I wish everyone a wonderful last day of April, Today I will be with outside with my family and for today I shall be…
On This Sunny Saturday
Saturday 30 April, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Book Review: Dead of Wynter by Spencer Seidel
Friday 29 April, 2011 By 11 Comments
Title: Dead of Wynter
Author: Spencer Seidel
Publisher: PublishingWorks
Publication Date: May 24, 2011
Paperback: 272 pages
ISBN: 978-1935557692
Genre: Fiction, Suspense
“Dolly, it’s your mother.” Dolly. Jackie Ruth Wynter had called Alice that for years. The conversation that followed led her right back to the place she had run from for years. Her twin brother, younger by just a minute or so, had been fading, transforming into an image of their drunken, narrow-eyed father. Now her father was dead, and her brother, Chris, missing.
Alice resigns herself to return, helping her mother and the local police with the mystery surrounding the crime. But there are some family secrets her mother would sooner take to the grave than reveal.
Reacquainting with her past brings fresh pain and new friendships as she struggles with who to trust with the details of her father’s murder and brother’s disappearance. As the authorities come closer to solving the mystery of the men in her family, she begins to realize her past life as Alice Wynter is the missing part of the puzzle. But who is searching out the former Alice?
Spencer Seidel tells a familiar tale of a reluctant hometown girl while plot twists take us deep into the bone-chilling cold of the dark winter in Maine’s lake country. The sinister mysteries of the Wynters will capture the reader’s attention well past when the fire has gone out..
My Review:
Dead of Wynter is the gripping debut novel by Spencer Seidel who takes readers on an intricately woven and suspenseful journey. Alice Wynter Dunn residing in New Jersey with her husband, Gerald, learns of her father’s death, and returns to her hometown of Redding, Maine to offer support to her mother, Jackie Ruth. Alice returns begrudgingly however since Redding was a place that served as the backdrop for many memories that she would rather forget as a child growing up in an abusive family with an alcoholic father. The apparent suicide of Alice’s father turns out to be a homicide and the focus of the investigation includes her twin brother Chris who was not only last seen with their father, but who, as readers learn through flashbacks to 1984, had been hiding his past acts with their cousin, Ray, a relation that this family could have definitely done without. Seidel, with vivid, yet realistic character descriptions transports readers to the story’s setting and crafts a compelling tale of murder, family secrets, deception, and revenge. Masterfully written, Seidel shows through powerful prose how some family secrets can be deadly, and readers will be kept guessing until the last pages of Dead of Wynter. I would recommend Dead of Wynter to anyone who enjoys suspense thrillers and I look forward to reading Seidel’s next novel.
To learn more about author Spencer Seidel, please visit his website or on Twitter.
Book Review: The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell
Thursday 28 April, 2011 By 3 Comments
Title: The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do
Author: Daniel Woodrell
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: April 28, 2011
Paperback: 496 pages
ISBN: 978-0316133654
Genre: Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
In the parish of St. Bruno, sex is easy, corruption festers, and double-dealing is a way of life. Rene Shade is an uncompromising detective swimming in a sea of filth.
As Shade takes on hit men, porn kings, a gang of ex-cons, and the ghosts of his own checkered past, Woodrell’s three seminal novels pit long-entrenched criminals against the hard line of the law, brother against brother, and two vastly different sons against a long-absent father.
My Review:
The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell contains three books; Under the Bright Lights, Muscle For the Wing, and The Ones You Do, which comprise an electric trilogy the reader will not be able to put down. Woodrell takes the reader deep into the Parish of St. Bruno, where Detective Rene Shade struggles against a morass of corruption and with his moral compass throughout this trilogy, making him immediately likeable and identifiable, especially as he relates to his father and brothers. Woodrell’s characters are intense and vividly detailed, and through his use of expertly crafted atmospheric prose, it does not take the reader much imagination to believe they have been transported to St. Bruno. Each of the three stories brings about a progression in Detective Rene Shade and I will not spoil the book by describing the events of the novels, rather it is best the reader uncover each layer as Woodrell intended. Rarely do I come across a writer who can so deftly create an atmosphere that I believe I know, even though I have never been to any place even remotely resembling St. Bruno. Woodrell is a gifted and extremely talented storyteller who quickly draws the reader into the story and into the lives of the characters, often writing about some of the worst things humanity has to offer and yet also some of the best. The Bayou Trilogy was a book I was unable to set down, so engrossed in the plot and in feverishly reading to discover what was going to happen next. I would recommend The Bayou Trilogy to any reader who enjoys dark, seedy, and exceptionally well-written crime fiction.
