Mharvi Reads

The Book of Lost Fragrances - M.J. Rose

2012-02-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Atria Books (March 13, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1451621302

***

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra--and lost for 2,000 years.

Jac L'Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances--and of her mother's suicide--she moved to America. Now, fourteen years later she and her brother have inherited the company along with it's financial problems. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing--leaving a dead body in his wake--Jac is plunged into a world she thought she'd left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother's disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend the House of L'Etoile has been espousing since 1799. Is there a scent that can unlock the mystery of reincarnation - or is it just another dream infused perfume?

The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra's Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet's battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac's quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

***

Read an excerpt from The Lost Book of Fragrances.

But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection. —Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

Chapter 1.
Alexandria, Egypt, 1799

Giles L’Etoile was a master of scent, not a thief. He had never stolen anything but one woman’s heart, and she’d always said she’d given that willingly. But on this chilly Egyptian evening, as he descended the rickety ladder into the ancient tomb, each tentative footstep brought him closer to criminality.

Preceding L’Etoile had been an explorer, an engineer, an architect, an artist, a cartographer and, of course, the general himself—all the savants from Napoleon’s army of intellectuals and scientists now stealing into a sacred burial place that had remained untouched for thousands of years. The crypt had been discovered the day before by the explorer Emile Saurent and his team of Egyptian boys, who had stopped digging when they unearthed the sealed stone door. Now the twenty-nine-year-old Napoleon would have the privilege of being the first man to see what had lain lost and forgotten for millennia. It was no secret that he entertained dreams of conquering Egypt. But his grand ambitions went beyond military conquests. Under his aegis, Egypt’s history was being explored, studied and mapped.

Full Excerpt Here.

***

What a truly lovely novel this was to read. A love story spanning the ages, an intricate mystery set in the recesses of time...all of this set in some of the most beguiling and intriguing locations around the world. It was, for me, the ideal way to escape the 'real world' for awhile...just kick up my feet and allow myself to be transported into a fictional world that seemed so familiar and yet magical, surreal. MJ Rose has crafted that rare novel that manages to be believable and fantastical at the same time.

Oh, and what's not to love about a book that launches with it's very own personalized signature fragrance?

Discover the perfume inspired by The Book of Lost Fragrances

Pre-order The Book of Lost Fragrances and we'll send you a free sample of Âmes Soeurs, the Scent of Soulmates. This exclusive fragrance, inspired by the novel, was created by Joya Studios and is not yet for sale.

Just use one of the above links to buy the book and then email the receipt, or a scan of it, to LostFragrances@gmail.com. Include 1) your name, and 2) snail mail address so we can send you the fragrance. (no post office box addresses, please!

AUTHOR

M.J. Rose (www.mjrose.com) is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her next novel THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES (Atria/S&S) will be published in March 2012.
Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio.
Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com
The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype.
She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.
Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

Yep.

2012-02-18T13:03:00.000-08:00

I feel like this most days...Take that as you please.

Quoted

2012-02-17T16:20:00.000-08:00

Gotye - Somebody That I used To Know

2012-02-16T19:31:00.000-08:00

"Somebody That I Used To Know"
(feat. Kimbra)

[Gotye:]
Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was glad it was over

But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
No you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

[Kimbra:]
Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I'd done
But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know

[Gotye:]
But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
And you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

[x2]
Somebody
(I used to know)
Somebody
(Now you're just somebody that I used to know)

(I used to know)
(That I used to know)
(I used to know)
Somebody

Havah - Tosca Lee

2012-02-07T02:00:00.000-08:00

ISBN-13: 9781433668791
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Publication date: 8/1/2010
Pages: 384

***

She knew this earth when it was perfect—like her, for a time. Made by God in a manner like no other, she lived in utter peace without flaw in paradise until one fateful decision changed everything. Now, all humanity suffers for her mistake. But what did it feel like then to first sin and be exiled, to see all innocence crumble so vividly, and a strange new world take its place?

Experience the epic dawn of mankind through the eyes and heart of Eve—the woman first known as Havah.

"A passionate and riveting story of the Bible's first woman. Lee's superior storytelling will have readers weeping for all that Havah forfeited by a single damning choice

***

What Publisher's Weekly Had To Say About Havah:

Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.

Lee surprised the evangelical Christian literary world with her acclaimed Demon: A Memoir. Her fans will be equally pleased with her newest, a passionate and riveting story of the Bible's first woman and her remarkable journey after being cast from paradise. Havah, Adam's chosen name for Eve, recounts her life from a singular vantage point. From having known only blissful innocence, she must struggle through every post-Garden moment. Frustration compounds her plight as she repeatedly attempts to regain her former idyllic existence and repeatedly fails. Havah's life becomes a fight for survival once she and Adam are cast from the Garden, and Lee's poetic prose beautifully depicts the couple's slow surrender to a world tending to destruction. Havah gives birth, raises a brood of children, watches one son kill another, observes disease and death. Yet all the while, she waits for the fulfillment of "the One" (God) who will bring reconciliation and redemption through her seed. Lee's superior storytelling will have readers weeping for all that Havah forfeited by a single damning choice.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

***

I couldn't wait for this novel to be released. I longed to read it for months and literally counted down the days until it was finally available for review. I feel pretty confident that I was among the few lucky people to receive a review copy as soon as it was released. Ahhh, advanced reader copies I do love them. Tosca Lee is probably one of my favorite authors and she is without a doubt a talented and gifted writer. Havah is a unique novel in so many ways. It charts territory at once familiar and foreign. Ms. Lee tackles this timeless tale with an authority that allows the reader to experience the story of Adam and Eve in a way that you were not taught in Sunday School...full of very human wonder, despair, tragedy and joy.

