"Cascade" by Maryanne O'Hara~ Spectacular, Sparkling Writing!

SUMMARY :

During the 1930s in a small town fighting for its survival, a conflicted new wife seeks to reconcile her artistic ambitions with the binding promises she has made.

Fans of Richard Russo, Amor Towles, Sebastian Barry, and Paula McLain will devour this transporting novel about the eternal tug between our duties and our desires, set during in New York City and New England during the Depression and New Deal eras.            It’s 1935, and Desdemona Hart Spaulding has sacrificed her plans to work as an artist in New York to care for her bankrupt, ailing father in Cascade, Massachusetts. When he dies, Dez finds herself caught in a marriage of convenience, bound to the promise she made to save her father’s Shakespeare Theater, even as her town may be flooded to create a reservoir for Boston. When she falls for artist Jacob Solomon, she sees a chance to escape and realize her New York ambitions, but is it morally possible to set herself free?

A Slate Magazine “Best Books 2012″
A People Magazine “People Pick”
A Library Journal 2012 “Best Bet”
Boston Globe “Best of the New, 2012″
A Massachusetts “Must Read, 2013″


VIDEO TRAILER:

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  Penguin Press
Pages:  353  Plus Author's Notes and Reader's Guide
Genre:  Fiction/Historical Fiction
Author:  Maryanne O'Hara
Website:  http://www.maryanneohara.com
Purchase this book:  Barnes & Noble  or Amazon


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

I have lived on this Massachusetts river for most of my adult life, and I feel lucky to have landed on such a restorative shore at an early age. As a young mother caring for a baby born with a complicated, life-threatening illness (cystic fibrosis), I filled a lot of spiral-bound notebooks with a lot of angst while gazing out at this body of water. By my early thirties, in full-fledged, (and thankfully early) mid-life crisis, I sent myself to the MFA program at Emerson College, where I met many of the wonderful people who have enriched and encouraged my writing life to this day.

In the late 1990s, I began to write and publish short stories, as I’d dreamed of doing during those notebook-filling days. I also spent many years as the Associate Fiction Editor for Ploughshares, the award-winning Boston literary journal. My growing story collection was a finalist for awards like the Iowa Short Fiction Awards and the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Some of the stories were anthologized, and I won some grants in Massachusetts (thank you St. Botolph Club and Massachusetts Cultural Council). With my husband Nick, we focused on being present in each day and giving our daughter the best life we possibly could.

It is so gratifying to see Cascade published, to know that it exists in solid form, that it has a Library of Congress number.

When I’m not writing or reading, I’m either traveling or planning a trip, or I’m in the kitchen trying out a new recipe, planning a party, or I’m in a yoga studio, gym, kayak, or tennis center. Service has always been important to me, and currently, I spend Wednesdays at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, providing Reiki to inpatients.

I’m now working on a novel about an oral historian who comes across an object in a museum exhibit, an object that had been stolen from his family—or so he thought—when he was a boy. Currently, the story alternates between the present day and 1968 Prague, but that may change. What won’t change: the book will be about family secrets and love and betrayal, and about how the cultures we live in both hinder and help us preserve what is most sacred to the artist in all of us.


(This bio. was taken from Ms O'Hara's website  Please go there to see more very interesting things about her and her writing!  http://www.maryanneohara.com )



THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

Utterly devoted to Maryanne O'Hara as a reader now that I've read "Cascade."  She is a writer of the very first order.  Earthy and visceral, her novel is captivatingly "real."  This is a true love story in many ways; its passions having to do not only with human relationships, but also with the inner drives of artistry and nature.  A masterful novel that will be a stand-alone for 2013!

The story is character-driven as so many of our greatest novels are.  The main character, Dez Hart, who makes known the "desires of her heart" is completely open and attainable to us, although not so transparent to those physically around her.  She is so beautifully rendered that she haunted my dreams.  I felt such sympathy for her struggles over the love of her art, her responsibilities, and her personal passions.  I felt the slippery slopes she tred trying not to harm others, while trying to find her own footing.  There was a feverishness about this character that held me in perfect pitch with her.  This is genius in writing and is so rare to find today.

