I quite happily am spending Summer soaking through the lovely discoveries I am making through the annual BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge! This particular Summer challenge has become quite dear to me due to how wicked lovely my local library has been in giving me an added layer of joy whilst BookSparks has coordinated the blog tours attached to the reading challenge in such a way to continue to *surprise!* me by finding books arriving by Post I was not even sure would be posted! (full story revealed on this post)
This marks my second review out of ten, and although I was originally meant to post my ruminations on Monday, the 29th of June, I needed the extra hours to fully immerse myself into Wishful Thinking! Partially due to a slow-shift back into reading after my illness and partially due to a *major!* upgrade my blog undertook over the weekend yielding to a few wonky tech issues that left me unable to blog.
My next review for #SRC2015 was meant to appear on Thursday, however, I believe it will be closer to Saturday, as I equally need more time to fully embrace my next summer read! I am hoping after I post #SRC2015 No.3, I’ll be back on track with my pre-booked schedule!
It was such a joy to snuggle into this novel – it nearly felt autobiographical, too! Wicoff is definitely an author I want to keep my eyes on and continue to see where her bookish endeavours take us!
Acquired Book By: I originally found BookSparks PR last Spring, when I came upon the Summer Reading Challenge a bit too late in the game. I hadn’t forgotten about it, and was going to re-contact them this Spring to see if I could join the challenge this year instead. Coincidentally, before I sorted this out, I was contacted by one of their publicists about Linda Lafferty’s Renaissance historical novel, “The Sheperdess of Siena”.
At the time when I was confirmed to be a part of the #SRC2015 official blog tour schedule, we were not able to get confirmation on which books we selected to review on our respective blogs would be sent to us by the publishers and/or publicist at BookSparks, thereby I submitted purchase requests at my local library for all *10!* books I selected to read and review.
I elected to read “Wishful Thinking” via the complimentary copy I received by BookSparks as the library copy arrived just after this lovely book arrived by postal mail. By participating in the #SRC2015 challenge I am reading the novels in exchange for my honest reviews; whether I am receiving a complimentary copy or borrowing them through my local library. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
I was selected to be a tour stop on the “The Angel of Losses” virtual book tour through TLC Book Tours. I received a complimentary ARC copy of the book direct from the publisher Ecco, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
I am always seeking stories which will challenge my mind and take me somewhere completely outside of where I have travelled before in literature. I had a sense that this was a story that I would devour — a story which would alight inside the vast plane of my imagination and give me something hearty to chew on afterwards. It was a premonition of a reaction long before the ARC ever arrived by Post. Do you ever find yourself stumbling across an author or a novel that you simply ‘know’ will leave an etched impression on your mind?! This is what I felt when I read the premise of Feldman’s novel and as I read the final words cast on the final page of the last chapter, I knew my premonition was true.
A notation on the cover art design:
The cover art for The Angel of Losses is a mosaic of the visual representations and clues of where the story leads you to follow it’s epic conclusion and of whom you need to pay particular attention to as the story evolves. Pictorial stimulating clues that you will only recognise as you alight on the pages in which give you the insight to understand the circle of their presence. The story is nearly a riddle when all is said and told – a riddle of a theory and a puzzle of an ancient truth aligning forward out of history.
The Tiger’s Wife meets A History of Love in this inventive, lushly imagined debut novel that explores the intersections of family secrets, Jewish myths, the legacy of war and history, and the bonds between sisters.
When Eli Burke dies, he leaves behind a mysterious notebook full of stories about a magical figure named The White Rebbe, a miracle worker in league with the enigmatic Angel of Losses, protector of things gone astray, and guardian of the lost letter of the alphabet, which completes the secret name of God.
When his granddaughter, Marjorie, discovers Eli’s notebook, everything she thought she knew about her grandfather—and her family—comes undone. To find the truth about Eli’s origins and unlock the secrets he kept, she embarks on an odyssey that takes her deep into the past, from 18th century Europe to Nazi-occupied Lithuania, and back to the present, to New York City and her estranged sister Holly, whom she must save from the consequences of Eli’s past.
Interweaving history, theology, and both real and imagined Jewish folktales, The Angel of Losses is a family story of what lasts, and of what we can—and cannot—escape.
Author Biography: Stephanie Feldman is a graduate of Barnard College. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and her daughter.
Elements of Folklore, Mythology, & the Craft of Stories within a Story:
One of the most beautiful additions to a story I am reading is the otherworld presence of either folklore, mythology, or the craft of how stories are told as they are passed down from one generation to another; oft-times referred to by myself as ‘living histories’ as they truly are ‘the living history’ of a particular family. Inside Feldman’s novel, you gather a proper sense of time, place, and the stability of connection between the sisters and their grandfather was unified through the genesis of his art for story-telling. Their connective bond was untethered as they grew apart as they aged, but what I loved is seeing how the grandfather’s stories took such a central focus and method of shifting the story forward as I read deeper into the novel itself. To the level that his handwritten stories and prose scribbled into his notebooks were shared with the reader from one chapter into another. It felt very natural to go from an ordinary day out of Marjorie’s life, straight into a piece of this story she only had a peripheral knowledge of before finding one of her beloved grandfather’s notebooks.
My Review of The Angel of Losses:
Such a haunting and riveting opening of a Prologue for The Angel of Losses as we are caught inside of a memory of two sisters who are transfixed and spellbound by their grandfather’s tale of a land far away where a magician knows part of the truth of a missing son of a King. What implored me forward from there is this sense of foreboding, where did the tale leave off from the lore of the bedtime story and where did reality step forward out of the tale? I love feeling an undercurrent of suspense when I read a novel, and as this is my second Magical Realism with an under thread connection to Judaism (as the first was The Golem and the Jinni) I was mesmerized! Entering the story out of the Prologue, time has shifted forward for both sisters, as Holly (the one who was horridly afraid of her Grandfather’s story) switched religions and lived an orthodox life whereas her sister had grown into a bittersweet version of her younger self soured on how the loss of her sister has affected her heart. Her sister is still living, mind you, but the version of Holly as an adult is a far cry from the sister Marjorie knew as a child. The two are living worlds apart rather than mere blocks or cities separated by streets and the swirl of modern life between them.
