Title: Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Author: Tom Franklin
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: May 17, 2011
Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN: 978-0060594671
Genre: Fiction, Mystery

From the Publisher:

In the 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas “32″ Jones were boyhood pals in a small town in rural Mississippi. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry was the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, black single mother. But then Larry took a girl to a drive-in movie and she was never seen or heard from again. He never confessed . . . and was never charged.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry lives a solitary, shunned existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has become the town constable. And now another girl has disappeared, forcing two men who once called each other “friend” to confront a past they’ve buried for decades.

My Review:

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin is a dramatic story with a mystery backdrop about a brief, but important friendship, a person gone missing in rural Mississippi and the long-since unanswered questions about who was responsible.  The story spans two decades, alternating in time between the time in which Larry is suspected in the disappearance of a girl following their date and a second tragic disappearance some 20 years later.  Franklin crafts an extraordinarily vivid scene along with excellent character descriptions that lay the foundation for what turns out to be a story of suspicion, guilt, friendships lost and reconciliation.   Readers will feel as though they know the two main characters, Larry and Silas, good friends from decidedly different backgrounds who ultimately must face the very questions that drove them apart as young boys.  In expert fashion, Franklin through his knack for literary imagery, provides readers with a story that is far more than a mystery because the story is captivating in many ways as it touches upon the many emotions that are associated with race relations, socioeconomic differences in the South, friendships, and trust.  Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter would make for an excellent discussion group pick and I recommend this novel to all readers.

About the Author:

Tom Franklin is the author of Poachers, Hell at the Breech, and Smonk. Winner of a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship, he teaches in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program and lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife, the poet Beth Ann Fennelly, and their children.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received an copy of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin 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.

Title: When We Danced on Water
Author: Evan Fallenberg
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: May 17, 2011
Paperback: 256 pages
ISBN: 978-0062033321
Genre: Fiction & Literature

From the Publisher:

At eighty-five, Teo is ready to retire from the bombast and romance of life as one of the world’s most influential choreographers. But when he meets Vivi, a fortyish waitress at a Tel Aviv café, the fires of his youth flare back to life—his passion for a woman’s touch, his long-buried anguish at his wartime experiences, and his complex engagement with dance. Vivi’s life will change, too, as the warmth of Teo’s affection counterbalances her harrowing time as an Israeli soldier in an illicit relationship. For both, their investment in art, and indeed in life itself, will reawaken as the ghosts of their suppressed pasts—from Warsaw to Copenhagen, Berlin to Tel Aviv—cry out for forgiveness and healing.

With lustrous prose capturing the grit and fury of history and the breathtaking power of passion, When We Danced on Water is a compelling novel of intimacy and identity, art and ambition, and how love can truly transcend tragedy.

My Review:

Exquisitely written and insightful prose, extraordinarily beautiful descriptions, When We Danced on Water by Evan Fallenberg commands the readers attention from the very beginning when Teo Levin, soon to be 85 years old, a former principal ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher and now consultant at Tel Aviv Ballet meets 42-year-old Vivi, an artist working as a waitress in a coffee bar, or as Teo points out, a “dabbler” as she cannot commit to one art nor to one passion. Vivi is living in the moment, trying to forget the past, while Teo is trying to relive the past, to remember every beautiful moment.  Both Vivi and Teo had their fates altered by men in Berlin, both shut down after the war, each affected in their own personal ways.  Through Teo’s letters to his sister Margot and Vivi’s talks with her mother Leah, the reader gains more insight into each person’s respective past, their secrets, their desires, what haunts them and what drives them.  The story alternates points of view and through the voices of Teo and Vivi, the reader gains a greater insight and depth into their lives, their experiences and how their meeting in a café will forever alter their lives.  I personally found the ballet descriptions to be beautifully created and with no difficulty, I was transported by Fallenberg’s prose into the theatres, watching the dancers.  After finishing this book I knew instinctively that I must read Fallenberg’s other works, for he has a way of capturing the very essence of his characters and making them appear quite real and making the reader feel as though everything being read has truly occurred.  When We Danced on Water resonated within me and is a book that shall stay with me for a very long time.  I would, without reservation, recommend When We Dance On Water to all readers and to book discussion groups.

