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Ann Skea's Bookshelf
Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art
Christoph Baumer and Therese Weber
Bloomsbury Academic
https://www.bloomsbury.com
9780755650446, $40.00 HC 488pp.
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Art-Its-Legacy-Myth/dp/0755650441
This is a big, beautiful and fascinating book. It is a weighty tome, not just because there are large colour images on most of its glossy pages, which make it so heavy that you need a book stand to read it comfortably, but also because of the expert, scholarly and revealing descriptions and discussion of the rock art found in most of the known sites in Europe, Scandinavia, Arabia, North Africa, and Central Asia.
What were the lives of our progenitors like? What sort of world did they live in? Were myth, magic and ritual an important part of their beliefs? Sometimes only the images they created and, much later, the inscriptions they left on the rocks around them can tell us.
Rock Art amply fulfills the intention of the authors who have
in 19 expeditions and journeys over the course of the last 26 years, personally studied and documented more than 90 per cent of the sites described... [So] the present book aims at offering a broad and well-illustrated overview of petroglyphs within the Afro-Eurasian realm as a whole. Where possible it will attempt to connect rock art motifs to the mythological heritage of their respective cultures.
I have no expertise in the history, anthropology, ethnology, geology and climate science discussed in this book but my interest in myth, art and the way humans have recorded their lives since the earliest times made it easy to read, and the images accompanying the text were a constant source of delight and discovery.
Christoph Baumer is a respected, award winning explorer and historian who has published widely on 'history, religion, archaeology and travel'. Therese Weber is an artist whose innovative Paper Art is inspired and shaped by these expeditions and weaves together photography, drawing, object and performance art. In this book, they share their expertise to link rock art to the cultures which created them, and to explore the way it reflects the lives of the people who created it and the environmental and cultural changes which influenced its imagery and its location.
In the opening chapter, 'Definitions and Methods', Baumer names four types of rock art: Petroglyphs (gouged, engraved or incised), Pictoglyphs ('made by painting, drawing, printing or stencilling' and also known as 'parietal art'), Geoglyphs (arrangements of stones, or removal of surface layers to reveal a lower differently coloured surface), and graffiti (thinly incised rock or ancient inscriptions e.g. personal epigrams, names, greetings, merchants' messages, obscene texts and defacement). He also traces the changing meaning of 'art', from the definitions of Aristotle and Plato ('mimesis', 'beauty, grace and formal perfection'), to the reproduction of nature and illustration of religious and cultural beliefs, then to the modern interpretation of art as a personal expression of the artist's inner world. In other parts of the book, he discusses the methods of dating used, and the reasons for the climate changes that forced animal and human migrations that are reflected in the position and imagery of the rock art.
Baumer concentrates on factual descriptions of the images, changes in the environment that influenced their subject matter and location, methods of creating it, and the links in myth and legend which archaeological discoveries and grave-goods suggest, and which ethnologists record among modern societies. Weber looks at them from an artist's perspective, examining their 'visual language' - iconography, style, perspective, skill and expressiveness. She also writes of the influence that exhibitions of rock art in museums such as MoMa in New York, and the Pompidou Centre in Paris, had on modern art, and the way artists such as Klee, Picasso, Miro, and more recently, Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring, and a number of other prominent artists in many parts of the world have been inspired by it.
Weber is alive to the question of who made the rock art - men, women, children? Recent research on hand prints in France and Spain (the earliest known form of rock art) suggested that 75% were made by women, but changes in human anatomy since they were made make this uncertain. And both authors admire the mental and imaginative skill and sophistication required to create two-dimensional images of living creatures on rock using primitive tools.
Baumer writes of the discovery of parietal paintings and engravings in the Chauvet Cave in southern France that 'shook previous beliefs in the beginning of art'.
The paintings feature almost 300 animals belonging to thirteen different species, herbivores such as woolly rhinoceroses, mammoths, bison, aurochs, wild horses and reindeer as well as carnivores - cave lions and hyenas, leopards and bears - and also an owl. These paintings appear as perfect masterpieces in their naturalistic and dynamic rendering of moving animals, the attention to spatial perspective, the application of light and dark surfaces to create shadows, and the use of the natural shape of the rock surfaces as a design element of the images.
All this art was done by our earliest ancestors in the depths of a dark cave and most of it has been dated to 37-36.2 ka cal BP (37,000 years before the present, radiocarbon calibrated by available tree-ring data). Both authors agree that the interpretation of rock art images is ambiguous and speculative. The suggested meaning of a group of beautifully life-like lionesses in the 'deepest hall of the Chauvet Cave', among images of their possible prey, has been that they are a hunting pack intent on the hunt. It could just as well be that the artist or artists were practicing their skills or maybe copying a first image to learn how to do it.
Luckily, although Bauer states that 'this book concentrates on outdoor petroglyphs and will leave the subject of cave engraving untouched', he does include detailed descriptions and photographs from the French caves; and also of much less well-known but equally stunning art in shelters in the Sahara, where pictoglyphs are widespread. These pictoglyphs, however, are only a small part of the book. The petroglyphs from other places predominate and are equally stunning but in very different ways.
Some petroglyphs in the sub-Arctic area of Karelia (Russian Federation) appear to tell stories that seem easier to interpret. Those at Novaya Zalavruga, dating from 3700-2100 BCE, show how three hunters on skis track and kill three elk: the tracks of the skiers and the elk run for a while parallel. In the centre and lower right there are not only a couple of beluga hunts and one or two bear hunts, but also a mortal fight between humans. Archers are shooting at each other and one of them is hit from behind by two arrows.
There is also a long boat with a crew of twelve. One on the prow has harpooned a whale and the rope snakes back to the boat as if this has just happened.
These petroglyphs were buried in about 2100 BCE when the White Sea level briefly rose and covered them with a thick layer of sand and silt. Humans returned to the island when the sea level fell but a later inundation by a river turned the area into a swamp. The petroglyphs only appeared again, and were documented, in the twentieth century.
Petroglyphs, especially those in the Scandinavian area not only chart the rise and fall of sea levels due to climate change, their images also show the changes in flora and fauna and the way animals and humans migrated in order to survive. Over the millennia, they show how humans, although still hunting and fishing, began to domesticate and farm animals, to tame and then ride horses and camels, and to use ploughs, wagons and, later, light chariots. Changes in religious beliefs are reflected in Buddhist, Christian and Islamic inscriptions, iconography and motifs. Warfare, too, is shown. A Saudi Arabian petroglyph, created in the middle of the first millennium CE, shows four women with long braided hair and raised arms seemingly cheering on a battle.
The conservation of Rock Art is controversial. In Scandinavia the lines of the images are painted red to make them easy to see and protective coverings are devised. This is seen by some as destructive, but even recording the images by tracings and rubbings can damage them. In one notorious case, in 1956-7, the explorer, Henri Lhote, supported by the Musee de l'Homme in Paris, led a team of photographers and well-qualified artists to Wadi Djerat in S.E. Algeria 'to make full scale coloured copies of the rock paintings based on in situ tracings'. To make the images clearer they were scrubbed with sponges and brushes, after which, chemical processes caused by moisture resulted in the disappearance of most of the paintings.
Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art is a superb record, with numerous accompanying illustrations, of many of the most important known rock art sites in Eurasia, Arabia and the Sahara. Many millennia of human history are here, from the earliest, rare, Neanderthal scratching on a few stones, to the planes, ships and bullet scars of modern times, as are the links to myth, magic and ritual that still exist in many societies. Charts and maps help to negotiate possibly unfamiliar names of geological, archaeological and historical eras; and the appendices, with notes and indexes, are extensive, although I found the division of indexes into 'concepts', 'people' and 'places' unhelpful.
Overall this is beautifully created, easily read, informative and very interesting book.
Dr Ann Skea, Reviewer
https://ann.skea.com/THHome.htm
Books Paradise
Redeemed - A Journey from Darkness to Light: A Memoir of Extraordinary Lives
Bianella Orozco-DeLaHoz & Alain Orozco
BookGo
www.bookgo.pub
9798998535789, $32.00, HC, 230pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Redeemed-Journey-Darkness-Light/dp/B0FZDSWJ98
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/redeemed-a-journey-from-darkness-to-light-bianella-orozco-delahoz/1148673166
It is a heartbreaking and powerful story of loss, survival, and faith. From the very first pages, I felt the shock and pain of that morning in June 1982, when two children say goodbye to their mother, unaware that their lives are about to change forever. The tragedy is sudden and brutal, and its impact lingers throughout the book.
What affected me most was the emotional journey of the twins, Alain and Nella. Growing up in a world surrounded by crime, violence, and instability, their struggle to hold on to any sense of normalcy felt raw and real. The contrast between their innocent childhood and the dangerous life their father leads makes the story deeply unsettling, yet impossible to look away from.
Alain's path into drug dealing is painful to witness, especially knowing how grief and environment slowly pull him in. His time in prison becomes a turning point, not just because of punishment, but because of revelation. The uncovering of their mother's murder and long-buried family secrets adds another layer of emotional weight and heartbreak.
What makes Redeemed truly powerful is that it doesn't end in despair. Through faith, forgiveness, and perseverance, the story moves toward healing. The role of God, family love, and inner strength is woven naturally into the narrative, offering hope without minimizing the pain that came before.
This book is not an easy read, but it is an inspiring one. Redeemed shows that even after unimaginable loss and darkness, redemption is possible. It's a moving testament to resilience, faith, and the enduring power of love.
Books Paradise
https://www.booksparadise.com
Carl Logan's Bookshelf
Behind the Scenes: Lives of These Unsung Heroes
Ian Poh Jin Tze
Monk3yseendo
www.monk3yseendo.com
c/o Singapore National Library Board
9789811888298, $49.90
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Scenes-Lives-These-Unsung/dp/9811888299
Synopsis: Behind the Scenes: Lives of These Unsung Heroes started out as a series of urban legends and personal questions, which blossomed into a multipart quest, taking photographer Ian Poh Jin Tze to some of the Earth's most exotic places.
Ian ended up on 30 acres of misty melon fields in Pasir Panjang, Port Dickson; as the morning sun played gently over the dew in the fields, conjuring the most brilliant mosaic, Ian observed the delicate pollination and athletic harvesting required to produce watermelon and honeydew.
Ian faced off with the king of fruits on plantations in Raub, as he scaled mountains in a feeble attempt to keep up with seasoned durian farmers, navigating invisible threats to uncover the origins of a fruit that had been his favourite since childhood.
Deep within the mountain ranges of Perak, amongst Paleozoic limestone hills, Ian sought to discover ancient springs and caves that could grant tranquillity, spiritual renewal and even a cure for sickness.
Ian stayed at luxurious accommodations, forming a family with fellow residents and staff, and discovering the ultimate luxury: a place to call home.
Finally, Ian saw life from the perspective of a coffee bean, learning not only the process that takes the famous plant from tender upbringing to aromatic brew, but also the story of the people who tend, dry and roast each coffee bean to help its flavour shine.
