"Call Me Zelda" by Erika Robuck~ Brilliant!

SUMMARY :

Everything in the ward seemed different now, and I no longer felt its calming presence. The Fitzgeralds stirred something in me that had been dormant for a long time, and I was not prepared to face it....
From New York to Paris, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald reigned as king and queen of the Jazz Age, seeming to float on champagne bubbles above the mundane cares of the world. But to those who truly knew them, the endless parties were only a distraction from their inner turmoil, and from a love that united them with a scorching intensity.

When Zelda is committed to a Baltimore psychiatric clinic in 1932, vacillating between lucidity and madness in her struggle to forge an identity separate from her husband, the famous writer, she finds a sympathetic friend in her nurse, Anna Howard. Held captive by her own tragic past, Anna is increasingly drawn into the Fitzgeralds’ tumultuous relationship. As she becomes privy to Zelda’s most intimate confessions, written in a secret memoir meant only for her, Anna begins to wonder which Fitzgerald is the true genius. But in taking ever greater emotional risks to save Zelda, Anna may end up paying a far higher price than she intended....


PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  New American Library/Penguin Group
Pages:  319 and Reader's Guide
Genre:  Fiction
Author:  Erika Robuck
Website:  http://www.erikarobuck.com


MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

 

Erika Robuck self-published her first novel, RECEIVE ME FALLING. Her novel, HEMINGWAY’S GIRL (NAL/Penguin), was a Target Emerging Author Pick, a Vero Beach Bestseller, and has been sold in two foreign markets to date. Her next novel, CALL ME ZELDA (NAL/Penguin), publishes on May 7, 2013, and begins in the years “after the party” for Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

 

 

Erika writes about and reviews historical fiction at her blog, Muse, and is a contributor to popular fiction blog, Writer Unboxed. She is also a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Hemingway Society.

 

 

 

 

 

THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

 

Absolutely brilliant novel!  I was completely spell-bound from the moment I opened the book.  It came to my doorstep at 4PM and I was up all night reading.  Just bowled me over...

This is a book I carried to the pool with me the next day and ignored all my friends for!  Telling...

 

I love Zelda in any size, shape or form, but Erika Robuck captured her in a most sympathetic way.  She was utterly breath-taking.  Gorgeous and tragic.  Her spirit lifted from the pages.  I felt as if Zelda was in the room with me as I read.  This is a powerful story that gives credence to the life and emotional struggles of a very gifted woman of a particular time in our American history.  Erika Robuck really did justice to her.

 

The use of Anna, the psychiatric nurse and companion to Zelda was genius in the telling of this story.  It added an avenue for spiritual and relationship depth that made the story rich.  The elements of loss and grief were dealt with from several different angles making this a singularly strong novel, and very moving.  Anna is a character who splits one's heart in two.  She's so driven by her sacrificing love for Zelda.

 

This book grips you and haunts long after the last pages are read.  Visual and visceral.  You will clearly see the ghostly figures of Zelda and Scott dancing away in the night as you read.  One of the best books I've read so far this year.

 

I soundly recommend you get a copy asap!!   A must read if you plan to see (or have just seen)  "The Great Gatsby."  It may give you a pause for thought....

 

 

 

5 Stars!                          Deborah/TheBookishDame

 

 

 

 



"The Drowning House" by Elizabeth Black ~ Hypnotic!

 

 

SUMMARY:

 

A gripping suspense story about a woman who returns to Galveston, Texas after a personal tragedy and is irresistibly drawn into the insular world she’s struggled to leave.
Photographer Clare Porterfield's once-happy marriage is coming apart, unraveling under the strain of a family tragedy. When she receives an invitation to direct an exhibition in her hometown of Galveston, Texas, she jumps at the chance to escape her grief and reconnect with the island she hasn't seen for ten years. There Clare will have the time and space to search for answers about her troubled past and her family's complicated relationship with the wealthy and influential Carraday family.

Soon she finds herself drawn into a century-old mystery involving Stella Carraday. Local legend has it that Stella drowned in her family's house during the Great Hurricane of 1900, hanged by her long hair from the drawing room chandelier. Could Stella have been saved? What is the true nature of Clare's family's involvement? The questions grow like the wildflower vines that climb up the walls and fences of the island. And the closer Clare gets to the answers, the darker and more disturbing the truth becomes.

Steeped in the rich local history of Galveston, The Drowning House portrays two families, inextricably linked by tragedy and time.

"The Drowning House marks the emergence of an impressive new literary voice. Elizabeth Black's suspenseful inquiry into dark family secrets is enriched by a remarkable succession of images, often minutely observed, that bring characters, setting, and story sharply into focus." —John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

*Note:  Taken from Barnes and Noble Overview


PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK:
Published by:  Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Pages:  288
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Find the book:  Barnes & Noble and Indie Bound


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Elizabeth Black was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island and now lives in Houston, Texas. The Drowning House is her first novel.


THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

Quickly go grab a copy of this book.  It's hopping off the shelves. There were only two copies left at my local book store. Articulate and hypnotic, this is a novel that flows and speeds toward its conclusion. It will hold you captive for hours.  Elizabeth Black can't possibly be a debut author, I thought!  Her book is so good, I was reminded of "Prince of Tides" from the get-go.  I absolutely couldn't put it down.

Told from the perspective of Clare, a young artistic photographer who has just experienced the death of her only child and who returns to her childhood home, it is a break-neck suspense novel and Southern Gothic.  It takes place around Galveston Island with its own set of mysteries and island lore, town folkisms and traditions that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Ms Black has a distinct voice that is seductive.  She is a writer of the old school in that she knows how to tell a tale about the South with its idiosyncrasies, love of the strange and absurd; characters in particular, families that are eccentric and enduring.  I could read her work all night long.

Let me give you an example:

"...Every instant of every day, life is streaming past, all experience--every action, word, or thought, every particle of intention--rushing toward some moment you can't foresee that is anything but safe.  Toward, perhaps, one ordinary afternoon."

and

"...marriage is generally unfathomable..."  She had no understanding even of her own.


I resonated with this author from the moment I picked up her book.  She was writing my story; in my head, speaking my thoughts.  If there's one book you should read this year it's this one.  I have a feeling it's going to be one of my favorites.

5 shining stars for a debut author               Deborah/TheBookishDame