Kate’s 2¢: “Born Twice” by Giuseppe Pontiggia (translated by   Oonagh  Stransky)

“Born Twice” by Giuseppe Pontiggia (translated by   Oonagh  Stransky)

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Ken Kliban did a good job reading this insightful and thought-provoking story of a father struggling to understand his son’s disability and the son’s gathering understanding of his world.

As I understand ‘breech birth’, it means the baby is presenting feet or butt first, so why were forceps used on his head?

A few takeaways:

–When first presented with diversity, our first reaction is to deny its existence.

–Disabled people can arouse all kinds of reactions around normal people.

–We become sensitive to the vocabulary associated with the problem.

–Blind defines a person, while vision impaired circumscribes the absence of a function.

–If you want to do more for your children, do less.

–She no longer asked what he couldn’t do, but what did he enjoy.

–Caricatures can offer us an image in which we can discern the original.

–We can think of many lives but can never disavow our own.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Giuseppe Pontiggia (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe ponˈtiddʒa]; 25 September 1934 – 27 June 2003) was an Italian writer and literary critic.

Biography[edit]

He was born in Como, and moved to Milan with his family in 1948. In 1959 he graduated from the Università Cattolica in Milan with a thesis on Italo Svevo. After a first unnoticed short story anthology published in 1959, Pontiggia, encouraged by Elio Vittorini, decided to devote himself entirely to writing starting in 1961.

His first novel was L’arte della fuga in 1968. Pontiggia won the Premio Strega in 1989 with La grande sera and the Premio Campiello in 2001 with Nati due volte. He also wrote numerous articles and essays.

He died in Milan in 2003 of a circulatory stroke. He was an atheist.[1]

OONAGH STRANSKY – OFFICINA MENINGI

Oonagh Stransky is a translator of Italian literature. Born in Paris in 1967, she has lived in Beirut, Jeddah, London, New Jersey, Boston, San Francisco, Florence, and New York City. She currently resides in Tuscany.

Stransky has been a translator of Italian literature for over 20 years. Oonagh Stransky’s translations from the Italian include works by Montale, Dell’Oro, Pontiggia, Lucarelli, Spaziani, Saviano, and Pope Francis.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Born twice DB56610

Pontiggia, Giuseppe; Stransky, Oonagh. Reading time: 5 hours, 40 minutes.

Read by Ken Kliban.

Disability

Family

Psychological Fiction

A doctor’s mistake at birth leaves Paolo mentally disabled. He survives infancy to face an intolerant world. His father fights for Paolo’s acceptance but struggles with his own internal battles understanding and handling Paolo’s condition. Winner of Italy’s Strega Prize for literature. 2002.

Downloaded: January 25, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “Felicia’s Journey” by William Trevor

“Felicia’s Journey” by William Trevor

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I kept trying to tell Felicia that she was being mis-led by Mr. Hilditch about her boyfriend and the abortion; happy she eventually figured out what he wanted to do to her; and saddened by her choices and how she remained on the streets. Although the author tries to blame Mr. Hilditch’s sick obsession and mental illness on his mother, he got his come-uppence by his own hands.

   Graeme Malcolm did a good job of narrating this Irish story that highlights the plight of homeless people in England.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Trevor Cox KBE (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world,[5] he is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.[6]

Trevor won the Whitbread Prize three times and was nominated five times for the Booker Prize, the last for his novel Love and Summer (2009), which was also shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award in 2011. His name was also mentioned in relation to the Nobel Prize in Literature.[7] He won the 2008 International Nonino Prize in Italy. In 2014, Trevor was bestowed with the title of Saoi within Aosdána.[8]

Trevor resided in England from 1954 until his death in 2016, at the age of 88.[9]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Felicia’s journey DB40430

Trevor, William. Reading time: 6 hours, 57 minutes.

Read by Graeme Malcolm.

