Tag Archives: book review

Friday Book Whimsy: Whistling Past the Graveyard

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Now tell me, who wouldn’t be drawn to a book entitled Whistling Past the Graveyard? I mean, is it a supernatural tale involving ghosts? Is it one of the thriller novels that have become so popular? Is it a gory mystery story?

The novel, written by Susan Crandall, a midwestern author who understands the mindset of a 9-year-old girl, is none of the above. Instead, it is a coming-of-age story that convincingly demonstrates what the world was like in the 1960s, when civil rights hadn’t yet reached the southern states.

The story’s narrator is young Starla Claudelle whose mother deserted her as an infant and ran away to Nashville to become a star. Starla’s father works far away in the oil fields of Louisiana, and visits Starla as often as possible. Starla lives with her mean-spirited grandmother who seems to resent her very existence.

One day, facing what Starla believes will lead her to be sent to reform school, she runs away without a word to anyone — even her very best friend. She hasn’t gone very far when she is picked up by a young African American woman named Eula who agrees to drive her to Nashville to find her mother. To Starla’s surprise, in the back seat of the car is a white infant wrapped in a blanket.

Eula takes Starla back to her house to gather supplies for the baby before they take off for Nashville. They face Eula’s abusive husband, and this leads to that. Before they know it, the three are running away from trouble towards Nashville.

I read the book very carefully, waiting to pounce upon the author for writing dialogue and thoughts inconsistent with those of a 9-year-old, but couldn’t find any. Though sometimes I wanted to take that girl over my knee for her impulsive and often dangerous behavior, she remains true to her 9-year-old self throughout the story.

As you can image, things don’t go well in Nashville. There are a lot of lessons learned, both by Starla and by the kind and sweet-natured Eula. The ending was satisfying and true to the rest of the story.

I enjoyed this book very much, and will read more by the author.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: Meet Me in Monaco: A Novel of Grace Kelly’s Royal Wedding

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I was 3 years old when the bell of Hollywood — Grace Kelly — married Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Had I been older, I would undoubtedly have been as enamored of that romantic story as I have been of all of the love affairs and marriages of the Windsors in Great Britain. I love me some queens and princesses.

I recently read a novel about two women who helped make the wedding gown for Princess Elizabeth, now queen of Great Britain. I found that I loved that story primarily for the descriptions of the gown and the wedding. Because I so enjoyed that story, when  Meet Me in Monaco: A Novel of Grace Kelly’s Royal Wedding showed up as a recommendation, I was on it!

The novel is like eating a French pastry and drinking a cup of café au lait in Paris. Or more accurately for this book, in the French Riviera. It is light and delicious and I loved every word of it.

It is a novel, so except for the wedding, not much of it is factual. Still, every time the authors — Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb — would describe how Grace Kelly was dressed, I would get busy with Google images to see for myself. The book took way longer to read because I spent a considerable amount of time looking at pictures of the oh-so-beautiful Grace.

It is a love story, but don’t let that put you off. The romance is part of the fun. Sophie Duval is the proprietor of a perfume shop in Canne, France. She inherited the love for the making of perfume from her father, from whom she learned about flowers and herbs and the chemistry involved in perfume making.

It is 1956, and Hollywood actress Grace Kelly is in Canne for the film festival. The immensely beautiful woman is one of the most popular people in the world, and her presence is noted by the papparazi who follow her everywhere. One day, to escape a photographer, she runs into the perfume shop and asks Sophie to hide her, which she does. The two women become friends. But Sophie is unexpectedly attracted to the English photographer, and they, too, develop a friendship.

The story told by the two authors is — well, to use a word that would have been popular in the late 1950s when the story takes place — DREAMY. In addition to the romance involving Sophie and James (the photographer), you also have the romance involving Grace Kelly and her prince.

The descriptions of the area are so vivid that I actually could see the colors of the Mediterranean and taste the food and wine. It really was great story-telling.

Great romantic fluff for a day when a reader is feeling blue.

Here is a link to the book. 

 

 

Friday Book Whimsy: The Summer Country

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An epic mystery that takes place on a sugar plantation on the lush island of Barbados in the 1800s was a somewhat unexpected pleasure when it came to summer reading.

It’s 1854, and Emily Dawson is the daughter of a poor minister and his wife (who has devoted her life to fighting for the end of slavery). Being the poor relations, it was always expected that when her much-loved grandfather passed away, the family’s shipping business — which began in Barbados — would go to her cousin Adam. What wasn’t expected is that her grandfather would leave her the title to Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados.

Emily accompanies her cousin Adam and his wife to Barbados where she learns that Peverills is nothing but a crumbling burnt-down building, having been destroyed by a fire in 1816 by frustrated and angry slaves. What could her grandfather have been thinking?

Emily decides to stick it out and do some detective work of her own to try and find out her grandfather’s motives. What she, working alongside a black physician who was formerly a slave, discovers is a shocking secret that changes the way she looks at her life.

