Just a quick introduction about me. My name is Nina, now living in Bangkok. I’ve also lived in Chiang Mai and Amsterdam, and Tokyo is my second home. I love books, simple as that. It is my hobby, my escape, my favorite objects in any room, my favorite things to buy. I like being open to different genres so I’ll read anything and everything. I did not major in literature, and I don’t know all the theories, and I might not understand the significance of this and that…I just enjoy reading.
My favorite author is Milan Kundera, and his books “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting”, and “Immortality” changed my life. I also lovelovelove “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Lolita”. The slightly dark and gnarly ones always thrill me and are my favorites. (I actually have so many favorites; I say almost every book is my favorite.)
There is a quote by Henry Miller: “A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition.”
I agree with him. So read everything! 😉
I am also a coffee addict, and I also love flowers (and keeping them in my books), so…that’s pretty much what this blog is all about. 🙂
I also like: travel, advertising, photography, writing, animals, dark humor, dark chocolate, dark red lipstick, dark red nail polish, American classic cars, cafe-hopping, Frank Sinatra, Arctic Monkeys, Bob Marley, The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse, high-rise buildings, wandering, reunions, living in Tokyo, living in Amsterdam, driving around Chiang Mai, playing with different kinds of coffee-making instruments, Mad Men Don Draper, and…I just like so many things.
So. If you have book recommendations or want to discuss books or just want to say hi (or send me books! 😛 )…..Please do. 🙂
– Nina 🙂
P.S. To connect with me on Goodreads, click here 🙂
Flowers Between Pages 
Just out of curiosity,are you a florist of some sorts?
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haha I wish! 🙂 Your comment actually inspired me—I would love to do a store that is a combination of a bookstore and a flower shop 🙂
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Hi!
The ebook format of my new book is officially on the Bestsellers List for poetry and is #1 on the Bestsellers List for Hispanic-American Poetry! It is now available in print format, as well! I’d really appreciate it if you could check it out and write a review on amazon, goodreads, and/or your own social media outlets! Please let me know! Thanks.
http://www.amazon.com/Borderline-Between-Life-Poetry-Complete/dp/1522770534/ref=la_B019EME8NY_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450917847&sr=1-1
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Hi! Thank you for checking out my blog and for wanting me to write a review for your book! 🙂
I would love to read your poetry and review it. Could you send me a copy in print format?
Thank you.
🙂
– Nina
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Hi Nina, I’m Cristina and it’s good to see your blog, I appreciate your taste and am in the middle of M Train myself. Here are some books from authors I know that you may like, please let me know if any interest you and I’ll put you in touch with the authors for review copies.
Thank you very much,
Cristina Deptula
authorslargeandsmall.com
Nika Beamon’s Misdiagnosed (memoir written as medical suspense).
Misdiagnosed: The Search for Dr. House is the tale of a Nika Beamon’s quest to find the correct medical diagnosis after years of getting false assessments. This frank and engaging story takes the reader on journey through her various hospital trips, and procedures, as well as her feeling and emotions that are as real as they are raw.
Also, Misdiagnosed serves a cautionary guide to anyone who falls ill or has a loved one suffering with an ailment in the US. A recent John Hopkins study found that hospital errors lead to as many as 40,500 patients dying annually. The Mayo Clinic found 26 percent of cases are misdiagnosed; this number rises to a staggering 44 percent when it comes to some types of cancer according to the Journal of Clinical Oncology. And, a study published in April showed 1 in every 20 people or 12 million per year are misdiagnosed at outpatient clinics in the U.S.
Pearl MD by Marie Bartlett
Fictional account of a female physician in 1800s North Carolina, inspired by real medical journals of the time. Rebuilding her life after a medical mistake that could have taken the life of a former patient who died in childbirth, Pearl starts her new practice far out in the country. She finds a friend in her African-American female assistant and encounters romance from a Chinese immigrant and from the town sheriff, who finds he must arrest her when her past catches up to her. Most of this book is actually about medicine and daily life in the time period, it’s not a soap opera.
