Marcie Maxwell’s debut novel Em’s Awful Good Fortune is a hoot. The first sentence, “Sometimes I wish he would hit me,” quickly grabs my attention. NaMarcie Maxwell’s debut novel Em’s Awful Good Fortune is a hoot. The first sentence, “Sometimes I wish he would hit me,” quickly grabs my attention. Narrator Em’s wit describes the life of a devoted wife and mother as she gives up her own dreams and career to advance her husband’s. She moves with her family as her husband’s work takes them from S. Korea to China to France to Japan and back again to China. She has a great husband from the outside looking in: he’s personable, handsome, makes a good living, takes his family with him for years at a time to adventures in several different countries.
The cultural innuendos of life in different countries are tangible. There are many laugh-out-loud stories scattered throughout the novel. Their two children, Rio and Ruby, grow up in international day schools and find coming back to the U.S. similar to a foreign experience. As their father’s work ends after four years in Paris, they sit around the table discussing where they would like to go next. Rio wants to say in Paris; he doesn’t like change. Ruby wants to go to Ohio, though she’s never been there. She wants a house with a white picket fence and a yard for her dog to play in. Ironically, she describes Em’s childhood. “We give her the world and, but all she wants is a normal American life.” Repatriation is hard. The children are not quite California kids upon their return. They are TCK, (third-culture kids)—not totally French or American, though most comfortable in a room full of global nomads.
A turning point in Em’s marriage occurs when she accompanies her husband to Shanghai after their children are both away at college in the U.S. He continues to work long hours and she turns to writing during his long absences. From one country to another, the differences of pollution tolerances are drastic. As a tagalong wife, Em tries to adapt, but loses her health during a long episode of high pollution hanging over the city. The reader is introduced to the Chinese Air Quality Index, from 50—Good—all the way up to 500—Hazardous and emergency conditions, meaning the entire population is more likely to be affected by serious health effects. Em repatriates early in an attempt to save her health and her marriage.
The light-hearted banter of the novel is a fragile cover up for the universal situation of women who abandon their own health and happiness for the love of family and marriage. This is a story that stays with the reader long after reading the last page. I recommend it to anyone in a marriage or contemplating entering one.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Ann McCauley for this review....more
Untold: defining moments of the uprooted is a collection of true stories edited by Gabrielle Deonath and Kamini Ramdeen, and collected by Brown Girl MUntold: defining moments of the uprooted is a collection of true stories edited by Gabrielle Deonath and Kamini Ramdeen, and collected by Brown Girl Magazine. Divided into sections by the overarching themes of Identity, Being, and Relationships, each story presents a deeply personal, brave, and authentic slice-of-life from one of thirty-two emerging South Asian writers from America, Canada, Britain, and Indo-Caribbean communities.
Like Brown Girl Magazine itself—launched in 2018 “by and for South Asian womxn, who believe in the power of storytelling as a vehicle for community building and empowerment” (from their mission statement)—this first anthology aligns with the mission and goals of giving voice to the South Asian diaspora. Like the magazine, the anthology provides a forum for sharing, without fear or shame, experiences which, for generations, families have kept to themselves in order to assimilate, to blend, to “disappear” into their adopted countries.
Among the twelve stories in the “Identity” section, there are several about coming out and about the culture shock for foreign-born children on their first visit to India for family visits, and one about a high school girl who makes the difficult decision to begin wearing the hijab. “Born Untouchable,” by Canadian Meera Solanki Estrada, is a deeply moving piece about casteism. She interviewed her father about his family’s history as untouchables. Of his school days, her father matter-of-factly related, “Ours was the era of segregation, so I could go into the classroom. But we had to sit on the floor in the back of the class. And when the master did the roll call, they didn’t say our name, just BC for backward class. That is the name we answered to.”
Three of the nine stories in the “Being” section begin with sensitive content warnings and the phone number for the national suicide hotline, which speaks volumes about the emotional toll of carrying generations of untold stories, such as children attending all or predominantly white schools where they were bullied and learned to resent their appearance. In “Dark and Lovely,” Apoorva Varghese, as a young, dark-skinned child visiting relatives in India, becomes infatuated with a handsome Bollywood star. When his screen persona falls for a light-skinned beauty, she slavers herself with illicitly purchased skin-lightening cream. “I didn’t know it then,” Varghese writes, “but that moment launched me on a journey to self-love that has been slow, steady, and ongoing.”
The final section, “Relationships,” is comprised of eleven essays, on topics ranging from infidelity to end-of-life rituals in the Sikh tradition to a daughter caught between warring parents. In her piece “In the Eye of the Beholder,” Nina Malagi returns from the United States to her ancestral city (Ahmedabad, Gujarat) after ending a twenty-year marriage to negotiate the sale of the couple’s co-owned flat. She’d once defended the gender-bound box she’d found herself in:
As she explained to friends after a difficult 36-hour labor, “The woman always goes home to her parents’ house to give birth and the husband turns up months later,” I patiently explained. That’s how we do it in Indian culture, I lied. And I shamed them for false cultural insensitivity to silence my own shame.
Untold: defining moments of the uprooted is a varied, immersive, informative read. These short pieces of creative nonfiction should be of interest to anyone. These are the true stories of South Asian writers. They are also, simply, true life stories of love, loss, sickness, pain, fear; all the emotions, all the ways in which people—in these stories, brown people—struggle to make lives and to find peace and happiness for themselves and their loved ones under circumstances that, all too often, are less than hospitable, less than welcoming.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Dorothy Rice for this review....more
In The Illusiveness of Gray, poet Carol Smallwood shares recollections, revelations, and moments of inspiration sparked by a laser focus on surroundinIn The Illusiveness of Gray, poet Carol Smallwood shares recollections, revelations, and moments of inspiration sparked by a laser focus on surroundings. She proves herself versatile as a poet by including poetic forms such as triplets, cinquains, and tercets combined with occasional rhyme and a rhythmic litany of lyrical and memorable repetitive lines. Words from her prologue reveal much about the poet: “I knew the wonder had/ become a part of me.”
Her wonder at times morphs into moments of truth in poems such as “Holding on” and “Knowing.” Smallwood writes, “The earth isn’t the center (of our universe)” and “full of wonder as a child but knowing/ now why stars glow and twinkle and/ so much more—I long for the mystery.” In “We Hear” she captures an ageless personal quest: “discovering what lies deep within each of ourselves (is) more than a lifelong concern.”
At times, the thrum of our mundane existence is exposed and whatever joy we get from reading some of these lines reveal aspects we have no good cause to celebrate. From “The Line”: “Today the fast food place line was extra long” and “ignoring cholesterol, sugar, starch, and fat” and from “Observations from a Car”: “When a customer entered, one reflection/ disappeared and then the double reflection/ returned when the door shut leaving me/ with the theory of parallel universes/ and Alice in a place called Wonderland.” Images of time, reflections, and mirrors reoccur.
Smallwood skillfully captures random, uncontrolled things that the unconscious holds onto. Her poetry glimmers with bits of science, mythology, astronomy, and history as she strips away veneers of knowing much for certain. There is a vagueness and ethereal beauty to the color gray and it is that sensibility woven throughout Smallwood’s poems that makes them fascinating to read.
Poets, dreamers, and students of literature would find this book of interest. Smallwood’s forms of poetry are so varied, it might be worth challenging college students to seek out certain forms to read and see how thoughts can be chiseled into form and meaning.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Shawn LaTorre for this review....more
Maria Popova, a Bulgarian-born American writer, once said, “…it can take us years or decades of hindsight and reflection to arrive at the truth of ourMaria Popova, a Bulgarian-born American writer, once said, “…it can take us years or decades of hindsight and reflection to arrive at the truth of our experience, any experience, and all the more so the greater its complexity and its toll on us.”
