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Mom & Me: An Art Journal to Share, Create and Connect, Side by Side by Lacy Mucklow and Bethany Robertson

October 19, 2017 by

Source: QuartoKnows
Paperback, 128 pgs.
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Mom & Me: An Art Journal to Share, Create and Connect, Side by Side by Lacy Mucklow and Bethany Robertson is a way to foster greater communication with young children, especially those who are just learning how to cope with their feelings and address issues in their school lives or at home.  For a mother and daughter or even a father and son, this journal could be a jumping off point for deeper conversations about what may be causing a child to act out or cause trouble. However, parents should be careful in using it and make sure that it remains a stress-free and fun activity and not something the child feels pressured to do.

Each 2-page section includes a prompt for both the parent and child to draw or even write how they feel on their own page, and when they are done, they can share those pages aloud or in silence with a few questions to clarify. Parents also will need to remember this is a journal to foster greater communication and that the quality of the art inside created by themselves or their child is irrelevant to its purpose.  If you both become better doodlers, all the better.

From drawing out our feelings to creating a coat of arms for the family and depicting yourself with the best animal qualities, these activities will have parents and their children laughing together and sharing quality time, as well as communicating. One of the best activities in the book is drawing your inside self and drawing your outside self, which can not only be enlightening for the child, but also the parent when they contemplate how they view themselves.

Mom & Me: An Art Journal to Share, Create and Connect, Side by Side by Lacy Mucklow and Bethany Robertson includes activities to reflect on the past, on emotions of the moment, self-image, qualities we want to have and do have, and much more. Once this journal is filled, it could give way to more activities together and greater communication as well as the creation of your own personalized journals that you can share together.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Author:

Lacy Mucklow (MA, ATR-BC, LPAT, LCPAT) is a registered, board certified, and licensed art therapist who has been practicing art therapy in the Washington, DC area since 1999. She has experience working with a variety of mental health populations and settings, including schools, home-based counseling, and hospitals with adolescents, families, and adults. Lacy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Studio Art from Oklahoma State University, and a Master of Arts degree in Art Therapy from The George Washington University.

Filed Under: challenges, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Read in 2017, Reference, reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Scratch and Create: Enchanted Forest: 20 Original Art Postcards by Kailey Whitman

October 18, 2017 by

Source: QuartoKnows
Postcards, 20
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Scratch and Create: Enchanted Forest: 20 Original Art Postcards by Kailey Whitman comes with its own tool for scratching off the metallic coating, and it has its own plastic storage space attached to the book.  Kids may want to be careful with the plastic storage case, as it could easily be ripped off or damaged when trying to access the tool.  Others shouldn’t have a problem at all.

My daughter hasn’t had a chance to use these yet, but I’m sure that she will soon.  I, on the other hand, have had a stressful few weeks and was looking for something mindless to do and relieve stress.  This seemed to provide some relief, especially as I’ve had very little time to do anything outside of work and other life projects. I’m going to send my first one out this week.  I hope that my cousin will be able to take a picture because I want to see how well it arrives to her. I’ll keep you posted on that.

You will want to place even pressure on the tool to scrap away the metallic coating and not too much pressure because it will tear away the coloring underneath if you are not careful.  You’ll see the little bit of color that I tore away on my near the bottom of the bird on the left-hand side at the bottom of the postcard. I was a little bummed, but learned how to add just enough pressure to make the image appear. You can also use a coin if you’d rather do that. I tested it out and it works just as well.

Scratch and Create: Enchanted Forest: 20 Original Art Postcards by Kailey Whitman is a good way to send art in the mail and keep in touch with family or friends.  It’s as fun as a scratch ticket from the convenience store, but with much better results.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Illustrator:

Kailey Whitman is a Philadelphia based illustrator and designer. She is a graduate of the University of the Arts illustration program and when she’s not drawing, she is thinking about drawing.

Her work has been recognized by the society of illustrators 2016 student competition and she was the recipient of the Roger T. hane award. Her work has been featured on behance, brown paper bag, and she was named one of Adobe Creative Cloud’s Artists to watch.

clients include the new york times | the village voice | The Phoenix New Times |grid magazine |Main Line Today | Cincinnati Magazine | Delicious Living Magazine | middlebury college magazine | At Buffalo Magazine | Parragon | Quarto | wASHINGTON SQUARE WEST CIVIC ASSOCIATION |eastern state penitentiary.

