Isn't She Great Blog Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the ISN'T SHE GREAT by Elizabeth Teets Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

ISN'T SHE GREAT: Writers on Women Led Comedies from 9 to 5 to Booksmart
Author: Elizabeth Teets (Edited By)
Release Date: January 16, 2024
Publisher: Read Furiously
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 142

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Indigo, BAM, Bookshop, Powell's, Blackwells 

Description:

A love letter to women-led comedies. 

Based on Elizabeth Teets’s program series called “Isn’t She Great” at the Hollywood  Theater, this anthology is a collection of the most beloved female-centric comedies and the  audiences who adore them. From 9 to 5 to Romy and Michele to the iconic Elle Woods, the  essays in this collection build on our devotion to these films and continue the conversation  around funny women and how these characters have shaped so many talented writers. 

As Elizabeth Teets reminds us, there is a specific power in a funny woman. A woman who  dares to laugh at the world and at herself. These movies made us strong and smart and  sexy (and bend and snap a lot). At the end of the day, we remind ourselves when the world  only tries to let us have a little - a little money, a little confidence, a little joy - to go out and  get the whole enchilada. 

Isn’t She Great is for anyone who loves movies and feels the glamour in pink. Cult cinema  and film criticism will never be the same. 

“You Must Always Have Faith in Yourself - Legally Blonde, and My Mommy, and Me”

Legally Blonde was the first movie I saw my mother truly love. This was not to say she didn’t love other movies - there were many she did. Growing up, my mother had a small collection of VHS tapes she loved that she would let me watch regularly. But none of them compared for how much she seemed to love Legally Blonde.

Despite her very refined palette for cinema, I don’t think she ever considered film an interest of hers. And although she may not have realized it, my mother had curated in our living room a sophisticated collection of the finest 90s and early aughts cult classics. We had copies of Mermaids, She’s All That, A Very Brady Sequel, and Tommy Boy. But Legally Blonde, oh she loved that movie.

At ten years old, I took notice of how Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, Legally Blonde’s perky sorority girl, made my mother laugh. I love anything that makes my mother laugh. After seeing my mother latch onto a piece of candy pink cinema filled with outfits, I too became obsessed with the film. As a future comedian, I paid attention to anything that made my favorite person laugh.

I also love Legally Blonde - it is undoubtedly my favorite movie. I know every line, every outfit, and every major decision I have ever made in my life has been while driving in my 2006 Kia Optima while listening to the absolute banger of a soundtrack. Elle Woods is the best character within modern cinema. She is layered, complicated, fabulously styled, unable to be bamboozled and full of grit. I was lucky enough to grow up with my own Elle Woods, my mom..

…At my mother’s beginning, or at least the beginning as it concerns me, her daughter who watched her every move, she was a single mom who had me at nineteen. This meant as a child I got to see her early twenties, her own Elle Woods years. Although she was never a member of a sorority with a tiny dog, I can’t imagine people talked to her that differently. Aren’t all stereotypes we put onto women pretty much the same?

Elizabeth Teets is an Oregon born writer, comedian, screenwriter, and  fashionista. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York  Times, Repeller, Catapult, Reductress, and more. She lives in Los Angeles  where she is waiting for her group chat to respond.

Subscribe to Elizabeth’s newsletter! (scroll to the bottom of the page)

Website | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | Goodreads

 

Isn't She Great Contributors 

Megan J. Kaleita is an essayist and memoirist living in the PAC Northwest. Her debut essay collection, This  Book is Brought to You By My Student Loans is available through Clash Books. Her work has appeared in  Ravishly, Hello Horror, Daily Drunk Mag, Luna Station Quarterly, and Lady Spike. Do not ask her for coffee. She  won’t get it for you. 

Samantha Mann is a Brooklyn based essayist. She is the author of Putting Out: Essays on Otherness. She  edited the anthology, I Feel Love: Notes on Queer Joy.  

