Idgie Says:
I have not had the opportunity to do more than flip quickly through the pages of this book, but I noticed it had some good courtroom scenes and also "in the office" conversations. So I would say if you have an interest in civil law and dirty divorces, also if you enjoy the occasional Judge Judy or Wapner, you would enjoy browsing these legal stories.
____________________________________
Keeping It Civil
The Case of the Pre-nup and the Porsch
and Other True Accounts from the Files of a Family Lawyer
Author: Margaret Klaw
Publisher: Algonquin
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
Book Description:
Divorce,
custody, adoption, reproductive technology, marriage equality, and
domestic violence: these are issues that touch all of our personal lives
in some way or another and make news headlines every single day.
In her riveting book, Keeping It Civil: The Case of the Pre-Nup and The Porsche & Other True Accounts from the Files of a Family Lawyer,
Margaret Klaw gives us insights into these hot-button issues in a whole
new way. Presenting true cases from her busy family law practice, Klaw
draws us into these provocative societal issues through the lens of
ordinary people seeking counsel and provides a fascinating window into
sweeping changes in the way we define families today.
Klaw offers a rare inside look at how a lawyer negotiates with
opposing counsel, prepares witnesses for testimony, sifts through legal
precedents to develop her courtroom strategy, presents arguments to the
judge, and handles clients. As Atul Gawande and Oliver Sacks have done
for the medical profession, Klaw brings a deeper understanding of the
way cultural attitudes about sex, money, women, and relationships
influence the law—and vice versa. These cases are as addictive to read
as they are intellectually stimulating—it’s impossible to read just one!
Watch Book Trailer HERE:
Monday, September 30, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Thieving Magpies
Thieving Magpies
By April Bradley
Clarey and Imogen decided to take
advantage of their day off from the third week of vacation bible school. That
week it was the Nazarenes, and, due to a special Wednesday evening service,
school was cancelled. The sisters did not inform their mother of this piece of
luck. They had already crafted and kool-aided their way through the Cumberland
Presbyterians and the United Methodists, and next week the Church of Christ
promised to be a carnival of delight compared to the Baptists who would finish
off the summer. They craved adventure, a summer day unfettered by doctrine and
cookies that tasted of tedium and dissolved in their mouths like chalk.
That morning the girls woke up early
and dressed in the dim bathroom while their mother slept. Clarey braided her
younger sister’s hair. Imogen was so tow-headed, her hair reminded Clarey of
milk.
“You don’t have to wear pants,
Clarey. No one’s gonna to see us this early.”
“Don’t you worry about what I wear.”
Clarey hissed into Imogen’s ear. “Brush your teeth, but be quiet.” Imogen
glared at her sister then snatched her toothbrush out of Clarey’s fingers.
Clarey rolled her eyes. “Rinse the sink when you’re done.” Clarey tiptoed
toward the kitchen.
The girls skipped breakfast and
packed their lunchboxes. They crept, each movement an exaggeration of activity.
Clarey slunk up a stepladder and pilfered a handful of quarters from the purple
Crown Royal bag her parents hid in the cabinet above the refrigerator while
Imogen made peanut butter sandwiches. They added oranges, animal crackers and
bottles of coke coated with a thin residue of frost. Clarey fed her younger
sister a vitamin, and they slipped through the back door into the sticky-slick Tennessee
morning thick with the pervasive scent of suburban asphalt and relentlessly
mown lawns. They felt as if they were trudging through lavender Jell-O and could
not resist drinking the slushy cokes. Acid and toothpaste sizzled in their
mouths, and needles, vivid and sharp, spiked through their heads. Clarey
winced. Imogen’s teeth scraped the glass rim.
The girls travelled a little over
two miles and made their way over the last hill toward Mansker’s Creek. They
tramped through the neglected pastures of the old Bowen Plantation House, and
Clarey helped Imogen climb over the fieldstone wall into a stand of birch
trees. Imogen crouched and scratched an old chigger bite on her shin, smearing
blood and scraping away the pink fingernail polish. She pointed at the wall.
“If I were a bell-tail or a cottonmouth, that’s where I would live, right there
in the crannies of those rocks.” She hesitated to unfasten her sandals. Her
mouth frowned and the skin between her eyes crinkled into twin lines that
sometimes meant contemplation but Clarey knew expressed worry. Imogen would
fret all day if she weren’t distracted.
“Quit worrying that bite and come on
over here.” Clarey dropped her lunchbox by the wall. “We’ve never seen a rattler yet, and the cottonmouths always
swim away from us at the lake.” Clarey shucked off her shoes and rolled up her
pants legs. “Let’s go, Im. It’s gonna feel so nice and cold. Don’t sulk all
day.”
“You’re not gonna swim in pants and
long sleeves, are you?”
“I told you to leave me alone about
what I’m wearing—”
“You look stupid.”
“—Now get in or stay on the bank, but leave me
be about my clothes.” Clarey ran off and splashed into the water.
Imogen nodded, stripped down to her
bathing suit and left her clothes next to Clarey’s things. She climbed down
into an eddy as the tumble and trickle nipped at her toes. The air tasted
brackish with her sweat, and she recognized the tang of minerals at the back of
her throat. Minnows and crawdads swam around her ankles. Imogen watched her
sister up ahead in a shoal, already squatting down and sifting the silt, her
hair tucked behind her ears, her shirt cuffs dripping, pushed up to her elbows.
The water was harsh in contrast to the growing closeness of the day, almost
numbing in its chill, unlike swimming pools this time of year that never cooled
off to more than bathwater. As Imogen inched her way towards Clarey, the creek
became deeper, murkier and more remote than the one they played in at their
elementary school. Imogen slipped and went under, then surged up to her feet,
coughing up creek water and heard her sister laughing at her.
