 |
Book
Reviews,
Book Lover Resources, Advice for Writers and Publishers |
| Home / Reviewer's
Bookwatch |
Reviewer's Bookwatch
Table of Contents
Ann Skea's Bookshelf
Tom Lake: A Novel
Ann Patchett
https://www.annpatchett.com
Harper
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780063327528, A$32.99 PB, 320pp.
https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Lake-Novel-Ann-Patchett/dp/006332752X
"Wait, wait, wait, you wanted to be a vet?" Maisie shakes her head. "You never wanted to be a vet. You never said that before." Maisie will begin her third year of veterinary school in the fall, if in fact there is school in the fall...
My girls have directed me to start the story at the beginning when they have no interest in the beginning. They want to hear the parts they want to hear with the rest cut out to save time. "If you think you can do a better job then tell the story yourself," I say, standing, though not in a punitive way. I stretch my hands up over my head. "The three of you can tell it to one another".
Lara (Laura Kenison / Lara Kenison / Lara Nelson), like her creator, Ann Patchett, is an expert story-teller. She knows how to pace the telling and how to end each part leaving her girls desperate to know more; and she knows each of them well enough to know how they will react, so she knows what to include, what to leave out - and what secrets to keep to herself. 'Even though they are grown women and very forward thinking', she tell us, 'let's just assume I leave out every mention of the bed'. The bed, however, does feature in her untold memories, as does another secret.
It is cherry-picking time on the Nelsons' family farm in Michigan; and it is pandemic time, too, so many of the families that usually come to help are not there. 'Circumstances', says Lara, 'have shifted from Here are our daughters and we are so glad to have them home, to Here are our daughters, who spent their childhood picking cherries and know how to do the job when only a fraction of our regular workers have come this year for seasonal employment.'
There is so much work to be done that Lara pictures Joe, her husband, as wearing the whole responsibility of the farm on his head like 'a giant parquet dance floor': the ripe fruit must be picked, the branches pruned, fertilizing and weeding must be done, and the workers who have come must be fed and their welfare and that of their children considered. There is a barn 'full of broken machinery along with the new tractor we can't afford' and university fees to pay, so everyone must help. Lara's story-telling fills the hot, and sometimes wet, hours as she and the girls pick cherries into buckets hung round their necks on canvas straps, then tip the full buckets into lugs which Joe will collect and drive to the barn to be sold by the agricultural co-op.
A chance remark by Joe when the girls were much younger led to this story-telling. The family had always watched films starring Peter Duke, a famous movie star. 'You know your mother used to date him', Joe had told the girls after walking in at the end of one of their home movie-watching sessions. 'We were in a play together'. Lara had said trying to defuse the excitement:
'So you didn't date him,' Emily corrected. 'You knew him'.
I shrugged. The girls believed we were so old then, their father and I, that they took into account we might not remember our own lives. 'We dated while we were in a play'.
He carried my books. He walked me home. We kissed.
When they finally went back to watch the movie, Duke was no longer just the Popcorn King. He was the man who had once eaten ice-cream with their mother.
Lara notes that 'the high tide of Duke', lasted for weeks after that, then receded but never quite went away. Now that she and the girls are working together, they revive their old interest and insist she tell them more.
'More', in this book, is so much more. Ann Patchett immerses the reader in Lara's early world where, as a teenager, she makes a sudden decision to audition for the part of Emily in a community theatre production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. She is a natural for the part, and her uncle, who is a movie director, sees her in the play and organizes a screen test for her in Los Angeles. There, she is picked up at the airport and driven to a hotel in an 'honest-to-god' limousine. Next day, at the Warner Brothers' sound studio, she is professionally made up, dressed, and 'transformed into someone who looked like my more attractive first cousin'. It is all thrilling, and she gets the part, but the film is interminably delayed. Her uncle then puts her in touch with an agent, who finds her work in two commercials which have 'national spots' and in two 'forgettable sitcoms'.
Eventually, frustrated, and with her acting 'career' stalled, Lara takes the advice of her uncle (again) and moves to New York to try for the part of Emily in a Broadway production of Our Town. She doesn't get that part: 'What you need to remember', says her uncle's old schoolmate who had watched her screen-test, 'is that everything's a fix....They say they want someone new but you're too new.' However, he knows she is good, and he is scouting for a replacement 'Emily' for the director of a 'summer stock theatre' production of Our Town at Tom Lake in Michigan. 'You'd have to go immediately' he tells her. Tom Lake, of course, is where she meets and falls in love with Peter Duke.
Lara's memories of that time are interspersed with her descriptions of the work she and her girls are doing on the farm, and with her daughters' reactions to her story. The girls' individual personalities, hopes and plans, emerge through their questions and their sibling joshing.
I've laid out the entire summer at Tom Lake with bonus tracks on either side. I've given my girls the director's cut.
Nell shifts her feet in the wet grass. 'You don't ever think you made a mistake"' she asks.
'Oh, come on. All that and you still think I should've been an actress?'
'I think being an actress sounds like a nightmare,' Emily says.
The three of us look at Maisie to break the tie. 'I'd take a shitting calf any day,' she says.
So I have won over two of my girls. As for the third, Nell thinks everyone secretly longs for the stage.
Emily, at twenty-six, is taking a horticulture and agribusiness management course and plans, eventually, to take over the farm. She and Bennie, a young man from the adjacent farm, live together in an old cottage close to the main house. Maisie, who will be a vet, is twenty-four, and has currently made herself available to help local people with animal problems, so she is often called on for unpleasant tasks. Nell, twenty-two, who is most like Lara and seems to have an almost telepathic understanding of her, is 'very good at being anyone at all', and plans to be an actress.
Joe, too, is very much part of Lara's story and of her present life, and their relaxed, loving interactions make a stable backdrop to Lara's story of meeting and loving Peter Duke, and the excitement, the hard work and the characters of the people she knew whilst part of the theatre group at Tom Lake.
Ann Patchett's Tom Lake is a gentle exploration of memory, of love, of the joys and the pains of life, and of the unexpected ways in which things happen and life changes. It is also a reflection of the way children tend to see their parents, knowing nothing of their youthful adventures and early love lives; and the way some secrets are kept, through love and the desire not to hurt others, but also, as Lara says, because 'What I did was mine alone to do' .
Lioness
Emily Perkins
https://emilyperkinsauthor.com
Bloomsbury
https://www.bloomsbury.com
9781526660671, A$32.99 PB, 288pp.
https://www.amazon.com/Lioness/dp/1526660660
Therese and Claire live in the same old four-storey former sewing factory once wholly owned by Therese's husband's family - but they have very different lives. Therese and her husband, Trevor, live in a spacious, luxuriously-fitted-out apartment that occupies the whole of the top floor. Claire rents a smaller one on the third floor, opposite that owned by Trevor's youngest son, Heathcote. Claire's apartment, as glimpsed by Therese as she climbs the stairs, 'gave off the chaotic vibe of working parents with a teenage child'. The extensive ground floor is home to Therese's 'flagship store': Therese Thorne House:
It was gorgeous - steel-framed windows, cabinetry from recycled wood, lighting that could be angled to pick out a particular item. We filled it with pretty things. The furniture was for sale, too, but sometimes people would simply come and sit on it to rest.
Therese's own background is modest but after 'twenty-five years of work', and marriage into Trevor's empire-building family, she now has boutiques in Auckland, Christchurch and Tauranga in New Zealand, and she is scouting for a property in Sydney which will fulfill her ambitions and let Trevor 'retire to sail and play golf in the sun'. Therese, who before she met Trevor was plain Teresa (Trevor had told her that 'Therese' sounded 'more aspirational' for her business) is happy to defer to Trevor's decisions.
Claire, however, fascinates Therese. She has just lost her jobs working on a film set with her husband, Mick, and then in fundraising. Now, she tells Therese, she and Mick have role-swapped: 'We've swapped who's responsible for what sort of things in the relationship'. She has become the decision-maker. Mick looks after their social lives, 'and he always gets it wrong.'
Therese also discovers that Claire is 'a conversational minefield' and is remarkably open about things that would normally be tabu subjects - like 'Face-work', and a sex dream about Therese's husband.
'Maybe it's because I've gone off my antidepressants. I can finally have orgasms again. Sorry, I keep forgotten how to talk normally'.
She gave me an amused look - as if life was absurd and we should just enjoy it.
Mick, however, is moving to Auckland to work there for a year, and their daughter, Alex, is going with him. Claire is going to be on her own. She thinks it will be good for their marriage, or 'help kill it'.
Therese can't imagine life without Trevor. She has no children, but Trevor, who is twenty years older than her and is divorced, has four children and several grandchildren. They have been married for nearly thirty years but Therese, who is closer in age to his children than to Trevor, often feels she is 'cosplaying an older person' when she is with them. She entertains his family, helps with their children, cooks for them when they all holiday together in one of the family properties, makes lots of 'behind-the-scenes effort', but, as become clear in Lioness, she is never really accepted by them.
Two things change the dynamics of Therese's life. First, in the middle of preparing for an elaborate Christmas party for people important to Trevor's property development work, his family, and neighbours, she reads a newspaper headline and discovers that a Council enquiry into Trevor's latest big hotel-development has been launched and construction has been halted. There is some suggestion that a 'kickback' had been offered to gain planning permission, and social housing projects would suffer. Trevor denies any wrongdoing, but it means huge expense for him until work can start again.
The second change occurs after Therese returns from a stressful family gathering in the fine 1890s homestead at the Sounds which was originally built by Trevor's ex-wife's ancestors and which she and Trevor were allowed to go to 'by her grace'. Everyone by then knows about Trevor's hotel-development problems and is worried about the financial implications, there is bickering, hostility towards Therese, and a near drowning. Then she and Trevor return home to
A turd. That's what was at home. The apartment door was closed but unlocked.... and there was a brown mass in the middle of the rug I had brought back from a walking trip in Nepal. At first I thought it was a dead animal, perhaps a rat. Then I saw the flies on it. Then I smelt it.
The flat was not burgled and there seems to be no explanation for this but Therese goes to ask Claire if anything unusual has happened in the building.
There is loud music playing inside Claire's apartment, and 'people whooping over the top of it', so she pushes open the door. The first thing she sees is 'two fake stone lions'. Claire is on the floor, hammer in hand, and wooden boards are laid out in a rectangle. She, and her two unexpected Albanian house guests, are constructing a stage for a party Claire is giving and to which she invites Therese and Trevor.
At the party, Claire, exotically dressed, makes an announcement from the stage:
'I wanted to do this,' she waved a gesture down her body at the tight sequined dress, waved a hand over her painted face, her hair, the table, the flowers and candles, 'one last time'. ...'The short version is, this is goodbye to an old self. This self,' gesturing again. 'I'm just me,' she said. 'But I'm not that me any more.'
Next day, puzzled by all this, Therese calls in on Claire again and is persuaded to join her in dancing on the stage to 'stadium rock' music with a 'banging chorus':
What the fuck I thought as my body slowly followed hers and started moving in time to the song. Of course I was self-conscious, but it would have been harder to resist moving, like being the weirdo at the sauna for keeping your clothes on. Soon enough my body fits inside the cheesy song and dancing to it was effortless. God, it was a relief to just move - I could feel the thoughts melting off me.....'Stage' was the wrong word for what held us, I realized- it was more like a zone. That word filled me now along with the music and the only other room was for the words why not?
The 'zone' calls Therese back again and again. She sees Claire strip the flat, get rid of her old self and become obsessive and slightly manic. Eventually, in a botched weekend away, and fuelled by alcohol and cannabis oil, Claire harangues friends and strangers about 'natural births', 'Motherhood as a fetish', 'Accessory husbands', 'journeys (Journey. Journey. We're just scared...It's completely debased. I mean do I want just to be a good little meditator?'), and 'monetizing your feelings of shitness'. Finally, having alienated a number of people and sent one woman running from the room, she turns to Therese:
The stern eye.
'You're nothing next to a man, you're not even real in this world'.
I put my palms up. 'I'm just going to check on Sally.'
Fern said, 'Have we got any more weed?'
Therese does begin to question her life and her choices, especially as Trevor's legal problems begin to affect her own business and she discovers that there are things he has organized for his family about which she has not been told. But she is aware, as Claire's sister Melissa says, that 'Not everyone can do a so-called 'role switch'. Some people can't just 'opt out'. Melissa, who is raising two boys on her own, 'doesn't have time for it'. Melissa believes Claire is having a breakdown.
Lioness, is full of insight into the muddled emotions which often plague mixed families but Emily Perkins also captures the pleasant intimacy of family gatherings and the benefits of being financially well-off. Therese is not young, she is intelligent and able, and she loves Trevor and sees nothing wrong in doing all she can to make his life comfortable and to help him with is various business enterprises. Nor has she been unhappy with her chosen role in life. Her friendship with Claire does give her a glimpse of an alternative but she is astute enough to think carefully about her own choices.
Claire eventually joins her husband and daughter in New Zealand, but she is still as zany as ever. In the last phone call that Therese describes for us, Claire tells her that she is reading 'show notes' for a second film series about the goddess Atalanta:
And get this, they've got her hunting down wild creatures, going after the Golden Fleece, all that. Choosing her husband in a rigged race. But they're missing what happens next, when the couple have sex in a temple and get turned into lions as punishment. Don't you think that's the best bit? ....
'I do,' I said. 'I just can't see it as a punishment.'
I had changed before, I thought as I kept walking; I could do it again.
Ann Skea, Reviewer
ann.skea.com/THHome.htm
Arthur Turfa's Bookshelf
Apparitions
Sybil Baker
https://sybilbaker.net
Signal 8 Press
9781915531025, $18.95
https://www.amazon.com/Apparitions-Sybil-Baker/dp/1915531020
This novel combines Magical Realism with exotic locales into a plot whose action takes less than a month but stretches beyond that period. Simone is a fifty-ish divorcee, cancer survivor who mourns the loss of her brother and the failed marriage as she travels to Cyprus for the Celebration of Life of her ex-husband.
Actually to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the result of an 1974 invasion by Turkey, which is the only nation that recognizes it. It is a shadowy place well known to the author, a nation which really is not a nation. As such it is a perfect location for a novel where ghosts appear frequently to Simone and everything seems to be in the shadows.
Guy, Simone's ex-husband, was a guru who morphed into a New Age philosopher. His unexpected death from a heart attack at the age of 50 puzzles Simone. He cheated on her many times, plagiarizes writings form other people to create a book, and had no shortage of female admirers who were/are his lovers.
Accompanying Simone is Agnes, an old friend with whom she works in a shop. They arrive in Istanbul the day before a massive terrorist attack at the airport. Once on Cyprus, Simone intends to use her allotted time to speak at the Celebration of Life to tell the truth about Guy.
As the pair travel the island and meet or re-connect with a fascinating array of characters, various ghosts come to Simone: her dead soldier brother, one of Guy's many lovers, and Guy himself.
Simone does indeed speak as she intended, and as a result, a chain of events follows that contains surprises for the reader. As the story continues, readers will find themselves eager to turn the next page to see what happens next.
Thine
Kate Partridge
Tupelo Press
https://www.tupelopress.org
9781961209008, $21.95
https://www.amazon.com/THINE-Kate-Partridge/dp/1961209004
The perspective for this volume of poetry stretches far and wide, geographically and poetically. From the wide expanse of the American West to antiquity, from present-day experience to the future, readers experience a variety of styles and observations of nature and humanity.
In a summer marked by devastating fires throughout the word, California leapt out from the text.
"and when the hills opened
a canyon in the crook of
one arm we all ran in
carrying the road between u
like a carpet..." p. 25
Humans can build, but nature cannot be completely contained. The last stanza speaks to nature's power
"where we render ourselves...
open for the next season of fires
to paint us in ash once again."
Theory of Audacity starts in California but pivots to classical antiquity. Buildings contend with nature, sunglasses make things "darker but more bearable" (p. 6). Barroci's late 16th Century painting Aeneas' Flight from Troy raises the question of the futility of escape. The speaker wonders why he sought to " to preserve his lne./ To what end?| (p. 6)
"On the highway due east, the tumbleweed lopes.
There is no future here. I've told you before." (p. 6)
Various styles of poems appear; an unrhymed sonnet, erasure poems based on Willa Cather's only preserved letter to her partner Edith, a concluding Strophe & Anti-Strophe in homage to Greek theater. As for references and allusions,, Horace appears a time or two, a line from Marianne Moore, Jacob and Elijah, the Exodus, the Rubicon, and more.
As to the title, the archaic form is intriguing The only time it appears is in Watch.
"Accept no gifts,
Keep thine enemies to the beach"(p. 63)
To this reviewer it sounds like good advice for the Trojans. However, the following liens refer to the Fall of Jericho.
The strength of this volume lies in the way the poet uses these divergent references/allusions, styles and voices to keep readers along with her.
