The long awaited Johnny and the Hurricanes Anthology (2 CD’s/ 1 DVD BOX SET) is finally available. Look for it on the “What’s new” page!)
Author Sonja Paris has her newest book MAKE THE COUGAR PURR available NOW in print or for downloads on kindle. Look for it on Amazon.com 
Sonja Paris 2010
Sonja Paris finished her first book in collaboration with Duane Thomas Griwack about her late husband, Johnny and the Hurricanes® founder and saxophonist Johnny Paris®, which is expected to hit the market end of 2010/ beginning of 2011.
Sonja Paris: "This book stirred up some bad blood, because some people disapprove of the fact (to say the least!) that I make money off my husband's legacy. I see it that way: Every biography ever written means making money off a legacy or dead person. That is just the way it is, and would apply to EVERY writer that EVER dared to get involved in a biography. With that in mind, I believe it is better that someone writes a bio that actually really knew the person than to leave it up to someone who JUST gathered papers and articles to create a picture of a person. But after all, this book is not just JOHN'S legacy, but it is also in part an autobiographic piece of over 17 years of my very own life. I just happened to have been married to a famous man, and he just happened to have been married to a journalist and writer.
Meanwhile Sonja Paris finished her second book "Make the Cougar purr".
"When I came to the United States, due to my marriage to Johnny Paris®, I left my old life behind, including my desire for writing. That changed after his passing, when I found the outline of his biography, his diaries and other material about his life, which pushed me to pick up where I (and he!) let off and get back into the writing mode. Somehow, finally I found a reason to write again. It was quite challenging, as I did my writing in English, which is not my native language. That book was followed by MAKE THE COUGAR PURR, a book about a middle-aged woman that has to cope with her husband's infidelity and death. SURPRISE, SURPRISE!"
Written by: Sonja Paris
Illustration by: Ute Lahann-Reuter
Edited: by Tahlia Day
Available now!
This work is registered with the Library of Congress.
Registration# : TXu 1-666-784
Copyright© Sonja Paris 2009. All rights reserved!
ISBN-10: 1452824541
ISBN-13: 978-1452824543
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This book contains content and language that may not be suitable for young readers 17 and under!
Hannah, a middle-aged woman, survived her husband's constant infidelity by drowning her sorrow in booze and spending his money freely. After he revealed to her, that his last affair was not just one based on lust but that he found true love in the arms of a much younger woman, Hannah's world falls apart. Driven by rage, and desperate to find a new identity for herself, she turns into a prancing cougar on the hunt...
To read an excerpt, click the button: Make THE COUGAR PURR
MAKE THE COUGAR PURR has been recommended by Publishers Newswire™ as one of nine books “worth a look” for media and booksellers, as well as avid readers of new and unique literary content on its 2010 semi-annual Q2-2010 ‘Books to Bookmark’ List of Interesting New Books. To learn more about these and other books in detail, visit:
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MAKE THE COUGAR PURR reviews:
Reading Sonja Paris' "Make the Cougar Purr"--what a read! Oddly fascinating, it depicts cougar Hannah as a real flesh and blood woman. via web (by Diana Faillace)
pastedGraphicReviewed Sonja Paris' "Make the Cougar Purr." Great tale of a modern woman-
2010-08-03
pastedGraphic This Kitty Roars, August 3, 2010
By
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This review is from: Make The Cougar Purr (Paperback)
In "Make the Cougar Purr" Sonja Paris zip-locks the reader within the stifling zoo of her 40-something heroine where the howling sensations and prowling stimulations of countless unhappy, directionless and love/life questing inmates overwhelms and disturbs yet constitutes a viable underbelly for the 21st century inferno of relationship hell. Paris, the real-life widow of Johnny Paris of Johnny and the Hurricanes bares her own soul (80% of the time) and the soul of her creation, Hannah Bentley, with a rip and a roar that pings at the iceberg of indignation within the most dangerous animal in her social cage: a woman, psychologically scorned and emotionally wounded.
Fully aware that the only thing upon which she can rely with any regularity is her husband Steven's pathological cheating, blonde and slightly overweight Hannah retaliates with a hardening of her emotional veneer and some extra-curriculum bedroom (and countertop) activity of her own. Not that Steven ever made her happy anyway; from the get-go, her marriage to him yielded little in the blissful- contentment department. Was she in love? Did he love her? Was it all words? Just sex? Why the emptiness? Would more sex fill the void? Would more alcohol? Hannah participates in her life (20% of the time) yet rarely engages. Anesthetized by booze, she is there, but not there. Nonetheless discovering after Steven's sudden death that he actually loved his last mistress and was planning a fairytale life with her complete with a house, white picket fence, requisite child and dog, catapults Hannah onto a frenetic expedition for connectivity.
