I am happy to report that I am participating in the Armchair BEA event. I am sad that I never get to attend the actual BEA conference in New York city but as a teacher, the timing is inopportune. My last day of work for the summer if June 6th and of course BEA runs from June 4th to the 7th. I entered the Goodreads contest and never did hear who won the trip for any of the categories but whoever they are I hope they have fun. Maybe next year BEA will be the week school is out and more teachers would be able to participate, including me.
What is Armchair BEA?
It is a book blogging event where book bloggers can participate in BEA via the web. This is my 2nd year participating and last year was so much fun, I am back for more. If you are interested in signing up please go to: http://www.armchairbea.com/
This is what the Armchair BEA week long event entails.
Monday, June
4th: Introductions First!
Tuesday, June 5th: Giveaways Everywhere!
Wednesday, June 6th: Networking ... In Real
Life?!
Hey Everyone,
May's Minnesota Author in the Spotlight, Connie Claire Szarke is here on Booksnob with a short guest post and a giveaway. Connie is a former teacher, who taught French for 30 years in a Minnesota high school. Please welcome Connie everyone!
Thank
you, Laura, for featuring Delicate Armor
on your blog site for the month of May.Booksnob is smart, attractive, well-designed, and offers much by way of
literary connections.
It
has been tremendously rewarding for me to see this novel take on a life of its
own and venture out among readers. Response has been so very positive. At
times, I feel like a parent holding her breath, then feeling proud of my
characters, happy to see how well they are doing. When it was time for me to
let them go, they just skipped out the door, waved big, and called out, “We’re
on our way! Love you!”
Thank
goodness, several of them have come back for a visit so I can include them in
my second book, A Stone for Amer.
Last Night I Dreamed of Peace. The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram
Dang Thuy Tram was a doctor who lived and worked in Vietnam during the war. She left her family, became a member of the communist party and worked to heal members of the Vietcong army. During the Vietnam war Thuy kept a diary and wrote down her thoughts, her emotions and the daily tribulations of living and working during a war. She relates some of the history of Vietnam, the conflict with the French and her wish for peace and freedom. Only one diary out of three survives.
Dr. Tram is shot and killed by the Americans. All of the deceased person's effects are ordered to be destroyed but one American soldier recognizes the dairy as important and keeps it. He takes it home after the war and keeps it safe for 35 years. The soldier returns to the diary to Dr. Tram's mother in Vietnam and she has it published where it becomes an instant bestseller.
Throughout the memoir there is death and destruction. Dr Tram faces death daily as people she loves are shot and captured and her patients die of incurable wounds. Her depression is evident as she misses her family and her high school sweetheart. Life happens during war and Thuy shows how she survives everyday when bombs are dropping around her.
I read this book aloud to my 4th hour Humanities class and most of them hated it. I tried to persevere hoping that they would learn something about the horrors of war and that the book would improve but it did not. Thuy constantly talkes about men and love interests and because she calls them all young brother or older brother it leaves the reader confused about who is who. Also Dr. Tram continually refers to herself in 3rd person which left the class wondering why. I was really disappointed in the book. I felt it needed something more, maybe some cultural references that helped the reader understand Vietnam better. There are tons of footnotes throughout the book that while they did explain some of the history, mostly deterred from the memoir and left the reader more confused. I would definitely say that this is a book where the meaning and
importance of the book has become lost in translation.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel about growing up in Maycomb, Alabama in 1933. Scout and Jem adore their father, Atticus, who is a lawyer. Their mother has died and Calpurnia is their African American housemaid who cares for them most of the time. They have a friend who visits each summer and the three of them have plans to get their reclusive neighbor Boo Radley out of his house. Scout is a precocious narrator whose innocence leaps off the page. Scout is a pants wearing, tree climbing, tough girl much to her aunt's chagrin.
Around 1934, a black man is accused of raping a white girl. Atticus Finch agrees to defend Tom Robinson in court even though he knows he is going to lose. This is a hard lesson for Scout and Jem. People call them names and start fights but Atticus is firm in the belief that you must fight for truth and what you believe in, no matter what. The trial of Tom Robinson is convincing and like the children, the reader roots for the defendant. As Scout and Jem lose their innocence and learn the world is not a fair place for all, the reader is reminded of history and injustice.
