Leslie C. Halpern Collects Her Best Columns on Life and Entertainment Industry

Scantily Clad Truths

Subtitle: Essays on Life with Clothes (and without)

Author: Leslie C. Halpern

Cautious Optimist Publishing 2018

ISBN: 9780999376331

Genre: Essays/Memoir

Contact Reviewer: HoJoNews@aol.com

Rating: 5 of 5

                  From Bill Cosby to “Homeless and Sexy” 

 

Veteran Journalist Shares Memories 

True to journalistic ethics, here, a disclaimer. I started out in journalism. Printers ink has colored my thumbs (and given me asthma) since I first wrote kitschy columns for my high school newspaper, and I loved fashion and New York even in its grittier days when I was a publicist for the firm that developed the “10 Best Dressed List” and ogled the samples of Christian Dior samples in the stockpile of “props” the business kept for photo shoot emergencies. 

Perhaps this disclaimer explains why I was hooked from the first moment I heard the title of Leslie C. Halpern’s slim book Scantily Clad Truths. Add that to the amazing list of media outlets Halpern has written for and this provocative teaser on the back cover of the book: “What really happened when this young entertainment journalist in a sexy gold dress rode the elevator with Bill Cosby?” and I was ready to have some fun. 

It turns out Scantily Clad was not quite what I expected. It was much more. Call it a memoir of a journalist presented in a permanent collection of her best material. Bit by bit, a reader becomes familiar with Halpern. Her exceptional sense of detail. Her humor. Her occasional bravery about drawing conclusions about life as she explores life-altering anecdotes. And, yes. They somehow all have something to do with clothing from Mary Lou’s red lace panties to Homeless and Sexy’s no-shirt-at-all.

Because Halpern had to select only the columns and essays that fit with her theme, it made me wonder how many more books are to come. Halpern’s work is easy to read, refreshing. Most of us probably need her gentle take on life and humor in these political times.  

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a multi award-winning author of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Her HowToDoItFrugally series of books has helped writers and retailers worldwide. She runs this blog with lots of generous contributions from Carolyn Wilhelm and Lois W. Stern. 

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG AND GETTING REVIEWS AND ANOTHER FREEBIE

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. C. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Carolyn the link to this post, too! 

Guest Blogger Shares How To Combine Marketing and Pleasure

Lois W. Stern is a frequent contributor to both this #SharingwithWriters blog and my The New Book Review blog. I always enjoy having her as a guest blogger. 

MARKETING YOUR BOOK WHILE ON VACATION

by Lois W. Stern

Going on vacation? Bet you can’t wait! But with a little advance planning, you can combine your fun in the sun with some book marketing.

Here are a few ideas to set your marketing wheels turning.

1. Can you find an audience who might be interested in a topic that relates to one of your books? If so, consider inviting them to an informal gathering to discuss your subject. If your book is non-fiction, share some interesting information about your topic. If it is a work of fiction, share a segment that will hold your audience in rapt attention. Avoid a ‘salesy' approach. Instead, encourage your audience to get involved. You might want to ask them to predict the outcome or relate to your story by sharing a similar experience or emotion. 

Example: The condo where my husband and I winter each year holds a regular Thurs. evening cocktail hour. We decided to host one Thurs. evening, providing hot and cold h’ors d’oeuvres while I told a few inspiring stories from my Tales2Inspire books. I then invited audience members to share their own inspiring stories.

Outcome: One member of the audience told such an incredible story! We titled it “Hand of Destiny” and it is now included in my Emerald Collection of Beyond Coincidence stories.

2. .Think of a topic for a workshop you could relates to one of your books, but isn’t just about selling books. 

Example:

My current books are filled with inspiring, true stories that come to me through an “Authors helping Authors” project I initiated seven years ago. I decided that I could create a workshop on “How to Write a Winning Short Story”. using stories from my books as vehicles for honing some specific writing skills. (See #4, below for details about that workshop,)

3. Create a flyer with your name and headshot, title of your presentation, and its proposed length. Be sure to include your contact information: phone and e-mail address.

4. Find a venue for your workshop.

If you want to present at a local library, you should begin well in advance of your trip, as libraries often schedule their events as much as six months ahead. Do a Google search for the closest libraries. Get their phone numbers. Call and ask for the name and e-mail address of the person in charge of booking presentations. Talk directly to that person if you can. it always helps to learn what topic would interest them and perhaps tweak your presentation to meet their needs. If e-mail communication is all that’s available, send a brief message putting:“Follow up to my phone call” in the subject line.

