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The Other Girl by Pam Jenoff

October 3, 2014 by

Source: NetGalley/Kindle
ebook, 21 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

The Other Girl by Pam Jenoff is a complementary story to her new novel, The Winter Guest (my review), in which Maria finds herself married and estranged from her father in rural Biekowice, Poland, during WWII.  Maria, who is married to Piotr, finds that she is an outsider at her in-laws home, and is unable to share even her sense of loss with them after he was conscripted by the Germans.  She fills her days avoiding the scrutiny of her mother-in-law, and dreaming about what life will be like when her husband returns.  She feels alone now that she’s severed herself from her father, whom she caught selling information to the Nazis.  However, her father’s betrayal is the least of the secrets she will uncover.

“War had nipped at the edges of their tiny village, Biekowice, changing little things first, like the requirement of registration cards.  Later had come the food requisitioning that left the market so bare.  Piotr’s family had not been affected as badly as most — the farm produced enough simple fare to keep their stomachs full.”

While she lives in relative comfort, Maria must remain strong for herself and a young Jewish girls she discovers hiding in the family barn.  Maria is a young wife who is still finding her place in her new family, while at the same time trying to make sense of the families around her who turn in their neighbors or make other deals with the Nazis to survive.  When she is faced with the dilemma of a little Jewish girl, it is clear that her father’s betrayal propels her to take a different action.  The Other Girl by Pam Jenoff expounds upon a minor character in her novel, The Winter Guest, giving readers a glimpse into how much the paranoia and fear had begun to permeate even the smallest villages as Nazis traipsed through the city squares and fought through the countryside.  It’s too bad that this story is so short; it would make a good novel.

About the Author:

Pam Jenoff was born in Maryland and raised outside Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England. Upon receiving her master’s in history from Cambridge, she accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. The position provided a unique opportunity to witness and participate in operations at the most senior levels of government, including helping the families of the Pan Am Flight 103 victims secure their memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, observing recovery efforts at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and attending ceremonies to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of World War II at sites such as Bastogne and Corregidor.  Visit her Website and Facebook page.

22nd book for 2014 European Reading Challenge; (Set in Poland)

 

 

 

32nd book for 2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

 

 

 

 

27th 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, ARC, challenges, historical fiction, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews, short stories Tagged With: , , ,

Whiny Whiny Rhino by McBoop

October 1, 2014 by

Source: Blue Blanket Publishing and iRead Book Tours
Paperback, 34 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

 

Whiny Whiny Rhino by McBoop, the father-daughter team of Carmin Iadonisi & Amanda Iadonisi-Word, is a vividly illustrated book about overcoming your fears by looking inside and taking a leap for fun.  Tiny Rhino has three older brothers, and they are rough and tough, often telling Tiny that he’s too whiny and scared all of the time.  They say that he needs to be tough to make it out in the world.  He would rather stay inside and read, but one day, he decides he’s had enough of his brothers’ teasing and leaves the house.  Rather than jump at the opportunities presented to him by his friends, Tiny stays away from all the fun.  When he’s in bed thinking about his day and how much fun he didn’t have, Tiny comes to a realization that he needs to be more adventurous.

My daughter was captivated by the vivid images and the fun Tiny encountered.  Her favorite pictures were Tiny’s injured foot and when he’s in bed dreaming about becoming a superhero with a cape.  With easy rhymes, my child followed the story with little confusion and she wasn’t easily distracted from the story as we read and looked at all the pictures.  Whiny Whiny Rhino by McBoop, the father-daughter team of Carmin Iadonisi & Amanda Iadonisi-Word, is about taking a chance, letting go of anxieties, and take life one experience at a time.  These are good lessons for kids to learn, especially as most everything they encounter is new to them.

About the Authors:

McBoop is the creative team of Carmin Iadonisi & Amanda Iadonisi-Word. This father-daughter duo co-wrote and illustrated Whiny Whiny Rhino. They currently live in New England where they enjoy making art, reading comics, playing board games, eating fancy chocolate and whining about the weather.  Connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, and through their Website.

64th book for 2014 New Author Reading Challenge.

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

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez & Giveaway

September 26, 2014 by

Source: Dey Street Books
Hardcover, 160 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez provides an inside look at how the television special about the great pumpkin and Charlie Brown came to be.  The prologue illustrates just how engrained Charlie Brown and the gang’s antics are in our popular culture, as politicians recently started using iconic scenes from the comics and movies to illustrate their own disappointments.

