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Heidegger’s Glasses by Thaisa Frank

November 23, 2010 by

Thaisa Frank’s WWII novel, Heidegger’s Glasses, combines philosophy, mystery, war, and more, woven with crisp, no-nonsense dialogue and just enough detailed description to tantalize the reader to continue the journey.  The story centers on Operation Mail, Briefaktion, a Nazi program to entice Jews to volunteer for relocation by sending letters from their taken relatives.  The letters are actually written by a group of Scribes pulled from the lines of people being relocated, who have special language skills.  A special set of orders, possibly from Goebbels, are sent to the Compound for a philosopher to answer Heidigger‘s letter to his Jewish optometrist Asher Englehardt, who was sent to Auschwitz and is probably dead.

“Hans Ewigkeit had originally planned to line the mine with thick brick walls.  But even before losing Stalingrad, the Reich was pinched for money.  So instead of brick walls, the Compound had thin pine walls covered with a single layer of plaster.  Workers had added five coats of paint.  But the Compound was a flimsy shell:  Scribes put their hands on their ears when they wanted to think.  Mueller had worn earmuffs.”  (page 81)

Enter Elie Schacten, a woman with two lives and names.  She writes some of the letters, but most importantly has permission to be outside after curfew and uses that to her advantage to save those she can from the oppressive Nazi regime.  She is caught between her lies and the ambitious Stumpf who considers himself in charge of the Compound as well as her affection for Lodenstein, the leader of the Compound.  Will the orders to write a response to Hiedigger’s letter expose the Compound for its lackadaisical work and Elie’s operations to rescue Jews, or will the orders be another means of saving helpless souls?

“Light snow began to fall — swirls of white on grey.  The streets widened, narrowed, widened again, expanding and contracting, as though they were breathing.  Nothing felt quite real to Elie — not the sky, or the air, or a coffeehouse where customers drank from incongruously large cups of ersatz coffee.  People hurried by, surrounded by pale grey air — the only thing that seemed to hold them together.  Elie passed a muddy street with a chain-link fence followed by a row of prosperous houses.  The town was breaking up, and she felt she was breaking up with it.  It began to snow thickly, surrounding everyone in white.  We’re bound by veils, Elie thought, fragile accidents of cohesion.” (page 95)

Heidigger’s Glasses is more than a philosophical journey, it takes a look at how the ordinary can become extraordinary.  Each object can have a hidden meaning or take on the life of a memory that will have to serve as a lifeline in the most dire of moments.  Like Hiedigger’s glasses help the philosopher “fall out of the world,” each character must find that moment in time when they fall out of the reality they fear and into the reality that they create.  Frank has taken the time to weave a complex story during a tumultuous time in history, and her novel accomplishes that goal and more.  Her characterizations are unique and dynamic, and the plot is unraveled slowly by the reader who takes an unexpected journey to discover the mettle of even the most ordinary individual.

About the Author:

Photo by Chris Hardy; www.chrishardyphoto.com

Thaisa Frank has written three books of fiction, including A Brief History of Camouflage and Sleeping in Velvet (both with Black Sparrow Press, now acquired by David Godine). She has co-authored a work of nonfiction, Finding Your Writers Voice: A Guide to Creative Fiction, which is used in MFA programs.  Her forthcoming novel, Heidegger’s Glasses, is coming out this fall with Counterpoint Press.  Foreign rights have already been sold to ten countries.

***Thanks to the author, TLC Book Tours, and Counterpoint for sending me a review copy. ***

Please check out the other stops on the tour.

Giveaway information:  1 Copy for 1 lucky reader in the U.S. or Canada

1.  Leave a comment about what historical period you love to read about most.

2.  Blog, Tweet, Facebook, etc., for a second entry and leave a link in the comments.

Deadline Dec. 3, 2010, 11:59PM EST.

This is my 57th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: giveaway, historical fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2010, review copy, reviews, tlc book tours Tagged With: ,

Tipping Point by Fred Marchant

November 19, 2010 by

Tipping Point by Fred Marchant is a collection of poetry broken down into five parts and published by Word Works after winning the 1993 Washington Prize.  Readers may wonder what a former Marine Corps Lieutenant and one of the first honorably discharged conscientious objectors would have to say about the Vietnam War, especially having only served two years.  This collection is a journey through the memories of childhood, adulthood, and military service, and beyond.

From Vietnam Era:

“. . . The papers
+++++ you heaved you imagined
grenades, and that the porches they
+++++ landed on the burst into flame,” (page 21)

Hard slaps and punches to his mother’s face from his father, feeling outcast in school being overweight, and a number of other adolescent anxieties scream from the pages.  But the most poignant lines of loss and anguish and even anger occur in his poems of the Vietnam War.  However, many of these poems are about inner turmoil and dealing with that struggle on a daily basis.

