tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261852642024-03-06T23:45:16.147-08:00a Fair Substitute for Heaven: Where Rachel McMillan hangs out "A plate of apples, an open fire, and a 'jolly goode booke' are a fair substitute for heaven", vowed Barney. -L.M. Montgomery, 'The Blue Castle'Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.comBlogger959125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-11421434469498476212018-06-26T18:40:00.003-07:002018-06-26T18:40:57.284-07:00Oh Lovely Blog--the Times have changed! HI friends!<br />
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I love book gushing, I do! And this lovely little blog was started when I was in university and it is a record of all of the lovely books that I read (and some of the theatre and travels I took) as my life ebbed and flowed.<br />
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Because a life measured in books and in reading experience, is the best life I know.<br />
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With my new publishing commitments ( the fun of writing my OWN books while still loving other people's books!), I have had to create and maintain a more publishing centric website.<br />
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Also, (and you will have noticed), time slips away with travel and life and writing and I just cannot keep updating this blog as I used to.<br />
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but I haven't STOPPED talking and sharing books and that is what I wanted to post about.<br />
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I cannot say I will be able to update this blog as I did before. But I can say that I am consistently talking about books and I invite you (and welcome you) to come and see where I will mostly be talking and sharing about books from now on:<br />
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First, add me to your Goodreads friend list:<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/"> https://www.goodreads.com/ </a> I love using Goodreads to share about books but also to keep myself accountable in what I am reading<br />
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Secondly, I will be doing most of my book love and sharing on instagram:<br />
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I love instagram! I love the ease of sharing pictures of pretty covers and hashtagging and helping others find good new things to read and having them help you too.<br />
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Instagram is where I envision myself talking about books most frequently: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rachkmc/">https://www.instagram.com/rachkmc/</a><br />
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My author website which will have updates and author-y news and such is <a href="http://www.rachelmcmillan.net/">www.rachelmcmillan.net</a><br />
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And finally, the first adventure in the Van Buren and DeLuca series, MURDER AT THE FLAMINGO, releases two weeks from today:<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_17?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=murder+at+the+flamingo&sprefix=murder+at+the+fla%2Caps%2C150&crid=241EOYVOHX6EQ">go snatch it up </a><br />
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And in parting, here is the cover of MURDER IN THE CITY OF LIBERTY which releases next Spring!!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaEX7EFz5obRBAi4GfW2_m0vOMrnyPQnR7fopo5axexSeCmSvEp5qtZuMmEzeab-resffJrz3vQwIC0iIIVgqedcKDm7oFgrD-98orI9O0_KcYa9yevE5SKcyHUQkbnQRSIPI/s1600/Snip20180620_163.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="419" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaEX7EFz5obRBAi4GfW2_m0vOMrnyPQnR7fopo5axexSeCmSvEp5qtZuMmEzeab-resffJrz3vQwIC0iIIVgqedcKDm7oFgrD-98orI9O0_KcYa9yevE5SKcyHUQkbnQRSIPI/s320/Snip20180620_163.png" width="212" /></a></div>
Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-76891651390452978482018-03-16T07:03:00.001-07:002018-03-16T07:07:45.381-07:00One of the Best Books I have Ever Read: The Traitor Prince <a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTC6_T86kbiBTBNVq4wpMjnOoJE-v6LZIWBf6wxmW5ML6SdVUqQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result" border="0" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTC6_T86kbiBTBNVq4wpMjnOoJE-v6LZIWBf6wxmW5ML6SdVUqQ" height="320" width="211" /></a>Last week, I devoured <i>The Wish Granter</i> by CJ Redwine after a recommendation from my friend Ruth. I loved it to death. Sebastian was a Rachel catnip hero and the dark Rumpelstiltskin world was immensely readable. First off, because I will make you buy this book--- Though the book is the third in the Ravenspire series: they are standalone novels set in a similar world. okay?<br />
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Let's dig in, kittens!<br />
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<i><b>Fear out, Courage in.</b></i><br />
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I craved more, so immediately downloaded <i>The Traitor Prince </i>which blew me away in the best way possible. I am not hyperbolic in saying it is one of the best books I have ever read; because I am not just carrying the hangover of emotion and well-crafted world. I am stating that as someone who loves to watch technique, who catches and revels in nuance, who stops and notices the slow, unfurling threads of allegorical substance, who is alighted by the pursuit of a hero's journey resplendent with heartbreaking themes of sacrifice and grace.<br />
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Javan Najafai is the true prince of Akram. He has lived at the prestigious Milisatria Academy for Nobility for ten years, excelling at everything and becoming well rounded enough that he will eventually be able to step into the crown.<br />
He is kind and studious, forsaking the revelry and hobbies of his friends for prayer and reflection and to become the kind of king that his father, the King, will be proud of. He is a devoted servant of his god, Yl' Haliq and relies on his wisdom and guidance as he prepares himself for the arduous and magnanimous task of eventual ascension to the throne.<br />
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Since his mother's dying wish that he earn the most honours of any prince educated at the academy, Javan has centered his sights on granting her this honour: furthered by his desire for his father's pride and respect when he graduates at the head of his class and presents the coveted red sash that marks his accomplishment. The guidance from his headmaster and the support of his friend Kallen have seen him to the days leading up to final examinations and graduation.<br />
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<b><i>Now he had to pick up his beliefs, one by one, and examine them the flaws that surely ran through them.</i></b><br />
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Elsewhere, Rahim, who bears a striking resemblance to Javan and has a threadbare connection to the throne, works with a plot to supplant Prince Javan on the throne after his return to Akram. The true king slowly poisoned, Rahim's estranged father--and the king's closest relative---has wielded his unlikely power to mold the kingdom into place of bleak poverty and despair. While the nobility gets richer, they do so on the backs of the outcasts and impoverished and any clemency the true King might have shown to their plight is squandered under his tyranny.<br />
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What follows is a plot that weaves a tapestry reminiscent of <i>The Prince and the Pauper, The Count of Monte Cristo </i>and the book's lesser known eponymous fairy tale.<br />
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A swath of grace ( one of many --often undeserved and unexpected) finds Javan escaping the death plot set against him though at tragic cost. Sparing his life, someone who recognizes him for who he says he is, throws him into Maqbara Prison: where if he can survive and win a gruesome gladiator-like champion, he will be granted an audience with the king and a boon of his choosing.<br />
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In order to fight for his rightful claim to the throne, Javan will risk his life daily while his faith dwindles and enemies surround, using the skill set he learned at Milistaria not to lead, rather to survive.<br />
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The world of the prison --where 80 percent of the novel takes place-- is unbelievably painted in grim and creaky palette. The warden is a fearsome enemy, food is scarce and blood is shed. And yet, Redwine consistently offers smatters of light and hope. One of Javan's allies is Tarek, an old prisoner with a heart of gold and stable countenance who will put readers in mind of Abbe Faria in <i>The Count of Monte Cristo.</i> Tarek's role in the story affected me deeply. Another--and far more reticent connection--- is Sajda. Enslaved at a young age by the warden, she is kept in cuffs and forced to keep the prisoners and the ever-changing range of magical beasts for the circus arena combat in check.<br />
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The prisoners --many arrested and confined for minimal disturbance--and often unjustly--- spend their days cleaning the arena that will lead to many of their deaths as well as training (however inexperienced) for the next games day.<br />
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Spectators attend lavishly bloodthirsty productions where terrible beasts are thrown in with prisoners--some armed-- some not. Points are assigned for the killing of each creature and the top competitor will be granted the king's ear. It is not, Javan soon realizes, that different than ascending the ranks of the academy as his mother wished. <br />
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Javan is a true hero. His heart is splendid. His humility is inspiring. His journey is heartbreaking. Readers of this blog know that I keep one foot in the Inspirational Fiction world and I can safely say the faith message in this story--- integral to Javan's journey--- and written in a subtle, almost-allegorical way, is 80 times more potent than many of the books I have read intentionally published for faith readers in the past year. And yet it is in his doubt and tragedy and moments of hopelessness that he becomes a beacon to lean on. He is not perfect. He takes a wrong step. But at heart---at his core--- is everything that the story needs him to be. He is at times a martyr but only to lead to his destiny.<br />
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This book ripped my heart to shreds. I was anxious about finishing it. Anxious to be leaving the way it alighted my world and spirit. And even though I carefully rationed it over the past few days, lingering over its poetically sensory experience, I am so glad that I was finally able to encounter the punch-to-your-stomach poignancy of its climax. This book instills in me the strength to believe, to hope, to endure. Javan is a hero whose faith in god and his eventual restoration for the sake of his people puts him with the greats. He is timeless. He is the hero we return to. He is reminiscent of Dantes, yes, but also of Homer. And, for those of us approaching Easter, his entreaty of Yl' Haliq to intercept his grim fate will put readers in mind of the Greatest Hero of All.<br />
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I was profoundly moved by this story. I was broken and sobbing by the end. I was touched so deeply by Javan's goodness, by Tarek's selflessness, by Sajdan's vulnerability. Indeed, I can count a few reading moments previously that have left me so wrung: Jessica Dotta's <i>Price of Privilege</i> trilogy, for one. Stephanie Landsem's <i>The Thief </i> as another. Sometimes I just cried because the storytelling was so perfect and the language so beautiful, its consonance tripping of my tongue as I read phrases aloud, the languorous legato of several lines in their perfect magic order...<br />
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But lest you think this is all about presenting a theological tenet or speaking to the balance of visceral darkness and staggering light of humanity, it is so much more than that. This book is a beautifully told story of survival and each competition---ascending in importance --kept my heart in my throat and my pulse pounding. This, readers, is exceptionally written adventure fiction. Javan's strategy to make loose connections with prisoners who would see him dead and to balance his immediate penchant for mercy and assistance in a gruesome ring while cognizant of the greater significance of his survival and restoration, is why we read books. There is a classic sensibility to this piece.<br />
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To add, it is a beautifully woven love story between two lonely souls who find each other in the midst of squalor. Sajdan realizes that Javan is who he says he is because of his actions. It goes beyond his noble manner of speech and the way he commands himself, his erect shoulders and his unending knowledge of all of the kingdoms in their world. Javan is princely to his core. A true prince who puts the lives of his people before his own.<br />
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Initially, he enlists her help by promising her his knowledge. She is determined to one day shake off her shackles and step into freedom. She wants to learn about the stars--- the galaxy that she climbs to amidst crates and crackles high into the rafters of Maqbara, like an architect plotting to build a steeple that will pierce close to heaven.<br />
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<b><i>Being her friend was like taking a ride on a half wild stallion with nothing but your wits and your courage between you and a long, dangerous fall.</i></b><br />
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But as for one of the greatest books I have ever read, it comes in the execution of the plot and the pieces falling into perfect place. In the subtle moments where the quest shifts from Javan's survival to his recognition that he must win for the goodness of humanity, that there is a far greater weight. It comes in his recognition that Yl' Haliq has presented him with a path of suffering for a greater purpose than all of his prayers for restoration and redemption could ever have imagined.<br />
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<b><i>Yl' Haliq was with him, whether Javan could feel him or not. The sacred texts were clear. </i></b><br />
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It comes in the way that Redwine understands the keen sensibility of the reader--- in the meted metrics of intensity--- in her shifting of perspective during arena sequences. Indeed, I nearly gasped at the brilliance of her shifting the point of view to that of the villain (there is more than one villain in this piece, all brilliantly realized and dimensional).<br />
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It is in her perusal of nightmares--living and imagined--- in the power that Sajda hides and then wields with abandon when the life of another is on the line.<br />
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<b><i>And in the stillness of his mind, an idea formed, crystallizing before he realized what was happening. He clenched his folded hands as hope, soft and fragile, unfurled in his chest and took root. He was right where he was supposed to be He was meant to hurt the way his epople hurt. To see the truth of Akram from their eyes. Their grief was his to bear. Their injustices his to make right He was destined to lose what he'd thought was his so that he could gain something even more important---wisdom. </i></b><br />
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It is in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment when slight narrative intrusion turns our minds: no longer is she referring to Javan by his name but slowly, achingly, she begins to speak to the Prince of Akram. It is when his world crumbles around him, that the authorial voice restores his rightful place.<br />
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It is in the heart and humanity and hope whose resonance spans far beyond a made-up sphere set years and years ago and surged with magic.<br />
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Authors use tropes and tales to tell their truth. Redwine inhabits a fairytale like atmosphere to speak to weave a treatise of faith and doubt and unbelievable sacrifice. This book will strengthen you.<br />
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And, at the end of the day, it is just a damned joy to read.<br />
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<b><i>"I kept praying for deliverance. For escape. I was so consumed with the wrong done to me that I failed to stop and listen. To learn. But I've been listening, Sajda. And I know that I was always meant to be in Maqbara. I was meant to understand the corruption my uncle brought to Akram, the pain it causes my people and the horrors that take place here in the name of sport.... And I was destined to meet you. I wouldn't take back a second my own pain if it meant that you and I would be strangers. But my pain isn't the most important thing to me. Yours is. I would do anything to take backk the heartbreak you feel. Even if it meant I'd never get to be your friend in the first place."</i></b><br />
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Like, guys, for the love of cookies. It is the most lusciously romantic, heart stopping, action packed ,gruesome, alive and wonderful and wisdom-filled and faith-surged piece of fiction in the freakin' land. This author is a genius, her pen is inspired and every word will rumble in your chest and every theme will light your eyes like a bulb and can we please just make her write more in this ilk forever? and ever?<br />
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amen.<br />
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<br />Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-82528054197857270502018-03-06T06:18:00.000-08:002018-03-06T06:18:13.859-08:00Travels with Rachel I realize I have neglected this blog and I am sorry. But I have been spending my non day job hours doing some pretty cool things: mainly traveling and writing. <div>
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First,<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37838346-love-in-three-quarter-time"> <i>Love in Three Quarter Time</i></a> has been out in the world since Valentine's Day and its reception has inspired me to write two more Viennese themed novellas. </div>
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I am at work on the second installation of the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Flamingo-Novel-DeLuca-Mystery/dp/0785216928">Van Buren and DeLuca</a> series where Reggie and Hamish adventure in all things romantic and deductive.</div>
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A recent trip to Brussels a few weeks ago borne by love of Charlotte Bronte's <i>Villette </i>and her time there as a teacher ended up inspiring a new novel I am working on. I honestly had no idea when I went to Belgium I would be so creatively inspired.</div>
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I also encourage you to follow my <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14165949.Rachel_McMillan">Goodread</a>s where I am pretty up to date on logging what I am reading and loving.</div>
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In December, I went to Prague which inspired me so much I infused it into an integral scene between my hero and heroine in <i>Love in Three Quarter Time </i>. </div>
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Here are some pics!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRp_xYRJlg7Wn9pOgEfdgCWZ0DTMwb3aMpMlvAdXmAJBTjzn6Ou3z1FQL3lfxjK8qhPha-THMC3ZCwJ4yh5G9KoOpU5PAPFjvM2MhpLOKKquXhDKuFX7GkS2QHXXoRLlgEsu4/s1600/ab1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="568" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRp_xYRJlg7Wn9pOgEfdgCWZ0DTMwb3aMpMlvAdXmAJBTjzn6Ou3z1FQL3lfxjK8qhPha-THMC3ZCwJ4yh5G9KoOpU5PAPFjvM2MhpLOKKquXhDKuFX7GkS2QHXXoRLlgEsu4/s320/ab1.PNG" width="305" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">gorgeous Brussels </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9LvRDYtV3QyXGLFtyRZxKzD3eTMohTbtpynD-3dFGV46f6pVo-arg9gGpQsfLFf4TAlrAn8aFWrRoN6ARSLBsJR3J53SiAuh7lEgW8zmr3yJKabvuHkpt0K5BpfLOWL3Peio/s1600/ab2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="585" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9LvRDYtV3QyXGLFtyRZxKzD3eTMohTbtpynD-3dFGV46f6pVo-arg9gGpQsfLFf4TAlrAn8aFWrRoN6ARSLBsJR3J53SiAuh7lEgW8zmr3yJKabvuHkpt0K5BpfLOWL3Peio/s320/ab2.PNG" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I took Villette to all of the places in the novel!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg56BfA2xSC0ye7iOCe3a1sisrPRnklHmFeK_AoIJd0cXRCEzDzA0kNCWS5ub5PpAPPKSolbJcJAxcopLR_Y4lWvt1bjyAZY8emxsdMQ86dwJdFw2n6l15q6zdWEeGHIVkp7FA/s1600/ab3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="598" data-original-width="607" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg56BfA2xSC0ye7iOCe3a1sisrPRnklHmFeK_AoIJd0cXRCEzDzA0kNCWS5ub5PpAPPKSolbJcJAxcopLR_Y4lWvt1bjyAZY8emxsdMQ86dwJdFw2n6l15q6zdWEeGHIVkp7FA/s320/ab3.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bruges!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrtu4NU1Yw_M-6N7jbV2JKjHpsRwKzxaHrvoRlBm935IYLZ7DKtO4gmqP_KhIMQnffd1s6seEjz64nZsyZH8y7sWMslBqYP6FJ_U95PnrVxnFGPUgmL7XrvGUpbOtV_4SzfY/s1600/ab4.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="603" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrtu4NU1Yw_M-6N7jbV2JKjHpsRwKzxaHrvoRlBm935IYLZ7DKtO4gmqP_KhIMQnffd1s6seEjz64nZsyZH8y7sWMslBqYP6FJ_U95PnrVxnFGPUgmL7XrvGUpbOtV_4SzfY/s320/ab4.PNG" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">kinda fell in love w Brussels </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghdJRtoAgFpoezU1eLA4Ve15BNB59AGwvAaiZMr7CBxdM0aIoT4DgsAjrqRGeShojp-0CoOiEQC58sq2VZFwRKj27ljO5qmbMsyRz0nEnrLt3rZgm65Z7AFLrQi0g0uOta8AI/s1600/ab5.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="601" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghdJRtoAgFpoezU1eLA4Ve15BNB59AGwvAaiZMr7CBxdM0aIoT4DgsAjrqRGeShojp-0CoOiEQC58sq2VZFwRKj27ljO5qmbMsyRz0nEnrLt3rZgm65Z7AFLrQi0g0uOta8AI/s320/ab5.PNG" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Charles Bridge, Prague, on the shortest night of the year in December </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNm4kx7nFNAv89q9DH5RuEJBSiuNNImt6oJfYNkTLX8hXgjEKI4ZEDimPXcCboDx9c9eyjXGf6hU_MccNVp2m7uJeZhha_uQAB3Zn82tFxXXQe34uxsYf57A-exRYzTYPAKgw/s1600/ab6.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="595" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNm4kx7nFNAv89q9DH5RuEJBSiuNNImt6oJfYNkTLX8hXgjEKI4ZEDimPXcCboDx9c9eyjXGf6hU_MccNVp2m7uJeZhha_uQAB3Zn82tFxXXQe34uxsYf57A-exRYzTYPAKgw/s320/ab6.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prague from the Mala Strana side </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prague</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ghent</td></tr>
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-52815147584747591402018-02-05T09:41:00.000-08:002018-02-05T09:41:48.138-08:00Book Gush: The Morning Gift by Eva IbbotsonI don't know how I missed this one. Because I have read a lot of Eva Ibbotson. But I missed it and that is lucky for me because I have found it and now I have another book for my keeper shelf and what a book.<br />
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This book is hilariously sharp. And while a lot of us read Ibbotson when we were younger because she had just been released as YA and her fairy tales were just the aching sort of thing we would fall into as uber romantic teens who wanted older cultured men and european locales (with the right fringe of war-time danger), adult Rachel is SO happy she read <i>Morning Gift</i> now because double-entendres are my thing and whipsmart innuendo is my thing and this book proves Ibbotson a master at both. <br />
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See, Ibbotson never intended for her books to be categorized as YA and I think this is largely in part of YA not existing when she published the way it does now. So, this is very much an adult romance with a charmingly youthful and beguiling heroine.<br />
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There is something SO refreshing about Ruth. She is so inquisitive and smart ---but never precocious-- and she sees the world in such a delightful way. She is the perfect counterpart to academic Quin Sommerville who navigates a world of fossil and bone and tries to shrug out of his heritage like a sweater....<br />
