Off My Steampunkish Path, But A Great Book!



Book Notes:

"Megan's Way is a fine and fascinating read that many will find hope in." Midwest Book Review


The Megan's Way film will be entered in the Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, South By Southwest Festival (SXSW In Austin Texas), Amsterdam Film Festival, as well as New York, LA , and Miami (just to name a few). This is a "Fest-Best" type of film and expected to make a major impact on festivals world wide.

My Review:
I first want to share with my readers the personal perspective I bring to this review of "Megan's Way." Some 29 years ago I was widowed as a young woman with three children under the ages of 9. My precious young husband died of melanoma that had metastasized to major organs: we had several months to prepare for his death. This came after the original cancer of 11 years in the first year of our marriage. So, I'm someone well acquainted with cancer's toll on a person and those who love them. I read this book with that intimate awareness.

Melissa Foster has given us a true-to-life rendering of the process of dying. From the earliest stages of the person's acknowledgement of impending death, to their release of loved ones, their body and spirit; to the angst and responses of those who live with and love them, Ms Foster paints a portrait of the struggles and survivals. She understands the pain of those left behind and the awareness of those who have to do the leaving.

Through her very beautiful and tender portrayals, we come to know Megan and her intimate friends as if they were family. We get a clear and close up understanding of Megan's loving and tumultuous relationship with her teen aged daughter, Olivia. And, we are given unique insights into Megan's personality, thoughts, fears and death and dying processes from her own perspective, as well as from the perspectives of her friends and daughter. Ms Foster is spot on in her every detail of this experience with death, in my experience.

I found Melissa's writing, however, to be somewhat stilted in her efforts to get across all the points of the process, and then the major theme of the choices we have about our own death and dying. There is something lost in the flow of a story as the book progresses when it starts to be overtaken by a series of details on these numerous processes and points of dying, rather than having it more balanced within a storyline. This, however, does not take very much from the book or enjoyment of it in total, since I think it's worthy on many other levels.

While Megan considers her options of ceasing any other chemo or "prolonging" measures, and as she also contemplates the virtues of taking into her own hands the method and timing of her death, we are allowed to witness her conflicts. This option to choose is one that many come face-to-face with. Ms Foster gives us a balanced and open view of a woman who looks boldly into the face of death, weighs her options and takes into loving consideration the daughter she will leave behind.

The complexity of "Megan's Way" made this novel one that I loved reading. Certainly, it rang true to me in so many ways. It also touched my heart with its attempts to bring readers into a center of meaning and choices that will be an evitability in most of our lives.

The intertwined tale of friends and surrogate family lends itself to be a realistic possibility in light of the "secrets" that people tend to hold close in relationships. While one is living, the secret is easily kept and the "family" can pretend to overlook and rationalize...but once a foundational/pivotal person is going to be removed--the structure that holds it all together is jeopardized and must be delicately "readjusted." This is an element I'm also familiar with, personally, and one I thought Ms Foster handled elegantly.

I recommend your choosing to read "Megan's Way" before it's made into the movie for the Sundance Film Festival. It's going to have a great impact! And, it's a very enjoyable read on the order of a Jodi Picoult novel.

Strongly urge you to read more about Melissa Foster and her outreach programs, her newest book "Chasing Amanda," her soon-to-be released book, and her social community for women called "The Women's Nest."
http://www.melissafoster.com/

 

4.5 stars from TheBookishDame

Steampunk Jewelrymaking!

Anyone who loves steampunk will have a party with this fantastic book of jewelry styles! With easy to follow "recipes" for creating some funky and fun pieces you'll be proud to wear, this book is one to keep on your shelves!

I just stumbled upon the book searching for steampunkish things, and I'm so glad I did.   Wanted to share with you.

I haven't been feeding this site at all in the past months due to a number of things, most recently having to do with a bout of pneumonia.  But, I hope to have a new review within the next couple of weeks, and hope I haven't lost all of my following!!

