Showing posts with label Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fiction. Show all posts

Monday, May 4, 2015

Update + South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

Wow, it has been a whole week since I posted. Let's dust off my little blog.

I read up a storm during the month of April (25 books), but only reviewed one book. This is what happened. First, I basically spent every single minute of my spare time reading instead of blogging. Second, I joined Scribd two months ago and took advantage of my first free month and first month and decided to become a paid subscriber ($8.99 per month). Needless to say I went nuts reading backlist books and/or old releases, or complete series I've been wanting to get to. Hmm... in some cases, I already have the print books (some are on my Kindle too) but it just became a matter of choosing a more accessible format -- ebook or audiobook. Anyway, I continued with the self-indulgent binge reading that I began in March by reading what I want to read when I want to read it regardless of release date, genre, etc. The good news for me is that I am again reading, and enjoying, a little bit of everything! ROMANCE (Yay!), LGBT (Hurray!), Sci-Fi (Fireworks!), Fiction, and more…

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami (Naxos Audiobooks, narrated by Eric Loren)

I began the month by listening to the audio book South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. This was my second audio experience, and my first in a long time. I enjoyed the narration and was able to get lost in the story without getting pulled out or bored by his voice. The plot is another matter as I did not find it exceedingly fascinating. My ongoing lack of excitement had much to do with Murakami's main characters, particularly the male character's passive inaction and the female protagonist's almost ghostly essence, or better yet Murakami's attempt to make her a mystery goes so far until, in my estimation, she becomes a non-entity and nothing more than a vehicle for the male character's ponderings.

Murakami's main character, Hajime, is a man who allows life to happen. Hajime is in an almost constant state of emotional stagnation for most of his life. He is seldom proactive, forward momentum is missing. Hajime is aware of the disconnect that occurs between his thought process and the lack of action that permeates his life. The man marries, has children, and becomes moderately successful because his father-in-law provides him with the means to do so. He seems content with his life, although there is a sort of awareness on his part, a certain resentment, but again what is there to do but go on and succeed as best he can?

Since Hajime is both emotionally stagnant and disconnected, the majority of his interpersonal and personal relationships lack intimacy. However, this man has also been obsessed (note that I did not say emotionally involved) with Shimamoto, a young girl with a lame foot, since he was a boy. At that point in his life Hajime felt a connection with her yet when his family moved away to a nearby neighborhood he allowed the friendship to die. He proceeds to obsess about this "perceived connection" with Shimamoto throughout long years, using it as a pretext to sabotage all other relationships but never seeking her out.

A reunion takes place between Hajime and Shimamoto when she shows up at his jazz club later on in his life. By that time he is married with children, however that doesn't stop him from lying to his wife and risking everything in order to grasp that old and longed-for perceived connection. Shimamoto has lived and is supposedly living some sort of complicated life that the reader never gets a handle on, and first becomes too overtly coy and mysterious about her life, while later turning into the sort of foggy Japanese female whose essence as a character is rooted in unknown tragedy.

Overall, I found South of the Border, West of the Sun to be a highly atmospheric story, moody, with lots of rain, inner philosophical monologues about life and the complexities of human connections. This passive journey of a man without a true destination has some beautiful passages with music that becomes part of the atmosphere: classical, jazz, and old standard titles that can almost be heard on the background. For me, this was a taste of Murakami's work, but I will move on to read (or listen) to his better known works.

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Coming up next: My Patricia Briggs reading binge continued in April with the complete Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series.


Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Reading Update & Additions

My reading momentum is holding. I've read three books this month, but as in January they are books released in previous years. So, I have added a few 2015 releases to my eReader and/or my coffee table, and a couple of upcoming releases I'm looking forward to reading. It's about time! Three of the books highlighted are written by favorite authors Elliott Mackle, Neil Gaiman and Elizabeth Bear. The rest of the books are written by new-to-me authors.

Here are six of my latest additions:

JANUARY RELEASES:

Stealing Arthur by Joel Perry (January 10, 2015 - Bear Bones Books/Lethe Press) Print Edition

In this hilarious novel based on an actual event, author Joel Perry tells of fifty-five of Hollywood's highest awards--the Arthurs--have been stolen, setting in motion the kind of crazy only turn-of-the-millennium Los Angeles can provide. Intrigue, murder, comedy, sex, romance, celebrity dish, and ultimately redemption play out for characters from Skid Row to Hollywood's Walk of Fame, including all the desperate wannabes in between. In a town where people would happily kill anyone for a part, what would they do for a gilded Arthur statuette?

Joel Perry is the author of Funny That Way; That's Why They're in Cages, People!; Going Down: The Instinct Guide to Oral Sex; and The Q Guide to Oscar Parties and Other Award Shows.


Sunset Island (Caloosa Club Mysteries) by Elliott Mackle (January 10, 2015 - Lethe Press) Print edition

February, 1950. Lee County, Florida. In the freewheeling, celebratory aftermath of World War II, survivors and veterans are starting new lives, resuming old ones, or just picking up the pieces. Former Navy officer Dan Ewing feels safer than any gay man might expect in a segregated, dry county where the Ku Klux Klan is still strong. Managing an ultra-private club-hotel in Ft. Myers with a mixed-race staff, untaxed alcohol, high-stakes card games and escorts of both sexes, he's been acting like he has nothing to lose: business is good and his romantic life is better. Lee County Detective Bud Wright, a former Marine sergeant and Dan's secret lover, is outwardly strong and brave, but uneasy with the knowledge that, every time he and Dan get naked together, they're breaking laws he's sworn to uphold. It's nothing that a few drinks can't get him past, especially when moonlighting as security for Dan's hotel. Both men have their work cut out for them, however, once a hurricane evacuation brings to the hotel wealthy, well-connected non-members who happen to own Sunset Island, a secluded resort fronting the Gulf of Mexico. Their arrival sets in motion a turnover of hotel staff, sensual and sordid seductions, brutal assaults, the discovery of looted art from Holocaust victims, and, of course, murder. After drowned men start washing ashore on nearby beaches, Dan and Bud must set to work unraveling war-related mysteries and exploring the implications of a rapidly changing society in those postwar years.

FEBRUARY 2015 RELEASES:

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman (February 3, 2015 - William Morrow)

In this new anthology, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction—stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013—as well “Black Dog,” a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection.

Trigger Warning explores the masks we all wear and the people we are beneath them to reveal our vulnerabilities and our truest selves. Here is a rich cornucopia of horror and ghosts stories, science fiction and fairy tales, fabulism and poetry that explore the realm of experience and emotion. In Adventure Story—a thematic companion to The Ocean at the End of the Lane—Gaiman ponders death and the way people take their stories with them when they die. His social media experience A Calendar of Tales are short takes inspired by replies to fan tweets about the months of the year—stories of pirates and the March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother’s Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale The Case of Death and Honey. And Click-Clack the Rattlebag explains the creaks and clatter we hear when we’re all alone in the darkness.

A sophisticated writer whose creative genius is unparalleled, Gaiman entrances with his literary alchemy, transporting us deep into the realm of imagination, where the fantastical becomes real and the everyday incandescent. Full of wonder and terror, surprises and amusements, Trigger Warning is a treasury of delights that engage the mind, stir the heart, and shake the soul from one of the most unique and popular literary artists of our day.

Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear (February 3, 2015 - Tor Books)

“You ain’t gonna like what I have to tell you, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I'm one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It's French, so Beatrice tells me.”

Set in the late 19th century—when the city we now call Seattle Underground was the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes, would-be gold miners were heading to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront, Karen is a young woman on her own, is making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable’s high-quality bordello. Through Karen’s eyes we get to know the other girls in the house—a resourceful group—and the poor and the powerful of the town. Trouble erupts one night when a badly injured girl arrives at their door, beggin sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture, and who has a machine that can take over anyone’s mind and control their actions. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the next night brings a body dumped in their rubbish heap—a streetwalker who has been brutally murdered.

Bear brings alive this Jack-the-Ripper yarn of the old west with a light touch in Karen’s own memorable voice, and a mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science.
AMAZON's FIRST READERS - MARCH RELEASES:

The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Anne Noble (March 1, 2015 - Skyscape)

2014 Winner — Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — Young Adult Fiction

There is no cure for being who you truly are...

In a cottage high atop Llanfair Mountain, sixteen-year-old Clara lives with her sister, Maren, and guardian Auntie. By day, they gather herbs for Auntie’s healing potions. By night, Auntie spins tales of faraway lands and wicked fairies. Clara’s favorite story tells of three orphan infants—Clara, who was brought to Auntie by a stork; Maren, who arrived in a seashell; and their best friend, O’Neill, who was found beneath an apple tree.

One day, Clara discovers shimmering scales just beneath her sister’s skin. She realizes that Maren is becoming a mermaid—and knows that no mermaid can survive on land. Desperate to save her, Clara and O’Neill place the mermaid-girl in their gypsy wagon and set out for the sea. But no road is straight, and the trio encounters trouble around every bend. Ensnared by an evil troupe of traveling performers, Clara and O’Neill must find a way to save themselves and the ever-weakening mermaid.

And always, in the back of her mind, Clara wonders, if my sister is a mermaid, then what am I?
The One That Got Away by Simon Wood (March 1, 2015, Thomas & Mercer)

Graduate students Zoë and Holli only mean to blow off some steam on their road trip to Las Vegas. But something goes terribly wrong on their way home, and the last time Zoë sees her, Holli is in the clutches of a sadistic killer. Zoë flees with her life, changed forever.

A year later and still tortured with guilt, Zoë latches on to a police investigation where the crime eerily resembles her abduction. Along with a zealous detective, she retraces the steps of that fateful night in the desert, hoping that her memory will return and help them find justice for Holli. Her abductor—labeled the “Tally Man” by a fascinated media—lies in wait for Zoë. For him, she is not a survivor but simply the one that got away.

With an unforgettable heroine, a chillingly disturbed psychopath, and a story that moves at breakneck speed, The One That Got Away is thriller writer Simon Wood at his finest.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (Putnam Adult, July 2014) is pure 'women's fiction.' It follows three women: Madeline, Celeste as the two old friends meet Jane and her son while attending kindergarten orientation with their own children and take her under their wing.

Moriarty builds a whole story around the dangers of keeping secrets and telling small lies. It all actually begins with a murder investigation and goes back in time to an incident that occurred at the school during kindergarten orientation. At the center of this story, and providing much of its humor, you will find 'helicopter' moms who spend most of their time micro-parenting and behaving worse than their kindergarten children at the school yard. There are 'mom cliques,' fights, malicious gossip, and petitions bandied about that affect both kids and parents. It is all done with biting humor and a healthy dose of sarcasm, but I found it all mean, petty, thoughtless, and generally detrimental to the little ones.

There are, however, other darker threads running through the story that are not humorous at all. First we have the issue of 'bullying' in school, which of course is mishandled by all adults concerned because they are too busy 'outdoing' each other and playing the judgmental card to really pay attention to the children. Second, we have a conflict between a mother and teenage daughter who decides to move in with her father and his new wife, the ex-husband who abandoned them both early on. Then, there are two 'violence against women' threads: a current 'physical abuse behind closed doors' thread that grows increasingly violent as the story unfolds, and the other a past experience with date-rape that still affects the victim deeply and as a result the victim's child.

This novel is rather tough to describe. It is bitingly humorous, but darkly so. There are moments when it is easy to laugh, particularly at the adults' ridiculous behavior -- Madeline for example has some great lines. But, the dark and violent moments are tough to read through. Moriarty portrays the abused woman's delusional state of mind, self-blame, and the progression of violence in the relationship quite well. I am, however, deeply disappointed that after all is said and done the state of her children's mental health is neglected.

And that is my main problem with this novel. It is ambitious in that it tackles multiple issues affecting women and children. Some aspects of these multiple threads are well rendered yet there is so much going on that some issues are superficially touched on while others are ignored. The narrative is well done and entertaining enough to keep readers involved. Unfortunately, the entertainment factor or light approach often takes away from the seriousness of heavier issues and vice versa. As the perfect example I will use the climactic scene, a combination comedic farce (bordering on slapstick) with dark revelations culminating in murder.

I believe that Big Little Lies will appeal to women's fiction readers who may be fans of Moriarty's light and mordant humorous approach to serious subject matter or fans of books with a similar style. I am leaving a lot of what goes on out of this post: dysfunctional children, poor parenting, a romance with a happy ending, infidelities, and more. I enjoyed a few out-loud laughs toward the beginning, before the numbing truth surfaced and those horrifying violent scenes began to trickle in. In the end I found the story to be well written with some admittedly good messages, but over-the-top and somewhat confounding.


Monday, January 19, 2015

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (Penguin Press, June 26, 2014), is her debut novel. A period piece that begins in the late 50's with the main story taking place in the early to mid-70's, it focuses on the lives of a mixed-raced couple, Marilyn and James Lee and their three children, Nathan, Lydia, and Hannah.

The anti-miscegenation laws were found unconstitutional in 1967, so this was a time in America when racism was still ripe and a family composed of a Chinese/American man, a white woman and their three children did not fit anywhere, at least not in a small town in Ohio. This was a time when people of Asian descent were referred to as "Oriental," a term used by Celeste Ng throughout this novel to describe James Lee and his children. This was also a time when men were condescending to women with dreams of a career, and those women often had to choose between a career and having a family because it was not socially acceptable to have both.

The book begins "Lydia was dead. But nobody knew it yet. . . " Lydia was the Lees' middle child, the blue-eyed, most beloved child around whom everything revolved, the vessel holding her parents' combined dreams -- her father's need to blend in, and her mother's long-lost dream of becoming a doctor. With Lydia's death, a family filled with secrets, self-deception, and guilt unravels, and the truth of a small town's bigotry and lack of compassion comes to the surface. Everyone she left behind is affected. The parents who made Lydia responsible for their happiness and made of her the glue that kept them together. Nathan, the often ignored and resentful but loving older brother who became Lydia's source of strength and savior, but who in the end could not save her. Little sister Hannah, the invisible little girl who saw everything but whom no one in the family acknowledged. And Jack, the wild boy across the street whose life is entangled with the Lee's through Lydia and who becomes the focus of Nathan's rage.

This is a quiet, multi-layered story that makes an impact.  It focuses on family, the damage that may come of the too-high expectations parents place on their children while children base their "love" on meeting those expectations, love and rivalry between siblings, children caught in the middle, the effects of racism and misogyny, racial identity, love, infidelity, and so much more. It is a story that digs into each and every character and the motivation behind their actions. There are no stones left unturned and all is revealed, including what happens to Lydia.

