Monday, November 2, 2009

WISHIN' AND HOPIN' BY WALLY LAMB: A PREVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

A BINGLE BELLS BOOK CHOICE
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GIVEAWAY ENDED
WISHIN' AND HOPIN'

BY WALLY LAMB

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Wally Lamb, the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much Is True, and She’s Come Undone, delivers a holiday treat with Wishin’ and Hopin’—an unforgettable novella that captures the warmth and joy of the holiday season. Poignant and hilarious, in a vein similar to Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story and David Sedaris’s The Santaland Diaries, Lamb’s Christmas tale focuses on a feisty parochial school fifth grader named Felix Funicello—a distant cousin of the iconic Annette!
Book Description

It's 1964 and ten-year-old Felix is sure of a few things: the birds and the bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he'll never forget.

LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyone's turntable, and Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth grade—easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy.

Back in his beloved fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, with a new cast of endearing characters, Wally Lamb takes his readers straight into the halls of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parochial School—where Mother Filomina's word is law and goody-two-shoes Rosalie Twerski is sure to be minding everyone's business. But grammar and arithmetic move to the back burner this holiday season with the sudden arrivals of substitute teacher Madame Frechette, straight from Québec, and feisty Russian student Zhenya Kabakova. While Felix learns the meaning of French kissing, cultural misunderstanding, and tableaux vivants, Wishin' and Hopin' barrels toward one outrageous Christmas.

From the Funicello family's bus-station lunch counter to the elementary school playground (with an uproarious stop at the Pillsbury Bake-Off), Wishin' and Hopin' is a vivid slice of 1960s life, a wise and witty holiday tale that celebrates where we've been—and how far we've come.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Wally Lamb’s first two novels, She’s Come Undone (Simon & Schuster/Pocket, 1992) and I Know This Much Is True (HarperCollins/ReganBooks, 1998), were # 1 New York Times bestsellers, New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and featured titles of Oprah’s Book Club. I Know This Much Is True was a Book of the Month Club main selection and the June 1999 featured selection of the Bertelsman Book Club, the national book club of Germany. Between them, She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True have been translated into eighteen languages.

Lamb is also the editor of the nonfiction anthologies Couldn’t Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters (HarperCollins/ReganBooks, 2003) and I’ll Fly Away (HarperCollins, 2007), collections of autobiographical essays which evolved from a writing workshop Lamb facilitates at Connecticut’s York Correctional Institute, a maximum-security prison for women. He has served as a Connecticut Department of Corrections volunteer from 1999 to the present.

Wally Lamb is a Connecticut native who holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in teaching from the University of Connecticut and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Vermont College. Lamb was in the ninth year of his twenty-five-year career as a high school English teacher at his alma mater, the Norwich Free Academy, when he began to write fiction in 1981. He has also taught writing at the University of Connecticut, where he directed the English Department’s creative writing program.

Wally Lamb has said of his fiction, “Although my characters’ lives don’t much resemble my own, what we share is that we are imperfect people seeking to become better people. I write fiction so that I can move beyond the boundaries and limitations of my own experiences and better understand the lives of others. That’s also why I teach. As challenging as it sometimes is to balance the two vocations, writing and teaching are, for me, intertwined.”

Honors for Wally Lamb include: the Connecticut Center for the Book’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Connecticut Bar Association’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, the Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award, The National Institute of Business/Apple Computers “Thanks to Teachers” Award. Lamb has received Distinguished Alumni awards from Vermont College and the University of Connecticut. He was the 1999 recipient of the New England Book Award for fiction. I Know This Much Is True won the Friends of the Library USA Readers’ Choice Award for best novel of 1998, the result of a national poll, and the Kenneth Johnson Memorial Book Award, which honored the novel’s contribution to the anti-stigmatization of mental illness. She’s Come Undone was a 1992 “Top Ten” Book of the Year selection in People magazine and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Best First Novel of 1992.