Critique: A fine blend of photography journal, travel memoir, philosophical ponderings and tribute to farmers, artisans, and hospitality workers of Southeast Asia, Behind the Scenes: Lives of These Unsung Heroes is an armchair traveler's delight. Stunning, full-color photographs on virtually every page add a "you are there" feeling to the storytelling narrative that offers a glimpse into the lives of the people staffing agricultural plantations, hotels and more. Behind the Scenes is a pleasure to browse and also makes an excellent gift for anyone interested in Southeast Asia's natural beauty and hard-working people. Highly recommended!
Carl Logan
Reviewer
Clint Travis' Bookshelf
I Came Back for You
Kate White
www.katewhite.com
Thomas & Mercer
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662533976, $18.99, HC, 299pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/I-Came-Back-You-Novel/dp/1662533977
Synopsis: Ten years after her daughter, Melanie, was murdered, Bree Winter is finally moving on with a new love, a new home, and a new beginning. Then a deathbed confession from the convicted killer throws Bree's life into a tailspin all over again. He readily confesses to murdering four girls. But not Melanie.
At first, Bree and her ex-husband don't buy a word of it. Until inconsistencies about the crime emerge. So does the dreadful feeling that the monster who shattered Bree's family isn't lying. The only way she can get to the truth is to power through the trauma and return to the town in upstate New York where Melanie's life came to such a brutal end.
Bree will do anything to find justice for her daughter and finish this nightmare forever. Instead, it's just beginning. Not only could the real killer still be in their midst, but as Bree begins to dig through Melanie's past, what she discovers calls into question everything she has believed - about the crime and about Melanie herself.
Critique: Original, deftly crafted, a simply riveting read from start to finish, "I Came Back For You" by gifted author and storyteller Kate White is a 'must' for fans of psychological thrillers laced with unexpected plot twists and emotionally compelling suspense. While this hardcover edition of "I Came Back For You" from Thomas & Mercer is an especially commended pick for community library Contemporary Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of the growing legion of Kate White fans that it is also readily available in paperback (9781662533990, $16.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).
Editorial Note: Kate White (www.katewhite.com) is the author of nineteen novels of suspense, including the stand-alone thrillers The Last Time She Saw Him, Between Two Strangers, The Second Husband, and the Bailey Weggins mysteries. A former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan for fourteen years, Kate decided to pursue another passion: writing suspense fiction. She has been nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award, and her books have been published in over thirty countries.
Clint Travis
Reviewer
Fred Siegmund's Bookshelf
Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn
Christopher Cox
Simon & Schuster
https://www.simonandschuster.com
9781668010785, $34.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Woodrow-Wilson-Withdrawn-Christopher-Cox/dp/166801078X
This new biography of Woodrow Wilson gets its subtitle from the first line of the John Greenleaf Whittier poem "Ichabod."
So Fallen! So lost! The light withdrawn
Which once he wore!
The Glory from his gray hairs gone
Forevermore!
Biographies of presidents typically emphasize their time in office and the political events they pursue, but this biography concentrates on racial and gender discrimination during Woodrow Wilson's life and how he addressed them before and after he became president The book covers 495 pages with the narrative partitioned into four parts. Part I begins with a summary discussion of the early crusade against slavery and women's suffrage movement before turning to Wilson's 1856 birth, early life, education, a brief year practicing law, marriage and accepting faculty posts teaching at Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan University, and Princeton University; he accepted the Princeton Board's offer to be their president in June 1902.
Other Wilson biographies write extensively of his legislative record: the Federal Reserve Act, Clayton Antitrust Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, and progressive income tax, but none of that appears in this Cox biography. Instead, the narrative through the book emphasizes the documented record of Wilson's personal relations with family and friends and with university scholars and politicians, both his supporters and detractors. Beginning with his academic years he published books of history and politics in 1885, 1889, 1893, 1897, and 1902. Cox scoured these works and Wilson's other writing, archival letters, relationships, and associations. The narrative returns repeatedly to the published record of his racial views and his decades long opposition to woman's suffrage.
The chapters of Part I offer a sampling of Woodrow Wilson's views during Reconstruction and the early Jim Crow south. He predicts the right to vote without regard to race would "make the 'disintegration of southern society' and the 'irretrievable' alienation of 'the white men of the South,' its 'real leaders.'" In his History of the American People he explained "It is 'the mere instinct of self-preservation' that forced 'the white men of the South' to do everything within their power to restore white supremacy 'by means fair or foul.'" Wilson's apologizes for the Ku Klux Klan admitting "the Klansmen 'took the law into their own hands,' but undertook 'by intimidation what they were not allowed to attempt by the ballot.'" He concluded the Klan was "really 'for the mere pleasure of association, for private amusement.'" Cox provides a thorough narrative of his discomfort and unlikely appointment to teach at Bryn Mawr, a women's college. Bryn Mawr documents an early episode of a long trail of evidence documenting Wilson's refusal to accept women as equals.
Part II offers a discussion of him as Princeton President, elected Governor of New Jersey and first term as president. His years in politics forced him to take positions and make decisions on race and woman's suffrage rather than write or ventilate about them. Cox quotes Wilson as telling his gubernatorial campaign manager he was "definitely and irreconcilably opposed to woman suffrage" and that "woman's place was in the home." His writing and documented decisions find him opposed to admitting black men to Princeton, opposing unions, opposing immigrants and purging the federal government of black employees while arranging to have the racist film "Birth of a Nation" shown at the White House.
Available evidence permits Cox to give readers an idea of Wilson in his personal life. Hundreds of letters survive to and from his two wives, Ellen Axxon and Edith Galt, and a third relationship with Mary Peck Hulbert. In letters to Ellen, he wrote "Marriage alone was a woman's 'essential condition' for the performance of her 'proper duties.'" Readers learn Wilson leaves on vacations without Ellen such as one to Bermuda where he meets Mary Peck and starts an indeterminate relationship of eight years documented with 700 letters. We learn of the personal Wilson, a man of "immutable routines," who enjoys taking afternoon drives and plays golf as part of his daily schedule, finishing 1,200 rounds of golf as president.
Part III, entitled Holding Back the Tide, covers December 1916 to December 1917, a period that energized the Women's suffrage movement with intensified political pressure to secure national voting rights. Cox covers their campaign thoroughly. Readers meet many women, the groups they organize and the protest marches and demonstrations they conduct. During this period, Wilson reversed his pledge to keep America out of WWI. He prevailed on Congress to declare war to make the world "Safe for Democracy" while simultaneously demanding to silence opposition to American entry into WWI in a well-documented campaign of repression and censorship. During this period the war became an excuse for Wilson to repress and censor woman demonstrating for voting rights. Cox narrates Wilson's deliberate use of arrest, intimidation and violence to end street protest that included periods of physical abuse in jails and forced feeding of hunger strikers.
Part IV has the remaining years of his second term. By this time women had the right to vote in 13 states, including New York, increasing the political risk to Democratic party opponents of voting. Then Republicans took over the House and Senate in the November 1918 election. When WWI ended November 11, Wilson insisted on going to Paris to negotiate the peace treaty and establish a League of Nations instead of staying home to confront domestics turmoil, especially passing a federal budget, inflation and violent race riots. Cox tells the remaining story of Wilson maneuvering within his administration and his posturing in the House and Senate in the political fight to secure voting rights for woman. Cox gives details of the Congressional debate and final votes in June 1919. Tennessee became the last state to ratify the Susan B. Anthony Amendment that finally became part of the U.S. Constitution August 18, 1920. The narrative ends here, or rather just stops.
Over many years I have read dozens of biographies of Presidents including Woodrow Wilson. None I know of leave out so much of their political record to focus on the man and the ethical principles that drive their decisions and their conduct as this biography. Any illusion that Woodrow Wilson was a confident, accepting and fair-minded gentleman disappears in this Cox biography. The glory from his gray hairs gone. Forevermore!
Fred Siegmund, Reviewer
www.Americanjobmarket.blogspot.com
Jack Mason's Bookshelf
Millionaire Janitor: Unlocking the Hidden Wealth in Everyday Choices
Lorn Bergstresser
Elite Online Publishing
https://eliteonlinepublishing.com
9781961801691, $19.99, PB, 160pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Janitor-Unlocking-Everyday-Choices/dp/1961801698
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/millionaire-janitor-lorn-bergstresser/1147326848
Synopsis: On the unforgiving streets of South Chicago, Horatio Alger Jefferson was born into a world of struggle and survival. Raised by his fiercely determined mother, Emily, Horatio learned the values of hard work, faith, and perseverance. With a name inspired by tales of rags-to-riches, Horatio's own journey mirrors the dreams his mother envisioned despite every hurdle life threw their way.
From a humble janitor to a man destined for greatness, Horatio's story is one of love, sacrifice, and unyielding ambition. Guided by his steadfast relationship with Melody, the woman who captures his heart, and bolstered by the values instilled by his community, Horatio learns that wealth isn't just a matter of dollars -- it's also measured out in love, community, and purpose.
Critique: Original, engaging, deftly written, and a simply fascinating read from cover to cover, "Millionaire Janitor: Unlocking the Hidden Wealth in Everyday Choices" by Lorn Bergstresser, while a work of fiction, is both inspirational and aspirational. With a very special appeal to readers with an interest in the unique but effective combination of religion, personal growth, and money management, "Millionaire Janitor" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists and community library collections. It should be noted that this paperback edition of "Millionaire Janitor" from Elite Online Publishing is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).
Editorial Note: Lorn Bergstresser (www.LornBergstresser.com) has lived a life enriched by diverse experiences and meaningful contributions. With a passion for community service, Lorn devoted a decade to public school trusteeship at local, provincial, and national levels, and spent 24 years on the board of governors for a small university. An advocate for learning, he has taught certificate college courses in Myanmar and has traveled extensively. Whether organizing sports in his hometown or exploring the world, Lorn cherishes every moment, embracing life with gratitude and joy.
Jack Mason
Reviewer
Jocelyn Crawley's Bookshelf
Gender Fraud: A Fiction
Peg Tittle
Magenta
9781926891804, $19.99, PB, 216pp
9781926891828, $9.99, Kindle
9781926891811 (pdf)
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Gender-Fraud-fiction-Peg-Tittle-ebook/dp/B08B43N53X
Male supremacy is a malicious, malevolent sentient entity that thrives on ensuring that institutions and individuals conform to its insidious ideologies, one of which is that women are not fully human and can therefore be reduced to objects for the purpose of exploitative oppression; radical feminist Peg Tittle knows this and makes unveiling the ugly awry axiological framework of androcentrism an integral element of her important book Gender Fraud. In this text, Tittle predicates her analysis of male domination on a dystopic world in which parochial, patriarchal understandings of gender dictate that women abandon actions and attitudes that connote individuality and autonomy while embracing epistemological and ontological frameworks which promote deindividuation, superficiality, and preoccupation with the somatic dimensions of the self. The promotion of these aspects of normative femininity - all of which are predicated on the organization of a reality in which women are subordinated to men - contributes to the maintenance of the logics of sexist domination by ensuring that women do not utilize their minds in ways that challenge male power and female dependence on men.
