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| # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages | avg rating | num ratings | date pub | date pub (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | recommender | comments | votes | read count | date started | date read |
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date purchased | owned | purchase location | added to swap | condition | format | ||
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| B004HD66LI
| unknown
| 3.80
| 5
| Dec 26, 2010
| unknown
| 
| In her second book on parenting, Amanda Lamb continues her journey into motherhood when her two girls reach school age and start asking questions abou...moreIn her second book on parenting, Amanda Lamb continues her journey into motherhood when her two girls reach school age and start asking questions about everything from politics to race to religion. They also start noticing things and want to talk about them. Like when three-year-old Chloe starts pointing out that some people are larger than others, usually in a loud voice within earshot of the person in question.
I would be shopping in the grocery store with Chloe in the cart (the humungous racing-car cart of course that is impossible to steer) and she would spot someone halfway down the aisle. “Mommy, that man is lar-“ she begins. Before she can get the word out, I do a drop-on-a-dime u-turn, the best I can under the circumstances. Like a NASCAR driver I have the cart up on two wheels making the hairpin turn into the next aisle in record time, trying not to nail anyone in the process. The book touches on many of the usual issues of parenting, including the kids’ fascination with body functions, negotiating the treacherous world of popular culture, exercising with kids and braving the hazards of illness with humor and sensitivity. As a working mom, Lamb juggles her professional life and her personal life, with sometimes surprising results. She was booted out of the carpool in part because the kids overheard her talking on the phone regarding her work as a TV reporter on the crime scene. I mean my own kids are used to my switching back and forth between talk about blood and guts and The Wizards of Waverly Place, but most mommies don’t have this kind of life. Although the book is often laugh-out-loud funny, at times Lamb also manages a tender reflective tone that many parents will identify with. She’s well aware that these days of childhood are numbered and makes an effort to step back from her hectic life and appreciate the sweetness of her children’s early years. As part of a two-parent family, Lamb occasionally gets frustrated with her husband, but she also appreciates his contributions to the family. When a baby is born a father is born too. I can be a lot of things to my daughters, but a father is not one of them. Many parents will appreciate the chapter on animals and pets. From the shelter to the backyard to the veterinarian, Lamb struggles to make peace with her children’s desire for pets and her own reluctance to deal with them. The section on “revenge poop” in particular gave me a good laugh and made me glad I’ve been able to avoid having pets that don’t live in a cage (we own three parakeets). It’s impressive that even with a full-time-plus job, Lamb takes time to record the little day-to-day events and funny things her kids say. I guess it comes naturally to her as a news reporter to keep a notebook with her at all times and to record things as they happen. Of course, her kids are no dummies and they caught on pretty quickly to her writing things about them. When Mallory was six, she and her mother had a particularly vivid conversation about God in the car one day. Lamb grabbed her notebook and began scribbling notes at a stoplight. Suspicious, Mallory asked if she was writing about her and Lamb confessed rather sheepishly that she was. “How about using your own thoughts,” she says, slumping back into the seat with a chip the size of Texas on her shoulder. Because yours are a lot more interesting, I think to myself. I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait to see what they’ll come up with next. Amanda Lamb’s new true-crime book, Love Lies (The Berkley Group) will hit store shelves in December 2011. It is based on a high-profile case in Cary, North Carolina, that she covered for WRAL-TV. Nancy Cooper was found dead in July 2008 a few miles from her suburban home. Her husband, Brad Cooper, said she went jogging and never returned. He was convicted of her murder in July 2008. Amanda Lamb is a hard-charging veteran TV crime reporter for WRAL-TV in Raleigh. She writes in two completely different genres—true crime and parenting humor. Her true-crime work includes Evil Next Door (The Berkley Group) and Deadly Dose (The Berkley Group). Her parenting humor includes Girls Gone Child (CreateSpace) and Smotherhood (Globe Pequot). She’s currently working on her next parenting book, I Love You, to God and Back (Thomas Nelson), set for release in Spring 2012. Find out more about Amanda Lamb at http://alambauthor.com (less) | Notes are private!
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| Sep 10, 2011
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Sep 14, 2011
| Kindle Edition
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| 098261716X
| 9780982617168
| 4.00
| 1
| Apr 01, 2011
| Apr 01, 2011
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| None
| Notes are private!
| none
| 1
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| not set
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May 28, 2011
| Paperback
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| 140006208X
| 9781400062089
| 3.67
| 34,110
| Mar 25, 2008
| Mar 25, 2008
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| None
| Notes are private!
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| Mar 23, 2011
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May 28, 2011
| Hardcover
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| 0143037749
| 9780143037743
| 3.55
| 19,508
| 2005
| Sep 01, 2006
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| On Beauty is a literary novel loaded with sharp observational humor—our club could have discussed this book for another two hours. This family saga ab...moreOn Beauty is a literary novel loaded with sharp observational humor—our club could have discussed this book for another two hours. This family saga about two antagonistic Rembrandt scholars in a fictional Massachusetts college town. Howard Belsey is a self-absorbed, working-class British white man married to an African-American, Kiki. They’ve been together for thirty years and have three very different teenagers. Howard has just admitted to having a one-night stand. He also doesn’t have tenure yet after working 10 years at Wellington College. Howard’s rival is Monty Kipps, a West Indian stuffed-shirt married to the generous Carlene, with a gorgeous daughter, Veronica, who broke the oldest Belsey child’s heart when he met her during a summer internship with her father. Kipps is now teaching alongside Belsey at Wellington College not only that--the two families live a block apart. The book is crammed with multiple shades of love and lust, midlife and teenlife crises. The dialogue is so well-drawn from real life and you’ll find yourself easily experiencing all of Smith’s descriptions. Our book club discussion touched on class, race, political conflicts, and the theme of beauty. We also discussed why Kiki was our favorite character and how much did Howard's father shape his personality.(less)
| Notes are private!
| none
| 1
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| May 26, 2011
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May 28, 2011
| Paperback
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| 0451229231
| 9780451229236
| 3.69
| 252
| Apr 06, 2010
| Apr 06, 2010
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| In her first novel, The Queen’s Pawn (Penguin Group, 2010) Christy English brings a pivotal, yet largely unknown historical woman to life. English int...moreIn her first novel, The Queen’s Pawn (Penguin Group, 2010) Christy English brings a pivotal, yet largely unknown historical woman to life. English introduces readers to the bright and inquiring mind of Princess Alais of France starting with the day she is told she will be sent across the Channel to be raised and marry Prince Richard of England. It’s a dynastic marriage made to maintain the uneasy peace with England. Motherless after the queen died upon her birth, she is her father’s favorite, but the King of France needed the peace more than he needed his daughter. Though England is France’s traditional enemy, Alais goes without complaint.
Waiting for her in England is her betrothed’s mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of England. By the book’s start, she is already a woman of fifty, having loved (and left) a husband and paramours, ridden in the Crusades, and had already snared the King of England and given him sons and daughters. She didn’t accomplish this by simply letting things happen—she made them happen. English shows just how Eleanor wielded her power by giving us a woman shrewd in judging and manipulating others, and doing so without being overt about it. It takes a special sort of mind and an iron will, and Eleanor is a master of both. We listen to Eleanor’s thoughts when she first sees Alais and recognizes a kindred spirit, sees herself in the girl’s potential. Already estranged from her husband and lonely, she adopts Alais as her own daughter and by lavishing her love and wisdom on her, teaches Alais how to navigate the tricky waters of the royal court. The trouble starts when Alais sets off on her own against the advice of Eleanor in a bid to secure her future and to cement the peace between the two countries … and the rest is history. Christy English provides the reader with crisp clean language and description sandwiched between bits of action and dialogue. The elegance and imagery in her prose helps the reader focus on what really matters: the two women who drive the story and how their choices, for good or ill, affect those around them. She gives us two women with intelligence and spirit when women are expected to have neither. Instead, we have strong characters, political intrigue, love, betrayal, heartbreak and more. The real surprise is the alternating chapters in the first person voice, allowing us an immediate access to the two women that third person narrative cannot provide. I’m looking forward to reading more of English’s historical novels! For more information about Christy English, visit here. (less) | Notes are private!
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| Feb 04, 2011
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Mar 04, 2011
| Paperback
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| 1599482703
| 9781599482705
| 4.50
| 6
| 2010
| Dec 10, 2010
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| None
| Notes are private!
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Jan 07, 2011
| Paperback
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| 0982308795
| 9780982308790
| 3.50
| 2
| Aug 28, 2010
| Aug 19, 2010
| 
| In Breaking the Hippocratic Oath and Other Stories Deborah Thompson crams five short stories between the covers and explores ideas ranging from crime ...moreIn Breaking the Hippocratic Oath and Other Stories Deborah Thompson crams five short stories between the covers and explores ideas ranging from crime and punishment to time alteration to alien life forms making contact with us.
