Speak Out: Domestic Violence Awareness at Booksparks + Joshua Safran's Free Spirit

Speak out against domestic violence - FREE SPIRIT: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid by Joshua Safran
Note from Joshua: “The award-winning documentary Crime After Crime told the story of my seven-year struggle to free Deborah Peagler, a battered woman who was wrongfully imprisoned for more than 20 years. I was inspired to help her because of the years of abuse my mother and I endured at the hands of my stepfather when I was a boy. My representation of Deborah grew into a deep friendship, and she gave me the courage to finally write about those experiences in my memoir, FREE SPIRIT: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid. My biggest hope is that by telling my story, others will be inspired to speak up, and we can work together to end the wall of silence and finally break the cycle of violence.”
In recognition of October being National Domestic Violence Awareness month, we are proud to speak out with BookSparks, book lovers and author Joshua Safran against domestic violence.


Here’s how you can speak out, too!

• Post it: Post the Speak Out badge on your blog on October 24th along with the book cover and info pasted above on Joshua Safran’s book FREE SPIRIT: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid.  We understand you have other obligations/plans for your blog that day, however, whatever you can do on October 24th to stand up for victims of domestic violence everywhere would be much appreciated. 

• Tweet it:  Speak out with @BookSparksPR, book lovers and @JoshuaSafran today against domestic violence! #SpeakOut #DV http://bit.ly/1fEdISr

• Facebook it:  Share the badge, this campaign (http://bit.ly/1fEdISr), #SpeakOut #DV, and your words against domestic violence via Facebook and tag us (BookSparksPR) so we can share, too!  

• Rate it: Head over to Goodreads and rate Joshua Safran’s FREE SPIRIT: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid (http://bit.ly/16IioTC). It’s a book about Joshua’s journey of the spirit; a tale of overcoming adversity; and a captivating read about a childhood unlike any other.

• Buy it:  If you buy Joshua Safran’s book, FREE SPIRIT: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid, let us know and we will match with a donation to a domestic violence awareness organization. On October 24th only, if you buy the book for you, a friend, a holiday gift or all of the above, send us your receipt(s) and we’ll be donating up to 20% of book sales that day (based on emailed receipts) to the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women in support of BookSparks Speaks Out: Domestic Violence Awareness and victims everywhere.  Buy on Indie Bound; Buy on Amazon; or Buy on Barnes & Noble. Send receipts to erin@SparkPointStudio.com.

Guest Blog: Cutting and Pasting My Writerly Self by Jennifer Gooch Hummer

Today I welcome Jennifer Gooch Hummer, author of Girl Unmoored.  She's touring the blogosphere with BookSparks PR, so be on the lookout for other posts from the author and for reviews (I have one coming on the 26th).

Cutting And Pasting My Writerly Self.

Writing a novel is like trying to bend a spoon with your mind. Complete and utter long-term focus is required but, for me, seldom happens. If I had a wife like Ernest Hemingway did, maybe I too could write from 9-5. Hemingway has been quoted as saying that there were days (days!) he spent mulling over a single “the.” I can only dream of cutting and pasting a nice juicy “the” all day long. “The” is an awesome, powerful word that reigns King Supreme in some cases. “Get me the bread, please,” allows me to sit on my butt. “Get me bread, please,” means not only do I have to get up, I have to get in the car, drive to the store and buy some.

Unlike Hemingway, I do not have a wife. I am a wife. And the mother of three bread-eating non-drivers. None of these four people care where my “the” goes. In fact, they’ve never even seen my “the.” And they’re most certainly not going to wait for me to drive/feed/clothe/help them while I’m cutting and pasting it for eight hours straight.

But still, a writer must write. It’s taken me ten years to get GIRL UNMOORED published; two to write it, and eight more to finally get a “yes.” I didn’t talk much about my writing during this time. It was hard enough to get all those “no’s” in secret; I wasn’t about to publicly lament over them. But now that I’ve penned a book, I’m starting to talk. And it’s been so much fun to share my beloved characters. I’ll never get those eight straight hours, but the truth is I don’t want them. I like jumping back and forth between my two worlds. Or should I say cutting and pasting myself?

About Girl Unmoored

This sharp, quick-witted novel follows Apron, a young woman who has come unmoored by a sea of family drama and break-ups. But when she meets Mike, she’s met her mooring. Although Mike and his cantankerous boyfriend, Chad, don’t know what to do with her at first—Apron just seems to keep showing up, usually with a fat lip—they eventually offer her a job in their flower store. And then it’s smooth sailing for Apron, until she uncovers Chad’s secret. Suddenly Apron is forced to leave behind the safe harbor of childhood and navigate the stormy seas of a young adult. She knows what her real job is now, and it has nothing to do with flowers. 

 

About Jennifer Gooch Hummer

Jennifer Gooch Hummer has worked as a script analyst for various talent agencies and major film studios. Her short stories have been published in Miranda Magazine, Our Stories, Glimmertrain and Fish. She has continued graduate studies in the Writer’s Program at UCLA, where she was awarded the Kirkwood Prize in fiction. Currently, Jennifer lives in Southern California and Maine with her husband and their three daughters.

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Book Review: Populazzi by Elise Allen

Populazzi by Elise Allen

Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books

Publish Date: August 1, 2011

Hardcover, 400 pages 
Fiction, Young Adult
 ISBN: 978-0547481531

My Review:

 I really enjoyed Populazzi.  I found the subject matter to be spot-on for a teenage girl.  What girl does not want to reinvent herself to become part of the popular crowd when she's the new girl at school.  I found Cara's antics with Claudia behind her in the background to be hysterical at times and pretty sad at times as well, but absolutely totally truthful to how a teenage girl would act.