Near the onset of the narrative, the reader learns that the protagonist - Kat Jones - has been arrested for Fraudulent Identity. Apprehended while running, the officers stop her and explain that she is under arrest for Gender Fraud. In elaborating on the charge, one of them explains that "You're presenting as male, when, in fact, you're female. That's fraud. And a criminal offence" (6). In explicating what constitutes Gender Fraud, the officer asks if she disputes the facts of the case, which include that she is
"wearing men's clothing, that you are not wearing make-up, that your hair is short and undone, that you are not wearing any jewelry, that you are unmarried, that you do not have any children, that you have had your breasts removed [due to a cancer concern], that you have had your reproductive capacity nullified via tubal cauterization, and that you have pursued an advanced academic degree?" (11-12).
In reflecting on the officer's assessments, Kat Jones begins thinking about who may have reported her. Inwardly and introspectively, Jones enumerates several men who, in living in the same neighborhood as her, have embodied various forms of toxic masculinity. Chuck, she remembers, had called her a "cunt" (6) after she left a printout in their mailbox explaining that the leaves they burned created toxicity in the air. Mike, she recalls, had called her a "bitch" and kicked her dog, Tassi, after she called the Ministry to determine whether there were any laws against his practice of cutting trees down along the shoreline (6, 7). As the list of toxic men continues, the reader grasps that the writer is setting the stage to create awareness of how the male supremacist climate in which Kat Jones lives is conducive to the production and proliferation of sexist laws which result in the dehumanization and objectification of women.
As the fictional novel unfolds, the specificity of the degrading oppression that Jones experiences becomes evident. The penalty for the crime of committing gender fraud is relocation to a psychiatric facility, and, upon arrival, the reader becomes acclimated to Jones's inundation in the realm of androcentric thought and praxis. The counselor assigned to Jones informs her that she will help the imprisoned woman "adjust" (15), with this term operating as a euphemism for the sadistic process of reducing Jones to a slave-woman. Picking up on this reality quickly, Jones notes that the counselor's disposition and mode of expression is characterized by a "permanent cheer" (15) which is ostensibly an integral, inalienable element of being a woman. In reading this component of the text, the reader may be reminded of Marilyn Frye's assessments regarding how, under the system of male domination, women are expected to maintain dispositions which include smiles for the purpose of conveying their appreciation of patriarchy and willingness to acquiesce the males who have more power than them within its hierarchical, binary-based structure. The annihilation of independence and identity, an integral element of normative constructs of humanness, transpires as Jones grasps how, rather than being permitted to operate as organically thinking and multifariously feeling sentient entities, female people are required to express a limited range of emotions; moreover, these emotions must be contiguous and continuous with obedience to the system of male domination.
As the text continues to unfold, the reality of the psychiatric facility operating as a training ground for female subordination and objectification becomes increasingly salient. Shortly after entering the facility, Jones's clothes are replaced with the prototypically parochial and patriarchal garb prescribed for women: dresses. In receiving the dress she is supposed to wear while in the center, the counselor asks her if the size is right. Jones responds that she doesn't know and subsequently recalls a former era during which, while teaching in college, the discourse of her female students functioned as evidence of their immersion in the aspect of male supremacist ideology which involves women conforming to normative (dehumanizing) notions of femininity. In reflecting, the protagonist recalls when she'd started hearing her students say they were a size four or a size two, she thought surely that can't be right. Even with anorexia. When they started saying they were trying to become a size zero, she laughed. What was next, a negative size? Yes! Agree to become invisible! Agree to actual female erasure! (16)
This introspective moment enables the reader to grasp how the protagonist's former life experiences outside the facility parallel the epistemological and ontological frameworks she is being asked to embody and replicate inside the facility. Specifically, the dress functions as a metaphor for her subordination given its symbolization of female people being systematically trained to think of themselves as objects whose bodies must fit into clothing items in a manner which conveys conformance to strict aesthetic standards. The value of the female-object transposing herself into the clothing item is contingent upon the degree to which she conforms to the designated standard of beauty. Although the protagonist's reflection stops here, the reader might extend it by noting that the patriarchal construct of normative femininity and its requirement that women conform to strict beauty standards functions in conjunction with another aspect of male domination: patriarchal scopophilia. I like to identify this ideology and praxis as the convergence of Laura Mulvey and John Berger's discourses on the topic. In "Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema," Mulvey recalls the historical definition of scopophilia: "the erotic basis for pleasure in looking at another person as object" (806). She goes on to argue that this visually dehumanizing form of objectification is a prevalent, normative mode of gazing in cinema such that female actresses are presented as passive spectacles to be looked at by male audiences. In his own configuration of patriarchal gazing, John Berger argues in Ways of Seeing that
One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object-and most particularly an object of vision: a sight (47)
Here, Berger conveys the hierarchical nature of viewing under patriarchy. Men actively watch; women passively appear for the purpose of being watched by men. Additionally, and perhaps moreover, women also survey themselves through a male lens which is such because the male gaze involves looking at female people in ways that reduce them to objects. When women view their own selves in this objectifying way, their inundation in the system of male logic and praxis becomes evident such that, as once argued by theorist Julia Kristeva when interrogating female conditions under patriarchy in "The Transformative Feminine and Heterosexuality," it becomes accurate to suggest that women don't exist at all. The notion that women don't exist at all becomes particularly germane to the concept of male viewing when the reader grasps Berger's argument that, in a society predicated upon the organization of reality through a male lens, women disappear and also become men in the process of examining themselves. The dress that Jones is told to wear points towards these patriarchal principles by indicating that the objective of the facility is to cause her to conform to the androcentric edicts of society which insist that she perform a very parochial, patriarchal version of normative femininity which involves objectification and self-objectification (the latter form of objectification, self-objectification, transpires upon the donning of the dress because doing so is interpreted by patriarchy as a sign of one's willingness to collude in her own oppression by adopting the visual logic prescribed by the system of male domination).
The persistent insistence of the patriarchy, exemplified through the demeanor of the counselor who encourages Jones to wear dresses, is recapitulated throughout the text. As the narrative continues to unfold within frameworks of devolution which involve the ongoing abrading of Jones's independence and autonomy, she is forced to obtain a bikini wax. When she protests, the protagonist is told that she has no choice and is physically restrained (strapped to a table by male attendants) for the painful removal of body hair. As she continues to protest, Jones is told that she is operating in a childish manner. In response, Jones sputters "at the irrationality" (45) of the esthetician's logic, with this somatic utterance pointing towards the fallacious nature of patriarchal rationale. Specifically, attempting to assert ownership over one's own body is associated with adulthood, maturity, and self-respect. Conversely, children acquire an understanding of these principles as they grow older and have life experiences which teach them that they are entitled to various levels and dimensions of autonomy and independence irrespective of factors such as social position and economic standing. Yet the esthetician reduces Jones's resistance to another individual claiming that her body can be misappropriated and misused to childishness because, given her collusion in the system of male domination which dictates that women have no bodily rights, her understanding of what constitutes querulous, immature behavior incorporates the idea that adult female people are "mature" enough to grasp that their bodies exist for patriarchal pleasure; this "maturity" is incompatible with resistance, and protests are thus associated with the childishness that results from one not understanding how the androcentric world operates.
True to life under male domination, the story worsens as time unfolds because, as the narrative progresses, Jones is increasingly subjected to the perverse, pernicious rules of male domination which are operative within the psychiatric facility. The unfolding of the text clearly conveys that the androcentric project is one predicated upon the denial of female personhood. This fact becomes evident at many points, including when facility representative Dr. Gagnon begins to conclude a meeting with her by stating "next week I'd like to discuss your diagnosis" (76). Jones responds "As would I" (76). The text notes that he looks at her after she gives this response and proceeds to ask "What, surprised she could handle such a grammatical construction?" (76). Here, the reader notes that Dr. Gagnon's consternation is germane to the issue of identity. Specifically, in asserting that she would like to discuss something through the use of the self-referential term "I," Jones asserts that she exists as an independent, autonomous being rather than operating as an ancillary, adjacent entity who belongs to a man. Dr. Gagnon's surprise and ostensible resistance to this sequence of verbal self-assertion and certitude works to convey the patriarchy's ongoing antagonism towards the concept and reality of axiological frameworks which include the valuation of female subjectivity. In a patriarchal planet where female subjectivity is a crime, the grammatical construction "I" is infinitely dangerous and damning.
In addition to providing readers with excellent commentary regarding the system of male domination, Tittle's text offers individuals racial information which they can ponder in order to develop a more acute awareness of how racism, like sexism, operates as a discriminatory axiological framework predicated on a hierarchical structure in which one group dominates and dehumanizes another. In incorporating race into a discussion which had previously been confined to the domain of gender, Jones asserts "I recognize that my gender is important to other people.... but I also recognize that although a lot of people, mostly white people, don't identify themselves by skin colour-" (142). Her grammatical construction ends here with the agrestic em dash, but the reader's cognitive processes regarding the signification of racial identification do not necessarily stop there. At the onset of the em dash, readers might find themselves pondering the issue of why white people choose to self-identify as white or not. This is an important issue for many reasons and has been discussed by numerous anti-racist scholars who seek deeper understanding regarding how whites can and do operate within the white supremacist structure. Whites choosing not to identify themselves by skin colour can function as a sign of white privilege insomuch as, while race is conferred upon black people as a marker of inferiority (given all the negative stereotypes attached to blackness) which they cannot avoid given the color of their skin, whites do not have to consciously and intentionally assert that they are white but can rather simply exist as fully human while being white (given that, according to racist logic, being white means being human while being non-white always represents the domain of the subhuman). In other words, whites don't have to identify themselves by skin colour because they already are identified by white skin which represents positive stereotypes such as individuality, industriousness, moral purity, etc. This is part of white privilege. That Tittle chose to include reflections on whether whites choose to self-identify as white is important. This is the case because the references to race speak towards the aspect of radical feminist theory which, in critiquing the pernicious harms engendered by patriarchy, also subjects the edicts of white supremacy to scrutiny in order to facilitate deeper awareness regarding the deleterious impact that multiple systems of domination can have on individuals embedded in regimes of subjugation.
Readers who thrive on exposure to fictional texts which incorporate radical feminist theory into the processes of narratology, characterization, and plot development will likely love this text. Irrespective of the emotive and intellectual disposition one acquires towards the work, Gender Fraud will likely motivate the reader to reconsider her presuppositions regarding the sex/gender system and ponder how, within dystopic frameworks in which women who attempt to assert their independence and autonomy are accused of attempting to be male, patriarchy works to perpetuate its project of annihilating, or at least abrading, female subjectivity.
Editorial Note #1: Jocelyn Crawley is a radical feminist based in Atlanta whose writing centers on sexual assault as the core of male supremacy. She affirms that gender is a construct that sustains male power, limiting women's agency and fostering dependence. Committed to building community with women-centered radical feminists, Jocelyn envisions a world where women and girls are free from male violence.
Editorial Note #2: The Peachy Perspective (https://peachyradfem.com) by political scientist and Palmetto Peach Kristin Zebrowski) decodes policy and culture through a feminist lens, exposing the power struggles shaping women's rights and child safeguarding in the South.
