Review: The War Lovers by Evan Thomas

I want to thank my husband Greg for writing this book review on the audiobook version of The War Lovers by Evan Thomas.

Having been raised to believe that America did not start wars, but rather entered wars only when freedom was threatened, I found "The War Lovers" challenging that notion. There are definite gaps in my knowledge of history and the Spanish American war has been one of them. Until now at least. Evan Thomas's well researched book on the US war against Spain to free the Cuban rebels from colonial rule could stand alone as a history lesson. However, we also see the motivations behind the key players at the time, such as Theodore Roosevelt's self acknowledged blood lust stemming from a desire to assert his manhood and William Randolf Hearst's desire to promote his newspaper enterprises as in "You furnish the war, I'll furnish the pictures". Thomas draws some insightful parallels between the war with Cuba and the modern day war with Iraq. The circumstances around the sinking of the battleship Maine and becoming the pretext for war are shaky at best. Credible analysis at the time indicated that the ship sunk on its own accord, due to a flaw in its design which placed the boiler furnace next to the munitions supply. That analysis was conveniently ignored in favor of holding the Spaniards accountable and rushing headlong into war.

At the time, Roosevelt believed that war was good for the country and that an overly civilized people could benefit by unleashing man's inner raging wolf that lay repressed. He believed that so strongly that the aspiring politician took the ultimate risk and went to the battlefront himself as commander of his Rough Riders. He takes pride in his wounds and derives his ultimate satisfaction in directly killing an enemy soldier. If you believe that America's reasons for fighting this war were out of an altruistic desire to free the rebels, then "The War Lovers" provides an eye opening and balanced counterpoint.

Listen to an excerpt of The War Lovers, HERE.

View a video of The War Lovers, HERE

Disclosure: Thanks to Hachette Books for providing a copy of this audiobook for review. I am an Amazon and Indiebound associate.

Q&A with Joanne Rendell author of Out of the Shadows & GIVEAWAY

I'm thrilled to welcome Joanne Rendell today to talk about her newest novel Out of the Shadows. I've been honored to read and review all of Joanne's novels and knew that I had to share her newest novel with everyone. You can read my reviews for Joanne's other novels by clicking on these links for The Professors' Wives Club and Crossing Washington Square .

Here is a description for Out of the Shadows:

Clara Fitzgerald’s recent losses have set her adrift, personally and professionally. Her mother has passed away, and her career seems stalled while her fiancé's scientific research is poised to take off in an exciting new direction. As great as the potential is for his future, Clara can't help - or ignore - that her emotional connection to him has slowly been slipping away.

But when Clara stumbles on an old copy of Frankenstein and remembers her mother’s claim that they are related to the nineteenth-century author, Mary Shelley, everything changes. With her sister in tow and the help of Kay, a retired Shelley scholar, Clara embarks on a search for the author's long lost journals and letters. As a bond among the three women grows, and as the profound connection between the past and present deepens, Clara comes closer to realizing where her heart truly belongs.

I am looking forward to reading Out of the Shadows, especially with the main character having the same name as my grandmother Clara who recently passed away as well as an amazing older women with great character. I've discussed this with Joanne by email and this novel already has drawn me in from the description. I have not read Frankenstein or much about Mary Shelley and the connections in the description of Out of the Shadows have made me interested in reading this classic novel and adding it to my reading list.

Joanne has kindly answered some questions about Out of the Shadows and a bit about herself as well , to  share with you today:

Why did you decide to write a book about Mary Shelley?



I’ve always loved Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s a wonderful gothic novel, but it’s very thoughtful, daring, and extremely prescient too – even now, two hundred years after it was written. In the novel, Shelley dared to ask “what if?” She looked around at the emerging technologies of her time and she considered their darker sides and how they could turn monstrous (and even make monsters!). I still find it amazing that she wrote such a daring and thoughtful, poignant and provocative novel when she was just nineteen. Not only that, she was living in early nineteenth century Europe when young girls weren’t supposed to think about monsters and science, let alone write about them!

Anyway, I knew I wanted to write a book with Mary Shelley as a primary focus and as I began to undertake biographical research, I fell in love with Shelley more and more. She was fiery and smart, outspoken and thoughtful, a non-conformist and a caring mother. I kept reminding myself, though, that I wasn’t going to write a Shelley biography. Out of the Shadows explores the echoes and links between the past, our current moment, and our possible future. I wanted the book to be both about Mary Shelley, but also about how her amazing imagination and insights still resonate today. I wanted Mary Shelley’s story to sit side by side with the story of a modern woman who, although living in a very different world to Shelley, still faces some of the same challenges, fears, and possibilities.

