Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now--As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It
From  Londoners by Craig Taylor

"It's a city that clings to reserve, but find a reason to ask a question, and the reserve is broken."








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Monday, December 30, 2013

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!
Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now--As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It
Since I am planning a trip to London around May, most of my reading for now is London related, including travel guides and lots of history. One book that I've started and which already is turning out to be completely fascinating is Londoners by Craig Taylor. The author interviewed tons of people who have lived or still live in London to ask them about their experiences with the city. It is incredibly revealing and a must-read for anyone who loves that city or who is planning on visiting it for the first time.







P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!









Friday, December 27, 2013

Follow Friday

What books did Santa stuff your stocking with this holiday season? Do a holiday book haul for us! If you don’t celebrate just show off your books that you got this week. Pictures!!!

I live in Miami and we have, in December, a huge book sale at our main library. They have paperbacks for 1 dollar and hardbacks for 2, so go every year and by tons of books. Since I end up getting so many, I usually tell my family not to bother getting me anymore, since I can barely keep up with the ones I have.
Below, is one of the piles of books I bought this year at the book sale (there are more piles around the house)

 
 
email
P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!






 

Doing Harm by Kelly Parsons

Doing HarmSteve Mitchell, happily married with a wife and two kids, is in line for a coveted position at Boston's University Hospital when his world goes awry. His over-reaching ambition causes him to botch a major surgery, and another of his patients mysteriously dies. Steve’s nightmare goes from bad to worse when he learns that the mysterious death was no accident but the act of a sociopath.  A sociopath he knows and who has information that could destroy Steve’s career and marriage.  A sociopath for whom killing is more than a means to an end: it’s a game.  Because he is under a cloud of suspicion and has no evidence, he knows that any accusations he makes won’t be believed. So he must struggle to turn the tables, even as the killer skillfully blocks his every move.

This was an interesting novel, though perhaps, at least for me for different reasons than the author intended.

This is a thriller, but it is a medical thriller, which heaps on the awesome factor, since it involves all kinds of different surgical procedures. It is incredibly detailed, so the author took his time doing research from the right people. This, for me, is what makes the book so interesting. We get a good look at what being a surgeon is like and what it entails. The plot line falls second to the fascinating details we read.

There isn’t much uniqueness to the actual storyline, unfortunately. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who the villain is, and from then on, there aren’t many surprises left. Think of any action movie you’ve seen, and that’s pretty much what you can expect from this novel. The ending is a bit rushed, and it’s a little too convenient for the protagonist to be an expert in computers and hacking. It just feels forced.

I still think this novel is worth reading because of the many details into a surgeon’s life we get, but if that’s not something you’re interested in, you should choose some other thriller.
 
 
 
P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!





 
 
 

Monday, December 23, 2013

Musing Mondays





Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I just started reading Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake. So far, I'm- enjoying this one more than the first book in the series, which is...strange. I don't think it's ever happened to me before that I enjoy the sequel more than the original.





P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!










Friday, December 20, 2013

Follow Friday

Increase Blog Followers
Pick a book in your favorite genre that you’d recommend to a reluctant reader.


My favorite genre has to be literary psychological novels. Specific, isn't it? I would recommend a book like Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, or We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.



P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!







Thursday, December 19, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday


"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
I'm waiting on A Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger.




P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!





Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
The Tearings (The Tearings, #1)
Since my friend's book tour is happening this week, I am featuring her YA novel. Here is another teaser from The Tearings by V.C. Repetto.


"We eased out of the ambulance and looked around, expecting to see a tall building dressed in institutional gray, with people in scrubs and masks.

Instead, we saw what looked like an old bus terminal with at least two dozen school buses painted a dull black with every window covered up with metallic blinds."














Monday, December 16, 2013

Dawn by Valentina Cano


Dawn is a pulsing light behind the pale suburban homes.

The woman sits on her bed, her comforter and sheets in knots behind her, flotsam from the night’s shipwreck of hours. Darkness seeps out of them as sweats seeps out of her. As if after a broken fever, her shirt clings to her like a double skin but her body is cool in the lightening gloom.

