Luanne Rice's Blog, page 13
March 20, 2014
MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD in the Berkshires
Please come see MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD in the Berkshires to benefit the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers and WAM Theatre. I will be doing a talkback after the Friday 3/28 performance and would love to see you there. Jayne Atkinson will direct, and Jane Kaczmarek and Michael Gill (currently appearing as the president on “House of Cards”) will star. Very excited and happy to see Jane again–she performed my monologue at the Geffen Playhouse in LA. My friend Susan Rose Lafer is producer; Joan Stein also produced, and I still miss her every day. MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD continues to be a wild, wonderful ride. You can get tickets here.
February 26, 2014
The Lemon Orchard In Paperback
A heartrending, timely love story of two people from seemingly different worlds—at once dramatic and romanticLuanne Rice is the beloved author of twenty-two New York Times bestsellers. In The Lemon Orchard, one of her most moving and accomplished works yet, Rice gives us an affirming story about the redemptive power of compassion, set in the sea- and citrus-scented air of the breathtaking Santa Monica Mountains.It’s been five years since Julia’s daughter died. When she arrives to housesit at her uncle’s home in Malibu, she longs only for peace. But to her surprise, Julia becomes drawn to Roberto, the handsome man from Mexico who oversees the lemon orchard. When Roberto reveals his own heartbreak, Julia recognizes his pain, but their stories have one striking difference: Roberto’s daughter was lost—and never found. What ensues is a page-turning search across the U.S. and Mexican border and a captivating novel of love, both enduring and unexpected.
“Entrancing.”
— People (***)
“Rice’s fans will appreciate the evocative setting and unconventional romance, as well as the harrowing . . . depictions of border crossing and the fascinating parallels drawn between Julia’s research interests (she studies the Irish who arrived in America over a century ago) and modern-day Mexican immigrants.”
—Publishers Weekly
PREORDER
Related show
Artist:
Luanne Rice
Date:
05/27/14
Time:
7:00pm
Venue:
RJ JULIA
City:
Madison , CT
Address:
768 Boston Post Road
Country:
United States
Notes:
Talk, Q&A and signing.
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Artist:
Luanne Rice
Date:
06/01/14
Time:
3:00pm
Venue:
DIESEL BOOKSTORE
City:
Malibu , CA
Address:
23410 Civic Center Way, Ste. A-3
Venue phone:
(310) 456-9961
Country:
United States
Notes:
Talk, Q&A and signing.
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Artist:
Luanne Rice
Date:
06/03/14
Time:
12:00pm
Venue:
BANK SQUARE BOOKS
City:
Mystic , CT
Address:
53 W. Main Street
Venue phone:
860-536-3795
Country:
United States
Box office:
860-536-3795
Notes:
Book luncheon, reservations required. Luncheon, talk, Q&A and signing. Email: banksquarebks@msn.com
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Artist:
Luanne Rice
Date:
06/10/14
Time:
6:00pm
Venue:
Warren County Public Library
City:
Bowling Green , KY
Address:
Bob Kirby Branch, 175 Iron Skillet Court
Venue phone:
(270) 782-0252
Country:
United States
Notes:
New York Times Bestselling Author Luanne Rice will speak at the Bob Kirby Branch Library at 6 p.m. She will discuss her latest novel The Lemon Orchard.
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Artist:
Luanne Rice
Date:
07/26/14
Venue:
Old Lyme Midsummer Festival
City:
Old Lyme , CT
Address:
Details TBA
Country:
United States
More information
Notes:
Reading and signing, details to come
| Download iCal
The Lemon Orchard In Paperback 5/27/14
A heartrending, timely love story of two people from seemingly different worlds—at once dramatic and romanticLuanne Rice is the beloved author of twenty-two New York Times bestsellers. In The Lemon Orchard, one of her most moving and accomplished works yet, Rice gives us an affirming story about the redemptive power of compassion, set in the sea- and citrus-scented air of the breathtaking Santa Monica Mountains.It’s been five years since Julia’s daughter died. When she arrives to housesit at her uncle’s home in Malibu, she longs only for peace. But to her surprise, Julia becomes drawn to Roberto, the handsome man from Mexico who oversees the lemon orchard. When Roberto reveals his own heartbreak, Julia recognizes his pain, but their stories have one striking difference: Roberto’s daughter was lost—and never found. What ensues is a page-turning search across the U.S. and Mexican border and a captivating novel of love, both enduring and unexpected.
