Hello all and welcome to the Spread the Love Linky Party! This week, I’m co-hosting this great link-up which Rebecca at Love At First Book does every week.

Last week’s most popular posts were Jennine’s post over at Wensend about teaching books. Another hit was Bryan’s post at Still Unfinished on why he enjoys reading short books. I just love this post because there’s so much bookish talk about chunksters, but sometimes it is great to red a quickie! Stop by and join in that discussion!

This week, I talked about how emotional, inspiring and enjoyable Saturday Night Widows was and answered some interesting questions as part of a Way of Kings Read-Along. I was also excited to have one of the few cover reveals I’ll be hosting at Doing Dewey, for Thorn, because I enjoyed the book so much and loved how well the new cover captures the feel of the book.

Now it’s your turn to show off your most amazing post!

Guidelines

• I would love it if you would grab a button and add it to your post or party page. It’s not required, but it would make me super happy and it gets the word out about the party!
• Link up your greatest book review, bookish post, DIY, tutorial, craft project, fashion amazingness, green post, whatever is fabulous this week or before that is yours!
• Spread even more love – Show our co-host a little love this week! Then click on the link right before yours and say something nice! It’s a great way to learn about a new blog and an amazing post that someone worked so hard on! We all love nice comments on our own blogs, so take a minute to spread the love.
• I’ll share the most clicked-on post at next week’s Spread the Love Linky Party, which is a fun way to be featured.
• By linking up, you are granting the party hosts permission to promote you and an image from your site in a featured post or on social media. Meaning, if I or anyone else thinks your post is as amazing as you think it is, we might just promote it! Which I can only see as a positive, don’t you agree?

The post Spread the Love Linky Party appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

“There comes a time in every new mother’s life when she finds herself staring at her screaming, smelly “bundle of joy” and wishing someone had told her that her house would reek of vomit, or that she shouldn’t buy the cute onesies with a thousand impossible buttons, or that she might cry more than the baby….Eschewing the adorableness that oozes out of other parenting books, Dais offers real advice from real moms—along with hilarious anecdotes, clever tips, and the genuine encouragement every mom needs in order to survive the first year of parenthood.” (Source)

Obviously as a woman with no plans to have kids, I am not the target audience for this book. However, as a sponsor of the Shirley You Jest Humor awards, I was happy to review this winner of the non-fiction category. And let me tell you, the judges picked a great winner! With short chapters, this book was like a collection of humorous essays. Even though this topic wasn’t one I’d read on my own, I found large portions of it very funny. Some of my favorite jokes were the cartoons and one-liners beginning each chapter, but there were jokes through-out that kept me laughing too. I did have two small complaints about the humor in this book. First there was one joke of exaggerating numbers that got a bit repetitive. And second, I personally prefer that if an author is going to use curse words, they just do it. “F’n” or “farkin” seems a bit juvenile to me.

In addition to the parts that kept me laughing, there were parts that would be far more helpful to people with babies or babies on the way. Each chapter tackled a particular issue new parents might face, discussing tough issues with humor and empathy. At the end of each chapter, the author polled a panel of mothers in diverse life situations for their related advice. I suspect this perspective from experienced mothers could provide some very helpful insights. So, as I began, I am not the intended audience for this book, but I found it quite funny anyway. However, there are enough serious bits and bits about giving birth that you just don’t want to know unless you need to, that I would only recommend this book to parents or parents-to-be. For new mothers in particular, I think the humor, advice, and emotional support in this book would make this great holiday gift.

Goodreads|Amazon

The post The Sh!t No One Tells You appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Awww, thanks so much for having me.

Would you please start by telling us a bit about the kind of research you did while writing Gracianna?

Where do I start? Firstly I went to the Basque country, Paris and Auschwitz aside from the “book” study work and interviews I did.  It was bitter sweet. Seeing the homeland where my great-grandmother was from was wonderful. I felt at peace knowing the place where she grew up. Compared to the comforts of today I can barely imagine heating a place by wood and the effort that it would have taken to do that. Listening to her native tongue all around me was mystical.  

Paris was gorgeous of course. 

