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A YEAR IN ITALY: A Perfect Fit for a Love Story – book review

May 16, 2012 by patricia

Cover_PaperbackHTEO

At first glance there seems to be a simple connection between the suggestive yet simple title of Susan Pohlman’s memoir Halfway to Each Other and the breathlessly gorgeous visions we ave
of Italy, but that would be wrong.  The story is so much more.

How a year in Italy brought our family home is enticing and alluring as the sub-title.  The photo
of a weathered red door gracing the cover easily brings us through the entry of
this European lifestyle.

 

Within the pages of this memoir Pohlman is a glorious romantic yet a sensible realist about her marital situation and the risks of leaving her California life behind to live a year in Italy.  A place she and her husband have only known as a beautiful spot for a business conference.

For a year she seamlessly blends the practical side of her life with the beauty of this Italian seaside village they call home by sharing her many stories of courage and hope.
The memoir’s real life back story is as arresting as the one we want to create
about our own possible life there.

The words on the pages are inspired by the love between the author’s four family members who leave Los Angeles County for a place almost unknown to them for an adventure of a lifetime.
That’s the gem of the idea that Pohlman nurtures in her imagination and in real life.

She maintains a journal like email trail by corresponding with her girlfriends in LA about her family’s Italian escapades, but eventually keeps these emails private to produce this journal like memoir.  She is generously writing and begins the outline of the book.

Halfway to Each Other begins in Italy with Pohlman and her husband on a business trip.  She is
contemplating a divorce from him as she is very discouraged and unhappy with the way their life has gone along.  They begin to talk one evening about the possibility of taking a year off from that life while the seaside village where they are staying romances them.

This is also the end of the story of Pohlman and her family’s demanding pace in Los Angeles.  They have come to a fateful bend in the freeway.  When her husband Tim agrees that night at
sunset over a glass of wine that they should go to Italy and live off their savings to find what they have lost they begin ever so slightly to mend their wounds. Their children accept the move at different levels and add a lot to the story.

Pohlman will not know until a chance meeting near their little seaside village apartment that some very wonderful Italian people, now their new neighbors, will change their lives and become forever some of their most loyal friends.

What transpires is a classic expatriate’s success story transcending the commonplace because of the Pohlmans great love for each other as a family and the author’s determination to make it work.

For Pohlman and her husband, as well as their two children of impressionable age, an emergence occurs for them as individuals.  As family time travels for them at a new and
slower pace.  We are allowed to enjoy their journey.

Theirs is a love so big that Pohlman gives up her constant questioning of herself and her marriage and eventually fully embraces her new life with all the lessons, challenges and opportunities it has to offer.

Like other adventure pieces that capture our imagination Hallway to Each Other is built around
the unique cultural and social mores of an Old World country.  I fell in love with Italy while reading these pages and learned a lot about it in this memoir due to the quality of the
editing.

A sampling of European immigrants that changed our country’s look and landscape at one time in our history is beautifully portrayed here.  This book is a great lesson in
that history and an appreciation of the beauty of the Old Country too.

You don’t need to have an immigrant family history to adore the other characters in this book, but you will value Pohlman’s descriptions and dialogue just the same.  She does an
outstanding job endearing their Italian friends and neighbors to us.

You need only a deep appreciation for exquisite writing as this is a story enriched by
the power of abiding love.  I highly recommend this memoir as a cozy summer beach read for 2012.

 

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, Book Reviews, business consultation, memoir writing workshop, PUBLISHING PICKS, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, WRITING TIPS FOR YOU Tagged With: authors, books, Italy, marketing books, marriage and family, memoir, publishiing, relationships, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, susan pohlman, women writers, writing

Celebrate My Sister’s Birthday – FREE EBOOK Gifts of Sisterhood-journey from grief to gratitude

January 13, 2012 by patricia

Title:    Gifts of Sisterhood-journey from grief to gratitude

Publication:    December, 2011

Contact:          Patricia L. Brooks, author

Address:          7970 E. Camelback Rd., 710, Scottsdale, AZ  85251

Cell                 (480-250-5556)

Email:             patricia@plbrooks.com

Publisher:       Brooks Goldmann Publishing, LLC

www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

Scottsdale Author/Publishing Consultant
Launches FREE EBOOK to Celebrate Sister’s Birthday Jan 14-16!
Gifts of Sisterhood – the gifts that keep on giving!

