Remembrance by Rita Woods

Once Upon a Book Club - February 2020
Debut

Interesting novel with a touch of home for me. The intersecting lives and timelines of Abigail, Margot, Winter and Gaelle with much of the story taking place in Ohio (Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ashtabula).

Summary from Goodreads: 
Remembrance…It’s a rumor, a whisper passed in the fields and veiled behind sheets of laundry. A hidden stop on the underground road to freedom, a safe haven protected by more than secrecy…if you can make it there.

Ohio, present day. An elderly woman who is more than she seems warns against rising racism as a young woman grapples with her life.

Haiti, 1791, on the brink of revolution. When the slave Abigail is forced from her children to take her mistress to safety, she discovers New Orleans has its own powers.

1857 New Orleans—a city of unrest: Following tragedy, house girl Margot is sold just before her 18th birthday and her promised freedom. Desperate, she escapes and chases a whisper.... Remembrance

I enjoyed each of the characters and their individual tragic journeys. I struggled slightly with the "magical realism" of Remembrance. Not the individual talents per se but with the Edge. And the final chapter left me a little perplexed regarding Gaelle's loss. 

Yet, overall this was a book I was reluctant to put down and I look forward to picking up Ms. Woods next book should she continue writing.

 White Rage by Carol Anderson

October/November Social Justice Book Club

Well, if this book set out to make me angry, it certainly did that! I have spent much of my life in ignorance of systemic racism. Partly from my white privilege and growing up in small-town white Ohio suburb and partly from being disinterested in politics and detailed history. This journey I am undertaking to become anti-racist is opening my eyes and the truths I'm learning are shocking and heartbreaking. I am sorry I did not embark on this sooner.

Some of the history I learned by reading Ms. Anderson's book was a repeat from what I discovered in The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (see review from August 29, 2020). Yet there was so much more.

From President Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson whose presidency almost took the country back to pre-Civil War times; to the Supreme Court's decisions over the decades that stripped Black Americans of hard won Civil Rights by rulings that made landmark decisions (Brown v. Board of Education), longstanding Constitutional Amendments and legislation (1965 Voting Rights Act) practically moot; to Nixon and Reagan who pushed racist propaganda portraying black men as dangerous criminals; the Reagan Administration which brought drugs to black communities in the Iran-Contra affair while declaring a "War on Drugs" and punishing the very people they were supplying the drugs to; to the intense racism and hatred President Obama endured during his presidency even as he promoted programs that continued the system of racism in our country.

Now that I have finally taken off my rose-colored, white privilege glasses, I will continue to read books like this so that I can truly be anti-racist and be an ally. This is the only way that we can bring about real change and the United States can become a country that we are all proud of.

Quotes: "Bradley saw equal treatment for black people as favoritism."

"Black prosperity and success - indeed, black intelligence - were unimaginable and, thus justified the disparate funding in education that had led to abysmal schools and made the brutality of the criminal justice system necessary."

"...peace was based on black people quietly and gracefully accepting the fact that they had no right to their rights."

"'Whiteness defends itself. Against change, against progress, against hope, against black dignity, against black lives, against reason, against truth, against facts, against native claims, and against its own laws and customs.'"

 King Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

I do recall reading this play back in college and focusing on the foil characters of Hal and Hotspur as well as the comedic Falstaff, but I had forgotten most of the plot.

The Prince (Hal) has quite the elaborate scheme to play the irresponsible King's son until the appropriate time that he comes forth and shows what he's made of and everyone will adore him for it.  Meanwhile Hotspur is the son the King dreams of - responsible, driven, battle-strong. He is single-minded though in his ambition for success. Dismissing his wife and calling out his father for the audacity to fall ill the morning of a battle instead of showing concern:

IV.1 Hotspur: "Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick

In such a jostling time?"

What I love most about the Shakespeare plays is the language - the coined phrases, the insults and the insight.

I.3. Northumberland: "Before the game is afoot thou shall let'st slip."

(and you thought it was Doyle's Sherlock that came up with that one!)

II.4. Falstaff: "'Sblood, you starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's-tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish - O for breath to utter what is like thee! - you tailor's yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck."

I.2. Prince:"...If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;

But when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,

And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents."

V.4. Hotspur: "They wound my thoughts worse that thy sword my flesh;

But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time's fool,

And time, that takes survey of all the world,

Must have a stop."

 American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Rarely do I review a book that is from my book club (don't ask me why, I don't know), but I felt compelled to do so with this one. I think primarily because the controversy surrounding the book is as important as the book itself.