Imogen’s fists held globs of the
creek bottom, and she spit weeds and grit out of her mouth. “Don’t you laugh at
me, you muley-hawed priss.”
Clarey only laughed more—Im sounded
so countrified.
“That. Is. It. See how you like it!”
Imogen slung a handful of mud at her sister and splattered her canvas pants
with slime. Imogen’s first smile of the day occurred when Clarey’s return lob
included a nice chunk of Indian money. “Finders, keepers!” Imogen crowed.
When the girls grew bored of
panning, they gathered up their things and followed the creek southeast for a
couple of hours. The heat blistered, so they decided to eat under the shade of
the willow and wild dogwood on the floodplain. They could taste the scent of
the wildflowers, and in the distance the foothills of the ridge unrolled in a
haze. Clarey peeled her orange in a careful corkscrew and threw it in the
creek. They watched it float away towards Nashville. They figured it was at
least an hour past dinner and, if their mother was awake, she would be
wondering where her daughters were. Clarey decided they should keep on walking
the creek to Gallatin Road where they could find a telephone and reach their
grandmother. “Memaw always knows what to do, Im. We’ll get home before Momma
wakes up.”
“We’d better. If she’s sick, and we
aren’t there to take care of her, I don’t know what will happen.”
“We’ll catch hell is what.”
The girls reached Center Point
Bar-B-Q in the middle of the afternoon. Clarey used the telephone since she had
more practice.
Halle answered, “That you Clarey?”
“Yes, sir. May I please speak with
Memaw?”
“No gal, she’s not here right now.
What can I do you for?”
When she explained the situation to
Halle, he laughed for so long, he told her to “hold on, honey.” Clarey did not
respond and twirled the phone cord while she waited for Halle to finish
laughing at her. He asked her to pass
the phone to the waitress with the nametag that read “Charlene”. Charlene spoke
with Halle, nodding and simpering. Clarey walked over to Imogen who was waiting
by the counter.
Imogen perked up. “Is Halle coming
to get us?”
“I think so. Maybe. Memaw’s not
there.”
“Halle’s so much fun—He’ll smooth
over everything with Momma.”
“Im, you know it’s no good saying
anything to him. Even if he believed us, he won’t get in the middle of things.
You know that, right?”
Imogen sighed and looked over at the
waitress who was nearly dancing with the phone. “Yeah, I know. But I still want
to see him.”
“Me too.” Clarey knew exactly what
Imogen meant. They learned early in their ten and seven years never to complain
about their mother to their uncle, even when he asked questions, because if he
didn’t like the answers, they earned a scolding instead of help.
Charlene hung up the phone and waved
the girls over to a booth.
“Ok, girls, over here, Halle’s on
his way. Now, I’m supposed to feed you if you aren’t already full up of creek
water. You know how this works. Grilled cheese or a BBQ sandwich? Coke or Tea?”
Charlene tapped her ink pen against her shiny teeth while she waited for the
girls to decide.
By the time the girls finished
eating, Halle arrived and hollered, “Hey there, Charlene, how about some tea,
extra ice.” He stood by the girls’ table. “Thanks for looking after the girls.”
“Certainly, Halle. Something to
eat?”
“No, ma’am. I’m good. Ate at home.”
Halle winked at his giggling nieces, and he settled into the booth next to
Imogen. “I’m here to see if these girls have anything good to show for their
trouble today.” Imogen scrambled closer to Halle. “Well you chatter-pied
truants, did your efforts yield anything worthy?”
Clarey and Imogen yattered and
warbled over one another. “Oh, yes, Uncle Halle, just see right here” and “look
look look, this one and this and oh see” as each girl dumped her gritty, slippy
goods out of her lunchbox onto the table. Imogen wiggled around and said, “We
collected loads of Indian money and stones.” Clarey added, “We even found three
arrowheads.”
Charlene served Halle his tea and
glanced down at Clarey’s hands fumbling with her treasure. “Did you hurt
yourself today, honey?” Imogen froze while Clarey pulled her sleeve over the
cut and bruises peeking out from under her cuff.
She gave Charlene a pretend smile
and said, “Yes, ma’am. It’s nothing —I banged up against a rock is all.”
“Well, have your grandmother attend
to it later.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” Clarey
leaned back into her seat and refused to look at her sister. “Go on, Halle,
check out those arrowheads,” she said and placed her injured wrist on her knee
under the table. “Im, tell him about them.” Imogen did. Clarey sipped her cold
drink and ignored Charlene until she left the table.
Halle studied an arrowhead. “Do you
girls know what you now possess?” Halle leaned forward and placed his elbows on
the table. Sunlight flared through a window and cut him in half, dividing him
up for the girls. “First of all, you have two arrowheads and a rock, and that
means neither of you will fight over a piece of flint.” Halle passed one to
each girl. “Dovetail arrowheads increase in value because of size, condition
and the integrity of the stone as it holds its shape over time. Their age
exceeds six thousand years, but an expert can verify the age and more.”
This information bewildered the
girls. It tipped their minds over. They could not conjure so much time. Imogen
stared at the arrowhead in her hand; Clarey put hers in her pocket.
“A nice day’s haul. I couldn’t’ve
done better at either of your ages. Now pack it up and let’s get you over to
your grandmother’s.”
The girls packed away the rest of
their artifacts while Halle paid Charlene with currency and charm. He guided
his nieces outside toward his GTO convertible.
“Shotgun!”
Witch, thought Imogen.
On the way back to their
grandmother’s the girls listened to stories about Halle’s laying out-days with
the creek when he was young. All Clarey wanted was Halle to drive faster.
When they arrived at their
grandmother’s house, Halle let the car idle in the driveway. Clarey opened the
passenger side door. “Clarey girl, Im?” Halle said, stalling the girls’ exit
from the car, “you want to tell me anything?”
