Miriam the Medium

Rating:
Summary: Even If You Don't Believe in Grandmother tales!
Review: Even if you don't believe in "bube meishes," (Yiddish for grandmother tales), or psychics and mediums, you can't help enjoying Rochelle Jewel Shapiro's first delightful novel Miriam the Medium.

Shapiro narrates a story of a phone psychic, Miriam Kaminsky, who inherited the gift of being able to communicate with the dead and to foretell the future from her Russian born "bubie" (Yiddish for grandmother).
Unfortunately, this gift causes her much grief, as both her own mother and daughter were ashamed to divulge to anyone what unusual powers she possessed. In fact, her mother warned her not to let any of her neighbors in on her secret, when she had moved to Great Neck, New York. Her daughter dared not mention her mother's skills to any of her school friends for fear of being ridiculed.

When her husband's pharmacy was about to go under, Miriam decides to come to his rescue by engaging the services of an agent. Her plan was to more effectively market herself and thus earn more money. The agent convinces Miriam to appear on a television show that, unfortunately, ends in her being humiliated.
However, all is not lost and there are sparks of triumph, as Miriam succeeds in proving her worth to her immediate family, when she tracks down her daughter and boyfriend lost in the woods in the middle of nowhere.

You have to wonder if the author's narrative is based on some of her own true to life experiences, as she is likewise a phone psychic who lives in Great Neck, New York?

Although narrated in a simple, accessible style, the story is replete with well- developed character descriptions and vivid conversations of not only of persons living but also the spirits of the deceased.
The book from beginning to end seldom slows and our principal character, Miriam, engages readers from the first page, both as a narrator and a mysterious character.
The dialogue with its sprinkling of colorful Yiddish expressions is hilarious, and the story is sure to delight even those who would say it is a bunch of malarkey, or as my late parents would utter- "bubie meishes."
However, you have to admit the book would undoubtedly supply readers with some good cocktail conversation pertaining to the legitimacy of psychics and mediums.
After all, is it not true, as fans of the paranormal enjoy pointing out, that some of our well- known politicians, celebrities, and others defer to the opinions of these "gifted" individuals? Enjoy!

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com


Rating:
Summary: Excellent Summer Reading!
Review: I read this delightful debut novel in two very busy days and I highly recommend it - take it to the beach, read it in your garden, stash it in your bag for work - I guarantee you won't regret making time for Miriam the Medium!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent debut novel
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It sat on my shelf for two weeks before I got a chance to pick it up and read it and when I opened to page 1, I didnt want to put it down.

The author makes it very easy for the reader to like Miriam and sympathize with her. She must have a teenage daughter in real ife because the parts of the novel where Miriams daughter are involved are spot on.

I eagerly await Rochelle Shapiros next book!

Rating:
Summary: A charming debut novel
Review: Phone psychic Miriam Kaminsky may be able to predict the future and to ask advice of the occasional visiting spirit, but she has at least as many problems as the rest of us. Her husband's pharmacy is hemorrhaging money. Her previously overachieving daughter, who is too embarrassed by her mother's profession to mention it to her friends, has taken up with Great Neck's resident bad boy, a shaven-haired hoodlum who doesn't "do" parents. And Miriam herself has become an object of interest to a broken-hearted client, thuggish restaurateur Vince Guardelli, who just may have fitted an acquaintance or two in his past with cement shoes. As her family's financial difficulties escalate, Miriam must decide whether to sell her psychic abilities on a larger stage, a lucrative option which might further alienate her daughter and disappoint the spirit of her paternal grandmother, her psychic mentor, whose shimmering image appears to Miriam frequently.

Rochelle Shapiro's charming debut novel introduces readers to the unusual demands and work-a-day business of an occupation with which most of us won't be familiar. Her Miriam is a fully sympathetic character whose psychic ability is portrayed as more often a curse than an advantage. Not only is the information Miriam receives psychically often incomplete and misleading, but her talent colors people's perceptions of her: Miriam is either fraud or freak, psychic spy or potential savior. It is a burden with which Miriam's creator is herself familiar, for the book is at least to some extent autobiographical: Great Neck resident Rochelle Shapiro is likewise a psychic whose talent was first recognized by her paternal grandmother. Let's hope there's another great read waiting for us in Ms. Shapiro's future.

Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

Rating:
Summary: a passionate, wonderful debut.
Review: Reviewed by Sarah Morris for Small Spiral Notebook

Thanks to Rochelle Jewel Shapiro, I have discovered that I'm a psychic. In fact, I now think that most readers have a bit of mysticism within. Since reading Miriam the Medium, Shapiro's debut novel published earlier this year, I've been stricken with the idea that authors and readers are linked by their common desire to invent whole worlds and lives, that authors begin the transmission and readers pick up the signal, welcoming images and characters like truths that unfold on the screen of the reader's own third eye. Maybe our abilities aren't quite on par with those of phone psychic Miriam Kaminsky, but we readers are visionaries, connected through webs of words strung together that combine to bring a character to life.

And Shapiro's Miriam certainly lives. Amid the muted tones of her image-obsessed hometown of Great Neck, New York, Miriam's colorful personality shines. Though not always welcome by her neighbors or her family, Miriam and her psychic abilities, along with the spirits of two or three dead relatives who regularly stop in to chat, add a definite verve to suburban New York. While her neighbors have their roots done and trip around in their Manolos, Miriam slings a tapestry bag over her shoulder and pops open her parasol as she strolls around in the sun. She's not affecting an image to drum up business; she is struggling to live true to herself.

Getting comfortable with your true self is the central issue of Miriam the Medium. Shapiro uses the unique framework of psychic ability to inform a common theme that is carried throughout the novel. Miriam, her husband and daughter, and even the book's marginal characters all struggle with the definitions imposed upon them and those they've adopted for themselves. Even the book's title alludes to this, labeling Miriam a medium when she has always called herself "plain old Miriam the Psychic." Miriam is called a medium only briefly in the book, yet the idea of being imposed upon by others' definitions is fundamental to the novel's cohesion. Societal norms and family expectations merge with self-image, dictating the characters' actions and often making their decisions for them. For Miriam, trusting in her own abilities in spite of her mother's constant disapproval and her daughter's disbelieving scorn opens her up to confidently explore the full extent of her psychic abilities.

Shapiro skillfully weaves together the complex effects of past experiences upon personal insecurities and adeptly reveals the struggle to just be. Whether readers embrace the novel's supernatural philosophy, they will have no trouble embracing Miriam, a character of warmth and substance, with some good-natured quirks thrown in. Miriam the Medium is a strong debut from an author who writes with passion and conviction.



Rating:
Summary: Lessons from Miriam the Medium
Review: Rochell Shapiro is a creative skillful writer, in Miriam the medium she weaves a beautiful tapestry interweaving family traditions, difficult relationships and painful events with humor love and acceptance in such a way that grabs the reader from beginning to the end. A story about who we are, our dreams and what we want to become, the role we are imposed to play by family and social status that forces us to supress our creativity and submerges us in a life of mediocrity and resignation,the batle within one self to follow your passion and at the same time stay in good terms with your imposed role and how to find the balance. How in the end love and acceptance is what matters. A story of real magic that can transform and inspire the reader to bring Love Understanding and Acceptance in their life's and relationships in a world that so much needs this qualities.

Rating:
Summary: What fun!
Review: Rochelle Jewel Shapiro's novel is utterly charming! Fans of Susan Isaacs as well as fans of chick-lit should take note. I certainly hope we'll be seeing more of Miriam the Medium in future books.

Rating:
Summary: Mothers, Daughters, and Psychics in Suburbia
Review: This is a quick and enjoyable read which touches on the trials of bringing up an adolescent daughter in a typical suburban community when you are not the most traditional parent imaginable.
Miriam's extraordinary psychic abilities exacerbate the normal prickly tensions between mother and daughter and this novel explores both the tensions and abilities with humor and style.
The ins and outs of the plot keep you turning the pages - financial troubles, boyfriend troubles, and the business of being a telephone psychic were all of great interest to this reader. I recommend it very highly to mothers and daughters.

Rating:
Summary: Rochelle the Gift-Giver!
Review: This lighthearted and passionate novel is a sight-for-sore-eyes gift which teaches us that the very real and the very magical can co-exist.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVED this book
Review: What a great book! I couldn't put this down no matter how hard I tried. The author has a way with writing, and the story was so original I found myself biting my nails waiting to see what happened next. The concept of a medium living in suburbia, doing phone readings for a living, was unique and intriguing. I loved reading about her encounters with the spirits of the customers she read, and I thought the parallels of her own life and family with her gift was wonderfully done. I loved Miriam from the first page and I was sorry to see her story end. I'll look forward to reading other books by this talented author!