Meg Walters is a Canadian-British writer currently living in London. Her writing has appeared in GQ, The  Daily Beast, Vulture, Cosmopolitan, Glamour and others. She is a great lover of classic films, rom-coms,  period dramas, pop culture, books and style and tries to write about them all as often as possible. Find her  on Twitter @wordsbymeg 

Toju Adelaja is a Nigerian-British writer and chick-flick connoisseur. Her work has appeared in publications  such as Glamour U.K. and Black Ballad.  

Ella Gale is a writer, director, and comedian in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s,  Reductress, and the Hard Times. 

Michele Theil is a journalist focusing on culture, race, LGBT+ issues and investigative pieces. She has been  published in VICE, Insider, Glamour, and others. She watches all the Bring It On movies at least once a  year. 

Lana Schwartz is a writer who was born and raised in New York City, where she continues to live today.  Her work has been published on The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Shondaland, Glamour, InStyle, and more. Her  book “Build Your Own Romantic Comedy” was released by Ulysses Press in March 2020. For more about  Lana - as well as instructions on how to pronounce her name - visit www.lanalikebanana.com. 

Yaël Krinsky is writer and comedian based in Boston, where she works in TV and Film Production. She  holds a writing and performance degree from Bard College. She currently lives with her dog Midge. 

(1) winner will receive a finished copy of ISN'T SHE GREAT - US Only.

Ends January 31st, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/15/2024	Two Chicks on Books	Guest Post
1/15/2024	@jaimerockstarbooktours	IG Post
1/16/2024	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Spotlight/IG Post
1/16/2024	Kountry Girl Bookaholic	Guest Post/IG Post
1/17/2024	Lady Hawkeye	Excerpt/IG Post
1/17/2024	FUONLYKNEW	Guest Post/IG Post
1/18/2024	A Dream Within A Dream	Excerpt
1/18/2024	@fiction._.fuss	Excerpt/IG Post
1/19/2024	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
1/19/2024	GryffindorBookishnerd	IG Review

Week Two:

1/22/2024	@callistoscalling	IG Review
1/22/2024	Confessions of the Perfect Mom	Review/IG Post
1/23/2024	@anitralovesbooksanddogs	IG Review
1/23/2024	Lisa-Queen of Random	Review/IG Post
1/24/2024	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
1/24/2024	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post
1/25/2024	@enjoyingbooksagain	IG Review
1/25/2024	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Spotlight
1/26/2024	Books With a Chance	Review/IG Post
1/26/2024	The Momma Spot	Review

I Have Something to Tell You Blog Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU – FOR YOUNG ADULTS by Chasten Buttigieg Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU – FOR YOUNG ADULTS
Author: Chasten Buttigieg
Release Date: May 16, 2023
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook
Pages: 224

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/I-HAVE-SOMETHING-TO-TELL-YOU-FOR-YOUNG-ADULTS

Order a signed copy!

The young adult adaptation of the hopeful and refreshingly candid bestselling memoir by the husband of a former Democratic presidential candidate about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town. Completely rewritten with new stories, including resources for readers, parents, and teachers.

Growing up, Chasten Glezman Buttigieg didn’t always fit in. He felt different from his father and brothers, who loved to hunt and go camping, and out of place in the rural, conservative small town where he lived. Back then, blending in was more important than feeling seen.

So, when Chasten realized he was gay, he kept that part of himself hidden away for a long, painful time. With incredible bravery, and the support of his loved ones, Chasten eventually came out—and when he did, he learned that being true to himself was the most rewarding journey of all.

Finding acceptance and self-love can seem like a tremendous challenge, but it’s never impossible. With honesty, courage, and warmth, Chasten relays his experience of growing up in America and embracing his identity, while inspiring young people across the country to do the same.

Chasten Glezman Buttigieg grew up in Traverse City, Michigan. He is a teacher, advocate, and husband of former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. Chasten currently lives with Pete; their two children, Gus and Penelope; and their two rescue dogs, Buddy and Truman, in Northern Michigan. I Have Something to Tell You—For Young Adults is his second book.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Goodreads

(1) winner will receive a finished copy of I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU – FOR YOUNG ADULTS - US Only.