“Like what?” Clarey asked, holding
the door open, one foot planted on the floorboard, the other dangling just
enough for her toes to touch the driveway. The door’s ignition signal pulsed
politely at first but seemed to amplify with each insistent ping. She watched
her foot draw a circle in the gravel and answered Halle in a low monotone. “We
already told you all about our day. We had a grand time, Halle. Thank you for
coming to get us and telling us about our arrowheads.” Clarey clutched her
lunchbox to her chest with her free hand.
“You’re quite welcome. I’m glad to
help and enjoyed myself.” Halle went to touch Clarey’s shoulder but put his
hand back on the steering wheel. “You want to tell me why you’re wearing pants
and long sleeves in August?” He looked at Imogen in the rearview mirror. Imogen
met his gaze but made sure to keep her face blank.
Clarey did not respond. “Girls?” The
ignition signal pounded out an insistent heartbeat.
When
Halle had enough of his nieces’ silence, he huffed, cut the engine, climbed out
of the car and left the girls alone. Clarey scrunched down by the door and
fiddled with her shoes, making sure Halle was in the house. She heard the
screen door slam shut and said, “He’s gone, Im, come on now.”
Imogen joined Clarey in the shade by
the passenger side wheel well. Clarey removed her arrowhead from her damp
pocket and tested its heft. The point did not flake a bit when she flourished
it across the curve from the fender to the door. The scar she gouged in the Matador
red gloss looked barbed, tender, raw. It satisfied her. Imogen thought a knife
or screwdriver would have done a better job but would have caused their teeth
to ache as if they had chewed aluminum foil. The idea of scraping metal against
metal caused her skin to crawl away from her. The arrowhead answered just fine.
“Ready to go in, Im?”
“Yeah, I gotta pee.”
Halle never said a thing.
___________________________________
April
Bradley is an American Southern writer and feminist philosopher from Tennessee
who now lives on the Connecticut shoreline. She is a graduate of Eckerd College
(BA) and Yale University (MAR). As a
Tennessee native living in Connecticut, April’s writing accentuates place,
landscapes, dwelling and displacement. She blogs at tennesseelove.wordpress.com
and is at work on her first novel.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Rivers
Rivers
Author: Michael Farris Smith
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: September 10, 2013
Idgie Says:
FANTASTIC! I have not read anything this interesting and different in a while.
Taking the true life issues the Gulf Coast residents have been dealing with and giving them apocalyptic size proportions takes worry and heartache and turns it into life threatening terror.
Throw in a bit of McCarthy's "The Road" and a few clips of the original "Mad Max" and you get a sampling of what life has become below the government mandated line that now makes the last 90 miles of land leading to the Gulf Coast no man's land. No law, no power, no safety. Constant hurricane like weather, rain non-stop for 3 or more years, causing houses, business, roadways and trees to slowly rot and crumble into wet sludgy spots in the mud.
The characters in this novel are very alive, you can get into their minds and see where their ideas, and ideals, originate from. You feel the pain and heartache each one has. The author takes a group of people and makes sure at least a spark of personality comes through each one.
Sticking with first Cohen and his animals, and later Cohen and his people, as they decide it's time to run to the safety of the government line keeps you on the edge of your seat. They are truly in a land with no rules and even stopping for water, or finding a drivable road, is fraught with danger. Then there leads the question - is a line across the road really going to make it safer on the other side?
Through flashbacks you discover more about Cohen - his deep longing and love for the wife and soon-to-be born baby that he lost to the storms and how that leads him in his future actions. There's also a very interesting surprise toward the end of the book, all leading to the question - Why did Cohen never leave the land the government forgot and continue to live on surrounded by misery, hunger and danger? Some of it has an obvious answer, the rest - not so much.
Idgie Says YES! Grab a copy today!
______________________________________
Book Description:
It had been raining for weeks. Maybe months. He had forgotten the last day that it hadn’t rained, when the storms gave way to the pale blue of the Gulf sky, when the birds flew and the clouds were white and sunshine glistened across the drenched land.
Following years of catastrophic hurricanes, the Gulf Coast—stretching from the Florida panhandle to the western Louisiana border—has been brought to its knees. The region is so punished and depleted that the government has drawn a new boundary ninety miles north of the coastline. Life below the Line offers no services, no electricity, and no resources, and those who stay behind live by their own rules.
Cohen is one who stayed. Unable to overcome the crushing loss of his wife and unborn child who were killed during an evacuation, he returned home to Mississippi to bury them on family land. Until now he hasn’t had the strength to leave them behind, even to save himself.
But after his home is ransacked and all of his carefully accumulated supplies stolen, Cohen is finally forced from his shelter. On the road north, he encounters a colony of survivors led by a fanatical, snake-handling preacher named Aggie who has dangerous visions of repopulating the barren region.
Realizing what’s in store for the women Aggie is holding against their will, Cohen is faced with a decision: continue to the Line alone, or try to shepherd the madman’s captives across the unforgiving land with the biggest hurricane yet bearing down—and Cohen harboring a secret that may pose the greatest threat of all.
Eerily prophetic in its depiction of a southern landscape ravaged by extreme weather, Rivers is a masterful tale of survival and redemption in a world where the next devastating storm is never far behind.
The Education of a Lifetime, Robert Khayat
Idgie Says:
If you love football, Ole Miss and history, this might just be the book for you. Khayat started out in football as they were being integrated, dealt with race riots during those years and then went on to become a Chancellor at a college he once watched those same riots occur at. A full life filled with football and history.
________________________________
The Education of a Lifetime
Memoir of Roberth Khayat
(Nautilus Publishing;
September 10, 2013; $24.95; ISBN: 978-1-936-946-17-4)
As a young boy growing up in a segregated Mississippi, Robert Khayat never could have imagined the strength and courage he would need, as Chancellor of the University of Mississippi, to overcome his greatest adversary: tradition.
