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A LITERARY
BLOG ABOUT BOOKS How they affect us. How they shape our lives.
Note: Postings
made when muses strike. Watch for blog alert notices via email, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. "We read to know we are not alone." C.S. Lewis Copyright 2011-2018
Top
12 Reading Recommendations Please click a book image to purchase it on Amazon.
Novels, books, and musicals June has written and published: Click a book image to purchase it on www.amazon.com
"Meditations
for New Members is a beautifully written little book...a gem. The thoughts are striking and orginal--a
few are quite profound." --Fiona Hodgkin, author of The Tennis Player from Bermuda
Sponsored in part by Dani's Pantry Fine authentic Italian food. Cucina con Amore! https://amzn.to/2HdlA
B'Seti Pup Publishing Editorial
Services Proofreading, Editing, Rewites, Assistance with Self-publishing. "It's the write thing to do."
"I like what you've done with my
book. Makes me fall in love with it all over again." --Olajuwon Dare, author of Eleven Eleven
Contact
June at JuneJ@JuneJMcInerney.com on Facebook.com, or at www.BSetiPupPublising.com
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Thursday, October 31, 2019
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass
One of the first books that I purchased with my own money was a second-hand, but pristine,
Random House Modern Library edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (#79). First published in the early 1940s, it included an introduction by Alexander Woollcott and the original illustrations of John Tenniel. Originally $1.95, I paid $1.49 (saved from my $1.00/week allowance) for it
at a used book store and I still have it. It’s not the worse for wear, even though I’ve read it many, many times
over the last five or six decades… It is one of my most treasured possessions and the stories written by Lewis Carroll
still resonant with me today. Well, I didn’t think anyone could improve upon
Alice’s amazing and often bizarre adventures. What with Tenniel’s imaginative drawings and Carroll’s ingenious
whimsy writing, my edition is a classic. But then, an assistant publicist HarperCollins Publishers sent me an advance copy
of the most wonderful new Harper Designs edition completely reinvented and redesigned with illustrations and interactive features
(including a disappearing Cheshire Cat, a growing Alice, and two chessboard maps!) by MinaLima Design. For those of you unfamiliar with MinaLima, it is an award-winning London-based graphic design studio founded
by the talented Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima, best know for their visual graphics for the Harry Potter films.
They have previously designed other Harper Design books, including The Little Mermaid and The Secret Garden (which
I reviewed in August of last year). I was captivated by Carroll’s literary “nonsense”
as a child, intrigued by it as a young adult – especially when I realized most of his writing is parody and satire –
and even more enthralled in my, ahem, older years with this new rendition which gives Alice and her co-characters and their
escapades whole new meanings. With its vibrancy and bold motifs; its clever interactive puzzles, fold-outs, and 3-D graphics
that literally bring Carroll’s beloved classics to life, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the
Looking-Glass is a wondrously wonderful “must-have” addition to any private library. Regardless of your age.
Not to mention, with the Holiday Season approaching, it is destined
to be the perfect gift for the bibliophiles on your gift list. To be enjoyed all year round for years to come.
Enjoy the read!
2:44 pm edt
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
The Mistletoe Matchmaker Well, it’s that time of year again when the leaves are turning… both on trees and in newly-published
Holiday-themed novels. With their releases and the appearance of red and green lights, shimmering tinsel, and Santa images
online and in stores, can Halloween be far behind? HarperPerennial, an
imprint of HarperCollins Publishers has jumped early into the fray with The Mistletoe Matchmaker, the third novel by Felicity Hayes-McCoy. Set on the Irish Finfarran Peninsula, this charming novel, fist published
in 2017 by Hachette Books Ireland, continues with the lives of the residents of the small coastal town of Lissberg. Hanna
Casey, firmly ensconced as the Librarian, steps away from the limelight, as the main protagonist, Cassie Fitzgerald, newly
arrived from Toronto to spend some time with her paternal grandparents, jumps into the fray helping to plan a Christmas Festival.
As she acquaints herself with Irish Holiday traditions, Cassie immerses
herself into the multifold dynamics and relationships of Lissberg residents. She learns the backstories of her father’s
parents; finds kindness under the gruff exteriors of Fury and his dog, ‘The Divil’; commiserates with Connor’s
struggles with keeping the family farm and his budding romance; gets embroiled in the lives of Aideen and Brid, her two new
friends; gets involved with the untrustworthy Shay; and gets involved with a bit of skullduggery that besets Dan, whom she
is not sure she fancies. As with her previous novels in the series, Hayes-McCoy
starts out languidly, reintroducing her characters while introducing new ones… then, as the embers of her main and
sub- plot lines smolder, stokes her narrative until, three-quarters of the way through, it bursts into flames… Consuming
all of the loose ends into one blazingly warm and satisfactory denouement. Easily likened, appropriately, to the burning of
a Yule Log. The author adds a few twists and turns along the way to keep her readers on the mark… All while probing
deeper and deeper into the lives of her endearing characters. The
Mistletoe Matchmaker is a heart-warming
novel of love, friendship, family, and community. It is easily the perfect escape from the stresses of the upcoming seasonal
celebrations and the perfectly delightful anecdote to the wintery blues.
