Cascade

by

Maryanne O’HARA

384 pages

Paperback published by Penguin Books,
on April 30, 2013

Read my review

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Cascade

by

Maryanne O’HARA

384 pages

Paperback published by Penguin Books,
on April 30, 2013

Read my review

***

AND NOW FOR A CHANCE
TO WIN A  PAPERBACK COPY OF THIS BOOK

I will draw the winner on 6/13

And visit the Tour to read other reviews of this book,
and for additional chances to win a copy!

Good luck!

Note:

when you enter a giveaway, I keep your email address only until a winner has been chosen and has confirmed. After that, I delete the form where your answers were stored during the duration of the giveaway. If you win and you email me your mailing address, I delete this email and its information as soon as I have mailed you the book.

Cascade

by

Maryanne O’HARA

(Original Publication Date: Aug 2012, by Viking Adult)

Paperback: 384p
April 30, 2013
Publisher: Penguin Books

Paperback received from Penguin Books
via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

This book counts for the following Reading Challenges:

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

To be honest, it took me a while to get into this book. But once the setting and the major elements of the novel were in place, I got hooked.

I also got to love Dez, the main character. At first, I had a hard time accepting what she did: basically accepting to marry a guy just because he had the money, the place for her to live as well as her dying father, and most of all enough dough to preserve her dad’s Shakespeare theater.

However, things soon start to shift, and she has to evolve as well, and decide where her true heart and art are.

For years, a sword of Damocles has hung over their city of Cascade, and now the threat gets closer: the authorities will soon choose which city, Cascade or its neighbor, will be flooded and transformed into a huge reservoir to serve the residents of Boston. And for sure it does not help that all this happens during the Depression.

Will Dez take action to try to save her city? And what is going to happen to the theater?

At another level, one day she meets Jacob, a Jewish artist. He is the only one she can really talk art with and share her passion and painting.

Will their relationship remain on the level of weekly art discussion? Could Jacob be actually the sign for her it’s time to live another life, where her art and heart would have their real place?

I liked the way I saw her grow at all levels. But of course you will need to read the book to know what forks in the road she followed.

As a painter myself, I liked the place of art in the novel, and the descriptions of the paintings and the artist at work. That’s actually the painting element which decided me to accept to post for this Tour.

I also liked the Shakespeare elements, and parallels with several of his plays.
The image of Dez’s father could also be analyzed along these lines, and that may send some not too happy lines on his character.

EXCERPT

“You had an idea for something, you clearly saw how it should be executed, yet your execution fell short of your vision.”
p.69
My constant struggle as a painter, and as most if not all artists, I believe.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT

During the 1930s in a small town fighting for its survival, a conflicted new wife seeks to reconcile her artistic ambitions with the binding promises she has made.

Fans of Richard Russo, Amor Towles, Sebastian Barry, and Paula McLain will devour this transporting novel about the eternal tug between our duties and our desires, set during in New York City and New England during the Depression and New Deal eras.

It’s 1935, and Desdemona Hart Spaulding has sacrificed her plans to work as an artist in New York to care for her bankrupt, ailing father in Cascade, Massachusetts. When he dies, Dez finds herself caught in a marriage of convenience, bound to the promise she made to save her father’s Shakespeare Theater, even as her town may be flooded to create a reservoir for Boston. When she falls for artist Jacob Solomon, she sees a chance to escape and realize her New York ambitions, but is it morally possible to set herself free?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Maryanne O’Hara was the longtime associate fiction editor at the award-winning literary journal Ploughshares. She received her MFA from Emerson College fifteen years ago, and wrote short fiction that was widely published before committing to the long form. She lives on a river near Boston.

www.maryanneohara.com

***

AND NOW FOR A CHANCE
TO WIN A  COPY OF THIS BOOK
Come this way!

And visit the Tour to read other reviews of this book,
and for additional chances to win a copy!

Here are the upcoming posts,
but you can still enter on giveaways posted a bit earlier.

