Erika Robuck's Blog, page 9

Book Review: BRING UP THE BODIES

“He once thought it himself, that he might die of grief: for his wife, his daughters, his sisters, his father and master the cardinal. But the pulse, obdurate, keeps its rhythm. You think you cannot keep breathing, but your ribcage has other ideas, rising and falling, emitting sighs. You must thrive in spite of yourself; and so that you may do it, God takes out your heart of flesh, and gives you a heart of stone.” Hilary Mantel, BRING UP THE BODIES, WINNER OF THE 2012 MAN BOOKER PRIZE

Publisher Synopsis:

The sequel to Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Bring Up the Bodies delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn.

Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice.

At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne’s head?

Bring Up the Bodies is one of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2012, one of Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Best Books of 2012 and one of The Washington Post’s 10 Best Books of 2012.

My Recommendation:

In this stunning sequel to WOLF HALL, the reader should be familiar with Mantel’s unusual stylistic choices–sometimes addressing the reader through the second person point of view, lines of great meaning and gravity embedded within the narrative the way gems are sewn into royal gowns, ambiguous pronouns (that Mantel makes great pains to illustrate clearly, almost rudely, in this novel)–and can sink immediately into the story that hums with the tension leading up to the death of Anne Boleyn and her unfortunate admirers.

The book is deeply cynical; there might not be an honorable character in the bunch, but all are starkly human, larger than life. Mantel takes a story that has been told, and told, and told, and somehow makes it new. Starting the book is like mounting a runaway horse approaching a cliff, knowing full well the horse will not stop, but going along anyway for the sheer terror and adventure of the ride.

In all honesty, this is a hard recommendation for me. It’s difficult for me to separate the work from the artist, but ultimately, there is no need. BRING UP THE BODIES is well served by its author, because its protagonist, Thomas Cromwell, is quite antagonistic.

Are you intrigued? Have you read this or WOLF HALL? I would love to hear what you think.

Cover Reveal and Giveaway!

The day has finally arrived when I may share the shiny, new, paperback cover for THE HOUSE OF HAWTHORNE. In case you missed May’s hardcover release, a paperback launch will come during the spring of 2016, which I know will make my book clubbers happy.

With the cover reveal, I will also give away an audio copy of THE HOUSE OF HAWTHORNE, for those of you who prefer to listen to stories. To win, please comment below by 9 PM ET on Friday, September 4th about which Hawthorne cover you prefer, or your favorite Hawthorne story. (US and Canada only, please.) Here is the hardcover for your reference:

And now, without further ado, here is the trade paperback cover of THE HOUSE OF HAWTHORNE:

What do you think? 

Labor Day Hurricane of 1935

On this day in 1935, hundreds of veterans and civilians in the Florida Keys lost their lives in the Labor Day Hurricane. I learned about it from Ernest Hemingway’s essay, “Who Murdered the Vets,” and the storm and its aftermath figure heavily in my novel, HEMINGWAY’S GIRL. Though the book is historical fiction, the echoes of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath resounded with me in light of what the WWI Veterans suffered.

It has been 80 years since that devastating storm made landfall. It is the hurricane that led to the creation of the National Weather Service, and the naming and tracking of storms. If you would like to learn more, KeysHistory.org has detailed and graphic pages dedicated to the hurricane.

To honor those who died–those who could have been evacuated had a series of bureaucratic errors and negligences been avoided–I am giving away a signed copy of HEMINGWAY’S GIRL. To win, please comment below about any memorable storms you have lived through, or your favorite Hemingway story, and share on social media. US residents have until 9 PM ET on Thursday, September 3rd to win.

Recommendation: BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

“I am not a cynic. I love you, and I love the world, and I love it more with every new inch I discover. But you are a black boy, and you must be responsible for your body in a way that other boys cannot know.” ~Ta-Nehisi Coates, BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

MY RECOMMENDATION:

Three things prompted me to pick up this book:

The Toni Morrison Blurb: “I’ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates….This is required reading.”
This book was written as a letter to an adolescent son. I have three sons (of English-Irish-Welsh-Russian Catholic descent), whom I am trying to raise in an environment that will prepare them for the world by encouraging intellectual, emotional, and spiritual exploration, to make them more empathetic human beings. I need to expand my worldview to expand theirs.
I have grown up 30 minutes outside of Baltimore my entire life, and after the Freddie Gray riots, I realized a) I might as well live on another planet, and b) I need a better understanding of the black men and women raised there.

