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Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis

September 19, 2014 by

Source: Running Press
Paperback, 304 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis is a roller coaster ride at the circus, complete with big top, illusions, and creepy mute-like clown/mime.  In a town named for the whales off the coast of an eccentric town where everyone is just a little bit odd.  Skylar Rousseau tells her story in the first person and as she unravels the mystery of her three-month disappearance, readers will be pulled into the underworld of a circus that thrived 16 years earlier.  Ellis’ novel is atmospheric, creepy, and foreboding, as Sky reconnects with the friends who thought she had died while she thought she went on with her normal daily routines of going to school, studying for tests, and hanging out with her friends in a town where a weathervane is haunted.

“Sky shook her head.  Madame Curio was well known in Blackfin, even though she was avoided by most.

‘How did you even get in there?’ The woods had been secured against intruders for as long as Sky could remember, the talk of roaming wolves and lightning trees that electrocuted passing children not being enough to keep out idle teenagers.”  (page 70 ARC)

Skylar sets on a path to uncover what actually happened to her and where she went for three months with the help of Sean, her friend that she wants to be more.  Along the way she uncovers secrets in Blood House, the family home, as it opens attic doors and pushes her in the right direction, learns things about her family and her mother that upend her world, and gets even closer to the truth through a series of unimaginable journeys.  Ellis’ ability to create a believable world in which the circus becomes a prison and gifted people are anxious to leave but unable to do so is fantastic for a debut novelist.  Beyond the darkness, however, Ellis sprinkles in the humor, making it easy for the reader to relate to these characters because they are not overly serious and the novel is not too dark.

“Sky joined him as he leaned against the back of the Jeep, looking out over the twisted townscape of Blackfin.  The houses looked like precariously stacked playing cards, balancing against the hillside while they waited for a gust of wind to carry them off into the sea.  From this height, Sky saw the thirteen black dots of the cemetery cats lazing on top of the tombstones lower down the mountain slope.  Further still, the school teetered at the seafront, with Silas’s iron form spinning crazily on the roof.”  (page 150 ARC)

Ellis balances characterization, atmosphere, and mystery well and Blackfin comes to life with all of its quirky characters.  She bends the light to reveal new dimensions and hues of the town, its residents, and its history, while maintaining readers’ interest and passion to find out how it all ends.  From the mundane routines of going to school and hanging out with friends to the traveling to the circus for answers, Sky must find the strength within herself to accept her new reality and find a way to save herself and everyone she loves.  Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis is light refracted, speeding up and slowing down, as Sky uncovers her own truth.

About the Author:

Kat Ellis is a young adult writer from North Wales. Her debut novel, BLACKFIN SKY, is out now in the UK (Firefly Press) and the US (Running Press Teen).

Check out her Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, and her Website.

 

59th book for 2014 New Author Reading Challenge.

 

 

 

 

My 1st book for Peril the Second!

Filed Under: ARC, challenges, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2014, reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Reflections of Hostile Revelries by Jennifer C. Wolfe

September 18, 2014 by


Source: Poet Jennifer C. Wolfe
Paperback, 108 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Reflections of Hostile Revelries: A Collection of Political Poetry Musings by Jennifer C. Wolfe is another collection of political poetry ripped from the headlines, as the narrator comments on the mistakes made by our political leaders and political campaigns gone wrong.  These poems read more like critical essays, rather than verse, using a narrative prose style that grabs a headline and picks it apart with a fine-toothed comb to unveil the unsupported facts of today’s political platforms and the flip-flopping of candidates eager to please the masses.  She covers topics ranging from immigration enforcement to the “nanny” state laws, and some of these poems are hilarious in their re-appropriation of pop culture.

Not Quite the Flintstones (page 87)

In honor of everything having to do with our fumbling friends at the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), I would like to present
A memorable TV cartoon sing-song within a new light:

FEMA! Meet the FEMA!
They're a large disaster family;

From the town of D.C.,
They're a sad page out of history,

Someday, maybe they will get things right,
Then they'll be able to fix a plight.

When you're with the FEMA,
It's a Yabba-dabba-do time,

Hard to find food time;
We'll have a dismal time!

