August Winner & September Pay It Forward Book GIveaway

Hosted by Overwhelmed with Joy
August winner is Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

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Timestamp: 2008-08-30 17:34:31 UTC

Now for September's Book:

'The Hummingbird's Daughter' by Luis Alberto Urrea

It is time for me to join the Pay it Forward Book Exchange. First the rules. To enter, leave me a comment. It’s that simple. If you win, it would be great if you will in turn host a Pay It Forward Book exchange and pass the book on eventually. If you’re a non-blogger who has won the book, please consider donating the book to your local library or shelter after you’re done with it.

OK, now the book. I was given several duplicate copy books as gifts. So I will participate for the next several months to find them good homes. While I haven't read this one yet, I can't see a reason for 2 copies to sit here waiting on me. So I will be giving away a brand new copy of 'The Hummingbird's Daughter' by Luis Alberto Urrea.

You can read more about it at Amazon. From Publishers Weekly Starred Review.

"Her powers were growing now, like her body. No one knew where the strange things came from. Some said they sprang up in her after the desert sojourn with Huila. Some said they came from somewhere else, some deep inner landscape no one could touch. That they had been there all along." Teresita, the real-life "Saint of Cabora," was born in 1873 to a 14-year-old Indian girl impregnated by a prosperous rancher near the Mexico-Arizona border. Raised in dire poverty by an abusive aunt, the little girl still learned music and horsemanship and even to read: she was a "chosen child," showing such remarkable healing powers that the ranch's medicine woman took her as an apprentice, and the rancher, Don Tomás Urrea, took her—barefoot and dirty—into his own household. At 16, Teresita was raped, lapsed into a coma and apparently died. At her wake, though, she sat up in her coffin and declared that it was not for her. Pilgrims came to her by the thousands, even as the Catholic Church denounced her as a heretic; she was also accused of fomenting an Indian uprising against Mexico and, at 19, sentenced to be shot. From this already tumultuous tale of his great-aunt Teresa, American Book Award–winner Urrea (The Devil's Highway) fashions an astonishing novel set against the guerrilla violence of post–Civil War southwestern border disputes and incipient revolution. His brilliant prose is saturated with the cadences and insights of Latin-American magical realism and tempered by his exacting reporter's eye and extensive historical investigation. The book is wildly romantic, sweeping in its effect, employing the techniques of Catholic hagiography, Western fairy tale, Indian legend and everyday family folklore against the gritty historical realities of war, poverty, prejudice, lawlessness, torture and genocide. Urrea effortlessly links Teresita's supernatural calling to the turmoil of the times, concealing substantial intellectual content behind effervescent storytelling and considerable humor."

This giveaway will close 11:59PM September 30th, 2008. A random drawing will be pulled on July 1st and the book will be mailed to the lucky winner shortly after that.