The Summer Country, by Laura Willig, is set against such a beautiful background that is in sharp contrast to the ugliness of slavery and the pretentions of the wealthy landowners. It seems not a whole lot changed between 1816 and 1854.

I enjoyed this novel a lot, admittedly largely because of its setting. Still, Willig knows how to spin a yarn and create unforgettable characters. It was a really good summer read.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis

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I have always found C.S. Lewis to be an amazingly interesting person. He was a lackadaisical Christian who became an apologist for Christian teachings and philosophy as an adult having been influenced by friends J.R.R. Tolkien and G.K. Chesterton. He was married to writer Joy Davidman, with whom he shared an enormous love.

Becoming Mrs. Lewis, by Patti Callahan, is a mostly-based-on-reality story of how the two writers met and fell in love. Joy Davidman was married to another writer who was an abusive alcoholic with two children when she began a correspondence with the writer C.S. Lewis. Once an atheist and communist, Davidson was converted to the Christian belief following what she saw as a miracle involving her husband after fervent prayer.

Her relationship with her husband was failing, and she finally left to spend some time in England where she met with and began a friendship with C.S. Lewis that changed her life. Later, she divorced her husband and moved her children to England, where they spent their remaining formative years with their mother and C.S. Lewis, who finally married in 1956.

The book is based on truth. The story is so interesting that the fact that the story moves pretty slowly and there are far too many words (was there an editor?) didn’t deter from the interesting tale. The author’s story made me wish that I, too, could have been a friend of C.S. Lewis.

In real life, Davidman and Lewis only had four years together as husband and wife. She died of cancer, and he died a few years later. If you have read any of his books about his faith — particularly  A Grief Observed — you become very familiar with the love between the two of them, and the love and belief he had in Christianity.

I recommend the book if you don’t mind a bit of slow read.

Here is a link to the book.

 

 

Friday Book Whimsy: Sold on a Monday

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Some time back, I read (and reviewed) a novel written by author Lisa Wingate entitled Before We Were Yours. Her novel took place in the late 1930s, and was the story of children who were kidnapped by an orphanage and then sold. The story was based on fact. It was one of the best books I read that year.

Because of my connection to that book, Sold on a Monday, by Kristina McMorris, caught my attention. It too, took place in the 30s, this time during the Great Depression. The story was based on a real photo taken during the Depression that the author came across while doing some research. The photo was of two small children sitting in front of a rundown farmhouse next to a sign that read 2 Children For Sale. Off she went with an idea for a historical novel.

Reporter Ellis Reed is lucky to have a job during the hard times of the early 30s. He is the society writer for a newspaper, a job he loathes. He yearns to be an important journalist. In the course of work, he comes across a sign advertising the sale of two children. He shoots a photo, but is unable to interview anyone.

When he returns to his office, he convinces his boss that the story is important, and the editor agrees to print it along with the photo. Unfortunately, the photo — and the negative — are destroyed. What are the chances? So he does that thing that reporters are not ever supposed to do. He sets up a fake photo and writes a fake story. Bad things ensue.

In the meantime, Lily is stuck in the dead-end job of being the newspaper’s secretary, while she really wants to be a writer. Since she is a single mother of a little girl, she knows she can’t be choosy. When Ellis’ dirty deed leads come to her attention, the two of them work together to try to make things right again.

Perhaps this book would have worked better, had the author based the story on these two children in the same manner that Wingate’s story was of the kidnapped children. Instead, the children become almost an afterthought with the attention focused on the two protagonists. Unfortunately, the author’s character development and ability to move a story along made this a book I slogged through. I finished the novel, but was left feeling that the story could have been so much more.

In her Afterword, we learn that surprisingly little is known about the real photograph. There apparently is some evidence, however, that the mother who was selling the children wasn’t doing it because she was poor, but instead, just because she wanted to be childless.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Sentence is Death

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Author Anthony Horowitz is one of my favorite writers. He is the creator of and writer for two of my favorite Brit mystery programs: Foyle’s War and Midsommer Murder. He has also joined the legion of folks who have written Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but done a much better job of most. With his  2018 novel The Word is Murder, he came up with one of the most clever story ideas I’ve ever come across as a reader. He continues this clever idea in The Sentence is Murder.

What is the idea? With a wink at Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Horowitz writes himself –not a takeoff on himself, but actually his very own person — as a character in the book. In fact, he is Dr. Watson to London private investigator Daniel Hawthorne’s Sherlock Holmes.

London attorney Richard Pryce is found dead in his home, having been hit over the head with a bottle of expensive wine. It seems clear from the get-go that one of his clients — a famous, if odd writer is the murderer. After all, she threatened to kill him with a bottle of wine in front of a restaurant full of people. Still, just like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, nothing is as it seems.

though Horowitz (the character) is getting much better at figuring out the nuances of the mystery, he still is pretty klutzy when compared to the much-more astute Hawthorne.

The mystery is good, but the real fun is reading about Horowitz’s insecurities and problems around writing and producing real-life shows like Foyle’s War as part of the story line. And it was fun to get to learn a bit more about the heretofore secret life of the brilliant detective Hawthorne.

