Author Interview Meg Moseley 'Gone South'

Hi everyone !  I recently read ---and loved---- Gone South! You can read my review at Novel Crossing 

My new friend Meg ( because I seriously hunted her down on facebook immediately after turning the last page-- such a kindred spirit she is ) was kind enough to answer a few questions:

1.)Your book is expertly executed. The scenes (from the earliest in Michigan to Tish’s settling into Noble) transition so seamlessly. Do you write an outline? What does your process look like?

Thanks! If there’s anything “expert” about it, I owe it to my critique partners and my editors, who do their valiant best to rescue me from plot problems. Yes, I write an outline but it defeats me every time. I always get sidetracked by unrelated ideas that don’t even belong in that particular story, or by basic questions like “What the heck is this story about, anyway?” Finally I wind up with a solid premise, but the midpoint of my process looks like what would happen if you turned a toddler loose with scissors, paper, hot dogs, glue, paints, used tea bags, and glitter. It gets ugly.

2.)I was very, very impressed by the point of view characters: George, Tish and Mel. Did they instantly start speaking to you and hinting for their voices to be heard? If you were to choose another character to give more “page time”, as it were, who would you choose?

Thanks, Rachel. Tish’s voice came easily, maybe because it was fun to revisit living in Michigan and the differences between Northerners and Southerners. I really enjoyed getting into George’s head too, especially with anything related to his love for old cars or to his love-hate relationship with his mother’s Maltese. But Mel’s voice came most naturally, and I wish I’d had more “page time” for her. On the other hand, I’m glad that her part in the ending of the story comes as a jolt, because that’s how grace often works—suddenly, from an unexpected direction—and you know everything is about to change even if it can’t all change overnight.

3.)I was enamoured by Tish’s immediate connection to the McComb ancestral house—especially as a reader and lover of LM Montgomery’s work. Montgomery so believed in attachment to place and how it nurtures one’s soul and creativity and how it springs into a life of its own. Is Tish’s new house in Noble inspired by a house from your past or present?

It’s not inspired by a particular house, but I love old houses in general. My favorites are from the Craftsman era, maybe because I grew up in a little California bungalow that was built around 1920. I can’t look at an old house without wondering who lived there through the years, its successive residents looking out the same windows on an ever-changing world. It’s easy to forget that the world was “modern” to our ancestors, and that our descendants will one day think how quaint and old-fashioned we were. But no matter how much life changes, people will always need a place to call home.


4.)You kind of take the idea of the Prodigal Son story from the Bible and turn it on its ear---meaning that while Mel is indeed a prodigal --- the home she returns to is not her original home, the fatted calf slaughtered is not done so by her family, rather her new family of George, Calv and Tish. Did you always know that Mel’s path would take a slightly different turn?

As soon as Mel showed up in my head, I knew she didn’t belong in a cliché-ridden prodigal story. I studied the parable’s concrete details (garments, sandals, jewelry, a hated job) and I tried to flip everything in new directions. Most of all, I wanted to show the sad reality that many prodigals can’t relate to the lucky boy in the parable because they don’t have a good father-figure to come home to. For instance, Mel’s father doesn’t give her a robe and a ring; he orders her to return the items she “borrowed” from him. She won’t find a welcome under his roof, but that’s where grace comes into the picture.



5.)Mel, Tish and George are so different in many ways; but so similar in others. Each has such an attachment to the past: Mel to her family (and even to GWTW!), George to the Antiques, Tish to the story of her ancestors and their beautiful letters. Why do you think the past ---the exploration of the past--- and the excavation of its wrongs and rights—so greatly informs who we are.

The more we know about the past, the more we know about the present and about ourselves. Recently someone asked me why someone would bother to film a documentary about a little-known episode of strange times within a particular church, and my answer was that the filmmaker is a historian who wants to know not just what happened but alsowhy it happened so we can learn from it. I think we’re all amateur historians when we delve into our family histories. If we can understand how and why the choices of previous generations still affect us today, we just might make better choices in our own lives.

6.) Who are some of your favourite authors? Books?

Prepare to be yanked around through a bunch of different genres. Frederick Buechner’s Godric is one of my all-time favorite novels, and his nonfiction is wonderful too. I also love Catherine Marshall’s Christy and Siri Mitchell’s Kissing Adrien, two of the best clean romances ever. I love James Lee Burke, Dorothy L. Sayers, and P.G. Wodehouse. To Kill a Mockingbird is also on my keeper shelf. So is I Conquer the Castle by Dodie Smith. If these books have anything in common, it might be that their writers have distinctive and authentic voices that draw me into their worlds and make me want to stay.

Meg, I don’t think I will be able to get the lovely after-taste of this book out of my mouth for a long time. I will keep wanting to sink back into the pages again and again. Please tell me what is next. And please, please, PLEASE confirm that you will sprinkle a gentle amount of romance in the same way you did in Gone South

Thank you! A Stillness of Chimes is coming out in February. It will include a fair sprinkling of romance, plus some family drama, music, and a mystery, all against the backdrop of the Southern Appalachians.

see guys? Meg's a kindred spirit! just look at that reading list :-)

Books in the NEWS!

Hi Friends!


First off, the lovely and talented Sarah Loudin Thomas signed a contract ---a three book contract at that--- with Bethany House and I cannot WAIT to read her work. I am kinda a fan already.  Her synopses read highly symbolic; perhaps with a touch of magic realism and she is certain to prove a fresh voice in the realm of Christian fiction.