Example:

I gave a presentation at the Venice, Fl. library one winter, using some of my inspiring stories as a vehicle for practicing skills such as developing an elevator pitch, creating one central story theme, and building a compelling story based on that theme.

Outcome: Aside from selling some of my books,I received an honorarium and met a motivational speaker who entered and received a Finalist Award for her story: At Least Nothing Bad Happened, a story now added to my Topaz Collection of Personal Awakenings stories. So it was a winning day for her as well as me.

5. Think of other venues that relate to the topic of your book. If you have a book about photography, think about art centers or museums. If your book relates to an historical event ,try to connect with a like minded group or club. The local reference librarian might have just the right venue for you. Again, a Google search is often helpful in connecting you with just the right venue.

Example:

Cruise ships often hold talent nights, another good venue with a captive audience. Why not plan a moment of storytelling where you share a compelling scene from one of your books. Add a bit of drama to hold your audience in rapt attention: wear a special hat, bring a significant object, use different voices, add some background music - anything to grab their attention. 

6. Call the local book store in the area where you plan to vacation. Introduce yourself and your book, inquiring if they would be interested in scheduling a book talk/book signing event while you are in the area. There always seems to be an element of mystique surrounding the person from fifty miles or more away!.Be sure you understand and agree on all terms in advance: (i.e. who purchases and returns the unsold books, net to you the author, what publicity they provide and expected audience size.)

7. Think “Outside the Box” for other venues.

Example:

A favorite little gift shop I frequent in Venice, Fl. carries an interesting assortment of costume jewelry, knick knacks, women’s purses and more. I am a regular customer there but never noticed their small book corner. Once I did, I brought in proof copies of my Tales2Inspire books and she ordered six of them, paying me cash up front at a 60% 40% ratio. 

Our bottom line is to sell our books. But how we go about it makes all the difference. Think in terms of how you can give back and you will stay ahead.

___________________

Get a FREE sampler of 6 Tales2Inspire stories at: www.tales2inspire.com/gift/

MORE ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER AND HER TALES2INSPIRE PROJECT

  

Lois W. Stern's Tales2Inspire was a kernel of an idea that started in 2012 and has grown to proportions even she didn’t dare to envision. Her innate curiosity about potentially fascinating human interest stories was the spark that ignited this idea. Tales2Inspire delivers exactly what it promises as both an ‘Authors Helping Authors’ project and a contest. Winners get their stories published in print, e-book and sometimes even in video formats, with their names, headshot photos, and mini-autobiographies included. Then she spreads the word about the winners and their stories on her blogs, social media and monthly newsletter. FREE to enter, this is a great competition for talented newbies and seasoned authors alike.  Learn more here:

Tales2Inspire website: http://www.tales2inspire.com

GET A F*R*E*E TALES21INSPIRE E-BOOK AT:

www.tales2inspire.com/gift

Tales2Inspire website: http://www.tales2inspire.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/tales2inspire2
Facebook author page: www.facebook.com/tales2inspire
Tales2Inspire trailer: https://youtu.be/FuDgXkYMHvo
Blog: http:://www.tales2inspire/blog

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG AND GETTING REVIEWS AND ANOTHER FREEBIE

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too! 

.

Learning from Literary Criticism

Title: The World Broke in Two
Subtitle: Virginia Woolf, T.S.Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, and the Year That Changed Literature
Author: Bill Goldstein
Publisher: Picador, Henry Holt and Company
Pages: 351 Including Bibliographic Notes, 32 pages of Notes (resources and attributions). The Acknowledgments is a five-page trove of gratitude as well as resources for writers seeking professional support for everything from “book jacket” support, to agent and editor, to foundations, fellowships, and libraries.

A Magical Resource

20^th Century Literature Come Alive

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

“I inherited [my father’s] love of books and reading, and I grew up surrounded by his vast book collection, which made me feel close to him and continues to, now that so many of his books, all faithfully kept by my mother through many years and her move from our house to an apartment, are mine. My father collected the works of his contemporaries—Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, Philip Roth, and others . . . but he had a copy of Thomas Seltzer’s trade edition of the early 20^th century greats I cover in this book. I didn’t realize growing up that we had no Woolf in the house . . . but a visit to my mother’s apartment is also a visit to my father’s library, and there are books behind the books on all the shelves, and I will keep looking.” ~From the” Acknowledgments” of The World Broke In Two.

