorado. Visit www.sandradallas.com.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Teaser Tuesdays: THE PSYCHOPATH TEST by Jon Ronson


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish memehosted by Miz B. of Should Be Reading.


"All that talk of snakes adopting human form reminded me of a story I once did about a conspiracy theorist named David Icke, who believed that the secret rulers of the world were giant, blood-drinking, child-sacrificing lizards who had shape-shifted into humans so they could perform their evil on an unsuspecting population. I suddenly realized how similar the two stories were, except in this one the people who spoke of snakes in suits were eminent and utterly sane psychologists, respected around the world."

-- page 138 (Advanced Reading Copy)


Pub. Date: May 2011
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Hardcover , 288pp
ISBN-13: 9781594488016


Saturday, April 2, 2011

Book Review: TWO HOMES by Claire Masurel; illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton


illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton

Pub. Date: July 2003
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Format: Paperback , 40pp
Age Range: 3 to 6
ISBN-13: 9780763619848
ISBN: 0763619841

Description (from the publisher):
At Mommy’s house, Alex has a soft chair. At Daddy’s house, Alex has a rocking chair. In each home, Alex also has a special bedroom and lots of friends to play with. But whether Alex is with Mommy or with Daddy, one thing always stays the same - Alex is loved. The gently reassuring text focuses on what is gained rather than what is lost when parents divorce, while the sensitive illustrations, depicting two unique homes in all their small details, firmly establish Alex’s place in both of them. TWO HOMES will help children - and parents - embrace even the most difficult of changes with an open and optimistic heart.

My Rating:  4 out of 5 Stars

My Thoughts:  TWO HOMES by Claire Masurel, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton, is a sweet book that grapples with a difficult issue. Little Alex's parents each have their own home, so Alex has two homes. How this situation came to be is never discussed. Maybe Alex's parents are divorced (a word that never makes an appearance in the text). Maybe they never married. This book isn't about what happened -- it's about how Alex lives day-to-day. A mini tour of both homes is beautifully illustrated - two bedrooms, two favorite chairs, two kitchens. Alex is loved and happy in both homes.

Ahh, if only shared child custody could always be like this!  But I'm not going to criticize this book for what it doesn't do and doesn't address. I believe the author's intention is to reassure children in this situation, and TWO HOMES does that beautifully. The recommended age range is 3-6 years. It may best be suited for children whose parents "came to live separately" before the child had an awareness that there is any other way for families to live but is now old enough to make comparisons with the homes of other children.

What I liked best about TWO HOMES is that the author keeps things very simple, the focus is on the child and assuring that the child feels secure and loved. Also, Alex's name and appearance are androgenous, so both girls and boys will be able to relate the character. And, of course, the illustrations are just beautiful. I'll be checking out other titles by both this author and illustrator on the strength of the appeal of TWO HOMES.

About the author and illustrator (from the publisher):
Claire Masurel is the author of numerous books for children, including TOO BIG, illustrated by Hanako Wakiyama. TWO HOMES is her first book for Candlewick Press. She wrote the story after talking to a child who was sad about her parents’ recent divorce. She says, "To comfort her, I talked about her two homes, and all the many things she could do in them. It was a positive way of helping her accept the changes in her life, focusing not on what was missed, but on the abundance of good times — and love — that she would continue to share with her mom and dad."
 
Kady MacDonald Denton is the illustrator of A CHILD'S TREASURY OF NURSERY RHYMES and two books by Margaret Park Bridges - IF I WERE YOUR FATHER and IF I WERE YOUR MOTHER. TWO HOMES is her first book for Candlewick Press. She says, "Alex talks about simple things like toothbrushes, bedrooms, and friends — and they are all special because they are part of the love Alex feels in both homes. I tried to show that love in the illustrations."


Check out Booking Mama’s weekly feature, Kid Konnection for more posts related to children's books - picture books, early readers, middle grade, young adult. If you have a post you'd like to share, leave a comment and link up.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Author Q&A and Galley Giveaway: CALEB'S CROSSING by Geraldine Brooks

CLOSED.

Award-wining author Geraldine Brooks' new book, CALEB'S CROSSING, will be released on May 3rd by Penguin Group USA. I'm really excited about this book because it's local history for me. This novel takes place primarily on Martha's Vineyard and Massachusetts, and I live in Rhode Island. I love learning about history through the personalized perspectives of historical fiction, and this book will be hitting close to home -- literally!

Penguin has provided a Q&A with Geraldine Brooks and is generously offering galley copies of CALEB'S CROSSING to two (2) lucky readers of A Sea of Books. Details of the giveaway can be found at the end of this post.


Pub. Date: May 2011
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Hardcover , 320pp
ISBN-13: 9780670021048

Description (from the publisher):
A richly imagined new novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller, People of the Book.
 
Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure.
 
The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island's glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia's minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the tribe's shaman, against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. There, Bethia finds herself reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper and can closely observe Caleb's crossing of cultures.
 
Like Brooks's beloved narrator Anna in Year of Wonders, Bethia proves an emotionally irresistible guide to the wilds of Martha's Vineyard and the intimate spaces of the human heart. Evocative and utterly absorbing, Caleb's Crossing further establishes Brooks's place as one of our most acclaimed novelists.

About the author (from the publisher):
Geraldine Brooks is the author of Year of Wonders and the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Previously, Brooks was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, stationed in Bosnia, Somalia, and the Middle East.

