Last Stop To Saskatoon by Tony Nesca

Last Stop To Saskatoon by Tony Nesca
Published by Screaming Skull Press in Canada in December 2017.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Railways

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the author

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:
Directly from Screaming Skull Press

One Book. One epic poem. An unadulterated, uncensored, stream-of-consciousness protest against the state of the world.

I've been very lucky with my take-a-chance-on-it poetry collections this month. Giant, Heirloom and now Last Stop To Saskatoon have all been amazing! Each work is very different poetically, but I loved exploring them. Last Stop To Saskatoon contains two poems. A Protest Song is the first epic poem I think I have read in many years so I wasn't sure how such a long poem would work for me. I needn't have worried! Tony Nesca swept me up in the first few lines and the energy in his words kept me reading straight through to the end. Twice!

love-sick smiles
and bloody afternoons under the hipster violence
and skinless thigh-high leather let-downs
with bust-up memories that coagulate your mind

This is a great poem to stand up and read aloud. If it's not already a performance piece, it certainly should be! It's angry themes spoke clearly to me as, even though Canada is referenced, the issues Nesca addresses are universal. I could just as easily envisage decaying British towns and fragmented communities, media-driven hate bandwagons and that orange monster! The nostalgia for a time of 'protest songs in the key of E' is cleverly evoked alongside a desperate present-day fury. I heard echoes of Dylan and Kerouac, both of whose writing I love, and a strong underground indie vibe that keeps this work vividly alive. Love it!


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Books by Tony Nesca / Poetry / Books from Canada

The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya

The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya with Elizabeth Weil
Published in the UK by Hutchinson today, the 26th April 2018.

One of my ReadingWomen selections

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £12.24 (PB)
	Wordery : from £12.57 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £14.99 (HB)
	Amazon : from £13.54 (HB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbours began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Clare, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years wandering through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive.

When Clemantine was twelve, she and her sister were granted refugee status in the United States, where she embarked on another journey, ultimately graduating from Yale. Yet the years of being treated as less than human, of going hungry and seeing death, could not be erased. She felt at the same time six years old and one hundred years old.

In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine provokes us to look beyond the label of ‘victim’ and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful, and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads was an unusual memoir for me to appreciate because much of the horrific genocide that forced Wamariya's exile happens off the page. Normally this would irritate me no end, but in this case it is because Wamariya's extreme youth meant she had a very limited understanding of what was happening around her. Instead of recounting violence and the details of this conflict, we see the Rwandan war as she saw it - in colours and sounds, through food or hunger - and this I often found emotionally more difficult to read. I was forced to keep remembering that this is the story of a young child.

Wamariya intersperses her memories of her years spent rootless except for her sister, with thoughtful discussions of what it means to be a refugee. Many of the issues she highlights are not often discussed elsewhere and I found myself rethinking some of my own beliefs about the 'best' and most effective ways to offer help.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads is a relatively fast read although one where I found it useful to re-read certain sections and discussions in order to really understand the points Wamariya makes. This book doesn't have the gruesome scenes that I found so distressing in The Running Man so I thought it more likely to appeal to a wider audience. It is still a shocking reminder of a terrible war and a strong warning of how the aftermath of colonialism still resounds across recently independent nations.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Clemantine Wamariya / Biography and memoir / Books from Rwanda

Hatchet Hollow by Amanda McKinney + Excerpt + Giveaway

Hatchet Hollow by Amanda McKinney
Self published in America on the 24th April 2018.

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : unavailable
	Wordery : unavailable
	Waterstones : unavailable
	Amazon : from £2.15 (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Add Hatchet Hollow to your Goodreads

After an afternoon of mind-numbingly boring surveillance in the woods, Private Investigator Raven Cane goes for a twilight jog to clear her head, only to discover a gruesome murder in the town’s most notorious cave, Hatchet Hollow. Minutes later, the impossibly handsome Lieutenant Zander Stone arrives at the scene to take over, but Raven has a hard time letting the case go. Why did the killer cut off the victim’s fingers? More importantly, who would do such a thing?

After a failed attempt at tracking down the elusive Marden Balik, aka, the legendary witch of the Great Shadow Mountains, Zander dives headfirst into Devil’s Den’s most recent murder, only to uncover twists and turns at every step—including a secret book of curses that may, or may not, exist. As the list of suspects grows, Zander does his best to keep Raven at arm’s length. But Raven is persistent, nosing her way into his case, making it increasingly difficult to keep his concentration on the task at hand, and off of her sultry body.

And when another woman is found brutally murdered, Zander worries that Raven has gotten too close to the investigation… close enough to put her directly in the killer’s sights.