Just how would one write the downward spiral of a respected and successful doctor in private practice as he succumbs to weakness and addiction? In “Breaking the Hippocratic Oath,” we follow Dr. Marcus Wagner’s downfall and start off with an edgy prologue—he’s peering through the shuttered blinds of his house at a mysterious black car driven by someone he’s convinced is stalking him. Who is it? Why is he or she following Wagner? Thompson catches the reader up fast on Wagner’s past—college, medical school, residency, love and marriage. Sixteen years, two children, and countless patients later Wagner has climbed to the top of the success ladder but the rungs underfoot are giving way. There are clues in the narrative: Wagner’s staff start watching him closely, double checking his work; he starts losing time, those odd moments of sleeping awake, unaware of what he’s done; his wife thinks he’s having an affair; his friendship with a chance-met younger man takes on overriding significance he can’t explain. The tension mounts. His growing inability to focus on his patients leads to the accidental death of one of them, his wife leaves him and serves up papers for a divorce, and Wagner turns increasingly to his drug addiction to cope. Not good. The end, when it comes, is quick, a double whammy that sends Wagner reeling. As a story, it’s an interesting if somewhat sordid one and it was over too fast. Thompson follows this with “Backspace Key”. Time travel and memory erasure are staples in science fiction but this story gives both a new twist: jurisprudence. While she doesn’t fully explain how everyone comes to possess their innate backspace key, she does describe how a person can legally use it to evade punishment a past action. Society actually has an entire section of the legal code devoted to its use. The key is “pressed”, the slate wiped clean, removing the errors of the person’s past. Time is reset and the action never happens and the world goes on. Given the nature of the time alteration, it also can be used by proxy to save another person’s life. There is a catch to the key: it can only be used once. Having established that, Thompson goes on to show us one Martin Kinsey, a CEO and swindler of ENRON proportions using his backspace key to avoid prison for his financial crime. He goes back to his old bank in the much lower position of Customer Relations and carries on with his life. However, the past as a way of tripping a person up and that happens when his former mistress from his swindler days meets him by chance on the street. In the way women have of scoping out the competition, Kinsey’s wife immediately twigs who she is even though it takes a moment for her husband to figure it out. What happens next is an interesting twist on revenge and the ending brings home the idea that perhaps consequences for one’s actions cannot be removed, only delayed. “The Dater” is the next story in the line-up. Online dating, profiles, and the fact that on the internet nobody really knows who you are. It’s a combination ripe for abuse and Thompson spins us a scenario of how one lonely-heart woman takes advantage of it. It’s a short little story, coming quickly to the anticipated conclusion as the protagonist arranges to meet her internet friend … and then everything goes a little sideways. In an ending reminiscent of the film Single White Female the protagonist monkeywrenches the reader’s expectations and the ending comes rather quickly. Something like the headsman’s axe and I was left wondering just what the heck happened. How was that done? Thompson is frustratingly short on the details. Jumping ahead in the line-up to the last story, “Terrarium World” is a short and sweet speculative piece about a five-year-old boy’s terrarium and the life forms in it. Leaving aside the circumstances that drive the story forward, “Terrarium World” offers a chance to wonder what alternative forms of life exist and how communication between them and us can occur. How can a different species communicate with Homo sapiens without having the benefit of mouths or airwaves to transmit sound? How can a different species be microscopic yet crystalline in structure and could a rock be considered alive as a result? Lots of questions spin off from the author’s alien creatures physical, mental, and emotional make-up and while the story does give us a happy ending, I was left feeling it could have been an even better story had Thompson given herself more pages to develop it. With the exception of the middle story of the book, “The Adventures of the Brantley Brothers”, Thompson’s offerings suffer from the same flaw—great idea, not enough pages devoted to developing in full. I got the sense that I was merely reading a thumbnail sketch of a fuller treatment of the story. Perhaps this is true. Perhaps Thompson is right now polishing up full length manuscripts for all of them. I hope so. I’d really like to see what she could do with the ideas her four stories presented. I’d certainly buy the books as they came out and take them for a spin. And speaking of taking something out for a spin, let me mention “The Adventures of the Brantley Boys” separate from the rest. It is here, finally, that I got the sense that Thompson’s quick and almost breezy narrative style got the chance to truly shine. The short anecdotal nature of the tales of the Brantley boys is perfect for the purpose. Just like sitting on the porch and spinning yarns at the annual family reunion, these stories are meant to be told as slice-of-life snapshots, with little connecting narrative from one to the other. Two redneck good ol’ boys from a fictitious North Carolina town, the Brantleys get into many a scrape and a scrap on both sides of the law. No apologies made, no apologies needed. They are who they are and we have a fun time seeing them as they are. The stories are humorous for the most part, going more for entertainment than erudition. They are nothing one can call deep. Yet by exaggerating the flaws of the Brantleys so vividly, we can laugh at them even as we acknowledge the flaws in ourselves and that is the true value in the tales. Who wouldn’t want to max out someone’s credit card on a wild three-week spree at a beach resort? Who wouldn’t want to break every speed law there is on the books on a mad dash to a destination? There is an undeniable quirky charm in learning a vintage car is all flash on nothing, missing entire floorboards to glimpse the asphalt speeding by underneath, and know that the owner believes it to be a solid gold beauty of a ride. Who hasn’t had similar feelings for their car and who in the audience can resist feeling a twinge of sadness when the Brantley car goes up in smoke in one of the tales, and in true seat-of-the-pants, Brantley Boys fashion? Again, if I had to bring any complaint against this collection of short stories, it is that they are too short. All the stories offered glimpses of worlds that seem much bigger and invited exploration. Perhaps Deborah Thompson will revisit them and expand them to novel length. I can only think that they would shine even brighter if she did. (less) | Notes are private!
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| 1
| not set
| Dec 23, 2010
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Dec 24, 2010
| Paperback
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| 1591841747
| 9781591841746
| 3.68
| 538
| Dec 27, 2007
| Dec 27, 2007
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| guestpost by Dave Baldwin
Seth Godin in Meatball Sundae asserts that the market demands an ontological shift in the core of a business cult...moreguestpost by Dave Baldwin Seth Godin in Meatball Sundae asserts that the market demands an ontological shift in the core of a business culture if that business is to grow and adapt. In the relentlessly-changing Web 2.0 environment where an infinitude of shiny choices abound and the short attention span is king, says Godin, an organization must re-align itself from the inside out. Godin cites numerous examples of business that created not only new products and services to fit the market, but new methods of distribution, sales, and supply chain management. In other words, marketing in the Web 2.0 world is not simply a matter of uploading a few YouTube videos and then proceeding with business as usual. It’s not Godin’s style to give direct solutions to problems or dole out patronizing step-by-step formulas. Instead, he helped me to see the real challenges I didn’t know I was facing as a solo entrepreneur more clearly and from a fresh perspective. As I read through the different stories in the book, the picture that came sharply into focus depicted a new way of doing business. I had to stop making average stuff for average people. In my case, I had to stop trying to be an average writer for an average client. Against conventional logic, I immediately abandoned my only steady income stream and set to work on what would be my first full-length book, Pied Piper Entrepreneurship. I did this because Godin had made it crystal clear that I needed to honor my core strengths and talents that made me remarkable as a human being. I saw that if I really wanted the marketplace to take my gifts seriously, I needed to start taking them seriously myself. Within days after I started to do this, the phone rang with a new project that replaced my old job in one fell swoop. It was as if the stars winked at me. That was a good day. I could fill a volume with the insights that I gleaned from reading Meatball Sundae, but I’ll just list a few here. 1. Listening to what people are saying online is 100 times more important than broadcasting information about what you’re selling. 2. Assume that someone is reading and remembering every single word you write online. 3. Stop looking for communities with the most people, and start engaging communities where the right people congregate. This applies online and offline. 4. If you’re having to work hard to get people to pay attention to something, try just doing something else instead. Meatball Sundae is a fast and fun read. Go pick up a copy today. You’ll be glad you did. (less) | Notes are private!
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Dec 14, 2010
| Hardcover
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| 076116085X
| 9780761160854
| 4.52
| 29
| Nov 11, 2010
| Nov 04, 2010
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| None
| Notes are private!
| none
| 0
| Dec 2010
| not set
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Dec 01, 2010
| Paperback
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| 098252143X
| 9780982521434
| 4.00
| 2
| unknown
| unknown
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| None
| Notes are private!
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Dec 01, 2010
| Paperback
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| 0984247386
| 9780984247387
| 4.50
| 2
| Jan 01, 2010
| 2010
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| None
| Notes are private!
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Dec 01, 2010
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| 1588382311
| 9781588382313
| 4.00
| 2
| Oct 28, 2010
| Oct 28, 2010
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| Over David Rigsbee’s prestigious poetry and writing career, he has amassed seven full-length poetry collections. His eighth is The Red Tower, New and ...moreOver David Rigsbee’s prestigious poetry and writing career, he has amassed seven full-length poetry collections. His eighth is The Red Tower, New and Selected Poems, containing diverse narrative and lyrical poems about the South, architecture, the poet’s father, his younger brother’s suicide, and a traveler’s Italy and Russia. As Rigsbee finds the kernels of human connection among the mundane (pottery, kitchen knives, weeds) he also gives us incredible moments of sinister beauty and even hope among the natural and manmade world. This rich collection comes together so well because Rigsbee combines a surgeon’s eye with a poet’s voice of justice. In every poem there’s a reckoning of the present with the past scaffolded by sharp images and description.
In “Gil’s Sentence,” Rigsbee recalls Gil Scott-Heron as a fellow creative writing student at Johns Hopkins who in a way defends him with a sentence when Rigsbee’s poem is being torn to shreds by his fellow classmates. The irony is twofold: Scott-Heron ignores him later when they’re off campus and Scott-Heron must serve a jail sentence in 2006, his second stint in prison. Scanning the table, he who had been silent all semester debuted a serrated baritone that wondered about the merit of intention, something he thought neglected (“Intention is the moon I follow,” I seem to remember his saying, though the verbatim trips here). He was risen to that defense when justice was poetic and of course snubbed me later when I tried to ingratiate myself with a lame joke in our apartment elevator. In “After Reading,” Rigsbee struggles with what purity is and questions if it has any place in the midst of human imperfection. The last line delivers a punch that is both ecstatic leap and profound observation. I put down the book thinking how purity is a curse, how it puts us off the human for whom it better fits to turn away from the shore in favor of the garbage and the grief. I remember standing in the nave of St. Peter’s looking at the smooth, dead body of Christ held in Mary’s arms and secretly admiring the madman whose hammer chipped the same marble that made Michelangelo such a monster. “A Hanging (after Orwell)” turns a man’s hanging into a surreal dream experience moments before the man’s death, much like the Twilight Zone episode did in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” where the condemned man fantasized escaping from his condition at the exact moment the rope snapped his neck. I sometimes dream that my bed is floating out to sea; storks like caulking guns roost on the bedposts. If I take this dream in a moral light it makes me wake up good. Besides this poem there are several others in this collection that discuss racism, slow justice and deferred dreams. Rigsbee never takes these political poems in an expected direction; rather he deliberates on objects outside the main scene so he can come at a difficult subject sideways. In “Prisoners Bathing” the prisoners’ state-owned bodies meld into a ballet outside the prison walls. Twenty, maybe thirty men wait under a pipe that’s drilled with holes like stops on a flute. Then, as in some pantomime, the water and the washing. … These projections are like sinking, the limbs and torsos swallowed up, but waving and bending as if time were not critical to anything, and they would be clean even in their extremity. David Rigsbee’s poetry is strongest when he combines the personal with history and when he questions his personal loss, namely his brother’s suicide in 1992 which is referenced in the titular “The Red Tower.” For two years I drove by the mountain And wondered how long it would take To tunnel through using a teaspoon. That’s how dead my brother was. Through his clear language, original metaphors and images that are easy to visualize, Rigsbee reminds us how danger, possibility and joy make life sublime. (less) | Notes are private!
