Barry Eva's blog

A Book and a Chat with Kristina McMorris

 

The last time today’s guest Kristina McMorris was on the show we found out much about this talented author, how she had been host of weekly TV shows since age nine, including an Emmy® Award-winning program. We also learned the facts behind her debut novel “Letters from Home” which has since become a huge hit for her, bringing well deserved rave reviews.

We learned, how while interviewing her grandmother for a cookery book she was writing, she learned of her grandparents war time romance, sharing within “Letters From Home” not only some of what was in her Grandparents letters but also some of the recipes from war time America. The book was critically praised and was declared a must-read by Woman's Day magazine and achieved additional acclaim as a Reader's Digest Select Editions feature, a Doubleday/Literary Guild selection, and a 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for Best Historical Fiction.

Kristina’s new "Bridge of Scarlet Leaves" (March 2012) has already received glowing reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, among many others.

About “Bridge of Scarlet Leaves” (Taken from Celticlady’s blog)

Los Angeles, 1941. Violinist Maddie Kern's life seemed destined to unfold with the predictable elegance of a Bach concerto. Then she fell in love with Lane Moritomo. Her brother's best friend, Lane is the handsome, ambitious son of Japanese immigrants. Maddie was prepared for disapproval from their families, but when Pearl Harbor is bombed the day after she and Lane elope, the full force of their decision becomes apparent. In the eyes of a fearful nation, Lane is no longer just an outsider, but an enemy.

When her husband is interned at a war relocation camp, Maddie follows, sacrificing her Juilliard ambitions. Behind barbed wire, tension simmers and the line between patriot and traitor blurs. As Maddie strives for the hard-won acceptance of her new family, Lane risks everything to prove his allegiance to America, at tremendous cost.

During the show Krisitna shared how her research for the book included visiting Manzanar relocation camp, talking to several Japanese American WWII vets who bravely served in a secret branch of the U.S. Army and a flight on a B-17 bomber. Also that the book included some more culinary details this time about Asian Fusion cooking. Mix this together and you get a book I highly recommend.

With comments such as those listed below already received, I am sure that with “Bridge of Scarlet Leaves” Kristina has another huge hit on her hands.

"This gripping story...hits all the right chords."
-- Publishers Weekly
.
"A sweeping yet intimate novel that will please both romantics and lovers of American history."
-- Kirkus Reviews

"An unputdownable love story...[McMorris'] attention to detail is meticulous, the East meets West clash between cultures--revelatory."
-- Lesley Kagen, New York Times bestselling author of Good Graces

"Readers of World War II fiction will devour [this] poignant, authentic story..."
-- Jenna Blum, international bestselling author of Those Who Save Us
.
"Impeccably researched and beautifully written...I highly recommend this book!"
-- Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of The Beach Trees

"Fascinating and moving...an absolute pleasure to read."
-- Whitney Otto, author of How to Make an American Quilt

"A beautiful, timeless love story...McMorris' words reach right of the page and grab at your heart."
-- Sarah Jio, author of The Violets of March

"An epic romance...I followed Maddie and Lane's fast-paced journey to unexpected places with my breath held and fingers crossed."
-- Margaret Dilloway, author of How to Be an American Housewife

So listen now and share an interesting,and entertaining thirty minutes with my guest Kristina McMorris.

If you have enjoyed the blog or the radio show, why not become a follower?

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with Kristina McMorris

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Kristina McMorris"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:"Kristina McMorris - Bridge of Scarlet Leaves"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

A Book and a Chat with Megan Bostic

 

My guest on today’s Book and a Chat is one of this year’s debut YA authors, a member of the Class of 2K12 Megan Bostic. Let’s first get the name right it’s Megan with a long “e” so it’s more like “Me gan”, now that’s out the way let’s chat about this great new author. Megan is the author of “Never 18” a YA book that has received great reviews from teens and adults alike.

Megan lives over on the west coast, but not the sunny climes location that one thinks of, the rainy and gray northwest weather that makes her extremely “angsty” (one of her favorite words). Megan loves the color black, monkeys (has a collection of sock monkeys), and is a notorious Facebook addict. She migrated from early writing of poems and songs, though the poetry is making somewhat of a comeback to writing her first novel which she completed in 2008. That novel still has to see the light of day and in 2009 she produced “Never 18”.