Q&A with Geraldine Brooks, author of
CALEB’S CROSSING

Note: This Q&A was provided by the publisher for publication at A Sea of Books.

Caleb Cheeshahteamauk is an extraordinary figure in Native American history. How did you first discover him? What was involved in learning more about his life?

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah are proud custodians of their history, and it was in materials prepared by the Tribe that I first learned of its illustrious young scholar. To find out more about him I talked with tribal members, read translations of early documents in the Wopanaak language, then delved into the archives of Harvard and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, especially the correspondence between colonial leaders and benefactors in England who donated substantial funds for the education and conversion to Christianity of Indians in the 17th century. There are also writings by members of the Mayhew family, who were prominent missionaries and magistrates on the island, and John Cotton, Jr., who came here as a missionary and kept a detailed journal.

There is little documentation on Caleb’s actual life. What parts of his life did you imagine? Do you feel you know him better after writing this book, or is he still a mystery?

The facts about Caleb are sadly scant. We know he was the son of a minor sachem from the part of the Vineyard now known as West Chop, and that he left the island to attend prep school, successfully completed the rigorous course of study at Harvard and was living with Thomas Danforth, a noted jurist and colonial leader, when disease claimed his life. Everything else about him in my novel is imagined. The real young man—what he thought and felt—remains an enigma.

Bethia Mayfield is truly a woman ahead of her time. If she were alive today, what would she be doing? What would her life be like with no restrictions?

There were more than a few 17th century women like Bethia, who thirsted for education and for a voice in a society that demanded their silence. You can find some of them being dragged to the meeting house to confess their “sins” or defending their unconventional views in court. If Bethia was alive today she would probably be president of Harvard or Brown, Princeton or UPenn.

The novel is told through Bethia’s point of view. What is the advantage to telling this story through her eyes? How would the book be different if Caleb were the narrator?

I wanted the novel to be about crossings between cultures. So as Caleb is drawn into the English world, I wanted to create an English character who would be equally drawn to and compelled by his world. I prefer to write with a female narrator when I can, and I wanted to explore issues of marginalization in gender as well as race.

Much of the book is set on Martha’s Vineyard, which is also your home. Did you already know about the island’s early history, or did you do additional research?

I was always intrigued by what brought English settlers to the island so early in the colonial period...they settled here in the 1640s. Living on an island is inconvenient enough even today; what prompted the Mayhews and their followers to put seven miles of treacherous ocean currents between them and the other English—to choose to live in a tiny settlement surrounded by some three thousand Wampanoags? The answer was unexpected and led me into a deeper exploration of island history

You bring Harvard College to life in vivid, often unpleasant detail. What surprised you most about this prestigious university’s beginnings?

For one thing, I hadn't been aware Harvard was founded so early. The English had barely landed before they started building a college. And the Indian College—a substantial building—went up not long after, signifying an attitude of mind that alas did not prevail for very long. It was fun to learn how very different early Harvard was from the well endowed institution of today. Life was hand to mouth, all conversation was in Latin, the boys (only boys) were often quite young when they matriculated. But the course of study was surprisingly broad and rigorous—a true exploration of liberal arts, languages, and literature that went far beyond my stereotype of what Puritans might have considered fit subjects for scholarship.

As with your previous books, you’ve managed to capture the voice of the period. You get the idiom, dialect, and cadence of the language of the day on paper. How did you do your research?

I find the best way to get a feel for language and period is to read first person accounts—journals, letters, court transcripts. Eventually you start to hear voices in your head: patterns of speech, a different manner of thinking. My son once said, Mom talks to ghosts. And in a way I do.

May 2011, Tiffany Smalley will follow in Caleb’s footsteps and become only the second Vineyard Wampanoag to graduate from Harvard. Do you know if this will be celebrated?

In May Tiffany Smalley will become the first Vineyard Wampanoag since Caleb to receive an undergrad degree from Harvard College. (Others have received advanced degrees from the university’s Kennedy school etc.) I’m not sure what Harvard has decided to do at this year's commencement, but I am hoping they will use the occasion to honor Caleb’s fellow Wampanoag classmate, Joel Iacoomis, who completed the work for his degree but was murdered before he could attended the 1665 commencement ceremony.

Click here to visit the author's website.

RULES FOR ENTERING THE GIVEAWAY:

Leave an original comment on this post telling me you would like to win. Include an email address with your comment so that I can contact you if you do win. Use a spam-thwarting format such as geebee.reads AT gmail DOT com or geebee.reads [at] gmail [dot] com

You must leave an email address in order to qualify. If I can't contact you, you can't win!

• You can earn an extra entry by being or becoming a Follower or Subscriber of this blog and telling me about it in a separate comment.

• Blog about this contest and provide me with the link to the post in a separate comment, and I'll give you yet another entry.

• Tweeting about this contest and providing me the link in a separate comment will get you one more entry. I've added a Retweet button at the bottom of every post.

• Stumble this blog, Digg it, or Technorati Fave it, whatever, and leave a separate comment for another entry.

• Winners must provide a U.S. or Canadian street address. The publisher is unable to deliver to P.O. Boxes.

• PLEASE NOTE: One win per household. If you win this title in another contest hosted at another blog, the publisher will only send one copy per household address.

Deadline for entry is 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 6, 2011.

Winners will have 24 hours to respond to my email announcing that they have won; if I don't hear from a winner, I will draw another name.

• Winners are determined using the sequence generator at Random.org.

Thank you to Rebecca
at Viking / Penguin
for making this giveaway possible.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.