Waiting on the Sky, by Cheryl Unruh

Cheryl Unruh, former columnist for the Emporia Gazette and one of my favorite authors, has done it again with her second collection of essays on the state I proudly call home.

In Waiting on the Sky, Cheryl describes Kansas--community and people--in a series of essays that remind us of the joy and peril, the love and the heartbreak of life on the ground in a rectangle state.

We who live on the prairie love our sky. It is as much a part of the landscape as the land itself. White the earth gives us roots and plenty of soft grass on which we can curl our bodies and fall asleep, the sky gives us flight, imagination, a place to go with our eyes, a place to go with our minds.

Cheryl once again makes me want to slow down, take more time to absorb the scenery, spend more time watching the clouds that pass overhead. The book takes us back and forth, from the landscape and experience of being Kansan, to Kansans themselves and glimpses of Cheryl's life growing up on the plains to her life now in the Flint Hills.

I was delighted, of course, to find "Tracy's Hometown" within the pages of this book (even though Cheryl revealed my secret childhood run-away spot). I enjoyed her ruminations on the western Kansas tumbleweed, as well, though I think I'm more appreciative of the wind, in general, than Cheryl. 

Waiting on the Sky is the book to keep on your chairside table, full of word morsels you will want to bite and then nibble again, to take with your morning coffee as you contemplate the start of your day, or to sample with your nighttime tea.

If you haven't picked up your copy yet, head right on over to Quincy Press for ordering instructions. 

See my review of Cheryl's first book, Flyover People, by clicking this link.

Sunday Book Review: 600 Hours of Edward

600 Hours of Edward

by Craig Lancaster

600 Hours of Edward is the story of an adult man on the Asperger's end of the autism spectrum. I downloaded a sample of it several months ago when a friend recommended it to me. When I finally picked it up and started reading on my Kindle, I was hooked. I purchased as soon as I reached the end of the sample and pretty much continued reading until I had finished the book.

I absolutely adored Edward. Each time the author wrote, "My data was complete," I smiled with satisfaction, and when he barrelled out of bed without recording the time he woke up and the previous days temps, I laughed out loud.

As Edward tells his story, the 600 hours where his life--his routine--changed, I was moved by his observations and his relationships. I can't claim that this must be a true representation of the different way a person with Asperger's must think, but it certainly felt realistic. Edward's routine gave a rhythmic quality to the story telling that had exactly the right timing. I didn't want to put the book down. I kept reading pages, eagerly anticipating the twists, the events that would change things.

This story is brilliant in both its construction and its conclusions. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, and I am putting it on my "recommended" reading list.

Most Memorable Books Read in 2013

I've gotten better about putting aside books that don't hold my interest (rather than just taking weeks and weeks and weeks to get them read), so one could say pretty much every book I made it through in 2013 was top notch. (Not a complete list, but if I managed to get a review written you can consider it recomended.) A review of my reading journal, however, and these are the books that stand out as highlights of my reading year.

Brain on Fire: My month of Madness, by Susannah Cahalan
It awoke the curious psych major I once was! A fastinating view of the journey toward madness. Extremely well written and informative.

A Field Guide to Now: Notes on Mindfulness and Life in the Present Tense, by Christina Rosalie
This is one I actually managed to take the time to review. A wonderful collection of essays. This book remains at the top of my list as potential gift material for thinking young mothers.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green
I am perhaps a bit late on the John Green scene, but my kids are huge fans and I have finally caught up on recomended reading. This is, I believe, my favorite of his books so far.

Shadow on the Hill: The True Story of a 1925 Kansas Murder, by Diana Staresinic-Deane
It's local. Very well researched and written. I learned some really cool history about my adopted hometown. Creeped me out a bit, too. (Hey, it's a TRUE story.)

Wool, by Hugh Howey
There is no getting around it. Hugh Howey has become my latest author infatuation. I fell for Wool, Shift, and Dust is next on the night stand.

Orange is the New Black, by Piper Kerman
Have not watched the television show, but I highly recomend the book. Eye opening. Page turner. I learned a lot and it changed my mind on some thoughts about drugs and the US prison system.

Yesterday Road, by Kevin Brennan
This guy can write. I find that most books are predictable, but I didn't really see the end to this one coming. It brought tears to my eyes, but it made me happy at the same time. I will be watching for more from this author.

