review up on paper diet books

"I really enjoyed this smooth book, served up with little flair, relying instead on its own, unpolished beauty to deliver an exceptional reading experience." --PaperDietBooks.com

Dazzling review of my book is up on PaperDietBooks.com, a cool book review site from Portland talking about books like food (hence the name). My book ranks in "books to be swallowed." Thanks, Stacey! Here it is.

"I recently ate dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant in San Francisco. Highly recommended by local residents, the place had a simple charm that was at the same time both inviting and slightly foreign. I ordered the roasted chicken with potatoes, and marveled at how delicious the food was. There was no fancy sauce over the chicken or even an extravagant garnish to dress the plate. Just roasted chicken with a hint of rosemary, and soft, delectable potatoes on the side. I could taste the purity of the food, and was left utterly satisfied, without the feeling of gluttony or eater’s remorse.

I make the analogy of food with this website, and so I extend the analogy of this wonderful meal to my review of Kat Ricker’s book of poems and short stories, Something Familiar. There is certainly something in this book for everyone – a bit of fantasy, a sample of memory, quiet humor, and even a story “based on actual hearsay.” It is a small, simple, appealing, rich, wonderfully executed collection of writing.

The title is entirely appropriate, for what I see as two distinct reasons. On one hand, I believe readers will find something in the stories and poems that is familiar to themselves. In “Ray’s Foul Ball,” I saw myself as a parent in the juxtaposition of Ray’s own individual dreams versus his selfless love for his daughter. In “Remembering Mrs. Little,” I saw myself on Mrs. Little’s bed, pouring out her tin of buttons (only, in my memory, they are my grandmother’s buttons, passed down through generations). And even in the fantastical “The Secret of Lara Lee,” I know what it’s like to have “something click” and to understand Lara Lee’s declaration “Isn’t it good just to be!”

The other incarnation of the title is the way in which many of Ricker’s characters, when faced with the circumstances of a changing life, retreat to something familiar in their own lives, or in their past. Oftentimes, you can even see it in their eyes. In “Change of Venue,” the artisan, faced with harsh financial realities, must turn to different pursuits, and yet you know the “truth – eyes sparkled” of where he would rather be. Old Michael’s bent form is transformed in “Walnut Harvest in Newberg,” as he remembers his fine accomplishments and “his eyes dawned” through the recollection. And despite Mattie’s confused behavior in “Mattie’s Orchids,” something of her former self slips through when “from the blankets, she turns and winks at you, twinkle of mischief in her eye.”

The flowing theme throughout this book of “something familiar” is rounded out by some wonderful phrasing in the poems and stories. In fact, in some cases as I was reading, the title could have just as easily have been something *unexpected,* as Ricker puts images together in beautiful new forms. There are also moments of humor that gratefully caught me off guard. I really enjoyed this smooth book, served up with little flair, relying instead on its own, unpolished beauty to deliver an exceptional reading experience."