Sunday, February 11, 2024

The Secret Life of Sunflowers

The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Marta Molnar 404 pages

 

I would say that most Americans from high school on up know who Vincent Van Gogh is: The creator of some of the world’s most beautiful paintings (Starry, Starry Night; Sunflowers to name a few) or the mad painter who cut off his ear and gave it to a prostitute as a sign of affection. There have been hundreds of books, movies, songs and tv shows that give readers/watchers an insight to this complicated man.

 

But this novel gives readers a new perspective, When Vincent dies in 1890 by suicide (gunshot to the chest), he leaves his paintings to his brother, Theo, and his wife, Johanna. After Theo dies in 1891, the paintings are left to Johanna. And Johanna is the subject of this powerful novel with the theme of inspiring women.

 

Even before Theo’s death from general paresis of insane in 1891, Johanna was trying to establish Vincent reputation in the art world. True she the money that his paintings would bring, but in the 1890s, women did not have many ways to earn a living, Plus she had her son to provide for.

 

Now then, this book takes on a dual narrative that is not quite interesting as Johanna’s story, yet Johanna becomes an inspiration to Emsley Wilson, who is the fictional granddaughter of Violet Valkyrie, a woman who was also a well-known artist. Emsley lives and works in LA as a Hollywood auctioneer. Violet had Johanna’s diary, which is the catalyst for the novel when Violet has her look into her blue box at the back of her closet and encourages Emsley to read it.

 

Bottom line: It is because of Johanna’s unrelenting ambition to make Vincent a household name that it is. Throw in some 2022 shenanigans from Emsley’s ex-boyfriend and best friend to take her business and an unexpected romance that create such a riveting. For me, the first four chapters were rather slow, but once I started Chapter 5, I couldn’t put it down. Therefore, The Secret Life of Sunflowers gets 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 


Wednesday, January 31, 2024

The ABCs of Christmas

Shirley J.                Juvenile Literature          Something Christmas for every letter of the alphabet

A beautifully illustrated board book complete with raised sparkles throughout in which every letter of the alphabet shows a different Christmas concept, A is for Angel...E is for Elf...J is for Jesus..S is for Santa..W is for Wreath...  The book covers all aspects of Christmas, the religious side, the Santa side, traditional and pagan.   The illustrations are strikingly brilliant and listeners as well as kids through kindergarten will enjoy hearing the captions and looking at and discussing the pictures.   Parents, Grandparents, Teachers and Babysitters will enjoy sharing this book with children.  I recommend it for babies through kindergarten age.  

  

The Angel of Indian Lake



 The Angel of Indian Lake

Stephen Graham Jones

343 pp


The Angel of Indian Lake  by Stephen Graham Jones is the third entry into his trilogy starting with My Heart Is a Chainsaw.  In this series, Jade Daniels (real name Jennifer), is a horror movie fan with almost encyclopedic knowledge of the films in this genre.  As in the other books, the chapter titles are those of horror movies.  Jade uses the plots of movies she has seen to compare what is happening to her in real life to what happens to characters in these movies.  She also uses the behavior of the “final girl” to inform the way she reacts to situations, although she does not believe herself to be worthy of that title.


Jade is back after a stint in prison and is teaching history at the high school like her former teacher Mr. Holmes.  Instead of writing papers on the assigned topics, Jade always wrote about the horror movie.  She has given her class the assignment to do a report on the history of Proofrock and Indian Lake.  Unlike when she was a kid, the reports of today are high tech.  One of the reports even is filmed by drone.  During one of these reports, a missing Bronco is  shown with the bodies of two former Proofrock residents in it.  Then the drone shows teens from their school who have been brutally murdered.  Meanwhile, the local game warden sets a forest fire and the sheriff’s office must find him before things get worse.  The sheriff (Jade’s best friend’s husband) enlists Jade to watch over their daughter since he knows he will be busy.  Things get even busier for him when a parent waiting for their child in the pick up lane is beheaded.


Even though Jade has vowed not to get involved in figuring out any of the crimes, she just can’t help herself.  After she finds out more people in town have been killed she goes after the sheriff so she can tell him what is going on.  Once dropped off in that area, she does not have a lot of mobility since all of the boats have been tampered with.  Eventually, Letha (the sheriff’s wife and her best friend) comes to the rescue.  There’s even more after this, but I won’t spoil it.


