FOLLOW ME BLOG TOUR: REVIEW & GIVEAWAY

CONTEST HAS ENDED!
WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED
TONIGHT, MAY 15!
GOOD LUCK AND THANKS
FOR ENTERING
FOLLOW ME
by Joanna Scott
BLOG TOUR, April 27-May 15

MEET THE AUTHOR: JOANNA SCOTT

Joanna Scott is the author of nine books,including
1997 Pulitzer Prize finalist
THE MANIKIN, and a short story collection,VARIOUS ANTIDOTES as well as ARROGANCE were both
finalists for the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award.
She received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan
Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in Rochester, New York with her family.

MY REVIEW of FOLLOW ME

Joanna Scott’s book, FOLLOW ME, makes it very easy to ‘follow her” with this influential narrative of a young woman’s journey to re-invent herself. This compassionate account of Sally Werner is a mesmerizing read. Scott begins by telling of young Sally Werner in 1946, who is the daughter of a Pennsylvania farmer, and how with wild abandon she agrees to take a ride on her cousin’s new motorcycle. This impulsiveness is something that will earmark much of Sally’s life and has extensive consequences, but Sally is too young to think of that at the time. The results of this frivolous act are a baby and Sally, who refuses to marry a cousin, leaves home, abandoning the child, in hopes of escaping her mistake and finding herself. Sally’s journey is recorded, entrusted to, and found by her granddaughter, who is even named for her, some 60 years later. While this young Sally tries to understand what her grandmother was like and what she did, she is confronted with a new challenge—meeting her father, a father she never knew. He tells a story of her grandmother that is quite different from the one that Sally has read and she decides she will find out the true story of Sally Werner, her grandmother, and so begins to investigate the secrets of Sally Werner.

After leaving home, Grandmother Sally comes upon helpful and caring people who open their homes to her and offer friendship. She stays and meets Mole, a young man, and Sally begins to think she had found the answers to her place in life. However, misfortune again follows Sally and she is forced to move on, further north into New York. This is a pattern that seems to repeat itself in Sally’s life many times. She has another child, a girl and later, a granddaughter as a result of that. Sally never lets go of the guilt she feels for leaving her son behind and she decides to finally look for him. This search results in changes not only in her life but also in all the lives of those people she loves that are the integral part of her existence.

Joanna Scott does a superb job of enticing the reader into the world of the two Sallys with her caring, carefully written tale. She keeps your interest with the two women telling of their lives….Sally Werner telling of her journey and its resulting consequences and young Sally trying to understand and learn the truth from her namesake’s writings. The theme of the story is one of how decisions in our lives make for profound consequences that are far-reaching in scope as well as personally affecting each of us and those around us. Readers will be so caught up in these women’s lives that it is hard to put this book down.

GIVEAWAY of FOLLOW ME

Many thanks to Miriam at Hachette Books for the Giveaway. Three (3) lucky winners will receive a copy of FOLLOW ME. The normal rules are:

U.S. and Canada Entries ONLY
No P. O. Boxes, Please
Giveaway ends at 6:00 PM, EST, Friday, May 15

How do you enter? This is how:

+1 entry for commenting AND including your email
+1 entry for becoming a follower or tell me if you are already one
+1 entry posting on blog (sidebar counts) AND give link back here
+1 entry for tweeting about this giveaway

Remember to leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry! Include your email address if it is not shown on blogger. Winners will be chosen May 15th.

Thanks to Drey at Drey's Library you can click here to see the list of ALL the many blogs who are part of the tour today. So many places, so many chances! Good Luck!