Arms of an Angel by Linda Boulanger

There is an amazing website that I am a part of, called Goodreads. Goodreads is a website that lets you keep track and rate all of the books you've read. They also have online book clubs. One of the groups I am a part of is called The Sisterhood of the Traveling book, and as the name suggests, we mail books to each other, all over the United States. Sometimes these are books we've liked, other times they're donated by the author, and still other times they are books that members have won on the giveaways.

Arms of an Angel was a book that was mailed to me by a fellow sisterhood member. It is a novella that tells the story of Claire Orion. Claire should have everything, she's rich and beautiful with a sharp tongue and a quick mind. However, she suffers from very low self-worth and is determined to end it all. By chance she meets Garrett, who helps her with feeling that maybe life is worth living after all.

I know that this was a novella, so the story had to be told in a very short amount of time. So, I have no issue with the pace of the book. The dialogue in the book, however, left something to be desired. Neither Garrett nor Claire spoke like a 20 or 30 something year-old. Instead they sounded like high-society old ladies at tea. It just left an unreal quality and I had a hard time wrapping my mind around it.

Other than that, it was a compelling and quick read. It is really a good novella for anyone to read who might be suffering from low self-worth. Claire was adorable and Garrett was a true knight. In fact, I would have liked to have seen this story expanded even more, it felt like it had enough material for a full-length novel.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas

The Second Duchess was another book I picked up on the recommendation of a friend. However, I am a big fan of historical fiction so this was right up my alley. I am also fairly critical of it, because the historical aspect of a novel is so important. They don't have to be 100% accurate, because it is fiction after all, but it at least has to have the aspect of "this could have happened.

I found The Second Duchess to be just the kind of historical fiction I loved. The clothes and the hair were described so I felt like I was in the same room with the characters. I absolutely loved Barbara, the heroine, she was tough and she didn't let anyone stand in the way of getting the answers she wanted about the Duke's first wife, who died under mysterious circumstances. Barbara was also fiercely loyal to those closest to her, and she did all that she could to keep them out of harm's way.

I also liked the writing style of The Second Duchess, because it was told in the first person, so I really got to follow Barbara's thought process throughout the entire novel. Also, at the end of each chapter, the first wife was watching from the in-between and she got to have her say as well. It really helped to piece all of this mystery together.

The Second Duchess was a historical mystery that kept me guessing until the end. I thought it was well-written with characters that I both loved and hated. I have to say, also, that the end was unexpected, which I loved. So often with these types of books I have in pinpointed from the very first chapter who the "bad guy" is, but in this case every character has their own good and bad qualities and I could have seen any one of them doing the murder.

All in all, this book was well worth the read.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Interview with Nina-Marie Gardner

Interview with Nina-Marie Gardner

After reading Sherry & Narcotics I was so impressed with it that I emailed Nina-Marie Gardner and asked if she would be willing to answer a few questions for this blog. She immediately replied back an enthusiastic “yes!” Thank you so much Nina-Marie, for agreeing to this interview.

Sherry & Narcotics will be available in May 2011.

Nina-Marie’s Website: http://www.ninamariegardner.com

How did you get started writing?

Growing up I always kept journals—the book “Harriet the Spy” made a big impression on me and as early as the third or fourth grade I was recording my observations of the people around me. Needless to say, this got me into quite a bit of trouble as some of these ‘observations’ weren’t very nice and my journal inevitably fell into the wrong hands.

The books I grew up reading influenced me tremendously as far as my desire to write. As much as I loved novels, I also loved reading the biographies and journals of my favorite writers—Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Dylan Thomas to name a few—I was fascinated by their ‘writing lives’—how they worked and how events in their own lives played into their work. I think as someone who loved literature from a very young age, the idea of actually being a writer myself was always there in the background.