She blinks and stares at a sky she has never seen before. Not with these eyes which see light instead of shadows and color, so much color!

“How long?” She whispers. How long has she been swimming underwater, with only the shallowest of breaths to keep her going? Ages. Millennia.

“Depression robs a person of everything,” her mother said weeks before. “This is not you. I know that. Do you?”

And she hadn’t, not until this morning. It’d been so long since she’d felt anything but coiling darkness inside her that she’d forgotten what just breathing felt like.

The room smells of a struggle and abandoned sleep, but she has never smelled anything like it before. It’s like everything around her has bloomed; the lavender liquid with which she washes her sheets pushing through the dough-like scent of sweat; the glass of water she hasn’t touched that smells of dust; even the paint chipping off the walls. All of it surrounds her, strong enough to make her press her hands to her nose.

Tears sting the patches of skin on her face she’s rubbed raw throughout the endless night. “Ouch,” she moans and then snorts with a swallowed chuckle. She can feel her skin again and it hurts, but it’s the kind of hurting that can heal. Her whole body, her mind, feels like a blister, just waiting to be drained of water and puss.

The light keeps growing, pushing against her room’s darkness. It reveals the book she’s hasn’t opened in weeks and the bottle on her bedside table. It’s tipped over and empty.

Pills lay scattered on the carpet like powdery white landmines which she cracks into pieces as she gets off the bed and walks to the window. She doesn’t feel them dissolve under her feet, each one of those pills she counted over and over again throughout the night, making sure they were enough.

Nothing miraculous had happened. There had been no voice from above or sign that she should stop. She could have taken them times over and no one would have known. It’d just been a sound. One tiny, pinpoint of noise she’d balanced on the entire night.

The shower head dripping onto the tiles in the bathroom, the sound echoing through the open bathroom door. The stupid shower head she’d meant to have called someone about for months now, but had never found the push to look for a number, to pick up her phone, to make the call.

“That’s going to be the last thing I hear,” she said and felt…something. The beginnings of the rage that would launch her to scratch the walls with her bare nails, to rub her face enough that days later the marks would still be intact.

Drop by drop, rage built until she couldn’t sit anymore. She counted the pills again, to steady herself, but each one matched a drop and her teeth grit together. Her heart pounded harder than it had in months or years or centuries and she pressed her heels against her chest, trying to make it stop. Just stop!

The drops counted her backwards, like a hypnotist’s voice, and she saw the wasted hours in this room, on this same bed, the time spent keeping track of how much time she’d lost. Over and over and over. And she was sick of it. Sick of herself like this.

That was when she’d lunged out of bed, tipping the bottle and spilling the pills. She grabbed the curtains that hadn’t been opened in days and ripped them off the window, sending the beam that held them up crashing to the floor. With a scream, she grabbed on to the very walls and dragged her nails down, peeling the old paint in strips.

It continued for hours, the ripping and tearing, the knotting of bed-sheets. She thinks, now, that she hadn’t thought even once to head into the bathroom and yank that shower head off the wall. Instead, she’d massacred her room until her hands swelled.

And here she is, now, staring at the growing light as if she’s never seen it before. She hasn’t, not really.

After a plunge in such dark waters as the ones she’s been swimming in, light is never the same.

Nothing ever is.

She watches the light.

And hears the drops falling behind her.

 

 

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!
The Tearings (The Tearings, #1)
Since my friend's book tour is happening right now, I will be featuring her book throughout the week. So here is a bit about The Tearings:


From the moment the black vans appear to take the sick away, Maya knows there is something wrong. A high school sophomore, she seems to be the only one to question the sudden disappearances at school and the masks everyone is forced to wear to keep from catching the new disease spreading through the entire United States. Even when word of the new “healing centers” reaches the public, no one dares to ask what is happening.