Arthur Turfa
Reviewer
C.A. Gray's Bookshelf
We Are Family
Beth Moran
Boldwood Books
https://www.boldwoodbooks.com
9781837513383, $17.99
https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Family-Beth-Moran/dp/1837513376
Another winner from Beth Moran. I'm never quite sure how to classify her books: are they chick lit? (Sort of, but they don't have the classic chick lit protagonist that nearly every other chick lit book I've read tends to have. The protagonist checks some of those boxes still, though - usually early 30s, down and out, and even the reader doesn't realize how wonderful she is until another character comments on how they see her... yet, they're never a caricature.) Is it just straight "literature," given the complexity of interpersonal dynamics and intergenerational characters? There's a little bit of "Hallmark channel" in there, but her books never feel cheesy, just "feel good." And then sometimes, even though the bulk of the story is about relationships and finding one's place in the world, there's some element of suspense.
Nearly all of Moran's books contain elements of the dysfunctional family in them, though it was really brought to the forefront in this one (hence the title). Ruth, 33, spent most of her life being in love with her best friend and next door neighbor, David. But David broke her heart in high school, when she caught him making out with another girl. In retaliation, Ruth ran off, hooked up with someone else, and got pregnant with her now teenage, troubled daughter Maggie (and for quite some time, there are no redeeming qualities to Maggie at all... but that's just the setup for her character arc.) Because of Maggie, Ruth stays with Frazer, Maggie's dad, even though she never really loves him. David, meanwhile, basically becomes Steve Irwin - traveling the remote and exotic natural world for TV.
Then Frazer dies unexpectedly, leaving Ruth with massive debt she didn't realize he had. This forces her to move back home, to the small town that shunned her (at least in her mind) for her shocking teenage pregnancy. She and Maggie are forced to move in with Ruth's parents, even though Ruth and her dad never repaired the rift when she got pregnant. Meanwhile, her parents' marriage is on the rocks, and Ruth's judgmental sisters whose lives are comparatively perfect come around to make her feel horrible about herself. She finds herself working for the girl David once hooked up with, and invited into a women's group at the church that once shunned her - where she, surprisingly, finds that she feels loved. Then of course, David comes home. That's not the main plot, though - just one of the plots. She also finds herself with a bona fide stalker, she and Maggie have to learn how to mend their relationship, and Ruth has to find who she truly is, without all the running away.
Absolutely heartwarming, uplifting, and always clean. However I'd classify it, I love Beth Moran's style.
My rating: *****
Language: none
Sexual content: none
Violence: just a little, because of the stalker, but not gratuitous
Political content: none (and good for her for resisting the pressure to go there, as I'm sure she has some!)
Doomsday Match
Jeff Wheeler
https://jeff-wheeler.com
47North
https://amazonpublishing.amazon.com/47north.html
9781662505546, $13.00
https://www.amazon.com/Doomsday-Match-Dresden-Codex-Wheeler/dp/166250554X
This was very different for a Jeff Wheeler book - aside from the memoir I read about his writing style, this is the only one (that I've read anyway, and I think I've read most of his books) that isn't high fantasy. I guess this would be considered urban fantasy, though it takes awhile for the fantasy elements to come in.
The story follows Roth, a middle aged bestselling author (I have to assume Wheeler identified with him, as some of the things Roth said about his own experiences sounds like something I assume is true of Wheeler himself), and his family: his wife Serena, and their kids, Suki, and twins Bryant and Lucas. Family friends, the Beasleys, invite them to Cozumel, Mexico for Christmas, to an off grid resort, all expenses paid. They agree, but almost as soon as they arrive, at least Suki and then a few of the others begin to get a "weird vibe," that something is wrong. One of the Beasley boys breaks one of the twins' noses, and Serena, a nurse, uses this as a pretext to try to take them to a hospital - just to see if they are allowed to leave. As they attempt this, the little Beasley girl, Jane Louise, sneaks into their van and begs them to take her with them, and says that if they don't flee, they'll die. Roth leads them into the jungle, even though he has no idea what he's doing... and unfortunately, Serena is a Type 1 diabetic, and she left her insulin behind.
Meanwhile, the story shows us what's going on behind the scenes: Jacob, a Mayan Jaguar priest (who literally shapeshifts into a Jaguar) seeks vengeance for how the European explorers treated his people hundreds of years before. The Beasleys, a very athletic family, was aware that they were inviting Roth's family to an ancient match to the death. The winners will be spared when one day the Mayans take over the Western world, as they fully intend to do, and they will also inherit all the property of the losers. The losers will be sacrificed by having their hearts cut out while they are still living.
The story was easy to follow, well-paced, and an intriguing concept. I didn't for some reason connect with the characters as much as I would have liked, though, which is why I only gave it four stars. One thing I loved about it was how Wheeler managed to subtly weave in Christian values without being preachy at all, though.
My rating: ****
Language: none
Sexual content: none
Violence: it's not actually in there, but there's some graphic threats
Political content: none
C.A. Gray, Reviewer
www.authorcagray.com
Carl Logan's Bookshelf
How Trust Works
Peter H. Kim
Flatiron Books
https://www.flatironbooks.com
9781250838155, $28.99, HC, 256pp
https://www.amazon.com/How-Trust-Works-Relationships-Repaired/dp/1250838150
Synopsis: When our trust is broken, and when our own trustworthiness is called into question, many of us are left wondering what to do. We barely know how trust works. How could we possibly repair it?
Dr. Peter H. Kim (one of the world's leading expert in the rapidly growing field of trust repair), has conducted over two decades of groundbreaking research to answer that question. With the publication of "How Trust Works: The Science of How Relationships Are Built, Broken, and Repaired" he draws on this research and the work of other social scientists to reveal the surprising truths about how relationships are built, how they are broken, and how they are repaired.
Dr. Kim's work shows how we are often more trusting than we think and how easily our trust in others can be distorted. He illustrates these insights with accounts of some of the most striking and well-known trust violations that have occurred in modern times and unveils the crucial secrets behind when and why our attempts to repair trust are effective, and which breaches of confidence are just too deep.
"How Trust Works" will transform our understanding of our deepest bonds while giving us the tools to build strong and supportive relationships on every level. Trust bonding with our families, our coworkers, and our friends, as well as with the groups, organizations, and institutions that touch our lives -- even with other societies and nations.
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "How Trust Works: The Science of How Relationships Are Built, Broken, and Repaired" will have a very special value and appeal to readers with an interest in acquiring, maintaining, and repairing business, social, and interpersonal trust bonded relationships with others. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading liss, as well as both community and academic library Social Skills collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted that "How Trust Works" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: Dr. Peter H. Kim (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qqbk5UEAAAAJ) is a professor of management and organization at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. His research on trust has been published in numerous scholarly journals, received ten national/international awards, and has been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio.
A View through the Fog
Bob McGee
MSI Press
https://www.aviewthroughthefog.com
1760-F Airline Hwy, #203, Hollister, CA 950243
http://msipress.com
9781957354279, $36.95, PB, 150pp
https://www.amazon.com/View-through-Fog-Bob-McGee/dp/1957354275
Synopsis: With the publication of "A View through the Fog", Bob McGee presents a compelling, poignant, and packed memoir featuring anecdotes that are both moving and hilarious. All human life (and death) is to be found in its pages.
With his own distinct voice, McGee opens the door on the dizzying world of the Golden Gate Bridge -- the beauty of both nature and the bridge itself, the camaraderie and friction with colleagues, and the devastating tragedies of suicide jumpers.
He brings an entire San Francisco community to the page with a thought-provoking and richly detailed memoir that will resonate with many readers.
The motive for McGee writing " A View Through The Fog" is love of his subject. He paints this world he knows in a way that gives readers the feeling they are on the Bridge with him.
Critique: Enhanced for the reader with occasional b/w photos, this large format (7 x 0.41 x 10 inches, 12.8 ounces) paperback edition "A View Through The Fog" from MSI Press is an inherently fascinating life story and one that is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic library Contemporary American Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "A View Through The Fog" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Bob McGee (https://www.aviewthroughthefog.com/blank-page) was born in Richmond, California and attended Cal. St. University Hayward. After college, he became a third-generation steel painter. He spent 20 years painting bridges in the Bay Area, the last 12 as a member of the Golden Gate Bridge paint crew. Bob retired in 2014, and is now a contributing writer at Bicoastal Digest Magazine, with his work also appearing in Marin Magazine and the Argonaut, Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society.
Carl Logan
Reviewer
Clint Travis' Bookshelf
Ricochet
Taylor Moore
William Morrow & Company
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
Blackstone Audiobooks
https://www.blackstonelibrary.com
9780063292376, $30.00, HC, 336pp
https://www.amazon.com/Ricochet-Garrett-Kohl-Novel/dp/0063292378
Synopsis: After hunting down a rogue spy as part of an elite CIA counterespionage unit, Garrett Kohl returns home to Texas in hopes of settling down and carving out a normal life. While learning the ropes of fatherhood, falling deeper in love with his high school crush, and rebuilding his wildfire ravaged cattle ranch, he is approached in secret by an engineer working at a nearby nuclear weapons plant, who is in desperate need of his help.
Utilizing a unique skill set (abilities Garrett has honed as a deep cover narcotics agent and former Green Beret) he embarks on an off-the-books investigation and learns that Iranian operatives are blackmailing weapons facility employees and potentially planning a devastating act of sabotage and destruction.
Already engaged in an intense shadow war with Tehran and their Quds Force spies, Garrett's CIA team rallies to take down the extortionists and dismantle their operation. But before they can get their mission under way, enemy commandos hijack a train carrying nuclear weapons, and activate a lone wolf assassin to murder the visiting U.S. Secretary of Defense.
Caught flatfooted by the sudden attack, Garrett musters the only help he can find -- a ragtag crew of outcasts and outlaws, some of whom he'd once put behind bars. Although they're from different walks of life, and opposite sides of the law, they hold in common the deep desire to protect their homes, their families, and their way of life on the remote, wild, and alluring Texas High Plains.
Critique: Another deftly crafted, nonstop action/adventure by Taylor Moore, "Ricochet" is a 'must' for the personal reading lists of readers with an interest in military suspense thrillers featuring a cast of memorable characters and a plot laced with unexpected and pulse pounding twists and turns. "Ricochet" is unreservedly recommended and will prove an enduringly popular pick for community library collections. It should be noted that "Ricochet" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798212694537, $41.99, MP3-CD).
Editorial Note: Taylor Moore (https://taylormoorebooks.com) is a former CIA officer and a full-time author, screenwriter, and speaker. He is also the author of "Firestorm" and "Down Range".
Legacy of Atonement
Stephen Maitland-Lewis
Hildebrand Books
https://www.wbrandpub.com/fiction
9781956906523, $32.99, HC, 286pp
https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Atonement-Stephen-Maitland-Lewis/dp/1956906525
Synopsis: In the spring of 1959, a seemingly minor mistake in a wire transfer at a Swiss bank leads to the discovery of a plot by the CIA to launch a nuclear attack on the leaders of the USSR and China and to install Hitler, who is still alive and hiding in South America, as the leader of Western Europe.
Critique: In science fiction there is a concept called 'Alternate Universe' in which a parallel to our own world exists and history takes (or has taken) a diversion from what we know in our own version of the world. "Legacy of Atonement" by novelist Stephen-Maitland-Lewis is a brilliant example of a 'what if' changed history novel looks like. Of special appeal to readers with an interest in historical action/adventure suspense/thriller fiction in the literary category of Alternate History subgenre of science fiction, "Legacy of Atonement" is an entertaining read based on the idea that Hitler did not commit suicide but successfully escaped the allies in World War II, and that the American CIA would go rogue in a plot to engage in a nuclear war against the other two superpowers of the world and unify Europe by installing Hitler as the strongman ruler. Original, fascinating, and fun, "Legacy of Atonement" is highly recommended for community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections. It should also be noted for personal reading lists that "Legacy of Atonement" is also available in a paperback edition (9781956906530, $18.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.99).
Editorial Note: Stephen Maitland-Lewis (http://www.maitland-lewis.com) is a member of PEN and the Author's Guild, Maitland-Lewis is also on the Executive Committee of the International Mystery Writers Festival. His novel "Hero on Three Continents" has received numerous accolades, and "Emeralds Never Fade" won the 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award for Historical Fiction and the 2011 Written Arts Award for Best Fiction. His novel "Ambition" was a 2013 USA Best Book Awards finalist and won first place for General Fiction in the 2013 Rebecca's Reads Choice Awards. Maitland-Lewis' most recent novel "Botticelli's Bastard" was a 2014 USA Best Book Awards finalist in three categories and won the Bronze Award in Best Regional Fiction (Europe) at the 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards.
Looking Glass
Catriona Ward
Tor Nightfire
c/o Tor/Forge Books
www.tor-forge.com
9781250860026, $27.99, HC, 352pp
https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Glass-Sound-Catriona-Ward/dp/1250860024
Synopsis: In a cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow has begun the last book he will ever write.
It is the story about the sun-drenched summer days of his youth in Whistler Bay, and the blood-stained path of the killer that stalked his small vacation town. About the terrible secret he and his companions, Nat and Harper, discovered entombed in the coves off the bay. And how the pact they swore that day echoed down the decades, forever shaping their lives.
But the more Wilder writes, the less he trusts himself and his memory. He starts to see things that can't be real -- notes hidden in the cabin, from an old friend now dead; a woman with dark hair drowning in the icy waters below, calling for help; entire chapters he doesn't recall typing, appearing overnight. Who, or what, is haunting Wilder?
No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does!
Critique: With a special attraction to readers with an interest in psychological murder mysteries and suspense thrillers, "Looking Glass Sound" by Catriona Ward is a deftly crafted, impressively original, and a compulsive page turner of a read. Unreservedly recommended pick for personal and community library Mystery/Suspense collections, it should also be noted that "Looking Glass Sound" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: Catriona Ward (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catriona_Ward) was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She studied English at the University of Oxford and later earned her master's degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Ward is a three-time winner of the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel: for The Girl from Rawblood, her debut; Little Eve; and The Last House on Needless Street. Little Eve also won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel. Ward is the international bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street and Sundial.
Clint Travis
Reviewer
Cynthia Smith's Bookshelf
Getting Huge: A Novel
John Young
https://johnyoungwriter.com
Guernica Editions
https://guernicaeditions.com
9781771837798, $17.95 PB, $0.99 Kindle, $14.00 Audio Book, 308pp
https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Huge-World-Prose-Young/dp/1771837799
Cincinnati, Ohio author John Young's third book is about a man obsessed. This sweet, funny, poignant novel follows Reverend John Crackstone from Easter to Christmas as he attempts to survive a soul-crushing job while growing the world's largest pumpkin.
The story opens on a cold, wet Easter Sunday, as the weather keeps parishioners at home, guaranteeing John's deacons will blame him for the lack of Easter income. Dispirited, he goes home to start pumpkins seeds in Dixie cups in his basement. The project is meant to be a bonding activity with his two middle-school-aged children, but John almost immediately gets too invested to allow the kids to touch his precious babies.
It is easy to empathize with our hero, who has been railroaded into leaving a small-town position he loved to take over his father's large and prestigious Concord, Massachusetts, church. The original Reverend Crackstone's shoes are big ones to fill, but kind-hearted and earnest John, even though he is 7 feet tall with size 17 shoes, isn't succeeding.
To escape, he tends his backyard pumpkins, offloading more and more of his church duties on his associate minister and home duties on his wife, while becoming more and more fixated on his shapely next-door neighbor, who happens to be married to one of John's deacons.
At first, John dreams of selling giant pumpkin seeds, but when an entrepreneurial friend from his past gets involved, the vision grows exponentially.
Things do not go exactly as planned, of course. Along the path from Easter to Christmas, a number of sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic surprises jolt John from his fantasy--to an opportunity that will change everything.
This book is for anyone who has ever felt they were failing... or wondered if they could really bloom where they were planted.
Most of us can identify with aspects of John's experience. We find ourselves in jobs that don't satisfy. If we are lucky, we get an exciting passion to pursue, even if short-lived or ill-advised. Life hands us twists and turns to which we must adapt.
From April to December, John Crackstone experiences the full human condition: humiliation, doubt, delusion, hope, love and self-discovery.
Tagging along on his journey is a rollicking ride for any reader.
Editorial Note: This novel is recommended for readers of literature age 14 and up, and is fully appropriate for high school and college classrooms and libraries.
Cynthia Smith
Reviewer
Gregory Stephenson's Bookshelf
Scenes of Bohemian Life
Henry Murger
Edited & translated by Robert Holton
Anthem Press
https://anthempress.com
9781839988806 $110.00, hardbound, 254 pp.
https://www.amazon.com/Scenes-Bohemian-Life-Robert-Holton/dp/1839988800
Bohemia, that evanescent isthmus inhabited by ardent souls and lucid spirits, as well as by a quota of poseurs and a contingent of the pretentious. Bohemia, that ever-besieged sanctuary for the unorthodox and the disaffected, for fertile minds and fugitive aesthetes. Bohemia, incubator of styles and ideas, first to be treated with bafflement and contempt then later to be subsumed by the academy and the community at large. Whether we may laud and applaud it or disparage and disdain it, few of us are familiar with the history of Bohemia, with the particulars of where and how it originally coalesced.