[insert cherry, twelve second big band musical interlude]

Repeat: We'll have a dismal time!
(Screaming): FEMA!

Wolfe has an uncanny sense of humor, while still calling attention to the problems in today’s government. Like the horrifying news we hear and see on the radio, Internet, and television, these poems call attention to the problems in government — ones as voters we should be paying attention to and looking for ways to resolve them when voting for candidates — and brings to life the humor of the situation, and sometimes in a particularly ridiculous way.  Wolfe does not stop at just politicians, poking fun and holes in big business like the banking sector’s use of fees to charge money to its own customers for using their own debit cards provided to them by the banks that issue them.  She even crosses the U.S. borders into international politics.

Benghazi, Libya Aftermath -- A Haiku for You (page 69)

Barack Obama,
On four dead Americans:
"A bump in the road."

Reflections of Hostile Revelries: A Collection of Political Poetry Musings by Jennifer C. Wolfe uses longer narrative poems to critique the world around us, but she also uses haiku to comment on events.  And a haiku may be the best way to comment on some of the most tragic events that have occurred in recent years, particularly those that have left us speechless.

About the Poet:

Jennifer C. Wolfe grew up in Maplewood, Minn., and studied fiction writing and poetry at Century College in White Bear Lake. Mississippi. Wolfe has five previous publishing credentials: a poem “If” included within the Century College (White Bear Lake, MN) Spring 2008 Student Lounge literary magazine along with three poetry manuscripts, Kick the Stones: Everyday Hegemony, Empire, and Disillusionment published as an eBook by BlazeVOX Books, New York, October 2008, Yukon Rumination: Great Fun for All in the Land of Sarah Palin’s Joe Sixpack Alaska, published as an eBook by BlazeVOX Books, New York, June 2009, and Healing Optimism, and Polarization, published as an eBook by BlazeVOX Books, New York, February 2010, and two poems “St. Patrick’s Day” and “Roller Coaster,” published within the online edition of Scrambler Magazine, Issue 39, June 2010.

Other Reviews:

Book 24 for the Dive Into Poetry Reading Challenge 2014.

Filed Under: challenges, Dive Into Poetry 2014, poetry, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Lust by Diana Raab, Read by Kate Udall

September 17, 2014 by

tlc tour host

Source: TLC Book Tours and Diana Raab
Audio, 1hr+;
Paperback, 104 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Lust by Diana Raab, read by Kate Udall, is uninhibited, sensuous, and consumed with physical and emotional pleasure.  The poems, as read by Udall, are impassioned and shocking at times, as Udall breathes life into each stanza and word, painting a titillating scene with each image and story.  The poems explore not only the primal lust of the physical body, but the desire we have to feel and be loved, even as we age.  There is an intimacy that the narrator hopes will open readers up to share their own most secretive selves and desires with their own partners.  There are selves inside that we rarely show to the world, and in the lovemaking that we have with our partners, we can abandon the outer shells to regain a connection with our true selves and that of our partners.

Imagine all of the nerve endings and hair follicles coming alive, that is what this collection is — electrified narrative poems.  Udall’s voice is hypnotic, drawing listeners into the stories and letters Raab crafts with seductive language and imagery.  There are marriages kept alive with passion, there are adulterous affairs that are “burps” disrupting the fake smiles on our faces, and there are one-night encounters.

And even in these passionate moments, there is the acknowledgement that these encounters are temporary and fleeting, even among lovers joined in marriage and commitment.  But there is more than just passion here, there is sorrow, regret, confusion, addiction, fantasy, and love.  Raab’s poems are passionate and temporal, but striving to transcend reality and reach an out of body experience where appearances do not matter.

Lust by Diana Raab, read by Kate Udall, is stunning and memorable on more than one level.  Lovers and married couples should consider reading these poems to one another, so that perhaps they can deepen their own desires for one another, their own passions, and reach a new kind of ecstasy.  Lie upon the bed and take turns reading these verses and passions are likely to flare.