But when Maya catches the disease, the one they call The Tearings, and is taken to one of these centers along with her mother, the truth becomes all too clear. She is separated from her family and forced to work, becoming one of the more fortunate ones who is not sent to the testing wings. Bullied by the guards to the point of death, she meets David Summers, the enigmatic young Captain who appears to loathe his position of power in the camp and who seems as drawn to Maya as she is to him.


When Maya suddenly becomes the disease’s only survivor, she must put her trust on David to find a way to escape the camp and get the truth, and the cure coursing through her veins, out to the world.

You can find it on Goodreads and Amazon












Thursday, December 12, 2013

The Circle of Thirteen by William Petrocelli

The Circle of Thirteen
In 2082, a catastrophic explosion rocks the dedication ceremony of the new United Nations in New York City. Security Director Julia Moro is on the job, chasing after the misogynistic leader of Patria, a long-disbanded international terrorist organization now being whispered about again on the streets. This dangerous, shadowy figure has been linked to several bombing attempts and vicious attacks on women, including the Women of Peace—an organization headed by thirteen bold women who have risked their lives to restore worldwide peace. As Julia’s investigation unfolds, a deep secret from her past threatens to strip her of everything she cherishes and plunge her into unrecoverable darkness.
This is probably the dullest book I’ve read this year. It started off slow, continued on slow, and ended slow. It is advertised as a thriller, but I have no idea how anyone could have chosen to describe this book as anything remotely thrilling.

I think one of the biggest issues the novel has is that it jumps too much from past to present, from one character to another. It got to the point where I remember picking the book up and not having a clue as to who was speaking or what was going on because it’d been jumping around so much. I usually enjoy books that move back and forwards in time, but this one was a mess for me.

And then the action itself. Although it deals with terrorist attacks and what-not, there is actually very little action that happens on the page and is not part of someone’s back-story. I found my mind wandering too much throughout reading it and it took me much longer to get through it than I wanted. This is not one I’d recommend unless you have just run out of your Lunesta and need a good night’s sleep.




Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1)
From Anna Dressed in Blood  by Kendare Blake

“But hey, at least we’ll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy-issues. And holy crap, I’m a psychiatrist’s wet dream.”  


















Monday, December 9, 2013

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!
Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1)
I am currently reading Anna Dressed in Blood by Blake Kendare. So far, I am enjoying it. The narrator has an interesting voice, which holds your attention. Many times, that's the problem I have with YA narrators, that they all tend to have the same internal voice. This one is a fun book, so far.













Friday, December 6, 2013

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

The Silent WifeJodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. Much is at stake, including the affluent life they lead in their beautiful waterfront condo in Chicago, as she, the killer, and he, the victim, rush haplessly toward the main event. He is a committed cheater. She lives and breathes denial. He exists in dual worlds. She likes to settle scores. He decides to play for keeps. She has nothing left to lose. Told in alternating voices, The Silent Wife is about a marriage in the throes of dissolution, a couple headed for catastrophe, concessions that can’t be made, and promises that won’t be kept. Expertly plotted and reminiscent of Gone Girl and These Things Hidden, The Silent Wife ensnares the reader from page one and does not let go.

I think the main issue I had with this book is that the hype was so strong, and it was compared so much to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, that it raised my expectations way too much. Don’t get me wrong, this book was good, just not that good.

I love unreliable narrators and in this novel we get two of them. That is my favorite thing about this novel, how some crucial facts are casually mentioned by one character or another, letting us put things together little by little. Unfortunately, some of the actual writing can be clunky, with too much telling for my taste. There are pages and pages of the author just telling us events instead of letting us see them through a character’s  eyes, which slows the book down.

Apart from that, the last half of the book doesn’t make too much logical sense, I don’t want to give anything away, but I’m not sure what part two is even doing in the novel. I understand the author needed to tie up some loose ends, but an entire second section is not necessary.

I felt the book had some potential, especially in the way the author handled some of the psychological aspects, but it didn’t quite get there for me.


Follow Friday

Tell us at least one new or unusual thing you’ve done in 2013.


