Out Sick

Disappointed that I haven’t posted anything about my trip to BookExpo America or the Book Blogger Convention yet? Sorry, but I’m sick as a dog with Bronchitis. I hope to have my recaps up soon.

Guest Post and Book Giveaway with Jessie Sholl, Author of Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding

When Jessie Sholl wrote to me last summer to ask if I would be interested in reviewing her book, I was thrilled, as I’ve never read a book about hoarding and always wanted to, since my own mother is a compulsive hoarder. Jessie sent me helpful links to hoarders websites, bonded with me on the long and frustrating process of getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and she became a great writer and champion of a mental illness that affects so many people. Today she has prepared a guest post about hoarding, and she’s letting me host a giveaway for a copy of her book, Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding. Jessie will even check in and respond to reader comments, so if you’d like to leave her a comment or ask her question a question, please do so.

Jessie Sholl

Next month, a new season of the A&E show Hoarders will begin, and I’m looking forward to it. For many people, that show is akin to driving by a car crash: you want to, but can’t, look away; or it’s like watching a gory scene in a movie — you cover your eyes, but then peek through your fingers. I’ve heard the shows called exploitive and sensationalized. I’ve heard viewers of these shows called voyeuristic and twisted.

I’m one of those viewers and I’m not voyeuristic or twisted. I’m the daughter of a compulsive hoarder. And I believe the reality shows about hoarding are, on the whole, a positive thing.

Case in point: for decades, my mother’s hoarding was my secret. Not only was I too ashamed to tell anyone about it, but I also lacked the proper vocabulary. How was I supposed to explain that my mother couldn’t tell the difference between trash and treasure? How was I to explain — to myself or to others — her reasoning behind forgoing picking me up from school when I was a kid to go thrift store shopping instead? And I didn’t think anyone would relate to the sheer terror I felt at the thought of being spotted in her rusted out car, the one with the backseat piled practically to the ceiling with newspapers, cardboard boxes, dirty towels, orphaned shoes, and crumpled take out food bags.

It was only after I’d sold the proposal for my memoir, Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding, that I began telling people about my mother. I had no choice — I’ve always been a bad liar, so when someone asked what I was working on, I was honest. In the beginning, I’d feel my face flush and my voice stammer as I said, “Well, my mother is a compulsive hoarder and I’m writing about it.”

“She’s a what?” people often said, crinkling their brows and leaning in closer, thinking they simply hadn’t heard me.

“A hoarder,” I’d repeat.

A blank look.

“A packrat,” I’d say.

“Right, a crazy cat lady,” I heard more than once.

One person — no, two people — even responded with: “That’s disgusting.”

But after the television shows about hoarding began, I stopped getting as many confused looks. Instead, people said things like, “Oh, that must be a difficult situation,” or “How is your mom doing now?”

As a result of the hoarding shows, people are more familiar with this once-alien concept. And more important, people are beginning to understand that hoarding isn’t a matter of laziness, selfishness, or “an addiction to stuff,” — all things I’ve actually heard said. People are beginning to understand what we children of hoarders have known all along: that compulsive hoarding is a mental illness; that those afflicted with it are real human beings, not stereotypes; and that compulsive hoarders deserve to be more than punch lines — they deserve understanding, respect, and help.

Not all children of hoarders agree with me. Some despise the reality shows. And I understand. The shows can bring up painful memories; they make our hearts hurt for the hoarders and their children. Still, I watch.

Why? It’s not the car crash or scary movie phenomenon, nor is it to torture myself, as one half-joking radio host suggested to me. I learn from the episodes as I recognize my mother’s behavior and thought processes, and recognize myself in the frustrated children who risk their emotional and physical health as they attempt to stop their parent’s hoarding.

Yes, initially some viewers may tune in for the wrong reasons. But does it really matter when the end result — more awareness and a greater understanding of a mental illness that afflicts up to six million Americans — is the same?

