Category Archives: Book Review

by | April 10, 2026 · 11:38 am

The “Cottage” in Scrap

This week, Ashley at Cozy Home Delight reviewed Scrap: Salvaging a Family. 

[The book] brings up that complicated space where grief, resentment, anger, love, and even forgiveness all exist at the same time. The book does not try to simplify those feelings or resolve them neatly. It allows them to exist together, which felt very honest.

I thought I’d share a photo related to my memoir. I write about the cottage my father bought for us to reburbish. This is what it looked like near the beginning, although you really can’t see some of the details I describe in the book. But it gives you what I saw when we first pulled up outside it.

This cottage came with a dirt floor which had been applied over the old linoleum. And yet somehow my father supposedly found a pair of pristine white ice skates with red pompoms in my size in the dirt crawl space (Michigan cellar) underneath.

Tour Schedule:

March 21: Joy Neal Kidney (review)

March 23: Liz Gauffreau, (review)

March 24: Marie Ann Bailey, (review)

March 25: John W. Howell, (excerpt)

March 30: Miriam Hurdle, (companion story)

March 31: Review Tales (review)

April 2: the bookworm (review)

April 9: Ashley’s Books, Cozy Home Delight (review)

April 13: What’s That Book About (guest post)

April 15: Tabi’s Thoughts (review)

April 23: Lavender Orchids (review)

April 27: The Reading Bud (review)

May 4: Chelsea’s Books (review)

Mary 4: Smorgasbord (excerpt)

May 7: The Reading Bud (interview)

May 14: True Book Addict (guest post)

May 19: True Book Addict (review)

May 21: The Book Connection (review)

Follow the tour with the hashtag #ScrapSalvagingFamily

11 Comments

Filed under #ScrapSalvagingFamily, Book Review, ELJ Editions, Family, Family history, Flash Nonfiction, flash nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, Nonfiction, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY, Scrap:Salvaging a Family, Writing

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 2, 2026 · 11:48 am

A Big Thank you to Scrap Reviewers or Reviewers of Scrap or Scrappy Reviewers!

I just found a review of Scrap: Salvaging a Family from Jeyran Main. I love it!

Castle’s prose is spare yet evocative. The flash form intensifies the emotional resonance, allowing each vignette to stand alone while contributing to a cohesive emotional arc. Readers who appreciate memoirs that experiment with structure while remaining grounded in emotional truth will find Scrap especially compelling.

Jeyran Main

Additionally, the Poetic Book Tour began today with a review at The Bookworm. I found it interesting that The Bookworm reads the book as poetry. I am thinking that the flash pieces might be read as prose poetry. The line between flash nonfiction and prose poem is different for every reader.

Tour Schedule:

April 2: the bookworm (review)

April 9: Ashley’s Books (review)

April 13: What’s That Book About (guest post)

April 15: Tabi’s Thoughts (review)

April 23: Lavender Orchids (review)

April 27: The Reading Bud (review)

March 31: Review Tales (review)

May 4: Chelsea’s Books (review)

May 7: The Reading Bud (interview)

May 14: True Book Addict (guest post)

May 19: True Book Addict (review)

May 21: The Book Connection (review)

Follow the tour with the hashtag #ScrapSalvagingFamily

Leave a comment

Filed under #ScrapSalvagingFamily, Book Review, Creative Nonfiction, ELJ Editions, Family history, Flash Nonfiction, flash nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY, Scrap:Salvaging a Family

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | March 30, 2026 · 6:37 am

Blog Tour for SCRAP is Over at Miriam Hurdle’s Blog!

Put on your cap to follow Scrap (I can’t help myself with these Scrap rhymes) over to Miriam Hurdle’s The Showers of Blessings blog! A big thank you to my sweet friend Miriam for hosting Scrap and me.

I worked on the memoir-in-flash for 18 years, and over that time I did end up with at least two different complete traditional versions. Then I decided to write Scrap in hybrid, using a lot of flash nonfiction, as well as poems, essay, etc.  Of course that means that there are stories that did not make it into the book. Miriam is sharing one today!

MIRIAM’S BLOG

###

I’m looking forward to the blog tours for my new book Scrap: Salvaging a Family, published by ELJ Editions.

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

Going to be on Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord on May 4!

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

Click on the book image to order at Amazon.

Leave a comment

Filed under #ScrapSalvagingFamily, Book Review, ELJ Editions, Family, Family history, Flash Nonfiction, flash nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, Nonfiction, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY, Scrap:Salvaging a Family

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | March 25, 2026 · 4:00 am

Tap Your Feet Over to SCRAP at John Howell’s Fiction Favorites!

Tap your feet over to see Scrap on John W. Howell’s blog

John W. Howell’s Fiction Favorites

###

I’m looking forward to the blog tours for my new book Scrap: Salvaging a Family, published by ELJ Editions.

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

Going to be on Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord on May 4!

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

Click on the book image to order at Amazon.

Leave a comment

Filed under #ScrapSalvagingFamily, Book Review, ELJ Editions, Family, Family history, Flash Nonfiction, flash nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, Nonfiction, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY, Scrap:Salvaging a Family

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | March 24, 2026 · 6:15 am

Blog Tour for Scrap: Salvaging a Family: Check Out Marie Bailey’s Review!

I don’t think anybody has read as many versions of Scrap: Salvaging a Family as my friend Marie Ann Bailey. Flap your wings (you see what I’m doing there, right? flap/scrap) over to her blog to read her review of the finished product!

