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Andrea Kay's Bookshelf
Rise and Climb: Finding Purpose Through Pain
Ben Barbic
Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
9781510786080, $28.99, HC, 264pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Climb-Finding-Purpose-Through/dp/1510786082
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rise-and-climb-ben-barbic/1147926486
Synopsis: From wild childhood rides on dirt bikes to nights in jail and the silent heartbreak of watching everything he
loved burn to the ground, Ben Barbic has lived a life shaped by trauma, trial, and tenacity. "Rise and Climb: Finding
Purpose Through Pain" is his raw, unfiltered memoir of a boy who lost it all (twice) and found purpose through pain.
Growing up in the shadow of California redwoods and inside the roar of a motorcycle shop, Ben's early life was defined by
adventure and grit. But after losing his home to a wildfire, living in a trailer without running water, and battling panic
attacks and loss, Ben turned to the only things that gave him power -- music, movement, and resilience. Through cassette
tapes, weight benches scorched by fire, and the soul of hip-hop and reggae, Ben began to rebuild. He became a nationally
performing recording artist, an endurance athlete, and a proud father, husband, and entrepreneur.
Unflinchingly honest, heart-wrenchingly personal, and ultimately triumphant, "Rise and Climb" is a memoir and self-help
book for anyone who has ever faced the fire and wondered if they could survive it. Ben Barbic shares his journey, his tools,
and his motivations to show his readers that they can, too.
Critique: Compelling, inspiring, memorable, deftly crafted, and a simply fascinating read from start to finish, "Rise and
Climb: Finding Purpose Through Pain" by Ben Barbic is the extraordinary account of an extraordinary life. Exceptionally
well written, organized and presented, "Rise and Climb" is an unreservedly recommended pick for personal reading lists,
as well as community and college/university library Contemporary American Biography/Memoir collections. It should be
noted that this hardcover edition of "Rise and Climb" from Skyhorse Publishing is also readily available in a digital book
format (Kindle, $16.99).
Editorial Note: Ben Barbic is a recording artist, music producer, author, entrepreneur, and lifelong fitness enthusiast.
Known for his fusion of hip-hop, reggae, and acoustic music, Barbic has collaborated with Grammy-winning artists and
toured internationally, creating music that inspires resilience and unity. Beyond the stage and the page, Barbic is the
co-owner of a real estate brokerage and mentors others to pursue excellence in their fields. Whether he's producing music,
training for endurance races, or writing his next book, Barbic approaches every challenge with the same core belief: the
climb is the reward. "Rise and Climb" is his first book.
Andrea Kay
Reviewer
Ann Skea's Bookshelf
Swallow
Alexandria Burnham
https://www.faucetfictions.com
WestWords Books
9781923044524, $26.00 PB 493pp.
Harry Hartog
https://www.harryhartog.com.au/products/swallow-burnham-alexandria-9781923044524
They called me nine-nine-nine. Swallow was the name I preferred. I'd not been born with it; I'd taken it for myself.
But he was called other things, too: convict 323, Captain Walker, William Brown, John Wilkinson, and his birth name, William Walker. Each name served a purpose, confusing those who would have hanged him for breaking and entering property, theft, absconding from imprisonment, mutiny and piracy. One historian has called him 'probably the greatest escape artist in the history of British prisons'.
Alexandria Burnham's novel takes his chosen name and his voice, and immerses the reader in the mutiny he instigated aboard the Cyprus, which was on its way from Hobart to Sarah Island, on the west coast of Tasmania.
Waiting in irons to be embarked on the ship with a group of second offenders, Swallow (William hates his first name and rarely uses it) tells us first about the Cyprus:
Bright red copper sheathed her hull. The metal shone like newly plated armour; a sun-kissed breastplate against the ocean parasites... A fresh line of yellow painted along her hull accentuated her nine portholes. She bore her stripes, just like the rest of us... She was a sturdy ship, not a woman of frivolity.
Yet, as he notes that she will sail for Sarah Island with 19 convicts, 12 slack sailors, a drunken captain, ten ill-equipped soldiers, and three military wives with infants, he decides that the Cyprus, in spite of her beauty and her dignity, is 'a lady of loose morals indeed' and ripe for takeover.
What follows is a story full of the devious planning, execution, excitement and horrors that attend the mutiny that Swallow instigates aboard the Cyprus, but full, too, of the dangers, terrors, and horrors experienced by the small group of mostly inexperienced sailors, sailing the Cyprus in wild weather and treacherous seas, with only Swallow experienced enough to chart their way to freedom.
This could have been a piratical sea-saga like many others, but Swallow's life is so full of extraordinary events, and he tells it so vividly, that it is hard to believe it is all true. Alexandria Burnham, however, has worked closely with court documents and other historical records, and in her Author's Note she declares that she has tried 'to be as true to the life as possible', although 'new research and discoveries about William's story' are still coming to light, and William himself does not help.
The joy of working with William's direct testimonies is that I am dealing with a man who lied to authorities at almost every opportunity. And he was smart about it. He'd tell as much of the truth as possible, and only at key moments would he bend the truth in his favour.
I've worked hard to catch and understand most of his lies... But the bastard still trips me up, and has me second-guessing all of my notes.
She admits, however, that she and William have 'something in common. We take the lies, and spin plots from them.'
And what plots! Alexandria's Notes are extensive and almost as fascinating to read as her novel. In Swallow, her characters (all but one) are real, the events are real, the dangers and terrors are real, and, because she quotes testimonies, she captures Swallow's tone, his 'bluster', his character and his voice convincingly.
As Swallow tells of the mutiny and the events that follow, he remembers his early life in Sunderland, the six years he spent on the ship (a collier) that he joined at the age of 13, then being press-ganged into the navy - 'cornered for war':
For two years we chased cargo schooners, made flotsam of war galleons, stalking the trade routes out of New York. The screams and splinters of each sea battle were etched into my memory.
After three years he is discharged from the navy and joins the Liberty, a brig that he pilots along the English coast. Then, lured by 'more exhilarating routes', he takes a 'technical demotion' and becomes first mate on the Florida. This 'new lady' becomes his second home for five years until she is dashed to pieces in a storm in the Mediterranean. His wages and his prospects sunk, he returns to his beloved wife, Sarah, in Sunderland, but he can find no work because of the number of unemployed discharged navy men there.
His first theft is impulsive. Seeing unattended crates on the dock, bursting with supplies, he picks up a roll of cloth, tucks it boldly under his arm, and walks off. It is so easy that he does it again. 'Temptation became habits,' he comments, and thieving is common: 'petty larceny was the most popular career in Sunderland'. But breaking and entering, which he goes on to do, is a hanging offence. For the first time, caught and brought before the magistrate, he manages to confuse the jury, and is sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen's Land for seven years. And for the first time, he manages to escape - but the way he does it is so bizarre that it seems impossible. Historical research confirms it.
Twice he is sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen's Land. The second time, on the Georgiana, he is allowed to work as a sailmaker, and he learns that 'she is a brooding lady with many secrets and nooks'. Allowed to stay on as a sailmaker, he hears that she is about to sail for Sydney, hauling supplies, so he secretes himself aboard.
Stowed away in the hold... I'd begged her. I whispered for her to unfurl her wings and rid us both of Hobart Town. But all I summoned was stormy weather and an unbearable pain in my knees. The storm re-scheduled her launch, and a second search of the hold was conducted.
The soldiers found him and he should have been executed, but again he manages to talk his way out of it, and is sentenced to hard labour on Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour, a sentence notorious for being 'worse than death'. So, the mutiny is planned.
On the Cyprus, having taken the ship and put ashore the sailors, the soldiers and the wives and children, the convicts, only three of them with any seamanship experience, must sail the ship through treacherous seas while risking capture at any time. Swallow is the only one able to navigate the ship, and he must do it without the chronometer, which had been smuggled away by someone they put ashore. He has only the sun and stars to plot a course, and is constantly worried that he will make a disastrous error. There are failures, tensions, fallings-out, and a second mutiny, the seeds of which are sown by Leslie Ferguson, who constantly challenges Swallow for leadership of the men.
Later, to avoid identification, the Cyprus is repainted, her figurehead sawn off, and a new name must be chosen. But 'the naming of ships isn't a process to be rushed', Swallow tells two of his shipmates, but a call from the weatherdeck tells him it is already done.
Herring pointed to the ship's starboard quarter. 'Just finished.'
I stared. 'But no decision's been made.'
Herring shrugged.
I hurried to the rail. Sure enough the elegant calligraphy of Cyprus, London, had been painted over by the infant scrawl of Friends, Boston.
'Friends? The Friends? Christ man, that's a disgrace.'
'We thought it'd bode well,' Herring said.
'Merciful buggering hell! Paint over it!'
But the paint is all gone, so now they have to impersonate American sailors. Swallow brushes up his Boston accent, but to no avail when they meet another ship, and his fast talking has to save them again. So the Friends sails on.
Two themes recur throughout Swallow's story. His love of Sarah and his determination to return to her; and his love of an old shipmate, John Wilkinson, whose voice guides him, although he is now dead and who, so Swallow says, had ultimately betrayed him. This remains a mystery, although John clearly played an essential part in the piracy that is described by Swallow to his crew in instalments. Being an expert storyteller, Swallow breaks off each episode at a critical moment to attend to the ship, but he does eventually get around to telling them about the reported cannibalism. However, we do not learn how Swallow came to suffer the 'one hundred and fifty' lashes which scar his back. Nor do we know what ultimately happens to the Cyprus (as Swallow still calls her) and to Swallow and his crew. Of course, one can look it up on the internet, but how much more enjoyable it will be to hear Swallow tell us about it in the sequel which is planned for this book. All Alexandria Burham tells us for now, is that Swallow and John Wilkinson meet in 1821:
aboard the Malabar. They are at sea for four months. They are convicts together in Hobart for three months, before they steal the Sunflower alongside Travers and Greenhill. They then abandon the other three men to carry on as a pair... they live together for five months in Sydney as 'free' men under false names - to be precise, they swap names.
