Tag Archives: book review

Friday Book Whimsy: Caroline: Little House, Revisited

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I will confess to you — and is my face red to do so! — that I have never read a single Little House on the Prairie book by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I did watch the television program, but frankly not religiously. Still, I like All Things Western, so when I learned about Caroline: Little House, Revisited, a new novel by Sarah Miller, I was all in.

The novel was authorized by Little House Heritage Trust, the first knock-off to earn this honor. Caroline: Little House, Revisited tells the familiar story of the Ingalls’ journey from their home in Wisconsin to the Indian territories of Kansas. But, rather than telling it from the perspective of Laura, this story is told from the perspective of Caroline — Ma, as she is known to most of us.

In this novel, we are told about the perils facing the family on their journey, and also as they made their new life in the unfamiliar Indian territory in Kansas. Caroline, it would seem, is the glue that held the family together. She is not fearless — far from it, in fact. Her new life terrifies her, but she works endlessly and uncomplainingly, to keep her family fed and clothed and safe from all kinds of dangers.

The novel provides a picture of life in the 1870s in unsettled middle America. It provides a good look at what it must have been like to move, uninvited, into what had been Indian land — both from the settlers viewpoints and the viewpoints of the Indians. The story isn’t presented as black and white, but rather, gray.

The book shows the relationship between Charles and Caroline, and, if accurate, they were truly uncharacteristically in love. It confirms the books’ and television show’s assertion that Laura was a tomboy and extremely close to her father. It demonstrates the absolute reliance upon neighbors, whether you liked them or not.

Man, it was hard work being a woman in the pioneer days of unsettled territories. While I have always looked with some envy on pioneer women, this book makes me once again realize that I would never have made it. I am no Caroline Ingalls.

I loved this book and recommend it highly.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Italian Party

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The only thing better than a novel set in Siena, Italy, is a novel set in Siena in the 1950s during the Cold War. Author Christina Lynch’s debut novel is a somewhat muddled but often clever mix of mystery, romance, and history, with a dash of spy thriller thrown in for good measure.

Scottie and Michael are newlyweds, each with a secret. Michael’s job, allegedly a American-built tractor salesman, takes him to Siena, in the heart of Tuscany. Scottie immediately embraces the food, the people, the culture of Italy, but Michael’s secret prevents him from enjoying their new home in the same way.

When Scottie’s Italian language teacher — a teenager who has a bit of a crush on the pretty American woman — disappears, Scottie takes it upon herself to try and find out what happened to her friend and language teacher. What follows is a almost-believable whodunnit.

The story is somewhat weak, and I found the ending to be a bit off-putting. Still, the setting was spectacular and fun. The author bribes her reader with stories about hearty Tuscan wines and delicious food. She tosses in funny, if somewhat sad, history about the fear of Communism following World War II and America’s self-appointed role in preventing its rise. She also gives the reader a taste of what it was like to be a woman in the 50s, or, for that matter, a man. Lynch even gives the reader a dash of the Palio — Siena’s famous horserace.

If you are a lover of All Things Italian — as am I — you will enjoy this novel.

Here is a link to the book.


Friday Book Whimsy: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

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Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is author Gail Honeyman’s first book, and her debut novel, like her main character, is completely fine.

Eleanor Oliphant is 28 years old. She lives alone in a small apartment and works in an office. She has no friends and limited social skills. She says what she thinks without a filter. Her main activities are drinking too much vodka on weekends and talking to her mother on the telephone once a week or so.

Eleanor’s quiet life is disrupted when she meets Raymond, who is the IT person in her office. He is as kind as he is unkempt and unattractive. They become friends. The friendship is cemented when they help an old man they find unconscious and ill on the street. They take him to a hospital, where his life is saved.

As the novel progresses, the reader learns — little by little — about Eleanor’s completely dysfunctional upbringing. Eleanor, herself, knew little about her past life. As she becomes more comfortable with her friendship with Raymond, she gives him permission to look into her past. What he learns is horrifying.

The reader is kept in the dark as to where Eleanor’s mother actually is. It might be prison. It might be a psychiatric facility. It isn’t until the very end that the reader learns the surprising truth about Eleanor and her mother.

While Eleanor’s past is dark, the novel really isn’t. Eleanor is completely likable, as is Raymond. The novel is sad in places, but laugh out loud funny in other places. I have rarely enjoyed a story or liked a character so well.

