It's Monday: New Book Releases

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey. Visit her to join in.

Here are some new release books that I hope to begin reading this week and possibly review, thanks to the publisher.

Size 12 and Ready to Rock

And Laughter Fell From the Sky

Keepsake: A Novel

The Girl Below: A Novel

Would you believe that Size 12 and Ready to Rock is a mystery novel? And Laughter Fell from the Sky is about an Indian-American. The Girl Below is written by a British writer who has lived in New Zealand for about two decades.
Keepsake deals with the question of what can happen when someone values things over love.
What's on your calendar to read this week?

Books I finished reading last week:

Title: Brownies and Broomsticks : A Magical Bakery Mystery
Author: Bailey Cates
Published May 1, 2012 by Signet
Source: publisher
Rating: 4/5

and

An Unmarked Grave: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd, which I will review tomorrow, June 19 for a TLC Book Tour. See you then!

Sunday Salon: Books for Dad

Welcome to the Sunday Salon.

Two small bunnies that ate my lily plants and my miniature roses, and nibbled on the basil, are now in the front yard eating the grass. I hope they forget about my backyard and move on where the grass is greener and there are not flowers or herbs to nibble on. Cute as they are, I want my Thai basil to grow! And so does the Dad, who loves to cook Thai!

Happy Father's Day to all loving, deserving dads!

Books for fathers to read? Here are a few May and July releases ...

Title: 15 Seconds by Andrew Gross
Hardcover; release date, July 10, 2012
Genre: thriller

Henry Steadman didn't know what was about to hit him when he pulled up to a red light. A successful Florida plastic surgeon, he is in town to deliver a keynote address at a conference when suddenly his life becomes an unrelenting chase to stay alive. (publisher)

Title: The Fear Artist by Timothy Hallinan
Hardcover; release date, July 17, 2012
Genre: thriller

An accidental collision on a Bangkok sidewalk goes very wrong when the man who ran into Rafferty dies in his arms, but not before saying three words: Helen Eckersley. Cheyenne. Seconds later, the police arrive, denying that the man was shot. That night, Rafferty is interrogated by Thai secret agents who demand to know what the dead man said, but Rafferty can't remember. (publisher)

Title: Starting and Closing: Perseverance, Faith, and One More Year
Author: John Smoltz
Hardcover; published May 8, 2012
Genre: sports memoir


John Smoltz is a former Major League Baseball pitcher and active sportscaster. He is best known for his prolific career of more than two decades with the Atlanta Braves, during which he garnered eight All-Star selections and received the Cy Young Award in 1996. He is currently the chairman of King's Ridge Christian School in Atlanta and is a scratch golfer. (Tiger Woods has said that Smoltz is the best golfer outside of the PGA tour.) He lives in Atlanta with his family. (publisher)


What do you have in mind for Dad today?

Porch Lights, A Novel by Dorothea Benton Frank

Title: Porch Lights: A Novel by Dorothea Benton Frank
Hardcover; William Morrow, released June 12, 2012
Source: publisher

Opening sentences of a book can help the reader get a flavor of the book and decide if it's one that they want to continue reading. Here are the beginning sentences of Porch Lights.

I will tell you the one thing that I have learned about life in my thirty-something years that is an absolute truth: nothing and no one in this entire world matters more to a sane woman than her children. I have one child, my son, Charlie. Charlie is barely ten years old, and he is the reason I get up in the morning. I thank God for him every night before I go to sleep. When I was stationed in Afghanistan, I slept with a T-shirt of his wrapped around my arm. I did. Not my husband's. My son's.  It was the lingering sweet smell of my little boy's skin that got me through the awful nights while rockets were exploding less than a mile away from my post. 

Publisher's book description: When Jimmy McMullen, a fireman with the NYFD, is killed in the line of duty, his wife, Jackie, and ten-year-old son, Charlie, are devastated. Charlie idolized his dad, and now the outgoing, curious boy has become quiet and reserved. Trusting in the healing power of family, Jackie decides to return to her childhood home on Sullivans Island.

Awaiting them is Annie Britt, the family matriarch.  Annie promises to make their visit perfect—even though relations between mother and daughter have never been smooth.  But her estranged husband, Buster, and her best friend Deb are sure to keep Annie in line. She's also got Steven Plofker, the widowed physician next door, to keep her distracted as well.

What do you think?