Jocelyn Crawley
Reviewer
John Burroughs' Bookshelf
Such a Perfect Family
Nalini Singh
Berkley Books
c/o Penguin/Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
9780593549797, $30.00, HC, 384pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Such-Perfect-Family-Nalini-Singh/dp/0593549791
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/such-a-perfect-family-nalini-singh/1147348017
Synopsis: Love at first sight, a whirlwind Vegas wedding, a fairy-tale romance.
For forty-three days, Tavish Advani has been the happiest man in the world -- until his new life turns to ash, his wealthy in-laws' house going up in a fiery explosion. His badly injured wife lies in a coma, her family all but annihilated.
Tavish thought he'd left the sins of his Los Angeles life behind, but it's not so easy to leave behind an investigation into the deaths of several high-profile women -- all of whom he'd professed to love. Tragedy and death follow him no matter where he goes... but this time, he knows he's truly innocent.
Desperately trying to clear his name as the authorities zero in, Tavish begins his own investigation into the fire -- and learns that his wife's picture-perfect family may have been nothing but a meticulously constructed mirage. The truth is much darker than anything Tavish could've imagined!
Critique: An original and deftly crafted thriller of a read from start to finish, "Such A Perfect Family" by novelist Nalini Singh is an extraordinary blending of romance, murder mystery, and suspense thriller. An unreservedly recommended pick for personal reading lists and community library Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted that this hardcover edition of "Such A Perfect Family" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: Nalini Singh (https://nalinisingh.com/books) has worked as a lawyer, a librarian, a candy factory general hand, a bank temp and an English teacher, but not necessarily in that order. Some might call that inconsistency, but she calls it grist for the writer's mill.
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Julie Summers' Bookshelf
Unbroken: A Survivor's Journey After Sexual Assault
Lesley Goth
https://denverfamilycounselingservices.com
Red Thread Publishing LLC
https://redthreadbooks.com
9798892940290, $19.99, PB, 26pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-Survivors-Journey-Sexual-Assault/dp/B0FCMX9N16
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/unbroken-lesley-goth/1147626944
Red Thread Publishing
https://redthreadbooks.com/books/unbroken-a-survivors-journey-after-sexual-assault
Synopsis: With the publication of "Unbroken: A Survivor's Journey After Sexual Assault", author and licensed psychologist Lesley Goth enables her readers to discover the power of healing, reclaim their strength, and recover from sexual assault.
"Unbroken: A Survivor's Journey After Sexual Assault" is compassionate guide will provide the reader with practical tools, affirmations, and insights to support their journey forward and deal effective with any resultant shame, self-blame, and isolation arising from their being assaulted.
"Unbroken: A Survivor's Journey After Sexual Assault" covers:
Reclaim your strength and sense of self
Move towards a future filled with hope, resilience, and self-compassion
Learn how to heal from trauma with empathy and clarity
"Unbroken: A Survivor's Journey After Sexual Assault" provides:
Relatable stories and thoughtful guidance on your journey
Practical tools and affirmations to help you move forward
Insights from over 20 years of experience from Dr. Lesley Goth
Critique: Exceptionally well written, thoroughly 'reader friendly' in style, organization and presentation, "Unbroken: A Survivor's Journey After Sexual Assault" will prove to be an invaluable resource for anyone having to recover from sexual assault and will prove to be of immense insight and practical information for those wanting help someone having to deal with this all-too-common act violence in their lives or the lives of friends and loved ones. Simply stated, "Unbroken: A Survivor's Journey After Sexual Assault" by Dr. Lesley Goth should be a part of every highschool, community, and college/university library Sexual Health Counseling and PTSD Recovery collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that this paperback edition of "Unbroken: A Survivor's Journey After Sexual Assault" from Red Thread Publishing is also readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99).
Editorial Note: Lesley Goth, a Literary Titan Book Award winner for Unbroken, and an American Legacy Book Award winner for Taboo, is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 21 years of experience in private practice dedicated to supporting individuals on their journey to healing. As a best selling author and speaker, Lesley is passionate about sharing knowledge and insights that empower others, particularly those who have experienced trauma. Her work primarily focuses on helping sexual assault survivors navigate the complexities of their healing journey, utilizing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy as a transformative tool for recovery.
Through Lesley's practice, writing, and speaking, she strives to create a safe and compassionate space where clients can explore their experiences, reclaim their narratives, and foster resilience. Lesley believes in the profound healing capacity within each person and is committed to guiding them toward a brighter, more hopeful future.
Lesley offers free resources such as Healing Foundations: A Resource to Start Healing After Sexual Assault, and her new book, Unbroken: Surviving After Sexual Assault is a Literary Titan Book Award Winner!
Julie Summers
Reviewer
Lauren McIlwraith's Bookshelf
An Irish Childhood
Mary McCann
Arkbound Ltd
https://arkbound.ac.uk
9781912092567, $5.99 pbk / $5.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Irish-Childhood-Mary-McCann/dp/1912092565
A time capsule of working class Irish life, Mary McCann's An Irish Childhood shares her experiences as a 20th century woman. This memoir, taking place over her 86 years of life, is split between her tumultuous childhood in rural Ireland, and her working years, and eventual family life, in the wealthier England.
With the help of her now adult daughter, Jackie, the author takes us through her childhood and its challenges. From leaving schooling at the age of 12, having a strained relationship with her mother, constantly moving, and taking on the domestic responsibilities as the first born girl, McCann didn't have it easy by any means.
In defiance of these struggles, the writer tells nostalgic tails of working the land with her father, whom she had a close bond with, and ceilidhing at their final family home. As she grows into a young adult, McCann details her stint working in a convent, and the abuse perpetrated in such institutions at the time, which she was lucky to avoid.
Despite her love for her home country, a lack of work, sectarianism, and financial pressures encouraged Mary to set sail for England, specifically North London, where she spent most of her life. In these chapters the author tells of the cast of characters she runs into working as a live-in housekeeper for countless families. This harkens back to the ceilidhs of her childhood, in which townsfolk would gather, tell tall tales, folklore, and most importantly, gossip about the odd characters of their village.
McCann has an earnestness that could only come from someone of this environment. Reading her prose evokes the feeling of sitting round her living room with a cup of tea, listening to her talk. Knowing the history of her schooling, that she never received a formal education, and that her parents were illiterate, Mary McCann defies all odds to tell her story in an honest yet heartwarming manner.
This only works to accentuate the subject matter, as unlike your typical middle-class stereotype of a housewife, Mary continues to work through her pregnancy, and after the birth of her daughter, up into her seventies. An Irish Childhood dispels the cliched idea of the traditional woman, as a purely middle and upper class concept, shining a light on the hard working women of the past, and how we could help to fight for their rights going forward.
Lauren McIlwraith, Reviewer
https://www.instagram.com/areyoulaurie
Laurie Nguyen's Bookshelf
The Known World
Edward P. Jones
Amistad
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780061159176, $18.99 Paperback
HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-known-world-edward-p-jones
I remembered finding this novel at one of the vendors from the Texas Book Festival. Called Street Books, ATX, its owner operates a mobile library that provides individuals experiencing homelessness with books. The owner was kind enough to give out these books fora small donation, and while I was sifting through them, I found a paperback that was just melancholic enough to capture my attention. I gave the organization $5 and walked away, the book in hand.
To say that I stole the book is a fair assessment.
A wonderfully complex story that detailed the events of a plantation after its black owner, Henry Townsend, passed away, Jones includes the exploits of Townsend's staff and loved ones and how his death affected them. Some of these characters include Caledonia, Henry's wife, Moses, his overseer, Sheriff John Skiffington, the sheriff of Manchester County, Virginia, and Fern Elston, Henry's former teacher.
Moses is someone who dreams of everything and will do whatever it takes to succeed. He has no understanding of his limitations, and though he has a wife and child, he continues to strive for more. He can't be grateful for the things he has, can't see that, despite him having the same mental and emotional fortitude as Henry, at the end of the day, the things he wants aren't his to take. He wants Caledonia, but he is just a side piece, and even she herself is reluctant to give him his freedom. He wants to manage the plantation his own way, despite his authority coming from the very society that won't acknowledge him. He wants the power of the white man while ignoring his struggles as a black slave. There are a lot of folks out there who pretend they're special; they think they're chosen, when in actuality, they got lucky. This doesn't even include the fact that there were many former slaves who were forced to be sold back into the system, whether that be through sharecropping, begging, as shown in one letter from Jordan Anderson, or, more commonly, tracking them down should a freed slave return to the area.
That leads to another moral complication: slaves owning slaves. Freedom is already a precarious enough gift as is, as August Townsend had so painfully demonstrated. Williams loved Philomena, but not so much that he would just let her leave. No, he had to try to break her as he did other slaves. Though he fooled himself into thinking he loved her, he treated her little better than a toy. It's the same with Henry; his parents were distraught about the prospect of him owning slaves. August and Mildred had sacrificed so much, only for him to turn around and spit on the legacy they were trying to escape from. Then again, he was only doing what he was taught. He was handed an already difficult position by being born a black man. To be a black man and a slave owner is rather a quandary. That's still no excuse, since Robbins was able to find a loophole. After all, "the trick of life is to know when God does care and do all you need to do behind his back."
I absolutely loved this book. Jones illustrates the struggles of an already failing system, from the cruel physical and emotional violations suffered at the hands of monsters, to the people who are permanently scarred by said system for generations to come. The entire book could be culminated in a lyric by Marilyn Mason from the song "The Beautiful People," in that "you can't see the forest for the trees and you can't smell your own shit on your knees." Another way to eloquently put this is "you can't expect to roll around in the mud with pigs and be clean."
As such, I would give this book a 5 out of 5 stars, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to continue studying why slavery was able to flourish in the South, for those wanting to find inspiration in the Southern Gothic genre, and those who love history in general.
Laurie Nguyen, Reviewer
http://alighthouseinthedark.home.blog
Margaret Lane's Bookshelf
The Spirit of Ani
Ani DiFranco and Lauren Coyle Rosen
Akashic Books
https://www.akashicbooks.com
9781636142777, $28.95 hc / $26.23 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Ani-Reflections-Spirituality-Feminism/dp/163614277X
Synopsis: Grammy-winning musician Ani DiFranco explores her creativity, spirituality, and evolving consciousness in conversation with coauthor Lauren Coyle Rosen.
The Spirit of Ani is a captivating journey of intimate reflections with Ani DiFranco, a pathbreaking, highly original artist of our time. In this powerful collaborative work, the legendary folk-rock star and feminist icon is in conversation with author, artist, and cultural anthropologist Lauren Coyle Rosen. In these exchanges, Ani is remarkably open about her creativity, spirituality, personal experiences, and evolving consciousness. She is vulnerable and unapologetic, offering an unprecedented window into her fiercely prolific journeys.
