Book Review - Beauty

Beauty

By: Frederick Dillen
Illustrated By: Christopher Lin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: March 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1692-3
Reviewed By: Kristi Benedict
Review Date: April 9, 2014

The corporate world is ruled for the most part by men but Carol MacLean was convinced that if she worked hard enough for long enough she would be given her own company to run. In fact that is exactly what she had been promised by her boss for many years now and finally after this last job of closing down a fish plant in New England, she would be given her own company. Carol had come from the working class and the idea of being able to build up a business instead of burying it was a thrilling thought. However, when Carol is just beginning to believe that her dream will be coming true her boss informs her that she will be fired with no hope of ever getting her own company. Completely crushed by this news Carol breaks down, realizing that all her years of hard work have been for nothing.

Picking herself back up, Carol makes a drastic choice and decides to buy the plant that she was sent to put out of business. Throwing everything she has into this project, Carol quickly surrounds herself with people of the community that want to keep the traditions and way of life for the harbor alive. The team she assembles includes local families, finance experts, blue-collar workers, and local fisherman who are not sure if this plan will work but are willing to do whatever they can to give it a shot. One fisherman in particular, Easy Parsons, is catching Carol’s eye but she does not want her feelings to overshadow the business decisions she is going to make.

With each passing day Carol continues to wow her team by finding ways to bring this fish processing plant back to life and bring revenue into the harbor. For the first time in a long time Carol finally feels as if she belongs and wants to make a life that she can be proud of. Unfortunately with the risks involved in owning a business Carol is soon faced with heart wrenching decisions that will have her seriously thinking about the worth of owning her own company.

Frederick Dillen brings to life a character in Beauty who was hard for me to first imagine because Carol is far from the norm. After the first few pages, however, I realized that what he created was quite amazing and wonderfully original. From the first chapter I found myself instantly becoming caught up in the story as Carol puts so much honest work into her job and then transfers that hard work into saving a fish processing plant that she was sent to shut down. Through his writing Dillen combines the business world with an entertaining underdog story that also contains a touch of romance and does it beautifully. There is fun and excitement about the twists, turns, and ideas from the business side, and then at the same time the heartstrings are pulled by the story of how a woman comes to fall in love not only with a hard working fisherman but the people of the town as well.

Quill says: This book is a jewel that shines brighter with each turn of the page!

Book Review - A Farm Dies Once a Year

A Farm Dies Once a Year: A Memoir

By: Arlo Crawford
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Publication Date: 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9816-7
Reviewed by: Diane Lunsford
Review Date: April 9, 2014

Arlo Crawford deserves absolute praise for his beautiful (and first-hand) account of the farming life in his memoir: A Farm Dies Once a Year.

At thirty-one, Arlo Crawford returns home to spend the summer with his mother and father on the farm where he grew up. New Morning Farm, a ninety-five acre stretch of land nestled among the comforts of the Appalachian ridges in south-central Pennsylvania is more than a place to visit. It is the home and stretch of land his parents purchased in the 70’s with a vision to transform it into a productive life not only for them, but an environment for Arlo and his sister Janie to thrive.

Crawford’s vision to leave the familiarity of his city life behind in Massachusetts and venture back to his roots was something he was passionate toward doing. After explaining to his partner, Sarah, the decision was more of a deep-rooted need rather than a whim; even though skeptical at first, she is supportive. Through the years, Crawford had gone back to the farm for holiday visits and other occasions; but they had been just that: visits. The desire to return and spend a season of rolling up his sleeves and immersing himself into the actual work—laborious at times, was something he needed to do. At the same time, he would gain a sense of appreciation toward what his parents had embraced as much as sacrificed once they had solidified their commitment to the land. When he arrives for his summer and upon his reorientation to farm life, Crawford peels the layers of the onions away one-by-one and steps into the life he knew growing up across the pages of A Farm Dies Once a Year.

Crawford guides the reader through the long hours and back breaking days in the fields picking while delivering a consistent and sublime message of the importance and, in a way, the healing he sought in order to get on with the rest of his life. He talks of the delicate balance between a profitable season and one that can easily derail given the myriad of infestations ranging from blight to bugs and droughts to flooding. On the flip side, however, Crawford provides the reader with an experience of the many market days he, the workers and his parents would spend and the constant flow of patrons all too willing to be on their receiving end. Crawford’s knowledge and first-hand experience of living the farm life exudes credibility throughout his memoir. He touches upon the business aspect of running a successful farm and complements the information with a few chapters devoted to the actual growing of vegetables. He delivers high level insights toward the technicalities involved in proper irrigation and what seems to be the constant cycle of farm equipment upkeep and maintenance.