About the Author:

Evan Fallenberg is the author of Light Fell, winner of the American Library Association’s Barbara Gittings Stonewall Book Award for Literature and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. His translation of Meir Shalev’s A Pigeon and a Boy won the Jewish Book Council Award for Fiction and was short-listed for the PEN Translation Prize. He lives and teaches in Tel Aviv.

To learn more about author Evan Fallenberg please visit his website.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received an arc of When We Danced on Water by Evan Fallenberg 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.

Title: Island Beneath the Sea
Author: Isabel Allende
Publisher: Harper Perennial, Reprint Edition
Publication Date: April 26, 2011
Paperback: 480 pages
ISBN: 978-0061988257
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue—the daughter of an African mother she never knew and a white sailor who brought her into bondage—Zarité, known as Tété, survives a childhood of brutality and fear, finding solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and in her exhilarating initiation into the mysteries of voodoo.

When twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770, he discovers that running his father’s plantation is neither glamorous nor easy. Marriage also proves problematic when, eight years later, he brings home a bride. But it is his teenaged slave, Tété, upon whom Valmorain becomes most dependent, as their lives intertwine across four tumultuous decades.

In Island Beneath the Sea, internationally acclaimed author Isabel Allende spins the unforgettable saga of an extraordinary woman determined to find love amid loss and forge her own identity under the cruelest of circumstances.

My Review:

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende is a powerfully written book of historical fiction about the 18^th Century lives of the two main characters on the island of Saint Domingue, or what is now Haiti.  Tété is a slave, born of her African mother and white father who had enslaved her mother while Toulouse Valmorain is a 20-year-old arriving on the island to take charge of his father’s plantation.  Each of these characters, in their own way, are searching for a greater purpose or meaning to their lives, and Allende, by writing of their struggles and triumphs amidst the backdrop of life in 18^th and early 19^th Century Saint Domingue, gives yet another example of why her writing is so celebrated.  With genuine character development, Allende masterfully builds the story around how two so different individuals meet, their relationship that develops over several decade’s time and ultimately, readers see through Allende’s writing how love overcomes some of the most powerfully demeaning acts of cruelty amidst the enslavement of our fellow man.  Written on a time period long in the past, emotions brought out by Allende are timeless, making this book an excellent choice for discussion groups looking for a powerful work of historical fiction.  I would not hesitate to recommend Island Beneath the Sea to all readers.

About the Author:

Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende is the author of many bestselling novels, including, most recently, Ines of My Soul, Zorro, Portrait in Sepia, and Daughter of Fortune. She has also written a collection of stories; three memoirs, The Sum of Our Days, My Invented Country, and Paula; and a trilogy of young adult novels. Her books have been translated into more than 27 languages and have become bestsellers across four continents. In 2004 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Allende lives in California.

Further information about author Isabel Allende may be found on her website.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received an copy of Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende 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.

Title: Inés of My Soul
Author: Isabel Allende
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: August 28, 2007
Paperback: 352 pages
ISBN: 977-80061161544
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

In the early years of the conquest of the Americas, Inés Suárez, a seamstress condemned to a life of toil, flees Spain to seek adventure in the New World. As Inés makes her way to Chile, she begins a fiery romance with Pedro de Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Together the lovers will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage war against the indigenous Chileans—a bloody struggle that will change Inés and Valdivia forever, inexorably pulling each of them toward separate destinies.

Inés of My Soul is a work of breathtaking scope that masterfully dramatizes the known events of Inés Suárez’s life, crafting them into a novel rich with the narrative brilliance and passion readers have come to expect from Isabel Allende.