I thought long and hard about these characters, this story, after I finished the book: about history and the high price so many people of color, immigrants, and their children have paid while reaching for the undeniably alluring and often unreachable "American dream," the price we as women have paid (and still pay) on our long journey forward, as well as the damage parents can, unknowingly and thoughtlessly, inflict on their children. This is a beautifully written, thought-provoking debut by Celeste Ng. Highly recommended.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Review: The Girls at The Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine

I so enjoyed this book! Flappers, bootleggers, speakeasies, drinking, dancing, cross-starred lovers, and a villainous father!
"Jo guessed even then that Mother's purpose was to have a son, and she was kept from all other causes. Them included."
The Girls at the Kingfisher Club is based on The Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale but this is not a fantasy piece, it is strictly fiction set in 1920's Manhattan. The story loosely follows the same structure as the fairy tale with twelve sisters born to a wealthy Mr. Hamilton who kept his wife pregnant in the hopes of having a son to carry on the Hamilton name until the wife died. He confines his twelve daughters to the second floor and attic severely neglecting them. The girls' one and only outlet is dancing. The four eldest daughters, Jo the "general," vivacious Lou, gorgeous Ella, and down-to-earth Doris sneak out at night and hit the Manhattan speakeasies at age fourteen until they find a home at The Kingfisher Club. After that, as the rest of the girls come of age and under Jo’s watchful eye, they dance their nights away at the only place where they feel safe and taste precious moments of freedom.
“The girls were wild for dancing, and nothing else. No hearts beat underneath those thin, bright dresses. They laughed like glass.“
I love how well Valentine integrates the fairy tale and her own version with the Hamilton daughters as 1920's flappers. It is a great story with a controlling father as the ultimate misogynist who attempts to sell his daughters to men like himself as a solution to financial troubles, and how his daughters outwit him and make their way in a world they don't recognize by daylight.
“The girls could hope that these husbands, wherever her father planned to find them, would be kinder and more liberal men than he was. But the sort of man who wanted a girl who’d never been out in the world was the sort whose wife would stay at home in bed and try to produce heirs until she died of it.“
There is a romance of sorts between the eldest daughter Jo and bootlegger turned club owner Tom, but Jo emerges as the mistress of her own destiny and throughout and to the end controls her own happiness.
"You can't expect people to give you the things you love, unless you know how to ask."
Of the sisters, Jo is the best developed character with Lou, Doris, and Ella following in importance. The rest of the sisters are sometimes distinguishable only by the dances they prefer or key characteristics. Of the secondary characters, Mr. Hamilton, Tom, and Jake, The Kingfisher Club's bartender and loyal friend make the greatest impact.

There is a certain awkwardness to the writing style or structure as a result of long paragraphs containing thoughts or commentary placed between parentheses. Although after a while I became used to this ongoing style, there was always an awareness at the back of my mind that interrupted the reading flow throughout the novel. However, the story itself is engaging and a quick read with excellent Roaring Twenties atmosphere and gritty details of Manhattan's underground speakeasies as the setting. The descriptions of dancing in seedy or glamorous clubs are gorgeous. The heartbreaking moments, Jo's sacrifices for her sisters, the sisters' escape from captivity into the real world, and the final payoff, all make for a magnificent tale by Valentine.
“She was still trying to discover how people related to each other, and how you met the world when you weren’t trying to hide something from someone. It was a lesson slow in coming.“

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Short Stories: Michael Graves, Lewis DeSimone, Michael Carroll

June is Pride Month. I kicked off this month on June 1st by featuring LGBT short stories. I will continue to do so throughout the month by featuring short works written by gay authors, as well as  books with LGBT themes.


Today I would like to feature three short stories from With: New Gay Fiction edited by Jameson Currier (Chelsea Station, December 2013). This anthology features sixteen authors writing about all different types of relationships between gay men and others, including, but not limited to, lovers, family, friends, and acquaintances. I've been reading this book slowly and most likely will features other stories along the way. But today it is all about Michael Graves, Lewis DeSimone and Michael Carroll.

"Gold Mine" by Michael Graves
Gold Mine is an engaging and deeply emotional read written from two points of view. First, we have the boy anxiously waiting for his lover's return from the Iraqi War, and then we have boy's grandmother whose keen observations are shared with the reader. Graves uses both perspectives to explore the boy's relationship with his lover, the grandmother's love and acceptance, as well as the rejection he experiences from family members and the lover's family. This piece is engrossing in style with a political flavor that feels a bit dated, but not so much that it is not pertinent today. Particularly since there are lovers still waiting for their loved ones to come home safely.

"In Pride" by Lewis DeSimone
Lewis DeSimone's In Pride focuses on today's issue of gay marriage and all the changes that the new laws bring to individual lives and to the gay community as a whole. It's a beautiful thing and San Francisco is celebrating. But it all comes down to analyzing change and effect in the life of his main character, and as he joins the throngs of those celebrating, the effect it will have on a few of his friends who come from an older generation as opposed to the younger members of the gay community. There are questions: Is this something he wants in his life? Should he settle for the young lover who's already in his life or should he search for the right person? Does he want to? Is there still a chance for him? This is a fantastic piece by DeSimone who hits the right tone while addressing the new choices available to the modern gay man from the perspective of an experienced, mature generation.

"Werewolf" by Michael Carroll
Werewolf by Michael Carroll is one of those stories that just about anyone can relate to. It is about childhood friendships, you know, the ones that we let go with almost a sense of relief and later regret, usually when it's too late, because there are unresolved issues and feelings. In this case, Carroll's main character got there in time to say those last loving words to a dying friend and came to terms with rough realities. This is a deeply emotional, reality-based story that touches on the truth of those teen-year friendships that span years and in so many ways shape us.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Short Stories: Naming Ceremony by Chip Livingston

In the sixteen short stories and profound essays that comprise Naming Ceremony, Chip Livingston examines the worlds we create for ourselves by exploring the names we are called and those we call ourselves. Livingston’s characters express in word and deed the names that confirm their individuality as well as validating their roles in family, culture, politics, and sexuality.
My previous acquaintance with Chip Livingston's works was limited to one short story and his poetry volume Crow-Blue, Crow-Black. In this collection of short stories the quality of Chip Livington's writing cannot be questioned. He is a fine poet and writer. However, for me, the power of some pieces stand out with unqualified force.

First we have a selection of connected short pieces that collectively complete one story -- "Naming Ceremony," "What Calls You Home," "Owls don't have to mean death," "One Hundred Kisses," and "Ghost Dance." These stories depict moments in the life of Peter Strongbow, his HIV positive lover Elan, with Native American culture and family playing key roles in Peter's lifestyle and relationships. Livingston captures moments filled with love, hope and laughter, dreams and fear, loss and grief with a deep sense of truth and powerful honesty.

That same sense of honesty is found in Livingston's "Anthology of Spoon River AIDS Walk" which is composed of small, verse-like snippets that convey thoughts of lovers, friends, family, and acquaintances participating in an AIDS Walk for Tim Kelley who died of AIDS. This powerful piece hits the reader with raw reality and a myriad of emotions.