About the Author

Jessie Sholl is the author of Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding. After her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2006, Sholl first had to confront something even scarier than her mother’s cancer—her mother’s compulsive hoarding, and how it affected both of their lives. When Sholl asked her mother if she could write about her hoarding, her mother’s one requirement was that Sholl do write it with “radical honesty.” Whenever Sholl would ask her mother about a specific scene, like the time she found the ashes of her mother’s boyfriend buried under a pile of clutter, her mother would always say, “That’s the truth. Leave it in.”

Sholl is also the co-editor of Travelers’ Tales Prague and the Czech Republic, a collection of literary non-fiction about (you guessed it) Prague and the Czech Republic, released in February of 2006 by Travelers’ Tales Press. Now in its second printing, the book includes essays from well-known and emerging writers and should be required reading for anyone who’s been to Prague and/or its environs, anyone planning to go, or anyone who wants to read fabulous writing about one of Europe’s most stunning capital cities.

Read my original review of Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding.

Visit Amazon.com to purchase a copy of Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding right now.

DIRTY SECRET: A DAUGHTER COMES CLEAN ABOUT HER MOTHER’S COMPULSIVE HOARDING GIVEAWAY – 1 LUCKY WINNER WILL WIN A COPY

RULES:

**Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

**No P.O. boxes, please.

**Must include your email in your comment, unless you signed in to leave a comment with your “real” email.

**All comments must be separate to count as separate entries. For example, if you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, leave 2 comments, one with your Facebook name, and one with your Twitter name. Or, if you posted about the giveaway on your blog, leave 5 comments, all with the link to your giveaway.

**Please read the additional rules here.

HOW TO ENTER:

**Mandatory Entry: Go to Jessie’s website, JessieSholl.com, or her blog, and tell me what fun or interesting thing you learned there.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Like Dirty Secret on Facebook.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook. Make sure to leave your Facebook name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook and share a link on your wall with the following comment I entered The Girl from the Ghetto’s Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding by Jessie Sholl book giveaway here http://bit.ly/lyTwvZ. Make sure to leave a comment below with a link to your Facebook profile message, or at least with your Facebook name.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Follow @Jessie_Sholl on Twitter.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter. Make sure to leave your @Twitter name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following RT @NerdGirlBlogger Enter the #bookexpo #bookbloggercon giveaway for Dirty Secret by @Jessie_Sholl #compulsivehoarding http://bit.ly/lyTwvZ. You can tweet 4x a day (Once every 6 hours) for even more chances to win. Make sure to leave a link to your tweet in a comment below.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Subscribe to my blog via email or Feedburner.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Enter one of my other current giveaways and tell me which one.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Goodreads.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow Jessie Sholl on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Add Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding to your to-read shelf on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Comment here and tell me why you need to win this giveaway! Do you love memoirs, or know someone who suffers from compulsive hoarding? Do you enjoy reading in general, or, do you just love winning free stuff? Don’t forget that Jessie Sholl will be responding to reader comments, so make sure to leave her a comment or question!

+5 MORE ENTRIES: Write about this giveaway on your own blog. Make sure to post a link to http://thegirlfromtheghetto.wordpress.com, and leave me 5 copies of your link via comment here.

Contest ends Thursday, June 2, 2011 at midnight. Good luck to you all!

Armchair BEA Interview with The Parchment Girl

In case you didn’t know what Armchair BEA is, it is a website for book bloggers who can’t attend Book Expo America (BEA) and the Book Blogger Convention (BBC) in New York this week. Armchair BEA gives these bloggers left behind a place to attend a virtual book blogger convention by sharing news about daily blogging themes, discussions, giveaways and more. I signed up to do an interview with another book blogger before I realized that I was going to go to BEA and BBC. Thankfully, with the magic of technology, I am able to participate in the virtual book blogger convention and the actual book blogger conventions at the same time.

I’ll be interviewed by Mari from Bookworm With a View, so if you’d like to learn a little more about me, stop by her blog anytime this week.

