Marilyn Nelson Books

nelson's collection as a whole is pretty good, though it does drop off a bit in the hermitage section. her poems are poems of home and family and spirituality. it's a good selection of her work.

The Fields of Praise, a compilation of related poems by Marilyn Nelson, had both very good pieces as well as some mediocre poems. I appreciated Ms. Nelson's attempt to categorize her poems into a few broad categories however I thought the poems in her third section "Hermitage" became redundant with the last stanzas acting almost like punchlines. However like mentioned earlier, their are a few gems that make this collection worth having. My personal favorite piece is the very last one of the book, "A Minor Miracle". I thought the realism (also knowing that it is a true story helps) encapsulated in this piece was amazing. While I have not read every poem in this collection, there are some that I dislike and others that I like. Overall, discovery of an enjoyable poem, like "A Minor Miracle", makes the time spent hunting worthwhile.

Marilyn Neslon's The Fields of Praise is a book about motherhood. She is a refreshing turn from the sexually explicit yet uninterpretable poetry that pervades modern day poetry. The compassionate and romantic pieces in her book are generally directed towards children. Though her poems often express fear and concern, they are not exploding with the dark, depressing diction of utter despair that pervades current poetry. She brings the reader into the real world of a loving heart without beating the reader over the head with fraudulent fervor or suffocating the reader with meloncholy. As a mother hunts down and abolishes anything she feels will harm her family, Marilyn Nelson is quick to criticize perceived social ills. Some of her poetry takes on the appearance of criticism and denunciation and can even be interpreted to be bigoted. In many ways her poetry is of a right wing conservative nature as opposed to the liberal overtones that her contemporaries write with. It is always a pleasure to see someone who strays from the norm, however, her overall imagery and tone are not appropriate for effective social critique. Mrs. Nelson should continue to provide the audience with an attentive watch over her children, but she cannot be both the lobbyist and the mother.

Marilyn Nelson's book The Fields of Praise is an excellent collection of poetry that captures the deep-down curiosity of the reader. Most of her poems have a parental tone and reflect on her life experiences with her mother and with herself as a mother. Also, several selections deal with the deep down nature of humans and the reason for our actions, such as in "Propositions," where she asks the difficult question of where our sexual desires come from. As a religious person, one of my favorites is "Thus Far by Faith." It is about the faith that the oppressed African Americans had while they were held captive by slavery. It actually reached out to me and made me examine some parts of my life and realize that I was worried about nothing. One poem, "Rilke's Third Elegy" still baffles me. I had the privilege of listening to her recite some of her poems, and someone asked her to read this poem, which someone else wrote, but she included it in her book. When someone asked her about the meaning, she said "Well I think it is about masturbation," but I think she was joking. Marilyn Nelson does a good job of capturing the readers imagination and discusses life and decision making in depth. I enjoyed her book and would suggest it to any poetry lover.

In The Fields of Praise, Marilyn Nelson brings her views to life in a series of well-constructed poems. Her poems cover a wide array of topics, to include racism, sexism, religion, motherhood, illicit sex, and poverty. The characters in her poems commit unimaginable crimes and achieve inconceivable feats. Indeed, Nelson's poems cover the entire human spectrum. Nelson writes in a deep, penetrating style. Skipping the nonsense that some writers embrace, she delves to the heart of the matter, analyzing and constantly questioning human motives. Indeed, Nelson is not afraid to confront the sickening evil that lurks within human nature and the events that unfold when the malevolence is unleashed. Her poems on pure, unadulterated evil reflect her fearless stance on describing, and in fact deploring the evil in human nature. Nelson offers an accurate, candid view of the events that unfold around her. On a lighter note, Nelson analyzes with extreme clarity the unconditional love a mother has for her child, and the unbridled purity of the natural world. Nelson celebrates the love and affection that is found within the souls of all human beings. Most of all, however, she analyzes the deep-rooted maternal instincts of mothers. In her poems, Nelson argues that the bond between a mother and her child is indestructible. In many of her works, Nelson describes the intense protectiveness of females toward their offspring. The Fields of Praise is an excellent collection of Nelson's poems that provides deep insight into the positive and negative aspects of human nature. Indeed, Nelson's knowledge and deep comprehension of human tendencies shines through in her works.

From the back cover:

CATCH A FALLING ANGEL by Carole Nelson Douglas
To prove he's bad enough for hell, a devilish rogue becomes a rock star out to ruin an innocent young girl--unless he gets foiled by some Yuletide magic.

BRUSH OF ANGEL WINGS by Emma Merritt
A little girl prays to her special angel for a daddy, and a Texas Ranger returns to his hometown for the holidays in hopes of rekindling the passion he once shared with her mother--his first love.

THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELINA by Marilyn Campbell
It takes a little angel mischief to unite a handsome young major and a fiery widow by Christmas.

TIN ANGEL by Patricia Rice
A goodhearted, though skeptical, hero learns the joy of Christmas when he falls in love with an angel sent to make him believe in miracles.

GUARDED BY ANGELS by Mary Balogh
When a mysterious old lady and her young grandson offer their cottage to an estranged couple who got lost during a blizzard, it's a gift that will last a lifetime.

And my review:

The anthology is linked by the common theme of falling in love at Christams time, with a little help from angels. Apart from that, the stories are vastly different. Some are historical, some are contemporary. Some involve the angel falling in love; in other stories, the angels are merely helpers to bring others together. Since the back cover descriptions are very brief, I'll also include a basic plot synposis along with my own personal thoughts.

CATCH A FALLING ANGEL is a story a bit on the darker side. It spans both historical and contemporary time periods. The hero (from historical times) has died and is unworthy of heaven, but is also not evil enough to get into hell. To gain acceptance into hell (heaven is out of the question by this point), the hero is sent back to earth (into modern times) with a chance to (un)redeem himself by ruining a virgin. However, he ends up falling in love with the woman he is supposed to ruin.

