All posts tagged: Caroline Leavitt

Caroline Leavitt will send you a watercolor painting if you buy her new book, WITH OR WITHOUT YOU, how this ties in with the narrative, reinvention, going home, and so much more

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By Leslie Lindsay  A thoughtful, incisive meditation on what it means to transform, following a coma, with intimate and complex relationships hinging in the balance.  ~WEDNESDAYS WITH WRITERS|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ New York Times Bestselling author One of She Reads’ “Most Anticipated Reads of 2020” Public Library Association Buzzed Book Starred Kirkus Review A Fall Title of Note, Publisher’s Weekly Good Morning America, A Zibby Owens August Book Club Pick One of Popsugar’s Incredible Books of August Bustle Best Books Out This Week One of LitHub’s Best Books to put on your TBR pile right now Caroline Leavitt’s books always inspire and intrigue. WITH OR WITHOUT YOU (Algonquin, August 4th 2020) is no exception, but this one seems much more interior than her more recent novels, and perhaps that’s because it almost has to be–one of the main characters is in a coma. Told with precision and insight and emotion, this is a literary examination of what happens when life is altered by a single tragic moment, a clear delineation between ‘before’ and ‘after.’ Stella and Simon are in …

Janine Urbaniak Reid talks about her medical mother-son memoir, THE OPPOSITE OF CERTAINTY, how love & goodness show up at the right time, her fascination with what’s left when everything has been stripped from us, faith, more

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By Leslie Lindsay  Life is turned upside-down in this self-proclaimed perfectionist mother’s memoir about her son’s brain tumor.  ~WEDNESDAYS WITH WRITERS|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ What happens when life is turned upside-down due to a challenging, mysterious illness of one’s child?  That’s what happens in Janine Urbaniak Reed’s astonishing memoir, THE OPPOSITE OF CERTAINTY (May 12: Thomas Nelson). Janine just wanted everything to be perfect. She thought if she did everything ‘right,’ they would be fine, everyone would be happy and no one would experience the pain she felt growing up. Married with three children, a husband who travels for work, she took time out to raise her children…and then, her son, Mason, experienced strange tremors and other symptoms. What was wrong and why were some doctors discounting it? Infusing faith with medicine, Janine takes readers—and herself—on a somewhat reluctant journey. THE OPPOSITE OF CERTAINTY is most definitely a memoir for our times, as the world faces so many uncertainties, as we all must fortify ourselves against the potential of chaos and fissures at our feet. …

Writers on Wednesday: Caroline Leavitt talks about being a ‘fall chicken,’ list-maker, fixer, mapping out stories via the Truby method, songs that influenced the 1960s & 1970s and so, so much more in her stellar CRUEL BEAUTIFUL WORLD

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By Leslie Lindsay  From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist of PICTURES OF YOU, IS THIS TOMORROW, and GIRLS IN TROUBLE, Caroline Leavitt returns with her eleventh novel, a stellar read intersecting family, new love, and an anxious time in American history. Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Manson Murders, CRUEL BEAUTIFUL WORLD (Algonquin Books, Oct 4 2016) is at first blush, a coming-of-age tale, but the story grows immensely darker, about the perils of young love, controlling partners, and responsibility. Sixteen year old Lucy is about to run away with her much older High School English teacher to live off the grid in rural Pennsylvania, a rash act that has dire consequences for she and her older sister, Charlotte. Like most novels, CRUEL BEAUTIFUL WORLD is based on a smidgen of truth, a real-life crime concerning a girl who sat in front of Ms. Leavitt in a high school class for two years, who had a relationship with a thirty-year old man. It began for Leavitt as …

Write On, Wednesday: Interview with Amy Impellizzeri, Author of LEMONGRASS HOPE

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By Leslie Lindsay I’m thrilled to introduce you to a new book, a new author! One you’ve just GOT to read. Amy  Impellizzeri is a debut author of LEMONGRASS HOPE, just the mere mention of the title slipping from my mouth makes me feel, well…nostalgic, hopeful; it exudes intrigue and evokes another time and place. Say it. Lemongrass Hope. Before the book, Amy worked tirelessly as a corporate litigator. She now advocates for entrepreneurial women, and is at work on her next book, Lawyer Interrupted (due out in 2015) which takes non-fiction delve into the cutthroat world of corporate law. She’s also a mom and wife. But back to Lemongrass Hope. Critically-acclaimed, it’s a mutilayered bittersweet romance that will leave you with perhaps more questions than answers. At the very least, it will have you questioning the power of fate, destiny, and second chances. Read my review here. [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1073361165] L.L.: Amy, thank you so very much for taking the time to be with us today. I have to say, I am reading Lemongrass Hope right …

Write On, Wednesay: Special New Series (1/5)–Defining HOME featuring Caroline Leavitt

