~ Ti of Book Chatter and Other Stuff ~


You've won a signed copy of The Front Porch Prophet by Raymond L. Atkins.  Please send me your mailing address and I'll forward it on to Mr. Atkins.

A huge thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway.  Please keep checking back; I have several great books to give away over the next few weeks.  Don't forget to check out the Somebody Else's Daughter giveaway and interview with author Elizabeth Brundage HERE.  I'm taking entries until midnight tonight.

Note:  To select the winner of this contest, I plugged the list of entries into random.org and used their list randomizer function.  Here was the final result:

There were 49 items in the list. Here they are in random order:

1. Ti
2. Hermeslyre
3. Bella aire
4. Lori B.
5. A real librarian
6. Hermeslyre
7. Tasses
8. Christi
9. Julie S.
10. Colin
11. Janel
12. Ruth
13. Beverly
14. Janeh
15. Rebekah
16. April
17. Lauren
18. Tasses
19. Darlene
20. Amanda
21. Becca
22. Amber G.
23. Cindi
24. Janel
25. Amber G.
26. Becca
27. Anna
28. Anita
29. Shawnee
30. Elizabeth M.
31. Anna
32. Colin
33. Shawnee
34. Theresa N.
35. Ruth
36. Rebekah
37. Legend
38. Darlene
39. Lauren
40. Julie S.
41. Annette
42. Julie S.
43. Tasses
44. Darlene
45. Shawnee
46. Ti
47. Christi
48. Lauren
49. Annette

  

Have you checked out A Novel Menagerie?  It's a new book blog written by Sheri that I heard about from Lisa at Books on the Brain.  Sheri is new to the blogging world and has already made quite a splash with her gorgeous blog full of great book reviews and photos.

And she's already hosting a great contest.  Here are the details:

Most of us have collections.  Many of us 'book bloggers' are collectors of literary works.   Or, perhaps a house full of the sounds of the scampering of little feet or the persistent arguing of siblings.  Maybe, you are the avid animal lover and just can’t say 'no' to that face!  You just might be that music enthusiast with an amazingly diverse collection.  What is your prize menagerie?

This week’s Thursday’s Thoughts challenge:  Write me (below), or better yet, post a blog on your blogsite about your menagerie (don’t forget to send me your link).  All submittals must be in by 9/8/08, midnight PST for consideration.  The prize, you ask?  A gift certificate to Barnes and Noble in the amount of $25, which will be on-line order friendly.

So, stop by A Novel Menagerie, do some exploring, and enter to win that B&N gift certificate!



*****


My most important menagerie is the one full of living things:  my husband, three kids, dog and rabbit.  Other than that, I'm not much of a collector EXCEPT for my books.  So, this is the perfect opportunity to do something I've been meaning to do for several weeks now - post pictures of my bookshelves.

The first two photos are of the two bookshelves that flank the sofa in our formal living room.  That stack of books on the floor in the second photo went on the Ikea shelves (see third photo.)






Below are the new shelves we bought at Ikea in May.  Those empty shelves on the bottom?  Yes, well, ahem, they're no longer empty.

  

Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) is almost here!  In the meantime, the polls are open.  Click HERE to visit My Friend Amy and vote for your favorite blog in a number of different categories.

I am thrilled that Literarily is a top contender for the Best Literary Fiction Blog.  I feel very, very honored to be in the company of so many excellent book blogs.  (Click HERE to see a list of the finalists in all categories.)

So, a big huge THANK YOU to my wonderful readers.

And, Amy, wow - you have done so much work on BBAW, building it from the ground up into a wonderful, very nicely done event.  Thank you so very much. 

  

Suggested by JM: 

I was looking through books yesterday at the shops and saw all the Twilight books, which I know basically nothing about. What I do know is that I’m beginning to feel like I’m the *only* person who knows nothing about them.

Despite being almost broke and trying to save money, I almost bought the expensive book (Australian book prices are often completely nutty) just because I felt the need to be ‘up’ on what everyone else was reading.

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because 'everyone else' was reading it? Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist? If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it’s your duty to keep up on current trends?

*****



No, I've never felt pressured to read something because everyone else was reading it.   

Popularity and hype surrounding a book do make me curious, though.  And sometimes I feel like maybe I'm missing out by not reading the book, since everyone else seems to love it.

That said, I've never read anything from the Harry Potter series.  Ditto Water for Elephants, The Kite Runner (although I have this one now, thanks to Amanda), and A Thousand Splendid Suns.  My mother-in-law gave me her copy of The Da Vinci Code a couple years ago and I've never gotten around to reading it.

