Ruiyan Xu’s first novel, Lost and Forgotten Languages (St. Martin’s Press, 2010), is the story of Li Jing, an investment banker from Shanghai who, after a massive accident, loses the ability to speak Chinese. His wife, Meiling, is devastated that she can no longer communicate with her husband, and the two become more and more distant as the book progresses. Rosalyn Neal, an American doctor, offers Li Jing’s only hope for recovery and Li Jing ultimately falls in love with her. According to Publishers Weekly, “The characters are portrayed with empathy and care, but the suspense over Jing’s fate is lost in too many narrative digressions and an ending that falls flat.” Does FOF book reviewer Karen Smith agree?

In a nutshell, what is this book about?
This story is about language, how words bind intimate relationships and also how we see and present ourselves. Author Ruiyan Xu got the idea for her book during her childhood. Her family emigrated to the U.S. from Shanghai and she felt isolated because she didn’t speak English. Like most children, she learned it quickly and she lost her native tongue. When she returned to China in her teens, not knowing how to speak Chinese made her feel isolated once again.

Did you enjoy it?

I found it enjoyable, yet deeply troubling.

Was it a page turner, or did you have to push through it?
Not a compelling page-turner in terms of pace or plot, but steadily interesting.

What would you want to ask the author, now that you’re done reading?
I would like to ask Ruiyan Xu about her own experiences with languages lost and found: did she find herself with different personalities in English and Chinese? Is it possible to use language independent of culture?

Would you recommend this to other FOFs? Did you find yourself telling friends about the book as you were reading it?
I’d recommend it to anyone interested in a book that asks more questions than it answers.

What part did you like most? What part did you like least?
My favorite part of the book was the trip that James, Rosalyn and PangPang made to Hangzhou. That interlude shows the characters what is possible in the alternate universe of the English language, both good and bad. I found the ending unsatisfying.

Is this book similar to any other books you have read? Which?
While I haven’t read anything directly comparable to this work, the disintegration of a marriage and family because of new language barriers takes the reader into the familiar territory of love and loss, flirtation and affairs, betrayals and misunderstandings.

Any other thoughts you’d like to share . . . ?
There is a shallowness to Xu’s characters that makes it difficult to be more than a spectator to their situation. A better writer would have given the characters more depth so we could identify with them. Instead, Xu keeps us focused on the language problem itself. What would happen if you were ‘robbed’ of your native tongue in a traumatic accident? How would you talk with your spouse? What about your job? Your children?
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Want to review books for FOF? Apply to be a book guru, here.

Calling all bibliophiles. The books are stacking up at the FOF offices and we are looking for smart, insightful FOFs to read and review them!

Here’s how it works: Apply to be an FOF book guru, here. If selected, we’ll contact you about what books we have in stock and send you books periodically. Write us a fabulous review within one month of receiving the book, and we’ll publish it and send you your next book!

A few months ago, we asked FOFs to tell us about the charities and organizations that are most important to them. FOF Shirley Enebrad responded to our call. “My little boy Cory was diagnosed with leukemia at age three. He died right after his ninth birthday,” said Shirley. “One of the things he made me promise before he died was for me to help other parents going through the same difficulties that we faced alone.” As part of this mission, Shirley joined and eventually became the president of the Candlelighter’s Childhood Cancer Foundation of Western WA, a support system and organization for families facing childhood cancer. She also wrote a book about her experiences called Over the Rainbow Bridge. Here, FOF book guru Katherine Watson shares her review of Shirley’s story.

In a nutshell, what is this book about?
Over the Rainbow Bridge follows author Shirley Enebrad on an emotional roller coaster as she deals with divorce and then, being the single parent of a terminally-ill child. In the book, Shirley recounts the years she spent advocating for and protecting her nine-year-old son Cory, who was plagued with cancer and suffered through painful chemotherapy treatments. Cory made the decision to terminate chemotherapy and end his life naturally and Shirley supported his decision.

What is the genre of this book?
It is an autobiography. Shirley tells her own story with Cory’s story weaved throughout.

Did you enjoy it?
I can’t say I enjoyed the book. It isn’t easy or pleasant to read about a suffering child. However, Shirley does a nice job of showing what Cory contributed during his short life on earth, including his words of wisdom and his description of heaven and God.

Was it a page turner, or did you have to push through it?
The issue of allowing a child to decide to end chemotherapy, motivated me to continue reading.

What part did you like most? What part did you like least?
This book helped me understand the thought processes of a grieving parent. Shirley is confronted by medical personnel who have been trained to sustain life and heal and are not always equipped to deal with emotions of patients and families.

