I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
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A young man struggling with his life must find a path forward in author Anne Leigh Parrish’s “A Summer Morning”.
The Synopsis
As Timothy Dugan makes his way through life, he is beset by a growing list of problems.
His girlfriend, a full-time college student, wants to have a baby, he hates his job, and his mother announces that she and his father, long divorced, plan to remarry. He copes by drinking too much. When his mother suggests it’s time for another round of therapy, Timothy loudly resists. He knows his outlook is sour and vows to do better. Then Harcourt, a former fraternity brother, presents him with an attractive business opportunity to get in on a home-building business, and things start to look up. Timothy happily resigns his position as manager of the local GAP store. Harcourt, however, has a bad habit of cutting corners to save money and things fall apart. Timothy feels the best way to get his feet back under him is to nail things down with Sam, so he buys her an insanely expensive engagement ring she says is all wrong. She comes around to the idea of marriage after meeting Melissa, Timothy’s former girlfriend, who has a son Timothy didn’t know about. Timothy’s feelings are stirred up by Melissa’s presence, and he goes into a slow-motion train wreck. Promise after promise is broken until Sam reaches a breaking point. She’s committed to Timothy, but their future is dark. Will her love light the way again? Or has she finally had enough?
The Review
This was a complex yet engaging narrative that didn’t let go. The author did a remarkable job of crafting a story that felt organic and locked into the realities of what goes into a modern relationship. The engaging atmosphere and the rich tension that builds within these character dynamics will instantly hook readers into the narrative.
To me, it was the blend of deep-seated emotional storytelling with captivating character development that made this story shine so brightly. Rather than shy away from the truths that so many people live through in relationships, the author perfectly highlights the struggles and hardships that can occur in a relationship, and how the outside forces in our lives, from work to past relationships and more, can have an impact on the relationship that matters most to us.
The Verdict
Memorable, heartfelt, and engaging, author Anne Leigh Parrish’s “A Summer Morning” is a must-read genre fiction, romance, and drama novel that is not to be missed. The upcoming book will delve into the detailed struggles of modern relationships, bring about realistic characters readers can latch onto, and bring an emotional end that will stay with readers long after the book ends. If you haven’t yet, be sure to preorder your copy today!
Rating: 10/10
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About the Author
Anne Leigh Parrish lives in a forest in the South Sound Region of Washington State. She is the author of twelve previously books which include short stories, novels, and poems. She has recently ventured into the art of photography. Find her online at anneleighparrish.com.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
Author Anne Leigh Parrish follows up on her acclaimed debut poetry collection with a sequel that delves into what it means to be alive in this complex world of ours in the book “If the Sky Won’t Have Me”.
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The Synopsis
The poems in If The Sky Won’t Have Me weave a brilliant tapestry of the human condition, focusing on nature, the female experience, family drama, aging, politics, and regret. Images of water feature strongly, as do rebirth and regeneration, both physical and spiritual. A perfect sequel to the author’s debut collection, the moon won’t be dared, these poems expand and deepen our understanding of what it means to be alive in a complex world.
The Review
This was the perfect collection of poems and simple yet empowering artwork. The author does an incredible job of capturing the imagination and the emotion that poems are meant to evoke, and the way each poem is able to really impact the author in a specific way allowed the song-like quality of each poem’s structure to really become melodic in nature.
To me, the heart of the book rested in the reliance on nature and morality as both conversation starters and imagery. The emotion and sparks of insight that each of these poems stirs within the reader help to elevate the almost narrative approach to the poems themselves. For instance, my favorite poem in this collection for me was “Like a Shade of Dawn”, and the way this spoke to me about the desire for change, for leaving behind the past and embracing the coming of the dawn was powerfully felt and utilized the nature motif expertly.
The Verdict
Moving, passionately written, and engaging, author Anne Leigh Parrish’s “If the Sky Won’t Have Me” is a must-read poetry collection. The heart and thoughtfulness of each poem will speak to the quiet yet contemplative voice within us all, the empowering way the book speaks to women in particular, and the need to look at how people embrace life in this modern world of ours through the use of nature and morality will really stay with the reader long after the book ends. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!
