Every month, one subscriber to the Bookreporter.com newsletter wins 5 free hardcover books! This month's selection includes HORNET FLIGHT by Ken Follett, BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON by Dean Koontz, UTOPIA by Lincoln Childs, FOREVER by Pete Hamill, CHILD OF MY HEART by Alice McDermott. (See the complete contest rules.)

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Bookreporter.com Newsletter	November 27, 2002
This Week on Bookreporter.com Happy Thanksgiving --- Here Come the Holidays! Author Talk: Michael Crichton Bookreporter.com 2nd Annual Reader Survey Holiday Book Roundup A LONG WAY FROM HOME: Growing Up in the American Heartland Don't Miss: MACY'S ON PARADE Native American Author Roundtable Question: What is The Best Book of the Year? Poll Word of Mouth: Tell Us What You're Reading	On The Book Report Network Bookreporter.com Past Reviews How many books are on your reading pile right now? What did you think of THE LOVELY BONES?
Happy Thanksgiving --- Here Come the Holidays! Before I run off to baste the turkey and bake the pecan pie, here's our weekly update. For a short week, there's a lot to share including three ways to win prizes! Monday night I went to the book party for PREY, Michael Crichton's early anticipated book that we are featuring this week. Our Senior Writer, Joe Hartlaub loved this book! Five lucky winners who post to Word of Mouth between now and December 20th will win copies of PREY. As promised, the 2nd Annual Bookreporter.com Reader Survey is posted and ready for you to participate. Need incentive to take the survey? How's this? One lucky survey participant will win a $100 Amazon gift certificate and two others will win $25 Amazon gift certificates. You than can buy something "to you, from you" or use it towards holiday shopping. The survey is open till December 13th, so act quickly. For the first time since we founded Bookreporter.com in 1996, I am not planning to publish a "Best Of" list done by our Editors. After a year where I felt that many book awards did NOT reflect what I think readers are reading, I am turning to our readers to cast their votes for the Best Books of the Year. From your submissions, we will cull a Top Ten list. Criteria for judging is below. One lucky winner will win ALL ten books on the list. I will share my favorite books in the next week or two --- and will ask our reviewers to do the same --- but most of all I want to hear from YOU! Holidays mean going home --- or thoughts of home. This week we review Tom Brokaw's memoir about growing up in South Dakota. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. Thanksgiving also kicks off one of the most hectic times of the year. No matter what responsibilities you have, the holidays just seem to grow more of them. The other day I started reading I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT, the very witty --- and very honest --- novel about the joys of combining work and motherhood by Allison Pearson. I am laughing along with Kate, the main character as I read this book while I dry my hair, wait for the dinner to cook and in lieu of drumming my fingers as I wait for the computer to boot. If you would like a book to enjoy while the turkey bastes, the cookies bake and while you are contemplating the rest of your shopping list, be sure to pick it up. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Thanks for giving me the chance to have the best job in town. To all of our Jewish readers, Happy Hanukkah! Onto this week's lineup... --- Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)
Author Talk: Michael Crichton In this interview Michael Crichton, bestselling author of JURASSIC PARK and TIMELINE, discusses his latest thriller PREY and defines nanotechnology, a key concept in his new book. Crichton also talks about his methods for choosing topics to explore in his fiction. PREY by Michael Crichton Technology goes awry in a frightening novel of our possible future, as Michael Crichton tells the story of a mechanical plague and the desperate efforts of a handful of scientists to stop it. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub and excerpted. Read an interview with Michael Crichton, a review of PREY and an excerpt
Bookreporter.com 2nd Annual Reader Survey The Second Annual Bookreporter.com Reader Survey is open for your voting. This information will help us to program better the features and reviews on Bookreporter.com. This year we also are looking for feedback from you on how you shop and buy books. Consider this your chance to voice your opinion to book publishers, as we will be sharing these results with them. The answers and any information you give cannot be linked to you in anyway --- thus ensuring you of your privacy. Please note that there are three sections to this survey. As you finish each one, you will be prompted to go to the next. Answer the survey here.