Would you recommend this to other FOFs? Did you find yourself telling friends about the book as you were reading it?
I work in a hospital setting with pastoral care and social workers. The nurses and hospital workers I spoke with feel they deal enough with death and dying in their professional lives and would not choose this book for relaxing reading. If someone is prepared to make the emotional investment needed to read about a terminally ill child, then this is a remarkable story.

Any other thoughts you’d like to share . . . ?
This book confronts a tough ethical issue that parents of terminally ill children wrestle with — letting your child choose to end treatment. Shirley let Cory choose and he made the decision to end life naturally. Shirley’s decision was an insightful and selfless act, in my opinion, but other readers might argue he was too young to make the decision himself or that she gave up hope. Shirley was self-assured and proud of how she handled matters. Since people have different cultural backgrounds, belief systems and needs to give them direction, I’d hesitate to give this book to a parent of a terminally ill child.
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Want to review books for FOF? Apply to be a book guru, here.

When you’re FOF, you’re in an ideal position to start writing a book–we’ve all got a lifetime of expertise in something and plenty of stories to share. But, where to begin? The jump from your computer screen to a bookstore shelf can feel insurmountable. Arielle Eckstut, literary agent and author of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, demystifies book publishing so you can turn your book into bucks, pronto!

Should I self-publish or use a publisher?
This depends on the access you have to your audience. You must assess your own abilities and resources to figure out the right match. I’ll give you two examples:

Let’s say you’re a realtor in Tennessee, writing a book about Tennessee real estate.  You know where your audience is, you know how to reach them, and most likely a national publisher is not going to publish your book. You could go to a regional publisher but you’d probably get paid a very low advance. In this case I’d recommend you self-publish. You will make more per book because you don’t have an intermediary who takes some of the cut.

Now, let’s say you’re a realtor who is writing about getting a great deal on a house in this down economy — a national idea. You may have a great local reputation, but you are not known outside of your area. As a self-publisher, you’d have a hard time reaching the audience you want and getting the kind of distribution you need. I’d recommend pursuing a publisher in this situation.

If you decide to self publish what are your options?
You can create an e-book that you put up yourself on Amazon — you don’t have to pay for printing. You can “print on demand” one book at a time so you don’t have to pay for a large print run. Or, you can do a print run and then try to get your book into bookstores or sell them through a website.

What about “author service companies”?
There’s a whole group of companies like these popping up to help authors with self-publishing such as CreateSpace on Amazon, Lulu.com and Author House. They can get an ISBN number for your book, edit it and put together a marketing plan. But, it really adds up. You can spend $20,000 for a book that may only sell 100 copies.

Do you know anyone who has had great success self-publishing their book?
Lisa Genova wrote a book called Still Alice, about a woman with Alzheimer’s. She sent the book out to many agents — some didn’t respond and those that did said the topic was too depressing. She decided to self-publish. She reached out to Alzheimer’s organizations about her book. She became a guest blogger for one, a speaker for another. Her book became a bestseller and she ended up getting an offer from Simon and Schuster for over a million dollars.

If you do decide to go the publishing house route…how many rejections should you expect?
You need to expect rejection, period. There are people who have received over a hundred rejections but gone on to great success.

Does having a successful blog or social media page increase the chances of being picked up by a major publisher?
One of the first thing an agent or a publisher is going to do when they get your manuscript or proposal is look at your social media activity. Whether it matters, depends on your audience. If your readers are primarily 70-year-old women, having a popular Twitter feed for your book might not be as important as a Facebook page. If you are writing a sci-fi novel and don’t have a Twitter feed, that’s going to concern a publisher.

Do you need a manuscript or can you sell an idea?
It depends what you are writing. If you are writing fiction, you need a complete manuscript. If you’ve written a memoir or narrative non-fiction, these days publishers expect a manuscript. If you are writing practical non-fiction you only need a book proposal.

Do you have to know someone “inside” to get a publisher to look at your work?
You can’t just send it blind. After 9/11 they don’t open packages unless they know who they are coming from. You either need to know someone at the publishing company or send it through an agent.

So…what’s the secret to getting picked up by a big publisher?
I think there are four principles to getting published:

Researching: Every day I get dozens of queries and 95% are for the type of books I don’t represent. Those go in the trash. Whether you are looking for an agent to find out who is appropriate, assessing your competition or what other authors are doing online that you could be doing too….you need to research!

