Book Review: Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage

 

Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage

by Rebel Girls

Pub Date 07 Feb 2023 | Archive Date 03 Mar 2023

 Rebel Girls 

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Children's Fiction  |  Middle Grade

I am reviewing a copy of Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage through Rebel Girls and Netgalley:

Alicia always felt she had been born to dance.  From the moment she put on her pointe shoes for the first time it felt that was her place.  She is determined to become a professional ballerina. A few years later, Alicia moves from Cuba to the United States to follow her dreams.

After Alicia begins to loose her sight, she wonders how she will dance she can’t see where she’s going.  Stuck in bed and only able to practice with her fingertips, Alicia doesn’t give up. She finds a way to get back on stage, dancing into the hearts of audiences as one of the world’s most famous prima ballerinas.

In Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage readers are introduced to the story of a world-renowned prima ballerina who impressed people all over the world with her beautiful dancing while living with visual impairments. This is a story about perseverance in the face of adversity, and how the arts can afford women the opportunity to achieve a global impact.

I give Alicia Alonso Takes the Stage five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: How to Stay Standing

 

How to Stay Standing

3 Essential Practices for Building a Faith That Lasts

by Alli Patterson

Pub Date 24 Jan 2023

 Revell 

Christian

I am reviewing a copy of How to Start Standing through Revell and Netgalley:

This book points out that although we want to live a good life and be a "good person, but life can shift right under your feet and get messy and unpredictable. How do you stay strong and hopeful when you see cracks forming in your relationships, at work, or even in your own character? Is your faith strong enough to help you stand when life tries to knock you down? 

In How to Stay Standing, Alli Patterson will shows readers how to build a faith that can withstand anything the world throws at it. Drawing insight from the parable of the wise and foolish builders, Alli helps you get honest about the foundation you are building on and offers three simple rhythms revealed from the words of Jesus come, hear, practice that will produce a faith that cannot be shaken and a life that stands firm. 

You are aware that you are in the place in your life where something is just not working right now. But the next storm doesn't have to take you down. The waters may be rising, but Jesus left you the wisdom and practical help you need to stay standing. 

I give How to Stay Standing five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

  

Book Review: The Dressmaker's Daughter

 

The Dressmaker's Daughter

by Linda Boroff

Pub Date 01 Mar 2022 

 Santa Monica Press,  Santa Monica Press/Teen

 Historical Fiction  |  History  |  Teens & YA 

I am reviewing a copy of The Dressmaker's Daughter through Santa Monica PressSanta Monica PressTeen and Netgalley:

Daniela is both beautiful and spirited and dreams of becoming a doctor while growing up in Yedinitz, Romania in 1940, but as a Jew, she is barred from higher education.  Her Mother, a dressmaker to a local countess hires her a tutor, the rebellious and precocious Mihail. The two soon begin a passionate romance, unable to resist the powerful love and attraction they share.

After the Nazi's invade Romania Daniela and Mihail’s lives are forever changed: Mihail escapes and joins the partisans; Daniela is captured and sent on the notorious Transnistrian Death March, where Jews are starved, murdered, and robbed. Daniela is brutally raped by Romanian soldiers, and trapped by their depravity, she watches helplessly as her people are destroyed.

When Daniela's beauty catches the eye e of a Romanian Iron Guard commander, Major Dragulescu, who forcibly takes her as his concubine and also sends her to nurse Romanian soldiers in the field hospital, where Daniela cannot help feeling pity at the suffering that surrounds her.

One night Mihail appears with a troop of partisans on a mission to assassinate two key Nazis visiting the major. What happens next is both heroic and tragic, and results in Daniela’s escape with the partisans, who train her in sabotage and battle tactics. She throws herself into living on the run behind enemy lines, and transforms herself into an effective soldier and partisan leader until the war mercifully comes to an end.

I give The Dressmakers Daughter three out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: The Brilliant Calculator

 

The Brilliant Calculator

How Mathematician Edith Clarke Helped Electrify America

by Jan Lower; illustrated by Susan Reagan

Pub Date 14 Mar 2023

 Astra Publishing House,  Calkins Creek

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Children's Nonfiction  |  Science 

I am reviewing a copy of The Brilliant Calculator through Astra Publishing House, Calkins Creek and Netgalley:

The Brilliant Calculator is the perfect book for girls interested in the S.T.E.M subjects, and honestly is one I'd recommend to all girls and boys regardless of age.

