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Win-It Wednesday: Living Dead Girl and Do-Gooder Impulses
Did you guys read everyone's who-I-met stories? I loved them! Thanks for sharing all of those. New people make life less boring. The winner of the signed copy of Specials is... The Bookworm! Send me your address, BW.
This week, I'm giving away a copy of Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. I finished this book in a few hours; I really couldn't turn away from it. While I've really enjoyed all of Elizabeth Scott's books that I've read, this one is very different from her other works. It's dark and harrowing and relentless in its emotional pitch--it totally would have scared me if I'd read it at a younger age (and I still slept with the lights on one night after I read it, but I'm a freak like that).
In an ALAN interview, Elizabeth Scott put into words why this book feels like so much more than a voyeuristic portrayal of abuse: "I think it's easy to get outraged over a child's abduction, but it's also equally easy for us to see something--someone--that makes us uncomfortable, a moment or an expression that give us pause, and to do nothing. And that moment where we see and turn away is, I think, the heart of Living Dead Girl. Alice's story isn't just about what she endures with Ray. It's what she endures at the hands of the world. How it doesn't see her."
This book will knock you on your butt. It's an important one.
So, on the note of not seeing things happening in the world, I'm going to post this vlog I made for Devyn Burton's Book Transfusion project (I have no idea why it freezes with my eyes closed--dumb!). Watch it, and then tell me, What's your good deed this week?
It can be a donation to The Book Transfusion (contact Devyn here), some extra time spent with your grandmother, a smile for a stranger who looks down--anything! But tell me how you're spreading the love this week, and how you're really seeing the world. I'll choose a winner next Wednesday, and I'll throw in some lip gloss from TESS, too, just to lighten the spirit of the package. Lip gloss is key.
PS-It's Banned Book Week and Maureen Johnson says this better than I could, so check her out!
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Comments (32)
DO NOT enter me because I have read and reviewed the book already, just wanted to say thanks for the interview excerpt and link!
Posted by Lenore | October 1, 2008 11:41 AM
I feel odd talking about myself and my "good deeds", so instead I will just mention something that makes me happy to do.
My youngest sib is a boy and my other sibs are girls. So my brother gets bored and feels lonely quite often. I'm more of a tomboy than a girly-girly so we hang out and play together (when I'm not reading a book or on the computer, which is rare). One of my favorite activities to do with him is to wrestle. Arm wrestling, leg wrestling, who can push who of the couch, suprise attacks for the remote. I love it and he gets a kick out of it. That's one thing that makes me happy to do.
Posted by TheBookworm | October 1, 2008 12:14 PM
I'm all out of good deeds. It sucks to say it, but I just don't want to right now. It's too hard.
Posted by Melissa Walker | October 1, 2008 2:54 PM
I'm volunteering at a homeless shelter in Boston... I'm really excited!
Posted by emily. | October 1, 2008 4:21 PM
I congratulated a Cubs fan on their playoff berth yesterday. I even meant it! Sort of.
Seriously, though - I joined Big Sisters this week! I'm doing the orientation this weekend, and I get assigned a little sister next week. I'm totally excited.
Posted by Laura | October 1, 2008 4:27 PM
I saw the words "lip gloss" and hurried over. ;) (It's an addiction...I know) I'm helping a friend write a resume tomorrow!
Posted by Jessica Burkhart | October 1, 2008 5:32 PM
My good deed of the week. Hmmm. Since the week is only half over, I am going to use one from last week.
My best friend just had a baby three weeks ago today. On Friday, I took her out to lunch and paid. This is a huge thing for her right now, as she and her husband are trying to save their money for new house and the little one. She was soo happy to get out of the house and go to a new restaurant. We had an awesome lunch and a great time hanging out afterwards.
Posted by Meredith F. | October 1, 2008 9:18 PM
Hm, I would love to give away my old books but I'm not sure if they accept old conditioned ones. Plus, I live in Canada so I am sorta lazy to ship it down there...
Speaking of good deeds, I keep forgetting to call my local food bank to volunteer! Argh, better remind myself tomorrow...