This is a tantalising start to another story, and judging by Swallow, it will be well worth waiting for.
The Northern Tomb
Isabelle Li
Puncher & Wattmann
https://puncherandwattmann.com
978192309982, A$34.99 PB, 206pp.
Puncher & Wattmann
https://puncherandwattmann.com/product/the-northern-tomb
This is a slim book with only three voices, but it immerses the reader in every-day life in Northern China where past and recent history still shape it. In 2019, Mr Zao, Sister Fu and Junior are living in Shenyang in Manchuria, an important city, once the capital of China, where successive waves of invasion and conquest have left their mark. Their lives are shaped by traditional customs, just as much as by the laws and conventions of the modern society in which they live, and each has experienced turbulent times, especially 85 year-old Mr Zao:
As I grew older my memory reached further back like the lengthening shadows at sunset. The edges were losing their sharpness, but the shapes remained intact, looming large, vivid as dreams.
....
'The other day, while struggling to fall asleep, I recalled an explosion soon after the Restoration of Light in 1945'
The explosion was caused by the bombing of the local Fengtian ammunition factory by the Russians, prior to their invasion.
In the middle of the night we were woken by violent blasts and stumbled into the courtyard. The entire sky was red, the air scorching. We ran with my mother towards the west and didn't get home until dawn.
Mr Zao has a passion for telling stories and he is a born story-teller. He also has a passion for Peking Opera, and he and Sister Fu often sing together to the photograph of his recently deceased wife. Since he considers it 'an intergenerational obligation to archive' them, his memories surface vividly throughout the book. But although Sister Fu also has a passion for stories, her memories are very different and surface only incidentally as she cares for Mr Zao.
Sister Fu ('sister' is simply a polite form of address), who is a widow of fifty-one and 'past official retirement age', has become Mr. Zao's full-time carer and companion. She comes from a very different background to him. His earliest ancestors had been Manchus of quite high status, some of whom has become caretakers of three Quing Dynasty mausoleums, including the Northern Tomb of the emperor Huang Taiji on the outskirts of Shenyang. He grew up in a large family, his mother caring for everyone; and his father, an opium smoker, had friends in administrative positions, and would take him to the theatre.
Sister Fu, on the other hand, has memories of growing up in a shared mud house in the Black River country on the Russian border. There, she herded pigs, chopped wood and cut grass, while her grandmother with bound feet chased and killed chickens in the backyard. She has nightmares about her older cousin, who had molested her until she was eleven and her family moved away. And at the age of nineteen, she had become pregnant by another man and had run away from home, rejected by her parents. In Shenyeng, she had fortuitously met her generous and unusual husband, a lover of books and poetry, a love that she had inherited. She met Mr Zao when she was working as a cleaner of the Senior Officer's Ward, where he was being treated for a broken shoulder. He had refused to have the required professional carer, and had been impressed by Sister Fu's careful habits and thoughtfulness, so he asks her to become his full-time carer, at twice the sum she earns at the hospital
The arrangement suits both of them, and is agreed to by Sister Fu's adult son, Dawei, a computer engineer who still lives with her. He plans to stay on in her small flat and look after himself, although his mother suspects that he will 'live on takeaways, which were nowadays at everyone's fingertips'. After some initial suspicions, it also suits Mr. Zao's son, who is almost the same age as Sister Fu but is referred to throughout the book as 'Junior'.
Junior's early life, too, was drastically affected by cultural changes. In 1983, as a rebellious teenager, he had been arrested under the Severe Strike Anti-crime Campaign after being caught with a knife in a street fight between two groups of boys over ownership of a pigeon. After an horrific time in a detention centre, he was sentenced to twelve years in the Great Northern Prison. There, conditions, although bad, seemed like 'first class accommodation' compared to the detention centre. The influx of prisoners during the Severe Strike were mostly misbehaving students, but there were dangerous criminals there too. The prison is in an 'isolated backwater' and some of the workforce, overworked and underpaid, joked that they themselves 'had been sentenced to life imprisonment as though having committed the worst offences.'
During his time there, Junior makes friends, studies cooking, and becomes largely responsible for organising a Spring Gala on New Year's Eve, which entails earning the respect of two of the most dangerous criminals, rehearsing prisoners, making costumes from any bits-and-bobs they can find, and lastly planning the logistics of seating everyone, including the group of government accredited overseers who chose to attend. When he is released from prison, he keeps in touch with a circle of friends which includes ex prison guards. This network helps him to source scarce medicine when his father eventually catches Covid 19, and to arrange special care for him in the new Chinese Medicine Hospital.
Sister Fu is impressed:
What a room it was! I'd never been in a hotel room but imagined it couldn't be much better than this one, clean and comfortable, furnished with two beds, a television and shelving painted dark green, though with no windows.
Sadly, the hospital system begins to seem draconian, and although Mr Zao keeps insisting he is better and must go home, Junior and doctors disagree.
All these memories are just part of the ordinary lives of Mr Zao, Sister Fu and Junior, who, especially, is besotted with his infant twins and has become their caring and much-loved father.
Sister Fu, spends time with two 'Widow Sisters' she met in the Northern Tomb Park when secretly distributing her husband's ashes under his favourite trees. They practice Tai Chi Sword together, and she learns massage from 'Older Sister', whose in-laws had been 'martial artists'. She remembers the blind masseuses she met when, in her forties, she suffered from neurosis and was sent to a sanatorium;
I went swimming every morning, learnt qigong and meditation, and ate seafood in abundance. The rest of the time I frequented the massage room and made friends with the blind masseuses. They worked in pairs, one massaging, the other knitting, taking turns.
Mr Zao tells of his younger third sister who contracted tuberculosis:
I was surprised when my father, who'd received such an enlightened education, would approve of inviting a shaman to perform a spiritual dance at our home....The shaman was in her thirties, rather striking with prominent features and a dark complexion, a thick plait hanging off her shoulder... she inquired about my sister's sickness, much like a visiting relative. Then she went onto the courtyard, lit a bunch of incense sticks and burnt a roll of paper incantations and spells in a trough.
The shaman goes into a trance, utters nonsensical words and dances, and the ashes of the burnt papers are drunk by his sister, but she does not survive.
Mr Zao's two daughters, who live overseas, keep in touch with him regularly by phone. And at Chinese New Year the youngest organises a familyWeChat meeting on The Festival of the Kitchen God. Sister Fu pastes coloured cut-out red snowflakes to the windows for luck, then spends New Year's Day back at the own flat with her son, opening urns of 40-day-old eggs and pickled cabbage for a feast;
I wiped the dust off the wraps over the urns sitting under the kitchen sill and removed the tying ropes. The grey plastic sheets gave out cracks as they were removed and their creases were opened, like old joints first getting out of bed. The duck eggs inside the ceramic urn were ready, after marinating in brine seasoned with pepper, cinnamon, cumin and ginger. It was a shortcut, but I had no idea where to find yellow mud or plant ashes in the city's concrete forest.
At other times, she and Mr Zao sing Chinese Opera together, and he persuades her to collaborate with him on composing antithetical couplets:
She laughed, shaking her head vigorously as if to loosen her neck. 'No, no, no. I'm not the literary type'. But her eyes opened wide shining.
It's just a matter of exposure. As they say: reciting three hundred Tang poems will make you a poet. Let's give it a try, shall we?
Antithetical couplets, I have learned are complex creations in which a line of poetry is taken and for each character in the line one of opposite meaning is chosen, but the new line must maintain the rhythm and metre of the first line, and provide an appropriate opposite meaning. Creating them is a popular Chinese pastime.
Isabelle Li weaves many aspects of Chinese life, with its long-standing beliefs, superstitions and traditional celebrations, into The Northern Tomb, while bringing each character to life as part of their own family, with all the joys and worries this normally entails. Their various responses and worries about the outbreak of SARS/Covid 19 and the restrictions that affect them, are familiar, but individualistic, and their memories are shared as part of long and eventful lives.
As Mr Zao says, 'My life had been mostly ordinary and uneventful like many other lives', yet he had lived through and been involved in wars, conquests, occupation, havoc, civil war, the Great Famine, the Manchurian Plague, and the Cultural Revolution. Maybe that is 'ordinary' for elderly people in China, and the recent Covid 19 restrictions might seem trivial by comparison. Mr Zao, happily involved in present day life, certainly seem to think so.
Dr Ann Skea, Reviewer
https://ann.skea.com/THHome.htm
Carl Logan's Bookshelf
The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818-1915
Joseph Kelly
Bloomsbury Publishing
www.bloomsbury.com
9781639732111, $33.00, HC, 400pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Biggest-Lie-Prehistory-American-1818-1915/dp/163973211X
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-biggest-lie-joseph-kelly/1148257623
Synopsis: When American fascists suddenly goose-stepped down Main Street in the 1930s, fascism was seen by the rest of the country as a terrifying and radical new European import.
But it wasn't.
It didn't come from abroad. Nor was it new or radical. The seed of American fascism was planted by elite southern planters who insisted that slavery need not be addressed in the Constitution because it would soon die out on its own.
With the publication of "The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818-1915", Professor Joseph Kelly chronicles fascism's deep roots in the antebellum South; its codification under Jim Crow; and, then, after the Spanish American War, its ascendency in the form of Anglo-Saxon nationalism, proposing that the nation belongs to a master-race-the original lie of American fascism.
In this dark hour of American history, Professor Kelly's gripping story reminds us that the monied elite have always excelled at deploying disinformation to bias and inflame the masses, and that there have always been courageous patriots helping us to fight our way out of darkness toward the light.
Critique: A seminal, documented, and groundbreaking study focused on the origin history of fascism in America, "The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818-1915" by Professor Joseph Kelly is an extraordinary and timely contribution to our understanding of American political history and an unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library American History and Political Science collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that this hardcover edition of "The Biggest Lie" from Bloomsbury Publishing is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $23.10).
