Welcome to Issue 96 of the SUPERIOR BOOK PRODUCTIONS newsletter!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
What could be more romantic than a vampire wedding? Unless you’re the bride.
I’m happy to announce that in time for Valentine’s Day, my new book Vampire Grooms and Spectre Brides: The Marriage of French and British Gothic Literature, 1789-1897 has been released. This book explores how French and British nineteenth-century Gothic authors influenced each other. For example, early nineteenth-century British authors like John Polidori, Mrs. Radcliffe, and Sir Walter Scott influenced French authors like Victor Hugo and Eugène Sue and then they influenced British authors like William Harrison Ainsworth, George W. M. Reynolds, and Charles Dickens. In this book, I discuss everything from British and French depictions of Gothic architecture, the city mysteries genre, and depictions of the Wandering Jew, to secret societies, the French Revolution, and finally vampires, including my argument that Bram Stoker’s Dracula was heavily influenced not only by earlier depictions of vampires in British but also French literature. For lovers of the classics and all things Gothic, Vampire Grooms and Spectre Brides is a book you can really sink your teeth into.
For more, visit my website www.GothicWanderer.com. The book is also available at Amazon and other online retailers.
But if the Gothic isn’t your thing, no need to fear. This month’s newsletter has several other books to enjoy from young adult novels to history and self-help books. I’m sure you’ll enjoy one, if not all of them.
Tyler Tichelaar
This Month’s Great Book Quote:
“If a book is well written, I always find it too short.”
— Jane Austen, “Catharine or the Bower”
Anne Therese Gennari has been concerned about climate change for most of her life. In the past, she was surprised and depressed that more people did not take it as seriously as she did, and she suffered from climate change anxiety about what the future might hold. Over time, however, she came to realize that if humans could cause global warming, pollution, and the other issues we face today, they also have the ability to resolve them and use advances in technology to create a better world. Today, Gennari envisions a future of electric cars, fresh air, and sustainability. She has written The Climate Optimist Handbook: How to Shift the Narrative on Climate Change and Find the Courage to Choose Change to help others understand why we have reason for hope and how they can become leaders in bringing about the future we all want.
Gennari opens with a powerful statement that makes her position clear:
“The climate crisis is not a climate problem, nor is it an environmental, political, or economical problem. It is a human problem. We are in this mess because of humans, and humans are the only ones who can get us out of it. Therefore, although this book is about a lot of things, and a great deal about climate, it’s mainly about humans.
“It’s a book about you.”
To read more, visit The Climate Optimist Handbook.
John A. Frederick loves Paris, and as an American who has moved there, he knows what readers will be intrigued by when it comes to the City of Lights. A lover of Paris myself, I absolutely loved Paris Histories and Mysteries, Frederick’s new book that reveals the story behind some of the most important monuments and events of France and its history. Many of them had world-changing influences, though we may not even realize it today.
Each chapter of Paris Histories and Mysteries focuses on a fascinating story connected with Paris. It tells you details that will surprise and amaze or intrigue you. Several are about well-known places like the Eiffel Tower or famous people like Nostradamus, but Frederick digs into the historical record to find fascinating facts you didn’t know. For example, did you know Eiffel had agreed to tear down his famous tower after twenty years? Can you even imagine Paris without its landmark piercing the skyline? Frederick shares the story of how Eiffel managed to preserve his masterpiece for generations yet unborn to marvel over.
Other stories read more like fiction than historical fact. Isn’t the Phantom of the Opera just a famous musical, movie, or book—the fictional creation of novelist Gaston Leroux made more popular by Lon Chaney and Andrew Lloyd Webber? He couldn’t possibly be real…or could he?
To read more, visit Paris Histories and Mysteries.
Beautiful Way is an exciting new young adult novel by Mary Van der Linden that explores cultural and religious differences between people and teaches tolerance and understanding over bullying when we encounter people who are different from us.