Roving Tree by Elsie Augustave
Story of a Haitian girl adopted by white wealthy East Coast parents. She has a happy life until her appearance makes her stand out in school and she begins to feel out of place. When older, she joins the Peace Corps and goes to Haiti and Zaire in search of her heritage and encounters poverty, resilience and passionate love. Author studied in Senegal and France as a Fulbright scholar and currently teaches at NYC’s Stuyvesant High School and is a consultant for the College Board.
Christopher Bernard – Dangerous Stories for Boys. “Dangerous Stories for Boys” are about those years between childhood and the late teens when young males first confront life’s crises and complications – some comic, some tragic – in school, in their families, in the world around them. Three friends find their friendship tested and destroyed by power games and jealousy. A middle-schooler spies on a group of girls to learn what they really talk about when they’re alone, and learns more than he bargained for. A country boy gets lost on his first day in the big city and grows up faster than he ever expected. … A young Californian becomes obsessed by a veiled Muslim woman, leading to an interest in Islam that takes him to the threshold of conversion.. Franz Kafka’s father, from beyond the grave, responds to Kafka’s famous letter, in a tragic-comic epistle expressing what the father really thought of his son.
“Dangerous Stories for Boys” are stories for our time: touching, funny, sharp, illuminating. What’s it like to be a boy in an era of confusing change? This book will help you find out.
Linda Baron-Katz – Surviving Mental Illness: My Story and Peter and Lisa, the memoir of the author’s experience as an Orthodox Jew in Manhattan, struggling through school, dating relationships, work and family life and then finally getting diagnosed with bipolar syndrome. Literary piece about being the ‘other’ on at least two levels in American society. Peter and Lisa is a children’s book designed for elementary school kids to help them understand parents and adults around them who may face depression, anxiety, or other conditions. Author is a good speaker and can discuss the power of literature and communication to encourage empathy and bridge social divides.
Peter Jacob Streitz’ Hellfires Shake the Blues (poetry)
Ranging from his ode to the much-maligned urban pigeon (Winged Rats) to a haunting Holocaust scenario with a repeated chorus gradually diminishing like a decimated people, Peter Streitz’s clever poetry will give you pause. Savour it.
(This man is an All-American athlete turned corporate executive who’s currently one of the last living Beatnik poets in San Francisco).
Larry Higdon’s The Storms of Deliverance. Tale of an ex-Atlanta Braves player who wakes up broken down by the side of the road, unable to remember the past 27 years of his life. Story of how he puts everything together and overcomes the alcoholism that has led to his memory loss. Suspense and human interest story, author has been compared to Nick Hornby. Higdon is a lawyer who has served as an elementary school counselor and certified play therapist. http://www.amazon.com/Storms-Deliverance-Larry-Higdon/dp/1613465297/
Lisa Stalvey’s Food Sex Wine Cigars, a memoir of various addictions which the author, a professional chef, struggled with and overcame. Stalvey worked with Wolfgang Puck and at Spago restaurant back in the 1970s, one of the only women in professional gourmet cooking at the time. However, depression and anorexia left her at 98 pounds and near death. Story of how she overcame through faith and letting go. http://www.amazon.com/Food-Sex-Wine-Cigars-Memoir-ebook/dp/B010WS6BJI/
Hazel Boyd’s Love Diaries.
Local Boston author Hazel Boyd’s Love Diaries are finely crafted literary fiction pieces, illustrating through characters and situations grounded in real life what it takes to grow and maintain a relationship.
Hazel’s characters, professional adults with lives and careers, experience various stages of love, from first attraction to long-lasting marriages. They face various hurdles, including the common issues of having feelings for someone who doesn’t return them, finding someone who does, deciding how and when to start a family, and figuring out how to share space and make everything work long term. Others face more serious problems such as infidelity and domestic violence and trauma from past child sexual abuse.
Hazel intends her writing to be authentic but also offer some hope for survivors of difficult situations. Abuse isn’t just something that happens to those ‘other’ kinds of people – those from all walks of life can face it, and can overcome through the power of love and resilience.
