The (not very exciting) Back Story
A little over a month ago someone filled out my Recommend a Book form. I didn’t think anything of it as mostly the recommendations I get are from Tom and Alie telling me to read the Twilight series, or my own entries reminding me of titles I want to look into.
However, this time I was wrong. I’d received a REAL book recommendation and not just any book recommendation, but an offer of an Advance Reader’s Copy. Not knowing 100% what this meant I scoured my brain because I’d read mention of them on a blog before and I was correct. Thanks to Bev and her review policy over at My Reader’s Block, I was able to figure out a few things (with her kind help answering some random questions by email), I decided to go for it. So I contacted Christine at Henry Holt and Company and within two weeks my very first Advance Reader’s Copy of a novel arrived in my mailbox.
I believe Christine recommended the book, The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen*, because of my multiple Emma Donoghue reviews; and since the book received a cover quote from Emma Donoghue and had a child narrator and reminded me of a cross between Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and Zaddie Smith’s White Teeth, I thought why not give it a go (there were also mentions of similarities to Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges are not the Only Fruit). I will post my review of the novel tomorrow afternoon and get to these comparisons and my thoughts.
I purchased this novel back in September at the Border’s 