Prize List for BAFAB's First Anniversary Contest!
The three winners of BAFAB's First Anniversary Contest will win, all told, over $500.00 worth of free literary stuff! Here's what you'll get if you're one of the lucky few.
This is a breakdown of what winners will receive. Full descriptions of the prizes appear below.
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1st Prize
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2nd Prize
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3rd Prize
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The Prizes
 Matilde Asensi, The Last CatoFrom my review at book-blog.com: "Dr. Ottavia Salina, a 40-year-old nun-cum-paleographer working in the Vatican's classified archives, has her mundane but satisfying life upended when she is called upon to decipher a series of tattoos--crosses and Greek letters--found on the body of a dead Ethiopian man. This bizarre assignment, Salina eventually discovers, is somehow connected to a rash of recent thefts, the disappearance of a number of ligna crucis, pieces of the alleged True Cross, from their reliquaries in churches throughout the world. Together with a captain of the Swiss Guard and a bookishly appealing Egyptian archaeologist, Salina undertakes to recover the relics--by undergoing the same initiation ceremony that left the Ethiopian's corpse so scarred...." Read more. |
 Autographed copy!Nero Blanc, Death on the Diagonal What could be a more appropriate prize for a book-related puzzle contest than an autographed copy of one of Nero Blanc's crossword mysteries? I haven't read this newest installment yet, but I've read and reviewed a number of other books in the series: Anatomy of a Crossword, Another Word for Murder, The Crossword Murder, and The Crossword Connection. If you like cozies and crosswords, these are a natural for you. Visit Nero Blanc (aka husband-and-wife team Steve Zettler and Cordelia Frances Biddle) on the web at www.CrosswordMysteries.com. |
 Tony Cohan, Mexican DaysFrom Publishers Weekly: "Novelist and memoirist Cohan takes on a travel magazine assignment to make 'some trips around Mexico... see how the puzzle of old and new fit together [and] write about it.' Traveling south from his San Miguel home, he passes through Vera Cruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas into the Yucatán. Readers familiar with the path may enjoy traveling with him; others will long for a minimal map, an organizing principle and some photographs. As Cohan drifts through Mexico, history (e.g., the founding of Tlacotalpan sometime between A.D. 900 and 1200) and contemporary events (e.g., the barricading of mountain roads by Zapatista insurgents) are revealed. Chats with taxistas and shopkeepers, visits with friends and artists, remarks about his own work and casual references to the famous among Mexico's tourist, exile and expatriate population dot the pages (John Huston gets four pages). Cohan's description of the book as 'the Mexican postcard I'm always writing home' is accurate; but postcards work best for readers who can fill in the blanks with their own sense of where the writer is coming from. Perhaps readers of Cohan's previous, well-received account (On Mexican Time: A New Life in San Miguel) will be able to do so." |
 Amanda Filipacchi, Love CreepsI read and thoroughly enjoyed this funny story about a trio of stalkers. Here's an excerpt from my review at book-blog.com: "The phenomenon of stalking may not seem like particularly fertile ground for humor, but Filipacchi proves that weird obsession can be drop-dead funny. Her writing is breezy, her characters deliciously flawed. Readers may not long remember the specifics of this romantic comedy's twists and turns, but they're unlikely to forget the amusing image of a trio of love-sick stalkers pursuing one another openly through the streets, swimming pools, and beading classes of New York." Read more. Visit Amanda on the web at amandafilipacchi.com. |
 Autographed copy!Debra Hamel, Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Lifein Ancient Greece Written by your friendly contest organizer and the genius, if I may, behind BAFAB. "It is an extraordinary tale, with more than an echo of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, and Hamel, unusually for a classicist, is not afraid of a good narrative. Nor of racy detail: from street-walkers imprinting come-hither messages in the dust with their sandals, to outraged cuckolds shoving radishes up adulterers' bottoms, there is plenty here to delight the most prurient reader." -- The Daily Telegraph Visit Debra on the web at the-deblog.com. |
 Melanie Lynne Hauser, Confessions of Super MomIf you read her blog you'll see it's difficult not to like Melanie Lynne Hauser, especially since she writes so well and evokes so well the bittersweet nature of parenthood. From my review at book-blog.com: "Every superhero has his (or her) dramatic genesis. Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spiderman, was bitten by a radioactive spider. Clark Kent--"Kal-El" at the time--crashed to Earth after his home planet exploded. And Lady Bird Lee, mild-mannered cashier in an Astro Park, Kansas supermarket, suffered a Horrible Swiffer Accident in her bathroom while attempting to clean an unruly Stain of Unusual Origin with a dangerous combination of household cleaners. Coming to some hours after the event, Birdie found herself a changed woman, a Super Mom equipped with ultra-sensitive hearing, a thunderous voice, and a Merciless Gaze with which she could bend children to her will...." Read more. Visit Melanie on the web at Refrigerator Door. |
