FREEDOM: PREVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
FREEDOM
BY JONATHAN FRANZEN

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter’s dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world.

But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter’s college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become “a very different kind of neighbor,” an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street’s attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom’s characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time. You can start reading an excerpt right HERE, thanks to Oprah's Book Club website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jonathan Franzen was born in Western Springs, Illinois, in 1959, and grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. After graduating from Swarthmore College in 1981, he studied at the Freie Universität in Berlin as a Fulbright scholar and later worked in a seismology lab at Harvard University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. In addition to winning a Whiting Writers' Award in 1988 and the American Academy's Berlin Prize in 2000, he has been named one of "Twenty Writers for the 21st Century" by The New Yorker and one of the "Best Young American Novelists" by Granta.

He is the author of three previous novels: The Corrections, which won the National Book Award and spent 29 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list; The Twenty-Seventh City; and Strong Motion. He is also the author of two works of nonfiction, How to Be Alone and The Discomfort Zone. Jonathan divides his time between New York City and Santa Cruz, California.

CONNECTION TO OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB:

OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB SITE WRITES, "Read Freedom with Oprah's Book Club! The wait is over! Oprah's new book club pick is Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, an epic family saga that has it all—sex, love…even rock 'n' roll!"

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO LIKE TO FOLLOW OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB AND THE DISCUSSION SHE WILL HAVE ON HER SHOW ABOUT THIS BOOK, HERE IS ONE THING YOU CAN DO. IF YOU FOLLOW THE CALENDAR YOU WILL BE READING RIGHT ALONG WITH ALL OF OPRAH'S VIEWERS WHO ARE PART OF HER BOOK CLUB AND BE READY TO "DISCUSS" THE BOOK IN TIME FOR OPRAH'S ON-AIR BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION.

ALSO, IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS THE BOOK WITH YOUR OWN BOOK CLUB, HERE ARE SOME DISCUSSION QUESTIONS OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB SUGGESTS, BUT BE CAREFUL OF SOME POSSIBLE SPOILERS WITHIN!

....A PERSONAL NOTE:

I have always had a passion for reading from a very young child but as one who like most of you, tends to put myself last on the list of things to do in our busy lives, I wasn't reading as much for a while until Oprah started her book club. She got me excited about reading again and I began to read not just the books she suggested but started to read more on my own.

Her fourth book choice was Wally Lamb's SHE'S COME UNDONE and it became one of my favorite books of all time. I was so excited about it that I wrote to the show, as you did back then, and one day while the "O Book Club" was in the process of reading the book, I was called by the show to be questioned about possibly being one of the 5-6 people invited to come have dinner with Oprah and the author, Wally Lamb. To be honest when I asked who was calling and they told me they were from the Oprah Show, I laughed and said that I knew it was my friend calling to goof on me. She had to say it three times and then put me on hold for a moment where the music playing was indeed the Oprah theme before I believed her. When she got back on, I answered the questions and she told me they still were in the process of eliminating people but were down to the final 100 out of thousands to be considered for the dinner. I answered to the best of my now shaky and stunned ability, and asked when we would know if we were picked and was told in 5-7 days.

Those next 7 days, I dreamed about going to the Oprah Show, and when I watched the show each day and they did the promo at the end about "Guests of the Oprah Winfrey show stay at the...." I dreamed about how much I would love that hotel and Chicago. I told people at my school where I taught about it and for that week, they would come up and tell me they heard I was going on the show. For me, I WAS going to be on the show as I mean, how could I not be? One of my favorite books? A passionate reader and Reading Teacher? But, alas, the call never came. I watched the lucky chosen group who had dinner with Wally and Oprah as I entertained myself at my own pity party for not being chosen...knowing the chance would never come again.

HOWEVER, I did survive and do credit Oprah, as well as my own book club I belong to, for not only getting me reading again, but getting me to read books I would never have chosen on my own....and loving them. Perhaps some of you will be inspired by this book...or any book for that matter, to make reading a priority and take the time for yourself to enjoy this very special personal time.

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO THE INSPIRATION
FROM OPRAH CHOOSING FREEDOM,
I DECIDED TO PURCHASE AN EXTRA
COPY ON MY OWN TO GIVE ONE OF
MY LOYAL READERS A CHANCE TO
READ AND MAYBE "JOIN THE CLUB"

HERE IS WHAT TO DO TO GET THAT
CHANCE AND IN CASE YOU WANT TO
JOIN "THE CLUB" THIS WILL BE A
SPEEDY FIVE DAY GIVEAWAY!

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHY YOU WANT TO WIN FREEDOM AND IF YOU MIGHT FOLLOW ALONG WITH OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND THEN COME BACK AND LEAVE A LINK

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON EITHER ONE OF THE VIDEOS ABOVE AND WHAT YOU THOUGHT ABOUT IT

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, SEPTEMBER 24
GOOD LUCK!

SPECIAL WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT WILL
BE LATE ON SEPTEMBER 24 SO I CAN HOPEFULLY
PRIORITY MAIL THE BOOK TO YOU THE NEXT DAY!