The New Book Review

Friday, October 13, 2017

Joan Dempsey's New Novel Gets Raves from Reviewer Karen Dodd

A POWERFUL BOOK FOR OUR TIMES

This Is How It Begins, A Novel

by Joan Dempsey

She Writes Press, October 2017

ISBN 978-1631523083

Paperback $16.95; E-Book $9.95

Fiction: Literary, contemporary, political, LGBTQ

http://thisishowitbeginsnovel.com/

Get Your Copy Here

Reviewed by Karen Dodd, author of Deadly Switch: A Stone Suspense , originally for Amazon
5-Star Review

I absolutely loved this book! I literally couldn't put it down. At the same time, I didn't want it to end. Everything about the story was exquisite: the rich, beautifully developed characters, the simultaneous sub-plots (which were tied together seamlessly) and the obvious research that went into the writing. I couldn't help thinking how very timely this story is in today's political and social atmosphere.

I was fortunate to be an advance reader for Joan Dempsey’s This Is How It Begins, a novel about an eighty-five-year-old Polish American art professor, Ludka Zeilonka, her family, students, and a mysterious man whose memory has haunted her for sixty years.

The story, set in 2009, but with skillfully written bits of backstory, grabbed me by page four and never let up. Without slowing the pace, Dempsey takes the time to create multi-dimensional characters, as well as a strong sense of place and setting. Somehow, she has created characters and situations that could easily be defined as “good” or “bad,” without imparting judgment or suggesting to the reader how they should feel. Just the opposite; I found myself challenging my own tendency to see things as black or white. Besides entertaining us, the author’s uncanny ability to expose truly awful modern-day and World War II injustices, and yet remain unbiased, has kept me thinking about this story long after I finished reading it.

I recommend this book to anyone, regardless of the genre they might normally read. I’m normally a consumer of mystery/thrillers but This Is How It Begins has elements of literary fiction, historical fiction, modern-day political and social issues—and yes, it has a compelling mystery to it!

I am thrilled that This Is How It Begins has been accepted as a must-read for our book club this year!

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joan Dempsey
Author and Writing Teacher
THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS, a novel
m:	207-310-0365
w:	thisishowitbeginsnovel.come: joan@joandempsey.com

HEAR ME READ AN EXCERPT FROM "THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS"

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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. 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 ). 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.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Malala Gets Reviewed--and Critiqued

Title: I Am Malala

Subtitle: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

Author: Malala Yousafzai

Co-author: Christina Lamb

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

307 Pages eBook $9.99 paperback $11.99

ISBN 978-0-316-32241-6

Available at Amazon

Reviewed by Scott Skipper originally for his blog at ScottSkipperblog.com

The whole world knows that Malala is the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban because she campaigned for girls’ education. I Am Malala is much more than recounting that gruesome event. It is a frank and accurate history of Pakistan, especially the Swat region and the Pashtun tribe. She is brutally honest about the barbarism of her people, particularly concerning the subjugation of women who are denied an education and forced to confine themselves to home and travel only with a husband or male relative. They often practice arranged marriages and sell daughters as brides to settle family blood feuds. Malala also reveals in vivid terms the dysfunction and duplicity of Pakistan’s government and army who, while claiming allegiance to the US and accepting billions of dollars, aided and abetted Osama bin Laden.

All this is very interesting and on the mark. Because Pakistan is supposedly an ally, we seldom hear the truth about this ruthless, backstabbing, hypocritical nation of tribal barbarians who possess nuclear weapons. We can see video of Taliban in Afghanistan herding women into soccer stadiums and shooting them in the head, or stoning women on the street. What we don’t see are videos of the same atrocities in Pakistan. Malala describes these outrages in an almost offhand tone and never once considers that the root cause of the problem is Islam. Despite her ordeal and having become a world-renowned proponent for educational reform, she faithfully accepts the repression of women, keeps the scarf on her head, and claims to want nothing more than to return to the Swat valley where her attempted assassin has become leader of the local Taliban. She tells about, when visiting Mecca, her mother bought a new burqa for the occasion. It can’t be both ways. One is either subjugated or not. She even sugar coats parts of the Quran, once stating that Mohamed “migrated” from Mecca to Medina. History tells us that the Meccans had had enough of him and ran his ass out of town.