 Ian Hocking, Déjà VuCool gadgets and clever writing make this one a winner. From my review at book-blog.com: "The book offers readers an intriguing mystery right from the get-go: Saskia, who is being framed herself for murder at the book's opening, must solve the crime before a refrigerator repairman arrives in her office the next day. (Really. It is the scene early on in which Saskia discovers the corpse she's allegedly responsible for that hooked me on the book.) The plot of Déjà Vu is intricate enough to leave readers pondering its twists long after they've finished it." Read more. Visit Ian on the web at This Writing Life. |
 Dean Koontz, The HusbandFrom Publishers Weekly: "Koontz (Forever Odd) is likely to have himself another bestseller in this pulse-pounding thriller with echoes of Hitchcock and Cornell Woolrich. One morning, Southern California gardener Mitchell Rafferty gets a call on his cellphone from a stranger saying that Mitch's beloved wife, Holly, has been kidnapped and that he has less than three days to come up with $2 million in cash. Of course, he's warned not to involve the police. While Mitch is still on the phone, the kidnapper proves his seriousness by directing Mitch's attention to a man walking a dog across the street. A moment later the man is shot dead. Mitch must walk a fine line--cooperating with the police inquiry into this murder without revealing Holly's plight. Koontz ratchets up the tension in a manner sure to captivate most readers, though some may find the ending anticlimactic." Visit Dean on the web at deankoontz.com. |
  Paul Levine, Solomon vs. Lord and Deep Blue AlibiThe first two books in Paul Levine's series of legal cozies. I reviewed the first at book-blog.com, calling it a "sweet romantic dramedy": "Victoria Lord's a by-the-book prosecutor, freshly minted from Yale Law, while Steve Solomon is Jimmy Buffet with a law degree, an exasperatingly irresponsible rogue with a reputation for skirt chasing and playing by his own rules. When the two wind up on the same side of the aisle, defending the not particularly broken-up widow of Charles Barksdale, sparks inevitably fly. The Barksdale murder trial is a high profile case of Klaus von Bulow proportions: Charles and his trophy wife were members of the local aristocracy. But another case has an even greater hold on Steve Solomon's attention, his battle for custody of his semi-autistic eleven-year-old nephew Bobby, whom Steve had rescued the previous year from the clutches of his drug-addicted, abusive sister." Visit Paul on the web at paul-levine.com. |
   Laura Pedersen, Beginner's Luck, Heart's Desire, and The Sweetest Hours
Beginner's Luck and Heart's Desire feature spirited Hallie Palmer, sixteen when the series opens. Of the first book Publishers Weekly writes, "Pedersen has a knack for capturing tart teenage observations in witty asides, and Hallie's naivete, combined with her gambling and numbers savvy, make her a winning protagonist. As the first trade paperback original in the five-year-old Ballantine Reader's Circle series, this novel is funny and just quirky enough to become a word-of-mouth favorite." Pedersen's latest, The Sweetest Hours, is a collection of twelve " thoughtful, humorous and highly original short stories." Visit Laura on the web at laurapedersenbooks.com |
 Mary Sharratt, The Vanishing PointThis one's on my TBR shelves, so I can't point to my own review yet, but I did enjoy and review the author's second book, The Real Minerva. ("Mary Sharratt's novel is about repression and rebirth and heroism, about the difficulty of simple living in early 20th-century, rural America, about the relationship between parents and children and the nearly insuperable obstacles that can rise up between people incapable of communicating. And it is about how a life's course can be altered irrevocably by a handful of choices.") Katharine Weber, author of The Little Women, writes of Sharratt's latest: "The Vanishing Point is a truly captivating novel. It wears its history lightly, in the best tradition of great historical fiction." Visit Mary on the web at Sphinx Rising. |
 Marlo Thomas, The Right Words at the Right TimeFrom Publishers Weekly: "'That Girl' Thomas follows up her bestselling inspirational volume, which collected stories from luminaries describing times when well-chosen words impacted their lives, with this collection of personal essays from more than 90 'ordinary Americans,', selected from thousands of submissions to a national contest. From the experience of a naval officer who comes to a major career decision in a Burger King to a woman's epiphany at a Zen Buddhist Monastery in Japan, these simple, touching stories highlight the moments when the right phrases or comments made a life-changing difference. Divided into thematic sections like 'At a Crossroads,' 'Taking Chances,' and 'Letting Go,' Thomas's new title may be a little Chicken Soup-esque, but this is no canned concentrate-this is genuine, home-cooked comfort food. Proceeds benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital." |