Editorial Note: Joseph Kelly (https://joseph-kelly.com) is a professor of literature and history at the College of Charleston. He is the author of two other books on American democracy: Marooned and America's Longest Siege. He also wrote Our Joyce: From Outcast to Icon and he edits the popular Seagull Reader anthologies of stories, poems, plays, and essays.
Carl Logan
Reviewer
Clint Travis' Bookshelf
Boldest Scientific Formula of God and Creation
Nathanael-Israel Israel
Science180
https://science180.com
9781969961014, $14.00, PB, 170pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Boldest-Scientific-Formula-God-Creation/dp/1969961015
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/boldest-scientific-formula-of-god-and-creation-nathanael-israel-israel/1149956014
Synopsis: For decades, science has operated under the framework of evolution, the Big Bang, and other theories that do not include a Creator God. Even so, science has helped humankind to address countless problems and improve lives in many ways.
Although some of them were mistaken, religious people have also helped solve many problems.
But with the publication of "Boldest Scientific Formula of God and Creation: Live Better by Quickly Mastering the Only Scientific Theory That Evolution, Big Bang, AI, and Some Religions Desperately Ache You Ignore", Nathanael-Israel Israel shows that we were missing a huge part of the big picture. It's a reminder that science is a process of constant refinement. Now, the real work begins: understanding this new theory so we can keep saving lives.
"Boldest Scientific Formula of God and Creation" offers the only scientific formula that:
Against all odds, shockingly cracked the universe's origin at the demystified crossroads of science and faith.
If understood, could always cause you to get the scientific proof of God's existence right, therefore freeing your mind from wrong assumptions and improving your health.
Solved the biggest question at the intersection of reason and religion and proved that the Earth was formed in 2.82 days, the Moon in 3.32 days, and the Sun in 3.69 days after the universe began, therefore exploding the billions-of-years theory myths.
Destroyed the alleged oil-and-water relationship between faith and science, and helps you save money and time.
Revealed the new approach to rationality and belief that will change your life forever by helping you to discover and demonstrate God scientifically.
Helps you to protect and equip children with an easy-to-understand story of the universe's origin so they can face life challenges with peace of mind.
Atheists and all other freethinkers scrutinize and beg to know more about God.
Scientifically prove which religion or faith is incorrect, and live happily.
For anyone who is genuinely looking for a scientifically verifiable cosmological theory that can be trusted to prove the existence of God, "Boldest Scientific Formula of God and Creation"is the scientific proof unprejudiced scientists and nons-scientists alike have been seeking!
Critique: Original, exceptional, iconoclastic, informative, and thought-provoking, "Boldest Scientific Formula of God and Creation: Live Better by Quickly Mastering the Only Scientific Theory That Evolution, Big Bang, AI, and Some Religions Desperately Ache You Ignore" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended read from start to finish. This paperback edition of "Boldest Scientific Formula of God and Creation: Live Better by Quickly Mastering the Only Scientific Theory That Evolution, Big Bang, AI, and Some Religions Desperately Ache You Ignore" from Science180 is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Metaphysical/Theological Studies collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Dr. Nathanael-Israel Israel (https://www.israel120.com) is known as the first person in the world to discover the mathematical equations that scientifically demonstrated that the Earth was formed 2.82 days, the Moon 3.32 days, and the Sun 3.69 days after the beginning of the universe, therefore confirming the intersection of science and the Biblical account of creation.
Clint Travis
Reviewer
Debra Gaynor's Bookshelf
The Crucible of Wrath
Eddie Price
https://www.eddiepricekentuckyauthor.com
Millers Mill Publishing
9798992372021, $28.95 Hardback
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Crucible-Wrath-Eddie-Price/dp/B0H6RGNZSP
The first book in this series is "Widder's Landing" (the word widder is widow with a Kentucky accent). The second book is "One Drop - A Slave". The third book is "Rebels Abroad". Each book stands well alone, but I do encourage you to read them all in order. The "Crucible of Wrath" picks up where "Rebels Abroad" leaves off.
Winterberry Hall, Severn River, Maryland is the setting. It is July 21, 1751. Our main character is Martin McDonnell. You can't help but like him. He is intelligent, a quick learner, compassionate, devoted and very likeable. He befriends the Indians who teach him how to use a bow and arrow. Martin considers Ishmael his brother and Hephzibah as a mother. He does not look down on them although they are slaves. Father Gregory Carroll invites and encourages young Martin to continue his studies with the Jesuits at White Marsh Plantation.
There are several secondary characters, and each adds much to this tale. Thomas McDonnell is actually Martin's grandfather although Martin looks at him as a father. Father Gregory Carroll is Martin's teacher. (Catholicism was frowned upon and outlawed in the colonies).
Hephzibah and her son Ishmael lived with Thomas and Martin. They lived as a family however; Hephzibah and Ishmael were slaves. Martin loved Hephzibah as if she were his mother and he thought of Ishmael as his brother.
Cornelius Edgeworth owned Winterberry Hall, the plantation; his son Duncan was a spoiled, lazy, pompous brat. Cornelius never told his son no. Duncan was a grown man but filled with anger and hatred. He had no respect for his father. Cornelius purchased an adjoining plantation and intended to give it to his son. It was just one more thing for Duncan to ruin.
The antagonist in this tale is Harold Marston Fitch. Harold played a prominent role in Rebels Abroad. There was little Harold would not do. He seduced women, murdered, stole, and lied. He hated Thomas and blamed him for all his problems. Harold did not realize that Martin was his son.
The Crucible of Wrath is beautifully written. I enjoyed the relationship between Martin, Hephzibah, and Ishmael. The scenes with the Indians were very interesting. They took Martin under their wing and taught him a lot. The scenes where Martin attended school at the Jesuits disturbed me; they pushed him to join the Jesuits. They placed a lot of pressure on him.
As usual, Harold was scheming. He thought he was taking advantage of a woman and her father; however, the schemer met a schemer. Harold's goal in life other than gaining as much gold as possible was to murder Thomas.
The Crucible of Wrath is filled with twists and turns. There is non-stop action. The characters jump off the pages and become friend and foe as you read. The Crucible of Wrath transports and drops you in the middle of life in Maryland during the mid-1700s. This is a book that will stay with you long after you read the last page.
Author Eddie Price is very talented. He has written a very successful children's series "Little Miss Grubby Toes." He has also penned "An Unlikely Trio - the Winners of the 1913 Kentucky Derby." Price is a retired history teacher. Price is a master of mixing historical facts, places, characters, and romance.
Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff
Dana K. White
Thomas Nelson
https://www.thomasnelson.com
9780718080600, $19.99 Paperback, $36.99 - $41.99 Audiobook
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Decluttering-Speed-Life-Winning-Never-Ending/dp/0718080602
Author Dana K White offers hacks, tips and tricks that will assist you in decluttering your home. Often it is not just your home that needs decluttering; it is also your mind. This book can help you understand why you clutter your home. While moving is a good time to declutter your home, you should not have to move to declutter.
I must admit that my decluttering style is a bit different from the author's style, but we accomplish the same. Recently, I began cleaning the attic. I knew everything was in totes, but I also knew there were things that needed to go. The author lists 5 steps for decluttering. 1. Trash, 2. Easy stuff, 3. The duhs, 4. Asking the 2 questions (if I needed this item where would I look for it? + If I needed this item, would I remember having it) 5. Make it fit into a container shelf, box, cupboard, etc.
As I sort through the totes, I have boxes labeled: Trash, Donation, and Keep. Anything in a tote that does is broken or no longer works goes in the trash box. Once it is in the trash box, you cannot remove it. You labeled it trash; it must stay trash. The Donation box is for anything usable but things you do not need. Once an item is in the donation box, it must stay there. I also label a box with the words 6 weeks and the date. I allow myself to open this box if I absolutely have too. If I need something in the box, I can retrieve it. If I go the full 6 weeks without opening the box, then I obviously do not need it so I cannot open it. It becomes a donation box.
The author's style is similar. The whole point is to remove things you do not need. There is no need in hanging on to everything. One of the points the author makes is you can't keep something unless you get rid of something. She also stresses containers. If you have a bookshelf you can only put books on it until you run out of room. Once you are out of room, you must remove something to add something. In your kitchen, you only have a certain amount of cabinet space, once again you must remove something to add something else to the shelf. MS White does stress that the first step is to remove clutter not to organize. MS White stresses containers, such as a bookshelf is a container, a cabinet is a container. She also stresses decluttering what can be seen first. All in all, this is a great book.
I liked most of the concepts and found this book very easy to read and to understand.
Strange Happenings: Spine-Tingling Tales
Avi
Clarion Books
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780063489004, $16.79 library binding, $9.99 Paperback, $3.99 Kindle, $TBA Audiobook
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Happenings-Spine-Tingling-Tales-Avi/dp/0063489007
The genre of the book is Fantasy, Short Stories, Children's, Fiction, Middle Grade, Animals and Young Adult.
I am sure this book will appeal to many children and middle schoolers. However, it did not appeal to me. All five stories are creepy, very creepy. There is a moral to each story, there is also more than a hint of paranormal.
The first story sets the pace for the stories that follow. In the first tale, Bored Tom, we meet a child, a boy who is bored. He stares out the window, he doodles, he daydreams. He hates doing homework. All he wants to do is sleep all day. A cat named Charlie approaches him and starts a conversation. Surprisingly he can understand Charlie when he talks. Charlie becomes the house cat. While Tom went to school Charlie would sleep. Tom was jealous. One day Charlie offered to change places with Tom; Charlie would be human and Tom would be a cat. Tom thought it was a great idea. Charlie took Tom to an old building filled with cats. An old, dirty cat said some kind of spell and Tom became a cat and Charlie became a boy. It didn't take long for Tom to get bored being a cat. He became tired of laying around and sleeping all day. Tom asked Charlie to switch back with him. Tom wanted to be a boy again, but Charlie refused. Charlie explained that he was a boy that was tricked into switching places with a cat. Charlie got tired of being a cat, so he tricked Tom into switching places with him. He told Tom to find someone bored with their life and get them to trade places with him.
