July Book Club and a Giveaway

I know I'm early to announce the July book club book, but it's because I want to give away a copy of the book so one of you doesn't have to buy it. The book is All About Lulu by Jonathan Evison, a book I've been looking forward to for months. Evison is a co-blogger on The Nervous Breakdown with me (and was featured there on Tuesday with an interview by Brad Listi) and I've been a huge fan of his work. Anyway, I was going to pick his book for our August book club since it wasn't scheduled to come out until July 21, BUT I went to pre-order my copy a few days ago and saw that it's already been released. Part of why I chose this book is because Evison is a new writer (this is his debut novel) and I know how hard it can be to get the word out about a book, but I also chose it because he's a really, really good (and funny) writer. Plus, how can you not love that cover?

OK then, here's a bit about the book from Publisher's Weekly:

Evison's debut—of love and loss, growing up, throwing up and moving on—is a stunner. William Miller Jr. is a scrawny loner whose mother dies of cancer when he is seven years old,leaving him an awkward vegetarian with an ominously macho father and idiot twin brothers in mid-1970s Santa Monica. William's father, Big Bill, remarries a grief counselor named Willow, and Will spends the following decades in love with Louisa (Lulu, as she prefers to be called), his new stepsister. They are close throughout adolescence, but after a summer at cheerleading camp, Lulu returns home distant and hostile, leaving Will to pine for her in solitary desperation. Will finally appears to be on the path to normalcy in the early 1990s when he lucks into a radio talk-show hosting gig, but the stroke of good fortune is short-lived, as he discovers things about Lulu he'd rather not know. Evison provides readers a viciously funny and deeply felt portrayal of a blended family and one man's thwarted longing.

Don't forget to read this month's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which we will be discussing on June 30. And please leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of Evison's All About Lulu. I'll be choosing a winner on June 25, so be sure to leave a comment before then. Also, check out Jonathan Evison's Web site for his tour dates (he may be coming to Sacramento!).