Excerpt

A BLACK CROW swooped down from a decaying pine tree beside her, it’s cringing caw piercing the silence of the woods. She shuddered and zipped up her windbreaker.
Abby never liked crows, or birds for that matter. Not since her parents brought her back a rare, extremely expensive—their words, not hers—parrot from Honduras when she was twelve years old. It was one of the many vacations they’d taken without her—needing a break, they’d say—and leaving her with her nanny, Fran, whose hair always looked, ironically, like a bird’s nest, and whose breath could stop a clock. The same nanny who’d tattled on her for leaving a window open, allowing the precious parrot to fly away.
Her father didn’t speak to her for a week, and her mother, only when he wasn’t looking.
But that was a long time ago. That was then, and this was now. She was a woman now, freshly turned twenty-one with her whole life ahead of her. She didn’t need her parents or the shallow gifts they’d showered her with, replacing their inability to show affection. She didn’t need them anymore, just like they didn’t need her. That’s how they always made her feel, anyway.
A cool gust of wind carrying the sour scent of moldy earth swept past her. She glanced up at the cloud-covered sky. Another dreary day. Another stupid, dull day in this small, suffocating, godforsaken town—just like the day before.
But not anymore.
She could make her own decisions now, out from under their financial thumb. Go her own way in life.
And she was.
And her parents would kill her for it.
She stepped onto the jogging trail that snaked through the woods and stumbled on a rock. She looked down at her new black running shoes laced tightly over black ankle socks. Black leggings and a black T-shirt.
Black.
She swallowed the lump in her throat.
She’d always been fascinated with the mystical, creepy folktales that were whispered through the Great Shadow Mountains. Spirits, ghosts… witches. Hundreds of stories told during dark nights with no electricity, bonfires with too many drinks, Halloween, or just about any scenario shrouded in darkness. The stories were told with glances over the shoulder and hushed voices laced with fear, and if you listened carefully enough, respect. Respect for the evil forces that could snatch you up in the middle of the night, turn you into a lizard, or worse, curse you and everyone you loved.
Witches who could raise the dead from the earth.
Witches who could take your life.
Respect, power. Those were the two things she was promised when she’d been approached about “turning over a new leaf”. Taking control of her own life—and others if needed. Yes, she would be a part of something now, of something big, she was told.
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes.
Was she apprehensive? Absolutely. But what they’d promised her had been too great to ignore. She’d been a fool to walk away.
Right?
She smoothed her black windbreaker.
Black really wasn’t her color, but they had been wearing it—head-to-toe—so she figured she’d better get used to it. There would be so much to learn, they’d explained, and embracing black was a good start, she guessed.
But dammit, it really washed her out. Her pale complexion and light blonde hair—a gift from her mother—looked even more lifeless against the unforgiving color.
Maybe she would take baby steps into the change.
Yes, baby steps.
Maybe it would be okay if she wore her red silk blouse and white Louboutin six-inch heels on her date next week.
Butterflies tickled her stomach.
A date!
She couldn’t believe it. Yes, she had been asked out by a good-looking, accomplished man, nonetheless. It was completely out of left field… and only hours after she’d officially committed to “turning over a new leaf.” Coincidence?
Yes, things were going to change for her. Things were going to go her way, for the first freaking time in her life.
She was going to be powerful, respected. Feared.
With an extra pep in her step, she rounded a corner in the trail and spotted her new jogging partner anxiously waiting ahead.
“Hey.”
“Hey, there. You ready?”
She snorted. “As ready as I can be, I guess.”
“First mile’s always the hardest. I’ll take it easy on you. Might want to stick those keys in your pocket, though. Uneven terrain.”
“Oh, okay. Yeah.” She nodded, looked down, and as she unzipped her pocket—
WHACK!
Her head snapped back as a fist slammed into her jaw.
Pain rocketed through her skull. Bright lights flashed in her eyes. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth as she stumbled backward. The world spun around her, sending a wave of nausea through her body as she tried to process what was happening.
What the hell?
She opened her eyes to fuzziness and tried to focus on the movement in front of her. But before she could come to, the next brutal force knocked her out cold.

Meet the Author

Award-winning author of sexy murder mysteries, Amanda McKinney wrote her debut novel, LETHAL LEGACY, after walking away from her career to become a writer and stay-at-home mom. Her books include the BERRY SPRINGS SERIES and the BLACK ROSE MYSTERY SERIES, with many more to come. Set in small, Southern towns, Amanda’s books are page-turning whodunits peppered with steamy romance. Amanda is a member of Romance Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime, and lives in Arkansas with her handsome husband, two beautiful boys, and three obnoxious dogs.

Author links:
Website ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads

And now for the giveaway!
Open internationally until the 3rd May, the prize is a signed copy of Hatchet Hollow and a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!

Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Amanda McKinney / Crime fiction / Books from America

On The Cold Coasts by Vilborg Davidsdottir

On The Cold Coasts by Vilborg Davidsdottir
First published in Icelandic as Galdur by Forlagid in Iceland in 2000. English language translation by Alda Sigmundsdottir published by AmazonCrossing in 2012.

One of my WorldReads from Iceland

How I got this book:
Bought the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £5.74 (audio CD)
	Wordery : unavailable
	Waterstones : from : £8.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from $2.50 / £0.01 (used PB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

When a fleet of one hundred English ships is caught in a horrible storm off the cold coasts of fifteenth-century Iceland, twenty-five ships are lost. For Ragna, the daughter of a respected family and betrothed to Thorkell, her relationship with one of the seamen washed ashore results in pregnancy. Now barren due to a traumatic childbirth and stigmatized as a fallen woman, she is left with no prospects for marriage when the betrothal is ultimately canceled.

A decade later, Ragna becomes a housekeeper to the new English bishop in North Iceland, where passionate and ambitious Thorkell is a priest and steward. They embark on a fervent but doomed love affair as priests cannot marry and Ragna will not be a concubine. Little does Ragna know but her host, the bishop, is instigating the conflict between the English and Nordic settlers to his own gain, with a devastating impact on his housekeeper. As sweeping as it is intimate, On the Cold Coasts is a powerful, enduring story of love and personal sacrifice.

I'm going to start by saying On The Cold Coasts is an ok story. For the £1 I spent on the Amazon ebook, it was quite good value, but there were several things that niggled and prevented a higher rating and more enthusiastic response.