 Rebecca Wells, Ya-Yas in BloomFrom Booklist: " Ya-Ya sisters, rejoice: your long wait for the sequel to Wells' divine best-seller, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (1996), is over. Vivi, Teensy, Necie, and Caro, those spirited Ya-Ya sisters, are back with even more raucous tales of their lifelong friendship. Bursting with details of the sisterhood's origins, the sequel also introduces the next generation, aka the Petites Ya-Yas, and even their offspring's offspring, the Tres Petites Ya-Yas. Every bit as joyful as the original, Ya-Yas in Bloom exposes the irrepressible Ya-Yas' formidable impact on their staid Louisiana bayou town of Thornton. From the beginning, the Ya-Yas' earthy blend of Cajun mysticism and Catholic catechism put them at odds with the town's more conservative citizens, a fact they found infinitely more amusing than annoying. But when old wrongs come home to haunt the sisterhood, the next generations of Ya-Yas are threatened in profound and frightening ways. Armed with their irreverent philosophy, infectious humor, and implacable loyalty, the sisterhood proves that true friendship will always prevail. And just as it does among the best of friends, the conversation in Wells' second Ya-Ya saga picks right up where the first left off, without missing a beat. Uplifting, uproarious, saucy and smart." |
 Jacqueline Winspear, Pardonable LiesI haven't read this latest installment yet, but click here for my review of the first Maisie Dobbs mystery. From Publishers Weekly: "Starred Review. Agatha-winner Winspear's engrossing third Maisie Dobbs novel maintains the high quality of its predecessors, Maisie Dobbs (2003) and Birds of a Feather (2004). In late 1930, the London 'psychologist and investigator' gets involved in three cases: proving the innocence of a 13-year-old farm girl, Avril Jarvis, accused of murder; undertaking a search for Sir Cecil Lawton's only son, a pilot shot down behind enemy lines in WWI, whose body was never recovered; and looking into the circumstances of the death of her university friend Priscilla Evernden Partridge's brother in France during the war. Maisie must go back to the region where, 13 years earlier, she served as a nurse, and confront her memories of mud, blood and loss. Filled with convincing characters, this is a complex tale of healing, of truth and half-truth, of long-held secrets, some, perhaps, to be held forever. Winspear writes seamlessly, enriching the whole with vivid details of English life on a variety of social levels. " Visit Jacqueline on the web at jacquelinewinspear.com |
 LibraryThing is an extremely well-designed, user-friendlly web app that allows you to catalogue and tag your books, compare your library to those of other users, input reviews, etc. The site works so smoothly, the process of inputting books is so easy, that you'll want to acquire more books just for the fun of adding to your LT library. Here's what PC World had to say about LibraryThing: "If you love books, and love people who love books, LibraryThing is for you. Start by using the service to catalog your book collection: Tag your books by topic, share your catalog with others, and then endlessly browse the titles that they have on their shelves. The utterly book obsessed can add the LibraryThing widget to a blog to show visitors what they have been reading lately."
The first-prize winner will receive a lifetime LT membership. Second place winner gets membership for a year. |
 Bookmarks from Curliosity MetalworksUh oh. There you are, reading one of your new BAFAB books, all innocent, and lo! The doorbell rings. What to do? Clearly, you need a bookmark or you'll never find your place again. Enter these hand-made bookmarks from Curliosity Metalworks, made from twisted copper wire with semi-precious gemstones. If you're one of our lucky contest winners you will truly be reading in style. |
 Boxer Text EditorOkay, you've got the books, and you've got the LibraryThing membership to catalogue them with. Now what you need is an award-winning text editor/word processor to help you write your own scintillating prose. Happily, the first-place winner will also be receiving on disk a copy of Boxer, a text editor for Windows that's won accolades for its full features and ease of use. Here's what one Boxer customer has to say: “Boxer is the single best text editor that I have seen, and even beats quite a few word processors at their own game. I highly recommend it for anyone.” -- J. Mull Visit Boxer on the web. |
Acknowledgments
Thanks are due to a bunch of folks for making this contest possible. The following donated prizes:
Nero Blanc (www.CrosswordMysteries.com)
Amanda Filipacchi
David Hamel (Boxer Software)
Maryann Hamel (Curliosity Metalworks)
FSB Associates
HarperCollins
Melanie Lynne Hauser (Refrigerator Door)
Ian Hocking (This Writing Life)
Paul Levine
Laura Pederson
Mary Sharratt (Sphinx Rising)
Tim Spalding (LibraryThing)
A number of others helped in getting the contest on its feet, including the bloggers who were kind enough to co-host the event:
Michael Allen (Grumpy Old Bookman)
Jeffrey Anderson (FSB Associates)
Michael Behen
Chrispian Burks (Readers Unbound)
Brenda Coulter (No rules. Just write.)
Melanie Lynne Hauser (Refrigerator Door)
Ian Hocking (This Writing Life)
Kristin Lash
Wiley Saichek (bookreporter.com)
Sarah Weinman (Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind)
Frank Wilson (Books, Inq.)
Go to www.buyafriendabook.com to find out more about BAFAB (Buy a Friend a Book) and this contest.