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DNF Books

I normally try to read every book, even ones that I find difficult to read, but it is time for me to set aside these books for good.  I either didn’t like the writing style or the subject matter.  But look for an opportunity to grab ahold of these and give them a try for yourself.

I will provide a synopsis from either the publisher, author, or Amazon.com site for your review and a couple sentences why I didn’t finish these books despite my normal penchant for finishing everything I read.

1.  Gold Dust on His Shirt by Irene Howard

Gold Dust on His Shirt is an evocative telling of the experience of a Scandinavian immigrant family of hard-rock miners at the turn of the century and up to World War II. Based on fascinating historical research, these are tales of arriving in ‘Amerika,’ blasting the Grand Trunk Pacific railway, work in the mines, and domestic life and labour struggles in company towns throughout British Columbia.

While initially the prologue drew me in with the writer’s inspiration for writing the book, I soon discovered a more textbook-like writing style in the subsequent chapters, which were too dry for me to continue.  Although I am sure this book contains some great historical information about the immigrant experience of miners, I was not as interested in the subject matter as I had hoped.

2.  Little Stories by Jeff Roberts


Little Stories takes a critical look at the inevitable moments of betrayal and loneliness in our awkward quest to love and be loved, but the reader will discover the value – and even joy – to be had by looking backward and facing the past. This brilliant collection of tales should not be missed.

I found the dialogue in the first story to be pedestrian, and I didn’t feel a connection to the characters.  With a compilation of short stories, it is difficult to connect with characters in those stories, but some collections do better than others.  Unfortunately, this was not one of those collections for me.

3.  The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer

In The Reluctant Widow, Eleanor Rochdale, a young woman of good birth but straitened circumstances, sets out to accept a position as a governess and ends up plunged into a tangle of foreign intrigue instead.

Georgette Heyer has received great reviews from other bloggers in the blogosphere, but for some reason The Reluctant Widow failed to hold my attention on more than on occasion. 

4.  Loving Mr. Darcy by Sharon Lathan

Darcy and Lizzy venture away from Pemberley to journey through England, finding friends, relatives, fun, love, and an even deeper and more sacred bond along the way. Having embarked on the greatest adventure of all, marriage and the start of a new life together, now the Darcys take the reader on a journey through a time of prosperity, enjoyment, and security. They experience all the adventures of travel, with friends and relatives providing both companionship and complications, and with fun as their focus.
This is the second book in Sharon Lathan’s Pride & Prejudice spin-off based loosely upon the 2005 movie and Austen’s work. I picked up my copy at last year’s Book Expo America, but I’ve realized that the endearments and lack of plot action and character development leave me cold.  I must warn readers that Lathan will enter the bedroom with Darcy and Elizabeth, so if you prefer something more sedate, this is not for you.

FTC Disclosure: Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.

Stacy Parker Aab Talks About Interning and Writing

(Photo credit: David Wentworth)

Stacy Parker Aab was a White House intern and staff member, who has written her first memoir, Government Girl.  I’ve reviewed the book, please check out my thoughts.

Stacy was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to write up a guest post about transitioning from interning in the White House and becoming a published author.  Please give her a warm welcome.