She writes in the “seat of your pants” style, typing away with reckless abandon to get, with the aid of numerous sticky notes, the story that is bursting out of her head typed out. Once written, then starts the editing and smoothing out process.

While “Never 18” is only 200 pages long it is filled with emotional scenes, though some the language and topics are perhaps not for the younger end of the YA market, “Never 18” is a book for all ages, and can and should be shared by adults as well as children as it relates to real life situations.

About “Never 18”

Austin Parker is on a journey to bring truth, beauty, and meaning to his life.

Austin Parker is never going to see his eighteenth birthday. At the rate he’s going, he probably won’t even see the end of the year. The doctors say his chances of surviving are slim to none even with treatment, so he’s decided it’s time to let go.

But before he goes, Austin wants to mend the broken fences in his life. So with the help of his best friend, Kaylee, Austin visits every person in his life who touched him in a special way. He journeys to places he’s loved and those he’s never seen. And what starts as a way to say goodbye turns into a personal journey that brings love, acceptance, and meaning to Austin’s life.

While Never 18 is Megan’s debut novel there are already several others either completed or in the pipeline, including another contemporary YA tentatively titled, Sad. I call it a story of loss, loathing and lacerations. It’s about a girl suffering from depression who ends up being a cutter, and her healing process.

As one reviewer put it…

New author Megan Bostic makes writing look easy. Her new novel, NEVER EIGHTEEN, is so clear, so smooth, so effortless, that the reader is completely immersed in the story, living it along with the characters. This story is so moving, so touching that I could not put it down. I read NEVER EIGHTEEN from cover to cover in a matter of hours. And normally, I would never look at this kind of book. It just isn't my normal genre. But I knew of Ms Bostic, and I had heard a lot about this book, so I leaped at the chance to give it a try. And, OH MY, I feel honored and privileged to have read NEVER EIGHTEEN. Megan Bostic it a true talent, and NEVER EIGHTEEN is a brilliant debut.

I for one, totally agree with that!

So listen now and share an interesting, and entertaining sixty minutes with my guest Megan Bostic

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with Megan Bostic

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Megan Bostic"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Megan Bostic - Never 18"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

A Book andf a Chat with Debra Winegarten

 

You can always tell how good and interesting a show is, by how quickly the time goes by when your hosting one, normally I am fairly lucky and the thirty minutes just seems to fly by, today was one of those shows. It seems I had just started chatting with my guest Debra Winegarten, when I checked the clock to find there were just a few minutes left.

Debra is one of those writers who was creating written work almost as soon as she could hold a crayon, the fact that her mother Ruthe Winegarten was a writer of note in Texas, meant that instead of Debra been put to sleep buy the noise of their mother's sewing machine, Debra was often comforted by the sound of her mother typing on her IBM Selectric.

Debra’s first completed book was a memoir she was ked to write "Strong Family Ties: The Tiny Hawkins Story", however this was not the first book she had started and after a break of some years that first book saw the light of day when she published “ an S inspiring biography about female aviator Katherine Stinson in her book , Katherine Stinson : The Flying Schoolgirl.

As I have said in the past one of the things I love about hosting my radio show is that you never stop learning, and today was no exception.

Debra shares in her book that Katherine Stinson was the fourth woman in the United States to receive her pilot’s license in July 1912. Besides that, she was the first pilot in the U. S. to carry pioneer airmail, the first woman to fly alone at night, the first woman in the world to perform the loop-the-loop, and the first pilot to perform skywriting in 1915. Add to that the story Debra shared with us about how she ended up flying in the first place and how she was credited with instituting pre-flight checks you know this is a book about one great lady.

Now Debra has returned to her roots as a young Jewish girl being raised in Texas with her award winning book “There’s Jews in Texas?” a small, but packed book of poems that was winner of the Poetica Magazine, Contemporary Jewish Writing 2011 Chapbook Contest.