Tuesday, June 4
Review at Historical Tapestry & Adventures of an Intrepid Reader
Giveaway at Words and Peace

Wednesday, June 5
Review & Giveaway at A Chick Who Reads

Thursday, June 6
Review at The Little Reader Library

Friday, June 7
Review at A Novel Review
Review & Interview at A Bookish Libraria

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK YET?
DID YOU LIKE IT? WHY OR WHY NOT?
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS  IN A COMMENT PLEASE

I can’t wait to post my 2012 stats, but to have things in order, I first need to tell you a bit more about my December reading.

I read 9 books, 3 being non-fiction works.
Total of 1985 pages , that is 64 pages/day, not too good, bit considering all that’s going on in December, I’m happy with that.

And I listened to 1 audiobook, with a total of 7:28 hours, and an average of 14:15 mn/day.  Actually I’m in the middle of Désirée, a huge audiobook, so that’s why the total for December is not too high.

I READ

Mysteries:
Bruno and The Carol Singers, by Martin Walker [ebook]
Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop, ed. by Otto Penzler
Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie

Historical fiction:
Illuminations, by Mary Sharratt [ebook]
1356, by Bernard Cornwell [ebook]

Nonfiction:
The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman, by Nancy Marie Brown
House of Stone, by Anthony Shadid
Cliffs Notes on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, by Linda L. Hillegass

Plays:
The Tempest, by Shakespeare

I LISTENED TO

Fiction:
Birds of a Lesser Paradise, by Megan Mayhew Bergman

BEST BOOK THIS MONTH

READING CHALLENGES

1. Around the World in 52 books:  40/52 – I will go on with this in 2013
2. Around the world in 12 books: 12/12 – COMPLETED
3. European reading challenge: 12/5 – COMPLETED
4. I love Italy: 3/3 – COMPLETED
5. Dewey Decimal: 37/20 – COMPLETED
6. We want you to read French authors: 6/5  – COMPLETED (ends in August)
7. Books in translation: 16/10-12 – COMPLETED
8. South Asia: 7/7 – COMPLETED
9. Middle East: 9/18 - I will go on with this in 2013
10. My own reading challenge: 3/5. I’m giving up on this one
11. What’s in a Name: 6/6 – COMPLETED
12. Ebook challenge: 16/10 - COMPLETED
13. Audiobook: 15/12 – COMPLETED
14. Support your library: 57/37 – COMPLETED
15. Finishing the series: 2/1 – COMPLETED
16. 2nds challenge: 9/3 – COMPLETED
17. Foodies: 1/3. I am giving up on this one as well
18. Japanese literature: 3/1+ – COMPLETED
19. Historical novels: 22/7-10 – COMPLETED
20. New authors challenge: 54/15 -COMPLETED
21. A Shakespeare play a month: 12/12 -COMPLETED
22. SHAKESPEARE READING MONTH: 1/1   -  COMPLETED
23. AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE MONTH: 1/1 – COMPLETED
24. DICKENS READING MONTH: 1/1  – COMPLETED
25. Graham Green Challenge: 1/1 – COMPLETED

BLOGGING EVENTS IN DECEMBER

• I participated in the 1st Annual Historical Holiday Blog Hop. That was a blast that brought me record views, close to 500 and close to 550 2 days in a row.

MOST POPULAR RECENT BOOK REVIEW

UPCOMING BLOGGING EVENTS

As you know, I’ve launched an exciting Reading Challenge for 2013: on books related to France.
We are already 19 on board, but you can join any time. Click on the link to lear more and join.

CURRENTLY READING

1. The Distant Hours, by Kate Morton, brought by Santa!
2. The Dervish, by Frances Kazan [ebook]
3. Désirée, by Annemarie Selinko [audiobook]
4. Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses, by Jean-Claude Larchet

COME BACK TOMORROW TO READ ABOUT MY 2012 STATS,
AND SEE WHAT I’M UP TO IN 2013!

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HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THE BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS POST?