Havah is beautifully written and will probably change you in ways quite unexpected...highly recommended.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tosca Lee is the author of the critically acclaimed Demon: A Memoir, a ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year silver award winner and 2008 Christy award finalist. She earned her degree in English from Smith College, is an international consultant, and was first runner-up to Mrs. United States.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

Photo Post

2012-02-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

Feeling Hopeful.

The Lost Goddess - Tom Knox

2012-02-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult (February 2, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0670023183
ISBN-13: 978-0670023189

***

From the internationally bestselling author of The Genesis Secret-a seductive, exotic new thriller

In the silent caves beneath France, young archaeologist Julia Kerrigan unearths an ancient skull-with a hole bored through the forehead. After she reveals her discovery, her mentor is brutally murdered. Deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia, photographer Jake Thurby is offered a mysterious assignment by a beautiful Cambodian lawyer who is investigating finds at the two-thousand-year-old Plain of Jars-finds that shadowy forces want kept secret.

From the temples of Angkor Wat and the wild streets of Bangkok to the prehistoric caves in Western Europe, what links Jake's and Julia's discoveries is a strange, demonic woman whose unquenchable thirst for vengeance-and the horrors she seeks to avenge- are truly shocking.

Readers have become enthralled by Knox's vivid blend of buccaneering modern adventure, gothic horror, and grand intellectual puzzles. The Lost Goddess is his most exciting novel to date.

***

This review has really got me stumped. I just don't know what I want to say...what should I tell you, dear reader, about this rather long tome? I could tell you how I haven't read a book that actually taught me anything new since I was a rather young girl and yet this novel had me highlighting new words and names of places and googling them like mad. I could tell you how (quite recently) I have been having an ongoing ~~argument~~ discussion about the evils of communism and this book managed to succinctly encapsulate my views quite nicely (and vindicating my humble opinion, I should add). I am rather tempted to lift and quote directly for the benefit of ~~winning~~ contributing to our ~~heated~~ friendly debates. Anyway, philosophical matters aside, Tom Knox has written a fast paced, thriller. A real gem of a novel that kept me reading long after bed time.

This book will take you from obscure locales in France to exotic Asian landscapes educating you with facts about the people and their history along the way. I really can not express how much I learned from this book. Of course I've heard of the Khmer Rouge but what did I actually know of them? Their acts, their beliefs? Nothing, I tell you...until now that is. What did I know about the rise of communism in Southeast Asia? Squat, apparently. Now, I generally warn people about getting their history facts (or any FACTS, for that matter) from a work of fiction. I mean, hello? It's a work of fiction...right? Well, as I began to read The Lost Goddess I realized pretty quick that I would need to keep my trusty laptop handy so I could look up all of the interesting bits of information. Turns out Mr. Knox has done his research really well and he takes little creative license with it-though I have to say when the truth is this crazy you don't need a lot of embellishment to make it interesting. Kudos to Mr. Knox for taking the time and using his talent to write a novel that not only entertains but illuminates and informs as well. He has brought to light some pretty horrifying realities that truly need to be more well known. I just hope his voice will be heard.

I so much enjoyed this book and have been telling everyone to put it on their must read list. I just want to formally thank the author right here and now....Thank you, Mr. Knox! Love your book! Going back to the beginning of this post...I just don't know what I want to say, well this pretty much sums it up for me: A quote from the wonderfully talented Mr. Knox, "I want you to like the books so much you buy several copies in case you lose one." Yup. That's all I wanted to say. I liked this book so much I intend on buying several copies. Review closed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Knox

Tom Knox is the pseudonym of the author Sean Thomas. Born in England, he has traveled the world writing for many different newspapers and magazines, including The Times, the Guardian, and the Daily Mail. His last book was a memoir, translated into eight languages; he also writes on art, politics, and ancient history. He lives in London.

You can find him and LOADS of information on his novels HERE.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

Organized Simplicity - Tsh Oxenreider

2012-01-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

Remove the Mess, Add Meaning

Simplicity isn't about what you give up. It's about what you gain. When you remove the things that don't matter to you, you are free to focus on only the things that are meaningful to you.

***

This was a recent free offer from Amazon. Like so many people these days I am not just interested in living a simpler life I am practically obsessed with it. Lately I have been very intrigued by what is called a "French Closet"---basically it means that you own only a few key pieces of high quality clothes that fit you perfectly. Well, if you knew me personally you'd know right away that owning only a 'few' clothing items has never been even remotely a possibility. I love fashion. I have loads of clothes that take up three closets and we aren't talking about those dinky little niche in the wall closets. The stand alone shower in my en suite? It's been converted into a closet because I simply ran out of space.

My little family and I live in a quaint but small cottage where space is a premium and my hoarding of the closets has really been challenging. A few years back I purged the kitchen of all non essential gadgets and it felt liberating. Now, I am the proud owner of a few well seasoned cast iron skillets and great set of knives and you know what? I do not miss the Cuisinart or the toaster oven or the panini press, the George Foreman or any of the other stuff I donated.

I was off to a great start on this path to simple living. Enthused and optimistic even. But somewhere along the way I simply stopped purging our stuff. Out of sight out of mind. Until, at least, something else came into the house and it was time to find it a home and I realized all the cupboards were taken. The closets were full. We began talking about selling our sweet little home and buying a bigger place. Well, thank Heaven that sanity prevailed and coincidentally this book popped up on Amazon. Actually, I believe that God answers all prayers and that this book showed up free just when I was struggling with our space issues was, in fact, NOT a coincidence but that is neither here nor there.