My Review:

Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende gives an historical fictional account of the life and times of Inés Suárez and is a story written in a deeply rich and near lyrical manner. Inés flees Spain in search of her husband who had left for the New World in Chile.  Heartbroken, yet not defeated when she learns of her husband’s death in the New World, Inés falls in love again, this time to Pedro de Valdivia, and together, the two create a lasting impact on the future of Chile and especially the city of Santiago.  Readers will be enthralled by the strength of Inés and her resolve in her life’s passions as Allende brings her characters to life, transporting readers effortlessly into the time period and into the various locales.  Expertly crafted prose and vivid imagery along with bibliographical references make Inés of My Soul a work to be enjoyed by all readers of historical fiction.

About the Author:

Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende is the author of many bestselling novels, including, most recently, Ines of My Soul, Zorro, Portrait in Sepia, and Daughter of Fortune. She has also written a collection of stories; three memoirs, The Sum of Our Days, My Invented Country, and Paula; and a trilogy of young adult novels. Her books have been translated into more than 27 languages and have become bestsellers across four continents. In 2004 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Allende lives in California.

Further information about author Isabel Allende may be found on her website.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received an copy of Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende 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.

Title: Far to Go
Author: Alison Pick
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: April 19, 2011
Paperback: 336 pages
ISBN: 978-0062034625
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction

From the Publisher:

When Czechoslovakia relinquishes the Sudetenland to Hitler, the powerful influence of Nazi propaganda sweeps through towns and villages like a sinister vanguard of the Reich’s advancing army. A fiercely patriotic secular Jew, Pavel Bauer is helpless to prevent his world from unraveling as first his government, then his business partners, then his neighbors turn their back on his affluent, once-beloved family. Only the Bauers’ adoring governess, Marta, sticks by Pavel, his wife, Anneliese, and their little son, Pepik, bound by her deep affection for her employers and friends. But when Marta learns of their impending betrayal at the hands of her lover, Ernst, Pavel’s best friend, she is paralyzed by her own fear of discovery—even as the endangered family for whom she cares so deeply struggles with the most difficult decision of their lives.

Interwoven with a present-day narrative that gradually reveals the fate of the Bauer family during and after the war, Far to Go is a riveting family epic, love story, and psychological drama.

My Review:

Far to Go by Alison Pick is a devastatingly heartbreaking story of one family’s struggle to survive as anti-Semitism grows as Hitler’s army advances towards Czechoslovakia.  In this psychological drama, Pick introduces readers, through the eyes of the primary narrator, Marta, housekeeper/nanny, to Pavel Bauer, his wife Annaliese, and their young son Pepik who are caught up in the turmoil and anti-Semitism brought to the Sudetenland when Hitler’s Nazi’s invade.  Pick draws attention to a less common topic of Holocaust novels, the Kindertransport, and the important role this mission played in bringing Jewish children in areas occupied by Nazis to the safety of British households.   Far to Go is an intricately woven tapestry of love, betrayal and sacrifice; all strong themes carried through by Pick’s well-crafted prose.  Although I would have liked to have read more follow through on the Kindertransport, I think Far to Go has strengths that would make for an excellent discussion group choice and recommend Far to Go to readers who enjoy WWII stories.

About the Author:

Alison Pick is the author of two acclaimed volumes of poetry and one previous novel, The Sweet Edge, a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book that was optioned for film. She is also the winner of Canada’s prestigious Bronwen Wallace Award. Currently on the faculty at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Pick lives in Toronto.

Further information about author Summer Wood may be found on her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received an ARC of Far to Go by Alison Pick 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.

