A Novel Approach to “Where’s Alice Bliss?”

I’m writing an extra post this week because I have something really exciting to talk about: a book giveaway!

I was lucky  enough to be passed a copy of Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington. I admit when I first picked the book up, I was skeptical; it’s not the type of book I usually seek out on my own. Wow was I in for a surprise!

Here’s a summary of the story from Laura Harrington’s site:

When Alice learns that her father, Matt Bliss, is being deployed to Iraq she’s heartbroken. Alice idolizes her dad, working beside him in their garden, accompanying him on the occasional roofing job, playing baseball.  After Matt ships out, her mother begins to crumble under the pressure of suddenly being a single parent and Alice struggles to fill the void as she balances the drama of adolescence with the effort of keeping her family together.

For me, one of the best parts of reading Alice Bliss was getting to know Alice. Laura has crafted a very real character in Alice Bliss, a character that I think most girls (or women) can find a little bit of themselves in. I will admit that this book made me cry, and kept me up late more than one night in a row. It was just so real.

There are parts of this book where Alice spoke of things I thought only I did when I was young, like the excerpt below. Alice is remembering a family vacation when she was six and she went for a hike with her dad:

“At first she was dawdling because she was distracted by the trees and the ferns and the sounds of animals in the woods. She has been practising walking like an Indian, so she doesn’t disturb anything: not a pine needle, not the carpet of leaves and hidden stones.” (pg. 223).

I can distinctly remember doing things like this when I was younger. It is the little moments like this in Alice Bliss that make it seem so real. Although this book deals with some really heavy life events (a father going to war, coming-of-age, a complicated mother-daughter relationship), Laura Harrington manages to keep the story realistic and (if this is a word) un-sappy. I’d highly recommend this book for anyone who needs a good summer read that will make you think (and possibly cry).

Where is Alice Bliss?:

The other neat part about this book is that the author, Laura Harrington, has created an innovative marketing campaign to get her book to readers. Laura is sending Alice Bliss around the world with BookCrossing.com. For those who aren’t familiar with it, BookCrossing.com is a place to track and share books. So you register and label a book, release it into the world, and then track it’s journey.

Here’s a short video of Laura talking about the campaign:

I really like the notion of sharing a book you enjoyed with others, and it’s really fun to track Alice Bliss to see where the book has been. You can check out Alice Bliss’sprogress here: Where’s Alice Bliss? So far Alice Bliss has been to five continents!

Book Giveaway:

I’ve decided that I’d like to release my copy of Alice Bliss to one of my blog readers as a thank you for reading, and to share a book I really enjoyed.

So! If you’d like to be entered to win my copy of Alice Bliss, just leave a comment on this post before next Saturday, August 27th, 2011. I will  throw all of your comments into a virtual hat and choose one lucky winner who I will mail my copy of Alice Bliss to (apologies – the winner must live in Canada or the U.S. so I can keep shipping costs down). I’ve already tagged and labelled my copy of Alice Bliss, so once you have finished reading, you can make note of it on BookCrossing.com, and then re-release the book into the wilderness!

Have you read Alice Bliss? Have you read any other books with characters that seemed exceptionally real to you? What makes a character seem real?