For almost 500 pages, the reader travels with Hannah across Middle America and overseas to her native Germany, voyeuristically and vicariously participating in a fast-track lifestyle of over-indulgence. For Hannah, a sufficient amount of booze means she's passed out-- and as for sex?--she's voracious--up all night and ready the following morning. Like all the other classic literary protagonists seeking change and redemption, when does our Hannah reach that climatic moment and finally decide that enough is enough? When does she realize that in order to be full she must be empty and that the best things in life are free? Where's the good guy that maybe isn't so hot to look at, loves her to death and eventually gets her to enjoy that warm and cuddly feeling growing inside herself? Ha! Refreshingly, she doesn't settle for second best where looking within means not getting what she wants--Paris and her Hannah are still trudging along the road of personal enlightenment and neither are afraid to admit that there are plenty of rocks to stumble upon that keep you from moving forward. On one leg of her journey, she dabbles with New Age modalities seeking the Higher Self, but amusingly persists in the age-old fun of placating her Lower Self (and Half) with healing touch of a different kind.
From a purely structural vantage point, this reviewer would have liked Hannah to come to some conclusion about her life. As with other seekers on a literary coming-of-age, she journeys through different predicaments and comes out stronger and wiser for the experience. However, from an overall standpoint, Hannah really doesn't grow at all. Despite all her adventures, trials and tribulations, she ends where she started with perhaps a little more cynicism added to the mix of disappointment and ennui. Poor Hannah, she epitomizes the concept of Weltschmerz. Her solution? More experiences of a different nature--a creative project--something that speaks to her soul. She's already got the body covered.
On a technical level, "Make the Cougar Purr," begs for chapter divisions. Paris does break different scenes and emotional departures with visual line separators. Nevertheless, I want to know when I was reaching my goal of finishing a chapter and another phase of Hannah's life by hitting that all-important empty page and larger heading font. Otherwise, Paris does an incredible job of allowing her readers to get inside of Hannah's brain space--even if Hannah really isn't in it herself.
Bottom line? Sonja Paris successfully depicts the struggle within the life of her character Hannah Bentley. This approximately 500 page middle-aged adventure takes the reader on a circuitous journey of self-discovery that doesn't always help us discover anything. Never boring or tedious, Paris intrigues with her writing style and perhaps has intuited that the act of writing in itself is therapeutic, creative and perhaps just the craft Hannah should hone. The ending may disappoint some. Adult language and situations. Recommended.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
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June 25, 2010
The author has a real talent for drawing the reader into the story. You find yourself wondering what Hannah (the main character) is up to when you aren't reading. This is an adult novel--make no mistake, the subject matter is mature, but the use of adult language makes the characters seem like real people and not fictional creations. A very believable and enjoyable read.
great book
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Posted September 17, 2010, 12:09 PM EST: This book is really amazing. Never read a book with such natural Characters. I feel understood as a women. Hanna’s problems are very realistic to the problems of all women. She becomes a real friend while you’re reading the book. Such a book was necessary and it will help men to understand us. But there are not just problems described. Sonja Paris did a great job, made me cry, love, feel sorry, and often couldn’t stop laughing. You must read it.
Make The Cougar Purr Love it!
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Posted July 29, 2010, 11:12 AM EST: Sonja does a good job in bringing the reader into the book. You know how Hannah is feeling and what is going on. It is a book you can not put down. Easy reading!
This book was recommended as a book to bookmark
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Posted August 6, 2010, 10:50 AM EST: Tired of romance novels that just portray young women with bodies to die for, novelist Sonja Paris tried a new approach in her first novel "Make The Cougar Purr" (ISBN: 978-1452824543; 494 pages; paperback; CreateSpace). This book is about betrayal, loss and sexual identification, and even though Paris put her work into a fictional "skeleton" its "vital organs" are in part based on autobiographic reflection of her own very turbulent life (she's the widow of Johnny and the Hurricanes® saxophone legend Johnny Paris®). "Cougar" depicts the life of Hannah, a middle-aged woman in a small Ohio town. Constantly betrayed by her husband, she drowns her sorrow in booze and spends his money freely, until he reveals to her that his last affair with a much younger woman is based on true love and not on pure lust. Driven by rage and desperate to find a new identity for herself, Hannah turns into a prancing cougar on the hunt and stumbles from one sexual escapade into another on her search for true love. Paris' writing style combines all the five senses with raw sex and deep-felt emotions, described so vividly, as if watching a screenplay. This book is recommended by Publishers NewswireT as one of nine books "worth a look" for media and booksellers, as well as avid readers of new and unique literary content on its latest semi-annual "Books to Bookmark" list. To learn more about these and other books in detail, visit: Definitely unique and exciting from start to finish. Didn't care much for the ending. But maybe there will be a sequel with a better ending for Hannah (the main character). I felt like: This cannot be it. There’re ought to be more pages!
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