Ends May 16th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

5/1/2023	YA Books Central	Excerpt/IG Post
5/1/2023	The Momma Spot	Excerpt
5/2/2023	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt/IG Post
5/2/2023	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt/IG Post
5/3/2023	A Backwards Story	Excerpt
5/3/2023	Cara North	Excerpt/IG Post
5/4/2023	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Feature
5/4/2023	A Dream Within A Dream	Excerpt
5/5/2023	Nonbinaryknightreads	Review/IG Post
5/5/2023	The Chirpy Bookaholic	Excerpt/IG Post

 Week Two:

5/8/2023	Alohabooksandbujos	IG Review
5/8/2023	Review Thick And Thin	Review/IG Post
5/9/2023	Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers	Review/IG Post
5/9/2023	@allyluvsbooksalatte	IG Feature/TikTok Post
5/10/2023	OneMoreExclamation	Review/IG Post
5/10/2023	Not In Jersey	Review/IG Post
5/11/2023	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
5/11/2023	Jenguerdy	IG Review
5/12/2023	Author Z. Knight’s Guild	Review/IG Post
5/12/2023	@froggyreadteach	IG Review

 

The Blue House Blog Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE BLUE HOUSE by Myrna Denham Porter Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

THE BLUE HOUSE
Author: Myrna Denham Porter
Release Date: January 13, 2022
Publisher: Myrna Denham Porter
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 245

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/The-Blue-House

Description:

This is a memoir of a woman who grew up at the edge of the Canadian Prairies. For Myrna “no woman is an island” and she attributes a “life worth living” to the mentors along the way, as well as her combined parents’ Christian values. To Myrna, in today’s society, these values seem to be slipping away. Commitment, persistence, hard work, love and forgiveness, though harshly delivered by her father and lovingly delivered by her mother, were all part of Myrna’s early childhood.

 

Introduction  

Recently, a close friend asked: “Why are you even writing this memoir?” She worried that I would be dredging up more than I could handle. Why wade back into  memories that others might prefer that I bury forever?  Why dive into painful recollections from my marriage,  bouts with cancer, and other heartbreaks?  

My stark answer surprised me. I simply said: “Time  is running out for me.”  

I am approaching eighty years of age. I am writing  this memoir to transmit the value system I have distilled  from my own life’s unfolding. I have chosen a style that  reflects the storytelling tradition of my Icelandic ancestors, who favored short tales and myths, interwoven with  moral lessons. I have also chosen incidents and moments  that highlight periods in my life in which my values were  forged and tested, as glimmers of meaning and purpose  were revealed.  

As I have labored on this memoir over the past five  years, I have entered what some would call old age, a term  I do not like. I prefer the phrase elder years, as it reflects  my attempt at doing the hard, inner work of becoming  an elder, one who aspires towards that rarest of qualities: wisdom. For me, nothing else really matters beyond  a life lived towards a higher purpose. Indeed, I believe  that unhappiness comes from not being able to find a  sustaining sense of meaning and purpose in our lives.  Through this work, I am in search of fundamental understandings about my life. I ask myself these questions:  

What are the truths and values I’ve wrested from  my journey through life?  

What have I done with the legacy of values that I  was given by my parents and my faith?  

Have I learned from, and even transformed, my  pain and suffering?  

How well have I loved?  

As I thought about my spontaneous reply to my  friend’s question, I realized there was another response I  could have given to her: I have always wanted somehow  to let those whose lives began in hardship know that  they can succeed. I know this because my own life has  been, in many ways, an astonishing success, all the more  miraculous given the severe poverty and limitations of  my first years.  

We see the world through our individual lenses.  This is my version, my experience of growing up in the  Denham household, and beyond. I am one of seventeen  children; the story might well be told differently, with  different emphases or other interpretations of events, by  any of my surviving brothers or sisters. For example, my  younger siblings have a much different, kindlier memory of our father from their youths. Mother may have been  very different, as a parent, when she had her first child at  seventeen than she was at forty-four, when my youngest brother, Keith, was born. Many “true” versions of our  early years could have been written, and indeed, perhaps  one or more of my siblings will someday be inspired to  write their own story.  

