Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Book Giveaway: Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons



Thanks to Valerie and Hatchett Books, I'm hosting another giveaway. Contest is open from June 24 to July 24. I have 5 copies of Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons to give away.

A Glimpse Into the Book...
There were seven of us at Edgewater that summer, if you count my brother Jeebs. None of us did, really. Jeebs was thirteen and gone into another orbit of his own; he entered ours only when he had nothing else to do, and then grudgingly.

That left Harriet Randall, aged eleven; Ben and Carolyn Forrest, who were twins, aged ten; Cecie Wentworth, aged eleven; Peter Cornish, aged twelve; and Joby Gardiner, eleven. And of course, me. Elizabeth Allen Constable but called, by my own creed, Lilly and nothing else. I was eleven that summer of 1962 and stonily determined not to be confused with my mother, who was Elizabeth, too.

My mother: Elizabeth Potter Constable; painter, activist (in her own words), great beauty. She was sporadic and only adequate at the first two, but at the third she was spectacularly successful. Turned heads followed Liz Constable wherever she went.

It was the apogee of the frenzied Jackie Kennedy mythology, and even up here in this rural saltmeadow world almost untouched by fashion for a century, women wore their hair in carefully tousled bouffants and put on crisp white sleeveless blouses and Bermuda shorts to go to the post office or general store (which were one and the same). The yacht club cocktail-and-chowder suppers looked like a Norman Rockwell magazine cover of an idyllic girls' camp. Into the middle of all the matched Lilly Pulitzer wrap skirts and T-shirts, the huge sunglasses pushed casually above foreheads to form chic headbands, my mother would drift barefoot like an idle racing sloop, her hair in its uncombed little Greek-boy tousle of curls, her white pants smeared with paint, the striped French matelot T-shirt she had affected since a trip to Cannes when she was sixteen daubed with it. There would not be a vestige of makeup on her pure medieval features, only a flush of sunburn on her high cheekbones and a slick of Chap Stick on her full, tender mouth—a Piero della Francesca mouth, according to Brooks Burns, two cottages down, who was a classical scholar and eighty years old, and had been in love with my mother, according to my father, since she came here as a bride.

"Eyes like summer rain on the ocean," he would say. "Eyes like clear pond ice."

"Eyes like a frozen February crust over Eggemoggin Reach," I might have added, "especially when those black brows come together over them."

But I doubted that anyone but my father and Jeebs and I had seen that. My mother's brows were two silky black slashes set straight over her eyes, which were clear, light-spilling gray and fringed with black lashes. With her sun-streaked copper curls they were striking; you expected slender sienna arches. I had those brows, I was often told, and the gray eyes, too, but even to me they often looked stormy and sulky instead of mythic. I had seen my mother, in her studio just before she came out to join us for an evening, slick her eyebrows with some sort of cream, and lightly redden her cheeks, and finger-tousle her hair before the old seashell mirror that hung beside the studio door. Once or twice I saw her daub a sunset smear on her cheek or forehead, or stain her shirt lightly with it. The result was a careless beauty seemingly preoccupied with things more important than her looks. It served her well.

I spied on my mother shamelessly during the summer. I'm still not quite sure why. I think I was looking for revelations, epiphanies, a map for knowing where the real woman and mother lay. It seemed that if I found it, I would have the map for myself, could chart a course by it. But I never did, and after that summer I did not spy on her again. Instead, I set about trying to become the direct antithesis of the woman in her mirror. It got me in endless trouble with her, though not so much with my father.

To read the remainder of the first chapter, click here.

Contest Rules
To enter, respond with the story of where/how you met your significant other. If you don't have a significant other, tell me where you hope to meet him/her.

Rules:
1. Please include your email address, so that I can contact you if you win. You will have 3 days to respond to the email.
2. For an extra entry, sign up to be a follower. If you're already a follower, let me know and you'll get the extra entry as well.
3. For another extra entry, subscribe via googlereader or blogger or by email and let me know that you do.
4. For another entry, blog about this giveaway and send me the link.
5. For another entry, Tweet about it @faithfulgirl
6. Leave a separate comment for each entry or you'll only be entered once.

The contest is limited to US and Canada only. No P.O. boxes. The contest ends at midnight EST on July 24, 2009. Only one title per winning household will be awarded.


