Haunting Bombay is the story of the family’s dark secrets that have been kept hidden for more than a decade.  In the attempt to rid the household of the small ghost, the family must reveal that which they’ve ignored for years and risk tearing their family further apart while doing so.

Haunting Bombay was a beautifully told book with haunting characters.  I loved getting to know each of the characters, including the servants.  I love back stories and Agarwal gave us enough story for each character that the story needed each and every one of them.  Although there is still the element of the cruel family who unwillingly takes in an orphan, I’m glad that her grandmother fiercely loved her.  It was an nice change from the typical orphan story.   I loved the Indian setting and culture, the oppressiveness of the monsoon heat and dampness, the superstitions, and the food (mmmm . . . . why do I always pay special attention to the food?).

At the heart of this story is a ghost.  I knew there was a ghost when I started to read the book, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much the ghost would present itself in the story.  Haunting Bombay truly has its supernatural elements which I honestly didn’t enjoy as much.  I might have preferred the suggestion of such things rather then the clear manifestation of the supernatural.  But I thought that Agarwal did a great job of seamlessly combining the supernatural with a story about a family tragedy.  I also think that the book could have been a bit shorter.  At 362 pages, it’s not a long book, but  I struggled a bit through the ending and found myself anxious to finish.

After finishing the book and unraveling the mystery behind the young ghost, I could see that clues had been scattered throughout the story but I was glad to have  not picked up on them while reading.  I truly did not know how this story would end which kept me involved and invested in the story.  For those who would not only love a cultural book set in the heart of India but also a ghost story during this fall season, Haunting Bombay would be an excellent book to pick up.  For a debut novel, Agarwal does an excellent job with characters, language, and a sense of time and place.

While I didn’t find myself falling head over heels in love with the manifested supernatural elements of this particular story, Agarwal is an author that I would definitely read again for the pure joy of  story, setting and characters.

And as a total side-note, when I was little I named my journal for a while.  I had completely forgot that I had named it Pinky until coming across this oddly named character.  Funny.

Links of interest:  Shilpa Agarwal website, blog, and on Twitter.  Visit TLC Book Tours for more reviews on Agarwal’s blog tour.
Genre:   Fiction
Publisher: Soho Press. April 1, 2009.
Hardcover, 368 pages. ISBN 156947558X
Haunting Bombay is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Girl in the Arena comes out today and I’d love to see people picking it up to read because I think it makes for some great discussion.  The more that I think about the book, the more I like it.  It has some fascinating insight into a culture that has gone mad for violence and touches on some deep issues.

Girl in the Arena is a dystopian novel but man, it felt like the culture was not such a far fetched idea.  There are a lot of references to current culture – Skyping, Wikipedia, watching Crouching Tiger and Stranger than Fiction but wrapped up in all of this is the Gladiator sport.  And it’s actually more than a sport, it’s an entire culture that began first underground at about the time of the Vietnam War.  Gladiators now fight in front of large crowds and a TV audience and can fight anything from animals to other Gladiators to the death.  It’s a blood sport more popular than football or soccer.

Lyn was born into the Gladiator lifestyle and living the rules and bylaws of the association is second nature to her family.  Her mother is a high profile Glad wife who has been married and widowed by seven Gladiators.  Lyn is known as the daughter who had seven fathers.  They are celebrities.  Tommy, her current father has been matched up with Uber, a new gifted young fighter and if there’s a bylaw that Lyn knows all to well it’s – Never leave the stadium when your father is dying. Uber wins Lyn’s dowry which means that she must marry him.  But after watching her mother lose seven husbands, the last thing that Lyn wants to do is become a Glad wife.  But the Association is intent on her celebrity wedding.  To win her freedom, she challenges Uber to a fight in the arena.  It’s a  first for the association and they’ll do anything for publicity.  The only problem is – she might actually like the guy.  And while she considers herself a fighter, she actually doesn’t like violence.

I loved Lyn’s little brother Thad.  Although, it’s not stated specifically, I imagine that he is Autistic.  Everything that Lyn does, she does for Thad.  I loved their relationship.  Lyn’s relationship with her mother was odd in the sense that she seemed to be taking care of her instead of the other way around.  Plus, I always find it odd when children call their parents by their first name.

Stylistically, I found that the choice to not include quotation marks in dialogue to be very interesting.  It took me more than half of the book to be able to see past it.  It was really hard to read this way at first and took me out of the story.  I honestly don’t know why the dialogue was this way.  I was okay with it the second half of the book after I got in the rhythm of the book.  You can get a slight idea of what I’m talking about in the following passage where Lyn recounts the first time she went to her first Glad fight at the age of five.

– Kitten, we’re going to see some funny things today.  Men being a . . . . little silly.

She rubbed my knuckles with her thumbs as she spoke.

– If we see anything that makes us a little sad or upset, we just have to make a game of it.

I said I wanted to play a game.  And she started over.

– The men are going to look like they’re having a big fight.  Your father is a famous fighter, so this is something to be proud of.

– He’s a gladiator, I said.

– Yes, exactly, and we know that gladiators hav weapons.  Like . . . axes and knives and . . .

– And clubs.

[. . . . ]

– Yes, clubs too.  Good girl.  So nothing to be concerned about.  And I brought your coloring book and crayons.  And look, she said, reaching into her bag and pulling out my favorite stuffed animal.  — I brought your dog and her pajamas if she gets tired.

This is also one of those covers that isn’t truly representative of the book’s character.  I personally like the cover but Lyn is actually bald for the entirety of the book.  She’s got a nice set of hair in that cover.

Girl in the Arena explores a world of violence and how the lines between reality and games are blurred.  It’s a story that I won’t forget simply because it is SO disturbing.  How does a culture move from being normal to one where killing each other for sport is celebrated?  I don’t think this book will be for everybody.  It is bloody.  So be warned.  But it’s worth picking up.  A fascinating premise and story line.

And although I think it stands completely on it’s own, yes, its true, for fans of The Hunger Games . . . .

Other bloggers on the Kidz Book Buzz tour:  Abby the Librarian, A Patchwork of Books, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Fireside Musings, Homeschool Book Buzz, KidzBookBuzz.com, Maw Books Blog, My Own Little Corner of the World, Reading is My Superpower, Through a Child’s Eyes.
Links of interest:  Lise Haines website and on twitter.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Bloomsbury. October 13, 2009.
Hardcover, 336 pages. ISBN 1599903725
Girl in the Arena is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

I’m thrilled to share an interview with Sandra Dallas today.  Please give her a warm welcome . . .

