Oscars Schmoscars...Gimme a Book!!!***CONTEST***

WIN BIG AT DI'S BOOK BLOG, ETC.!!!!

Good:

Better:

Best:

Who needs to get all dolled up in a dress that requires three weeks of starvation, a concave stomach and ribs that could cut glass? Who needs to worry about shoes that make you tower over your red carpet companion (are you listening Nicole Kidman?) Who really needs to borrow diamonds that cost more than the average mansion?

Win big here at Di's Book Blog, etc!!!! I have not one, not two, but SIX COPIES of My Soul To Keep by Melanie Wells to give away to deserving readers. My Soul to Keep was just published on February 5 and comes in very cool packaging that is consistent with the plot of the book.

On Friday, February 29 (because that's such a cool day, being that it only comes along once every four years), I will randomly select the winners from those who comment. People who suggested the title for the contest...Diane of Carp(e) Libris Reviews and Christine from What-a-Mother...have already received TWO entries to the contest. Christine slyly slipped her suggestion to me via e-mail because a) she thought people would think it was dumb; b) she is REALLY Diane of Carp(e) Libris Reviews!!! What do you think?

Here's how to enter:

1. Comment on this entry - say anything and your name will be entered ONCE in the drawing.

2. Make a funny, witty, interesting or thought provoking comment - dazzle me with your brilliance and your name will be entered TWICE in the drawing.

3. Link to my contest in YOUR blog - a linky will get you THREE entries in the drawing as well as my deep appreciation. (Be sure to let me know if you do this so I can give you the additional entries.)

Is this too complicated? I don't care...it's my contest and it doesn't require tuxedo-clad representatives from Price Waterhouse Coopers to tabulate the results. So, let the games begin!!!!

Di

Comments

[Diane]

You are such a hoot! I know, I know. This is not my third entry as I have already accumulated two (unless I AM Christine. Okay, I'm kidding. I don't want to tick the real Christine off for stealing her entries.)

Let's just say if I win, I am not giving a speech, although I may quietly thank the Academy. (You like me! You really like me!)

[Deborah]

I was so happy that Marion won Best Actress for La Vie En Rose. Such an AMAZING performance! The story was quite tragic, but the acting was superb. Magnificent!

I would love to be included in your drawing. Thank you!

dbstout(at)juno(dot)com

[Laura K]

O, this is too funny for words! I wish to thank God first because he's ever in my life. Without him, I am nothing. Next thanks, Mom, for cheering me on from the sidelines growing up- I know you're in heaven giving subtle boots in the patootie!

Thanks Dad and pesky younger brother Bob. You are my current champions!

Thank you, thank you, thank YOU!!!

[Laura K]

O, this is too funny for words! I wish to thank God first because he's ever in my life. Without him, I am nothing. Next thanks, Mom, for cheering me on from the sidelines growing up- I know you're in heaven giving subtle boots in the patootie!

Thanks Dad and pesky younger brother Bob. You are my current champions!

Thank you, thank you, thank YOU!!!

[Annie]

Hey, thanks for the comment on my blog. When I managed to find you (the link you left with your name wouldn't give me a good enough shove in the right direction dang it) I saw this totally worth it contest going on.. so I'm there! I'm all over it! And for thought provoking ...

If a half a chicken laid a half an egg in half an hour, then how many 6 inch pancakes does it take to cover a small dog coop?

Yeah, I know. Have fun with that one. And, if you google it, I'm sure you will come up with my hubby's blog.. it's his favorite mind boggler!

But, for the funny/witty thing.. I'm all witted out. I bought those 60 watters from the store with the 2 year guarantee, and I managed to blow a 4 pack in 1 week. My mind must be in overdrive, which is par for the course. So, forgive me for not leaving some funnies, or smarties.. or whatever you like to call it!

Oh, but for double the brownie points, I even blogged and linked to your contest. I'm such a teacher's pet. Really. I am. Here's the link...
Click Click Click.. Yes! Click ME!!!

No, really. Click it. I insist. :D

[Annie]

UGH! All that Click Click Click went boom, the link didn't take like it should have when I went and coded it. BLEH!

Anyway.. here's the long way around.. so sorry! Make sure to take the spaces out, I didn't want it to stretch your comments section (if yours works that way).

pioneeringinpa.blogspot.com/2008/02/
giveaways-galore.html

[Tara]

I would LOVE to be able to dazzle you with my wit and fascinating banter but unfortunately my brain seems to have wilted under the strain for caring for my three small children and the fact that I haven't slept through the night in over 5 years. You'll just have to trust me that I really am very funny. Really.

