Thank you for entering my giveaway of Kylie Ladd's book and Mia Freedman's. I loved reading the favourite books you had growing up, and said "Me too!" about many of them.

So the winners (drawn by random integer) are:

Here are your random numbers:

12

Timestamp: 2010-03-27 00:05:13 UTC

Kylie Ladd's book is Megan!

and

Here are your random numbers:

11

Timestamp: 2010-03-27 00:08:02 UTC

and Mia Freedman's book is going to Sarah

Congratulations! Please email me at the address on my sidebar and give me your names and addresses and I will mail these books out to you.

As a child I loved reading. Nothing made me happier than curling up on my bed munching on a Granny Smith's apple and reading a book. Thanks to my parents, my tastes were broad and encompassing of all genres. They still are. I don't like Granny Smith apples anymore, and sadly, my time for reading is significantly diminished, but the love remains.
As a result I've always seen authors as my version of celebrities. They write stories! They get someone to like them and publish them. Ten years of English teaching has given me a great deal of insight into the (often) torturous process of writing that writers endure. And secretly I always hoped I could be one.
A couple of years I threw in a teaching job which was making me profoundly unhappy. I had a baby and started working from home working with kids in an environment which was infinitely happier, and better for me and my family. More recently I started writing articles. I'm also working on fulfilling a promise I made to one of my brother's at a Sydney pub last year about writing one chapter of a book this year.
What has stunned me is how extraordinarily supportive and encouraging the "writing community" is. I've had advice and guidance from anyone I've shyly asked. And I've been introduced to some really gifted and talented people along the way. Recently I read two books by people I "know" and who have both been amazingly generous with their encouragement.
Introducing Kylie Ladd and Mia Freedman.
For those of you who don't know, Ladd (in essays, I always get students to refer to their authors by their surnames because they don't know the author) is a prolific writer and novelist and is constantly commenting on my blog posts offering advice and encouragement.
Freedman is one of Australia's foremost journalists, columnist, author, blogger and media consultant and earlier this year very generously allowed me to be a guest poster on her website.
So recently, I read their books. I must admit I was really apprehensive about doing this because I worried I wouldn't like their books. I really admire these women and I didn't want it to change how I felt about them.
So how did it go?
Ladd's book "After the Fall" centres around 2 couples and how their worlds are shattered when infidelity is bought into play. Ladd constructed such vivid characters that it wasn't inconceivable for me to feel as if I may have known them in real life. Interestingly, whilst I didn't feel particularly warm towards any of the main characters, they were so utterly plausible I wasn't able to put the book down because I needed to know what happened to them next. I loved the way she created the minor characters in the text, as people I could relate to so completely. In my (vivid) imagination they were the roles I identified most closely with and could see myself as comforting the main characters at key points in the novel. I suspect, though I haven't asked her, that is exactly what she intended.
Ladd has a way with words, with language that makes me wildly envious of her. She is a Master crafts(wo)man in this respect. I kept making mental notes of words and phrases that will probably turn up in blog posts and articles for the next few months as a result!
It's a gripping book, and I was turning the page to finish it long after my bedroom light should have been turned out.
Freedman's book "Mama Mia" is a memoir. And let me say I am awed at how much she has crammed into it in such a short space of time. A few pages in I found myself scrambling for my notebook to jot down notes about what to do or not to do in pursuing my writing career.
Freedman is disarmingly honest and writes engagingly about her adventures and mishaps, on her climb up the ladder to becoming an Editor and her foray into television. At page 60 where she talks about freelancing from home writing for many of our glossies I must admit to a wild surge of envy. That, at the moment is my DREAM JOB. But Freedman makes me think its possible. I just need to hone my chutzpah. What I particularly loved was her honesty in acknowledging how motherhood irrevocably changed her viewpoints on certain issues. So much so she altered her career path. Freedman and I probably differ on alot of issues but I think we'd have a really enjoyable discussion about them anyway. Of particular poignancy for me was the story of her baby that she lost at sixteen weeks and delivered at nineteen weeks. Freedman writes about this time in a way that makes you ache for her grief and at the same time highlights that loss doesn't discriminate. For me the beauty of Freedman's memoir was that she is infinitely relatable and yet (for me at least) incredibly inspirational.

So I read these books. I then went and bought another copy of each of them. I did that because I think if you haven't read them already then you should!
If you'd like to win one, then after making sure you are a follower of my blog, leave a comment telling me what your favourite book was growing up.
I'll leave comments open and draw a winner on Friday.

ETA if you've already read these books I'd LOVE to hear what you thought of them too, so please leave a comment even if you aren't entering the giveaway :)