Saturday, November 27, 2010

Book Review: All Our Fictional Dreams by Kushal Poddar

All Our Fictional Dreams
by Kushal Poddar
Lulu, 2010, US
Poetry, 24 pages
Paperback, $10.00
ISBN: 5-800043-522768
Review by Ruth Cox
 
By the light of the sun or by the light of the moonbeam, as author Kushal Poddar would say, Live amid life to dream about a perfect world. In All Our Fictional Dreams, Poddar leads the way to do just that as we follow his poetic pathway. As a prelude, imagine hailing a taxi and the driver asks, Whereto? And, You ask the driver to bring your home closer so you can see who is living in it. Imagine!

Nothing is haphazard, neither creative thought nor versed word, as the ink flows from Poddar's pen to the colorless paper. Just as does the artist Van Gogh -- he colors pages all. From "The Box Kite" where his clouds conspire to where the sun will turn liquid by the stairs of "Hesitant Lighthouse," Poddar colors our world with our dreams as we meander along as brothers of the living.

In Poddar's verse, "Story of Two Brothers," you will kneel by the river; the stream of death and of life, slowly living forever. And in "The Conflict of Season" green is the color springing to life as the author tells us, ignore the age, time, and season. As Poddar would say, We are brothers beyond blood, time, or space.

Kushal Poddar's exquisite use of metaphorical imagery allows us to experience the exact place he has led us to: the scene of our dreams and our mind's ponderings. We're meant to follow his lead line from "Imagine" -- Imagination is where truths begin.

The author Kushal Poddar lives by the light he shares in All Our Fictional Dreams. By the light of day, he adheres to what is right, practices living and practices law; by the light of night, poetry and prose he writes, words life-giving and words without flaw.

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I once asked the author: Kushal, not only are you a man of law and a poet of fame headed for fortune in same, you are a teacher, to me, as I have learned more by your use of imagery and metaphors hidden within your verse than any and all I've read. Where, when, did you first begin this abundant collection you've stored in your mind?

His response: Ruthi, I began writing as a challenge...can I write like the poets I read...I ask way back as a kid of six years old who only knew Bengali. I pick inspirations from everywhere, from the blind alley to the lofty sky…I used to get hold of the lines from railway stations, from the conversation with the friends, newspaper headings…nowadays I have made it a habit of writing two poems at least a day. Sometimes by writing a random word and waiting for the muse to revolve around the word.

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This review is written and ©Ruth Cox. Reviews written by Ruth Cox are the sole property of said reviewer. This book review is written for and first posted to: Ruthi Reads! No monetary compensation is received in exchange for the writing of this review.

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Since I had purchased All Our Fictional Dreams directly through Lulu.com (via Dawn D. Kilby) I'd asked Kushal to send me a postcard to place with the book. Along with the two beautiful postcards I received and share with you below, I also had the pleasure of Kushal penning a postcard poem to me, which you may read here: The Postcard To The Hill Road


"Ruthi, This is a watercolor done by a famous artist. You can get a glimpse of my city."


"To me, Sunshine means Ruthi."

Friday, November 26, 2010

Book Blogger Hop 4

I'm feelin' a bit like a slow-cooked turkey today, so a bit late in getting my post up for this week for the Book Blogger Hop challenge, hosted by Crazy-for-Books.com. I hope you hop on over there for all the Hop details and if you're a book blogger, hop along with us!

The Book Blogger Hop connects book bloggers and readers together, linking blogs. It's a great way to meet and greet fellow book bloggers. The Hop runs each week from Friday to Monday, although it isn't mandatory to participate each week. (Though my thought is, Why join if I don't intend to commit to participate?)

It's quite easy to hop along! Only three things to do: 1) Enter your book blog link in the weekly linky list at Crazy-for-Books.com; 2) Post about the Book Blogger Hop on your blog; and 3) Reciprocate by visiting other blogs on the weekly linky list!

Also, to encourage participation, there's a weekly question to answer and post to your blog. You can even suggest a question! Here is this week's Book Blogger Hop question and my answer:

"What is your favorite book cover?"

My first thought when I read this question, Great question, but I love them all! However, I'll try to pick just one; well, maybe two or three!  

I cannot help but fall in love with any book whose cover shares a bit o' sunshine! Here's a recently purchased example: Restored Hope by Brenda Youngerman. And a book I recently read and reviewed: The Ghost of Useppa Island by Kimberly Ripley. 
Then there are the books that bedazzle your every sense the moment you lay eyes upon the cover, promising an abundance of amazement to be experienced while reading the words between the covers. Forever Becoming by Kasey Klein had such an effect on me. And, you could be holding this beauty in your hands as the winner of my current WoW Book Giveaway!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

WoW: Kasey Klein and Book Giveaway

WoW
Ruthi Reads the
Words of Writer
Kasey Klein
Author of
Forever Becoming

"Checking Out" and "Kilroy", supermarket tales of 200 words each, by author Kasey Klein, are must reads if you would like to get to know the kind of person Kasey is in his day-to-day life.