Five of Daniel Woodrell’s eight novels were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. A recipient of the PEN West Award, Woodrell lives in the Ozarks near the Arkansas line with his wife, Katie Estill.
Buried Secrets Book Trailer – Release Date 6/21
Wednesday 27 April, 2011 By 4 Comments
Title: Buried Secrets
Author: Joseph Finder
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: June 21, 2011
Hardcover: 400 pages
ISBN: 978-0312379148
Genre: Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
On the 21st of June 2011 Joseph Finder’s latest book Buried Secrets will be released. To prepare for this suspenseful new release, watch the following book trailer, it is not to be missed, enjoy.
Book Review: The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain
Wednesday 27 April, 2011 By 20 Comments
Title: The Midwife’s Confession
Author: Diane Chamberlain
Publisher: Mira Books
Publication Date: April 26, 2011
Paperback: 432 pages
ISBN: 978-0778329862
Genre: Fiction
Dear Anna,
What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I’m so sorry. . .
The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind their close friend Noelle’s suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle-her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her friends and family-described a woman who embraced life.
Yet there was so much they didn’t know.
With the discovery of the letter and its heartbreaking secret, Noelle’s friends begin to uncover the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives–and the life of a desperate stranger–with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit.
Told with sensitivity and insight, The Midwife’s Confession will have you turning pages late into the night.
My Review:
The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain is a heart-wrenching, masterful work dealing with the very difficult issue of suicide and the questions that remain unanswered when a friend or loved one takes their own life. When Tara’s and Emerson’s very close friend and midwife, Noelle, commits suicide, they are not only shocked because they did not believe this was in Noelle’s character, but they eventually discover that their friend had secrets that ultimately allowed some connection to be made between Noelle’s life and her death. Tara and Emerson discover Noelle’s written confession, a letter that she did not complete before taking her own life, and along with other clues, the two women endeavor to solve the mystery of their friend’s devastating decision. The work is fast paced and rather suspenseful, leading up to the unexpected and most shocking revelation towards the book’s conclusion. Readers will experience a wide range of emotions in this story of love, cruelty, deception, and death. Chamberlain’s character descriptions make these women very real, flawed, and believable, all marks of a master storyteller and I believe The Midwife’s Confession would make for a powerful book for any reading and an extraordinary discussion group choice.
To learn more about author Diane Chamberlain, please visit her website.
Book Review: The Pun Also Rises by John Pollack
Tuesday 26 April, 2011 By 18 Comments
Title: The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics
Author: John Pollack
Publisher: Gotham
Publication Date: April 14, 2011
Hardcover: 240 pages
ISBN: 978-1592406234
Genre: Non-Fiction, Reference
A former word pun champion’s funny, erudite, and provocative exploration of puns, the people who make them, and this derided wordplay’s remarkable impact on history.
The pun is commonly dismissed as the lowest form of wit, and punsters are often unpopular for their obsessive wordplay. But such attitudes are relatively recent developments. In The Pun Also Rises, John Pollack-a former World Pun Champion and presidential speechwriter for Bill Clinton-explains why such wordplay is significant: It both revolutionized language and played a pivotal role in making the modern world possible. Skillfully weaving together stories and evidence from history, brain science, pop culture, literature, anthropology, and humor, The Pun Also Rises is an authoritative yet playful exploration of a practice that is common, in one form or another, to virtually every language on earth.
At once entertaining and educational, this engaging book answers fundamental questions: Just what is a pun, and why do people make them? How did punning impact the development of human language, and how did that drive creativity and progress? And why, after centuries of decline, does the pun still matter?
