Collecting Book

Extending the Power of Your Fave Review FREE

I received a note from a new author about this blog so I thought I'd share what a told her. She said (approximately):

"Carolyn:

I am new at this and trust that my higher power lead me to the right place."

This is my answer to her:

LOL. I think your higher power knows what it is doing!

Maybe we should take one thing at a time. I take it that all of this was written by you. In that case, I need permission that it is yours and that you give me permission. If not, I need assurance that whoever wrote it gives me permission. I also need metadata on your book. Info on how to do that is in the side column of The New Book Review at http://TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. OR, you can copy the format of one of the reviews on that blog. You can also include a biography with links to where your book is available. And if a reviewer did wrote it for you, you can include a bio for them with links to their book or business. Everyone wins! You'll see that my own bio is at the bottom of each review--yes with links!

Then you send the whole shebang to me at HoJoNews@aol.com. This is a free service so it must be a copy and paste effort for me. I know you will understand that. But you'll also see how liberal I am with information and links that can benefit writers everywhere. I want the blog to be a resource for names of reviewers, publisher, as well as good books to read. It helps (but isn't required) when all who participate also subscribe.

And right now you need help with reviews. As it happens Bookbaby.com is offering the third in my multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers as an e-book absolutely free. Find it at http://Bookbaby.com. If you can't find it, sign up for their newsletter. It will be featured in many of those before October 30 when their free offer expires. After that, How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically will be released on Amazon as a paper book and as an e-book on Kindle. Until then you can learn more about it on its new page on my Web site at http://bit.ly/HowToGetReviews. I am adding to it--slowly. (-:

This book includes all the hard-won secrets of review-getting--and I mean ALL--for my fiction, poetry, and nonfiction books. I know you would also benefit from my The Frugal Book Promoter (some of it on reviews) at http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo.

Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Multi award-winning poet, novelist, and author of how-to books for writers and retailershttp://howtodoitfrugally.com
Twitter: @frugalbookpromo
and @frugalretailing
Facebook: http://Facebook.com/carolynhowardjohnson
Pinterest: http://Pinterest.com/chowardjohnson

ABOUT THE BLOGGER AND THIS BLOG

The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Book review: The Gustav Sonata, by Rose Tremain

Tremain’s (The American Lover, 2015) newest literary work, structured in three movements, traverses the shifting patterns of a remarkable friendship that runs deep and lifelong but isn’t always equally shared.

In 1948, Gustav Perle is a kindergartner in the undistinguished town of Matzingen, Switzerland, when he befriends Anton Zwiebel, a sensitive, musically talented classmate. Anton’s kind Jewish parents encourage their bond; however, a mystery arises when Gustav’s brittle mother, Emilie, discourages Anton’s visits to the sparsely furnished apartment where the two live.

Emilie instructs Gustav to “be like Switzerland . . . separate and strong,” and the novel affectingly explores the cost of remaining neutral in both a personal and political sense. In effect, Gustav becomes the emotional anchor for his beloved, conflicted friend, who dreams of being a concert pianist yet is held back by immense stage fright. The later sections look back to the 1930s, depicting his parents’ troubled marriage and a moral dilemma faced by Gustav’s late father, and then move ahead to the 1990s, as Gustav ponders his life choices and relationships.

An extraordinarily gifted writer, Tremain illuminates her characters’ lives with care and understated elegance. She finds great meaning in both world-changing events and smaller, quotidian moments. Though fairly short, her novel manages to capture the full range of a man’s interior life.

The Gustav Sonata was published on Tuesday by W.W. Norton in hardcover (288pp, $26.95). This review first appeared in Booklist's August issue. I was happy to be asked to review this one, since Tremain's Merivel was a favorite title, and I also enjoyed her earlier Music and Silence.