In high school and college I began experimenting with short stories and plays, and I took every class offered in creative writing—although there were not many. After I graduated from Yale, I spent a good decade as an actress in New York and Los Angeles, but I continued (kind of in secret) writing fiction. I was always taking a class or workshop through Gotham Writer’s Workshop or the UCLA Extension program. After 9/11, I realized I needed to go after my dreams, no matter how unfeasible they seemed. So I applied to creative writing master’s programs, was accepted to the one at the University of London, and with a student loan and no more than $300 in my bank account, I was off to England.

What authors do you enjoy reading?

My taste is pretty wide-ranging, although I must confess, I wasn’t able to get very far in the first Harry Potter book, and anything related to Vampires I really have no interest in. However, that’s not to say I don’t have my guilty pleasures. I’m a sucker for the odd Marilyn Keyes romp, and I’ve read everything by Dick Francis and Val Mcdermid.

However, my true loves, the writers who most inspired me and whom I read over and over again include Jean Rhys, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Keats, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Sylvia Plath, Carson McCullers, Margery Latimer and Dorothy Parker. Recently, I was turned on to Hilda Doolittle, and she is amazing—I have a fictional project stewing based on her life, in fact. As far as contemporary writers who have rocked my world, I love Helen Walsh, Jardine Libaire, Gwendolyn Riley, Chris Kraus, Sam Shepard, Jonathan Lethem, David Foster Wallace—I’m sure I’ve left people out in both lists, but that’s off the top of my head.

If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would it be?

(Well, it’s been a long road, but…)

Happy.

Where did you get the idea for Sherry & Narcotics? Was any of it based on real life?

Yes, the novel was based on real events, although all the characters are fictional. Much of what Mary experiences, I have as well—although perhaps not to such a stark, single-minded and isolated extreme. After I completed my degree in London, I stayed in England and had a relationship that ended very, very badly. As badly as a relationship could end (although I didn’t fall into a canal and nearly drown, like Mary.) When it was over, I was pretty devastated and numb and it took me some time to get back on my feet. Several of my friends suggested I write about it, and I was also inspired by Justine Levy’s book “Nothing Serious.”

How long did it take you to write Sherry & Narcotics?

Well, over the last three years or so, while I was working on a different novel, the idea for Sherry & Narcotics was germinating in my head, and I had some notes and experimental pages for it. But I didn’t actually start the book for real until the end of last March (2010). Then it all went very, very quickly—the book pretty much wrote itself. It was finished by the end of July, and in September I was offered a deal with Future Fiction London to publish it. From July until the end of November, I did flesh out certain parts and do some revising and editing.

Sherry & Narcotics dealt with some pretty dark subject matters, how did it feel to write about that? How were your feelings throughout the whole writing process?

It was pretty painful, and I would never have been able to write it if I truly believed one day it might actually be published. But I really wanted to get down the experience of a woman alcoholic who is also so love addicted it takes her to the extreme of shame and despair. Because I think the place Mary gets to in the book is a place others have been—or could potentially go. I didn’t want to gloss over anything, or make her choices any less excruciating than what they were. I wanted to keep it as real and as brutally honest as I could—real and honest as far as my own experiences, which the book is based on.

I was also interested in writing a main character who isn’t all that sympathetic, who is flawed and makes terrible choices and succumbs all too easily to her self-destructive tendencies. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like there are not that many female characters like that in fiction. We see plenty of men—it’s like, cool and accepted to have men in fiction who are down-and-out destructive drunks or drug or love or sex addicts who make bad choices and end up in horrible places—but survive. Some of my favorite books/writers might fall into this category—from JP Donleavy’s The Gingerman, to John Fante and Bukowski and Kerouac, to more contemporary guys like Tony O’Niell and Stephen Elliot and James Frey.

I was also pretty fed up with such a glut in the women’s fictional market of heroines who were obsessed with finding “Mr. Right” as the be-all and end-all—and he was always rich but faithful and sweet. Where there was so much emphasis on material stuff like designer handbags and clothes—I mean, there’s nothing wrong with these things, but I felt like there was a dearth of the edgier, darker side of what it is to be a woman in today’s world. What is so great about novels is that they can reveal so much about the human experience—and things that remain constant through time. They are about shared experience—reading books like Wuthering Heights or Voyage in the Dark or The Scarlett Letter or The Bell Jar when I was growing up was profound—on the most basic level, these books made me feel better, less alone—and they gave me insight and strength and courage as I went out into the world.