Guest Post by author Lloyd Lofthouse

Welcome to Lloyd Lofthouse, author of The Concubine Saga, an historical novel about the  the first ten years that Sir Robert Hart, who became Inspector General of China's Customs Service in the late 19th century, spent in China, and the influence that his Chinese concubine had on how well he grew to understand the language, culture, and customs of China. Lofthouse talks about his research for this novel.

"My first trip to China was in December 1999—there would be eight more. My last trip was in 2008.

On that first twelve to fourteen hour flight to Shanghai from Los Angeles, I imagined a country with brainwashed drones walking about dazed in drab olive-green uniforms with army troops on every corner holding automatic weapons ready to arrest and possibly execute anyone suspicious.

However, what I knew of China in 1999 could fit in a thimble with lots of room left over. Today, what I know might fit in several fifty-five gallon drums.  I've learned a lot and I am still learning. 

A few months earlier, my wife (we were still dating then) introduced me to Robert Hart. She was researching the life of the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi (1835 - 1908), who ruled China in her son and then nephew's name for several decades, and she was the last empress in China that held significant political power—no easy feat in a country where women were considered second-class citizens and the property of men. Of course, it helped that she gave birth to one of the last Qing Emperors.

After Tzu Hsi, there were other empresses (title only and no political power) married to Pu-Yi, the last emperor (there is a movie), and he was removed from power in 1911 at age 5 when the Qing Dynasty collapsed.

It wouldn't be until after that first trip to China in 1999 that I would return to the United States and read Robert Hart's journals and letters, which were published by the Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University. The original material written by Robert Hart is housed at the Queen's College in Belfast, Ireland.

Anyway, I digress. When we landed in Shanghai on that first trip to China, I was shocked to discover the image I held in my mind of China was totally wrong—an image cultivated (brainwashed is a more appropriate term) by the Western media and American politicians running for reelection.  It seems that China is a popular country to paint as an enemy of the United States, when that may be farthest from the truth. I never saw any Chinese troops with automatic weapons. In fact, I never saw any troops of the People's Liberation Army.

What I discovered was a country with 1.3 billion people that were not brainwashed drones, and there is a reason Shanghai is called the Paris of Asia—it is a very fashionable, modern city with millions of independent thinking people that live in a different culture.

Since 1999, I've hiked the Great Wall several times, visited the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, the Terra Cotta warriors outside Xian, stood on top of the first emperor's tomb, sailed down the Li River in Southeast China and been to many other locations.

Writing the complete "Concubine Saga" took several years and intense research into the history of 19th century China and an in depth look at Chinese culture. It helps that I am married to one of the world's foremost authors that writes about China. My wife's first book, Red Azalea, was published in 1992. Her fifth novel, "Empress Orchid", was a finalist of the British Book Awards.

Stearling Seagrave, the author of "Dragon Lady" (nonfiction about the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi) said that Robert Hart's concubine Ayaou was his live in dictionary and responsible for his ability to understand the Chinese culture.  If Ayaou was a dictionary of 19th century China, my wife Anchee is a living encyclopedia and an independent woman of another generation.

Ayaou, by contrast, lived during the 19th century when women could be easily bought and sold the same as used merchandise.

Today, women in China are the equal of men and hold up half the sky. Hart's concubine never had that privilege. "The Concubine Saga" is the passionate love story of Robert Hart and Ayaou. Harvard scholars wrote, "Hart's years of liaison with Ayaou gave him his fill of romance, including both its satisfactions and its limitations." (Entering China's Service, page 154, Harvard University Press, © 1986)

Anyone interested in seeing the last trip to China together in 2008, the following link will take you to a menu that leads to some of the photos I took: 2008 China Trip. Enjoy. 

Thanks to Virtual Author Book Tours and the author for this guest post for the blog tour. For other reviews of the book, visit The Concubine Saga Blog Tour

Book Review: The Concubine Saga by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Concubine Saga is a combination of two previous novels of Robert Hart in China, written by Lloyd Lofthouse, My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart: Elegy for a Concubine.

It tells the story of a real person in history, Robert Hart, son of a Wesleyan pastor in Ireland, who left home at age 19 to work for the British Consulate in Ningpo, China in 1854. Hart stayed for 54 years until 1908. During that time, he received unprecedented honors not given to any other foreigner by the Qing Dynasty for his service to the country.

