AUGUST 2024

 Hello all and Happy Labor Day!

We met last August 22nd at Beth Hedengren's home.  We were few in number, but had a wonderful discussion of books among other things.  Here is the list from those who were there and some who were not.

SUE DE MARTINI

"Before It's Gone" by Jonathan Vigliotti, CBS national news correspondent. Stories from the front lines of climate change. Well researched, Personal stories of people affected. Good history. I learned a lot. Highly Recommend 5*

"American Flannel" by Steven Kurutz, a Features reporter for the NY Times. Documentary of individuals who are working to bring goods once produced entirely in the US back to the US, such as flannel shirts and socks. Interesting read. I felt inspired to buy food produced locally or in the US and to be more conscious of where my clothing purchases are produced.

"The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and their Last Chance" by Elizabeth Letts. A woman in her 60s sells her farm in Maine, buys a horse and sets off to ride across the US to California during the 1950s. Delightful true story. She is helped along the way by many caring, generous people. 4.5*

A series of books by William Kent Krueger. "This Tender Land" and "Ordinary Grace" are stand alone books. Both good reads. 

I've spent several months reading his other books in a series of crime novels involving the sheriff (Cork O'Connor) of a small town in Minnesota that abuts a Native American reservation. Interesting characters that figure in multiple books. The sheriff has a family whose wife and children are sometimes involved in the plots. I DID NOT LIKE book 8 "Red Knife". The books can be read in sequence but that's not necessary..

MARLENE MATHESON

**The Great Influenza by John M Barry - 3rd or 4th revision, including current information about Covid 19. It covers pandemics, deaths, healthcare improvements over past 100 years.

**Salt to the Sea by Ruda Sepetys -hist novel: individual stories of several WWII refugees, sinking of the largest maritime disaster: the Wilhelm Gustoff

***Ode to Grapefruit by Karl Lovelle - Short children’s illustrated book about James Earl Jones as a child with a stutter. Because his peers made fun of him he stopped talking for several years. The meter of poetry was the thing that helped him improve.

Don’t Die with your music still in you by Serena Dyer, tells things she learned from her father, Dr Wayne Dyer. Some good things but I didn’t like some of his philosophies.

KARLA COX

Where Coyotes Howl by Sandra Dallas

I’m going to quit reading Sandra Dallas books; they’re too solidly sad. This started as a happy love story in frontier Wyoming, but ended with abject sorrow and no redeeming message. 

Yes, there are worthwhile lessons in the story; and it is an ode to the American west in its painful early days. But when the main message is that God is unkind and unfair, I’m done. Unless you’re into that, I can’t recommend this book.  I will say that the audio book’s reader did an excellent job. And Sandra Dallas was true to her talent. 

As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner

The historical focus of this Susan Meisner wonder is the so-called Spanish Flu, 1918-1920(?), thus named simply because Spain, neutral at this point in WWI, spoke openly about the international pandemic.  The main character has a constant companion: Death. Her daughters also tell the story, of life on a rural tobacco farm, then at a mortuary in Philadelphia. Sickness, loss, and sorrow are pervasive, but there is, as with all of Meissner’s historical fiction, also goodness and a message of meaning. Chapter 35 is especially meaningful, as it conveys not only the character’s belief in eternity and eternal families, but also the author’s. Beautifully portrayed and touchingly voiced in the audio book, the author’s joy is conveyed as almost chiasma at the center of the book. It continues to unfold into a surprising and remarkable (though fictional) story, that is summed up by more than one of the characters: “We are all doing the best we can with what life hands us.” 

I sure do love Susan Meissner’s books! 

The Maid  by Nita Prose

“Molly Gray is not like everyone else.” Oh my, how many of us know someone like that? 

I almost didn’t continue this book, because it’s so hard to view life through the eyes of someone who is neurodivergent. (And most of us are, or love someone who is.) Yet that’s what makes this story incredible. Nita Prose stays true to her characterizations, and develops a flawless story, with an unexpected ending. A great book! 

One of our Own  by Lucinda Berry

An exciting, horrifying book that’s published as an audio book only. Unfolding like an old-time radio show, this is a very modern, timely story of suicide prevention, parental fear and concern, and psychopathy. Definitely not a feel-good story, it is nevertheless informative. But it’s also haunting and horrible to think about. I’m grateful my children are grown, and I will urge my children even more vehemently than I have already, to tune in to their children, believe them, and punish them appropriately when necessary. 

