Endearing testimony that leaves the reader hoping for more.
A touching memoir of a life lived in faith.
In this short work, Bowles tells the moving story of her life in order “to encourage someone else.” The reader will indeed be encouraged by her positive attitude and sense of direction in the midst of hard travails. The book opens with Bowles’ childhood as the daughter of a single mother, with her father having died in an accident before her birth. Her mother mismanaged the household and suffered from debilitating mental illness. Nevertheless, the help, example and encouragement of other relatives gave Bowles direction and purpose in her youth. Against hard odds she earned a nursing degree and then decided to enter the residential-care field. Despite having no capital, she managed to obtain a house, and then survived and persevered for two years with almost no clientele. At last, she began to succeed in her chosen profession, but more setbacks were to come. Bowles was diagnosed with breast cancer, and, in addition to a mastectomy, her physicians suggested that her ovaries should be removed as a preventative measure. In a hair-raising climax to the author’s life story, Bowles explains how she was led to take a pregnancy test the very night before her surgery, and learned that she was, in fact, with child. Throughout Bowles’ tale, she clearly centers her narrative upon her personal faith in God. Though the reader will certainly come to see Bowles as a woman marked by perseverance, drive and courage, she takes no credit for her survival of hardship or the things she has accomplished in life. The reader is left, however, wishing that Bowles took more opportunity to flesh out that faith. Though references are made to certain individuals who made a difference in her faith life, it would be intriguing to hear a more in-depth discussion of her personal experience with the faith community and, not just how her faith has sustained her, but how that faith developed and matured over time. Bowles’ story is a meaningful and instructive one. It deserves a few pages more to make it complete.
Endearing testimony that leaves the reader hoping for more.Pub Date: May 27, 2010
ISBN: 978-1450067362
Page Count: 46
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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