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Matrimony: Book Giveaway


I'm reading Joshua Henkin's novel Matrimony, "a stunning novel of love and friendship, money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith" (from the back cover). Josh contacted me about reading and reviewing his book and hosting a giveaway and I jumped at the chance, since I tried two or three different times to win this book from other bloggers.

Matrimony was named a New York Times Book Review Notable Book for 2007, and according to The Washington Post it "elicits a passionate investment in the fate of its characters -- truly an up-all-night read." I can't wait to dive into this book tonight and tomorrow and I'll post my review when I finish it.

Meantime, you can read some other reviews, starting with Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit. Serena has links to other reviews and she's also hosting a giveaway (double your chances!).

So here's the deal: leave a comment below and tell me what you think of matrimony (the institution, not the book). A comment will count as one entry. If you blog about this giveaway, come back and let me know and you'll get an extra entry. This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere on the planet. Josh will send you a signed inscribed copy of Matrimony if you're the winner. Contest will be closed and I'll announce the winner on Monday, December 22nd at 5pm PST. Good luck!

Update December 23rd: Michelle emailed me that she's already won a copy of the book elsewhere; so the NEW winner of Matrimony, chosen by a random number picker, is Stacey. Congratulations Stacey! I sent an email to you with info on getting your book.

In an email today, Joshua reminds us that the book industry is experiencing some very difficult financial problems, partly as a result of the tanking economy. This affects book stores, publishing houses and of course, authors (and ultimately, readers). Josh says:
Many classics (books we read in our English classes in high school and college, books our children read or will read), simply wouldn't be published by today's standards and, if they were published and didn't sell well immediately, they would be removed from the bookstore shelves. This is why it's so important that you buy books for the holidays. There's a website dedicated to this enterprise, Books for the Holidays, which you might want to check out, and publishing houses are running ad campaigns focused on holiday book-giving. You really can make a difference. A typical paperback novel costs less than fifteen dollars, far cheaper than a necklace or a sweater or dinner at a nice restaurant.
So buy a book or two for your sweetie, your kids, your Aunt Edith, your best friend; support your local independent booksellers. If you don't know exactly what book they'd like, buy them a gift card from their favorite bookstore. Support your favorite authors!

8 comments:

Amanda said...

Hi Terri, I'm going to go ahead and enter here. I've only heard good things about this book, and from the quote about classics that you give, I'm more than up for giving Matrimony a try. :)

Nancy said...

Tried matri-mony twice, ended up supporting big boys.

david mcmahon said...

That sounds like a great read. As a kid who loved bookshops, and grew up to become a novelist/ photographer/ blogger, it's always such a pleasure to see bloggers review good novels.

Keep up the great work.

Anonymous said...

I'm still wildly optimistic about a lot of things in life, so I'm going to say I'm a huge proponent of marriage! I hope to enjoy all of its craziness sometime in the near future!

I'd love a chance to win this book -- it's been everywhere lately! Thanks!

Megan
writing.meg [[at]] gmail.com

The Bumbles said...

Matrimony has been bliss for me and I think that is due to the excellent partner I found after many bad choices. I had to be treated poorly to understand that I deserved to be spoiled. My hubby and I have been a part of each other's lives for almost half our lives. I feel lucky to be experiencing matrimony with him - but we were no less in love before the wedding ;0)

Serena said...

no need to enter me...I wanted to stop by and say thanks for linking to my review and contest.

Michelle Fluttering Butterflies said...

This is probably the tenth time I've entered to win this book. Hopefully 10 is my lucky number.

What do I think of matrimony? You know, I kind of rushed into marriage really early without thinking too much about what it really means. I was 18, my husband was 24. We hadn't really lived our lives yet and already we'd tied ourselves to each other. It's worked out, I suppose. 8 years later, here we are still happily married. But it's been hard work. We got married before we'd both realised who we are as people and we've had to adjust ourselves to the people that we have become. It's been a huge learning experience and one I wouldn't change for anything!

stacey @ bookthirty said...

Glad I found this giveaway - this book looks great and everyone has been talking about it!

I am a big fan of matrimony. My husband and I met and married in the space of 5 weeks. We've now been married almost 16 years! Crazy!

Oh, and just thought I'd say - we just moved from Portland last year to the Houston area. I miss my Oregon!!!