Secondly, one of my most anticipated books this year Burning Sky by delightful author Lori Benton is available for a two-chapter sneakpeek through Waterbrook/Multnomah.

So, there you have it. Mondays are not so bad after all.


Oh, and in case you are a rabid Vienna Prelude fan like myself and wanna weigh in on casting/location decisions for the movie all the fans should make (what's that site? the one where they raised money for Veronica Mars) well you are welcome to join the new Pinterest board I created. la la la la la.
Elisa and Murphy. Sigh.

Book Love: Lori Benton

Good book day!

you can FINALLY pre-order the gorgeous Burning Sky from new Waterbrook author Lori Benton

Learn more here


PRE-ORDER:

A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs

Liz Curtis Higgs loves Scotland.  So do I.  I was fortunate enough to visit in the Summer and, I must say, my attention to her past few works of fiction have definitely been inspired by her passion for the country.

Here, in this perfect Christmas confectionery, Higgs takes us on a railride from Edinburgh to Stirling where a young and intelligent young woman is confronted by a dashing man who holds a desperate secret.

From the beginning, Meg Campbell is conflicted: she doesn't feel as if she belongs at home with her well-off parents, even during the most important time of the year. Moreover, she is forever haunted by the accident that crippled her  younger brother when they were both children.  His bitterness, it would seem, has ramifications on the entire family.  The stolen hope that has pervaded his older years leaves Meg and her family struggling to connect with a man whose personality has become difficult.

Gordon Shaw is as troubled by Meg's past as she is.  Initially unbeknownst to her, Gordon is the long lost stranger who once innocently injured her brother and set in motion a wheel of events with ramifications stemming to the present. Gordon longs to make amends; but Meg would rather her new acquaintance stay completely away from her unhappy family.  Will Christmas bring a time of redemption and unexpected grace...or just added sorrow?

You know what I think?  I think you should pick someone on your Christmas list who loves languid, romantic Victorian fiction and buy this novella for them.  Make it better: throw in a packet of earl grey tea and Scottish shortbread and you have the perfect book-lover's gift!

I received this delectable little treat from WaterBrook Multnomah Books in exchange for an honest review.

The Orphan King by Sigmund Brouwer [Book One in the Merlin's Immortals Series]

From the Publisher: The future of the Immortals is in the hands of an orphan
 
My greatest fear was that they would find us and make of us a sacrifice beneath a full moon. Now you, Thomas, must help us destroy the circle of evil.
 
The last words of a dying woman would change the life of young Thomas. Raised behind monastery walls, he knows nothing of his mysterious past or imminent destiny. But now, in the heart of medieval England, a darkness threatens to strangle truth. An ancient order tightens their ghostly grip on power, creating fear and exiling those who would oppose them. Thomas is determined fulfill his calling and bring light into the mysterious world of the Druids and leaves the monastery on an important quest.
 
Thomas quickly finds himself in unfamiliar territory, as he must put his faith in unusual companions—a cryptic knight, a child thief, and the beautiful, silent woman whom may not be all she seems.  From the solitary life of an orphan, Thomas now finds himself tangled in the roots of both comradery and suspicion.
 
Can he trust those who would join his battle…or will his fears force him to go on alone?

"This told William that too much of their plan, like all battle plans, would be determined by chance.  All that was ever possible was to prepare to the fullest."

 

 Crusades! Knights! MERLIN! a castle called Magnus protected by flesh-eating witches! This is ultimate fantasy which just happens to be Christian. I am not altogether sure it can work as a straight allegory; because the details and figures ( shadowy and literal ) are rather convoluted at times; but I have great hopes that everything will iron out as the story continues.

Young Thomas is orphaned and alone, raised harshly by a constituent of abusive monks who abuse Thomas, the money from the poor inhabitants of the land ,greed and power.  Thomas finally escapes to fulfill his destiny; but bears the scares ----more emotional than physical--- of a religion gone wrong. What happens next is straight out of the best Quest Fantasy novels: nooses hang stretched high above the ground; the perilous plight of those bound for their capture stand fearfully by and Thomas and an unseen figure change the course of events in a speedy and resolute way.

Now, into our story, we are given moments of compellingly fantastical history: a Knight returned from Crusades, a stolen chalice, an idolized Kingdom destined to reveal secrets it harbours and a plan and plot which will allow honour, courage and bravery to abound.

The style here is mesmerizing in its galloping simplicity.  Each character is carefully and cheerfully drawn with few descriptions so that the reader can happily colour in the lines.  The banter and developing camaraderie between an unlikely band with put readers in mind of the great fantasies of yore: from Tolkien to T.H. White to the legend of Robin Hood.   The medieval world is also well-painted in periphery; without setting too much task on careful historical detail.  We learn that there is enough thread to set this in a world not unlike the past we are familiar with; while still maintaining a sort of ethereal sense of magic and sorcery.

Thomas is a likeable and believable hero and is developing attraction for the girl Isabelle is welcome; but it is William the Knight who has my heart: especially in his interactions with Thomas ---who becomes somewhat of a younger brother to him.

Readers will not be bombarded by Christian symbolism as the rewarding themes in the book tend to place overarching morals on a higher pedestal than distinctive reference.  This works well, broadens its readership and makes it a perfect addition to any young adult's library ( or adult who loves young adult books--- like me! )

I received this book for review as part of the WaterBrook "Bloggings for Books" program 

The Pirate Queen by Patricia Hickman

From the Publisher: 
Treasure is found in the most unlikely places.

