BOOK REVIEWS
A True Inspiration!
by Denise Cassino
by Laura Lester Fournier
Laura Lester Fournier's book, The Caterpillar's Flight, is a journey in love and forgiveness. Fournier takes us through the low points of her life with heartbreaking honesty but uplifts us with the approach toward life that she now embraces and shares with all those she touches. A truly spiritual woman, Laura has grown beyond her circumstances to find joy in the simple and the complex. True to her vow to break the abuses that gripped her childhood, she lives her life to the fullest, giving all that she can to all those she meets. This book is a true inspiration for anyone - happy or unhappy - this book shows the way to becoming a better person.
A Great Read
by Denise Cassino
I've read a couple of Wagner's books (The Houseboat Murders and Just One Mo) and they just get better and better! Always a Cop centers on three retired has-been detectives who just can't get the whole investigation thing out of their systems. Though living entirely different lifestyles ranging for meagre living quarters and biking for travel to nursing home care and increasing Alzheimer's disease, the three put their still acute minds (most of the time) together and manage to solve a murder that has all the "powers that be" totally stumped. While a whodunit with some good twists and side trips, the unique, clever and entertaining charaters carry the story and make this a great read!
A Life Changing Experience
By Denise Cassino
Shift, A Woman's Guide to Transformtation - This book changed my life! At first I thought it was just another self-help book. What could I possibly gain? Besides, I thought I don't have any issues. I was raised in a normal, healthy home, I have a great relationship with my family - what's new under the sun? So, I started reading the intro, and suddenly,it had my attention. It talked about relieving pain using the tools in the book - I have long-term, chronic neck pain! But then I read the chapters headings - Feeling Unloved, Guilt and Shame, Abandonment - no, I don't have any of those issues! Anger and resentment? No . . . well, wait a minute. I started thinking, I have been angry at some family members for preceived slights and abandonment . . . hmmm - maybe this book does have something for me.
So I read on and decided to practice all of the exercises offered. I began "tapping" (EFT) to open the meridians in my body to allow energy to flow. Soon, my stress was relieved, my pain was lessened, I let old worries and resentments flow out of me and suddenly I felt so much better! It was simply amazing.
I cannot say enough about Shift, A Woman's Guide to Transformation. If it helped me, it can help you!
The Weight of Silence
Invisible Children of IndiaI
If this book doesn't shake you to the core than I question if you are even really human. A few months ago I was watching The Amazing Race on CBS and heard a couple of the participants who had come from the United States and had never lacked for anything, comment on how horrid India smelled and how dirty the people in the slum areas were, and I had to shake my head and quietly utter 'ugly spoiled Americans'.
Then came the movie Slum Dog Millionaire and the stories of how the children in the movie and their parents and siblings were being removed from the slums and given clean homes and much needed educations. Then as the months went by we heard that none of this had happened. This is where the book has value. It notes that most children in India are forgotten throwaways, but need not be. Compelling stories about those who are trying hard to change things, and the hurdles they must overcome.
The book also gives you pause as you shop. Why? Because that item you are buying dirt cheap at some American store, that was made in India may well have been made by a child who gets paid pennies a day and never has access to a school. Love that new leather item? Did you know it may have been made by a child and made using caustic materials that lead to early death? That new hand woven rug may look nice, but did you know there are dozens of children in cramped spaces working 12 hour days to weave that rug? Do you care?
In the back of the book are some excellent groups that are doing a good job with most of the money (unlike some groups) goes to the needs of the children and their communities. Makes giving easier and safer.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1MR1VMK999I6O/ref=cm_cr_dp_pdp
Shelley Seale | Writer & Yoga girl
Book Review
by Randi O'Keefe
Book: Masquerade: The Swindler Who Conned J. Edgar Hoover
By Madonna Dries Christensen
Available: iUniverse, Amazon.com and major bookstores
(in print and e-book)
Christensen's first book, Swinging Sisters, pulled back the curtain on the lives of her cousins, four sisters who were members of The Texas Rangerettes, a Depression era all-girl band. A career change in 1938 had fans clamoring for details, and the unusual event was covered in Time magazine.
In her second book, Masquerade, Christensen remains in that era to tell another story based on truth. This one features a masterful con man, a Hungarian immigrant whose genius for impersonating noted people aids him in perpetrating nearly unbelievable swindles on industrialists, politicians, and celebrities. For his first adventure, as Baron von Krupp, he talks Edsel Ford into loaning him a Tin Lizzie for a cross-country trip.
His crimes and repeated deportations and returns prompted J. Edgar Hoover to write in American Magazine, May 1937: "We sometimes refer to September 28, 1934, as Celebrity Day. That was the day of our great roundup, when we took into custody a German baron, several sons of American ambassadors, a few popular polo players, a member of the Wickersham Committee, a third assistant solicitor general of the United States, an Army colonel, a government undercover man, an around-the-world flier, a motion picture magnate, a number of house guests of industrial giants and multimillionaires, and the manager of the world's largest doll factory. But this crowd of important men sat in only one chair. They were all represented in the multiple personality of a single individual, George Robert Gabor."
Ultimately, Gabor scams his nemesis, Hoover. Subsequently, he takes an assumed name and spends the next forty years undetected, rising to importance in the cable television industry. Only after his death in 1986 is his earlier life uncovered––even his wife and daughter were unaware of who he really was. But even in death, his story stayed with a select few (Christensen's husband among them)––until Christensen exposed the whole story in this "catch me if you can" tale.
Mostly fact, with dashes of fiction, Masquerade will give you a thrilling run for your money.
Randi O'Keefe Lives in Utah with her husband and ten-year old son. She was published in International Magazines of the LDS Church and came in second in a county-wide writing contest for her short story Aloft on Hummingbird Wings. She has also authored many newletters, training documents, and job descriptions for various businesses.
Book Review by Denise Cassino
Book: The Slumlord by Jerome Parks
Parks has created a devious plot in which Carl Benson becomes one of America’s wealthiest citizens through a bit of treachery combined with genius and talent. He meets a beautiful, intelligent and excessively wealthy woman named Miro and falls in love for the first time in his life. As his fortune grows, his mind idles until he decides to make a bid for the U.S. presidency. Hiring the top advisors and consultants, he devises a plan that sets him on a path toward a sure win.
Here the plot twists again, and he must use all of his wits and wiles to defeat the Japanese and Chinese governments who have designs on defeating the United States through undermining our very foundation. Using all of his resources, he faces the seemingly insurmountable challenge.
This book keeps the reader guessing as it winds through a circuitous and intriguing plot that rivals the best of the best. I highly recommend this tale of great minds battling great minds. Great job, Jerome!
For Film Consideration
Of Atlantis by Lanaia Lee
Review by Betty Jo Tucker
Into her bubbling cauldron of creativity, author Lanaia Lee decided to toss such tempting ingredients as fantasy, magic, romance, betrayal, revenge, and the eternal battle of good vs. evil. The result? Of Atlantis, a novel that’s very hard to put down once you start reading it.
Because I’m a confirmed movie addict, I always read a book with the question of how successful the story might be as a film in the back of my mind. And this one practically screams out “destined to be a movie” -– or a television mini-series. The longstanding struggle between its great hero, King Archimedes of Atlantis, and the equally powerful villain, Uric, generates more than enough suspense to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.
Enhancing the plot are other colorful characters including:
⋆ Cheris -- a beautiful Queen who suffers through a loveless marriage to an abusive monarch
⋆ Percius -- Cheris’ champion, a man dedicated to protecting the Queen and her son
⋆ Janus -- a two-faced traitor who can’t wait to send Persius to his doom.
Bloody battle scenes also add to the excitement of this imaginative fantasy epic, as do the exotic settings which form the backdrop for its thrilling action.
Unfortunately, Hollywood usually takes a long time to make up its mind about which films to greenlight, so I hope you’ll buy Of Atlantis in its current book form. If you follow my advice, you're in for a memorable journey back to the lost continent of Atlantis -- plus a few more recent surprises. www.lanaiaslair.com/lanaiasbooks.html
Understanding How to Bust Ghosts, June 10, 2008
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Author 'This is the Place'
I admit it. I break Anna Maria Prezio's #1 rule rule for busting ghosts (you'll have to read the book to learn what that is!). Still, I'm a fan of feng shui. I have running, bubbling water in a huge horse trough at my front door and if that isn't dedication I don't know what is.�
Considering my interest in feng shui, I still found new ideas, even new basics in this book. And all were explained clearly. I especially like that Prezio separated black hat feng shui from the rest and so puts people on alert that if they are going to hire a practitioner they should be certain of his or her training, mentors and practice. I also liked that she included the Chinese zodiac and that she acknowledged that one's intuition should be honored. Feng shui, after all, is not a one size fits all remedy.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition and award-winning author of the The Frugal Editor: Put your best book forward to avoid humiliation and ensure success (How to Do It Frugally) series of books for writers.
