Katharine E. Smith
Auteur van Writing the Town Read
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Writing the Town Read is written by Katharine E. Smith. Smith lives in Shropshire, England although she has fond holiday memories of Cornwall where the story takes place. She holds a degree in philosophy and has previously worked in the IT and charity sectors. She now runs a small publishing company.
July 7th, 2005 was the date of a terrorist attack in London fifty-two were killed by four suicide bombers in the London subway and a bus during morning rush hour. That is a true event and occurred the day after London was selected for the 2012 Olympics. Jamie Calder loses her boy friend in the chaos of the London bombings. She is a journalist at a small newspaper in Cornwall. Now, I was expecting a story about a small town journalist making it big with the story of what happened to her boy friend. This is something right my alley then I ran across this on the publisher’s page”
Writing the Town Read will appeal primarily to young women, in the 20 - 40 age group but, whilst not a great literary masterpiece, neither is it your average chick lit novel.” Book for young women, 20-40, and almost chic lit. Well that puts me at zero for three. So I guess Jamie is not going to be the groundbreaking investigative reporter. Well, manly man and all, I have read and enjoyed Virginia Woolf and the Bronte sisters maybe there is a hook in this story to catch me.
There was a hook for me very early on Jamie is a vegetarian, a quite outspoken vegetarian. I particularly liked the way she pointed out the hypocrisy of the local farmer cuddling up to a piglet for a photo op. She definitely has her mettle. She is almost instantly likeable. Not perfect, but her flaws are minor and help in making her likeable. She makes her opinions known, but sometimes it is with quiet sarcasm. In the face of the tragedies and challenges she experiences, she remains strong but not unbreakable; she is very human. She loses her boyfriend in the terrorist attack and finds out that death may not be the worst thing. There are also day to day issues she faces. The possibility of losing her job, friendships that are stressed, and dealing with co-workers are a few of her challenges. I don't think I have been taken in by a female character like Jamie, since Dagny Taggart years ago.
Smith has a smooth and flowing writing style and creates very realistic characters. There were several times I had to remind myself that this is fiction and not a memoir. It reads that well. I didn't find any of the little slips in the story or logical errors that occur in fiction. The story played out like real life. As an American I also liked the British English. There is nothing will confuse Americans in the book but, I found myself reading/hearing Jamie with a British accent. It seemed to add something extra for me. Sharp tongued sarcasm with a British accent just has so much more effect. Although I fail miserably as being part of the target audience, I really enjoyed this book and hope that Smith continues writing. She has a much bigger audience than the book was targeted for.… (meer)
July 7th, 2005 was the date of a terrorist attack in London fifty-two were killed by four suicide bombers in the London subway and a bus during morning rush hour. That is a true event and occurred the day after London was selected for the 2012 Olympics. Jamie Calder loses her boy friend in the chaos of the London bombings. She is a journalist at a small newspaper in Cornwall. Now, I was expecting a story about a small town journalist making it big with the story of what happened to her boy friend. This is something right my alley then I ran across this on the publisher’s page”
Writing the Town Read will appeal primarily to young women, in the 20 - 40 age group but, whilst not a great literary masterpiece, neither is it your average chick lit novel.” Book for young women, 20-40, and almost chic lit. Well that puts me at zero for three. So I guess Jamie is not going to be the groundbreaking investigative reporter. Well, manly man and all, I have read and enjoyed Virginia Woolf and the Bronte sisters maybe there is a hook in this story to catch me.
There was a hook for me very early on Jamie is a vegetarian, a quite outspoken vegetarian. I particularly liked the way she pointed out the hypocrisy of the local farmer cuddling up to a piglet for a photo op. She definitely has her mettle. She is almost instantly likeable. Not perfect, but her flaws are minor and help in making her likeable. She makes her opinions known, but sometimes it is with quiet sarcasm. In the face of the tragedies and challenges she experiences, she remains strong but not unbreakable; she is very human. She loses her boyfriend in the terrorist attack and finds out that death may not be the worst thing. There are also day to day issues she faces. The possibility of losing her job, friendships that are stressed, and dealing with co-workers are a few of her challenges. I don't think I have been taken in by a female character like Jamie, since Dagny Taggart years ago.
Smith has a smooth and flowing writing style and creates very realistic characters. There were several times I had to remind myself that this is fiction and not a memoir. It reads that well. I didn't find any of the little slips in the story or logical errors that occur in fiction. The story played out like real life. As an American I also liked the British English. There is nothing will confuse Americans in the book but, I found myself reading/hearing Jamie with a British accent. It seemed to add something extra for me. Sharp tongued sarcasm with a British accent just has so much more effect. Although I fail miserably as being part of the target audience, I really enjoyed this book and hope that Smith continues writing. She has a much bigger audience than the book was targeted for.… (meer)
Looking Past by Katharine E. Smith is her second novel. Smith runs Heddon Press a small independent publishing company that has put out several works of fiction and historical fiction. Looking Past past is advertised as a book that will strike a chord with mothers, daughters, and daughter in laws everywhere, and it seems that the author wished to raise that bar by placing a copy in the hands of a Marine.
