Unconventional Memoir Reviewed

Title: Proud Pants: An Unconventional Memoir

Author: Gregory G. Allen

Website: ggallen.net

Genre: Memoir

ISBN: 978-0-9836049-2-1

Available for Kindle at only 99 cents.

http://www.amazon.com/Proud-Pants-ebook/dp/B005CQ5O3K

Reviewed by Brittany Jedrzejewski, originally for Amazon

Reviewer’s Rating: 4-star

Oh, the beauty and courage of perspective, of putting yourself in someone else's shoes (or in this case, purple and yellow striped pants) to help understand another's personal struggles and choices. Gregory G. Allen's unique memoir, Proud Pants, bravely does just this.

In this quick paced snapshot into the mind of Johnny, a troubled, angry and misunderstood boy, we learn of his heartache and confusion at his absent mother and how he is derailed because of this and blind to the other love surrounding him. Proud Pants shows how fragile we are at our core and how much we all need love, acceptance, security and little things that make us feel special...unconditionally. Even though Johnny's stepmom in particular is absolutely amazing, he continues to fall all the way into a destructive path of drug addiction.

Only at the end of this book do we realize that that the book is told from the perspective of the author, Gregory himself, the half-brother of Johnny. Understanding this unique voice explains the story structure and concludes with a powerful memory of Gregory's own perspective of an encounter from the book, "When I was nine years old I picked up a lead pipe and prepared to hit my fourteen-year old half brother in case he did something to my mother."

If only all of us were lucky enough to have someone try to truly understand us by putting themselves in our shoes. While reading this, I wanted Johnny to prevail, to recover, to find his freedom. Above all, this memoir shows the power we have in being present in each other's lives and the affect we have on each other.

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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. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

A Special Niche in Outstanding Historical Fiction

Caleb's CrossingAuthor - Geraldine Brooks
ISBN 978-0670021048
Author website http://www.geraldinebrooks.com
Historical fiction


Reviewed by Holly Weiss originally for Amazon
Five of five stars

The best historical fiction takes historical fact and pulls us in by creating interest in characters of the time period. Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks is one of the most versatile historical fiction writers of today. Her talent lays in takes a slice of history and creating a world we long to enter. Imaginatively conceived and exquisitely written with compelling characters, Caleb’s Crossing will command your attention and demand your respect.

1660. Great Harbor (now Martha’s Vineyard), Massachusetts. Bethia Mayfield anticipates the arrival of Caleb, a member of the Wampanoag tribe, to her home for tutoring with her minister father. Unperceived by her family, she and Caleb, who share a love of nature, have learned each other’s languages and formed a friendship over the past few years. Her brother and Caleb, the first Native American to do so, enter Cambridge to prepare for studies at Harvard. Bethia feels at a loss when she leaves Martha’s Vineyard to become a servant in the headmaster’s home. Her love of learning prods her secret vigilance in listening to all the lessons.

You will find yourself reading in a leisurely fashion to fully savor the evocative prose. “And then I woke, on my cold pallet in this stranger’s kitchen, with ice winds from the cracked window fingering my flesh and a snowflake melting slowly on the fireless hearth.”

The characters are absorbing. The soulful narrative voice of Bethia has an ethereal quality. She is haunted by guilt, taking upon herself blame for a smallpox outbreak, a death during the delivery of a baby—all because of her secret relationship with Caleb. Caleb yearns to be a Pawaaw, or healer of his people. For him, knowledge respects no boundaries. He glows with appreciation of life, zest for learning, curiosity and love of nature.

Integral elements of the remarkable Caleb’s Crossing are joy in learning, unexpected death, heartbreaking starvation, and the ever-present bond between Caleb and Bethia despite all hardship and prejudice against their bond. Knowledge equals power in this unique book. Caleb says, “And since it seems that knowledge is no respecter of boundaries, I will take it wheresoever I can…if necessary, I will go into the dark to get it.” Intrigued?

The release of Caleb’s Crossing coincided with an important Harvard University event. A degree will be awarded in May to Tiffany Smalley, the first Martha’s Vineyard member of the Wampanoag tribe since Caleb to graduate. An official portrait of Caleb will be painted in commemoration.

To what does Caleb cross? Read Caleb’s Crossing to find out. In the book, Ms. Brooks highlights this question: What are the effects of attempting to Christianize an already spiritual, established civilization? Her own opinion is not expressed. Instead, she tells Caleb’s story with forthrightness and clarity, allowing the reader to draw his own conclusions.

I thank Viking for providing a copy. The opinions expressed unbiased and solely that of the reviewer.

Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont.

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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. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Lovers of Greek Mythology Alert!