“Entrancing.”
— People (***)
“Rice’s fans will appreciate the evocative setting and unconventional romance, as well as the harrowing . . . depictions of border crossing and the fascinating parallels drawn between Julia’s research interests (she studies the Irish who arrived in America over a century ago) and modern-day Mexican immigrants.”
—Publishers Weekly
PREORDER
December 27, 2013
December 16, 2013
A Year of Snowy Owls
To find a Snowy Owl, look for a soccer ball where it’s not supposed to be. It will be round, squat, dirty-white, and not moving, usually on a beach, sometimes in a field or on an airport runway, places reminiscent of its tundra home.
Snowy Owls are the daemons in my family myth, messengers between realms. My sister had stopped speaking to me and for a few months I was in family jail, cut off from her and my then thirteen-year-old-niece. I felt cold, alone, and outcast. During my exile I dreamt of the Arctic: clear light, sea ice, and Snowy Owls.
After the rift healed I went to their house and saw that my niece had done a large painting of a Snowy Owl and a panther. She told me she’d dreamt the image, and I knew the owl had been a courier between our dreams, keeping our family connected during the silence.
Every winter since then I’ve scoured the bird lists for Snowy Owl sightings and go looking. A few show up each year, but during irruption years like this one, when lemmings are scarce in the Arctic, the starving owls fly this far and even father south in search of food.
Most often I’ve seen them on Jones Beach, but one December I followed a Birding-on-the-Net lead and drove to Duxbury, Massachusetts. I arrived on the deserted beach road at sunset. The timing was split-second. Owl etiquette requires not reporting exact locations, but I knew to search a deserted beach road. I arrived at sunset and just as the sun slid behind the town, I spotted the owl atop a telephone pole. Its white feathers were tinged pink in the gloaming, and then it disappeared into the darkness. I’d made a pilgrimage and been rewarded with a soccer ball in the sky.
This year, with many more Snowy Owls than usual being reported, I plan to try for the one at Floyd Bennett Field. The old runways are cracked, filled with brush and dried grasses. The wide-open tundra-like expanse is perfect for Snowy Owls, but so are the working runways at JFK, where this week an owl had been sucked into the turbine of an idling jet and the species added to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s kill list.
Five wildlife specialists armed with shotguns had been ordered to hunt them, Canada Geese, Red-winged Blackbirds, American Starlings, and other birds deemed hazardous to planes.
Birders galvanized and tweeted. Outraged posts flew, with links to petitions and highlighted numbers to call Governor Cuomo and Patrick Foye at the Port Authority. New York City Audubon encouraged members to contact officials. An article from Boston Magazine made the rounds: “another day, another reason to favor Boston over New York City: While the port authority in the latter location is allegedly sniping white owls that land on the airport’s tarmac, researchers from Massachusetts are saving them from the dangerous environment, and tagging the birds to track their migratory patterns.”
Last week the Port Authority changed plans and announced they would be working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to “move immediately toward implementing a program to trap and release snowy owls that pose a threat to aircraft at JFK and La Guardia airports.”
What is it about Snowy Owls that stirred such passion and quick response? Other species remain on the shoot-to-kill list. Snowy Owls don’t flock like some of the others; they are lone birds, diurnal predators, pausing less of a threat to airplanes. But I think it’s more.
Harry Potter’s Hedwig was a Snowy Owl. The birds fly from the Arctic’s fragile ecosystem, strangers in our midst. They inspire aunts to dream, nieces to paint. If we add GPS tagging to the method of trap and release, researchers can learn more about the tundra’s cyclical food sources, what drives the owls to migrate here.
Snowy Owls are mystical, and no one wants to shoot Hedwig, especially during the holidays.
