Category: Journal

+Blog Book Tour+ The Dreamosphere by Laura Stoddard

Posted Sunday, 20 July, 2014 by jorielov , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

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The Dreamosphere by Laura Stoddard

The Dreamosphere Blog Tour by Cedar Fort

Published By: Sweetwater Books ( ),
an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc (@CedarFort)
8th July, 2014
Official Author WebsitesSite | Facebook | Twitter |
GoodReads
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Page Count: 208

Converse via: #TheDreamosphere

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Acquired Book By: I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort since I participated in the “Uncovering Cobbogoth” tour. This blog tour will be my second hosting for Cedar Fort & Sweetwater Books! I received a complimentary copy of “The Dreamosphere” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

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A Short Excerpt:

“What do you think happens to your dreams after you wake up?”

Gwen shrugged distractedly, too disoriented by her sudden arrival in the remarkable setting to focus. “I dunno. They disappear?”

The unblinking gray eyes of her young companion flashed as she leaned forward. “Incorrect. Every dream you’ve ever had still exists. All of them. They reside in a dimension called the Dreamosphere. It’s where we are right now, as a matter of fact. Each dream basically exists as its own world, or dream-orb. There are thousands and thousands of them, connected like drops of dew on a gigantic spider web. Every dream you’ve ever had, Gwen. They’re all up here. And you can visit them any time you want.”

Tabitha, the enigmatic child who shares this information, has some even more shocking news. Gwen’s dreamosphere is in danger. Someone has been hacking into it—destroying her dream orbs, erasing pieces of her past, and affecting Gwen in more ways than she realizes. Together, Gwen and Tabitha travel through the outlandish landscape of Gwen’s dream worlds to find the person responsible. What will happen to Gwen when all her dreams are gone? What critical clues lie within the pages of her dream journal? And what does Edgar Allan Poe have to do with it all?

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Laura StoddardBook Synopsis:

What if dreams don’t disappear when we wake up? Haunted by her younger sister’s death, and her unwitting role in the incident, 11-year-old Gwenevere Stoker takes solace in the Dreamosphere—a dimension where all dreams still exist. But when someone begins destroying her dreams, Gwen must find the culprit—or risk losing all her happiness forever. Bask in the mystery and imagination of dreams in this touching, funny, mind-bending children’s tale that encompasses themes of grief, friendship, family, healing, and grand adventure!

Author Biography:

Laura Stoddard was born in Idaho and spent her formative years running amok in the great outdoors. She received her bachelors degree in English Literature from Arizona State University. After being rejected from the masters program for creative writing she decided that she didn’t need a masters degree to tell her she could write, so she started really dedicating her time to finishing the story she’d started months earlier, with the goal of writing a complete novel, and getting it published. The result is her debut novel, The Dreamosphere, for which her own vivid, bizarre, and incomprehensible dreams provided the inspiration. Laura is an adrenaline junkie and will try anything once–or twice–or maybe three times. She can already check whitewater rafting, going down in a shark cage, and skydiving (three times) off of her list. Oh, and getting Lasik. It was five minutes of terror. She enjoys hiking, rowing, reading classic literature, embarking on new adventures and hobbies, volunteering regularly, and spending time with family. She currently resides in Phoenix, Ariz.

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The fabric of the dreamosphere:

The Prologue provides a bit of a cursory view into the webbed network of Gwen’s dreamosphere, a world in which nothing is quite as it appears (true to the nature of our dreamscapes!), and yet, there is a beguiling presence of a half man, half vulture bird-like entity that is starting to cause an undercurrent of primal fear. His presence is clearly laced with malice towards Gwen, and her dream world; yet what has triggered his focus and aggression on her particular dreams was not yet revealed as this merely was providing the framework for where Gwen goes whilst she’s dreaming. Her companion Tabitha is quite the hoot, a shapeshifter who is able to transform her body and language as she walks through the dream’s individual orb of existence. I presumed the dreams are contained in an orb of memory – a particular space where the entirety of a dream can exist without harm of disappearing.

As the story progresses the intricacies of how the dreamosphere and the world of dreams co-exist is explained. Part of the dream sequences reminded me of the wild imagination of Terry Pratchett from the Tiffany Aching sequences within the Discworld universe. The interesting bit for me is how Tabitha takes the shape of a squirrel in Gwen’s living reality but can be seen as a young girl (a composite of Gwen’s real-life friend from living on the farm) inside the dreamosphere adventures. She has a most curious nature and I would wager an even more curious story of origin!