Teaching, whether in a public or private school, exacts a toll on even the best of teachers. The beauty of Barbara Kennard’s latest memoir, Dragons in My Classroom, lies in the truth-telling of one teacher’s commitment to tackle head on the challenges of striving to become the best educator she can be. This desire transports her to Oxford, England for a teacher exchange program. It is here that she begins to reflect on her practices and comes to see the beauty and solace that some levels of imperfection can provide. The students enrolled at the Dragon School are affectionately referred to as dragons and, at twenty-five per class, their imperfections quickly become visible. The Dragon is a private boys school where “Ma Kennard” finds her charges quite lively and prone to pranking. Her colleagues speak plainly and supportively, answering questions to help ease Barbara’s transition to their school while impressing upon her the idea that “what seems to matter at the Dragon are knowledge and effort, not arbitrary things such as percentages or grades.”
Kennard’s perfectionism, perhaps a vestige of her upbringing, somewhat diminishes as she realizes the English system places more responsibility on the students for their own progress than she is accustomed to relinquishing in the States. She is instructed by her peers not to spend too much energy on students who “muck about” when they should be working. Their marks will reflect whether they need to work harder next time or not and are not a reflection of how hard Ma Kennard tried to teach them. The need to work harder when one has disabilities is a mantra she shared often with students.
Dragons in my Classroom is written in a conversational, accessible first-person voice, and organized chronologically according to Kennard’s pursuits for excellence. This memoir will speak to many teachers who may feel out of place with their current assignments or who long to try something different or go somewhere new. Although the dialogue at times may seem a bit stilted, overall the story remains engaging throughout. Kennard’s faith and supportive husband are delicately woven into her memoir, helping her battle self-doubts about her teaching practices. Ma Kennard begins to see these doubts as her own personal dragons to slay.
This book is an endearing testament to the power of personal growth and reflection in one teacher’s incredibly rich professional life. As it turns out, facing the Dragons in that Oxford classroom ended up being one of the most memorable and favorite of all of Ma Kennard’s teaching experiences.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Shawn LaTorre for this review....more
Terraphilia. The word cannot be found in a general dictionary or easily online. As defined by Richard Cabe and Susan Tweit, terraphilia embraces all oTerraphilia. The word cannot be found in a general dictionary or easily online. As defined by Richard Cabe and Susan Tweit, terraphilia embraces all of life's many forms, from botanical to animal to human, recognizing the intrinsic affinity humans have with the earth itself. It is a recognition of the earth's role in sustaining life as we know it, in all its wonders and foibles. It embraces the sense of healing, that the earth is self-sustaining only if we humans take care of it and each other.
Susan J Tweit's memoir takes us on a personal, yet universal, journey no one signs up for: watching a once-robust spouse succumb to the deadliest form of brain tumor, glioblastoma. Had Richard not hallucinated birds that particular day—thousands of birds, minute and gigantic, everywhere, on every blade of grass, that seemed so real he reached out to touch one—his journey with glioblastoma would have been dramatically shortened. He would have succumbed quickly to the swelling in his brain without knowing what hit him. And there would have been no time to prepare to say goodbye.
Early on Tweit confesses, “Our days were about to get harder and more dear than we could imagine: The birds presaged a tumor growing in his right brain. A tumor that would kill him, though we didn't know that then and didn't believe it for far longer than the data warranted.”
The birds bought time. For Tweit, it bought more than two additional years to spend with and love the man she'd fallen in love with 29 years prior. Seeing the birds demanded an explanation; but going through the long, weary road traveled from denial to acceptance of the terminal cancer diagnosis proved to be a lesson for Tweit in accepting death just as much and as mindfully as she accepted life and love. Tweit's memoir has many lessons to impart, some told in rather scientific terms, others told in poignant, touching language. The personal becomes the political, and vice versa. At one point, she says, “The human capacity for optimistic denial is astonishing and persistent—as demonstrated by America's slow response to the coronavirus pandemic, and the mess Earth is in now.”
But the reality of her personal life had changed, and there was no denying it as she observed the dramatic and shocking changes her husband endured. Tweit and her husband made a conscious effort to live with love as their guiding light, even through the darker days. Hers is a story of adapting to the moment at hand: What is really happening, why is it happening, how can I help?
Tweit intertwines her story of facing her husband's death with the last road trip the two made, 4,000-mile, three-week drive through Wyoming, Idaho, Washington state, Oregon, San Francisco, and Big Sur. Final destination: hospice.
Along the journey, Tweit treats us to some exquisitely described scenery of natural wonder, gracing the end of many chapters with an original haiku summing up the moment at hand, usually one of wonderment, but at times of grief.
Although one knows going into this book that the love of her life would succumb to his insidious brain cancer, Tweit's approach—and her husband's, as well—of being as mindful and loving as humanly possible through it all resonates the most. Tweit's story is masterfully told, while breaking and mending the heart simultaneously.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Paula Shaffer Robertson for this review....more
Ruth Rymer's memoir, Raising the Bar: A Lawyer's Memoir, took me by surprise. I anticipated a standard story, but as I read it, I realized Rymer was aRuth Rymer's memoir, Raising the Bar: A Lawyer's Memoir, took me by surprise. I anticipated a standard story, but as I read it, I realized Rymer was a rebel.
For a slim volume, a lot of rebellious living is packed in the pages. First, she married a man whom her parents didn't approve because he was Jewish. Her parents were well educated but extremely narrow minded and prejudiced. Rymer chose her husband and became estranged from her family for decades. Secondly, her marriage wasn't quite what she perceived, which took me by surprise. Rymer conformed outwardly to social convention of the day, but she chose to live according to her own convictions.
Becoming a lawyer at 40, Rymer forged new paths for women in California. She described some of her cases and how she handled the rapidly changing landscape pertaining to women and the law. I enjoyed reading how her life coincided with the evolutionary women's movement.
It has never been easy to be a woman, but Rymer's experiences highlight the pivotal juncture women faced in the mid twentieth century. Her memoir provides meaningful dialogue for readers contemplating the fluctuations for women during changing times.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Janilyn Kocher for this review....more
On her website, Heather Diamond describes herself as always having had “a rebellious streak and itchy feet,” which would certainly be a fitting (albeiOn her website, Heather Diamond describes herself as always having had “a rebellious streak and itchy feet,” which would certainly be a fitting (albeit incomplete) summary of her memoir, Rabbit in the Moon. By the time she’s forty-five, Diamond is a twice-married grandmother teaching at a Houston community college. She then attends an East-West Center seminar in Hawaii and falls in love with Fred, a married ethnomusicologist from Hong Kong, which is when her life turns upside down yet again. Within five years of their meeting, they are married and soon spending close to a year in Hong Kong.
I really enjoyed Rabbit in the Moon. It was easy and enjoyable to read and I could identify with a lot of Diamond’s experiences. Of course, I never moved to Haiti to live next door to my in-laws, so I could never fully understand how jarring that experience must’ve been for Diamond. However, I have been at family gatherings with dozens of my then-husband’s relatives, all of whom were speaking a language I didn’t understand and sharing food and cultural exchanges in ways I’d never before experienced.
The blending of two families can be that much more difficult when the two families speak different languages, have widely divergent cultural practices, and express love in significantly different ways. In the months Diamond spent living next door to her in-laws on the small Hong Kong island of Cheung Chau, she went from having infrequent visits with her family to sharing nearly every meal with Fred’s. In a kind of cultural immersion therapy, she reflects on the differences between the two families’ dynamics and traditions, including the pros and cons of a life of independence versus interdependence.
By the end of Rabbit in the Moon, Diamond comes to realize that even the most polar opposite of families can usually relate when it comes to loving each other, parents wanting their children to go farther in life than they did, and children bucking for their independence.
Even if you can’t readily identify with an intercultural/interracial marriage, almost everyone can identify with the book’s broader themes of wanting to rebel from one’s parents as a teen, wanting to gain independence and respect as an adult, having to regroup when life doesn’t go quite as we’ve planned, wanting to follow your heart—even when others may judge you for it, and struggling to be loved and understood by those you love.
Heather Diamond’s memoir is as down to earth and relatable as it is unique. I’d highly recommend it.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Katherine Itacy for this review....more
An Impossible Life: The Inspiring True Story of a Woman’s Struggle from Within (Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden) is the story of Sonja Wasden’s mentAn Impossible Life: The Inspiring True Story of a Woman’s Struggle from Within (Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden) is the story of Sonja Wasden’s mental health battles, as written by her daughter, Rachael Siddoway. Wasden’s story, narrated in the first person in the form of a memoir, is a collaboration between the two women, and the springboard for their advocacy on behalf of those suffering extreme mental illness and their families.