Let me introduce you to Kate, who blogs under the name The Parchment Girl. She is a book devourer, Chronic Lyme Disease sufferer, and follower of Christ. Kate reviews books in a variety of genres, as well as interviews authors, hosts book giveaways and writes about upcoming book releases, her low opinion of e-readers, (I’m so with you, Kate–I think e-readers are The Devil!) and the latest trends in publishing.

Why did you pick the name The Parchment Girl for your blog?

Originally I had planned to call the blog ‘Betwixt Pen and Parchment,’ mostly because it was the only bookish name I could think of that someone hadn’t already snatched up. Then one day long after I had already purchased that domain and was waiting for my designer to start work on the site, ‘The Parchment Girl’ just sort of popped into my head and I knew that was the right name for the blog. I wanted something that was short (from which ‘Betwixt Pen and Parchment’ was a far cry), unique, and versatile. I didn’t want to feel stuck writing book reviews because the name of my blog had the word “review” in it. ‘The Parchment Girl’ allowed for a lot of flexibility in content. If I don’t want to write reviews anymore someday, I can switch to writing about journaling or novel writing or anything remotely related to wordcraft.

How long have you been blogging about books?

I started my book blog nine months ago, but I began reviewing books on my personal blog a year-and-a-half ago.

What encouraged you to start blogging about books?

Back in late 2009 I discovered two book review programs––Booksneeze and Blogging for Books. At first I couldn’t believe that publishers would actually send me books for free in exchange for a review. I love reading and I collect books, but most of the time I can’t afford to buy them, so blogging about books initially appealed to me as a way to obtain free books.

What is your favorite book genre?

If I was forced to choose one genre to live on for the rest of my life, it would be Christian living, but my favorite books come from a variety of genres and for me it’s really all about the individual book. I enjoy Christian fiction, cozy mysteries, New York Times bestsellers, popular history, memoir & biography, general nonfiction, books about organic/green living, and technical books on writing and publishing in addition to Christian living.

What is the best bookyou’ve read in 2011?

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Lewis was such a brilliant thinker and he has this incredible gift for using making analogies that are incredibly profound. Mere Christianity is one of the most enjoyable and thought-provoking books I’ve ever read.

What is your favorite childhood book?

I would have to say Nancy Drew––take your pick of which one. I have the most wonderful childhood memories of reading old, worn copies of Nancy Drew mysteries and listening to the audiobook versions while staying at my grandparents’ little cottage next to the sea in Maine. It was the perfect place to lose myself in a good mystery and that wonderful feeling of anticipation I had whenever I opened the cover of a Nancy Drew mystery has stuck with me all these years.

What’s the title of a book that describes your life?

Words (by Ginny Yttrup). Whether in the form of reading or writing or simply thinking to myself, words are the way I flesh out and grapple with life. Books have been an integral part of my life since I was old enough to read and I’ve been shaped by the words I’ve read, and since I’m sorely lacking in artistic talent, words are really the only way I can clearly express myself.

If you had to choose 3 books everyone should read, what would they be?

First I would say The Bible. I’m a Christian, so I believe and have personally experienced that this book impacts lives in a way that no other book has in the history of our civilization. It’s been the #1 bestseller worldwide for centuries and as literature it has incredible breadth of style and depth of emotion. It contains everything from poetry to history to biography and despite the fact that it was written over a long period of time, it is incredibly cohesive.

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom is another one I wish everyone would read. It’s an extraordinary memoir about Corrie’s experiences in World War II, including time spend in a concentration camp. Her story is quite unique and deeply moving.

Lastly, I would recommend The Omnivore’s Dilemma to every American. It offers a highly readable journalistic exposé of our nation’s food supply which is something that every citizen needs to know about. It will make you think a lot about the next meal you buy and I believe it has the potential to steer a lot of people away from buying food from sources that are really detrimental to our health.

Name one character from a book you’d like to spend time with and why?

Father Tim from Jan Karon’s Mitford series. He is one of the most endearing character’s I’ve read in any novel and I would love to follow him around Mitford and pick his brain for a day.