BOOK REVIEW BY DENISE CASSINO
Title: The Last Klick
Publisher: Baskerville Publishers
Page Count: 363
I’m a history buff, so I have read numerous books on war – the Civil War, World War II and, of course, the Vietnam War. Some were non-fiction like We Were Soldiers Once and Young by General Hal Moore and some were fiction like Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow. I enjoy non fiction, biographies and the like, but my true love is fiction because I love great writing. The Last Klick by Robert Flynn is the best of both worlds – great writing combined with the realities of war as he saw it as a writer for True Magazine on assignment in Vietnam.
The main character, Sherrill O’Connor, is recovering from the pain of losing his only daughter to a fatal illness while attempting to restructure his life in some manageable and tolerable way in the aftermath. Leaving his wife, Marie, back home, he heads to Vietnam to make his name as a writer for REAL Magazine and to rediscover himself as a disoriented husband and childless father.
Trailing the grunts, O’Connor soon finds himself in a dangerous firefight where he must pick up a weapon and kill enemy soldiers in order to survive.. For this and his adrenalin-driven statements, he is heralded by other war correspondents whose embellished stories make their way back home. He is told this is “his moment” to seize toward achieving the fame his novels have yet to provide. Carpe Diem. A series of incidents, conversations, unauthorized editing of his stories and outright lies propel him into a surrealistic predicament whereby he is constantly denying and justifying his beliefs and behavior. Soon, his wife, who has taken a job in his absence, is caught up in the anti-war crowd who has portrayed him as a monster, and it shakes the very foundation of their marriage.
Flynn takes the reader on a bizarre journey. weaving through the decadent, seedy back streets of Saigon.
“A short distance away was a hole where a rocket had landed. Rags, tarpaulin, twisted sheets of metal littered the streets. Vietnamese threaded their way through the debris, but Sherrill stopped to watch old women propping up a house that had been blown down but not obliterated. Other houses, though standing, had been holed by shrapnel and spattered with mud and bits of cloth. The smell of earth, fouled by centuries of habitation mingled with the odor of drying blood. Flies buzzed. Sherrill saw a matted bloody thing that he thought was a rocket-blasted rat but might have been the scalp of a small child.”
We go deep into the steaming jungle where he eloquently and vividly describes the horrors of war, death and the palpable fears of the fighting soldier.
“They climbed over bomb craters and shattered trees. Bits of cloth and strips of flesh hung from branches. They lay under trees that dripped gore while a half-crazed survivor wandered about, softly reciting what might have been his comrades’ names, a song, a prayer. He was young, giddy with fear. A slight, scholarly-looking Marine who seemed too fragile for this world, rose from the ground and with an embrace, killed him with a Ka-Bar, the forlorn boy curling into the knife like a woman into her lover’s embrace. The Marine held up a dripping ear to signal his success; his comrades flashed silent smiles. Afterdeath dripped from above.”
Flynn examines war, but he also deftly examines the motivations, cynicism and self-serving attitudes of the American war correspondents, too often exploiting the war for their own purposes and gain, seemingly oblivious to the horrors they step over at every turn in an effort to get a “good story.”
Flynn’s first-hand experience and amazing command of the language combine to make this a great read - highly stylized, deeply thoughtful and outrageously cynical. While one of his earlier works among many, (www.robert-flynn.net/novels.html) this is a compelling book that might change the way you look at war correspondents and war itself.
BOOK REVIEW BY MARILYN COFFFEY
Title: Bagels & Grits: A Jew on the Bayou
Author: Jennifer Anne Moses
Publisher: Terrace Books
ISBN: 0-299-22440-6
Price: $26.95, Publication Date: 2007, Page Count: 166
I do not know what I thought I was getting when I picked this memoir up. Something humorous, perhaps. The title of another Moses' book is FOOD & WHINE. Something Jewish, of course. So many of my lovers were and friends are Jewish that I am perpetually attracted to that subject. And the bayou? That uniquely Southern/French combination. New Orleans is my favorite, but hey, Baton Rouge is close enough
That is what I expected, but what I got was the author, Jennifer, a terrified whiny young woman who wants it all (including God) for herself but does not know how to get it. Her beloved scattered family, people dying of AIDS in St. Anthony's where she volunteers, her rabbi, and her therapist all influence her. She writes, "God alone knows what the folks at St. Anthony's would think of me if they knew that not only do I cry buckets at the drop of a hat, but also that I actually pay money to someone to listen to me when I cry."
Early reviewers aptly use words like witty, honest, probing to describe Bagels & Grits, which lives up to its reputation. The book opens with Jennifer driving a minivan, listening to HIV-positive patient, Lorraine, with skin "like polished mahogany" describe, again, how she shot her husband "right in the head" when she found him in bed with her auntie. "My favorite damn auntie." The book pads quietly on from there, word by word, day by day, slowly changing into a moving memoir of spiritual growth
Jennifer questions much of what she sees. Of the Christian God she encounters repeatedly in St. Anthony's she writes, "This is the God Who forgives you every last nasty thing you've ever done, and all you have to do [is] ask. So you've killed a few folks? No problem! Just call on Him at the very end and —presto!—you get into heaven. Whored around? Don't sweat it! Cheated on your income taxes? Come on down!"
"At St. Anthony's, not only did He exist, but also, at times, He came down to earth to say howdy or give a thumbs-up. He was so present, so everyday, that you almost expected to bump into Him at the grocery store."
I love this book. It brought me to tears, which books rarely do. Indeed, I loved the book so much I could not bear to put it down. So I didn't. I turned right back to page one and read it over again. Knowing what would happen, I focused on the wealth of detail Jennifer supplies, like this description of Geraldine, one of the AIDS patients: "she was pretty the way a bird is pretty, with small jutting bones under smooth skin and quick, darting movements."
Read it if you can. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, or (like me) something else, this odd, detailed, delightful spiritual journey is bound to touch you.
Marilyn Coffey is an award-winning writer of poetry and a widely published author of prose. Visit her website, http://www.marilyncoffey.net for a sampling of her work.
BOOK REVIEW by Tamara Kaye Sellman
Title: Slow Time: Recovering the Natural Rhythm of Life
Author: Waverly Fitzgerald
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 978-0-6161-6912-2
Price: $19.95, Publication Date: 2007, Page Count: 192
Author Duncan Caldwell writes that "Americans have more time-saving devices and less time than any other group of people in the world."
Of course, I'm one of those time-challenged folks: a working mother with a writing life and other sidelines, including creativity coaching. I mentor writers through their creative journeys, and one of the most common laments is never "finding" or "having" enough time to start and complete projects.
When I discovered Slow Time, by writer and creative writing instructor Waverly Fitzgerald, I couldn't wait to see what she would to contribute to the subject.
At first glance, the book seems to be a survey of cultural and historical definitions of time and how human beings have interacted with it since the days predating the sundial. I found Fitzgerald's approach extremely open-minded. She has worked hard to honor many different cultures and the wisdom they can offer toward building a healthier relationship with time.
But Fitzgerald moves beyond the survey format by encouraging her readers to question themselves, at each chapter's end, about their own relationships to time in the present day.
For instance, in Chapter Two, she illustrates the difference between natural and artificial time, which is fascinating in and of itself, and then she moves forward to ask the reader to:
1. inventory the time they spend
2. look for specific rhythms in their day to build an awareness of their own energy cycles
3. find ways to resist living by the clock
Isn't this what people really need, a master plan for time management that fits their individual needs, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach? Certainly, I have read myriad other books on the subject, but so many of them seem irrelevant to the needs of ordinary people.
Fitzgerald's accessible, user-friendly book is an excellent tool for exactly this reason. Each chapter ends with "time play" so that readers can apply her lessons, research, exercises, and references to their own situations. This book is meant to be a self-directed tutorial on redefining one's relationship to time and so it earns its subtitle.
One of the things I enjoyed about reading this book was its affirmation of choices I have made to better manage my time. For instance, I have, in recent years, come to realize that my creative periods are more effectively managed seasonally: I am more creative and energized in the summer and least likely to do a lot of new work in the dead of winter. By discovering these realizations, I can be more empowered to use my time in ways that better suit these patterns.
What readers will learn about themselves in the first chapter alone will change the way they think about time, but all of the chapters together round out an effective program. When I finished the book, I felt as if time could be my friend again, and that my own overly ambitious life didn't have to be lived in a hypertensive, white-knuckled and migraine-laced whirlwind, but rather through the massaging of my own inner sundial.
For me, as a writing coach, this book will be a useful reference for helping others, and I predict it will be one of the books I gift to my clients on occasion because, no matter what other challenges they might need to overcome, time management will always be among them.