The envy of all her friends, wife and mother Saphora Warren is the model of southern gentility and accomplishment. She lives in a beautiful Lake Norman home, and has raised three capable adult children. Her husband is a successful plastic surgeon--and a philanderer. It is for that reason that, after hosting a garden party for Southern Living magazine, Saphora packs her bags to escape the trappings of the picturesque-but-vacant life. 
Saphora’s departure is interrupted by her husband Bender’s early arrival home, and his words that change her life forever: I’m dying. 
 Against her desires, Saphora agrees to take care of Bender as he fights his illness. They relocate, at his insistance, to their coastal home in Oriental—the same house she had chosen for her private getaway. When her idyllic retreat is overrun by her grown children, grandchildren, townspeople, relatives, and a precocious neighbor child, Saphora’s escape to paradise is anything but the life she had imagined. As she gropes for evidence of God's presence amid the turmoil, can she discover that the richest treasures come in surprising packages?


I must confess that I had requested this book from WaterBrook and it had been lanquishing away in my drafts folder. Raise your hand, bloggers, if this has ever happened to you?

It's very rare that I seek out contemporary Christian writers with a more literary scope ( as I usually prefer the historical romance genre of the CBA); nonetheless, the title intrigued me, calling to mind the famed Grace O'Malley of yesteryear, and a review I had read made me think that Hickman was a talented spinner (if imperfect) of words I should seek out.

I am glad I did.  What is lacking in the CBA are more concise female writers who delve deeply into the psyche of family, hope, faith and traumas (large and small) without shrouding them in romance. Saphora's journey recalls Mrs. Dalloway or the tragic heroine of Kate Chopin's "The Awakening." In short, a woman who wants to buy the flowers herself: surrounded by the typified beauty of a life rigidly vacant life to fill her soul.  When an unexpected arrival and deafening news shatter her best laid plans, Saphora is forced to become giver and forgiver: to dig deep to find compassion in a deep well that will force her to leave behind her plan for new paradise.

Readers, such as myself, may not agree with all of Saphora's decisions may be infuriated by her, her choices and even by her husband and his past; but I wonder how often God is infuriated by us and true character studies take us beyond the realm of simply "likeable" and into the vortex of something deeper and more humane.  

There are some issues of voice here and a penchant for redundancy; but I applaud effort.

This better-late-than-never-review was made possibly by the WaterBrook Blogging for Books program from which I received a copy for review.

A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure, Love and Faith by Lori Smith

“It’s a difficult, romantic thing to be a dreamer” admits Lori Smith in one of many, many quotes I would love to appropriate and cross-stitch and frame and hang on my walls as the story of my life.

A Walk with Jane Austen: A journey into Adventure, Love andFaith should rightly be called the Difficult Musings of a Romantic Dreamer for the book is, at its core, Lori Smith’s relatable reflections as she stumbles through singlehood, depression and faith.

There are certain books that tug your heart strings and catch your throat and make you squeal aloud at every moment where you realize that the author has taken words and thoughts out of your mouth and heart and slapped them on a page. A Walk with Jane Austen is very much A Walk into Rachel’s Psyche.  It is Smith’s blatant and commendable honesty, her frustratingly poignant stream-of-consciousness and her willingness to spill her thoughts and pangs like a tipped-over inkpot that make this story the most poignant caption of a literary infused life I think I have ever read.

It speaks to those of us who love Austen, certainly, as Smith weaves her way through the English tapestry: beguiled at Bath, cloistered in an abbey, bewildered at Lyme as she traces through her beloved’s footsteps. Mostly, however, this book speaks to a specific type of Austenian: those of us romantic sorts who are blessed and cursed by a passionate devotion to Christianity in our single thirties.  Cursed, you ask? Yes. Smith realizes, as so many of us do, that the limited dating pool and strict moral requirements of what a Christian match should be can make the odds seemingly impossible.  Add to that a passion and heart for romance and a God-given desire to seek that which is beautiful, fantastical, witty and light and you are caught with Lori Smith in a modern web: where educated women feel at a loss--- so likely are they to cherish their post-feminist independence while guiltily admitting contradiction as they ache for an Austenian match. It’s a difficult, romantic thing to be a dreamer, yes; but to be cursed as a Christian with a romantic, dreamer’s mind? Even worse.  Like lapping water out of a sinking boat with a plastic pail.

Readers of this blog know that I was on work leave for 5 months recently with debilitating anxiety.  As someone who has struggled with a mental disorder her entire life ( one that was only recently given a name), I fell in love with Smith’s vulnerability as a depression sufferer plagued with a malady that is not christened until near the end of the novel.  Some might find the dark, smoky edges of this romantic Walk to be a tad over-bearing; but that is what makes it special.  Smith does not shy away from using her plight as a balm.  She admits to being smack in the middle of a life-long dream ( traipsing through Austen-land) while still admitting moments of defeat.  Just because you are chasing Darcy-coloured rainbows, doesn’t mean that the curses of real life will fail to set in.  To add to this, Smith writes eloquently about Christian lamentation: and a modern weakness inducting believers into a world of radiance and light while scorning natural human lamentation.  From the book of Job to her flitting, irreplaceable thoughts, Smith guides us through the happy and the sad: the rainbow-tinted and the melancholia.

