Category: Literary Fiction

Indie Spotlight and Review: The Weight of Snow and Regret by Elizabeth Gauffreau

BonnieReadsAndWrites24 Comments

Indie Spotlight is my effort to help Indie authors with marketing. You can help too by sharing this post far and wide. Below is my review of The Weight of Snow and Regret by Elizabeth Gauffreau. I reviewed it for Historical Novels Review, the magazine of The Historical Novel Society. This is one of those books that is so well written it makes me feel as if I can’t do it justice, but my effort is below.

BOOK REVIEW

Louisiana, June 1967. Claire is working for her husband Roland’s furniture business.  She has a good home and a daughter, but this is about to change.  She suddenly begins to hear music which draws her inexplicably to its source, a bar where white people don’t generally go and where a musician works his magic.  Before the summer is over, she will have walked away from her husband and daughter to follow the music, and by the dawn of 1968, she is sent to the Sheldon Poor Farm in Vermont.

Vermont, 1927. After her father dies, Hazel, her mother, and her brother end up at the Sheldon Poor Farm, which houses the elderly, mentally ill, and others in need.  Before long, Hazel has faced more death, is alone, and is sent away to work. But then she meets her husband, Paul, and years later, desperate for jobs, Hazel and Paul are hired to manage the Sheldon Poor Farm.

This masterfully written, heartbreaking story begins with Claire’s arrival at the poor farm, describes the “Summer of Love” in 1967 when she ends up “crossing the line,” looks back to 1927 and beyond with Hazel, and ends with the closure of Vermont’s last poor farm in 1968.

The personalities of the Sheldon Poor Farm residents are so vividly painted that I could see and hear them as clearly as if they were in the room with me.  They and the caretakers are the essence of the poor farm at the end of its “life,” for the farm’s closure is like a death. Claire’s journey is one of inexplicable choices, loss, and regret, but closes with some hope.  Hazel’s story is layered and richly woven, and through her we see the literal meaning of the title, The Weight of Snow and Regret.  Highly recommended.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Gauffreau writes fiction and poetry with a strong connection to family and place. Her work has been widely published in literary magazines, as well as several themed anthologies. Her short story “Henrietta’s Saving Grace” was awarded the 2022 Ben Nyberg prize for fiction by Choeofpleirn Press.

Liz has published a novel, TELLING SONNY: THE STORY OF A GIRL WHO LOVED THE VAUDEVILLE SHOW, and two photopoetry collections: GRIEF SONGS: POEMS OF LOVE & REMEMBRANCE and SIMPLE PLEASURES:HAIKU FROM THE PLACE JUST RIGHT. Her second novel, THE WEIGHT OF SNOW AND REGRET, based on the closing of the last poor farm in Vermont in 1968, was published on October 1, 2025.

Liz’s professional background is in nontraditional higher education, including academic advising, classroom and online teaching, curriculum development, and program administration. She received the Granite State College Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2018.

Liz lives in Nottingham, New Hampshire, with her husband.

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK

PURCHASE LINKS

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BEFORE YOU GO

**If you read the book, please be sure and leave a review on Amazon and other sites where you review books.. This is so important for authors because Amazon will promote books based on the number of reviews they have. The review does not have to be a masterpiece. Just a sentence or two about how the book made you feel will be perfect and will make the author’s day.

Indie Weekend: Water Music

BonnieReadsAndWrites5 Comments

Indie Weekend is my effort to help Indie Authors with marketing. Marketing is probably the biggest task authors have, and if I can help even a little, I’m happy to do it. You can help too by sharing this far and wide with your social media followers. Below please see a description, review, and buy links for Water Music by Marcia Peck.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

(From Amazon)

The bridge at Sagamore was closed when we got there that summer of 1956. We had to cross the canal at Buzzards Bay over the only other roadway that tethered Cape Cod to the mainland.

Thus twelve-year-old Lily Grainger, while safe from ‘communists and the Pope,’ finds her family suddenly adrift. That was the summer the Andrea Doria sank, pilot whales stranded, and Lily’s father built a house he couldn’t afford. Target practice on a nearby decommissioned Liberty Ship echoed not only the rancor in her parents’ marriage, a rancor stoked by Lily’s competitive uncle, but also Lily’s troubles with her sister, her cousins, and especially with her mother. In her increasingly desperate efforts to salvage her parents’ marriage, Lily discovers betrayals beyond her understanding as well as the small ways in which people try to rescue each other. She draws on her music lessons and her love of Cape Cod—from Sagamore and Monomoy to Nauset Spit and the Wellfleet Dunes, seeking safe passage from the limited world of her salt marsh to the larger, open ocean.