The Paris Daughter  by Kristin Harmel

This, another WWII based-on-history fictional story, is a sort of followup to The Book of Lost Names, also by Kristin Harmel.  It’s also a hard one to capsulize into a brief review, at least for me. It’s a story about two American women, married to French men, who had baby girls within days of each other. They became best friends and made promises to each other. But war and tragedy make those promises so difficult to keep… 

It’s a beautiful story about coping with tragedy, clinging to hope, and about a mother’s incomparable love. READ IT. (Or listen to it, which is also often wonderful.) 

Note: at the end, Ms Harmel shares historical insights, and also invites book lovers to her site, “Friends and Fiction”.  I’ll be looking it up. 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Thank you for this recommendation, JoAnn! It is, in the eloquent words of the review, “a brilliantly realistic journey back to and era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful.” Lisa See lets us view 19th Century China, with its strange and often baffling customs, as though we are there. 

In the Hunan province, when women’s feet were bound and broken, and they suffered immensely in the name of male-motivated beauty, they found other, sometimes secret ways to bond with other women, often for a lifetime. This honest, lyrical, painful story is another in a growing list of beautiful stories that make me ever-more grateful for my life. 

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose 

Sequel to The Maid, this unique and fun story provides another mess to clean up, another murder to solve. And Molly Gray, a young woman on the high end of neurodivergence, is highly qualified for both. Just the light-hearted follow-up that I needed. 

Generations by Jean M Twenge

An unbelievably informative book about the six generations that currently inhabit the U.S. - Greatest, Silents, Boomers, Gen Xs, Millennials, Gen Zs, along with some info about the upcoming generaration known as Alphas, also Polars. She highlights how they interact, differ, clash and coincide. 

Ms Twenge, through exhaustive research, upends the notion that generations differ and develop because of major events, and are instead formed by changes in technology. By analyzing data from national surveys involving 39 million people, she outlines key shifts in attitudes and lifestyle choices that define each generation: gender and gender roles, sexuality, income, politics, race, marriage, mental health, and more. Surprising and fascinating, there were far more helpful insights than I could possibly name. A high recommend. 

MARYANN STEVENS

Someone Else’s Shoes by JoJo Moyes 2️ Necias husband kicks her out of the penthouse & cancels all her credit card. Samantha has closed 3 great deals for the company wearing Necias expensive very high heels because she picked up the wrong gym bag but her boss can only focus on the one deal she didn’t get. Too negative. Returned early. 

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

 0 ️. I cannot recommend. I read Manhattan Beach by same author earlier & it was really good but this one was junk. 

Window on my World by Susan Meissner 3️ Christian fiction. I was unimpressed. 

The Hello Girls 3️ the real story of the WWI telephone operators who served on the battlefield in France who were denied veterans status until President Jimmy Carter. lots of facts. An uninteresting narratIon.

JO ANN ABEGGLEN  - TBA

BETH HEDENGREN  - TB A

GERI CHRISTENSEN

THE MAID by Nita Prose.  This was an excellent narration and great mystery.  The narrator, a hotel maid in a swank hotel in downtown NYC, discovers a body while on her rounds and becomes embroiled in the cat and mouse game that ensues.  Due to her OCD and Autism, she becomes more and more aware of her limitations but also discovers a tremendous inner strength along the way.  Thoroughly enjoyable read. 4 Stars.

SLEEPING BEAUTY by Ross MacDonald

A Lew Archer novel that takes place in LA in the 1950's. The story wasn't great, but the writing was amazing. He is known as one of the greatest mystery writers of all time and a master in the use of similes. I heartily agree with the latter. It was pure enjoyment to read one simile after another and wonder how he ever came up with so many that were so perfect to the situation. 3 Stars

MRS. POLIFAX AND THE CHINA STATION and A PALM FOR MRS. POLIFAX by Dorothy Gilman

These are my favorite "escape" books. I never tire of Emily Polifax and her amazing exploits as a CIA courier. Pure fun to read.  4 stars.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID by Bill Bryson

I cannot recommend this book enough, especially for anyone who remembers the marvelous 1950's and the wonderful freedom kids had. This is a memoir written by Mr. Bryson that tells about his hilarious childhood growing up in Des Moines, Iowa.  I absolutely loved it and laughed all the way through.  5 stars..