 If you are a single Christian woman, this book will speak to you so strongly, you’ll look up and be surprised that a best friend is not spilling all deliciously confusing details across from you over a glass of wine.  Lori Smith GETS it: she gets that “…the other skill that single women possess is overanalyzing every conversation” and that “Of course, a single woman who wants to be married has, ironically, no sharper skill than that which rules out potential suitors before fully understanding their character.”   Smith provides a delightful paradox:  she re-imagines Austen’s tone and timbre while inserting the quite different dilemmas plaguing single Christian females.  Certainly we do not have the constrictions of sex nor of money or patriarchy in Austen’s society; but Smith works that we have the same obstacles, we crave the same matches, we trip over ourselves in the pursuit of love: bewildered, shamed, uninhibited.    To add to the perilous puzzle, Smith “gets” the evangelical cadences of an upbringing so familiar to all of us: “She didn’t have to deal with the evangelical culture I was raised in---“, she explains, “the one in which Christian things are separate from other normal (or as the church sometimes describes them “worldly” ) things.”

Further, she understands the scathing imp at the back of our minds which brings to forefront our questioning of our path.  For a contingent of women taught to pray for their future husbands and families in children’s church and through youth group to the same sect of women in their 30s, she understands that making sense of the nonsensical is part and parcel of the plight.   “He’ll be normal”, she hopes, “Someone I could actually introduce to my non-Christian friends without cringing.”  If you are in the datingsphere as a Christian single woman and you have not thought this; then you are either lying to yourself or are much more decent at heart than I am.   Smith is an automatic ally who understands how difficult it is to seek God’s path and timing when our impatient human nature forces us to explore the great world beyond: “Our conversations range from incisive devotional thoughts to solving poverty to the creepy, ogling married guys buying us drinks downtown.”  Like she says of Jane Austen, Smith is able to engage with the world around her. She fully epitomizes the contradictory nature of modern Single Christian females: those who are cursedly frustrated at God’s ridiculous timing while steering into moment of secularism in order to discover if there is light and love and passion available. Those who worry that one does not have the luxury of standards when there are so few male believers left to choose from (many marry young; there are twice as many single Christian males as females in North America).  She IS NORMAL.  Further, she muses, on the seeming unavailability and awkward friendship nature of connections with Christian men over a certain age: “It is a truth universally acknowledged among single Christian women that single Christian guys beyond a certain age are weird.”  Harsh, perhaps, and most likely not universal; but, again, she mirrors Austen-- bringing the peripheral subject of her thesis to forefront and honestly revealing a thought that actually got published in the Christian market (God bless you, WaterBrook).   “ I still want it so much”, she says of marriage as her 33 year old self traces Austenian heritage, “And if that sounds crazy to some, since I’m currently thirty-three and still very marryable, it may help to know the expectations in the conservative Christian world in which I was raised. Girls were supposed to grow up, go to college, and get married. “  To put that into further context and to heighten the stress and significance, I will echo that the first time I had the thought that I was abnormal for being single and pursuing an education and wanting a career was at 18.  There are zillions of readers who will not understand  the moments of vacuous inadequacy one feels as an aging single Christian woman; but they are there.  In a world where we are supposed to be supportive of differences, to seek God’s will and to find God outside of human expectations, to realize you are someone not quite like the rest of the flock is a constant sting. Moreover, to be an intelligent someone out of the flock who seemingly chose education and career outside of early marriage (I’m talking 18-25 here, the average Christian marrying age), further removes one from the idealized domestic sphere.  

Smith quotes writer Sue Monk Kidd’s talk about the defining choice every woman makes between love and independence.  Smith further investigates its ramifications and contextualizes it in the Christian sphere. But, as an independent woman on an independent excursion, she allows room for ruminations on love: realized and mentally constructed. There are a few major relationships in the book which make up the “love” component of the subtitle.  One being Jack: the odd, Christian friend-sorta-date who occupies Smith’s time at Oxford 

( and her thoughts long after), one being Smith’s reconciling her love for herself and God against moments of shadow and Smith’s love for Austen: what Austen stood for, what she wrote, how she was ahead of her time, how she provides a metric against which we should all attempt to live and love. She also speaks to the relationship she longs to have. A beautiful one with adored looks, not unlike the one Darcy gives to piano-playing Elizabeth during a scene in the 1995 BBC miniseries.

Smith, like me, believes herself to have been inherently compliant: to want to please her parents, her God, her church, the expectations told and untold and with this heavy weight she loses herself, if momentarily, and often just as reality comes  galloping back in, in the world of Jane Austen.  I realize that I spoke far more to the personal resonances of this book than to the Austen-centric mold of this Walk; but that is because that is not what hit be so hard about this reading experience.  I know a lot about Jane Austen and I have read dozens of books and studied thoroughly in University so, truth be told, I don’t need a literary travelogue

 ( though this one is so much appreciated); but I do need an author who understands me. I do need someone who is brave enough to spurt out on page what wrestles so acutely in my heart and mind but has rarely found a voice.  Smith, in the guise of a beautiful homage to a great female writer, speaks up for those who cannot speak for themselves and in this case, she speaks up for me and my ilk: we trusty, conflicted band of Christian single females intelligent and contradictory: wanting love and independence, sitting over coffee wondering why he said this or who he is or why we are attracted to guys outside of the fold and what it is to be equally or unequally yoked and why can’t EVERYONE BE MR.FRAKKIN’ DARCY --- she speaks for us.   And while she is speaking for us she takes us on a rollicking rural journey through the mind and thoughts and, yes, heart of the greatest female writer of all time.

