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Reviews by Patricia L. (Seward, AK)

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Remembrance
by Rita Woods

Remembrance: place and time (11/6/2019)

Remembrance is both a place and a remembrance of time passed. Bouncing between the mid 1800's to the present, Remembrance, the book, is the voice of slaves and their heirs, as they live their lives within the confines of slavery and what has become for many a similarly …more

You Were There Too
by Colleen Oakley

The reality of dreaming... (8/7/2019)

You Were There Too, while essentially about dreams, their meanings and effect on us, takes place under the omnipresent cloud of what may have become a new normal, mass shootings. That overtone coupled with issues of miscarriage, marriage fidelity and uncertain relationships …more

The Shadow King: A Novel
by Maaza Mengiste

Women of War (7/2/2019)

A Google search of Ethiopian women warriors turns up the little-known history of many strong African queens and women warriors throughout time. Mengiste states "The story of war has always been a masculine story, but this was not true for Ethiopia and it has never been that …more

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir
by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman

Are we sinking yet? (12/22/2018)

My interest in Sounds Like Titanic, by Jessica Hindman began as a fellow violinist's kinship but was quickly peaked by the no nonsense perspective with which she interprets her life journey. Hindman's memoir is written in second person where she is you instead of I, …more

Listen to the Marriage
by John Jay Osborn

Listen to the Marriage (6/6/2018)

John Jay Osborn states in the preface of Listen to the Marriage that his wife found "an amazing marriage counselor…" when their marriage was falling apart. Together they put the marriage back together. His novel is intended to help others save their marriages with …more

A Place for Us
by Fatima Farheen Mirza

A Place for All of Us (3/26/2018)

A Muslim man immigrates to the United States, arranges a marriage, has a family and settles into life in California. Rafiq and Layla are very traditional parents fully embraced by their religion and way of life it demands. Their children, Hadia, Huma and Amar must feel …more

As Bright as Heaven
by Susan Meissner

True Endurance (10/14/2017)

"The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19 was the deadliest disease in history...Fifty million people worldwide are estimated to have died from Spanish Flu." acknowledges author Susan Meissner. Her novel As Bright As Heaven chronicles the disease through one family's experiences. …more

Wonder Valley
by Ivy Pochoda

Exit for a closer view... (7/10/2017)

A naked young man is running against traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway, weaving through cars that have reluctantly stopped to avoid hitting him. Tony, a commuter, is uncontrollably compelled to chase him. In Wonder Valley, author Ivy Pochoda slowly unravels the tale that …more

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby
by Cherise Wolas

Resurrection, but why? (6/6/2017)

Whatever happened to Joan Ashby? Cherise Wolas's character Joan Ashby is an author who achieved the ultimate literary success at an early age. "Enthralling, riveting, often shocking, her stories are as undeniable as her talent." touts the opening review of Joan Ashby in the …more

The Typewriter's Tale
by Michiel Heyns

The Typewriter Spews (1/9/2017)

"…nothing inhibited Mr. James as painfully as the need for conciseness…" laments his typewriter, 23 year old Frieda Wroth. In 1908 rural England, Frieda is employed by Mr. James to transform his dictation to written word by means of the new invention by Remington, …more

Edgar and Lucy
by Victor Lodato

Edgar and Lucy (11/27/2016)

Victor Lodato begins his tale of eight year old Edgar and his mother Lucy with a recounting of Edgar's birth. "Size of a dinner roll…And so white, I thought you were a friggin' ghost." Lucy's son is albino and she's a young widow reeling from her husband Frank's apparent …more

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
by Kathleen Rooney

Yawning but still awake... (10/1/2016)

It's New Year's Eve, 1984 and Lillian Boxfish, 84, is walking to her dinner reservation while reminiscing about her life. Since the early 1920's she has lived and worked in the heart of New York City as both a copy editor and contemporary poet, remaining at the same address …more

Underground Airlines
by Ben H. Winters

What could be... (9/4/2016)