The thing is, I always want to read these books, but their popularity doesn't really have an effect on their placement on my TBR list.  So I get to them when I get to them.  And when I do, I usually really like them.  For example, I just read Twilight in May and really liked it.  I finally read Pillars of the Earth (listened to it actually ... all 45+ hours) and loved, loved, loved it.

As far as feeling a duty to keep up on current trends as a reviewer, again, no.  My only sense of obligation as a reviewer is to read the books I've committed to reading and then producing a fair and well-written review in a timely manner.

  

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent is on sale today.  Kent's debut novel is an intimate look at the Salem witch trials through the eyes of a 10 year-old girl whose mother is tried and convicted as a witch.

Kent is currently on virtual tour with Blog Stop Book Tours.  The tour stopped off at Devourer of Books yesterday (click HERE for Jen's review), will be at Anything That Pays ... A Freelance Writer's Blog on Friday, and will be here at Literarily on Monday, September 8.

Click HERE for a listing of other tour stops and for more information about Kathleen Kent and The Heretic's Daughter.

Click HERE to purchase this book from Amazon.

  

The Miracle Girls by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt

• Length:  304 pages
• Publication date:  September 8, 2008
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• ISBN-10: 0446407550
• ISBN-13: 978-0446407557 

Summary:

Product description:  Ana Dominguez was happy in San Jose, but everything changed when her dad moved the family to Half Moon Bay, California, to open a law practice. Her parents think she's settling into her new school nicely, but she has them fooled. Riley, the most popular girl in school, has picked Ana as enemy #1, and Tyler, Ana's crush, doesn't even know Ana exists.

When Ana ends up in detention with Riley, her life suddenly changes. When Ana, Riley, Christine, and Zoe share their essays on "The Day My Life Changed," it turns out they have more in common than they ever would have imagined. Now as Ana lives out her faith, she and Zoe are determined to befriend Riley and Christine. But the drama of high school life has only just begun. . . .



Shana's Review:

The Miracle Girls is written entirely in Ana's voice.  As the mother of a 14 year-old I can vouch for the fact that the narrative voice is very authentic.  It is sarcastic, intelligent, and distinctly teenaged.  Reading The Miracle Girls feels like eavesdropping on a teenage girl's conversation with her best friend.

Ana is a unique teen.  Her parents immigrated from Mexico shortly after her birth.  Her father is a lawyer, and apparently a very successful one because Ana wants for nothing in the material sense.  She lives in a mansion and her mother spends her days redecorating the new house with the assistance of an interior designer.  They employ a live-in cook-slash-housekeeper, and shop at Bloomingdales and Nordstrom.   For a 14 year-old, Ana is only mildly rebellious, especially considering that her parents are extremely strict.  Ana has her sights set on a medical degree from Princeton and needs to graduate high school first in her class in order to secure admission to the Ivy League.

Current culture references abound in this book.  Ana talks about iPods, email, instant messaging, Google searches, Nutter Butters and Vera Wang.  Again, this adds to the authenticity of the story while giving it a distinctly contemporary feel.

One of the more interesting aspects of this book is how the pressures of high school are depicted.  Of course, there is peer pressure.  Ana wants to fit in with the popular crowd, but she is different, mainly due to her Christian faith.  Lucky for her, she finds two very good friends relatively quickly in her new school, and meets several other friends (and, eventually, a boyfriend) in her church youth group. 

The authors also dealt with academic pressures, which we've heard a lot about in the media in the past year or two.  Ana felt that she needed to be first in her class in order to get admitted to Princeton.  The pressure was strong and constant.  Her extra-curricular activities were carefully orchestrated in light of the college application process.  As a freshman in high school, Ana and her parents were already thinking in terms of 'key differentiators' and how having a 'passion' would look good on her application.

The Miracle Girls is so much more than a story about a group of high school friends.  Although it is full of likeable characters, it is really about Ana ... how she found a few good friends in a new school, and how in the end that turned out to be enough, and maybe even better than being part of the 'in' crowd.  It is about how she balanced having a life in high school with having huge dreams for the future.  It is about how she embraced her cultural roots even though at least one of her parents seemed a little embarrassed by them.  And it was about respecting parents and rules and boundaries, and at the same time becoming a person who can both ask for and handle increased freedom.



Additional information:

The Miracle Girls is scheduled to be released September 8, 2008.

To purchase this book from Amazon, click HERE.

To visit the authors' website (and find out how you can win a signed copy of this book), click HERE.



Special thanks to Miriam Parker at Hachette Book Group USA for sending me this book to read and review.

  

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your "teaser" from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

Please avoid spoilers!

My two "teaser" sentences for today:

From page 201 of The Miracle Girls by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt, a young adult novel about the trials and pressures of high school:

"The little Bathsheba! I'm not moving."

What are you reading this week?  Can you share two random sentences?

  

The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton

• Length:  256 pages
• Publication date:  August 11, 2008
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• ISBN-10: 031611751X
• ISBN-13: 978-0316117517

Summary:

Product description:  Preston Clearwater has been a criminal since stealing two chain saws and 1,600 pairs of aviator sunglasses from the Army during the Second World War. Back on the road in post-war North Carolina, a member of a car-theft ring, he picks up hitch-hiking Henry Dampier, an innocent nineteen-year-old Bible salesman. Clearwater immediately recognizes Henry as just the associate he needs--one who will believe Clearwater is working as an F.B.I. spy; one who will drive the cars Clearwater steals as Clearwater follows along in another car at a safe distance. Henry joyfully sees a chance to lead a dual life as Bible salesman and a G-man.

During his hilarious and scary adventures we learn of Henry's fundamentalist youth, an upbringing that doesn't prepare him for his new life. As he falls in love and questions his religious training, Henry begins to see he's being used--that the fun and games are over, that he is on his own in a way he never imagined.



Shana's Review:

The Bible Salesman is a quick, entertaining read.  It's comic Southern fiction that will have you laughing out loud as you follow the  misguided adventures of sweet, naive Henry Dampier.

Henry is at once pious, flawed, and tempted.  The story is told from his point of view with flashbacks to his childhood and occasional interjections from Clearwater's point of view, which give the reader a glimpse into the criminal's mind but can come as a bit of a surprise since there is no clear dilineation between the changing voices.

Henry has no idea that Clearwater is a seasoned criminal.  He thinks the taciturn Clark Gable look-alike is an undercover F.B.I. agent.  At times one wonders how the young man can be so naive, but then, that's part of what makes this story so funny.

The dialogue between characters is authentic and amusing.  Often conversations are comically meandering.  It's easy to picture them sitting around the kitchen table, or driving down the road, waxing eloquent about religion or their latest business venture.  Edgerton does a fantastic job with the southern dialect spoken by his characters.

Throughout most of the book, Edgerton keeps the reader wondering just exactly how Henry will extricate himself from this situation without ending up in prison, or worse yet, Clearwater's next victim.  But given the overall tone of this story, it is safe to assume that somehow it will all work out for Henry in the end.

A friend asked if I thought this book would be offensive to Christians.  (Henry is a Baptist in a staunchly religious community who has recently began reading the Bible with a critical eye, which has given rise to a few questions and doubts.)  I enjoyed reading about Henry's struggle to come to terms with faith and religion.  He read the Bible literally and in doing so, stumbled upon somewhat obvious contradictions that he refused to overlook but instead examined with a questioning mind.

Rather than seeing this as a condemnation of Christianity or religion in general, I found it provided another layer to the story, one that in the end leaves the reader wondering if Henry lost his faith, or embraced a more refined and enlightened version of it.

Oh, and did I mention this book is FUNNY?  Actually, I did, but it bears repeating.  In fact, I was flipping through it several days after finishing, looking for a specific passage, and kept coming across comic parts of the story and laughing at them all over again.



Additional information:

To purchase this book on Amazon, click HERE.

To visit Clyde Edgerton's website, click HERE.



Special thanks to Miriam Parker at Hachette Book Group USA for sending me this book to read and review.

  

My Sunday Salon post is a day late, because we've been out of town and without computers/wireless access for the weekend.  For the past three years, we've spent Labor Day weekend in Nebraska, camping with my in-laws.  It's become a sort of annual tradition, which I like, mainly because I love creating traditions for my children.



On the reading front, I'm currently reading and enjoying The Miracle Girls by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt, a young adult novel that will be released on September 8, 2008.



I'm listening to - and struggling with - Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield.  It's a WWII story that is too much technical war detail and not enough plot and character development for my taste.  I'm not ready to give up on it, though.

Below are a few photos of my dear children from our weekend in Nebraska:





*****




*****

  

Anna at Diary of an Eccentric tagged me for this meme a week or so ago.  Since this is a book blog, I've decided to choose from among my many, many quirks six that are book-related. 

1.  I buy both hardcover and paperback books but I like consistency within authors.  For example, all of my Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella are trade paperbacks.  All of my Isabel Allende books are hardcover.  All of my John Irving books are hardcover.  And so on ...

2.  My bookshelves are alphabetized by author, then sub-alphabetized (is that a word?) by title.  Except if they're part of a series, then I line them up according to their sequence within the series.

3.  It really bothers me if the spines are not perfectly aligned on the shelves.  Unfortunately, my kids like to play with my books, so this is rarely the case.

4.  When I choose a book to listen to when I run, I don't listen to it at any other time.  Wanting to get back to the story is one part of what makes running so enjoyable to me.

5.  It really bothers me when people sell advance review copies on Ebay.  Or, when I go to write a review on Amazon the day a book is released and there are already 20 used copies for sale.  (I know, mind your own business, Shana.)  This just seems like a slap in the face of the authors, publishers and publicists who so generously provide books for us to review.  Give it away ... on your blog, to a friend, to the library but do you have to sell it? ... Especially in the case of ARC's which usually have a prohibition regarding resale printed right on the cover.

6.  I love to read books about Eleanor Roosevelt.

Since I'm so late posting this, I'm not going to tag anyone else, but I'm glad Anna tagged me.  This was fun.

  

My friend Dar at the wonderful blog Peeking Between the Pages nominated me for the Super Commenter Award.  Thank you, Dar! 

Now I am supposed to pass the award along to seven other people, which I am happy to do because it gives me the opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who visit my blog and provide support, feedback and friendship with their comments.

So, here goes ...

• J. Kaye at J. Kaye's Book Blog
• Anna at Diary of an Eccentric
• Jennifer at The Literate Housewife Review
• Dawn at She is Too Fond of Books
• Shannon at Confuzzled Books
• Alessandra at Out of the Blue
• And I'm not sure if you're supposed to nominate the person who awarded you but I would be seriously remiss if I didn't mention Dar at Peeking Between the Pages.

Many thanks to these regular and valued commenters and to everyone else who stops by to read, browse, and occasionally leave a comment.  Like most bloggers, I adore comments!

  

The Road Home by Rose Tremain

• Length:  432 pages
• Publication date:  August 26, 2008
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• ISBN-10: 0316002615
• ISBN-13: 978-0316002615

Summary:

From the book jacket:  In the wake of factory closings and his beloved wife's death, Lev is on his way from Eastern Europe to London, seeking work to support his mother and his little daughter. After a spell of homelessness, he finds a job in the kitchen of a posh restaurant, and a room in the house of an appealing Irishman who has also lost his family. Never mind that Lev must sleep in a bunk bed surrounded by plastic toys--he has found a friend and shelter. However constricted his life in England remains he compensates by daydreaming of home, by having an affair with a younger restaurant worker (and dodging the attentions of other women), and by trading gossip and ambitions via cell phone with his hilarious old friend Rudi who, dreaming of the wealthy West, lives largely for his battered Chevrolet.

Homesickness dogs Lev, not only for nostalgic reasons, but because he doesn't belong, body or soul, to his new country-but can he really go home again? Rose Tremain's prodigious talents as a prose writer are on full display in The Road Home, but her novel never loses sight of what is truly important in the lives we lead.



Shana's Review:

The Road Home, which was released yesterday, August 26, has already been awarded the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.  Sometimes I read a book that has won a prestigious award and I come away wondering why it won, or I may understand why, but award or no, I just didn't like the book.  Not so with The Road Home.  It is completely deserving of the Orange Prize and I loved every page of it.

Rose Tremain has given us a poignant, perfectly crafted novel.  It is beautifully written.  The plot ambles along at a relaxed and steady pace, but never once did I lose interest.  I attribute this to two things.  First, the compelling characters and Tremain's ability to draw the reader in, to make us emotionally invested in what happens to these rather ordinary people.

Lev ... I really liked this guy.  And by the book's end, I knew him so well.  Lev's journey to London and the life he lived there made the immigrant experience so real.  The competing cacophony of emotions:  he was hopeful, overwhelmed, frustrated, angry, sad, at one point blissfully in love.  He felt he was betraying those he left behind just by being in London, even though he was there to make life better for them; if he enjoyed life in his temporary city, he felt guilty.  I felt Lev's frustration with the language barrier.  Reading about how he was treated as somehow inferior just because he dressed differently, had different mannerisms, struggled to understand and make himself understood made my heart break with sympathy.

There were other characters who I grew to care about, and surprisingly most were men.  I sometimes find it difficult to warm to adult male characters.  But in this case, I quickly came to adore Rudi, Lev's brash and reckless, yet big-hearted old friend and Christy Slane, Lev's sweet, easygoing, down on his luck London flatmate. 

The second thing that stands out about this novel are the descriptions of the two central places:  London and the unnamed Eastern European country Lev comes from.  The richly textured images Tremain so masterfully creates stand alone, but are especially meaningful when viewed in contrast.  Lev's home country, struggling to feel hopeful after the fall of communism seemed bleak, faded, gray, sadly downtrodden.   London, a frenzied melting pot, at times glamorous and sophisticated, at others gritty and ordinary, but always colorful and alive. 

The characters and images in this highly readable, exquisitely written book will remain with me long after I turned the last page. 



Additional information:

To purchase this book from Amazon, click HERE.

To read more about Rose Tremain and her other books, click HERE.



Special thanks to Miriam Parker at Hachette Book Group USA for sending me this book to read and review.

  

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to interview the very gracious and talented Elizabeth Brundage, author of the recently released psychological thriller, Somebody Else's Daughter.  (If you haven't read my review, click HERE to do so.)

Elizabeth's answers to my questions are as thought-provoking and compelling as her novels.  Enjoy!


*****

Literarily: You dealt with so many issues in Somebody Else's Daughter:  adoption, alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography, sexual abuse, murder, AIDS, prostitution, adultery, gambling/dog fighting, eating disorders.  I am so impressed that you were able to incorporate all of these issues without overwhelming me as the reader.  It really worked.  Did you set out to include all of these in the novel, or did it just happen as the story evolved?  Was there any one that you particularly wanted to address, any that are especially close to your heart?


Elizabeth Brundage:  My first priority as a writer is to create characters that feel whole and real on the page.  The characters grow in my mind organically.  In time, they become very familiar to me, as if they are real people I have met by chance and come to know.  Most of the characters I write about have problems of one kind or another; problems interest me.  We live in chaotic times and many of us have war stories to tell.  I don’t think the problems I write about are necessarily unusual – on the contrary. 

The reality is it’s not a big stretch for me to write about somebody with an eating disorder, for example, because I have known so many women who have been afflicted by them.  However, it’s not just writing about “an eating disorder” for the sake of writing about one as a character trait.  I see that particular problem as being a symptom of a much larger, more complex problem that I tried to address thematically in this novel by looking at pornography, teenage sexuality and adultery – by exploring the ways in which we view women in society – and have viewed them for centuries – how we look at women, how we evaluate women, etc. 

I don’t think it’s terribly surprising that a sizable percentage of the female population (and some men) either starve themselves or make themselves throw up – consider the size zero that so many young girls aspire to.  Zero?  What is that about?  (I am nothing; I am no size.  I am so small; so tiny.  Pure.   I am empty; vacant.  Look how I’ve deprived myself).  This is a huge issue that demands attention – but you can’t just look at one aspect of it – you have to look at the larger picture.  We have to think about the language we use – the complexities of raising girls while assaulting them with visual cues that demand that they be thin.  If they are not thin, they are simply not worthy – and if you think about that for a minute you realize how ridiculous it is.  No matter what else they accomplish, there is no status so great as being thin in our world – think about that for a moment – think about that! 

As a society, we have become so comfortable with looking at women naked, judging women based on their physical shape.  The woman in question has diminished her power not only because she is continually being judged based on some grotesque physical rubric, but because she is willing to be judged.  This ties in to the way we live as women, the way we behave, the things we believe we want and need. 

One can ask, are our needs innate or learned?  Are we taught what beauty is, or do we simply know it when we see it?  Are we encouraged to betray one another, or is it simply an aspect of natural selection?  Is the visual paradigm that we so obsessively marvel and worship in our culture – what we discover as children on the pages of fairy tales and what is reiterated over and over again on the pages of fashion magazines – those poor, wan, unsmiling, hungry looking models – how a woman must look and smell in order to achieve happiness – isn’t it another way of diverting a woman’s attention from the larger issues at hand?  And isn’t that, ultimately, a form of repression?

These are the sorts of issues I think about and am interested in addressing in my fiction.  It’s my hope that, at the very least, my fiction might inspire conversations about these things.

Literarily:  On your website, you mention interviewing people in the pornography business.  I assume this was part of the research you did for the book.  What other type of research did you do prior to and during the writing process?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I live my life as a person who is continually trying to learn more.  The best thing about being a writer is that you have a good excuse to get into stuff that you otherwise maybe wouldn’t.  I always do a lot of research.  I read first – I spend a lot of time in the library, and then I talk to people who actually do the things that I’m researching, in this case people in the porn business, a sculptor, and teachers.  You have to know about what you’re writing about.

Literarily:  There were so many complex and sympathetic characters in this book - Willa, Nate, Claire, Teddy, Joe, Candace.  Were there any characters you were particularly sad to say good-bye to?  Any that you identified with more than others?