Psychological Fiction

When Felicia, a motherless Irish teenager, discovers that she is pregnant, her father scorns her. So she decides to look for her boyfriend, Johnny, who told her he works for a Birmingham factory but is actually in the British army. Felicia is helped by the understanding Mr. Hilditch, who has a habit of befriending girls whom no one will miss.

Downloaded: January 10, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “Deception” by Denise Mina

“Deception” by Denise Mina

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   David Hartley-Margolin, another one of my favorite narrators, did an excellent job reading this very intriguing story  The ending surprised even me..

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.denisemina.co.uk

Denise Mina (born 21 August 1966) is a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia “Paddy” Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also written for comic books, including 13 issues of Hellblazer.[1]

Mina’s first Paddy Meehan novel, The Field of Blood (2005), was filmed for broadcast in 2011 by the BBC, starring Jayd Johnson, Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey.[2] The second, The Dead Hour, was filmed and broadcast in 2013.[3]

Biography[edit]

Denise Mina was born in East Kilbride in 1966. Her father worked as an engineer. Because of his work, the family moved 21 times in 18 years: from Paris to The Hague, London, Scotland and Bergen; she has also professed an affection for Rutherglen, her mother’s home town.[4] Mina left school at 16 and worked in a variety of jobs, including as a kitchen porter, a cook and behind a bar. She also worked for a time in a meat-processing factory. In her twenties she worked in auxiliary nursing for geriatric and terminal care patients, before returning to education and earning a law degree from Glasgow University.[5]

It was while researching a PhD thesis on the ascription of mental illness to female offenders, and teaching criminology and criminal law at Strathclyde University in the 1990s, that she decided to write her first novel Garnethill, published in 1998 by Transworld.

Mina lives in Glasgow.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Deception: a novel DB59624

Mina, Denise. Reading time: 10 hours, 33 minutes.

Read by David Hartley-Margolin.

Suspense Fiction

Psychological Fiction

Scotland, 1998. Thirty-year-old psychiatrist Susie Harriot is convicted of murdering Andrew Gow, paroled serial killer. Her husband sifts through her papers, seeking to overturn her conviction and restore their idyllic family life–but discovers her secrets and moves inexorably to a shocking conclusion. Strong language and some descriptions of sex. 2003.

Downloaded: January 25, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “Missing Pieces” by Joy Fielding

“Missing Pieces” by Joy Fielding

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Carole Jordan Stewart did a good job of reading this complex story of human relationships. All I can say is “Yea, Grandma.”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joy Fielding (née Tepperman; born March 18, 1945) is a Canadian novelist and actress. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Biography[edit]

Born in Toronto, Ontario, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1966, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. As Joy Tepperman, she had a brief acting career, appearing in the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1965) and in an episode of Gunsmoke. She later changed her last name to Fielding (after Henry Fielding) and began writing novels.

Fielding is also the screenwriter of the television film Golden Will: The Silken Laumann Story.

In the 1980s, she was also a regular contributor of book reviews to Jack Farr’s CBC Radio program The Radio Show.

Personal[edit]

At the age of 8, Tepperman wrote her first story and sent it into a local magazine, and at age 12 sent in her first TV script, however both were rejected. She had a brief acting career, eventually giving it up to write full-time in 1972.[1] She has published 30 novels and 1 Novella (as of September 2022), two of which were converted into film. Fielding’s process of having an idea to the point the novel is finished generally takes a year, the writing itself taking four to eight months.[2]

Fielding sets most of her novels in American cities such as Boston and Chicago. She has said that she prefers to set her novels in “big American cities, [as the] landscape seems best for [her] themes of urban alienation and loss of identity.”[2]

Fielding is a Canadian citizen. Her husband is noted Toronto attorney, Warren Seyffert.[3][4] They have two daughters, Annie and Shannon,[5] and own property in Toronto, Ontario, as well as Palm Beach, Florida.[2]

Fielding had an interview with the Vancouver Sun in 2007, just after her publication of Heartstopper. She enjoys catching readers off guard with the endings of her stories, but insists that it “isn’t what her fiction is about”,[6] but rather more about the development of her characters.