Of Bohemia and its denizens, Henry Murger (1822-1861) was, so to say, The Daddy of Them All, and his book Scenes of Bohemian Life (1851) is the foundational text of the Bohemian ethos. It is the book that both portrayed a nascent phenomenon and inspired its subsequent spread. Today, the book seems to be known mostly by reputation, and few critics, scholars or readers would claim to have a first hand acquaintance with the text. This may be due to the book's relative unavailability in an English translation and to the fact that the most recent English translation of Murger's tales was undertaken 75 years ago.
Murger's book consists of a series of individually independent but inter-connected stories taking place in the Latin Quarter of Paris during the 1840s. The protagonists are young aspiring poets, artists and musicians, artists' models and mistresses. The tales that make up Scenes of Bohemian Life are engaging, amusing and sometimes moving. The haphazard hand-to-mouth life of the bohemians, their vanities, their shifts and dodges, their amours, their self-deceptions, their wiles, their wit, their ever-fluctuating fortunes make for agreeable and entertaining reading. Also of interest are the incidental details that the text provides concerning bohemian furnishings, meals, clothing, customs and circumstances, together with accounts of the bohemians inventive strategies of resistance to dominant social values.
This new translation of Scenes of Bohemian Life by Robert Holton is direct, clear, lively and highly readable, and (as far as I can determine with my somewhat eroded command of French) has been rendered into English with fidelity and felicity. Holton's Introduction and his annotations are instructive and serve very much to enhance the text. The translator informs readers of the relation of the tales to actual persons and events known to the author, and assesses possible causes for the extraordinary popularity of the book in France and elsewhere during the 19th century, treating various aspects of its allure and mystique, including the book's implicit offer to readers of "a powerful new sense of possibility, an alternative way of life outside the strictures of society." Holton also notes how Murger's tales provided inspiration to other artists, including visual artists such as Henri Daumier, composers such as Giacomo Puccini (whose opera La Boheme drew directly upon Scenes of Bohemian Life, and George du Maurier, author of the popular Gothic novel, Trilby (1894.) A more recent descendent of Murger's tales is the rock musical, Rent by Jonathan Larson.
Murger's Scenes of Bohemian Life was to become a template for bohemian enclaves and behaviors among later subcultural groups, including beats, hippies, punks and hipsters (few if any of whom, I imagine, had ever actually read the text.) The publication in a new translation of this seminal work, long-neglected and out-of-print, makes a timely and substantive contribution to the literature of subcultures and social deviance. Moreover, as imaginative literature, Murger's tales continue to fascinate and to resonate.
I can well imagine that many potential readers of this vital and beguiling book will balk at the price of 110 dollars. In which case, it is to be hoped that they will recommend the book for purchase by their local library, from which they can then borrow it, for it is very much worth reading.
Gregory Stephenson
Reviewer
Israel Drazin's Bookshelf
Our Little Histories
Janice Weizman
The Toby Press
c/o Koren Publishers
https://korenpub.com
9781592645992, $18.70 Paperback / $7.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Little-Histories-Janice-Weizman-ebook/dp/B0CGG2D552
Janice Weizman's "Our Little Histories" is a delightful book. It is Weizman's second novel. She won two Awards for her first one and deserves more for this second. The story tells seven tales of Jewish family members in different cities over 165 years. Many are non-observant Jews but they are people with whom observant Jews and non-Jews can identify. Each described event is eloquent and very moving. Each is funny and sad. Each reveals the difficulties faced by the family member inflicted upon them by non-Jews. The stories rang from Chicago in 2015, to Tel Aviv, Israel in 1968, to Kibbutz Givat, Israel in 1946, to Vilna in 1939, to Chicago in 1938, to Belarus in 1896, to the story of a triplet's mother in Belarus in 1850. What pulls the tales together is a brief document, a poem written in three stanzas. The triplet's mother gave a third to each of her three triplets when she had to disown them and give them to three other families for adoption to save their lives. I found it almost impossible to put the book down after I began reading it.
Abraham: The Story of a Journey
Jonathan Grossman
Maggid Books
c/o Koren Publishers
https://korenpub.com
9781592645046, $29.95 Hardcover
https://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Story-Journey-Jonathan-Grossman/dp/1592645046
What we don't know about the biblical Abraham
Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Grossman, a professor at Bar Ilan University in Israel, published Abraham, The Story of a Journey. Maggid Books published it in 2023. The book is brilliant, very thoughtful, and informative. It was initially published in Israel in Hebrew in 2016. Atara Snowbell translated it into English. Her rendition is excellent, enjoyable, and very readable. There is much that can be said about the book. I will share some of what Dr. Grossman offers in short statements that should prompt readers to turn to Dr. Grossman's book for a wealth of details on the subject.
Many scholars consider Abraham the originator of the revolutionary religious philosophy of ethical monotheism. What is ethical monotheism?
Abraham's worldview is relevant today. So it makes no difference in what period he lived.
Professor Nahum Sarna pointed out in Understanding Genesis, The Heritage of Biblical Israel Series. New York, 1966, 81-85, that patriarchal stories do not depict mythical figures. The "stories are well anchored in a historically authentic setting of Mesopotamia and Canaan."
Many scholars set the time of the existence of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at about 2200-1550 BCE.
Why doesn't scripture reveal why God chose Abraham?
God's first command to Abraham in Genesis 12:1 has three parts: leave your country, your family and your father's house, and go to the land I will show you. Genesis 11:31 states in this former verse that Abraham's father, Terach, took him, his wife, and Lot and left Ur of the Chaldees to go to Canaan. Terach decided to stop midway and stay in Haran and died there. This earlier account may indicate that God's call to Abraham came in Haran, but this is not so. Abraham heard the call in Ur, decided to leave, and his dad joined him part of the way.
Abraham first ignored two of the three parts of the divine will and only implemented them later in life. He left Ur, but he did not leave his family. He brought his wife and nephew Lot with him. He also did not complete at first going to and settling in Hebron. He left Canaan when there was a famine and went to Hebron when he returned to Canaan a second time. He didn't abandon his family and even married his son Isaac to a family member, a practice adopted by his grandson Jacob but not by other biblical figures. Why did he do these things?
Abraham constructed an altar during three stops in Canaan, in Shechem (12:7), Bethel (12:8), and Hebron (13:18). Why?
The Abraham stories are filled with parallel tales. Isaac's wife, like Abraham, left her family and traveled to Canaan. Dr. Grossman explores many other literary techniques, such as many chiasms (a, b, c, b2, a2), and others, that enhance understanding and enjoyment of the Torah.
Why are Abram's and Sarai's names changed by adding the Hebrew letter hay and the former names not used again, while Jacob's name is altered to Israel and the Torah uses both names after the change, and Isaac, his wife, and the wives of Jacob had no name change? What does the addition of the Hebrew letter hay add to the significance of Abram's and Sarai's names? Is the tale of Pharaoh giving Joseph a new name which is never repeated a parallel story that should teach us something?
There are literary indications that the binding of Isaac is the ending of the Abraham narratives. What follows, such as Abraham sending his servant to select a wife for Isaac, although sometimes mentioning Abraham, focuses on his descendants.
After Abraham circumcises himself, he has three visitors. They are sometimes called "people" and sometimes "angels." Why? What is an "angel"?
Should Abraham be considered the head of a family or a nation? When converts join Judaism, are they joining as people today accept citizenship for personal reasons such as seeking freedom or a job? Or are they being adopted into a family?
Is it significant that the Torah does not depict Abraham's birth in Canaan but rather the land of the destiny of the Jewish people?
Genesis 14 uncharacteristically depicts Abraham. He leads only 318 men in a battle against the armies of four kingdoms who defeated the armies of five domains. He did so to rescue his nephew Lot kidnaped by the four kingdoms. He is successful and takes much booty and people. He gives ten percent of the loot to a pagan priest and some to several allies who accompanied him. He refuses anything for himself.
The chapter raises about a dozen questions. The most significant is why does the Bible tell us this story?
Similarly, chapter 22's near-sacrifice by Abraham of his son Isaac by divine command raises at least a dozen questions. Why would God test Abraham in this manner, what does the tale tell us about Abraham and Isaac, and why does the Torah include this story?
Israel Drazin, Reviewer
www.booksnthoughts.com
Jack Mason's Bookshelf
Antique Locks and Keys: Their History, Uses and Mechanisms
Ulf Weissenberger
Artisan Ideas
c/o Artisan North American Inc.
www.artisanideas.com
9780997979893, $58.95, HC, 290pp
https://www.amazon.com/Antique-Locks-Keys-History-Mechanisms/dp/0997979895
Synopsis: "Antique Locks and Keys: Their History, Uses and Mechanisms" by Ulf Weissenberger and published by Artisan Ideas is arguably the most beautiful, complete, and largest format illustrated volume on antique locks and keys ever published.
Not only are there over one-thousand stunning high-resolution photos of European locks and keys from Roman times through the Industrial Revolution, all with dates, dimensions, and provenance, but the detailed photos and the author's notes also allow us to examine and understand the workings of the locks' internal mechanisms.
Author Ulf's tour de force and seminal study covers the history of locks and keys, how their mechanisms developed over the centuries, and how each major art period affected their shape and decoration. Having been collecting and restoring with passion and attention to detail for over 35 years, Ulf also presents his own personal ideas on the restoration of antique locks and keys.
With the publication of "Antique Locks and Keys: Their History, Uses and Mechanisms", Ulf gives us impressive insights into almost 5000 years of cultural, technological, and artistic history and, almost incidentally, answers the question of how naturally locks and keys have been part of our lives for millennia.
Critique: A large format coffee-table style volume (9.25 x 0.88 x 12.25 inches, 3.5 pounds) "Antique Locks and Keys: Their History, Uses and Mechanisms" is a comprehensive and ground-breaking study that every lock and key collector, locksmith, blacksmith who makes locks, and architectural restorer, will want to own. Simply stated, "Antique Locks and Keys: Their History, Uses and Mechanisms" is an especially and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Antiques & Collectibles collections and supplemental Historic Architecture curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Ulf Weissenberger has been collecting and restoring antiques with passion and attention to detail for over 35 years.
Undercurrent: Tank Commander Cadet in the Yom Kippur War
Amir Bega
Casemate Publishers
1940 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083
www.casematepublishers.com
9781636243412, $34.95, HC, 208pp
https://www.amazon.com/Undercurrent-Tank-Commander-Cadet-Kippur/dp/163624341X
Synopsis: Tank commander cadet Amir Bega is about to leave training for the Jewish High Holiday of Yom Kippur when a surprise attack on Israel by Egyptian and Syrian forces upends this peaceful reprieve, throwing the teenager into an unexpected war. A war in which the confidence and complacency of the Israeli army led to disaster.
Believing himself well-trained and the Israeli army unstoppable, Bega struggles to accept the horrifying events surrounding him. His battalion was annihilated in one of the first combats by new anti-tank weaponry. He survived and joined a reserve unit, with which he fought to stop the Egyptian army from advancing beyond the first line of defense, all through the war's end.
In this realm of death and destruction, Bega came face to face with the conflicts between the reality of war, his core beliefs, and his basic ideology. As the war progresses, he deals with the horrific losses of both those around him and his own innocence. Tank after tank that he joins is destroyed or damaged, and he is seen as a bad omen by those still alive. Gnawed by survivor guilt, the young soldier agrees to go on a sole perilous mission to rescue an army technical unit surrounded by Egyptian commandos.
"Undercurrent: Tank Commander Cadet in the Yom Kippur War" is his captivating first-hand account, as viewed through the eyes of the young soldier and vividly conveying the heavy toll of the Yom Kippur War and its impact on the people of Israel.
Ultimately, "Undercurrent" is a story about survival, friendship, humanity, duty, and honor.
Critique: While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99), "Undercurrent: Tank Commander Cadet in the Yom Kippur War" by Amir Bega will prove of exceptional insight and value to readers with an interest in Israeli military history. Impressively enhanced for the reader with a two page Glossary, b/w historical photos, a three page Prologue (Toronto Summer 2019), and a ten page Index, "Undercurrent" is a welcome and unreservedly recommended contribution to personal, community, college, and university library Israeli Military History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Amir Bega was born in an Israeli kibbutz to devout Zionist parents. From a young age, he was taught patriotism, duty, honor, and love for his country. They were true believers, and for many decades of his life, he felt the same. Today, he is a retired engineer from the aerospace industry in Israel and Canada. He is married, and a father of two.
Jack Mason
Reviewer
John Burroughs' Bookshelf
The Last Dance
Mark Billingham
Atlantic Monthly Press
c/o Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
www.groveatlantic.com
9780802160560, $28.00, HC, 400pp
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Dance-Detective-Miller-Novels/dp/0802161944
Synopsis: Maverick sleuth Declan Miller is back at work following the murder of his wife (and amateur ballroom dancing partner) Alex. Working with new partner and heavy metal enthusiast DS Sara Xiu, he is tasked with investigating the double killing of gangland family scion Adrian Cutler and IT consultant Barry Shepherd at the Sands Hotel. Initial evidence suggests a hired gun and a botched job. The search for the hitman begins and Miller begins to reconnect with his old network -- his ballroom dancing friends, homeless informant Finn, and even the ghost of his wife who keeps showing up in his kitchen. The fact Alex had been investigating the Cutler family prior to her death complicates things, and as Miller gets closer to the truth, he realizes the danger is walking right up to his doorstep!
Critique: A deftly crafted and original novel, "The Last Dance" by British author Mark Billingham is the first volume of a new series and introduces Detective Miller: a man who is unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated. A fun read from start to finish, "The Last Dance" will have a very special appeal for fans of organized crime thriller, 'whodunnit' murder mysteries, and detective stories with a bit of the supernatural thrown in. While highly recommended for community library Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of dedicated Mark Billingham fans that "The Last Dance" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99).
Editorial Note: Mark Billingham (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Billingham) has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and also won the Sherlock Award for Best Detective Created by a British Author. His books, which include the critically acclaimed Tom Thorne series, have been translated into twenty-five languages and have sold over four million copies.
Lethal Range
Ryan Steck
Tyndale House Publishers
351 Executive Drive, Carol Stream, IL 60188
www.tyndale.com
9781496462916, $26.99, HC, 384pp
https://www.amazon.com/Lethal-Range-Matthew-Redd-Thriller/dp/1496462912
Synopsis: On an island off the coast of Spain, Matthew Redd and his FBI fly team surveil a luxury villa in hopes of catching a high-value fugitive. But when Redd leads an unauthorized raid on the villa, he discovers they've been set up, and he is sent home to face the consequences of defying orders.
Meanwhile, Redd's wife, Emily, is on a remote stretch of Montana road driving their sick baby to the doctor when she finds her SUV surrounded by a biker gang intent on harassing her. As the bikers pound her fenders and her infant son screams, Emily fights to keep the SUV on the road -- and then suddenly the bikers back off, leaving her safe but shaken.
Redd returns home, suspended from his team and certain that he is to blame for Emily's harassment after his run-in with the local biker gang the year before. Fearing that there is more to come, he prepares to defend his family. But Redd soon learns the gang is stronger in numbers than he could've imagined, and there is more behind their vendetta than he could've guessed. As his son's condition worsens and his beloved ranch faces financial ruin, he finds himself fighting a war on multiple fronts -- one he can't win on his own.
Critique: Original, deftly crafted, and a riveting read from cover to cover, "Lethal Range" by novelist Ryan Steck will have a very special appeal and interest to fans of action/adventure suspense thriller fiction. While unreservedly recommended for community library Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Lethal Range" is also available in a paperback edition (9781496462923, $16.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).
Editorial Note: Ryan Steck (www.TheRealBookSpy.com) is a freelance editor, an author, and the founder and editor in chief of The Real Book Spy. His debut novel was "Fields of Fire".
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Julie Summers' Bookshelf
Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women's Words
Jenni Nuttall
Viking Books
c/o Penguin Group USA
www.penguin.com
9780593299579, $29.00, HC, 304pp
https://www.amazon.com/Mother-Tongue-Surprising-History-Womens/dp/0593299574
Synopsis: So many of the words that we use to chronicle women's lives feel awkward or alien. Medical terms are scrupulously accurate but antiseptic. Slang and obscenities have shock value, yet they perpetuate taboos. Where are the plain, honest words for women's daily lives?
"Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women's Words" by Dr. Jenni Nuttall is an historical investigation of feminist language and thought, from the dawn of Old English to the present day. Dr. Nuttall guides her readers through the evolution of words that we have used to describe female bodies, menstruation, women's sexuality, the consequences of male violence, childbirth, women's paid and unpaid work, and gender.
Along the way, she also challenges our modern language's ability to insightfully articulate women's shared experiences by examining the long-forgotten words once used in English for female sexual and reproductive organs. Dr. Nuttall also tells the story of words like womb and breast, whose meanings have changed over time, as well as how anatomical words such as hysteria and hysterical came to have such loaded legacies.
