Chiseled ~ Audio Book Blog Tour Audio Excerpt, Review, & Giveaway!

CHISELED

Written By, Narrated By, and Published by:

DANUTA PFEIFFER

Length: 13 hours and 22 minutes

Released: May 22, 2018

Genre: Memoir

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A NOTE FROM HALL WAYS: YES, I am featuring this book on my blog for the third time -- it's that good. Get it in print, get it in audio, get it in both formats...but GET THIS BOOK. 

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In this gripping memoir, Danuta Pfeiffer grew up with parents as extraordinary as they were flawed. John and Patricia Rylko and their three children lived a nomadic life following the seasons to accommodate John's work as a gifted sculptor during the summers and as a philandering ski instructor in the winters. They lived in a circus tent, built their first cabin, and lost it for a dollar.

John Rylko flaunted his charm as a story teller, entrancing all who listened of his wartime glories as a Polish soldier and his silver medals in the 1936 Winter Olympics, while Patricia, a nurse, pulled double shifts at hospitals, hitchhiking to work and feeding her family off the land with roadkill deer and blackberry pies.

Those times of resiliency would have to sustain Danuta when she was raped and secretly gave birth to a baby. She escapes her enraged father on a daring journey to Alaska during the storm of the century.

Through betrayals and loss and her search for redemption, she becomes the unlikely co-host to a television evangelist bent on becoming the president of the US. When her past catches up to her, she is caught in the crosshairs of politics and religion. In a gutsy move, she abandons Christianity during a bicycle ride from Canada to Mexico and unravels her father's hidden life in the Carpathian Mountains of Poland, only to discover her own life hidden in the folds of resiliency, tenacity, and grit.

Danuta Pfeiffer now lives in a vineyard in Oregon, making fine wine with her husband Robin Pfeiffer.

  

Danuta (Soderman) Pfeiffer was a national radio and television broadcast journalist, columnist, and talk show host for 35 years. She is the author of 4 books; her first book, Watersafe Your Baby in Six Days, was the first book on teaching water survival skills to infants, and the first to be endorsed by the American Red Cross.

Danuta has been a Water Safety Instructor, a ski instructor, scuba diver, and long-distance bicycle rider, and once called the "most visible woman in modern Christianity today." She was known as the popular co-host of The 700 Club with Pat Robertson. (Her new book, Chiseled, can explain that.) But Danuta returned to her liberal roots expressing her Progressive views as a radio talk show host on radio stations affiliated with Air America.

She was the inspiration behind the Men of the Long Tom Grange Calendar, America’s first international nude spoof calendar that raised over $650,000 for the Junction City School District.

She was the founder of the Oregon Country Trails, Oregon’s first branded, agri-tourism system, representing businesses and attractions in rural Oregon. She served two years on the Oregon Travel Experience Board, appointed by Governor John Kitzhaber, and for over 20 years has chaired or volunteered at the annual Long Tom Grange Daffodil Drive Festival.

Danuta and her husband Robin own and manage Pfeiffer Winery and Vineyards in Junction City, Oregon--one of most reputable vineyards in the state, and one of the first wineries to be solar-powered. Their wine isn’t bad, either. Their 2007 Blue Dot Reserve Pinot noir was served during a private presidential dinner.

Today, she and Robin can often be found sharing their love of wine with friends and family at their winery, swimming in their country pond with their yellow labs, or sipping wine and watching for the first bats to fly at sunset at the top of their vineyard.

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HALL WAYS REVIEWS: While I wasn't a reviewer on this tour, I had to be a part of it because the book is so wonderful. To read my reviews...

CLICK FOR MY PRINT COPY REVIEW

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Spoiler Alert: I gave the book 5 Stars in both reviews. 😊

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Chiseled: A Memoir of Identity, Duplicity, and Divine Wine by Danuta Pfeiffer

Chiseled: A Memoir of Identity, Duplicity, and Divine Wine by Danuta Pfeiffer. Narrated by Danuta Pfeiffer.
*Readers' Favorite International Gold Medal Winner; Eric Hoffer Finalist Award*
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5 STARS from HALL WAYS BLOG

Publication Date: (Audio) May 22, 2018
Publisher: Audible Audio Book
Length: 13 hours 22 minutes

Publication Date: February 12, 2015
Publisher: Luminare Press
Pages: 426

BOOK DESCRIPTION: Chiseled: to cut, to pare, shape with a chisel, to cut close,to employ unfair practices to obtain an end, to cheat, to defraud, to trick

Through betrayals and loss and her search for redemption an idealistic journalist becomes the unlikely co-host to a television evangelist bent on becoming the president of the United States. When her past catches up to her, she is caught in the cross hairs of politics and religion.