When Charles Schulz, Mendelson and Melendez created the Christmas special, they had low expectations that it would do well, but when it ranked #2 in 1965, they figured they earned a little confidence from the network, CBS.  The network executives, however, were still skeptical and were still not convinced even after the creation and success of a second special, Charlie Brown’s All Stars!  The executives basically called on them to create a blockbuster or else.  The recounted brainstorming session with Schulz is fantastic and the back-and-forth is inspiring as the animator and the creator of the comic bounce ideas around the room with Mendelson.

Included in the book are some great strips from the newspaper, photos of the creative team and actors, and the music sheets.  The book also includes the illustrated script for the special.  It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez is another wonderful keepsake or gift for the Charlie Brown aficionado in your life.  Slightly smaller than coffee table size, but great to put on the shelf, pull out on the holidays, and just share with the family any time.

About the Cartoonist:

Charles M. Schulz, nicknamed Sparky, was an American cartoonist, best known for the comic strip Peanuts. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of all time, cited as a major influence by many later cartoonists.

Giveaway:

For U.S. residents.  Leave a comment below about one of your Halloween or Christmas Traditions and one winner will be chosen to get both books — It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic and A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition!

Deadline to enter is Sept. 30, 2014, at 11:59 pm EST.

Other reviews:

A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition

Filed Under: cartoon, giveaway, Harper Collins, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

G.I. Brides by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi

September 24, 2014 by

tlc tour host

Source: TLC Book Tours and William Morrow
Paperback, 368 pages
On Amazon and on Kobo

G.I. Brides: The Wartime Girls Who Crossed the Atlantic for Love by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi is a biography-memoir hybrid in which the stories of four women who married American soldiers, known as G.I. brides, during WWII are told.  Sylvia Bradley is a bit young and naive but an optimist, while Gwendolyn Rowe is a determined woman.  Rae Brewer is the tomboy to Margaret Boyle’s beauty.  These stories are romantic as these ladies decide to leave the only home and family they have known to marry an American, only to find themselves facing more than just marital challenges.  Culture shock is just one aspect that is well depicted in these stories, especially as the women marry into not only American families, but families that still maintain their old world cultures and traditions — like the Italians big family dinners to the rowdy Irish parties.  As different as their lives had been from each other during WWII, they are vastly different when they reach America.

“During the day, Margaret did her best to get up on deck as much as possible to assuage her seasickness.  Starting out across the endless miles of ocean, she was reminded how cut adrift she had always felt in her life.  Some brides might feel the ache of homesickness, but she had never had a real home to miss.”  (page 98)

“As she packed her bag, she heard a chugging noise coming from outside and looked out of the window.  There in the distance was the menacing outline of a doodlebug passing over hoses opposite.  Then suddenly the noise stopped.  Rae knew what that meant — the flying bomb was about to fall.” (page 114)

Through extensive interviews with these women and their families, Barrett and Calvi have brought to life the home front in England, as these women struggled with rationing and the fear of bombs killing them on the way to work or in their sleep.  As their families struggled, brothers were sent off to fight the Germans, and they found work to support the war effort, these women were introduced to a whole new world outside the cocoon of their family units.  They went to dances with Yanks and volunteered in Red Cross-sponsored facilities, only to find that these Americans were not as crass as they were told by brothers and parents.

“For months Lyn had felt desperate to return home to England, but now she realized that the thing she had been looking for no longer existed.  It was her younger self — that confident, carefree girl who hadn’t had any knocks in life, who could stand on her own two feet …” (page 340)

Once in American, these women must fight another war — a war within themselves.  They feel like outsiders, they struggle to find their place with their new families, and many times they are met with failure.  But even though they long to return to England and walk away, they also realize that they must first stand on their own and learn what they want for themselves.  G.I. Brides: The Wartime Girls Who Crossed the Atlantic for Love by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi may only breathe life into the lives of four G.I. brides from WWII, but it stands to reason that many of those 70,000 brides experienced similar hesitations, failures, and triumphs in their new lives.  Wonderfully told and executed.

About the Authors:

Duncan Barrett studied English at Cambridge and now works as writer and editor, specialising in biography and memoir. He most recently edited The Reluctant Tommy (Macmillan, 2010) a First World War memoir.

 

Nuala Calvi also studied English and has been a journalist for eight years with a strong interest in community history pieces. She took part in the Streatham Stories project to document the lives and memories of people in South London. They live in South London.

Connect with them through their website.

61st book for 2014 New Author Reading Challenge.

 

 

 

24th book (WWII) for the 2014 War Challenge With a Twist.

 

 

 

 

19th book for 2014 European Reading Challenge; (Set in England)

Filed Under: 2014 European Reading Challenge, 2014 War Challenge With a Twist, challenges, Harper Collins, memoir, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, review copy, reviews, tlc book tours 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: , ,

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: , , ,

Art from Dreams: My Jungian Journey in Collage, Assemblage, and Poetry by Susan Levin

August 28, 2014 by

Source: MBM Book Publicity and Susan Levin
Paperback, 48 pages
Purchase on Levin’s Website.