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Posted Sunday, 20 July, 2014 by jorielov in Blog Tour Host, Cedar Fort Publishing & Media, Coming-Of Age, Death of a Sibling, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Author, Debut Novel, Diet Weight & Body Image, Dreams & Dreamscapes, Equality In Literature, Fantasy Fiction, Grief & Anguish of Guilt, Indie Author, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Journal, Light vs Dark, Mother-Daughter Relationships, Shapeshifters, Siblings, YA Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction

+Book Review+ Getting Waisted: A Survival Guide to BEING FAT in a Society that LOVES THIN by Monica Parker (a comedic memoir)

Posted Wednesday, 28 May, 2014 by jorielov , , 0 Comments

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Getting Waisted by Monica Parker

Getting Waisted by Monica Parker

Published By: HCI Books () 1, April 2014
Official Author Websites Getting Waisted Site | Main Site | Twitter
Available Formats: Trade Paper
Page Count: 288

Converse via: #GettingWaisted

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Acquired Book By: Whilst attending #LitChat (@LitChat) a literary salon on Twitter where writers and readers come together to promote a healthy exchange of dialogue pertaining to books, we part company feeling better for the meeting. Conversations surround the book each author who visits #LitChat has recently published. On this particular day, #LitChat was not quite the experience I had expected as the tides turnt against its principles. The outcome for me was to seek out a way to contact the author personally to offer my condolences and apology for what she experienced in a forum of what had been up until that moment a joy-filled experience. I also contacted her publicist who found me via Twitter. I thus contacted #LitChat and due to the response from my enquiry I felt that in time I could return but I would remain vigilant and cautious if the same circumstances were to arise again. No one has the right to supersede the joy of people who come together for a literary conversation.

Out of my correspondences with Ms.  Parker & Ms. Chan, I was offered to receive a complimentary ARC copy of “Getting Waisted” direct from Ms. Parker’s literary publicist Darlene Chan (of Darlene Chan PR) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein. I likewise opted to Interview Ms. Parker as a follow-up Guest Post Feature.

My Interest in Getting Waisted:

I was originally interested in visiting with Ms. Parker via #LitChat, because the book caught my eye and attention when I saw she was an upcoming guest author during the weekly twitterverse chat. Specifically, because I have faced my own struggles with weight gain & weight loss, like most women who enter their twenties and then thirties, our bodies change and life can become more stressful than when we were younger. I have always maintained my happy spirit and found joy in the everyday irregardless of where I was in my weight loss, as part of what helps you lose the extra bits you no longer wish to keep is to keep your attitude positive. I was endeared to listen to her talk and share her own story as I liked how she was being honest and frank about her own experiences.

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Monica ParkerAuthor Biography:

Monica Parker (Los Angeles and Toronto) is an actor, writer and producer in theater, television and film; most notably she co-wrote All Dogs Go to Heaven. She was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, until the age of 13 when she immigrated with her parents to Toronto, Canada. Monica is currently starring in her insightful and funny one-woman show, Sex, Pies & a Few White Lies, which premiered in 2010. Monica has just completed two features already under option, and has a recurring role on Syfy’s “Defiance.” Monica lives with her longtime husband and saint, Gilles.

Synopsis of the Memoir:

Monica Parker bridges the divide between serial dieter’s guide and memoir, taking readers on a hilariously funny yet bumpy ride from chubby baby to chunky adult.

In Getting Waisted, Monica begins every chapter with a diet she committed to and reveals how much weight, money, and self-esteem she lost, and then how much weight she gained when she fell off the wagon. She shares her fears and frustrations – when Mr. Right appears out of thin air, will she run back to the catalogue of Mr. Wrongs out of fear? She reveals society’s prejudices against overweight people: “No one tells a short person to get taller, or a tall person to get shorter, but fat people hear about their bodies all the time.” From living large in a sub-zero world to jumping into the dating pool without causing a tidal wave of angst, Monica learns that when you stop buying what the “diet devils” are selling and start liking yourself, life is far more rewarding. Readers will laugh and cry as Monica realizes that while she thought it was her body that was in the way, it was actually what she kept in her head that needed adjusting.

