Recommendations from the Literary Giveaway

Happy July 4^th weekend, for those in the U.S.!

I was thrilled — and a little overwhelmed – by the response to the Literary Giveaway.  I had no idea this would generate the response it did: 76 entries!  Thanks again to Leeswammes for her great idea.  I signed up for a lot of freebies, found some cool new blogs, and now I wait to find out if I won anything.

I promised to keep my Giveaway open until the 10^th, so you won’t hear from me right away.  But I’m really excited to pick the winners!  I’m also excited to visit your blogs.  If you signed up in the last few days, know that I’m trying to visit the blogs of everyone who signed up.

Since my geekiness extends not only to books but to spreadsheets and numbers, you might be interested to know that I received 42 entries for Oryx and Crake, 23 for The Eyre Affair, and 17 for Return of the Native.  There’s some overlap where people said they’d accept any of the books or two of the three.

I was impressed by the wide range of book recommendations people provided with their entry.  A few were books I’d read before and loved, such as Angela’s Ashes, Game of Thrones, The Princess Bride and High Fidelity.

But most were books I’d never heard of.  Most frequently recommended (with three votes) was The Bird Sisters, by Rebecca Rasmussen.  Four books came with two recommendations:  The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon, The Help by Stockett, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Franklin, and Before I Go to Sleep by Watson.

After that, everyone had different recommendations, which surprised me.  Some books that I know nothing about, but am intrigued by the titles, are Good Evening Mrs. Craven, Daughters of the River Huong, The Violets of March, Galore, The Memory Palace.  And my absolute favorite title, Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem.  What do you think?  Are any of these books that should go on my TBR list (obviously ONE of you thinks so).

So thanks to all for your participation, especially to my new subscribers!  I’ll announce the three winners on the 11^th.  In the meantime, I’m off to the great state of Wisconsin to visit my sister and her family.  I always prefer the 4^th of July in Wisconsin to the 4^th in Washington, DC.  Better weather, fewer crowds, and I get to see my nieces!  Two days off work doesn’t hurt either.

In the meantime, I’m still plugging away at War and Peace and Clash of Kings.  Both good but it was maybe a mistake to read two such lengthy books at one time.  This weekend we also get new releases from Deanna Raybourn and Gail Carriger, which are set to be delivered to my Kindle tomorrow.  Just in time for my flight.

Hope you all enjoy your holiday and I’ll be back next week.