This anecdote included in Author Bill Goldstein’s Acknowledgment may be a sketch of the kind of reader who will appreciate this book. A more precise list might include readers who appreciate finely researched history and how it affects today’s literary world and, by extension, the world at large, literature majors, and, of course writers of any genre—especially those who seek to apply early 20^th century ground-breaking techniques to their own work.

If I had read this book sometime during my creative writing and English literature classes, I would have had a greater appreciation of the assigned novels and poems and, by having a better understanding of this history of the changes in literature, been better able to assimilate the pre-Proust literature I had read along with the post-Woolf (sometimes labeled post modernism) techniques my teachers were trying to get across to me. To put it more succinctly, I would have been less bored with the blue mixing bowl eliciting memories in Woolf’s The Hours (and more likely to apply what I  now call the “blue-mixing bowl and teacup” technique to my own work. If my clients better understood it, they might be less tempted to stick their internal dialogue into italics!

If, as a reader or writer, you understand the literary term “modernity,” you might neglect (or accept) the conditions—political and personal depredations—that attract authors (and thereby literature) to it and to this book. If you believe writing should be a joy, you may be disillusioned by these stories, essentially the stories of the greatest writers of their time (Woolf, T.S.Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E. M. Forester and—coincidentally others who influenced them like James Joyce and Proust. If you love a good biography, you might fall in love with it!

Though for some this book may be an uphill climb over the intricacies of the literary world, this is a book that, like the author’s tender anecdote in his “Acknowledgments” quoted above, will not go into the charity giveaways for Salvation Army shoppers but be tucked into the back corners and nooks of those who treasure books and keep the most valuable, the best of the best for future reference. Mine is full of tweaked corners, underlines, and margin notes for future information.

---

The reviewer studied English, American, and Russian Literature in college. She was graduated from USC (University of Southern California) and did post graduate work at Arizona State University, Herzen University (St. Petersburg, Russia); Cambridge University, Trinity College (UK); and Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic). Her most recent book of poetry, Imperfect Echoes (http://bit.ly/ImperfectEchoes), was released to accolades from Midwest Book Review. 

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG AND GETTING REVIEWS AND ANOTHER FREEBIE

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too! 

"Strange Stars" Critiques Connections Between Sci-Fi Rock, Films, Books

Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded 

Author: Jason Heller

Hardcover: 272 pages

Publisher: Melville House; First Edition edition (June 5, 2018)

ISBN-10: 1612196977

ISBN-13: 978-1612196978

Purchase at Amazon

 Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton originally for BookPleasures.com

When I read a blurb describing Strange Stars, my first reaction was that Jason Heller had beaten me to the punch.  I had long thought the connections between sci-fi flavored rock music and sci-fi films and books in the 1970s would make for an interesting critical analysis. I was right, except Heller was a much better critic to pull all the strings together than I would have been. By miles and miles.

The book’s title is a tad misleading if you assume David Bowie will be an important thread in the story.  Yes, Heller bookends the decade with Bowie’s 1971 “Space Oddity” and its 1980 follow-up, “Ashes to Ashes.” Sure, Ziggy Stardust and The Man Who Fell to Earth aren’t neglected. And the book ends with Bowie’s 2018 death and the release of Black Star.

But Heller probes a rich well of evidence demonstrating that the ‘70s was the decade when sci-fi began to be taken seriously in popular culture, its impact ignited by two films by Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange. The Planet of the Apes also contributed to a growing interest in sci-fi and the phenomena of Star Trek was just beginning its widening cult status.  

Sci-fi authors cited by many musicians as influences included Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Burroughs, Philip Dick, and Frank Herbert, among many, many others. To greater and lesser degrees, these writers influenced popular rock musicians like Paul Kantner’s Jefferson Starship (“Blows Against the Empire,”) David Crosby and The Byrds (“Mr. Spaceman,”) Elton John (“Rocket Man”), Black Sabbath (Iron Man”), and the psychedelic Pink Floyd. At the same time, futuristic electronic sounds and cover art helped define Progressive Rock groups like yes and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer (“Tarkus.”)

Heller also explores cult favorites including the French Magma, Germany’s Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, Gary Neuman, Devo, as well as the often forgotten Hawkwind, Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come, and the avant-garde jazz figure Sun Ra. And these are but the best known of the musical performers and groups Heller lists and describes in minute detail leaving no rare single or obscure album unturned.