Maw Books:  Welcome Sandra!  It’s my pleasure to be able to ask you some questions today about your newest novel, Prayers for Sale.

I’m fascinated by where ideas come from and choosing a particular storyline and characters over all the other books you could potentially write.  Where did Nit and Hennie and their relationship come from? How long did you live with them before committing them to paper?

Sandra Dallas: Those are difficult questions to answer.  I don’t plan ahead of time what I’m going to write, don’t outline.  I just let things evolve as I sit at the computer.  The idea for the book came from three sources.  I lived in Breckenridge, Colo., in the early 1960s and knew men who’d worked on the dredges.  I’d always wanted to write about them but had never found a way to do so.  Another idea in the back of my mind was writing a book similar to a quilters’ classic, Aunt Jane of Kentucky, a 100-year-old book in which a quilter tells stories of her life.  I’d wanted to write such a book about Colorado.  But those two ideas didn’t come together until I read a Civil War story about the death of a baby and realized I could tell that story against a background of the brutality of dredging combined with the warmth and friendship represented by quilts.

As for the characters, I don’t know where they came from.  I had to have a very old lady tell the stories, and it just seemed that she should pass them along to someone who was young and new. Once I had the idea for Prayers for Sale, I just sat down and wrote it and let the characters reveal themselves to me as I went along.

Maw Books:  Middle Swan, Colorado is as much as a character in Prayers for Sale as any of the other characters and influences every aspect of their lives.  Two questions:  what led you to choose this setting and how does one create such a strong sense of place?

Sandra Dallas: The setting is always a character in my books.  In fact, I usually get the setting before the plot or the characters.  I chose Breckenridge, as the background for Middle Swan because I know Breckenridge, and I know those rock piles. It’s also one of the few places in America that had extensive gold dredging.  I think you create a sense of place by going there and soaking up the atmosphere (my favorite thing to do when writing a book.  I much prefer that to sitting at the computer.  In fact, it I were smart, I’d set my books in Hawaii or the South of France.) I believe place defines people, and I find it hard to separate the characters from the background.

Maw Books:  Prayers for Sale is the first book of yours I have read (Tallgrass has been on my to be read list forever – on some amazing recommendations from my fellow bloggers).  I understand that many of the characters in Prayers for Sale are from your other books.  Can you talk more about what made you decide to use them and how they helped shape Prayers for Sale?

Sandra Dallas: I don’t like letting characters go, so I give them walk-on roles in subsequent novels. Prayers for Sale is set in 1936, because that was the only year that worked for bringing back characters for previous books.  I like using them because they’re old friends.  Tom Earley turned out to really shape the book.  He was a character from The Diary of Mattie Spenser, and I gave him only a few lines, but he objected and stayed on, and he turned out to be very important in Prayers for Sale.

Maw Books:  I read how you came up with the title of Prayers for Sale but I’d love for my readers to know as well.  Will you expound on what inspired your title?

Sandra Dallas: The working title was The Quilter, which I didn’t like.  Then I ran across a story in one of the WPA slave narratives about a former slave, an old man who went around with his pockets filled with prayers for all occasions and a sign reading “Prayers for Sale.”  I thought that would make a great book title.  Because of the title, the book took on a more spiritual tone.

Maw Books:  Quilts play such a large part in Prayers for Sale.  Are quilts a large part of your own life?  Do you quilt?

Sandra Dallas: I’m a very poor quilter.  But I love quilts because they represent women and are women’s art.  I collect doll quilts, many in poor conditions.  Dolls are very hard on them.

Maw Books:  If you had to describe Prayers for Sale in just one word, which word would you choose?

Sandra Dallas: Friendship.

Maw Books:  Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres because it literally transports me to a different time and learn how people talked, what they did, what they ate,etc. What was the research like for Prayers for Sale?  How do you have the confidence to know that you did it right?

Sandra Dallas: Well, none of those people are around to challenge me.  I used notes from two Breckenridge writers, Helen Rich and Belle Turnbull, who lived in the mountains in the 1940s.  I read period writing and books on the Great Depression to get language.  I go through old magazines, and I love to research in antiques shops.  And while I wasn’t born until 1939, I do remember the 1940s, and things weren’t so much different then.

Maw Books:  If you could have one of your characters from Prayers for Sale step out from the pages of your book and have dinner with you, who would you choose and why?

Sandra Dallas: Oh, Hennie, of course, because she would entertain us with her stories.

Maw Books:  Is the finished book of Prayers for Sale anything like what you envisioned it when you started?  How did it change along the way?

Sandra Dallas: It’s much different, because it started out as a series of short stories.  But my agent, Danielle Egan-Miller, told me it was a novel, and she was right.  So I had to rewrite the manuscript several times to make it the story of Hennie and Nit.

Maw Books:  Prayers for Sale is stitched together from many short stories narrated by Hennie.  Were there any stories that you loved but had to be cut?  Do you have a favorite among them or no?

Sandra Dallas: There was a story about a bank scam, based on a real event in Telluride, Colorado, that I cut out, because the book was getting too long, and I was starting to be annoyed that Hennie talked too much.  I think my favorite was the one about Hennie’s childhood friend, Martha Merritt Grove.  She and her husband are based on Colorado prospectors, but the end is strictly made-up. I also liked the stories about hookers, most of them based on fact.

Maw Books:  This is a question that I ask every single author that I interview and that is to share a recipe with us, particularly if it’s talked about in the book.  I later make the recipe and blog about it. In Prayers for Sale, food is often shared because it’s the way that the woman take care of each other in their moments of grief and hardships and also in their moments of celebration especially when they gather together to quilt.  I know I was drooling over that raspberry pie, raspberry jam and even wonder what half moon cakes or Kentucky Pie are. Would you mind discussing the food a bit and if you have a recipe, would you share it with us?

Sandra Dallas: 1930s cooking is pretty awful, and I’m not sure you’d want to eat some of those things, although who could resist raspberry jam?  Kentucky Pie is really Chess Pie, a southern delicacy so rich that it sets your teeth on edge (not to mention it contains a week’s worth of calories.)  Here is a recipe for it from an 1883 edition of Practical Housekeeping:  “Three eggs, two-thirds cup sugar, half cup butter (half cup milk may be added if not wanted so rich); beat butter to a cream, then add yolks and sugar beaten to a froth with the flavoring; stir all together rapidly, and bake in a nice crust.  When done, spread with the beaten whites, and three table-spoons sugar and a little flavoring.  Return to oven and brown slightly.”  You can also make it without the meringue.  Incidentally, I collect mining-town cookbooks and love to include food in my stories.

