Ordinary Charms - by Jan Seale (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>Jan Seale lends us her eyes and understanding so we can perceive and often appreciate, perhaps for the first time, much in everyday life that we might otherwise dismiss as unimportant.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>In this collection of short prose, 30 years accruing, Jan Seale takes on everything from student bloopers to sparrows, navel-gazing to needles, silkworms to Southern sayings. Her words, sprinkled with wit and soul, suggest that our ordinary world is rife with meaning, there for our simple notice with lament or celebration. Life itself is the magician.</p><p>These 45 essays offer humor, thoughtful observations, surprising connections among seeming unrelated information, and above all, ways to know the surprising charm in the commonplace.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br><p>"I was struck by the unbroken thread of genuine wonder in the world, an unfolding of its little miracles with deft, certain metaphors."</p><p>--David Bowles, The Monitor</p><p> </p><p>"Love for all things permeates Ms. Seale's vision always allowing, of course, for an alert sense of the ridiculous which can bring a laugh on just about any page."</p><p>--Laura Kennelly, Texas Books in Review</p><p> </p><p>"Seale's meditations on chores, labors, and duties emphasize ritual rather than repetition or drudgery and in her lines the transcendent becomes visible."</p><p>--Jerry Bradley, Concho River Review</p><p> </p><p>"A natural storyteller, her poems are both carefully crafted and wildly free wise evocations of nature, satiric takes on teaching writing and intimate narratives about family and friends (dead serious and endearing but never sentimental)."</p><p>--Robert Bonazzi, The San Antonio Express-News</p><p> </p><p>"Seale's work displays her ability to hone in on the interiority of her characters' lives. Appearances is a graceful collection of the struggles and pleasures that reflect our shared humanity."</p><p>--Dena Garcia, Texas Books in Review</p><p> </p><p>"Seale demonstrates a remarkable gift for addressing life's most difficult issues in a serious manner, yet using wry humor to leave the reader with a sense of hope."</p><p>--P.P.T., The Baylor Line</p><p> </p><p> "Throughout these always whimsical essays, stuff so common we don't notice it becomes the basis for human struggle and dignity."</p><p>--Jim Sanderson, Texas Writers Newsletter</p><p> </p><p> "The eighteen stories in Airlift will alternately lift your spirits and make you teary-eyed. Seale reveals the importance of trampolines and sewing machines and custom designed tombstones with a voice that is never condescending and always a pleasure to read."</p><p>--Melanie Alberts, Story Circle Journal</p><p> </p><p>"What is particularly fine about this collection of poems is the steady presence of the voice, the clarity of its pitch.</p><p>--Patricia Grant, The Monitor</p><p> </p><p>"Seale often pairs form and content ironically to jaw-dropping effect. This offbeat combination of almost-epic catalog and almost-but-not-quite heroic verse generates a gritty humor that recurs throughout the text and leavens an experience potentially devastating for reader and writer alike. </p><p>--Carol Coffee Reposa, The Mimeograph</p><p> </p><p>"Seale possesses a Chekovian ability to render people and events significant and memorable."</p><p>--Delores Washburn, Western American Literature</p><p> </p><p>"Homeland is a charmer whose message will stick with you long after you've turned the last page." </p><p>--Judyth Rigler, Texas Books</p><p> </p><p>"Seale's "Believing Is Seeing" is a powerful collection where the poet enters the internal landscape of desert and spirit to write poetry that is both self-revealing and mysterious."</p><p>--Ray Gonzalez, The Bloomsbury Review</p><p> </p><p>"Ms. Seale's genius lies in her ability to penetrate her characters' minds and find a single, poignant point to make about their lives, something that made them the way they are, perhaps the same thing that makes all of us the way we are."</p><p>--Clay Reynolds, The Dallas Morning News</p><br>
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