Visit Lori Smith online

Buy The Jane Austen Guide to Life 

Lilies in Moonlight by Allison Pittman

Let’s just get the fact that the cover art is terrible out of the way. It’s terrible. Just find a piece of paper and hide it and fall in love. Because you will. Lily Margolis is a true-blue flapper. Having escaped from the clutches of her legalistic mother, she is barely surviving as a door-to-door cosmetics girl. One night, after crashing a Gatsby-esque party, she stumbles into the yard of the wealthy Burnside estate. There, she is informally adopted by the delusional ( and charming ) Betty Ruth and scrutinized by the enigmatic Cullen, whose past in baseball is as tragic as the mustard gas accident that has left him disfigured. A bright spark in the Christian market and one of my favourite reads this year, Lilies in Moonlight will charm the socks off of you.

First off, I have loved Pittman’s baseball-themed trilogy. Stealing Home is a revelation ( especially because her Crossroads of Grace series was so frustrating for me) and Lilies in Moonlight even surpasses it. A well-loved secondary character makes a beguiling cameo for those who are versed in this Americana by a talented pen . For those uninitiated, this is the perfect place to start with Allison Pittman. This is competent writing with themes far deeper than their surface initially tells. I loved it. It’s wrapped up in grace and redemption; but coated with strong verisimilitude, peppered with authentic dialogue and brimming with a wonderful feel for the era. You will be transported back to an easier time and the language, costumes and colour of the numerous sets back-dropping Lily’s adventures are warm and light-filled.

An unexpected road trip bonds Lily and the fabulous Cullen in a sweet and remarkable way. Both are able to admit their faults, exhume their pasts and respect each other at far more than a surface level. The motif of appearance ( Lily’s kohl liner and ruby lips and Cullen’s horrific war scars ) runs rampant---it even peeks into the delusion that pervades Cullen’s warm-hearted and sweet-tempered mother, Betty Ruth. Not everything in the story wraps up perfectly and we learn that God’s idea of miraculous undertakings can sometimes look slightly different than our own. I loved this book! This book that will always bring me to a bright and happy place. Kudos to Pittman for continually becoming stronger and stronger and establishing herself as one of the most competent writers in the historical genre.

Blogging for Books: Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball by Donita K. Paul

Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball by Donita K. Paul is as Christmas as eggnog,cinnamon sticks and holly. A completely fresh addition to the usual CBA offering of seasonal fare, Paul uses her penchant for fantasy to infuse a charmingly cozy romance with wizards and magic.

Can a Christian book have wizards?, one might ask. Of course!, for wizard, in its etymological origin, namely refers to one who is sage or wise. It is this slant and the looming and enigmatic Wizard's Christmas Ball that is the strongest offering of the tale.

Cora and Simon have worked near each other for five years at the same consumer company. Their shoulders never bump, though recently they have been thrown together in the oddest circumstances: Simon's parking spot moved directly next to hers, they run into each other on mystical Sage street at a strangely wonderful bookshop and Cora draws his name in the annual Christmas gift exchange.

Enter Simon's sister, Candy, and her love for kittens and the story begins to melt into a snowglobe of possibility and romance! I really enjoyed this breezy read and when paired with a gingerbread latte it immediately put me in the festive mood. Christians will be challenged by Cora's skepticism of the Christmas commercialism and relate to her questions on how best to embrace the Season. Readers in general will be warmed by Simon's bond with his younger sister and by Cora's steadfast growth and independence, away from her abusive past.

While I found that the story developed-and-developed just to wrap up quickly with a neat little bow and while I question Paul's sensibility about young men and women in their late 20's and 30's ( no one says "good night" as an exclamation ), I found this a wonderfully unique option for those who revel in Christmas-themed tales.

This would make a fabulous tv movie so I hope that the Hallmark people are hovering close at hand.

I received this book from the publisher for review as part of the Blogging for Books program and was bid to give my honest opionion, as I have done above.

BBAW: THESE BOOKS NEED MORE ATTENTION

Today's BBAW topic, Forgotten Treasures, is a favourite: inspiring readers to turn their thoughts to books you, as a reader and blogger, feel may be under-marketed

Well, if you’ve read my blog at ALL… ever... you know that I am passionate about the books I am passionate about.

The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle by Catherine Webb. Subsequent books in the series include The Obsidian Dagger, the Doomsday Machine and the Dream Thief. Take my word for it--- you will never read anything like Catherine Webb’s prose: it is scintillating, shiny, spectacular, fantastic, amazing, splendid, wonderful…..

Catherine Webb has earned the spot of my favourite Young Adult/Teen Novelist ( though she is fast seeping into label of My Favourite Living Writer). I have introduced Horatio Lyle to all of my kindred spirits in an act of Book Kismet that immediately allows me to determine my Best Book Friends. If you like Catherine Webb: you and I are probably meant to be friends.

The Blue Castle by L M Montgomery.

People. People. People. We all know Montgomery is one of my passions and I could rant on and on about how there are two different kinds of L M Montgomery fans in the world: those who subscribe to the Kevin Sullivanesque Anne-verse and those of us who love LM Montgomery’s Life and Lesser Works ( enough to know she came to despise the red-headed orphan and her character’s pronounced hindrance on her ability to creatively excel in other types of fiction.