I loved seeing the larger sense of their familial bond being tested by how one half of their connection is being shattered by the inability to have compassion outside of religious grounds. In this instance, I am referring to Holly’s husband is not accustomed to a non-Jewish family nor does he condone non-religious texts inside his home. A home that was inherited to Marjorie but on loan to Holly; the mere fact that Marjorie has to refer to Holly as Chava is another wrinkling thread of Marjorie’s disfavour of Holly’s choice in husband. You gather the sense at this point in the story where Marjorie is attempting to lock a hold of her past into her present, that the sister’s disconnection was already occurring long before Holly made her choice in marriage. There is an absence of words and an absence of sisterly compassion between both of them, and it points to a larger issue at hand that is slowly unfolding in the narrative itself. I like being caught up inside of a family drama, watching everything unravell as the story unfolds on its own timeclock.
Feldman has a gift for narrative voice stemming out of a wordsmith’s spirited soul for visceral imagery – she innately has gifted us with a special treat of a story, giving us a full-on adventure as we hug to the coattails of Marjorie as she pieces together the legacy and the history of a fabled Magician and the true meaning behind where the lore was always meant to take a believer; the latter of which she never felt she could ascertain on her own behalf. It is a true quandary of a problem – how to root out the history of a theory she has nibbling inside her own mind which other scholars were equally mystified about themselves? Her journey towards understanding edges her further into the mythes and pathos of ancient ruminations.
There are moments whilst I am reading I have gathered a proper sense on how each novel I consume is a building block for another yet to be known novel I will pick up in the future. As if I were stitching a tapestry woven exclusively with the threads and stitches of knowledge itself and of wisdom flowing out of the stories by which have enchanted my mind and enraptured my heart. Each story which slips into my mind’s eye has allowed me to grow, to transcend where I was before I read the story and to appreciate a bit more than I had already before the characters had lived their lives as a shadowy presence inside my own spirit. As I went deeper inside this story, I noticed little nuances of memory flittering through my internal memory files; automatically opening, closing, and filtering as I read Feldman’s prose. I had not realised I had amassed enough knowledge of the religious past to propel myself forward through this story at such an alarming clip of a pace! I cannot wait to re-read this novel when time is not extinguishing off the clock whilst a deadline was passed and overdue.
The researcher in me was happily appreciating the sections devouted to Marjorie’s attempt to research her thesis as much as research further into the legacy of her grandfather’s story. As she was always on the brink of realising that the story itself was much more than it first appeared to be. Being hunkered inside a library, piles of books atop of a table, and pages littered with bookmarks, post-it notes, and notebooks clotted full of scribbled ‘spur of the moment’ notes is what makes my own writerly heart go aflutter! Research is in part how I fell in love with writing, and it is research of another writer I treasure whilst I am reading their own stories cast out into the world for us to find. There is an electricity of excitement reading The Angel of Losses,…
At some point I started to read on autopilot, willing myself past sleep and choking myself a bit on exhaustion, but I simply needed to know how this story, this novel was going to end. I was a bit worried it might end on a cliffhanger, as I never take too kindly to ambiguous endings of stories; especially without the foreknowledge of a pending sequel. Two hours blinked off the clock and I’m at a loss for words — I’m so absorbed into this story, I feel as though I am the one pursuing the research to understand what is just outside of my own memory. This story is not like any other I’ve read and I will never quite forget it either. It is meant to be absorbed and illuminated inside the reader’s mind without revealing everything to the next reader who comes across it. For each of us has to read it ourselves and satisfy our own curiosity,… especially if we’re a seeker of stories and understand the greater meaning of what stories can give us all.
Stephanie Feldman gives her readers a window into a portal of time:
We are stepping through a veil slit into a portal of time made available through an opened window which is the novel inside your hands as your reading The Angel of Losses. Two stories came to mind as I started to read this fantastical journey: The Golem and the Jinni (novel) and The Neverending Story (film) as they are akin to how it feels to step through this world Feldman has provided us to discover. She gave us the same vehicle Bastian had in The Neverending Story, to become one within the story as it unfolded and to live as one with the character as she found where she was going herself. I loved this aspect of the novel because all of reality around me dissolved as I was wholly consumed by the voice of the evoking narrator and the clarity of Feldman’s vision for this unique novel which bent genre and illuminated the world half out of mystic history and half out of the truism of where faith can take anyone if only they were to believe in what is not yet seen.
On the footheels of consuming The Ghost Bride, I felt honoured to have had the chance to read Feldman’s tome of esoteric concentration of mystic Judaism cross-sected with religious ancient truths. The suspension of reality and the generous backstories of where the mytho origins of the story can be traced was a treasurement to fall in front of my eyes. I devourted this novel as readily as if I were astride a thunderbolt – even knowing I was outside my intended deadline (as the moon had long since waned and the midnight hours had tilted into a crescendo) I could not yield to sleep. I had to consume the text as quickly as I could process the words on the pages themselves, as my mind was lit aflame by the creativity and the ingenuity of how the historical arc was interlaced into the present of the character’s lives.
Fly in the Ointment:
I counted the words this time and there were less than a dozen splintered out across the whole of the novel. I wasn’t happy to find them; this is an intellectually stimulating piece of literary fiction and they felt misplaced amongst the rhetoric. I am not even sure why they were included in such a brilliant spec of literary voice. They degraded the quality in my eyes, as not only could this stomach their expulsion it was necessary to keep in tact the gift Feldman had writ.
A small explanation on my tardiness:
I had lost hours whilst being needed at the hospital in visitation of my neighbour (as previously disclosed here & here) as much as I was out of the house on another appointment that could not be detained. I attempted to revive the lost hours and run into my deadline without passing through it — but alas, I am quite human and not as immortal as the character inside this novel. Time can be bent but time cannot be recaptured once lost. I apologise for the delayed response, but my tweeting at least was a small clue at my enjoyment whilst I read. I am attempting to make the rest of my scheduled book reviews & tour stops to be alight earlier in the day / evenings from here on out; barring any further unexpected life emergencies, crises, or unplanned events such as lightning storms.