This book was eye-opening, to say the least. I have new insight into what it means to grow up black in America, and I am deeply ashamed of the past of the country, disheartened by the current state of it, and admittedly hopeless about the capacity for large-scale future change. The problems are systemic–so much a part of our cells, our maps, our minds–and the root systems are too complex to fully eradicate. Not to mention that there must be a reckoning; society must reap what it sows.

However, I believe in God–a force Coates acknowledges he has no connection to, yet does not discount because of the strength faith has given so many–and with God, there is hope. While Coates does not provide a tidy solution, I’m inspired by a truth I found reinforced in his anecdotes, and in my conversations with others after reading the book. We are responsible for those around us, for the small square of land we inhabit.

More and more, when I’m tempted to take rants to Twitter or Facebook, pile onto the masses, tear out my hair over the terrible state of the world, I pull inward. I look at the many and varied faces of the people around me. I see the living they do–the good in my community, my church, our schools. I see the rifts in my family and know that until I reach out and mend those torn places, trying to impose change on society is futile. I realize I can make simple gestures: hold a door for young black man and walk in after him, look a person in the eye when I’m speaking with him, raise my sons not to fall into the traps of categorizing people based on “race,” give the book to the family member who insists on proclaiming her ignorance when confronted with Black Lives Matter by retorting All Lives Matter to read, instead of hitting her over the head with it.

The responsibility lies in my hands, my actions.

I don’t know if Coates wanted someone like me to read his book, and I don’t know if this is what he wanted me to take away from it. All I do know is that I cannot stop thinking about it, and this thinking has silenced me. Acknowledging the crisis of the past and present, and watching, listening, and responding to the needs of others is what I can do in my home and in my community to start change, and I intend to do it.

Read a Romance Month 2015!

My friend and fellow writer, Karen White, tagged me to contribute to Read a Romance Month, in celebration of love in fiction, and I was delighted to do so. Below you’ll find my thoughts on the value of romance in fiction, some fun answers to questions, and a giveaway for my latest novel, THE HOUSE OF HAWTHORNE. Enjoy! xoxoxo

The Joy of Romance

We all need a little love and light in this world, don’t we? One turns on the news and cannot escape evil, darkness, war, murder, and violence. Even the weather channel casts a dark shadow. A good romance is the antidote to all of that.

The novel can be a love letter to books, an ode to a city, a fairy tale or a second chance, a story of deep and abiding friendship, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, a couple from history or from the imagination of a writer. Be it chaste or steamy, serious or humorous, at the very least a romance provides an escape, but at best, brings joy, exuberance, light, and hope into the mind of the reader, and arguably, the world.

I asked the publisher of my latest novel THE HOUSE OF HAWTHORNE for the subtitle, “A Romance.” In his preface to THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, Nathaniel Hawthorne announced that his book was a romance in this manner:

“The point of view in which this tale comes under the Romantic definition lies in the attempt to connect a bygone time with the very present that is flitting away from us.”

Hawthorne also mentioned the liberties taken by writers of romance to portray the truth of the human heart. I referred to his definition of romance often while writing my novel of the tale of two artists and what they both lost and gained for love. I chose his wife Sophia Peabody Hawthorne to narrate the book because I wished for the novel to be permeated with her immense capacity for hope in spite of the many trying circumstances they faced. While I was not given permission to use my preferred subtitle, THE HOUSE OF HAWTHORNE is by any definition a romance.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed and bitter in the face of pain in the world. Imagine if there were a channel devoted to the good news, to relationships being built instead of destroyed. There is a channel: Romance. In these increasingly troubled times, it is a joy to celebrate romance novels and novels that contain romance, and I’m honored to be a part of Read A Romance Month.

Questions –

 1 – Tell us about a moment in your life when you experienced sheer joy.

In a little creek off the river where my family likes to fish, there is rope swing tied to an ancient tree on a twenty-foot cliff. Each year I watch teenagers and the occasional adult climb the old ladder past the warning signs to take a ride on the rope. It’s dangerous, old fashioned, 1970s fun, and it took me a long time, but I finally worked up the courage last summer and jumped. It was one of the most terrifying, exhilarating things I’ve ever done, and I’ll never do it again.

2 – Tell us about a place that brings you joy, or is attached to a memory of joy.

Topsail Island, North Carolina has brought me and my family so much joy over the years. From watching dolphins following shrimp boats, to building sandcastles and playing beach volleyball, to watching the birth of sea turtles under a sky full of stars, everything about the place carries away the scar tissue from the year and washes it out to sea, renewing me until my next visit.

