Cover Reveal: Under the Bed Across the World by Rose Candis

Here is the first look at the cover for Under the bed Across the World by Rose Candis. Expected publication date is September 2013.

Book Description:

Under the Bed Across the World, Rose’s poignant account of her journey from incest and addiction into recovery, is both tragic and humorous. Her account of how her sexually abusive Jewish father divided her loyalty between him, her mother, and herself provides a microcosm for how sexual abuse and addiction destroy the human family. By confronting her past, Rose sheds her loyalty to her abusive relatives and creates her own unique family unit through international adoption. The memoir raises the question: Can contentment be found after departure from the quagmire of toxicity?

About the Author:

Rose Candis, born August 8, 1966, grew up in Bowling Green, Kentucky. At age twenty-three, she began her personal recovery from addiction and childhood incest. Inspired by her own journey, she entered graduate school to become a psychotherapist. Currently in private practice, Rose feels honored to have been able to help individuals and families recover from eating disorders and trauma since 2002.

Rose’s articles about healthy eating were published monthly in a local woman’s magazine. She has appeared on several local radio shows as an expert on eating disorders. Her first book Under the Bed Across the World, a memoir, takes the reader on a journey from the author’s abuse, into recovery, where she emerges as a adoptive mother of Erica, an orphan from China. Her quest to help her daughter clear up unanswered questions about her past leads her on a journey back to China, the focus of her upcoming book The Black Pearl. 

In a search for Erica’s birth parents, Rose’s research trip to China with Lan Stuy, yields the discovery that her daughter had been bought and sold as an infant, commonly known as trafficked, in the relinquishment process. Rose’s shock that the information she had been given years ago about her daughter’s history were fabricated led this mother to take on a role as truth teller and advocate for transparent adoptions.

Upon her return, July 2011, Rose was interviewed by NBC News. Her story about her trip and its aftermath was published in The New York Times, September 2011, The Atlantic 2011, and The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, October 2011. Rose met in Washington DC, May 2012, with The Executive Congressional Commission on China to discuss her findings of trafficking in the Chinese adoption process. Her effort to urge the Commission to expose the information to help children who sought credible information about their origin resulted in a second meeting with the Commission, October 2012. Rose lobbied on Capitol Hill, May 2012 meeting with fifteen Congressional Offices in an attempt to amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to include the buying and selling of children for purposes of international Adoption in the definition of child trafficking.

Rose enjoys every moment playing with her daughter and watching her do gymnastics. She travels the path of intimacy and blending families with Patrick, her partner of six years. Walking, yoga, church, travel, biking, and meditation bring grounding to her full life. Rose’s love for her daughter, personal healing journey, clinical experience and spiritual guidance are the catalyst for her continued commitment to helping the universe heal one person at a time.

Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion.

French Illusions by Linda Kovic-Skow (Guest Post)

Title: French Illusions: My Story as an American Au Pair in the Loire Valley

Author: Linda Kovic-Skow

Publication Date: October 2012

Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing

Available Formats: Paperback and eBook

Blog Tour: Pump Up Your Book

Description: In the summer of 1979, twenty-one-year-old Linda Kovic contracts to become an au pair for an wealthy French family in the Loire Valley. To secure the position, she pretends to speak the language, fully aware her deception will be discovered once she arrives at her destination. Based on the author’s diary, French Illusions captures Linda’s fascinating and often challenging real-life story inside and outside the Château de Montclair. The over-bearing, Madame Dubois, her accommodating husband, Monsieur Dubois, and their two children are highlighted as Linda struggles to adapt to her new environment. Continually battling the language barrier, she signs up and attends classes at the local university in the nearby town of Tours, broadening her range of experiences. When she encounters, Adam, a handsome young student, her life with the Dubois family becomes more complicated, adding fuel to her internal battle for independence.

The Book Editing Process - Sometimes It's a Bumpy Ride 

Choosing an editor for French Illusions wasn't easy. As a matter of fact, it was downright difficult. I searched the web for many months, pouring through blogs and editors guilds until I found three candidates who looked promising. I asked for references, contacted all them and received good feedback. Now what, I thought. How will I choose? The answer seemed simple. I would ask each of them to perform an edit on my first chapter. They all agreed, and over the next few weeks, I received their samples. With a critical eye, I spread them out on my office floor and carefully compared their work. Each editor offered something, but none of their edits felt like a perfect fit. Reluctantly, I tossed all of them aside.