I positively *love!* comments in the threads below each of my posts, and although I had happily made sure that I could reacquire the WP Comments where you can leave me a comment by using: WP (WordPress), Twitter, Facebook, Google+, & Email a java glitch disrupted my plans to have these activated! Therefore, I had to re-instate CommentLuv, which only requires Email to leave a note for me!
Kindly know that I appreciate each thought you want to share with me and all the posts on my blog are open to new comments & commentary! Short or long, I appreciate the time you spent to leave behind a note of your visit! Return again soon!
Reader Interactive Question:
Have you ever alighted inside of a novel that you unexpectedly were swallowed up inside? Taken root inside the shoes of the character, where their life was full of emotional upheaval and partially an exploration of how to create a life shift that will alleviate their disillusion with where their life was heading; to find a different way of living and carve out their own little peace of happiness? Did you ever read a novel that surprised you?
{SOURCES: Cover art of “The Angel of Losses”, author photograph, book synopsis and the tour badge 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. Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}
Acquired Book By:I crossed paths with the author of “Lemongrass Hope” on Twitter, as she contacted me in regards to receiving an ARC copy of her debut novel which publishes this Autumn. This was in late May and I was hoping to review the book in mid to late June. However, due to different personal reasons I had to extend my post until July. I received a complimentary ARC copy of the book direct from the author Amy Impellizzeri, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
What originally captivated me by Lemongrass Hope was the premise of the story itself – a mirror into a life which would have a unique style of delivery. At least I murmured a hope that this novel would carry with it a unique craft of story and one that not only could be a mirth of joy to read but would encourage me to draw a pensive eye once the story concluded. I love stories which engage my mind as readily as my heart — stories which drive me to think about the dimensions of the story as it slowly tumbles through and out of my memory. To carry with me a bit further than the reading itself and impart a lasting impression of what was conveyed through the pen of the author. I felt such a strong pull to reading Lemongrass Hope; I was over the moon in gratitude for the author to have expressed an interest in giving it to me to read.
I have had a building interest in reading this novel as due to various personal reasons, I have wanted to read a story that has a central theme of ‘hope’ building inside its central heart of narrative. I wanted to read something inspiring and something a bit magical at the same time — a story to take me outside the realm of the everyday and transition into this beautiful place that exists between this world and the next. I love reading Magical Realism stories and watching them on television as I mentioned on my review for The Silent Touch of Shadows for this very reason. I was meant to start reading Lemongrass Hope on Tuesday, the 22nd of July — however a severe allergic reaction cut my plans short! Thankfully, due to homeopathic medicine I was able to come down from the fog of my initial medicine and soak into the story! A day where disappearing from the angst of allergies and reactions therein, this particular story alighted itself into the forefront of my mind and heart. Stories are like that,… they tend to arrive in our lives of a timing that cannot be measured by conventional means but felt by our hearts.
Book Synopsis:
Set in the past, and present, Lemongrass Hope is a captivating and unpredictable love story, with a dose of magical realism and time travel, that fans of authors such as Audrey Niffenegger, Alice Hoffman, and Toni Morrison will appreciate and embrace. Like Liane Moriarty’s The Husband’s Secret, Lemongrass Hope weaves together ordinary lives and events to tell an extraordinary tale of connection, loss, renewal, and of course, hope. As Kate Sutton’s decade-long marriage to Rob erodes and unravels, Kate fears that the secrets she guards from the world, including Rob’s emergency room proposal, and a whirlwind love affair from her past, have always doomed her fate.
When she unwittingly receives a glimpse at what her life could have been like had she made different choices all those years ago, it is indeed all she could have ever wanted. A confirmation of her greatest hope, and her greatest fears.
Lemongrass Hope will draw you in with characters so relatable and real, you will cheer for them one moment and flinch the next. A tale that invites you to suspend disbelief—or perhaps decide to believe once and for all— in the potent power of love and connection over time and choice.
Oh, and the dress. There’s this lemongrass dress . . .
Author Biography:
A reformed corporate litigator with a background of survival and renewal, Amy Impellizzeri has been writing since childhood, but ended a long hiatus from personal writing after a plane crashed in her residential neighborhood in 2001, killing everyone on board and five of her neighbors, as she started on a journey of guilt and healing, detailed in her essay, Unscathed. After 13 years in the cutthroat world of corporate law, including a decade at a top Manhattan law firm, Impellizzeri left to write and advocate for entrepreneurial women, eventually landing at the investor-backed start-up company, Hybrid Her, named by ForbesWoman as a Top Website for Women in 2010 and 2011 (and recently rebranded as ShopFunder, LLC) while working on her first novel, Lemongrass Hope, and her first non-fiction book, Lawyer Interrupted, scheduled to be published by the American Bar Association in 2015.
Her essays and articles have appeared in The Huffington Post, The Glass Hammer, Divine Caroline, and ABA’s Law Practice Today, among more.
Time as a vortex of transportation:
Time is in the background of Lemongrass Hope, as Kate has a propensity for shifting time forward and backwards with the ease of her mind’s ability to draw forth the memories she both wants to forget and hope she’s overcome. Her path is to seek a bit of redemptive hope out of going back over her choices and of recollecting where those choices led her on her lifepath. Time for all its measurements is both elusive and transcending as the chapters drift between your fingers, as you lose yourself in the timescape of where Kate is leading the story to go forward. She tempts you with a rhythm that is of her choosing and a realisation that time cannot always be undone.
My Review of Lemongrass Hope:
Stories alight in our hands at a timing of their own reckoning, and this particular story has a rhythmic tone as individual as the author’s path who penned the tale. Lemongrass Hope has a unique narrative voice which curls inside your mind’s eye as you soak in the grace of the writer’s prose. Etched into the gracefulness of her turns of phrase and of placing us inside Botswana as we enter into the story’s setting, is a subtle nudge towards nibbling into the human condition and the emotional arc of how healing involves an acknowledge of thought, feeling, and evoking ruminations. The stage is set quite nicely for a complex story filled with characters who are already in-progress on a journey – towards an enlightenment driven out of their choice of purpose and the textural landscape of where their path will lead them.