Curious introduces readers to a boy named Jeff that likes to ask questions. His questions go beyond what most boys would ask. One day Jeff went to the school's baseball game where he saw a mascot. The mascot looked like an alien. Jeff is determined to find out who is wearing the alien costume. Jeff asked the baseball team and the coach who the mascot was. None of them knew who he was but all agreed he was annoying. Jeff decided the best way to find out was to ask the mascot. When Jeff saw the alien mascot go under the bleachers, he followed him. He watched the mascot remove his costume. Underneath was a green creature with a lot of arms. Jeff was scared. The alien ate Jeff.
Babette the Beautiful falls back on an old fairytale, The Emperor's Clothes. The queen is going to have a baby and she is determined the baby is going to be the most beautiful baby in the kingdom. An old women told the queen she can make the baby beautiful. The ugly old woman put a spell on the baby. When the baby was born the queen could not see the baby. At first the queen was confused, then she realized she was holding the most beautiful baby in the whole world. The queen showed the baby to everyone in the kingdom. Everyone was shocked, they couldn't see a baby, but they agreed with the queen, of course, the baby was beautiful. As the child grew up, she was never allowed to see herself in a mirror. Eventually someone told the princess that she wasn't the most beautiful girl in the world. She was invisible.
The last story is Simon. I won't waste your time or mine by summarizing it. The stories are fast paced, short, have a lot of action, are filled with magic and mystery making them appealing to children.
These stories are disappointing; the outcome is predictable. This book lives up to its name! Strange Happenings.
Debra Gaynor, Reviewer
www.hancockclarion.com
https://www.facebook.com/book.reviews.by.debra.2025
Jack Mason's Bookshelf
City of Promises
Victoria Thompson and Ellen Thompson
Berkley Books
c/o Penguin/Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
9780593816516, $30.00, HC, 336pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/City-Promises-Counterfeit-Lady-Novel/dp/059381651X
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/city-of-promises-victoria-thompson/1148625021
Synopsis: Famed former police detective turned private investigator Frank Malloy and his wife, Sarah, come to Gideon Bates desperate for legal guidance. The Malloys' adopted daughter, Catherine, a burgeoning star of the stage, has announced her engagement to a man she barely knows. Catherine has recently gained access to her trust fund, and Sebastian Talbot appears very eager to marry her as quickly as possible.
As Gideon and his wife, Elizabeth, investigate, it becomes all the clearer that Talbot may not be who he says he is. As a former con artist herself, Elizabeth suspects one may be in their midst. Undeterred by her pregnancy, she must pull out all the stops to out swindle a swindler and save another woman from ruin.
Critique: An original, deftly crafted and fun read from start to finish (especially for the legions of cozy mystery fans), "City of Promises" showcases co-authors Victoria and Ellen Thompson's impressively collaborative storytelling style that is especially effective for the historical mystery/cozy mystery genre. While a certain to be popular pick for personal reading lists and community library Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for cozy mystery buffs that this hardcover edition of "City of Promises" from Berkley Books is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note #1: Victoria Thompson is the author of the Gaslight Mysteries and the Counterfeit Lady novels. She became enchanted by New York City, and Greenwich Village in particular, while her daughter Ellen attended New York University.
Editorial Note #2: Ellen Thompson is an award-winning screenwriter and an award-nominated musical playwright. She earned a bachelor of fine arts from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. She lives in Los Angeles and advocates for Lyme and other tick-borne disease awareness.
Jack Mason
Reviewer
John Burroughs' Bookshelf
Clean Slate
Brianna Labuskes
Thomas & Mercer
c/o Amazon Publishing
9781662533150, $16.99, PB, 315pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Slate-Olive-Brianna-Labuskes/dp/1662533152
Synopsis: Death pays well for Olive Hunt, a crime scene cleaner who channels her childhood traumas into erasing the suffering of others. After nearly ten years, she's seen it all. Nothing rattles her anymore. -- Until now.
Two back-to-back suicides. A seedy motel. An upscale Atlanta hotel. No connection - except that Olive discovers the same strange item at each scene. Then a third body drops. Olive knows what the police refuse to see: These aren't suicides. They're murders staged to perfection.
Then the roses arrive. A vase of bloodred blooms on her doorstep. An anonymous note: Thank you.
She's found him. A serial killer who's been leaving breadcrumbs only she can see. A killer who's been cleaning up his work -- knowing she'll clean up after him. A killer who wants her to follow.
And follow she must. No matter how terrifying the trail becomes.
Critique: A riveting suspense thriller of a read from start to finish, "Clean Slate" by Brianna Labuskes will hold a special interest for fans of the police procedural/serial killer murder mystery genre. Deftly crafted characters, an original plot embedded with unexpected surprises and plot twists, "Clean Slate" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended pick for personal reading lists and community library Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted that this paperback edition of "Clean Slate" from Thomas & Mercer is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).
Editorial Note: Brianna Labuskes (www.briannalabuskes.com) is the author of The Lies You Wrote, The Truth You Told, and By the Time You Read This in the Raisa Susanto series; See It End, What Can't Be Seen, and A Familiar Sight in the Dr. Gretchen White series; and Her Beautiful Life, Her Final Words, Black Rock Bay, Girls of Glass, and It Ends with Her.
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Julie Summers' Bookshelf
You Can Just Do Things
Cate Hall and Sasha Chapin
Harper Edge
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
9780063488458, $32.99, HC, 224pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Just-Things-High-Agency/dp/0063488450
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/you-can-just-do-things-cate-hall/1149447449
Synopsis: We all know a few rare individuals who never stop moving, taking wild risks, and collecting public failures, yet somehow always seem to land on top.
Cate Hall is one of those maddening, inspiring people. She left an elite legal career just before making partner to gamble for a living -- and became the world's top-ranked female poker player.
A drug addiction left her broke and brain-damaged, but a year after emerging from it, she co-founded a biotech startup that set a clinical trial speed record. Not long after, she took the helm of one of the world's largest philanthropic foundations.
Why don't the rules apply to her? What if they don't apply to you either?
With the publication of "You Can Just Do Things: How High-Agency People Get What They Want Out of Life", Cate Hall argues that the so-called "rules" of success aren't rules at all -- they are productivity guidelines for low-agency people.
Hall shows readers how to live with agency and take control of your future by:
Increasing your surface area for luck
Taking every shortcut available
Building "forcing functions" that ensure commitment
Using your deepest insecurities as fuel for growth
Are you ready to cross the cringe minefield? To show up where you don't belong, apply for jobs you're not qualified for, call people who aren't expecting it, and risk looking foolish in front of others? Every time you think, "Somebody should do this," that somebody can be you.
An uncomfortable psychological journey and a toolkit for bold living, "You Can Just Do Things" reveals how to stop waiting and start building the life you want.
Critique: An original, unique, and effective blending of personal biography and DIY Self Help/Self-Improvement Manual, "You Can Just Do Things: How High-Agency People Get What They Want Out of Life" is an extraordinary, fascinating, thought-provoking, and motivational read from start to finish. Assisted by her husband, Sasha Champin, "You Can Just Do Things" is thoroughly 'reader friendly' in presentation and organized into five major sections: Wake Up and Move; Be Willing to Look Stupid; Get Out of Your Lane; Walk Through Walls; and Find Your Limits. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Publishing, 9798228986282, $39.99), "You Can Just Do Things" from Harper Edge is unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community and college/university library Self-Help/Self-Improvement collections.
Editorial Note #1: Cate Hall (https://www.catehall.com) is a former Supreme Court attorney and the ex-#1 ranked female poker player in the world. She co-founded and served as COO and later co-CEO of Alvea, a pandemic medicine company that set the record for the fastest startup to take a drug candidate to Phase I clinical trial. Later, she served as CEO of the Astera Institute, a multibillion dollar private foundation. She received a BS in biochemistry and a BA in philosophy from the University of Arizona, and a law degree from Yale Law School.
Editorial Note #2: Sasha Chapin (https://www.sashachapin.com) is an award-winning journalist, the husband of Cate Hall, and recovering chess enthusiast, and the author of "All the Wrong Moves".
Julie Summers
Reviewer
Margaret Lane's Bookshelf
The Boy with the Butterfly Mind
Lorelei Brush
https://loreleibrush.com
She Writes Press
www.shewritespress.com
9798896363644, $17.99, PB, 312pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Butterfly-Mind-Novel/dp/B0FWZZ39BH
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-boy-with-the-butterfly-mind-lorelei-brush/1148560732
Synopsis: When Julie Crawford's whirlwind four-year-old is kicked out of preschool, suspected of having ADHD (likely genetic) her husband moans from his recliner that "even my genes are failures".
At work, Julie is a high school math teacher who requires her students to solve complex problems. But faced with an unsafe daycare home and no other daycare openings, a husband who hates the idea of labeling their son as a "problem", and a supervisor who's angry at the amount of time she's taking off school, she's at a loss for how to come up with a solution to this particular dilemma.
Julie's struggle to help her son ultimately demands a number of mindset shifts: a willingness to become a student and ask for help, a humble acceptance of her errors, a burgeoning strength to reckon with a dominant father and retreating husband -- and the self-confidence to trust her instincts when it comes to deciding on the best next steps for her son.
Critique: A novel that is a work of fiction, it accurately portrays the dilemma that faces thousands of mothers with a neurodivergent child, "The Boy With A Butterfly Mind" by author Lorelei Brush will have a universal emotionally engaging resonance with readers. Exceptionally well written and an inherently fascinating read from start to finish, "The Boy With A Butterfly Mind" is an unreservedly recommended pick for community library collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this paperback edition of "The Boy With A Butterfly Mind" from She Writes Press is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99).
Editorial Note: Lorelei Brush (https://loreleibrush.com) is a college mathematics major, a former assistant professor of child development, and the parent of a neurodivergent child. The story in her novel, "The Boy with the Butterfly Mind" mixes elements of all three life experiences to describe the struggles and triumph of a young family dealing with neurodivergence. Her previous novels include "Uncovering", about the trials of a nurse practitioner in northwest Pakistan, and "Chasing the American Dream", about the quest of a disappointed WWII spy to be a hero in 1950s Cleveland.
