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Giggle Poetry Reading Lessons by Amy Buswell and Bruce Lansky

August 21, 2014 by

Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers
Paperback, 96 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

Giggle Poetry Reading Lessons by Amy Buswell and Bruce Lansky, illustrated by Stephen Carpenter is a guide for educators and parents who have students in grades 2-5 who struggle with reading and comprehension.  In the introduction, the authors state that no matter how good a remedial program is, it cannot improve readers’ skills if they are disengaged.  Rather than require these struggling students to read text they find boring, why not create a program with texts that students don’t want to put down — the premise of this book.

Using the poems of Bruce Lansky, which Buswell says have been kid tested, she says that her program accompanied by illustrations from Stephen Carpenter enabled 95 percent of students to demonstrate marked improvement in their reading and 90 percent showed gains in comprehension.  There are a number of tips broken down for both teachers and parents to help their child improve their reading fluency.  There is a lesson plan overview and an explanation of how the lesson supports the goals of the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted in more than 40 states.

A Brave Little Fellow Named Brian (page 16)

A brave little fellow named Brian
went for a ride on a lion.

When Brian got bit,
the lion got hit.

So now it's the lion
who's cryin'.

There are performance tips on each page where the poems are written out and illustrated, because parents and teachers know that younger readers prefer when you can gesture or demonstrate action beyond raising and lowering the pitch of your voice when reading aloud.  Anything to make the poem come alive can help the readers stay engaged.  While this is geared for readers older than my daughter, she and I have been reading along together for some time, and she’s beginning to recognize words in books we’ve read before.  As she continues on her reading and learning, this book will be an excellent supplement to what we already do and what she will begin doing when she gets to kindergarten in a couple of years.

Giggle Poetry Reading Lessons by Amy Buswell and Bruce Lansky, illustrated by Stephen Carpenter has engaging poems that are funny and unexpected, but it also has substantive lessons that can help students overcome not only their fears of reading but other troubles in their lives.  These poems will help them deal with embarrassing situations, other emotions, and situations that surprise them.

About the Authors:

Amy Buswell is a reading specialist who teaches in West Palm Beach, FL. Her entertaining “reading lessons” have dramatically raised the reading skills and scores of the students who attended schools at which she has taught.

Bruce Lansky has edited a number of poetry anthologies (including Rolling in the Aisles, Kids Pick the Funniest Poems, If Kids Ruled the School, A Bad Case of the Giggles, Miles of Smiles, and No More Homework! No More Tests!), and 3 silly songbook anthologies. Lansky created the popular GigglePoetry.com website for children and the PoetryTeachers.com website for teachers. He also created the Girls to the Rescue series, the New Fangled Fairy Tales series, and the Can You Solve the Mysteries series.

Stephen Carpenter is the illustrator who has helped 16 “Giggle Poetry” books come alive with hilarious illustrations. He lives just outside Kansas City with his wife, Becki, and their sheepdog, Lulu.

Filed Under: challenges, Library Thing Early Reviewers, New Authors Challenge, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, Reference, review copy, reviews, Simon & Schuster Tagged With: , , , , ,

Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson

August 20, 2014 by

Source: Public Library
Hardcover, 389 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson, our August Book Club selection, is part legal thriller and part historical fiction, as Ben Solomon recognizes that one of Chicago’s elite was a former Nazi SS officer Otto Piatek, the butcher of Zamosc, and his one-time brother.  Solomon’s family always strove to help their neighbors whenever possible, and one day take in a German boy, Otto, as their parents face the struggles of lost jobs and opportunities.  On the cusp of Nazi expansion, Poland seems like it is protected from outside forces and immune to Nazi takeover, but suddenly, things change and the Solomons are faced with a variety of tough decisions.  In the present Ben Solomon has aged and is on a crusade to bring Piatek to justice no matter the cost.