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HALL WAYS REVIEW:  Audio and Print Review. I read this book in print three years ago, and when the author contacted me and asked if I’d listen to the new audio book format, I jumped at the chance. Even three years later, I remembered well the details of the book. Danuta Pfeiffer's Chiseled: A Memoir of Identity, Duplicity, and Divine Wine is the amazing story of Danuta's life -- filled with deception, devastation, and determination -- that takes readers on her courageous journey.  Told in three parts, Danuta begins at her beginning, as a god-fearing child, living a spartan life, under a father she revered despite his abusive hands. Her father's stories of obstacles he'd overcome in the war, in the most brutal of circumstances, carried Danuta through her own travails time and again, even as her father continued to reject her.  

“Women were expected to be seen but not heard. To be instructed but not instruct. To praise the Lord and pass the potatoes

-- but not to preach.”

For readers who remember Danuta (then Soderman) and her mysterious departure from being the co-host of The 700 Club with Pat Robertson, details are revealed of not only her departure, but of how CBN and Robertson operated behind-the-scenes. This provides fascinating insight into the sometimes-sordid world of televangelism, and it ultimately leads to Danuta's "losing God" for some time.  As Danuta navigates her life - out of work, married to an addict, and questioning the very existence of God - she always draws strength from her father's challenges and perseveres.  When she finally allows friendships into her life and allows herself to focus on her own needs, she finds true love with a winemaker, Robin Pfeiffer. Robin takes Danuta to Poland, where Danuta connects with her father's family, and discovers the truth and lies of her father's past.

"Memory is wickedly elusive and necessarily subjective.

Ultimately, this is the memory of a lie."

Many of her sentences are stunning, and the imagery truly takes the story to another level. For example, in talking about her father's decline into depression, Danuta wrote, "His change took place the way a shoelace comes undone, gradually unravelling what was once secure."  Or, when she speaks of her time with The 700 Club, she summarizes it by saying, "I had become a spiritual drug dealer imbued with the halo of power and celebrity, associated with the brokers of money and politics." Her characterization is excellent so that readers not only witness actions but understand and feel Danuta's emotions towards the characters who have the most impact on her life.

Particularly powerful is the story of Danuta's mother, Patricia, who is truly the hero of Danuta's life. In Patricia's strength and commitment to her family, Danuta finds a role model in a time when women were restricted by societal limitations. Throughout Danuta's life, her faith and relationship with God go through many iterations, and it is interesting to see her thought process at all stages and what ultimately leads her back to a life of faith. Sprinkled throughout the text were photographs from various times in Danuta's life, which enriched the story even further.

ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK: One word: OUTSTANDING. I loved this memoir when I read it, and I loved it when I read it with my ears and heard the author narrate her life for me.  It makes the already intimate feeling memoir feel even more intimate, more real (and more painful), and her triumphs more glorious. Pfeiffer’s training serves her well as her narration is perfectly paced and her voicing of various characters really enriches them. The voicing of her Polish relatives was particularly good. She nailed everything from the humor of her Uncle Frank to the awkwardness of his translating for others and the pain and confusion as Danuta tried to reconcile the father she thought she knew with the man his Polish family knew him to be.

Chiseled is a masterfully written story of a woman spending a lifetime searching to find peace, love, and acceptance within herself.  At times, readers will have to remind themselves that Chiseled is a memoir and not fiction. It is unbelievable that any one person endured all the heartache and challenges that Danuta faced, and even more amazing that she survived it and now lives a healthy, happy life.  I highly recommend Chiseled, as Danuta Pfeiffer eloquently shows that truth can be more dramatic and fascinating than fiction. Readers be prepared to be angry -- and possibly shed a few tears -- but in the end, feel inspired. 

Thank you to the author for reaching out to me and offering an audio download in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Danuta Pfeiffer graduated from the University of Colorado with a B.A. in Communications and Journalism with a minor in Philosophy.  She is a community activist, the author of three books, a motivational speaker, and a long-distance bicycle rider. She married Robin Pfeiffer, an Oregon wine grape grower she met through her newspaper ad.  He proposed in 12 days and they have been making wine and love together for more than 20 years.

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Bulletins from Dallas: Reporting the JFK Assassination ~ ~ ~ ~ Promo Tour, Review, & Giveaway!

BULLETINS FROM DALLAS

Reporting the JFK Assassination

by

BILL SANDERSON

  Genre: Biography / Journalism

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

Date of Publication: November 1, 2016

Number of Pages: 280

Scroll down for Giveaway!

Thanks to one reporter’s skill, we can fix the exact moment on November 22, 1963 when the world stopped and held its breath: At 12:34 p.m. Central Time, UPI White House reporter Merriman Smith broke the news that shots had been fired at President Kennedy's motorcade. Most people think Walter Cronkite was the first to tell America about the assassination. But when Cronkite broke the news on TV, he read from one of Smith’s dispatches. At Parkland Hospital, Smith saw President Kennedy’s blood-soaked body in the back of his limousine before the emergency room attendants arrived. Two hours later, he was one of three journalists to witness President Johnson’s swearing-in aboard Air Force One. Smith rightly won a Pulitzer Prize for the vivid story he wrote for the next day’s morning newspapers.

Smith’s scoop is journalism legend. But the full story of how he pulled off the most amazing reportorial coup has never been told. As the top White House reporter of his time, Smith was a bona fide celebrity and even a regular on late-night TV. But he has never been the subject of a biography.

With access to a trove of Smith’s personal letters and papers and through interviews with Smith’s family and colleagues, veteran news reporter Bill Sanderson will crack open the legend. Bulletins from Dallas tells for the first time how Smith beat his competition on the story, and shows how the biggest scoop of his career foreshadowed his personal downfall.

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PRAISE FOR BULLETINS FROM DALLAS:

“So much of what we know about any story depends on how reporters do their work. Bill Sanderson takes us through every heartbreaking minute of one of the biggest stories of our lifetime, with sharp detail and powerful observations. As you read the book, you’ll feel all the pressure and adrenaline rush of a reporter on deadline.” —Neal Shapiro, former president of NBC News, current president of WNET

“The life and work of a noted White House reporter…. Focusing on [Merriman] Smith’s reporting of the Kennedy assassination, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, Sanderson conveys the tension and confusion after the event, as Smith and other newsmen scrambled to ascertain facts.” —Kirkus Reviews

“To read Bulletins from Dallas is to touch the fabric of history, through Sanderson’s artful weave of many voices, from presidents across the decades to the last words uttered by J.F.K. Swept back through the corridors of time, we hear the urgent bells and clatter of the teletype machine: Merriman Smith’s first report to the world, ‘Three shots fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade today in Downtown Dallas.’ This compelling narrative takes us to that moment when our whole nation cried, and, even now, to tears of primal sympathy that never seem to end.” —Allen Childs, author of We Were There: Revelations from the Dallas Doctors Who Attended to JFK on November 22, 1963

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HALL WAYS REVIEW: ✪✪✪✪✪ Before I started reading Bulletins from Dallas: Reporting the JFK Assassination, I considered myself fairly well-schooled in the events surrounding that terrible event.  What I had never considered (or learned about) is that the reporting of the tragedy is a story in itself. Bulletins tells the story of Merriman Smith (another tragic story) and Smith’s job as a designated White House reporter for UPI.  The story is very much about the nature of the press in relation to the events of the times and much broader than being only the story of Merriman Smith, though Smith’s story is the heart and soul of the book.   Readers will find themselves immersed in the action, feeling tense and even distressed amidst the chaos and sadness surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Some of the things that caught my attention about journalism back in the day:

*reporters were selective about what was reported and respected or ignored the presidents’ more personal matters (for example, Roosevelt’s paralysis and Kennedy’s indiscretions);

*most reporters (Merriman Smith especially) aimed to provide information, not commentary in their reporting;

*wire services were cautious, and typically used a just-the-facts approach to many stories;

*it took 20 minutes for network cameras to warm up (this is why Walter Cronkite was off-screen for several of is initial broadcasts following the assassination).