Well, I sold my first novel. That should definitely count, don't you think?
It is called THE ROSE MASTER and it will be out in June of next year.










Monday, December 2, 2013

The Galactics by Everett Peacock


This was a lovely novel for young adults that steps out of the norm for the genre. Yes, there are teenagers with powers, but the story is much deeper than the average teen story. There are layers and layers of meaning behind this clever novel.

The writing, as in all of Peacock’s books, is crisp and clear. It never gets in the way of the plot or the character development. The story itself is quick-paced, so that you never find your mind wandering as you read. The dialogue really helps with this, since it is full of quirky teen sayings that had me laughing out loud. The way the author handles the meaning behind the story is also very clever, since he walks the fine line of not being preachy, which can sometimes happen in YA books that are meant to teach lessons. This one easily avoids that while still making the wanted impact on the reader.

If you are looking for a novel that will leave you smiling and wondering what’s going to happen next, then this one is for you.
 
 
 
 

Musing Mondays

MusingMondays5Do you have a preference between “person” in the books you read? Do you prefer third-person to first-person? Or don’t you care? And, why?

I usually prefer first person, both while reading and writing. I like to get into a character's head, and while you can still do this in third person, it is always more effective in first person. I also really enjoy unreliable narrators, and this can only be achieved if the writing is in first person.










Saturday, November 30, 2013

Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher

Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and BulimiaWhy would a talented young woman enter into a torrid affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Through five lengthy hospital stays, endless therapy, and the loss of family, friends, jobs, and all sense of what it means to be "normal," Marya Hornbacher lovingly embraced her anorexia and bulimia -- until a particularly horrifying bout with the disease in college put the romance of wasting away to rest forever. A vivid, honest, and emotionally wrenching memoir, Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to reality's darker side -- and her decision to find her way back on her own terms.

As someone who has struggled through anorexia nervosa, it is very difficult to read books like this. The irony is that I am drawn to them, needing to find some connection with what other people have gone through with eating disorders. This was a wonderful book.

I love the author’s voice. She makes sure to be as stark about eating disorders as possible, not allowing for any romanticizing of these diseases, which can sometimes happen with other authors. There is nothing pleasant or mysterious about bulimia and anorexia and she does a great job showing this. She writes with an honesty and with a lack of self-pity that is astounding.

I don’t cry with books very often, but this one brought out all the fears, all the old sensations that having an eating disorder can bring. It was a harrowing experience to read it, but it is a MUST for anyone struggling through these diseases.
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Book Trailer: The Tearings by V.C. Repetto




My sister put together this trailer for my friend, Vic, who just published her debut novel. When my novel comes out, she's definitely doing mine as well, because this one is awesome!

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

From The Tearings by V.C. Repetto


"Inside, it looked like no ambulance I’d ever seen, although to be fair, I hadn’t seen that many. There was a wooden bench on one side and that was about it."

 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Monday, November 25, 2013

Musing Mondays

Do you know of any local authors in your area, and –if so– have you met any of them?


Since I live in Miami, I get the chance of meeting lots of local authors at the international book fair we have here each year. We also have Books and Books, which always has a great selection of local authors who come and read or do interviews. I've met Jeff Lindsay, the man who writes the books on which Dexter is based.













Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday


"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

A great friend of mine is having her debut young adult novel coming out on Friday by Evernight Teen, so, although I've already read it, I will be purchasing a copy bright and early Friday morning! Can't wait! You can see her webpage here and the you'll be able to purchase the book through the Evernight Teen website.

This is the blurb from my friend's website:


From the moment the black vans appear to take the sick away, Maya knows there is something wrong. A high school sophomore, she seems to be the only one to question the sudden disappearances at school and the masks everyone is forced to wear to keep from catching the new disease spreading through the entire United States. Even when word of the new “healing centers” reaches the public, no one dares to ask what is happening.

But when Maya catches the disease, the one they call The Tearings, and is taken to one of these centers along with her mother, the truth becomes all too clear. She is separated from her family and forced to work, becoming one of the more fortunate ones who is not sent to the testing wings. Bullied by the guards to the point of death, she meets David Summers, the enigmatic young Captain who appears to loathe his position of power in the camp and who seems as drawn to Maya as she is to him.

