RAGBRAI Support: Winners Announcement!

It's time to announce the winners of the 

2014 RAGBRAI Support Giveaway! 

I want to apologize for the delay in getting names drawn. Life has been crazy busy since we got back. 

The gals really, really appreciated all of the support that you gave them during this week long bike ride across Iowa. They loved all your comments and tweets! 

Here they are getting ready to take off one morning. 

It was a beautiful day to ride. 

So without further delay, here are the names that Rafflecopter selected for me. Emails will be sent out shortly. Each of the winners have 48 hours to confirm by respondng to the email. Each winner can select any book they want, e-book or print, up to $10, from either Amazon (US) or The Book Depository (outside the US).

Winners are 

Anjanette G.

Betul E.

Kristia M.

Linda R.

Lori H.

Samantha W. 

Shannon H.

Congrats everyone! Watch for an email from me coming soon. 

And thanks again to everyone for their support!! 

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Last Day of RAGBRAI - Enter the Giveaway, 7 Winners!

It's the last day of RAGBRAI. 

 We are almost done. See my original post here to see what RAGBRAI is all about.

You have one more day to offer encouragment and to enter the giveaway to win one of 7 books. Any book you want up to $10. Good luck!

This year, there will be one giveaway with 7 winners, but you will have chances to leave comments, tweet, and share every day for more chances to win. Like I said, they really loved and appreciated all the comments. 

Click here if you want to find out more about RAGBRAI

And now the giveaway!

You get extra entries if you come back each day to tweet and/or leave comments for my riders. When I get back, I will select 7 names, one for each day of the ride. The winners will be able to select a book (up to $10) from either Amazon.com or The Book Depository.

So be sure to come back each day 
to give these gals some support!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

On Vacation and Some Giveaways! RAGBRAI Support - 7 winners!!

It's RAGRAI time!! 

 For the third year in a row, I am going to be the sag wagon for my daughter's bike trek across Iowa.

What is a sag wagon, you ask? 

"A sag wagon is a support vehicle for cyclists. As a general rule, cyclists on tour call the vehicle a sag wagon, while racers prefer the term 'broom wagon'. In either case, the sag wagon can be a vital part of the team which support cyclists along their journey. On long tours and trips, many cyclists grow quite attached to the sag wagon and its drivers, thanks to the comfort that the sag wagon provides."

So, that will be me, bringing comfort to a couple of cyclists.

RAGBRAI is a 7 day bike ride across the middle of Iowa. This year the route is 429 miles! YIKES! 

I'm sure glad I will be driving the vehicle and not a bike.  

Since we will be on road for 9 days total, posts here at The Book Bag are going to be scarce. The first year we did this, I created a post to go up each day and asked you all to leave encouraging words for my riders (in exchange for a chance at some giveaways). This year, like last year, I am not that organized and time is running out. *sigh* 

The gals really, really enjoyed the comments that you have left for them in the past and they helped make the journey more fun for them. The gals were always asking what the latest comments were.  

This year, there will be one giveaway with 7 winners, but you will have chances to leave comments, tweet, and share every day for more chances to win. Like I said, they really loved and appreciated all the comments. 

Click here if you want to find out more about RAGBRAI

And now the giveaway!

You get extra entries if you come back each day to tweet and/or leave comments for my riders. When I get back, I will select 7 names, one for each day of the ride. The winners will be able to select a book (up to $10) from either Amazon.com or The Book Depository.

So be sure to come back each day 
to give these gals some support!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Winners of the RAGBRAI Support Giveaway!

I have not forgotten about the wonderful support that my RAGBRAI team got from all of you wonderful people. My summer suddenly got super busy and The Book Bag has been kind of quiet. I apologize for that and I apologize for making you all wait for the names of the winners.

But seriously, winning a free book is a good thing anytime, isn't it?

We ended up with 333 entries on the Rafflecopter form with 62 encouraging comments left for the team. I did read them to the team everyday and they were really blown away by the response. Some of you stopped by everyday and left some fabulous words of encouragement.

Thank you all so much for your support!

And now, without further ado, here are the 7 winners, one for each day of the ride!

Each winner gets to select 1 book of their choice, up to $10 from either Amazon or The Book Depository. Winners have 48 hours to respond to an email that was sent or another name will be drawn.

