Category Archives: Book Reviews

Friday Book Whimsy: Lady Clementine

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We all know about British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He, along with FDR and other world leaders, played a pivotal role in ending World War II. We also know he drank a lot, smoked I don’t know how many cigars every day, and was a difficult man to work for. Marriage to him would not have been easy.

With this in mind, I dove into Lady Clementine, a novel by Marie Benedict, who has written a number of other historical novels, including The Only Woman in the Room (which I reviewed here.) I admit to enjoying learning history from reliable novels.

Clementine married the politically determined Winston Churchill in 1909, and became a force behind the man. She helped write his speeches, she advised him on strategy as he made his way towards being one of the most powerful men in the world. She was loyal and strong-willed and incredibly smart. And she wasn’t afraid of telling her moody and ambitious husband when she thought he was taking the wrong path.

While we learn a lot about Mr. Churchill from Benedict’s novel, we learn even more about Lady Clementine, the woman behind the great man. It is part history lesson, part romance story, part war story (she was with him through two world wars). What it really is, however, is a look at how difficult it was to be a woman in the early part of the 20th century. If the story is to be believed, Churchill considered his beloved wife to be a trusted advisory and companion.

According to the novel, Clementine Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt were never very close friends, but had a grudging admiration and respect for one another. I bet that’s true.

I’m not sure I was overly fond of Clementine Churchill, at least as she was presented in this novel. But I admire her strength and tenacity during a difficult time in our history.

I enjoyed the book very much.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: The Spies of Shilling Lane

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World War II is raging, and England is in chaos as the Germans bomb London and its surroundings almost nightly in what is called the Blitz. It’s hard to imagine living in a world where you don’t know if you’re going to make it through the night.

But all that Mrs. Braithwaite, the protagonist of The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan worries about is that she has lost her standing in the community because her husband has filed for divorce. Never mind that it was he who had the affair. She is being shunned.

So she sets off to London to surprise her daughter Betty, with whom she has never been close, to find comfort. Imagine her surprise when she learns that her daughter has been missing for a few days. Mrs. Braithwaite is immediately suspicious, and sets out to find her daughter. She convinces Mr. Norris, Betty’s timid landlord to help. The two quickly figure out that Betty isn’t just a secretary, but instead, is a spy working for the British government. It isn’t long before Mrs. Braithwaite and her new friend are in the thick of it.

The novel is a feel-good look at the role women played in World War II, and the difficult relationship between mothers and daughters. It’s hard to dislike Mrs. Braithwaite’s spunk, and her unwillingness to quit until she knows her daughter is safe. 

War is, of course, a serious topic, but Mrs. Braithwaite and her newfound friend provided readers a look at how strength and kindness we don’t even know we have can have a major impact.

The Spies of Shilling Street might be the first in a series? At least the ending led me to think so.

Here is a link to the book. 

 

Friday Book Whimsy: Light Changes Everything

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I first met Sarah Agnes Prine — the main character in many of author Nancy E. Turner’s books — in These is My Words. In that particular book, Sarah tells her story about life in the Arizona territory in the late 1800s through a diary she kept of her daily life. I found Turner’s writing to be lovely, and her protagonist Sarah to be, well, fetching.

Since we live part of the year in Arizona to escape the winter chill of our Colorado home, I loved learning the history of my adopted state through her tales. Having done a bit of traveling in the state, I could easily recognize the areas about which she spoke. The characters in the book felt familiar as well.

Subsequent to reading These is My Words, I have read every Nancy E. Turner book written. No surprise then that I was delighted to learn that there was a new novel with Sarah Prine as a character. However, the  Light Changes Everything, rather than being about Prine, is about her niece Mary Pearl Prine — as gritty and determined as her aunt Sarah.

Mary Pearl is a teenager who is smart, a talented artist, and determined to make a mark on the world. She accepts a marriage proposal from sleazy lawyer Aubrey Hanna, but insists on putting the marriage off until she returns from studying art at Wheaten College, the college she attends (thanks to financing from her family) in Illinois. The education she receives teaches her about the finer things in life, but doesn’t change who she is at the end of the day. And thankfully, she escapes life with Hanna.

