Book Give-Away
February 14 – February 22, 2009
Harper Perennial has generously provided me with FIVE trade paperback editions of this wonderful book to give away here on my blog. I loved this book which recounts the life of a young girl growing up in the 1920s and 30s in New York City through the pages of her discovered diary (read my review). Information about this book may be found on the website about the book. Lily Koppel writes for the New York Times and other publications.
I am willing to ship a maximum of TWO books outside of the United States and Canada…so entries will be accepted without geographic restrictions for up to two winners. The other three copies of the books will go to those readers with mailing addresses in either Canada or the United States.
TO ENTER:
Have you ever made an amazing discovery when you least expected it? Have you ever come across a piece of living history which has inflamed your imagination? Please leave a comment (making sure you include a legitimate email address in the correct box!) answering either or both of these questions. If the answer to the questions is “no” you can still enter…just tell me why you want to read the book.
I will be choosing FIVE winners randomly on February 22nd. Comments will be open until 5:00pm PST on February 22, 2009.
Good luck!
= Excellent
= Good/Very Good
= Okay read
= Not recommended
= Ugh! Don't waste your time.
While going through papers of my deceased grandparents we found very old letters from distant relatives who had migrated from England to Australia in thelate 1700s or early 1800s. We often wonder what happened to them and can only imagine the hardships they went through.
My wife’s ancestor, Evelyn Maunsell, after whom she is named, was an English lady from London who fell in love and married a station owner from outback Australia in the early 19th century. The story of her life ‘Spose I Die which tells of her life on a remote Queensland cattle station was fascinating. Hardships that we would consider catastrophic were taken in these remarkable peoples’ stride. My Mother-in-Law also has photographs of the people and where they lived. This living history of Stan and Evelyn’s lives not only gave me a feel for the courage and fortitude of these people, but made mne very appreciative of the life we are able to live today.
Ooo, this sounds good!
When we did the house addition a few years ago, we found some treasures in the excavated dirt – mostly dishes and old bottles. What got my imagination going the most was the old newspapers that were used for insulation. We still have some of them visible on the basement ceiling. They’re mostly from the 1930s.
Before they put drywall on the walls, Laurie and I did our own buried treasure and put some blessings and charms in the wall that friends and family had sent us. So who knows, in 100 years maybe they’ll be found and someone will wonder about our lives.
For Christmas my grandmother gave me a box of ‘old things’ which I was free to keep or throw out, since I am the only one in the family ‘into that sort of thing’. Lovely handkerchiefs, belonging to my great grandmother. Kitchen cats, also belonging to her to hold twine and scissors (they hang on the wall). I am unduly sentimental about old things (even when they have no connection to me) so I was very touched. Don’t worry, they will not be thrown out. It did make me wonder more about my great grandmother and what kind of a life she had.
Mine is a very simple find but meaningful to me. When we were cleaning out my grandma’s apartment this past spring after she passed away, at the very bottom of a drawer in her dresser I found a small felt flower that had been attached to the front of a notecard I sent her a couple of years ago. It was the sweetest thing.
I have always been facinated by how my grandparents all escaped from Russia. When I was in 9th grade I had a school assignemt to interview and then write a report on an immigrant living in the U.S. I interviewed my grandpa Dave. I taped it and still have a copy. Just recently my brother was visiting the Ellis Island website and found a cool tool where you can look up names of peole who came over. My grandfather was there. The spelling of his last name was different but we know it was him. We always suspected the sir name we have know wastn’t the correct spelling. LOL! Anyway, we also found out that he came with a friend, something he did not tell me about.
This sounds like a wonderful book and I would love to win. I blogged about your giveaway here:
http://teddyrose.blogspot.com/2009/02/this-weeks-giveaways-galore_14.html
You have my email.
Love the idea of the book so it sounds really intersting.
But as for the question, can’t say that I have ever discovered anything, or come across anything….closest was when I found this book about our village and realised that we had lived there for over 400 years so that made me interested in those kind of things
I love found letters and pictures for the reason that they are just a little glimpse of someone’s life. I once found a letter on the street here in Amsterdam from a young South African girl during the apartheid era plaintively wondering why her Dutch cousins refused to come visit her. What have we done wrong? she asked– the writer couldn’t have been older than 12.
