Laura, a devoted wife, mother and nurse has always been trying to get her mother’s attention.  But Helen, her estranged mother, seems uninterested in anything to do with her daughter.  Instead, she spends all day reminiscing and reading old love letters that her deceased husband wrote while serving in the Korean War and later as a war correspondent during the Vietnam War.

Helen seems only interested in the past and not what’s right in front of her nor the future.  When Helen suffers a debilitating stroke, Laura believes that she can not only make her mother happy again but also close the gap that has grown between them through the years.  Laura has never been privy to her father’s letters but with her mother unable to speak, Laura dives deep into the letters hoping that she’ll finally understand her mother.  In doing so, she discovers buried family secrets and that her own buried secret is shocking similar to that of her own mother.

The story alternates between the present with Laura haggardly trying to maintain a sense of normalcy with her two young children while spending each day at the hospital taking care of with her ailing mother and in the past with Helen’s love story to Joseph, their marriage, and attempts at creating a family despite his constant overseas absences.  I do enjoy books with alternate storytelling and time lines – giving us bits and pieces, slowly revealing key plot points and character insight.

Laura’s husband, Christian is a landscape designer and I loved the references to his beautiful gardens.  Sea Escape, Helen’s home on the beach, felt very real to me.  The book has a very strong sense of place and I appreciate that.  Time as well.  Helen’s role as a mother and housewife in the fifties is strikingly different from that of Laura’s.  It’s easy to see why they so often misunderstood each other.

Ultimately, the novel didn’t live up to it’s potential.  I was bogged down with my disbelief of Helen’s and Laura’s relationship.  As this relationship is the entire basis of the book, everything else just fell for me.

Laura keeps telling herself over and over how much she loves her mother and she desperately wants to make her happy, but nothing is given to show me why she should love her mother.  While her father was alive, her mother only seemed to live for his infrequent coming homes and after he died, Helen pretty much ignores Laura for the rest of her childhood.  Although Laura is the child that Helen took years to conceive, I needed at least one moment of a good solid connection between the two to understand why it was that Laura could continue to give so much when she received so little in return.

As Laura reads her father’s letters she comes to know that both her mother and her father have kept family secrets hidden away from her.  We know that Laura has a secret of her own as well, that she wants to tell her mother before it’s too late.  Because Laura didn’t feel an immediacy to uncover these secrets, reveal her own secrets,  nor read all of her father’s letters, the book didn’t feel very tight.

Truths were revealed without the packing punch that I would expect to accompany them.  Everything was set up really well, and I imagine a second reading would show how carefully crafted Griffin’s story really is, but it lacked the emotional aspect that I would think a book like this would give.  I needed to be shown rather than told how characters felt.  I didn’t believe in the mother-daughter reconciliation (nor that of her brother’s as well) nor the emotions that they were feeling.

For example, one line from Laura: “After years of longing for her presence full and whole, I’d found her laugh, her touch, and her love.  They were hidden behind my lie.”  What laugh, what touch, what love?  I still felt as though this hadn’t quite happened yet.  Plus, I don’t think they were hidden behind Laura’s lie.  Helen emotionally abandoned Laura as a small child, years before Laura’s lie would present itself at age 17.  It wasn’t Laura’s fault, it was Helen’s fault.  Not believing how the characters felt, made it difficult to empathize with them.

I enjoyed the plot line, sense of time and place, the alternate storytelling, and the struggle to attend to an ailing family member but the characters fell flat for me.  Not a perfect read.  It was simply okay when I was hoping for fantastic. Readers who enjoy women’s fiction on the exploration of mothers and daughters may very well give this one a try. Perhaps you’ll feel differently than I.

Links of interest: Lynne Griffin website, Facebook and on Twitter. Visit TLC Book Tours for additional stops on the Sea Escape blog tour.
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster. July 6, 2010
Hardcover, 304 pages. ISBN 1439180601
Sea Escape is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

After growing up in Houston, Texas, Sarah Harper finds herself transplanted to Manhattan and is doing well in in her advertising career.  But one stupid decision changes it all, she forwards an inappropriate email to all of her co-workers, and is suddenly out of a job and has a lot of time on her hands.  So what better thing to do than go back home to visit her sister Mackie for Thanksgiving?

