Over The River PR

Your Bridge to Comprehensive Media Services

  • Home
  • What We Do
  • Who We Are
  • Who We Represent
    • Past Projects
  • What People Say About Us
  • Blog
  • Contact

By otrpr Leave a Comment

Available Now – THE ART OF CYCLING: Philosophy, Meaning, and a Life on Two Wheels by James Hibbard

“When you ‘draft’ in cycling, you tuck yourself behind a lead rider and let him or her take the wind and pull you along. This is what one gets to do in reading Hibbard’s THE ART OF CYCLING – draft off a strong writer and thinker through a meditation on a very basic, but incredibly beautiful, method of going from here to there at high speed. Drafting can be dangerous if the lead rider is unsteady, but Hibbard proves a reliable guide. THE ART OF CYCLING is worth the ride.” —John Kaag, author of Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are

“Cycling is an extended form of thinking, and THE ART OF CYCLING is a dazzling trip on both counts. Taking a racing line between Descartes and Nietzsche, Moser and Merckx, James Hibbard dismantles what it means to be a cyclist and puts it together again in thought-provoking ways – and, like a Zen master or cyclist in the mountains, achieves moments of transcendence.” —Max Leonard, author of Higher Calling: Cycling’s Obsession with Mountains 

“Cycling is only the top layer of Hibbard’s multilayer work of visceral philosophy, a work that draws on insights from Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, T.S. Eliot, Dostoevsky, and many others. From the pains and strains of athletic pursuits to the hyper-competitive mire of academia, Hibbard shows how all the detours and dead-ends in life, when self-doubt and depression take hold, can lift us into an inexpressible intimacy with existence, where mind, body, and world shed their painful separateness. THE ART OF CYCLING is a philosophical memoir that truly embodies the wisdom of Dostoevsky, expressed through Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov, that we should love life more than the meaning of life.” —Jonathan van Belle, co-author of Henry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Living

“An exceptional read.” — Paul Kimmage, author of Rough Ride: Behind the Wheel with a Pro Cyclist

In this meditative love letter to the sport of cycling, James Hamilton Hibbard reveals how cycling can shed new light on age-old questions of selfhood, meaning, and purpose.

Interweaving cycling, philosophy, and personal narrative, THE ART OF CYCLING: Philosophy, Meaning, and a Life on Two (Pegasus Books; May 1, 2023) explores the limits of rationality and how the visceral, embodied nature of sport ultimately has the potential to redeem us from the painful, locked-in isolation of our own heads.

In the tradition of philosophical road trip titles like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and On the Road, THE ART OF CYCLING turns a critical eye towards our increasingly disconnected digital lives —showing how re-engaging with the material world can breathe new vitality into everyday existence and serve as a countervailing force against the sense of detachment which has come to characterize modern life for so many.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

James Hamilton Hibbard’s writing has appeared in journals including Ploughshares, Aporia, Otherwise, Noetic, and Aethlon. He studied philosophy at the University of California at Santa Cruz and Depaul University and has received grants and been selected for residencies by PEN America and Tin House. A former UCI professional road cyclist and member of the U.S Cycling Team, James has written extensively on the sport of cycling. He lives in the foothills of California’s Santa Clara Valley with his wife and young son.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

By otrpr Leave a Comment

Available Now – INTIMATE STRANGERS: A History of Jews and Catholics in the City of Rome by Fredric Brandfon

“A fascinating story of the Jews’ unique resilience and strength living in Rome without interruption for twenty-two centuries.” —Riccardo Shemuel Di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome

“An absolutely new approach. Investigating an unusual relationship—the one between Jews and Catholics that in Rome could develop uninterruptedly over almost two thousand years—Intimate Strangers frames it anthropologically while revealing notable knowledge about the life of Jews in Rome and their mutual relationships with the Catholic world. This is a well-written, well-documented, and well-argued book.” —Gabriela Yael Franzone, coordinator of the Department of Heritage and Culture of the Jewish Community of Rome

“An engaging and sometimes surprising exploration of the intriguing history of Rome.”—Mark Kurlansky, author of thirty-five books, including Cod, Salt, and The Importance of Not Being Ernest

“Most involving. There is always fascinating new material on the next page.”—Judith Roumani, author of Jews in Southern Tuscany during the Holocaust: Ambiguous Refuge

