spirituality

’13 Billion to One’ by Randy Rush

/ Jaclyn Bauer / Leave a comment

13 Billion to One is $50 million-dollar lottery winner Randy Rush’s memoir detailing his life before and after his tax-free Canadian lottery win.

Born and raised in Canada, Rush lived a less than luxurious life as a child often moving between apartments, growing up with a single parent who was emotionally absent, and later battling with substance abuse and depression. In his later adulthood, Rush went on to live an upper-class lifestyle as a sales representative for Hertz but made it big with his 2015 $50 million-dollar lottery win.

Once Rush was a millionaire, the distinction between friends and those who wanted to use Rush for his money blurred. Caught in a multi-million-dollar scandal that resulted in the unearthing of years of fraud, Rush decides to fight back against white collar crime. 

A quick moving memoir that keeps you reading, 13 Billion to One is a harrowing yet often lighthearted read that dips into deeper themes of selflessness, emotional health, and spirituality.

Scheduled for release by Rantanna Media on June 24, 2020, you can preorder a copy of 13 Billion to One by Randy Rush at your local independent bookstore.

Read more non-fiction book reviews at Centered on Books.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me in return for a fair and honest review of the text.

‘The Book of Jeremiah’ by Julie Zuckerman

/ Jaclyn Bauer / Leave a comment

book-of-jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah by Julie Zuckerman mirrors its original counterpart, only in so much as it’s a book of prophecy in many ways.

Jeremiah is the central character in Zuckerman’s book, but he’s not the only narrator. Spanning both time and mind, The Book of Jeremiah is told from a multitude of perspectives all connecting to one another through Jeremiah. His wife, his daughter, his brother: every major character who plays a part in Jeremiah’s life has a voice in the novel.

Over the span of the book, we see Jeremiah grow from a mischievous child who just wants to have fun, to a pedantic professor who can’t remember what fun is. We see Jeremiah take on the role of punishing his children for behavior not dissimilar to his own as a child, though we could’ve never have imagined him doing so in the story just before. And we often see it all through the eyes of another character, giving us different perspectives on each characters’ action and thoughts.

By the time we get to the end, we see that Zuckerman has carefully crafted a novel out of her stories, and one that repeats an echo throughout. It reads almost like a prophecy: something happens in the past and we know it will effect the future, we just don’t know how. Again and again, themes and objects and people reappear in different stories and each time, we see them in a different light. Love and loss, courage and fear, religion and passion all take on new meaning as we move through the novel. Similarly, we vacillate between both sympathizing with and rooting against Jeremiah as we come to know him more truly. We love him and we hate him. We feel for him and we are annoyed by him. As Zuckerman tastefully compiles her stories to give just the right effect.

An artfully crafted novel that pulls you in and keeps you reading, The Book of Jeremiah by Julie Zuckerman is slated for release by Press 53 on May 9, 2019. You can preorder a copy of the book at your local independent bookstore.

Read more fiction book reviews at Centered on Books.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me in return for a fair and honest review of the text.

‘Lights All Night Long’ by Lydia Fitzpatrick

/ Jaclyn Bauer / Leave a comment

lights-all-night-long-fitzpatrickBrilliant and beautiful beyond comprehension, Lydia Fitzpatrick’s Lights All Night Long is a novel that pulls the reader in starting on page one.

Fitzpatrick tells the story of a Russian exchange student, Ilya, and his mission to save his brother, Vladimir, from punishment for a series of murders Ilya knows (or at least thinks he knows) Vladimir did not commit. Ilya is in Louisiana though and doesn’t quite know how to help his brother except by sending him lengthy emails detailing his life in America and his insistence that Vladimir is innocent. While in America, with the help of both fate and some new friends, Ilya begins to unravel bits of the truth about his brother’s life and his confession of the murders.

Told through a blend of past and present, the reader slowly starts to piece together Ilya’s history and the life he’s lived in Russia. We start to understand Ilya and Vladmir’s relationship as well as Ilya’s relationship with his hometown, his dead father, and what’s left of his family. A story of drugs and murder, of family and companionship, of honesty and dishonesty, of honor and love, Lights All Night Longis impossible to simply sum up in a few paragraphs. It’s a novel that has to be read and by being read almost lived.

Fitzpatrick is a dazzling and poetic writer who creates characters that are difficult to forget. Since the book is told from the close third perspective of a teenage boy, we hear a lot about his sexual fantasies and desires, and while this at times can detract from the flow of the book, the reader just has to remember the age of the main character, and it’s easy to move through some of these more staccato descriptions.

Overall, Lights All Night Long is a captivating book that will pull readers into an entirely new world.

Slated for released on April 2, 2019 by Penguin Press, you can preorder a copy of Lights All Night Long by Lydia Fitzpatrick at your local independent bookstore.

Read more fiction book reviews at Centered on Books.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me in return for a fair and honest review of the text.

‘If Cats Disappeared from the World’ by Genki Kawamura

/ Jaclyn Bauer / Leave a comment

cats-disappeared-kawamura

If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura is a fun and unusual novel. Originally published in Japan, the international bestseller, translated by Eric Selland, is being released in the United States in 2019.

The narrator of Kawamura’s story is a postman who opens the novel by telling the reader that he has just been diagnosed with brain cancer. Suddenly, in the throes of contemplation about what to do with the little time he has left on Earth, the postman is visited by the devil. The devil offers him a deal: one day in exchange for one thing gone from the world. The narrator weighs his options: give up the material things of the world or give up his life? Day One, he decides, he can give up phones: the devil’s first price.

In a day without phones, the postman discovers that maybe he would’ve been better off without phones all along. He meets up with the woman he once loved and reminisces about the time they spent together as college students: mostly on the phone. After the day, which isn’t all bad, he decides to try Round Two with the devil. This goes on as the narrator grapples with what it means to lose the objects of his life and his life itself. He travels back in his memory to times that were happy, times he wished had never happened, and he begins to pull apart what it means to regret, to have joy, and to be alive.

Meant to be a feel-good exploration of life and our purpose in living, Kawamura’s If Cats Disappeared from the World accomplishes just that. While at times the novel can feel overly moralizing, it is nonetheless a silly and deeply introspective book that leaves the reader asking questions about the value of a life.

Slated for release from Flatiron Books in March 2019, If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura is available for preorder at your local bookstore.

Read more fiction book reviews at Centered on Books.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me in return for a fair and honest review of the text.

 

‘On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, & Getting Old’ by Parker J. Palmer

/ Jaclyn Bauer / Leave a comment

on-the-brink-palmerOn the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, & Getting Old by Parker J. Palmer, is a collection of essays, poems, and stories that tell of Palmer’s coming into old age. Palmer’s main themes surround issues such as: living a full life, finding your vocation, being grateful, understanding life’s lessons, and making the choice to be happy despite your circumstances.

Palmer breaks his book up into seven distinct parts, each with a different message related to aging. Throughout On the Brink of Everything, Palmer shares personal experiences, mostly revolving around his career, his vocation as a writer, and his spiritual leanings as a devout Quaker.

Many of Palmer’s musing may resonate with people young and old, but readers who are unfamiliar with his work should be warned that On the Brink of Everything is heavily leaden with spiritual and didactic lessons that may also feel burdensome.

Released by Berrett-Koehler Publishers on June 26, 2018, you can purchase a copy of On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, & Getting Old by Parker J. Palmer at your local bookstore.

Read more nonfiction book reviews at Centered on Books.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me in return for a fair and honest review of the text.