Great books – Cynthia Reyes

A Good Home, An Honest House, Author Cynthia Reyes, Book Reviews, Books, Great books, New Books

A Summer of Great Reviews

September 6, 2016September 7, 2016 Cynthia Reyes

What a precious gift from a reader to an author! Taking the time to buy, read and review their book.

My great thanks to:

Hilary Custance Green (UK), acclaimed author of Surviving the Death Railway and The Green Writing Room blog. An Honest House was her companion during her own book tour:

AN HONEST HOUSE AND AN ALBRIZIA

Posted on August 5, 2016

I loved Cynthia Reyes’s first Memoir A Good Home, so I picked up the continuing story An Honest House in happy anticipation. This is a book with a perfect title and has been my companion during a more than hectic summer….

I laughed over the Valentine, I wept over Keats, I laughed over ‘a job that pays’. There are few easy-walking meadows in this story, because it is about the mountains and valleys. Among the things that struck me was Cynthia’s insistence on facing up to something we all know – it is never a good time for a difficult or dangerous conversation – and dealing with it so courageously….

Tina of Chase N Chance Ranch (USA), who took An Honest House along on her summer vacation:

BOOK SUGGESTION

On our vacation I brought along the new book (An Honest House: A Memoir, Continued) of one of my favorite authors and bloggers, Cynthia Reyes.

Living on a small hobby farm, working part time, having two children who play multiple travel level sports, and trying to fit in a little me time is always a challenge. I figured I would be able to get in at least a chapter or two while away for those 6 days. After the third day, my family threatened to hide my book as I finished it and was starting it over again. I did not want to put it down!!

Read More at: https://chasenchanceranch.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/book-suggestion/

Chip Barkel, realtor and writer (Canada), who made both A Good Home and An Honest House his summer picks:

SUMMER READING: CYNTHIA REYES’S A GOOD HOME & AN HONEST HOUSE

“Ambercroft Farm, the sign out front said. Hamlin was on a first name basis with the grand old farmhouse right from the start, calling it Ambercroft. For years, I didn’t call it anything at all. The tall, two-story Victorian house seemed sealed off from the rest of the neighbourhood. Within a solid wooden fence and gates, massive maples waved big leafy arms. Pines and dense blue-green spruces soared. A cedar hedge ran the length of the property on one side. This was a private place, sure of its personality and power.”

blog-photo-garden-circle

I often think as I walk through neighbourhoods that behind every shuttered window is a story. Often those stories are ones only the walls and maybe a few select people ever witness. For some a house is a sanctuary, but when life presents a crisis….

Chip, Tina and Hilary: I thank you all.

Note to Readers:

If you’ve recently read a book you like, especially one by a new or Indie author, would you please consider reviewing it online?

A Good Home, Book lovers, Books, Canadian life, childhood mischief, Great books, Humour

I STEAL BOOKS

April 1, 2015April 1, 2015 Cynthia Reyes

Like any other criminal, I am entitled to a defence, after all.

So before I confess, let me say this in my defence:

It’s not that I plan to steal books.

It’s not even that I mean to.

But, somehow, I steal books.

I have been an obsessive reader since early childhood and it continued throughout my life.

I read everything.

The newspaper.

The dictionary.

One summer when the school library was closed and I had run out of things to read, I even read the Bible.

Someone must have dared me. And, being very smart, I didn’t realize that some bets shouldn’t be taken.

You have no idea what it cost me. Two years before, I’d decided that I was an atheist.

The kind that half-believes in God at night, in the middle of a furious storm.

But an atheist nonetheless.

I had hardly begun, when I got to the begats. They nearly did me in. Jacob and his wives begat dozens of children who begat dozens more children and when I woke up the next morning, they were still begetting.

Reading the begats was cruel and unusual punishment and I had no-one to blame but myself.

I imagined that God was having a great laugh.

If I believed in her, that is.

But I digress.

I first stole a book when I was about ten years old. It was probably a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mystery.

I gave it back when I finished reading and I never stole another book till I found myself at a silent convent some years ago.

“You stole from the nuns?” I hear you asking.

Yes. I stole two books from the nuns, but I did not chop down their cherry tree.

I returned the books a whole year later. And they forgave me, smiling at my extreme penitence.

But I stole a few magazines before then. From airplanes or airport VIP lounges.

Stole them and brought them home because of a great story I wanted to finish reading.

I must have felt really bad about it, because I kept stealing them.

Three in all.

Till one day my eyes caught a small sign on the cover of one magazine, making it clear that the magazines were free to customers. All three magazines had the same sign.

I know God was having a great laugh.

I’m told he’s funny that way.

A Good Home, Book lovers, Books, Daughters, elderly Parents, Family, Family Matriarch, Family Stories, Gardening Books, Gardens, Great books, Home

Vivian Shapiro, a Woman Who Loves Books

June 25, 2014 Cynthia Reyes

The little girls in this photo are Vivian, on the right, and her sister Roslyn.

Their childhood home had a vast library and Vivian loved reading books.

Classics for Junior Readers, the eleven volumes of The Foundation Library for Young People and the family’s encyclopedia were among her childhood favorites.

