"The Time In Between" by Maria Duenas~ Luminous and Exotic

Published by:  Atria Books/Simon and Schuster

Pages:  624

Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction

Release Date:  November 8, 2011

Overview:

The inspiring international bestseller of a seemingly ordinary woman who uses her talent and courage to transform herself first into a prestigious couturier and then into an undercover agent for the Allies during World War II

Between Youth and Adulthood . . . 
At age twelve, Sira Quiroga sweeps the atelier floors where her single mother works as a seamstress. At fourteen, she quietly begins her own apprenticeship. By her early twenties she has learned the ropes of the business and is engaged to a modest government clerk. But everything changes when two charismatic men burst unexpectedly into her neatly mapped-out life: an attractive salesman and the father she never knew.
Between War and Peace . . .
With the Spanish Civil War brewing in Madrid, Sira leaves her mother and her fiancé, impetuously following her handsome lover to Morocco. However, she soon finds herself abandoned, penniless, and heartbroken in an exotic land. Among the odd collection of European expatriates trapped there by the worsening political situation back on the Continent, Sira reinvents herself by turning to the one skill that can save her: her gift for creating beautiful clothes.
Between Love and Duty . . .
As England, Germany, and the other great powers launch into the dire conflict of World War II, Sira is persuaded to return to Madrid, where she takes on a new identity to embark upon the most dangerous undertaking of her career. As the preeminent couturier for an eager clientele of Nazi officers’ wives, Sira becomes embroiled in the half-lit world of espionage and political conspiracy rife with love, intrigue, and betrayal.
 
 
About The Author:  Ms Duenas has a PhD in English Philology and has taught at several American universities. 
 

“Maria DueÑas is a true storyteller. She weaves a spell, conjuring the heat and the glamour, the hardship and the thrill of Morocco and Spain in the late 1930s. The world of Casablanca comes to life as war breaks and Sira Quiroga, a beautiful and betrayed seamstress, is forced to discover her own strength. At a time when everyone must do what they can to survive, some will go beyond. Resistance will be formed and history will be written. Read this book and prepare to be transported.” –Kate Morton, New York Times bestselling author of The Distant Hours


The Bookish Dame's Review:

What is it about the Spanish author that takes me up in just a word and captures me like a moth to a flame?  I can hear the storyteller's voice. I am in her very presence. I am sitting in a comfortable chair beside her while she tells the story.  I can see every detail she describes and I adore the descriptions. I'm just completely at her mercy.  This is the story of "The Time In Between."  This novel is so like having Meryl Streep read "Out of Africa" to you.  I felt exactly that way...

Maria Duenas's novel is translated for us into English.  And, since it is a translation, I can only imagine how glorious it must be in Spanish.  She has an amazing gift of words.  Her use of description is fascinating and so near perfection that fabrics, for instance, are almost tangible.  As a needlewoman, I was grappling, wanting to touch the silks, Chantilly lace, crepe de chine, georgette and embroideries she writes about.  It's wonderful to hear about the fashions Sira experiences, designs and sews through the years as she supports herself as a seamstress. To read how she's saved in her intrigues and safe-harbored by her couture-making is so awe-inspiring to someone who loves fabrics.

Ms Duenas described falling into a blind-mad love with the wrong man so perfectly that I know only one who's been there could know that kind of psychosis!  It was unbelievably beautiful.  A psychiatrist friend of mine once said that love should be called a psychotic episode because it is a chemical insanity/madness.  I thought Duenas caught that obsession with the way she walked us through Sira's reactions. To read it is to be made dizzy by her writing and to recall that punch-to-the-gut passion.

The legends and the history of the early 1900's and WWII are not heavy and boring in this novel, but are beautifully rendered.  There are interesting details, fascinating people imagined, music, theatre and art.  Cultures are wonderfully drawn for the reader, and characters are given well-rounded insights to enrich Duenas's story. Social uprisings are strangely similar to our own today, interestingly enough.  Nazi Germany is given another view from Ms Duenas's characters as they spy and work for the Resistance. All of this contributes to this compelling read.

"The Time In Between" is a book I will be keeping in my library. I hope my grandchildren will read it one day.  It's a beautifully written novel with a story we should never forget.  I'm going to put it next to my "The Winds of War" by Herman Wouk.

5 shining stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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All Psychosis Aside, Motherhood ~ "The Winters In Bloom" by Lisa Tucker

Published by:  Simon & Schuster

Pages:  288

Release Date:  Sept. 13, 2011

Genre:  Contempory Fiction, Women's Literature



Book Summary :



Together for over a decade, Kyra and David Winter are happier than they ever thought they could be.  They have a comfortable home, stable careers, and a young son, Michael, who they love more than anything.  Yet because of their complicated histories, Kyra and David have always feared that this domestic bliss couldn’t last - that the life they created was destined to be disrupted.  And on one perfectly average summer day, it is: Michael disappears from his own backyard.