Expanding on themes from her best-selling memoir, Ani also offers fascinating reflections on contemporary popular culture - ranging from gender and queer politics, to the music industry in the virtual age, to climate change. The book includes previously unpublished photographs and journal entries, song-birth sheets, paintings, and the lyrics for some of her most treasured songs. The coauthors explore how Ani's music and art are profoundly tied to her experiences of the interconnectedness of all consciousness and tuning in to receive creative inspiration. Ani's striking openness produces a book that is both meditative and activating. This is a must-read for anyone intrigued by the dedication, intuition, and vision that drive Ani's lifelong journey of creating art that not only reflects, but also empowers, transforms, and heals.
Critique: Grammy-winning musician Ani DiFranco discusses a wide range of topics with co-author Lauren Coyle Rosen in The Spirit of Ani: Reflections on Spirituality, Feminism, Music & Freedom, a balanced blend of memoir, spiritual philosophy, and intersectional politics. Ani reveals how all of these tie into her music, which is inspired by her personal experience and her observations of a highly interconnected world. "Ani also related how she found the patriarchal tenets and tacit principles for navigating relationships often difficult, in her youth. She sees this system as setting up young people to fail. Many of the de facto rules in this culture are Christian in nature, she said, and she has drawn upon biblical phrasing in her songs in order to redeploy the words and recast the messages in subversive ways that work to empower women, especially." Thoughtful, multifaceted, and mind-expanding, The Spirit of Ani is highly recommended. It should be noted for personal reading lists that The Spirit of Ani is also available in a Kindle edition ($26.23).
Margaret Lane
Reviewer
Mark Walker's Bookshelf
Hustle: The Making of a Freelance Writer
Lawrence Grobel
https://www.lawrencegrobel.com
Independently Published
9798391234142, $19.95
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/HUSTLE-Making-Freelance-Lawrence-Grobel-ebook/dp/B0CFM9SB2J
With over 4 million books being published each year, people are reading less; the consolidation of the publishing industry focuses on the bottom line (sales), and now, with the introduction of AI, freelance writing is more challenging than ever.
Lawrence Grobel's book is a sweeping retrospective of a career spanning six decades, 30-plus books, and hundreds of magazine articles. More than a memoir, it is a blueprint for survival in the precarious world of freelancing. Grobel's reflections are candid, instructive, and deeply human, offering aspiring writers a rare glimpse into the craft and lifestyle of one of journalism's most accomplished practitioners.
His work inspired me, and several years ago, we debated the endless polemic over taking the long-term commitment to find a traditional publisher or to self-publish. At that time, he preferred traditional publishing because, "Financially, it's nearly impossible to make a living this way. You don't get an advance, you don't get reviews, you don't get distribution. So, you have to hustle." But he did admit to getting tired of waiting and, in some cases, "put out my work as I wrote it."
Grobel is best known as "the interviewer's interviewer," a title given by Playboy after his landmark interview with Marlon Brando. His reputation rests on long-form, probing conversations with cultural icons such as Barbra Streisand, Al Pacino, Saul Bellow, and Truman Capote. These interviews often stretched to 10,000 - 20,000 words and set the gold standard for celebrity journalism in the late 20th century. Joyce Carol Oates once called him "the Mozart of interviewers," underscoring his mastery of the form.
The book showcases the author's remarkable range as an essayist and interviewer. From the fascinating historical account of aviation in "The Black Eagle" to candid, insightful conversations with cultural icons like Mae West, Grobel demonstrates his ability to move seamlessly between narrative depth and personal engagement. The inclusion of a previously unpublished interview with Tony Bennett adds a rare and intimate dimension to the book, making Hustle not just a compilation of essays but a vibrant tapestry of history, art, and personality.
Grubel's formative years in the Peace Corps (1968-71) at the Ghana Institute of Journalism in West Africa, where he taught writing and learned dedication, resourcefulness, and perseverance - qualities essential for freelancing. The Ghana years also instilled in him a global perspective and resilience in the face of rejection, lessons that would sustain him through decades of uncertain paychecks and editorial whims.
Grobel recounts rejections from Esquire and other magazines, noting how even a handwritten "no" became a source of inspiration because it meant his work had been read. Among my favorite lessons were pitching an idea creatively, convincing reluctant subjects to speak candidly, and accepting failure as part of the journey. Grobel emphasizes that freelancing is not for the faint of heart - it demands hustle, resilience, and a willingness to gamble on one's own talent.
I appreciated that Grobel's writing was not only a career but a means of connecting with his family and documenting their struggles and triumphs. He includes pieces about his daughter's battle with infertility and his grandson's recovery from a rare disease. These personal essays reveal how writing became a way to process family challenges and celebrate resilience and how an author's life can be deeply intertwined with family and creativity.
Grobel's Conversations with Truman Capote was a classic interview. They captured Capote's wit, candor, and scandalous opinions on fame, literature, and society. Published shortly after Capote's death, the book became a bestseller and earned Grobel a much-deserved PEN Special Achievement Award. It exemplifies his ability to balance empathy with rigor, allowing Capote to reveal himself in outrageous and profound ways.
I agreed with Grobel that freelancing is more than just a career, it's a lifestyle. It requires living with uncertainty, embracing risk, and finding satisfaction in independence. Freelancers must accept sporadic paychecks, constant rejection, and the need to reinvent themselves. Yet, for Grobel, freelancing offered freedom: the chance to pursue stories that mattered to him, to travel, to meet extraordinary people, and to weave writing into every part of his life.
Although Grobel is an accomplished writer, he never stops learning. In a recent message, he congratulated me on how I'd marketed myself and my work on Substack. "But I do see your emails, and it always makes me think that I should be following your example."
His book is both a memoir of survival and a testament to the power of persistence. Grobel's journey - from Ghana to Hollywood, from rejection slips to PEN awards - illustrates that freelancing is indeed a lifestyle, one that demands hustle but rewards with freedom, creativity, and connection. For aspiring writers, the book is a roadmap; for readers, it is a compelling portrait of a man who turned interviews into art and writing into a way of life. Although this book represents one freelance writer's journey, it's intended to inspire present and future freelancers to consider the road less traveled.
About The Author
Lawrence Grobel is a freelance writer who has written 32 books and for numerous national magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, Newsday, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Reader's Digest. Between 1968-71, he taught in the Peace Corps at the Ghana Institute of Journalism in West Africa. He created the MFA in Professional Writing program for Antioch University and served as its Director for three years. He received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for fiction. His book Conversations with Capote received a PEN Special Achievement award and reached the top of several bestseller lists. Grobel is the 2025 recipient of the HAFEZ Cinematic Literature Lifetime Achievement Award for his 6 conversation books, 3 memoirs, 2 books on interviewing, 3 novels, 3 short story collections, and a book of poetry. He is married to artist and textile designer Hiromi Oda, and they have two daughters, Maya and Hana. All his books are on Amazon, and his website lawrencegrobel.com
Mark D. Walker, Reviewer
http://www.MillionMileWalker.com
Michael Carson's Bookshelf
Antihero
Gregg Hurwitz
Minotaur Books
c/o St. Martin's Publishing Group
www.minotaurbooks.com
Macmillan Audio
www.macmillanaudio.com
9781250871770, $30.00, HC, 416pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Antihero-Orphan-Novel-11/dp/1250871778
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/antihero-gregg-hurwitz/1147243768
Synopsis: Once a black ops assassin for the government known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak broke with the program and went deep underground, using his operational rules and skills to help the truly desperate with nowhere else to turn.
When Luke Devine, one of the most powerful men in the world, has a psychological crisis, Evan flies to the East Coast to help him. While there, he learns of a young woman who was kidnapped off the New York City subway, clearly in danger and in need of aid.
With no name and few clues, Evan and his team track down the missing woman, who was assaulted and abandoned. Evan offers his help - and sets out finding the young men responsible. But the woman insists that Evan abandon his usual methods - no vengeance and, in particular, no killing. Which will prove no easy feat given the mounting incoming threats from all sides.
In a mission that takes Evan from coast to coast, from the poorest corners of society to the richest, Orphan X must figure out a way to protect the innocent, avenge the victimized, and balance justice with a measure of mercy.
Critique: The eleventh and latest addition to author Gregg Hurwitz's acclaimed action/adventure 'Orphan X' series, "Antihero" is another riveting read from a master storyteller. An original and fun read from start to finish, "Antihero' is a 'must' for the growing legions of Gregg Hurwitz fans and unreservedly recommended as an enduringly popular pick for community library 'vigitlanti' themed contemporary suspense/thriller collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of "Antihero" from Minotaur Books is also available in a digital format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Macmillan Audio, 9781250429681, $39.99, CD).
Editorial Note: Gregg Hurwitz (https://gregghurwitz.net) is the author of the New York Times bestselling Orphan X novels. Critically acclaimed, his novels have been international bestsellers, graced top ten lists, and have been published in thirty-two languages. Additionally, he's sold scripts to many of the major studios, and written, developed, and produced television for various networks.
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Robin Friedman's Bookshelf
Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters
Edward J. Larson
W.W. Norton & Company
https://www.wwnorton.com
9781324078975, $14.99, hardcover
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Declaring-Independence-Why-1776-Matters/dp/1324078979
Independence Forever!
Shortly before his death on July 4, 1826, the same day as the death of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams was asked for a toast. Adams responded with the words that are the title of this review, "Independence Forever"!
I was reminded of Adams' final words in reading this new book, "Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters" by historian Edward Larson, the author of many books on history including the Pulitzer Prize winning study of the Scopes trial, "Summer for the Gods." Larson's new book comes as the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence (1776 - 2026) and of the Declaration of Independence. Ken Burns' recent television series on the American Revolution also discusses this period, and there undoubtedly will be many books and reflections on this event during the coming year. It is a necessary thing to do and to celebrate: reflection on 1776 and its meaning in our own troubled times.
Larson's book is intended to show "Why 1776 Matters", and it fulfills its goal. His book explains the nature of the independence the colonists sought and declared in 1776, why they did so, and why their decision was momentous. The book covers a great deal in its short scope, is well-documented, and is written for a broad audience.
In his Preface, Larson describes the "independence" sought by the colonists as "separating from the British monarchy and establishing representative governments in the American states. Simply put, in the United States, "the people" would reign and their elected representatives would rule."(x) In the years leading up to 1776, the colonists had become increasingly restive under British rule and had taken to arms by 1775. Larson shows that prior to 1776, the colonists had sought "liberty" -- securing their rights as subjects of the Crown. But in 1776, as the year went on, the colonists were firmly in the camp of Independence. Larson explores how and why this change came about.
The book consists of seven chapters which ties together several threads: the power of ideas, political action, and war. For Larson, the tendency is to underplay the importance of ideas, and he attempts to rectify this in his study. The book discusses the many pamphlets and writings od the colonists setting forth their grievances with Great Britain. (Some of these pamphlets are included in a two volume set from the Library of America edited by Gordon Wood, (The American Revolution: The Pamphlet Debate 1764-1776), The pamphlets culminated in Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet "Common Sense" which Larson discusses in detail. He also shows the response to the pamphlet and how it resonated throughout the colonies. Paine followed "Common Sense" with essays titled "The American Crisis" which urged the colonists to persevere when, later in 1776, the military situation looked bleak.
