This past year I have been fortunate to meet so many authors, visit local independent book stores, rifle through library stacks, join book clubs, participate in open mike poetry, and connect with readers from around the world. I also experienced the whirlwind of writing my first novel. "Watch City: Waltham Watch" allowed me to look at the present and future with hope.
I wrote and published four additional books in 2018, in different genres. Writing a novel based on history with strong female characters affected me more than I realized writing fiction could. Witnessing my creations work together and fight through the turmoils in their lives has raised my optimism and allowed me to see the present and future with hope. My hope for you, reader, is that you encounter a new year of courage, confidence, and community. Plus, a stack of endless books.
By genre:
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"Behind the Fan" is a multi-faceted story that reveals a mysterious family history, sensual romance, and startling realizations.
A pair of sisters and their young-adult daughters move in to the old family house to help take care of an ailing grandmother. They discover a hidden treasure, which shocks them and then intrigues them. When they investigate further, they learn new truths about their relationships, and themselves.
While the younger generations struggle with the inner turmoil brought on by their discovery, the grandmother lapses into what the medical experts classify as dementia. In an alternate timeline, she travels to the past in her memory, where the ghostly love of her life awaits her.
Experiencing the past in these flashbacks allows the grandmother to reconnect with her lost love, and inspires her to share the heritage of her life story with her family. The more the younger women learn, the closer their relationships become, bridging gaps between generations and viewpoints.
The author Caroline Walken has created a tale within a tale that intertwines the threads of romance, mystery, and drama with paranormal worlds and glorious flourishes. The reader is taken back in time to the glittery world of on-stage entertainment with naked girls, jazz singers, and gritty mobsters in Chicago's mob-run heyday. This book is an invitation to see our older relatives through newer eyes, and a sense of awe and fascination as the past creeps in to modern reality.
If you have the sense of humour of a 14 year old boy and the grammatical wit of an ancient librarian, this is your book.
New drinking game: every time you read a pun, drink. You will have alcohol poisoning by the last page.
The premise of the story is that reading a typo could injure or kill you. The Typo Squad is a special branch of the police force that protects the population from such trauma.
It might sound corny, and it is, but the story is tight and fast paced like a great crime novel should be.
I did find one error in grammar. I might be the only one who noticed. I had the pleasure of meeting the author, Stephen Lomer, and am convinced that he and his crew pored over each and every word with diligence. I might be Typo Squad material.
NOVELLA
Be Careful What You Pray For by C. Yvette Spencer
Nellie is a grown woman who is done with being cheated on by her preacher husband. She has a good eye and good aim, and doesn’t hesitate to use either. Shock turns into schemes as she carries out her final revenge. Are her ethics her strength, or weakness?
The characters are multi-dimensional and relatable. Suspenseful from page one, the story does not stop until the unimaginable climax.
Nellie had some fantastic one-liners that made me laugh. She is a strong woman willing to compromise, but she has been crossed once too many times. The cover of the book shows her throwing some serious shade!
Just when I thought I figured out what was next, another twist in the action shocked me. I could NOT believe it, and just had to keep reading. I did NOT see that coming!
I recommend this book for fans of suspense, thrillers, drama, woman power, and quick reads. At 70 pages, “Be Careful What You Pray For” is perfect for a couple of lunch breaks, bus rides, or better yet, a morning reading in bed while your man rubs your feet.
SHORT STORIES
A Map of the World by Zev Good
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.
Fairy Tale Ending by William F. Aicher
"Fairy Tale Ending" is a chilling take on classic fairy tales. The deviant characters and alternate story lines mix with blood, gore, horror, and thrilling nastiness. If you prefer your bedtime stories to lull you into sweet nightmares, this book is for you.
MEMOIR
Tiger Fish by Huang Chi Truong
My favourite book I've read all summer. I recommend this to EVERYONE. It is a rare gem, easy to read and understand, while expressing powerful emotions and action.
The author speaks in a clear and simple voice, telling the story of her life as a child during the Vietnam War. As her social status grew and fell, her family remained the most important part of her life. Richly detailed and lovingly explained, this memoir lucidly expresses the fear, pain, loneliness, irritation, mourning, love, and hope of a family sticking together to beat all the odds.
The fact that the author originally wrote this for her daughter, as a sort of family history, makes each word more precious. The truth is told without pity or anger, just love.
If you ever want to read an immigrant's story, or sense the bravery of a girl on her journey to freedom, this book encapsulates the inspiration we all hope for.
Thank you, Hoang Chi Truong, for sharing your story with us.
The Unspoken Truth by Lisa Zarcone
Reading this book is like talking to your successful, beautiful, smart, and kind best friend, and finding out she is a survivor of heartbreaking childhood abuse, rape, bullying, and mistreatment. Lisa Zarcone's memoir flows with natural conversational tones, while speaking treacherous truths. From the death of her beloved brother, and the ensuing grief, to the brutal physical and verbal attacks by her mother, negligence from her father, and living a life of fear with a peer who continually raped her, she never gave up. She and her family did not get the help and services they needed, and she grew up alone, surrounded by torture. Her astounding grace and forgiveness when she eventually became free from ongoing abuse is awe-inspiring.
This life story gives me hope for young people in my life who are experiencing abuse, bullying, parental neglect, mental illness, or who are simply not getting the help they need to survive the teenage years and become safe, thriving adults. Lisa Zarcone's friendly writing style imparted to me a sense of compassion, empathy, and refreshing non-judgement.
This is the best memoir I have read this year, and highly recommend it, especially to older teens and parents of teens. It could be a great conversation starter in families and classrooms. This book could also be highly valuable to people, particularly women, who have experiences childhood sexual abuse, or have a parent with an ignored mental illness, or who have been abused by a family member.
Zarcone's courage to write her painful memoir will bless each reader, as we borrow her bravery, and gain insight to how one child could have been mistreated so badly. We can be more understood ourselves, be more patient with people in our lives, and learn to be aware of abuse in our communities. This book spreads hope, for all abuse survivors and their loved ones.
POETRY
How Her Spirit Got Out by Krysten Hill
Krysten Hill's "How Her Spirit Got Out" reads like a memoir in poetry. Gripping, and sometimes ghastly, the topics and emotions unveiled in the poems point to a life strengthened by a strong female community.
I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Krysten Hill at a Belmont Books poetry reading. Her passion for multi-generational female advocacy is genuine and heartfelt. Her poems are written from her personal perspective as a black woman in America, and her gentle presence is backed up by her unfailing grit.
I recommend this book especially for older high school students. It offers insight into lives which are often left unseen in modern society, and which we all can relate to as we mature.
Blanket Knowledge by Peter Payack
The poems in "Blanket Knowledge: Poems" are witty, funny, tart, sentimental, quirky, and genuinely relatable. This is my favourite poetry book I have read, possibly ever! How can so few words convey so much? I read it like a novel, eagerly turning pages to see what was next. I am placing it on the bottom of my "To Read" pile so it can rise again in my consciousness.
SELF HELP
The Happiness Solution: Finding Joy and Meaning in an Upside Down World by Alan Gettis, Ph.D.
Each chapter is a short story of encouragement. Insightful parables and wisdom from diverse cultures are shared in an easy storyteller fashion.
I recommend this book for anyone who wants to find a connectedness and sense of hope for the new year, and for each day forward. Perfect for slower paced readers, or people who struggle with time. A couple of pages in the morning with coffee or on lunch break can make small moments meaningful. “The Happiness Solution” isn’t preachy or pandering. It is friendly and real. Happy reading!
Stay tuned as I compile my list of reviews to look forward to in 2019! If you have a book you would like to check out, please feel welcome to share with me!