But what was going to be a simple vacation turns into something much longer as Sarah learns that Mackie has given up on having a baby due to infertility.  Sarah puts forth a plan that nobody can resist and that will change them all forever, sometimes not always for the better.

But the storyline, of course, isn’t so simple.  Memories of her deceased mother, reconnecting with her father whom announces he’s getting remarried and avoiding the hot ex-boyfriend whom she dumped horribly in high school play a role as she rediscovers who she is.  Add to that a new job at a non-profit which will literally put her on top of a library roof by herself for 102 hours, and there is plenty to keep the reader engaged.

This is a story about relationships.  With sisters, with friends, with parents, with co-workers and most important, with oneself.  Katherine Center has a way of writing that just pulls you into the story and you have to remember to stop and breathe every once in a while.  Or at the very least see if your kids have destroyed your house while you were previously engaged.  She’s just so darn good at what she does!

These characters were real and flawed.  Oh, there were times, when I wanted to say, “Sarah!  Do you have any idea what you’re doing?!”  But the beauty of the story is that Sarah is full of so many good intentions that she acts impulsively.  We, the reader, have the benefit of watching Sarah as she journeys on a very steep learning curve.  And Sarah certainly makes the journey well worth watching.

Those who go into this book expecting a quick, light read full of chuckles will find just that, but ultimately, will be surprised with the depth of emotion, story, and characters that labels Katherine Center has an author who has seemingly created a genre all her own.

And I LOVE the videos that Katherine makes.  Check these three out.  And tell me, how can you not help loving her!

The first ends with these words: “Your time is now. To be fearlessly resilient. To rebound with purpose and power. To lead with intention. To discover what you want – and go get it.” Powerful.

This video makes me want to get up, move around, and features words from Get Lucky:

And last, a video about sisters. A very appropriate celebration of Get Lucky:

Seriously, don’t skip them!  Already waiting anxiously for Katherine’s next book and passing off my copy of Get Lucky to everybody in my book club, who all audibly gasped when I mentioned her new book was out.

Links of interest: Today’s post is in conjugation with Katherine’s TLC blog tour, more blogger reviews, Katherine’s website, my book review of Everyone is Beautiful, The Bright Side of Disaster, my author interview with Katherine, Nikki’sguest post interview with Katherine, and let’s not forget her awesome soup.
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books. April 6 2010.
Paperback, 288 pages. ISBN 0345507916
Get Lucky is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

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.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

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.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

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.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Once I got past the rocky start, I really enjoyed this book.  The letters are in majority to and from Juliet Ashton who after World War II has ended is living in London.  Juliet is a columnist and receives a letter from Dawsey, a member of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, based in Guernsey, who is simply making an inquiry about another author and would she be so kind to send the name and address of a bookshop in London so he may order more of his books by post.  His letter has caught her attention because Guernsey was occupied for five years during World War II and his description of the society brought into being because of a roast pig kept hidden from the German soldiers.  She wants to know more.

Juliet and Dawsey begin a correspondence that soon includes several other members of the book society.  Juliet begins to research everything that she can find out about Guernsey, its people, and the occupation in which she hopes will be material for a new book.  Through the letters, she creates a close kinship with the people of Guernsey and feels a strong desire to visit.  She does and never leaves!

I can’t help but point out Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit, who reviewed the book yesterday, because I so enjoyed her description:

This novel is one of those books that will hone in on the perfect reader.  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is chock full of bookish quotes and must have been written with the love of books in mind. Beyond the WWII details, the rationing, the tip-toeing around German officers, and the loss of good friends shipped off to concentration camps, this is a novel about a writer who blooms in the countryside among new friends and new scenery.

The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society is just that.  It’s a fun read because of the quirky and fleshed out characters (one of the books many strengths) but yet it was touching and sad when learning of concentration camp stories and details of the German occupation.  Details about the war was what I appreciated the most about this book.  I love learning facts and tidbits about the war and the many stories had me completely fascinated.  The other central part of this story is about Juliet and how she comes to transplant herself among new people.  They are all healing from the war and it is through their shared membership of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society that they are able to begin to move on with their lives.

