Merry Wanderer of the Night:
tlc book tour

There has been a lot of talk about memoirs lately, most of it has been negative. Even though I pride myself on loving nonfiction I'll admit I've moved away from memoirs over the last couple of years. There are just so many poorly written ones and too many celebrity publicity stunts. Devotion seemed like it could be different, if for no other reason than I was interested in the story. Dani Shapiro writes about her experiences trying to find her faith again, both in a religious and personal sense. I think a lot of people go through this drifting feeling, the kind of feeling that forces you to look for some answers. Somewhere. Shapiro has had a lot of loss in her life. Her father died early, she never had a good relationship with her mother, and she came scarily close to losing her son. When it seems like everything has gone wrong it's very easy to become faithless, which Shapiro does early on in her life. Through Yoga and meditation she begins to try and find some quiet, which eventually leads her back to the religion of her heritage: Judaism.

When I started this I was a little worried it would be another Tales of a Female Nomad fiasco. A book I wanted to like, but just couldn't bring myself to agree with. Instead I was inspired. They say if you didn't like a book it probably wasn't written for you. I could see a lot of people wouldn't like this book, but Devotion came to me at just the right time. While I haven't necessarily been struggling with religion I have been struggling with turning the constant worrying and anxiety off. I've had problems with turning into myself and figuring out what is going on. In short, I could really relate to Shapiro.

As I skim through this book and look at the sections I underlined, I realize I read this book as a kind of devotional. Picking out things I found inspiring, muttering to myself Remember this every day as I turned the page.

"Writers often say that the hardest part of writing isn't the writing itself; it's the sitting down to write. The same is true of yoga, meditation, and prayer. The sitting down, the making space. The doing. It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Unroll the mat. Sit cross-legged on the floor. Just do it. Close your eyes and express a silent need, a wish, a moment of gratitude. What's so hard about that? Except--it is hard. The usual distractions-- the clutter and piles of life-- are suddenly, unusually enticing." (117)

I'm not going to pretend this is a book for everyone, because it certainly is not. But if you've found yourself grappling with any of the questions I mentioned above, if the passage I shared speaks to you, if you're just looking for a relatable read, I think you should give Devotion a try. You might surprised by it. Not everyone is interested in religion, but for me reading is a kind of meditation. Books are what I turn to when I need to figure things out. In that way I could really relate to Shapiro, and I thoroughly enjoyed her memoir.

The author of this book is very enthusiastic about doing Skype chats with book groups, follow this link if you are interested! To read more reviews of this book check out the TLC Book Tour schedule.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog. I received a copy of this book from the publisher as part of TLC Book Tours.

I grew up on a farm, spent my teenage years in the suburbs, and now I live in a small city and hope to live in a larger city within in the next couple years. I've done most kinds of living in my 21 years of life, and while I remember my childhood in the country fondly I have to say that I am really into city living. I like city living for a lot of the reasons Edward Glaeser brings up in his book, Triumph of the City, specifically how I do believe it makes us smarter, greener, and healthier. It's no secret that I'm a huge proponent of environmentalism (I co-host an environmental book podcast and just started a new feature about environmental books here), and while I do love nature, I recognize that the best thing environmentalists can do for their environment is to live in an urban environment. As Glaeser points out, the common misconception is that being good to the environment means living in nature, being one with it, and all of that stuff. But as I can testify as someone who has lived in rural and suburban environments, "being one with nature" means hurting nature faster. You drive more, longer distances, and more frequently when you live further away from places you need to be. Places like the store, your job, and entertainment establishments.

Luckily, Glaeser is not too hard on the people who live in suburban environments. He even succumbed to the glory of them himself, leaving the city for burbs once he settled down with a family. Glaeser recognizes that it's not so much the people living the suburbs that are the problem, it's a lack of appropriate policies across that country keeping cities from growing. This often makes rents in cities high, forcing more people to move out of the city and into the burbs where it is cheaper for them to buy a home even if they are forced to drive to work every day. Which is one of the major problems with suburbs.

Triumph of the City is an engrossing book. I was constantly trying to find a time to read some more of this because it is so full of information. Honestly, nothing in Triumph of the City is that shocking. It's all pretty common sense, and the majority of the things he brings up I have thought of before. What makes it interesting is the way everything is presented in one place, with supporting evidence, and the argument works. For the most part anyway, there were a few things I disagree with Glaeser on (but I'm not going to nit pick with him. He's trying to encourage more people to live in cities and that is a-okay in my book). Even though I was intensely enthusiastic about this book, I could see that not everyone would love it. Glaeser is not necessarily entertaining, he lays out the facts for you in a controlled, purposeful manner. Even if you're not interested in the environmental aspects of this book, the first half offers a wonderful history of the American city and profiles the triumphs and downfalls of many cities across the country.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog. I received this book as part of TLC Book Tours.

I have always been a huge fan of bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novels (see I did use that useless piece of information I got out of my major). When I was asked to read Finny

by Justin Kramon for this TLC Book Tour I could not have been more excited because it was described as a coming of age novel about a girl. From what I've read, Kramon feels like me: coming-of-age novels are great but there are very few about girls- and he decided to fix that with Finny. The novel follows Finny through about 20 years of her life, from 14 to 34. From the opening lines I knew Finny was my kind of girl; "She started out life as Delphine, named by her father for the city where the Greek oracle was from, but she'd always had an independent mind about things like names, so she'd gone by Finny ever since she was old enough to choose" (3). Gee, that doesn't sound like anyone I know.

