Grand Prize & Sunday VNSA Booksale Raffle Winners!

We're supporting the VNSA by giving books away. We like to encourage this little reading habit you've developed and what better way than with free books?

From great deals to space to shop, today was all about relaxing and finding a new book to love (or two or three). There truly is no better way to spend time than with a group of cheery bibliophiles, is there? The day was a smashing success and every book purchased helped out the VNSA charities. Feels good doesn't it? And now to reward 11 do-gooders with another treasure to add to their collection. Below are Sunday's VNSA booksale raffle winners. Click here for how to claim your new love. After that, all that's left to do is enjoy!

Sunday VNSA booksale raffle winners:

* 2296                * 2329

* 1316                * 2293

* 2315                * 1286

* 2337                * 1337

* 1393                * 1330

* 1414

And now for the Grand Prize book, a personalized signed copy of Anne Rice's yet-to-be-released The Wolf Gift! Our winner is ticket number 519! Click here for how to get this great book delivered to your bookshelf.

And thank you for supporting the VNSA and reading. You're awesome.

Congrats To Our Saturday VNSA Raffle Winners!

We're supporting the VNSA by giving books away. We like to encourage this little reading habit you've developed and what better way than with free books?

It was a glorious day. There truly is no better way to spend time than with a group of cheery bibliophiles, is there? The day was a smashing success and every book purchased helped out the VNSA charities. Feels good doesn't it? And now to reward 11 do-gooders with another treasure to add to their collection. Below are Saturday's VNSA booksale raffle winners. Click here for how to claim your new love. After that, all that's left to do is enjoy!

Saturday VNSA booksale raffle winners:

  

       * 248                * 1127

       * 109                * 567

       * 95                  * 1097

       * 416                * 12

       * 1136              * 125

       * 382

Check back tomorrow when we raffle off the Grand Prize book, a personalized signed copy of Anne Rice's yet-to-be-released The Wolf Gift. And thank you for supporting the VNSA and reading. You're awesome.

Support the VNSA Booksale & Be Entered In Our Book Giveaway!

Valentine’s Day is the day to celebrate love and here at The Dying Book Affair we love books. I mean LOVE love them. And if you are lucky enough to live near the VNSA booksale you can experience a book lover’s dream Valentine’s celebration. All book lovers who have been doubtlessly equate Valentines Day with the VNSA booksale. What better way to celebrate your love affair with books than spend two wonderful days getting a steal on great books while helping out a great cause?

We want to share the love of reading with as many people as possible, so The Dying Book Affair will be hosting a book giveaway in honor of the VNSA booksale!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Come to the booksale! The VNSA booksale runs Saturday 2/11 from 8:00-6:00 and Sunday 2/12 from 8:00-4:00. Saturday is the “madhouse” day and Sunday goers are rewarded with 50% off the remaining books. Here is a link to their site for directions and more details.
2. Snag a raffle ticket. There are usually around 20,000 attendees to the booksale, but only 5,000 get a chance to take home a Dying Book Affair giveaway book. Hunt for the raffle ticket and then hold on to it. Tight.
3. Buy delightful books. Stock your shelves with new treasures to love. Then keep your receipt.
4. Check The Dying Book Affair Saturday and Sunday after 7:00 pm to see the winners.
5. Get excited because you just won! If you’re a winner: email thedyingbookaffair@gmail.com with your name and address (or where you’d like the book sent), a picture of your winning raffle ticket, a picture of your VNSA receipt, and your top 10 book picks. Winners get the highest choice available and it is first come first served. One grand prize winner will get a personalized, signed copy of Anne Rice’s new book The Wolf Gift.
6. Pick your new love:

• Wicked by Gregory Maguire
• Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
• Climbing the Mango Trees by Madhur Jaffrey
• Prey by Michael Crichton
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
• The Shack by William P Young
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich
• On Writing by Stephen King
• Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
• The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card
• The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
• The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethew
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
• The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Losing Ebenezer Scrooge

Gregory Maguire is best known for his alternative Wizard of Oz tale, Wicked, but the rest of his writing continues the habit of unique interpretations of classic fairy tales. He’s has reimagined Snow White, Cinderella and The Little Match Girl. He strays from fairy tales with Lost, where he ventures into Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In Lost, the main character Winnie investigates the claim that her great-great-grandfather was the inspiration for Charles Dicken’s Ebeneezer Scrooge.

The cover and description are misleading - there is no story of Scrooge. Scrooge is mentioned briefly once or twice but then falls from the page and is forgotten. This is truly a tale of a woman's realization that her life has descended into paralytic despair, framed as a ghost story.

Winnie visits London seeking inspiration to finish her second novel, which centers on a woman haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Like Scrooge, Jack the Ripper also vanishes from the storyline so completely the reader must ask why he was included at all. It seems to be an odd distraction from the rest of the carefully crafted tale.

During her stay in London Winnie is haunted; by a ghost, by memories, by self doubt and by uncertainty for her future. Winnie and her specter are inexorably linked and as she seeks to discover the ghost’s past she is forced to face her own. The story shifts between Winnie’s life, her tortured past and the story of the ghost. Lost is a tale of many threads, and it requires the reader’s patience to see it to the close, but upon reaching it, the novel congeals into a poignant portrayal of loss and motherhood.

Though it wasn’t the story is presents itself to be, it was unique and enthralling. The world Maguire created is rich in poetry and imagery, making the sense of terror and suspense all the more real.The progression of the hauntings swells and subsides and Maguire sprinkles in doubt about Winnie’s mental well-being; the reader is unsure if this is a ghost story or if they are witnesses to a person's mental unraveling.