What author would you most like to interview if given the chance?

I would love to interview David McCullough. His work is world-renowned and it would be such a tremendous honor to be able to interview him. I’d love to ask him about the manual typewriter he writes his 500+ page tomes on.

What has been the most rewarding part of book blogging for you?

There are so many things that are rewarding about book blogging––the chance to express yourself, receiving free books, getting to know publicists and authors––but I would have to say that what really justifies the long hours I spend on my blog is when someone tells me that they actually went out and bought a book because I gave it a positive review or when I hear that a friend of a friend reads my blog and it impacts her reading habits. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside and motivates me to write the best reviews I can and look for ways to improve my blog.

What are you reading right now?

Right this minute I’m between books. I just finished What’s So Great About Christianity? by Dinesh D’Souza, and I’m about to begin Room by Emma Donoghue, which I’m really excited about.

 What’s on your to-read list?

My to-read list is interminably long; I can’t even begin to scratch the surface of it, but I’ll name a few that I’m just dying to read:
-Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Borrows

-The Yada Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jackson

-Heaven by Randy Alcorn

-The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel

-John Adams by David McCullough

-Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker

To find out more about Kate, visit her blog, The Parchment Girl.

To find Kate on Twitter, visit @parchmentgirl37

Guest Post and Book Giveaway with Shana Mahaffey, Author of Sounds Like Crazy

I had the pleasure of getting to know Shana Mahaffey last spring via multiple emails. Not only did I love the fact that she is a cat lover and Lost fanatic like I am, I admired her devotion to readers of her book, as she is always willing to speak with book clubs via phone, video conference and Skype. After reading her fascinating book on Dissociative Identity Disorder (Formerly Multiple Personality Disorder), I was compelled to spent hours learning even more about the condition, due to my own missing childhood memories. I’ve never been diagnosed with DID, but then again, I’ve never mentioned my childhood memory loss to a single doctor. Shana has agreed to do a guest Q&A post, in addition to having me host a giveaway for her novel, Sounds Like Crazy. She’ll also be stopping by later today and responding to reader questions and comments.

Shana Mahaffey

Please tell us a bit about Sounds Like Crazy.

Sounds Like Crazy is as a darkly comic and ultimately healing story about Holly Miller, an Emmy Award winning cartoon voiceover performer who has actual voices in her head, multiple personalities who make her career a huge success, and shield her from a terrible secret in her past.

If you could meet, in person, any of your characters, who would it be and why?

I would want to meet the Silent One, because he is so peaceful. Hanging out with him for an afternoon, doing yoga, and watching the world, would be a wonderful respite from the busy day-to-day fun.

If you could fictionalize yourself and put yourself in any situation, how would it play out? Could you give us a scene/scenario of such an occurrence?

This is a tough question because when I am writing, I immerse myself in my book, living and breathing all the characters. Right now, I move through my days thinking, “How would Cassidy,” the main character of the novel I’m currently working on, “react to this? What would she think? Do? How would it influence her future?” I do the same with the other key characters, and to a lesser degree, minor characters. One small example would be as I ride my bike up the Panhandle to Golden Gate Park. It’s a bright day, temperature in the mid sixties, a slight breeze blowing. I ride along at a leisurely pace so as to hear the rustling sound of the leaves on the Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees. Cassidy would stop her bike so she could lie under one of the trees, close her eyes and match her breathing with the sound of the leaves. Ingo, another character in my new novel, would not be riding a bike and would never notice the trees. He’d be at the local pub drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette.

Do you have any particular habits that you do while writing? Places you write the best, foods, drinks, etc that help set your “writing mood?”

Early morning and late at night, I love to write sitting in my bed with my laptop on a pillow. All other times, my favorite place to write is the Sanchez Grotto—a shared space of authors that is full of creativity and support. To get into my head down fingers on the keyboard mood, I drink strong coffee (sometimes a lot of it). If I’m really struggling to get words on the page, I will drape my grandfather’s sweater over my shoulders. I keep it in my office for these occasions.