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....but I get ahead of myself. Because the characters inhabiting this treasure trove of a laugh out loud confectionary are worthy of the brilliant world Ibbotson creates. <br />
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First, we sink into the green depths of opulent Vienna at the brink of Hitler. Even the shadows of the Anschluss cannot stop the beaming sun from highlighting Strauss in the Statdpark or the night time world of the Natural History Museum in Maria-Theresien-Platz, where Ruth, whose partly Jewish parents have already escaped and being left hopelessly alone, has taking up residence.<br />
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As in every last Ibbotson book, the author knows her fairytales are only perfectly woven if done so with music, myth and magic to mete what she is embroidering. And so, the luscious world she describes is matched with Ibbotson's over-turned passion for art, for music, for Vienna. For Mozart.<br />
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Oh yes, the Mozart.<br />
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<i>‘It’s Mozart, isn’t it?’ she said, sighing, for she knew already that there was everything in Mozart; that if you stuck to him you couldn't go wrong."</i><br />
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<i>Quin shook his head, but he was amazed, for she had pushed back her hair and smiled at him – and in an instant the beleaguered captive in her tower vanished and it was summertime on an alp with cows.</i><br />
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The humour in this book draws the reader out of the encroaching pathos and even while Ibbotson's personal experience with refugees and exiles due to her family's own evacuation from Austria during the war. And as in all books, the theme of outsider is most expressly viewed in the delicious personality of her winsome, elvish heroines. And Ruth is no exception.<br />
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<i>Too late, Ruth realized where she was heading and looked with horror at her empty glass, experiencing the painful moment when it becomes clear that what has been drunk cannot be undrunk. It had been so lovely, the wine, like drinking fermented hope or happiness, and now she was babbling and being indiscreet and would end up in the gutter, a confirmed absinthe drinker destined for a pauper’s grave. </i><br />
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I also love the Ibbotson take on the Chekhov's gun motif: meaning if she mentions a rucksack in chapter two, say, you better bet that it will come full circle in a moment of love hundreds of pages later. If Ruth languidly spending her last hours in Vienna before exile at the Danube, speaks to her uncle's romance borne of a message in a bottle, then the theme of rivers will stream through the slow-moving love story of our heroine<br />
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So Quin the academic with a title and a grand estate, late of Britain, rescues his old professor's daughter and marries her in paper only to get her out of the country. He tells her the story of a Morganic marriage: where it is unconsummated and sometimes followed by an act of a gift the morning after the wedding night where the bridegroom gives an expensive gift to his bride, severing the marriage forever. Ruth's imaginative goblet spills over and she is just so in love with the romanticism of this idea and she culls a million momentous references to myths and legends and is so darling about the whole thing.<br />
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So Quin and Ruth marry, steal away from Austria to England and her awaiting already- fled family aboard the Orient Express and seem to be rid of each other until their annulment papers can be sent.<br />
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Turns out Ruth is pursuing a british education and Quin is her professor and it gets even more fun!<br />
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There are several Goodreads reviews that cite this as a poor example of "instalove" where the hero and heroine find happiness within the latter third of the book and it is not developed. I DISAGREE!!!!!!!! (a million exclamation marks). The careful reader will see the knowing winks from the author pairing them together. We have figured out their love, they are just catching up and it is slow and agonizing and dotted with misunderstandings and stupidity (as is love in general) and the clumsy waltz they take around each other from the classroom to Quin's family summer home in Bowmont is achingly funny and wonderful and heart-wrenching.<br />
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Ruth is so charming. Her worry over not having her post-coital tristesse ( she has read too many dirty french novels), her propensity to talk to sheep.<br />
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Quin is so determined not to be in love that its web around him is just the most deliciously wonderful thing. I snorted. I giggled. I chortled. <br />
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The more he tries not to actively notice her, the more she becomes a part of him:<br />
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<i>Nevertheless, Nature had not shaped Ruth for nonexistence....Ruth leaning over the parapet to feed the ducks was not nonexistent, nor encountered in the library behind a pile of books, a piece of grass between her teeth. She was not nonexistent as she sat under the walnut tree coaching Pilly, nor emerging, drunk with music, from rehearsals of the choir. In general, Quin, without conceit, would have said he was a man with excellent nerves, but a week of Ruth’s anonymity was definitely taking its toll. </i><br />
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In turn, Ruth's tide is pulled in by Quin but she is so engaged in the new experiences around her that she doesn't have the same slow recognition of his effect. She also, because she is young and impressionably romantic, believes she is destined for Heini, her stupid cousin who is an insufferable archetype of every insufferable suffer-for-my-art musician to ever live. And this roundabout dance of two people who thought they would never see each other again always, always within feet of each other as their attraction grows, is just the sweetest thing on the planet. Quin made a sacrifice rescuing her, giving her his name, but we just do not see how tantamount that is until we see a Quin reconciling with the fact that she might not ever truly be his.<br />
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And Ruth.... oh darling Ruth! ---is naive enough to think that Quin will reject her. The Morganic marriage motif comes to a shattering conclusion and I cried through Ruth's mistaken heartbreak.<br />
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<i>Quin, encountering that rare phenomenon, a person who read footnotes, was ready to be impressed.</i><br />
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Ruth and Quin are two of the most delightfully funny and decadent and unique and esoteric and quirky and challenging characters I have encountered in a book in AGES! I love them! I love their blind love for each other and how they frustrate each other and how they are so passionate about each other even as they mask it by quoting classics at inopportune times. I love that his heart wrenches when she almost drowns rescuing a puppy so he yells at her something fierce and I love that she runs to him after a botched night with Heini so they can finally get around to consummating their own love. I love that while the shadow of Hitler falls in pitch-perfect research it never detracts from the life and passion around! Life! It makes me think of a photography exhibit that my friend and I went to a few years ago. Photographs from the Lodz Ghetto: tragic circumstances but captured humanity: women getting married, children playing. We sometimes have the propensity to see the Second World War through a grainy sepia film of docudrama. We need books that show what thrived even as it crept like its Leviathan and Ibbotson infuses her personal experiences into a book about love.<br />
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Love for music, for love itself, for romance and Mozart and Vienna. <br />
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<i>When the angels sing for God they sing Bach, but when they sing for pleasure they sing Mozart, and God eavesdrops.</i><br />
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Quin and Ruth are an unlikely pairing in an unlikely magic moment of a book that begs to be read within an inch of its life. The humour is to die for! The love story just the right amount of melodrama to whisk you away and remind you that hot cocoa and blankets pair well with things that are imagined and need not accompany realism.<br />
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I friggin LOVE this book. And will read it to infinity ....<br />
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<br />Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-64088431336551135912018-01-19T06:50:00.000-08:002018-01-19T06:50:15.909-08:00COMING SOON from YOURS TRULY: A Valentine's Day Romance Novella My birthday is on Valentine's Day ---the most romantic day of the year ( apt for this romantic) so I thought I would share one of the great romances of my life, Vienna, with you for a Valentine's Day treat:<br /><br /><br /><br /><i><b>A romantic waltz through a city filled with music, passion and coffee. </b></i><br /><br /><br />Evelyn Watt fell in love with Austrian marketing director Rudy Moser the moment he stepped into their Boston firm. With his ice blue eyes and chocolate-melting accent, he is as refined as she imagines his home country to be. When Evelyn finds herself unexpectedly unemployed right before Christmas, she is left with an unknown future until Rudy steps in with a job appraising, assessing and cataloging heirlooms, lending her American vernacular to the translated descriptions to give each item international appeal. Evelyn will live in Vienna for the months leading up to a grand auction at a party held in conjunction with the Opera Ball—on Valentine’s Day. <br /><br />Vienna is a magical blend of waltzing, antiques, and bottomless cups of Einspanner coffee at the Café Mozart. When a secret from Rudy's family's past blows in with the winter chill, Evelyn is forced to confront how well she knows the object of her affection. Her café tablemate, the gruff and enigmatic Klaus Bauner might be the only person who holds the key to Rudy’s past. But could that key also unlock her future? In the days leading up to the Opera Ball, Evelyn finds herself in the middle of the greatest romance of her life…as long as she doesn’t trip over her two left feet.<div>
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See some of my inspiration on my Pinterest board:<a href="https://www.pinterest.ca/rachkmc/love-in-three-quarter-time/"> https://www.pinterest.ca/rachkmc/love-in-three-quarter-time/</a></div>
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You can pre-order <i>Love in Three Quarter Time </i> for K<a href="https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/love-in-three-quarter-time-1">OBO </a>and <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Love-Three-Quarter-Time-Valentine-ebook/dp/B078V26NTY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516373314&sr=8-1&keywords=love+in+three+quarter+time+mcmillan">KINDLE </a></div>
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It releases on Feb 14! </div>
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-12190712645873462042018-01-18T09:45:00.000-08:002018-01-18T09:45:37.839-08:00Book Gush: Intermediate Thermodynamics by Susannah Nix It is so hard to get me to fall for a contemporary Romance. It is not often my genre of choice and as readers we all know that we get in moods and rhythms and we need certain books to meet our cravings at certain times. <div>
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<i>Intermediate Thermodynamics </i>might be one of the best Contemporary Romances I have ever read. It is certainly one of the smartest. Definitely one of the best-written and it is the only contemporary romance that has ever made me ugly cry. </div>
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I LOOOOOOOOVE THIS BOOK </div>
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I LOOOOOOOOOVE how it features a freakin' smart as all get out heroine whom the hero is never ONCE intimidated by. Indeed, her brains are what attract him to her! UGH! SO GOOD! FOREVER I LOVE THIS! </div>
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We have a typical romcom set up here: neighbour finds neighbour annoying. He doesn't understand the basic courtesy rules of the laundry room. Jonathan smokes on his balcony and it wafts into Esther's apartment. His wind chimes keep her up at night. </div>
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We have the bargain trope: she'll look at annoying neighbour's sci fi manuscript (he's a screen writer! Well, it <i>is</i> set in L.A) through her aerospace engineer eyes and he will take her best friend Jinny out on three dates to keep Jinny from getting back together with her dbag ex-boyfriend.</div>
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Jonathan and Esther start working on manuscripts and slowly ease into each other's lives like a comfy sweater and...well... the rest isn't rocket science. </div>
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<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gSld1ONXL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Intermediate Thermodynamics: A Romantic Comedy (Chemistry Lessons Book 2) by [Nix, Susannah]" border="0" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gSld1ONXL.jpg" /></a><i>"Objectively, she supposed he might be considered attractive--so long as he didn't open his mouth and start talking" </i></div>
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See, even a revisited trope or plot (as Northrop Frye says, there are only like three different stories in western literature), can become something entirely new when a fresh voice is at the helm. Nix excels at embroidering a tapestry of likeable and relatably flawed characters, a world that is fascinating and merges science fiction, with, well, sciency-science, blurt-your-tea-out laughter and a starkly honest look at two people recognizing that their Social Anxiety is what has kept them from crossing their respective thresholds.</div>
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It is also a treatise on love and attraction borne out of an endearing friendship. In short, it is an intricate study of human nature wrapped up in a sparkly rom com bow and it is oh so fun to read!</div>
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"<i>Then she would go back twenty four hours and punch herself in the face for making this stupid bargain" </i></div>
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And beyond the friendship that turns into something deeper in Jonathan and Esther's court, we have a study in female friendship and work friendship --- all cogs in the wheel that allow us to understand Esther (prickly and scared and closed off) in her journey toward authentic vulnerability.</div>
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Vulnerability and honesty, the book asserts, is the sacrifice that can lead to restored friendship, love and, at the forefront, personal fulfillment. </div>
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<i>"She'd pygmalion the s**t outta him"</i></div>
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Esther is so concerned at seeing the limitations of and propensity for change in others that she spends most of the novel failing to invest in her own self improvement. The counterbalance she finds in Jonathan and his friendship complementing her as well as stretching her in ways she wouldn't have imagined possible, is at the core of the book.</div>
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Esther learns and in the softest timbre. For example, the first time she gives Jonathan feedback on a manuscript it is thoroughly critical and less constructive. The second time, she makes a small nudge toward framing her comments in a more palatable way. </div>
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<i>"It was one of those aimless indie dramas about two people who meet by chance and change each other's lives forever blah blah blah...."</i></div>
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And when Esther's perspective of Jonathan changes, so does her ability to stretch and shift and see the world through a different, enriched lens. </div>
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Esther never thought she needed to be in love .Love meant hurt. Love meant confronting the unresolved issues with her family: a father that left, a mother that is in constant need and rarely self sufficient. Absence and suffocation with no middle ground. Yet, this book delves into intricate and deep places without turning in to a "subject" piece. A lesser writer and this would be an issue book or wade into women's issues that make you want to skip it all and watch Hallmark. The buoyant tone, the attention to every detail, the perfect world building in the sphere of Esther's apartment life with Jonathan to her knitting group to her super sciency day job ---are all expertly explored. There is not one wasted scene.</div>
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<i>"She wasn't waiting for a man to come along and complete her." </i></div>
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Sometimes the truth through fiction stings. Sometimes watching Esther's choices forces you to confront your own anxiety, your own sift through feelings of rejection. "If you never let yourself care about people," Esther has taught herself, "it didn't hurt as much when they didn't care back." </div>
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When Esther lets herself give into attraction, it has been a slow build borne of chemistry-- and not the boring dime-a-dozen physical kind, the kind that comes from learning someone is the other puzzle piece missing. </div>
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<i>What was with her? Drooling over a glimpse of calf like a sex-starved Victorian duke in a romance novel!"</i></div>
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And when it reaches an inevitable boiling pot and Esther accepts that she is going to have to take a step to reach the strides he is taking, it is painful to watch ---but still interspersed with heartmelting acts of friendship and love. The boring indy romance screenplay has been rewritten --like Esther's life and view of the world-- and somehow she is able to meet it in the middle with her new perspective and its new timbre and it is something achingly winsome. "It was almost like reading a diary of their friendship." </div>
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What<i> Intermediate Thermodynamics</i> resoundingly excels at is providing a thesis of change. We are talking deep and subtle tics and beats that layer the book like a freakin' cake. And then some. </div>
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We fall for Jonathan before Esther can catch up. We want to shake her and hold her all while so deeply identifying with her fear of love and rejection that we want to hold her in a vulnerable ball while confronting our own limitations. We recognize that, as Nix writes "The point is to do something that's hard for you because it's meaningful for someone else."</div>
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It is a book about sacrifice and evaluation, of letting people love you, of believing yourself deserving of ownership of one's personal and professional strengths and weaknesses. </div>
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Indeed, to take a deep look at the finer tenets of Jonathan and Esther's relationship (to wit, even Jinny and Yemi's relationship with Esther) is to hold a mirror up to our weaknesses and Esther's gradual and realistic inch toward triumph echoes with an acceptance that brings the reader-author relationship full circle. </div>
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<i>Intermediate Thermodynamics</i> is a layered and subtle and magnificent look at modern relationships through a perfectly constructed lens of timeless themes. It is funny and smart and aching and beautiful and will make your heart grow three times. You will laugh aloud, you will cry, you will revisit your weakest moments and find yourself stronger for the confrontation and ultimately you will want to find yourself falling mind-numblingly, friendship-inducingly, marshmallow-gooingly in love </div>
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(pending that, at least finding the next in Susannah Nix's library) </div>
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<a href="http://www.susannahnix.com/">Visit Susannah Nix online</a> </div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Intermediate-Thermodynamics-Romantic-Chemistry-Lessons-ebook/dp/B074HLQHPP/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516296052&sr=8-1&keywords=intermediate+thermodynamics">buy Intermediate Thermodynamics on amazon </a></div>
Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-25648963971635460432018-01-11T08:22:00.000-08:002018-01-11T08:22:59.456-08:00IN WHICH THE LACEMAKER is THE BEST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO THE WORLD GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br />
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For the love of freakin' turtles. <br />
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What do we even do with a book like this? Apparently, I can only just slosh a bunch of thoughts together with little cohesion, so settle in.<br />
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What I want to do is have the words at my disposal to give it douse it with the lauds and laurels it deserves. But it was such a whizbang of a finger-tip-tingling-exuberant experience that I don't know if I should try or just GUSH the HECK OUTTA IT !<br />
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So basically, here's the thing: EVERY TIME I READ A LAURA FRANTZ BOOK I AM LIKE: "THIS! THIS IS THE BEST LAURA FRANTZ BOOK IN THE HISTORY OF FRANTZ"<br />
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and then another one comes along--<br />
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The<i> Lacemaker </i>shows up and is all "hold my beer" (or in this case tepid Revolutionary cider in a pewter mug)<br />
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There is just so much that this book gets RIGHT!<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499465813l/35069201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for the lacemaker frantz" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499465813l/35069201.jpg" /></a>It's almost like you never realized the limitations of other historical fiction until you read a book that is pretty much perfection. AND. THERE. ARE. FREAKIN. SPIES<br />
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spies. SPIES!<br />
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It's almost like you sing odes to the history of pen and paper and computers that allowed this to reach you. Thank you, Gutenburg! THANK YOU CAVEMEN WHO SCRAWLED IN CAVES...<br />
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<br />
Elisabeth "Liberty" Lawson is daughter to a Tory authoritarian just as rebels and revolutionaries are boiling under the surface and Williamsburg is a barrel of gunpowder that with the slightest flick of a wick could explode. When the pot boils over, Elisabeth is left abandoned by her father, her friends, the few Tory supporters remaining and even her would-be fiancee Miles.<br />
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It is Miles' cousin, Noble ( in any other book this would be an on-the-nose name, but I am giving it to Frantz because yah! take it! run with it into the sunset! more on Noble later ) who steps in (not for the first time) to prove stoically heroic and install Lady Elisabeth and her maid into his own estate.<br />
