A smart, street-wise cat with no name learns that his best "home" is on the hood of a silver van near an apartment complex, warmed by the sun and owned by a human named Saturo Myawaki. The young man calls him "Mr. Cat", bringing him treats and chatting, unaware that this cat is observing the human's world and philosophizing to himself on cat life in general. One evening, a careless driver knocks the cat for a loop and with a broken leg he hobbles howling toward the apartment complex. Saturo hears the howling and rushes down to take care of his new friend as he heals, and naming him "Nana" after the shape of his cat tail in the form of a Chinese seven. He adopts Nana and they live in harmony for a quite a while, but eventually Saturo has to be on the move, and they head out in the silver van. Riding along, music playing, Nana's thoughts are do a running commentary on Saturo's choice of music, his own philosophy of life and his partial curiosity about humans as they flash past them on the road.

At one point in their companionable trip, they meet up with Saturo's former school friends. Nana has travelled far with his owner and met two other friends who have quite a history together—and they like cats. Saturo's friends have been through family problems and and tragedy, but the friendships are an intriguing part of the overall story. The ongoing travel always includes continuing mental commentary by the eminent and humorously droll Nana who also takes time to teach a young, orange kitten how to fight! This treasure of a book was well worth sharing the journey of Saturo and his beloved cat and learning the value of old friends as well as learning new life lessons. There are reasons to feel sad when the novel ends, but there truly is no end because the story is filled with hope and worth a reread to keep the feeling going.

This novel begins as a modern story but its roots are deep in the seventeenth century. While the Eastons are renovating their newly-inherited four hundred year old house in London, an electrician uncovers handwritten documents under an old carved staircase. He assumes the writing is Arabic and fearing a far-fetched terrorist plot, he stops his work until it is officially resolved, not realizing the papers are dated three hundred years ago. Ian Easton knows the writing is Hebrew and assumes some are in "Spanish" (actually Portuguese) and contacts his former professor, Helen Watt, who specializes in historical documents, particularly the London Jewish community at the time of the Great Plague (1665-66).

What begins as a routine verification turns into a deep investigation of the Jewish migration via Amsterdam to London after The Inquisition in Portugal. One rabbi, HaCoen Mendes escaped although blinded and hired a scribe named Aleph to record his religious knowledge and experiences. But who was Aleph, the diligent and elegant scribe? Helen Watt is the perfect "investigator" to unravel the mysterious documents, but she needs the help of a younger graduate student, Nathan Levy, who is fluent in Hebrew and Portuguese of this time period and very adept on a computer. Although not Jewish herself, Helen has a history of her own which reaches as far as Masada.

The Weight of Ink portrays a history of the London Jewish community and their social times and traditions in an engrossing mystery tale and how the Jewish people struggled to carry their history with them to a new land. Highly recommended.

The terrible disaster of the the sinking of the ship HMS Titanic over one hundred years ago, still intrigues modern day readers. The loss of more than 1,500 people on a luxury ship deemed "unsinkable" by its British designers and builders rapidly became worldwide front page news. Huge chunks of ice hid in the dark waters while the Titanic made its way from England to the United States suddenly ripping through the hull of the mighty ship. Eight rocket flares went up from the Titanic in the murky weather during the midnight watch, yet a nearby vessel, the SS Californian whose captain was allegedly told of the rockets but did not confirm or react to the distress signals. The teller of our story is John Steadman, a newsman who was used to "bodies" and addressing their stories with dignity. As he tells his story, the reader is given not only the facts but the emotions of the impact this disaster had on all levels of society. Bravery from the rich yet some cowards prevailed and received no mercy from a diligent reporter. The poor who were not accounted for in the headlines were also honored. This was a such a riveting
account, it was like being brought back in time as a witness. When the captain of the SS Californian has to testify at the U.S. Hearing on the disaster, we are astounded at his cool, incredible testimony and wonder at the verdict of his testimony. This novel whets the appetite to know more about this tragedy which could not have been predicted but continues to fascinate.

