Teaser Tuesday

CMash July 26, 2011 12 Comments

Hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
*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 & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
This is more than 2 sentences but being a former nurse, also found it funny.

I’ve been to heaven and back.
The tall, dark-haired doctor rushes back in, begins poking and prodding me. He shines the business end of a bright penlight in my good eye, and i Instinctively rear back against the one-hundred percent acrylic, allergen-free, nylon pillow.
The doc just about jumps out of his lime green Crocks,
“WE GOT A LIVE ONE!!!”
I can hear his voice plain enough. It’s enough to raise the dead.
How long was he gone?! Come on people…How?! long?! Gone?!.

Kindle edition..no page number

Winners

And the winner of……..

CMash July 26, 2011 1 Comment

…………of Unleashed by Emily Kimelman

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

22

Timestamp: 2011-07-26 11:37:44 UTC

Gloria Walshver said… 22 I follow you on Google Friend Connect.

An email has been sent to the winner and she has 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. Thank you to all that entered.

Misc

You’re Invited !!!!!

CMash July 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, July 27 at 3 p.m. ET, come to BookTrib.com and celebrate summer with style! We are having the “Queen of the Summer Novel” herself, Elin Hilderbrand, for an online e-vent with live video chat to celebrate the release of her absolutely fabulous, New York Times-bestselling novel SILVER GIRL!

Elin will discuss SILVER GIRL, Nantucket, and answer your questions! Fifteen lucky party-goers will win an exclusive Silver Girl tote bag courtesy of The Elegant Setting along with an autographed copy of the book. Below are details and more about SILVER GIRL.

Would you kindly let me know if you can make it? Thanks! Thanks! Look forward to hearing from you—

All the best,
Sarah
sarah@mediamuscle.com

With several bestsellers under her belt and over a million copies of her books sold to an ever growing audience, Elin Hilderbrand has established herself as the go-to writer for expertly plotted, gorgeous summer novels. However, don’t be mistaken: Hilderbrand may write against the backdrop of a blistering Nantucket summer, but her books are anything but fluff. She brings complicated, fully realized women to life, making each book moving and full of dramatic truths, while also presenting each as a scorching page-turner. Never has that been more evident than in SILVER GIRL (Reagan Arthur Books / Little, Brown 6/21/11), Hilderbrand’s highly anticipated new novel.

Meet Meredith Delinn, a woman whose husband has cheated rich investors out of billions of dollars and, in the process, humiliated Meredith so fully that she’s lost everything: her friends, her homes—even contact with her beloved sons. More down-and-out than she ever thought possible, Meredith reaches out to the only person she has left: her oldest friend, Constance Flute. Despite a painful rift between the women, Constance, who is herself mourning the loss of her adored husband, can’t turn her back on Meredith and takes her to Nantucket to hide—and to heal. When it seems as if the present is too difficult to endure, Constance and Meredith revisit their shared history. A surprise visit from Toby, Constance’s brother and Meredith’s high school sweetheart, forces Meredith to confront both her present and her former self, and decide who it is she will become in the aftermath of her personal tragedy. Amid the salty sea air and sandy dunes, both women must learn how to forgive each other, and themselves. In SILVER GIRL, Hilderbrand has added depth and humanity to a character we thought we already knew, and has crafted a suspenseful story of friendship, love, and the power of forgiveness.

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and is an enthusiastic Philadelphia Eagles fan. She has traveled extensively through six continents but loves no place better than Nantucket, where she enjoys hogging, cooking, and watching her sons play Little League Baseball. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins university and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.

Guest Author

Guest Author Tracy Seeley

CMash July 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

Another treat today brought to us by Jodi and Robyn from WOW-Women On Writing. Today we are meeting an incredible, courageous and amazing author as she visits and tells us a about her new book, a memoir. Not only is she stopping by to talk about her latest book, BUT, she has graciously offered to extend her visit by responding to your comments and/or answering your questions. So I ask that you help me give, Ms. Tracy Seeley, a very warm welcome to the CMash blog.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With a Ph.D. in British Literature, Tracy Seeley teaches literature and creative nonfiction at the University of San Francisco. She can claim 26 addresses as her own including towns all across the midwest, Dallas, Austin, New Haven, Los Angeles, Caracas, Budapest, and Barcelona. When not tracking down Kansas addresses that no longer exist, Tracy Seeley lives in Oakland with her filmmaker husband, Frederick Marx. In an attempt to put down roots she has started a vegetable garden and is considering buying chickens.

You can visit the author at her website.

GUEST POST
You’ve Got Cancer…Again

By Tracy Seeley (@tracy_seeley)

The only thing more jarring than hearing the words “You’ve Got Breast Cancer,” may be hearing “You’ve Got Cancer…Again.”

When it happened to me, I’d had four great post-cancer years. The intense, life-changing months of my initial diagnosis, surgery, chemo, radiation, and months of recovery had all receded to a pinpoint in the rear view mirror. My life had been remade by those months, and then I’d moved on. During those four years, I’d started writing My Ruby Slippers, I’d made several trips back to Kansas to gather more material, a long-term relationship had ended, and I’d joyfully gotten married again.

It’s not like I assumed it wouldn’t happen. Anyone who’s had cancer never forgets: despite everything you and your doctors do the first time, you know that the next routine check-up, blood test or scan could bring bad news. In my case, a little voice whispered in my ear nearly every day. “Death,” it would whisper. Or, “Cancer.” Those little reminders jolted me awake, and awake was how I wanted to live.

