The River, By Moonlight by Camille Marchetta, tells the story of a woman’s death.  The story is told from a multitude of viewpoints, including the woman’s own.  It would be easy to get lost in the many different perspectives, especially as the story often skips around its own timeline, except for the skill with which the author crafted each character and each chapter.  The author’s flowing and detail-rich style is apparent with each character, however the voice with which she writes changes:  she seems to dig deep into the mind of each character.  No stone is left unturned as the book explores each person’s reaction to the death, revealing both selfish and selfless thoughts about the dead woman and her death.

I eagerly read, waiting for the chapter written from the dead woman’s perspective –Yes, I peeked ahead to see which characters were given chapters of their own! –I wondered, would it tell the incident from her point of view?  Would it be a glimpse of Lily in the afterlife? Would it answer the many questions around her death?  It did answer many questions, it also asked a few, but more than that, it put me terrifyingly in touch with a mind that works so much like my own: the constant battle to stay afloat against a seemingly endless tide of sadness, grief and hopelessness. In the chapter, she explains how one day she can be at the top of the world, with energy to spare and the next, deep in the dregs of a hopeless future.  When she wondered if things would have been better had she stayed home instead of haring off to New York on her own, it made me realize just how much my family keeps me grounded.

Lily’s story is set in the time just before World War I.  I found it very easy to relate to the worries of the characters about the war.  I did, however, at times have trouble reconciling the setting with the style of the writing.  My guess is that the grace of the writing, and the way the author layered so many details into each scene, put me more in mind of an earlier era: perhaps the mid to late 1800′s or perhaps even earlier into the time of the Revolutionary War.  The story itself was always true to its established time period though, it was just the visions the writing evoked in my head that placed it at an earlier time.

This book earned a prize for the Eric Hoffer Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing in 2008 and it’s easy to see why.  The story is told beautifully, and although it deals with a subject of deep sadness and despair, it was easy to walk away from the book with a feeling of hope.

This book review has been brought to you by Blog Stop Book Tours.  If you’d like to learn more about the author or the book, head on over there.  You’ll find an interview with the author, places you can purchase the book, as well as other books that Blog Stop Book Tour bloggers have reviewed. Check out these other blogs if you’re interested in reading other reviews written about this book:

The Bluestocking Society

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Sharp Words

Devourer of Books

Book Review: Midwife of the Blue Ridge by Christine Blevins

A short way from where I grew up, the mountains of the Blue Ridge rose up. They so enchanted me then that I chose to go to college amidst their heights and valleys. The past of the area fascinated me as I learned my own family’s history: some of the clan settled right there in those mountains long before the Revolutionary War while others moved farther west towards Illinois. The clan originally came from Scotland. The land had a way of calling to me that I have found in only a few other places (among them Cornwall, Wales and Scotland).

So when the story of Dark Maggie was offered to me, I jumped at the chance to read it.  Maggie was trained as a midwife in Scotland, but tragedy, superstition and hardship dogged her steps there. So, she signed on as an indentured servant and traveled to the Americas. She knew she would have to work for someone else for seven years, but her hope was that after that time was over she could seek a better life for herself.

Her story unfolds, taking us from the superstitions and stories of Scotland to the primitive dangers of settling in the mountains of the Blue Ridge. But it doesn’t follow the story she had laid out for herself – working for 7 years for a possibly cruel master and then having her freedom after.  Instead she finds friends that are better than family, work that is fulfilling, adventure she never wanted, and more.

I loved reading this book. I loved the way the story was woven together with bright strands of love and courage; the deeper shades of defiance, survival, and tradition accenting them. Maggie’s character drew me in with both her strength and her vulnerabilities.

As I read this story, I could well imagine what the lives of my ancestors might have been like. I could see how they battled for their land, and their lives.  They lived lonely lives far from neighbors yet wove strong communities despite the distance because of a shared need for protection from both greedy landowners and Native Americans.

Reading it made me long to visit the mountains I love so much, to see the fog settle on the verdant trees of the valley, to see the sparkling rivers rushing through the rocks. Most especially if you have roots that extend to Scotland or the early days of the American colonies, or if you just happen to love those mountains as I do, I recommend this book. If you love the adventure of historical romances, I recommend this book – although I would not classify this as a ‘romance novel’.

Read it!

For more reviews, information about the book and the author, please go to Blog Stop Book Tours, which made this review possible.

The Smart One by Ellen Meister

The Smart One was a fun read for me. The main character, Bev, was in the middle of a trio of sisters. She was always known as “The Smart One”, while her sister Clare was the “The Pretty One” and her sister Joey was “The Wild One”. One grew up to be a wife and mother, one a one-hit-wonder rock star, and the other has wandered through her life, always looking for what she was supposed to be doing. Being “The Smart One” didn’t make living life any easier for her.