I have to say that I am glad I read I Am Malala, but I can’t say that I ever warmed to the person. I also think that this book isn’t particularly well edited. How much the co-author contributed, I can’t say. The voice sounds genuinely Malala’s, but there are some places where a native English speaker might have suggested changes. It also bothered me that in her gushing admiration for Obama, she claimed that he rose from a struggling family. Struggling how? Is being raised by affluent white grandparents struggling? It’s a remarkable story that shines a light on a global crisis, but I’m not sure Malala Yousafzai actually sees the crisis.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Scott skipper is the author of authorHalf Life, A Little Rebellion Now and Then, and numerous other titles. Learn more about him at:
Official Author's Website www.ScottSkipper.com
Facebook.com/Scott Skipper
Twitter: @SSkipperAuthor--

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Sunday, October 8, 2017

How-To Book for Beginning (And Not-So-Beginning!) Poets

How to Write Classical Poetry

Subtitle: A Guide to Forms, Techniques, and Meaning

Coeditors: Evan Mantyk, Connie Phillips

Publisher: Classical Poets Publishing, 2017;

156 pages; $19.99

Paperback available on Amazon

Illustrated

ISBN-10: 1546853316

Submitted by Carol Smallwood, author of In Hubble’s Shadow (Shanti Arts, 2017) and In the Measuring (Finishing Line Press, 2017)

How to Write Classical Poetry: A Guide to Forms, Techniques, and Meaning is divided into three parts. The first is why great poetry is still useful today. The second is how to write specific forms such as the haiku, triolet, villanelle, rondeau, terza rima, limerick, rubaiyat, pantoum, sestina, rhupunt with examples of them as modern and classical poems. The third is ten of the most famous from such giants as Robert Frost, William Shakespeare with discussion about each poem.

As a writer and reader I’ve often wondered what exactly makes a formal poem or a free verse poem and how does a sonnet differ from a villanelle—and what about rhyme and/or meter? Or more basically, what makes meter? The classical forms of poetry in my experience are not often covered in creative writing classes so this guide is most timely.

An example of its usefulness is the section about the sonnet divided into four levels:

Easy: A Sonnet in 10 Minutes

Medium: Rhyme-y Poetry

Medium-Difficult: Poetry with Rhyme and Structure

Difficult: Sonnet in Iambic Pentameter and Careful Attention to Meaning

The guide includes a painting selected as a subject to write about with steps on writing with samples of each level of difficulty in composing.

“The Mechanics of Classical Poetry” a six- page discussion of rhyme and meter: terms to understand better such as iamb, trochee, and couplets, octets. “How to Write a Poem Like ‘The Raven,” a 11 page discussion about how the poem is written (deciphering the meter), a modern example, and writing one of your own.

The Society of Classical Poets, the publishers of the book, was formed as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to foster good poetry as well as formal poetry in 2012. You can subscribe and have free formal poetry e-mailed to you on their website: http://classicalpoets.org. One of the editors, Evan Mantyk is a teacher and the President and Editor and they accept poetry, essays, reviews, and offer competitions, annual journals, and much more on their visually stunning, constantly updated site. The Society has members around the world with a physical location in Mount Hope, New York.

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Friday, September 29, 2017

Reviewer Calls Novel about Alcoholism Riveting

Title : Intoxic

Author : Angie Gallion

Genre : General Fiction/Coming of Age

ISBN : 978-1536904055

Reviewed by Ellie Midwood -- History. Romance. War. Bestselling Author of Girl from Berlin originally for Amazon

What a powerful story! I rarely say this about a book but this one actually emotionally gutted me; it was so dark, disturbing and almost impossible to read at times due to all the events happening to the young protagonist Ali, yet so incredibly riveting and powerful, and I couldn’t help but admire Ali’s strength.

