ARE YOU LISTENING? SHINE, SHINE, SHINE: AN AUDIO BOOK REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

WELCOME TO BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S" 
ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY" 
I AM EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE TODAY'S 
AUDIO BOOK CHOICE...

GIVEAWAY ENDED
SHINE SHINE SHINE
BY LYDIA NETZER

ABOUT THE BOOK:

When Maxon met Sunny, he was seven years, four months, and eighteen-days old. Or, he was 2693 rotations of the earth old. Maxon was different. Sunny was different. They were different together.

Now, twenty years later, they are married, and Sunny wants, more than anything, to be “normal.” She’s got the housewife thing down perfectly, but Maxon, a genius engineer, is on a NASA mission to the moon,  programming robots for a new colony. Once they were two outcasts who found unlikely love in each other: a wondrous, strange relationship formed from urgent desire for connection. But now they’re parents to an autistic son. And Sunny is pregnant again. And her mother is dying in the hospital. Their marriage is on the brink of imploding, and they’re at each other’s throats with blame and fear. What exactly has gone wrong?

Sunny wishes Maxon would turn the rocket around and come straight-the-hell home.

When an accident in space puts the mission in peril, everything Sunny and Maxon have built hangs in the balance. Dark secrets, long-forgotten murders, and a blond wig all come tumbling to the light. And nothing will ever be the same.…

A debut of singular power and intelligence, Shine Shine Shine is a unique love story, an adventure between worlds, and a stunning novel of love, death, and what it means to be human.

 

AN EXCERPT FROM SHINE SHINE SHINE:

Deep in darkness, there was a tiny light. Inside the light, he floated in a spaceship. It felt cold to him, floating there. Inside his body, he felt the cold of space. He could still look out the round windows of the rocket and see the Earth. He could also see the moon sometimes, coming closer. The Earth rotated slowly and the spaceship moved slowly, relative to the things that were around it. There was nothing he could do now, one way or the other. He was part of a spaceship going to the moon. He wore white paper booties instead of shoes. He wore a jumpsuit instead of underwear. He was only a human, of scant flesh and long bone, eyes clouded, and body breakable. He was off, launched from the Earth, and floating in space. He had been pushed, with force, away.

But in his mind, Maxon found himself thinking of home. With his long feet drifting out behind him, he put his hands on each side of the round window, and held on to it. He looked out and down at the Earth. Far away, across the cold miles, the Earth lay boiling in clouds. All the countries of the Earth lay smudged together under that lace of white. Beneath this stormy layer, the cities of this world chugged and burned, connected by roads, connected by wires. Down in Virginia, his wife, Sunny, was walking around, living and breathing. Beside her was his small son. Inside her was his small daughter. He couldn’t see them, but he knew they were there.

This is the story of an astronaut who was lost in space, and the wife he left behind. Or this is the story of a brave man who survived the wreck of the first rocket sent into space with the intent to colonize the moon.

To finish reading this excerpt, visit the Macmillan website HERE.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

LYDIA NETZER was born in Detroit and educated in the Midwest. She lives in Virginia with her two home-schooled children and math-making husband. When she isn’t teaching, reading, or writing her next novel, she plays the guitar in a rock band. 

PRAISE FOR SHINE SHINE SHINE:

“Over the moon with a metaphysical spin.  Heart-tugging…it is struggling to understand the physical realities of life and the nature of what makes us human….Nicely unpredictable…Extraordinary.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times
 
“A funny, compelling love story from the freshest voice I’ve heard in years. Shine Shine Shine picked me up and left me changed in ways I never expected. Intelligent, emotional, and relentlessly new, Netzer answers questions you didn't know you were already asking and delivers an unforgettable take on what it means to love, to be a mother, and to be human.” —Sara Gruen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Water for Elephants and Ape House

“From the icy dead surface of the moon to the hot center of the human heart, Lydia Netzer's debut novel takes you on a rocket ride that will rattle your bones. Part science fiction, part pure magic of the human kind, Netzer makes a book that is wholly her own, and endlessly fascinating. At every turn, you think she cannot astonish you again, and then she does it one more time. And then again and again and again. This is an astounding first novel by a writer who is unique in her immense gifts.” —Robert Goolrick, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Reliable Wife

"Creating one of the most compelling protagonists I’ve read in a long time, Lydia Netzer manages to capture the outsider in each of us. Whether looking at the moon, a child, the suburban landscape, or the face in the mirror, Netzer shows us something we’ve never seen before, something we thought we knew. A beautifully written story where the exception proves the rule: the things that seem to divide us are, ultimately, the very things that unite us." —Brunonia Barry, New York Times bestselling author of The Lace Reader and The Map of True Places.