From Elephants Walking:

“On the news there was the familiar footage:
+++++ a Phantom run
ending in a hypnotic burst of lit yellow napalm.
+++++ I knew the war
was wrong, but that was why, I claimed, I should go,
+++++ to sing the song
of high lament, to get it into the books.”  (page 28)

From Tipping Point:

“and trousers which were not
+++++ supposed to rip, but breathe,
+++++++++++ and breathe they do — not so much
of death — but rather the long
++++++ living with it, sleeping in it,
+++++++++++ not ever washing your body free of it.”  (page 35-6)

Whether Marchant is discussing family history, struggles with illness, or his service in the Vietnam War, images leap off the page, billowing the smells of sweat into readers noses and making them squirm in discomfort. It is this discomfort the poet wishes for readers to feel as the narrators struggle with their own moral discomfort and struggle to come to terms with their decisions and situations beyond their control. Overall, Tipping Point by Fred Marchant reveals the dilemmas each of us deals with regarding personal, social, and political events, but it also teaches that individuals have a “tipping point” when principles must be take precedence or be set aside.

© Leslie Bowen

About the Author:

Fred Marchant is the author of Tipping Point, which won the Washington Prize in poetry. He is a professor of English and the director of creative writing at Suffolk University in Boston, and he is a teaching affiliate of the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

This is my 14th book for the Clover Bee & Reverie Poetry Challenge.

This is my 12th book for the 2010 Vietnam War Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: 2010 Clover Bee and Reverie Poetry Challenge, poetry, purchased, Read in 2010, reviews, Vietnam War Challenge 2010 Tagged With: ,

Fatal Light by Richard Currey

November 16, 2010 by

Richard Currey‘s Fatal Light is an unusual novel in which an unnamed narrator provides readers with an inside view of what it is like to be a draftee before, during, and after the war.  Beyond the bullets, the Viet Cong, the mines, and the brutality of war, soldiers had to navigate a culture they didn’t understand, malaria, injury, and unexpected relationships.  The prose is sparse and the chapters are small, but each line, each chapter can knock readers over or back into their seats after putting them on the edge.

The unnamed narrator’s family is dispersed between West Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio, and the tranquility of the Ohio River and its surrounding landscape acts as the backdrop for the later contrasts of Vietnam’s jungles and the war.

“The festival queen and her court rode into view on a float garlanded with tissue flowers, gliding across the horizon of Main Street like a mirage, small-town madonnas sliding past waving their downy arms dreamily, their eyes the eyes of soft animals turned heavenward from thrones of blossoms and crepe, their faces all a magnificent promise, the romance at the end of the world passing so slowly in those long moments of perfect quiet, like the air over the river, the light and stillness inside the world at daybreak, like a held breath.”  (page 12)

There is a deep sadness in Currey’s prose as the narrator spirals further into the darkness of the jungle and of his memories as he recovers from injury and malaria.  But beyond the sadness and memory, the soldier lives on in grief, denial, and anger.  His anger rises at the military establishment, but his connection to his grandfather and those war stories still grounds him in reality.

“Mist filtered, smoke and constant drip. In the distance, the hoarse choke of approaching helicopters.

‘Choppers coming,’ I said. ‘We’re on the way.’

‘Gonna bleed the rest of my life,’ he hissed. ‘Gonna be coming right out of my bones all the rest of my life. You hear what I’m saying?’

I looked at him and the sound of the helicopters grew closer. ‘I hear what you’re saying,’ I whispered.” (page 80)

Unlike other war novels, Fatal Light is less graphic in describing wounds, battle, and recovery but the emotional connection between the narrator’s feelings and the readers are intertwined as they are drawn into each immediate, vivid observation.  While the observations are descriptive, they are not journalistic or clinical.  Currey’s prose is captivating, but realistic and gritty.  Overall, Currey’s slim novel is a memorable, twisted tale of a Vietnam soldier.

***If you missed my earlier recap of Currey’s reading in Bethesda, Md., check it out.  I purchased my copy of the book at the reading.***

Photo by Vivian Ronay

About the Author:

Richard Currey was born in West Virginia in 1949, was raised there and in Ohio, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Canada. Drafted in 1968, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was detached to the Marine Corps, trained as a combat medic, and assigned to various infantry and reconnaissance units. He began publishing poetry after his discharge in 1972, and he drew upon his military experiences in Crossing Over: The Vietnam Stories. His first novel, Fatal Light, became an international bestseller published in 11 languages. Fatal Light received the Special Citation of the Hemingway Foundation as well as the Vietnam Veterans of America’s Excellence in the Arts Award. Currey’s second novel, Lost Highway, looks at the impact of the Vietnam War on an American family and was called “a rich, incisive American fable” by the Boston Globe. Currey’s short stories have received O. Henry and Pushcart Prizes and have been widely anthologized. A former military book reviewer for Newsday, he is now a contributing editor for The Veteran. A recipient of National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in both poetry and fiction, Currey has also received the D. H. Lawrence Fellowship in Literature and the State of West Virginia’s Daugherty Award in the Humanities.