***Handle with care, as the language here is very sexual in nature.***

About the Poet:

Diana Raab is an award-winning poet, memoirist, and believer in the healing power of the written word. She began crafting poems at the age of ten when her mother gave her her first Khalil Gibran journal to help her cope with her grandmother and caretaker’s suicide. A few years later she discovered the journals of diarist Anaïs Nin and learned that, like Raab, Nin began journaling as a result of loss (the loss of her father). Much of Raab’s poetry has been inspired by Anaïs Nin’s life and works.

She is the author of four poetry collections, My Muse Undresses Me (2007); Dear Anaïs: My Life in Poems for You (2008); The Guilt Gene (2009); and Listening to Africa (2011).

Her poetry and prose have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Rattle, Boiler Room Journal, Rosebud, Litchfield Review, Tonopah Review, South Florida Arts Journal, Prairie Wolf Press, The Citron Review, Writers’ Journal, Common Ground Review, A Café in Space, The Toronto Quarterly, Snail Mail Review, New Mirage Journal, and Jet Fuel Review.

She is editor of two anthologies, Writers and Their Notebooks (2010) and Writers on the Edge (2012), co-edited with James Brown. Both these collections have submissions from poets and prose writers.

Diana has two memoirs, Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal (winner of the 2009 Mom’s Choice Award for Adult Nonfiction and the National Indie Excellence Award for Memoir), and Healing With Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey (winner of the 2011 Mom’s Choice Award for Adult Nonfiction).

She is a regular blogger for The Huffington Post and writes a monthly column for the Santa Barbara Sentinel, “The Mindful Word.” She lives in Southern California with her husband, and has three grown children. She is currently working on her doctorate in psychology and is researching the healing power of writing and creativity.

Other Books Reviewed:

Book 23 for the Dive Into Poetry Reading Challenge 2014.

Filed Under: audiobooks, challenges, Dive Into Poetry 2014, poetry, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews, tlc book tours Tagged With: , ,

My Mother’s Secret by J.L. Witterick and Giveaway

September 16, 2014 by

Source: Penguin Random House
Paperback, 180 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

My Mother’s Secret by J.L. Witterick is inspired by the real-life story of Franciszka and Helena Halamajowa who in Nazi-occupied Poland were able to save several families and a German soldier from being killed by the Nazis.  Told in understated, spare prose, the novel travels through the perspectives of Helena who grows up in Poland with her mother and brother without a father; Bronek, the head of one of the Jewish families; Mikolaj, the son of a premiere Jewish doctor before the Nazi occupation; and Vilheim, the German soldier who is vegetarian and does not want to kill.

“In all of us, there is a child that exists while we have our parents.

With my mother gone, I feel a sadness for the loss of the child within myself.” (page 68)

Helena’s perspective is the most developed of the four, in that readers garner a deeper understanding of her family and the losses they endure. Despite those hardships, she admires her mother’s commitment to doing the right thing. Her relationship with her brother is heart-warming from the beginning as they struggle to keep their stomachs full and steer clear of their father’s rage. Her mother’s secret is not so much that she begins hiding families from the Nazis but that she has the strength and conviction to do so no matter how much it could cost her personally. And while Helena sees herself differently, she carries with her that same strength, especially when her way of life changes drastically under Nazi occupation.

My Mother’s Secret by J.L. Witterick covers the range of reasons people were in hiding during WWII, and examines the perseverance of those hiding them. But it also takes a look at how keeping up appearances and going unnoticed can be the key to survival, as is showing love to fellow man with no expectation of getting anything in return.

About the Author:

Originally from Taiwan, J.L. Witterick has been living in Canada since her family’s arrival in 1968. She attended the University of Western Ontario, graduating from the Richard Ivey School of Business. My Mother’s Secret is her debut novel. It is a bestseller in Canada and has been published in several countries around the world. Witterick lives in Toronto with her husband and son.

Giveaway:

U.S./Canada residents 18+ can leave a comment below to be entered; list a WWII book that you’ve loved. Deadline to enter is Sept. 22, 2014, 11:59 PM EST.

58th book for 2014 New Author Reading Challenge.

 

 

 

 

18th book for 2014 European Reading Challenge; (Set in Germany/Poland)

 

 

 

29th book for 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

 

 

 

 

23rd book (WWII) for the 2014 War Challenge With a Twist.