Someone Else's Love Story, by Joshilyn Jackson
It's a well-known fact that I'm in love with Joshilyn. I'm also in love with her latest book. I think it may be her best yet.

Sunday Book Review: Maggie Vaults Over the Moon

Maggie Vaults Over the Moon

by Grant Overstake

Maggie Vaults Over the Moon arrived in my mailbox a little more than a week ago and I flipped it open, thinking I'd check out the first chapter or two and then put it on my to-read stack to be reviewed later. A chapter or two wasn't enough, however, I fell right into the story and it became my go-to book this week even though I had very little time for reading.

Right from the start, I was impressed by the setting of this story. Maggie is from a rural Kansas farm family and, except for the fact that she's from the other side of Wichita, much of the setting for this story could have been my own. I never got to drive a truck at harvest time, but I rode along enough when I was a kid that I could imagine myself bump-bumping along in the passenger seat right beside her. If the kittens on the way to the barn and the child's paradise of a hayloft well stocked hadn't already reeled me in, Maggie showing sheep at the 4-H fair entirely won me over. I was also the girl with lambs in 4-H and I was pleased that the author got every detail correct. 

The book opens with a tragedy that also felt immensely and deeply real. I shed a few tears and read quickly, eager to learn how Maggie would cope. The cover and the title were a clue, of course, but it became important to learn how she got there. I even spent an afternoon watching pole vaulters on YouTube because I had no previous experience with the sport and I wanted to be able to more thoroughly visualize Maggie's progress. 

Though the story was well-grounded in a Kansas setting, it had little sparks of the mystical, as well. I was inspired and would recommend this book to all of my young reading friends. It might be categorized as Young Adult Sports Fiction, but it is a story that I think readers of all ages will appreciate.

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Maggie Vaults Over the Moon on Amazon

Author's Website

Sunday Book Review: The Grave Winner

The Grave Winner

by Lindsey R. Loucks

Almost as much as finding a new book to read, I love meeting other authors. When I went to Dodge City for my book's release party, my niece mentioned that the librarian at her school was also publishing a first book. Yay for new Kansas authors! I didn't get much chance to visit with Lindsey, but I did download her book as soon as I returned home.

The Grave Winner is a new genre for me and I very much enjoyed the introduction. Categorized as a young adult paranormal fantasy romance, I honestly wasn't sure what I was getting into. I instantly recognized and felt at home in Krapper, Kansas, however, and although the story opened at the graveside of the protagonist's mother (a factor that might have turned me away not so long ago), I quickly decided that Leigh was a girl with spunk and spirit that I was going to like. I appreciated her friend, Jo, as well.

I enjoyed learning about the parameters of Lindsey's paranormal world and the way the characters felt very real (their behavior "typical" of teenagers) within the bounds of this alternate reality. The dead girl next door has risen to walk again, for instance, but beyond her horrible stench and the fact that she turns the grass black where she walks, there doesn't seem to be a lot of concern. She's not a flesh-eating ghoul or anything. She's just a bit sad, perhaps. The people in the book question why she has risen from the dead, but aren't necessarily horrified by it.

The romance was sweet. I enjoyed both potential love interests and couldn't decide which I was rooting for in the end. There were a few characters who became pivotal to the storyline that I wished I could have learned a little more about before all the action got going, but overall it was an enjoyable read.

I look forward to following Lindsey's writing career. Be sure to check out her blog for news and links to a few of her short stories.

Sunday Book Review: Shadow on the Hill

Shadow on the Hill

by Diana Staresinic-Deane

Another area writer published a book about the same time I published mine. I "knew" Diana Staresinic-Deane from our local library. She used to work there; I still frequent there. We'd never really had a conversation, however, until we struck one up via email about the time our books were coming out.

Diana's was a fascinating project. Shadow on the Hill tells the true story of a 1925 murder that took place just one county east of here. Florence Knoblock was brutally murdered on May 30, 1925, and her husband was tried twice, but never convicted, for the deed. It was a heart wrenching story, vividly illustrated by the author who spent nearly three years researching to pull together the facts of the case.