In 1962, while a riot was in full swing on the University of Mississippi's campus over the admission of James Meredith, the university's first black student, Khayat was experiencing a different kind of integration. He was a member of the newly integrated Washington Redskins.
The black players were welcomed with open arms as Khayat and his friend, and black teammate, Bobby Mitchell, watched the riot that was taking place at Ole Miss. Khayat had no way of knowing, 35 years later, he would be leading the same university though one of its greatest challenges - its disassociation from the Confederate flag and the university's past.
In his memoir, Khayat writes about his childhood days in Moss Point, Mississippi, the state's segregationist policies that prevented his SEC championship baseball team from playing in the College World Series, and the sadness of experiencing his father's arrest and guilty plea. These seemingly disparate events worked to prepare him to battle the vestiges of racial strife that continued to haunt the university's culture as he accepted the honor of becoming the university's 15th Chancellor.
Khayat's story gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at how a university moved from mediocrity to excellence. We relive, along with Khayat, the courting of an eccentric donor, as well as private conversations with a sitting U.S. President, governors, coaches and celebrities.
We also see how a man worked to make amends for past mistakes. The Education of a Lifetime is a funny, touching and insightful memoir. And it is proof that one man - a man dedicated to respecting the dignity of every individual - can make lasting change
A video where Robert discusses Ole Miss:
If you love football, Ole Miss and history, this might just be the book for you. Khayat started out in football as they were being integrated, dealt with race riots during those years and then went on to become a Chancellor at a college he once watched those same riots occur at. A full life filled with football and history.
________________________________
The Education of a Lifetime
Memoir of Roberth Khayat
(Nautilus Publishing;
September 10, 2013; $24.95; ISBN: 978-1-936-946-17-4)
As a young boy growing up in a segregated Mississippi, Robert Khayat never could have imagined the strength and courage he would need, as Chancellor of the University of Mississippi, to overcome his greatest adversary: tradition.
In 1962, while a riot was in full swing on the University of Mississippi's campus over the admission of James Meredith, the university's first black student, Khayat was experiencing a different kind of integration. He was a member of the newly integrated Washington Redskins.
The black players were welcomed with open arms as Khayat and his friend, and black teammate, Bobby Mitchell, watched the riot that was taking place at Ole Miss. Khayat had no way of knowing, 35 years later, he would be leading the same university though one of its greatest challenges - its disassociation from the Confederate flag and the university's past.
In his memoir, Khayat writes about his childhood days in Moss Point, Mississippi, the state's segregationist policies that prevented his SEC championship baseball team from playing in the College World Series, and the sadness of experiencing his father's arrest and guilty plea. These seemingly disparate events worked to prepare him to battle the vestiges of racial strife that continued to haunt the university's culture as he accepted the honor of becoming the university's 15th Chancellor.
Khayat's story gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at how a university moved from mediocrity to excellence. We relive, along with Khayat, the courting of an eccentric donor, as well as private conversations with a sitting U.S. President, governors, coaches and celebrities.
We also see how a man worked to make amends for past mistakes. The Education of a Lifetime is a funny, touching and insightful memoir. And it is proof that one man - a man dedicated to respecting the dignity of every individual - can make lasting change
A video where Robert discusses Ole Miss:
Comet's Tale
Comet’s Tale
How the Dog I Rescued Saved My Life
by Steven Wolf
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books (October 9, 2012)
Now in paperback - August 27th, 2013
Book Description:
Forced into early retirement by a spinal condition, Steven Wolf reluctantly left his family and moved to Arizona for its warm winter climate. A lifelong dog lover, the former hard-driving attorney is drawn to a local group that rescues retired racing greyhounds. When Comet, a once-abused cinnamon-striped racer, chooses to “adopt” Wolf, he has no idea that a life-altering relationship has begun—for both of them.
Racers, cruelly treated and exposed only to the track and cage, have no inkling of the most basic skills—walking on tile floors, climbing stairs, even playing with toys or children—so Wolf must show the mistrustful greyhound how to thrive in the real world. Gradually, a confident but mysterious spirit emerges from the stunning animal. And when Wolf’s health starts to worsen, the tables turn and Comet must now help Wolf with the most basic skills.
Wolf teaches her to be a service dog, and soon enough she’s hauling his wheelchair at top speed through airport terminals, towing his cart through the grocery store, helping him get out of bed, and attracting friends to Wolf’s isolated world. She plays a crucial role in restoring his health and even saving his marriage. Their unshakable faith in each other makes them winners once again.
Idgie Says:
A warm-hearted book of a Greyhound abandoned after her racing career was over, rescued by Steven on a whim, and then in turn rescuing him from a deep depression after his physical ailments start to take their toll. She becomes his aid dog for physical purposes........and mental ones.
A story that's also pretty detailed regarding the lives Greyhounds endure and how most are considered livestock instead of pets, and therefore treated as such. This is a heartwrenching part of the book and a good wake-up call for those of us who didn't realize what their short lives are really like.
How the Dog I Rescued Saved My Life
by Steven Wolf
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books (October 9, 2012)
Now in paperback - August 27th, 2013
Book Description:
Forced into early retirement by a spinal condition, Steven Wolf reluctantly left his family and moved to Arizona for its warm winter climate. A lifelong dog lover, the former hard-driving attorney is drawn to a local group that rescues retired racing greyhounds. When Comet, a once-abused cinnamon-striped racer, chooses to “adopt” Wolf, he has no idea that a life-altering relationship has begun—for both of them.
Racers, cruelly treated and exposed only to the track and cage, have no inkling of the most basic skills—walking on tile floors, climbing stairs, even playing with toys or children—so Wolf must show the mistrustful greyhound how to thrive in the real world. Gradually, a confident but mysterious spirit emerges from the stunning animal. And when Wolf’s health starts to worsen, the tables turn and Comet must now help Wolf with the most basic skills.