Enjoy the read!
3:07 pm edt
Friday, October 4, 2019
Love and Loyalty I grew up in an Irish/Italian family where my mother (Italian) “ruled the roost” and my Father (Irish)
spent most of their married life trying to appease and please her every whim. My brother, much older than I, was favored by
Mom while Dad doted on me. For many, many years, I did not understand the dynamics until this week when I read Love & Loyalty: An Immigrant Italian Mom Raising Her Family of Twelve in the Shadow of a Mafia Crime, a true story of growing up Italian, by Josephine B. Pasquarello. Josephine
grew up in south, then southwest Philly, the tenth of twelve children of Italian immigrants. When she was six, Michael “Brownie”
Pasquarello, her father, a produce grocer affiliated with the local Mafia, supposedly committed suicide. Or so Romania, her
mother, led her and her siblings to believe. As her mother struggled through near poverty with great determination and fortitude
to keep the family together and raise her children “properly”, Josephine silently lived with the guilt, angst,
and pain of her father’s death for most of her life… Until, during her Uncle George's funeral, she finally learned
the truth… Two years ago, after many hours of research and much
soul-searching, Josephine sat down and wrote the story of her courageous mother who fought through her overwhelming grief,
toiling each day to provide a clean home and three meals a day for her bereft family… She writes of her own childhood
and the many daily adventures she had with her four brothers and seven sisters; growing up Italian in a predominately Irish
neighborhood. Learning the lessons of racial prejudice and the kindness of unquestioned acceptance. Having faith in others
and belief in oneself. And, yes, with of these, it is a testament to miracles wrought by love and loyalty. To say that I enjoyed reading Josephine’s memoirs is an understatement. I was so
totally engrossed in her down-to-earth tell-it-like-it-is(was) fluid writing style, that I did nothing for two days but immerse
myself in her life. Which was both an honor and a pleasure, considering her poignant subject matter. What made the read all
the more rewarding was that I had watched a video of Josephine’s presentation at the local Library and was so intrigued by her personality and her story, that I had to contacted her. After a very long phone conversation,
I realized that she was a dear friend I had not known who now graces my life. So, all throughout her book, I heard her voice
reading her insightful and wise words to me. Now, while Josephine claims Love & Loyalty to be mostly a homage to her heroic
mother (which it, and she, are), it is more of an autobiography with her mother as the main protagonist. It is also, in some
respects, a true-life mystery as Josephine unfolds her father’s true fate. The writing is cleanly crisp and reminiscently
cathartic as the author regales us with poignantly heart-gripping anecdotes, both funny and sad, of the trials and tribulations,
happiness and joys inherent in growing up in the close-knit Pasquarello family. A family whose dynamics, as I said, to which,
because of Josephine’s bold and beautiful book, I can now readily relate. And I hope that you will, too.
Enjoy the read!
5:19 pm edt
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June
J. McInerney, the host of this Literary Blog, is
an author, poet, and librettist. Her currently published works include a novel, a book of spiritual inspirations,
two
volumes of poetry, stories
for children (of all ages) and
a variety of children's musicals. Her titles include: Miss Elmira's Secret Treasure:
A Novel of Phoenixville during the Early 1900s Colonial Theatre: A Novel of Phoenixville
during the Roarin' 20s Phoenix Hose, Hook & Ladder: A Novel of Phoenixville during
World War I Columbia Hotel: A Novel of Phoenixville during the Early 1900s the Schuylkill Monster: A Novel of Phoenixville in 1978
The Prisoner's
Portrait: A Novel of Phoenxville during World War II
Forty-Thirty Rainbow in the Sky Meditations for New Members
Adventures
of Oreigh Ogglefont The Basset Chronicles. Cats of Nine Tales Spinach
Water: A Collection of Poems Exodus Ending: A
Collection of More Spiritual Poems
We Three Kings Beauty and the Beast Bethlehem Noah's
Rainbow Peter, Wolf, and Red Riding
Hood
Originally from the New York metropolitan area, June currently lives near Valley Forge Park in Pennsylvania with her constant and loving companions, FrankieBernard and Sebastian Cat. She
is currently working on her sixth novel.
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