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Noble embodies the gift of hospitality. Go back to your Fruits of the Spirit in Sunday School. Look upward at that felt board with literal fruit with attributes in bold black marker--I bet, like in my class, Long Suffering IS ALWAYS the banana--- this is Noble. He is a hero of quiet strength whose sister's recent death left him even more bereft of his home and nationality. Ty Mawr, it seems, and the late Enid's care for it, embroider a lush picture of home: the first he truly had since emigrating from his beloved Wales. Noble's care for Elisabeth--beyond the realm of political affiliation and borne of pure Christian charity--- places him at odds with the kettle-boiling-over political world around him. His gentle tenacity to do the right thing, even for the enemy, will play out time and again throughout the mounting tension of the book until its gut-wrenching climax.<br />
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Now in historical romances, we often fall for the typified alpha guy! He is a cowboy! he is a gunslinger! he can wield a rifle and force those rapscallion Redcoats into their holes! But Frantz wants to provide the reader with a more intricate view of the many nuanced tenets of character. There is no witty banter, he is not out to be redeemed, he does not challenge the heroine ---he only surprises her with his unthinkable acts of hospitality: which benefit not only Liberty but her servants and family-- people on the other side of America's mounting conflict.<br />
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When is the last time we actually celebrated a romantic hero whose finest trait is in feeding and sheltering? When the latter part of the book arrives and Noble is thrust into a battle (both in the military arena and beyond), we are able to appreciate its effected counterbalance more. We have seen his true heart and now we can comprehend how a man of quiet conviction would take such drastic action. Frantz's delicate thesis is justified because she brings us clearly from point A of Noble's Awesomeness to Point B of Noble's awesomeness.<br />
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His heart and goodness and tiny smudges of grace--- escorting a lady home--- attending to her well being at a dance--- doesn't mean Noble can't lift a musket to his broad shoulder and fight alongside his comrades. That is not to say he doesn't frequent the Raleigh tavern and sound his conviction over pints with well-known historical figures (Wash and Jeff and John Laurens--- here's looking at you, <i>Hamilton--</i>play well at fitting into the pulse of the story without drawing attention from the central characters and conflict. Acting, instead, as pieces of the historical puzzle which deftly contribute to this elaborate world).<br />
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There is a lot of talk in the blogger and publisher world that divides heroes into two types: alpha (think Rhett Butler ) or Beta (think Peeta), Noble is the completely well-rounded male character that never once sifts into a category. He is, as most people are, at the intersection of a Venn diagram.<br />
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<br />
To add, Liberty is a strong woman whose strength often asserts itself in being intelligent enough to see beyond her own determination for agency to accept help. Her strength is her femininity. Her agency is found in an ultra feminine profession (lacemaking) and she is winsomely smart enough to recognize that the skill she fostered in a high social standing will find itself measured differently in a topsy turvy new world. Liberty is a passionate woman who is forced to stand on her own two feet, yes, but grateful for the help of others. She stumbles, she picks herself up, she navigates a new world but never with a boisterous or reckless spirit. Her calculated decisions are borne of a book's slowly mounting tension and realized with fabulous aplomb. <br />
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ANNNNDDDDD we need to talk about the fact that THANK ALL COOKIES IN THE JAR Frantz addresses the problematic tendency to confuse infatuation with love. <br />
<br />
Liberty and Noble differentiate their growing attraction with love. Indeed, love only peeks up out of its gopher shell in true abiding form at a pivotal point of the story ( the gut wrenching you will DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS part)<br />
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This book is as exceptionally well-researched as every Frantz book and the plot spins at a beautiful pace, threaded with Frantz's lyrical description. Indeed, it put me in mind of the same heart-tug I felt reading the Mark of the King. Its faith threads are subtle and socio-cultural and very apt for the time--they are also explored through deft symbol and sacrifice. <br />
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And a rant, kittens, most of the time written dialect makes me scrunch up my nose and want to throw things. The insertion of "och aye bairn" unnerves me. There is a way to paint the accent instead in descriptors. But, Frantz, she can do it all. Trust her. Be it French, Welsh or Scotch, you are going to fall into the carefully meted timbre of dialogue. You know what, kitty cats, there is something about dialogue that suggests if you take ANY of it out of context and place it on stage, it would set a dimensional scene. That is the level of talent Frantz has--- she is just--- in a league of her own.<br />
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I also feel we need to thank Colonial Williamsburg because whomever has helped Frantz with her research has helped give the reader the fine-tuned extraordinarily detailed experience we have wandering through this world. Immersing yourself in <i>The Lacemaker</i> is as intricate a tour through Williamsburg during the Revolutionary wars as a youtube video mechanized to show us through the streets would be. If I didn't know Laura Frantz was alive and well and pinteresting her way through her beautiful life, I would swear this book was written years and years ago.<br />
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The best historical fiction takes time not only to narrate the past; but to inspire the reader to fall overwhelmingly into it. Verisimilitude. Dialogue intentions. Aura. World-building. Sight and scent and canvas. There is an ornate and startling poetry to the caresses her pen takes to a period she knows obviously as well as the one we live in.<br />
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The patriotism instilled in this book is one that is accessible beyond America. It is not all Mel-Gibson-Waving-a-Flag in <i>The Patriot.</i> This subtle humility toward better understanding of a still-flawed and frayed world-- as navigated by Liberty and Noble ( see the names? their every person representation as two of the pinnacles of any successful experiment--including the American one) stretches beyond run- of- the -mill jingoism, this instills the universal desire and need for fairness and equality.<br />
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Sometimes a talent is so arresting that you are so blessed that it exists. Sometimes art is so enriching that it makes you happy to be well and alive so that you can experience it. <i>The Lacemaker</i> is one such gift. It is a journey, a love letter, a tapestry. It is a book of resounding beauty at once still and shattering. It will move you to tears as a warm glow for the good of human nature and the advocacy of the best parts of humanity eke through you.<br />
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<br />
So I underlined a billion trillion lines in this book. A BILLION TRILLION! #nohyperbole --- but I have made the conscious decision to let this be part of the surprise and romance of unwrapping this word-gift. Let this be the slow moving peel back of startling words in perfect order.<br />
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Find yourself in this book, friends, and return to it again. It will enrich you as a reader, its goodness and heart shining through with a smartly lit radiance, slow burning with an ending SWOOSH of a boom.<br />
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<br />
LA! THIS BOOK IS THE BOMB, yo!<br />
<br />
read it FOREVER<br />
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<br />
with gratitude forever and ever to Revell for making me stay up so late at night I was walking red-eyed zombie at work.<br />
<br />
With gratitude forever to the makers of my favourite sauvignon blanc which helped me drown my BEST KIND OF DELICIOUS SORROW when this book ripped me apart.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lacemaker-Laura-Frantz-ebook/dp/B0741F5SGH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515687404&sr=8-1&keywords=the+lacemaker"><br /></a>
<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lacemaker-Laura-Frantz-ebook/dp/B0741F5SGH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515687404&sr=8-1&keywords=the+lacemaker">Buy the Lacemaker NOW </a></i><br />
<a href="http://laurafrantz.net/"><br /></a>
<a href="http://laurafrantz.net/">Find Laura Frantz online </a><br />
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<br />Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-60876515659546136632018-01-10T06:46:00.000-08:002018-01-10T06:46:02.111-08:00Book Gush: OLIVIA TWIST by LORIE LANGDON <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">There are a
million and one reasons why <i>OLIVIA TWIST </i>is everything I hang my bookish hat
on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><i>“That small
inner voice that most women ignore because they’re too concerned with living
the life others expect."</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><i><b>“With Jack’s
presence, the room brightened as if several more candelabras followed him into
that room. A smile that seemed to originate deep in Olivia’s chest stretched
her lips without her consent.”</b></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It is
everything a book experience SHOULD BE.
It is everything LIFE should be. It is a gaslit Victorian carousel of
pickpockets and villains, rickety pubs, railing danger and clandestine meetings
with handbrushes that send tingles to your toes and harrowing meetings on
London Bridge. <i> Olivia Twist</i> marries a
well known trope while finding footing in a dazzling new world. Though not fantastical as it is rooted deep
in perfectly-researched Victorian London, the heart-pounding feeling you get as
the curtain is pulled back on its colourful universe makes you feel you are
stepping into another world. It is my
favourite type of read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1505317397l/34817232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for olivia twist" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1505317397l/34817232.jpg" /></a><span lang="EN-US">It takes
you into a place of nostalgia while offering a unique tug into a world at once
familiar and surprising. It elicits all
manner of giggles and gasps and blanket-gripping tension as you think you know
how it will end, but you are not quite sure. It reminds you why you love
reading in the first place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><i>Olivia Twist</i>
finds a brilliant balance between source material novel and famous adaptation and adds another
layer to this delicious cake. Cameos from the book like Monks and Fagin are
paired with the sheer heart behind the musical that introduced many of us to Dickens
(the musical, it should be said, is a gateway drug). And while the book is
gifted with subtle lovely nods to red roses and mornings whose sunshine you want
to buy and bottle, it springboards into its own realm of adventure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Basically,
if you love <i>Oliver Twist</i>—in any
form---you have come to the right party.
If you love Dickens, you have come to the right party. If you love
cross-dressing female heroines, you have come to the right party.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">If you love
ROMANCE that will strangle you breath and pulse your heart into a gallop from
the first unexpected meeting between two people who used to know each other (
one knowing a little more about one than the other), then you have found a virtual
<i>literary rager. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A heroine
of agency and heart who reminded me a lot of <i>Wonder Woman</i> for some reason (
weird contemporary link, I know ); but like WW, Olivia has a kind heart, even if
you never want to run into a bout of fisticuffs with her. Like WW, Olivia would see a baby and melt,
taste ice cream and melt, care of her elderly guardian by day playing the
winsome socialite while sneaking out be-wigged to help a band of orphans at
night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It is this perfect
balance of scrappy and sophisticated that pairs a wonderful example of the complexity
of women. To be strong, Langdon asserts, does not mean shrugging out of femininity.
Likewise, to enjoy finesse and have a caring maternal view does not undermine
strength. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><i>“She
blinked up at him and he was Dodger again. The rough-and-tumble street kid
with the heart of gold.”<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then there’s
Dodger who is at once sweet cinnamon roll of vulnerability and savvy, scrappy
pickpocket late of Fagin’s influence. He
is our guide to the underworld while, like Olivia, balancing a life of high social
standing and finding it a bit like a sweater with sleeves too long for him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">While I was
delightfully on the edge of my seat to reacquaint myself with well known
characters against a well known canvas in a new backdrop, I think the most
surprising aspect of the novel for me was its amazing portrayal of sacrifice:
something I was not expecting. It is
here that the subtle and deft touch of faith is interwoven within a compelling world
at large. If your soul is not strangled
in breath-gulps by the end ---by either the beautiful writing or the sob
inducing choice one is willing to make in the spirit of true love—then go sit
in a corner with a lump of black coal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Oh! And the
writing? See, the writing. Friends, sometimes a book springboards to life
because its sizzles and sparks with the author’s heart. You can feel the author’s passion through the
page. This is one of those books. Reading this I felt I had found new fictional
friends, yes, but also a kindred spirit in the pen behind the page. In <b><i>OLIVIA TWIST</i></b>, Langdon’s obvious love for
this world of story plays fast and loose to win us completely. It’s her gift.
It’s an act of sharing. This passion is
a portal for gorgeously lyrical writing that at turns grips and surprises.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><i>“Haze draped
the skyline of the city like the oozing, yellow center of a stale egg”</i></b> (I mean,
come on! It whiffs of Dickens but with an originality of its own)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><i>“Peels of
fog slithered and curled over the cobbles.” </i></b>( COME ON!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">“Their
skirts sweeping against the cobblestones like a thousand whispers” (because
consonance is the spice of life. Like
Dickens before her, Langdon’s prose begs to be read aloud) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">With all the thanks to Blink YA for the review copy of an anticipated book that shattered my expectations and winnowed its way to my FOREVER READ SHELF </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Olivia-Twist-glittering-future-between-ebook/dp/B072TNMPSY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515595317&sr=8-1&keywords=olivia+twist"><br /></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Olivia-Twist-glittering-future-between-ebook/dp/B072TNMPSY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515595317&sr=8-1&keywords=olivia+twist">preorder on Amazon</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.lorielangdon.com/">Visit Lorie online </a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://twitter.com/LorieLangdon">Visit Lorie on Twitter </a></div>
Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-82125454147241054832017-12-05T16:09:00.000-08:002017-12-05T16:09:23.481-08:00Litfuse Tour: CHRISTY by Catherine Marshall 50th Anniversary Celebration<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><i>“A Christian has no business being satisfied with mediocrity. He's supposed to reach for the stars. Why not? He's not on his own anymore. He has God's help now.” </i><br /><br />Our art should be as the landscape of a garden, the crafted spires of a cathedral, the dissonant and eerie chord that strikes the prelude of a symphony. And, of course, our words. Catherine Marshall's literary offering is beautiful and challenging--- a sermon on page.<div>
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<i>I believe that love is the most creative force in the world, </i>says Neil MacNeill and Marshall herself must have backed up her fictional theology, using the finely wrought tale of a well-sculpted Appalachian world to speak her Gospel and truth in love...</div>
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<div>
oh yes, Truth! Truth and doubt and fighting and depression and anxiety and disbelief. Candor, the book reminds us, is as essential to approaching God's throne as reciting scripture perfectly or, in my childhood, speaking in Holy Tongues (stop, Rachel, your Pentecostal background is showing ;) ) </div>
<i><br /><br />“Some of what I wrote bordered on blasphemy....If there was a God, He would have to be truth. And in that case, candor--however impertinent--would be more pleasing to Him than posturing.” <br /><br /></i><div>
There are few books in the world that have shaped my faith perspective and worldview the way <i>Christy</i> has. I didn't read it in childhood, rather in the summer between high school and university.<br />
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I would be leaving home. I would be leaving my small town and the congregation my dad had pastored at for years. I would leave the soft cocoon of safety in theological tenets and evangelism. I was a girl finally confronted with the prospect of having to figure out my beliefs beyond the traditions and trajectory of my role as a small town pastor's daughter. I was moving to the big city-- to Toronto-- I had to figure out, once and for all, what I believed.<br />
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<br />
Christy reached me at this integral moment in my life. Indeed, I credit Catherine Marshall, Dorothy L. Sayers and Lynn Austin for saving my faith at its weakest moments. When I could not find God in the traditional Church sphere, I sought him in words. And Christy herself mentions this great gift of being able to approach uninhibited.<br />
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As a reader and a romantic, <i>Christy</i> shaped my ideal man: Neil MacNeill helps Christy sharpen her own convictions and find her voice. His faith in her inspires her to find a deeper and stronger faith of her own. While David stumbles around with his own limitations, agnostic Neil MacNeill believes Christy has a fire and a worth beyond her recitations of Quaker Alice Henderson, to whom she holds great regard. MacNeill is a man of science who cares deeply for his mountain home and its people in the same reckless way in which Christ bestows His love for us--- the parallels--- and Marshall's brilliance in grafting the world of grace and logic is one of the many layers of this intricate world.<br />
<br />
David Grantland, on the other hand, the seemingly perfect and perfunctory Preacher is forced to reconcile the pulpit with the heart and hands an impoverished ( and sometimes feuding) community needs.<br />
<br />
(Also, it's darn funny. Find other books that so brilliantly describe a stupid donkey named Theo or pigs or moonshine, or the first time Christy attends a backwoods wedding and the consummation to be witnessed by the entire Cutter Gap community.<br />
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<br />
On and on, the CBA community rails against the purity of CBA fiction and how we need grittier subject matters and realism addressed. Ironically, it is one of the first books thus labeled ( so influential the highest award lauded in the CBA community is named for the book), that digs deep---into premarital sex, into a woman led astray by a man who is supposed to be a spiritual crux, of a mountain community where the birds and the bees are a part of life. There is nothing about Christy that is hoisted on platitudes. She is a real woman with a real soul and questions...<br />
<br />
<br />
oh my heavens! The questions. If ever I felt that my faith had to be infallible. If ever the construct of my childhood inspired me to keep any doubts to myself, Christy Huddleston voices them and then some... I learned that to falter was to trip closed to God. I learned that God wants us to doubt and rail and seek so that we will find Him greater still.<br />
<br />
But, here I am talking about it on and on from my Christian worldview when it is one of the rare books that will equally appeal to nonbelievers. For all of Christy's wondering as to the Gospel, her world is intercut with normal flesh and blood people to whom grace is extended but little deserved. These are not the types of characters one would hold on a platform: one of Christy's greatest life lessons is learning that Alice Henderson is just human. It is only God who is perfect, we must find our own limitations to recognize and stretch the depth of His grace.<br />
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<br />
<i>Christy</i> should be a springboard to seek the mind and heart of Catherine Marshall on a deeper level. She is a portal through which we can find the questions that so often shape our minds as we navigated this Through -a -Glass- Dimly world of complex faith. I encourage readers of faith to seek out all of her non fiction. <i>Beyond Our Selves</i>, especially, found me at a crisis moment and was more than a balm.<br />
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<br />
When people ask about my favourite books, I have dozens and dozens to list -- for many different reasons --- bu<i>t Christy </i>is a slice of my heart. It was a pivotal book that met its reader at a pivotal moment.<br />
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And now a superficial note:<br />
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<i>Christy</i> has long been plagued with awful covers. It sounds trite, but honestly! Thank heavens that Evergreen Publishing has honoured the momentous anniversary of this classic ( and I do not use that term lightly), in a bound hardcover you will not be embarrassed to be caught reading on the subway.<br />
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This Christmas give yourself a treat, fall into the poetic world of <i>Christy</i>: it resonates with pitch-perfect vernacular, its Appalachian verisimilitude is as deftly layered as the music of its language and its central love story has shaped my romantic conceptions throughout my life.<br />
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With thanks to Litfuse the review. Learn more here:<br />
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<strong>About the book:</strong></div>
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New edition of Catherine Marshall's inspirational classic! </div>
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The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions.</div>
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But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her - and her one-room school - as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and her heart is torn between two strong men with conflicting views about how to care for the families of the Cove.</div>
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Yearning to make a difference, will Christy's determination and devotion be enough?</div>
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<strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001OoYtNsxchZ5J-ORqt7Osfv7fA28Dji6BbMIzWfDxXd_zHk8nk0EfT3amBXtNhDoR4ZVhld6ZuGCJcL323rBOVTan-7JXRaNx2MO8AUWpZy5knqAGKBP3fjbsxr3OnTefD_oIJYN_uCBvQLBb-jWfAzwoaSzHVwrTdCJZzfroOUrtS07-dr26iSQWfcya9WDQ&c=7YyeARLjhbGXrmco2pcGlw28VNU2OxcQBRXMPUS0nMgQiTMtekqtmQ==&ch=Her2CV5LdaY-l96QNyABpjtGv-lHW_Xgkq2Wl8KdE5dKYJc3uR8jtg==" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" style="color: #6ba3a6;" target="_blank">Learn more, download a free map of Cutter Gap, and purchase a copy.</a></strong></div>
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About the author:</div>