The Niobe Trilogy from the Tapestry of Bronze series

Authors: Victoria Grossack & Alice UnderwoodAuthors’ Website: www.tapestryofbronze.com

Genres: Historical Fiction/Greek Mythology
Children of Tantalus: Niobe & Pelops – ISBN-13 978-1456368906
The Road to Thebes: Niobe & Amphion – ISBN-13 978-1456415914
Arrows of Artemis: Niobe & Chloris – ISBN-13 978-1456460587

Reviewer name: Barry Brake. Note that this review originally appeared at Amazon.com with 5 stars. Reviewer’s website: www.barrybrake.com

The Tapestry of Bronze novels recast familiar and unfamiliar stories set in Bronze Age Greece in the form of novels. In so doing, they also yank the tropes of mythos into the tropes of the novel in ways that surprise and inform, deepen our understanding of a very foreign time, and, not least, delight the reader with just about every page.

One of their favorite tricks is what Viktor Schklovsky called ostranenie: "strangemaking." They'll plop you down in a scene and let you take in its unfamiliar combination of the barbaric and the civilized, and let you get hooked on whatever thing happens to be going on, and only a beat later allow you to realize that you are indeed in the middle of a familiar scene from myth or legend -- the quiz of the Sphinx, the slaughter of the Niobids -- and seeing it for the first time. After enough of this, you realize how conveniently we imagine ancient Greeks as people just like us only costumed. The truth is wilder and weirder, and far more interesting, and the result of seeing it is that we begin to see ourselves for the first time as well.

I especially enjoy the way the authors create such realistic nodes between the rational and the mythical: things that, one sees, can easily be explained by the natural language of a modern novel but are also easily explained by the supernatural language of the mythical mind. Lesser authors would simply use this trick to rob a story of its magic, or explain away some phenomenon; with Underwood and Grossack you feel again and again as if a black-and-white photo has been made into full color.

I'll also point out that when you buy these books, which are published by CreateSpace, you're helping affirm a new relationship between author and audience that suits our new century well, and points toward a solution for revitalizing all kinds of art in a way that finally makes economic sense for both author and audience.

One of the great pleasures of civilization is to sit down with a storyteller you know will absorb and satisfy. Thanks to Underwood and Grossack, we now have several more books on our shelf that provide just that pleasure----- 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. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Political Thriller Highly Praised

ETA - Estimated Time of Arrest

A novel by Delphine Pontvieux
Author's Web site: http://www.missnyet.com
Genre: ThrillerMiss Nyet Publishing
ISBN: 9780984217601
Winner of Indie Excellence Book Award 2011 - thriller category
Also 2010 recipient of French in Chicago community award in the Arts andculture category

Review by: Jason Pettus for the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography

Rrating: 8.9 of 10: 8.9: 9.4 for fans of political thrillers

As I've said here several times before, I think it unfair to directly compare the worth of a book by a full-time writer on a major press with one by a part-time self-publishing author, if for no other reason than the tremendous amount of editorial advantages held by the former -- after all, a full-time author signed to a large publishing company will have at least a full-time editor, copy editor, proofreader and agent at their disposal, all of them making fine-tuned changes to that manuscript that a self-published one simply doesn't receive, not to mention the entire army of student volunteers that full-time writers sometimes have if they are a professor as well, which they are in so many cases. So it's always a real delight to come across a book like Delphine Pontvieux's ETA: Estimated Time of Arrest; because although you should be aware from the start that it's not much more than a beach-and-airport political thriller, it's a good enough one that it could literally be picked up right this second by Random House for a million-copy print run with no changes needed, a rare occurrence for a book like this which is basically one step above being self-published. (So that is, it's put out by an actual company called Miss Nyet, but which was started by the author specifically to put out this book, the situation that many people are referring to when they use the term "basement press.")

And in fact I suspect one of the reasons this book is so effective is that it's set in a milieu that's rarely discussed here in the US; that of the Basque separatists who live in the borderland between Spain and France, a place that the French-born, globetrotting Pontvieux (now a Chicagoan) is obviously quite familiar with, and which turns out makes for an almost perfect setting in which to base an exciting political potboiler. For those who need a little primer (and forgive me if I get some of this wrong -- I'm getting most of my info from the novel itself), you can think of the situation in Basque in much the same terms as the more well-known Northern Ireland; for a long time a tiny independent nation surrounded by the various Great Powers (much like its nearby neighbors Monaco and Luxembourg), during the fascist Franco years it was taken over by Spain and subjected to a brutal process of assimilation, which like the Irish Republican Army (or IRA) inspired the formation of a paramilitary nationalist organization, known there as the ETA. But by the 1990s, twenty years after the fall of the Franco regime, a compromise of sorts had been struck, which gave the Basque region an autonomous political status while still officially remaining a part of Spanish and French territory, with an end to imperialistic hostilities and the official public right again to celebrate Basque history and culture; and again, much like the IRA, it was at this point that even more and more locals started questioning the effectiveness or even need of a continued ETA, making them much more controversial and not nearly as automatically supported by separatists as when they were fighting literal fascists hellbent on destroying them.

