Watch my video review of Seven Perfect Things, a contempory fiction novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde to see what I thought of it and what makes it work as a story. The video has subtitles so you can read it if you prefer. About Seven Perfect Things Thirteen-year-old Abby Hubble lives in an unhappy home in the Sierra Nevada foothills where her father makes life miserable for her and her mother, Mary. One day Abby witnesses a man dump a litter of puppies into the nearby river. Diving in to rescue all seven, she knows she won’t be able to bring them home. Afraid for their fate at the pound, she takes them to an abandoned cabin, where all she can offer is a promise that she’ll be back the next day. To grieving widower Elliot Colvin, life has lost meaning. Looking for solace, he retreats to the hunting cabin he last visited years ago, before his wife’s illness. What he discovers is not at all what he expected: seven puppies and one determined girl with an indomitable heart. As Abby … [Read more...]
An Interview with author Florence Osmund
Meet Florence Osmund, an author whose books you know are quality because they have Awesome Indies Approval. Her books would suit people who like fiction that gets to the nitty gritty of life. You can be assured of something with depth as well as a strong plot, because books don't get approved by the Awesome Indies reviewers unless they have all the elements of a good novel in place. Florence's most recent book is called Living with Markus and it's about a young man who is forced to choose between cultivating a satisfying life for himself and rescuing his dysfunctional family members from their certain demise. Painful soul-searching and late-night talks with the captivating tenant downstairs guide him to an unexpected decision and discovery of his true purpose in life. I asked Florence a few questions recently, and them and her answers are below. Tell us a bit about yourself and why you write. After a long career working in a variety of administrative management … [Read more...]
A book for pet lovers: Lily and the Octopus Review
When I first started reading this, I felt that had the growth on the dog’s head not been called an octopus, the book wouldn’t have been at all interesting. It was just a story about a man who discovers that his beloved pet has a growth, presumably a tumour. Calling it an octopus gave a quirky magical realism feel to the story, but it wasn’t enough to keep me reading, so I put the book down and read something else for a while. I thought I wouldn’t return to this story, but it occurred to me that since Simon and Schuster had published it, it must have something more in store. Had it been self-published and not from an author I knew, I would have stopped reading because I would have had no guarantee that it was worth continuing with. So, trusting in the evaluation of the editorial team at Simon and Schuster, I picked it up again, and I was glad I did. The story remained a simple one of a man coming to terms with the inevitable death of his aging pet. The fact that he called the … [Read more...]
Fine literature: Review of The Colour of Light by Emilie Richards
Minister Analiese Wagner faces a challenge when a homeless family camps on the church's grounds one freezing evening. She decides to let them move into the empty apartment upstairs, even though it's too late to get the church council's agreement. The rest of the book is basically the fall-out from her decision and the battles she faces as an advocate for the family and for a hands on approach to Christianity. Added to this she faces a personal challenge when the priest she fell in love with turns up in town. They'd parted to avoid their feelings being an issue for him in his ministry as a celibate priest, but he's come to a cross roads in his life, and she's a factor in what he chooses for the future. The book goes deeply into issues of family homelessness, living as a Christian, and personal love versus love of ministry. The characters are real and complex, and they develop in relation to their changing circumstances. The story is beautifully written and is extremely moving. Fine … [Read more...]
Intriguing – a review of ‘Tom Houghton’ by Todd Alexander
Tom Houghton is a well-written story about a complex and tortured character. It juxtaposes the past with the present to give us some understanding of why the adult Tom is the way he is. The result is an intriguing psychological profile. Tom Houghton is a strange little boy, and it’s Tom as a boy that carries this book. The structure is one chapter in the past with Tom as a bullied twelve year old, followed by one chapter with Tom as he is now, a gay actor with massive insecurities, then we have another chapter with the boy and so on. The ‘Tom the boy’ thread tells the story of Tom’s determination to show those who bully him that he’s worth far more than they could ever imagine. After several chapters of just getting to know Tom and his obsession with Hollywood, Tom’s teacher decides that the class will have a Hollywood dress up day and all the children will wear costumes. For the rest of that thread, the reader is wondering what it actually is that his neighbour is creating for him … [Read more...]