To read this book effectively, you must have read the first two books.  There is too much that refers back to the first two “massacres” to comprehend the story otherwise.  I loved this book and am sorry to see the trilogy end.  I will be sure to recommend this to other horror lovers.  

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for giving me an advance reading copy.


Wednesday, January 24, 2024

P is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever!

 Shirley J.                     Juvenile literature                                  The worst alphabet book ever!

P is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever by Raj Haldar     40 pages

This book is hilarious!  At least for adults.  The English language has words with silent first letters like xylophone, oppossum,  knot, aisle, pterodactyl and so many more.   It is a wonder any of us learn to spell much less pronounce words correctly but that is part of the joy and wonder about this wonderful language of ours - there are surprises to keep us on our toes.   The book is like that all the way through and is really fun I think.   I recommend this book from birth to 9 year olds, and to adults, but, I think adults will truly find the humor in it.  Kids may be like, huh?  Say what?   Adults will be like, True!  True!  So true!  Hilarious!  

Merry Christmas Mom & Dad

 Shirley J.               Juvenile Literature            A little critter tries to do a bunch of christmasy things

Merry Christmas Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer   24 pages

A little critter ( it is a series of books about this little fellow and his adventures) of indistinguishable origin, he might be a squirrel, or an opossum, or a porcupine, the book doesn't say and you can't really tell from the illustrations so critter is fitting.  He is some kind of critter.  Anyhow, he is little and he really has great intentions of being a good helper, but, intentions only go so far and his patience, endurance and skill are all laking that stick-to-itiveness to follow through and complete the task he has at hand ie, wrapping presents (the tape is too sticky), untangling the Christmas tree lights forget it - is anyone good at that? baking cookies, nope none of his attempts see the completion but his heart is in the right place, right?   Kids will like it and it is geared for the birth to 5 year old set.  It might amuse up to 8 year olds, I think.  Beyond that probably not. 

On the Night You Were Born

 Shirley J.             Juvenile Literature          All the magical things happening when you were born

On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman   32 pages

Sweet book written in poetic loveliness describing all the magical things happening the night of every baby's birth.   Every horn and trumpet in heaven blew, all the geese in the air flew home, polar bears danced, the moon shone till morning because it was so happy and more.  The world and the heavens were delighted at everyone's birth.   Such a precious story/lyrical poem and all about You!  A great read and/or gift.  It is recommended for birth to 3 years of age but I think any one any age will get a kick  out of the idea of all the wonderful things that occurred because of how special your birth was to all being.  

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

The Gift of Family

 Shirley J.                Adult Fiction          A well-to-do couple can't have kids and adopt a family

The Gift of Family by Mary Monroe   208 pages

A very easy read.   A sweet story.   Eugene and Rosemary Johnson are doing well in their lives.  Rosemary runs a successful nail salon in Beverly Hills, California and Eugene is a successful lawyer with a lustrous list of celebrity clients.   They live a comfortable life, they love each other and enjoy partying with the A-list crowd.   The one thing they have been trying years for is a family with heart wrenching results.  Then Rosemary is told she needs an emergency hysterectomy and their hopes are crushed as now she will be unable to bear children.   They luck into finding the woman that worked for Eugene's parents, the woman who raised him and his brother , who was such an asset to Eugene's family. This woman, Ethyl Perkins has been struggling working 2 jobs for years doing her best to provide for her great-grandchildren who were left with her to raise them when their mother and grandmother died in the mean streets.  Ethyl is approaching 70 years old, the new owner of her building is making her move because his daughter wants Ethyl's apartment.  Ethyl has no extra money for first and last month's rent somewhere else not to mention the security deposit which she is sure the new owner doesn't plan to refund her due to the remarks he's made about her 2 grandsons tearing up the place.  They hadn't but Ethyl saw where this was going.  Meeting up with Eugene and Rosemary and being offered the job of taking care of Rosemary during her recovery from her surgery is a God send.  Little do any of them know, yet, just what a God send it will turn out to be.   Good story.  Very light reading.  I recommend this book to anyone who loves romance, children and happy endings.