Montgomery spent more than half of her life in Ontario and wrote every book but Anne IN Ontario. The Blue Castle, however, is the only book in Montgomery’s canon set entirely outside of PEI (and not too far from where I grew up). I sum up my love for it in my With Reverent Hands Post (at BookLust)

I also have taken it upon myself to promote Arthur Slade’s books. This has been a project for years now and I try to do what I can to make sure that EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT HIM. A fabulous moment occurred when a blog reader/author emailed me and asked: does Arthur Slade pay you commission? I am an author and I would like to see if I could pay you to do the same type of marketing.

HA! What a compliment. I knew, then, I was doing a good job. Jolted is my favourite of his books ( but tends to have a decidedly Canadian sense of humour).

The Jack Absolute series by CC Humphreys

Some of my favourite books to hand-sell as a bookseller. Few customers I served would be able to walk out the door without a copy of something Jack Absolute in their hands. Canadian history reads out of Bernard Cornwell with a Patrick O’Brian chaser. They were just what I needed in university to wile away those hours not spent at the library. The Thinking Person’s Beach Read.

The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch.

“I bought this stupid book because of you!” my friend once told me sardonically “ And now I can’t bloody stop reading it and I am not getting any work done. “

I think the quote above speaks to the book's appeal and engagement.

Of course I am not paid commission. My book love is completely genuine and borne out of a need and passion to contagiously spread the books that make me giggle and clap; screech and tap; that make my fingertips tingle and cause me to ration them so that I don’t reach the end too quickly ---to the world. I want you to experience books I love in the same way I do.

In turn, I appreciate how the blogging community immediately sends me to look up a favoured title on amazon or to the hold shelf on the Toronto Public Library homepage.

The Bridegrooms

I really enjoyed Stealing Home by Allison Pittman so I was excited when The Bridegrooms became available. I recently returned from vacation in Austria and before planning on a trip to a largely German-speaking land, I wanted to make sure I took enough English language books to keep me occupied on long train trips and in my hotels at night after exhausting days of sightseeing. Was I EVER right in bringing The Bridegrooms.

I love Americana!: the glorious and idyllic turn-of-the-century years of ice cream shoppes and peanuts, popcorn and baseball. Pittman inserts a healthy whipped-creamed dollop of nostalgia but also a sense of longing and wistfulness for an innocent time out of reach. Vada and her four sisters are startlingly different in personality and thus warrant startlingly different beaux. Not unlike Little Women, the sisters are believably rendered on page and their triumphs and travails were heartwarming! The book spans little more than a week in the life of four girls abandoned by their mother at a young age. The mystery of their mother’s disappearance and the spiriting in to town of The Bridegrooms: a raucous and rowdy baseball team are at the core of this fun and fast read. While so many authors would have planted romance blossoming from the heroine encountering an out-of-towner, Pittman chooses instead to study our concept of romance and our romantic ideals. How much romance can be found in the whirlwind of a traveling sportsman, how much romance exists in the steadfast and stalwart, if somewhat consistent, suitor from your hometown? Garrison, Vada’s patient and virtuous fiancé is absolutely one of the most winning ( if quiet and steady) heroes in Christian fiction this year. This was equally as compelling as Stealing Home. Pittman OWNS this era and I am so glad she stepped up to the plate and hit it into the Christian historical field.

An Absence So Great by Jane Kirkpatrick

rating: ***

publisher: WaterBrook

An Absence So Great by Jane Kirkpatrick continues where the excellent A Flickering Light left off. Small-town girl Jessie has honed her photography skills thanks to preparatory apprentice work at the Bauer Studio. In possession of her own camera and fleeing the budding mutual attraction she shares with the very married FJ Bauer, Jessie strives to carve her own path in a society where women’s professional roles are limited.

I really enjoyed the unique premise of the story--- especially in the canon of Christian Historical fiction. Rarely is the romance pursued a forbidden one bordering on an extramarital affair--- a heartbreakingly valid one, here, at that. The story also resonates truth: with striking verisimilitude ( we can thank the source, Kirkpatrick’s feisty great grandmother, for this page turner).

As featured in the first book, photographs and Jessie’s comments on their light and technique and also their back-story help transplant the reader into Jessie’s world.

While Jessie is a flawed character ( refreshingly and believably so), I rooted for her as she endured the prejudices of the era: including one section of the novel when Jessie has trouble securing a bank loan for her own studio because of her sex and the rather harsh treatment given her by FJ’s wife as well as her sternly religious mother.

A real story well-drawn and expertly told, I was pleased to read another erudite addition of Kirkpatrick’s ever-growing bibliography of excellent fiction.

Congratulations to Jane Kirkpatrick for her Christy nomination for the first book in the series. Read my review of A Flickering Light here

Thanks to WaterBrook for the review copy!

Blogging for Books: Here Burns my Candle

Remember Liz Curtis Higgs’ last series that made us fall in love with Scotland ( for some of us, it just deepened our love for Scotland ) while aligning critical historical events with sweeping Biblical undercurrents and themes? Remember that?

Well, I was ECSTATIC to hear that Higgs was going to be taking pen to reimagine my absolute favourite story in the Bible during the time of Bonny Prince Charlie and Jacobite Rebellion.

Here Burns My Candle tells the first half of the story of Ruth.

I have loved the Book of Ruth since childhood. A self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, I find it the most romantic love story in the whole of scripture. Moreoever, above its sweet love story and message of sacrifice and loyalty, it imminently ties into the lineage of Christ and elicits the powerful truth that the Bible and all of its events divine connect like the pieces of an intricate puzzle.

