Short Leash by Janice Gary

Short Leash
Author:  Janice Gary
Published:  August 2013
Publisher:  Michigan State University Press
Pages:  246
Format/edition:  Trade paperback
Genre:  Memoir

Source: A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.  Receipt thereof bears no influence on my opinion nor this review.

Author's website: janicegary.com

It’s hard to believe that a walk in the park can change a life – let alone two – but for Janice Gary and her dog Barney, that’s exactly what happened.

Gary always walked with a big dog by her side and had ever since being attacked on the streets of Berkley as a young woman. For years, she relied on her beloved Husky to help her navigate the world on her own. Then he succumbed to canine cancer, leaving Janice alone and vulnerable once again. Enter Barney: a goofy, gangly stray Gary discovers wandering loose in a Piggly Wiggly parking lot. With biscuit-sized paws and a big, blocky head, the pup promises to grow into her biggest protector yet. And he does – but after an attack by a vicious dog, Barney becomes overly protective and barely manageable. Walking him anywhere becomes almost impossible; but walking without him is unthinkable.

It’s only when Gary risks bringing Barney to a local park on the Chesapeake Bay that both their lives change forever. There, Janice faces her deepest fears and discovers the grace of the natural world, the power of love and the potency of her own strengths. And Barney loses the leash of his own fears. Beautifully written, Short Leash is a moving tale of love and loss, the journey of a broken soul finding its way toward wholeness.

My thoughts:

We have two little dogs, so little they think their rightful place is on your lap.  They are accepting, loving, forgiving, quick to snuggle and give kisses.  They perform tricks, "protect" their people, keep the bed warm and our hearts full.  They're ecstatic to go for walks but just as happy to lounge with you as you curl up with a blanket and a book.  They are in turn hilarious as they play with their food, bring a shoe in greeting, or take flying leaps to greet you.  I love them to bits.

Short Leash is the story of one such love, a mutual admiration society consisting of a petite lady and her large lab/rottweiler cross whose delight in the simple pleasures of life can teach so many of us a valuable lesson.  

At nineteen Janice is attacked on a dark street.  Years later foggy nights, footsteps behind her, the rustle of leaves, the dark, or being alone on a street terrifies her.  Justifiably so.  She still feels a victim.  She's tried therapy but the best therapist she finds is a large black dog with an eternal grin and a penchant to explore.

Our relationships with our pets aren't just that of master and servant, owner and owned.  They are very much a part of the family and, in most cases, are our best friends, our confidants, and our most loyal companions who will never let us down.  For Janice, Barney is all that.  Their daily walks, on a short leash because Barney has issues with other dogs, allow Barney the much desired adventures and slowly pull Janice beyond her comfort zones.  She explores new trails, reluctantly at first, with Barney in the lead.  As he explores sights and scents, Janice notices the changing hues in the leaves, the new berries and flowers, the beauty in the sky overhead.  She begins to see things differently and the short leash she has self-imposed upon herself slowly lengthens.  Where fear once was, peace now resides.

Gary's writing flows like liquid gold, spilling over the pages in an illustrious fashion.  The imagery of her words and phrases conjure up the scenes and transport you to her side.  You are with her on the walks, you travel back in time as she recalls scenes from her past, tragic and pleasant, allowing you to get to know the whole person she was and is.  As Gary grows through her experiences and situations, you can feel it as tangible as the soft fur of a puppy. She truly has a gift.

When you look upon the photo of the two of them below, Janice Gary and her beloved Barney, the love and adoration is so very evident.  That's what dogs do for you.  That's the face of peace and true happiness.  Barney was instrumental in bringing that face forward.  Together they found their paths.

http://www.amazon.com/Short-Leash-Memoir-Walking-Deliverance/dp/1611860725

Meet the author: 

Janice Gary is the author of Short Leash: A Memoir of Dog Walking and Deliverance, which was chosen as a “Groundbreaking memoir” by Independent Publisher and a New Pages “Editor’s Pick”.  She is the recipient of the Christine White Award for Memoir and the Ames Award for Personal Essay. As a writing coach, she helps others writers find their unique voice and stories. In between her work and appearances for Short Leash, she blogs at janicegary.com.

Murder on the Orient Espresso by Sandra Balzo

Murder on the Orient Espresso
Author:  Sandra Balzo
Published:  December 2013
Publisher:  Seven House Publishers Ltd
Pages:  200
Genre:  Mystery
Edition:  ARC

Source:  A thank you to the author and her publisher for a complimentary advanced reader's copy to facilitate this review.  Receipt thereof bears no influence over my opinion nor my review.