It is present day America except for this: the Civil War did not happen and four states have legalized slavery. The main character is a quasi-freed black man living outside of the Hard Four states. Victor grew up on a plantation but escaped when he was a young teen. …more

The Book That Matters Most: A Novel
by Ann Hood

Prose that Flows… (7/3/2016)

Ava, recently divorced mother of two adult children is "desperate to fill her empty hours." A long awaited invitation to join her friend Cate's book club results in making a promise she has no idea how to she will keep. The author introduces additional baggage for Ava …more

Tuesday Nights in 1980
by Molly Prentiss

Why Art? (1/10/2016)

Art. What is it? Why do it? Who cares? Using fiction in an attempt to answer these questions is commendable and daunting. Prentiss does a respectable job. At times her prose rambles but her believable characters carry themselves and the reader through some most unbelievable …more situations mostly unscathed.
James Bennett, an art critic of some repute, is hopelessly addicted to the sensual nature of his passion. His wife, Marge, loves James so much she gives up her passion to enable his eccentricities. Raul Engales, Argentinian/American, new to the 80's New York art culture striving the find his way while running from past demons. Lucy, naive 20 something, escaped Ketchum, Idaho "…pulled the trigger on the move…to what people called…The Big Apple—because of a book and a postcard, which she believed to be signs." Set in New York City among artists of all stripes. Mix in a horrific accident or two, love, jealousy, fame won and lost and a story vaguely reminiscent of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch emerges.
Prentiss peppers her writing with sentences that require a second look making the plot almost secondary. Describing Raul as "… he had perhaps become old, in spirit at least, much earlier; when your parents die, so does the idea of infinite time on the planet. Instead, you are forced into becoming weirdly wise, gaining too soon the knowledge that life is both precious and perfectly meaningless, neither philosophy leaving much room for boredom." Lucy, months into her adventure muses: "…the men adored her and then disposed of her. With each of them she felt briefly and tightly tethered, hopeful that they would deliver her to that place that she craved: the deep dark cavern of love and lust, the place where longing stopped. But none of them did and in between her encounters with them, and usually even during, she felt deeply alone." And in a lighter vein, the description of a gallery owner working an opening. "Winona was like a sponge, wringing herself out onto someone and then moving on to soak in someone else."
Underneath it all is the question of why—why pursue a passion? For whom? Walter Pater has written that "…art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass." Tuesday Nights in 1980 merely attempts to chronicle the depth of energy and passion that enables art to grace our moments, successfully.
Highly recommended for lovers of art and contemporary literature and/or enjoy a story that demands an engaged reader. (less)

Hunters in the Dark
by Lawrence Osborne

Hunters in the Dark (11/28/2015)

"The seeds laid by any given karma were not entirely known, the outcomes could not be foretold with any accuracy and it was likely, in any event, that one would remain floating and turning within the circle of eternal suffering." Though this passage is found towards the end …more

Girl Waits with Gun
by Amy Stewart

Stand Against the Man (8/11/2015)

Early twentieth century was not a welcome place for women on their own. Not having "a man" meant no protection from other men and the numerous dangers, either real or perceived that could be encountered. Constance and her two sisters were heading to town in their horse …more

Still Life Las Vegas
by James Sie

Still Life Anywhere... (5/21/2015)

Everyone at some time or other has been too busy to take note of what needs immediate attention. Mind a million miles away until a tragic incident forces all focus on the present moment. A small family attempting to navigate the permanent consequences of distraction is the …more

The Well
by Catherine Chanter

Getting out of The Well (3/11/2015)

The Well might be a good story, if the plot was slightly more apparent. Halfway through the book there are still just a few dangling clues as to what happened in the past that has Rose locked up under house arrest while the world outside of her luscious, well watered farm …more

The Last Flight of Poxl West
by Daniel Torday

Stories... (1/12/2015)

"Many people just assumed from listening to his confident tone that my uncle Poxl knew what he was talking about." Thus Daniel Torday begins to weave his story of an impressionable teen and the adventures of a good friend of his deceased grandfather who he calls uncle. …more

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