So, needless to say, I was delighted and anxiously awaited this book for a long time. Because it tells the first half of the Ruth story ( the next will be available in 2011--- how can I wait?), we don’t quite get to the most romantic part of the Ruth story ( the Ruth-Boaz relationship). Instead, we are given a compelling history of the Dowager Lady Marjory and her integral relationship with her daughter in law, Lady Elisabeth. Though political tensions are taut and Marjory and Elisabeth’s differing views on crucial points strains their relationship, the stems of the loyalty and consistency; the “whither thou goest” from the Biblical story is sternly asserted through commonalities of faith.

As is the case with Higgs’ previous foray into 18th Century Scotland, I was off-turned by the dialect: choppy and distracting and integrated at odd times throughout the novel, it felt almost “cut and paste” in its hindrance to a fluid narrative.

Elisabeth sometimes seems too perfect and Donald is somewhat unnecessarily flawed; but their relationship and human foils are indeed believable.

I especially enjoyed learning more about Marjorie, her past and how her inability of letting go shapes and defines so much of her personality.


I eagerly await the next installment.


Thanks ever so much to WaterBrook for the review copy.


Explore the story of Ruth in a myriad of way:

Through non-fiction The Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules by Carolyn Curtis James ( I found this remarkably empowering and historically erudite)

Through fiction: Unshaken by Francine Rivers ( my favourite in the Lineage of Grace sequence) ; Ruth of Moab by Author Wright; The Garden of Ruth by Eva Etzioni-Halevy
[ there are numerous re-tellings of Ruth out there; quick searches in your library or through internet searches will help]


And, oh yeah, read the Book in the Bible online: Ruth

death to KINDLE

Dear Bloggosphere,

on the occasion of the Kindle being available in Canada:


Books were invented to be read. READ THEM! Open them, smell them, hold them. Run your fingers along their spines. Give them as gifts, covet and cuddle and coddle them. ….

Books: the platform of imagination, theory, critique, thoughts-taking-form ………. All scintillatingly fit into one harmless little square of paper and ink; of smell and light.


BOOKS Are TANGIBLE! Make your reading experience tangible. Hold your book! Run your fingers on perforated pages; feel the glassy, glossy imprint of a sheen sheet between your fingers.


Or, alternatively, buy a piece of technology and download your words onto an unfeeling ipod. Who wants to curl up with a fireplace, a candle, a blanket and ….an ipod?


This holiday season buy your books from bookstores! Read books! … not files….

Save pdfs and the like for work and blogging and, you know, internet things…..


Books are for reading. Read them. Buy them.


You can’t fit an electric file into a stocking. …. ( perchance you can but not much fun, is it)


This Christmas BOYCOTT the Canadian Kindle, walk into your favourite bookstore and buy a real book.

blog recommendation: Beth Pattillo

I was meandering through Chapters today ( Canada's answer to Barnes and Noble ) and stumbled upon a Beth Pattillo novel I had not read!


Shocking because it's called Jane Austen Ruined My Life.

A Beth Pattillo Jane Austen novel that I missed? Shame on me!


I love Betsy Blessing and the Sweetgum Knit Lit Society so how could I pass on this?

....well, my book budget dictated that I momentarily stock it in the "to be purchased after you have read the mountain of books on your TO BE READ SHELF and not before" --- but, await fair reader, I shall be picking this little gem up before long!
Especially as I anticipate the second Knit Lit book this summer! In honour of my discovering unchartered Pattillo territory, let today's blog recommendation be her's ( well, in the guise of Betsy Blessing).

blog recommendation: Jane Kirkpatrick

I am currently savouring A Flickering Light by Jane Kirkpatrick. I know I will have lots of questions for Jane once I finish the last half of this sumptuous fictionalized biography of Jane's photographer grandmother.

This story pulls you in immediately and I have been tasting its ambience: streetlights, candles peering through windows, the stiff aura of the darkroom, the smell of woolen socks drying on a radiator these past few days.

I was meandering through Jane's blog and thought I would direct interested readers here.

I am always elated about entries outlining the writing process and Jane's perspective is interesting as it is informed by her real-life subject matter.



Enjoy.

Landings and Penderwicks and Benjamin Button..... with some W. O. Mitchell for good measure!

Finally! The GG award-winner for Children’s literature, Globe and Mail’s Washington correspondent writes The Landing: a kuntsleromanesque novel for young adults about Ben Mercer: a would-be violinist trapped in Depression-Era Muskoka.


A region very dear to my heart, Ibbotson carefully crafts and evokes Muskoka as a paradise amidst economic and social turmoil. A bittersweet region that is at once: mesmerizing and beautiful, dangerous and isolating.

The wealthy tourists spilling into the lake country view it as a prime position for lavish and grandiose parties. The residents whose livelihood relies on cushioning the granite and pine-treed spanse of northern Ontario , view it as a way of tireless existence.


Nevertheless, for good and for bad, Ibbotson painted home for me.

Ben Mercer is stuck at the Landing with his crippled and embittered uncle, Henry and his mother: still heavily grieving the passing of Ben’s father.

Ben dreams of leaving Muskoka, scooping up his violin and leaving the life of odd jobs aboard steamers like the Segwun ( which still ports out of Gravenhurst ), and chipping away at cottages for the wealthy and elite.

Ben wants to go to the Conservatory in Toronto and ensure that the steady fingers that move so liquidly ‘cross his violin are not smirched and worn by the hired hand work of his family.

