Events leap off the page as she shares the horrors, the rampant corruption, and the gratitude she found when she met the women whose lives she had changed. Shannon believes that women are the future of the Congo and she calls them her heroes.
Always a risk taker, she is moved but not cowed by the reported atrocities. Her journey to the Congo helped her establish personal bonds, strengthen her ties with her mother, and today she lives the life of an advocate. We see her open up and embrace reality in this well-told tale.
Her organization, Run for the Congo Women, should inspire readers to take action. She lists suggestions for what they might do at the end of the book. To learn how you can help the cause, visit http://www.runforcongowomen.org/.
OLIVE KITTERIDGE
Written By Elizabeth Strout and Reviewed by Rachel Rosman
ISBN 978-0-8129-7183-5
Random House Paperback
A Stunning Must Read
To fiction readers and writers, Elizabeth Strout’s intricately woven short stories inspire, capturing the poignant, yet subtle moments that illustrate the human condition. Each piece is connected and unified by Olive Kitteridge, a retired teacher whose harsh irrationality manages to make her both compelling and endearing.
In the small town of Crosby, Maine, where the story takes place, characters face loneliness, loss. They question their connections to others. After an encounter with a troubled teenager, an aging man ponders the fading love he shares with his wife. Olive’s husband, Henry, endures his wife’s often cruel behavior, and knows that they have both been capable of loving others. Each story is like a vivid snapshot of ordinary, yet incredible moments—words that can’t be taken back, the tragic act of make-believe in planning a future that can never exist. In each story, Olive is a powerful driving force with intense originality.
Pulitzer Prize winner Olive Kitteridge offers a profound lesson to aspiring fiction writers in its animated prose. Strout’s strength is her ability to magnify the minute tragedies and conflicts of life, and the result is a stunning must read.
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Rachel Rosman is a Writer Advice intern and an incoming senior at Brandeis University, majoring in English and Creative writing.
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NO GOOD DEED
By Dr. Lewis M. Cohen
ISBN # 978-0-06172-217-62
Harper Collins
Facing the End
Palliative care should be merciful. End of life issues are difficult, though, and the lines between physician assisted suicide and a patient’s right to terminate treatment are murky.
Accomplished physician and researcher Dr. Lewis Cohen explores the issues in No Good Deed: A Story of Medicine, Murder Accusations, and the Debate over How We Die. He tells the story of two Massachusetts nurses, who helped a terminal patient, Rosemarie Doherty, end the suffering caused by vascular disease, diabetes, and emphysema. Kim Hoy, her primary nurse in the renal unit, tried to make her comfortable after the decision had been made for her to be a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) patient. She administered morphine according to doctor’s orders, and wasted what she did not use, but did so without a witness. Rosemary Doherty was alive the last time the nurses saw her. Olga Vasquez, a TA on the nursing staff, accused the two of murder. The police investigated for months, terrifying both women and putting their nursing careers in jeopardy.
Cohen presents a balanced examination of end-of-life issues, palliative care, and euthanasia, using the experiences of doctors, nurses, family members, bioethicists, legal professionals, and the media. He studies the furor over Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, and Jack Kevorkian’s physician assisted suicide. He conducts numerous interviews with experts and explores all sides. Captivating and powerful, No Good Deed probes what happens when decisions about end of life issues and the purpose of modern medicine move from the hospital to the courtroom to the church. He leaves no stones unturned in this courageous exploration. His book is a more scientific and broad-based look at some of the same personal issues Zoe Carter explores in Imperfect Endings.
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Written by Ellen Block
ISBN # 978-0-440-24575-9
Bantam Books
Luck
How do you deal with grief that is too strong for words? Abigail Harker learns to grapple with her overwhelming sorry in Ellen Block’s rich new novel, The Language of Sand. When Abigail’s husband and child die the night their house burns to the ground, she feels like everything she knew and trusted is gone.
After recuperating she takes the position of caretaker at the lighthouse on Chapel Isle where her husband spent summers as a boy. She does it partly to honor him and partly to reinvent herself. More significantly, she does it because she does not know what else to do.
The day-to-day detritus of the unkempt lighthouse keeps both her hands and mind busy and allows her space to cope with her grief. The move forces her to examine what is real, what is illusion, and how her talents with language do and don’t help her emotional turmoil.
After the attacks of 9-11, author Ellen Block wanted to explore a monumental catastrophe in which language seemed painfully insignificant. She invented lexicographer Abigail Harker, whose life was dedicated to language and who faced a situation that could not be defined. It could be lived, though, and we get to observe her life as she scrubs cabinets, grapples with wiring, tangles with the Chapel Isle locals at the café, plays bingo, and rediscovers lessons about home and loyalty.
Written in lush, vibrant prose this novel blends mystery, reflection, and survival in a tale that digs into the human psyche. It should have particular appeal for women over forty and book clubs.