I also once bought a diary of a young girl from the mid 19th century at a thrift store. It’s mostly clippings and entries about how she longed to move out West. She captures family recipes and school essays. Wonderful stuff.
I’ve actually heard about these diaries, and would love to read the book.
I loved your review for this book, so I’d love to win a copy. I have a box with my great grandmothers and grandmothers recipes in them. It’s my greatest treasure.
When I was a child I discovered a picture of my grandfather in a military uniform. When I asked my mother about it, I found out he had been in the Czar’s army. That made me curious about the Czar and I went through a period when I read everything about Czarist Russia I could get my hands on.
I had to write a paper in college about a family member. I decided to cover my mom. While interviewing her, I learned things that I had never known about her: she almost became a nun (!!!), she went to Woodstock, but hated it, and she was at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. It was amazing to learn so many things about my mom that I had never known before. Talk about Living History!
No amazing discoveries, but I do have the letter, written 1869 in which my great-grandfather proposed to my great-grandmother. He mentions 2 children (niece and nephew, I think) that he is raising. It’s fun to imagine their early years of marriage, and her adjustment. Diaries have always been fascinating to me. I’d love to win this book.
I was five years old when my father passed away and all my life i had heard about his letters he wrote home when he was in the service. He enlisted at the age of 16 and wrote home every day. those letters were found in my grandfathers house after he passed away. My Aunt then passed them on to my older brother who sent them to me last summer. they were full of his dreams and plans for his future really awesome stuff.
I would love to read this book it sounds very interesting.
Whenever I go to the Goodwill I find items that make me think ‘Who owned this? Why?’. Especially clothing and shoes. I can’t imagine someone wearing blue sequined stiletto boots so many times that the soles were scuffed and the edges of the shoe were frayed! More recently we found my paternal grandmother’s diary from the time when she first married granddad until about twenty years ago when he died. Grandma’s handwriting was ever small and neat and hard to write and her diary was no different. This made me want to learn more about what life had been like for her during the years after WW2 and the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s. Raising five kids, a stay-at-home mom who hid her meat-aversion and had few hobbies…I wondered what it was like.
I would love to enter the drawing. I’ve never discovered anything like this. My family on both sides was unsentimental (I suppose that’s the right word–careless might be another), so very little of the past survives. My forays through antique stores and used book shops and Goodwill have not revealed anything either, but I’m fascinated as to why items like diaries and photos and even wedding dresses end up in such places.
I’ve been trying to think of something like that that I’ve discovered but I just can’t think of anything. I have some old black and white photos of my grandparents but not much else really. I’m fascinated though about items that get lost, and then found by someone else perhaps many years later. The little traces we leave behind for others to wonder over.
I’d love to have a chance to win a copy of this. Thanks for offering up 2 copies for us non-North American bloggers.
Unfortunately I’ve never found some grand piece of history, but this book appeals to me for a couple of reasons. First, I use to read my mothers old diaries from when she was in college, much of which I probably shouldn’t have, but I was always so thoroughly engrossed in them.
Secondly, I kept a diary religiously until recently actually hoping to bury them or just…’drop’ them someday when I was much much older so that someone could learn from my mistakes and life. This book sounds excellent!
My dad used to take me with him “metal-detecting” – We would travel all over the state on weekends, visiting parks and school grounds to see what we could find – the neatest thing was an 1881 silver dollar!
This sounds like a neat book – read your review and was intrigued.
kherbrand(at)comcast(dot)net
Sadly m answer is no (at least so far as I can recall right now) but I really would love to win a copy of this book…I read a review of it in something (maybe the New York Times’ book thing or something) when it irst came out and it sounds really intriguing…
and you have possibly the best blog header/banner ever, btw
-Lucile
I found tons of old pictures and a geneological study that had been done on my father’s family about three years ago when my mother passed away and my brother and I were cleaning out the house. It was fascinating to see the history. I’d love to win and read The Red Leather Diary; it sounds fascinating!
