Turn Your Blog Posts into a Book in 5 Easy Steps!

     After several years of blogging, my interest and ability to maintain a current and regularly updated blog had decreased, and I was ready to move on to other projects and goals. But I was disappointed that all of the work that existed on those pages would disappear as new platforms are developed and readers seek out and read information in different formats. What's a writer to do? 

     Whether you are ready to close the window on your blog or are ready to take it to the next level, a book is the perfect avenue to help you create a portfolio of your best work.

In these five easy steps, I will outline how I turned my past blog posts into an e-book that successfully archives my exclusive content and makes it available to new readers.

1.  Review

Take a scroll back through all of your blog posts, from the very beginning until your most recent. Do you notice a theme that is cohesive through several of your entries? Is there a topic that you routinely address? Have you offered unique or helpful information in regards to a particular activity, lifestyle, or skill? Make note of these consistencies and determine which subject matter could be most easily combined.

2.  Collect & Organize

After deciding which posts share similar content and could be grouped together, begin collecting these into a single electronic file that will enable you to easily make changes. Organize these posts into an order that makes sense to a new reader. Perhaps this is in the same order in which you originally posted this information on your blog. If not, move the the text around until you are comfortable with the flow of material. Likely, each post will represent a chapter in your book.

3.  Assess

Now that you have organized the posts that you want to include in your book, evaluate the content and determine what information or area of the subject is missing and begin filling in the blanks. Is there more knowledge you can share? Can you elaborate on the material to aid the reader in benefiting from your content? Does the first post serve as an introduction? Does the final entry work as a strong conclusion? Add omitted details, instructions or tips to form a cohesive transition between each chapter.

4.  Polish

Your text is now combined into one file. Next, begin to edit your writing and polish the overall appearance of your content. Can you add photographs or personal artwork to accompany your material? Try highlighting important text that reflects your message or add direct quotes to enhance your expertise on the subject.

5. Publish

An e-book is essential to readers in today's digital media world. However, you may choose to have printed copies of your book published as well, depending on the quality of your material. Amazon makes self-publishing straightforward and attainable for everyone, but you may decide another outlet is best for your work. A simple internet search can lead you to the best platform to upload your finished product and with a little effort, your book will be uploaded and ready for download and distribution.

Congratulate yourself on being a published author and don't forget to share your new book with your blog readers who have followed along with you on your journey!

Download my e-book Book Club Savvy: A Resource Guide for Creating an Engaging and Successful Reading Group @ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MYEPB6C.

Follow Book Club Savvy on facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/bookclubsavvy/.

Happy Reading!

Rebecca

5 Reading Habits You Should Break Now

Our habits can make or break us. Reading is an excellent habit and one you should nourish. But how and what we read can impact our experience. Here are five habits that you should start breaking in order to achieve serenity the next time you curl up with a book.

1. Don't fall prey to hype

     Reading a particular book, just because everyone you know is reading it, can be a waste of your time. If a particular genre isn't to your liking, you are not going to enjoy the book regardless of how popular it has become. This often occurs when a movie version of the book is about to be released and chatter increases about the original format. Select books that appeal to you, and relish the joy of reading something that inspires and encourages your passions and goals.

2. Don't finish a bad book

     Yep, you read that correctly. It's OK to stop reading at 2, 10, even 20 chapters into a book. You may be one of those readers that pressures themselves to complete the entire book no matter how slow and uninteresting you find the material. It has to get better by the next chapter. I was once that type of reader also, but after starting numerous books that failed to pique my interest, I changed my habit. And guess what? It didn't make me a bad reader. I now have the confidence to read what I enjoy and pass on the books that I didn't finish to someone who might find them compelling.

3. Don't judge a book by its cover

     We have all heard this age-old adage, right? I have a confession. I am guilty of buying a book because of the beautiful image on the cover...only to discover that the content did not relate to the artwork and the subject matter did not appeal to me in the least. By reading more electronic books in which I never see the book jacket or cover art, I've realized how persuasive an image can be to our book selection process. Read a summary or review but let your imagination create the images that accompany the words.

4. Don't play pretend

     Have you ever been at an event, dinner party or gathering when a certain book takes the stage of discussion and you have never heard of it? So you pretend that you loved it and rave about the excellent writing in order to fit in with crowd. Then, someone asks a direct question about a character or passage and the jig is up with your blank stare and instant panic. Acknowledge the topics, genres and writing that you prefer and let your passion for these subjects rise to the surface. Your honesty and confidence will leave an impression far greater than your mimicry.