Margaret Lane
Reviewer
Mari Carlson's Bookshelf
Celestial Shot
AJ Ullman
https://ajullman.com
Privately Published
ISBN TBA, $11.99 print
Author's Website
https://ajullman.com/the-celestial-shot
"...truth, like reality, is perceived by humans through lenses. And those lenses have a way of changing the view" (44)
Detective Trueman North and his partner, Huxley, are dining at the Celestial, a high end Cincinnati restaurant, celebrating the end of a recent case, when a neighboring patron is shot to death. The shot is determined to have come from a mile away, in Kentucky. An interstate investigation ensues. True and Huxley pursue a sniper as the sniper followed her victim, meticulously learning their patterns and habits. True's reward for finding the shooter is returning to difficult memories of his time in Korea, when he hears her motive.
Most of the book concerns researching the victim and tracking the sniper. A prominent anti-communist business man, was the murder political? The more they find out about Tanya, the killer, the more a personal motive is apparent. They meet bus and cab drivers, neighbors, and workmates to get to know her, and in the process, the city of Cincinnati in the 1970s comes alive. Landmarks and personalities are described with Trueman's signature precision. Action is understated; there's a lot of waiting filled in with entertaining and plot-supporting anecdotes and banter. While the writing is as exacting as Trueman is stoic, exchanges between him and Huxley in turns tender and comedic. In the end, they share an intimate and philosophical debriefing that characterizes the book's ethos. In listening to Tanya's confession, Trueman comes to terms with some of his own truths. Like the other books in the series, this murder does not happen in a vacuum, but occasions social consciousness and psychological transformation. Celestial Shot is a thriller with heart.
Mari Carlson
Reviewer
Matthew McCarty's Bookshelf
324 Abercorn
Mark Allan Gunnells
Crystal Lake Publishing
crystallakepub.com
9781646693085, $12.99US, $4.99 Kindle
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/324-Abercorn-Mark-Allan-Gunnells/dp/1646693086
Savannah, Georgia is home to a wonderfully diverse and rich history and culture. It is also home to a history written by an active and violent slavery culture and whitewashing of the role of African-Americans in the establishment of Savannah as the quintessential southern city. Author Mark Allan Gunnells uses this rich but difficult history of Savannah as the setting for his novel 324 Abercorn. Gunnells is a skilled author with an excellent talent for using setting as a foundational piece of his writing. 324 Abercorn is a virtual guidebook to downtown Savannah, its history and culture, and its beautiful and stately antebellum houses.
Author Brad Storm, a horror novelist with a penchant for creating exciting and sinister tales, moves into the long vacant house at 324 Abercorn street in downtown Savannah. It is a house with a past, a house that is supposed to have been built on the top of a slave cemetery. Brad slowly begins to experience mysterious and almost paranormal events. Brad meets Bias, a young man who guides ghost tours, and Neisha, who has an interest in 324 Abercorn that will have an impact on Brad and his future. The ending of 324 Abercorn provides an emotional high that would feel right at home in any work by Stephen King or Dean Koontz.
324 Abercorn is an excellent weekend read. Gunnells has written a great story that can only be told through a remembering of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and the sultry side of Savannah. It is an enjoyable story and fits in nicely to the genre of Southern Horror. The characters are easily relatable and the fear Brad experiences is a fear that the reader would feel if they were in Brads' shoes. 324 Abercorn is an excellent addition to the shelf of any reader with a need for adrenaline and a good story.
Matthew W. McCarty, EdD
Reviewer
Michael Carson's Bookshelf
Every Hunter Is Hunted
Barry Lyga
Crooked Lane Books
www.crookedlanebooks.com
9798892425551, $29.99, HC, 288pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Every-Hunter-Hunted-Barry-Lyga/dp/B0FH4BT4H4
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/every-hunter-is-hunted-barry-lyga/1148378163
Synopsis: Brides are being murdered on their wedding nights. Soaked in blood and draped in lace. With nothing left behind to help them find the killer, the FBI is at an impasse. Their only, desperate hope is to convince Jasper Dent, the son of two serial killers and a former teen prodigy at hunting down such monsters, to emerge from his self-imposed exile.
When he was a teenager, both of Jasper's parents were members of a secret society of serial killers. Today, his father is in prison, and his mother is in a coma, both results of their final confrontation with Jasper years ago. Now wealthy from a bestselling memoir about his parents, Jasper still carries the scars from their parenting -- and the uncanny, unwanted ability to understand killers that they instilled in him.
Jasper wants nothing more than to hide from his past -- cash his royalty checks and never think about murder and blood again. But he knows the only way to find any meaning or redemption in his life is to face his demons once again. His skills rusty, his confidence shaken, Jasper races against a ticking clock, frantically seeking to solve the impossible mystery before more women meet a horrific end.
Critique: An original, carefully crafted, serial killer themed suspense thriller of mystery, "Every Hunter Is Hunted" by Barry Lyga is an extraordinary and recommended pick for personal reading lists and community library Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted that this hardcover edition of "Every Hunter Is Hunted" from Crooked Lane Books is also available in paperback (9798892425575, $19.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: There is an online listing of books by Barry Lyga on FantasicFiction at: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/barry-lyga
Michael J. Carson
Reviewer
Robin Friedman's Bookshelf
The Living Declaration: A Biography of America's Founding Text
Ted Widmer, editor
Library of America
https://www.loa.org
9781598538441, $29.95, hardcover
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Declaration-Biography-Americas-Founding/dp/1598538446
Celebrating Independence At 250
Today, July 2, 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the date the Continental Congress approved a resolution stating "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." John Adams, who had been a driving force for independence, recognized the significance of the day. He wrote that the day would be celebrated with "Pomp and Parade with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuninations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."
July 2, 1776, became overshadowed in time by July 4, the date the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, America's founding text. The "Pomp, Parade, and Illuminations" Adams foresaw for July 2 have occurred on July 4, And this year especially, in troubled times, we celebrate America 250. Americans declared independence and made the momentous decision to govern themselves rather than to be ruled by another. The development of this insight and of the phrase "all men are created equal" have reverberated through history.
Celebration, fireworks, parades are crucially important, and so is reflection. To help understand the Declaration, Independence and their lasting significance, the Library of America has published this new book "The Living Declaration: A Biography of America's Founding Text" (2026) by historian and former presidential speechwriter Ted Widmer. The book offers a history of the Declaration from its origins to the present day, showing how Americans, and people throughout the world, have continued to be inspired by and reflect on its meaning. The book includes sixty-eight writings by Americans and international figures showing how the document has been revered and how it has the capacity to unite and inspire in difficult times.
The book begins with a Foreword by historian Gordon Wood pointing out that "To be an American is not to be someone but to believe in something. And the something that Americans most readily believe in can be found in the Declaration of Independence. By itself it makes the United States a nation." America is unique in that it is founded upon an idea or, as Lincoln called it in the Gettysburg Address, a "proposition." Gordon Wood (November 27, 1933- June 7, 2026) died at about the time this book was published.
The text consists of Widmer's Introduction together with a thoughtful Epilogue about the Declaration in today's world. The book is arranged chronologically and divided into five parts each with a heading from a famous phrase from the Declaration: I. When in the Course of Human Events 1689-1776, II. Governments are Instituted 1776 --1826 III Created Equal 1826--1865 IV. Among the Powers of the Earth 1865--1945 V. The Pursuit of Happiness 1945-2026. Each part is introduced by a question which encourages reflection and discussion, by a single reader or by a group. Widmer offers a narrative account of the history of the Declaration in each time period and introduces the texts which show the continuing biography of the Declaration and the interpretation of its ringing phrases. As the work develops, the reader meets many people and movements familiar and unfamiliar. These include the Founders and subsequent American political leaders together with leaders of political movements in other countries who have been inspired by the Declaration. The writers also include, of course, African Americans, Indians, women, labor leaders, philosophers, literary figures, and many more. Each writing is offered in considerable detail. Many of them are difficult and benefit from close reading. Taken both individually and together they offer a thoughtful look at the Declaration over times and at where Americans have been. The chapters also are interspersed with images of people and places and with the history of the parchment of the Declaration itself and how it has been preserved over the years.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson receive a great deal of attention in the volume and rightly so. The two Founders died on the same day, July 4, 1826. They had been colleagues during Independence and then had a serious falling out in the early days of the Republic with the rise of political parties. Adams and Jefferson reconciled late in life and exchanged a series of letters which reflect on their shared histories and on their sometimes differing ideas. It was inspiring to revisit Adams and Jefferson in this book, including in a selection by Daniel Webster in Part II which celebrates them.
Abraham Lincoln also receives a great deal of attention in this volume as an insightful reader of the Declaration from his youth through his presidency. The book includes Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as a commentary on the Declaration. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought from July 1 -- July 3, 1863, tying it in closely with Independence Day and America 250.
The selections I enjoyed included works by John Quincy Adams, Frederick Douglass, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, Eugene V, Debs, and Mary McCleod Bethune. Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream Speech" is included and there is an excellent selection from philosopher Hannah Arendt, "Action and the 'Pursuit of Happiness'" from 1960.
Each reader will find their own works to dwell on in reading through the volume. The book can be read by the individual in solitude. I also thought of using the book in a classroom or study group where readers can discuss and share their thoughts on various selections in the book on the Declaration.
The book reminded me of how the Declaration has been a source of American unity through differences of opinion. I thought of how Americans may come together and respect one another in difficult divisive times and celebrate our country in the face of difficulties and faults. It is a time to move forward. As John Adams said on his deathbed in 1826, "Independence Forever"!
