{"id":4328,"date":"2015-10-30T20:39:06","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T00:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsavannah.com\/blog\/?p=4328"},"modified":"2015-10-30T20:39:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T00:39:06","slug":"book-launch-in-memory-gnuterrypratchett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsavannah.com\/blog\/index.php\/book-launch-in-memory-gnuterrypratchett\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Launch: In Memory<\/i>. #GNUTerryPratchett"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve read my blog for a minute, or followed me at all on social media (or have known me since high school), you know I am a reader<\/strong>, a bibliophile,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>and, to some extent, a book hoarder<\/strong>, tho I’ve gotten better.<\/p>\n

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I have mailed books to all these places. Guess I’ve got a couple states left to say I’ve sent to all 50! If you want to see in more detail, feel free to click the map.<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the awesome PaperBackSwap.com<\/a>, of which I have a been a member since 2005, I have mailed 367 books all across the USA. (I would have mailed more, but since I’ve been sick, I’ve had to severely decrease the books I post on my shelf to share because I can’t afford the postage anymore.)<\/p>\n

(By the way, if you are a book lover in the US, PaperBackSwap<\/a> is awesome. They have a small fee to be a member, and you otherwise only pay postage {media mail, which is cheaper} to mail your books. Then you can order books from other people! Great way to get rid of books you no longer want and pick up something new.)<\/p>\n

You also probably know that I write a lot of reviews on Amazon<\/a> and am a member for the special invitation-only Amazon Vine<\/a> reviewers program.<\/p>\n

I say all that (besides ramble, as I am wont to do) to mention that as a rule, I don’t accept books for review very often these days. I got overwhelmed with requests, and finally had to say No. More. (I still request a few books from Vine here and there, but my shelves are overflowing, so I’m only getting ones that are either by favorite authors or look really fun.)<\/p>\n

HOWEVER, you also know that I am a huge fan of Sir Terry Pratchett<\/a> (#GNUTerryPratchett<\/a>), who is one of my very favorite authors. He left us way too soon, and losing him to the embuggerance (as he called it; his Alzheimer’s) was a blow. Second, I lost my grandmother<\/a> to the embuggerance – the last few years of her life, she didn’t even know who I was.<\/p>\n

So, when I saw in one of my PTerry fan groups that a book was coming out, In Memory: A Tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett<\/em><\/a>, with all proceeds benefiting Alzheimer’s Research UK, I jumped on the opportunity to get an ARC.<\/p>\n

\"PTerry_tribute\"<\/p>\n

I am such<\/em> a lucky girl to have gotten to read it early… my only regret being it it’s too short. I could have read lots more stories!<\/p>\n

Now, as for the book itself: it features 17 stories by authors I’d never heard of, so it is a fun introduction to some new voices. (And from what I understand, some of these writers are being published for the first time.) Because memory was important to PTerry, and it is important to his fans, the theme of the book is “Memory”, not just its title.<\/p>\n

Now, you might expect that at least a couple of the stories would be rather… expected, you might say, on the topic of memory, like philosophically how it is formed, why it goes away, etc. But NO…. all of these stories have very unique (as in both new ideas and different from each other) takes on memory.<\/p>\n

And… they are funny. Not all of them are laugh-out-loud, but all of them are amusing to some extent, and were clearly inspired by Sir Terry’s humor and thoughtfulness. Such as this bit from “Thanks for the Memory Cards” by Luke Kemp<\/span>:<\/p>\n

Johnny and Donny were the best of friends – though whether this was because of their differences or despite them was up for debate. Literally. There was a society that met in the Town Hall twice a month.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mind you: not all of the stories are perfect, probably because not all of the writers are native English speakers, but the overall collection and cause make this book worthy of 5+ stars.<\/p>\n

Learn more about the project:<\/b><\/h2>\n