It probably took me two days to read this book and it was just enough motivation to get me going. Every week since reading this book I've made a trip to the local charity to drop off more of our unused stuff. Stuff we didn't even know we had. Stuff that was piled up on the tippy tops of the closets, stuff tucked into the dark recesses of the laundry room cabinets and yes, my friend lots and lots of clothes. The process is still ongoing but I always joke that our home has lost a lot of weight these last few weeks and she looks great for it.

Photo Post

2012-01-13T09:09:00.000-08:00

Pure - Julianna Baggott

2012-01-10T01:00:00.000-08:00

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .

There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

***

This is a compelling book. Pure is a somewhat savage coming of age book set in a post apocalyptic world. It is a world that is mesmerizing in all of it's harrowing detail, a world ruled by a stark authoritarian regime and populated by humans that barely eke out a bleak existence. And yet there is hope in these pages. There is a subtle beauty that manages to redeem a novel that could have been too bleak and oppressive. I came away from this novel feeling hopeful, feeling alive and capable. Ms. Baggott writes with a sensitivity that allows her characters to retain their human qualities in an environment that endeavors to destroy rather than nourish.

What else can I say other than I was absolutely surprised by this novel. I wasn't expecting that much from an 'end times' book. I never do. Pure somehow treads that line between shock and awe and true literary fiction. Sure it's a book about a dystopian future and it has all the qualities that novels of that genre usually have: desolate lands, victims, martyrs and characters that spend most of their time just surviving. Yet, Pure manages so much more than that. It is also a novel about first love, friendship, and the complex bonds that humans create when they become attached to one another. The characters in Ms. Baggott's novel are not mere pawns that drive a story they are the story, their lives, hopes, fears and dreams are what propel this novel along. Their struggles became mine and I found myself thinking about them even after the last page had been turned.

You can find Julianna here.

More about Pure here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Critically acclaimed, bestselling author Julianna Baggott also writes under the pen names Bridget Asher and N.E. Bode. She has published seventeen books over the last ten years. Film rights for her forthcoming novel PURE have been acquired by Fox 2000. The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted, written under pen name Asher, was published in spring 2011. There are approximately 50 foreign editions of her novels to date.

Julianna began publishing when she was twenty-two and sold her first novel while still in her twenties. After receiving her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she published her first novel, Girl Talk, which was a national bestseller and was quickly followed by Boston Globe bestseller The Miss America Family, and then Boston Herald Book Club selection, The Madam, an historical novel based on the life of her grandmother. She co-wrote Which Brings Me to You with Steve Almond, A Best Book of 2006 (Kirkus Reveiws) optioned by producer Richard Brown and adapted by Keith Bunin with Matthew Warchus set to direct.

Her Bridget Asher novels include The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted, The Pretend Wife, My Husband's Sweethearts. More info can be found at her Bridget Asher blog.

She also writes bestselling novels for younger readers under the pen name N.E. Bode as well as under Julianna Baggott. The Anybodies trilogy was a People Magazine pick alongside David Sedaris and Bill Clinton, a Washington Post Book of the Week, a Girl's Life Top Ten, a Booksense selection, and was in development at Nickelodeon/Paramount; The Slippery Map (fall 2007), and the prequel to Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007), a movie starring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, and Jason Bateman. For two years, Bode was a recurring personality on XM Sirius Radio.

Julianna's Boston Red Sox novel The Prince of Fenway Park (HarperCollins), was published in spring 2009. It is on the Sunshine State Young Readers Awards List for 2011-2012.
The Ever Breath (Random House) was published in December, 2009.

Baggott also has a highly acclaimed career as a poet, having published three collections of poetry and having been published in the best literary publications in the country, including Poetry, The American Poetry Review, and Best American Poetry in 2001 and 2011.

Baggott's work has appeared in over a hundred publications, including the The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Glamour, Ms., Real Simple, and read on NPR's Here and Now, All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation. Her essays, stories, and poems are highly anthologized.

She is an associate professor at Florida State University's Creative Writing Program.

In 2006, Baggott and her husband co-founded the nonprofit organization Kids in Need - Books in Deed, that focuses on literacy and getting free books to underprivileged children in the state of Florida.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillippe Sendker

2011-12-31T06:57:00.000-08:00

This title will be released on 31 January, 2012.

A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.

***

I couldn't put this book down. I read it in just a day or two and I found it to be a beautiful story lovingly told by a talented writer. It is magical and poignant; an amazing, achingly sublime love story. It is a tale of faithfulness, perseverance, hope and trust. When have you ever loved someone enough to let them go without hatred or malice? Have you ever felt that kind of deep emotion that rings true thorough out your life despite the circumstances? Funny how people live lives that they know they were not meant to live simply because it is convenient or the right thing to do. As I read this book my heart ached for the characters but it ached also for myself. There is something in this book that will touch you profoundly, spur you onto greater heights. I know this because one can not read this tale without thinking about one's own life and the trajectory it is taking them on. Are you really living how you want, with whom you want...are you really honoring your soul or are you only marking time until some later date? Perhaps we could all learn the art of hearing heartbeats, beginning with listening to our own.

