Giveaway Monday ~ Riverhouse by Saralee Lawrence

My apologies for being such a blog slacker last week. Between Mr. Greenhab being in and out of the hospital, Christmas programs and a mini staycation that almost didn't happen, I was running in circles like a chicken with no head. I will try to make up for it this week!

Today I'm giving away a copy of Saralee Lawrence's book River House: A Memoir which is a great read for Christmas break.

"Lawrence grew up on a ranch in the high desert of Oregon, where her strong, unflappable mother is content, but where her father, a surfer in a place of little water and epic winters, suffers like a caged bird. Lawrence develops a passion for rivers, and at a young age, she becomes an accomplished, seemingly fearless, world-traveling river guide and advocate pleased with her roughing-it, transient life. Until she finds herself on the flooded, hence monstrous, Tambopata River on the border of Peru and Bolivia. Suddenly, it seems imperative that she build her own log house on her family’s land, just as her parents did. Surely this will make her father happy. Instead, he’s instructively adversarial, and her strenuous and dangerous work on the ranch caring for 40 horses and constructing her house in the bitter cold is as harrowing and demanding as any wilderness sojourn. Handy with tools and rafts, a good neighbor, and a mighty fine horsewoman, Lawrence is also adept with language, writing with arresting lucidity and a driving need to understand her father, her legacy, the land, community, work, and herself. A true adventure story of rare dimension."

~ Donna Seaman, Booklist

Not only was I jealous of Lawrence's world travels and footloose lifestyle, I found myself even more envious when she came home to build a house on her family farm. She did this, quite literally, by hand, mixing and pouring the concrete, oiling and fitting each log, one-by-one. Lawrence helped neighbors in need and received the same help in return. She corroborated with them on local water rights issues and worked side-by-side with them laying pipe through their land. She is a true homesteader, but I suspect she would call it "life" rather than homesteading.

Throughout the book Lawrence comes to love and understand the land and lifestyle as her mother does, while realizing that her father's love is the sea.

I laughed and cried and wanted more at the end. This is a great book to curl up on the couch with over winter break, so leave a comment below for your chance to win. (I'll stick in a little extra surprise with it too!) For extra chances, share this with your friends on Facebook or Twitter and let me know that you did.

Giveaway will close on Friday the 24th. Be sure to leave me a way to get in touch with you!