Larson also gives great attention to the Declaration of Independence which deserves to be read and pondered afresh. He ties the Declaration in with prior events in the colonies, spearheaded by John Adams, to rewrite their constitutions to establish representative governments rather than monarchical governments under the crown. Although these consitutions did not change matters such as the presence of slavery, the exclusion of women from voting rights, and property qualifications for voting, the significance of the change to independent governments cannot be over-estimated. The Declaration of Independence drew on earlier efforts. It was a product not only of Thomas Jefferson's genius, but of committee work, the Second Continental Congress, and of the American people. Then too, the colonists were faced with the need to unite 13 separate colonies into something approaching a unified nation. This process, and the process of understanding Independence, still continues. Larson discusses the varied contributions of many of the Founders including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and others.
Larson weaves together the story of ideas and of politics with the military events of 1776, beginning on New Years Day with the burning of Norfolk, Virginia following a British cannonade. The scenes shift throughout the year to military action in Boston, Canada, New York City, and New Jersey. Larson examines both sides of the line showing the difficulties faced by George Washington in raising and commanding a fighting force. Britain sent the largest force ever sent out of Europe up to the time in an effort to subdue the colonies but faced large problems of its own. The history Larson tells is one of perseverance and sacrifice by the Americans in the face of great difficulty and military blunders on both sides. The army seemed to be in desperate straights during the winter of 1776. The situation changed with Washington's fabled Crossing of the Delaware on December 25, 1776, and the subsequent military victories at Trenton and Princeton.
Larson has written an inspiring book showing the difficulties of attaining independence and the heroism in the American people, in ideas, politics, and military action to bring it about. The book does not overlook the failings of America of the time in terms of slavery, property and gender. The principles declared in 1776 continue to function and develop through the present day. It is crucial to understand America's origin in the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence and to reflect on these ideas through love of our country as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of American Independence.
The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate, 1764-1776
A Library of America boxed set
Gordon Wood, editor
Library of America
https://www.loa.org
9781598534108, $85.00 hc
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/American-Revolution-Writings-Pamphlet-1764-1776/dp/1598534106
The American Revolution Pamphlet Debate In The Library Of America
The Library of America has published over the years several volumes on the American Revolution. These books include the writings of the founders, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Marshall, among others, a book of source material on the Revolutionary War, a two-volume set on the ratification debate on the constitution, a book of 17th and 18th century American poetry, and more. These books offer many readers accessible documentation of a formative portion of the American experience.
The Library of America continues its exploration of revolutionary America with this new two-volume set, "The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate, 1764-1776". Gordon Wood, the renowned scholar of the American Revolution, selected the texts and wrote the extensive supporting material. Wood also prepared the earlier two-volume Library of America set of the writings of John Adams. The publication of this new set was timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Parliament's promulgation of the Stamp Act in 1765, which set in motion the events leading to the American Revolution.
Many readers will know about Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet, "Common Sense", one of the key documents of the Revolution. "Common Sense" is included late in the second volume of the collection. But the writing of pamphlets -- short, inexpensive booklets ranging from ten to a hundred pages -- was an important source for the development and exchange of opinions during the Revolutionary Era. Between 1764 and 1776 over 1000 pamphlets were written on both sides of the Atlantic on the developing conflict between Britain and America. For this LOA set, Wood has selected 39 pamphlets which show the broad and intensifying debate about Britain and America. In its simplest form, the issue was whether Britain and America constituted a single people or whether they had become two and separate. Wood chose pamphlets based both on their intrinsic interest and to show as well the conflict of ideas in pamphlets in dialog with each other. Thus Paine's "Common Sense" (pamphlet 37) is followed by a pamphlet critiquing Paine by clergyman Charles Inglis, "The True Intent of America Impartially Stated, in Certain Strictures on a Pamphlet Intitled Common Sense" published in Philadelphia in 1776. The arrangement and selection of pamphlets allow the reader to follow the progression of ideas and debate.
The pamphlets in the volume begin in 1764 as Great Britain is faced with decisions in the management of its empire following the French-Indian War. They conclude in 1776 with former Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson's section-by-section critique of the Declaration of Independence which had reached Great Britain in August. The 39 pamphlets are varied in writing style, accessibility, and themes. Taken as a collection, they cover a great deal of early British and American history, of contemporary life in Britain and America, and of political philosophy. The pamphlets begin with questions about Parliament's authority to tax the colonies with both American and British writers struggling to find their way. The focus of the debate gradually broadens to a discussion of the nature of sovereignty as the debate leads Americans, and in an indirect way many writers sympathetic to Britain as well, to conclude that America, 3000 miles distant from Great Britain, is a free and independent nation.
In addition to Paine's "Common Sense" the box set includes pamphlets by Edmund Burke, Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Dickinson, among other writers who are not well-known. Several of the latter pamphlets comment on the incongruity between the Americans' fear of becoming slaves to Great Britain and the Americans' own holding of slaves. For example, Samuel Johnson, no friend of American independence, commented on American fears that Britain was attempting to enslave the colonies and its own people: "If slavery be thus fatally contagious, how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?"
This collection is not always easy to read given the detailed historical and local information in many of the pamphlets. For readers with a strong interest in the American Revolution, there is much to be learned. The overall impression of the collection is on the importance of ideas to human conflict and of change over time in the relationship between Great Britain and its former colonies. Following the initial settlements and separated by an ocean, the Americans had simply developed into a different people from the mother country.
Wood's own writing contributes a great deal to the set. Each volume includes a short overview, and each of the 39 pamphlets begins with Wood's insightful comments on the background and significance of the work. Each volume includes an extensive chronology of the First British Empire from 1497-1776. Readers might begin with the chronology before turning to the pamphlets themselves. The set also includes short biographies on each of the authors of the pamphlets, notes on the texts and their publication histories, and Wood's notes on difficult and obscure references in the pamphlets.
This set captures a great deal of the debate surrounding American independence and of the nature of the American experience. It is an outstanding addition to the Library of America. Although the two volumes are extensive and take some time to read, they are best read cumulatively and as a unit. The Library of America kindly provided me with a review copy of this set.
African Americans of Round Top
David Collins, Sr.
Arcadia Publishing
https://www.arcadiapublishing.com
9781467160742, $24.99 pbk / $9.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/African-Americans-Round-Images-America/dp/1467160741
The African Americans Of Round Top In Images Of America
The local pictorial histories published by Images of America offer readers tbe opportunity to explore familiar and unfamiliar communities that make up the diversity of the United States. David Collins' book "African Americans of Round Top" (2023) explores the history of a small little-known and resilient community of African American "pioneers' beginning from 1825 to the present. Round Top, Texas is a small town located in Fayette County in south central Texas. The history covers rural Fayette County and adjacent counties as well as the small town of Round Top. The author, David Collins, a Texas resident, is a civil engineer and a long-time student of African American history with extensive family ties to African Americans who lived in Round Top.
The book is divided into six chapters beginning just after Texas achieved independence from Spain. Grants issued to Steven Austin allowed American slaveholders to enter the area that became Fayette County bringing their slaves with them. Collins discusses this early history through Texas' decade as an independent republic before becoming part a State in the United States in 1845. His account properly emphasizes the importance of slavery to this history.
Collins discusses the holiday of Juneteenth and how the end of the Civil War affected the African American pioneers near Round Top. While some stayed with their former masters under sharecropping and other onerous agreements, others set out for themselves and established what became known as "Freedom Colonies" of settlement. They received some support from some members of the German immigrant community to the area. They also established churches and schools which helped unify the community and helped it survived and prosper. Descendants of the original pioneers still live in the area. The first five chapters of Collins' book essentially describe this history while the sixth and final chapter "Faces from the Past" includes photographs and short biographies of many past African American residents of the area who are shown with dignity.
This short book serves its purpose in commemorating the history of a small American community that deserves to be remembered. A bibliography would have been welcome, but there does not appear to be much earlier writing about the African Americans of Round Top. I was moved to learn about the community and to get to know people and a part of Texas that had been unknown to me.
Bellocq's Ophelia: Poems
Natasha Trethewey, author
Graywolf Press
https://www.graywolfpress.org
9781555973599, $17.00 pbk
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1555973590
Trethewey's Ophelia
Storyville was a notorious red light district in New Orleans from 1898 through 1917 when it closed under pressure from the military. It has often been portrayed in novels such as Nelson Algren's "Walk on the Wild Side"and Lois Battle's "Storyville" and in films including "Pretty Baby" which features a young Storyville prostitute and the photographer E.J. Bellocq.
Bellocq (1873 - 1949) was an obscure commercial photographer who around 1912 made a series of photographs of the prostitutes of Storyville that have since become famous. Bellocq's Storyville portraits were feature at an exhibition at the Musuem of Modern Art in 1970 and subsequently were published in two large art books. The photos are now readily accessible on the internet. Bellocq gained the women's trust and captured something of their character, their elusiveness and their surroundings in his photographs.
Natasha Trethewey (b. 1966) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2007 and served two terms as the United States Poet Laureate from 2012 - 2014. In 2013 she published a short collection of poetry "Bellocq's Ophelia" which offers her own reflections on Bellocq's photos and on the women of Storyville. I was moved to seek out the collection due to my long fascination with the subject.
Trethewey describes Ophelia as "the imagined name of a prostitute" photographed by Bellocq and as "a very white-skinned black woman -- mulatto, quadroon, or octoroon" who would have lived in one of the few Storyville brothels that included black women. The book tells the story of Ophelia's life, largely in her own words, woven in with allusions to, among others, Walt Whitman and the painter John Everett Millais (1829 -- 1896) and his famous painting "Ophelia" (1851) portraying Shakespeare's character lying on her back, singing, before she drowns herself in a river.
Trethewey divides her book of under 50 pages into four sections. An introductory poem "Bellocq's Ophelia" draws parallels between the Storyville Ophelia and Millais' Ophelia. Section I of the book consists of a single poem, "Letter Home" in which Opelia writes to Constance, her friend and teacher from the town of Oakville, Mississippi, describing her leaving home for New Orleans, and her futile efforts to find work before landing in the brothel. Ophelia writes to her friend about her experience throughout the book.
Part II begins with Countess P's "Advice to New Girls" in which she advises Ophelia to blot out her thoughts and her individuality to become each of her many clients want her to be. This is followed by a series of letters from Ophelia to Constance describing her life in the brothel. "Please do not think I am the wayward girl you describe", she writes. "I alone have made this choice. Save what I pay for board, what I earn is mine." She asks her friend not to judge but to "help me only/as you already do -- with the words/ I crave, with the mundane details/of your quiet life." She describes to Constance how she has been photographed by "a man named Bellocq". She writes "Now I face the camera, wait/for the photograph to show me who I am."
Part III of the book opens with a short series of poems titled "Storyville Diary" as Ophelia remembers her early life in Oakville and her relationship to her white father. Her name at the brothel is "Violet". Ophelia discusses her growing relationship with Bellocq and her own budding interest in the art of photography. The poems describe several of Bellocq's photos and the ways they capture and the ways they miss the interior character of Ophelia. As she reflects on Bellocq's photographs, Ophelia writes:
"I follow him now, watch him take pictures.