***

Excerpt

December in Kalaw is a cold month. The sky is blue and cloudless. The sun wanders from one side of the horizon to the other, but no longer climbs high enough to generate any real warmth. The air is clear and fresh, and only the most sensitive people can still detect any trace of the heavy, sweet scent of the tropical rainy season, when the clouds hang low over the village and the valley, and the water falls unchecked from the skies as if to slake a parched world’s thirst. The rainy season is hot and steamy. The market reeks of rotting meat, while heavy black flies settle on the entrails and skulls of sheep and cattle. The earth itself seems to perspire. Worms and insects crawl out of its pores. Innocent rills turn to rushing torrents that devour careless piglets, lambs, or children, only to disgorge them, lifeless, in the valley below.
But December promises the people of Kalaw a respite from all of this. December promises cold nights and mercifully cool days. December, thought Mya Mya, is a hypocrite.
She was sitting on a wooden stool in front of her house looking out over the fields and the valley to the hilltops in the distance. The air was so clear that she felt she was looking through a spyglass to the ends of the earth. She did not trust the weather. Although she could not remember ever in her life having seen a cloud in a December sky, she would not rule out the possibility of a sudden downpour. Or of a typhoon even if not a single one in living memory had found its way from the Bay of Bengal into the mountains around Kalaw. It was not impossible. As long as there were typhoons anywhere, one might well devastate Mya Mya’s native soil. Or the earth might quake. Even, or perhaps especially, on a day like today, when nothing foreshadowed catastrophe. Complacency was treacherous, confidence a luxury that Mya Mya could not afford. That much she knew at the bottom of her heart. For her there would be neither peace nor rest. Not in this world. Not in her life.

***

Jan-Philipp Sendker, born in Hamburg in 1960, was the American correspondent for Stern from 1990 to 1995, and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. In 2000 he published Cracks in the Great Wall, a nonfiction book about China. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is his first novel. He lives in Berlin with his family.

* I received a free copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

The Bee-Loud Glade - Steve Himmer

2011-12-21T03:00:00.000-08:00

Fiction, Trade Paperback Original
ISBN 978-0-9845105-8-0
6 x 9 in / 224 pages
Publication Date: April 4, 2011

“I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.”
-W.B. Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”

The Bee-Loud Glade is the story of Finch, a daydreamer whose job as a marketer of plastic plants consists mostly of updating the blogs of the imaginary people he creates. Once new management steps in and kicks him out, Finch slowly lets go of all ties to the outside world. With both his electricity and motivation shut off, he sinks into a state of oblivion, holed up in his apartment for weeks on end. But when his reply to what he thinks is innocuous spam sweeps him into the world of billionaire Mr. Crane, Finch agrees to live and work—for more money than he’s ever imagined—as an ornamental hermit in a cave on Mr. Crane’s estate.

This darkly comic commentary on modern work and wealth thoughtfully probes deep-rooted questions about the nature of man, the workplace, and society (and what happens in their absence). Set in a postmodern pastoral landscape, it brings a playfulness more commonly found in urban fiction to an outdoor setting. With light and engaging prose, Himmer deftly unearths the ironies of life and the futility of escape.

***

A while back I wrote a review for a Korean movie called "Castaway on the Moon" (review here). This novel tracks the same premise...disillusioned soul finds himself inexplicably 'trapped' in the center of everything. It is a theme that I personally find fascinating.

Mr. Himmer has written a novel that manages to be sublime and deeply thought provoking simultaneously. Rarely do authors manage the two so deftly. As a commentary on modern life Himmer pretty much nails the essence of our daily existence...and our collective modern way of living has never seemed so inane, so inexplicably ridiculous. Finch is a perfect citizen in so many ways. He does just what he is told to do and if he stops to question 'why' he doesn't dwell on it for very long...he simply follows whatever instruction has been given him to the best of his abilities though he rarely tries very hard.

Now, with nothing but time on my hands, I didn't know where to start and it was simpler to not start at all. I had no more interest in finding a job than I had in anything else

He is in every way a thoroughly modern man. He exists without any particular passion, without any definable goal, no dreams, no real emotions...he is essentially an empty case, vacant and vacuous. And he doesn't even realize that this is a tragedy.

Over the course as his tenure as 'hermit' Finch undergoes a gradual transformation...nothing very dramatic, just a slow, soft ascent into the realm of higher values. At one point in the story Finch is struck by the industry of nature, it's beauty and perfect imperfections he marvels...

All this had been happening every day of my life, while I'd been moving too fast and with too sluggish a mind to take note. While I'd been too busy shitting and showering and shaving myself, trundling myself off to work in a mental fog that lent itself to traffic jam driving but not to being alive.

The nature of his Glade-somewhat manipulated by man, not entirely secluded and sort of dependent on the care of outsiders and it's slow transformation through the years toward total independence tracks the progress of Finch's spirit. He is not so much adrift in isolation as he is cast out of a society that has lost it's meaning, it's soul, it's raison d'etre. Here, in The Bee-Loud Glade a man finds himself and in the process has thrown the world a lifeline out of chaos and maybe back into the Garden.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Himmer teaches at Emerson College in Boston, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and is on the faculty of the First-Year Writing Program. His stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Hobart, The Los Angeles Review, Night Train, Pindeldyboz, PANK, Emprise Review, and Everyday Genius. He also is a frequent blogger on writing and teaching, and edits Necessary Fiction, a webjournal from So New Publishing, a press based in Eugene, Oregon.
You can find Bee-Loud Glade at Atticus Books here.