Having enjoyed the first novel by Charles Finch, A BEAUTIFUL BLUE DEATH, an engrossing Victorian mystery featuring "gentleman sleuth", Charles Lenox and his charming friend, Lady Jane Grey who gives Charles his first mystery, I was interested in continuing the series. He even had a clever, helpful butler who could help in more ways than one and the atmosphere was well done with subtle hints of humor. Sadly, the second novel, which was well written with a good mystery, was torture to read for a devoted ailurophile and I abandoned the series. Much later, this most recent novel came to my attention as being the ninth in the series so there must be something to Charles Lenox that grew into quite a series, with Lenox as a famous detective and I was curious. This latest story brings the time well forward as Charles, feeling his age slowing him down, leisurely reads of the disappearance in London of a famous German pianist and a bare flicker of interest is felt. Before he can decide to investigate, his newly-widowed brother, Edmund requests his company in the quiet town of Markethouse where they grew up. Thinking he is leaving excitement behind him, Charles encounters unusual happenings for their small town when an insurance investigator engages his services with reports of break-ins, a face in the window and a mysterious chalk drawing outside the worried man's house. Both Charles and his brother are kept busy, frantic and confused as they attempt to solve the small town mystery as well as coming up against the mysterious musician case again in a true race against time. The author writes of the various levels of society with delightfully quirky characters you might find in a Dickens novel, but with subtle humor and an atmosphere of the reality of the era which keeps the reader's interest moving with the pages. I am now curious about those other novels which were going on while I was away from this series.

In late 1950's Minnesota, young Emmy Nelson, a child of a strict Christian family, soon begins to see life differently than her family who have chosen her future husband, Ambrose, from the established Brann family to maintain the status quo of land, family and patriotic beliefs. Wanting to postpone the inevitable she studies hard, does well in school, yet knowing there has to be more to life, than her narrow future. With the help of her school counselor, Mr. Utke, she takes a job at the local movie house which leads to a newspaper gig. And she reads 'forbidden novels" which tell of exciting lives outside her own. Emmy also has the usual teenage fun with friends, going over to Fargo to dance, smoke and have a drink or two when her life makes a heart-lurching turn. She meets the stunningly handsome and obviously smitten Bobby Doyle and the fact that he's Catholic doesn't deter her as she puts aside the strict views of her upbringing.

Soon, Emmy learns that life is more complex than she thought when her ex-fiancé, Ambrose, suddenly reveals a cruel, ugly side that drives her away-- and groups are forming to keep that part of America "straight" in the face of social changes. When fires are set to drive out "unsuitable people" who are a threat to the "Brann family way of life", the brewing racism and entrenched nationalism create drama and destruction that threaten the future.

The 1950s ambiance of this novel comes through in a light way initially, but eventually the ugly truth of social unrest that most people thought happened only "down South" make this novel both a page turner and an eye-opener. The writer delves into how families bond and how they break apart and the characters and events are so deeply realized, they stay with the reader after the final page.

Verona, Italy, during the Great Plague years was filled with poverty, death and wealthy, grand families who were able to hire the poor to fill roles such as a "wet nurse" to a newborn princess. (Unfortunately, the "wet nurse" must have given birth recently to a child who was, alas, unable to benefit from its mother's milk.) A late life baby surprised poor couple Angela and Pietro who welcomed the idea of new life to comfort them, having lost five sons to the ghastly plague in a sad past. However, the birth was difficult despite the effort of the mother and the midwife and the elderly couple lost a daughter. They are heartbroken especially as it's Lammas Day, a holy day represented by an icon of the Blessed Virgin and Child. Because of Pietro's wife's plentiful supply of milk for the ghostly child, he finds a newborn who needs feeding in the rich and respectable Capelletti family where the fourteen year old mother mourns having given her husband a mere daughter instead of an heir and refuses to feed her. Baby Juliet was to have her new nurse with her until she is weaned, but their lives intertwined so deeply that the nurse is allowed to care for and guide Juliet into womanhood---even to the fateful meeting of her true love, Romeo. This novel is so engrossing from page one, the reader feels as if transported to a living time with the turbulent history, vivid characters and palpable atmosphere of that time in Verona. Highly recommended.