Filed Under: 2014 European Reading Challenge, 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, 2014 War Challenge With a Twist, challenges, giveaway, historical fiction, New Authors Challenge, Penguin, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews Tagged With: ,

The Rat by Elise Gravel

September 12, 2014 by

Source: Tundra Books
Hardcover, 32 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

The Rat (Disgusting Creatures) by Elise Gravel packs a lot of information in its pages and includes colorful images and punchy commentary.  My daughter enjoys looking at the fun pictures of the Rat, and some of the large words are easier for her to notice, which makes a teachable moment for her to learn new words.  While some of the information may be too much for kids in one sitting, after a few reads, kids will learn more an more about rats.  Other books in the series focus on flies, head lice, slugs, spiders, and worms.  Most kids are fascinated with bugs and creepy crawly things, probably because they are smaller and often within their field of view and touch, unlike birds and other animals.

Gravel’s images are fun, and it allows young readers to learn about the rat, his habits, and his behavior, as well as how important rats are to human research.  When the rat picks her nose with her tail, kids will laugh or say its disgusting.  It’s just one example of how these books can entertain readers as well as help them learn.  The Rat (Disgusting Creatures) by Elise Gravel is fun and informative, allowing young readers to learn new words and spellings, while also having fun with life’s more creepy creatures.

About the Author/Illustrator:

Elise Gravel is an award-winning author/illustrator from Quebec. She was the winner of the 2013 Governor General’s Award for Children’s Illustration in French, and is well-known in Quebec for her original, wacky picture books. She has published a number of books with US publisher Blue Apple and is currently working on a graphic novel for Roaring Brook Press. Having completed her studies in graphic design, Elise found herself quickly swept up into the glamorous world of illustration. Her old design habits drive her to work a little text here and there into her drawings and she loves to handle the design of her assignments from start to finish. She is inspired by social causes and is likes projects that can handle a good dose of eccentricity.

57th book for 2014 New Author Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: challenges, children's fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Jill Mansell

September 11, 2014 by

Source: Gift from Diary of an Eccentric
Paperback, 418 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Jill Mansell is another delightful story of love and life changes, and Mansell’s characters are always flawed human beings in search of better lives.  Dexter Yates takes the cake with his womanizing ways and charmed high-income life, but his sister has faith that he’s just lost and in need of a little guidance.  Soon, Laura will get her wish when Delphi, Dex’s niece, is born and the two become inseparable.  Molly Hayes, a cartoonist, lives in a Cotswolds village, and she’s happily teaching her classes at a local cafe and avoiding her latest ex-boyfriend, who just can’t seem to take no for an answer.  The village was the setting for a hit show Next to You, and her friend Frankie has the perfect marriage and family.

“Dex spent his life being laid-back and supremely confident; it was endearing to see him admit to a weakness.  Laura said encouragingly, ‘You can do it.  Just remember to support her head.  Like this.’

She demonstrated with her own hands and watched from the bed as Dex copied her.  ‘There you go, that’s it.'” (page 4)

Dex decides to buy the Gin Cottage in Molly’s village after she nearly drops a stinky fish on him and his current flavor of the month.  He has no one else to turn to when his sister suddenly dies and he has to make a major life decision in the blink of an eye, but the encouragement from a stranger seems to be all he needs.  Mansell excels at characterization and there is now doubt about her ability to write believable female leads, but in this novel, her lead is male, and she does an equally great job.  Dex is multifaceted and lacks the confidence he needs to fully commit to his decision, and Molly is strong and tries to keep her distance, even as she falls for Delphi.

“Well anyway, good luck to them.  Molly’s stomach tightened as she doodled a quick sketch of Amanda Carr with her geometrically perfect hair, pert nose, and crisp white shirt, always so calm and in control.  They were probably close in age, but Amanda was the proper grown-up.  She had a stethoscope.

With mixed emotions, Molly exaggerated the slightly pointed chin and narrow mouth for witchy effect.  Perhaps it was the grownupness that had attracted Dex’s interest.  Maybe this was what he wanted or needed from a partner in order to stop him endlessly sloping off in search of the next conquest.” (page 236)

Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Jill Mansell is heartwarming, fun, and full of missed cues and lost chances, but its also about second chances and glances and what it means to be a family.  Mansell has hit another one out of the park, which is why she continues to be a favorite women’s fiction author of mine.  You’re always going on a fantastic ride with her and her characters.