Networking: If you know someone, it makes a huge difference. You never know who is going to be the person who can help. Lisa Genova had an acquaintance in a weird part of Simon and Schuster, she wrote them, told them she was selling all these books and having enormous success, and that’s how she got her deal.

Writing: Many people have great ideas but they don’t sit down and actually write them. Sometimes the thing you are writing isn’t what will actually get published. But, if you keep writing about the things you care about, you’ll have more of a chance. We have a friend, Tamim Ansary, who had been writing for years about his childhood in Afghanistan. His agent had no success getting a memoir published. Then, 9/11 happened — his agent said, “You know that stuff you’ve been writing all these years? Get me something right now and I’ll be able to sell it within two hours.” His book, West of Kabul, East of New York, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies and he was on Oprah.

Perseverance: Every writer encounters rejection. Some people give up too quickly. Other people can last long but not long enough. The people that say “I’m going to do this no matter what,” are the ones who will have success. The one caveat is there’s “smart perseverance” and “stupid perseverance.” If you just send out the same thing over and over without changing it. Anytime you get any criticism about your work, you need to reassess it and change it up.
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Arielle Eckstut is a literary agent-at-large for Levine Greenberg, co-author of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published and co-founder of The Book Doctors, a company dedicated to helping writers with every step of the publishing process. She has helped hundreds of talented writers get their books published.

Win a copy of The Things We Cherished, the latest historical page turner from Pam Jenoff, author of the best-selling, The Kommandant’s Girl. Plus, all 40 FOF winners will be invited to a private chat with Pam. To enter, comment below and answer:  What’s your favorite love story of all time?

About The Things We Cherished: An accused Nazi collaborator, a forbidden love affair and the missing antique clock that holds the answers to it all…can attorney Charlotte Gold defend the case while confronting her feelings for the brother of the man who once broke her heart?

“…a skillfully rendered tale of undying love, unthinkable loss and the relentless grip of the past on the present.” –Kirkus Reviews

“A powerful novel rich in period detail…a fascinating contemporary and historical drama.” –Booklist

“…a timeless love story.” –Publisher’s Weekly

About author Pam Jenoff: Authors have written of love and war since the dawn of time, but perhaps there’s no one better suited to pen these tales than Pam Jenoff, a former diplomat, lawyer and Holocaust expert. Pam is the international bestselling author of several novels including The Kommandant’s Girl.

Enter to win a copy of The Things We Cherished, plus an invitation to a private chat with the author, Pam Jenoff. 40 FOFs will win! To enter, comment below and answer: What’s your favorite love story of all time?

(See all our past winners. See official rules. 40 winners are chosen at random from all those who answer the question. Contest closes July 19, 2011.)

FOF Sophy Burnham is one of the foremost spiritual seekers and writers of our generation. Her books about everyday experiences with angels, including A Book of Angels and Angel Letters, have sold millions of copies and changed the way the world looks at the afterlife. Her most recent book, The Art of Intuition, explains how each of us can tap into our own connection to the spiritual world.

We asked Sophy to put together a short list of titles that will help you get started on your own spiritual search…Here, her essential “reading list for the soul”. . .

The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James (Penguin Classics)
This is a classic: A brilliant mind exploring what it means to be hit by the Holy Spirit–what happens, what happens afterwards. It was taken from a series of lectures at the University of Edinburgh and was immediately acknowledged as the best joining of psychological, philosophical, and spiritual thought. I can’t be more enthusiastic about it. Anyone interested in “the self” should read it.

Autobiography of a Yogi, by Yogananada (Self-Realization Fellowship) is from the Eastern point of view. Chatty, readable, wise. It will lift your heart.

The Way of a Pilgrim (Image Books). An unknown 19th-century Russian peasant wrestles with Christ’s teaching to  “pray without ceasing.” There are so many brilliant works on Christianity that it is hard to pick one, so I choose this most unusual little classic about a man who tried to live like the Master at every moment.

The Cat Who Went to Heaven (Aladdin Books), winner of the Newbery Medal for Children’s books, by Elizabeth Coatsworth. This is the story of a Japanese painter who is trying to paint the story of the Buddha.  I read this every year and sometimes more because in its little 60-page tale is all the wisdom and kindness and goodness of all the books ever written. Perhaps my favorite, I keep this one by my bedside.

A book about a pedophile-child relationship its not what you’d normally refer to as a “beach read,” but you might want to reconsider. According to FOF Linda Wolfe, Margaux Fragoso’s Tiger, Tiger, is, like the best beach reads, impossible to put down. Unlike many beach reads, however, it’s also impossible to forget. Here’s why….