Inspired by today's heated debates about words like womxn and menstruators (and by more personal conversations with her teenage daughter) Dr. Nuttall describes the profound transformations of the English language. And in the process, she unearths some surprisingly progressive thinking that challenges our assumptions about the past -- and, in some cases, puts our twenty-first-century society to shame.
"Mother Tongue" is a rich, provocative study for anyone who loves language, and for feminists who want to look to the past in order to move forward.
Critique: A seminal, ground breaking, inherently fascinating, impressively informative, expertly written, organized and presented, "Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women's Words" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Women's Studies collections and supplemental Linguistics curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, women's rights activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women's Words" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99).
Editorial Note: Dr. Jenni Nuttall is an academic who has been teaching and researching medieval literature at the University of Oxford for the last twenty years, and who has thus had a lot of practice at making old words interesting. She has a DPhil from Oxford and completed the University of East Anglia's MA in creative writing. "Mother Tongue" is her first book for the general reader. (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2280642/jenni-nuttall)
Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey
Woniya Dawn, author
Nathan B. Peltier, illustrator
Gregg Segal, photographer
Timeless Ways
9781960303011, $30.68 HC, 368pp
https://www.amazon.com/Never-Alone-Arctic-Survival-Journey/dp/1960303015
Synopsis: "Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey", by Woniya Dawn is her debut memoir in which she shares how months of starving by herself in the Arctic wilderness brought more healing than suffering, and led to a deep sense of belonging and peace.
Her personal story affirms the incredible strength of the human spirit and shows us that strength comes in many surprising forms. The underlying message of "Never Alone" is one of inspiration and learning to trust in ourselves and the land around us; embracing the wild and being wholly and beautifully human, flaws and all.
In the pages of "Never Alone" Woniya Dawn will take you on an Arctic journey through challenges and triumphs, joys and heartbreaks.
Critique: Fascinating, entertaining, original, memorable and inspiring, "Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and academic library Contemporary American Biography/Memoir collections. Featuring illustrations by Nathan B. Peltier and photographs by Segal, it should be noted for personal reading lists for those with an interest in survival/exploration stories that "Never Alone" is also available in a paperback edition (9781960303011, $17.09) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.990).
Editorial Note #1: Woniya Thibeault is drawn to wild places and the skills our ancestors used to thrive there. Holding a master's degree in science, Woniya spent decades honing her land-based living skills and how to live long-term in the wilderness using only the natural resources it provides. Three years after the solo challenge chronicled in Never Alone, seen on Season 6 of the Alone(R) series on The history Channel(TM), Woniya was invited to compete in an even more rugged spin-off series, Alone(R) Frozen, where she made history. With this second Alone(R) journey, Woniya made history in two ways: across her two stints in the wild she set a new record for cumulative days on an Alone(R) solitary wilderness survival challenge and also became the first woman to win one.
Canning Full Circle
Diane Devereaux
Patoka Press
c/o Cardinal Publishers Group
https://cardinalpub.com
9780996324700, $26.99, PB, 239pp
https://www.amazon.com/Canning-Full-Circle-Revised-Expanded/dp/0996324704
Synopsis: From the kitchen of The Canning Diva(R) comes a newly updated, revised and expanded edition of "Canning Full Circle: From Garden to Jar to Table" by Diane 'The Canning Diva' Devereaux -- the perfect and ideal cookbook specially designed to teach novice kitchen cooks how they can cook utilizing their home canned goods.
"Canning Full Circle" breaks the mold of traditional canning cookbooks by demonstrating how to preserve your favorite foods and use them in meals, desserts, drinks, and more! Create delicious dishes like Black Bean Casserole, Fruit Cocktail Cake, and authentic Chicken Posole. This revolutionary cookbook keeps your pantry (and stomachs) full no matter the season.
Not a home canner? No problem! "Canning Full Circle" includes recipes, tips, and techniques every home cook will find valuable. You can learn culinary skills in every recipe and master home canning techniques with handy QR codes shared throughout chapter one.
Revised and expanded, this new edition of "Canning Full Circle" features more than 100 recipes and provides valuable guidance keeping you safe through it all.
Critique: Profusely and beautifully illustrated with full color photography throughout, this large format (8.03 x 0.57 x 9.99 inches, 1.66 pounds) paperback edition of "Canning Full Circle: From Garden to Jar to Table, Revised and Expanded Edition" is impressively 'user friendly' in organization, instruction, and presentation. While an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library Canning/Preservation and Cookbook collections, it should be noted that "Canning Full Circle" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99).
Editorial Note: Diane Deveraux (https://www.canningdiva.com) started home canning in her thirteenth summer alongside family and friends. She immediately grew a passion for the art and started her own garden at the mere age of fifteen. After college, Diane created her brand, The Canning Diva, in order to blend her passion for gardening and preserving with her knowledge of preparedness and self-reliance. She cans throughout the year to provide a healthy lifestyle for herself and family, and encourages others to do the same. Today, she continues to educate others on canning and preserving with various culinary classes, a weekly radio show and numerous YouTube videos.
Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up: A Novel
Alexandra Potter
Harper Paperback
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
Blackstone Audiobooks
https://www.blackstonelibrary.com
9780063340893, $18.99, PB, 400pp
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Forty-Something-Up-Alexandra-Potter/dp/0063340895
Synopsis: In "Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up" by novelist Alexandra Potter you will meet a woman named Nell. To put it simply -- her life is a mess.
When her business goes bust and her fiance with it, Nell's happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she's been gone. All her single friends are now married with children, a sky-high real estate market forces her to rent a room in a stranger's house, and everyone has seemingly perfect Instagram-ready lives. Starting from scratch she feels like a f**k up... a forty-something f**k up.
Landing a job writing obituaries, Nell meets the fabulous Cricket, an 80-something widow with challenges of her own. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and joy. With Cricket's help, Nell is determined to turn her life around. First, though, she has a confession...
Critique: Written with wit, wisdom, and a resonating recognition of the human condition, "Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up" will have a special appeal to fans of novels that celebrate of friendship and reinforce the belief that while life doesn't always go according to plan, it doesn't mean you can't find happiness. A fun read from cover to cover, "Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up" by Alexandra Potter is highly recommended for community library Contemporary Romance collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798212694834, $41.99, CD).
Julie Summers
Reviewer
Margaret Lane's Bookshelf
I Can Hear the Cuckoo: Life in the Wilds of Wales
Kiran Sidhu
Gaia
c/o Octopus Books
236 Park Avenue, New York NY 10017
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781856755009, $19.99, HC, 320pp
https://www.amazon.com/I-Can-Hear-the-Cuckoo/dp/1856755002
Synopsis: After Kiran loses her mother, she escapes to the Welsh countryside in order to allow herself to grieve away from the turbulent city life in London, to leave her toxic family behind, and to find solace in the purity of the natural world.
She openly wonders, 'what's a brown city girl like me doing in the Welsh countryside?', but she quickly discovers a sense of belonging in the small, close-knit community she finds there; her neighbor Sarah, who teaches her how to sledge when the winter snow arrives; Jane, a 70-year-old woman who lives at the top of a mountain with three dogs and four alpacas with an inspiring attitude for life; and Wilf, the farmer who eats the same supper every day, and taught Kiran that the cuckoo arrives in April and leaves in July.
"I Can Hear the Cuckoo" is a tender, philosophical memoir about the beauty of a microscopic life, the value of solitariness, and respecting the rhythm and timing of the earth. This is a reflective book about finding friendship in the most unexpected places -and what nature and a small community in the Welsh Valleys can teach us about life.
Critique: A brilliantly crafted memoir that will hold the reader's rapt attention from start to finish, "I Can Hear The Cuckoo" is an extraordinary and truly memorable life story that will also have a special appeal to readers with an interest in Welsh history, rural sociology, and dealing with the grief and bereavement from the loss of loved ones. While a highly recommended pick for community library Contemporary Biography/Memoir collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "I Can Hear The Cuckoo" by Kiran Sidhu is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).
Editorial Note: A short film about Kiran's profile on Wilf was created by Pulse Films called "Heart Valley", and Kiran is credited as writer and co-producer. The film won Best Documentary Short Film at Tribeca Film Festival 2022, beating over 7,000 submissions and 20 finalists. It's being shown on BBC Wales at the end of July '22 and will be on iPlayer for a year.
Amazing Ace, Awesome Aro
Victoria Barron
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Inc.
400 Market Street, Suite 400, Philadelphia, PA 19106
www.jkp.com
9781839977145, $14.95, HC, 87pp
https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Ace-Awesome-Aro-Illustrated/dp/1839977140
Synopsis: The split attraction model? Alterous Love? Queerplatonic relationships?
From the creator of "Perfectly Queer: An Illustrated Introduction", Victoria Barron's newest boo, "Amazing Ace, Awesome Aro: An Illustrated Exploration" is a bold and brilliantly illustrated guide is written for anyone looking to explore the beautiful ace and aro communities; the acefluxes, the arospikes, the demis, the greys, the frays and more.
"Amazing Ace, Awesome Aro: An Illustrated Exploration" separates the myths and stereotypes in an effort to discover some of the wonderful intricacies that shape each spectrum, including: forms of love and attraction, common identities, microlabels, flags, and the entertaining community-led culture.
Packed with quizzes, activity sheets and a directory of further resources, "Amazing Ace, Awesome Aro: An Illustrated Exploration" is a celebration of all things ace and aro!
Critique: Of special relevance and value to readers with an interest in LGBTQ sex and sexuality, general sexual health, and personal transformation self-help, "Amazing Ace, Awesome Aro: An Illustrated Exploration" is a welcome and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and highschool library LGBTQ and Human Sexuality collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "Amazing Ace, Awesome Aro: An Illustrated Exploration" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Victoria Barron (https://www.victoriabarron.com) is an artist and illustrator who identifies with a variety of LGBTQ+ labels, and is a self-proclaimed 'queer weirdo'. She enjoys creating works that make people smile, often applying a fun twist to themes of self-worth, acceptance, education, or awareness. Her first book, Perfectly Queer, was published in 2023.
Sage, Huntress, Lover, Queen
Mara Branscombe
Findhorn Press
www.findhornpress.com
c/o Inner Traditions International, Ltd.
One Park Street, Rochester, VT 05767
www.innertraditions.com
9781644117934, $18.99, PB, 256pp
https://www.amazon.com/Sage-Huntress-Lover-Queen-Creativity/dp/1644117932
Synopsis: With the publication of "Sage, Huntress, Lover, Queen: Access Your Power and Creativity through Sacred Female Archetypes" the reader will journey through the archetypal wisdom of the divine feminine to reclaim their authentic self and to follow their soul's longing as embodiment teacher Mara Branscombe takes an intriguing look at the seven feminine archetypes that prevail in the modern psyche (Maiden, Mother, Sage, Huntress, Lover, Mystic, and Queen) and traces their continuing influence throughout different stages of our life, sometimes dormant, sometimes prominent.
"Sage, Huntress, Lover, Queen" explores each archetype's beneficial qualities, its connections to the physical, emotional, and mental body, as well as its shadow aspects, Mara highlights the positive impact these models can have if we embrace them and live them consciously.
Step-by-step creative practices, guided visualizations, mind-body rituals, and soulful poetry allow the reader to embody each archetype, inviting in the light aspects as well as integrating the shadow. Embodiment techniques help the reader to shift consciousness and untangle from the habitual and unconscious patterns that dim their vital spark.
Weaving the fine strands of the archetypal wisdom into a rich tapestry, "Sage, Huntress, Lover, Queen" is an effective and informative guide that provides soul-empowering mind-body formulas that become field notes on the visionary's path. As the embodied feminine within comes alive, the reader will discover how each cycle and experience in life are part of the continuous unfolding of their own living ceremony.
Critique: Of special relevance and value to readers with an interest in spiritual self-help, personal transformation, and the achievement of simple happiness for themselves, "Sage, Huntress, Lover, Queen: Access Your Power and Creativity through Sacred Female Archetypes" by Mara Banscombe is an especially effective, motivatingly inspired and thought-provoking combination of DIY instructional reference and 'how-to' guide. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99), "Sage, Huntress, Lover, Queen" is an original, unique, and unreservedly recommended pick for personal and community Metaphysical & Self-Help collections.
Editorial Note: Mara Branscombe (https://marabranscombe.com) is a yoga and meditation teacher, writer, mother, artist, ceremonialist, and spirit coach, who finds great joy in leading others along the path of self-transformation. She is passionate about weaving the art of mindfulness, self-care, mind-body practices, and earth-based rituals into her offerings.
Native American Spiritualism
L. M. Arroyo, author
Wellfleet Press
c/o Quarto Publishing Group USA
100 Cummings Center, Suite 265D, Beverly, MA 01915
www.quartoknows.com
9781577153580, $16.99, HC, 168pp
https://www.amazon.com/Native-American-Spiritualism-Exploration-Indigenous/dp/1577153588
Synopsis: The Indigenous peoples of North America have followed a wide variety of spiritual traditions, many of which have been carried on to present day. With the publication of "Native American Spiritualism: An Exploration of Indigenous Beliefs and Cultures", L. M. Arroyo offers powerful insights into the origins and practices of Indigenous American spirituality while also providing guidance to help unlearn colonialist perspectives of Indigenous cultures and embrace an enlightened, nature-focused existence full of traditions of your own making.
"Native American Spiritualism" is a multifaceted guide to discovering your spirituality provides lessons on: Oral Traditions and the historical events of Mythic Time; Key value systems of eight Nations, including the Chippewa, Sioux, and Chumash Nations; Native American seasonal ceremonies and their cultural significance; Everyday life in the Nations, including common foods, clothes, objects, and games -- and more!
"Native American Spiritualism" is a celebration of a unique and beautiful aspect of Native American culture. As such, the subject matter and content has been treated with the utmost care and respect to ensure an accurate and reverent presentation that is accessible to a variety of audiences, and serves to further educate and foster support for these rich practices and traditions for years to come.
Critique: Illustrated with stunning imagery, "Native American Spiritualism: An Exploration of Indigenous Beliefs and Cultures" will be of immense value for readers with an interest in Shamanism, Native American Religion, and Metaphysical Studies. An essential resource for aspiring practitioners as an introduction to the origins of Native American religious and spiritual practices and belief systems, "Native American Spiritualism: An Exploration of Indigenous Beliefs and Cultures" is a strongly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Native American collections and supplemental Native American Mystic Traditions curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Native American Spiritualism: An Exploration of Indigenous Beliefs and Cultures" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note #1: L. M. Arroyo is a writer and reporter whose work includes service journalism, essays, news coverage, and crafting copy. She especially enjoys doing research-based deep dives into various cultural subjects, historical themes, literature, and more.
Editorial Note #2: The Mystic Traditions series explores mystical and spiritual traditions and magical practices from around the world from a modern perspective. These guides offer concise introductions to the origins of mystical practices; explain key concepts, figures, and legends in these traditions; and give straightforward and engaging instruction on how to connect directly with these practices through rituals, spells, and more.
Margaret Lane
Reviewer
Mari Carlson's Bookshelf
Crooked Little Pieces, Volume 3
Sophia Lambton
The Crepuscular Press
https://www.thecrepuscularpress.com
9781739286330, $14.99 paperback
https://www.amazon.com/Crooked-Little-Pieces-3/dp/1739286332
Anneliese and Isabel - and the series - have come into their own since volumes one and two. From a socially awkward malcontent whose psychiatrist fills her mother needs and her as an object of obsession, Anneliese is now a married psychiatrist( and detective) herself. Isabel, once a wayward cellist funneling performance anxiety into sexual exploration, is a beloved music teacher at her former school. But these mature women face mature challenges in volume three. Annaliese takes on a patient she plumbs for dirt to use against him on behalf of justice for a friend. The new headmaster at Isabel's school thwarts her above-and-beyond teaching approach. Surprises are in store for both sisters as they get to delve deep into these relationships - for better and worse. The book's writing capitalizes on uncomfortable and embarrassing moments. Isabel calls on her new boss drunk and Anneliese finds herself lying her way into her patient's dark underworld. Dialogue squirms with "er"s, "um"s and interruptions. While their foibles disarm and endear readers to the sisters, they are also the means by which the book tackles societal shame with both humor and empathy. The sisters may come at problems from opposite vantage points, but the book's strength lies in its investigation of moral ambiguities and changes of heart and mind. No one is exempt from wrong doing. Whether or not forgiveness extends to all is a topic for volume four.
Mari Carlson
Reviewer
Mark Walker's Bookshelf
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Clint Smith
Little, Brown and Company
c/o Hachette Book Group
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com
9780316492928, $18.99
https://www.amazon.com/How-Word-Passed-Reckoning-History/dp/0316492922
With today's Supreme Court ruling rejecting affirmative action at U.S. colleges, this book becomes a must-read as the author examines the legacy of slavery in America and how history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives. Not surprisingly, this New York Times bestseller is one of the top banned books today.