3 – Tell us about a sound that brings you joy.

Summer time country music brings me pure joy—“Pontoon” by Little Big Town, “American Kids” by Kenny Chesney, “I Love This Life” by LoCash, “It Can Buy Me A Boat” by Chris Janson: I could go on and on…

4 – What recent book have you read that brought you joy.

THE STORIED LIFE OF A J FIKRY brought me tremendous joy. It’s a novel about an unabashedly nerdy mess of a bookseller on a small New England island. He has lost his wife and a priceless first edition of Poe’s TAMERLANE, but what he gains far outweighs his losses. This book is a gem.

5 – And for fun, the joy of choice, pick a Chris! ;o) Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, Chris Pratt, Chris Rock, Chris Evans or Christopher Plummer (circ. 1964 aka Capt. Von Trapp.)

Chris Pratt!

Recommendations – I’m a huge fan of historical fiction, either with or without romance. My recent favorites are: Priya Parmar’s VANESSA AND HER SISTER, Allison Pataki’s THE ACCIDENTAL EMPRESS, and Stewart O’Nan’s WEST OF SUNSET.

Drawing – Please leave a comment about your favorite love story in a book or on film for a chance to win a copy of THE HOUSE OF HAWTHORNE. Enter by 9 pm ET on 8/19, and please share on social media. (US residents only, please.)

 

Historical Fiction Week at Goodreads

It’s Historical Fiction Week at Goodreads! This means there are loads of giveaways and opportunities to ask your favorite authors of historical fiction those burning questions you have.

In celebration of all things historical, 5 copies of THE HOUSE OF HAWTHORNE are up for grabs. Enter here!

I’m also taking questions at Ask the Author here.

Good luck!

Book Recommendation: Brown Girl Dreaming

“Maybe I should go there, too, my mother says.

Everyone else, she says,

has a new place to be now.

Everyone else

has gone away.

And now coming back home

isn’t really coming back home

at all.”

Jacqueline Woodson, BROWN GIRL DREAMING

Publisher Synopsis:

Jacqueline Woodson, one of today’s finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.

My Recommendation:

I had the pleasure of seeing Jacqueline Woodson deliver the Keynote Address at last week’s Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City. Rarely does one come across a speech that inspires, humbles, makes one laugh and cry, and ends all too soon. Ms. Woodson’s talk did just that. She enchanted the room with her warmth, humor, and intelligence, and when she concluded, the crowd of hundreds gave her a standing ovation.

I read Woodson’s memoir BROWN GIRL DREAMING on the train home. I could hear her voice in my ear, telling me in verse who she was from the roots up, creating such vivid pictures with her words that I could have been watching a film. From Ohio in the sixties to the Jim Crow south, to New York in the seventies, each time and place are encapsulated vividly in the references to songs, shows, dress, and food, and provide the context for a girl learning who she is from the adults around her. The memoir has won the National Book Award, the Newbery Honor, and the Coretta Scott King Award, and all are well deserved.

In Ms. Woodson’s speech, she said, “Going deeply into the emotional truth of the work makes the specific universal.” Because BROWN GIRL DREAMING does just this, it is every child’s story, coming of age in complicated families and cities. It is the kind of book everyone in this country should read right now, because it makes us aware of our shared humanity, and our obligation to give our children a better world than the one in which we currently exist. I give BROWN GIRL DREAMING my highest recommendation.

Book Recommendation: Circling the Sun

“…[W]e sat that way for hours. Long enough for me to feel my own density settle more and more completely into the chalky dust. Aeons had made it, out of dissolving mountains, out of endlessly rocking metamorphosis. The things of the world knew so much more than we did and lived them more truly. The thorn trees had no grief or fear. The constellations didn’t fight or hold themselves back, nor did the translucent hook of the moon. Everything was momentary and endless. This time…would fade, and it would last forever.” Paula McLain, Circling the Sun

From the Publisher

Paula McLain, author of the phenomenal bestseller The Paris Wife, now returns with her keenly anticipated new novel, transporting readers to colonial Kenya in the 1920s. Circling the Sun brings to life a fearless and captivating woman—Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator caught up in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, who as Isak Dinesen wrote the classic memoir Out of Africa.

Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature’s delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships.

Beryl forges her own path as a horse trainer, and her uncommon style attracts the eye of the Happy Valley set, a decadent, bohemian community of European expats who also live and love by their own set of rules. But it’s the ruggedly charismatic Denys Finch Hatton who ultimately helps Beryl navigate the uncharted territory of her own heart. The intensity of their love reveals Beryl’s truest self and her fate: to fly.