The story starts off in segmented pieces of scenes depicting certain moments within the lives of the characters which is imperative and important to take stock of, yet their meaning and definitions come into meaning lateron. The Prologue presents a thesis of direction, of a willingness to rewind time and of accepting our destiny as a walkway which can be walked and followed, yet given the murmurings of free will is not always a visible line. The first three chapters are time shifts between 1997, 2011, and 2009 — little seedlings of where Kate and Ian were at distinctive snapshots of ‘time’ within the sphere of their living hours. Their innermost thoughts are woven into the fabric of the narrative which gives us an intrapersonal connection to them rather instinctively.
The mind is a curious portal: emotions, memories, the elasticity of hope, and a renewing sense of place & time. Impellizzeri’s unique style of telling this story is not jolting but encouraging, the transitions of the years which might appear to be disjointed are actually a telling sense of reason behind the fury of emotional anguish in Kate. The pattern of the novel is one that I found pleasing because it encourages a new sense of how a story can be set, told, and presented. Kate is in desperate need of a respite from her life, to take a step back from motherhood and marriage; both of which have consumed her with a vacuuming effect of loss of self. The internal struggle for order and any sense of logic to have arrived at a point of place in her marriage where infidelity and an absence of love had shattered the tethering of her spirit. Her mind was a minefield of emotional turmoil plaguing her with ruminative flashbacks and haunting memories of each decisive choice she made to arrive where she was on her path. To be the Mum of Michael and David, wedded to Ian and wistfully hopeful there was a way ‘out’ of where she currently was living to a life that made a heap more sense.
The story is a mind map of the central character’s life; etched out of emotions & the curious speculative heart for a confluence of logical explanation for why her life took the course it had. Benton is the unexpected best friend who inadvertently introduced Kate to Rob and Ian; the two blokes who are central to the distress of Kate’s fevered mind. Rob is the bloke who drifted past Kate’s orb, whilst Ian settled into her heart and therefore stole her passion. Ian enraptured a sense of adventure bolstered by a theory of time travel through a drink native to Botswana; a country where he worked inside as a journalist. Rob had the unfortunate timing of being just a shy step short of entering her life at a moment in which she was ready for falling in love.
I need to sort out how to properly make homemade curry, as this novel and others in its wake have encouraged me to the pursuit! I fear my favourite Indian restaurant closed shoppe without another to take its place. Curry is the meal that speaks to the soul, and the heart is always mindful of the warmth this cosy-comfort food encourages you to savour whilst the naan you consume adds the nosh to become a heightened joy of culinary delight! I admit, I felt a bit envious of Kate & Ian! Their entire relationship was centered around curry and the serendipitous nature of two souls crossing paths within the hours one does not expect to find romance and the mirth of soul-connected relationship.
Ian’s path took him forward into a lively professional traveller position as a writer whereas Kate staid true to her course as a college Professor. She opted for the original bloke she was set-up to date on a blind lark suggestion by Benton. The friend Kate abandons out of the truth her heart is acknowledging about which bloke her soul feels mated and of which bloke she is merely sharing space and time. To dissolve a friendship out of the ashes of a lost love and relationship is not logical but then again, neither is love. Love is a leap of trust as much as faith. You have to jump with a measure of belief that you’re following where your heart leads and the path will ring true for you.
The ending will leave you lost in your thoughts about hope, life, love, and the daring reality of changing your stars on your own accord of how your living truth can set you free. Kate’s story has a pace and rhythm uniquely it’s own; a bit how it would be to tell a stranger in a confluence of conversations your own’s life story. It would come out a bit out of order, a bit out of focus from time of the original events, but the beauty would be in the telling of the story itself. In how the lessons you learnt along the corridor of your life not only strengthened you but graced your life with a bounty of blessings you had not fully seen or understood until the day arrived where the last piece of your tapestry’s puzzle fit together quite perfectly.
Fair warning: You will forsake sleep to finish this novel, as the story attaches to your spirit and the heart of your soul. And, once it it is put down, you will wish for ‘another chapter’, another moment within this world. I had such a personal reaction to this novel, I can only hope the words I’ve left upon concluding it will honour the legacy it will give to the next reader who consumes it’s message. My throat was emotionally choked, tears not yet having left my eyes, and a gratitude I felt as deep as a well for being given the blessing of reading this story,… right here, and ‘now’.
Marriage, Relationships, and the In-Between Moments of Reconciliation:
Impellizzeri has a rather eloquent approach to the craft of story-telling, as she draws you further into her narrative voice with each paragraph you read, as her choices of how a story is told is quite receptively keen on the introspection of her characters; allowing you the full advantage of listening, hearing, and sensing their emotional state of being. She captures the bits and bobbles of a life in the staging bits of transition and the anxiety of finding yourself in a relationship that is either about to dissolve or repair itself through a bridge in communication. She cleverly has Kate referencing the appeal of reading Eat Pray Love in an effort to connect another women’s marital plight to her own. As I read those passages I thought back on two motion pictures of equal merit and value: Must Love Dogs and Under the Tuscan Sun.
As an aside, being a singleton myself I appear to have an kinetic attraction to stories of divorce as more oft than naught, I am nestled inside either a motion picture or a story in fiction that evolves through the catalyst of relationships. I believe this has to do with my attraction and appreciation of a sociological viewing on humanity, as the lens in which these stories reside is an intimate voicing of the human heart and soul. To expand on the fragility of our personal experiences as much as the process of how we think and access what we are going through as we live our lives. I like the internal analysis these particular stories provide as much as the forethought of the writers to temper what we might conventionally surmise; as found inside the passages which eclipse clarity and distinctive individualism as well.