Firstly, the synopsis gave me to understand that the book would follow the life of Ragna, a woman in fifteenth century Iceland. This is kind of true, but I felt the majority of the scenes actually focused on Men Doing Important Things while Ragna was relegated to the sidelines or even off into the kitchen. Her torrid romance with Thorkell left me pretty cold too. He occasionally notices she exists and they sleep together, which apparently is enough for her to consider him the love of her life. I know social standards were different back then, but this woman is excelling in a responsible job while raising a son singlehandedly. I just didn't buy that, romantically, she would allow herself to be so ignorantly treated!

Iceland itself is well described and I got a good sense of the religious struggles of the time. Various branches of the Church all believe Iceland's trading profits should be theirs and the English (of course!) Bishop is one of the most sly. Overall though, I think On The Cold Coasts just wasn't rich enough a historical novel for me. I do like to be swept up in lots of period detail and this story was more action-focused. So, yes, an ok read, but it's no Burial Rites!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Vilborg Davidsdottir / Historical fiction / Books from Iceland

The Little Book Of Hygge by Meik Wiking

The Little Book Of Hygge: The Danish Way To Live Well by Meik Wiking
First published by the UK by Penguin in September 2016.

One of my WorldReads from Denmark

How I got this book:
Won in a giveaway

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Denmark is often said to be the happiest country in the world. That's down to one thing: hygge.

'Hygge has been translated as everything from the art of creating intimacy to cosiness of the soul to taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things. My personal favourite is cocoa by candlelight...'

You know hygge when you feel it. It is when you are cuddled up on a sofa with a loved one, or sharing comfort food with your closest friends. It is those crisp blue mornings when the light through your window is just right.

Who better than Meik Wiking to be your guide to all things hygge? Meik is CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen and has spent years studying the magic of Danish life. In this beautiful, inspiring book he will help you be more hygge: from picking the right lighting and planning a dinner party through to creating an emergency hygge kit and even how to dress.

I managed to overstretch myself with book reviews this month and rather than facing the problem head on by steadily working through everything that's rapidly becoming overdue, I briefly chose the Head In Sand approach by picking up The Little Book Of Hygge instead. It wasn't even on my reading list! Won while we were travelling, my sister forwarded it onto me today. Appropriately it turns out that maintaining connections with friends and family is part of Hygge and probably the aspect I am worst at. Reclining on my vintage chaise longue (complete with its hand crocheted blanket made by Moi!) in order to read a book is strongly Hyggeligt. So is drinking frequent cups of tea and eating cake (baking my own cake is extra Hyggeligt!). Stressing about unwritten book reviews is not at all encouraged. I think I have finally found the lifestyle label that actually suits how I love to live!

My difficulty in reviewing The Little Book Of Hygge is in separating my enthusiasm for the lifestyle from my thoughts on the book itself. Certain aspects such as the overall idea, the inspirational photographs, the inclusion of recipes and crafts, and Wiking's gentle humour were definite positives for me. I also liked the sort-of science which identified similar concepts across Europe and the thoughts on the history of hygge. What didn't work so well for me was the repetition of ideas. Self help books are meant to be motivational and I accept that repetition is a strong part of reinforcing new habits, but by about two-thirds of the way through I started to feel that there were rather more pages available than material to fill them!

Etsy Find!
	Hygge Best Friend gift box by Made By Steffie B in Colchester, England Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Meik Wiking / Self help books / Books from Denmark

Sons Of Gods by Arthur J Gonzalez + Excerpt + Giveaway

Sons Of Gods by Arthur J Gonzalez
Published in America by Fahrenheit Publishing in January 2018.

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : unavailable
	Wordery : unavailable
	Waterstones : unavailable
	Amazon : from £0.99 (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Add Sons Of Gods to your Goodreads

Long ago, the wrath of the three God brothers marked the onset of the Great War. The other Gods watched in horror, until they, too, were forced to take sides. Their beloved Mt Olympus collapsed, ruin was brought to all Divine, and the Age of Darkness gripped the world in its clutches. But a group of Gods was wise, and before their impending deaths, they had crafted a pact, committing to one day rebuilding the Territories – the Heavens, Seas, and the Underworld. It would usher in the world they protected and honored out from its darkness. And from it would rise the new Greats: the Sons of Gods.

Cienzo has always had an affliction for metal and fire; never did he anticipate it would one day translate to wielding dormant powers. It is during a journey to fulfill a promise to his dying sister, that he is plunged into a dark and magical world, and where great responsibility is bestowed upon him.

Is he worthy of assuming the throne of the Territories? Can shattering steel and splitting fire change his mind?