I look at what he can see through his lens
and what he cannot -- sliverfish behind
the walls, the yellow tint of a faded bruise --
other things here, what the camera misses."
The final poem in the collection "Vignette" describes a group portrait of women, with a woman, after the conclusion of the photography session "stepping out/of the frame, wide-eyed, into her life."
Trethewey's poems are highly reflective and introspective. They are accessibly written with a mix of free verse and traditional poetic forms, especially the sonnet. The poems offer Trethewey's own response to Ophelia, the women of Storyville and to Bellocq. I enjoyed this imaginative visit to Storyville with Trethewey.
Monument: Poems New and Selected
Natasha Trethewey
Ecco
https://www.eccobooks.com
9780358118237, $16.99 pbk / $4.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Monument-Poems-Selected-Natasha-Trethewey/dp/0358118239
Trethewey's Monument
Natasha Trethewey's "Monument: Poems New and Selected" (2018) opens with an epigraph from Walt Whitman: "Where no monuments exist to heroes but in the common words and deeds." Trethewey further explores the nature of a Monument in her book's title poem taken from her 2007 Pulitzer Prize winning volume "Native Guard". She recollects a visit to the cemetery where her mother is buried. She watches the ants busily moving the red soil from the ground and piling it, monument-like, around her mother's grave. Trethewey reflects on the activities of the ants, as it reminds her of her relationship to her mother and her memory of loss and of things left undone. The poet writes:
"Believe me when I say
I've tried not to begrudge them
their industry, the reminder of what
I haven't done. Even now,
the mound is a blister on my heart,
a red and humming storm."
Trethewey's poems weave together themes from her life with broader, more universal reflections. She writes in a simple voice, largely in free verse, but also makes use of many difficult poetic forms. She also writes about history and her work includes many allusions, including allusions to paintings. In her earlier volumes, Trethewey had included illustrations, and they might have been useful as well in this compilation.
Trethewey (b. 1965) served two terms as United States Poet Laureate from 2012--2014. Her life is reflected in her poetry. She was born to an African American woman and a white man in 1966 in Gulfport, Mississippi, at a time when interracial marriages were still illegal. Her parents divorced six years later. Trethewey's mother remarried and divorced again. Her second husband murdered her when Trethewey was nineteen. Trethewey's relationship to her mother, father, and to her stepfather were crucial to her becoming a poet, and they pervade her writing. In the opening poem to this volume titled "Imperatives for Carrying on in the Aftermath", Trethewey writes that she was told by her "famous professor" that "you should write about something else, unburden yourself of the death of your mother and just pour your heart out in the poems." Trethewey did not entirely take this advice. She continued to write about her mother's death, while she did indeed unburden her heart and broaden the scope of her writing.
"Monument" consists of selections from five early books together with elven new poems. I was attracted to this book by her second published volume, "Bellocq's Ophelia" which tells the story of a mixed-race prostitute in New Orleans Storyville who was photographed by E.J. Bellocq as part of his series of photos of Storyville prostitutes. Trethewey effectively captures the life of sex workers of the time, with her own experience as a mixed race woman in the background. This volume, given in part in "Monuments" remains my favorite in the collection.
Trethewey's Pulitzer Prize winning collection "Native Guard" is included in full. This collection includes poems from Trethewey's life combined with poems about the Civil War. The Native Guard was the first regiment of black soldiers in the Union Army and Trethewey's poems describe their experiences. The volume effectively relates the soldiers' experiences to the African American experience in Mississippi and to Trethewey's own life. The poem "Myth" is especially affecting and shows Trethewey's gifts with poetic form.
"Monuments" also includes selections from "Domestic Work" Trethewey's first volume which shows the lives of usually unsung African American laborers. The collection titled "Thrall" combines the lives of residents of Mississippi's Gulf Coast with Trethewey's own experience as she exclaims at the end, "I am the Gulf Coast." The collection titled "Thrall" makes many allusions to paintings of mixed race individuals and also includes a poem "Enlightenment" about the mixed legacy of Thomas Jefferson. Ten new poems headed "Articulation" conclude the volume, including "Repentance", a meditation on Vermeer's painting, "A Maid Asleep."
It was moving to read Natasha Trethewey's poetry. She writes beautifully and she captures something universal as she sings her own song.
Robin Friedman
Reviewer
Suanne Schafer's Bookshelf
The Broken Earth series
N.K. Jemisin
Orbit
c/o Hachette
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com
9780316527194, $54.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Earth-Trilogy-Season-Obelisk/dp/031652719X
This is a review of all 1424 pages of the multi-award winning Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin.
I don't read much science fiction these days but grew up reading now-classic sci-fi from notables like Asimov, Le Guin, Heinlein, and Clarke. The Broken Earth series (The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky) drew me in like I haven't been since reading Herbert's Dune series. Though challenging to read, Jemisin's world building and gorgeous prose both lift the reader and weave the tale of an alternate earth plagued by seismic activity from volcanoes and shifting tectonic plates. All this aberrant geologic activity leads to multiple near-extinctions named "Fifth Seasons." Past civilizations have left records ranging from dead cities to stories or "lore" rendered incomplete or distorted by inaccurate repetition. Obelisks of varying stones float above the earth but serve no identifiable function. And the moon is missing.
The world is populated by various beings: stills (regular folks), orogenes who can control the earth and start or stop earthquakes or seal volcanoes, Guardians, and stonefolk. The stills fear the orogenes, yet their skills are needed to control the environment. With time, a caste system develops, and the orogenes are controlled by Guardians who can neutralize the orogenes if necessary. There is also a unique view of magic that is not the usual abracadabra stuff but "silver" that permeates all living things and which can be accessed by some orogenes and others, but with devastating consequences.
The first book, The Fifth Season, intertwines three different narratives that eventually twist into a single one. The second book, The Obelisk Gate, continues the narrative and is actually, because you've done the mental work to delve into this world and learn its terminology, easier to read. The Stone Sky pulls everything together in this truly fascinating and rewarding read that covers the depth and breadth of human emotion, from the exalted to genocide. Loved this series!
Out Stealing Horses
Per Petterson
Graywolf Press
https://www.graywolfpress.org
9781555970703, $9.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Out-Stealing-Horses-Novel-Petterson-ebook/dp/B00FO9GB6Y
I bought Out Stealing Horses based on the cover (horses galloping over a plain) and the title, assuming it was a Western. Wrong on all counts! It is a quiet book that blends the present with several aspects of the protagonist's past - and is set in eastern Norway near the border with Sweden in the years after World War II. But it is an astoundingly beautiful coming-of-age story, dealing with both the teen years and the late years of life.
The book begins towards the end of Trond Sandler's life. His wife and sister have died and he feels compelled to abandon his current lifestyle to live an isolated life near the forest, an environment he's longed for since experiencing it as a fifteen-year-old boy. So, he sells most of his possessions and moves himself and his dog to a remote cabin, not even letting his adult daughters know his location. He requires less and less to subsist, "I'm surprised at how unfilled my shopping baskets have become, how few things I need now I am alone." But, to keep entropy at bay, he has rules to remain civilized: tablecloth, napkins, real meals, etc.
A visit from his neighbor, Lars, forces Trond to reexplore the year he and his father spent the summer at a small cabin on the edge of the forest just after World War II. His father worked with the Norwegian resistance during the war and used the cabin as his base. Trond learns from a friend, Franz - not the father - about the father's activities. Over this summer, Trond's friend, Jon is the cause of a family tragedy, and this event helps shape Trond's life.
I can't say enough about the deft attention Petterson gives to sight, sound, scent, and the descriptions of Trond's deepening affection for the forest - and his father. As Trond works through his past, he learns that "If I just concentrate, I can walk into memory's store and find the right shelf with the right film and disappear into it and still feel in my body that ride through the forest with my father; high above the river along the ridge and the down on the other side, across the border into Sweden and far into was was a foreign country, at least for me."
This is one of the most beautiful books I've read recently. A mighty thumbs up.
The Last Kind Words Saloon
Larry McMurtry
Liveright
c/o W.W. Norton
https://wwnorton.com/liveright
9780871407870, $14.20
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Kind-Words-Saloon-Novel-ebook/dp/B00FPT5MOU
I'm continuing my quest to read all of Larry McMurtry's works. In The Last Kind Words Saloon, McMurtry returns to the late nineteenth century American West. This is a sequel of sorts to Telegraph Days but with a different cast of characters with only an occasional mention of Nellie Courtright, though the book ends with her. Legendary Texas cowman, Charlie Goodnight, teams up with an Englishman, Lord Ernle, to open a cattle ranch in Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle, but their venture fails. Providing an acerbic commentary throughout are two equally legendary men, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. The book follows them from Long Grass, Texas (the next town over from the village of Rita Blanca in Telegraph Days) and on to Tombstone and the events leading to the infamous shootout at the OK corral.
The dialogue is sparse but revealing. McMurtry captures the separation of the sexes so well and shows how men and women frequently work at odds to each other. The men are being displaced by modernity. They're so disconnected from their own emotions - not to mention those of their women - that it's a wonder they can function. Wyatt spends most of his time drunk, but doesn't drink at the bar where his wife, Jessie, works. She needles him "mainly just to have something happening." Goodnight's wife, Mary, is askance at learning he expects her to live in a tent on this new ranch, and says, "I didn't learn algebra just to live in a tent."
The Pasha of Cuisine
Saygin Ersin
Arcade
c/o Skyhorse
https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/arcade-publishing
9781628729627, $16.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Pasha-Cuisine-Novel-Ersin-Saygin-ebook/dp/B078Z1W9JY
The Pasha of Cuisine reminds me of another Turkish book I read recently, The Architect's Apprentice by El if Shafak. Both are set in the Ottoman Empire, are based in a tradition of oral storytelling, and have a dash of magical realism.
When the old sultan dies, his heir kills all his siblings and their children to avoid future coups. An unnamed boy and his mother are smuggled out of the harem, but she is captured and killed. He is saved by one of the palace cooks and hidden in the kitchen with a note that says "The Pasha of Cuisine." A pasha of cuisine is rare, born with a gift for gastronomy and who brings a rebirth of cuisine and a new prosperity to the country. This child is trained in all the culinary disciplines, including spices, medicine, and astrology. He learns to control people by using his art to influence their minds, their hearts, even their health. He ends up working at a high-end pleasure house where he falls in love with Kamer, a dancing girl. When she is sold into the palace harem before they can escape to lead their own lives, he hatches a plot to exact revenge on the current pasha and rescue Kamer.
The prose is gorgeous. The plot reveal is gradual and devastating when it finally occurs. The reader doesn't learn the name of this unnamed boy until the bitter end. A stunning work.
