Recent Reader Reviews

"No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era" by Jacqueline Jones tells stories of people who succeeded with the deck stacked against them. Boston did the most to combat slavery but also the least to improve the quality of life after emancipation. Jones does a ridiculous amount of research to demonstrate this inequality.

The Black residents of Boston suffered from prejudice, for sure, but some of the bad luck that they experienced would make you cry. The odds were not in their favor. Characters from other historically significant stories, like John Brown and William …more Craft, make appearances to fight against these injustices and show why they happen to otherwise good people.

A fun game here in Maryland is to debate what caused the Civil War, and Jones demonstrates why it was such a dramatic debate. Abe Lincoln made it seem like the slavery question was over after the Emancipation Proclamation, but the struggle had just begun. As usual, the Black community in Boston tried to immerse themselves in more culture but found that it did not matter to most whites.

The three parts (pre-Civil War, Civil War, and Reconstruction) have three different stories to tell, and they are all engaging and relevant. The only advantage to the last section is that people start finding a wider range of job opportunities and education; thankfully, teaching is one of the more popular.

Jones illustrates how political mumbo jumbo and odd prejudice impeded progress. She does exhaustive research to do so. Historians, more than most, indicate why nonfiction qualifies as the hardest genre to write well. She takes something that few of us knew about and shows how it connects to modern society and the xenophobia that still exists today. It deserved the Pulitzer. (less)

Room On The Sea is a novella by Egyptian-born American author, Andre Aciman. On a warm summer Monday, Paul Wadsworth and Catherine Shukoff encounter one another in a Manhattan central jury room. Paul is a retired lawyer, reading the Wall Street Journal while they wait to be sent to a courtroom for jury selection; Catherine is a psychologist who reveals she’s reading Wuthering Heights when she notices Paul’s interest in her reading matter.

While they wait in unairconditioned discomfort (the aircon is not working) they share: Paul offers his foolproof way out of being selected; they chat and enjoy each other’s …more company; during the lunch break, Paul’s recommendation for a Chinese lunch; whatever the topic, they seem to agree; they like each other’s sense of humour; they arrange to meet for coffee the next morning; they exchange phone numbers; details of their lives; career paths not taken.

They discover a “ships-in-the-night” moment from their youth, and discuss their marriages quite frankly, as each inwardly compares the other to their spouse. They do all they can to ensure they can enjoy each other’s company each day, and they discuss the gloomy prospect that they might not see one another again after their week of juror obligation is up.

As their feelings for each other intensify, they describe the effect of their daily encounters: “I’ve felt young and hopeful again– only to realize that I’d stopped being young and hopeful for so long.” They admit to their unsatisfactory marriages: “… the tiny joke time plays on us: it robs the memory of who we were and what we were able to feel once. As you said, we live with people but totally forget why we’ve chosen to live with them.”

And they consider what might happen if they decide to take it a step further: “There are so many things at stake, all of them possibly quite meagre and frail by now, some downright insignificant. But we’ve built our lives with them and they are who we are, who we’ve been made to be, sometimes even against our will. Where would we be without them?” and they wonder if their relationship would still have the texture of “the casual, improvised meeting that allowed them to feel perfectly natural each time they were thrown together by the court system.” Do they, or don’t they? A thought-provoking tale filled with gorgeous prose.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Faber & Faber (less)

Lisa Jewell has outdone herself with THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN. Although I normally prefer thrillers, which Jewell excels at writing and which I mistakenly thought this was, THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN is riveting and had me glued to the pages as much as any thriller.

The house is beautiful in a beautiful neighborhood with other beautiful houses. But Lorelei loves things: bright things, colorful things, potentially useful things, things in bulk, all sorts of things. And all are things she just can't throw out.

Lorelei and Colin have four kids who grow up in this house of more and more things that their mother can't …more throw out. Each of their lives is examined over the years, and we see how the house they grew up in and their mother's madness affected them and their decisions.

I highly recommend this book. (less)

4.0

Status, lies, headstrong…

Evelyn and her mother Cecilia are ejected from their home in York in 1899. The family WAS aristocratic but lost their wealth and status due to reasons I won’t reveal. Without her mother’s knowledge , Evelyn applies for & accepts a job as an assistant at Morton’s Emporium (Bookshop).

A tale of secrets, 2nd chances, miscommunication, trust, success , and family drama.



THOUGHTS:

This book is advertised as historical and romance. I saw some historical as in wardrobe, transportation, cultural norms, and business mentions. I didn’t deem it as totally romance either. (Which is good for me …more because I don’t intentionally read romance!) I regard this as more of a character-driven fiction book about family drama with a touch of history and romance added to the mix.

My gut reaction to characters:

Evelyn - frank, outspoken / determined
William - mysterious / good intentions?
Cecilia - image-conscious / pushover where husband is concerned

Aunt Clara - crusty / testy
Lady Violet - snooty / hoity - toity / self-important

Supporting cast had a mix of personalities.

