Laila Lalami

This week, I’m giving away a copy of Sheila Heti’s, Ticknor, which was nominated for the LBC Read This! selection (but lost out to Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s Television, translated by Jordan Stump.) Of Heti’s short novel, Mark Sarvas writes:

Unlike the real-life Ticknor, this one is an embittered also-ran, full of plans and intentions never realized, always alive to the fashionable whispers behind his back. Heti seamlessly inhabits Ticknor’s fussy 19th-century diction with a feat of virtuoso ventriloquism that puts one in mind of The Remains of the Day. Heti’s Ticknor would be insufferable if he weren’t so funny, and in the end, the black humor brings a leavening poignancy to this brief tale. But don’t let the size fool you — this 109-page first novel is small but scarcely slight; it is as dense and textured as a truffle.

You know how it works: The first person to send me an email with the subject line “Ticknor” gets the free copy. Please include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded.

Update The winner is Danielle L. from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I met Cristina Henriquez at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference last year, and we’ve been in touch since. Having read a couple of her stories, I was eagerly awaiting the release of her first collection, Come Together, Fall Apart. (Henriquez is now on the road, promoting the book; you should try and make it to one of her readings. ) This week, I’d like to give away a copy of this lovely collection, to the first reader who correctly answers this question: What is the title of the novella included in this debut? Please include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded.

Update: The winner is Amanda R. from Cookeville, Tennessee.

Today I’d like to give away a copy of Jane Stevenson’s Good Women, a collection of three novellas. Publishers’ Weekly praised the author’s voices as “distinct,” adding that “her eye for detail [is] keen, making these short forays into ordinary lives anything but.”

The first person to email me the title of the three novellas wins the book. Please include your mailing address, so we can both save time. Previous winners excluded, of course.

Update: The winner is Shanna G. from Portland, Oregon.

This week I’m giving away a copy of Alice Greenway’s White Ghost Girls, which was long-listed for the Orange Prize on Monday. You can read more about the American, Edinburgh-based author in this Scotsman article. A review of the book appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in February.

The first person to email me gets the book. Please use the subject line “White Ghost Girls,” and please also include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded.

Update: The winner is Pooja M. from Stamford, Connecticut.

This week, I’m giving away a copy of Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadiman, and with contributions from Luc Sante, Patricia Hampl, Vivian Gopnick, and many others. The first person to email me wins the book. Please use the subject line “Rereadings” in your email, and please also include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded.

Update: The winner is Ally R. from Austin, Texas.

This week, I’d like to give away a copy of Elias Khoury’s Gate of the Sun. You can read all about this remarkable new novel in this earlier post here at Moorishgirl.

The second person (sometimes, it pays to be second) to correctly answer this question gets the book: When and where was Elias Khoury born? Please use the subject line “Gate of the Sun” in your email, and please also include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded.

Update: The winner is Mohammed S. from Mississauga, Ontario.

This week I’m giving away a copy of James Meek’s The People’s Act of Love. Set in 1919 Siberia, the novel follows a gulag escapee who unwittingly wanders into a village where followers of a mystical Christian sect cohabit with Czech soldiers desparate to get home from the war.

The fifth (yes, fifth) person to correctly answer this question gets the book: What is the name of the Siberian town in which the story is set? Please use the subject line “Meek” in your email, and please also include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded.

Update: Pete A. from Joliet, Illinois has won the book.

This week, the LBC unveiled its winter Read This! selection, choosing Kristin Allio’s Garner. I’d like to give away a copy of this terrific book to a Moorishgirl reader. The third person (why third? why not?) to correctly answer this question wins the book: Which publisher released the novel? Please use the subject line “Garner” in your email, and please also include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded. And, while you’re at the LBC site, do check out the other nominations, which are announced all this week.

Update: The winner is Sarah R., from Gastonia, North Carolina.

This week, I’d like to give away a copy of Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles. Edited by Samantha Dunn and Juliana Ortale, and with an introduction by Janet Fitch, the anthology features short fiction by Aimee Bender, Carol Muske Dukes, Lisa Glatt, Dylan Landis, Lisa Teasley, and Rachel Resnick, among others.

The first person to correctly answer this question wins the book: What is the title of Lisa Glatt’s acclaimed first novel? Please use the subject line “Women on the Edge” in your email, and please also include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded.

Update: Kimberly L. from San Carlos gets the book.

This week, I’d like to give away a copy of Dana Adam Shapiro’s debut novel, The Every Boy, which is about the sudden death of a troubled teenager, and the father’s attempt to discover what happened by poring over his son’s diary. The Every Boy, which was released last summer, has been praised by Amy Sedaris, Tom Perrotta, and Matthew Sharpe.

The first person to correctly answer this question wins the book: Which movie did Dana Adam Shapiro direct? Please use the subject line “Every Boy” in your email, and please also include your mailing address. Previous winners excluded.

Update: The winner is Ilham E. from Decatur, Georgia.