I still have a few copies of the Vintage Classics edition of A Brief History of Montmaray. I’m sure they’d be happier spending Christmas with someone who’d appreciate them than sitting by themselves in a dark box in my wardrobe, so I’m having a holiday book giveaway this week.
For a chance to win one of these three books, leave a comment below telling us about a good read for the holidays. I’ll leave it up to you to define ‘good read’ and ‘holidays’. (As for me, I’m thinking that if I have some spare reading time these holidays, I’d like to try the first book of the Mapp and Lucia series by E. F. Benson, and maybe Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome.)
Conditions of entry:
1. This is an international giveaway. Anyone can enter.
2. Make sure the email address you enter on the comment form is a valid email account that you check regularly, so I can contact you if you win (no one will be able to see your email address except me, and I won’t show it to anyone else). Please don’t include your real residential or postal address anywhere in the comment. However, it would be nice if you mentioned which country you live in, because I’m curious about who reads this blog.
3. The three winners will be chosen at random, unless there are three or fewer comments – in which case, it won’t be random and all will win prizes.
4. This contest and/or promotion is not sponsored or authorised by Random House Australia. Random House Australia bears no legal liability in connection with this contest and/or promotion. (My Australian publishers say I have to put this bit in.)
5. Entries close at the end of Saturday, 1st of December, 2012. The winners will be emailed then, and I will send off the winners’ books as soon as possible after that. (Winners should receive the books before Christmas, but I can’t guarantee it.)
This giveaway has now closed. The winners can be found here.
WOW, thanks and count me in – I love the look of the vintage edition and would love to win.
I love the Mapp and Lucia when I read them. And the Mapp and Lucia series from England is also wonderful. You can probably still rent them since they are classics.
But Swallows and Amazons is a good choice, too.
[Alex, I hid your email address because I didn’t want you getting spammed. WordPress has been extremely spammy lately! Note to everyone: You don’t have to type your email address in the body of your comment – just make sure it’s in the ‘Email’ box marked with the little star, at the top of the comment form, so it stays hidden. Michelle]
Ooh, I love the vintage version! Anyways, a good holiday read…my good holiday reads tend to be less about the holidays and more about what I consider to be comforting and familiar and lovely, so generally old (perhaps childhood) favorites. “The Blue Castle” by L.M. Montgomery, or Jean Webster’s “Daddy-Long-Legs”. Nothing groundbreaking, but they make me feel happy and warm all over for a couple hours. 🙂
Oops, meant to mention where I’m from: the United States. 🙂
Best holiday reads definitely have to be Morris’ Disappearing Bag by Rosemary Wells and The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum, both put me in the holiday spirit.
Hi! I’m Emily from Pennsylvania. I love rereading old children’s classics over the holidays – I’m going to read E. Nesbit’s “The House of Arden” this month, and my young boys and I are reading “The Hobbit” aloud at bedtime.
Hello, I’m Lea from Switzerland. I love reading Jill Mansell’s books during Christmas time, because they are very heartwarming and funny. “Rumour has it”, “Solo” and “Perfect timing” are probably my favourites. If I have some time to spare, I will probably also re-read Khaled Hosseini’s “A thousand splendid suns” and Sadie Jones’ “The Outcast” – those are less comforting, but they really drew me in and were, in general, riveting.
I’m Abby from North Carolina, and I’m going to reread Cornelia Funke’s adorable When Santa Fell to Earth this holiday season. It is certainly a different twist on Santa!
Hello, I’m Cassy from Canada, and a few of my favourite books to read during the holidays include The book of Holiday Awesome by Neil Pasricha, any Hercule Poirot mystery by Agatha Christie, or one of my favourite childhood books including anything by L.M Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder, or Roald Dahl. Harry Potter and the Narnia books too. I guess my favourite books to read during this time are the uplifting happy, humorous, and interesting ones that remind me of simpler times and transform us to magical places!
Thanks for the giveaway!
Well, I hadn’t really thought about holiday reading yet, but two options appeal to me:
1. Follow up my recent rereading of The Hobbit with The Lord of the Rings – many years since I last read these, and all-time childhood favourites!
2. Get on with reading my Man Booker Prize collection – I can’t read this years winner Bring Up the Bodies yet because I still haven’t gotten round to reading Wolf Hall…
But then again, I might just revert to tried and true easy reading detective novels – Agatha Christie, Kerry Greenwood and Elizabeth George always make for good, relaxing reads!
Oh, I’m from Melbourne, Australia – hence the Kerry Greenwood reference 🙂
Hi, this is Lidya from Sydney, Australia.
Being a gamer of World of Warcraft, my kind of good read is WoW novels.
I have the whole collection of them, always buy the latest novel to add to my library.
Being a stay at home mum to a 11-old-months baby, “holiday” is the time when I get to have time away from the baby, which hardly happens as we live away from family and relatives. He’s getting older and more understanding so I’m hoping my holiday will come soon.
I’m from America and I’m planning on rereading (for the millionth time) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. 🙂
P.S. Your books are wonderful <3
I plan to read A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck, I love the December chapter with its totally hilarious Christmas pagenat scene. I love the Christmas parts in Anne of Gabels, Little Women and other ‘old fashion’ books. I usually read over those parts around Christmas, but I get so into the book I go back and start to read the whole thing.
I was also thinking a Agatha Christie because I read somewhere her new books would come out on Christmas day. I seems like a nice tradition.
Hello Michelle,
I live in Philadelphia, PA USA, and I love your books. Just re-read FitzOsbornes at War, and still teared up at what happened to Henry. Are there any plans to publish Rage of Sheep in the US? There doesn’t seem to be a copy on my continent.
Anyway – holiday reading.Here is my shortlist.
Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising. I nearly always read it at this time of year – but so do a lot of other people.
Oak King and the Ash Queen, by Ann Phillips. Sadly out of print – and I do not understand why, as it is wonderful.
Christmas Carol, by You Know Who. I also love to listen to the solo performance of it by Patrick Stewart.
I love Swallows and Amazons, but would be more likely to go for Winter Holiday at this time of year.
And this is not particularly holidayish, but I often read Farley Mowat’s Lost in the Barrens in December.
I realize that most of these books involve lots of snow. I grew up in Vermont, not far from the Canadian border, where snow was an important fact of life. I am wondering whether the snowy stuff would appeal as much to someone who didn’t grow up dealing with it, as I did.
As I already have a copy of the US edition of Brief History of Montmaray, I will not be in the least upset if I do not win, But I wanted to register my appreciation of your work. What will you write next?
many thanks,
Megan Lembke
Hello, just popping in here to answer your questions, Megan. There are no plans to release The Rage of Sheep in the US, but if you’re really keen you can order the paperback from Australia. However, I should warn you it’s nothing like the Montmaray books! You’ll also find some (very vague) musings about my next book here. Thanks, and I’m glad you enjoyed the Montmaray series!
Firstly, what a lovely cover and lovely giveaway! I loved ABHOM more than I can say, and I’d love to reread it in this vintage edition.
For my holiday reads…I do have a favorite (as I classify it) cheesy teenage romance that spans a few years and always has significant Christmas happenings in it, and I try to reread it every Christmas: Winter Dreams, Christmas Love by Mary Francis Shura. In addition to that, this year I think I will reread The Hobbit (after I see the movie; if I read it first, I will see any and all inconsistencies too clearly).
I’m from California and I am massively enjoying the FitzOsbournes series. 🙂
Hi I’m from Western Australia and I love reading you books (I think your books should be classics). To me the holidays are when I don’t have to go to school and get go travelling away from home.
Good books that I enjoy reading and will be rereading are; Harry Potter series by J.K.Rowling (my brother responsible for this),To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (in my copy on the second page theres a quote that says ‘lawyers,I suppose, were children once’ GREAT)and The Golden Day by Ursula Dubosarky (she is a great australian author and story teller).
By coincidence, my holiday reading (that I’m receiving for Christmas) will be the first three books in the Mapp and Lucia series. And I can’t wait!! I’ve already read Mapp and Lucia and it was wonderful. I live in Melbourne, Australia and counting the days to my Christmas break to just chill out doing my favourite thing – reading.
My father started me on Swallows and Amazons when I was very young. Brilliant series. I still have some of his original books from when he was a child. Hopefully my daughter will be able to start reading them next year as well.
Little Women is a great book, one to read anytime, especially holidays…
From Australia.
Id love to win this.
My top choices have already been mentioned–Anne of Green Gables & The Dark is Rising–but I also like to read Tales of the South Pacific around this time of the year. Mainly because it’s the darkest time of the year and the sunlight and surf of a South Pacific island sounds like heaven. I also really like The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
I’ve already won a copy of Brief History here so please do not enter me into the drawing.
It’s interesting that lots of people have commented with what they like to reread. I’m more likely to reread old favourites during the semester, when things are more busy and stressful. During the holidays, I like to things I haven’t read before – so, new books! But I generally make a point of reading Georgette Heyer novels, and a book by Patricia A McKillip, if I can find one.
If I were to recommend a good book for the holidays, I’d recommend The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice.
I’m from Melbourne.
So, these are really books for any time of the year, but are still wonderful for curling up with when it’s cold outside:
The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton
The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
Both will sweep you away.
Thanks for the contest! I’m reading the second FitsOsbourne book now and enjoying every page. Your writing is smart and lovely. I’ve become friends with many of your characters- Henry and I are especially close. ^.^
Hi! My name is Barbara and I’m from Florence, in Italy!
One of my friends read your books and she told me they are amazing, so I thought I’d give this giveaway a try!
I’m so looking forward Christmas holidays this year because, what with university and my job, I’ve had no time to read! So I’m planning to read as many books as I can. I want to finish my Game of Thrones series that is waiting for me on my bedside table, but I also want something more… happy… so I think A Brief History of Montmaray would be the perfect Christmas treat!
Love from Italy!
Hi, I’m from Serbia, I love your books and I’d like to enter! 🙂
Oh, sorry, I just saw it says the contest is open till 1st of December. Er, it’s still Saturday where I am, does that count?
These holidays, I am looking forward to finishing The Casual Vacancy and The Price of Altruism, as well as reading the North American edition of The FitzOsbornes at War if I can get my hands on it. I am also hoping to find some Le Carre novels – there’s nothing like a good Cold War spy scandal and some hot chocolate on a cold day!
Swallows and Amazons is lovely, by the way. Haven’t read the Mapp and Lucia series, but they sound like fun.