The Smoking Poet Reviews Linda Merlino's New Novel

Belly of the Whale
Linda Merlino, author


"A riveting story, both powerful
and poignant in its telling." H.Roughan,
NYTimes Bestselling Author


Reviewed by Zinta Aistars for The Smoking Poet, Summer 2008 issue



If you are a lover of fine literature, you know that sweet moment of discovery. This is why you read. This is why you open book cover after book cover, anticipating that golden moment. It happens when a newly opened book reaches from the printed page and into your mind, into your heart, and captures cleanly both imagination and resonant emotion. Opening Belly of the Whale, by first-time author, Linda Merlino, is such a golden moment.

I may never have picked this book up in any of my bookstore wanderings and treasure hunts. The dark cover with flashes of neon light, a tiny gunman, and a teary bald woman may have had me turn away. Don't judge. Not like that. For this book, arriving instead in my mailbox awaiting review in The Smoking Poet literary e-zine, may have begun as something of an editorial job ... but concluded with a new fan for writer Linda Merlino.

The story begins at the end.

"I fear that the dead are gathered here in this corner of Whales Market, that the sums of several lives are laid out on gurneys like me, and that yesterday I thought the worst thing happening was my breast cancer."

Hudson Catalina—"Hudson like the car, Catalina like the island, Hudson Catalina, I love you," her husband Jack whispers to her in their marriage-long game—is on the brink of giving up. Her mother has died of cancer, as has her grandmother. Now, after a double mastectomy, as she battles for life, or is it that she battles against the torments of medicine, chemo and radiation, 38-year-old Hudson wishes only to be done. Done. With all of this. Despite her four lovely babies, her ever patient and devoted husband, Hudson is beyond tired of the fight. It is Tuesday, and she throws some delicate treasure against the mirror, breaks all, feels broken herself, and has no patience left. Not even for the love of her family and closest friend. What's the point?

You know how that happens. You reach the end, what feels like the end, and when you think you have encountered the worst life can shovel on you, you encounter something even darker. Here is the belly of the whale, and Hudson is swallowed into it. Dragging herself out into a storm to go to a small grocery for a few items in preparation for her daughter's birthday, surely the last one she will share, Hudson becomes hostage to a young man gone mad with his own devastated heart and broken spirit. Here begins a nightmarish night of being held hostage, handcuffed to the dead and dying, hope threaded to another boy who is mentally incapacitated. Pressed that hard and so harshly against yet another wall in her waning life, Hudson Catalina makes some discoveries about herself and about where hope begins ... somewhere beyond the point where you think you lost it.

I am keeping my eye closely trained on this new author. Learning that Merlino wrote much of this book in longhand, scribbling notes throughout a busy mom's day, I understand the drive and motivation that could produce such a worthwhile read. In a day and age of a struggling publishing industry, just when you are about to lose hope in the literati, this kind of writing makes you find new hope yet again.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). 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 and reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page.

David Brailovsky Reviews Intrigue in the House of Wong

Title: Intrigue in the House of Wong
Author: Amy S. Kwei
Publisher: Tats Publishing, PO Box 425478, Cambridge, MA 02142
Date published: 6/1/2008
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-9815499-0-3
202pp
$13.99
Available at Amazon.com and Tatspublishing.com

Reviewed by David Brailovsky

I enjoyed very much reading Amy Kwei’s “ Intrigue in the house of Wong”. She succeeded in an interesting and effortless way to explain Chinese culture, values and traditions.

A better understanding between East and West is a major concern of the book. The “House of Wong” is a great way for the younger generation to do away with stereotypes and prejudices. The plot makes it fun reading.

I recommend it highly.

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Reviewer David Brailovsky is the author of "A Covenant in Shanghai". Available at Amazon.com

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). 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 and reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page.

Melissa Meeks Reviews "One Wild Ride"

Title: The Call
Series: Time Masters Book One
By Geralyn Beauchamp
Cold Tree Press (October 8, 2007)
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
ISBN 9781583851982
588pp
$18.95

Reviewed by Melissa Meeks
See more reviews at Bibliophile’s Retreat

Rating: 5/5


Describing this book is an interesting endeavor. Rather than ask the usual questions it actually makes more sense to ask what Time Masters isn't. In this case the answer is … Nothing!!! Beauchamp has managed to intertwine all genres in a coherent manner that I have yet to find elsewhere. At the same time she’s also managed to work in all the elements of a good story with a superb quality of writing.