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| Nov 30, 2010
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Dec 01, 2010
| Hardcover
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| 0615377386
| 9780615377384
| 4.00
| 2
| Aug 01, 2010
| Aug 01, 2010
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| Reviewed by Jane K. Andrews
Speaking Your Truth, subtitled Courageous Stories from Inspiring Women, compiled by Lisa Schultz and Andrea Con...moreReviewed by Jane K. Andrews Speaking Your Truth, subtitled Courageous Stories from Inspiring Women, compiled by Lisa Schultz and Andrea Constantine, and illustrated by Janice Earhart, is the kind of collection I could give as a gift to several female friends. They would appreciate the first person accounts of other women who have overcome economic and educational deprivation, as well as substance abuse, spousal abuse, and what seems to be an epidemic of dissatisfaction with well-paying, but soulless positions in corporate America. Most of the women contributing to this book are listed at the end of their offerings as healers, coaches, spiritual directors, or artists of some stripe. Just the kind of people you might guess would take the road less traveled and then establish themselves as landmarks in the MapQuest search for fulfillment and self-actualization. Janice Earhart’s drawings at the beginning of each chapter are jaunty and engaging. Our resident author Ginny Martin Fleming, who lives in Wake Forest wrote, “Royal Warrior Goddess.” This piece is about the author creating an inspiring image of a princess warrior goddess on a white plastic mask while she attended a women’s retreat. This mask symbolizes clarity, truth and compassion. We learn later on that Ginny suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia as a young mother. These diseases take their toll on their victims not only through insomnia, physical and mental pain, but also through social apathy. Usually the sufferer doesn’t look like she’s suffering, so many times, family and acquaintances might judge that the victim’s disease is “all in her head.” This only adds to the victim’s emotional pain. But through yoga, meditation, journaling and other healing practices Ginny was able to manage her condition. Ginny’s story is very personal yet universal. Through the details she recounts about her warrior goddess and the other trinkets, she reminded me of the many icons and do-dads I keep on my desk to help me create and write. Despite the title, “The Power of Positive Thinking”, I found the content of Ginny Brannon's story very inspiring. She reports life with her schizophrenic mother, being sexually molested, and the positive influence of her grandmother with a matter of fact understatement. She credits Norman Vincent Peale with her ability to look on the bright side and wring the best out of any situation, no matter how difficult. It seems to have worked well for her, and her experience resonates more effectively with a modern audience than anything by Dr. Peale. Ms. Brannon is a natural resources lawyer. The other account I found especially affecting was “Knowing My Roots and Planting My Trees.” Kelly M. Calton's meditation on how her small town, mid-western values inform her perception and practice in accounting, bookkeeping, and human resources seem genuine. She expresses a deep understanding of the trust and intimacy involved in dealing with other people's finances. Back to my female friends who might receive Speaking Your Truth from me for Christmas. For them, the example of women who can publicly own their recovery from various traumas, could provide just the nudge my friends have been waiting for. Somewhere in the six sections, ranging from “Self-Discovery” to “Faith and Spirituality”, to “Finding Your Own Path”, they will discover a familiar story with an empowered outcome. That story, I hope, and the authors and editors hope, will give the recipients the impetus to re-write their own stories with a happy ending. (less) | Notes are private!
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| Aug 30, 2010
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Sep 30, 2010
| Paperback
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| 0670021318
| 9780670021314
| 3.00
| 67
| Apr 13, 2010
| Apr 15, 2010
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| Michelle Boyajian’s debut novel, Lies of the Heart, is too slippery to be assigned one genre.¬¬ It takes off in a prologue with the sentence, “It’s on...moreMichelle Boyajian’s debut novel, Lies of the Heart, is too slippery to be assigned one genre.¬¬ It takes off in a prologue with the sentence, “It’s one of those surreal moments in life, sitting there in the courtroom and staring into the eyes of her husband’s killer.” Remember this —it is your first clue. Murder is the MacGuffin that drives the book, but this is not a simple murder mystery or courtroom drama. The prologue is one paragraph and by the bottom of the page the reader knows who was killed and by whom and that the killer is in custody. The mystery that Katie Burelli, the protagonist, spends over three hundred pages trying to solve is the mystery of motive. Why did Jerry LaPlante, the thirty-eight year old mentally retarded man Katie and her husband Nick practically adopted steal a gun and fire a bullet at point blank range into Nick’s skull?
It is in the prologue that we find Katie imagining in her mind’s eye, through the vehicle of staring into Nick’s eyes, the trajectory of the bullet, the death of the brain—feeling by feeling, memory by memory. The scenario she pictures is rendered in exquisite detail, a mixture of poetry and pathology. We learn later in the book that Katie is a documentary film maker. Death is not the only mystery in Lies of the Heart. The relationships between parents and children, friends, siblings, and married couples are explored throughout. Boyajian cuts between Jerry LaPlante’s trial (in the present tense) and past episodes in Katie’s life. For example, the reader is given glimpses of Arthur and Sarah Cohen, a couple who survived the Holocaust, while Katie is depicted watching footage of a documentary she has been working on. Although the Cohens have died, the film is always present tense. The Cohen’s, her sister, her friends, and even a stranger lend her wisdom and lessons in morality—advice an astute reader would have given her chapters before so that by the close of the book the long overdue loose ends are wrapped up. As the book progresses, secrets unfold, betrayals are revealed, and catastrophe initiates change and growth. The narrative, even when addressing what should be happy moments, is weighted with poignancy and grief. This is not a book to read in one sitting, nor it is a book for a reader seeking action or suspense. Boyajian’s pace is deliberately slow. Dialogue is backgrounded and description takes the foreground. This is appropriate, since Katie is frequently shown staring, watching, and seeing. She is outside the frame and studying other people for information about herself. Some of the people she studies resent her obsessive scrutiny, and that scrutiny has far-reaching and dangerous effects. Boyajian has been called “a stunning new voice in women’s fiction” but again, it is unfair to dismiss this book as “women’s fiction”. Ultimately in Lies of the Heart, absolute truth and the possibility of objective knowledge are called into question; themes that include any literature, women’s or otherwise. Lies of the Heart is a strong first novel and I look forward to reading more fiction from Michelle Boyajian. (less) | Notes are private!
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| Sep 13, 2010
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Sep 13, 2010
| Hardcover
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| 1570039321
| 9781570039324
| 4.00
| 3
| 2010
| Apr 30, 2010
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| Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins once told an audience that the study of literature, especially of poetry, is the study of death. Whatever a poem’s ...moreFormer Poet Laureate Billy Collins once told an audience that the study of literature, especially of poetry, is the study of death. Whatever a poem’s apparent subject—love, trees, soup—it’s the certainty of loss that powers the tensions holding a poem together. South Carolina Poetry Initiative prize winner, Worthy Evans, feels this loss in his debut poetry collection, Green Revolver, which examines work, family, war, and social contracts. Among the lively play of metaphors, alternative personas, and surrealistic narratives is a tense blend of alienation, angst, love, and even humor.