Rating: 10/10
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About the Author
Anne Leigh Parrish is the author of nine previously published books: A Winter Night (Unsolicited Press 2021); What Nell Dreams, a novella & stories (Unsolicited Press, 2020); Maggie’s Ruse, a novel, (Unsolicited Press, 2017); The Amendment, a novel (Unsolicited Press, 2017); Women Within, a novel (Black Rose Writing, 2017); By the Wayside, stories (Unsolicited Press, 2017); What Is Found, What Is Lost, a novel (She Writes Press, 2014); Our Love Could Light The World, stories (She Writes Press, 2013); and All The Roads That Lead From Home, stories (Press 53, 2011). Visit her website.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
Author and Poet Anne Leigh Parrish explores nature, love, and the uphill battle many women face in a male-dominated society in her book, “The Moon Won’t Be Dared”.
The Synopsis
The poems in the moon won’t be dared by award-winning author anne leigh parrish ponder nature, love, ageing, and the impossible plight of women in a male-dominated society. Love and reverence for beauty blend with harsher truths of betrayal and brutality. Throughout, there is an overriding sense that life is full of magic, and that to wonder is a lovely gift.
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The Review
Such an incredibly beautiful and emotionally-driven collection of poetry! The author has expertly crafted a collection that touches the soul and navigates the human experience with vivid imagery and succinct writing. What struck me immediately was the author’s use of no capitalization in her writing, allowing the words to flow smoothly and with tremendous insight into the struggles of everyday life and the world as a whole.
The balance the author found between narrative-style poetry and more personal and relatable storytelling with a healthy dose of heartfelt themes that inspire us all to stop and really examine the world around us. From the fires raging on the US West Coast and the rise of global warming to abuse and the loss of a loved one, the author conveys each topic and poem with such conviction and depth, and when accompanied by the engaging artwork makes for a memorable reading experience.
The Verdict
A remarkable, emotional, and thoughtful collection of poetry, author Anne Leigh Parrish’s “The Moon Won’t Be Dared” is a must-read poetry collection of 2021! With a mesmerizing blend of awe-inspiring imagery and thought-provoking words that stirred up the emotions within us all, readers will be hard-pressed to keep away from this fantastic collection. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!
Rating: 10/10
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About the Author/Poet
Anne’s first fiction publication appeared in the Autumn 1995 issue of The Virginia Quarterly Review. That story, “A Painful Shade of Blue,” served as the basis for more fiction describing the divorce of her parents when she was still quite young. Her later stories focused on women struggling to find identity and voice in a world that was often hostile to the female experience.
In 2002, Anne won first place in a small contest sponsored by Clark County Community College in Vancouver, Washington. In 2003 she won the Willamette Award from Clackamas Community College in Oregon; in 2007 she took first place in highly esteemed American Short Fiction annual prize; and in 2008 she again won first place in the annual contest held by the literary review, The Pinch.
The story appearing in American Short Fiction, “All The Roads that Lead From Home” became the title story in her debut collection, published in 2011 by Press 53. The book won a coveted Silver Medal in the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Two years later, a collection of linked stories about the Dugan family in Upstate New York, Our Love Could Light The World, was published by She Writes Press.
Her debut novel, What Is Found, What Is Lost appeared in 2014. This multi-generational tale speculates on the nature of religious faith and family ties, and was inspired by her own grandparents who emigrated to the United States in 1920.
A third collection of short stories appeared in 2017 from Unsolicited Press. By The Wayside uses magical realism and ordinary home life to portray women in absurd, difficult situations.
Women Within, her second novel, was published in September 2017 by Black Rose Writing. Another multi-generational story, it weaves together three lives at the Lindell Retirement home, using themes of care-giving, women’s rights, and female identity.