BOOK REVIEW

First of all, this is gorgeously written. The author has an amazing ability to convey feelings while describing the characters’ surroundings. For example… “I knew the temperature by sound and by feel: the hot dry ratchet of grasshoppers, low pressures that lifted the hairs on my arm, those moody overcast days with air as smooth and chill as pencil lead. In every sound and smell I dared find happiness, as if happiness were as prevalent as the taste of salt.”

Twelve-year-old Lily’s coming-of-age story finds her discovering truths and secrets about herself and her family, and it all unfolds in a sad and beautiful way during one Cape Cod summer in 1956. The author, in words, paints a picture of each character so well that they instantly appear in the mind’s eye. Relationship struggles between mother and daughter, husband and wife, brother to brother, and more are all laid out for the reader to see through Lily’s eyes. This book sometimes quakes with emotion, and I definitely felt Lily’s reality. Since I am all about the “feels,” this completely worked for me. I also enjoyed the way music and emotion were often tied together. The plot was not tied up neatly at the end, and I think that was a great choice. That is not what life is like. This is a beautiful, musical, emotive novel that fans of literary fiction and historical fiction will love.

My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no partial star option.

I received a free copy of this book. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

(Marcia Peck in her own words) (excerpt from Amazon bio)

They say all first novels are part memoir, and indeed I did grow up in Belleville, New Jersey, my family did spend our summers on Cape Cod, and I had a marvelous cello teacher who very much resembled Alphius Metcalf. It took me a long time to write WATER MUSIC; in some ways, my whole life.

Growing up, I was a cat person. But I’ve learned to love dogs—even the naughty ones, maybe especially the naughty ones.

All in all, I look for the rhythms and sounds of music echoed in language and aspire to transpose some of that into my writing.

BUY LINKS

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BEFORE YOU GO

*If you read the book, please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books.  Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.

*Please click on the “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress followers.  A little bit of help from all of us will help Indie authors go a long way!

Book Review: This Other Eden #Malaga Island #Maine #Historicalfiction #LiteraryFiction

BonnieReadsAndWrites6 Comments

This is a brilliant but heartwrenching story inspired by a real-life mixed-race island community off the coast of Maine–Malaga Island, from its settlement to its demise at the hands of the State of Maine. It is not a feel-good novel, but the true depiction of how a government can intervene without conscience and destroy a people. The book is full of biblical imagery, and the Island’s matriarch/prophet, Esther, who was raped by her own father and whose child is part of a story that evokes images of Moses, sees disaster coming.

Paul Harding’s ability to convey raw emotion is impressive and the audiobook version, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, is well done. The characters become so real and their resilience is amazing. To me, the island in the story, Apple Island, is a symbol of purity in a way, and the outside world is the sin that invades and destroys. The title, This Other Eden, is perfect for this book. The people of Apple Island have their own Eden, but the outside world sees only poverty and race. They want to take the island for themselves and turn it into a resort. The interference of the government in something so innocent, peaceful, and good can be summed up in this quote: “Soon enough, she thought. Soon enough, Pharaoh will come after us, like he always does.”

Sometimes books can give us an escape–a chance to relax, laugh, or fantasize. This is not such a book. It is a book that causes us to look at hard truths. It causes discomfort. It is the opposite of an escape. It is a reckoning. We need such books as these too.

I received a free copy of the audiobook from the publishers via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Harding is the author of two novels about multiple generations of a New England family: Enon and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Tinkers. He teaches at Stony Brook Southampton.

BUY LINKS

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#Blogtour and #Bookreview: Mr. Magenta #LiteraryFiction

BonnieReadsAndWrites4 Comments

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Stephen Marling thought he knew his aunt Flora. But when he inherits her house in a quiet south London square a series of discoveries among her papers brings to light another person entirely.

Who, for example, is ‘Mr. Magenta’ and what part did he play in her life?

In the process of uncovering the secrets of one life, Stephen is forced to re-evaluate his own and decide what he really wants.

Was he right to turn his back on Nancy Steiner, the young actress he met in New York, when he came home to take up his inheritance?

Interweaving past and present, the story takes him from a Brooklyn bookshop to a theatre in Marseille to a cottage on the east coast of England where the truth about Mr Magenta is finally revealed.

BOOK REVIEW

Stephen has inherited his Aunt Flora’s house and her belongings. As he goes through her things, he reflects on his memories of her and their shared love of books. When he finds the name Mr. Magenta among his aunt’s papers, he begins to investigate her life to find out this man’s identity.

This is not an action-packed tale. It is literary fiction about a man who walked away from his job, his girlfriend, and his life in New York to basically take over his aunt’s old life in south London. The characters in the little London square where his aunt’s house is located are endearing and likable, and they really set the tone for what Stephen’s new life will be like. As Stephen retraces his aunt’s footsteps looking for the mysterious Mr. Magenta, he begins to make decisions about his own life. If you enjoy literary fiction and books about finding your own way or starting anew, you make want to check this one out.