I continued to search the web until I stumbled across my first editor. She grew up in the Loire Valley and spoke fluent French. A match made in heaven, I thought. Actually, no. Admittedly, she helped me with translations and corrected several cultural issues, but let's just say, she identified a little too closely with my antagonist. In the end, I asked her to return my manuscript knowing full well it would need additional line editing. What now, I thought.

Disheartened, I took another look at the three candidates who had provided me with sample edits early on. One of them stood out and I chose her as my second editor. She was a pleasure to work with and she ironed out some important kinks in my book. Her positive feedback healed my wounds. Definitely, a match made in heaven this time. Almost.

After I received my fully edited manuscript, I sent an excerpt from French Illusions to Dorothy at Pump Up Your Book. She found a punctuation error in the first few sentences. I found a whole lot more on my own. Arghhh. I immediately asked Dorothy if she had a reference for a line editor and she referred me to my third editor. Thankfully, she corrected the remaining errors throughout my book.

As you can see, my editing process was indeed a bumpy ride. I will admit that my book was a highly complicated edit given the foreign setting and French translations. Maybe I was too hard on my first two editors. Maybe it took all three of them to get it right.

About the Author:

Linda Kovic-Skow resides in Kirkland, Washington. She earned an Associate Degree in Medical Assisting in 1978 from North Seattle Community College and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Seattle University in 1985. She has been married for 27 years and has two daughters. An enthusiastic traveler, Linda also enjoys boating, gardening and socializing with friends. French Illusions, her debut memoir, is the culmination of a three-year project.

You can visit her website at www.lindakovicskow.com.

The Giveaway:

This giveaway is sponsored by the author and Pump Up Your Book. Library Girl Reads & Reviews is not responsible for selecting winners or awarding prizes.

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Note: All opinions presented in book and product reviews are my own. Opinions presented in posts authored by others reflect the view of the author only and not necessarily my view or opinion. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Amazon and Book Depository links are affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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Author Interview: Phil Jourdan - Praise of Motherhood

Please welcome Phil Jourdan, author of the touching memoir, Praise of Motherhood. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $500 in Amazon gift cards and 5 autographed copies of the book.

1. Who was your mother?

Hey, perhaps the obvious thing is that she was the single greatest person in my life--a woman who set everything aside to help me when I went through a few rocky years, a lover of animals and nature, a professor of mathematics and computer science who worked because she needed something to do…

She was that lady who'd bring clothes out to the homeless people in the streets when it was cold. She spoke Portuguese, French, English, and Russian fluently. She took people into her life and made them stronger, happier. She drove very carefully.

She was one person among many to die from something as trivial and terrible as an aneurysm; just one out of all the people who died on November 11th, 2009, for no reason, and without saying goodbye to any of us.

And, now, she's the subject of my book.

2. Who are you?

I'm a bearded, forever-anxious guy in his mid-twenties living in the UK. I'm working on a PhD in Literature and Religion. I have a band, I run a press, I write articles for various publications, and I pace around a lot when I talk about things that interest me.

3. Why did you write Praise of Motherhood?

Because I couldn't bear the idea that my mother's death might be just another sad event in the lives of a few people. I wanted my mother to be remembered somehow — not just by those who knew her, but by those who could end up wishing they had known her.

It's not easy losing a parent, and I wanted to write my way out of some dark places. To focus on the good things. To remember with gratitude the way she did everything she could to make her children feel okay.

4. Were you a mama's boy?

Of course, I was. She was worth the teasing from my young classmates. I loved her even when I was furiously angry with her.

5. When were you furiously angry?

From the age of 14 to 16, I was so psychologically unstable that I had to leave school for a while to stay in a private clinic and "recover" — which means they pumped me full of medication and made me sleep for a few weeks. This happened twice. My mother's support was crucial back then, because I was a mess. I hallucinated, I was paranoid, and I wanted to die. Of course, like any screwed up kid, I took it out on my mom.

I'd get so angry that I couldn't breathe. Everything seemed to hurt me--physically and emotionally. Because I trusted my mother so much, I took her for granted, too. I knew she wouldn't abandon me if I broke down or lashed out. She was a saint about my outbursts.