How did you research OUT OF THE SHADOWS and how was it different from your other two novels?

For a long time, I lost myself in some wonderful biographies of Mary Shelley. I fell in love with Shelley in the process! She was such a fiery and smart woman: outspoken and thoughtful, a non-conformist and a caring mother. She was fun to spend a lot of time with. I also had to read a lot about aging genetics and biomedical research in order to write the character Anthony, Clara’s fiancé, who is an ambitious geneticist and Principle Investigator in a university lab. My books always require a certain amount of research because I like to include literary themes. In The Professors’ Wives’ Club it was Edgar Allen Poe. In Crossing Washington Square it was Sylvia Plath. For Out of the Shadows, however, I spent a good five or six months researching before even writing a word.

In Out of the Shadows, you alternate between the Mary and Clara’s stories. Why did you decide to narrate the book like this?

In many ways, Clara and Mary’s stories are so different. Mary is a young girl growing up in early nineteenth-century London, while Clara is a thirty-something professor who lives in modern day New York City. But there are many similarities and echoes too. Mary and Clara are both on the cusp of finding themselves. They are searching for a way out of the shadows of those around them. For Mary, it is the shadow of her mother’s death, her father’s protection, and the life that doesn’t yet fulfill her. For Clara, she must find a way to live for herself, to pursue her own dreams, and not just follow her fiancé’s career.



If you had to pick a favorite character from Out of the Shadows, which would you pick and why?


Mary Shelley was my favorite character, for all the reasons I’ve mentioned already. But Kay, the elderly Shelley scholar who Clara befriends in the story, was a close second. When I wrote Kay’s character, I was thinking of an amazing older woman I knew when I still lived in the UK who was also called Kay. She was the grandmother of my then-boyfriend and she was such a smart, funny, and interesting woman. She’d traveled all over the world, lost her husband when she was just a young mother, and had a successful career as a university professor. She had so many funny and interesting stories to tell. The Kay character in Out of the Shadows is a similar kind of woman: feisty, smart, a long-term widow. She also finds peace with her life and her aging and her mortality. She offers a great counterpoint to Clara’s fiancé, Anthony, who is striving to extend life and stave off death through his scientific research (rather like Victor Frankenstein, of course).



What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I have a seven year old son who I’m homeschooling – although “homeschool” is somewhat a misnomer as we spend a relatively small amount of time schooling at “home.” We live in New York City so are lucky enough to have an amazing array of fun and educational places on our doorstep. Benny and I, together with his homeschooled friends, are always out on trips to the Metropolitan Museum, the Natural History Museum, aquariums, zoos, galleries, libraries, and parks. When we’re not out and about, Benny and I love to read – either together or separately. Benny is now a voracious reader and I’m so thankful he loves books as much as I do.

About the Author, Joanne Rendell (From Joanne Rendell's Website):

Joanne grew up in England yet when Joanne was young she had a crush on the Big Apple. When she was ten years old, in fact, she wrote a series of stories about a couple of kids who find a magic footpath in New York’s Central Park. After leaving school, Joanne went to the University of Leeds in Yorkshire where she completed a degree in English Literature and Philosophy. The student life was too much fun for Joanne, so she went on to do a Masters at King’s College London and then a PhD in English Literature at the University of Sheffield. She met a professor from the U.S. named Brad Lewis.

Joanne and Brad started to write papers together, organize conference panels, email furiously, and eventually they fell hopelessly in love. After Joanne was done with her PhD, she upped sticks and moved to New York to be with Brad, who teaches at NYU. Not long after they got married, and not too much longer after that, their son Benny arrived on the scene.

Over the past seven years, Joanne has juggled life as a homeschooling mum with writing novels. She hasn’t left academia completely behind. She and Brad are faculty in residence in one of NYU dorms and they run events, book groups, and programs for the students who live in their building. Also, Joanne’s novels are all set at Manhattan U – a university in downtown New York which looks, she does admit, a little like NYU.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Joanne has graciously offered to give away

2 copies of her novel Out of the Shadows!

All you have to do is leave a comment, make sure to include your email address so that I can contact you if you are a winner. Otherwise, I won't be able to include your name in the drawing. Open to US & Canada only. Books will ship directly to the winners from the author.