This is my 11th book for the 2010 Vietnam War Reading Challenge.


This is my 56th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.


I hope you enjoyed this latest Literary Road Trip with Washington, D.C., author Richard Currey.

Filed Under: historical fiction, New Authors Challenge, purchased, Read in 2010, reviews, The Literary Road Trip, Vietnam War Challenge 2010 Tagged With: ,

Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye

November 12, 2010 by

Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye is steeped in rough seas, relationships, and a break in the weather.  From water imagery to isolated wilderness, Geye takes readers on a descriptive and detailed journey of Noah and Olaf Torr’s strained father-son relationship and the past that comes between them.  Set in the northern regions of Minnesota near Lake Superior, Noah must confront his father when time is running out.  While there is doubt about whether his father is truly ill and dying, Noah drops everything in Boston, including his wife Natalie and their fertility issues, to come to his father’s aid.

“He took off his jeans and shirt, his socks and drawers, and stood naked at the end of the dock.  Instantly the sweat that only a few minutes earlier had been dripping from him dried — seemed almost to encase him — as the wind curled around him.  . . .  From the instant he went under he could feel the water seizing him.  Although he’d been anticipating something like it, he could never have expected the grip of the water.  If he hadn’t kicked and pulled for the surface the instant he was submerged he might have ended up sunk.”  (page 134)

Coming back to town brings back all the feelings of abandonment he felt as a child when his father worked on the Great Lakes with the shipping companies.  Readers will be absorbed in the descriptive detail, leaving their living rooms and subway cars and entering the wooded forest near Olaf’s cabin.  The wintry wind will whip through their collars, forcing them to wrap scarves around their necks and feeling the ice freeze on their skin as Noah takes a bath in the lake.

For a first novel, Safe From the Sea has very few flaws with only the relationship between Noah and Natalie feeling a bit confused, changing from a semi-adversarial relationship to a loving one once she too arrives in Minnesota.  Complex relationships abound in this novel and mirror the churning lake waters when storms approach, but calmer waters prevail as the family comes to terms with reality and the love they share.

As deep as the 800 feet of Lake Superior that nearly took Olaf’s life when Noah was a boy, Safe From the Sea will pull readers under and churn them in the undercurrent of Noah’s feelings for his father as he learns to forgive the man scarred by the sinking of the ship Ragnarok, the loss of his colleagues, and the inescapable truth that he was powerless against the elements.  Geye creates strong settings, tense relationships between Olaf, his son, and his daughter, and a story that is utterly absorbing from the first page.

***Thanks to Unbridled Books for sending me a copy for review.  Though I should have finished this book ages ago, it was easy to pick the book back up and become absorbed in the story after dealing with the death of my grandfather.***

About the Author:

Peter Geye received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his PHD from Western Michigan University, where he was editor of Third Coast. He was born and raised in Minneapolis and continues to live there with his wife and three children.

If you’d like to win an ARC of Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye, please enter the international giveaway.

1.  Leave a comment about why you would like to read this novel.

2.  Name an Unbridled Book title you’ve read and enjoyed.

3.  Blog, Tweet, Facebook, or spread the word about the giveaway.

Deadline is Nov. 30, 2010, at 11:59 PM EST.

This is my 55th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: fiction, giveaway, New Authors Challenge, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2010, reviews, unbridled books Tagged With: ,

2010 Green Books Campaign: Crazy Love by Pamela Uschuk

November 10, 2010 by

Created by Susan Newman

Welcome to the 2010 Green Books Campaign, sponsored by Eco-Libris!  The campaign is in its second year and aims to promote “green” books being published today. Last year for the first campaign, I read Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abdullah.

Crazy Love by Pamela Uschuk is just one of 200 books you’ll see reviewed or highlighted throughout the day on over 200 blogs.  Those books range from nonfiction and historical to poetry and fiction — and everything in between.  Crazy Love, a collection of poems, is printed with 50 percent recycled fiber.  The publisher, Wings Press, says, “Wings Press is committed to treating the planet itself as a partner.  Thus the press uses as much recycled material as possible, from the paper on which the books are printed to the boxes in which they are shipped.”

Pamela Uschuk uses melodious language in Crazy Love to drawn in her readers, sucking them into the depths of each poem and churning them in a tumbler.  The collection is broken down into four sections and each appears to deal with a different aspect of love whether it’s the passion of “Crazy Love” or the eternal connection of love in “Hit and Run.”