“My father was a very accomplished man (lawyer, Member of Parliament for Ontario, the founder and first President of the Mt. Sinai Hospital, first violinist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) and he always encouraged my reading and learning as a child.

“So reading was something I always did.”

Vivian was so bright that she skipped grades in school.

She graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor of household science degree and worked as a dietitian till shortly after her marriage. She and her husband Bud had three daughters.

Daughter Arna, a retired English teacher and now a writer and proofreader, read A Good Home and gave a copy to her mother.

“When I asked my Mom how she liked the book, she said it was one of the best she had ever read! And considering she had been reading for a good 90 years, that would be a lot of books!”

I gulped with delight and asked: “Why?”

Vivian replied: “I can picture all of her houses – her descriptions are so vivid. I can still see the house up on a hill. It brought back memories of travelling in the Caribbean and different stages of my life.”

Vivian and Bud on their 70th anniversary

“Two of the best things about books are that we can travel to different times and places through them, and we can learn something new with each one.”

Vivian, Arna and granddaughter at 96th birthday party — Vivian at 96th birthday party with daughter Arna and granddaughter Heather

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is still one of Vivian’s all-time favorites.

Bud died a few years ago. At 96, and no longer able to walk, Vivian spends much of her time in her room. Reading, she says, is “a wonderful diversion at this stage of life when outings and new experiences are limited.”

While Arna was proofreading the manuscript for my second book (Beloved Gardens) she asked my permission to read the book to her mother. Of course, I agreed.

Arna reported:

“It gives me great pleasure to look at my Mom sitting in her wheelchair with a big smile on her face. Or sometimes she nods her agreement to whatever Cynthia wrote.

“Sometimes she closes her eyes (still smiling) and I know that she is visualizing the scene. When I told her that the finished book would include lovely photos, she said that it didn’t really need pictures as she could see everything clearly just from the words. The book takes her on a journey in her mind.”

“These are the kind of books you can read over and over again,” says Vivian. “They make you smile and they make you cry. Because the book is so picturesque, I can think back and the memories are lovely.”

And you are the kind of reader authors love, Vivian! Thank you most kindly for loving books, including mine.

5 Star Review, A Good Home, Author Cynthia Reyes, Authors, Book Clubs, Book Clubs' Picks, Book lovers, Book Reviews, Books, Family Stories, Gratitude, Great books, Home, Words

WOW! 5 Stars for A Good Home

May 13, 2014May 13, 2014 Cynthia Reyes

A Good Home is 5*****Star Rated!

Rave Reviews President's Seal of Approval — A Wonderful Honour for **A Good Home**

I’m very thankful for this review.

“Cynthia Reyes is one of the most talented writers of our time! I opened this book and instantly fell in love with her writing. If you are a V.C. Andrews or Louisa May Alcott die hard fan as I am, you would have thought you were reading from “FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC” or “LITTLE WOMEN.” Vivid all the way through.

I loved EVERYTHING about this book! So much so, that I had to personally reach out to the author to let her know how GREAT I found her book to be.

So much so, that I immediately sent out an email to my board members letting them know that they needed to run out to get this book right away.

So much so, that I made it my PRESIDENT’S PICK in our Newsletter, dated May 11, 2014 edition.

So much so, that I hope ONE DAY IT IS A BOOK OF THE MONTH selection because good writing such as this, deserves to be read by all. I sometimes don’t even bother to get into the detail of a book, especially if the writing is AWESOME because I feel letting you know that it is such a great read should be all that really matters.

Kudos, Cynthia, and thank you for one magnificent, extremely enjoyable book read!”

Here’s what Nonnie, president of Rave Reviews Book Club, said about why A Good Home is the President’s Pick:

I have personally just finished reading this book and let me tell you…all I can say is “Dear Author, please NEVER stop writing!” Aside from being such a well-written book, I cannot put my finger on the one thing that made it ABSOLUTELY GREAT for me.

No, there were many things about this book that literally caused me to “feel” and want to sit down and just discuss anything with the author.

Everyone knows how much I love and appreciate well-written works of art, this one…should be in a gallery! That’s how GREAT it was. I say to EVERYONE who is in hearing range of my words right now, you want to read this book. Get your copy NOW!!! I promise you a GREAT READ! Check out my full review of “A GOOD HOME” on Monday, 5/12/14 at NONNIE’S REVIEWS!

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Thank you, Nonnie Jules, for this wonderful review, and for everything you and the Rave Reviews Book Club do.

N.B. In addition to being president of Rave Reviews Book Club, Nonnie is an author of books such as Daydream’s Daughter, Nightmare’s Friend, and The Good Mommies Guide to Raising (Almost) Perfect Daughters. She spends a great deal of time reviewing and supporting other writers through RRBC, a volunteer-led organization consisting of book-lovers: readers, writers, publishers and many others.

Most authors will tell you that what they really want to do is write. The fact that Nonnie and the RRBC board take the time to also review new books and support authors across the globe is a huge gift.

Thank you, Nonnie, and the board of RRBC, for what you do.