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Catherine Marshall (1914-1983), <em>The New York Times</em> best-selling author of 30 books, is best known for her novel <em>Christy</em>. Based on the life of her mother, <em>Christy</em> captured the hearts of millions and became a popular CBS television series. Around the kitchen table at Evergreen Farm, as her mother reminisced, Catherine probed for details and insights into the rugged lives of these Appalachian highlanders. Catherine shared the story of her husband, Dr. Peter Marshall, Chaplain of the United States Senate, in <em>A Man Called Peter</em>. A decade after Dr. Marshall's untimely death, Catherine married Leonard LeSourd, Executive Editor of <em>Guideposts</em>, forging a dynamic writer-editor partnership. A beloved inspirational writer and speaker, Catherine's enduring career spanned four decades and reached over 30 million readers.</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14.4px;">Find out more about Catherine at </span><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001OoYtNsxchZ5J-ORqt7Osfv7fA28Dji6BbMIzWfDxXd_zHk8nk0EfT3amBXtNhDoR4ZVhld6ZuGCJcL323rBOVTan-7JXRaNx2MO8AUWpZy5knqAGKBP3fjbsxr3OnTefD_oIJYN_uCBvQLBb-jWfAzwoaSzHVwrTdCJZzfroOUrtS07-dr26iSQWfcya9WDQ&c=7YyeARLjhbGXrmco2pcGlw28VNU2OxcQBRXMPUS0nMgQiTMtekqtmQ==&ch=Her2CV5LdaY-l96QNyABpjtGv-lHW_Xgkq2Wl8KdE5dKYJc3uR8jtg==" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" style="color: #6ba3a6; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">http://gileadpublishing.com/christy/</a><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.4px;">.</span></div>
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-15131619614565182552017-11-27T09:55:00.000-08:002017-11-27T09:55:09.540-08:00Christmas: A Biography by Judith Flanders <div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfeufXj111lmVQkN3hPujM3ultIEleQrhYP7AFq2gRkUOXtOznvzbkgLn0H72R7kEv0da95ITjE1TJTBOnkdSQI-sH0utJSNlwXi-k_7DL-uhs6TEmDUhF0EJSIWn3Aa_FZac/s1600/9781509833603christmas+a+biography_6_jpg_267_400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfeufXj111lmVQkN3hPujM3ultIEleQrhYP7AFq2gRkUOXtOznvzbkgLn0H72R7kEv0da95ITjE1TJTBOnkdSQI-sH0utJSNlwXi-k_7DL-uhs6TEmDUhF0EJSIWn3Aa_FZac/s320/9781509833603christmas+a+biography_6_jpg_267_400.jpg" width="213" /></a>An exceptional look at Christmas --- traditions ancient and modern and a surprisingly indepth view of cultural norms across the world. From a bird's eye view of Christmas at large, to a zoom in on the eclectic, dark and downright absurd, Flanders uses her accessible voice to extol the most magical time of year. <br /><br /><br /><i>"Each of us is a storehouse of Christmases,"</i> she writes, <i>"A repository of all the happiness and sometimes sadness of seasons past."</i><br /><br />From mummers to wassail to Passion plays to Puritans, Christmas is an all-encompassing, dazzling and addictive look at masks and music, food and patronage, parades and pomp. From Martin Luther to Pepys--- Jefferson to Washington to Dickens to Henry VIII --- Christmas is highlighted at times political, sometimes moral, sometimes amoral and eventually a stick of velcro to which a hodgepodge of religious traditions stuck and stayed. Theological tenets inspired beautiful Christmas carols while 20th Century Commercialism placed Santa on floats and in malls. Food was constant, Massachusetts outlawed the holiday, sometimes it was fashionable, sometimes it was not... Scotland didn't recognize Christmas as a holiday until the 1950s. <br /><i><br />"The holiday seduced the population to drunkenness, gluttony, unlawful gaming, wantonness, uncleanness, lasciviousness, cursing, swearing and all to idleness."</i><br /><br />There is just so much in this festive tapestry. From American slave traditions to the immigrant colonial influence on the hodgepodge of traditions, Christmas is a pot to which an almost universal recipe has been added. <div>
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<br /><br />And then there is the modernity <i>"Dickens showed the world that modernity and Christmas are eminently suited to each other" </i>Several chapters on the influence on the Victorians on our contemporary practices was a perfect side piece to The Man Who Invented Christmas. Christmas presents were wrapped because coal and suit were the constant bane of Victorian households. "Your packages reflect your personality", thus became an easy way to capitalize on festive ornamentation. <br /><br />As a Torontonian, I was excited to learn that the first Christmas department store parade ( and the one that inspired Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade) took place at Eatons in the early 20th Century. Likewise, Eatons eventually televised the parade--- inspiring, again, Macy's in the States --- a tradition that is known to this day.<br /><br />No matter your race, religion or creed. No matter if you prefer real trees to fake .... from Hanukkah to Kwanzaa, Christmas will challenge you to think about how Christmas fits into the fabric of your family. It is also a treatise on nostalgia: noting how when so many spoke of olden days they were merely thinking of times before Christmas was as we know it now. <br /><br /><br />I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is engrossing, exceptionally well-researched and a hole in which you will easily fall down, excavating one wonderland after another.... It even takes a gendered approach to the holiday, carefully examining the role of men and women in the Christmas preparations and advertisements. Christmas becomes a time for us to reflect on the "idealized version of ourselves" armed with a Christian infusion borne of a need to dispel the wantonness and debauchery of a roman Pagan festival. Then, it became a balm. <i>"Christmas has assimilated traditions from half a dozen cultures and countries and therefore appears endlessly flexible."</i><br /><br />While Flanders shows us that rules and regulations for the holiday have changed immensely over the centuries, she believes, as I do that at the centre and crux is a spirit of the best of humanity. So take your symbols, transpose traditions, transform Christmas from your descendants into a resurrected and refurbished season of its own. <i>"Part of the meaning of Christmas"</i>, she writes"<i> is repetition."</i> We are all easy portals for the Christmases that have filled us. And whatever it means to you is valid and wonderful--- but knowing HOW we got here is the buoyant joy of a wonderful book.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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With thanks to Netgalley for the review copy. </div>
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-64976948007849273992017-10-11T10:23:00.001-07:002017-10-11T10:27:45.936-07:00Book Gush: Series Alert --- Amory Ames series by Ashley Weaver <div class="MsoNormal">
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<span lang="EN-US">This series
is total Rachel Catnip!!! England in the 1930s, a glamorous playboy and his smart
amateur detective wife, glittering scenes, a love story that is my favourite type
full of misunderstandings and stolen gazes and two people who love each other
deeply but JUST ARE NOT COMMUNICATING and it is all very Percy and Marguerite!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Amory-Ames-Mysteries-Books-1-3-ebook/dp/B071GLHJN5/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1507742472&sr=8-7&keywords=ashley+weaver">BUY THEM </a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I am sorry I didn't gush about them one by one but time slips by! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I really
very much devoured the books in this series and I am so sorry it took me so
long to get to talking about them with you.
They have all the deep characterization and POV remnant of <i>Maisie Dobbs</i>. Amory is a very pragmatic character in her
internal workings and I love seeing the world and the people she encounters
first-hand. I also don’t let myself
fall into the trap of guessing the murderer because I am too busy in the moment:
reveling in the sights and smells of a perfectly illustrated masquerade, visiting the seaside in an Agatha Christie-esque
getaway of murder and a myriad of well-developed suspects. I want to fall into the world and see it
slowly... ruminatively as Amory does. I want to see every interaction through her
eyes and experience the slow build , the mysteries, the inevitable mayhem. Inasmuch as a reader wants to slip into the
world and setting --- it is integral that they have the most winsome guide through
which to appropriate perspective. Amory is very much the type of first person
protagonist I want to spend time with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">As for
Milo, playboy about town who has the scandalous habit of tripping into the
flash of a photo lens at the wrong time, I spent the first few books trying to
cast out ideas of him like a line to water--- wanting him to be more than he is
in hopes to justify his behaviour. Then,
I realized that I didn’t need to impress my own ideas onto a character who is
just enough with his mishaps. It doesn’t need to be toward a greater purpose on
a larger stage of adventure. Part of
Amory’s development is in her understanding of Milo and the shifts in their
relationship. While the obvious Nick and
Nora Charles comparison is inevitable, I liken Amory and Milo more to Harriet and
Peter in ways--- for Weaver takes more time to examine the heart of their
relationship beyond the (and it is delightful!) banter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">So what we
have here to stir in our pot is every ingredient of the golden age of mystery:
dazzling setting, continental adventure, clothes and capers and suspects and murders-to-solve
– but what differentiates it is (something I often find when reading
contemporary published books set in the golden age) keen, beguiling
characterization. Each character---forefront
and in periphery--- are carefully developed.
And Amory and Milo –from flirting around their passion and love for each
other, to playing at amateur sleuths, to trying to figure out the best way to
hold onto what makes them complete as a couple is the deftest, most lovely study
ever. I root for this couple --- as a
reader I love the happy sigh when they cross a hurdle large or small – as much
as I love the excruciatingly slow moments ticking through their latest
misunderstanding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">If you like
Rhys Bowen or Vivian Conroy, Sayers or Christie, or Deanna Raybourn, then this is the series for
you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.ashley-weaver.com/">find Ashley Weaver on the web</a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAshleyWeaver/">Facebook </a></span></div>
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-22451251933182371672017-10-10T10:44:00.001-07:002017-10-10T10:44:58.161-07:00What's Your Favourite Herringford and Watts story? <div class="MsoNormal">
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<span lang="EN-US">I was in Grand
Rapids on the weekend and met a bunch of fun readers and signed some books and
a question I often get asked is <b>“What is your favourite of the Herringford and
Watts books?”</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">All authors
know this is a tough question--- as there is a lot of me in each of the three
novels and three novellas and there are reasons I love each and every one of
them. But, when it comes to a personal
favourite, I have to say <i>Lesson in Love and Murder</i>. I really enjoyed writing the book and
researching it ( what is more fun than spending some time in historic Chicago?). Chicago is a city in which I have had some amazing
times with friends, seen some amazing theatre ( <i>Hamilton</i>!) and stumbled upon
amazing moments of history. As a stand
in for the usual character of Toronto, it was so much fun to play with
<b>Edwardian Chicago</b> …. A city that is probably most like Toronto. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>I loved the
history </b>and weaving in historical figures like Emma Goldman and Theodore
Roosevelt. Spending hours reading the transcripts
of Roosevelt’s words to the convention at the Coliseum as well as learning the
ins and outs of this long ago building were just so exciting to me. I loved having the idea of anarchy and
submission underscore the mystery and adventure Jem, Merinda, Jasper and Ray
find themselves in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLb9p0BSJv_N9XVYvLGzqXQP0d2Tv5TEZUKy1iS9RrBmspHAAPsgdLfAjXl68GQZ32JieUnHU-FirJRAD_8lEhDZIaCk8BVelsPAFOtlUPp-sk7HVGQ-0P4QDT_YzZcVC4kU/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="349" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLb9p0BSJv_N9XVYvLGzqXQP0d2Tv5TEZUKy1iS9RrBmspHAAPsgdLfAjXl68GQZ32JieUnHU-FirJRAD_8lEhDZIaCk8BVelsPAFOtlUPp-sk7HVGQ-0P4QDT_YzZcVC4kU/s320/Capture.PNG" width="254" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><b>I was able
to draw on a lot of my family history </b>for this book. My dad is a chaplain with the RCMP (then, the
Royal Northwest Mounted Police) and mounties—thanks to my dad – and his cousin
Jonathan (Johnny) who died in the line of duty --- were a major influence on
the story. As was dad’s stories from the Icelandic settlement in Riverton,
spending time with his grandmother and grandpa at the farm. Tying in my Icelandic heritage was a lot of
fun----<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>The
epigraphs: </b> I wrote all of the epigraphs
and footnotes for the Herringford and Watts series and while I loved creating
the guidebooks penned by fictional M C Wheaton and Flora Merriweather, etc.,.
there was something about creating Benny and Jonathan’s Guide to the Canadian
Wilderness which made me laugh and was a cross between <i>Due South</i>, an actual Mountie handbook from 1909, memoirs from a new
Mountie recruit and Robert Service. I
had a lot of fun penning these. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>The
characters:</b> Jem, Merinda, Jasper and Ray
remain some of my dearest friends even as I take a break from their world to
pursue Hamish DeLuca’s story in 1930s Boston.
I loved the interaction between all of them here--- and throwing Benny
Citrone in the mix as the perfect counterpart to Merinda—and to keep Jasper on
his toes. The main quartet is faced with trauma and
uncertainty that ripples for years and years after and each deepens a little. I love the look at the early days of <b>Jem and
Ray</b>’s marriage--- after their whirlwind courtship and their reckless idea to
get married so soon. There is a lot of
romance in their story and as a hopeless romantic, I love any scenes with Jem
and Ray. It is the time when we see Jem’s role changing
most pronouncedly: learning she is to
become a mother, losing her one strand of independence as a shopgirl at Spenser’s
--- she is once and for all transposed into the domestic sphere no matter how
she wants to break away and run off from Merinda. At one moment, she runs off from Merinda for
Ray and that was a challenging shift in their central relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454545081l/28523796.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for lesson in love and murder" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454545081l/28523796.jpg" /></a><span lang="EN-US"><b>Jasper and
Merinda </b>also experience some friction. They quarrel and Merinda is forced to –more
than before—decide what her relationship with Jasper is meant to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Benny
Citrone</b>—first off, I love the close brotherly relationship between Benny and Jonathan
--- it is a story of sacrifice and loyalty and I really enjoyed working it
out--- But then Benny and Merinda! They’re
perfect for each other in one way but from two totally different worlds. You
can love something and let it go…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Finally, <b>Ray
and Viola.</b> Viola is Ray’s homeland---
the DeLuca siblings stayed so close together due to the loss they experienced
re-routing their lives from Italy to Canada and Viola is very much Ray’s north
star. A tragedy at the end of Lesson in
Love and Murder not only shifts the relationship between the two siblings but
has a long after-effect--- an effect so long cast out that it influences the
generation after --- Luca Valari ( Ray’s nephew ) and Hamish (Ray and Jem’s son)
still feel the brunt of this action and tragedy in their stories decades later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"> There are a million and one reasons why I
loved writing the Herringford and Watts series--- some of the most fun I have ever had--- but <i>Lesson in Love </i>is just that
extra special mélange of every ingredient that I so loved about playing in this
world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-87195880461552527702017-10-09T08:21:00.000-07:002017-10-09T08:21:44.593-07:00We need to talk about "The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck" by Bethany Turner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I LOVE THIS AUTHOR and I WILL READ ANYTHING SHE WRITES FOREVER --- fyi. And she deserves a space in the Inspy writing and publishing world and she will continue to teach us about ourselves and encourage us to hold up a lens and look inside...<br />
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I read this book basically in one sitting (well two sittings on two different flights and over a layover) en route to Michigan to speak and sign and speak. ( best weekend ever).<br />
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And I should preface by saying this is not Rachel catnip material --- at least when it comes to love story--- but it IS Rachel catnip material in that the author is a brilliantly competent one I can learn things from. Reading as a writer is essential and there was so much that Turner can teach writers in any genre on plotting, pacing and interweaving backstory.<br />
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But, it wasn't a Rachel catnip book and isn't that wonderful and awesome!?? Because what may not be my cup of tea is EXACTLY WHAT YOU LOOK FOR IN STORIES AND ROMANTIC TROPES and that is why I think it is important for me to write about---- what I spell out may be your very favourite devices starring your very favourite kinds of romances and that is wonderful and that is why reading is diverse and taste is diverse and preference is diverse and that is the way it should be.<br />
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Also, I am being critical of these aspects from MY PERSONAL TASTE PROFILE --- so I cannot really say anything negative about them OTHER than from my personal preference. The joy of individuality.<br />
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I am not at a position of any type of expertise --other than a long time reader. And what I find might be limiting in the book for non Christian readers; you might think could act as a gateway. So we need to talk about this book. It is a great stepping point for a lot of dialogue --especially for readers of inspirational fiction. And it is the best type of book to talk about because it was penned by a dizzyingly talented writer.<br />
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I also have faith based and non faith based readers and 60 % of my life is in a non-faith-based world, so I have to point a few things about this book as a general heads' up. I personally feel this book is best enjoyed by people within a church setting or background because of its intense peer into Christian culture and the rules and restrictions therein. Without ill-intention, I can see how the rules meted out by the heroine's friend Piper and Sarah's new church community might be seen as a point of judgment to readers though my personal opinion is that the author did not intend this. This story, its publisher, its author are products of an environment where this is the norm. I also point out that the word "butch" is used in a derogatory way and I was surprised that the editors of the novel didn't catch and edit that word which is becoming (thank heavens) quickly obsolete. In the spirit of full disclosure, I also have to mention that in Sarah's journey, the conversion to Christianity finds her on the receiving end of advice that motivates her to reassess her writing in the secular romance world. While reading, I thought of my many many many romance writing friends on the other side of the Christianese fence and the many romance books I love and the many authors I follow and found this could be read as polarizing. The usual abstinence talks and alcohol free living talks followed and poor Piper almost made me roll my eyes with her initial holier than thou moments ushering the searching Sarah into the fold. But Piper is a plot device and a portal and so I cannot quite fault her for being the mouthpiece for the more conservative sect of Christian culture in which this book dwells. I also found that some of the issues in the novel might ostracize non-Christian readers beyond some of the rules and metrics laid out (and very very prevalent in many churches--- ). One ostracizing moment comes in the vernacular of tithing. It is cute and funny and winsome that Turner explores the smutty novelist tithing her smutty novel's royalties; and beyond Ben's judgmental response ( throw something at him, women), I thought this was one instance of the rhetoric of one world that might not be accessible to all readers.<br />
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All right, disclosure time over, let's dive in!<br />
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To begin, I loved the heroine ---- I really didn't like the romance. It isn't my type at all. But, as I mention later, it is integral to the construct of Turner's larger perspective and it works really well for the story she is trying to tell. And while I didn't like the romance, I loved the romantic world and construct--- I loved the clash of secular and Christian romance and the open-eyed Sarah choosing to read CBA romance and pen her own. This is the world so many of us read in and publish in and it is a safe space for me and I loved reading about it ( But, I also love chugging cab sauv and reading Tessa Dare and Elizabeth Hoyt so ...SO not the target reader of this book )<br />
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I hate insta love tropes and I never felt once I got to know Ben DeLaney--- but I <i>did</i> through his appearance <i>get to know Sarah </i>and sacrificing his dimension gave me more time with her---she was my love of this book. Her voice, her perspective, her passion to find a way to patch up her life. Her terrible poetry. Her stream of consciousness. Even though we view the world differently. Another non-Rachel-catnip thing (and yes I know it is scriptural, bring it up to me as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb), is the obsession of a wedding and children. Ben and Sarah just want insta family like their instalove. In what is the first ever usage of this term I have ever seen in a lifetime of reading Inspy romances he wants to "knock her up" and they'll have a ton of kids..... For a lot of readers, that is going to be the happy ever after, and of course, it is an easy and safe way for an inspy romance writer to bring sex into the conversation. For a reader like me it is all: WHAT? but you have money and live in Chicago and are a great writer and .... ugh! you can still have sex without kids! Again, PERSONAL PREFERENCE--- my feminism radar was tingling. .... but then it was just MY radar that was tingling. I don't want to spend my life cleaning up after eight rug rats --- But isn't feminism about choice? And shouldn't a woman decide that this is her preference? Reader and Sarah alike? She wants a passel of rugrats and to ascribe to the more traditional approach to life with Ben and I am all for that because she wants it! Choice, people. Choice!<br />
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I didn't ever feel like I got to know Ben at all: beyond "hot pastor who likes to kiss in the parking lot" (Which, FYI, is tantamount to scandal in the Christian sphere). And I sure as heck don't want a wedding where Song of Solomon is the theme du jour but that is me having a strong reaction to the world I grew up in where this is part and parcel of the game. What Turner does well is finally shine the spotlight on the woman. In church culture, women are physically the stumbling blocks. The tight shirts, the yoga pants (insert eye roll and cursing here), the purity culture holds the woman to such a high platform. If a man stumbles it is nature, if a woman stumbles it is a reflection of her character. Sarah slices through this prevalent double standard by having a healthy sexual appetite even as she tweaks its perimeters to fit into her new Christian world. And yes, when Ben and Sarah write out a list of rules about kissing and dating and time together ( we Christians have a lot of rules-- some Biblical-- most just ours ), I was saddened but also understanding. This is the culture. This is a look at a very real culture. Sarah's experience clashes with the instinctive norm of the culture because she very legitimately wants as many sexy times as he does ( of course post -marriage...let's not get too crazy here ;) )<br />
