Category Archives: #amreading

by | August 3, 2026 · 6:00 am

My Review of Deborah Brasket’s This Sea Within

Deborah Brasket blogs at Writing on the Edge of the Wild

This Sea Within, Deborah Brasket’s new novel is not a departure from When Things Go Missing in writing quality as both books are obviously written by a skilled craftsperson or in the search for identity at the heart of the stories, but in every other respect it is a vastly different book. This Sea Within is driven by passion and courage.

The protagonist Lena, a sheltered American college graduate, travels to the fictional country of San Balanque to learn more about herself. Soon after arriving, she discovers that she will jump into life feet first without looking back as she throws her lot in with the freedom fighters based largely on her passionate love for Raoul, the leader of the rebels. It seems like quite the leap to transform from the pacifist to a cult figure of the movement, but the reader witnesses Lena making that move step by step.

Brasket keeps the reader in suspense throughout as the secret of who Lena’s mother is hangs over her head throughout much of the book. The writing style features gorgeous descriptions of the beauty of the jungle, and the opening scene describing Lena and the ocean as she is surfing is a knockout. I can only imagine the extensive research Brasket had to do to write this story.

The top layer thread of the book is the relationship between Lena and Raoul which is a torrid love affair with beautifully written sex scenes. But perhaps the most hidden layer of the story I only realized after I finished the book. It pertains to what happens when we connect our lives with someone else and how that can change us. No spoiler alert here: you’ll have to read the book for yourself!

ORDER HERE

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by | July 6, 2026 · 6:00 am

The Women Before Us: My Review of Amy Bess Cohen’s Latest Family History Novel

The Women Before Us is the fourth family history novel by Amy Bess Cohen. Like the three previous books, this one is very loosely based upon Cohen’s ancestors. As a genealogist and family history blogger, Cohen has completed the mountains of research necessary to delve into the lives of these people. But Cohen doesn’t leave it at the usual pedigrees and timelines. Her research leads her to explorations of personality and motivation. She does this in her books and on her blog.

Brotmanblog: A Family Journey

This time, Cohen focuses on the lives of the women of three generations of Jewish women and how their lives are determined by who they marry. This can lead to happiness or it can lead to misery. The book is shaped by the experience of 18-year-old Edna Schwartz who travels from her home in Santa Fe to Philadelphia to visit her aunt in 1922. Against her mother’s hopes, Edna meets her future husband so far from home.

Within Edna’s story we learn the stories of her mother Harriet, Harriet’s German mother Hava, both who left their mothers behind to move with their husbands. We also learn the story of Edna’s (future) mother-in-law Mae who experienced the same displacement. As readers, we witness what these women learn from leaving behind their support systems.

Throughout the book, as suspense builds, there is subtle but consistent foreshadowing that perhaps Edna’s marriage will not be as successful as those of the women who came before her. There is a Jewish tradition to bestow the name of a deceased ancestor on a new baby. Edna and her husband break that tradition, and it seems another clue that things will go wrong. Is it the new age? The mores of a brash young country versus their religion training? That Edna and James are too reckless? That James is spoiled? Ultimately, the true damage to Edna’s marriage is something out of anyone’s control.

The brains of this book is the way it demonstrates how dependent women were on their marriages. These women were not Orthodox Jews, but like all women of their time, they had little chance of a life outside of marriage. And who they married dictated whether their lives would be hard or less so, happy, or even unsafe. The heart of this book is Edna’s mother-in-law Mae. I finished the book, hoping that in the fictional future of the story, one of Edna’s children will name their child after Mae, a strong, kind, maternal, industrious, intelligent woman who does what she must do for her family.

I finished the last page at night and fell asleep soon after. All night I dreamed about the book, the characters inhabiting every dream I had. Edna, Mae, James, Harriet, and the others. It’s hard to believe that these are not Cohen’s actual relatives, but these fictional people were touched with the magic of Cohen’s sympathetic understanding of her own grandmothers and great-grandmothers.

ORDER THE WOMEN BEFORE US

Amy Bess Cohen’s other books:

Amy Bess Cohen Books

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by | May 19, 2026 · 6:00 am

Review of Joy Neal Kidney’s The Immigrant and the Outlaw

I am excited to share my review of Joy Neal Kidney’s new book,  The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

For years, Joy Neal Kidney carried a story she felt called to tell—a World War II family history marked by love, courage, and devastating loss. In the process of writing that story, she discovered something more: a gift for telling true American stories.