What are you reading right now?

When I am writing, I tend to read plot-driven mysteries and thrillers. Anything else tends to creep into my own work. Right now, I am traipsing through Paris with Aimee Leduc of the Aimee LeDuc Investigations series—Murder in [fill in the arrondissemont] by Cara Black.

Who are some of your favorite authors and/or books?

Robertson Davies is, hands down, my favorite author. And, to make my esteem for him more special, he died on my birthday, which I took to be a particularly good omen for my career as an author. My favorite Robertson Davies book is What’s Bred in the Bone. Other favorites include Roger Zelazny and The Chronicles of Amber, and a lifelong favorite is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

If you could meet any author, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

I would want to meet Robertson Davies. First, because he is my favorite author—I’d like to tell him how much I admire his writing. Second, to ask him for any tips and tricks he’d like to share. And finally, third, to have a cup of coffee and shoot the breeze with him—two authors having an afternoon chat. I’d really feel like I made it after that.

What are some of your favorite ways to relax?

I love to take long city walks. I do this often in San Francisco, but love to explore any city in this manner. Other ways are curling up in bed, flanked by my two cats, a good book in hand, a coffee or glass of wine with friends, and to be totally California cliché, yoga J.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

There are many places I’d love to live—New York City, Paris, Lake Tahoe, the South of France—to name a few. However, in all of these places I would not have the community of friends and family I have in San Francisco. Even though I feel the call of other places near and far, I wouldn’t trade the life I have in San Francisco for anything. It doesn’t mean I won’t visit, though.

Share with us a few of your dreams. Also whether they have been fulfilled or are still a work in progress.

Besides winning the Booker Prize, National Book Award, and maybe the Pulitzer for my novels, I dream that my novels all become Oscar-winning movies. The next big dream I have is to win the lottery. Once I’ve cleared that hurdle, I’d figure out how much money I need to live comfortably for another 100 years and set it aside. Then I’d take the remainder and give half to all my favorite charities like Marine Mammal center, World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife, NRDC, and various Food Bank and education charities. For the other half, I’d invite all my friends and family to come over with all their bills and I’d write checks until the debts were paid or the money was gone. All works in progress!

What are some of your guilty pleasures?

In the afternoons, I go to the café near my writing office and order a cupcake to go with my coffee. This is no ordinary cupcake; rather, it has a giant pile of butter cream frosting (are you sensing a pattern here?). I excuse the frosting as motivation for writing. Another guilty pleasure is walking at night, either in San Francisco or anywhere else I am visiting, and looking in people’s windows. I love to see the interiors of different homes, the decorating style, paint color and so forth. Sometimes I look and judge. Other times, I imagine what my life would be like if this was my home, my decorations, my paint color, etc.

If you could leave the world with one piece of advice, what would it be?

I think American writer, painter, sculptor and publisher Brian Andreas says it better than I can:‎ “Anyone can slay a dragon …but try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That’s what takes a real hero.”

About the Author

Shana Mahaffey lives in San Francisco, California, in part of an Edwardian compound that she shares with an informal cooperative of family, friends, and five cats. She’s a survivor of catechism and cat scratch fever, and is a member of the Sanchez Grotto Annex, a writers’ co-op. Her novel, Sounds Like Crazy was named a notable book for Fall 2009 by the San Francisco Chronicle; and her work has appeared in publications such as Sunset Magazine, SoMa Literary Review, Spectrum Literary Journal, Reflections Literary Journal, and assorted literary blogs. In addition to writing fiction, Shana has contributed articles, white papers, and product reviews to various technology publications. She welcomes all visitors to her website and is happy to meet with book groups in-person or in cyberspace (phone/webcam/the works). Her cat blogs for her at ShanaMahaffey.com.

Read my original review of Sounds Like Crazy.

Visit Amazon.com to purchase Sounds Like Crazy right now.