Seeing the opulence of Le Meurice Hotel where the Nazi Command had set up was overwhelming. It is beautiful to but to know that the Nazi’s had once dominated it was chilling. 

I went to Auschwitz one day.  I took about 700 photos. I have barely looked at them since. 

When I landed in Warsaw I had realized that I had left my big jacket at home. Not hard to do since I had been on the road for three weeks and in temperate South America  for two weeks prior.

When the door of the airplane open WHOOSH! The rush of the cold air hit me like a truck. I was drawn to Auschwitz knowing that Gracianna’s sister had been there during the winter. How someone could live through a day of that weather was unfathomable.  

While doing your research, did you learn anything that particularly surprised or inspired you?

On the day I stared writing the book I learned that Gracianna’s sister had lived through a Nazi concentration camp! That was a revelation that added a complete new dimension to the book. It was shocking and made sense all at the same time. I was compelled to write Gracianna and find write a story behind the whispers.

What gave you the idea to turn your great-grandmother’s fascinating story into a book?

When I was five years old my grandmother caught me walking around the house with a loaded German Luger. It came back to  as a teen and I stared wondering. Why did my great-grandmother have a loaded German Luger in her house? I started piecing it all together in my head.

Could you please talk a little about which parts of the story are fact and which are fiction?

There are tons of facts in the story. It started with me picking up a gun and walking around her house with it. “Put it down” was all she said. She was nonplussed but serious. Everything about the Basque country is factual along with the war, the Resistance and the concentration camp references. Gracianna’s sister was in a concentration camp and lived according to my Aunt Kathy. There are many many references to my own live that are woven into the story that are true as well. As my publisher told me, “The moment you add dialogue it is fictional.” Makes sense, who knows who said what to whom?

Your family runs a winery named after your great-grandmother. What made you decide to name the winery after her?

That is an easy one. When I was a boy my great-grandmother used to talk about being thankful a lot. At that age it is impossible to fathom the meaning. But over time it started to come to me… “grateful.” I have said that one must hit their 40’s or maybe 50’s to “get it.” If one ever does. But I started to realize that appreciating what we have is a fruitful, calming and humbling frame of mind. We had always considered that a value important to pass along to our children as well. Gracianna came to mean “thankful” to us and gratitude came alive as a result. 

Do you read as well as write historical fiction? Or do you have another favorite genre?

I enjoy non-fictional really when I have time to read. But the classic are my favorite. Stephen Crane, F. Scott Fitzgerald, I read them over and over. I have no idea what I am looking for but these books are well worn and comforting.

Do you have any plans to continue writing or was this a one-time thing to tell this particular story?

Huh, funny you should ask. There is another story and my publisher has asked if I would be interested to write it. I will decide as we get into the New Year. I would LOVE to write again and hope to be able to do that.

Where can readers go to learn more about your book and about your wine?

Thanks so much for asking www.gracianna.com If folks are coming to the wine country please send me an e-mail and I will be happy to arrange a personal tour and tell our story. Trini.Amador3@gracianna.net

Thank you so much for joining us today Trini! As a lover of non-fiction, I’m always fascinated by the parts of fiction that are true and the research that goes into making historical fiction believable. I really enjoyed your book and hope someday to visit your beautiful winery!

The post Author Interview with Trini Amador appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

Gracianna is a fictionalized account of the life of the author’s great-grandmother. Inspired by his discovery of a loaded German Luger in her house when he was only four years old, Trini learned all he could of her life from his relatives. He filled in the gaps with a gripping tale of a courageous woman recruited into the French resistance during the Nazi occupation of Paris and forced to make some very difficult choices.

At the beginning, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get into the story of Gracianna. The scene where the author found the German Luger left me far less terrified than I would expect to be by a scene involving a four year old and a gun. The story continued in a choppy fashion, with every chapter broken up into very short and often disconnected scenes by section labels. There was also a lot of telling instead of showing and the dialogue felt a bit stilted. However, early on a picture of Gracianna’s character started to emerge and I liked her. I liked her a lot. She was a very good, very strong woman. It was enough to keep me enjoying the story and it only got better from there.