The hero - Dallan - is not only a hunk, but he's got the Romance factor going on big-time. If Shona hadn’t already claimed him and he was for real, I'd certainly be first in line to do so myself. I’ve read quite a pile of books before and since first picking up Time Masters and still have to say over a year later that I've not seen much out there to rival the writing of this debut author. She’s crafted an excellent plot and characters that leap off the page into the reader's imagination as if real and remain vivid even after putting the book down.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll even be frightened at times. As the cover says this is One Wild Ride. If you just have to find the best roller-coasters – this one delivers and you can even experience it from your favorite reading nook. So hop on and enjoy as the story goes from a "comedy sketch" due to characters being out of their accustomed environment on one page to fight scenes with action, adventure and suspense on the next. These fluctuations come at you often and fast in this book, as full of emotional power as a minefield of explosives. Of course the intense emotion is part of what makes the book so riveting. I could have stayed up all night reading just to find out what would happen on the next page, in the next chapter or even how the book would end. I have rarely found another author who can evoke such intense responses with the written word.

This book is one that I can’t bear to lend out and risk losing as it’s worth rereading many times. I had to buy an extra copy just for sharing so I could horde one to get my fix of satisfying reading anytime. Geralyn has put so much meat into her story that with every read I still find new details and thoughts popping up. Before it was even released, I quit trying to count my “reads” and still hope to squeeze in time to read it again and again. I am so glad this is only the first in a series and am already chomping at the bit for Time Masters Book Two: The Prophecy.


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Reach the reviewer at forest_rose@yahoo.com.
She blogs at Bibliophile's Retreat
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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). 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 and reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page.

Endings a Tragedy for Thinking Readers

Title: Endings
Author: Barbara Bergin
Fiction
ISBN: ISBN: 978-0-86534-519-5
268 pp.
$28.95
Available: Sunstone Press, Amazon
Publisher: SUNSTONE PRESS
Box 2321, Santa Fe,
NM 87504-2321
(800) 243-5644


Reviewed by Connie Gotsch

Endings by Barbara Bergin, published by Sunstone Press, appears to chronicle the responses people make to life altering situations somewhat beyond their control, but to which they have also somewhat contributed. Then again, maybe the story deals with the fabrications people spin to rationalize the life choices they make.

Stunned by the loss of her husband and two children in a freak automobile accident, Dr. Leslie Cohen has sold her medical practice, abandoned friends, hit the road as a locum tenens orthopedic physician, and stopped forming long term relationships.

Through a series of flashbacks triggered by events, characters and plot points, the reader learns, or seems to learn, why love terrifies Leslie. She was tailgating her husband, Chris, as they headed for a family holiday. The driver ahead of him slammed on his brakes, Chris hit his, and Leslie plowed into him, killing him and her children. Guilt and consumes her, especially since she had Chris had hit a difficult point in their marriage.

Many books on the theme of carelessness at the worst moment resulting in painful loss, would lead Leslie into a nice, comfy small town, where friendly people would wrap her in warmth. Next Leslie would go through personal growth and transformation. She would find herself in the company of a handsome man with whom she shares much, but would fight her growing love for him. His patience would win her over. She would work through her grief, forgive herself for her part in the accident, marry the hero, and go into practice with the doctor whom she has come to relieve as a locum tenens.

Endings sets up that possibility. Leslie heads to Abilene, Texas, to substitute for Doc Hal Hawley who is preparing to have serious cancer surgery. Then almost to town, she slides into a fishtailing horse trailer driven by Reagan, the man who ends up her love interest. That could set ‘Endings’ on the predictable course, love marriage, more children, happily ever after. But using this twist and many others, Barbara Bergin slowly turns the story’s plot to a very different kind of growth and closure for Leslie.

So cleverly does the author disguise this arc in the predictable moonlit nights and kind souls one would expect to try to help Leslie, that the tale ends with a surprise that leaves the reader shaken and wondering just what Leslie’s part in her own tragedy was, or just what happened on the road that day tailgating Chris, and what transpired afterward, considering the state of their marriage.

Barbara Bergin supplements her clever plot line with elegant character development and description of locale. An orthopedic surgeon herself and a horse woman, she takes the reader both into the operating room and the rodeo area with equal vividness. Her medical descriptions never turn gory. Her description of love has just the right amount of steam.