SOUNDS LIKE CRAZY GIVEAWAY – 2 LUCKY WINNERS WILL WIN A COPY

RULES:

**Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

**No P.O. boxes, please.

**Must include your email in your comment, unless you signed in to leave a comment with your “real” email.

**All comments must be separate to count as separate entries. For example, if you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, leave 2 comments, one with your Facebook name, and one with your Twitter name. Or, if you posted about the giveaway on your blog, leave 5 comments, all with the link to your giveaway.

**Please read the additional rules here.

HOW TO ENTER:

**Mandatory Entry: Go to Shana’s website, ShanaMahaffey.com, and tell me what fun or interesting thing you learned there.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Like Shana Mahaffey on Facebook.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook. Make sure to leave your Facebook name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook and share a link on your wall with the following comment I entered The Girl from the Ghetto’s Sounds Like Crazy by Shana Mahaffey book giveaway here http://bit.ly/lxjR84. Make sure to leave a comment below with a link to your Facebook profile message, or at least with your Facebook name.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Follow @SMahaff on Twitter.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter. Make sure to leave your @Twitter name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following RT @NerdGirlBlogger Enter the #bookexpo #bookbloggercon giveaway for Sounds Like Crazy by @SMahaff http://bit.ly/lxjR84. You can tweet 4x a day (Once every 6 hours) for even more chances to win. Make sure to leave a link to your tweet in a comment below.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Subscribe to my blog via email or Feedburner.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Enter one of my other current giveaways and tell me which one.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Goodreads.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow Shana Mahaffey on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Add Sounds Like Crazy to your to-read shelf on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Comment here and tell me why you need to win this giveaway! Do you love learning about mental health conditions or Multiple Personality Disorder? Do you enjoy reading in general, or, do you just love winning free stuff?

+5 MORE ENTRIES: Write about this giveaway on your own blog. Make sure to post a link to http://thegirlfromtheghetto.wordpress.com, and leave me 5 copies of your link via comment here.

Contest ends Tuesday, May 30, 2011 at midnight. Good luck to you all!

Guest Post and Book Giveaway with Rachel Shukert, Author of Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour

I had the pleasure of meeting author Rachel Shukert last May when I was attending a book blogger party at The Algonquin Hotel. Not only was she funny, charming, and had no problem talking about cat co-dependence issues, Rachel didn’t even mention she was an author until someone else mentioned that I’d love her book, as it was a travel memoir. [Then again, Rachel was wearing a name badge that said author on it, but I was way to tipsy on a can of Coke and a glass of white wine to notice.] Since then, I’ve fallen in love with both her and both her books. I absolutely love her neurotic, politically incorrect, hilarious and flavorful (and by flavorful I mean at times fun-but-still-a-tiny-bit-seedy) tale of a Jewish girl’s adventures in Europe. I’m more than happy to share her guest post with you today, as well as offer a giveaway for 3 copies of her memoir, Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour.

Rachel Shukert

For my guest post, I have chosen to administer to myself the Proust Questionnaire that is always given to some luminary in the back of Vanity Fair, as the magazine has of this writing, neglected to contact me for inclusion; obviously an unintentional oversight.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

–Being on the way someplace I’ve never been before, preferably with my husband.

What is your greatest fear?

–Not accomplishing all that I want to.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

–Heinrich Heine and Joan Rivers. (She’s a historical figure, right?)

Which living person to you most admire?

–J.K. Rowling seems like a good lady, now that Elizabeth Taylor is gone.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

–Narcissism.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

–Bigotry, especially when unacknowledged.

What is your greatest extravagance?

–Refusing to cook.

On what occasions do you lie?

–Whenever it’s useful and/or kinder.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?

–My prematurely grey hairs. But ask me again in a few years, when these disturbing lines near my mouth have had a little more time to develop.

When and where were you happiest?

–In Amsterdam, the late summer of 2004. (Which handily coincides with the last chapters of my book.)

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

–I wish I was better at putting together a house.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?

–I’d have them live closer. (Not TOO close. But closer.)

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

–Being able to make a living in a creative profession i.e. not having to ask my parents for money.

