I won a contest!

My first post.
A little fun thing - I won a contest on the ABC - The Books Alive Suggest a Read contest. I wrote a little review of Wolf Hall and won! . Last week I recieved a box full of the the 50 books that were recommended by Books Alive as the 50 books you can't put down. (Some I can't even pick up!!)(oh, I know, I'm a snob but I am over 50 and I am not wasting my time on bodice ripping romances - sorry!) So now my next to the bed pile has grown considerably.

Here is my entry taken from the ABC website -

31 August, 2010 6:02PM
Recommended reads in Recommend a ReadYour most talked about books.

If you had to recommend just one book to someone, which is it? We asked you to tell us about a book that changed your life, or one that you could not live without, and the response was terrific

We had two packs of 50 books You Can't Put Down; one for an individual and one for a book club.

Our panel selected Rhonda Nichols review of Hillary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Marie Huttley-Jackson for her recounting of the discussion created when St Judes Book Club tackeled Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Rhonda will receive one pack of 50 books as will the St Judes Book Club.

Their winning reviews are below, along with a couple of Highly Commended entries. All the reviews we recieved are here.


Winning review
Wolf Hall - Hillary Mantel (Reviewer: Rhonda Nichols)


Within the first 50 pages of Wolf Hall I knew that this book was magic. The retelling of the court of King Henry the Eighth from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell takes a common story into a new and uncommon attitude. Hillary Mantel's writing is sublime, smooth, intense and unyielding. Every sentence was a delight in which I, as the reader, needed to pay attention and become totally immersed in the characters, plot and setting. This is one book that I savoured and selfishly devoured at the expense of the family and the pets. I think the saying 'didn't want the book to end' is appropriate here. Usually, while reading a good book I can't wait to get to the end to see what happens, but with Wolf Hall I wanted the experience to go on and on. I would give this book to friends and enemies, family and strangers and I would defy any of them to not love becoming a member of the English court in the 1520's, with all its intrigue and drama, through the reading of Wolf Hall