Beginning her freelance career in her forties, Joy went on to publish dozens of narratives in newspapers, magazines, and through the popular podcast Our American Stories. What started as a single story became a calling—to preserve the voices, memories, and moments that might otherwise be lost to time.

The Immigrant and the Outlaw gathers some of her most compelling work—stories rooted in Iowa soil yet echoing far beyond it. These are tales of grit and heritage, of war and family, of sacrifice and resilience. Stories of ordinary people whose lives reveal the quiet heroism woven through everyday American life.

Both deeply personal and richly historical, this collection offers a window into the heartland—and into the life of a writer who learned, story by story, how to tell what matters most.

These are stories worth remembering.

Available from Amazon.com in paperback, hardback, and ebook. If you’d like an autographed paperback copy of any of these book, Beaverdale Books (515-279-5400) will ship them.

ORDER FROM AMAZON

MY REVIEW

I just finished reading Joy Neal Kidney’s new book The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland and can’t wait to tell you about it. What a delightful compilation of nonfiction stories Joy has written over time for newspaper and radio readers and audiences.

These stories evoke all the nostalgia of growing up in the heart of America in the 20th century, researching and appreciating one’s roots and investing in new generations of family and newcomers alike, such as the Bosnian immigrants Joy befriended with all her love and much of that limited resource, her time. Her story about the Bosnian child who insisted on creating the family’s first Thanksgiving dinner in fifth grade brought tears to my eyes.

Joy’s style is personal, direct, and often very lyrical. The reader really gets a feel for the amazing woman telling her stories. She is so observant and in tune with the natural world but always remembers her obligations to the humans around her.

I have so many favorite stories that it’s hard to narrow down what to highlight. “Thunderstorms and Quiet, Spring Rains” is a beautiful meditation on rain, which Joy loves. Even if you prefer sunny days, you will fall in love with rain by reading Joy’s piece. By reading her story about lilacs, I could smell them near me although I live far from any lilac bushes. This made me so nostalgic for the lilacs at my old house in Michigan and, even farther back, for the ancient shrubs behind my great-grandfather’s farmhouse

Joy wrote about discovering her great-grandmother’s unfinished wonky quilt. She dismantled it and reassembled the quilt in homage to her ancestor. This is a metaphor for Joy’s stories. She takes all the bits and pieces of family stories, witnessed events, and research and shapes them into attractive literature that warms the reader. After you read The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland, you will want to gift copies to friends and family. Just wait and see.

 

 

 

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by | February 9, 2026 · 7:00 am

Prefer to Listen to The Weight of Snow and Regret? You’re in Luck!

Elizabeth Gauffreau’s newest novel, The Weight of Snow and Regret is now available on audio book. I think this is a fabulous move. Some people have vision issues and want to listen to novels. Some people have long commutes and like to “read” along the way. In fact, years ago, that’s how I first read Joy Luck Club–on my commute. The audio version at that time was read by the author Amy Tan.

I posted a review of Liz’s novel in October. Here it is if you missed it: REVIEW

Here’s the link to the audio version:

https://books2read.com/WeightofSnow

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by | January 7, 2026 · 6:36 pm

Review of Candice M. Kelsey’s New Poetry Collection, Another Place Altogether

Candice M. Kelsey’s new poetry collection, Another Place Altogether (Kelsay Books 2025), is a brilliant exploration of a woman’s relationship with her mother, with her children, and with a world both beautiful and intensely dangerous. The book also explores her relationship with the two places she lives between: Los Angeles and Augusta, Georgia.

The book is divided between the first section, called “Endings,” and the second, called “Beginnings.” In the first poem of the second section, the poet arrives in Georgia from Los Angeles. In Georgia, the California poet experiences discomfort with remnants of the Old South she sees in Georgia. At the end of the poem, “Because Your Husband’s Shirt is Ironed,” Kelsey well demonstrates this culture clash. At the beginning of the poem, a coach assumes her husband’s wife ironed his shirt. Later, she mentions to the other “homecoming moms” that the dads don’t have a group chat, the women ignore her. She says, “O how the South hates a wrinkle.” I love how she moves from misogyny to that ending.

The poems in this book are threaded with or even end on darkness. Some of the most stunning of these dark poems are about her treatment by her mother. In “Flesh and Bone,” she writes that her mother is “declaring me her own / flesh and blood. Nailing me to her.” Contrasted with her mother in this poem is her dead mother-in-law who offers supportive advice (emails from the beyond) and inspires her.