Susan

I picked Mason in Charleston.
It happened that I was there for a meeting.
Good timing. Right.
Thank you Universal Forces of Love and Light.
I met Mason through Tim.
I'll walk with Mason in memory of Tim.
    And for my Father.


Tom Girl

I used to live with Tim in Columbia
I wanted to come up but I just couldn't
I wanted to see Mason and the Kelley's
It's too hard
I can't deal with it
I wonder how many people
will wear shirts and walk for me
I still feel great but Tim went so quick

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About the Author: Chip Livingston has received awards in fiction from Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, the University of Colorado, and the AABB Foundation. As a faculty member of the low-residency MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts and at Gotham Writers Workshops, Chip teaches nonfiction, fiction and poetry writing.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Guest Author Tim Z. Hernandez: "I Remain as Ever, Bea"

Today, I would like to extend a big welcome to Tim Z. Hernandez, author of Mañana Means Heaventhe story of Bea Franco who for years was only known as Terry, the "Mexican girl" from Jack Karouac's On the Road.
Mañana Means Heaven deftly combines fact and fiction to pull back the veil on one of literature’s most mysterious and evocative characters. Inspired by Franco’s love letters to Kerouac and Hernandez’s interviews with Franco, now in her nineties and living in relative obscurity, the novel brings this lost gem of a story out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

Franco was sought out by dozens of Kerouac and Beat scholars, but none could find her. According to one, “finding Bea Franco is like trying to find the ghost of a needle in haystack.”
Well, Tim Z. Hernandez found the "needle in the haystack" and wrote a book that has received high praise from The Associated Press, Booklist and others, and that I am sure will continue to do so.

On a personal note, when The University of Arizona Press contacted me about the upcoming release of Mañana Means Heaven I was immediately taken in by the synopsis. It just captures the imagination. Later, as I was in the middle of reading Bea Franco's journey through life, I was quite shocked and saddened to learn that she had passed away.

Today is the last day in a week-long blog tour. By following the tour, you will find real insight into Tim's research by listening to interviews, reading notes from his journal, excellent question and answer sessions, or if you prefer, there are also book excerpts available.

For his last stop today, however, Hernandez chose to write a very personal post about Bea.

Blog Tour:
Monday, September 16 | Stephanie Nikolopoulos blog 
Tuesday, September 17 | The Daily Beat 
Wednesday, September 18 | La Bloga 
Thursday, September 19 | The Big Idea 
Friday, September 20 | The Dan O’Brien Project 

Welcome Tim!
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I Remain as Ever, Bea

On the morning of August 15, 2013 I received a text from Albert Franco, Bea's son, telling me in only a few abbreviated words that his mother had passed away. This news took the breath out of me. It was unexpected, to say the least. I had just recently spoken with Patricia, Bea's daughter, who Bea had been staying with in Long Beach. My family and I were making plans to see her while we were going to be in California. At the time, Patricia said something to the effect of, "My mother's been doing much better lately and I'm sure she'd like to see you." So my wife and I began planning. Just a few days earlier, on August 3, after receiving copies of my book in the mail from my publisher, I hurried to the post office and sent Bea a package, which included a signed copy of the book, her book, along with a bound photo album I had made her, compiled with all the photos and documents her family had loaned me during the writing of her book. Days later Patricia called to tell me the package had arrived and how excited they all were. I asked if she wouldn' t mind taking a few pictures of Bea holding her book, and she agreed. On August 7, I received several text messages from Patricia's daughter Dina, images of Bea smiling with her copy of Mañana Means Heaven in her hands. She had that same curious glint in her eye that I had come to know, as if to say, it's about time! Of course, in that moment we had no idea that these photographs would become the only evidence that Bea did in fact live to see her life story told in the pages of a book. No longer merely the fictional "Mexican girl" of Kerouac's imagination, or the quiet and unassuming campesina that appeared for all of two minutes in Walter Salles' movie, On the Road, but Beatrice Renteria Franco, now Bea Kozera, the real woman, the real deal.


On the very day Mañana Means Heaven was to land on the shelves of bookstores across the nation, Thursday August 29, a handful of friends and family gathered at the idyllic Belmont Memorial Park in Fresno, California to pay their last respects to this "petite woman with fire in her heart," as one of Bea's relatives remarked. For the better part of three years, it seemed every member of my family was also invested in Bea's story. (It was my mother who actually located her whereabouts back in 2010. After telling her I was about to give up my search for Bea and just get on with the book, she replied, "Give me your files and notes, I'll find her!" 24 hours later, she handed me two possible leads.) Even my cousin Art, when I went to visit him in the pen the first thing out of his mouth was, "Have you finished your book about the Mexican girl?" And of course, so many times my wife Dayanna had watched me return from my interviews with Bea beaming with excitement. Like this, my family, even our children, became familiar with Bea; through our visits with her, through the myriad photos which hung on the wall above my desk as I wrote the book, through the sound of Bea's own tender voice played back on my video camera, for three solid years we lived with her presence. Needless to say, at her services, we were all there together. I was asked by her son Albert to share a few words, and so I spoke briefly about what Bea had taught me, and about what we might all learn from her story. That each of us, regardless of how seemingly insignificant or boring or obscure our lives may be, are made up of valuable epic stories that deserve their day in the light. Standing at the podium, I concluded my thoughts by sharing one small but very cool detail about Bea. Over the years she had enjoyed writing letters and postcards to people, and she had a distinct way of signing off. I could clearly see that curious glint in her eye shine, each time she assured her reader, "I Remain as Ever, Bea."


Tim Z. Hernandez, copyright 2013
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Mañana Means Heaven by Tim Z. Hernandez
Released: August 29, 2013
The University of Arizona Press
In this love story of impossible odds, award-winning writer Tim Z. Hernandez weaves a rich and visionary portrait of Bea Franco, the real woman behind famed American author Jack Kerouac’s “The Mexican Girl.” Set against an ominous backdrop of California in the 1940s, deep in the agricultural heartland of the Great Central Valley, Mañana Means Heaven reveals the desperate circumstances that lead a married woman to an illicit affair with an aspiring young writer traveling across the United States.

When they meet, Franco is a migrant farmworker with two children and a failing marriage, living with poverty, violence, and the looming threat of deportation, while the “college boy” yearns to one day make a name for himself in the writing world. The significance of their romance poses vastly different possibilities and consequences.

Mañana Means Heaven deftly combines fact and fiction to pull back the veil on one of literature’s most mysterious and evocative characters. Inspired by Franco’s love letters to Kerouac and Hernandez’s interviews with Franco, now in her nineties and living in relative obscurity, the novel brings this lost gem of a story out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
About the Author: Tim Z. Hernandez is a poet, novelist, and performance artist whose awards include the 2006 American Book Award, the 2010 Premio Aztlan Prize in Fiction, and the James Duval Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation. He is the author of two books of poetry, Natural Takeover of Small Things (2013) and Skin Tax, and the novels Mañana Means Heaven (2013) and Breathing in Dust. In 2011 the Poetry Society of America named him one of sixteen New American Poets. He holds a BA from Naropa University and an MFA from Bennington College.

Visit Tim Z. Hernandez here.
Buy the book here.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Review: Best Gay Stories 2013 ed. by Steve Berman


Best Gay Stories 2013 edited by Steve Berman is Lethe Press's yearly collection of twenty of last year's best gay stories. This year's edition is focused on different and highly relevant gay themes.