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What I found on a deeper level is that <i>the Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck</i> shows how susceptible a messed up person can be when looking for a quick fix. Her insta conversion pairs with her insta love and her beguiled look at Christianity leaves room for the author to show that nothing is perfect on either side of the stained glass. Indeed, by the end of the novel, a smart twist gives the reader a peek into <i>the Secret Life of Ben Delaney: </i>with its own secrets and fallacies, the first time we truly see him is human and imperfect and not just the hot pastor with the pretty eyes.<br />
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And the motif of platform and visibility and congregational judgment is one that will resonate with anyone who has been in the public eye: either at the front of the pulpit or as a writer. The double standards, the insta judgment .... how we hurt each other intentionally or not -- all in the name of Christ.<br />
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Its treatise on passion comes with a price as lust and sparks don't give us a chance to ever see Ben and Sarah falling on any deep or complex level. For a reader who loves the gradual build and friction of chemistry borne of something stronger than just physical heat, I felt I was deprived a beautiful love story. By the end, I still never saw connection between them beyond their passion and desire for a Von Trapp passel of children. But as a reader and lover of the inspirational market, I must point out how deeply I enjoyed a contemporary-set romance that really worked in the thesis of physical love within the meted restrictions of the church's purity culture. And while we can easily cite Deanne Gist and Julie Lessman in the historical sphere for pursuing the metrics of physical passion as far as they would go within the context of the inspirational trope, I enjoy that Turner broadened these lines.<br />
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I had the best strong reactions to this book: on one level it took me back into my formative years as a pastor's kid learning all of the rules and regulations of the evangelical world -- -"that sex leads to drinking" (I was Pentecostal, yo!) that romance is a stumbling block and sets unrealistic expectations ( it might be a stumbling block for you---each reader has their own journey and I don't believe in one prescriptive for all believers in many of these ( get it?) hot (snicker) topics). And I had a strong reaction to Piper who reminded me so much of the girl we ALL tried to be --doling out scriptural advice as we tugged people into the fold. Having a strong, visceral reaction ( she leaves the room) when someone we like is caught doing something we don't feel fits into our Christian world. Luckily for Sarah, she moves beyond the Piper and navigates Christianity on her own. And one of the major draws to the church is a man-- Ben--- with all of the tingles and stolen looks. This is real life and why wouldn't a woman whose heart has been broken by a man of the world not fall immediately for a man of the cloth? As mentioned earlier, Ben is a symbol for the road Sarah is trying to cross however imperfect it is on the other side.<br />
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To add, I love that she married two distinctive publishing spheres and how they clash. For those in the Inspirational industry, a constant conversation is about blurring lines, crossing over, finding secular readers ---- this book made me step outside the world and traditions I know well and really think beyond the veil of my time in a stricter Evangelical setting. What would my usual readers think? What might they perceive as judgmental? What am I feeling about connecting far more with the Sarah pre-conversion then nothing at all with the Sarah post-conversion? Maybe that is the point of the book...this book with the fresh, surprising, one-of-a-kind voice, with a ton of awesome possum Thorn Birds references....<br />
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I loved thinking about this book. How irked I was by it. How incensed I was by it. No...not it--- the world it reflects. How it forced me to take a step back and really revisit the world I tried to leave. For while I remain a Christian, I happily sneak into the back of an Anglican church and am nowhere near a service that sings bottomless Chris Tomlin songs. Where I recognize that I cannot be responsible for being a man's stumbling block, where a healthy curiousity about sex and intimacy should not force a woman to cringe and blush until she blends into her pew. <br />
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And it left me confused and riled and surged--- surged as a writer with the appreciation of voice and structure. This story may not be my jam but the author IS--- isn't that the best experience? And for those of you looking for this type of romantic comedy, you will just hit A + after A + across the board, because Turner has an inimitable voice. Turner has a brilliant sense of humour and a knack at peeling back the layers of the world and peering at the vulnerable places therein in a poignant shroud of grace and talent. Turner does backstory and perspective and deep POV like a pro. Turner should be used as an example of how to write first person that wraps around the reader and holds them close. She is an expert. She is one of the strongest debut voices I have ever encountered and the strongest most original voice I have seen in the CBA (inspirational publishing world) in years.<br />
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And whether intentional or not, <i>Secret Life</i> exposes the fallacies, the contradictions, the parts of the inspirational world and culture we are still trying to patch up and sew.....<br />
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Maybe the confusion and the inability to find answers allows us to find ourselves in the mess with two imperfect people meeting in an imperfect world stretching for perfect---the church--what should be a hospital but is seen as a cloistered and often judgmental space. <br />
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And maybe the confusion is in the funny. There is nothing more Christian-y than a church wedding with a basement reception where Song of Solomon is quoted. Circle of hell for me, the dream for so many--- neither of us is wrong --- like Sarah, we just have to carve out a place to belong.Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-55021308848932156192017-10-03T06:27:00.000-07:002017-10-03T06:32:48.001-07:00Book Gush: A Dangerous Legacy by Elizabeth Camden Honestly, <a href="http://elizabethcamden.com/">Elizabeth Camden</a>'s books are just all the ingredients I love. I truly think she is writing for me! She has a masters in history, so her research is unparalleled, she has an easy, accessible writing style, characters and dialogue that leap off the page and a keen sense of time and verisimilitude. But, I think what I find most impressive, is the ease in which she excavates snippets of history not usually explored onto which she shines the spotlight of her inimitable narrative style.<br />
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I also always identify with her heroines ( something that is hard to do in inspirational fiction ---even for an avid reader in the genre like myself). Her heroines are smart, resourceful career women who balk at limitations and want to make their marks on the world. Often in men's professions during times when women were to be angels of the hearth, her heroines are always just a few steps ahead of the world--- and the game. Fiercely independent, they are not easily won, unless they are able to fit the inevitable romance end of the plot into their working world.<br />
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<a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1488174563l/34020181.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for a dangerous fortune camden" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1488174563l/34020181.jpg" /></a>The overarching plot of this multi-layered story revolves around the Drake fortune and put me immediately in mind of the never-ending Jarndyce and Jarndyce case in Dickens' <i>Bleak House</i>. Siblings Nick and Lucy Drake are at the center of the case trying to find justice for their family and their late father. Beyond any monetary gain or inheritance, the resolution of the case will hopefully mean the end of their torment by a wealthy rich relative, Thomas Drake, who lives as lord of the manor in nearby Saratoga while the Drake siblings are hard workers scraping by in their Greenwich Village apartment. Court settlements, a lavish necklace and two brothers who fought over the invention of a brilliant valve during the Civil War times brushes Lucy and Nick's world with a burden to their father's memory as well as the social injustice they see around them. A plumber, Nick wants to use the ease in which he can work this portal to his family's inheritance to equip tenement houses with running water for a fraction of the cost of the high city fees.<br />
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Another layer of this surprisingly intricate plot is the journalistic meeting of Reuters Agency, where Lucy continually runs into aristocrat Colin Beckwith, heir to a crumbling 18th Century estate across the Atlantic, while working as a telegraph operator for the Associate Press. The history of morse code, telegraphy and homing pigeons is flourished here in exciting detail and I loved hearing about Colin and Lucy's world, the interception of Pacific telegraphs as well as reading cameos by Roosevelt and Taft.<br />
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An illegal wire tapped to her desk allows Lucy to transmit messages from her scheming uncle's lawyer and when she overhears a plot for murder, she runs to her uneasy ally ( and source of her burgeoning attraction), Colin, who uses his title and manners to expose the nefarious Drakes in Saratoga once and for all.<br />
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<i>A Dangerous Legacy </i>was so much more than an historical novel: it was a treatise on the class system, a look at how entitlement to fortune and revenge can strip one of happiness and a compelling study of New York on the brink of greatness. Nick's work with valves for fresh water in tenement houses opens up a world underground and the labyrinth of the New York sewer system is painted with the same deft ease in which Camden worked with the Boston subway in <i><a href="http://a-fair-substitute-for-heaven.blogspot.ca/2016/06/book-gush-from-this-moment-elizabeth.html">From This Moment</a></i>. Colin Beckwith's experiences as a journalist in the Boer War allow for the study of PTSD and a look into the primitive psychiatric methods such as shock therapy. A threat to Lucy is a gateway to a close interior look into mental asylums and the cruelty waged on patients sometimes only committed for incorrigibility.<br />
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To summarize the many interweaving plots as Colin and Lucy navigate the intricacies of the Drake fortune is difficult because Camden excels at being so (albeit accessibly) complex. I had trouble putting this book down during a research trip to Boston over the weekend ( books are companions when one is traveling and dining alone) and found myself blown away ( as per usual )with the seeming ease with which she creates conflicting worlds. There is a hunting weekend at a grand estate in upstate New York as well as parties and soirees that hang on Colin's coattails as a reminder of his past and the inheritance that binds him as tightly as the Drake fortune does Lucy and her brother. Manhattan becomes a character a colourful and nuanced as Washington in <i>Beyond all Dreams </i> and Boston in <i>From This Moment </i>as Camden uses her natural skill to paint a canvas brought brilliantly to life.<br />
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There is romance, yes, but also a hefty dose of suspense and an intricate mystery I was not anticipating. This is the best type of savoury read: relatable and fascinating characters, a peek through the curtain of the past, a dashing hero, a resourceful heroine, a race against time. Twists and turns and second guesses, dubious villains and beautiful heiresses. In short, a deliciously robust read.<br />
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Elizabeth Camden is an inspirational writer; but the religious themes in her book are just that---themes. She writes with a strict and genuine value system and her realistically fallible characters work between the lines of right and wrong often finding their consciences at odds with the world around them. She is never preachy and the faith elements are presented as sociocultural concept. I would recommend her highly to readers from or without a faith background.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Legacy-Empire-State-Novel-ebook/dp/B072BCDYZ8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507037029&sr=8-1&keywords=a+dangerous+legacy+camden"><br /></a>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Legacy-Empire-State-Novel-ebook/dp/B072BCDYZ8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507037029&sr=8-1&keywords=a+dangerous+legacy+camden">buy this book now:</a><br />
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<br />Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-89080408445809214952017-09-26T10:15:00.003-07:002017-09-26T10:15:30.153-07:00Book Gush: Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle "PLEASE WRITE RACHEL BOOKS FOREVERMORE THANKS" George <a href="http://www.popgoesthereader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Cover-Reveal-Speak-Easy-Speak-Love.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for speak easy speak love" border="0" height="320" src="http://www.popgoesthereader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Cover-Reveal-Speak-Easy-Speak-Love.png" width="224" /></a>I hope you guys aren't looking for deep thoughts or even coherent ones here because you have come to the wrong shindig, kittens. So get ready for this tipped-over-glass of rambling loquaciousness:<br />
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I am DRIPPING with love for this book. ACHING with love for this book. GIDDILY FALLING OFF MY CHAIR for John Mor--erm--- I mean this book.<br />
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Yes. this book<br />
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(also, for John Morello)<br />
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and also for the voice--- the narrative voice-- cajoling and teasing and warm and knowing and like a sly wink --- ugh! these are the voices that wrap and keep you and make you feel all tingly to your fingertips like a first sip of wine after a long day.<br />
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This is the most delightful surprise ever. What larks to have the mind of a genius who decided "know what would super duper work? If I took Much Ado About Nothing --but without any of the douchebaggy Claudio bits --- and reworked it into a 1920s speakeasy-set treatise on outsiders, gender and race relations amidst a shifting age resplendent with historical awesome --- and highlighted by <i>the mob!"</i><br />
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<i>WHAT LARKS! </i><br />
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Okay, SO, Beatrice (wanna be doctor and long lost cousin to Hero)stumbles into the craftily named <i>Hey, Nonny Nonny</i>, replete with the most amazing cast of homage characters to the original. There's the vivacious and lovely Hero, there's Pedro "Prince" Morello and his half-brother (and my true love) John Morello, there's Maggie, a torch-siren-voiced headliner for all manner of jazz aged ditties mellowed into microphones whiskey-sopped and whose breathy voice finds the corners of the darkened joint ( THIS NOVEL IS SO ATMOSPHERIC YOU WILL DIE). Benedick (of course!!!) is a Scott Fitzgerald wannabe holding tight to his typewriter, Isabella, and tighter still to his belief that to truly be creative he should shirk his family posterity and, you know, rough it with some rum runners at a gin-soaked hop. There's dalliances and mob run-ins and terribly sour watered-down gin and there's mishaps and shootings and there's misunderstandings and dark corners and silhouettes of a couple to instill jealousy in another all amidst the true bond of family.<br />
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My favourite stories take the most unlikely cast of characters and smoosh them together in a colourful kaleidoscope of adventure. Each person is so well developed in this perfectly realized world, I dare you not to look up from the fresh and period-perfect descriptives and not find them starting across from you. I loved, loved, loved how it awakened Shakespeare's treatise on belonging, equality and love in a dazzling and wholly unexpected way. Once you start bounding along in this wingdinger of a hoodless jalopy, you're never quite sure where it will swerve and fork and I LOVED THAT!<br />
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And the language hints at the meted measures of the original but in a soft and accessible way so that you fall into its rhythm and are visited by the source phantom without ever thinking that she just stole a line and modernized it. LIKE HOW BRILLIANT IS THAT????? ugh ,read it for examples there are too many. TRUST ME! --but this is one <i>"the world always took on a different shade after you'd failed."</i> and <i>"a girl might consider him handsome were she so inclined" </i> and it is pinged with the same tell tale wisdom and social observance on the human condition; but somehow still more in its lovely, tangy pulse.<br />
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This, my dear readers, is not (thank highball glasses) an "updated classic" that aligns perfectly each and every character and plot point transposing it into a modern setting. NO!!! What George does swimmingly is take everything that the play should have been and play with it in the brilliance and light of a more contemporary setting. The restrictions of gender and class indigenous to the 1920s era ---as well as the progression for women and minorities-- are a springboard for working through what Shakespeare could only experiment with in embryo given the rigid structure of his time and experience ( this, guys, is the scribe who thought a great idea for an Italian name was "servantio" -- you know what we are working with here). Meaning, George is able to add several layers on her colourful cake and in the meantime work with the shifting dynamics of one of the most fascinating and pivotal decades in modern history. And she does this through the lens of the very feminist hero, the philosophical observer, Benedick and the mixed race pairing of my boyfriend/true love John Morello and Maggie.<br />
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And before you can think "<i>Tonight, on a very special episode of Blossom"</i>, not once does she make this an "issue" or "statement" book; rather just a lens moving over a shifting moment in time and flesh and blood characters. There is not one stand-in archetype here. EVERYONE is developed: from "rum running thug #2 on the dock" to the revelers at <i>Hey, Nonny Nonny </i><br />
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And it is stark and lovely and surprising and funny as all get out and DEAR HEAVENS READ THIS BOOK AND GIVE IT TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!!<br />
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You know how it is irreverent to say that you like something better than the Shakespearian source material because that makes you dumb and not smart enough and probably not deserving of the eight billion (approximate estimate ) dollars you spent on University? well, whatever guys, I am a grown adult woman and I LIKE THIS BETTER THAN READING THE PLAY. so there! Also, I will take out loans and life insurance to sponsor this netflix series.<br />
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<b><i>"There </i><i>was John, as if her singing had conjured him" </i></b><br />
And now a special moment, nay, an ode, for John Morello and Maggie. He understands her core through music. He enables her to speak for herself and find her voice through song. He strips her to the understanding of the beauty of her own natural simplicity. There is a scene ( you will die, guaranteed) where she is trying on one of Hero's wigs ( all sleek and Cleopatra) and John ( unwitting mob boss who looks all surly but is actually a tortured bunny) beseeches her to take it off and be herself and THERE IS KISSAGE<br />
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I just ... Maggie and John are my heart's language <b><i>" I can feel when you sing."</i></b> HE CAN FEEL WHEN SHE FREAKIN SINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and what John does for his brother, Prince, and how he believes in him and how he sacrifices for him like a TORTURED BUNNY <b><i>"I am not a good person, Margaret, but if I can let Prince stay one, the world is a better place." </i></b><br />
UGH! DEATH! THUD!<br />
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<b><i>"For someone who said he didn't care"</i></b> (JOHN YOU PRECIOUS BUNNY LET ME FEED YOU LOLLIPOPS AND PULL YOU INTO THE SUNSHINE),<i><b> "he sure put a lot of effort into not caring. Sometimes she could trick him into admitting she was as charming as she thought she was; but most of the time, it was like dancing around a cinder block." </b></i><br />
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<b><i>"When the song was so perfect, he couldn't help himself, his usually barred eyes opened up like clear lakes"</i></b> (ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME??? GIVE ME MORE) --she could see the music in him. She aimed for that look every time she sang in front of him because then she knew she'd struck gold."<br />
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For a relationship that on paper has a bazillion barriers--- mob guy, black woman, 1920s nonsense and social and racial and gender hurdles--- they speak and understand and love through music! KILL ME NOW!<br />
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<br /><b><i>"She'd walked by him and not noticed and normally she was aware of him like a moon to her tide."</i></b> I need my JOHN AND MAGGIE BOOK NOW!<br />
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Like, observe: <i>"<b>So what if they'd had whole conversations without saying a word--- using only music?" </b></i><br />
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HEART THUD! I die, Horatio.<br />
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So, do we want some more quotes? Yes, yes we do!<br />
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<b>ALL THE QUOTES</b><br />
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<b><i>"Her stare was direct--channeled through absurdly big eyes, the kind a more inclined man might trip and drown in, if he weren't watching his step--but she was not exceptionally pretty. She was just aggressively there" </i></b><br />
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<b><i>"The heart was an organ of instinct over reason" </i></b><br />
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<b><i><br />Trouble, in other words. And like trouble, sometimes a girl found herself looking for it, wanting it, </i></b><i style="font-weight: bold;">even when she knew it was a bad idea." </i><br />
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<b><i>"Secondly, we both know 'special automotive toolbox' was your name for whatever distraction you were going to cook up to keep me away from the car, and of course now we see why"</i></b><br />
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<b><i>"Words, what a tricky, tangled silence."</i></b><br />
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<b><i>"Next to Anna, who met her own husband by accidentally clocking him in the face with a women's rights poster), Ursula appeared like the dour face of reality"</i></b><br />
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<i><b><br />"You shoot things and don't fear spiders and are about as sweet as a lemon. What would a man even do with you?" </b></i><br />
<i><b>"The better question is what I would do with a man."</b></i><br />