Posted by Diana Dang | October 1, 2008 9:57 PM
I bought a book for a friend that she REALLY wanted. It feels a little weird answering a question like this... I'm not normally one to brag.
Posted by Ink | October 1, 2008 11:03 PM
Talking about "good deeds" makes me very uncomfortable, but I do have times that I feel others have done some to/for me:
My brother saved the last fork for me.
It is a pretty little thing but it makes a big difference in our household of six.
Just a little thing that changes everything.
Posted by Adayla | October 1, 2008 11:13 PM
this week ive been hugging everyone at my school and i love it when guys who never think that they would like to be hugged by a girl acctually ask me for them now !!!!like this guy nick hes like 4,9ft or something and hes like my teddy bear hes that cute :) and everytime i give him a hug he smiles the biggest smile and it makes me soooo happy to be able to give people that joy when they need it and even when they dont think that they do :)
Smile and a computer hug :):):)
Katie
Posted by Katie | October 2, 2008 4:01 PM
I signed up for an alternative winter break for my college at camp boggy in eustis, florida for children with terminal illnesses. I'm gonna be a camp counselor volunteer.
Posted by Lindsey | October 2, 2008 4:24 PM
My good deed this week was giving our "substitute bus driver" directions to our houses... Yep, he was clueless. So before we ended up 2 towns over, my friends and I gave him directions to get the kids on the bus safely home.
Posted by Maria | October 2, 2008 4:42 PM
Ahh okay, well to be honest I haven't done any good deeds this week, but on November 1st I will be going down to Los Angeles for a JDRF walk to help raise money towards the diabetes foundation. So I guess that's a good deed that I will take part of in the future. :D
-Cyndi
(http://themoonmaidenblog.blogspot.com/)
Posted by Cyndi | October 2, 2008 7:08 PM
Well I don't usually try to remember the good deeds I do... but I guess Yesterday My best friend and her boyfriend just broke up so I took her out to eat and see a movie to try to take her mind off the pain she was feeling. I also take care of a disabled woman and her mentally disabled daughter every day.
Posted by Lizzie-B | October 2, 2008 8:12 PM
Well, my good deed was checking out the book Breaking Dawn for my best friend.
She doesn't get to read books very often
since she spends so much time drawing.
I'm just happy to see that joyful look
on her face when I gave her the book to read.
Posted by Pretty | October 2, 2008 10:12 PM
I would like to read this first to see if it is something that might be good for a friend's 14-year ikd daughter to read--she had a similar experience only it was her father. What do you think?
Good deed? I just took a big stack of books to the library for their book sale.
Posted by Carolsue | October 2, 2008 11:36 PM
I'm tutoring my friend's daughter in English and Reading. She's doing better, but I like to think its her getting excited about words. :)
Posted by Maria Almeida | October 3, 2008 2:51 PM
Hmm, good deed...I'm not sure if this counts, but my mom is really lonely because my dad is out of town this week, so I've been calling her every night and watching movies with her over the phone, even though that's the only time during the week I get with my husband because he works so much!
Posted by S. Krishna | October 3, 2008 3:53 PM
I am going to be tutoring kids in reading next week, and working on a Habitat for Humanity Build!
Posted by Michelel | October 3, 2008 5:05 PM
I know I want to read Living Dead Girl, though I know once I start it I won't be able to put it down. I'm just hesitant and will have to psyche myself up.
My good deed for the week was seeing a friend through a difficult time in her marriage. I know I'm not a counselor but she needed to talk and I am glad I was able to be there for her. I'm happy to say they are working things out and talking again.
Lip Gloss! Squee! :)
Posted by Liz C. | October 3, 2008 5:36 PM
I'm a good deeds person. I try to put others before myself and do volunteer work as it comes up.
Posted by nadine-stella | October 3, 2008 9:36 PM
I took candy to class on the day of our first huge test in grad school for my classmates, just to help calm everyone down a little.
Posted by Nikki U | October 4, 2008 3:29 PM
Spreading the love? I try to be nice to everyone I meet... and I might give away some extra copies of books I have.