From “The Horseman of the Cross and Vulnerable Word:” (page 3)

I was young and fell in love
with your wounds, your tongue,
half-song, half-glands,
strong as the Calvinist hands
that whacked and fed your swampy youth.
I was young and drank vermouth
while you fell to your knees

Beautifully, Uschuk demonstrates human love through bird and nature imagery, but she also draws parallels between the destructive nature of grasshoppers on crops to that of humans on the overall environment.  There is a light and dark side to love and when love is too intense it can be destructive.

Feeling the Kitchen (page 25)

Talk about exfoliation.  This archaeology will
take weeks.  First comes the ripping, then
total destruction.
+++++++ Wrenching out
nails with screeching crow bars,
we pry huge sheets of cheap paneling
from the old walls to reveal
the smoky history of paint, and under
+++++++ that, a century of wallpapers shed
like snake skins embossing rough sandstone.

Who chose the bottom pattern tattooed
with blue and red flowers or the pink sky
spackled with gold stars, tiny and multitudinous as fleas?
Beneath everything, the harsh ash-smeared
plaster is the logic that holds.

Like an argument that spirals out of control,
my husband and I cannot stop tearing.
+++++++++++ The white celotex ceiling
we’ve despised for years must go, so
with our bare fingers, we yank it
crashing, with its load of coal soot, onto our heads.

When the ceiling lies at our feet, what is there
but more dingy ochre paint, stars
blurred dusty as the distant Pleiades, a silver filigree
some wife may have chosen to mimic moonlight
bathing her spinning head while she sweated
over meals and dishes, waddled with her pregnant belly
between woodstove and table, where
her silver miner sat to slurp her rich soup.

Day after day, I mount the rickety ladder
to avoid my computer, where I should compose
poems that shake their fists at stars or hold
the fevered heads of children in distant warring lands.

It is comforting this peeling back,
the scraper prying up paint chips
the size of communion wafers
while I balance on precarious steps abrading,
the motion repetitive as prayer.

Where all the sweet conformity of yellow
+++++++ once soothed our kitchen, strange maps
of foreign planets bloom, a diasphora of galaxies
blasted into the variegated watershed of hearts
we can never really know.

Perhaps, this simple work is poetry, to strip
chaotic layers revealing the buried patterns
of our stories, charting
love’s labyrinth, the way betrayal,
faith and fear spin us
in their webs, awful and light.

In this poem, Uschuk reminds us of the gems beneath the surface, like those that hover beneath the surface of words and phrases in stories and poems. The editing process fine tunes and refines the lines to reveal those underlying truths. Many of the poems read like folklore and myths from Native American stories. Overall, Crazy Love by Pamela Uschuk is a collection of poems that explores love and human connection and reminds us that we need to reconnect with nature and the planet, as well as one another.

About the Author:

Pamela Uschuk’s work has appeared in over 200 journals and antholgies worldwide, including Poetry, Parnassus Review, Ploughshares, Nimrod, Agni Review, Calyx, and others. Her work has been translated into nearly a dozen languages, including Spanish, Russian, Czech, Swedish, Albanian, and Korean.

Her Wings Press titles include Finding Peaches in the Desert (book and CD), (out of print), Scattered Risks and , which won the American Book Award (Sept. 2010).

Among her other awards are the Dorothy Daniels Writing Award from the National League of American PEN Women, the Struga International Poetry Prize, and the ASCENT, IRIS and King’s English prizes.

Uschuk also writes and publishes nonfiction articles and has been a regular contributor to journals such as PARABOLA and INSIDE/OUTSIDE. In 2005 she gave up her position as Director of the Salem College Center for Women Writers in North Carolina to become Editor In Chief of Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts and to conduct poetry workshops at the University of Arizona Poetry Center. In 2006, Uschuk was a featured writer at the Prague Summer Writers Workshops, the Meacham Writers Conference and the Southwest Writers Institute. She makes her home in Tucson, Arizona, and outside of Bayfield, Colorado, with her husband, poet William Root.

To check out the rest of the Green Books, please visit the campaign Web site beginning at 1 p.m. EST. I’m a rebel, what can I say!

This is my 54th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.

This is my 13th book for the Clover Bee & Reverie Poetry Challenge.

Filed Under: 2010 Clover Bee and Reverie Poetry Challenge, Green Books Campaign, New Authors Challenge, poetry, Read in 2010, review copy Tagged With: ,

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

November 9, 2010 by

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is a young adult novel for ages 9-12 or ages 12 and older depending upon maturity.  It touches upon the role and racism encountered by young African-American draftees and volunteers in the Vietnam War.  The coming-of-age novel was banned by certain school districts for its use of profanity, violence, sexual language, and vulgarity, and continually challenged by parents and teachers for the last decade.  Myers pulls no punches in this young adult novel, painting a picture of war as teens drafted in the 1960s would have experienced it and been impacted by it.