I’m not saying Sherry & Narcotics is going to have this profound impact on anyone who reads it, but if it gives a person insight or a new perspective—or especially comfort or hope in light of their own or someone they knows’ experience—well that’s what matters.

All that said, it’s still terrifying to me that the book is going to be out there, published.

As a reader, there were several times that I wanted to push Mary into the right direction, but at the same time I couldn't help but wonder just how far down she was going to go. Was that the kind of reaction you wanted to get from Mary?

Definitely. Because I lived much of what happened in the book, you can imagine what it was like for me to write it—but from a more ‘recovered’ and rational distance. I could see very clearly the horrendous and downright delusional choices she was making, and I wanted nothing more than to have her get some sense and pull herself together, but I had to stay true to the story I had set out to tell—the one that takes her to the very limits of self destruction by way of desperation, denial and addiction.

The fact remains she wants nothing more than most of us want—security, happiness, to be loved…And what if Jake hadn’t been involved with someone else, what if he’d been available and honest and dependable? There’s plenty of stories out there with the happy endings, where the girl is a wreck but the guy becomes her rock, her savior and helps her get straight. I think a lot of women are messed up by the myth of “Prince Charming.” Sure, there are heroes out there, but in my experience (which certainly isn’t the norm, I’ll admit) the world isn’t exactly rife with them. There’s just as many liars and schmucks and opportunists. There is no guarantee you’re going to be rescued—I think that’s the exception. In the end, only we can save ourselves.
is going to have this profound impact on anyone who reads it, but if it gives a person insight or a new perspective—or especially comfort or hope in light of their own or someone they knows’ experience—well that’s what matters.

Would you ever want to continue her story?

Absolutely! I cannot wait—although it might be awhile. I have three books in the works, and all three of them are essentially prequels to Sherry & Narcotics.

If there was one key idea or message that you want people to take away from Sherry & Narcotics, what would it be?

Hmmm, it’s tough to narrow it down to one. Everyone is flawed to different degrees, we make mistakes—some worse, due to various circumstances—mental illness, addiction. But it is all part of the human experience—and it’s all equally valid. I would hope people might gain more insight or understanding or compassion for someone in a situation that would be very easy to judge or take a harsh view of. I’m interested in the people on the margins, who maybe have fallen through the cracks, the misunderstood or underrepresented. I know it sounds trite, but I hope sharing my experience through fiction might help someone feel better about themselves, or less alone.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a book about an American girl who finds herself at a posh all-boys boarding school in England.

Do you have any advice for new or aspiring authors?

Over at The Rumpus, they sell these awesome mugs that say “Write Like a Motherf*%#er.” That pretty much sums it up. Write as much as you can—try to get into the habit of it—even if its just 100 words a day, written first thing when you wake up in the morning. And read a lot. And get rid of your TV. And take workshops, always bearing in mind that what matters most is telling your story the way you want to tell it. With workshops, one of the most important things you can learn is not what you need to change or develop about your craft, but how to sort the criticism, and take what you need and not be held up or discouraged by the rest. Learn to stick to your guns, and believe in your story—and give yourself permission to write badly, just atrociously! Once it's down, you can go back and fix it. Just write!

Sherry and Narcotics by Nina-Marie Gardner

This book deals with some very dark subject matters, but it does so in a compelling way. I was hooked from the first page and even now I feel like I have to take some time to really reflect on what I've read. It was a bit haunting, but so real. I felt like I was really there and I wanted to shake some sense into the characters. It was a very well-written book and I'm happy to have read it.