Long before the invention of Calculators little Edith Clarke devoured numbers, conquered calculations, cracked puzzles, and breezed through brainteasers. Edith wanted to be an engineer—to use the numbers she saw all around her to help build America.

As Edith grew up, no one would hire a woman engineer. But that didn’t stop Edith from following her passion and putting her lightning-quick mind to the problem of electricity. But the calculations took so long! Always curious, Edith couldn’t help thinking of better ways to do things. She constructed a “calculator” from paper that was ten times faster than doing all that math by hand!   The invention won her a job, which made her the first women engineer in America.  And because Edith shared her knowledge with others, her calculator helped electrify America, bringing telephones and light across the nation.

I give The Brilliant Calculator five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Memory Lane

 

Memory Lane

Sons of Scandal, Book 1

by Becky Wade

Pub Date 14 Feb 2023 

 ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op 

 Christian  |  General Fiction (Adult)  |  Romance 

I am reviewing a copy of Memory Lane with an arc copy provided by Victory Editing, a Netgalley Co-Op:

Remy Reed relocated to a cottage on one of Maine’s most remote islands, after surviving a trauma several years back.  She arranged her life just the way she wanted to, spending her time working on her wood sculptures and soaking in the beauty of nature.   It’s quiet and solitary until the day she spots something bobbing in the ocean.

When she looks through her binoculars and they reveal that it was a man and he’s struggling to keep his head above water. She races out to save him and brings him into her home. He’s injured, which doesn’t detract from his handsomeness nor make him any easier to bear.   He acts like a duke who’s misplaced his dukedom expensive tastes, lazy charm, bossy ideas.

Remy would love nothing more than to return him to his people, but he has no recollection of his life prior to the moment she rescued him. Though she’s not interested in relationships other than the safe ones she’s already established, she begins to realize that he’s coming to depend on her. 

Who is he? What happened that landed him in the Atlantic Ocean? And why is she drawn to him more and more as time goes by? 

There’s no way to discover those answers except to walk beside him down memory lane. 

I give Memory Lane five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Pitch Perfect and Persistent

 

Pitch Perfect and Persistent!

The Musical Debut of Amy Cheney Beach

by Caitlin DeLems; illustrated by Alison Jay

Pub Date 21 Mar 2023 

 Astra Publishing House,  Calkins Creek

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Children's Nonfiction 

I am reviewing a copy of Pitch Perfect and Persistent through Astra Publishing House , Calkins Creek and Netgalley:

Amy Beach was the first successful female composer in America, this beautifully written and illustrated Children's Book share her story.

Amy Beach always knew she had to make music, even as others tried to hold her back she was fierce and persistent.  But she had one big problem Her mother believed it was not proper or suitable for a young lady to draw attention to herself, let alone take on a musical career.  Amy was faced with a choice give in or give up.  

Amy Beach was not one to give up despite her Mothers wishes and eventually her persistence paid off She demanded to play the piano. Demanded to have a real teacher. Demanded to perform. Luckily for the world! Amy’s persistence paid off. At just sixteen years old, Amy Beach found herself on the stage of Boston’s Music Hall—and the start of a brilliant career. A female composer who paved the way perfectly!

I give Pitch Perfect and Persistent five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: All the Lost Places

 

All the Lost Places

by Amanda Dykes

Pub Date 13 Dec 2022 

 Bethany House,  Bethany House Publishers

 Christian  |  Historical Fiction  |  Romance 

I am reviewing a copy of All the Lost Places through Bethany House Publishers and Netgalley:

The year is 1807, when a baby is found floating in basket along the quiet canals of Venice, a guild of artisans takes him in and raises him as a son, skilled in each of their trades. Although the boy, Sebastien Trovato, has wrestled with questions of his origins, it isn't until a woman washes ashore on his lagoon island that answers begin to emerge. In hunting down his story, Sebastien must make a choice that could alter not just his own future, but also that of the beloved floating city.

