Sharing a New Book and a Giveaway!

21 May

Sharing a New Book and a Giveaway!

Jena Henry Book Promotions 4 0

Cultivating a Fuji

by Miriam Drori

In Cultivating a Fuji, you’ll find sadness and humour, the strange and the familiar. Martin isn’t real, but there are many real-life people just like him. You might have met one.

Author Miriam Droji

On Amazon, this book is categorized as Coming of Age Fiction or Contemporary Romance. Yes, I can see these elements in this special book. But this book also resonates with self-help, mindfulness and balance, and memoir. At times, this was an entertaining book, and at other moments the story was difficult and uncomfortable. However, I found this story to always be well-written and heartfelt.

Book Blurb

Convinced that his imperfect, solitary existence is the best it will ever be, Martin unexpectedly finds himself being sent to represent his company in Japan. His colleagues think it’s a joke; his bosses are certain he will fail. What does Martin think? He simply does what he’s told. That’s how he’s survived up to now – by hiding his feelings.

Amazingly, in the land of strange rituals, sweet and juicy apples, and too much saké, Martin flourishes and achieves the impossible. But that’s only the beginning. Keeping up the momentum for change proves futile. So, too, is a return to what he had before. Is there a way forward, or should he put an end to the search now?

Gradually, as you’ll see when Martin looks back from near the end of his journey, life improves. There’s even a woman, Fiona, who brings her own baggage to the relationship, but brightens Martin’s days. And just when you think there can be no more surprises, another one pops up.

Throughout his life, people have laughed at ‘weirdo’ Martin; and you, as you read, will have plenty of opportunity to laugh, too. Go ahead, laugh away, but you’ll find that there’s also a serious side to all this…

Purchase Link – mybook.to/cultivatingafuji

JENA’S REVIEW

Cultivating a Fuji by Miriam Drori
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cultivating a Fuji is a special book. The author described it as “Up Lit “, so I searched to find what that meant. Up Lit is a genre for books with an emphasis on empathy, books that are uplifting and life-affirming, and which explore themes of family bonds and the human spirit. These types of novels focus on kinder, gentler human connections, but have an element that preserves realism. They do not shy away from dark themes or real-life issues, they just preserve an element of hope.

Martin is the main character of the story. Martin grew up in England. He is an only child. He majored in computer sciences and he works at a small software company and is their smartest employee. But my brief description doesn’t tell us about the real Martin at all.

I’m sure that “main character” is a description that would terrify Martin. When he was a child, his classmates bullied him because he was quiet and sensitive, and they pecked at him like chickens do. Now that he is an adult, other adults think he is weird and strange. And he is, because although he doesn’t know the term, he suffers from Social Anxiety Disorder, a fear of other people. It seems like a terrible cycle, the more afraid a person is, the quieter and more awkward they act, which makes others like the person even less, and so the person becomes even more withdrawn and out of touch.

And that’s Martin’s situation when we meet him at the beginning of the book. He is unable to answer the phone at work, even the inter-office phone, because he is too terrified. He panics when co-workers talk to him. And then, because of an unexpected problem, Martin is the employee who must go on a crucial business trip. Martin, who doesn’t know how to get a passport, how to handle an airport or flight, must travel solo to Japan. It turns out that his real journey in life begins with this fateful trip to Japan.

Miriam Drori, the author, is a marvelous storyteller, especially in her ability to create real and relatable characters. You will be charmed by the story of Martin and all the people he meets. In this book, even the minor walk-on characters are fully developed with fascinating back stories.

For me, this was an unsettling book. First, there are many descriptions of people with social anxiety and what they experience, and this may be a trigger for some. Also, the way the book is presented changes- sometimes it’s a lecture, or a flashback, or perhaps even a dream, so that is a challenge, too. I will leave it to readers to decide if this is something they can handle. I do believe it was important for me to learn more about Social Anxiety.

Thanks to Crooked Cat Books and Rachel’s Random Reviews for a review copy. This is my honest opinion.

View all my reviews

Giveaway to Win copies of Neither Here No There and Social Anxiety Revealed (Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/33c69494227/?

Miriam Drori has decided she’s in the fifth and best stage of her life, and she’s hoping it’ll last for ever. It’s the one in which she’s happiest and most settled and finally free to do what she wants. Miriam lives in a delightful house and garden in Jerusalem with her lovely husband and one of three children. She enjoys frequent trips around the world. She dances, hikes, reads and listens to music. And she’s realised that social anxiety is here to stay, so she might as well make friends with it. On top of that, she has moved away from computer programming and technical writing (although both of those provided interest in previous stages) and now spends her time editing and writing fiction. NEITHER HERE NOR THERE (currently unavailable), a romance with a difference set in Jerusalem, was published in 2014. THE WOMEN FRIENDS, co-written with Emma Rose Millar, is a series of novellas based on the famous painting by Gustav Klimt. SOCIAL ANXIETY REVEALED (non-fiction) provides a comprehensive description of social anxiety from many different viewpoints. CULTIVATING A FUJI takes the social anxiety theme into fiction, using humour to season a poignant story.