Tuesday, July 3, 2012

TUMBLEWEEDS: BONUS ENTRIES AND REVIEW FOR THE AUDIO BOOK GIVEAWAY

  WELCOME TO BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S
ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY" 
I AM EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE TODAY'S 
AUDIO BOOK CHOICE....
GIVEAWAY ENDED
 TUMBLEWEEDS
 BY LEILA MEACHAM
READ BY ANGELE MASTERS
REMINDER ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK:
Recently orphaned, eleven-year-old Cathy Benson feels she has been dropped into a cultural and intellectual wasteland when she is forced to move from her academically privileged life in California to the small town of Kersey in the Texas Panhandle where the sport of football reigns supreme. She is quickly taken under the unlikely wings of up-and-coming gridiron stars and classmates John Caldwell and Trey Don Hall, orphans like herself, with whom she forms a friendship and eventual love triangle that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. 

Taking the three friends through their growing up years until their high school graduations when several tragic events uproot and break them apart, the novel expands to follow their careers and futures until they reunite in Kersey at forty years of age. Told with all of Meacham's signature drama, unforgettable characters, and plot twists, readers will be turning the pages, desperate to learn how it all plays out.

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Leila Meacham is a writer and former teacher living in San Antonio, Texas. Leila writes of East Texas with authority. She has lived in Texas all of her life with the exceptions short sojourns out of state with her Air Force husband and her birth in Minden, Louisiana, because her father could not get her mother across the border of the Sabine River into Texas for her to be born. She says that as far as she knows, it's the only regret he ever had of his daughter.

Leila has no children and has been married to her husband for forty-three years.


MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW FOR TUMBLEWEEDS:
Leila Meacham’s TUMBLEWEEDS is about how people face life when it doesn’t turn out as planned. How one learns to adapt and change to face life’s challenges is at the heart of main character Cathy Benson’s story in TUMBLEWEEDS. Through friendship and regret, passion and renewal, Cathy grows up and carries on with her life while some others close to her are unable to.

Meacham hints at a mystery at the beginning of the book with reference to the coming home of one Trey Don Hall after many years of being out of everyone’s life, especially Cathy’s.  It is that part which gets pages turning as TUMBLEWEEDS backs up to where it all began. Cathy was just 11 years old when she has to move from California to the small town of Kersey, Texas. Cathy’s parents have died and so Cathy's grandmother, Emma, is now in charge of her. Cathy leaves behind her gifted private school and a family home near the beach to relocate to the desolate background of the Texas Panhandle where Kersey is located and football is king. Cathy is almost mute with fear and depression but with the introduction of best friends Trey Don Hall and John Caldwell, Cathy comes around. As the sixth grade leaders, they are “assigned” to watch over Cathy and after seeing her, realize this is not going to be such a bad job after all. The three grow to be inseparable and readers follow their friendship over the next years into young adulthood.

While football plays a big part in TUMBLEWEEDS much like it does in all of Texas, it is not what the story centers on. Rather the friendship of the three main characters and how their lives change and intertwine over the years is more in the forefront. Neither Trey Don nor John has an easy life both as they grow up and two key incidents during those teenage years change the course of their lives forever. As life changes for each of the three characters, Meacham builds the story to a conclusion with as many twists and turns as one wants to see in a story of this sensitivity. Well written, emotionally charged characters drive the story and it is one readers will not only push to finish but push so they can discuss it with others. I highly recommend TUMBLEWEEDS and suggest that it would make a wonderful audio book for book clubs. As an added incentive, Emma’s Hot Water Corn Bread recipe from the story is included at the end of the book.
  
 
GIVEAWAY
 THANKS TO MITCH AND MY FRIENDS AT
HACHETTE AUDIO, I HAVE ONE COPY OF 
TUMBLEWEEDS, BY LEILA MEACHAM,
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 BONUS ENTRY: READ MY REVIEW ABOVE AND COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT WHAT I WROTE ABOUT TUMBLEWEEDS THAT WOULD MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS AUDIO BOOK

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

+1 MORE BONUS ENTRY: COMMENT ON THE ORIGINAL POST ABOUT TUMBLEWEEDS HERE SAYING THAT YOU HAVE COMMENTED ON MY REVIEW HERE
 
 GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, JULY 5
GOOD LUCK!

8 comments:

holdenj said...

Sounds like a good coming of age story, with a bit of a mystery too. And not too much football! Thanks!
JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com

Pat L. said...

I love reunion books.
patoct@yahoo.com

traveler said...

I am captivated with this novel. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

petite said...

A saga which interests me greatly. elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com

lag123 said...

I like that it is a coming of age novel and about friendships.

lag110 at mchsi dot com

mamabunny13 said...

I like stories about friendships. I like that this one has a little mystery too.
mamabunny13 at gmail dot com

Linda Kish said...

It sounds like a great story about small-town friendships.

lkish77123 at gmail dot com

Margie said...

This sounds like a good story about how friendships can evolve over time. I like that there are many twists and turns in this book.
mtakala1 AT yahoo DOT com

CLICK HERE TO
SEE MY POLICY