The Diversion by Ryan Dodde II M.D.

In recent years, Grand Rapids, Michigan has hosted a wonderful celebration each fall called ArtPrize. Artists from all over the world display their art all throughout the city. Natives and tourists alike are invited to explore the city and vote for their favorite pieces. This past year, my cousin Ryan submitted a bronze sculpture called The Distraction. I didn’t hear about this until I went home for Thanksgiving. My mother had a postcard on her end table. Just looking at it brought tears to my eyes. It is so beautiful and to know that my cousin created it made me incredibly proud. The Diversion is full of dignity and hope. I’ve had a picture of this on my desktop at work ever since.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been proud of Ryan. On my dad’s side of the family, he is the oldest cousin. I’ve always looked up to him. He became the first doctor in our family and one of the nicest people I have ever known. During my senior year of high school, I had to make a presentation to my Honors English class about a form of art. At the time, the only creative thing I did was cross stitch and at that age there was no way I was going to stand up in front of my class and talk about that. I was in a pickle when I remembered that my Uncle Ryan had worked as a clown when I was little. On a wing and a prayer, I called him, hoping I could convince him to talk to my class. It was my cousin Ryan who answered the phone instead. His father no longer worked as a clown, but Ryan offered to talk about his sculptures instead. I was over the moon. He came to my class and everyone loved his presentation. I remember very clearly how my chest swelled because he was awesome and he was MY cousin. It made me feel special that he did that for me. The A I received was just the icing on the cake. I don’t think I’ve ever thanked him enough for that afternoon he spent in my high school in 1989, but it meant the world to me.

I hope you enjoy The Diversion as much as as I do. If you would like more information about Ryan and his work (including pictures of this sculpture in progress), here is his ArtPrize page.

Kathy believes that she fixed the comments glitches that people were having.  If you still have trouble leaving comments, please let me know.  I want to make sure that anyone who wants to leave comments can.  Also, I finally got all of my links added under “Literate Housewife Approved.”  If you don’t see your link there, please send me an email and I’ll add you right away.

I’ve also learned a lot.  First, I would suggest that anyone moving to another site change the internal links in Notepad or Wordpad before importing existing content into the new blog.  I didn’t think to do that and I’ll probably be manually changing them one by one for the rest of my life.   I need to figure out how to change my existing WordPress blog to route here.  I think I’ve got all of the pieces together that I need, but putting it into action is slowing me down.

I wish I had a camera with me.  Emma is sitting on the couch with her legs crossed reading my copy of Soul Catcher!  It would make an adorable picture, but as soon as I put my laptop down to get the camera she would … actually she’s already off cutting construction paper with her scissors.  She’s really excited about reading an loves to pick up my books and find words she knows.  I’m so proud of her.

Yesterday was such a treat.  I was able to have lunch with Kathy, Jaime and Miriam from Hachette Books.  We ate at a nice barbecue restaurant in Blacksburg and spent the time talking about reading and blogging.  It was so nice to finally meet some of my blogging friends in person.  I agree with Kathy, book bloggers are twice as nice in person.

Kathy, Miriam, Jaime, and Me

This past week I was in Las Vegas for a conference about using social media and the health care industry.  I got there Sunday afternoon.  Since Vegas has a better variety of movies than Roanoke, I planned on seeing several while I was there, starting with Revolutionary Road.  I had been looking forward to that movie since I first heard about it.  I left that movie very depressed.  Wow.  I could really relate to Kate Winslet’s character (except for all the smoking).  She reminded me a lot of myself in the first couple of years after Allison was born.  I wished that I hadn’t seen that movie alone.  Have you seen it?  I’m curious what other people thought about it.  I have an ARC of the book that I do want to read still.  I think that there are some details with the neighbors that was missing from the movie.  I also handle deeply morose subject matter much better in reading than I do in cinematic form.  Needless to say, I decided not to see any more movies while I was there.