I read and review a wide range of books but generally stay away from books that fall into the romance or chick-lit category. Looking Past, I am happy to say, avoids both these categories and is a rather engaging fictional memoir. Sarah, the main character and narrator, tells the reader her life story. Although still young, Sarah has much to tell and her life seems to be fairly normal in matters of believability, but interesting nonetheless. We all have events that shape and mold our lives from a young age, and he event that is imprinted on Sarah is the loss of her mother when she was eleven years old. Although she enjoys a close relationship with her father, she does not have that female confidant and mentor she needed while growing up. As a result, Sarah grows to become somewhat socially awkward in high school.
In college, Sarah keeps to a small group of friends and after a rough start has her first serious boyfriend. This is where the real story is told. Sarah’s story is a story of relationships that form around her: Her boyfriend, his mother, her father, and her father’s first love interest since his wife’s death. This is where the book shines. The development and dynamics of the relationships create the interest in the story. I have found that many stories will use sex in one way or another to keep the reader interested, but here the “burning loins” are absent. Any events between consenting adults here are completed with the much classier “screen fading to black” effect of the end of a chapter. It seems very human of Sarah to want to share her life with the reader, but yet wanting to avoid giving too much personal information to a stranger.
Sarah is a likeable, well defined character who plays the role of a fair and reliable narrator. Through Sarah’s telling Looking Past provides an interesting character study and reveals relationships between the different characters and their priorities in life. For some it is career. For others it is family and who is actual qualifies as family. For some it is letting go of the past and living in the present. For some it is discovering what they are really committed to. Smith does an excellent job of creating a complex array of characters, interactions, and priorities. Any thoughts that this book would not hold up to a male reader are unfounded. Historically many female writers have written stories with female lead characters that have been read and enjoyed by all. Perhaps Looking Past will allow some male readers to a see a bit of themselves in the character James, and correct themselves. A great book for all.
… (meer)
I read and review a wide range of books but generally stay away from books that fall into the romance or chick-lit category. Looking Past, I am happy to say, avoids both these categories and is a rather engaging fictional memoir. Sarah, the main character and narrator, tells the reader her life story. Although still young, Sarah has much to tell and her life seems to be fairly normal in matters of believability, but interesting nonetheless. We all have events that shape and mold our lives from a young age, and he event that is imprinted on Sarah is the loss of her mother when she was eleven years old. Although she enjoys a close relationship with her father, she does not have that female confidant and mentor she needed while growing up. As a result, Sarah grows to become somewhat socially awkward in high school.
In college, Sarah keeps to a small group of friends and after a rough start has her first serious boyfriend. This is where the real story is told. Sarah’s story is a story of relationships that form around her: Her boyfriend, his mother, her father, and her father’s first love interest since his wife’s death. This is where the book shines. The development and dynamics of the relationships create the interest in the story. I have found that many stories will use sex in one way or another to keep the reader interested, but here the “burning loins” are absent. Any events between consenting adults here are completed with the much classier “screen fading to black” effect of the end of a chapter. It seems very human of Sarah to want to share her life with the reader, but yet wanting to avoid giving too much personal information to a stranger.
Sarah is a likeable, well defined character who plays the role of a fair and reliable narrator. Through Sarah’s telling Looking Past provides an interesting character study and reveals relationships between the different characters and their priorities in life. For some it is career. For others it is family and who is actual qualifies as family. For some it is letting go of the past and living in the present. For some it is discovering what they are really committed to. Smith does an excellent job of creating a complex array of characters, interactions, and priorities. Any thoughts that this book would not hold up to a male reader are unfounded. Historically many female writers have written stories with female lead characters that have been read and enjoyed by all. Perhaps Looking Past will allow some male readers to a see a bit of themselves in the character James, and correct themselves. A great book for all.
… (meer)
Statistieken
- Werken
- 9
- Leden
- 23
- Populariteit
- #537,598
- Waardering
- 4.3
- Besprekingen
- 3
- ISBNs
- 11
It doesn’t happen often enough for me but from the very first pages I felt myself sinking into this story, so warm and comfortable, exactly like the way you feel when you meet someone for the very first time and instantly know you are going to be great friends.
This book introduces us to Alice and Julie, two life-long friends, approaching the end of their twenties, who plan a trip to Cornwall for the entire summer - pitched as a holiday but in reality both of them are in desperate need of an escape from the reality of their lives.
Julie is fleeing a broken engagement, and Alice, the main protagonist and narrator of this story hasn’t allowed herself to feel much after two broken relationships, the last ending with violence several years ago. Alice knows that deep inside, the fact that she has felt herself unable to get beyond her feelings for her first love,Sam, - a romance that sparked and ended in a Cornwall summer visit a decade ago - is both her biggest problem and the source of her innermost dreams.
“I want to breathe it in, revisit that golden summer, the summer of Sam - when everything seemed straightforward , and obvious, and opportunities were endless. “
This story wraps itself around you as we get to know these wonderful characters and share in their steps and mis-steps as they try to sort through their jumbled lives - reaching for every moment of joy that presents itself (and there are many made possible by this gorgeous setting alone) as they struggle to put the pieces of their lives, including the relationships that really matter, into some sort of soul-soothing order.
“I soak it in; the warmth of the night, the calm of this place.”
With delicious irony, I could not sum up my feelings in reading this book any better than these words of holiday-making-Alice herself:
“This is not real life. Yet I feel I belong here’.
And what a delight to learn that this is the first book in a seven-part series “Coming Back to Cornwall”.
A great big thank you to the author, Katherine E. Smith for a copy of this boo in exchange for an honest review.. All thoughts presented are my own.… (meer)