“A fascinating and readable history that’s essential for those interested in Jewish or Italian history.” —Library Journal

With engaging stories that illuminate the history of Jews and Jewish-Catholic relations in Rome, INTIMATE STRANGERS: A History of Jews and Catholics in the City of Rome by Fredric Brandfon (The Jewish Publication Society, May 1, 2023) investigates the unusual relationship between these two vibrant Roman communities as it has developed from the first century CE to the present. Written in a very easy-to-read way, interweaving story upon story, INTIMATE STRANGERS takes us on a compelling sweep of two thousand years of history through the present successes and dilemmas of Roman Jews in postwar Europe.

The Jewish community of Rome is the oldest Jewish community in Europe, and one with the longest continuous history, having avoided interruptions, expulsions, and annihilations since the year 139 BCE. For most of that time, Jewish Romans have lived in close contact with the world’s largest continuously functioning international organization: the Roman Catholic Church. Given the church’s origins in Judaism, Jews and Catholics have spent two thousand years negotiating a necessary and paradoxical relationship.

As Brandfon explains in the introduction, the book “begins with a question: How do you describe two venerable peoples, Jews and Catholics, who have lived side-by-side as Romans since the first century, in anger, adversity, and intermittent admiration? I call them ‘Intimate Strangers.’ The oxymoron that is the title of this book encapsulates a contradictory relationship through which, despite real difficulties, two very different communities have managed to live together, uninterrupted, for almost two thousand years.”

“When I first read Intimate Strangers, I was immediately drawn into this remarkable saga, and knew it was one that should be brought to the wider world,” explains Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz, Director of The Jewish Publication Society. “Although it is the story of one community spanning two millennia; it speaks to Jews and Christians everywhere.”

Fredric Brandfon, a former professor of history of religions and near eastern archaeology, innovatively frames these relations through an anthropological lens: how the idea and language of family have shaped the self-understanding of both Roman Jews and Catholics. The familial relations are lopsided, the powerful family member often persecuting the weaker one; the church ghettoized the Jews of Rome longer than any other community in Europe. Yet respect and support are also part of the family dynamic—for instance, church members and institutions protected Rome’s Jews during the Nazi occupation—and so the relationship continues.

“Intimate Strangers tells a great story,” Brandfon says.  “If, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward Justice,’ then the story of Jews and Catholics in Rome can be found along that arc. Twenty centuries of living in Rome often saw an acrimonious and antagonistic relationship between Jews and Catholics— but not all the time.  In Intimate Strangers, I followed that arc of justice.  I did not flinch from the bad times, but I celebrated the good.  Whether the story has a moral or not is left ambiguous, up to individual readers to decide.”

Brandfon begins by examining the Arch of Titus and the Jewish Catacombs as touchstones, painting a picture of a Jewish community remaining Jewish over centuries. Papal processions and the humiliating races at Carnival time exemplify Jewish interactions with the predominant Catholic powers in medieval and Renaissance Rome. The Roman ghetto, the forcible conversion of Jews, emancipation from the ghetto in light of Italian nationalism, the horrors of fascism and the Nazi occupation in Rome, the Second Vatican Council proclamation absolving Jews of murdering Christ, and the celebration of Israel’s birth at the Arch of Titus are interwoven with Jewish stories of daily life through the centuries.

INTIMATE STRANGERS is a must read for anyone interested in history, religion, and specifically Judaism and Catholicism.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Fredric Brandfon is former chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Stockton University in New Jersey and founded the Department of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. He has published numerous articles on Roman and Italian Jewish history.

INTIMATE STRANGERS: A History of Jews and Catholics in the City of Rome

By Fredric Brandfon

The Jewish Publication Society; May 1, 2023

(Hardcover, 978-0827615571, $36.95, 384 Pages)

https://jps.org/

http://fredricbrandfon.com/

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Fredric Brandfon, Judaism, nonfiction, OTRPR, Over the River Public Relations

By otrpr 1 Comment

MAY 2023 Virtual Book Tour for WHERE WATERS MEET by Zhang Ling

Coming May 1, 2023 — A daughter discovers the dramatic history that shaped her mother’s secret life in an emotional and immersive novel by Zhang Ling, the bestselling author of A Single Swallow.