Excellent video of Annie Barrows discussing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society:

I recommended this book to my mom several months ago before I even read it because I knew she would like it.  After finishing the book, I was happy that I had already told her to read it.  And really, telling your mom to read a book?   Sometimes I read a book and think, no way am I telling my mom to read that!  Not so, with this book.  I liked it and so did my mom.  And really, what more of a recommendation do you need than that?

The publisher has made available five copies to give away to each of the  TLC  Book Tour stops.  So here’s your chance to  pick up a free copy for yourself.  To enter, simply leave a comment on this blog post answering this question:  are a member of a book club and if so does it have a name? If so, what is it? Anything to rival the name The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?

Links of interest:  Visit other reviews/interviews at other TLC  Book Tour stops, other blogger reviews, readers guide for book clubs, Potato Peel Pie recipe and more, Annie Barrows website.
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Publisher:  Dial Press.  July 29, 2008
Hardcover, 288 pages.  ISBN:  0385340990
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

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.
.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

In The Secret Keeper, Danny Kellerman, a British journalist, four years earlier landed the story of his lifetime when sent to Sierra Leone as a war correspondent to cover the political upheaval and civil war taking place there.  Being on the front lines had always been his dream job, but what he didn’t expect was to fall in love with Maria, an American woman who ran a orphanage for ex-child soldiers.  They have a brief but passionate relationship and when the crisis elevates he has no choice but to board a plane and go back home leaving Maria behind.

Four years later, Danny is living back in London with his girlfriend and is at odds with his father.  Danny receives a letter from Maria which pleads for him to return to Sierra Leone because she’s in trouble and needs his help.  But the letter didn’t arrive in time, and Danny learns that Maria was murdered just days earlier in a roadside robbery.  Danny can’t shake the feeling that there isn’t something right and that there had to be more motive surrounding her death than just a “roadside robbery.”

Against his family and his girlfriend’s wishes, he returns to Sierra Leone to find answers.  While there is a new type of peace in Sierra Leone, it’s not the same country that he left.  Former rebel leaders now hold high offices in government and secrecy and corruption seem rampant.  And asking to many questions about Maria gets Danny further into trouble and he soons finds himself in dangerous and life threatening situations.  As he uncovers more of the mystery surrounding Maria’s death, he finds that she might not be the woman that he thought she was.

What I liked about this book was knowing that the author Paul Harris is a journalist turned novelist and that he spent time as a war correspondent in Africa covering the conflict in Sierra Leone.  I found that completely fascinating and wondered how much of his experience was pulled into the novel.  Thank goodness, I was able to ask Paul directly and you’ll be able to see some of his thoughts in my author interview which I’ll feature tomorrow.  I will be the first to admit that I’m really ignorant on the political climate of Sierra Leone and I appreciate being introduced to new places and new people through fiction.

The Secret Keeper was fast paced with lots of twists and turns that had me unable to guess how the book would end.  I liked the multiple story lines, one told in 2004 as Danny researches Maria’s death and the second in 2000 with Danny’s first trip to Sierra Leone and his falling in love with her.  I enjoyed seeing how the two stories came together and revealed their relationship together as he was uncovering her death.

What I didn’t like about the book?  Long time readers of my blog can probably guess that I am not a fan of lots of foul language.  I can stand some language but when I feel like I’m getting bogged down with it than I get very distracted.  At one point, I almost wish I had kept track of the number of times the “F-word” was used.  When the characters get into a rollicking conversation, it could be as many as 5-6  a page.  Of course, it’s not every page, but it’s just enough to make me a little hesitant to recommend it to those who like cleaner reads.  On a good note, the sex scenes were very tastefully done.  The “leave it to my imagination” kind.

I don’t think The Secret Keeper will make my top ten reads of the year, but overall, I liked it.  It had a great storyline, believable characters, and set against a volatile background of war, greed, murder, and deceit, it makes for an intriguing read.  I can also see it as a great movie.  Plus, you know me and my Africa war books.  I’m always up for anything that covers those type of issues.  Just beware the language.

The Secret Keeper will be on tour the rest of May and into June with TLC Book Tours, so do check out what other bloggers are saying.  As for me, I’m really curious to see what everybody else thinks.  But that’s not all folks!  Come back tomorrow for an interview with Paul Harris. I have to admit that this was one of my most intimidating interviews I’ve ever conducted.  What do you ask a man who has risked his life covering war stories in Africa?  You’ll find out.  And as if that’s not enough, I got my hands on a second copy of The Secret Keeper, so I’ll be doing a giveaway tomorrow as well!