Told from a first person POV, it tells a story of a young girl whose mother is battling alcoholism. Or, not really battling but living it, completely ignoring the crumbling effects her lifestyle has on her only daughter’s life. Utter neglect and constant emotional torture are what comes to mind while reading about a fifteen-year-old teenager who, by some twisted turn of events, happens to become the only responsible adult in this dysfunctional family. The spectrum of emotions that replace each other in Ali’s mind with yet another disappointment, another loss of job, another forgotten birthday, another new man appearing in her mother’s life who is much worse than the previous one was, is truly heartbreaking. The icing on the cake for me was this little girl thinking - on Christmas Eve - that she would have rather lived with her mother’s very first boyfriend who sexually assaulted her constantly, solely because at least she knew what to expect from him.

Yet, despite all the emotional and physical abuse, Ali’s willpower and resilience are truly worth admiration. The persistence with which she set her mind on getting out of this swamp of a life sends an incredibly powerful message to the readers, and till the very end, I rooted for Ali to get her “happily ever after” that she undoubtedly deserved. Read this book; it’s one of those stories that should be on everyone’s must-read list.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Learn more at the author's website : angiegallion

angiegallion

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Find Ellie Midwood's website. She writes history, romance and is the bestselling author of The Girl from Berlin.

Ellie Midwood -- History. Romance. War. Bestselling Author of Girl from ...

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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Canadian Reviewer Lauds Their Women's Day and Ruth Latta's Young Adult Novel

Book Title: Grace and the Secret Vault

Author: Ruth Latta

Author Website: http://ruthlatta.blogspot.com

Genre: Young adult historical fiction

Publisher: Baico Publishing Inc. (Ottawa, Canada)

ISBN: 978-1-7721-60925

Review link: http://ruthlatta.blogspot.com

Purchase Online: info@baico.ca

Reviewed by Stephen Dale originally for Apt.613 (online magazine, Ottawa, ON)

To mark International Women’s Day in 2017, a group called Equal Voice organized an event in which young women from across Canada occupied all 338 seats in the House of Commons. The women spoke powerfully of the issues that are important to them and, in the process, made a strong symbolic statement about how politics might be different if more women were involved. With only a quarter of the seats in Parliament currently occupied by women, it’s clear that the seat of Canadian democracy remains, overwhelmingly, a boys’ club.

That the number of female Parliamentarians has increased to some extent recently is a testament to the strength of a few trailblazing women determined to defy the odds and take their place on the national political stage. One of those pioneers was Grace Woodsworth MacInnis, who served as the NDP Member of Parliament for Vancouver Kingsway between 1966 and 1974.

Ottawa novelist Ruth Latta recalls that, as a student at Queen’s University in the early 1970s, she was fascinated with this diminutive yet dynamic women, one of the first Canadian Parliamentarians to regularly raise issues of concern to women on the floor of the Commons. Latta’s latest young adult novel, Grace and the Secret Vault, (Ottawa, Baico Publishing Inc. 2017 www.baico.ca ISBN: 978-1-77216-092-5) is a fictional account of an especially formative period in Grace’s life.

Although the book doesn’t deal directly with Grace’s work as a politician, in a subtle way it sheds light on how the future MP developed the determined outlook and fortitude of character that would be necessary to storm the bastions of male power.

The novel recreates a particularly turbulent year in Grace’s early life. Her father, J.S. Woodsworth (who would go on to lead the CCF, the forerunner of the New Democratic Party) had lost his job as a minister in an idyllic British Columbia coastal town because of his opposition to the First World War. In 1919, with the war over, Grace’s father remains unafraid of courting controversy. He travels the country speaking out for social justice, and takes a role in organizing the landmark Winnipeg General Strike.

