LONG DRIVE HOME by Will Allison & PARENTS BEHAVING BADLY by Scott Gummer

WINNERS:

Parents Behaving Badly:

Gwendolen Gross

(who just happens to be the author of The Orphan Girl! I think it's so cool that she won a book!)

Long Drive Home:

Joelle who said Jim Higley was her fave male author!

Please email me your mailing addresses so we can get you your books! Congrats!

NOTE: I am posting more frequently or doubling up books because I have many to get through by the end of the month, so make SURE to check previous posts so you don't miss ANY of the fabulous books I'm featuring! If there is not a highlighted WINNER on top of the POST, then you may still ENTER to win that book!

Long Drive HomeBy Will Allison

Parents Behaving Badly

By Scott Gummer

Today I’m so very excited to bring two talented MEN to MaNiC MoMMy! Am I allowed to call them DILFs????? Cuz yep, they are quite sexy in their videos, if I dare say so! You MUST check them out ladies! And they are such talented writers!

A man and his pen is not to be shunned!

Let me preface this by saying this is NOT a two-fer post – TWO separate winners will win ONE book each. However, you only have to post ONCE and you will have the chance to win each of the books. Do you get what I’m sayin? (Yes, I will draw from the same batch twice, so you could possibly win both books.)

The first book up is Parents Behaving Badly by Scott Gummer, and I am part-way through and laughing like crazy over it. Seriously, this book reads like it should be on TV or a movie. Almost like the New and Improved Bad News Bears for women who love to read a great book. Tom Perrotta, one of my favorite male authors, said this of the book: “Not just a sharp satire about Little League madness but a shrewd and sympathetic portrait of a midlife marriage.”

Here’s the blurb on the book:

When Ben and Jili Holden must move from Manhattan with their three children back to their small hometown of Palace Valley, California, they are forced to reconcile the parents they've become with the dreams they had, the choices they've made, and a sex life much more down-to-earth than the epic Ferris wheel tryst of their youth. After reluctantly stepping up to lead his son's Little League team, Ben is challenged to finally come to terms with the long shadow of his father, a legendary high school baseball coach and mentor who is beloved by generations of players, yet largely a stranger to Ben.

At the heart of the story are the universal experiences and themes of family and community, as Ben and Jili struggle to connect with their technology-addicted children and grapple with issues of marital fidelity—both at home and in the hotbed of sexual tension that is the Little League park. Among an unforgettable cast are Del, an autocratic coach who issues his own Ten Commandments; Liza, Ben's unrequited high school crush; Logan, a smart-aleck ringer whose preteen talents are eclipsed only by his ego; and Cyn, the sultry thong-wearing team mom with the serpent tattoo. Every mother and father of every boy and girl who have ever participated in youth sports can relate, and in Parents Behaving Badly Scott Gummer brilliantly skewers overzealous parents and lunatic coaches, giving the grown-ups who seek vicarious glory the send-up they so richly deserve.

Check out an excerpt HERE.

And here is Scott in a video about Parents Behaving Badly where he fesses up about where the idea for the book came about.

NEXT UP:

Long Drive Home By Will Allison

Next up is a book I have been dying to get my hands on from the moment I read about it. Long Drive Home by Will Allison is a book about what happens when an impulsive act can turn your whole life into a downward spiral. When a simple jerk of his wheel, intended to scare a reckless driver, causes the driver to die in a car accident, Glen Bauer has to face the moral consequences knowing he was the one who may have caused the death. Add some extra tension to the story – Glen’s young daughter, Sara, was in the backseat at the time. An impulsive lie to his wife, the police, and his daughter, and the game begins. Long Drive Home is going to be an emotional and psychological drama that I will have to gear up to read. You know how there are some books that you just have to prep for? For me, I actually need to allocate a quiet time and place, and enough time span to be able to sit and really get into the drama of the book. And I cannot wait to settle in for this one!

Here’s a blurb:

Life can change in an instant because of one small mistake. For Glen Bauer, all it takes is a quick jerk of the steering wheel, intended to scare a reckless driver. But the reckless driver is killed, and just like that, Glen's placid suburban existence begins to unravel. When Glen realizes no one else saw the accident, he impulsively lies about what happened--to the police, to his wife, even to his six-year-old daughter, Sara, who was in the backseat at the time of the crash. But a tenacious detective thinks Sara might have seen more than she knows, or more than her parents will let her tell. And when Glen tries to prevent the detective from interrogating Sara, he finds himself in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game that could end in a lawsuit or prison. What he doesn't see coming is the reaction of his wife, Liz--a panicked plan that threatens to tear their family apart in the name of saving it. But what if the accident wasn't really Glen's fault? What if someone else were to blame for the turn his life has taken? It's a question Glen can't let go of. And as he struggles to understand the extent of his own guilt, he finds himself on yet another collision course, different in kind but with the potential to be equally devastating.

Here’s a great video of Will Allison talking about LONG DRIVE HOME.

An interesting side note I just discovered about both of these books: Tom Perrotta is mentioned in Long Drive Home too. No wonder I was drawn to both of these books and to these male writers! I have found two new faves!

To qualify to win one or both of these two great books, leave a comment on who is your favorite male author! Thanks!

P.S. How many of you were smart enough to catch my subtle yet intentional joke up there?

Thanks for reading and being a part of June Blast-O-Books.

I also blog at SheKnows.com Real Moms Guide.

Don't forget to enter for any of the previous books that you may have missed. AS LONG AS A WINNER's NAME is NOT posted at the top of the blog post, then that means a winner has NOT yet been chosen so you can still enter to win that book but ONLY ONE TIME per book entry PLEASE!

If you're new here, check out the rules and other stuff for the June Blast-O-Books there under that highlighted link back there, or feel free to leave me a comment always and I'll answer it in the thread, or email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com. It is always at my discretion to change things up, and because of some regulations, I guess I must say that the books I review are given to me by either the authors or publishers or publicists, and I am never paid for my reviews, and they are my own personal reviews, and you know what, because I'm here telling you this anyway, I will also tell you that I never review a book I don't like, because you know what, why waste my time, life is too short to read a crappy book! There. There's my new mantra!