“In a single week in the summer of 1973, a quiet suburban neighborhood implodes when generations of mystical deceit become too much to bear. Drawn to the web of secrets and lies, the other worldly slivers refuse to be ignored, pushing one family to the brink.” –From https://eckhartzpress.com/shop/slivers/
Another good read from a fellow blogger! I’m so impressed with the talent in my small WP circle. “Slivers” is the second book written by Vicki Atkinson and her first fiction novel. I loved her first book “Surviving Sue” which documents her life as a survivor with her mother who was an alcoholic, had Alzheimers, anxiety, depression and Munchausen’s. Vicki not only survived, she championed her disabled sister while becoming a licensed professional counselor with a doctorate in Adult Education and degrees in Psychology.
I’ve been reading reviews and snippets of “Slivers” on Vicki’s blog VictoriaPonders and I couldn’t wait to get my copy.
The supernatural elements of “Slivers” are based on Scottish lore of creatures with a hive mind. I knew the book was going to be spooky but it surprised me with twists and turns. The characterrs were well developed and Vicki did an amazing job with the kids. They seemed real with distinct personalities and voices.
I’m not going into more detail, but encourage you to read it.
This is the third book by bloggers that I’ve read in a few weeks. I wrote reviews of Eve Marie’s “Quest for Absence” and P.J. Gudka’s “Perfect” HERE. Eve’s blog is Cupcakecacheblog and Pooja’s is Lifesfinewhine.
I highly recommend all three books. They are better than anything I’ve read lately!
I got another visit from my javelina friends. I was taking out recycling when I smelled something nasty and skunky. Then I looked outside the fence and there they were! Yes, they smell. They also seem to use their sense of smell to figure out where I was and don’t seem to see that well. Their snouts are very active!
Now back to my topic: The New Year is a Gift
With January slowly slipping away, I’m making a conscious effort to make the most of it. Each new year does feel like a gift. There’s a chance to be better, make changes to be healthier and focus on new goals.
How am I doing that? First, by re-reading Julia Cameron’s book “Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance.”
From Amazon’s description:
The third book in Julia Cameron’s groundbreaking trilogy on creative self-renewal, now for the first time in paperback. In this inspiring twelve-week program, the third in Julia Cameron’s beloved body of work on the creative process, Cameron offers guidance on weathering the periods in an artist’s life when inspiration has run dry. This book provides wisdom and tools for tackling some of the greatest challenges that artists face.
The second thing I did this weekend was renew my membership to SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators) and downloaded “The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children.”
The guide covers all aspects of the publishing process, including finding an agent, writing a query letter, writing a book proposal, understanding contracts, and more.
I also watched a video of marketing trends in children’s literature which was on SCBWI’s resource page. I have several children’s manuscripts that I’d love to get published. I’m going to give it another try!
One of them is a story about growing up with my mom with her quirky and eccentric ways. I wrote it at least 20 years ago and got an offer from a small publisher. At the time, I was on contract with the Los Angeles Times Kids’ Reading Room to write children’s stories and was published in children’s magazines like Ladybug. I thought the publisher’s contract was too small! Of course, I never got another offer and quickly learned getting published is not that easy.
The other manuscript won first place in a Writer’s Digest competition as well as my local SCBWI chapter. It was also picked up by the most adorable website in the UK called S’mories where young British kids were recorded reading stories. The website was taken down for some unknown reason. Perhaps the parents no longer wanted their children broadcast in public all around the world.
I’m going to start with those two projects and will work on new projects, too.
Here are two in a series of four books by author Charles Martin. The series (so far) includes “The Water Keeper”– which I gave to a friend — “The Letter Keeper” and “The Record Keeper,” which I’ve read and still own. The fourth, “The Keeper,” I’m waiting for it to come out in paperback.
One of my blogging friends suggested these books to me. I wish I remembered who. (If it was you, thanks! Please let me know in the comments.) Because the subject matter is rescuing and helping sex-trafficked children recover, my blogger friend knew that I donate time to a sex-trafficking residential recovery center. If you missed reading about my visit last week to the Phoenix Dream Center — Where Hope Lives, and the ribbon cutting for our Mother’s Kitchen — you can read it HERE.
In the “Murphy Shepherd” series, also known as the “Keeper” books, the protagonist hero has helped develop and support an entire town in the Colorado Rockies dedicated to sex-trafficked victims recovery. Not only that, but he makes the dangerous rescues. There’s also more to his story and what he does, but in the reverse of a spoiler alert, I’m not saying another word.
