The Kari AnnAlysis

Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

From Goodreads.com:
From an early age, Sam Spiegel single-mindedly pursued an entrepreneurial path that prepared him to transform a small-time ad agency into a regional powerhouse with national ambitions. A couple decades later, Sam had achieved almost everything he ever dreamed possible as the ad agency’s rainmaker, fountainhead, and unflappable pursuer of success.

One final goal remained: To consolidate his gains by attracting an international advertising conglomerate and cash out. That’s when the nation is hit with the most unthinkable tragedy, and Sam begins to take stock of his own life, finding that he is growing weary of the relentless hunt. Unsatisfied in his marriage and embroiled in a mind-boggling professional crisis, everything Sam had achieved is put at risk.

I finished this book more than a week ago and still, the day my review is to be posted, am not 100% sure how I feel about it. So, I’ll work out my feelings in my post and hopefully writing it all out will help me decide.

The book I read before this one was a memoir. And although The Minefields is fiction, I think it’s the closest fiction book to reality that I’ve ever read. Most of the time when I am reading fiction, I know I am reading fiction. With this book, I kept forgetting. The reality line was very blurry in this book, so I kudos Steven Eisner for writing something that could very well be reality.

The unfortunate part of this reality is that I just didn’t love the story. I tend to gravitate toward girly books or brutal murder-mysteries, which I understand are on the complete opposite spectrum. That’s why I always try to be open to books that fall out of those categories. I like throwing in ones that I wouldn’t normally read and try to keep my reading list versatile. The Minefields follows a man through his career in an ad agency. I figured since I was in a media field it would interest me, because who knows where my career may lead one day, but it didn’t grab me.

What I did like about the book was while it was very business and work oriented, there was a love story woven into the pages. That’s the girl in me right? Not being able to focus on the work part and finding myself hoping that the love aspect will make a bigger apperance as I turn the pages.

Lucky for you, if my review was a little too on the girly side for you, I am part of a book tour where a new review is posted every month. Click here to check out the tour page and you can click on the daily excerpt to read that blogger’s review.

And make sure you stop back by here tomorrow for an excerpt from The Minefields and a Q&A with Steven.

I give The Minefields 3 bookmarks. I honestly don’t have anything negative to say about the book, it just didn’t grab me!

ISBN: 978-1937836023
Release: January 25, 2012
Author Website 

So it’s not completely wordless… I am not good with wordless, but it will be short and sweet. As promised, I got some pictures from the book launch of Fly Away Home by Maggie Myklebust courtesy her daughter Michele (Thanks Michele for uploading!). Oh how I would have loved to be in Amsterdam for this!

If you would like to read my review on Fly Away Home, click here. If you would like to read my interview with Maggie, click here. 

Yesterday I reviewed Cheryl Rainfield’s Hunted. If you haven’t taken a chance to read the review, please scroll down. Don’t worry…. we’ll wait for you!

Welcome back! Now that you know about Cheryl’s book, let’s learn more about Cheryl! I had the pleasure of asking her some questions and can’t wait to share it with you.

KA: First of all, where did the idea for Hunted come from?
CR: The idea for HUNTED came from my life. I’m a ritual abuse survivor–my parents were part of cults, so I’ve experienced a lot of oppression. For me, HUNTED is an analogy of cults. It also deals with other oppression–homophobia and racism–that exists in our world.  But I’ve also wanted to write a paranormal fantasy since I was a teen reading Lois Duncan’s books so much that they became tattered, and Cora Taylor’s as well. I used to want telepathy, so I could know what my abusers would do before they did it and maybe escape some abuse. I don’t have telepathy–but I wrote about it!

KA: When did you know you wanted to be an author?
CR: I always loved to write and read. Writing was my voice, my way of speaking when I couldn’t always speak aloud. I think I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was a child, although I didn’t totally consciously know–most of my energy was spent on surviving, and I didn’t think about surviving to an adult. But it was what I loved the most–writing and art–and I knew I wanted to do one or the other, or both. I didn’t get serious about getting my work published, though, until I was in my late twenties.

KA: I  read at the end of your book that you drew from your own life experiences to mold your main character. Was it hard for you to read to such a deep, dark place?
CR: Sometimes it was. Sometimes some things I wrote were triggering, reminded me of my own memories, like a scene with electroshock. But most of the time it just felt good. In writing it, it gave me a voice, and it getting it published, it allowed me to be heard. And writing about fear and pain is not hard for me (most of the time); it’s what I know, what I lived most of my life. So I can tap into it when I write. I think I used to live on adrenalin most of the time, from fear. But I also wrote hope into the book, and healing, and happiness and love.

KA: If your book was picked up for a movie, who would you choose to play your characters?
CR: I don’t watch a ton of movies, so I don’t know a lot of actors based on their acting ability, but I did pick a bunch of actors who looked how I imagined my characters. You can see the characters I picked (based on the specific photos) here: http://pinterest.com/cherylrainfield/visual-inspir-4-hunted-characters/
It includes Corbin Bleu as Alex; Melonie Diaz as Caitlyn (with Shane’s hair from the L Word); Alice Braga as Rachel; Lauren Graham as Caitlyn’s mom (who I know is a wonderful actor); Tyne Daly for Mrs. Vespa (who I know is an amazing actor) …

KA: And last, but certainly not least, please tell me you are working on a sequel to this book!!!
CR: (Laughing) Thank you! Yes, I am. Caitlyn has to face Daniel and Ilene again, who come back stronger–and she also has to learn to trust her allies more.

What a great interview and I love how strong Cheryl is. Being abused growing up, not knowing if you were going to live until the next day and pushing through and being able to talk about it, how inspiring. I cannot wait to follow Cheryl’s work and read more in this series!