Turner paints a stark and honest picture of life in the frontier, when the western states and territories were young. Facing such hurdles as snakes and unbearable hot weather and greedy men, Mary Pearl, though not the eldest of the children, is the strongest.

I love Turner’s writing and storytelling. And I love to read about life in the frontier west. It makes me glad to be living in the 21st Century.

Here is a link to the book.

 

 

Friday Book Whimsy: The Wicked Redhead

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Beatriz Williams: Oh, how you mess with your readers’ minds. Or at least my mind, because you had me so confused I didn’t know which way was up.

Back in 2017, Williams released Cocoa Beach, which is referred to as a “standalone novel,” meaning not part of one of her series. I reviewed that book here. I didn’t care for Cocoa Beach much, and was annoyed by the confusion created by references and ties to other of her books which readers may or may not have read. The author does this so often that she literally has a family tree available to readers to keep track of who is whom. But most annoyingly, she ended that book with reference to a redheaded woman and a man arriving at the home of the main characters, clearly in trouble. We are never told who they are or where they came from. Hello Sequel.

Well, if I had been paying attention, I would have recalled a redhead who escaped certain death at the end of another one of her novels, The Wicked City (a book I read but never reviewed).

Here it is, three years later, and we are able to access The Wicked Redhead, and finally tie the stories together. Interestingly, the publishers call The Wicked Redhead the second in “the Wicked City books,” never mentioning the standalone novel Cocoa Beach.

Having said all of that, I must admit that I liked The Wicked Redhead very much. Perhaps it was just because I could finally tie all of the stories together.

It’s 1924, and beautiful Ginger Kelly and her disgraced prohibition agent lover Oliver Anson Marshall arrive at the home of friends, running away from trouble and mayhem which left Gin’s evil stepfather dead. Accompanying them is Gin’s little sister Patsy. Mysteriously, Oliver is asked to return to his prohibition duties, leaving Gin and Patsy behind. It isn’t long before Gin is persuaded to undertake an odd duty by Oliver’s mother.

Meanwhile, it’s 1998, and Ella Dommerich (whom we met in The Wicked City) has discovered her husband is not only being unfaithful, but messing around with prostitutes. She leaves him, and quickly falls for her landlord Hector, whom we also met in that same book. She comes across some vintage postcards featuring a beautiful redheaded woman wearing little clothing. Having resigned her job, she has little to do, so begins researching this woman’s background.

It doesn’t take much imagination to tie the two stories together, but I will admit to being caught up in the process. Even though I find some of Williams’ tricks annoying, I will acknowledge that the woman can write a good yarn.

Some of the story is simply not believable, at least to this reader. Overall, however, I really enjoyed putting the pieces together.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: Dear Mrs. Bird

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From the time I was a young girl, I loved reading advice columns. I savored Dear Abby and Dear Ann Landers as though my life depended on it. I couldn’t get enough. I’m not sure why people like me think a woman I don’t even know would be of any help to someone like me, but they were great successes. Dear Mrs. Bird, by A.J. Pearce, featured a World War II advice columnist.

Emmeline Lake wasn’t too excited when she applied for a job at a London newspaper during World War II for what she thought would be a assistant reporter position, but turned out to be the assistant to the advice columnist. The worst thing was that the advice columnist — Mrs. Bird — would only answer questions that held no Unpleasantness, Her definition of Unpleasantness was broad: anything involving sex, boyfriends, girlfriends, general ladies’ problems, religion, etc.. Those she did answer, she responded with unkindness and lack of empathy.

Before long, it got to be too much for Emmeline, and she began secretly answering the desperate readers’ questions and signing Mrs. Bird’s name. Before long, a few began appearing in the magazine, and Emmeline got busted.

