Category: Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction

WWW Wednesday No.3: A girl with an affinity for the classics!

Posted Wednesday, 19 February, 2014 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

WWW Wednesday badge by Jorie in Canva

I loved the premise of this meme {WWW Wednesdays} due to the dexterity that it gives the reader! :) Clearly subject to change on a weekly rotation, which may or may not lead to your ‘next’ read which would provide a bit of a paradoxical mystery to your readers!! :) Love the concept! Therefore, this weekly meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. Each week you participate, your keen to answer the following questions:

  • What are you currently reading!?
  • What did you recently finish reading!?
  • What do you think you’ll read next!?

After which, your meant to click over to Should Be Reading to share your post’s link so that the rest of the bloggers who are participating can check out your lovely answers! :) Perhaps even, find other bloggers who dig the same books as you do! I thought it would serve as a great self-check to know where I am and the progress I am hoping to have over the next week!

What are you currently reading!? {a two-week retrospective!}

I am continuing to read Crown of Vengeance by Stephen Zimmer, as it will mark my last post tied to the Sci-Fi Experience! I had wanted to read a few more books towards this reading challenge, but I lost too many hours during January to accomplish this task. I, am, however, continuing to read the books I outlined on my participation page for the Experience! I selected a few books for the Wicked Valentine’s Readathon which are as follows:

Selection One: Back to the Classics: The Ladies Paradise by Emilie Zola

Selection Two: Magical Realism (tCC) & Time Travel (SFN & SciFI Bingo): The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Selection Three: Book Itching to Read: Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan*

Selection Four: Book for Review: A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner

{*} As previously disclosed, this boomeranged back to the local library; am awaiting its return!

Alongside the books I pulled for Wicked Valentine, I am also in position to start reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (as part of the #LitChat War & Peace Book Club), & Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (as part of the @RiverheadBooks RAL). Once I start to dig into these select classics, I am on my way towards revealing how I have such a hearty affinity for reading classical literature! Over the years I have dreamt of which classics to read first and which to follow in their wake. 2014 marks the year I am finally able to set aside time to start to explore the classical literary world with a curious eye towards the unknown adventures which lie ahead!

What did you recently finish reading!?

I have only finished a handful of novels within the past fortnight or thereabouts, all of which I posted reviews on my blog: The Brotherhood of the Dwarves, Dangerous DecisionsSebastian’s Way, and the Writers Workshop for Science Fiction and Fantasy. The latter of course, was an anthology collection of essays and interviews compiled together to present an excellent primer on genre writing; even if your genre is outside the scope of the title! I found myself writing quite a heap about my recollections and the musings therein which were extracted from the readings!

I am in the process of reading several novels at the moment for each of my different reading challenges as well as having finished my first blog tour book review stop for Penguin Group (USA). As I am reading multiple books concurrently, I will be revealing where I am by page count rather than by chapter or section next Wednesday! I am hoping to be at the end of Chapter X or XI of Wuthering Heights by the 21st (Friday) as well as complete my reading of Crown of Vengeance to round out my focus week for Seventh Star Press! At the close of February, I am equally as hopeful to have read approx. 200 pages of War and Peace whereas my goals for the 23rd of February are too complete Somerset & most of Roses! The Ladies Paradise is on my reading table as well, as I am attempting to read in tandem at the moment! I felt best to initiate a bit of a page count goal per book in order to best ignite a pattern of reading classics in-between modern literature I explore either outside of blog tours or within them! I always have such a fanciful heart to explore literature in all of its beauty, that I felt this might help me focus on books I truly want to finish reading within the time I am allotting! Stay tuned for next Wednesday’s journal of WWW to see how well I did!

A Fall of Marigoldstook me backwards into my memories for the shirtwaist factory fire of 1911 as evidenced and exhumed into a breath of life by Meredith Tax’s Rivington Street; whilst bringing forward haunting memories of observing the horrors of September 11th by telecast. I felt honoured to be asked to be a book review stop on her blog tour, and as you can read in my review, the novel itself touched me on a very deep level. It was a blessing to find closure and peace after two events in history profoundly affected me.

What do you think you’ll read next!?

I received word that my ILL holds are in queue to arrive within a few week’s time in which I cannot wait to see what is waiting for me inside Leviathan Wakes, Jaran, and The Divining!

And, then there was the whole realisation whilst I read this tweet which led to the successive replies:

Launched myself into a bit of mini-quest to find other “foodie fiction” titles that I could plausibly devour at some point in my reading future! Laughs within a smile! Oh, the wondrous thrill of the ‘discovery’!!

  • The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (started; need to finish!)
  • The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister (sequel to above; goes w/o saying!)
  • Chocolat by Joanne Harris (birthday gift; need to read!)
  • The Colour of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe (borrowed; returned unread)
  • Julie & Julia by Julie Powell (opted for the motion picture!)
  • Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Ronald Dahl (always saw the films!)
  • How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O’ Neal (loved!)
  • The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (murmurs of curiosity!)
  • When in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison
  • The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy
  • The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe by Mary Simses (borrowed, need to finish!)
  • The Roots of the Olive Tree by Courtney Miller Santos
  • Eat. Pray. Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (opted for the motion picture!)
  • The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
  • Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
  • The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
  • The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
  • Coffeehouse mysteries by Cleo Coyle (need to read all of them!)
  • White House Chef mystery series by Julie Hyzy (need to keep up to date!)
  • The China Bayles mysteries by Laura Childs (revolves around a teahouse!)
  • Courtesy of Ms. Lisa via TLC Book Tours the following were also suggested:
  • The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry
  • Eating Heaven by Jennie Shortridge
  • The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher
  • Maman’s Homesick Pie by Donia Bijan
  • Hungry by Darlene Barnes
  • & the forementioned The Colour of Tea & The Lost Art of Mixing

The next books I am drinking in will be books for review and I am quite excited for them to grace my mind’s eye! For I get the absolute pleasure of re-entering the world of the #LelandDragons, as I re-read Redheart by Jackie Gamber before continuing forward into Sela and the bookend third of the trilogy: Reclamation! The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte by Ruth Hull Chatlien is a hearty tome of an account of a side of the Bonaparte family I never had heard of beforehand! My pursuit of Bonaparte has re-strengthened since I read Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb! Whereas Citadel by Kate Mosse is an interest which was encouraged by my Mum when she gave me Labyrinth; in lieu of knowing where I put the book, I have borrowed the two previous books from my local library!

I had a bountiful bookish postal surprise day

in which I happily welcomed in the following books for review:

My Wish List banner

&

Violet Patterson Blog Tour via Tomorrow Comes Media

&

Inscription by H.H. Miller

via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

&

A MidSummer Night’s Steampunk by Scott E. Tarbet    

and Moments in Millenia (anthology) edited by Penny Freeman

via Xchyler Publishing

Whereas I previously announced receiving Citadel & The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte!

I decided to join the 2014 Chunkster Challenge, as I had no idea how many novels I’d read over the score of the year which would qualify as being labeled ‘a tome of a book greater than 450 pages!’ Clearly, I have already begun to read stories in greater quantity of depth, but this is going to be a good record of seeing how many I gravitate towards over a regular year’s worth of reading!

