Arn? Narn. by Bruce Meisterman

“'Arn? Narn.” It is said to be

the shortest conversation

in Newfoundland.'”

While reading this book and looking through the photos, I had to wonder whether the author lived in Newfoundland, or had extreme interest and visited in order to document his story.

Arn? Narn is a photography novel filled with black and white photographs taken in Newfoundland. The supporting text tells the story of the struggling culture. They thrived off of fishing for cod. Without an abundance of cod, now, they are trying to make end meet however they can. It also expresses the culture of the people. Through the photos of citizens you get a hint as to what the people are like that live there.

While there is text surrounding the pictures telling the story of the suffering culture in Newfoundland, I feel like the photos are telling the real story. You can feel great emotion just looking at the photos. More than you would feel with just text alone. That is the beauty of these types of book. They incorporate two different ways of telling a story to make you truly understand their meaning. Without the text, the pictures would have no place. You wouldn’t know what you were looking at. Without the pictures, the story would be emotionless.

This book is a beautiful representation of how these types of book are supposed to be laid out -- Beautifully written text to accompany the truly emotion-filled photos of the struggles in Newfoundland.

Not knowing much about Newfoundland, I found this book informational and well as a pleasing to the eyes. I feel like a have knowledge of a new culture that I never knew about before.

Arn? Narn is a beautiful story told through words and breathtaking photography.

5/5 stars for me

Please take a moment to click through to learn more! http://fjordsreview.com/featured/arn_narn.html 

Read ahead for spoilers

Arn? Narn. Preview

Hello everywhere! Here is a neat little trailer for Arn? Narn. I am going to post a review of this book in a few moments, but please have a look at the video too!

Thanks for reading!
-Courtney

Hello Readers!

I came across this interesting thread in my email this morning, and it applies with my blog here. 
http://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11570
Here is the link. Take a look! Tell me what you think!

Have a great day everyone!

-Courtney

Casting Stones by Laurencia Hoffman

Casting Stones seems like your average story of a dysfunctional family with a bit of a romantic twist thrown in. That is, until you realize there are werewolves involved! Usually, books involving werewolves, vampires, and other creatures are not my reading material of choice. So I figured that my opinion on this book would be a good one to have.

Avery Stone is a cast out from most of his family except his parents and his brother Chance. He never really had a stable relationship with his lover, Simone. His life was a mess, but no one took the time to get to know him. When clans of werewolves started getting murdered, everything got worse. His family blamed him, but little did they know, they were completely wrong and onto the wrong person.

What I really liked about how Hoffman told this story is that the fact that the family is made up of werewolves is not the main story line. It is sort of a subtle detail, except when they transform of course. It is sort of a new way of writing these types of stories. I haven’t read many things in this fashion before. I really liked that.

Another thing I liked about this book was the characters. Okay, I didn’t like all of the characters. But, I liked how they were developed. They all had separate story lines tied into the main story, Avery Stone being the main character. The interesting thing about the character development is that this book is relatively short – under 100 pages on the Nook version. So, the fact that she was able to develop the characters in this short of a story, while actually have the story progress is something that some well-known authors can’t even do with 300+ pages.

So for me, this book fully earns 5/5 stars. It was a really great read.

A Boy Named Ray by Marissa Marchan

A Boy Named ray is a story about Ray, of course, and his parents Theo and Mary.

The beginning of the story is a perfect set up for tone and flow of the story. It sheds background light on Theo and Mary’s lives together and apart. From the start, I thought that the story would be one filled with sadness. Once the story picked up however, it took on a different tone. It became happy.

After many years of wanting; Theo and Mary are blessed with a son. What they don’t know at first is that Ray is a gifted child. They were afraid that because they are disfigured, that their child would be as well. But, that wasn’t the case. Instead, he was an angel. A true gift from God. 

A Boy Named Ray teaches you to never judge someone by how they appear on the outside. They could be the most disturbing looking person, but have the kindest heart and be the most loyal person you will know. This ideal is often lost in our world and people are judged based upon their appearance every day.

This story also teaches us that we should really value our family.  They are the ones who will help you and guide you through the rough times in life. You have to accept that they may not always be perfect. But they love you and want you to be happy. Life is complicated. But, if you can set issues aside, your family will be there for you the majority of the time.

A Boy Named Ray was a very nice story, and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t expect to finish it in one day – even though it’s pretty short, but I did.

There was one thing that was wrong throughout the story and that was the tense of some of the words. Some words were in the past tense where it made no sense for them to be. I would just suggest a quick read-through and fix of those words. It isn’t too big of a deal, but it was just one thing that bothered me while reading.

4/5 stars for me. The tense needs to be looked at. 

Hello Everyone!

How's everyone's weekend going so far? Hopefully well!
One of the books that I have waiting in my queue is being featured on The Indie Spotlight!
I recommend you all check it out
Here is a link: http://www.theindiespotlight.com/?p=12008

Have a great rest of the weekend, everyone! More reviews will be up shortly! Thank for reading. 
-Courtney