Ultimately, Getting Waisted is an inspirational look at life through society’s warped fun-house mirror perspective, but Monica’s reflections tell the real tale: everyone is always under construction and we are all flawed, chipped and dented, but that doesn’t mean we’re not interested, vital and sexy.

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Parker has written a no holds barred autobiographical memoir with poignant truths at every turn of her disclosure of how from her conception and birth to the present day she has learnt that the best way to feel empowered is through self-acceptance and radiance of joy. Her life is anything but typical as her half-siblings were kept distant due to World War II, whilst her parents were at odds with each other for most of her growing years. She lived in more countries than I have travelled to thus far, and her ability to transition and adapt to each new school, living environment, and work life is a nod to her strength of character. Yet, her life had darkness shading around the fringes of joy, as she did not get a nice entrance into the dating scene as most her age had enjoyed. In fact, whilst she was sharing the pain of what she lost in that moment of domestic violence, I felt the most emotional by far of what I had read up until that point.

Parker puts her heart in the ink and breathes a lifeblood into her words. She’s a straight-forward writer who tells you how she’s lived as much as how far she’s come from what she has survived. She’s a woman who has lived a heart-centered life, always striving to seek a foundation of love, joy, and happiness which were elusive to her as a child and young adult. Food became the filler for her emotional aches and anguished heart, but it was not only serving a replacement of what was absent, but as an extension of hiding from facing hard truths which I think for anyone in her position would not have been something to face alone.

Bullied for her weight and appearance since she was in grade school, I understood how she felt on that level, as although I was bullied for other reasons, anyone who has gone through the teasing of their peers can sympathise with another who walked the same path. Bullies always think they are the smarter ones and the ones who deserve to reign superior to others simply because the people they are bullying are different. A bit more creative and the out-of-the-box thinkers who challenge the bullies to realise they do not know everything they presume. And, perhaps that is the problem. Bullies are the ones who feel inferior because they cannot accept that someone whose perception has a creative bent might understand what they cannot conceptualise. However the case may be, I personally attempt to highlight books in all walks of literature which knit together dialogue on the bullies and the bullied. To help encourage the trend to end and to let all children grow up without the heartache Parker and I knew ourselves.

As you move forward in her memoir you start to see how the butterfly emerges and takes a grace note of confidence as her wings start to catch under her and guide her forward. I enjoyed reading about her trials, her tribulations, and her muddled path towards sorting out life and how she wanted to elect to face what would come along. She takes a crisp look at everything in her past, and paints a strong visual image of a woman who was in the process of knowing who she was all along. She doesn’t apologise for her frankness (nor should she), and she has this quirky sense of humour stitched into the fabric of her memories. Her own rhythm is set to humour, and she never fails within the chapters to get you a tickling of your funny-bone whilst at the same time endearing your heartstrings. She finds a balance between what she had to overcome and what she enjoyed experiencing as she lived.

I greatly appreciated the chapters where Gilles starts to come forward, as I denoted that he was a catalyst of change for her all the way around. Gilles was able to see her in a way that others had not previously, and it was through their growing admiration and love to be with each other that warmed my heart! She was finding true happiness in such a beautiful way that it was a joy to read their journey towards their union. I especially thought it was wicked that she kept in bits and bobbles of their differences. Between her Scottish roots and his French, as there were moments of great folly to be read.

Getting Waisted is an honest memoir from a woman who is fearlessly confident and has such a warm spirit that you can read her essence straight off the page! I appreciated spending time with her, and getting to see how the avenues fused together for her to welcome in motherhood and the next chapters she would pursue. Start to finish, I would have to lament that the first half is more dramatic and the second half is where the cocoon is shed and she is free to fly. I am so very thankful to have had the honour of reading her story, because her story is everywoman’s story on the level that we each have to resolve our own body image in a way that celebrates our individual self-confidence.

A notation on why there is not a Fly in the Ointment attached here:

Being that Ms. Parker is a stand-up comic and a full-fledged comedienne, I already knew that on some level she might have a more colourful way of reflecting on certain parts of her life as much as how she elected to present the stories or antidotes of her past. Therefore, I did mark off there are instances of ‘vulgarity in literature’ inside this book, but I did not go as far to say that that would prevent me from reading her memoir, as foresaid, I understood the writer a bit before I picked up the book on the level that most comics have strong inflictions in how they communicate their humour as much as their personal stories.

