I haven’t quite figured out how to announce that I’ve become the official book reviewer for The Brandon Gazette over here on my blog. However, today I had the priviledge of having my first author interview published and I’m thrilled about it because I loved the book.  I am posting the original review from The Brandon Gazette here below.  But you can check out my new writing gig!  The one I haven’t quite announced here until now!!

Also, you’ve just got to read this book!  It’s fantastic.

  

Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood – Melissa Hart(Memoir) Seal Press

I love this book! Buy it; read it, I’m sure you will love it too.  If I haven’t convinced you yet, keep reading…First they were a normal family in the 1970’s, living happily in Southern California.  And then they become fractured and multiplied and Melissa Hart has to flip flop herself between her father’s lavish lifestyle with his new wife, her stepmother, and her mother’s bohemian lifestyle in a Hispanic neighborhood.  These influences shape her as she grows, but during that shaping and molding there is a push and pull within her to learn and determine where she fits in the world.  And isn’t that always largely based on how you were raised and your cultural influences. 

I love this book! Buy it; read it, I’m sure you will love it too.  If I haven’t convinced you yet, keep reading…First they were a normal family in the 1970’s, living happily in Southern California.  And then they become fractured and multiplied and Melissa Hart has to flip flop herself between her father’s lavish lifestyle with his new wife, her stepmother, and her mother’s bohemian lifestyle in a Hispanic neighborhood.  These influences shape her as she grows, but during that shaping and molding there is a push and pull within her to learn and determine where she fits in the world.  And isn’t that always largely based on how you were raised and your cultural influences. During her parents divorce a judge determines that her lesbian mother and her lover are not good influences on Melissa and her siblings and therefore Melissa, to her chagrin, ends up living with her father and wishing desperately she was with her mother, who she can closer relate to throughout the years. 

Melissa’s frank language, honest re-telling, and innate comical mind make this book so much more than the above two paragraphs can parlay.  I picked this book up and did not put it down.  I devoured it in one sitting, staying up into the wee morning hours doing so.  I cheered Melissa on, and frowned at the judge’s determination and remembered fondly things from my own childhood.  Melissa’s penchant for recall of time and place and her ability to put you there made this book a trip to a different time and place.  This memoir reads like fiction, not because the authenticity is not there, but rather because Melissa’s retelling is not a factual list you must read but rather a story you become a part of.

This book was enchanting, engrossing and more so happily entertaining.  There are lessons to be garnered here as Melissa finds her way, but the real joy in this story is the value of family, the realization that we all belong…somewhere.  In this memoir there exists a strong confident female voice.  This would be an especially fantastic gift to give a college aged girl to read as she navigates through her newly found freedom and realizes she has many choices in life. 

Her book is available at most retail booksellers and at Seal Press who so kindly provided the book to be reviewed at The Brandon Gazette. 

Many thanks to the publishers at The Brandon Gazette for allowing me to fully maintain ownership of the reviews and articles I write.  They are fantastic!