Hippie Mom, Lorelei, loves her four children to the point of obsession and sometimes unreality. She throws an Easter egg hunt with dozens of eggs and the children must find them--all of them. Then "save the foils" for future crafts, thus sowing the seeds for her final aberration. One Easter, the hunt ends in a horrible tragedy which sends the family into turmoil and and changes each of their lives as well as how they see each other and their parents. A heavy saga unfolds which switches back and forth in time and builds into future generations. Overall this novel is a deep probe into Family and will appeal to readers who enjoy following the human story. However, the format of random time "switchbacks" that are interwoven into the novel often jolt the reader into confusion, such as learning of a death only to find that person alive on the next turn of the page. This problem holds the novel back from being a seamless and fulfilling read.

Sophie Landgraf, a brilliant Yale finance graduate from a small Midwestern town is hired into a high-powered New York Wall Street firm as an Analyst, a "spreadsheet intern" collating documents and trends of large companies who show promise for Sterling Company to enrich their reputation and their coffers.  Plunging herself into the job, Sophie pulls all-nighters, and stokes herself with coffee to keep her foot in the door, hoping the Managing Director will take her seriously. 

At the beginning of the novel, her intense 24 hour job feels claustrophobic as she sleeps in her cubicle just long enough to take a breather when no one else is around. Then, to have another go at analyzing data and coming up with ideas to present to her reserved, perfectionist Director, Ethan Pearce, a handsome fifty-ish widower who shows no emotion or charisma because it would distract from his raison d'être--work. Sophie's immediate boss, Vasu Mehta, struggles between the demands of the Company and the remonstrations of his wife  who keeps reminding him his mother in India could die any moment, as if he could pick up and go there any time. His only comfort is the occasional slip outside with his pack of Parliament cigarettes. 

Oblivious to her boss's troubles, Sophie, young and hopeful, is delighted to be in the job she's always wanted working in high banking.  She tries to balance her personal life with the job, but Sterling expects their people to be perpetually on call, and she has to disappoint those she cares for, especially her widowed father who is unaware his daughter is buying his art sculpture under an assumed name to keep him pursuing his craft. He doesn't understand that she actually likes her job despite the unreasonable demands because she feels she can eventually succeed in the corporation. Sophie's naiveté and common sense surprises everyone,  including their client, at a big teleconference with her idea for modeling a merger between two metal companies. The project has personal and global  effects, with an eye-opening view of how companies are run and how far people will go and what values they will discard for power and huge amounts of money.

"Buying In" is a fast-paced and engrossing account of  Wall Street and corporate America at the edge of the sub-prime fiasco. Sophie Landgraf is a young but determined character who keeps the story together and often tempers the greed and heartlessness of layoffs and betrayals. Fighting to stay true to herself,  uncluttered by the ego and paranoia of her male-dominated world, she reveals what women are capable of in big business and finance.

One would expect a memoir by a 26 year old would be more of a glancing prologue than a richly told and deeply felt biography encompassing a promising career making movies for NASA to following a sudden urge to flee across the
Atlantic to sell used books. From page one where Jessica Fox states the three thing you should know about rockets, she pulls you through her culture shock of moving from the comfort of Yankee Boston to the steaming hot, perpetual snake of traffic that is Los Angeles. En route to finding clients at alleged business meetings where bikini-clad women sell more than film producing ideas, sensible, workaholic Jessica is driven to plan a getaway so far removed from L.A. that she types a simple phrase "used book shop Scotland" into a search engine and receives a reply: "Wigtown,Scotland's National Book Town". A town of 1,000 people had sixteen bookshops! And right near the Scottish sea. What begins as a whim for a temporary getaway becomes a huge adventure with untold possibilities including love, fear, delightful and peculiar new friends,and the trauma of being a victim of power hungry functionaries of the UK immigration system.

This story is a very compelling read by a 20-something Someone who will not be beaten...well, not all the time. She's unique and inspiring yet just like one of us, no matter our age.