Maw Books:  I’m assuming that flavoring is vanilla?  I’ll have to follow up with you on this one.  But wow!  Sounds rich and delicious!  If somebody asked you which single one of your books you would recommend as a gateway to your other books, which book would it be?

Sandra Dallas: My favorite was always the Diary of Mattie Spenser, but I think I like Prayers for Sale better.

Maw Books:  How do you balance your life as a writer with the responsibilities (speaking, promotion, etc.) of being an author?

Sandra Dallas: I probably spend as much time on promotion as I do on writing. I look at the whole thing as a job.  I was a reporter and editor for Business Week Magazine for 35 years.  Writing books even with all the promotional stuff is easier.

Maw Books:  Do you have a particular writing process or any writing rituals?

Sandra Dallas: I sit down and do it, 600-750 words a day.  Journalists don’t have writers’ block.

Maw Books:  I love that attitude!  What’s the last book you finished and what’s on your nightstand right now?

Sandra Dallas: I just finished Jim Schroeder’s Life of a Political Spouse, which is about his life with our long-term congresswoman, Patricia Schroeder.  I’ve known the Schroeders since the days when Pat and I exchanged maternity clothes.   I’m about to read Margaret Coel’s  The Silent Spirit, the latest in her mystery series set on a Wyoming Indian reservation  Margaret, another Colorado author, is also a friend.  As an aside here, it’s interesting to me how supportive writers here in Colorado are of each other. You’d think there might be jealousy and backbiting, but mostly, we read each others’ books and go to each others’ signings. I love reading books by Margaret, John Dunning, Diane Mott Davidson, Robert Greer, Arnold Grossman, Warwick Downing, and other Colorado authors.

Maw Books:  That’s the way it is with children’s writers in Utah!  You see them together all the time at each others signings.  It’s wonderful.  If you could go back and talk to yourself when you were beginning writer, what advice would you offer?

Sandra Dallas: I would have turned to fiction earlier.  As it was, my first novel wasn’t published until I was 50.  But  maybe I wasn’t capable of writing a novel worth publishing before then.

Maw Books:  It’s better late than never!  What do you do outside the world of books and writing?

Sandra Dallas: We’re restoring an historic house in Georgetown, Colorado.  That makes writing look like a snap.

Maw Books:  Wow, what a job!  So what can your fans look forward to next?  Are you working on another book and when can we expect to see it?

Sandra Dallas: The next one, Whiter Than Snow, comes out in April.  It’s about a 1920 avalanche in a small town just down the road from Middle Swan, the town in Prayers for Sale.  The avalanche sweeps up nine school children.  Four of them live.

Maw Books:  I’m looking forward to both that one and exploring your backlist.  Thanks so much Sandra!

Sandra Dallas: No, thank you.  Your questions focused me.  I don’t think a great deal about how or why I write.  I just do it. You’ve given me a chance to think about it.

Links of interest:   Maw Books review of Prayers for Sale, Sandra Dallas’s website, and thank you to Authors on the Web for coordinating this interview.andra’s  Sandra is also the author of Tallgrass, The Chili Queen, New Mercies, Alice’s Tulips, The Diary of Mattie Spencer, The Persian Pickle Club, and Buster’s Midnight Cafe.  Prayers for Sale is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.
Who’s brave enough to attempt that Chess Pie?

The year is 1936 and eighty-six-year-old Hennie Comfort (who truly lives up to her name and is a comfort to all she knows) lives in the high altitude of the Rocky Mountains in Middle Swan, Colorado.   The name Middle Swan is one that I will not soon forget as it’s as much a character in the book as anybody else.  It’s a mining town where women send their men off each morning either to the mines underground or to the dredge boats not knowing if they’ll be a widow by the end of the day because the work is so dangerous.

At Hennie’s gate is a sign that says Prayers for Sale and it’s here that she finds seventeen-year-old Nit who asks for a prayer of her own.  Despite the sign, Hennie doesn’t sell prayers, instead she gives them freely to those who need them.  Nit, who like Hennie, has already lost a baby of her own is new in town with her husband and is lonely.  Despite their obvious age difference, Hennie and Nit are drawn to each other through their common loss and Hennie takes Nit under her wings and teaches her how to survive in the rough mining town.

There is nothing more that Hennie and Nit, as well as the other women in town, love to do than quilt.  If somebody had told me that I would love a book that talked about quilting so much, I wouldn’t have believed them!  But yet, the book made me wish it was freezing outside with a warm mug of hot chocolate, pie, and a huge quilt to snuggle in.  Seriously, my only regret in reading the book now was that I didn’t experience it that way.  So come winter and you are wondering what book to pick up, pick up this one.

Hennie’s talent is not restricted to just quilting, she’s a master storyteller and the book alternates with Hennie sharing stories of her past and of the people in town with Nit.  While there is an overarching plot that moves Hennie’s stories along, each of the stories that she shares is complete on it’s own.  They are engaging and full of wonderful characters.  Sandra Dallas quickly engages the reader when Hennie shares a horrific experience in just the first chapter that had me instantly bonded to her and her story.  That bond never lifted, even after I closed the last page and I wished that  Hennie and Nit could come to my home for some conversation and teach me about quilting.

And I couldn’t close this review without noting the historical part of this Historical Fiction book.  I loved being taken back to another time and place.  From the setting of Middle Swan to the dredge, the mines, the mountains, the homes, and even the hookhouse, I felt as though I could have been right there experiencing life where hardships, loss, and grief were a way of life.

A beautiful book.  Beautiful writing.  Beautiful characters.  I’m not satisfied with leaving Hennie and Nit behind and wonder what their unwritten futures will be like.  I wholeheartedly recommend this one.

I have an interview with Sandra Dallas tomorrow.  Make a mental note to check it out.

Links of interest:  Sandra Dallas website, this is an Authors on the Web blog tour, check out more book blogger reviews.  Sandra’s  other novels include Tallgrass, The Chili Queen, New Mercies, Alice’s Tulips, The Diary of Mattie Spencer, The Persian Pickle Club, Buster’s Midnight Cafe.
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press.  April 14, 2009.
Hardcover, 320 pages.  ISBN 0312385188
Prayers for Sale is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.

My boys and I have been excited ALL summer (photo on the left is my baby about 2 1/2 years ago) because Christy, the elephant at Hogle Zoo, which we frequent about two times a month, was expecting a baby elephant.  In August her due date had finally approached.  I had talked with somebody at the zoo and was thrilled when he told me that if all goes well, the new baby elephant would be on display immediately following the birth.  Wow!