Filed Under: Read in 2017, Reference, review copy, reviews Tagged With: ,

Mistaken by Jessie Lewis

October 17, 2017 by

Source: Meryton Press
Ebook, 424 pgs.
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Mistaken by Jessie Lewis is a Pride & Prejudice variation that will take Mr. Bingley to task for his easy-going manners that allow others to influence his decisions and will demonstrate how mistaking another’s actions can lead to disaster.  Misunderstandings in Jane Austen are nothing readers are unused to by now, but Lewis amps up the miscues and the drama in her variation.

“Life was muted in her absence.” (from Mistaken)

Much of the story from Austen remains intact here and Lewis shows readers what may have happened behind Austen’s scenes.  She also engages Austen’s characters in new ways and creates her own subplots. What worked well was the main love story between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, and his demonstrable grief and her anger are tangible in Lewis’ deft hands.  Their romance is believable, despite the obstacles, and his fierce protection of Lizzy rings true.

“‘Cease hiding behind the Titan and admit it. You agreed with him.’

‘I did?’

‘Aye! He did not make you leave. You chose to do it.'” (from Mistaken)

However, in ramping up the misunderstandings, we see a side of Jane, Lizzy’s sister, that is less than pleasant as jealousy and resentment consume her to the point where her relationship with Lizzy appears altered forever. As Jane’s behavior dragged on and worsened to the point where this reader no longer liked her, it was hard to watch Lizzy deal with not only her new responsibilities, but also the absence of her best friend and sister and the repeated flirtations of men she had no interest in.  It read a little too much like a daytime drama in some instances, but the scenes where the ton are gossiping was exactly as readers would imagine it to be and demonstrates how fragile a woman’s reputation was in those times.

Mistaken by Jessie Lewis is unique in the number of misunderstandings that occur and how they are resolved in a series of puzzles that are laid out in pieces for the reader.  Lizzy is still headstrong and lively, but it is clear that this personality could get her in loads of trouble among upper society.  Readers of Pride & Prejudice will recognize various differences in their beloved characters, and the lack of resolution at the end for one plot may leave the door open for another part to come. Lewis’ novel is engaging and terrifying all at once, especially if you’ve grown attached to the Bennets and their new husbands.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Author:

I’ve always loved words—reading them, writing them, and as my friends and family will wearily attest, speaking them. I dabbled in poetry during my angst-ridden teenage years, but it wasn’t until college that I truly came to comprehend the potency of the English language.

That appreciation materialised into something more tangible one dark wintry evening whilst I was making a papier-mâché Octonauts Gup-A (Google it—you’ll be impressed) for my son, and watching a rerun of Pride and Prejudice on TV. Fired up by the remembrance of Austen’s genius with words, I dug out my copy of the novel and in short order had been inspired to set my mind to writing in earnest. I began work on a Regency romance based on Austen’s timeless classic, and my debut novel Mistaken is the result.

The Regency period continues to fascinate me, and I spend a good deal of my time cavorting about there in my daydreams, imagining all manner of misadventures. The rest of the time I can be found at home in Hertfordshire, where I live with my husband, two children, and an out-of-tune piano. You can check out my musings on the absurdities of language and life on my blog, Life in Words, or you can drop me a line on Twitter, @JessieWriter or on my Facebook page, Jessie Lewis Author, or on Goodreads, Jessie Lewis.

Filed Under: challenges, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2017, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Mailbox Monday #449

October 16, 2017 by

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page, has a permanent home at its own blog. To check out what everyone has received over the last week, visit the blog and check out the links. Leave yours too.

Also, each week, Leslie, Martha, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.

Here’s what I received:

Sketch Now, Think Later by Mike Yoshiaki Daikubara for review.

Sketching is more popular than ever, but busy lives leave almost no room for sitting down with a pad and pen, and practicing. Many people give up on their potential hobby (and artistic outlet) because they feel they just don’t have the time to lay the groundwork. Here’s a secret though: you do have time each day to practice, you just need to incorporate sketching into your daily life.

Sketch Now, Think Later covers the tools, techniques and tips that author and Urban Sketching Correspondent of Boston Mike Daikubara has developed in his more than 15 years as a practicing artist, and will show you how to fully dive into any sketching situation with limited time and tools, and still be able to produce memorable, great looking, fun sketches!

How to Draw Almost Every Day: An Illustrated Sourcebook by Kamo for review.

