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A LITERARY
BLOG ABOUT BOOKS How they affect us. How they shape our lives.
Note: Postings
made when muses strike. Watch for blog alert notices via email, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. "We read to know we are not alone." C.S. Lewis Copyright 2011-2018
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12 Reading Recommendations Please click a book image to purchase it on Amazon.
Novels, books, and musicals June has written and published: Click a book image to purchase it on www.amazon.com
"Meditations
for New Members is a beautifully written little book...a gem. The thoughts are striking and orginal--a
few are quite profound." --Fiona Hodgkin, author of The Tennis Player from Bermuda
Sponsored in part by Dani's Pantry Fine authentic Italian food. Cucina con Amore! https://amzn.to/2HdlA
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June at JuneJ@JuneJMcInerney.com on Facebook.com, or at www.BSetiPupPublising.com
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Friday, September 28, 2012
Truth
to Tell It's a dank, dreary
Friday; the last one of September. Leaves are already turning and falling from the oak and elm trees, scattering across the
lawn outside my window. And while I am happy the hot weather has abated I am not sure I want the winter cold to close in.
However, with winter comes Christmas and its arrival in two short months is already being heralded by the display of holiday
ornaments in local stores. If Christmas decorations are going up, can Halloween be far behind? I wish people were not so eager
to rush the seasons. Why can't we just enjoy the present (no pun intended) time ?
As most of you know, I've been
a supporter of the Western Missouri Basset Rescue, just outside of Kansas City, for the past year or so. Just recently I finished
editing a book, Tails of Basset Rescue1 written by the rescue founder, Chris Bly. This slim volume, published this week, is an eye-opener that relates
the truth about rescuing canines—the heartaches, sorrows, joys, and profound feelings of accomplishment. It is more
about survival than about rescue, as Chris writes in her introduction: "...rescue is not a glorious job. Rescue is more
than taking in a dog, giving it a bath, and finding it a good home. Rescue is a matter of life and death...a struggle for
both animal and human to overcome past experiences."
Each of the twenty-five color-illustrated vignettes is
a tail (tale) about a Basset rescued by Chris and her husband, Jim, co-founder of WMBRI. Some stories are joyous, a few are
sad, most are poignant, and all of them are testaments to the courage and unselfish sacrifices all dog rescuers make each
and every day to save helpless animals, victims of human cruelty, that cannot fend for themselves. It is an inspiring book
that should be read not only by devotees of Basset Hounds, but by everyone.
All proceeds of the book sales benefit
wmbri.org—I encourage you all, even if you are not owned by a dog, to buy a copy or two. You will be giving a gift not only to
yourself, but to homeless Basset Hounds who could really use the help.
While Tails of Basset Rescue tells the truth about saving dogs, a poignant novel, The Truth About Us2 by Darlene Flannigan, addresses other kinds of cruel realities. The following is the review
I wrote for authorexposure.com, which you can also read on that site.
A sensitive, talented writer can incorporate
sordid and distasteful violence—especially toward woman—into a novel’s plotline so that the reader is not
totally offended or turned away. Darlene Flannigan, author of The Truth About Us , is such a writer. This short, fast-paced, intriguing novel is
not, however, about violence, per se, but how it affects the lives of three college friends. Grace, Jude, and Erica—one
a victim of date-rape—find themselves embroiled in the consequences of keeping a “shameful” secret from
their past which mold their present and unalterably change their future.
The Truth About Us starts with tall,
gangling Grace who senses she does not fit in anywhere, except when filming feminist documentaries. In college, she thought
she fit into Jason’s arms, dating him until—Wait! This secret is best revealed in the alternating chapters of
each woman telling her own side of their tale. Assembled together, the chapters build a climatic story not only about emotional
as well as physical violence, but about the sin of re-percussive retribution without redemption; poignantly, not one of our
heroines truly finds salvation. Save Grace, who, with Erica, is threatened betrayal by born-again Jude, and searches for peace
and salvation in a griping and unexpected denouement.
This is a poignantly enlightening book about secrets hiding
in our past, nagging our present, destroying our future. As Flannigan writes toward the end of the novel (page 199): “A
secret is never locked away tight, it pushes outward…to be avoided, the creaky stair when you’re trying to be
quiet...Avoidance is hard work and…takes its toll…leaves its mark.” What do you do when a flawed, disillusioned
friend threatens to expose it?
Punching home her point, Flannigan weaves simple metaphors into fluidly crisp writing.
Grace, physically ungraceful physically, is full of grace. The present and future of Jude, both betrayer and betrayed, closely
parallels that of Judas Iscariot. A pastor becomes a Pharisee; a sister is the only one who sees the unavoidable truth and
offers forgiveness; and Jason is both the symbol and catalyst for sin. The novel, itself, depicted in its title, is the harbinger
of our own psychological truths, even if it is literary fiction.
My own truth? At first, I wasn’t going to
read and review this novel, best read by mature teenagers and adults, because of its upsetting subject matter and a few adamant
pan reviews on various websites. In all honesty, the opening pages turned me off. But Flannigan’s opening passages and
her striking style kept nudging at me to give it a second chance—to find its truth for myself.
It only took
me a rainy afternoon like this one to read and enjoy it. And I am glad I did. ~~~~~~ 1 © 2012 Christine
Bly. 114-pgs, with color illustrations. Available in both paperback and Kindle editions. Self-published through CreateSpace.com. 2 © 2012 Darlene Flannigan. 167-pgs. Available for Kindle, as well as other e-reader devices. Self-published
by Darlene Flannigan
12:47 pm edt
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
History
Lessons It is usually
bad form to write a review before first finishing the book, but I am so excited about reading Winter of the World: Book Two of the Century Trilogy1
by Ken Follett, that I have to tell you about it now. I am a little more than a third of the way through this intensely interesting
sequel to Fall of Giants: Book One of the Century Trilogy that spans the Twentieth Century from 1933 to 1949. Not since Herman Wouk's The Winds of War , first published in November 1971, has there been such a realistic fictionalized account of the sixteen frightening years
leading up to, including, and following World War II. Follett continues in the second installment of his trilogy with the
next generation of the five families—American, British, Russian, German/ Austrian, and Welsh—whom we first met
two years ago in the first, following them as they cope with changing political climates that plummeted the world into darkest
winter.
When I finished Fall of Giants in October 20102,
I was bereft wanting more of Follett's trilogy and spent the last two years impatiently waiting for Winter of the World . When I finally saw the full-page add in the Sunday New York Times Book Review three weeks ago, I stretched my
budget to immediately order it. I now find myself most evenings since the tome arrived a day after its September 18th publication
date, eschewing my favorite television shows and old movies for long evenings happily immersed in the lives and times of its
protagonists. And even though I know the basic background historical plot and sub-plots, it's the best kind of literary historical
fiction that I cannot put down, eagerly wanting to read on-and-on the imaginative part as it unfolds and ends. But I don’t
want it to.
Here the five families again intermingle and intertwine, embroiled now not in the earlier turmoil of
World War I, but in the nefarious Rise of the Third Reich, the Spanish War, and the nightmares of four years of horrific world
conflict. The stage setting of these true-to-life characters—heros and heroines all—burgeons with well researched
and delineated historical facts and events—some of which, I am sure, are mere footnotes in history books—that
Follett, with his clear, concise, fluid writing style has brought to the fore and back to life. Through his characters, Follett
educates us with salient true details—the best trait of any historical novel. I, for one, for example, was unclear about
the deeper, more intimate politics and history of the Spanish War, which preceded and helped to precipitate WWII. But when
Welsh-born Lloyd Williams, one of the primary heroes, volunteers to fight Franco and his fascists alongside the then current
Spanish government's meager forces, I finally understood the real reasons for the conflict. And, for two, I now have a clearer
understanding of America's involvement, or lack thereof, during the early stages of Hitler’s rise to prurient power.
There is something about wrapping a bit of fiction around facts and dates that vividly brings them to life. Which
is exactly what Follett does. If I could have read his magnificent novels when I was studying Modern World History back when
in high school, I probably would have found it endlessly fascinating rather than decidedly merely dull, even given the fact
that my parents and a number of relatives lived through the era to relate to me their own stories of peril and adventure.
While reading Winter of the World, I am again listening to them, albeit re-enacted by members of fictitious families whom I have come to cherish just as much
as my own factual one.
And that is exactly what is making this novel so very real and mesmerizing to me. I am old
enough to read and totally relate to it, remembering those first-hand accounts of my own childhood. For those of you who actually
have lived through it all, this novel will be especially poignant; especially since Follett will undoubtedly take you, as
he has me, back in time as he captures and recreates the salient history lessons that we should never forget nor repeat.
Having written this, it's time to order in some dinner and settle in for yet another night of intensely satisfying
reading.
Until next time...may every novel you and I read be as great as this one!~~~~~~ 1 © 2012 by Ken Follett. 940-pgs; hrdbck. First Edition.
DUTTON/The Penguin Group USA, New York, NY. 2 This was published in September of that year. Also a First Edition.
DUTTON/The Penguin Group USA, New York, NY. The covers are stylistically the same. They are a handsome pair sharing a shelf
in the historical fiction section of my upstairs library.
1:39 pm edt
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June
J. McInerney, the host of this Literary Blog, is
an author, poet, and librettist. Her currently published works include a novel, a book of spiritual inspirations,
two
volumes of poetry, stories
for children (of all ages) and
a variety of children's musicals. Her titles include: Miss Elmira's Secret Treasure:
A Novel of Phoenixville during the Early 1900s Colonial Theatre: A Novel of Phoenixville
during the Roarin' 20s Phoenix Hose, Hook & Ladder: A Novel of Phoenixville during
World War I Columbia Hotel: A Novel of Phoenixville during the Early 1900s the Schuylkill Monster: A Novel of Phoenixville in 1978
The Prisoner's
Portrait: A Novel of Phoenxville during World War II
Forty-Thirty Rainbow in the Sky Meditations for New Members
Adventures
of Oreigh Ogglefont The Basset Chronicles. Cats of Nine Tales Spinach
Water: A Collection of Poems Exodus Ending: A
Collection of More Spiritual Poems
We Three Kings Beauty and the Beast Bethlehem Noah's
Rainbow Peter, Wolf, and Red Riding
Hood
Originally from the New York metropolitan area, June currently lives near Valley Forge Park in Pennsylvania with her constant and loving companions, FrankieBernard and Sebastian Cat. She
is currently working on her sixth novel.
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