When Hogle Zoo twittered about the new arrival, I was ecstatic and asked again when the elephant would be on display.  I literally was ready to drop everything to see this elephant.  I was so bummed when this was the reply: @mawbooks Baby elephant and her mom are not on exhibit yet. Should be six to eight weeks and we’ll keep folks posted on the big debut! Dang it!  I’d waited all summer.  But the wait is finally over!  Our newest arrival will be on display a week from today.  I’ve already put in on the calender and told my friend I want to be there when they open.   And we have a new giraffe too.  It will be an exciting day.

Why am I talking about elephants?  ‘Tis funny because Tilbury House Publishers were on the look out for reviewers for two of their elephant books and they happened to catch me Twittering about well – elephants.  It’s like they read my mind, because I was thinking that reviewing some picture books about elephants would be a perfect tie-in to our own arrival here! I’ve reviewed other Tilbury titles and have enjoyed them. So I’m really excited to share two of their elephant titles with you.  But first, I have to share the baby with you!

(Photos attributed and copyrighted to the Hogle Zoo)

Isn’t she a cutie?!  I can’t wait to go visit my first baby elephant on Friday.  If any of my local readers are  planning on going bright and early in the morning, do let me know.

Let’s talk about elephant books!

Both Tarra and Carol have unusual lives and it’s in this photo essay entitled  Travels with Tarra by Carol Buckley that Carol shares with us her unusual relationship with Tarra, who happens to be an elephant.  Imagine sitting at home doing homework when you look up and see a baby elephant walking down the sidewalk.  For Carol that’s exactly what happened and it was love at first sight.

Tarra belonged to a tire store owner who bought her from an elephant broker (who literally snatched Tarra from her herd in Burman and shipped to the U.S.).  Tarra served as a mascot for this tire shop and the owner hoped that she would bring in more money.

Carol visited the tire shop so often that she soon became her caretaker and even took the elephant home with her night.  Tarra was still very much a baby and needed the physical and emotional contact that every baby needs.  For Tarra that need was accomplished through Carol and they became the best of friends.

Carol purchased Tarra and for twenty years the two of them traveled the world in shows, circuses and even making an appearance in the movie Annie.  Tarra loved to perform and was generally a very happy elephant.  But she would also get tired of the same tricks and Carol had to be inventive on how to keep her entertained.  There were a few times that she was kept in a zoo but ultimately Carol knew that Tarra was happiest with lots of room to run around.  She purchased 800 acres and founded The Elephant Sanctuary.  It’s not a zoo or a theme park in the sense that it’s not open to the public, but rather, I thought of it as more as a retirement home for elephants.  A place where they could live with other elephants and roam and play openly.

Travels with Tarra did an excellent job conveying how social elephants are.  They need attention and touch.  They truly care and comfort each other.  It also illustrates how many elephants were cared for by ignorant owners (the tire shop owner would literally drive Tarra home in the trailer, turn off the lights and go to bed – leaving her alone for hours in a very small space).  Although, Tarra loved to perform she was always the happiest when she had the opportunity to just run around in open space.

The Elephant Sanctuary has recently received a lot of media coverage and I found Travels with Tarra a good book to introduce me to the sanctuary and its background.  It would make for a good read-a-loud book in the classroom or in your home with your children.

Just for Elephants also by Carol Buckley is the story of two other elephants at the Sanctuary.  Shirley had lived a long life.  She had performed in a circus and after breaking her leg and being unable to perform tricks was sold to a zoo.  After many years with the zoo, it was decided to move Shirley to The Elephant Sanctuary where she could live out the rest of her life roaming freely with other elephants.

When she arrived, she was greeted by another elephant named Jenny who just happened to be a baby elephant in Shirley’s circus many years earlier.  The old adage, “elephants do remember” is only too true and these two elephants instantly remembered each other, stood close together.  They touched each other affectionately and often wrapped their trunks together.  They became inseparable best friends.  I enjoyed learning how the elephants lived in the sanctuary and the importance of friendships to them.

The narration in both Travels with Tarra and Just for Elephants left just a bit to be desired in its simplicity.  In Just for Elephants, I was taken a bit out of the story when the entire book was told from a third person omniscient and then at the end the author inserts herself in the story and switched to first person with the use of I.  I wouldn’t let this override your pleasure of either book, but thought that I would mention it.  Both books are full of large photographs which my children enjoyed very much.

Carol Buckley has a new book entitled Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends which comes out in just under a week and published by Putnam Juvenile.  The Elephant Sanctuary has created the following video about Tarra and her elephant friends and it’s my pleasure to exclusively debut it here on the Maw Books Blog!

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The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is the nation’s largest natural habitat refuge developed solely for endangered African and Asian elephants. It operates on 2,700 acres.  For every 100 copies of their elephant books sold, Tilbury House has pledged to sponsor a much-needed item from the Sanctuary’s wish list. These gifts will include 100 lbs of peanut butter (a favorite treat), a day’s worth of meals for one elephant (including more than 10lbs of fruits & veggies and 100 lbs of hay!), and an elephant-sized piece of land (to support the Sanctuary’s recent expansion.)  This “Trunk Sale” will run through the end of this year December 31st.

Giveaway!

Tilbury Publishers is sponsoring this giveaway of the following titles:

• Copy of Just for Elephants signed by Sanctuary co-founder Carol Buckley
• Copy of Travels With Tarra signed by Carol and stamped by Tarra the Elephant
• Package of Tilbury House Animal Books— The Goat Lady, Thanks to the Animals, and an advance copy of Bear-ly There.

The publisher will draw 3 lucky winners from all of those who comment on any of the participating tour posts from Sept. 1-9, and announce the winners on Sept 10th.  Open to U.S. and Canada.  Other stops on this tour this week are  Reading Rumpus, Sacred Elephants, Read These Books and Use Them!, Shelf Elf,  Bees Knees, Through The Looking Glass, and ending Tuesday the 8th with Bri Meets Books.

To enter this giveaway, simply answer this question:  have you ever seen a baby elephant? As you can tell, I’m a tad excited.  Am I in for a treat?

Links of interest:  The Elephant Sanctuary website is very in-depth and a fantastic resource.  It also includes a curriculum for teachers for an in-depth study of elephants.
Just for Elephants Genre:  Picture Book, non-Fiction.  Approx. ages 9-12
Publisher:  Tilbury House.  November 15, 2006.
Hardcover, 32 pages.  ISBN 0884482839
Just for Elephants is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.