The only question is whose past has finally caught up with them: David feels sure that Michael was taken by his troubled ex-wife, while Kyra believes the kidnapper must be someone from her estranged family, someone she betrayed years ago.

As the Winters embark on a journey of time and memory to find Michael, they will be forced to admit these suspicions, revealing secrets about themselves they’ve always kept hidden.  But they will also have a chance to discover that it’s not too late to have the family they’ve dreamed of; that even if the world is full of risks, as long as they have hope, the future can bloom.

Lyrical, wise, and witty, The Winters in Bloom is Lisa Tucker’s most optimistic work to date.  This enchanting, life-affirming story will charm readers and leave them full of wonder at the stubborn strength of the human heart.

The Bookish Dame Reports:

With all seriousness I tell you you'll need to set aside a day with no disturbances to read this book.  It's a compulsive read.  Of all the contemporary novels I've read this year, this is the one that kept me on my toes.  Haunting and horrifying in its sheer contemporary relevance, it just kept me reading at a pace I couldn't control.

In my early mothering days, I visited my young, corporate attorney husband's office one afternoon after having a particularly trying day with my strong-willed, 5 yr. old son. I was holding back tears, only to find he was in a meeting, when his older, wiser secretary, Vida came to my rescue.   Vida had been around the block a time or two.  She was grey-haired, tolerated no fools and was not one to be trifled with.  She sat me down and gave me the lesson of my life; one that's kept me going ever since.  She said, "Listen, you can't win with what you do with your children.  No matter what you do, they'll still go to the psychiatrist's office and tell him it's their mother's fault.  So, just what you think's best."  LOL
Jewish mother advice that's been wonderful for me!    In "The Winters In Bloom" we find that some of this philosophy was employed to very little avail.  Mothering is in short supply. Psychological mysteries of motherhood and psychosis run rampant in this novel.

From the perspectives of Kyra and Amy, two girls who were abandoned by their mother, to their niece and daughter respectively; as well as to the mystery of a young mother's death of a child, and the mother-in-law who crosses all their paths...we trace the mental anguish, complications and psychological disorders of sisterhood, being a wife, mothering and becoming a parent. 

The men involved in these relationships are colored by their intentions and interactions, but also are drawn with an awareness of contemporary roles and emotional integrity.  Refreshing, I might add, in literature nowadays.  'though for the most part, they remain silent and uninvolved.

These psychological studies, and the mystery of a child abduction that creates the tearing open of secrets everyone has worked long and hard to keep under wraps, is the crux of the story.  What is so compelling is Ms. Tucker's moving from one character to another in perspective.  Not only are we brought into the mysteries in this manner, but we need to discern the truth this way, ourselves.

Tucker slyly gives us a hint wrapped in text:  "Kant's "Test of the Universal Maxim: One way to judge if something is wrong to do is to think how it would feel if everyone did it."  is one way to determine if all of her characters are to blame in the whole scheme of things.   If we take in all of the information given on abandonment, sibling rivalry, insanity, betrayal, bullying, hyper-medical and parenting, lack of parenting, murder and more...where will we come out?

Have I said too much?  I don't think so.  You still have lots to ferret-out in this fabulous book.

5 American motherly notions of stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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Irish, Believable Novel of Acceptance ~ "The Pub Across The Pond" by Mary Carter

Published by:  Kensington Publishing

Pages:  360

Book Also Includes:  Interview w/ Author, and Book Group Discussion Guide

Genre:  Contemporary fiction

Summary :

“Sometimes leaving home is the only way to find where you belong….”
Carlene Rivers is many things. Dutiful, reliable, kind. Lucky? Not so much. At thirty, she’s living a stifling existence in Cleveland, Ohio. Then one day, Carlene buys a raffle ticket. The prize: a pub on the west coast of Ireland. Carlene is stunned when she wins. Everyone else is stunned when she actually goes.
As soon as she arrives in Ballybeog, Carlene is smitten, not just by the town’s beguiling mix of ancient and modern but by the welcome she receives. In this small town near Galway Bay, strife is no stranger, strangers are family, and no one is ever too busy for a cup of tea or a pint. And though her new job presents challenges–from a meddling neighbor to the pub’s colorful regulars–there are compensations galore. Like the freedom to sing, joke, and tell stories and, in doing so, find her own voice. And in her flirtation with Ronan McBride, the pub’s charming, reckless former owner, she just may find the freedom to follow where impulse leads and trust her heart–and her luck–for the very first time.