The highlight of my trip was the tour of Zappos.com‘s corporate headquarters.  I am planning a post about my time there once my first pair of Zappos shoes arrive tomorrow, but I just can’t keep quite about this company.  If you haven’t experienced the difference there, you should check it out.  Free shipping in the US with a 365 day return policy also with free shipping.  You can’t lose and the customer service there is the world’s best.  I can’t wait to tell you more about it.

I didn’t get as much reading done in Vegas as I had hoped.  I finished The Sinner’s Guide to Confession on the plane and wrote the review on the flight as well.  I hosted Phyllis Schieber’s book tour on Monday.  Please stop by and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of the novel.  I really enjoyed it.  Although it was still early after Revolutionary Road on Sunday night, I felt like doing anything but read, so I watched an MSNBC special on the BTK serial killer.  This was NOT a bright idea.  I can freak myself out just listening to the music from Unsolved Mysteries and being alone and watching a show like that made every possible noise I heard spook me.  Anyway, I started reading Soul Catcher by Michael White the next day.  I’m just over half way through now.  It started a bit slow for me, but it’s picked up considerably.  I’m hoping to finish it for the Historical Fiction Lovers book club in the next day or two.  It’s our February book of the month.  I’ll post my review here after that.

I did manage to get three reviews written in Vegas.  In addition to The Sinner’s Guide to Confession, I wrote and posted my review of Etta by Gerald Kolpan.  I’ve written my review of Tomato Girl by hand and hope to have that posted later today.  I’m still a little behind with my reviews.  I need to write my reviews for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mermaids in the Basement, and The Triumph of Deborah.  Guernsey is my first book for my War Through the Generations reading challenge.

This may be SuperBowl Sunday, but we’re not huge football fans here.  I loved the Pittsburgh Steelers when I was a little girl and they were always in the SuperBowl (Terry Bradshaw days).  I’m happy they’re back this year, but I’m probably not going to watch the game very closely.  If you have big plans, have a wonderful time!

Until next week, enjoy what February brings this year.

Photograph from Jimmy Carter Library, Atlanta, Georgia

On January 20, 1977, I was just over 5 years old.  I was in kindergarten that year and what I remember was the parade.  What I remember is sitting on the carpet in front of the TV in our first family home in Sparta, MI.  I am not sure if I was watching the original telecast, but I could have been because I was the morning kindergarten class.  It could have been a recast, though.  At first I enjoyed watching President and Mrs. Carter walking down Pennsylvania Ave.  Then, I got very bored of listening to all the talking and wished that I could watch something else.  Today, I think Jimmy Carter’s Inaugural Parade was perfect for him.  He was and is a down to earth, good man.  Although there had already been two presidents during my then short life, Jimmy Carter is the first I remember.  Although my memories of him as president are dark due to the Iran Hostage Crisis that was to come, I am glad to have the memory of what it was like for a very young child to watch such a parade.  Because I remember Jimmy Carter’s day, I know that Emma, my 6 year old kindergartner, will remember Barack Obama’s.

Emma is in school today and I am at work.  She may get to watch the festivities at school, but just in case I’m DVRing it for later.  I would love to sit and watch Obama’s parade with her.  She will be a member of the first generation not to know an America without an African American president.  For her and her classmates, race will not be something that will keep a man from becoming the President of the United States.  When a man can become president, a man can do anything.  I hope that we don’t have to wait for Emma to watch an inaugural parade with her oldest child before the same can be said of women.

Happy Inauguration Day!  Please leave a comment to this post about your impressions of today’s inauguration.  What did you think of the speech?  The parade?  What do you think was the most memorable moment?  What did you children think?  All comments about the inauguration left today will qualify to win a copy of Clarence B. Jones’ book, What Would Martin Say?

The Sister

Virginia Stone, a 70 year old spinster, lives alone with her moths at Bulburrow Court, her family’s mansion.  She is an eccentric old woman who grew up during WWII and its aftermath.  She is peculiar, most especially about time and tea.  To say she is set in her ways would be an understatement.  When her younger sister Vivien returns to Bulburrow Court after leaving the family home and her sister for London nearly 50 years earlier, Ginny reflects on her life, from her alcoholic mother  Maud, her lepidopterist father Clive, who mentored her in the study of moths, and her love for her absent sister.  She approaches her history with the same unemotional scientific eye that she uses with her moths and other insects.  It doesn’t take long to start questioning Ginny’s reliability as a daughter, sister, and narrator.  This novel held my interest from the beginning with Vivi’s tragic, near-fatal fall and the numerous mysteries and questions that continued to come up to the surface.

Poppy Adams is an extremely detailed writer.  Her use of entomology and the study of the moth clearly stem from a great deal of research.  While Ginny loves to go into lengthy and often gory detail about her science, the minutia she shares with the reader provides important insights into Ginny’s morality, mental state, and obsessive compulsiveness. There is an interesting passage about a colony of ants taken over by a butterfly larva that still has me thinking about Ginny and what the truth about her family might have been.

This is the first audio book I truly enjoyed.  No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July and Savannah by John Jakes (which I couldn’t finish) were complete flops for me – both because of the narration.  In addition to the story itself, The Sister had what the others so far have not – the perfect reader.  Juliet Mills’ voice and reading was such a complement to Ginny that I can’t image there being a more perfect vocal performer for the novel.   The way she enunciated “pupal soup” throughout the novel was both sickening and dead on for Ginny’s character.  She expertly read dialog for the other characters as well.  There was a scene where Maud, drunk, could not hold her tongue to Ginny about her opinions of Albert, Vivi’s boyfriend.  That exchange between Maud and Ginny was wonderful and riveting.  Although I’m tempted to read the physical book the next time around, I can’t imagine reading it without hearing Mills’ voice.

This novel, because it is narrated by Ginny, does not provide answers to all of the questions that are raised.  Who exactly is the sister?  What exactly did the rest of the family and the village of Bulburrow know about Ginny that she did not?  If she has been mentally ill her entire life, why in the world would Vivi and Albert entrust her with their family in the way that they did?  Did she truly carry on Clive’s work after he retired? What exactly went on with Dr. Moyse?  At first, this made the ending fall a little flat for me.  However, upon further reflection, it would be impossible to know what Ginny did not and this is made even that much more difficult as she had a talent for blocking out the unpleasant portions of stories and conversations.  Truly, this novel is open-ended, allowing the reader to discern the truth from the delusion.  The Sister invites additional readings.  It would be very interesting to read this a second time to see what I might have missed the first time.  While under no circumstances would I ever sit down for tea with Ginny Stone, I’d love to study her in more depth.  She is a fascinating character whose voice, like that of Vida Winter from The Thirteenth Tale and many of Patrick McGrath’s narrators, will stay with me for a long time to come.

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To buy book in audio, click here.
To buy this book, click here.

First Emma…

Then Allison…

Incidentally, the first picture ended up being the winner, but I’m going to wait to post that until Christmas day.

I am currently reading The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer.  I’m enjoying it, but it’s not as compelling as The Reluctant Widow (although, it’s becoming more compelling as of what I read during my lunch break).  I was also able to finish The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones (I absolutely loved) and My Husband’s Sweethearts (enjoyable).  I’m hoping to have those reviews between now and Wednesday if I can.

I am feeling a whole lot better about my near fatal ARC pile up now that I’ve finished over half of those that I promised.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and it feels good.  I’ve been peaking at what is ahead and I’m really excited.  The Triumph of Deborah is up next, followed by Tomato Girl.  Both of those novels read very well over the first few pages.

I recently found out about a fun Book Club application for Facebook.  I don’t know if any of you have Facebook accounts or not, but you might be interested in it, too.  I’ve been using it some over the weekend and enjoy it.  It allows users to create their own book clubs and I like how that is set up.  I think this might work a whole lot better than what we used for Immortal.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  I’m planning on starting a Historical Fiction book club.  I’ll post an update.  If anyone would like to add me as a friend on Facebook, my email address for that is speedhaven (at) gmail (dot) com.

As much as I love the holidays, I’m looking forward to the New Year and getting back into my blog and yours!

Maggie Duncan lost her family as a very young girl during a massacre between the British and the Scottish.  Her destiny falls into place when she helps a injured man find his way home to his wife, Hannah.  Hannah, a midwife and local healer, realizes almost instantly that her husband’s gangrene will end his life.  Childless, she sees Maggie’s arrival as the blessing to bloom from her husband’s death.  She takes Maggie under her wings and teaches her healing and midwifery.  Unfortunately, the little Scottish town in which they live is superstitious.  They think that Maggie is bad luck given what happened to her parents.  They believe she possesses the powers of the evil eye.  When Hannah gets sick with consumption, she gives Maggie one last gift before she dies – she plants the seed about going to the America.  After Hannah’s death, Maggie is living hand to mouth.  When she’s offered the opportunity to sale to America at the cost of spending four years as an indentured servant, Hannah’s words come back to her and she travels to find her destiny in the New World.

The Midwife of the Blue Ridge is an engaging novel about the joys, struggles, and courage of those who took the risk of leaving their home land in order to make their own way in Virginia.  From the very beginning, America was seen as a land of opportunity to those whose futures in their home countries was set from the moment of their conception.  It says a great deal that people would knowingly agree to four years of indentured service under unknown masters in order to have a shot at creating their own fortunes and secure their own land.  Christine Blevins brings this all to life through Maggie, Seth Martin and Tom Roberts.  Just as vividly, Blevins writes of those who were forced to go to the New World by their privileged and wealthy families found them to be an embarrassment best kept an ocean away.  Their resentment over their circumstances colored their view of this new land and how they treated other people.  In the Colonial Virginia painted in this novel, it is a toss up as to who was more savage, the Shawnee warriors or the disgraced lords of England.

Maggie Duncan is one of the most delightful heroines I’ve encountered in a long time.  Although her accent was difficult for me to catch on to at first, I was soon caught up in the story of this clever, sassy, and giving young woman.  The very scrappiness that was viewed suspiciously by her Scottish kinsmen was what kept her safe and gave her the advantage she needed to get off to a good start as Seth’s servant.  She endeared herself to Seth, Naomi and their children by her generous spirit and her strong work ethic.  Her sarcastic spunkiness endeared her to almost every single man she encountered.  I admired her optimistic yet pragmatic attitude toward life and the courage she displayed under the most stressful conditions found in the Virginia wilderness.  I enjoyed every minute I spent with her and hope that my daughters growing up in the Blue Ridge of Virginia four centuries later will develop her same strength of character.

Over the past couple of years I’ve read a great deal of wonderful historical fiction.  For the most part, I’ve shied away from historical fiction set in my own country.  I have read The Winthrop Woman and Devil Water by Anya Seton and, while they were both novels I enjoyed, they did not ignite in me the same excitement for my country’s history that Midwife of the Blue Ridge has.  Colonial America, just like Tudor England and Venice has its own charms and dangers to explore.  After reading Blevins’ novel, I am looking forward to spending some more time at home.

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Christine Blevins was kind enough to send me two copies of Midwife of the Blue Ridge, but that’s not all.  She also sent some wonderful smelling goodies!  If you would like a chance to win your own copy of Midwife of the Blue Ridge, a bar of handmade lavender soap and a bag of tea leaves, please leave a comment below about your favorite heroine or your favorite destination when you read historical fiction by 11:59pm EST on Monday, November 24.  I’ll take all the entries and add them to the List Randomizer.  The first name in the list will win the grand prize.  The last name in the list will also win a bag of tea leaves.  Based on the way the tea leaves smell, they will make a wonderful and relaxing cup of hot goodness during the winter.  The winners will be announced by noon EST on the 25th.  Good luck!

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To buy this novel on Amazon.com, click here.