About the Author:

Jill Mansell lives with her partner and children in Bristol, and writes full time. Actually that’s not true; she watches TV, eats fruit gums, admires the rugby players training in the sports field behind her house, and spends hours on the internet marvelling at how many other writers have blogs. Only when she’s completely run out of displacement activities does she write.

Other Mansell books reviewed:

Filed Under: chicklit, Publishers/Publicists, purchased, Read in 2014, reviews, sourcebooks Tagged With: ,

The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Caroline Kennedy

September 10, 2014 by

Source: Purchased
Hardcover, 192 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy, her daughter, is a collection of classic poems that the former first lady adored for either their sense of adventure and whimsy or because she felt the passion of the love the poets expressed.  Caroline Kennedy does an excellent job of explaining why the poems meant so much to her mother and how they were selected and categorized, and it was great to see that she carried on the traditions started by her own mother with her own children.  In particular, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis started a tradition of having her children read, write, and recite poems for each holiday and birthday, and the children were encouraged to write the poems down and illustrate them, and those memories were kept in a scrapbook.  Rather than making it seem like work, it became a competition among the children to find the longest poem, the best poem, and to outshine one another when they read them.  I can only imagine what pride that gave their mother.

First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!
Second Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

As with any collection dealing with the Kennedy family, it is no wonder that this poetry collection begins with poems that pay homage to America, and also includes the poem read by Robert Frost at the Kennedy inauguration.  Kennedy said at the dedication of a library named for Robert Frost, “The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, … When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.  For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.” (page 5)  There are points in the collection that will require readers to have more patience as the older poems have more complex language and verses.

The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy is a homage to poetry’s place in the United States, in politics, and in families, but it also provides a portrait of a multifaceted woman who became the darling of a nation and the face of sorrow when her husband was assassinated.  But like most women, she was more than her family, her famous husband, or her stint in the White House.  She was a passionate woman who loved the arts, particularly poetry, and wanted to pass the love of beauty onto her children.  Readers will come to see that she was successful in that endeavor at least and she inspires all mothers to do the same.

About Caroline Kennedy:

Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is an American author and attorney. She is the daughter and only surviving child of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. An older sister, Arabella, died shortly after her birth in 1956. Brother John F. Kennedy, Jr. died in a plane crash in 1999. Another brother, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died two days after his birth in 1963.

Book 22 for the Dive Into Poetry Reading Challenge 2014.

Filed Under: challenges, Dive Into Poetry 2014, poetry, purchased, Read in 2014, reviews Tagged With: , ,

The Vintner’s Daughter by Kristen Harnisch

September 9, 2014 by

Source: Caitlin Hamilton Marketing and She Writes Press
Paperback, 368 pgs
On Amazon and on Kobo

The Vintner’s Daughter by Kristen Harnisch is set in Loire, France, in 1895 on the Thibault vineyards, as a family struggles to revive their grapes after a blight rocked the industry.  Sara has dreams of becoming a vintner like her father, and he has cultivated those dreams, allowing her to work the vines and learn all that she can from Jacques, the foreman.  She keeps a seasonal notebook about each harvest and process for making the wine, but when a blight threatens their harvest once again and the set price for barrels offered by the Lemieux family is too low to pay the vineyard’s debts, her father makes a fateful decision that changes the course of the entire family’s lives.  Harnisch clearly knows wine, vineyards, and the trade itself; her research is in depth and adds layers to her narrative.  Her characters are dynamic and engaging, and readers will be drawn into the Thibault family and cheer for them to triumph over the rival Lemieux family.