The memoir begins with Sonja Wasden’s husband committing her to a psychiatric institution in 2007. Struggling daily with suicidal thoughts and relying on self-harm to dull the emotional pain, she is insistent that she doesn’t belong in the facility.
From this opening scene, the narrative moves between backstory—illustrating events that preceded her husband’s desperate action—and the narrator’s first stay in the psychiatric facility and its aftermath. We learn that she has been battling severe mental illness since young adulthood, if not earlier.
An Impossible Life is engaging, written in vivid scenes that recreate a number of dramatic and terrifying episodes from the subject’s life as wife and mother. Most alarming, and gripping, are those that depict her as a homemaker responsible for—and alone with—young children while her husband pursues a career as a hospital administrator.
Describing the necessity of self-harm, the narrator says, “My knives were an essential part of my existence. My five-year-old daughter, Rachael, would take them and hide them, waging a battle she was never going to win.” In another scene, the narrator (a Mormon) has invited some “sister missionaries” to lunch but neglected to shop for or prepare any food for the occasion. “My kids started serving themselves handfuls of popcorn and spoonsful of cake batter, as if this were their daily meal. The sisters watched them and awkwardly but politely spooned the batter onto their plates, where it soon pooled with their popcorn.”
A compulsive online shopper, the narrator racks up $150,000 in credit charges for online jewelry purchases. She is an emotional binge eater, and also describes not bathing or changing her clothes for weeks.
At sixteen, daughter Rachael (the memoir’s author) finds her mother’s suicide notes. Recreating these difficult years, the narrator repeatedly states she didn’t believe that her behavior was harming the children.
Because the story is narrated from the point of view of a woman while suffering mental illness, with minimal reflection subsequent to these events, it was at times frustrating to read scene after scene of the narrator’s cries for help, and to picture her children witnessing their mother’s desperation for the entirety of their childhoods. While it appeared that she was a member of a supportive religious community, had a close relationship with her husband, and that other family members knew of her struggles, it isn’t until she attempts suicide by taking “hundreds” of pills, remains unconscious for days, and nearly dies, that a doctor states, “You’re in no condition to be a mother right now.” After the suicide attempt, the narrator’s youngest son (16 by this time) is sent to live with relatives and her husband contemplates separation.
However, the book ends in a hopeful and satisfying way.
An Impossible Life is the first of three books written by Siddoway about her mother’s battle with bipolar disorder, each from a different point of view.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Dorothy Rice for this review....more
This novel is an excellent choice for book clubs because it covers many important and timely concerns.
Maggie Smith tackles contemporary topics as the This novel is an excellent choice for book clubs because it covers many important and timely concerns.
Maggie Smith tackles contemporary topics as the lives of three women intersect in Truth and Other Lies. The story is told from the point of view of Megan Barnes, a young, ambitious, and spirited woman who wears her idealism on her sleeve. She is an up-and-coming investigative reporter determined to make a difference in the world.
As a twenty-something, Megan’s relationship with her mother is typically distant and complicated. She struggles for independence as she separates her identity from that of her mother. While she searches for a job in her hometown of Chicago, she learns that her mother has decided to run for political office. The two butt heads politically. Helen, Megan’s mother, is a pro-life conservative while Megan attends pro-choice rallies and supports other liberal causes. As the two women move forward with their respective careers, they do their best not to hinder one another. Megan, for example, learns quickly that she must temporarily forgo her ambition of working as a journalist until Helen’s campaign runs its course.
Instead, Megan accepts a job assisting with a public relations campaign for Joycelyn Jones, an accomplished and famous journalist whom Megan admires. Joycelyn has written a memoir and it is Megan’s task to promote the book. When a Twitter troll accuses Joyce of having plagiarized her Pulitzer-winning story about prison camps in Bosnia, Megan uses her investigative skills to seek the truth.
While the mentorship between Joycelyn and Megan is certainly important, it is the mother-daughter relationship between Helen and Megan that resonates and matters the most in the end. Helen expresses a mother’s love so well when she says, “You were a book I’d read so many times, I’d memorized every page.” She then goes on, “That’s a mother’s job, of course—preparing the person you love most in the world to leave you.” Her love and admiration for her daughter are genuine and the reader feels her bittersweet pride.
Megan uncovers not only secrets held by her mentor, but also her mother’s secrets. People aren’t always who they seem to be. We watch Megan grow and mature as she comes to terms with these truths.
Maggie Smith knows Chicago and its northern suburbs well and it shows. Her sense of place is strong as she guides us from Marshall Fields to the Palmer House to the campus of Northwestern University. It is clear she loves the city, as does Megan.
This is a worthy read that covers a myriad of themes. Maggie Smith is spot on with regard to the generation gap that exists between Baby Boomers and Millennials. (Megan accuses Baby Boomers of leaving “my generation to clean up the mess”—something I have heard from my own daughter!) She covers feminism and abortion with clarity and fairness. She touches on sexual harassment, war, trust, friendship and mother/daughter love. That’s a lot. But she does it well, and this story makes for a good starter point for deep conversation about all these topics.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Regina Allen for this review....more
The title of Jo-Ann Vega's recent memoir, Moments in Flight, might lead one to believe it is about an aviatrix, but it is actually a bold, sentimentalThe title of Jo-Ann Vega's recent memoir, Moments in Flight, might lead one to believe it is about an aviatrix, but it is actually a bold, sentimental, and at times frightening time capsule depicting what it's like as a first generation Italian American in New York City. At the same time it uncovers a meaningful exploration of what it means to gradually discover one's self. The author pays homage to her ancestors in the dedication by recognizing that their courageous voyages, beginning in 1903 from Italy to New York, made life possible for her.
Each chapter begins with a quote tied to Vega's themes. One chapter, entitled "Escape from the Mezzogiorno" (which literally means mid-day, referring to southern Italy where the sun shines intensely at mid-day), begins with a quote from Job in the Bible: "I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." Here the reader is introduced to the backstory of Italian immigration. Immigrants from southern Italy fled violence, volcanic eruptions, homelessness, diseases, and inhumane treatment with the hope of more opportunities for the one thing they valued most: la famiglia (the family).
Vega's Grandma Antoinette "would speak with pride at having completed three years of school and being able to read and write." Many of the more than four million Italians who migrated to the States between 1880 and 1920 viewed education as a threat to the family; thus, many children (females especially) were pulled out of school after just a few years. Though her family endured many forms of discrimination suffered by immigrants to this country, Vega managed to graduate college and rise in the ranks of a profession where she would eventually be sought after as a leading expert.
Old World expectations complicate Vega's struggle to make her way and discover her strengths. She feels at times estranged from her parents, and yet connected in ways that allow her to begin to appreciate them for their courage and persistence in maintaining family in the best ways they knew. She reveals the main elements of her ethnic heritage (la via vecchia) as suspicion of others, self-sacrifice, thrift, caution, loyalty to loved ones, and endurance. She writes: "How do I reconcile my disappointment with la famiglia and remain faithful to the theme of lasting feelings of gratitude? By recognizing both can exist at the same time."
Overall, despite the potentially misleading title and the messy cover image, this is an interesting and deeply meaningful memoir. Anyone interested in the immigrant experience in America would find this book relatable; there is so much to be learned from the histories of others.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Shawn LaTorre for this review....more
Bravo Anjali! by Sheetal Sheth, the second Anjali book appearing after Always Anjali, will fairly jump from bookstore shelves with dazzling colors, stBravo Anjali! by Sheetal Sheth, the second Anjali book appearing after Always Anjali, will fairly jump from bookstore shelves with dazzling colors, stars, swirls, and yes, the beautiful Indian girl, Anjali. London-based illustrator Lucia Soto beautifully depicts a lively classroom full of wide-eyed, diverse children, each with a uniqueness of expression that parents and children everywhere will recognize and love. The illustrator's exquisite details in Anjali's living room should not be overlooked either.