There are many examples of how Ms O'Hara is painterly in her descriptions of the landscape and natural surroundings of Cascade, the community.  Beautifully handled passages that make you want to climb into her novel and find a place to rest.  It's difficult not to fall in love with her father's old Playhouse and the woods and lake of Cascade.  Her descriptions of the artist's process are right on the money.

The other characters that inhabit this book are alive, as well.  Burning with different, individual emotions that particularly set them apart, they are so interesting as studies in human behavior.  And, I felt a sort of fuge hanging over the story with them as they encircled Dez in her efforts to disentangle herself and head in the direction she felt most personally drawn.

This is one of those books you have to read this year!  It's absorbing and written with an artist's hand.  It brings a surprise and a message of intensity.  It's a woman's story, an artist's story, and the story of all who care about the world around them.

It's one of the best!

5 stars               Deborah/TheBookishDame

This review is brought to you in cooperation with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours where you can find more information and more tours/reviews and interviews on "Cascade."  Please click on this link:  http://hfvirtualbooktours.com


 

"The Wicked Wives" by Gus Pelagatti~Novel of True Crime!

Summary:  The Wicked Wives is based on the true story of the 1938 Philadelphia poison scandals whereby 17 wives were arrested for poisoning their spouses to death for insurance money. 

Particulars of the Book :
Publisher:  Gustine Pelagatti
Pages:  298
Find the book for sale on:  Amazon  and Barnes & Noble

The Bookish Dame Brings You This Guest Post :

Hello, Gus.  Welcome to A Bookish Libraria!

I’m so delighted you’ve agreed to allow us to get to know you and your book better.  I have several questions!

First of all, please tell us a special something about what makes you “tick.”  When you aren’t writing, what are you doing?

After 47 years, I still practice trial law in Philadelphia. 

You chose a specific genre, a place and time to write about, what made you choose it?

In 1938, Philadelphia was rocked with scandal: 17 wives were arrested for poisoning their husbands for insurance.   Our family had a tiny row house in South Philadelphia where the poison ringleader operated a tailor shop located two blocks away.  Consequently, I grew up hearing gossip about the wives and their lovers.

Bronte or Austen?  Hemingway or Hawthorne?  Why?

Hemingway –Regarded as a master of the narrative.

In your opinion, what makes a book a great one?

When there isn’t a boring page in the novel.

Which author(s) most influenced your love of books from childhood? 

Harold Robbins-The Carpetbaggers, etc.  He was one of the first authors that made sex part of American literature.

Read any good books in the past 6 months?

I read, “A stone for Danny Fisher.” –Harold Robbins

Choose 4 guests from any era for dinner.  Who would they be and what would you choose for a topic of conversation?

Benito Mussolini – During World War II, did he have difficulty understanding reality or was he insane?

Fidel Castro -  Explain how he thought he could stimulate the Cuban economy in 1959  after electing to seize the assets of all foreign investors and appointing unqualified  Marxist fanatics to run the Cuban economy.

 

John F. Kennedy –Was he really prepared to start a nuclear war with Russia over the Cuban missile controversy in October, 1962

Which of your characters is most like you?

A little bit of me exists in all my characters.

If you could cast your book for a movie, who would you choose?

George Clooney- Tom Rossi

Cate Blanchette-Lillian

Paul Giamatti –Giorgio

Maria Bello –Eva

Halle Berry -Hope

Worst habit you have?

impatience

How much research did you do before and during writing?

years

Psychologists tell us the thing we think we’d most like to grow up to be when we’re ten years old is our avocation.  What did you want to be?

A cowboy

Interesting choice, Gus.  I think the rough and tumble, shoot-'em-up tone of a cowboy suits the type of lawyer you are very well!!  And the type of novel you've chosen to write!
You've become the cowboy you always wanted to be...