Excerpt

“Cal,” he said softly. “Trust me.”
Caleseus glared into Cienzo’s eyes. There was a small glimmer of something he had never seen before in them. The trip had surprised everyone, even Caleseus, a creature that had survived a world of extinct enchantment. But even this reality was incredibly untouchable for anyone’s imagination to conjure. Something grand was happening, Caleseus could feel it too.
“I did not see what your eyes did,” Caleseus continued. “But I promised Kayana to look after you. For me to do so, I must trust you. You have my word.”
Cienzo gave a nod. Caleseus nodded back, a slight bend in his step. And in that small moment, a world of understanding had been exchanged between the two. Cienzo sensed it at his core. Cal no longer accompanied him for the sake of Kayana. He might say so, but his earlier hesitation had been replaced, swapped by the belief that something great waited to expose itself. The world was changing, and together, they would encounter it.
“Now that that’s settled,” Zendaya said, gesturing for Cienzo to climb aboard Phobos. “Can we get on?”
Cienzo climbed Phobos’s back, grappling the jutting skin of the beast to pull himself upward. He flopped onto the velvet-cushioned seats. His heart raced as he strapped himself in. I’m about to take flight. His fingers trembled. What would it feel like? Never had he thought it a possibility to travel by air and not by land.
What else had he missed out on? The possibilities seemed inestimable.
Zendaya took her place beside him. She did not waste time strapping herself in. A sign of adeptness. Cienzo moved the same way around metal and fire. “Ready?” she asked.
He blew out a breath. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Our adventure begins.” She leaned forward and petted Phobos’s neck. The creature let out a moaning growl. “Let us fly,” she said. “Our time is now.”
Phobos’s wings launched outward like giant sails on a ship; so vast and dominating they veiled the view of the mammoth, frosted willow. She flapped lightly until they hovered just slightly in the air; the braided chain of the metal hung from her neck as it tugged on the cabin that held the centaur and the nymph. Then Phobos clenched her razor talons around the outcropped handle of the cabin’s domed roof and whisked them into the air as one would a pail of water.
Phobos plunged skyward toward the glittering moon. The beating, cold wind of flight tickled at Cienzo’s skin. A new sensation for his senses to query, for wind was an absent thing in Thilos. The pillow clouds broke away against the angles of his face; the collisions turning them to dust in the night.
He looked down as they soared over the crown of Thilos. The sinkhole swirled less furiously, the giant net sparkling against the moonlight like its own constellation.
The flames of firelight from the rescued houseboats flickered below them. The higher they ascended, the more a sense of freedom swelled in his chest. It was a feeling of invincibility, of infiniteness. He felt an air of the God that Zendaya claimed him to be.
Everything at this altitude was peaceful. Pain, he thought, was a disease of the land. He thought of Isla then and how much she would have enjoyed this adventure. In the sky, the moon offered tranquility, a melody to soothe away worry. Out in the deep distance, the Forcaian Mountains skewed the steamrolled horizon. Stars continued their tango around its peaks.
The Sea of Air blanketed the borders of Thilos and foaming waves fed the coastlines. From here, even the dangerous ocean seemed harmless and docile, as it was once made to be.
Zendaya eyed Cienzo as he inhaled the skies. His hair wildly slapped at the clouds. He felt her stare and turned his face. I probably look like a child. Eyes opening to a world that is only just unraveling around me. A deep longing shifted within him and his mind scrambled for peace.
“You think too much,” she said, the wind pummeling at her words. Her eyes remained unwavering. “The Skies will forever be yours to marvel over. For now, you should rest. Soon we will arrive.”

Meet the Author

Arthur J. Gonzalez is a Young Adult author of the Photo Traveler series. Originally born in Miami, FL, you can now find him living on the West side in Los Angeles. If he’s not drinking coffee or playing with his adorable Schnoodle, Sookie, then he’s probably enjoying a nap. Also, he forgets the lyrics to nearly every song.

Author links:
Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads

And now for the giveaway!
Open internationally until the 26th April, the prize is a $25 Amazon gift card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!

Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Arthur J Gonzalez / Fantasy fiction / Books from America

The Last Letter by Kathleen Shoop

The Last Letter by Kathleen Shoop
Self published in America in February 2011.

Literary Flits Spotlight Giveaway Winner

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £8.95 (PB)
	Wordery : from £8.94 (PB)
	Waterstones : unavailable
	Amazon : from £2.94 (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Add The Last Letter to your Goodreads

Katherine wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t found the letter...

Katherine Arthur's mother arrives on her doorstep, dying, forcing her to relive a past she wanted to forget. When Katherine was young, the Arthur family had been affluent city dwellers until shame sent them running for the prairie, into the unknown. Taking her family, including young Katherine, to live off the land was the last thing Jeanie Arthur had wanted, but she would do her best to make a go of it. For Jeanie's husband Frank it had been a world of opportunity. Dreaming, lazy Frank. But, it was a society of uncertainty—a domain of natural disasters, temptation, hatred, even death. 



Ten-year-old Katherine had loved her mother fiercely, put her trust in her completely, but when there was no other choice, and Jeanie resorted to extreme measures on the prairie to save her family, she tore Katherine’s world apart. Now, seventeen years later, and far from the homestead, Katherine has found the truth – she has discovered the last letter. After years of anger, can Katherine find it in her heart to understand why her mother made the decisions that changed them all? Can she forgive and finally begin to heal before it’s too late?

Meet The Author

Bestselling author, Kathleen Shoop, holds a PhD in reading education and has more than 20 years of experience in the classroom. She writes historical fiction, women’s fiction and romance. Shoop’s novels have garnered various awards in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, Eric Hoffer Book Awards, Indie Excellence Awards, Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the San Francisco Book Festival. Kathleen has been featured in USA Today and the Writer’s Guide to 2013. Her work has appeared in The Tribune-Review, four Chicken Soup for the Soul books and Pittsburgh Parent magazine. She lives in Oakmont, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.

Author links:
Website ~ Goodreads ~ Facebook ~ Twitter


Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by Kathleen Shoop / Historical fiction / Books from America

Heirloom by Camillea + Free Book

Heirloom by Camillea
Self published in 2015.

Where to buy this book:
Available for free download from Payhip

How I got this book:
Downloaded the ebook from Payhip

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

HEIRLOOM is a collection of 10 poems about lambs, mothers, and sleeping gods. Poems on finding the ancient in our skin.