Congratulations to all and
Thank You for your support!!

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On Vacation and a Giveaway: RAGBRAI 2013

It's RAGRAI time!! 

 For the second year in a row, I am going to be the sag wagon for my daughter's bike trek across Iowa.

What is a sag wagon, you ask? 

"A sag wagon is a support vehicle for cyclists. As a general rule, cyclists on tour call the vehicle a sag wagon, while racers prefer the term 'broom wagon'. In either case, the sag wagon can be a vital part of the team which support cyclists along their journey. On long tours and trips, many cyclists grow quite attached to the sag wagon and its drivers, thanks to the comfort that the sag wagon provides."

So, that will be me, bringing comfort to a couple of cyclists.

RAGBRAI is a 7 day bike ride across the middle of Iowa. This year the route is almost 405 miles! YIKES! 

Here is a map of the route. 

I'm sure glad I will be driving the vehicle and not a bike.  

Since we will be on road for 9 days total, posts here at The Book Bag are going to be scarce. Last year, I created a post to go up each day and asked you all to leave encouraging words for my riders (in exchange for a chance at some giveaways). This year I am not that organized and time is running out. *sigh* 

The gals really, really enjoyed the comments that you left last year and they helped make the journey more fun for them. They were always asking what the latest comments were.  

This year, there will be one giveaway but you will have chances to leave comments every day for more chances to win. Like I said, they really loved and appreciated all the comments. 

Click here if you want to find out more about RAGBRAI

And now the giveaway!

You get extra entries if you come back each day to tweet or leave comments for my riders. When I get back, I will select 7 names, one for each day of the ride. The winners will be able to select a book (up to $10) from either Amazon.com or The Book Depository.

So be sure to come back each day 
to give these gals some support!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check the sidebar for my other current giveaways!

RAGBRAI Winners!

Thanks to all of you who participated in this week long giveaway. The team and I loved reading everyone's comments and words of encouragement all week. The gals rode 6 of the 7 days. (they took Wednesday off, when there was a heat index of 115 degrees ~ do you blame them?) And they rode a total of 371 of the 470 miles!

I am so proud of them!!   

I apologize for the delay in announcing the winners of my

7-day RAGBRAI Giveaway Extravaganza.

But here they are finally!

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Congratulations Veronika, April, Penny, Doville, Levina, Anuba and Kristia!!

I will be sending out emails to all of you soon for more information. You each have 48 hours to respond or another winner's name will be drawn. 

Thanks so much for participating! I had fun, I hope you did too!!

Most of the winners are international so I didn't get rid of as many print books as I had hoped to. So expect more giveaways coming in the near future to get these books off my shelves. 

I have to make room for some new ones, right? 

 

RAGBRAI Giveaway ~ Day 7

RAGBRAI is a week long bike ride across Iowa. (click on the RAGBRAI logo for more information) Personally, I am not sure why anyone would want to do this, but my daughter has a team who is going to do this crazy feat. I was asked to be their 'sag wagon' which basically means I have to (= gets to) drive the car from point A to point B each day, hauling their suitcases and supplies. Once I do that, the rest of the day is mine to enjoy as I wish.

Well, of course, my wish is to get some quality 

(and quantity!) reading time in ~ sweet!!

So while I am away from a computer I thought I would schedule some posts to go up each day, giving away books (1 each day of the race) that are sitting on my shelf looking for a good home. I am going to make giveaway International, since I am feeling quite giddy just thinking about all the books I am going to read while on the road. If you win and are in the US, you will get the book featured that day. If you are International, you can select a book, up to $10, from The Book Depository, if they ship to you. Click here if you don't know

Welcome to Day 7 - the final day - of the RAGBRAI ride/giveaway extravaganza! I will be offering a giveaway each day while we are at RAGBRAI (7 days = 7 giveaways!) 

Be sure to come back each day to enter!

Day 7 ~~ Well, we made it to day 7! At least I hope we did. I am sure we had an amazing time. And I hope that you all have had fun with the giveaways this week. After I get home and recover (from all that reading, you know) I will pick all 7 winners and notify them. I think I have all of the giveaways set up to end August 6th so you have plenty of time to go back and enter any that you may have missed.

So for this final day of RAGBRAI, I am giving the winner (US or International) any book worth up to $15 from The Book Depository. 

How do you like that?