The only problems with the book were things that were most likely no fault of the author, but of...moreI'll be honest here, I don't normally pick up books that have to deal with drugs or other illegal activities. However, this book was generously donated to a book group I belong to, and I wanted to step outside of my comfort zone and try a book that I would normally walk past. I am very glad I gave Sherry and Narcotics a try, because it was well worth it.

This book deals with some very dark subject matters, but it does so in a compelling way. I was hooked from the first page and even now I feel like I have to take some time to really reflect on what I've read. It was a bit haunting, but so real. I felt like I was really there and I wanted to shake some sense into the characters. It was a very well-written book and I'm happy to have read it. Once I read a book, I usually reflect on it for a little while and then move on to the next book. This is a different kind of book. This is one of those books that is going to stick with me for a very long time.

The only problems with the book were things that were most likely no fault of the author, but of the publisher. It needs page numbers, I like being able to flip to a page to remember where I am. Also, the font was a bit odd, but once I got used to it, I could overlook it.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Outside Wonderland by Lorna Jane Cook

I won this book on a Goodreads Giveaway.

This book deals with three adults who are living their lives 20 years after their parents died. The eldest, Alice, is an actress who doesn't really care for commitment. The son, Griffin, is a gay man who is at-odds with his partner of 11 years. And the youngest, Dinah, is a woman who is constantly trying to find herself, but knows that she doesn't like to be alone.

I found myself really enjoying this book and the characters in it. They were likable and they were human. They made mistakes and they either hid from them or owned them. They had a true sibling relationship with one another and the ups and downs that go with it. I also enjoyed the non-family member characters such as Alice's neighbor Ian and Griffin's boyfriend Theo. I adored Theo so much, I would have loved to see more from his point of view.

At the end of each chapter the book changes it's point-of-view so that we are seeing it from the eyes of the mom, up in heaven. This book very very lightly touches on religion, but it is in no-way over the top. It was almost comforting to see that she was still checking in on her kids, even though there wasn't much she could do for them.

The only thing is I wish the epilogue were expanded a bit more. There were some plots and minor stories that I felt were left unresolved, but all in all it was a great book and I'm glad I read it.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman

The Ritual Bath is a part mystery, part romance, and part police/crime novel. It follows the story of Rina Lazarus, who is a very strict Orthodox Jew and Peter Decker, a detective. There is a rapist on the loose in the small Jewish community and Lazarus and Decker try to piece the puzzle together to figure out who could be terrorizing their neighborhood.

Even though this book had a lot going on, it moved quickly and I didn't feel like any part of it was overlooked. The mystery of who was the rapist was compelling and it kept me interested. I kept trying to guess and was surprised by the result. There several possible suspects and Kellerman did a great job of not giving out too much information, but still dangling a carrot in front of me to keep me reading.

I also found the romance to be realistic. They moved at a slow but steady pace, and it felt like the two were truly taking the time to get to know one another instead of jumping into a whirlwind romance just after looking at each other. It was also refreshing to see Rina stick to her Jewish faith and values.

This book had the added bonus of teaching me a lot about the Jewish culture. I knew a little bit about it, but The Ritual Bath opened my eyes to a lot more. I like books where I can learn about cultures that I may have otherwise not gotten the chance to learn about.

The Ritual Bath is the first book in a series by Kellerman and I definitely look forward to reading more.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Life From Scratch by Melissa Ford

Life From Scratch was available for free for my Kindle not too long ago, so I decided to download it and give it a try. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised.

Life From Scratch follows the story of Rachel Goldman who is trying to rediscover herself after her divorce. She starts a food blog and shares her thoughts and feelings with the world. We, as the reader, get to see her try her hand at cooking, baking, writing, and dating.

I really enjoyed the character of Rachel. She is one of those characters that leads with her heart and wears her emotions on her sleeve. She feels deeply and that can be both good and bad. I felt like I really connected with Rachel. I felt like I really got to know who she was...flaws and all.

Life From Scratch was a light, quick, fun read with a heart. This story has hilarious antics and some serious moments too. If you are looking for a nice read, then this is a good book for that. I absolutely enjoyed this book.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.