In 1904 Daniel Goodman is given a fresh start in life as the century turns.  He hopes to redeem a past full of regrets he is sent on an assignment from California to Venice to procure and translate a rare book. There, he discovers a city of colliding hope and decay, much like his own life, and a mystery wrapped in the pages of that filigree-covered volume. With the help of Vittoria, a bookshop keeper, Daniel finds himself in a web of shadows, secrets, and discoveries carefully kept within the stones and canals of the ancient city.. . and in the mystery of the man whose story the book does not finish: Sebastien Trovato.

Once again Amanda Dykes weaves a powerful and beautiful tale...

I give All the Lost Places five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review:Leo in Little Pieces

 

Léo in Little Pieces

by Mayana Itoïz

Pub Date 25 Jan 2023 

 Europe Comics 

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Comics, Graphic Novels, Manga  |  Romance 

I am reviewing a copy of Leo in Little Pieces through Europe Comics and Netgalley:

Leo in Little Pieces is a unique graphic novel style memoir.  Leo was Mayana Itoiz's Grandmother.  

During the Second World War, Leo worked as a waitress in the family inn, which had been requisitioned by the occupying German forces. She was both cheerful and carefree, dividing her days between her work at the inn , her friends, and her secret love affair with Felix, a young German soldier. 

After Tim's passed Leo became a mother, then a grandmother. Toward the end of her life, she told me about her past, which I present to you now in the form of these little pieces of her life.

I give Leo In Little Pieces five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: In Spotlight and Shadow

 

In Spotlight and Shadow

by Rachel Scott McDaniel

Pub Date 01 Feb 2023 | Archive Date 28 Feb 2023

 Barbour Publishing,  Barbour Fiction

 Christian  |  Historical Fiction  |  Romance

I am reviewing a copy of In Spotlight and Shadow through Barbour Publishing and Netgalley:

In this gem of a novel, mystery takes center stage.

Elsie Malvern has a way of letting people down.  She let her former boyfriend down who hoped she’d be his bride.  Her grandfather wanted her to take over the family's auction company.   But mostly she has let herself down.  What’s the point of pursuing her passion as a violinist, if she is too scared to audition for a seat in the Pittsburgh Symphony? Her internship at the elegant Heinz Hall places her in the wings of the stage, but never on it. By accident, she discovers an old stage prop. Her instincts tell her there’s more to the paste necklace than meets the eye. Whether a good idea or not, she accepts help from a childhood friend, who happens to be country music megastar Pierson Brooks. Pierson and Elise share a history; one she doesn’t care to repeat. The more involved they become in the mystery, the more things get tangled, including her heart.

A century prior Sophie Walters longs to take center stage her name on the marquee, and all that jazz, but climbing her way into an acting career is more difficult than she imagined.  She had spoiled her chances at Hollywood and returned to Pittsburgh, accepting an insignificant role in a popular production. She watches her dreams pass by from behind the curtain at the illustrious Loew’s Penn Theatre. She finally gets the coveted spotlight, but not for her talent. No, her surge to fame is all one terrible mistake. Somehow, she’s suspected to be a notorious jewel thief known around Pittsburgh as The Mirage. The man she pleads for help is none other than the man she jilted at the altar five years before, Sterling Monroe.

I give In Spotlight and Shadow five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: The Weight of Air

 

The Weight of Air

by Kimberly Duffy

Pub Date 07 Feb 2023 | Archive Date 19 Mar 2023

 Bethany House,  Bethany House Publishers

 Christian  |  History  |  Romance 

I am reviewing a copy of The Weight of Air and Netgalley:

The year is 1911, Mabel MacGinnis is Europe's strongest woman and has performed beside her father in the Manzo Brothers Circus her entire life.  But after her Father died unexpectedly , she loses everything she's ever known and sets off in the company of acrobat Jake Cunningham in hope of finding the mother she thought was dead.

Isabella Moreau, is America's most feted aerialist, has given everything to the circus. But age and injury now threaten her security, and Isabella, stalked by old fears, makes a choice that risks everything. Then her daughter Mabel appears alongside the man who never wanted to see Isabella again, and she is forced to face the truth of where, and in what, she derives her worth.

As Mabel and Isabella's lives become entangled beneath the glittering lights and flying trapeze of Madison Square Garden, their resiliency and resolve are tested as they learn the truth of what it means to be strong.   

