Showing posts with label 'Yours Ever'. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 'Yours Ever'. Show all posts

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Contest Winner is Melissa!

Congratulations, Melissa (entry/comment #1). You are the winner of the hard cover book, 'Yours Ever' as donated by Random House for the Valentine's Day drawing! I will send an email asking for your mailing address.

Thanks to the others who entered. Julie had two entries- one for the comment and one for the twitter. Thanks!

Happy Valentine's Day!

(Photo Credit: I took this on Saturday as I left the local library)

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

'Yours Ever' Contest Giveaway

In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to have a contest giveaway of Thomas Mallon's engaging book, 'Yours Ever: People and Their Letters'. I first wrote about this book when it was published in Nov. 2009. Now that I've finished it, I thought I would tell you a little bit about it.

I am greatly impressed with Mr. Mallon's knowledge and research into all of the people and collections he features. This erudite writer offers fascinating glimpses into the lives of the letter writers he has selected, and there are quite a few. Some of the letters include:
Seeing history through the eyes of Winston and Clementine Churchill.

Seeing prison through the bars of Jean Harris's cell.

Seeing life through the eyes of an invalid, Flannery O'Connor. All are very intriguing and bring their own drama.
Sometimes I was lost as I wasn't sure who some of the people were and sometimes I thought he went on a little too long, but overall, I knew most of the letter writers and it was very enjoyable reading. He has an engaging writing style and spends some of the book talking about the writing of the book. An example of this is when he introduces us to the chapter called Spirit and explains his challenge in finding different ways to say the word letter without being too repetitive.

Contest Rules
1. Leave a comment with a Valentine Greeting to the readers of this blog (also leave your email address, twitter name or blog name so that I can find you if you should win).

2. Leave a link to this blog on your blog or twitter or facebook and post a comment with a link to your posting. And leave a comment with the information.

3. If you've read the book, leave your comments on what you thought about it for another entry.

4. I will draw a name at 1:00pm CT on Sunday, February 14, 2010 and will contact the winner directly to get their mailing information. They will have 1 week to respond with the information at which time I will randomly select another person.

For each link/tweet, you will get one entry. Plus, your Valentine greeting/comment will get you an entry.

I want to thank Rebecca at Random House for providing the hard cover of Yours Ever as the prize.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Giveaway

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

I visited the Missive Maven blog as I do regularly and see that she has a contest to give away a copy of this new hardcover book, Yours Ever, by Thomas Mallon. Just pop over and leave a comment on Missive Maven's site to be entered to win.

I got my copy of the book from Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago when I wrote about the book and its recent reviews and awards. I have just started to read it and so far am enjoying it.

Good Luck!

Friday, November 27, 2009

'Yours Ever'- A New Book About Letters

'Yours Ever: People and Their Letters' is a new book by author Thomas Mallon. I found this book from an entry on Twitter that linked to '100 Notable Books of 2009' at the NY Times. I also found this listed on the Indie Bound website which promotes buying books from your local independent bookstore.

If you visit National Review Online (NRO) you can listen to a short interview with the author as he discusses this book which just came out (Nov. 2009).

In addition to his novels, Mr. Mallon also wrote 'A Book of One's Own: People and Their Diaries' published in 1984.

I haven't read either of these yet, but plan to get them both. Common Good Books (CGB) is a local independent bookstore I recently discovered on a day trip with a friend. This store is owned by Garrison Keillor and opened in St. Paul, MN three years ago. The bookstore sits below Nina's Coffee Cafe which is a cozy, comfy, casual coffee shop that lends itself to promoting and inviting local writers to hone their craft while relaxing in the coffee shop with their peers.