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Frig. Don't even get me started. I could talk forever. If you're a teacher and are like "I need a new fun lesson plan and comparative study", I know Bloom's Taxonomy. I used to write lesson plans. Hit me up, I will give you ideas if it makes you buy this book because I love the experiencing of reading and discovering new things and it is my duty as a human to share experiences with you<br />
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Find McKelle George on<a href="https://twitter.com/mckellegeorge?lang=en"> twitter</a> and the<a href="https://mckellegeorge.com/"> web </a><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Easy-Love-McKelle-George-ebook/dp/B01NGZN68F/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506445762&sr=8-1&keywords=speakeasy+speak+love">Buy this book ( ten copies, at least) at amazon </a><br />
<br />Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-10581298037907506762017-09-14T09:00:00.001-07:002017-09-15T10:28:35.982-07:00The Gushiest of Book Gushes: Impossible Saints by Clarissa Harwood <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIPT6Z7wGkrzxZkwtTChoviQtS4-O1B3OzJ_tUgZHDt4YFobwQX3wkwOM8RIH1IZ1h_B6hxFuukVRMq2U7auV3XaVuRk3qclL6ShLj7kJFA2LEtOovj4bkclt_VWrc0r54Ok/s1600/21752241_10159201317395316_5097300844187743540_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIPT6Z7wGkrzxZkwtTChoviQtS4-O1B3OzJ_tUgZHDt4YFobwQX3wkwOM8RIH1IZ1h_B6hxFuukVRMq2U7auV3XaVuRk3qclL6ShLj7kJFA2LEtOovj4bkclt_VWrc0r54Ok/s320/21752241_10159201317395316_5097300844187743540_n.jpg" width="213" /></a>"<i>Why is it that men's courage is called bravery but women's courage is called recklessness- or, even worse, foolishness?"</i><br />
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<i>"That's just it, Harriet. Doesn't It bother you that we're still making the same arguments she (Wollstonecraft) made more than a hundred years ago, and so little has changed?" </i><br />
Imagine a work of fiction that helps you reconcile years of insecurity and forces you to finally confront some of the rifts between the religious traditions that informed your childhood and the views you established as a thinking, reading, hyper-sensitive, feminist-inclined adult....<br />
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Imagine this piece of fiction wrapped in a perfect historically romantic (like, honest to Pete romantic with the gushing and the kissing and the pining!) package and bow....</div>
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<i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35407551-impossible-saints?from_search=true"> Impossible Saints</a> </i>by <a href="http://www.clarissaharwood.com/">Clarissa Harwood</a> was the best reading experience ( because, indeed, it was an experience), I have had in an age. I was at turns giddy and shaking and smiling so wide my cheeks hurt and then crying --- because it is emotional to read a transparent transcription of all of the challenges you have encountered as a woman eager to reconcile the traditions and conservative beliefs of her childhood with the progressive views of adulthood. Part of me wishes that this novel had been around when I was 17 --trying to find myself in Catherine Marshall and Lynn Austin and Dorothy L Sayers amidst a tradition that found women largely in potluck kitchen service or on nursery duty. A worthy calling--- not my calling. Part of me wishes that when I spent the weekends at Crux bookstore at my alma matter U of T running my finger over the spines of titles on Christian Feminism and doling out a chunk of my student loan on a burgeoning new library that this had intercepted me. But part of me is so happy that it found me now--- now as a woman who has written a series that tries to exercise some of the contradictory tenets of my faith within the structure of two lady detectives wearing trou<br />
sers and exploring women's roles in confining Edwardian times. And part of me is happy I found it now when I am a little more sure of who I am, what I believe beyond the expectations of others and beyond the traditions of my upbringing. <br />
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<i>"I wouldn't mind being an outcast if I were free to live and work as I choose" </i><br />
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I am a huge believer in the kismet that happens when the right books find the right reader. Often at odds with my strong opinionated feminist views pitted against my upbringing as a pentecostal minister's kid, I have an insatiable thirst for the dialogue and debate that pings throughout this brilliant and evocative historical treatise on faith and conviction. <br />
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And while I still muse on and try to decipher how the square peg of feminism can fit in the circular hole of the Church's long traditions books like this--- wonderfully packaged in a beautiful, excessively readable love story, there is the brilliant elasticity that allows for interaction with characters who play out all of the questions and thoughts and muddled confusions of tradition and faith and feminism on a well-worded page. <br />
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And yet if you're like: what? NO! I want to read for enjoyment! Well, Saints be Praised! You get that, too! this is a rare package of perfectly lovely prose enveloping deeper truths. <br />
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In 1907, teacher Lillia Brook re-establishes her friendship with Canon Paul Harris, a rising figure at St. John's Cathedral who helped her navigate Greek and Latin studies in her formative years-- by letter- when such subjects were deemed useless to females best honed to play angel of the hearth. Lillia and Paul's re-acquaintance in adulthood sparks from their first meeting as they encounter themselves as pendants for Women's Suffrage and the Tradition of the Church ---the quintessential male sphere-- respectively.<br />
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While Lillia becomes more deeply involved in the growing danger of the Women's Movement in a circle that includes Emmeline Pankhurst, Paul is forced to confront his comfort in the sacred symbol and tradition of the church ---communion, prayer, the solemn process of a worshipful Sunday with the worship in action met head on when he accompanies Lillia to the brutal cloisters of a penitentiary for fallen women. It is in these early chapters--- so lovingly expressed and evoking the feeling of a hot cup of tea with a dose of Masterpiece theatre on a sun-slanted weekend--- that Harwood begins to develop her deeper thesis. A startling contradiction of tradition meted against two shifting worlds that startlingly parallel ongoing conversations in the modern church. <br />
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<i>"Miss Wells, I'm not in the least concerned about my reputation." </i><br />
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A complicated love story set amidst the turmoil and transition of the shifting roles of tradition in anglo catholicism and the pressure to move worship into action beyond the pulpit paralleled with the changing course of women finally meeting their snatches and life outside the home with violence and misery! WAS THIS WRITTEN FOR ME???! A love story that intellectually and spiritually challenges the reader to confront the loop holes in their own beliefs as they sit across from Paul and Lillia who, on equal mental footing, discover themselves and their roles in each other's lives through constant debate? IS IT MY BIRTHDAY???! And romance? OH ROMANCE! clutch your heart and catch your breath romance---- sparring here is hotter than kissing and the romance Paul and Lillia find is symbolic of a marriage between a shifting church meeting head-on the demands and views of its expectant believers. So, this is not your run of the mill " Oh! he has a dazzling smile and my heart grows faint" type cliche-- though, yes, he does have a dazzling smile--yet the evocation of true attraction between two mismatched puzzle pieces that need to figure out how to tweak themselves to fit into each other's lives.<br />
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Both are forced to put faith in action: Paul beyond the sacraments of worship by Lillia who changes how he views worship and Lillia who opens her mind to meet him halfway. And you know that delicious moment in books when a character realizes their true love for someone when they unwittingly step up to defend them? (Hello Bella Wilfer for John Harmon against Mr. Boffin in<i> Our Mutual Friend</i>) we get TONS OF THAT HERE! WHAT BETTER TYPE OF LOVE STORY IS THAT THAN BETWEEN PEOPLE WHO ALLOW THEIR HEARTS TO BE CHANGED and are willing to reconsider convictions that, to this point in their lives, were etched in stone? </div>
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( I know, I know, so many caps ---but I cannot contain my enthusiasm here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I were sitting across from you my hands would be excessively flailing)<br />
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Their compromise and eventually synchronicity encourages growth as two people willing to shift their stubborn views to let some leeway. A treatise on the changes modernizing an era where everyone's roles were falling away and a new type of woman ( and man ) strode to find equal footing. And Harwood does this ingeniously-- -quietly--- thoughtfully--- with little crumbs in the narrative: the pipes of the masculine sphere in Lillia's boarding house, the importance of Paul's given name in contrast to the historical part that spoke for women's silence--- all of these little notes strung throughout ... ugh! so goooood! I die, Horatio... </div>
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anyways... </div>
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What we sometimes forget about the power of fiction is how it can be used as a mirror or lens to our experiences and preconceptions. More still, how it can be the bind that helps us reconcile our past. When you view the world through the lens of fictional emblems it becomes a safe space to be mentally engaged, spiritually moved, and challenged to change. There is a balm in the constraints of fiction that allow your mind and heart to roam free in a way you might not confront what the fiction offers in real life or conversation. Is fiction a mode of conversation, of course---- but it is something silent and ruminative and in<i> Impossible Saints </i>I watched the war between my Christian upbringing and beliefs and my feminist views rile on the page in Paul and Lillia.<br />
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<i>"I can see you've placed me in the category of the fast, modern woman, and there I'll stay until I can prove to you I'm a real person."</i><br />
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It takes a lot for a book to resound echoes long after the constructs of its time period, but <i>Impossible Saints</i> is relevant. Relevant to anyone who is shaped by expectation, latches to tradition while still at odds with the convictions that force us to grapple with the malleability of theological tenets and basic human principles. It is really brilliant to have this sewn up within the pattern of a novel and makes it accessible for readers who struggle and yearn to be challenged with their entertainment. For as much as I would love to posture about the higher tenets of this book's grappling with spiritual, philosophical and humane truths, so I am always reminded of how friggin' ENJOYABLE the whole darned thing is. Because, seriously, beyond the awesome discovery that it would hit me like the best kind of anvil, its time period and subject are TOTAL RACHEL CATNIP! I walked out of the film <i>Suffragette</i> a few years ago feeling flat--- like it was an open pop left out and devoid of fizz--- but all that I wanted it to be is resplendent here in a flesh and blood and contradictory heroine. I finish an episode of <i>Grantchester </i>wishing that the dominant male sphere would be countered more by feminine influence beyond the wishy-washy turn ups of fashionable Amanda--- and I find it here as Paul's mind broadens and stretches with Lillia's influence.</div>
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I often cite Catherine Marshall's <i>Christy </i>as a true love story: thinking of how agnostic doctor Neil MacNeill challenges Christy to believe for herself beyond the expectations or platitudes of the Mission. It is in this that he shows true love and devotion: interested in hearing her as more than a mouthpiece, wanting a peek inside. Here ,we have two people who through danger, loss and strife are willing to sacrifice and meet in the middle after many (exceptionally well-written) snapshots into their debates. As they verbally spar, so you might very well meet new thoughts and ideas that will encourage you to put the book aside and work things out for a little bit. At one point in the novel, an unhappily married woman repeatedly calls " all men cowards" -- cowards who must rise or work and strive to raise themselves up in church or society --- And yet Harwood's book proves the opposite of that again and again in two characters who are shaped in the truest form of courage there is --willing to stumble and fall and admit fallacy, willing to sacrifice moments of dignity and pride in order to find a surer footing with each other and with the higher plains they subscribe to. Write me this romance again and again, world, for it is not only the romance between two people finding a lasting and heart-clenching love but the romance in finding a surer belief in ones instincts when acting on conviction beyond human or church expectations.<br />
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I have an equal readership of faith based readers and non and while I am speaking to this book as it pertains to my faith experience, rest assured that it is not a prerequisite. This can be read as a whizbang- good- snap -crackle -and- pop story of historical romance which just happens to pair two people at odds with each other and one of these odds is Paul's life as a clergyman. You don't need a lexicon or even to believe to enjoy. Moreover, it offers a succinct and troubling look at the brutality and intolerance facing the women who sacrificed their livelihood and comfort for a greater cause.<br />
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There are the books you want to hand out to people so that they can understand your heart and mind and the vulnerable pieces of yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. .... hand them out at Christmas with a little bow and a card that says "here, steal inside my heart for a moment." And this is that book. This is one of those thumb-printed on my heart and mind and resolve and more especially interwoven into the fabric of my reading life forevermore. <br />
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So I will forever be grateful to a casual facebook chain where a friend tagged me in a post about this book (the post by another author I fangirl over--- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=jennifer+delamere">Jennifer Delamere</a>) because this is just.... ack! I cannot even form complete and cohesive sentences anymore... just make sure you preorder this book and read it and think about it and mull on it and then revisit it. ....I know I will --- interred again and again into my perennial collection....</div>
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QUOTES: </div>
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<i>Lillia had never given much thought to his physical appearance. Indeed, there was nothing remarkable about it--- except when he smiled. And she realized, now, when he preached. It was as if the cathedral was his natural setting, the only place where a rare, powerful illumination could blaze out from inside him. The man and his setting were equally beautiful. </i></div>
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<i>They lived in two different worlds that were more often than not hostile toward each other.</i></div>
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<i>I don't know if you realize how lucky you are.You're free. No man has a claim on you. No man has conquered and enslaved you mentally, physically, or spiritually. You're not free from all struggle and suffering--of course, you must feel lonely, you must have desires-- but you haven't bound yourself to a man you'll come to despise. </i></div>
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<i>Men don't want to be married to stupid or vacuous women</i></div>
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<i>I'm starting to become suspicious of your motives for becoming a priest. Your position is too convenient an excuse for breaking rules that ordinary people must abide by.</i></div>
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<i>He sent me copies of his lessons and corrected my mistakes. I may be the only woman in Britain with an education from one of the best public boys' schools. </i></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Saints-Novel-Clarissa-Harwood-ebook/dp/B074D4RMN9/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505403828&sr=8-1&keywords=impossible+saints">pre-order 10 copies for your book club here </a>(DO IT!-- need discussion questions? heck! I'll write them for free) </div>
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[pre-order another 5 copies for all of your friends and family afterward]</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35407551-impossible-saints?from_search=true"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35407551-impossible-saints?from_search=true">Add it to your Goodreads "to read" shelf so you don't forget </a>( as if I would let you forget--- I won't--- I will be back in December reminding you ) </div>
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and thanks thanks thanks to Pegasus and Netgalley for this ARC </div>
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-79922497047531018642017-09-14T07:28:00.002-07:002017-09-14T07:28:34.661-07:00Book Gush(es) A Name Unknown, An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors <a href="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1475136351l/31702733.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for an alchemy of masques and mirrors" border="0" height="320" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1475136351l/31702733.jpg" width="211" /></a><br />
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Want some gushing?<br />
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Here is some gushing<br />
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First, <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31702733-an-alchemy-of-masques-and-mirrors">An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors </a></i>---- GUYS ! DO YOU WANT steampunk, hot air balloons, a whiff of romance and musketeers in an alternative Parisienne world? YES! YES YOU DO!<br />
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Then, have you come to the right party:<br />
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A wildly entertaining romantic romp in the tradition of Dumas and Sebastien de Castell and Mary Robinette Kowal. In a steampunky alternative Paris, laced with political and magical intrigue, power dynamics and and murder, Princess Isabelle and her musketeer protector Jean-Claude are thrown into a world of turmoil, attempted assassination and intrigue. I cannot properly convey how compelling the hook of this tale was to me nor how pleased I was with its exposition. Fun adventure matinee-style threaded in a fresh and compulsively readable voice that paints a unique and daring world with aplomb. <div>
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This world is so wonderfully realized and the dynamic between the two leads is so snap-crackle-pop with chemistry and the whole "but social divide and bodyguard and stuff" thing and I just love things that are fresh and imaginative. So TWO RACHEL THUMBS UP </div>
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<img alt="Image result for a name unknown" 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" 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okay! and then you want, of course, a slick and sophisticated slow-burning romance set in Edwardian Cornwall featuring a thief -turned- librarian and a stammering author with royal connections who may hold secrets to the axis retaliation in the looming war? RIGHT? yes. </div>
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So then we have<i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32497002-a-name-unknown?from_search=true"> A Name Unknown </a></i>which features not only some of Rachel's favourite tropes ( tortured reclusive misunderstood stammering author, two lost souls who connect through words and leave letters to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ) but also possibly my favourite hero of 2017. Peter Holstein is certified Rachel Catnip! I love that he is just too lovely and tweed-clad for the real world --- and the stammer in his voice is ironed out in his writing. There is a lovely Barney Snaith type twist to this set amidst a bubbling world on the brink of war against the lush tapestry of Cornwall. Rosemary Gresham, our intrepid heroine, was a tad more difficult for me to fall for --- but I think that was a conscious decision on the part of the author to show how she ---due to necessity and complicated past-- wants to keep the world at bay. And it is all "a rose by any other name.." because names and titles and connections and noms de plume are a huge motif here. </div>
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But mostly, Peter. I am in this for Peter bless his tweed and his accent and his spectacles and his awkward way with the world and you should be in it for Peter, too. </div>
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with thanks to Netgalley for these titles </div>
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-84975538559888672152017-08-22T08:36:00.004-07:002017-08-22T08:36:54.794-07:00ALL THE THEATRE in the WORLD in LONDON, EDINBURGH, TORONTO AND NEW YORK ( Catch Up Post #1 )Friends,<br />
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I have been REMARKABLY busy.<br />
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<br />
I turned in a Manuscript! <i>Murder at the Flamingo</i> releases with Harper Collins July 2018 and you can<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36060155-murder-at-the-flamingo"> add it to your Goodreads shelf </a> . The cover for this book is nothing short of amazing and I will be able to reveal it to you in the next few weeks :-)<br />
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I traveled to Scotland, England and Paris (!!!)<br />
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I traveled to Northern Ontario for a work conference<br />
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I spent a weekend at CFRR in Cincinnati<br />
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I spent a weekend in New York seeing a ton of theatre<br />
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I have done weekend trips to Niagara on the Lake for Shaw!<br />
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I spent a week in my little hometown Orillia<br />
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I have wandered Toronto near and far!<br />
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I TURNED IN A MANUSCRIPT (let me repeat that )<br />
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So I have been very neglectful of ye olde blog and rather do one LARGE catch up post, I thought I should divide it into a few sections.<br />
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<b>THEATRE </b><br />
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I have seen a ton of theatre in the recent months and I thought I should give you a recap<br />
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<b>Toronto: </b><br />
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<i>Les Miserables</i>: this was a workshop at Factory Theatre that really has a lot of potential. The story isn't quite finished yet; but it drew greatly from Hugo ---drenched in his prose and presence. I am interested to see the final, polished product. We are so used to the musical version, it was nice to see something straight<br />
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<i>Strictly Ballroom</i>: here is a show with sequins and sparkle adapted from the popular film and transposing its soundtrack from screen to stage that just cannot figure out what it wants to be. It was a fun spectacle; but needs a little story work<br />