Wisconsin coffeehouse owner Maggy Thorsen accompanies her main squeeze, Sheriff Jake Pavlik, to South Florida, where he's been asked to speak at a mystery-writers' conference.  Maggy is anticipating a romantic arrival in their hotel suite, but when the opening night event turns out to be a re-enactment of Agatha Christie’s classic, Murder on the Orient Express, the couple reluctantly sets off on a night train into the Everglades.

The idea is to solve the "crime" and return, but the troupe soon finds itself embroiled in a real-life murder mystery as creepy and baffling as any work of fiction.

My thoughts:

I just have to say I hate snakes!!!  Even more than spiders do I hate them!  So when I read Murder on the Orient Espresso I learned far more than I ever wanted to learn about pythons, their choice of foods and how the everglades have become home to some including the African rock python which can grow a horrifying 20 feet long!!  (Shudder!!!)

Alright, I digress.  Murder on the Orient Espresso takes place on a train mimicking the story of Murder on the Orient Express written by a favourite author of mine, Agatha Christie.  A group of mystery writers, both established and up and coming, a sheriff, a coffeehouse owner, and a book reviewer contribute to the small list of participants in a writing conference aboard a train re-enacting the mystery in Agatha's novel.  However, and you can see this coming, someone ends up dead and there are several people aboard who bore grudges against the deceased.  

Maggy, the coffeehouse owner, is a bit of an amateur sleuth who has accompanied Sheriff Jake Pavlik, a guest speaker for the conference.  I like Maggy and not just because she hates snakes as much as I do.  She is a very real member of this cast with desires and fears who cannot help speculating and investigating the murder.  When she is left aboard the train while her boyfriend, Jake (aka Sheriff Pavlik) leaves to go for help, Maggy is confronted with the murderer and a snake...again!  Yikes!! 

Murder on the Orient Espresso author Sandra Balzo has been compared to other illustrious mystery writers including Joan Hess and Janet Evanovich.  Murder on the Orient Espresso is a new twist on an old classic which is fun and interesting and somewhat unexpected, snakes aside. I'd like to investigate her other mysteries which include Uncommon Grounds, Running on Empty and Dead Ends to name just a few.

Meet the author:

Sandra Balzo is an award-winning author of crime fiction, including ten books in two different mystery series from Severn House--the Wisconsin-based Maggy Thorsen Mysteries and Main Street Murders, set in the High Country of North Carolina and featuring journalist AnnaLise Griggs.  Balzo's books have garnered starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, while being recommended to readers of Janet Evanovich, Charlaine Harris, Mary Daheim, Joan Hess and Margaret Maron. A Wisconsin native, Sandy now splits her time between South Florida and North Carolina.

New Releases Today!!! Allegiant and Sycamore Row

Two highly sought after and long awaited novels release today!!

One choice will define you.

What if your whole world was a lie?

What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?

What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.

But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent. (from Goodreads)

The follow-up to A Time To Kill by John Grisham

John Grisham takes you back to where it all began . . . 

John Grisham's A Time to Kill is one of the most popular novels of our time. Now we return to that famous courthouse in Clanton as Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial-a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history.

Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier.

The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?

In Sycamore Row, John Grisham returns to the setting and the compelling characters that first established him as America's favorite storyteller. Here, in his most assured and thrilling novel yet, is a powerful testament to the fact that Grisham remains the master of the legal thriller, nearly twenty-five years after the publication of A Time to Kill. (from Goodreads)

*** How excited are you?  Did you pre-order either of these books?

Review: All You Could Ask For by Mike Greenberg

All You Could Ask For
Author:  Mike Greenberg
Published: September 3, 2013
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Edition:  trade paperback
Source:  TLC book tours and the publisher, William Morrow.  Receipt thereof has no influence over my opinion nor this review.

Brooke has been happily married to her college sweetheart for fifteen years. Samantha’s newlywed bliss is steam-rolled when she finds shocking evidence of infidelity on her husband’s computer.

Katherine works eighteen hours a day for the man who irreparably shattered her heart fifteen years ago.

Brooke, Samantha, and Katherine don’t know one another yet, but all three are about to discover the conquering power of friendship—and that they have all they could ask for, as long as they have each other.

My thoughts:

Brooke, Samantha and Katherine have never before met.  Their lives are very different.  Brooke is married to her college sweetheart and together they have two children.  Samantha discovers while on her honeymoon that her husband is having an affair and Katherine is a power-house on Wall Street working for a man she once loved and is single.

What draws each of them together is the diagnosis of breast cancer.  So when these three  meet via an online forum for those diagnosed with breast cancer, they discover an enduring friendship that offers the support they each need beyond the stages of cancer diagnosis and treatment.  Since their lives and lifestyles are very different, a common denominator is not evident, nor is it in reality.  I am glad this was pointed out in the novel because not all cancer is caused by lifestyle choices such as smoking.  Sometimes there are hereditary factors, sometimes environmental.  Often, though, there is no obvious cause.  It just happens.

