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

┅┅┆┆┅┅┆┆┅┅┆┆┅┅

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. 

┅┅┆┆┅┅┆┆┅┅┆┆┅┅

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.

Website⎮Twitter⎮Facebook

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

CLICK FOR MY AUDIO BOOK REVIEW

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

Prize: Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Gen)

Runs Oct. 7th-14th⎮Open internationally

Chiseled Giveaway: Amazon Echo Dot




Oct. 7th:
Dab of Darkness Book Reviews
The Book Junkie Reads . . .

Oct. 8th:
Patriotic Bookaholic

Oct. 9th:
T's Stuff

Oct. 10th:
Hall Ways Blog

Oct. 11th:
Jazzy Book Reviews

Oct. 12th:
The Book Addict's Reviews

Oct. 13th:
Writers N Authors

➜Sign up as a host here

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*
✪✪✪✪✪
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.

>>BUY THE BOOK<<

AMAZON     AUDIBLE

WATCH THE TRAILER!

=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=

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.

=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=◉=

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.

WEBSITE   GOODREADS    AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

                       TWITTER      FACEBOOK        

C-SPAN VIDEO INTERVIEW

90 minute documentary -- coming soon!