Berman chose a wide variety of stories written by well-known authors as well as new talent. The authors' writing styles are as diverse as their approach to the stories, and by the time I finished reading this collection it became obvious to me why each story and writer was chosen. The themes vary from young to adult love, and from fear of aging to committed partnership and cheating issues, but there is much more.

There is Irrespective of the Storm by Mark Ameen, a fantastic story about 1980's gay lifestyle and hookups. Farewell to Wise's by William Sterling Walker explores complacency and the need to move on, and Steve Berman's "Bottom of the Menu" manages the question of aging with great wit and eroticism. Also included, there are two must read favorites, Next Year at Sonny's by Eddy Sarfaty, an excellent essay exploring family, friends and modern gay lifestyle, and an essay I've dubbed "body beautiful" by Peter Knegt, "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Have Sex in Gay Art Porn."

As in all collections of this size, there are pieces that stand out and there is always the question of preference, however, I firmly believe that within the twenty stories included in Best Gay Stories 2013 there are plenty of meaningful, excellent pieces to satisfy the most discerning reader. This is certainly a winning collection of gay themed stories for me.

Category: LGBT/ Gay Fiction
Series: Best Gay Stories
Publisher/Release Date: Lethe Press/June 1, 2013
Grade: B+

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This collection has 20 stories and B+ is a high grade, indeed, for such a large collection. As always when grading a collection, I take into consideration writing, content, and the editor's contribution. As an added bonus and because these stories deserve to be highlighted, below I'm including my brief impressions of the whole collection:

"Wheat, Barley, Lettuce, Fennel, Salt for Sorrow, Blood for Joy" by Alex Jeffers
Young Adult. This excellent and well-written mythology-based romance between two young men transports the reader to another time and place where youthful lusty thoughts and yearning abound.

"Two Variations on the Theme of Envy" by Matthew R. Loney
Looks don't make the man. "Dancing, I saw a man nearby whose face my gut said ugly to instinctively. [...] Thinking back, I may have even said unlovable." Two highly relevant shorts: one focuses on those often wrong superficial judgments based on outward appearance, and the other on the sad consequences that come from attempting to find and maintain modern man's idea of perfect beauty.

"What Comes Around" by Jameson Currier
That birthday. "Forty is looming. You are approaching a time zone of trauma." Excellent short  rationalizing the pros, cons, and insecurities that come along with aging while alone.

"I Will Forget the Sound of His Voice" by Thomas Kearnes
Drugs & Sex. "Tweak makes you ambitious." "Curtis will likely shift, like a pianist from key to key, over to a new man. There will be no anger, no tears. I've survived the party scene over seven years. A simple rule: nothing lasts[...]" Excellent and pertinent short highlighting the party scene, drugs, sex and passing relationships.

"East Tenth Street, 1999" by Nicholas Boggs
Independence. A rather truncated short focused on a young man whose sole goal is to gain independence from his family when he finally gets that coveted apartment inherited from his uncle in the City. Excellent writing style, but it left me wanting more.

"Don't Tell Me" by Chip Livingston
The Breakup. A good but very short story about the heartbreak that comes as the result of a breakup, as seen from the perspective of the one left behind.

"Body and Mind" by Eric Sasson
Commitment & Cheating. "Why did affection have to be the death knell of lust? What is it about hugging Hunter that makes Andy's dick limp? Or rather, not limp, but awake for the briefest spell, like a bear that peeks out of his cave only to decide his winter isn't over." Does affection kill a relationship? A very good piece that effectively explores the subject of cheating when sex life turns stale between committed partners.

"Boy, A History" by Saeed Jones
Sexual Discovery & Identity from African American perspective. A complete short with an excellent rhythmic writing style where the author depicts violence and abuse as his character goes through the process of sexual discovery and a search for identity.

"Irrespective of the Storm" by Mark Ameen
1980's Gay Lifestyle & AIDS. "Irrespective of the storm, the soul struck by lightning time and again, throughout the abominable Eighties there they were: compact, beautiful men spreading the cheeks of their asses on beds of gently rushing water." An excellent retrospective highlighting the gay lifestyle in New York City during the 1980's. The author focuses on lifestyle, places, relationships, and hookups, ending with the AIDS epidemic. I loved this one.

"This is Love" by Stephen Graham Jones
Gay Bashing. The speculative fiction version of gay bashing, this story is haunting and ohhh so sad!

"Villainelle" by Chaz Brenchley
Home. "Home. For some people, it's where they end up, where they settle. For some of us, it's where you start. Where you run away from. Where you leave. For some of us, coming back would never be a choice. Only ever a thing we did because we had to." I like Chaz Brenchley's style and really enjoyed his fantasy take on this theme.

"The Origin of a Fiend" by Hal Duncan
Killing the Secret. "You'll never forgive the fact that the world's first homo superhero is no sooner out than he's suffering and dying. You'll never forgive, never forget, never. . . " A rather complex comic book-based story with much to offer. This is the brilliant Hal Duncan we're talking about so I may have to read this story again. Enough said.

"The Bloated Woman" by Jonathan Harper
Dangerous Liaisons. A young man goes to a coast town to take care of an old professor and hooks up with an older, local man. I have read Harper's story twice now and it left me wanting to read it again. It is certainly memorable!

"Cinema Love" by Aaron Chan
Looking for common ground. I have one word for this romantic love story: sweet!

"Ghost Water" by Casey Hannan
The Closet. I absolutely love the atmosphere and setting, and the excellent way in which the author gets to the point of his story with few words.

"The Theater of the Floating World" by Simon Jacobs
Obsession. "I wasn't much better off. I was here to pay for sex. I was as desperate as anyone else." I loved the setting and found the Asian focus quite interesting. There is an air of desperation and obsession that makes this a disturbing, memorable read.

"Farewell to Wise's" by William Sterling Walker
Moving On. "There's nothing for you in this city anymore. No opportunity. No more turkey, girlfriend. The buffet is closed. You need to move on to something else. Save yourself. Get out while you can. You've been too complacent. You need to see the world. You've been on the party jag too long." Lord, did I love Farewell to Wise's! I love the atmosphere. The relationship between the characters is so marvelous that they came alive for me, and the way the author makes his point is excellent. What more can I say?

"Bottom of the Menu" by Steve Berman
The unexpected and always welcomed "meal." "Hustlers must go to school for etiquette now. I shall have to revise my view of the twenty-first century.""Fresh pound cake w/confiture de lait. My mouth has grown dry as my mother's pound cake. And how much the faygele am I to be thinking about my mother while on my knees before a crotch?" Berman's contribution is sexy, erotic, and funny. So enjoyable. I kept getting a visual while reading this story, which says a lot about the writing. A favorite among Berman's shorts.

"Next Year at Sonny's" by Eddy Sarfaty
Family, Friends, Lifestyle. "You're a good kid." "I'm forty-six." "You'll always be a kid to me," she says as she pats my cheek." Sarfaty writes a funny, heartwarming, and thought provoking essay using what has become a traditional Passover with "the boys" at Eddy's mother's home in Long Island as a setting. A must read.