The Bee-Loud Glade is his first novel.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

Truth

2011-12-17T10:57:00.000-08:00

wear your white shirts. get them pressed.

use your good dishes -- everyday.

shave on weekends.

do not wait for special occasions.

do not tuck your best away in the drawers, in the back of the closet, in your heart.

don't wait for holidays or invitations.

declare that your today is the special occasion.

call instead of emailing. (it feels so good to connect.)

go for coffee.

quit.

take care of it.

renounce your glory days. you've told all of those stories more than twice.

focus forward.

wear perfume for yourself. toss your only-wear-around-the-house clothes and let your good clothes graduate to around-the-house status.

intend to feel good all of the time.

write your book.

launch.

burn your to-do list.

write poetry. one a day.

make a point to be as encouraging as possible, as much as possible, to everyone possible.
don't look back.

if you feel like you're always failing, consider that this is part of being an artist. let it be a divine inclination. keep going.

enter.

leave.

eat real food.

often refuse to be in the presence of people who make you feel repressed, anxious, or pull your frequency down.

do not entertain haters.

send light to the haters.

give it away. you probably don't need it and someone else does.

turn off the tv.

let it be easy.

burn candles. during the day.

fall in love. with yourself. with the person you're with. with the persons in your orbit.
because no one is perfect, but you can let the love be perfect for the both of you.
because everyone -- everyone -- is a doorway to God.
because you can get there from here.

because life is short.

*from HERE

Nazareth, North Dakota - Tommy Zurhellen

2011-12-16T03:00:00.000-08:00

Nazareth, North Dakota: A Novel
by Tommy Zurhellen
Fiction, Trade Paperback Original
ISBN 978-0-9845105-6-6
5.25 x 8 in / 212 pages
Publication Date: April 15, 2011

***

This gem of a novel—a splendid recasting and modern retelling of the story of the young messiah—is a fast, quirky, dirt-kicking ride through the Badlands of North Dakota from the early 1980s to the present, complete with feathered locks, KISS cover bands, and fire-and-brimstone preachers. It’s an adventurous, irresistible tale about everything from a 31-year-old fugitive mom who escapes a motel shootout with an abandoned new born to a corrupt sheriff, a kindhearted carpenter, the world’s oldest man, and the chosen paths of two hell-raising, miracle-bent cousins.

This incandescent debut is an authentic religious allegory connecting Lakota history with scripture. It contains plot twists and undeniable truths as deep and wide as the Little Missouri River, with ideas and messages so big, so earthshaking, so unmistakably divine, they do more than transform the little town of Nazareth. They change the world.

***

Nazareth, North Dakota is an imaginative and whimsical retelling The New Testament. Tommy Zurhellen's latest novel tracks the events of the Bible in modern times, his story populated by ever too real misfits, malcontents, lost souls and of course larger than life heroes. It is a tale as old as time and yet presented under a modern context. As such the reader must ask himself or herself just one question...exactly how would we react if Jesus arrived today? Would you believe? What if John the Baptist was planted on the shores of the Rio Grande...would you go?

Waiting around for God! As if God isn't already in every blade of grass and slab of concrete we walk upon, and in the very air we breathe. Waiting around for God! As if the Lord doesn't show us miracles every single day. A miracle is like a big billboard that reads, "Don't worry God's coming." Sometimes we're too stubborn to look up and read the signs.

How could I not truly enjoy this novel? Compelling characters that are familiar and yet brand new, a well known tale wrought anew by a slight twist of perspective. Each day I approached my reading with an eager spirit and, in the end, that is all I could ask of any novel.

***

AUTHOR BIO

Tommy Zurhellen was born in New York City. Nazareth, North Dakota is his first novel.
To find out more about Tommy, his upcoming tour dates and his research for the sequel Apostle Islands, visit his website.
Read a short story written during the evolution of Nazareth, North Dakota.
Learn about Tommy’s many sources of inspiration for the novel at High Plains Reader.
Check out Tommy’s interview at Eleutherophobia, which covers everything from Nazareth to wave-making waterbeds.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

May B. by Caroline Rose

2011-12-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

On Sale: January 10, 2012
Pages: 240 | ISBN: 978-1-58246-393-3

I've known it since last night:
It's been too long to expect them to return.
Something's happened.

May is helping out on a neighbor's Kansas prairie homestead—just until Christmas, says Pa. She wants to contribute, but it's hard to be separated from her family by 15 long, unfamiliar miles. Then the unthinkable happens: May is abandoned. Trapped in a tiny snow-covered sod house, isolated from family and neighbors, May must prepare for the oncoming winter. While fighting to survive, May's memories of her struggles with reading at school come back to haunt her. But she's determined to find her way home again. Caroline Starr Rose's fast-paced novel, written in beautiful and riveting verse, gives readers a strong new heroine to love.

***

Caroline Rose

CAROLINE STARR ROSE spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. As a girl she danced ballet, raced through books by Laura Ingalls, and put on magic shows in a homemade cape. She graduated from the University of New Mexico and went on to teach both social studies and English in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. In her classroom, she worked to instill in her students a passion for books, the freedom to experiment with words, and a curiosity about the past. Visit her at carolinestarrrose.com.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

Tyndale Giveaway

2011-12-08T16:05:00.001-08:00

There is a great giveaway happening over at the New Living Translation Facebook page, and a chance to enter a Tyndale Blog Network exclusive giveaway.

Here are the NLT Facebook page giveaway details:
Starting on November 29^th until December 24^th at the New Living Translation Facebook page they're giving away lots of great prizes and something free for just for singing up.
By visiting the giveaway entry page (located on the NLT Facebook page, the link is under the profile picture) and entering your name and e-mail address you'll be entered to win the following prizes:

One random person each day will win a Life Application Study Bible Family Pack (Guys Life Application Study Bible hc, Girls Life Application Study Bible hc, Student's Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible Large Print hc).
One Random person each week will win an Apple iPad 2!