MARIE’S REVIEW OF SCRAP

###

BLOG TOURS FOR SCRAP:

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

 

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

 

Leave a comment

Filed under #ScrapSalvagingFamily, Book Review, ELJ Editions, Family, Family history, Flash Nonfiction, flash nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, Nonfiction, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY, Scrap:Salvaging a Family

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | March 23, 2026 · 5:00 am

SCRAP Blog Tour is Happening at Writer Elizabeth Gauffreau’s Blog

Tap into Scrap at Elizabeth (Liz) Gauffreau’s blog! Check out her review of Scrap: Salvaging a Family.

Liz’s Review of SCRAP

###

BLOG TOURS FOR SCRAP:

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

 

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

 

6 Comments

Filed under #ScrapSalvagingFamily, Book Review, ELJ Editions, Family, Family history, Flash Nonfiction, flash nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, Nonfiction, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY, Scrap:Salvaging a Family

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | March 21, 2026 · 9:39 am

The Blog Tours for Scrap Begins with Joy Neal Kidney’s Delightful Blog

Thank you so much, Joy!!!

JOY NEAL KIDNEY

###

I’m looking forward to the blog tours for my new book Scrap: Salvaging a Family, published by ELJ Editions.

First up are friend blogs!

Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review

Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review

Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review

John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt

Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap

 

Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.

POETIC BOOK TOUR FOR SCRAP

Leave a comment

Filed under #ScrapSalvagingFamily, Book Review, ELJ Editions, Family, Family history, flash nonfiction, Flash Nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, Nonfiction, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY, Scrap:Salvaging a Family

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | March 6, 2026 · 6:20 am

Family in All Its Human Pain, Mystery, and Love

The official release for Scrap: Salvaging a Family (ELJ Editions) is in two weeks, but you can read about it now. The journal Your Impossible Voice has published an amazing review by Wilma J. Kahn. What a blessing to my eighteen-year project!

A memoir in flash, Scrap focuses on three discrete parts of Castle’s life in relation to her parents, especially her father. “Scrap” is a multivalent word around whose every meaning and nuance Castle fashions poignant—and sometimes horrifying—flash prose and poetry to reveal her family in all its human pain, mystery, and love.

REVIEW OF SCRAP BY WILMA J KAHN

On a related note, the journal Fictive Dream published my flash story, “The Nice Girls.”

THE NICE GIRLS

LatinosUSA has put Kin Types on its Bookshelf! And MasticadoresUSA has published a poem from that collection: What Lies Inside

###

The Sweet Acacias have blossomed! I have such a love-hate relationship with these guys. They are so sweet smelling, but gosh, everybody is “allergic” to them! They bloom at least twice a year.

I’ve mentioned here that I haven’t had time to write in the last few months, but I am trying to write a few tiny drafts now. If I can accomplish first drafts of flash or poems, a few a week, for a few weeks I will feel better. I don’t feel as well when I’m not writing. I feel distinctly WEIRD.

Lately, I’m reading a mystery series by Kate Ellis–the Wesley Peterson books–which feature contemporary murder mysteries with archeology stories. I learned about the Plague Maiden. Have you ever heard of her? She appeared before a community was hit by the Bubonic Plague or Black Death. She was a woman, sometimes a skeleton, dressed in white and carrying a rake or a broom to sweep away all the dead. In the book, she sometimes wears a red scarf.

Do a quick Google search if you want to be creeped out by the variety of depictions of this scary folk character.

I feel like she needs to show up in a story I write, but I have no idea how or when. Maybe you would like to write a story about her? If so, post it so I can read it!

 

 

26 Comments

Filed under #AmWriting, Book Review, ELJ Editions, Flash Fiction, Flash Nonfiction, hybrid memoir, Memoir, Microfiction, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

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

Leave a comment

Filed under #amreading, #bloggingcommunity, Book Review, Fiction, History, Novel

by | February 2, 2026 · 6:20 am

Book Review of Carol Willette Bachofner’s New Poetry Collection

I once wrote a poem that ended with a man astounded at witnessing “a woman / blaze from the womb.” If ever an entire poetry book witnesses women blazing, it’s Carol Willette Bachofner’s new collection, Every Place I Look. Whereas I had only hinted at the phenomenon, Bachofner embraces it, even subtitles the group of poems, “women with embers at their feet.”

I’m sure it seems odd to start a review with a quote from my own poem, but I feel so connected with Bachofner’s new work that it’s as if the poems are siphoned from my heart—or, conversely, as if they fill my heart with their truths.

The theme of Eve and the apple runs throughout, as poem after poem documents what women have been had to deal with, starting with the mythology that she is created from Adam’s unimportant rib. Eventually, Bachofner has it out with the myth in the poem “Rib and Other Fantasies.”

We are not bone of anyone but ourselves,

not stolen property of biblical proportions.

My favorite lines are in this poem:

Why

think we are spilling used blood? We are cleansing

ourselves, making our inner home a temple.

For ages, men held to the notion that menstruation proved that women were inferior, even dirty. But, no, instead we are self-cleaning, creating something holy.

Brava to Bachofner for this thought-provoking, radiantly feminist poetry collection, Every Place I Look: women with embers at their feet. Drag your feet through the embers to find a copy for yourself!

###

You can purchase a  copy of Every Place I Look at the publisher’s website here:

Every Place I Look

WE HAVE A WINNER: MERRIL D. SMITH HAS FOUND THE POEM IN DOLL GOD AND WILL HAVE A COPY OF EVERY PLACE I LOOK WINGING TO HER SOON!!!

One person who has a copy of my first book Doll God can win a copy of Every Place I Look:

First person (with an address in the U.S.) who responds in the comments below with the name of the poem and the page number (from Doll God) with the woman blazing from the womb, I will send you a free copy of Carol Bachofner’s new book! I will keep the comments open to give you plenty of time to find the poem (and the book–I realize it’s been eleven years)! (Hint: it’s not that hard to find the poem if you start at the beginning of Doll God).

 

4 Comments

Filed under Book Review, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection

Tagged as , , , , ,