Debut book!

Beautiful cover (less)

This book was a perfect way to kick off my summer reading!

Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter who is deeply in debt due to a lawsuit stemming from another author who she spoke out about and legal fees. So when the chance to write a memoir of a famous horror author, the choice was simple. However, the author turns out to be her estranged father who has Lewy Body Dementia and about 20 legal pads on which he has scrawled his story about the murders of his two siblings 50 years ago.
The story is told from her father's writing (Vincent), his sister Poppy's diary and films, and the research that Olivia undertakes. It also …more served as a vehicle to reconnect with her father as his memory failed.

Throughout the book, the reader understands Olivia's complicated past with a mother who walked out on the family, being sent to a Swiss boarding school at 14, and the possibility of selling her home to pay off the author and lawyer.

I loved the way Olivia used her journalism background to delve into 1975 newspapers, and to meet with people in Ojai who knew her father's family in 1975 - including the man next door. She found 10 of Poppy's films which she had digitalized and reviewed to "get to know" her aunt and uncle.

I thought the story was well crafted, intriguing, and suspenseful The mystery was unraveled in a clever believable way. The author definitely picked up California in the mid 70's noting songs and typical 70s activities.

I flew through this book in 2 days. I received an ARC of this book from BookBrowse and I am leaving my opinions voluntarily. (less)

Olivia Dumont is pretty much broke.

When she is asked to ghostwrite a book for none other than horror author Vincent Taylor who is her father she hasn’t talked to for years, she has a difficult decision.

But….with overwhelming debt she agrees.

When she sees her father after thirty years, she finds out he is very ill and has written a memoir about his childhood.

That childhood is one that is a horror story. He was accused of killing both his brother and his sister.

Will she find out what she never knew about her father and the murders of her aunt and uncle

How will this all play out for Olivia?

Writing this book turns …more out to be more difficult than she thought it would be and not what she wanted to find out about her family.

Fans of Julia Clark will enjoy her newest tense, pull-you-in read that started out slowly but ends with a bang. 4/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. (less)

THE GHOSTWRITER by Julie Clark

Can ghostwriting bring you closure? That’s what Olivia Dumont, a ghostwriter is asking herself.

June, 1975, two teenage siblings are found dead in their home. Vincent, the only surviving sibling has never been able to shake the whispers and accusations. Decades later Vincent has had a great career of being a horror writer and his estranged daughter, Olivia, has reluctantly agreed to ghostwrite her father’s last book. Is Vincent ready to talk and tell the truth after fifty years of silence? Is Olivia ready to face the disfunction and trauma at the core of her family?

Another riveting …more read by Julie Clark. The characters are relatable and well developed in this dysfunctional family drama thriller. Poppy was my favorite character in this story, as I found her to be true to herself at such a young age. The deadly secrets from Vincent’s childhood will keep you turning the pages. I look forward to what this skilled author does next.

Thank you to BookBrowse and publisher for the ARC to read. (less)

"Properties of Thirst" by Marianne Wiggins tells us about World War II from the perspective of the United States mainland. If you live in a temperamental land, a Japanese camp (nomenclature is essential) is unwelcome. We have a wide range of well-developed characters to show how Pearl Harbor and the incendiary attitude toward the Asian population changed lives in Southern California.

The story, surrounding the neighboring landowner and the Department of the Interior architect, shows people going about their jobs with at least some good intentions. Some even try to create for the subjugated. Schiff, the working …more stiff from the Department of the Interior entrusted with the home for 1,000 Asians, falls for the landowner's daughter, and things become complicated.

With Father, Son, Daughter, and Architect, you learn a lot about their backgrounds, to the point that you do not know the main character, which works. Shiff battles politics in his duty to build a camp and finds people upset with the process in various ways, citing the hypocrisy of FDR's Four Freedoms while denying rights to citizens.

The collection of viewpoints enables you to take a break from the most emotional storylines. Very little death occurs "on screen," but the time is heavy, especially for amateur history students. You have so many cultures represented (Jewish, Asian, and Hispanic) that you can focus on the turbulent era and realize that it affected many people in many ways.

Wiggins lost the ability to read or write after a stroke, so she wrote "Properties of Thirst" over a few years after her daughter helped her finish, making this a fantastic achievement. The characters here are special and enjoyable, and the book's non-linear storytellers will please those who want to think about what they are reading; my thumb is up with much admiration. (less)

Imaginatively written by Alice Hoffman, this is the multilayered story of a house and the surrounding farmland located on the outer reaches of Cape Cod and its many occupants over the years. The house was first constructed in the 1700s when Massachusetts was occupied by the British, and each chapter moves ahead in time to the next family, all of whom live in what becomes known as Blackbird House.