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By Leslie Lindsay  (image source: http://www.alphabetart.com 9.4.13) I have a giant grin on my face today.  Other than the fact that I have the house to myself, a laptop, brain (let’s hope), and basset hound at my feet, I have a new series to share on Wednesdays!  It’s all about the concept of HOME.  Ever notice how nearly every book you read has some element of home buried deep within the words on the page?  Your reading material may have something to do with big green monsters eating every chocolate chip cookie and then running off to school, but I would wager that those monsters began at say…home?!  The book I just finished reading (Tanya Chernov’s A REAL EMOTIONAL GIRL) had almost everything to do with home (but was largely masked by her grief over her late father).  The next book I picked up, BRAIN ON FIRE (Susannah Cahalan)  might really be about her lost month of insanity, but delve into the pages, and you see an underlying theme of home…her junky New York studio, …

Write on Wednesday: An Interview with New York Times Bestselling Author Caroline Leavitt

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By Leslie Lindsay One of my favorite all-time authors is Caroline Leavitt.  She writes with such grit and honesty that it is completely refreshing.  Her latest book, IS THIS TOMORROW (May, 2013) is set under the backdrop of 1950’s suburbia.  Ava is a single, Jewish mother raising her thirteen year old son in an all-Christian neighborhood when one of the son’s buddies goes missing.  Part suspense, part literary fiction, this book will resonate with those who enjoy a good, multi-layered read.  Leslie Lindsay:  Many of your stories have an underlying theme of unconventional families.  In PICTURES OF YOU, the young father is recently widowed and raising a son.  GIRLS IN TROUBLE features a young woman who gives her baby up through open adoption and then weaves herself into that new family.  Ava portrays a single Jewish mother in the 1950s.  Traditional?  Not in the least.  Can you share how you are inspired to write about families that are less than typical?  Caroline Leavitt: “Probably because my own family had its issues. My parents had a terrible marriage. …

Fiction Friday: What are YOU Reading this Summer?!

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By Leslie Lindsay Instead of throwing out another excerpt of what I am writing today, thought I’d share a few of my must-read summer selections.  Whether you’re going away to a tropical location or just sitting comfortably in an air conditioned library, I am sure you, too have a love for reading.  Here goes! The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan.  Who doesn’t love J. Courtney Sullivan and her epic stories of girlfriends in college (Commencement), East Coast Irish-Catholic families (Maine) and now her lastest, THE ENGAGEMENTS?  This one is a slice of American–and French–marriage.  Cascading through time, going back as far as 1947 and ending with “present-day” 2012, we meet a host of characters, from Frances a single woman in the 1940s-50’s who coined the phrase, “A diamond is forever” to 1972 and the scandal of divorce, moving right along to 1987 and the world of paramedics and a family struggling financially…to 2003 where we delve into a world of music and all things French and finally wrapping things up with a gay wedding of 2012.  …

Write On, Wednesday! Writing about Home

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By Leslie Lindsay Lately, a lot of the books I have read for pleasure have this underlying theme of home–and so does the novel I am working on.  Coincidence?  Perhaps.  We tend to be better writers when we read content that interests us–and that’s written in a compelling manner.  We also tend to gravitate towards information that may have some connection to what we are currently working on, struggling with, or have an innate interest in–it’s all the power of the subconcious.  So, what have I been reading?  THE GLASS WIVES by Amy Sue Nathan.  Home and family shifts for Evie Glass, but she still remains rooted in family.  IS THIS TOMORROW by Caroline Leavitt.  A 12-year old boy goes missing in 1950’s suburbia.  WHAT ALICE FORGOT by Laine Moriarty.  This one is actually a re-read.  Since the main (suburban) character loses her memory, I was drawn back to this one as research for my novel-in-progress, hoping to glean a few instances I may have…ahem…forgotten. BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell.  This guy always fascintates me!  His other books line …

Write On, Wednesday: Sharpening the Saw

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By Leslie Lindsay We writer’s need continuing education like the rest of us.  Writing may not be life or death as in my former career as an R.N. where we needed to do annual competancies, CPR re-certification, and CEUs….but it is just as vital.  And I do mean that in all ways–vital to making our writing stand out, and vital to the inner writer–those of us who feel we may die if we don’t get our daily word count in.  Of course, we aren’t going to die, but well…our words tend to atrophy. So, I am gearing up for a season of conferences and retreats.  Ha!  I say that as if I am going to be shipped off to a writer’s colony or something.  Alas, I am going to just two events this year (at least that I know of). This weekend, is the Spring Fling Conference held here in Chicagoland (http://www.chicagospringfling.com/) It’s really geared towards those who write romance.  Folks like Fern Michels, Nora Roberts, & Carly Phillips (I only know those names because I am sitting here at …