The author begins the book with a quote from Frederick Douglass's "The Nation's Problem":
Our past was slavery. We cannot recur to it with any sense of complacency or composure. The history of it is a record of stripes, a revelation of agony. It is written in characters of blood. Its breath is a sigh, its voice a groan, and we turn from it with a shudder. The duty of today is to meet the questions that confront us with intelligence and courage.
Clint Smith starts this journey in his hometown of New Orleans. He leads us on a memorable tour of six monuments and landmarks, which offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history and ourselves.
A well-researched exploration of the legacy of slavery, the author covers stories of the past and the story behind this month's celebration of Juneteenth. The chapter is entitled "Galveston Island." The author reveals that the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to eleven Confederate states, and Texas was one of those states that ignored what it demanded. Black American second-class citizenship was recodified through Jim Crow laws limiting voting rights.
The celebration of Juneteenth became dangerous for Black Southerners. In 2010 Black Texans represented 12% of the population and 32% of those incarcerated. In 1979, Texas became the first state to create a holiday in honor of Black emancipation, and this chapter included some critical lessons for actual Texas lawmakers trying to erase history from the classroom.
It is also the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.
One of the more notorious landmarks is Angola, a former plantation-turned-maximum-security prison in Louisiana filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. According to the author, the person leading a tour failed to mention "...that the land upon which Angola is built had once been the plantation of Isaac Franklin, a man whose business, Franklin and Armfield, became one of the largest slave-trading firms in the United States..." and that the owner of the plantation agreed to a twenty-one-year lease with the state to purchase access to all of the state's prisoners as long as he was able to keep all of the profits. "A prisoner under James's lease had a greater chance of dying than an enslaved person did."
As if this wasn't bad enough, the author reveals that two-thirds of the people on death row in Louisiana are Black and an estimated one out of every twenty-five people sentenced to death in this country is innocent.
Clint tells his own family's experience with slavery over the years and how its legacy still impacts their lives:
My grandparents' stories are my inheritance; each is an heirloom I carry. Each one is a monument to an era that still courses through my grandfather's veins. Each story is a memorial that still sits in my grandmother's bones.
...I think of how decades of racial violence have shaped everything we see, but sometimes I forget its impact on those beside me. I forget that many men and women who spat on the Little Rock Nine are still alive. I forget that so many of the people who threw rocks at Dr. King are still voting in our elections...."
The author concludes, "The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories."
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Winner of the Stowe Prize
Winner of the 2022 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism
A New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021
About the Author
Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller and one of the New York Times Top Ten Books of 2021. He is also the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent. The book won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He has received fellowships from New America, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. Born and raised in New Orleans, he received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University.
Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders
Jason L. Riley
Gotham
9781592403493, $4.99 Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Let-Them-Case-Open-Borders-ebook/dp/B0018QSNWW
The growing misinformation, jargon, polemics, and hate language around the crucial issue of immigration warranted a qualified, conservative commentator to write about the subject. The author of this book is a member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board and has appeared on Fox News and Hannity & Colmes.
The author puts immigration in the U.S. into a historical perspective. He points to conservative hero President Ronald Reagan in responding to the arguments that immigrants depress wages, displace workers, and boost crime and disease while posing a threat to national security, which runs counter to the precepts of free trade. He opens his book with this quote from the former President:
America is many Americas. We call ourselves a nation of immigrants, and that's truly what we are. We have drawn people from every corner of the Earth. We're composed of virtually every race and religion, not in small numbers, but significant. We have a statue in New York Harbor that speaks to this - a statue of a woman holding a torch of welcome to those who enter our country to become Americans. She has greeted millions upon millions of immigrants to our country. She welcomes them still. She represents our open door.
Since the government began keeping records in 1820, "...the United States has absorbed a world-leading 60 million immigrants from 170 nations. The latest census data puts our foreign-born population at 33.5 million, roughly Canada's population."
He also provides a perspective on the sordid history of opposition to immigrants from Germany, Ireland, China, and Latin America. In a treatise against the political influence of Catholicism, a leading nativist of his day argued that" poor, uneducated Irish Catholics were subverting the values and ideals of Anglo-America and should therefore be kept out of the country."
Later in the century, the "Yellow Peril" would become all the rage. One notable illustration in 1881 depicts Lady Liberty as a Chinese coolie gripping an opium pipe. "The rays of light emanating from the statue's head are labeled "Immorality," "Filth," "Disease," and "Ruin to White Labor."
Here in Arizona, former Congressman J. D. Hayworth suggested we give America's estimated 12 million undocumented residents - "half of whom have been here more than five years and many of whom have married American citizens and borne American children - 120 days to leave the country voluntarily and then deport the remainders by force."
Part of the justification for this ill-advised policy was that Latin Americans wouldn't assimilate. Yet, the 2000 census found that 91% of the children and 97% of the grandchildren of Mexican immigrants spoke English well. Nor, according to the author, immigrant parents don't necessarily want their children to speak Spanish. The Pew Hispanic Center survey found that 89% of Latinos "believe immigrants need to learn to speak English to succeed in the United States."
The author effectively deals with each of the familiar tropes used to create fear and mistrust for the immigrants entering from Latin America today and concludes, "Domestic policies that encourage immigration help keep our population not only youthful but vibrant. Immigrants are giving the United States a distinct comparative advantage in human capital, which is no small matter in an increasingly globalized economy."
He takes on the job displacement myth head-on, as it fuels much of the immigration debate. He points out that in 2006, there were 146 million workers in the U.S., and 15% were foreign-born. And they were doing jobs that wouldn't have existed had the immigrants not been there.
Riley tracks the considerable amount of taxes paid by immigrants and how most of them work hard, as reflected in the record number of remittances sent back to family members in their respective countries. And according to the author, they produce many new jobs as entrepreneurs in their own right.
Riley concludes that because immigrants strengthen the economy through their labor and entrepreneurism, our policy on immigration should recognize economic realities and focus on providing legal ways for immigrants to enter the country through guest-worker programs.
According to the author, "Illegal immigration to the United States is a function, first and foremost, of too many foreigners chasing too few visas. Some 400,000 people enter the country illegally each year - a direct consequence of the fact that our current policy is to make available just five thousand visas annually for low-skilled workers..."
The author offers several examples of the consequences of not putting our immigration house in order. With 12 million undocumented immigrants, "...it makes little sense, public policy-wise, to let them stay, but not drive legally." More unlicensed and uninsured drivers on the road by denying licenses is counter-productive from a law enforcement and homeland security standpoint."
The author does not contend that immigration has no economic costs, especially in border towns. However, "when those costs are properly weighed against the gains, open immigration and liberal trade policies still make more sense than protectionism, from both security and economic standpoints." As the 2024 presidential election approaches with immigration reform on the front burner, Let Them In is essential reading for liberals and conservatives alike who want to bring an informed perspective to the discussion.
"This fact-laden polemic should make even the most die-hard xenophobe think twice." - MAX BOOT, senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations.
About the Author
Jason Riley is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where he has written about politics, economics, education, immigration, and social inequality for more than 20 years.
Mr. Riley authorizes four books: Let Them In The Case for Open Borders (2008); Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed (2014); False Black Power? (2017); and the forthcoming Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell (May 2021).
20 Moon Rd.: An Angel's Tale
Jody Sharpe
https://jodysharpe.com
Self Published
9780988562042, $9.00
https://www.amazon.com/20-Moon-Rd-Angels-Tale/dp/0988562049
I've read and reviewed three of the author's Mystic Bay series books, starting with Town of Angels, and appreciated that this inspirational book, like all books in the series, proved the power of the human spirit to move on despite incredible tragedy and personal loss. The author's daughter, Kate, was killed in a tragic accident, and then her husband died, and during a difficult period where many would have succumbed to despair, Jody had a dream in which a voice told her to read "Charlotte's Web," by E.V. White, which is a children's book. Initially, she didn't know why she should read it until the last line of the text revealed that "Nobody would take the place of Charlotte in the heart of Wilbur." This thought helped the author go on and honor her beloved daughter and her husband.
Last year I read When the Angel Sent Butterflies to several of our youngest grandchildren, and although I didn't feel qualified to review it, my granddaughter did in the act of drawing butterflies at the end. Like all the author's work, it's uplifting, and my grandchildren seemed enthralled with the story and the excellent drawings about how love conquers fear and that angels are close by and can sweep away any fears they might have.
20 Moon Rd an Angel's Tale is a story like no other. Miracles still happen in the town of Mystic Bay, California. Angels live as humans there. A former football coach, Angel Ken, is surprised when his late best friend, the indomitable psychic, Madam Norma, appears in spirit form and asks him to write her life story through the memories she will send him. Surprising to Angel Ken, Madam Norma has seen thousands of angels since childhood during her 100 years.
Pet lovers will appreciate an entire case of "animal companions," Boots the Owl, Bondo, Jaimie Bond's dog, and Cookie, Madam Norma's late dog. Jody has dedicated her life to rescuing animals and keeps their preservation and safety at the forefront of her mind.
The last paragraph reflects the unique vision and mysticism, which exudes throughout this book:
As we fly away from the beach on a mission to help someone in need, I know what God and all angels know and what Madam Norma always shared. Only love can mend our hearts and our Earth. Only love can set us free. Madam Norma's life was simply made of pure love, for as she told me once, "Kindness is the first ingredient of love."
I look forward to someday seeing the Mystic Bay Series on the Hallmark TV channel!
The Author
Jody Sharpe had a rewarding career as a Special Education teacher. Over a decade ago, when her daughter Kate died tragically, Sharpe faced the most difficult challenge of her life. She was determined not to survive merely, but to live, to honor the life of her beloved daughter, her twins, her husband, and the rest of the rich life she had created before the tragedy. Blessed with an inherently positive outlook, these trying times were strengthened by influences from the late Norman Vincent Peale to the children's book character Wilbur the Pig. For Sharpe, ministers of spirit and guidance took the form of angels. Sharpe's openness to change led her to write her first novel, The Angel's Daughter. The story occurs in the fictitious town of Mystic Bay, California, and encompasses Sharpe's attitudes about goodness, healing, and moving on. Her second novel, To Catch an Angel, is about her late husband, Steve.
Jody has a blog on her website called Tuesdays With The Angels! Visit her website at https://jodysharpe.com
A Finger of Land on an Old Man's Hand: Adventures in Mexico's Baja Wilderness
Earl Vincent de Berge
https://www.earldeberge.com
iUniverse
https://www.iuniverse.com/en
9781663242105, $50.99
https://www.amazon.com/Finger-Land-Old-Mans-Hand-ebook/dp/B0BGBBNXP5
I met Earl and his wife, Suzanne, several years ago over lunch in Phoenix, discussing fundraising strategies for an NGO they set up in Guatemala, "Seeds for a Future," which provides training to impoverished rural women on the South Coast. I soon learned that we shared a love and appreciation of Guatemala and the Desert Southwest and that Earl was also a writer and, in his case, a poet.
I was surprised to learn that he started writing as far back as 1959 and is publishing this spring an autobiographical novel laced with poetry and photos about his adventures as a young man in the Sonoran deserts of Baja California, Mexico, and Arizona, A Finger of Land On An Old Man's Hand. As a high school senior, he came across one of the best Chinese poets, Li Po, noted for his elegant romantic verse, which the author felt drawn to express to some of the various women in his life. He was soon writing about nature, the environment, cities, and social issues, and his imagination was fueled by his travels through Central America, the Sonoran Desert, and the Andes. "Everything I experience has potential for a poem - even the increasingly dreadful business of politics."
Stories from this book take place in 1962 when de Berge and three other rebellious students set out for a three-month trek looking for adventure. Earl provides stories and photos of young men putting themselves to the test on the longest peninsula in the world. I visited the area between La Paz and San Lucas thirty years after the author. I will never forget the stunning contrast of giant Saguaros of the Senora Desert looking off into the Sea of Cortez.
Baja provided numerous challenges to the men and their equipment as they trekked over its mountainous, sometimes barren, desert environment. They encounter wild animals and first experience Pacific storms as oceans bracket them. The local population is to be protected, and they came across gold prospectors, hermits, and more than one-of-a-kind characters.
Earl provides a brief history of the area where the natives repelled the Spaniards twice, starting in 1533, And the "Mexican Revolution of 1910-20 provided "an indelible romantic tincture into Mexican culture that is powerfully expressed in folklore, art, and music."
The adventure is broken up with many humorous sidebars, starting with, "After six months of preparation, I'm thrilled to be underway. Suddenly, Adel slams on the brakes, slaps his forebrow, and declares, "I forgot my single-egg fry pan!" I curl my arm and form a fist. He laughs, grabs the steering wheel, and motions us forward like a calvary colonel."
De Berge is an accomplished poet, which enhances his powerful writing style. In his 80s, he used notes from an adventure in his 20s. His book is more than a memoir or biography but a series of travel adventures at their best and worthy to appear on the big screen someday.
The Author
Arizona native Earl de Berge is a writer, photographer, and poet. His education includes Antioch College (BA) and U of Arizona (MA). A political scientist, he founded the Behavior Research Center. Created the respected Rocky Mountain Poll and was Editor for 35 years.
Writing poetry since 1959, he often focuses on his fascination with the Sonoran Deserts. And his experiences in Guatemala's post-civil war years. He draws inspiration from the environment, poverty, shadows, friendship, loneliness, hope, aging, coyotes, hawks, brigands, fools, danger and death. And, of course, politics. Earl's photographs, logbooks, and essays reflecting on life experiences are foundations for his prose and poetry.
Earl has recently published three collections of his poems, "Alegro to Life," "Swans to Carry Me," and "Wind in the Elephant Tree," which touch on nature, human nature, love, desert silence, and life in Guatemala. He is currently assembling "The Man Who Ate His Dreams," a biography of a rags-to-riches businessman, artist, and poet, and a collection of short desert stories for young readers.
Earl and his wife Suzanne split their time between Arizona and Guatemala, where they founded the nonprofit Seeds for a Future to help impoverished rural women improve their families' access to adequate food and nutrition with home gardens and small animal protein sources.
Mark D. Walker MA, Reviewer
www.MillionMileWalker.com
Mark Zvonkovic's Bookshelf
Where The Dead Sleep
Joshua Moehling
Poisoned Pen Press
c/o Sourcebooks
https://www.sourcebooks.com
9781728247922, $19.58
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Dead-Sleep-Novel-Packard/dp/1728247926
A carefully crafted mystery that keeps a reader guessing even after the story ends.
Acting Sheriff Ben Packard moved to a small town in Minnesota with some heavy baggage. As the plot in Where The Dead Sleep unfolds, the author unpacks this baggage, a few items at a time. It is brilliant mystery writing. Small revelations about Packard are layered within the clues regarding Packard's investigation into who murdered Bill Sanderson. Eventually, the murderer is arrested, but a few items remain in Packard's baggage.
Where The Dead Sleep is foremost a classic detective story. It is unusual among modern day mysteries, which are often tainted by thriller components designed to appeal to that massive audience that looks for action on every page. To be clear, there is thrilling action in Where The Dead Sleep, but it doesn't saturate the plot. At one point a gunman shoots at Packard and then leads him on a wild boat chase in a lake. Another time, Packard is assaulted by a suspect he is attempting to take into custody. And then there is the suspenseful final arrest during which the antagonist shoots a hole the size of a baseball in a door behind which Packard stood the moment before. But these brief explosions of action involving Packard's physical prowess are a sharp contrast to a multitude of his internal associations that are metaphysical in many respects. Most novelists approach this metaphysical side of their protagonists by writing the story in first person narration. Moehling chooses the third person point of view, which allows him to jump in and out of the mind of one of the antagonists. This gives the reader a broader connection to the story. More importantly, it presents a complex, yet ambiguous, world where the difference between truth and lying is uncertain.
The use of the third person narrative means that the plot is conveyed in a manner similar to the dismantling of a Russian doll. Packard's mind approaches the murder by first looking at the largest doll. Not finding what would be an obvious solutions, he next extracts the second, smaller doll. Here reside additional clues that allow Packard to apply a new perspective and compile a list of suspects. As smaller dolls are taken out, Packard not only learns more about the crime, but makes associations relating to relationships among the suspects. The story beats come faster as the dolls get smaller. Finally, the murderer is revealed, but the story isn't over. Moehling's final revelation in the novel is brilliant. There is one more, tiny doll.
What makes Where The Dead Sleep a pure mystery is its intermingling of the actions associated with finding the murderer and the exploration of how Packard's mind sorts through the clues. This involves depictions of his own prejudices and ideologies. So the reader experiences Packard's blind spots in his thinking, and stays on the end of her seat to see how Packard overcomes his failings, and in the end how he gains perspective on events that occurred in his past, particularly the death of his lover in Minneapolis and the disappearance of his brother when he was a child. Thus, the story becomes a learning one, both for Packard and the reader. Packard is a gay man. That fact is revealed right from the beginning. How that fact affects him is revealed slowly in a way that is behind the scenes of the story action. And this is a learning experience for the reader, which Moehling delivers in both a sensitive and, thankfully, not a sensationalist manner. There are several recent detective novels that contain a gay protagonist, a recent example being a translation of Red Queen by Juan Gomex-Jurad in which a gay detective is suspended for planting drugs in a pimp's car and goes on a quest to restore his self-respect. But the depiction of the sexuality of the detective in that novel is superficial in comparison to Moehling's rendition of Packard, and not nearly as believable.