But the illustrations provide the frame for a goldmine of a story about a young girl playing tabla—a typically male practice. Within the tale, important messages are brought forward. In just over thirty gorgeous pages, the author smoothly navigates a bully in the classroom, jealousy, an upstander in the restroom, frustration, rage, determination, success, and an apology. Bravo Anjali!, simply written for children, packs a punch of powerful messaging that young children need to hear. For in the sharing of this story, young people will understand that they can do wonders in this world by taking ownership of their true interests and going forth with confident pizazz.
I highly recommend this book for young children, ages three to eight perhaps. I think pre-school and elementary classrooms and libraries everywhere should keep a copy of this on hand.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Shawn LaTorre for this review....more
All's Fair and Other California Stories by Linda Feyder is a collection of thirteen short stories connected by their California settings. The stories All's Fair and Other California Stories by Linda Feyder is a collection of thirteen short stories connected by their California settings. The stories are also connected by the point at which the author drops us into her characters' lives. As with most resonant short stories—those that allow us to step into worlds other than our own, and that create the sense of fully-fleshed lives that continue in our minds beyond the closing paragraph—these stories present their characters at key moments of change, crisis, or the dawning awareness that this is all there will be. The endings are subtle and evocative; the reader is left with curiosity, questions, and a tendency to speculate, and care, about what will happen next.
Feyder’s stories introduce the reader to a diverse set of characters and backgrounds. A number of the stories involve characters who have recently arrived in, or returned to, California: an older couple who move to the desert from New York for health reasons; a Mexican woman who migrates to California in hopes of finding greater opportunities; a girl traveling to California to spend time with her estranged father; a young man who grapples with his sexuality when he returns to his California home after a professional setback.
The prose is fluid and inviting, with a range of points of view from first person to third, and with protagonists of varying ages and genders. At times the author brings us very close to her characters’ thoughts and experiences, and at other times we obtain a wider, more omniscient view. This variety is one of the collections strengths.
In the titular story, “All’s Fair,” Joyce, an older woman caring for her ailing husband, experiences the isolation of the caregiving role, and of life in a new and alien environment (from the bustle of Manhattan to a Palm Desert condominium community). A quirky, twelve-year-old albino becomes an unlikely companion. The boy seeks her out to share his “finds,” including a restored Studebaker, two crickets mating, a tenant’s bra transformed into a ping-pong table net. She follows him, rationalizing, “She should indulge his wishes because life had dealt him a pitiless blow, one colorless and pale, and she had seen it reduce her husband too, reducing him to a bedridden tyrant.” While we are privy to her thoughts, we don’t entirely believe her, for it also seems that she follows this boy for other reasons—loneliness, to enjoy a moment’s distraction, as an escape from the confines of her new normal.
In “Joint Custody,” the longest, and arguably most complex story in the collection, the point of view shifts between several characters, bringing us different slants on a complicated child custody arrangement. We have Ann, the mother, raising her daughter Emily on her own in New York; a family friend who delivers Emily to the girl’s father in Southern California when Ann leaves for a business trip to London; Emily herself, a teenager who scarcely remembers living with her father; and, the father, a bohemian-type who has had minimal contact with his only child and who now has a new, very young, girlfriend. Layering these distinct vantage points reveals the confusing, awkward, and potentially damaging consequences divorce and its aftermath hold for Emily.
In addition to being a skilled storyteller, Linda Feyder is a practicing psychotherapist in New York City. From the thirteen compelling, thought-provoking stories in All’s Fair, it is evident that her observational skills and empathy for the human condition serve her well in both capacities. The situations and scenarios she brings to life on the page will be resonant and relatable for many.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Dorothy Rice for this review....more
At the tender age of fourteen, Laura Whitfield's world was shattered with the death of her oldest brother, Lawrence. Untethered: Faith, Failure, and FAt the tender age of fourteen, Laura Whitfield's world was shattered with the death of her oldest brother, Lawrence. Untethered: Faith, Failure, and Finding Solid Ground is the story of how she grappled with the ups and downs of life following this tragedy.
Her brother seemed to be the center that her family orbited around. After his death the core of the family became hollow. Losing her brother had a profound impact on the author's life; she constantly questioned what he would have thought about many of her decisions.
Reading memoirs allows me to involve myself in other people's lives, from the periphery. The author floundered after high school graduation, pursuing different dreams in different locations. I really liked reading about her time in New York City as a fledging model. Whitfield made questionable relationship choices which reflected her low self esteem.
A major theme in the book revolves around her relationship with her parents, to whose home she returned numerous times as a refuge from the ravages of life. Whitfield reciprocated in her parents' later life, providing elder care as they dealt with medical issues, which is relevant for many readers.
The ending left me wanting to know more. The author ends her memoir with a major life event, but her acknowledgement page alludes to more personal changes, which I very much would like to read. Perhaps she is planning a second book.
Grief recovery has no set time limit. People learn to cope and live with death and loss. While Whitfield admittedly made many missteps, especially in regard to personal relationships, she remained tethered to the memories of her brother and found joy in her work, family, and faith.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Janilyn Kocher for this review....more
“I've noticed that there are at least two perks to having a mental illness: I get to use mind-altering drugs legally, and I get to take frequent brea “I've noticed that there are at least two perks to having a mental illness: I get to use mind-altering drugs legally, and I get to take frequent breaks from reality.” This observation by author Claire Ishi Ayetoro provides a startling abstract of the events that served to transform her life at the blossoming age of 25. She tells her riveting story in her debut memoir, I Hear the Black Raven: A Petite Memoir. For this quiet, studious black girl who had already accomplished so much as a scholar, a mentor, an artist (in 3-D woodwork, no less), a spoken-word poet, a published musician, and a writer, life's creative trajectory was going as planned. Her entire life was straight A in everything. She didn't take it for granted; that was just the way it was.
But her reality becomes suddenly derailed when she experiences—in a dramatic way—her first full-blown manic episode. Diagnosed with Bipolar 1 disorder, episodes do not always end well for the author, and she takes us through every conceivable emotion appropriate for the scene. It's like Ayetoro is inside her own mind, dissecting each motive, conscious and subconscious. To her credit, Ayetoro is so keenly aware of how and what she is feeling when in an episode that she is able to translate those feelings more than adequately in this surprising memoir. The reader feels exactly what Ayetoro intends. Through her uncanny, intuitive wit, she comes to understand her mental illness, and ultimately learns, through harrowing trials, education, and medical treatment, to successfully live with and manage her mental illness.
I would be amiss if I paid no mention to the black raven of the memoir's title. After providing an interesting but brief history of myths of the black raven, we are left to judge for ourselves which path we choose to guide us through Ayetoro's story. The black raven can be dark—or light.
Ayetoro's black raven first appears after a cataclysmic event that shocked the author, and will have the same effect on the reader. She manages to pack within this beautifully wrapped 4”x6” gem adversity, obstacles to overcome, moments of insanity. A raven can soar in any direction of its choosing.
I was relieved to find that this symbolic bird, for purposes of the story, directed Ayetoro down a path of sheer light. It is good to know she continues sharing her light through her professional work. I Hear the Black Raven is a satisfying, inspiring story of short but impactful life lessons embracing Bipolar 1 disorder: a petite memoir told in a most poetically fresh and creative way.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Paula Shaffer Robertson for this review....more
Some people are just not meant to be together, even though they try to make a relationship work. Reyna Marder Gentin explores the theme of true partneSome people are just not meant to be together, even though they try to make a relationship work. Reyna Marder Gentin explores the theme of true partners in her novel Both Are True.
Jackie returns home from a difficult day on the New York Family court bench to find a note from her live-in lover, Lou. He was done. He wanted more out of life than writing a column and caring for Jackie. The narrative follows the path of both as they navigate new paths in life.
The author used switching between Jackie's and Lou's voices, which allows the readers to get inside each character's mindset. Gentin portrays both characters in realistic ways. Jackie is flummoxed and confused; Lou tries to reignite embers from an old relationship. Both have unrealized expectations and even an unexpected complication which causes Jackie to make a major change in her life.