I downloaded the book late on a Sunday evening and began reading. After only a few chapters, I remembered what a pansy I am. I got up to lock all the doors and windows in my house and had to find some fluff to read for a few hours before I could go to bed. Still, the opening chapters stuck in my dreams for several nights! 

After that, I limited myself to daytime reading so I didn't carry the story into my dreams so completely. 

Though the story is factual, bringing together countless newspaper articles, trial transcripts and interviews, it is told in narrative form. I found myself examining all the characters as they were introduced. I won't tell you who I think did it, but I loved the way Diana dropped in pieces of information and clues along the way. In fact, I spent a couple more hours reviewing the evidence once I finished the book! 

Aside from the gory details of the murder, I also loved the glimpses of Emporia's past. As someone who has recently adopted Emporia as a hometown, the story filled in a lot of blanks for me regarding the status and reputation of William Lindsey White (who passed away in 1973), in particular.

I highly recommend Shadow on the Hill to both the history and the mystery buffs out there. It is a stellar combination of the two. 

Sunday Book Review: Sihpromatum - I Grew My Boobs in China

Sihpromatum - I Grew My Boobs in China

by Savannah Grace

I happened upon this book as I was researching marketing techniques by other "first book" authors. With a daughter in the midst of planning a trip to China, I was entirely hooked by the title alone. I've been watching for good travel books and this one looked promising.

I was not disappointed, though the first few chapters of the book were not what I expected. Imagine downsizing to the point where all you need to survive fits in your backpack. Savanna's family set out on the hiking trip of all hiking trips when she was 14 years old. This book covers the first portion of their journey across China and Mongolia. The book also details Savannah's maturation from resistant traveler to a young woman beginning to appreciate the gift of this amazing adventure with her family.

Wow! Once we were on the road, I was entirely hooked. Savanna has such a way with words that it was easy to fall right into step alongside her. I could visualize everything she described, from the lovely (Giant Buddah) to the terrifying (public toilets!)

I eagerly wait volume two of this wonderfully written travel log. 

Sunday Book Review: A Field Guide to Now: Notes on Mindfulness and Life in the Present Tense

A Field Guide to Now: Notes on Mindfulness and Life in the Present Tense

by Christina Rosalie

  

It's kind of funny that a "field guide to now" first sent my memory drifting back to my earlier days of parenting, though for every "I remember" Christina Rosalie's beautifully written and presented book brought to mind, her journey also often struck me as very different from my own. Then I got to the chapter titled "Hurdle" and it all fell into place. The connection with another female writer, one who blossomed in her words and art in tandem with growing babies, and the element of now I was seeking from the book's title. 

"Becoming a parent has forced me to listen again and again to my stirring heart in a way I never did before. It has propelled me toward my creative work with the kind of awesome advantage that female athletes have after having a baby."

This is the chapter where I stopped reminiscing and started declaring, exactly! Here is a woman who has felt it to, the creative wholeness that having children can bring to a life, the determination to become now rather than wait for a more convenient, less full time.

"The very fact that I am not always at the center of my own life is what spurs me to acknowledge the only Someday I'll ever have is right now, and to dig in."

Each of Rosalie's essays rolls through the heart and mind, some words lodging and making you want to grab hold and savor them a bit, others dancing merrily past. It's a book you want to breath in, by essay, by page, or sometimes by paragraph. And the mixed-media images she includes have a beauty all their own. I was especially drawn to her pictures of hands, a theme that comes up in my own limited exploration of visual arts.

A Field Guide is a comfort book, a perfect book for giving as a gift, and a book that should be passed on to new and experienced mothers, alike. It is as wonderful in bits and pieces as it is in one full reading, from cover to cover. I highly recommend it.

Sunday Book Review: Me and Aunt Izzy

Me and Aunt Izzy

by Max Yoho

Max Yoho is one of my favorite Kansas authors, both in person and in the pages of his books. His love of language shines through his writing and he is obviously a story-teller all the way deep down to his core.

Eleven-year-old Jeffie was in trouble for burning down the outhouse. His punishment? A summer spent with Great Aunt Queen Isabella of Spain, aka Aunt Izzy. A little time with the family matriarch was sure to set him right. 