Growing up, I always felt that I was two kinds of things when I was supposed to be one or the other, be it black/white, citygirl/suburban, or politico/writer.  While I made peace with my heritage, and loved inner city Detroit as much as I did comfortable Troy, the poles of political and creative living have always tugged at me hard.
I think back to senior year of high school.  I literally sat there with my hands in the air, palms up, weighing my options back and forth: should I try to be a writer (and go to a nice tucked-away liberal arts college)?  Or should I study government and try to right the wrongs I saw all around me (meaning a school in DC)?  I decided on government, thinking that no matter where my activism led, I would have enough skills upon graduation to earn a living wage. The writing life could never make that promise.
So, I began study at The George Washington University.  I lived in a freshman dorm three blocks away from the White House complex.  Within months, I volunteered for the Office of Communications, headed by George Stephanopoulos.  A few months later, I was promoted to George’s West Wing office. I suddenly had a blue pass, giving me instant access to the complex and the ability to walk freely within the West Wing.  I was living my political dream.
Yet second semester, I enrolled in a poetry workshop.  The greatest happiness I knew was walking to class with a new poem in my folder, knowing that the professor would recognize it as a promising poem, knowing, even without her approval, that it was a good piece of work.  This made me happy, and this happiness came from the inside.  Organic.  And I wanted to feel it again.  If I thought I had chosen forever between “politico” and “writer” I was wrong.  I was going to be both.
I continued to intern for 3+ years, graduated, went to England on scholarship for a year, came back to DC and returned to the White House as staff in 1997. I was Paul Begala’s assistant.  While I loved helping Paul, it didn’t take long to figure out that I wouldn’t last as support staff—that the job didn’t challenge me enough, that I needed to hurry up and get promoted to more substantial work.  During that time I kept writing.  I read work by Tennessee Williams and Philip Roth that stunned me, showed me the true power of story.  I realized that if my biggest dream was to change hateful attitudes, storytelling could sneak over the heart’s fortress walls much faster than the effects of any law. 
Then Monica hit.  For months, we lived and breathed scandal.  I felt angry at the president for his role in the mess, but I was always angrier at the investigators and his outside detractors for I believed they didn’t really care about the rule of law, or perjury, or how a young former intern may have been mistreated—they only cared about beating down the president, and they’d finally found a stick they thought could deliver the fatal blow. As the president fought for his life, we staffers watched our words.  Stayed quiet, if possible.  Anything we said, or wrote, about our work, about anyone, could possibly be subpoenaed by investigators. I felt like we were all being choked.
During this time I was radicalized.  I’d worked in government and it was wonderful but it was time to give the other part of me, the part of me that wasn’t going away, the writer part of me, a chance for primacy.  I left full-time government service September 1998.  Ever since, my goal has been simple: full-time writerhood.  Not an easy goal, for it’s hard to excel, and even if you do, it’s hard to make a living.  But I’m still trying.  Luckily, I love teaching writing, too.  If I can keep up a life of writing and teaching, I will remain very, very happy.  And if I can sneak over a few fortresses and soften some hard places, then I’ll know I took the right path.
Thanks, Stacy, for sharing with us your story.  Interested in winning 1 of 3 copies of her book (US/Canada only, sorry), please visit this giveaway link.

Government Girl Giveaway!

Did you miss my review of Government Girl by Stacy Parker Aab?

Well, you better go read it and leave a comment because if you do, you can come back here and enter a giveaway for up to 3 copies of the book.

Unfortunately, U.S./Canada residents only, but I may have another treat in store later in the week if I can get to the K Street Borders on Thursday, Feb. 4 because Stacy will be in town signing her book.

Deadline is Feb. 8, 2010, at 11:59 PM EST

Fill out the form below to enter!

Government Girl by Stacy Parker Aab

Stacy Parker Aab’s Government Girl chronicles her time in the White House during the Clinton Administration from the age of 18 to her early 20s.  Expecting the bulk of the memoir to be about the Monica Lewinsky scandal or the like would be a mistake, although Monica’s fall from grace could have just as well been Stacy’s story if she did not have the personal drive to achieve more, live within the confines of her duties and principles, and focus on self-satisfaction.

“You want acknowledgment — all that comes when you’ve done a good job, when you’re so deserving.  You want that light.  That hand on your shoulder.  At least if you’re like me and this sort of loving affirmation from authority figures still feeds you, even if you wish it would not.”  (Page 13 of ARC)

Being young and in politics, Stacy had a daunting task of navigating an adult world when she was not quite secure in her self-identity and still evolving as a woman.  She’s a product of a single mother, an alcoholic father, and her mixed heritage as an African-American with a mostly unknown-to-her German ancestry.  All of these elements come into play as she navigates the White House media and policy web and the knotted ropes of her possible career ladder.

“Maybe it was like going to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and seeing a rubber version of yourself blown up and ‘walking’ with the help of a dozen attendants, this version of you more than ten stories tall, knowing that your celebrity was just that, something outside you, something as big and as vulnerable as giant balloons”  (Page 87 of ARC)

The narrative of this memoir is smooth in its transitions between her intern days and her past in Troy, Michigan.  The struggles of family life and the dedication of her mother to help her out with schooling expenses and other costs clearly influenced Stacy’s drive for financial independence, even if the job opportunities at the time were not the most fun.  Politics is at the forefront of her work in the White House, but it often takes a backseat to her internal struggle to become a strong, independent woman with a clear idea of where she wishes to be and what she wishes to achieve.

“Working, I wanted that feeling of rowing on the Potomac River, that feeling in the eight with all of us pulling our oars.  Sixteen arms and sixteen legs powering that slim boat forward, as we were lead by our coxswain, as our coach called out to us from his motorized boat nearby.”  (Page 39 of ARC)

In many ways, what drives Stacy is the hole inside her — an absence of fatherly love — as she falls into transient relationships with co-workers, fellow students, and others.  While this desire to fill this emptiness does little to improve her romantic life, it does often push her to perfection in her work life.  In terms of memoir, readers will find Government Girl is deliberate, vivid, and eye-opening — especially in terms of behind-the-scenes politics.  Readers will find Stacy’s prose frank and honest, almost like a friend telling a portion of her life story to another friend.

Please stay tuned for a guest post from Stacy Parker Aab on Feb. 2, 2010.

