Review & Giveaway: Through Angel’s Eyes by Steve Theunissen

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on January 16, 2013
Posted in Books Read in 2013 • My Past Giveaways | 6 Comments

Book Description:

‘Through Angel’s Eyes’ is the first person account of a 13 year old Black girl as she experiences the pivotal events of the 1963 civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama. The book is a Young Adult historical fiction that infuses the timeless wisdom of Martin Luther King into an intriguing narrative that takes readers on a roller coaster of emotion while they learn about a time when a group of courageous young people quietly said ‘Enough!” and stood up for what they believed in.

My Review:

Through Angel’s Eyes is the fictional account of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama as told by 13 year old Angel Dunbar. Angel really looks up to her older brother, Jimmy. He becomes active in the civil rights movement and Angel wants to get involved as well. They follow the peaceful movement led by Martin Luther King. However, Angel starts to fall for a boy, Ronny, in her class who she finds out is in the black power moment. With two opposing points of view on how to gain civil rights, can they come together?

The civil rights movement and the 60’s is another time period I can’t seem to get enough of. Through Angel’s Eyes was written for young adults but as an middle aged adult, I found it quite powerful. At first I had a bit of trouble with the authentic southern dialect, Steve Theunissen used. However, it was necessary for the continuity of the novel and to stay true to the location.

The character jump out off of the page and into the readers imagination. The book debates the issue of black power and civil rights in a way for the reader to understand the difference between the two movements and the story flows beautifully.

I highly recommend Through Angel’s Eyes to both adults and young adults.

5/5

About Steve Theunissen:

Steve Theunissen is a 47-year-old middle school teacher who lives in Tauranga, New Zealand. Steve combined his passion for fitness with his love of writing as he forged a career as a freelance fitness writer. From there he branched out to produce books about his next great passion – U.S. history. Through Angel’s Eyes, Steve’s first novel, draws upon his life-long study of the Civil Rights movement.

Thanks to Paula Krapf of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., I am giving away one print copy. This giveaway is open worldwide and ends on January 30, 2013. Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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Jan 13

15

Review & Giveaway: The Thief of Auschwitz by Jon Clinch

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on January 15, 2013
Posted in Books Read in 2012 • My Past Giveaways | 15 Comments

Book Description:

“The camp at Auschwitz took one year of my life, and of my own free will I gave it another four.”

So begins The Thief of Auschwitz, the much-anticipated new novel from Jon Clinch, award-winning author of Finn and Kings of the Earth.

In The Thief of Auschwitz, Clinch steps for the first time beyond the deeply American roots of his earlier books to explore one of the darkest moments in mankind’s history—and to do so with the sympathy, vision, and heart that are the hallmarks of his work.

Told in two intertwining narratives, The Thief of Auschwitz takes readers on a dual journey: one into the death camp at Auschwitz with Jacob, Eidel, Max, and Lydia Rosen; the other into the heart of Max himself, now an aged but extremely vital—and outspoken—survivor. Max is a renowned painter, and he’s about to be honored with a retrospective at the National Gallery in Washington. The truth, though, is that he’s been keeping a crucial secret from the art world—indeed from the world at large, and perhaps even from himself—all his life long.

The Thief of Auschwitz reveals that secret, along with others that lie in the heart of a family that’s called upon to endure—together and separately—the unendurable.

My Review:

I have read quite a few WWII books including concentration camps. I can’t seem to get enough of them. I know it happened but I find it hard to accept how our fellow human beings have been treated and in some places still treated. So, when I was offered this book for review, I couldn’t resist.

Jon Clinch has written about life in Auschwitz, with a bit of a twist. Max is only 14 years old when his entire family is sent to Auschwitz. Luckily he looks older for his age so his father, Jacob tells him to say he is 18. The two are sent to the same quarters. Meanwhile, Max’s sister, Lydial is taken from their mother Eidel and sent to her death.

Too young to be of any use.

Told in alternative perspectives, we find out that Eidel is a painter and a portrait of Eidel is in a nearby antique shop. Jakob finds a way to buy some time for the 3 of them, at least he can try to figure out how to get Max out of there and save his sister’s portrait.

I loved this book and didn’t want it to end. The writing is fresh and the characters well thought out. I felt like I was there with them. I am amazed at how Clinch imagined situations and character unique to all the other book. I have read on the subject. Seriously a breath of fresh air!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a well written book, great characters, and WWII fiction!

5/5

About Jon Clinch:

Born and raised in the remote heart of upstate New York, Jon Clinch has been an English teacher, a metalworker, a folksinger, an illustrator, a typeface designer, a housepainter, a copywriter, and an advertising executive.

His new novel, The Thief of Auschwitz, is due on January 15, 2013 on his own imprint, unmediated ink.Howard Frank Mosher, author of Walking to Gatlinburg, calls the book “the best and most powerful work of fiction ever written about the Holocaust.”

Clinch’s first novel, Finn—the secret history of Huckleberry Finn’s father—was named an American Library Association Notable Book and was chosen as one of the year’s best books by the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Christian Science Monitor. It won the Philadelphia Athenaeum Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Sargent First Novel Prize.

His second novel, Kings of the Earth—a powerful tale of life, death, and family in rural America, based on a true story—was named a best book of the year by the Washington Post and led the 2010 Summer Reading List at O, The Oprah Magazine.

Clinch has lectured and taught widely, in settings as varied as the National Council of Teachers of English, Williams College, the Mark Twain House and Museum, and Pennsylvania State University. In 2008 he organized a benefit reading for the financially-ailing Twain House—enlisting such authors as Tom Perrotta, Stewart O’Nan, and Robert Hicks—an event that literally saved the house from bankruptcy. A native of upstate New York, Jon lives with his wife in the Green Mountains of Vermont. They have one daughter.

Thanks to Kelley & Hall Book Publicity, I am giving away one print copy of The Thief of Auschwitz. Sorry, this giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on January 29, 2013. Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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Jan 13

14

Mailbox Monday (The Extended Edition)

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on January 14, 2013
Posted in Mail Box Mondays | 13 Comments

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia and is being hosted by Lori of Lori’s Reading Corner in January.

I haven’t had a chance to post Mailbox Monday since before the holidays, so this is a catch up post. I received all the following bookish loot:

First, the Holiday Loot:

Actually, Bill and I gave this to each other. I have a Kobo Touch ereader already but wanted to be able to read Kindle books to. However, Bill wanted a tablet. This was our compromise. I just loaded a Kindle app on it and now I can read Kindle books. Were both happy.