Discussing her novels with the Toronto Star in 2008, she said “I might not write fiction in the literary sense. But I write very well. My characters are good. My dialog is good. And my stories are really involving. I’m writing exactly the kind of books I like to write. And they’re the kind of books I like to read. They’re popular commercial fiction. That’s what they are.”[1]

Audience[edit]

Fielding has been noted as a novelist who is more popular in the United States and foreign countries, rather than in her native Canada. For example, the novel Kiss Mommy Goodbye was more popular in the States, and See Jane Run in Germany.[5] In addition, she had an American agent and publisher, although she has now switched to a Canadian publisher.[5]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Missing pieces DB44834

Fielding, Joy. Reading time: 11 hours, 19 minutes.

Read by Carole Jordan Stewart.

Mystery and Detective Stories

Family

Psychological Fiction

Kate Sinclair, a family therapist, is having trouble with her own family. Her teenage daughter is running wild, her mother has Alzheimer’s disease, and her half-sister JoLynn marries Colin Friendly, a serial killer convicted of murdering thirteen women. Strong language, violence, and explicit descriptions of sex.

Downloaded: January 25, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “The conspiracy club” by Jonathan Kellerman

“The conspiracy club” by Jonathan Kellerman

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Christopher Walker did a good job reading this novel which is, by the way, not about Alex Delaware. The pieces of the puzzle are presented one by one, causing our main character, Psychotherapist Jeremy Carrier, and the reader much confusion as to what is happening. Why it is happening isn’t known for a while.

A few take-aways:

–adrenolin addiction

–expediency trumps virtue

–auto-imune disorder of the soul

–You can get all A’s and still flunk life.

–Personal and national growth is combining moral training with intellectual rigor.

–bureaucracy trumps creativity

–You guided me with riddles and games for my own good.Some things need to be striven for.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jonathan Seth Kellerman (born August 9, 1949) is an American novelist and psychologist known for his mystery novels featuring the character Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who consults for the Los Angeles Police Department.[1]

Born on the Lower East Side of New York City, his family relocated to Los Angeles when Jonathan was nine years old.[2]

Kellerman graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a doctor of philosophy degree in psychology in 1974, and began working as a staff psychologist at the USC School of Medicine, where he eventually became a full clinical professor of pediatrics.[2] He opened a private practice in the early 1980s while writing novels in his garage at night.[3]

His first published novel, When the Bough Breaks, appeared in 1985, many years after writing and having works rejected. He then wrote five best-selling novels while still a practicing psychologist. In 1990, he quit his private practice to write full-time. He has written more than 40 crime novels, as well as nonfiction works and children’s books.[3]

Life and career[edit]

Kellerman was born in New York City, son of David, an aerospace engineer and inventor, and Sylvia, a dancer and office manager. He attended Yeshiva of Central Queens (YCQ) before his family relocated to California. He grew up in Los Angeles and received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at UCLA in 1971. He worked his way through college as a cartoonist, illustrator, journalist, and editor, as well as by teaching guitar. As a college senior, he co-wrote an unpublished novel that garnered a Samuel Goldwyn writing award. That prize has served as a stepping stone to film writing for other writers, but Kellerman deliberately avoided the world of screenwriting and enrolled in a PhD program in clinical psychology at USC. He received his doctoral degree in psychology from USC in 1974. His doctoral research was on attribution of blame for childhood psychopathology, and he published a scientific paper on that topic, his first, at the age of 22. He is currently a clinical professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine.[4]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The conspiracy club DB57112

Kellerman, Jonathan. Reading time: 9 hours, 12 minutes.

Read by Christopher Walker.

Suspense Fiction

Mystery and Detective Stories

Psychological Fiction

Psychotherapist Jeremy Carrier’s romance with nurse Jocelyn Banks is cut short by her kidnapping and brutal murder. Considered a suspect, Jeremy is compelled by another killing, an enigmatic colleague, and a series of anonymous clues to find the culprit. Some explicit descriptions of sex, some violence, and some strong language. 2003.