“Upon Jacques’s return, Sara wished him adieu and lifted her skirts to trudge through the mud between the vines toward the other end of the field.  There she hunched over to examine one of the vines more closely.  She ran her fingers over the leaves’ withering edges, fearing the worst.  She took her knife from her belt and split the vine’s bark.  With the tip of her blade, she scraped out hundreds of translucent eggs that lined the interior of the vine.  Some had already hatched, producing the dreaded pale yellow insects that were now sucking the vine dry.”  (page 8 ARC)

Fleeing France with her sister, Lydia (who resembles the Lydia of Pride & Prejudice in some ways), Sara finds herself adrift in New York City and reliant on the kindness of a convent and the church.  In their highly regimented life, she learns of the lush land in California and its vineyards, and she finally begins to dream of a way in which she can reclaim her family’s lost fortune.  While she’s making plans, she’s swept up in a different life, assisting a midwife.  As she learns to hold her ground in this more modern world in which women are making their own way, Sara is even more confident that she can right the wrongs done to her family.  When tragedy strikes again, Sara is forced to remain strong and to do what she thinks is best as she runs from the specter of the guillotine.

The Vintner’s Daughter by Kristen Harnisch is a fascinating look at the business of vineyards right around the time of prohibition in the United States and during the suffrage movement for women.  Sara comes into her own in the New World, and she learns what it is she truly has lost when she is pushed back to France by her boss in California.  Harnisch has crafted a emotional journey of a young woman coming into her own in the modern world and learning to forgive and be forgiven.  Stunning debut.

About the Author:

Kristen Harnisch’s ancestors emigrated from Normandy, France, to Canada in the 1600s. She is a descendant of Louis Hebert, who came to New France from Paris with Samuel de Champlain and is considered the first Canadian apothecary. She has a degree in economics from Villanova University and now lives in Connecticut. The Vintner’s Daughter, her debut novel, is the first in a series about the changing world of vineyard life at the turn of the century.

29th book for 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

 

 

 

 

56th book for 2014 New Author Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, ARC, challenges, historical fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2014, reviews Tagged With: , ,

A Hero for the People by Arthur Powers

September 8, 2014 by

Source: Author and Book Junkie Promotions
Paperback, 190 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

A Hero for the People by Arthur Powers is a quiet collection of short stories about the Brazilian backlands that examine faith and perseverance among people who were downtrodden and beaten down by their richer brethren off and on between 1964 and the early 1990s.  In this crucible, men and women are either made stronger or they are broken by the land, the people, and the government.  Powers uses sparse language and thrusts the reader in the middle of situations, but there is enough background given so that the reader understand each character’s position in the towns they visit — from the Brother sent to help an older priest live out his final years before the parish is closed and finds himself becoming a people’s hero to the young wife and mother who dreams of escaping her life as a wife for a passionate love affair.

“She turned and walked inside.  She would miss this house.  The house where she had grown up had been made of wattle — mud and sticks — plastered over in parts where the plaster hadn’t worn through.  Its floor had been dirt, pressed hard enough so that you could sweep it almost clean, but turning muddy when rain leaked through the old tile roof.  In this house, when water leaked through the tiles in the hard rains, it could be swept off the floor.  And here there was a pump in the kitchen; she didn’t have to walk to the river for water.”  (from “The Moving”, page 96)

While Powers begins his collection with a note about the political and social environment during the time in which these stories are set; it is hardly necessary because it is clear that those factors influenced the lives of his characters.  At the heart of these stories are families trying to make their way in the world and keep what little they have, but there are the missionaries who come from the outside world to help them and there are the wealthy landowners and their gangs who try to take it all.  Powers’ style is reminiscent of the stories told by the fire before televisions were prevalent in homes, and these stories will transport readers outside of their own lives into the lives of these Brazilian farmers and ranchers.  As they struggle, readers will feel the tension grown, and when they fall, they will cheer them onward.

A Hero for the People by Arthur Powers is a powerful look at a less affluent society that is no less worthy of prosperity and happiness than the next.  Hearts will break, families will falter, but in the end faith and love hold them together through the toughest parts of their lives.  Powers has crafted harrowing stories that dig at the root of all human societies when they are beginning anew.

About the Author:

Arthur Powers went to Brazil in 1969 and lived most his adult life there. From 1985 to 1997, he and his wife served with the Franciscan Friars in the Amazon, doing pastoral work and organizing subsistence farmers and rural workers’ unions in a region of violent land conflicts. The Powers currently live in Raleigh North Carolina.