Hello Wife
Lisa K. Friedman
https://www.lisakfriedman.com
Santa Fe Writer's Project
https://www.sfwp.com
9781951631543, $9.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Hello-Wife-Lisa-K-Friedman-ebook/dp/B0FKBBTRV2
Hello Wife has a lot in common with Demon Copperfield by Barbara Kingsolver as both deal with the problem of drug addiction in contemporary America, though I preferred the Kingsolver version. Charlotte Lansing, the protagonist of Hello Wife, is a fifty-something woman who had a good start in life with a loving family, a physician father who paid for an affluent lifestyle and a nice home. Nonetheless Charlotte feels empty and looks for something to fill the void she perceives in her life. As she sinks progressively lower, she lives in dumps, works at dead end jobs, chooses flaky boyfriends, and ultimately falls in love with a jobless morphine addict. He drags her into his lifestyle and gets her hooked on drugs despite the efforts of her family to rescue her. Hello Wife is remarkable in its depiction of her family that does their best to love and help her, though they are unable to keep her from her worst self. What starts as a novel with a bit of hope, that wisp disappears as Charlotte unravels before the reader's eyes. Though I was sucked into her story, it was hard to resist a virtual smack across her face to wake her up.
In contrast, Demon Copperfield's protagonist, Damon, was born with nothing. After the death of his mother, he becomes an orphan and is placed into the foster system where he slides further to the bottom. Despite his poor beginnings, Damon has the wherewithal to pull himself out of the drug addiction that plagues Appalachia. I found his story of redemption much more appealing.
Handle with Care
Jodi Piccoult
Atria Books
c/o Simon & Schuster
https://www.simonandschuster.com
9781439156308, $9.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Handle-Care-Novel-Jodi-Picoult-ebook/dp/B001NLKSYI
Jodi Piccoult brilliantly blends multiple points of view in Handle with Care, a well-researched novel about a child born with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease). Piccoult also tackles multiple difficult topics (wrongful birth, medical malpractice, our litigious society, and abortion) and presents a balanced view that leaves readers able to make their own decisions about the issues. The personal, ethical, moral and social issues will haunt the reader for weeks.
When a long-awaited, much-desired child is diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfect in utero, the parents decide they want to keep her. However, as the baby's bone fractures and medical bills mount - and there is no end in sight to them, the mother realizes that the family cannot make it on her husband's policeman's salary. She decides to sue for medical malpractice in a wrongful birth suit. Unfortunately, her obstetrician is her best friend. An unexpected twist at the end that will break readers' hearts.
The mother was a pastry chef before having to stop working to be the primary caregiver of her severely disabled, though precocious, daughter. Thus, multiple recipes are scattered through the book. I felt they disrupted the flow of the story and simply skipped over them.
City of Masks and Land of Echoes (The Cree Black Series)
Daniel Hecht
Bloomsbury USA
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us
9781596918047, $11.16
9781596918030, $11.16
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/City-Masks-Daniel-Hecht-ebook/dp/B002TTICF0
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Land-Echoes-Black-Novel-Thrillers-ebook/dp/B002STNBFC
I read the first two in Daniel Hecht's Cree Black series, City of Masks and Land of Echoes, which are genre-bending mixes of mystery, paranormal, horror and ghost stories. Cree Black is a Harvard-trained clinical psychologist who works for a company that investigates paranormal activity much like the Ghostbusters movie without the humor. This series now has a third volume, Bones of the Barbara Coast. These should be read in sequence because Cree's personal paranormal experience colors her work and is gradually revealed in subsequent novels.
City of Masks is set in New Orleans and involves a haunted mansion and a terrified teenaged girl. Lila Beauforte has a cold mother and is forced into the Southern Belle ideal of womanhood despite a traumatic childhood event. Cree Black uses her paranormal experience, her psychological background, and her immense empathy to bond with both ghosts and humans to solve the mystery. The pacing is sometimes a bit off and it was repetitive at times. My main complaint about this book was the huge number of typographical errors. I don't know if this was a formatting problem or what, but it's clear no one reviewed the formatted version before it was uploaded to Amazon - and no one has looked at it since to produce a corrected version. Even characters' names are misspelled. However, the story was compelling enough to push me forward, but at times I came close to throwing my Kindle against the wall in frustration.
Land of Echoes is set in New Mexico and involves Navajo beliefs in the supernatural. Cree investigates when Tommy Keeday, a teenager in a school for gifted Navajo children, begins to have nightly convulsions. I have long enjoyed the Hillermans' Navajo-inspired books, and so this one was more up my alley. It also lacked the typos of City of Masks.
Overall, these were interesting, ghostly with enough science thrown in to make the stories believable; however, not being a huge horror fan, I won't continue the series.
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Vintage
c/o Penguin
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
9780385542739, $7.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Fruit-Drunken-Ingrid-Rojas-Contreras-ebook/dp/B0776DJ5Y2
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras is semi-autobiographical fiction in the vein Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and is a masterful debut novel set in Columbia during the time it was controlled by 128 paramilitary groups in Colombia, including Pablo Escobar, the drug kingpin. The novel is told in dual points of view, switching between that of a seven-year-old girl, Chula, and that of her family's thirteen-year-old maid, Petrona. Chula's family (mother, father who works for an oil company, and older sister, Cassandra) live in a gated community while Petrona leaves her family in the slums and travels to work as a live-in maid for the wealthy family. Chula and Petrona develop an incongruous relationship that nearly brings them down. Guerillas and paramilitary groups run rampant through the hills where Petrona's family lives, and she gets involved in passing messages back and forth for them and even helps set up the kidnapping of Chula and Cassandra. The girls escape, though.
Eventually, Chula's father is captured by guerrillas who take over the oil field where he works and he's held captive. Fearing that he's been killed and also afraid for their lives, Chula, Cassandra, and their mother emigrate to the United States where Chula writes Petrona.
This book beautifully captures the points of view of two children in very different emotional and physical circumstances and shows their common humanity. The violence of Columbia during that time is not avoided but not glamorized either. The book is touching, yet horrifying. I liked it enough to immediately order the author's memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds.
Suanne Schafer, Reviewer
www.SuanneSchaferAuthor.com
Susan Bethany's Bookshelf
Meet Me Under the Lights
Cassie Miller
Viking Books
c/o Penguin Group USA
www.penguin.com
9798217038923, $13.99, PB, 384pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Under-Lights-Cassie-Miller/dp/B0FBWGHHH2
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/meet-me-under-the-lights-cassie-miller/1147531565
Synopsis: High school junior Eliza Crowley is known as the Princess of Fairfield, a farm town in North Carolina that loves two things - tradition and baseball. Although Eliza loves "the game," her life goal is to become a lighting designer on Broadway.
Shaking off her reputation as the rich girl and focusing on her town's community theater production are what she's set her sights on this summer, and nothing will stand in her way. That is until Reed Fulton, the grandson of a struggling Fairfield farmer, and ace pitcher of the Fulton Hawks, returns to town.
Reed dreams of putting the catastrophe of last season behind him and leading the Hawks to a championship victory against the Crowley Cardinals. When his childhood friend turned stranger, Eliza, strolls back into his life, she makes his heart accelerate quicker than his fastball, and he's not sure he can stay away from the girl he's supposed to despise.
Small-town summers and baseball draw Reed and Eliza together, even though the Crowleys and the Fultons are determined to run each other out of town. When the families make a deal to settle their thirty-year-long dispute once and for all, Eliza and Reed are stuck in the middle during the most important summer of their lives.
Critique: Of immense interest to readers with an interest in baseball, small towns, and romance, "Meet Me Under The Lights" by Cassie Miller is a fun read from start to finish. Of special note is Miller's genuine flair for the kind of narrative driven storytelling style that engages the interest of her readers with deftly crafted characters and a plot of unexpected twists and turns leading to a wonderfully satisfying conclusion. While very highly recommended for highschool and community library Contemporary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this paperback edition of "Meet Me Under The Lights" from Viking Press is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).
Editorial Note: Cassie Miller is a former high school English teacher turned elementary librarian. She has a teaching degree from Radford University and library endorsement from the University of Virginia. (https://www.cassiemillerauthor.com)
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Willis Buhle's Bookshelf
Charles Dickens: My Life
Derwin Hope
www.dickensmylife.com
Clink Street Publishing
https://www.bookpublishing.co.uk
9781913340865, $22.95, PB, 536pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Dickens-Life-Derwin-Hope/dp/1913340864
Synopsis: When the iconic British author Charles Dickens died prematurely on the 9th June 1870 aged only 58, he left behind a legacy unsurpassed in English fictional literature. But he also wanted to write his true life story and this remained undone.
Now 150 years on from his death, biographer Derwin Hope has found that sufficient material has now been uncovered to enable that narrative of his life story to be produced for the first time in "Charles Dickens: My Life".
Research amongst 15,000 of his letters, journalistic articles, documents and other relevant material connected to him have all combined to make it possible for Hope to piece together that evidence and, guided by the way he wrote Dickens' two travel books, has resulted in the production of this personal story in his own words that he so desired to tell.
"Charles Dickens: My Life" shows exactly how, from difficult beginnings, he descended into acute humiliation and abject poverty, before then emerging due to his talent and incredible resolve, into one of the most famous men and popular authors the world has ever known.
It also chronicles his enormous public triumphs and his profound private turmoils, as well as the secret life he led when, on his own admission, he became "seized with lunacy".
Of special note is that "Charles Dickens: My Life" includes his two momentous visits to America, and his withering and radical opinions of institutions and situations he found there, as well as those he encountered at home -- all expressed in his own inimitable style.
Simply stated, "Charles Dickens: My Life" is his compelling and personal narrative, put together for the first time in a way that he wished his legacy to be told. It is the real and true story of his life.
Critique: Derwin Hope has done the literary world an incredible service with this meticulously researched and deftly crafted biography of Charles Dickens. Absolutely essential reading for college/university Dickensian studies lists, this extraordinary and exceptionally well organized and presented study is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this paperback edition of "Charles Dickens: My Life" from Clink Street Publishing is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.94).
Editorial Note: Derwin Hope was born in Somerset in 1944 and attended local schools until the age of 12. He then went to the Quaker boarding school, Leighton Park in Reading, where he became Head Boy, as well as captaining the school at cricket and rugby and becoming athletics champion. He then attended the College of Estate Management, London University, where he obtained a Degree in Estate Management and played rugby for the College 1st XV before deciding to become a lawyer. He joined Middle Temple as his Inn of Court and qualified as a Barrister. Following pupillage, he became a member of Western Circuit Chambers at 3, Paper Buildings, Temple, London and their annex in Winchester and practiced in the Criminal Courts in both London (including the Old Bailey) and throughout the West Country, dealing with every type of case from shoplifting to murder. He also appeared in Courts Martial Cases in Germany, as well as acting as a specialist lawyer in Town and Country Planning inquiries and legal appeals. He wrote the book "The 1990-91 Planning Acts" as the official book on the subject for the Royal Institute of British Architects.
In 1993 he became a Recorder - a part-time judge alongside his work as a Barrister - and in 2002 became a full-time Circuit Judge. For 2 years he sat in Bolton, Greater Manchester, before being transferred to Portsmouth, the birthplace of Charles Dickens. After 2 years he transferred to Southampton, where he sat as the Resident Judge (the most senior) for 8 years and was appointed the Honorary Recorder of Southampton by the City. He retired from the law in 2014 and from the Honorary Recordership in 2020.
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
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