Book review/Giveaway/CLOSED: Corked: A Memoir by Kathryn Borel

This month Anna Balassi over at Hachette has sent me some off-center but really interesting titles to read AND giveaway!

Like win? Like odd biographies? You're gonna ADORE corked!

Synopsis: Meet Kathryn Borel, bon vivant and undutiful daughter. Now meet her father, Philippe, former chef, eccentric genius, and wine aficionado extraordinaire. Kathryn is like her father in every way but one: she's totally ignorant when it comes to wine. And although Philippe has devoted untold parenting hours to delivering impassioned oenological orations, she has managed to remain unenlightened.

In 2005, 20-something Canadian Borel and her 60-something French-born  father set out by car on a days-long French wine safari. Borel, who works at the Canadian Broadcasting Company, desired a deeper connection to her father, but was also seeking escape from both the aftermath of a recent breakup and slightly older memories of a fatal car accident for which she bore responsibility. The trip's early stages were strained by travel sickness and father-daughter bickering, and as the abundantly detailed tour improved and progressed, the shadow of her father and his mortality fell ever sharper, if sometimes self-consciously. Borel's father has a penchant for public humiliations, who instinctively retreats into inappropriate humor. Borel bears it like a petulant child, which is what she feels like her father is acting like when his tirades begin. The narrative ends in a reconciliation that, like the whole book, is unsentimental, with candor and humor.

This was a great book to LEARN about WINE and WHINE ! Seriously! I think I learned MORE about wine by reading this book (things were explained in a better way) than I have at countless winery tours and wine tastings (I lived south of wine country in California- believe me- I've done the tours! LOL). I would say read this book solely for the oenological education alone! But the WHINE-father/daughter story is also interesting (plus, you can pick up a smattering of French along the way). I have to admit that at times I wanted to tell Borel to get a grip, chug some wine and stop whining and ENJOY France, but that's my personality! Her's is shaped very much by the accident that she never came to grips with. The father-daughter story ahs echoes that everyone will understand- having no interest in what a parent does/over enjoys will resonate with alot of kids who were forced to hear variations of oenological education when they were kids!

If you love wine, want to learn more, or know someone who does, sign up to win this book! It's a handy reference besides being a decent story!

GIVEAWAY:

FIVE lucky readers will receive a copy of Corked!!

ENTRIES:

Make sure I have an email address, with your comment, so I can contact you, if you win! 
If I don't have a way to contact you, you will forfeit your win!

4 day winner's rule : Winner has 4 days to acknowledge they won prize,
and confirm address, if no contact, then new winner will be picked in their place. 

  USA  only  (Hachette can not send to Canada this time-sorry)

No PO Boxes, Hachette's Rules, sorry!

1. Subscribe to the blog (2 entries)
2. Follow this blog on Google Friend (2 entries)
3. Signed up for the New Year, New Self Program on this Blog (2 entries)  Must have signed up/commented under the Original Post for the NYNS Program! 
4. Follow me on Twitter AND tweet about this contest (3 entries)  (this can be done DAILY for 3 entries PER day)  (if you signed up on the Preview post, you get FIVE entries here! DAILY)
5. Have the “New Year, New Self Program” Button on your blog (3 entries)
6. Put the "Bless Their Hearts Mom" Button on your blog or website (3 entries) 
7. Have the “Pretty in Pink” Button on your blog (3 entries) (if you signed up early on the Preview post, you get FIVE entries here!)
   
8. Blog about this giveaway (5 entries)

Contest will end on March 10th at midnight. Winner will be picked by Random Number (random.org) on March 11th, and emailed. As soon as winners' info is received from winners,  I will let Hachette know their info and they will mail books to the winners directly!

Disclosure: This book was provided for review by the Hachette Publishing Group to me free of charge, thru a link on The Product Review Place. I was not old how to review it however!