I was woefully underprepared for April being Poetry Month but fortunately Daniela at Nocturnal Devices is on the ball! (To be fair, it's National Poetry Month in the US and here in the UK we just get one National Poetry Day in the autumn, so I'm joining in with the Americans!) In this post here, Daniela highlighted fellow blogger Camillea's chapbook, Heirloom. Happy to accept her recommendation, I downloaded the book straight away.

Heirloom is short yet powerful collection and it took me several slow reads to fully immerse myself into these poems. Camillea uses unexpected imagery to create her works so I couldn't take any easy route through the interpretation. I had to really think about almost every line (which, I admit, I often don't when reading poetry), however, by the end I appreciated having made the effort. Camillea focuses on the experience of women and the poem Biography Of The Mother is superb. I felt this poem was about the idea of an ancient Woman, but also generations of women living similar experiences and the power of this gender line being often unrealised.

Some of my favourite lines, clipped from different poems, include

"For when I speak loneliness fluently
my own name sounds unfamiliar"

"i will never teach
you to hold a gun, but i will teach you to hold your tongue steadier than
your grandfather’s pistol, and sharper than the lashings on your daddy’s back"

"was your love ever just breadcrumbs,
and your body only a dandelion path home?"

Camillea has a great turn of phrase! I accept that I didn't completely understand every poem, but loved the feeling of these words washing over me as I read and catching different glimpses of meaning with each reading. If you're looking for a strong poetry collection to read this Poetry Month, give Heirloom a try.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Camillea / Poetry / Books from the Philippines

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga + Giveaway

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
First published in the UK by The Women's Press in 1988.

One of my WorldReads from Zimbabwe

How I got this book:
Bought the paperback from World Of Books via Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £6.11 (PB)
	Wordery : from £6.10 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £8.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from £0.91 (used HB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

A modern classic in the African literary canon and voted in the Top Ten Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, this novel brings to the politics of decolonization theory the energy of women's rights. An extraordinarily well-crafted work, this book is a work of vision. Through its deft negotiation of race, class, gender and cultural change, it dramatizes the 'nervousness' of the 'postcolonial' conditions that bedevil us still. In Tambu and the women of her family, we African women see ourselves, whether at home or displaced, doing daily battle with our changing world with a mixture of tenacity, bewilderment and grace.

"I was not sorry when my brother died. Nor am I apologising for my callousness, as you may define it, my lack of feeling. For it is not that at all. I feel many things these days, much more than I was able to feel in the days when I was young and my brother died, and there are reasons for this more than the mere consequence of age. Therefore I shall not apologise but begin by recalling the facts as I remember them that led up to my brother's death, the events that put me in a position to write this account. For though the event of my brother's passing and the events of my story cannot be separated, my story is not after all about death, but about my escape and Lucia's; about my mother's and Maiguru's entrapment; and about Nyasha's rebellion - Nyuha, far-minded and isolated, my uncle's daughter, whose rebellion may not in the end have been successful"

After such a striking first paragraph, I had high hopes for Nervous Conditions and I wasn't disappointed. First published in the 1980s, I was interested - and somewhat disappointed - to realise that a lot of the issues Dangarembga's characters face are still being written about as present day problems in novels thirty years later. Young Tambudzai is a child at the beginning of our story. She doesn't understand her mother's warning advice about her fate as a woman and instead strives to equal her spiteful brother, Nhamo. Nhamo is selected to follow in his uncle's footsteps and be educated at the Mission School. Uncle Babamukuru is the shining light of the extended family. Educated away from his family by white missionaries, he later was even able to study for five years in 1960s England, as did his wife Maiguru, and their children were partially brought up there. Babamukuru has a beautiful house, a good car and the job of Headmaster at the school. Everyone wants their children to emulate his success, but Dangarembga slowly pulls back a curtain to reveal what such Westernised success has destroyed.

Dangarembga illustrates how the culture clash of colonialism was to the extreme financial detriment of many black people unless they were the 'lucky' few chosen to live within while educational programmes and the like. In order to benefit however, those people had to forgo their traditional culture and replicate the restrictive white examples set them. What I found difficult to reconcile in my mind though was that the portrayal of black life is one of grinding poverty and constant labour, especially for the women. I often felt like yelling at the female characters to walk away and stand up for themselves, but of course - and as a couple of them discover - there is rarely anywhere to walk away to. Maiguru cannot use her academic brilliance in employment and having university degrees casts her as a loose woman. Obviously! Tambudzai might strive to equal and even surpass her brother, but what will she actually gain by that in a country where both black and white see excessive education as wasted on women.

I liked that Dangarembga doesn't attempt to offer easy solutions to her characters' predicaments. As a reader, I sometimes thought I saw an obvious solution, but I would soon realise I hadn't taken everything about a particular situation into account. I strongly felt for the women trapped in a certain traditionally proscribed existence and especially for those who had a glimpse of genuine alternatives (the niece partly raised in the UK for example) I couldn't begin to truly understand what they went (and are still going) through.


And now for the Giveaway!

Open internationally until midnight (UK time) on the 23rd April, the prize is my copy of Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Second-hand, yes, but still in good condition!
Entry is by was of the Gleam widget below:


Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga giveaway

Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!

