1202 - 1207 (2024 #20 - #25). June - November 2024

My husband was ill much of June and July, and died on August 2, so not many books were read or reviewed this summer (or autumn when I did a lot of traveling), and much of what I read was short stories or children's picture books, since I had trouble concentrating when reading.  I'm only including the books I reviewed in my title count.

Once Upon a Sari by Zenia Wadhwani, illustrated by Avani Dwivedi

Once Upon a Sari is a lovely story about a little girl who makes a mess of her mother's saris - but instead of getting upset, her mother sits down and tells her daughter the stories behind some of the saris as she folds them up.  Zenia Wadhwani's book is a great addition to multicultural children's books, and I liked how the pronunciation of some (not all) of the fabrics was broken out by syllables, as one might teach a child to pronounce a word.  I think the book would have been enhanced by a brief afterword defining some of the other terms used in the book (such as dadi, kheer, pallu, nani, and ladoo). There's also a reference to the Partition of India that might generate questions from some readers or listeners.  Illustrator Avani Dwivedi created the vibrant illustrations using watercolors, gouache, and colored pencils on hot press watercolor paper.

The Green Baby Swing by Thomas King, illustrated by Yong Ling Kang

I received The Green Baby Swing from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in early July, right about the time my husband became seriously ill.  He died a month later.  We've known each other 45 years and been married the last 18.  I've spent the last few weeks finding things - his Boy Scout hat and belt, for example - that somehow I'd missed finding before.  

So I could relate to this "picture book about loss, intergenerational love and the power of family keepsakes."  I would have liked to see a little more about the other family keepsakes that are only mentioned in the book, and a little less about the green baby swing (which is more like a baby sling, in my opinion).  Still, this would be a good book to share with a young child who's lost a loved one.

Disgusting Critters: A Creepy Crawly Collection by Elise Gravel

This is a cute book in Elise Gravel's "Disgusting Critters" series.  The illustrations are funny and should interest children.  The text (especially the comments by the worms, spiders, and flies this "Creepy Crawly Collection" covers) has some humor for the adults that might be reading the book aloud, yet is simple enough for many early readers to comprehend.  

This would be a good addition to a school or classroom library (or a university library used by future teachers).  It would also be a good gift for one of my great-grandchildren.

Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover by Sarah Perry

I won this advance reader edition in a giveaway.  I don't consider myself a candy aficionado, as I pretty much only eat candy with chocolate in it (and I'm picky about what's with the chocolate), but it was a fun and thought-provoking collection of essays, organized by the predominant color (and texture, in the case of red) of the candy in question.

In some of the essays, the reader learns a little about the history of the candy; in others, about the history of author Sarah Perry in the memories the candy evokes; and sometimes the reader learns both.  In all, Perry's descriptions of the candy help one imagine how it tastes, smells, and looks (the latter more so than the hand-drawn illustrations, in many cases).  

Perry's memories made me next read her memoir, After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search, as there were enough references in this book to that time in her life to intrigue me.

Honk Honk, Beep Beep, Putter Putt! by Rukhsana Khan, illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat

In this colorful multicultural picture book, a little boy and his cat ride along in a motorized rickshaw, sharing the road with other cars, trucks, and busses.  All make various sounds (like those in the title) to indicate where they are going.  The repetition of the sounds, as well as the recurring line "Big and small, short and tall, everyone shares the road," will appeal to young children.  The latter is the point of the story - as is "People drive with their ears as much as their eyes," in the author's note at the end.  

Tractor Dance by Matt Forrest Esenwine, illustrated by Jen Taylor

This vibrant board book tells a story in rhyme about farm equipment having a hoedown.  My great-granddaughter is growing up on a farm, and this cute story will be a perfect gift for her.

Other books and short stories that I read (but that I am not reviewing):

The Seamstress of New Orleans by Diane C. McPhail - historical fiction

Three Wishes: A Novel by Liane Moriarty

Lovers at the Museum: A Short Story by Isabel Allende

Natural Selection: A Short Story by Elin Hilderbrand

Cut and Thirst: A Short Story by Margaret Atwood

My Evil Mother: A Short Story by Margaret Atwood

The Bookstore Wedding (The Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories) by Alice Hoffman - short story

Same Time Next Year: A Novella by Tessa Bailey - short story

Two Women Walk into a Bar by Cheryl Strayed - short story

The Scenic Route: A Short Story by Christina Baker Kline

A Night at the Tropicana: A Short Story by Chanel Cleeton

How to Accidentally Settle Down [With Your High School Boyfriend] by Katherine Ryan - short story

The Museum of Lost Quilts: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel (The Elm Creek Quilts Series Book 22) by Jennifer Chiaverini - historical fiction

The Women's March: A Novel of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession by Jennifer Chiaverini - historical fiction

After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search by Sarah Perry - memoir

The Phoenix Crown: A Historical Mystery of Two Women Seeking Justice in Paris and San Francisco, by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang - historical fiction

The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles - historical fiction

1198 - 1201 (2024 #16 - #19). May 2024

The Christmas Boutique by Jennifer Chiaverini

I thought I'd read most of the books in Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilt series. I'm pretty sure I read all of the first seven, even though some of those were done before I started keeping track of my reading in LibraryThing.  However, I had a big gap in the middle of the series (numbers 11-15), and had also missed some of the more recent ones.  This book is #21 in the series, although chronologically, the events in it happen after those in book #15, The Quilter's Holiday (one I haven't read).  

The last book in the series that I read before this one was #20, The Giving Quilt, in December 2012.  Despite a gap of over 11 years (Chiaverini had also taken a break - of seven years - between publishing that one and this one), I remembered the main characters from the series, and the book stood alone well.

The premise of the novel is that Elm Creek Manor, business home for the Elm Creek Quilters (and literal home for some of them), agrees to host a fundraising holiday boutique when the church in the nearby town that normally hosts it is unable to do so.  Each chapter in the book (except the last) is told from the point of view of a different Elm Creek Quilter - Sylvia, Gretchen, Sarah, Agnes, Gwen, and Diane - as well as a new character, Mary Beth, a next-door neighbor to (and rival of the irritating) Diane.  

Much of the book retells stories told in earlier books, but this didn't bother me, since it had been so long since I'd read another book in the series.  Also, as another reviewer mentioned, I still learned something new about each character.  Agnes' story (that filled in what happened after the death of her first husband, Sylvia's brother) was especially interesting.  Mary Beth was an intriguing new character, and I'd like to see her included in any future books in this series.  As always, I wished there'd been illustrations of some of the quilts and patterns described.  

The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber

This month, I was finally able to read Ann Weisgarber's first book.  Set mostly in the Badlands of South Dakota in 1917, there are also flashbacks to Chicago in 1903.  Rachel Reeves is a black cook in the boardinghouse run by Mrs. Elizabeth Dupree for black men working in Chicago slaughterhouses.  While there, she meets Mrs. Dupree's son Isaac, a former Buffalo Soldier who wants to homestead in South Dakota - something blacks could do after 1862.  He and Rachel strike a bargain - if she files a homestead claim as a single woman, but gives the land to him, he'll marry her, and stay married at least a year.

Fourteen years later in 1917, they're still married, living in a cabin in the Badlands (after the first twelve years in a four-room dugout), with five children, two more in the grave, and one more in the womb.  The book opens in the midst of a drought, with one of the smaller children being lowered down into a well to scoop up water that the bucket can't draw up.  Not long after, a storm brings torrential rains and mud, and in trying to rescue their milk cow, Rachel slips and falls on her pregnant belly.  She's not sure if the baby is okay.

Money is scarce, partly because Isaac uses every extra bit of they get to acquire more land, from other homesteaders giving up on theirs.  As their not-close-by neighbors slowly move away, Rachel even reaches out to some Native American women - who shun her when they learn her husband was a Buffalo Soldier.  