Some of her couples are straight, others are LGBT, and her intention is to show how all couples deal with ups and downs and struggles and joys within relationships, regardless of orientation. These novels also show the same events from multiple, alternating perspectives. Hazel actually wrote the second of her two books, Wanted You More, to give back story on several of the characters while moving the plot forward so that readers can better understand everyone’s point of view. Through this we can explore how our perceptions and personalities shape our views of reality. We also can go beyond the clichéd advice and truly see why communication is so necessary for building and maintaining common ground.
Fulvio Ciano’s Digital Wilderness
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Wilderness-F-L-Ciano/dp/1460249496/
Edward Phillips is at the top of his career at Virton Technologies developing cutting edge software systems for government contractors. His biggest stress is dodging the growing pressure he’s been getting from, Gabriella, his long-time girlfriend. She wants him to settle down, get married and have kids. Life is good, but is he ready for the big commitment? The stakes change drastically when Edward accepts a sudden promotion to the corporate headquarters in Boston, taking him away from his tough personal decisions and introducing him to the mysterious Human Augmentation Digital Interface project. At first, HADI appears to be the perfect software to evolve humanity, touted to help the disabled walk again, allow the deaf to hear and the blind to see. Then, Edward meets Noc. Suddenly Edward discovers that this benevolent technology has a steep price and he is thrown into a lethal game of corporate espionage that leads to a nationwide manhunt for a deadly spy, a charge his enemies are intent to pin on him. Edward must sacrifice his freedom and risk everything he loves if he hopes to thwart Virton’s psychotic mastermind and save humanity from an insidious tool that will be able to control our very minds.
Mordraud Chronicles by Fabio Scalini.
Graphic novel medieval fantasy where three brothers find themselves caught in an epic battle between the free kingdoms and the powers that be, who shape the world to their purposes through music and chants. Compared to the Witcher series, focuses on characters and the varying moral choices they make to survive the war and freezing winter. Much more effort goes into character and psychology that also applies to real life than into creating fantastical characters, although the landscape gets evoked well here. Published by an Italian startup, Rampart.
The Terminal by Jeremy Gosnell.
Novel with a female scientist (oceanographer) heroine who finds a portal to a lost civilization within a mysterious deep blue ‘hole’ in the ocean. Novel incorporates real marine science, as the author has studied the topic extensively and works as a scuba instructor and blogs about marine biology, and consists of speculation given real ocean phenomena. Author is a clean water activist and writes on environmental health and against fracking. Praised for quality writing and compared to Jules Verne.
Jeremy Gosnell is a magazine writer and a long-time marine aquarist. He lives in the mountains of western Maryland and was inspired to create this story after reading Graham Hancock’s writings on a pre-classical era civilization. His biggest challenge was “tying human genetics, ancient history, and seismology together to create a story that leads back to an ancient kingdom, written about long ago by Plato.” He enjoyed envisioning a scientific picture of what Atlantis and its people may have been like.
Portrait in Time and Vale of Years by Charles Schneider.
Portrait in Time and Vale of Years center on a dead body and mysterious naked woman found amidst the height of French art. Susanne Bruante, assistant gallery director at Paris’ Musee d’Orsay, has developed a controversial theory about the provenance of some famous 19th century nudes. She’s also having an affair with the museum’s executive director to further her career, and hiding this fact from police makes her a prime murder suspect. However, the truth surrounding the man’s death goes deeper than murder and involves love, art, and time travel. Susanne discovers this and inserts herself into history, setting up a plot to inherit the wealth of a famous painter before returning to her own time.
Joe Klingler – Missing Mona, a mystery novel.
Tommy has boomeranged back to his parents residence and a dead-end job after too many years in college. As he looks squarely at his next decade of life his smartphone convinces him the time is ripe for a change. A gift from his grandfather provides the means, so he embarks on the path of blues artists and beatniks before him–and hits the road.