Please leave a comment so I can follow your blogs!

Thanks for stopping by,

Deborah/TheBookishDame

"Outdo Yourself" 2011 Reading Challenge

http://thebookvixen.blogspot.com/
I'm the worst at knowing how to put a button on my blog entries, but if you look to my right side bar you'll see a direct link (I think) to The Book Vixen's blog for signups for this "Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge" for 2011.  Or I've placed a tiny one above.

I think this is an awesome chance again this year!  Yay!  Another year of book renewals!!! 

All the information you need to know will be at the Vixen's blog in detail, but suffice it to say that this gives all of us bibliophiles another opportunity to top our scores against ourselves from 2010, and to read even more books than ever in 2011. 

A tiny bit of "cheating" (my words, not Vixen's) is in the category of being able to count audiobooks.  I can't actually justify listening to a book as "reading" a book, but if you walk that fence and you can...then, it's fair game, too!  I say, go for it, ye young and foolish and bookish of this great millenium!

All of the books don't have to be reviewed, either.  I find it difficult to stop myself doing that.  Generally readers are also "wordy" people, aren't we?  Didn't your English teachers at some point call you "wordy?"  If you are only a reader and not a reviewer, you'll absolutely have a leg-up on us in this.

I believe we can't start until January 1st.  But, I'm going to start gathering my list asap.  In fact, which one of us self-respecting bookish types doesn't already have a stack set aside to start in 2011?

This year my resolution is to:
 1) continue to read more new authors' 1st books,
 2) read YA fiction more,
 3) give a bit of time to political and/or national issues author(s),
 4) decide who is the best of the Steampunk authors of the year,
      and
 5) give an award to that 'punky author...request an interview too!

So, those are my goals.  My semi-full list will be ready shortly. But, let me just start with these:  I want to read about 80 books in 2011

I hope  you'll leave me your blog link and share some of your books to be read, too.   Now, off to finish "Death of a Beauty: Immortal" which review you will soon be reading on my blogs...I hope.

Deb/BookishDame

Romance Goes Steampunk!

 

Katie MacAlister of Historical/Romance fiction fame has turned up the volume with a slide into the Speampunk genre...."a steampunk romance" is now available!   Oh, my!  I fear invasion of the love-drenched is not far away...   Here's a review below:

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Captain Octavia Pye is surprised to find an unconscious, oddly-dressed man and an equally unusually clad woman aboard her airship. There’s evil afoot in her world, and Octavia wonders if these two are pirates or secret agents. After an explosion in his lab, Dr. Jack Fletcher is shocked to wake up beside his sister in a Victorian airship, complete with a no-nonsense captain and crew, all of whom are outfitted in late nineteenth-century fashion. Jack thinks he has gone back in time; instead he’s astounded to learn that it’s the same day as the explosion. Caught in a parallel universe where technology is still at the steam engine stage, Jack finds himself pulled between a longing for home and an increasingly stronger desire for the intrepid Octavia. MacAlister hits it out of the park with this highly entertaining steampunk fantasy. There’s danger, adventure, romance, and lots of humorous moments as Jack and Octavia discover that the laws of love always trump the laws of physics. --Shelley Mosley

 

I happen to be a fan of MacAlister's or I would be cringing and worrying.  She is a writer who charms with humor and excellent writing skills, so I look forward to reading "Steamed."  I hope you will, too.

 

Let me know what you think about Romance writers dipping into our beloved Steampunk genre, though.  Not all of them are Katie MacAlister!

 

Your Bookish Dame/Deb

 

New Steampunk Genre Split??? Bustlepunk!!!

I read recently that one or two of our women authors want to call their steampunk books "steampunk~bustlepunk" books.  It's interesting enough since most of the time-travel books to this point have been written by men and mostly about men, and the more recent "steampunk" genre was actually born-again by male writers.