"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Have Sex in Gay Art Porn" by Peter Knegt
Body Beautiful. "I spent a lot of my adult life so far feeling threatened by my own body and by my own sexuality," I said. "But I think I've come pretty far in that regard." "[...] I thought about how life had brought me from being a gay little boy in a small town dancing to "Under The Sea" in his living room to a gay little man rapidly drinking pints of beer in a gross San Francisco gay bar awaiting his debut as a pornographic actor. I felt oddly proud of this progression." I was touched by the intimacy of thought and truthfulness in Mr. Knegt's essay. I love both the progression and the end of this essay!


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

TBR Review: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The theme for this month's TBR Challenge is "all about the hype."  The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is a best seller, and in certain reading circles this book definitely qualifies under that theme. It has been in my own "to be read pile" since March. Does it live up to the hype? Let's see.

The Snow Child
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone—but they glimpse a young, blond-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.
Definition (Wiki): Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of thought.

The Snow Child is a realistic portrayal of the rough and often violent life as it was in Alaska in the 1920's, combined with a magical fairy tale. I wanted to know what the hoopla was all about, and found that what makes this book so special, besides the beautiful prose, lies in how well Ivey brings the magic of a fairy tale into the realm of the possible and the beauty and harsh realities of 1920's Alaskan rural life become magical until together they become a possible magical reality to the reader. Magical realism? Absolutely.
"Wife, let us go into the yard behind and make a little snow girl; and perhaps she will come alive, and be a little daughter to us."

"Husband," says the wold woman, "there's no knowing what may be. Let us go into the yard and make a little snow girl." --- Little Daughter of the Snow by Arthur Ransome
Jack and Mabel moved to Alaska to start over almost ten years after Mabel lost her baby during childbirth. Jack is breaking under the brutality of working an Alaskan farm alone and thinks himself too old to start over. Mabel is dying of loneliness and depression to the point of becoming suicidal, but having drifted apart she doesn't tell Jack, and of course Jack doesn't share his concerns with Mabel.

It is after a fun, light visit to neighbors George, Esther and their sons that during the first snowfall Mabel and Jack playfully build a little girl out of snow in their front yard and spend an evening together. Next day, for the first time both see a little girl running through the woods wearing the mittens and scarf previously worn by their snow girl. A game of hide and seek ensues, but the little girl, who always seems to be accompanied by a red fox, is so quick that neither Jack nor Mabel can catch her. 

Eventually, the child decides to become a part of Jack and Mabel's life, on her own terms. She comes and she goes, the woods always a part of their life... until summer arrives, when the child disappears and everything seems to go wrong. There are desperate, dark moments as Jack and Mabel work and almost give up on the farm and each other. Thankfully, George, Esther and their son Garrett are there to help whether they want it or not! But when winter returns, will the child return with it?

Through this first part of the novel, Ivey sets the atmosphere for the story by using the beauty and danger that nature in a barely explored Alaska presents. Ivey incorporates nature into the story by making the snow girl part of it, and through her both Jack and Mabel come to appreciate and respect its bounty, beauty and danger. Through Jack's experiences with the child, Ivey brings to the reader moments that are both wondrous and hard to explain combined with a stark reality to the little girl's seemingly magical existence, firmly placing this novel into the realm of magical realism. 

The second part of the book is one of the most heart wrenching of the story, yet one of the best!  Mabel and Jack finally confront much of their past. I love the way the balance teeters and shifts between the main characters -- Mabel, Jack, and Faina. Secondary characters also gain depth in this section. Esther!! I love her down-to-earth, loud and take-over personality. The contrast between Esther and Mabel is sharp -- where Mabel's flights of fancy take the reader into the world of fairy tales and magic, Esther serves to ground the reader to reality. At this point, her youngest son Garrett is groomed as an important character as he plays the role of teacher to Jack and Mabel and soaks up the respect and singular attention focused on him by these two lonely people.
As she gazed upon him, love... filled every fiber of her being, and she knew that this was the emotion that she had been warned against by the Spirit of the Wood. Great tears welled up in her eyes --- and suddenly she began to melt. "Snegurochka," translated by Lucy Maxym
Ivey uses a Russian fairy tale as the base for her story, and as in all fairy tales there is magic and in this one love, but also as in all fairy tales there is a dark side. I think it is best said by Ada, Mabel's sister, in one of her lovely letters, " Why these stories for children always have to turn out so dreadfully is beyond me. I think if I ever tell it to my grandchildren, I will change the ending and have everyone live happily ever after. We are allowed to do that, are we not Mabel? To invent our own endings and choose joy over sorrow?" The sorrow is expected, yes? Ohhh, but there is also joy and happiness in this story!

The Snow Child is Eowyn Ivey's debut novel, and an excellent debut it is! It is a tale of contrasts where the renewal of the human spirit is brought about by nature's glorious beauty and stark brutality, by believing in love given and accepted freely with all those harsh realities that just make the magic so much more powerful. I recommend it to lovers of fairy tales, nature, magical realism, fans of Alice Hoffman, and to those who just love a gorgeous story with beautiful prose and unforgettable characters.
Theme: All About the Hype
November

Category: Historical Fantasy Fiction
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Reagan Arthur Books/ February 1, 2012
Grade: A-

Visit Eowyn Ivey here.

NOTE: This was a wonderful book to read right before the Thanksgiving holiday!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Minis: Megan Hart, Mel Bossa

I haven't been reading a lot of books lately, but some of the books I've read have been excellent. No question about it! This usually happens to me at least once a year. It's like all the books I'm going to love find me at the same time. I'm in that kind of groove at the moment. I don't know... it might be that I choose to read works by certain authors, or books that are the right fit for me. Who knows? Anyway, here are two minis for you, as well as two recommendations.

Dirty by Megan Hart - Conclusion

Earlier last week I began reading Dirty by Megan Hart and shared my first impressions of the book for the TBR Challenge. Well, I finished it and found the answers to my questions. My final thoughts?

At the midway point in the book I was really enjoying the erotic and sexually charged moments and how well balanced they were with the deeper plot involving Elle's life. I was also loving Hart's characterization of Dan (and I did until the end, great character!), but was hoping to find out more about what drove Elle. Elle's intense, sensual, personal and somewhat frustrating narration kept me reading, and I wanted to know how or if she would overcome her fear of intimacy, and more importantly the dysfunctional family situation plaguing her.

One of the factors that impressed me about this story is that although Dan and Elle's relationship began as one based on sex, and sex continued to be central, it also turned the key to an emotional connection for both characters -- real emotion felt by the reader. Hart uses Dan and those emotions to reveal the broken woman Elle has become. That emotional connection felt between the characters (and the reader) makes a huge difference because without it, Dirty would have been just another erotic piece. That and the depth that went into plotting, as well as in developing Elle's character.

In my previous post I said that Dirty is not an erotic romance, well... it is and it isn't. This book is tough to categorize so I'm not going to try to pin it down for you, except to tell you that it is a beautifully written erotica piece with depth of plot and characterization. If you haven't read it yet, give it a try. I don't know why I waited so long! I'm planning on reading "Broken" next. (2007, Harlequin Spice) Grade: A-

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Franky Gets Real by Mel Bossa (Click on title to read book summary)

The title of this novel is Franky Gets Real, but in reality this book is not just about Franky. Mel Bossa brings stark reality back into the lives of five high school friends who after a few years of distance decide to go on a camping trip, just like the good old days. Unfortunately you can never really go back and instead of fun and relaxation, baggage follows them and the trip turns into one where lifelong secrets are revealed, one at a time.