And how I see the world? I see the world as a vast and mysterious place, and I fit in there somewhere and even if I do something small, I can make a change for the better or find out something new.
Posted by Paradox | October 4, 2008 6:58 PM
I help the world by working in the hospital.
I work every Sunday and play with kids who are patients.
It makes me feel better, by making these kids happy and seeing a smile on their face.
Posted by Scrambled | October 5, 2008 8:44 PM
My good deed for this week?
Well... at work (it seems like everything I say is about work lately) I took the time to bring an elderly couple their tray of food. I thought that was kind of nice to me.
It doesn't compare to donating books for teenage hospital patients, but I guess it's better than nothing.
Posted by Chelsie | October 6, 2008 1:35 AM
i've been really nice this week (and i am really not a nice person) have tried to persuade a friend that one of the good things he can do is donate to wfp (he's got money but he thinks doanting money doesn't work and he actually has to go somewhere and do something. well if you can do it's good, but really donating money also helps sooooooooooo much) and then also i've cooked a meal for the caretaker at the office, he's a temp, he doesn't cook and i think he really appreciated a home cooked meal (even my cooking! :))
Posted by katayoun | October 7, 2008 4:19 AM
it's weird - it feels sort of like bragging. i've been trying to think of things recently that aren't part of my normal to-do-stuff, say in work. (working with the mentally ill/young kids/etc. can always be spun to be a good deed.)
so, i'm not a fan of crowds, but my good friend works at bloomies. and they were having a huge sale, and i knew she was working from like, 8am to 1 am all week. so i made her a lunch one day and brought it to her - easily snackable throughout the day - and man, was it crowded! but she really appreciated it.
oh! and i stayed at this bar with my friend because she wanted to talk to this guy, even though i really, really wanted to go home. i didn't make her feel guilty about it either.
i also let my kitty sleep on my bed with me because it's gotten cold. (his full name is phinneas the destroyer, for a darn good reason.)
Posted by furies | October 7, 2008 6:39 PM
I really got my good deed in under the wire: A stranger from a neighboring street just knocked on my door telling me the kitten she was fostering escaped and they thought she might have climbed into my backyard. I helped her look (no kitty) and later brought her and her friend a flashlight and my halogen camping lantern while they looked in the alley behind my house. Finally, they returned my stuff to me with kitty in hand! Yay! I'm so happy they found a black kitten in the dark in a group of city back patios with lots of places to hide. Whew!
Posted by Liz Encarnacion | October 7, 2008 8:14 PM
Hmm. My good deed was while my grandpa was in the hospital this weekend. I drove up and watched his dog while he and my grandma were at the hospital.
Posted by Olivia | October 7, 2008 11:36 PM
I don't think I do good deeds- I just try to help and make a difference. I have been blessed with so much and so much love that I just want to pass it on.
I am saying a few things which sound braggy but so maybe another gurl will want to do more.
This week I finally saved enough that I could send a big clump of money to The Christian Children's fund for my two little sisters in Brazil. I have been helping the two families re-build and repair their houses. Every gurl should adopt another gurl from somewhere. The letters you will rceeive are inceredible and such a blessing. It doesn't take much work to pay the monthly fee.
I stayed up all night trying to help a friend who had a horrible personal problem. That doesn't happen often, thankfully. She is fine, now.
My BGFF lost her brother. She is going to go with Joni and take his wheel chair and others for people who otherwise couldn't get around. I commited to help her get there.
I'v given books to a children's hospital. I read all the time and don't mess up the books. If I read a book I love and want a friend to read it I buy a copy for my friend and don't lend a book. That seems fairer to my author friends.
The only books I keep are books signed to me by an author friend. I cherish these.
If I win please give my book to the hospital. I will send some books there, too.
Posted by Anna R. Haze | October 8, 2008 10:36 AM
my good deed for the week isof course heloign around the house like i always do.
i wash dishes,help my grandfather with the dihses when he askes,take care fo my pets etc etc.
when i help with these things i always get a thank you and i get that feeling of doing something good by others.
Posted by minniepixie | October 8, 2008 5:16 PM