Green Revolver is divided into three sections, although the same topics inform them all. Anyone who has ever toiled in a corporate cubicle of motivational posters and stain resistant carpet will recognize the absurdity of “Instructions” in this snippet: If you determine that work procedures prevent the practice of processing, treat the request as an inquiry. Submitting a problem ticket dismisses this appeal, but must initiate from inside the QIC… …treat the duplicate as hyperlink for the existing appeal… Repeat. Unlike Peter in the 1999 film Office Space, Evans has obviously gotten the memo on TPS reports. He hijacks corporate jargon and tunes the p, s, and t sounds to create music, humor, and parody. The final word, “Repeat,” is a curt reminder of existential despair. Marriage comes under observation in “Sunset.” It begins, “The man and his wife walked up to the/canyon lip and he said It’s good,/not great. But the book said to do it/so here we are.” The people under scrutiny are never named, but the sense is that they are emblematic of many couples. The speaker reports, “The man said he and/the wife got married and later looked/to the west as it stood before Lake/Pontchartrain.” The man calls the woman “the” wife, not “my” wife, a small but important choice of the poet’s to hint at a bit of emotional distance and that “wife” is a sort of informal job title like “the pizza guy.” The speaker even introduces her as “his wife.” Recalling the view at the lake the man asserts, “That was better,/and so was this place in Australia.” There is a white space pause between verses and the next verse focuses on the wife. “The wife until this point had been silent./She was always the framer and picture/hanger for her husband,/she told me as/we were walking back to the gift shop/to look at posters, postcards and/screensavers of what we had just seen./I believe I’ll take this one, she said.” This brief encounter could be interpreted as sweet or incidental. Evans’ self-effacing record of the couple suggests a habit of consuming revisionist personal history. The “one” the wife takes at the gift shop is not the one she and her husband have experienced. Actual experience and memory are not up to her aesthetic standards so she substitutes a better, photoshopped version. Extending the unspoken cynicism, it is easy to assume the wife edits, crops, frames, and hangs glossy improvements in other areas of the couple’s lives. Both “Instructions and “Sunset” demonstrate the loss of meaningful productivity and the defeat of authentic memory by mass produced products. Green Revolver includes poems which make use of male sports culture. Evans blends his knowledge of this culture with his understanding of the military in “The Lesson.” Having been a sportswriter and a combat engineer with the Army, he has credibility and fluency in this area. Although some of the poems in this book are written in the first person, “The Lesson” again makes use of a detached narrator. Four hundred trainees bound for war filled sections H through K in the ballpark, ready to take in a game. Time to pitch security notions and pulling guard to watch college boys in summer leagues …take a break and beat each other with wooden bats and tricks rubbed up in the dirt. The trainees holler the Soldier’s Creed …at attention, and got to the pitcher in the fifth. His slider down and in went too far, too hot to handle for his catcher who pounced a mitt on the ball just as the runner at second jumped for third. Catcher rifled too hard around the right-handed batter and the bullet sailed away from the third baseman and into left As soon as it’s noted the college boys will be beating each other and using dirty tricks, it appears that summer baseball and war begin to overlap. Rifling and “the bullet” add to the idea. The poem then continues at a good clip: Leftfielder threw to catcher but by then our runner rounded the bag and set his sights on home. When the ball bounced back in, the run was on the board. Some pats on the back… When did the runner become “our” runner when he sets his sights for home? If he’s our runner, who are we? Who is the speaker now? Is he a college boy, trainee or both? “Set his sights” is a metaphor for aiming at something you are going to shoot, so the overlap carries forward. The home run is transformative as the point of view changes so the trainees are now promoted to soldiers and the pitcher has learned a lesson. War and baseball are not dissimilar: the opposing team is just another enemy and can’t a baseball game become training for war? The poems discussed above are only a few of Worthy Evans’ shrewd riffs on the human condition. Readers will discover among the ballads of existential angst, the surprise of genuine affection without sentimentality, and the ordinary paired with dark whimsy. Evans’ first book combines Office Space with Fight Club and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Some of the poems in Green Revolver left me with more questions than answers. Others seemed to end in a poetic cul-de-sac of non sequitor. But this is Evans’ point of living in modern America: even as people gain connections via technology, they are losing pieces of themselves. In Green Revolver, life never contains clear answers and that even if you are a contributing member of society, you can still feel distant and alienated from your fellow human beings. (less) | Notes are private!
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Aug 24, 2010
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| 0974383252
| 9780974383255
| 4.67
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| Many women fear turning fifty in our society. After all, beauty fades, health deteriorates and friends start dying. Why would anyone look forward to t...moreMany women fear turning fifty in our society. After all, beauty fades, health deteriorates and friends start dying. Why would anyone look forward to turning fifty with all of these losses? According to Kathleen Logan and Dr. Betsy Smith who wrote the comprehensive, Second Blooming for Women: Growing a Life that Matters after Fifty, there’s a lot of gains to look forward to in life’s second act. In this book the authors use the extended metaphor of flowers, soil and root systems to illustrate the blossoming of the mature years; this is a period of time for women to take charge of their lives and take advantage of the possibilities. What are these possibilities? They can include starting a new career, developing a talent that has lain dormant for years, or making a concerted effort to forgive and let go old habits that hold you back from your potential.
Both of the authors are lifecoaches with every chapter packed with inspiring advice you’ll want to keep it handy when you need a pick-me-up when life throws you a challenge. Logan and Smith invited a diverse cadre of women to share their perspectives throughout the chapters, which insures that this book never feels too academic. Besides the personal stories from the round table of women, the authors themselves also share their lives and experiences with the reader. Logan and Smith alternate chapters, having selected their chapters based on their individual expertise. Logan’s chapters focus more on the why you should bloom (“Are You Root Bound? Embrace Change”) while Smith’s chapters give you the how (“Annuals: Inventory Your Skills”). At the beginning of each chapter is original floral artwork from Lyda Toy, captioned with a definition of that flower, which sets the tone for the text that follows. For instance, there’s kudzu at the front of Logan’s chapter of “Weeds: Pull Them to Improve Your Garden’s Yield,” which is one of most powerful sections in the book. In “Weeds,” the reader learns how to strive for excellence instead of perfection while working to clear debt, addictions, abuse, and blame from her life. At the end of each chapter, exercises and resources follow, so the reader always feels supported and the learning can continue beyond the initial reading. Beginning with a history of the American woman’s struggle for equality, Logan ends this chapter by stating, “As a group, those of us over fifty will live longer than previous generations, are healthier, have more money, are better educated, can access a virtual world with computers, have built a wide variety of skills, and are accustomed to planning our own lives. But there are few models or guidelines for us, so we’ll have to create them as we go.” Women over fifty have seen so many changes that they may need a road map to figure out what to do next and Second Blooming is that map. Smith addresses values and vision statements and defines the difference between a skill and a talent. She says, “Unlike talents and strengths, which are more biologically based, skills can be taught, learned, and often transferred from one situation to another.” Talent is what you’re born with and skill is what you develop as you live your life. The reader is encouraged to take several skill-identifying tests including the Clifton StrenthFinder inventory, which is available for purchase. After identifying her strengths and talents, the reader is then asked to express her life purpose. All of these concrete activities are designed to help women over fifty feel empowered and able to steer the next segment of their lives with passion and determination. This book encourages women, not just those fifty and up, to take pride in their individual gifts and to move beyond thinking of themselves as just a pretty face, gorgeous legs or long blonde hair. Reaching fifty is not a death sentence; it is a milestone that must be honored and cherished because the next chapter is going to prove amazing. It does take courage to turn fifty and to be bold with your life, but what are you going to lose? Your life matters. Logan says, “Like bulbs your dreams are awaiting their season to burst forth in colorful abundance. It’s time to let those bulbs poke through, time for you to bloom. Dreams don’t have expiration dates.” Read more about the authors, Kathleen Vestal Logan and E.L. (Betsy) Smith, Ph.D. at their site, http://secondbloomingforwomen.com (less) | Notes are private!
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Aug 05, 2010
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| B003H4R9QO
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| 4.00
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| Apr 13, 2010
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| The core of Ed Swartley's message in When Did I Become the Oldest Person in the Room? is that writing is hard and not for the faint of heart. But if y...moreThe core of Ed Swartley's message in When Did I Become the Oldest Person in the Room? is that writing is hard and not for the faint of heart. But if you really want to be a writer, then you need to practice your craft, read voraciously, and "love the chase for the perfect word." Swartley says, "If you don't love to write, give it up. It's much too hard, much too taxing, the rewards much too elusive and fleeting."
The book came about when Swartley discovered he wasn't the youngest person in the room anymore and that he had valuable writing and life advice to share. Oldest Person in the Room is geared mainly towards the aspiring writer, although more experienced writers may benefit from his encouragment and wisdom. This guide is hybrid of a practical English guide since it also includes vignettes of Swartley's life and philosophy. He references speeches, especially the speeches of Ronald Reagon, penned by Peggy Noonan, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and the Bible. You can tell that Swartley has fun writing about sentence length, slang, common word choice errors, adverbs (Living with Lee), puns, and idioms. He also includes a chapter on formatting, type-faces, white space that every writer should know. Keep this guide in a safe place when you feel overwhelmed by writers' block. Open it up to let Swartley's tough teacher talk entice you to "Just Do It!" He mentions several times throughout the guide that writing is a solitary art and that one needs to take "I Breaks" to stay focused and fresh. He also mentions "Eye Breaks," to help your posture and remind you of your daily water consumption. I would have preferred to have encountered more of his practical writing advice (The Lessons) closer to the beginning of the book, with some of his examples of good writing in the middle or towards the end. I found myself nodding my head at many of his tips, especially his 10-point diagnostic check used at the revision stage. This guide is good refresher for veteran writers, but beginning writers will be the ones who will most benefit from his tips. *** Ed Swartley is a veteran of 12 years in daily newspaper journalism and 20 years as a marketing executive in education, banking and printing. The former Business Editor of the Colorado Springs Sun, he currently is Editor of the monthly Rocky Mountain Direct Marketing Association DirectLine. He provides professional services as an editor and writing consultant at www.fixadocument.com (less) | Notes are private!
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Jul 08, 2010
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| 1450209084
| 9781450209083
| 4.00
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| Mar 29, 2010
| Mar 29, 2010
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| Reimagine, Dick Harris's debut culmination of poems is not just another full-length poetry book, it is a memoir of a well-lived life. Harris, a former...moreReimagine, Dick Harris's debut culmination of poems is not just another full-length poetry book, it is a memoir of a well-lived life. Harris, a former teacher, psychologist and college administrator grew up in the Upper Skagit River Valley in northwest Washington State. Nature, family history, and travel inform his poems, as does the work of Gary Snyder, Robinson Jeffers, and Wendell Berry. Expect to find farmlife, rivers, prairies and snow in many of his selections.