Book Excerpt:

Prologue
Declan
The Greatest Love Story Ever told in Ballybeog
It was the greatest love story ever told in Ballybeog when everyone was drunk, but nobody wanted to go home, and all other great love stories had been told.
Name’s Declan, but I’ll answer to most anything as long as yer thirsty and polite, and in that order. Ah, say nothin’ until you hear more. I’ve been a publican at Uncle Jimmy’s going on twenty years now. Most days it’s good ole craic, but sometimes when you’re a publican, you’ve gotta be a bags. I wasn’t sure Carlene Rivers, the Yankee Doodle Dandee who won the pub, had that in her. She had sweet written all over her, and I hate to say it, but girls like that always seem to attract the wrong kind of lads. I’ve seen many a sweet lass get the guy of their dreams, only to watch them turn into their worst nightmares. Over time their men belly up to the bar more than they do the bedroom. Because the Irishmen who “do”, usually don’t hang around here. And Ronan McBride was no exception.
Nobody thought the lad would ever settle down. There are three kinds of Irish men. Those who do, those who don’t, and those who say they might but probably won’t. Ronan McBride was the latter. He was thirty-three years of age but still hadn’t worked out his boyish ways. I don’t know why nature makes those marriage-phobic-men so alluring to the women, a course, no one would disagree that he was the best looking man in the family, and I’m not just saying that because he was the only man in the family. His father James McBride (or Uncle Jimmy as he was known around here), had passed, God rest his soul, leaving Ronan, his mother, and six sisters to run the McBride family pub. In heavenly retrospect, I bet James wishes he would’ve just left the pub to the girls; it would have been an insult to his only and eldest son all right, but as I said, sometimes when you’re a publican, you’ve gotta be a bags.
As the song goes, Ronan was a rambler and a gambler, although he was never a long way from home. I can’t tell you what it was that made the birds go absolutely mental over him, except he was over six feet and had all his hair. Let’s just say he had his pick of chickens in our little town, not to mention a hen or two who would’ve liked to sink their beaks into him.
But it was Carlene who got folks to whispering that maybe, just maybe, our terminal bachelor might mend his wayward ways. There was something in the air whenever those two were in the same room. A bit of a spark you might say, especially when they were arguing. Yep, things certainly hummed when they lit into each other, and for anyone watching it was great craic. Although we worried about Sally Collins, of course, she’d been absolutely lovesick over that boy her entire life. Still, it did me good to see that beautiful Yankee bird come into town and shake up his world, and my money was on her from the beginning.
But despite cheering the lass on, I understood Ronan’s terror. For some, there’s nothing more frightening than love, except maybe running out of ale. I was like him meself, one of the Irishman who don’t. And let me tell you, many are the nights when I’ve regretted it. Cold, long, rainy nights when I’m lying in bed and I close my eyes and some skirt that I chased when I was a younger lad comes skipping into my dream, all pretty, and bouncy, and smelling nice, only to start giving me shit for letting her go. Worse than the terrors, those dreams. I’ve known Ronan since he was a squaller, and I didn’t want him to make the same mistakes I did. I used to say, ‘What’s for you, won’t pass you’, but I know it’s a lie. I let them pass me. I always thought there’d be more time.
I’m in me seventies now, and it’s probably too late for me. I’m a scrawny looking thing with black wire glasses and I’ve a tuft of silver bird nest sitting on me head, but I’ve been told I still have a right nice smile, (even if they’re not all me original teeth), and believe it when I tell ye I got me share of tiddly-winks back in the day. I’m not much over 5’5 which I read in some touristy-type book is average for an Irishman. The average Irishman, according to this book, is 5’5, drinks four cups of tea a day, has 1.85 kids, and spends three euros a day on alcohol. I don’t know where the writer of these so-called facts was getting his information, but it sure t’wasn’t here, cuz some of our lads spend five euros an hour on the black stuff. That’s a pint of Guinness for you blow-ins.
To make a long story short, I’m just your average Joe Soap. I make up for it in other departments if you know what I mean. Ah, but this story isn’t about me or my regrets, so I hope you can put away all lurid thoughts of my national endowments. If you want to take that matter up on a one-to-one basis, and it goes without saying that you have to be a good-looking bird, then you can Facebook me. I didn’t join the fecking thing until the pub went up for raffle in America, but now that I’m on it, I reckon I might as well make the most of it. On that note, if anyone has an extra goat to give away, I’m on that farming game and I can’t seem to get a fecking goat no matter what I do, so send me one, so, if you please.
To make a long story short, we were a nice, quiet town until that fecking raffle went viral. That means a lot of people on the internet saw it. The tickets were sold in Irish festivals all over America, and they went for twenty-dollars apiece. Everyone and their mother wanted to win a pub in Ireland. And if Carlene’s mother looks anything like her daughter, I would’ve gone for a mother-daughter combo, but the Young Yank came on her own. And in the wink of an eye, our quiet little town weren’t so quiet n’more.
Situated on the West Coast of Ireland, we’re nestled on the edge of Galway Bay. We might be small, but we’re mighty. Close enough to Galway City we only need to follow the scent of heather and lager along the coast to lay our fingers on her thriving pulse, but tucked far enough away that until that fecking raffle, we didn’t get too many blow-ins.
We’ll call our little village, Ballybeog, or in Irish, Baile Béag, which means “Little Center”. I picked it because it sounds pleasant and Irish-y and because nobody in their right minds wants me to use its real name. Not out of shame, mind you, but for fear of being over-run by Americans like what happened in Dingle when the dolphin showed up. Nothing can ruin a sweet little village faster than a gaggle of Americans tracking down their “Irish roots” with their iPhones and dodgy laminated diagrams of supposed family trees.
Regardless, everyone will be treated as if they’re welcome at the McBride family pub. This is the place to be. Drink away your troubles, catch up with the locals, watch a horse race, listen to traditional Irish music, play a game of pool, or darts, or cards, and see how much better life treats ye after a nice pint. Or two. Or twelve. Nobody keeps count except the Americans. Right now the place is jammers. We’re waiting on a bride. So let me tend to my other customers now, but doncha worry. I’ll check back to see how you’re doing, or freshen your pint. And if you get half a mind to be neighborly, don’t forget to send me a fecking goat.