Wolf teaches her to be a service dog, and soon enough she’s hauling his wheelchair at top speed through airport terminals, towing his cart through the grocery store, helping him get out of bed, and attracting friends to Wolf’s isolated world. She plays a crucial role in restoring his health and even saving his marriage. Their unshakable faith in each other makes them winners once again.
Idgie Says:
A warm-hearted book of a Greyhound abandoned after her racing career was over, rescued by Steven on a whim, and then in turn rescuing him from a deep depression after his physical ailments start to take their toll. She becomes his aid dog for physical purposes........and mental ones.
A story that's also pretty detailed regarding the lives Greyhounds endure and how most are considered livestock instead of pets, and therefore treated as such. This is a heartwrenching part of the book and a good wake-up call for those of us who didn't realize what their short lives are really like.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
You Knew Me When
You Knew Me When
Author: Emily Liebert
Publisher: NAL/Penguin
September 3, 2013
Summary of You Knew Me When
Best friends forever…until life got in the way.
Katherine Hill left her small New England hometown in pursuit of a dream. Now, twelve years later, she’s a high-powered cosmetics executive in Manhattan and a much glossier version of her former self, unrecognizable to her family and old friends. Not that she would know—she hasn’t been home in over a decade.
Laney Marten always swore she’d never get “stuck” in Manchester, Vermont. No, she was destined to live out her glamorous big-city dreams. Instead, she wound up a young wife and mother. That was when her best friend ran out.
When Katherine receives word of an inheritance from former neighbor Luella Hancock, she reluctantly returns home to the people and places she left behind. Hoping for a second chance, she’s met by an unforgiving Laney, her former best friend. And there’s someone else who’s moved on without her—someone she once loved.
Tethered to their shared inheritance of Luella’s sprawling Victorian mansion, Katherine and Laney are forced to address their long-standing grudges. Through this, they come to understand that while life has taken them in different directions, ultimately the bonds of friendship and sisterhood still bind them together. But are some wounds too old and deep to mend?
Author: Emily Liebert
Publisher: NAL/Penguin
September 3, 2013
Summary of You Knew Me When
Best friends forever…until life got in the way.
Katherine Hill left her small New England hometown in pursuit of a dream. Now, twelve years later, she’s a high-powered cosmetics executive in Manhattan and a much glossier version of her former self, unrecognizable to her family and old friends. Not that she would know—she hasn’t been home in over a decade.
Laney Marten always swore she’d never get “stuck” in Manchester, Vermont. No, she was destined to live out her glamorous big-city dreams. Instead, she wound up a young wife and mother. That was when her best friend ran out.
When Katherine receives word of an inheritance from former neighbor Luella Hancock, she reluctantly returns home to the people and places she left behind. Hoping for a second chance, she’s met by an unforgiving Laney, her former best friend. And there’s someone else who’s moved on without her—someone she once loved.
Tethered to their shared inheritance of Luella’s sprawling Victorian mansion, Katherine and Laney are forced to address their long-standing grudges. Through this, they come to understand that while life has taken them in different directions, ultimately the bonds of friendship and sisterhood still bind them together. But are some wounds too old and deep to mend?
Idgie Says:
1 girl leaves, 1 girl stays. Years later 2 woman of a certain age who were once besties - before life got in the way - learn that they now share an inheritance.
This is a coming together again, friend re-bonding story. The question here is, "Can you truly go home again"?
At 300 pages, this is a nice, solid, not overly long read.
This is a coming together again, friend re-bonding story. The question here is, "Can you truly go home again"?
At 300 pages, this is a nice, solid, not overly long read.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
TThe Savannah Quartet by Eugenia Price
Originally printed in the 1980s, the late Eugenia Price's acclaimed "Savannah
Quartet," comprised of Savannah, To See Your Face Again, Before the Darkness Falls and Stranger in Savannah are now being re-released in digital and paperback by Turner Publishing. I remember these books fondly from my school years and it's nice to see them again.
______________________________________
Savannah
Orphaned Mark Browning was only twenty when he renounced his father's fortune and sailed to Savannah, his mother's birthplace . . . and the home of two remarkable women. The first is Eliza McQueen Mackay, his mentor's beautiful wife, whom Mark loves with a deep, pure love that can never be spoken. The other is lovely young Caroline Cameron, whose life is blighted by a secret that has tormented her grandparents for half a century—a secret that affects Mark more closely than he imagines. Desiring one woman, loved by another, Mark must confront the ghosts of a previous generation, and face the evil smoldering hate, before he can truly call Savannah his home.
To See Your Face Again
Natalie Browning was a spoiled belle of sixteen when she met the man of her dreams aboard the steamship Pulaski. Burke Latimer, only eight years her senior, was a self-made man with no time for a pretty child. Then a night of terror ended the voyage and Burke discovered another Natalie. But the night that brought him love also wreaked disaster on his fortune, and Burke was forced to ask Natalie to wait until he could make a home worthy of her. Life had never denied Natalie before. Her need to be with Burke drove her to follow him to Geogia's back country, hoping to show him she was ready to be his bride. Could she grow up before she lost the love of her life forever?
Before the Darkness Falls
Georgia, 1842. In this grand and passionate era of American history, forged by the dreams of extraordinary men and women, the McKay, Browning, and Stiles families find themselves experiencing love, hardship, and pain in the great Southern city of Savannah. The willful Natalie Browning Latimer’s newfound marital bliss has been threatened by a shattering loss, while the ambitious W. H. Stiles becomes wrapped up in a daring political trail that leads his family into the turmoil of Western Europe. Natalie’s brother Jonathan Browning shocks the family by dropping out of Yale to be with the one woman who could never be welcomed into Savannah society. As the families struggle to maintain their deep love for one another, the South struggles to justify its connection to the Union and moves toward succession.
Stranger in Savannah
Savannah, 1854. Throughout the city's elegant streets, stirrings of the Civil War are taking hold. For three families, the Brownings, the Mackays, and the Stileses, the war has already begun within their hearts, drawing battle lines where once there was love. Mark Browning's unwavering faith in the Union sparks a battle of conscience that threatens all that he holds dear . . . and challenges the loyalty of his headstrong daughter, Natalie. The elderly Mackay matriarch, Miss Eliza, is Mark's only ally in a city divided within itself. For the Stileses, their lives are forever changed as the legacies of the past clash with an uncertain future.
______________________________________
Savannah
Orphaned Mark Browning was only twenty when he renounced his father's fortune and sailed to Savannah, his mother's birthplace . . . and the home of two remarkable women. The first is Eliza McQueen Mackay, his mentor's beautiful wife, whom Mark loves with a deep, pure love that can never be spoken. The other is lovely young Caroline Cameron, whose life is blighted by a secret that has tormented her grandparents for half a century—a secret that affects Mark more closely than he imagines. Desiring one woman, loved by another, Mark must confront the ghosts of a previous generation, and face the evil smoldering hate, before he can truly call Savannah his home.
To See Your Face Again
Natalie Browning was a spoiled belle of sixteen when she met the man of her dreams aboard the steamship Pulaski. Burke Latimer, only eight years her senior, was a self-made man with no time for a pretty child. Then a night of terror ended the voyage and Burke discovered another Natalie. But the night that brought him love also wreaked disaster on his fortune, and Burke was forced to ask Natalie to wait until he could make a home worthy of her. Life had never denied Natalie before. Her need to be with Burke drove her to follow him to Geogia's back country, hoping to show him she was ready to be his bride. Could she grow up before she lost the love of her life forever?
Before the Darkness Falls
Georgia, 1842. In this grand and passionate era of American history, forged by the dreams of extraordinary men and women, the McKay, Browning, and Stiles families find themselves experiencing love, hardship, and pain in the great Southern city of Savannah. The willful Natalie Browning Latimer’s newfound marital bliss has been threatened by a shattering loss, while the ambitious W. H. Stiles becomes wrapped up in a daring political trail that leads his family into the turmoil of Western Europe. Natalie’s brother Jonathan Browning shocks the family by dropping out of Yale to be with the one woman who could never be welcomed into Savannah society. As the families struggle to maintain their deep love for one another, the South struggles to justify its connection to the Union and moves toward succession.
Stranger in Savannah
Savannah, 1854. Throughout the city's elegant streets, stirrings of the Civil War are taking hold. For three families, the Brownings, the Mackays, and the Stileses, the war has already begun within their hearts, drawing battle lines where once there was love. Mark Browning's unwavering faith in the Union sparks a battle of conscience that threatens all that he holds dear . . . and challenges the loyalty of his headstrong daughter, Natalie. The elderly Mackay matriarch, Miss Eliza, is Mark's only ally in a city divided within itself. For the Stileses, their lives are forever changed as the legacies of the past clash with an uncertain future.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker
Idgie Says:
This is a wonderfully detailed book about the Civil War, from not only a woman's point of view, but a black freewoman. It's not set in the South on the Confederate side, but right smack in D.C. where Elizabeth works as a seamstress for all of the politicians wives, and her star client, Mrs. Lincoln.
She is smart, successful, genteel and should fit right in with those woman, but of course she doesn't since she's black. That is never forgotten by anyone.
This is a great glimpse of history via a different angle. Based on facts, but written like a gripping novel. There are none of those tedious historical diatribes that sometime occur in a fact telling book.
I recommend it.
I also recommend you go grab a copy of the real life Lizzie Keckley's book, Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House.
This is a wonderfully detailed book about the Civil War, from not only a woman's point of view, but a black freewoman. It's not set in the South on the Confederate side, but right smack in D.C. where Elizabeth works as a seamstress for all of the politicians wives, and her star client, Mrs. Lincoln.
She is smart, successful, genteel and should fit right in with those woman, but of course she doesn't since she's black. That is never forgotten by anyone.
This is a great glimpse of history via a different angle. Based on facts, but written like a gripping novel. There are none of those tedious historical diatribes that sometime occur in a fact telling book.
I recommend it.
I also recommend you go grab a copy of the real life Lizzie Keckley's book, Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House.
____________________________________________________
Publisher: Plume
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
New York Times bestselling author Jennifer
Chiaverini illuminates the extraordinary friendship between Mary Todd
Lincoln and Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, a former slave who won her freedom
by the skill of her needle, and the friendship of the First Lady by her
devotion. In Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, novelist
Jennifer Chiaverini presents a stunning account of the friendship that
blossomed between Mary Todd Lincoln and her seamstress, Elizabeth
“Lizzie” Keckley, a former slave who gained her professional reputation
in Washington, D.C. by outfitting the city’s elite. Keckley made history
by sewing for First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln within the White House, a
trusted witness to many private moments between the President and his
wife, two of the most compelling figures in American history.
In March 1861, Mrs. Lincoln chose Keckley from among a number of applicants to be her personal “modiste,” responsible not only for creating the First Lady’s gowns, but also for dressing Mrs. Lincoln in the beautiful attire Keckley had fashioned. The relationship between the two women quickly evolved, as Keckley was drawn into the intimate life of the Lincoln family, supporting Mary Todd Lincoln in the loss of first her son, and then her husband to the assassination that stunned the nation and the world.
Keckley saved scraps from the dozens of gowns she made for Mrs. Lincoln, eventually piecing together a tribute known as the Mary Todd Lincoln Quilt. She also saved memories, which she fashioned into a book, Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Upon its publication, Keckley’s memoir created a scandal that compelled Mary Todd Lincoln to sever all ties with her, but in the decades since, Keckley’s story has languished in the archives. In this impeccably researched, engrossing novel, Chiaverini brings history to life in rich, moving style.