Art from Dreams: My Jungian Journey in Collage, Assemblage, and Poetry by Susan Levin combines poetry, collage, and assemblage into two parts — “My Jungian Dreams” and “Nocturnes” — but the poetry only appears in the first section to accompany the dream-inspired collages.  When it comes to Jungian dream interpretation, there are several archetypes — including the persona, the shadow, the animus, the divine child, the wise one, the great mother, and the trickster — and the archetypal events like birth, death, separation from one’s parents, marriage, and the union of opposites.  The poems are very lyrical in the first half, though almost as enigmatic as some of the images produced from Levin’s dreams.  The collage or assemblage pieces came first, but the poems were written later.  In the foreword, Shana Nys Dambrot said that Levin embraces the role of the unconscious mind as a creative force in her work, which is clear.

Alchemy (page 14)

Nobody sees us-
the Archeologist and me-
as we excavate the night
searching for beginnings,
unearthing symbols, images.
Everything is held to the fire
We get close to truth,
to what is known and unknown.
We awaken to re-imagine our lives

Think about those dreams you remember and how we try to make sense of them, looking for symbols and hidden meanings; we’re much like the archeologists digging in the dirt, looking at bones to re-create the past and create a history that can be understood. Levin uses the poems to enhance her collage, and in many ways, she reminds us that art merely imitates life. In her poem, “Picasso Dream” and the accompanying collage is clearly inspired by the artist and his work. In the second session, Levin is exploring the darker underbelly of her dreams. There is a darkness inside us all, it nibbles just below the surface.

Art from Dreams: My Jungian Journey in Collage, Assemblage, and Poetry by Susan Levin is an exploration in art and dreamscapes, as well as everything that makes us human. These images she’s created through collage, sculpture and found objects will make a deep impression and stay with readers long after they have closed the last page.

About the Artist:

Susan Levin is a multi-media artist. She works in landscapes, portraits, works on paper, collage, collage/assemblage, found object, and sculptural art. For the past 2 years, she has focused on dream imagery and expressing the connections she has had with Carl Jung’s theories on dream imagery and how art therapy can help individuals express their own subconscious thoughts.

Book 21 for the Dive Into Poetry Reading Challenge 2014.

 

 

53rd book for 2014 New Author Challenge.

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

Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregson

August 27, 2014 by

Source: Perigee/Penguin Random House
Hardcover, 144 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregson is a collection of poems written on a typewriter Gregson found in an antique store in Montana.  He wrote the first poem in this collection in the store on a page from a broken book he was buying for $2.  A chance find in a store turned into a mission to bring light to readers and viewers of photography alike.  In the introduction, he says, “In all I write and all I say, I am trying to chase the light that I cannot help but see around me.  This book, in the simplest of terms, is a map my wandering feet have taken in that pursuit.  It is simple words on random pieces of paper that snuck into my along the way.  There will always be light, and I will never stop chasing it.”

"The oars and the compass, the anchor and the wheel,
have long since abandoned me.
Can you hear what I've longed to tell you,
that I go where the waves wish to deliver me
and you, my love, are the tide."

Many of these poems are about love and love that is lost.  There are poems in which he asks to be haunted by his lost love and that he wishes to love every scrap of her that remains.  In a poem early in the collection, he compares himself to a ship without a rudder and the lover is compared to a hurricane.  In undulating rhythm, Gregson is a ship at sea carried away by waves — the waves of the tide, his lover.  It is an unnamed poem, like all of them, that is beautiful in its simplicity.  The love experienced in this poem is grand and overpowering.  Each of these poems are typed on scraps of paper, pieces of books, napkins, and receipts.   He also includes some gorgeous photographs, with accompanying poems.

In one gorgeous compilation piece, Gregson pairs a poem about being broken and healed with a photo of a dilapidated roof through which one shaft of bright light shines through.  Like many of the poems in this collection, they are beautiful in their simplicity.  He sheds light on the smallest of moments, like a flowering weed growing out of a bullet shell.  We carry our loves and losses inside each of us, and they become part of who we are.  What would we be without those past emotions and experiences.  Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregson is gorgeous from cover to cover,

About the Poet:

Tyler Knott Gregson is a poet, author, professional photographer, and artist who lives in the mountains of Helena, Montana. When he is not writing, he operates his photography company, Treehouse Photography, with his talented partner, Sarah Linden.  Visit him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.  Check out his Website.

 

 

Book 20 for the Dive Into Poetry Reading Challenge 2014.

 

 

 

52nd book for 2014 New Author Challenge.

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