I found the introduction of this “found mother” very powerful and relate it to another aspect of this collection. Kelsey’s poetry here is inspired by other poets, especially women poets. “Menopause: A Cento from Female Poets Laureate” is the most obvious example of this. The homage is very welcome as a hopeful note that balances darker scenes, such as the friend’s brother who molests her when she’s 12-year-old and the friend’s father who abused his wife over her weight. In fact, the gender norm dictating a woman’s slimness is a theme that pops up several times. The poet’s mother was complicit in this emotional torture.

Most hopeful are the poems about the poet’s children. Love and pride shine through even the challenging times. And although sometimes she might want to act like her mother, she does not. In “Mothers & Daughters,” she would have good reason to send a nasty text (because she feels bad herself and her daughter is being selfish, a typical teen), but she does not, whereas her own mother would not have held back.

Near the end, even with the sound of her mother’s critical voice in her mind, she overcomes so that she can love herself: “Whispering Candice, I touch my ear / and hear self-love with these lips.” Read Another Place Altogether and you too will love Candice Kelsey and her powerful words.

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You can find Candice on Instagram at feed_me_poetry

 

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by | January 1, 2026 · 1:54 pm

It’s a New Year!

Welcome to 2026! I’m not asking for amazing things for the year; I’d just like it to be gentle with me.

2025 was difficult, although I did have some writing successes in journals, have been working with the small press, ELJ Editions, that will be publishing my flash memoir, and had my manuscript inspired by painter Remedios Varo accepted by Shanti Arts.

*Scrap: Salvaging a Family, a hybrid flash memoir, will be out March 20, 2026

*Hunting the Cosmos, flash fiction and poetry for Remedios Varo, will be out fall 2026

I should have a cover reveal soon for Scrap. Can’t wait to share it with you!!!

The problem with the new year, though, is it springs from the old and all the unresolved issues of 2025 will go on in 2026. My mother’s dementia is one of those things. Taking over her affairs is very stressful and time-consuming, but worse is the dilemmas of communication with my mother. I can still have good conversations with her if I ignore the little idiosyncracies (the “critters” that have taken up residence in her apartment, but can only be seen by her), hearing about her going to a service two hours early and waiting for others to show up, etc.

Both Perry and Meesker have serious health issues. As you may remember, Perry was diagnosed with issues two years ago, but I don’t like to talk about it. All I can say is I am constantly feeding sick cats who need food all day long and cleaning up diarrhea, pee outside the box, and dramatically hurled vomit. And Lily still hates Sloopy Anne. Last night she threw herself violently against the gate we have up to keep them apart, trying to get to Sloops.

2025 was productive for me for writing, up to a point. I haven’t written anything for weeks now. Between grandbaby duty, my mom’s stuff, and these cats (on top of regular work and business), I’ve been too busy and very tired.

I read some good mystery series this year, though, as that’s a good way for me to unwind. Actually, I read far more than I usually do, but then I did have hip replacement surgery in May, so mysteries helped out a lot when I was suffering before the surgery and then during the recovery. Here are the series: Yorkshire Murder Mysteries by J.R. Ellis; Dark Yorkshire, Misty Isle, and Hidden Norfolk by J.M. Dalgliesh; Rev. Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries by Julia Spencer-Fleming; Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mysteries by Deborah Crombie; China Thrillers, Lewis Trilogy, and Enzo Macleod by Peter May; DCI Craig Gillard Mysteries by Nick Louth. (To give you a clue, I am a fan of Louise Penny, Ann Cleeves, and Elly Griffiths, and the series I’ve listed here are more like the Griffiths and possibly the Cleeves than the Penny books. The Spencer-Fleming series is a lot like the Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway books, notably because of the hot love affair in the middle of the mysteries.

In addition, I read some wonderful stand-alone novels and poetry collections. I reviewed just a few of them for this blog. If I reviewed your book in 2025 and didn’t list it, please let me know!

POETRY

Review of Robert Okaji’s Our Loveliest Bruises

A Gorgeous Collection Combining Genres of Poetry, Genealogy, and History

Review of Merril D. Smith’s HELD INSIDE THE FOLDS OF TIME

FICTION

Book Tour Stop: Book Review of Deborah Brasket’s When Things Go Missing

Elizabeth Gauffreau’s Masterful New Novel, A Review

Christmas Magic

Just got a call from my son. He miscalculated the days this week and asked if I could watch Hudson again tomorrow. Sure! (Good thing I fell asleep on New Year’s Eve at 8PM). The other night the Gardener put together a tricycle for Hudson. He’s almost two, and his feet barely reach the pedals, but we can work on learning to pedal a bike again tomorrow. 🙂

Let’s work on making 2026 a tender, playful, happy year! If we all puts our heads and hearts together .  . . .