March 31, 2008
Internationally published writer Tamara Kaye Sellman directs the Field's End Writer's Conference and operates both Writer's Rainbow Literary Services and MRCentral.net, a virtual community of fans and writers of magical realism. She lives, works, and raises her two school-aged daughters with her husband of 21 years on an island in the Puget Sound.
Title: North River: A Novel
Author: Pete Hamill
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-34058-8
ISBN-10: 0-316-34058-8
Price: $25.99, Publication Date: 2007, Page Count: 341
When I realized that Pete Hamill wrote North River, I almost let the book lie. Hamill seems more journalist than novelist to me, although a top-notch journalist whose writing has graced the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, The New Yorker, and Newsday. Still, his early novels seemed too flat for my taste, more journalese than fiction, so I stopped reading his books.
However, the jacket of North River featured a New York City skyline. An ex-New Yorker, I love stories about the Big Apple, and that's exactly where North River is set: New York in the 1930s with gangsters, Tammany hot shots, World War I vets, and prostitutes. Sounds just like Hamill, I thought. Then I noticed North River was his ninth novel. Maybe he's improved, I thought. So I took the book home and read it, just to see.
Hamill has improved. He still uses his plain, almost flat, journalistic style of writing, but what a story he pens! It features tall lean Dr. James Delaney whose closest World War I buddy is a hood, Eddie Corso, and that spells trouble. So does Dr. Delaney's daughter, who dashes by on her way from South America to Europe, dropping her three-year-old son, Carlito, in the doctor's vestibule. Naturally, the doctor has to hire a caretaker for his grandson so Dr. Delaney can continue to treat the stream of broken, downtrodden patients that makes up his practice. He hires Rosa Verga.
Both Rosa and the doctor have pasts. He is mourning his wife, Molly, long disappeared and presumed drowned in the North River, which is what New Yorkers called the Hudson then. Rosa, who cracked her husband's skull wide open with a baseball bat, is hiding her past. And the story steps briskly on from there.
Hamill's characters are believable; I particularly enjoyed Rosa. But I loved most the way Hamill recreated the doctor's 1930's Manhattan world. When Dr. Delaney and his grandson, Carlito, begin to explore together, this old world rises right up off the pages. I could just see antique cars spinning their tires on the street, the paddleball purchased in the toy store, Angela's restaurant in Little Italy. And the experience, near the end of the book, of the doctor and Rosa dancing in Roseland.
If you enjoy a story jam packed with persons and places, try North River. Like any good story, its tension increases as you approach the end. The book's resolution is strong, both certain and uncertain until page 340 when Rosa's "God damn you, Dottore" tips the balance.
ANTLER DUST by Mark Stevens
Review by Denise Cassino
While this is Mark Stevens' first novel, you'd never know it. Stevens exhibits a mastery of storytelling and a thorough knowledge of the Colorado Rockies where the story is set.
Allison Coil, recovering from the trauma of surviving a commerical airline crash, leaves the fast-paced world and finds herself working as a hunting guide on horseback in the Eagle-Vail area. A blinding snowstorm doesn't stop animal rights activists from camping out and protesting, and Allison also forges her way home from a camp when a shot rings out. She sees something suspicious in the distance, but can't be sure of what it means. However, it soon becomes clear that a protestor and another hunting guide are both missing. While risking her life and facing threats, she acts on instinct and slowly begins to unravel the mysteries and find the truth.
A plot filled with twists and characters rife with greed keep the suspense at a high level and are interwoven in an easy style with good character development and a terrific setting. Mark Stevens as an author to watch - a great read!
Title: Poster Child: A Memoir
Author: Emily Rapp
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN-13: 978-1-59691-256-4
ISBN-10: 1-59691-256-1
Price: $24, Publication Date: 2007, Page Count: 230
I love to read memoirs, especially "little guy" memoirs. Celebrity memoirs are okay, especially if the celebrity is a writer, but time after time I'm drawn to books written by ordinary people. I find it easy to imagine myself in their lives. So it was small wonder that I gravitated to POSTER CHILD with its cover picture of a pert red-headed girl posing with her training bike. It's warm out. She's wearing shorts. Her artificial right leg looks like it's made of plastic; a bulb in its knee joint lets her pedal.
Emily Rapp, the author and the poster child, turned out to be a remarkable writer. She told me her story in such detail, including emotional detail, that I was swept into her anguish of being a child and a young woman who had a portion of her leg amputated when four. I had no idea, really, when I picked up this book what living with an artificial leg would be like. But soon I felt I was alongside her as she went through dozens of operations to replace her artificial leg as she outgrew it.
Listen to how clearly Rapp writes. "For my first fitting, I stood barefoot on the dirty floor of the changing room while the prosthetist took measurements of my stump. The stink of the healing wound was finally gone; the limb was clean. Now that the left foot had been removed, or "disarticulated"—the sharp sound of the word matching the rough nature of the action itself—I had my natural heel at the end of the short leg."
But no wonder Rapp writes well. A Fulbright Scholarship recipient educated at Harvard, she is a professor in the M.F.A. program at Antioch University Los Angeles.
I highly recommend this book, primarily for the skill with which Rapp leads us through the first thirty years of her life, showing us what it was like to live with her "grievous, irrevocable flaw." Unflinchingly honest and sometime darkly humorous, POSTER CHILD is written without sentiment. I watched her struggle to keep up with her fashionable friends, her agony about making love to a man (should she leave her prosthesis on? off?), her final, tenuous, gift of acceptance.
An elegant writer, an amazing book.
January 31, 2008
Marilyn Coffey is an award-winning writer of poetry and a widely published author of prose. Visit her website, http://www.marilyncoffey.net for a sampling of her writing. Or read her work: Great Plains Patchwork, Marcella, or KANSAS QUARTERLY Vol. 15 No. 2.
GUEST BOOK REVIEW by Carole Rosenthal
I give you a high recommendation of a book I read this summer in both gulps and sips, Robert Roth's HEALTH PROXY. It's not a long book, but I found myself often putting it down while I thought about its ideas, even as I was gripped by its urgent self-questioning voice. Roth's observations about life and death, social and economic hierarchies, and the nature of our responsibilities to each other form a jittery, loving, and conscience-ridden record of his fierce engagement with the lives of friends and family from the 1980's to the present. "In ways deep and often constant, I engage other people's pain, their panic. Never letting myself fully be touched," Roth writes. "What at once shields me, simultaneously allows me to be open. But my openness also creates a constant state of low-level trauma that further creates . . . distancing in myself from myself."
Creating its own form, halfway between a memoir and a chronicle, this is a book of tremendous immediacy that begins with Roth's appointment as the "health proxy" for a friend dying of AIDS, a role he also assumes for his gravely ill aunt. A sixty year-old socialist/anarchist who consciously defies the limits of convenient labeling, Roth narrows the space between narrator and self--a space which can only be narrowed, never eliminated. For this narrator, all issues are intimate and personal; all issues are moral questions. Yet HEALTH PROXY is playful in part, or at least ironic, in its examination of what we see and how we are seen in large and small scale. The author discusses his low-status job delivering the largely unread New York University student newspaper, the hearty unrecognized condescension of academics reassuring themselves of their own good will towards laborers, the tacit institutional scams furthered by the printer and the distributors. He introduces his own bemused reaction to his waning good looks, his health fears, his lusts for women, his identification with socially and sexually disavowed segments of society. Despite the gravity of Roth’s central material, lives dwindling ("I watch myself age/before my friends very eyes,") while "friends socialize each other into old age," the real subject matter of this honest, unpretentious, freely associative book turns out to be an affirmation of life ongoing. In this more celebratory vein, HEALTH PROXY concludes with a section called "Wild Berries Singing," which is about the writing and performing of an exhilarating children's opera in Great Britain. (HEALTH PROXY is available from Yuganta Press, 6 Rushmore Circle, Stamford CT 07905-1029 or http://yuganta.com/health.html
BOOK REVIEW by Marilyn Coffey
Title: White Oleander: A Novel
Author: Janet Fitch
Publisher: Little Brown
ISBN: 0-316-28526-9
Price: $24, Publication Date: 1999, Page Count: 390
Reviewer: Marilyn Coffey, marilyncoffey@cox.net
You know how it is when you pick up a book you expect to be good (in this case an Oprah Book Club® Selection). Your hopes are high, so you read the opening: a 12-year-old follows her mother to a California rooftop at night in oleander time. It's a page and a half dotted with poison, a dagger, lovers who kill each other, a knife, gods hacked to pieces, flesh hung from trees, flames and traitors. Oh, my! Such strong foreshadowing! Do you advance? Retreat?
I advanced. By page 40, the larger-than-life mother, poet Ingrid Magnussen, is in jail where she will serve time for the murder of her lover. Fate flings Astrid, the daughter, onto the mercy of the foster care system. This propels the book, a coming-of-age story, into motion.