THE WRITING AND CRITIQUE GROUP SURVIVAL GUIDE:
How to Give and Receive Feedback, Self-Edit, and Make Revisions
By Becky Levine
ISBN # 978-1-58297-606-8
Writer’s Digest Books
Survival Guide Seeks Writers
Has your critique group hit an impasse? Are you afraid your comments are too harsh or too hollow? Are you ready to start your own critique group? Whatever your situation, Becky Levine’s The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide: How To Give and Receive Feedback, Self-Edit, and Make Revisions offers sound advice to take a group to the next level.
How do you tell a writer that you zoned out on page 3? Look for the specific causes, whether it’s a lack of tension, a hero without a goal, lack of action, non-useful description, or shifting points of view. Levine cites common problems and suggested comments, which she offers in three different critiquer’s voices.
In addition to defining and illustrating the nitty gritty of critiquing both fiction and non-fiction, she addresses choosing and running a group. She also offers suggestions for making the best use of your comments once you return to your computer.
Levine’s instructive book is a valuable resource for deepening and strengthening the writing group experience. Check your own work against her worksheets to see how you can improve it before taking it to a group. Once you get there, let critiquers know what you are looking for. The give and take of the right critique group can move your story, article, or book proposal to the next level. It can open your eyes. Even if you’re working without a group, Levine’s suggestions can help.
Though you may not want to read every chapter immediately, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide: How To Give and Receive Feedback, Self-Edit, and Make Revisions should be on every writer’s book shelf. You’ll return to it again and again.
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Also Recommended:
By Therese Fowler
ISBN # 978-0-345-49970-7
Ballantine Books
What If?
Harmony Blue is hiding a secret. Twenty years ago she gave birth to a child and let it go in an illegal adoption. She became a renowned talk show host, headquartered in Chicago. Fame and fortune came easily, but happiness did not. Disturbed by the lost of her son, Harmony hires a private detective to find him.
When Harmony’s show travels to Key West for a week, she reunites with her old flame Mitch Forrester and agrees to help him launch a literary television series. She meets Mitch’s son, Julian, a war photographer filming the production in an effort to get close to his father. She can’t get Mitch, Julian, or the child she gave away out of her mind. Is she ready to trade fame and fortune for domesticity?
Author Therese Fowler explores Harmony’s misgivings and yearnings as she searches for true happiness in Reunion. The novel will resonate with every woman who ever wondered “what if….”
sevan@randomhouse.co
JENNIEMAE & JAMES: A MEMOIR IN BLACK AND WHITE
By Brooke Newman
ISBN # 978-0-307-46299-2
Harmony Books
Bonding
Author Brooke Newman is the daughter of James Newman, a mathematical prodigy and best-selling author whose fierce independence and many women frustrated his family in the fifties. Jenniemae, who worked for the Newmans, had a mathematical gift of her own. She was able to pick the numbers of winning horses: they came to her in her dreams.
Newman explores the unique bond between these two in Jenniemae & James: A Memoir in Black and White. Kudos to Brooke Newman for weaving their stories together and showing the indelible impression Jenniemae made on her life.
crownpublicity@randomhouse.com
By James Rollins
ISBN #978-0-06-123141-4
Harper Fiction
Science, History, and Religion Collide
James Rollins action thriller, THE DOOMSDAY KEY begins with a “Note from the Scientific Record” that states, “During the years 2006 to 2008, one-third of all honeybees in the Untied states (and much of Europe and Canada) vanished…So what truly happened to the bees? Within the pages of this novel lies an answer…Most frightening of all, it’s true.”
I was hooked. I came looking for answers about missing bees, impending food shortages, and the origins of the pagan cross. As the story unfolded, I found Gray and his cohorts fighting ecoterrorism on the international stage. A New York Times Bestselling author, Rollins is an incredibly intelligent, articulate writer. He peppers his fact-based story with the dynamic chases that action fans love. Some scenes may not be for the feint of heart, but adventure seekers, world travelers, and science and history buffs will love this book.
Danielle.Bartlett@harpercollins.com
MY SOUL TO TAKE: A Novel of Iceland
By Yrsa Sigurdardottir
ISBN #978-0-06-114338-0
William Morrow
Haunted Health Resort
Looking for new settings and cultural slants in your whodunits? Travel to Snaefellsnes, an isolated spot in western Iceland for Ysra Sigurdardottir’s complex mystery, My Soul To Take.
Sigurdardottir, whose debut novel, Last Rituals, received international approval, brings back attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir, to take on a new case. Property owner Jonas Juliusson wants compensation when the old farmhouse that Thora helped him purchase turns out to be haunted. He converted it into a New Age health resort, and his sensitive clients tell him spirits bothers them.
Iceland’s dark, irregular landscape offers a perfect setting for ghost stories. The author captures the essence of Iceland’s dark, rich beauty. Though the Icelandic names can be challenging and there are many, many suspects, mystery fans will embrace this chilling story.