I have enjoyed reading about others’ treasures and the only thing my sister and I have are very old photo albums with the black pages that date back to when Mom (who died at 100) was young. I have heard this is a wonderful book and would very much like to win it. Thanks for the offer!
Eight years after my great-grandfather passed and three years after moving all my belongings as well as my great-grandfathers to my new house, I came across a box of “stuff”. I found letters and pictures to my great-grandmother when my great-grandfather was in WWII. What a quite moment. I would love to read this book because of the history, but I love diaries as well. Thanks Wendy!
My family found many hidden treasures of history when we went through my grandparents’ things. There were photographs of people who died before even my dad was born. There were old music sheets for guitar. There was an old lantern, a trunk full of photographs of my grandparents and great-grandparents, and a doll from the 50s. Going through my dad’s safe box before the funeral the other week, we found letters that my dad’s Navy commander used to send to my grandparents informing them of all of the things they were doing and the ports they were visiting. I did not even know they did those kinds of things! Very interesting to read since I never knew what ports he had visited.
We once found a picture of a multi-great grandfather inside one of my father’s father’s old books. It was so funny – he could have been my dad’s twin! And once when my aunt was redoing one of Grandpa’s photo albums, she turned over a picture of Grandma, and discovered that Grandpa had written on it all the missions he flew in World War II. He had to fly fifty before he could go home, and he wrote each one on the back of the picture of his wife. That was pretty amazing to see.
I’d love to read this book.
A few years ago, I ran across a website with census records from the early 1900s. On a whim, I looked up my paternal grandfather. He changed his last name at some point and I was unsure of the old spelling. I had very little other information about him. Yet, somehow I found him, my grandmother and 3 of their children on about the 10th page. That was very cool.
I once found a diamond wedding band in the street along a storm sewer. I was only 12 at the time and found it while out riding my bike. It made me concoct an elaborate story about who the possible owner might be and how it happened to fly off her finger and into the road. I took it to the local police dept. to see if someone would claim it. They didn’t and so now all these years later I still have it. I didn’t have any real history attached to it, but it’s a neat memory from when I was a kid
I’ve posted this on Win A Book. No need to enter the contest.
When My ex-girlfriend and her husband were cleaning out her mother’s basement, they came across an 11 x14 ink drawing that I had done for her when we were dating some 15 years earlier. It was in good condition since it was still in a frame. I had no recollection of drawing it, but it was my style and signed by me. They were gracious enough to give it to me.
My answer to both questions is no. I would like to read this book because I kept a diary for many years and I’d like to find out how someone else lived.
We were having some yard work done a few years ago and my youngest went out after supper to dig in the “new” dirt and found an old musket ball.
Would love to win this book!
wanda_waiting(at)hotmail(dot)com
i have never come across anything exciting however this book looks truly captivating thanks for the giveaway
When talking to my grandfather about the procession during the inaugeration, he mentioned in passing that he remembered being 6 years old and climbing on top of a newspaper box so he could see FDR’s processional. He said it was one of his proudest momemts… and somehow he had never mentioned it before. Hearing all about it was so exciting!
At about 13 years of age, I was going through a cabinet on our service porch and found a large Bible. One of the pages contained a record of my birth, my brother’s birth, and a third child I knew nothing about. I later found out my mother had given birth to a third child and the child only lived about an hour or two. It was an interesting mother/daughter moment. I would love to read this book because it sounds so interesting. Thanks for hosting this giveaway!
Nope I havent, but I’d love to read this book because history and the way people lived in the 1800′s and early 1900′s really fascinates me! Thanks for entering me.
i had searched for my father since i got my first computer,about 12 years ago. i had not seen him since i was 3. after a very long time, i found out he changed his name many years ago. this led me to the information i needed to find him. find him,NO but found the woman he lived with, he had died 18 months before. she then sent me a picture of him. when it came up on the screen,we all gasped, we finally discovered why i was treated so differntly from my sister. i looked exactly like him;it was my face on a man’s body.
a new short chapter and look into my father’s life began all because my state congressman found out some information that was missing from the records!
