Out from the Underworld is Out of this World
Out from the Underworld by Heather Siegel is newly published today. It's fun to be one of the first to read a new book by a new author. It is a fascinating book about growing up mostly in foster care and dealing with a mother's abandonment and a father's inability to care. Here is my review:The author spins the unlikely but true tale of her bizarre childhood, which involved much more darkness than most of us had to endure as youngsters. She and her siblings were abandoned by their mother, given up to foster care multiple times by their womanizing father, ignored by grandparents, mistreated by foster mothers and foster siblings, and just generally had some pretty rotten experiences most of us like to believe are not the norm for children.
The author paints beautiful and often tragic word pictures that convey the emotions and uncertainty of the child she was as well as the feel of the period of society, particularly the sixties and seventies, and the atmosphere of the places she lived and the people she encountered.
Clearly, she is extremely talented and gifted with words and especially the expression of emotion. The fact that these children emerged as reasonably functional adults is nothing short of miraculous. The narrative is beautiful, powerful, and disturbing.
50. Out from the Underworld [2015] by Heather Siegel [Kindle] [Review: Goodreads; Amazon]
More reviews to come
This is my 50th book completed this year. I am almost half way to my 2015 reading challenge goal. I have read another 35 or so books since my last blog post, and I will slowly get the list and the reviews up to date here. I have been keeping up with the reviews on Goodreads [click here to see my list of books read in 2015 so far] but not the blogging and so forth. The end of the semester takes precedence in a professor's life, of course. I have continued to read women authors almost exclusively this year (with a few exceptions for my German class) and I am enjoying learning about new authors, new genres, new places and settings, and new cultures.I dare you to make a reading plan that takes you out of your ordinary reading scheme. If you mostly read male authors, then make a plan to read more women. If you mostly read science fiction, then make a plan to read history or humor or classic literature or whatever. Similarly with any narrow focus you normally have, expand your horizons. If you mostly only read authors from the USA or Britain (or wherever) then make a concerted effort to read authors from other countries and cultures. Even if you don't read another language, you can choose to read foreign authors who have been translated into English, and thereby expand your literary horizons in another way. I have been doing these things and my experience has been fantastic! Try it!