If you died and came back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

–You’re assuming I can die.

What is your most treasured possession?

–A typewritten letter that my grandmother wrote me on my first birthday. She never sent it; we found it in her things after she died.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

–Writer’s block.

Who are your heroes in real life?

–Women who don’t care what other people think of them.

What do you most dislike?

–People who make ignorance a virtue. Also, I’m not too crazy about mayonnaise.

How would you like to die?

–I wouldn’t.

What is your motto?

–”There are no shortcuts, only short people.”

About the Author:

Rachel Shukert is the author of the critically acclaimed memoirs Everything Is Going To Be Great and Have You No Shame? Her work has been featured on Sweeney’s, Slate, Gawker, The Daily Beast, Heeb, and Nerve. Shukert has even been featured on National Public Radio. She has also contributed to a variety of
anthologies, including Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists and Best American Erotic Poetry: 1800 to the Present.

Shukert’s plays include Bloody Mary (NYIT nominee), Johnny Applefucker, Everything’s Coming Up Moses, The Sporting Life and The Nosemaker’s Apprentice (both with Nick Jones) and The Three Gabor Sisters, and have been produced and developed by Ars Nova, Soho Think Tank, the Williamstown Theater Festival, and the Ontological/Hysteric, as well as extensively throughout the Netherlands.

With Julie Klausner, Shukert co-created, co-wrote, and co-starred in Wasp Cove, New York’s favorite live prime-time 1980′s soap opera. She is currently developing her first feature with Yarn Films in Los Angeles.

Shukert is also a contributing editor at Tablet Magazine, and an alumnus of Ars
Nova’s illustrious Play Group. She received a BFA from Tisch School of the Arts, and lives in New York City with her husband Ben and her bipolar cat, Anjelica Huston.

Read my original review of Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour.

Visit Amazon.com to purchase a copy of Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour today.

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE GREAT: AN UNDERFUNDED AND OVEREXPOSED EUROPEAN GRAND TOUR GIVEAWAY – 3 LUCKY WINNERS WILL WIN A COPY

RULES:

**Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

**No P.O. boxes, please.

**Must include your email in your comment, unless you signed in to leave a comment with your “real” email.

**All comments must be separate to count as separate entries. For example, if you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, leave 2 comments, one with your Facebook name, and one with your Twitter name. Or, if you posted about the giveaway on your blog, leave 5 comments, all with the link to your giveaway.

**Please read the additional rules here.

HOW TO ENTER:

**Mandatory Entry: Go to Rachel’s website, RachelShukert.com, and tell me what fun or interesting thing you learned there.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Like Rachel Shukert on Facebook.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook. Make sure to leave your Facebook name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook and share a link on your wall with the following comment I entered The Girl from the Ghetto’s Everything Is Going to Be Great by Rachel Shukert book giveaway here http://bit.ly/lSuzAy. Make sure to leave a comment below with a link to your Facebook profile message, or at least with your Facebook name.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Follow @RachelShukert on Twitter.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter. Make sure to leave your @Twitter name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following RT @NerdGirlBlogger Enter the #bookexpo #bookbloggercon giveaway for Everything Is Going to Be Great by @RachelShukert http://bit.ly/lSuzAy. You can tweet 4x a day (Once every 6 hours) for even more chances to win. Make sure to leave a link to your tweet in a comment below.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Subscribe to my blog via email or Feedburner.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Enter one of my other current giveaways and tell me which one.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Goodreads.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow Rachel Shukert on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Add Everything Is Going to Be Great to your to-read shelf on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Comment here and tell me why you need to win this giveaway! Do you love travel memoirs, or authors who aren’t very traditional? Do you enjoy reading in general, or, do you just love winning free stuff?

+5 MORE ENTRIES: Write about this giveaway on your own blog. Make sure to post a link to http://thegirlfromtheghetto.wordpress.com, and leave me 5 copies of your link via comment here.

Contest ends Monday, May 30, 2011 at midnight. Good luck to you all!