Wally Lamb’s third novel, The Hour I First Believed, explores chaos theory by interfacing several generations of a fictional Connecticut family with such nonfictional American events as the Civil War, the Columbine High School shootings of 1999, the Iraq War, and Hurricane Katrina. The book will be published by HarperCollins in November of 2008.

Wally and Christine Lamb are the parents of three sons, Jared, Justin, and Teddy.


GIVEAWAY



THANKS TO KYLE AND HIS SUPPORT
FROM HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHING,
I HAVE THREE COPIES OF THIS
HOLIDAY BOOK TO GIVE AWAY.

RULES

--U.S. Residents Only
--No P.O. Boxes, Please
--Email address must be in your comment
--ALL comments must be separate to count
or they will count as one instead of possibly two.

HOW TO ENTER:


+1 ENTRY: Go here to the FUN FACTS about author Wally Lamb on the Harper Collins Publishing website and read about him. Comment on one thing you found out from that page about this author.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Blog or Tweet about this giveaway and leave link in your comment!

+1 MORE ENTRY: Follow on Google Connect (see left hand sidebar) or tell me how you do follow

+1 MORE ENTRY: Watch for my review in the next few weeks and then come back here to enter for a BONUS entry after answering a question about my review!


ALL ENTRIES DUE BY

6 PM, EST, NOVEMBER 28

GOOD LUCK!

90 comments:

Jo-Jo said...

I would love to be entered to win this book!
joannelong74 AT gmail DOT com

Jo-Jo said...

I love how he admits how disorganized he is, and his five year old picture is so cute!
joannelong74 AT gmail DOT com

rhapsodyinbooks said...

I am amazed to say there were actually quite a few fun facts about Wally Lamb! I liked most the one that he looks like Billy Bob Thornton: I agree!

nbmars AT yahoo DOT com

rhapsodyinbooks said...

I follow on Google Connect and Google Reader.

nbmars AT yahoo DOT com

bermudaonion said...

I learned that Wally Lamb loves Pringles! This book sounds wonderful. I'd love to be entered. milou2ster(at)gmail.com

Sue A. said...

I've read his books and I agree his best quality is EMPATHY. He has that one down pat. How else can a man write from a young girl's point of view.

magenta 2 red [at] gmail [dot] com
remove all spaces

Sue A. said...

I'm a follower thru GOOGLE READER

magenta 2 red [at] gmail [dot] com
remove all spaces

Molly said...

+1 entry:
I love what his wonderful day would me....a reunion with both his deceased and living family...and I love his five yrold pic! So cute~!


Mollydawn1981 AT aol DOT com

Molly said...

Tweeted!

@MollyBuuklvr81


Mollydawn1981 AT aol DOT com

Molly said...

+1 I follow through Google Friend Connect.


Mollydawn1981 AT aol DOT com

g.g. said...

I found that Wally Lamb's wife's name is Christine.

Thanks for hosting.

anjamie4 AT gmail (dot) com

g.g. said...

I follow on Google Friend Connect

anjamie4 AT gmail (dot) com

fredamans said...

You have an award!!

http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com/2009/11/one-lovely-blog-award.html

Linda Kish said...

If he was not a writer he would be a mail carrier or a shrink.

lkish77123 at gmail dot com

Linda Kish said...

GFC follower

lkish77123 at gmail dot com

holdenj said...

I think it's adorable that his first crush was his second grade teacher! This looks like a great story. Thanks for the chance to win!
JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com

holdenj said...

I'm a loyal google friend connect follower.

JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I would love to be entered! I'm at chezraine@yahoo.com

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I am a Google follower.

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I liked the fun fact about Wally Lamb that his favorite clothes are the Rheingold Beer ball cap and the raggedy sweatshirt!

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I am posting a link to your giveaway at my Web of Tyranny blog here:

http://weboftyranny.blogspot.com

scottsgal said...