Likewise, I have released posts in part of my participation of:

I will be stitching together my posts this next week for challenges hosted by Bookish Ardmour:

All of which I curate on my RALs & Challenges page, of which I update my progress as well as on my Part II of Reading Challenge Addict! I decided to pull back from several reading & bookish challenges this year, as although they appealed to me in the beginning when I was on the verge of signing into them, I decided in the long-term I would be better off honing in on the ones which were at this point in time the most keen of the lot to participate in! There will undoubtedly be more RALs, Thons, & Challenges forthcoming but these will be the main ones I am concentrating on except to say for the two Jane Austen novels I am reading to correlate with the Jane Austen Readings hosted by Reading is Fun Again!

Quite the exciting time for a bookish soul, eh!?
Have your literary wanderings been as expansive and lovely as mine!?
And, do you have a ‘foodie fiction’ recommendations for me!?

{SOURCE: The WWW Wednesday badge created by Jorie in Canva as a way to
promote the weekly meme for those who want to take part in it.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Wednesday, 19 February, 2014 by jorielov in 18th Century, 19th Century, Anthology Collection of Stories, Back to the Classics, Blog Tour Host, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Discussions, Books for Review Arrived by Post, Chunkster Reading Challenge, Classical Literature, Fantasy Fiction, Foodie Fiction, France Book Tours, Get Steampunk'd, Go Indie, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Indie Author, Indie Book Trade, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Library Find, Love for Books Readathon, RALs | Thons via Blogs, Reading Challenge Addict, Reading Challenges, Rewind Challenge, Science Fiction, Seriously Series Reading Challenge, SFN Bingo, TBR Pile Challenge, tCC The Classics Club, The Dystopia Challenge, Tomorrow Comes Media, Wicked Valentine's Readathon, William Shakespeare Challenge, Wuthering Heights, WWW Wednesdays, Xchyler Publishing

:*Book Review*: A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner

Posted Wednesday, 19 February, 2014 by jorielov , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Parajunkee DesignsA Fall of Marigolds by Susan MeissnerA Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner

Author’s Pin(terest) Boards: Susan Meissner

Official Author Websites: Site | Twitter | Facebook
Converse on Twitter: #AFallofMarigolds | #SusanMeissner

Genre(s): Fiction | Inspirational | Historical

[time slip] 1911 Ellis Island / Post-911 New York City

Published by: New American Library, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), 4 February, 2014

Available Format: Paperback, Hardback, & E-Book
| Page Count: 400 |

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Acquired Book By:

I was contacted by the author (Susan Meissner) herself through Twitter (@SusanMeissner) back in December, 2013 about the possibility of receiving “A Fall of Marigolds” in exchange for an honest review which would be included on her official blog tour for its February release! I was beyond delighted at having been approached by her and readily agreed. As I have a non-giveaway policy for Jorie Loves A Story, this blog tour stop is not hosting the tour giveaway, but rather is solely a book review of the novel which is posted whilst the official tour is going on.  I received a complimentary ARC of “A Fall of Marigolds” direct from Ms. Meissner in exchange for an honest review.  In January 2014, I received the press materials from her publicist Ms. Clark at Penguin Group (USA). I am thankful for this wonderful opportunity, not only to read my first novel by Ms. Meissner but to host my first blog tour book review for Penguin Group (USA)! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired to Read:

The inspiring moment for me is when I realised that although I hadn’t known about A Fall of Marigolds releasing February 2014, I had already planned to read Ms. Meissner’s novels! You might have noticed her name is threaded into my 70 Authors Challenge of which has a focus on Inspirational fiction!? All the authors I am reading over the 24 months of the challenge are linked to their main websites in my blog’s sidebar! The books I selected to read of hers are as follows: The Girl in the Glass, A Sound Among the Trees, and Widows and Orphans which starts the Legal Mystery series. As you will read on my 70 Authors Challenge page, I found the inspiration to select all 70 authors due to my readings of Writing for Christ, which is Ms. Casey Herringshaw’s bookish blog! She is also a stop on this tour and I feel I have come full circle from being a reader of bookish blogs to curating my very own! I am further esteemed to be in the company of an author group blog I started to hang out around in January 2013 [Southern Belle View Daily] and a reader blog I came to cherish as much as Ms. Herringshaw’s [Relz Reviews]!

I never dreamt that I would be hosting a blog tour for one of the authors I selected to read and I am humbled by the honour of having Ms. Meissner seek me out in the first place! She’s a wonderfully sweet woman and I am thankful our paths have crossed!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Susan MeissnerBook Synopsis in the Author’s words:

The book is about two women who never meet as they are separated by a century. One woman, Taryn, is a 9/11 widow and single mother who is about to mark the tenth anniversary of her husband’s passing. The other is a nurse, Clara, who witnessed the tragic death of the man she loved in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in Manhattan in 1911.In her sorrow, Clara imposes on herself an exile of sorts; she takes a post at the hospital on Ellis Island so that she can hover in an in-between place while she wrestles with her grief. She meets an immigrant who wears the scarf of the wife he lost crossing the Atlantic, a scarf patterned in marigolds. The scarf becomes emblematic of the beauty and risk inherent in loving people, and it eventually finds it way to Taryn one hundred years later on the morning a plane crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The story is about the resiliency of love, and the notion that the weight of the world is made more bearable because of it, even though it exposes us to the risk of loss.

On the significance of ‘marigolds’:

Marigolds aren’t like most other flowers. They aren’t beautiful and fragrant. You don’t see them in bridal bouquets or prom corsages or funeral sprays. They don’t come in gentle colors like pink and lavender and baby blue. Marigolds are hearty, pungent and brassy. They are able to bloom in the autumn months, well past the point when many other flowers can’t. In that respect, I see marigolds as being symbolic of the strength of the human spirit to risk loving again after loss. Because, face it. We live in a messy world. Yet it’s the only one we’ve got. We either love here or we don’t. The title of the book has a sort of double-meaning. Both the historical and contemporary story take place primarily in the autumn. Secondarily, when Clara sees the scarf for the first time, dangling from an immigrant’s shoulders as he enters the hospital building, she sees the floral pattern in the threads, notes how similar they are to the flames she saw in the fire that changed everything for her, and she describes the cascading blooms woven into the scarf as “a fall of marigolds.”

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

A time slip between two worlds of New York frozen in time itself:

I am not unfamiliar with the shirtwaist industry, as I previously disclosed I have read Rivington Street by Meredith Tax, of whom gives such a visceral experience through her narrative there is no illusion of the reality the girls faced in that industry. A Fall of Marigolds begins rather acutely in post-911 New York. To find myself curling into a fabric store made my crafters heart turn giddy indeed! I am plumb knitty over knitting, but what I truly want to explore in the future is quilting and sewing clothes! My heart warmed with the warmth of an internal fire whilst soaking in the first chapter as a customer murmured her gratitude for the shoppe! (My affection for quilting, mind you, grew out of my wanderings inside the world of Elm Creek by Jennifer Chiaverini!)

One of the early echoes of the novel is that for everything we see beauty inside, a story alights just outside of our view. I found myself resonating with this particular statement, as due to the nature of why I created the title of my own bookish blog: Jorie Loves A Story! Stories exist across mediums not merely hinged to the printed text of literature or even of spoken voice or motion picture. I heart the ability to seek out stories which endeavour us to step a bit closer to the greater picture of why living and experiencing everything we can bring into full focus. Stories enchant us as much as they evoke our deepest most gutting emotions. Stories have the ability to transcend time and sustain us during the roughest of seas which entreat on our everyday hours. I grew on the living histories which in of themselves were stories set into action by the voices of my grand-parents, great-grandmother, and parents. We inhabit such a small vacuüm of space whilst we’re here, but alas! The stories live past us and stitch into the tapestry of the world’s interconnected thread!