The novel was somewhat overlong and this reader felt a bit more editing would have been helpful. Still, I recommend Elearnor Oliphant is Complete Fine wholeheartedly and without reservation. Because she is. Completely fine, that is.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry

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My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell you She’s Sorry, by  Swedish author Fredrik Backman, is – as I understand it – the second in a trilogy that includes A Man Called Ove and Britt-Marie Was Here. I enjoyed A Man Called Ove very much, and Britt-Marie Was Here (which I read first, not knowing at the time that it was actually the third book in a trilogy) is one of my favorite books of all-time.

So, I began reading this book with great confidence. I thought I would like it. I wanted to like it. I tried like crazy to like it. Unfortunately, I simply didn’t.

Elsa is 7 years old, and her grandmother is her best friend. Her mother and father are divorced and in new relationships. Elsa is bullied at school, but the distractions of everyday life prevent either her mother or father from handling Elsa’s problems very effectively. Only her grandmother, who doesn’t seem to care much about what others think of her, is Elsa’s true champion.

The two of them are so close that they have a secret language and a secret world – the Land of Almost Asleep. It was the great deal of time that the author devoted to this fantasy land that prevented me from enjoying the book. I tried. I skimmed over these parts, but I knew that they were probably important, and they were. My boredom and disinterest in the fantasy part of this novel prevented me from getting out of it what it seems most readers enjoyed.

Elsa’s feelings about her grandmother are best defined by Elsa herself, thusly: Having a grandmother is like having an army. This is a grandchild’s ultimate privilege: knowing that someone is on your side, always, whatever the details. Even when you are wrong. Especially then, in fact.

As a grandmother, I can attest that there are no truer words spoken. That quote is the best thing in the book, as far as this reader is concerned.

The ending tied together the many stories, but by that time I had lost interest. It was fun to see that Britt-Marie was in this book, which (as I mentioned above) was actually published before the novel devoted to her. It gave me good background for that novel.

I am definitely in the minority in my dislike of the book, so I suggest if you liked the other books, you should give this one a try.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: The Mitford Murders

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The author of The Mitford Murders – Jessica Fellowes — is the niece of Julian Fellowes. She has co-authored several Downton Abbey companion books alongside her uncle. So it is not surprising that the novel – which I think is her first crack at fiction – has quite a feel of Downton Abbey to it. That, of course, is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it’s what prompted this reader to pick up the book.

The story is based on a real-life event – the actual murder of Florence Nightingale Shore, the goddaughter of famous nurse Florence Nightingale. The murder, which took place during the middle of the day on a train in 1920, was never solved in real life. Fellowes takes a stab at solving the mystery via her fictional protagonist Louise Cannon.

Louise is on the run from her wicked uncle who has promised great harm to Louise and/or her mother should she not continue to steal for him. She takes a job as a nanny to the Mitford children. Continuing with the combination of fiction and nonfiction, the Mitfords were a real-life and controversial British family known for their style and their politics. In this novel, Louise happens to ride on the train on which the murder takes place. Her connections to the Mitford family – and particularly her relationship with Nancy Mitford – keeps her connected to the murder case, which is being worked on by two young police detectives.

The book promises to be the first in a series that will feature Louise Cannon and one of the police officers, who develop a romantic connection.

The story had a fun upstairs/downstairs feel to it, though some of the characters and situations were a bit predictable. Fellowes’ writing could have a bit more literary drive to it. I found that I wasn’t particularly compelled to pick up the novel once I had put it down. The best thing about the book is that it is a so-called locked room mystery, something I always find fun and challenging.

I think there is hope for the series with a bit of character development and creativity.

It is a book that fans of Downton Abbey and other upstairs/downstairs novels might enjoy. Very light reading.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

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Author Bill Bryson is one of the funniest writers I’ve ever read, if not the funniest. There have been times when I have been reading one of his books and have laughed so hard that I cried. A Walk in the Woods comes to mind.

I’m pretty sure I read The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America when it was first published in the late 1980s, because I’ve read most of his books. And since I kept the book all these years, I’m pretty sure I liked it. Perhaps my skin was thicker in those days.

Bryson was born and spent his formative years in Des Moines, Iowa. He attended Drake University – a private college in Des Moines – for a couple of years before he dropped out and began traveling abroad. He met his wife in England, and lived there until 2013 or so, when he returned to the United States.

