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Category: Memoirs

Review: A Father’s Love by David Goldman

[ 3 ] June 21, 2011

Reviewed by Meg Massey

In the summer of 2004, David Goldman was a man who had it all: a successful modeling career, a beautiful wife, and a four–year-old son he adored. But his life turned upside down when his wife Bruna announced that she and their son Sean would be staying in Brazil, where they had been vacationing for two weeks. Devastated by this news, David plunged into a battle to bring his son back.

In A Father’s Love, David Goldman tells the story that most of us have heard on the news, but in much greater detail. David details his shock when wife Bruna called him from Brazil to announce that she no longer loved him, and that she was keeping Sean in her native country. He describes how he began the legal process to bring Sean home, while his wife Bruna was granted a Brazilian divorce and married a powerful Brazilian lawyer.

After many years of lawsuits and counter lawsuits, David discovered that Bruna had died in childbirth. Convinced that he would finally get Sean back, he was stunned when he discovered that Bruna’s husband had no intention of returning him. But when David finds a way to bring his story to the media and to the United States government, he is finally able to make some real progress in bringing his son home.

David Goldman’s book is a heartbreaking tale of a father who lost too many years with his only son, and the unimaginable things he endured to bring him home. Like so many people, I heard David’s story on the Today Show, but I had no idea about all he went through to be reunited with his son. If you read A Father’s Love, you will surely be moved by David’s love for his missing son.

Rating: 4.5/5

Meg lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Ryan. Marketing professional by day, freelance writer by night, Meg writes about life, entertainment and everything in between on her blog.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Viking Adult. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli

[ 145 ] March 21, 2011

Please join Lisa Napoli, author of Radio Shangri-La, as she tours the blogosphere with TLC Book Tours!

Reviewed by Poppy Johnson

Lisa Napoli, the author and narrator of Radio Shangri-La, traveled to Bhutan to volunteer at a radio station. She was in the throes of a mid-life crisis, and asked herself many of the important questions one asks when reaching the big 40. What was she doing with herself? What should she be doing with her life?

Lisa made the decision to leave her urban life for one that was simpler; she expected to find a happiness that she had never known in Bhutan. After her friend returned from Bhutan, and found enlightenment, Lisa felt the need to go and experience it for herself.

What happened next was an adventure to the Himalayan King-led nation of Bhutan. Because it is so small, relatively undiscovered and close knit to the point of being a type of an extended “family” to the citizens, Lisa figured she might fit right in and enjoy the experience of being with the locals.

Lisa’s dreams were realized: she took part in local customs, formed lasting friendships with the locals, and in short, began living the perfect life. She came to realize that her past had prepared her to fully embrace her future. She allowed herself to just be: be strong, be forgiving and most of all be courageous in her quest to find out who she really was. She became more aware of what she had already acquired in life, and learned to appreciate her life more because of this realization.

Radio Shangri-La has a familiar feel to it – not one of a story told before, but one that results in a comfortable feeling that readers will be quick to relate to. I recommend this story to anyone interested in reading about self-discovery or anyone questioning the meaning in their life.

Rating: 5/5

Check out Lisa Napoli’s website and read an excerpt from the book!

After a decade of working in several NYC law departments and teaching, Poppy decided she enjoyed writing full-time. She currently works as a freelance writing consultant, and lives with her husband and sons on the East Coast.

Giveaway:
I have 2 hardcover copies of Radio Shangri-La to give away!

Mandatory entry: Please comment here and include your e-mail address.

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This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on April 8, 2011.

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by Crown. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Little Princes by Conor Grennan

[ 5 ] March 2, 2011

Reviewed by Alyssa K.

This week the furnace has clicked on every time the temperature dropped out of my comfort zone. Not once did our kiddos go with out three meals and a snack or two. We snuggled and read and I did not spend one minute worrying if a rebel army would come to our town and steal my babies. The thought of whether my kiddos would be safer with me, or if I should sell our belongings and borrow from relatives in order to pay to send them away with a stranger promising them safety, education and a future never crossed my mind. Sadly, there are parents in this world today who worry about all of those things on a daily basis.