The abandoned girl moves somewhat predictably from foster home to foster home, each with a significant flaw. In the first home, Astrid, now 14, leaves after an affair with the boy friend of her foster mother. In the next home, her foster parents hate their Afro-American neighbor, Olivia, and reject Astrid for their friendship. The state removes Astrid from the third home when she becomes so hungry she eats school garbage. The fourth home, wealthy and loving, seems ideal until the foster mother commits suicide.
Interwoven with these calamities is Astrid's continuing relationship with her mother, Ingrid. White Oleander comes to a head with Astrid's refusal to help her mother's release from jail.
Even at this point, I could not make up my mind about this book. I found it appealing but not gripping; however, I rarely decide that a book is not worth reading before I finish the last page. Some books seem to creak to a halt, but in others, the final words tie varied parts together. White Oleander ended quietly, but I was able to stand on Fitch's last sentence and witness the way the book's diverse parts blend. The ending left me happy. I understood that despite her domineering mother and her hellish homes, Astrid had indeed come of age and in quite a commendable way.
December 31, 2007
Marilyn Coffey is an award-winning writer of poetry and a widely published author of prose. Visit her website, http://www.marilyncoffey.net for a sampling of her work.
THE HEALING POWERS OF OLIVE OIL
Book Review by Denise Cassino
Incorporating the Powers of Olive Oil into My Life
Once again, Cal Orey, dazzles us with one of her wonderfully-crafted books on health. In The Healing Powers of Oil, like The Healing Powers of Vinegar, Revised and Updated, she supplies us with loads of information, great recipes and sound advice. Written in a fun and personal narrative, the book is one you'll want to keep in your home library and refer to often. Not only does she provide new information on using olive oils (flavored ones with herbs, spices, and citrus) for cooking and baking, she gives medicinal uses for heart health to losing body fat forever. Rather than praising fad diets she touts the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle, which is a healthful and delightful way to eat, live, and be happy. What's more, her section on home cures is amazing; remedies and recipes for dogs is superb. As a guardian of two lovable canines I am thrilled to find new and natural uses of olive oil for my companion animals. This remarkable book also boasts ways to use olive oil for both housecleaning and beauty. I am excited about trying scented olive oil-based lotions and soaps. Orey's resource list in the back of the book is thorough and user-friendly. I was dazzled with her vinegar book. I am dazzled with her olive oil book. I will put it to work with her vinegar book every day in my life.
Title: Resurrection of the Dust: Selected Poems
Author: John McKernan
Publisher: The Backwaters Press
ISBN: 0-9785782-5-2
Price: $22.00, Publication Date: 2007, Page Count: 223
Dr. John McKernan is a dramatic man: witness the black cowl he wears in his author's photo. So I was hardly surprised when writer David Young claimed that reading McKernan's poetry is like dancing a fast tango "cheek-to-cheek."
McKernan himself seems to acknowledge his rapid-fire reversals when he writes, "I believe most of the world/is better imagined than encountered." And so it is with his Resurrection of the Dust: Selected Poems, his fifth book of poetry but his first full-length collection. McKernan's world is "better imagined" even when his topics remain real, as in "the wind polishes its ice pick," the real wind, the imagined ice pick.
Born in Omaha in 1942, McKernan now resides in West Virginia. But Omaha often peeks out of his poetry. An example: "My mother writes to tell me: 'A huge Snow/Storm blanketed Omaha. The polar bear/At Doorly Zoo loved it.'" The Big O! has a walk-on role in a number of poems, plays the leading man in several including "On Loving Omaha Nebraska." That poem ends on a neat real/imagined riff: "See! After a while/Even Nebraska sounds like blue rain."
McKernan frequently writes about his childhood and his personal life, but his topics range widely, from filling an entire mind with soil to Schopenhauer masturbating near a Greyhound urinal.
Pivoting from real to imagined, in a poem, a line, a phrase is one of McKernan's strengths. Perhaps that's why Gregory Orr calls him a "master of a sly surrealism." Reading McKernan is like taking a leisurely walk with a man humming startlingly beautiful tunes. His language often, seduces the reader into the heart of his poem and sometimes remains seductive to the end. But sometimes not. Sometimes a poem's final line evokes a silence, maybe painful, maybe just pure; other times McKernan's language coalesces into a sensation. Who would think words could do this? But they can. And this poet's words often do. Sometimes they even "parse light into seven luscious flavors."
So do take the time to walk in McKernan's bright and witty world. Dance his fast tango. But beware. His poems may lead to dead ends that unexpectedly soar like vistas or to vistas suddenly blindsided by blank walls, for his delightful world is tempered with occasional chilly moments of death, of time passing.
Note the blue "order" button (and the offer of $2.00 off ).
P.S. I'm not getting a commission.
Marilyn Coffey is an award-winning writer of poetry and a widely published author of prose. Visit her website, http://www.marilyncoffey.net for a sampling of her work.
BOOK REVIEW by Denise Cassino
The story takes us on an extended flashback to Marine Corporal Jason McBride’s service in Vietnam where his unit survives a helicopter crash but is subsequently captured. While in captivity, they offer courageous resistance to the torture inflicted upon them by the North Vietnamese General. After escaping, they are rescued and land in a kind of MASH unit where he is awarded a Silver Star. He is smitten by a young female doctor but the brief affair ends when he returns home. Now, in present day California, Jason is a well-known and respected lawyer with a history of speaking out against the government. When his son dies unexpectedly, he runs into his lady doctor friend and together they begin to unravel a seeming government plot to wipe out the remaining members of his unit. This novel is well-crafter, often suspenseful and in parts, reminiscent of the tone frequently struck by Herman Wouk in his many great novels. Replete with near misses, close calls and lots of action, and a great female character, this first effort by Gary Carter is well worth the read.
BOOK REVIEW by Marilyn Coffey
Title: Revved! An Incredible Way to Rev Up Your Workplace and Achieve Amazing Results
Author: Harry Ross & Ross Reck, Ph.D.
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
ISBN: 0-07-146500-6
Price: $19.95, Publication Date: 2006, Page Count: 150
Now, here's a book I'm almost embarrassed to review, it's so far from "great literature." But every now and then, such how-to-get-ahead books (like a Hershey with Almonds) call out to me, even though my workplace is only my home office with its staff of me.
This lively volume, an imaginary story set in an imaginary workplace, brags that Looking Out for #2 (you) takes only three steps: 1. Winning Them Over, 2. Blowing Them Away, 3. Keeping Them Revved.
Winning Them Over counsels you to engage people. "Plaster a smile on your face that makes you look like one of the happiest people in the world" (even if you're not), the authors advise. Find something nice to say, like "Good morning." Listen.
They promised instant results, so I slapped on a fake smile, headed to the grocery store. Sure enough. The utterly silent teenager who usually pushes my cart to my car began to whistle.
On to Step 2, Blowing Them Away. Say your secretary does a fantastic job. Don't just thank her. Write a letter about how terrific she is. Send it not only to the president of the company, but also include carbon copies all the way down the line to the deserving secretary. Blow Her Away. This soon will spread the word about how great you are.
I couldn't figure out a grocery store application for this, so I went on to Step 3, Keeping Them Revved. To keep 'em revved, you keep repeating Steps 1 and 2. So I plastered on my fake smile and headed to the post office. Struck up a conversation about the unseasonably warm weather with a gentleman in line. He smiled.
Looking Out for #1 (them), the authors say, is really Looking Out for #2 (you).
Hey! Who can quarrel with that? At least (unlike Hershey's) it's not fattening.
October 30, 2007
Marilyn Coffey is an award-winning writer of poetry and a widely published author of prose. Visit her website, http://www.marilyncoffey.net for a sampling of her work.
Title: The Rules of Gentility: A Novel
Author: Janet Mullany
Publisher: Avon, An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
ISBN: 978-0-06-122983-1
Price: $13.95, Publication Date: 2007, Page Count: 268
Want a frothy romance with a bit of a bite? Try The Rules of Gentility.
It's set in the Jane Austen era, but its randyness is reminiscent of Henry Fielding's, Tom Jones. It's more a spoof than a sequel to the Austen husband-chasing romances.
In it the heroine with the unlikely name of Miss Philomena Wellesley-Clegg does her darndest to find an appropriate husband, meanwhile gazing longingly (and frequently) at the crotch of inappropriate Mr. Inigo Linsley's "pleasingly tight" breeches.
By the half-way point, Mr. Linsley is proposing to Miss Wellesley-Clegg—in the water closet!—but this does not end the matter. Oh, no! Instead, twists and turns abound, as many as in Austen's novels but more outlandish.
The book is fast-paced and funny, shifting as it does between the first-person narratives of the two main characters, a rollicking if unlikely account of love in the Regency era.
September 23, 2007
Marilyn Coffey is an award-winning writer of poetry and a widely published author of prose. Visit her website, http://www.marilyncoffey.net for a sampling of her work.
THE JEWESS by Jerome Parks
Review by Denise Cassino
This is an unusual and well-crafted story about Rita Adler, an ordinary office clerk, who takes the reins of her life and begins a mischievous and entrepreneurial adventure, cleverly manipulating many people who would have otherwise harmed her. Developing an ingenious method for invading the psyche of the patients at the ophthalmologist’s office where she works, she uses the information she gathers to launch herself into the lucrative world of marketing and eventually impacting politics. In a world of lust and lavish accoutrements, she finally loses her footing and her world appears to be crumbling, but once again, she outsmarts her opponents. This book takes the reader from Hitler’s private quarters to the evil plans of the modern Nazi Party while letting us share in the exploits of its brazen heroine. This book is a great read with twists and turns that keep the reader captivated until the last page.
AVA'S MAN by Rick Bragg
I've never much cottoned to white male Southern writers, not even to Mr. Faulkner. They too often seem swollen, full of machismo, overly conscious of their Great Literary Tradition. But not Rick Bragg. Bragg is a real story teller without all the Southern Writer baggage.
Take his Ava's Man. That man is Bragg's grandfather, Charlie Bundrum, dead before Bragg was born but still living inside people who knew him. Using their memories, Bragg rebuilds his grandfather's life and the life of the woman who loved him, Ava.
I cherish Bragg's book for four reasons:
1) It's well-paced, written in short chapters that often left me with a swift intake of breath.
2) It has marvelous characters, vividly drawn. My favorite minor character is Hootie. Bragg writes, "He had a face like a pickax. His nose was long and hooked, and pointy on the end, like he had bought it at the Dollar Store and tied it on his face with a string, and it curved all the way down past his lips."
3) Bragg has a instinct for apt comparisons, often as striking as these:
of Bragg's great-granddaddy: "[He] moved like a shadow through the forest, his 
hobnailed boots soft as velvet slippers in the dry leaves."
of his ancestors: "they grew in [that culture] the way a weed grows in a crack."
and my favorite, of Ava: "there were spiders and broken glass in her voice."
4) To top it off, Bragg writes with clarity and compassion about his grandparents and their world. This book features Brundum, Ava's man, but it also paints a glowing picture of Ava who is just about as feisty as they come.
Read Ava's Man. You'll like it.
September 3, 2007
Marilyn Coffey is an award-winning writer of poetry and a widely published author of prose. Visit her website, http://www.marilyncoffey.net for a sampling of her work.
A MOST REMARKABLE FELLA: FRANK LOESSER AND THE GUYS AND DOLLS IN HIS LIFE, a portrait written by his daughter, Susan Loesser.
Review by Marilyn Coffey
What do writers of today have in common with this popular 20th century composer and lyricist?
Not much except perhaps passion.
I picked up A Most Remarkable Fella because I'm drafting a book about my father, and I wanted to see if I could steal a few writing tricks. However, before I could focus on Susan's writing style, she'd swept me up into the portrait she created of her father.
It's a lively portrait, studded with lyrics from Frank's many songs, including his classic Guys and Dolls with its familiar tune, "Luck Be a Lady Tonight."
Susan captured Frank's astonishing gift of language. As I writer, I felt stunned by his apparent ease of composition, how rhymed and scanned language seemed to pour out of his mind, how he easily he invented lyrics and tunes like "Baby, It's Cold Outside" or "Heart and Soul."
Susan also catches her father's personality, his passion for partying, his sense of humor, and the nasty bite of his angry words. We quickly learn what a high-energy man Frank was – and how swift his temper.
And I did pick up a few writing tips from Susan as I watched the way she skillfully splices her own life into his: her difficult childhood, her mother's alcoholism, her parents' divorce.
At last, though, we get to the end of the book, the part I always despise about biographies, where the person predictably dies. As I dropped A Most Remarkable Fella to the floor beside other finished volumes, I felt chagrin at the shortness of human life, even lives as remarkable as Frank's.
LOVER OF UNREASON: ASSIA WEVILL, SYLVIA PLATH'S RIVAL AND TED HUGHES'S DOOMED LOVE by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev
Review by Marilyn Coffey
Sylvia Plath's poetry tore off the top of my head when I first read her writing in the late 1960s. I sensed that something deeper than a run-of-the-mill depression caused her to turn on the gas and stick her head in an oven. What a pity that her young life flickered out as her work began to ride the crest of international fame! Whatever, I wondered, drove her to kill herself?
Now I know. Koren and Negev's clear, detailed biography of Assia Wevill traces how Assia's love of poet Ted Hughes (Sylvia's husband) destroyed both their marriages and, finally, Assia herself in what looks like a copy-cat suicide.
This biography, with its love tensions, provides many of a novel's pleasures. In a way Assia reminds me of Anna Karenina although Assia's tale of love and adultery isn't played out against a backdrop of Moscow's high society; her tale is set in the rarified world of poets and poetry in England and Ireland. Instead of Tolstoy's late 19th century Russian society, we see a 20th century world of letters as we read scraps of poetry and bits of letters and notes that provide insight into the chaotic character of the extraordinarily beautiful Assia.
My favorite detail: Assia, who chose to move into Ted and Sylvia's home after Sylvia's death, slept night after night in Sylvia's bed. How strange it that?
Lover of Unreason is a good read for itself alone, but a particularly good read for a writer who likes to snoop in other writers' lives.
~Marilyn Coffey is the author of the Pushcart prize-winning “Pricksong” and her book-length poem, The Cretan Cycle, more than seventy of her six hundred poems have been published, some in journals such as New American Review, Sunbury, New England Journal, and Manhattan Poetry Review and others in newspapers, newsletters, or anthologies. Her first on-line poetry publication, “Peace March 1967,” can be seen at Howling Dog Press. She has also read her poetry in more than 30 different venues in six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska). And she studied with Allen Ginsberg in the Zen Mountain Monastery near Woodstock, NY. Besides poetry, she has written Marcella, a novel, and Great Plains Patchwork, a memoir. Her writing has appeared in England, Australia, India, Japan, Canada, Denmark, as well as the U.S. More than thirty of her articles have been published in serials such as Cosmopolitan, Journal of the West, and Big Mama Rag. Four pieces became nationally syndicated news features for Associated Press or NANA. Eight little magazines, such as Kansas Quarterly, have published her short stories. As a journalist, several hundred of her news features and stories appeared in Show Business, Gift & Tableware Reporter, Handbags & Accessories, Home Furnishing Daily, The Hastings [NE] Daily Tribune, and The Daily Nebraskan.
Review by Denise Cassino
In this tale of grisly murders in a small town, Paul Wagner delivers a plot that keeps the reader guessing until the very end. When Rob Smith, a detective from the San Jose, arrives home for a visit to the small town of Stove Creek, he discovers the town and his family have been caught in the clutches of a religious cult, the founder of which seems to have his hands into everything. When a dismembered female, last seen at the cult compound, turns up, Rob is recruited by the local sheriff to assist in the investigation. Before long, he is a suspect himself, but subsequent murders indicate another killer and Rob is exonerated and ultimately crucial in finding the murderer. A well-written novel with a carefully-crafted plot, this a real page turner. Paul's writing just gets better and better.
Review by Denise Cassino
In this beautifully written story of the men who fought at Iwo Jima, Faulkner introduces us to the varied and innocent lives of the men whose paths would soon cross on the beaches below Mount Suribachi. In a terrible and traumatic way, these young men grew up in the instant their boots met the shores. Faulkner finds a way to describe the horrors of lying pinned down in hastily dug foxholes while machine guns spatter the beach and Marines with deadly fire that leaves many dead before they even hit the sand. But this is not a novel just about war. It is also about the aftermath of war and the ways men are ever after so deeply affected by the experience. This is also book not to be missed by those who love great writing and the tales of our heroes who fought so valiantly against desperate odds.
Review by Denise Cassino
Thank you, Jess Lourey! All of you ladies starved for another great chick-lit series, get out your pocketbooks! One has arrived and how! Jess Lourey, author of the new Murder-by-Month Series starring Mira James is a juicy, light-hearted, smart, witty and a bit saucy set of books that will leave you begging for more! Stephanie Plum is off in a closet somewhere (hopefully with Ranger) and Kinsey Milhone is in absentia. But never fear, Mira will take you where you want to go! These books are terrific. I simply cannot say enough. The writing is better than either of the aforementioned, the setting – mostly – is Battle Lake, a rural lake town in Minnesota and the characters are just wacky and sinister enough to drive the plots. This series is the next smash hit, so get in on it now and don't miss May Day, Knee High by the 4h of July, which hits the bookshelves in September and in March, August Moon will be available. Find out more about Jess and the series in our Book of the Month section. You can buy the books from the BOTM page.