Personally, this is one I have the hardest time sorting out which comic to watch as I tend to be aligned with the comics of the past (think Dean Martin’s Roasts era OR Lucille Ball) where the flavourings were clean and the language was not as strong as it was whilst I grew up in the 1980s. At least it was not a contribution to the skits, the roasts, or the set-ups in the routines. I have many fond memories of “I Love Lucy” right alongside “The Carol Burnett Show”, as Dean Martin followed suit lateron. I did want to share one of the reader’s observations of her book, as I grew up on his comedy in motion pictures being a child bourne on the cusp of one decade in exchange for another (1970s/1980s):

My dear friend Monica Parker, the hilarious humourist, Mother hen to me, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’ Hara, John Candy – all of us when we started out in Toronto, has written a book about truly finding yourself, being content with who you are and developing an enduring sense of self-esteem.

by Dan Aykroyd {quoted from the Press Kit}

I grew up knowing of Gilda Radner, but along with Mr. Aykroyd, I was always fond of Catherine O’ Hara & John Candy. I am not in the habit of publishing outside reviews and opinions when I compose my own thoughts on the books I read on Jorie Loves A Story, but in this one instance (and there could be others in the future) I felt it was kismet to discover that part of my own living past is inter-connected a bit with Ms. Parker’s. The actors and comics mentioned are not merely names on a page, but honest to goodness people I grew up watching on camera! They had the ability to make me laugh as much as they emoted out such a strong carriage of emotion to make me cry. Their depth of range never left me, and I to this day celebrate what they left behind as legacies in motion picture. I also know their work in film is only one-half of what they gave of their art, but for me, it is the portal in which I knew them.

I am going to conclude this review with a tweet that is a full summary of the heart message of Getting Waisted:

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

{SOURCES: Author photograph, Author Biography, Book Synopsis, Quote by Dan Aykroyd and Book Cover were provided by Darlene Chan PR and were used by permission. Book Review badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers & My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • Go Indie
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Posted Wednesday, 28 May, 2014 by jorielov in Book Review (non-blog tour), Bookish Discussions, Debut Author, Debut Novel, Diet Weight & Body Image, Diets & Dieting, Indie Author, Journal, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Vignettes of Real Life, Vulgarity in Literature, Weight Loss, Women's Health

*Blog Book Tour*: The Consolations of the Forest by Sylvain Tesson

Posted Tuesday, 10 December, 2013 by jorielov , , , 2 Comments

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The Consolations of the Forest byThe Consolations of the Forest by Sylvain Tesson, Translated by Linda Coverdale
Published By: Rizzoli Ex Libris (imprint of Rizzoli Publications, Inc.),
17  September 2013
Official Author Websites: Page sur l’auteur (in French);
Tesson @GoodReads
(in French)
Available Formats: Hardcover
Page Count: 256

Acquired Book By: I was selected to be a stop on the blog book tour for “The Consolations of the Forest” hosted by France Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of “The Consolations of the Forest” in exchange for an honest review by the publisher: Rizzoli Ex Libris.  As I stated on a previous non-fiction tour stop, I am being rather active in seeking out non-fiction titles to read! I am naturally drawn into the natural world, which is why this felt like a good fit at the time I requested a stop! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inquisitively Curious to Read: I must say, I have always been intrigued by Siberia, and I started to watch his interview on the link you provided but all I truly understand from it, is the beautiful and sweeping vistas he’s sharing through the photographs he took whilst he was there! Oh, my dear heavens!! The landscape and ‘sense of place’ is evoking a stir in me to read this book! I am very attached to the natural world, and I am finding myself drawn into non-fiction books such as these that explore a connection and a sense of wonder which exhumes reverence &/or ruminative contemplation!

Sylvain Tesson

Author’s Biography:

Sylvain Tesson is a writer, journalist, and celebrated traveler.
He has been exploring Central Asia—on foot, bicycle, and horse—since 1997.
A best-seller in his native France, he is published all over the world—and now in the United States. 

Interview with Sylvain Tesson via Le Figaro (Magazine) (also in French)

On his six months spent in the Siberian Forest

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BOOK SYNOPSIS:

The Consolations of the Forest by Sylvain Tesson

 A meditation on escaping the chaos of modern life and rediscovering the luxury of solitude.

 Winner of the Prix Médicis for non-fiction, THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE FOREST is a Thoreau-esque quest to find solace, taken to the extreme. No stranger to inhospitable places, Sylvain Tesson exiles himself to a wooden cabin on Siberia’s Lake Baikal—a full day’s hike from any “neighbor”— with his thoughts, books, a couple of dogs, and many bottles of vodka for company. Writing from February to July, he shares his deep appreciation for the harsh but beautiful land, the resilient men and women who populate it, and the bizarre and tragic history that has given Siberia an almost mythological place in the imagination.

 Rich with observation, introspection, and the good humor necessary to laugh at his own folly, Tesson’s memoir is about the ultimate freedom of owning your own time. Only in the hands of a gifted storyteller can an experiment in isolation become an exceptional adventure accessible to all. By recording his impressions in the face of silence, his struggles in a hostile environment, his hopes, doubts, and moments of pure joy in communion with nature, Tesson makes a decidedly out-of-the-ordinary experience relatable to the reader who may be struggling with his or her own search for peace and balance in life. The awe and joy are contagious, and one comes away with the comforting knowledge that “as long as there is a cabin deep in the woods, nothing is completely lost.”

Reader’s Note: If you look at the cover art on Tesson’s book you will find slightly raised lettering for the title & subtitle section as well as the author’s name. The essence of the book cover for me is the painting of the isolated and extreme disconnection which Tesson experienced whilst on his six-month sojourn into the wild! I love the ruggedness of the design, as if the book itself was kept in his knapsack as he lived and traveled whilst jotting down his ruminations and observations! The book as well as the man returned back to society a bit weathered and all-knowing of mysterious truths not yet revealed to the wider audience. In this vein of thought, I felt it was best to view the cover in its fullness of glory if only to impart the richness of design! Let me know what it evokes inside your own mind’s eye in the comments section below!

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Taming the Wild Thoughts of Man

I can relate to Tesson’s ambition to pull back from the chaotic swirling of our everyday lives to the brink of where we lose sight of the honest truths about why we are here in the first place. We can become so muddled and clogged by our modern lives, where the natural environment which always lives just a finger touch away from us — dissolves as though it were never there at all. The act of living through the paces brings all of humanity a further step backward to acknowledging the larger picture of ‘where’ we are whilst we walk our journey ‘on Earth’ due to the limited sense of space. The natural world is a wonderful place to walk and abide in a cleansing of our inner life’s turmoil of spirit. Nature has a way of enveloping us in such a warm embrace as to allow time itself to stand suspended. If we are mindful of our surroundings, realising that we are entering into a habitat for which we are only the causal visitor, the experience of what our eyes can drink in and our heart can eclipse through sensory perceptions has an intoxicating allure!

Releasing ourselves into the mercy of nature is what I think any person might at first struggle with coming to terms with as by our very internal nature, we as humans, want to control all the possible outcomes of our actions. In which full effect goes to reason, if we can control our own probabilities how do we learn to suspend logic, reason, and a time-locked certainty of events?

I had a feathering of a chuckling whilst observing Tesson as he first embarked on his journey towards the Taiga itself, whereupon he had to pick up his provisions for his six-month exodus! The bugs I had barely begun to even wonder about even if I have a true-to-life impression of what kinds of bugs one might find out in the wilds of a forest! No, it was the irony of sorting out what to purchase and what to take that struck my fancy the most! As if you were to think back on your last extended stay travel plans, don’t you find that no matter how well-prepared you were in theory, there was always a measure of error in never realising what you should have included instead!? I was pensively lying in wait to see if any of what he proposed to take was not limiting of what he needed to take! Although I must say, I think if everyone took a bit of time to declutter their lives of unessential extravagance if only for a short-term experiment, we all might find the joy in the unexpected simplicity which grows our hearts the closest towards empathy and understanding.

When you start to pull back the layers of your outer world as it merges with your inner world, you start to see the pieces of the tapestry unravel as the stitchings are given new markers. We can effectively change our stars if we are willing to forsake one way of living to embrace a new path of towards enlightenment. In which we are truly living a more humble truth of existence compared to one which is hinged to the cyclic chaos that all to often becomes the norm. Tesson prompts the reader to contemplate their own choices in what they have chosen to forego in their own lives in place of a way of living that is set to a different standard than modern society. Each of us can transcend ourselves onto a path of living in the fullness of a moment and in the realness of a community which extolls the virtues of community spirit which by extension our lives are enriched in greater joy.

