THE BOOK OF MADNESS AND CURES: A GIVEAWAY

   GIVEAWAY ENDED
THE BOOK OF MADNESS AND CURES

By REGINA O'MELVENY

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Gabriella Mondini is a rarity in 16^th century Venice: a woman who practices medicine. Her father, a renowned physician, has provided her entrée to this all-male profession, and inspired in her a shared mission to understand the secrets of the human body.

Then her father disappears and Gabriella faces a crisis: she is no longer permitted to treat her patients, women who need her desperately, without her father's patronage. She sets out across Europe to find where-and why-he has gone. Following clues from his occasional enigmatic letters, Gabriella crosses Switzerland, Germany and France, entering strange and forbidding cities. She travels to Scotland, the Netherlands, and finally to Morocco. In each new land she probes the mystery of her father's flight, and open new mysteries of her own. Not just mysteries of ailments and treatments, but ultimate mysteries of mortality, love, and the timeless human spirit.

Filled with medical lore and sensuous, vivid details of Renaissance life, The Book of Madness and Cures is an intoxicating and unforgettable debut.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Regina O'Melveny's poetry has been published widely in literary journals, garnering several prizes. She grew up at the edge of pungent chaparral in La Mesa, California, and chose to enroll at Callison College--a school of International Studies at the University of the Pacific--almost solely based upon the fact that the second year would be spent in India. Thus began her many extended travels that would later inspire The Book of Madness and Cures, her first novel. She lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

You can read more about Regina O'Melveny at her website HERE.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Dear Reader,

You may wonder how I came to write this book. And because there is no single source, I give you the truest answers I can.

This fascinating note about Regina O'Melveny's inspiration for writing THE BOOK OF MADNESS AND CURES can be found at her website HERE.

 

PRAISE/HONORS FOR THE BOOK OF MADNESS AND CURES:

--Selected for the April 2012 Indie Next List of Great Reads
--Selected for the May 2012 catalog of the Literary Guild
--Selected for the Book of the Month Club

“Poet O’Melveny’s debut fiction is like a lyrical composite creature—part father/daughter epistolary novel, part aristocratic diary, part adventurer’s travelogue, and part compendium of allegorical disease….Readers will be delighted by O’Melveny’s whimsical embellishments…”

--Publishers Weekly

“Prizewinning poet and artist Regina O’Melveny’s debut novel…traces our spirited heroine’s transit through the spooky German Schwarzwald, humanistic Holland, academic Edinburgh, Reformation-torn France, and post-Inquisition Spain to Morocco. Her journey, with two loyal servants in tow, is filled with incident—brigandage, religious and gender prejudice, the necessity of disguise, tantalizing traces of her father’s trail, even some hot, bodice-unlacing action—all conveyed with earthy and sensual brio, clearly well-researched evocations of time and place, and, not surprisingly, poetical description: On a ship to Morocco, Mondini beholds a vast pod of dolphins not merely leaping out of the sea but “sewing sky to water.” If that image grabs you, you will love this adventure.”

-Ben Dickinson, Senior Features Editor, Elle

“Regina O’Melveny has created a 16th century, intellectually sensual and poetic novel featuring Gabriella Mondini as the protagonist. Gabriella is a female Doctor in Venice who not only loses her father and mentor but her ability to practice medicine. She is not one to conform to the expected life of the women of her time, a life these losses would mandate. She goes with the only option that really works for her; she finds she must go in search of her father…”

--Book Passage (San Francisco, CA)
 

“The Book of Madness and Cures was written in such beautiful language. I cannot say enough how much I enjoyed the development of the female lead character. I thought it was a wonderful book, and cannot wait until it comes out so I can recommend it…”

–Barbara’s Bookstore (Burr Ridge, IL)

“I just cracked open The Book of Madness and Cures last night and stayed up till 1:30 am reading…I love the detail and Gabriella’s spirit.”

–The Bookstore (Michigan City, IN)

“The Book of Madness and Cures is a rich and ravishing debut. In reading it not only will you relate to Gabriella’s quest to regain her footing in the healing arts for those women in need; O’Melveny’s warm and lush writing will give you an experience of a woman’s life during the Renaissance that will not be forgotten.  This is a must read for those lovers of exquisite historical fiction.”
 

–Bank Square Books (Mystic, CT)

  

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO ANNA AND THE GOOD FOLKS

AT LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, I 

HAVE THREE COPIES OF THIS AMAZING

BOOK TO GIVE AWAY TO 3 FOLLOWERS!

 
--U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO 
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHY YOU WOULD WANT TO WIN THE BOOK OF MADNESS AND CURES FROM WHAT YOU LEARNED ABOVE,  AND DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT REGINA O'MELVENY'S WEBSITE HERE

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE CURRENT GIVEAWAY YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU MAY COMMENT SEPARATELY ON EACH IN ORDER TO RECEIVE EXTRA ENTRIES

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, APRIL 20

 GOOD LUCK!