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Books by Tsitsi Dangarembga / Contemporary fiction / Books from Zimbabwe

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
First published by Canongate in October 2005.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Flying Birds

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For Penelope, wife of Odysseus, maintaining a kingdom while her husband was off fighting the Trojan war was not a simple business. Already aggrieved that he had been lured away due to the shocking behaviour of her beautiful cousin Helen, Penelope must bring up her wayward son, face down scandalous rumours and keep over a hundred lustful, greedy and bloodthirsty suitors at bay...

I saw AJ Sterkel's review of The Penelopiad on her blog Read All The Things back in January and thought I might enjoy the book, so was then delighted to spot this reissue on NetGalley a few weeks later. I've had a copy of Homer's The Odyssey sitting on my bookshelf for at least a year now awaiting reading. I don't think I've ever actually read the whole book, although I know the gist of several of Odysseus' adventures, and I admit being put off by its 300-odd epic-poem-in-small-print pages. The Penelopiad's relative brevity was far more enticing!

Atwood focusses on what Penelope might have done and felt during the years Odysseus was away firstly at war and then 'lost' on his famous odyssey home, and has Penelope tell us her side of the story from the afterlife where she is still surrounded by many of the people she knew in life. Of one of her Suitors who still hangs around she says:

"The man was a pest when he was alive and a pest he remains."

Penelope's sense of humour frequently chimed exactly with mine so I appreciated her sarcasm and wry observations. For many years she is effectively a woman abandoned and emotionally alone so, while appearing strong to the outside world, privately she does indulge in an awful lot of weeping - one of the perils of a Naiad mother apparently. Too much water. Penelope is doomed to live in a state of limbo repeatedly hearing rumours of Odysseus' wanderings and minstrel songs of his adventures while never learning when or even if he will return home. I loved the dry interpretations:

"Odysseus was the guest of a goddess on an enchanted isle, said some; she had turned his men into pigs - not a hard job in my view - ... no, said others, it was just an expensive whorehouse and he was sponging off the madam."

I wasn't so enamoured of the Greek chorus of maids who burst into poetry or song every so often. I understood this inclusion as it is reflective of the original Greek sagas and a good way to advance the plot by several years in a few verses, but it didn't have the humour of the prose chapters. The maids themselves are perhaps the most hard done by, realistically so, in this Odyssey retelling. Abused and ill treated by the horde of Suitors, they are then the ones to face ultimate punishment at the hands of Odysseus and his now-adult son. Atwood researched a variety of sources for The Penelopiad and her interpretations of the maids' gruesome end was very interesting to me. Instead of taking the patriarchal tale at face value, she looks at scant clues remaining to offer a different understanding of their, and Penelope's, true roles. It's an idea I would like to see explored more fully.

Overall, I enjoyed much about The Penelopiad. It did feel a bit too much of an Odyssey summary in places and I think a longer historical novel from Penelope's viewpoint might have been more satisfying, but I liked how Atwood envisaged her and her world. I will now (eventually) go into reading The Odyssey itself from an angle other than the one Homer probably intended.

Etsy Find!
	The Odyssey linocut print by Stephanie Qui Art in London, England Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Books by Margaret Atwood / Mythology / Books from Canada

El Hacho by Luis Carrasco

El Hacho by Luis Carrasco
Published in the UK by Epoque Press on the 22nd February 2018.

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £7.99 (PB)
	Wordery : unavailable
	Waterstones : from £7.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from £1.99 (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

The brilliant debut novel by Luis Carrasco, El Hacho is a timeless evocation of inheritance, duty and our relationship to the landscape that defines us. Set in the stark beauty of the Andalusian mountains it tells the story of Curro, an olive farmer determined to honour his family tradition in the face of drought, deluge and the lucrative temptations of a rapidly modernising Spain. Wonderfully crafted, El Hacho is a poignant and compelling story of struggle and hope.

I'm generally wary (and often downright sceptical) of a synopsis that starts with such high praise for the novel it describes, but in the case of El Hacho I can agree that 'brilliant' is completely justified! This novella beautifully evokes the hard lives of its rural Andalusian farming family and I loved spending the few hours with them that it took to read El Hacho. Having seen the dry Spanish landscapes that Carrasco describes, I could easily imagine this countryside. Even if I had not been there though, the descriptions are so vivid and detailed that every field and path springs to life.

Curro himself is a man completely at one with his land and, as he says, who could never envisage himself anywhere else even though the work to maintain his farm is back-breakingly hard. I did not envy him or his wife, Carmen, their seemingly endless labour, but I found myself hankering after their peaceful, natural home! Carrasco's understated prose complements Curro's taciturn ways perfectly and I particularly loved the strong bond between Curro and Carmen. This is a lovely read and a wonderful insight into a fast vanishing way of life.


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Books by Luis Carrasco / Novellas / Books from England

The Tiger And The Acrobat by Susanna Tamaro

The Tiger And The Acrobat by Susanna Tamaro
First published in Italian as La Tigre e l'Acrobata in Italy by La nave di Yeseo in 2016. English language translation by Nicoleugenia Prezzavento and Vicki Satlow published by Oneworld in 2017.

How I got this book: Borrowed from a friend

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : unavailable
	Wordery : from £6.01 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £8.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from £2.77 (used PB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Little Tiger is not like other tigers. She is curious about the world and always questions everything, not content to simply follow in her mother’s footsteps and spend her days hunting around their home in the snow forests of Siberia. Instead, she embarks on a remarkable journey, intent on discovering the secrets of the Earth and eventually finding the creature she has heard most about: man. 

This captivating story of a brave young tiger who refuses to give up on her dreams is a celebration of the power of nature and the beauty of innocence, and is a testament to the courage it takes to be true to ourselves. 