As winter approaches (near the end of the book), they have 2500 acres, but barely enough food to make it through the winter - and Isaac plans to leave his pregnant wife and all the children alone while he goes to work in the mines to earn money to buy more land.  Rachel is worried about her family back in Chicago - she has learned her brother died in race riots in East St. Louis - and she also fears for the future of her children, particularly her oldest daughter.  What will she decide to do?

Weisgarber was inspired to write the book by vacations at Badlands National Park, and visits to nearby museums, one on prairie homesteading, and another where she "saw a photograph of an unnamed African American woman sitting in front of a dugout....she was alone.... I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and I started to imagine her story."

Weisgarber worked various historic persons and real incidents into her story.  Her website includes photographs and other background for the book and its setting and characters. 

As in Weisgarber's other two books, The Promise and The Glovemaker, the setting almost becomes another character in the story.  The reader can feel the effects of the weather and the landscape, as well as the time period, just as Rachel and her family do.  I definitely recommend this novel.

Rain Breaks No Bones by Barbara J. Taylor

This book, set in 1955 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is the third in Barbara J. Taylor's Scranton Trilogy.  Although it stands alone just fine, now that I've finished it, I want to read the first two books (set in 1913 and the 1930s respectively), and wouldn't mind seeing more in the series (maybe the next set in the 1970s?), to find out what happens with the characters in this book.

The story revolves around three generations of Morgan women - 50-year-old Violet, her mother Grace, and her turning-25-year-old daughter Daisy.  Violet and Grace still mourn "Our Daisy," Violet's year-older sister who died back in 1913, in an accident many blamed on Violet.  Violet also suffered in the 1930s when she brought younger sister Lily's baby home from an unwed mothers' home, pretending it was hers, and losing her long-time boyfriend Stanley in the process.

Daughter Daisy falls in love with a black musician named Johnny, who rents a room from Zethray (thanks to The Green-Book).  Zethray can hear the dead when they speak - and "Our Daisy" is speaking to her a lot.  Unfortunately, her mother, Ruth, whose 1916 suicide opens the book, does not.  Grace also talks to her long-dead husband, Owen.  This may all sound unrelated, but Taylor ties together these and other characters beautifully.

The title comes from a Welsh saying that "means a little discomfort never hurt anybody," as explained by Daisy about halfway through the book (page 164).  Themes in the book of grief, guilt, and prejudice all cause discomfort.  Rain plays a big part in the climax of the book, which is based on a real-life event.

I loved the characters and the setting in the book.  The author grew up in Scranton, and although I have never been there, I felt like I had, based on her descriptions.  I liked how she made 1955 come alive with references to things such as green stamps.  Although I was born a few years after 1955, I remember buying some small appliances with books of trading stamps in the early 1980s.  

I'd definitely recommend this book.  I have no doubt I can recommend the whole trilogy, too.

All the Animals Were Sleeping by Clare Helen Welsh, illustrated by Jenny Løvlie 

This lovely picture book can be used both as a bedtime story and as narrative nonfiction about animals in the Serengeti.  While returning to its burrow at evening, a mongoose passes groups of eight other types of animals settling down to sleep.  Clare Helen Walsh's text describes how each animal sleeps, accompanied by Jenny Løvlie's lush illustrations on a double-page spread.  Each spread ends with a repetition of the book's title.  The book ends with three pages of additional facts about the nine animals in the story.  Although I had trouble reading the text on some of the pages (the contrast between the text color and the background color was not high enough for my 67-year-old eyes), I'd recommend this book.

© Amanda Pape - 2024

1195 - 1197 (2024 #13 - #15). April 2024

Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini

Most Americans have heard of Rosie the Riveter, the icon for women workers in U.S. factories during World War II.  But have you ever heard of Canary Girls?  

I never had!  "Canary Girls" was a nickname for a particular group of munitionettes, which in turn was a name used for women who worked in British ammunition plants during World War I.  Canary girls did some of the most dangerous work, filling bomb shells with explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT), which also turned their skin and hair yellow - hence the nickname.  In some cases, though, canary girls suffered more serious health problems.

The story is told through three main narrators - April, a former housemaid; Lucy, wife of a soccer (British football) player and mother of two sons; and Helen, a second-generation German who is the wife of the manager of one of the munitions plants.  April and Lucy are canary girls; Helen joins the plant administration to be their advocate.  All three play for the plant's women's football team, trying to win the (real) Munitionettes' Cup.  Other women working in the plant and playing on the team, as well as a few men (Lucy's and Helen's husbands, and one of the latter's assistants), round out the minor characters.

Author Jennifer Chiaverini herself described the book as "Rosie the Riveter meets A League of Their Own" (the movie about women's professional baseball during World War II), and that's pretty accurate.  Although I'm not a sports fan, I really enjoyed this story.

The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber

I met Ann Weisgarber at a Texas Library Association conference April 2015, where she spoke about how she worked with librarians and archivists at the Rosenberg Library in Galveston to research her first book, The Promise.  I finally got around to reading The Glovemaker, and it's just as meticulously researched.

The book is set in winter, 1888, in the Mormon community of Junction in the canyonlands of Utah Territory.  Junction is quite remote, and the small number of families that live there do so without all the strict rules of their faith.  However, the two main characters - Deborah Tyler and Nels Anderson - as well as Deborah's husband and Nels' stepbrother, Samuel - do help polygamists trying to escape federal deputies.  Adding tension to the story is that Samuel is overdue returning home from his travels to other Utah communities in his work as a wheelwright.  Nels believes a rockslide on the mountainous road home has forced Samuel to take a longer route.

A polygamist comes to Deborah's door seeking aid, and Deborah feeds him and lets him sleep in her barn overnight, before sending him on to Nels, who will take him to a sanctuary.   Later, despite the terrible weather, a man identifying himself as a marshal from Missouri - not a deputy from Utah - arrives at Deborah's home pursuing the man.  Later, this marshal is seriously injured, and Deborah and Nels must make decisions that test their beliefs and futures.  These tensions form the heart of the story.

Junction was a real place - later called Fruita (for all the orchards planted there by early settlers), and now part of Capitol Reef National Park.  Weisgarber's visit there for a vacation inspired the book.  She even made a research trip there in the winter, "so I could experience the climate and terrain as my characters do."  Indeed, in reading her words, I could really feel the bitter cold as Deborah and Nels went about their daily chores, as well as the tasks made necessary by the visits of the two strangers.

I e-mailed Weisgarber and asked her what inspired her to make the character of Deborah a glovemaker.  She responded, "Brigham Young encouraged LDS [Mormon] women to have occupations so they could support their families if their husbands died or were injured. I pondered this and decided that since Deborah’s father was a tanner, she had access to small scraps of hide. Gloves were essential not only because of the cold weather but to protect hands from blisters and cuts while driving horses, working with crops, gripping handles of plows, on and on. Hands also say much about us – our age, if we do labor, if our nails are dirty and ragged -- but gloves cover this information. For me, gloves were symbolic of the people in Junction not talking about the men who sought help. Gloves also represented all the secrets the church leaders kept about scandals."  She did say that the book's title was not her choice - which I know is often the case in the publishing world.

 

Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

Simon Bouldin was a minor character in Paulette Jiles' earlier book, News of the World.  Still set in Texas, this one takes place five years earlier, at the end of the Civil War.  A fiddler from Kentucky, Simon is ultimately conscripted into the Confederate army and serves in its regimental band - and in a post-surrender battle near Brownsville.

Afterwards, he and other musicians are compelled to play at a party thrown by the battle's instigator, Union Colonel Webb.  At the event, Simon sees Dorris Dillon, an Irish indentured servant serving as governess to Webb's daughter, and falls instantly in love.  She has to go to San Antonio with Webb's family, and Simon eventually follows - but not until he travels to Galveston, Houston, and into the Nueces Strip (near Corpus Christi), along with some other memorable musicians.