From Goodreads.com:

Caitlyn is a telepath in a world where having any Paranormal power is illegal. Caitlyn is on the run from government troopers, who can enslave, torture, or even kill her, or make her hunt other Paranormals. When Caitlyn settles down in a city, she falls for Alex, a Normal (someone without Paranormal powers), which is dangerous because he can turn her in. And she discovers renegade Paranormals who want to destroy all Normals. Caitlyn must decide whether she’s going to stay in hiding to protect herself, or take a stand to save the world.

Wow! This book is powerful! It was so much more than I expected. I wanted to read it because I’m in love with dystopian books right now. I love that authors can jump out of the box and create worlds that are so far from reality, but seem to close and believable.Anyone can make up a fictional story, but not everyone can come up with something so fresh and make it seem real.

I caught myself several times while reading this book thinking off into space about several topics. I thought a lot about what my paranormal power would be if I could have one. I am kind of learning towards being a telepath, but I don’t know if I could handle all the chatter in my head all the time. I have to have peace and quiet. I also don’t know how I would feel about listening to other’s thoughts about me. I would probably be the one who would bust myself out because I would say something when I heard something nasty (who would say something nasty about me??). But I also caught myself thinking about the pain and suffering in this book. While racism is still prevalent and not forgotten in Hunted, the discrimination against paranormals is so strong, it’s terrifying. I often thought about how I would be if I were in this book. Say I wasn’t a paranormal, would I be a hater or a supporter of this group? They did not choose to be this way, but the group pressure to hate is so strong, I’m not sure if I would be strong enough to fight it and form my own opinions. Or if I did, I doubt I would be able to vocalize them. Unfortunately, I think I am the kind of person that makes our world fall when it comes to discrimination.

Past the dystopian theme, this book is deep. When you first pick it up and start reading, you are gripped by the emotion and suspense, but the more you read, the more drawn you are Cheryl pulled deep into her soul to write this and based it on abuse she faced in her life. Caitlyn faces abuse nearly everywhere she turns in so many different forms. If she’s caught, she goes to the government where she will be tortured. If she doesn’t side with the renegades, she may be outed. She has to put up such a mask with all of her friends so they don’t find out and freak out about her talent. But she is also tortured at home, in a different way. She constantly has to stay on her toes, taking care of her mom, always watching, listening, waiting. Ever since her father died, Caitlyn has become more of a mom than her mother is. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s quite a bit to put on the plate of a teenager. Caitlyn finds herself in the middle of a brewing war and pushing harder and stronger than she ever thought she could, against the last person on the Earth she ever thought she’d have to battle.

I felt like this book had so many underlying themes, they all kind of pulled me in different directions. The abuse theme was brought up time and time again and stuck thick in my mind, but there are also hints of manipulation, the importance of friendship, the bond of family, suspense, discrimination and persecution. The list goes on and on.

Rainfield did a wonderful job of bringing hard, painful topics to life in a story that left you on the edge of your seat, hoping for the fairy tale ending, all the while you know that fairy tales don’t exist in such a dark world.

I really liked this book and cannot wait until the next one comes out (Oops, I may have dropped the ball…). I have much more coming up with Cheryl tomorrow, including some book news for the future.

I give Hunted 4 bookmarks.

ISBN: 978-1934813621
Release Date: December 15, 2001 (1st Edition)
Author Website

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to read Maggie Myklebust’s Fly Away Home. After attending a writing class, she penned her memoir. If you missed my review, please take a second to scroll down and take a read.

Welcome back!

In just two days, Maggie and her family and friends (who I know on a first name basis now thanks to her book) will be in Amsterdam for her big book launch, but she took some time out of trip planning to answer a few questions for me about her book.

KA: When you took the class on writing, did you ever, in your wildest dreams, imagine you would be here today with the story of your life in print?
MM: NO! Because I never considered myself a writer, only a person with a story. I wrote the book for my family and then sent it off to my teacher Jo Parfitt in the Hague for editing. After reading it, she persuaded me to submit it to Summertime Publishing and the rest is history.

KA: How long did it take you to write this?
MM: I attended writing classes for one year. Wrote the book in twenty three months (one chapter a month). Rewriting and editing took another four months.

KA: There are several parts of this story that I imagine were hard for you to revisit and actually spell out. What was the hardest? Do you think it helped you to actually talk/write about these times?
MM: Yes, absolutely to both questions… Some things were very difficult to write, especially because I didn’t want to hurt anybody, especially my own family. I still worry about that. Every part of the book provoked a different emotion in me, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. I even got angry a few times and fell in love with my husband all over again. I cried many tears and yet with the passing of each chapter, I felt lighter. The most difficult parts were in chapter 9, Learning to fall, chapter 14, The Great Escape, chapter 15, No going back and chapter 18, Under a stone.

KA: Now that you’ve gotten your feet wet in writing, do you have more stories to tell?
MM: I’m finding out that writing a book isn’t half as hard as promoting one. Right now I have my hands full and can’t even fathom sitting down, and starting over again. With that said, I do have ideas swirling…

KA: I always ask authors who they would cast If their books became movies. This may be a little tough since you would be casting yourself, but who would you choose??
MM: Thats a tough one because my book spans over fifty years, but I’d love for Diane Kruger to play the part. If she’s busy, then maybe Naomi Watts. -hehe

Love these answers! And I’m sure I could have sent her dozens, but since she is such a busy author now, I tried to keep it to a minimum. But don’t think we are done with Maggie just yet. I spoke with Maggie’s daughter Michelle today, who is on her way from West Virginia to Amsterdam for the big day and asked for her to send me pictures and updates of how the launch was going so stay tuned int he next few days