Downloaded: January 25, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “Sister Carrie” by Theodore Dreiser, James L. West

“Sister Carrie” by Theodore Dreiser, James L. West

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Barbara Caruso did an excellent job of reading this character driven story. The theme of a sweet, young girl leaving her small, rural town to live in the big city, is a common theme.  Her naiveté enables her to social climb from one man to another, until she attains her fame and fortune.

   A few take-aways:

–Classical tragedy was based on human insufficiency. Modern tragedy is unreflectiveness, apart from the lives we actually live.

–Society has been struggled against, until death alone can stop the individual from contention.

–Such outworking of desires to reproduce life, lies the basis of all dramatic art.

–Nameless paraphanalia of disguise, have a remarkable atmosphere of their own.

–Men are still led by instincts before they are regulated by knowledge.

–Everything about poverty was terrible.

–We know that certain forms of life, used to certain conditions, die quickly when it’s exposed.

–Happiness is wholly within yourself.

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (/ˈdraɪsər, -zər/;[1] August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency.[2] Dreiser’s best-known novels include Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925).

Early life[edit]

Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, to John Paul Dreiser and Sarah Maria (née Schanab).[3] John Dreiser was a German immigrant from Mayen in the Rhine Province of Prussia, and Sarah was from the Mennonite farming community near Dayton, Ohio. Her family disowned her for converting to Roman Catholicism in order to marry John Dreiser. Theodore was the twelfth of thirteen children (the ninth of the ten surviving). Paul Dresser (1857–1906) was one of his older brothers; Paul changed the spelling of his name as he became a popular songwriter. They were raised as Catholics.

According to Daniels, Dreiser’s childhood was characterized by severe poverty, and his father could be harsh. His later fiction reflects these experiences.[4]

After graduating from high school in Warsaw, Indiana, Dreiser attended Indiana University in 1889–1890 without taking a degree.[5]

James L. West:

Professional Bio

James L. W. West III is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, Emeritus, at Pennsylvania State University.  He is a biographer, book historian, and scholarly editor.  West is the author of American Authors and the Literary Marketplace (1988), William Styron: A Life (1998) and The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King (2005).  He has published two collections of essays: Making the Archives Talk (2011) and Business is Good: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Professional Author (2023).  West has held fellowships from the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  He has had Fulbright appointments in England (at Cambridge University) and in Belgium (at the Université de Liège) and has been a visiting fellow at the American Academy in Rome. From 1994 to 2019, West was the General Editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, recently completed in eighteen volumes, sixteen under his editorship.  West’s variorum edition of The Great Gatsby was the final volume in the series.

Areas of Specialization

American Literature After 1900

Book History and Textual Studies

Modernist Studies

From NLS BARD/LOC:

Sister Carrie DB25296

Dreiser, Theodore; West, James L. W; Westlake, Neda M. Reading time: 19 hours, 19 minutes.

Read by Barbara Caruso.

Psychological Fiction

Now regarded as an American classic, the story of a naive young girl who seeks her fortune in Chicago. She stays with her sister and brother-in-law, but seeks an escape from the drabness of their existence. The author portrays her helplessness against the forces that shape her future.

Downloaded: January 25, 2025

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Kate’s 2¢: “The Family Beach House” by Holly Chamberlin

“The Family Beach House” by Holly Chamberlin

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I put my name “Kate Chamberlin” in the search feature on the BookShare site. I wanted to know if my two new books had been posted yet. No new books, but along with my first three books, I found there are numerous books by Holly Chamberlin, so I down-loaded “The Family Beach House”.

   Once I got used to the synthetic speech, I enjoyed the intricacies of this family drama as it played out.  I’ll be dow-loading other books by Holly Chamberlin (Her last name is spelled exactly like my Chamberlin.)

Holly Chamberlin is a native New Yorker, but she now lives in Portland, Maine – the aftermath of stumbling across Mr. Right at the one moment she wasn’t watching the terrain. She’s been writing and editing – poetry, children’s fantasies, a romance novel or two, among many other genres and projects – her entire life.