Arlo Crawford has created an eloquent tone and sound voice to the many passages across the pages of A Farm Dies Once a Year. His writing ability demonstrates confidence and throughout his memoir there is a beautiful sense that he is a person filled with love for his parents. He has created a lasting homage of thanks and heartfelt gratitude to the people who brought him into this world. As a parent myself, this is truly a gift that any parent would welcome from their child.

Quill says: This is an intimate story filled with the importance of recognizing what truly matters most in life.

Books In For Review

Here's a quick look at some of the books that have just come in for review.  Check them out and then stop by again in a few weeks to read the reviews!



How to Survive the Worst That Can Happen: A Parent's Step by Step Guide to Healing After the Loss of a Child by Sandy Peckinpah Sandy Peckinpah's sixteen-year old son woke up with a fever and was dead the next morning of bacterial meningitis... her life changed forever. She found herself in the depths of unimaginable despair. Then, someone gave her a journal, and writing opened her journey of self-discovery in learning how to live life without her beautiful child. Words illuminated her path of discovery and she began to document the things that helped her, and others like her, to find resilience. This is a practical, inspirational guide to coping with the many facets of bereavement; learning how to talk about your loss, the aftermath of sorrow, handling fear and anger, helping your living children adjust, strengthening your marriage, experiencing miracles, and the promise that you will regain a quality of life where you'll feel joy once again. If you've lost a child or know someone who has, Sandy's story is one you'll relate to and find comfort in knowing you're not alone.  

The Artist and the King by Julie Fortenberry When a bad-tempered King punishes a little artist, he meets his match. For Daphne, the artist, turns her punishment, a dunce cap, into a fashionable and regal hat. Now every villager wants to wear one of Daphne's creations. How could she have known that her hat-making would undermine the King's authority? Then again, maybe Daphne's caring, creative spirit is just what the kingdom--and the King--has needed all along.  

Panthers Play for Keeps: A Pru Marlowe Pet Mystery by Clea Simon When Pru Marlowe takes a dog for a walk, she doesn’t expect to find a body. But Spot, a service dog in training, has too good a nose not to lead her to the remains of the beautiful young woman, and despite her own best instincts, Pru can’t avoid getting involved. The young woman seems to have been mauled by a wild cat – and Pru knows there have been no pumas in the Berkshire woods for years. And while Wallis, Pru's curmudgeonly tabby, seems fixated on the idea of a killer cat, Spot has been sending strange signals to Pru’s own heightened senses, suggesting that the violent death was something more than a tragic accident. As motives multiply, a cougar of a different sort sets her eyes on Pru’s sometime lover, and another woman disappears. With panther panic growing, Pru may have to put aside her own issues – and her own ideas of domesticity – to solve a savage mystery.

A Farm Dies Once a Year by Arlo Crawford The summer he was thirty-one, Arlo Crawford returned home for the summer harvest at New Morning Farm—seventy-five acres tucked in a hollow in south-central Pennsylvania where his parents had been growing organic vegetables for almost forty years. Like many summers before, Arlo returned to the family farm's familiar rhythms—rise, eat, bend, pick, sort, sweat, sleep. But this time he was also there to change his direction, like his father years ago. In the 1970s, well before the explosion of the farm-to-table and slow food movement, Arlo's father, Jim, left behind law school and Vietnam, and decided to give farming a try. Arlo's return also prompts a reexamination of a past tragedy: the murder of a neighboring farmer twenty years before. A chronicle of one full season on a farm, with all its small triumphs and inevitable setbacks, A Farm Dies Once a Year is a meditation on work—the true nature of it, and on taking pride in it—and a son's reckoning with a father's legacy. Above all, it is a striking portrait of how one man builds, sows, and harvests his way into a new understanding of the risks necessary to a life well-lived.

Book Review - Tempting Fate

Tempting Fate

By: Jane Green
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4668-4203-8
Reviewed by: Diane Lunsford
Review Date: April 6, 2014

What if an innocent night out with girlfriends changes the course of one woman’s life for the rest of her life thanks to temptation? Jane Green presents an intriguing story that dissects and answers this very question in her latest novel, Tempting Fate.

Gabby is forty-three. She has arrived at that moment in a woman’s life when she questions her desirability. Happily married to Elliott for eighteen years, they have the proof of their wonderful life together in their two teenaged daughters. Yet, Gabby wonders if her husband Elliott still sees her through the eyes of desire. Not too thrilled to be going out on a girls’ night out, she is practically forced into the excursion by her best friend Clare. The last thing Gabby has on her mind is the possibility of catching the eye of a man—any man at the trendy bar the girls settled upon for their night out.