I give The Weight of Air five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: I'm Still Writing

 

I'm Still Writing

Women Writers on Creativity, Courage, and Putting Words on the Page

by Virginia Ann Byrd

Pub Date 28 Feb 2023 

 St. Martin's Press,  St. Martin's Essentials

 Nonfiction (Adult) 

I am reviewing a copy of I'm Still Writing through St Martin's Press and Netgalley:

I'm Still Writing shares thoughts and inspirations from some of the greatest female writers of the past and the present!

In this book, some of the most beloved female writers of the past and present , share their thoughts on the joy and struggle of writing. Their words will nurture and challenge your writing, inviting you to dive deeper into your creativity and find power on the page. 

Author Virginia Ann Byrd, has taken the time to gather the words and the wisdom of generations of female writers from different backgrounds, traditions, and times pairing them with thoughtful reflection questions and inspiring writing prompts. From Jane Austen to Toni Morrison, Isabel Allende to Virginia Woolf, 52 authors offer their wisdom on every facet of writing from finding inspiration to the nuances of craft and the particular burden faced by female artists.

This book is divided into weekly chapters, and is a beautiful chorus of women's voices to guide your own writing journey.  If you are looking for a book to nourish your creativity, I'm still writing definitive fits that bill.

I give I'm Still Writing five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: You Will Feel it in the Price of Bread

 

You Will Feel it in the Price of Bread

A Love Letter to Ukraine

by Katya Hudson

Pub Date 23 Feb 2023 

 Muswell Press 

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Nonfiction (Adult)  |  Politics 

I am reviewing a copy of You Will Feel it in the Price of Bread through Muswell Press and Netgalley:

You Will Feel it in the Price if Bread is a diary of memories.  A record of the turbulence of the last couple of years in the Ukraine as well as a prayer of hope for the future.

This powerful and beautifully written memoir, full of heart, is Katya Hudson's memoir of home and heart, despite the turbulence of these times.  It speaks of the love of home, but also of the reality of war.

I give You Will Feel it in the Price of Bread five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Orphaned Believers

 

Orphaned Believers

How a Generation of Christian Exiles Can Find the Way Home

by Sara Billups

Pub Date 24 Jan 2023 

 Baker Books 

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Christian 

I am reviewing a copy of Orphaned Believers through Baker Books and Netgalley:

Following the Culture wars f the 1980s and 1990s, many young evangelical Christians found themselves untethered, disillusioned, and ultimately orphaned as they grappled with the legalistic, politically co-opted churches of their youth.  Maybe you are one of the ones who ended up with feelings of disillusionment.  Perhaps, like Sara Billups, you have felt alone, misunderstood, and maligned in the American church, longing for a more loving, more biblical expression of the faith and discipleship taught by Jesus.

Orphaned Believers is part spiritual memoir of an apocalyptic childhood and part commentary on growing up as an evangelical kid during the culture wars.  Orphaned Believers follows the journey of a generation of Christian exiles reckoning with the tradition that raised them and searching for a new way to participate in the story of God. Because for all the baggage, we still belong, and a bigger, more beautiful story awaits.

I give Orphaned Believers five out of five stars! 

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Rich Mullins

 

Rich Mullins

An Arrow Pointing to Heaven

by James Bryan Smith

Pub Date 07 Feb 2023 

 InterVarsity Press,  IVP

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Christian  |  Religion & Spirituality

I am reviewing a copy of Rich Mullins and InterVarsity Press, IVP and Netgalley:

In James Bryan Smith's books Rich Mullins, you will get to experience Rich Mullins's Legacy of Joy and Real Compassion.  Rich Mullins, a beloved Christian musician  lived his life with abandon for God.  Leaving the music industry to teach music amongst the Navajo Community.

In 1997, an accident cut Rich Mullins life short.  his songs and ragamuffin spirit continue to teach many. In honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Rich's homegoing, this edition of Rich Mullins: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven delivers an intimate look at the experiences that sparked praise hits and the values behind his Christ like candor. 

James Bryan Smith captures just what Rich wished for when he said, "I hope I would leave a legacy of joy—a legacy of real compassion." You can see the layers of his story through reflections from friends and family, an afterword by Rich's brother David Mullins, and Smith's own bond with him. And in remembrance, be inspired to enjoy God's world as Rich did.

I give Rich Mullins five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!