Against the backdrop of these historic events, Grace gets an up-close lesson in courage. Her father stands tall in the face of condemnation, economic sanction, and even the threat of violence. Perhaps more importantly, Grace’s mother summons a special kind of strength: keeping the family afloat by working as a teacher, overseeing a chaotic household of high-spirited children, setting a tone of optimism and good humour.

Latta tells this story in a fluid, fast-paced and conversational way, seamlessly weaving together the daily details of life in the British Columbia of a century ago with the book’s overarching political narrative. The characters’ dialogue is conveyed convincingly in the lexicon of the day, but the emotional pull of the story is timeless. And despite its subject matter, the author avoids propagandizing. There’s also a sly twist on the idea of the “mystery” that adds some fun at the end.

Grace and the Secret Vault is a lively read and a historical tale with a clear resonance for the contemporary reader, especially for the young person who might want to grow up to change the world.

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ottawa writer Stephen Dale’s latest book is Noble Illusions: Young Canada Goes to War (Fernwood Books).

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Sunday, September 24, 2017

Mini Review Gives Top Ratings to New Suspenseful Romance

TITLE: A Killer Among Us

AUTHOR: Deborah Byington,

ASIN: B071ZNDFDK
PURHASE: www.amazon.com/dp/B071ZNDFDK/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

GENRE: Romantic Suspense

Reviewed by Rrclark originally for Amazon

I very much enjoyed this story and I am anxiously awaiting the next segment of this trilogy. I

might have lost a lot of sleep trying to read during my down time but it was well worth it!

I highly recommend to everyone the suspense, mystery, and a little romance keeps you

begging for more from this author.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Learn more about Deborah Byington on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/deborahbyingtonauthor/?ref=bookmarks or https://writing-and-publishing.mn.co/home

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Wednesday, September 20, 2017

"My Brothers Keeper" Reviewed by Religion Journal

Book Title: My Brother’s Keeper

Author: Bill Kassel

Author Website: www.billkassel.com

Genre: Historical/Religious Fiction

Publisher: Company Publications/Saint Joseph Communications

ISBN: 978-0-938984-06-1

Review Link: http://www.hprweb.com/2016/09/early-fall-reading/)

Purchase Online at: https://saintjoe.com/products/my-brother-s-keeper?taxon_id=107

Reviewed by Fr. Michael P. Orsi originally for Homiletic and Pastoral Review

My Brother’s Keeper is an inspirational novel of a type that used to be broadly popular: a Bible-based narrative that expands on the Gospels to tell an engaging story about a character whose life is touched by Christ. Classics such as Ben Hur and The Robe are examples of this genre of religious storytelling that was once at the heart of the literary mainstream.

In our cynical, materialist age, such works have largely fallen out of fashion. Even the Christian publishing houses tend to shy away from Bible fiction, preferring instead to offer contemporary or historical tales that center on moral conflicts, along with those innumerable series of so-called “Christian romances.” And when secular publishers touch on the Bible these days, we’re mainly treated to gnostic conspiracies or wild speculations about Jesus’ “secret wife.”

Catholic author Bill Kassel is attempting to swim against the fashionable tide with a tale that’s remarkably orthodox but that offers an unconventional perspective on Jesus and his family. He accomplishes this through a deft blending of canonical and non-canonical elements, spiced with historical research and a good deal of imaginative supposition.

His story is premised on two ancient pious traditions: (1) that Joseph was a widower with children when he married a much younger Mary, and (2) that Mary herself had been raised in the Temple at Jerusalem as a sort of Jewish proto-“nun.” These ideas are not Kassel’s inventions, but rather are rooted in the Apocryphal Gospels (such as the Protoevangelium of James), early Christian writings that are largely overlooked in the Western Church today.

The plot of My Brother’s Keeper gets nudged into motion when Joseph is asked to take a teenage Mary as his wife because she is approaching her “impurity” (the onset of menstruation), which will require her to leave the Temple. Mary’s mother, Anna, is dead, and her father, Joachim, is nearing death himself, so the girl needs a home and husbandly protection. The twist is that this arrangement must allow Mary to preserve the celibacy she has chosen for herself.