I really enjoyed the characters and plot of this novel - but even more so, the portrayal of places I know so well (grew up in Houston, spent lots of time in nearby Galveston, lived in San Antonio and Corpus Christi) as they were after the Civil War.  

© Amanda Pape - 2024

1193 - 1194 (2024 #11- 12). March 2024

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

This biographical novel was about the little-known Belle da Costa Greene, the "personal librarian" of wealthy financier J. P. Morgan and curator of his originally-private library/museum.  Greene was born Belle Marion Greener in 1879 to African-American parents, but changed her name to aid in passing as white.  The "da Costa" was to indicate a Portuguese heritage as an explanation for a darker complexion.  Her mother and all her siblings also changed their surname to Greene, to separate themselves from their estranged husband/father, Richard Greener, a racial justice advocate, so they could all pass as white.

As I've noted in other reviews of her work, I'm not particularly fond of Marie Benedict's writing style, and this book (like the others of hers I've read) was overly long and detailed.  And yet, I continue to read her books, because she chooses interesting, little-known women to write about.  She did have a co-author for this one,  African-American Victoria Christopher Murray, which was a plus.  I also appreciate their sharing of the sources they used in the post-novel historical note.

Mayluna by Kelley McNeil

This book was an Amazon First Reads for Kindle described as "women's fiction," although it's really more a romance.  The latter is not normally something I would have selected as my free book, but this was a month when the book in my favorite genre was not getting good reviews, and women's fiction is something I often like.  Although I'm not really the target audience for this book (which I would describe as romance fans, and/or people who came of age in the late 1990s), I still enjoyed it. 

Mayluna is the name of an English alt-rock band in 1998, and Carter Wills is its 26-year-old enigmatic lead singer and songwriter. Evie Waters, aka Cameron Leigh, is a 25-year-old music journalist and aspiring filmmaker interviewing the band at the beginning of their first USA tour.  Carter and Evie hit it off and ultimately fall in love.  Their romance is told mostly in flashbacks (mostly from Evie) from twenty-plus years later.

Author Kelley McNeil says on her web page for Mayluna that "...when a song popped on the radio and in the span of those four minutes, words and characters and a complete story began to flow into my mind...."  I'd love to know the name of her inspiring song, but in reading this book, it immediately reminded me of the Moody Blues' song "Your Wildest Dreams" (which also runs about four minutes) and its follow-up, "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" (also about four minutes in its single/video version).  

There are scenes in the videos for both songs that are reflected in McNeil's book.  However, I'd be surprised if they were her inspiration, given that "Your Wildest Dreams" came out in 1986, and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" in 1988, and both songs look back to the mid-1960s  Songwriter and lead singer Justin Hayward has said in a couple of interviews that he was inspired to write the songs when reminiscing about his first love.  

© Amanda Pape - 2024

1189 - 1192 (2024 #7 - 10). February 2024

Friedrichsburg by Friedrich Armand Strubberg, translated, annotated, and illustrated by James C. Kearney

This book caught my eye at my local public library because it's about Fredericksburg, Texas, the German-settled town where my parents retired to 30 years ago, in 1994, and lived happily for almost 20 years.  This novel, originally written and published in Germany in 1867 under a title that roughly translates to Friedrichsburg: Colony of the German Furstenverein, was translated, annotated, and illustrated by James C. Kearney as part of his dissertation in 2010 for a Ph.D. in German and history from the University of Texas - Austin.

The author of the original, Dr. Friedrich Armand Strubberg, actually served as the first colonial director of Fredericksburg, in 1846 and 1847, under his alias surname Schubbert, before returning to Germany in 1854, where he then wrote fiction and nonfiction.  Schubbert is one of the main characters of the book (often referred to simply as "the director"), which is very much a fictional account of the early years of the real Fredericksburg, with some grains of truth.

Besides the director, other main characters are Rudolph von Wildhorst and his bride-to-be Ludwina Nimanski, as well as their fathers, all four of which are fictional.  Many other characters are based on real people, such as the Delaware Indian chief Youngbear (the historical Jim Shaw); Kateumsi and Santa Anna, Penateka Comanche war chiefs; and John Grey (the historical Lyman Wight), leader of a group of Mormans who settled in various places in Texas, including the community of Zodiac, about four miles down the Pedernales River from Fredericksburg.  Not mentioned at all in the book is John Muesebach, who hired (and fired) Strubberg, and was the one who negotiated the peace treaty with the Penateka Comanche that is part of the novel.  

Kearney does an excellent job, in his thorough introduction and end notes, identifying what is true and what is not in Strubberg's novel.  The book also includes a glossary (particularly of German words used in the novel), an extensive list of works cited, an index, and a chronological bibliography of all the first edition books by Strubberg, ten of which are set in Texas.

Some of the action in the book is melodramatic, and the language is flowery and excessive (typical of the period when it was written), but the story is entertaining, and it's a good depiction of the early years of Fredericksburg, where my parents chose to be buried.  I'm glad I read it. 

The Maid by Kimberly Cutter

The Maid is a fictionalized biography of St. Joan of Arc.  Like many, I'd heard of Joan of Arc, the girl who dressed as a boy and fought for France, but I knew very little about her life.  Author Kimberly Cutter tells the story mainly from the viewpoint of Joan (both third-person and first-person).  Joan is called Jehanne in the book, the time-appropriate Middle French version of her name.  Later in the book, she is often referred to as La Pucelle, the maid (that is, a virgin). 

In her author's note at the end, Cutter notes that "almost everything" in the book is true.  "Almost all of the characters are real people, and the book adheres closely to the established historical facts surrounding Joan of Arc's life" (p. 281).  She does identify situations where she took "novelistic license" (p. 282), but they are few.  She cites many of her sources in her acknowledgments at the end.

I liked the way this book portrayed Joan as a human being, rather than a perfect saint.  She has temptations and doubts, she makes mistakes and has regrets, and is not always a "good" person.  

She faces some age-old problems that still exist today:  "But it was clear to her that it was not really the battles she'd fought against the English and the Burgundians, or the boy's clothes, or even her voices that bothered Cauchon [the bishop who put her on trial for heresy] and his men.  Ot was the fact that she would not submit to them....That she would not kneel down at their feet and declare them more mighty than God" (page 263).

And of course (from page 269): "She won't submit.  That's why she must be killed.  Won't submit to the Church, won't let them judge her revelations, won't accept the Church as her authority, won't abide by its rules. 'God must first be served,' she said, and this was the heart of it, the thing that drove them mad.  The audacity.  The gall.  If a filthy peasant girls can talk to God, can receive divine wisdom, who needs the Church?"


Spit & Polish by DA Brown

I requested Spit & Polish from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program because I had an aunt who was in nursing school during World War II, and I am also a recently-retired librarian from a university that used to train nurses.  The author, DA (Dorothyanne) Brown, is a retired nurse (albeit from a later time period), and did "extensive research to vividly illustrate the challenges of mid-century health care," according to the Early Reviewers blurb.  

I was not disappointed with the history in this book, set in post-World-War-II Canada.  Because of some early struggles in nursing school, the main character, Ruth, is assigned to the nearby tuberculosis ward in Kingston, Ontario.

It was fascinating to read about the treatments for tuberculosis (some almost barbaric) prior to the use of appropriate antibiotics.  Brown has a two-page bibliography at the end of the advance reader edition, listing her sources.

A complaint I have about the book was a number of omitted words, particularly in some of the quotations in the advance reader edition I received.  The citations for the quotations are inconsistent (some list author, some list title), and at least two are from sources not listed in the bibliography (which needs to be alphabetized).  I hope the book undergoes a thorough proofreading before final publication.  