Somewhat reluctantly at first, the boy embarks on a summer that includes Indians, Jesse James, and a durned girl named Lucille who can cuss and run fast as a bullet. Jeffie also continues his quest to enhance his vocabulary one random word at a time.  

Don't get me wrong, though. In this book, Max Yoho manages to provide more than just light-hearted entertainment. As someone who has been accused of being somewhat of a bathroom connoisseur, Max opened my mind to something I had previously spent little time considering... the impact of indoor plumbing on the modern human psyche.

Upon the completion of the new indoor plumbing: "He pulled the chain and Niagara Falls itself couldn't have made more noise. And that's when I realized I could never use the indoor plumbing. It would be like bragging! It would be like saying, 'Look here, world. I've done it!' Pulling that chain would be calling the attention of everybody within forty miles to the fact that Jefferson Davis Johnson had peed in the new indoor plumbing."

I swear I have not gone to the bathroom since that I did not reminisce on this line.

Sunday Book Review: Fifty Shades of Santa

 Yeah, that was my husband's reaction when he saw the title of my latest holiday purchase, as well. Well this isn't really that kind of book. Fifty Shades of Santa: 12 Nice, (not Naughty) Humorous Holiday Romances is a collection of short stories published by Welkin Press. I'm not typically drawn to reading romance, but I am often drawn to short stories. This book contains one called One Cool Cat, by Peg Nichols, and it was my hook to buy this book.

 Peg is one of the many wonderful people I have "collected" as friends via my membership in the Kansas Authors Club. She is warm, adventurous and always has a kind and encouraging word ready for an in-progress writer (such as myself). As long as I've known Peg, I've never really had the opportunity to read much of her work. One Cool Cat did not disappoint. At the beginning of the story, the cat's name is Outside, and I immediately began picturing the many directions the story might be headed. A down and out family moving to a remote cabin, it easily could have been the start of the type of horror story I might have enjoyed reading in my teens. As a "cat person" I always worry a little that the cat might end up the bad guy. 

 No spoilers, but little Outside found his way in. As the subtitle of the book promises, these are "nice" holiday romance stories, and when I was done reading I was thinking that I don't spend nearly enough time reading nice these days. It was very pleasant to drift off to sleep with a smile on my face rather than a chill in my bones.

 Peg Nichols, thank you for hooking me up with some pleasant holiday stories to warm me up for what should be a happy holiday season. Now that I've had the pleasure of reading your short story, I shall enjoy the rest of the stories the book has to offer, as well.

 *reposted from my previous blog entry on 3/23/2013 TS

Sunday Book Review: Making It Home

Making it Home: My year as a middle-aged runaway

by Liz Moore

I’m not even sure how to begin to say just how much I enjoyed this book. Let’s call it an adventure story for women approaching middle age. It’s a book about that thing we’ve often imagined ourselves doing. At least, I have always loved the idea of living elsewhere, getting to know new places and people by becoming a part of the community, and living (for a while, at least) without ties or roots or personal history.

Liz Moore was one of the presenters at the 2011 Kansas Authors Club Convention. I was so enthralled by her story that I purchased the book online for my Kindle PC free e-reader almost first thing when I got home. (For some reason I was under the impression that the book was only available for Kindle, but I now see that it is available in paperback, as well, which is all the better because this book would make a great gift.)

Liz gave herself a gift for her fiftieth birthday. She packed her car and began a cross country journey that would take her from Texas to Arizona to Oregon to Iowa to Vermont. She selected small towns along the way and lived in them, a few months at a time, working for temp agencies and doing things like cleaning and waitressing as she went.

Liz writes her story so wonderfully that you feel yourself along for the ride, wondering how she’s going to find affordable housing and where she will work next. You learn a little bit about each place she stays. The people she meets along the way are all so wonderfully human, and Liz’s ability to settle into a new place and a new routine constantly amazed me.

The year didn’t go exactly as she had planned, but even the way she incorporated the heartache and the sorrow into the story made it just that much better. As the title suggests, she eventually makes it home.

I’ve recommended this book to my book club. I think anyone who has ever experienced even a bit of wanderlust would appreciate Liz’s story.

