Monday, August 5, 2013

Straight Reading from the Library: How You Leave Texas by Alana Cash


Thanks to Goddess Fish Promotions for sending How You Leave Texas for review. Alana will be awarding a screen printed camisole (What Happens in the Bedroom Stays in the Bedroom) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour as well as a screen printed Brass Nuts t-shirt to another commenter. The other stops on the tour can be seen here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/05/virtual-book-tour-how-you-leave-texas.html.

READ THE BLURB


How You Leave Texas is a volume of three short stories and a novella about four young women who leave Midland, Austin, Fort Worth and Mayville, Texas for New York, California, Jakarta, and in one instance, jail. They seek escape from boredom and sorrow and find it. The stories are hilarious, tragic, revelatory.

READ THE REVIEW


What a fun group of stories! Ms. Cash ties these stories together by the theme of leaving Texas. Some are in the process of leaving, others have already left--but they all have their story to tell.

You have a girl who is leaving town (and her best friend) after graduation-- a touching story of just how deep friendships can run. I ached for them being separated.
We then jump a few years to Camille--who doesn't have the happiest of birthdays. She's bored with her life and definitely makes a change...don't want to say too much about this fun story, but I have to admit there were moments I could identify with her. I would really like to see Camille and Bunny in a series (hint to the author).

"Krystal's Wedding" introduces us to the family from hell.... reading that will make most of us thankful for our own families!!

And that brings me to the novella, Frying Your Burger. I really like this group of friends--there was character development that you just can't get in a short story and it made the difference and really made Alana Cash's talent shine.

I'll be looking for more of her work. 4 stars!
MEET THE AUTHOR


Alana Cash is an adventurer. She’s trekked alone through war-torn Serbia and has slept in a KGB interrogation room in Prague. She’s been to a gypsy fair in rural England, a bullfight in Laredo, and parasailing in Acapulco. She’s been inside the New York Stock Exchange and eaten in J. Pierpont Morgan’s home dining room. She's gone on a ride-along in a New York City patrol car and kissed a man inside the Norman Bates Psycho house at Universal Studios. She’s been a lifeguard, legal secretary, accountant, writer, teacher, filmmaker and artist.

Her experiences are inspiration for her work as an acclaimed writer and filmmaker.

• She was one of 60 US teachers profiled on the PBS series, "A Writer's Exchange," for her talent as a teacher at the University of Texas Informal Classes - many of her students published and won writing awards
• Her feature film, "Tom's Wife," based on her novel of the same name, won awards all over the world
• Her documentary "Anna Freud: Under Analysis," part of documentary trilogy on women in science, was translated into German for broadcast in Austria, Germany & Switzerland

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