Title: A Fierce Radiance
Author: Lauren Belfer
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition
Publication Date: March 29, 2011
Paperback: 560 pages
ISBN: 978-0061252525
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

A Washington Post Best Novel of the Year
An NPR Mystery of the Year

In the anxious days after Pearl Harbor, Life photojournalist Claire Shipley finds herself covering one of the nation’s most important stories. At New York City’s renowned Rockefeller Institute, researchers are racing to save thousands of wounded American soldiers and countless others by developing a miraculous new drug they call penicillin. For Claire, a single mother haunted by the loss of her young daughter—a death the miracle drug could have prevented—the story is cuttingly personal, especially after she unexpectedly begins to fall in love with the shy and brilliant head physician, James Stanton. But Claire isn’t the only one interested in the secret cure. When a researcher dies under suspicious circumstances, the stakes become starkly clear: someone understands just how profitable the new drug could be—and will stop at nothing to get it. Now, with lives and a new love hanging in the balance, Claire will throw herself into harm’s way to find a killer—no matter what price she may have to pay.

My Review:

A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer is a complex story regarding WWII era New York, the invention of Penicillin, politics, and romance. Belfer weaves all these topics together to create a story of romance, intrigue, and mystery. Claire Shiply is a 36-year-old photojournalist for Life Magazine, a divorcee and mother to one living child, her daughter died of septicemia. When Claire is given the assignment to photograph penicillin, she witnesses first hand the miraculous powers of this life-saving medicine as well as the politics behind the pharmaceutical companies. While working the case, Claire meets Dr. James Stanton and immediately they are attracted to one another. Belfer does an excellent job in portraying life in New York and abroad during WWII, the reader is left with little to imagine, and one can feel the frantic pace of life during a war, especially as the war casualties continue to increase. Belfer uses her protagonist’s photos to bring the history and controversy over penicillin to life, especially the greed and power that can often blind those in charge. Had the book remained this way, without the added dimension of lust, I would have rated it higher. This is my prejudice and not the fault of the author. I do not care for romance novels and this one strayed one too many times for my taste. I would however recommend A Fierce Radiance to those who enjoy a good historical fiction novel with a hint of mystery and romance.

About the Author:

Lauren Belfer was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in Buffalo, where she attended the Buffalo Seminary. At Swarthmore College, she majored in Medieval Studies. After graduating, she worked as a file clerk at an art gallery, a paralegal, an assistant photo editor at a newspaper, a fact checker at magazines, and as a researcher and associate producer on documentary films. She has an M.F.A. from Columbia University.

Her debut novel, City of Light, was a New York Times bestseller, as well as a #1 Book Sense pick, a Barnes& Noble Discover Award nominee, a New York Times Notable Book, a Library Journal Best Book, and a Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. City of Light was a bestseller in Great Britain and has been translated into seven languages. She is also the author of the novel A Fierce Radiance.

Belfer’s fiction has also been published in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, and Henfield Prize Stories. Her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere.

Lauren Belfer lives in New York City.

To learn more about the author and her books, please visit her website.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer 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.

Title: The Mapping of Love and Death
Author: Jacqueline Winspear
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: February 22, 2011
Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN: 978-0061727689
Genre: Fiction, Mystery

From the Publisher:

August 1914. Michael Clifton is mapping the land he has just purchased in California’s beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, certain that oil lies beneath its surface. But as the young cartographer prepares to return home to Boston, war is declared in Europe. Michael—the youngest son of an expatriate Englishman—puts duty first and sails for his father’s native country to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed among those missing in action.

April 1932. London psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs is retained by Michael’s parents, who have recently learned that their son’s remains have been unearthed in France. They want Maisie to find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were among Michael’s belongings—a quest that takes Maisie back to her own bittersweet wartime love. Her inquiries, and the stunning discovery that Michael Clifton was murdered in his trench, unleash a web of intrigue and violence that threatens to engulf the soldier’s family and even Maisie herself. Over the course of her investigation, Maisie must cope with the approaching loss of her mentor, Maurice Blanche, and her growing awareness that she is once again falling in love.

