The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley is full of humor, mystery, danger and coming of age, with a little romance thrown into the mix. The author begins her novel with an epigraph where Louise is asking why Thelma is behaving so sedate. Thelma says, "Well, I've had it up to my ass with sedate." The story open with Louise's daughter Jules' conversation with the police explaining her mother's disappearance. Jules explains her mother's age as seventy-nine, then corrects herself by saying... "that's what she tells everyone." Her mother is actually eighty-four. And that statement immediately reveals Louise's eccentric personality and why the Epigraph. This conversation serves to advise the reader of her mother's unpredictable behavior in a humorous manner. This humor is shown throughout the story and gives the reader a certain relief as the novel becomes more tense.
Oakley then goes back in time explaining how Tanner came to be Louise's unappreciated companion. The pair eventually work their relationship out as she drives Louise across country to California, where the older woman wants to get to her friend Georgia.
The reader sees Tanner's coming of age as a twenty-one-year-old girl who behaves like a twelve-year-old into a mature woman who has purpose in her life.

This book is about the sinking and discovery of the wooden steamship Pulaski and it's aftermath. This tragedy occurred in the 19th century when boats in Savannah were the fastest means of travel. The Pulaski was considered a state- of-the-art steamship and had only been in service a short time before the disaster

The protagonist in the story is Dr. Everly Winthrop a professor of history at Savannah College of Art and Design. She tells the story in the first person and leads off describing the accident through her grandfather who entertained her and her siblings by thorough descriptive oral stories,particularly the blowing up of the Pulaski's boiler and its ultimate sinking.

This story is filled with mystery, love, and redemptive events. It switches back and forth to the present day being told by Everly and the exploding, sinking and aftermath of those individuals who survived the catastrophe.

I fully recommend this book and my only complaint is the overuse of similes, particularly in the first few chapters.

This book is professionally written by the combination of authors, one cannot tell the difference where one takes over a particular scene. At the end of the book the authors have notes which gives the reader a hint as to who wrote what. They have chosen to write this book in the first person, thus influencing the readers closeness to the protagonist.

The personal librarian is Belle da Costa Green, and she begins working for J. Pierpont Morgan in 1905 through the recommendation of his well-respected nephew Junius Morgan. Ms. Green had worked at Princeton University as a librarian for 5 years giving her the opportunity of meeting Junius.

Green has a secret; however, she must guard the rest of her life. She is a black woman living the life of a white person. Green’s mother Genevieve Fleet Green formerly Genevieve Greener divorced Richard Greener, the first black man to graduated from Harvard University and raised her light skin family as white, while dropping the “r” from their names. She moved the family from Washington D.C. to New York City in a rundown small apartment close to Columbia University where her son Russell studied. Bella had in addition to the brother, two sisters who were schoolteachers. Genevieve ruled the family with an iron fist teaching the children how to guard their secret life as a white family.

Belle leads a fantastic life developing a close relationship with J. P. Morgan as she buried her black life and lived and worked as an unmarried white woman the rest of her long life, while financially supporting her immediate family. She had the respect of many outfoxed art dealers not only in North America, but Europe as well. Belle was intelligent, beautiful, and had an extraordinarily effervescent personality known for her sharp quips. She turns Morgan’s renowned personal library into a library for the public after his death. A lifetime dream for Green.
This is a fascinating read following Belle’s career as she develops the J. P. Morgan library. She has many lovers and many suspects she and Morgan were lovers. Ms. Green always answered these inquiries with the quip “We tried”, which leaves the gossips still wondering.

Jeanine Cummins was not an author previously read by this reviewer; however, once having finished this enlightening novel, it's a sure bet that more of her work will be enjoyed
American Dirt starts off like the explosives that the main characters, mother and son, Luca and Lydia endure in page one A party is being held at Lydia's parents' house when a drug cartel descends upon the party with firing AK-47's. Luca, Lydia's seven year old son is in the bathroom washing his hands when a bullet just misses him. The next thing he knows his mother Lydia, burst through the door and knocks him down landing on top of him in a five foot walled shower.
The two are not discovered but their entire family are dead, sixteen in all, including husband-father Sebastian. This is the start of a journey whereby both mother and son who are used to middle class culture become part of the migrant culture and population as they make their way from Acapulco, Mexico heading to Estados Unidos.

Cummins description techniques are amazing. The reader becomes part of the journey experiencing the horrors, of traveling while being chased by the Cartel plus the humiliation of seeking food and information from strangers. The author reminds the reader that the protagonists are Mexican by often writing her character's words in Spanish, but then translated to English. Cummins has chosen third person omniscience as the point of view and switches back and forth through most of the novel from mother to son. We also learn the thoughts of the two sisters Soledad and Rebeca who show them how to board a moving train, and 10 year old Beto who saves the day by providing much needed money to Lydia who has been robbed. These characters are introduced to the reader just as she is becoming somewhat bored with the monotony of the odyssey.

The book has several themes — Mother's Love — Family — The cost not only monetarily but emotionally of living in Mexico where the Cartels with all their viciousness are becoming more and more the government of Mexico.
This writer's eyes were opened when she realized the hardships and what is to be disappointing outcome for the migrants. A new found respect is realized by the reader. I highly recommend American Dirt.