Everyone that signs up gets a free download copy of the Life Application Bible Study – Book of Luke!

But Wait!

There's more!

Here's how you can win by helping them promote this giveaway:

The first 100 people to post about this giveaway on their personal blog will win a free Life Application Study Bible. They'll also choose one person from all the entries to win a free Life Application Study Bible Family Pack (includes 6 Bibles!). You can earn extra entries by posting about the giveaway in multiple places.

For more details and to enter fill out this form with the link to your blog post (click here to visit the form).

Good Luck!

Corus the Champion - Dean "D. Barkley" Briggs

2011-11-30T15:53:00.001-08:00

Corus the Champion

He was once the greatest champion in the land.

Then he disappeared.

With Nemesia's defeat, the Barlows have helped turn the tide in the Hidden Lands. But the victory is short-lived. An even greater evil stirs in the north with a fierce new army bent on destruction. As the twins, Gabe and Garret, discover their own special powers, a thin thread of hope emerges: long ago, a fabled king was rescued from death on our world and hidden on Karac Tor. Who is he?

Each brother has their part to play. Hadyn must travel north to warn the land barons, which leaves Ewan with a bitter choice. Will he sacrifice what is most precious to discover whether Corus lives? Even more important, if Corus is alive, can he wake the Sleeping King of legend...before it's too late?

***

This series of books blends Arthurian legend with the author's incredible imagination. Mr. Briggs writes confidently and with a masters touch - he is rather talented and he weaves a dense tale full of magic, deception and mysteries galore. This book is second in what will be a series of five. Unfortunately, for me I haven't had the pleasure of reading book one. So for the first few chapters or so I felt rather confused. Now, usually I prefer that when reading a series of books that the author not spend an inordinate amount of time retelling and retelling what happened in previous books. Too much backstory is tedious and interrupts the flow. However, zero backstory leaves the reader on her own. That would be my only caveat...read Book of Names first. Please. Otherwise, this is an immense saga spanning great distances and between great lengths of time and Mr. Briggs tells this story with a strong and lyrical voice.

On a side note there is a very interesting story about this book. At one point near the end of the book there is one rather odd sentence. Now, it turns out that during the editing of the book there happened to be a gale storm of apparently epic proportions. Mr. Editor presumably headed for higher ground and in the midst of such chaos there happened a weird little cut and paste accident. Mr. Briggs explains it here and I suggest that you read his account of how it happened as I am told that I tend to mix up my facts from time to time. Now I only want to know...What does Poplar Springs Baptist Church still need?!?!

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dean "D. Barkley" Briggs is an author, father of eight, and waaay too prone to twisting his ankle whenever he attempts a pick-up basketball game in his old age. He grew up reading J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lews, Patricia McKillip, Guy Gavriel Kay, Stephen R. Donaldson, Ursila K. Leguin, Susan Cooper, Madeline L'Engle, Terry Brooks, Andre Norton and Lloyd Alexander (just to name a few).
In the aftermath of losing his wife of 16 years, Dean decided to create a heroic journey that his four sons could relate to. Thus was born a new and paradoxical genre: semi-autobiographical fantasy, as Dean actively weaves elements of his life and family into the plots of his stories.
"The Legends of Karac Tor" tells the edgy, sweeping tale of four brothers who get stranded on another world. Together, they must find their courage, battle overwhelming odds, face their pain, and never quit searching for home. Five books total are planned.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

Out of My Mind - Sharon M. Draper

2011-11-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school—but no one knows it. Most people—her teachers and doctors included—don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows . . . but she can't, because Melody can't talk. She can't walk. She can't write. Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind—that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice . . . but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.From multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Sharon M. Draper comes a story full of heartache and hope. Get ready to meet a girl whose voice you'll never, ever forget.

***

My daughter brought this book home for me after seeing it on one of her (numerous) book orders at school. She said that it "just sounded so interesting, mommy". I am truly one blessed Momma.

There is no doubt that this book will stay with you for the rest of your life. It's message will reside there somewhere in the depths and reaches of your being, fluttering just on the edges of your conscience it will speak to you, I guarantee that. It will most likely change your world view. You will probably not see anyone the same again, you will never look upon the sea of human faces and simply dismiss them flippantly. No, you will forever be changed if you read 'Out of My Mind'.

"You've got it easy-you have all of your physical functions working properly. You never have to struggle just to be understood...you're just lucky...all of us who have our faculties intact are just plain blessed. Melody is able to figure out things, communicate, and manage in a world where nothing works right for her."

Not even Melody's mother has any idea what is really going on inside of Melody. Melody is trapped inside and she can't communicate the simplest things to those around her. She wants to share memories with her parents and can't, the things she loves about them most she can't tell them, she hears a song and can not tell anyone that she likes it. Oh, how I fell in love with Melody and how desperately I wanted to make it all okay...make it all go away. Sometimes, I am struck by how much we take for granted. Sometimes, this realization brings tears to my eyes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sharon Draper is a two-time Coretta Scott King Award-winning author, most recently for Copper Sun, and previously for Forged by Fire. She's also the recipient of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for Tears of a Tiger and the Coretta Scott King Author Honor for The Battle of Jericho and November Blues. Her other books include Romiette and Julio, Darkness Before Dawn, and Double Dutch. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years. She's a popular conference speaker, addressing educational and literary groups both nationally and internationally.