This is a lovely, gentle read whose ambience reminded me of Silk by Alessandro Baricco and  The Peculiar Life Of A Lonely Postman by Denis Theriault although the stories in each of these three books are very different. Little Tiger herself is a humanised creation so, while she does tiger-like things such as catching hares to eat, this isn't a realistic nature story. I felt it more as a philosophical imagining where the legendary power of tigers represents a facet of life, their isolation from each other is another facet, and their freedom a third. It's a meandering, thoughtful tale which I thought suited me well at the time I read time because I was in that kind of a mood, but I wonder if I might not have enjoyed it so much had I picked the 'wrong' time to read it. There are lessons on life and freedom, appreciating ourselves as we are and striving to fit where perhaps we weren't meant to be. The language is simple and the ideas are deep so this is a relatively quick read that lingers long after I finished the book.


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Books by Susanna Tamaro / Contemporary fiction / Books from Italy

No Live Files Remain by András Forgách

No Live Files Remain by András Forgách
English language translation by Paul Olchvary published in the UK by Scribner on the 5th April 2018.

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £11.09 (PB)
	Wordery : from £10.93 (HB)
	Waterstones : from £14.99 (HB)
	Amazon : from £7.50 (used HB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For readers of The Lives of Others and The Reader, and based on a true story, No Live Files Remain is a beautiful and moving novel of family, lies, betrayal and forgiveness.

He wanted to understand the past.
Now he must live with the truth.

Thirty years after the fall of communism in Hungary, as acclaimed writer, translator, dramatist and visual artist Andras Forgach investigated his family's past he uncovered a horrifying truth. His mother, whom he deeply loved, had been an informant for the Kadar regime. She had informed not only on acquaintances but on family, friends and even her children.

In the eagerly anticipated No Live Files Remain, with rights sold around the world, Forgach gives voice to his deceased mother, holding her responsible for her deeds while defending the memories he cherished of her as a son.

A novel in the sense that some scenes have been fleshed out with imagined detail and dialogue, No Live Files Remain reads as a nonfiction memoir or history book through which Hungarian writer András Forgách works out his shock from discovering his mother's double life. Her meetings with her handlers are interspersed with the actual reports written by 'Mrs Papai' (Bruria), Forgách's father (also an informant and spy), and higher members of the Kadar regime. I found this switching of viewpoints quite difficult to follow at first although the use of clearly different fonts helps a lot. The writing, however, gives an atmospheric impression of Budapest at the time and of the paranoia within the family and Hungary itself. The Forgáchs are Jews, Hebrew-speaking Bruria having been born and raised in Palestine, so the regime is keen for insights in Israel and Zionism. Political and ideological clashes swirl all through this book in a way that is particularly evocative of the era.

I was a little bemused by a poetry interlude in the middle of No Live Files Remain. Following this, András Forgách speaks directly of his memories of childhood incidents that he now sees in a different light and how he feels about the way his mother was treated during her decade of informing. In its presentation, this is certainly an unusual book and it didn't all completely work for me. I did enjoy being transported back to 1970s and 1980s Budapest, especially having visited the city just last autumn, and learning about Jewish families split between Hungary, Palestine and Israel. Bruria's bemoaning her being stranded between two homelands, neither of which really feel like home, is particularly poignant and the discussions of Israel's annexation of Palestinian land was interesting considering that this is still ongoing over three decades later.


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Books by Andras Forgach / History books / Books from Hungary

Someone To Talk To by Liu Zhenyun

Someone To Talk To by Liu Zhenyun
First published in Chinese as Yi ju ding yi wan ju in China in 2009. English language translation by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-Chun published by Duke University Press on the 30th March 2018.

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £17.99 (PB)
	Wordery : from £16.36 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £17.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from £13.16 (used PB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Tofu peddler Yang Baishun is a man of few words and few friends. Unable to find meaningful companionship, he settles for a marriage of convenience. When his wife leaves him for another man he is left to care for his five-year-old stepdaughter Qiaoling, who is subsequently kidnapped, never to be seen by Yang again.

Seventy years later we find Niu Aiguo, who, like Yang, struggles to connect with other people. As Niu begins learning about his recently deceased mother’s murky past it becomes clear that Qiaoling is the mysterious bond that links Yang and Niu.

Originally published in China in 2009 and appearing in English for the first time, Liu Zhenyun’s award-winning Someone to Talk To highlights the contours of everyday life in pre- and post-Mao China, where regular people struggle to make a living and establish homes and families. Meditating on connection and loneliness, community and family, Someone to Talk To traces the unexpected and far-reaching ramifications of seemingly inconsequential actions, while reminding us all of the importance of communication.

Unfortunately I gave up reading Someone To Talk To after 10%. I felt as though a new character was being introduced every couple of paragraphs, but with no chance to start to get to know any of them so the novel was becoming a procession of names with no context. Someone To Talk To is considered to be Liu Zhenyun's masterpiece and won the Mao Dun literary prize so other readers will probably get on with it better than I did, but this book just wasn't for me.


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Books by Liu Zhenyun / Contemporary fiction / Books from China

Giant by Richard Georges

Giant by Richard Georges
Published in the UK by Platypus Press on the 23rd February 2018.

How I got this book:
Received a review copy via Contemporary Small Press

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : unavailable
	Wordery : unavailable
	Waterstones : from £8 (PB)
	Amazon : from £2 (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Giant is a manifestation, a creation story born of the ocean. Words turn over and under, shipwrecked then safe-shored. A blend of ghosts and myths meld and coalesce into being, as headstrong as the mountains, as wavering as the sea.