The perfect book for budding artists, How to Draw Almost Every Day challenges and inspires you to draw one simple illustration each day of the year. Organized as a calendar, illustrations are presented as daily exercises.

Each image is broken down with step-by-step diagrams, making the process easy to understand. You’ll learn to draw items from everyday life, like food and clothing, as well as seasonal images including snowmen and pumpkins. We have also included inspiring project photos to show you how to incorporate the doodles into greeting cards, calendars, invitations, gift wrap, and more!

Just for Fun: Perspective by Lise Herzog for review.

Just for Fun: Perspective takes a complicated topic and makes it easy and fun for aspiring artists and art enthusiasts! Even if you’ve never picked up a pencil or paintbrush, you can follow the simple, step-by-step instructions, and create realistic, proportionate artwork using perspective.

Featured subjects start with basic lines and shapes, then slowly progress with each new step to fully rendered artwork. Just for Fun: Perspective saves the technical aspects of drawing and painting for more advanced students and prefers to touch upon the key concepts and fundamentals of perspective.

Learn about the differences between one-, two-, and three-point perspective; vanishing points; and methods for measuring and dividing areas of a subject or scene proportionately. Use basic lessons on depth and distance to add color and create your own drawings and paintings with step-by-step instructions for shapes, architecture, portraits, animals, street scenes, and more.

With approachable and contemporary drawings and paintings as well as lots of tips, instructions, and inspiration, Just for Fun: Perspective will have even the most artistically challenged individuals mastering perspective in no time.

Learn to Draw: Star Wars Force Awakens for review.

Learn to Draw Star Wars: The Force Awakens brings modern Star Wars iconography to life in stunning graphite pencil, transforming memorable characters including Rey, Poe Dameron, BB-8, and Kylo Ren (along with Leia, Han Solo, and R2-D2) into detailed, realistic portraits. Lucasfilm collaborator and professional artist Russell Walks guides artists step by step and provides insightful notes, drawing tips, and memorable moments for each character from the film. This book allows readers to develop and strengthen their drawing skills, while experiencing this legendary series in a whole new light.

What did you receive?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , , , , ,

It’s Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability by Kelly Davio

October 12, 2017 by

Source: purchased
Paperback; 144 pgs.
I am an Amazon Affiliate

It’s Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability by Kelly Davio, on tour with Poetic Book Tours, is a candid collection of essays and vignettes that illustrate how having an autoimmune disease not only affects how you live, but also sharpens your perspective on pop culture, healthcare systems, advertising, trite statements from well-meaning people, and much more.  Her writing is precise and sharp, forcing readers to reassess their views on disability and how to engage with those whose bodies are not “healthy.”  Even the term “healthy” takes on new meaning in these essays.

Davio is serious and funny, and what she has to say is something that we all need to listen to.  All people deserve respect and compassion, and no one should be made to feel like they are worthless or not who they once were should disease strike.  Compassion is a tough business, but we have a duty to defend it and to engage with it head on.  Stories like hers will make you yelp in shock, and make you angry that others treated her as they did.  But what’s even more telling is how Davio views herself.  Has society played a role in how we view ourselves and aren’t those lenses just a little bit too cloudy with other people’s judgments?  I think so.

It’s time to be real with one another and with ourselves.  Davio does nothing less in this essay collection. A stunning read and one you won’t want to put down once you get started. I know I didn’t. I read it in one sitting. It’s Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability by Kelly Davio is a memoir and essay collection in one.

Don’t forget to enter to win:

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY (3 copies up for grabs for U.S. residents, age 18+; ends Oct. 31, 2017)

RATING: Cinquain

About the Author:

Kelly Davio is the author of Burn This House (Red Hen Press, 2013) and the forthcoming The Book of the Unreal Woman. She is the founding editor of Tahoma Literary Review and the former Managing Editor of The Los Angeles Review. While in England, she served as the Senior Editor of Eyewear Publishing. Her work has appeared in Best New Poets, Verse Daily, The Rumpus, and others. She earned her MFA in poetry from Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Today, she works as a medical editor in New Jersey.

Filed Under: challenges, giveaway, memoir, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, purchased, Read in 2017, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage by Caroline Jane Knight (Audio)

October 10, 2017 by

Source: publicist
Audible; 8+ hrs.
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage by Caroline Jane Knight, narrated by Alison Larkin, is a memoir of one of the last people to live in Chawton House — the home of Jane Austen — as part of a family.  Knight peppers her family stories with historical notes from the ancestors, the letters, and the stories she heard as a child, but she also incorporates the words of Jane Austen from her novels at the most opportune moments.  Readers will be delighted to learn how elements from her books were taken straight from her family’s experiences.