Lucy Campion, a young servant in the benevolent Hargrave household, home to a London magistrate, learns that a constable's early morning visit brings news of a brutal murder. A young woman's unclothed body was found in the north fields with a note nearby requesting a romantic rendezvous. This immediately condemns the woman as immoral and Lucy realizes the victim is guilty till proven innocent. Yet who is interested in finding her killer? Soon, a similar murder happens closer to home, and through observation, Lucy suspects the behavior of one of the family, only to be told by him that an arrest has been made. Her brother, Will, a favorite with the ladies, is being held for murder in Newgate prison. Lucy is galvanized into action,facing the dangers of London and the horrors of the prison to prove her brother's innocence and perhaps bring justice to the murdered women. This new seventeenth-century London mystery series introduces Lucy Campion, a naively fearless young woman motivated by truth. Risking not only her place in a good household, but possibly her life, it's her daring that keeps the reader turning the pages, hoping to find that Lucy has prevailed while bringing a culprit to justice

Hildegard von Bingen, known for her music and writing in medieval Germany was the youngest of ten children in a devout Christian family. Although her sisters were primed to marry, her future would be strongly different and vastly strange. A lively, playful child, she claimed to see visions from an early age. Her mother, fearing that her daughter may be influenced by the devil, pledged Hildegard to a monastery at age eight as a handmaiden to an "anchorite", a special nun who spent her life in fasting and prayer in a sealed room attached to a monastery. Jutta von Sponheim, disturbed daughter of a wealthy family and Hildegard entered their tiny cell and were "walled in", with only a grill facing into the church and a revolving hatch on which unseen monks would place their meager meals. With the last brick in place, the two women were sealed together for life, Jutta hopelessly ecstatic and Hildegard trembling in terror. Volmar, a kind young monk and scribe, brought them food and also books which Jutta initially taught Hildegard to read before launching herself into masochistic spirituality. After thirty years of praying, singing and self-mortification, Jutta died and Hildegard began to thrive. Hildegard's visions, however, returned and she began writing them down as illuminations from her "mother church, Ecclesia", angering the strict, patriarchal Church clerics, that a woman would dare write a book or draw attention to herself. Hoping to put Hildegard in her place, her work was sent to the papal authorities to be condemned. As grim as Hildegard's life appears, her story is truly engrossing, inspiring wonder and courage that Hildegard was able to overcome so much adversity and contribute such music, knowledge and a sense of power which inspired the young women of her time. Deftly written, this novel places the reader fully into Hildegard's life and time with fully rounded characters, the historical backdrop of the Crusades and the ongoing struggle of women to overcome the social roles expected of them.

The Palace of Versailles in 1774 is the first meeting place of the tall, elegant Swede, Count Axel von Fersen and the saucy yet childlike Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XV of France. Mutual attraction soon blossomed into a lifelong love affair, according to von Fersen's extensive memoir written toward the end of his life and published posthumously by his adoring sister, Sophie. With a phenomenal memory, the Count records his upbringing in Sweden, then his many visits to France as the adoring swain of Marie Antoinette. A temporary absence in 1778 to fight with the American Revolution separated the two lovers, and The Count records the facts in his usual linear manner. Revolution would figure ironically in his own life. America, then France and most horribly on his return to Sweden. His carefully written adventures and amorous devotion to the Queen should have made for an exciting historical novel, yet from the beginning the memoir reads like an ongoing history lesson with occasional details of intimacy interspersed. Even the imagined dialogue disappointed, often having a modern flavor with one anachronistic remark that pushes the reader right out of the time period. The one animated description was the revelation that the glorious outside splendor of Versailles was belied by the smells and vermin that permeated life on the inside. Unpleasant but vividly presented. Yet, what could have been a vibrant historical novel by this prominent and well-known writer is often a tedious retelling rather than showing, due partially perhaps to the staid memoir itself. Despite admirable research, the book itself falls short of an engaging historical romance novel.

Narrator Catherine Winslow, former journalist and adjunct professor, now writes a Household Hints column, after testing suggestions from her readers. She lives alone with her two dogs and a 250 pound potbellied pig named Henrietta, in Cloudland, New England, where only three other people live nearby. On a trek through the snow one day in March, she sees a woman lying against a tree, dead. Stabbed. The crisp, winter countryside of Cloudland now held a brutal secret: a serial killer has returned to the area. The dead woman, Angela Parker, was found in an apple orchard, with religious tracts in her pockets although her husband claimed she was an atheist. Previous murders had had the same style of slaughter: women, stabbed after being strangled, killed near a fallen tree, tracts from the Seventh Day Adventists in their pockets.