I found the book to be a riveting piece of fiction. The author portrays not only a fictionalized migrant story but she also touches on the arrests at the border and separation of families as well as the deportation of immigrants who have been living in the United States for years. Who have been following the rules of our broken system only to have their lives destroyed by a change in attitude of those in power.

The controversy surrounding the book is just as important as the story of immigration. Watch the conversation on this Youtube video 

Be open minded to the discussion. If you are white (like myself) put aside your bias and your defensiveness and LISTEN. I didn't agree with everything the panel said as I do recognize the book is a work of fiction so it is not necessary to hold it to a higher standard of authenticity, but I do agree with the anger regarding the disparity in the publishing world. Pay attention to the pie chart in the Youtube video which shows the severe lack of BIPOC authors being published.

This is also the conversation that must be had and the push for change that should come from this book and the controversy surrounding it. As readers we can demand that booksellers and publishers promote more authors of color so that we can truly experience more diverse reading.

 The Last Piece - Imogen Clark                                                                                    (NEWEST ON TBR)

The lives of the 4 Hardcastle women.

 Cecily and her secret - why did she leave for Greece and did not tell her 3 daughters.

And then the ordinary lives of her daughters.    Definitely chck lit.  

Goodreads:

A sudden departure. A story decades in the making.

The chaotic but happy equilibrium of the Nightingale family is thrown into disarray when Cecily—whose children can’t remember her ever being remotely spontaneous—disappears to a Greek island with no warning or explanation.

Her reasons for doing something so out of character are a total mystery to her three daughters, high-powered executive Felicity, unfulfilled GP Julia and organised mother-of-five Lily. What connection could she possibly have with Kefalonia?

But Cecily has gone to continue a story she thought ended decades ago—one that could have a huge impact on her family. And when she returns, she’ll have to tell them the truth.

Will Cecily be able to hold her family together once she reveals her big secret? And might she discover that she’s not the only one with a story to tell?

 A Grave Talent - Laurie R. King                                                   #monthykeywordchallenge -Oct.

I love Laurie R. King's series about Mary Russel and Sherlock Holmes.  Her descriptive writing takes me all over the world but for some reason it did not work for me in this book.

"A Grave Talent" was Ms. King's debut novel and it is the first in her Kate Martenelli series. Maybe it is just me or where my head is at but the descriptive writing in this detective story just bogged me down.   In time, I may try the aother case with Kate.  

Goodreads summary:

This gripping debut of the Kate Martinelli mystery series won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery, generating wide critical acclaim and moving Laurie R. King into the upper tier of the genre. As "A Grave Talent" begins, the unthinkable has happened in a small community outside of San Francisco. A string of shocking murders has occurred, each victim an innocent child. For Detective Kate Martinelli, just promoted to Homicide and paired with a seasoned cop who's less than thrilled to be handed a green partner, it's going to be a difficult case. Then the detectives receive what appears to be a case-breaking lead: it seems that one of the residents of this odd, close-knit colony is Vaun Adams, arguably the century's greatest painter of women, a man, as it turns out, with a sinister secret. For behind the brushes and canvases also stands a notorious felon once convicted of strangling a little girl. What really happened on that day of savage violence eighteen years ago? To bring a murderer to justice, Kate must delve into the artist's dark past -- even if she knows it means losing everything she holds dear

 Crippen, A Novel of Murder by John Boyne

2020 Keyword Challenge - October (Haunt, Around, Shadow, Grave, MURDER, Deep)
Historical Fiction

I was completely unaware of the true story of Dr. Hawley Crippen which was brought to life in a novel of great suspense by the talented John Boyne.

I was a little perplexed by Crippen's character but it was resolved for me in the end. But there were some other not quite believable moments in the book that I will let you discern for yourself so as I don't give anything away.

Summary from Goodreads: July 1910: A gruesome discovery has been made at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden.

Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard did not expect the house to be empty. Nor did he expect to find a body in the cellar. Buried under the flagstones are the remains of Cora Crippen, former music-hall singer and wife of Dr. Hawley Crippen. No one would have thought the quiet, unassuming Dr. Crippen capable of murder, yet the doctor and his mistress have disappeared from London, and now a full-scale hunt for them has begun.

Across the Channel in Antwerp, the S.S. Montrose has just set off on its two-week voyage to North America. Slipping in among the first-class passengers is a Mr. John Robinson, accompanied by his teenage son, Edmund. The pair may be hoping for a quiet, private voyage, but in the close confines of a luxury ocean liner, anonymity is rare. And with others aboard looking for romance, or violence, or escape from their past in Europe, it will take more than just luck for the Robinsons to survive the voyage unnoticed.

