Sunday Salon: A Giveaway
This isn't going to be a very cohesive post. I've got a lot going on and even more on my mind.
First things first: I am having a Barnes & Noble gift card giveaway! You must enter on the entry post, which can be found here. There are a couple rules, but the main stipulation is that it's only eligible to those in the United States. I'm donating a dollar for every entry to Room to Read, a charity that promotes childhood literacy and early education around the world. There are three gift cards up for grabs: one for $30 and two for $15 each. The giveaway ends December 20th, and I'll announce the winners on Sunday, December 21st.
Loss and grief have been a major theme of my week this past week. On Monday, as you all know, we discovered we lost Dewey, who has done so much for the book blogging community. She was a vital part of this community, and I know we'll all work together to continue the projects she started. I didn't know her the way so many of you did, but I still feel her loss.
More significantly for me, though, one of my brother's best friends died Thursday night. The coroner believes he died of an accidental overdose of painkillers- he was taking prescription strength pain killers because of a car accident, and he used a pain relief back patch as well. And apparently the combination was lethal. I've had a hard time focusing on much of anything since we received the news on Friday afternoon. My brother has had to be the person to tell everyone, and he's not yet had a chance to grieve. I know that he'll do it in his own time, but in the meantime, my mother and others are kind of pressuring him. And that's not helping him, either.
As you can imagine, I haven't gotten much reading done in the last two days, and unfortunately, real life obligations are going to trump reading obligations for the next few days as well. I'm still working on finishing The King's Daughter by Sandra Worth. I'm hoping to finish it Wednesday, with a review posted Thursday or Friday. Beyond that, well, we'll see what happens.
Hope you all have a good Sunday.
Edited to add: There are some changes coming to Reading and Ruminations; please see my post here.