From the beginning readers know that Knight was forced from her home at age 17 due to financial distress.  You can imagine how being forced from an ancestral home would be disconcerting and lead her to distance herself from Jane Austen. But readers will want to learn how her life comes full circle and leads to the creation of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation.

Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage by Caroline Jane Knight, narrated by Alison Larkin, provides a unique look at Jane Austen’s ancestors and explores how family members many years removed can carry some of the same traits and interests.  Knight is a curious woman who loves to weave stories about her family members with those of Austen’s novels and real life.  She mirrors Jane’s streak of independence, which readers have found so compelling about Elizabeth Bennet.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Author:

Caroline Jane Knight shares more than Jane Austen’s name and DNA. As a direct descendant of Jane’s brother, Edward Knight, Caroline is the last of the Austen Knight family to grow up at Chawton House on the estate where her fifth great-aunt Jane Austen lived and enjoyed the most productive period of her writing career. Caroline explored the same places around Chawton House and its grounds as Jane did, dined at the same table in the same dining room, read in the same library and shared the same dream of independence.

Filed Under: audiobooks, challenges, memoir, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Read in 2017, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Mailbox Monday #448

October 9, 2017 by

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page, has a permanent home at its own blog. To check out what everyone has received over the last week, visit the blog and check out the links. Leave yours too.

Also, each week, Leslie, Martha, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.

Here’s what I received:

It’s Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability by Kelly Davio, which I purchased and is on tour with Poetic Book Tours.

With equal parts wit and empathy, lived experience and cultural criticism, Kelly Davio’s It’s Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability explores what it means to live with an illness in our contemporary culture, whether at home or abroad.

Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage by Caroline Jane Knight, audible review copy from the publicist.

Caroline Jane Knight is the last of the Austen Knight family to grow up at Chawton House, the sixteenth-century English manor house on the ancestral estate where Jane Austen lived and wrote. Caroline ate at the same dining table, read in the same library, explored the same country lanes and shared the same dreams of independence as Jane Austen did.

But when she was seventeen, Caroline and her family were forced to leave the home her family had lived in for centuries. Heartbroken and determined to leave all things Austen behind her, this is the story of Caroline’s journey from an idyllic childhood in which she baked cakes with her Granny for Jane Austen tourists, through personal crisis and success to her eventual embrace of her Austen heritage and the creation of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation.

A contemporary and dramatic story, it is also a major contribution to the library of works about Jane Austen, including information thrillingly new to Jane Austen’s readers and scholars.

What goodies did you get?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , ,

Join Us Oct. 7 — Poetic Book Tours and Kelly Davio, author of It’s Just Nerves

October 6, 2017 by

JOIN Poetic Book Tours and Kelly Davio, author of It’s Just Nerves, for a Facebook book launch event.

Oct. 7, 2017, at 7 p.m. EST

Join us on Facebook. 

Ask burning questions about her candid essay collection, ask her about her writing life, and more.

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With: ,

Mailbox Monday #447

October 2, 2017 by

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page, has a permanent home at its own blog. To check out what everyone has received over the last week, visit the blog and check out the links. Leave yours too.

Also, each week, Leslie, Martha, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.

Here’s what we received:

A Less Agreeable Man by Maria Grace for review from the author.

Dull, plain and practical, Mary Bennet was the girl men always overlooked. Nobody thought she’d garner a second glance, much less a husband. But she did, and now she’s grateful to be engaged to Mr. Michaels, the steady, even tempered steward of Rosings Park. By all appearances, they are made for each other, serious, hard-working, and boring.

Michaels finds managing Rosings Park relatively straight forward, but he desperately needs a helpmeet like Mary, able to manage his employers: the once proud Lady Catherine de Bourgh who is descending into madness and her currently proud nephew and heir, Colonel Fitzwilliam, whose extravagant lifestyle has left him ill-equipped for economy and privation.

Colonel Fitzwilliam had faced cannon fire and sabers, taken a musket ball to the shoulder and another to the thigh, stood against Napoleon and lived to tell of it, but barking out orders and the point of his sword aren’t helping him save Rosings Park from financial ruin. Something must change quickly if he wants to salvage any of his inheritance. He needs help, but Michaels is tedious and Michaels’ fiancée, the opinionated Mary Bennet, is stubborn and not to be borne.

Apparently, quiet was not the same thing as meek, and reserved did not mean mild. The audacity of the woman, lecturing him on how he should manage his barmy aunt. The fact that she is usually right doesn’t help. Miss Bennet gets under his skin, growing worse by the day until he finds it very difficult to remember that she’s engaged to another man.

Can order be restored to Rosings Park or will Lady Catherine’s madness ruin them all?

Lizzy Bennet Meets the Countess: A Bennet Wardrobe Novella by Don Jacobson from the author

The universe was shaken once again on Midsummer’s Day in 1801. The Bennet Wardrobe’s door to the future was opened in the bookroom at Longbourn. This time the most impertinent Bennet of them all, Elizabeth, tumbled through the gateway. Except she left not as the grown women with whom readers have become so familiar, but rather as a ten-year-old girl who had been playing a simple game of hide-and-seek.

Which Where/When was her destination? What needs could a young girl, only beginning to learn to make her way in the Regency, have that could be answered only by the Wardrobe? Or were the requirements of another Bennet, one who began as younger, but had aged into a beautiful, confident leader of Society, the prime movers behind Lizzy’s journey? Is the enigmatic Lady Kate the force that shaped the destiny of Lizzy and her younger sisters left back in Hertfordshire? How do the visions of the future brought home by young Lizzy help shape her world?

What did you receive?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , ,

Spotlight & Giveaway: These Dreams by Nicole Clarkston

October 1, 2017 by

I want to welcome Nicole Clarkston back to Savvy Verse & Wit.  If you’ll recall, I loved her book, The Courtship of Edward Gardner.  She has a new book out, These Dreams, and I cannot wait to read it when life starts to slow down a bit.

About the Book:

An abandoned bride
A missing man
And a dream that refuses to die…

Pride and patriotism lend fervor to greed and cruelty, and Fitzwilliam Darcy is caught at the centre of a decades-old international feud. Taken far from England, presumed dead by his family, and lost to all he holds dear, only one name remains as his beacon in the darkness: Elizabeth.

Georgiana Darcy is now the reluctant, heartbroken heiress to Pemberley, and Colonel Fitwilliam her bewildered guardian. Vulnerable and unprepared, Georgiana desperately longs for a friend, while Fitzwilliam seeks to protect her from his own family. As the conspiracy around Darcy’s death widens and questions mount, Colonel Fitzwilliam must confront his own past. An impossible dream, long ago sacrificed for duty, may become his only hope.

Newly married Lydia Wickham returns to Longbourn- alone and under mysterious circumstances. Elizabeth Bennet watches one sister suffer and another find joy, while she lives her own days in empty regrets over what might have been. Believing Darcy lost forever, she closes her heart against both pain
and happiness, but finds no escape from her dreams of him.

About the Author:

Nicole Clarkston is a book lover and a happily married mom of three. Originally from Idaho, she now lives in Oregon with her own romantic hero, several horses, and one very fat dog. She has loved crafting alternate stories and sequels since she was a child watching Disney’s Robin Hood, and she is never found sitting quietly without a book of some sort.

Nicole discovered Jane Austen rather by guilt in her early thirties―how does any bookworm really live that long without a little P&P? She has never looked back. A year or so later, during a major house renovation project, she discovered Elizabeth Gaskell and fell completely in love. Her need for more time with these characters led her to simultaneously write Rumours & Recklessness, a P&P inspired novel, and No Such Thing as Luck, a N&S inspired novel. Both immediately became best selling books. The success she had with her first attempt at writing led her to write three other novels that are her pitiful homage to two authors who have so deeply inspired her.

Nicole was recently invited to join Austenvariations.com, a group of talented authors in the Jane
Austen Fiction genre. In addition to her work with the Austen Variations blog, Nicole can be
reached through Facebook at http://fb.me/NicoleClarkstonAuthor, Twitter @N_Clarkston, her
blog at Goodreads.com, or her personal blog and website, NicoleClarkson.com.

International Giveaway: 1 e-book of These Dreams by Nicole Clarkston. 

Enter in the comments by Oct. 8 11:59 p.m. EST. 

Leave a comment about what you’re looking forward to most about her book and an email for me to contact you.

Filed Under: giveaway Tagged With: , ,