All posts tagged: “Daughters

Can you sense what animals are feeling? Maybe. R.L. Maizes discusses this, plus abandonment, father-daughter relationships, how pets inspire, reading jags, and so much more in OTHER PEOPLE’S PETS

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By Leslie Lindsay  Highly inventive, charming tale about a young woman, her criminal father, a love for animals and how animals are sometimes part of our destiny. ~WEDNESDAYS WITH WRITERS| ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ Charmingly off-beat and slightly quirky, OTHER PEOPLE’S PETS by R.L. Maizes, a Pushcart Prize-nominated author, (Celadon, July 14 2020) is told with such wonder, such sparse–yet focused–details, I couldn’t help by empathize with the situations Maizes constructs in her story. La La (Louise) Fine is a fourth year vet student and she relates to four-legged creatures more than the human ones–the only exception being perhaps her father, Zev. Having been abandoned by her mother as a young child, La La grew up with a single dad who was a locksmith turned thief. She went along with him on his “jobs,” and tended to the animals, stood as the watch-out, and often left treats for the animals. But that’s all in her past. Now, she has a promising career as a vet, an adoring fiancé, and she’s mostly come to terms with her mother. …

Anna Solomon talks about her ravishing and darkly sexy The Book of V., about female friendships, Biblical Esther, the imbalance of power, the structure of writing and so much more

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By Leslie Lindsay  Bold, elegant, blisteringly raw and delicately complex reimagining of the biblical Queen Esther, interwoven with contemporary characters, about being a strong, passionate woman in a male-dominated world. ~WEDNESDAYS WITH WRITERS|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ Recommended by: People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, The New York Post, CNN, The Skimm, and more… plus… A Good Morning America & An Emma Roberts’ Belletrist Book Club Pick Bold, elegant, blisteringly raw and delicately complex reimagining of the biblical Queen Esther, interwoven with contemporary characters, about being a strong, passionate woman in a male-dominated world. I just finished THE BOOK OF V. (Henry Holt, May 2020) by Anna Solomon, and this book…oh this book! I cannot rave about it enough. I scrambled to order everything else she has ever written and am anxiously awaiting their arrival. This book made me think, it made me talk, it made me write. “The Book of V. asks complicated questions about power, desire, and the evolution of women’s roles.” —Real Simple, Top Picks for Every Taste THE BOOK OF …

Can we break the cycle of trauma and abuse? Kristi Carter talks about this, the twilight of spring, Southern identity, the struggles that make up womankind, and so much more in this luminous collection of poetry in ARIA VISCERA

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By Leslie Lindsay Such a gorgeously dark and ruminative collection of poetry focusing on one’s thick, oppressive familial heritage, and yet, a compelling light to break the cycle. ~WEDNESDAYS WITH WRITERS|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ With a title like ARIA VISCERA (April Gloaming Press, May 5 2020), I could hardly resist this collection by Kristi Carter. In music, aria is defined as a singular voice, self-contained, and it also brings to mind great expansion, an origin I am not familiar with etymologically, but maybe. And of course, viscera represents the internal organs. Being a writer with a background in medicine, this collection spoke to me, quite literally, but once I dove into the pages, I discovered there was another calling: it’s about a scarred past, and how scars don’t exactly go away, but fade; it’s about finding one’s own light in dark times, of escaping the cycle of abuse, neglect, of breaking away. Divided into four sections, ARIA VISCERA focuses on birth, names, anatomy, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, brothers, life cycles; it’s also about myths and monsters (literal and …

Beloved UK Author Ruth Hogan delights with her newest release QUEENIE MALONE’S PARADISE HOTEL with vibrant characters, tackling issues such as estrangement, mental illness, and chosen families

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By Leslie Lindsay  An uplifting novel of mothers and daughters, secrets and the astonishing power of friendship, from the wildly popular bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Things. ~FICTION FRIDAY|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ WINNER OF THE ROMANTIC NOVELISTS’ ASSOCIATION AWARD 2020 SELECTED FOR WORLD BOOK NIGHT 2020 A PRIMA BOOK OF THE YEAR Tilly was a bright, outgoing little girl who liked playing with ghosts and matches. She loved fizzy drinks, swear words, fish fingers and Catholic churches, but most of all she loved living in Brighton in Queenie Malone’s magnificent Paradise Hotel with its endearing and loving family of misfits. But Tilly’s childhood was shattered when her mother sent her away from the only home she’d ever loved to boarding school with little explanation and no warning. Now an adult, Tilda has grown into an independent woman still damaged by her mother’s unaccountable cruelty. Wary of people, her only friend is her dog, Eli. But when her mother dies, Tilda returns to Brighton and with the help of her beloved Queenie sets about unravelling the mystery …

Stunning literary fiction about race, class, family, secrets, injustice, more in Anissa Gray’s gorgeously rendered debut, THE CARE AND FEEDING OF RAVENOUSLY HUNGRY GIRLS, now in paperback

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By Leslie Lindsay Everybody’s hungry in THE CARE AND FEEDING OF RAVENOUSLY HUNGRY GIRLS…daughters who yearn for mothers, sisters who need sisters… ~FICTION SPOTLIGHT|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~  NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK!  One of the most anticipated reads of 2019 Vogue, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Essence, Bustle, HelloGiggles and Cosmo! The poignant and emotionally affecting debut novel by CNN journalist Anissa Gray, THE CARE AND FEEDING OF RAVENOUSLY HUNGRY GIRLS (Berkley Trade Paperback, January 2020) is such an exquisite read about class, family, love, and more. Embraced by booksellers and librarians and endorsed by authors like Terry McMillan and Delia Owens, the novel is a powerful exploration of what it means to be middle class in today’s America—and what it feels like to be an outsider in your family and community. “If you enjoyed An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, read The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls…an absorbing commentary on love, family and forgiveness.” —The Washington Post  Gray grew up a pastor’s daughter in a small western Michigan town and drew from her experiences to create the intimately familiar world of the Butler family. Told from the alternating perspectives of sisters Althea,Viola, and Lillian, THE CARE AND FEEDING OF RAVENOUSLY HUNGRY …

Sweeping meditation on sacrifice and survival spanning generations, weaving into the present, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s shattering, THE REVISIONERS

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By Leslie Lindsay Gifts, glories, and gospels of generational legacies spanning time, race, and more in THE REVISIONERS.  ~WeekEND Reading: Spotlight~ NATIONAL BESTSELLER A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year  Just how much our past is woven into our present? That’s the question Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s asks in THE REVISIONERS (Counterpoint, 2019). Told in a trifurcated timeline from a first person POV–1924, 2017, and 1855–but focusing on one family and several strong women, this is a tale of generational legacies, healing, traditions, motherhood, prejudices, and a dash of magical realism. Set in New Orleans 2017, Ava and her teenage son, King, are living with Ava’s white, wealthy grandmother, Martha, serving as her companion/caretaker. Ava–a single mother and recently laid-off–is paid for her service to her grandmother and saving up so she and her son can leave and have a home of their own. But Martha’s behavior soon becomes erratic, then threatening and Ava must leave before her story–and that of an ancestor she never knew–Josephine–collide. “Sexton takes on [Toni Morrison’s artful invocation of the …

In Material That Matters, I share what I imagine my mother’s life was like as a newlywed, her dreams & hopes and how, when she was in her thirties, she had a ‘nervous breakdown’

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By Leslie Lindsay A daughter recollects her mother before she was her mother; her creativity, and ultimate psychosis. It’s about motherhood and mystery, how she fits into this intricate network, and more. ~MEMOIR MONDAY~ This is my mother before she was my mother. She had a thrumming, electric energy, as if her skin was embedded with diamonds, glistening with potential. In the 1970s when she met my father, she dreamed of happily-ever-after, flower boxes and flat driveways filled with Big-Wheels and scooters, the giddy shrieks of children. Together, they purchased a plot of land in a new subdivision, one that had a name like Southern Hills or Southhall or maybe it was Westfield, a moniker resembling cardinal directions. Something in her peripheral vision reflected mirth and yet, darkness. Her blue eyes conveyed intelligence, but sadness, too. She planned everything, prepared herself to be a homemaker, an artist, a mother: a sewing machine, canvases for the walls, macramé plant holders dangling from hooks on the ceiling. She culled through Butterick patterns at Cloth World and emerged with …

Dads are Grand: Father’s Day is Here!

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By Leslie Lindsay Okay moms, you’ve had a whole month or so to bask in reflected glory and now it’s time to let dad step in and take the spot-light.  Because, as we all know–dads do a lot (some more than others–and the same might be true of mothers, too).  When it comes to dads–they are the first men our daughters will ever love.  And that’s a pretty important thing, right? (No pressure, right).  It makes me think about the John Mayer song, “Daughters.”  Here are some ideas you can do this weekend to honor dear old dad: Pull out all of the old photo albums and recall all of those touching moments.  We did this at our house earlier in the week.  I can still see the black & white photo of my hubby as he bent down to kiss the top of first-born’s head in the Baby Bjorn he was wearing.  Write a funny article about dad in your own “newspaper.”  Present it to him on Sunday. Gift dad with some time alone to …