To Kill a Mockingbird is historical fiction at its finest. Maycomb, Alabama may be a fictional place but the reality of a southern small town, full of racist attitudes and a social class system that perpetuates a hatred of the lower class, is and was very much alive across America. Lee has written a book about the loss of innocence children face as they grow up and discover the world is not equal. To Kill a Mockingbird is at times, funny, poignant, and heart-breaking. It is truly an American classic.
To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. It is the only book written and published by Harper Lee. The book is currently read nationwide in schools. However, I never read it in school or college.
My son Max brought a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird home and said his English class was reading the book. I was shocked that he was assigned this book as a 7th grader. I read To Kill a Mockingbird about 20 years ago and decided it was the perfect time to reread it alongside my son. Reading this book as a parent gave me a different perspective. What age did you read To Kill a Mockingbird? What is the right age or grade to assign To Kill a Mockingbird to students?
Connie is the May author in the Spotlight here on Booksnob. She
agreed to answer some questions about her book and I would like to welcome her. Connie's book Delicate Armor has recently been selected as a finalist in two categories at the Midwest Book Awards! Yeah! Connie is a former high school teacher and an avid reader. Read her interview and find out some insight into her book Delicate Armor and check out her favorite authors!
1. Tell us a
little bit about yourself:
I grew up in a
small prairie town in Southwestern Minnesota, with lakes, sloughs, woods, and
farmland for my playground. I have a special fondness for that area, especially
Lake Shetek, meaning ‘pelican’ in the Ojibway language. This region figures
into my book and becomes a character in its own right. I think of Dylan Thomas’
lines from his poem, “Fern Hill,” when I recall growing up there: “Now as I was
young and easy under the apple boughs/About the lilting house and happy as the
grass was green,/The night above the dingle starry,/Time let me hail and
climb/Golden in the heydays of his eyes,/And honoured among wagons I was prince
of the apple towns/And once below a time I lordly had the trees and
leaves/Trail with daisies and barley/Down the rivers of the windfall light…green
and golden…famous among the barns.” Often, on a summer’s day, we children sat
under Hottie Holenbeck’s mulberry tree, eating berries and sugar cookies,
wearing Hottie’s gifts of ribbons in our hair.
Now I live on a
bay west of the Twin Cities, and I have two Shetland Sheepdogs who go rowing
and kayaking with me. I was a career teacher of the French language and culture
at Chaska Senior High School. Since my retirement, I have been writing fiction
and poetry full time. Music is equally important. I’ve played classical piano
since I was a girl and have incorporated songs into this novel. My mother loved
poetry and sang and hummed tunes as she went about her housework. My father was
a terrific story-teller.
2. What inspired
you to write Delicate Armor?
Over time, several
real life experiences/scenes persistently popped into my mind and wouldn’t let
go. The only thing you can do when that happens is to write them down. Those
became nuggets for a series of short stories, then linked stories, and finally,
a novel. I’ve always read a great deal and kept journals. Beginning as a
tomboy, I had such a wonderful relationship with my father. He was a charming,
easy-going, likeable man who taught me how to fish, hunt, respect and get along
in the natural world.
A novel also needs
conflict; one of the plot points is a Cain & Abel-type situation between
Callie’s father, Will, and his brother. Other family members and townsfolk make
themselves known, as well, and not always for the better. Every character,
though, is dear to me. But at the heart of Delicate Armor is this strong bond
between Callie and her father, which greatly influences her formation as she
comes of age and helps to prepare her for the inevitable losses she must face.
3. Can you tell us
why or when you decided to become a writer?
I came into
writing as a profession during middle age. In retrospect, it seems that my pursuits
and endeavors prior to ten years ago, came together like a series of beacons converging
in preparation for this challenging, yet rewarding stage in my life. While
growing up, I read everything I could check out at our local library, so the
writer in me likely began forming at the age of 10 or 12, when I read Treasure
Island and imagined myself stowing away on a pirate ship. I kept journals, continued
reading, studied great literature in college, and have always been keenly aware
of my surroundings: places, individuals and their speech patterns, how and why
they behave as they do. During my last year of teaching French, I signed up for
evening writing classes, attended summer conferences, and joined a writers’
group. The key is uninterrupted seat time, alone at the desk. Now, writing is
as important to me as eating and sleeping.