6. Is that what Praise of Motherhood is about?

In part. What you'll find in Praise of Motherhood is a series of short chapters on various ways I related to my mother. Let me be clear that it's not a book about mothers in general. It's a memoir about my relationship with my mother, before and after her death. It deals with my weird adolescence, then it moves on to questions about her private life that I'll never be able to answer, and then it turns toward fiction. I imagine a world in which mother didn't die on that day. I try to reconstruct conversations I had with her and my father. Then I end the book because I could go on forever and I think it's best to be brief.

7. What was it like to show the book to your family?

It was less terrible than I'd anticipated. My great fear was that someone might object to the way I'd written it. It's not "conventional" — there's a scene in which I imagine my mother breaking into pieces and my sister and I have to tape her back together before she accuses me of having killed her. That scene worried me: what if my sister hated it?

I'm happy to say it all went well. My sister found that chapter moving, and my grandparents each expressed their support. My father, who hadn't been married to my mother for over a decade, was equally moved and helped me through the various drafts.

8. Is everything you write in Praise of Motherhood true?

If you read it, you'll see that some of it is obviously fiction. I don't think the right distinction here is between fiction and nonfiction; it's between truthfulness and untruthfulness. The book is certainly truthful: if I make things up, as in the chapter where I imagine what my mother's "secret life" as an occasional spy might have been like, it's to show what I think about when I wonder about her as a private person. I paint myself pretty much as I was back then: irritable, self-involved, afraid. I paint my mother just as she was: patient, terrified of losing her child, and often helpless but willing to do anything.

The events that I depict in the more "conventional" chapters are true. The dialogue is obviously not going to represent exactly what was said, but the spirit of the past is contained within it.

9. Who is this book for?

It's for people who have lost someone they loved and want to know how someone else handled their pain.

It's for parents who need a reminder that their children can and will end up appreciating all the sacrifices, all the patience, all the secret suffering.

And it's for anyone who is interested in teenage depression, psychosis and anxiety, and wants to read a memoir about how those conditions affect family relationships.

10. What's next?

A novel that begins with a mother's funeral… and then goes in a totally new direction. I started it just as I was wrapping up Praise of Motherhood, and I was ready to let go of those memories for a while, but the image of my mother's coffin going into the earth has stayed with me so vividly that I had to begin a work of fiction with it. But beyond that, it's an entirely different thing.

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the Praise of Motherhood eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include $500 in Amazon gift cards and 5 autographed copies of the book.

All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win!

To win the prizes:

1. Purchase your copy of Praise of Motherhood for just 99 cents
2. Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity
3. Visit today’s featured social media event

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About the book: Praise of Motherhood is a son's tribute to the woman who not only gave him life, but helped him live: through various psychotic breakdowns, tumultuous teenage years, and years of feeling out of place in the world. Get it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

About the author: Phil Jourdan fronts the lit-rock band Paris and the Hiltons, runs the fiction press Perfect Edge Books, and occasionally works on a PhD. Visit Phil on his blog, music site, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.

Note: All opinions provided on this blog are my own. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Bookstore links are generally affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

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We Bought A Zoo by Benjamin Mee

Title: We Bought A Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals That Changed Their Lives Forever
Author: Benjamin Mee
Publication Date: September 2008
Publisher: Weinstein Books
Source: Library
Non-Fiction, Memior

I wanted to read this book after seeing the commercials for the movie We Bought A Zoo that came out in December. I never know how books will translate onto the big screen and how many significant changes the movie will make from the book. So often the book is better because a movie has a limited amount of time to tell the entire story and some of the details are usually forced out along the way. Although I still haven't seen the movie yet, I'm not sure this will be the case with We Bought A Zoo.

After reading BermudaOnion's review of We Bought A Zoo, I will admit that I was rethinking my strategy and considering going straight to the movie. But since I already had placed the book on hold through my library, I decided I would start it and then if I wasn't enjoying it I had already given myself permission to not finish the story. I completely agree with her assessment that Mee writes what could be a very emotional story in a very clinical way. While I'm sure the business aspects of the transaction were his primary focus and his background in journalism may have prompted a factual recitation, it seems he completely missed the human interest angle on this story.

Essentially, Mee moves his family from the idyllic life they have created for themselves in southern France to a completely run-down zoo in the English countryside. While he negotiates the red tape involved with purchasing the zoo, his wife Katherine faces a life-threatening brain tumor. The move also involves their two young children, Mee's brother Duncan, and Mee's mother. It was easy to forget about Katherine, the children, and Mee's mother as they were so seldom mentioned. Katherine and the children seem to have their place in the story before the move to the zoo and then only show up rarely. Mee's mother finally gets a place closer to the end of the story as he talks about how she becomes involved with the business after Katherine's death. These are the people I really wanted to hear about - how did this move affect them?