Harlem, New York’s Richie Perry volunteers to join the army at age 17 after he realizes its the best option to provide for his alcoholic mother and younger brother and that college is a dream that is too far out of reach since his father abandoned them.  He joins Alpha Company once in Vietnam and meets a cast of characters from a soldier who preaches faith to Peewee who acts as tough as he does on the Chicago streets and sees racism in every comment.

“Hot.  Muggy.  Bright, Muggy.  That was the airport at Tan Son Nhut.  We deplaned, followed Lieutenant Wilson across the field into an area in front of some Quonset huts, and started forming ranks.  It took a while.  The sergeant with the clipboard came along and tried to encourage us as best he could.

‘You faggots can’t even line up straight, how you gonna fight?’ he shouted.” (page 7)

Perry thinks a lot about what to write to his mother and his brother, Kenny, and he details every moment of his time in Vietnam as if he’s keeping a journal.  His relationship with Peewee continues to grow even though their outlooks on getting back to the World differ and their reactions to tragic events are opposite.  Death touches these men in many ways, but mostly they try to forget despite the visions that flit in front of their minds out in the field as they fight the Viet Cong.

“‘How about people in the hamlet?’ Brew asked.

‘We got to show them that we can be peaceful if they peaceful with us, or we can mess them up,’ Sergeant Simpson said.

‘Pacify them to death!’ Peewee said.”  (page 120)

Fallen Angels tackles very adult themes, but from the point of view of young teenagers thrown into a war they do not understand, are unable to describe to their loved ones, and have a hard time dealing with on a day-to-day basis.  How do you define courage? Can killing the enemy and seeing fellow soldiers die be forgotten and should they?  From the spider holes used by the Viet Cong in their guerrilla warfare against the Americans to the miscommunications and changed orders for each unit, Fallen Angels provides an inside look at this confusing war, and sheds light on how inexperienced soldiers react when facing death and superiors they do not understand.  Walter Dean Myers tackles not only morality, but also racism, courage, forgiveness, and finding oneself amidst terrifying circumstances.  The anniversary edition includes information about the author and some book club discussion questions with answers from the author.

About the Author:

Walter Dean Myers is a writer of children’s and young adult literature. Walter Dean Myers was born in West Virginia in 1937 but spent most of his childhood and young adult life in Harlem. He was raised by foster parents and remembers a happy but tumultuous life while going through his own teen years. Suffering with a speech impediment, he cultivated a habit of writing poetry and short stories and acquired an early love of reading.


This is my 53rd book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.


This is my 10th book for the 2010 Vietnam War Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: historical fiction, New Authors Challenge, Publishers/Publicists, purchased, Read in 2010, reviews, Scholastic, Vietnam War Challenge 2010, young adult fiction Tagged With: ,

Mr. Darcy Takes the Plunge by J. Marie Croft

November 2, 2010 by

J. Marie Croft’s Mr. Darcy Takes the Plunge is filled with alliteration, puns, and word play, which can take away from the unique story she’s attempting to tell.  While plays on words and puns can be amusing, there are entire paragraphs and sections of alliteration that take away from the pace of the novel, such as one scene between Darcy and Lizzy viewing an art exhibit.

“Elizabeth was preoccupied with attempting to espy a certain gentleman and said, ‘Yes, but fashion is something that goes in one era and out the other.'” (page 141 of ARC)

Rather than have Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy meet at a ball in Hertfordshire, they meet at the Pemberley estate when her aunt brings her to visit an old friend Mrs. Reynolds, the Darcy’s housekeeper.  Jane meets Bingley and Colonel Fitzwilliam, and there is a new man on the scene for Georgiana — Ellis Fleming.  How they meet is unconventional to say the least and a bit embarrassing for each of the men, though it does raise the sexual tension beyond the norm of other Pride & Prejudice spinoffs or retelllings.

“‘Jane, why does it feel like the most beautiful woman in the world is in my arms?’  Good God Almighty, please, please tell me I did not just repeat that inanity aloud.

‘You are not allowed to address me in such a familiar manner, sir.  You are far too forward.  Are you, perchance, a trifle disguised, Colonel?’

‘I am not drunk, dear lady, just intoxicated by you.’  He winced slightly.  Oh God, I am a Colonel of corn!”  (page 165 of ARC)

Croft’s inspiration is clearly the 1995 BBC movie version with its infamous lake scene, but it’s twisted to display a sillier side of Austen’s characters.  However, what is most captivating about this version of the story is that the Bennet household is not as lowly or poor as it was in the original, and there is an heir to their estate.  The obstacles to Darcy and Elizabeth are not wealth and position, but misunderstandings, other suitors, and the hurdles most relationships have.

Readers that dislike puns, extensive alliteration, and wordplay on a nearly constant basis should avoid reading Mr. Darcy Takes the Plunge.  Rather than confine the puns to Mr. Bennet where they could be considered a part of his personality and occasionally allowing Lizzy to use them since she is most like him, Croft drags the trait into even the upper echelons of society with the Darcys.  Taken all at once, the wordplay also can take away from the story Croft is telling, and the introductions to each part of the novel still incite head scratching.  Unfortunately, the puns and world play seem overdone and detract from the more creative aspects of the novel.  However, if unique takes on Jane Austen’s characters and alternative story lines are welcome, even when liberties are taken with the characters, Croft’s novel is for you.