*note to self: must read the other novels in order to offer further insight on my reflections
*note to readers and visitors: ironically or not, I was not aware the films were based on books whilst seeing them
Marriages of convenience hold within them hidden evidences of romance built around indecision and fear of loneliness. The heart tugs the truth into our minds but truth, like faith is not always something we want to swallow nor accept. To be humble enough to recognise the wrong choice before we take the course we’re walking along would be a beautiful experience in foresight but humans are oft blinded and muddled by our emotional hearts and our souls are bled dry from wrestling with our logical whispers of the unknown. We walk boldly onto the path we choose, even if the future proves to lead to a deep felt sea of remorse.
Impellizzeri found a footing for yielding a story through the myriad labyrinth of a woman’s mind, especially in the manner in which Lemongrass Hope spilts out onto the page. Her words encourage a pensive awareness whilst you read her novel and carry yourself along the emotional memories of Kate as a sense of one soul’s journey towards acceptance and understanding.
On the unique writing style of Amy Impellizzeri:
I appreciated Impellizzeri knitting into her story the elements of what a thirty-something would contemplate, especially from a strong point-of-view of both lead characters. Memories of Baby Boom floated to mind, even though the circumstances towards motherhood differed, Kate had found in Rob the same indifference as Diane Keaton had found inside the character Harold Ramis had portrayed. Professional women who never viewed themselves outside the professional track of their trade, yet observant of other women and the choices they made within their own lives all the same. It is curious timing my reading of Lemongrass Hope to the reading of Love’s Promises(although I oft speak of the serendipitous nature of my reading life and how I oft realise that books alight in my hand to read at a timing that is right in the moment for me to greet them): two separate novelists writing about a thematic I have always appreciated seeing explored. (you’ll also denote my appreciation for stories set in ‘motion’ or in ‘written’ mediums are equally favoured; hence my cross-references for motion pictures and books in print tend to blur into each other) Outside the scope of motherhood, yet focused on marriage both of these novels I’ve recently had the pleasure of reading paint a portrait of honestly real women exploring their personal stances on faith, love, children, marriage, and the singleton life they always felt deeply attached too. Working Girl always left a strong impression (and oh so very quotatable!) next to Baby Boom, and lest I forget to mention Three Men & a Baby which opens the door from a completely turn of face point-of-view! And, who did not rally for Steve Martin’s character in A Simple Twist of Fate?!
One author I want to encourage myself to read next is Jane Porter, who writes Contemporary Romances of equal thought-provoking narratives, where the vein of questioning one’s path and deciding on what is one’s true path to follow is as unique as the characters who bring those lifepaths to life. It is such a strong appeal to read about characters experiencing an arc of a life shift and in full choice of where their futures lie if they are willing to wrestle out their emotional heart and allow themselves the ability to lead a truer life forward on a path that will enrich as much as it will stabilise their needs. I recently crossed paths with Mari Passananti and her novel ‘The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken’ spoke to me at ‘hallo’ as well. How lovely then, that August is the ‘Read A Romance Month? (#ReadARomanceMonth – perhaps you saw the badge in my lower sidebar winking at you?) My forthcoming thoughts intertwined into this online bookish event are forthcoming next on Jorie Loves A Story!
On a singular personal level:
full gratitude for this not being a traditional story with a heart-wrecking cancer sideline.
Acquired By: As soon as I saw this particular tour come through my Inbox from Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, I elected to request to be a tour stop on the “To Live Forever” virtual book tour. The premise of the book was awe-inspiring and I could not pass up this opportunity to read a book which shattered conventional genre orientations! I was given two spots on the tour, a book review & an Author Interview of which I was grateful! I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author Andra Wakins in exchange for an honest review.I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
Whilst reading the virtual tour information for “To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis” my initial reaction was thus: I love everything about this particular story, from the historical impact to the paranormal implications! There is suspense but there is also the human desire for legacy! A wicked chance to read a book that I cannot quite put my finger on which genre it belongs in! I love finding genre-benders and this one for sure has all the lovely ingredients of a historical novel interspersed with time slip, paranormal tendencies and psychological suspense! As a reader, who dances through genres and whose blood is stirred by the evoking narratives of inventive writers who dare to give a reader a new dimension of a reading experience — I will always champion the rebels with a cause, such as Ms. Wakins! Who boldly refuses to give up on their stories and forge their own path towards publication!
Book Synopsis:
Is remembrance immortality?
Nobody wants to be forgotten, least of all the famous.
Meriwether Lewis lived a memorable life. He and William Clark were the first white men to reach the Pacific in their failed attempt to discover a Northwest Passage. Much celebrated upon their return, Lewis was appointed governor of the vast Upper Louisiana Territory and began preparing his eagerly-anticipated journals for publication. But his re-entry into society proved as challenging as his journey. Battling financial and psychological demons and faced with mounting pressure from Washington, Lewis set out on a pivotal trip to the nation’s capital in September 1809. His mission: to publish his journals and salvage his political career. He never made it. He died in a roadside inn on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee from one gunshot to the head and another to the abdomen.
Was it suicide or murder? His mysterious death tainted his legacy and his fame quickly faded. Merry’s own memory of his death is fuzzy at best. All he knows is he’s fallen into Nowhere, where his only shot at redemption lies in the fate of rescuing another. An ill-suited “guardian angel,” Merry comes to in the same New Orleans bar after twelve straight failures. Now, with one drink and a two-dollar bill he is sent on his last assignment, his final shot at escape from the purgatory in which he’s been dwelling for almost 200 years. Merry still believes he can reverse his forgotten fortunes.
Nine-year-old Emmaline Cagney is the daughter of French Quarter madam and a Dixieland bass player. When her mother wins custody in a bitter divorce, Emmaline carves out her childhood among the ladies of Bourbon Street. Bounced between innocence and immorality, she struggles to find her safe haven, even while her mother makes her open her dress and serve tea to grown men.
It isn’t until Emmaline finds the strange cards hidden in her mother’s desk that she realizes why these men are visiting: her mother has offered to sell her to the highest bidder. To escape a life of prostitution, she slips away during a police raid on her mother’s bordello, desperate to find her father in Nashville.