Thus Kassel both sets the stage for all kinds of domestic complications within Joseph’s extended household, and advances a neat rationale for the Catholic doctrine of Mary’s Perpetual Virginity which even Protestants might accept. Through such clever literary contrivances My Brother’s Keeper tries to fill many of the gaps in the Gospels and answer questions that have challenged the Christian imagination over millennia.

The book’s anchor is James, described in the Bible as “the brother of the Lord,” and in Kassel’s telling the youngest of Joseph’s children. James dreams of becoming a Doctor of the Law. He pursues his goal under the tutelage of Hillel, the most renowned sage of First-Century Judaism, and Gamaliel, Hillel’s grandson (who is recognized as an important leader of the Sanhedrin in The Acts of the Apostle).

As James rises to scholarly prominence, Joseph, on his deathbed, exacts a promise from him to protect Jesus, whom Joseph believes to be the Messiah. James doesn’t share his father’s certainty about Jesus and his spiritual pedigree, but he nevertheless agrees to do what he can—in essence becoming his brother’s keeper. Later in the book, when Jesus’ ministry has begun stirring controversy, James cultivates a friendship with Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, in an effort to make good on the promise to his late father and assure that Jesus isn’t railroaded by corrupt religious authorities.

Pilate is only one of the Biblical figures who show up in this book and are revealed in unexpected ways. Joseph of Arimathea and Saul of Tarsus are two others who play surprising roles in James’ life and add density to the plot. Numerous made-up characters enrich the story as well. In fact, one of the book’s strengths is the variety of perspectives on Jesus illustrated as people grapple with their questions about this strange prophet from Nazareth.

Looking back 2,000 years and knowing how things turned out, we sometimes wonder why anyone, at the time, would have missed Jesus’ true nature. But it wasn’t necessarily clear, then, who Jesus was or what he was up to. The book captures those ambiguous circumstances, maintaining an appropriate atmosphere of tension and uncertainty throughout, until Christ’s post-resurrection appearance to James (mentioned in the Bible) near the end of the story.

Kassel demonstrates a deep appreciation for the Jewishness of Jesus and for the Old Testament roots of Christianity, evident in his research into the laws and customs of Judaism. His command of the period’s history, the local geography, and especially the political conflicts of Roman-occupied Palestine make this work instructive as well as entertaining. And it allows the author to avoid either over-romanticizing life in Jesus’ day or blaming the Jews, as a people, for Christ’s death.

My Brother’s Keeper can be viewed as part of a literary genre concerning Jesus that goes back to at least the second century A.D. But it achieves a contemporary plausibility, to which modern readers can relate, by emphasizing the human dimension of the story over its miraculous aspects. This is a highly engaging work of fiction that can be readily employed in religious education programs for both adults and teenagers—though some care should be taken with young people. Kassel doesn’t soft-pedal the violence of the period. His portrayal of crucifixion is particularly vivid. It makes one appreciate what Christ suffered, but it could be a bit unsettling.

Perhaps if My Brother’s Keeper gains a sufficient following, it might help to bring quality religious novels back into popularity among the general readership. My one concern is that 1,000 years from now, when it’s discovered in cyber-space, it may attain the notoriety of the ancient Apocryphal Gospels and engender a sequel to The DaVinci Code.

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Pages

Friday, October 13, 2017

Joan Dempsey's New Novel Gets Raves from Reviewer Karen Dodd

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Malala Gets Reviewed--and Critiqued

Sunday, October 8, 2017

How-To Book for Beginning (And Not-So-Beginning!) Poets

Friday, September 29, 2017

Reviewer Calls Novel about Alcoholism Riveting

angiegallion

Ellie Midwood -- History. Romance. War. Bestselling Author of Girl from ...

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Canadian Reviewer Lauds Their Women's Day and Ruth Latta's Young Adult Novel

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Mini Review Gives Top Ratings to New Suspenseful Romance

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

"My Brothers Keeper" Reviewed by Religion Journal

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