“‘Maybe for some.  Not for me.  It is why we must remain diligent and relentlessly pursue men like Piatek.  Evil is contagious.  Much like a pathogen, it must be snuffed out at the source.'” (page 139)

Balson has a great story to tell, but it’s too bad that the modern-day character of Catherine Lockhart is too much of a pain, with her constant interruptions about billable hours and urging Ben to get to the point.  She’s constantly bombarding Ben with questions about property and the basis for his lawsuit and always denying her interest.  While her backstory about a horrible conniving husband gives credence to her lack of confidence as a lawyer and her concern about keeping her current job, her story is pale in comparison to Ben’s Holocaust story.  Moreover, there are times when Ben appears to be spouting off facts in an effort to educate the reader, coming off more as a lecture than a man who is telling his life story.  Despite these flaws, the story is engaging — even if everything that could have happened during the Holocaust happens to Ben and his family — and readers will be sucked into the past, just as Catherine is.

Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson is intriguing because of the Polish setting, and the story of Ben and his family is engaging, but the lawsuit portion is resolved very quickly and the relationship between Ben and Otto as children is only partially developed.  With that said, Balson knows his history and has created an engaging look into the past that will have readers examining the world today in a new light.  Are we beyond the evil the Nazi’s engaged in or is the potential still here among our own world leaders?

About the Author:

The author, Ronald H. Balson, is a Chicago trial attorney, an educator and writer. His practice has taken him to several international venues, including villages in Poland which have inspired the novel Once We Were Brothers.

What Book Club Thought:

Most of us were displeased with the attorney character and her sob story, which had not place in the book, especially in comparison to Ben Solomon’s holocaust story.  With that said, one member really enjoyed the legal maneuverings near the end of the book, though they were resolved very quickly.  While the novel was readable and went quickly, there seemed to be an abundance of bad things happening to Ben and his family, though like most of these stories there are many who die.  Otto also seemed to be “too” evil and there was little seen of his transformation, which could be because the story was told from Ben’s point of view for the most part.  One member suggested that the modern day characters be cut out or that they be only at the end when Ben makes it to modern day and begins his lawsuit, while another suggested the book be split between the “brothers'” points of view.  Overall, many thought this book could have presented the story in a better way.

20th book (WWII) for the 2014 War Challenge With a Twist.

 

 

49th book for 2014 New Author Challenge.

 

 

 

15th book for 2014 European Reading Challenge; (Set in Poland)

 

 

25th book for 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

 

Filed Under: 2014 European Reading Challenge, 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, 2014 War Challenge With a Twist, borrowed copy, challenges, historical fiction, New Authors Challenge, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, reviews, St. Martin's Press Tagged With: , ,

Inamorata by Megan Chance

August 19, 2014 by

Source: Lake Union Publishing and TLC Book Tours
Paperback, 420 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Inamorata by Megan Chance is dark, mysterious, and twisted.  Odile Leon is a former courtesan turned dark muse, and if you are as talented in the arts as your ego lets you believe, she will choose you.  But the bargain could cost you your soul.  Nicholas Dale knows this too well, and he’s made it his mission to stop her.  Add to the mix mysterious twins, Joseph and Sophie Hannigan, from New York.  These twins carry their own dark secrets and they intrigue not only the entire art community in Venice, but Dale and Odile.  These twins are not torn between the struggling forces of good and evil, but something darker, more singular — desired by both sides.

“That I was not always in his shadow, that there was something in the world that could belong just to me.  To truly be as special on my own terms as Joseph said I was — sometimes my yearning for it was so strong it took me by surprise.”  (page 109)

There is talk of ghosts, succubi, murders, suicides, and more, but Chance weaves artistry so well into the narrative readers will get lost in the canals, wondering how it all will turn out.  There are points in the narrative that drag a little, perhaps there are too many points of view shared, which slows the pace a bit, but many readers would not want to trade any of those points of view because they could lose the full scope of the story.  These points of view enrich the story, making it fuller, and the characters themselves are dynamic and well developed.  These characters are trapped by their yearning and desire to be bigger, recognized, and made whole.