A full embrace of the Natural World’s Rhythmic Cycle

As he started to sink into the natural world’s rhythmic cycle, Tesson was allowing his mind to jettison into the realm between where man’s world ends and nature’s begins. I love his unique perspective of describing nature as it inhibits itself from progressing forward and/or makes radical adjustments to proceed with its ancient murmurings of Wintry ablations. Each step forward for the forest, gives him a curious eye towards how microscopic we truly are out where the rules of man are out-ruled by the natural order of life itself.

Not one to shy away from imparting his somewhat cheeky and viscerally stimulating images on the reader who picks up his journal of lamentations, Tesson finds a clear path towards the reader’s imagination being stimulated by the mere thought of what his eyes are taking in off the page! The sheer force of raw nature bubbling to life and etching itself closer to where his tiny cabin lay squat and square by the shore of a massive lake! The brutal truth of how far by foot he would have to travel if he were in need of another human’s presence! I was even whet with curiosity over the close proximity of neighbours of whom might not be as companionable nor as conversative but rather would be more keenly focused on invading or scrimaging with his host country!

I could relate to his intriguing fascination with each wonderment he betook before him, because anyone who has stood still, reflectively pensive and a mind lit open to pure joy will understand the addiction of ‘seeing’ what the natural environment will next reveal to you! There is an aching of belonging to those who tread into the natural depths of where nature resides. The longer you walk alongside our wild inhabitants, noting their routines and nodding at their ordinary moments, the more your apt to find yourself at internal peace. It guides you back, beckoning you to resume where you left off, as though you had only placed a bookmark on a page where you could return back to the story in progress. In some ways, this is a true observation, but the hitching in your chest as you wonder how the animals are fairing in your absence, or how many deep sighs of woe the trees are billowing out of their upper boughs until you drop by again for a visit? This is something that only those who have become awakened can understand and fully respect.

As a turtle who ambles along the forest floor gathering moss and algae on its shell, so too, do humans leave an illuminant trace of their wanderings. Niches of our footprints carving into the order of things, ringing in our presence as each new day we visit gleams into view. The interconnected web of our lives are forever stitched together with the fowl, mammal, and amphibian who takes a measure of a mirth out of their day to stare into our eyes as our paths cross their own. Strangers and foe, yield to acquaintance and friend. Companions outside of their own species whose respect for the other knows no bounds.

To Philosophise, Elucidate, or Elidiate? Is this a Question?

Whilst he continues to go about his ‘new normal routine’ of surviving in mind-bending low temperatures, Tesson takes on a bit of an outer dialogue of his state of place. There are moments where you are curious if the questions he is proposing are to a common explanation of what all men might have considered from one era or another. OR, if his murmurings were the tiny envelopes of discovery he was knitting together whilst being away from every piece of modernism he could escape. He gives short spurts of adjective stylings of his observations, glimpses of what is going on ‘right then’ as he were to leave his journal and pen, in order to stoke the fire or denote the severity of the conditions outside. A man in pause of his new living reality. Therein, we start to see the freshness of his eyes, how keen his observations are becoming and how heart-warming it is that he took the courage to share them with all of us in the form of a book!

I think whilst he was living through this journey towards a deeper self-acceptance and self-transcribed inner record of growth, he was stumbling into writing down key insights that some of us might not notice even if we had half of a proper lifetime to curate the experiences! He has a clever way only a man would find interesting to give us a full sense of his reasonings, and in this, I smile. He isn’t one to be bashful, but he isn’t one to not notice the eloquence of seeing what can be seen yet is not always given the freedom of acceptance.

His ruminative nature of sensing the expanse of time and its ability to be slowed down by certain actions which suspend its power to contract is the mark of someone who sees the beauty of walking. Walking is man’s one way of stilling the passage of time, simply by refusing to allow time to speed past what man is willing to walk against. It very well may be the one singular power we have that few of us attempt to use to our own advantage. The ages have always enquired the elasticity of time and its errant mannerisms for first alighting at a slower speed before kicking into high gear past the speed of light. What causes the shift in perception of time? Is it our actions and our living patterns? Or is it the perception of ‘place’ and ‘setting’ and ‘of being’ that alters how the clock counts its seconds? What if time could blink still and resume at the very same moment your thoughts were centered at a fixed point in nature? As the patterns of time out-of-doors is run against a hidden pattern of synchronicity it is plausible that we effectively could forestall a bit of time whilst inhabiting a well-worn path for foot traffic.

