Love Finds You in Poetry, Texas, by Janice Hanna is a delightful read with great word play and ties to the town’s name: Poetry. The stores are named Bonnets and Sonnets, Poetic Notions and such. The main character uses poetry to woo women to come to Texas as potential brides for the town’s many bachelors. In the process, she learns of her own feelings for the town barber. This story flowed nicely, but it had so many characters, I honestly got a bit lost at times. There were some characters that were truly unforgettable and it all came together nicely in the end. I would have liked to see a...
The “to-read” pile
My “to-read” pile seems to double every week. My “to-read” list grows exponentially. (And that’s if I don’t surf around Amazon for more than five minutes.) What to do? Reading is so essential to the writer, for inspiration and renewal. But, I also need to get some actual writing time in. When I get hooked on those really great stories, I don’t seem to get much of anything else done around the home as I race through every page. Then, I get some books where they lag but I still try to plug through. How do you balance life with your stack of books to read? Do you trade in...
Review: Sarah’s Key
Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008) is a World War II epic that will stick with you long after you finish the last page. The story weaves in the 1942 roundup of French Jews by the French Vichy Police and their expulsion to their deaths in Nazi camps. Sarah, a ten-year-old French Jew, leaves her little brother locked in a secret cabinet when the police come for her family. She believes he’ll be safe there until they return. Sixty years later, Julia is researching the roundup for an article and the two tales converge and weave together in a way that changes the lives of all...
Writing what you love
A few days ago, I had a friend ask, “You’re a writer, right? Would you look at this thing I wrote…but don’t tell anyone!” I was so excited to hear that she’d been writing – not every writer is a creative writing major and been writing stories since first grade. But I understood completely where she came from with the “but don’t tell anyone.” In high school, I had a small group of friends who read my stories and we all wrote different things. In college, I set it aside and hardly mentioned to anyone about my love for fiction. When I graduated and started back on this track, I...
Book Review “Shorts”
No, I’m not fashioning some sort of clothing item called “book review shorts…” What I mean is, here is a quick rundown of what I’ve been reading in the past few weeks. Each definitely deserves its full review and lengthy description, but I hope to include more in my blog than just book reviews! Love Finds You in Lonesome Prairie, Montana by Trisha Goyer and Ocieanna Fleiss (Summerside Press, 2009), is a heart-warming tale about a woman who escorts several children on an “Orphan Train” out west and ends up unknowingly “sold” to a man who claims he’s now her husband. She finds refuge in a circuit preacher, but until...