 *reposted from my previous blog entry on 3/23/2013 TS

Sunday Book Review: The Jenny Cain Mystery Series

As my current work-in-progress is a mystery (my first), I’ve found a lot of my leisure reading leaning in that direction, as well. My grandmother and my aunt were big fans of the mystery genre. I remember staying overnight with Grandma and flipping through the pages, at night, of the dozens of Ellery Queen’s that were stacked neatly on her headboard.

I’ve found myself less-than-satisfied, however, with the cozy mysteries I’ve picked off the shelf at various bookstores in the last few months and at the library, with so many options, I’ve had trouble committing to any one author. I finally took a look at my bookshelf and decided to take a more methodical approach to my reading with an author I already knew and loved.

Nancy Pickard’s career as an author began with the Jenny Cain mystery series. I started with her first book, A Generous Death and immediately liked Nancy’s heroine, Jenny Cain. It has been fun to read the stories and watch the characters develop. Each book has also had a little introduction or bit on writing by the author or an editor, as well. These might be the pieces that many readers ignore, but I cherish the insights to the writing process when I’m reading a story. It helps to have Nancy’s voice in my head, as well, as I’ve been fortunate to listen to her speak at two different Kansas Authors Club events.

As I write this, I have completed Say No to Murder and Marriage is Murder (my favorite so far), and am just getting started on the book, I.O.U. Initially, I thought I’d just read a book or two of the series, but I’ve enjoyed them enough I just may read through to the end of the series.

Post Script: I did read all the way through to the end of them, and I enjoyed every page.

 *reposted from my previous blog entry on 3/23/2013 TS

Sunday Book Review: The Rocking Horse

The Rocking Horse

by Gloria Zachgo

Every year at the Kansas Authors Club convention, I make a point of meeting and getting to know someone I’ve never met before. In Coffeyville this year, I was able to share a table at breakfast with new Kansas Authors Club member and new author, Gloria Zachgo, and her husband Ron. Bonus! A new member to add to my writing friend collection and an autographed book.

Gloria's first novel, The Rocking Horse, is available through Create Space. It can also be found on Amazon.

The story takes place in Kansas and completely passes my test for a Kansas book. The author obviously knows the state and appreciates its people. It was easy, as a reader, to settle into a setting that was at once familiar, though fictitious.

The Rocking Horse is a story of suspense and mystery. It examines the effects on a small town of a decades-old, brutal murder, and the characters, who are immediately likeable, finally get some closure. As happy as endings can get in a story that starts out with such violence, this one is tops.

I thoroughly enjoyed Gloria’s first novel and am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

 *reposted from my previous blog entry on 3/23/2013 TS

Sunday Book Review: Flyover People

Flyover People is a collection of essays about my state -- Kansas. Yep, I'll claim it, though Cheryl is the one who has put it into words, what it means to be from Kansas, to choose Kansas, to love Kansas and its people.

Memories and experiences become part of who we are. Kansas seeps into our cells, reconfigures our DNA, claims us as its own. If we leave, it follows.

And from another essay...

We never lose this sense of being grounded, of knowing who we are and why we're here, of being nurtured by the soil and the grass and the stars.

Cheryl is the person who pays attention to the roadside ditches, the dusty roads, and the small town corner stores, and makes you want to look again, to pay attention too. She's a person who appreciates what I love about Kansas and takes the time to put it into words. I love reading her weekly columns in the newspaper and I love the collection she has put together for this book.

But it's not just a love of wide open sky that Cheryl writes about. She shares bits and pieces of herself, as well, and you get to know the small towns of our state as you catch little glimpses of the girl who grew up in a place called Pawnee Rock and constructed tin can telephones and began her writing career at the Larned Tiller and Toiler newspaper.  

Cheryl's essays have always made me want to slow down, take a back road to get where I'm going, and look a bit harder at each signpost I pass by. I want to share these gems with Kansas doubters -- my Houstonian friends who wondered why on earth I'd return to such a place as Kansas, the California transplants who seem incapable of seeing Kansas beauty, and the friends from other states who wonder why I will not leave.

I'm sure there's a lot to be appreciated about other places and people, but Kansas is my place. Kansans are my people. Maybe it really is as deep as my DNA. Life on the ground in a rectangle state is pretty good, and my friend Cheryl captures it beautifully.

 *reposted from my previous blog entry on 3/23/2013 TS