5. Don't compete with others

     There are countless reading challenges circling the web and social media outlets that can often create competition with readers on the number of books completed within a week, month, or year. These challenges are unrealistic for most readers in that they require excessive amounts of time. Setting a goal to read regularly is a great idea, but getting sucked into a commitment that doesn't work for your schedule will only create stress. And reading should be fun! Writers create stories to be savored and enjoyed. In order to obtain the most out of the reading, you must go at your own pace. This might be drastically slower than those that you connect with about books. Set time aside for reading that is easily incorporated into your day to sit and absorb the words, creating a full experience.

Rebecca L. Morgan is the author of Book Club Savvy: A Resource Guide for Creating an Engaging and Successful Reading Group.

Not All Book Clubs Are Created Equal

    

     Have you ever finished a book that stirred so many emotions in you that you were compelled to tell everyone you came into contact with that they must read it? A week passes. Then a month. And still no one has approached you about this amazing story, leaving you no choice but to reflect on it in solitude.

     Whether you love to read or you’re simply looking for more social interaction with like-minded individuals, a book club can be an ideal platform. Reading groups provide a unique forum for readers to express their love of books, thoughts, and reactions with others.

 

     However, not all book clubs are created equal. Creating and participating in a reading group requires a time commitment not only for completing the selected book but for organizing and planning a meeting that members are enthusiastic to attend, keeping them coming back each month.

     In Book Club Savvy: A Resource Guide for Creating an Engaging and Successful Reading Group, you will discover the steps needed for forming an effective book club that is both engaging and successful. After years of researching book clubs, I created this e-book to offer strategies to help ensure that your group flourishes and continues to share the joy of reading for years to come!

For Book Club Tips and additional resources, follow Book Club Savvy on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bookclubsavvy/.

Happy Reading!
Rebecca

Book Club Savvy: A Resource Guide for Creating an Engaging and Successful Reading Group

I am super excited to announce that my e-book "Book Club Savvy: A Resource Guide for Creating an Engaging and Successful Reading Group" is now available at https://www.amazon.com/Book-Club-Savvy-Resource-Successful-ebook/dp/B01MYEPB6C or www.bookclubsavvy.com. 

Whether you love to read or you’re simply looking for more social interaction with like-minded individuals, a book club can be an ideal platform. Reading groups provide a unique forum for readers to express their love of books, thoughts, and reactions with others. In this guide, you will discover the steps needed for forming an effective book club that is both engaging and successful.

Happy Reading!

Rebecca

Le livre de Paris

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." ~ Ernest Hemingway 

I only have 150 pages remaining in Edward Rutherford's massive novel Paris. I have become lost in a sea of watercolor pastels, food, fashion, art, ballet, literature...and am currently devouring all things French. I encourage readers not to be intimidated by the size of this tome. The story is an amazing interweaving of characters that spans time and history. A truly beautiful read.

What is your favorite destination read?

Happy Reading,

Rebecca

A book that can double as a door stop

"Paris is always a good idea."  ~ Audrey Hepburn

I just started Paris, The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd and am taking a deep breath because this book is going to require a large time commitment, capping off at 805 pages!

About the book (from amazon.com): From Edward Rutherfurd, the grand master of the historical novel, comes a dazzling epic about the magnificent city of Paris. Moving back and forth in time, the story unfolds through intimate and thrilling tales of self-discovery, divided loyalty, and long-kept secrets. As various characters come of age, seek their fortunes, and fall in and out of love, the novel follows nobles who claim descent from the hero of the celebrated poem The Song of Roland; a humble family that embodies the ideals of the French Revolution; a pair of brothers from the slums behind Montmartre, one of whom works on the Eiffel Tower as the other joins the underworld near the Moulin Rouge; and merchants who lose everything during the reign of Louis XV, rise again in the age of Napoleon, and help establish Paris as the great center of art and culture that it is today. With Rutherfurd’s unrivaled blend of impeccable research and narrative verve, this bold novel brings the sights, scents, and tastes of the City of Light to brilliant life.

Have you read Paris or any of Rutherfurd's other books?

Happy Reading!