I also like that Cara growls through the book and has to grow through tough trials and learn some hard lessons.  At times things are handed to her, at times things are hard earned and at times things are pretty shady.  Each time she learns something and she learns who she really is and who she can really count on in life.

Ms. Allen does an excellent job with characters in this book from the lowliest rungs on the ladder (who have great Star Wars quotes) the the ever coveted Populazzi, they are all very true to the high school rungs of the popularity ladder that Cara is trying to climb.

The book is full of lessons and just pure fun reading.  I would often finish a chapter with a smile on my face because the chapter just had me laughing out loud.  Ms. Allen handles the humor well.  And the drama well too.  As with any high school book there is plent of drama and I don't mean the high school plays.  Sit down, relax, get a beverage and get ready to be plunged into the world of high school and enjoy a few hours following Cara as she tries to climb the popularity ladder aspiring to obtain Supreme Populazzi!


My Rating: 4.5/5.0


About the Book:
Cara has never been one of those girls: confident, self-possessed, and always ready with the perfect thing to say. A girl at the very top of the popularity tower. One of the Populazzi.

Now, junior year could change everything. Cara’s moving to a new school, and her best friend urges her to seize the moment—with the help of the Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if Cara transforms into the perfect girlfriend for guys ever-higher on the tower, she’ll reach the ultimate goal: Supreme Populazzi.

The Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment, a straight climb up, but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of setting things even a little bit right.

About the Author: 
Learn about Elise here.


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FTC Information: I received this book from BookSparks PR for an honest review. 

Book Review: Crush Control by Jennifer Jabaley

Crush Control by Jennifer Jabeley

Publisher: Razorbill

Publish Date: June 9, 2011

Paperback, 368 pages 
Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary
ISBN: 978-1595144249

Book Review:

I loved Crush Control, this was a great light-hearted contemporary young adult book. It wax very enjoyable and a real page-turner.  Willow makes a great main character, she wants to return to Georgia to her best friend she left at 9-years-old. She has kept in touch with Max since she left and she wants to create a romantic relationship to with him.  However when she returns, she finds him the same friend she has always had, friendly, caring, and the banter between them comes right back when they are face to face.  He drives her to school, he sneaks in her room (even though he doesn't have to, her mom adores him) but he has a girlfriend.  This is a presents major problem for Willow's plan to make Max her boyfriend.

Willow quickly finds a good friend in Georgia a slight outcast that gives Willow the lowdown on how the hierarchy of the school and about Quinton who Willow met the first day she came back to town.  I loved Georgia and her diagrams and her wit and humor.  Soon several members of the school learn of Willow's past in Las Vegas and her mom's hypnosis show and ask her to hypnotize as a type of party trick during one of Quinton's parties.  Being thrilled at being invited to the party she agrees to do this even though she knows her mom would not want her to do it.  Her mom is trying to leave the Las Vegas lifestyle behind and is work as a hypnotist in a pain clinic in town.  But Willow being the new girl, she does it and impresses the kids and soon draws attention of two popular students that think they need hypnotism to help them with different parts of their lives.  Willow debates whether to do this and ultimately decides to help and suddenly is part of the popular crowd.  At the same time Willow is dealing with the outcome of her hypnotisms and fitting in with the popular crowd, she is also trying to get her mother and her grandmother back together and not upset her mother as well. And there is Max who seems to like her, but every time she thinks he does, something happens and he seems to change.  Soon Willow's life is a mess of her own making and she and Georgia are working hard to make it all better, which leads to several humorous episodes that I think really bring out Ms. Jabaley's sense of humor and make the book.

I really love this book.  I thought the hypnotism angle was fresh and new.  It made a nice added dimension to the plot.  Willow was a great typical yet interesting teenage girl, she's trying to do things right and to fit in and she wants Max as a boyfriend.  Willow made a strong character, yes things get out of control, but she always tries to fix things with the help of Georgia.  I also like Max, he's just that all-around great guy that all girls want as their best friend and as a boyfriend.  Ms. Jabeley wrote an amazing story that entertains, teaches a lesson and can make you laugh.  I like the simple young adult books like this one (and I don't mean simple in a bad way - I just mean no paranormal element, no real harsh teaching element, just teenagers being teenagers).  This is an excellent book and I cannot recommend it enough.  You will quickly fall in love with Willow, her mother, Max and Georgia and their antics will keep you turning pages to see what will happen next.  I see this as going down as one of my favorite YA novels of this year!

Book Rating:  5.0/5.0

About the Book:
Willow has spent most of her life as her mother's sidekick in a popular Las Vegas hypnotism show. So when she and her mom move back to their sleepy southern hometown to start over, she thinks she's in for a life of quiet normalcy. Except that her new life turns out to be anything but, when she kinda sorta hypnotizes Quinton, the hottest guy on the football team, to fall madly, deeply, head over heels in love with her. But what started out as an innocent way to make her best friend, Max, jealous soon gets way out of hand, and Willow begins to wonder if the mind - and more importantly, the heart - is something you can really control.

About the Author: 
Jennifer Jabaley grew up in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and has been known to spend more time modeling sunglasses than seeing patients at her optometry practice. Jen lives in Blue Ridge, Georgia, with her husband and two small children.

FTC Information: I received this book from the publisher through BookSparks PR for an honest review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.