Here’s a snipped of a review of “The Water Keeper” from Charles Martin’s website, written by one of his son:
I can’t explain to you enough the rollercoaster of emotions I faced while reading this… I laughed. At times I didn’t breathe. Other times I read really fast in anticipation and suspense- and then re-read to make sure I didn’t miss anything important. At times I fist pumped in celebration. I even shouted a couple times in celebration and relief. But then yes, I also shed a tear or two. Then I cussed. Then I cussed at my dad. Then I cussed out my dad because he did the whole “rip-your-heart-in-half-thing” that we all love/hate him for. Then I repented of those because the next scene was usually one where he pulled the whole “blind-side-rug-out-from-under-you” move and I was fist pumping in celebration again.
Here’s a snippet from the description from Amazon:
With Charles Martin’s trademark lyricism and poignant prose, The Water Keeper is at once a tender love story, a heartrending search for freedom, an exploration of the terrible cost of human trafficking, and an anthem to the power of love to create change when it shows up regardless of the cost.
If you’re looking for a fast-paced, well written series of novels with characters you can’t get out of your head, I highly recommend Martin’s Murphy Shepherd series. He’s also written a number of other books. I’ve read a couple including “When Crickets Cry,” which I recommend. Martin writes beautifully and does his research.
If you’ve read Charles Martin’s books, which one did you like best?
What books are you reading now and what can you recommend?
I’m on a roll of reading good books! Don’t you love that when it happens?
A few weeks ago I finished “Demon Copperhead” and I asked for book ideas HERE.
I got a good list, plus got more ideas from my friends who share books during our monthly lunch. Also, my dear friend from Santa Barbara calls me whenever she finishes a book she loves.
So why did I like “Daughter’s of Shandong?” I am a fan of books about China and the dramatic changes when Mao took over. It’s both frightening and fascinating how evil people can be to each other. “Red Scarf Girl” is one such book which is a YA autobiography by Ji-li Jiang. It’s about her life during the Cultural Revolution as a child. It’s another book I recommend as well as books by Lisa See.
It’s hard to fathom in our comfortable, easy lives how the characters in “Daughters of Shandong” survived so much hardship. Here’s the text from Amazon:
In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed.
Without an Ang male to punish, the land-seizing cadres choose Hai, as the eldest child, to stand trial for her family’s crimes. She barely survives their brutality. Realizing the worst is yet to come, the women plan their escape. Starving and penniless but resourceful, they forge travel permits and embark on a thousand-mile journey to confront the family that abandoned them.
From the countryside to the bustling city of Qingdao, and onward to British Hong Kong and eventually Taiwan, they witness the changing tide of a nation and the plight of multitudes caught in the wake of revolution. But with the loss of their home and the life they’ve known also comes new freedom—to take hold of their fate, to shake free of the bonds of their gender, and to claim their own story.
Told in assured, evocative prose, with impeccably drawn characters, Daughters of Shandong is a hopeful, powerful story about the resilience of women in war; the enduring love between mothers, daughters, and sisters; and the sacrifices made to lift up future generations.
At the end of the book is an author’s note that really touched me. It added so much depth to the entire novel. This is a debut novel and the author is so talented. Here’s bit about the author from Amazon:
About the author
Eve J. Chung is a Taiwanese American lawyer and women’s human rights specialist. She has worked on a range of issues, including torture, sexual violence, contemporary forms of slavery, and discriminatory legislation. Her writing is inspired by social justice movements, and the continued struggle for equality and fundamental freedoms worldwide. She currently lives in New York with her husband, two children, and two dogs.
Have you read “Daughter of Shandong? If so what was your opinion of it?
Books I’ve read or am reading during my spree with Lisa See.
I’m struggling to finish “Peony in Love.” I zipped through the other books pictured above as well as “Dreams of Joy,” “Shanghai Girls” and “Flower Net.” I wonder if my problem with “Peony” is due to the power of suggestion. One of my close friends listens to audio books while she works. She sews for interior designers and creates duvets, curtains, throw pillows, sailboat sail covers and furniture slipcovers.
She gets through quite a lot of books during her working hours. She recommended “China Dolls” and “The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane.” But she did add she couldn’t get into “Peony in Love.”
Is that little nugget of info tucked away in my brain? Or is it the story I don’t like? (It’s about a girl who is lovesick and quits eating until she dies. Then she hovers around her family trying to figure out how to come back to life.)