While still living in England, he returned to Iowa for his father’s funeral, and decided to travel around the country visiting mostly small towns and writing about his observations. The idea has so much merit, but the result, unfortunately, is a mean-spirited, smug account about mostly rural America.

I don’t think I know a writer who can turn a cleverer phrase. Some of his thoughts are so ingenious and funny that it makes me sad that I didn’t write them. But mostly, he seemed bored with small towns, tired and complaining about corn and wheat fields, and positively mean about the people who make up the bread basket of this country. He sounded like a snotty European who thinks America consists of nothing but fools.

I seriously thought that if I had to read one more word about fat women and stupid men I would throw the book across the room. I understand that America excels at commercialism, but some of the souvenir shops about which he endlessly complained are the bread and butter of many families.

Despite how funny the book was in places, I had to stop reading because I just felt mean laughing at his jokes.

I have to give this book a thumbs down, I’m afraid.

Here is a link to the book.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: The Truth According to Us

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was one of my favorite reads of 2008. Author Annie Barrows, best known for writing children’s books, finished that book upon the death of her aunt, Mary Ann Schaffer, and is listed as a co-author. I liked the book so much, so when I became aware of The Truth According to Us, by the same author, I eagerly started the book. I didn’t want to put it down.

Layla Beck’s father is a United States Senator in the years of the Great Depression. In 1938, he is fed up with the antics of his spoiled daughter, and coerces a friend to get her hired as part of the New Deal jobs program called the Federal Writers’ Project. He reluctantly agrees, and she is given the job of writing the history of a small mill town in the remotest part of West Virginia. Neither her father nor her new mentor have great expectations.

Far from the high society that she is used to, Layla finds a room living with the Romeyn family, whose family founded the sock manufacturing mill that basically employs and defines the town. She is quickly drawn into the mysteries surrounding that family. What’s more, she discovers she likes her new task, and she’s quite good at it.

Willa Romeyn is a curious 12-year-old whose mother abandoned her and her sister Bird when they were very young, leaving their upbringing to her fairly unreliable father Felix. It is really his sister, their Aunt Jottie, who takes on the task of making a home for the two girls.

It isn’t long before Layla has fallen for Felix, but she is intrigued by the stories that surround the family. She is also intrigued by the fact that the powers-that-be in the community seem to want nothing to do with the Romeyns.

The characters in The Truth According to Us, are delightfully quirky and loveable, and much more complex as the story plays out. The Romeyns are characters that I grew to love, especially Willa and Jottie.

The story is told from different perspectives, including Willa’s, Layla’s, and Jottie’s. Much of Layla’s perspective is demonstrated via letters written to her best friend and her parents. Despite the different perspectives, I didn’t find the book confusing at all.

It really was a delightful story with a satisfying ending, and created a good picture of Small Town American during the post WWI – and-pre-WWII years.

I highly recommend this book.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Book of Polly

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Having (thankfully) not had the angst so typical between teenage girls and their mothers, I generally have little interest in reading coming-of-age books. There have been a few exceptions. For example, Tell the Wolves I’m Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt, was one of the best books I read in 2013. (That reminds me; I should reread.)

I made an exception also for The Book of Polly, by Kathy Hepinstall, quite simply (I’m somewhat embarrassed to say) because of its title. How can that title not intrigue a reader? The book was wonderful, even beyond its title.

When the book begins, Willow is 10 years old. Her mother, Polly, gave birth to her when she was in her late 50s – a miracle birth of sorts. Willow’s father died while Polly was pregnant, so she never knew him. But with an older mother and no father, Willow lives in fear that her mother will die and leave her all alone.

As for Polly, she is a feisty southern woman who lives for gardening, her margaritas, and her daughter. Despite her love for Willow, she is tough as nails, recognizing that she has to prepare her for a world without her in it for much of Willow’s life.

Willow’s fear of losing her mother leads to her beginning to search for clues about her mother’s past, a search that takes several years. Polly has no interest in sharing her secrets with her daughter, leaving Willow to wonder why her mother left her small town in Louisiana and why she refuses to talk about it. It isn’t until tragedy strikes that she agrees to take Willow back to her home town.