Along the way, Heller discusses sci-fi lyrics, the burgeoning use of futuristic synth-sounds, new sub-genres like sci-fi-funk and Kraut-rock, concert events like 1979’s Futurama and the impact of films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Star Wars and Star Trek. Occasionally he layers in historical events that piqued public interest in space, futuristic technology, and dystopian predictions like the disappointing passing of Comet Kohoutek and the crash of Star Lab.

In his “Acknowledgements,” Heller credits one reader with keeping him from publishing an encyclopedia instead of a story.  There are many, many passages where readers could be forgiven for feeling like they’re following long, encyclopedic entries, especially when Heller recites band name after band name, album title after album title.    Such passages might inspire skimming along and there’s nothing wrong with that.  Strange Stars can serve as a reference volume as well as an analysis of an amorphous genre, or at least a many-tentacled realm of popular culture.   Strange Stars belongs in pretty much every public library and on the private shelves of both sci-fi and rock lovers.  

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dr. Wesley Britton IS THE AUTHOR OF The Beta Earth Chronicles and a reviewer who love science fiction.  Learn more about him:

Explore the Beta Earth Chronicles website:

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MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG, GETTING REVIEWS AND ANOTHER PROMOTION FREEBIE

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too! 

Sparrow Road Novel Includes a Now Sober Father and Orphans

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Book Review for Sparrow Road by Sheila O'Connor

• Age Range: 10 and up 
• Grade Level: 5 - 6
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780142421369
• ISBN-13: 978-0142421369
• ASIN: 0142421367
• Amazon Sales Page for Sparrow Road

I just read Sparrow Road because I found the cover to be intriguing.  Really!  And the college on the cover is integral of this story about a twelve-year-old girl's summer before seventh grade, which is not what first might come to mind!  Raine has spent 12 years happily living with her mother and grandfather in Milwaukee. Her mother suddenly moves to Sparrow Road in the country for the summer, taking Raine along, and a mystery begins.  It is fairly easy for an adult to read between the lines and figure out some of what is going to happen, although at the beginning the rules at Sparrow Road seem like some strange or harsh events will occur.  Questions asked through the text of the book help keep the attention of young readers.  How many things a twelve-year-old understands about the world is also revealed in this complex story.

It seems at first that Raine's mother is quitting her job in the city to be a maid at an artist's summer retreat, where little talking is allowed.  Sparrow Road used to be an orphanage.  Later, the plot thickens and the reader learns that Sparrow Road is near to where Raine's absent father lives.  He has been sober for a year.  He wants to meet Raine.  Although the plot is a little dark about his past drinking, Raine, and all the artists who have become her pseudo-parents, work through it without too much ado.  Raine and her father have a few meetings and begin to get to know each other while a plot about the former orphans who lived at Sparrow Road evolves.

The questions the orphans who used to live at Sparrow Road might have parallel the questions a child with a missing parent would ask, and so the theme of wondering about those kinds of things is predominant in the book.  Raine is offered the choice to stay at Sparrow Road where she could live near her father, but not near the grandfather who has been a real parent to her or return to Milwaukee.  This seems like too much of a choice to offer a child, but Raine decides to return to her former life with her grandfather, mother, and school friends.  Her father will be visiting her in Milwaukee in the near future.

This story would be fine for children who are not in the position of wondering where their missing parents are, and who do not have difficult life stories themselves.  It is a good story and it has a satisfying ending.  However, there are children who do not have happy endings in their own lives, so the book isn't for everyone.  The book is good for helping children develop some empathy for single parent families or children who have experienced being an orphan.  It is just a good read!

Originally posted on Amazon by Carolyn Wilhelm

Thank you for reading, Carolyn Wilhelm

Teacher of Self-Publishing from the Very, Very Beginning on Udemy

Professor Emeritus Reviews Smallwood's "In the Measuring"

 Title:  In the Measuring
Author: Carol Smallwood
Publisher:  Shanti Arts, 2018.  Brunswick, Maine:
116 pages, $14.95, paperback.
Available on Amazon

Reviewed by Ronald Prime originally for his Ragazine

It is often said that we cannot measure what is real, what actually counts or matters most. In The Measuring demonstrates that in the right hands we can do all that and more. For Carol Smallwood, we do not find meaning already made; rather, in the activities of our everyday lives we make meaning in ways that affect how we learn, store, remember, and pass on the truths of our experiences.