“This emotional and heartbreaking novel is a tale of courage, survival, and human resilience in the face of war and repression. Ling’s emotional story of a mother-daughter relationship will appeal to readers of Amy Tan, Xinran, and Jung Chung. ”—Booklist

“WHERE WATERS MEET brings us back to the turbulent decades in China where people fought one war after another, suffered famine, and endured political persecutions. However, instead of focusing on misery, Zhang Ling introduces us to those who defy their fates. They are brave enough to try sneaking across the border, determined enough to adopt a foreign tongue, and kind enough to care for their families no matter what. A true masterpiece filled with idiosyncratic yet admirable characters, suspenseful mystery, historical complexity, and ironic humor.” —Jianan Qian, O. Henry Prize winner and staff writer at The Millions

“I love this novel. It is an intriguing and moving story of a Chinese family who have survived terrible wartime sufferings. It reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit.  —Xinran, author of The Good Women of China and The Promise 

There was rarely a time when Phoenix Yuan-Whyller’s mother, Rain, didn’t live with her. Even when Phoenix got married, Rain, who followed her from China to Toronto, came to share Phoenix’s life. Now at the age of eighty-three, Rain’s unexpected death ushers in a heartrending separation. Struggling with the loss, Phoenix comes across her mother’s suitcase—a memory box Rain had brought from home. Inside, Phoenix finds two old photographs and a decorative bottle holding a crystallized powder. Her auntie Mei tells her these missing pieces of her mother’s early life can only be explained when they meet, and so, clutching her mother’s ashes, Phoenix boards a plane for China. What at first seems like a daughter’s quest to uncover a mother’s secrets becomes a startling journey of self-discovery.

Told across decades and continents, Zhang Ling’s exquisite novel is a tale of extraordinary courage and survival. It illuminates the resilience of humanity, the brutalities of life, the secrets we keep and those we share, and the driving forces it takes to survive.

We have lined up a group of highly regarded bloggers who will share features, post reviews and offer giveaways throughout the month May:

Monday, May 1 – NURSE BOOKIE

Tuesday, May 2 – PURRFECT PAGES

Wednesday, May 3 – SUE THE BOOKIE

Thursday, May 4 – LILACS AND LITERATURE 

Friday, May 5 – READING WITH NICOLE 

Monday, May 8 –  BOOKS AND COFFEE MX

Tuesday, May 9 – WHAT IS THAT BOOK ABOUT 

Wednesday, May 10 – AIMEE DARS READS 

Thursday. May 11 – TOTAHLY BOOKED 

Friday, May 12 – MOMMA LEIGHELLEN’S BOOK NOOK 

Saturday, May 13 – READING WITH MELANN ROSENTHAL 

Monday, May 15 – BOOKOHOLIC CAFE 

Tuesday, May 16 – THE MADDIE HATTER 

Wednesday, May 17 – DAI 2 DAI READER

Thursday, May 18 – DANISH MUSTARD  READS

Friday, May 19 – SUBAKKA BOOKSTUFF

Sunday, May 21 – ARMED WITH A BOOK

Monday, May 22 – WE LOVE BIG BOOKS AND WE CANNOT LIE 

Tuesday, May 23 – LITERARY QUICKSAND 

Wednesday, May 24 – THE BOOK CLUB MOM

Thursday, May 25 – TINA MAY READS 

Friday, May 26 – GLORIANA WONG 

Monday, May 29 – LEXIJAVA 

Tuesday, May 30 – SUZY APPROVED BOOK REVIEWS

Filed Under: Blog Tours, Uncategorized Tagged With: book club fiction, Canadian novelist, Chinese historical novel, Chinese Literature, Chinese novelist, historical fiction, Literary fiction, OTRPR, Over the River PR, Over the River Public Relations

By otrpr Leave a Comment

May 2023 Virtual Tour for STARS COLLIDE by Rachel Lacey

Coming May 2, 2023 from Rachel Lacey, award-winning author of Read Between the Lines – a sexy slow-burn romance about two dynamic divas who collide on the world’s biggest stage.

“Utterly captivating!” – Alexandria Bellefleur, bestselling and
Lambda Award-winning author of Written in the Stars

Reviewers have called Rachel Lacey’s sapphic novels “swoony, “heartrenching and utterly sweet,” and “well-crafted, heartfelt lesfic romance.” Her novels consistently average above 4.5 stars on Amazon, and two of her recent novels have been chosen as Editor’s Picks for Best Romance. With her latest novel, Rachel Lacey is poised to become a star as bright as her two utterly magnetic diva characters. STARS COLLIDE (May 2, 2023; Montlake), is a grumpy/sunshine celebrity romance between an up-and-coming young pop star with a very bubbly, very queer brand, and a reserved legend of pop music who’s lonely and jaded after twenty years of stardom. She’s always assumed she was straight but never understood why she’s never had much passion in her life. When they’re teamed up for a duet at the Grammy’s, well, it’s safe to say that both of their worlds will be rocked that night.

Eden Sands has been a star for twenty years, but it’s lonely at the top. Her mediocre marriage just ended, and her inner circle is smaller than ever. The stage is the only place she’s ever felt like she truly belonged, and yet, her last album flopped, and her upcoming tour hasn’t sold out. Eden’s desperate for her star to shine bright again, but when her team suggests a collaboration with an up-and-coming young star to give her a boost, she balks.

Anna Moss is pop music’s rising star. She’s idolized Eden Sands for most of her life―so it’s a dream come true when she’s invited to perform with her at the Grammys. Anna’s tired of being defined by her bubbly persona. She wants to be taken seriously as an artist, and a duet with Eden could be just what she needs.

As Anna and Eden rehearse, they soon realize they have more in common than their musical talents. Now they just have to decide if what is between them is a one-hit wonder or the making of a romance worthy of one of the greatest love songs of all time.

We have lined up a group of highly acclaimed bloggers who will share features, post reviews and offer giveaways throughout the month May:

Tuesday, May 2 – We Break For Books AND Book Things With Brit

Wednesday May 3 – Latest Book Crush

Thursday, May 4 – Aimee Dars Reads AND Nerdy Gurl Reads

Friday, May 5 – Secret Reading Life AND The Caffeinated Reader

Saturday, May 6 – Average Lesbian Reader

Sunday, May 7 – True Color Bookends

Monday, May 8 – Reading with Nicole AND Bookphile Belle

Tuesday, May 9 – Janai Reads Books AND Fiona and Steph Read

Wednesday, May 10 – Sarah’s Bookstack

Thursday, May 11 – Katie Needs A Bigger Bookshelf

Friday, May 12 – Tina May Reads AND Reading With Mel Ann Rosenthal

Monday, May 15 – Tees Book Journey AND Coles Book Nook

Tuesday, May 16 – X Bookworm Café AND Always Reading

Wednesday, May 17 – Books with Becki AND Bookalong

Thursday, May 18 – Books N Yoga Pants AND Books Dogs And Coffee

Friday, May 19 – Danish Mustard Reads AND Storeybook Reviews

Sunday, May 21 – Subukka Bookstuff

Monday, May 22 – Nurse Bookie

Tuesday, May 23 – Lexijava AND What Jessie Reads

Wednesday, May 24 – Oh You Read

Thursday, May 25 – It’s Bibliotherapy AND Suzy Approved Book Reviews

Friday, May 26 – Megan’s Book Corner

Saturday, May 27 – Books and Coffee MX

Tuesday, May 30 – Rainbow Rose Reads AND Angels Mom Reads

Wednesday, May 31 – Lilacs and Literature AND Gloriana Wong

Filed Under: Blog Tours, Reviews & Features, Uncategorized Tagged With: Montlake, Rachel Lacey, Stars Collide

By otrpr Leave a Comment

Available NOW — BEST MINDS: How Allen Ginsberg Made Revolutionary Poetry from Madness by Stevan Weine, MD

“The author brings nuance to Allen’s views on mental illness, arguing that Allen had more ambivalent feelings about the anti-psychiatry movement than one might expect, and the author’s privileged access to material on the poet’s and Naomi’s institutionalizations make this a valuable resource for future biographers. Fans of the Beat Generation will be enlightened.” –Publishers Weekly

“Dr. Weine takes a serious, detailed look at how Allen Ginsberg’s personal encounters with mental illness became integral to his poetry. Best Minds is a unique contribution to the critical and biographical work on this troubled and brilliant Beat Generation poet. The book presents a brisk a challenge to “official” notions of mental illness by way of poetry and antipsychiatry. Its broad reach is also an enhancement to the growing field of literature and medicine.” –Hassan Melehy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

