I’m very excited for today’s theme. I haven’t hosted a giveaway before (therefore please forgive any faux pas I may commit!) and I think this is a great opportunity to do so. Please visit ArmchairBEA to see other giveaways being hosted today.
I finish my university degree at the end of June. Over the past four years, I’ve acquired many interesting books for courses that I wouldn’t have read otherwise. In the spirit of Armchair BEA and my impending graduation, I thought I would pass on one of these books. I’ve picked five that you can choose from. Each book is very different from the next, but all were read for required courses for my English degree. I hope this shows that not every English major studies just the old classics! Here are the books:
Title: Kipocihkan
Author: Gregory Scofield
Description: Metis poetry in English and Cree (translated) – “charted in this book is Scofield’s journey out of silence”
Course: Canadian Diasporic Literature
Title: Mother Superior
Author: Saleema Nawaz
Description: Seven short stories and two novellas – “a heady blend of misfits and mothers, of sisters and mysterious others”
Course: Introductory English
Title: German Boy
Author: Wolfgang W.E. Samuel
Description: Memoir, growing up in Germany following the aftermath of WWII – “bring[s] fresh insight to the dark history of Nazi Germany and the horror left in its wake”
Course: Autobiographies of Childhood
Title: All Hallows’ Eve
Author: Charles Williams
Description: Supernatural fiction – “Williams used fiction to explore how people react when the supernatural enters their lives, and how then to find the path of peace”
Course: Literary Communities – The Inklings
Title: The Best American Comics 2011
Editor: Alison Bechdel
Description: American comics anthology
Course: Comics and Graphic Novels for Young People
Now – to enter, just let me know which book you would like to win and why. Note all books are paperback, except the comics anthology (hardcover). I will ship to anywhere. You can gain extra entries for sharing in the comments favourite books that you discovered in school. The giveaway will run until Friday at midnight. A winner will be selected randomly and announced on Saturday. Thanks for participating!
Great posy! Id love The Best American comics anthology because I love comics.
I had AP English in high school and I always rembered reading 2 fascinsting books: The Yale Murder and Tally's Corner. Congrats on your first giveaway!
I'd love the best American Comics. The book that stuck with me most from High School was Annie DIllard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek–it is lovely!
Wow, sounds like you read quite a diverse selection of books in your programme (congratulations on completing your degree, by the way! :)) Despite of all of the assignments we had to do in uni, I did discover one favourite classic author: Ivan Turgenev. We were assigned to read Fathers and Sons for my 19c Imperial Russia history course and it turned out to be quite a riveting read. It's still (one of) my favourite Russian classic lit reads to date 🙂
I would like to win Wolfgang Samuel's German Boy partly because the historian in me is curious about that title and what it must have been like to grow up in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.
Thanks for hosting this great giveaway! 🙂
I would love German Boy because my grandparents were from Germany. I always wanted to know more about life in their country.
Very cool books! I would like All Hallows Eve because I read it a long time ago and I'd like to read it again.
Interesting books that school introduced me to … Jane Eyre, Emma, The Scarlet Letter . . . so many!
I would love to read German Boy. I didn't get much out of my education. It didn't foster my love of reading. Most of what I have learned in life I learned on my own. I'm an avid reader of the classics. All of which I have read as an adult. I fell in love with Dickens with Great Expectation. I've since read it to both my children as part of a classical homeschool education. Faulkner, Chesterton, Penn Warren, Austin, Anais Nin…all some of my favorite authors. I look forward to following your blog.
The Best American Comics 2011 – My daughter loves Comics.
I´m interested in German Boy 🙂 thanks for the giveaway!
I am interested in The Best American Comics, and thanks for the giveaway!
Also, school introduced me to Waiting For The Rain by Sheila Gordon.
I'd like to read The German Boy. I've always been interested in WWII.
I would like to read German Boy coz I'm really interested in WWII at the moment.
Personally, my favourite books from school are The Gift of the Magi (short story) and Animal Farm. I like the former for the touching meaning behind it — about selfless love and compassion for another person. For the latter, I'm really surprised that a seemingly simple story can mean so much.
I'd like to read All Hallow's Eve, it sounds great. At school I enjoyed most Jane Austen and Shakespeare.
All Hallow's Eve sounds creepy.
I would love to read The German Boy. I love history and I have actually never heard of this book. One of the books from school that I would never have picked up on my own was The Lord of the Flies. Fahrenheit 451 was also one that I never would have looked at without suggestion.
Hmm I'm going to say All Hallow's Eve, though they all sound interesting. I always kind of wonder how I'd react to something supernatural.
I'd like to win German Boy. I have heard about it a lot but never got a chance to read it.
