Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Apr 12

11

The Second Time We Met by Leila Cobo

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on April 11, 2012
Posted in Books Read in 2012 • Columbia  | 9 Comments

In 1989, Rita, a 16 year old girl lives with her family in a remote small town in Columbia.  It is a dangerous time when guerrillas have just about taken over the town and church.  There is the sound of men talking outside her second story window and she can help taking a look out.  She made eye contact with one of them.


“He smiled when he met her eyes behind the bars that shielded her from him, a bold smile of utter self-assurance- the assurance that comes from being armed and in a group and…simply from being assured.”

Soon after that, she encounter him, the guerrilla they call Lucas, in the street several times, actually he follows her around.  He tries to convince her that he is a nice guy and she finally falls for it.  The meet in secret and have an affair, which results in pregnancy.  By the time she realizes she is pregnant, Lucas has been sent away by his commander.


With nowhere else to turn, she eventually tell her parents, who tell the local priest.   After hearing her confession, he drives her to a orphanage, far away to have the baby and give him up for adoption.  She names him Sebastian, after her little brother and writes a letter to him at the prompting of a nurse after giving birth.

Asher Sebastian Stone grew up in California with wonderful parents.  He always knew he was adopted, his parents even read a letter to him from his birth mother.  However, he was never really curious to know more about her until his accident.  He started wonder if she ever thought of him and if she wondered how he was.


All of a sudden he can’t get her off his mind.  With the help of his parents and girlfriend, he embarks on a journey to try to find her.

I loved the story of Rita, how she girl up with extremely strict parents in a small town, what she did to pass the time at the orphanage while pregnant and her new life after in Bogota.  Bogota has always been a fascinating place to me because my brother, Steve play French horn in the symphony orchestra there in the later 70’s.  He painted a pretty bleak picture, with men with machine guns on roof tops to keep the peace. 


While in Bogota, looking for Rita, Asher and his girlfriend see those same machine guns on roof tops.  Asher’s search is a roller coast ride.  With assistance he pieces together bits of information and embarks on what appears to be fruitless.  I could feel his frustration but he doesn’t give up.

Leila Cobo paints a story of what it is like to grow up in guerrilla infiltrated Columbia as well as what is means to be adopted.  At times it felt like it was lacking in something, though I can’t quite figure out what.  Nonetheless, this is a great character study and the well written story kept me turning the pages. 


4/5

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Did you review The Second Time We Met?  Please leave the link in the comments.

I received this book from Grand Central Publishing for my honest review.

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Apr 12

10

Giveaway: Voyagers of the Titanic by Richard Davenport Hines

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on April 10, 2012
Posted in My Past Giveaways  | 25 Comments

Thanks to William Morrow/ Harper Collins I am giving away one copy of Voyagers of the Titanic.

Book Description:

Late in the night of April 14, 1912, the mighty Titanic, a passenger liner traveling from Southampton, England, to New York City, struck an iceberg four hundred miles south of Newfoundland. Its sinking over the next two and a half hours brought the ship—mythological in name and size—one hundred years of infamy.


Of the 2,240 people aboard the ship, 1,517 perished either by drowning or by freezing to death in the frigid North Atlantic waters. What followed the disaster was tantamount to a worldwide outpouring of grief: In New York, Paris, London, and other major cities, people lined the streets and crowded around the offices of the White Star Line, the Titanic’s shipping company, to inquire for news of their loved ones and for details about the lives of some of the famous people of their time.

While many accounts of the Titanic’s voyage focus on the technical or mechanical aspects of why the ship sank, Voyagers of the Titanic follows the stories of the men, women, and children whose lives intersected on the vessel’s fateful last day, covering the full range of first, second, and third class­—from plutocrats and captains of industry to cobblers and tailors looking for a better life in America.


Richard Davenport-Hines delves into the fascinating lives of those who ate, drank, reveled, dreamed, and died aboard the mythic ship: from John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthiest person on board, whose comportment that night was subject to speculation and gossip for years after the event, to Archibald Butt, the much-beloved military aide to Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft, who died helping others into the Titanic’s few lifeboats. With magnificent prose, Voyagers of the Titanic also brings to life the untold stories of the ship’s middle and third classes—clergymen, teachers, hoteliers, engineers, shopkeepers, counterjumpers, and clerks—each of whom had a story that not only illuminates the fascinating ship but also the times in which it sailed. In addition, Davenport-Hines explores the fascinating politics behind the Titanic’s creation, which involved larger-than-life figures such as J. P. Morgan, the ship’s owner, and Lord Pirrie, the ship’s builder.

The memory of this tragedy still remains a part of the American psyche and Voyagers of the Titanic brings that clear night back to us with all of its drama and pathos.


You can read my review over at Historical Tapestry, here.

This giveaway is for my Canadian and U.S. readers and ends on April 23rd.  Please enter using Rafflecopter below.

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Apr 12

9

The Maladjusted by Derek Hayes

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on April 9, 2012
Posted in Short Story Read in 2012  | 4 Comments

I received a new collection of short stories last week titles The Maladjusted by Derek Hayes.  Derek Hayes is a Canadian writer and the collection has received very positive reviews, so I couldn’t pass it up.


This is my review of the title story, The Maladjusted.

Mike lives in a small apartment by himself.  He has a mental illness and doesn’t get out a lot.  For about the first 15 days of every month he gets pizza from the vender below his apartment.  He lowers a basket with money in it, with a rope and when he pulls it back up the pizza is in it.


He doesn’t like to leave his apartment because he feels anxious when he does but he does go to the grocery store on occasion.  He always tells the cashier that he has a mental illness.  The reply is always, “I’m sorry.”

Sometime he plays chess with Kim, his social worker when she comes to check on him.  She really wants to get him out in the community and have a more active life. She comes up with the idea to bring him to a local chess club with the end goal of Mike playing chess with someone there.  They work it out in steps. 


“First step: Kim and I go to the local chess club by bus, look at the entrance, then return.”

As Mike gets less anxious with a step, they move on to the next.  Does he succeed? 


This is a well written story with a bit of humor.  As a social worker in mental health, it is a familiar one to me.  It brought back memories of some of the people I have worked with over the years and the steps they took toward recovery.  Some partial success, some full successes and some not at all.  However, the motto is never give up, try to create different steps and smaller steps, towards the end goal.  Great story!

Short Story Monday is hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.
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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

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