THE RED SEA
Stories by Rafael Courtoisie
Translated by Patricia Dubrava
$15.00, paper
ISBN 0-9724542-1-7
99 pages
Review by Christopher Woods
Devotees of South American writing will be pleased to learn of the first book publication in English by Uruguayan writer Rafael Courtoisie. Fans of magical realism will enjoy these thirteen fictions set in and around Montevideo and points unknown. The fictions of Rafael Courtoisie are also endowed with the added elements of science fiction and mathematics. The author, also an award winning poet, holds degrees in both Engineering and Chemisty. The characters in these stories are, in various ways, in conflict with themselves, governments and the polluted environment itself. Courtoisie is from the younger generation of Latin American writers, and his concern with social ills is apparent throughout this collection. Denver poet and writer Patricia Dubrava, also a translator of the poems of Mexican poet Elsa Cross, translates these vivid and intricate stories well.
Christopher Woods is the author of a prose collection, UNDER A RIVERBED SKY (Panther Creek Press), and a collection of stage monologues for actors, HEART SPEAK (Stone River Press). He lives in Houston and in Chappell Hill, Texas.
New, Improved Vinegar Book Dazzles
Review by Denise Cassino
Once again, Cal Orey, dazzles us with one of her wonderfully-crafted books on health. In The Healing Powers of Vinegar, Revised and Updated, she supplies us with loads of information, great recipes and sound advice. Written in a fun and easy style, the book is one you'll want to keep in the kitchen on the cookbook shelf and refer to often. Not only does she provide great information on using vinegar for cooking and cleaning, she gives medicinal uses as well. Need a good diet? Try the vinegar diet and find those pounds melting away. Or have some fun sampling the various vinegars available today - rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar and more! I now add my own herbs and spices or colorful fruits and veggies to create spiced vinegars that are not only tasty but look great on my kitchen shelf. I'm dazzled.
A Charming Ride through History
Review by Denise Cassino
In this delightful romp through the twentieth century, Feather Schwartz Foster gives us an adventurous ride in a Model T and a history lesson full of fun and facts.
We first meet T when he is purchased brand-spanking-new by a small-town doctor, but that's just the beginning. T changes hands several times in his life, each time experiencing lots of new and exciting adventures as America changes and grows through the years.
T is sometimes a pleasure vehicle, other times a working auto and even does a stint in a demolition derby. He makes loads of friends, meets fascinating and important people and has a few misadventures along the way.
This is a great book for teaching children a bit of American history while entertaining them with the fun and follies of the affable "T" as he travels through the century.
An Insider's Tale
Book Review by Denise Cassino
Betty Jo Tucker is in love. She always has been. From early childhood, Betty Jo has been smitten with the silver screen. Her love started as an infatuation and grew into a mature study of film and renown as a world-class movie critic.
In her book, Confessions of a Movie Addict, Betty Jo takes us through those early childhood memories of movies, covering her eyes at the scary part, acting out the roles of her favorite stars. Then she landed herself some real jobs as a film critic which gave her a pass into all of the biggest movie events from premieres to the Academy Award Presentations.
This book takes us through many of the hilarious adventures of a movie critic, from embarrassing moments to dining with the stars. Betty Jo shares with her reader many of her best and most clever interviews, sometimes with animated characters! Betty Jo also includes a plethora of reviews on dozens of movies giving the reader a critical, but fun summation of everything from box office hits to cult sleepers. This is a real insider's tale of seeking, meeting and interviewing many of the hottest movie stars ever to flash across a marquee.
If you want to know what it's like to dish and dine with the Hollywood crowd, this book will do the trick. A great gift for any movie lover, Confessions will make you green with envy at Betty Jo's inside access to the stars.
Review by Denise Cassino
Don't you love those books that educate, amuse and inform you all at once? Then you'll love Ms. Orey's revised edition of this excellent guide book. Not only does Orey cover the history of vinegar and the various kinds available, she discusses herbal vinegars, medicinal uses, vinegar for cleaning of items and food such as fruit; she includes a diet program and lots of great recopies. Cal has been a spokesperson for spokesperson for preventive health, animals, relationships, and earth changes. This book is a great handbook and a terrific gift for the holidays. Check it out. Cal is an instructor at the Long Story Short School of Writing, offering classes in the following:
Review by Denise Cassino, Senior Editor, LSS
This is a small book, written in a matter-of-fact style, but it packs a punch. This is essentially an autobiography though the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Despite the adversity they face, the characters of these people shines through brightly. It's a true story that most of us would find difficult to believe; a story of a man with an insatiable appetite for sex, a huge, hungry ego and the selfishness of a sociopath. It is also the story of the fourteen children he sired by 3 different, simultaneous wives. Yes, he was a bigamist, a philanderer and an incestuous child molester, and they called him Daddy. Surprisingly, with numerous moves, many days of empty bellies, and a few articles of clothing, the love of their heroic mother(s) kept these children on the straight and narrow. They found happiness where they could, excelled in school, worked to support the family and tried hard to be very different from their Daddy. There is something quite compelling about this story, and I found myself thinking about the characters throughout the day, anxious to get back to the book to find out what would next happen in the lives of these seemingly normal, middle-American people. I would recommend this book to anyone - it is a trip back to "the old days" but reveals that under that wholesome appearance, many families may have been similarly dysfunctional in a time when certain things just weren't talked about.
Review by Denise Cassino
Harry Potter Move Over!
In this charming novel, Yengst effectively combines adolescence, time travel and intrigue. Billy Maxwell is upset when his elderly uncle is institutionalized, but values the old pocket watch he gave him on his departure. Soon, Billy realizes that when the sun hits the watch just right a black hole opens and the holder of the watch and his companions can travel through time. Guided by his Uncle Will and accompanied by his best friend, the three meet some important and influential historical characters while trying to save the world from dire consequences. This is a wonderful book for kids of all ages, melding adventure with youth, history with tragedy and leaving the door open for a sequel. If you like the Harry Potter novels, you’ll love this book.
Review by Denise Cassino
A classic modern romance! Michelle and Brad don’t want this arranged marriage, but, as usual, allow their parents wishes to prevail. The merging of two important families is not what they had in mind for a future. But as the honeymoon begins, a magic that cannot be denied ignites sparks between them. Constant separations, interference from a female employee and misunderstandings keep them both guessing as to the other’s true feelings. With each connection, their romance grows but neither accepts it at face value. This novel is a true page turner, urging the reader onward, hoping for that final crescendo of love.
Julie Shapiro’s Collection “Flashes of the Other World”
Review by Meridith Gresher
“Flashes of the Other World” by Julie Ann Shapiro offers an original, often dark, and reliably quirky band of strolling players, human and inanimate, quick to perform her brand of magical realism, surrealism, and theatre of the absurd. This collection opens with an other worldly encounter with the story, Vacant Tub. A simple ritual a bath and tub are literally turned on their sides and used as a medium for a ghost boy to communicate with his father. Further into the collection, Ms. Shapiro sorts a painful mother-daughter relationship with the help of a deceased poodle in Looking Glass, a particularly poignant work, while in Dream Turtles a woman questions whether a dream is just a dream.
Personal identity is a returning theme in disparate work. Whipped Fumery dissects a character’s conversation with an all-seeing can of whipped creamery enacting its heavenly master plan. In Bio Clock and Nutty Photo, a woman obsessed with having a child transfers her obsession to a doll, whereas in Antennae a wife and mother gets acerbically transformed into a slug. Ms. Shapiro draws their portraits in an unflinching manner.
Connection is a significant leitmotif. Finding it, losing it, and longing for it. Public nudity, that proverbial nightmare for many a dreamer, is explored with charm as members of the opposite sex get naked in Thunder Buns. Itchy Feet and a shoe fetish ensure the shoe doesn’t fit for every couple in an updated Cinderella story while a woman fears her husband’s fidelity is Not Cold Not Hot.
Though difficult to choose, my favorite work is Dragonfly, which documents the lengths a man spirals once bucked from the corporate fast track desperate to return to a child-like state and quite sure enough baby powder can get him there.
In The Hats, Ms. Shapiro explores family secrets: “I believed magic lived under the family’s hats. I always tried to remove everyone’s hats anxious to see a hidden marble, a gold coin, or a note written in invisible ink.”
“Flashes of the Other World” leaves this reader anxious for more from Ms. Shapiro wonderful prose magic. "Flashes of the Other World" is published through Pulpbits.
September 7, 2006, The Sands of Rhyme by Floriana Hall
"a real page turner"
by Mary Ann Jameson
This book is a particular favorite of mine. It is a real "page turner." It is so well written. So full of charm and whimsy, love and so many emotions. It is a treat to read and once you start it, you cannot put it down! Floriana's books to me are a triumph of the human spirit. Always looking at the silver lining in every dark cloud. She is the eternal optimist and it shows in her life and her smile.