3.3/5 (3.1K)

Holly Chamberlin

I’ve been very busy lately and I’m very excited to have SUMMER ROOMMATES, the latest in my Yorktide, Maine series. hitting the shelves this year. Click HERE

After working for years in the publishing industry as an editor, Holly Chamberlin became an author herself. She specializes in novels and novellas that typically feature successful career women looking for love.

When not writing, Holly enjoys reading, hosting friends and family at their restored Victorian home, going out to hear friends play jazz and blues, working on scrapbooks, and making beaded jewelry.

From BookShare:

Synopsis

In this poignant, evocative novel, bestselling author Holly Chamberlin sweeps you into the picturesque town of Ogunquit, Maine, where a family in flux explores their ties to a beautiful beach house, and to each other. Some houses have a personality of their own. Larchmere is that kind of place–a splendid, sprawling home with breathtaking views that open to briny Atlantic air and seabirds’ calls. It’s the place where Tilda McQueen O’Connell grew up and now vacations each year, and where she and her three siblings–Adam, Hannah, and Craig–have gathered to commemorate the tenth anniversary of their mother’s passing. But instead of the bittersweet but relaxing reunion Tilda expected, she finds chaos. Her father’s plan to marry a younger woman has thrown the fate of the beach house into uncertainty. For Tilda, the stakes seem the highest. Alone and vulnerable two years after her husband’s death, she sees Larchmere as not just a cherished part of her history, but her eventual refuge from the world. Faced with losing that legacy, Tilda must embrace an unknown future. And all the McQueens must reconcile their shared, sometimes painful past–and learn how to love one another even when it means forging a life apart. . .”A dramatic and moving portrait of several generations of a family and each person’s place within it.” –Booklist”An enjoyable summer read, but it’s more. It is a novel for all seasons that adds to the enduring excitement of Ogunquit.” -The Maine Sunday Telegram

Copyright:

2010

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

336 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781617734137

Kate’s 2¢: “More From The Twilight Zone” by Carol Serling

“More From The Twilight Zone” by Carol Serling

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I remember staying up late with my brother watching our black and white TV to be scared by the twilight stories. I found the stories in this collection to be interesting, if not a bit strange, but not really as scary as the TV shows.

From BookShare:

Carolyn Kramer Serling, the widow of Rod Serling (1929-an 9, 2020) edited Rod Serling’s Night Gallery Reader (anth 1987) with Martin H Greenberg and Charles G Waugh (see Rod Serling’s Night Gallery). More important was her editorial involvement in Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine (1981-1989).

Carol Serling is remembered for her many roles in public life: the wife and life partner to famed writer Rod Serling; the hub of the Serling family in the wake of Rod’s untimely passing; the guardian and chief curator of Rod’s body of work; a patron of the arts; a dedicated volunteer.

From BookShare:

Synopsis

When it first aired in 1959, The Twilight Zone was nothing less than groundbreaking television. Freed from the censors’ strict oversight due to the show’s classification as science fiction, the 156 episodes explored classic, powerful, and moving human themes—love, hate, pride, jealousy, terror—in a unique style. The program sparked the imaginations of countless writers and filmmakers around the world.With More Stories from the Twilight Zone, some of today’s finest writers have written all-new stories celebrating the unique vision and power of Rod Serling’s landmark series. The previous anthology boasted a stellar group including New York Times bestselling authors Whitley Strieber, R. L. Stine, and Laura Lippman, and writers who wrote scripts for the original Twilight Zone and its later incarnations, such as Earl Hamner and Alan Brennert.So as Rod Serling said, “…prepare to enter that fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition. And it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call…The Twilight Zone.”At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Copyright:

2010

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

480 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781429942461

Related ISBNs:

9780765325822

Publisher:

Tor Publishing Group

Date of Addition:

11/04/24

Copyrighted By:

Carol Serling and Tekno Books

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Horror, Literature and Fiction

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.

