BLOG TOUR: Smash Cut by Brad Gooch

Hi there!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

It's been a CRAZY reading week around my house.  With work driving me up a wall (daily), my Mom getting surgery next week (sudden but outpatient), and the weather being less than ideal (rain, rain, go away), it's been a struggle to get things done, hence the lack of post yesterday as I finished reading today's spotlight title.  Which brings me to today's post...

We're playing host to a stop along the TLC Book Tours promotion for a Memoir detailing the lives of two gentleman in the 70's and 80's in all their living colors.  Ready to take a trip down someone else's memory lane?  Ladies and gents, today's featured title is...

Smash Cut

A Memoir of Howard & Art & the 70's & the 80's

by

Brad Gooch

9780062354952

Harper

About the book...

Brad Gooch arrived in New York in the 1970s, eager for artistic and personal freedom. Smash Cut is his bold and intimate memoir of this exhilarating time and place, complete with its cast of wild bohemians, celebrities, and budding artists, such as Robert Mapplethorpe, William Burroughs, and Madonna. At its center is his love affair with film director Howard Brookner, recreated from fragments of memory and a crosshatch of conflicting emotions, from innocent romance to bleak despair.

Gooch and Brookner’s intense relationship is challenged by sex and drugs, and by a culture of extreme experimentation. As both men try to reconcile love and fidelity with the irresistible desire to sample the legendary abandon of the era, they live together and apart. Gooch works briefly as a model in Milan, then returns to the city and discovers his vocation as a writer.

Brookner falls ill with a mysterious virus that soon has a terrifying name: AIDS. And the story, and life in the city, is suddenly overshadowed by this new plague that will ravage a generation and transform the creative world. Gooch charts the progress of Brookner through his illness, and writes unforgettably about endings: of a great talent, a passionate love affair, and an incandescent era.

Purchase Links

Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble

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I always view Memoirs in a different light because really, you can't discount someone's experiences; it was THEIR LIFE!  So for the glimpses into the author's private world, the glitz and glam, the ability to view the coming out of America from someone that was there at the time, I am thankful.  It was great to step inside life in New York during the era of free love and self discovery.  I even had a chance to visit my own hometown which happened to be where Brad's parents lived (small world!).  There are a host of characters introduced with our two leads set apart from the pack so there's no mistaking from whom the memories come or with whom they are shared.  For the life of me though, I couldn't get into it until the main characters were checking out.  

I know, it sounds extraordinarily morbid but I think for what I was expecting to get from the book, this part came closest.  Up until that very real moment, spotted with multiple hospital stays, lessening of the quality of life, and saying goodbyes to people never imagined, for me it was simply a look at the entertainment industry of yesterday with a whole lot of name dropping, gratuitous sex, and drug experimentation.  

So, I'll keep this short and semi-sweet; while it may be for some readers, unfortunately it wasn't for this reader.  Does that mean I recommend you bypass it for something else?  Not at all!  I simply give you my viewpoint on the experience I had with an invitation for you to decide for yourself.  Perhaps it'll be your next great read?  Or you know someone who's looking for something just like it?  Whatever you choose, I wish you happy reading!

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About the author....

Brad Gooch is the author of the acclaimed biographies City Poet and Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor, as well as other nonfiction and three novels. The recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim fellowships, he earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University and is professor of English at William Paterson University in New Jersey. He lives in New York City.

Find out more about Brad at his website.

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Special thanks to Trish and Jen at TLC Book Tours for the ARC for review.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title, THE ENTIRE TOUR, the publisher, the author, or any other flights of fancy you may seek to follow, feel free to click through the links provided above.  This title was just released April 14, 2015 via Harper, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf or virtual retailer of your choosing.

Until next time...happy reading!

BLOG TOUR: The Red Sheet by Mia Kerick

HI guys!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers....the bookish site that invites readers of ALL ages, backgrounds, and levels, in for a glass of your favorite beverage and a talk between the pages.

Today, we're welcoming a Tribute Books Blog Tour starring a rather controversial Young Adult title.  It deals with life in several spectrums, from the good to the bad, to the downright ugly, and though it may be a work of Fiction, I can't help but wonder how many out there have been through something similar.  If you're one of them or know someone that has, my heart goes out to you.  Ladies and gents, please join me in welcoming today's tour and book of choice...