Still, I learned a lot reading this book, and I would read another book about historic nursing by this author.  I'd also like to read her Recycled Virgin - the title and premise are intriguing!

  

She'll Be the Sky: Poems by Women and Girls, edited by Ella Risbridger, illustrated by Anna Shepeta

This anthology is a collection of poems *by* women and girls - one as young as age five - as well as a non-binary poet and anonymous authors.  It's important to note that the poems are not all *for* or all *about* women, which means the book is for everyone.  

The 141-page book has 117 poems, as well as a lengthy introduction and afterword (four pages each) by anthologist Ella Risbridger.  Each double-page spread has one to three poems and a single illustration by Anna Shepeta.  There are three helpful indices at the back of the book - poems by title, author, and first line.  The binding is sturdy, and there's even a ribbon marker. 

There were poems by authors familiar to me (most who wrote primarily for children), like Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, Emily Dickinson, Eleanor Farjeon, Nikki Giovanni, Eloise Greenfield, Nikki Grimes, Lois Lenski, Amy Lowell, Eve Merriam, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marilyn Nelson, Christina Rossetti, and Janet S. Wong.

However, there was only one poem I recognized:  an extract from Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb" (p. 31).  Besides that one, others I liked were about historical figures:  "From Boudica, Queen of the Iceni, to Gaius Seutonius Paullinus, on the Occasion of His Invasion," by Kirsten Irving (p. 46); "Rosa Parks," by Jan Dean (p. 50); "Harriet Tubman," by Eloise Greenfield (p. 52); "Like A Sun," about Queen Victoria, by Elli Woollard (p. 84); and "Malala," by Michaela Morgan (p. 127).

The book was originally published in Great Britain in 2022 under the title, And Everything Will Be Glad to See You.  I think this book will be most appreciated by older children and students.

© Amanda Pape - 2024

1083 - 1087 (2022 #8 - 12). April 2022

This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

This is another book I read because it was banned from school library shelves in my racist, radical right-wing rural Republican town, for "sexually explicit content and illustrations."  It was not available in my local library, either, but I was able to borrow the e-book from another library.

This book is an introductory guide to LGBT life and issues for high school age and up.  I'm no expert on these topics, and this senior adult learned some things from this book.  Author Juno Dawson, who also writes fiction, originally identified as a gay man (James Dawson), but a year after the publication of this book in 2014, came out as a transgender woman.  This updated second edition was published under her new name.

As for "sexually explicit illustrations"?  They are black-and-white line drawings in a cartoon style by Spike Gerrell, funny and appropriate for the intended audience.

Books like this are needed in our school and public libraries, especially for questioning young people who may lack the loving support to learn about these issues elsewhere.

Sugar and Salt by Susan Wiggs

Sugar and Salt is mostly the story of Margot Salton (aka Margie Salinas), a barbeque master from Texas who is finding success with her own restaurant - called Salt - in San Francisco, until her past comes back to haunt her.  It's also the story of Jerome Sugar, who operates the bakery Sugar next door to Salt, and sharing a kitchen, and Jerome's mother Ida, who came of age during the Vietnam War era.

Besides being not just one love story, but two, this book also pulls in so many relevant issues, especially pertaining to the harrowing Texas judicial and penal system (and before you ask - I grew up and live in Texas, although I was born in Chicago and I've also lived in Washington state).  

I haven't read any of Susan Wiggs' books before, but now I am a fan.  She doesn't hesitate to cover such topics as war protests, avoiding the draft, interracial romance and marriage, and adoption by nontraditional couples, as well as rape and abortion.

All of these topics, coupled with the recipes at the end of the book, would make this a great choice for book clubs.

My only gripes with the book are two minor ones.  First, the blurb on the back of the advance reader edition (courtesy LibraryThing Early Reviewers), states that Jerome's last name is Barnes (not Sugar), and Ida is his grandmother (not mother).  Either the blurb needs to be corrected, or the text does.  Secondly, I don't like the cover.  It's very pretty, but really doesn't reflect the content of the book, and between it and the current blurb, seems to imply this is a light, beach-read romance, when it (thankfully) is not.

Hawai'i Calls by Marjorie Nelson Matthews

In 1935, Sadira "Sadie" Schaeffer Doyle is the social columnist for little Carlisle, New York's newspaper.  When her alcoholic husband loses yet another job, this time with the local mortuary his parents helped him establish, his partner finds him another job in Hawai'i - a place Sadira has longed to see thanks to the radio show "Hawaii Calls" - and they and their two sons move there for a fresh start.

Sadira writes about their early-1936 voyage (by ship from New York City) to Hawai'i for her upstate hometown paper.  Not long after her arrival in Hawaii, she secures a similar position with the Honolulu paper.  She hobnobs with celebrities and politicians, but her life isn't ideal.

The story is told in the alternating voices of Sadira and her oldest son, Lionel, who provides a different (and sometimes conflicting) view of life in Hawai'i for the family.

Author Marjorie Nelson Matthews based Sadira on her grandmother Zaida, who was a social/gossip columnist for a newspaper in Sodus, New York, as well as The Honolulu Star-Bulletin.   In a blog post a year ago, she said that in a scrapbook of her grandmother's columns, "I recognized the wealth of descriptive information in them, especially about Hawai‘i during its 1930s heyday as playground to the rich and famous."

In this aspect, the novel really shines.  The descriptions of people, places, parties, and events, both on the voyage and in Hawai'i, are vivid.  I found the long voyage, with stops in Havana and Los Angeles, especially intriguing.  Matthews also points out the difficulties the Japanese-Americans in Hawai'i had after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

I had more trouble with the characters of Sadira and Lionel.  The boy clearly has some unexplained eccentricities (he seems somewhat OCD), but the lack of empathy from his mother at times is rather appalling.  Matthews stated that she also drew from her father's memories, but I believe he is reflected in the younger son, Kenny, who is also artistic. (Matthews' father, Dick Nelson, provided the cover artwork.) 

I understand that children like Lionel can be trying, but Sadira comes across as especially selfish and self-centered.  Perhaps that is the author's intent, to show that her grandmother and her grandmother's life were not perfect, despite living in a seeming paradise.  I did admire Sadira for her ability to remake herself as needed in order to survive.  When World War II ends celebrity visits to the island and dries up material for her column, she finds another way to earn a living.

I'd still recommend this novel for its historical aspects and descriptions of life in Hawaii from 1936 through 1946.  It was a good complement to Michener's Hawaii, which I finished the previous month.

Ribbons of Scarlet - by Kate Quinn, Laura Kamoie, Heather Webb, Stephanie Dray, Sophie Perinot, and E. Knight

Six female historical fiction authors - Kate Quinn, Laura Kamoie, Heather Webb, Stephanie Dray, Sophie Perinot, and E. (Eliza) Knight - collaborated on this novel of the French Revolution, with a forward by Allison Pataki (who was unavailable to collaborate). The book focuses on seven lesser-known women:  Manon Roland, Princess Élisabeth (sister of King Louis XVI), Louise Audu, Charlotte Corday, Sophie de Grouchy Condorcet, Pauline Leon, and Emilie de Sainte-Amaranthe.

The women represent various classes (royalty, aristocrats, commoners, peasants), so there are multiple views of the revolution.  Each part (chapter) of the book was written by a different author, and is mainly in the voice of one of the characters (Pauline and Charlotte share one chapter).  Characters appear in other chapters, however, which helps the book flow smoothly.  The reader can follow the evolution of the revolution, through to and beyond its end.

Bonus materials for the book are available, and there's a great interview with the authors here.  The Library of Congress has a great research guide about women of the French Revolution.  Many of these authors have worked together and with other authors on similar collaborative historical novels in the "History 360 Presents" or "H-Team" series (of which this is the fifth), on topics like Pompeii, Troy, Odysseus, and Boudicca .  I'm eager to read them all.

Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters by Jennifer Chiaverini - historical fiction

I won this book from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program back in April 2020, but never received a copy from the publisher (William Morrow).  It still appeared on my Not Reviewed list (I've been an Early Reviewer since November 2007), so I checked my libraries and borrowed the e-book from one of my libraries.

Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters is another of Jennifer Chiaverini's books about Mary Todd Lincoln and people associated with her (Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, Mrs. Lincoln's Rival).  Mary Todd Lincoln had sixteen siblings in all (twelve of whom survived to adulthood), but this book focuses on her three full sisters (elders Elizabeth Todd Edwards and Frances Todd Wallace, and younger Ann Todd Smith) as well as one of her five younger half-sisters (Emilie Todd Helm).  

The book starts in 1875, when Elizabeth learns that Mary's oldest and only surviving son, Robert Todd Lincoln, has had her committed to a(n expensive) mental hospital.  Mary convinces people visiting her to reach out to her sisters (from whom she's been estranged) to "rescue" her.   

The book then alternates between the four sisters' viewpoints, as well as various times in the past and present, to depict Mary's childhood in Kentucky; her years with married sister Elizabeth in Springfield, Illinois, searching for a husband; her marriage to Lincoln and his rise to the presidency; and the years in the White House during the Civil War and the aftermath of his assassination.

The Civil War sharply divided Mary's Kentucky-based family. Elizabeth, Frances, Ann, and their husbands, long based in Springfield, supported the Union.  Their three half-brothers fought for the Confederacy, as did Emilie's husband (he was a general killed in the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga).  One full brother died in 1864 in Kentucky under mysterious circumstances; the other was a surgeon who served in a Confederate hospital in South Carolina.  Her other four half-sisters were married to men who either fought for the Confederacy or sympathized with it.

Through her sisters, the reader learns how Mary - generally through her own actions - has become estranged.  The sisters have different opinions about Mary's mental state, with Emilie perhaps the most sympathetic, having also lost her husband due to the war, and being a favorite of Lincoln - he called her "Little Sister."  Elizabeth continues the motherly role she had as a child, being the oldest, taking Mary in when she manages to convince the hospital to release her.  Frances and Ann wonder if Mary is acting out for the attention she's always craved.

Although Chiaverini provides some of her sources in her author's note, she doesn't clarify where she has deviated from fact to create her fiction, as so many other authors of historical fiction do.  This book can stand alone from the other Mrs. Lincoln's books, but it would be helpful to read Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker before this book.  There are references in Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters to said dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley, as well as more examples of Mary Todd Lincoln's erratic behavior during and after her White House years.

© Amanda Pape - 2022

1064-1067 (2021 #33-36) October 2021

The following two books were re-reads.  Originally read them for the "Moms' Night Out" Book Club (my friends in Washington State) in the 2001-2002 school year, when we started our book group since our kids, friends and classmates, started middle school and our opportunities to volunteer in their classroom and on their field trips (and thus see each other) plummeted to zero.  I picked up mass-market paperbacks of these books for next to nothing at a Friends of the Library book sale, and finally got around to reading them (so I could donate them back). 

The Bonesetter's Daughter, by Amy Tan, tells the story of three generations of women - a Chinese immigrant with an American daughter, and a birth mother who is the bonesetter's daughter of the title.  Most of the book is the immigrant LuLing's story, written as a memoir that her daughter Ruth has translated.  It covers her life (mostly in a village near where the Peking Man was found) in China, just before, during, and after World War II.  This part was sad but fascinating.  The book is more about family relationships (especially mother-daughter) than anything else.    

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx - Giant, gentle Quoyle (no first name is ever given, only the initials R. G. near the end of the book) loses his cheating, abusive wife in a car accident.  He moves with their two young daughters and his paternal aunt to the family's abandoned home in Newfoundland.  Quoyle takes a job with the local paper, The Gammy Bird, initially writing about car wrecks and "the shipping news" from the nearby port.  Over the following year, Quoyle and the reader meet the interesting townspeople (with quirky names like Tert Card and Wavey Prowse) and experience life in Newfoundland (particularly the impact of the weather and the sea).  Quoyle makes friends and learns to love again (himself and others).  

This novel won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize and the 1993 National Book Award, and was made into a movie in 2001 (which I don't intend to see).  Author Annie Proulx is a master at description, despite (or perhaps because of) a writing style full of sentence fragments.

Despite this, the book is pretty easy to read, thanks to short chapters, all of which have interesting names and associated quotations.  In the book's acknowledgments, Proulx states that Clifford W. Ashley's 1944 work, The Ashley Book of Knots, was an inspiration - without it, "this book would have remained just a thread of an idea."  Quotes and illustrations from that book make up most of the chapter headings, as well as some of the names.  For example, "quoyle" is a very old word for a coil of rope.

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers - Jean Swinney is a 40-year-old single newspaper reporter living a dreary life with her widowed mother in 1957 England.  She mostly writes women's columns, like household hints, but one day 20-something Gretchen Tilbury contacts the paper and claims that her ten-year-old daughter Margaret is the result of a virgin birth.  Jean gets the assignment to find out if it's fact or fraud.

Gretchen and Margaret willingly participate in various medical tests that are supposed to provide an answer.  Meanwhile, Jean interviews various people who knew Gretchen ten years earlier, and becomes friends with the family, including Gretchen's much-older husband Howard.

I won't spoil the resolution of the mystery, nor the other surprise developments along the way.  I will say that I was extremely disappointed in the ending, as it left a number of characters hanging.  And that was a shame, as I enjoyed the character development as well as the depiction of life in late-1950s England.

Electrons by Mary Wissinger, illustrated by Harriet Kim Anh Rodis, is a cute. colorful book that may be over the heads of most two-to-seven-year-olds, the stated age range for the book.  In my state, the concept of atoms is not taught until middle school, and some of the vocabulary in this book (despite a two-page glossary at the end) would be a challenge even at the early elementary level.   The rhyming text (sometimes forced) might serve to reinforce the concepts with older elementary school children.

© Amanda Pape - 2021

925-932 (2019 #52-59). August 2019

1776 by David McCullough - narrative nonfiction - I think what I liked best about this book - which discusses the Revolutionary War almost solely during the year of 1776 - were the lifelike paintings by Charles Willson Peale of such participants as George Washington and his top lieutenants, Nathanael Greene and Henry Knox.  It's a good followup to American Spring, which covers December 1774 through June 1775 (Battle of Bunker Hill).  The book is just under 300 pages, followed by 47 pages of source notes, 22 pages of bibliography, and a 14-page index.

I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon - Jane Collingwood and Sian Thomas narrated the audiobook, with Collingwood voicing Anna’s chapters and Thomas taking on Anastasia’s storyline. They do a marvelous job. I particularly liked the youth and innocence of Thomas’s voice as the teenaged Anastasia.

The Last Captive by A. C. Greene - In May 1870, almost-11-year-old Herman Lehmann and his 8 year old brother, Willie, were captured by an Apache raiding party outside the home of his German immigrant mother and stepfather in rural Mason County, Texas.  While Willie escaped shortly thereafter, Herman spent the next eight years with the Apaches and later the Comanches.  His story was originally told by others (because Herman was mostly illiterate), first in the 1899 misnamed A Condensed History of the Apache and Comanche Indian Tribes for Amusements and General Knowledge [aka Indianology] by Jonathan H. Jones, and the second (also misnamed) in 1927 by J. Marvin Hunter, Nine Years Among the Indians: 1870- 1879 (1927).  Greene combines and edits these narratives, commenting when the versions differ, and adding information from outside sources.  Nevertheless, the book is hard to read, partly because Herman's story is so rambling and repetitious - endless raid after raid.  I find it hard to believe Herman would have actually remembered so much detail from a young age, and I think a lot of his story is made up.