Good luck everyone and I hope you are having a great summer, if it's summer where you live. If it's not, then I hope you are having a great time anyway, no matter what the season!

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RAGBRAI Giveaway ~ Day 6

RAGBRAI is a week long bike ride across Iowa. (click on the RAGBRAI logo for more information) Personally, I am not sure why anyone would want to do this, but my daughter has a team who is going to do this crazy feat. I was asked to be their 'sag wagon' which basically means I have to (= gets to) drive the car from point A to point B each day, hauling their suitcases and supplies. Once I do that, the rest of the day is mine to enjoy as I wish.

Well, of course, my wish is to get some quality 

(and quantity!) reading time in ~ sweet!!

So while I am away from a computer I thought I would schedule some posts to go up each day, giving away books (1 each day of the race) that are sitting on my shelf looking for a good home. I am going to make giveaway International, since I am feeling quite giddy just thinking about all the books I am going to read while on the road. If you win and are in the US, you will get the book featured that day. If you are International, you can select a book, up to $10, from The Book Depository, if they ship to you. Click here if you don't know

Welcome to Day 6 of the RAGBRAI ride/giveaway extravaganza! I will be offering a giveaway each day while we are at RAGBRAI (7 days = 7 giveaways!) 

Be sure to come back each day to enter!

Day 6 ~~Today I am offering a book that I have not read but I know it is loved by tons of people. I just don't think it's my cup of tea. Instead of it just sitting on my shelf, I want to let someone else enjoy it. So today the book is Dangerous Favor by Joyce DiPastena.

Her father has been accused of stealing from the king, an allegation that has reduced her family to poverty. She has one chance to find and marry a man who can help her prove her father's innocence. Lord Therri, heir to a rich barony, has the wealth and connections Mathilde needs to delve into the mysteries of her father's past. Furthermore, Therri embodies all her romantic dreams.

Etienne, the younger son of a disgraced family, has neither wealth nor connections, but is smitten with Mathilde at a glance. She finds the knight intriguing, but believes he is only out to seduce her. While she seeks for a way to win Therri's attention, Etienne tricks her into granting him her favor, an embroidered white ribbon, for a tournament, setting in motion a dangerous chain reaction of events. Can Etienne save Mathilde from a nightmare from her past and prove himself the true hero of her dreams? ~~from Goodreads


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RAGBRAI Giveaway ~ Day 5

RAGBRAI is a week long bike ride across Iowa. (click on the RAGBRAI logo for more information) Personally, I am not sure why anyone would want to do this, but my daughter has a team who is going to do this crazy feat. I was asked to be their 'sag wagon' which basically means I have to (= gets to) drive the car from point A to point B each day, hauling their suitcases and supplies. Once I do that, the rest of the day is mine to enjoy as I wish.

Well, of course, my wish is to get some quality 

(and quantity!) reading time in ~ sweet!!

So while I am away from a computer I thought I would schedule some posts to go up each day, giving away books (1 each day of the race) that are sitting on my shelf looking for a good home. I am going to make giveaway International, since I am feeling quite giddy just thinking about all the books I am going to read while on the road. If you win and are in the US, you will get the book featured that day. If you are International, you can select a book, up to $10, from The Book Depository, if they ship to you. Click here if you don't know

Welcome to Day 5 of the RAGBRAI ride/giveaway extravaganza! I will be offering a giveaway each day while we are at RAGBRAI (7 days = 7 giveaways!) 

Be sure to come back each day to enter!

Day 5 ~~Today I am offering my ARC copy of Spin by Catherine McKenzie. I got a finished copy so I want to share this one with one of you wonderful people. My thoughts are here. Another one of her books, Arranged, should be in my mailbox waiting for me when I get home. I can't wait!

Katie Sandford has just gotten an interview at her favourite music magazine, The Line. It's the chance of a lifetime. So what does she do? Goes out to celebrate - and shows up still drunk at the interview. No surprise, she doesn't get the job, but the folks at The Line think she might be perfect for another assignment for their sister gossip rag. All Katie has to do is follow It Girl Amber Sheppard into rehab. If she can get the inside scoop (and complete the 30-day program without getting kicked out), they'll reconsider her for the job at The Line.