The story begins when Finny meets a boy, Earl. I was initially a little put off by the fact that Finny's story had to begin with a boy, but it was so much more than that. With Earl came Earl's father, Mr. Henckel, a pianist who falls asleep every so often- "It just comes upon me" he says after each snooze. Earl is a bit eccentric as well, you'd have to be growing up with a father like that, and he tells Finny he wants to become a writer. The Henckels are completely different from Finny's family. Her father, Stanley, loves to quote famous writers and philosophers and is a wee bit pretentious. Her mother, Laura, constantly gives Finny unwanted advice about what people think is rude. Her brother, Sylvan, is incredibly intelligent and despite a few blows he gives Finny they turn out to be great friends. Later in the novel Finny goes to boarding school, which is where she meets Judith who is that friend. Judith likes to stretch the truth a little bit and she doesn't always think of who she hurts in the process.

So as you can see, the cast of characters in this book has a lot to offer, and two of my favorite characters I left unmentioned so you can read the book and discover them on their own. In some ways, the characters are fairly average, but they are necessary because they are so important in Finny's (or any girl's) life. Honestly, the book started out a little bit slow for me and started to pick up about halfway through. I think this is because about halfway through the novel Finny is my age and I could just relate to her more easily. Actually, I could relate to her at the beginning of the novel, but it was hard for me to take that trip back to adolescence because I made some of the same mistakes Finny did and not too long ago. This book is a coming-of-age novel, but beyond that it's just a story about people. How people disappoint us, how we forgive them, and how we learn to be more careful in our judgment. Another aspect I loved was how Finny seemed to lose some parts of her personality at the beginning of her adolescence and then slowly started to regain them as the story went on, which I think is true to life. If I had to pick a phrase that described Kramon's writing best that is what it would be, true to live. The story is majestic and sometimes far-fetched, but at the end Finny is real.

I give this bildungsroman (see, I did it again) an A.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog. Thanks to Trish of TLC Book Tours and the publisher for providing me this book to review.

An Italian Carmelite monk, Fra Filippo Lippi, prays through painting in The Miracles of Prato

. He became a monk by chance, but he is an artist in every way. When the beautiful nun Lucrezia Buti enters his life he sees her as the only model he can use to create the Madonna in a very important painting he is struggling with. Lucrezia is also a nun by chance and hates the idea of giving up beautiful silks and dresses simply because she is a nun. Through a shared love of beauty Filippo and Lucrezia bond, but their love is forbidden because they have made a vow to serve God. Both are willing to break this vow, but there are other people and incidents that make the situation that much more difficult.

From the author's note I gather that not much is actually known about Lucrezia Buti or her relationship with Fra Filippo Lippi, but Laurie Albaenese and Laura Morowitz make a very convincing, romantic story about a man and a woman. It was really interesting for me to see how important religion was in art during the Renaissance. Fra Filippo Lippi was a successful artist because he created religious paintings and was a religious man. When Fra Filippo Lippi and Lucrezia move forward with their relationship, Lucrezia is shunned by the people in the town because their relationship is considered to be sinful. The world they lived in was so different from the one that I live in, which gave the story a lot of dimension. The book showed some views of women from the time period, and how a woman's sexual desires were frowned upon while a man's were accepted or ignored, even if he was supposed to abstain from sex.

While I really enjoyed reading about the trials of their relationship and Lucrezia's struggles as a female, I never really felt a strong connection to Lucrezia. When she is forced to become a nun all see is upset about is not having beautiful silks anymore (and the loss of her father, which is why she became a nun, but that isn't gone into with as much thought). It seemed like she wasn't taking control of her life for the majority of the book, although towards the end I felt like she got stronger. I really felt like all I knew about her was that she was beautiful and liked beautiful things. That wasn't enough for me to sympathize with her character, and I struggled with the first half of the book because of that. The second half of the book she begins to grow stronger, and the plot picks up several new strands which make the book more enticing to read. The struggle with Lucrezia's character during the first half of the book was worth the ending for me.

I give this book a C.

For more thoughts about The Miracles of Prato check out the other stops on this tour!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog. Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and Harper Collins for providing me a review copy of this book.

I was incredibly lucky to have Lynn Cullen's new novel, The Creation of Eve for my first TLC Book Tour experience. The novel is about Sofonisba Anguissola, a female painter in Spain during the Renaissance. A student of Michelangelo, she becomes one of the first famed female painters of the time. When I originally picked up the book I thought it was going to be more about Michelangelo since that is what stuck in my mind after the description. I was thrilled when I began the book to find it was not really about him a tall, but rather about Sofonisba's experience not only a painter but a woman during this time period.

Cullen does an amazing job of placing the reader in the time period and really feeling what Sofonisba is feeling. In many other historical novels I find myself asking stupid questions, like Why is she afraid of showing affection to that man? Cullen doesn't even allow you to do that. She weaves historical information so well into that story that you know exactly why Sofonisba or the Queen of Spain or any other person in the novel feels the way they do. Before reading this novel I knew nothing about Spain or Sofonisba, and I really didn't know much about the Renaissance beyond what I've learned in my art history class. This book was an amazingly fun way to immerse myself in a historical time period I'm fairly unfamiliar with.

And I got so immersed. The novel has a few things pushing you to read to the end, but I'm not sure if I even needed them. The experience of reading The Creation of Eve was similar to my experience of reading Jane Eyre (the ultimate compliment). I was interested in the storyline, but I was more intensely interested in Sofonisba's voice. I felt like I was getting to know her and seeing the world around her through her eyes. She was incredibly interesting because she was an active participant in her time period, but in other ways she was acting out against it. Simply becoming a painter is extreme, but the beginning of the novel shows how she acts out sexually against her peers. What I loved about the way Cullen portrayed the sexuality of Sofonisba was that she was honest about it. She didn't romanticize it and she showed the fears women experienced at the time dealing with sex.

This novel earned an A.

This novel counts for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog. I received this novel through TLC Book Tours in exchange for my review.