Her third novel, The Amendment, was released in June 2018 by Unsolicited Press. Lavinia Dugan Starkhurst, who first appeared in Our Love Could Light The World, is suddenly widowed and takes herself on a cross-country road trip in search of something to give her new life meaning.
Maggie’s Ruse, novel number four, appears October 2019 from Unsolicited Press, and continues with the Dugan family, this time focusing on identical twins, Maggie and Marta.
What Nell Dreams, came out in November 2020 from Unsolicited. This collection of sixteen short stories also features a novella, Mavis Muldoon.
The next installment in the Dugan families series, A Winter Night, was released in March 2021 from Unsolicited Press. Anne’s fifth novel focuses on eldest Dugan Angie and her frustrations as a thirty-four-year-old social worker in a retirement home.
Anne has been married for many years to her fine, wise, and witty husband John Christiansen. They have two adult children in their twenties, John Jr., and Lauren.
Lydia Selk is an artist who resides in the pacic northwest with her sweet husband. She has been creating analog collages for several years. Lydia can often be found in her studio with scalpel in hand, cat sleeping on her lap, and a layer of paper confetti at her feet. You can see more of her work on instagram.com/lydiafairymakesart
Hello everyone! Author Anthony Avina here. I am happy to be sharing with you all this amazing guest post from author and poet Anne Leigh Parrish, where she discusses poetry and the utilization of visual representation in poetry. I hope you all will enjoy this stop in association with the Poetic Book Tours. Look for my review of the author’s upcoming book on November 4th.
Poetry is a visual expression, even when it’s about politics, or feminism, or how nasty people can be. In poems, words evoke both what we feel and see. This is important to me, I’d say even crucial. Since leaving the urban mess of Seattle four years ago and coming to the quiet of a Northwest forest outside of Olympia, I find nature supplies a great deal of visual stimulation to write about.
Many poems begin with an image—something I notice and want to capture. Moss hanging from a branch; the darting of a jay; how a gust of wind gives a suddenness to how trees move.
Once the image is expressed in words, I delve into what those words mean. If moss drapes a branch, what else drapes, when, and why? A ring drapes a finger, for instance, but that draping is intentional, not the result of a natural process – or is it? This is where poetry gets really fun, because the ring on the finger could, in fact, result from an expression of love, man to woman, or man to man, and love is a recognized natural process.
I also like to underscore differences among things and explore commonly held ideas and expectations, quite often about women. Returning to moss as a poetic subject, looking at it you might think it feels soft and silky, but it doesn’t. It’s rough and scratchy. Its appearance is deceptive, and in one poem I say moss evolved, went one way / then another which improved its chances / like a woman / nice to be reminded things / aren’t always as they seem, even if / truth at first disappoints
How many women feel the weight of the world’s expectations on them, particularly about how they look?
Using an image to shift the poetic drive or narrative into an unexpected direction is another way I craft my work. Violence against women is a theme I return to again and again, usually to raise awareness of the issue in general, but sometimes as a vehicle to open another door and prompt another discussion. This is where poetry and philosophy tend to blend and lose their boundaries. What if a woman finds herself needing the help of a man who then destroys her, and the poem reveals that it wasn’t because she was weak, or vulnerable, too trusting, or naïve, but because she had been distracted by something beautiful and thus let her guard down? She then reflects wryly from the afterlife that beauty gets her every time.
Sometimes I like to start with a metaphor and build a world around it that stands on its own logic, even if what it’s depicting has no logic. I see this as another way poetry can bend reality. In my poem “even the trees went under” a couple’s home is gradually falling apart from heavy rain. Obviously, the story represents how bad things have gotten between them, and as the water rises and they climb higher in the home, the woman turns into a mermaid and is faced with a life or death decision: will she save the man, or leave him alone to drown?
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The title piece from my new collection explores the idea of objectivity in the face of turmoil. Two souls are held together by their not entirely healthy need for one another. They realize they’re really one monster, twirling before the sky / laughing at stars/ daring the moon to cut us apart. But the moon won’t be dared . . . how we love her joyous remove / up there alone. Again, nature as a force and backdrop comes into play, now as something uninvolved, coolly reflecting the occasional absurdity of the human condition.