This biography was provided by the author or their representative.

*The opinions stated herein are all my own.

CASTAWAY ON THE MOON

2011-11-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

2009 Not Rated 116 minutes

Kim Seong-geun (Jae-yeong Jeong), despondent over being dumped by his girl, decides to end it all by jumping into the Han River, but instead wakes up on a tiny island in the middle of the waterway, now a castaway in the teeming heart of civilization. Part social commentary, part romantic adventure with hints of science fiction, Lee Hey-jun's film touches on topics ranging from economic disparity to the alienating nature of modern urban existence.

Cast:: Jae-yeong Jeong
Director:: Hae-jun Lee
Genres:: Comedies, Dramas, Foreign Movies, Romantic Movies, Foreign Comedies, Romantic Comedies, Foreign Dramas, Romantic Dramas, Romantic Foreign Movies, Korean Movies
Language:: Korean
This movie is:: Emotional, Imaginative, Romantic; ***; I've been really into watching Korean movies lately. Castaway on the moon is a fairly serious commentary on modern life. The commercialism, greed, consumption, our reliance on modern 'necessities' and our resulting crippling alienation from each other in the process. While the overall them is quite heavy this movie has some pretty funny moments in it. I found myself laughing out loud, crying and rooting for the characters - there are some very touching moments. It is beautifully filmed...a near perfect film in my opinion. So much about it works on so many levels. The dichotomy of the hero being shipwrecked on an island in the middle of a bustling city-so close yet so far away. A perfect metaphor for how so many of us live our lives today. The heroine that has a self imposed alienation from the world, living in a virtual world, afraid of human contact also speaks to the modern way of life.; There are some films that stay with you long after the last credits roll. This is one such film. It is truly amazing...easily one of the best films I've seen probably ever.; I was really very surprised by how much I truly liked this film and found myself telling everyone about it. I hope you'll take the time to give this film a watch.

The Law of Nines - Terry Goodkind

2011-11-21T19:31:00.001-08:00

512 pages
Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (August 18, 2009)

ISBN-10: 0399156046
ISBN-13: 978-0399156045

Turning twenty-seven may be terrifying for some, but for Alex, a struggling artist living in the midwestern United States, it is cataclysmic. Inheriting a huge expanse of land should have made him a rich and happy man; but something about this birthday, his name, and the beautiful woman whose life he just saved, has suddenly made him—and everyone he loves—into a target. A target for extreme and uncompromising violence . . . In Alex, Terry Goodkind brings to life a modern hero in a whole new kind of high-octane thriller.

***

I haven't read this one. It sounds interesting. The reason why I am reviewing (sort of) this title here is because I am, like many others, beginning my annual holiday shopping. There are a quite a number of people on my list that are clients. Some people on my list are just a tad more than acquaintances. Sometimes a gift needs just a little something extra. You know, like when you get something small for your Aunt Sheila and you think she might notice that you only picked it up on the way out of Wal-Mart the day before Christmas? And you feel guilty because you don't want to come across as a total cheapskate? I'm just kidding. Really, I don't shop at Wal-Mart.

Well, this year I'm approaching this thing from another angle altogether. So, thus begins my holiday shopping list for all those lovely people that do not fall into my dearly loved category. This is for all of you out there that I barely know and yet must buy a gift for.

The Law of Nines was a huge best seller. Goodkind is apparently a very popular author and from what I can gather (no, I haven't read any of his books but let me tell ya' that I'm going to) he's had a TV show based on his books. After reading (okay skimming) some reviews I gather that this book is part fantasy and part thriller. Sounds good to me. It should be mentioned that some reviewers said it had a slow start. That's okay I guess because it has also been mentioned that the action does pick quite nicely.

Now the good part. Why is this on my list? Why has this particular title been singled out? The simple answer is the hardback is currently on sale for...$1.34. It's one of dozens of Black Friday deals currently being offered on Amazon. I figure that I can pick up maybe seven different titles from the list, get my total to twenty five dollars and have the lot of them delivered for free to my doorstep in just a few days. Bam! Seven people checked off my list. I'm a happy camper. With cash left over.

The Lake - Banana Yoshimoto

2011-11-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Translated by Michael Emmerich

A major literary sensation is back with a darkly mysterious masterpiece: a quietly stunning tour de force about the redemptive power of love

A PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS FROM THIS BOOK WILL GO TO JAPAN DISASTER RELIEF

While The Lake shows off many of the features that have made Banana Yoshimoto famous—a cast of vivid and quirky characters, simple yet nuanced prose, a tight plot with an upbeat pace—it’s also one of the most darkly mysterious books she’s ever written.

It tells the tale of a young woman who moves to Tokyo after the death of her mother, hoping to get over her grief and start a career as a graphic artist. She finds herself spending too much time staring out her window, though … until she realizes she’s gotten used to seeing a young man across the street staring out his window, too.

They eventually embark on a hesitant romance, until she learns that he has been the victim of some form of childhood trauma. Visiting two of his friends who live a monastic life beside a beautiful lake, she begins to piece together a series of clues that lead her to suspect his experience may have had something to do with a bizarre religious cult. . . .

With its echoes of the infamous, real-life Aum Shinrikyo cult (the group that released poison gas in the Tokyo subway system), The Lake unfolds as the most powerful novel Banana Yoshimoto has written. And as the two young lovers overcome their troubled past to discover hope in the beautiful solitude of the lake in the country- side, it’s also one of her most moving.

