As previously mentioned, I participated in Ayelet Waldman's Books for Barack fund-raising effort. She's a novelist and had enlisted some writer friends to donate signed copies of their books. She offered to send 10 of the books, chosen randomly, and a canvas book bag to anyone who donated $250 or more to the Obama campaign through her website. Waldman ended up getting overwhelmed with donations. First she said she was cutting it down to five books for later donors and then she had to stop altogether. Donations are still welcome, of course :-), and she is giving out the canvas bags, which are very spiffy. Details at http://books4barack.com/.

My friend Debra and I both donated early in this effort. She got her books on Saturday. I was surprised she got them first, since she lives in kind of a backwater. As she says, when the movie ads say "In Theatres Everywhere!" they haven't come to her part of the country yet. She got seven books.

Mine came yesterday. I got 8 books, a mix of authors I know and don't. Some just signed and some wrote notes about their hopes for the country. I got:

Promise of the Wolves by Dorothy Hearst (hardcover, her first novel)

Modern Life by Matthea Harvey (softcover, poems)

Easter Everywhere by Darcey Steinke (softcover, memoir)

Champlain and the Silent One by Kate Messner (softcover, historical fiction)

Mistress of Herself: Speeches and Letters of Ernestine L. Rose, Early Women's Rights Leader, edited by Paula Doress-Worters (softcover, including a handwritten postcard detailing what she feels Rose and Obama have in common)

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton (hardcover, novel)

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman (softcover, novel)

Blue Arabesque: a Search for the Sublime by Patricia Hampl (hardcover, memoir)

I'm very excited! And I love love love the Books 4 Barack canvas bag that came with it. I would have contributed to the Obama campaign anyway, since I think this election is so important and a McCain/Palin administration would be disastrous for the country, but I'm very grateful to have a fun way to contribute.

Zara said, "You got one more than Debra!" Not that she's competitive on my behalf or anything.