Harris has written his entire life, but only came to poetry in the early 1990s (in his late 50s) through the Iowa Summer Writing Festival (Harris attended ten seasons of workshops between 1997-2008), Elderhostels, open mic events, and a weekly writing group he facilitated at Barnes & Noble. As a way to acknowledge his prose and teaching past, Harris offers his reader thorough end notes about each poem, as well as a biography that pinpoints his work in a time and place. I also appreciated at the end of every poem how he added the location and year the poem originated. Reimagine is divided into four sections: "Places," "Moments," "Souls Now Departed" and "Voices." One of the strongest poems that emerged from his "Places" section is "The Prairie Rolls On" about his grandmother revisting her former homestead site. Grandma's eyes livened, her countenance relaxed. I saw the bride she was in September 1906. I saw unfold in the afternoon haze, the stories in her journal of she and Grandpa claiming this prairie as their home. Harris uses simple, straight language to make meaning and to capture images, which is his strong suit. In the "Moments" section, Harris corrals the image of a dead deer combining horror and empathy in "The Commute": During an early dawn commute in the after-fog of a summer storm north of Calgary through a windshield blurred with road oil I see tire skids in the gravel plowing ruts in the brink of a ditch and a deer half-buried in turgid muck belly up neck twisted one bulbous eye staring into cattails I drive on Death is a common theme in poetry as poets strive to be witnesses to those who have left us. Harris carries this torch as he devotes a section ("Souls Now Departed") to those who have passed on. He is careful not to veer to the expected or the trite in most of this section, although the last lines "February 3, 1959" did not surprise me. On a farm-to-market road beyond grain bins north of town, memorial flowers are scattered. Across a farmer's field, three records and a stainless guitar shimmers in the sun; inscribed "Peggy Sue, Donna, Chantilly Lace," and "Buddy Richie, The Big Bopper, 2/3/59" --a tribute to youthful fame --an immortale claim. Harris trusts his line and image in "The Pink Balloon," about the funeral of an old friend where one of the released balloons lingers after the others float away. All rose, except one, drifting toward broken cumulus gliding across an azure sky. Hestitant, it hovered near the ground unwilling to leave, to let go Dick Harris is a lover of words and the consummate lifelong learner. He is an optimist and a beliver in the enduring power of the human spirit. Each of his poems in this collection is a glimpse into another life, country or time. To make his work even more immediate, I would have liked to have seen Harris turn some of his work into persona poems, since so much of his work involves the voices of others. I would have also liked to have more read poems about his own past of growing up in the midst of the Great Depression in a logging community. This is a strong first collection and I can't wait to experience more of Dick Harris' quiet, yet powerful verse. (less) | Notes are private!
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Jul 08, 2010
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| 0982539622
| 9780982539620
| 3.78
| 9
| 2010
| Mar 01, 2010
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| Is it a romance? Is it a thriller? Is it an environmental tale? No, it’s all three! The Wind in the Woods by Rose Senehi is a gripping family saga ...moreIs it a romance? Is it a thriller? Is it an environmental tale? No, it’s all three! The Wind in the Woods by Rose Senehi is a gripping family saga set in North Carolina's Green River Valley, where a serial killer is stalking hikers.
Charismatic widower Tiger Morrison has spent a lifetime saving children from nature-deficit disorder, only to find himself in the fight of his life to protect his undisturbed world from land-grabbing developers in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. He's also fighting to win Katie Warlick, but she can't forgive him for not wanting her the way she wanted him 20 years ago. While Tiger is involved in the struggle to save his camp, his daughter, Sammy, is trying to find her place in the clannish realm of summer youth camps. As she searches for her identity, she never suspects that a serial killer is stalking her. Although flagged as a romantic thriller by its publisher, this is probably a little misleading; rather The Wind in the Woods can be described as a thriller that also contains a love story. The juxtaposition of the violent, stalking sociopath Gary Skinner with that of the beauty of the Green River Valley and the goodness of Tiger make this novel an interesting, if sometimes challenging read. Some may be uneasy with the descriptions of cruelty to both humans and animals, especially if they are expecting a straightforward romance. But rather than detract from the love story, the evil personified by Gary Skinner acts to underline the necessity of love in our lives, be it family love, romantic love and even our love for the beauty of nature. The serial killer plotline is convincing and well-drawn. Senehi used the real life tale of 61-year-old serial killer Gary Michael Hilton as the basis for her portrayal of Gary Skinner. In deference to his victims’ families, Senehi has changed the name and location of “his” attacks, which are described so vividly in her novel. There are some truly chilling moments when she describes his preparations to go “hunting”. And Senehi is also just as convincing when writing about the joy of interacting with nature through camping. Woven through her story is the 100-year-old history of summer youth camps in the Hendersonville/Brevard section of Western North Carolina (which has the highest concentration of summer camps in the United States) and her descriptions of the tight-knit youth camps where friendships are forged will bring back many readers’ fondest childhood camp memories. Senehi also uses the story of Tiger’s camp to underline the environmental issues that are affecting similar camps in North Carolina today. The Wind in the Woods is Rose Senehi’s fifth novel, and the second in a series that take place in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains. Her fourth novel, In the Shadows of Chimney Rock, was nominated for the 2009 SIBA Book Award by members of the Southern Independent Bookseller’s Alliance as the Best in Southern Literature for the year. Contemporary fiction writer, Senehi, is noted for weaving environmental themes into her plots. A resident of Chimney Rock, North Carolina and Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, she moved from Upstate New York in 1996. Her other novels include: Pelican Watch, Windfall, and Shadows in the Grass. For more information about Rose Senehi visit her website at www.rosesenehi.com(less) | Notes are private!
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Jun 30, 2010
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| 1599482266
| 9781599482262
| 4.43
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| Mar 25, 2010
| Mar 25, 2010
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| From the title alone, you know that Girl on a Bridge will involve danger, personal transition, or perhaps lost youth. Suzanne Frischkorn's second poet...moreFrom the title alone, you know that Girl on a Bridge will involve danger, personal transition, or perhaps lost youth. Suzanne Frischkorn's second poetry collection contains many of these standard elements, yet so much more. Frischkorn's challenges the weighty assumption of what "a girl on a bridge" means beyond suicide thoughts or coming of age. The subjects in her poems are everyday girls and women who are dealing with complicated relationships from their past or their present. These are women who have sex, deal with grief, and struggle with their emotions. Frischkorn exposes the women’s complexities in sometimes not so flattering a light, and by doing so she never relies on clichés or the expected. In the real time of the poem they couldn't stand up for themselves, but now through the devices of line, metaphor, and images, they are strongly speaking out now. Several of these poems also feature pregnancy and motherhood told poignantly from fresh angles. In fact, all of this collection's poetry invites surprise and multiple reads to ensure all of the layers are accurately caught.
Frischkorn is a Connecticut girl and this state, along with New Jersey and New York, is where many of her poems live. While Connecticut can be considered developed, it also provides Frischkorn much inspiration in terms of rivers, farmland, maple trees, and bridges, of course. She also upends the notion of what nice girls should do or look like in “Great Lash,” which models itself closely to Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem, “We Real Cool.” We cut school and watched Foxes We cut school and drank vodka. We cut school and got stoned, did our makeup, walked the streets. In the titular poem, "Girl on a Bridge," Frischkorn plays with the title's expectations by opening her poem with this line:"—And she tossed the red beret/into the Seine turning her back/on Paris forever. No she didn't." By acknowledging the image of the 1999 French movie by the same name, she's free to go off to Greenwich, Connecticut, which she does: —She was on a bridge overlooking the Mianus. Yes, with 95 South behind her. She wore a blue ski cap and a black pea coat. She looked over—peered actually—and turned around to hitch a ride to the Kit Kat Club on NYC's East Side. That's the kind of girl she was. A straight shooter, a go getter—not some freak throwing good money away. Frischkorn's evocative use of enjambment in between stanzas propels the reader like she's the one being pushed off a bridge. This poem, like so many of hers, is short, tells a complete story and lets the reader take an imaginative leap. There’s not so much a leap in “Bees,” as there’s a sharp turn in the last line, which is so universal. We’ve all been told hurtful things about our bodies from people we look up. We then take what they say and believe it’s true when it’s not. “Bee stings,” he called the bumps under my t-shirt. I had a crush on Roger— his blue eyes, his blond hair. That day on my porch steps wrecked by posture forever. The poems where Frischkorn describes her father’s violence and lack of a safe zone growing up are some of the most powerful in the collection. In “Sister,” the speaker is five and she sees her older sister escape a violent household, while she is told by her mother that “in families like ours the healthiest person leaves” which certainly doesn’t help the situation. As a child she can’t verbalize her frustration and sadness, which is felt in her body. Not one to let an image opportunity to go to waste, Frischkorn transforms this sentiment into a closed seam because as a child she lacked a way to express herself. I want to remind my mother that at five there is nowhere to go, but my mouth (full of coppery blood from biting my tongue) is sewn tight with a gleam of steel and nylon thread— the seams about to bust. Towards the end of the collection, Frischkorn revisits her violent household in “Suspended,” which works as a bridge metaphor and repeats the image of a mouth. But this time, she incorporates her son who is more defiant than his mother was. If I could go back and swallow my tongue… Would my son have stayed in his room instead of climbing out the window not a star or moon to guide him? Gone until we notice. We notice the quiet. At this point in the poem, she employs anaphora (“this one”) to emphasize the weight of her past and the repetition of history of absent fathers: I count and match them to my sins —this one for the time I ran away to Chicago —this one for staying out all night, —this one for pushing my mother, And this one and this one. This one for thinking his father was a safe haven, a respite, a man. Maple leaves, chicken eggs and a venerable sex manual all press together in “The Joy of Sex,” which describes two young friends witnessing a couple, Lila and George, having sex who happen to be one girl’s brother and the other girl’s sister. The last image of transformation effectively transitions a hard, scraping image with a softer one: We watch rock grind Lila’s spine and splinter her tailbone. The petal Shaped bruises, inside her pale thighs, will bloom tomorrow. Whenever we introduce bridges into writing our mind automatically turns to how bridges can symbolize change, passage, and conflict. They can also serve as a monument to the past or to the future. This is what Frischkorn does. She uses her bridges to stand in for her past and her subjects’ pasts, as they become proxies for the stored-up feelings that must now be released. Through clear language and images that are easy to visualize, she is at her best when she takes specific details to make them applicable for any reader who knows what it means to change.(less) | Notes are private!