Chevato : The Story of the Apache Warrior Who Captured Herman Lehmann -
Written by William Chebahtah (a great-grandson of Chevato) and Nancy McGown Minor, this is nonfiction about the Lipan Apache who was part of the Mescalero Apache band that kidnapped almost-11-year-old Herman Lehmann outside the home of his German immigrant mother and stepfather in rural Mason County, Texas.  The book really is about Chevato, though, who later (as did Herman) joined the Comanche Indians led by Quanah Parker.  Chevato was friends with my husband's great-grandparents, Tandy Clayton and Nancy Jones Moore, who rented land from him in Indiahoma, Oklahoma in the early 1900s.

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird, read by  Bahni Turpin - historical fiction, audiobook - great story based on an actual former slave.  "A tribute in fiction inspired by the singular decision made by Cathy/Cathay Williams, the first woman to enlist in the peacetime U. S. Army, and the only to ever serve (1866-1868) with the fabled Buffalo Soldiers."  She disappears after 1892.

The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy - hybrid, historical fiction, contemporary realistic fiction

Mozart's Starling by Luanda Lynn Gault, read by Linda Henning - nonfiction, audiobook

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon - historical fiction - sources were Hindenburg: An Illustrated History and www.facesofthehindenburg.blogspot.com

© Amanda Pape - 2019

919-924 (2019 #46-51). July 2019

Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan - realistic fiction - woman loses husband and job to her assistant at work.  Predictable.

Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier - historical fiction - set in England in the period from January 1901 (just after Queen Victoria's death) to May 1910 (just after the death of her son, King Edward VII).  Lots of detail on mourning customs of the day.  Pretty wierd book.

Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams, read by Kristin Kalbli - I figured out some of the relationships pretty quickly in this triple time period mystery (1930, 1951, and 1969), set on an island in Long Island Sound (based on the real Fishers Island) populated by the wealthy during the summer and a mostly Portuguese immigrant population year-round.  Nevertheless, the book held my interest all the way through.  The audiobook narrator was a big reason.  I'd certainly read/listen to this author/narrator again.

The Passion of Dolssa - by Julie Berry, read by the author, Jayne Entwistle, Fiona Hardingham, and Allan Corduner - historical fiction, audiobook, young adult, 2017 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book.   Botille Flasucra, a 17-year-old peasant girl matchmaker in 13th-century southern France, meets Dolssa de Stigata, an 18-year-old noblewoman mystic on the run from the Inquisition.  Condemned to burn to death as a heretic, Dolssa is hidden by Botille and her family and friends. Fiona Hardingham narrates Dolssa’s sections in a gentle, lilting tone. Jayne Entwistle’s warm, earthy narration brings to life teenaged Botille, her sisters, and the other peasants in Bajas, where the sisters run a tavern. The contrast between the two narrations reaffirms the differences between the two young women’s characters. Allan Corduner’s intense baritone sounds ominous as he portrays the Dominican Inquisitors who pursue Dolssa. The narrators smoothly handle the many words of dialect included in the story. At the end, the author reads extensive historical notes and a glossary.  The audiobook is a plus for proper pronunciation of the Occitan words used in the novel, but I also enjoyed looking at a print copy to see how they were spelled.  The ending is a little confusing - the author explains it here:  http://www.julieberrybooks.com/about-the-ending-to-the-passion-of-

Anna of Kleve by Alison Weir - subtitled "The Princess in the Portrait" - The fourth of noted Tudor historian Alison Weir's fictional takes on the wives of Henry VIII, this one covers another lesser-known queen, the fourth, Anne of Cleves (properly, in German, Anna von Kleve), whose marriage to Henry was annulled. Weir has some interesting theories about Anna, and shares the basis for them in her author's note at the end.  I found them plausible. They certainly make Anna more interesting. At 498 pages, the book is a little long, with a little too much detail (especially about the endless moves from palace to palace) than necessary.  LT early reviewer, historical fiction.

Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt, read by Erin Bennett -  nonfiction audiobook.  30+ pages of endnotes, 13-page index, numerous photos and diagrams both black-and-white and color in print book (and I think in a PDF with the audiobook).  Stories of the female human computers working at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California from the 1940s to 2016, mostly on unmanned space missions (so it was a history of those too).  Personal stories of the women felt forced into the narrative.


© Amanda Pape - 2019

910-918 (2019 #37-#45 ). June 2019

Queenmaker by India Edghill - I really enjoyed this historical fiction about King David's first wife, Michal, daughter of King Saul.  In this story, told in first person by Michal, she is a good friend to friend to David's mistress Bathsheba, the mother of the next king, Solomon.  Having no children of her own, Michal takes a liking to Solomon and helps maneuver him into the kingship.  I'm no biblical scholar, so I could enjoy this story entirely on its own merits - and I did.  I'd like to read other novels by India Edghill based on Old Testament women.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, read by George Newbern.  Ove (a Swedish name, as the book was originally written in Swedish, pronounced Oo-vah) is a rule-following curmudgeon - at least at the beginning of the book. Reminds me of my dad - or my husband, who also hates BMWs (albeit for a different reason).  A funny book that's also a little sad.  Ove lost his wife of about 40 years rather suddenly, and six months later his job, and tries to commit suicide multiple times in different ways throughout the book.  Each time, though, some incident with his neighbors interrupts him.  These are interspersed with Ove's backstory, which shows the reader how he became the man he is at the beginning of the book - and at the end. Voice and film actor George Newbern is a marvelous narrator whose droll reading made me laugh.  Liked this so much that I've checked out the audio version of another of Fredrik Backman's books as well as two of his novellas.

Souvenir by Therese Fowler - realistic fiction, advance reader edition - This one wasn't so clearly marked as an ARE, so it sat on my TBR shelf for a while.  Meg Powell and Carson McKay are neighbors who fall in love as teens, only to have Meg marry her boss Brian (who can forgive her father's overdue mortgage payments) after a wedding-eve last fling with Carson.  About 17 years later, Meg is an obstetrician with an almost-16 daughter Savannah, and Carson is a successful musician about to be married to a woman nearly half his age.  You can probably guess where some of this is going.

The story is told from the viewpoints of Meg, Carson, and Savannah.  Savannah's I could do without, as she does some typical stupid-teen stuff, but it's necessary to the plot.  The big part of the story is Meg's recent diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), and her desire to admit her mistakes, leave something for her daughter, yet die the way she wants to go.  That part did make me think.

Queen of the Sea by Dylan Meconis - graphic novel, historical fiction, early reviewer - I'm not a graphic novel aficionado, but I really liked this book.  Loosely based on the rivalry between Queen Elizabeth I and her older half-sister Queen Mary I of England, it's historical fiction nevertheless because of its depiction of life in the sixteenth century.  I especially appreciated all the information about everyday matters in a convent (particularly the observation of the Canonical Hours), saints, embroidery stitches, and playing chess.  Dylan Meconis' mixed media illustrations, most in earth and sea tones but some in bright colors, are appealing, as is the heroine, the orphan Margaret.  The ending signals a sequel to come, and I'd gladly read all 394 (or more) pages of that as well.

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, by Kate Clifford Larson, read by Bernadette Dunne.  Biography, audiobook.  Probably more about Rosemary's parents than Rosemary, whose mental disabilities may have been due to a nurse pushing her back into the birth canal for two hours until a doctor finally arrived for her home birth in 1918.  Father Joe was apparently the one who approved her lobotomy in 1941 - he didn't research it enough and came across as having it done because Rosemary's behavior was becoming a potential problem for her brothers' political futures.  Mother Rose rarely visited her institutionalized daughter and often passed off care of her nine children to take vacations instead.  Bernadette Dunne does a good job reading the audiobook, but the print or electronic version is better because it includes photographs of Rosemary, as well as author Kate Clifford Larson's note (which explains her interest in Rosemary - she has a son with a mental illness), extensive endnotes, and an index.