The musical motif of the novel is pursued quite deftly. Especially with the arrival of Ruth Chapman: a Miss Havisham of a widow who smokes long cigarettes, drinks beer every day for lunch and wine for dinner ( a custom unheard of to small community Ben ), introduces hired Ben to martini olives and to stories of New York and glittering parties.

Ben sees in Ruth Chapman what his life as a musician might be. It is this vital relationship that is explored most intimately and that shadows the other relationships in the novel ( such as Ben’s rocky rapport with his equally-trapped uncle).

Unfortunately, a hefty amount of build-up as executed in a novel with eons of potential falls a little flat. Disappointingly so because I was so invested in seeing this full potential realized.

The ending speeds to an awkward and unexpected climax that staves off as quickly as it was built. It reads rather abruptly, as if the author was in a mad dash to tie up loose ends. They are tied, curtly, and with little grace.

I appreciate Ibbotson’s contribution to this year’s YA library especially because his nostalgiac retelling of a gilded age is painted on a Muskokan landscape: a region often eluding Canadian YA literature.

I will hunt Ibbotson down again… if only because he set his stage so intelligently and some of his phrasing was so compelling I returned to sentences more than once.

The end might reverberate harshly, but the journey was cleverly spun.

I give it a B+

Want more books? Fine. I give you The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by National Book Award Winner Jeanne Birdsall.

The Penderwicks make me nostalgiac. Episodic, charming, sweet. Birdsall is a first-class homage to Burnett, Alcott and Montgomery. She proves infectious.

I love the (mis)adventures of Batty, Skye, Jane and Rosalind. I love their little mishaps and the Sabrina Starr stories and their plays and soccer games. I love Batty’s chilling Hallowe’en bumping into the enigmatic Bug Man.

Each sister gets equal attention and Birdsall’s effortless narrative allows you to crawl into the characters’ thought processes and lodge there.

I especially loved clueless Mr. Penderwick: forever quoting Latin and harping on etymology. Prey, here, to visiting Aunt Claire’s blind dates, he becomes the central focus of a “Save Daddy” plot the sisters concoct to steer him from disastrous blind dates.

Not a fast paced book nor is it strewn with adventure. But, children will love it: Especially those who are champions of charming imaginative stories of home, colour and small adventures.

A peppermint-tea kind of book.

Oh. And plenty of space is given to faithful dog, Hound!

The nice people at Harper Collins sent me a hardcover, illustrated, swanky copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I am going to see an advance screening of the film on Sunday and hope that it fleshes out details that Fitzgerald’s sparse writing and the infinitesimal length of the book did not allow.

A surprisingly visceral read, Benjamin Button creeped me out with surreal illogistics. Fitzgerald and I go way back…. But I cannot say I’ve read him in the past five or so years. How odd to be thrust back into the sphere of his terse writing. I had forgotten. As a teenager, I had a major fling with Fitzgerald. I fell hard. … especially for Tender is the Night and the Great Gatsby. But mostly for This Side of Paradise .

Ironically ( and unintentionally), the lavish lake parties in the Landing immediately sparked a correlation to Fitzgerald…. Long before I knew a reading of Benjamin Button was looming.

In fact, Ruth Chapman even mentions Gatsby in one of her random tirades to Ben Mercer.

But Benjamin Button is not the flourish of languid flappers, coy mistruths, long cigarettes , gild and alcohol. No excessive ritz here. Instead, it is a bizarre circus of crude happenstance relating to a man who ages backward.

Erm… not really my thing but that distinctively Fitzgeraldian brand of clipped writing ( Scottie wrote by the sentence, or so we are told ) was missing in my life. Can I mention Fitzgerald ( or any other novelist from the Moveable Feast circle of Hemingway, Fitz, Ezra Pound and James Joyce ) without harping on Morley Callaghan? Umm. No.

So consider this my weekly reminder to go read That Summer in Paris .

Post-Benjamin Button, I picked up my jacketless, well-thumbed hardcover of Jake and the Kid: craving a different kind of short story. And THIS dropped out:

The ( unedited )words of Rachel-a-decade-ago. The ghost of my 16 year old self is here to haunt you:

Friday January 30, 1998

I guess, of all my favourite books I should write something 'bout Jake and the Kid. This is nothing short of a charming book. It adds life and pizzaz to these rainy days when nothing but the best will do. W.O. Mitchell is a literary Genius. Read the first story. If you're not hooked by the end of "You Gotta Teeter" then your imagination craves colourfulness and life. This collection of stories (added to the hard-to-find According to Jake and the Kid) makes me extremely proud that my country, Canada, owns W. O. Mitchell. I'm glad I witnessed the grandeur of the prairies these stories boast. I'm glad the RCMP are our landmark. I'm grateful our men sacrificed their perfect lives to fight overseas and I am fascinated by the history Jake expands when nonchalantly story-telling. Everyone of these phenomenal aspects are blended into the main plot about a boy and his rough-edged mentor. Both characters are masterieces and this book amazing. I always desire to embark on the great adventure through our Western Provinces. The small town of Crocus fascinates me.-- as a writer. How can so many amazing things take place in such a small area? How can such descriptions outweigh other classics? These ideas are fresh. There's only so much of foggy London or steamy Paris one can take.

I like to lay other clicheed books aside and travel to Saskatchewan. It is part of my heritage, part of my history, part of my country, and Jake and the Kid is part of me.

Wasn't I cute? Wow! I think I was blogging long before blogs existed. Also, I think I determined the path of my future long before I went into English Lit and publishing.

Trip down memory lane, you were fun!