I didn't really like the darker aspect of this story, and some parts of it didn't flow well. It was to the point when I ended up having to reread several pages to make sense of what was going on. That shouldn't happen. I managed to finish this novella, but it isn't one I'd bother to read again. Three stars.

BRUSH OF ANGEL WINGS is a contemporary that had a lot going for it. I love reconcilliation stories. In this one, the couple broke up when she wanted him to make a commitment to her. He wanted to chase his dream of being in the rodeo. By the time he realized that she was worth more to him, she'd gotten engaged to his cousin. Now she is a widow, and her daughter wants a new daddy for Christmas, and the hero wants the only woman he's ever loved back.

Unfortunately, this one needed better editing. The writing did not flow well. The point of view was all over the place. I had a hard time sorting out which thoughts belonged to which character. I think there was a good story in there trying to get out, but the writing made it very difficult to read or get drawn into. Two stars.

THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELINA is a contemporary with a dash of comedy. It is an offbeat story about a deceased grandfather, who is now a guardian angel, trying to secure a wife for his grandson. Hi-jinks ensue as this angel uses unorthodox methods (including sending a forklift tire flying across several lanes of traffic to crush the heroine's bike) to throw the two prospective lovebirds together.

This was another good story that was marred by the writing style. Again, it didn't flow well, and I often had to reread sections to make sense of them. Also, there was so much dialogue without prose that sometimes I had a hard time figuring out who was talking. I had to go back and count the lines of type to sort it all out. Also, there were a lot of basic grammar mistakes, and that's something that really gets under my skin. For instance, two women are in the same scene, yet the writer uses "her" without making it clear which woman is being referred to. Maybe I should blame the editor for not catching that one, but even so, this was not a story I could get into. Two stars.

TIN ANGEL by Patricia Rice is a historical. This is a story of an angel falling in love with a human. A plot that's been done before, but one that remains very popular.

Again, I didn't like the writing style with this one. There were a lot of big sections of history that read like a textbook. I read romance for the relationship, not for a history lesson. That's what textbooks are for. This story also suffered from an inbalance between prose and dialogue, but this time, the problem was too much prose. There were big sections without any dialogue, and the story was slow going. Not that I have a problem with prose, but it needs to move the story along. Unfortunately, here is just dragged. I was unable to get drawn into the story and unable to force myself to finish it. Two stars.

GUARDED BY ANGELS by Mary Balogh is another historical, and the best story in the book. In it, an estranged husband and wife end up stranded in a snowstorm. They are taken in by a woman and her grandson, and learn to resolve their differences and fall in love again.

I never know what to expect with Mary Balogh. I have adored some of her stories and hated others. But this one was a winner. The paranormal aspect of it was beautifully done. It was never too heavy-handed, yet you really felt the presence of the angels. The issues that had estranged the husband and wife were way more than just silly misunderstandings. They were real issues, and were resolved well, not just rushed through. It's difficult to deal with real relationship obstacles in a full-length novel, let alone in less than 80 pages, yet Mary Balogh manages it, and does so beautifully. I can see why she is called a master of the genre.

I loved the characters, and was really rooting for them. Again, I was amazed that the author could create such well-rounded characters in so little space, but she did. They had just enough flaws to make them real people, yet they weren't so overly flawed as to make them unlikeable. That's a difficult balance to achieve, but this author does so with ease.

I can't say enough good about GUARDED BY ANGELS. I loved it! This is a story I will be keeping to read over and over again. Five stars!

While most of the stories were not very absorbing or memorable, Mary Balogh's more than makes up for it. Recommended for her story alone.

This Angel Romance Anthology was interesting-I would have given it more stars if they would have stuck to one genre or time period in which to have the angels stories.

1-Carole Nelson Douglas-known more now for her fiction and mysteries than romance-her romance was original and well written-a amalgamation of Angel, Time Travel and Regency and Modern day-I found this story easy to read and enjoyable.

2-Emma Merritt-this story is set in modern day American west-I tried to read a bit but frankly I'm not a fan of Western Romance so I skipped it as it seemed a bit to formulaic and "series romance" for my tastes. Others may enjoy it though.

3-Marilyn Campbell-I was hopeful to see a story by this author-as she's written several paranormal or futuristic romances-sadly this was also set in modern day American and reads like a "Harlequin".

4-Patricia Rice-this story set in the 1850's was just too dark for my tastes. The hero talks about suicide and is very depressed.

5-Mary Balogh-I've hardly ever read anything not enjoyable of Miss Balogh's and this is no exception. "Guarded by Angels" is another heartwarming short story of forgiveness and redemption set in Regency England. Balogh's seems to have written several short stories like this of a married, but estranged couple who though family, and in this case, Angels, are brought together to try to save their marriage. This one was a bit of a tearjerker-and if you are like me and love the "wounded war hero/soldier" storyline then I think you'll enjoy this one. Very sensual but in a mature and beautiful way as well.

So, all in all-two exceptional, and three average or a bit below average. I would recommend this book for Baloghs fans specifically-others may want to skip it.

3 stars

At first I was very excited about this study guide. However, the more I worked through it, the more I felt unconvinced by what I was reading. I felt as if Bible verses were isolated and given interpretations as the author deemed valuable. I didn't agree with many of the theological statements that were made. I decided to stop the book early because I felt like I was searching through the pages for something of value.

Excellent companion to the book, "God At Your Wits' End." Requires researching and writing scriptures for one's study and spiritual growth. Focuses on pertinent faith issues and ridding oneself of faulty thinking. Excellent for Bible Study Groups.