Late Symphonies: Vol 5
Joseph Haydn, composer
Danish Chamber Orchestra, performer
Adam Fischer, conductor
Naxos
https://www.naxos.com
B0GT2NLNQ4, $23.46 CD, Total Time: 66:45
Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574520
Revisitng Haydn's Paris Symphonies With Adam Fischer
Beginning in 1989, Adam Fischer and an orchestra he established for the purpose, the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, began a long, ambitious project of recording the complete Haydn Symphonies. The project took fourteen years to complete. In 2023, Fischer began another ambitious project of recording Haydn's "late" symphonies, the final 25, with the Danish Chamber Orchestra. He recorded the twelve "London" symphonies on four CDs in 2023-2024. I enjoyed the performances and eagerly awaited further Haydn. The series has resumed at last with this new CD which includes three of Haydn's six "Paris" symphonies: no 84 in E-flat major, no. 85 in B-flat major, "La Reine", and no 86 in D major.
Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra perform Haydn with love, enthusiasm, and verve. The goal of the series, as Fischer explains in his brief liner notes, is to make Haydn accessible to modern audiences. Haydn, with is many symphonies, does not achieve the attention accorded to Mozart and Beethoven. But during Haydn's lifetime, his music was revered by people of all social classes, not merely the aristocracy. He was in some respects the equivalent of a contemporary rock star. Fishcher wants to bring this way of hearing Haydn to contemporary listeners. He has been succeeding in his project.
Haydn's music is rich, full and joyful, an antidote for our troubled times. It can be enjoyed on many levels from musical conniseurs to newcomers. The series might best be viewed as a way of attracting new listeners to Haydn while offering creative interpretations of Haydn's symphonies for those who know and love them.
The Paris Symphonies date from the mid 1780s when Haydn accepted a commission from an Orchestra called the Concert de la Loge Olympique. The Paris symphonies were written on a larger scale than Haydn's earlier symphonies written for the Esterhazys and they were enthusiastically received by large audiences. Each of the symphonies is a musical treasure of its own.
I had the opportunity to test the reception of this CD with a person largely unfamiliar with Haydn. I shared this CD with my ladyfriend who has a deep interest in France and French culture. She wanted to hear the most famous work on this CD, the "La Reine" which received its name because Marie Antoinette loved it. (Her picture is on the CD cover), My lady friend loved this music. It is indeed beautiful and glittery in its four movements, fit for a queen but for other listeners as well. The music takes the listener through a broad range of emotions and is full of lyricism, dance, pomp, and humor.
Symphony no. 86 is perhaps the highest regarded of the Paris Symphony among musical critics. It too is a work withk with many musical subtleties. It is best-known for the way in which Haydn moves from the slow introduction in the opening movement to the movement's main theme. The symphony also integrates themes and melodic bits from the opening movement throughout the work. It has a beautiful slow movement called "cappricio" and a glittering minuet. This work is also readily accessible to new listeners today as well as to the broad audience of Haydn's day.
The Symphony No. 84 is known for its contrasts between loud and soft sections and between strings and winds. The work is monothematic in character which means that each of its four movements develops essentially a single theme. Haydn does much with little. The work has a lovely slow movement of variations and a dramatic finale. It is fun to hear.
Because the liner notes on this CD are sparse, I supplemented my listening with David Hurwitz's commentary on each symphony in his Haydn "Symphony Crusade" which enhanced my appreciation for these works. Hurwitz uses Fischer's earlier recording of these symphonies to offer musical illustrations. His commentaries are valuable for those who wish to learn more about the music.
Fischer's performances are idiosyncratic in places, but this did not bother me and should not bother the new listener. This recording and its companions offer an outstanding introduction to Haydn's late symphonies. I am looking forward to the second volume of the Paris Symphonies and to the remainder of the series of Haydn's late symphonies.
Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different
Gordon S. Wood
Penguin Books
https://www.penguin.com
9780143112082, $18.00, paperback
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Characters-What-Founders-Different/dp/0143112082
America's Founders And American Ideals
Gordon Wood R.I.P. (November 27, 1933-- June 7, 2026)
For much of our history, the leaders of the American Revolution and the framers of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution enjoyed iconic, mythic status. But they have also been subjected to criticism and debunking, based on their alleged elitism, racism, and sexism in our increasingly cynical, skeptical age.
In his recent collection of essays, "Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different" (2006), Gordon Wood offers thoughtful meditations on the Founders. Gordon Wood is Professor of History at Brown University. He is deservedly esteemed for his studies of the Revolutionary era.
In his book, Wood offers succinct discussions of the Founders, their backgrounds, what they did, and, most importantly, what they thought. He sets the Founders within their time but shows, paradoxically, how the success of the Founders made their achievements and characters impossible to replicate in subsequent generations.
Wood's book consists of individual essays on eight founders, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Adams, Paine, and Burr. His Introduction and concluding Epilogue attempt to bring coherence to the story. For Wood, what sets the Founders apart from subsequent leaders was their ability to combine high intellectual achievement in politics with the life of affairs and leadership. In much of the subsequent history of the United States, intellectuals and thinkers have been separated from active political life and, in fact, alienated from it. (Thus, the cynicism that I mentioned at the outset of this review.) He finds that the Founders were able to combine the world of intellect with that of practical politics through a devotion to Enlightenment and aristocratic ideals, including ideals regarding the role of an educated gentleman in society, and ideals of civil behavior and good manners, in a broad sense. The Founders were in part individuals who had risen by their own efforts, in most cases through education and study. They used their success to devote themselves to the good of the country and to expand the scope of public participation. This expansion of the scope of citizen participation in the government lead to democracy and egalitarianism and destroyed the conditions which had made the achievement of the Founders itself possible.
Of the essays in the book, the first, "On the Greatness of George Washington" is a reminder of why this reserved, austere figure deserves to be remembered as the greatest of Presidents and as the greatest member of an outstanding generation. The essays on John Adams and James Madison have the highest degree of intellectual content. In the Adams essay, Woods discusses Adams' political philosophy and shows how it was in part prescient and profound and in part based upon a misunderstanding of American constitutionalism. In the essay on Madison, Woods argues that there was a unity of thought throughout his career, rather than a switch from Federalism to states rights and democracy, as argued by many.
The essays of Thomas Paine and Aaron Burr are interesting in themselves and also for the light the cast on the other Founders. In both cases, Wood uses them as foils. Paine was already a democrat and a writer of inflammatory prose for readers without education or knowledge of the classics. This set him apart from his contemporaries. Aaron Burr abandoned the ideal and devotion to public service of the remaining founders and devoted himself solely to the pursuit of his own interests. This basic change, (and not his subsequent activities in the West for which he was tried for treason) is, for Wood, "The Real Treason of Aaron Burr."
Wood's book is an outstanding way to become reacquainted with the American Founders. It encouraged me to think about how American ideals originated, and how they developed and changed through time.
The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah
Baha'u'llah, author
Oneworld Publications
https://www.oneworld-publications.com
9781851683499, $15.95 paperback
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Words-Bah%C3%A1-ll%C3%A1h/dp/1851683496
A Baha'i Religious Text
I have had a long curiosity about the Baha'i Faith and its teachings of the universal nature of religion, the unity of human beings, and the imperative of tolerating and respecting beliefs different from one's own. I have always been intrigued by how these teachings of universalism and the essential unity of all religions can fit within the confines of an individual, independent religion, the Baha'i Faith, with its own teachings and texts. Thus, I was pleased to have the opportunity to read this short book "The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah" composed by the founder of the Baha'i Faith, Baha'u'llah (1817 -- 1892) while in prison. The book was written in part in Arabic and in part in Persian and was translated by Baha'u'llah's disciple, Shogi Effendi. This book was my first experience with Baha'i scripture.
"The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah" consists of about 153 short paragraphs in two parts. It is cast in the form of short revelations to Baha'u'llah each of which is prefaced by a short exhortation such as "To the Son of Man" characterizing the person or persons to whom the revelation is addressed. There is a brief introductory paragraph to the collection, indicating that the aim of the text is to distill, in short form, teachings that are universal to the spiritual life. This goal of the collection is reflected in some of the comments on this site. These teachings have, and were intended to have, many parallels in the teachings of the other great world religions.
The teachings speak of the need for a pure heart, of the need of detachment from everyday life, and of the importance of not envying, criticizing or condemning others. I was struck by the other-worldliness of many of the teachings, as they exhort the follower to turn away from materialism and desire and turn one's attention and heart to the divine. To me, some of the teachings seem directed to mankind, while others, if I am not mistaken, appear primarily directed towards Baha'u'llah himself. In this latter regard, there are several of the teachings which speak of the value of imprisonment, suffering and martyrdom as they advance the cause of God. These teachings seem to be directed to the founder of the faith or to those in danger of persecution on account of their beliefs. While most of the short sayings are readily intelligible to readers of many backgrounds, some sections, particularly near the end of the book, allude to figures that have some specific meaning for the Baha'i faith.
This book is known within the Baha'i community but will appeal to those who have an interest in exploring a variety of spiritual traditions. I am in this latter group. It is an inspiring text. The work here is presented without an introduction, notes, or commentary. Thus, I was unable to learn the place of this specific text within the Baha'i teachings as a whole. An introduction to the book with an overview of the Baha'i Faith and of how this book fits within it would have been invaluable. Also, notes in the way of a commentary on the organization and substance of the text would have been helpful. There is always a great deal more to understanding a short spiritual work than reading the words of the text. Context and discussion would be useful.
This is an important religious text, and it is good to have it widely accessible. It will appeal to those readers interested in the Baha'i Faith, to those interested in comparative religion, and to those interested in spiritual growth.