Enter by September 26, 2010

Sunday Salon: Work, Books, Blogging and Food

It's been a bit quiet around here lately and I apologize for my absence. Life has been busy and a bit hectic and as I posted last month, my beloved Grandmother Clara passed away at the age of 92 a few weeks ago. I miss her already and treasure the beautiful memories that I have of her and know that she will live on in all of our hearts. I know that she would be excited for me that I've switched career paths a bit.

I'm an Occupational Therapist and have mainly worked in the medical area with adults. I took off some time to be a stay at home mom and returned to work a few years ago on a limited on call basis for a local hospital. I've always had an interest in school based Occupational Therapy and  decided to switch paths when I found a wonderful family owned local company that provides contract therapy to local school districts. I went to several professional conferences over the summer to prepare and I plan to attend even more. I'm just that way when I start something new professionally, I have to be comfortable with it and dive in and learn! I started working part time for a local school district and I can tell that it's all going to work out well. Everyone has been welcoming and the students have been great to work with so far. The biggest challenge has been  learning a lot of new things and retaining all the information. I feel like my brain has been on information overload and I've been pretty tired. 

I haven't been reading much for my own interest lately and even started reading the wrong book for my book club this month. We're reading a book by Kate Morton and I have both of her books on my bookshelf but accidentally thought that we were reading The Forgotten Garden which I started reading and loved right away. Well, I realized when I met up for lunch with a few of my book club friends that we are discussing The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. So, I've switched gears and started reading it and hope to get it finished for book club next week.

Needless to say, I'm behind schedule on books that I've accepted for review and am being very selective about the books that I accept for review at this time. I've actually gotten quite a few books in the mail sent to me automatically as a blogger and not ones that I've requested. I'll do my best in getting to those and ask that everyone be patient as I adjust to a new routine. I also have not been visiting other blogs and I miss connecting with my book blogger friends.  I plan to visit soon and ask that you guys be patient with me and please don't give up on reading my blog as I'm posting less frequently at the moment. I have been hearing the buzz about Mockingjay, Suzanne Collin's final book in The Hunger Games Trilogy and can't wait to get my hands on a copy to read! When I was at the middle school in the district that I work in I was thrilled to see a brand new box set of The Hunger Games trilogy displayed in a classroom! I'll definitely have my eye out for what the students are reading. In the lower grades, my office is set off of the media center/library and I'll definitely be watching to see what the students favorite books are and I'll have to check in with the librarian as well. My son is in middle school now, which is another adjustment for us all (especially getting up much earlier in the morning to head off to school and work). He is liking it so far and I loved going to the open house and going through each of his classes in his schedule. Of course, Language Arts caught my interest and I was thrilled to hear about what they will be focusing on learning and reading this year, one of the books will be Tuck Everlasting  by Natalie Babbitt. This is a book that I haven't read and I plan to read it along with him. My son told me that they are  reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick in class now and he is enjoying it.

I'm looking forward to the start of Fall as it's one of my favorite seasons. I love to cook more in the fall and will share recipes here. With working part time I plan to use my crock pot more which is perfect for the fall. I'm always on the look out for new recipes so please comment here or email me any recipes to share or any favorite cookbooks.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend,

My Grandmother, A Woman of Valor

Clara Frank 11/10/17- 8/20/10

I haven't been able to dedicate much time to my blog lately as I've been focused on spending every moment with family. My grandmother Clara was an amazing lady, she lived a long and wonderful life and she passed away last week at the age of 92. This is a beautiful picture of her with my son Andrew at her 90th birthday celebration, less than 2 years ago. We celebrated her life at her funeral yesterday, it was sad and bittersweet as we miss her tremendously but treasure the memories that we have of her. She was an amazing lady and one that we are proud to call a Woman of Valor. The scripture from Proverbs 31 describes A Woman of Valor and my grandmother exemplified these traits beautifully:

I spoke during her eulogy yesterday at her funeral and wanted to share some of my thoughts in remembrance and honor of my wonderful Grandmother:

It would be impossible to express the depth of who my grandmother was in just a few words. She was the glue that held the family together, there was nothing more important to her than family. She set the foundation for us all and gave us unconditional love so that we could have strength to find our own ways in life. As a child I felt her warmth and love and as an adult I grew to understand the depth of her love and caring spirit. And when I finally became a mother it was then that I began to understand the many facets of my grandmother‘s character.

She was proud of her family, always there for them in so many ways, she would go out of her way to spend time with everyone. She was there when my son Andrew was born and when he was in the hospital the first week of his life. There was nothing that would take her away from being by our side.