Holiday Book Roundup With fewer shopping days this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, books can save a lot of shopping angst. Last week we add three new titles to our list of holiday books --- CHRISTMAS IN HARMONY by Phillip Gulley, GIOVANNI'S LIGHT by Phyllis Theroux and THE CHRISTMAS BASKET by Debbie Macomber. For many, we'll be making suggestions on how to "package them" with a special treat to make their presentation even more special. Read our holiday books feature here. And be sure to check back next week for more great holiday books. Read our holiday books feature here.
A LONG WAY FROM HOME: Growing Up in the American Heartland A LONG WAY FROM HOME: Growing Up in the American Heartland by Tom Brokaw (Memoir) In this touching memoir, Tom Brokaw writes about growing up and coming of age in the Midwest and of the family, the people, the culture and the values that shaped him then and still do today. Reviewed by Carol Fitzgerald Read a review of A LONG WAY FROM HOME: Growing Up in the American Heartland here.
Don't Miss: MACY'S ON PARADE MACY'S ON PARADE by Pamela Pease Every year, millions of people assemble on the sidewalks of Manhattan and gather in front of their television sets to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Pamela Pease captures the joy and magic of the Parade in this visually stunning and highly informative book. Read about MACY'S ON PARADE here.
Native American Author Roundtable To celebrate Native American Heritage Month AuthorsOnTheWeb.com, a website from The Book Report Network, assembled a roundtable discussion featuring 10 acclaimed writers who have Native American backgrounds and/or write about Native American culture. Margaret Coel, Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear, Joseph Marshall III, David Matheson, Thomas Perry, Penina Keen Spinka, Aimee Thurlo, David Thurlo and David Marion Wilkinson reveal how writing about the Native American culture has affected their lives, discuss how they conduct research and address Native American stereotypes. Read the reviews here.
Question: What is The Best Book of the Year? Vote here for the Best Book of the Year! Our readers will be selecting the Top Ten Books of the Year in both the hardcover and paperback categories. One lucky winner will win all ten hardcover titles, while a second lucky winner will win all ten paperback titles. Here's the criteria: HOW TO WIN: 1) Send mail to Question@bookreporter.com with up to 5 hardcover titles and 5 paperback titles that you think were the best of the year. 2) Each book MUST have been published for the first time in 2002 as either a hardcover or paperback. 3) All book titles must be spelled correctly to qualify as an entry. 4) You must specify if a title is hardcover or paperback. 5) You may vote for up to FIVE books in EACH category. 6) You can only vote once. 7) We will post all submissions. 8) If the judges feel that the submissions are being "spammed" by an author or group of readers (such as the same submission lists coming in again and again albeit from different email addresses), they will be disregarded. Happy Voting! Send your responses to Question@bookreporter.com Read the Best Book of the Year Contest rules here.
Poll Poll: Which of the following book releases are you most excited about (Please check as many as apply.): CHESAPEAKE BLUE by Nora Roberts CHILD OF MY HEART by Alice McDermott THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN by David Baldacci ESTHER'S GIFT by Jan Karon FOUR BLIND MICE by James Patterson HORNET FLIGHT by Ken Follett THE LAST PROMISE by Richard Paul Evans NIGHT WATCH by Terry Pratchett NINE by Jan Burke PREY by Michael Crichton VAGABOND by Bernard Cornwell UTOPIA by Lincoln Child None of the above Vote in our Poll here.
Word of Mouth: Tell Us What You're Reading Tell us what books YOU are reading and loving --- or even those you don't. FIVE lucky readers will win a copy of PREY by Michael Crichton Need more details about Word of Mouth? Click here.
As always, here are a few housekeeping notes. If you are seeing this newsletter in a text version, and would prefer to see the graphics, you can either read it online (see the link on the upper right) or change your preferences below. Those of you who wish to send mail to the general mailbox at Bookreporter.com, please write to: Mail@bookreporter.com. If you would like to reach me, please write Carol@bookreporter.com. Writing any of the respond buttons below will not get to us. Happy reading....and don't forget to forward this newsletter to a friend. --- Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com) Back to top.