For most of us, the realities of child trafficking are a world away. This was true for Conor Grennan, too. Then he set out on a yearlong world tour! He decided to start out by volunteering in a Nepali orphanage for three months. He didn’t know the first thing about kids, but he didn’t want the trip to look totally self centered. Those three months eventually lead to three more, which lead to the development of a new non-profit organization and even more adventures into the Himalayan mountains in hopes to find the families of children taken by child traffickers and to begin the process of reuniting them.

I have to admit, it was not my great love of children that caused me to pick up Little Princes (though that may have sealed the deal), but my curiosity about life in the country of Nepal. Grennan did not disappoint. He opens the door of Nepal to us and gives us a great peek inside, from daal bhat (lentils and rice) twice a day, to wearing every stitch of clothing you have in order to keep warm with no indoor heating. He writes of the children he lives and works with in such a way as to allow you to get to know them for yourself, and takes you on a tour of the mountain villages with all of its dangers, toils, and snares.

Little Princes is an inspiring true story that will take its reader half way around the world and prove that our greatest ambitions to make a difference in this world can be accomplished, no matter how inexperienced we are when we start out on the adventure! Not only that, but a portion of the proceeds of Little Princes will go to support Grennan’s non-profit organization, Next Generation Nepal, and give you the opportunity to take part in rescuing Nepal’s children from child trafficking and reuniting them with their families and communities.

Rating: 5/5

Alyssa is a wife and stay at home, homeschooling mother of five, with two boxers, two cats, a soft shelled turtle named after Bob the Builder, and 7 frogs (admittedly a homeschooling project gone froggy). In all her spare time, she loves to read and believes that there is no such thing as having too many books!

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by William Morrow. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Good Daughter by Jasmin Darznik

[ 7 ] February 20, 2011

Reviewed by Caitlin B.

Jasmin Darznik was a toddler when her family moved from Iran to America. When Jasmin reaches her early twenties, her mother, Lili, sends her a series of cassette tapes chronicling their family’s life in Iran. In The Good Daughter, Jasmin recounts the true story contained in Lili’s tapes.

Mid-century Iran was not an easy place for the women of traditional families. Lili’s mother, Kobra, left her husband many times during the course of their marriage because of mistreatment. Iranian children belonged to their fathers so, despite Kobra’s protests, at age thirteen, Lili was married to a man twice her age. In little time, he became abusive and his family neglectful. Lili lived in squalor and fear while pregnant with their first child – a daughter she named Sara. Like Kobra, Lili made the difficult choice between survival and her maternal rights.

When Lili finally won her father’s permission to divorce, she was forced to leave Sara with her husband’s family. After many years, Lili found personal redemption by earning a medical degree in Europe and marrying a German engineer named Johann before moving back to Iran. While developing her career as “Madame Doctor,” Lili suffered further personal tragedy through several failed pregnancies and Johann’s struggle with addiction. Jasmin’s birth brought about a protracted period of happiness for the family. Although Lili attempted to keep in contact with Sara during those years, her ex-husband’s family soured the bond and Jasmin did not know her sister.

At the beginning of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Lili, Johann and Jasmin moved to America. Their circumstances were greatly reduced, and Jasmin grew up an American girl, not an Iranian daughter – a “good daughter,” as Lili said. As a result, Lili and Jasmin’s relationship was often strained.

After her father’s death, Jasmin discovers a photograph from Lili’s first wedding and asks her about it. After initially refusing to divulge her past, Lili begins confessing to Jasmin through the cassette tapes. The story (and resulting book) is a moving and heartfelt olive branch between mother and daughter.

Rating: 4.5/5

Caitlin is a fiction writer who also dabbles in poetry, creative nonfiction and acrylic painting. When not reading, she enjoys hiking, cooking and spending time with friends and pets. She earned her B.A. in English from the University of Portland and currently resides in Oregon.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Grand Central Publishing. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: To Have Not by Frances Lefkowitz

[ 5 ] February 7, 2011

Reviewed by Poppy J.