[Snowy Owl photo by Cal Vornberger]
August 24, 2013
EVERY MOTHER COUNTS Book Club Pick
Here is a note from Elizabeth Benedict:
“I’m thrilled that Christy Turlington’s fabulous organization EVERY MOTHER COUNTS chose WHAT MY MOTHER GAVE ME as its book club pick this week. Turlington writes about her favorite gift from her mother: ‘While I am just grateful to still have my mother in my life, the gifts she gave me that mattered most were the ones she gave herself: Mothering my sisters and me, traveling the world and continuing her education. The fact that she was born in El Salvador provided me with an early connection to a larger world than the one I would have known otherwise…’ Shout out to Judith Hillman Paterson, Luanne Rice, Elinor Lipman, Caroline Leavitt, Karen Karbo, and all the other wonderful contributors to the anthology.”
Liz edited and wrote for WHAT MY MOTHER GAVE ME. My essay is Midnight Typing, about how my mother gave me the gift of…perhaps you’ll read it.
I am touched by Christy Turlington’s words about her favorite gifts from her mother, and about the important work she is doing. According to a story in The New York Times, the goal of her organization is to help ”people understand that pregnancy and childbirth, even though it’s a joyous experience for so many women, really is a risky endeavor for millions of other women,” according to Erin Thornton, executive director, who happens to be expecting right now herself. “To this day, hundreds of thousands of women will die in pregnancy and childbirth, but 90 percent of those could be prevented just with basic, simple access to health care.”
August 21, 2013
PW Review of The Lemon Orchard
Buy the Book
Amazon • Apple • Barnes & Noble • IndieBound
Publishers Weekly review of The Lemon Orchard:
Still devastated by grief five years after the death of her husband and teenage daughter in a car accident, Julia hopes to find solitude and solace while house-sitting at her aunt and uncle’s California estate. Amid the lush landscapes and lemon groves of Malibu, Julia does find these things—in addition to an unexpected relationship with Roberto, who oversees the estate. Roberto, an undocumented immigrant, connects with Julia over her loss: he became separated from his young daughter during their crossing from Mexico and believes her to be dead. Julia, an anthropologist specializing in movements and migrations, thinks that the little girl is still alive and sets out to find her—even if doing so means potentially losing Roberto. The plot alternates from an initially tepid pace to moments of intensity—as when the estate is threatened—that seem largely irrelevant to the developing narrative. Nevertheless, Rice’s fans will appreciate the evocative setting and unconventional romance, as well as the harrowing, if familiar, depictions of border crossing and the fascinating parallels drawn between Julia’s research interests (she studies the Irish who arrived in America over a century ago) and modern-day Mexican immigrants. Agent: Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (July)
Reviewed on: 06/03/2013
Liz Smith
Love being mentioned in Liz Smith’s great New York Social Diary column today. I’m right up there with Cher! #TheLemonOrchard
July 7, 2013
Review of The Lemon Orchard
Thank you to Kris Phillips for this lovely review. I’m lucky to have such a supportive reader.
I’ve been a huge fan of Luanne Rice’s novels for many years now and was thrilled when I won the first copy of her novel, The Lemon Orchard, in a contest on her Facebook page.
I quickly devoured the wonderful book and was honored when Luanne asked me to review it for her blog. While Cloud Nine will always hold a special place in my heart as my favorite of her novels, The Lemon Orchard is now a close second.
I love that Luanne believes in angels, in second chances, in the power of the human spirit, in true love and in the importance of family above all else – and she will make you a believer, too!
Julia and Roberto’s story touched my heart so much; I didn’t want to put it down. As a mother to a little girl, my heart broke for them both for the loss of their daughters. The bond – the love – between these two lead characters is palpable. And the story of how Roberto and his young daughter, Rosa, try to cross the border into the United States from Mexico was so heart wrenching, I actually dreamt about it and woke up exhausted, my legs aching, my throat parched. No book has ever affected me like that!
I’ve always had a strong opinion about illegal immigrants, but Luanne’s story changed my heart. I could not imagine what Roberto, Rosa and the others went through to try to make it into this country and a better life.
Julia and Roberto not only find love with one another, but help to heal each other’s broken hearts over their mutual losses.
While this book did leave me wanting more (don’t expect a “happily ever after” ending), it was a satisfying ending that touched my heart and gave me hope. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves stories about the resiliency of the human spirit. It will not disappoint!
Here’s hoping that Luanne is already working on a sequel.
By Kris Phillips
