Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Jennavier Recommends: In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

http://www.catwinters.com/p/in-shadow-of-blackbirds.html
Last summer I found a book that I was dying to push on people but I couldn’t find anyone who’d let me push it. Now I get to dig it up and tell you all about it!

Let’s start with the heroine. Mary is awesome. She’s a woman at odds with her time. She wants to be a doctor like her mom, but it 1918 that isn’t exactly an encouraged career choice. Her father was a ‘sympathizer’ which in todays parlance would be a pacifist. He’s been jailed for speaking out against the war and Mary has to go and live with her twenty-something aunt. Mary isn’t perfect. Sometimes she’s really irritating. She’s bound and determined to do what she thinks is right even if it clashes with what everyone else wants.

Everything she is becomes tested when her boyfriend comes to her as a ghost. Last she heard he was on the front line. Now he’s dead. And something is bothering him so much that he can’t find any peace. Mary is determined to find out what that is no matter the cost.

This story has a crazy, out of control amount of things in it. Cat Winters doesn’t just find one cool thing about history, she finds a dozen. First you have the first world war littered with PTSD and all it means. Next you get the Spanish Influenza, the last great flu epidemic in the US. All of this triggers one of the greatest Spiritualist movements in US history, something Mary is, of course, wrapped up in. This is the world of spiritualism, and séance’s are the norm. What's awesome is that Winters uses her narrative to show you that it wasn't real, while at the same time implying that some of it was.

Now that all sounds really heavy, and it is, but Winters navigates it in a way that is really enjoyable. She takes this creepy world and ratchets up the tension, without having to resort to the ridiculousness that many stories rely on. I loved that she takes things about history I never knew and makes them fascinating layers in a believable world.

Before finishing I just have to make a note of the book itself. This is one book that I would recommend finding in physical, not digital, form. The design of the hardcover I read is a work of art in itself. It was the first thing I noticed when I opened the cover and it really enhanced my reading experience.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Being Legit On The Internet



Oh, the Internet. The beautiful thing where you get to be just as careful with everything you do and say as you wanted to be in middle school. Social Networking is often self-curation. It seems that every so often I find myself getting caught up in the need to pretend. The longer I facebook/tweet/pin the more fake I feel. So what to do about it? Honestly, the only thing I can think of is let it all hang out a little bit. As much as that horrifies my solid middle class upbringing:)

What is it about this online world that seems to demand perfection? Is it because the fantasy is easier to believe in when it’s pixilated? I don’t know. All I know is that I stalk various authors/friends/media personalities and all of their lives seem so perfect. How can mine not be perfect? And then with a few tweaks it all is.

Except it’s not. Sometimes what’s going on with my life is distinctly not awesome. Sometimes I’m terrible at writing. Or I don’t write at all. Or I choose to write in a genre that is Absolutely Over. I don’t do great crafts, have cute kids, or go on epic vacations. For all that I like my life. I feel like it’s one worth living. Maybe it’s just not one worth sharing.

So here I am, trying my best to document the semi-boring life of me. Thanks for reading!