Greenberg writes women so well that you forget you are reading the words of a male author!  I suspect his wife has a great deal to do with the inspiration and insight with which he writes.  Though there were times near the beginning that I found myself checking back on the characters to be sure I was picturing the correct one as I read her chapter, I still found the overall effect of three separate stories bound together by circumstance a warm and touching read.

The inspiration for this novel comes from a personal experience the Greenbergs had with a close friend.  Her legacy lives on with this novel and the fundraising from it.  I am happy to share that the proceeds from All You Could Ask For will go to charity for cancer research.  

About the author:

Mike Greenberg is co-host of ESPN’s Mike & Mike and the author of two previous New York Times bestsellers. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a native of New York City. He lives with his wife, Stacy, and their two children in Connecticut. In conjunction with the release of this book, Mike and Stacy have created a foundation called Heidi’s Angels, through which all of the author’s profits from the sale of this book will be donated to the V Foundation for Cancer Research to combat breast cancer.

Find out more about the All You Could Ask For at allyoucouldaskfor.com.

Follow Mike on Twitter.

Review: Equilibrium by Lorrie Thomson

 Equilibrium
Author:  Lorrie Thomson
Published:  2013
Publisher: Kensington 
Edition:  ARC
Source:  TLC Book Tours and the publisher.  Receipt of this book did not influence my opinion nor my review thereof.

Author's website, Facebook page, and Twitter account

In the year since her husband died, Laura Klein’s world has shifted on its axis. It’s not just that she’s raising two children alone—fact is, Laura always did the parenting for both of them. But now her fifteen-year-old daughter, Darcy, is dating a boy with a fast car and faster hands, and thirteen-year-old Troy’s attitude has plummeted along with his voice. Just when she’s resigning herself to a life of worry and selfless support, her charismatic new tenant offers what Laura least expects: a second chance.

Darcy isn’t surprised her mom doesn’t understand her, though she never imagined her suddenly acting like a love-struck teen herself. With Troy starting to show signs of their father’s bipolar disorder, and her best friend increasingly secretive, Darcy turns to her new boyfriend, Nick, for support. Yet Nick has a troubled side of his own, forcing Darcy toward life-altering choices.

Exploring the effects of grief on both mother and daughter, Equilibrium is a thoughtful, resolutely uplifting novel about finding the balance between holding on and letting go, between knowing when to mourn and when to hope, and between the love we seek and the love we choose to give.

My thoughts:

When your husband, who's been suffering from a bipolar disorder, makes good on his last attempt at taking his life how do you go on?  How do you keep your family together knowing your children could inherit the disorder?  How do you cope yourself?  Where do you find your equilibrium?

That is the premise of this debut author's novel, Equilibrium.  A little heavy to begin with, Thomson explores how a family could go on in this work of fiction.  Luckily for the heroine, Laura, she has two best friends who help keep her centred.  We don't get to know them very well other than to know they are always there for her and she can count on them for late night calls, visits, even a little new-age wisdom.

Her fifteen year old daughter Darcy, on the other hand, struggles to make sense of her loss, the feelings of betrayal by her father, and even the guilt.  Sometimes it feels like this is her story and at other times it feels like her mother's but their stories come together in the end as they discover the strength each other has and pull together.  

Laura's young son Troy seems wise beyond his years at first but as the reader gets to know him we see the young boy, the tween, and the young man in turns.  He seems so together until the anniversary of his father's suicide when something happens that shatters every one's belief in his well-being.

Then there's handsome younger Aiden, the emergency room doctor who rents Laura's husband's studio.  From renter to friend, he becomes the balance in this family and the hope they all need.  He often seems too good to be true, but he is the genuine article and you can't help falling for him yourself as you read along.

There were a couple times, during flashbacks and flash forwards to the present that lost me and I had to go back and re-read to determine the tense and the defining line between the two.  Perhaps that is an issue only with the ARC?  Thomson's pace is quick, never lagging and her character development brings the main characters to life, especially Darcy's boyfriend Nick.  Thomson uses a lot of imagery and creative twists in her descriptiveness which is sometimes distracting; yet I can appreciate the talent of this young creative writer.

Overall, I did enjoy Equilibrium.  It's a bit heavy for a beach read but then again, one can only read so much fluff.  Equilibrium brings that balance back.

Meet the author:

Lorrie Thomson lives in New Hampshire with her husband and their children. When she’s not reading, writing, or hunting for collectibles, her family lets her tag along for camping adventures, daylong paddles, and hikes up 4,000 footers.

Though Equilibrium is fiction, Lorrie had the very real experience of coping with mental illness in her own family when her oldest son was diagnosed with schizophrenia while she was writing the book. For support and education regarding mental illness, she recommends that readers visit NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.