Franky is engaged and works for the domineering Geena whom he wants to escape, but can't or won't. His problem? Confusion about his sexuality and inability to make decisions. Geena is already questioning Franky's sexuality and now his best friend Alek is about to come out of the closet to the whole group. If Alek comes out, Franky will have to admit to himself that his feelings for his best friend are deeper than friendship and he doesn't want to confront reality.

Alek has his own past ghosts to slay, but there's a good reason for his decision to come out to friends and family now. His situation and revelations act as a catalyst for the whole group, as his older brother Wyatt, a man who once was the coolest finally reveals why his marriage and life are slip sliding away, brainy Nevin's seriously pathetic problems come to the surface, and even Holly finds some previously unknown and disturbing revelations about her life. Acting almost as therapists to the group are excellent secondary characters Eli and Vlad, a gay couple the group meets at the camping grounds.

There is a lot of drama in this story, and as with Split, in many ways this book by Bossa is tough to categorize. In Franky Gets Real everyone is revealed for who they really are, secrets, warts and all. I found the characters well rendered with the exception of both female characters: Geena who becomes the screeching girlfriend and (even when there is reason to) tough to sympathize with, and Holly who pretty much plays a secondary character. Franky's confusion about his sexuality, Alek's hurt, insecure feelings and tough circumstances, and Wyatt's present and past horrors take center stage and give this story substance. As it often happens in real life, these characters and the way they confront difficult situations with their insecurities and prevarications can be frustrating at times, but the payoff in the end is worth going through the emotional ride.

I'm enjoying Mel Bossa's gay/bisexual/queer themes, as well as her writing style. Fiction? Romance? Gay? Bisexual? Who cares? Franky Gets Real has a little bit of everything and it is good! (2011, Bold Strokes Books) Grade: B+

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Minis: Strike Zone by Kate Angell, The Breach by Patrick Lee

Hey... July has been one hot month so far! I've been pretty much staying away from the blogosphere and twitter, trying to concentrate on family, friends and outdoor activities. Yes, I've 'checked out' a bit, although not altogether, but I've been reading.

Actually, I began rearranging the print books in my TBR in a new book shelf and now that they are "visible," they are looking readable again! I actually read (and finished) three books from my TBR pile earlier this month, the first one Open Season by Linda Howard, I reviewed for the TBR Challenge this month, here are the other two:

Strike Zone (Richmond Rogues #3) by Kate Angell has been in my TBR for a long time and I purchased it based on Nath's recommendation.

Strike Zone is a contemporary romance with baseball players (pitchers) as the male protagonists and baseball as the background, which I love. Two couples, Brek and Taylor and Sloan and Eve, find their happy ever after.

Brek and Taylor's is the main romance with a second chance at love trope. Taylor left Brek at the altar a few years back when her parents died in a tragic accident. She went on to live her life as a thrill seeker, and now that Brek is engaged to be married she comes back to apologize for her behavior, but of course there are unresolved feelings between the two. This storyline would have been great, except that Brek and Taylor didn't spend too much time together and although there is a happy ever after in the end, the reader never gets to experience how they really work out their differences. Everything just... kind of happens, and that includes the end of Brek's engagement.

Sloan is a young pitcher, and pretty much a superficial hunk with lots of groupies. He has his pick of women and enjoys choosing his one-night stands. He goes after Taylor first, but as he and Taylor's sister Eve get thrown together often, ends off liking her instead. Their romance is cute and I like the way Eve puts Sloan in his place, and Sloan makes Eve feel daring. But, frankly I wish their story had been longer or better developed.

Both romances in Striking Zone have likable characters, the baseball atmosphere is delightful, unfortunately although a cute, nice read, by making both romances central to the story neither is really developed enough to make this a memorable read. Grade C

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I also read The Breach by Patrick Lee, a book that was recommended to me by amazon (because of my browsing history). I purchased it and it has been in my TBR where I just let it linger...

The Breach is a suspense action/thriller with sci-fi flavor. I know those look like a lot of categories, but believe me, this book fits them all. Travis Chase is an ex-cop/ex-con trying to make some decisions about his life while hiking in Alaska. He finds a crashed airplane full of dead bodies and one strange note giving instructions to retrieve an artifact taken by the killers. Travis ends up saving  Paige Campbell's life and retrieving the artifact, but he's about to enter a world that will change the course of his life. A world that contains the Breach and "artifacts" that can change the world as we know it. Paige is tough. She's a combination scientist, super soldier with a spine of steel, with a few vulnerable spots that show at the most unexpected of times throughout the story.

Travis and Paige team up to save the world in this action packed story full of twists and turns, scientific as well as some science fiction details. The pacing is so quick that there's no putting the book down once you begin reading it, and the story feels shorter than it actually is (384 pages), as Travis and Paige run all over the world trying to figure out how to beat the villain of the piece, a super-intelligent, cold as ice villain. There's suspense, a mystery to unravel, cool gadgets, and gun fights with some horrific violent scenes included.

I think of The Breach as one of those fun action/thriller suspense reads (with some sci-fi flavor to spice things up) that are great to pick up in the summer because they're so full of action and such quick reads that it becomes tough to put them down. That's a big positive, but in reality this was not a great read for me. Why? It has a great beginning with a wonderful premise but there are holes in the storyline, the secondary characters are never more than two dimensional, and while I found Paige's characterization stereotypical, Travis left me cold. I questioned his decision-making abilities from the beginning and that's not a good thing. Example: why did he wait until Paige's father was dead before taking action? That was my first WTF moment -- I had a few more along the way.
Grade C+

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So far I've enjoyed contemporary romances by Kate Angell, but they have not been big winners for me. That doesn't mean that I won't read more. I like the atmosphere that she creates and the likable characters usually make her books enjoyable while I'm reading the books. If I want a quick contemporary romance fix, I'll keep Angell in mind. :)

And will I read the other two books in the Travis Chase trilogy by Patrick Lee? I already had the second book in my TBR (yes, I bought books 1 and 2), so I will be reading Ghost Country, and that means I will probably finish the trilogy. I hope the other two books are quick, action packed thrillers like the first one. :)


Friday, April 13, 2012

This n' That: Recs, A Bargain, Reads + Updates!

Hey how's everyone this Friday? Ready for the weekend? It's a gorgeous spring day, and guess what? It's baseball time! Yankees are holding their game opener today at Yankee Stadium against the Angels. I know you all don't want to hear it, but... Go Yanks! LOL!

I guess this is the perfect time to again recommend one of my favorite fiction books with a baseball theme: Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger! Have you read it? No? Well, even if you don't love baseball, you'll love this book because I dare you not to fall in love with the wonderful characters and the excellent story. (review here)

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So what else do I have for you today? Heads up people! Special subscription offer for ICARUS: The Magazine of Gay Speculative Fiction. Lethe Press has a bargain going on today only for those of you who love great writing and/or would like to give gay speculative fiction a shot. I mentioned back in October that I love ICARUS magazine, so you know that I took advantage of this bargain. Check it out here.

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And shifting from speculative fiction to science fiction, did you know already that both Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey, AND Embassytown by China Miéville made the list of finalists for the HUGO Awards? Yeap, they did!