 

Critic Comments!

 Publishers Weekly:

When Carter tells a story readers cannot help but sit with a smile on their face. When you’re reading The Pub Across the Pond the smile shows up almost instantly and it stays in place for the duration. Superb storytelling and fun and fantastic characters make this a story not soon forgotten.
Carlene Rivers is the unluckiest girl in the world. She’s never won anything. Yet at the Irish Festival in Dublin, Ohio, she still forks over $20 for the chance to win a pub in Ireland. And she wins! Now, much to the surprise of her friends and family, she’s off to Ireland.
When she arrives in Ballybeog, she falls in love with the town, the country, the way of life and her new neighbors, who welcome her with open arms. As she settles into her new life and its intoxicating freedom, it seems like her luck may have changed, especially when it comes to Ronan McBride, the pub’s former owner. (KENSINGTON, Oct., 336 pp., $15.00)

Meeting Mary Carter:



Meet Mary Carter :

MARY CARTER is a freelance writer and novelist.  The Pub Across the Pond is her fifth novel with Kensington. Her other works include:  My Sister’s Voice, Sunnyside Blues, She’ll Take It, and Accidentally Engaged.  In addition to her novels she has written two novellas: A Very Maui Christmas in the best selling anthology Holiday Magic, and The Honeymoon House in the best selling anthology Almost Home. She is currently working on a new novel for Kensington.


The Dame's Review :

What caused me to choose this book was the promise of it not being the typical novel about love and longing in Ireland.  Thankfully, it held up beautifully to its promise.

Finally, a story written about Irish people that touches something not just of their humor (which this book does, as well), but of the depth of their hearts and loyalties as a community.  This, not withstanding and aside from the novels written about the IRA, of course, which is another topic altogether.

Mary Carter is a writer who is tested by her other works.  She's not a novice, so this helps smooth the way in such a comprehensive story which, I think, has many biographical drawings from her uncle.  The story is quite magical in the telling.  Ms Carter has the ability of descriptive writing not only with respect to her characters, but with her poignant renderings of landscape and lodgings.

What I found difficult in reading the book is that it was, as my high school English teachers and college professors would say, "wordy."  It was just too packed with long paragraphs of descriptions and background information that got somewhat boggy.  Not that this caused me to put the book down, mind you!  But, if I were an editor, I would have culled it down a bit for an easier and better flow of the novel.

Carlene Rivers is a likable heroine.  She embodies pretty much all women who need a different venue when love and life give them a swift kick.  Her willingness to yield and understand the people of Balleybeog accounts for much of her success in becoming one of them, and it was something that made the story strong.  I loved the sisters of Ronan McBride and wished I could have every one of them as friends!  This alone would make me recommend the book to you.

Sigh...Ronan...now that's the story that needed telling about a Irishman who was the only son of that gaggle of sisters!  LOL  Poor guy, and poor women who sought him out for attention or love!  This novel doesn't sugar-coat the gorgeous Irishman, however, making it all the more a good read for me.

I recommend this book, but with the reservation about it being too descriptive at times.  Books that focus more on characterization and conversation are best reads, for the most part.  In this novel, however, many will love the descriptions of landscape and legend...so it's difficult to say...

3 1/2 stars      See:  http://marycarterbooks.com/   for more

Deborah/TheBookishDame

The Pub Across the Pond Book Publicity Tour Schedule

Thursday, October 6

Book reviewed at The Bookish Dame Reviews

Friday, October 7

Book reviewed at Ohio Girl Talks

Monday, October 10

Interviewed at Barry Eva’s Blog Talk Radio Show – A Book and a Chat (pre-recorded from live show on Saturday)