To Have Not is Frances Lefkowitz’s journey towards the realization that the world, and how we get along in it, is not always divided up in a fair exchange. The fact is, at any given time in our lives, someone else will always be better off than we are, and it is easy to ignore anyone not as well off as we profess to be.

Lefkowitz gets it. Poverty (or not having an abundantly enriched material existence) is both a state of mind and a condition. It can also be a choice, which happens more often than people believe. Growing up, Lefkowitz realized that her parents scoffed at developing a competitive edge, initiating an entrepreneurial spirit or even trying harder – all because they may not have believed that their efforts would have worked (to achieve some monetary goal). If the brain does what you tell it to do, and you keep reinforcing that all is lost, give up, don’t try, you will eventually be rewarded with that subliminal wish to not succeed.

To Have Not begins with the author’s childhood and moves through to her adult life, encompassing her family relationships and teaching jobs. There are a few love interests highlighted, but more time is spent on the author’s perceptions and personal actions regarding what she did or did not possess, and how these realizations affect her to this day.

I strongly encourage others to read To Have Not. Anyone who has experienced a “guilty pleasure” knows what Lefkowitz is getting at with this story. I’d guess that she looked in the mirror growing up and saw someone who was missing out on life based on dreams that she felt could never come true. Later on, she might have seen in the mirror a woman who understood her limits, but made the decision not to accept them as her own prison – she found freedom in the journey.

I personally was able to relate to each section of this memoir, and I think that many readers will feel the same way. Who decides what we are worth? Some say it’s whether others deem you famous or consider you to  be part of the wealthy class of individuals in our country. Others note a poor person can be “rich” or well known, so which one is the truth?

If you read To Have Not, put it down and start asking yourself the tough questions. If you read the story and have no opinion as to how your own early experiences have shaped your opinion on “the have nots,” pick up this book and read it again.

Please visit Frances Lefkowitz’s website to learn more!

Rating: 5/5

After a decade of working in several NYC law departments and teaching, Poppy decided she enjoyed writing full-time. She currently works as a freelance writing consultant, and lives with her husband and sons on the East Coast.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by BookSparkPR. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Perfection by Julie Metz

[ 3 ] October 21, 2010

Reviewed by Erin N.

The cover of Perfection by Julie Metz states that it is “a memoir of betrayal and renewal.” It is more than that. To even say that this novel is a candid chronicle of Julie’s journey through loss and betrayal just doesn’t do her book justice. Perfection is a brave and profound glimpse into the heart and mind of a grieving woman and her liberation from despondency.

Julie Metz begins her story with the death of her husband at home. Henry had been a presence, an intense personality whose very being overshadowed the lives of those he crossed paths with. The morning he suddenly died on the kitchen floor, he left Julie a widow with a small daughter and a lifestyle that was just beginning to crumble. As Julie progresses through her grief in the small town she and her husband had built their lives in, she stumbles upon information that sets her grief into a tailspin. Henry had been unfaithful. Right up to the end he had been in a long term affair with a woman Julie had thought was her friend. And, this wasn’t the only “other woman” in his life. Henry had led a double life leaving Julie to question if she even knew the man she was mourning.

With the help of friends, family, and the unexpected alliance found within Henry’s consorts, Julie is capable of discovering the depths of her husband’s melancholy, the true nature of their marriage, and herself. Armed with this empathy and knowledge, she is able to forgive Henry and build a life for herself and her daughter in a manner that makes sense for them both. Julie Metz is very courageous to have written Perfection and we are all honored to read it.

Erin fell in love with the written word as a small child and subsequently spent most of her life happily devouring literature. She works as a freelance news, marketing, and technical writer. Erin lives just outside of Cleveland, Ohio with her husband, children, and grandchildren.

This book was provided free of any obligation by BookSparks PR. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: What We Have by Amy Boesky

[ 188 ] August 17, 2010

Please join Amy Boesky, author of What We Have, as she tours the blogosphere with TLC Book Tours!