August 7, 2006 - Brooklyn Lasagna - Fifty-Five Layers by Tina Portelli
"a delicious blend of her life’s stories"
by Denise Cassino, Long Story Short
This is a delicious blend of Tina's life’s stories of growing up Italian in Brooklyn. Tina takes us through the childhood games on the “stoop,” sumptuous Italian feasts to share and celebrate every occasion, the idiosyncrasies of aunts and uncles, grandmothers and neighborhood friends. This rich stew has large portions of love with dashes of pain, sorrow and loss, but mostly it has the nostalgic tastes remembered by a nice Italian girl growing up in Brooklyn. I joy to read. See Tina’s webpage.
July 7, 2006 - Hyannis House by Gordon Mathieson
A well-planned, cleverly written mystery with a surprise ending!
by Denise Cassino, Long Story Short
While I enjoyed Quissett by Mathieson, Hyannis House far surpasses his first effort in crispness, characters and plot. In this death-by-heart attack turned murder mystery, Mathieson takes us once again to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts where the loveless marriage of Joey and Senator Clay Hepburn has suddenly ended with his death on a golf course. As the story unfolds, we learn that he was golfing with his about-to-jump-ship top aide who had just announced his defection to the camp of Clay's competitor in the upcoming Senate race.
Joey is saddened at the life cut short but relieved of the need to divorce Clay. Their daughter, Kelly, the only surviving child after her brother's accidental death, seems oddly unphased. Soon, Joey decides to make a bid to fill her husband's Senate seat until the fall election. Encouraged by the support of her old college friend, Lazarus Creed, who is a successful private investigator currently in semi-retirement, she decides to run for re-election as well.
As Joey and Lazarus fall in love, he agrees to take the job of her aide and his sixth sense and strange apparitions point him toward the mysterious circumstances that surround the Senator's death. As he probes further, evidence shows poison to be the cause. As the mystery unravels, Mathieson keeps us in suspense until the very end, drawing us in with well-developed characters and intricate plot brought fully to life. A well-planned, cleverly written mystery with a surprise ending!
June 7, 2006 - THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks
"You won’t be sorry" by Denise Cassino, Long Story Short
I know this has been out for years, so this is probably old news to many of you, but this is quite simply an eloquent love story that, at first, I thought would be just the same old thing – boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy loses girl – they find each other again and voila! It was true love after all. But this is much more than that. This is a story of deep and abiding love, told in beautiful language and sure to wrench a few tears from even the most jaded reader. So, when you get a 50% discount from your book club and are scouring the catalog for books you haven’t read, choose this – you won’t be sorry.
May 7, 2006 - CELL by Stephen King
"A good read, as always . . ." by Denise Cassino
I love Stephen King. My first horror book was The Shining. After that, I was hooked. King was never greater than in The Stand, the hallmark, I believe, of his career. I’ve had my ups and downs with King, as in the Insomnia period where I had somnia, but Cell seems to be a return to the old King, including the marginal ending. This story is reminiscent of The Stand in that a complete national catastrophe leaves a few remaining sane people who wander toward a common location driven by dreams and paranormal events. The characters are well-developed, though less so than the kids in It. The reader follows the characters, two men, a teenaged girl, a kid and an old man, through the gruesome horror of the world that is left after the “pulse.” Zombie- like people populate the world and make their quest a travel by night. The final scene is satisfying, but as often happens with King, he runs out of energy in the very end. , but not his best work.
April 7, 2006 - QUISSETT by Gordon Mathieson
"A nice mystery, a lovely setting and a plot with many twists and turns."
by Denise Cassino, Long Story Short
I've never been to Cape Cod or Martha's Vineyard, but after reading Gordon Mathieson's book, Quissett, I have a strong sense of those lovely islands. Quisset is about a mystery surrounding the unexpected death of a beloved Quisset-dweller, Sam Parker. His body is found floating along the shoreline one morning. While the death is rapidly proclaimed a suicide and the investigation hurriedly closed, clues begin to attract the attention of a young couple, once the students of Parker's wife. Paranormal forces compel the couple toward the clues which only heighten their curiosity.
Rich in character development and plot, this book takes the reader back in time to discover the origins of the various relationships and local traditions that make this book such an enjoyable read. The mystery slowly unravels, always leaving room for speculation as to the outcome. I was satisfyingly caught by surprise at the finish. A nice mystery, a lovely setting and a plot with many twists and turns. What more could a reader ask?
April 7, 2006 - The Houseboat Murders by Paul Wagner
"A Well-written Mystery with All the Bells and Whistles"
Reviewed by Denise Cassino, Long Story Short
The Houseboat Murders is a mystery that takes us into the lives of Jack McBride and his son Troy who are still struggling to settle into a life after the death of their wife and mother. Jack takes life one day at a time, ignoring the nagging thoughts of alcohol while Troy cringes with the introduction of yet another bimbo into his father's life. When Jack receives a call from the Sheriff's office where he once worked, he takes his son along to check out a murder. Horrifyingly, they discover three blood spattered victims dead in a houseboat. Jack completes his assignment, but doesn't plan to continue his involvement in the investigation, but is drawn further in as the story unfolds.
Troy, a typical teenage boy, discovers that one of the victims was a schoolmate, which preys upon his mind. While drug dealers and corrupt law enforcement complicate the plot, Troy focuses on befriending a "new girl" at school. When mysterious circumstances point in her direction, the plot thickens.
This story is a well-written mystery with all of the necessary bells and whistles to keep the reader coming back for more. The characters are compelling and the California setting completes the picture while the intricate plot unravels. As with all good mysteries, I was fooled right up until the end. At 130 pages, I only wish the book had been longer. Good job, Paul!
April 7, 2006 - A Trilogy of Marie Delgado Travis’ Poetry:
ANOCHECER / NIGHTFALL
OFRENDA / OFFERING
PASION / PASSION
"Entrances the reader with each perfect phrase"
Reviewed by Denise Cassino, Long Story Short
These lovely books offer classic yet contemporary poetry with each poem written bilingually in both Spanish and English. Amazingly, they are equally beautiful in both languages. Whether reminiscing, romancing or simply expressing alegría de vivir, Marie’s eloquence entrances the reader with each perfect phrase. This poetry touches the soul in so many ways. If you love poetry, you’ll love reading her work. See Marie’s page n the LSS Writers’ Lodge for more information.
March 7, 2006 - A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF by Peter Wright
"Reminiscent of some of the great English novels"
Reviewed by Denise Cassino
Reminiscent of some of the great English novels, this autobiography takes the reader on a journey that makes life look bland. Peter life begins in England after World War I. His father is a sea captain who dies at a young age, leaving Peter’s strong and capable mother to raise her two children. Determined to assure her children’s educations, she sends Peter to a Catholic boarding school where he is to become a priest. While the education was evidently excellent, the priesthood was not to be. Instead, Peter assumed his father’s role and went to sea. He chronicles the many ships, ports and escapades of his seafaring life while he drifts slowly toward alcoholism. He tells about the regimen and levels one must reach through education and complex testing that eventually result in becoming a Master and then a Captain of his own ship. Peter sailed the Atlantic, delivered goods to many ports of call, moved to the USA in pursuit of a love affair and worked the Great Lakes. He finally landed in San Francisco where he truly left his heart. Alcoholism robbed Peter of happiness in his personal life, but Alcoholics Anonymous finally found him in the street and restored his sobriety and quality of life. Few people have sated wanderlust as Wright has, traveling the world, in and out of scrapes, footloose and fancy free (well, almost). This book is a compelling read, very different from most modern biographies and something truly remarkable. His style is so pure and refreshingly concise that it makes us remember what the English language ought to be. Read a chapter or buy the book.
February 6, 2006 - Silent Battlefields by Hugh Rosen
Reviewed by Denise Cassino
Rosen takes us to a place most of us can only imagine in our worst nightmares – the place where Holocaust demons haunt. Unlike many novels about that time in history, this book gives the reader just enough of that terrible time in history to establish the background and presents most of the story in the time frame of the seventies, when the survivors have raised their families in modern day Philadelphia. The story centers on two families whose pasts are inextricably intertwined, who discover each other through the growing friendships of their two adult sons. One family attempts to atone for a past Nazi affiliation through the practice of medicine, the other family, Jewish survivors, try to keep the past alive through teaching, writings and lectures. Plagued by their secrets, the characters must face their own “silent battlefields” struggling with serious and lonely, life-altering issues. The plot is complicated by a Jewish survivor seeking vigilante justice.
The story takes some interesting twists and turns leaving the reader eager for more. Incorporating forbidden love, torturous memories and compelling emotions, this book has it all. Just when the end seems apparent, another turn takes us in a surprising direction, expanding the story and resolving seemingly impossible issues. Beautifully written, Rosen leaves behind the slang and lax grammar of the day and tells a well-crafted story in a high style, extremely readable, but striving for perfection. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good plot but loves stylish writing – this book keeps you coming back for more. Good work, Hugh!