Elizabeth Brundage: The truth is, when I finish a novel I’m usually happy to let go of the characters.  You live with them in your head for a long time - years - and the way I know that I’m finished with them is when I feel ready to let them go.  I did miss Nate Gallagher a little bit because he was my favorite character, and I was happy that he’d found Claire and that they were going to have a life together.  One critic said that the ending felt “too neat” or something to that effect, but I was happy they decided to get married.  I felt that they had both come to terms with certain things in their lives and that their love for one another was well deserved.



Literarily:  Both of your novels - Somebody Else's Daughter and The Doctor's Wife - depict a marriage that has been splintered by adultery.  Yet, in both cases, the couple decides to make a go of it despite the fact that one spouse has been unfaithful.  Is there any reason that you decided to keep the couples together versus allowing the marriage to dissolve in the wake of adultery?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I think people need to make more of an effort to stay together in marriage.  Again, we are taught by the media to behave in a certain way – what is considered socially appropriate behavior.   When married couples betray one another in movies or on TV, the cost is huge – usually divorce. 

Again, we are being taught how to behave.  Yes, betrayal hurts.  It’s very disruptive to a relationship, and it causes a tremendous amount of pain and sometimes the damage is irrevocable.  Yet, truly, there are worse things.  Betrayal is not a death; it’s not sickness; it’s not a terminal condition.  Betrayal is a strategy of warfare.  When there is a war inside the marriage (and it may be a silent war), betrayal becomes a useful tactic. 

The predictable reaction is to put an end to the situation.  To walk away.  I’m done here.  But that’s never the easiest choice as it turns out, especially if there are children in the mix.  Children that you share.  I like the word you used, Shana, splintered.  The splinter hurts and causes a blister – you need to figure out how to remove it.  Marriage is actually something to protect.  You need to protect each other.  Like any living organism, there are dangerous viruses out there that can make it sick. However, at the same time, sometimes people get married and maybe they shouldn’t, and from the beginning there’s a strain.  Sometimes people feel pressured to get married, to have children, to make a life, and they don’t belong with that person in the first place. 

You have to look at the facts of your life in order to properly evaluate what’s going on.  We all make mistakes.  Sex is not always love; sex happens.  Marriage is very difficult.  Marriage is a process.  It’s not all one thing or another.  It’s not this or that, good or bad.  It’s a mess.  It’s an unruly plant that just keeps growing.  Sometimes there are flowers.  Sometimes it’s malnourished; needs a good watering.  And sometimes it wraps its vines around your neck until you feel you cannot breathe.  It’s up all night making love, or up all night steaming mad; it’s one great day and then suddenly everything sucks and you don’t know why.  It’s a process – it’s an opportunity.  We have to start making the most of it.  We have to look at all we have – not what we don’t have.  Not what’s missing, but what’s already there.



Literarily:  Willa, the title character, is named after the author Willa Cather.  Did you choose her name because of an affinity for Cather?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I love the name Willa.  My Antonia is a book many high schools use.  I thought it fit.



Literarily:  Your debut novel, The Doctor's Wife, was released in 2004.  Your website says that you've taught on the college level as an adjunct or visiting writer for over ten years.  Can you tell us a little about the path you have followed as a writer?  Prior to becoming a novelist, what kind of writing did you do?  Why did you decide to write a novel and what was that first experience like?

Elizabeth Brundage:  In high school I started to write poetry – I fell in love with writing poetry.  I had this SAT tutor who had all these poetry books and we’d get together for a tutoring session and skip the SAT stuff and talk about T.S. Eliot instead.  No wonder I didn’t do so well on my SAT’S! 

What I discovered as a young poet was how good it felt to have a voice – and to use it.  I went to Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts and fell in love with writing and “being a poet.”  I worked with an amazing poet – the late Andrew Salkey – who encouraged me to work very hard. 

Soon after, I became interested in film and spent my junior year at NYU film school, then returned to Hampshire and wrote my first feature length screenplay.  I applied to the American Film Institute shortly after, and moved out to LA and spent the next four years writing scripts and working in the industry in a variety of capacities.  I met with an agent about a screenplay and she suggested I try writing fiction, which I decided to do, and that was it – I was hooked.  I’ve been writing fiction ever since. 

The following year I lived in Israel with my husband who was studying at Tel Aviv University.  We lived in this apartment with borrowed furniture and these wonderful open windows and doors, no screens.  I didn’t have a typewriter or computer – just a pen and paper – and that’s when I really got into writing fiction.  I walked everywhere in that city, thinking, thinking. 

I ended up going to the University of Iowa to the Writers’ Workshop, and that’s when I made the commitment to writing fiction and trying to become a writer.  It’s been a long long long long long long long long long long long long road to becoming a writer.  You have to be in it for the long haul.