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, January 11, 2012 – To find hope in her
grief and to celebrate her sister’s life is God’s plan for this author. This past
month, Scottsdale author Patricia L. Brooks www.amazon.com/author/patricialbrooks
as Brooks Goldmann Publishing Company, LLC of Scottsdale, AZ enhanced her book Gifts of Sisterhood with updates in an Ebook now available to you
FREE for three days – Jan. 14-16 in celebration of her sister’s birthday.  This new Ebook supports the importance of family relationships and the journey of grief when a loved one is lost. www.amazon.com/giftsofsisterhood.

In today’s firestorm of spiritual doubt, this book is a collection of heartwarming stories that should not be overlooked.   Brooks gathered the stories from true
accounts of her relationship with her sister and their growing up in the upper
peninsula of Michigan.  They experienced the unusual, the synchronistic, the amazing.

She tells them in her own words with her sister’s permission.  Each one is a small miracle, often a life-changing experience that will touch your heart.

In addition to reducing the mystery of life, death and grief in her book, Gifts of Sisterhood, Brooks asserts life’s challenges occur all the time and change our lives forever; many times for the better.

Brooks, who represents not only her writing but her spirituality here, serves the community in many ways.  She teaches and works within natural
approaches to the grief journey and offers her workshop outline in this revised
Ebook.  Readers who sample this beautiful Ebook will become open to the possibility of achieving greater well-being and peace with life’s many challenges.  Her Stop Smoking Sister campaign is introduced as well.

Patricia is the president/founder of the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers; building the group to 60 members since 2007 with monthly speaker/dinner meetings, critique groups and other outside book event activities.

The Brooks Goldmann Publishing, LLC website www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com
provides information on their publishing services.    As a published author and Scottsdale business woman, Patricia L. Brooks performs the duties of publishing consultant/book shepherd for the independent writer/author seeking information in the self-publishing maze.  Patricia confirms her new Ebook is thought provoking and genuine and fits the other authors she has helped in the memoir, self-help and non-fiction arena.
Patricia can help you travel the writing and publishing maze.  Feel free to visit her many posts on writing and publishing on their blog http://brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

We give and receive gifts, but the gifts that keep on giving – Faith, Courage, Love, Friendship, Happiness and Acceptance – are the gifts her youngest sister gave so freely.  Too often it takes a life changing experience to recognize what we already have, affirm what we already know, welcome what is given to us and share it with others.

Patricia is a “sibling survivor” of the #2 killer of women today.  While rejoicing in her sister’s memory she preserves her story and important legacy.  Through emotional healing Patricia takes you on a journey of love and friendship, grief and acceptance as she gives her sister’s spirit back to their “roots” in County Tipperary, Ireland.

You will learn to awaken the compassion within you, forgive yourself when facing life’s challenges, find the hidden gift of hope in your life and have faith that nothing happens in God’s world by mistake.

Patricia reveals her upbeat and insightful personal story of the relationship she had with her youngest sister – her friend, her confidante, her soul mate.  Their lives constantly intertwined, both growing up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and living 2,500 miles apart as adults.

Now God takes you on the Journey from Grief to Gratitude to a place of inspiration and acceptance.  The faith Patricia has her sister’s life was not in vain calls her to share her gifts with you.  By embracing her sister’s wit,
charm and beauty she weaves together a meaningful story of love and courage you can reflect upon as you travel your own life’s path.

A portion of the proceeds of this book goes to the Vital Care Hospice of the Straits of Mackinac County Michigan in memory of my sister. Thank you.

 

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, brooks goldmann publishing, gifts of sisterhood, Memoir, memoir writing workshop, PUBLISHING PICKS Tagged With: amazon, bereavement, brooks goldmann publishing, cronan, ebook, family, gifts of sisterhood, grief, la salle high school, lilliquist, loss, lung cancer, memoir, michigan, relationships, sisters

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Brooks Goldmann
Publishing Company, LLC
7970 E Camelback Rd, #710
Scottsdale, AZ 85251

480-250-5556

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