The story begins when Natalie Stevens, an eighth-grader in North Carolina, is excited to meet her new neighbors, the Bellavias. Natalie’s mother was friends with Mrs. Bellavia when they were teenagers and helped her adjust to life in the United States after she moved there from Italy. Now, Natalie is curious if she and Mrs. Bellavia’s daughter, Patrizia, will also become such good friends, especially since Natalie has been assigned to be Patrizia’s student buddy to help her get acquainted with her new school.
Natalie can’t help liking Patrizia from the moment they meet at the bus stop, but as soon as they get on the bus and a boy named Ernie starts calling Patrizia “Fat Pat,” Natalie knows she will have her work cut out for her to try to make Patrizia feel welcomed at the now ironically named Friendly Academy.
Patrizia survives the first day of school despite the name calling, and soon Natalie is spending a lot of time at Patrizia’s house, meeting her younger brother, Mario, and twin sisters, Frankie and Isa, and getting a taste of Mrs. Bellavia’s delicious Italian cooking.
To read more, visit Beautiful Way.
In her new book Fear and Love Motivation: Self-Healing by Reclaiming the Power of Your Thoughts, Feelings, Words, and Colours, longtime colour therapist, self-discovery facilitator, yoga teacher, and now author Jansie Bond shares how we can change our actions from being fear-motivated to love-motivated when we pay attention to the words we use, gain control of our thoughts and feelings, and even discover the healing power that color can have in our lives.
In the introduction, Bond explains that this is a book about learning to love ourselves unconditionally by using our fear as our starting point. Once we understand our fears, we can reclaim our inner power and restore our life within, which, in turn, will benefit all aspects of our exterior lives. Bond states, “We all get motivated through either fear or love. When we are afraid, we are alive but not living. Love lets us live with exuberance every moment. Our challenge is to learn self-love before we can spread love around. Changing your fear into love is the most important and best journey you can embark on.”
From there, Bond takes us on an amazing journey—by bus. She talks about the fear bus and the love bus and asks us which one we would rather ride on.
To read more, visit Fear and Love Motivation.
In Digging Up the Truth and Other Big Bay Stories, Faye Bowers, a native of Big Bay, Michigan and longtime professional journalist, shares stories informed by her quest to set straight the historical record. The result is a series of stories that shed light into some dark crevices of the past, revealing the truth about events that may have seemed murky or lost in legend. Some stories dig into family history while others focus on the village of Big Bay’s larger history, and in the process, Bowers, whose family has lived in Big Bay for more than a century, reveals how deeply entwined her family was with that history. Other stories reflect that Big Bay, in a remote corner of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, had far-reaching connections to other parts of the country through entrepreneurs like Henry Ford who was involved in local industry to her own great-uncle who traveled to Alaska in 1923 in a Model T Ford.
The title story, “Digging Up the Truth,” takes place when Bowers is still a child. She overhears her aunt and father talking one night as they try to piece together the mystery of a brother who died. While her aunt back then had her own way of digging up the truth, including recruiting a local nun to perform a somewhat supernatural ritual, Bowers as an adult puts her investigative journalism to good use by digging up records and interviewing family members and locals to learn what truly happened to her uncle and how it affected her family.
To read more, visit Digging Up the Truth and Other Big Bay Stories.
No one ever wants to get divorced, but sometimes marriage just doesn’t work out. If the partners in a marriage want to dissolve it and they are willing to make it easier for each other, mediation may be the best avenue to divide assets, resolve other concerns like child custody, and make their separation legal. In their new book Divorce and Parenting in New Hampshire: A Mediation Primer, Mary Sargent and Susanna Schweizer offer an overview of what mediation is, when it should be used, and how the process unfolds. While the book is specific to the laws of New Hampshire and every state will have some differences, most of the advice here applies to mediation for couples throughout the United States, so it is a beneficial book to read before you contact a lawyer so you can determine what is best for you.
Divorce too often is seen as a frightening, contentious, and expensive process. However, as Schweizer and Sargent show, it does not have to be that way. If the severing partners are willing to listen to each other and make shared decisions, the process can go much smoother and mediation will save them time, money, and frustration.
Mediation and this book are perfect for couples in a variety of situations, including whether they have been married for a short or long time, have or do not have children, and possess many or few assets.
To read more, visit Divorce and Parenting in New Hampshire.