The Book of Polly is sad in parts, and laugh-out-loud in other parts. Its characters are likeable and mostly believable, if somewhat bigger than life. Polly quickly became one of my favorite book characters in recent memory.

The ending was satisfying, something that can make or break a book for this reader.

Treat yourself to this poignant story of love.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb: A Novel

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I will be completely honest here. I didn’t even know that Tom Thumb was a real person. As far as I knew, Tom Thumb was no more than the character in a book of old fairy tales that was on the bottom shelf of our bookshelf when I was growing up. So I certainly didn’t know that there was a Mrs. Tom Thumb.

Author Melanie Benjamin has fictionalized the life stories of a number of famous people, including Anne Morrow Lindbergh (the wife of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, and herself an author and aviator) in The Aviator’s Wife;  and Hollywood legends Mary Pickford and Frances Marion in The Girls in the Picture. Benjamin seems to do a very good job of researching her characters, at least based on the information I gleaned from Wikipedia as a read The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb: A Novel.

Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump was born in Massachusetts in 1841. She was one of two daughters born to loving parents. She was exceptional in that she was 2.66 feet tall and weighed 29 lbs. as an adult. She was what is referred to as a proportionate dwarf, meaning that while extremely small, her extremities were proportionate to her size. Her sister Minnie was even tinier.

It being the mid-1800s, opportunities for all women were scarce, and for a woman the size of a large doll, the prospects would seem to be even direr. Nevertheless, she became a teacher, and was quite successful. And yet, she was bored with her life. Her desire to travel took her down an unfortunate road until she met the famed showman P.T. Barnum. Barnum had already made a very successful career for Charles Sherwood Stratton, better known as General Tom Thumb, and also a proportionate dwarf.

The two eventually fell in love and married, in what was the wedding of the year in New York City. The story of their fame, their career, their relationship to Barnum, and their life in the spotlight was ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING. I simply couldn’t put the book down. I was grateful to be reading the novel as an e-book because I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I stopped to look up some information about Lavinia Warren (which became her stage name), Gen. Tom Thumb, P.T. Barnum, and the other performers who they loved like family. The most amazing thing about their lives was how their fame allowed them to rub shoulders with high society in 1900 New York City.

I read the book just before seeing the The Greatest Showman – the movie about P.T. Barnum – and it was fun to be familiar with some of the characters in that movie.

I heartily recommend The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb: A Novel. While it is important to keep in mind that it is fiction, the book was wonderfully researched and incredibly readable.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Tuscan Child

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I will admit to being a fan of the lighthearted Her Royal Spyness mystery series by author Rhys Bowen. The novels are easy reading and somewhat quirky. And I won’t hesitate to be intrigued by any novel that takes place in Italy, particularly Tuscany. So The Tuscan Child, by Rhys Bowen, caught my eye immediately.

Towards the end of World War II, British pilot Hugo Langley is shot down by the Germans, but survives the crash of his airplane by parachuting into the grounds of an abandoned monastery just outside of a German-occupied Italian village in the heart of Tuscany. He would have died except that he was discovered by a young Italian woman named Sofia Bartoli as she gathers food for her starving family. She secretly bandages his wounds and keeps him fed, risking her life and the lives of her family. Days pass, and in the easy manner of many novels, love ensues. When the village is liberated, the British army takes Langley back to Great Britain to heal from his accident. Rumor has it that Sofia is seen driving away with a German officer. So, with great sadness, he puts Sofia in the past, and eventually he marries and has a daughter.

Fast forward to contemporary times, and his daughter Joanna, who has never been close to her father, returns to bury him following his death. As she is going through his things, she stumbles upon a letter he wrote to a mysterious woman named Sofia. It is clear that he loved her very much. What’s more, he talks in his letter about “their golden child” being safe.

What? Joanna knows nothing about a love affair prior to her mother, or a sibling. So, in the way of many novels, she puts her life on hold and travels to the Tuscan village to try and discover her father’s secrets. Perhaps the mysterious Sofia is still alive.

The Tuscan Child is not the Great American Novel. The plot is familiar and the characters are somewhat one-dimensional. But what makes The Tuscan Child a book to be read is the imageries of the countryside of Tuscan Italy, and the mouthwatering discriptions of the food. It is simply a book that nearly DEMANDS a glass of wine and a plate of spaghetti while being read.

Lovers of All Things Italian: This is a novel for you.

Here is a link to the book.