Oooh all these sound interesting, but I most of all would like to read All Hallows' Eve! Nice to meet you 🙂
This is the one I would be most interested in as well. I am of german descent and would love to read a book that gave me a deeper look into the country.
German Boy sounds pretty interesting.
Kipocihkan. I'm Métis and I write poetry. 🙂
School introduced me to John Steinbeck. My first author crush. 🙂
I read Of Mice and Men in school and had to read more and more when I left.
Mother superor
I would love German Boy and I became a Charles Dickens fan at school.
My fifth grade teacher read a few pages of A Wrinkle in Time to us everyday. I have read every sibgle related book and there are quite a few.
My Rafflecopter wouldn't let me leave a book choice, but I would like All Hallows Eve. My email is ts.teabox@gmail.com
I'm interested in the comic anthology… School introduced me to a range of books and authors I still enjoy today like Ayn Rand as well as military novels which wasn't something I thought I would enjoy.
Thanks for hosting!
I discovered so many classics in school, like The Great Gatsby, To Kill A Mockingbird, Great Expectations, etc, and they are some of my favorites now. And I'd love German Boy. 😀 Thanks for hosting the giveaway!
I would love German Boy! 🙂 I've always been interested in reading about literature that focuses on the post-war period. Thanks 🙂
School introduced me to reading local authors. F Sionil Jose's book, My Brother My Executioner is one of my favorites 🙂
The Best American Comics 2011 for sure. I'm a huge comic fan.
I'm interested in All Hallow's Eve, because I love all things supernatural-themed. I didn't really get to know many good books at school (unfortunately I'm not really a fan of Brazilian classics, which is what we have to read before college).
All sound interesting but I'd choose ALL HALLOWS' EVE. The book studied in school that's stuck with me is TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. My fond reading memories of that time period are mostly of books that I read on my own, but I appreciated what instruction in the classics that was provided.
Choices choices! I'm putting my name in for Mother Superior, being a short story lover! Thanks for the chance 🙂 Loving your blog!
Thank-you for visiting my blog, and for the congratulations! I haven't read much classical literature, let alone Russian classic lit, but Fathers and Sons sounds like a strong book.
Thank-you! I hope you enjoy the anthology 🙂 I haven't heard of either of those books, I will have to check them out.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek does sound like a nice story – adding it to the TBR pile. Thanks for sharing!
Somehow I never read any of those books in school…maybe some day!
I thought All Hallow's Eve was a very interesting book – as someone only familiar with the most famous members of the Inklings (Lewis and Tolkien), it wasn't what I expected from a close friend of theirs.
This book is definitely illuminating about the state of Germany after WWII. It's sad what German civilizans experienced.
I'm happy to hear you were able to foster your love of reading despite your poor experience with it through school, and especially happy to hear you're passing that onto your children. Thanks for sharing!
I'll have to look up The Gift of the Magi. Well put about Animal Farm! I enjoyed that book as well but it wasn't something I read in school (somehow I skipped most of the 'everyone reads this in school' books…).
Yes, German Boy is a good read about a subject that is often overlooked. I haven't read The Lord of the Flies, but Fahrenheit 451 was one of the few 'classic' books I read in high school.
I think some parts of it were creepy, but the overall vibe I got from it was 'strange'. It was very different from anything I read before.
I'm pleasantly surprised at the interest shown in All Hallow's Eve! In high school I loved Shakespeare as well, but didn't read any Austen. I love The Lizzie Bennet diaries, though 🙂 (I know, I really should read Pride and Prejudice!)
I also read Of Mice and Men in school, and Grapes of Wrath also. I think I would appreciate his works more now, though. I didn't really have the patience for them when I was younger.
Thanks for visiting my blog! I didn' read any Dickens in school, but I do love A Christmas Carol.
That's great you were introduced to a book you enjoy so much! My fifth grade teacher read us books by Gordon Korman – I loved them when I was younger. I did the same thing and read all his humourous books.
Ah, that's too bad. It's great that school didn't totally turn you off of reading, though. Thanks for the comment!
Military novels – that's interesting, I don't think I read anything that could be described as 'military' in my school career. Thanks for stopping by!
It's awesome to hear you read local authors in school! I only read a few throughout school, and only once I got to university.
Thank-you so much for stopping by!
To Kill a Mockingbird was an option to read one year in high school but I chose something else. I should definitely get around to that one! Great to hear you value the instruction school provided.
I think All Hallow's Eve is definitely a unique read. I'd never read anything like it before or since.
Waiting for the Rain sounds like a powerful read. Thanks for visiting!
Somehow I missed reading The Great Gatsby. I just read it a couple of years ago, for leisure, and it's one of my favourites now as well. Thanks for commenting!