{Books You Need to Read} Cold Tangerines & Bittersweet | A Giveaway

I just finished reading Bittersweet, the second of two memoirs by Shauna Niequist. (Thank you to a photographer friend of mine, Amy, for the suggestion) They were both equally as good as the other, actually they were amazing. So amazing that I'm personally giving away both books to one lucky reader (the last giveaway was too much fun, I'm on to the next). Giveaway details below.

Although I have a Nook, I read both of these books on my iPhone...while waiting at a stoplight, while my students were testing, in the dark while my family was sleeping, and any little moment I could escape away.

I don't really want to share my thoughts on each book quite yet because I would love for you to read and formulate your own thoughts. I do want to share an excerpt from each book that inspired each of the book titles. I also think they'll give you an idea as to what these books are all about. 

Cold Tangerines

"I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don’t want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that He gave life to someone who loves the gift."

-Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines

“The idea of bittersweet is changing the way I live, unraveling and re-weaving the way I understand life. Bittersweet is the idea that in all things there is both something broken and something beautiful, that there is a sliver of lightness on even the darkest of nights, a shadow of hope in every heartbreak, and that rejoicing is no less rich when it contains a splinter of sadness. This collection is an ode to all things bittersweet, to life at the edges, a love letter to what change can do in us.”

-Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet

Soooo, are you intrigued? All you have to do is leave a comment and/or complete the following statement by Friday, June 10th at midnight. 

• - "I want a life that..."

I can't wait to hear your replies! One winner will be chosen at random (with the use of random.org).