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September 4, 2012
Greetings:
We have two terrific novels for your book club's reading list:
-Leora Skolkin-Smith paints a portrait of one woman's mental illness in Hystera, and
-Giles Kristian launches his Viking adventure series with Blood Eye (Raven: Book 1).
Enjoy!
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 Hystera
by Leora Skolkin-Smith
Fiction / 193 pages / Paperback Fiction Studio Books / November 2011 Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoy Hystera. It tells
the story of a young woman in 1974, before the biological revolution in psychiatry. I hope it will reach back into those dimensions and depths I so admired in work before my time. So much about mental illness these times have been based on drug therapy and too easy solutions, a kind of "fix-it" approach to our fragile selves. I wanted to set the time before drugs played such a dominant role and to really look inside  the psyche of one woman where her suffering and chaos were less circumscribed, and the experience of her "madness" could resonate as an extension of all of our universal, ineffable, and perpetually mysterious human existences.
I want to thank you for taking this journey with me. I know it can be painful to be put as a reader so close inside the suffering of a young woman's despair and mental illness, but I hope it will also be rewarding for you.
Leora Skolkin-Smith LEORA SKOLKIN-SMITH IS GIVING AWAY 5 COPIES OF HYSTERA. ENTER TO WIN A COPY.
About Hystera:
Set in the turbulent 1970s when Patty Hearst became Tanya the Revolutionary, Hystera is a timeless story of madness, yearning, and identity. After a fatal accident takes her father away, Lillian Weill retreats from the outside world into a world of delusion and the private terrors of a New York City psychiatric hospital. Unreachable behind her thick wall of fears, the world of hospital corridors and strangers become a vessel of faith. In an unpredictable portrait of mental illness, Hystera penetrates to the pulsing heart of universal questions of madness and health.
Reviews of Hystera:
Winner, 2012 Global Ebook Awards
Finalist, 2012 International Book Awards
Finalist, 2012 National Indie Excellence Book Awards
"Hystera is a haunting, mesmerizing story of madness, longing and identity, set against one of the most fascinating times in NYC history. Skolkin-Smith's alchemy is to inhabit her characters even as she crafts a riveting story that is nothing short of brilliant." -Caroline Leavitt, bestselling author of Pictures of You
"In language with the wild power of accuracy, Hystera maps a path through the landscape of trauma and illness, the feverish news of the seventies, and a character's own indelibly vivid imagery of alarm and comfort. An eye-opening novel."
-Joan Silber, author of Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories, finalist for the National Book Award
To learn more, visit the publisher's website, follow Leora on Facebook and Twitter, and visit Leora Skolkin-Smith's website. Leora Skolkin-Smith is available to speak to your book club by phone or in person. Contact Leora to arrange a discussion. |
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 Blood Eye (Raven: Book 1)
by Giles Kristian Fiction / 448 pages / Paperback Bantam / August 2012 Dear Reader,
In the ninth century, the Vikings surged from their Scandinavian homelands to raid and trade along the coasts of Europe. Fellowships of warriors, bound by honor and wanderlust, would reach as far as Newfoundland and Baghdad, the sword-song of their battles ringing out in Africa and the Arctic. They were nobles and outcasts, pirates, pioneers and great seafarers. They were the Norsemen. 
Growing up in the fjords, I always knew I'd write a Viking novel. As a child, I'd look out across the water, letting my imagination summon images of dragon-prowed longboats rowed by grizzled, bearded men. I could, if I really concentrated, hear the sound of oars dipping in unison into the sea. I still do it even now! I imagine families standing on the smooth rocks of the shore, waving their menfolk off. I feel the fear knotting in the men's stomachs as they set off in open boats across the North Sea. I feel the prickle of excitement beneath my skin.
Welcome aboard! Skål!
Giles Kristian
GILES KRISTIAN IS GIVING AWAY 5 COPIES OF BLOOD EYE. ENTER TO WIN A COPY. About Blood Eye:
In a thrilling adventure of brotherhood, warfare, and treachery, Giles Kristian takes us into ninth-century England, a world of darkness, epic conflict, and an unforgiving God served by powerful priests. On ships shaped like dragons, bristling with oars and armor, Jarl Sigurd and his fierce Norsemen have come in search of riches. And riches they are promised, by an English ruler who sends Sigurd and his wolves to steal a holy manuscript from another kingdom. Osric, an orphan boy, sees beyond the terror of these warriors, and somehow knows the heathens' tongue. Renamed Raven, rechristened in blood, he will join them. They are his people. And they will be his fate.
Reviews of Blood Eye:
"A powerful, lightning-paced tale of the Norsemen in England; an astonishing and riveting debut."
-New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell
"A rip-roaring Viking saga . . . fine, powerful, thrilling stuff."
-Manda Scott, author of The Crystal Skull
To learn more, visit Giles Kristian's website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Giles Kristian is available to speak to your book club by phone or Skype. Contact Giles to arrange a discussion. |
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