I don’t normally do a separate post to announce winners, but I was pretty excited about both the Pope Joan  and the Catching Fire  contests. So here we are.

On a random note, why do I insist on pounding a key on my keyboard multiple times when I know the key won’t work like I want?

Okay, back to the giveaway winners.

For Pope Joan, I had two copies to give away. The winnners are:

Debbie from Suburban Sanity (who has a fantastic header, by the way…not that I’m biased or anything)

and

bridget3420

Don’t forget, you need to buy the book and mail the author your receipt to be entered into the red carpet drawing! Why do you think I bought an extra copy to give away?

For the Catching Fire  giveaway, I’m especially excited. In fact, I’ve been able to find a SECOND copy of Catching Fire  to give away because I pretty much want everyone to READ THIS BOOK NOW. If I could be a bully, I wouldn’t hesitate to bully people into reading books. Kidding! Bullying isn’t funny. Even when it’s about books.

Okay, so the winners are…

Wendy Cleveland

and

Chloe

Congratulations everyone! I am/will be emailing everyone for their mailing address.

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross has been on my Favorite Books of All-Time since…well, since I read it. I read it long before I had a blog, so I have no review for you. You’ll just have to take my word for it. What’s it about? Well, I’m glad you asked!

Pope Joan takes a very small piece of unknown Catholic history and imagines how the story actually happened. According to the author, for hundreds of years (up until the middle of the 17th century), this woman’s papacy was believed and taught as truth. Why is that interesting? Because Pope Joan is a WOMAN. The Catholic Church would have never knowingly installed a female pope, so how did it happen? This is the story that the author tells and imagines.

Do I have you intrigued yet?

There’s some great questions and answers on the author’s website, such as “How would it have been possible for a woman to pass herself off as a man for so long and under such circumstances?” These Q&As are really fascinating; you should go check them out!

Pope Joan has been made into a movie (though there’s no release date for the United States, yet)! To celebrate this, the author is having a fantastic contest! You can join the author and her family as they walk the red carpet on the night of the Pope Joan movie premiere! Get all the details from the author’s website, but here’s how you can enter:

Simply buy a new, Three Rivers Press/Crown Publishing paperback edition of Pope Joan by August 9 and send me the original receipt. In August, I’ll pick randomly from the pile of receipts to select someone and their guest to join me at the U.S. movie premiere in the fall (exact date still to be determined).

The author has graciously offered a book to give away here, and I have decided to match her offer. That means I have TWO copies of Pope Joan to give away. Unfortunately, neither copies will get you entered to possibly go to the movie premiere, so I suggest you buy a copy and THEN enter for the giveaway, because surely you’ll be able to find someone to pass along your extra copy to.

(for you lazy bums, you can buy Pope Joan from Powell’s, Amazon, or any local independent bookstore)

To enter the contest, simply answer this question: What’s one book you’ve read that you think is great but no one seems to have even heard about? If you don’t answer this question, your entry will be removed.

Extra entries:

+1 for Twittering, Stumbling, or otherwise doing whatever you can to let others know about this fantastic giveaway (blog posts, sidebars, emails to friends with me cc’d, etc). Please leave a comment for each additional entry. You should know I check each additional entry and read each and every comment, so no cheating!

This contest will be open through August 1, 2009 and is open internationally.

Rules strictly enforced under the threat of tickling.

I loved The Hunger Games. No, make that I LOVED The Hunger Games. I loved it so much that I told everyone I knew about it. I loved it so much that I was bummed when Scholastic had a contest where you could write an essay about something (I don’t remember what, exactly, you had to write about, and the contest is gone from the site) and if you were picked, you’d get to go see Suzanne Collins. But you had to be between the ages of 12 and 17 (I think that was the age range), and, well, let’s just say I’m at least of drinking age.

Then when I heard there would be ADVANCE COPIES of Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games, at BEA in New York, I cried because I couldn’t go to New York. I thought maybe I should write a post about how I want to have Suzanne Collins’ babies, because then maybe she would scrounge up a copy for me. But then I realized that I’m no one in a sea of fans, and besides, she probably doesn’t need my womb for her babies. And it’s kind of creepy. But I’m willing to risk creepy to snag a copy of Catching Fire.

I DID get to go to BEA and I DID get a copy of Catching Fire and I read it in almost one sitting (I would have read it in one sitting but my plane ride wasn’t long enough). I was worried that the sequel wouldn’t be as good as the first book. I was worried that I had built up the potential of the sequel so much in my head that there was no way the author could deliver what I was expecting.

I was wrong.

Catching Fire was fantastic. I loved it! Suzanne Collins does a great job of developing Katniss’ character and keeping up the tension in the triangle with Peeta and Gale. I’m not going to tell you any more than that after the book is released on September 1, 2009.

But for right now, I’m giving away a copy of both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. This way, if you haven’t read The Hunger Games you can still enter the contest and you won’t have to wait until September 1st for book two. And if you have read The Hunger Games, you can still enter the contest.

