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Review of Tara Woolpy’s Raising Wild Ginger

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Description from Amazon:
Parenting is hard. That’s what Edward Rosenberg has always assumed, although his only experience with children has been as the drunken uncle. Now the love of his life, Sam DaCosta, is yearning for fatherhood. Edward’s been sober for years. He and Sam are in a good place. Why rock the boat? On the other hand, how can he deny Sam his dream of a family? Then they meet Ginger. At twelve she’s been through more than either Edward or Sam can imagine. She’s seductive, secretive and dishonest. But somewhere between stealing his cash and alienating Sam, Ginger manages to wind herself into Edward’s heart. Can the three of them create a family? Or will Ginger blow them all apart?

Review:

What to say about Raising Wild Ginger? It is way out of my normal reading range. I’m generally a sci-fi/fantasy girl. But I agreed to read it because of the subject matter. Ginger is a severely abused foster child looking for a forever home. I spent a number of years working in the American child protective services, and I thought Woolpy’s story might be one I could turn a knowledgeable eye towards. I was right. Raising Wild Ginger highlights a number of subtle (and not so subtle) behaviours of prematurely sexualised children without ever quite slipping into After School Special, lesson mode. I do think that if all abused children were so easy to speak rationally to about their actions, there would be a lot fewer placement disruptions in the world, but as a work of fiction, it was perfectly acceptable.

Edward and Sam are a pleasure. Their desire and struggles to share their love with little Ginger is touching, while her ability to heal their own internal wounds tugs the heartstrings. It’s a reminder that sometimes, giving up selfish pursuits really can be the best thing you can do for yourself. (As I’m sure many AA members would attest). Similarly, Zach and Edward’s reactions to one another speak volumes on the subject of forgiveness.

All in all, Woolpy has created an enjoyable tale about the strength and healing power of forgiveness, love, and family. If you enjoy this genre of writing, I definitely suggest you check this one out.

I want to thank author Tara Woolpy for sending me a copy of the book. 

Winners chosen in Graham Parke’s launch party giveaway

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“I’m very polite by nature, even the voices in my head let each other finish their sentences.” Graham Parke, Unspent Time

I’d originally planned to have a monkey draw two random numbers out of a hat (then use the inverse hexadecimal value – because you cannot trust monkeys, not at the prices I’m willing to pay) but apparently there are laws against monkey labor. There are permits involved. It’s a whole thing. So instead I asked a friend to think of two random numbers while dressed in a monkey suit, without telling him what the numbers were for. This seemed sufficiently random to me, although it later occurred to me how worrying it was that my friend would actually do this without ever asking why. There might be a thinly veiled cry for help in there somewhere…

Kindle Fire Winner:

Cecilia HuddlestonKindle Touch Winner:

Kathy Habel

 

A big thank you to all the bloggers and readers who supported the Unspent Time launch event (especially those who bought multiple versions of the weird little novels that wrecked a thousand reasonably useful minds.)

Anyway, here’s the results, thank you all for joining in, winners will be contacted and forced to accept prizes, let me know if you ever come across bits in the novels you like, stay healthy and sane,

Graham Parke

ìWe played for about half an hour before I realized we were actually playing two different games. What Iíd thought of as ludo was actually a game called gin rummy, and what Warren was playing seemed to be a mixture of craps and table tennis. Once we started playing by one consistent set of rules, though, the fun was really over.î Graham Parke, No Hope for Gomez!

Changes to the TBR and review policy

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This blog is fairly new and to a certain extent I’m still feeling my way around, finding what feels right and what I’m comfortable (or not) with. Today I gave my poor neglected To Be Read list a little love. I removed the books that had already been read and reviewed and added a some that had yet to see digital light. I also made a few changes in the process.

For one, I removed all ebooks. This is not to suggest that I am not reading them, I am. In fact I’m reading more than ever before. I finally got my greedy little hands on a Kindle. The problem is that I’ve been over zealous in my downloading. Does anyone else think the free ebook lists are addicting? I have so many now that I don’t know what to do with them all, figuratively speaking. They are all, of course, unproblematically stored in the one miraculously small device for safe keeping. But I’ve decided to stop listing them. I probably couldn’t keep it up anyway, so why try. Best to just acknowledge me limitations and move on. 

Secondly, in light of my new electronic acquisition I have started accepting ebooks for review. This comes with a caveat, however. As just noted, I now have tons of ebooks at my disposal. I have created a collection just for books provided for review so that they won’t get lost in the imaginary literary landslide, but any ebook I accept will have a lot of competition for my attention. Know this before you email me and don’t expect it read quickly. Physical books are still my preferred reading method and will still probably get read first. It’s nice to have options though.