About the Author: (from Rhemalda Publishing)

J. Marie Croft, a Nova Scotia resident and avid reader all her life, discovered Jane Austen’s works later than others but made up for lost time by devouring the six novels and as many adaptations and sequels as she could find. In the midst of reading prodigious amounts of Austen-based fan-fiction, she realized, “Hey, I can do that.” In her spare time, when not working at a music school or on a wooded trail enjoying her geocaching hobby, she listens to the voices in her head and captures their thoughts and words in writing. Her stories are light-hearted; and her motto is Miss Austen’s own quote, “Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.”

J. Marie Croft is a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (Canada) and admits to being “excessively attentive” to the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.

This is my 10th book for the Jane Austen Challenge 2010.

This is my 6th book for the Everything Austen II Challenge.

This is my 52nd book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: ARC, challenges, everything austen challenge, fiction, Jane Austen Challenge 2010, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2010, reviews Tagged With: ,

Playing Basketball With the Viet Cong by Kevin Bowen

October 29, 2010 by

Kevin Bowen‘s Playing Basketball With the Viet Cong is his first collection of poems and they focus on his memories of the Vietnam War.  Although there are moments of brutality and horrifying images, many of these poems intend to infuse the enemy with humanity — whether that enemy is a U.S. soldier or a member of the Viet Cong.  In a way these poems diverge from other war veterans’ writings in that rather than attempt to sort through mere emotional trauma, Bowen seeks to draw parallels between two nations that were once at war with one another and highlight their similarities in a way that will generate peace and forgiveness.

From “Willie, Dancing” (page 27):

When we moved south
we found comfort
nights at base in new dug bunkers,
the womb hum of generators,
artillery thud and mortars
marking time.  And whiskey,

Bowen’s lines are sparse, but use each word to its fullest potential to provide a sensory overload, much like the one he may have experienced in Vietnam himself.  Readers will hear the bombs hit the ground and feel the anxiety of the soldiers as each poem unfolds.  How did these soldiers ever “feel at home” in the jungles surrounded by the enemy?  Did they live in constant fear as the adrenaline pumped through their veins?

Poetry often tries to convey more than the lines state on the surface.  Bowen often blurs the lines of his memories with reality and myths from Vietnamese lore.  But always there is a connection made between enemies through their humanity.  For example, the lines of “Missing:” (page 34-5)

I was there that day, felt the tug,
looked down and saw my own face
looking up to me from the paddy,
searching the sky where already you’d disappeared.

Everything, even in war is connected and on some level the soldiers killing the Viet Cong were in a way killing themselves — little by little.  Not all of Bowen’s poems are from a soldier’s perspective, with poems narrated by a female voice, perhaps a wife, dealing with the far off glances, the silence, and the nightmares her lover experiences.  Readers will enjoy the wide variety in Playing Basketball With the Viet Cong, which strives to pull to the forefront the humanity in everyone and find a common ground from which each side can begin anew.

Incoming (page 22)

Don’t let them kid you–
The mind no fool like the movies,
doesn’t wait for flash or screech,
but moves of its own accord,
even hears the slight
bump the mortars make
as they kiss the tubes good-bye.
Then the furious rain,
a fist driving home a message:
“Boy, you don’t belong here.”
On good nights they walk them in.
You wait for them to fall,
stomach pinned so tight to ground
you might feel a woman’s foot
pace a kitchen floor in Brownsville;
the hushed fall of a man lost
in a corn field in Michigan;
a young girl’s finger trace
a lover’s name on a beach along Cape Cod.
But then the air is sucked
straight up off the jungle
floor and the entire weight
of Jupiter and her moons
presses down on the back of a knee.
In a moment, it’s over.
But it takes a lifetime to recover,
let out the last breath
you took as you dove.
This is why you’ll see them sometimes,
in malls, men and women off in corners:
the ways they stare through the windows in silence.

About the Poet:

Kevin Bowen was drafted at age 21 and served in the 1st Air Cavalry Division in the Quang Tri Province near the DMZ (demilitarized zone) and the Tay Ninh Province in Vietnam from 1968-1969. He is a 1973 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Boston. A former Danforth Fellow and Fulbright Fellow at New College, Oxford, he earned his Ph.D. in English Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He worked as an aide and speechwriter for Lt. Governor Thomas P. O’Neill, III prior to becoming director of the Veterans’ Upward Bound Program at Umass Boston in 1984 . He was appointed co-director of the Joiner Center in 1984.

Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong, his first collection of poetry, was published by Curbstone Press in 1994. His poems have appeared in Agni, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Ploughshares Press, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, Witness and other places.

This is my 9th book for the 2010 Vietnam War Reading Challenge.

This is my 12th book for the Clover Bee & Reverie Poetry Challenge.

Filed Under: 2010 Clover Bee and Reverie Poetry Challenge, challenges, poetry, purchased, Read in 2010, reviews, Vietnam War Challenge 2010 Tagged With: ,

ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes, Year 2

October 28, 2010 by

Susan Helene Gottfried‘s ShapeShifter:  The Demo Tapes, Year 2 is another volume of outtakes, short stories, and character sketches related to her newly published novel, Trevor’s Song.  The band ShapeShifter is like a wheel with its center, Trevor and Mitchell, and the spokes around that wheel.  Once these guys are on the road, look out because it’s a wild ride.

What readers will enjoy most about this second slim volume is the camaraderie between the characters, the outbursts they have, and the seemingly mundane yet fun conversations they have.  For example, there’s a conversation between Mitchell and Trevor before they make it big as rock stars about why Mitchell should get an earring — sounds like a typical teenage disagreement/peer pressure situation.

“‘No one’s gonna think I’m gay,’ Precious Boy said.  ‘That’s not the problem.’

‘Yeah, and I’m already a fucking rock star.’  Trevor eyed Mitchell, convinced he knew what the guy was about to whine:  It’ll hurt, Trev.

‘Dad,’ Mitchell said instead.  Without whining; in fact, he was pretty damned convinced.  ‘He meant it when he said he’d kick me out of the house if I do it.’

Trevor smirked.  ‘You’re not going to do it.  I am.’

‘Same thing, as far as Dad cares.’

Trevor sighed as loudly as he could.  Was Mitchell really this stupid? ‘That’s why you grew your hair out, asshole.’

‘I thought it was to get girls.’

‘Well, since you’re too lame to make that work, maybe this is the reason.'” (page 24 of ARC)

What writers will enjoy about this inside look at the band and its antics are the introductions Gottfried has included about what inspired her to write particular snippets.  When discussing the short outtake “Hands,” she notes, “Sometimes, fiction is like this.  Something springs out of an unidentified source.  It dares you to set it down on a page or screen, to save it in ink or memory cards.”  (page 71)

Readers will thoroughly enjoy getting to know these characters as they prepare to read Trevor’s Song, and most will want to buy the Demo Tapes 1 and 2 before the novel, especially since they get to learn about the characters’ histories with one another and even before they met.  Well done, Susan Helene Gottfried.

***Thanks to the author for sending me a copy of this book for review.***

About the Author: (from Amazon.com)

Susan Helene Gottfried is the author of The Demo Tapes: Year 1, The Demo Tapes: Year 2, and Trevor’s Song, three books (and counting) about the fictional band ShapeShifter.

A tone-deaf rocker at heart, Susan worked in retail record stores, in radio stations, as stage crew, and as a promoter while earning two college degrees in creative writing.

Drop in at Susan’s online world: http://westofmars.com and stop by the official author’s blog, The Meet and Greet. Check out the book reviews at Rocks ‘n Reads, and see what other writers are up to around the Internet at Win a Book.

Filed Under: ARC, fiction, Read in 2010, reviews Tagged With: ,

Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany

October 27, 2010 by

Janet Mullany‘s Jane and the Damned follows Jane Austen’s transformation into Nosferatu shortly after the rejection of her first novel in 1797.  Jane is as brash and outspoken as Elizabeth Bennet, and her sister Cassandra is as beautiful and demure as Jane Bennet in Mullany’s novel.  Attending country assemblies bores Jane, but she takes out her frustration by writing, but disappointments lead her to take chances she might not have otherwise.

While her sister and their friend are off playing cards and dancing, Jane is charmed by Mrs. Smith who comes to her aid and later her brother, Mr. Smith.  Jane knows about their affliction and confidently challenges them with her wit, but her openness about her negative experiences leads to her transformation.

“The vampire who called himself Mr. Smith lowered the unconscious woman onto a chair.  The room was still empty, and the dance, with its imperfect harmonies and clumsy thudding of feet, continued.  They would not find her for a good fifteen minutes, a tiny grain of dust in time.

He licked the last of the blood from her arm and breathed the wound closed.”  (page 21)

Once transformed will Jane take to her new nature or seek out the curing waters of Bath?  And will she learn that her new strengths could come in handy to fight the French as they invade England?

Mullany mixes the supernatural with Regency England deftly to create a clash of cultural norms that don’t necessarily apply to the new Jane.  She uses modern language to depict the struggles of Jane in her new role and to illustrate that even class differences influence the society of vampires.  However, certain aspects of the period are lost in that the Austens are not often referred to in more formal manners, instead addressed by their first names, and Jane seems to shun propriety a lot more than some readers may expect.  Additionally, in some ways the novel takes itself too seriously, and readers may be expecting a more tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.  Overall, Jane and the Damned provides a dash of adventure with the society readers have come to know through Jane Austen’s very own novels, and it provides an absorbing tale in which readers could lose themselves.

