SEPTEMBER 2020 BOOKSHARE

 Hello All,

We met last Thursday, October 1st, in Geri Christensen's back yard. We missed September by just one day, but we wanted to make sure we were able to get together, anyway. We "socially distanced" on the lawn in the afternoon sun and it was wonderful.  We talked about some very great books. Here is the list:

MARYANN STEVENS:

THE COLOR OF MONEY,: BLACK BANKS AND THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP by Mehrsa Baradaran 4.5 ⭐️ brilliantly written & researched Baradaran explains banking & wealth creation very accessibly to those of us not adept with the nuances of finances. She documents the finance & ‘self help’ policies by Presidency for most of the post Civil War past. This book, along with Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow I read earlier this summer paints such an evil picture of of systemic racism in America, I am ashamed. (Baradaran is an Iranian-born LDS lawyer who taught at BYU until she left due to unfulfilled promises. She was Michael’s-my son- neighbor)

CHRISTMAS STAR SAPHIRE by Hallee Bridgeman 3 ⭐️ Christian Romance novel - 2 hour audiobook. I needed a break from depressing non-fiction

MORALITY FOR BEAUTIFUL GIRLS  by Alexander McCall Smith 3.5⭐️ Smith speaks wisdom through Precious. Always a good read.

WALK THE WIRE by David Baldacci 2⭐️ Amos Decker & Alex Jamison FBI agents are assigned to a murder case in North Dakota fracking lands. Way too many plots going on - too big & entangling to be called subplots. Too many detective stretches making it the worse Baldacci I’ve read.

ALL THE SINGLE LADIES  by Rebecca Traister 3.5⭐️ for cultural sociological description. 2.5 ⭐️for matching my point of view. The stigma against & the legitimate reasons single-hood works for so many is rather refreshing. However, author bases too many happy conclusions on the narrow confines of highly successful, well educated urban women. She interviews women outside those confines and acknowledges the same happy conclusions do not exist for the high percentage of women of color & those who live between American’s two coasts.

THE YELLOW BIRD SINGS  by Jennifer Rosner. 4.5⭐️ poignant tale of a Polish Jewish family decimated by WWII. Rosa flees with her daughter into the countryside & they are hidden in a barn by a Christian family. Because the family’s children cannot be included in the secret & due to the proximity of other families, Rosa & 5 year old Shira must be silent & hidden in the hay. After months of hiding, the barn ceases to be safe. Rosa is convinced to send Shira to an orphanage run by Catholic sisters while she hides in the forest barely surviving until many months later she runs into a partisan camp. As the Russians‘ conquest of Poland is secure, she is overwhelmed with an urgency to find her daughter & she leaves the camp to find the orphanage whose address she has guarded throughout her forest hiding time. Rosa & Shira search for each other through miles & time. Very well written.

THE 19TH WIFE  by David Ebershoff 4.5⭐️ A novel set mostly in Utah told from three perspectives on polygamy of the 19th, 20th & 21st centuries. First - 14year old Jordan has been left on the highway between Mesadale & Kanab at 2am because he has been excommunicated by the prophet of the Firsts. In about 2005, at age 20 he sees his mother on the Internet as she is arrested for the murder of her husband, Jordan’s father. His mother, Becky Lynn, is the 19th wife of Mr Scott. 

Second- 1840 Nauvoo Chauncey Webb marries recent convert, Elizabeth. For years they are monogamous & terribly happy then Chauncey returns from a mission to England & marries 4 other women in a week. In 1875, their daughter Ann Eliza Webb Young, the 19th wife, files for divorce from Brigham Young & escapes Utah. 

Third- 2005ish Ms Dee, BYU Masters candidate is writing her thesis on Ann Eliza & finally gains access to protected records in the LDS Church Archives. The narrative switches voice as we hear the struggles of faith & the cost of adherence to polygamy. Brilliantly done. The author’s bio doesn’t show any relationship to LDS background but though the vocabulary seems insider, there is no axe to grind. However, the effects of polygamy past & present on the children, as well as their parents, is thoughtfully considered through the novel’s characters. Such a good book.

THE FALLEN by David Baldacci 3.5⭐️Amos Decker & his FBI colleague Alex Jamison have been ordered to take a vacation. Since widowed, childless Amos has no where to go, he tags along with Alex while she visits her sister in Baronville, a dying rust belt town in southwestern Pennsylvania. Within hours, Amos discovers a grisly double murder. By the weeks end at least 6 people in this small town are killed & Amos & Alex spend their vacation solving the murders. Amos Decker books are always intriguing.