Gentin does an admirable job with character development. She also demonstrates that while people may have their hearts set on one desired outcome, life works in a different, better fashion with unanticipated results.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Janilyn Kocher for this review....more
Creatrix Rising is a celebration of the later years of women. Instead of allowing our traditionally male-dominant society to define older women as “crCreatrix Rising is a celebration of the later years of women. Instead of allowing our traditionally male-dominant society to define older women as “crones” or “washed up” and useless, Raffelock suggests a new archetype for ourselves: creatrix. Raffelock defines creatrix as “a woman who makes things.” As the world tries to define us, the creatrix insists on defining herself and refuses to contort to fit into someone else’s box. Creatrix Rising is less a self-help book and more a manual on how to share our personal experiences as women in a historically patriarchal society.
In fact, it is in the creatrix years that we are able to look at where we have been, slow down, and make our own new path where we want to go. It is a time for reflection on what our society and families expected from us and who we want to and should be. It is when we finally learn that we don’t have to constantly please others, but that we can actually serve others better by being true to ourselves. When we are confident and live authentically, we can bring joy to the world. When we let go of societal expectations, possibilities are endless, and we have more to offer ourselves and others. We are also healthier, both physically and mentally. Society itself is healthier too.
Women have a habit of worrying about what others might think. We are taught to fit a certain mold and if we don’t then we are less feminine. But that femininity is defined by others, not us. The more we share our personal experiences and see the commonalities, the more we can shape the world to suit us both individually and as a group.
Raffelock looks at our individual feminist journeys through the lens of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and believes that we should each own our personal stories. Midlife and menopause traditionally have been viewed as a negative experience, as a “crisis,” as women becoming “lesser;” but Raffelock prefers the phrase “midlife awakening.” From my own experience, “midlife awakening” is more accurate. It is a time when we wake up to our full potentials. We finally break from the cocoon and become the butterflies we are meant to be.
Each chapter culminates with journaling activities and questions for reflection. Working through this book and using the Hero’s Journey as a scaffold, we can share our individual experiences, writing our own histories and taking charge of ourselves.
As we share our personal experiences of womanhood, we see just how similar our stories are. We finally see how much we have in common. Raffelock’s personal journey, for example, is quite different from my own on the surface, but look a little deeper and we find common themes such as abandonment, abuse, self-esteem, dependence, and loneliness. To varying degrees, as second-class-citizens, we have all dealt with these issues and we are only recently speaking out about them.
In fact, feminism is personal. When we stop behavior that does not serve us, when we stop devaluing ourselves, when we begin to set boundaries and develop self-respect, we are feminists. When we all do these things, not only will we respect ourselves and each other, but society as a whole will begin to change and know our power.
To quote Virginia Woolf: “A feminist is any woman who tells the truth about her life.”
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Regina Allen for this review....more
Fifty First Dates After Fifty is a frolicking, often racy, memoir. After a seven-year relationship ends—with a man author Carolyn Lee Arnold describesFifty First Dates After Fifty is a frolicking, often racy, memoir. After a seven-year relationship ends—with a man author Carolyn Lee Arnold describes as “a happy Buddhist beach boy in his late fifties”—she longs for a new partner to fill the emotional, physical, and spiritual hole in her life. It’s noteworthy that during their coupledom, Arnold lived in California, while the Buddhist boyfriend called Hawaii home. With an ocean between them, they met once a month—an arrangement the author described as perfect. This bit of backstory cues the reader that Arnold, in her fifties, isn’t likely pining for any stereotypical version of happily-ever-after.
The author’s search takes the form of a research project, a commitment to go on fifty dates with fifty different men. (A twist on the plot of the film Fifty First Dates, in which a young amnesiac must relive her first date with her future husband every time they meet.) Arnold’s memoir documents the journey from date number one through to date number fifty. Along the way, she meets and gets to know all sorts of men, in a variety of settings and circumstances. Younger men and older men. Adventurous bad boys and sensitive, spiritual types. Single, married, and polyamorous men. Several of her dates fulfill one or more of the characteristics Arnold is searching for, yet finding the complete package proves elusive.
There is sex in this memoir, a lot of sex, with a lot of men—not all fifty, I don’t believe (though I wasn’t keeping count), though the majority of the narrator’s dates do involve physical intimacy. Over the course of close to two years, she dates forty-eight men. As Arnold nears that final, fiftieth date, she hasn’t yet found the “one,” but she has connected with several who serve as stand-in lovers while she continues the search.
Ultimately, the project is a success. Just before hitting the magic number of fifty dates, Arnold meets her perfect, compatible man and chooses him for her next partner in a loving, polyamorous relationship. Jay, the chosen one, says, “We save the candlelight dinners for each other, but we snack on sex with our friends.”
Fifty First Dates After Fifty is a fast, fun read. Arnold’s prose is clever, engaging, and confident. After the first thirty or so dates, the sex began to seem a bit episodic—or am I perhaps envious of the narrator’s boundless energy and that she was able to enjoy physical intimacy with so many partners, without any of the pangs of remorse or regret that can, for many, attach to sexual encounters? Arnold is unabashedly sensual and liberated throughout, in terms of her approach to sexuality and what constitutes a fulfilling relationship. Her ideal Prince Charming may be decidedly different from that of many readers, yet Arnold knows what she wants, what will make her feel happy and fulfilled, and she goes for it with gusto.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Dorothy Rice for this review....more
Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness recounts Renée K. Nicholson’s journey to become a professional ballet dancer, as well as the early reFierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness recounts Renée K. Nicholson’s journey to become a professional ballet dancer, as well as the early retirement she was forced to take after being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (R.A.) at the age of twenty-one.
Rest assured, you don’t have to understand or enjoy anything about ballet to appreciate the passion and dedication Nicholson has displayed for the art form for nearly her entire life.
I identified with Nicholson’s dream of becoming the best athlete in her field, her years of sacrificing a personal life, and pushing her body to its absolute limit in order to achieve that dream. And sadly, I know all too well what it’s like to have a chronic illness get in the way of accomplishing your athletic goals. Nicholson describes the heartbreak that comes with acknowledging that no matter how hard you’ve worked, how talented you are, or how long you’ve dreamed of achieving your goals, your willpower and determination are no match for an incurable autoimmune disease’s relentless attack on your body.
Nicholson’s essays cover her years of ballet training, competition, and performance, how the art form focuses on perfection (in both one’s ballet technique and physical appearance), her struggles to form true friendships with her fellow competitors, her R.A. diagnosis and decision to stop dancing, how she decided to become a writer, and ultimately, her journey back to dance.
Because the book is a collection of essays as opposed to a more traditional memoir, at times I did find it a bit difficult to keep the timeline of events straight in my mind as I continued reading.
I also felt as if Nicholson still has a bit of unresolved resentment/anger toward her illness and her forced early retirement. While that is completely understandable, it does her memoir a disservice. Nicholson so eloquently expresses her love of and devotion to dance throughout the book, and even recognizes that by writing about dance, she continues to have a meaningful artistic outlet in her life. Unfortunately, when she addresses her R.A. diagnosis and how it’s affected her physical and mental health, the passages feel far curter and emotionally removed.
Again, while I can commiserate with Nicholson saying she doesn’t want to be pitied, that her pride has kept her from asking for or accepting others’ help, and that she’s felt a deep resentment of the fact that her body derailed her dreams, my sincerest wish is that she works through those feelings on a deeper level and finds some peace in her life with a chronic illness. It will undoubtedly help both her creative nonfiction writing as well as her own mental health and wellbeing.
Otherwise, the book is a beautiful tribute to an art form that clearly shaped Renée Nicholson’s life a great deal.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Katherine Itacy for this review....more
The List of Last Chances is a sweet novel about two women travelling across Canada from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia. They’re not a coupleThe List of Last Chances is a sweet novel about two women travelling across Canada from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia. They’re not a couple; in fact, Ruthie just became uncoupled when her partner Jack chose another woman. Kay March, seventy-two, is a widow and her son David in Vancouver, B.C. figures as she ages, his mother ought to live closer to him.