He immediately meets a damsel in hitchhiking distress who says her name is Mona. Her presence persuades him that the bright lights and dark clubs of Chicago might be his kind of town. So on a summer Saturday night they settle into a fancy hotel overlooking the beaches of Lake Michigan.
On Sunday…Mona disappears.
But she leaves behind more than a sweet memory that involves Tommy in a brand new cash flow problem he never imagined. While trying to sort out how to stay on the right side of the law and get back on the road, he meets a young criminologist who helps him, a DJ who doesn’t, and a librarian who teaches him about the city, women, and the art of the makeover. After truth and lies are stirred like a blue martini, being assaulted by a pink monkey, and witnessing a drive-by shooting that drowns a Ferrari–Tommy is desperate to help Mona.
If he can find her.
Adina Sara’s Blind Shady Bend. Story of Hannah, a 70 year old woman who has lived a very normal life, cared for her elderly parents and worked as a legal secretary. One day she finds that her long lost brother died and left her property in Nevada City, CA, out in the country near the foothills. Story of how she gets to know her neighbors and renovates and rebuilds the house, starting a totally new adventure at her age.
http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Shady-Bend-Adina-Sara-ebook/dp/B0129TNERA/
Larry Higdon’s The Storms of Deliverance. Tale of an ex-Atlanta Braves player who wakes up broken down by the side of the road, unable to remember the past 27 years of his life. Story of how he puts everything together and overcomes the alcoholism that has led to his memory loss. Suspense and human interest story, author has been compared to Nick Hornby. Higdon is a lawyer who has served as an elementary school counselor and certified play therapist. http://www.amazon.com/Storms-Deliverance-Larry-Higdon/dp/1613465297/
Andrea Carr – Family Tree The Novel: Family Tree and The Trees Outside, literary fiction surrounding a mixed race woman in the inner city who faces deep family problems and secrets revealed after decades, all during the four days that she gets allowed to spend out of jail for her sister’s funeral. While the novels tell of one particular family’s issues and comment on racial and gender and class inequities, they also touch on much broader aspects of the human experience: the destructive power of secrets, even when kept with the best of intentions, and the role of structure and community in helping survivors overcome tragedy.
Bodies on the Potomac by Daniel O’Neil
Karl Blumenthal’s Bluffton, South Carolina automobile dealership is being terminated by Universal Motors. He believes it’s because he’s failed to financially back the reelection efforts of the sitting US president. For guidance, Blumenthal calls on good friend and former Washington power broker Taylor Clark. But Clark is skeptical. However, when a live round fired from a silenced pistol narrowly misses him, Clark begins to fear the worst—that the country could be on the edge of the messiest national scandal since Watergate.
From the Lowcountry of South Carolina to the halls of power in the nation’s capital, from the skyscrapers of San Francisco’s famed financial district to the stormy streets of flooded Savannah, Clark’s resourcefulness and nerve fuel his pursuit of the truth—a pursuit that ultimately ends in violent public death.
JZ Holden – The Illusion of Memory, literary historical fiction, story of two sisters, children of Holocaust survivor parents, who bond after tragedy and uncover secrets about their family. Exploration of how historical trauma affects families over multiple generations and a story from the heart about the experience of living one’s childhood and young womanhood always in the shadow of the unspeakable.
Marjorie Thelen’s A Far Out Galaxy, sci fi/humor/romance. (YA or adult)
Travel on a spoofy, romantic romp from the far out Deovolante Galaxy to the Milky Way with mismatched mission commanders, Will and Vita, who are trying to save renegade planet Earth from itself. Will, a warrior king, likes to be in charge but so does Vita, queen of info tech for Deovolante, making for a rocky start to the mission. Our commanders are charged with calming the endless wars on planet Earth. But the well-intentioned mission is plagued with a series of untoward events that threaten to destroy it. Through it all, Will and Vita have to decide if they will team up to bring a successful conclusion to the mission and in the process work out their feelings for each other.