Quote:"...she had considered buying a dozen new novels and secluding herself in her room for the entire voyage..." (Ah, my idea of a wonderful vacation!)

 Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

Another of the Bard's "problem plays", the problem is that its an unfunny comedy!

I did actually like this problem play and the display of the corruption and hypocrisy of those in power. Hmmm, sound familiar? 

Just goes to show the timelessness of Shakespeare's works.

Some of my favorite quotes:

I.4

Lucio: "Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win

by fearing to attempt."

II.2

Isabella: "How would you be

If He, which is the top of judgment, should 

But judge you as you are? O, think on that;

And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made."

II.2

Isabella: "O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength! But it is tyrannous

To use it like a giant."

V.1

Duke:" Silence that fellow. I would he had some cause

To prattle for himself."

Lucio: "He was drunk, then, my lord; it can be no better."

Duke: "For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too!"

 The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Once Upon a Book Club - November 2019
Guilty Pleasure

I'm not quite sure what I think about this one. There was a definite creepiness factor that kept me reading well into the night with all the lights on. But the title was slightly deceiving, there were a couple loose ends and you had to pay close attention to the narrators and timelines as they were constantly changing.

Overall, it wasn't a bad book, but while I'm not completely sold on Jewell I'm also not giving up on her either.

Summary from Goodreads:

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

 The Long Flight Home by Alan Hlad

Once Upon a Book Club - July 2019
Debut

A WWII book told from a different angle - from the sky!

A historical fiction story (with a bit of romance) based on the true story of homing pigeons being used during the war to transmit intelligence.

Sometimes we forget the animal sacrifices of the wars and the heart of these animals that don't even understand their purpose (or do they?)

The alternating chapters kept the story moving and kept the reader on the edge of their seat!

Summary from Goodreads: 
It is September 1940—a year into the war—and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. After losing her parents to influenza as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. All her birds are extraordinary to Susan—loyal, intelligent, beautiful—but none more so than Duchess. 

Thousands of miles away in Buxton, Maine, a young crop-duster pilot named Ollie Evans has decided to travel to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. His quest brings him to Epping and to the National Pigeon Service, where Susan is involved in a new, covert assignment. Codenamed Source Columba, the mission aims to air-drop hundreds of homing pigeons in German-occupied France. Many will not survive. Those that do make the journey home to England can convey crucial information on German troop movements—and help reclaim the skies from the Luftwaffe.

 All's Well that Ends Well by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

This was not one of my favorites - an unfunny comedy. Though it is a bawdy one!

I.1. Parolles: "Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up; marry, in blowing him down again....

Of course, some famous and some poignant quotes:

I.1 Countess: "Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none;..."

II.1 Helena: "...Great floods have flown

From simple sources, and great seas have dried

When miracles have by the greatest been denied.

Oft expectation fails, and most oft there

Where most it promises; and oft it hits

Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits."

II.3 King: "Strange is it that our bloods,

Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,

Would quite confound distinction..."

IV.3. Second Lord: "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn,

good and ill together. Our virtues would be proud if our

faults whipt them not; and our crimes would despair if

they were not cherish'd by our virtues."

and Diana calls out the player Bertram:

IV.2 Diana"...but when you have our roses

You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,

And mock us with our bareness."

Burning Marguerite - Elizabeth Inness-Brown                                                                 (Oldest on TBR)

This was an enjoyable read.  Iwas surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did since character development stories are not a favorite of mine,

I liked Marguerite and learning about her life. Her love for a young son and his love for her.  

Goodreads:

A haunting weave of lives, secrets, and memo-ries--a powerful work of psychological suspense and emotional intensity.
Waking to the chill of a snow-cloaked morning, carpenter James Jack Wright finds ninety-four-year-old Marguerite Deo lying dead in the woods outside his cabin. As he confronts the mystery of her death--why would Marguerite, his "Tante" since his infancy, walk out into the cold winter night?--an unexpected tale unfolds, moving from the present back to James Jack's childhood, to New Orleans during the Depression and World War II, and finally to a windswept New England island at the turn of the century. At the heart of the story are a forbidden love, a violent crime kept secret for years, and above all, Marguerite's relationship with a little boy named James Jack, a bond that deepens after a terrible accident changes both their lives forever.
"Burning Marguerite" is a debut novel of rare depth and artistry.
 

 The Sixth Idea by P .J. Tracy                                                                                  My "Y" author

Monkeewrench cres is called in when  a couple of eldery men go missing and a coup[le of radom men are shot.  Also a young woman is being hunted.

A good mystery as usual.  It was nice visiting the Monkeewrench crew again.