The elements of a classic detective novel that are brilliantly employed in Where The Dead Sleepmake a long list. These elements include the authors use of inductive reasoning for Packard, of reveals that gain in intensity as the story progresses, and of red herrings, double clues, self-revelation, and a poetic justice associated with finding the murderer, to name just a few. An analysis of all of these elements is beyond the scope of this review, and would necessitate the inclusion of spoilers, something the reviewer wants to avoid. Suffice it to say that Where The Dead Sleep is a transcendent detective story because it includes a kind of meta fiction, meaning that it is the working of Packard's mind that tells the story and leads to the truth, what is his synthesis of the story's events. This makes the novel as much about Packard as it is about finding the murderer. In fact, the use of Packard's growing consciousness in the story sets up at the end a final, unsolved mystery. How true to life this is! A mirror is held up for the reader to see herself and understand that the discovery of who she is will involve the solving of one mystery after another.
Mark Zvonkovic, Reviewer
markzvonkovic.com
Matthew McCarty's Bookshelf
The Teachers: A Year Inside America's Most Vulnerable, Important Profession
Alexandra Robbins
Dutton
c/o Penguin
https://www.penguin.com
9781101986752, $29.00, 376 pgs
https://www.amazon.com/Teachers-Americas-Vulnerable-Important-Profession/dp/1101986751
I am a teacher. I have been an educator for two decades. I have often thought of my chosen profession as the avenue with which I will leave a lasting impression on future generations. I have often searched for a narrative that I feel can tell my story and the story of fellow educators with a true and frank discussion of what it means to influence those future generations. The Teachers: A Year Inside America's Most Vulnerable, Important Profession (New York: Dutton Books, 2023, 376 pgs, $29.00 US, $39.00 CAN) by Alexandra Robbins is that narrative. This journey is one that all of America, especially parents of school age children need to take.
The Teachers chronicles a year in the careers of three teachers in American public schools. These teachers are not novice teachers, nor are they at the age of retirement. They are like me, teachers who have reached the midpoint of their careers and are considering what the future may hold for them. Along the way, the reader will meet other teachers who have been proud of their work, but who have also been bullied, demeaned, threatened, and even physically attacked by their co-workers, school administrators, especially parents, and most concerning, the children that they have dedicated their lives to. The Teachers is a true masterful depiction of a profession that most Americans can pay lip-service to, but will never admit has been denigrated for many years.
The Teachers should be on the syllabus of every introductory teacher education class in America and around the world. It is the most accurate and detailed description of what it means to be a teacher. This book is a year in my life and the lives of others who have dedicated their working years to helping others succeed. I am glad that The Teachers has been written. It is an excellent book. I hope that other educators will take a few hours out of their lives to read The Teachers and to know that our work and our calling is truly important.
Matthew W. McCarty, EdD
Reviewer
Michael Carson's Bookshelf
Artists' Lives
Michael Peppiatt
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110-0017
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500021965, $39.95, HC, 320pp
https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Lives-Michael-Peppiatt/dp/0500021961
Synopsis: Acclaimed art writer Michael Peppiatt has encountered many European modern artists over more than fifty years. With the publication of "Artists' Lives" his presents a selection of some of his best biographical writing covers a wide spectrum of modern art, from Van Gogh and Pierre Bonnard, to conversations with painter Sonia Delaunay, artist and photographer Dora Maar, who was Picasso's lover in the 1930s and 1940s, and Francis Bacon, perhaps the most famous of the many artists with whom Peppiatt has formed personal friendships.
Peppiatt's lively, engaging writing style introduces us to many notable art-world personalities, such as the Catalan painter Antoni Tapies, whom he visits in his studio, and moments of disillusion, such as his meeting with the self-mythologizing artist Balthus. Art criticism blends with anecdote: Peppiatt recalls riding with Lucian Freud in his Bentley, drinking with Bacon in Soho, and many more revealing moments.
This collection of Peppiatt's most perceptive texts includes encounters with under-recognized artists, such as Dachau survivor Zoran Music, or Montenegrin artist Dado, whose retrospective Peppiatt curated at the 2009 Venice Biennale.
Remarkably varied in their scope and lucidly written for a general reader, these selected essays not only provide us with perceptive commentary and acute critical judgment, they also give a unique personal insight into some of the greatest creative minds of the modern era.
Critique: Informed and informative, "Artists' Lives" provides a blend of biography and observation that makes it essential, fascinating, insightful, and memorable reading for readers with a particular interest in art history, modernism, post-war painting, and the artists who created them. "Artists' Lives" is a critically important and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Art History & Biography collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Michael Peppiatt (https://michaelpeppiatt.com) is an acclaimed writer and curator who began his career as an art critic in London and Paris in the 1960s. Described by the Art Newspaper as "the best art writer of his generation," his previous books include Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma and Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait. He was also a guest curator of the Royal Academy of Arts' 2022 exhibition "Francis Bacon: Man and Beast."
My Weil
Lars Iyer
Melville House
https://www.mhpbooks.com
9781685890605, $18.99, PB, 352pp
https://www.amazon.com/My-Weil-Lars-Iyer/dp/1685890601
Synopsis: "My Weil" by Lars Iyer follows a group of twenty-something PhD students of the new-fangled subject Disaster Studies at an inferior university in Manchester, England, the post-industrial city of so much great music and culture. They are working class, by turns underconfident and grandiose (especially when they drink) and are reconciled to never finishing their dissertations or finding academic jobs.
Their immediate enemies are the drone-like Business Studies students all around them, as well as the assured and serene PhD students of the posh university up the road. And they're working together on a film, through which they're trying to make sense of their lives in Manchester and, in particular, to the Ees, a mysterious patch of countryside that appears to have supernatural qualities.
Into their midst arrives Simone Weil, a PhD student, a version of the twentieth century philosopher, who becomes the unlikely star of their film. Simone is devout, ascetic, intensely serious, and busy with risky charity work with the homeless. Valentine, hustler-philosopher, recognises Simone as a fellow would-be saint. But Gita, Indian posh-girl, is suspicious: what's with Simone's nun-shoes? And Marcie (AKA Den Mom), the leader of the pack, is too busy with her current infatuation, nicknamed Ultimate Destruction Girl, to notice.
The narrator, Johnny, who was brought up in care and is psychologically fragile, and deeply disturbed by the poverty of his adopted city, gradually falls in love in Simone. But will his love be requited? Will Simone be able to save the souls of her new friends and Manchester itself from apocalypse?
Critique: Eloquent, erudite, original, compelling, memorable, entertaining, "My Weil" showcases author Lars Iyer's impressive and genuine flair for the kind of narrative driven storytelling skills that fully engage the reader from beginning to end. "My Weil" will have a particular appeal to readers with an interest in dark humor and fictional satire. While a strongly recommended pick for both community and academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "My Weil" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.99).
Editorial Note: Lars Iyer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Iyer) is a Professor in Creative Writing at Newcastle University, where he was formerly a longtime lecturer in philosophy. He is also the author of the novels in the Spurious Trilogy, and more recently, Wittgenstein Jr., and Nietzsche and the Burbs.
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Robin Friedman's Bookshelf
One More War to Fight
Stephen A. Goldman, author
Roman & Littlefield
http://www.rowman.com
9781538161555, $29.95, hardcover
https://www.amazon.com/One-More-War-Fight-Reconstruction/dp/1538161559
With Union Veterans After The Civil War
In downtown Washington, D.C., across the street from the National Archives, stands a large Civil War memorial, the Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial, dedicated in 1909. The Memorial commemorates the Grand Army of the Republic, (GAR) a large order of Civil War veterans and its founder, Benjamin Stephenson, M.D. The inscriptions on the Monument include the words "Fraternity", "Loyalty", "Charity" and "Who Knew No Glory But His Country's Good".
I was reminded of the GAR Memorial in reading this new book by Stephen A. Goldman, "One More War to Fight: Union Veterans' Battle for Equality Through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Lost Cause" (2023). Dr. Goldman is a psychiatrist who has devoted much of his professional life to the treatment of veterans. He has combined his medical career with a lifelong passion for history, particularly of the Civil War era. This is his first published book. I have come to know Goldman personally through our participation in Lincoln and Civil War groups. I admire his determination, commitment, and scholarship in seeing his writing through to publication over the course of years.
"One More War To Fight" examines the activities of Union veterans, particularly those in the GAR, from the end of the Civil War through the early years of the 20th Century. Goldman finds two broad themes in the activities of the veterans. The first theme is patriotism. The troops had fought a terrible long. bloody war through love of the United States. This feeling of patriotism for our country drove the activities of the veterans in the years following the war. The second theme is justice. The Union had fought to establish a just society, to end slavery, and to find liberty and equality for all. The GAR was unique in its day because it was integrated an open to all veterans who served in the Civil War with an Honorable Discharge, both white and black.
In addition to discussing the activities of the GAR, Goldman discusses other related veterans' groups. He discusses the "Left-Armed Corps" a group of some 268 Union veterans who had lost the use of their right arm in combat. Following the War, the veterans were asked to submit writing samples with their left hand, and many, on their own initiative, wrote essays about the Civil War and about why they fought. Prior to Goldman's work, the documents involving the Left-Armed Corps had been little examined. Goldman uses them in depth and follows the history of the veterans.
The book is a work of scholarship and is also highly personal. Goldman has unearthed a great deal of material about Civil War veterans and their activities which, without his efforts, might have been lost. He also shows a great deal of knowledge of American history from the Reconstruction Era forward. Still, the most notable part of the book is the passion Goldman brings to his subject. He loves the Union veterans while retaining the ability to look at them critically. He is candid to the point of bluntness about his views of the events he describes. In short, he is engaged with his history, probably to a more visceral degree than most professional historians. The goals of the book transcend the history, crucial as that history is. Goldman wants Americans to share the twin goals of patriotism and justice he develops in his study. In our troubled country, many Americans have difficulty with one or the other of these goals and with putting them together.
The book is relatively short but it covers a great deal. In its successive chapters, it weaves together the history of post-Civil War America beginning with the Civil War Amendments through Reconstruction, the Freedman's Bureau, the end of Reconstruction in 1876 and the rise of Jim Crow, the violence and the racism in both North and South, and the rise of segregation. Throughout the history, Goldman focuses upon the activities of the GAR and its members and of the Left-Armed Corps. The picture that emerges is of Union veterans who, with some qualifications, remain remarkably committed to the goals for which they fought: patriotism and racial justice. The book combines broad components with detailed stories of individuals and their efforts.
In his Introduction, Goldman states: "this book's raison d'etre lies in the intertwined, previously untold stories of how Northern veterans, black and white, fought a second war seeking equality for all Americans, thereby creating the model of civic responsibility based on military service that American citizen soldiers, sailors and marines have emulated in modern times."
Similarly, Goldman concludes his study as follows: "as the country followed a path of reconciliation that stripped the Civil War of its underlying ideology and racial foundation, those who defeated the Confederacy remembered the truth, and enhanced their victory by continuing to battle for freedom and equality for all Americans. Knowing time was running out, they sought to keep that obligation alive by inspiring new generations to take on the fight they had taken on as young men, and remained dedicated to for the rest of their days."
This review began with a discussion of the Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial and Goldman's book concludes with a discussion of the Lee Memorial placed in Congress by the State of Virginia in 1911. The Lee Memorial provoked great controversy within the GAR, which was unable to reach a definitive position on the matter. In December 2020, Virginia removed the Lee statue from Congress.
"One More War to Fight" is an impressive, moving book that commemorates American Civil War veterans and the causes of Patriotism and Justice for which they lived.
The Heart Of American Poetry
Edward Hirsch, Author
Library of America
https://loa.org
9781598537260, $26.00, hardcover
https://www.amazon.com/Heart-American-Poetry-Edward-Hirsch/dp/1598537261
The Heart Of American Poetry For Independence Day
Each year on the Fourth of July I write a book review appropriate to the themes of the day. The book this year is "The Heart of American Poetry" (2022) by Edward Hirsch, published by the Library of America. Hirsch is both a poet and a tireless advocate for poetry. He aims in this book to increase appreciation of American accomplishment in this art, an accomplishment which often is undervalued or overlooked. The book consists of forty poems by as many American poets ranging over a 400 year period. The poems are arranged chronologically by birth date of the poet, beginning with Anne Bradstreet (1612 -- 1672) and her poem "The Author to Her Book" and concluding with "Rabbit is Up to Tricks", a poem by Joy Harjo (b. 1951). An essay by Hirsch accompanies each poem.
At the close of "The Heart of American Poetry" Hirsch says: "This is a book that I've been preparing to write for much of my life, and I'm grateful to the Library of America for proposing it to coincide with its fortieth anniversary." The book opens with Hirsch's essay "The Education of a Poet". Hirsch describes his early life is the child of working class parents in Chicago and of his determination to become a poet. The book throughout has a strongly personal, introspective tone, as Hirsch writes: "This is a personal book about American poetry, but I hope it is more than a personal selection. I have chosen forty poems from our extensive archive and songbook that have been meaningful to me, part of my affective life, my critical consideration, but I have also tried to be cognizant of the changing playbook in American poetry, which is not fixed but fluctuating, ever in flow, and to pay attention to the wider consideration, the appreciable reach of our literature."
Hirsch identifies some of the themes and sources of American poetry over its long course. Broadly, the poems celebrate America and its promise of freedom and equality from a variety of perspectives.
So too, the poetry is critical of the many ways the United States has fallen short and continues to fall short in the realization of its ideals. The poems reflect American diversity through time, with familiar and unfamiliar writers, and multitudinous voices, including Puritans, women, Indians, African Americans, Jewish people, intellectuals and factory workers, blues singers, and much more. Each poem offers a view of America, its hopes, dreams and failings. In his Introduction, Hirsch points out that American poetry can be read horizontally and vertically. Horizontal poems show the speaker in relation to others, including family and society. Vertical poems show the speaker alone with self and considering his or her relationship to spiritual concerns and to God.
Hirsch's essays accompanying each poem add to the book a great deal. The essays describe Hirsch's experience with each poet and offer a consideration of the poet's work and life. He discusses each poem on a line-by-line basis with a discussion of metaphor, verse form, structure, and rhthym and other elements of poetic art. The essays generally conclude with a brief summary describing what the poet was about and the significance of the poet's work. The essays will add to the reader's appreciation, regardless of the familiarity or its lack he or she may bring to poetry.
The Nineteenth Century Poets discussed in the book include Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, and Emma Lazarus. The Twentieth Century witnessed a broad flowering of American poetry which is still under-appreciated. I have a special fondness for two American poets, Wallace Stevens and Hart Crane, who are included in this volume with insightful discussions from Hirsch. Stevens is represented by the meditative poem "Sunday Morning" while Crane is represented by "To Brooklyn Bridge" from his long poem "The Bridge". Both poems are special to me in the way they combine secularity with religious feeling. Crane's difficult, visionary poem offers a sense of meaning and purpose in America and its history through love and freedom in the face of the difficulties of an apparently materialistic age. As a New Yorker, Hirsch recalls his experiences crossing back and forth over the Brooklyn Bridge. He writes of Hart Crane and his answer to the pessimism of T.S. Elliot's "The Waste Land":
"The first time I crossed Brooklyn Bridge I didn't feel at all as if death had undone so many. On the contrary, the place seemed filled with life. Now looking up at the cables of the bridge which soar over the water, I recall how Crane countered modern pessimism with a renewed hope in the American city. He held fast to the American story and celebrated our modernity. I believe that his work makes a promise to the future. I try to remember that promise when I feel disheartened about our country. All you need to do is to head over to Brooklyn Bridge to remember its grandeur."
I found "The Heart of American Poetry" a moving and fitting way to think about our country on Independence Day. In difficult times, readers may experience a sense of the issues facing our country together with a sense of hope.
Embers
Sandor Marai, authorr; Carol Brown Janeway, translator
Vintage Reprint Edition
c/o Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
https://knopfdoubleday.com
9780375707421, $16.99, paperback
https://www.amazon.com/Embers-S%C3%A1ndor-M%C3%A1rai/dp/0375707425
Passionate Music
Sandor Marai (1900 -- 1989) was a Hungarian novelist whose works have been rediscovered in recent years. His short novel "Embers" was published in 1942 and appeared in English, derived from a German text, in 1991.
Marai has written a compelling novel of passion, love, change, the passage of time, and the power of music. The book, set in the death of the Austro-Hungarian empire has an ornate, anachronistic tone. It centers around two elderly men, Henrik ("the General"), his friend Konrad, both 75 at the time of the narration, and Krisztina, the wife of Henrik, long-since deceased.