This reminds Catherine of an unfinished novel of one of her favorite writers, Wilkie Collins--The Widower's Branch-- which sends her on her own trail of inquiry. When the news breaks that Catherine found the body, she worries someone might find her in the sparsely populated area. Yet, she has faced other fears in her life. Her involvement with a former student Matthew Blake in her professor days, resulted in her job loss and a violent breakup after the obsessed Michael who could not face losing Catherine, placed his hands around her neck, nearly strangling her. She did not report it; she loved him. He then left the country. Her current volunteer work teaching writing to prisoners shows her the violent side of youthful humanity, but she seems to take it all in stride.

Accepting possibly dangerous people keeps the reader wondering how brave she really is. Catherine is a strong character in some ways, as when she wants to inject her own theories and findings into the investigation, but heedless of any danger when her former lover returns to Cloudland and becomes a possible murder suspect. The reader may want to like Catherine, but some of her actions seem a bit naive considering her previous experiences. As the State police investigate possible suspects, a new murder occurs, with a different style. Tension rises, suspects change, and eventually the killer is unmasked after a deathless encounter.

This is an engaging mystery novel. Interesting characters and amusing household hints make this a good read for a nice, long weekend. Pulling the readers’ emotions back and forth with lyrical writing interspersed with brutal descriptions of life and even of nature keep the reader trying to balance emotions as if on a rocky boat anchored in the harbor.

Deborah Crombie’s fourteenth police procedural featuring Detective Inspector Gemma James and Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid is another triumph. Originally, Gemma and Duncan were partners in their early days in the London police force. Now risen in the ranks and and living as a blended family, their cases have gotten more serious. This novel features the very competitive world of “Sculling” or rowing. Rebecca Meredith, last chance Olympic hopeful and detective with the Met in London, goes out for a solitary row at dusk and disappears. The Thames Valley Search and Rescue team are called out but it’s too late: “Becca” is found murdered with no obvious rhyme, reason or obvious clues. Eventually assigned to the case, Duncan Kinkaid is “encouraged” by his boss to find the ex-husband as chief suspect. This was news to Kincaid who was used to hunting for the truth and no evidence points to him. Meanwhile, Gemma James returns to work after personal leave, which Duncan was due to follow with to manage their growing family responsibilities, including three children, a dog and a cat. Now he has an important case and tensions abound at home as well as when Gemma decides to follow up a rumor that Rebecca Meredith was unfavorably tied to a senior officer and a possible intra-departmental cover-up. Tensions twist and turn right to the end of a complex story. As usual, Crombie’s writing is “crowded with incident” putting the reader right into the plot as well as the flavor of the neighborhoods of London. The research on Sculling is impressive, with chapter notes for the reader’s enlightenment. If there’s one flaw, it’s the constant heaviness of the family life which often competes with weight of the investigations. For this reader, the family conflicts should be more in the background, although their difficulties reflect modern situations of full time law enforcement couples. Otherwise, this is another superb entry in the Crombie canon.

Young, talented Tess Collins learned the skill of the needle from her mother, but her father sends her out to work as a mere maid in a cold, uncaring English household. Defiantly determined to better her life as a professional dressmaker, she runs away after hearing that jobs are available on board a ship in port sailing soon for America. As she boards the "Titanic", her path crosses that of world-famous fashion designer, Lady Lucile Duff Cooper, who notices Tess and hires her as her maid, "on trial". This is the start of Tess's dream-come-true. Soon disaster strikes, and Tess barely makes it into the last lifeboat. Jim, a sailor,and one of Tess's other new on-board friends, escapes in the nearly empty lifeboat carrying the Duff Coopers who allegedly paid the rowers not to take on survivors from the water. Tess is unaware of this and sees only her life's dream of working for Lucile's huge fashion factory as an assistant. However, when the U. S. Senate forms an investigation into the reasons for the "Titanic" disaster, Lady Lucile comes under scrutiny and Tess must choose her loyalties carefully and according to her own mind and heart. Tess Collins is a marvelous heroine in a page-turning novel filled with real and vividly imagined characters and engrossing story lines. Reading the book, is more like watching a great historical film that's seen from a unique perspective. The author paints a great picture with words and readers can only hope that the feisty Tess will reappear in a sequel to The Dressmaker.