Janeology by Karen Harrington

Janeology, Karen Harrington’s first novel, opens after Jane, young mother of toddler twins, who suffers from depression following a miscarriage, turns manic and drowns her son Adam and nearly drowns her daughter Sarah as well.  This novel, however, does not tell this story from Jane’s perspective.  Instead, it is told from her husband Tom’s perspective.  After Jane is found innocent of Adam’s murder by reason of insanity, Tom is indicted for neglect.  The state decides to prosecute him for not recognizing the depth of Jane’s illness and for leaving his children solely under her care while he went to work.  This truly is something that could very easily happen today.

Once the initial shock of what has happened to his family wore off and Jane’s trial came to an end, Tom was eager to be or at least to feel punished for what happened to his family.  He might not have even defended himself at all had his mother not hired an attorney.  Luckily, she did, and Dave Frontella proposes a revolutionary defense strategy.  In it, he holds Jane’s genealogy ultimately responsible for what happened and this was nothing that Tom could have ever known.  Not only is the defense unconventional, his means of determining what it was in Jane’s genes is entirely controversial.  Dave locates Jane’s half-sister Mariah, a clairvoyant.  Mariah knows about a family trunk in the attic.  Inside this trunk are photographs and other heirlooms of which Tom was completely unaware.  She uses those to invite Jane’s ancestors to tell their stories.

Just like Tom, I had to suspend disbelief as Mariah embodies Jane as a young child.  As the stories of her family keep unfolding, I was drawn more and more into the history until I was almost frustrated with Tom for being so stubborn and not admitting that things are making more and more sense.  This mixture of historical fiction within a “ripped from the headlines” story worked very well for me.  Tom is a college literature professor, but like many such men, he comes off as being somewhat removed from his own emotions.  He is numb and could only seem to feel safe experiencing his life was back when things were right – back when he and Jane were young and in love.  Jane’s ancestors, however, are quite the contrary.  They are true to their nature.  They are messy, they are passionate, and they are entirely flawed.  I may not like them all, but I could wrap my arms around them and feel compassion.  I was acutely aware that my feelings toward Jane’s ancestors mirrored those Tom held in his heart for his wife.  He was unable to shake his love for Jane because he could not forget the story of their lives and love before she snapped.

Reading Janeology was a powerful experience for me.  As someone who suffered from post-partum depression, I could relate to Jane very well.  I could also very well understand Tom.  I feel that he very much did his best to make it through Jane’s depression, hoping that one day she would come back to her family.  In that way, he provided insight into what my own husband experienced.  I was also lucky to have read this novel while I was in Boston because some of the most important revelations about Jane’s family centered in that city.  It was thrilling for me to have come back from a three hour walking tour of historic Boston only to read about one of streets I crossed along the way.  It made that section of the novel that much more real for me.

In addition to being compelling, most especially during Mariah’s sessions with Jane and her ancestors, Janeology asks a question that cannot easily be answered: How much of who you are is determined by what your ancestors were?  In some ways this makes me wish I had a Mariah who could tell me the stories of my family.  In other ways, I think I’d rather not know.  Regardless, I enjoyed my time reading Janeology and look forward to reading Karen Harrington’s next novel.

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To buy this novel, click here.

Constitution Translated for Kids by Cathy Travis

If there is ever a time that the American government and its processes our on our minds, it’s during an election year.  Although this nation’s founding and its history are taught in every school and university throughout this nation, the Constitution is much discussed, but not fully understood. The Constitution Translated for Children is a wonderful resource.  I can see a great deal of practical application for this book at home or in the classroom – or, more importantly, both.  Within this book, Cathy Travis does a wonderful job breaking down the Constitution into understandable language and provides relevant examples.  The exercises are challenging and encourage the reader to expand upon the text.  After reading this book, I felt like I had a much better understanding of the document that framed my government than I ever had before – without feeling as if I was being talked down to because it is geared toward children.

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To buy this book, click here.

Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story by Kim Powers

It is my great honor and pleasure to be the host of Kim Powers’ last stop on his absolutely fabulous book tour for Capote in Kansas, which is sponsored by TLC Book Tours.  For more information on this tour, please click on the TLC logo to the left or select the links that interest you from the listing at the end of this review.  I only hope that my review today is only half as good as the stops that went before me.  Now, on to my review…

There are times when fate conspires to bring two people together only to tear them apart.  This is true of Nelle Harper Lee and Truman Capote.  Truman’s mother, who had no time or interest in her eccentric son, sent him to live with his family in Monroeville, Alabama.  Nelle grew up next door.  She was not blind to his idiosyncrasies.  in fact, she understood and cared for him like no one else.  Nelle was there for him to type up his stories when they were children and to help him connect with people in Kansas while he worked on In Cold Blood.  Their bond, however, was not indestructible.  Although they complement each other in many ways, it is the ways in which they are alike that drives a wedge between them.  It was a distance that might only be bridged by the ghosts from their past.

There is much to love about this novel, but what struck me the most was the impact that writing about another person can have on both the author and the subject.  Truman Capote was most definitely in search of fame when he made the decision to write about the Clutter family after their tragic and brutal murders in Kansas.  He was haunted by their ghosts later in life because they did not want the attention In Cold Blood brought to them, even though they were deceased at the time.  Lee, on the other hand, wrote her neighbor into To Kill a Mockingbird in the form of Boo Radley as a tribute to him.  His family never understood her intentions and blamed her for the disruptions her fans made in his life.  Whether a depiction is fictional or biographical, putting a person down on paper proved to be the equivalent of stealing that person’s soul.  That Lee was sensitive to this from the beginning while Capote didn’t start confronting it until his work caused him to be ostracized from New York society – and even then not fully until it was forced upon him as his life was in a downward spiral – fleshes these characters out fully. By choosing to explore this theme within a novel about two of the most famous and influential American authors in recent time makes this novel fresh, engaging, and memorable.

Although I had read To Kill a Mockingbird prior to reading Capote in Kansas, I knew very little about Lee or Capote when I opened this novel.  I did not know about their friendship or that there was a rift that tore them apart.  In the novel, Capote and his actions were responsible for their estrangement, but it wouldn’t have happened at all were it not for the personal and professional insecurities of they both shared.  I found this story fascinating, especially as Powers told it from within the context of the midnight phone calls, the memories, and the ghosts who visited them both in the middle of the night.  Whatever the reality of their friendship may have been, I left this novel hoping that they were able to make peace with each other before Capote’s death.

I read this novel over the course of a single day.  It was interesting and compelling throughout.  It was with satisfaction that I finished the novel and closed the back cover.  It’s clear from his writing that Powers’ respects his characters and is compassionate yet honest when dealing with their flaws.  I found that it was not necessary to have much knowledge of Lee and Capote to be swept up by their star crossed friendship and to experience their pain as life, love, and childhood loyalties do not work out as they had planned.  Despite some potential spoilers about the Clutter family and their killers found within Capote in Kansas, I’m now genuinely interested in reading Capote’s most famous work.  I typically avoid books about real-life murders because they get under my skin and give me nightmares.  Now, I am curious to see what more it might reveal about him.  I have no regrets.

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For more about Capote in Kansas and author Kim Powers, please check out the previous stops on this book tour:

Wednesday, Oct. 1st: Bookgirl’s Nightstand
Friday, Oct. 3rd: Book Room Reviews
Monday, Oct. 6th: A Guy’s Moleskin Notebook
Wednesday, Oct. 8th: Tripping Toward Lucidity
Friday, Oct. 10th: book-a-rama
Monday, Oct. 13th: Ready When You Are, C.B.
Wednesday, Oct. 15th: Bibliolatry
Friday, Oct. 17th: Books and Movies
Monday, Oct. 20th: Booking Mama
Wednesday, Oct. 22nd: Diary of an Eccentric
Thursday, Oct. 23rd: Maw Books
Friday, Oct. 24th: Book Club Classics
Monday, Oct. 27th: Books and Cooks
Tuesday, Oct. 28th: Devourer of Books

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To buy this novel, click here.