I received a free copy of this book via Zooloo’s Book Tours. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christopher Bowden lives in south London.  He is the author of six novels, each with a colour theme.  His books have been praised variously by Andrew Marr, Julian Fellowes, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Shena Mackay. Of his third novel, The Red House, Sir Derek said, “Very entertaining, cleverly constructed and expertly paced.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.”


Follow him at:


Facebook | Website

BUY LINKS

Amazon | Amazon UK

Book Review: The Upsetter Blog

BonnieReadsAndWrites6 Comments

The Upsetter Blog is the story of a rock band, The Flak Jackets, and the one-hit-wonder author, Henry Barclay, who is assigned to cover them as a blogger for the new magazine, The Upsetter.  Most of the story takes place on tour between March and November of 2003.  The reader travels along as an insider on a rock band tour, and we get to see the ups and downs of the music business. But the author, Brett Marie, gives us more than that.  He shows us the very souls of the lead singer and the author sent to cover him, and inspires the readers to look inside themselves.

The fact that the author turned blogger, Henry, wrote a successful book many years before figures heavily in this story.  We can quickly associate the main character of Henry’s novel to the lead singer of the Flak Jackets, Jack. Both men were required to give all to their performance, to the point of losing everything else.   But the Upsetter Blog goes beyond that.  It asks important questions.  “How much of yourself do you have to sacrifice to achieve fame?”  “Does it all matter anyway?”  Can you still feel alone in a crowded room while everybody is screaming your name? And the biggest questions of all–“What if the thing that’s always been your passion will eventually kill you?” and “Where does love fit into it all?”

Brett Marie navigates us through these complex themes as he takes us on a road trip from obscurity to the edge of success and back again.

 I am so impressed by Brett Marie’s ability to paint with words and turn a scene from the ordinary to the memorable.   For example, here is a description of an “online interview” the band, The Flak Jackets, did during the early part of their tour, when they were still drawing only 12 people at shows–“We are ‘broadcasting’ from the basement of a cookie-cutter house, in a residential neighborhood. Our host wears a baggy T-shirt and khaki shorts; his thinning hair is pulled back in a ponytail with a rubber band. The Flak Jackets huddle around his microphone, seated variously in office chairs, on a coffee table, and on an ottoman. Upstairs in the kitchen sits the man’s mother, middle-aged, middle-weight, middle-American, who greeted us at the door and led our party down here to “Richie’s room.” I wondered, as I settled into the overstuffed couch near Richie’s open bedroom door, if Mom had glanced in there and seen, as I had, her son’s bed so spectacularly unmade. And I still wonder what she thinks of the fellow, her age at least, who has tagged along with her boy’s little friends.” 

Henry is a complex protagonist.  He wrote a successful novel many years ago, and loves music, but feels out of place in the world of the Flak Jackets.  I also see associations between Henry himself and the main character in his novel. Why did he only complete one novel?   How much of his soul did he have to sacrifice?

Henry’s adult son, Patrick, who has Down Syndrome, is my favorite character in the story.  He serves as a symbol of honesty and purity of soul in Henry’s life, and in the chaotic world of the Flak Jackets.  Dubbing himself their “Number One Fan,” his comments and questions cut straight to the heart of the truth.  Patrick is the equalizer for the many conflicted souls in this story.

The Upsetter Blog is a literary novel that, through the world of music, takes a deep look at life-changing moments, crucial choices, and the definition of happiness.  I am at a loss in describing the writing talent of Brett Marie.  “Well-written” or “great writer” do not cut it.  Here is my attempt:  Brett Marie writes soul-touching and thought-provoking stories that quickly come to life, as the written pictures he creates appear in your mind in vivid color.  

This is not the type of book I normally read. I’m a 57-year-old, historical fiction reading grandmother. “Rock bands on tour” is not my usual subject matter. But this book transcends all that by asking poignant universal questions and introducing us to characters to whom we can all relate, regardless of their age or vocation.

I received a pdf of this book from Owl Canyon Press via the author.  My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

*The Upsetter Blog will be released September 15th.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The literary alter ego of American rock ‘n’ roll musician Mat Treiber, Brett Marie is a contributing editor for the online literary journal Bookanista, and a staff writer for the website PopMatters. His short fiction has appeared in various magazines, including New Plains Review, Words + Images Press, and The Impressment Gang. His story ‘If It Had Happened to You’ was shortlisted for LoveReading UK’s first Very Short Story Award in 2019. He currently lives in England with his wife and daughter.

BUY LINKS

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Google Books

Owl Canyon Press