Merry’s fateful two-dollar bill leads him to Emmaline as she is being chased by the winner of her mother’s sick card game: The Judge. A dangerous Nowhere Man convinced that Emmaline is the reincarnation of his long dead wife, Judge Wilkinson is determined to possess her, to tease out his wife’s spirit and marry her when she is ready. That Emmaline is now guarded by Meriwether Lewis, his bitter rival in life, further stokes his obsessive rage.
To elude the Judge, Em and Merry navigate the Mississippi River to Natchez. They set off on an adventure along the storied Natchez Trace, where they meet Cajun bird watchers, Elvis-crooning Siamese twins, War of 1812 re-enactors, Spanish wild boar hunters and ancient mound dwellers. Are these people their allies? Or pawns of the perverted, powerful Judge?
After a bloody confrontation with the Judge at Lewis’s grave, Merry and Em limp into Nashville and discover her father at the Parthenon. Just as Merry wrestles with the specter of success in his mission to deliver Em, The Judge intercedes with renewed determination to win Emmaline, waging a final battle for her soul. Merry vanquishes the Judge and earns his redemption. As his spirit fuses with the body of Em’s living father, Merry discovers that immortality lives within the salvation of another, not the remembrance of the multitude.
{: Author Biography :}
Hey. I’m Andra Watkins. I’m a native of Tennessee, but I’m lucky to call Charleston, South Carolina, home for 23 years. I’m the author of ‘To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis’, coming March 1, 2014. It’s a mishmash of historical fiction, paranormal fiction and suspense that follows Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis & Clark fame) after his mysterious death on the Natchez Trace in 1809.
I like:
hiking
eating (A lot; Italian food is my favorite.)
traveling (I never met a destination I didn’t like.)
reading (My favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo.)
coffee (the caffeinated version) and COFFEE (sex)
performing (theater, singing, public speaking, playing piano)
time with my friends
Sirius XM Chill
yoga (No, I can’t stand on my head.)
writing in bed
candlelight
I don’t like:
getting up in the morning
cilantro (It is the devil weed.)
surprises (For me or for anyone else.)
house cleaning
cooking
Meriwether Lewis | Enters stage right just past the grave:
Watkins has a gift for eluding to the story as its foreshadowed to unfold by giving her readers a nib and a tasting of where her characters are going to lead both the writer and the unsuspecting reader who bemuseful of curiosity picks up the book to engage in the mystery. She cleverly allows the three main protagonists to make a causal, unfiltered entrance whilst giving the reader a nibbling of suspense about the purported dimensional expanse in which they live. One of the reasons I was attracted to reading this particular story is the level of interest in the unknown. For as many near-death experiences there are of those who return back to earth as they stepped out of the light to come back to their earthly lives; there are a multitude of examples of what ‘lies beyond the veil’.
The Meriwether who steps into the forefront of this particular story is a nearly-jaded (here I refer to ‘nearly’ as a piece of his spirit half-hinges himself to a hope he no longer feels possible) downtrodden Meriwether who has lost the will to see the point in his existence. After attempting task after task to sort out where he is and how to exit the in-between world he’s tethered too, you gain the sense he is walking the path between madness and fugue.
Unbeknownst to Meriwether, I do believe is his fatherly nature and tendencies towards children. I think he was plumb aghast at how well he fared whilst in the company of Miss Emmaline. A natural bourne role model for young people, giving them something to chew on by appreciating their worth at their age of youth. He treats her with respect and talks to her straight, allowing her to process what she needs to hear. He listens and he’s attentive and that is one of the best bits to seeing Meriwether in this way. Emmaline humbles his weathered and jaded heart.
My Review of To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis:
The opening bits of To Live Forever surely by George tug quite a heap at your heart-strings! Emmaline is a young girl, all of nine years when her mother strategically out favoured her father in the judge’s eyes for sole custody. The very words sole custody etch out a shuddering straight to the core of a little girl’s soul! Dragged away from the one parent who loved her beyond selfish desires and needs, Emmaline is forced to grasp a hold of the whisperments of her father’s memory until the day could arrive where she could change her stars and reunite with him permanently.
Caught up in the darkest of night behaviours, Emmaline is fated of having a mother whose only intentions towards her daughter are to earn her keep out of her. I cringed reading the passages of where only Aunt Bertie could save Emmaline’s life from being snuffed out from love completely! A measure of a man’s humanity is oft laid bare by his actions towards his children. If Emmaline’s mother had to stand trial on grounds of character choices and humanity she would no sooner see the daylight again than a bat caught in the nettles of a sewer tunnel! Young Emmaline is gifted by a singular grace of affecting herself to the light within the days she has never quite been free to live within. Her inner spirit hugs her close to the truths of life and its her raw courage which solidifies her ability to reach out to Meriwether in a darkened alley.
Words ooze out of Wakin’s narrative as sweet as a honeycomb to a tending worker bee. She has a way of conveying imagery, both hauntingly dangerous and tragically poignant with the flick of her pen and a dribble of her ink. All of which fuses into a new tangible version of Southern Gothic intermixed with historical fiction purveying the notion that our past is entwined to our present as much as our future. Time is temporal and To Live Forever is a living thesis towards that end. The novel breathes and extends its own narrator around the interjections of the characters on its flattened stage.
Emmaline and Meriwether’s sojourn trek into the wilds of the Natchez Trace held me reflective of their plight. Not merely to reach Nashville, in order to seek out Emmaline’s father but of the greater disadvantages against them. Of Meriwether never truly seeing himself for the man he was but rather the disillusioned sigh of a lost legacy. Emmaline was still young enough to grow and find in maturity a strong path towards individual freedom. Each of them were tied to a future bent against them by situations out of their control. Striving to forge a better path to walk, they found reassurance in each other knowing that any journey worth taking is sometimes lessened in adversity when shared.
The natural world is the backdrop of To Live Forever, fraught with an indecisive urge to complicate their expedition by presenting new challenges neither of them had yet experienced. For Meriwether he’s being given the chance at redemption, and towards living a half-life of what his life could have been had he lived past his time of death. In Emmaline, I see an urchin of an innocent girl stalwart and strong in her internal hope to carry her through the aching tides of her adolescence. Her courage runs deeper than her confidence due to a few kind souls who crossed her path for the good.
