What's on Julie Lawson Timmer's Mix Tape...plus a book giveaway

Photo by Myra Klarman

We're excited to introduce you to Julie Lawson Timmer, who is here to celebrate Nostalgia Month with us by talking about her favorite 80s songs! Julie grew up in Stratford, Ontario and now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband Dan, their four teenage children and two badly-behaved labs. She is a lawyer by day, a writer, mom/stepmom, fledgling CrossFitter and dreadful cook by night. Her debut novel is Five Days Left (publishing September 9th) and Putnam has FOUR copies for some lucky US readers!

You can find Julie at her website and Twitter.

Top Ten 80s Songs

I loved coming up with this Top Ten list of my favorite bands/songs for the 80s. I spent half of that decade in high school (it was Ontario, and we had grade 13) and almost all of the other half in undergrad. Coming up with this list has brought back so many amazing memories of those two separate times in my life.

10. Bon Jovi - You Give Love A Bad Name (My friend Jill and I drove around in her dad's convertible Mustang, belting this out at the top of our lungs)

9. Rush - Tom Sawyer (Fellow Canadians, eh!)

8. Air Supply - All Out Of Love (Man, did my sister and I ever love these guys)

7. Queen - Another One Bites The Dust (My friend Tracy and I, 13 at the time, played this album, each in our own homes, and talked on the phone while we listened to the entire thing, comparing whose record player was faster. Well, mostly, we were talking about boys, but now and then we commented on the turntable speeds).

6. Men At Work - Down Under (We were all so intrigued by their mention of vegemite)

5. Howard Jones - No One Is To Blame (I remember getting ready for school dances with a group of friends as this blasted in the background).

4. Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (Who can forget John Cusack in Say Anything?)

3. Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me (Judd Nelson's anthem from The Breakfast Club).

2. Orchestral Maneuvers In the Dark - If You Leave (My brother made me a mixed tape of OMD and I played it until it fell apart).

1. Modern English - Melt With You (This was on a mixed tape that a boyfriend made for me. Another tape I played so much it finally fell apart).

Synopsis:
Mara Nichols is a successful lawyer, devoted wife and adoptive mother who has received a life-shattering diagnosis. Scott Coffman, a middle school teacher, has been fostering an eight-year-old boy while the boy's mother serves a jail sentence. Scott and Mara both have five days left until they must say good-bye to the ones they love the most. FIVE DAYS LEFT explores the individual limits of human endurance and the power of relationships, and shows us that sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go.

Thanks to Julie for getting some great songs in our heads and to Putnam for sharing her book with our readers!

How to win:  Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


US only. Giveaway ends September 9th at midnight EST.