The Red Sheet

by

Mia Kerick

9781627987219

Harmony Ink Press

About the book.....

One October morning, high school junior Bryan Dennison wakes up a different person—helpful, generous, and chivalrous—a person whose new admirable qualities he doesn’t recognize. Stranger still is the urge to tie a red sheet around his neck like a cape. Bryan soon realizes this compulsion to wear a red cape is accompanied by more unusual behavior. He can’t hold back from retrieving kittens from tall trees, helping little old ladies cross busy streets, and defending innocence anywhere he finds it.

Shockingly, at school, he realizes he used to be a bully. He’s attracted to the former victim of his bullying, Scott Beckett, though he has no memory of Scott from before “the change.” Where he’d been lazy in academics, overly aggressive in sports, and socially insecure, he’s a new person. And although he can recall behaving egotistically, he cannot remember his motivations.

Everyone, from his mother to his teachers to his “superjock” former pals, is shocked by his dramatic transformation. However, Scott Beckett is not impressed by Bryan’s newfound virtue. And convincing Scott he’s genuinely changed and improved, hopefully gaining Scott’s trust and maybe even his love, becomes Bryan’s obsession.

AMAZON   |    B&N    |    DREAMSPINNER PRESS    |    ALL ROMANCE

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First things first, this is NOT a happy-go-lucky, feel good sort of book.  The message it imparts in the end is GREAT but along the way prepare to get down, dirty, and right in the middle of all the nitty gritty evil that can walk the halls of any building, let alone likes to plague those labeled as "different" in high school.  That's right...it's a Young Adult book based on time, place and character age, but it deals with BIG issues.  Funny thing is the BIG issues aren't the actual problem, it's the small mindedness and actions of those hiding from even themselves that create the hostile environment. 

Honestly, I had a hard time connecting with the main character.  Bryan was REALLY an A-HOLE prior to an excruitingly tragic event that addled his brain in the right direction but even as he was trying to find his own Superman-esque nitch in this world, I still found it hard to trust him much like Scott.  The actions and reactions he had were hard to digest and the fact that he did a total 180 overnight...just didn't seem plausible.  Oddly enough I could buy his obsession with the red cape more than his initial attempts to rectify his wrong.  By book's end, he works his way into your good graces but it's not without some scarring on the psyche's of a few other innocents; something I definitely found unsettling.

The truth of the matter is this....the story is raw, emotional, and probably a lot closer to the truth than we might suspect.  Is that a good thing?  For readers yes....for those that live it, no.  It's a good chance to really reflect on our own lives and how we're living the day to day.  Are we staying true to our convictions....to ourselves?  Are we standing up for those that need a hand and lending one in those situations where we're not asked but can sense the need?  You might be surprised at all the good it inspires you to do despite the darker nature of the topic covered.  Take the words of Ghandi shared to heart and lend an ear to this tale that needs to be told.  Recommended read for OLDER teen readers through adults;  the characters may be juniors in high school, but there's an explicit scene or two and a fair amount of foul language.  

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About the author....

Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—all named after saints—and five nonpedigreed cats—all named after the next best thing to saints, Boston Red Sox players. Her husband of twenty years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about that, as it is a sensitive subject.

Mia focuses her stories on the emotional growth of troubled young men and their relationships, and she believes that sex has a place in a love story, but not until it is firmly established as a love story. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with romantic tales of tortured heroes (most of whom happened to strongly resemble lead vocalists of 1980s big-hair bands) and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to Dreamspinner Press for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.

Mia is proud of her involvement with the Human Rights Campaign and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of marital equality. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology.

My themes I always write about:

Sweetness. Unconventional love, tortured/damaged heroes- only love can save them.

SITE   |   FACEBOOK   |   BLOG   |   GOODREADS   |   YOUTUBE

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

Special thanks to Nicole at Tribute Books for the chance to participate in this tour as well as the review copy.  (THANKS!)  For more details on this title, the author, Tribute Books Blog Tours, or the publisher, be sure to click on the links provided above.

Until next time....happy reading!