Women writers have a huge following...I would think mostly women read their books, but I understand from surveys that a slew of men do, too.   It just galls me that women have to been seen as authors on the up-take on genre such as this, and I tend to think there are two sides to this Bustlepunk issue:

One side is that it's a fabulous name that will by all means draw the female crowd to a genre specific author and book.  There is so  much to say about a story written by a woman, about a woman, for a woman.  That's good fun and good fantasy.  The Bustlepunk tag helps us find those books so readily.  And I love the name as it connotes the clothing, the Victorian timeframe, and the steampunkish genre.  Really, so many pluses to the concept.

However; and secondly, I'm ashamed of it.  And here's why.  I'm a feminist.  It just galls me that we single ourselves out even in literature.  In some ways it sets us apart in a good way (as I mention above), and in another way it continues to mark us as "second best to the male author."  Since a male author first came up with the idea of time-travel; i.e., H. G. Wells, women can only be followers at best.  Since we have gained so much in equality, why give it up now??  By singling ourselves out, we destroy the ideal that authors are all equal in their intelligence and capabilities to confir and express their imaginations and knowledge.  It's a battle women have fought for ages. 

I think of Charlotte Bronte' and sisters who had to publish under such names as Currier Bell.  And of other books like "Middlemarch," written by George Eliot who was Mary Ann Evans;  the Baronne Dudevant otherwise known as the french writer George Sand, mistress to a famous musical genius and author of more than 40 books and plays, and, did you know that J.K.Rowling used that name because she didn't want anyone to identify her as a woman writer only in writing the "Harry Potter" series?  

There are many more examples of worthy and famous women writers who felt they had/have to hide their identities and genders behind male pseudonyms.  Isak Dinesin, one of my very favorite authors, was actually Karen Blixen and she wrote "Out of Africa."
Another of our childhood beloved authors who did the same male name cover was the author of the "Nancy Drew" series.

On another note:  Have you  noticed that more Steampunk authors are starting to use just first initials and last names?  Wonder if this is a Wells copy thing...or if it's a disguise of male/female gender?  Interesting....

These rights of women authors are something that remain close and clear in my mind and, I'm certain in the minds of those of us who took to the streets, the writing formats and college halls to protest and call for their equality and recognition.  It was time in the 1960's and it's time now to remain steady.  Are we back-tracking?

What do you think?

Your Bookish Steampunk Dame/Deborah

Steampunkish Jewelry by Talis Bijoux

I've just started designing Steampunk jewelry (and my photography is awful!) so I'm going to be showing some on my blog for the fun of it. 
This one above belongs to my daughter.  I named it:

  "I Remember the Paris Flea Market circa 2022." 

This is one I made thinking about a journey so it's called:
                               "c. 1944 Space Model Trip 3"



You will see if you click on the pictures that both have hands on them.  I love hands.  They are so beautiful to me as an artist and they say something about the trips we make through time and fantasy.  Our hands grasp and express, they sense and relay touch, they are beautiful to see and preceed us in most of our discoveries. To me they symbolize alot in travel and space...time travel and grasping the possiblities...  I incorporate hands in my Steampunk jewelry whenever I can.

My jewelry company,  Talis Bijoux is the place to see all of my jewelry, and while most of it is not of the Steampunk variety right now...I expect to be featuring more over the next few months.

Thanks for looking!

I remain,

Your Bookish Steampunk Dame/Deborah

Time To Go Steampunk!!

Here you see them!   These are the very books that stole my heart and made a Steampunk of me in the last couple of years.  Although, I realize I was always a Steampunk in my heart of hearts...I just didn't know what to call myself.  I just used to refer to myself as a "woman out of time and place."

I haven't finished reading all of them, so they will be the first of my reviews on my new blog.  So psyched to get this started.

My plans are to show some steampunkish jewelry...fashions...and odds and ends. 

Any suggestions you may have to help me, please don't hold back!!

So happy to be coming here!    Your Bookish Steampunk  :G