Latest Winners!

It's time to stop monkeying around
and announce the latest winners!


White Picket Fences was won by Jane Maritz!

Jane Goodall's audiobook won by:
Rhapsody in Books already won; new winner is bgcchs (anonymous)
Janet Ruth
fredamans

It Happened One Night won by:
MoziEsme
karen k
Marie
Lee P
Rebecca Graham

Cheating Death audiobook won by:
enyl
Anne-Marie T
dsandyboy - never responded to email so a new winner was chosen - etirv

What the Dog Saw - audiobook won by:
Darcy O
Martha Lawson
Linda Henderson

I will be sending out emails in a few minutes, so if you think you are a winner and haven't received a notice from me before tommorow, please send me an email (kherbrand at comcast dot ne)

White Picket Fences Blog Tour (Nov 9-Nov 13)

Be sure to watch for White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner this week as she begins her week long blog tour with Waterbrook Press.

About the book: Amanda Janvier’s idyllic home seems the perfect place for her niece Tally to stay while her vagabond brother is in Europe, but the white picket fence life Amanda wants to provide is a mere illusion. Amanda’s husband Neil refuses to admit their teenage son Chase, is haunted by the horrific fire he survived when he was four, and their marriage is crumbling while each looks the other way.

Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won’t make them go away.

Readers of emotional dramas that are willing to explore the lies that families tell each other for protection and comfort will love White Picket Fences. The novel is ideal for those who appreciate exploring questions like: what type of honesty do children need from their parents, or how can one move beyond a past that isn’t acknowledged or understood? Is there hope and forgiveness for the tragedies of our past and a way to abundant grace? (Waterbrook email)

About the author: Susan Meissner cannot remember a time when she wasn’t driven to put her thoughts down on paper. Her novel The Shape of Mercy was a Publishers Weekly pick for best religious fiction of 2008 and a Christian Book Award finalist. Susan and her husband live in Southern California, where he is a pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves. They are the parents of four grown children.

I currently have a giveaway going on for a copy of White Picket Fences so be sure to enter. But if you cannot wait - you can always order it!

It's a Great Day for a Giveaway!

I have one copy of White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner to give away to a reader!

The Janviers have the idyllic life - a beautiful home, great jobs, two wonderful kids - and surrounding it all is the proverbial white picket fence that protects them, offers them a serene sense of security. . .and hides all their secrets.

When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen-year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands -- in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm -- and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband, Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a "normal" life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble.

Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn't seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn't expect her arrival will affect him much -- or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams.

Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won't make them go away.

Will Tally's presence blow apart their carefully constructed world, revealing a hidden past that could destroy them all - or can she help them find the truth without losing each other? From the author of The Shape of Mercy, one of Publishers Weekly's Best Religious Fiction Books of 2008, comes a tale of family secrets smoldering behind a white picket fence. (back cover)

It is easy to enter the giveaway - Just give me the title of another Christian Fiction book that you have read this year. Include your email address in your comment. U.S. Only. (sorry) One entry per person and the giveaway will Nov 24.

Mailbox Monday/In My Mailbox 10-12-2009

Mailbox Monday is hosted at The Printed Page or In Your Mailbox at The Story Siren. Please stop by those posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week!

ARC Arrivals:

1. Hoodoo Sea by Rolf Hitzer
   
2. White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner
   
3. The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
   
4. Secrets of a Christmas Box by Steven Hornby
   

What books found a new home with you this week?

ARC Arrival: White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner

White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner

Publisher: Waterbrook Press

I received this book for review from Waterbrook Press (Random House).

The Janviers have the idyllic life--a beautiful home, great jobs, two wonderful kids--and surrounding it all is the proverbial white picket fence that protects them, offers them a serene sense of security. . .and hides all their secrets.

When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen-year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands--in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm--and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband, Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a "normal" life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble.

Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn't seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn't expect her arrival will affect him much--or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams.

Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won't make them go away.

Will Tally's presence blow apart their carefully constructed world, revealing a hidden past that could destroy them all--or can she help them find the truth without losing each other? From the author of The Shape of Mercy, one of Publishers Weekly's Best Religious Fiction Books of 2008, comes a tale of family secrets smoldering behind a white picket fence. (back cover)

Susan Meissner cannot remember a time when she wasn't driven to put her thoughts down on paper. Her novels include The Shape of Mercy, winner of the Christian Book Award for Fiction, and Blue Heart Blessed. Susan and her husband, a pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves, make their home in Southern California. They are the parents of four grown children. (back cover)

White Picket Fences
Publisher/Publication Date: Waterbrook Press, Oct 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7457-0
368 pages