My Review:

The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear is the seventh Maisie Dobbs novel, and the third I have read.  While the book can easily stand alone, it is my belief readers will want to know more about Maisie, I know I shall be back reading.  In The Mapping of Love and Death, the book opens in 1914 where cartographer Michael Clifton is setting sights on places to drill for oil when war is declared in Britain.  Even though Michael is born an American, he feels a strong duty to serve and travels to Britain and is assigned work as a cartographer in the Great War.  By 1916 he is reported missing and in 1932 his body is recovered and Maisie Dobbs a London psychologist and investigator along with her assistant, Billy Beale, find themselves being hired by Edward and Martha Clifton to discover what happened to their son and to locate a woman known only by her love letters as “Your English Nurse”.    Maisie soon learns the case is not at all as simple as it appears and finds herself in situations she could not have foreseen.  Winspear takes the reader back to another time, just after the Great War and through detailed and vivid prose, the reader is taken on a several journeys, all the while Maisie tries to solve the murder.  The Mapping of Love and Death reads quite similar to a cozy mystery, yet cannot be classified as such as all the characters are not known upfront, rather the reader uncovers the mystery with Maisie.  I enjoyed following the clues, trying to get ahead of Maisie and I found it fascinating how Winspear was able to weave in Maisie’s past from the Great War into this story as she is confronted with constant reminders of the past and her quest to move forward with her life.  The Mapping of Love and Death was a delightful mystery and one I would recommend to anyone who enjoys an intriguing mystery.  The next Maisie Dobbs novel, A Lesson in Secrets, will be released in April.

About the Author:

Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in the county of Kent, England. Following higher education at the University of London’s Institute of Education, Jacqueline worked in academic publishing, in higher education, and in marketing communications in the UK.

She emigrated to the United States in 1990, and while working in business and as a personal / professional coach, Jacqueline embarked upon a life-long dream to be a writer.

A regular contributor to journals covering international education, Jacqueline has published articles in women’s magazines and has also recorded her essays for KQED radio in San Francisco. She lives in California and is a regular visitor to the United Kingdom and Europe.

Jacqueline’s novels thus far—Maisie Dobbs, Birds of a Feather, Pardonable Lies, Messenger of Truth, An Incomplete Revenge, and Among the Mad are set in the late 1920s and early 1930s, with the roots of each story set in the Great War, 1914–1918. Her work has been nominated for numerous awards.

To learn more about the author and her books, please visit her website.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear 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.

Title: You Don’t Love This Man
Author: Dan DeWeese
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: March 1, 2011
Paperback: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-0061992322
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

A novel about fatherhood, marriage . . . and bank robbery.

Struggling to reconcile his little girl with the grown woman he’s about to walk down the aisle (if he can find her), to accept his onetime peer as his future son-in-law, and to comprehend the strange coincidence of being robbed by the same man two decades apart, Paul takes stock of everything leading up to this moment—as he attempts to navigate the day’s many surprises while questioning the motives and choices of those around him.

My Review:

You Don’t Love This Man by Dan DeWeese is a beautifully complex story of life told through DeWeese’s protagonist Paul, a divorced bank manager who is preparing for his daughter’s wedding while simultaneously dealing with authorities as his bank has been robbed. Loss is used literally and symbolically throughout the book. DeWeese opens the story in a flashback with Paul recalling losing his 3-year-old daughter while taking her trick-or-treating. In those few moments he loses track of his daughter, Paul shares the fears, concerns and thoughts he, as a young father, has while looking for Miranda. Flash-forward to present day, Paul and his ex-wife, Sandra, have mere hours to get ready for their daughter Miranda’s wedding to Paul’s friend Grant. Within minutes, Paul learns Miranda is missing and for the second time in his life he has been robbed. DeWeese has Paul alternate between past and present from the first time Paul’s bank was robbed, through his courtship of Sandra, birth of Miranda to present day where Paul is struggling with numerous stressors at once; his baby is not only about to wed, but her affianced happens to be one of her father’s close friends and of her father’s age. While Paul is trying and failing to process his emotions, he is also searching once again for his daughter and trying to understand life. You Don’t Love This Man on the surface appears to be a rather unassuming book, yet looks are often deceiving and what DeWeese has crafted is a rather detailed and complex story of relationships and how humans process emotions, interactions with one another, showing the everyday mundane parts of life in an entirely new light. Paul is a difficult man, at times his rhetorical ramblings seem to be entirely self-centered, and yet if one looks deeper one can see that Paul is not so different from anyone else. Paul in essence is humanity, he is an average person just trying to get by, at times worried, neurotic, questioning, paranoid, euphoric, and when all is said and done, trying to make it through an emotionally charged day. DeWeese has masterfully taken the mundane and turned it into a profound experience, one that is well worth discussing. You Don’t Love This Man is an excellent debut novel, one to slowly read and digest and one I highly recommend to all readers, especially book discussion groups.