Do you have any other recommendations for books set in Sierra Leone?  This is a topic that I’d love to read more about.

Links of interest:  The Secret Keeper website.  Blog stops with TLC Book Tours.
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.
.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

From the book jacket:

The characters – including a college student waitressing in a remote resort in the Sierra Nevada, a devout Christam man working in a shelter for the homeless, a privileged young woman seeking someone to blame for her inexplicable discontent – share a fundamental predicament, the struggle to name and embrace some faith that can break their fall.  In equal measure, they hunger for and resist this elusive possibility and what it demads of them.  What one is willing to reisk for the sake of transormation or the right to refuse it is a particularly tough dilemma for the women in these stories.

Two of my favorite stories were Wait for Instructions in which a woman struggles to care for her aging parents and abusive father and Slender Little Thing, a story of a nanny who works long hours as a nanny taking care of other children while her own daughter is put in daycare, so she can provide a better life for them both.  I was struck with these two stories because one, the way in which they were told, and two, because I’m still sitting here wondering what happened to these characters.  What happened to the wife whose husband was controlling.  Is she all right?  How could she put up with a monster of a husband?  And the other ended so strangely, frankly, I’m not sure what to think.

Catherine Brady has a gift for fleshing out the characters in such a short amount of time and her writing style if distinct and memorable.  But I must admit that I had a really hard time getting into the flow of the writing.  Once I got over the fact that there are no apostrophes when people speak I was able to appreciate how the lack of them propelled the stories in a way that would have been hindered with them.  But maybe this just shows my lack of expertise in being well read in short stories, a genre that I don’t read that often but am often curious to their appeal.  Will I be running out to read more short stories?  Maybe not, but I appreciate Brady’s story telling and excellent writing.  Each story was so distinct and memorable from one another, a mark of a truly talented writer.

Catherine Brady’s website and you can follow Catherine Brady while she’s on tour with TLC book tours.

Do you read a lot of short stories?  What is the mark of a great short story?

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Capote in Kansas is about two friends, both literary and literally. One is Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird (read my book review), the other is Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood. Both lived next to each other as children learning about creativity, imagination, and writing. Twenty five years later they would work together in Kansas to research Capote’s In Cold Blood. With the publication of both In Cold Blood and To Kill a Mockingbird, both authors become estranged. What has made them stop talking? Do they ever reunite? Who really wrote To Kill a Mockingbird? Kim Powers recreates a novel of ghosts, deathbed confessions, friendship, jealousy, and “what might have beens.” Capote in Kansas draws you in and is a story you cannot easily put down.

And it’s a story that even if you aren’t familiar with Harper Lee, Truman Capote or their books you aren’t lost. But I do admit that I’m sure I would have found a second, deeper level of enjoyment if I were. Having just read To Kill a Mockingbird I appreciated the references to the book and its characters. But I know little of Harper Lee’s life. I know basically nothing about Truman Capote and now wish that I knew more about this eccentric little man. I loved getting inside their heads and enjoyed this ghost of a story.

Kim Powers gives an author’s note at the end that clarifies what is real, what is based on true events, who was really where, and what he has made up. He also has taken the blogosphere by storm and has graciously given us a lot of great interviews and guest posts. They are so good in fact that if I were to interview him I don’t know what questions are left to ask! Visit TLC Book Tours for book reviews, Anna at Diary of an Eccentric for a guest post about writing, Julie at Booking Mama for a guest post, Carrie at Books and Movies for a great interview, Bibliolatry for photos of the snake boxes that Kim Powers has shared, Ready When You Are C.B. has a very comprehensive author interview, Chris at Book-a-Rama shares an interview, Andi at Tripping Toward Lucidity: Estella’s Revenge has a fabolous guest post, and Lisa at Bibliobuffet also hosts an awesome interview.  And that’s just what’s in my reader!  Lots to learn and share about Capote in Kansas.

Also visit Kim Power’s website.  I now want to read The History of Swimming, Power’s memoir.