Giveaway Winner

Just a quick post to say that my giveaway closed last night to win a copy of A Prayer For Owen Meany, an absolutely beautiful book that I read last week. Thanks for all the pretty emails by people who entered; I numbered each email then used a random number generator thing to pick one.

So the winner is Vicky at Aha Shake Heartbreaker. I've sent you an email, Vicky, but if you read this first then send me your address and I'll get the book sent off to you tomorrow!

Sorry to everyone who didn't win. I wish I could send you all a copy but sadly I'm not rich, nor do I won a bookshop (again, sadly). I highly recommend you all still buy A Prayer For Owen Meany, though, because it will probably change your life.

GIVEAWAY - A Prayer For Owen Meany

Last night I finished reading A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving. A woman at work lent it to me, and while she has fabulous tastes in all aspects of life (a big fan of Brandon Flowers, so I know I can trust her), I am always dubious about people's recommendations to me.

But A Prayer For Owen Menay absolutely blew me away. Seriously. When I mentioned it in my review post last week, I think I said that it is quite impossible to explain the story, but I will give it a go. It is narrated by a man called John Wheelwright, who describes his life both in the present (a religious schoolteacher) and in the past (his childhood, teenage years and early twenties). John explains the story of his best friend Owen Meany, who is unnaturally small and has a crazy high pitched voice (semmingly irrelevant now, but not so in the story). Owen accidentally kills John's mum when they are 11 years old by batting a baseball that hits her in the side of the head. This and other events that occur throughout their childhoods bring Owen to believe that he is an 'instrument of the Lord'.

There is a reason for everything.

I assure you that my sloppy description in no way comes even close to describing the beauty, humour, irony, horror and heartbreaking heroism that takes place in this book. I was sobbing at the end, actual tears rolling down my face, which is how I know that it was a brilliant book - it affected me in such a strong way.

Because I know that nobody will go out and buy this just on my recommendation, I am going to give away a paperback copy of A Prayer For Owen Meany to one random reader. I really want other people to read and understand this book, and to love it the way that I do, so if you want to win a copy, make sure that you follow this blog, and then send an email to me at emily.battye@hotmail.co.uk. Include your name and your blog address in the email.

Only email entries count; I'm not using comments for this one. You've got until next Saturday, 20th November, to enter. I will then pick a name at random and let them now, blah blah blah. Ok?

If you can't be bothered to get involved in this, go and buy the book anyway. It could well be the best book you have ever read.

Weekly Review: 1st - 7th November

I haven't done one of these for the past couple of weeks because I have been busy doing boring things, like sorting my life out. I have basically spent the past two weeks organising meetings with various university tutors/careers advisors to try and get some semblance of organisation into my life, and the rest of the time I have been writing essays, researching dissertation material and swapping jobs (don't even go there. The fuckers). Not exactly blog-worthy stuff. And while this week hasn't in any way more interesting, I have got a few film and book recommendations for anyone interested.

MUSIC THIS WEEK

This week I've been listening to a lot of softer stuff, particularly John Mayer's most recent album Battle Studies, and sundirtwater by The Waifs. I know John Mayer gets a lot of bad press because he is a bit of a dickhead, but his music is beautiful and his voice makes my spine melt a bit. I don't know anything about The Waifs other than that they are an Australian band; a friend recommended the album to me because he's had it on repeat for a while now, and I fell in love. It is sort of deep south dirty folk music; when you listen to it you want to be sat around a campfire by the Mississippi river or something.

FILM THIS WEEK

You have probably established from my quite frequent mentions of him recently that I have developed a bit of a thing for Andrew Garfield. I actually think it is his fault for being so adorable in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. How was I not supposed to watch every other film he's ever been in after that? Siobhan at Listerine Kiss recommended that I watch The Red Riding Trilogy with Andrew in, and so I did. If you haven't seen it, I cannot recommend it enough. I have only watched the first part so far, but it's fantastic. Lots of delicious Yorkshire accents (holla!), lots of wide shots of the Yorkshire Moors, lots of Andrew Garfield without his shirt on...it is a lot like the dreams I have. I can even deal with those mad sideburns and even madder flares he has to sport.
I then went for Boy A, which, er, perhaps wasn't the greatest decision I have ever made. He plays a reformed child murderer, so he's kind of hard to love in that, but it's a wicked film. Very sad, intimate and depressing, but still good. I think he's a quite wonderful actor. My favourite thing he's ever done though is this:



On Saturday night I went to see Due Date at the cinema. It was fantastic. Robert Downey Jr is perfection, AND he actually looks tall in this film! Zach Gallifkakakakaiisskaisisksksis must be really, really short if he makes Rob DJ look tall. It isn't as funny as The Hangover (although you can definitely tell it's by the same director) but it's still excellent. I highly recommend it to any non-serious cinema-goers out there.

BOOKS THIS WEEK

I'm constantly stuck in American Psycho at the moment - I'm writing about it in my dissertation - so I'm feeling a bit messed up on the literature front, but I did manage to sneak in an absolutely incredible book that I found in the kitchen at work. The Light of Falling Stars by J. Robert Lennon is a novel about a plane crash and the way that it affects a group of people's lives, and also how each of their lives gets intertwined with one another's. It is a beautiful book; heartbreaking in parts, but if you have read The Time Traveller's Wife as many times as I have, you won't have a problem with it.

The book I'm reading at the moment is one that a woman at work lent to me called A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Has anyone else read this? I've just past the halfway point and I am loving it; it is so rare to find characters in novels that actually talk like real people, but this book nails it. It's so funny and so odd at the same time. It's very difficult to explain the plot because it's so weird, but it's basically about this kid, John, and his best friend Owen Meany, who appears to be some kind of genius prophet and voice of the Lord. Or something. I'll let you know when I finish it, but so far it is spectacular.