Literarily:  When and where do you do your writing?  Do you have a schedule?  A certain place that you go to write?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I write every morning for about four hours at a time – even if I’m just writing the same awful paragraph over and over again – then take a break for lunch, usually take a four mile walk, then spend the afternoon doing mom things.  At night, once everybody’s in bed, I get back to work and usually get in another two hours before going to sleep – rereading the same awful paragraph until I can’t stand it anymore and finally figure out how to make it a little better.



Literarily:  Can you tell us about what you're working on now?

Elizabeth Brundage:   A new novel … can’t talk about it now that I’m actually working on it.  You can talk about it before and afterward, but once you’re into the world you can’t talk about it anymore.  You get a stomach ache when you talk about it.  It’s in my head where it needs to stay put.



Literarily:  I'm always interested in what authors read.  What are you reading right now?

Elizabeth Brundage:  I am reading Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which is marvelous.



*****


Many, many thanks to Elizabeth for taking the time from what I know is a chaotically busy schedule to answer these questions with such thought and detail.



*****


Elizabeth has generously offered to send a copy of Somebody Else's Daughter to one lucky reader.  You have until 11:59 CDT Saturday, September 6, 2008 to enter.

1.  For one entry, post a comment here and mention some aspect of this interview you found enlightening or interesting.

2.  For another entry, read my review of Somebody Else's Daughter and again, post a relevant comment on that entry.  The review is HERE.

3.  For a third entry, spread the word about this interview and giveaway by blogging about it.  Link to this post and leave the URL of your blog post in the comments here.

  

Where is your reading taking you today?



North Carolina



Today I started readng The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton.  I'm only 40 pages in, and I've already laughed out loud.  I can tell I'm going to enjoy this one.



(Image courtesy of University of North Carolina)



To see other bloggers' responses to this question, visit An Adventure in Reading.

  

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your "teaser" from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

Please avoid spoilers!

My two "teaser" sentences for today:

From page 49 of The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton, a novel set in post-WWII North Carolina about a naive young man named Henry who gets tangled up with a car-theft ring:

"Aunt Dorie had told Henry to stay away from Nicky Noland and his brothers.  Somebody brought them to church on the two Sundays of the annual attendance contests with Zion Baptist."

What are you reading this week?  Can you share two random sentences?

  

The Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy

• Length:  368 pages
• Publication date:  February 26, 2008
• Publisher: Plume
• ISBN-10: 0452289068
• ISBN-13: 978-0452289062

Summary:

From the book jacket:  In ancient Israel, war is looming. Deborah, a highly respected leader, has coerced the warrior Barak into launching a strike against the neighboring Canaanites. Against all odds he succeeds, returning triumphantly with Asherah and Nogah, daughters of the Canaanite King, as his prisoners. But military victory is only the beginning of the turmoil, as a complex love triangle develops between Barak and the two princesses.

Deborah, recently cast off by her husband, develops a surprising affinity for Barak. Yet she struggles to rebuild her existence on her own terms, while also groping her way toward the greatest triumph of her life.



Shana's Review:

Contrary to what the title might lead one to believe, four characters share center stage in this book:  Deborah, Barak, Asherah and Nogah.  Eventually, I came to appreciate each of them.  I saw their faults, felt annoyed and frustrated with them, but in the end I also sensed good in each one.  They all possessed certain admirable qualities, even though it was often those very characteristics that led them to behave in less than admirable ways.

This novel gave life and texture to a period of time I previously knew very little about.  The book begins with a war between the Israelites and Canaanites, in which Israel was victorious.  A period of 40 years of peace follwed, and The Triumph of Deborah tells the story of how that peace came about, though the eyes of key players in the peacemaking process.

As the plot steadily unfolded, I found it difficult to put this book down.  I wanted Nogah, my favorite character, to get the guy - Barak, who she loved desperately and rather blindly.  I wanted peace to reign between the Israelites and Canaanites.  I wanted happiness for Deborah, because she was so good, so noble, so just, able to look past her personal feelings about people and situations and see the truth.

Etzioni-Halevy has written two other novels, about well-known biblical characters Hannah and Ruth, and I look forward to reading both after being mesmerized by her story of Deborah.



Additional information:

To purchase this book on Amazon, click HERE.

To visit the author's website, click HERE.



Special thanks to the author, Eva Etzioni-Halevy, for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.