The Concubine Saga covers the first 10 years of Hart's stay in China, when he lived with a concubine named Ayaou who bore him three children and who also helped him understand the nuances of the language and culture, the social conventions, and many things that would help him understand the Chinese enough to become invaluable to the last Chinese dynasty. Hart became a trusted advisor and  Inspector General of the country's Customs Service. He was known at the "Godfather of China's modernism," and was also "the architect behind China's railroads, postal network, telegraph systems and schools."

Back in 1859, he'd resolved to help the Chinese to the best of his abilities and had never swerved from that path. What he had achieved hadn't been done just for the glory and the power. He'd fallen in love with the Chinese culture. He could thank Ayaou for that. 

Over the years, his rewards had been many. Queen Victoria of Great Britain had knighted him in 1893, along with a grand cross and a baronetcy. More than a dozen countries had honored him. Even the Vatican in 1885 had made him a Commander of the Order of Pius IX. (p. 545)

What is telling is that Hart later destroyed documents and journals and other evidence of his early years in China, those years with the concubine Ayaou. I can imagine that on returning to England in 1908, he had to keep his record and image spotless to show he deserved the knighthood from Queen Victoria and the prestigious honor from the Vatican. What would people say about Hart's relationship with Ayaou if they knew about her, even if, according to The Concubine Saga, she was the key to Hart's education about the Chinese, how he grew to understand their culture and language and learned how to get along.

In this sense, I found it a sad "love" story. Luckily the author Lloyd Lofthouse was able to find surviving letters and journals written by Hart that helped him flesh out this story of the concubine Ayaou. I think Lofthouse tried to apologize for Hart's behavior by saying he was conforming to Victorian standards to deny any involvement with a concubine in his early years in China. His children with Ayaou were taken back to Ireland and placed in foster homes, supported until they came of age, probably remaining unacknowledged publicly by their father.

I learned about the politics of the European and U.S. presence in China during the 19th Century, and the Taiping Rebellion when about two million Chinese were killed  trying to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. Robert Hart advised the Chinese dynasty in its dealings with the foreign powers and also in putting down the Taiping rebellion.

The history of this period is so complex that I can only recommend readers to pick up The Concubine Saga to learn more. I was frustrated that fact and fiction had to be combined in this historical novel, as I wanted to know more precisely where historical fact ended and fiction began in Hart's complex story. I would have loved to have read this as a fictional biography rather than as a novel. Lloyd Lofthouse has done an excellent job however of creating a fascinating book melding important events of 19th century China with a love story.

Title: The Concubine Saga by Lloyd Lofthouse
Paperback, 550 pages; Three Clover Press
Published: May 9, 2012
Objective rating: 4/5

Thanks to Virtual Author Book Tours and the author for a complimentary review copy of this book for the blog tour. For other reviews, visit The Concubine Saga Blog Tour

Giveway: The author is giving away one signed hardcover copy of the novel. Leave an approved comment on one or more of the blog posts found at Lloyd Lofthouse or iLook China between now and June 30 and automatically be entered into a drawing. (Note the giveaway is by the author at his two websites and not by this blog.)

Sunday Salon: A Cherry Festival

Welcome to the Sunday Salon.

It was in the 90s yesterday, but we went to the Cherry Festival in Whitehouse, Ohio anyway. This is a yearly local event in the Village of Whitehouse.

Two firsts for me, a sundae with real homemade cherry sauce. Tart and sweet! And a cherry pie eating contest with little kids under age 13 scarfing down a pie with their hands behind their backs and their heads into the pie tins. You guessed it; the oldest kid won. There was also a cherry pie auction to see whose pie or cake could raise the most money. One pie went for $110! All to help the village's Chamber of Commerce. We missed the cherry dessert contest and I don't know who won, but I bet some of the entries made it to the auction. All of these very local events were much fun to watch. Too bad we didn't stay for the fireworks at 10 p.m. as it was too hot to stay longer than 2 p.m.!

The Cherry Dessert Contest

I've been good about featuring new books on the blog but very bad about reviewing. I have a blog tour of The Concubine Saga by Lloyd Lofthouse tomorrow and another tour for An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd later in the month. I also have a review to post for Tim Hallinan's new thriller, The Fear Artist, which will be released early July.

My yoga teacher is also a sports athlete and gave us a stiff yoga workout stretch on Friday. My right leg is still aching but she did tell us we might feel it for a few days. All for the good, I'm sure.

What have you been up to this hot summer?

Saturday Snapshot 3

Tour boat approaching Niagara Falls in the mist. Taken July 2011.


Visit Alyce at At Home With Books to join in the Saturday Snapshot and post your picture on the linky there.