Katie takes the job. But things get complicated when real friendships develop, a cute celebrity handler named Henry gets involved, and Katie begins to realize she may be in rehab for a reason. Katie has to make a decision -- is publishing the article worth everything she has to lose? ~~from Goodreads

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RAGBRAI Giveaway ~ Day 4

RAGBRAI is a week long bike ride across Iowa. (click on the RAGBRAI logo for more information) Personally, I am not sure why anyone would want to do this, but my daughter has a team who is going to do this crazy feat. I was asked to be their 'sag wagon' which basically means I have to (= gets to) drive the car from point A to point B each day, hauling their suitcases and supplies. Once I do that, the rest of the day is mine to enjoy as I wish.

Well, of course, my wish is to get some quality 

(and quantity!) reading time in ~ sweet!!

So while I am away from a computer I thought I would schedule some posts to go up each day, giving away books (1 each day of the race) that are sitting on my shelf looking for a good home. I am going to make giveaway International, since I am feeling quite giddy just thinking about all the books I am going to read while on the road. If you win and are in the US, you will get the book featured that day. If you are International, you can select a book, up to $10, from The Book Depository, if they ship to you. Click here if you don't know

Welcome to Day 4 of the RAGBRAI ride/giveaway extravaganza! I will be offering a giveaway each day while we are at RAGBRAI (7 days = 7 giveaways!) 

Be sure to come back each day to enter!

Day 4 ~~Today is a wonderful book by Jodi Picoult, The Tenth Circle. Who doesn't love Jodi Picoult?

Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father, Daniel's life -- a straight-A student; a pretty, popular freshman in high school; a girl who's always seen her father as a hero. That is, until her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. Suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. Could the boyfriend who once made Trixie wild with happiness have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a secret tumultuous past he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back to protect his daughter.

With The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult offers her most powerful chronicle yet as she explores the unbreakable bond between parent and child, and questions whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime -- or if your mistakes are carried forever.

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RAGBRAI Giveaway ~ Day 3

RAGBRAI is a week long bike ride across Iowa. (click on the RAGBRAI logo for more information) Personally, I am not sure why anyone would want to do this, but my daughter has a team who is going to do this crazy feat. I was asked to be their 'sag wagon' which basically means I have to (= gets to) drive the car from point A to point B each day, hauling their suitcases and supplies. Once I do that, the rest of the day is mine to enjoy as I wish.

Well, of course, my wish is to get some quality 

(and quantity!) reading time in ~ sweet!!

So while I am away from a computer I thought I would schedule some posts to go up each day, giving away books (1 each day of the race) that are sitting on my shelf looking for a good home. I am going to make giveaway International, since I am feeling quite giddy just thinking about all the books I am going to read while on the road. If you win and are in the US, you will get the book featured that day. If you are International, you can select a book, up to $10, from The Book Depository, if they ship to you. Click here if you don't know

Welcome to Day 3 of the RAGBRAI ride/giveaway extravaganza! I will be offering a giveaway each day while we are at RAGBRAI (7 days = 7 giveaways!) 

Be sure to come back each day to enter!

Day 3 ~~ Today I am offering a book that I read a while ago but loved. Chosen by Chandra Hoffman is what up for grabs today. Here is the link to my thoughts about the story.

A young caseworker becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of adoptive and birth parents and faces life-altering choices when an extortion attempt goes horribly wrong. ~~from Goodreads


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RAGBRAI Week Giveaway ~ Day 2

RAGBRAI is a week long bike ride across Iowa. (click on the RAGBRAI logo for more information) Personally, I am not sure why anyone would want to do this, but my daughter has a team who is going to do this crazy feat. I was asked to be their 'sag wagon' which basically means I have to (= gets to) drive the car from point A to point B each day, hauling their suitcases and supplies. Once I do that, the rest of the day is mine to enjoy as I wish.

Well, of course, my wish is to get some quality 

(and quantity!) reading time in ~ sweet!!

So while I am away from a computer I thought I would schedule some posts to go up each day, giving away books (1 each day of the race) that are sitting on my shelf looking for a good home. I am going to make giveaway International, since I am feeling quite giddy just thinking about all the books I am going to read while on the road. If you win and are in the US, you will get the book featured that day. If you are International, you can select a book, up to $10, from The Book Depository, if they ship to you. Click here if you don't know

Welcome to Day 2 of the RAGBRAI ride/giveaway extravaganza! I will be offering a giveaway each day while we are at RAGBRAI (7 days = 7 giveaways!) 