Book reviewed at Reviews From the Heart

Tuesday, October 11

Interviewed at Blogcritics

Wednesday, October 12

Guest blogging at The Book Bin

Friday, October 14

Book reviewed at Mad Moose Mama

Monday, October 17

Book reviewed at Five Alarm Book Reviews

Tuesday, October 18

Book reviewed at One Book Shy of a Full Shelf

Wednesday, October 19

Book review  & Book Giveaway at Write to Make a Living

Thursday, October 20

Interviewed at Book Marketing Buzz

Friday, October 21

Book reviewed at Reading Frenzy

Monday, October 24

Book reviewed at So Many Books, So Little Time

Tuesday, October 25

Guest participant at Literarily Speaking October Book Panel

Wednesday, October 26

Book reviewed at Book Reviews by Molly

Thursday, October 27

Book reviewed at Splashes of Joy

Guest blogging at Coffee Time Romance

Friday, October 28

Chat with Mary at Pump Up Your Book Live! October Chat/Book Giveaway! (link coming soon)

Tuesday, November 1

Book reviewed at Celtic Lady’s Reviews

Wednesday, November 2

Guest blogging at Colloquium

Thursday, November 3

Book reviewed at Colloquium

Friday, November 4

Guest blogging at The Story Behind the Book

Monday, November 7

Interviewed at Review From Here

Tuesday, November 8

Book trailer spotlighted at If Books Could Talk

Wednesday, November 9

Book reviewed at The Write to Make a Living

Thursday, November 10

Interviewed at Red Room

Friday, November 11

Book reviewed at Red Lady’s Reading Room

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Laughing and Sexology Personified! "Shoes Hair Nails: Stories by Deborah Batterman"

Published by:  Author via Smashwords

Pages:  190

Barnes & Noble: Nook ebook

or Trade Paperback

Genre: Contemporary fiction, short stories

What Critics Are Saying :

Nancy Zafris~

"Using humor to part the curtains, Deborah Batterman steps inside the seriousness of amusingly awry relationships. Such is the illuminated cloth of Shoes Hair Nails that friends and passersby shine as brightly as family and lovers. In Batterman's heartfelt and jazzy debut, all ties are family ties."
—author of Lucky Strike and The Metal Shredders

Are Nail Salons Really The Male Equivalent to "Locker Rooms" for  Women?  LOL

Who's The Author :

Deborah Batterman is the author of Shoes Hair Nails (Uccelli Press, 2006). A story from her debut collection was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her stories have appeared in anthologies as well as various print and online journals, including Many Mountains Moving, Sistersong, Dunes Review, The MacGuffin, The Alsop Review, Octavo, three candles, Ensemble, Standards: The International Journal of Multicultural Studies, Prose Toad, and The Potomac.

The Bookish Dame Shares :

Kept me laughing and crying all night long!  Love this story collection. This book of short stories is truth and revelation the likes of which I had to marvel at and probably will forever.  How did I live so long and not be able to articulate some of the vital, primal things in my feminine heart regarding male sexuality, a woman's reasons for sex, family relationships that don't fulfill love, and the like?  I recognized them, but could never verbalize these feelings like Deborah Batterman has in her timely book of short stories.  Women everywhere will love "Shoes Hair Nails."  Men would do well to read it, too.

Like a book written with the wisdom of a "yankee" Flannery O'Connor, Batterman's stories are filled with satire, and laugh aloud humor, it's true; and, the profound insights she offers up in the quotable saltings of her work are new and stunning.  I love her words about life's choices, or non-choices, as it were:

"Some people jump into the fire, others dance around it till it burns itself out...And still others--fool themselves into thinking they're dancing in the wind, flying freely through the trees, when all they're really doing is grabbing for the next available branch.  Can't really call that choice, girl, can you?  It's more like drifting, if you ask me.  Or weighing options.  Where's the choice in that--the true, from-the-heart, from-the-gut choice?"





A warning: Don't judge the book by its first story!  I found Deborah's writing too obscure in her first story.  Her 2nd (or 3rd ?) generation removed-from-the-Holocaust Jewish culture, mixed with modern practices of parental love and mixed up relationships had me thinking too long and hard after reading...  This story, "Shoes," was too disjointed and obscure for me at first.  It doesn't have the flow and apparent wisdom of her other stories.  I thought it was less, initially engaging for a reader.  My hope is that her readers won't stop there and judge all the collection by this story.  Although I did recognize the connection of the shoes to her mother and life, it still wasn't as strong a story as you'll find later in her book.  I suggest starting with "Nails."



What Does A Woman's Nail Length and Color Choice Say About Her?

What I did like about "Shoes" and all of her stories is this running theme that life brings us opportunities to enjoy and to experience love in several forms: it's not always the love we chase most ardently that lends the most lasting pleasure in the long-run.  It behooves us to take the beautiful moments we're offered despite otherwise being constrained--since those moments may be our only times in life that hold cherished wisdom and memories to keep us going in life. 

 Or as Deborah Batterman expresses it:

"Maybe you had to stop banking on the future to make it (life) work for you...Maybe too much insurance took (takes) the life from you."

The Dame's Final Word:

If you're wondering what you're doing in your marriage or significant relationships, if you're "stuck" and immobile, if you want to capture your "good name" back, if you wonder what men really want and what women's expectations are, and if you need a truth that brings a confirmation of laughter;  you better click the link to get "Shoes Hair Nails" right after you read this!