Arthur received a Fellowship in Fiction from the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, three annual awards for short fiction from the Catholic Press Association, and 2nd place in the 2008 Tom Howard Fiction Contest. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in many magazines & anthologies. He is the author of A Hero For The People: Stories From The Brazilian Backlands (Press 53, 2013) and The Book of Jotham (Tuscany Press, 2013).

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

heroforpeople

 

 

 

55th book for 2014 New Author Reading Challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

28th book for 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, challenges, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews, short stories Tagged With: , , ,

Twelve Dancing Unicorns by Alissa Heyman

September 4, 2014 by

Source: Sterling Children’s Books
Hardcover, 32 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Twelve Dancing Unicorns by Alissa Heyman, illustrated by Justin Gerard, is gorgeously illustrated. Like paintings that leap off the page by some magical power, these unicorns will dance into the hearts and dreams of any little girl.  Heyman adapts her fairytale from Grimm’s “Twelve Dancing Princesses,” and here the little girl loves the unicorns so much that she is willing to help them in any way she can.  When the King says that he will grant any wish to the person who finds out how the chains are broken each night by the unicorns in his corral, she is determined to do just that.  While there are few obstacles in the girl’s way and the text can be in huge paragraphs for little kids, Heyman does a great job of showing the girl’s determination and love for the unicorns in a few pages.

The illustrations are fantastic; it’s like stepping into another world, but the unicorns look as if they could be real animals.  The book is clearly for older learning readers probably ages 6+, as some of the words will require assistance from parents and older readers and the paragraphs are longer than in other picture books.  While the story has little that’s new to offer and is not in the poetry-like prose my daughter enjoys most, the story will seem new to younger readers and engage them with its fantastic world popping off the pages.  Twelve Dancing Unicorns by Alissa Heyman, illustrated by Justin Gerard, is visually stunning and shows that young girls can not only solve problems but achieve their goals, no matter how overwhelming they may seem.

Follow the Twelve Dancing Unicorns blog tour tomorrow on Kindred Spirit Mommy.

About the Author:

Alissa Heyman is a freelance writer who edited The Best Poems of the English Language (Mud Puddle Books). Her poems have appeared in the St. Petersburg Review, Lyric, and Quarto, and she has adapted The Big Book of… series for Sterling Publishing, which includes The Big Book of Horror, The Big Book of Fairies, and The Big Book of Pirates. Alissa lives in New York City where she also curates the Perfect Sense poetry reading series at the Cornelia Street Café.

About the Illustrator:

Justin Gerard has done illustration for DreamWorks, Warner Brothers, Disney, HarperCollins, Penguin, Little, Brown, and others. The Society of Illustrators featured his illustration “Beowulf and Grendel” in the 50th Annual of American Illustration, from his IPPY Award-winning book, Beowulf, Book I: Grendel the Ghastly. Justin lives in Greenville, SC.

54th book for 2014 New Author Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: challenges, children's fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Stella Bain by Anita Shreve

September 3, 2014 by

Source: Gift from Anna
Hardcover, 272 pgs
On Amazon and on Kobo

Stella Bain by Anita Shreve, which was the War Through the Generations August read-a-long book, is set during WWI.  When the novel opens, a woman who has been wounded finds herself in a field hospital in Marne, France, in 1916.  She was found in the uniform of a British nurse’s aide, but has an American accent and cannot remember her own name.  As she grapples with her lost memory and identity, she plucks Stella Bain from her mind and begins to call herself such, even though she knows it may not be her real name.  Stella continues to work alongside the French women near the front and eventually volunteers as an ambulance driver.  Her jumbled mind takes a back seat to her duties at the front, but eventually, she feels drawn to England and the Admiralty, though she’s not sure what she’ll find there or if she will uncover anything about who she was.