Be sure to come back each day to enter!

Day 2 ~~ I read this book a while ago and still cannot forget it. This would be a great book club book.

Clementine Lord is not an orphan. She just feels like one sometimes. One of triplets, a quirk of nature left her the odd one out. Odette and Olivia are identical; Clementine is a singleton. Biologically speaking, she came from her own egg. Practically speaking, she never quite left it. Then Clementine’s father—a pediatric neurologist who is an expert on children’s brains, but clueless when it comes to his own daughters—disappears, and his choices, both past and present, force the family dynamics to change at last. As the three sisters struggle to make sense of it, their mother must emerge from the greenhouse and leave the flowers that have long been the focus of her warmth and nurturing.
 
For Clementine, the next step means retracing the winding route that led her to this very moment: to understand her father’s betrayal, the tragedy of her first lost love, her family’s divisions, and her best friend Eli’s sudden romantic interest. Most of all, she may finally have found the voice with which to share the inside story of being the odd sister out. . . . ~~ from Goodreads

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RAGBRAI Week Giveaway ~ Day 1

RAGBRAI is a week long bike ride across Iowa. (click on the RAGBRAI logo for more information) Personally, I am not sure why anyone would want to do this, but my daughter has a team who is going to do this crazy feat. I was asked to be their 'sag wagon' which basically means I have to (= gets to) drive the car from point A to point B each day, hauling their suitcases and supplies. Once I do that, the rest of the day is mine to enjoy as I wish.

Well, of course, my wish is to get some quality 

(and quantity!) reading time in ~ sweet!!

So while I am away from a computer I thought I would schedule some posts to go up each day, giving away books (1 each day of the race) that are sitting on my shelf looking for a good home. I am going to make giveaway International, since I am feeling quite giddy just thinking about all the books I am going to read while on the road. If you win and are in the US, you will get the book featured that day. If you are International, you can select a book, up to $10, from The Book Depository, if they ship to you. Click here if you don't know

Welcome to Day 1 of the RAGBRAI ride/giveaway extravaganza! I will be offering a giveaway each day while we are at RAGBRAI (7 days = 7 giveaways!) 

Be sure to come back each day to enter!

Day 1 ~~ I ended up with 2 copies of this first book. I have not read it yet but have heard awesome things about it. I am pretty sure you will like it.

A delectable comedy for every woman who's ever wondered if buying that six-dollar box of organic crackers makes her a hero or a sucker. 

Julia Bailey is a mompreneur with too many principles and too little time. Her fledgling company, Julia's Child, makes organic toddler meals like Gentle Lentil and Give Peas a Chance. But turning a profit while saving the world proves tricky as Julia must face a ninety-two-pound TV diva, an ill-timed protest rally, and a room full of one hundred lactating breasts. Will she get her big break before her family reaches the breaking point? In the end, it is a story about motherhood's choices: organic versus local, paper versus plastic, staying at home versus risking it all. 

A cookbook author's hilarious fiction debut, Julia's Child will have foodies and all-natural mamas alike laughing, cheering, and asking for more. ~~from Goodreads


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RAGBRAI Week Giveaway Announcement

RAGBRAI is a week long bike ride across Iowa. (click on the RAGBRAI logo for more information) Personally, I am not sure why anyone would want to do this, but my daughter has a team who is going to do this crazy feat. I was asked to be their 'sag wagon' which basically means I have to (= gets to) drive the car from point A to point B each day, hauling their suitcases and supplies. Once I do that, the rest of the day is mine to enjoy as I wish.

Well, of course, my wish is to get some quality 

(and quantity!) reading time in ~ sweet!!

So while I am away from a computer I thought I would schedule some posts to go up each day, giving away books (1 each day of the race) that are sitting on my shelf looking for a good home. I am going to make giveaway International, since I am feeling quite giddy just thinking about all the books I am going to read while on the road. If you win and are in the US, you will get the book featured that day. If you are International, you can select a book, up to $10, from The Book Depository, if they ship to you. Click here if you don't know

Check back tomorrow and for the next 7 days to see what book is being offered and to enter the giveaway. 

So .... is everybody ready for the race, er, I mean, ride? 

Ready ... Set ... GO!!