On my last trip to Arizona, an elderly couple walked across the parking lot toward the restaurant where I was having dinner. They were backlit by a gorgeous Southwestern sunset. Their manner suggested years of life together, and for some reason, these images came down to the idea of a needle and the work that needles can do, in particular holding things together. This couple walked like looped stitches/ in the slanted evening light and through their many years they have/sewn, pulled apart / frayed / and dropped the needle’s thread / but now they rest and / gather up their loosened strands/ bound together / always.
I’ve been married for decades, and this fact too no doubt informed that piece.
And what of life overall? The gradual passing of time? How to express the understanding of one’s mortality? You have to have reached a certain age for these questions to be relevant, even poignant and yes, I’m there. I remember my mother saying to grow old was to become increasingly detached, and this idea became the basis for the poem I quote here, in its entirety (it’s brief) and logically entitled “time.”
let’s call it a study in detachment / gradual drift from passion to prayer / then even that loses strength / we grow quiet, soft, and slow/joyous in the face of this timely withdrawal / we’ve given so much, we’re ready now to hold a little back from / this riot of shifting light we know / as life
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About the Author/Poet
Anne’s first fiction publication appeared in the Autumn 1995 issue of The Virginia Quarterly Review. That story, “A Painful Shade of Blue,” served as the basis for more fiction describing the divorce of her parents when she was still quite young. Her later stories focused on women struggling to find identity and voice in a world that was often hostile to the female experience.
In 2002, Anne won first place in a small contest sponsored by Clark County Community College in Vancouver, Washington. In 2003 she won the Willamette Award from Clackamas Community College in Oregon; in 2007 she took first place in highly esteemed American Short Fiction annual prize; and in 2008 she again won first place in the annual contest held by the literary review, The Pinch.
The story appearing in American Short Fiction, “All The Roads that Lead From Home” became the title story in her debut collection, published in 2011 by Press 53. The book won a coveted Silver Medal in the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Two years later, a collection of linked stories about the Dugan family in Upstate New York, Our Love Could Light The World, was published by She Writes Press.
Her debut novel, What Is Found, What Is Lost appeared in 2014. This multi-generational tale speculates on the nature of religious faith and family ties, and was inspired by her own grandparents who emigrated to the United States in 1920.
A third collection of short stories appeared in 2017 from Unsolicited Press. By The Wayside uses magical realism and ordinary home life to portray women in absurd, difficult situations.
Women Within, her second novel, was published in September 2017 by Black Rose Writing. Another multi-generational story, it weaves together three lives at the Lindell Retirement home, using themes of care-giving, women’s rights, and female identity.
Her third novel, The Amendment, was released in June 2018 by Unsolicited Press. Lavinia Dugan Starkhurst, who first appeared in Our Love Could Light The World, is suddenly widowed and takes herself on a cross-country road trip in search of something to give her new life meaning.
Maggie’s Ruse, novel number four, appears October 2019 from Unsolicited Press, and continues with the Dugan family, this time focusing on identical twins, Maggie and Marta.
What Nell Dreams, came out in November 2020 from Unsolicited. This collection of sixteen short stories also features a novella, Mavis Muldoon.
The next installment in the Dugan families series, A Winter Night, was released in March 2021 from Unsolicited Press. Anne’s fifth novel focuses on eldest Dugan Angie and her frustrations as a thirty-four-year-old social worker in a retirement home.
Anne has been married for many years to her fine, wise, and witty husband John Christiansen. They have two adult children in their twenties, John Jr., and Lauren.
Lydia Selk is an artist who resides in the pacic northwest with her sweet husband. She has been creating analog collages for several years. Lydia can often be found in her studio with scalpel in hand, cat sleeping on her lap, and a layer of paper confetti at her feet. You can see more of her work on instagram.com/lydiafairymakesart