The story is interwoven as a refractive mirror of the Natchez Trace itself. The harder you believe any blight of adversity is in your life to conquer and overcome, the more your spirit will start to believe your too fragile to try anything. The Trace is a test of wills as much as it’s a test of inner fortitude to re-strengthen our shield against unwanted storms and periods of stress which arise out of nowhere. Life can ebb and flow, bobbing us along until we’re ready to see what our eyes blinded us towards revealing. All of our passageways lead us further towards where our feet are meant to land, but what if we hold ourselves back from the greatest revelations of all? Simply because we’re not willing to alight where we’re lead to go? The Trace is unique in that it withholds its past like a tightly woven tapestry. Each piece of its innate soul is stitched inside the weathered path where feet and souls mingled into the mist. There lessons linger and their spirits shudder to grieve.
There is an ever-knowing pool of truth and hope awaiting us around each bend and turn. The people we feel we are ‘randomly’ encountering are the kind of teachers and advisers we might never expect would be important to our growth. Listen with compassion. Be kind to strangers who might one day become a cherished friend. Grow through friendship and rise each day realising the beauty of the hour. Our lives are leading us through the light and back inside it.
On Illustrations | Reflective fragments of text:
A delight for someone who appreciates illustration, art, and design as much as I do will appreciate the cover-art splashing out an array of the internal illustrations peppered throughout the novel itself! They arrive rather unexpectedly as you travel through the chapters. A bit of a sketch here, and an elusive sketch over here, attempting to give you another fragmented piece of the whole. I like the old-school approach to the sketches themselves and if I had thought to ask ahead of time, I would have asked Ms. Wakins about their origins whilst I was still composing my Interview which posts on Thursday! The vivid detail in carbon textured visuals is a treat for me, as I always felt one place most novels lose a bit of creative edge is from withholding illustrators from illuminating their novels with art.
There is a geometric shift in book production where stock imagery has morphed away the originality of most cover designs to where its hard to distinguish at times who was the forerunner and who took up the lead from the one who followed next. I miss the uniqueness of book cover art as only a few Indie publishers still strive towards giving us a peek of a view of the internal world inside the stories whilst gracing their covers with conversational stirring projections! I am blessed to host blog tours with the few I am referencing in this paragraph!
Not all book covers yield to this opinion, but you have to admit, how oft do you wander around a bookshoppe and feel as though you’re staring into the sameness of what was already released!? As though if you were to stack a heap of books end to end with each other, they would look like twins rather than fraternal cousins four times removed!? The differences in design and the elements in which covers resonate with us boil down to typography, colour, elemental ornamentation, and a cheeky clever way of cluing the audience in on a ‘slice’ of what they will find revealed by the ending chapters fall close. And, this dear hearts is where Ms. Wakins outshines the lot!
I loved the clever surprise in who “Mister Jack’ was in reality! This nature-loving girl felt all giddy inside when she connected the dots, which nearly occurred half a step ahead of Emmaline!
A note of gratitude on behalf of the author, Ms. Wakins:
I classified this novel several different ways to Sunday under “topics, genres, and subjects” because it fits quite easily into quite a few distinctive areas of literature! For me, its occupying the ethereal space between psychological suspense intermingled with Southern Gothic, with a pinch of Horror-lite (I blame the Judge!)! Horror-lite for me implies that there are bits and bobbles of ‘horror’ thrown in for good measure but not overtly so as to be disturbing or distracting. Once your reading a novel by Ms. Wakins your lulling in the water of the Mississippi, fully aware of where you are but caught up in her stream of lucid dream-state story-telling where you barely notice the darker points around the fringes of the story because your caught up in the adventure of the central plot surrounding Meriwether Lewis!
I earmarked ‘vulgarity in literature’ as a way to reference the lovely gift Wakins wrote into her début novel; with one singular foul-mouthed character she championed every inch of what I have been lamenting about myself for quite a while now on Jorie Loves A Story! That there are far better ways to express yourself and that sometimes, even though you walk a line in life yourself, you cannot always help but encounter a few people who might push your buttons towards one extreme or the other. It’s how you find the balance and how you learn to embrace the ruts in the road which will define your characters in the long run.
Virtual Road Map for “To Live Forever Tour”
Be sure to scope out upcoming tours I will be hosting with:
Natchez Trace Map of the walking route Andra Walkins undertook to promote her début novel “To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis”. Map supplied by the author for the virtual blog tour.
The Natchez Trace is a 10,000-year-old road that runs from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Thousands of years ago, animals used its natural ridge line as a migratory route from points in the Ohio River Valley to the salt licks in Mississippi. It was logical for the first Native Americans to settle along the Trace to follow part of their migrating food supply. When the Kaintucks settled west of the Appalachians, they had to sell their goods at ports in New Orleans or Natchez, but before steam power, they had to walk home. The Trace became one of the busiest roads in North America.
An extra special surprise for readers:
Whilst Ms. Wakins undertook the grueling 444 miles walk along the Natchez Trail, she brought a free-spirited funny-bone tickling sense of humour with her as a constant companion on the road! As evidenced through her cheekily humourous responses to “reader submitted author questions” whilst she walked! Filmed wherever she happened to be on the Trace, I implore you to sit back, pull up a comfy chair and a cuppa of your favourite brew! I’d personally go with hot cocoa or fresh brewed hot chai,…
[ To Live Forever | Natchez Trace 444 Mile Walk Start ] by Andra Wakins
Start with her video diary Question 1 & watch straight-through!
After you listen to several, come back & add your reflections in the comment threads!
To Live Forever is a humbling tale of adventure and the juxtaposition of immortality, death, and life as it evolves throughout our days on earth and what fore-falls us in the next. Atmospherically enriched by characters happily brought forward to meet as you journey with Emmaline and Meriwether. Do you feel you can relate to some of the life lessons and cardinal truths I hinted about in my review!? Have you noticed similar intuitive resonations in your own life which have led to either a renewal of hope or a resolution of an obstacle once on your path?! How did you react when you learnt the author walked the 444 mile Natchez Trace route!? Did you feel as I did that she not only undertook a trail to promote her book, but she re-traced a part of Meriwether Lewis’s life to where the past had a deep impact on the future? A cross-roads of one life intersecting with another? What do you like the best about reading stories like To Live Forever where the writer focuses you to think about ethereal dimensions just outside of our view!?
