Friday, May 6, 2011

Author Guest Post + Contest: Amy Plum with Kate's Bookshelf

Here today is Amy Plum, debut author of Die for Me, to share some book picks. But these aren't just any favorites. Nope. These come right from Kate, the protagonist of Die for Me! And then stick around after Kate's spotlight to enter for your chance to win a copy of Die for Me!

 
Thanks, Kari, for asking about my bookshelf!

I should say that I’ve always been a big reader. While my sister Georgia was playing with neighborhood kids in the park, I was perched up in a tree with a book. And not much has changed since then. (Except for the tree.)

My favorites when I was little were the “Eloise” books and “Madeleine” books, not surprisingly set in New York and Paris: the two cities I’ve spent the most time in. (We’ve spent summers in Paris with our grandparents for as long as I remember.) Followed by the “Anne of Green Gables” and “Little House on the Prairie” books.

When I visited my grandma in France, she would read in French to me. I pretty much memorized la Fontaine’s fables (which EVERY French person knows) and Charles Perrault’s fairy tales (Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard—and no, those aren’t English stories!). I loved the Fantômette stories by Georges Chaulet (about a teenage masked crime fighter) and “Vendredi ou la vie sauvage” (“Friday and Robinson”) by Michel Tournier.

Around eleven or twelve, I really got into fantasy and science fiction. I did love the Harry Potter books, but most of the books I read were straight off my mom’s bookshelf, so a bit “vintage”. (She would have hated me saying that.) For example, I loved Tolkein’s “Ring” trilogy, C.S. Lewis’s “Narnia” series, Madeleine l’Engle (loved “A Wrinkle in Time”), Isaac Asimov (especially “Foundation”), Heinlein (“Have Spacesuit, Will Travel”), and Bradbury (especially the “Martian Chronicles”).

Oh, and I went through quite a mystery phase as well, and read almost every Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers book out there (I loved her “The Nine Taylors”, and named one of our cats “Wimsey” after her detective—Lord Peter Wimsey). I loved the Sherlock Holmes books as well as “A Strange Disappearance” by Anna Katharine Green. And I gobbled up P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves books and Wilkie Collins’s “Woman in White”.

But since I moved to Paris, I’ve been missing New York, and am devouring novels that are set there. “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” is probably my favorite book, and I’ve picked it back up lately. “A Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin is pure magic. I really enjoyed the immortal/history-visiting side of “Forever” by Pete Hamill. “Catcher in the Rye” and “Franny and Zooey” by J.D. Salinger are so New York that I can almost taste bagels when I read them. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Truman Capote is wonderful. “Washington Square” by Henry James is a classic. And the Edith Wharton books, especially “House of Mirth” and “The Age of Innocence” are amongst my all-time favorites—I love to imagine myself in her Old New York. Chaim Potok’s book “The Chosen” took place not far from where I lived in Brooklyn, and I truly loved its peek into the Hassidic Jewish life that I saw only from the outside.

I could go on and on. This is just a little dip-of-the-toe into the lake of books that I love. Ask me again in a year, and I’ll give you completely different lists!



 Thank you, Kate, for sharing your favorites! I was a huge fan of Madeleine when I was growing up too, and Narnia is certainly a classic for any age!


Now for YOUR chance to win a signed copy of Die for Me, just fill out THIS form!

Contest IS international, and ends May 15!

No entries will be accepted through the comments, but they are very welcome!

What were some of your favorites growing up?

20 comments:

  1. Thank you for the interesting post and for making the contest international! :D

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  2. THANKS BABE THIS IS ON MY TBR LIST!!!

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  3. Thanks for the giveaway. I love to win this book.

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  4. When I would sleep over my grandmom's house, I would go to the library everytime and take out Anne of Green Gables!

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  5. One of my favorites growing up? Oh well, I quite loved Fantômette, I used to buy them to a secondhand bookseller for something like 5 francs. Wow, it dates. (And yeah, I'm French.) It's great to see the books chosen by Amy Plum, Kate is a bit like me, bookwise : Fantômette then later Harry Potter, Tolkien, Lewis...

    Thanks for the giveway !

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  6. Thanks for the giveaway! I need to read all those books she mentioned, I've heard people talking about them many times before. (I'm Argentine, that's why I didn't know about them when I was a little girl.)

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  7. Tahnks for the giveaway! :D

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  8. It was nice to see her books. However I have not read some of the book she mentioned, I am glad to see Breakfast at Tiffany, Anne of Green Gables and A Wrinkle in time :D

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  9. Thanks for Giveaway and making it internationally

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  10. Great guest post!

    I tagged you in this post: http://simpleloveofreading.blogspot.com/2011/05/tag-im-it.html

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  11. Great interview! Love her book choices. Thanks so much for the giveaway! Can't wait to read it :)

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  12. Thank you for the chance to win and for the great interview!

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  13. Great interview, and thanks for the opportunity! :)

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  14. I loved reading the post and looking forward to reading the book later. Thank you for making the giveaway international.

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  15. My favorite was Harry Potter, but I also loved Narnia. I still have them on my bookshelf.

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  16. I would love to read this have heard a few great reviews and it has already be added to my TBR pile. Thx for the chance to win it.

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  17. Hum, my first boom-book (you know, like a bomb LOL) was Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. I was 8-9 years old, and when I didn't even understand all the words (maybe NONE), I just fall in love.

    Damn you, Edgar Allan Poe, you're my favorite author since that age! (let's say it was 10 years ago ;) )

    Thanks for the giveaway, darling!

    take care, xoxo!

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  18. Hi! Fanstastic blog, I'm a new follower :). My favorite books growing up were Anne of Green Gables (I wore my copy out!), The Secret Garden, and The Babysitter's Club series :).

    Thanks for giving us a chance to win Die For Me! I've heard great things and can't wait to read it!
    ~ Jen @ A Book and a Latte

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  19. Thanks a lot for the chance and have a great week!

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