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<i>Tosca</i> My friend is the technical director at the Canadian Opera Company and I had the privilege of seeing this on dress rehearsal night. IT WAS AMAZING! Opera is not my favourite musical medium; but I do appreciate Puccini. I had seen this at the MET three years ago and I have to say, I enjoyed our production more. GO CANADA<br />
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<b>SHAW FESTIVAL in Niagara on the Lake </b><br />
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<i>The Farmer's Revolt: </i>Face it: if you adapt the Rebellions of 1837 to stage my Canadian history loving heart is gonna go pitter patter. This was an interesting tapestry sewn of many different patches embroidering different perspectives of Canada's almost-Civil-War in Upper Canada well over a century ago. It was a great ensemble piece; but I found without a working knowledge of the source material, audience members might get lost. I was right: several people left at intermission<br />
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<i>The Madness of King George: </i>My friend Melanie and I did a double-header day and this was our matinee. It wasn't the cast's fault; but the pacing in this play needs so much help. SO MUCH HELP! amazing what an editor could have done to tighten up the plot. It is a fascinating look at the George that, truth be told, just makes everyone's favourite Hamilton songs run on loop<br />
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<i>Saint Joan</i> MAN THIS WAS AWESOME! I love Joan of Arc. They chose to do it in that vague century-agnostic militant way that so many people are doing to transpose popular yarns of war to the stage;but it was captivating and sparked a ton of discussion !<br />
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<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>NEW YORK </b><br />
Got the dream team back together and spent another weekend JUST for shows in New York<br />
<br />
<i>Miss Saigon:</i> they did a lot of work at revitalizing this blockbuster ( a long time favourite of mine because of the MUSIC!) and they kinda did everything I ever wanted them to do to make the story and characters more palatable. This is not a white saviour story. This is a story about conflict and multi dimensional characters , blended dark and light, spotlit against the travesty of a complicated war. There are not heroes and heroines in this piece: just sweeping music and poor decisions informed by impossible situations.<br />
<br />
<i>Anastasia </i><br />
So first, there are some great additions to the soundtrack ( albeit some lyrically challenged). Second, the production values are astonishing: costumes, lighting, sets, design--- truly breathtaking. STORYLINE --- this has always been problematic and somehow it becomes more apparent on stage when told in this way. I enjoyed it; but I wasn't floored. I kept turning to my friend Kat, scrunching up my nose to match her puzzled expression in the dark and shaking my head. The pre-teen girls in their sparkles LOVED IT<br />
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<br />
<i>Bandstand</i><br />
<br />
GUYS! I bought the soundtrack to this early in the summer and it is just absolutely dazzling. On stage, this is just a revelation: the actors sing, dance, act (triple threats!!!) and PLAY INSTRUMENTS! You see a real live swing band form before your eyes. I loved the story of recent veterans from the Second World War returning home to find that the world hasn't stopped as they anticipated; nor is it rolling out the red carpet as they dreamed when in the trenches. A bit more careful characterization could have drawn out some of the individual stories of the supporting band members, but Laura Osnes and Corey Cott (!!!) were exceptional<br />
<br />
<i>Kim's Convenience</i> Readers of this blog know that this is not my first time with this show. Due to my friend Kat's close relationship with it, I have followed it around --- this time to New York! It was so lovely to see a slice of Toronto find a home in Manhattan for a little while and touch audiences in America the way it does here<br />
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<br />
<b>LONDON:</b><br />
<br />
<i>Half a Sixpence</i><br />
This is the show you pick to see in the West End when you want to see the most British thing you can conjure. Based on a lesser known H G Wells novel, it is kinda Downton meet Great Expectations meets--well any Lord of the Manor from humble beginnings tale. The music isn't memorable, the story is flimsy; but there's this adorable bunny (actor Charlie Stemp) who has a whole lot of gumption and a banjo and literally takes the show and runs off with it. You literally cannot take your eyes of him. When you do, you see a tightly produced piece with expert voices and choreography that are far better than the material they are performing. A fun night out and so very British I cannot even....<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>EDINBURGH:</b><br />
<br />
One of the reasons I trekked to the UK this summer, was to check up on<a href="https://gladlybeyondaustinausten.wordpress.com/"> my friend Maggie </a> and her immersive show in the Edinburgh Fringe, <i>Intermission</i>. It was kinda neat to see how this piece---infused throughout Edinburgh by marriage of stage show and app and video and podcast--- came to be. <br />
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<br />
Whew! I think that is it ! Mel and I are off to Stratford to see <i>Twelfth Night</i> on the weekend--- so will keep you posted on that<br />
<br />
<br />
Catch Up Posts will continue .....<br />
<br />Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-57675726325682673412017-06-26T05:59:00.000-07:002017-06-26T06:26:58.769-07:00book gush The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue <br />
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La! THIS IS MY BOOK! <br />
<br />
It was hard to, like, eat and sleep and write and be out in the world the last few days knowing this was in my apartment<br />
<i><b><br />"“I swear, you would play the coquette with a well-upholstered sofa."</b></i><br />
<div>
<i><b>"First, I would not. And second, how handsome is this sofa?”</b></i><br />
<br />
You have no idea. I just can't stop smiling about it. My cheeks hurt and, yes, I am going to read it five more times and probably all of those times just this week. For starters. Because this is the keeperest of keeper shelf keepers in the history of keepers. It is Rachel catnip, it is darned delightful, it is skittles and sunshine and kittens and ice cream and I am drawing hearts around it with my mind.<br />
<br />
Oh Monty, you delicious rogue! Why are you so nose-wrinklingly adorable? But alas, I digress in my enthusiasm to just absolutely rave about the adorable awkwardness of this young man and his clueless ( so clueless) attempts at deciphering the intentions of his crush, Percy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><i><br />“It's beginning to feel like he's shuffling his way through the seven deadly sins, in ascending order of my favourites.” </i></b><br />
Onward:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
It's very hard to get me to laugh aloud in a book. I snicker. I am amused. But, there is something magic about a voice that makes me laugh til I have tears. I love to giggle and clever humour is often how I find a keeper author. I also have a thing for writers who use beautiful, captivating fiction to draw out social injustices of a time period: in this case, the limited understanding of epilepsy and the stigmas surrounding it, same sex relationships, and the treatment of bi-racial Percy Newton, who is a bit of a hybrid between two worlds (if you have seen the film<i> Belle</i> you will be familiar with some of society's fascination and judgment of him)<br />
<br />
<br />
I preface that to set the tone for our romp through Henry (Monty) Montague's disastrous Grand Tour. But also to place it as one facet of a multi-dimensional story that wrings tears along with its laughter ( sometimes at the same time )<br />
<br />
Like the <i>Horatio Lyle </i>series and<i> the Watchmaker of Filigree Street,</i> this book had a narrative voice that arrested me. It is something special and something I want to keep in a treasure chest. To find a unique, alluring, brilliant, smart and surprising narrative voice is what a lot of readers live for and if you want one that will nab you on page one, this is the book for you.<br />
<br />
It's a good thing, too, because Monty---our guide through his snortable adventures from lazy coquettish drunk to target in an international chase--- is an insufferably shallow but oh so delightfully rich fop.<br />
<br />
And he is not as dense as what he gives off and he is not as shallow as the man who opens his story drunk and depraved and he undergoes a subtle and wonderful development. Character development? Not really, more the development of displaying to those closest to him what was always there on the inside, inverting it so it radiant for all to see. Monty is a good and lovely human. He just has to trip over a few of his own stupid mistakes to realize it.<br />
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<br />
<i><b>“God bless the book people for their boundless knowledge absorbed from having words instead of friends.” </b></i><br />
Like so many men of his age and circumstance, Monty is to spend a year on a Grand Tour of Europe before settling down to become the Lord of the Manor. Monty hates everything about his family life: the restrictions, his wailing little brother, his abusive father and a life that would paint him into rigour and structure where he would rather be out kissing boys and girls and more boys, drinking everything within a six mile radius and flirting with his best friend Percy.<br />
<br />
Percy, you see, is for the first several chapters of the book, Monty's only redeeming factor. Well, Percy and Monty's wonderful sense of humour keep you from thinking: you are a terribly selfish human being but La! You are also so fun and I cannot turn away from you, you disaster of a person.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<b><i>“Oh no."<br />Percy looks sideways at me. "Oh no what?"<br />I swallow. "I'd first like it to be noted that I am most certainly not a smuggler."<br />"Monty..." he says, my name sopping with dread.<br />"And," I continue overtop him, "I'd like you to both remember just how much you adore me and how dull and gloomy your lives would be without me in them."<br />"What did you do?” </i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
Bundled into a carriage with a bear guide, his 15 year bookish sister Felicity ( think Mary from Pride and Prejudice) and Percy, his one true love, they set off for one last whirl of fun and end up running for their lives.<br />
<br />
Some people don't want to spoil mysteries or twists. I don't want to spoil adventures. I don't want readers to be for one moment expecting the freshness of language, the originality of adventures or the heart of the chase that turns the plot from comedy of (ill) manners to continental chase ( with pirates, for good measure).<br />
<br />
But I do want to allure readers by expressing my absolute delight (tame, I mean head over heels full blown heart-thrumming finger tingling obsession) and LOVE for our three leads, their interactions and the deep affection that is so beautifully shared it cuts through like a knife and winnows its way to stay. <br />
<br />
When Monty learns about a terrible secret that would see Percy taken from him forever, it reveals the true depth of his heart. Monty may be all about quips and asides and lecherous behaviour, but he is loyal and broken--- we learn the depth of abuse at his father's hand--and so wanting to do the right thing (even if he takes a maze of lasciviousness to get there).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I absolutely loved this book. It was one of my most anticipated reads of the year (from years of following the author on social media), made more so when the first four chapters were released at <a href="http://www.epicreads.com/blog/sneak-peek-gentlemans-guide-vice-virtue/">Epicreads</a> and I fell immediately into the wink of a knowing voice that I would follow everywhere.<br />
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<br />
It takes a lot to work with a hero like Monty---vain, self-centred, ridiculously and cluelessly obsessed with trifles--- but if you balance him with kind-hearted Percy you really do see through the prism of Monty's world: his goodness is most blatantly exemplified in his love and pursuit of a truly good man. And it is his care for Percy that opens up the shafts of his heart and sparkles and in that reciprocated goodness, you are given an epic pairing for the ages. As in all things, Monty loves without abandon, but it takes a journey to work through the unexpected hurdles that will prove him worthy of the object of his desire. ( I love Percy, too. I LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM! I love them both!)<br />
<br />
<i><b><br /><br />“We're not courting trouble," I say. "Flirting with it, at most.” </b></i><br />
So, get ready to snort tea out your nose and gasp and giggle and roll your eyes (because, really Monty, keep your stockings on and put that girl down!) and appreciate the craft of writing something excessively unputdownably readable undercut by a treatise on social injustice and featuring three of the most delicious leads in an age.<br />
<br />
I want to follow you to the ends of the earth (or at least to a gambling den or Versailles hunting cottage) with you all, Percy, Monty and Felicity ---and thanks to a recent announcement about Felicity's upcoming adventures, I might be lucky enough to do just that.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
(a note to readers: I read and review a lot of inspirational fiction on this blog, this book will not be for all readers. Please be advised of sexual content and strong language) .<br />
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<br />
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-77297641667019235042017-06-08T07:08:00.000-07:002017-06-08T07:08:38.695-07:00Book Gush: The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay <a href="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1491094126l/34460584.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for the austen escape by katherine reay" border="0" src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1491094126l/34460584.jpg" /></a>I have been so busy lately. Mea Culpa. I was in Cape Breton for work, have been writing a ton on my current WIP ( cannot wait for you all to meet Hamish and Reggie), have been seeing a lot of theatre!!!!!! ( including my first Shaw show of the Season at Niagara on the Lake), have been socializing and adventuring in Toronto. So my apologies that the blog has fallen behind).<br />
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<br />
<br />
Now, gush time.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>"When there are serious matters to discuss, Austen women walk. And it has the side benefit of keeping our figures so light and pleasing."</b></i><br />
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<br />
I have to admit I have been getting a little tired of Austen everything. So many updates. So many re-imaginings--- But, if anyone can do Austen, Reay can. Especially because she doesn't just transpose a story into a new setting, she interweaves a new story with new characters, nuances and worlds with the timeless sensibility and humour of Jane Austen. Even while you are not reading ye olde "Austen Update" that merely parallels Austen heroes and heroines in a modern setting, you are being confronted by an invigorated re-visitation of Austen's wisdom. When this strikes you, midway through the book, you recognize that Reay is far smarter than you initially could have thought. This is not just a nod to Austen, this is a thesis ABOUT Austen (specifically her relationship with Bath and her inter-textual connections about love, wisdom and modern relationships) told in prosaic form.<br />
<br />
It's not often that fiction is supplanted with such an academic tenet; but that is what makes Reay one of my favourite writers. With all of her Austen and Bronte and Weber infused prose, she makes a statement about the books she pays homage to. It is this added layer that asserts her as one of the finest contemporary voices.<br />
<br />
But while I get all stodgily English major-y on you, what makes Reay a must-read is her natural accessibility. While this certainly offers a grand wink and nudge to fans of Austen's work on a deeper level, so it is a keen and sparkly colourful carousel of characters transplanted into a Regency-modern hybrid in present-day Bath.<br />
<br />
<br />
Mary Davies is a quiet engineer who works for WATT, a startup in Austin, Texas. Constulant Nathan is one of the brightest parts of her day. While she works to gauge disappointment that her latest optical project Golightly ( yes, THAT is Holly Golightly) didn't take off, she assembles wire animals at her desk and works to decipher the extra attentions Nate gives to her. Work complications and a new manager, however, inspire her to accept her life-long friend Isabel's invitation for a vacation at an Austen-themed estate near Bath. Deciding to escape the everyday and clear her head, she follows Isabel into a world of costumes and balls, of traditional manners and eccentric participants who acquire a personage from the books for their stay.<br />
<br />
But Isabel is not as balanced as she seems and her domineering friend soon begins to show a remarkable mental instability, actually thinking she is Emma Woodhouse and speaking in the sequences and memories of Austen's canon. While Mary struggles to reach her friend, she discovers Isabel's connection to Nathan, who has sparked her life for so long it has flickered into a kind of unending flame. Hurt and confused---mostly by Nathan's own arrival at the estate--- Mary navigates the map of herself while amidst a fresh and inviting, humorous and whimsical world patronized by " <span id="freeText1255717292570336623" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">"</span><br />
Human relations and fallacy, the map of the human mind, the friction between literature and art chafing against science and logic and math: all in a carefully constructed waltz. <br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">I have spent some time in Bath and was happy when the resplendently unique city was drawn to colourful life by Reay's consistent canvas. As Seattle, Chicago, Italy and Ha'worth before, Bath becomes a pulsing throbbing city-- the antidote to the surging Austin heat. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">While this book may remind readers of <i>Austenland </i> by Shannon Hale, it takes a step further in immersing the reader not just in a surfacely Austen world of Regency mannerisms and dialect; rather a deeper look at the wisdom of Austen and her prodding and poking into the deepest tenets of human nature. There is a particularly profound moment that finds Mary understanding more about Austen's relationship to Bath beyond the lens of <i>Persuasion</i> and <i>Northanger Abbey</i> that made me shoot up and think.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
this book glistens.<br />
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />What makes <i>The Austen Escape</i> different than all other Austen updates and adaptations is that rather than just making a contemporary parallel of an Austen story and Austen characters, she works a profound and meaningful thesis about Austen into prosaic form. And that is why the Austen Escape is an integral companion to the study of Austen in the 21st Century.<div>
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[with thanks to Thomas Nelson for the review copy]<br /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">A few quotes: </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><b>"As the morning rolled up its sleeves and got ready to welcome its friend afternoon, the sunshine held fast in the clear sky."</b></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><b>"And Nathan fished. The silence was light and lovely until I realized it wasn't silence at all. The stream gurgled, birds chirped, something called in the distance."</b></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><i><b>"Something had been missing and its absence only felt with its return. Nature abhors a vacuum and will fill it but you must create an opening. Music was that opening. It felt as if the universe was expanding right before me, in a ballroom in Bath," </b></i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></span>
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></span>
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><i><b>"And I was diminishing--as one should before the size and unending grandeur of the universe. It wasn't that I was smaller or less significant; it simply felt like I didn't need to fight for a place within it or for my own protection. "</b></i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><b>"I waited too and watched the stars. A few flickered and the sky felt like music. Music required honesty." </b></i></span></div>
Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-43223274214193942082017-05-04T08:57:00.001-07:002017-05-04T08:57:56.201-07:00Book Gush: Kitty Peck and the Daughter of Sorrow by Kate Griffin <div class="MsoNormal">
<i><b>“I signed my soul away
for the Paradise that day.”</b><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><b><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Kitty-Peck-Daughter-Sorrow-Griffin-ebook/dp/B071YMT8FG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1493912482&sr=1-1">[ pre-order here ]</a></b></i></div>
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The desperate tragedy that tugged us toward the end of the
previous installment in Kitty’s tale seeps into her world from the outset and drags
us into the mire of an unbearably smoggy summer, into the depths of opium dens
and across the stage where lime-lights and greasepaint adorn a world Kitty knows
so well. A world that has, to Kitty,
become little more than a den of iniquity and brutality.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5114tlmQplL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5114tlmQplL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="209" /></a>The amazing thing about so many series is you become so
accustomed to their world a new installment makes your heart race. Also, as you adapt to the world and the
characters, you forget amazing fictional friendships. In the <i>Kitty Peck</i>
series ( gushing <a href="http://a-fair-substitute-for-heaven.blogspot.ca/2015/08/book-gush-sebastien-de-castell-and-kate.html">here </a>), I have discovered that my heart thrums a little the first time I see
the word <i>fannella</i>: Lucca’s pet name for Kitty! Revisiting these characters and spending time in Kitty’s London
laced with visceral and grotesque undercurrents and weighted under the sticky
summer sun was a delight. The best books transplant you so deeply that when you look up from their pages you aren’t sure where you
are. Kitty does that—gets a hook into
you and pulls tightly.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i> Kitty Peck and the Daughter of Sorrow</i> is
the third installment in a series I wish would go on- and -on- forever—and-
ever -amen and it drops right into the murky lair of an opium-tinged
underworld. Now, Lady Linnet, Kitty has
risen from music hall seamstress to a position of dark power and mars on her
conscience stick to her with the ascent.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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As always, there are secrets entwining her brother, Joey (
who was approached with great detail in <i>Kitty
Peck and The Child of Ill Fortune</i>) and Lady Ginger, a scary Havishamesque
maternal figure who would be at home in the Lannister court in Game of Thrones,
all surrounding Kitty’s coming of age story as the curtain is peeled back and
her shocking past revealed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To speak to the intricate plot details would do this review
a disservice. You really need to read the books in order to appreciate the
complicated web Griffin tightens around Kitty and her allies. In this
book, Kitty’s to-die-for connection with
Lucca and her budding feelings for journalist Sam Collins are the bright lights in Kitty’s darkening world and a delight to the reader. While Lucca spends a lot of time off-page (
miss you, Lucca!), Kitty and Sam’s conversations crackle and pop with
chemistry. Their words buzz. Another ally is Peggy, expecting a child
while navigating a new world without Dan, whose death Kitty knows more than she
should about.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Kitty has always been a complex character who colours
between the worlds of dark and light.