One of my favorite short stories by Kasey Klein is "Helena"--a love story; bittersweet; and the telling, told in a beloved voice of its own kind. It is a story of love, loss, and sadness--the sadness in loving and the sadness in being unloved.

I recently purchased and received in my snailmail box a signed copy of Forever Becoming by Kasey Klein. I think only a true book lover can understand my reaction when I removed the book from its bubble-wrap envelope, "Oh my god, it's beautiful!" Seriously, holding Klein's book in my hands with the cover design staring up at me, the perused pages bold and bountiful ... 'Twas a thing of pure beauty.

Eventually, I will post my review of this book, but for now I share with you a portion of Klein's own review of Forever Becoming:

"Forever Becoming is my sophomore effort, the rough draft coming off the keyboard in 2000. I’d read much about the sophomore jinx. Obvious was people tried to recreate or duplicate the first success/effort. To avoid this, I stepped out in a completely new direction. I wanted to create a universe. I wanted to tell a big story in a huge way. I started with the idea of primitive dualism, the idea that the universe exists in balanced opposites. The Bible and its religions sidestep this by having God apart from His creation.

I imaged a god existing in pure light. Let me confuse you: any words applied to this being or this place would fall short of the reality. We cannot know this being or this place. She exists in a time not a time, in a place not a place. Again, the words don’t fit, but they’re all I have: she doesn’t like the darkness surrounding the light. In an attempt to push the darkness away, her light melds with the darkness, manifesting the temporal, a place that’s a place in a time that’s a time.
That’s the backstory.

To understand her creation, God manifests her sister (again, I use temporal terms that don’t apply) into flesh, her sister, Makaila, unaware of who and what she is so as not to affect her observations. Though a product of sperm and egg, Makaila is also divine. At age eleven, Makaila is deemed a danger to herself and others, and promptly illegally institutionalized for life by a shadowy pseudo-government agency. Eighteen months later, Makaila gets released. The pseudo-government agency wants Makaila back in the institution or dead.

Here is where we enter the story. Makaila, determined to keep her freedom, faces off with people who have something much different in mind."
 
As if being a literary author isn't enough, Kasey Klein also stands in place as a talented artist. Visit Klein's online store, browse through his artwork, and purchase your favorite piece of Fine Art and/or a one-of-a-kind Creative Tee with 'Tude!

 


WoW Book Giveaway:

Forever Becoming by Kasey Klein




This WoW Book Giveaway is open only to those with a USA mailing address. Please leave a comment for each entry you qualify for with your email address in each comment, including the mandatory entry.

***MANDATORY REQUIREMENT ENTRY***

This is mandatory to be entered to win a signed copy of Forever Becoming by author Kasey Klein:
 
Visit the website of author Kasey Klein. From the literature page select a story, tale, poem, essay, or parable to read. You must then email the author letting him know your thoughts on the writing you chose. (In your email subject line to Klein, please put "Book Giveaway".) You must also leave a comment here as to the title of your selection and your email address.

***Extra Entry Requirements***

Extra ways to gain entries into this book giveaway.

1...Publicly Follow Ruthi Reads! via Google Friend Connect
(GFC is in the top left panel of my main page)
2...Follow Ruthi aka abitosunshine on Twitter,
(leave your twitter name for verification)
3...Become a Facebook Fan of Kasey Klein,
(leave your FB link for verification)
4...Become a Facebook Friend of Ruthi aka abitosunshine,
(leave your FB link for verification)

I hope you've enJOYed the first of many forthcoming WoW posts at Ruthi Reads!

This WoW book giveaway ends at noon EST on December 14th. Get your entries in!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

B-Y-G-B December

Welcome to the
Book-Your-Giveaway-Book
DECEMBER linky list at
Ruthi Reads!

Authors, gain exposure for your own book giveaways! Bloggers, gain exposure to your book giveaways! Readers and book reviewers are always looking for new books. I know I am always looking for new books to read and review.

This list is for BOOK GIVEAWAYS ONLY! If you are hosting a book giveaway on your blog or website, feel free to submit to this list. Please submit the BOOK TITLE, BOOK GIVEAWAY POST LINK/URL, and END DATE of the book giveaway.

Please remember: This list is for book giveaways that END in DECEMBER. There is a separate post for book giveaways for each month.