Powerful and moving. ‘Checkpoint Kalandia’ – a book everyone should read.
Checkpoint Kalandia is a powerful and absorbing read, a book for our times, and one that everyone should read. It takes you into the heart and minds of a family living under Israeli occupation, and brings home the reality of the terrible constraints placed on their lives. This could be a totally miserable book, but the strength and support shown by family members gives it hope and honours the great spirit of a people who have suffered for so long because of a poorly considered decision by politicians with no understanding of or relationship to the region. If you think the Palestinians are an angry people, this book challenges you to consider how you would feel if placed in the same situation. How would you handle it? Can we really blame them when their frustration boils over? These are ordinary people, like you and me, placed in an extremely difficult situation, and Ms Hallaj handles the subject matter with skill and sensitivity. A must read for anyone interested in powerful and … [Read more...]
Literary Fiction: Not an Excuse for Boring
Literary fiction is supposed to be a category for beautifully written, moving fiction that crosses genres or otherwise doesn’t fit into the genre categories. It’s supposed to deal with ‘deeper’ themes than genre fiction, but that attitude can be elitist, since there is nothing to stop something that fits a genre category from dealing with such themes, and many do, especially in indie writing. The exploration of relevant and moving themes is not the exclusive domain of literary fiction. Granted, much genre fiction has little more than the story to recommend it, but to assume that none of it has anything more to offer is pure arrogance. Take On the Soul of a Vampire by Krisi Keley—literary fantasy that uses the particular challenges faced by a character forced to murder to survive as the basis for an exploration of the human soul—or my own work; for example, the Diamond Peak Series which though it appears on the surface as contemporary fantasy has layers of psychological and spiritual … [Read more...]
Lovely & very different: Lifeform Three by Roz Morris
I love different books and this certainly is one. I love great prose, and this book has it, and I love a book that's sleek and focused, just as this one is. It's a five star delight, a balm for a three-book-per-week reviewer on a reading diet peppered with failed look-likes. The best thing about the new publishing is that readers get to read books like this, books that are too creative for the mainstream. Before ebooks and print on demand, this would probably never have made it onto the market because it doesn't fit neatly into an established genre. It's about androids, so it is science fiction, but it's not like any other science fiction I've ever read. It's set on earth far in the future after the sea levels have risen, eaten up large tracts of land and vastly changed society, so it is post-apocalyptic, but it's not like any other post-apocalyptic novel I've ever read. The society the central character lives in is highly regulated with no personal freedom, so it's dystopian, but … [Read more...]
Lessons Learned from Broken Characters: Discover Laurie Boris
Meet Awesome Indies author Laurie Boris. I've heard that her books are really good. I’m a bit different from some authors. Instead of outlining and building a character from scratch, I let one fall into my head. I follow him or her around as we find the story together. So sometimes (oh, who am I kidding; it happens nearly all the time) I get to work with characters who are a little broken, a little damaged, or who don’t always make the choices I want them to. This means I often hear the same comment from my early readers: I wanted to SLAP her! If it’s any consolation to them, sometimes I want to slap her, too. Yet to write a book any other way, for me, would feel wrong. It would feel like I’m forcing a character to do something contrary to his or her nature. Readers can sense this. It can make the characters’ journeys feel fake, like the author is moving them around on a chessboard to suit the needs of the plot. When Sarah Cohen popped into my head for Sliding Past Vertical, oh … [Read more...]
Intense moving literary fiction: I Run by E.L Farris
I Run is the story of a woman battling the demons of her childhood, an addictive personality and an injured body in an attempt to get her inner life together. I always thought that running was a healthy thing, but for Sally it's much more complex than that. She uses running to run from her feelings and to punish herself because she feels worthless - the legacy of a childhood of abuse. She also knows that she's f***ed up and that she won't be healed until she faces the past. But facing the past is painful. Everything in this book is painful because author El Farris writes excellent and passionate prose that makes you really feel the character's anguish and turmoil. So, this is not a book I enjoyed. How can you enjoy someone's pain? It's not an entertaining read; it's a painful read, because you're reading about someone's pain. That doesn't mean that it's not a good read, on the contrary, it is a very good read if you want to get inside the head of someone like Sally. In fact, it's a … [Read more...]
