I'm almost finished reading THE ARCHIVED and I'm not disappointed. What an amazing read! Much thanks to the 12 who entered the giveaway. (-: Here's a screenshot of the winning number from Random.org.
So, the winner is #5. Which means...
KATHY ANN COLEMAN
...you are the winner!
Now, for all of you who did not win...get yourselves over to Amazon, or to your local independent bookstore, and get your own copy of THE ARCHIVED by VICTORIA SCHWAB. You will LOVE IT!
Coming up on Try This Book on for Size, I will have a few new reviews popping up. Though I am behind in my reviewing, I am not behind in my reading. Look for reviews of The Archived, Teeth and a few other YA and NA books in the near future.
Thanks for playing!
Kathy: Please email your mailing address to: kevintcraig @ hotmail.com
After yesterday’s
cover reveal of Cheryl Rainfield’s STAINED, I think it’s a great time to host a
contest! How about a book giveaway?!
I happen to be
ditzy enough to have pre-ordered VICTORIA SCHWAB’s THE ARCHIVED twice! That’s
how excited I was to get her latest novel. I fell in love with Schwab’s writing
while reading her debut novel, THE NEAR WITCH! You can click on the cover of The Near Witch below to read my review:
Here's the prize up for grabs:
I won’t make
anybody jump through hoops for a book giveaway. I don’t think it’s fair…it only
frustrates the participants, no? So, here’s how complicated this contest is—LEAVE
A COMMENT ON THIS POST BY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1st, 2013 at 5PM my time
(Toronto, Ontario). That’s it and that’s all. Simply leave a comment. I will
use random.com to pick a winner. You can only enter once.
The winner will
be announced right here on TRY THIS BOOK ON FOR SIZE. The next step…all the winner will have to do is email
their mailing address and I'll send them a fresh brand spanking new HARD
COVER COPY of VICTORIA SCHWAB’s THE ARCHIVED.
My idiocy is
somebody else’s gain. (-: I’m almost finished reading this book, and I can
guarantee that the winner is in for an amazing treat! Such a great story, well
told!
U.S.A. & CANADA RESIDENTS ONLY PLEASE!
Good luck!
Now, should you wish to purchase either THE NEAR WITCH or THE ARCHIVED (I highly recommend both books!) please go to the following link:
Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.
Each
body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians
can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which
they rest is the Archive.
Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here
four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined
to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once
was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories
from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the
people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for
staying alive.
Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous-it's a
constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but
now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the
boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive,
the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately
altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece
together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.
In
this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin
lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit,
unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.
Too Loud a Solitude - It could be the title of Bohumil Hrabal's autobiography. But it's actually a wondrous novella he wrote. Hrabal wrote this masterpiece late in life, after surviving a lengthy illness. Too Loud a Solitude is, he claimed, the reason he survived. He couldn't die before writing it.
Synopsis: Hantá rescues books from the jaws of his compacting press and carries them home. (From GOODREADS)
Perhaps the synopsis from Goodreads is a good enough example of how underrated this novella is.
Bohumil Hrabal - There is much written about Hrabal. What I find the most fascinating is that he seemed quite enamoured with suicide. He wrote about it in his books and he wrote about it in letters to friends. Hrabal died falling out of a 5th story hospital window. Apparently, he was feeding pigeons on the windowsill. Also noted in his biography is that he actually lived in a 5th floor apartment. Suicides were mentioned in several of his novels---all done by characters leaping from 5th floor windows. Does life imitate art or does art imitate life? Was his death an art installation? This is the answer I'm going with. His final performance...unwritten, but just as powerful as his beautiful prose.
Many have called Hrabal the greatest writer of our time. I love his novels. My particular passion is for TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE, though. I re-read this novella once a year. It is chilling, the beauty he injected into this story of a man with a trash compactor. The story takes my breath away every single time I read it.
FAVOURITE QUOTES FROM TOO LOUD:
“My education has been so unwitting I can't quite tell which of my thoughts come from me and which from my books, but that's how I've stayed attuned to myself and the world around me for the past thirty-five years. Because when I read, I don't really read; I pop a beautiful sentence into my mouth and suck it like a fruit drop, or I sip it like a liqueur until the thought dissolves in me like alcohol, infusing brain and heart and coursing on through the veins to the root of each blood vessel.”
“And so everything I see in this world, it all moves backward and forward at the same time, like a black-smith's bellows, like everything in my press, turning into its opposite at the command of the red and green buttons, and that's what makes the world go round.”
Some other Hrabal titles to look for: Closely Watched Trains, The Death of Mr. Baltisberger, Pirouettes on a Postage Stamp, In-House Weddings, Gaps.
Hrabal's Grave
Many make the pilgrimage to Hrabal's grave in Hradištko.
Size: 5 (1/2) - Although I didn't review the book, I give it a rating of 5 1/2. It's one of my very favourite books. At under 100 pages...it's staggering what Hrabal fit within its beautiful pages!
If you've been following my reviews, I rated THE NEAR WITCH as my favourite read of 2011. You can read my review here: THE NEAR WITCH by VICTORIA SCHWAB
Disney Hyperion now has a companion piece to THE NEAR WITCH available on their website! Read THE ASH-BORN BOY now!
Read this short story at this link: THE ASH-BORN BOY (Just click the SNEAK PEEK button!)
I will be posting a review shortly. I'm extremely excited about reading new SCHWAB! (-:
I don't usually post anything but reviews on this site, but I'm going to make this one time exception. Every year in July I head to Huntsville, Ontario for the Muskoka Novel Marathon. This year is no exception. (-:
Myself and approximately 30 other writers spend 72 hours together--we each write a complete novel. And we each collect sponsors for the event. Together, we hope to raise $10,000 for Literacy. Please consider a small donation to help stamp out illiteracy. This is a huge opportunity for us writers--to have a full weekend with nothing else to do but write. But it's also an opportunity for us to give others the gift of reading. WIN/WIN.