I was excited to read the book because I felt the premise sounded interesting. Unfortunately, the characters were anything BUT interesting. I thought the book read like a poorly-written teenaged novel, and though I finished the novel, I couldn’t have cared less by the end.

The most annoying part of the book was the author’s habit of using capital letters to express any number of emotions. I’m serious when I say that there were probably three or four instances of this habit on nearly every page. After the first 10 pages, the capital-letters-for-emphasis became ANNOYING.

I’m afraid I can’t recommend this book even for a teenager.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy:The Lager Queen of Minnesota

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I’m not particularly a fan of beer. Oh, if I’m at a Mexican restaurant and the wine list looks suspect, I might make do with a Corona. For the most part, however, I stick to wine, gin, or whiskey.

But even non-beer-lovers would be unable to ignore a title like The Lager Queen of Minnesota. The author — J. Ryan Stradal — wrote what was one of my favorite books of 2017, Kitchens of the Great Midwest. I liked it so much that I was delighted to learn that he wrote another, even if it was about beer.

The story revolves around two sisters. Helen loved beer from the moment she tasted it, and was determined to learn to brew beer, no matter who stood in her way. Her sister Edith, on the other hand, was a baker, renown for her delicious pies, and couldn’t hurt a fly. Helen convinces her father to leave her his entire inheritance, which she uses towards her goal of being a beer brewer. Helen’s actions drive the two sisters apart.

Helen meets and marries the son of a Minnesota brewing family whose beer business was tanking. Using the inheritance, Helen and her husband begin making Blotz Beer a household name once again.  However, Edith and her husband are barely able to make ends meet. But this led to that, and eventually Edith’s granddaughter Diane (who isn’t even aware of Helen’s existence) becomes a master brewer of craft beers.

There is a lot of descriptions about brewing (and tasting) craft beers. Despite my lack of interest in beer, I must admit that I found the art of beer brewing fascinating.

While beer is the star of the show, the story is really about family and forgiveness and entrepreneurship and strong women. I loved every single page of the novel, and was sad when it ended. I can’t wait for the author’s next story about life in the Midwest.

Here is a link to the book. 

Friday Book Whimsy: Iced in Paradise

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Ahhh. Hawaii. Tropical paradise. The last thing you would expect is MURDER.

Nevertheless, the island of Kaua’i is the location of a murder in the first in a new series by Hawaiian author Naomi Hirahara. The author has another series that I have not read. But the potential of mentally relaxing on the Hawaiian islands was too tempting to ignore, even if I needed to use my imagination instead of actually feeling the sun on my face. Iced in Paradise was a fun romp in paradise.

Of course, Leilani Santiago couldn’t relax after she returned from attending school in Seattle to her island home, where her family operated a shave ice shack. (And don’t misunderstand. The author made it a point to tell the reader at the very beginning that it is called SHAVE ICE. Anyone who calls it shaved ice is clearly a mainlander). The business is failing and she takes it upon herself to hunker down and get it back going strong.

It isn’t long however when a young professional surfer who is being mentored by Leilani’s father is found dead, and her father is falsely accused of killing him. Leilani knows that her father is innocent, and sets out to prove it. At the same time, she is getting used to being back on the islands, and away from her Seattle boyfriend.

The author has done a brilliant job of capturing the laid-back atmosphere that I have found on my visits to Hawai’i. The strong family ties provide a backbone to the book that is very pleasant. The descriptions of the environment and the scenery give the reader a feeling of being right there in the midst of the Santiago family.

There is a generous use of Hawai’ian slang, which I enjoyed despite having to stop once in awhile and try to figure out what they are saying. Still, it added to the atmosphere of the book.

Iced in Paradise is clearly the first in what will be a series. I look forward to the next in the series. In the meantime, I need to find a place that serves SHAVE ICE.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: Big Sky

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Way back in 2007, I first met Jackson Brodie in Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson. Formerly a police officer, Jackson was a private detective living in Edinburgh, trying to make a living working with insurance companies and helping people find missing animals. Brodie is a complex man who hasn’t had an easy life. He is divorced and struggles with a troubled past life.