I loved your asparagus answer - although I do like asparagus.

msboatgal at aol.com

scottsgal said...

folllower thru google reader

msboatgal at aol.com

lag123 said...

If he couldn't be a writer, he would be a mail carrier or a shrink.

lgarrett@mchsi.com

lag123 said...

I follow on google connect and on google reader.

lag110@mchsi.com

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

It's nice to know that such a great writer has the same worst habit as I do...procrastination! And I also love Pringles =o)

Thanks for another great giveaway!

miller4plusmore(at)bellsouth(dot)net

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

Tweeted: http://twitter.com/truebookaddict/status/5380527771

miller4plusmore(at)bellsouth(dot)net

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

I'm a loyal follower on Google Friend connect.

miller4plusmore(at)bellsouth(dot)net

rubynreba said...

Ball of Confusion is the song title that best describes him.
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net

rubynreba said...

I follow.
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net

wheresmyrain said...

my fave fact is that he says the song that describes him is "ball of c" super

wheresmyrain at yahoo dot com

Kim said...

I would love this book! I learned that Pringles are one of his bad habits!

kimmery4(at)yahoo(dot)com

Kim said...

I am a follower on Google Connect!
kimmery4(at)yahoo(dot)com

Commchick said...

I'm sorry, but I don't think he looks like Billy Bob Thornton.

Sharon
belchers@jccal.org

Margie said...

I like that he feels his greatest achievement is fatherhood. Even though he is a well-known author, this is more important.

JoanneR said...

Love this man's writing! Thank you for the opportunity to win this book!
joannereynolds@sbcglobal.net

annies home said...

I agree he looks like thornton. I would love to read this book
shopannies@yahoo.com

Debbie said...

We share a love for Pringles.
fourkidsrgreat(at)gmail.com

Unknown said...

Wally Lamb seems to have a good sense of humor! I like the fun facts page and cracked up that Wally Lamb said the song that best describes him is "Ball of Confusion" and people have told him he looks like Billy Bob Thorton although he doesn't see it (I don't think I do either!)

Thank you for a fun giveaway!

Aimala127[at]gmail[dot]com

Debbie said...

I'm a google connect follower.

Unknown said...

I follow you on Google Connect!


Aimala127[at]gmail[dot]com

Unknown said...

I tweeted this giveaway:
http://twitter.com/Amestir/status/5399562719


Aimala127[at]gmail[dot]com

Jolynn said...

Author Wally Lamb, one of he's worst habits is Pringles.
Jolynn_Reads atyahoo .com

Jolynn said...

I follow
Jolynn_Reads atyahoo .com

FlyFreeMyBooks said...

This sounds great. Please enter me.
ludeluh at yahoo dot com

FlyFreeMyBooks said...

I follow on google friends connect.
ludeluh at yahoo dot com

FlyFreeMyBooks said...

I posted this giveaway on my blog here:
http://giveawayroundup.blogspot.com/2009/11/giveaways-for-you.html

ludeluh at yahoo dot com

Anonymous said...

One fun fact-His favorite pet is their geriatric golden retriever.

bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com

KR said...

I learned he loves Pringles..I love regular potato chips!

mj.coward[at]gmail.com

KR said...

I follow on Google Connect

mj.coward[at]gmail.com

DarcyO said...

The song title that best describes Wally Lamb is “Ball of Confusion."

dlodden at frontiernet dot net

DarcyO said...

I follow on Google Friend Connect.

dlodden at frontiernet dot net

dag888888 said...

Please enter me in this giveaway!

dag888888[at]yahoo[dot]com

dag888888 said...

Wally's best habit is telling the people he loves that he loves them.

dag888888[at]yahoo[dot]com

dag888888 said...

I am a follower!

dag888888[at]yahoo[dot]com

Jo-Jo said...

I blogged about the contest here,
joannelong74 AT gmail DOT com

Tea said...