David places an ad for an “experienced care attendant” to drive his mother across the country in a minivan. Thirty-eight-year-old Ruthie applies and gets the job .
Ruthie had been employed by Just Like Family, “a seniors homecare agency,” until she spent too much time on the couch, drinking copious amounts of wine, following her break-up with Jack. She gets it together enough to take on the assignment and meets Kay a couple of weeks before they set off together. She helps Kay pack up her old house.
David has an itinerary planned for them and Kay has her own list of things to see and do along the way. Kay calls her to-do list “last chances.” I appreciated reading about an older female character who visits a sex shop, gets a new hairdo, reads three Canadian writers, meets new people, and goes dancing. It's not all fun and games: Kay pines for a lost love when they stop at a cottage where she had spent time many years before.
Kay will arrive in Vancouver in her own good time. She’s the one with gumption in the pair and it’s a delight to see an older woman pursuing her passions and creating her own itinerary. Ruthie, although she’s the one driving, is really along for the ride.
For Ruthie, there are second chances. The van breaks down and there are other mishaps along the way, but Ruthie gets to see parts of Canada she’s never seen: the prairies, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Ocean. A flirtation begins between her and David via text and Skype. And there are new possibilities available to her in Vancouver.
The adventures aren’t death-defying and there isn’t a mystery to be solved. The book is like a letter from a friend, which is why it was a joy to read something fun though quite ordinary.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Mary Ann Moore for this review....more
A young American woman joins the Peace Corps and completes a stint in Peru. She finds love with young Peruvian man, whom she marries; they embark on aA young American woman joins the Peace Corps and completes a stint in Peru. She finds love with young Peruvian man, whom she marries; they embark on a life adventure. This sounds like a movie or a novel, but it's the real-life story of Evelyn Kohl La Torre as outlined in Love in Any Language: A Memoir of a Cross-Cultural Marriage.
The 1960s were a time of change and adjustment. La Torre had many acclimations as a young bride, compounded by bringing her husband, Antonio, to the US. They also started a family shortly after their nuptials. It was a hefty load for the young couple and the author is candid with her feelings as they faced new challenges. She experienced frustration, exasperation, and impatience, but also joy and excitement, especially with the birth of their two sons.
Marriage is a constant puzzle in how to fit together different pieces. La Torre and Antonio encountered many obstacles, including housing and transportation issues and shifting employment. Both pursued advanced degrees while juggling a family. I found it revealing that an intrepid woman like La Torre grappled with being the main breadwinner, yet yearned to spend more time with her sons. Her husband struggled to find permanent employment, even spending a year in Peru for a job—which strained the marriage.
La Torre's memoir is an insightful example of two partners who made it work, despite cultural differences. Love in Any Language is a good study in relationships. It highlights tenacity, perseverance, and commitment despite differences that sometimes threatened to engulf the marriage.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Janilyn Kocher for this review....more
Michele Morano’s memoir Like Love provides readers an exploratory look at what that four-letter L word means from childhood to adulthood. It’s a meandMichele Morano’s memoir Like Love provides readers an exploratory look at what that four-letter L word means from childhood to adulthood. It’s a meandering adventure that takes the reader through the intricacies of relationships that come in many forms, from what happens when a mother leaves a father for another woman to a married kiss and the love of a child.
Written as a collection of essays, Morano’s words penetrate to a reader’s own perceptions of love. Am I one of those women who give too much of myself away in a relationship, you might find yourself asking. Or, why do I put up with a man who loves someone else?
Relationships, even taboo ones, are explored and exposed in depth. There are no love-stricken and cliché Juliets or Romeos lurking among Morano’s characters. One comes away from the book realizing that love can often be messy and incomplete.
Then there’s the love-hate relationship daughters have with their mothers, and how perceptions change. Morano explores this oxymoron as her book continues throughout the span of time. Age brings different perspectives, and these essays brought to the surface the changing emotions I had with my own mother. But I suspect I won’t be the only reader who ends up reexamining mother-daughter issues after reading Like Love.
At the very least, this book will have you rethinking everything you thought you ever knew about relationships. And while at times Morano’s stories tend to explore the darker side of love, reading it is not a downer. In fact, I found it to be the opposite.
Writes Morano: “A really true love story ends not with tears or guilt or reconciliation, but with the simple knowledge that your life is a good one, that despite the constant see-saw of loss and gain, you’re grateful every day to be here.”
I recommend this book to any reader willing to take a closer look at that four-letter word L.O.V.E.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Pat Bean for this review....more
At twenty-six, Amy Daniels is a new mother with an exceedingly cranky baby. She and her husband, Dave, decide to get their daughter checked out by medAt twenty-six, Amy Daniels is a new mother with an exceedingly cranky baby. She and her husband, Dave, decide to get their daughter checked out by medical professionals, and when they do, they’re told seven-month-old Emily has a brain tumor the size of an orange sitting right in the middle of her brain. Reaching for Normal chronicles the Daniels family’s life from the time of Emily’s birth and throughout her countless medical procedures and treatments.
At the beginning of the memoir, Daniels informs her readers that her objectives in writing this book were twofold: 1) to help those caring for someone with a chronic illness feel less alone; and 2) to hopefully bridge the gap between “typical” and “special” families by showing that we’re not all that different from one another. I believe Reaching for Normal easily fulfills those objectives in the most heartwarming of ways.
As a person who’s suffered from chronic illnesses for nearly her entire life, and someone who was also born with a tumor, my heart broke for the Daniels family. I could sympathize with the unique financial, physical, and emotional struggles that come with caring for or being a chronically ill person. In fact, there were many times in which I stopped reading and reconsidered just how difficult my parents must have had it while raising me. I’d then resume reading and realize that for Amy and Dave Daniels, it must have been a million times more difficult.
A small sampling of Emily Daniels’ countless procedures includes six brain surgeries before she’s three years old, doctors repeatedly suctioning fluid out of cysts in her brain and inserting chemo into them, targeted radiation into the tumor, a feeding tube inserted into her stomach, blood transfusions, and more.
In addition to detailing Emily’s unending medical struggles, Daniels writes about how Emily’s special needs affected their young family in both positive and negative ways. She chronicles some of her battles with insurance providers, the love and support they received from extended family, friends, and employers, the countless impossible decisions she and Dave were forced to make regarding their daughter’s life and well-being, and the strain Emily’s medical issues had on their marriage, home, social lives, mental health, and vision for the future.
What I found most endearing about this book was that Ms. Daniels shows how her family, while facing some very grave and unusual circumstances, is still “normal” when it comes to the issues they face. Despite Emily’s unique medical conditions, she’s still a happy little girl who doesn’t like being seen as different from her peers. Even though Ryan grows up with his sister constantly in the hospital or receiving medical care at home, he and Emily still enjoy the same love-hate relationship that so many young siblings in America have. And just like every other parent in America, Amy and Dave struggle to find a work/home life balance, fight for the best interests of their children when it comes to their schooling and medical care, and try their best to find time for themselves and their relationship while also working and raising children.
I admire and can relate to each member of the Daniels family, and I feel honored to have gotten to know their lives a little better. They are undoubtedly a special family, and Reaching for Normal is an unquestionably special book.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Katherine Itacy for this review....more
As a California Poet in the Schools, Meredith Heller teaches poetry workshops “for kids of all ages in both public and private schools.” She says, “WrAs a California Poet in the Schools, Meredith Heller teaches poetry workshops “for kids of all ages in both public and private schools.” She says, “Writing poems helps people believe in themselves.”
It’s evident in all the examples shared by students in the book that they have learned to connect to themselves through the writing of poetry. And now the book makes it possible for many more to realize the many gifts of writing poetry. Each chapter of Write a Poem, Save Your Life is inspiring with Heller’s engaging writing, students’ poems, and invitations to write followed by prompts she calls “just write.”
Each chapter begins with an excerpt from well-known artists and poets like Muriel Rukeyser and Pablo Neruda. The first chapter describes various aspects of poetry, such as “writing voice,” which Heller describes as the capturing of one’s unique speaking style in their writing. “Your own way of saying things is the voice you want to write with,” Heller advises, echoing the words of poet William Stafford.