“A perfectly structured gem of a book that held me spellbound as I unraveled the twisted histories of this unconventional family. You’ve never read anything like it, and yet Sunny’s story is every woman’s story. We are all outsiders, all alone in space, all trying so hard to find a place called home. I loved this book.” —Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Gods in Alabama and Backseat Saints

“An astronaut, an autistic child, a bald woman and a meteor collide, churning up the ground around a couple of decades-old murders. Life and death intersect in this wildly inventive love story I will be talking about and thinking about for years to come. If Yann Martel and Mary Gaitskill had a literary baby, it would look a lot like Lydia Netzer.” —Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City and American Rose

"Netzer deftly illuminates the bonds that transcend shortcomings and tragedy. Characterized by finely textured emotions and dramatic storytelling, Netzer's world will draw readers happily into its orbit." —Publishers Weekly

"Netzer has beautifully crafted an original story with a cast of characters who make up an unconventional but strangely believable family...This story will shine, shine, shine for all adult readers." —Library Journal, starred review

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
Lydia Netzer’s spellbinding debut, SHINE SHINE SHINE, is one quirky and enjoyable story made up of many surprising, inspirational parts that all eventually come together like a completed puzzle. With the main characters of Sunny, Maxon, and Bubber, readers will be taken on a ride into a somewhat different world, with a touch of science fiction, but also a lot of rational foundation and great deal of heart. The novel's main premise is that by accepting who you are instead of trying to hide your faults, one can achieve happiness.

Readers will meet Sunny Mann who outwardly seems to have it all. Married to Maxon, the genius and Nobel Prize Winner who is on his way to the moon, they have a young son, Bubber, and a new baby on the way. Living in a lovely suburban home, Sunny is the neighborhood organizer extraordinaire and school head honcho for projects.  In space, Maxon Mann is hurtling toward the moon to set things up for a lunar colony to be inhabited by his robots.

When a car hits Sunny’s van, her secret is exposed as her blonde wig goes flying out the window with all the neighbors bearing witness. As the narrative progresses, Sunny gets “wigged out” as a series of events reveal the truth behind her baldness and this seemingly perfect family. This includes the parents’ opposing attitudes on how their autistic son, Bubber,  should be raised.

Through the use of flashbacks, Netzer reveals the history of the dramatic bald girl and the quiet mathematical phenom. They bonded through their individual needs, showing how Sunny helped Maxon to let go of his feelings and how his orderly ways provided a stability Sunny yearned for.  Theirs is a curious, fairy tale love story, but one that is very real for them. Also in the flashbacks, we learn of Sunny’s way of dealing with her baldness as well as the influence her mother had on her current relationship with her own son, Bubber.

Netzer’s creative and dynamic narrative style yields brilliantly developed characters, including some very interesting supporting roles. All this comes into play when the story line builds and both Sunny and Maxon face critical and disastrous situations.

SHINE SHINE SHINE is a positive examination of humanity and what we perceive to be the norm. It shows how two rather unconventional people can fall in love, get married, and lead what for them is a normal life. Even if their world doesn’t happen to fit into the box that is pigeon holed for them, it can still be gratifying and successful. In the end, readers will have enjoyed a very fresh and captivating story. Do give Netzer’s novel a chance as I don’t think you will be disappointed. It took me a few minutes of listening and then I was hooked and couldn’t stop!

 GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO ESTHER AND MY FRIENDS AT

MACMILLAN AUDIO, I HAVE ONE COPY OF 

SHINE SHINE SHINE BY LYDIA NETZER,

TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE LUCKY FOLLOWER

 

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
--INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS IN COMMENT
--ALL ENTRIES/COMMENTS MUST BE
SEPARATE IN ORDER TO COUNT
AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: READ ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK ABOVE AND COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT SHINE SHINE SHINE THAT WOULD MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS AUDIO BOOK

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK I CAN FOLLOW IN THE ENTRY

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT LYDIA NETZER'S BLOG HERE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE CURRENT GIVEAWAY OF MINE YOU HAVE ENTERED. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, COMMENT SEPARATELY FOR EACH AND YOU WILL GET AN ENTRY FOR EACH ONE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE ITEM OF PRAISE ABOVE AND TELL WHY IT MAKES YOU WANT TO WIN THIS AUDIO BOOK

 

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

 6 PM, EST, AUGUST 15

GOOD LUCK!