“A masterpiece of definitive and seminal scholarship, Best Minds: How Allen Ginsberg Made Revolutionary Poetry from Madness will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in the life and poetry of Allen Ginsberg… Best Minds is exceptionally well written, organized and presented — making it an inherently fascinating, informative, and insightful study.” –Midwest Book Review

“In Weine’s telling of the Naomi story, one is suddenly aware that readers of Beat Literature never had a clear or comprehensible picture of Naomi’s hospitalization records and treatments…The richness of this story does not alter the eventual poetic output of Allen, but it makes Ginsberg’s accomplishments more singular and more human.” –The Allen Ginsberg Project

A revelatory look at how poet Allen Ginsberg transformed experiences of mental illness and madness into some of the most powerful and widely read poems of the twentieth century.

Allen Ginsberg turned the madness he had encountered in his own life into a literary call to arms defending the human spirit against social oppression. The poem “Howl” opens with one of the most resonant phrases in modern poetry: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.” But despite this poem’s international fame and notoriety, the madness referred to in “Howl,” “Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg,” and multiple other poems remains an enigma today.

In BEST MINDS: How Allen Ginsberg Made Revolutionary Poetry from Madness (Fordham University Press; March 28, 2023; $34.95), psychiatrist, researcher, and scholar Stevan M. Weine, M.D. examines how Allen Ginsberg took his visions and psychiatric hospitalization, his mother’s devastating illness, confinement, and lobotomy, and the social upheavals of the post-war world and imaginatively transformed them. 

As a Columbia University medical student preparing to enter psychiatry in 1986, Stevan Weine was especially curious about literary views of madness. Says Weine, “I worked up the courage to write to Ginsberg, one of my heroes, and asked him how he reconciled the different views of madness in his art and life. Much to my surprise and delight, Ginsberg called me and asked to meet the very next day. He let me interview him and offered access to his archives and psychiatric records, as well as to his mother’s psychiatric records, which nobody outside the hospital had seen. In multiple meetings over several years, Allen, as he asked to be called, mentored and encouraged me to pursue my investigation, making this book possible.”

Madness is often linked to hardship and suffering, but in BEST MINDS, Weine shows how Allen’s poetics involved a lifelong imaginative and hopeful reworking of mental illness. In Ginsberg’s hands, madness could lead to profound and redemptive aesthetic, spiritual, and social changes. Through his revolutionary poetry and social advocacy, Ginsberg dedicated himself to leading others toward new ways of being human and easing pain.

Throughout his celebrated career Ginsberg made us feel as though we knew everything there was to know about him. However, much has been left out about his experiences growing up with a mentally ill mother, his visions, and his psychiatric hospitalization. 

In BEST MINDS, with a forty-year career studying and addressing trauma, Weine provides a groundbreaking exploration of the poet and his creative process especially in relation to madness. 

BEST MINDS examines the complex relationships between mental illness, psychiatry, trauma, poetry, and prophecy―using the access Ginsberg generously shared to offer new, lively, and indispensable insights into an American icon. Weine also provides new understandings of the paternalism, treatment failures, ethical lapses, and limitations of American psychiatry of the 1940s and 1950s.

In light of these new discoveries, the challenges Ginsberg faced appear starker and his achievements, both as a poet and an advocate, are even more remarkable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Stevan M. Weine is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, where he is also Director of Global Medicine and Director of the Center for Global Health. He is the author of two books: When History is a Nightmare: Lives and Memories of Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovinaand Testimony and Catastrophe: Narrating the Traumas of Political Violence.

BEST MINDS: How Allen Ginsberg Made Revolutionary Poetry from Madness
by Stevan M. Weine
Fordham University Press; Hardcover and e-book; March 28, 2023
(Nonfiction/Biography/Psychology; $34.95; ISBN#: 978-1531502669; 304 pp. with 37 b/w illustrations)

Filed Under: Uncategorized

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 38
  • Next Page »

WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET IN TOUCH?

CONTACT US

Follow Us

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedininstagram

Copyright © 2023 · Site designed and maintained by Bakerview Consulting