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September has drawn to a close and October is just right around the corner. To celebrate the close of this month and the dawning of my favorite season I have 5 copies of Friends Like These by Danny Wallace to give away to 5 lucky winners courtesy of the Hachette Book Group.

Danny Wallace has friends. He has a wife and goes to brunch, and his new house has a couch with throw pillows on it.

But as he nears thirty, he can’t help wondering about his childhood friends. His first friends. Where are they now – and where, really, is he?

When Danny finds an address book in which he’d inscribed the names and numbers of the twelve best friends he has as a kid, he comes to a stunning realization. They were probably all turning thirty, too! Were they also trying to cope with the confusing new fog of adulthood? Did they have a couch with throw pillows on it?

Journeying from London to Berlin, Tokyo, Australia, and California, he risks rejection and ridicule to show up on his old pals’ doorsteps. Memories of his 1980s childhood – from Michael Jackson and Michael J. Fox to Ghostbusters and Goonies – reappear as he meets former buddies who have blossomed into rappers and ninjas, time-traveling pioneers, chain-restaurant managers, and even Fijian royalty.

Proving that as things change they also remain the same, Danny re-befriends them all, giving remarkable new resonance to the age-old mantra “friends forever!”

Guidelines:

• To Enter just leave a comment on this post with a valid email address. There is no need to include your email in the comment itself as you must enter a valid email in the form and I can see that.
• This giveaway is open to residents of U.S. and Canada only. At the publisher’s request no P.O. Boxes will be accepted.
• If, by chance, you have entered a giveaway for this same book at another blog and have won please excuse yourself from this giveaway. Let‘s let others have a chance.

The giveaway begins today September 30 and runs until October 15, 2009. The winner will be drawn and announced on the 16th of October. As always, there are a few ways that you can gain additional entries to increase your odds.

Extra Entries:

• Twitter – Tweet about this giveaway for an additional entry. Be sure to include @joanana in your tweet and mention it in a comment on this post.
• Follow me on Twitter for an additional entry. Be sure to mention it in a comment. If you are already following me be sure to mention that as well as that will gain you 2 entries instead.
• Subscribe to The Symposium’s RSS feed or email subscriptions for an additional entry. Again, if you are already subscribed either one (or both) be sure to mention it double the entries.
• You may also comment on my review of this book for an additional entry as well.

Best of luck to all the entrants, and don’t forget, this giveaway is only running from September 30 through October 15, 2009. So hurry and enter today!