Interested in winning 1 of 3 copies of her book (US/Canada only, sorry), please visit this giveaway link.

About the Author:  (Photo credit: David Wentworth)

Writer, blogger, and former political aide, Stacy Parker Aab served for five years in the Clinton White House, first as a long-time intern in George Stephanopoulos’s office, and later as an assistant to Paul Begala. She traveled as a presidential advance person, preparing and staffing trips abroad for the president and Mrs. Clinton. She also served as a special assistant for Gov. David Paterson in New York.  Please check out her Website.

Also check out this video where she talks about her memoir:

If you are interested in Government Girl, please check out the rest of the TLC Book Tour.

I’m also counting this as my 7th book for the 2010 New Authors Challenge.

FTC Disclosure:  I received a free copy of Government Girl from the publisher for a TLC Book Tour and review.  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary. 

Mailbox Monday #67

Marcia at The Printed Page and Kristi of The Story Siren both sponsor memes in which bloggers share what books they’ve received in the past week.  I’m going to continue calling these Mailbox Mondays, but The Story Siren also has In My Mailbox.

Here’s what I received:

1.  Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah for review.

2.  The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti from a co-worker.

3.  Simon’s Cat by Simon Tofield, which I won from A Circle of Books.

What did you get in your mailbox?

FTC Disclosure: Clicking on title and image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.

Winner of Tainted

Out of more than 20 entrants to the giveaway for Tainted by Brooke Morgan, Random.org selected:

Margie

Thanks to everyone who entered.  If you are still looking for a good book, check out the right sidebar with all the giveaway around the blogosphere, including my next one for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

FTC Disclosure:  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary. 

2010 Vampire Series Challenge

I know. . . I said I wasn’t signing up for any more challenges, and then I went ahead and signed up for another poetry reading challenge. . . and then I found a Vampire Series Challenge!  How could I resist?

I’m waffling between option #3 and #4.  For now, I’m going to shoot for option #3 to read any 6 books from a series in which vampires are main characters.

Challenge runs from January 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2010.

Here’s the other options, if you are interested:

Level One: Vampire Newbie ~ read Book 1 of three (3) different vampire series (for a list of series’ featuring vampires, see my All In Order blog, or check out Kathrin’s list here –but note that some of the ones she mentions may not be series books). So, for example, you could read: “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer (book 1 in the “Twilight” series), “Evermore” by Alyson Noel (book 1 of the “Immortals” series), and “City of Bones” by Cassandra Clare (book 1 of the “Mortal Instruments” series). NO re-reads allowed for this level, as you’re supposed to be introducing yourself to new vampire series. ;)

Level Two: Vampire Addict ~ Choose either to: reread 2 vampire series books you’ve already read; OR read 2 more books from a vampire series that you’ve already started reading. For example: if you’ve already read books 1 & 2 of the “Twilight” series, now go and read books 3 & 4. OR, if you’ve already read the whole “House of Night” series by P.C. Cast, go back and read 2 of the books from that series.

Level Three: Vampire Enthusiast ~ Read 6 books from any series featuring vampires as key/main characters. This can be a mix of different series, or you can read all 6 books from one series, or whatever.

Level Four: Vampire Lover ~ If you’re really feeling crazy about vampires, this is the level for you! Read 3 full series featuring vampires as key/main characters. Example: The whole “House of Night” series, the whole “Twilight” series, the whole “Vampire Academy” series, or whatever. Totally up to you. And, I don’t care if you’re re-reading them. So long as you read the whole series.

Go to the Mr. Linky to sign up! You know you want to.

30th Virtual Poetry Circle

It’s the 30th Virtual Poetry Circle, and it’s time to visit with a contemporary poet, but before we do that, I wanted to thank everyone who has participated in this project thus far.  Feel free to spread the word.

Additionally, you should start noticing some small changes here on the blog, including possible article suggestions at the end of my posts (Thanks Bloggiesta for calling this widget to my attention) and some share buttons, which I’m not overly thrilled with, but they’ll do for now.

I would also love to get a new three-column template that meshes better with my header, so if anyone would like to volunteer, please email me.

OK, Here’s a poem up for reactions, interaction, and–dare I say it–analysis:

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

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books 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.

Here’s a contemporary poem from Reb Livingston from her book Your Ten Favorite Words:

No Bra Required(Page 11)

Someone scrawled
funny words
on our underwear.

Our underwear,
way too loose

on our rascal asses.
We must realize ourselves
into those big britches,

you declare.  Love
in a handbasket.  Hell
in my heart.  My camisole,

yours, evermore.  Never
have I believed in polygamy
more than I do rising this

daybreak.

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have
a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles, check them out here. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

FTC Disclosure:  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary. 