5  Sassy "Steel Magnolia" (shining platinum crackled over hot pink) nail Stars

PS:  Thanks for the kick in the tush,  Deborah!

Your Bookish Dame

Bloomingdale's: "Serenity"
New Fall Collection  :]

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Angels with Extraordinary Deviousness~"Angelology" a novel by Danielle Trussoni

Published by: Penguin Group

Pages: 480 Paperback

Date released in Paperback:  February 2011

Recognition:  New York Times Notable Book

Summary :

A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time- between a hidden society and heaven's darkest creatures.
 
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.
Genesis 6:5
 
Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.
 
For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.
 
Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.


The Dame's Review:

This is a book you have to find and spend your weekend reading.  I promise you it will be one of the best books you'll read this season. 

Danielle Trussoni absolutely has a golden hand.  She's an author who captures the imagination from the beginning and keeps it throughout.  I was so enamored of this book that I could hardly wait to get back to it when distractions interrupted.  It's so beautifully written:  gothic, gorgeous in description, fantastic in imagination.

I personally loved most her descriptions of characters and places.  It was a subject to fixate my mind, causing me to see with my mind's eye the beautiful angels and primary characters who interacted with them.  I could also envision the convent, gleaming high rises, homes, caverns and Nazi headquarters that Trussoni describes.  She is a master author in this area.

The mystery of why Evangeline is left at a convent by her father, why she's been so protected by the sisters there, and what her purpose may be in life is only the tip of the iceburg in this lush novel.  It's the things we learn afterwards about the angels she comes to know, their secrets, and how she'll manage her journey and responses to them that make up the most glorious and absorbing parts of the book.

I absolutely adore this book for so many reasons.  It's especially well written, its gothic details are wonderful, it bristles with magical mysteries, the angels are gorgeous and demonic, Evangeline is a perfect heroine to identify with, and the whole experience is brilliant.

Sumptuous and exciting, this book has religious and historical interest to accompany the rest as mentioned above.  Having spent half of my college education in Munich, Germany, it was a treat to read her writings about Evangeline in Nazi Germany!  What a perfect time for the fallen angels to make a stronghold for their evil plotting. Great fun to be taken back to Germany in this imaginative way.

The Nephilim will steal your hearts even though they are devious, they are magnificent!  And, who could believe she'd throw Abigail Rockefeller into the mix like that?  Awesome in so many details.

This is definitely another book for your stacks!

5 fabulous stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

PS:  I couldn't help showing that picture of the full-bodied angel cover....  :]

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"The Oracle of Stamboul" ~ New Release in Paperback

Published by: Harper Collins

Pages: 400ish

Book Summary:

Raised by a carpet merchant father and resentful stepmother after a prophesied birth, Eleonora is recognized as a prodigy before stowing away to Stamboul, where she charms the eccentric Sultan Abdulhamid II and changes the course of history.

The Dames Note:

Exotic and absorbing, this book is an affordable treasure as a new paperback. The author writes well and the story is one that takes us out of the ruts we love to inhabit these days...you know exactly what I mean about "ruts" in reading!

In the 1800s, Victorian era if I recall correctly, it became popular for adventurers to go to exotic lands (mostly middle eastern) and to then write travel journal-type books. I used to collect them. So timewarping to read! "The Oracle of Stamboul" drew my attention in the same vein as these old books even though it's a novel. I believe Penguin issued the travel journals, and may still have them.

Try a trip to the scents, luxuries and mysteries of Stamboul... And, while you're there, enjoy the story of a young woman poised to win the attentions of a Sultan.

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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New Library Loot~or "Library Lush" Whichever the Case May Be...Sept. 1, 2011

So, here's the largest picture known to blogdom of my latest visit to my Naples Library. They are so awesome to me there. Instead of the "wild-eye" I get such praise for taking out and reading so many books. Don't you love it?!

I'm just going to talk briefly about a few of them or tell you why I chose them.

I was really happy to find this book on the new fiction shelf. This was on my "Covet List" and I'm delighted I don't have to go around hating, now! Love the art/cover design. Can't wait to start it...this week, maybe.

This is one I've seen reviewed on Amazon and it's had me curious. I love books by South American and/or Spanish authors. The richness of their culture is always in their books, of course, but also there is a depth of emotional connection and mysticism that I find so beautiful. I'm really looking forward to reading this one.

Well, please, who could resist this one? I was just taking a quick peruse of the New In Non-fiction shelves and Jane reached out and cuffed my ear. Probably because Jane knows I'm a diehard Bronte sisters devote' at heart...she's a close 2nd place; yet, she keeps pressing me for the primary spot! You know Charlotte thought Jane's books were fluffy... :[
The very interesting author of this book has captured my heart, too, since she understands the value of women and their power in literature. (*With regard to my last blog review "The American Heiress") See below:

"Becoming a Heroine: Reading About Women in Novels"

(Available on Barnes & Nobles/$1.99)

Overview: A splendid book, a rare combination of critical brilliance and personal warmth. Brownstein speaks for a generation, perhaps a tradition, of passionate women readers; she stands for literary values that need to be defended against the chilling abstractions of contemporary theory, and that remind us why we read and how we shape our lives by our books. (Elaine Showalter)

I'm having to order this one from Amazon, asap.