When Maya suddenly becomes the disease’s only survivor, she must put her trust on David to find a way to escape the camp and get the truth, and the cure coursing through her veins, out to the world.  








 
 

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Feature: The Tearings by V.C. Repetto:


I'm very happy to be featuring my friend's book on my site. She is a wonderful writer and this book is sure to leave you in chills!
It comes out on Friday from Evernight Teen, so be sure to get your copy bright and early Friday morning.

From the moment the black vans appear to take the sick away, Maya knows there is something wrong. A high school sophomore, she seems to be the only one to question the sudden disappearances at school and the masks everyone is forced to wear to keep from catching the new disease spreading through the entire United States. Even when word of the new “healing centers” reaches the public, no one dares to ask what is happening.

But when Maya catches the disease, the one they call The Tearings, and is taken to one of these centers along with her mother, the truth becomes all too clear. She is separated from her family and forced to work, becoming one of the more fortunate ones who is not sent to the testing wings. Bullied by the guards to the point of death, she meets David Summers, the enigmatic young Captain who appears to loathe his position of power in the camp and who seems as drawn to Maya as she is to him.

When Maya suddenly becomes the disease’s only survivor, she must put her trust on David to find a way to escape the camp and get the truth, and the cure coursing through her veins, out to the world.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

From The Tearings by V.C. Repetto


"Now the teachers no longer waited for the later symptoms. Like the principal had suggested, a cough got you sent to the nurse’s office, where, if you continued to cough or sneeze, you’d be picked up by one of the many new ambulances that had begun to appear through the city. They didn’t look like the regular 911 ones."


 









Monday, November 18, 2013

Musing Mondays

asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

A good friend of mine is having her first book published on Friday and I've taken up the banner of helping her promote it. It's called The Tearings, and it is a great, suspenseful young adult novel in the style of the movie Contagion, but with a great romance story in the middle. It is definitely a page turner that will truly make you aware of every little cough or sneeze you hear after reading it. Stop by tomorrow for a teaser!











Sunday, November 17, 2013

Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash

Stay Up With MeThe stories in Tom Barbash's evocative and often darkly funny collection explore the myriad ways we try to connect to one another and to the sometimes cruel world around us. The newly single mother in "The Break" interferes with her son's love life over his Christmas vacation from college. The anxious young man in "Balloon Night" persists in hosting his and his wife's annual watch-the-Macy's-Thanksgiving-Day-Parade-floats-be-inflated party, while trying to keep the myth of his marriage equally afloat. "Somebody's Son," tells the story of a young man guiltily conning an elderly couple out of their home in the Adirondacks, and the young narrator in "The Women" watches his widowed father become the toast of Manhattan's mid-life dating scene, as he struggles to find his own footing.

The characters in Stay Up with Me find new truths when the old ones have given out or shifted course. In the tradition of classic story writer like John Cheever and Tobias Wolff, Barbash laces his narratives with sharp humor, psychological acuity, and pathos, creating deeply resonant and engaging stories that pierce the heart and linger in the imagination.


This was an interesting, literary, short story collection that delves deep into loss and how the human psyche deals with it.

All of these stories have a strong pulse through them, making the reader turn the pages. This is not easy to achieve in stories that really have very little action happening within them. I was never bored and I didn’t have the need to skip any paragraphs. The descriptions are kept to a minimum, which helps to move the plot lines along, and the dialogues sound real and not forced.

My favorite story in the collection has to be “Birthday Girl”. It is about a young woman who runs over another girl and takes her to the hospital, where she imagines herself as part of the girl’s family. It is so cleverly written that it was hard to put down. I think the weakest of the stories has to be “Somebody’s Son”. I just didn’t connect enough with the characters and whatever meaning the author tried to get across didn’t reach me.

If you love literary fiction and short story collections, then this one is for you.