Prophecy by S.J. Parris---Sixteenth century defrocked monk, Giordano Bruno has escaped the Inquisition and is in exile in England. Working for Sir Francis Walsingham, the spymaster of Queen Elizabeth. Many Catholics feel they have authority to remove her from the throne because her father, Henry VIII, excommunicated from the Catholic Church and created himself as the head of the Church of England. Walsingham is assigned to create a network willing to assassinate the Queen to bring Catholicism and the Pope as religious head of England’s Church. Intertwined with this religious battle, there is also the battle of sciences and astrology, condemned by the Pope but studied by numerous scholars who possess writings which many believe will bring evil down to earth. Bruno, known as the “heretic monk” is a scholar and studies in the household of de Castelnau, a Catholic with French connections. Bruno meets people and plots aplenty to keep him---and the reader---guessing as to who is to be trusted and who might be a traitor.

This is a complex novel with many references to subjects and writings as well as supernatural abilities such as “scrying” to predict the future or death, for the Queen of England in particular. With all the characters and Bruno’s various comments to himself as well as telling his story in the first person, it’s sometimes difficult to tell if he’s suspicious of someone of of everyone. Overall a good read, but not easy to keep track of the characters in this ambitious mystery series.

In June, 1833, the British Association for the Advancement of Science met at Cambridge University in England with members from all over the world. William Whewell of Lancashire addressed the gathering and spoke out especially for astronomy as the”Queen of the Sciences” promoting “facts and theory” calling those who pursued these as philosophers of which he was pleased to be a member. A
strident voice from the audience, none other than the Romantic poet, Coleridge, called Whewell and his “philosophers” to task for using a term to which they were not entitled. They were doing experiments,so to speak “getting their hands dirty”. As a “real metaphysician” Coleridge no longer permitted them this noble term. Whewell, with respect, genially accepted that the word having being taken by a loftier group, his men would by analogy with the "artist", form the word "scientist". Thus a new word, and profession, was coined which would catch on in decades to come.

Along with William Whewell, who came from humble beginnings, were three other “scientists”, Charles Babbage, John Herschel and Richard Jones, a burst of discoveries and knowledge would change the nineteenth century to such a degree that
these four very different men from varied backgrounds would remain friends for over fifty years as a result of their friendships formed at Cambridge. John Herschel, son of a famous astronomer father, was also a musician who composed symphonies and discovered a new planet! The first mechanical computer, invented by Charles Babbage, described ingeniously by the author lead the way to our modern computer technology. Richard Jones ,a Welshman with language skills studied law but
became a minister instead and contributed more to raise what was called “political
economy” to the more legitimate science of Economics. These and many other inventions surrounded the four inquiring minds who were part of the fifty year surge of progress of their time that parallels the past fifty years of our own modern age. This multi-biography is well-researched and many-layered but remains a
fascinating read beyond the discoveries hinted at in this mere review. Especially on a cold winter’s night, it’s a pleasure to be transported back to a time that was thought to be slower and quieter but was real and dynamic, a great bedside companion or group discussion book for those who like their history and science blended with zest and humanity.

Communication is taken for granted in modern life, but what if a person suddenly loses the ability to respond in their own language, despite understanding the conversation? In the grand Swan Hotel in Shanghai, workaholic businessman, Li Jing and his father, Professor Li are drinking tea when a gas explosion rips the place--and their lives--apart. A shard of glass enters Li Jing’s forehead and when doctors try to communicate with him, he can only utter syllables in a strange language: English, Jing's first language, learned during childhood in Virginia before the family moved to Shanghai. Li Jing has spoken Chinese ever since. He courted his beautiful wife, Meiling, with all the beauty of the language, and now she can no longer communicate with him. Her icy tone of disappointment causes him such grief, he refuses to look at anyone who comes into his hospital room. In desperation, Meiling agrees to engage an American neurologist, Dr. Rosalyn Neal, who specializes in his condition: “bilingual aphasia”. Dr Neal has her own personal difficulties and this offer seems not only a chance for research into her field of study, but a well-needed challenge. She underestimates the consequences, however, especially the fact that she does not know a word of Chinese! Her initial days in this teeming city are so well described in the novel, a sense of buzzing, nonverbal “claustrophobia” affects both her and the reader.