  

The Streets of Babylon by Carina Burman, translated by Sarah Death

• Length:  400 pages
• Publication date: May 1, 2008
• Publisher: Marion Boyers Publishers Ltd.
• ISBN-10: 0714531383
• ISBN-13: 978-0714531380

Summary:

From the publisher’s website:  Self-centered, tactless and irresistible, Euthanasia Bondeson makes her debut on the crime novel scene. The setting is London in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition. Together with a Welsh police inspector the successful Swedish authoress goes in search of her beautiful companion, who has disappeared in the narrow streets and alleyways of London.

She meets beggars and whores, artists and society beauties, all actors on the modern city’s stage in a drama of dark shadows and ever changing desires. In this world where gender boundaries are constantly shifting, can we even tell who is a man and who is a woman?

With skirts flapping Euthanasia forges her way through this romp of a crime novel, surveying the streets which Sherlock Holmes himself will not tread until a whole generation later.



Shana’s Review:

The Streets of Babylon was my first Victorian mystery. I certainly noticed a strong Victorian aura to this novel, and thought it was an extremely well-written introduction to the genre. Carina Burman has done extensive doctoral research in 18th and 19th century literature and that expertise shows through in this, her fifth novel.

Euthanasia Bondeson was an interesting character. An authoress and woman of independent means in an era where both were rare, she was strong-willed and audacious, often saying the wrong thing, or at best, too much and defying the Victorian strictures of the society in which she moved.  She sees everything through the writer’s eye, and I felt great affinity for her when she said, '…whenever I have experienced anything, it does not become real for me until I have written it down, or at least spoken of it.'

The plot was interesting and well-paced. I was not sure who had kidnapped Euthanasia’s traveling companion Agnes until the author revealed the perpetrator’s identity. Likewise, I found myself wondering along with Euthanasia if Agnes was dead or alive.

There was also a romance element that kept me guessing. Euthanasia proclaimed, 'Men do not interest me greatly, and I have never regretted remaining single ...' but there were three attractive male characters in the book with whom the adventurous heroine did her fair share of chaste Victorian flirting. I found myself wondering if she would end up falling in love and into a romantic relationship after all.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that Euthanasia, though accepted into London's high society due to her stature as a world-famous author, preferred to explore the slums of the city and displayed a genuine concern for the underprivileged citizens she encountered there. The image of her standing on a dark and dirty street corner in a treacherous neighborhood with the silhouettes of the Tower and London Bridge in the background really stood out to me.

If you’re looking for a rapidly-paced thriller of a mystery, this may not be the book for you. However, if you enjoy genteel mysteries with impeccable period detail and just enough violence and irreverence to keep things interesting, you will likely find The Streets of Babylon a thoroughly entertaining read.



Additional information:

To purchase this book from Amazon, click HERE.



Special thanks to Marion Boyars Publishers for sending me a copy of this book to review.

  

Farm Flu by Teresa Bateman, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott

• Length:  32 pages
• Reading level:  Ages 4-8
• Publisher:  Albert Whitman & Company, 2004
• ISBN-10:  0807522752
• ISBN-13:  9780807522752

Summary and review:

When his mother goes out of town, the charming young hero of this story is left in charge of the farm, only to have the various farm animals come down with the flu.  It starts with the milk cow, then the chickens, pigs, turkeys, donkey and sheep. 

He does for the ailing animals just what his mother would do for him:  tucks them into bed, gives them tissues, hot tea and barley soup. 

I'd never helped a sickly cow.
(I just knew how to milk and plow.)

But I knew what my mom would do
If it were me who had the flu.

I tucked the Guernsey into bed
with tissues for her stuffy head.

Eventually the animals are nursed back to health, and when the boy begins to sneeze and feel under the weather, they repay the favor.

This book is chock full of elements that appeal to children, including playful, rhyming text and colorful illustrations of animals and farm scenes.  My daughter particularly enjoyed when I employed 'sound effects' for the many sneezes that took place throughout the story.

 

Additional information:

To purchase this book from Amazon, click HERE. 

  

~ Rebekah ~


You've won a copy of Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner.  Please forward your mailing address and I'll have this on its way to you Monday.

A huge thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway.  Please keep checking back; I have several great books to give away over the next few weeks.  Don't forget to check out The Front Porch Prophet giveaway and interview with author Raymond L. Atkins HERE.

To select the winner, I plugged the list of entries into random.org and used their list randomizer function.  Here was the final result:

There were 19 items in the list. Here they are in random order:

1. Rebekah
2. Avisannschild
3. Peng
4. Alessandra
5. Alyce
6. Elizabeth M.
7. Anita Y.
8. Yan
9. Amy
10. Anna
11. Hermeslyre
12. Linda
13. Janel
14. Cynthia
15. Diana
16. Guatami
17. Bunny
18. Tami
19. Archana