Gabby was more than uncomfortable watching the display before her. The women—half of them ‘happily married,’ were behaving like a gaggle of college girls at their first mixer—overly flirtations in their provocatively plunging necklines. Their debauchery was more than awkward for Gabby’s conservative British background. Of course, even though she didn’t know how to flirt, the thought did cross her mind more than once that it would have been nice to be noticed perhaps by one or two of the many men in the bar. When the extremely handsome man nearly ten years her junior takes an interest in her and saddles up next to her at the bar, unbeknownst to Gabby, she has arrived at her crossroads. Matt is engaging and charismatic and for all intents and purposes, truly seems like a gentleman who is merely looking for light conversation. He is on business and fate has deposited him next to her at the bar. He is confident and polite and immediately shows interest in talking with Gabby. It would seem he is the young, powerhouse owner of a renowned social media company and Gabby can’t understand how someone so young can be so successful, let alone interested in talking with her.

Deep in conversation, when Gabby surfaces for a moment and realizes her friends have abandoned her, she has no choice but to make alternate arrangements to get a ride home. Matt is all too willing to assure her she can follow him across the street to his hotel while he checks in. It will give them a chance to continue their conversation and he can call her a cab from his hotel. Innocent enough or perhaps not. After their chance encounter, as the days ahead unfold, Gabby realizes the choices she will make as a result of that girls’ night out will not only change her life, but may very well destroy everything she held so dear and loved.

Jane Green portrays a confident comfort and familiarity in the story she has written. Tempting Fate is easy to read and the topic has appeal to many women when it comes to questioning their own desirability. While there may be some predictability to the story, I enjoyed the fact that Ms. Green quashed obvious outcomes with a consistent element of surprise. I admire an author who knows the audience she is targeting and is sensitive to delivering a solid story. Ms. Green has mastered wonderful conversation and dialogue throughout Tempting Fate which breathes credibility into this work of fiction. Overall, this book is a read that is enjoyable and manages to keep the reader engaged.
 

Quill says: Think long and hard about temptation. Tempting Fate is a testament to the old adage: “Be careful what you wish for…”

Book Review - A Single Breath

A Single Breath

By: Lucy Clarke
Publisher: Touchstone – A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Publication Date: April 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-5015-6
Reviewed by: Diane Lunsford
Review Date: April 2014

In her latest novel, A Single Breath, Lucy Clarke entices her reader with the sublime question: “How well do you know the one you’ve betrothed your love and unrequited trust to?”

Eva and Jackson have been married for barely eight months. On a weekend visit to her mother’s place at the shore in Dorset, England, Jackson rises early the morning after they arrive. He ventures down to the stormy coastline and navigates the jetties that finger their way out into the angry and churning sea. He has the blood of a fisherman that runs through his veins and knows that is where his prize catch awaits. Unfortunately gale force winds and the unfamiliar ground beneath his feet cause Jackson to lose his footing. The waves waste no time as they seize the moment and sweep him out to sea. When Eva learns of the tragic mishap, she refuses to give up hope. Search parties are organized and are relentless as the day continues from dawn to high noon and into the twilight of dusk. When the Coast Guard delivers the news to Eva that they are calling the search, Eva is left with a sad reality: her husband is dead.

Eva isn’t the only person left behind in his wake. On the other side of the world in Tasmania, Australia, Jackson’s father Dirk and his brother Saul soon learn of his passing. It’s more than difficult for Dirk to accept. No parent ever wants to bury a child. Saul, however, is more than disturbed; especially since he and his brother hadn’t spoken to each other in nearly four years.

The one thread Eva has to hold onto (after acknowledging the reality of her husband’s death), is her job. Eva is a midwife and loves her job. Sadly, what was once such a sense of completion and joy has become rote. Unable to focus on anything, Eva takes a leave of absence and decides to seek out Jackson’s estranged family halfway around the world. Besides, they were supposed to visit Tasmania in the fall—a trip that would give her the opportunity to finally meet his family. What Eva wasn’t prepared for were the answers she sought to the questions she had once asked.

Lucy Clarke does a fine job of planting seeds that enhance plot and encourage the reader to nibble as he or she ventures further into the story. She demonstrates a comfortable flow with her narrative writing style and, as a result, the story is easy to read. While I've never been “Down Under,” Ms. Clarke describes the countryside with such familiarity, it was as though I had been there before. However, there are points in the story that tend to be drawn out more than necessary. Sometimes less is best in describing feelings, sensations, situations, etc. which, in my opinion, is a sure fire way to keep the reader fully engaged and less apt to wander or skip a page or two. Overall, A Single Breath is certainly a story that will capture the readers’ interest.

Quill says: A Single Breath consistently poses the question throughout: “How well do you know the person you love”?