In this beautifully written novel, the concept of language goes beyond mere conversational abilities. Language permeates everything: behavior, traditions,even personal relationships where words were formerly not necessary. Meiling’s impatience with her husband’s continuing disability, her son’s confusion with the change in his family, and this gregarious American neurologist’s constant stream of English keeps Li Jing mired in the language he has no use for and pushes Meiling farther away weakening the bond between them. When Li Jing’s business partners question her about his return, she is determined to keep his real condition a secret and takes his place, learning the business language of stocks, bonds and profits in order to keep the company afloat which depended on her husband’s former charisma and easy way with difficult customers. Again, communication is the key factor. One single action, a terrible explosion and one man’s disability causes many lives to fracture as a result of the loss of his “language of Shanghai”. Author Ruiyan Xu’s first novel is a marvelous, multifaceted journey into the world of language and human communication as well as the lack of it. Many rivulets of change combine to make and remake lives, and this could happen to any one of us.

Young 19th century Contessa, Carolina Fantoni, realizes she is losing her eyesight and tells her fiancé, who laughs as though it's a joke. When she tells her mother she's losing her sight, Mama only nods and sighs , "Yes. I have been in love, too.". Finally, she blurts out her fate to her father, who waves a hand in front of her eyes and finally concludes "But you haven't, yet!" Frustrated, she confides in her childhood friend, Turri, who has become a unique scientist and peculiar though clever inventor. He creates a unique gift for Carolina: a writing machine. Each letter of the alphabet has its own key in succession and she can touch them to make words appear from a special paper. This becomes her new mode of communication with friends as well as Turri when she wants him to meet her. The blind Contessa’s new machine soon creates a sensation but Turri's invention threatens to invade the privacy and intimacy of their friendship.

Because the book opens with the threat of blindness, it doesn't come as a surprise, yet as a reader, I felt, "Not yet! Don't become blind just yet!" because I wanted to know the real Contessa first. Well, as Carolina adapts to her cruel ailment with curiosity and action rather than self-pity, she shows her true self much more quickly and deeply. She stands above the other characters in the novel in courage and resourcefulness. Except for Turri. When she tells her friend that she begins to dream of wonderful adventures where not only can she see, but she can fly, he falls deeply in love with her (if he wasn't already!) and together they search for a future together. But can that happen if she is now married to Pietro and Turri has a wife and beloved young son?

This small gem of a book is larger reading than one expects. Yet, it could have been somewhat deeper on the supporting characters, and at times I wasn't sure exactly when Carolina was dreaming until she described something, so I gave the book a “4” rating. However, I believe the author, Carey Wallace, has a splendid way with words and descriptions and making the reader feel for the main characters, so I hope there will be further novels. She's certainly off to a good start!

The quiet town of Rose, Kansas doesn't sound like it would be a hotbed of high drama. And for twenty years it wasn't. Jody Linder, 23, of the reknown and beloved Linder Ranch clan teaches English and exercises her independent nature despite three protective uncles. They show up at her home one afternoon with alarming news: Billy Crosby, convicted of her father's murder and suspected of her mother's disappearance is coming home from prison. His lawyer son is convinced of his innocence and is determined to prove it. Suddenly, Jody's world is no longer safe or carefree. And she has questions for her loved ones which will throw her world off-balance.
This is an amazing novel from the first page to the last. Each character is immediately familiar, yet not quite what they seem. It's a story of good people and a powerful yet kind family which helps the less fortunate. Yet, even good people can make mistakes in judgment. The unrelenting Kansas weather mirrors the emotions of its people affecting them in a profound way. It's definitely not easy to put this book down. And when you do, you pick it up and fall right back in with the Linders, the Crosbys and especially Jody whose life changes along with an epiphany echoing the title of the novel. When you're in Nancy Pickard's world, you are definitely in Kansas and it feels familiar as well as deeply affecting. I highly recommend this novel to readers who might think they aren't "into" this genre of storytelling. After page one, you will be!