Instead we read about the zoo's dire financial situation, the staff squabbles, and the physical repairs that need to be completed. Mee can't seem to decide if his zoo keepers are competent and willing to work together to bring the zoo back as a viable business or if they resent the changes being implemented and the new staff being brought on board. While I'm sure there were moments of each, Mee seems to paint a drastically different overall picture at various points in the book.

I know that the movie changes the location of events from England to southern California and I am very curious to see what other changes they have made. I'm hoping that the movie will focus more on the people living out this story and will have more of an emotional impact than the book. While I won't be rushing out to see the movie right away (for various reasons, not the least of which is how expensive movies have gotten with ticket prices plus the cost of childcare), We Bought A Zoo is definitely on my radar for when it is available on DVD or streaming.


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Note: All opinions provided on this blog are my own. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Bookstore links are generally affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs by Heather Lende

Sometimes I don't think I am meant to read memoirs.  Once in a while one really resonates with me but the majority of the time I read knowing I am supposed to be gaining some kind of understanding of a universal truth but not quite grasping it within the stories.  I think a good part of my difficulty with memoirs is that they often do not run in a linear fashion with the story moving in chronological order.  This is certainly true of Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs by Heather Lende.

This is Lende's second book with the first being If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska.  Both books revolve around the citizens of Haines, Alaska and the impact that living there has on the author.  Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs begins as Lende prepares to go on a book tour for her first book but is literally hit by a truck instead.  Her months of recuperation, the illness and death of her mother, and writing obituaries for the town residents lead her to reflect on her community and her faith.  The book is deeply spiritual without being preachy and Lende is able to add some humor to what might otherwise be a very somber story.

Lende moves fluidly throughout time tying together the past, the present, and even hopes for the future.  One memory or story gives birth to the next as she tells the stories of those she knows and has known.  While the book was interesting in parts, there was much that simply failed to capture my attention.  I am not sure if it is because the wilderness setting of such a remote Alaskan town has no connection to my life or if it was because I was unable to relate to the various characters and events portrayed in the book.  It is also very possible that I was simply not in the right frame of mind when I was reading it due to my own personal circumstances.

I think Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs will appeal and resonate with a great many people.  I just don't happen to be one of them.

Find our more about Heather Lende and her books at www.heatherlende.com

I received a copy of Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs from FSB Associates (although I don't remember requesting it) in exchange for my honest review.

  

Note: All opinions provided on this blog are my own. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Bookstore links are generally affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch

Three years after the death of her sister, Nina Sankovich takes on the project of reading and reviewing a book a day for a year.  She felt the need to slow down from the hectic life she had been trying to life for herself and for her sister.  While she had specific goals for her project, Sankovitch found so much more in her connection with books and sharing them with others.

Having lost my own sister to complications of cancer when she was only 16, I was afraid Tolstoy and the Purple Chair would be difficult for me to read.  In some ways it was as it brought back the memories of emotions felt so strongly 14 years ago but at the same time Nina Sankovitch provided comfort by expressing so many of my own thoughts.  She gave voice to some of the questions and ideas that I could never find the words to convey.

Reading a book a day and then reviewing it for a year is a very ambitious project.  Although I am an avid reader, I would be unable to stick to that kind of schedule.  The list of books that she read is impressive but more compelling are the stories that the books bring out of Sankovitch and others she connects with on her reading journey.  The characters and places she visits in the books remind her of the universal qualities of human life - the joys, sorrows, fears, worries, kindness, and beauty.  Through books, she connects on a different level to family and friends and other book lovers she will never meet in person.  While she never stops grieving her sister's death and the life that her sister will never complete, she comes to a realization that she carries her sister with her as she moves forward with her own life.

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is not a book to be rushed through but one to be savored.  Sankovich has chosen her words carefully and expresses her thoughts precisely.  She reads deeply, immersed in worlds not her own, but returns each day to share the ideals found in books with those around her.  Her family stories and her thoughts and emotions tied to those stories work very well with the actual discussion of the books she read.  It is only in combining the two elements (books & personal stories) that Tolstoy and the Purple Chair works on such an emotional level.  After all who would want to read a book comprised solely of books reviews?