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

First, I want to apologize to the author, TLC Book Tours, and the publisher for failing to meet my deadline for this review.  I think this is one of the only times I’ve missed a deadline, and in my defense, I erroneously wrote today as my tour date and not yesterday.  Clearly, my mind was not focused!  I apologize.  OK, on with my review.

Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a pot of water on the stove that takes a long time to boil.  Henry Lee is the main protagonist, but really his story happens nearly 45 years in the past, and those are the chapters that breathe and live.  Much of the present day (1986) life of Henry Lee is somber and lifeless.

“He’d meant to finish it when his son, Marty, went away to college, but Ethel’s condition had worsened and what money they’d saved for a rainy day was spent in a downpour of medical bills, a torrent that lasted nearly a decade.”  (Page 8)

The death of his wife, Ethel, from cancer six months before happens early on in the book.  Readers are left with a drifting character who really doesn’t find his way into his own story for about 100 or more pages.  When we finally delve into his young love with Keiko, the story blossoms into an emotional torrent, especially when they are ripped apart from each other.

Discrimination is on every page given that in 1942 the United States was drawn into World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  For Henry’s father, the war began many years before when Japan invaded his homeland.  Henry and his father have a tenuous relationship — a relationship that is mirrored in the present between Henry and his own son, Marty. 

“‘He was vehemently against all things Japanese.  Even before Pearl Harbor, the war in China had been going on for almost ten years.  For his son to be frequenting that other part of town — Japantown — would have been bad form.  Shameful to him . . . ‘”  (Page 105)

Readers will appreciate the immersion into war-time America with its simmering angst against Asians — not just the Japanese — and the plight of those second generation Asians who try to maintain their livelihoods and tout their American loyalties in a nation that increasingly wanted to get rid of any reminder of war.  Overall, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a meandering novel about love, growing up, dealing with discrimination, and more, but in a way readers may find that the sequencing of events and alternating chapters between present day Henry and his younger persona could have been executed better.  In many cases the present day chapters take away from those during the war years, halting the narrative and adding little to the story’s arc.

About the Author:

Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from Kaiping, China, to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the Western name “Ford,” thus confusing countless generations. Ford is an award-winning short-story writer, an alumnus of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and a survivor of Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp. Having grown up near Seattle’s Chinatown, he now lives in Montana with his wife and children.  Check out his Website or the BitterSweet Blog.

To Enter the Giveaway for 1 copy of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Sorry, US/Canada only):

1.  Leave a comment on this post about one moment in your past you’d like to revisit or change.
2.  Blog, Tweet, Facebook, etc. the giveaway and leave a link in the comments.

Deadline is Feb. 5, 2010 at 11:59PM EST

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!

FTC Disclosure:  I received a free copy of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet from the publisher for a TLC Book Tour and review.  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.

This is my 6th book for the 2010 New Authors Challenge.

If you are interested in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, please check out the rest of the TLC Book Tour.

Brooke Morgan Talks About Writing and Her Move to England

Brooke Morgan is the author of Tainted (click for my review), which is a suspenseful novel about love, loss, and familial bonds.  For a chance to win a copy of her book, please visit the review and comment.  The giveaway is international!  Also, for an additional entry, please comment on this post.


Please give Brooke a warm welcome:

Having moved to London, I’m slightly surprised to find that in many ways I have become more American than I already was. English people can sometimes be casually dismissive about Americans and their lack of history, which is irritating; but worse, I can guarantee that in some point during a conversation with an English person, that person will always say “Americans have no sense of irony.” To which I always reply, bristling, “Go watch an episode of Frasier.” 

Writing Tainted as I sat at my desk in my house in Hammersmith was an exercise in time travel. Because I set the novel in a Cape Cod town not unlike the one I used to spend every summer in; I admit I wallowed in the feeling of being back home. And to help me, I hung pictures on my study wall — watercolor paintings and  aerial photos of that area of the Cape. Plus old snapshots of my family on the beach.  

These were visual aids, definitely, but I could also close my eyes and just plain remember. And that nostalgia trip was part of the pleasure of writing Tainted. 

Henry, one of the characters in the book, is modeled on my Uncle Sam. Which was fine until Henry gets into big trouble – it was such a real scene to me that when I finished it, I had to pick up the telephone on my desk and wake him up at six in the morning his time to make sure he was all right.  

When you relocate to another country, you lose your past. It’s impossible to turn to someone and say: “Remember when?” because they don’t. One of the great advantages of being a writer is to bring that past into the present and live it every day as you  write.  It’s a great cure for homesickness and a lot cheaper than a whole load of Transatlantic airline tickets.

Thanks, Brooke, for taking the time to share with us your writing and cultural experiences.

Deadline for the giveaway is Jan. 29, 2010!

FTC Disclosure:  Clicking on image or title links will lead to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.