Winning that award is of no surprise when you read the book, as the title would indicate, there is some humor in Debra’s poetry. And coming out of Texas one would expect to find some anti-Semitism as well and the author does not let the reader down, often combining humor and anti-Semitism appropriately in a manner that Jews and non-Jews can both appreciate. An example is from when she was in second grade…

A grown man stops me on the sidewalk
Eyeing my Star of David necklace and asking if I’m Jewish.

When I nod yes, (I’m not supposed to talk to strangers),
He tells me that’s really too bad for me,
Because didn’t I know that
Jews burn in Hell when they die?

Tears falling so hard I could barely see,
I dropped my weekly treasure and ran home
To Mom so fast I thought
I might keel over before I got to her
And be snatched right down to Hell.

When I told Mom what happened,
She put both hands on my shoulders,
Knelt to my height where she could look square in my eyes,
And in that Dallas drawl of hers, said,

“That’s okay, honey, don’t worry.
We’re Jewish.
We don’t believe in hell.”

As one reviewer put it…

"Debra L. Winegarten writes frank, funny, poignant, punchy poems. This collection shines with radiant spirit."

So listen now and share an interesting, and entertaining thrity minutes with my guest Debra Winegarten

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with Debra Winegarten

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Debra Winegarten"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Debra Winegarten - There's Jews in Texas?"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

A Book and a Chat with Deby Eisenberg

 

Deby Eisenberg, is my guest on today’s “A Book and a Chat”. She is the leader of an established Chicago area Book Club, a former English teacher and journalist, loves literary research, art, architecture, Jewish history, and travel in the United States and Europe. You mix all of those together and you can why her debut book “Pictures of the Past” is such a formidable and “must read” novel.

Using her vision of a multi-generational love story that would inform as well as entertain, that would broaden the mind and open the heart. And with many authors, lead by her characters, Deby has with this book created something that will touch the hearts and keep the pages turning for many a reader.

About ”Pictures of the Past”
(Taken from “The Girl Who Stole the Eifel Towwer” Blog)

The novel takes us through generations of hardships, each unique to their era, beginning in modern-day Chicago where an Impressionist painting on display at the Art Institute, a treasure donated by celebrated philanthropist Taylor Woodmere, is charged as a Nazi theft. The claim takes us back to 1930s Paris, where the story of Taylor Woodmere truly begins. As he journeys to Europe on his first independent venture for the business of his forefathers we learn of the would-be fiancé he left behind, of his instantaneous connection with the city of Paris, of the Impressionist painting that captivates him and finally of his meeting with the German Sarah Berger.

Their blissful romance is beautifully depicted amid the simple treasures of the German country whilst the shroud of the Nazi regime lingers threateningly in the background, inevitably proceeding to wreak havoc on Taylor and Sarah’s dream world. Together – and apart – they face the garish realities of an unjust war and Sarah takes a centric role in the center of her terrorizing quandary as a Jewish woman alone in a perilous place. Woven betwixt their tale is the story of Rachel Gold, a young girl left pregnant and abandoned by Taylor’s son, Court, in the 1960s. In her quest to secure a better life for herself and her son, Jason (aka Rusty), she travels from Chicago to New York where she pursues a life of normalcy with Aunt Ida, a Holocaust survivor and great friend.

Through Ida’s connection to the life and times of Sarah Berger, and Rachel’s connection to the heroic Taylor Woodmere a bond is forged through the eras, weaving the history of one family and illuminating the tragedy of the Holocaust, a tragedy that still resonates through time and space to our world today.

As one reviewer put it…

Deby Eisenberg has combined a compelling story of love and loss during the Holocaust with a modern love story that is a must read for anyone who enjoys well-written fiction. Her command of the subject matter brings believability to her characters & makes you want to keep reading.

To me this is a must read, it covers all your emotions and wants in a good book. Deby’s challenge to herself was to write a novel that her avid readers could not put down and would love to discuss. With “Pictures of the Past” she has done that and so much more.

So listen now and share an interesting, and entertaining show as I chat with my special guest today on A Book and a Chat with Deby Eisenberg

Barry

Direct link to the show
A Book and a Chat with Deby Eisenberg

or you can download the mp3 file of the show from
"Deby Eisenberg"

You can find out more about my guest and their books at:
"Deby Eisenberg - Pictures Off The Past"

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry