Review: The Gulag P-Pa Diaries, by Preston Lewis, with Giveaway

Gulag P-Pa-Diaries-BNR

 

About the book, The Gulag P-Pa Diaries Gulag P-Pa-Cover

  • Genre: Memoir / Christian / Humor / Grandparenting / Family
  • Publisher: CKN Christian Publishing
  • Date of Publication: April 22, 2020
  • Number of Pages: 268
  • Scroll down for the giveaway!

As new empty-nesters, Harriet and Preston next looked forward to becoming grandparents. Their journey to assuming the names of Mema and P-Pa, however, took a tragic and unexpected turn.

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Amazon  |  Barnes and Noble  |  IndieBound | Goodreads


About the author, Preston Lewis Preston Lewis

Lewis is the Spur Award-winning author of thirty novels. In addition to his two Western Writers of America Spurs, he received the 2018 Will Rogers Gold Medallion for Western Humor for Bluster’s Last Stand, the fourth volume in his comic western series, The Memoirs of H.H. Lomax. Two other books in that series were Spur finalists. His comic western The Fleecing of Fort Griffin received the Elmer Kelton Award from the West Texas Historical Association for best creative work on the region.

Connect with Preston:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads  | Amazon author page


My ThoughtsMissMelissHAT

Part conventional memoir, part Condamant’s (sic) Log from the eponymous Gulag P-Pa, Preston Lewis’s latest offering is both hilarious and heartfelt.

It’s a year-by-year recounting of his life as a temporary caregiver (with his wife Harriet) of his grandchildren – four girls and one boy when the story opens, though as a three-month-old, the boy really isn’t a true “inmate” of the gulag, and it masters the emotional combination of laughter-through-tears from the very first page.

(“Condamant,” by the way, is one of the granddaughter’s malapropism; she meant “Commandant.”)

But, this book, The Gulag P-Pa Diaries, is more than just a reminiscence of life with growing grandchildren. It’s also a reflection on the nature of parenthood. “The first step toward becoming a grandparent is having a family of your own, of course,” Lewis writes in chapter three, one of the traditional memoir chapters, and then goes on to describe his courtship of his wife.

Written in alternating chapters of memoir and diary, this book is a look at the very real lives of a typical American family, and while some of the events and family jokes (like the “poople heart” earned for dealing with dramatic diaper incidents) are often silly, the real thread holding everything together is love.

We are given a glimpse of a sweet man who is literally lovesick as he gets to know his eventual wife, and we are shown how even the most contrary three-and-a-half year old can be incredibly charming.  We see the expected difference between how woman (Camp Mema) and men (Gulag P-Pa) handle discipline and structure, and we cry (or I did) when the author mentions his first grandchild who died before he ever got to hold or know him.

If your grandparents are still alive, this book will make you pick up the phone to call or Facetime with them. If they have left this world, this book will leave you wistful, and perhaps a little weepy. Either way, this is a charming, funny, very real story, made even better by being true.

Goes well with: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of chocolate milk.


Giveaway

1ST PRIZE

Book signed by P-Pa (the author), Mema, and The Grands
2ND PRIZE

Book signed by the author
AUGUST 4-14, 2020
(US ONLY)

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Review – First Herd to Abilene, by Preston Lewis – with Giveaway

First Herd to Abilene

About the book, First Herd to Abilene

  • Genre: Historical Fiction / Western / Humor
  • Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
  • Date of Publication: February 5, 2020
  • Number of Pages: 449
  • Scroll down for Giveaway

First Herd to AbileneAn H. H. Lomax Western, #5

HISTORICALLY SOUND AND HILARIOUSLY FUNNY! H.H. Lomax meets Wild Bill Hickok in Springfield, Missouri, and is responsible for Hickok’s legendary gunfight with Davis Tutt. Fearing Hickok will hold a grudge, Lomax escapes Springfield and agrees to promote Joseph G. McCoy’s dream of building Abilene, Kansas, into a cattle town, ultimately leading the first herd to Abilene from Texas.

Along the way, he encounters Indians, rabid skunks, flash floods, a stampede, and the animosities of some fellow cowboys trying to steal profits from the drive. Lomax is saved by the timely arrival of now U.S. Marshal Hickok, but Lomax uses counterfeit wanted posters to convince Hickok his assailants are wanted felons with rewards on their heads.

Lomax and Wild Bill go their separate ways until they run into each other a decade later in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, where Hickok vows to kill Lomax for getting him fired.

First Herd to Abilene is an entertaining mix of historical and hysterical fiction.

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

AmazonBarnes and NobleBookshop.org | Goodreads


About the author, Preston Lewis

Preston LewisPreston Lewis is the Spur Award-winning author of thirty novels. In addition to his two Western Writers of America Spurs, he received the 2018 Will Rogers Gold Medallion for Western Humor for Bluster’s Last Stand, the fourth volume in his comic western series, The Memoirs of H. H. Lomax. Two other books in that series were Spur finalists. His comic western The Fleecing of Fort Griffin received the Elmer Kelton Award from the West Texas Historical Association for best creative work on the region.

Connect with Preston:

WEBSITE ║ FACEBOOK ║ GOODREADS AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE


My Thoughts

MissMelissOne of the first musicals I was ever in as a kid was Annie Get Your Gun, so when I read the description of this novel, and saw that Wild Bill Hickok was a character, I knew I had to read it, even though I had not read books 1-4 of this series. I’m not a frequent reader of true westernsi, but I’m really glad I took a chance on First Herd to Abilene, because reading it was a rich and rewarding experience.

First, this novel is written in first person, which proves that the author, Preston Lewis, is incredibly talented, because sustaining a first-person narrative is incredibly difficult to do well. And boy, howdy, does Lewis do it well. I felt like Lomax was telling me his story over a campfire, while we shared barbecued meat and cold beer. This novel is completely immersive, and thoroughly enjoyable.

What worked particularly well was the insertion of real, historical characters into the story. Lewis clearly knows his history well, and it shows, because never once are you pulled out of the story because a detail doesn’t ring true.

In addition to grand adventure and some very human moments, this novel has humor woven into it from the first line to the last. Some of the humor comes from situations, but some is also in the name – almost all of Lomax’s relatives are named after famous (or infamous) historical figures – George Washington Lomax, for instance.

If you want a book that blends craft, style, and story into a truly satisfying whole, read First Herd to Abilene. It’s a rollicking good adventure with attention paid to history.

Goes well with barbecued brisket sandwiches and cold beer.


Giveaway (ends May 8)

Giveaway

1ST PRIZE: 

Signed Copies of First Herd to Abilene and Bluster’s Last Stand

2ND PRIZE: 

Signed Copy of First Herd to Abilene

APRIL 28-MAY 8, 2020

(US ONLY)

 

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