(Plus, enter to win a copy of Tiger, Tiger when you answer this question in the comments below: What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year?)

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One of the most compelling books I’ve read recently is Margaux Fragoso’s Tiger, Tiger – not to be confused with the controversial Tiger Mother or the precocious Tiger’s Wife (not to mention the Broadway show Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo – what is it with tiger titles lately?)  Fragoso’s book is a memoir, the astonishing story of how, at the age of seven, she was seduced by a man more than forty years her senior, a once-jailed pedophile with whom she maintained a secret, intimate relationship until she was twenty-two, and he, at the age of sixty-six, committed suicide.

Perhaps in the previous sentence I should have said “why” she was seduced and “why” she remained in the relationship instead of “how,” for this book, explicit, insightful, and elegantly written, has much to tell us about what makes certain children easy prey for pedophiles.

In Fragoso’s case, her earliest childhood years were wrenching.  Raised by an explosive, alcoholic father and a mentally unstable mother, Fragoso grew up fearing her father, having to mother her mother, and longing for what all children want: attention, encouragement, praise.  She meets Peter Curran, the man who will give her these things, while bathing at a neighborhood pool with her mother. Watching him splash and play with two little boys she assumes are his sons, she paddles up to him and asks, “Can I play with you?”

Curran obliges, includes her in his games with the boys – who turn out to be the sons of a woman in whose house he rents a room  – and several days later invites her and her mother to visit the family and the house.

It’s a place that’s vibrant with life: in addition to the boys and their mother, the house is home to a large furry dog, a tankful of iguanas, a cage full of rabbits, and even a small baby alligator. Both Margaux and her mother are enchanted, and become regular after-school visitors.  Curran calls Margaux “princess” and “angel,” tells her how talented she is when she writes little stories or  puts on little playlets, and patiently plays whatever games she proposes.  He also introduces games of his own choosing: “an enhanced version of Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “Mad Scientist” and “Tickle Torture Time.”  Then one day he takes Margaux down to the basement to check on the health of Fiver, a sick rabbit, and asks her to look at his penis.

In a shattering scene, Fragoso describes her eight-year-old reaction to Curran’s request.

“I climbed into the cart with Fiver and said, ‘Look, Peter!  I’m a rabbit!’

“I started to drink from the water bottle, tasting the sweet metal and the sweet, warm water.  I picked up [Fiver’s food], offered it again to him, and when he refused it, I ate it myself….Peter came and picked me up gently, placed me on my feet; but I instantly sank again, to my hands and knees, to crawl on the ground like a baby, to feel the cold hard floor beneath my hands.

“‘I’m a baby now, not a rabbit.  No, wait.  I’m a baby rabbit!  Chase me!’”

Curran ignores her agitation and, dropping his pants, exposes his genitals.   “The whole contraption looked like a bunless hot dog with two partly deflated balloons attached,” Fragoso writes.  But, afraid to offend this man who has become the affectionate  male figure her life has so lacked, she tries to conceal her disgust and say something nice about the disturbing sight. “It kind of reminds me of….an ice cream cone,” she says.

I’ll spare you what happens next.  Suffice it to say that Curran makes her his sexual toy.  But after years of being abused by him, when Fragoso becomes a teenager, she turns the tables on him.  By then, aging and in ill-health, he’s become dependent on her, and knowing this, she torments him, mocking him for his weakening legs and toothless mouth and maintaining the relationship even as she begins dating boys.

Throughout this disturbing tale, Lolita from Lolita’s own viewpoint,  the author is unflinchingly honest, aware of her own complicity in the abusive relationship.  It makes her book absolutely mesmerizing. Fragoso’s insights into pedophiles and the damage they inflict on the children they entrap are profound.  But just as importantly – arguably even more importantly — she is a profoundly talented writer.  This is a book you won’t be able to put down, and once you’ve finished it, won’t be able to forget.

Enter to win a copy of Tiger, Tiger when you answer this question in the comments below: What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year?

(See all our past winners. See official rules. One winner is chosen at random from all those who ask a question. Contest closes July 7, 2011.)

Need a crash course on Libya? FOF Linda Wolfe reviews In the Country of Men, a “page-turner” that provides an inside look at this nation in the news.