And like the best political thrillers, Pontvieux takes no official sides in ETA, but rather uses the complex situation itself to tell an epic and far-reaching story, essentially centered around a young good-guy named Lorenzo Izcoa, swept up as a teen into the romanticism of the paramilitary movement but then eventually falsely accused of blowing up a police station, during a mass protest that turned chaotic. Like the early work of Tom Clancy, then (which I happen to like a lot), Pontvieux uses Izcoa's situation to examine a whole series of communities and locations related to the issue of Basque independence -- from rural Mexico where he spends time as a fugitive, to the alps of southern France where he is brought in by the group to do one last favor, from a mountain hippie community full of environmental activists to the weary police inspectors of big-city Espana. Pontvieux uses all these settings to examine the issue of Basque separatism and terrorist violence from all kinds of different angles, thankfully enfolding these more philosophical issues into the action itself, instead of simply lecturing us like so many mediocre political thrillers do; and along the way, she bases an important aspect of the plot on her personal love for freehand rock-climbing, a natural addition within the beautiful yet treacherous mountain terrain of southern France and northern Spain where our story largely takes place.

Now, like I said, this is a genre project through and through, and you will need to be an existing fan of people like John LeCarre to have even a chance of enjoyingETA; but as far as that's concerned, this is definitely on the high end of the quality scale for that genre, a quickly-paced page-turner that I imagine most fans of political thrillers will find themselves flying through. What a great week it always is when I get a chance to stumble across a book like this, one that far exceeds both my expectations and its publishing circumstances. It comes highly recommended today to those who are fans of such work.

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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. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

The Inscrutable Life of a Spy

Title: A Spy At Home
Author: Joseph M. Rinaldo
Website: www.josephmrinaldo.com
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
ISBN: B0033WSVVC


Reviewed by Citizen John, originally for Amazon
Reviewer's Rating: 5-star


This review is from: A Spy At Home (Kindle Edition).

"The Number One lesson for a band, it is said, is to get off stage
while the audience still wants you. A Spy At Home is like a Grisham
novel exiting stage right just as the subconscious mind tells you this
is not really fiction. I'm ready to read more by Joseph Rinaldo.

Spies like Garrison, the protagonist, have a tendency to become their
legend, their claimed background or biography. They support it by
documentation, memorization and years of life experience. They live
what they project. One of Garrison's tradecrafts is moving and hiding
large funds clandestinely. However, Garrison assumes caregiver
responsibilities and that changes everything.

I was unsure whether Garrison is an unusually caring man or if so much
of his time was window dressing. He could not easily have selected a
better cover story to convince observers that what they are observing
is genuine. My suspicions were confirmed that there would be a wet job
well into the approximately 125-page story. Even now I think about
this story and wonder where reality ends and fiction begins."

Thank you for the opportunity to promote my ebook by submitting this review.

Joe Rinaldo
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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. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Simon Barrett Reviews Chip Wagar's Historical Novel

Title: An American in Vienna

Author: Chip Wagar

Genre: Historical Fiction

Website: www.anamericaninvienna.com

ISBN: 978-1-4502-6766-3

Publisher: iUniverse, January 26, 2011

Reviewed by Simon Barrett for  Blogger News Networt: Book Review

Fiction is a hard taskmaster. The author must weave the fiction elements into the harsh reality of the facts. When done well (a rare occurrence) you have a book where fact and fiction blend so well that the reader does not know where one ends, and the other begins.

These are lofty goals. But there is one even higher. Weave fact and fiction together and create a work that not only entertains but also teaches. I found that in Chip Wagar and his debut novel An American In Vienna.

The First World War or Great War has been written about many times. Authors have labored long and hard on books about the battlefront, the inhumane conditions, the horrible torture that those brave men faced. Few authors though dare to tread in the ‘back story’. How did a gun shot start a conflict that consumed the Western World for four years?

Chip Wagar has taken a very unique approach. Through the eyes of a vacationing young American visiting Vienna we are exposed to how this war escalated and forever changed the world map.

Andy Bishop has just graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in journalism. His plan is to join his father in the family business, a newspaper in Columbus, Ohio. However before he ’settles down’, he wants to explore Europe, most particularly Austria, which seems to be where the family roots are. And when an invitation is extended to visit these relatives Andy sets sail for the adventure of his lifetime.

Andy Bishop quickly discovers that his Viennese cousins are not regular middle class merchants and bankers, but rather members of Austrian aristocracy with close toes to the Kaiser himself.