This fascination and intrepid enchantment of history and story, might even go as far to explain my personal preferences towards seeking out the skills of old world arts & crafts inasmuch as antiquing! The older a piece of furniture is in my mind is a greater chance of having the unique addition thus far amiss from a room! I like the tangibility effect of touching the past in ways that are visible in the modern age. I like wandering around antique emporiums as much as ambling through a small towne set to a  pace fifty years in the past. There is a subtle nudge to slow down, breathe, and live in harmony. Pieces of stories live all around us, each day we walk outside the door and wonder, “What if? And, what does that person do? What are their experiences? Where did that particular something or other come from?” It’s in our nature to wonder, to strive towards unearthing the mysteries, to put a history inside of an explanation which sounds more like the legacy of a life told through a story!

The etching desire of both lead characters needing closure for the traumas of their past is eclipsed by their stalwart resolve to leave out of step with time. To gather their wits by being withdrawn into a world which lives a harpoon throw from the reality neither wants to approach or excavate out the memories which haunt them. A time slip was naturally going to occur for Taryn and Clara, as each of them are on the precipice of living half in stasis and half in motion.

My Review of A Fall of Marigolds:

In choking honesty, Meissner draws us backwards into the morning when the world woke up once more to a day out of step with the reality we all knew. September 11th, 2001 is a day no one will soon forget, whether or not they lived in America or whether they lived overseas. The newsfeeds overtook the channels, and for this reader in particular who had spent the aching early morning hours in knee-deep research was a groggy grand-daughter at the other end of the line whilst her grandmother urgently tried to shake her to her senses about ‘a plane went down in New York’. I was caught in the segue between deep sleep and awareness, so I truly only heard ‘a plane went down’ which I mumbled was terrible before the line clicked off and I was snoring most likely oblivious to the world’s reaction. I remember waking by four o’ clock in the afternoon, eyes full of sleep and wandering into the living room to catch a light-hearted tv show of an unremembered name. Instead, as Taryn reflects on her part of standing underneath the Towers at ground-zero, I was only a bit past a thousand miles south completely gobsmacked to numbness taking in every channel as the tv flickered into view; I was simply transfixed.  I grabbed the phone without recognition and rang my grandmother. The fullness of that day I oft try to push aside and not reflect on. Images broadcasted on television left a dulling ache inside my soul, as it was all too much to process and see in vivid real-time reality. Half of what I saw was pulled as soon as it aired as it wasn’t even being filtered. Meissner deftly drew me back emotionally into the heart of that fateful day, and attached me directly into the heart of her lead character: Taryn!

The breath of realism breathed into each section touches you as the transition from Taryn to Clara arrive as mere whispers and shadows of each other. Meissner is a sensory writer giving her readers a treat to trick one’s mind into experiencing everything the characters are seeing, sensing, and internalising. The anguished heartache of Clara came propelling back to the forefront of my mind as the bits of information disclosed about the shirtwaist factory fire ignited in my memories from Rivington Street, the book I have previously mentioned reminded me that I have a sensitive heart and best tread cautiously in future readings by what I choose to internalise.

Grief wrapped up in the guilt of never knowing what could have been is one of our greatest struggles as we survive those who pass on. Whether or not, we were properly tethered to them or if they were a loved spirit who gave us joy during our days; gutting sorrow overtakes our sense of normalcy. We cannot always filter out our emotions anymore than we can filter out our memories. Our minds love to play games with us, toying us with images we witnessed as well as the incidents of terror which gripped us like a plague. Clara and Taryn are anchored by the very moments where their lives intersected with tragedy beyond logical reason. Their gutting emotional strife is brought to life in such an intoxicating manner, you’re finding your fingers pressed into the softness of the book cover nearly afeared for what you will find on the next page! Hours melt away as you drink through their lives as if you would be left adrift in not knowing where their days will lead them next.

I liked Clara as instantly as I endeared myself to Taryn, which is always a credit to the writer! Clara is one of the few bourne to find herself drawn to blood rather than bolt away from it on sight. A doctor’s daughter endued with the gift for nursing set a claim on her to find her way to Ellis Island taking care of the infirmed immigrants who felt muddled by how they were not walking ashore instead. Transposed against the brutal anguish of standing below the Towers as they fell on September 11th, my ears echoed with the pounding shock of the ‘noise’* of that day as it was heard in the late afternoon. I felt shell-shocked at four o ‘clock on the 11th, I felt as though Meissner dug into our conjoined memories of that horrid day and led us out the other end. To hold onto something more than the worst bits our centermost memories stored and tucked out of sight. The scarf of marigolds was a talisman of Hope and of Life.

The strangest realisation which washed over for me (towards the middle of the novel), is that I have purposely avoided medical dramas and medical-heavy stories for numerous years as I felt as though I needed an honest break from them. I had seen more than my fair share of medical dramas on television and perhaps, had unexpectedly burnt out from the viewings. Whilst wrapped up inside Clara’s side of the story, I nearly had forgotten she was a registered nurse on the front lines of combating diseases like scarlet fever, which of itself lends to a certain medical-esque narrative!

*noise: Here refers to all the conjoined sounds, screams, shatterments of glass, sirens, confused murmurings of the haggardly confused survivors, the intensity of the news anchors overwhelmed by anguish and grief, and the chaos of the events flickering into broad view on the television screen. Followed by eerie oblivion which characterised the silence, whilst everyone’s face and bodies were shrouded in whitish-grey. The absence of light and dark was obscured by debris falling like snowflakes. Everything merged together, everything felt oppressively real, the shock took forever to wear off, even if I was merely observing the horrors of those who were front and center.

All the emotions I had tied into my throat pummeled out of me by page 238. Overwhelming emotion and the stark despair of what Taryn realised in that pivotal moment which clouded her vision in despair. I felt her anguish and I felt it because of what I had witnessed myself on video feedback. Meissner humanised the disparity of the survivors and the observers. She breathed life into the stories of everyone we never knew before that awful morning when the world paused by the sheer terror of it all.

Life is an intricate fabric. We weave in the threads with each day we dare to breathe in and drink in all that we can learn or experience. It’s the in-between hours of when we are truly alive. The moments when we are not even realising where we are headed or how we are meant to reach our destinations. The living hours of where truth reveals itself to those willing to listen. Faith is lived best by accepting what we do not yet understand as a measure of hope for what we do. Love is the binding of our souls to help grasp the understanding which sometimes is blinded by fear, trauma, and grief. All of life has a purpose which propels us forward to greet each new day with the possibility that it will afford. Compassion. Empathy. Acceptance is the final gate we must cross through to complete the circle our footfalls led us to arrive inside.

New York | a backdrop I love:

I am uncertain if I have ever disclosed on Jorie Loves A Story, if my affection for New York City has been attached to me as long as I have watched motion picture set inside the city from my youth!? The fanciful synergy of a city bent on creativity and indulgence in an all-inclusive playground has held my esteem attention! Transferring off the screen into the world of print books and hearty narratives by wordsmiths who paint the city aflame with a pulsating heart where the story of success and of love go together in tandem! Mysteries eking out of the shadows and humbling stories of humanity which surround your soul in a respite of rumination. My journeys have not yet taken me to the city I’ve read about to the level I have, but a part of me feels as though I have been there. Lived a bit even. As the old saying tends to go, if you have a book in hand, you have a compass point in your soul! Travel doesn’t always have to be walked through the soles of your feet. There are times when the light of a novel can illuminate a specific setting and locale in a crystal of reason unseen by a living experience. Novels transport us beyond where time and space have earthly limits. We enter into the conscience linings of characters and in part, take out a piece of them into our own wanderings of imagination. Perhaps then, the essence of the city of New York has always held such a strong grasp of my yearnings.