Rebecca

Indecisive Reading

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”  ~ Groucho Marx

Typically, I am a one-book-at-at-time reader. I like to finish one book before beginning another. But lately I haven't been able to fully connect with a story and find myself starting a different book. I currently have four books on my desk.

Do you like to read multiple books at at time?

Happy Reading,
Rebecca

Steinbeck's "Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters"

"I think perhaps I am one of those lucky mortals whose work and whose life are the same thing. It is rare and fortunate." 

~ Steinbeck, page 157

     Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters by John Steinbeck is a compilation of the letters that John Steinbeck wrote to his longtime editor and friend, Pascal Covici, during the writing of his masterpiece East of Eden. Each working day, Steinbeck would begin by writing a letter to Covici as a warm up to the day's writing, describing which scene he was to work on that day. It is a rare glimpse into the mind of a writer and the process of putting thoughts into words. The letters also reveal a look at the man himself, his hobbies and interests, as well as fears and fatherhood. Together, the letters serve as a journal with details about his day and personal life. With this book, the reader is provided the unique experience of sitting with Steinbeck as he creates his most challenging novel. I highly recommend this book for Steinbeck fans, as well as those interested in writing. At many times, he describes his joy in writing this story and is in no hurry for it to end. I felt the same upon reaching the end of this journey.

Happy Reading!

Rebecca

Book Beginnings: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

Today I am linking up to Book Beginnings hosted by Rose City Reader where readers share the first sentence of the current book they are reading.

"HERE is an account of a few years in the life of Quoyle, born in Brooklyn and raised in a shuffle of dreary upstate towns. Hive-spangled, gut roaring with gas and cramp, he survived childhood; at the state university, hand clapped over his chin, he camouflaged torment with smiles and silence. Stumbled through his twenties and into his thirties learning to separate his feelings from his life, counting on nothing. He ate prodigiously, liked a ham knuckle, buttered spuds."

From the reader's first introduction of Quoyle it is apparent that he is a complicated character with a bleak beginning. Proulx has created a unique writing style that gives a raw voice to the storytelling. A physical image of Quoyle is set within the first paragraph, giving the reader an instant visual of the character that kick starts this story into action.

About the Book (from amazon.com): Annie Proulx's highly acclaimed, international bestseller and Pulitzer prize-winning novel, repackaged and promoted as part of the Perennial fiction promotion in 2008. Quoyle is a hapless, hopeless hack journalist living and working in New York. When his no-good wife is killed in a spectacular road accident, Quoyle heads for the land of his forefathers -- the remotest corner of far-flung Newfoundland. With 'the aunt' and his delinquent daughters -- Bunny and Sunshine -- in tow, Quoyle finds himself part of an unfolding, exhilarating Atlantic drama. 'The Shipping News' is an irresistible comedy of human life and possibility.

About the Author (from wikipedia.com): Edna Annie Proulx is an American journalist and author. She has written most frequently as Annie Proulx but has also used the names E. Annie Proulx and E.A. Proulx. Her second novel, The Shipping News (1993), won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and was adapted as a 2001 film of the same name. Her short story Brokeback Mountain was adapted as an Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award-winning major motion picture released in 2005. She won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her first novel, Postcards.

Happy Reading,
Rebecca

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

About the book (from amazon.com): The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, it is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades. Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline. In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they -- and Grace -- know the truth. In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever. The novel is full of secrets -- some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne du Maurier. It is also a meditation on memory, the devastation of war and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history. Originally published to critical acclaim in Australia, already sold in ten countries and a #1 bestseller in England, The House at Riverton is a vivid, page-turning novel of suspense and passion, with characters -- and an ending -- the reader won't soon forget.