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| Jun 18, 2010
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Jun 17, 2010
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| 1449918360
| 9781449918361
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| What are you doing about what you aren't doing? This is the jump-start question Scott Wittig asks his readers in his book, Holy IT: A Guide to Finding...moreWhat are you doing about what you aren't doing? This is the jump-start question Scott Wittig asks his readers in his book, Holy IT: A Guide to Finding and Doing Your Thing. Wittig challenges his readers to take that uncomfortable first step in determining what they really want to do with the rest of their lives and then do it! According to Wittig, all you have to do to determine your IT is 1)Identify 2)Predict 3)Determine 4)Execute. Wittig borrowed these steps from Driver's Ed. He also emphasizes that your IT must have the 3 P's: passion, but must also include purpose and be a project (put stuff on your calendar you can do!) or it'll never get off of the ground.
Holy IT is a fun read packed with quotes (mostly from John Maxwell) and graphics. You can probably read this text in one sitting and start working on your IT immediately afterwards. This book is also a workbook with lots of available white space to take notes and to GET QUIET. Wittig discusses how important meditating and reflecting on your IT is so you can shut out the other voices and get to work on what YOU need to do. Wittig advocates forming a mastermind group. Forming and getting the most out of mastermind groups is another key element in successfully manifesting your IT. In these groups the members forge a safe place to discuss issues and problems. Members offer feedback and accountabilty, which is necessary when you're starting out on your IT and need reinforcement that your path is the correct one to follow. In fact, one of his mastermind partners who is a graphic designer created Wittig's eye-catching book cover of an acorn. The acorn is a symbol of growth, but it's also part of the squirrel's story in Chapter 10: The Law of the Squirrel. If a squirrel is indecisive and darts back into the road because he thinks he can get a bigger acorn, then he most likely to get squashed by a car. The analogy works: if you're indecisive about your IT, you'll never get past "go." Wittig reminds us to get rid of our friends who are naysayers, the "toppers" (who try to best you at every turn) and stick to the cheerleaders, even if they are outnumbered by the previous groups. Wittig wants his readers to achieve clarity as well as take a honest look at themselves. Many times, the IT isn't far from home. Tom Rath says, "You cannot be everything you want to be--but you can be more of who you already are." Coach K of Duke University echoes this sentiment with, "Look in your house, not out of your window." On the flip side, Wittig also makes you ask yourself, "How can I drop something and hand that over to someone else?" and "What is it that I've always done (that's kind of bugged me) that I could just quit doing?" Written in a down-to-earth style that is exactly how Wittig speaks in person, this fun-to-read book with short chapters is infused with positivity. The book of course mirrors Scott Wittig's IT of helping others achieve. One of my favorite take-aways was how Wittig tells us that when we switch careers our previous career helps us with what will do now. And as as someone who has switched careers from a retail environment to a creative writing one, Wittig provides much-needed validation to everyone who wants to know that their previous jobs weren't a waste of time or effort. (less) | Notes are private!
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| Apr 22, 2010
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May 02, 2010
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| 0982151241
| 9780982151242
| 4.26
| 23
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| Oct 20, 2009
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| It's rare to find a literary collection of short stories that's so darn readable and fun. Such is the case with Shellie Zacharia's Now Playing, her de...moreIt's rare to find a literary collection of short stories that's so darn readable and fun. Such is the case with Shellie Zacharia's Now Playing, her debut fiction collection. Inside you'll find stories about a kid cutting off her nose, a yard sale gone wrong, a lonely 6th grade teacher who steals a cardboard cutout of a lead singer from a music store, continuing ed sewing classes taught by a 4th grade loser, experimental disco theater,a shoplifting four-year-old, and more. Sure these stories are funny, but they are also poignant and real. Zacharia's settings include a mix of urban and suburban: bowling alleys, community ed classrooms, art galleries, sheets, playgrounds, and Bed Bath and Beyond.
These characters yearn to live out loud and take chances in the middle of their working lives. They could be your sister, your next door neighbor or maybe yourself. Most of Zacharia's characters are women in their mid-thirties who have careers that they're somewhat satisfied with, but know that they played it safe while their former classmates took greater creative risks. Perhaps without even realizing it, they are all looking outside of themselves for the answers, while what they're missing could be unearthed if only they looked deeper. Some may not agree with her happy or satisfactory endings, but Zacharia manages in a few pages to make her characters reach some peace and decide with optimism the right course to take for them. Zacharia allows us a peak into their daily grind right at the moment they are turning a corner. Philip Gerard, author of Writing Creative Nonfiction is fond of saying, “Everything was fine until you showed up," to referring to storytelling. The "you" refers to the catalyst, which can be a person or thing that drives the story to inspire the main character get up off of the couch and do something. Once her characters get going they don't stop. Many times this "you" is the past. How many times have you wondered what would happen if you ran into an old school chum and you hadn't been exactly nice to them? Could you write an honest, yet scathing complaint letter like Lucy does in “Luckily, Lucy Sims Has No Stamps.” Or what would you do if you had to review an ex-boyfriend's play? What kind of meeting will it be? Zacharia explores this exact thread in a few of her stories starting with the titular "Now Playing." In this story, the main character, a writer, has been assigned to write a review her old boyfriend's experimental play for the independent paper she works for. The fun ensues when she's late because she let a neighbor badly cut her bangs and because of that she didn't get her 3-D glasses and playbill, which are both necessary since this is an experimental play. As the show continues, our character can't figure it out and is wondering what she's going to write about it her review. She finally decides what to do without being unethical. One of my favorites was "Cardboard Ben" when Nikki, a schoolteacher steals a cardboard cutout of her old high school classmate, Ben Stevens, who is now a famous singer and guitarist. The funny thing is that store clerk lets her steal Ben because he's "mainstream" and they get new cardboard music stars in all of the time. She keeps CB (Cardboard Ben) in her living room, talks to him, and wants him to become her muse, but she soon sees that it’s bordering on obsession when she mentions him frequently during class. A telling line is when Nikki's friend, Vivian warns her, "It would be better if you said you were making out with Cardboard Ben. Don't trade love for crafts. That's what my grandmother did." By the end, Nikki does the right thing. A few of the stories have interconnected characters and Zacharia is very clever in making their plot lines overlap without forcing them to. I would have wanted to see more interconnected stories since she had started down that path and then stopped. Descriptive titles, dialogue, and quick brush strokes that reveal the core of a character are three of Zacharia's main strengths. As a reader, you remember her details about her characters because they are quirky, extreme and make total sense because people are unpredictable and do funny things all of the time. When it comes to her titles, she loads up on description, like a poet would, so that she doesn't need to be so expository within her narrative. This way the reader knows exactly what to expect and they can get comfortable fast. These are the opening lines in "After Carlos the Continuity Expert Quit the Movie and Headed to Costa Rica': which we know right away is a description of Carlos. He said it had to do with birds. They had names, beautiful names, and he'd call them out like he was reciting prayer: scarlet-thighed dacnis, chestnut-headed oropendola. The women on the set found it erotic, the way he said these names, but one day he was saying thrush-like schiffornis and then he was gone. He left a message on the director's answering machine. She showed up for the filming of the diner scene for Emilio's Girls and scowled a lot and drank enough coffee that her hands shook. Someone gave her a muscle relaxer, which helped. Zacharia also has an uncanny ability to express what we are all thinking, but seldom say. In "Making the Bed," Deborah ponders bedding and marriage: So maybe they are not the finest sheets, but they are worn and washed and stained in the right way, darker where our bodies lie night after night, and someone might say those are love spots and I'd say they were right. From her style and expertise with dialogue, Zacharia is one of those writers who is constantly observing human behavior while striving to write stories that reveal great connections and deeper truths. She does so remarkably in this collection without weighing down her narratives on a quest to be “literary” because her stories are like songs which all contain a melody, hook and bridge that make you want to listen to them over and over again. (less) | Notes are private!
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Apr 15, 2010
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| 9780615351629
| 3.00
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| Feb 02, 2010
| Feb 02, 2010
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| Love and gratitude is the prevailing theme in Illusionary Heart: Peoms of Life and Love and Essence by poets Vanessa Vendola and Peggy Neuman. Vendola...moreLove and gratitude is the prevailing theme in Illusionary Heart: Peoms of Life and Love and Essence by poets Vanessa Vendola and Peggy Neuman. Vendola is a regular performer on the Open Mic circuit in Raleigh and Neuman is primarily a visual artist with a focus on the American Southwest. Illusionary Heart is illustrated by Brazilian Gisele Bes. A long time in the making, you can tell how joyous the authors' words are as they leap off of the page and connect with the surrounding poems. For instance, the hologram is the prevailing image in "Hologram" by Vendola and "Hologram Shoes" by Neuman. Their verse meshes well with each other, and Bes's illustrations complete the reader's expectations of discovering words of love, life and essence.
The book opens with three essence poems about the authors, with accompanying illustrations that are some of the best in the collection. Bes draws her female figures with sturdy legs, curvy hips and arms. These ink-women are grounded to the earth as they meditate, dream and create. Their legs are either dancing or walking and their arms are swinging to the sky, full of childlike joy. Neuman's poems are longer and more imagistic than Vendola's, whose strengths lie in her compact essence poems, such as "Intimacy," a favorite of mine because it is personal and authentic: Gradually and intentionally I reach for you As I am allowing my heart to open For a softer and gentler experience In an environment of Peace and Harmony I set sail my mind and soul While discovering my Passions and Goals Expressing the joyfulness I feel within In "The Sea" one of Neuman's stronger poems, the waves are "pure as white palominos/stampeding over me/trampling the pain without and within." The speaker is in pain and she's able to transmit this pain via her water images of tears, ocean, and baptism. Neuman is adept at handling the mixed message. In her poems the speaker may be sad, lonely and afraid, yet they all choose to look within and face their demons. Such is the case with "Alone." I've come to Taos to look within To listen in this vast lonely desert To the voices that spurred my separating to leave the past ... I listened to that voice and I left Even as this monstrous and menacing fear settled overhead like a great black demon that set my heart to stopping ... Though at this moment Aloneness is my state of being It is the pathway to the growth Into my wholeness These three women have shared their talents and hearts with us in this inspiring collection. These artists had a vision and Illusionary Heartis their result. I'll close with these words from Vendola that show us what finding our own path is all about: "I am perfect the way I am/I do not ask for an okay from anyone/I am here in the now/There is no other place to be." (less) | Notes are private!