Over the next few years, the author offered a three more Jackson Brodie novels, all of which I enjoyed very much. And then the books stopped coming. I missed the somewhat introspective and morose detective.

Finally, over 10 years later, Atkinson offered a new Jackson Brodie novel, Big Sky. It was worth the wait. Lots has changed for Brodie, but lots has stayed the same.

The detective has retired and moved to a small village near the sea. He spends most of his time with his teenaged son and a very old lab. He is separated from Julia, whom he met and with whom he fell in love in the first novel. They are still friendly, however. She is the mother of the teenager Nathan. Brodie was hired for a boring case involving a cheating spouse. From this seemingly boring case, he becomes involved in a sex trafficking scheme. Like her other books, Brodie meets people along the way who somehow end up being involved in the case, tying everything together.

The wait for an update on Jackson Brodie was worth it. The books offer some dark comedy and some low-key drama, but mostly some interesting perspectives on people and life from Brodie’s perspective.

The ending seemed a bit rushed and confusing. The stories were all wrapped up, but somewhat haphazardly. Still, it was a great read, and a pleasant reconnection with one of my favorite detectives.

By the way, Case Histories became a PBS series, and a very good one. If you can find it, watch it.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: Little Comfort

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How can you not love a mystery story in which the protagonist is a librarian? I mean, who else would be better at locating a missing, well, anything?

Little Comfort, by Edwin Hill, is the first in a series that features Hester Thursby, a librarian at Harvard University, who recognizes her skills even in the digital age. She finds herself suddenly fostering a little girl when her best friend decides she needs her space and is forced to take a leave from her job. She begins being paid for finding people, using her research skills. She is a little bit of a thing, just this side of being a clinically-diagnosed little person. But she is mighty.

Her latest case involves locating a missing brother named Sam, who disappeared years ago along with his best friend Gabe. Now his sister wants to sell the land that belongs to both of them, and she needs his permission in order to sell.

As for Sam, he has spent the missing years meeting wealthy women and becoming just who he needs to be in order to reap the benefits. He doesn’t particularly want to be found.

The story touches on the need we have to be loved, the definition of evil, and how to define family. Hester was an interesting and complex protagonist, who you couldn’t help but root for because her small size didn’t stop her from pursuing her leads while protecting those she loved the most.

I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: The Giver of Stars

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Jojo Moyes has written a good number of books. A couple have been made into movies, I believe. I, however, have read nary a one nor seen any movie made inspired by the author. Maybe I live on a desert island without any kind of media.

At any rate, I am not ashamed to say that I read The Giver of Stars because it was a Reese Witherspoon book club choice (what can I say?) and because it takes place in the hills of Kentucky and has strong women characters. Boom.

Alice Wright — born and brought up in England — married Bennett Van Cleve for two reasons: to escape her boring life and because he was a hunk who happened to be visiting England with his father from the United States. Some of us have married for worse reasons.

Anyway, following the marriage, they move from England to the small town in the hills of Kentucky where Bennett’s father owns and runs a coal mine. Much to her surprise, Bennett has no interest in consummating the marriage and obeys whatever orders his father gives — and there are some doozies.

So when Alice learns that President and Mrs. Roosevelt have started a program where library books are delivered on horseback to rural, backwoods areas, she is immediately on board. Volunteering would provide some interest in her otherwise dull and sad life. There she meets a group of women who become her friends and give her the necessary backbone to withstand her miserable life. The book is all about friendship.

I enjoyed this novel so much. I loved the characters and the story, which is based on a real program that existed for a short time in the 30s following the Great Depression. I will admit that the controversy regarding whether or not the story was plagiarized gave me pause and impacted my opinions. I don’t know the truth of the matter. What I do know is that The Giver of Stars was a wonderful book from which I learned something new that took place in U.S. history.

Here is a link to the book.