[Cindi Hoppes]

Hello, What a wonderful book site you have! I am happy to have discovered you. One of my most favorite Bible verses is ~
"Be Still and Know That I am God!" That is my thought provoking comment. Please enter me in your fantastic book drawing. I certainly appreciate it. Cindi

[Lulu]

Any funny, witty, interesting or thought provoking comments I might have made were sucked up by my very active 11-month old twins. It's all I can do to manage typing the correct letters on the keypad while they jump their happy little selves senseless on their new jumperoo. Thanks to my MIL who purchased this item for their birthday. I never thought I would be thanking my MIL, but there it is. Oh, have I gone off topic? See, minimum brain cells at work here. I need to get back in touch with the real world and start reading books with pulpy pages, not squishy ones.

[Lori]

Too tired to type... :)

[Lilacspecs]

Ooh, so glad I caught this on Jentje's blog. I'm always desperate for some good reading in English, although I have to admit, I was a bit querulous regarding the packaging of the book...after all, the thought of using someon's sould to wrap a book is kind of cruel, don't you think?

[badkelly]

I'm just really glad that the housewifey character is wearing underwear! WOAH!

[And Another Book Read]

So at first I wasn't going to enter because the book intro was freaking me out... but it kept nagging at me - or maybe that was you!!! reminding me to!!!! So I've looked into the story line further and now I HAVE TO read it. So please, please enter me into the contest. I'm even going to update my blog - and add the link for an extra couple of chances.

[Annette]

Oops - the posted by "And another book read" should be http://ncsamborskis.blogspot.com/ - so sorry. The link it up and it works! Thanks and I look forward to that congratulations email!!!! Have a great day.

[Maribeth]

What more can a mother ask for, slippers, a foot rest and a pretty little hat. Add a book and we got perfection.
:)Maribeth

[Melanie Wells]

Okay, this is hysterical. Someone sent me this link. You get MY prize for most creative book promotion, like, ever. (I'd send you a free book, but clearly, you are stocked.)

Thanks for the plug - and I do love the art, especially. My grandmother used to have one of those hair dryers.

rock on.
Melanie Wells

[SUSIE SEXTON]

LIFE'S IMITATION OF ART--OR VICE VERSA?

Regarding NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THERE WILL BE BLOOD (inspired by Upton Sinclair's 1927novel, OIL!), and IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH (based upon actual events), eager consumers/customers queue up at bookstore cash registers, movie ticket box offices, and DVD rental shops for doses of violence--or enlightenment? Daily, the senselessness of human cruelty is thrown into our faces with every turn of a newspaper page, click of a mouse, or flick of a remote control. Muslims and Iraqi puppies handily disposed of as we voyeuristically watch. Pulp fiction emerges as telling reality while lunching at Wendy's, browsing at Von Maur's, purchasing underwear at Lane Bryant's, or matriculating like a herd of cattle into almost any college/university lecture hall or classroom. Ah, yes--massacres occurring right and left during this recent season, this HUNTING season, where annihilation of Life reaches commonplace status.

All three mentioned movies might be categorized as extolling violence, but none of them, nor the blood-letting depicted, conjures comparatively as much audience quaking as once did those rough walks home from school while taunted and harassed by snot-nosed bullies. Remember? These films astonish with their eerily accurate portrayals of the human condition and resonate with total horrible believability. Villains seem difficult to easily identify as life-forces swirl randomly around all characters' interactions.

Classic novels once followed the rules of triangular structure, i.e. introduction, climax and conclusion. "Once upon a time" followed by build-up to a significant crisis/dilemma resolved itself into a denouement of "happily ever after". Modern fiction nearly uniformly breaks from that pattern and for good reason.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN recently garnered the Oscar and, thus, alerted the public to the film's existence--with mixed results. Advice? View this quirky cinematic endeavor as "a real page-turner", for the Coen Brothers innovatively transferred the movie's script from author Cormac McCarthy's galley proofs somewhat directly to the screen. How dare any of us sanctimoniously sniff that "the book is better than the movie" when the book IS the movie, though no longer held in your own two hands nor upon your lap?

This trilogy of 2007 cinematic terror hammers home important themes--allow Muslims to be Muslims, Christians to be Christians, armies to be armies, corporations to be corporations, politicians to be politicians, tribes to be tribes, cults to be cults marching to the beat of the drummer heard, whether singly, in pairs, groups, or clusters. Beware though, upon review of the films, several troubling questions tenaciously haunt the mind. Does group-think somehow create more monsters than usual, either as part of the cliques/gangs themselves--or consequentially produce loners, mavericks, rebels, loose cannons quite simply frustrated with the collective status quo? Also, the ultimate query remains that time-honored cliche' "Which came first?"...(Forget the chicken or the egg) violence or the movies?

As NO COUNTRY'S dispassionate slaughter-house-foreman-type dispatcher of death, Spaniard Javier Bardem, that soulful skillful young coin-flipping actor, demands of a cross-sectional bewildered member of the family-of-man, " Call it, friendo!"