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30 comments:

  1. Well, interesting question and I have a long answer for you. I met my husband in Venezuela. He and I worked for the same company and after we met we found out we have lived with a mile of each other in Birmingham, our children were in the same daycare, my son's godfather was one of his closest friends. We worked in the same building on the same floor but on opposite sides of the elevator and had never met.

    We both divorced within 6 months of each other, moved to Atlanta and once again worked for the same new company in the same building on the same floor. I was on the European team and he was on the South American team. While waiting on a new project, I was sent to help out in South America where I met him the first day I was in country. 6 months later we were married. So, I would like to hear a story, a real one, that can beat that!!!
    Rebecca

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  2. Oh, and I am a follower on google reader

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  3. Tweeted about this giveaway @ccqdesigns and signed up to follow you on twitter.

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  4. We met while he was an MP (Military Police) standing at a gate. Few girlfriends and I were stopped at the gate...and the Reader's Digest version is, the rest is history. :)
    lscho4jm@yahoo.com

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  5. 1) I would like to meet my significant other at church or somewhere nice, or maybe a book store :]

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  6. 2) I am a follower.

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  7. 3) I tweeted and I am signed up to follow you.

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  8. We met in a bar. Yes I know, it sounds awful.
    I picked him up-what can I say? 30 years ago to be exact.
    I love this author and would love to win this book.
    southrngal(at)gmail(dot)com

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  9. I'm now following your blog.
    southrngal(at)gmail(dot)com

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  10. I wrote a blog post about this book promotion a couple days ago and I just added your link to the post. You can see it here.http://dixie-afewofmyfavoritethings.blogspot.com/2009/06/get-your-read-on.html

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  11. I met my hubby through a dating service.

    megalon22[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  12. I just became a follower.

    megalon22[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  13. I subscribe via Google Reader.

    megalon22[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  14. codiegates@bellsouth.net

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  15. Hi! My husband and I met online when a mutual friend from a book chatroom introduced us online. My husband met her because she just read a book by his favorite author, Hunter S. Thompson. When she found out a little bit more about my husband she told him, I know a woman who'd be perfecr for you & she put us in touch. We emailed for a week or so & decided to meet to see if there was a "real life" attraction. It was easy for us to meet because I was working as a prosecutor in the Kings County - Brooklyn - DA's Office at the time & he was at Brooklyn Law School right across the street! We met and hit it off 100%. We never went back to the chatroom!

    Great giveaway question!
    Amy
    Aimala02@yahoo.com

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  16. I subscribe to your blog on Google Reader.

    Amy
    Aimala02@yahoo.com

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  17. I am also a follower of your blog!

    Amy
    Aimala02@yahoo.com

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  18. I met my husband on the first day of college classes, freshman year. We had a class together.

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  19. I subscribe via google reader.

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  20. We met at a bar. We danced a bit and then I left. when I got to the next place he was there too! We danced some more, talked and exchanged numbers. We both were coming out of relationships, but ended up dating for awhile. We broke up...long long story. both of us were married had children. We both ended up getting divorced around the same time. We had kept up with each other thru the very occasional email so I asked him out. We have never looked back! We have knowne each other almost 11 years and have dated currently for almost 5.

    I am a follower here and on twitter.

    alipet813(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  21. BTW, we were married after we broke up. I read that and it sounded like we were dating each other while married to other people. LOL

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  22. Sorry, forgot my email. thought it was on here. rebecca dot cox at charter dot net

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  23. I just became a follower. I met my husband at work. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  24. I meet them at a pizza shop con5459(at)gmail(dot)com

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  25. I met my husband on the first day of class during summer classes after my freshman year of college. Exactly five years later, he proposed to me in the same room. :^) (I still don't know how he talked everyone he needed to into that one!) Thanks!

    lesleymfan(at)gmail(dot)com

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  26. I already follow you wonderful blog; thank you!

    lesleymfan(at)gmail(dot)com

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  27. I am also already subscribed via Google Reader--thanks!

    lesleymfan(at)gmail(dot)com

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  28. I just Tweeted about this great giveaway:

    http://twitter.com/uwsreader/status/2540537664

    lesleymfan(at)gmail(dot)com

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  29. We met on a ski vacation with mutual friends. I could not stand him. ;-)
    denise_22315(at)yahoo(dot)com

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