***

There is perhaps no other author like Banana Yoshimoto. She writes with a spare beauty, delicately examining the nuances and secret places of the human heart. In this, her latest novel, she quietly explores love and loss, alienation and fear. Chihiro and Nakajima are wayward souls adrift in a sea of faceless humanity. They manage to forge a cautious friendship that eventually leads them into each others arms.

This is not necessarily new territory-a lot of authors write about love. It is in the way Yoshimoto writes about love, her unique way of communicating the intricacies of such a complicated emotion that breathes new life into a well worn subject. It is in her style, her precise use of language...each word placed with care and forethought, her innate realization that complexity begs for simplicity not the other way around.

I adore Banana Yoshimoto. I hope you will too. I read her first novel, Kitchen, many years ago and have been enamored ever since. If you ever get the opportunity to read one of her books I do suggest Kitchen but failing that The Lake is equally lovely.

If you are so inclined there are discussion questions available for this book HERE.

***

Biography

BANANA YOSHIMOTO wrote her first novel, Kitchen, while working as a waitress at a golf-course restaurant. It sold millions of copies worldwide, and led to a phenomenon dubbed by Western journalists as “Banana-mania.” Yoshimoto has gone on to be one of the biggest-selling and most distinguished writers in Japanese history, winning numerous awards for her work. The Lake is her thirteenth book of fiction.
MICHAEL EMMERICH has translated numerous books by Banana Yoshimoto, and is also famous for his translations of Nobel Prize-winner Yasunari Kawabata.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

Flourish in Progress

2011-11-20T19:18:00.001-08:00

I discovered this blog a few months ago. I haven't laughed so hard in...well, it's been a while. The author is candid, outspoken, honest and hilarious.

Anyway, I'll leave it up to you to peruse her pages at your leisure. The reason I'm writing about her today is because last week she put out a request for 'gooder books' to read. Every week she sets a little goal for herself and this last Monday it was to become more literate. I know a lot of you that read my blog are quite well read and I thought maybe we could throw a few good titles her way.

Read her post here.

Resonance - A.J. Scudiere

2011-11-19T12:13:00.001-08:00

THE SHIFT IS COMING. SOON.

Dr. David Carter knows this. However, he’s a geologist, so ’soon’ means anywhere from tomorrow to a thousand years from now.

PEOPLE ARE DYING. NOW.

Drs. Jordan Abellard and Jillian Brookwood are standing at the edge of SuperAIDS. Or are they? They won’t be able to figure it out if they can’t get some authorization signed - and soon. But they’re peons and no one is paying attention. That means no one will notice a little forgery either, right?

WHOLE SPECIES DIED AT THE LAST POLAR SHIFT. 65 MILLION YEARS AGO.

Right now Dr. Becky Sorenson has some seriously mutated frogs in her lab. In L.A. Bees are making abnormal columns on the side of the freeways. In Georgia, birds are migrating out of season. It all makes a sick kind of sense when the doctors consider that the last magnetic shift is strangely coincidental to the dinosaur die-out. And the only similarity among the problems today is that each is occurring in a ‘hotspot’ - a pocket of reversed polarity that tells them all.

THE SHIFT IS ALREADY HERE.

***

"The planet's northern magnetic pole is drifting slowly but steadily towards Russia -- and it's throwing off planes in Florida.

Tampa International Airport was forced to readjust its runways Thursday to account for the movement of the Earth's magnetic fields, information that pilots rely upon to navigate planes. Thanks to the fluctuations in the force, the airport has closed its primary runway until Jan. 13 to change taxiway signs to account for the shift, the Federal Aviation Administration said." Read more: Here

I couldn't put it down, thank goodness it is a rather longish book at 484 pages. As the ominous (really?) 21 December 2012 approaches I imagine we will be accosted by many doomsayers and fear mongers. So, while this book was originally published in 2008 it is also a rather timely read (especially considering the recent slow drift of the poles that is currently happening...well, now. Cue spooky music here, dum, dum, dum).

I love books like this. It is solidly based in scientific fact with a dash of creative license thrown in. It doesn't repeat itself over and over again the way some authors are wont to do especially when trying to explain rather complex ideas. There is a bit of medical mystery, romance, scientific quandaries, quantum physics, biological mystery, and even some archeology in the mix. So if you, like me, enjoy a good old fashioned race to beat the ticking clock type novel this one will leave you well sated.

***

Biography

It’s A.J.’s world. A strange place where patterns jump out and catch the eye, very little is missed, and most of it can be recalled with a deep breath, it’s different from the world the rest of us inhabit. But the rest of us can see it – when we read. In this world, the smell of Florida takes three weeks to fully leave the senses and the air in Dallas is so thick that the planes “sink” to the runways rather than actually landing.
For A.J., texture reigns supreme. Whether it’s air or blood or virus, it can be felt and smelled. School is a privilege and two science degrees (a BA and MS) are mere pats on the back compared to the prize of knowledge. Teaching is something done for fun (and the illusion of a regular paycheck) and is rewarding at all levels, grade school through college. No stranger to awards and national recognition for outstanding work as a teacher, trainer and curriculum writer, like most true teachers, the real joy for A.J. is in the “oh!” - the moment when the student sees the connection and it all makes sense.
A.J. has lived in Florida and Los Angeles among a handful of other places. Recent whims have brought the dark writer to Tennessee, where home is a deceptively normal looking neighborhood just outside Nashville.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

I've been...busy:)

2011-11-10T13:02:00.001-08:00

Yeah!

2011-11-10T08:12:00.001-08:00

Mharvi Reads delivered to your Kindle...Now only .99 cents!