In March 1861, Mrs. Lincoln chose Keckley from among a number of applicants to be her personal “modiste,” responsible not only for creating the First Lady’s gowns, but also for dressing Mrs. Lincoln in the beautiful attire Keckley had fashioned. The relationship between the two women quickly evolved, as Keckley was drawn into the intimate life of the Lincoln family, supporting Mary Todd Lincoln in the loss of first her son, and then her husband to the assassination that stunned the nation and the world.
Keckley saved scraps from the dozens of gowns she made for Mrs. Lincoln, eventually piecing together a tribute known as the Mary Todd Lincoln Quilt. She also saved memories, which she fashioned into a book, Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Upon its publication, Keckley’s memoir created a scandal that compelled Mary Todd Lincoln to sever all ties with her, but in the decades since, Keckley’s story has languished in the archives. In this impeccably researched, engrossing novel, Chiaverini brings history to life in rich, moving style.
The Wedding Gift
The Wedding Gift
Author: Marlen Suyapa Bodden
St. Martin's Press
9/24/2013
Hardcover
ISBN: 9781250026385
ISBN10: 1250026385
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 320 pages
From the Publisher:
Author: Marlen Suyapa Bodden
St. Martin's Press
9/24/2013
Hardcover
ISBN: 9781250026385
ISBN10: 1250026385
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 320 pages
From the Publisher:
When Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa's hand in marriage,
he presents her with a wedding gift: Sarah, the young slave with whom
she was raised. Sarah also is Allen's daughter and Clarissa's sister, a
product of his longtime relationship with his house slave, Emmeline.
When Clarissa's husband suspects that their newborn son is illegitimate,
Clarissa and Sarah are sent back to her parents, Cornelius and
Theodora, in shame, setting in motion a series of events that will
destroy this once powerful family.
Told through alternating viewpoints of Sarah and Theodora Allen, Cornelius' wife, The Wedding Gift is a stunning novel that shows where the complicated and compelling bonds and relationships between black and white women began. It is an intimate portrait that shows where this particular American story and dynamic all started and will leave readers breathless.
Idgie Says:
I am not denigrating the value of the story and the history in this novel in any way, but I have to admit that at times I felt I was reading a bit of a soap opera. As the story became deeper, it seemed that everyone was sleeping with everyone else (whether they wanted to or not) and everyone was surprised with the fact that they were all somehow related to each other - blacks and whites.
This is a deeper novel than that, fully sharing the facts of being a slave, of being a non-slave and being able to treat slaves as you like, and the fact that both sides of the story had dreams and disappointments. Women of both colors were not much more than chattel and learned to "work the system" as best they could to make their lives tolerable.
Outrages are described fully, along with the anguish that goes along with the occurrences. There are pages where you just wince as you read.
This is a novel that keeps you invested in the story, but I still felt I needed a genealogy chart to keep up.
____________________________________
Told through alternating viewpoints of Sarah and Theodora Allen, Cornelius' wife, The Wedding Gift is a stunning novel that shows where the complicated and compelling bonds and relationships between black and white women began. It is an intimate portrait that shows where this particular American story and dynamic all started and will leave readers breathless.
Idgie Says:
I am not denigrating the value of the story and the history in this novel in any way, but I have to admit that at times I felt I was reading a bit of a soap opera. As the story became deeper, it seemed that everyone was sleeping with everyone else (whether they wanted to or not) and everyone was surprised with the fact that they were all somehow related to each other - blacks and whites.
This is a deeper novel than that, fully sharing the facts of being a slave, of being a non-slave and being able to treat slaves as you like, and the fact that both sides of the story had dreams and disappointments. Women of both colors were not much more than chattel and learned to "work the system" as best they could to make their lives tolerable.
Outrages are described fully, along with the anguish that goes along with the occurrences. There are pages where you just wince as you read.
This is a novel that keeps you invested in the story, but I still felt I needed a genealogy chart to keep up.
____________________________________
The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden
Q&A
1.
What can you tell us
about your new book The Wedding Gift?
It’s my debut novel and
it’s set in the 1850s pre-Civil War American South. When Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, he presents
her with a wedding gift: the young slave she grew up with, Sarah. Sarah is also
Allen’s daughter and Clarissa’s sister, a product of his longtime relationship
with his house slave, Emmeline. When Clarissa’s husband suspects that their
newborn son is illegitimate, Clarissa and Sarah are sent back to her parents,
Cornelius and Theodora, in shame, setting in motion a series of events that
will destroy this once powerful family.
Told
through alternating viewpoints of Sarah and Theodora Allen, Cornelius’ wife, The Wedding Gift shows where the
complicated bonds and relationships between black and white women, a particular
American story, began.
2.
Tell us about your
research process into this novel?
My research process for
The Wedding Gift chiefly was to read non-fiction, scholarly books and articles
on American slavery. The works I found most useful were ones that relied on
court and government documents, such as deeds, records of lawsuits, birth and
death records, and census reports.
I read, but did not rely
on, a substantial amount of slave narratives, transcribed interviews conducted
by the U.S. government in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, a time of
grave poverty in the U.S. But scholars have pointed out that those interviews
did not accurately depict the lives of slaves during slavery because the
subjects were small children when slavery was abolished in 1862-1865. I found
it striking, and sad, that what almost all the subjects commented on was that
during slavery they always had a lot to eat.
3.
What made you want to
explore the subject of slavery?