My Thoughts:
     I want to begin by saying that I loved this book! It was the first of Kate Morton that I have read and now I simply must read all of her other work. The House at Riverton (Atria Books, 2006) was originally published in Australia as The Shifting Fog. Oddly I had read Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin right before this one and found a lot of comparisons in regard to the story structure and content. 
     The House at Riverton is narrated by Grace, a former servant of the long established home, but the story is really about two sisters, Hannah and Emmeline, and the aristocratic way of life that is vanishing following World War I. Grace is the same age as Hannah and meets the girls, along with their brother David, during their visits to their grandparents at Riverton Manor. Told in two time periods, the reader is first introduced to the elderly Grace, living out her last days in a nursing home. When she is contacted by a film directer creating a movie about the sisters and a mysterious death that occurred at Riverton, the secrets she has kept all her life rise to the surface and she feels the need to release the burden of the truth before her time ends. 
     She begins to unravel the mysteries that occurred at Riverton by recording the story into a tape recorder for her grandson. The story flows back and forth with Grace's own life as the only connection between the past and the present, revealing the events that shaped and destroyed the lives of those living both upstairs and downstairs. There are numerous themes tackled throughout including the impact of war on soldiers and the divide between the classes. It is the relationship between the siblings that is the driving force of this novel and how their fates are solidified as children in an estate destined to dissolve along with their destinies.
     While the story if full of mystery and tragedy, Morton effortlessly infuses the elegance of the time for the privileged aristocratic families. As the cards are displayed one by one, Grace discovers that she is a more prominent character in their play than she could have imagined.
     The House at Riverton is a hauntingly beautiful novel that lingers in your thoughts long after the last page and long after the secrets are all told. It is a story that you can't imagine could end any other way but tragically and Morton delivers. Yet through Grace, the reader is left with a quiet peace and a sense of relief that the truth is now free.
   
To read a bio on the author Kate Morton, visit my Book Beginnings post here.

Happy Reading,
Rebecca

Book Beginnings: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Today I am linking up to Book Beginnings hosted by Rose City Reader where readers share the first sentence of the current book they are reading.

"Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.

This was more or less Constance Chatterley's position. The war had brought the roof down over her head. And she realized that one must live and learn."

I must confess, I am intrigued by banned books. A banned book deemed a classic...even better. I have previously read D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow but I was not prepared for Lady Chatterley's Lover. The introduction is quite breathtaking in describing the discontentment of the characters. It is easy to see how Lawrence's use of vocabulary in this novel would not have been favored by the masses at the time of its release. In the past few years, many novels have been published with the intent on shocking the reader by detailing what was once deemed romance in explicit detail. However, the themes addressed in Lady Chatterley's Lover set it apart from those current books as it tackles large issues of the time such as the class system and social conflict.

About the Book ( from wikipedia): Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence was first published in 1928. The first edition was printed privately in Florence, Italy, with assistance from Pino Orioli; an unexpurgated edition could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960. (A private edition was issued by Inky Stephensen's Mandrake Press in 1929.) The book soon became notorious for its story of the physical (and emotional) relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman, its explicit descriptions of sex, and its use of then-unprintable words. The story is said to have originated from events in Lawrence's own unhappy domestic life, and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, where he grew up. Lawrence at one time considered calling the novel Tenderness and made significant alterations to the text and story in the process of its composition. It has been published in three versions.

About the Author (from wikipedia): David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works, among other things, represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. In them, some of the issues Lawrence explores are emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile which he called his "savage pilgrimage."

Happy Reading,

Rebecca

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

About the Book (from wikipedia): The Blind Assassin is an award-winning, bestselling novel by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. Set in Canada, it is narrated from the present day, referring back to events that span the twentieth century. The work was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2000 and the Hammett Prize in 2001. It was also nominated for Governor General's Award in 2000, Orange Prize for Fiction, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2002.[1] Time magazine named it the best novel of 2000 and included it in its list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923.

"Listen to the clock ticking, I said. It was a pendulum clock - an antique, white and gold china; it had been Grandfather's; it stood on the mantelpiece in the library. Laura thought I'd said licking. And it was true, the brass pendulum swinging back and forth did look like a tongue, licking the lips of an invisible mouth. Eating up the time." (page 139)

My Thoughts: 

     The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, published by Nan A. Talese, an imprint of Double day (2000), is the story of two sisters, Iris and Laura Chase, clouded by unfortunate events. Brilliantly interwoven with news clippings that help the reader piece together the puzzle, Atwood is a master at layering the past into the present. 

     Narrated by Iris, The Blind Assassin is a dark mystery peppered with images of possibilities lost. Two stories collide into a tragedy that the reader is made aware from the beginning with the announcement that Laura Chase has been killed in a car accident. The first is the mystery that surrounds Laura's death. The second is a science fiction story created by two lovers. The intimacy of these characters makes it easy for the reader to drift into another world as told in this fantasy tale.

"Was that the beginning, that evening - on the dock at Avilion, with the fireworks dazzling the sky? It's hard to know. Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then later, they spring." (page 190)

     The mystery takes us back to the childhood of the Chase sisters where they experience the loss of their mother and struggle to find their identity as the world enters The Great Depression. Avilion, the estate on which they were raised, begins to crumble from neglect and the financial resources that the family is losing from its failing button factory which had been a prominent and successful business. Their relationship with their father is estranged and as they girls enter adulthood, finding an eligible spouse appears to be their only option of escaping the demise of the life they have always known.

     Atwood's writing is simply beautiful. Each sentence is so well crafted that this 500 plus page tome feels like a mere dip into a deep ocean. The story unravels slowly but leaves the reader so satiated for the answers that one can't stop turning the pages.

"The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it." (page 283)

     A talk dark stranger, a marriage doomed from the onset, deceit, adultery, jealousy, lust, the class divide, suicide-- you name it, The Blind Assassin delivers, all against the background of a world at war. The intricate puzzle that is the fate of the sisters is superbly revealed, piece by piece. An intense piece of fiction, this book will leave you feeling bleak and emotionally stripped but it will also leave you in complete awe of the journey through which Atwood just led you.

To read a brief bio of Margaret Atwood and the introduction of The Blind Assassin, visit my Book Beginnings post here.

Happy Reading,

Rebecca

Hazy Days and Steamy Reads

“All people dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the morning to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, For they dream their dreams with open eyes, And make them come  true.”  ~ D.H. Lawrence

What is it about the long days of summer that entices us to dream even more? 

A steamy classic is a perfect way to embrace the summer heat. 

I am currently delving into Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence.

What's on your summer reading list?

Happy Reading,

Rebecca

The Mountaintop School for Dogs by Ellen Cooney

* The Mountaintop School for Dogs, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is scheduled to be released Aug. 5, 2014.

About the Book (from amazon.com): Sanctuary. Place of refuge. Training school. Command center for The Network. Home for strays and rescued dogs. Evie is stuck at The Inn, managed by the stern and mysterious Mrs. Auberchon, although she’s supposed to join a training program at The Sanctuary. That’s what she signed up for—never mind that she lied and doesn’t know the first thing about animals except what she’s learned from a breed guide, from the notes someone keeps leaving, and from videos online, like one that asks: Please can more people be nicer to dogs? Once up on the mountain with staffers, volunteers, and her dog students, Evie takes notes on the new things she’s learning. Alpha. Forgiveness. Play. Rehabilitation. Like the racing greyhound who refuses to move, the golden retriever who returns every time he’s adopted, and the rottweiler who’s a hopeless candidate for search-and-rescue, Evie came from a troubled past. She writes: “Rescue. Best. Verb. Ever.” As she creates her own training manual, she may even write an entry on herself. A worthy shelf-mate to books by Garth Stein and Carolyn Parkhurst, this is a brilliantly engaging novel about finding fellow animals who may bring you a deeper sense of home, healing, and the power of inventing a future.

"Abandon. To Turn away on purpose from someone you were supposed to never turn away from. Bad verb. Bad word. Bad everything." (page 43)

My Thoughts: 

     As a dog owner, I could easily relate to this book. Dogs often teach us more than we teach them. They follow our commands in order to receive a desired response but soon they command us with a simple tilt of their head and a gazing stare. I have a five-year-old Sheltie and love her abundantly, however, she tests my patience daily. But once you allow a pet into your home and heart, you are forever changed. 

     The Mountaintop School for Dogs is a story about second chances for all living creatures. The reader is introduced to a variety of characters, some four legged, that are searching for their place in life, a place to call home. When Evie arrives at The Inn and the School, she is lonely and lost. Recovering from past mistakes, she quickly discovers that her own existence isn't that different from the dogs that she encounters. She too is searching for acceptance and finds a kindred spirit in Mrs. Auberchon, The Inn's keeper. Their relationship takes a while to develop just as it takes Evie's students a while to warm up to her. There is a need to assess the expectations and intentions of another before you can reach a level of comfort.

     Evie quickly learns that her inexperience as a dog trainer has left her ill equipped to handle the challenges that arise for rescue missions. I can't even watch the ASPCA commercials. You know the ones- cue the Sarah McLachlin tune in the background....heartbreaking. 

"Because sometimes you don't call it abuse when it's happening to you, even if you're doing it to yourself. You just call it 'my life'." (Page 262)

     The dogs at the school are is a stage of readjustment. They have been rescued from situations of neglect, abuse, or abandonment from those that initially cared for them. Evie is readjusting as well, realizing that you can't run away from your past but you can control your present. She is a strong lead character that the reader cheers on as she improves in the training and care of the canine students, creating a rescue for herself with each achievement, and finding joy in the smallest of progress. Although at a different stage in life, Mrs. Auberchon confronts her own fears and misgivings as she allows herself to be more accepting of others and a new way of life.

"She ran hot water on the label until it loosened enough to peel off. The bottle was too attractive to throw away. It didn't have to come to its end. It could have another life, perhaps as a vase, perhaps as a candleholder, bright wax dripping down its sides, hardening, lasting, staying. She filled the sink with sudsy water and stuck it in there to soak." (Page 143)

     I thought this passage was a beautiful analogy of how we humans, just like our recycling projects, can be transformed. Sometimes all we need is a little trust and self acceptance. The Mountaintop School for Dogs is a wonderful story for reminding us of the importance of compassion and the impact of a second chance for all living creatures.

* I received this book as an Advanced Reader Copy from Houghton Mifflin. The reading recommendation is entirely my own.

Happy Reading,

Rebecca

Book Beginnings: The House at Riverton

Today I am linking up to Book Beginnings hosted by Rose City Reader where readers share the first sentence of the current book they are reading.

"Last November I had a nightmare. It was 1924 and I was Riverton again. All the doors hung wide open, silk billowing in the summer breeze. An orchestra perched high on the hill beneath the ancient maple, violins lilting lazily in the warmth. The air rang with pealing laughter and crystal, and the sky was the kind of blue we'd all thought the war had destroyed forever. One of the footmen, smart in black and white, poured champagne into the top of a tower of glass flutes and everyone clapped, delighting in the splendid wastage."

Thoughts on Intro: The House at Riverton begins with the lovely description of a dream that leaves the reader with a sense that much reality lies behind the story. This is the first Morton novel that I have read and I am already planning on reading more. Her writing elegantly creates a world where the characters come to life and the reader is instantly hooked.

About the book (from amazon.com): The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, it is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades. Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline. In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they -- and Grace -- know the truth. In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever. The novel is full of secrets -- some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne du Maurier. It is also a meditation on memory, the devastation of war and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history. Originally published to critical acclaim in Australia, already sold in ten countries and a #1 bestseller in England, The House at Riverton is a vivid, page-turning novel of suspense and passion, with characters -- and an ending -- the reader won't soon forget.

About the Author (from wikipedia.com): Kate Morton is an Australian author whose novels have been published in 38 countries and sold three million copies."The House at Riverton was a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2007 and a New York Times bestseller in 2008. The House at Riverton won General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards, and The House at Riverton was nominated for Most Popular Book at the British Book Awards in 2008. Her second book,The Forgotten Garden, was a #1 bestseller in Australia and a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2008. In 2010, Morton's third novel, The Distant Hours, was released, followed by her fourth, The Secret Keeper, in 2012.

Have you read Morton's novels? Which was your favorite?

Happy Reading,

Rebecca

Inspiration: Where Writers Write

Have you ever wondered what a writer's workspace looks like? 

Where do our favorite authors sit down to create the books we come to love? 

Below are a few images from Pinterest to inspire you!

The Bronte Sisters
From Writers Write Creative Blog

Dylan Thomas
From The Huffington Post

Jane Austen
From painting-box.com

Ernest Hemingway
A photo my husband took on our trip to Hemingway House in Key West, Fla.

Can you imagine Jane Austen penning her masterpieces on that tiny writing table?

What does your creative space look like?

Happy Reading!

Rebecca

Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill

Edmund: (Bitterly) I remember all right. It was right after that Papa and Jamie decided they couldn't hide it from me any more. Jamie told me. I called him a liar! I tried to punch him in the nose. But I knew he wasn't lying. (His voice trembles, his eyes begin to fill with tears.) God, it made everything in life seem rotten! (Act III, page 121)

About the Book (from Wikipedia): Long Day's Journey into Night is a drama in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1941–42 but only published in 1956. The play is widely considered to be his masterwork. The action covers a single day from around 8:30 am to midnight, in August 1912 at the seaside Connecticut home of the Tyrones—the semi-autobiographical representations of O'Neill himself, his older brother, and their parents at their home, Monte Cristo Cottage. One theme of the play is addiction and the resulting dysfunction of the family. All three males are alcoholics and Mary is addicted to morphine. In the play the characters conceal, blame, resent, regret, accuse and deny in an escalating cycle of conflict with occasional desperate and sincere attempts at affection, encouragement and consolation.

My Thoughts:

     I have always enjoyed reading dramas but don't often select them when picking up a new book to begin. Prior to reading O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, I read another of his incredible dramas, Mourning Becomes Electra, and was reminded of what an enjoyable format plays can be. O'Neill never disappoints. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Yale University Press, 1955) begins with the perception that the Tyrone family is a typical American family spending time together at their summer cottage in Connecticut, but the reader quickly interprets that there is an underlying current of turmoil beneath this facade. Their dialogue with each other is uncomfortable and you can sense that they are merely communicating on the pleasantries, like the weather or appointments and projects for the day, rather than addressing anything of a serious nature that is plaguing the family.
     Thought to be largely autobiographical, it is a story laden with heavy content under an umbrella of depression and bitterness. O'Neill clearly sets the scene for the reader so that the script is easily interpreted and literally visual apart from the stage. His development of character through physical description is brilliantly detailed in its simplicity. "Her most appealing quality is the simple, unaffected charm of a shy convent-girl youthfulness she has never lost- an innate unwordly innocence." (Act One, page 13)
     While addiction is the prevalent theme of the story, Long Day's Journey Into Night also explores how we handle disappointments when our expectations for life are not met. This is a powerful story that strips away the ability to project an image and reveals the weakness in each presentation. In many ways, O'Neill's Tyrones are play acting among themselves, portraying characters of a father, mother, and sons in order to avoid accusations and judgement. Their interactions revolve around their denial of their circumstance. Mary, the mother, moves through the scenes in a trance-like state, convinced that she is hiding her own addiction and that her husband is to blame for the family's turmoil. Edmund, the younger son, uses humor as his mask for shading how ill he has become due to his own alcohol addiction. James, the father, and Jamie, the eldest son, cast their guilt on each other and showcase the unfolding destruction through their bitterness.
     Long Day's Journey Into Night is a timeless tale that inspects the family dynamic and the impact of one members actions on another. Like the domino effect, each Tyrone serves as a crutch for the next until they can no longer bear the weight and tumble into desperation, unraveling the ties that bind.

For more information on Playwright Eugene O'Neill, visit www.eoneill.com.

Happy Reading,

Rebecca

Book Beginnings: The Mountaintop School for Dogs

Today I am linking up to Book Beginnings hosted by Rose City Reader where readers share the first sentence of the current book they are reading.

The Mountaintop School for Dogs: And Other Second Chances 
by Ellen Cooney

"It was dusk on a winter day, and from high on the mountain came barking, drifting down above the snow like peals of a bell, one, two, three, four, more, just to say the light was leaving, but that was all right: here I am, I'm a dog, all is well."

Thoughts on Intro: I love how animated this book begins. From the introduction, the reader gets the sense that the dogs are going to be key characters as well. As a dog owner myself, I am really excited to read this story. There is much that animals can teach us and they provide a unique energy that offers such joy! The Mountaintop School for Dogs is sure to be a terrific read for those with four-legged friends!

About the Book (from amazon.com): Sanctuary. Place of refuge. Training school. Command center for The Network. Home for strays and rescued dogs. Evie is stuck at The Inn, managed by the stern and mysterious Mrs. Auberchon, although she’s supposed to join a training program at The Sanctuary. That’s what she signed up for—never mind that she lied and doesn’t know the first thing about animals except what she’s learned from a breed guide, from the notes someone keeps leaving, and from videos online, like one that asks: Please can more people be nicer to dogs? Once up on the mountain with staffers, volunteers, and her dog students, Evie takes notes on the new things she’s learning. Alpha. Forgiveness. Play. Rehabilitation. Like the racing greyhound who refuses to move, the golden retriever who returns every time he’s adopted, and the rottweiler who’s a hopeless candidate for search-and-rescue, Evie came from a troubled past. She writes: “Rescue. Best. Verb. Ever.” As she creates her own training manual, she may even write an entry on herself. A worthy shelf-mate to books by Garth Stein and Carolyn Parkhurst, this is a brilliantly engaging novel about finding fellow animals who may bring you a deeper sense of home, healing, and the power of inventing a future.

* The Mountaintop School for Dogs, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is scheduled to be released Aug. 5, 2014.

My Furbaby, Chloe

You can read by review of Cooney's Thanksgiving here 

and my review of Cooney's Lambrusco here.

About the Author:
Ellen Cooney was born in 1952 in Clinton, Massachusetts. She is the author of eight novels and stories published in The New Yorker and many literary journals. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, and taught creative writing for over twenty-five years, most recently in the writing program at MIT. She now lives in mid-coast Maine.


Happy Reading,
Rebecca

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

About the Book (from amazon.com): The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan’s critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet” (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.

"Melt White was sickened by the rabbit drives, the plagues of hoppers, a town of random death and no comfort from the sky. 

The land was broken." (page 9)

My Thoughts: 

     Imagine an environment in which the very air you breathe is heavy with dust, soil, and sand. It blows into your eyes, ears, nose and throat. It settles into your hair and skin, and into every fiber of your clothing. Next, imagine that this same dust invades your place of safety, your haven from the storms, your home. Then, consider that this becomes your daily existence for years. The color green is erased from your design palette. All you see is the color of dirt- brown, red, yellow. Your landscape is completely altered and pests and rodents multiply by the thousands. Your means of living becomes impossible and your way of life is going extinct. You lose your livestock, your possessions, your pride, and sometimes even those you love. But you don't give in to the circumstances. You plant your feet into the farmland and wait, hoping that next year will bring about a change, a return to the way things used to be. You stay because this land, your land, is all that you have. Now imagine that you created this disaster...and there is no going back.

"They had removed the native prairie grass, a web of perennial species evolved over twenty thousand years or more, so completely that by the end of 1931 it was a different land- thirty-three million acres." (page 101)

     The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) explores a piece of history that is often overshadowed by the exodus that occurred in dust ravaged states in the High Plains. This story is about those who stayed.

During The Great War which started in 1914, wheat would become America's most valuable commodity. As shipments in Europe became blocked, the United States filled the world's void and encouraged farmers to plant more wheat, turn more earth. In parts of Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma, this production would bring more people to isolated lands and create an opportunity for many to obtain the American Dream- land, financial stability, and a place to call home. 

     Americans, including many immigrants, were encouraged to travel west and set up homesteads on prairie land that had never been farmed. It had served as grassland for Bison while the Native Americans controlled the land, and then for cattle as Americans moved in and eradicated the Bison. It is an area that experiences periodic droughts but native grasses had the ability to hold moisture in their roots, keeping the grass in place and the soil in tact. As an influx in wheat farming began to occur and technology introduced more modern methods of plowing which turned the earth in considerably less time, the grasses were quickly ripped from the ground leaving it exposed to the wind.

     Initially farmers saw much success. Record rainfalls, high wheat prices, and a desirable market provided them with a quality of life they had never known. But just as they were settling into their visions of a bright future, a series of events halted their forward movement. The nation's stock market crashed and banks closed, drying up the market- while there was plenty of wheat to purchase, the consuming country could no longer afford to buy it and the price plummeted. The farmers' solution: plow more wheat. If prices were down, they would simply have to sell more product. More earth was turned, more grass eradicated. A period of drought would then set in and with no rain to provide moisture to the soil, the winds would begin to blow the land and create massive storms of dust. "The first black duster was a curiosity, nothing else. The weather bureau observers wrote it up and put it in a drawer" (page 88).

     Years of dust storms would follow with little to no rain, leading up to Black Sunday: April 14, 1935. This major storm impacted most of the country and brought the dust of the plains all the way to the east coast. "The storm carried twice as much dirt as was dug out of the earth to create the Panama Canal" (page 8). These storms accompanied with the inability to provide a way of living for families, pushed the people to their limits. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would make this region a priority during this presidency, implementing many programs and projects to aid the people and find a way to heal the land by returning grasses to the vacant soil.

     The Worst Hard Time is a detailed exploration of the Dust Bowl, how it was created and how it forever changed American landscape. But it is also about the human spirit and what it takes to break it. Egan's extensive research is evident through his writing and telling of these stories that are both heartbreaking and inspiring. The strength of character of those who experienced, endured, and survived the Dust Bowl is dauntless, a testament to the power of optimism- that next year will be better.

Happy Reading,

Rebecca