My Review of The Consolations of the Forest:

I have always known that the particular pace of our individual lives was set to a rather high extreme of inefficiency as far as the quality of life being extracted at too high of a cost. I was most likely clued into this at a young age due to the insanity of my own father’s 24/7  time-clock of profession. You start to see the little fragmented ripples in the sphere of life. Where as you intersect with time, it is time itself that becomes your greatest lesson and teacher. You nourish the hidden moments which are blind to your eyes as you live, but are unearthed out of necessity and/or through a determined mother’s insistence of having the family kept together even if the father’s hours were mad-crazy bent against it! In those quiet and sombering hours, you start to see the little ripples of what sets your family apart from others’ who are in the same professional grid.

Where one family might have taken the same course as those before them, mine started to breakaway and create a new path forged out of a desire to create a better life which would sustain themselves long after the work day ended. A curious attachment to a slower pace of acknowledging the rhythms of life was only the beginning. Seeking out a full circle change of season, and community interconnectedness took a much longer quest to uncover! Where the locality of place led to a local excursion of food sources, community-spun events, a natural nod and wink to seasonal joys, and an inertia of earthen artistianal crafts.

In Tesson’s journal of solitude in Siberia, I see reflections of my own heart’s desire to unlock a path towards withdrawing from the regular pace of my own life and world. To where I am not forever hinged to the clock but rather, am the one who winds the cogs to match my own rhythm. To live around others who take extreme pleasure in walking through fog-lit streets and forest passageways which led to a quiet dawn. To feel the dirt fall off the fruit and veg at a farmer’s market held in all tentacles of weather and climate. Conversations boiled to life over exchangements of literature, art, cultural co-mingling events, and the passages of nature’s graceful hand in front of us. There is a heart-rhythm to living and a soul’s earthly quest to re-align itself with a pace which exhumes the internal truths of from whence we came and thus will once again return.

A Curious Footnote:

I thought it was rather smashing of a coincidence that some of the very same books I am including on my classical literature reading list for when I join “The Classics Club” in January 2014 were listed as part of the books Tesson hauled into the Taiga! Books such as: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Walden by Henry David Thoreau, Twelfth Night or What You Will by William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare, The Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights) by Unknown, The Complete Novels by Ernest Hemingway, Tao Te Ching bt Lao Tzu, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain,… his surprising choice was of the book I chose to abandon in fourth grade out of sheer boredom: “Robinson Crusoe” by William Defoe. I would have presumed he would have taken Jack London!?

I must also lay a bit of gratitude to the translator, Ms. Coverdale who turnt French into English in such a drinkable way as to soften the words into a walkable feast!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comThe “Consolations of the Forest” Virtual Book Tour Roadmap:

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France Book Tours

The Consolations of the Forest (Alone in a Cabin on the Siberian Taiga) by Sylvain Tesson
Published by Rizzoli Ex Libris on 17th September, 2013

Public LibraryAdd to RiffleFormat: Hardcover
Source: Publisher via France Book Tours
Genres: Memoir, Non-Fiction
Pages: 256

on my Bookish Events Featured on JLAS

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Continuing my discovery of Baikal, the Lake in Siberia by which this book enchanted my mind:

{SOURCES: Cover art and book synopsis of “The Consolations of the Forest”,  Sylvain Tesson’s photograph and the blog tour badge were all provided by France Book Tours and used with permission. Blog tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. An excerpt was originally meant to be included but was not ready at time of posting my review. Tweets were able to be embedded due to embed codes taken directly from each tweet on Twitter for sharing purposes. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. France Book Tours badge created by Jorie in Canva.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2013.

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Posted Tuesday, 10 December, 2013 by jorielov in Author Interview, Blog Tour Host, Bookish Films, Debut in United States, France Book Tours, Journal, Life in Another Country, Nature - Essays, Non-Fiction, Seclusion in the Natural World, Travel Narrative | Memoir, Vignettes of Real Life, Vulgarity in Literature