January 7, 2006 The Man Who Predicts Earthquakes by Cal Orey
Reviewed by Denise Cassino
In this fascinating book, Cal Orey introduces us to Jim Berkland, a maverick geologist who studies earthquakes and the events that surround them. He is a maverick inasmuch as many of his theories and conclusions are ignored by the establishment, but prove to be correct more often than not. He has researched earthquakes and their patterns. He has tracked the behavior of animals such the increase in “missing pets” just prior to a quake. By studying the physical reactions of humans (like headaches and the hearing of high-pitched tones) before a quake and charting the lunar and planetary alignments and tides, he has been able to predict with great accuracy the likelihood of impending earthquakes. While other scientists scoff at his “unscientific” methods, his work has been invaluable. In this book, Cal Orey discusses the multitude of quakes that have occurred, the behaviors and activities surrounding them and gives the reader a thorough understanding of what earthquakes are all about. She even offers “to do” lists for earthquake preparation. A very interesting read, this book brings the reader into a world where many people worldwide live on a daily basis – that world that waits for “the big one.”
December 7, 2006 - Susan Sarandon: A True Maverick by Betty Jo Tucker
Reviewed by Denise Cassino
In this fascinating biography, Betty Jo Tucker avoids those dreary details that fill the pages of so many movie star bios and gets right to the nitty-gritty. Tucker includes interesting details of Sarandon’s amazing career, aspects of her love life, past and present, and includes a extensive list of sources for digging deeper into the magic of Susan Sarandon. This book covers each of Sarandon’s movies, allowing the reader to revisit those great characters from Annie Savoy from Bull Durham to Louise of Thelma and Louise. We learn about Susan’s passions, what her peers really think about her and just enough of her personal life to satisfy. Tucker takes the reader behind the scenes to those private causes that touch Sarandon’s heart and motivate this otherwise private movie star to speak out. If you love biographies but flip past those tedious chapters recalling the subject’s childhood in endless detail, this is a must read. If you love movies, you will enjoy it even more. Buy it now! http://www.wheatmark.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?
October 7, 2006 - FINE TUNING THE SENSES by Jane Bernard
Reviewed by Denise Cassino
Jane Bernard has created an inspiring work of art with Fine Tuning the Senses. This book, written in a unique style is designed to encourage the reader to re-think his life, his thinking and his behavior. The premise is that we are all mired in the ruts of daily life, having forgotten how to use all of our senses to experience life. In using those senses, we enable our sixth sense, that of intuition, to come forth and guide us. The book reminds us of what living should be – it inspires the reader to free himself from the bonds that tie him to a life devoid of joy and strong emotions, a life that most of us live, going from day to day, focused on the task at hand, oblivious to what are senses could be experiencing, from passionate love, to intense involvement with others or with the things we enjoy. This is the kind of book one returns to over and over again, each time discovering something new and appropriate to the moment. Keep this book by your bedside and pick it up whenever life seems to need a kick in the pants.
http://www.finetuningbook.com.
July 7, 2005 - An Incredible “Incident”
by Anders Rasmussen
A world dominated by extreme logic and void of emotion is the backdrop of Mark Haddon’s protagonist in his national bestseller, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Haddon’s debut piece of mature fiction is a superb achievement. Think: Sherlock Holmes crossed with a pre-treatment Charly Gordon. Christopher John Francis Boone is a character of contradictions. He inhabits a world governed by absolutes and the supremacy of logic. Although gifted, Christopher is Autistic. Inspired by a favorite literary character, Sherlock Holmes, and a curious incident, Christopher embarks on a quixotic romp through London and its suburbs.
Mark Haddon began his literary career as an illustrator and writer of children’s books while living bi-continental with his wife and family. Haddon’s ability to understand the juvenile mind gives a seemingly improbable validity to a story told through the eyes of an autistic child. Haddon has a gift that allows the reader to walk side by side with an autistic boy as he attempts to understand a world that is unpredictable, cruel, and governed by laws of human emotion rather than logic. Disconnected from the world of human emotion, due to autism, the protagonist brings to the surface the imbalance between logic and emotion. In this liminal space, Haddon effectively questions this discrepancy.
Perhaps the greatest power of this novel lies within the protagonist’s inability to use metaphors. Christopher is confused by the myriad of non-verbal communication and the use of metaphor that is employed in human relationships. About metaphors, Christopher says: “I think it should be called a lie because a pig is not like a day and people do not have skeletons in their cupboards.” In fact, the novel points to the conclusion that metaphors are not lies. Metaphors emerge as a way to process complex ideas that are part of the human experience. Thus the reader sees how difficult communication and understanding actually are. The protagonist’s journey through an intricate web of non-spoken and metaphorical communication brings the reader to a perception of the world as governed by obscure modes of communication, and the inherent contradictions of human communiqué.
Anders Rasmussen's Biography:
…Grew up in Westport, CT…Graduated from University at Albany with a Bachelor's Degree in English (summa cum laude, I might add, though he would never tell you) …Received a Master's Degree in Education from the College of Saint Rose…Lives in Albany, NY, searching for a job as an English teacher with his girlfriend Cheryl, guinea pig Bailey, and their dog Chief…
June, 7, 2005 - PRIMORDIAL VAULT by Frank Deft
Reviewed by Denise Cassino
In Primordial Vault, (an excerpt of which we featured last month, Malek’s Santuary) author Frank Deft brings us Lt. Colonel Carl Malek, the Air Force’s Top Ace pilot and a Medal of Honor recipient. He is Commander of a fighter squadron at Bettingen Air Base in West Germany. Set in the Cold War, the story centers around his relationship with the pilots of his squadron, who he controls and manipulates. Newly installed in Germany and absent their loved ones, the men allow their egos and libidos to rule with cataclysmic results.
At age 35, Carl’s insecurities and suicidal family history have collided sending his world into a dangerous downhill spiral. His tendency toward abuse of women, from groping of barmaids to battery and threats, catapults him into a life and death situation, which he tries desperately to control. To make things worse, the fighter group’s CO, Col. Brengard, recruits Captains Paul Oxner and Brice Trupp to keep an eye on Malek, whose sociopathic tendencies have cast a shadow of suspicion over him in the disappearance of a young German girl. Carl’s paranoia and the constant scrutiny of the Provost Marshall, Captain Aaron Kroll, keep him on edge and his determination to maintain his position send him lashing out to destroy those who threaten his very existence.
Fraught with intrigue and testosterone run wild, this book will appeal to lovers of war stories and the mind games of competitive men fighting for superiority. Deft’s long military background and fighter pilot experience enable him to bring extraordinary technical detail and realism to the practiced war games and dogfights that erupt between Malek and his men. The romances between some of the aviators and their German frauleins soften and fill out the otherwise male-oriented plot. Primordial Vault achieved award status in the 2001 William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition and the New Century Writer Awards contest in 2002. This book is available through Appalachian Author’s Guild.
May 7, 2005 - Mark of the Lion by Francine Rivers
Reviewed by Linda Barnett-Johnson
Do you like to be transported to other places and times? Do you like historical fiction? Then you’ll love Francine Rivers’ trilogy which take you on a gut-gripping journey through the history of Roman times and First Century Christian living in Rome and Ephesus where the arena played an important part in Roman culture. Jews were routinely thrown into the public arena as the Roman spectators reveled in the grisly entertainment spectacle, betting, drinking wine and laughing as innocent people were mauled by lions, killed by Gladiators, hung on crosses or ripped apart by wild dogs.
•A VOICE IN THE WIND introduces the characters one of whom is a Christian girl, Hadassah, sold into the slavery of a Roman family. She is selfless in her love for them, but she suffers terribly at the hands of the Romans. She lives in constant fear that her feeling for Marcus, the son of her master, will be discovered. While the first half of the book introduces the period and characters and is somewhat complicated, the second half furthers the tale and is mesmerizing.
•AN ECHO IN THE DARKNESS revolves around the relationship between Hadassah and Marcus. While Hadassah struggles to remain strong in her faith, Marcus resists the pull to know God. It is a love that transcends throughout history. This book has all of the magic of the first and more.
•AS SURE AS THE DAWN focuses on a German slave-turned gladiator, Atretes, who returns to Ephesus to reclaim the son he believed was dead. Caleb was given to Rizpah, a Christian woman, to raise. Atretes won his freedom through his unfailing victory in the arena. This third in the trilogy takes us through his struggles to find his son, his feelings for Rizpah and his journey back to Germania.
Ms. Rivers has done exhaustive research. She is a master storyteller and weaves a magical tale that leaves you wishing for more. You can find these books at your local library and at
http://www.amazon.com/