My Review:
The Pun Also Rises by John Pollack took me by surprise as I often view puns as rather “cheap” forms of humor, yet Pollack convincingly and masterfully tells of the origin of these little snippets that have had far more important roles in the evolution of language and even in our understanding of how the brain processes information. Pollack is a truly entertaining, never resisting the opportunity to demonstrate the power of the pun; even in his book’s subtitle, one that I had missed the first time I picked it up to read. We learn of Samuel Johnson, an 18th Century school teacher who painstakingly assembled one of the largest compilations of the English language in its time, the Dictionary of the English Language. Fans of William Shakespeare will find joy in the survival of his puns even as Johnson, a self-proclaimed authority of “proper” English, worked from a bully pulpit proclaiming that puns “…are the last refuge of the witless.” This historical account is only one example of how English language aficionados reviled the pun and how the pun rose in spite of attempts to pluck it from acceptance. I was very amused to learn how some writers use puns to avoid censorship, the latter of which often relies on searching only for objectionable words and therefore misses the higher-order thinking required to pick out homonymic and homophonic puns. While discussing this absolutely enlightening book with my husband, I learned that scientists in his field of research will often place puns in their scientific publications to “test” their peers and the journal editors. An unassuming book, The Pun Also Rises, is refreshingly witty, intelligent, and informative on the importance of puns in English heritage, language, and so much more. I highly recommend The Pun Also Rises to all readers.
Former presidential speechwriter John Pollack won the 1995 O. Henry World Championship Pun-Off. Earlier in his career, he wrote for The Hartford Courant and spent three years in Spain as a freelance foreign correspondent writing for the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Miami Herald, and Advertising Age, among others. His previous books include Cork Boat and The World on a String: How to Become a Freelance Foreign Correspondent. He currently works as a speechwriter and consultant for ROI Communication, a consulting firm. He lives in New York City.
For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.
I received an ARC copy of The Pun Also Rises by John Pollack from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.
Book Review: Planting Dandelions by Kyran Pittman
Tuesday 26 April, 2011 By 6 Comments
Title: Planting Dandelions: Field Notes From a Semi-Domesticated Life
Author: Kyran Pittman
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication Date: April 28, 2011
Harcover: 256 pages
ISBN: 978-1590514344
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
From the Publisher:
Introducing a writer with a keen eye, a wicked tongue, and an appealing take on family.
In the family of Jen Lancaster and Elizabeth Gilbert, Kyran Pittman is the laid-back middle sister: warm and witty and confiding, with an addictively smart and genuine voice-but married with three kids and living in the heartland. Relatable and real, she writes about family in a way that highlights all its humor, while at the same time honoring its depth.
A regular contributor to Good Housekeeping, Pittman is well loved because she is funny and honest and self-deprecating, because her own household is in chaos (“semi-domesticated”), and because she inspires readers in their own domestic lives. In these eighteen linked, chronological essays, Pittman covers the first twelve years of becoming a family, writing candidly and hilariously about things like learning to maintain a marriage over time; dealing with the challenges of sex after childbirth; saying good-bye to her younger self and embracing the still attractive, forty-year-old version; and trying to “recession- proof” her family (i.e., downsize to avoid foreclosure).
From a fresh new talent, celebrating the joys and trials of a new generation of parents, Planting Dandelions is an entertaining tribute to choosing the white-picket fence over the other options available, even if you don’t manage to live up to its ideals every day.
My Review:
Planting Dandelions by Kyran Pittman is a witty and beautifully written memoir that at times reads more like a collection of short stories. Pittman draws the reader into her life beginning with her “free-loving” and “free-thinking” ways when she left her husband, left Canada, met Patrick, fell in love, divorced, married, and settled in Arkansas and began a family. At all times Pittman is open, candid, and speaks directly to the reader, however, readers only receive allusions to her upbringing by hippie parents and I think the book would have been far more interesting with as much attention given to her early informative years as was given to her adult life. Kyran and Patrick made some intriguing choices, but always were a united front and Pittman speaks often of her love for her three boys. While I enjoyed reading Planting Dandelions, I cannot say I took anything away with me, however I did have a wonderful time reading the book. Because I am a mum with three boys, I am uncertain if this book would be as funny to someone much younger, who has not gone through similar circumstances. For that reason, I am uncertain to whom I would recommend this book, but if you are a mum, or simply enjoy witty memoirs, then take a look at Planting Dandelions, I certainly enjoyed it.
Kyran Pittman is a contributing writer for Good Housekeeping. She lives in Arkansas with her husband and three children.
To learn more about Kyran Pittman, please visit her website.