Henrik is a wealthy aristocrat whose family owns a large castle in the forests near Vienna. Konrad is from a poor family. As boys, the two form a seemingly fast friendship as students in a military academy in Vienna and become well-nigh inseparable through young adulthood. Konrad is said to be distantly related to Chopin and has a passion for music that Henrik cannot share. Early in the story, Konrad and Henrik's mother, a French aristocrat frustrated by her lonely life in the castle, play together Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasie, a performance that Marai describes as "no more than a pretext to loose upon the world those forces that shake and explode the structures of order which man has devised to conceal what lies beneath." (p. 51) Music and its elemental passions are symbols both of what divides and what unites Konrad and Henrik.
Konrad introduces his friend to Krisztina, herself musical and the daughter of an aging and poor violinist. Henrik and Krisztina marry, but it becomes clear in the story that Krisztina never felt passionate love for her husband. The two men and Krisztina remain close until, Konrad tries to shoot Henrik on a hunting trip because he is involved in an affair with Krisztina but loses his nerve. Konrad abruptly leaves Vienna, and Krisztina and Henrik no longer live under the same roof until Krisztina dies eight years later. Forty-one years after they last have seen each other (1899), Konrad and Henrik meet again as, with WW II raging, Henrik has Konrad to the castle for dinner and reminiscing.
Roughly the first half of "Embers" carefully sets the stage for the meeting of the two old friends while the second half recounts their dinner on the fateful reunion evening. Henrik does most of the talking in long speeches that make clear the passion and the bitterness with which he has been plagued over the long intervening decades by his friend's and wife's betrayal. The book is filled with long, rancorous monologues as he relives the events of his life again and again. There is a great deal of dramatic tension, symbolism, and at the end a sense of realization.
At the end of the dinner, Henrik asks Konrad two questions which have plagued him over the years. The significant question he asks is:" Do you also believe that what gives our lives their meaning is the passion that suddenly invades us heart, soul, and body, and burns in us forever no matter what else happens in our lives?" (p. 210) The two men achieve a measure of peace as they realize that the passion they both had for Krisztina many years earlier was the source of sorrow and loss, but was also what had given their lives meaning. The theme of loss on this highly personal level is combined in "Embers" with a sense of changing from the aristocratic world of Austrio-Hungary to modernity.
Marai's "Embers" is a complex multi-layered novel that explores the power of passion in what it means to live a human life.
The Palisades of Washington, D.C.
Alice Fales Stewart, author
Arcadia Publishing
https://www.arcadiapublishing.com
9780738518091, $24.99
https://www.amazon.com/Palisades-Washington-D-C-Images-America/dp/0738518093
An Old Friend From Palisades
The Palisades neighborhood of Washington, D.C. is located along the Potomac River in the most western part of the city. It has many historic features, including the C&O Canal and Fletcher's Boathouse resulting from its location on the river. A long-time Palisades resident, Alice Fales Stewart, wrote this book in the Images of America series of local photographic histories which describes the Palisades. from the earliest days along the Potomac River through colonial times, the Civil War, development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the increased government presence in the area with the two World War, post-war development, and concluding through the early years of the 21st Century up to the publication of the book in 2005. The book displays a great deal of knowledge of the Palisades and its history and, more importantly, a strong sense of community spirit. The book shows a strong sense of community outreach as in recent years the Palisades Community Association has reached out to partner with other Washington, D.C. neighborhoods, including those in less economically advantaged parts of the city.
I have been familiar with some of the streets of the Palisades and of the local landmarks from my years of living in Washington, D.C. I always enjoy learning more about my adopted city. I learned about the community spirit that the neighborhood has developed over the years which is shown most dramatically in the annual Fourth of July parade and in the work of the active community association.
With all the photos and discussions of the community over time, one photo brought back special memories. For years, I had a colleague who lived in the Palisades and who walked about five miles to work, regardless of the weather, along the C&O canal reading a work of literature or philosophy along his way. He and I became friends, and we often discussed books we had read about matters far removed from the routine of the office. I was gratified to see a photo of my old friend doing his morning walk to work along the Canal, book in hand. I thought fondly of him and of our friendship. My friend died, age 98, on January 14,2023.
As do other books in the Images of America series, this book performs a service to residents and to other interested people in preserving local histories of American communities, each of which has its own story to tell. I enjoyed this history of the Palisades, just as I enjoyed other histories of communities in Washington D.C. and elsewhere. But the most important part of the book for me was the specific memories it brought back of a dear, now deceased friend.
John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism
Alan Ryan, author
W.W. Norton & Co., Inc
https://wwnorton.com
9780393037739, $38.00, hardcover
https://www.amazon.com/John-Dewey-High-American-Liberalism/dp/0393037738
A Visionary Of The Everyday
In the course of a long life beginning before the Civil War and extending to shortly before the election of President Eisenhower, John Dewey (1859-1952) made large contributions to philosophy and to American public life. Dewey wrote extensively for both an academic and a public audience. He developed a philosophy of pragmatism and contributed significantly to American education. He was a socialist and was publicly engaged throughout his life in addressing the issues of the day. In particular he criticized the President Roosevelt's New Deal for what Dewey thought was an inadequate response to the Depression and a misguided attempt to preserve capitalism. He supported United States participation in WW I but shortly after the end of the War, he became an isolationist. He retained this isolationist stance until Pearl Harbor.
Dewey's thought resists easy summation. His writing style, particularly in his philosophical works, was long, winding, obscure and difficult to follow. As did many thinkers in the 20th Century, Dewey changed and modified his views with some frequency during the course of his life.
Alan Ryan's "John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism" is an excellent study which explores Dewey's life, the influences upon him, his philosophical writings, his political activism, and the rises and falls in Dewey's reputation after his death. The book is somewhat dense and repetitive, but that too is a characteristic of the writings of its subject. Ryan writes insightfully in trying to place Dewey as philosophically somewhere between the despair of European existentialists such as Heidegger and Sartre and the English-American analytical philosophy of the 20th Century which denied that philosophical thought had a distinctive contribution to make to human intellectual endeavor.
I thought Ryan was good in discussing Dewey's early Congregationalist upbringing and his falling away from Christianity. I also thought Ryan placed good emphasis on the Hegelian idealism which Dewey adopted early in his career. The book could have used a fuller discussion of the nature of Hegelian idealism. As I read Ryan's book, I thought that Dewey retained even more of a Hegelian influence in his later thought than Ryan recognized. Dewey's emphasis on holistic thinking and on the relationship of the community and the individual remains Hegelian -- a naturalized Hegelianism as Ryan points out.
Ryan discussed Dewey's educational work at the University of Chicago. This is the aspect of Dewey's work that is best known. As Ryan points out, Dewey is often criticized for the shortcomings of American education. He is blamed, probably unjustifiably, for a lack of discipline and academic knowledge in too many American students. Ryan does point out, in fairness, that Dewey's actual educational theory was obscure in many points and undeveloped in specifics. It is hard to know just what Dewey had in mind, but it surely was not laxness and a deference to the wishes of young children.
I thought the strongest aspect of Ryan's book was his discussion of Dewey's mature philosophical writings, in particular "Experience and Nature" "A Common Faith" and "Art and Experience." In these works, Dewey tried to develop a philosophical pragmatism which was based on science and secularism. He denied the existence of an objective independent truth which science tries to capture and also denied subjectivism. Dewey recognized that human experience could be viewed from many perspectives and he struggled to explain how many of the goals of the religious and artistic life were consistent with science and secularism. He wanted to show them as perspectives equally important to the scientific perspective and to disclaim a concept of truth as "out there" rather than as sought, developed and made through human social activity. Dewey's position is difficult and, to his credit, Ryan does not simplify it. Ryan's exposition is challenging and made me want to read some of Dewey for myself.
A great deal of Ryan's book is devoted to Dewey's career as a public intellectual commenting on the issues of the day, as he saw them. Dewey traveled to Russia and China, investigated the Russian show trials of Trotsky and others, supported American participation in WW I, and advocated social liberalism. Ryan discusses Dewey's positions fully and intelligently and explores how Dewey's issues remain alive in the late 20th (and early 21st)century. The discussion of American political life and of the role of ideas is fascinating even though I frequently did not agree either with Dewey or with Ryan.
Ryan recognizes the paradoxical nature of the work of this American thinker. Dewey was a philosopher who criticized sharply thought and reflection separate from action. He was a secularist who saw the importance of religion. He recognized the nature of industrial society but stressed the importance of art and culture. Dewey was, as Ryan points out in his conclusion something of a visionary of the everyday. Ryan writes (page 269): "It was his ability to infuse the here and now with a kind of transcendent glow that overcame the denseness and awkwardness of his prose and the vagueness of his message and secured such widespread conviction. .... He will remain for the foreseeable future a rich source of intellectual nourishment for anyone not absolutely locked within the anxieties of his or her own heart and not absolutely despondent about the prospects of the modern world."
Robin Friedman
Reviewer
Sharon Scott's Bookshelf
Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio
Dr. Katherine Rye Jewell
University of North Carolina Press
https://uncpress.org
9781469677255, $99.00 Hardcover, $29.95 Paperback
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469677255/live-from-the-underground
Finally College Radio gets the attention it deserves! For too long this cultural influencer has been ignored by the mainstream media it feeds. Like a quiet storm, college radio pushes, pulls, and drives fresh ideas up from the underground. Theories find wings and new music takes flight. 'Live from the Underground: History of College Radio' provides an interesting and insightful look at how this nationwide phenomenon has sculpted American culture.
A former college radio DJ herself, Dr. Katherine Jewell's new book captures it all -- the adventures and the mishaps! Built on firsthand accounts, this history of underground broadcasting recreates the energy with which college stations have driven and sometimes jolted their listeners into new ways of thinking. The text includes stories from revolutionary musicians such as Chuck D. of Public Enemy, Britt Walford of Slint, and Mike Mills of R.E.M. who credit the risk-taking atmosphere of college radio as giving them the breaks necessary to reach worldwide fame. Beyond music, however, Jewell documents the ways in which college radio has tackled social issues and influenced American politics through its fearless approach to broadcasting.
'Live from the Underground' is an insider's history of College Radio and the ways it has been rocking American communities since the invention of wireless technology. Jewell's book focuses on the "modern" history of college radio beginning with freeform broadcasts of the 1970s and extends into a bright future where college radio retains its relevance as a rare manifestation of individual expression within the corporate media landscape.
Bonus! This lively book comes with its own playlists strategically placed within chapters allow you to actually hear how this history sounded in the making. When those run out, it is over to the World Wide Web to tune in to the college stations nationwide that continue to influence society today with their raw and raucous broadcasts. Of all its lessons, Live from the Underground teaches us the importance of listening to college broadcasters while supporting their experimental stations as sites of free speech and free expression critical to our Democracy.
Sharon M. Scott, Reviewer
www.artxfm.com
Suanne Schafer's Bookshelf
Star Crossed: A True Romeo and Juliet Story in Hitler's Paris
Heather Dune Macadam, Simon Worrall
Citadel Press
c/o Kensington Books
https://www.kensingtonbooks.com
9780806541440, $28.00
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Crossed-Romeo-Juliet-Hitlers/dp/080654144X
Paris in the 1930s was a temple of all cultural forms: music, art, literature, film. Unfortunately, as Nazis moved into occupy France, they dimmed the City of Light. Star Crossed is the story of a Jewish family, the Zelmans, as they intersect first with Paris and then with the Nazis. Annette, the eldest daughter babysits her younger siblings and attends art school at the Academie des Beaux-Arts. She also hangs out at Cafe de Flore and meets such notables as Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sarte, Simone Signoret, Jean Jausion, Picasso, Giacometti, and Dora Maar. As the Nazi stranglehold on Paris tightens, very existence of Annette and her family is threatened.
The title of the book, Star Crossed: A True Romeo and Juliet Story in Hitler's Paris, seems a bit off. True, Annette is Jewish and her lover, the poet Jean Jauson, is Gentile, somewhat akin to Romeo and Juliet's feuding families. However, the modern love story doesn't begin until about halfway through the book, and the two lovers don't die for each other as Romeo and Juliet did, but are individually done in the the war. The story is more a cultural history of Paris blended with a biography of Annette with a lot of cultural references, real events, photographs, drawings, and correspondence embedded. As such, the book covers a lot of ground and thus can't do justice to it all.
Although the book misses somewhat on the title, it does get one thing right: the atrocities committed by the Nazis in their efforts to rid the world of populations they deemed undesirable. Such books should be written - and read - so the world cannot escape the record of past genocides and hopefully will learn to rise above such destructive malevolent behavior.
The Shadow of Perseus
Claire Heywood
Dutton
c/o Penguin
https://www.penguin.com/dutton-overview
9780593471555, $28.00
https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Perseus-Novel-Claire-Heywood-ebook/dp/B0B2MJNMMJ
The Shadow of Perseus is another female-centric retelling of ancient Greek myths, this one the story of Perseus, the purported son of Danae and Zeus, slayer of Gorgons (Medusa) and all-round hero. Author Heywood leaves the Greek gods in the background, having them serve merely as distant gods and soothsayers, not involved much in the day-to-day life of humans. This leaves humans as heavily flawed men and women.
The story is told from the points of view of the three women who molded Perseus, now a simple man, not a demigod: Danae his mother, Medusa the Gorgon, and Andromeda his wife. Pregnant Danae, thrown out to see in a boat, is rescued and raises Perseus with love and devotion, not realizing that she is spoiling him. When she sends him off to sea to learn the manly arts, he interacts with Medusa. Her snakes and story are not of the legend, but something entirely different. Later in the same voyage, he purports to rescue Andromeda from the sea, but in fact, kidnaps her and forces her to become his bride, revealing his true state as a spoiled young man with an inferiority complex and anger management issues.
As mentioned above, the three women move from supporting actors to front and center while revealing their own frailties. Danae is scarred emotionally from her father's attempt to kill her and the child prophesied to kill him, by placing her in a small boat and nailing shut the opening with her inside. Medusa, likewise, is scarred from a brutal rape by a priest and the shame the people in her village heaped upon her. Andromeda, kidnapped from her loving family, learns to manipulate Perseus with kind words, hiding her true revulsion in something like a Stockholm syndrome. Danae eventually understands what Andromeda is up to and joins in her daughter-in-law's plans to control Perseus.
The story of The Shadow of Perseus is engrossing (I finished it in a few hours), but I'm not sure it counts as a "retelling" of a Greek myth. I'm not sure any of the three women manage to rise above their traumatic pasts. They may make the story female-centric, but I'm not sure they qualify as feminists. The only admirable men are Andromeda's father and her true fiance Phineas, and Danae's uncle.
The prose is simplistic and lacks the majesty of Circe or The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller or Clytemnestra's Bind by Susan C. Wilson.
Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing
Laura J. Snyder
W. W. Norton & Company
https://wwnorton.com
9780393077469, $27.95
https://www.amazon.com/Eye-Beholder-Johannes-Leeuwenhoek-Reinvention/dp/0393077462
For some reason, I thought this was art-related historical fiction; however, it is a nonfiction look at art, mapmaking, optics, and learning to see through the new devices: telescopes, microscopes and camera obscuras. I found it fascinating, none the less. It is well researched and well documented. Even the footnotes were interesting. Snyder does a great job showing the day to day life of the seventeen century Dutch while focusing on cartographers, artists such as Rembrandt and Vermeer, and scientists such as Galileo and Newton. It covers broad ground as the ramifications of optics spreads from country to country: the Netherlands, England, Italy, France, and beyond.
Snyder goes into detail regarding how lenses were made back then, how the use of the camera obscura (a box with a tiny aperture to let in light which allowed painters and cartographers to see an image and trace it). Lenses back then were fraught with problems: chromatic and spherical aberrations caused by the lenses, distortions from the glass itself, and foreign bodies or bubbles within the glass from the manufacturing process. One had to learn to "see" what was real under the lens. Once learned, that knowledge informed painters in terms of perspective and coloring, scientists in terms of realizing they were seeing something unseen before. Through the use of mirrors, lenses, and the camera obscura, painters could achieve remarkable authenticity in the details of their works.
This book ties in nicely with a book I read back in, The Company Daughters by Samantha Rajaram which conveys Dutch life in 1620 as two young women sign on to become wives of men settling in the Far East with the Dutch East India company. It also is good to read alongside The Miniaturist and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Maddalena and the Dark
Julia Fine
Flatiron Books
c/o Macmillan
https://us.macmillan.com/flatiron-books
9781250867872, $28.99
https://www.amazon.com/Maddalena-Dark-Julia-Fine/dp/1250867878
Maddalena and the Dark is a dark fantasy or a dark academia-type story set in eighteen-century Venice, mostly at the Ospedale della Pietà, a cloistered school for foundling girls. Most are abandoned at the doorstep and have no known family. As they are raised, if they have talent, they are taught music. The others become the cooks, housecleaners, etc. that support this prestigious music school. The musicians perform at masses and are occasionally hired out to perform privately in the fancy palazzi and villas of Venice. The two protagonists are fifteen-year-old Luisa who only wants to be the best at violin and Maddalena, who is sent to the Pietà by her wealthy family in hopes of salvaging their honor. Her mother ran off with a lover, so the legitimacy of Maddalena and her brother Beneto comes under the microscope of the Venetian aristocracy. When the two girls meet, Maddalena immediately feels the stirrings for a sapphic relationship with Luisa.