This collection of seventy-seven poems is packed with insights set in motion by an epigraph from Emily Dickinson: “The truth must dazzle gradually/ Or every man be blind.”  Smallwood is not the first to insist on this “dazzle,” but she is especially subtle in depicting the feel of the crucial gradualness. In so many different ways these poems reveal the gradation of steady and deliberate measurements in the ordinariness of our daily lives.  How measuring opens us up to mystery is the book’s organizing motif. “Proof of Transitory” looks at fading and blossoming, dusty shelves and unfulfilled resolve, and how we learn to negotiate the fine line between fading and progressing.  From the chemical reactions of making and breaking bread to the sifting through a myriad of dishwashing liquids on a grocery shelf, we face choices in every moment.  Some measurements seek us out: the feel of a waiting room after a diagnosis, the funeral-planning postcard that arrives “to resident” and thereby sidesteps the more threatening personal surveillance from the grim reaper. We also experience the information storage system woven into making  quilts, a driver in a car wash who is content to settle into “the tracks of those who went before,” measurements so subtle that we feel evaporation and the melting of ice.

Smallwood‘s presentation follows six sections with a precision that is never repetitive or overly rapid. A Prelude suggests that however we arrive at truth, there will always still be mystery in the measuring. “The Domestic” stirs  deeper into the ordinariness of rain and leaves, cooking and sewing, light pouring through a window to create shades of gray, efforts to “prove” what we assume we know for sure, discovering that the frustrating efforts to prove something only intensify the thirst for proof. “Sea Change” locates meaning in a shrug or a frown, takes a “Brief Look” at the sublimity of what is ordinary, finds Prufrock measuring his life with cups from fast food restaurants, and catches the subtlest signals missed by all except the most astute “sorters and watchers.” In the brilliant “Shopping Sestina Sans Meter” a shopper envisions everything in a supermarket from her imagined funeral procession at the dairy counter and turkeys in hiking boots, to  the perfect biscuits made by the Clabber Girl—all leading to yet another question of measuring: “How much knowing is good for us to know?”

Emily Dickinson (“Tell all the truth but tell it slant’) again provides the title for section four, “Slant,” which reminds readers that measurements must be somewhat circuitous as well as slow and deliberate to create meaning about time, the moon, clocks, tile floors, and the man who calms his wife’s worries about how she can ever list all her ailments. “You’re just supposed to circle things” he assures her.To be gradual, sometimes the dazzling must wander into productive distraction where the profundity of a philosophy class is interrupted by a train whistle that carries “Augustine, Wittgenstein, and the professor neatly away” (91).

Though most often thought of in cooking or construction and generally seen as an accumulation, in Smallwood’s steady hands, measuring is also an acceptance of necessary losses. Symbols of aging are big business with large print and assistive devices signaling a compromised independence (“Arrival, 59”). “Catching On” suggests that felt experience can be squashed by too much “talking out” and that measuring devices—scientific and otherwise—are always “still figuring out what to do with” the ubiquitous mysteries of every day. Again the shopping sestina surveys a restaurant grouping of “always the same men on the same stools” counting out the minutes they have left in talk firmly planted in shoes with “holes that gave them personality” (62).  The men reflect back on their lives and ask about the unknowables where even the sage “Know thyself can be a Medusa turn-to-stone blow” burdened with too much knowing (70).

Spend rewarding time with this book and you will find yourself discovering much that is new about what you thought you already had firmly in hand. “In Passing” concludes the volume with some dozen poems that measure “differences in what seems the same” (95), watches closely the processes unfolding in “a Happy Meal Cup of melting ice” (97), transports a bug from the post office floor to nurturing crumbs and to live again in the window plants of home. An “epilogue” creates an apt coda where we live and measure our lives in the halfway between the deepest oceans and the highest mountains.

Smallwood asks many times what all the measuring does for us anyway. Does it find explanations that are already there or create meanings through the often painstakingly slow dazzle of language? Is it all about keeping track of things, deciding how to store and share what we learn, and then struggling with uncertainty? The slow progression of gradations is discovery as well as an acceptance of loss. Blossoming is best in “the struggle of dandelions in sidewalk cracks” that brings more hope than “crowds of daffodils” (55). Here the literary allusions leap beyond Dickinson, calling upon Wordsworth’s “Intimations of Immortality” and suggesting the title of Alice Walker’s very early book Revolutionary Petunias that push their way through inner-city cement.  We hail the annual coming of spring with its rite of passage but repress bugs and lawn mowing.  It’s all about loss, the measuring—not all accumulation as we hope—but learning to let go and accept diminishment.