But that’s not to say everyone acted politely; the name of the game was to get the story first, and sometimes that meant trickery and even a well-placed shove or punch! Time after time, as I read quotes in Bulletins, I was struck by how so much has changed (now it’s the celebrities punching the journalists), but also by how so much has remained the same and/or is still echoed in today’s political arena. Here’s a line that caused me to pause:

“Smith worried that ‘vicious personal attacks on government leaders could have only one motivation that would make any sense at all—and that is to tear down public confidence in the establishment—and by establishment, I mean authority on almost any level.’”

Sanderson does an outstanding job of helping readers feel how the delays in information being relayed felt during the minutes after Kennedy’s assassination. For example, he contrasted the chaos surrounding the shooting to the calm, festive atmosphere at the Trade Mart, where the people waiting for the president had cocktails in hand and steak dinners on their plates.  Sanderson sums-up what we’ve gained with modern technology to give us instantaneous reporting of events, but he also shows quite clearly what we’ve lost.  Sanderson also does an outstanding job of showing readers the character of Merriman Smith, faults and all. Smith was really a piece of work, but he was intelligent, insightful, and his journalistic instincts were amazing.

Beyond the basic stories that Bill Sanderson tells of Merriman Smith and his decades of reporting, he includes a bunch of helpful, enriching elements. There are several interesting "Side Bar" stories that give a clearer picture of not only Smith’s movements outside his job, but other peoples’ activities as well. These really sketch-in additional details of the times. Also included are two appendices, “Appendix A” which includes Smith's Pulitzer Prize winning eye witness essay and “Appendix B,” a timeline of the UPI's and AP's reporting of the assassination. These were both real assets to the book, and I wish I had known the timeline was there before I started reading. (At times, there were an overwhelming number of time stamp details and flipping back and forth between UPI and AP activities; referencing “Appendix B” would have been a huge help.) Additionally, there is an extensive notes section as well as an index –- all of which really make the book easy to read and re-read.

On a personal note, in Sanderson’s acknowledgments, I enjoyed the shout-out he gives to librarians and archivists who helped him with his research and his advice that "the best deal going for anyone who lives in New York City is a New York Public Library Card," (and can say first hand that it has awesome internet access for those of us who aren't there in NYC).

The book is very-well written, readable, and cleanly edited.  Bill Sanderson seems to report very much in the same manner as the subject of his book, Merriman Smith: mostly thoughtful, straight-forward, and just-the-facts journalism with strategically placed lines that make the reader think. The only writing I do not care for is Sanderson’s repeated referencing of the splattering of President Kennedy’s blood and brains. (his words, not mine) It doesn’t feel right. . . disrespectful? Coarse? Sensationlistic? I am not sure, but in any case, that particular wording seems unnecessary given the descriptive direct quotes that use those words. And again, Sanderson uses unnecessary bluntness in describing Smith's suicide, which detracts from the otherwise highest quality writing. Pet peeves more than problems.

I highly recommend Bulletins from Dallas: Reporting the JFK Assassination to all readers, whether familiar with JFK’s assassination or not. I especially think younger readers who were born well after Kennedy’s assassination should read it to grasp the differences and the similarities between then and now.

Bill Sanderson spent almost two decades as a reporter and editor at the New York Post. His work has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Observer, and the Washington Post. Sanderson lives in New York City. Connect with Bill:

Facebook   Twitter

Website

  

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CHECK OUT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

2/21 Scrapbook Page StoreyBook Reviews 2/22 Review Hall Ways Blog 2/23 Author Interview Texas Book Lover 2/24 Book Trailer Forgotten Winds 2/25 Review Kara The Redhead 2/26 Video Interview The Page Unbound 2/27 Review Blogging for the Love of Authors and Their Books 2/28 Guest Post Books in the Garden 3/1 Excerpt Books and Broomsticks 3/2 Review Reading By Moonlight

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