4. Usually, an
author puts some of her own life experiences in the book. Did you do that?
Yes. Delicate
Armor is semi-autobiographical, layered with lots of fiction, conflict, and
subtext. It was liberating once I determined not to write a memoir. For me,
fictionalizing my material allows me to go deeper. A friend of mine once said,
“You picked through your life and had fun with it.”
5. What authors or
books influence you?
I keep going back
to Chekhov, Steinbeck, Truman Capote (especially his short stories), Saki, O.
Henry, Kurt Vonnegut, Rick Bass, and some Irish authors, such as William
Trevor. I love excellent poetry and am a fan of scores of poets, including Joyce
Sutphen, Ted Kooser, Arthur Rimbaud, W. B. Yeats, Wendell Berry, Maxine Kumin,
William Stafford, Dorianne Laux, Jane Kenyon, Paul Verlaine, Marge Piercy, Joe
and Nancy Paddock. I love great lyrics, too, such as Johnny Mercer’s line from
“This Time the Dream’s on Me,” “…to see you through, till you’re everything you
want to be…”
I’m currently
reading Jonathan Franzen’s Corrections and Freedom, and am impressed with his
style, exquisite word choices, and turns of phrases.
6. What is the
most important lesson/idea you want readers to take away from Delicate Armor?
Callie begins her
story as a young girl and ends it as an adult. I wrote with readers in mind and
hope they will appreciate my carefully worked prose and be able to identify
with the universal truths and experiences I was trying to set down within this
family saga.
7. Are you working
on another book?
Yes, I’m very
excited about A Stone for Amer. Several of the characters from Delicate Armor
take the lead in this next fictionalized story, some of which serves as an
important thread in the novel. It is based on my father’s experience as a
teenager in the early part of the twentieth century, when he and my grandfather
traveled by train from Southwestern Minnesota to Eastern Montana, in order to
claim the body of his uncle Amer.
8. In one
sentence, tell readers why they should read Delicate Armor.
As Dave Wood wrote
in his February 2, 2012 review, “Peel the layers to find the soul…[of
this]…startlingly good first novel...”and as Mary Ann Grossmann wrote in her
October 28, 2011 review, “Callie Lindstrom is one of the most appealing
protagonists in this season’s crop of debut novels by Minnesota writers.”
Thanks Connie!!!
If you would like to win a copy of Connie's book Delicate Armor please click the link:
Three high school teens attempt fate and try to commit suicide. Each of them ends up at Aspen Springs, a psychiatric facility where they meet and forge a bond.
Vanessa is a cutter and needs to feel pain to release the highs and lows of her life. This time the knife cut too deep. Connor sends a bullet to his heart to escape the loss of his true love, and reddens his mother's new white carpet. He cannot bear the pressures his parents put on him. Tony pops pills and denies who he really is because of childhood abandonment and abuse. Will he be able to forgive himself for his crimes?
Impulse is a novel in verse. It is fast flowing poetry and it pulls you into the triple intertwining storyline with creative force. Teens are inherently impulsive and this novel gets into the mind of three damaged teens who need help and most of all need each other.
Hopkins has the gift to create sparse poetic text that speaks volumes and invokes deep meaning. Hopkins has a way with taking words and melding them into a picture of life fraught with emotion. She is one of my favorite authors and well read by the teens in my classroom. Impulse is the fifth book I have read by Hopkins and I plan to devour them all.
Hometown Track, Minnesota Author in the Spotlight, Connie Claire Szarke is giving away 2 copies of her book, Delicate Armor to Booksnob
followers. She has agreed to send internationally! Yeah!
I love the cover art. It reminds of lazy summer days fishing on my grandpa's dock. You are going to love this novel.
Here is the synopsis of Delicate Armor from the author's website:
Set in the Upper Midwest, 1952-1991, Delicate Armor is the
coming-of-age story of Callie Lindstrom, a feisty girl who shares a
special bond with her father.