Isn't this gorgeous cover? The extended name of the book is: "....:An Artist Begins Her Life's Work at 72." Honestly, this book was a grabber from that New in Non-Fiction shelf, too. The size of the book is one of those off-sized type--and thick. The paper smells delicious. It's chockful of beautiful, color pictures of botanicals and stories about their names and namers. I stood there for a long time flipping through and reading...had to check it out!

The book also tells the story of Ms Peacock who was in her latter years when she decided to take up her designing of botanical "mosayics" and the stories behind the flowers. Fascinating stuff here.

It's one of those books that makes you want to hide in a dark, secluded corner, curl up and read it. Corner curling...

Interesting to me, this Anthology edited by Edwidge Danticat about Haiti. I've been so curious about the country and its people since the earthquakes there... I'm a conspiracy theorist, did you know? I think HAARP has had some messing around in that issue. :[

Overview:
Includes brand-new stories by: Edwidge Danticat, Rodney Saint-Eloi, Madison Smartt Bell, Gary Victor, M.J. Fièvre, Marvin Victor, Yanick Lahens, Louis-Philipe Dalembert, Kettly Mars, Marie Ketsia Theodore-Pharel, Evelyne Trouillot, Katia Ulysse, Ibi Aanu Zoboi, Nadine Pinede, and others.
Haiti has a tragic history and continues to be one of the most destitute places on the planet, especially in the aftermath of the earthquake. Here, however, Edwidge Danticat reveals that even while the subject matter remains dark, the caliber of Haitian writing is of the highest order.

This is a little paperback they had that caught my eye because of its title, and then I really like the summary. It's about a ladies reading group during the early 1960's around the time the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton movie "Cleopatra" came out. There was such a scandal surrounding the movie because of their love affair and Liz leaving Eddie Fisher for Burton; especially after Eddie had divorced America's Sweetheart~Debbie Reynolds for Elizabeth only a few years prior!! At any rate, this group of young housewives is greatly effected by the times and the movie, and I'm dying to read the book to know how and why.

As you can see, there are a few more there in my Loot that I won't go into. You're probably bored at this point!

Let me know what you got this week at your library...

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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"Inzanesville" by Jo Ann Beard ~ My INDIE AWARDS 2011 Nomination

Published by:  Hachette Publishing Group
Little, Brown & Co.
Reviewed Here:  May 2, 2011

It's a happy and important time for authors and booklovers because the Independent Literary Award Nominees are being posted.

Now is time to make our individual voices known by choosing our favorites this year

in the different categories listed.

Please, take time to go to the website (links below), look at some of the nominees already chosen, and make your choices known!

This section copied for your interest:

The Independent Literary Awards are book awards given by literary bloggers.
All judges and panelists for theses awards are completely independent
and do not receive compensation for reviews nor their work on the award board. The Independent Literary Awards is currently in its second year and will be presenting the winners for the 2011 calendar year in March of 2012.

What genres may receive awards?

The genres that will be represented and receiving awards for 2011 are:

·  Literary Fiction

 Non-Fiction

·  Speculative Fiction

·   GLBN TV

·   Poetry

 

What are the rules for making nominations?

■ Nominations are open to all readers who do not make their income through the sales of books (i.e. not authors, publishers, or publicists) — hence “independent” from the publishing industry.

■ Books nominated must have a 2011 release date.

■ You may nominate a book that has already been listed (the books with the most nominations will be what we add to the Long List).

■ You may nominate books in more than one genre, but only one per genre.

■ Nominations close December 31, 2011.

In Conclusion :

I, for one, can't wait to see who the winners are this year.  I have my own favorites and will be telling which

I've voted for in my upcoming blog entries.

"Inzanesville" is my first nomination going in this week.

What will you be nominating for Fiction?


Deborah/TheBookishDame

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Library Loot! My Library Books for August~Going Back

Excerpt :

Playing for Time

 

He began to die when he was twenty-one, but tuberculosis is slow and sly and subtle. The disease took fifteen years to hollow out his lungs so completely they could no longer keep him alive. In all that time, he was allowed a single season of something like happiness.

When he arrived in Dodge City in 1878, Dr. John Henry Holliday was a frail twenty-six-year-old dentist who wanted nothing grander than to practice his profession in a prosperous Kansas cow town. Hope—cruelest of the evils that escaped Pandora’s box—smiled on him gently all that summer. While he lived in Dodge, the quiet life he yearned for seemed to lie within his grasp.