About the Author:

Dan DeWeese teaches writing at Portland State University. His fiction has appeared in Tin House, New England Review, Washington Square, and other publications. In 2009, he created Propeller, an art, film, and literature quarterly magazine, for which he serves as editor in chief.

To learn more about the author please visit his website.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of You Don’t Love This Man by Dan DeWeese 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.

Title: Moonface: A True Romance
Author: Angela Balcita
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Original edition
Publication Date: February 1, 2011
Paperback: 240 pages
ISBN: 978-0061537318
Genre: Memoir

From the Publisher:

The moving and hilarious true story of a young woman who found romance and laughter in the midst of illness

At the age of eighteen, Angela Balcita had reached a point in her life when her health could not keep up with her optimistic personality. After suffering kidney failure and after her body’s rejection of the kidney her brother donated to her, she was in desperate need of a transplant.

Lucky for Angela, she had found the ultimate partner in crime: her boyfriend, Charlie. Although they had known each other for only a short period of time, Charlie offered Angela his kidney. The ensuing story is unforgettable, with readers following Angela and Charlie’s journey through preparations for their respective surgeries; the procedures themselves, difficult yet emotionally riveting; the process of recuperation through the relapses; and the eventual healing—both inside and out—that greets this undeniably powerful duo.

Expanded from Angela’s unforgettable “Modern Love” column in the New York Times and by turns funny, bittersweet, and heartwarming, Moonface will make readers laugh, cry, and, above all, appreciate the importance of unconditional love.

My Review:

Moonface by Angela Balcita is beautiful memoir of illness and unconditional love.  The book opens with Angela and Charlie doing a comedy skit about how they both came across their scars. Then Balcita takes the reader back through her life in flashbacks about Charlie’s life, her life and the discovery during her freshman year of college that she has glomerulonphritis, a disease of the kidneys, and at the young age of eighteen undergoes her first kidney transplant.  Balcita writes with wit, wisdom, and grace, unafraid to mention her worries and concern for her health in an uncomplaining manner.  I not only enjoyed Angela, but also her family and Charlie O’Doyle’s unwavering love for her.  I absolutely adored learning the story behind Charlie, referring to Angela as Moonface.  Moonface is a beautiful story of love, illness, and family.   Balcita chronicles her medical needs as she flashes back to her childhood and fond memories of her family, college, meeting and dating Charlie, focusing mainly on the period when she requires a second transplant and Charlie decides to donate his kidney to her.  Moonface tells the extraordinary story of unselfish love intermixed with exceedingly laborious and painful medical procedures that no one should ever have to go through once let alone multiple times, all the while never seeking pity, but rather telling her story through wit and love.   Each family member captured my heart and the Dolyes and Balcitas are exactly the sort of families I would very much enjoy.  I had absolutely no difficulty relating to the last few chapters, for I went through something quite similar and miraculous.  It is not a secret that I am a fan of memoirs, yet I have not encountered a memoir quite like this one and I would highly recommend Moonface to any reader who enjoys a beautiful and inspiring memoir of trials, family, and true love.

About the Author:

Angela Balcita received her MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Iowa Review, and Utne Reader, among other publications. She lives in Baltimore with her husband and daughter.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of Moonface by Angela Balcita 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.