I read an article in the Wall Street Journal by Jason Gay this week called:
Is Watching a Movie the New Reading a Book?
In a zero attention span world, spending two hours locked in on a film feels like a trip to the spa
Here’s an excerpt:
My chest puffed with pride. I watched a whole movie, in one night, all by myself. No interruptions, no pauses, no iPhone diversions, no flipping channels, not even 30 minutes of falling asleep on the couch, drooling into a pillow and dreaming that I was an astronaut pizza maker who played point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It was a revelation. You know what watching a movie felt like to my easily-distracted hamster brain? It felt like an accomplishment. It felt smart. It felt like a spa day for my skull. It felt like…finishing a book.
I agree with the WSJ writer that our attention spans have shortened. I can find myself flipping through texts, X messages and assorted other distractions online. It’s much easier than reading an entire book – or sitting through an entire movie. I prefer reading to watching TV, though. I also like listening to podcasts.
Have you read “Peony in Love?” Did you like it?
Do you think your attention span has changed through the past years?
Do you like to watch entire movies or do find yourself distracted like me?
I have never copied and posted something from Facebook on my blog before. But this popped up on a childhood friend’s page and I played. I enjoyed it and as readers and writers, I believe you might find it interesting, too.
In fact, I rarely even look at Facebook anymore. I don’t know why I did the other day, but I did. So here you go.
One of my favorite series.
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. Want to play?
1 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible –
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulkes
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife-Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tart
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante (Have it downloaded)
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell-
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Eupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Gaudy Night – Dorothy Sayersshared from Book Snoop Auctions
This list gave me ideas of what I’ve wanted to read but haven’t — yet. I scored 44. What is your score?
UPDATE: My son informed me the list is “BBC’s Top 100 Books You Need to Read Before You Die.” If you click on the link HERE you can check off the books and see where you stand compared to other readers.
I finished reading “The Edge” yesterday. The book brought back memories of growing up in my rural Pacific Northwest hometown. It’s a book written by “Clark Douglas” who in real life is one of my childhood best friend’s little brothers. Dougie, as we called him when we were big junior high girls, followed us around whenever I hung out at their home. I’m not sure how much younger he was, but he was a little kid and I enjoyed his company because of his personality and brain power.
I have tons of memories at their home. My brother’s good friend was Christy’s oldest sibling Larry. Christy’s sister Cathy was in my brother’s class. They had about 10 acres with a tennis court, cows, a barn with a loft and bales of hay — and a lake with a tiny island that Christy and I attempted to camp out on one summer. Christy’s room had a steep roof and gable. We could climb out the window and sit on the rooftop. Their mom left us alone and my only memories of their dad was pushing a lawn mower. Often we’d be the ones tagging along our big brothers on the golf course. Christy and I were the only girls on the boy’s golf team.
Although “The Edge” takes place in Montana, it could easily be our hometown with the high school football games being the star attraction in town and the athletes our local heroes. Douglas creates quirky characters that are entertaining and reminded me of my neighbors in Snohomish, where everyone knew everyone’s business. The story follows the life of Will Powers, the younger brother of local football heroes, through his early childhood being provoked by his siblings through his college years, marriage in California, to his return to his hometown. I admire how Doug created such depth of characters and intertwined their lives in unexpected ways.
The beautiful cover is painted by the author’s talented oldest sister Cathy and captures the PNW beautifully. Christy was editor and proofreader. With my history with this family, of course I whole heartedly recommend the book, but it was a good read, too.
Prior to the turn of the century, life in western Montana provided all the elements of harmony and simplicity. William Powers had that life, and struggles to get back to it. William never accepts defeat, though. Battling through life’s hurdles, he ultimately must return to the person he once was in order to attain it. Pete Campbell, however, has to make a decision–do what is right, or do what the law says. As a deputy sheriff in a rural community, this may be up to his interpretation. Armed with knowledge of the people and the history of his community, Pete may choose to answer to a different standard. Pete tells us the whole story behind Will’s life. Though Will appears to be just an average person, nothing normal could be said about him. Fueled by love, anger, justice, and determination beyond measure, Will searches for his peace. Will’s story carries the reader back to a time and place that by today’s standard can only be imagined and desired. A delightful mix of comedy, conflict, romance, drama, and suspense are all rolled up into one tale. This easy read will captivate the mind, building story upon story until it all surfaces at The Edge.