Everyone has a level playing field for this contest: Leave a comment on this post answering this question: What would you give up to read Catching Fire? If you haven’t read The Hunger Games yet, then tell me if you’ve ever been at a midnight release party for a book. (I ask because I think I might do that for Catching Fire.)

This contest will be open through July 31st and is open internationally.

(I know I’m well past the due date for picking winners, but hopefully you’ll forgive me!)

Before I announce the winners of The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams, I’d like to point out that you can become a fan of The Chosen One on Facebook. You should go do that right now before you even see if you’re a winner. Probably if you do that you’ll come back to find you’re a winner. Karma and all that.

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Ready? Me too! Here’s the 10 winners from The Chosen One contest:

1. Chris from book-a-rama
2. Stephanie from Stephanie’s Books
3. Jenners from Find Your Next Book Here
4. Helen
5. Jennifer Blanton from My Not So Hurried Life
6. Emily from The World Inside My Head
7. Kirsten from Folio Files
8. Anne Taylor
9. Jessica Danger from This Dangerous Life
10. Michelle Iliescu

Congratulations everyone! All winners will be contacted by email. If you didn’t win, I insist you go out and buy the book. Heck, here’s a couple of links if you’re lazy: Powell’s | Amazon

The Chosen One
by Carol Lynch Williams
213 pages
Published May 12, 2009
Fiction, young adult

I’m rarely left speechless after reading a book, but this book left me speechless. The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams is about Kyra, a 13-year-old girl who lives on a compound run by one prophet. This prophet (or I should say “The Prophet” with finger quotes) controls everything about these followers’ lives, including having made them burn all their books, because books carry the word of Satan (in case you didn’t know).

Kyra has one dad, three moms, and 19 brothers and sisters. She’s a precocious 13 year old, wandering outside of the fenced-in compound. One day when she’s walking on the road outside of the compound, a mobile library drives past her and the driver nods in acknowledgement. Kyra becomes obsessed with finding out when the mobile library will drive by again, and despite her going to the same place every day that she first saw the mobile library, it’s not until a week later that the mobile library drives by again. Kyra nods back in acknowledgement, but the van keeps driving. The third time Kyra sees the van, the van stops and offers her a library card. Despite being able to check out four books at a time, she only takes one book that the librarian recommends because books are banned on the compound and one book is easier to hide than four.

Kyra’s been doing other things that she shouldn’t, like secretly meeting with one of the boys on the compound for the last year. If they were caught, the consequences would be severe.

When The Prophet comes to visit Kyra’s family, Kyra’s dad thinks he’ll finally be appointed as an apostle. Apostles get to live in actual houses on the compound, as opposed to the rickety trailers that the followers live in. Kyra’s uncle is an apostle, so the family is practically giddy with the news they think The Prophet is bringing.

The Prophet, though, isn’t bringing news for Kyra’s dad. Instead, he visits the family to tell them he saw in a vision that Kyra was to marry her uncle, one of the apostles.

Who’s 60 years old.

And already has six wives.

Did I mention this guy is her uncle?

I guess she’d not only be mother to her children, but auntie as well. Reminds me of that song, “I’m my own grandpa.”

And this is where the books gets mind-blowingly good. What should Kyra do? It’s not as easy as just escaping from the compound. If she leaves, her dad could have his family taken away from him. Is one person’s freedom worth ruining the lives of 20+ people? But is Kyra obligated to stay in a situation where she’ll be married to her uncle and miserable, just for the sake of not only staying with their family, but so that her actions don’t affect them?

This book brings up a great moral dilemma: If your happiness and personal freedom meant ruining the lives of 20+ people, is it worth it? What if you were on the other end, and it was your life that was going to be ruined if someone made a particular choice? Would you hope the person would sacrifice for the greater good?

The Chosen One was well written, though there was one part in the end that didn’t ring true for me, and this part is what kept this book from getting a perfect rating from me. Other than this one little itty bitty piece, Carol Lynch Williams is a great storyteller, ratcheting up the suspense until my heart was beating wildly as I watched the story unfold. You must read this book!

Rating: 98 out of 100

Buy The Chosen One from Powell’s | Buy The Chosen One from Amazon

I’ve got a great contest for you! Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, I’ve got 10, TEN! copies of The Chosen One to give away. To be entered in the drawing, leave a comment telling me whether you think polygamy should be legalized (I blatantly stole this question from Maw Books, but it’s a great question!). If you don’t answer this question, you will be disqualified.

For an extra entry, you can:

• tweet about this giveaway
• stumble this post
• let me know you follow my blog (this is my way of thanking you for sticking with me!)

For five extra entries, you can:

• blog about this giveaway
• email five friends invitations to this giveaway and cc me on the email (trish at heylady dot net)

For each entry, please leave a separate comment. For the entries that give you 5 extra entries, I will tally those separately, all you need to do is leave one comment.

Contest is only open to US and Canada, and the contest will end June 17th at midnight, PST. Good luck!

Other reviews:

Maw Books

The Story Siren

Booking Mama

Reviewer X

Becky’s Book Reviews (author interview)

State of Denmark