Now What? A Math Tale by Robie H. Harris - This is a cute picture book introducing three-dimensional shapes though a story of a puppy making a bed out of building blocks. The illustrations were done in pencil and colored digitally, although the wooden blocks look like photographs.  Disappointing because the subtitle made me think it would have more meat to it, but it's really aimed at preschoolers.

And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman - novella (76 pages), realistic fiction - sweet, sad short story about an aging grandfather losing his memories, and his wanting to share them with and say goodbye to his grandson while he still can.  I liked this one and will hang on to it for a bit to share with my son when he next visits.

The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman - novella (65 pages), realistic fiction - I checked this as well as And Every Morning... out from the library after reading A Man Called Ove, since I liked that book so much.  I read this after And Every Morning and was disappointed.  A fable (because there's a moral) set at Christmas Eve, about a successful man dying from cancer and his regrets about not spending more time with his son.  There's a supernatural aspect to it that ties in with the title.  Did not like this as well as the previous two books.

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman, read by Joan Walker - gave up halfway through.  Reader is terrible on the voices of 7-year-old Elsa and her grandmother - screechy!  Elsa is way too knowledgeable even for a precocious child.  The fantasy and fairy-tale aspects (too much Harry Potter and X-Men) were wearing, and I found myself skipping over many of those, and yet still very little had happened halfway though the book.  So I quit listening.  I did place a hold on the print version; not sure if I will finish the book or not.

© Amanda Pape - 2019

906-909 (2019 #33-36) May 2019

The Revolution of Marina M by Janet Fitch - historical fiction.  800+ pages and it is just "book 1"!  Russia just before and during the revolution, 1917-1919.  Last part of the book (Part VII, The Ionians, November 1918-Spring 1919) was just too weird.  And the book ends abruptly with an unresolved plot point.  Marina is not particularly likeable.  Not sure if I will read the sequel.

The Wright Brothers, written and read by David McCullough - biography, audiobook.  McCullough is OK as a reader - sometimes his speech is a bit garbled (slurs or mumbles).  Better though to read the print book, which includes lots of black-and-white photos and other images, as well as 33 pages of source notes, a six-page bibliography, a page of illustration credits, and a 10-page index at the end.

Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin - early reviewer, historical fiction.  While I generally like Melanie Benjamin's books, this one is not a favorite.  The novel is based on the real manager of the Ritz Hotel in Paris during the Nazi occupation of World War II (when the hotel was filled with Nazis), Claude Auzello, and his wife, American-born Blanche Rubenstein.  Neither character is particularly likable, and their stories, told in third person, alternate and sometimes repeat.

Mischling by Affinity Konar - historical fiction?, audiobook - The audiobook reader, Vanessa Johannson, was excellent, and the audiobook includes an interview (albeit not a particularly insightful one) with the author.  It's a Holocaust novel about twin Jewish girls who become part of Josef Mengele's experiments.


© Amanda Pape - 2019

899-905 (2019 #26-32) April 2019

You Are Light, by Aaron Becker

This sturdy but beautiful board book features a circle of die-cut circles containing transparencies in rainbow colors.  As you turn the pages, other colored film is added to combine with the previous shade to create a new color, and some colors are removed to better illustrate the concepts.  Hold the book up to the light, and the colors glow.  In the center of each large circle is a single symbol-like illustration made of two shades of a single color, picturing the concept on the text on the opposite page.   The simple rhyming text teaches concepts of light and nature as well as colors to young children (ages 4-8).  The cover is also die-cut to reveal the sunburst on the first spread.  I felt at times that I was looking into a kaleidoscope, something I still love to do as an adult.  I like this book SO much I may keep it for myself.

She Would Be King by Wayetu Moore - A blend of historical fiction and magical realism purporting to tell of the founding of the African country of Liberia.  Gbessa is a native woman with red hair who is considered a witch, June Dey is an escaped American slave with a body inpenatrable by bullets, and Norman Aragon is the son of a white scientist and a Jamaican maroon (an African who has escaped slavery there) who has the ability to disappear.  Just too weird a book for me, although I did finish it.

Work Like Any Other - by Virginia Reeves, read by Dan John Miller - audiobook, historical fiction - very good, set in 1920s Oklahoma (?)

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave, read by (British) Luke Thompson - audiobook, historical fiction set in WWII - depressing!

The Scribe by Matthew Guinn, read by Lloyd James - historical thriller set in 1881 Atlanta, audiobook

Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini - ARC, early reviewers, historical fiction:

This historical fiction, set mostly in Germany from 1929 to 1946, focuses on four women.  Three are real: Mildred Fish Harnack (an United States citizen married to a German), Greta Lorke Kuckhoff (who studied in Wisconsin with Mildred's husband Arvid), and Martha Dodd (daughter of the United States ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937).  One is fictional, a Jewish woman named Sara Weitz created to portray the experiences of Jewish women involved in the resistance within Germany, specifically the Rote Kapelle anti-Nazi group in whcih Mildred and Greta were involved.

I particularly enjoyed learning more about Mildred, remembering her mentioned in Erik Larson's nonfiction In the Garden of Beasts, which focused on the experiences of Martha (a relatively minor character in this book) and her father.

Unlike another reviewer here, I very much appreciated the not-so-subtle parallels between Hitler and Trump.  Jennifer Chiaverini never mentions Trump by name, so I am encouraged by the fact that some readers notice the comparison nevertheless.  We need more of that in the United States at this time.

The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning - ARC, early reviewers, historical fiction, hybrid, realistic fiction -

The Song of the Jade Lily is a hybrid:  historical fiction set in the 1939-1947 period in Shanghai, China (with scenes in 1938 in Austria and 1954 in Melbourne, Austria), and realistic fiction set in 2016 in Melbourne and Shanghai.  Romy Bernfeld Cohen is in both storylines, her granddaughter Alexandra in 2016.  Alexandra's job has taken her to Shanghai, and while there she is trying to learn more about her mother, whom Romy adopted.

Romy is 11 in 1938, and she and her parents escape Nazi Vienna and move to Shanghai.  I was surprised to learn that over 20,000 Jewish refugees were accepted by this city, as this is a topic not often covered in fiction.  Australian author Kirsty Manning's descriptions of Shanghai and life there in the World War II era reflect her extensive research.

Alexandra's story was less interesting to me, as she seems to spend much of her time eating and exploring in Shanghai.  I felt it was included partly so the author could share her research and personal experiences with modern-day Shanghai's cuisine!

In her author's note, Manning wrote of the many experts who read and checked her manuscript.  Too bad none of them realize that "no one" is two words, and not the invented single word noone.  I found and marked 20 instances of this glaring, distracting error in the advance reader's edition - I can only hope it was caught and fixed before actual publication.


© Amanda Pape - 2019

892-898 (2019 #19 - 25). March 2019

Victoria and Albert, by Evelyn Anthony - This 1958 biographical novel was one of the earliest books by the British author Evelyn Anthony.  It fictionalizes the life of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, from her accession to the throne in 1837, to the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert in 1861, focusing on their marriage.  It reads like it could have been the screenplay for the recent PBS Masterpiece series about the queen.  As the book progresses, Albert comes off better than Victoria.

The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert - After reading Eat, Pray, Love (which I hated), I wasn't expecting much from Elizabeth Gilbert, so I was rather surprised by The Signature of All Things.  Yes, it was long (501 pages), and often tedious, but Henry and Alma Whittaker were interesting characters.  Although it reads like historical fiction (mostly because Alma is born in 1800, and the book flashes back to her father Henry's youth), it really isn't (this review expresses why well).  Not sure how this book ended up on my TBR shelves, but I finally decided to read it because it was the fattest book there and I needed the space for something else.