American slavery and the
Civil War are very important topics in the U.S. and, as children, we studied
them in school. I was interested in history since childhood and even then, I
was most unusual for someone so young, because it made me sad to think that my
ancestors had been kidnapped in Africa and taken to the New World as slaves. As
an undergraduate, I studied history and literature, but it wasn’t until the
mid-1990s that I began to read a few reports of modern-day slavery, but these
reports seemed like isolated incidents. It wasn’t until the mid-2000s that I
began to read about the true figures of how many slaves there are around the
globe, in our times. Anti-slavery advocates estimate that today, all over the
world, in every industry, there are at least 27 million slaves. That’s more
than at any other time in history, including during the Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade, when over 11 million Africans were transported to the New World.
4.
You are a lawyer in
New York City by day, so when did writing become a focus for you?
In 1999, when I read, in
a non-fiction book on runaway slaves, about a case in Talladega, Alabama, where
a planter sued his wife for divorce and the court granted him all the property
his wife had brought into the marriage, including a young slave woman. I
thought about writing a novel based on that case. But I didn’t focus on writing
until 2003, when I had a client who had been taken from Asia to New York City
as a slave and with the help of police had escaped. I knew then that I had to
write The Wedding Gift, to give voice not just to my ancestors, but to the
slaves of today.
5.
How do you fit your
writing in around such a demanding role?
I write on weekends and
vacations. But I also read for research and write on the commuter train, the
subway, during lunch, and just about anywhere when I have time from my “day
job.” But, I also practice the law the same way, I often have to work on my
cases on weekends or vacations.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Controversy and Hope - The Civil Rights Photographs of James Karales
Idgie Says:
This is a beautiful coffee table book that has some fantastic behind the scenes photographs of the times - from the Selma march to the Kings at home, sitting at their kitchen table. The photograph of Jim Letherer, clearly exhausted after joining the march with only one leg just reaches out and grabs you - as does the photograph of the sharply observant black students lining the marching path, eager but nervous at the same time. All of the photographs are in black and white, making the scenes crisp and sharp. A really excellent piece of important history bound into a lovely form to enjoy and share.
Controversy and Hope
The Civil Rights Photographs of James Karales
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press (April 18, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1611171571
ISBN-13: 978-1611171570
Book Description:
Controversy and Hope commemorates the civil rights legacy of James Karales (1930-2002), a professional photojournalist who documented the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights with a dedication and vision that led the New York Times to deem his work "a pictorial anthem of the civil rights movement."
Equipped with ambition and a B.F.A. in photography from Ohio University in 1955, Karales headed to New York and found work as a darkroom assistant to master photographer W. Eugene Smith. Karales's earliest photo-essays had already come to the attention of Edward Steichen, curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which acquired two of Karales's photographs from his series on the Greek American community of Canton, Ohio. Another early photo-essay, on the integrated mining community of Rendville, Ohio, was featured in Karales's first solo exhibition, held in 1958 at Helen Gee's Limelight gallery in Greenwich Village. From 1960 to 1971, Karales worked as a staff photographer for Look magazine, traveling the world during a time of dynamic social change and recording the harsh realities he witnessed at home and abroad.
By the time Karales documented the fifty-four-mile voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 he had already developed a strong relationship with its most prominent leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and had been granted unprecedented access to the King family. That connection translated into a powerful empathy in the photographs that still resonates for viewers today.
The Village Voice described Karales's civil rights work as bearing "the weight of history and the grace of art." Controversy and Hope presents many of Karales's images from the era, including some photographs published here for the first time. Julian Cox, with the assistance of Rebekah Jacob and Monica Karales, has selected a bold representation of Karales's photographs, augmenting his visual legacy with biographical information and personal recollections. Civil rights leader Andrew Young, who appears in some of Karales's photographs, has provided a foreword to the volume.
This is a beautiful coffee table book that has some fantastic behind the scenes photographs of the times - from the Selma march to the Kings at home, sitting at their kitchen table. The photograph of Jim Letherer, clearly exhausted after joining the march with only one leg just reaches out and grabs you - as does the photograph of the sharply observant black students lining the marching path, eager but nervous at the same time. All of the photographs are in black and white, making the scenes crisp and sharp. A really excellent piece of important history bound into a lovely form to enjoy and share.
Controversy and Hope
The Civil Rights Photographs of James Karales
Julian Cox
With Rebekah Jacob and Monica Karales
Foreword by Andrew Young
Hardcover: 176 pagesWith Rebekah Jacob and Monica Karales
Foreword by Andrew Young
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press (April 18, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1611171571
ISBN-13: 978-1611171570
Book Description:
Controversy and Hope commemorates the civil rights legacy of James Karales (1930-2002), a professional photojournalist who documented the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights with a dedication and vision that led the New York Times to deem his work "a pictorial anthem of the civil rights movement."
Equipped with ambition and a B.F.A. in photography from Ohio University in 1955, Karales headed to New York and found work as a darkroom assistant to master photographer W. Eugene Smith. Karales's earliest photo-essays had already come to the attention of Edward Steichen, curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which acquired two of Karales's photographs from his series on the Greek American community of Canton, Ohio. Another early photo-essay, on the integrated mining community of Rendville, Ohio, was featured in Karales's first solo exhibition, held in 1958 at Helen Gee's Limelight gallery in Greenwich Village. From 1960 to 1971, Karales worked as a staff photographer for Look magazine, traveling the world during a time of dynamic social change and recording the harsh realities he witnessed at home and abroad.
By the time Karales documented the fifty-four-mile voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 he had already developed a strong relationship with its most prominent leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and had been granted unprecedented access to the King family. That connection translated into a powerful empathy in the photographs that still resonates for viewers today.
The Village Voice described Karales's civil rights work as bearing "the weight of history and the grace of art." Controversy and Hope presents many of Karales's images from the era, including some photographs published here for the first time. Julian Cox, with the assistance of Rebekah Jacob and Monica Karales, has selected a bold representation of Karales's photographs, augmenting his visual legacy with biographical information and personal recollections. Civil rights leader Andrew Young, who appears in some of Karales's photographs, has provided a foreword to the volume.
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