Let's call today Threesday, shall we? Because I've got three new and upcoming releases for you. :)
First up is Where's My Wand: One Boy's Triumph Over Alienation and Shag Carpeting
"A quirky, irreverent story of growing up odd in the 1970's, when people still wrote letters, loved shag carpeting and used carbon paper. Fox Television radio-marketing executive Poole grew up in the Midwest in a family, and among an assortment of characters, destined to end up in a coming- of-age memoir. Some of the more entertaining stories include the chaos of his parents' fighting in 1969; the author's befriending of the sarcastic, armless Stacy (who "exhibit[ed] her stumps to the amazement and awe of the gathered fourth-graders"); his magical obsessions with Bewitched, which included an unhealthy attachment to Endora; and his failed exorcism of another bow in Bible school. From his early childhood, when he escaped into his family's basement to chant magical charms to ward off alienation and chaos, through his teenage years, when the normal teenage panic was amplified by the added bewilderment of his awakening homosexuality, Poole shares an intimate, self-effacing chronicle of a unique young boy and the forces that molded him into the grounded, articulate, charming oddball he is today. The real charm of the book lies in the authenticity of the humor. There is not one forced moment in the book, now is there a stitch of disingenuous manipulation to get a cheap laugh or manufacture a setup to a joke. Each entertaining tidbit grows from the characters, their lives, their struggles and their unforgivably shameless honesty. This is the story of growing up as the exception but learning to understand that if you're lucky and have the right mix of crazy people in your life, being the exception can morph into being exceptional.
A witty, observant, deliciously satisfying autobiography."
Also up for your consideration is My Name is Memory
by Anne Brashares, published by Riverhead Books. Booklist writes:"On the heels of recent film adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, Brashares’ second novel for adults taps into the growing appetite for romances thwarted by extraordinary tricks of time. Virginia high-school student Lucy is inexplicably drawn to classmate Daniel, but when he claims to have known her before, a thoroughly unsettled Lucy flees. Gradually, Lucy learns the impossible truth: Daniel has been chasing her through ages and lives for 1,200 years. In chapters that alternate viewpoints between the two lovers, past and present, the couples’ unrequited desire builds, even as a murderous soul threatens their reunion. Steamy bedroom scenes aside, the coming-of-age sensibility will feel familiar to crossover adult fans of Brashares’ best-selling Traveling Pants series for teens. Readers tantalized by the possibilities of past lives and soul-mate connections will devour this unabashed romance, which has the heart-pounding pace and tone of a beach novel, and hope for the sequel hinted at in the open ending. Suggest John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969) while they wait. --Gillian Engberg
To win a copy of My Name is Memory, email giveaways [at] bookliciousblog [dot] com, with My Name is Memory in the subject line. Please include your name and address in the body of the email. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. The books cannot be shipped to a P.O. Box address. You have through this Monday to enter, and I'll announce the winner this Wednesday.
And last but not least is My Wife's Affair
by Nancy Woodruff, published by Putnam Books. Publisher's Weekly writes:"Woodruff (Someone Else's Child) leaves not a dry eye in the house in this gripping ode to theater and the love it can command—and crush. Former actress turned restless suburban New Jersey mom-of-three Georgie and her journalist husband, Peter, transplant to London for Peter's new job. There, Georgie finds her way back to the theater and lands a role in a small one-woman production of Shakespeare's Woman, playing famous 18th-century British stage actress Dora Jordan. It's a part that consumes Georgie from the start, notes Peter, who achingly chronicles his wife's affair with her part and, eventually, with playwright Piers. Georgie's tour de force as Dora comes from her total recognition of the character—Two hundred years later and it's exactly the same thing, Georgie tells Piers—and her life as Dora and as Piers's lover begin to take precedence over her husband and children. Peter's excruciating autopsy of his crumbling marriage is unsparing and relentlessly punishing, but the kicker at the novel's end makes the adultery feel like a cozy little tea party. It's brutal and lovely."
To win a copy of My Wife's Affair, email giveaways [at] bookliciousblog [dot] com, with My Wife's Affair in the subject line. Please include your name and address in the body of the email. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. The books cannot be shipped to a P.O. Box address. You have through this Monday to enter, and I'll announce the winner this Wednesday.
To browse more Riverhead and Putnam releases, check out their respective websites, Facebook Pages, and follow them @RiverheadBooks and @PutnamBooks
3 comments
I have to ask - why has only one of your giveaways this week been open to international readers?
The publishers providing the books dictate where the books can be shipped. That's out of my hands.
Really? That sucks.
Thanks for replying though :-)
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