Book Review - Fly Away

Fly Away

By: Kristin Hannah
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin Edition
Publication Date: 2013
ISBN: 978-1-250-03181-5
Reviewed by: Diane Lunsford
Review Date: March 29, 2014

Kristin Hannah delivers a beautifully poignant and bittersweet story of everlasting friendship across the pages of her latest novel, Fly Away.

Tully Hart and Kate Mularkey have been inseparable friends for over thirty years. From the onset, undying friendship was inevitability and their meeting was a destined collision with the intention of friendship forever. Beyond college, Tully’s life was a journey of fame. Kate’s path was that of motherhood and wife. Even though their roads were different, their bond of friendship was everlasting. It is when Kate is diagnosed with breast cancer and the diagnosis has a definitive end attached to it, that life intervenes and presents the tests of what friendship can and cannot survive.

Johnny Mularkey is Kate’s husband. He is also father to their sixteen-year-old daughter, Marah. He is ill-prepared to assume the role of sole parent once his beloved Kate passes. Perhaps Kate knew this and the promise she extracts from her lifelong friend Tully (who is also Marah’s godmother) is to be there to temper the storms ahead. What no one could have seen coming upon Kate’s passing is the bottom dropping out of the once solid foundation they all took for granted. Johnny is consumed with grief. Marah is guilt-ridden and on a course of self-distruction. She is burdened with the memory of her last words with her mother before she died. Tully has her own issues. Her once sky-rocketing career is now nose-diving. She is over forty and doesn’t have the luxury of career resurrection. Kate was her rock and now that she’s gone, Tully is forced to face her baggage—baggage she has carried for far too many years. She still cannot let go of the fact that her hippy mother “Cloud” threw her away with yesterday’s news when she was a child...or did she?

When the crescendo of tragedy reaches its pinnacle, each of these intricately woven together beings will need to recognize the clarity that lurks on the other side. There is hope and promise of new beginnings. However, the sacrifice in order to get there is to acknowledge the rock bottom before a new beginning is possible. Kristin Hannah has written a novel that embraces and portrays the dimensions, tribulations and multi-facets of true and undying friendship. She is a storyteller and showcases her abilities by weaving beautiful fabric together with sound plot of familial joys and equally heart-wrenching disappointments. Simply put, she has written a story of “fiction” with a strong element of real life to it. Her characters come alive on the pages and I, for one, literally could not keep my nose out of this book. Hannah knew how to grab the attention of her reader within the first few pages of Fly Away. I accepted her outstretched hand within the first couple of pages and willingly immersed myself into the story from chapter to chapter. Hannah’s voice is crisp and refreshing and her story is engaging. She has accomplished what I believe all we fiction writers endeavor to do: Provide an escape that enables the reader to experience the familiarity and connection with each and every character. There is a lot to be said about a writer who manages sadness from her readership when the proverbial “the end” is before them—a sadness that comes from a longing for the story to continue. That, in my opinion, is the essence of the gift of writing.

Quill says: Fly Away is a lovely depiction of the essence of true friendship. It is truly a book that is difficult to put down until the last page has been read.

Book Review - Pansy in Paris

Pansy in Paris: A Mystery at the Museum

By: Cynthia Bardes
Illustrated by: Virginia Best
Publisher: Octobre, LLC
Publication Date: March 2014
ISBN: 978-0615840192
Reviewed by: Ellen Feld
Review Date: March 29, 2014

Pansy the adorable little poodle and her best friend Avery are at it again when they are asked to travel to Paris, France to solve a mystery. Having solved a hotel mystery in their first book, Pansy at the Palace: A Beverly Hills Mystery, the clever dog’s reputation for solving crimes has spread far and wide. It isn’t long before she receives a letter from Inspector Claude, all the way from Paris. It seems that somebody has stolen a painting from their museum and the Inspector needs help! Pansy, along with ‘her’ little girl Avery, and Avery’s mom, board a plane and travel to Paris.

In Paris, Inspector Claude takes the pair to the museum so they can see just what is going on. Between the Henri Muttese and Leonardo DogVinci paintings is an empty wall; a spot where there once hung a valuable painting. The only clue, explains Claude, is a bacon-flavored dog biscuit. Will Pansy and Avery be able to solve the mystery of the missing painting?

Pansy in Paris is a sweet story of not just a mystery, but of the love between a young girl and her beloved dog. They work together to solve a fun mystery, one that will engage children as they watch, and try to help, Pansy put the clues together. To add to the fun, as the duo go about solving the crime, there are a few pages of the lovely sights around the City of Lights. The story has a happy ending, one where love is stressed above all else. The illustrations are bright and cheerful, a perfect fit for the story. In short, Pansy in Paris is a winner!

Quill says: Will Pansy save the day? Readers will want to help the adorable little dog as she sniffs out clues to the great Paris museum mystery.