My grandmother showed me the importance of staying strong even in tough times. She shared with us how she grew up through the depression, her mother made her clothes, her brothers showed her how to line her shoes with cardboard so that they would last longer as their parents could not afford new shoes for 7 children. She let us know that her parents showed their children great love even when they didn’t have much financially. My grandmother gave from the heart and with great love. As she got older and moved back from Florida, we spent a lot of time with her as she loved getting out going to lunch, shopping and wanting to know what was going on in our lives. My son Andrew was blessed with a beautiful relationship with his great grandmother or “GG” as the great grandchildren liked to call her.

I will forever treasure the memories I have of growing up with a special grandmother who was always there for me and understanding. Clara was a woman of strength, courage and determination. When she made up her mind she would do something she found a way to accomplish it. She surprised us all over the years as she endured health problems and continued to remain independent. No matter what, she would find a way to get her hair done, her clothes washed and iron even when she was getting around using a walker. Her doctor in the nursing home she lived in referred to her as the Phoenix, she was able to rise above the ashes and persevere. Her strength and tenacity were amazing to all of those who were touched by her life and fortunate to know her. She was an amazing woman and there is no other like Clara Nagel Allenick Frank. I am honored to call her my grandmother and blessed to have had her in my life for so long. I will miss her and treasure the moments that I had with her.

I read this poem in her honor:

You can shed tears that she is gone

or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back

or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left.

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her

or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday

or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she’s gone

or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back

or you can do what she’d want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

~Anonymous

I love you Grandma and will miss you,

Mailbox Monday ~ August 16, 2010

Mailbox Monday is a fun meme that was created by Marcia of The Printed Page and is now on tour – the host for this month is Chick Loves Lit. I haven't posted a Mailbox Monday post for a few weeks. Here are some of the books that arrived in my mailbox the past few weeks:

  

• Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation by Matt Myklusch a surprise from Simon and Schuster
• One Flight Up by Susan Fales-Hill  from Simon and Schuster Atria Alley Grab, this was an error as I didn't request this specific book.
• RUSSIAN WINTER by Daphne Kalotay from Harper Collins
• A Scattered Life by Karen McQuestion from the author
• Radiance Alyson Noël from Macmillan
• Sunset Park by Paul Auster from Henry Holt 
• The King's Mistress by Emma Campion won from Read It Forward Crown Publishing
• Saving Max by Antoinette van Heugten from Phenix & Phenix

Sunday Salon: Summertime

This has been a busy summer for me and my family. I haven't been blogging as much as some of you may have noticed, my postings have been less frequent. I haven't been reading as much as I usually do but the books that I have read have been wonderful. Even my book club seemed to take a mini hiatus due to our schedules and we had a wonderful friend move out of state. It just won't be the same without her and we have to regroup our book club now.

My son is transitioning to the middle school (6th grade) this year so that will be a whole new experience. He was in a local theater camp this summer and had a great part as the Evil Stepfather in Twinderella. It was a whole new experience for him as this was the first time he had a speaking part and had to learn lines, music and he had a solo. He had his share of nerves and we hope the stage jitters will ease a bit as he does this more often. He has announced that next year he wants to mainly focus on technical theater. He may be more comfortable behind the scenes.

I will be starting a new part time job in a new to me area as a school based Occupational Therapist. I've been going to conferences this summer,  studying and preparing myself for the transition. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I read a quote yesterday on author Claire Cook's Facebook Wall and it hit home for me:

"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do." - 

                                                                      ~Georgia O'Keeffe

I found this to be inspiring that someone as successful as Georgia O'Keefe could work through her fears and not let her feelings stop her success.

I'll continue to maintain my blog as I transition to a new routine but I may be blogging and reading a bit less. I've cut back on my blog tour and review committments as it was too stressful to meet so many deadlines. I'm focusing on catching up on the books I've accepted for review and ones that I want to read. I haven't been visiting my blog friends as much this summer and commenting on your posts and I miss keeping up with everyone. I plan to work in more time to visit and comment.

I'm currently reading The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier and it's a wonderful story and the character is the same age as me but we are at different stages of our lives. I'm enjoying this book! I'm also listening to The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith on CD. This is the 9th novel in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I enjoy this series as it follows the same characters and their adventures and especially the narrators authentic dialect. This is a perfect cozy mystery series to indulge in.

Enjoy the rest of your summer, Happy Reading!