Travels with Tarra Genre:  Young Adult, non-fiction photo essay.
Publisher:  Tilbury House.  July 2002.
Hardcover, 40 pages.  ISBN  0884482413
Travels with Tarra is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.

Tarra & Bella Genre:  Picture book, non-fiction.  Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher:  Putnam Juvenile.  September 8, 2009
Hardcover, 32 pages.  ISBN  0399254439
Tarra & Bella is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.

Two stories are told in this book.  One of Latha, who’s story spans several decades from her childhood to adulthood.  She has no memory of her early years, no memory of a mother, or a father.  She is brought up in a wealthy home but privilege is not hers.  A household servant and playmate to Thara (who’s name is close enough to Latha that I often couldn’t keep them separate), she knows that she deserves much more than what’s granted hers.  Simple things like wanting a new pair of shoes is never awarded.  As girls, Latha and Thara are the best of friends but as they grow up and Thara takes charge of her own household, Latha is reminded that her place in the family will always be that of “the girl.”

The other story is told many years in the past and spans just 24 hours.  It is of Biso, a fierce mother of three, who living under the abuse of her husband but yet having known love from an affair, leaves with her children in the middle of the night.  Her journey is filled with kindness and hope of a better future but a single moment changes all of that and their lives are changed forever.  One story ultimately shapes the other and Freeman had me curious to know exactly what that relationship would be.

The beginning of A Disobedient Girl was confusing to me.  Enough that I often had to reread several paragraphs over again to realize that the author was giving me pertinent information that I needed to pay attention to.  It wasn’t until about 50-75 pages in that everything settled for me.  I liked Biso’s story much more than that of Latha’s and was always eager to get back to her story.  Although seemingly separate stories, I knew that both would come together in the end and so I patiently let Latha’s story unfold as well.  Biso was the more likable, sympathetic character; her story ultimately shocked me.

I must admit that my knowledge of geography isn’t that great but if it wasn’t for the fact that the jacket flap told me so, I would not have known that this novel took place in Sri Lanka.  But yet Freeman’s description and sense of place is so strong that I was able to get a vivid sense of time and place.  Freeman’s writing is great (despite the rough start) and her storytelling compelling.  Because Freeman wrote of a part of the world I often don’t read about and delved deep into social issues, I’d be interested in reading Freeman’s future work.

A Disobedient Girl is ultimately a commentary on social class and as the publisher description states, “about the will to survive and the incredible power of the human spirit to transcend the unforgiving sweep of tragedy.”

Links of interest:  Ru Freeman website and blog.  Check out other reviews on the A Disobedient Girl TLC blog tour, more blogger reviews,
Genre:  Fiction
Publisher: Atria.  July 21, 2009.
Hardcover, 384 pages.  ISBN 1439101957
A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Wife of the Gods is a whodunit murder mystery and in full honesty if the book wasn’t set in Africa without its many African themes and traditions I doubt I would have even given the book a second glance.  But what sets this book apart is its Ghanan African setting as well as its memorable characters.

In a small village of Ketanu, Gladys, a young medical student, is murdered in the forest and Detective Darko Dawson is brought in from the large city (obviously much to the annoyance of the local police) to oversee the investigation.  For Darko, the village of Ketanu brings back vivid memories.  He often visited his aunt with his mother twenty-five years earlier as a boy.  But that all changed when his mother went for a visit and never returned.  The mystery of her disappearance was never solved.  Darko intends to not only investigate the murder to which he has been assigned but also to seek out new clues into his mother’s disappearance.

It’s not easy though.  Darko is a complex character who leaves behind a loving wife and a young son who needs a heart operation.  He also has an anger management problem, although sympathetically it comes out when he sees those less fortunate being abused.  And he can’t help but use his police power to procure marijuana.

Darko clashes with the local culture which is still held by the strong belief in witchcraft and age-old traditions, such as virgin girls being offered up to fetish priests as trokosi, or Wives of the Gods.  His investigation is slowed by such beliefs and even the local police are apprehensive to question certain individuals in fear of angering the Gods.

Darko uncovers a myriad of suspects, characters who are all memorable in their own right: Gladys herself, who was an AIDS worker and gave many a motive for her death; Samuel, a young man with a simple crush; Timothy who worked with Gladys in AIDS education;  Isaac Kutu, the local herbalist and healer; Togbe Adzima, the fetish priest and his several wives; Elizabeth, Gladys’s aunt and believed by many to be a witch; and even his own Auntie Osewa who has a background which she’d rather keep secret.

There was one thing that hindered my full enjoyment of the novel and that was that I couldn’t recall characters after they were previously introduced.  There were a couple of times that I thought I was reading about a new character and then had to stop and see if I already knew who they were, which I realized I did.  Rechecking previous passages of the book always takes me out of the story a bit.  Fault of the reader and not the author?  Maybe?  Fault of the author and not the reader?  Maybe?  To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure.

Wife of the Gods is recommended for those who like a good mystery and intriguing characters.  Not only is there a mysterious murder to solve but several ideas to think upon including that of new culture vs. new, African culture, traditional and advanced medicine, family relations, and more.  And man, Quartey has convinced me that I’d love to visit Ghana for the food alone.  So many wonderful descriptions of the food!

If there are to be more books about Inspector Darko Dawson then I will be sure to check them out.  A series worth following.

Book trailer for Wife of the Gods:

When you read mysteries how often do you guess who the murderer is correctly?  I don’t often read whodunit genre books but I must admit that Kwei Quartey kept me on my toes although I rightly suspected the murderer (but don’t until about 3/4 of the way through the book).

Links of interest: TLC Book Tour stops, Wife of the Gods website, Wife of the Gods excerpt, reading group discussion questions, more book bloggers book reviews, and a thoughtful interview with Kwei Quartey at Jen’s Book Thoughts.
Genre:  Literary Fiction, Mystery
Publisher:  Random House.  July 14, 2009
Hardcover, 336 pages.  ISBN:  1400067596
Wife of the Gods is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Do not let this unassuming cover fool you.  14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy in collaboration with Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah and illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez is a purely stunning picture book.  When I finished reading the author’s note at the end, I had tears rolling down my cheeks.  It’s a book that I think everybody needs to pick up and read both for it’s truly heartening, beautiful story and for it’s spectacular illustrations.

I usually don’t start off my book reviews with the book trailer but in this case I am because I want you to first see the amazing spreads of this book.

In June of 2002, Kimeli Naiyomah returns home to his native Kenya and the Maasai tribe after studying abroad in New York City.  Kimeli was there on September 11, 2001 and watched the devastation upon his host country.  When he returns home,

A child asks if he has brought any stories.
Kimeli nods.

He has brought with him one story.
It has burned a hole in his heart.

And so he tells of buildings so tall that they can touch the sky, fires so hot they can melt iron and smoke, dust so thick they can block out the sun.  A story that this village in Kenya had not yet heard.

The story ends.
More than three thousand souls are lost.
A great silence falls over the Maasai.

Kimeli waits.
He knows his people.

They are fierce when provoked
but easily moved to kindness
when they hear of suffering
or injustice.

At least, an elder speaks.
He is shaken, but above all, he is sad.
“What can we do for these poor people?

As a child, Kimeli’s greatest ambition was to own a cow for his mother which is an animal that is the heart and soul of the Maasai tribe.  He knows that to heal the pain in someone’s heart, you must give something that is close to your own heart.  Now that he has earned enough for a cow, he asks the elders to bless a cow,  “to make it special so the gift may take away some of the sadness from American hearts.”

The tribe is not content with just a gift of one cow and so they sacrifice from their own herd and give America a total of 14 cows which is presented in a beautiful, sacred ceremony.  In the afterward Kimeli says, “We felt we had taken some of America’s pain into our Maasai hearts.”

14 Cows For America left me with profound compassion and respect for the Maasai people.  I was truly touched.

The text of 14 Cows For America by Carmen Agra Deedy is simply beautiful and at the end of the book there is a note from Kimeli Naiyomah which fleshes out more of the details about his childhood, the 14 cows, and where those cows are now.

The story itself is beautiful enough that it could stand on it’s own regardless of the illustrations that accompany it but it’s truly remarkable that the strongest strength of this book is its stunning illustrations.  My husband called them “haunting, mysterious and alive.”  Thomas Gonzalez has set the tone for the story perfectly.

My two favorite illustrations are first when Kimeli is describing the 9/11 destruction and there is a swirl of color and clouds above him and the other is when the diplomat arrives in a jeep to the Maansai tribe and realizes that it’s no ordinary diplomatic visit but rather . . . turn the page and BAM! in your face full tribal splendor, dance and ceremony movement.  Truly spectacular.  I almost feel as though my meager words are giving the illustrations a disservice.  So if you didn’t watch the above book trailer go back and do so.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting a video of Thomas Gonzalez as he describes the illustration process and offering a copy of 14 Cows for America to you as a giveaway sponsored by Peachtree Publishers.  This book is one that you don’t want to miss so please a make a point of stopping by again.  Edited to add:  giveaway link.

A truly wonderful book that I’m proud to have in my home.

Links of interest: 14 Cows website with further study, teachers guide and more (still under construction), read more book reviews on the 14 Cows for America blog tour, Carmen Agra Deedy website, Thomas Gonzalez website, and more book blog reviews.  Edited to add:  14 Cows for America giveaway and Thomas Gonzalez illustration process.  Come share your thoughts about 9/11.
Genre:  Non-Fiction Picture Book, Africa
Publisher:  Peachtree Publishers, August 1, 2009.
Hardcover, 36 pages.  ISBN 1561454907.
14 Cows for America is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

On days that her family leaves to work early, Freckleface Strawberry (the same nickname that Julianne was given when she was a child – see video below to hear Julianne talk about this) gets to go to “Early Bird” at school.  A program that lets the kids play before school starts.  She loves Early Bird because she gets extra play instead of extra breakfast.  She loves to play four square, jump rope, tetherball, and imaginary monsters.  But he hates the days that it rains.  Because rainy days means playing dodgeball in the gym!

I really got a kick out of Freckleface Strawberry’s fear of playing dodgeball.  Both my husband and I hated dodgeball when we were in elementary school.  Needless to say, it’s the big kids who love it and the little kids who hate it.  Both of us were small.  About two months ago, my friend told us to get a babysitter and join their friends in a game of dodgeball for a Friday night out.  “Are you kidding me?!” I had said.  “Paying a babysitter to go play dodgeball does NOT sound like a fun night out.”  Needless to say, we passed.  I’ve had enough dodgeball to last me a lifetime.  It’s one of those games that I kind of wish would die out, so I don’t have to let my kids play it at school.  I mean, come on, pegging kids as hard as you can with a flying ball?  No thank you.

What makes dodgeball worse for Freckleface Strawberry is Windy Pants Patrick.  You know his type.  He’s three times the size of everybody else and he gets a kick out of throwing the ball as hard as he can and making kids cry.  She had a plan, she’d stick to the back.  Her plan worked until she found herself the last one in, which gave Patrick a perfect shot at her.   She knew it was “going to hurt, hurt, HURT!”  She decides to pretend to be a monster and then discovers that it didn’t really hurt after all (really?!) and roared like a monster to Patrick.  When Patrick gets scared, she apoligies and the next day finds both Freckleface Strawberry and Windy Pants Patrick playing together on the monkey bars.

I must admit that the ending of the book was a bit unbelievable to me as I really didn’t think that the bully of the story and the victim would become best friends.  I think maybe they could tolerate each other, but playing together?  Hmm . . . I’ll be forgiving.  I do like the idea of the book as a means for children who are being bullied to address and work through their problems.  I

I loved the illustrations by LeUyen Pham, especially Freckleface Strawberries character.  She’s just so darn cute!  The illustrations give a wonderful, retro feel to the book and really enhances the text.  Very memorable.

On the nickname, Freckleface Strawberry:

On reading:

I met Julianne Moore at BookExpo America (BEA)!  She was really sweet and signed a copy of the book for me.

That means that I now have an extra.  In a moment of selfishness, I’m keeping my signed copy but would like to give you my other one.  To enter, leave a comment telling me about your dodgeball experiences.  Have you played before?  Do you like the game?  Do you hate it?  Was there a kid who ruled the game? Comments that do not answer this question, will not be eligible.  Open internationally, I’ll close the contest in a week on June 16th.

Links of interest:  Thank you to Promo 101 for putting together Julianne’s blog tour. For complete tour information and the complete schedule, visit her tour home page.  More videos of Julianne Moore and Freckleface Strawberry: on balancing family and career, on writing, on being a redhead with freckles, on writing for children, on being a writer.
Genre: Picture book, approx ages 4-8.
Published by Bloomsbury.  April 28, 2009.
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN:  1599903164
Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully is now available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon. Order your copy today.