The novel is essentially is the tale of these two girls and the lengths to which they will go to achieve their desires. Maddalena is the dominant one in the relationship and leads them both into situations beyond their control with "the dark," a supernatural force that is quite poorly defined.
The story is told in alternating points of view, but there is often a bit of overlap with the same scene being viewed from both girls' points of view - which tends to become repetitious. The plot is rather loose. The novel itself character-driven by these teenage girls. The sapphic aspect is so oblique as to be nearly indecipherable, described in prose that is often over-written and descending into the purple. As a frequent visitor to Venice for extended periods of time, I didn't find myself believing I was in that eighteen-century city.
Louise and Vincent
Diane Byington
https://dianebyington.com
Red Adept Publishing
https://redadeptpublishing.com
E-book only, $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/Louise-Vincent-Diane-Byington-ebook/dp/B0CBW7JFN1
Vincent van Gogh, the most iconic of the Post-Impressionist artists, spends the last few months of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, painting the countryside some thirty kilometers from Paris. He lives in the Ravoux family's inn. This book is a fictional account of a love affair between the wife, Louise, and Vincent. She struggles to keep the inn afloat, raise her two daughters, and avoids her husband who is abusive, philandering, and steals money from the inn's income to support his Paris mistress.
Something about Vincent brings Louise back to life. She longs to resume her own studies of painting and convinces him to take her on as a pupil. Though attracted to Vincent, Louise is scarred physically and emotionally from her husband's beatings.
This is a delightful story that gives some joy to van Gogh's last months after he was released from a year in an insane asylum. It's the best of women's fiction in that Louise pulls herself out of her misery and reawakens her joie de vivre; it's also the best of historical fiction, a lovely blend of well-documented facts and fiction. It also brings an alternate theory to how Van Gogh died. I enjoyed reading it in one sitting.
The Dollmaker of Krakow
R.M. Romero
Delacorte Press
c/o Penguin Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
Kindle, List Price: $4.99
https://www.amazon.com/Dollmaker-Krakow-R-M-Romero-ebook/dp/B01N36SA14
The Dollmaker of Krakow takes a difficult subject, the Holocaust, and through the use of fantasy and a smidgeon of magic, makes it palatable enough for children to serve as an introduction to genocide. But, just because this is a children's story, doesn't mean adults can't read and savor it.
Karolina is a doll who inhabits the Land of the Dolls. When her homeland is taken over by giant rats, she is magically transported to Krakow to the workshop of Cyryl, a lonely dollmaker, who gives her a heart and makes her into a living doll. War has also broken out in Poland as Germany and Russia both invade Krakow. The story of the two wars are interwoven in separate chapters. The dollmaker and his doll develop a deep bond. She helps him overcome his reticence and make friends with Josef and Rena, a Jewish father and daughter.
The best part about this book is that these lovely characters try to do good in a world that has gone to hell. Also, the Holocaust itself isn't glossed over. There's no happily-ever-after for Karolina and Cyryl. Romero's approach to Hitler's "Final Solution" is gentle but appropriate. This is a great first introduction to man's inhumanity to man. Though geared to children in eight to ten year old range, adults can read it, as I did, with alacrity and be magically transported, just as I was, to a different place and time.
The Jacquelyn Kirby Mystery Series
Elizabeth Peters
William Morrow Paperback
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
Ebook only, $8.49
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074C637J2
This is a review of the four-book mystery series by Elizabeth Peters (The Seventh Sinner, The Murders of Richard III, Die for Love, and Naked Once More). I started them after really enjoying her Amelia Peabody, Egyptologist, series. I found them not as entertaining nor as well-developed as the Peabody series. Jacqueline Kirby is a "woman of a certain age," with two children and a once-upon-a-time husband about whom nothing is ever learned, and is clearly a liberated woman. She almost inadvertently gets involved in various mysteries. In the first, she's literally run into by students of art history and dragged into their world of crypts and hidden churches; from there, one of the students is murdered. In Richard III, someone reenacts the murders of King Richard III while at house party assembled to announce the discovery of a missing document regarding Richard. These both felt a tad dry to me. I enjoyed #3, Die for Love. It is set at a conference for romance writers and is quite witty and funny. I also enjoyed #4, Naked Once More, which describes Kirby's attempts to write a sequel to a best-selling novel, the author has disappeared. Overall, I found Kirby to not be as likable a character as Peabody nor the mysteries as entertaining.
The Vicky Bliss Mystery Series
Elizabeth Peters
William Morrow Paperbacks
https://www.harpercollins.com
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075V7LXCM
This is a review of Elizabeth Peters' six volume set of Vicky Bliss mysteries and the prequel The Camelot Caper. Bliss is a typical Peters heroine, beautiful, brainy and sexually liberated - with lots of courage and an expertise in medieval art history to boot, with her boss, a Santa-Claus type man, as a sidekick. In Borrower of the Night, she and her current boyfriend go in search of a missing carved wooden masterpiece, missing since the sixteenth century. Initially I find her less likable than Amelia Peabody in that series of mysteries by the same author; however, I did come to like her a good deal. Street of the Five Moons has Bliss taking a new job as an art historian at the Munich National Museum. Her duties take her to Rome, seeking the creator of an artifact, a replica of a Charlemagne talisman. There she meets Sir John Smythe - an internationally known jewel thief, soon to become her new boyfriend. Their relationship progresses through the next four books as they strive to solve mysteries along and together. I enjoyed the six books of the original series though not as much as the Peabody series; however, the prequel, The Camelot Caper, is probably the weakest of the books. I read it last and was disappointed in it. I'd have probably not completed the series if I had started with it. Essentially, it gives the backstory of Mr. Smythe.
Suanne Schafer, Reviewer
www.SuanneSchaferAuthor.com
Susan Bethany's Bookshelf
MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your "Enough"
Manisha Thakor
Harper Business
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
9780063247963, $29.00, HC, 208pp
https://www.amazon.com/MoneyZen-Secret-Finding-Your-Enough/dp/0063247968
Synopsis: No matter your age, income, or profession, it's all too easy to fall prey to the false belief that the amount of money you earn, or the accomplishments you achieve, or the praise you receive is just Never Enough.
With the publication of MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your "Enough", financial industry veteran Manisha Thakor candidly shares how she overcame toxic behaviors around work, money, and prestige that had threatened her relationships, her health, and her career, told alongside the inspiring stories of individuals from all walks of life who reveal their own struggles with "Never Enough."
Through Thakor's interviews with a wide range of interdisciplinary experts, you will learn how personal traumas, cultural influences, societal pressures, and even our own biology have conspired to make us believe that "more" is the answer to all our problems. And you will discover a unique way to reclaim your life using a formula that's ultimately rooted in less: Financial Health + Emotional Wealth = MoneyZen.
The result is a powerful, research-based framework for getting off the hamster wheel of 24/7 striving so you can start to live a life fueled by authentic joy, connection, and meaning.
Critique: Specifically intended for anyone who has ever felt that they can never measure up, "MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your "Enough" is impressively well written and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation. In addition to money management and personal finance issues, "MoneyZen" also touches upon the value of exercise/fitness and achieving contentment and happiness in life. Highly recommended for community library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "MoneyZen" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798212693844, $41.99, CD).
Editorial Note: Manisha Thakor (MoneyZen.com) has worked in financial services for more than thirty years, with an emphasis on women's economic empowerment and financial wellbeing. A nationally recognized thought-leader in this space, Thakor has been featured in a wide range of publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, NPR, PBS, CNN, Real Simple, and Women's Health. Prior to writing MoneyZen, Thakor co-authored two personal finance books for women in their twenties and thirties. Today her work focuses on helping women of all ages to balance financial health and emotional wealth. Thakor earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and BA from Wellesley College.
The Madonna Secret
Sophie Strand
Bear & Company
c/o Inner Traditions International, Ltd.
One Park Street, Rochester, VT 05767
www.innertraditions.com
9781591434672, $25.00, PB, 608pp
https://www.amazon.com/Madonna-Secret-Sophie-Strand/dp/159143467X
Synopsis: When Leukas, a Christian convert, ventures into the wilds of Gaul to receive the hidden teachings from Mary Magdalene before she dies, he discovers that hidden within the Gospels he thinks he knows is an epic love story between an educated Jewish woman overwhelmed by her mysterious spiritual powers and a sensual magician devoted to the wisdom of the earth. The secrets she will reveal are both more shocking and more tragic than anything readers have encountered before.
Beginning with Miriam's childhood as a member of a wealthy Jewish family living outside of Bethany, we see her struggles as a young woman with spiritual curiosity and intellectual aspirations that drive her to combat the violence of Empire and the sexism of her own culture. Propelled by mystic visions, Miriam is finally drawn into the wilds of Galilee, where her destiny collides with a mischievous rabbi who will change her and the world forever. Trapped in a mythic story unfolding in events around them, the lovers strive not to repeat a tragedy older than the pyramids.
Critique: With the publication of "The Madonna Secret", author Sophie Strand eloquently resurrects a richly and textured apocryphal world where complex characters 'reveal the lived reality of scripture and open familiar sayings to radical new meanings and possibilities'. Exploring an approach to the birth of Christianity that would have been recognizable in the first two centuries of the movement that included such controversial Christian writings such as The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, "The Madonna Secret" is a fascinating, original, and compelling read from start to finish. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.99), "The Madonna Secret" will have an immense appeal to readers with an interest in biblical fiction, religious romance, and metaphysical Christian novels.
Editorial Note: Sophie Strand (https://sophiestrand.com) is a poet and writer with a focus on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way, and Art PAPERS. The author of The Flowering Wand, she lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.
Joy Rides through the Tunnel of Grief: A Memoir
Jessica Hendry Nelson
University of Georgia Press
www.ugapress.org
9780820365473, $22.95, PB, 248pp
https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Rides-through-Tunnel-Grief/dp/0820365475
Synopsis: When Jessica Hendry Nelson's father dies from an accident caused by complications from alcoholism, she knows immediately she has inherited his love -- that it left his body, traveled through the air, and entered her own. And so, she needs a place to put it. She needs to know what to do with it, how not to waste it, how to make something with it, how to honor it and put language to it.
So, she places it with her brother, Eric, whose opioid addiction makes his death feel always imminent. With her partner, Jack, together for fifteen years. With her exhausted, grieving mother, her best friend Jessie, women at the gym she's never had the courage to speak to, but loves completely. But mostly, she places it with her future child, the one she does not yet have but deeply wants. The child who is both the question of love -- and the answer to it.
So, when Jack suddenly confesses that he does not want to have children (not with her, not ever) the someday vessel for her boundless and insatiable love hunger swiftly disappears, taking with it a fundamental promise of her life: motherhood.
"Joy Rides through the Tunnel of Grief" catalyzes from this place. Fluidly navigating through past, present, and future, Nelson asks: Where does her desire to have a child come from? How does wonder charge and change a life? Are the imperatives to make art and to make a child born from the same searching place? Are they both masked and misguided attempts to thwart death?
Nelson investigates the tremulous makings and unmakings of our most intense and fragile bonds (family, friends, lovers) with searing insight, humor, and tenderness.
Critique: With the publication of "Joy Rides through the Tunnel of Grief" by Jessica Hendry Nelson has written a fresh, ferocious, candid, insightful, and memorable memoir of her own life story in the form of a series of essays that eloquently maps out the boundaries of love, language, and creative urgency. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic library Contemporary American Biography/Memoir collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Joy Rides through the Gunnel of Grief" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.49).
Editorial Note: Jessica Hendry Nelson (http://jessicahnelson.com) is the author of the memoir "If Only You People Could Follow Directions", as well as "Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writers' Guide and Anthology" with co-author Sean Prentiss. Her work has also appeared in Prairie Schooner, Tin House, The Threepenny Review, North American Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books and elsewhere. She teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University and in the MFA Program at the University of Nebraska in Omaha.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Willis Buhle's Bookshelf
How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life
Bill Thrasher
Moody Publishers
820 N. LaSalle Blvd., Chicago, IL 60610
www.moodypublishers.com
9780802431554, $12.99, PB, 160pp
https://www.amazon.com/Resurrect-Dead-Prayer-Life-Spirit-Empowered/dp/0802431550
Synopsis: As Christians, we know that prayer is important, that it is the lifeblood of the Christian life. But it seems that many Christian believers find praying to be hard. We can experience discouragement or disillusionment in our prayer lives. We get distracted and disheartened.
What can we do if we're in a season of drought or have never experienced a rich life of prayer? And how can we sustain a meaningful and lifegiving prayer ministry?
With the publication of "How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life: Transforming Your Prayers into a Spirit-Empowered, Life-Giving Adventure ", Bill Thrasher (teacher, father, and husband) shares clear and applicable steps to invigorate or jumpstart a life of prayer.
"How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life" addresses such issues as: How do you identify a dead prayer life?; How can a worried and frantic life begin to enjoy God's presence and peace?; How can you reach heaven when you don't know what to pray?; How can times of despair be transformed into prayers that even affect future generations?; How can you get in touch with the deep concerns of your heart?; How can your greatest struggle spur effective prayers that defeat the Evil One?; and How does the Spirit motivate and guide our prayers?
"How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life" seeks to resurrect and revive our prayer life into one that God uses to restore His people to the place of His blessing as once again they are able to offer their heart, desires, and disappointments to the God who loves to listen and respond to them.
Critique: Inspired and inspiring, "How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life: Transforming Your Prayers into a Spirit-Empowered, Life-Giving Adventure" is especially timely given the current, volatile, and dangerous world we live in and are called upon to follow the teachings provided us as practicing Christians when it comes to the phenomena of prayer. Thoroughly 'reader friendly' in style, organization and presentation, "How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life" is highly recommended. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of clergy, seminary students, and all members of the Christian community that "How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).
Editorial Note: Bill Thrasher (www.victoriouspraying.com) serves as the lead faculty member in the Master's Program in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at Moody Theological Seminary. He is a frequent speaker for churches and retreats across the country. His ministry interests include campus discipleship, singles ministry, and evangelism. He is author of Believing God for His Best, A Journey to Victorious Praying, Principles of Christian Living from Romans 5-8, The Attributes of God in Pauline Theology, Living the Life God Has Planned, Putting God Back into the Holidays, and God As He Wants You to Know Him.
Farming and Homesteading with the Saints
Andie Andrews Eisenberg
Loyola Press
3441 North Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60657
www.loyolapress.com
9780829455373, $16.99, PB, 224pp
https://www.amazon.com/Farming-Homesteading-Saints-Andrews-Eisenberg/dp/082945537X
Synopsis: Everyone who works the soil (whether its on a prairie, the outskirts of a small town, in a city garden, or in their own backyard) can use inspiration and blessings to help get through the endless work and daunting challenges. Who better to look to for examples of strength, courage, and faith than the heavenly companions who have been there themselves?
With the publication of "Farming and Homesteading with the Saints", author and hobby farmer Andie Andrews Eisenberg presents a faith-filled treasury of Catholic holy men and women connected to agriculture, animals, and rural life. In these pages, you'll meet the patron saints of creatures, critters, flying things, horses, sheep, cats, dogs, beekeepers, gardeners, field hands, shepherds, and many more.
You will also have at your fingertips a wellspring of blessings to pray for the safety of your home, your farm, and the creatures under your care.
Whether you are a traditional or next-gen farmer, a weekend gardener, or someone who embraces the revival of the back-to-the-land movement, "Farming and Homesteading with the Saints" is a timeless resource and a stirring reminder that farming with faith means that you are never, ever alone in your work.
Critique: Of particular and special value to readers with an interest in a Catholic approach to Christian Living and the perspective of saints with respect to our relationship to the land and how it is (or should be) used, "Farming and Homesteading with the Saints" is thoroughly 'reader friendly' in style, organization and presentation. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49), "Farming and Homesteading with the Saints" is unreservedly recommended for personal, community, church and seminary Christian Life & Land Use collections.
Editorial Note: Andie Andrews Eisenberg is an avid horsewoman, certified equine massage therapist, novelist, screenwriter, and blogger. When she's not writing, Andie can be found kicking up dust while dancing with horses, raising Valais Blacknose sheep, tending gardens, chasing chickens, mending fences, feeding her family, and finding 101 uses for baling twine on her Tennessee farm. (https://www.loyolapress.com/authors/andie-andrews-eisenberg)
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
www.midwestbookreview.com
Copyright ©2001
Site design by Williams Writing, Editing &
Design