Editors' Picks
See the ten reviews our editors have chosen this month:
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The subtitle of this memoir, "One Woman's Story of Quiet Courage and Love" (with jacket copy alluding to passion, misguided love and Dachau) led to me expect a tense memoir of star-crossed lovers during World War II. Instead, this is the story of one woman's search for the father she never knew. Once I realized that, I went back and reread from that point of view.
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Carol Smallwood is a brave woman. In this book of varied poems she faces life, the good parts and the hard parts, squarely in the eye. While dividing her life into the "compartments" referenced in the title, she realizes and declares in her preface that no life can be completely compartmentalized. Nature will overlap into home, society, or femininity. Work will impinge on mortality, and the other way around.
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Many scholars have researched and chronicled the horrors of the Holocaust taking place in European countries throughout World War II. Ms. Levinson's research and resulting book is different and extremely valuable on many fronts.
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When I saw the cover artwork by Kelly Louise Judd I knew this book of fiction would be full of the unexpected. I wasn't disappointed! The woman in the image appears to be levitating and a rabbit in mid-air is poised to land on her chest or her throat. Something unusual is happening and something quite disastrous, even though the rabbit can be a good luck talisman.
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Part lyrical parenting memoir, part hard-hitting, meticulously researched advocacy, Raising Elijah is not a light read. But if you care about the health of our children and the planet that nourishes all of us, it's darn near essential. Just don't try to read it all at once. This is a powerful and empowering book: take it slowly and let Steingraber's facts and passion for a healthy world seep in and become part of your understanding; let them guide your daily choices in life.
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Lisa Shatzky, in her introduction to her first book of poetry, calls her poems "terrible and sad" but also "human and necessary." She dedicates them "to all of Canada's First Nations' people who suffered at the hands of the Canadian Government's Residential School System." This began in the mid to late 1800's, when First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families, their homes, their customs and language to live in church-run boarding schools and continued for more than a century.
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I was initially inspired to read Nancy Pogue LaTurner's memoir, Voluntary Nomads: A Mother's Memories of Foreign Service Family Life, because of the lure of exotic stories about the Foreign Service. While the Foreign Service provides background structure to LaTurner's tale, it definitely remains in the background.
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I wish this book had been around when I was a young parent.back in the day! When I'm with friends my age, we talk about how we wish we could have been happier, more aware, and more present when our children were younger. The Self-Aware Parent can help parents of any age learn how.
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Moms: Wouldn't it be nice to anticipate and have as much joy in your daughter turning into a woman as you did with her first smiles, steps and words? Wouldn't it be great to have the confidence in guiding your daughter as she crossed the threshold into womanhood? Moon Mother, Moon Daughter: Myths and Rituals that Celebrate a Girl's Coming-of-Age can help you discover and embrace such a journey with your daughter.
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In Uneasy Spirits, M. Louisa Locke once again takes readers to historical San Francisco where Annie Fuller earns her living running a boarding house and secretly working as a clairvoyant. While it bothers Annie that she has to make a living as Madam Sybil, it bothers her more to learn that another local medium might go so far as to endanger the lives of clients. When she agrees to help ferret out the truth, Annie and her Irish maid, Kathleen, find themselves immersed in unfriendly spirits and trouble.
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Review of the Month
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This is Not the Ivy League, by Mary Clearman Blew
Imagine a windswept northern plain, a two-lane highway, and the ramshackle ranch buildings you see from the road. If you're curious about the lives and dreams of the people in such places, if you're curious about who moves on and who stays behind to run the ranch, and if you're curious about a woman forging her way in an academic world resistant to women, Mary Clearman Blew's This is Not the Ivy League is a must-read memoir.
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Reviewed by Lynn Goodwin
Lynn Goodwin is a freelance writer, editor, teacher, former caregiver, and the author of You Want Me To Do What?—Journaling for Caregivers (Tate Publishing). She is published in Voices of Caregivers; Hip Mama; the Oakland Tribune; the Contra Costa Times; the Danville Weekly; Staying Sane When You're Dieting; Small Press Review; Dramatics Magazine; Career; We Care; Caregiving, and Self-Care NCDA Monograph; Families of Loved Ones Magazine; the Story Circle Network Journal; The Sun Magazine and numerous e-zines and blogs. She facilitates writing workshops online and publishes Writer Advice.
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Our Favorite Authors
We're getting up close and personal with our favorite writers. Check out our author interviews to read what these great writers have to say.
Now you can listen to interviews with authors as well. Linda Wisniewski, previously on the editorial staff at StoryCircleBookReviews, talks about her memoir, Off Kilter. Go to our podcast page for the link, and check out all the other interviews there.
We have reviews of books by over seven hundred authors. You're sure to find your favorite here. If not, contact us and request a review or, better yet, join our team and write one.
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Briefly Reviewed...
We receive more wonderful books than we can possibly review. Here is a selection of titles, briefly described, that represent the wide range of recently-published memoirs written by strong women who have been there, done that, and lived to tell the tale. Recommended!
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Reviewers' News
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Shawn LaTorre has recently joined our SCBR reviewing team, with two strong reviews: Gated Grief by Leila Levinson and Someone to Talk To by Samantha M. White. Welcome, Shawn. We're so glad to have you on the team!
We're delighted to announce that Mary Jo Doig is joining our SCBR editorial team in January. She is a long-time SCN member, Internet Chapter Writing Circle facilitator, and editor of "True Words from Real Women" in the SCN Journal and the 2011 SCN True Words Anthology. We're looking forward to working with her at SCBR!
Susan Ideus is stepping down as SCBR's long-time "Book Learning" blogger. For several years, we have enjoyed her monthly posts about books, bookstores, reading. Her work is always interesting and enlightening. She will continue to do her great job as our Review Team Coordinator. Thanks, Susan, for all you do for SCBR!
Trilla Pando has agreed to take Susan's place as SCBR's new "Book Learning" blogger! Trilla is a Star Reviewer on our team, with 75 reviews to her credit. She lives in Houston, Texas where she writes, does volunteer work, and enjoys plays, concerts, museums and general fun. She is a past president of SCN and a member for many years. Trilla, we loved your first "Book Learning" blog post and we're looking forward to more!
We're looking for strong reviews of books by, for, and about women. If you'd like to join our review team, check out our guidelines.
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Join Our Review Team
We're looking for strong reviews of books by, for, and about women. If you'd like to join our review team, check out our review guidelines.
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About Story Circle Network
This book review site is sponsored by the Story Circle Network, a non-profit membership organization that serves women who want to tell their life stories in diaries, journals, personal essays, poetry, and memoir. The Network is for every woman who aims to claim the power of her experience, who wants to map her journey, and who is determined to name herself. If you're that woman, please join us.
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