Reading Road Trip 2012: Wyoming + Giveaway

Hosted by Hafsah and Britta

THE GREAT STATE OF WYOMING WELCOMES YOU! to the reading road trip! hooray!

some facts about Wyoming: 

• we were the first state to have a county public library system! mhm. 
• we have Yellowstone! people think it's going to blow up, but it really won't. At least, it won't for another hundred thousand years. Also, it was the first National! Park! hooray!
• first! national! forest! In 1891, President Benjamin Harrison signed an Act which made Shoshone National Forest the first national forest ever. Well, in Wyoming. Anyway.
• Wyoming was the first state to let women vote! it's why Wyoming is called the equality state.

It looks like this most of the time!

(This is outside of Casper; where I'm moving in August!)

photo credit: me

Wyoming is also the smallest population-wise state. Which means it gets REALLY lonely sometimes. Like really lonely. 

Also, another great thing about Wyoming? A fantastic book by a very talented author was set here. And I don't mean outside of Casper here. I mean in the county I currently reside in. 

It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin. 

When they're united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their Badlands town. 

Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal.

Washokey isn't a real place, FYI. But it SOUNDS like it could be a town in Wyoming, which gives Kirsten a hundred million brownie points. 

Seriously, I love Like Mandarin. It is one of the best contemporary novels EVER, and not just because it's set in Wyoming (also: UNEARTHLY! MAN, Wyoming has some amazing YA novels!) 

The best part about Like Mandarin is how much attention Kirsten paid to the Wyoming landscape; it really is its own character in this novel, and I absolutely adore that. It makes me want to shove the book at everybody who asks me, "And where do you live?" I LIVE HERE, PEOPLE. I live in the badlands of Wyoming. And yeah, it isn't a pretty place sometimes, but sometimes, you get this: 

Outside of Cody; photo credit: me

Now, you're probably thinking, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE AWAY? Good question, impatient readers! 


THE PRIZE:

• Paperback of Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard
• swag of Like Mandarin! 

THE DETAILS:

• to enter, fill out the rafflecopter form
• must be thirteen years of age or older (and have parents consent unless 18.) 
• contest is open to US/Canada address only, which totally means if somebody is in those countries and willing to ship it to you, it counts (and I am so, so sorry, internationals! but alas, I don't have the money to ship international. :()
• the winner will be notified by email unless for some odd reason there isn't an email provided. the winner will also be listed on this post at the end of the giveaway
• the winners will have 72 hours to respond to the email or a new winner will be picked
• two winners will be picked, and they get to choose two books. YAYYY!
• the whole tweet this giveaway is also open to Facebook, Goodreads, etc. Just leave your link to the status in the form. <3
• IF RAFFLECOPTER IS DOWN, PLEASE JUST LEAVE A COMMENT WITH A WAY TO CONTACT YOU (email, twitter, etc.) Once rafflecopter is up again, I'll notify you. thanks!
a Rafflecopter giveaway