By telling the stories engraved on my heart, I also  hope to offer a model of success for those who were not  born with a silver spoon in their mouths—and perhaps  to remind those who were born to affluence that “success” is comprised of much more than material wealth.  The truly “wealthy” person lives from the richness of  their values. At my heart’s core, I believe that, with the  proper support, guidance, and mentoring, it is possible  for every single child living to succeed.  

My parents gave me a simple code for life:  

Honesty.  

Hard work.  

Striving for excellence.  

Helping others.  

Though my father brought much pain into my life, he  also taught me simple core values: Tell the truth, work  hard, and always do your best. From my mother—about  whom you will hear much, for her influence upon me was  strong, enduring, and less fraught than my father’s—I  learned to look out for humanity. Somehow the gift of  these transmitted values has served, if not to balance, at least to somewhat offset the pain of growing up in the  blue house on the Canadian prairie.  

In his Four Quartets, the poet T.S. Eliot wrote:  

Time present and time past,  

Are both perhaps present in time future.  

And time future contained in time past.  

If his words illuminate a deeper truth about the mysterious nature of time, then all of the Myrnas I have  been and will be are somehow here, right now, divided  by memory into constructs that we call “past, present,  and future.”  

Take this moment right now: seated next to the emerald blue pool outside my home in the southern California desert. I am looking out at the blazing stars above  the magnificent Coachella Valley. Yet, ever since beginning this memoir, my mind has been repeatedly, force fully drawn back to the place where my life began. It is  almost as if I can shift my vision between two different  night skies overlaid: the achingly beautiful, star-jeweled  night sky above the tiny shack—the blue house—in Saskatchewan where I lived from age four or five to four teen and this hauntingly calm desert night at the end  of summer. On this night, the air is still and hot, and  beneath those stars various “chapters” of my life seem to  flow together within memory’s crucible.  

The strong-willed little girl and the sometimes rest less, sometimes serene elder I’ve become coexist, one occupying the foreground one moment, the other assuming the front of the stage of my life in the next. Between  wakefulness and sleep, as the sun rises over the desert  mountains, I see my life as a weave of sorrow and beauty,  beauty and sorrow. Decades intertwine, as I return again  to the blue house. There is something I must find back  there.  

Indeed, I believe I am telling my story in part to find  this buried treasure.

Myrna was born in 1940 into a family of seventeen children in a remote area of Saskatchewan, Canada. It was an area where conditions were harsh, aspirations were low and few attended high school. Inspired by her mother to further her education, Myrna left home at the age of fourteen to work as a nanny while attending high school. 

At the age of seventeen, she emigrated to the United States. After a successful career in the early sixties as a flight attendant, she married, raised two children, and obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Through her career and volunteer work, Myrna is proud to acknowledge she has made a difference in the lives of others. She believes that through these activities a sense of contentment and peace is obtained.

 Encouraged by her good friend and associate, psychologist and author Dr. Jacob Shefa, to write her story, Myrna began her memoirs several years ago. When she began her memoirs, her intention was to leave a legacy of strong values and a guide for “a life worth living” for her grandchildren as well as future generations. But as Myrna wrote, she began to realize others might benefit from her story.

Goodreads

 

(1) winner will receive a finished copy of THE BLUE HOUSE - US Only.

Ends February 21st, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

2/6/2023	Mythical Books	Guest Post or Excerpt/IG Post
2/7/2023	Writer of Wrongs	Guest Post or Excerpt
2/8/2023	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Guest Post or Excerpt
2/8/2023	Two Chicks on Books	Guest Post or Excerpt/IG Post
2/9/2023	A Dream Within A Dream	Guest Post or Excerpt
2/10/2023	pick a good book	Review/IG Post

Week Two:

2/13/2023	The Momma Spot	Guest Post or Excerpt
2/14/2023	Girls in White Dresses	Review
2/15/2023	Review Thick And Thin	Review/IG Post
2/16/2023	OneMoreExclamation	Review/IG Post
2/17/2023	@allyluvsbooksalatte	Review/IG Post