Book Review and Giveaway: House of Prayer #2 by Mark Richard

** this giveaway is closed ***


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This might seem an odd book giveaway to help start our "Pretty in Pink Bonanza", but there was a WHOLE lotta praying going on before kiddos's arrival, and a whole lot of prayer afterwards. So I looked at the title and had to smile (it's SO Southern), then I picked up the book and read it, and knew I had to tell ya'll about asap! 

Synopsis:  Called a “special child,” Southern social code for mentally—and physically—challenged children, Richard was crippled by deformed hips and was told he would spend his adult life in a wheelchair. During his early years in charity hospitals, Richard observed the drama of other broken boys’ lives, children from impoverished Appalachia, tobacco country lowlands, and Richmond’s poorest neighborhoods. The son of a solitary alcoholic father whose hair-trigger temper terrorized his family, and of a mother who sought inner peace through fasting, prayer, and scripture, Richard spent his bedridden childhood withdrawn into the company of books.

   As a young man, Richard, defying both his doctors and parents, set out to experience as much of the world as he could—as a disc jockey, fishing trawler deckhand, house painter, naval correspondent, aerial photographer, private investigator, foreign journalist, bartender and unsuccessful seminarian—before his hips failed him.  While digging irrigation ditches in east Texas, he discovered that a teacher had sent a story of his to the Atlantic, where it was named a winner in the magazine’s national fiction contest launching a career much in the mold of Jack London and Mark Twain.

About the Author: Mark is the author of two award-winning short story collections, The Ice at the Bottom of the World and Charity, and the novel Fishboy. His short stories and journalism have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, Vogue, and GQ. He is the recipient of the PEN/Hemingway Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and a Whiting Foundation Writer’s Award. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their three sons.

Review: WOW. To think the author's teachers thought he was 'special'. His writing is amazing!  Once you get used to the stream of consciousness method, it makes sense and the book breezes on by. The fact that the author survived his childhood, much less his young twenties is amazing! But what richness for this novel! Some people have called it :Southern Gothic"- I don't think I'd go that far, but it is VERY Southern. Those who were raised in the South will instantly bond with the author and his family, and able to relate to alot of the social moire's of the South that he comes up against.

The author literally had alot of lucky breaks or coincidences that end up shaping his career, and the future of the real House of Prayer #2 (yes, it's a Southern church). In the end it is a book about fate, and perseverance, and pure will, and a book that is NOT to be missed! So I am extremely excited to be able to offer not one but TWO lucky readers the chance for their own copy!

Giveaway:

TWO Winners will each receive their own copy of House of Prayer #2!

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!

USA only

(no PO boxes, sorry Publisher's rules!)

3 day winner's rule : Winner has 3 days to acknowledge they won prize,

and confirm address, if no contact, then new winner will be picked in their place. 

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Contest will end on March 14th, at midnight. Winner will be picked by Random Number (random.org) on March 15th, and emailed. As soon as winners' info is received, I will email their info to Random House, who will mail them their books!

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge, from Random House Publishing, via Book Blogs Ning, for blog review only! No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it.

ISBN: 978-0385534062