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by | December 19, 2025 · 8:47 pm

Christmas Magic

Looking for a happy holiday romance? Check out Eden Dow Robins’s new Christmas release available in paperback and kindle versions. And inside find a little Easter egg in the form of my book Rooted and Winged!

https://www.amazon.com/Frost-Happily-Forever-After-Holiday/dp/B0G64ZSWC7

There’s more, too, but I don’t want to share it before you have read Frost!

Summary

“A small town, two frozen hearts, and a little Christmas magic…

Esme Gerard decided spending the holidays at her favorite place on earth was just what she needed. Once known as the most wicked wild west town in America, Jericho Ridge had been her asylum for more than a decade and was the perfect respite when her heart couldn’t risk taking one more hit.

Until Jack.

Their first encounter left her craving more. Something about him drew her closer. No matter how much she tried to tell herself she wasn’t ready, her heart told a different story.

Jack De Vine had priorities. As a single dad, his daughter was at the top of the list. Second was a secret legacy he had a sworn duty to protect. Third was the winery he and his family ran. Dating was at the very bottom. Ever since his ex-wife left him and their child years ago without a backward glance, he’d kept his heart stored in ice.

Until Esme.

From the first moment he saw her, he was drawn to her. That sent alarm bells off in his head. He knew he should steer clear of her, yet he kept looking for excuses to get closer.”

I hope your holidays are joyful!

 

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by | November 10, 2025 · 6:20 am

Review of Merril D. Smith’s HELD INSIDE THE FOLDS OF TIME

Here is my book review of Merril D. Smith‘s beautiful new poetry collection. I hope it makes you want to order a copy!

Merril D. Smith’s new poetry collection, Held Inside the Folds of Time, is a testament to Smith’s background as a historian. But what is more important is Smith’s sensitivity to previous generations. She opens the collection with a poem about a cave painting. By doing so, he connects us with all who have come before.

She recognizes what she’s learned from her ancestors, who–in “How I Learned”–“showed me that I have my own wings– / unfold them, fly. This, too, is part of the pattern.” The poet can’t or won’t get away from them: “My dead follow me through every timeline” (“Suspended, Surrounded”).

Smith’s ancestors who immigrated to the United States, her own family of origin, even the soldiers who died in a Revolutionary War battle are all subjects of the book. “In Memorium: For the Unknown Soldiers at Red Bank Battlefield” asserts “their ghosts roam the battlefield / settling their bones, unsettled in time.”

Nature features prominently in Smith’s poetry, and this is where the lyrical beauty of her writing is best displayed. She uses many poetic techniques, particularly variations of rhyme, such as off rhyme, end rhyme, and internal rhyme. These lines are from “Cross-Quarter Days”:

The blooms have browned,

blossoms scattered to the wind

now snow veils the ground,

there above, one bony root unpinned.”

While the poems contain examples of the beauty of life, the overall tone of the book is a lovely mournfulness. As Smith writes in “Winter Birches,” “there is no happily ever, only after.”

Held Inside the Folds of Time demonstrates the potential gorgeousness of language as it mourns and celebrates the poet’s world.

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by | October 27, 2025 · 5:20 am

Elizabeth Gauffreau’s Masterful New Novel, A Review

Liz Gauffreau is a master of historical fiction. And rather than creating a series (so far), she has written completely different books with different historical settings. I loved Telling Sonny, and now I love The Weight of Snow and Regret.

Here is my review of the latter. At the end I’ll share with you how you can purchase the book!

***

Elizabeth Gauffreau’s new novel, The Weight of Snow and Regret, is a tribute to the residents of the Sheldon Poor Farm in Sheldon Springs, Vermont, as well as testament to the harsh lives of society’s disadvantaged. The novel takes place in 1967-68, the last year of the tenure of the poorhouse. But the plight of the poor and culture-rocking events of that year resonate with familiarity with contemporary readers.