To be awake. I’d learned the importance of that during my first round of treatment, when I took a class on mindfulness meditation. The idea of mindfulness is to simply be fully aware, present and attentive to whatever’s happening at the moment. To make that kind of living a habit, I practiced formally every day, which is really quite simple: sit quietly, eyes closed, observing your breath, in…out. And observe whatever thoughts float through your mind, but instead of holding on to them or dwelling on them, let them float away.

That simple act of paying attention can be one of the hardest things to do. But when I sat in meditation every day, the awareness I practiced there carried over into the rest of my life. I could be fully awake to washing the dishes, or waking up, or walking down the stairs. And I could be fully awake to my emotions. So when that little voice piped up, “Cancer,” or “Death,” I learned to recognize and say hello to the fear or sadness, then let them float away.

Concentrating on breathing in…and out…teaches us that like the breath, the past moment is over, the future hasn’t arrived. The only life we have is now. So being awake means that at your best and most fully aware, you don’t miss a single moment of your precious life. You learn to recognize and let go not only of the moment, but of hurt feelings and anger and all the other things that can keep us stuck in moods that keep us down or carry us away. Being awake helped me let go of fear.

The state of living fully awake brought a lot of equilibrium into my life during my first cancer treatment. Very little rattled me, even in tough times. Four years later, when the bad news came, I have to confess that it took me awhile to find my balance again. But meditating on my breath in order to be fully awake, helped me find peace again. So every day now, five years after hearing, “You’ve got cancer again,” I just keep breathing. And as long as I can do that…in and out…every day continues to count.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sure, there’s no place like home—but what if you can’t really pinpoint where home is? By the time she was nine, Tracy Seeley had lived in seven towns and thirteen different houses. Her father’s dreams of movie stardom, stoked by a series of affairs, kept the family on edge, and on the move, until he up and left. Thirty years later, settled in what seems like a charmed life in San Francisco, a diagnosis of cancer and the betrayal of a lover shake Seeley to her roots—roots she is suddenly determined to search out. My Ruby Slippers tells the story of that search, the tale of a woman with an impassioned if vague sense of mission: to find the meaning of home.

Watch the trailer:

THANKS TO JODI AND THE FANTASTIC PEOPLE AT WOW,

I HAVE ONE COPY OF THIS AMAZING MEMOIR TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO

THE GIVEAWAY PAGE.

DISCLAIMER

Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners

via publisher, agent and/or author. This blog hosts

the giveaway on behalf of the above.

No items that I receive

are ever sold…they are kept by me,

or given to family and/or friends.

Giveaway

GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE "MY RUBY SLIPPERS" ENDED

CMash July 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

JULY 25th to AUGUST 5th, 2011

MY RUBY SLIPPERS

THE ROAD BACK TO KANSAS

by TRACY SEELEY

SYNOPSIS:

Sure, there’s no place like home—but what if you can’t really pinpoint where home is? By the time she was nine, Tracy Seeley had lived in seven towns and thirteen different houses. Her father’s dreams of movie stardom, stoked by a series of affairs, kept the family on edge, and on the move, until he up and left. Thirty years later, settled in what seems like a charmed life in San Francisco, a diagnosis of cancer and the betrayal of a lover shake Seeley to her roots—roots she is suddenly determined to search out. My Ruby Slippers tells the story of that search, the tale of a woman with an impassioned if vague sense of mission: to find the meaning of home.

THANKS TO JODI AND THE FANTASTIC

PEOPLE FROM WOW-WOMEN ON WRITING

I HAVE ONE (1) COPY OF THIS

AMAZING MEMOIR TO GIVE AWAY.

HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO WIN.

*ALL COMMENTS TO BE SEPARATE*

AND INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN

*LEAVE COMMENT: HOW MANY CITIES HAVE YOU LIVED IN?*

*EXTRA ENTRIES*

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU PUBLICLY FOLLOW THIS
BLOG (IF NOT, GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT ON RIGHT SIDE).

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK.

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER.

*REMEMBER TO INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR ALL ENTRIES.

*U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY*

*NO P.O. BOXES*

**HONOR SYSTEM**

ONE WINNING BOOK PER HOUSEHOLD

PLEASE NOTIFY ME IF YOU HAVE

WON THIS BOOK FROM ANOTHER

SITE, SO THAT SOMEONE ELSE MAY

HAVE THE CHANCE TO WIN

AND READ THIS BOOK.

THANK YOU.

*GIVEAWAY ENDS AUGUST 5th AT 6PM EST*

WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY RANDOM.ORG AND NOTIFIED

VIA EMAIL AND WILL HAVE 48 HOURS TO RESPOND

OR ANOTHER NAME WILL BE CHOSEN

DISCLAIMER / RULES

Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners via publisher,

agent and/or author. This blog hosts the giveaway on behalf of the

above. I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in

exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are

ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.

I am not responsible for lost or damaged books that are shipped

from agents. I reserve the right to disqualify/delete any entries

if rules of giveaway are not followed

Monday Memes

CMash July 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

Hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading

Today’s question:

Do you need to have your owned books out where you can see them, or are you okay with them being stored away?

My answer:
I definitely need to be surrounded by my books. In my reading room, I have a bookcase filled with my personally signed and tbr books and another bookcase with my recently read books. Being a self proclaimed book addict, there is such a feeling of “comfort” of being among the items that I enjoy and bring me pleasure and entertainment.

July is being hosted by Gwen from A Sea of Books

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now on tour.

According to Marcia, “Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.”

Hachette Book Group Doubleday Booking With Bingo

Guest Author

Guest Author Tracy Seeley

CMash July 25, 2011 3 Comments