Resourceful and intelligent beyond her years, she uses exceptional
agency to work the world around her as befits her desire to find her brother
and, in this case, to reconcile the deeds of her conscience as she stepped into
her new role with the Kitty she most wants to be. What I found especially memorable about
this installment, is how much of a coming-of-age story it is. Kitty grows and develops amidst a festering
underworld of criminal activity, violence and disgrace--- and this is most
apparent in the slight changes in her alluring narrative. This is a more confident Kitty, a hardened
Kitty --though never bereft of the spirit and light that pulls us onward as we
fall into her voice. Griffin shows her
writing chops by allowing us to see the cracks in the veneer of Kitty’s
confidence, while never allowing her self-awareness and strength to falter. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I highly recommend starting this series from the beginning
and I highly recommend savouring the tang of its unique voice. Describing Griffin to people, I sometimes
think of Sarah Waters meets Catherine Webb for lunch with Michael Faber after a
pre-drink with George RR Martin. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As in the previous two installments, Griffin has created a tangible world thanks
to Kitty’s pitch-perfect narration, expert research and descriptions that buzz
off the page. While the plot is intricate, terrifying and undercut with
suspense, it is a character-driven tale populated with colourfully dimensional
characters. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There is also ( tearing up here) an amazing moment of sacrifice
between the two men in Kitty’s life, Lucca and Sam. If you didn’t already love these characters
to the point of distraction,<i> The Daughter of Sorrow </i>will pull you over the
edge. <o:p></o:p></div>
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( and the END omg the END! I die, Horatio! The end was just this lovely little jolt of adrenaline that got Kitty's heart racing so madly I swear I appropriated some of its beat. The author's note informs us that Kitty's world will be brighter and I sure hope so because I NEED these characters in my life and I need more of this fresh, exuberant, wrap-around-you-so-tightly narrative voice)</div>
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<b>A few lines:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Of Sam: <i>“There were grooves at the corners of his mouth
worn there by smiling, not temper.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“Colour was a luxury here.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“I could smell disappointment rolling off him, in the way
you get a tang of old liquor off a lusher.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“I believe that death, when it comes, will be a kindness.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>“When my dress stuck so close to my flesh, it was like the
cotton had been coated in honey.”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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With allllll the thanks in the world to Faber and to Kate Griffin for the opportunity to review </div>
Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-84922629018346326132017-05-03T06:41:00.004-07:002017-05-03T06:41:34.573-07:00Book Gush: High as the Heavens by Kate Breslin <div class="MsoNormal">
Warning: there will be ALL THE CAPS!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41S6mbTAQcL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for high as the heavens breslin" border="0" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41S6mbTAQcL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/High-as-Heavens-Kate-Breslin/dp/076421781X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493818813&sr=8-1&keywords=high+as+the+heavens">PRE-ORDER eight copies and give it to all your friends </a></div>
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But first, plotty stuff:</div>
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Evelyn Marche is a nurse currently working for the resistance
while playing nice with the Germans in war-occupied Brussels. Her life is a barrage of secrets propelled
by a haunted past. While she works at her aunt and uncle’s café and saves lives
from both sides of the war, you know that she is just going through the motions. She’ll stay alive for her mother, for the
Resistance that needs her, and to retrieve her siblings, lost in France. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But underneath Eve’s complicated and complex world of
intrigue and her highly skilled spy work,
she goes through the motions, rendered an automaton by the death of her pilot husband years before. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A tragic sequence of circumstances thereafter pricks at her constantly and she is
but a shell of a person with really nothing to lose after life and love were
ripped from her. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When detoured from a night time assignment by a plane crash
in Brussels Park, Eve never expects she will find herself face-to-face with her
supposedly dead husband, Simon Forrester. Now, caught playing a dangerous game
of roulette, she’ll have to risk his trust to save his life ---even as she keeps
the darkest secrets from the person who should know and love her best.<o:p></o:p></div>
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GUYSSSSSSS what we have here is one of Rachel’s FAVOURITE
ROMANTIC TROPES: something I like to call <b><i>The Pimpernel.</i></b> For those of you familiar with Orczy’s
classic ( and if you aren’t what have you been doing with your life?), it features
a married couple who due to secrets and mistrust are torn apart even as they STILL
LOVE EACH OTHER DEEPLY FOREVER AND EVER and WANT TO SHARE KISSES AND TOUCHES AND EACH OTHER FOREVER AND I CANNOT EVEN DEAL.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here, like Sir Percy, Simon is rattled by the fact that his
beloved and rediscovered wife may indeed be a traitor while Eve is confronted with
the treacherous fact that the return of her husband means finally spilling a
secret that has ruined her at core. <o:p></o:p></div>
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AND I JUST WANT THEM TO TAKE EACH OTHER IN ARMS AND TALK IT
OUT <o:p></o:p></div>
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WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE and oh is it
ever achingly, seethingly , bone-tinglingly delicious as time is meted out in
slow, languorous romantic breaths and you are all: OH PLEASE END THIS INSANITY
AND KISS FOREVER <o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s really lovely and done so well: especially when embroidered
with sweet tantalizing scenes from the past.
We see Simon and Eve fall in love and must reconcile the sepia-tinted
light of these remembrances with the hardened, challenged and war-torn people
they are at present.<o:p></o:p></div>
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OF COURSE THEY STILL LOVE EACH OTHER and would die for each
other a thousand times over but THEY CANNOT TELL EACH OTHER without risking
their respective causes and Eve is near rendered mute by a secret that clogs her
throat and catches her breath and she wonders if Simon could ever truly love
the woman who, out of desperation, was forced to make a lethal choice. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And what is AWESOME about this, reader friends, is that the
longer the game goes on, the more confusingly intricate the web becomes. You think that everything is smoothed out
like a crease in your favourite pencil skirt, but NO, she throws another wrench
into things because she takes DELIGHT IN TORTURING US. To add to the torture, she has a lovely and
poetic way of painting a physical connection between our two leads that is
whisper light and passionate and alluring—while reminding us that their true
connection is strung together with a deeper knot. The more we see Simon and Eve in their respective
roles for the cause, the more we are met with the commonalities that surge
between them and can truly buy into their connection and story on an inherently
intelligent level. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Breslin also does well at painting both sides of the
conflict in sympathetic light. Eve’s
ability to understand the plight of the German enemies she waits on ( and whose
lives she saves as a skilled nurse) even as she aids the allied effort are human
and as rooted in an impossible situation as she is. Breslin also (of course, its Breslin)
impresses an impressive understanding of culture and verisimilitude as is
trademark in her historical fiction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But, mostly, and above all, she makes you love. She makes
you love the ginger-haired Scotch pilot with the calloused hands and roguish burr
and his Eve--- a stroke of genius in the name--- the woman who could be his saviour
or the downfall of his life and his heart…. Again.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A series of games, clues, breathless escapes, creaks and
snippets of war on the European front, you will have to navigate a world of
double-agents and betrayals. But rest
safe in the hands of Breslin’s competent pen, her fully realized characters and
… of course… an “OMG YOU DIDN’T THIS IS THE BEST EVER PIMPERNEL ROMANCE AND I
CANNOT EVEN”<o:p></o:p></div>
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I can’t even, guys.
And for the last time she did this to me and ruined my life with the
most agonizing kind of word bliss, read <a href="http://a-fair-substitute-for-heaven.blogspot.ca/2015/07/book-gush-not-by-sight-by-kate-breslin.html">NOT BY SIGHT</a> <o:p></o:p></div>
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Thanks to Bethany House and Netgalley and Kate Breslin for ruining me for the real world </div>
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-61396833475655345952017-05-02T07:47:00.000-07:002017-05-02T07:47:12.540-07:00book gush: After Anatevka by Alexandra Silber<div class="MsoNormal">
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<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
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<i><b>Memory, she thought, is
a sacred place. It is the place where the past is gathered—an inner synagogue
where we make meaning of our existence.<o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
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You know those books
that just make you giddy because they are soooooo good and the author is SOOOO
smart and you are just happy you live in a world where words can be outfitted
to paint a splendid, moving, remarkable heart-stopping portrait of love and
life and hope and ache and power?<o:p></o:p></div>
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You know those books that just tug you into them and hold you
tightly so that you look up and are surprised that you are on the subway and
not sitting across from characters whose tongues drip simple wisdom and who are
salt and light and everything that is flawed and flourishing about humanity?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tHVXC94NL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for after anatevka" border="0" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tHVXC94NL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" /></a><i>After Anatevka </i> is that book.
It is a globe, a sphere, one of those snowglobes you shake peering into
the tiny world crafted perfectly and shrouded in flickering snowflakes. It is a
capture of a moment of exquisite heartbreak against a brutal yet achingly lovely
canvas that can never quell that which you cannot tether from a human: faith,
hope, the best kind of once-in-a-million love.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>After Anatevka</i>
answers a question I revisit every time I see a production of Fiddler on the
Roof: what happens after Hodel leaves Anatevka with the news that her beloved,
the radically smart Perchik, has been transported to a Siberian prison?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The door on her story is closed at the train station as she explains
why she will go far from the home she loves to follow Perchik while her father
Tevye, is confronted with one more way that the traditions of his past and his
religion are fraying at the seams.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I thought this was a fascinating premise for a novel and I
couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
What I wasn’t expecting, however, was to encounter one of the smartest
historical novels I have read in an age nor one of the most lyrical debut voices
of my reading life.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>After Anatevka</i>, is not a story so much as an experience and
in lesser hands it could never embroider the pathos and light of a historical
narrative tradition to create a melancholy
and everlasting tapestry of hope.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yes, hope. For all
the darkness undercutting Hodel’s imprisonments and Perchik’s suffering in the
Siberian salt mines, the power of hope and the commitment to life ( hear<i> L’Chaim!
</i>in your head) is the true theme of the story.
Love knows no barriers. Love is a spiritual connection .Love has agency
beyond borders and boundaries, deceit and despair.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The bookrepresents Hodel and Perchik’s present: first Hodel incarcerated as a single woman in pursuit of her fiance in a kind of holding cell ( held in time and place at the mercy of waiting ) and then reunited with Perchik in Nerchinsk with respective flashbacks subverting every trope of romantic ballads with startling freshness. It is in flashbacks that Silber is at her most ingenious:
colouring in the world of Hodel and her sisters and infusing a crash course in
cultural norms in early 20<sup>th</sup> Century Russia. A treatise on the beauty of domesticity and
the advocacy for women who think beyond the realm of their small town and
customs are balanced to justify all female experience. The feminine sphere –
either perfecting the baking of the challah or pursuing a man outside of your
faith ( Chava) are seen as equal experiences and all worthy. In the latter half of the book, Perchik’s
story is embroidered—and taken beyond the seams of anything grounded in its
many nods to its theatrical counterpart and into Silber’s own imagination. While Hodel’s limitations are dictated by
the rubrics of a woman’s place in Anatevka, so Perchik finds poverty and mental
abuse by his uncle the chains that would keep him from pursuing life. And all while peeling back the curtain of
their formative years, Silber forms the perfect pair--- allowing the reader to
fully understand why Hodel would leave the safety of her home for a life of
destitution and darkness and why Perchik pursued a forbidden dance with the dairyman’s
daughter in a small village. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Their connection is palpable and bursts off the page. Even while Hodel is drawn to the past:
remembering, fingering through letters late delivered from her sister Tzeitel,
we see that there was no other choice but for her to chase one half of her soul—Perchik---no
matter the consequences.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A large portion of the book follows the (expertly researched
) daily life of internment at a labour camp.
Into this world, Silber broadens the circle with fluid, dimensional
characters – both overseers and fellow prisoners—that add colour, human and
life to its dreary toil. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I just cannot say enough about this book. It is a
world. Silber’s instincts are pitch
perfect, drawing you in and tethering you to a tale remarkable in its praise of
the fortitude of spirit and intelligence.
Modern parallels ( the best aspect of historical fiction), encourage the
reader to ponder how far they would go to speak and be heard. Faith is at the crux of Hodel and Perchik’s
love, even as they find it beyond the metrics of the traditions that Tevye saw
slipping from his family in the source musical. And all unfurling in an expertly woven tale
full of self-awareness and beautiful language. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><b>“The pivot?” Hodel murmured. <o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
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<i><b>“The fulcrum. The turning point. In every story there is
always a moment when the anchoring thread of the tapestry unravels. I don’t know that I have ever been inside that
story until now.”</b></i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><b>“There is a kind of transaction that occurs between a person
and a place: you give the place something and it gives you something in return. In years to come, Hodel would know for
certain not only what Nerchinsk had taken, but what it had given her as well.” </b></i><o:p></o:p></div>
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For theatre buffs, this book will excite you – yes, it does have several lovely nods to the musical so beloved. But for readers with no previous attachment to
the story, rejoice! We have found an earth-shatteringly beautiful new voice in
historical fiction—resplendent with passion and poetry. A perfect voice for excavating the little moments
in humanity against the bleak brutality of Nerchinsk.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And then, the descriptions (music!) <b><i>“ Hodel admired how the broadness
of his shoulders curved above the volume as if he were cradling the very
thoughts upon the pages with his entire body.”</i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>“How exquisitely Nerchinsk sulks upon its gray and sorrowful
bluff. How shafts of sun burst through the thick, low blanket of cloud above
the village like stabs of hope from heaven.”
(ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Dies of love) <o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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And the feminism “<i><b>Hodel saw it through her sister’s eyes:
women were created to be in every way partners, not mindless slaves or brainless
doormats, but helpers, collaborators, equals. And that was a thing of great
beauty”<o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
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And the simple wisdom <b><i>“For our greatest rewards, Hodel,
sometimes we must endure.”<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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<b><i>“Perchik could no longer stand being believed in—belief was
heavy; it was burning sunlight in his eyes.” <o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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And this : “<b><i> I wanted a woman who was somewhat like the
moon. I would miss her when she was away and appreciate her when she returned,
but I did not want her around all the time!” </i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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And this: “<b><i>In two little words, all of Hodel’s life choices
were suddenly obliterated by Tzeitel’s sense of domestic superiority” ( snortle.
There are a lot of lovely sibling moments in this!) </i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p>I had a full blown love affair with this book. It exceeded expectations I didn't know I had and then some. </o:p></div>
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<o:p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-Anatevka-Novel-Inspired-Fiddler/dp/1681774348/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493736224&sr=8-1&keywords=after+anatevka"><br /></a></o:p></div>
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<o:p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-Anatevka-Novel-Inspired-Fiddler/dp/1681774348/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493736224&sr=8-1&keywords=after+anatevka">Pre-order </a>two copies at least: one for you and one for the person you will immediately ache to share it with. This story is a love letter and love letters are never meant to experienced in solitude. </o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p>With thanks to Pegasus and Netgalley for the review copy.</o:p></div>
Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-43965222073380750732017-04-05T10:53:00.001-07:002017-04-05T10:53:34.602-07:00book contract news! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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FRIENDS!<br />
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So delighted to announce some news about my BRAND NEW SERIES....<br />
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I am partnering with Thomas Nelson/ Harper Collins to bring you a brand new series!<br />
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I get to usher you to 1930s Boston: to tell the tale of a remarkable and special and anxious and smart and kind young man whose life truly begins when he arrives in the Revolutionary City. also, of a spirited young woman --a New Haven debutante--whose grand dream is to cross off every last "to do" in her "journal of independence." together, they will flirt with love and life and perfect the Lindy Hop.... they'll also solve a murder or two....<br /><br />From the dazzling neon-striped nightclubs of Scollay Square to a crumbling office adjacent the Paul Revere House in the North End, we are going to Boston! beautiful, wonderful Boston! <br /><br />Hamish DeLuca and Reggie Van Buren's first adventure releases in 2018!<div>
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(And yes, it is THAT DeLuca--- Hamish is Jem and Ray's son ---- all grown up!)<br /><br /><br /><div>
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one of the most exciting parts about all of this, is that I was finally able to change the setting on my Pinterest page from secret to public. Check it out :<a href="https://www.pinterest.com/rachkmc/join-or-die/"> https://www.pinterest.com/rachkmc/join-or-die/</a></div>
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Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26185264.post-10004731262432522382017-03-28T07:16:00.003-07:002017-03-28T07:16:56.172-07:00FREEEEEEE Herringford and Watts novellas For the next month to celebrate the almost-release of WHITE FEATHER MURDERS, all 3 novella-sized<i> Herringford and Watts</i> novellas are FREE on all major retailers<br />
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I know! It's the best!<br />
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<i>A Singular and Whimsical Problem</i> is the first adventure published ( thought not chronological) and is a little Christmas jaunt with Jem and Merinda and an elusive cat named Pepper<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Singular-Whimsical-Problem-Herringford-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B017WQ26U6/ref=pd_sim_351_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B017WQ26U6&pd_rd_r=54155RT6AFYSPA60YNKQ&pd_rd_w=B6RQk&pd_rd_wg=OxWgY&psc=1&refRID=54155RT6AFYSPA60YNKQ">amazon</a> / <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-singular-and-whimsical-problem-rachel-mcmillan/1122966689?ean=9780736966467">barnes and noble </a>/<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-singular-and-whimsical-problem/id1060882680?mt=11"> itunes</a> / <a href="https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/a-singular-and-whimsical-problem">kobo </a><br />
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<i>Of Dubious and Questionable Memory</i> takes the girls to Massachusetts in pursuit of a missing woman whose mystery leads them to the heart of Concord and Orchard House, residence of Louisa May Alcott<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dubious-Questionable-Memory-Herringford-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01EBNW64E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1490710205&sr=1-1&keywords=of+dubious+and+questionable">amazon</a>/ <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/of-dubious-and-questionable-memory-rachel-mcmillan/1123675838?ean=9780736968799">barnes and noble</a> / <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/of-dubious-and-questionable-memory/id1107774899?mt=11">itunes</a> / <a href="https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/of-dubious-and-questionable-memory">kobo</a><br />
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<i>Conductor of Light </i>is my homage to my love of all things theatre and is a cozy closed-room mystery set at the Elgin and Winter Garden theatres here in Toronto.<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conductor-Light-Short-Herringford-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01N0BPQMU/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TM5EVZYFM405MW33BKX0"><br /></a>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conductor-Light-Short-Herringford-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01N0BPQMU/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TM5EVZYFM405MW33BKX0">amazon</a> / <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-singular-and-whimsical-problem-rachel-mcmillan/1122966689?ean=9780736966467">barnes and noble</a> / <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/conductor-of-light/id1177234971?mt=11">itunes</a> / <a href="https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/conductor-of-light-free-short-story">kobo</a><br />
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pre order WHITE FEATHER MURDERS:<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/White-Feather-Murders-Herringford-Mysteries/dp/0736966447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490710457&sr=8-1&keywords=white+feather+murders">amazon</a> / <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-white-feather-murders-rachel-mcmillan/1123889845?ean=9780736966443">barnes and noble </a>/<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-white-feather-murders/id1206646979?mt=11"> itunes</a> / <a href="https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-white-feather-murders">kobo </a><br />
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<br />Rachelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04256326961775297121noreply@blogger.com1