Earlier this month, I reviewed The Talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard, which you can read here. You may have also heard me talk about it on Episodes 23 and 24 of the Book Cougars.
Thanks to Melville House and TLC Book Tours, WildmooBooks is sponsoring a giveaway of The Talented Ribkins!
How to enter: Simply leave a comment below that you’d like to enter to win. If you’re not logged in with an account where I can contact you, please be sure to leave an email address or Twitter handle where I can reach you if you win. US/Canada only.
A random winner will be selected on Monday, August 28, 2017, at 9 am EST. The winner will have 48 hours to reply to the notification before an alternate winner is selected.
From the publisher:
“For sheer reading pleasure Ladee Hubbard’s original and wildly inventive novel is in a class by itself.” —Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-winning author of The Bluest Eye, Beloved, and Song of Solomon
At seventy-two, Johnny Ribkins shouldn’t have such problems: He’s got one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss or it’s curtains for Johnny.
What may or may not be useful to Johnny as he flees is that he comes from an African-American family that has been gifted with super powers that are rather sad, but superpowers nonetheless. For example, Johnny’s father could see colors no one else could see. His brother could scale perfectly flat walls. His cousin belches fire. And Johnny himself can make precise maps of any space you name, whether he’s been there or not.
In the old days, the Ribkins family tried to apply their gifts to the civil rights effort, calling themselves the Justice Committee. But when their, eh, superpowers proved insufficient, the group fell apart. Out of frustration Johnny and his brother used their talents to stage a series of burglaries, each more daring than the last.
Fast forward a couple decades and Johnny’s on a race against the clock to dig up loot he’s stashed all over Florida. His brother is gone, but he has an unexpected sidekick: his brother’s daughter, Eloise, who has a special superpower of her own.
Inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois’s famous essay “The Talented Tenth” and fuelled by Ladee Hubbard’s marvelously original imagination, The Talented Ribkins is a big-hearted debut novel about race, class, politics, and the unique gifts that, while they may cause some problems from time to time, bind a family together.
Good luck!
WINNER: I used random.org to pick a number between 1-7 (as there were 7 entrants) and 2 was the lucky number. Congratulations to tcheer4life!
Awesome! I’d love the chance to win! I added this to my TBR after I read your review 🙂
I’m happy to hear that!
This book is on my TBR, Chris. I’d love to win it.
Congratulations, tcheer4life, you won!
I am so intrigued by your review of this story. I, too, would love to win it!!
Is it worth relocating just so I can be in with a chance to win this I wonder. maybe a bit extreme
Anything for literature! 😉
I shall have too what Mr Bookertalk thinks of this
I’d loved to be entered to win. I heard and read your reviews and the book sounds like something I would enjoy reading. Thanks!
Hi Brenda — Thanks for listening to the Book Cougars and for reading my review!
Wonderful! I’d love to win. Thanks for the chance. 🙂
This book sounds captivating and unique. Thanks for this wonderful giveaway.