I loved this book, and can’t wait for the next.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Orchardist

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It’s rare that I’m quite as conflicted about a book as I am about The Orchardist, a debut novel by Amanda Coplin. Though I love books that take place in the American West of the 1800s, I also  generally dislike sad books. Personally, there is so much sadness in the world that I would rather read a book that is uplifting.

In its way, however, The Orchardist is uplifting. It features some of the kindest fictional people I have ever come across. They are contrasted, however, by characters that are sheer and truly evil.

William Talmadge (known only by Talmadge throughout the book) cares for apple and apricot trees in Washington in the late 1800s. One day, two young adolescents, both clearly pregnant despite their young age, wander onto his property, desperately hungry. Still, they are like wild dogs, fearful of every move he makes. He provides food by setting it outside where they can eat without his presence.

It becomes clear that they have been living in an unbelievably horrific situation, from which they have escaped. Still, taking these girls under his wings leads to circumstances that he could never have imagined.

So, my conflict comes from this being a sad book written by a new author whose prose is utterly beautiful. The book is unique and while sad, also provided evidence that the definition of family doesn’t have to come from blood.

Though disturbing, The Orchardist challenged all of my senses, and overall I found it to be a very satisfying read.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: Someone

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Someone, by Alice McDermott, is a novel I probably wouldn’t have read if it hadn’t been for a book club. Though the author is quite prolific, I haven’t read a single one of her novels. The cover is unremarkable, so that wouldn’t have grabbed my attention. That’s one of the good things about a book club. You read things you might otherwise not even consider. I’m very glad to have read Someone.

I will admit that for me, Someone had a slow start. In fact, I was prepared to dislike it, much like a toddler might stomp their feet at being forced to eat an unfamiliar food. I was a few chapters in before I realized that the plot line which was escaping me was doing so for a good reason. Their really isn’t a plot line.

Instead, in what is almost a series of vignettes, the life story of Marie Commeford — a totally unremarkable woman — is doled out to the reader, piece by piece. She lives with her mother and father and her brother Gabe who is seemingly destined for the priesthood. It begins with the nearly-blind young Marie waiting on the porch of her Brooklyn home for her much-loved father to come home from work. In stories that jump from one period of her life to another, we watch her develop, learn to love, face the death of her parents, marry and have children. There is nothing particularly unforgettable about any of these events. She is a likeable old woman who becomes a likeable old woman.

It is the story of how Marie becomes comfortable with her ordinary self. At the same time, she watches her brother struggle with his sexuality and eventually leave the priesthood.

McDermott’s writing was simply beautiful — like reading a poem. It is absolutely what made this novel a delight to read. I will be reading more of her books in the future.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Best Cook in the World

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Former New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Braggs grew up in the Deep South. His family members weren’t aristocratic Charlestonians. He didn’t cut his teeth in fancy restaurants in Atlanta, GA. He grew up poor, with oil under his fingernails from fixing his own broken-down cars. His father was a ne’er do well who had almost no role in Braggs’ life except to give him his last name. But he was reared by a loving mother and her poor but kind family, who knew how to love and how to cook, perhaps in that order.

Braggs pays tribute to his upbringing — and his mother in particular —  with this combination memoir/cookbook The Best Cook in the World: Tales From My Momma’s Table. Given my love for stories about the South, and my appetite for southern cooking, this book was a dream come true. Braggs writing makes me ashamed to refer to myself as a writer.

I was only a little ways into the library book when I knew I’d have to buy the book using CASH MONEY, something I rarely do these days. While the stories he tells about his extended family are funny and told with such love, it’s the recipes to which I will refer again and again. If it was a paper book I owned, the pages would be tattered.

I loved The Best Cook in the World. While I suspect many of us think those words could refer to our own mothers’ cooking, Braggs use of his mother’s very own words to describe the cooking method gives the reader such a picture of his mother that she could be our mother too.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: The Widows

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It’s 1924, and Lily Ross learns that her husband — Sheriff Daniel Ross — is killed while transporting a prisoner. She is devastated by the news. But even more surprising is the arrival at Lily’s front door of a woman — Marvena Whitcomb — looking for Daniel, wanting him to help find her missing daughter. It doesn’t take long for the two women to realize that Daniel had a few secrets. When Lily is asked to take over the job as sheriff, she is determined to find the answer to some of the questions being raised. Like Daniel really overtaken by the prisoner, or is there something else going on in this mining community? And in order to find out the answers to some of these questions, she must rely on the help of Marvena, who shared Daniel’s love with Lily.

The Widows is the first of two books written by author Jess Montgomery that are based on the true story of Ohio’s first woman sheriff.  I enjoyed the book very much. I got a history lesson, both on Ohio’s first woman sheriff (Lily Ross is a real-life person though the story isn’t necessarily true), but also some insight on the fight for better conditions social justice, and even unionization of the mines in the east and northeast United States during the early 1920s.

I am eager to read the next book in the author’s Kinship Series.

Here is a link to the book.