To learn more about Amy Boesky, please visit her website!

Reviewed by Meg M.

Amy Boesky’s What We Have: A Family’s Inspiring Story About Love, Loss, and Survival, begins with a sense of hope. We are told the story of a young Amy who meets Jacques, a man she falls in love with the instant she sees him. Not long after, Amy learns that she is pregnant with their first child. Interweaved throughout this tale of a growing family, however, is the devastation of loss. No woman in their family has lived past the age of forty-five, all of them victims to cancer. Amy and her sisters, Julie and Sara, are rapidly approaching the age of thirty-five, the age where preventative surgery could help to avoid the cancer that has stolen so much from their family.

Amy’s story is one of balance; a constant struggle to balance fears about her health (and the health of her family) with the new life she lives with her young daughter and husband. Suddenly, her mother is diagnosed with cancer, five years after beating it the first time. All at once, Amy is forced to think of a future without her mother, and learns that a life lived in fear is no life at all.

This book was beautifully written, which is no surprise, seeing that Amy is an English professor. As stated by Patricia Wood, the author of Lottery, Amy’s memoir reads more like a novel than a memoir. Poetic, heartbreaking and inspirational all at once, Amy doesn’t hide her anguish, fear, and the desire to overcome it all to live a life of fullness.

Meg lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Ryan. Marketing professional by day, freelance writer by night, Meg writes about life, entertainment and everything in between on her blog, Morning Cup With Meg.

Giveaway:
1 winner will receive a copy of Amy Boesky’s memoir, What We Have!

Mandatory entry: Please comment on this post with your e-mail address.

Extra entries (please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for subscribing):
- Subscribe via e-mail, follow or subscribe to the feed. You must verify the subscriptions. (1 entry each)
- Enter another giveaway on this blog (1 entry each)
- Become a fan on Facebook (2 entries)

This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on September 3rd.

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by St. Martin’s Griffin. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Jan’s Story by Barry Petersen

[ 9 ] August 6, 2010

Reviewed by Vera (Luxury Reading)

Barry Petersen, an award-winning CBS correspondent, was living a happy and globe-trotting life with his beloved wife, Jan, when she received the diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Living in Tokyo at the time, Barry struggled to make sense of Jan’s episodes before finally hearing the diagnosis from a San Francisco based neurologist. In Jan’s Story, he describes the progression of what he calls The Disease, the learning curve of becoming Jan’s caregiver, his own emotional struggles and his eventual decision to place Jan in an assisted living facility.

When he first met Jan, Barry was a recently divorced father of two girls. Jan was working as a news anchor in Seattle and Barry was a visiting correspondent; both quickly knew that their connection was undeniable and according to Barry, their honeymoon period never ended. When Jan was initially diagnosed with The Disease at 55, the couple did not know what to make of it and were cautiously optimistic that the drugs would work well enough to allow Jan to live out a normal life. Looking back, Barry could recognize warning signs in Jan long before the diagnosis, but he still did not understand how quickly their lives would change.

Jan’s Story is a very honest and touching look into what it feels like to lose someone to early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and into what it means to be a caregiver for that person. Barry Peterson spares no details when it comes to describing his journey and I can only assume that his recollections are accurate, or at least as accurate as he remembers them. He covers everything from initial signs, behavioral changes, Jan’s coping mechanisms and diagnostic tools to care giving challenges, emotional responses and reactions by family and friends.

I believe that his intent with Jan’s Story was to provide others in similar situations with a feeling that they are not alone, and he definitely succeeded in that regard. Given that many people assume that Alzheimer’s is a disease that only affects the very elderly, Barry also gives a different face to the disease – that of his wife Jan. Prior to her diagnosis, Jan was vibrant and lively, with many more years ahead of her. She loved to be around people and was often the life of the party. She was by no means the typical person someone would associate with Alzheimer’s, and yet she was another one of this terrible disease’s victims.

To learn more about the book, visit Barry Petersen’s website.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Meryl L. Moss Media Relations. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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