Sunday, August 16, 2009

What is Barbara O’Neal reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Barbara O’Neal, author of The Lost Recipe for Happiness.

One book from her entry:
Veil of Roses, by Laura Fitzgerald. If I tell you the situation of this story: a young Iranian woman comes to the US for a fresh start, a chance to escape Iran—and her cloistered, claustrophobic life there—it might sound a little grim. In fact, it’s a fast paced, upbeat chronicle about Tamila Soroush. Her westernized parents lived in America when Tamila and her sister were small, and were trapped when the Shah was deposed. Especially considering all the news that’s been pouring out of Iran with the recent elections, I loved reading about what women’s lives are really like in a country that was—not very long ago—quite modern and has now returned to the dark ages. You can’t help but root for Tamila and pray that she finds a way to stay with her sister in Arizona, where she can “just sit in public at a coffee shop with a man and meet his eye” without fear of being hanged for it. One of my favorite...[read on]
Barbara Samuel O’Neal is an award-winning and beloved commercial fiction writer with more than 35 novels to her credit in many genres, including 6 highly acclaimed novels of women’s fiction. She has won two Colorado Center for the Book awards for commercial fiction, five prestigious RITA awards, and many others. She is a highly respected teacher of craft and inspirational subjects, and finds nourishment in the interaction with other writers. Her novel The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O’Neal, has gone to eight printings, and is a major release in Australia and Germany as well as the US. Her new book, The Secret of Everythings, will be published in January 2010.

Visit Barbara O’Neal's website.

Writers Read: Barbara O’Neal.

--Marshal Zeringue