One of my favorite chapters is “Muse of the Ordinary,” in which Heller suggests writing poems as a letter, a horoscope, a dictionary entry, or a magic spell. The chapter includes examples of black-out poems (also called erasure poetry)—using a page from a magazine or a portion of a newspaper to circle words for a poem, blacking out the rest.
“Body Language” includes an invitation to write a love poem to a favorite body part as well as an invitation for students to think about their relationship with sex, sexuality, and gender identity. These are poems the students could opt to not share, although there are poems from two students aged 19 and 17.
“Message in a Bottle” invites students and readers to use their imaginations to write messages and fortunes. “Dream Catcher” is another chapter that encourages students to get in touch with their own inner wisdom. As Heller says, “I think all poets are shamans. We write our way through our darkness and disconnection with self and community, and we write our way back returning with something to share, a map, a remedy, a way of wisdom.”
Kate, an eight-year-old, says in her contribution How to be a Thinker: “Stargaze and make memory constellations / When it rains, visit the mildew in the morning / the unknown is your happy place / Puddles are for jumping . . .” Kate’s poem is in the final chapter, “Wildly Alive.” Here, Heller invites students and readers to write about what inspires the poet in them and to write about what “celebrates and honors who you are.” The chapter is all about being a poet as a way of life and being true to oneself, living a life of joy and purpose.
I agree with Heller when she says, “When you commune with your own being and touch your own truth, it saves you.” I hope people of all ages will find this book to encourage them to write their own truth and to find the powerful medicine in sharing those truths with others.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Mary Ann Moore for this review....more
Is marriage for life? Even if it gets boring? Even if he ignores you while a younger fox grabs your attention? We could go on for hours, discussing thIs marriage for life? Even if it gets boring? Even if he ignores you while a younger fox grabs your attention? We could go on for hours, discussing the importance of contemporary fidelity and whether it’s even realistic, and that’s exactly what Leslie A. Rasmussen has done in her first novel, After Happily Ever After.
Seventeen years ago, Maggie Dolin left her publishing career to raise her only child, Gia, who is about to leave for college. She’s been the caretaker and nurturer, but when her daughter leaves for college, she fears her life will be a blank slate. Her husband doesn’t listen and her daughter can’t wait to get out of the house. She doesn’t realize that her husband, Jim is thinking about leaving his job. He’s a therapist who doesn’t talk at home and is sick of his clients' complaints.
When Maggie meets a hottie at the gym who showers her with conversation and appreciation, she gives serious thought to what she needs, what she wants, and whether her wedding vows still matter. Yes, you read that right. Maggie is at a crossroads. Michael, the hot gym rat, listens; and though she has friends and family, she doesn’t know where to turn for advice. Her father doesn’t always recognize her, as his health is deteriorating rapidly. Her mother and brother have emotional walls that keep them from connecting. No wonder she relishes spending time with Michael. Who will she choose and what will she discover about love, marriage, the sandwich generation, and what really matters before she makes her decision? This contemporary, suburban drama will resonate with women who’ve ever faced a crossroads and wondered about their purpose.
The narrator’s style is filled with sly humor and sarcasm. Lines like “The mirror was my enemy” and “The first thing I saw when I walked into the gym was grown women standing in groups like high school cliques” make me love Maggie’s attitude. Maybe it’s her inappropriate remarks that prompt her potentially disastrous actions. I like her edginess. It keeps me entertained.
Since I’m well past my forties, I wasn’t sure how much the book would appeal to me until I read “She finds herself pulled in a direction that makes her question the life she’s always known…” I’m still doing that, and I found the depth of her conflicts authentic. Though I believe in fidelity, I empathized with her struggle. Many women need attention that lasts. Men, too. Living with someone is very different than flirting with them, as Maggie discovers. It involves a total commitment to both the good and the bad that life pours on all of us.
Author Leslie A. Rasmussen peppers the story with humor and sarcasm, making her likeable and easy to identify with. Her breezy writing style is entertaining, but there’s real meaning beneath her attitude. If you like women’s fiction, After Happily Ever After is worth your time.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Lynn Goodwin for this review....more
Sixty-three-year-old Dorothy Rice is feeling fat, old, and unloved. Her youngest daughter has left for college and she’s convinced her husband is onlySixty-three-year-old Dorothy Rice is feeling fat, old, and unloved. Her youngest daughter has left for college and she’s convinced her husband is only staying in the marriage out of habit. She frequently binge-eats in secret, often to the point that she literally makes herself sick. And she’s spent far more time helping others work on their writing than she’s spent working on her own.
Inspired by her sister’s suggestion that they embrace their advanced age and rock their naturally gray hair, and fed up with feeling lonely, unattractive, and unhappy, Dorothy decides to spend the next year becoming a healthier, happier, more successful version of herself. Specifically, she vows to finally finish writing her own book, losing weight gradually and in a healthy way, and working on her closest relationships.
During her year of transformation, Dorothy reflects on female shame, disappointing relationships, unrealistic expectations, sexual assault, the desire for fame, true love, hot sex, and what she can do to live a happier life. She gives real consideration to the fact that her mother always told her Dorothy went with the low-hanging romantic fruit, the safe bets when it came to boyfriends and eventually husbands. She reflects upon her decision as a young teen to repeatedly hook up with her sexual assailant, knowing full well that he was using her and likely hooking up with others. And she recognizes that she usually fails in her dieting because she tends to binge whenever something disappointing or hurtful happens in her personal life.
I truly appreciate the fact that Rice’s memoir doesn’t neatly wrap up at the end of the book. Without a doubt, she made great strides in her emotional development and introspection in a year’s time, but she makes no claim of a storybook ending. Throughout the year, her weight continues to yo-yo and her marriage and personal relationships are far from perfect. But her story is inspiring nonetheless.
Rice proves to us that it’s never too late to work on yourself and your goals—that you can and will continue to stumble in life, but you should never give up on what you want. And that to truly love and accept yourself as you are, you’ll often need to revisit some painful, shameful life experiences and consider how those moments shaped who you are today.
I really enjoyed Rice’s book and could relate to her story in a number of ways. In fact, her raw honesty, vulnerability, and self-examination made me feel as if she was documenting many of my own thoughts. And if you’ve ever felt lonely in a relationship, unhappy with your physical appearance, frustrated with a friendship, your relationship with a parent, or your relationship with food, you’ll undoubtedly relate to it as well.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Katherine Itacy for this review....more
I would not recommend The Importance of Paris as a beach read, but I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the fragile political, economicI would not recommend The Importance of Paris as a beach read, but I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the fragile political, economic, and social issues that continue to flare up in the Middle East. Author Davidson moved to the Middle East with her family as a young girl. During her many years abroad, she established numerous significant friendships and connections. Some of these she has maintained to the present time. Her memoir details three strands of personal biography, woven together as one long braid that keeps her connected, at least in her mind and heart, to Paris, the Middle East, and her birthplace in the United States.
I learned in the book why Beirut is known as the “Paris of the Middle East” and why spending a significant portion of her time in Paris in the '80s was a necessary component of her attempt to make sense of all that she had experienced by that point in her life. She used Paris as a place to process relationships with her family of origin, her search for meaning and identity as a young adult out on her own in the world, and her entry into a career.
One strand of her autobiography details her experiences searching for the right significant man with whom to share her life. She gives the reader glimpse into the confusing and complicated realities of love and all the emotions that accompany.
Another strand details Davidson’s efforts to secure an interview with Lebanese model Georgiana Rizk, the 1971 Miss Universe. Rizk’s husband was assassinated and Davidson hoped to write a book about what happened. Her memoir details the struggle to get Rizk to honor her promises to work with Davidson on a book. This strand also details other aspects of Davidson’s entry into the work world as a journalist and cross-cultural management trainer.
The third strand details insights into unresolved family issues and the challenges of sustaining international cross-cultural friendships. Because of her experiences as an American who spent her formative years away from the States, Davidson is well prepared and qualified to help others navigate cross-cultural situations.
