Giveaway! Win a copy of "Not Alone"

Today, I'm honored to be over at author Anna Weaver's website, sharing a little bit about "Not Alone". The interview includes a giveaway -- please come on over and enter to win a copy!

Here's a little snippet of the interview Anna conducted with me about the book - in this paragraph, I have a chance to explain the book's crazy-long subtitle! :)

The book I'm featuring today is "Not Alone: A Literary Companion For Those Confronted with Miscarriage and Infertility". 

I know that's a mouthful of a subtitle! But we wanted readers to know what they were picking up. 

"Literary" because it's a book of essays. So very many people have shared this kind of suffering and so we wanted to feature a multitude of perspectives. 

"Companion" because the longing for a child -- either one you've lost or one you've never had -- can be a very lonely kind of suffering. We wanted people to know this book was full of people who had been there too, who want to walk beside you in your grief. 

And "Confronted" because this isn't something you ask for. It's something that comes upon you when you never wanted it and weren't looking for it. 

This is a book that doesn't pretend that these things are easy, but also confirms that God is good. And those two truths: that there is real sorrow and a good God who loves us ... those can be hard to reconcile. The contributors to "Not Alone" were really honest about *both*, and I think it's that honesty that makes the book so valuable.

Please head on over to Anna's place to read the rest!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

"Not Alone" giveaway and interview!

I'm honored to be a guest today over at Lena Nelson Dooley's blog, talking about "Not Alone" and how miscarriage and infertility aren't "pretend griefs".  Here's a snippet:

These can be very private griefs, which lead to people feeling very alone. As the church, it’s important to comfort one another and to be there for each other—especially because, as Christians, we know that the unborn are real people, loved and known by God. And because we value children, and so can acknowledge that infertility is a real loss—not some pretend grief that people should just “buck up” and “get over.”

Please stop by Lena's place to read the rest, and to enter the #giveaway!


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through these links, I'll receive a small percentage of the purchase price - for my own shopping! :) (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Pentecost giveaway!

Today, Sunday, May 24, is Pentecost Sunday, when we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit.

To celebrate, I'm giving away three copies of "Let Us Keep the Feast: Pentecost and Ordinary Time".  All you have to do to enter is to comment on this post!*  This is limited to the United States** and the drawing will be conducted via random generator after 5/30/15.  Thank you for entering!

Here's a description of the book:

A brief guide for individuals and families who want to celebrate the seasons of Pentecost and Ordinary Time in their daily lives.

Pentecost and Ordinary Time are the last of the seasons in the Church Year—and often among the most misunderstood and neglected. As with some of the other seasons, Christians may find that their practices are inconsistent or in need of improvement. In the Pentecost and Ordinary Time edition of Let Us Keep the Feast, you’ll find help for enriching your observance and celebration of these seasons: traditions new and old, suggested readings, recipes, and prayers.

Please share this with friends who might enjoy having a copy of the book!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

*Please make sure your entry includes contact info, like your email, or your entry may be disqualified.
**I'm sorry - postage is a killer!

Giveaway! "Let Us Keep the Feast: the Complete Year"

The complete edition of "Let Us Keep the Feast" comes out tomorrow!

And to celebrate, I'm giving away a free copy of the paperback version.  :)

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment on this post, and next Saturday I'll pick a winner using a random number generator (with my apologies to my awesome international readers, I'm limiting this to the continental USA only, please).

Please enter, and share this on Facebook, Twitter, or  your blog, so others can enter too!

I can't wait to share this book with you all - it's larger than the booklets, and includes cool extras, like a scripture index and a chapter on celebrating the saints days.  And all of the good stuff about incorporating the rhythms of the liturgical season into the rhythm of your ordinary, day-to-day life is still there. There's enough information in this book that you'll be able to find a place to start, but it's organized and low-key enough that you won't feel pressured to do everything at once.

This is the resource I wish I'd had ten years ago, and I'm so glad that it's here now. :)

And if you just can't wait, "Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home" is available to order now, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers.

Thanks so much for your entry!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica snell


This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Giveaway!

Enter to win a free copy of the Epiphany and Lent volume of "Let Us Keep the Feast" over at Life of a Catholic Librarian!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


This post contains affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

yet another giveaway - win a free book!

Enter to win a free copy of the Epiphany and Lent volume of "Let Us Keep the Feast" here, at Jeff Gissing's blog.

I hope you win!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

More giveaway goodness!

I'm  happy to say that there's yet another chance for you to win a free book, over here at My Broken Fiat (wow, what a great blog title!).

And if you haven't yet, don't forget to also enter to win here, here, and here!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Three Chances to Win a Free Book!

I'm so excited to let you guys know about this: there are three different blogs this week offering a giveaway of the Advent/Christmas volume of "Let Us Keep the Feast"!

You can enter here, at Filling My Prayer Closet.

And you can enter here, at Life of a Catholic Librarian.

And you can enter here, at La Strada Tostada!


Go forth and win thee a book! :)

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

an endorsement for "Let Us Keep the Feast" from Timothy George - and a chance to win a copy of the Advent/Christmas edition!

Over at Patheos, Kathy Tuan-Maclean offers a short review of "Let Us Keep the Feast", and offers the chance to win a free copy! Head on over here and enter!

And if you're a bit on the fence of trying out "Let Us Keep the Feast", maybe this fellow can convince you to give it a shot. :)

“I really loved this book because it brings together the liturgy of the church and the life of the family.  A wonderful, practical guide for celebrating the seasons of the church year for everyone!” 

-Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and chairman of the Board for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

I'm so grateful to Dr. George for his kind words!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links: Giveaway, Hiking Blind, Castle, and more!

First off, Michelle over at Liturgical Time is giving away a copy of Matt Redmond's The God of the Mundane. My review is here (TL;DR: I liked it), and you can go here to enter the giveaway!

The Blind Hiker: How one man used technology to conquer the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail.

Throw Us a Curve, Castle:

I am told that the viewership of Castle skews right to the political right, so here is an idea: Let Beckett have a renewal of her (let’s say) childhood Catholic faith. Let her be the one person on television who is normal, but decides to obey the teachings of the Church. Let Castle wrestle with it . . . and decide she is worth a mass. Let them get married.

A meditation on the shocking idea that maybe we’re actually not just lazy whiners:

There is truth to the accusations that I’m ungrateful, spoiled, and lazy. No false humility here — I really do posses all those attributes to some degree or another. But it was simply not true to say that those faults alone were the cause of my suffering. I was struggling against a terribly difficult physical condition, and my body was running in the red zone for all of my waking hours. In those weeks when I was unaware of the reality of my situation, I worked under the incorrect assumption that my circumstances were normal, and that therefore the problems must come down to spiritual and mental character defects on my part. Not surprisingly, this caused me to be in a state of constant inner turmoil. In fact, it was reminiscent of the hidden angst that simmered silently within me when I was an atheist: whenever you live under false assumptions about reality, you will live in anguish. It may be buried and only pop up occasionally, or it may burst to the surface in explosions of acute despair, but whenever you try to jam a square peg of your perception of reality into the round hole of actual reality, there will always be friction.

The Early Education Racket:

If you are reading this article, your kid probably doesn’t need preschool.

Watching the Star Wars Prequels on Mute: An Experiment:

. . . . George Lucas has never really cared about dialogue; Paglia points out that he has been known to call it “a sound effect, a rhythm, a vocal chorus in the overall soundtrack,” of a film. The script is “a sketchbook” and he’s “not really interested in plots.” And to most of us that surely sounds like madness. But to George Lucas, who considers film to be an entirely visual medium, it’s exactly right.

 By that notion, one could eliminate the most problematic aspect of the prequels and watch them all over again for that visual experience. With the soundtrack playing, preferably, as the appointment of John Williams as the composer of these films was a very deliberate choice on Lucas’ part.

So, what do they look like? Well, here are some impressions from my own viewing….

Creating a Sub-Genre by Accident: Georgette Heyer’s The Corinthian:

Georgette Heyer wrote The Corinthian a few months after the tragic death of her brother-in-law, a close friend, in one of the early battles of World War II, and under the terrible fear that her husband would soon be following his brother into battle, and that her own brothers would not survive the war. She worried, too, about other family friends, and feared that the war (with its paper rationing, which limited book sales) would make her finances, always straitened, worse than ever. She could not focus, she told her agent, on the book she was supposed to finish (a detective story that would eventually turn into Envious Casca) and for once, she avoided a professional commitment that would earn her money, for a book she could turn to for pure escape. Partly to avoid the need of doing extensive research, and partly to use a historical period that also faced the prospect of war on the European continent, she turned to a period she had already researched in depth for three previous novels: The Regency.

In the process, she accidentally created a genre: The Corinthian, a piece of improbable froth, is the first of her classic Regency romances, the one that would set the tone for her later works, which in turn would spark multiple other works from authors eager to work in the world she created.

winner of "Sanctuary for a Lady" giveaway!

And we have a winner of the giveaway!

A copy of Naomi Rawlings' "Sanctuary for a Lady" is on its way to . . . Conservative Knit Mom!

Congratulations!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Yarnalong: Hummingbird Jaywalkers and "Sanctuary for a Lady" Giveaway!

First, the book (and giveaway)
Being a terrible person, I always flip through new books before I read them, risking spoilers and disappointment. But when I got Naomi Rawling's new book, "Sanctuary for a Lady", the first thing I stumbled across was this exchange:

"Why do you keep trying to kiss me?"

"I'm not trying to kiss you. I'm . . ." What? Trying not to kiss her?

That made me laugh out loud and go back to the beginning of the book in order to start the story, hopeful for good things.

And I wasn't disappointed: the story is full of incident and romance, bouncing nicely back and forth between the peril of the plot and the sweetness of the love story. It's set in one of the more exciting times of history - i.e., one of those times that's fun to read about but that you really wouldn't want to have to live through - and despite the dangers of the time period, it made me want to go and visit northern France, to see if it's still as pretty as this book makes it sound. The descriptions of the countryside in this story are lush and inviting, and the aristocrat-fleeing-the-Terror plot reminded me of the life and times of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Since Naomi was kind enough to give me this free copy*, I wanted to pass it on so that someone else could have the fun of reading it. If you're interested, just leave a comment, and make sure I have a way of contacting you. U.S. residents only (sorry!), and I'll pick a winner randomly on Sunday.

Then, the knitting
The socks are Jaywalkers and the yarn is Knit Picks' Felici in Hummingbird. It's very satisfying to watch the sharp ripple pattern appear; I've crocheted ripples so often, but this is my first time knitting them and it's fun to feel them form under my fingers via needle instead of hook. I really like the variety of learning things in both crafts.


More yarn-y and literary fun over at Small Things.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


*The book was free; all opinions are my own.