Having lost his infant son, Will Lindstrom places his energy in young
Callie, teaching her his love for the outdoors. Accepted into the world
of men within her family and privy to their dreams, struggles, and
sense of humor, she learns to navigate waves of conflict and loss while
realizing her own place in the scheme of things.
This family saga is about the tenacity of the human spirit, the
natural world, and our narrator’s emerging consciousness as she passes
from young girl to self-possessed woman. Delicate Armor is
Callie’s tribute to the land and to her microcosm of men.
On the eve of her wedding day Soo-Ja receives a marriage proposal from a passionate man who stirs her heart. Soo-Ja denys Yul her hand and feels she must go through with her intended plans and marry Min, the man who she thinks will help her lead her life in the right direction. She discovers on her wedding night, that her husband has deceived her. Soo-Ja does not want to upset the traditional balance of her life thus far and feels
she must remain dutiful to her husband and his family. Soo-Ja virtually becomes a slave to her in-laws. But she never forgets Yul, the man she didn't choose.
This Burns My Heart is set in postwar South Korea. During This Burns My Heart, Korea transforms itself into an industrial nation and becomes westernized. Soo-Ja also transforms and while she chooses to sacrifice her happiness for her daughter's sake, she questions the restraints of society and marriage. Yul enters her life again and Soo-Ja can't help but wonder what her life would be like if she would have made a different choice all those years ago.
This Burns My Heart is a beautiful story of love and transformation with a heroine who grabs your heart. Through the eyes and emotions of the main characters you will understand Korea intrinsically. Prepare to be drawn into this heart wrenching love story, bound by tradition and duty, as the characters journey through life and deny themselves passion. This Burns My Heart is a story that each of us can understand and relate to as it confronts so many of life's emotional dramas.
This Burns My Heart raises a lot of interesting questions. What would our lives be like if we had chosen differently? Am I living the life I am meant to live? Am I being honest with myself about what I want in life? Can we allow ourselves to be truly happy? Is is necessary to sacrifice our happiness for our children? Should we be confined within the constraints of society or step out of those constraints? This Burns My Heart made me take a long look at my life and try to answer some of these questions. I've found I do think about the choices I made 20 years ago and wonder What if? I wonder where my life's journey would have taken me and if I would have made completely different choices. Do you ever wonder?
I would like to congratulate the winners of Chasing Alliecat by Rebecca Fjelland Davis, April's Author in the Spotlight. I would like to thank Rebecca for giving away two copy of her book to Booksnob followers.
The winners are:
Keitra from Tear Through Pages
Kulsuma from London, England
Congratulations Ladies!
If you didn't win you can still order a copy of Rebecca's book, from
Amazon. Chasing Alliecat is a young adult mystery and a wild bike ride through the woods of southern Minnesota. It will have your heart pumping.
It's May! I love May! May is when we celebrate Mothers, Nurses, Teachers, Armed Forces, and Cinco De Mayo. It is also the month when my son turns a year older (fourteen, this year). Here on BookSnob we will celebrate author, Connie
Claire Szarke. Welcome Connie!
I met Connie at the Minnesota Book Fair and took one look at the title and cover of her book and knew I had to read it. Her book is called Delicate Armor.
Here is the synopsis from Connie's website:
Set in the Upper Midwest, 1952-1991, Delicate Armor is the
coming-of-age story of Callie Lindstrom, a feisty girl who shares a
special bond with her father. Having lost his infant son, Will Lindstrom places his energy in young
Callie, teaching her his love for the outdoors. Accepted into the world
of men within her family and privy to their dreams, struggles, and
sense of humor, she learns to navigate waves of conflict and loss while
realizing her own place in the scheme of things.
This family saga is about the tenacity of the human spirit, the
natural world, and our narrator’s emerging consciousness as she passes
from young girl to self-possessed woman. Delicate Armor is
Callie’s tribute to the land and to her microcosm of men.
This month on BookSnob you can expect a contest, a book review, an author interview and if we are lucky a guest post by Connie. Please visit Connie's website at www.connieclaireszarke.com
Have a great month of May and join me in welcoming Connie to BookSnob.