The author obviously knows a great deal about her topic. It took me longer than I anticipated to finish the book because she included so many details about food, fashion, geography, and the personality quirks of people she encountered. However, I am glad I did read to the end.
Davidson offers good insights into what we must do to live together peacefully on this one planet we all share. I come away from her book with new insights and respect for those in and from the Middle East. I recommend this book for those who seek to travel beyond the borders of the United States, or who wish to befriend internationals living in our neighborhoods.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Kathryn Haueisen for this review. The reviewer is acquainted with the author, but has given an honest review....more
In 1980 Anna is a naïve American college student about to leave for Moscow to complete her senior year. Anna’s mother tells her, “Your problem is you In 1980 Anna is a naïve American college student about to leave for Moscow to complete her senior year. Anna’s mother tells her, “Your problem is you have a Russian soul.” Anna is a second generation Russian-American Jew raised on tales of the horrors of her family’s history of Soviet style terror. She embarks with a secret agenda: to find out what really happened to her great grandmother, Zlata, in the village of Gornosaypol in 1918 revolutionary Russia.
Anna enjoys a close relationship with her maternal grandmother Sophie; she learned many Russian songs as a child while in her care. Her grandmother does not encourage her travels to Moscow, but Anna believes she is ready for her journey, having read several of Dostoevsky’s books as well as Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago. However, when the doors of the plane open to a dimly lit hallway, soldiers in brown uniforms with rifles slung across their chests are everywhere throughout the international airport. The American students nod wordlessly and huddle close together as they embark on their Russian adventure, daring to speak only in half-whispers.
Layers upon layers of deeply rooted fears unfold as the novel progresses. Anna misses the security and order she had taken for granted while growing up in America. When she is raped her first week In Moscow, she believes there is no recourse for her except to pretend it didn’t happen and avoid the perpetrator at all costs for the duration of her term in Russia.
Her great-grandfather abandons his Russian family when he immigrates to America when his daughter Sarah is ten. Five years later, great-grandmother Zlata’s murder by the revolutionary soldiers leads to the reluctant immigration of the author’s grandmother Sarah, who becomes Sophie in America, as she joins her father.
Sophie is sent to a Jewish social dance within weeks of arriving; her father’s new wife wants her married out as soon as possible. She marries another Russian immigrant, Leon, who’s only a couple years younger than her father, within months of arriving in Boston.
Leon and Sophie have two daughters, Susan and Carol. Sophie suffers from postnatal melancholia, one of the factors that leads Leon to take his young family back to Russia in 1925. They stay through 1931. Susan is the author’s mother, and she tells Anna that her primary memory of those years in Russia is hunger.
The novel explores the immigrant experience on many different levels and various time periods. The plot moves smoothly from one time period to another throughout the novel. Characters are well developed and the pacing keeps the reader turning pages as the layers of deception unfold.
A well-written novel with a powerful storyline that will stay with the reader long after the last page, Forget Russia is a tribute to the interconnectedness of humanity across time, generations, and international borders.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Ann McCauley for this review....more
The thirteen stories in Marion Quednau’s collection are humorous as well as unsettling, and they definitely draw a reader in—sometimes to sympathize aThe thirteen stories in Marion Quednau’s collection are humorous as well as unsettling, and they definitely draw a reader in—sometimes to sympathize and sometimes because suspicion is aroused. And sometimes for pure delight.
I find it fascinating to note where the stories are situated: not on the mountain but rather at home where a couple speculates on the news of a missing hiker; and not at a wedding but at the preparation for it. Each short story kept my attention as I appreciated the unexpected in the ordinariness of the characters' lives with their many layers of complexities. Some hope to be rescued and others rescue themselves.
In the first story, “Snow Man,” a new neighbor named Walter has moved in across the street from Kate and Harold. Kate checks in on Walter, who is on his own, and even has dinner with him while she leaves Harold’s supper in the warming oven. Kate “tried to imagine Harold losing her to something unseen between them. Something grown huge seemingly overnight.”
A longer story about a married couple is “Found to be Missing,” which is a marvel in its depiction of the intricacies of a relationship. While the news of a hiker lost on Mount Seymour (British Columbia) has “given them reason to exchange words,” Iris imagines what the hiker might miss about his life. Max is more concerned with “the obvious facts” and “listens faithfully to the weather reports.” The couple’s separate and unique responses to the news of the lost hiker—a university-aged student, they learn—say a lot about their relationship. There’s a life at stake in finding or not finding the young man, and it appears there’s a marriage at stake as well. “They’ve started to live their days according to an apparently failed search-and-rescue mission.”
The story from which the book’s title is taken, “Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road,” is written in the first person by a woman reflecting back on the Sunday drives her family would take “long after churchgoing had fizzled” to see houses for sale. One of them was on Gun Club Road.
In “Twine,” a young woman called Clare crosses the border from Canada into Bellingham to go to a tiny shop for a fitting of a vintage wedding dress. Following an accident in the street, she’s rescued by a man who lives nearby. This one had an eerie tone and kept me reading as I had no idea how it would turn out.
“Two Birds, One Stone” is hilarious in the way the narrator describes her friend: “Everything she said used to annoy me.” This is bleak humor (there’s a murder) at its best.
While you may not know where you’ll end up, you don’t want to miss the exhilarating path that takes you there in Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Mary Ann Moore for this review....more
Ann Leigh Parrish's first anthology, entitled the moon won't be dared, is a beautiful collection of ponderings, noticings, and recollections from our Ann Leigh Parrish's first anthology, entitled the moon won't be dared, is a beautiful collection of ponderings, noticings, and recollections from our ever changing modern world. The poet dispenses with conventions such as capital letters, allowing her words to flow like a river over pebbles of insight. In one poem, a voice wonders,
how came the river to curve like this back, forth, back again... the slow side-to-side of a woman's hips... the memory of an earlier dance before the planet warmed, or cooled...
She is not an environmental poet exploring connections between people's behavior and outcomes on the earth, but rather a keen observer questioning and struggling to make sense of things while examining both humanity and nature deeply.
Whether it's images of assault such as fires and floods on nature or women, Ms. Parrish's poems neither lecture nor sugar coat—they reveal truths, sensibilities, for the reader to consider. In her poem "that night" the speaker reveals that "you wanted me awake, yet helpless/still wondering how you doctored my drink..."
In this poem, a woman finds herself bound, gagged, and left in the dirt, later wondering
...how you could have left me on that soft patch of grass for the roaming dog to find why you needed to steal what i'd have given freely
A similar violence shows up in "the legend girl," which ends, "why did they make her dirt/when she sparkled like a jewel?"
A reader will find sufficient places where the harsher, Plath-like darkness is set aside and a bold strength and wisdom emerge. In "sing out our name" Parrish writes, "...the stars honor us--/what we have always been and always will be/they sing out our name."
In "love's needle" and "beetle," the spirit of love, beauty in nature, and positivity appear again. Then "the river" returns to the page, this time with the message,
ride, then name the river that runs through your life carry no grief for the passing years time does its job, as do you.... and when it slows a bit and lets you drift, calm in its quiet lilt, rejoice in this moment this flash this now
Here, a reader may pause and inhale all that is right with the world. Parrish's words deftly take us there in the manner of the skillful poet that she reveals herself to be.
My personal favorite, a poem entitled "holding on," uses a rain drop about to fall from a cloud as a metaphor for climactic moments. She writes:
be careful, though, of this enticing metaphor not everything is about build up and release maybe more is about day-to-day travails holding on, standing by, showing up and refusing to let go.
Indeed, many readers will second this interesting bit of wisdom.
Ann Leigh Parrish's anthology uncovers voices that demonstrate resiliency, something that is refreshing to find in modern free verse poetry. Lydia Selk's incredible analog collages, sprinkled throughout, add a touch of whimsical magic to Parrish's poems. I recommend this book to women, especially those who enjoy free verse poetry or the outdoors, or who may have suffered trauma, and those who need a little inspiration to carry on. There is much within Parrish's voice that will inspire!
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Shawn LaTorre for this review....more
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