I was entranced by Richard Georges' poetry collection, Giant, from the very first words. With only limited experience of Caribbean literature, I wasn't sure what to expect, but found myself understanding and appreciating his visions out to the ocean from an island home. I felt a sense of timelessness from this poetry too. Connections with creation stories (and scientific truths) from across the globe blend together with memorable imagery such as this initial sentence from Giant:

"Having lost their sight in unlighted deep,
the gods of our fathers rose and strode
towards falling shards of sunlight"

This collection includes such almost mythical poems as well as poems describing specific places. Georges has a sharp eye for seemingly insignificant details and his vivid portrayals of sights as everyday as the angle of plants:

"tamarind trees lean over narrow 
coastal roads like wiry grandmothers"

allowed me to clearly envisage Caribbean landscapes as he does. We observe goats precariously but blithely feeding by the roadside and, later, see the grotesque image of a lamb who was less lucky with the traffic. We also learn of families blighted by alcoholism and grief.

Giant uncovers many aspects of island life that diverge from the tourist brochure promises, but I never thought that these poems lost hope. There is anger certainly, and a resentment perhaps of a colonial past that still rears its uniformed head from time to time but does not provide the basic resources to ensure that the lights stay on in the people's homes.

Since my initial reading of Giant, I have found myself returning to the book either simply to reread those poems I particularly liked or, more frequently, because a certain concept or turn of phrase suddenly occurred to me and I saw it in a new light. I love that I can continue to interpret and understand Georges' ideas in different ways.

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Books by Richard Georges / Poetry / Books from the British Virgin Islands

Whisper by Krystal Jane Ruin + Excerpt + Giveaway

Whisper by Krystal Jane Ruin
Published in America by The Narcissistic Rose on the 3rd April 2018.

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £9.99 (PB)
	Wordery : from £9.98 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £9.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from £2.99 (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Add Whisper to your Goodreads

Jade has been hearing voices since she was five. No, not voices. One voice.

After her twin brother is appointed vice president of their father’s company at the old age of twenty-two, the family starts falling apart. Her parents hate each other. Her brother is stressed. His girlfriend is a gold-digger if Jade’s ever seen one. And worse yet, it turns out she isn’t crazy-the voice in her head is real.

If she ignores it, it’ll drive her off a cliff, like it has done to every single woman on her father’s side for over 1000 years. If she listens, she’s told something terrible will happen.

The choice should be simple.

Excerpts

Excerpt #1
Logan jokes loudly at the other end of the lobby, entertaining a group of men with lewd jokes and wild stories from their recent trip abroad. My sweet, idiot brother leans against the wall grinning over at him, his stupid gray eyes full of trust. 
My leg bounces under my desk, spreading irritation through my body. There are no words for how pissed I am. I wish I could bring the ceiling tiles down on Logan’s head. My water bottle teeters in time with my agitation, and I clamp a hand over it to still it. 
Of course, I could. Probably. But if my father suspected me of being responsible, he’d have me carted off in a straitjacket.  
“Don’t worry about Logan. He will suffer. Come back and open the door.”
“How?” I force my eyes away from Logan and try to keep my voice low. No one is paying attention to me that I know of, but it’s awkward, talking out loud in an open space. For a second I wish the stupid voice could read my thoughts, but then I think better of it.
Honestly though, how crazy am I that the voice in my own head can’t hear me think?
“Sacrifice.”
“Yeah, you said that, but—” I cut myself off. David walks towards me with a small rectangular box full of padded envelopes. 
He drops it on my desk. “This is for Juliane.” He speaks slowly and stares at me hard like he’s trying to read my mind. He caught me talking to myself, I know it. And likely not for the first time.

Excerpt #2
I slip my hand away from Griffin’s and go stash myself in the kitchen. 
Mistake. 
My grandmother turns away from the fridge at my footsteps, and surprise lights across her face. “Jade…” She looks off to the side and draws her brows tight together. She says nothing else, and I say nothing either. The spacious, country-style room fills with awkward silence. 
She clears her throat and tucks a stray piece of silver hair back into her low ponytail. Then she pulls out pitchers of lemonade and iced tea and mixes them together into five tall glasses. I stare at her while she pours, and her hands start to tremble. She pinches her lips together and concentrates hard on the glasses. I still say nothing.
Arthur walks into the kitchen, through the archway behind her. “Let me help you with that, Mom.” He stops short and follows her gaze to where I’m standing. His face brightens. “Jade!” He crosses the room and pulls me into a warm hug. “You finally showed up. When’s the last time you saw her, Mom? Isn’t it great that she’s here?”
She gives me a tight-lipped smile that looks more like a grimace. “Yes. She’s…so beautiful.”
Cursed. She wanted to say cursed.

Meet the Author

Krystal is the author of supernatural and paranormal fiction, living in the Tennessee Valley with a collection of swords and daggers. When she's not hoarding stuffed pandas, hourglasses, and Hello Kitty replicas, she can be found in YouTube hole or blogging about books, writing, and random things at KrystalSquared.net.

Author links:
Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads

And now for the giveaway!
Open to US/Can until the 12th April, the prize is a vintage notebook & pen, a themed keychain, a couple of paper bookmarks, and a $15 iTunes gift card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!

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Books by Krystal Jane Ruin / Fantasy fiction / Books from America