The brutal slaying of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie sets the wheels in motion for world war one. This information is hardly new, and almost any High Schooler will recite this fact. But what is far less well understood is why this senseless murder was so pivotal in shaping the events of the ensuing months.

1914 might in retrospect seem a poor choice of date to visit Europe, but minor skirmishes between countries had been going on for hundreds of years!

Chip Wagar is to be congratulated, he has taken a very complex political history subject and presented it in a fashion that any reader will enjoy.

Using the character Andy Bishop as the storytelling conduit is a master stroke, it is sheer brilliance. Andy being an American is at best naive as to the the politics in Austria, and in the rest of Europe

Through Andy Bishop we meet Johann and Maria. Johann is the the young and debonair aide-de-camp to Franz Ferdinand, and Maria his aristocratic, but very forward thinking fiance. It could be argued that what results is a love triangle, but it is very far from the standard one. I prefer the term Dynamic over Love Triangle. There is a unique dynamic between these three people.

An American In Vienna is a very unique book. There are three ways to approach Historical Fiction, live the life vicariously through other books, and increasingly resources found on the Internet. The second approach is write about an area that you spent at least a little time in, this allows you the luxury of being able to describe the location with a sense of ‘being there’.

The third approach is the rarest and always most effective, total immersion.

An American In Vienna is clearly written using ‘total immersion’. The dead giveaways are found in the very opening pages. It is the minutiae of everyday life that is mentioned. ‘Hoch’ German is not so much a dialect of speech as it is a lifestyle.

I talked to Chip Wagar a little about An American In Vienna, my guess about ‘immersion’ was correct, Chip spent a considerable amount of time in Vienna as a student.

An American In Vienna is well worth the price of admission, it is a book that has wide and diverse appeal. You can read it as a great adventure novel, or you can read it as a very interesting discussion of the causes and in someways effects of World War One viewed from the Austrian perspective.

A saying popped into my mind when I put this book down, ‘there are three views about any situation, there is mine, there is yours, and there is the truth which lays somewhere in between’. I am a fan of history, but as George Orwell alludes to in 1984, the history books are written by the victors.

You can get your copy of this very thought provoking book by using the Amazon link above. This is a book destined for great things.

----- 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. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Deb Hockenberry Reviews Quirky Kids Zoo

TITLE: Quirky Kids Zoo

AUTHOR: Pat Brannon

PUBLISHER: Wandering Sage Publications http://www.wanderingsagepublications.com

FORMAT: Paperback

PAGES: 32

PRICE: $11.99 (US), £7.46 (UK), CDN$ 11.39 (CA)

ILLUSTRATOR: Jimena Pinto-Kroujiline http://www.amelia2.blogspot.com

ISBN – 10: 1933300833

ISBN – 13: 9781933300832

 Reviewed by Deb Hockenberry originally for Deb's Book Reviews

 

Hi! Welcome to a different kind of zoo. We’re going to see some strange sights. What’s that you say? What kind of strange sights? Well never fear, there’s nothing scary here.

Do you have you camera ready? You can take pictures of different things here. What’s different here? Look over there; did you ever see porcupines with fur so soft? Let’s walk down this walk. Look over there. See the elephants playing leapfrog with the ants? See the gorillas roller skating? There’s a lot to take pictures of in this quirky zoo!

Children and adults both will love this book by Pat Brannon. Children will love laugh at the quirky kids’ zoo’s inhabitants. They will love the fact that they can help read the book by counting. Adults will love the rhyming story because it teaches kids to count from one to twenty five. Both parents and children will love the imaginative and silly antics (like gardening kangaroos) of the inhabitants. This interactive book makes reading time fun!

The brightly painted illustrations by Jimena Pinto-Kroujiline brings this delightful rhyming story to life.

I loved reviewing this children’s book and highly recommend it. It’s so imaginative and just a pleasure to read. From beginning to end, the Quirky Kids Zoo kept a smile on my face!

To learn more about Pat Brannon, just visit her website. You’ll find it at: http://www.patbrannon.com. While you’re visiting websites, you can visit Jimena Pinto-Kroujiline’s website at: http://www.amelia2.blogspot.com.

You can purchase Quirky Kids Zoo for your children or grandchildren at a variety of places. Among them are: http://www.amazon.com or http://www.barnesandnoble.com in the United States. In Canada you can go to http://www.amazon.ca or pick it up in the United Kingdom at: http://www.amazon.co.uk.

 ~Reviewed by Deb Hockenberry

The Bumpy Road http://thebumpyroadtopublishing.blogspot.com

Deb's Book Reviews http://debsbookreviews.blogspot.com

"When God closes a door, He always opens a window."

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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. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :