Literally Waltham

Welcome back to the "Literally Waltham" series, which involves a focus on local bookish activities. If you have literary events which are being offered locally, you can share them by e-mailing me through my website. Literally!

During Pride month, I focused my attention on books by LGBTQ authors or with LGBTQ characters and themes. I was also honoured to be a Parade Marshall in the Boston Pride Parade, meeting readers, and marching with other independent writers.

I read and reviewed a large number of books this month, which you can read on my book review pages. I will share with you here some of the more notable, as well as two books I previously reviewed but which would be appropriate in this series. Next week, I will feature a summer reading list, and events in July for adults and teens.

Happy reading!

“A Map of the World” by Zev Good

book review by Jessica Lucci

These short stories bound together create a journey through America, visiting rural towns and buzzing cities; touching on memorials and eras; and meeting characters whom are already known. Each story is uniquely driven, with fast-paced plots and simmering emotions that boil over into the love, pain, longing, and hope which is discovered to be universal.

As I read each story, I alternately found myself holding my breath, forcing myself to pause, and then placing my hand over the upcoming text so I would not be tempted to peek ahead. Reading this as a volume was like taking a road trip with a close friend, and meeting kindred spirits along the way.

If this was a road trip, following the trail outlined in the pages of this book, and my close friend took turns driving so I could read, this is what my travel journal would look like:

Travel Date: 6-14-18
Mode of Travel: “The Sweet By-and-By”
Origin: 8:20 AM, middle school, outside Knoxville, TN
Destination: Kingston, TN
Points of Interest:
A sister, a brother, a mother, a grocery store, a neighbor, a school, a church, a tragedy.
Where does this evil come from? What do we do with the pain from senseless murders? Is there a reconciliation between our judgment of others and our expectations of ourselves? Who do we comfort, and how, and why do we feel the need to be comforted when the grief is not our own?

Travel Date: 6-17-18
Mode of Travel: “Had”
Origin: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Destination: Provincetown, MA
Points of Interest:
Tulane University, Emory University, Herring Cove.
Reading on my phone, dabbing at my eyes, while everyone else in the room assumed I had an emotional attachment to the widescreen viewing of “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Unrequited love, acceptance of loss, the helplessness of watching someone you love self-destruct.


Travel Date: 6-18-18
Mode of Travel: “In Mysterious Ways”
Origin: Westin Hotel, Atlanta, GA
Destination: Texas
Points of Interest:
Mexico, bus, train.
I am on the third story in “A Map of the World,” and am in love. I have not felt this immersed in short stories for a long time. The characters and the experiences they share are from diverse backgrounds, yet portray universal emotions. Gorgeous!
This story is beautiful in its allegorical telling of how fates and families mix and collide, like superheroes falling to pavement.

Travel Date: 6-19-18
Mode of Travel: “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair”
Origin: Grady Hospital, Atlanta, GA
Destination: Virginia-Highland, GA
Points of Interest:
True love, good people, hospital, passive-aggressive mother, Midtown, Camp Barney, Toco Hills, Decatur.
Taking care of a loved one after a severe injury and brain trauma; knowing things will never be the same and wondering if you’d want the same anyway; guilty over your judgment of people who you once looked down upon, who are the only people helping you now. Discovering the intimacy, wanted or not, that comes from being a caregiver to a once strong person.

Travel Date: 6-20-18
Mode of Travel: “A Map of the World”
Origin: Eastern Tennessee
Destination: Harriman, Tennessee
Points of Interest:
Europe, Las Vegas, elementary school, junkyard, Winrock, Appalachia, trailer, Florida.
“He took forever and it occurred to me as he agonized over his choices – a literal world of them – that he was having such difficulty because it had never crossed his mind that he could, if he chose, go anywhere in the world.”
Each story in “A Map of the World” is pulling at my heart. The title story just broke it.

Travel Date: 6-21-18
Mode of Travel: “Decoration Day”
Origin: Vietnam
Destination: Birmingham, Alabama
Points of Interest:
Witch’s house, cemetery, dirt road.
Youth and grief are strangers, and death is viewed as a mystery. Ghosts? Spirits? If they exist, should we wish to see them? Or is it better not to revisit our pain, and let our loved ones rest in peace? Letting go is a need shared by survivors, even those from different cultures.