Thanks for joining us on The Bookish Libraria! I loved having you aboard today.
 

About Gus Pelagatti:

Gus Pelagatti is a practicing trial lawyer with over 47 years of experience trying civil and criminal cases including homicide.  He’s a member of the Million Dollar Advocate Forum, limited to attorneys who have been recognized as achieving a standard of excellence as a trial expert.  He has spent years researching the true story of the 1938 insurance scam murders, interviewing judges, lawyers, police and neighbors involved in the trials.

Gus was born and raised within blocks of the main conspirator’s tailor shop and the homes of many of the wives convicted of murdering their husbands.

His latest book is The Wicked Wives.

You can visit Gus’ website at www.guspelagatti.com.

To get your paperback copy of  THE WICKED WIVES by Gus Pelagatti: http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Wives-novel-based-story/dp/1936780631/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315865476&sr=1-1

To purchase an e-copy of THE WICKED WIVES for your Kindle for $2.99: http://www.amazon.com/The-Wicked-Wives-novel-ebook/dp/B005784LB4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1315865476&sr=1-1

To purchase an e-copy of THE WICKED WIVES for your Nook for $3.99: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wicked-wives-gus-pelagatti/1013204282?ean=2940013218611

Follow Gus Pelagatti on Twitter: https://twitter.com/guspelagatti

Like Gus Pelagatti on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/guspelagattiauthor

About The Wicked Wives:

When I was an eight year old boy I overheard adults in my South Philadelphia neighborhood discussing 17 disenchanted and unfaithful neighborhood wives who murdered their husbands for insurance money, love and lust. This was a fascinating topic for an eight year old boy eavesdropping on adult conversation. The adults were discussing the true story of Philadelphia’s infamous 1938 murder scandals. My fascination led to obsession. I knew that I had to write about these wicked wives someday.

After I became a trial lawyer in 1964, I researched the poison murder cases in the law library and obtained newspaper accounts of the scandals dating back to October, 1938. Thereafter I conducted interviews with judges, lawyers, police, witnesses, sheriff deputies and neighbors who knew the defendants.

One of the chief conspirators was a tailor who seduced, then persuaded at least twelve wives to poison their husbands for insurance. The setting for his seductions was the couch in the rear of his tailor shop, located two blocks from our family home.

A fascinating conspiracy unfolded in these murder cases. The poison gang’s colorful and hilarious characters helped to deep-six a minimum of 20 husbands. The supporting cast includes Giorgio, “The Don Juan of Passyunk Avenue. ” Aside from scheming Lillian, “the society wife”, the wives include Rose, the “Kiss of Death Widow, ” Eva “the nymphomaniac” and the “hopelessly in love, ” Joanna.

After many comical episodes, intriguing detective work and two suspense filled high profile trials, 12 wives plead or are found guilty of murdering their husbands. Two male conspirators were executed in the electric chair.

“The Wicked Wives” gleefully explores the sins of lust and greed, and the disappointments that love often brings. The characters, although they commit murder and adultery, are extremely likable, and often amusing. Writing “The Wicked Wives” was a true labor of love.

The Dame's Final Word :
"The Wicked Wives" is a book that reads as fluently and fascinatingly as a story about the New Jersey Housewives on a murderous roll!  Pelagatti has a keen eye and sense of psychology as he delves into the personalities and characters of the women involved in this true crime put to a novel.
While we can't help feeling sympathy for them, these wives are blood thirsty and greedy during a time when the better road would have been loyalty and love for their husbands.  Gus shines a light on the human spirit's darkest side, and sets a warning for those who would think that "crime pays!"

This is a novel that will keep you up all night!  I loved it and highly recommend it for those who love to sink their teeth into true crime at its best.  It's running an average of 4.5 rating on Amazon at the moment...mostly 5 stars.  You won't regret purchasing it!

5 stars from The Dame in this genre...