A series of events lead the sisters to discovering a body, preserved in a barrel under their parents’ next door neighbors’ house. That discovery lead the three on a hunt to solve the mystery of how the body got there. Along the way they learned a lot more about each other and about themselves, and about their neighbors.

This book was fast paced and well written. Although the characters experienced tough (and sometimes unlikely) situations and spent time talking about a wide range of feelings, there was humor, wit and an honesty about life that kept it from ever becoming morose or gloomy. Although the situations did seem unlikely to me (innocent, naive me?), there was never a chink in the story, never a chance for me to fall out of my suspension of disbelief. And there was always a whisper of “It could happen…” there in the back of my mind too. Unlikely does not mean impossible, after all.

I was excited to get The Smart One to read and review. I had heard of Ellen Meister’s first book, The Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA, but I still haven’t read it…I have it from the library, now, actually, but I haven’t started it yet. After reading The Smart One, I am looking forward to reading it even more!

The Smart One is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. It will be released on August 5! This review was made possible by Lynn at Blog Stop Book Tours. For more information about the book, the author or how to become a reviewer for Blog Stop Book Tours, please click through the link and check out all of the information there!

Every once in awhile, the Universe seems to reach out and smack me with a concept. I figure I’m really supposed to learn this point because it will show up every where for awhile. This week it has been the concept of “One River, Many Wells” which is also the name of a book by Matthew Fox, as you can see if you follow the link. I’ve only scratched the surface of this book, but I’ve been intrigued since I read the title. The concept is that there is one shared Truth, but many different ways to arrive at that Truth. (The book describes “Truth” as “Divine” instead. I have altered it for my purposes here.)

The idea so completely encompasses my understanding of the religious world that it struck me. Ever since I began learning about ancient cultures and their creation myths, ever since I began to learn more about the many active religions in the world, the idea that any one system had the ONE and ONLY path to Truth seemed impossible to me. There were similarities to be found in all of the ones I’ve read, and the differences were matters of cultural diversity.

So, it was not a new idea to me, Matthew Fox simply stated it far more clearly than I’d ever heard or tried to express. To think of a single flowing Truth or Divinity that we all tap into in our own unique ways…that’s powerful to me.

Then, I was reading a different book: “How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights” by Ariel Gore. In a section called “Embrace Your Genius”, she writes,

You have a unique and delicious genius to share. You see this vibrant and vulnerable planet in your own strange way. You draw connections that make you wonder if you’ve lost your mind. Your fears are specific, and alien to me. We’re human kin, you and me and Murakami –when we dig deep enough into our own individual wells, we reach the same universal stream– but the places we’re digging from, they’re different.

It’s not enough to me that we draw from this deep and shared river of Truth, Creativity or Divinity, though. I believe that we not only receive from it, but we, each of us, feed it. Just as many tiny streams feed into the large and sprawling river, so we too have our own unique things to give to the greater Truth. It is not enough to see that there are many paths, we have to acknowledge that each individual path helps make the common Spirit stronger. The sharing of each Personal Truth only makes the Greater Wisdom all the more potent.

This is the story of a woman and her Bunko-playing circle of close friends. Together, they face challenges like debillitating illness, divorce, infertility, and a husband being sent to Iraq with the National Guard. There are heart to heart discussions, shopping, and arguments. On the surface, it seems like it’d be a great Chick Lit book: fun to read, but easy to put down. There were a few things that made it a book that was hard for me to digest, though.

First of all, I think I must live in a different social hemisphere than the characters in this book do. I could not relate to designer shoes, buying Starbucks all the time, outdoing each other for themed decorations for their Bunko Nights, or the many luxuries they all seemed to have. The situations they face are real enough, but their reactions to those situations don’t seem mature or realistic. The friend I related to the most was Autumn, the easy-going mother of eight children. She seemed the one nod to those of us in the real world who scrimp and save, who don’t have the cash to decorate lavishly for a gathering of close friends, who wear what we have even if it’s not right in style that season and who have accepted that kids and nice furniture don’t get along. Honestly, if a friend of mine had walked into my house and had been as picky as the fastidious Madison was about sitting on Autumn’s furniture, I would have doubted the bonds of our friendship. Love me, love my mess!
Another thing which put me off was that I found the religious references in the book were done with a heavy hand. I see how the many Bible citations and discussions of faith fit into the story, but I sometimes felt more like the author was using the book to proselytize than to tell a story.

I might recommend this book to my Christian friends, particularly those who have wrestled with the question of their faith. I did find some inciteful insightful passages about the nature of belief and faith as I was reading – I have already shared one with a friend, actually! But unless you are looking for Christian lit, I wouldn’t pick this up. The meat of the story is faith-based, not Bunko based, or even character based….in my opinion.

This Book Review has been brought to you by Blog Stop Book Tours. Click on the link to find more information about the book, the author and other bloggers who have reviewed this book!