My grandmother allowed me to store some stuff in her basement, next to some old boxes of hers. When I was going through my stuff, I accidently opened one of her boxes and found love letters between her and a RAF pilot during WWII. I asked her what was up, and she told me such a sad story about how he was her first love but he died in the war. And I never even knew there had been anyone besides my grandfather!
I’ve never really found anything from the past, but I do love going through all photos and keepsakes of my mom’s. I think it’s a lot of fun to see who she was then.
I’d love to read this book! Thanks for the contest.
-Lauren
lauren51990 AT aol DOT com
When I was a kid, I was rooting around in the attic and found an old photo album but instead of photos, there were old post cards taped on the pages. They were sent from Japan by my father’s cousin who was a Baptist missionary there in the early 20′s. I thought that was amazing. She died in 1960 and I inherited 2 of her books that were published in 1895. I treasure these books.
I haven’t made any amazing discoveries, unless you count finding my husband. Which I definitely did not expect. I was on a date with another fellow at the time. Please enter me. Thank you! Sararush (at) hotmail (dot) com.
I never knew much about my father’s ancestors because he died when I was a baby and Mom said he didn’t talk much about his parents who died when he was a baby. I came across a newspaper article years ago about a genealogist who grew up in his hometown so I wrote to her. She turned out to be his second cousin who sent a thick package of old photos and the family tree. I was thrilled to finally learn about his family line.
This one time I was backpacking around Europe by my teenaged, jaded, bitter self (I had some boy issues), and I was in Luxumborg City one evening and only had 4 hours before I had to catch my train out, and had kind of given up on doing anything interesting, but then I stopped some old people and asked them in my halting French what I should do if I was only in their city for four hours. They sent me to Old Luxumborg, and I wandered into a deserted park and poked around through the fog and the dusk and SUDDENLY I WAS ON A RAMPART! Because Old Luxumborg is built on the ruins of a fortress, and there are moats and bridges and crumbling walls jutting up from underneath the new(ish) city. It was a large moment.
I’ve never made any discoveries but I’ve always felt an affinity for the 20s and 30s time period. I’ve often wondered if I lived during that time in a previous life.
When I was in middle school, my class volunteered to sort probate records so that they could be scanned and accessible to those who were researching genealogy and the like. Every so often, we would discover something neat — like state-issued paper money from the civil war, or a record of a family who sent their daughter to a mental institution in secrecy, claiming she had died. We read wills that divided up a man’s chickens between his sons or explained who should get the rocking chair in the shed. It was like a glimpse into the lives of these people from 150 years ago.
I was snooping in my gram’s closet several years ago and came across a ton of black and white old photos of family I didn’t know. We had a nice conversation and she told me her memories. I wish I lived closer to my gram so we could have more times like that one.
Thanks for the great giveaway!
After my great aunt and great uncle died, my dad and I cleaned out their home. Some of my favorite finds were in her recipe box where she had handwritten recipes for things that are a not served as often nowadays – things like bear stew. I kept the recipe box for years, but I don’t remember where it is now. I’m hoping it didn’t get lost.
After my father-in-law passed away, we went through his house, cleaning out and giving things away. We found lots of pictures of my FIL when he was younger and it truly got my imagination going. I wanted to know him when he was that age, in those pictures. He was an amazing man when he was older, but I want to know more.
shelcows AT gmail DOT com
I once found a page from an old journal kept by my great grandmother when she was younger, written in Finnish. Her parents came to the U.S. from Finland, so finding even a page from the journal she kept as a child was a great discovery. We never did find out what happened to the rest of it.
I have not found anything historic that has peaked my interest or spurred me onto further research. However, I am often fascinated with journals and letters compiled into books. I would love a chance to win this book.
I really haven’t had an amazing discovery, but often I’ll be cleaning up, and find my old journals or letters and just sit for hours going back in time.
Thank you so much for offering this giveaway! eyeslikesugar [at] gmail [dot] com
Thank-you for the giveaway
When I came to the States I only knew my grandfather as this nice man who came to visit me and my family as we where growing up. I went and searched further once here and found he had written a book with so much lovely information about my parents and a brother who died during the war. The book is at Dartmouth college. BEFORE THE YANKS CAME by Arthur I Donahue
madeleine444@gmail.com