As the pace of the plot picked up, it became more common for the scenes separated by section breaks to immediately follow one another. That made it easier to ignore the breaks and it only got easier as I got sucked into the intense plot. By the end, the story was flowing very smoothly for me and I couldn’t put it down. I also started to notice some truly beautiful phrases and well-crafted sentences. Although I liked the writing better as I went, it still didn’t overshadow my favorite part  - the main character. Even writing this review over a week after finishing the book, I have a very strong impression of what Gracianna was like and again, I liked her. It was incredible to read about someone so brave and so willing to sacrifice herself for others. And even if the brave parts were fictionalized, I think it added to the story that the beginning and the ending were anchored in the truth. Like Anna Karenina, this is a book I would recommend particularly for it’s ability to bring one very striking woman vividly to life.

For some other perspectives, check out the other stops on the tour, Amazon, or Goodreads.

The post Gracianna appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

There are two kinds of re-tellings. There are those which use the original as an inspiration and which become awesome by using the original material in creative new ways. Cinder is one of my favorite examples of that kind of re-telling. This is not that kind of re-telling. This is the other kind, where the source material is preserved almost entirely with just a setting change and this is by far the best example of that kind of re-telling that I’ve ever read.

First of all, despite the integration of modern terms and even some pop culture, the writing reminds me very much of Austen. It’s something about the way she uses adjectives and long descriptive clauses, in my non-English-major opinion. Whatever it is, it works. I thought she also did a remarkable job preserving the spirit of each character. They may not be exactly the same, but the things I would list as being essential to who they are were all preserved. This is a little thing, but I thought it was nice that she kept the same names for her characters too. There’s no reason to change that (unless your change of setting demands it) and it makes it far less confusing to discuss the book later!

I was also incredibly impressed by the author’s ability to create modern situations analogous to the now outdated social situations in the original. Every scene I loved in the original had an counterpart in this re-telling. There was also some detail added to Edward and Elinor’s romance, something I liked in the movie and also liked here. It’s so much easier to root for a couple when you know why the like each other! At the end of the day, this still might have only been a four star review except for one very important thing. This book made me feel the exact same way as re-reading the original. I had some memory of what was going to happen, but I still couldn’t wait to get to the conclusion and I was so happy for our characters when I got there. While it is likely that no re-telling is going to do it for a real Austen purist, for anyone else, if you are out of new Austen to read and need something to fill the gaping void that has created in your life, read this. It was almost a lot like getting to read Sense and Sensibility for the first time all over again.

For some other perspectives, check out the other stops on the tour, Amazon, or Goodreads.

The post Sense and Sensibility Re-telling appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

The publication of the Pentagon Papers, top secret documents leaked to a reporter, was contentious from the beginning. First, there was internal debate at The New York Times over whether or not to publish. Then publication led to one of the most important first amendment cases ever, as the government sought an injunction to keep The Times from continuing to publish more of the Pentagon Papers. As the chief legal counsel for The Times, James Goodale is able to share his first hand experience  and his thoughts on the personalities involved in this momentous historical case.

Although Fighting for the Press was occasionally hard to follow or a little repetitive as the case moved through the appeals process, it was mostly just exciting. And if James Goodale occasionally seemed a little too self-congratulatory, I can’t blame him too much given the role he played in winning this famous first amendment victory. Overall, the story was very well written. Precise language was used to explain legal concepts so clearly that they were extremely exciting even to someone with my lack of prior knowledge.

From the beginning, I felt as though I’d been given a priceless opportunity to interview someone who’d lived through a pivotal moment in our nation’s history. In many cases, I like for a non-fiction author to be unbiased, but this was clearly a memoir as well as a history. As such, the author’s personal recollections and impressions of the people involved in the case added some depth and intrigue to what could otherwise have been a dry legal story. There were actually moments when, despite knowing the final outcome, I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how the details played out. This was an engaging read that I’d recommend to fans of history books and memoirs.

Amazon|Goodreads

The post Fighting for the Press appeared first on Doing Dewey.

This is last of three discussion posts for a read-a-long of The Book Thief, being hosted by Suey at It’s All About Books, Kami at Kami’s Library Thoughts, and Kathy at Read This Instead. That means that this post WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. You have been warned

1. How did you feel when Max had to leave the Hubermanns? What did you expect would happen to him?
   • Honestly, I was pretty angry at Hans. I thought that while what Hans did was kind, it was also stupid and thoughtless since he had other people to care for. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was certainly worried about Max!
2. Why do you think Liesel ran out to Max when they finally did cross paths, even after she had seen what happened to Hans earlier in the book?
   • Although it could be as simple as because she cares about Max, I think there was more too it than that. I think the last story he wrote her made it clear how much her friendship meant to him and how protecting that friendship was a way of standing up to Hitler. I also felt like the Jews being marched through town were being treated like they were subhuman and recognizing Max as a friend helped just a little bit to make that right, because Liesel was recognizing him as a person.
3. What did you think of Death spoiling the ending a couple chapters before it actually happened? Did the warning make it easier to handle?
   • I could completely understand if this drove some people crazy, but thank goodness. I do think it made it easier to handle, which is good because I cried a lot anyway! Actually, given that I knew what was going to happen, I was completely bowled over by how much it affected me anyway.
4. Which death impacted you the most?
   • Rudy’s death made me the most sad. A lot of the book seemed to be about savoring happiness while it lasted, but in Rudy’s case there was also the missed opportunity of Liesel just realizing she loved him and never giving him the kiss he’d been asking for. Poor Rudy!
5. How did your view of Ilsa Herman change over the course of the book? 
   • I actually liked her from the beginning. I liked her better as we saw her being kind to Liesel and Max and I admired her more for being so brave about hiding Max, but my view of her didn’t change too dramatically.
6. The power of words is such a big theme throughout the book. Which instances of powerful words stuck out to you? Or, which quotes from the book stuck out to you?
   • I was thinking again today about what Liesel said about Hitler not having been able to come to power without words. I thought that was interesting. The image of Liesel reading to everyone in the bomb shelter was a very powerful image as was Max’s story.
7. Thoughts on Liesel and Death finally meeting?
   • I liked that Death seemed to admire Liesel for her courage, something that seems especially appropriate given what she survives later.
8. If this was your first time reading The Book Thief, is it what you expected? If it was a reread, what did you notice this time around?
   • It was as sad as I was afraid it would be, but it was so incredibly beautifully well written that I was extremely glad I read it anyway. I usually hate books that make me cry, but something about this one was different. I think it’s because I felt like the emotion had a purpose. I hate when an author kills off a character and I feel like they didn’t have to die and it was just to add drama. In this case, the whole book was about beauty and loss and I thought it was a very carefully thought out ending with the author intending the reader to feel very specific things.
9. Will you see the movie?
   • Heck yes! It might be bad, but the book was so amazing, I can’t pass up the chance that they’ll do it justice.

The post The Book Thief – Discussion 3/3 appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

In this futuristic retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, Edward Maret is a happy man. He is engaged to a women he loves and destined to inherit a bountiful estate. Little does he know that he has enemies who are prepared to betray him because they covet what he has. Denounced as a revolutionary and condemned by a corrupt judge, Edward is turned into a mindless cyborg and sent to kill any who threaten his world. When he is eventually freed from the mind control, his first thought is of revenge…

At the heart of the original novel is the story of how betrayal and an obsession with revenge can make even the nicest of people become cruel. I think this book did a great job preserving that message and even brought it to the forefront by sharing with us Edward’s introspection after he is betrayed. This deeper understanding of Edward made it a little easier to empathize with him, as did the fact that what happens to him in this book seems far more terrible than what happened to him in the original. He still becomes an unlikeable, cruel person but it’s easier to understand where that’s coming from.

The plot was a bit disappointing. A book could easily be as complex as the original without being as long by writing more concisely and eliminating the many digressions. This book does both of those things, but also loses the complexity. It seems like Edward’s enemies largely self-destruct. His plots are far less elegantly intricate and even when he does do something interesting, it’s often mentioned in passing. On the other hand, the world building was very good. A fascinating and believable universe was created and every detail of that universe enhanced the story. Over all, I thought this was a very unique and well executed modernization of this classic.

Amazon|Goodreads

The post Edward Maret – Classics Retold appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Just a warning folks, this is the second of three discussion posts for a read-a-long of The Book Thief, being hosted by Suey at It’s All About Books, Kami at Kami’s Library Thoughts, and Kathy at Read This Instead. That means that this post WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. You have been warned

1. What emotions have you felt while reading? Are they strong emotions?
   • Oh man, the emotions! Mostly I don’t like to read books that make me sad and I don’t get too emotional about books. But this book… just wow. The part where it’s Liesel’s birthday and poor Max is feeling so worthless and left out and she hugs him made me cry. And cry again telling my boyfriend about it. It was just so sad and so happy all at the same time!
2. What do you think of The Standover Man aka the book Max wrote for Liesel?
   • I thought having the drawings from this book actually included was very interesting. I’m not sure how I feel about the book itself. It seemed strange to mix such dark serious topics with the joke about Max looking like a bird.
3. How do you feel about knowing who is going to die in the end and what are some of your predictions?
   • As with the strong emotions the book evokes, I’m extremely surprised that I don’t dislike the foreshadowing. I actually really appreciate it because I feel like it helps me prepare myself for what I know is going to happen. This is such an emotional book that if they just killed characters off out of nowhere, I’m not sure I could take it. At the same time, this might be such an emotional because because of the constant, poignant awareness that Liesel has some hardships to face ahead and I like that as well.
4. What do you think of Rudy’s rebellious attitude? 
   • I think he needs to be more careful, he’s making me nervous! It’s nice of him to stand up for the other kid, but it doesn’t seem like he’s actually helping.
5. Is Rosa growing on you?
   • I actually liked Rosa from the beginning but I do like her even more now! At the beginning, I could tell that her gruff exterior hid the fact that she really loved Hans and Liesel. Now that she’s so calm about risking her life for them, I think she’s very impressive.
6. Why do you think Liesel is so determined to steal from the Mayor’s library?
   • I think she probably wanted to finish the book, but more than that, I think she wanted some small revenge for what she saw as a betrayal of her friendship with the mayor’s wife.
7. What really stands out to you in the story and why?
   • The scene were Liesel hugs Max has impacted me far more than anything else in the book. I also think the imagery of the fight between Max and Hitler in which all the German people are on Hitler’s side, as well as Max’s feelings of worthlessness show what Hitler’s actions took away from even the Jews who survived. I just want to cry for Max and for how bad he feels about surviving.
8. If you were in Hans’ position, would you have helped/hid Max?
   • I hope so, since I think it was an incredibly heroic thing to do. However, with a family to protect, I could certainly understand having made a different decision.

The post The Book Thief – Discussion 2/3 appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now… (Source: Goodreads)

It’s possible I started this book with my expectations too high. I’ve heard nothing but the highest praise for The Handmaid’s Tale and I was convinced it was going to be amazing. The writing was everything I could have asked for. Every word was selected thoughtfully. Words were often used to convey multiple meanings or to connect several disparate ideas. I don’t usually notice quotes I especially like when I’m reading, but in this book I was constantly savoring words and phrases. The writing was so beautiful I just wanted to read it out loud and feel the words on my lips. The world-building was done incrementally through Offred’s daily experiences and occasional memories. I loved that I constantly wanted to know more without feeling as though the author was using annoying plot devices to withhold information.

By page eighty or so, my love of the writing could no longer distract me from the fact that nothing but world building had happened yet. Towards the end events do become more exciting. Things happen that are outside of Offred’s normal routine and which require her to make some tough decisions. However, even in the most exciting scenes, the writing stays beautiful and slow. I never felt completely swept up in what was going on and the ending in particular felt emotionless to me. After the good things I’ve heard about this book, after the spectacularly beautiful writing, after the intricate world that was built, I expected more than that. The ending felt very flat to me. So while I will try more Margaret Atwood, if only to luxuriate in more of her beautiful writing, I felt a bit let down by this one.

Amazon|Goodreads

The post The Handmaid’s Tale appeared first on Doing Dewey.