ARE YOU LISTENING? A WEEK IN WINTER: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

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

 

GIVEAWAY ENDED
A WEEK IN WINTER

BY MAEVE BINCHY

READ BY ROSALYN LANDOR 

ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK:

Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know one another. When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the windswept Atlantic Ocean and turn it into a restful place for a holiday by the sea, everyone thinks she is crazy. Helped by Rigger (a bad boy turned good who is handy around the house) and Orla, her niece (a whiz at business), Chicky is finally ready to welcome the first guests to Stone House’s big warm kitchen, log fires, and understated elegant bedrooms. John, the American movie star, thinks he has arrived incognito; Winnie and Lillian are forced into taking a holiday together; Nicola and Henry, husband and wife, have been shaken by seeing too much death practicing medicine; Anders hates his father’s business, but has a real talent for music; Miss Nell Howe, a retired schoolteacher, criticizes everything and leaves a day early, much to everyone’s relief; the Walls are disappointed to have won this second-prize holiday in a contest where first prize was Paris; and Freda, the librarian, is afraid of her own psychic visions.
           
Sharing a week with this unlikely cast of characters is pure joy, full of Maeve’s trademark warmth and humor. Once again, she embraces us with her grand storytelling.

AN EXCERPT FROM A WEEK IN WINTER:

Chicky

Everyone had their own job to do on the Ryans’ farm in Stoneybridge. The boys helped their father in the fields, mending fences, bringing the cows back to be milked, digging drills of potatoes; Mary fed the calves, Kathleen baked the bread, and Geraldine did the hens.

Not that they ever called her Geraldine—she was “Chicky” as far back as anyone could remember. A serious little girl pouring out meal for the baby chickens or collecting the fresh eggs each day, always saying “chuck, chuck, chuck” soothingly into the feathers as she worked. Chicky had names for all the hens, and no one could tell her when one had been taken to provide a Sunday lunch. They always pretended it was a shop chicken, but Chicky always knew.

Stoneybridge was a paradise for children during the summer, but summer in the West of Ireland was short, and most of the time it was wet and wild and lonely on the Atlantic coast. Still, there were caves to explore, cliffs to climb, birds’ nests to discover, and wild sheep with great curly horns to investigate. And then there was Stone House. Chicky loved to play in its huge overgrown garden. Sometimes the Miss Sheedys, three sisters who owned the house and were ancient, let her play at dressing up in their old clothes.

To finish reading this excerpt, visit the Random House website HERE. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

MAEVE BINCHY was born in Dublin, and went to school at the Holy Child Convent in Killiney. She took a history degree at UCD and taught in various girls' schools, writing travel articles in the long summer holidays. In 1969 she joined the Irish Times and for many years she was based in London writing humorous columns from all over the world. She was the author of five collections of short stories as well as twelve novels including Circle of Friends, The Copper Beech, Tara Road, Evening Class and The Glass Lake. Maeve Binchy died in July 2012 and is survived by her husband, the writer Gordon Snell.

	Shortly before she died in July 2012, Maeve had finished her last novel, A Week in Winter. It is now published in  the UK and Ireland, and will be available in Canada,  Australia and New Zealand in November. US publication is scheduled for spring, and translations around the  world will follow in the course of 2013.  Maeve Binchy 1940-2012

 

A FEW OF MAEVE BINCHY BOOKS...HOW MANY HAVE YOU READ?

 
  

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
In master storyteller fashion, A WEEK IN WINTER, Maeve Binchey’s last novel, fans are once again taken back to Ireland for a warm, character driven delightful tale. Geraldine "Chicky” Starr despondently returns from New York to her home in Ireland, following an embarrassingly failed relationship. Not wanting to let her family know of her disgrace, she visits yearly while meanwhile honing her cooking and hosting skills in classes in New York in between visits.

After several years of “vacationing” in Ireland, Chicky finds herself a job at a boarding house in Stoneybridge, a small town on the west coast of Ireland. Much to her surprise, Chicky loves it all so much that she decides she wants to finally return for good to build her future there. She buys Stone House from Miss Queenie Sheedy with plans on turning it into a guest hotel. Perched on a high cliff, the rotting mansion overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and could be a perfect holiday inn for vacations by the sea IF Chicky can renovate it before it tumbles into the sea.

With the help of Chicky’s niece, Orla, and Rigger, a handy man type, work begins and soon Stone House is ready to greet guests. In traditional Maeve Binchey style, each guests comes complete with a story of their own to tell. From the Walls who are less than thrilled with their second-prize holiday at Stone House because the first prize was to be in Paris; to John, the movie star trying to stay unrecognized; to the retired school teacher, Miss Nell, who complains about everything, these and other wonderful characters are woven into A WEEK IN WINTER to create one grand and delightful story. Each character finds their stay to be life-changing in some way and their presence in turn, adds to Chicky’s life in one way or another.

Maeve Binchey’s final book will stay with me a long time as the characters reflect her warm and compassionate writing. Her style of story telling will probably never be replicated but thankfully, we have her legacy in all her books to look back upon and remember.  

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO RICHARD AND THE GOOD PEOPLE

AT RANDOM HOUSE AUDIO BOOKS, I HAVE ONE

COPY OF THIS WONDERFUL MAEVE BINCHY,

AUDIO BOOK, A WEEK IN WINTER,

TO GIVE AWAY TO A LUCKY FOLLOWER 
  

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GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
 6 PM, EST, APRIL 4