Chance has created a heavy, twisted novel about romantic Venice, and the artists who are struggling to gain recognition. Inamorata by Megan Chance is enveloping, and readers will fall under its spell as each page is turned and more is revealed.  Will these characters achieve their darkest desires, will they be beholden and enslaved by them, or will they find the solace they are seeking?  Another contender for the 2014 Best Reads list!

About the Author:

Megan Chance is a critically acclaimed, award-winning author of historical fiction. Her novels have been chosen for the Borders Original Voices and IndieBound’s Booksense programs. A former television news photographer and graduate of Western Washington University, Chance lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters.  Connect on Facebook and Twitter, and visit her Website.

48th book for 2014 New Author Challenge.

Filed Under: challenges, historical fiction, New Authors Challenge, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews, tlc book tours Tagged With: , ,

Mailbox Monday #284

August 18, 2014 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, Vicki, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.

Here’s what we got from the library sale for the little one:

1. Curious George and the Puppies by Margret Rey and H.A. Rey for 25 cents.

When George and the man with the yellow hat visit the animal shelter, George is delighted to discover a large litter of puppies. At first, George just wants to pet the puppy, but then he wants to hold one. George’s curiosity gets the best of him, and soon puppies are everywhere.

2. ¡Vamos a bailar! Let’s Dance! The Dora the Explorer Music Collection for 50 cents.

3. Skippyjon Jones in the Dog-House by Judy Schachner for 25 cents.

For another loco adventure. In his room for a time-out, Skippyjon Jones lets his imagination take him to a shack where his Chihuahua friends are yipping and yapping and hiding out from the bad Bobble-ito, who has taken over their doghouse. How El Skippito chills the Chihuahuas and banishes the Bobble-ito will make more amigos for this endearing and irresistible rascal.

4. The Mermaid’s Lullaby by Kate Spohn for 50 cents.

Glitter sparkles on every page of this genuine treasure by Kate Spohn, whose work has been described as “truly extraordinary” by the Horn Book Reviewand “luminous” by Kirkus Reviews. This is a tender sea song, sung to sleepy mermaid babies by mer-mommies and mer-daddies. From the tapping of the sea urchins and the sound of bubbly voices to flashing fish and the circle of mermaid dancers, children will be lulled by words as soothing as lapping waves and captivated by art that is joyful and inviting.

5.  New Tales: Pandora and Vittorio, the Vampire by Anne Rice for 50 cents.

In Pandora, fledgling vampire David Talbot chronicles the history of Pandora, a two-thousand-year-old vampire, and in fifteenth-century Renaissance Florence, Vittorio finds his world shattered when his entire family is destroyed in an act of unholy violence and embarks on a desperate quest for revenge, in Vittorio, the Vampire, in an omnibus edition.

6.  The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan from a friend.

What should we have for dinner?” To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore’s dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn’t—which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore’s dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we’re realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. The Omnivore’s Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan’s brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America.

7.  The Book of Goodbyes by Jillian Weise from Academy of American Poets.

Weise’s collection “examines the daily life and consciousness of a speaker with a disability willing to confront all taboos associated with sex, intimacy, identity, gender, and love.” – Coldfront Magazine

The Los Angeles Times described Jillian Weise’s debut poetry collection as “a fearless dissection of the taboo and the hidden.” In this second collection she forwards her bold, sexy poetics by chronicling an affair with a man she names “Big Logos.” These poems throw into question sex, the law, identity, sentiment, and power, shifting between lyric and narrative, hyper-realism and magical realism, fact and fiction.

8.  Put Your Hands In by Chris Hosea from Academy of American Poets.

“Exactly a century ago, the Armory Show brought European avant-garde art to New York. We are still experiencing its consequences. Among the works on view was Marcel Duchamp’s notorious Nude Descending a Staircase, which a derisive critic wanted to rename ‘Explosion in a Shingle Factory.’ Both titles come to mind as one reads Chris Hosea’s Put Your Hands In, which somehow subsumes derision and erotic energy and comes out on top. Maybe that’s because ‘poetry is the cruelest month, ‘ as he says, correcting T. S. Eliot. Transfixed in midparoxysm, the poems also remind us of Samuel Beckett’s line (in Watt): ‘The pain not yet pleasure, the pleasure not yet pain.’ One feels plunged in a wave of happening that is about to crest.” — John Ashbery, from his judge’s citation for the Walt Whitman Award.

9.  Reflections of Hostile Revelries by Jennifer C. Wolfe from the poet for review.

Jennifer C. Wolfe’s new collection Reflections of Hostile Revelries is the voice in our heads that needs to be spoken. In this progressive work, Wolfe targets our richest and most powerful enemies addressing their essential flaws and epic mistakes while reminding the reader these are the exact people running our countries. Reflections of Hostile Revelries is direct and honest oral poetics and will leave you tired, but eager to read on. —Jordan Antonucci, Editor, Monkey Puzzle Press “Jennifer Wolfe’s second book, Reflections of Hostile Reveries, takes as its subject the American political landscape. In biting and often hilarious poems that spare no one, Wolfe skewers the absurdity and inanity of our politics and politicians. Everyone gets called out–from Sarah Palin to Barack Obama, from Chris Christie to the Supreme Court. Wolfe showcases her talents in a wide range of forms, from long-lined, discursive poems to haikus.

What did you receive?

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

Inspiration, Saying Thank You

August 17, 2014 by

Rules

  • Thank the person who nominated you.
  • Add the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award” logo to your post.
  • Share 7 things about yourself.
  • Nominate 15 bloggers who inspire you.
  • Include the set of rules.
  • Inform your nominees by posting a comment on his/her blog.

Thanks to Hattie from Books Make Me Happy for nominating me.  Normally, I don’t pass on these awards because I haven’t the time to, but I’m making time today.

7 Things:

  1. I write poems, short stories, and have 3 unfinished novels.
  2. I love big cities.
  3. I love to read books — all kinds, though lately a lot of historical fiction.
  4. I’m finally in a book club that has lasted more than 3 months.
  5. I love my family, and my little girls is getting so tall!
  6. I want to inspire others to read more poetry.
  7. It’s the little things that make me happiest — a bouquet of sunflowers, orchids, etc., putting away the dishes before I get to them, watching my little girl laugh, hanging out with friends over good coffee or wine and dessert (anything chocolate, really).

Bloggers Who Inspire Me; I’m limiting myself to 7:

  1. Rhapsody in Books because she challenges me to read more YA and nonfiction
  2. Bermudaonion because she’s always so kind and comments on everyone’s blogs
  3. Book Chatter because she loves those dark stories that I love.
  4. Diary of an Eccentric because she’s as passionate as I am about Jane Austen and war-related fiction — nevermind I’ve known her in real life for more than a decade.
  5. Unabridged Chick because she’s passionate about historical fiction and has great taste.
  6. Caribousmom because she’s always so kind, utterly talented at quilting, and a dog lover.
  7. Under My Apple Tree because she has a great eye for birds, nature, and photography.
Filed Under: announcements, awards Tagged With:

267th Virtual Poetry Circle

August 16, 2014 by

Welcome to the 267th Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s book suggested.

Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Today’s poem is from Emily Dickinson, recited by MarKaye Hassan:

"I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain" (280)

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading – treading – till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through –  

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum –  
Kept beating – beating – till I thought
My Mind was going numb –  

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space – began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here – 

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down –  
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing – then –

What do you think?

Filed Under: virtual poetry circle Tagged With:

Week 2 of the Stella Bain Read-a-Long

August 15, 2014 by

This year at War Through the Generations we’ve been hosting a read-a-long specific to one of the 6 wars we are covering.

As this year marks the 100th anniversary of WWI, we’ve decided to select one of our favorite authors — Anita Shreve — to honor the war.

Stella Bain is our selection for August. Synopsis from GoodReads:

When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in.

A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his house guest. Stella had been working as a nurse’s aide near the front, but she can’t remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield.

In a narrative that takes us from London to America and back again, Shreve has created an engrossing and wrenching tale about love and the meaning of memory, set against the haunting backdrop of a war that destroyed an entire generation.

Beware of spoilers.  Discussions will be posted on Friday for the designated chapters. Here’s the reading schedule and discussion dates:

Friday, Aug. 8: Pages 1-70
Friday, Aug. 15: Pages 71-138
Friday, Aug. 22: Pages 139-207
Friday, Aug. 29: Pages 208-end

We hope that you’ll join us for the read-a-long and discussions at War Through the Generations.

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With: , , ,

My Drunk Kitchen by Hannah Hart

August 14, 2014 by

Source: HarperCollins
Hardcover, 240 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Going With Your Gut by Hannah Hart is a more how-to guide for noncooks and those who have few resources on hand.  In many ways this is not your ordinary cookbook — yes there are ingredients listed but they are mostly suggestions, and there are few if any step-by-step instructions on how to recreate Hart’s creations.  “Unconventional” is one word to describe this cookbook, and another would be “fun.”  This is a cookbook about having fun in the kitchen, getting creative, and inviting your friends to join in the frenzy — and alcohol always helps.  Hart lets readers into her life and her kitchen — from her younger years in the lunchroom scrounging among friends to fill her belly with various concoctions of candy and crackers, etc.

From this cookbook, we selected Pizzadilla for my birthday party last weekend, which requires sauce, shredded cheese, and tortillas.  The recommended drink with this is cold beer of course, and we happened to have Sam Adams in the house.  You smear the sauce on the tortilla and then add the cheese before putting another tortilla on top — you can stack these on top of one another to make them taller — put them in the oven to cook.  It looks as though this requires some babysitting as there is no temperature listed for the oven, nor is there a time for cooking listed.  You’ll have to keep an eye out for the browning of the tortilla and the melting ooze of the cheese.  You can cut these into slices with a butter knife.  These all came out great within about 10 minutes or so on 350 degrees.  Everyone seemed to enjoy them, and we think they could be filled with other toppings, like peppers, mushrooms, pepperoni, and other meat.

My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Going With Your Gut by Hannah Hart is a fun cookbook for those not too worried about timing things and directions, who are interested in making creative dishes in the kitchen.  Beyond single people, bachelors, and drunk cooks, this book could be helpful in introducing kids to cooking.  It is humorous and fun.

***Silly me, we forgot to take photos of the creations, but perhaps we were too drunk.***

About the Author:

Hannah Hart, sometimes nicknamed Harto, is an American internet personality, comedian and author. She is best known for starring in My Drunk Kitchen, a weekly series on YouTube in which she cooks something while intoxicated. Apart from her main channel, she also runs a second channel where she talks about life in general and gives her opinions on various topics. She also has written a cooking book named My Drunk Kitchen – a guide to eating, drinking, and going with your gut.

47th book for 2014 New Author Challenge.

Filed Under: challenges, Harper Collins, humor, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, Reference, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , ,

So Cold the River by Michael Koryta, Narrated by Robert Petkoff

August 13, 2014 by

Source: Complimentary BEA download
Audio, nearly 14 hours
On Amazon and on Kobo

So Cold the River by Michael Koryta, narrated by Robert Petkoff, is mysterious and dark, but at times, it is humorous.  Eric Shaw has lost his movie making career as a photographer/videographer in Los Angeles, forcing him to breathe life into those that have been lost or into inanimate objects for funerals, along with videos of weddings and more.  After crafting a video for a funeral or a woman with a secret that only one other person knows, Eric is sent on a job that makes him question reality.

Alyssa Bradford hires Eric to make a video of her father-in-law’s life, sending him to a once thriving vacation city that has only begun to rebound after the Great Depression when her father-in-law left to make his fortune elsewhere.  West Baden, Ind., is in the middle of nowhere, but it is the home of Pluto water, which was considered a miracle water from a mineral spring.  Campbell Bradford, a 95 year-old billionaire, is a complete mystery … a mystery that Shaw is sent to unravel, but what he finds is not only a town being reborn but also a cast of townsfolk who are wound up tight or too relaxed.  Koryta’s dialogue could use a bit of sprucing up, as some of it is very repetitive with the use of “hell” and the like, but the descriptions of the characters, their interactions, and the mysterious experiences Shaw has are engaging.  The novel takes a great many twists and turns, but there are times when the changes are predictable.  