What I found fascinating about The Secret Keeper is that the author Paul Harris is also a journalist who covered the war in Sierra Leone.  I wanted to know how much of his personal experience played into the writing of this book and was thrilled to be able to ask Paul some of those questions.  Please welcome Paul to the Maw Books Blog . . .

Maw Books:  How and why did you become a journalist? Can you briefly share a few highlights from your career?

Paul Harris: I always wanted to be a journalist and I think I have been lucky to have had that ambition from a young age. When I was about 9 years old I started a newspaper at my school (it lasted one edition!). So it was simply a matter of doing student journalism, getting a journalism qualification and then battling to get a job. The reasons why I  wanted to be a journalist are a mix. Every journalist (I would hope) wants to change the world a little bit for the better. But every honest journalist should admit that it’s a chance to have an awful lot of fun, see some exotic places and get to see your name in print. My main highlight would be covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. It was a panel set up by archbishop Desmond Tutu to examine apartheid era crimes by all sides. It was a privilege to watch a nation try to heal itself like that, with all the moral compromises and complexities that that involved.

Maw Books:  Starting a newspaper at nine?  It’s no surprise you became a journalist!  You spent a month in Sierra Leone covering the civil war.  It is obviously this experience that drove you to write The Secret Keeper.  But you’ve also covered many other conflicts across Africa and elsewhere. Why did you choose this story over any of the other stories that you could have told?

Paul Harris: I think Sierra Leone held the most fascination because for me it was the most extreme experience.  More so than two months embedded with the military during the invasion of Iraq or other conflicts which I just dipped in and out of.  In Sierra Leone I was operating alone, in a strange country amid utter chaos.  It was a heady mixture of excitement and fear.  It was also the conflict that put a full stop on my African experience. I decided to leave shortly after.

Maw Books:  I can only imagine the things you must have seen and heard.  Why write a novel in the first place?  Is it something that you have always wanted to do or have been interested in?  What led you to turn from journalism writing to novel writing?

Paul Harris: I always wrote fiction, especially when I was a child. I fell in love with Tolkien and spent many hours writing my own stories set in fantasy worlds (writing a fantasy book is still a secret ambition of mine). Then, after I had left Africa, I decided to take my desire to write a novel seriously and followed the dictum: write what you know. So I began the process of taking some of my own experiences as a setting and starting to work what sort of themes I wanted to explore.

Maw Books:  Was it easy or difficult to switch to a different style of writing for The Secret Keeper from your journalism writing?

Paul Harris: It was very liberating actually. Fiction is an opportunity to play around and say exactly what you want. Journalism has rules to stop that sort of thing.

Maw Books:  I imagine being an war correspondent stationed abroad can be very frustrating when faced with the ignorance of others who either have little to no interest in the stories that you are risking your life to bring to them.  Do you think you can reach a new demographic with a novel (as opposed to journalism writing), to those who may not be aware of some of the current conflicts around the world?

Paul Harris: Definitely. The best fiction can bring the most obscure parts of the world to people’s attention and reach people that don’t consume too much news or have become disillusioned with it. I imagine that Khaled Hosseini has done more to bring Afghanistan alive for people than a thousand news stories.  Perhaps, hopefully, what happens is someone will read the fiction and then be inspired to find out more about the reality.

Maw Books:  I must admit that Hosseini spurred my desire to read more books that take place in Afghanistan, which I’m lucky to say I have.  What do you hope the reader learns, if anything, after reading The Secret Keeper?

Paul Harris: I think, at heart, it’s a story about moral complexity. That very few things are black and white. Good people do bad things, bad people do good  things. Everything is a shade of grey.

Maw Books:  What was the personal emotional impact on you from your experience in Sierra Leone?  How does covering war stories change you?  And how do you suppress this emotion in your journalism writing?

Paul Harris: It was pretty intense. I thought I was fine but after I left (and was incredibly relieved to get out) I noticed that I was behaving in certain strange ways: edgy, short-tempered, constantly nervous. I remember walking through a Nairobi street when a car exhaust backfired several times and it set my heart racing so much I thought I was about to have a panic attack.  But I think for most journalists the impact of covering conflicts will be as varied as the person. Some very fine friends make their whole careers out of it. Some of them thrive, others become very damaged. For me, it gave me a great sense of perspective and the preciousness of life and a feeling that war truly is the greatest folly of mankind. As for suppressing the emotion in writing, I think the simple rules of writing journalism will keep a lot of it out. But also a little bit of emotion – and breaking those rules – is generally a good thing. There is no such things as true objectivity, especially about tragedy, and nor should there be.

Maw Books:  Was the experience of writing The Secret Keeper cathartic in any way?  A way for you to release some of the emotions that you felt while in Sierra Leone or any other war torn country?

Paul Harris: I think it was. It felt good to get it out on the page, probably more than I realized I needed.

Maw Books:  After witnessing so much real-life drama how do you recreate that drama in The Secret Keeper?  How are real life emotions different than emotions as written on a page?

Paul Harris: What a fascinating question. I think (I hope) that I tried to recreate that drama as accurately as possible and give my characters emotions that would ring true. I think authors should aim to recreate authenticity. Because readers are not fools and will spot a fake. So I guess it is up to the readers to say if I have succeeded or not.

Maw Books:  How have the real life people you met in Sierra Leone influenced the characters/personalities in your book?

Paul Harris: A lot, but not all. The romance between Danny and Maria was inspired by an affair that a colleague and a local aid worker were having.  Kam, Danny’s driver and fixer, was based entirely on my driver in real life. Ali was inspired by a guy I met on a helicopter trip.  I did not even speak to him, but he just looked so… shady and yet totally at home in his environment. I just extrapolated him from there. The scenes in the hotel bar were all taken from real life. That place was a real “Star Wars” bar that everyone went to every night. Covering a conflict like that at leaves gives one a vast amount of exotic source material.

Maw Books:  I thought Kam was quite the character!  How much (if any) of you is there in Danny?  Is there anything specifically that happened to him that is based upon your real life experiences?

Paul Harris: I think inevitably there is a lot there. A friend pointed out that there is very little physical description of Danny in the book and I guess that is because in my mind’s eye he was basically me. There are several specific incidents inspired by real life events: the shooting outside the RUF leader’s house, the trip to Bo and the fire fight up country towards the end of the book. Mining those events for fictional purposes did feel a little surreal at times.

Maw Books: Knowing what your author photo looked like I have to admit that I kept picturing Danny as you.  And what fascinating experiences!  Was there a particular scene that you knew you had to write about?  That never changed from the moment you conceived it?

Paul Harris: Weirdly, the last sentence was pretty much the first sentence that came to my mind. Writing the book felt like a journey to get to that point and though it took lots of turns and twists, I felt I never really lost sight of it.

Maw Books:  What surprised you most about your book and/or characters as you were writing? Did anything turn out radically different than you’d originally thought it would?

Paul Harris: This is a tough one. I had an unusual experience writing the character of Danny’s girlfriend, Rachel. I wanted her to be a sympathetic, good person.  But at the end of the first draft my editor said she didn’t really care for her at all, saying she came over as negative and complaining. With that in mind I went back and reread those bits of the book with a fresh eye and was astonished to discover she was right. I had written her in print in a way completely different than what I thought I had. So I went back and rewrote her parts to do her more justice.

Maw Books:  While I was reading The Secret Keeper I kept visualizing the story as a movie playing out in my head.  If The Secret Keeper were a movie, who would you cast as your characters?

Paul Harris: That’s a fun question. A lot of people say it feels very cinematic. Perhaps Penelope Cruz as Maria. As Danny is inspired by some of my own experiences, I think modesty forbids me making any suggestions. I’ll leave it to readers’ imaginations. They are likely to be more honest than mine.

Maw Books:  I could totally see Penelope Cruz as Maria.  Good choice!  Can you briefly share with us what you think the current state of Sierra Leone is and what you think is in it’s future?

Paul Harris: Sierra Leone – I am delighted to say – is doing well. It is still desperately poor and has huge needs, but the war is over and has been for almost a decade now. Progress is slow but with such a history any sort of progress is to be celebrated. The same can be said of much of the rest of the region where equally devastated countries, like Liberia, are also recovering and stable. It is good news in a troubled world.

Maw Books:  I was haunted with the blank stares and listless ex-child soldiers as you wrote about them in the book.  Maria, works for an orphanage that took in ex-child soldiers in an attempt to rehabilitate them and place them into homes.  Will you share with us some of your experiences with child soldiers in Sierra Leone? Is enough being done for them?  What, in your opinion, needs to be done?

Paul Harris: My experiences were mostly limited to meeting them at  roadblocks and trying to negotiate my way through them. It is incredibly scary and also incredibly sad, to meet such young children, armed with machine guns, drunk and high and dangerous, and yet fundamentally still children who respond to a laugh and a smile. It is a problem that felt almost impossible to solve and I am no expert. But they need all the help and understanding they can get to help them recover from traumatising experiences that we can never imagine and yet not lose sight of the fact that they remain children.  Like everything else in Sierra Leone, resources are small and the need is great.  But, at the very least, no more child soldiers are being created.

Maw Books:  I have a special interest in Sudan.  You have spent some time in Sudan.  Can you briefly share a little bit about some of the stories that you covered there?

Paul Harris: I spent some time traveling with Christian missionaries who were buying back black African Sudanese who had been captured in slave raids by Arab Sudanese. I know that sounds incredibly medieval but the South of Sudan back in the 90s was just that kind of place. It is a different world.  I also covered a lovely story on a sort of ‘Olympics’ that aid groups organized in the area for local kids who had little else to enjoy in tough childhoods defined by the ongoing civil war. I loved south Sudan.  People were generous and kind and it really felt like going back in time.  My favourite moment was sleeping in a south Sudanese village, deep in the bush and being awoken by terrible screams and shouts. In the middle of a war zone, you could imagine all sorts of horrors. But the next morning we discovered one of the village elders had had too much to drink and his wife had kicked him out of their hut. It was their argument we had heard.  As someone who fundamentally believes that every human being is basically the same, it was a good lesson in the universality of human experience!

Maw Books:  I’ve read a bit about the slave trade in South Sudan.  It’s just so crazy!  And now for a few more “lighter” questions.  What’s the last book you finished and what’s on your nightstand right now?

Paul Harris: The last book I read was the excellent Columbine by Dave Cullen. I have not got anything on my night stand just yet as I am about to start doing research for a new book and am going to draw up a long non-fiction reading list based around US politics to kick things off.

Maw Books:  What is the best writing advice you have ever received and in turn the best writing advice that you could give?

Paul Harris: The best advice I got was write what you know. It was a great help in giving me the focus to write a book after several false starts over the years on less solid ground. My advice would simply be: a writer writes.  So many people say they have books in them, but never finish what they start.  You have to persevere. To the end. It sounds blindingly obvious, but the main reason most people don’t get published is because they don’t write a book.

Maw Books:  That makes perfect sense.  If you could have dinner with any five people, dead or alive, who would they be and why?

Paul Harris:

Jesus Christ (just to solve the mystery of who he actually was)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (the most ‘good’ person I have ever met) Aristophanes (great sense of humour)
JRR Tolkien (he created an entire world inside his head)
Mae West (she would make it a proper party)

Maw Books:  Speaking of dinner, a question that I ask of every single author I interview is to share with us a recipe that I will later make and blog about.  Do you have a favorite from your world travels that you would care to share with us?

Paul Harris: Food during a lot of my travels has not been that good (two months of military rations in Iraq!). But here is a dish from Cape Town in South Africa, with its origins in the Cape Malay community, people descended from Malaysian slaves brought over by the Dutch in the 17th Century.  It is called Bobotie and is a bit (only a bit) like a moussaka.

Link to Bobotie recipe.

Maw Books:  Seriously, sounds delicious.  I’m going to try to get everything I need for it.  So what are you doing right now?  Do you have any more books in your future?

Paul Harris: I am just starting a second book. Set against the backdrop of an American presidential campaign. I covered the 2004 and 2008 elections and want to capture some of that amazing excitement and drama. As I said earlier: write what you know.

Maw Books:  Anything else you would like to share with the Maw Books readers?

Paul Harris: Just to say thanks for reading and commenting.  The experience of doing this sort of thing online is a lot of fun and also blogs like Maw Books are so important these days. For readers and for authors.  We’re entering a whole new world together.

Giveaway: I was able to pick up a second copy of The Secret Keeper that I would love to pass on to you.  To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me what you found the most interesting from this interview with Paul Harris.  If you would like to double  your chances of winning, also leave a comment responding to my book review of The Secret Keeper.  Giveaway is open world-wide and I’ll pick a winner on May 27th.

Links of interest:  The Secret Keeper website.  Maw Books review of The Secret Keeper.
Genre:  Mystery/thriller.
Publisher:  Dutton Adult.  April 2nd, 2009
Hardcover, 336 pages.  ISBN: 0525951024
The Secret Keeper is available from your independent bookstore, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
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