ARE YOU LISTENING? ELEANOR & PARK: A 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
ELEANOR & PARK

BY RAINBOW ROWELL

READ BY REBECCA LOWMAN

AND SUNIL MALHOTRA 

ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK:

Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.
So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be, she says, we’re 16.
What about Romeo and Juliet?
Shallow, confused, then dead.
I love you, Park says.
Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love—and just how hard it pulled you under. 

Eleanor is the new girl in town, and she's never felt more alone. All mismatched clothes, mad red hair, and chaotic home life, she couldn't stick out more if she tried. Then she takes the seat on the bus next to Park. Quiet, careful, and in Eleanor's eyes, impossibly cool, Park's worked out that flying under the radar is the best way to get by. Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall in love. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're 16, and you have nothing and everything to lose.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rainbow Rowell is the author of ATTACHMENTS. She has two novels coming out in 2013 -- ELEANOR & PARK in February and FANGIRL in the fall.

Rainbow lives with her husband and two sons in Omaha, Nebraska. Right at this moment, she is probably arguing with someone about something that doesn't really matter in the big scheme of things -- or trying to figure out how Sherlock faked his death.

Blog and other stuff at rainbowrowell.com. Visit Rainbow Rowell's "Bio" at her website HERE.

ABOUT THE NARRATORS:

Rebecca Lowman is a performer of stage, film, and television. In addition to playing the lead in Eve of Understanding, for which she won Best Actress at the 2006 Boston Film Festival, she has appeared in the television series Burn Notice, Private Practice, Criminal Minds, The Shield, Big Love, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and Will & Grace.

Sunil Malhotra’s film credits include Dude, Where’s the Party?; Call Center; 24; ER; Cold Case; and The West Wing. On stage, he’s performed on Broadway, in Mark Taper Forum’s New Works Festival, and at EastWest Players. He is also a writer and director. His recording of Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese garnered numerous awards, including the AudioFile Earphones Award.

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell was the first book I had read by this author. I was a little hesitant since it is classified YA which I am not. However, it didn’t take 5 minutes of listening to this audio book and I was hooked. ELEANOR & PARK is a delight to listen to. It was nice to relax and hear a good story where the characters felt real and relatable. Rowell does a wonderful job of portraying the time period of the late 1980s and the characters are fleshed out so you feel like you really know them.

Eleanor has a rough home life and is not at all like a “normal” teen. Her ample size and curly red hair single her out and on top of it, the story opens with her being the “new girl” at school. As a former teacher, and from memories of my teens, I KNOW how cruel kids can be with something like this. Park, is Korean and the kids aren’t that bad to him but he doesn’t run in the popular crowd either. They don’t let a chance go by when they don’t play on his ethnicity and include racial slurs. And so these two different teens are both outsiders in their own way and with Rowell telling the story from their alternating points of view, one really gets to know them and feel for them. As the narrative progresses, Eleanor and Park begin to find many things to bond over and so it is easy to see how this story of young love could really happen.

ELEANOR & PARK is a quick read (listen) and one you won’t regret. Rainbow Rowell is a smart author and takes readers back to the eighties and their memories of first love with a certain ease and grace that I will bet makes you want to read more from her. I know it made me feel that way!

 GIVEAWAY 

 THANKS TO RICHARD AND THE GOOD PEOPLE

AT RANDOM HOUSE AUDIO BOOKS, I HAVE ONE

COPY OF THIS DELIGHTFUL AUDIO 

BOOK, ELEANOR & PARK, TO GIVE 

AWAY TO A LUCKY FOLLOWER

  

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

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT ELEANOR & PARK 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 FOUND INTERESTING BY VISITING AUTHOR RAINBOW ROWELL'S WEBSITE HERE 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE OTHER CURRENT GIVEAWAY YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU CAN COMMENT ON EACH ON SEPARATELY AND GAIN MORE ENTRIES THAT WAY

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY

  

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
 6 PM, EST, MARCH 14

  GOOD LUCK!