“‘No.  Nothing is normal.  How can it be? I don’t yet know who I am.  I may discover, when I know my identity, that I’m not a good person at all.  I fear that I’m not.  I seek my identity, and yet I’m afraid of it.  But I’m more afraid of never knowing.'” (page 75)

Stella learns her true identity, and her true name is a near-anagram of the one she had chosen for herself.  When she learns of her identity and all that she frantically left behind in the United States, she must make passage home.  While Dr. Bridge and his wife, Lily, helped her to be calm and recover her name and identity, they are left behind in England without so much as a goodbye from her.  However, she never forgets their kindness and through letters, readers are given insight into her gratitude.  Shreve’s prose in this novel is distant.  While we see Stella’s point of view, readers are still distanced from her, which could be intentional given the absence of her memories and true identity.  In many ways, as the mystery unravels and readers learn more about the woman without a name, she becomes an everywoman for those women leaving during the early 1900s — caged in by marriage and family, but yet yearning for something outside of their home and legally allowed to own their own property.

Stella Bain by Anita Shreve is not just about a woman with shell shock or a lost memory, but a woman in an era where the modern world was just beginning to take shape.  A world in which women were fighting for independence from their families and husbands, to live lives as they wished to without seeking permission or approval.  Overall, while the ending could leave some readers wanting more, the novel would make for an excellent book club discussion.

About the Author:

Anita Shreve is an American writer. The daughter of an airline pilot and a homemaker, she graduated from Dedham High School in Massachusetts, attended Tufts University and began writing while working as a high school teacher in Reading, MA.

Interested in the read-a-long discussions at War Through the Generations, go here; though there will be spoilers.

17th book for 2014 European Reading Challenge; (Set in France, England)

 

 

27th book for 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

 

 

22nd book (WWI) for the 2014 War Challenge With a Twist.

Filed Under: 2014 European Reading Challenge, 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, 2014 War Challenge With a Twist, challenges, Hachette Books, historical fiction, Publishers/Publicists, purchased, Read in 2014, reviews Tagged With: , ,

The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

September 2, 2014 by

Source: Harper
Hardcover, 336 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar is told from two points of view; in Lakshmi Patil’s broken English we see all sides of her marriage to a man she doesn’t love in a country that is unfamiliar and in her Africa-American therapist Maggie Bose’s voice readers are exposed to the cultural dissonance that occurs between multicultural couples and friends.  Stories take on a life of their own in Umrigar’s latest novel, and it is the weaving and unweaving of these stories that brings to the forefront the struggles Americans continue to have with those from other countries.  There is a lack of understanding for cultural norms and often judgments that come with that lack of understanding.  In Lakshmi’s hour-long therapy sessions, Maggie see the differences and similarities between them come alive, but cultural dissonance is not just one-sided here.  Lakshmi also struggles to understand her therapist’s choices when it comes to her marriage to Sudhir and own happiness.

“He turns around and his face look surprise as I rush toward him like the Rajdhani Express.  He take a steps back, as if he thinking I will run into him, like train derailment.  But I stops just in front of him and now my mouth feels dry and no wordings are coming to my mind.”  (page 7 ARC)

Maggie’s life was far from perfect before she met her husband, and while at college, surrounded by similarly minded people, she felt at home and respected.  But when she ventured outside of the campus, it was clear that others perceived her based on appearance or their own cultural experiences.  While these are the experiences that shaped her, she continued her schooling to become a therapist, one so well liked by her colleagues that they often referred to her the most difficult of cases.  But her school and work experiences are not all of her, and there are secrets that she hasn’t even told her husband about, at least not completely.  She has created a narrative that she is comfortable with, even though she knows that it is not the truth of her.  Lakshmi also lives a life clouded by lies, but her lies are to those outside her marriage and to herself.  She must also learn to move beyond the story she has created for herself and others to get at the truth of her being.

Through these ladies’ points of view, questions of identity, culture, and isolation are explored, and ultimately, these characters need to learn to break down the barriers between themselves and others if they wish to find happiness and freedom.  The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar is seductive in its multilayered approach, leading readers to be sucked into the isolated life of Lakshmi and the idyllic American life of Maggie, only to discover that assumptions and first impressions are not the truth.  We create our own stories for ourselves and for others, but it is only when we tell the truth of who we are that we can be set free from perception and judgment.

About the Author:

Thrity Umrigar is the author of three other novels—The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, and Bombay Time—and the memoir First Darling of the Morning. A journalist for 17 years, she is the winner of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University and a 2006 finalist for the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. An associate professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, Umrigar lives in Cleveland.  Please visit her Website.

Other reviews of this author’s books:

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