Travel Date: 6-22-18
Mode of Travel: “Somebody’s Always Saying Goodbye”
Origin: Sonoma, CA
Destination: Alpharetta, GA
Points of Interest: Charleston, SC; Sydney, Australia; Auschwitz.
Live like you’re dying, and die like you’re living. That’s all I can say without bawling right now.


Travel Notes:

Really, really, just really… for a self-proclaimed writer, I am stunningly out of words. Except DAMN YOU Zev Good, for creating stories of such perfection that I am holding my breath to contain the cry invoked by your book! I just… can’t.

I’m not a gay man and I’m not Jewish. You don’t have to be to relate to the characters sharing these common traits.

‪Most of the books I have been reading lately have been fluffy romances, which is not meant as a disparagement; fluff is necessary to be well-read. But this book is one of those rare volumes which have touched my heart and will continue to feed my thoughts on the world.

Surrender Your Heart by Raven J. Spencer

Book review by Jessica Lucci

This is a modern fairytale like Beauty and the Beast, except that the beast is also beautiful. Penny is a hardworking student who catches the eye of Carter, a glamourous and extravagantly rich businesswoman. Penny falls asleep and wakes up in a lavish setting: Carter has kidnapped her! Although the modern-day Belle is captivated by the huge private library and enchanted by the wardrobe of lovely clothes, she is by no means taking her kidnapping lightly. She becomes torn between the physical attraction she feels for her captor, and her sense of self that demands she be set free, no matter that her prison is a paradise.

The two women grow together in a loving relationship, and Penny starts to realize there is more to her kidnapping than meets the eye. Scandal, business gone bad, espionage, and traitors are in their midst. Penny believes she will gain her freedom, but wants to make sure she can be free with her newfound love.

This is more than lesfic. It is adventure, a journey into self, and romantic escapism rolled up in a fast paced plotline that twists and turns when least expected. The sex scenes are written with pounding anticipation, and manage to create hot intimate moments devoid of crassness.

My favourite line is Carter’s response to a work colleague accusing her of having a “lesbian feminist agenda.” She tells him, “What rumors? That I’m a lesbian and a feminist? You’ve got to come up with something better than that. Those are not rumors.”

Excellent job, Raven J. Spencer! I cannot wait to read more by this author.

Book Review by Jessica Lucci
This is How it Begins by Joan Dempsey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
March 15, 2017

Ludka is a little old lady in a cozy, charming, yuppie New England town. She doesn’t think of herself as anything but a “foolish old woman,” yet as circumstances shift, truth erupts, and attacks bombard her small family, she must accept who she actually is. She is her past and present, no matter how hard she has tried to ignore her painful early life. When violence is on her doorstep and the lives of her loved ones and herself are threatened, the strong-willed survivor deep in her heart is reborn, and we all learn how it begins.

“This is How it Begins” starts off with relatable characters in settings which feel normal. It is this average setting which makes the book so powerful. Through fiction, Joan Dempsey has demonstrated how easily and quickly power can overcome communities, and how far we as a society still have to go to create a safe environment for equality to finally flourish.

This book is essentially the story of one woman, but also the story of her world that made her who and how she is. The novel was a pleasure to read, and the plot twists jolted me out of my reading trances so that I had to pause and let my brain catch up! It was too good to read all at once, so I forced myself to savour each chapter, although I could easily have binged on the delicacy of the entire book in one day.

Parallels between Nazi-era Poland and modern American society were not ambiguous, and as I read more, I became drawn to parts of history that I see recurring in the headlines today. The shock and horror of the past is ludicrously more harrowing when it is repeated, right in front of us. Dempsey has used fiction to speak warning truths, in a literally artistic way.

I appreciated the imaginary community that Dempsey built because it is so real. I have caught myself “seeing” Ludka around town. As true-to-life as Dempsey’s characters are, so are their messages. When Ludka was diagnosed with PTSD, I inwardly rejoiced that the controversially analyzed mental illness was addressed in such a forthright manner. The grounding techniques recommended by the therapist were on target and made me proud of the author for integrating the mind-saving methods in an inconspicuous way. Throughout the book, the same attention to facts, group dynamics, and behind-the-scenes legalities were adroitly accorded.