‘Endings’ is not a book that will give the satisfaction of a happy conclusion, but it will leave the reader considering just genuine people really are, and what they might or might not control in their lives.
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Reviewer Connie Gotsch is the author of "A Mouth Full of Shell" and "Snap Me a Future" published by Dlsijpress. She is featured in "The Complete Writer's Journal" Also available at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/s/ or
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_a?url=search-alias%3Dapparel&field-keywords=a+mouth+full+of+shell&x=0&y=0


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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). 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 and reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page.

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The New Book Review Is Now Brilliant! (-:

My The New Book Review, www.thenewbookreview.blogspot.com was named a Brilliante WebBlog Premio 2008 award. Nikki Leigh at www.nikkisreviews.blogspot.com nominated it because it features "reviews for all sorts of authors, not just big name authors." She also noted that the instructions for submitting are clear.

The Brilliante is a sassy little award, a recognition that lets peers award peers. One of the benefits of being so named is that authors may nominate blogs, too. So here are mine in no particular order:

Nicole Williams for her Step of Faith blogspot for meticulous blog-keeping and lovely writing. I'm encouraging to use her writing skills in other areas. http://stepofaith.blogspot.com

Kathe Gogolewski for a combination personal blog and professional blog that works!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A21V32M89BJ4ZD/ref=cm_blog_blog

Joyce Faulkner for a bit of humor in For Shrieking Out Loud, a blog named after her book of humor. You'll love her funny bone. http://www.forshriekingoutloud.blogspot.com

Allyn Evans for her Happily Ever After Today blog about blog about epiphanies, spilled milk, and finding happiness. It is inspiration without preachiness. www.happilyeveraftertoday.blogspot.com.

Here are the suggestions for those nominated, so they can pass on the joy:

Rules for next recipients of the Brilliante Weblog Premio:

1. The award may be displayed on a winner's blog.

2. Add a link to the person you received the award from.

3. Nominate up to seven other blogs.

4. Add their links to your blog.

5. Add a message to each person that you have passed the award on in the comments section of their blog.

And there you have it. Congratulations!

PS: For an idea of how authors might use this award idea to promote, go to www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com


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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). 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 and reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page.

Making Your New Book Review a Favorite

I am trying to find more authors to utilize this great Authors' Coalition service! This is the place where you can recycle your favorite review. Whether you're a reader, an author or a reviewer! Won't you help me pass the word by clicking on the Technorati button to make it this blog one of your favorites. It's on the left! (-:

Technorati Profile

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). 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 and reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page.

A Book to Transform Your LIfe

Mindfulness and The Art of Choice: Transform Your Life
By Dr. Karen Sherman
www.ChoiceRelationships.com
Self-help
ISBN: 978-1-932690-51-4

Reviewed by Tina Avon for Front Street Reviews
4/5 stars

I am a believer that the best healers are those who have have been through their own nightmares and have come out stronger.

This certainly describes Karen Sherman, who by her own admission, grew up in a highly dysfunctional home only to become a very discontented and restless adult. However, one day, she made the conscious choice of changing her life and became a much happier and well-rounded person and she has written this book in the hopes that she can pass along some of the experiences she has lived over the years both as a therapist, but more imporantly as a person who has 'been there'.

Sherman's basic theory is that we are all a product of our own environment and that most of who we are today was created in our childhood. In fact, she argues that this is where most of our emotions, thoughts and coping patterns are established and that we will continue to return to these sources again and again when we need to unless we can reprogram these negative patterns. As a matter of fact we will become so good at it that it will become second nature to us (she calls it auto-pilot). However, what once served us as children, may no longer be helpful to us as adults and may, in fact, be the major cause of much of our discontent.

One of the important aspects of this particular book and what sets it apart from many others is the term that Sherman uses - Art of Choice. The author believes that we all have a choice in how we live our lives and that we can choose to change something if we wish to. Of course, its not quite as simple as that and Sherman explains, in practical and helpful chapters, the step by step process that we must be willing to go through to get to a much healthier and happier place.

I liked this book. It was quite short, but extremely well written and informative. Sherman does not speak down to us and neither does she use lots of scientific and technical terms to explain the processes. At the end of each chapter, we find specific exercises that we are encouraged to complete.

This type of book needs to be read over and over again as I believe I will pick up some new information everytime I read it.

I was extremely encouraged by this book - I like the concept that we can change our patterns, that we can re-program our way of thinking, feeling and reacting in order to find a what we are looking for.


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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). 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 and reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page.