It’s the city’s tenacity and resilience to overcome what befalls her that gives all of us the greatest hope of all for seeking a community of such unfaltering strength. They rally and bolster each other up whilst dealing with the impossible, soldiering through unspeakable horrors and rebounding together as though they had risen out of the ashes as one entity rather than thousands. New York City’s greatest blessing is the ability to hold onto Hope in the midst of devastation and rise again as a Phoenix.

A note of gratitude to Ms. Meissner:

I am full of gratitude to the author for writing a convincing story without pushing the envelope past what this particular sensitive heart can endure. The sequences in which she gave riveting and honest accounts of the scenes Clara experienced after the shirtwaist factory fire and of ground-zero for Taryn were bang-on brilliant in their conveyances. I applaud the choices Meissner made in eluding to the horror without having to take us there completely by imagery. What was included was expected as some living horrors can only be spared so far, but in her gentle grace of knowing the limits of tender heart readers, her own heart shined. The stories of Taryn and Clara evoke the realities of women like them who lived a life counterpart to their fictional ones. Meissner has writ a story with the softness and grace of a historian but with the ease of a novelist. I am forever grateful she approached me, as I feel our paths would surely have intersected if she hadn’t. Her writings draw me into the depth of where she is leading us and I feel blessed to have read this story of New York as my first Susan Meissner novel!

Extending into the heart of 9/11:  There is a book I have been meaning to read which illuminates a singular unspoken moment of compassion and humanity where one small town in Newfoundland found their airport was in dire need of re-directing inbound flights on September 11th, 2001. The book is called: The Day the World Came to Town and its the main reason my original fascination about the hearty compassionate souls who reside in Newfoundland made me curious about their maritime province!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

This book review is courtesy of the author: Susan Meissner

I give my gratitude to Ms. Meissner & to Penguin Group (USA) for allowing me the honour to be a stop on the “A Fall of Marigolds” blog tour! I was happily delighted I could participate! I hope I will be able to participate in future blog tours if the opportunity were to arise! Until then, please drop by my Bookish Events Featured on JLAS to see what is coming up next!

**Please Note: This is a non-giveaway stop on the blog tour. I do not host giveaways or bookaways of any kind on Jorie Loves A Story (as you can read in my Review Policy). Which is why my blog is not included in the giveaway hop via the author’s website. I agreed only to host a review stop whilst the tour was in-progress. Therefore, I do encourage you to leave me a comment but it will not be counted as an entry in the tour’s giveaway. Thank you for understanding!**

{SOURCES: Cover art of “A Fall of Marigolds”, Susan Meissner’s photograph; snippets of the book synopsis (taken from the Press Kit Q&A section), were all provided by Ms. Meissner’s publicity agent at Penguin Group (USA) and used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Tweets were able to be embedded by the codes provided by Twitter.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

Comments Left on Twitter:

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Posted Wednesday, 19 February, 2014 by jorielov in 20th Century, 21st Century, Author Found me On Twitter, Blog Tour Host, Book Review (non-blog tour), Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Diary Accountment of Life, Ellis Island, Geographically Specific, Historical Fiction, Immigrant Stories, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Medical Fiction, Modern Day, New York City, Nurses & Hospital Life, Penguin Group (USA) Publicity, Post-911 (11th September 2001), Shirtwaist Industry, the Nineteen Hundreds, Time Slip

+2014 Chunkster Reading Challenge+ Or, how Jorie <3s novels of hearty depth!

Posted Monday, 17 February, 2014 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

2014 Chunkster Challenge hosted by Vasilly

I, must admit, I am always quite curious about the books I gravitate towards reading time after time. Do I pick a specific genre to explore!? Is there a particular heart of depth to the stories I am selecting?! Is there any specifics that would stand out!? Setting?! Time preference!? Locale!? Or, could it be that I, Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story have a natural curiosity and eye bent towards falling in love with novels of hearty depth! What the rest of the world considers a ‘chunkser’ I consider “Now! That’s what I call a wicked sweet tome of a novel!”

Although I have seen posts attributed to this particular reading challenge over the past few years, I was always curious about the length requirements of the reader’s choices!? Apparently, any novel over the mark of 450 pages is considered a ‘chunkster’ by the broader readership! I consider anything under 750 pages to be a full-fledged novel of wickedly delightful sagas! Then, again, I happen to have a penchant for reading multi-generational sagas, of which cannot be fully contained in one singular volume! I oft find the sagas are separated into multiples; either in a running serial of the same family &/or spilt into trilogy installments. The odd quartet is thrown in for good measure as well!

I am a reader who envelops her mind, her heart, and her soul around the characters she meets inside the stories her mind illuminates for her as she reads. The main characters as well as the supporting characters all have equal footing in her heart because each of the characters mentioned may hold a piece of the evolving story. Or at the very least, provide a backdrop flow of continuity for the time, setting, and place of the novel! I love seeing the smaller details, the finer points of everyday hours which elapse at different intervals whilst your engrossed into a hearty historical inasmuch as you might be jettisoning into a time slip or time travel narrative! I like seeing the finite details because they in of themselves give a winking nod towards our own histories. How life was for those who came before us in the not-so-far-off past can be ruminated in a historical story.

This wicked sweet challenge is hosted by Vasilly of Chunkster Challenge!

{Proposed Goal of Reading *25* Chunksters}

Given the rate of probability of increasing my page counts as the months progress forward, I have decided to aim even higher than I originally felt I could achieve over the next 10 months, as I am beginning to count this challenge in the second month rather than the first! And, at the latter half of February, I might add! I originally felt only five novels of considerable length might be possible! Who knew!? I suppose this would fall under the ‘hidden talent’ category for performance artists!?

{Reading List} | Combination of Blog Tour Reviews & Personal Selections

IF a book is in italics I have bumped it into 2015 rather than reading it in 2014.

  1. Crown of Vengeance {Book 1: Fires of Eden series} by Stephen Zimmer (612 pages)
  2. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1,215 pages)
  3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (643 pages)
  4. Somerset by Leila Meacham {Prequel to Roses} (610 pages)
  5. Roses by Leila Meacham (609 pages)
  6. Tumbleweeds by Leila Meacham (470 pages)
  7. The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte by Ruth Hill Chatlien (484 pages)
  8. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (528 pages)* officially on hold for another year
  9. Sepulchre by Kate Mosse (592 pages)* officially on hold for another year
  10. Citadel by Kate Mosse (680 pages)
  11. The Reincarnationist (Book 1: Reincarnationist series) by M.J. Rose* (464 pages)
  12. The Memorist (Book 2: Reincarnationist series) by M.J. Rose* (464 pages)
  13. A Beauty So Rare by Tamera Alexander* (480 pages)
  14. [7,851 pages thus far!]
  15. Intangible by C.A. Gray (482 pages)
  16. Awesome Jones by AshleyRose Sullivan (456 pages)

{In consideration} | A considerable number are on my tCC List!

[projected pages to read: 8,498!]

  1. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (582 pages)
  2. Jaran {Book 1: Sword of Heaven series} by Kate Elliott (494 pages)
  3. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (834 pages)
  4. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (552 pages)
  5. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah (479 pages)
  6. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (552 pages)
  7. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (473 pages)
  8. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (562 pages)
  9. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (656 pages)
  10. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (704 pages)
  11. The Crimson Petal & the White by Michael Faber (on TBR Challenge List) (833)
  12. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1,024 pages)
  13. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (753)

{Previously Read}

[Pages thus far consumed: 1,548 & counting!]

  1. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (486 pages)
  2. King’s Dragon {Book 1: Crown of Stars saga} by Kate Elliott (532)
  3. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher (530)
  4. and continuing,.. as I sort out which books were of considerable length!

{*} reading in conjunction with scheduled book review of next in sequence

Already at the start of keeping track of the length of each novel I read, I am amazed at how the list begins with *13!* Curiously, I am fascinated to seeing which ‘length’ of book attracts me the most!? If spilt into 100 page increments, will it be the 400 mark? 500? I’ll have to continue this part of the discussion come New Year’s Eve, 2015!

*UPDATE (18FEB’14): As I read Christine’s note about how many actual pages I’d consume, I was curious, how many would that be!? I added the figures!

{SOURCE: Jorie Loves A Story Badge created by Ravven with edits by Jorie in PicMonkey.

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Monday, 17 February, 2014 by jorielov in Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Discussions, Chunkster Reading Challenge, Classical Literature, Debut Novel, Fantasy Fiction, Gothic Literature, Historical Fiction, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Library Find, Literary Fiction, Reading Challenges, Romance Fiction, Science Fiction

+Blog Book Tour+ The Pact by Mitchell S. Karnes

Posted Thursday, 30 January, 2014 by jorielov , , , 3 Comments

Parajunkee Designs

The Pact by Mitchell S. Karnes

The Pact by Mitchell S. Karnes

Published By:  Black Rose Writing, 22 August 2013

Official Author Website: Site

Converse on Twitter: #iwasbullied, #bullying, #bullied

Available Formats: Softcover Page Count: 232

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Acquired Book By:

I was selected to be a stop on “The Pact” Virtual Book Tour, hosted by TLC Book Tours, in which I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author Mitchell S. Karnes in exchange for an honest review . I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired To Read:

As foreshadowed on the companion Author Q&A piece on bullying which coincides with this book review, The Pact is a story which appealed to me very much as I was bullied in school since a very young age. In the 80s/90s bullying wasn’t as widely spoken about nor understood. Generally back then, if you were picked on you were told to ‘buck up and take it’ and not be such a silly emotional girl. I am thankful I had my parents to support me and help me avoid the worst of what could have happened by switching me out of schools. I have always been wanting to advocate for social change and social conscience in regards to being bullied, and by featuring this novel on my blog, I am taking the first step towards this goal!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comMitchell S. KarnesAuthor Biography:

Mitchell S. Karnes was born in Kansas and spent his childhood in Illinois. He lives in Franklin, TN with his wife, Natalie, and five of their seven children, where he serves as the Pastor of Walker Baptist Church. He holds a Bachelor’s degree and three Master’s degrees. Mitchell’s first novel, Crossing the Line, made the Southern Writer’s Guild’s “Must Read” list. His short stories include: “When Nothing Else Matters,” “A Family Portrait,” and “Grampa Charlie’s Ring.” He hopes to entertain, challenge, move and teach through each and every story. The Pact is just the beginning…the first book in a four-part series.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Re-visiting School & the Life therein for teens:

The Pact opens innocently enough as the central character who is being bullied is seen going through the motions of his everyday life at school. Paul is targeted from observation in this early stage of the story for being different from his peers; including his exploits in literature which delve into history as he is an avid researcher for a role-playing game he’s keen on. Karnes deftly brings back the joy and the trauma of life within school walls for those who have had to deal with bullies at some point in their lives. The scene is bittersweet and real, by giving both sides of the action supplemented with short back-stories on each of the characters. I appreciate this discovery of who the bullies are as they are bullying Paul, as it opens the door to understand what makes a bully tick.

At the very same time, I appreciated that the main lead character of Scott enters the scene by deftly using defense skills to deflect and defuse the situation before it could grow worse in proportion. I oft wondered myself if self-defense classes might have helped me handle similar situations where the physicality of being bullied was being tested against the skills I clearly lacked in knowledge. I never wanted to study martial arts to instigate a fight, but rather to defend myself when the bullies turnt uglier in their abuse towards physical threats which could escalate without warning.

The insertion of the role-playing game of Warriors & Thieves is quite bang-on and accurate as eighth grade or ninth grade is generally the years in which role-playing enters into the life of teens eager to break out of the droll of school related angst. I even liked how each of the players would choose different approaches within the gameplay itself to assert their own voice into the realm of the game! I also knew that the author might dig a bit deeper into the presumed reality of the game and the actual reality of each individual group who plays the game. Given the fact that each set of gameplay is based on each individual Game Master’s vision for the game, the game itself can take on different queues for each round of simulated action. The balance between good vs. evil and light vs. dark can vary as much as what the general focus of each game is elected to be featuring. As the story moves forward, the interplay of the characters lays a foundation rooted in inspirational fiction as an essay on how to find balance between faith and life as its lived.

My Review of The Pact:

I had a knowing smile on my lips as I began the first chapter of The Pact, as Karnes had a way of travelling me back through time and re-entering my own life on school grounds. Despite the difference in gender from the lead character, there was enough semblance of recognition of an average day at school for me to re-adjust my mind’s eye to endeavour to go back into that hidden world just out of view. I say ‘hidden world’ because life at school isn’t something that you can prepare for nor is it something that you hope it will be. You have to adjust to what comes across your path as you live through the experience. Heavy leaden backpacks, heavy books, your shoulders off-setting the balance and trying to keep in step with your schedule of the day’s classes is all par for course! Such a great lead-in for the story!

Luke might be a war-monger in Warriors & Thieves, but I was curious to seek out what was motivating him to push Chris and Paul out of their comfort zones of reality into the common bloodshed of warfare. There are many ways to accomplish self-confidence and self-advocacy without pushing the envelopes of violence, especially unrelented violence in a game which is usually grounded in skill, maneuvers, and obstacles. Chris on the other hand has a brilliant way of keeping the rules of the game intact by pushing the action of the game forward within the confines of the realm, but lacks the clarity of knowing how to enliven the story of which the world-building is meant to carve out of its niche. Paul is the innocent of the group, learning as he builds confidence through his friendships. Scott comes from playing the game through his father’s advice. Endeavouring to give a bit more of a back-story to each of the characters which gives you a lifeblood to the game eliminating the one dimensional interface. One of my favourite revelations is when Scott shows Paul his hand-drawn map of Canaanshade which he created with his father. The intricacy of the world arc is exactly what all of us hope for in our fantasy realms of reading adventures! Lit alive with creatures and characters you want to know more about.

As the story eases back into the schoolyard drama of sorting out how to find your way on a wrestling team, we start to see a switch in the path the story is leading the reader. At the conclusion of Chapter Five there is a haunting foreshadow which queues in a larger message of the evolving narrative. Whilst we see Scott become a member of the Junior High Wrestling team, we see the underpinnings of his confliction over finding the balance between strength and humility. To know when to assert one’s knowledge of the fight on the mat and when to be humble and yield to your opponent. The chapters in which we see the interaction of the boys on the team lend a good viewing of the complexities all youth have during their growing years especially as they sort out how to be fueled by self-confidence but not clouded by pride.

Intuitively, Karnes keeps a few antidotes of Scott’s life away from the reader’s eyes, so at first the only way to foresee what could happen next is noticing the slight changes in his behaviour and reactions of speech. Then, in Chapter Twenty-Two the character flaw of Scott is pushed into full view and shocked all who discovered his darkest secret of which even he doesn’t fully understand the severity of.

Although I knew the intensity of the subject at hand, the sequent deaths in the story came at quite a shock as did the level of rage. This is a cautionary tale of how sometimes the lines between fiction and reality can become blurred and the true lesson is knowing the signs of when someone can no longer separate the difference of the two.

Inspirational Murmurings of Advice for teens:

What I was keen to see develop is if Scott’s family would embrace how he played the game with his late father’s advice on how to bring out the light in both the fictional realm of Warriors & Thieves as much as in the living realm of teenage life. There is always going to be ignorance for something people fear outright without merit, but if everyone took the time to actually see from the point of view of the teen who is involved, I think it would break down the barriers of communication. To see where they are approaching what they do in their everyday life and worlds, and understanding what motivates their interest, we are a step closer to understanding what is truly right and what is a caution for being wrong. I am never one to advise going against a child’s interest out of fear of what it might involve, but rather advocate for an open line of conversation to engage in the child’s interest and to root out what they are actually into. You always have to believe in your child (son, daughter, niece, nephew, grandson, granddaughter, etc) first and foremost, and then, a measure of goodwill and willing to accept their interests if they have their heart and mind in the right place.

I also think it’s a good example of how one person’s influence can sway your thoughts away from what you internally already know are true. To be given feedback from a youth minister that contradicts how your own father raised you, I would imagine would weigh most heavily on your heart and mind. I had a measure of hope that this is one thread of the story Karnes would lead Scott to realising the difference between a positive influence and one that is not entirely negative but not entirely positive. I had hoped for him to redefine his belief in his father’s guidance and learn whom to trust now that his father has passed and can no longer offer him advice. This is one thread of the story that faded from view as the chapters took a turn in direction I discuss below in Fly in the Ointment.

I believe that no one should eclipse the methodology of parenting of a child when the parent is taking an active role in their child’s life. Parents who understand and know their child inside and out, know where their heart lies, and where their interests truly are leading them. Even grandparents need to become familiar with their grand-children’s interests and activities, because what might be viewed by outsiders as negative influences might actually be a way for their own grandson/daughter to directly impact positivity into the lives of their friends. At least these were my thoughts until the chapters in the book started to reveal how Luke was having trouble separating fiction from reality. In this instance, the greatest threat to the young lives in the story was Luke’s inability to proper distance himself from his role-playing character as he brought the game into real life where it did not belong to be explored.

Fly in the Ointment: (with a few spoilers)

Despite my champion belief that the story would triumph the bullying behaviour in the story, I was quite mystified as to the level of violence which erupted out of the heart of the central character’s wayward actions. I would have much preferred the central focus of the one event that stemmed directly out of the gameplay of Warriors & Thieves which took place at Luke’s grandparent’s house rather than the climax at the railroad bridge. One whole section felt a bit forced to me which is when Scott’s grandmother fervently urges her husband to ‘jump the rails’ ahead of the oncoming train. I didn’t foresee this anywhere in the story as behaviour befit his grandparents and the sequencing of their deaths had heavy emotional impact but could have been avoided completely.

I believe this is an after-school special which went too far to prove the point on behalf of bullying and what leads ordinary events to escalate to violence. If there had been a disclaimer in the beginning stating that this was a story based on living events where the characters names were changed, I might have gone so far as to say this was one isolated incident went horridly wrong. Yet, there are little nudges of discourse in the chapters themselves, where Scott takes on the role of being a bully rather than a bully’s guardian. In real life this can happen, as those who are tormented can oft times think the best course to deal with their attackers is to turn the tables. However, unlike in real life, a reader is privy to the character’s thoughts and thus, their motivations of a change in outward behaviour. This line of personality change in Scott is never actually addressed in a forthright manner but rather eluded too instead.

Also, what surprised me more than anything is the complete lack of common sense on behalf of all the boys involved, to where they would not confide in anyone: not a parent, a teacher, or a peer adviser. In my own life, if I ever saw any measure of extreme bullying coming towards me, I always deferred first to a faculty member but post haste confided in my parents as soon as I was off school grounds. I knew better than to attempt to deflect the worst threats of which are not always idly spewed by those who choose to cause harm to others. If the story is to serve as a lesson and guide to those who are being bullied, wouldn’t it have been better to write the story with a resolving ending of a better way of addressing the core issue!? And, why end the entire book on a loosely conceived cliffhanger, eluding to a larger story than what was presented?!

I am conflicted to say the least after reading this story in full. I only hope that my review of the book and of the posting of the Q&A session with the author will spark a measure of a response in both comment sections to where the dialogue can become open to all who want to weigh in on this topic which affects all of us. (whether indirectly or directly)

Bullying, Harassment, and Hazing:

The Pact remains true to form what teens regularly face in the fear of their next encounters with those who bully them. The incidents revealed inside do not shock me as they might some who read the story for the first time on just how far young boys will go to torment someone they feel they have the right to enforce power over. I am thankful that my own history of bullying was limited more to verbal insults (which carried with it a hearty dose of emotional anguish) and minor physical altercations which are too minor to mention in light of what occurs in the novel. I am not sure what originally instigated the behaviour of adolescents and college-aged co-eds to haze their fellow students and athletes.

As the story reveals, each of the key bullies of the story: Joe, Sammy, and Mark each have troubles in their own life and homes which starts to unravel what motivates them to torment Scott and Paul. Yet none of their actions would circumvent the actions of Luke, who like Scott is the greatest threat in the story. After concluding your reading of my book review of The Pact please take the time to read:

the first half of this showcase,

my Author Q&A on bullying with Mitchell S. Karnes!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

The “The Pact” Virtual Book Tour Roadmap:

  1. 28 January: Review @ Tiffany’s Bookshelf
  2. 30 January: Author Q&A & Review @ Jorie Loves a Story
  3.  3 February: Review @ Patricia’s Wisdom
  4. 5 February:  Review @ You Can Read Me Anything
  5. 10 February: Review @ Suko’s Notebook
  6. 10 February: Author Q&A @ YA Reads
  7. 12 February: Review @ Maureen’s Musings
  8. 17 February: Review @ Seaside Book Nook
  9. 18 February: Review @ The Things You Can Read
  10. 19 February: Review @ Shelf Full of Books
  11. 20 February: ReviewSavings in Seconds

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

This blog tour is courtesy of:

TLC Book Tours | Tour HostThe Pact
by Mitchell S. Karnes
Source: Author via TLC Book Tours

Genres: Young Adult Fiction, YA Fantasy, YA Urban Fantasy



Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

Also by this author: The Dragon's Pawn

Published by Black Rose Writing

on 22 August, 2013

Format: Paperback Edition

Pages: 232

Be sure to scope out my Bookish Upcoming Events to mark your calendars!!

{SOURCES:  Mitchell S. Karnes photograph and biography, The Pact book cover and the logo badge for TLC Book Tours were all provided by TLC Book Tours and used with permission. Blog tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Thursday, 30 January, 2014 by jorielov in Balance of Faith whilst Living, Blog Tour Host, Bookish Discussions, Bullies and the Bullied, Children's Literature, Coming-Of Age, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Novel, Excessive Violence in Literature, Fly in the Ointment, Gaming, Good vs. Evil, Indie Author, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Light vs Dark, Literature for Boys, Middle Grade Novel, Questioning Faith as a Teen, Role Playing Games, School Life & Situations, Sports and Jocks, Teenage Relationships & Friendships, TLC Book Tours, Transfer Student at School, Wrestling, Young Adult Fiction

{Book Chat} #1: One Book Everyone Should Read | Once

Posted Friday, 15 November, 2013 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 9 Comments

The Book Chat | Sweet Green TangerineOne Book Everyone Should Read | Once (in their lifetime)

I agree with our fearless hostess, that the book we choose to recommend to read this week, should be one that has etched itself into our minds, our hearts, and into the fabric of our being. Characters, of whom, have instilled inside us memories that haunt us long after we have met them, and of whom, re-define our perspective of how we see and view the world around us. Narrative prose that erupts as clear as lightning, permeating our mind’s eye with a hearty imaginative state where we can fully see the world that is knit and stitched together by the writer’s capacity for endeavouring us to see their world as they intended us too. A story that has a girth of knowledge and positive impression of lessons learnt are always best understood after we have transitioned through them. Yet. It’s not an easy question to respond too, because the life of a book reader bent on the written word, is hard to pin down and pick out one book that stands out amidst the shadows of all the other lovelies that we have come to know! I’ve never been one to play favourites and so, this task is rather a difficult choice! I yield to simply referring to one book I think any reader would be happy to become acquainted with, if only for one reading whilst their hunkered in to their own reading affairs and adventures therein!

Before I make my selection, I want to talk a bit about the type of books that I am always anxious to meet and am forevermore blessed to have my path crossed with theirs! You see, there are several books that come to mind, books who strong heroines have touched my life at precisely the right moments to give me a lift of spirits and a breath of a world that has always felt enchantingly familiar!

The Giving Tree by Shel SilversteinI had the benefit of growing up in a house where literary inspiration was at the forefront of discovery! Long before I could sort out how each word was meant to be said by voice, I had the pleasure of ‘listening’ to stories (of all varieties and forms) become brought to life by my Mum! She had a knack for knowing exactly how to empathise each syllable with articulation and clarity! I marveled at how I would ever grow into shoes large enough to understand how to purport the ‘telling of’ a story in the same manner of how I ‘heard her’ speak them to me! It’s an ongoing process even now! What I loved about Silverstein’s poems and visionary genius is his ability to cleverly etch into his collective writings the wit and banterment of a life filt with humour! He gave the best gift you can give to children: thought-provoking rhymes, poems, and stories of characters who ‘teach through their actions’. In this, I have always held close the fond memories of his books. As once I could sort out the words, I could not help but soak into his collections breathing in the world as he saw it through his creative eyes!

The Secret Garden & A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson BurnettBy far, The Secret Garden was more than a mere story for me, as the life of Mary Lennox was one that nestled inside my heart from the very first moment I became acquainted with her circumstances! She had this genuine ability to draw you out of yourself and into the world as she perceived it from a different set of eyes than most. Curiously keen on everything happening around her and yet, with such a graceful measure of innocence that bespoke of a childhood we all hope every child can experience. She was searching for stability and of a place to call home; where roots could grow as strong as she would soon mature! Her friendships with Collin and Dickon are lessons knitted together from the simple truths we all need to accept if we are meant to grow inside our own journey. Whereas with A Little Princess I felt rather akin to Sara Crewe, feeling her thoughts, her emotions, and her uncertainties as she was quite unceremoniously deposited into such a difficult situation without the benefit of protection from a guardian! Where Mary Lennox was independently spunky, I always felt that Sara truly needed a little extra confidence to know she could stand on her own feet and survive. They are each living shattered lives where circumstance and ill-will of those around them start to affect their happiness. These were the stories that compelled me to seek out the depth of historical fiction and epic multi-generational sagas. To see the underpinnings of how characters grow into their shoes so to speak and the passageways they have to walk in order to arrive inside their futures.

Mandie {series} by Lois Gladys LeppardI was quite young when I first began to read the Mandie series as what attracted me to the premise was the fact that a girl who was in search of her father, grandmother, and origins of birth found unforeseen comfort in her Uncle Ned, a Native American. I loved how Leppard moved between the different cultures, as much as how she showed how Mandie’s grandmother influenced her grand-daughter to have a world-view based on experiences, adventures, and travel opportunities. She instilled in Mandie a true sense of freedom which comes from knowledge, empathy, charity, and faith. Mandie is the type of ‘best friend’ you always hope to meet whilst your growing up due to how genuine of a friend she truly is! I liked that she was a bit spunky in some ways too! She never found a challenge too difficult to overcome nor did she pass up a good mystery to solve! She was a girl a threshold ahead of her time, set in the historical past to where even growing up in the 20th century you could see the frameworks of her living world as it was painted so very clearly for you to observe!

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. MontgomeryI suppose you could say you have noticed a trend in the type of lead characters and stories that I have been drawn too since I was a child! Anne of Green Gables is the epitome of a heroine whose spirit and mirth of life will long outlast all of us who have come to know her as intimately as though we were childhood confidantes! Montgomery gave us a real portrait of life and living through Anne’s eyes, and kept Anne rooted in her unique personality whilst the Anne we knew and loved grew into a woman with her own means and family. She dared to step out of the comfort zones of society and willed herself to achieve what many I think in her plight might have simply given up on obtaining at all! She’s the inspiration for all young girls to realise how strong women can be at the times in life we need to assert ourselves and stand strong!

Little House in the Big Woods {Little House series thereof} by Laura Ingalls WilderI still remember curling up with my boxed set of paperback novels by Ms. Wilder wildly lighting my imagination with frontier life! Her stories were so real to me, that I would always make a bit of a tradition out of when I would read the Little House books! IF I could wing it, I would always like to begin them in the early murmurings of Autumn, when the weather would feel unlike Summer! I was fascinated by the simple inclusions of Laura’s life such as the biscuits in her pocket to keep her hands warm and the method of making ‘candy’ out of snow and maple syrup! How many days and years I longed to attempt that recipe myself yet never experienced more than an hour’s worth of frost on the windshield? When the tv series was well on its way of finding its own heart of inspiration from the stories in the books I held close to my heart, I found myself living by extension of the original stories through everything that evolved in the teleplay! I realised years later that there were creative liberties taken, but for me, both Little Houses will always be felt with warm affection! They each in their own way gave us so much more than we could return in thankful notes of gratitude!

A Christmas Carol by Charles DickensAh, Ebenezer! Who doesn’t know of Ebenezer Scrooge! I must have read this story numerous times to the brink that each time it was re-made into a tv mini-series, tv movie, and/or theatrical released motion picture; I would always have the general aspects of his story pop back into my mind! I must say, that there each new variation of this story I see something new and wholly different from the others. Each adaptation if you will focuses on something else that Dickens was attempting to impart on the world. I have not come across one adaptation I haven’t enjoyed and if I may be so bold to lament: I hope there are several more variations in the future still yet to come! The best life lesson to give any child is the one of generosity without the expectation of returned gratitude. To give without conditions is the greatest gift we can give each other! And, to remain humble to all walks of life and circumstances whilst we traverse our lifepaths is an even greater philosophy to aspire towards!

White Fang by Jack LondonI remember when I first started to mention to my teachers I wanted to read the works of Jack London, I was deeply surprised by their reactions! IF they were not explaining to me that they were meant for ‘boys’ not ‘girls’ they were trying to persuade me to read lighter fare! The truth of the matter is I have always felt such a natural curiosity and attachment to the natural world, that it was a natural progression for me to discover White Fang! I never understood why there had to be such strict perimeters when I was growing up! Boy. Girl. Gender this, gender that! Goodness! What I loved about the book (as my parents noted my desire and took me to the bookshoppe to pick out a copy!) is the pure and raw adventure to it! I loved it beyond what words could express and when I saw the motion picture — it felt as though I had come full circle! Very impactful for a young girl!

A Wrinkle in Time {Time Quartet series thereof} by Madeleine L’ EngleThis particular book didn’t greet me until I was in my twenties as I was seeking out a way to jump-dive into reading quantum physics! The full story is hidden within the link I’ve just provided! What I wanted to say in this post is that I would love to complete my readings of the Time Quartet to see what occurs ‘after’ they return home! I remember wondering ever so curiously what would happen next and even, how what they had experienced with their cheeky and quirky visitors would affect the rest of their lives? As each new experience alters your perception and how you proceed forward. In this particular case, its a rather extraordinary excursion! I suppose I shall remain patient until I can gather the remaining three books! I still stand by my declaration that this is the best introduction to Flatland which can serve as the next stepping stone into any quantum physics or mechanics book of your choosing!

The Indigo Notebook {book one: The Notebook series} & What the Moon Saw by Laura ResauAround the age of nine and twenty, I stumbled across Ms. Resau’s books at my local library! Intrigued I started to pick them up and read them. Before long I realised I wanted to read more, so I started to generate purchase requests to keep up with her publication schedule! Until one day I realised, my goodness! The breadth of what she writes into these tales is not only for the emotionally mature young adult (due to the story-lines and character arcs), but they are for the reader who likes to transcend out of the regular offerings and seek out something a bit heartier to chew on! IF you like to ruminate about your readings and allow the heart of a story to soak into you, I can give you no higher recommendation than seeking out a title by Laura Resau! The fact that she writes about cultures in Latin America only warms my heart more being that I have traveled to Mexico myself and saw such a keen insight into the foods, culture, and traditions that I had observed myself!

The Sixty-Eight Rooms {book one: The Sixty-Eight Rooms series} by Marianne MaloneAh, adventure through time travel which stems out of a museum! How many of us read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil F. Frankweiler when we were younger!? Hoping to have the courage to sneak away, tuck into a museum and see what happens when you turn on your torches? (flashlights!) The fact that I had the chance to stay-over at a Children’s Museum for a Night Away made this book even more exciting because I truly did ‘live that adventure’ even if I was surrounded by chaperones! You know children always find a way for ‘alone time’ and let their curiosity get the better of them! Laughs. Back to the story here, this is one of the books that sparked my interest into seeking out more stories of the French! I won’t spoilt anything and tell you why at this junction in time,… but if you are curious about Chicago’s Art Institute’s Thorne Rooms, look no further! Dig in!

The Golden Hour {book one: The Golden Hour series} by Maiya WilliamsIf you are reading carefully you will have noticed I provided a guiding map of which books to read in order and which to proceed into next. However, to make it easier to follow whatever you do, do not feel the inclination to read this book *ahead!* of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil F. Frankweiler & The Sixty-Eight Rooms! You will thank me later! Of course, technically you could read A Wrinkle in Time either ahead of the first of three in this sequence or have it proceed directly after The Golden Hour! Reason being, there is a play on themes that are integral to each of these stories! And, yes, this one has a French connection as well! I think what I loved about this one is the plausibility factor of how time is treated and shifted around. Alas, plausible in the sense if you have already accepted elementary truths of science fiction!

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline KellyCalpurnia Tate took me by complete surprise around two years ago! I was holding off checking out this novel for the longest of times, until one day I realised why not? IF I felt the story was not one I could readily soak into the only thing I’d have to do is return it directly in other for another reader to give it a bit of a go! Inside this coming-of age tale is a spunky (eh, smiles!) wholly true-to-herself girl who is striving to make a connection to a family member who is not readily understood or accepted in her family unit. I felt anguish along with Calpurnia whilst the events unfolded for both of them and I felt my heart grow as the ending chapters brought me to my farewell of her life. I must confess, I could have entertained another installment if only to see what ‘came next’ in her ‘evolution’.

Red Thread Sisters by Carol Antoinette PeacockMy book showcase review of this novel paints my feelings and thoughts in such a deeply personal way that I know it can stand on its own as to express my gratitude for finding this story! However, what I felt I should impart right now is that how powerful we can give children the ability to accept and process all families at a young age! Orphans and children without families are rather commonplace in today’s world, but how many children who grow up with a family know of their fears, hopes, and dreams? Or, how difficult it is for them to accept a ‘new’ family when they were not fully sure if they wanted to leave behind the only home they had ever known? Peacock writes a compelling story of two girls who befriended each other at a group home in China and how their evolving lives would remain entwined!

The clever observer will note immediately that I have chosen to focus on books that we are generally meant to read during our growing years, and of course, I haven’t spotlighted all of them (from my own readings OR generally known by others), but I have picked out the Lucky 13 (it is 2013, after all!) Picks, which holds within the list the selection I shall showcase in a moment! Each of them are interconnected on the level that, in each story, the main character(s) are undertaking a transition in their lives. The shape and nature of the transition is as widely unique as the characters’ themselves, yet each boy and girl featured in these lovely books has to dig a bit deeper than they ever thought possible to even hope to understand the unique situations and circumstances that start to affect their personal worlds directly! They must take on adversity and circumvent outcomes that might not have been as keenly positive if they had not found the true strength to carry-on through what crossed their paths!

Having said this, the one book that I would refer someone to read to have a reading experience that would give them the benefit of all of these stories combined is:

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Mr. Silverstein has the ability to transport us through a portal of literature, by which, our curious and innocent eyes remain fully intact. Even if we are re-visiting this story as adults, who may or may not be jaded by life experiences, or as a new reader, who never had the proper chance to read this story in their growing years. It’s a book that is not hinged to one particular age or another, but rather is universal in its message and at its very core, is a lesson that substantiates all the other titles on the list! For you see, if you never were introduced to “The Giving Tree”, you might not be as readily accepting of the themes, subjects, topics, and climaxes that these other stories contain! Do you not agree?

{*NOTE: All books featured in this post are listed under *Children’s Lit: The Undiscovered Frontier*, for the express purpose of highlighting my work-in-progress to stitch together reviews of the books I have written down on that page! As for each book &/or series listed, there is a world of transformative literature awaiting the reader!}

This post was originally intended to be shown on 21 September 2013!

{SOURCE: The Book Chat badge is provided by Sweet Green Tangerine
for participants to show their solidarity!}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2013.

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Posted Friday, 15 November, 2013 by jorielov in Adoption, Book Chat, Brothers and Sisters, Children's Classics, Children's Literature, Coming-Of Age, Family Life, Illustrated Poetry, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Orphans & Guardians, Poetry, Quantum Physics, Revolutionary France, Science Fantasy, Science Fiction, Siblings, The Natural World, Time Travel, Time Travel Adventure, Wilderness Adventures, Young Adult Fiction