The Island of Sea Women, by Lisa See - historical fiction set on the Korean island of Jeju from the 1930s through the Korean War and its aftermath, alternating with the present day, e-book - depressing

Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee, read by Emily Woo Zeller - audio - Western YA romance - Unrealistic Western young adult romance, set in 1849 on the Oregon Trail during the California Gold Rush.  Emily Woo Zeller puts a lot of heart in her voicing of narrator Samantha, a 15-year-old Chinese immigrant orphan who disguises herself as a man along with 16-year-old runaway slave Annamae.

Circle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen - early reviewers, picture book.  I didn't get this book.  Perhaps one needs to have read the other two books in Mac Barnett's and Jon Klassen's trilogy, Triangle and Square, for this one to make sense.  I thought the book was going to be something that might teach a little about shapes and their characteristics.   Klassen's illustrations were created digitally and with watercolor (the lovely waterfall) and graphite. The covers are thick board, with high quality paper pages stitched together rather than glued.

The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman, read by Fiona Hardingham (Ruth Webber), Justine Eyre (Charlotte Sinclair Dryer), and Steve West (George Bowden) - historical fiction, audiobook.  Much better than I thought it would be, particularly since I don't care for boxing.  The audiobook readers really made the story, and sustained my interest through its length.

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy - early reviewers, historical fiction - Author Sarah McCoy took a passage from Anne of Green Gables (chapter 37), where Marilla Cuthbert speaks about John Blythe and says, "People called him my beau," and used that as the basis for this prequel, if you will, to the Anne series.  Having never read nor watched the latter (I was - and am - a huge Little Women fanatic), I can't tell you if her portrait of Marilla (the woman who adopts Anne Shirley) is accurate or not.  However, the book stands alone and is a wonderful depiction of life on Prince Edward Island in the period from 1837 (when Marilla is 13) to 1876 (just before Anne's arrival).  The author's note at the end makes it clear this book is well-researched, and the story includes aspects of Canadian history and the Underground Railroad that are enlightening.  Marilla of Green Gables, along with Maud by Melanie Fishbane (a biographical novel about Anne author L. M. Montgomery), have inspired me to finally read the Anne series.

© Amanda Pape - 2019

883-891 (2019 #10-18) February 2019

Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities, by Alexandra Robbins - A nonfiction expose of sorority life at an unnamed college, primarily through the experiences of four girls over one school year (first edition published in 2005).  The author also conducted supplementary research (26 pages of endnotes!), attended sorority-related meetings, and interviewed past and present sorority members.  All I can say after reading this book is that I am *so* glad that the large university in Texas that I attended did not have sororities and fraternities while I was there.

The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr is nonfiction about the search for the long-lost, supposedly "original" The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio.  It was particularly interesting to read about the research done by art history graduate students in various libraries and archives, as well as the meticulous work of art restorers.  Harr writes in a journalistic style, but lists numerous sources in his four-plus page bibliography, and took the trouble to learn Italian so he could conduct most of his research interviews in Rome in that language.

The Venetian Bargain (also called The Venetian Contract) by Marina Fiorato (also known as M. A. Bennett), read by Pamela Garelick.  Set first in Constantinople and then in Venice in 1576, the story revolves around the real bubonic plague epidemic that hit Venice at that time.  The two main characters, half-Turkish and half-Venetian Feyra, and Annibale Cason (a Venetian doctor), are fictitious.  However, a number of other characters are real: the architect Andrea Palladio; the Doge (ruler) of Venice, Sebastiano Venier, who is Feyra's grand uncle in the story; and Feyra's mother and the Doge's supposed niece (more likely a cousin), the Nurbanu Sultan.  Fiorato altered some of the events of their lives to fit the story.  Some places are real too - the church Palladio was designing, and the Lazzaretto Novo isolation island (formerly known as Vigna Murada), where so much of the story takes place, although its origins and use are altered to fit the story.  The author cites sources on Palladio, Ottoman medicine, and the Renaissance medical treatment of plague.  All of this was fascinating, and the story was exciting too.  I'd be glad to read more of Marina Fiorato's historical fiction, if I could find any more in a library.  I didn't care for Pamela Garelick's narration.  Being British, she gave lower-class Italian characters Cockney accents, and the voices of Feyra and older men were all too raspy.  She also read the book far too slowly.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, by Dava Sobel - This is a fairly short (175 pages of text in trade paperback size) nonfiction account of the attempts to find a way to determine longitude at sea.  It is primarily about John Harrison, inventor of the chronometer.  There are no footnotes (intentionally by the author), but there is a two-page bibliography and four-page index.

Stardust, written by Jeanne Willis, illustrated by Briony May Smith - early reviewers, children's picture book - The lovely mixed media illustrations by Briony May Smith enhance Jeanne Willis' simple story about being a star and shining in one's own unique ways.

The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick, read by Kimberly Farr - historical fiction based on the life of Clara Estby Dore, who walked from their home in Mica Creek (near Spokane), Washington to New York City in 1896 with her mother, Helga Estby, and the aftermath for Clara and Helga.  In a long author's note at the end of the e-book (not in the audiobook, unfortunately), Kirkpatrick notes her sources, a primary one being Linda Lawrence Hunt's 2005 book, Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, which was inspired by a History Day essay about the walk by Helga's great-grandson.  Kirkpatrick took a different tack by focusing on Clara's story after the walk, which was fascinating.

Two family members died while Clara and Helga were gone, and the rest of the family never forgave them for being away, with Helga's husband forbidding her to ever talk or write about the trip.  One daughter in particular (Ida) took it to the extreme of burning what her mother wrote (after her husband's death) at Helga's death, but a sister-in-law saved Helga's scrapbook by hiding it.  Here's Helga's story in a graphic novel format.  Clara moved out on her own and was rather successful, but was shunned by the rest of the family for over 20 years.

Supposedly this book is classified as Christian fiction, but thankfully Kirkpatrick keeps the religion to a minimum.  Kimberly Farr does a fine job voicing Clara, the narrator, with appropriate Scandinavian accents for Helga and other characters.

That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron - historical fiction, early reviewer.  Before reading this book, I didn't know a lot about former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's mother, other than the fact that she was an American and did not have a good reputation.  That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron was an interesting read, as I learned more about Jeanette "Jennie" Jerome Spencer-Churchill and her possible motivations.  This historical fiction novel explores her childhood (and how her little sister's death and her adored father's lifestyle likely influnced her own life) and her marriage to Lord Randolph Churchill, ending at his death in 1895.  Despite her faults, I found by the end of the book that I actually rather liked and admired Jennie, and I can see how she affected the life of her famous son.


City of Jasmine by Olga Grjasnowa - realistic fiction, early reviewer - Set at first in Syria early in its civil war, this novel follows three young Syrians as they try to escape the conflict.  Hammoudi is a doctor trained and newly hired in Paris who has only come home to renew his passport, but he gets trapped in the country and ends up serving as a doctor for the resistance.  Amal is a wealthy young actress who participates in the protests out of curiosity (and to irritate her father), and winds up arrested.  She and her boyfriend Youssef eventually flee to Europe, where they face more challenges as refugees.  Olga Grjasnowa (a refugee from Azerbaijan and married to a Syrian) originally wrote this in German, but the English translation by Katy Derbyshire is excellent.

Where Lilacs Still Bloom by Jane Kirkpatrick, read by Kimberly Farr and Susan Denaker - about Hulda Klager of the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens in southwest Washington State.  Also some subplots I really don't remember, with fictitious characters meant to show Hulda's impact on others.


© Amanda Pape - 2019