KILLERS OF THE FLOUR MOON: THE OSAGE MURDERS & THE BIRTH OF THE FBI by David Grann 4⭐️ Non-fiction.  The discovery of Oil in the rocky hills of the Osage reservation in northeastern Oklahoma turns tribal life upside down. Due to uncharacteristically detailed treaties, the minerals rights of the land guarantee the payment of all oil/mining leasing profits are paid to each enrolled tribal member. US Govt claims Osage incompetent to handle money & set up a guardianship arrangement which legitimizes the systematic exploitation of the Osage. During at least 1919-1935, dozens & perhaps hundreds of Osage are killed, poisoned or shot, leaving the guardians to fraudulently steal millions of dollars. Every level of society is in on the action: sheriffs, judges, bankers, doctors, undertakers, insurance salespeople, who hire cowboys, oil workers, & desperados to do the dirtiest work. Finally, because no Indian can receive justice in Oklahoma, the nascent FBI intervenes & investigates with undercover agents placed in every imaginable position. A hung jury & then a guilty verdict send the ring leader to Leavenworth where he serves only 6 years of a life term. Even in 2015, historian writer finds evidence the killing time lasted longer & included more Osage than ever thought possible. A very disturbing but well written narrative of a dark period in Oklahoma history.

ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL by James Herriot 3.5 ⭐️ New, young vet starts practicing as an assistant to an established country vet in Yorkshire. Autobiographical.

THE CHILBURY LADIES CHOIR by Jennifer Ryan. 3.5 ⭐️ A small village in southeast England in 1940. Multiple Love stories , a variety of intrigues, Nazi bombings, and a choir.

GIRL, STOP APOLOGIZING by Rachel Hollis. 3.5⭐️ 4+⭐️ if you’re younger & looking to make big changes. Ask yourself What if? What if I write a book, start a business, go back to school. Most Women have been raised to believe their value lies in making other people happy. You have inherent value. Don’t make excuses for not living up to your potential. Behaviors to avoid, behaviors to hone. Goal setting- evaluating efficiencies &!results. I kept reading because she was fun to listen to. Excited about life & possibilities.

KRISTINE ABBOTT

INCREASE IN LEARNING: SPIRITUAL PATTERNS FOR OBTAINING YOUR OWN ANSWERS  by David A. Bednar 5 STARS. 

This new interactive book will help you acquire one of the most important skills you ll ever possess: the power to learn. With its unique blend of print, media, and online resources, it provides patterns for spiritual learning that will lead you to understand and act on gospel truths. Learn how to get the answers you need for yourself! With extra-wide margins for recording thoughts and questions, the book invites the reader at every turn to rejoice in the excitement of learning. Plus, it includes a DVD with even more learning resources, including a Q&A session with young adults and an exclusive, in-depth, personal interview with Elder and Sister Bednar!

JO ANN ABEGGLEN

THE PILGRIM HYPOTHESIS by Timothy Ballard

America is a country with deep-seated roots of faith planted by pilgrims seeking religious independence. It was these men and women who paved the way for a free nation under God in this promised land but what if those early voyagers were brought here for a much greater purpose? What if their arrival in this new land heralded the fulfillment of ancient prophecy: laying the foundation of a country that would allow for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the gathering of scattered Israel? In The Pilgrim Hypothesis readers are presented with a gripping new investigation by best-selling author and historian Timothy Ballard as he uncovers what the early colonists a people who believed themselves to be the "New Israel" may have known about their role in the restoration of the gospel. Delve into a complex history bridging the centuries and spanning the globe, as each clue leads to one compelling conclusion: history and scripture may be far more intertwined than you've ever realize. 4.5 stars

THE PULL OF THE STARS by Emma Donoghue

In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders -- Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police , and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. 4 stars.

GERI CHRISTENSEN

IF MORNING EVER COMES by Anne Tyler

Ben Joe Hawkes is a worrier. Raised by his mother, grandmother, and a flock of busy sisters, he's always felt the outsider. When he learns that one of his sisters has left her husband, he heads for home and back into the confusion of childhood memories and unforeseen love.  I found this book to be rather bland and not too exciting, but well written and interesting nonetheless. The ending was predictable but satisfying and the rest was just a confusion of interactions between Ben Joe, his mother, grandmother and sisters and their rather strange and unusual lives. Not easy for him growing up in this household as the only boy with all of these women, but he manages to thrive and makes a life of his own on his own terms.  2.5 stars.

MRS. POLIFAX AND THE WHIRLING DERVISH by Dorothy Gilman

This time Mrs. Polifax is off to Morocco on another assignment from Mr. Carstairs at the CIA. This time she is given 5 different pictures and names of 5 different agents in various cities across the country. Her job is to travel to each place and find the agent and see if he matches the picture she is given. Trouble ensues immediately and she is in danger the entire time she travels across the country in pursuit of the various agents she is to identify. The book is full of the history and geography of Morocco and is the next best thing to taking a trip there and seeing it all in person. It is told in typical "Mrs. Polifax style" as she fends off would-be attackers with her knowledge of karate and flushes out imposters along the way. 4.5 stars.