Also in case you don't know this yet, Seanan McGuire also made it to the list of Hugo finalists under the Best Related Works Category with "Wicked Girls." And, since I featured John Scalzi during my month-long Science Fiction Experience reading binge, I'd like to mention that he also made it as a finalist under the Best Short Story Category with "The Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book 1: The Dead City." Good stuff!

I have books by all these authors on my 2012 Wish List or TBR:


Railsea by China Miéville (May 15, 2012)
Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi (June 5, 2012)
Caliban's War (Expanse #2) by James S.A. Corey (June 26, 2012)
Rosemary & Rue (October Daye Books) by Seanan McGuire - backlist title

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Last but not least, I'm reading again! Yay! I've finished some good books, some of which I've already reviewed: The Duke's Perfect Wife by Jennifer Ashley, The Rake by Mary Jo Putney, Split by Mel Bossa, Private Eye by S.E. Culpepper and a couple of other books that I haven't reviewed yet: Just Down The Road by Jodi Thomas, and About That Night by Julie James.


Right now I'm reading a book I just received for review and that looks to be a great read, The Heart's History by Lewis DeSimone.

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That's my news today! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Impressions: The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

I read The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan in February for my Internet Book Club. I mainly enjoyed it for two reasons: it has a unique format as it is a story told in dictionary format, and the story itself becomes so compelling as it moves along that I needed to find out how it ended.

There are other positives to the story as well, the prose is quite engaging at times, after all this book is all about "words" and their significance -- not necessarily the meaning of words, but the significance that particular words have for the narrator of the story. There were words that stood out for me, and you can see a few of them here. Of course, as I read along others were added to that list.

It was also of particular interest to me that although there are a couple of entries that are deceiving in their meaning, the gender of the parties in this story is never clarified, and as I read along it became clear to me that the author purposely cultivates gender inclusion by keeping the reader out of balance and uncertain in that respect. "You" and "I."

There is a disjointed sense to the story as Levithan uses a non-linear first person narration, and realistically the reader does not find the end to the story at the end of the physical book. The jumping back and forth between what the reader imagines is the present, the past, or what could possibly be the past, can be disorienting at times.

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan is a quick, fast paced book. It has some beautiful prose in places with a story that keeps the reader going, and although there are some gorgeous romantic passages in the story be warned that there is also that touch of reality that places this book firmly into the fiction category. Interestingly enough although the format is quite unique, for me, the author walked a fine line. I could not make up my mind about that aspect of it, particularly because the result was that disjointed narration I mention above. However the positives do outweigh my concerns, and in the end I was left with an overall feeling of having enjoyed a good, solid read.

Internet Book Club
February Read
Category: Fiction (Romantic)
Series: None
Publisher/Released: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux/ January 4, 2011
Grade: B

Visit David Levithan here.



ETA: Our Internet Book Club  March Read will be Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. :)

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Review: Drown by Junot Díaz

Originally published in 1996, Drown by Junot Díaz is a book composed of ten short stories, some of them previously published in literary magazines and other venues. Junot Díaz won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is better known for his work on the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the United States, Diaz follows in the footsteps of other Latin American writers with this collection of short stories. His voice is strong and he obviously knows the subject matter.

In Drown, Díaz focuses on the struggles, frustrations, anger and needs faced by poor immigrant Dominican boys, young men, and adult males, both in the Dominican Republic and in New Jersey. And yes it's important to note that he does focus on the male experience and point of view.

Some of the stories are connected and follow a family, a mother and two boys, from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey after their father sends for them: "Ysrael," "Fiesta 1980," "Aguantando," "Negocios." Other short stories are ambiguous in that the main characters are unnamed and could be attributed to other immigrant young men. "Aurora," "Drown," "Boyfriend," "Edison, New Jersey," "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie." and "No Face," in my opinion the weakest story of the bunch, is related to the short story Ysrael but only because the main character Ysrael is the central focus, but he is not related to the family in the story with that title.

There are a couple of stories that really did it for me, but Drown is the one story that really grabbed me. The unnamed young man in this story avoids a childhood friend returning to the neighborhood, not only because of ambiguous sexual feelings, but also because he feels a failure. Díaz captures a sense of nostalgia and longing as the young man remembers his childhood days with his friend Beto, all mixed up with a sense of failure. The young man's sense of responsibility for a mother who is a ghost of herself, dreaming of being with a man who betrayed her, combined with his need to escape the neighborhood and feelings of entrapment are almost suffocating. Excellent.

For the most part the short stories flowed to create a cohesive whole, although Díaz tended to go back and forth between the Dominican Republic and the US. The one story that really disrupted the flow for me was No Face. I think in this short story about Ysrael, Díaz failed to really touch the reader with this character -- at least he failed to touch me. I see the problem as one of misplacement. This short story really didn't seem to "belong" where it was placed for some reason, and it interrupted the flow of the book for me. Radically so.

Although Drown is a collection of short stories that focuses on the Dominican immigrant's experience, I believe that these short stories also apply to the immigrant experience as a whole, and in that respect it is about immigrants and assimilation. He focuses those stories on how tough it is to emigrate and the difficulties faced while assimilating to a new culture for first and second generations, particularly when in many cases those immigrants wind up in ugly or pretty ghetto style neighborhoods.

These neighborhoods are places that after a while those same immigrants can't seem to leave even as they dream of doing so. The claustrophobia of those places, the hold, the pitfalls, how the whole family can be affected, how the American dream can tarnish by desperation, poverty and poor, uneducated decisions. Díaz touches on all those points. However, he doesn't include success stories in this collection, at least his main characters are not a success. In that sense there is a lack of balance, but then I think that his purpose in Drown is to show the struggle and not necessarily the success.

That lack of balance is also seen when it comes to the female's point of view, as females are portrayed from a distinct male perspective. They are portrayed as either women who somehow remain in a traditional female role even as they struggle against it, or women who are easily seduced. Females are often described as sexual objects or in sexual terms. I found it interesting that as the women aged in these stories they went from being highly sensual creatures who needed their husbands to protect them, to mothers who needed to be protected by their sons. In my opinion, a generalized machista and unrealistic portrayal of women as a whole.

Even with the few problems I had with this book, I believe that for the most part Díaz achieved his goal and he did so with that strong voice I mentioned above. I read Drown for my internet book club, and the discussion was quite interesting. Most of us disagreed rather forcefully with Díaz's portrayal of women in this book. Others disagreed with what was seen as his negative portrayal of the Dominican immigrant and the lack of balance in his portrayal between the struggles and the success. Yet others disagreed that the collection could really be interpreted as the struggles of immigrants as a whole and that it should be seen as focused solely on the Dominican experience. Agree or disagree, reading and discussing Drown with a group was a wonderful experience.

December 2011
Book Club Read
Category: Literary Fiction
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Riverhead/May 16, 2007 - Kindle Ed.
Grade: B

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About the Author:
Junot Díaz is a contemporary Dominican-American writer. He moved to the USA with his parents at age six, settling in New Jersey. Central to Díaz's work is the duality of the immigrant experience. He is the first Dominican-born man to become a major author in the United States.

Díaz is creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in 2008. He was selected as one of the 39 most important Latin American writers under the age of 39 by the Bogotá Book Capital of World and the Hay Festival. In September 2007, Miramax acquired the rights for a film adaptation of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.