Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Hot Fun in the Summer Sun


We would like to welcome our new readers and encourage you all to check in and post a comment, even if it's just to say 'hello.' We'd love to hear from you!

There's a great opportunity to win two books from Moody Publishers going on right now on Twitter. Simply follow @Moodypublishers and post your all-time favorite summer read. Simple! One in fifty who follow will win both books, until supplies run out. Those are fabulous odds!

So imagine you are at your favorite vacation spot. You have a whole week to do (or not do) whatever you want. No pressure. Are you on the beach in Maui, with the breeze cooling your skin and the ocean surging and foaming just a few yards from your cabana? Are you on a deck chair overlooking the startling blue Atlantic cruising to some island in the Caribbean? Or perhaps you're sitting on the porch of a secluded mountain cabin, far from phones and wireless, with birds twittering and the tall pines sighing above you. Are you 'stay-cationing' this year, holed up at home in your favorite chair with the phone off the hook, sitting with your cats in your jammies (you're in your jammies, not your cats)? Now, reach into the bag beside you and pull out a book. It's dog-eared and easily falls open to pages with smudges and crimps in the corners. It's the one you've saved like a delicious reward to read again because it's your all-time favorite read, or it's one that always succeeds in transporting you to another place and/or time, even if you only read your favorite parts. What's the title? Who is the author? Do all her (his) books affect you this way, or are there other reasons that this one is so powerful?

Sometimes I reach for my copy of Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, just to read a few chapters of her life in Florida. "Cross Creek is a bend in a country road, by land, and the flowing of Lochloosa Lake into Orange Lake, by water." This account of her life is pungent with moss and marsh, and the culture of the creek and its people. She calls it "an enchanted land" and convinces me of it. When I close the book, I've had a very nice nini-vacation & a distraction from my to-do list. It's not fiction, but it's a look into the private life of an exceptional fiction author. I wonder what book she had by her side as she sat on her porch at the end of the day?

So, won't you tell us the title of the book in your get-away bag? And follow Moody Publishers on Twitter while you're at it for a chance to add to your stack of summer reads.

7 comments:

Janet said...

Um, I think that should be MoodyPublicity. I am now the one and only follower of MoodyPublishers, till I figured that out. Phooey.

Janet said...

Or better yet, MoodyFiction.

Anonymous said...

Well, my favorite vacation spot would be to go back to Alaska. No hot summer sun for me, thank you very much. And if I were stranded on an iceberg and could have only one novel with me, well it would be...oh, gosh, let me think...no, maybe...this is really hard! (I know you think you know what I'm going to say, but I just finished reading it for the second time), so my next choice would be...no, that's a trilogy so it doesn't qualify. Okay, I'm going to say...here goes...The Sea Wolf by Jack London. And I'm already second guessing myself.

Kathleen Popa said...

I'm about to spend a few days on the Oregon coast, and that well qualifies as an ideal spot. Yes, I'm bringing books - lots of them, because you never know. The novel I'm bringing is My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, a book I'm finally reading because everyone tells me I'll love it. (I do.) But If I were to bring a book to re-read, I think it would be Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. This book affects me like my favorite landscapes, sea and desert. I feel that there is time and space enough for everything, that life is simple and beautiful.

Debbie Fuller Thomas said...

Sorry, Janet, my bad. Thanks for setting us straight.

My most dog-eared book is The Fellowship of the Ring, which I usually read in the fall because that's when the story begins. So, this summer I'm reading again some favorite Daphne DuMaurier books - My Cousin Rachel and Frenchman's Creek. Can't wait!

Loren said...

Hi! I am a follower from New York. The book I'm bringing to the BlogHer Conference in Chicago is Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, a crime thriller (historical fiction) set in Chicago during the time of the World's Fair. Perhaps I can promote Novel Matters in some way while I'm there. Let me know if you have any ideas. I'd be happy to spread the word about your site.

Edna said...

I like to read everyone blogs and love to see it when there is a contest for a free book.


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