About the Author:

Janet Mullany was reared in England on a diet of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, and now lives near Washington, D.C. She has worked as an archaeologist, waitress, draftsperson, radio announcer, performing arts administrator, proofreader, and bookseller.

Connect with Janet via Twitter, on Facebook, and through her Website.

Check out the other stops on the TLC Book Tour.


This is my 51st book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.

This is my 9th book for the Jane Austen Challenge 2010.

This is my 5th book for the Everything Austen II Challenge.

Filed Under: ARC, challenges, everything austen challenge, fiction, Harper Collins, Jane Austen Challenge 2010, New Authors Challenge, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2010, reviews, tlc book tours Tagged With: ,

Mr. Darcy’s Obsession by Abigail Reynolds

October 26, 2010 by

Abigail Reynolds is a go-to author of Jane Austen variations.  Mr. Darcy’s Obsession tells the story after Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy meet at Rosings, but Mr. Darcy never has a chance to propose because Lizzy must return home when her father falls gravely ill.  The death of her father, unfortunately, sends the Bennet family further down the social ladder when Mr. Collins becomes the new owner of Longbourn, forcing the family to rely upon the Gardiners and other family members’ kindness.

“She needed to acknowledge that Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourn was no more, and in her place was an impoverished young lady with a patchwork education and no prospects.”  (page 103 of ARC)

Reynolds clearly knows Pride & Prejudice very well, and while she does create alternative story lines for these characters, she never loses sight of their essence.  Darcy fights his desire to be with Lizzy, but finds himself drawn to her against his “better judgment,” and Lizzy falls for Darcy in spite of her misconceptions about him and their misunderstandings.  Meanwhile, new characters — like Lady Seaton — come on the scene to spice up the narrative and make it fresh.

Mr. Darcy’s Obsession by Abigail Reynolds is a novel for Austen enthusiasts, and there are fewer stolen moments — those ones that defy common behaviors of the Regency period — between the lead characters than in previous variations.  Readers should be warned that not all is pleasant with the Bennets, particularly where Jane and Bingley are concerned and of course, there is the ever-impetuous Lydia.  Overall, another well written, cast, and lively variation from Reynolds.

***Thanks to Sourcebooks and Abigail Reynolds for sending me a copy of this book for review.***

This is my 8th book for the Jane Austen Challenge 2010.


This is my 4th book for the Everything Austen II Challenge.

Filed Under: ARC, challenges, everything austen challenge, fiction, Jane Austen Challenge 2010, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2010, reviews, sourcebooks

Take a Chance on Me by Jill Mansell

October 20, 2010 by

Jill Mansell‘s Take a Chance on Me is another romp in England with some outrageous characters from the chauffeur Cleo Quinn to teenager Georgia Summers.  Set in Channings Hill, Cleo has been unlucky in love for a long time, but she’s had dreams of meeting Mr. Right for a long time, so long as he meets her expectations set by her sister Abbie’s marriage to Tom.  Johnny LaVenture, a former classmate and now famous sculpture, was the closest to her dream boy until he asked her out on a bet in high school and ruined her impressions of him forever.

The drama in this novel is over the top, but engaging.  Each character is quirkier than the last, but each is endearing to readers in their own special way.  Cleo is often helping her friends find their true love while sitting on the sidelines, and for too much of the book, she seems to be the supporting character.  However, readers soon discover that she is the glue that holds this madcap bunch together and keeps them rolling.

“He was looking smarter than usual in a dark suit and with his habitually wayward black hair combed back from his forehead.  For a split second, he glanced to the left and their eyes met, prompting a Pavlovian jolt of resentment in her chest.  She couldn’t help it; old habits die hard.  Then Johnny looked away, carried on past, and took his place between his ancient aunts in the front pew.”  (page 3 of ARC)

Despite her disastrous love life, Cleo manages to help her DJ friend Ash snag his dream girl, repair her sister’s marriage, and help Johnny meet the needs of his aunt.  Mansell has a gift for witty dialogue and creating characters who are memorable and that you love to hate.  Georgia is forthright to a fault, and Fia fawns too heavily over Johnny, but eventually even these characters mellow and stabilize.  Another fun, quirky winner from Mansell.  Take a Chance on Me is more than a fun chicklit novel, dealing with not only promiscuity, alcoholism, shyness, and childhood trauma, but also finding oneself, learning to stand on your own, and learning to love without fear.

***Thanks to Sourcebooks and Jill Mansell for sending me a copy for review.***

Filed Under: ARC, chicklit, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2010, reviews, sourcebooks Tagged With: ,