The Killer Angels
Michael Shaara
Ballantine Books
https://www.randomhouse.com
9780345407276, $21.00, paperback
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Angels-Classic-Novel-Trilogy/dp/034540727X
The Classic Novel Of Gettysburg
Although it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1975, Michael Shaara's novel "The Killer Angels" (1974) was little-noted when it first appeared. The stature of the book has grown with time. It was used in a television series of the Civil War and in a movie version of the Battle of Gettysburg. The novel has been criticized on various grounds. Shaara's factual account of the battle and the importance he ascribes to Little Round Top can be challenged. Shaara focuses too much on the high command of the two armies and gives too little attention to the soldiers in the ranks. Shaara minimizes the importance of slavery to the conflict. For all these criticisms, this book remains a moving account of Gettysburg. It will continue to introduce many Americans to the Battle and encourage them to reflect and get beyond some of the factual limitations of the book. The book is taught in history and literature classes and properly so as it introduces new generations of Americans to their history. It has also appeared in this relatively new Modern Library edition to replace the old dog-eared paperback. The remainder of this review is drawn primarily from the review I wrote some time ago of the earlier edition.
This is an outstanding work of historical fiction that deserves the praise it has received. There is much more to this novel than can be captured in any movie or TV series on the Civil War. The book is a fitting introduction to the Civil War and to the Battle of Gettysburg. The book illustrates a lesson too easily forgotten --how fiction, creatively done, has the power to give meaning to fact.
The Battle of Gettysburg took place from July 1 -- July 3, 1863. Although some students of the Civil War tend to downplay its importance to the result of the conflict in favor of the the surrender of Vicksburg to Grant on July 4, 1863, Gettysburg remains a pivotal event in the war. It has been written about endlessly.
Michael Shaara's novel is in four large chapters, one for each day of the battle together with an introductory chapter setting the stage. The story is told in sections devoted alternately to the perspectives and roles of many of the leading protagonists: the Confederate Commanding General Robert E. Lee, his "old war horse" the controversial James Longstreet, and Lewis Armistead, more of whom below. Shaara also describes the British military attache Freemantle, who was a guest in the Confederate camp during the battle and who wrote an important memoir describing his experience. On the Union side Shaara focuses on Joshua Chamberlain, a bookish college professor from Maine who became the hero of Little Round Top, and General John Buford, the cavalry commander whose actions delayed the Confederate advance at the outset of the battle.
There are many excellent historical studies of the Battle of Gettysburg. The most important is the long study by Edward Coddington. Both Steven Sears and Noah Trudeau have written two recent extended studies of the battle. Detailed specialized studies have been written on every aspect of the battle including Buford's role on the first day, Little Round Top on the second day, and Pickett's charge on the third day. These and other works make difficult, challenging reading. It is worth thinking about how such studies differ in intent and content from the novelistic portrayal of the Battle of Gettysburg in "The Killer Angels."
The novel gives a vivid picture of each of the three days of the battle, but it is more selective, focused picture than we get in the histories. The novel concentrates on the events on Little Round Top -- the far left of the Union line on the second day of the battle, July 2. The hero is Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and his men from the twentieth Maine who hold of a furious Confederate charge over the boulders of Little Round Top led by William Oates of Mississippi and help save the Union position. Many years after the battle, Chamberlain and Oates would write extensively about Little Round Top and correspond with each other. Some historians tend to discount the importance of Little Round Top to the result at Gettysburg. Whether or not they are correct, Shaara's novel shows the human drama of the battle in the way a narrative history generally cannot. He captures the heroism on both sides at this revered site.
The novel also concentrates on Pickett's doomed charge on the third day of Gettysburg. He offers a portrayal of General Lewis Armistead, one the the three Confederate General's serving in General Pickett's division. In the pre-Civil War army, Armistead had been a great friend of the Union General, Winfield Scott Hancock who performed admirably on each of the three days of Gettysburg. Armistead died after crossing the Union line in the charge and, as legend has it, with his dying breath asked for Hancock's forgiveness.
The novel form allows the writer to concentrate on specific scenes, as Shaara does well in "The Killer Angels", to a degree the historian cannot. The novel also allows the writer freedom to explore introspectively. The novelist may describe the thoughts of the protagonists to a degree that goes beyond the historical record. Shaara exploits this possibility to the utmost. He gives the reader interchanges between Lee and Longstreet, for example, that are entirely plausible, that make them come alive, and that cast great light upon their activities and motivations during the Battle. We see a great deal of Colonel Chamberlain, of course. The reader hears Shaara recreating Chamberlain's innermost thoughts and is encouraged to think about the making of a hero.
The novelistic form also allows Sharaa to use characters to express their views of the meaning of the War. Sharaa gives the reader a picture of what both sides thought they were fighting for and invites the reader to think further about the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg and their significance.
This novel will not replace historical studies for those interested in learning more about the Civil War or about the details of the Battle of Gettysburg. But it is a thoroughly admirable novel which captures something of the harshness and the heroism of the War and of the American character. It will give the careful reader a good understanding, or a good way to work through to an understanding, of the events of these three days in 1863. "The Killer Angels" will encourage the reader to deepen his or her appreciation of, our country's history.
Robin Friedman
Reviewer
Suanne Schafer's Bookshelf
The Clarissa Bell Mystery Series
Tracy Higley
https://store.tracyhigley.com
Stonewater Books
https://cbaonline.org/stonewater-books-brings-exclusive-indie-titles-stores
$4.99 each
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRH36ZQP
I was drawn to the Clarissa Bell mystery series because of the blurb's comparison to the Amelia Peabody mystery series also set in Egypt. The Clarissa Bell series is set somewhat later (the 1920s) and carries the post-World War I paranoia about spies and various countries getting the technological jump on others. I ended up reading the three books available in the series so far ("Hieroglyphs and Homicide", "Palm Trees and Poison", "Amulets and Alibis") as well as the prequel novella ("Murder in the Museum"), available if you sign up for author Higley's newsletter.
Clarissa is the daughter of a wealthy American family. Her father allows her to study Egyptology in Britain, hoping that she'll give up her interest in such unwomanly ideas and settle down and marry well. Instead, she becomes an archeologist. Though she is limited by the men on her dig to categorizing pottery sherds, she nonetheless has many adventures and becomes involved in multiple mysteries that tie into an all-consuming nefarious plot. Soon after her arrival at the dig, she encounters Benedict Quinn, a man whose dubious morals and links to the illegal antiquities trade should make him persona non grata; however, their relationship is marked with a powerful attraction, held in check by Clarissa's inability to full trust him and his inability to be honest with her. Each adventure sees them growing closer.
Clarissa is a more modern heroine than Amelia Peabody, and newer series covers more contemporary issues such as cultural appropriation and repatriation of archeological artifacts. The author does a good job showing upper crust expatriate life in Egypt and their sense of utter superiority to Egyptians. There is enough technical jargon (such as pottery glazes and how to date them) to make this read true. One of the most enjoyable aspects to this series is Clarissa's compulsion to catalog everything, even her own emotions. For example, "Specimen: Career Opportunity (Dubious), featuring collaboration with irritatingly handsome antiquities dealer. Notable elements include complete destruction of professional dignity..."
I enjoyed the first two novels but found a plot hole in the third (Amulets and Alibis) that drove me crazy. In Chapter 16, while on a Nile cruise, Clarissa begs a set of master keys from Freddie, her maid's boyfriend; however, he doesn't actually board the boat until Chapter 17. The Murder in the Museum prequel sets up Clarissa's love for Egypt, but lacks the sparkle of her cataloging compulsion. Surely that characteristic was present at seventeen as well as a few years later. There is, however, a nice character arc for both Clarissa and Benedict as she realizes that not everything can be categorized and that ambiguity is part of human nature.
The Painter of Time
Matthew O'Connor
Station Square Media
https://www.stationsquaremedia.com
9780996669344, $2.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0996669337
The Painter of Time opens with an unknown man painting, then slowly moves in to reveal that he is an art restorer, a man with a quiet life and deeply instilled habits. Chapter Two introduces a second character, MacKenzie, a female artist, as she begins her day at the home she shares with her father. She leaves there for her first days as a fledgling art restorer at the Cloisters. Though she appears second in the book, she appears to be the protagonist.
MacKenzie soon learns that the unknown man is Anthony Batavia, a fellow restorer at the Cloisters. He appears to be in his early thirties and formerly worked with the Uffizzi in Florence. She soon notices peculiarities in his life and life style and even thinks he might be a forger as well as a restorer. There is a bit of unrequited sexual tension between them that is never fulfilled.
I surmised the truth about Anthony far earlier than it was revealed, and, as far as I am concerned, the author tried too hard to conceal this secret. For me, the play between them as a couple of widely disparate backgrounds would have been a more interesting angle. Chapters in the present are interspersed with chapters on the lives of various Italian painters ranging from Medieval to Renaissance (Berlinghiero Berlinghieri, Daddi, Giotto, Filippo Lippi). I enjoyed these mini-biographies which seemed fairly accurate; however, so much time is spent on these lives which would have been better spent on advancement of the "real" story. There is a fair amount of detail about painters, painting, methods, media, artists, and even forgeries that feel accurate to this former artist.
The Painter's Apprentice
Laura Morelli
https://lauramorellibooks.com
The Scriptorium
https://thescriptoriumpublishing.com
9781942778950, $9.99
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Painters-Apprentice-16th-Century-Venetian-Artisans-ebook/dp/B075DW98Z7
The Painter's Apprentice is set in Venice in 1510. A master gilder sends his daughter, Maria, from home to apprentice under Master Trevisan, a well-known painter. Her father does this for two reasons: to get her away from her illicit lover, Cristiano, (who's been hired to beat gold bullion into gold leaf) and to learn the art of mixing paints as her father feels that gilding is falling out of favor in the art world. While Maria is studying under Trevisan, the Black Death plague strikes, isolating her even further from her beloved father and her beloved.
The result of her dalliance with Cristiano, while unexpected for this naive heroine, is not for the reader. Her pregnancy leads to her involvement with two sordid characters, the gondola man and the housekeeper for Trevisan, leading to her peril and several tense moments.
There was enough art-oriented detail about gilding, etc, that this former artist found to be interesting and accurate. Maria was an enterprising young woman with a solid work ethic and genuine love and concern for her family as Venice struggles through the plague. Overall, though, the novel felt a bit flat. There was the requisite happily-ever-after, though.