I expect that like me you’ve been thinking a good deal about Libya lately. So although I generally review new books, I thought I’d call your attention to a haunting novel about Libya that came out in 2007 and some of you may have missed. An extraordinary work, In the Country of Men by Libyan exile Hisham Matar, is the story of a nine-year-old Libyan boy whose businessman father is involved with a group of activists who, back in 1979, are trying to overthrow Muhammar Gaddafi.

Young Suleiman is unaware of his father’s secret activities. Nor does she comprehend the climate of suspicion, sadism, and terror that surrounds and threatens his friends, neighbors, and family. When his beloved mother takes to drinking whenever his father goes away on a “business trip,” Suleiman accepts her explanation that she is sick, and that the clear liquid she consumes in copious quantities is medicine. When his best friend’s father, a gentle art historian, is suddenly arrested and viciously beaten, Suleiman goes along with the neighborhood boys who call the man a traitor, and so great is his boyish desire to be accepted by the other kids that, siding with them, he taunts and shuns his best friend.

Suleiman eventually awakens to what is really going on in the world around him, but not before his childish blindness and his all-too-human desire to belong cause him to engage in increasingly dishonest and cruel behavior, and eventually – inadvertently – to betray his father. That betrayal will in turn cause his father, Baba, to betray not just his beliefs but his friends, the men to whom he has always been closest. The “country of men” is one in which inherent goodness and loyalty are not only stamped out but inwardly suppressed, subsumed by the need to get by, to survive

Matar’s own father, while in exile in Egypt, was kidnapped, tortured and imprisoned by Gaddafi in 1990 and has not been heard from in over fifteen years. A brilliant writer, Matar portrays the “madness that is Libya” in a series of swift, subtle, and utterly devastating scenes. Yet this is not merely a political novel. It far transcends that genre by being a deeply psychological work, an exploration of how a boy matures. Important in Suleiman’s development is not only the growth of his sense of right and wrong, but his moving from a boy’s initial love object – his mother – into the world of men. At first it is Suleiman’s mother, not Baba, who is the center of his universe. “If love starts somewhere,” he writes of her, “if it is a hidden force that is brought out by a person, like light off a mirror, for me that person was her.” She bore him at fifteen, after being forced into marriage by her father because she was seen having coffee with a boy. No matter that the marriage is a success and his mother loves Baba. Suleiman longs to “change the past, to rescue that girl from her black day.” There is a deep Freudian undercurrent in the novel, a hint at the unspeakable idea that Suleiman betrays his father not only out of innocence and ignorance, but in an Oedipal quest to rid himself of his competitor for his mother’s love. Hidden and even subconscious motivations can be manipulated by an evil society.

The emotional depth of this novel make the work far more sophisticated and subtle than, say, The Kite Runner, of which it may at times remind you.

Complex and gripping, In the Country of Men is a searing page-turner, a book that you will keep you on the edge of your seat and which you – like me – will never be able to forget.

NOTE: Matar has a new novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, coming out this August.

Portrait of Hisham Matar via Good Reads.

Enter for a chance to win 1 of 60 copies, by answering this question in the comments below: Which one of Elizabeth Adler’s books would you like to read first, an advance copy of From Barcelona, with Love (hardcover on sale June 21) or It All Began in Monte Carlo? (paperback on sale May 24)

We’ve partnered with St. Martin’s Press to offer sweepstakes winners a bestseller and advance copy of books.

This week, we’re giving away 60 books by best-selling author, Elizabeth Adler. Elizabeth is known for crafting the perfect beach reads–each book whisks you away to a classically romantic destination, from Amalfi and St. Tropez to Tuscany and Capri.

Read more about Elizabeth, here: www.elizabethadler.net

Or Find her on Facebook.

Ten FOFs will win an advance copy of From Barcelona, with Love, Elizabeth’s hotly anticipated new book about on-again, off-again investigative couple Mac Reilly and Sunny Alvarez, as they get to the bottom of a celeb disappearance in Barcelona. Fifty FOFs will receive It All Began in Monte Carlo, her thriller about Sunny Alvarez, who becomes entangled in a web of jewelry robberies, blackmail and friends betraying friends in southern France. 60 FOFs will win!

Enter for a chance to win 1 of 60 copies, by answering this question on the comments below: Which one of Elizabeth Adler’s books would you like to read first: an advance copy of From Barcelona, with Love (hardcover on sale June 21) or It All Began in Monte Carlo (paperback on sale May 24)?

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.  Ends at 5pm ET on 5/23/2011.  Open to legal residents of 50 US and DC, 18 and older.  Void where prohibited.  For Official Rules, prize descriptions and odds disclosure, click here. To see our past winners, click here.