Understanding the processes of measuring teaches being at peace with loss.  “Ephemera,” from the Greek meaning “living a day” flashes the fast dance of nurturing in which we ignite, mature, and die in an instant. In a measured way, aging is an arrival recognized when people hold doors and smile, when catalogs flood the mailbox, when “large numbered clocks and colorful canes” are offered in the hopes of prolonging independence (59). Yet another measuring of letting go is “A Multigated Acquisition” exploring a test of whether a heart is “strong enough for chemo” (54.) Other speakers reflect on whether—after a hysterectomy--one’s remains are packaged “in a paper sack like the gizzard, heart, liver, neck inside a roasting chicken” (62) and pursue the unanswerables when even “Know Thyself can be a Medusa turn-to-stone blow” where the knowing might not turn out to be knowing at all (70). Such questions might ordinarily be the province of the philosophers, but in this book they are better explored in the aisles of a grocery store, sitting in the light of a window sorting pieces for a quilt, while waiting for a dental hygienist, in every ordinary ritualized passage through changing seasons—all ways of measuring the extraordinary in ordinary places and moments to “explain the familiar so that I might understand” (102).

From section to section and within each poem, we are treated to intricate patterns of repetition found in everyday experiences. Some are like the musical refrains of the oral tradition or the contrapuntal wizardry of Bach; others use variations and inversions to capture multiple perspectives or introduce the rhythms of the blues. Smallwood is a master of forms whether it is villanelles floating variations that coalesce in a concluding couplet, the expected but still surprising repeated endwords of her sestinas, or lines sewed together seamlessly through successive stanzas where beginnings and conclusions meet in pantoums. The masterful wedding of mundane experiences and heightened awareness is found in “A Kroger Villanelle,” where a regal-feeling shopper passes in review objects on shelves “lined at attention,” her wobbling crown cautioning deliberateness in her step. As the shopping cart swerves through each aisle six times “she nodded and smiled” (110).

Live with this book for a while, quietly and thoughtfully, and you will be dazzled by seeing things as if for the first time. It will come over you, for example, that so much of what we assume has been decided opens up again because of “mystery in the measuring” (“One Way,” 25). You will notice the worn-out elastic, the “almost invisible 3-corner tear,” and how a white apron “must’ve gotten untied” in “Raggedy Ann” (41). Of course we like measurements assumed to be exact and undisputable, sometimes even declared true by definition. But do we truly know for sure what day we are living in with the help of a calendar, a dated email message, when the garbage is picked up, or an electronic sign on a bank? And how do we determine which metric might have gotten it wrong or—when they conflict, how to decide on accuracy (“Proof,”44)? Quilt making is all about measuring: selecting, cutting, matching, planning for counterpoint, storing memories. Can the drive to measure go too far; do quilts have to have purpose and be made to live with certain people, or after we are gone will their final measurement be “ending up in the night pyre” (“Sewing by Day,” 46). As part of elevator talk about how busy we all are, a  know what is what or the meaning of either “is” (“What Does it Mean,”51). Do we quantify maybe overmuch sometimes as when a customer wonders “how many sperms died not reaching the egg” that formed the cashier who was a “Fred Astaire with bills” (“Sorters and Watchers” 69).  All the measuring in the world brings us back to a wholeness; we avoid overreliance on measured analysis by learning that “it’s wise to detect differences in what seems the same” (Seeing the Whole.” 95).

In the Measuring will remind you of the strengths and limitations of every device we use to capture lived experience. Smallwood is at home in a wide variety of forms and styles. She is meticulous about modifying forms for special uses, and matches them unobtrusively to content they were made for. The organization of the book will serve as a guide but never get in the way or overcomplicate. Cover and interior design by Shanti Arts Designs are gorgeous reminders of the process explored everywhere in the book. Layout, design, font, and spacing are pleasing, with plenty of white space for readers who annotate as they read. In a few places really short poems positioned at the top of a page might seem abrupt to some. I would have liked a few more glimpses of the author’s ways of composing or motivations for the project in an overly short but otherwise effective Introduction. The Foreword by Foster Neill, founder of The Michigan Poet, welcomes us to ways of enjoying the surprises in the wisdom a keen poet has created for us.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ronald Primeau is Professor of English Emeritus at Central Michigan University.

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