This is not a women’s book, or a gay book, or an anti-establishment book. It is a book of how real lives intersect in surprising trajectories, and how in this way, we are each responsible for ourselves, and the life styles we wish to create. Joan Dempsey has accomplished creating a realistic world that delivers a pounding message in a timeless story. This is the best book I have read this year, and it has topped my reading expectations. I am encouraging EVERYONE to read this. Dempsey’s first novel is a masterpiece. I want more!

“An Unstill Life” by Kate Larkindale

I cannot rate this book highly enough. Completely different from other tales in the YA genre, "An Unstill Life" is dynamically engrossing with real, uncondescending narrative and characters which possess multi-dimensional qualities. Readers are invited into Livvie's life as she evolves from a fifteen year old high schooler navigating common pitfalls of the age, to a confident young woman who creates positive change in her life and in her surrounding culture.

We meet Livvie at the end of the summer in a tattoo parlor with her two best friends. The mirth shared over their adolescent escapade is short lived as school begins. The three friends discover breaks in their relationships, leading Livvie to consider what true friendship means to her.

Throughout Livvie's turmoils with her friends and her derision with the opposite sex, she struggles with additional pain and heartache in her home life. Her unstable mother becomes more dismissive of her as her beloved older sister battles cancer. Guilt over being unable to aid her dying sister amid a lifetime of being made to feel "less-than" makes Livvie feel more isolated and disconnected from the people she cares about most.

She embarks on an unlikely friendship with the school outcast, who accepts Livvie for everything she is. As the story nears to a close, Livvie must find and borrow courage as she examines what true love is. When the worst of the world comes crashing down upon her, Livvie valiantly steps through her grief and agonizing decisions to become a catalyst of culture change in her community.

The honesty in Livvie's voice as she tells her story is refreshing. Her world is believable, relatable, breath-taking, and inspiring. I had to take a couple of "cry breaks" while reading. "An Unstill Life" is a must-read. Great gift for teens and romance fans.

Don't you love it when you finally find a good book that starts off with characters you really like, who make you laugh, and whom you could imagine being friends with? You root for them the whole time: through their sweet blossoming romance, to marriage proposals, wedding planning, the joy of true love; growing a family, and day in day out being normal everyday interesting funny people?

And don't you hate it when, you finally find a good book where you can live in the characters' lives with happiness, and then CANCER?

It's kinda like that. Kinda like life.

Wonderful storytelling by Charis Constantine. She created a believable world that immersed me as a reader into her characters' lives.

"Coffee Break" by TwoLoveBirds is cute romantic story about two women falling in love over their shared obsession with coffee. There are no sex/graphic/erotic episodes, making this a sweet read for people prone to blushing. My favourite scene was Thanksgiving with the family: endearing and warm.

There isn’t a whole lot of action or character arc, so I did not rate it higher. The main characters’ constant desire for coffee could be used as a boon in a coffee shop!

Sweet 16 and never been kissed, Pina spends her summer with her best friend Katie at a lakeside vacation spot near an abandoned boys' camp. It is 1959, and there are a lot of changes going on in the world, and inside Pina's mind. Her psychic powers lead her and Katie on a Nancy Drew style murder mystery, and they both struggle with their fears of their feelings for each other.

The paranormal aspects of this tale were intriguing. The setting was perfect for a light romance and horror story mixed with coming of age. At times, the 16 year olds seemed to act more like pre-teens, and I had to remind myself of their ages. It could be the innocence of the times, or their personalities. I appreciated the 1950s references to music, clothing, and hair styles. It helped me as a reader remember that it was a different time, socially, when homosexuality was considered a perversion, and when mental illness was not acknowledged.

One sore spot for me was that a supporting character "dissociated," and was suffering from an undisclosed or unknown mental illness, and she was neatly written off by the author and by the characters. Reflecting on this, it makes me wonder if that sort of discarding of a family member was so easy to do in that era. Possibly. A book that makes you think is a good book!