Book Review: Galore by Michael Crummey
Monday 25 April, 2011 By 2 Comments
Title: Galore
Author: Michael Crummey
Publisher: Other Press
Publication Date: March 29, 2011
Paperback: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-1590514344
Genre: Historical Fiction
When a whale beaches itself on the shore of the remote coastal town of Paradise Deep, the last thing any of the townspeople expect to find inside it is a man, silent and reeking of fish, but remarkably alive. The discovery of this mysterious person, soon christened Judah, sets the town scrambling for answers as its most prominent citizens weigh in on whether he is man or beast, blessing or curse, miracle or demon. Though Judah is a shocking addition, the town of Paradise Deep is already full of unusual characters. King-me Sellers, self-appointed patriarch, has it in for an inscrutable woman known only as Devine’s Widow, with whom he has a decades-old feud. Her granddaughter, Mary Tryphena, is just a child when Judah washes ashore, but finds herself tied to him all her life in ways she never expects. Galore is the story of the saga that develops between these families, full of bitterness and love, spanning two centuries.
With Paradise Deep, award-winning novelist Michael Crummey imagines a realm where the line between the everyday and the otherworldly is impossible to discern. Sprawling and intimate, stark and fantastical, Galore is a novel about the power of stories to shape and sustain us.
My Review:
Galore by Michael Crummey gives a fictional historical account of life in Newfoundland, namely in the outports, as readers learn of the challenges and conflicts of the Sellers and Devine families. Crummey expertly takes readers to Paradise Deep and The Gut in the period spanning the 1800’s through the early 1900’s. As readers learn of the experiences of young Mary Tryphena Devine, Jabez Trim, and the Woundy brothers, Crummey employs magical realism, in literary contrast to the very real, subsistence-type lifestyle that outporters in this part of Canada experienced. Over several generations, and in a non-linear timeline, we learn of the rivalries among the families, the unreal stories that were passed from one generation to the next and the skepticism surrounding the legitimacy of the stories told as magical realism. Crummey has crafted a truly exceptional novel in his multigenerational historical look at life in small villages in Newfoundland. As I knew very little of the lives lead by peoples in this region of Canada over the 19th and 20th Centuries, I can say Crummey effectively brought me into the period through his extraordinarily well-crafted prose. Galore is the first novel I have read of this author, and I shall be looking to read some of his earlier works and would recommend Galore to historical fiction fans and think this book would be an intriguing choice for discussion groups.
Michael Crummey is a poet and storyteller, and the author of the critically acclaimed novels River Thieves and The Wreckage and the short story collection Flesh and Blood. He has been nominated for the Giller Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Award, and Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Canada for Galore. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Book Review: Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Monday 25 April, 2011 By 20 Comments
Title: Secret Daughter
Author: Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN: 978-0061928352
Genre: Fiction
Somer’s life is everything she imagined it would be—she’s newly married and has started her career as a physician in San Francisco—until she makes the devastating discovery she never will be able to have children.
The same year in India, a poor mother makes the heartbreaking choice to save her newborn daughter’s life by giving her away. It is a decision that will haunt Kavita for the rest of her life, and cause a ripple effect that travels across the world and back again.
Asha, adopted out of a Mumbai orphanage, is the child that binds the destinies of these two women. We follow both families, invisibly connected until Asha’s journey of self-discovery leads her back to India.
Compulsively readable and deeply touching, Secret Daughter is a story of the unforeseen ways in which our choices and families affect our lives, and the indelible power of love in all its many forms.
My Review:
Secret Daughter written by Shilpi Somaya Gowda is a story about life in an isolated town in India and the lives of Kavita, her daughter Asha, and Somer, a doctor from the United States who is infertile, unable to give birth to a child of her own. Secret Daughter is filled with emotion as readers learn that Kavita must forfeit her daughter to save her life. In contrast to the life of Kavita, readers learn of the parallel and dissimilar, yet all too paradoxically related struggles Somer faces in her desires to create her own family. Gowda masterfully crafts parallel stories of these two women and their longings for family amidst adversity whether those adversarial foes stem from cultural or biological roots. The women are strong and well-described and I felt as though I knew the two main characters. This book is, in a sense, a celebration of triumph for families as it touches the reader with emotions that come only from the connections one forges with their family. As a debut novel, I believe Gowda has set expectations high for whatever she crafts next as Secret Daughter is an excellent story for all readers, but especially for those who seek true meaning from what it means to be part of a family.
Shilpi Somaya Gowda was born and raised in Toronto to parents who migrated there from Mumbai. She holds an MBA from Stanford University, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1991, she spent a summer as a volunteer in an Indian orphanage. A native of Canada, she has lived in New York, North Carolina, and California. She now lives in Dallas with her husband and children.
Learn more about Shilpi Somaya Gowda on her website, Facebook page, and Twitter.
For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.
I received an ARC copy of Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.
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