Please add the B-Y-G-B badge code to your site ... thank you ... you'll find the badge code in the left panel of this blog. This enables all authors, book bloggers, readers, and book giveaway enthusiasts to find the B-Y-G-B list to link up and enter!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Book Your Giveaway Book

Welcome to the
Book-Your-Giveaway-Book
linky list at
Ruthi Reads!

Authors, gain exposure for your own book giveaways! Bloggers, gain exposure to your book giveaways! Readers and book reviewers are always looking for new books.

Each month I'll post a fresh linky list for that month's book giveaway linky list.

This list is for BOOK GIVEAWAYS ONLY! If you are hosting a book giveaway on your blog or website, feel free to submit to this list. Please submit the BOOK TITLE, BOOK GIVEAWAY POST LINK/URL, and END DATE of the book giveaway. (The end date must be in the month of November.)

Please add the B-Y-G-B badge code to your site ... thank you! This enables all authors, book bloggers, readers, and book giveaway enthusiasts to find the B-Y-G-B list to link up and enter!


B-Y-G-B


Please remember: This list is for book giveaways that END in NOVEMBER. There is a separate post for book giveaways for each month.

Add your giveaway to the list and/or leave a comment, please and thank you!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Book Blogger Hop 3

Hoppin' right along for another week of the Book Blogger Hop challenge, hosted by Crazy-for-Books.com. I hope you hop on over there for all the Hop details and if you're a book blogger, hop along with us!

Book Blogger Hop
The Book Blogger Hop connects book bloggers and readers together, linking blogs. It's a great way to meet and greet fellow book bloggers. The Hop runs each week from Friday to Monday, although it isn't mandatory to participate each week.

To encourage participation, there's a weekly question to answer and post to your blog. Here is this week's Book Blogger Hop question and my answer:

"Since Thanksgiving is coming up next week, let's use this week's Hop to share what we are most thankful for and what our holiday traditions are!"

What am I most thankful for is a tough question for me, as I've so many people, places, and things in my life that are on my gratitude list. I would have to say, at this moment in time I am most thankful for a warm roof over my head, warm food in my belly when hungry, and a warm pillow to lay my head upon each night -- all things which warm my spirit, all made possible by the giving spirit of a friend. Next on my gratitude list at the moment would be the pleasure of my canine companion, Tidbit. And last, but surely not least, would be the pleasure of recent time being spent with my son, Billy, and his first son, Liam, a gift of a bundle of joy -- I'm a grandmom!

Sad to say, I don't really have holiday traditions, currently. I guess between divorces, moves, aging, and many life changes, well, I just had the holiday winds taken out of my spirit sails. I now seem to drift along on heartfelt things and daily gratitude as opposed to Thanksgiving traditions. Although, this year I'm participating in the Giving Thanks Challenge throughout the month of November. And I'm thinking I need to create some new holiday traditions for myself in 2011.

Happy Thanksgiving blessings & a bit o' sunshine!

Reading Time

I don't know about you, but I just can't seem to find, or make, enough time to get caught up with reading the books on my bookshelf for reading and for review. I generally head to bed with a book to read for an hour or so before I fall asleep. However, this just doesn't seem to be enough time to get through my reading list. The books are shelfing up faster than I'm able to read them. How do you stay caught up with your reading? Or, are you behind, as I am?

Speaking of my bookshelf. I've added a few this past month or two, oh my! I've won a couple in blog and Gather.com member giveaways, and I've purchased a few from author friends.

In snailmail today, I received my copy of Forever Becoming by Kasey Klein. I purchased this book title, as I've great respect for this author's literary style and have read numerous essays and stories written by Kasey that enticed me into wanting to read more.

I also received an email this morning from Rick of rhodesreview.com that I won his giveaway of Silent Kill by David Fingerman. I met David at Gather.com, so I'm truly looking forward to this book's arrival.

These and many more enticing titles await, on my list - Ruthi Reads in 2010. Please, help me figure out how to create more reading and reviewing time!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Book Blogger Hop 2

Wow, this week flew by; it's time for week two of the Book Blogger Hop! This past week I visited and have been visited by several new book bloggers, I discovered and entered some great book giveaways, and I read quite a few good book reviews. I thoroughly enJOYed the answers to the week's question and look forward to this week, too.

The Book Blogger Hop challenge is hosted by Crazy-for-Books.com, so head on over there for all the Hop details and if you're a book blogger, hop along with us!

Book Blogger Hop

The Book Blogger Hop connects book bloggers and readers together, linking blogs. It's a great way to meet and greet fellow book bloggers. The Hop runs each week from Friday to Monday, although it isn't mandatory to participate each week.

To encourage participation, there's a weekly question to answer and post to your blog. Here is this week's Book Blogger Hop question and my answer:

"If you find a book that looks interesting but is part of a series, do you always start with the first title?"

Fortunately, I've only come across this issue once and the author was nice enough to send both in the series. I think I'd prefer to begin with the first book title of a series, even when each book stands well on its own. I guess it's a decision I'll be faced with eventually, but not one I'll spend much time fretting over. Most definitely, if I am purchasing a series title, I begin with the first in the series.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Book Blogger Hop

This is my first blog hop ever, one I couldn't resist when I ran across it over at Crazy-for-Books.com. If you are a book blogger, hop along!

Book Blogger Hop

The Book Blogger Hop connects book bloggers and readers together, linking blogs. It's a great way to meet and greet fellow book bloggers. The Hop runs each week from Friday to Monday, although it isn't mandatory to participate each week.

To encourage participation, there's a weekly question to answer and post to your blog. Here is this week's Book Blogger Hop question and my answer:

"What are your feelings on losing followers? Have you ever stopped following a blog?"

I have found that we cannot please all of the people all of the time, so if someone decides for whatever reason to discontinue following my blog, so be it. However, I would hope if they did that they would let me know why so if it is something about my blog or myself I could and would change, I'd gladly do so. If not, as I say, so be it.

I have not stopped following a blog, yet. I follow blogs I am interested in or persons who are friends and see no reason, so far, to discontinue doing so. My problem is having the time to keep up with all the blogs I follow and all the new blogs that I add to the list each day ... Speaking of which, it's time for me to hop on over to Crazy-for-Books.com and hop through the book blogger linky list!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Book Review: Public Lies

Public Lies
by Brenda Youngerman
Outskirts Press, Inc., 2007, US
Fiction/Family, 300 pages
Paperback, $15.95
ISBN: 976-1-4327-1296-9
Review by Ruth Cox

Philosophers of old, as well as modern pundits, stand divided as to the forbiddance of telling lies. Some believe no lies should ever be told for any reason. Plato believed that "noble lies" might sometimes be needed to maintain a sense of law and order or safety, especially within the structure of a society. In the telling of Public Lies, author Brenda Youngerman has adapted the noble lie as one of necessity to bring a mother and her two children out of the throes of family violence into a place of safety and harmony.

When society failed to protect Nancy and her children from husband and father Vince Cooper, Nancy knew the only means available for them to live out of harm's way would be to flee the arms of the man she loved and the imminence of danger now felt in his presence. For this runaway life to work, Nancy must change her name and the names of her children and there could be no contact with people nor places of the past, including the family of their previous life. (The idea fashioned much like a witness protection program.) This, then, would be their protection, the noble lies that would be told; the public lies that would be lived.


These lies represented freedom for Nancy and her children. But freedom came with its sacrificial price tag. And it was a game of hide-and-go-seek with Vince Cooper that Nancy would continuously play. For a few years she seemed free of danger from her husband, publicly; privately, fear of being followed and found always existed. And all the while, Vince hunted for her with a vengeance. As each year passed, Vince's rage and desire for revenge grew as the price of freedom weighed heavier upon Nancy. Vince was closing in on his prey at the same time the prey had decided to come out of hiding from behind the public lies. Hence, the truth was uncovered and with disclosure discord was imminent.

In the bittersweet end of Public Lies, the lives of the Cooper family would be altered -- forever. Youngerman uses the element of surprise in a twist ending written with the sensitivity of one who is aware of the reality of the family violence environment.

Public Lies is the second chapter of Nancy Cooper's life; Private Scars being the first. Though both of these publications stand well on their own, together they are the telling of the many forms of abuse that fall under the term Domestic Violence. Youngerman beseeches us to be cognizant of the fact that all forms of abuse - verbal, emotional, financial, sexual, or physical - culminate in the power and control over another person or persons.

On the last printed page of Public Lies is the reminder to all that [in the United States of America] "October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month." Brenda Youngerman believes, "Every Day should be Domestic Awareness Day."

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This review is written and ©Ruth Cox. Reviews written by Ruth Cox are the sole property of said reviewer. This book review is written for and first posted to: Reviews4Reviews.com. No monetary compensation is received in exchange for the writing of this review. A complimentary copy of the book was presented to said reviewer for review purposes. This fact has no bearing on the written result of the review.

For your convenience a link to purchase this book through Amazon is included. If purchase is made via this link, said reviewer will receive a referral commission: Public Lies

Related Links:
Read my book review of Private Scars by Brenda Youngerman
Read my interview with author Brenda Youngerman

Entered 11/07/2010