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Apr 09, 2010
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| 3.00
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| Dec 30, 2009
| Dec 30, 2009
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| What makes Olalah Njenga's book, 37 What Were They Thinking Moments in Marketing different from other how-to business books is its candor, humor and i...moreWhat makes Olalah Njenga's book, 37 What Were They Thinking Moments in Marketing different from other how-to business books is its candor, humor and insider thrill the reader gets when reading about the so-called business professionals getting it all wrong. Njenga develops the titualar 37 scenes of the "getting it all wrong" part into teaching moments on how we all can do better by becoming more self-aware. Many of the mistakes her subjects make have to do with the fact they only think of themselves and that they don't take a broader view of their actions. This book is so relevant and readable because it comes from Njenga's experiences. Her voice is real and authentic, plus she's not afraid of saying, "That woman pissed me off." (read "And You Are Who?" for why this woman did so)After Njenga lays out the etiquette-busting scene, she then gives the color analysis of what went wrong while briefing her reader on the proper marketing course.
Three scenes stood out for me: One was Marsha in "When in Doubt Strike It Out" who hands out business cards with crossed out contact info; then PR exec Audrey in "Drop and Give Me 20" who wears exercise clothes to a media networking event, and lastly Turner in "Perfection is the Killer of Execution" who wants Njenga to keep researching his market before he's ready to have her implement his marketing plan. Over and over again, the perpetrators of these "What Were They Thinking" moments don't plan ahead and don't think about how their actions reflect upon their personal brand. One of the best things about this book as a small business owner is that I've seen almost all of these mistakes committed and feel better, thanks to Njenga, that I'm not the only one who wonders what's going on here. This book is a fun, yet informative read and it'll make you perform a self check before you're labeled a marketing misfit. Olalah Njenga is the CEO and Senior Marketing Strategist at YellowWood Group, a strategic marketing firm in Raleigh, NC that helps growing and mid-size companies align marketing strategies with sales goals. She is also the creator of Marketing with Ease, a marketing system that helps small business owners breakthrough marketing challenges to have more fun with marketing. (less) | Notes are private!
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Apr 06, 2010
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| 0978526546
| 9780978526542
| 3.90
| 10
| Sep 30, 2008
| Sep 30, 2008
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| You usually think of the patriots of the Revolutionary War as the good guys~well not in Suzanne Adair’s fast-paced novel, Camp Follower! In this well...moreYou usually think of the patriots of the Revolutionary War as the good guys~well not in Suzanne Adair’s fast-paced novel, Camp Follower! In this well-written historical novel, the patriots are “rebels” and the loyalists are the good guys. An intriguing twist, and one that makes Camp Follower, Suzanne Adair’s third novel, a fascinating read.
Helen Chiswell, a widow who supplements her meagre income by writing for the society pages of the local Wilmington loyalist paper, is commissioned by her editor, Mr. Quill, to pose as the sister of a British officer and travel as a camp follower to a loyalist in North Carolina backcountry to write a feature on Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton. But Helen's publisher has secret reasons for sending her into danger. And because Helen, a loyalist, has ties to the St. James family, who seem to be in perpetual hot water with the forces of the Crown, she comes under the suspicions of the brutal Lt. Dunstan Fairfax. From the opening chapter, Camp Follower holds the reader’s attention. Helen is a strong-willed, intelligent and attractive woman, determined to control her life – and her destiny. In Helen, Suzanne Adair does not give us a shrinking violet, a woman happy to play “the little woman.” Helen is financially aware, sexually aware and altogether confident of her abilities to look after herself. All she needs is the money to make her financially independent. Helen turns on its head the perception that women had no choices and no power before the 20th century. She is not ashamed of her physical relationships with St. James or Quill, she has career ambitions and she is prepared to fight for her rights. Camp Follower turns many commonly accepted myths on its head: That all the British left in 1783; that female sexuality didn’t exist before the 20th century; that everyone living in America at that time was either a loyalist or a patriot; that all camp followers were prostitutes. In fact, the majority of camp followers comprised mainly laundresses, merchants, and blacksmiths - those who could offer a service to the army men on the move. And of course the soldiers’ families who didn’t want to be left behind. This novel displays a superb blend of fact and fiction, real historical figures move effortlessly amongst the fictional, intermingling with invented characters and driving the storyline. Suzanne Adair has obviously completed a huge amount of research to enable the accuracy of her story and this gives the reader a real sense of what Revolutionary North Carolina must have been like. But she also knows what to leave out; there is no exhaustive list of historical details to slow the pace of the book. Suzanne Adair is a re-enactor and has been quoted as saying that she believes her re-enacting experience helps her to create the correct ambience in her novels, and to give the reader a real sense of history. Filled with action, mystery, and suspense that climaxes at the Battle of Cowpens, Camp Follower is the story of a woman forced to confront her past to save her life during the War for American Independence. Suzanne Adair is the nom de plume for Suzanne Williams, a native Floridian who currently lives with her family in North Carolina. In second grade, she wrote her first fiction for fun after the eye of a hurricane passed over her home, and she grew up intrigued by wild weather, stories of suspense and high adventure, Spanish St. Augustine, and the South's role in the Revolutionary War. She has traveled extensively and lived in England for half a year. After visiting the ruins of colonial-era Ft. Frederica on St. Simon's Island, Georgia, she began writing Paper Woman, the first book of her series and the recipient of the 2007 Patrick D. Smith Literature Award. The Blacksmith's Daughter and Camp Follower continue her fictional ventures into the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War. Camp Follower was nominated for the 2009 Daphne du Maurier Excellence in Historical Mystery/Suspense Award and the 2009 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction. (less) | Notes are private!
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Mar 30, 2010
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| 3.50
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| Nov 03, 2009
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| What would you do to reach your greatest potential? To achieve your dreams and your goals? If you were told that all it took was forgiveness, would yo...moreWhat would you do to reach your greatest potential? To achieve your dreams and your goals? If you were told that all it took was forgiveness, would you believe it? In Connie Domino's The Law of Forgiveness, she asserts that "The Law of Forgiveness" is a natural and universal law that has a set of predicatable properties, much like the Law of Gravity. By using The Law of Forgiveness to forgive (but not forget) the ones who have wronged you, you will release the pent-up anger within you so that this old energy will convert to new energy you will use to your advantage. Forgiveness is a kind, selfish act gives you back power and allows you to manifest what you want in your life. Domino not only explains the law and how it can be applied across religions, she also shows the reader how you can use it your own life.
This is the forgiveness affirmation to forgive others: I forgive you completely and freely, I release you and let you go. So far as I'm concerned, the incident that happened between us is finished forever. I also wish the best for you. I wish for you your highest good. I hold you in the light. I am free and you are free, and all again is well between us. Peace be with you. Domino discusses how you can use this affirmation in the privacy of your home, without having to face the people you need to forgive. In fact, the targets of forgiveness can even be dead and the law will still work! You know the law has worked when you feel a weight lifted off of your shoulders, and/or you manifest love and prosperity. Domino gives several examples of angry, hurt people who have enacted the Law of Forgiveness and have found that their objects returned into their lives to apologize or to work out better communication and interaction. This book could have just been another how-to book filled with spirituality, but Domino makes it different by revealing much about her life and her forgiveness journey. Because she is vulnerable and tells us that she's still working on some of her forgiveness issues, we automatically give her credibility. We immediately want to go to a quiet place, use visualization and manifest the powers of forgiveness. After reading this book, I did have several instances where I needed to forgive people. My sister-in-law defriended me on Facebook and I soon forgave her. I was also the victim of a swapped email and a swapped text; both of which contained hurtful messages not intended for my eyes. I closed my eyes and did the forgiveness affirmation and I felt a lot lighter. More positive things such as new client queries and a filled workshop soon followed. Some might account my good fortune to coincidence, but I know that it's all part of univeral law. At the end of the book, Domino discusses how the power of prayer and forgiveness has changed dark outcomes, and how one person working on forgiving others can enact a global movement. Yes, forgiveness does take work and does take time, but aren't the outcomes of love and peace worth it? (less) | Notes are private!
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Feb 22, 2010
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| 1440495343
| 9781440495342
| 2.65
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| Something is hunting the local occupants near Tucson, Arizona, and Dr. Angie Rippard is determined to find out what…and protect whatever it is at all ...moreSomething is hunting the local occupants near Tucson, Arizona, and Dr. Angie Rippard is determined to find out what…and protect whatever it is at all costs. As an expert on mountain lions, also known as cougars and pumas, Rippard is dedicated to preserving these beautiful animals. But as the attacks continue and more and more people die, she struggles with her philosophy that the cat should be captured and relocated, and not exterminated, more and more difficult to maintain.