OUT OF AFRICA: and Shadows on the Grass  by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) 

Out of Africa is Karin Blixen's love letter to the country she called home for nearly 20 years. Arriving in British East Africa (now Kenya) from Denmark in 1914, Blixen--Isak Dinesen was her pen name--was immediately seduced by the landscape of the Ngong hill country, not to mention the animals and people who inhabited it. Her descriptions bring this wonderland alive for readers: Out on safari, she recalls the movements of a group of giraffes, "in their queer, inimitable, vegetative gracefulness, as if it were not a herd of animals but a family of rare, long-stemmed, speckled gigantic flowers slowly advancing." Blixen laces into her reverie the account of her coffee plantation--which ultimately succumbed to high altitude, droughts, and tumbling international coffee prices--and tales of her friendships with other colonials in Nairobi. But one should read her memoir for the stories she tells of cooking with her Kikuyu chef (who almost never ate any of the European delicacies he so expertly created), adopting an abandoned infant antelope, flying over the countryside in her lover's plane--"the greatest, most transporting pleasure of my life on the farm"--and watching the children of her tenant farmers collect at her house each day at noon for the spectacle of her cuckoo clock.

Though some of her references to native Africans will likely make some people uncomfortable, Blixen can also be perceptive, particularly in her articulation of the differences between European and African culture and her excitement over what she learns from "her" Africans. It is not long before she is attuned to the rhythms of nature: she can foresee when the rains will come, can spot the new moon before anyone else on the farm, and knows exactly what the silence of night should sound like. Though her sorrow is almost unbearably palpable when at last--after the collapse of the farm, the loss of her lover, and the war looming--Blixen leaves Africa, the reader will close the book richer for her sojourn. 4.5 stars

BETH HEDENGREN

THE LIGHTHOUSE by P.D. James

A secure and secluded retreat for the rich and powerful becomes the setting for an unsettling series of murders. 
Combe Island off the Cornish coast is a restful haven for the elite. But when one of its distinguished visitors is found hanging from the island’s famous lighthouse in what appears to have been a murder, the peace is shattered. Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called in to handle the sensitive case, but at a difficult time for him and his depleted team. He is uncertain about his future with his girlfriend Emma Lavenham; his principle detective Kate Miskin is going through an emotional crisis; and the ambitious Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is not happy about having a female boss. After a second brutal killing, the whole investigation is jeopardized, and Dalgliesh is faced with a danger even more insidious than murder.

THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean

On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who?

Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.

In the “exquisitely written, consistently entertaining” (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.

“A book lover’s dream…an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country.

MARLENE MATHESON

CARNEGIE'S MAID by Marie Benedict

Clara Kelley is not who they think she is. She's not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh's grandest households. She's a poor farmer's daughter with nowhere to go and nothing in her pockets. But the woman who shares her name has vanished, and assuming her identity just might get Clara some money to send back home.

Clara must rely on resolve as strong as the steel Pittsburgh is becoming famous for and an uncanny understanding of business, attributes that quickly gain her Carnegie's trust. But she still can't let her guard down, not even when Andrew becomes something more than an employer. Revealing her past might ruin her future―and her family's.

With captivating insight and heart, Carnegie's Maid is a book of fascinating 19th century historical fiction. Discover the story of one brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie's transformation from ruthless industrialist to the world's first true philanthropist.

YES TO LIFE by Viktor E. Frankl

Eleven months after he was liberated from the Nazi concentration camps, Viktor E. Frankl held a series of public lectures in Vienna. The psychiatrist, who would soon become world famous, explained his central thoughts on meaning, resilience, and the importance of embracing life even in the face of great adversity.

Published here for the very first time in English, Frankl’s words resonate as strongly today—as the world faces a coronavirus pandemic, social isolation, and great economic uncertainty—as they did in 1946. He offers an insightful exploration of the maxim “Live as if you were living for the second time,” and he unfolds his basic conviction that every crisis contains opportunity. Despite the unspeakable horrors of the camps, Frankl learned from the strength of his fellow inmates that it is always possible to “say yes to life”—a profound and timeless lesson for us all.

WHO WAS FREDERICK DOUGLASS? by April Jones Smith

Born into slavery in Maryland in 1818, Frederick Douglass was determined to gain freedom--and once he realized that knowledge was power, he secretly learned to read and write to give himself an advantage. After escaping to the North in 1838, as a free man he gave powerful speeches about his experience as a slave. He was so impressive that he became a friend of President Abraham Lincoln, as well as one of the most famous abolitionists of the nineteenth century. Not nearly as good as the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

SAINTS, Book I