I received an advance copy of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for my honest review.

Note: All opinions provided on this blog are my own. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Bookstore links are generally affiliate links and I do earn a small amount for each purchase. Other affiliate links will be noted in the post.

Cheap Cabernet by Cathie Beck

Title:  Cheap Cabernet
Author:  Cathie Beck
Publisher:  Hyperion Voice
Publication Date:  July 2010
Format:  Paperback, 336 pages
Age Group:  Adult, Non-fiction, Memoir

When Cathie Beck was in her thirties she decided she needed some female friends.  To find some she placed an ad in the paper starting a women's group called Women on the Way.  There she met Denise, a bold woman with multiple sclerosis.  This book is essentially the story of that friendship.

I'll be straight forward here - I didn't particularly like this book.  If I had not received it through the Early Reviewers program at LibraryThing.com I probably would not have finished it.  I realize that memory is a fickle thing and that memoirs are probably not the easiest thing to write.  I realize that memories often connect in ways that make sense only to the person with the memories.  However, I also believe that the goal of a memoir must be to show those connections to the reader.  Beck's book meandered around in her memory often leaving me confused about what year it was, who she was with, what stage of her life we were in, and sometimes even who she was with and what she was doing.  I could not find an anchor in the constantly shifting time line.

I also felt that Beck was trying to hard to make every memory meaningful.  I don't know if she is one of those rare people who have the ability to analyze the moment while they are in it and truly see how it connects to the larger picture of their life (and I do actually know some people like this who have incredibly strong insight into themselves) or if she is more like the rest of us - looking back and trying to find the meaning in what was so that the present will make sense or continue to have meaning.  It just felt like she was constantly telling the reader how powerfully this friendship affected her life.

My final issue with the book was that I simply didn't like the characters.  This one almost makes me feel guilty since Beck tells the reader often that Denise will die from her illness.  I wanted to be sympathetic to that yet I still didn't like Denise.  Instead of seeing this powerful, life-changing friendship I saw a rather one-sided friendship with Denise moving forward full speed ahead, dragging Beck along for the wild ride.  I spent much of the book wondering why I was reading about these women - what made their friendship, their story so much more important than the rest of us that Beck wrote a book about it?

Note: All opinions provided on this blog are my own. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Links to Amazon.com are affiliate links and I do earn a small percentage for each item purchased through those links. Any other referral or associate links will be noted within the post.

The Bread of Angels by Stephanie Saldana

Title:  The Bread of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith
Author:  Stephanie Saldana
Publisher:  Doubleday
Publication Date:  February 9, 2010
Format:  Hardcover, 320 pages
Age Group:  Adult, non-fiction, memoir

In 2004 Stephanie Saldana spent a year living in Syria on a Fulbright fellowship.  Her official area of study was the Muslim Jesus but she found herself taking a very personal, spiritual journey as she came to know the people of Damascus and her own heart.

The Bread of Angels is an absolutely wonderful book.  I feel as if I know the author personally and was there to take the journey with her.  It is clear that Stephanie is a scholar of language, poetry, and faith as her writing flows beautifully, creating strong images and evoking strong emotions.  Although the place Stephanie finds herself and the journey she undertakes were so foreign to me, Stephanie manages to convey our essential human similarities even in the midst of the differences.  She shows us her own initial discomfort with her surroundings and her human failings as she struggles with matters of faith.  Stephanie clearly examines her own Christian beliefs while learning about the Islamic version of Jesus.  She studies Arabic and spends a month praying in a desert monastery.  Stephanie's desire to find her true calling, her life's path, takes her on a journey that most of us cannot imagine but she is able to make it real through her honest prose.  She does not try to hide her doubts or her confusion as she moves through a year of difficult lessons.  The Bread of Angels is a book to meditate with and digest slowly, not one to be rushed through.  It is a book that will provoke thought, emotion, and wonder as you embark on your own journey in the Middle East.

The Bread of Angels officially goes on sale on February 9 but can be pre-ordered now.

I received The Bread of Angels directly from the publisher after I responded to an advertisement in the Shelf Awareness newsletter.  This review is based on a paperback, bound galley, uncorrected proof.  All opinions contained in this review are entirely my own.

Note: All opinions provided on this blog are my own. If a product was given to me for review, the source of that product is noted in the post. Links to Amazon.com are affiliate links and I do earn a small percentage for each item purchased through those links. Any other referral or associate links will be noted within the post.