Edited by:

Carol Serling

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Kate’s 2¢: “The Best of Times” by Penny Vincenzi

“The Best of Times” by Penny Vincenzi

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

      I enjoyed this lengthy book read by Fran Mills. It was very interesting to find out how the author unravelled the mess the multiple car crash caused.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Penelope Vincenzi (née Hannaford; 10 April 1939 – 25 February 2018) was a British novelist, who wrote 17 novels and two collections of stories.[1] Her book sales by 2014 amounted to over seven million copies.[2]

Early life[edit]

She was born Penelope Hannaford, on 10 April 1939 in Bournemouth, the daughter of Stanley George Hannaford (died 1985) and Mary Blanche Hannaford née Hawkey (died 1987) of New Milton, Hampshire.[2][3][4] She was an only child, with “the most ordinary background you could possibly imagine”.[2] As a child, the family moved to Devon.[2] She was educated at Notting Hill and Ealing High School.[4]

Career[edit]

In 1962, she started to work for the Daily Mirror as a secretary and, after a year, was working for the women’s editor Marjorie Proops, who, knowing of her journalistic ambitions, let her help with research and small tasks.[5][6]

Vincenzi was also a fashion journalist who worked for various publications, including the Daily Mirror and Vogue.[2]

Personal life[edit]

She met her future husband Paul Robert Vincenzi, an advertising executive, the son of Dr Julius Vincenzi of Earls Colne, Essex, when she was 19.[2][4] They married on 27 May 1960, and had four daughters.[2][4][5] He died from a brain tumour in 2009.[2]

Penny Vincenzi died on 25 February 2018, aged 78.[1]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The best of times DBG06940

Vincenzi, Penny; Mills, Fran. Reading time: 28 hours, 10 minutes.

Read by Fran Mills.

Human Relations

General

Romance

Psychological Fiction

Medical Fiction

Jonathan is a surgeon returning from a liaison with his mistress, Abi, and Georgia is an actress going to an audition along with her agent Linda. Toby and Barney are on their way to a stag party, Mary is going to the airport to meet her first love, farmer William watches the drama unfold across the hill, and Emma is also a surgeon. One heartbeat in time, and all their lives will be totally transformed. Descriptions of sex, violence and strong language. 2009. Marrakesh title.

Downloaded: October 6, 2024

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Kate’s 2¢: “Winter Garden” by Kristin Hannah

“Winter Garden” by Kristin Hannah

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   As I read the first part of this story, I thought: Why the heavy doom and gloom?  By the end of the story, I needed a box of tissues.

   This well crafted story within a story, still has another story. I really got interested in the story as the mother told more of her war story.

   Susan Ericksen did a great job of reading this book.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kristin Hannah (born September 25, 1960) [3]is an American writer. Her most notable works include Winter Garden, The Nightingale, Firefly Lane, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds. In 2024, The Women, was published. It is set in the United States in the 1960s during the Vietnam War.[4]

Biography[edit]

Kristin Hannah was born in California. After graduating with a degree in communication from the University of Washington in 1983, Hannah worked at an advertising agency in Seattle. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound law school and practiced law in Seattle before becoming a full-time writer. Hannah wrote her first novel with her mother, who was dying of cancer at the time, but the book was never published.[5]

Hannah’s best-selling work, The Nightingale, has sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide and has been published in 45 languages.[6][7]

Hannah lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington,[8] with her husband and their son.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Winter garden: a novel DB70583

Hannah, Kristin. Reading time: 14 hours, 46 minutes.

Read by Susan Ericksen.

Family

Psychological Fiction

Sisters Meredith, a homebody, and Nina, a world-traveling photojournalist, reunite at their father’s deathbed along with Anya, their coldhearted Russian mother. Anya promises her husband that she will tell the girls the story of her past in war-torn Leningrad. Strong language, some violence, and some explicit descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. 2010.

Downloaded: January 10, 2025

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