Edge of the Fall
Gregory Wilson Taylor
AuroraWriters
aurorawriters.com
9781918475869, $7.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Edge-Fall-storm-least-worries-ebook/dp/B0GP2JHPXF
Edge of the Fall is a genre-bending blend of adventure, thriller, psychological thriller, and wilderness survival.
Dr. Ian Sizemore, dealing with chronic pain and depressed after the deaths of his wife and daughter, is driving in the mountains during a snowstorm when he spies a crashed car. Despite his pain, he hikes down the steep mountainside to ascertain if there are survivors. After being mauled by a bear as he nears the wreck of an old station wagon, he manages to crawl inside and discovers a mother, Emily, and her autistic son, Charlie.
Most of what occurs next is the threesome trying to survive in a sub-zero blizzard in wreck. Emily is reluctant to tell him why she and Charlie ended up in the mountains but gradually the reader learns her secrets - and Ian's.
The author's descriptions of the fierce cold, the snow, the damage to the station wagon, the grizzly bear and her cubs, are spot on and really amp up the suspense. This is a gripping, unputdownable read.
The Secret Courtesan
Kerry Chaput
She Writes Press
https://shewritespress.com
9798896360650, $12.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Courtesan-Novel-Kerry-Chaput-ebook/dp/B0FCYT3TR5
As always, I love books about art, art history, and Italy, so I enjoyed reading The Secret Courtesan.
Mia Harding is an art historian sent from the States to certify a fellow art historian's identification of a statue called "The Estasi" (the Ecstasy) as being by a Venetian Baroque sculptor named Lucca Armani. The art world expects her to confirm the world-famous Dr. Byron's opinion. Doubting the attribution based on her intuition, she procrastinates signing the authentication forms. Unfortunately her job at her own museum and her future in the art history world hangs in the balance while she contemplates the statue.
She makes a quick trip to Venice along with Dr. Becket, a fellow art historian, to do further investigation. There, the couple is hounded by a powerful Italian crime family that hopes to capitalize on the theory that similar statues are buried around Venice. They plan to dig them up to place on the illegal fine art market.
The second time line occurs in 1609 and involves Lucca Armani and a courtesan who's art works are erased by Venice's unfair laws.
This is a fun, fast-paced read with elements of a thriller, some magic realism, a strong female protagonist, and a dual timeline, so I was totally sucked in.
Winter Counts
David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Ecco
c/o HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com
9780062968968, $10.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Counts-David-Wanbli-Weiden-ebook/dp/B081ZJP3JG
Winter Counts is a gritty multi-award winning mystery set on South Dakota's Rosebud Indian Reservation and written by an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation. I enjoy both thrillers and Native American novels, so this was right up my alley.
The hero (or anti-hero) is Virgil Wounded Horse, a scrawny mixed-race boy who grows up big and strong and becomes an "enforcer" on the reservation. When federal or local law enforcement fails to administer appropriate justice, he steps in, hired by families to get some semblance of justice. He charges $100 for every tooth knocked out or bone broken.
When heroin - on top of already plentiful pills - appears on the reservation and local pushers drag Virgil's nephew into the fray, Virgil follows leads to Denver then back to his hometown and folks he thought he knew.
As he works through this situation, he must face the kind of person he's become and whether he even likes that man. He makes a decision to return to the "red way" to save himself, his nephew, and his relationship with the woman he loves.
Winter Counts, besides being a great mystery, is a brutally honest look at America's historical treatment of Native Americans, the poverty bred into reservation life, as well as the institutionalized racism towards Native Americans. On top of that, it's an outstanding bit of crime fiction with plenty of twists, turns, potential villains. I liked it well enough that I immediately downloaded the second in the series, Wisdom Corner.
Poison
Kathryn Harrison
Random House
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
9780307799784, $8.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Poison-Novel-Kathryn-Harrison-ebook/dp/B005BUG6QG
Poison is about the intertwined fates of a Spanish commoner and a queen born on the same day and year. Set in 1692, the bicentennial of Columbus's discovery of America, it features the worst of Spanish life at the time: the dreaded Inquisition. Spain is now a bankrupt nation, having squandered all the riches stolen from its discoveries. Francisca de Luarac is the daughter of a poor Spanish silk grower, a man who lost everything in his pursuit of bigger, better ways to grow silk worms. She becomes the lover of a Catholic priest. Her counterpart, Marie Louise de Bourbon, is the niece of Louis XIV, the Sun King. She is shipped off to Spain to wed Carlos II, an individual born with all the worst traits of the inbred Hapsburgs. Frail, sickly, and impotent, he has subsisted on breast milk and communion wafers. The lives of the two women intersect, however briefly, when Francisca's mother, a woman who produces copious breast milk, is sent to the palace to feed Carlos.
There are some historical inaccuracies, a good bit of magical realism, lots of dreams and nightmares, and the novel bounces around in time and voice, often feeling rather choppy. However, the prose - at least individual sentences - are gorgeous.
Suanne Schafer, Reviewer
www.SuanneSchaferAuthor.com
Susan Bethany's Bookshelf
This Moment Matters: 100 Ways to Cultivate a Grace-Laced Life
Ruth Chou Simons
Thomas Nelson Publishers
www.thomasnelson.com
9781400244430, $34.99, HC, 224pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/This-Moment-Matters-Cultivate-Grace-Laced/dp/1400244439
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/this-moment-matters-ruth-chou-simons/1148674519
Synopsis: With the publication of "This Moment Matters: 100 Ways to Cultivate a Grace-Laced Life", author and artist Ruth Chou Simons shares how recognizing God's grace can make your everyday life something special.
Everyday moments are what shape your life; you can sail through them on autopilot, or you can make small, purposeful choices that fill you and those around you with beauty and grace. Ruth shares suggestions for six areas of life:
Looking to Jesus
Cultivating Delight
Embracing Simplicity
Taking Care of Yourself
Creating a Haven
Investing in Your People
With "This Moment Matters: 100 Ways to Cultivate a Grace-Laced Life", readers can begin a journey of:
Discovering God's grace in daily life.
Inspiration to make small but meaningful changes to your home, routines, and relationships with 100 ideas for habits, tips, recipes, and more.
Cooperating with God in cultivating the intentional life you long for -- in the simple choices you make every day.
Embracing beauty through photography paired with Ruth's hand-painted artwork.
"This Moment Matters" will help you understand that the Christian gospel (the good news of forgiveness and freedom in Christ) is connected to the way you make dinner, decorate your home, speak to your kids, and embrace the life you've been given.
The message of "This Moment Matters: 100 Ways to Cultivate a Grace-Laced Life" is that this moment matters. Whether it's thrilling, disappointing, uneventful, or even mundane, this is the day (and the moment!) that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Critique: This large format hardcover edition of "This Moment Matters: 100 Ways to Cultivate a Grace-Laced Life" by Ruth Chou Simons is an extraordinary, profusely illustrated, deftly crafted, and impressively well organized and presented volume that will hold a very special and enduring appeal to readers with an interest in a Christian approach to home decorating and domestic creativity. Original, unique, inspiring, thought-provoking, "This Moment Matters: 100 Ways to Cultivate a Grace-Laced Life" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, church, and college/university library Interior Design, collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that this hardcover edition of "This Moment Matters: 100 Ways to Cultivate a Grace-Laced Life" from Thomas Nelson is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.99).
Editorial Note: Ruth Chou Simons (https://ruthchousimons.com) is a Wall Street Journal bestselling and award-winning author of several books and Bible studies, including GraceLaced, Beholding and Becoming, When Strivings Cease, and Now and Not Yet. She is an artist, podcaster, speaker, and the founder, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer of GraceLaced, an art and lifestyle brand. Simons uses each of these platforms to spiritually sow the Word of God into people's hearts, making deep truths beautifully accessible with her signature art and relatable communication style. Simons has been featured on Good Morning America, Fox, Christianity Today, and Hallmark Home and Family. Ruth and her husband, Troy, live in Western Colorado and are grateful parents to six boys -- their greatest adventure.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Willis Buhle's Bookshelf
Savvy Summers and the Po'boy Perils
Sandra Jackson-Opoku
Minotaur Books
c/o St. Martin's Publishing Group
www.minotaurbooks.com
9781250428066, $28.00, HC, 304pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Savvy-Summers-Poboy-Perils-Mysteries/dp/1250428068
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/savvy-summers-and-the-poboy-perils-sandra-jackson-opoku/1148867366
Synopsis: Savvy has her work cut out when an old friend hires her to cater a company luncheon at a nearby office building on Chicago's South Side. Stepping out of her traditional soul food comfort zone, Savvy whips together a menu of Creole classics, with her own spin, of course -- mini po'boys with assorted fillings, sunburst salad, and bread pudding using Great Aunt Essie's famous buttermilk biscuits.
But when someone is found dead in the company's conference room, Savvy's culinary creations are suddenly in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. While the focus should be on their delicious flavors and inventive techniques, Savvy's beloved cafe instead becomes the center of a murder investigation once again.
Caught within a messy web of gossip, miscommunication, and fraught coworker relationships, Savvy will have to settle the confusion to clear her name. Somebody's hiding something, and with the help of her trusty assistant manager, Penny Lopes, Savvy sets out uncover exactly who is to blame. With familiar faces turning up the heat on her investigation and her cafe still in hot water, will Savvy be able to save her reputation before it's too late?
Critique: Sandra Jackson-Opoku has a genuine and impressive flair for the kind of character and narrative driven storytelling style that is perfectly suited to the cozy mystery genre with all its key elements of a puzzling 'whodunnit' murder mystery needing to be solved by an amateur female detective and friends. Her latest cozy mystery novel, "Savvy Summers and the Po'boy Perils" is a fun read from cover to cover and an unreservedly recommended pick for personal reading lists and community library Mystery/Suspense collections. It should be noted that this hardcover edition of "Savvy Summers and the Po'boy Perils" from Minotaur Books is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: There is an online listing of books by Sandra Jackson-Opoku at Book Series in Order: https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/sandra-jackson-opoku
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
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Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
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