{SOURCES: Cover art of “To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis”, book synopsis, author photograph of Andra Wakins, author biography, the Natchez Trace map & Natchez Trace Walk Infomation and the tour host badge were all provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and used with permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. The video by Andra Watkins had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post, and I thank them for the opportunity to share more about this novel and the author who penned it.}
Acquired Book By: Book Browse First Impressions Programme: I received a complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review on Book Browse from the publisher Plume. The Spirit Keeper was amongst the offerings for August 2013, as this book will be published 24th of September 2013. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared therein or herein.
Initially I Wanted to Read: I wanted to partake in her journey untoward becoming one man’s living vision of ‘a creature of fire and ice’ and to see if they could fulfill each other’s destinies therein. It is such a curious proposition, to be taken by force from one’s own family, and re-positioned into a life, by which, you’re in complete unfamiliar territory, amongst people who speak a different tongue than your own, and by your own wits, have to determine how to survive. I was curious by how she was going to effectively change her life and heart; and to what end she must do so! This felt to me like a piece of Magical Realism wrapped up inside a Historical Fiction, rooted into the conscience of the American Frontier! I was besotted with the plot, and needed to read it to ascertain what the story truly was about! The Spirit Keeper spoke to me, as a book I needed to read rather than merely a book I wanted to read! I listen to my intuition in other words!
Inspired to Share: The book trailer for The Spirit Keeper, keeps the atmospheric liltings of the novel fully intact! The fiery crimson hair and pure, glistening blue eyes of Katie O’ Toole are visually represented as well!
A brutal and savage world envelopes you as you dip into this narrative: Within the opening sequences, I was at first, rather taken aback by the imagery that was greeting me, and on reflection of the story’s arc, I shook off my fright, and realised, how else could it have been writ!? I warmed a bit to the ensuing exchanges, and limited my scope of the worst bits that would befall Katie’s family, as I am not one who endeavours to be explicitly aware of such horrific events! I was much more keen to arrive at the heart of the story, by which, I had first been curious to read! The bit about how an ordinary girl suddenly finds herself in the middle of an extraordinary journey! I will lament, that if you’re a reader who begs off for lighter faire, you might want to caution yourself, as within Chapter One, the author does not hold back on the grim realities of what it was like in the 1700s when an Indian War Party descended upon a settler’s family.
Flickerments of “Medicine Man” (the motion picture) streamed through my mind, as did “Dances with Wolves” (the motion picture), as in each story, those who only spoke English, learnt to adapt and to live amongst the natives by which they found themselves belonging too better than their own kind. I am drawn into stories that attach us to whole new cultures, traditions, religions, and walks of life. Stories that etch into our imaginations a wholly new world, where there are similarities, but otherwise, as we dip into their narratives, we find ourselves in a foreign land, attempting to understand what we cannot yet conceive possible.
Whilst in the opening chapters of her journey, with her new traveling companions, they reached a village of Native Americans, by which, upheld the custom of women’s huts. I had first learnt of this tradition awhile ago, but the memory of where and how is lost to me! More readily to depart is that the same sequence of knowledge was included in my reading of The Forest Lover, which was a selection of mine for Bout of Books, 8.0! I am still in-progress with that particular book, but what I found fascinating is the depictions of this ritual that both authors gave to their readers! I will be attaching an article about these huts, as I find it rather curious how intimate and safe they truly were for women! They achieved a heightened sense of freedom in asking questions and conversing on topics that might not otherwise have been considered kosher in their everyday lives!
An incredible journey of self-preservation, fortitude of spirit, and overwhelming grief: I was not quite prepared for the journey that Katie, Syawa, and Hector embark upon! It wasn’t so much the long distances that they must traverse through rough hewn terrain, but rather, they are each going through a personal, intimate, internal journey concurrent to their outward journey towards the men’s originating homeland! Each is carrying secrets of their own experiences, and in Katie’s instance, her life is muddled and blighted with far more devastation than anyone could ill-afford possible to a seventeen year old young lady! Her lot in life has been tempered by abuse and misguided notions of love, unto where she has encouraged a naïve sense of the living world, and has grown an ignorance of how right a life can be lived! I grieved for her and bleed emotions with her recollections of past memories,.. memories that were nearly too hard to bare and to ruminatively lay pause upon. It is through Syawa’s gentleness and effective way of easing her out of her shell, that she truly started to see who she was and who she could be. I only wish I could pronounce Syawa’s name, as I feel as guilty she does in her own story, about the misunderstandings that evolve out of not understanding language and meaning of words, phrases, or names outside our own native tongues! Read More
Wishful Thinking
The Angel of Losses
City and her estranged sister Holly, whom she must save from the consequences of Eli’s past.
A reformed corporate litigator with a background of survival and renewal, Amy Impellizzeri has been writing since childhood, but ended a long hiatus from personal writing after a plane crashed in her residential neighborhood in 2001, killing everyone on board and five of her neighbors, as she started on a journey of guilt and healing, detailed in her essay, Unscathed. After 13 years in the cutthroat world of corporate law, including a decade at a top Manhattan law firm, Impellizzeri left to write and advocate for entrepreneurial women, eventually landing at the investor-backed start-up company, Hybrid Her, named by ForbesWoman as a Top Website for Women in 2010 and 2011 (and recently rebranded as ShopFunder, LLC) while working on her first novel, Lemongrass Hope, and her first non-fiction book, Lawyer Interrupted, scheduled to be published by the American Bar Association in 2015.
Acquired Book By: Book Browse First Impressions Programme: I received a complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review on Book Browse from the publisher Plume. The Spirit Keeper was amongst the offerings for August 2013, as this book will be published 24th of September 2013. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared therein or herein.