Although this is a novel, it reads like a collection of closely interwoven short stories with each one of the 12 chapters building toward the next to catapult the novel forward in both time and plot.

Some of the …more characters we meet include:
• The Hadley Family opens the novel when John builds the house for his beloved wife Coral and their two sons, Vincent and Isaac. John is a fisherman, but the British occupation forbids him from pursuing his trade. If he is captured fishing on the open water of the ocean, he'll be imprisoned in England. But his family needs to eat.

• Ruth Blackbird Hill teeters on the edge of insanity when she loses her home to a ravaging fire, choosing to live without shelter on the beach in all seasons, accompanied only by her cows and her red boots. Kind women in the village intervene, and Ruth's life changes when they bring her to the farm that Lysander purchased from the Hadleys.

• Two sisters, Violet and Huley, live with their widowed father in the house. Huley is beautiful. Violet is disfigured with a large violet-shaped and violet-colored birthmark on her face. One day a professor from Boston comes to the village to investigate a sighting of a sea monster, and the girls' lives change forever.

• It's 1969, and teenage Maya's hippie parents have bought the old house that doesn't even have proper plumbing. In the winter, they have to use the outhouse. In the winter! Her parents live in a bubble by themselves, leaving Maya and her brother almost abandoned. It is only far later in her life that Maya comes to appreciate and better understand the love her parents had for each other.

• The last two chapters feature the same set of characters, set about 25 years apart. Emma is seven years old and has successfully battled leukemia when her parents impulsively buy Blackbird House as a summer escape. What happens that first summer is both joyful and heartbreaking. Fast forward to Emma's 30th birthday when her parents gift her the house. She returns on Midsummer's Night, a time when you become who it is you really are.

At just 250 pages, this is a short, character-driven novel that has a powerful message about love and family and the importance of community. Symbols abound and are woven through every chapter in some form—from water and fire and earth to blackbirds, including a white blackbird in the flock, and the color red.

Told with candor and compassion, this is a fierce but also lyrical and insightful tale. (less)

If you're a James McBride fan, this is a must-read book. If you haven't yet treated yourself to this award-winning author's novels, don't read this memoir of his life and his mother's life quite yet. I've only read two of his novels—"Deacon King Kong" and "The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store"—but it's fascinating to see how the seed of some of his story ideas came from his mother's storied and remarkable past. Read a novel or two or three first and then treat yourself to this masterful memoir.

James McBride is the eighth of 12 children born to a White woman and a Black father. His father, Andrew Dennis McBride, …more died before James's birth. His mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, remarried several years later to another Black man named Hunter Jordan; the couple had four children, but most importantly, Mr. Jordan treated the McBride kids as his own. Lots of love to go around. McBride loved Hunter Jordan dearly and thought of him as his father.

Ruth was not only a White woman living in a Black world in a time when society mightily disapproved of this, but also she was the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. In addition to regularly sexually abusing her, her father was cruel and vindictive. Ruth ran away from her Suffolk, Virginia home on day after her high school graduation, and when she married a Black man, her family declared her dead to them. They sat shiva for her. She found solace in the Christian church, something that held her up after the tragic loss of her two husbands.

Discerning his mother's life story was a difficult, years-long project for James McBride. Ruth was a very private person and saw no need to dredge up the past. But James was insistent. As he says, "It took many years to find out who she was, partly because I never knew who I was."

This memoir switches chapter-by-chapter between Ruth's life story and James's life story when he grew up poor in Brooklyn and Queens with little money, little food, and sleeping four to a bed. Some of the stories—especially Ruth's—are so astonishing as to feel made-up, but it's all true. James truly did come from two worlds—one White, one Black—and this has greatly informed and influenced his writing. Even though he was brought up a Christian, he says he has a Jewish soul inherited from his mother.

McBride's thoughts and ruminations on race and the struggles he had with his racial identity are candid, but also heartbreaking, and form the backbone of this brilliant memoir. His mother truly was an extraordinary woman, raising 12 children in poverty. She enforced strict rules and focused on their education. It paid off. Two became medical doctors, one a psychologist, one an Ivy League college professor, one a registered nurse and midwife, one a chemistry researcher, one a medical practice office manager, one a computer consultant, and two teachers. And James McBride himself is not only an accomplished musician, but also the 2013 winner of the National Book Award for "The Good Lord Bird."

This is a fascinating, almost mesmerizing book that reads more like a novel than nonfiction. It is filled with sincere, forthright, and brutally honest revelations that truly capture their lives—the good, the bad, and the ugly. It takes a lot of courage to be this truthful.

The meaning of the book's title? When he was little, James asked his mother the color of God's spirit. "Oh boy…God's not black. He's not white. He's a spirit," his mother told him. "What color is God's spirit?" asked James. "It doesn't have a color," she said. "God is the color of water. Water doesn't have a color." (less)