Awesome Author Challenge #2

Welcome to the Awesome Author Challenge!

The idea behind this challenge is to read works by authors who have been recommended to you time and again, but you haven't gotten around to reading them yet. These are the authors that everyone else tells you are awesome, thus the "Awesome Author Challenge" title.

My first posting for this challenge is a little strange. I read Leslie Pietrzyk's blog on a regular basis, I stumbled upon it during my search for creative writing tips. I obviously enjoy it. Leslie recommended a book that I thought would be an interesting read for this challenge, and then I thought I need to read her book to get a better glimpse of her tastes. So I hunted it out at the local library and finished it this week.

I also used this book for Teaser Tuesday
"This time I mean it, I'm really going to fall apart," So we stayed ready, expecting a bing bang--a noisy, messy, interesting thing with yelling and hyperventilating and maybe even fainting. I never thought falling apart would be like this, that she simply dissolved. Pg. 5






Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of two novels: Pears on a Willow Tree (Avon) and A Year and a Day (William Morrow). Her short stories have appeared in a number of journals, including The Iowa Review, Sun Magazine, New England Review, TriQuarterly, and Shenandoah


My thoughts:

I loved it! It kept me interested from the first paragraph, I found myself taking public transit "the scenic routes" to give me more time to finish it. I found the characters easy to believe, you could have a wacky aunt, (like me) and jock brother, a perfect friend with perfect family and the main character Alice is really well described and she's believable. I felt her pain, and understood her mom, I knew what Aunt Aggy was feeling, and even though the town I grew up in was not nearly as small, I could believe the gossip and how quickly things spread. I even quite identified with the references to the draft. The only question I have is why isn't this book on a best sellers list? I really recommend it and I will certainly search out Leslie's other book and her anthologies.

This is my second book towards completion of the Awesome Author Challenge




If you haven't yet entered, please read my One World One Heart posting and enter your name there to win one of my giveaways. And if you have already entered, good luck!