I like Wally Lamb's habit of telling the people he loves that he loves them.

teakettle58atyahoodotcom

Margie said...

I have your blog in my Favorites list and come here often to see what is going on.

mtakala1 AT yahoo DOT com

Tea said...

I blogged about Wishin' And Hopin' and linked back to you.

http://readwithtea.blogspot.com/2009/11/wishin-and-hopin-by-wally-lamb.html

Tea said...

I already follow you on Google.

Beth (BBRB) said...

My worst habit is... procrastination. Also, Pringles.

I haven't had a Pringle in ages!

BethsBookReviewBlog AT gmail DOT com

Beth (BBRB) said...

I'm a Google Friend Connect follower.

BethsBookReviewBlog AT gmail DOT com

Anonymous said...

I follow on Google Connect.

bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com

Reading said...

Billy Bob Thorton is a great choice!!

lizzi0915 at aol dot com

Reading said...

I follow on Google friend connect.

lizzi0915 at aol dot com

Wrighty said...

I can't wait to read this book! His stories are so touching and since this is a holiday book it sounds extra good.

I think it's very funny that he would be mail carrier or shrink. All three careers know a lot about the people they deal with!

5wrights1[at]verizon[dot]net

Wrighty said...

I'm a follower and have you on my blog roll.

5wrights1[at]verizon[dot]net

tami1969 said...

He loves is wife...how sweet!!! But no hickies....at least that what he said at the signing at UCONN!!
tshclipper69@charter.net

Deb K said...

I learned that he is fascinated and spooked by Komodo dragons!

deb55106(at)gmail(dot)com

Deb K said...

I follow through Google Friend Connect.

deb55106(at)gmail(dot)com

jrs said...

I learned he is disorganized.

jrs0020 AT gmail DOT com

jrs said...

I tweeted about the giveaway:
http://twitter.com/ferbird/status/5638894194

jrs said...

I follow via google friend connect.

jrs0020 AT gmail DOT com

Debbie F said...

Fun Fact:
A perfect day would include...

a reunion with my whole family, the living and the deceased.

I must agree - that would be a good day!

dcf_beth at verizon dot net

Debbie F said...

Follow on Google Reader and Google Friend Connect!

thanks
dcf_beth at verizon dot net

Jaime said...

The song title that best describes me is...
“Ball of Confusion.”
copperllama at yahoo dot com

Jaime said...

I'm a google friend
copperllama at yahoo dot com

Debs Desk said...

I think it is great that the song title that best describes Wally Lamb is Ball of Confusion.
Thanks
Debbie
debdesk9(at)verizon.net

Debs Desk said...

I am a follower on Google Connect.
Thanks
Debbie
debdesk9(at)verizon.net

brokenteepee said...

He loves pringles...mmmmm
thank you
kaiminani at gmail dot com

brokenteepee said...

I follow on google friend connect
thank you
kaiminani at gmail dot com

ossmcalc said...

I learned that his first crush was
Miss Farrell, his second-grade teacher. She had strawberry-blond hair and smelled like vanilla.

thank you,

Christine
womackcm@sbcglobal.net

ossmcalc said...

I tweeted about this giveaway.

thank you,

Christine
womackcm@sbcglobal.net

ossmcalc said...

I follow on Google Connect.

Thank you,

Christine
womackcm@sbcglobal.net

Unknown said...

I blogged this giveaway:

Giveaways

Aimala127 AT gmail DOT com

CherylS22 said...

I found out that his greatest love is…his wife, Christine.
Thanks ~ megalon22{at}yahoo{dot}com

CherylS22 said...

I follow in GFC
megalon22{at}yahoo{dot}com

Nancye said...

He said that if he hadn't become a writer he would have been "a mail carrier or a shrink."

nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net

Nancye said...

I'm a loyal follower on Google

nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net

Nancye said...

Tweet! Tweet!

http://twitter.com/NancyeDavis/status/6151431415

nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net

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