“Do you know what I’ve missed since coming here? Books. I do miss reading novels, don’t you?”
-Zora, The Springsweet
Pretty much every writer started out as a reader; now that we’re writers, we can’t help but write about people who love books. Sometimes IN the books. It’s meta upon meta, but it makes perfect sense to us.
To celebrate books, Saundra Mitchell’s blog tour is all about sharing two great things that go great together: books + free.
Today, you can enter to win a copy of Sonia’s THE REVENANT, and a signed set of Saundra’s THE VESPERTINE and THE SPRINGSWEET. All you have to do is comment in this entry, and leave an e-mail address where we can contact you. (US & Canadian residents only, please.)
And tell us about your favorite book, too. Growing a TBR pile is the best gardening there is!
THE SPRINGSWEET
A Companion to The Vespertine
by Saundra Mitchell
Hardcover & E-book
From Harcourt
“A lovely historical romance takes readers back to the 1890 Oklahoma territory. (T)he author conjures a convincing picture of life on the Oklahoma prairie, painting an absorbing portrait of the landscape and of the people there. A high-quality, absorbing drama.”
It’s a long way from Baltimore to Oklahoma Territory. But Zora Stewart will go any distance to put the tragic events of her sixteenth summer behind her. So this city girl heads to the tiny frontier town of West Glory to help her young widowed aunt keep her homestead going.
When another Baltimorean shows up in West Glory, Zora couldn’t be more surprised. Theo de la Croix made the long trip out west hoping to court Zora, whom he has long admired from afar.
But Zora has developed an attraction to a rather less respectable fellow: Emerson Birch, a rough-mannered young “sooner” whose fertile land is coveted.
As Zora begins to suspect that there may be more than luck behind Emerson’s good land, she discovers an extraordinary, astonishing power of her own: the ability to sense water under the parched earth. When her aunt hires her out as a “springsweet” to advise other settlers where to dig their wells, Zora feels the burden of holding the key to something so essential to survival in this unforgiving land.
Even more, she finds herself longing for love the way the prairie thirsts for water. Maybe, in the wildness of the territories, Zora can finally move beyond simply surviving and start living.
THE SPRING SWEET
is available at Indiebound |Amazon| Barnes & Noble
Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. She teaches herself languages, raises children, and makes paper for fun. She’s the author of Shadowed Summer, The Vespertine, The Springsweet, and the forthcoming The Elementals and Mistwalker. She’s also the editor of the forthcoming YA anthology Defy the Dark. She always picks truth; dares are too easy.
Tags: Giveaways, Saundra Mitchell, The Springsweet
I just finished The Vespertine yesterday. It was great. I would love to The SPringsweet, but it is not in my library system. This is a great giveaway.
When I was five, mum read me “Heidi”. It was this gorgeously illustrated edition we got from the library. Over the next ten years, I was the only person to ever sign it out (we could tell because this was back when they wrote your card number down instead of running it through the computer). Then the book disappeared. For the next few years, I ordered in ever copy of Heidi I could find, but none of them were ever that one. By the time I went to university, my mother and I both lamented that I should have stolen it when I had the chance.
In 2009, I decided it was time to really look for it again. I asked mum if it was okay (because I knew that she’d been looking, and didn’t want to spoil anything), and she said yes, but that I was to send her the link and she would buy it.
Now, Heidi is, apparently, the most popular children’s book OF ALL TIME. It has a billion editions. That’s what had stymied mum, though she had left calling cards with used book stores across THREE CONTINENTS just in case someone got lucky. What I ended up doing was google IMAGE searching, and then tracing the ILLUSTRATOR to find out what the ISBN of that edition was. In the end, it took me about 20 minutes (which is great and all…but that summer I had ALSO finally located a certain edition of THE SAPPHIRE ROSE after searching for about a decade, and there is nothing like the used book store victory dance!).
Anyway, I sent mum the link and she bought me the book. It’s as lovely as I remember, and on the dedication page it says:
This book belongs to Kate…and has since she first learned to read.
Oooh, I had a well-thumbed version of Heidi that I loved as a kid. I wonder if it was the same one? Wouldn’t that be awesome?
It’s this one: http://joyfullyretired.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/heidi.jpg
Not the same one, then. Glad you found it, though!
Crap! I hate choosing favorites! All time favorites would have to be Harry Ptter and the Anne of Green Gables series. I could read those books over and over and over (and have). More recent faves would have to be The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, The Scorpio Races, Delirium, and The Sky is Everywhere.
Thanks for the giveaway!
(just in case) blackeyedsue21 (at)gmail (dot)com
My favorite right now is Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard!!!
Vivien
deadtossedwaves at gmail dot com
Cool! I loved The Vespertine, especially because of the fact that it was written with the setting in Baltimore, which is where I was born and raised and still live!!!
Some of my favorite YA books are Obsidian (Jennifer Armentrout), Abandon (Meg Cabot), The Hunger Games series (Suzanne Collins), Graceling and Fire (Kristin Cashore), Article 5 (Kristen Simmons), Grave Mercy (Robin LaFevers), Across the Universe series (Beth Revis), Die For Me (Amy Plum), and of course, The Vespertine(Saundra!). But those are just a few. I actually don’t have that much of a TBR pile, because i want to read a book that has come out, then i go and get it from the library or buy it.
Thanks for being part of the tour, and to Saundra, for having the tour!!
Alyssa
EMAIL: lilleetleet@verizon.net
My favorite book is The Naming by Alison Croggon.
Thanks for being part of the tour, thank you, Saundra, for having the tour, and congrats on your book release!
Lily Sooklal
Email: lilypi@verizon.net