The first part of the story weaves in the life of Louisianian Claire and how she falls from her place in middle-class society to living in the poorhouse far from home. In this way, the reader is drawn into the novel through the perspective of this mysterious woman, then the reader is delivered into the capable hands of Hazel, a sympathetic foster child grown into a compassionate woman who now runs the home itself while her husband manages the associated farm. Through Hazel’s kindness and perspective, we meet the other residents of the poorhouse.

The place hasn’t always been run as Hazel manages it. Before her hard work, dedication, and home management skills, the neglect was extreme. Every surface was filthy, with trash strewn about. The residents’ clothing was in desperate need of laundering. In fact, Hazel believes that the men’s underwear had never been cleaned. Hazel cleans the home immaculately, creates wholesome meals with a tiny budget, and gives the residents the care and understanding that they need.

These residents range from the forgotten elderly to the mentally ill to those with intellectual disabilities. Although they respond differently to events, and their interactions with each other can be fraught, Gauffreau’s exploration of their behavior and treatment rings true. One twist is that Hazel herself lived in this poorhouse at one time. A couple of the residents from her childhood time at the shelter are still living there when Hazel takes over. This feels like a gut punch to her to think of them still living in the conditions she and her family had undergone.

Gauffreau meticulously researched the history of the home, poor farm life in the sixties and before, the blues music that spoke to Claire’s troubled and depressed soul, the national and world headlines of the time, and local history. Her painstaking implementation of her research with her compassionate feel for the characters, and her excellent storytelling senses makes this an engrossing read. I read far into the night, without being able to put down the book.

***

Purchase from your preferred book seller.

Help Meals on Wheels!

Purchase the paperback from the publisher, and $5.00 of the purchase price will be donated to AgeWell Meals on wheels of Franklin County, Vermont.

Purchase paperback from Paul Stream Press.

 

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by | October 11, 2025 · 2:45 pm

Introducing Kathi Crawford and CONSIDER THE LIGHT

I’m introducing a new poetry-slash-flash nonfiction book by a debut writer, Kathi Crawford. I had the honor of writing a blurb for the back of the book.

Kathi Crawford’s debut chapbook Consider the Light, hybrid memoir in poetry and flash, shines a beam into the liminal spaces of a woman’s life. The collection examines transition periods and disruptions as Crawford recreates herself and her future at each of these junctions. As the child of working-class parents, she muses, “I need to save my family,” but as she grows older and must deal with her own problems, she takes what she can learn from others, such as self-discipline from her beloved Nanna, while forging a fierce independence. Crawford’s distinctive voice and story take the reader on a unique journey while offering whispers of familiarity to many who have faced similar hurtles. You won’t want to miss this engaging new voice.

Here’s the Amazon link. What a gorgeous cover, am I right? CONSIDER THE LIGHT – AMAZON

The cover artist is Brooke Summers-Perry. Here’s her Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/brookesp_studio/

I think you will really enjoy this one, even if you tend not to read poetry. Here’s the book description:

consider the light is a hybrid memoir in poetry and flash nonfiction that traces one woman’s journey from her 1960s Rustbelt upbringing to a life of creative and professional fulfillment in Texas. Born into a working-class family shaped by grit and sacrifice, Kathi Crawford navigates decades of transformation-personal, cultural, and emotional-while forging her own path toward career success and lasting love.

Through moments of grief, reinvention, and unexpected grace, this collection illuminates the resilience required to see the best in each situation and in each other. With language that is spare, evocative, and deeply felt, Crawford invites readers to reflect on what it means to belong, to endure, and to choose light even when the shadows linger.

This debut book speaks to anyone who has wrestled with identity, loss, or longing-and found, in the struggle, a deeper kind of beauty. It’s a testament to the power of memory, the strength of women’s voices, and the healing potential of story. A compelling read for fans of women’s memoirs, personal transformation, and poetry about grief, hope, and resilience.

And you can read a little about Kathi here:

With a career spanning decades in organizational development, Kathi Crawford founded People Possibilities, LLC in 2008. She is an IAC-certified master coach who has worked with hundreds of clients one-on-one through leadership, career, and life transitions.

Alongside her business career, Kathi actively writes poetry and flash creative nonfiction. Her work has been featured online and in print in a variety of literary journals. Her chapbook, consider the light, is available from Finishing Line Press. This mini-memoir invites readers to embrace their flaws, honor resilience, and cultivate empathy for themselves and others, offering yet another avenue for Kathi to foster understanding and connection.

You can find Kathi on Instagram or LinkedIn @kathicrawford and subscribe to her blog @ kathicrawford dot com.

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