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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

One of the Most Beautiful Books Ever

As we wait for the suspense entries to start rolling in, I'll post another book review. This one, Trouble the Water by Nicole Seitz, is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. Nicole has created memorable, deep characters in a rich, unique setting. The book is filled with humor, and hope, love, pain and sadness - I think I felt every emotion possible as I read this book. It's truly one you don't want to miss, and it has put Nicole into one of my "top ten" author spots.

I think I also read somewhere this week that Nicole actually painted the cover for this book (and some of her others.) I'll check around to make sure that's the case, and if Nicole happens to drop by, maybe she'll set the record straight. The painting, gorgeous in its own right, is only a fraction of the beauty found within the book. Check it out.



This week, the

is introducing

Thomas Nelson (March 11, 2008)

by


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Nicole Seitz is a South Carolina Lowcountry native and the author of The Spirit of Sweetgrass as well as a freelance writer/illustrator who has published in numerous low country magazines. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Journalism, she also has a bachelor's degree in illustration from Savannah College of Art & Design. Nicole shows her paintings in the Charleston, South Carolina area, where she owns a web design firm and lives with her husband and two small children. Nicole is also an avid blogger, you can leave her a comment on her blog.

Seitz's writing style recalls that of Southern authors like Kaye Gibbons, Anne Rivers Siddons, and Sue Monk Kidd, and this new novel, which the publisher compares to Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, surely joins the ranks of strong fiction that highlights the complicated relationships between women. Highly recommended, especially for Southern libraries.


ABOUT THE BOOK:

In the South Carolina Sea Islands lush setting, Nicole Seitz's second novel Trouble the Water is a poignant novel about two middle-aged sisters' journey to self-discovery.

One is seeking to recreate her life yet again and learns to truly live from a group of Gullah nannies she meets on the island. The other thinks she's got it all together until her sister's imminent death from cancer causes her to re-examine her own life and seek the healing and rebirth her troubled sister managed to find on St. Anne's Island.

Strong female protagonists are forced to deal with suicide, wife abuse, cancer, and grief in a realistic way that will ring true for anyone who has ever suffered great loss.


"This is another thing I know for a fact: a woman can't be an island, not really. No, it's the touching we do in other people's lives that matters when all is said and done. The silly things we do for ourselves--shiny new cars and jobs and money--they don't mean a hill of beans. Honor taught me that. My soul sisters on this island taught me that. And this is the story of true sisterhood. It's the story of Honor, come and gone, and how one flawed woman worked miracles in this mixed-up world."


"...a special sisterhood of island women whose wisdom and courage linger in the mind long after the book is closed."-NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author SUSAN WIGGS




1 comment:

Nicole Seitz said...

Yes! Thanks, Tracy, I did paint the cover. I feel so blessed to have been used to write this story. It had such a healing effect on me writing it, I was hoping it would do the same for readers. God is amazing.
Nicole