Rea Nolan Martin’s The Anesthesia Game. (YA or adult)
She’s only fifteen. She shouldn’t have to play anesthesia games at all, never mind this often, but whatever. She tries not to waste time feeling sorry for herself. She already knows life isn’t fair. Get over it. If you’re going to survive, you have to turn it into a game you have a chance of winning, a game that makes up for lost time. A game that teaches you how to be awake even when you’re not.
***
40-something Hannah, 50-something Mitsy, and 60-something Pandora indulge in a creative assortment of addictions that obscure the mysterious connection to a common past that haunts them all.
Estate reserve pinot noir, QVC, and a deck of maxed-out credit cards drive Hannah and her Virginia horse farm into a financial corner. Religion, spiritualism, and an addiction to the telephone mystic, Pandora, create the agoraphobic cave into which Mitsy retreats from everyone, including her critically ill 15-year-old daughter, Sydney. Pandora trades her green tea and tofu for the cigarettes, coffee, snickers, fine wine, and hashish that muddy her mystical vision just when she needs it most.
The link to their recovery is Sydney, the child among them, and the stake they all share in her perilous condition and unlikely cure. As Syd submits to weekly treatments for an illness she refuses to grace with a name, she plays The Anesthesia Game, a game that ultimately leads her to the origin of her disease and a possible way out of the struggle that binds them all.
Jennifer Ott’s Desperate Moon, historical romance. (YA or adult)
Countess Katerina Vaduva roams Eastern Europe as a vampire for nearly six hundred years experiencing the horrors of mortal man – wars, plagues, genocide and torture. For centuries, she seeks shelter and security in the castles of counts and sultans. When her husband the Count of Slovakia passes, she pursues a new life with a colonel in the Prussian military. While her husband quests victory at battle, Katerina desires a naturalist scientist who seduces her with knowledge and a greater understanding of herself, for this she will risk everything for the one thing she never had – immortal love and the pursuit of progress. This novel humanizes vampires and the monsters/outcasts and shows centuries of human history from an outside perspective.
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Hi Christina/Brant,
Thank you for visiting my blog and for being interested in connecting me with all these authors!
I have just sent you a private message to the Facebook page of Authors, Large and Small.
If there’s another place I should write to, please let me know. Thank you.
🙂
– Nina
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Hey, Nina, I really appreciate your list of literary sweethearts, and was wondering if you might consider reviewing my new novel, Raking the Dust, which is scheduled for March 10th publication. If interested, I can provide you with a PDF version of the manuscript. Short description as follows:
In this rogue’s tale, full of sound, fury and erotic surrealism, we meet Alex Fillameno, a writer who has traded in the machine-grind of New York for a bare bones existence in the high desert town of Taos, New Mexico. Recently divorced and jobless, Fillameno has become a regular at The End of the Road, the bar where he first encounters the alluring and enigmatic D.J, a singer and musician. Drawn to her mutable sense of reality, the two begin a romance that starts off relatively normal. When D.J. initiates Alex into the realm of sexual transfiguration their lives are turned inside-out, and what follows is an anti-hero’s journey into a nesting doll world of masks and fragments, multiples and parallels, time-locks and trauma; a world in which reality is celluloid and what you see is never what you get.
All the best to you, stay floral & lit-minded 😉
J.
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Hi John!
Thank you for visiting my blog! 🙂 And thank you for wanting me to read your book – I feel so honored! It sounds like such an interesting read and I’m very curious to know more about all the characters and the world they live in.
Would you mind sending me a physical copy though? Even if it’s a manuscript version… Let me know if that will be possible and I can send you my mailing address. You can reach me here or ninapimpisa@gmail.com .
Thank you again!
Best,
Nina 🙂
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I love Kundera, and absolutely adore his book ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, finally stumbled upon someone who loves it too! And ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ and ‘Lolita’ are some of my favourites too. Have you read ‘The Return of Philip Latinowicz’ by Miroslav Krleza, it changed my life. Greeting from Europe.
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So happy to have found your blog Nina!
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Thank you for visiting! Hoping to get to know each other (and our love for books) better! 🙂
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