Set against the majestic landscape of early-twentieth-century Africa, McLain’s powerful tale reveals the extraordinary adventures of a woman before her time, the exhilaration of freedom and its cost, and the tenacity of the human spirit.

My Recommendation

If I hadn’t loved McLain’s THE PARIS WIFE, I still would have picked up CIRCLING THE SUN based on the cover alone: so warm it glows with the heat of the African sun, moody with the distant silhouette of the acacia tree, and the brooding woman with bobbed hair wearing slacks and riding boots when women didn’t typically wear slacks. The cover could enfold a Hemingway story–something Kilamanjaro-esque–and my high expectations were met in every way.

Set in Kenya in the 1920s, CIRCLING THE SUN represents the best in historical fiction. It tells the tale of a little known corner of history in beautiful, vivid prose that not only enlivens the period, but will send the reader searching for more information on the people and places depicted in its pages.

Like Hadley Hemingway in THE PARIS WIFE, the protagonist of CIRCLING THE SUN, Beryl Markham, is a complicated woman. Unlike Hadley, however, Beryl takes bold charge of her own destiny. Her decisions are sometimes selfish, often honorable, and occasionally deplorable, but Beryl’s strength of spirit, honesty, and courage redeem her.

Fans of period fiction, family drama, and tragic love stories will be mesmerized by CIRCLING THE SUN. I give it my highest recommendation.

Grand Central Birthday and Giveaway!

It’s hard to believe a year has passed since GRAND CENTRAL: ORIGINAL STORIES OF POSTWAR LOVE AND REUNION was published. It seems like just a few weeks ago that my fellow anthology authors and I were donning our 40s attire, getting Victory Curls, and standing under the constellations at Grand Central Terminal. Working on that project was both personally and professionally rewarding, and we all continue to keep in touch.

To celebrate our anthology turning one, I am giving away a copy of GRAND CENTRAL. To enter, please leave a comment below by Friday, July 3rd at 9 PM ET with your favorite novel by one of the contributing authors, or your favorite WWII novel. Please share on social media (US only), and good luck!

Mother’s Day Giveaway, and News!

My novel,��The House of Hawthorne,��releases in less than two weeks,��and I am eager to share the enchanting world of Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne with readers. For the first time I do not use a fictional narrator to tell the story, but only the ���true characters��� from history. From Emerson, to Thoreau, to Franklin Pierce, to Elizabeth Browning, the well-known cast and luscious settings contribute to the rich canvas of the Hawthornes��� lives.

Christina Baker Kline, #1��NY Times��Bestselling author of Orphan Train, says this aboutThe House of Hawthorne:�����The timeless questions of identity and creative self-expression facing women today are explored in this richly imagined novel about the marriage of Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne. Insightful and transportive.���

Some News:

Vanity Fair��has��selectedThe House of Hawthorne��for its�����Hot Type��� feature in June, and��DuJour Magazine��is featuring the novel in its recommendations for Mother���s Day Gifts.
I would love to see you (and your book club, if you are in one) at my launch party on��Friday, May 8th, 7 PM, at Barnes and Noble in Annapolis, MD.��There will be goodies and a giveaway. If you are not able to make the launch or do not live locally, a��list of my events��may be found here.
If you use an ereader or would prefer to��pre-order��a copy of the book, a list of links may be found here.
I���m delighted to report that audio rights forThe House of Hawthorne��have been sold, and the audiobook will be released on��May 5th.
If you are on�� Goodreads ��or any online book sites, I would greatly appreciate if you add the book to your ���To Read��� lists and consider reviewing it once you finish reading.
If your��book club��would like to schedule a visit with me (in person or on Skype) please contact me here.
Finally, for news and oodles of historical fiction giveaways,��follow��me on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, or Pinterest.

The House of Hawthorne��is especially close to my heart, and will be my first hardcover release. It fills me with joy and gratitude to think of the progress from selling that first box of self-published books out of my car at a wine festival to now. Your support and encouragement have made this possible, and I am so thankful.

In honor of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne’s love of beauty, art, nature, and family, I am hosting a Mother’s Day giveaway of��2 signed copies of The House of Hawthorne. Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 10th, so I will run the giveaway for one week to allow ample time to mail the books in time for the holiday, if you choose to use it as a gift. US residents have until 9 PM ET on Wednesday, April 29th to enter. Comment below about your favorite Hawthorne story, or a reflection on motherhood and family, and please share the post on social media. Good luck!