How do you balance the challenge of protecting an endangered species, a species that has been on the mountains for thousands of years, against the cardinal rule that human life must be preserved at all costs? Rippard is shocked to learn that one attack has taken place on a golf course that is only fifty feet from National Forest Land and the natural habitat for the mountain lion. The protective borders are hazy as a result of encroachment by humans. Land deals that shouldn’t have been allowed and a greed for land in beautiful areas has resulted in eroding the mountain lion’s natural habitat. The balance point is tipping. A forest fire in Arizona the previous year has meant that the hunting grounds are even smaller, with less prey, and the cats are hungry. The attacks continue and Rippard comes to realize that she is up against a mountain lion that is different than all of the rest. This one hunts humans. Rippard puts together a team to locate and dart the animal so it can be relocated. But it is a race against time as there is another mountain lion expert who wants to track the animal, but only to kill it - Charlie “the Chopper” Rutledge. An entrepreneur worth millions, Rutledge specializes in building mountain resorts and golf courses in stunning mountainous locations. And if he has to chop down ten thousand acres of trees in order to build them, well then, that’s what he will do. With his eye on land close to the border of the Arizona National Forest for his next multi-million dollar development, the last thing Rutledge needs is a mountain lion attacking the tourists and locals. He loves hunting and decides to go after it himself. He warns off Rippard, hating her “treehugging” ways, telling her that if she tries to protect the animal he will attack her too! Dr. Angie Rippard is a strong female protagonist in this novel. An expert in her field, a strong personality, warm and empathetic to those she loves, passionate about her cause, she is an eco-warrior and a learned professor. In her classes she takes a holistic approach, making sure her students know not just about the animals but the flora and fauna too, and the impact that humans have on the local ecosystems. And in the field, Rippard needs all the knowledge she has about the habits of mountain lions if she is going to protect them. The attack scenes are quite violent, and I am not just talking about the big cat scenes. Charlie “The Chopper” Rutledge lives up to his name and causes carnage amongst the people ranged against him. Be warned, the body count at the end of the book is quite high! However, despite of, or indeed due to, this novel is an exciting, heart-stopping rollercoaster ride of a book. Stacey Cochran is a writer, producer and teacher. His books include The Colorado Sequence, Amber Page and the Legend of the Coral Stone, and The Kiribati Test. He was a finalist for the 1998 Dell Magazines Award for undergraduate fiction writing and a 2004 finalist for the St Martin’s Press/PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Contest. He teaches writing at North Carolina State University, and hosts an author-interview TV show in Raleigh. (less) | Notes are private!
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Dec 07, 2009
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| 0615316204
| 9780615316208
| 4.00
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| Sep 01, 2009
| Sep 01, 2009
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| If you're a mid-level executive and feel that your job may be in jeopardy, then Over the Gap by Dave Patterson is required reading. Patterson, a certi...moreIf you're a mid-level executive and feel that your job may be in jeopardy, then Over the Gap by Dave Patterson is required reading. Patterson, a certified business, executive, and career coach of D. Patterson & Associates in Raleigh, NC, knows how to help executives leap over the gap of career uncertainity and fear. Through instrutive text, case studies and practical examples, Patterson drives home the points of thinking of yourself as a product and a brand who can solve a client's (or an employer's) problems, can deliver a benefit to the client.
He takes the reader through the specific steps of personal branding, creating the 60-second elevator speech, the interview process, and idenfifying your target market. He also covers the how-to's of branding which include issuing press releases, giving talks and writing articles. Resumes and cover letters are also covered with Patterson sharing his insight by telling the reader to use Monarch-sized stationery since it's smaller than most stationery and will be more likely to catch the recruiter's eye. His chapters on cover letters, resumes, and networking were especially strong because he included examples and he gave an excellent definition of what networking is. It is "relationship building and is about exchanging information. Networking creates value for both parties involved. The key to successful networking in helping others." After reading this book, the job seeker will know that they must do their homework and their research with their prospective company and must be fluent when telling others about what value they offer. Patterson emphasizes thinking like an entrepreneur and not thinking like an employee. An entrepreneur is in business to solve problems and to offer value to the client; he or she's not merely there to take a paycheck home. Patterson says that despite the weak economy, there are companies that need motivated and experienced employees who will be good investments and help their company grow. By working through Patterson's questions, his worksheets at the back of the book, and by doing a thorough self examination, formerly employed people can get back on track or they can restart their career in a new field. Over the Gap shows you the how's along the why's of networking and branding, blending more instructive narrative than case studies, to produce a valuable and handy resource. I highly recommend this book if you are in the midst of a layoff or career change; there's no fluff, just straight advice and tips to help you navigate today's tough job market. (less) | Notes are private!
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Dec 05, 2009
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| 1934938238
| 9781934938232
| 2.00
| 1
| 2009
| Aug 03, 2009
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| A brave new world has been created by Benjamin Dudley in Painting Souls,/i>, his fantasy fiction novel. Designed to be the first of several books ...moreA brave new world has been created by Benjamin Dudley in Painting Souls,/i>, his fantasy fiction novel. Designed to be the first of several books about the world of Celestia, Painting Souls introduces a cast of many. A cast so broad in fact, that the guide notes printed in the back of the novel and the map of Celestia, prove useful in keeping the characters clear and their relations understood.
From the first page, the reader is drawn into the world of Celestia and its inhabitants. The Great War is over, the enemy defeated, and Celestia is free. But is the war really over? Or is this the beginning of an even bigger battle? A battle for Celestia’s very existence? In a world spread across eight continents, good and evil vie for supremacy and for 150 years an uneasy Alliance has been working hard to try to defeat this evil (led by a vampire named Holocaust and by two opposed spirits, the Shadow and the Wraith) and maintain good and peace in the world. The cost of the Great War has been high. Millions have been orphaned and at least one entire race has been almost totally annihilated by the “dark ones.” But what about the hero introduced in the first chapter? Adrian Servatious is 35 years old, human, and in love with a kudzu-related female who is carrying his child. But when she breaks off their relationship Adrian cares nothing for his war honour and great achievements against the dark forces, he just wants to win back her love. But his destiny is calling, and Adrian must put his personal considerations aside to prepare himself for the greatest fight of his life. At the same time, Gai Young, a 16-year old Ibiza Peacekeeping Academy boy, shows great promise for leading Celestia to unending peace. His father, a gentle half-Vampire, was killed in battle fighting for the Alliance. Gai's cold, rationally objective mother (who is mostly human), is a respected scientist. This combined heritage gives Gai the knowledge and understanding that he displays at the Academy. Although Adrian and Gai do not meet throughout Painting Souls, it is obvious that theirs is a shared future which will be explored in future novels in the series. This complex novel offers an interesting blend of fantasy fiction and anime, with spirituality and magic playing their part. At times, the reader can be swamped by the sheer level of detail and number of characters. However, Dudley's vivid action sequences keep the pages turning, providing the feel of a movie, and the introduction of new characters keep interest levels high. Dudley has been quoted as saying that his goal of the novel is to use the cultural, political and technological systems in Celestia to show readers a new way to look and feel those similar systems in modern day America. Benjamin Dudley has obtained degrees in both philosophy and economics from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He currently resides in the unique, cultured capital of North Carolina, where he continues to write and explore his business career. (less) | Notes are private!
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Dec 03, 2009
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| 0345494997
| 9780345494993
| 3.62
| 26,561
| Jan 01, 2007
| Aug 07, 2007
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| An ambitious blend of fact and fiction, Loving Frank tells the story of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, her love for Frank Lloyd Wright (the Frank of the titl...moreAn ambitious blend of fact and fiction, Loving Frank tells the story of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, her love for Frank Lloyd Wright (the Frank of the title), and the consequences of that love.
Mamah (prounced May-mah) is articulate, multilingual, highly intelligent, financially secure and an imposing beauty to boot, she has it all: a loving husband, two happy children, a supportive sister, staff and a beautiful home. What woman in the early 1900s wouldn’t be happy with all this? But attitudes are starting to change, and Mamah is no exception. Surely there is more to life than this “domestic bliss,” being “the angel in the house,” providing a feminine hand to soothe her troubled man’s brow? Mamah’s desire for self-expression and her quest for individualism and for meaning in her life, leads her to question her choices and leads her to Frank L. Wright, another rebel. He becomes the catalyst for Mamah’s awakening, opening her eyes to new possibilities, new ideas and new concepts. And their resulting love affair transforms their lives and those closest to them. But don’t think that Mamah is just “the other woman” in this fascinating novel. Mamah is not just Frank’s lover, she is his muse and inspiration, influencing him at a key time in his development as an architect and designer. Not only that but once she is free of her family commitments, Mamah develops her skills as a writer and translator, working in conjunction with famous feminist Ellen Key to introduce Key’s revolutionary teachings to American women. However, as the relationship with Wright progresses, Mamah starts to realize that her lover and hero has clay feet and that his single-mindedness is creating problems with his staff, his clients and his family. Not only that but realizes that maybe her dreams and goals will have to come second place to Wright’s work, since his genius is so great. Can Mamah be satisfied with being a runner up in his affections? And can she really be happy without her children who have remained with her husband, Edwin? The insertion of newspaper articles, telegrams, letters and journal entries into this first novel by Nancy Horan reminds the reader that this story is based on fact (hint, don’t google Mamah’s story, or Frank’s, before reading this novel, you really don’t want to find out the ending before reading the book!) but these do not distract from the story. If anything, these additions make the couple’s story more immediate to the reader and increases sympathy and empathy for the situation they find themselves in. It is hard to believe the impact that their love affair has on Chicago (and the rest of American society); they are both ostracized, Wright loses several lucrative commissions but only Mamah is vilified as being “unnatural” - a woman prepared to put her lover before her children. Mamah is a woman forced by her husband to choose between her rights as an individual, her dreams, and her children. Whether one can agree with her resulting decision or not, Mamah’s journey of self-enlightenment is beautifully drawn and the agonies that her decision causes her are heart-wrenchingly described. Although Frank headlines the title of this novel, this is Mamah’s story, and one worth reading through to its stunning and shocking conclusion. Nancy Horan is a writer and journalist whose work has appeared in numerous publications. Loving Frank is her first novel. She lived most of her life in Oak Park, IL, until her recent move to an island in Puget Sound. (less) | Notes are private!
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Dec 01, 2009
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