 

At thirty, he would be famous for his part in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. A year later, he would become infamous when he rode at Wyatt Earp’s side to avenge the murder of Wyatt’s younger brother Morgan. To sell newspapers, the journalists of his day embellished thin fact with... (continued)

This is a great read by Mary Doria Russell who is best known for her fantasy books of years ago.  I have always had an affinity for Doc and Wyatt Earp.  My mother's family is linked closely with the Earps!  Don't know if that makes me an outlaw or law-abiding... ;]

Nevertheless, "Doc" is a book that I enjoyed very much and recommend to all readers.

Editorial Review:

Hush is a timely book these days, when it seems as if hardly a day goes by without the news media reporting another child molestation by a religious leader. The main character, Gittel, is a sixteen-year-old girl who is harboring a devastating secret. Six years ago, when she was ten, she witnessed her best friend Devory being sexually abused. In their Chassidic Jewish community, reporting what she had seen would only lead to family shame and dishonor. Gittel's enforced silence is difficult for her to bear, and becomes even more so as she reaches the age at which she should be married off and become a mother. This taut tale alternates between ten-year-old Gittel and present day Gittel, never losing its momentum. It is not always a pleasant or easy read, but it is a powerful, gripping young adult novel that demonstrates that sexual abuse can happen anywhere, even in an insular, devoutly religious community. Reviewer: Jennifer Waldrop

I haven't read this one, but I'm anxious to get to it.  I think this book has a different slant on the problem of child sexual abuse and another child's feelings about "telling" to help another.  The fact that it's centered around a Chassidic Jewish community interests me, as well, because this is a specific one I haven't read of.

Just this week, a 10 yr. old twin boy died by his father and step-mother's hands...being punished for "swiping" his step-brother's guitar string. He was completely dehydrated by being made to stand in front of a sunny window in over 100 degree weather, without air conditioning in his room, for over a week without water.  His twin brother talked to a news reporter about his brother's tortured death saying that he wanted to help his brother, but he was afraid that he would get in trouble, too.  He wanted to help his brother but he was afraid.  This horror will follow the child for the rest of his life...

I think this is going to be a great book to read.

Overview :

Half-human, half-angel, Meridian Sozu has a dark responsibility.

Sixteen-year-old Meridian has been surrounded by death ever since she can remember. As a child, insects, mice, and salamanders would burrow into her bedclothes and die. At her elementary school, she was blamed for a classmate’s tragic accident. And on her sixteenth birthday, a car crashes in front of her family home—and Meridian’s body explodes in pain.
 
Before she can fully recover, Meridian is told that she’s a danger to her family and hustled off to her great-aunt’s house in Revelation, Colorado. It’s there that she learns that she is a Fenestra—the half-angel, half-human link between the living and the dead. But Meridian and her sworn protector and love, Tens, face great danger from the Aternocti, a band of dark forces who capture vulnerable souls on the brink of death and cause chaos.
From the Hardcover edition.

Oh, boy!  Another YA supernatural novel... But, this time the twist I liked was the fact that Meridian is a good angel/human.  I'm not a fan of the evil, dark angel, soul suckers; etc...   I'm going to try this one for any redeeming qualities and I'll get back to you.

Although insurance investigator DD McGil has always had her choice of lovers, she’s been spectacularly unlucky in love. Now one of DD’s former flames, Hemingway expert David Barnes, claims to have recovered the legendary stories and poems that Hemingway’s first wife lost while on a train to Switzerland in 1922. Barnes plans to auction them off for millions, but controversy rages. Are they truly the lost Hemingway works or are they forgeries? Found? Or stolen? DD’s quest to prove the manuscripts genuine puts her on the trail of a killer. The hunter quickly becomes the hunted when someone tries to stop her—dead.

How could a Hemingway fan such as I am pass over such a promising novel?  I have to read this one.  There are 227 pages...not bad. And, it's the first in a series of mystery novels with DD McGil as the investigator.



Synopsis:

"But what do we really know about other people?" In this international bestselling novel, a young unnamed Sardinian woman explores the life of her grandmother, a romantic, bewitching, eccentric figure, and a memorable literary creation. Her life has been characterized by honor and fierce passion, and above all by an abiding search for perfect love that has spanned much of the twentieth century. Ever in the background of this remarkable woman's story is the stunning Sardinian landscape-the deep blues of the Mediterranean, the rugged mountains of the Sardinian backcountry dotted with charming villages lost in time.

I absolutely adore this little book.  It's only about 100 pages translated from the Italian original and what a stunningly gorgeous book it is.  The descriptions of a grandmother who is slightly insane, but is "good," according to the local priest no matter if she does fall in love with every man who crosses her doorstep, to the husband who is devoted to her and the children and grandchildren who find her a cherished person of unique existance; this novel sings with amazing descriptions and the voice of a mystic author.  Milena Agus has a writer's voice that comes through her words; yes, and it's lyrical and hypnotic. 

I can't say enough good things about this book which I'm going to buy for my own personal library shelves. You have to read this one!  5 stars

What did you get in your Library Loot this past month?

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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