The Opposite of Love Is ... ?

I get Redbook magazine, because you know, I follow all of the fashion and beauty advice on looking my best. I’m always trying to figure out the most up-to-date ways to keep my man wanting more, and you know, those quick-and-easy like 17 minute or less four-item recipes? Well, I'm all over those, right?

Nah, I get the mag somehow because some kid was selling it door-to-door one night and he caught me on a good day. So I subscribed.

And the first, absolute first thing I always flip to when I get my magazine is the Book Club section to see what book they have featured for the month because Redbook ALWAYS, WITHOUT A DOUBT picks a no-brainer-kickin' book every month.

So, I'm going through the February issue like a few weeks ago, or maybe it's the March one already, and I see the book featured is The Opposite of Love by up-and-coming debut author, Julie Buxbaum.

The cover of her book looks awesome--very simple, as you can see here:

Chick with her back to the reader, clean, not too pink, but a hint of girlish, which is what I dig.

Then I read this excerpt and it completely blew me away, like goosebumpy-gotta-read-the-rest-of-the-book-now kinda way, already loving the characters and feeling the compassion toward them both! That quickly!

So this is what I did. I ripped the page out of the magazine and ran downstairs and put the page next to my computer so I could Google the author, look up the book online, and then remind myself to go to B&N (the store) later and order it.

Because THIS.WAS.A.BOOK.I.NEEDED.TO.GET.

There are some books I'll read about and think, "Yeah, that one sounds good," or some I’ll hear about and say, "If I see that at the store when I’m out, maybe I’ll get that, if I don’t see anything I like better."

Not this one.

I wanted to get Julie’s book, The Opposite of Love like I want Emily Giffin’s Love The One You're With and Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner.

Of course, things were crazy over here at Manic Central. I was holding an impromptu six-week blood drive, so I didn’t get to the bookstore, and then, one day last week I get this email with a subject line: FROM A FELLOW WRITER.

From HER.

Julie Buxbaum.

The author.

Out of the blue!*

She wanted ME to read her book!

Me!

COULD I DIE!?!?

This was seriously better than being fifteen years old dreaming about the senior star football player asking you out and he finally does, takes you to the prom, and you’re hoping, and then he gives you his class ring and asks you to be his girlfriend.

Oh, and he kisses you, but it’s like that …

Oh, scratch all that football boy fantasy crap—this is like Jake Ryan kissing cross-legged, lilac-taffeta drenched Samantha Baker on the dining room table at the end of Sixteen Candles exciting. Yeah. That cool.

I was home alone when I read the email and what did I do? Well, I first yelled out loud: SHUT UP! Like all giggly and excited REALLY loud happy loud.

Cuz that’s what I do when I’m excited. I yell SHUT UP! And if someone was around, I'd probably hit 'em on the arm to demonstrate my excitement.

And of course, I Instant Messaged Swishy, cuz she would totally get my excitement, and she did. And we cyber-joyed about it for a while back and forth. With lots of exclamation points and bouncy yellow smiley faces, and a couple OMGs thrown in there.

Then, I very calmly and professionally emailed Julie back and told her I’d be delighted to read her book. Right Julie? Because come on, we all know that under all my false exterior (or would that be interior?), I am really a mature grown woman pretending to be a goofball for the pure enjoyment of the readership. Bwhahahah!

So, guess what? The BOOKS arrived last Friday.

Yep, you read that right! Julie sent TWO! One for me and ONE FOR YOU!

And they're signed.

Another CONTEST!

This is easy, ooooh, so easy! All you have to do is send Julie an email at juliebux@gmail.com and answer the following question. Think CLEVER and UNIQUE!:

What’s The Opposite of Love in FIVE words or less?

Again, in case you missed it the first time, like two seconds ago in your reading of this, Julie's email address is: juliebux@gmail.com.

And don't be shy; she's waiting for you to email her with your witty and winning answers!!!

Here's an idea just to get you started: The Opposite of Love is EVOL.

OK, not clever, but whatevah!

Make sure to go over to Julie’s website to find out where she'll be on her upcoming book tour...

FYI she'll be in my 'hood March 20 AND I GET TO MEET HER so if any of you Chicagoans wanna come be groupies, we can reenact events from Authorpalooza; just bring Truffles!

Julie will pick a winner for the SIGNED copy of her book on Friday, March 7, so check back to see if you’ve won!

So how about that? And congrats to Julie for writing an awesome debut that I’m delving into each night, dying to get through, but it’s one of those books that I’m also prolonging the imminent ending because I can already tell I don’t want to let go of these characters.

Peace UP!



*Thanks AWS!