Robert Petkoff is a fantastic narrator, making sure that the voices and characters are easily discerned and the dialogue easy to follow.  His inflections are Midwestern, and he effectively effuses the emotions of these characters.  So Cold the River by Michael Koryta strikes a balance between suspense/thriller and the paranormal, as Eric Shaw finds himself pulled into the mysteries of Pluto water and a town that fell into financial ruin after the Great Depression.  It’s a satisfying novel to spend the summer with, full of adventure and intrigue.

About the Author:

Michael Koryta is an American author of contemporary crime and supernatural fiction. His novels have appeared on the The New York Times Best Seller list.  Visit his Website.

 

 

46th book for 2014 New Author Challenge.

Filed Under: audiobooks, challenges, fiction, Hachette Books, New Authors Challenge, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Searching for Captain Wentworth by Jane Odiwe

August 12, 2014 by

Source: Author Jane Odiwe
Paperback, 318 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

Searching for Captain Wentworth by Jane Odiwe is a time-traveling romantic novel in which Sophie Elliot uncovers her ancestors connections to her beloved Jane Austen when she visits Bath after a tough break-up with her boyfriend.  Sophie is a young woman adrift after the end of her relationship and when she learns that she didn’t get the job she had hoped.  Traveling to Bath, she has romantic ideas about what this famous city would be, but it is more bustling than she expects, until she reaches her family’s home and finds that she has stepped back in time.

“My family had enjoyed a life of leisure, privilege and wealth, but in my Great-Granmother’s time the First World War changed everything.  The family fortunes dwindled along with the estates, which had had to be sold.  Now, all that remained was a black and white print of Monkford Hall, the manor house that the first Elizabethan queen had given in recognition of services to the crown, which my mother had framed and put in pride of place above what she had jokingly called her other “seat,” in the loo.”  (page 32)

Sophie wanders around Bath and finds a white glove, which she believes must belong to her neighbor, Josh Strafford, who is putting together an exhibit at the local museum.  His eyes are captivating, and his kind manner is endearing, but Sophie is not ready for romance, or so she thinks.  As she uncovers the secrets of her family in the attic and upper rooms of the house in Bath, and a rosewood box she’s given, Sophie falls deeper into the past, becoming a part of it — taking a vacation from reality.  In her vacation from reality, Sophie steps into the life of her namesake, Sophia Elliot, and learns that women are more constrained by society’s expectations than their clothes.

“I looked through the glass, but I couldn’t see Josh.  The dark, heavy doors needed all my weight to move them, but once I’d got them started they swiftly seemed beyond my control to stop.  Very quickly, the doors picked up a frightening speed and started to spin so rapidly it was impossible to make any attempt to get out.  Faster and faster they turned, moving with a force all of their own.  No matter how much I shifted my weight to lean against the one behind, nothing would slow the increasing acceleration of the revolving doors.  i clung to the brass rail with fear, shutting my eyes tight because I felt so giddy and nauseous.  It was only when the sensation completely stopped that I dared to open them.”  (page 82)

Searching for Captain Wentworth by Jane Odiwe is about the love we seek when it sometimes is right in front of us.  Sophie must learn how to stand on her own, to know what she wants, and to reach out and grab it while she can.  Only when she has the resolve to be happy, can she truly take advantage of the opportunities and happiness before her.  Odiwe writes this time-travel novel in a way that makes it believable and readers will be as swept up in the past as Sophie Elliot.

About the Author:

Jane Odiwe is an artist and author. She is an avid fan of all things Austen and is the author and illustrator of Effusions of Fancy, consisting of annotated sketches from the life of Jane Austen. She lives with her husband and three children in North London.  Check out Jane Odiwe’s blog here.

Other reviews of this author’s work:

Filed Under: fiction, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , ,