Disney 5-Minute Christmas Stories

 

Shirley J.                   Juvenile Fiction             Short stories all taking place at Christmas in the lives of                                                                                  many of the Disney characters

Disney 5-Minute Christmas Stories  192 pages

Lovely Christmas stories starring Lady and the Tramp and their kids as Lady shares Christmas traditions that she loves her favorite being the big Christmas dinner with all the fixings the house is decorated, the presents are wrapped and under the tree, the carolers have been by dinner is cooking and smells wonderful, Tramp, never having had a home growing up is learning about Christmas traditions along with their kids who are enjoying their first Christmas.  When the Aunt with two mean Siamese cats comes over for dinner and turns the cats loose in the house, the first thing they destroy is the table laden with all the scrumptious holiday food, pulling the tablecloth with their claws until all the platters and bowls spill onto the floor.   Fortunately, the mistress of the house saw what happened and Lady didn't get the blame this time.  Lady was so sad and disappointed that Christmas was ruined, but Tramp saves the day by sharing his Christmas tradition with the family.   The dogs get their masters to follow them and Tramp leads them to the Italian restaurant he took Lady to for their first date.   His friends are delighted and set up tables for the family and Tramp and Lady's family and a wonderful traditional Italian Christmas dinner is enjoyed by all.    Mickey and Pluto end up helping Santa deliver Christmas presents to the last 4 houses on his list which just happen to be Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy's houses, because Santa and his reindeer have all come down with terrible colds after leaving the North Pole and need to get home they are so tired to get some soup and get in bed to recover.   Cinderella, and her Aunties the good fairies, Merryweather, Flora and Fauna, decorate the castle, cooking and baking cookies and Cinderella sews her Christmas gifts to give as presents to all her loved ones.  Cinderella and Phillip throw a wonderful Christmas party for their staff and for all the animals that are their friends and everyone parties together and it is so much fun and all get along beautifully.   Pinocchio sees his first snowfall as a real boy and Gippetto tells him all about Christmas and they decorate the house and cook and make Christmas cakes and cookies, all the while their kitten, Figaro wants to help and be a part of things but Gippetto keeps telling him no.   Finally, Gippetto takes Pinochhio and tells Figaro and their fish, Cleo they are going out for out for a while.  Figaro hides under the bed to sulk where he finds wrapped Christmas gifts for everybody but him!  He is so hurt and angry that he rips every present's wrapping paper, tears down the decorations till Jimminy Cricket stops him and scolds him telling him it isn't about the things, it is about family.   He shames Figaro so bad that the kitten starts fixing the mess he has created.  Jimminy helps Figaro and when Gippetto and Pinochhio return,  dinner is sitting on the table and the house looks more beautiful than before.   Gippetto thanks Figaro and gives him his Christmas present early for being such a good cat and working so hard to make Christmas even more wonderful.   When Figaro opens his gift it is a big bottle of cream they had gone out to get for him.   A fine time was had by all and a fine lesson learned.   So many beautiful Christmas stories are to be found here.   I highly recommend these stories to babies on up to senior citizens.   Everyone will love these stories no matter what your age.

Disney's Scary Storybook Collection

 

Shirley J.               Juvenile Fiction                      Scary stories as told by Disney characters

Disney's Scary Storybook Collection   304 pages

I enjoyed this collection of "scary" stories.   Many tales as told by various Disney characters from  Cinderella when Merriweather, one of the good fairies from her story, is on a mission to hand deliver an invitation to Maleficent for a royal party Cinderella and Prince Phillip are hosting to the Evil Queen in Snow White's story to FrankenPooh and more.  When the lights go out at Mickey Mouse's slumber party it gets spooky when a loud knock comes at the door and a huge lanky figure appears in the doorway! There are tales from Monsters, Inc. and Cars, the characters from Up and more.   So many tales that give the reader pause to wonder what fright is coming next but the good news is while the stories draw you in they do not frighten children as the characters always manage to work things out.   Great stories, beautiful illustrations.   I recommend this one to babies on up.  The whole family will enjoy reading/reading aloud these enchanting tales.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Mislaid

 Shirley J.                Adult Fiction         Marriage, Children, Homosexuality, Identity Switches

Mislaid by Nell Zink  256 pages

A unique story with so many twists and despite some really hard knocks they all go on to the next thing taking each day in their stride.   The writing and humor is endearing and even when the lead characters are doing bad things, you still like them and root for them.   When a lesbian freshman hooks up with an older, teacher and poet who also happens to be homosexual there is a fire started that leads to commitment, children and the making or enduring of a life till they just can't continue to behave and stay in their own yard.   The call of the wild gets so strong it blows everything apart and the family is left hanging on to dangling strings finally separating down the middle.   The kids are too young to understand all that is happening and when the son takes the Dad's side and chooses to stay with him she leaves with the younger child always wishing she had both kids with her.   The path she takes for her and her daughter is to disappear and reappear as someone else until that day comes...Good story it will keep you guessing throughout.   

Essays

Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism Considered in Their Fundamental Principles by Juan Donoso Cortes, translated by Rev William McDonald, 347 pages

In his celebrated 1988 Gifford lectures, Alisdair MacIntyre exposed the failure of both the modernist "encyclopedic" and postmodernist "genealogical" approaches to ethics, a failure rooted in their incommensurability, their inability to meaningfully dialogue with and assimilate alien systems.  Now we stand in the ruins of those towers of human pride, with leaders who, whether from knavery or imbecility or some mixture of the two, leap uncomprehendingly from one to the other, asserting at one moment that "my truth" is something manufactured, and at the next that it issues from the Delphic prophetess Science, once her mad ravings have been suitably interpreted by her labcoated priests.  If reason is the slave rather than the master of the passions, every subjectivity is at war with every other, convenient lies contending with convenient lies, and so the heathen rage.

This was all warned against by Juan Donoso Cortes in the early nineteenth century.  The liberal superstition that truth will triumph in a free marketplace of ideas is belied by the fact that men do not seek the truth, to the contrary, even when the Truth appeared to them they mocked Him, spit on Him, and ultimately crucified Him.  The entire liberal project is founded on the mistaken belief that human freedom consists of the power to choose between good and evil rather than the ability to will the good.  The result is moral chaos, the war of all against all by other means, and sin, Cortes reminds us, is nothing more or less than disorder, the confusion of lesser goods for higher, ending in the disunion of soul and body which is death.  Life, then, is order, true order, the harmony which exists in the presence of the supreme mysteries in the light of which all apparent contradictions are resolved.   

My Squirrel Days

 

Shirley J.                 Adult Non-Fiction                   Biography of Ellie Kemper's life thus far    

My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper  256 pages

I have been a fan of Ellie Kemper's ever since the first episode of the "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."  Great show!  Hilarious Tina Fey humor.   Then I started noticing her in lots of other roles I hadn't realized.  Ellie is a great actress and now I know she is a great writer, too.   I found out while reading thi book she is a fellow St. Louisan!  How cool is that?   She was also the receptionist with also another St. Louisan, Jenna Fischer, on the t.v. show, "The Office."   This gal rolls with some A list folks!  So therein lies the tale that folks from the Lou can become rich and famous and live the starry eyed Hollywood dream!  Hello, Jon Hamm, Kevin Kline, John Goodman, I could go on and on.   But, back to Ellie Kemper, she honed her skills doing Improv in Chicago and New York then later L.A. and it all started with doing Christmas plays every year when she was young in her home in Ladue with her friend and also her little brother.   She got the acting bug early, and the writing bug, as well as she wrote all the plays, directed them and acted in them.  The girl was a tripl-threat dynamo.   Her superpower may well have been her red hair.   I recommend this book to middle-schoolers on up.  Caution: She does say a few cuss words along the way, but I think her joie de vivre will win out.

The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your LIfe

 Shirley J.       Adult Non-Fiction       Self-Help  Applying Design School Problem Solving Skills to life

The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing and Take Command of Your Life by Bernard Roth

288 pages

Bernard Roth reminds me a little of Yoda from Star Wars.   He is a big promoter of the "Do or Do Not There Is No Try," school of Jedi fundamentals.   He is all about working things out by introducing his theories to you in very understandable ways.   He uses, stories, parables, recollections of his own and his family's experiences, classroom exercises and homework for the reader to complete to teach some very life changing theorems.  He is pretty hard on his students and I don't think I would want to take a class with him (he can be a bit of an insensitive jerk) but when he gets going  props where props are due he is pretty brilliant to have figured out how much better it is to stop making excuses for that which we screw up and just to take the stronger approach of owning your screw up and instead of laying all the excuses out just say and.    Not, the project didn't get done on time because the weather was bad, traffic was backed up due to accidents which made me 2 hours late getting here, then the report had to be typed up after locating all the statistics that (name) held up because they didn't follow through.  Instead say, "Yes, the project is behind because I failed to plan adequately to give myself the time to pull the stats together, to meet with everyone I needed for their feedback and factor in the time to type and edit the final report before turning it in AND I now have all the information I need to complete an accurate account and the project will be completed and in your hand by the end of the day.   Lots of other simple yet who thinks of them lessons that you will say to yourself that is such a perfect way of handling that.   Excellent book.   I highly recommend this one to mature teens and adults wanting to get their lives on track and achieve positive results.   So many amazing ways to look at situations and fix them - no muss no fuss just cut to the chase and DO IT.

Dragons Are The Worst!

Shirley J.                       Juvenile Fiction                         Dragons and how they annoy Gilbert the goblin 

Dragons Are The Worst! by Alex Willan   40 pages

Now that he has decided to tolerate unicorns, Gilbert the goblin has moved on to find a new creature to dislike, dragons.   Now honestly, who doesn't like dragons?  Especially after "Game of Thrones" brought baby dragons into our living rooms and we watched them grow up.  Love 'em!  But, no, Gilbert so dislikes dragons that he lists the traits he likes least about them.   They melt every ice cream cone in a mile radius, He goes on to say that they burn down everything in sight,  they hoard ALL the gold and everyone is afraid of them (I beg to differ.  I find them amazing, beautiful, full of wonder and would adore having one as a friend.).   This latter remark, "everyone is afraid of them" just happens to be Gilbert's thorn of contention.   It miffs him that because he is short people refer to him as cute, when as everybody knows goblins are fearsome creatures worthy of terror.  In the hierarchy of fearsome creatures, ogres, trolls, goblins are third on the list after all.  So, his problem isn't necessarily dragons themselves, it is the fact that he is jealous of them for all their coolness.   He learns to loosen up and give dragons their due, fortunately.  I highly recommend this book to toddlers on up, which I would retitle, "Dragons Are the Best!   And Goblins Are O.K, Too!"   I especially like the illustrations of the dragons at play where one dragon is juggling 3 sheep.   The sheep seem to be having an o.k. time with it.

Unicorns are the Worst

 

Shirley J.                  Juvenile Fiction                 Unicorns and how their sparkles annoys one goblin

Unicorns Are the Worst! by Alex Willan   40 pages

Unicorns are the original party animals and are so fun.   They love to dance and everywhere they go they leave glitter sparkling everywhere.   They are always frolicking and throwing great tea parties.  All this lightness and brightness is hard to take for a grumpy goblin who can't stand all the frivolity.   But after unicorns come to his aid he changes his mind and decides maybe they aren't quite as bad as he thought they were.   Good story likening the introverts and extroverts of the world.  A fun read-aloud story.  I recommend this for pre-schoolers on up.   Unicorns are good at any age.

We Are Water Protectors

 

Shirley J.                      Juvenile Non-Fiction                          Native Americans Protectors of Water

We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom  40 pages

Beautifully illustrated, the book tells of how in Native American culture the prophesy of the black snake destroying the world by poisoning its water is coming true.   Native Americans have been given the role by the Great Spirit of protecting the earth's water and are trying to fulfill that purpose by the protests at Standing Rock and other locations on Native American land where big oil is coming through and taking over without regard to the legal rights of the indigenous tribes on the land that the government allegedly gave ownership rights to after the great resettlement of the plains people to some of the harshest real estate in the United States.   Still even now they are treated as if they don't matter and have no rights to who can come in and what is and is not allowed on "their land."   This book is calling warriors to stand up for the earth and its water.  The pipelines snaking across Native American land leak black oil on the earth and in the water  supplies and try as they might the fight continues and big oil only becomes more powerful.   It is the Ojibwe and a multitude of other tribes calling for unity to stand together against this oppressor and save the earth.  I highly recommend this brilliantly illustrated book with its telling of money and might corrupting the land while the people who were here first rise up to do what is right and protect that land.   

Devil's Candy

The Devil's Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood by Julie Salamon, 423 pages

"The Devil's candy" is how producer Peter Gruber described the actress needed to play the character of Maria in The Bonfire of the Vanities, lust for whom drives Sherman McCoy to disregard morality and prudence, "She's gotta be the Devil's candy."  For journalist Julie Salamon, who was granted open access to the cast and crew of Bonfire throughout its production, the term can just as accurately describe the entire project of attempting to adapt Tom Wolfe's bestseller into a major motion picture, and to the allure of big-budget filmmaking in general.  This is only reinforced as the pursuit of this particular bit of candy unfolds just as disastrously as McCoy's.

Although Salamon spends plenty of time with the stars of the movie - Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith, Bruce Willis, Kim Cattrall - her book really shines when dealing with the crew - the cinematographer, second unit director, set designers, foley artists, editors, even the gaffers and grips.  The candor of many of her sources is almost incredible - director Brian De Palma most of all, as the book gives a remarkably personal, intimate look into the mind and heart of a director known to have little room for sentimentality in either his life or his art.  Best of all, Salamon is able to trace the development of the film step by step, making clear the reasoning behind seemingly baffling creative decisions and providing a remarkable window into the process of Hollywood filmmaking.

The Leaf Reader

 

Shirley J.                  Teen Fiction                                            Tea Leaf Reading/Divination

The Leaf Reader by  Emily Arsenault    240 pages

I really enjoyed this story about teenager, Marnie Wells, who finds a book on tea reading on her grandmother's bookshelf.   Marnie finds the book fascinating and easily memorizes all the meanings of symbols one might see in the cup.   Turns out she is even better than she knows because everything she sees comes true.   When a couple of friends go missing a heart throb guy in school asks her to do readings to help him find the missing girl.   A huge mystery ensues and an excellent story with occult leanings unfurls.   I loved it.   It will keep you interested from page 1 to the end.   So much happens and so many characters you find are not one way or the other but a mixture of good and evil with much more at stake that you will come to find out.   GOOD STORY.   I recommend it to teens on up and to everyone with an interest in the occult particularly divination. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Shirley J.         Juvenile Fiction         A little girl dreams she chases a white rabbit into a whole new world

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll     77pages

It is fun to go back and re-experience favorite classics from my younger years as an adult to see what my current take on the stories are.  I still love this one.  I kept thinking while reading it that early film version certainly was true to the original story and they did amazing makeup and special effects for the time.  I still love Lewis Carroll's imaginings and how sassy that little thing Alice was all the way through even though a child coming up against some very odd in deed circumstances.   She is so brave!  I recommend this to young and old to those who are too young to read but will enjoy being read to and to those old enough to be lulled by hearing the words and smiling over all the images they conjure in the mind's eye.  

Culture and Anarchy

Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold, 212 pages

In the seminal essays that make up Culture and Anarchy, originally published serially in 1869, Matthew Arnold attempted to convince his hardheaded English countrymen, who prided themselves on practicality and efficiency, of the value of culture.  For Arnold, the cult of efficiency amounts to an idolatry of machinery, a confusion of ends and means, and a worldview closed to the "sweetness and light" that make life worth living.  In the process, Arnold famously distinguishes two rival tendencies in Western civilization, which he dubs the Hebraic and the Hellenic - the former demanding faithful action, the latter rational thought.  Both pursue the same goal of human perfection, but that goal is unattainable by either alone.

It is easy to criticize Arnold's scheme as overly simplistic and reductive, although the notion of a rivalry between Athens and Jerusalem can be traced back at least as far as Tertullian.  It is equally easy to point out its weaknesses - to ask, for example, whether Hellenism is not just as likely to lead to the kind of radical individualism Arnold deplores as Hebraism, or whether other forms of Hebraism beyond Puritanism might not admit sweetness and light as readily as Hellenism.  To do so, however, would be to fundamentally misunderstand what Arnold means by Hebraism and Hellenism, to imagine the former as simply religious and the latter as purely secular.  Arnold wants contemplative philosophers, not scientific administrators, true intellectuals, not chattering policy wonks.  Indeed, the latter are the vanguard of the mechanical anti-culture he abominates.

The Inheritance

The Inheritance by JoAnn Ross 384 pages

Wow, the cover of this book really fooled me and has more of disconnect than any book I’ve seen in a long time. It screams historical fiction with a touch of contemporary, but the actual story is the reverse. It’s a contemporary story with a dash of historical fiction.

Jackson “Jack” Swann is a conflict photographer. He goes anywhere the world is in crisis/chaos. It’s been a great profession, however with little time, or energy, for meaningful relationships.  The father of three daughter, each by a different woman, has come home to his family’s Oregon vineyard to die. Cancer is ravaging his body.

He changes his will so that the three half-sisters at least get to meet one time, and so the family business remains in the family. He hopes.

Jack’s oldest daughter is Tess. He was married her mother for a short time. He had bailed before she got to know him and she refers to him only as “the sperm donor.” A former child TV star (think Patty Duke), Tess is now a bestselling author of young adult books. She pissed at the sperm donor as now she feels she has lost him all over again. With a terrifying case of writer’s block, Tess thinks a trip to Oregon might be just what she needs to shake the cobwebs loose. She know about Charlotte, but has idea that Natalia exists.

Charlotte is the middle child, well woman now. Raised in Southern high society, Charlotte has a passion for interior design, which Jack encouraged. However, her mother has made eroded her confidence and she retreats into being the perfect wife for her politician husband, but it seems he also belittles everything she tries to do. Bad news usually comes in threes, but for Charlotte, two were a disaster. She learns about Jack’s death on the same day she learns her husband is cheating on her. And to top that off, she as no inkling that she has two sisters.

The youngest, Natalia, is the one who knows Jack the best. Her mother captured more of Jack’s heart than any other woman. Natalia has even inherited his talent for photography. She is aware of Tess and Charlotte, but doesn’t know if they know about her.

Not only Jack’s daughters inherit the vineyard, they also inherited a grandmother. Rocked by her only son’s death, she eagerly awaits the girls’ arrival so that she can get to know them. The historical fiction comes in with Grandmother Madeleine. She and her husband were French Resistance fighters during WWII.

“The Inheritance” is an interesting novel about families and receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix

So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow 304 pages

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I requested this book from Bookishfirst.com. Like most everyone else in the world, I adored Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” and was excited to see what author Morrow would do with it.  Well, the cover gives part of it away, but, still, I was curious as so what Morrow would do with the story.

The timeframe was consistent, the American Civil War (1863-1866). But instead of a poor Northern family with their father serving as a chaplain in the Union Army, the March family is living in North Carolina in the Freedpeople’s Colony of Roanoke Island. As a history nerd, I was confused. Every time I read Roanoke, I immediately thought of the attempt by the English to establish a colony on the island in 1587. I had no idea that after the English settlers disappeared, the island became a haven for freedpeople of color. Some background would have been nice, but the story structure really didn't lend itself to a backstory of this nature.

Another thing that confused, and somewhat irritated me, was the title the sisters used to refer to their mother. In the Alcott version, it was Marmee, but in this version, it was Mammy. The first time I read it I was offended, but then quickly realized the timeframe of the story. However, the etymology of “Mammy” is “black woman having the care of white children.” That didn’t fit the story to me at all, but in hindsight, maybe that was what Mammy did before they escaped to the Freedpeople’s Colony, but it’s unclear to me.

The girls seemed both different and alike to Alcott’s version. However, there was something about them that didn’t allow me to care much about them. There was a lack of tension throughout the book, no compelling reason to turn the page---and that is what prompts me to say that “So Many Beginnings: ‘A Little Women Remix’” receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

The Killing Habit

Shirley J.                            Adult Fiction                                 Serial Killers,  animal killings/mutilations

 The Killing Habit by Mark Billingham  432 Pages

Another series - but- a mighty good one.   This story is based on a true cruel mass pet mutilation spree that is still unsolved to this day in the U.K.   It is heartbreaking reading the descriptions of what is done to the poor animals and how the murderer did it.   Though fictional, the information given must have been researched and taken from the records - it is graphic and animal lovers will find it hard to take.   However, the story other than that goes on to show how the profilers surmise the murderer going from killing animals to people and women in particular then they have to come up with motive, and where the women link together to form an opportunity.   The book is entertaining in the banter and rapport that DI Thorne and DI Tanner have as they work out the details and figure out the mindset and next location, possible victims and so on of this fascinating case  The twists, turns and surprise ending is certainly worth the read.   Excellent British crime story.   I like the characters so much I will likely have to check out the rest of the series.   I recommend this one for adults, it is pretty graphic for kids, even teens who have pets at home especially. 

Our Gang: A Racial History of the Little Rascals

Shirley J.               Adult Non-Fiction                        The history of the times and lives of the child actors both on and off the film sets known first as Our Gang then later as the Little Rascals

Our Gang: A Racial History of the Little Rascals by Julia Lee    328 pages

I love the Little Rascals be they the original Our Gang and all the "generations" throughout including the new movie versions.   What a revelation that all the kids in the 1920s played together and enjoyed each other's company so much they considered the group and the crew to be family.   Hal Roach saw a group of black and white kids playing outside his studio and got the idea of filming their funny antics as short reel films to be circulated to theaters along with feature films, sort of the prelude to the features.   The idea took off and found a huge fan following throughout the country with some less enthused in the south but for the most part people were lining up to see them.   They became so popular and got so much fan mail that Roach started doing publicity tours and booking the kids at events so their fans could meet them in person.   It was an insulated thrill ride - Hal Roach kept the kids safe from naysayers and haters within the protective bubble of the Hal Roach Studios.   They were sheltered from any racial prejudices under Hal Roach and his right hand man, Bob McGowan and since they attended school on the studio lot they didn't come in contact a lot of outsiders except on their home time which was after 5p.m. so there wasn't a lot of contact time between dinner, learning their lines, which Roach kept to a minimum and most often allowed them to improvise their own dialogue.  That all changed when Roach allowed Louis B. Mayer to buy him out and MGM took over the latest crew of kids' contracts.   The upside was every day at Roach Studios was like play time even though they were working.  When MGM took over every day became work as they had scripts to memorize.  When Hal Roach took the kids and their guardians out on promotional tours if a hotel wouldn't allow Sunshine Sammy, Farina, Stymie or Buckwheat to stay there due to Jim Crow laws, Hal Roach would find a hotel that would let all the kids and Petey (the pup) stay together.   When MGM took over, black actors were relegated to black hotels.  The book tells the beginnings of the actors' lives and careers, tells about their families, talks about filming and shares tidbits of life on the set, various films and the fun had by all, the work involved, the joy and the sorrows experienced.  It talks about the kids early retirement when they aged out (got too tall or mature looking), reunions, what the kids went on to do in their lives and even talks about the passing of the actors and crew   A great book for fans of the Little Rascals from the shorts (short film reels) to syndication on t.v. to the 2 films done in 1994 and 2014, and who knew that Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame got Stymie the derby he wore in the original short films?  He did.  Laurel and Hardy were also under contract with Hal Roach studios at the time.   Small world.  So much good information and trivia to be found here.   I recommend this book to all fans though it would likely be more to the tastes of high school students on up to us old foggies who remember them from t.v.   Loved it.

 

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

 

Still Alice by Lisa Genova  302 pp

Still Alice is the fictionalized account of early onset Alzheimer's disease in Alice Howland, a Harvard professor.  When Alice is out running one day, she stops briefly and realizes that she has no idea which way she needs to turn to go home.  That feeling passes, but other events occur that lead her to contact her doctor to ask if the symptoms she is experiencing might be related to menopause.  Once she goes through a battery of tests and the doctor finds nothing to be concerned about, Alice goes on with her life.  When she forgets she was supposed to be in Chicago for a conference, she asks for a referral to a neurologist who diagnoses her with early onset Alzheimer's disease.  The story is about Alice's experiences with the disease through a full year.  As time progresses, so does the disease.

Lisa Genova obviously did excellent research for this story.  It was both compelling and informative.  I particularly liked the part about Alice forming her own support group with other early onset dementia patients and her speech at the conference that asks that people think about what the person with the disease is experiencing.  I can understand why this book would be difficult to read for anyone who has a friend or family member who has experienced this devastating disease, but it is certainly a worthwhile one.

Terror

The Terror by Dan Simmons, 766 pages

The year is 1848.  Over a hundred men are spending their second winter trapped in their two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, off the coast of King William Island.  They are surrounded by ice, wind, and darkness.  They are running low on food, rum, and coal.  Worst of all, they are being hunted by a preternatural creature strong enough to tear a man in half and clever enough to sneak onto the very decks of their ships.  Nearly as mysterious is the young Esquimaux woman the crew call Lady Silence, who may or may not know something about these men and their fates, but whose tongue was bitten off at the root by someone or something long ago. 

The Terror falls prey to some of the cliches of historical fiction.  There's an extended passage in which a character expounds on the as yet unpublished theories of Darwin with which he is implausibly (though not impossibly) familiar, and Simmons only barely avoids turning his Inuit into noble savages.  The monster, being an unstoppable killing machine with an unknown origin and purpose, is unavoidably reminiscent of similar figures in Simmons' science fiction novels.  In another novel the monster would be a center of tension, something that can be directly faced and overcome in a way that cold and darkness cannot, but Simmons establishes fairly early on that nothing the sailors can do will more than temporarily inconvenience the creature.  When answers are provided, it is in the form of an exposition dump that could have been copy-pasted from some alternate universe's Dictionary of Inuit Mythology.  Nor do the characters provide much interest, for while a few are genuinely memorable, they have little to do except suffer through hundreds of pages of detailed descriptions of frostbite and scurvy, and the reader is invited to suffer alongside them.

And yet.

The final hundred pages are compelling in a way they could not have been without the long tale of thwarted adventure and dreary survival that preceded them.  It could perhaps have been more artfully done, but that it was done at all is a marvel and a gift.

The President's Vampire

Shirley J.                Adult Fiction        A vampire as a secret protector/weapon for the U.S. president  

The President's Vampire by Christopher Farnsworth (Book 2 of 3)   448 pages

I so wish that if books are part of a series it would be noted on the book and what number in the series the book falls in.   I thought this was a stand alone title (do those even exist anymore?) but, no, it is #2 in a series I found out after reading it.   It actually does stand alone except you gather there is history here you  wonder about when it is alluded to.   The premise is since the assassination of Lincoln there has been a vampire kept under super secret totally deniable beyond top secret clearance at the white house or within reasonable distance.   He is there to protect the president at all costs.   Something to do with a blood oath taken  I'm guessing because a vampire wasn't in play prior to Lincoln's assassination but now that I know there is a prequel to this book I will have to go back and find out how Cade the vampire got his start as a surreptitious body guard/secret weapon against evil doers.  too bad he wasn't at hand to save Lincoln.  Still and all over the years he has had the President's and thereby the country's back ever since fighting reptilian super mega combatants created from humans swallowing a type of venom that turns them into hideous apex predators.   A descent story but the reptilians get mighty gross let me tell you.   I recommend this one to Sci-fi fans of all ages.

True and Only Heaven

The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics by Christopher Lasch, 532 pages

Christopher Lasch's story of progress and its critics is, as the subtitle suggests, really two stories.  The first, counterintuitively, is the tale of the nineteenth century critics of industrialization and enlightenment and their warnings about atomisation, alienation, and decadence.  The second is that of twentieth century American progressives as they came to increasingly view the masses as the object rather than the protagonist of historical processes.   Uniting these narratives is Lasch's apocalyptic understanding that the end of progress is not a realized utopia, but an insatiable demand for more of everything, resulting in a fundamental rejection of all boundaries and limitations.

The True and Only Heaven is not merely a book that should be read by anyone seeking to understand the current century and the two which preceded it.  It is a book that no one can plausibly claim to understand the world in its present moment without having read.  Lasch even profoundly explicates matters only peripheral to his central concern - the transformation of the civil rights movement from moral suasion to black power, for instance.  Indeed his analysis is so brilliant that it illuminates even areas he does not directly touch - his treatment of syndicalism, for example, reveals a previously unexpected foundation beneath Nolte's theory of fascism.  Yet another mark of Lasch's genius are the uses to which his thoughts can be put that he did not foresee and would not have sympathised with.  This is entirely fitting for a narrative the great theme of which is hope, for hope, Lasch tells us, depends upon faith in an "underlying order of things [that] cannot be flouted with impunity."

The Sixth Conspirator

 

Shirley J.         Historical Fiction                      The people involved in the killing of Abraham Lincoln

The Sixth Conspirator: A Novel by Max Byrd    368 pages

Wow!  Byrd paints a trail with words that goes from the night of Lincoln's assassination all the way to the capitals of Europe and the Vatican!   Who knew the Catholic church sympathized with Southern cessation?  Whoa!  You will learn so many things you never had a clue about just how widespread the hate for Lincoln went.   I was blown away.   Canada was the stomping ground for so many Southern sympathizers it is a wonder a siege didn't come from the north during the Civil War.   And to be finally through with the war yet sheer hatred for a human being trying to make the nation whole again didn't even get to fully appreciate that fact before being killed in cold blood.   There are so many insiders around Lincoln that betrayed him and helped bring about his death it is uncanny but for the Catholic church to harbor the fugitive traitors and get them safe passage to escape, it is inconceivable the depths and lengths involved in this travesty.   There were so many hands involved in this plot it is staggering any were caught.  Based on historical documents, letters, etc. this may be fictionalized but the meat of the truth is throughout.  Bravo, Max Byrd!   This is pretty heavy stuff with a lot of detail.   I recommend it to history buffs, Civil War fans, and anyone with a love of the past and a curiosity as to what brought certain events to happen.   Probably not a book for the younger set but any of a scholarly bent will enjoy this work.  I recommend it for mature teens on up.

Shelter In Place

 

Shirley J.                  Adult Fiction                                   Mass shooting in a theater inside a shopping mall

Shelter In Place by Nora Roberts  560 pages    

Friends out for a movie to cheer up their bff who's boyfriend dumped her for someone else that day only to find said couple coming in to the same movie sitting a few rows down in front!    A guy finally getting up the nerve to ask a fellow mall worker out - so innocent - so hopeful for better things to come when 3 shooters appear out of nowhere and begin killing and maiming first in the theater then out in the mall.   So many lives lost that night and the survivors are scarred for the rest of their lives. This story walks you through the events that led up to that night, the chaos of that awful murderous rampage and the aftermath.  It takes you through the survivors. lives as they try to move on but cannot escape their memories of that night.  Excellent story

Zen Ghosts

 

Shirley J.                    Juvenile Fiction                                  A Halloween Ghost Story

Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth  40 pages 

Its Halloween and Addie, Michael and Karl are all costumed up when a ghost comes to their door!  Oh wait!  It is Stillwater their Panda Bear neighbor.   After collecting all their goodies they meet Stillwater afterward for an enchanting Halloween ghost story.  Well done!  So laid back and not scary though there are ghosts involved.  Ah, the Zen of it all.   Again, well done, Jon J. Muth.   I recommend this book to those too young to read themselves but to be read to and to all who can read it for themselves.  Zen lessons abound.   

Zen Shorts

Shirley J.                 Juvenile Fiction                         Stories told in a very calm and respectful way 

 Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth        40 pages

Like Kung Fu Panda this Panda named Stillwater tells 3 children stories that like parables teach them lessons they need to know.  The illustrations in this book are beautiful.  All the stories are depicted with birds and animals as the characters that are familiar in Asian countries.  They dress in komonas with obis and wear the triangular hats often depicted in films that offer shade to the head and shoulders, worn predominantly in Asian countries.   The stories are so soothing you can picture and almost hear the serene tones of Stillwater as he takes his neighbor children on verbal adventures.   Their imaginations take them along with Stillwater almost like a guided meditation.   Very enjoyable stories here.  I recommend this book to all ages from those too young to read who will be soothed by the sounds they are hearing to the elderly who could also benefit from being read such a lovely story.  Good book. 

20 Ways to Make Everyday Better: Simple, Practical Changes with Real Results

Shirley J.            Adult Non-Fiction                Christian Principles and Lessons for improving each day 

20 Ways to Make Everyday Better: Simple, Practical Changes with Real Results by Joyce Meyers         272 pages

Joyce Meyers is a local gal living in Fenton, MO where her internationally known ministry is headquartered.   I like her down to earth style of talking and preaching and her very relatable way of sharing Bible truths and lessons.  She often sites herself, her husband or family sharing something they have gone through personally and how these everyday things illustrate bible teachings.   She has done just that with this book discussing how little things in life, bad drivers in front of you, the person who cut in line at the grocery store even though you were clearly headed to that lane,  the dog throwing up on the carpet just as you are dashing out the door because you were late due to having to run back and get the kids homework they forgot to put in their backpacks, spilling a left behind glass of milk on your shoe someone forgot to finish.   Or listening to your drone on and on for the seventh tie about how she hates her life but won't do anything to try to change her situation.   Little things that stack up and can bring you down and ruin a perfectly good day - if you let them.  Joyce offers lessons, coping skills and ways to turn your attitude around with God's help to take things in your stride and keep on going positively.   She offers so much good advice that honors God and helps you to be thankful in all things even if you are cleaning your oven or the carpet the dog barfed on - hey - at least you have an oven - at least you have a home with a carpet that is going  to need cleaning anyway the dog just prodded you along to do it sooner rather than later.  And honestly, it isn't the dog's fault now is it?   Didn't your 6 year old keep feeding him that spicy stuff from dinner last night?   Joyce speaks of God's unconditional love for us and teaches lessons from the books of the Bible to emphasize her points.   Good book she is a very relatable writer.  I recommend this book to middle-schoolers on up.

Sunflower Sisters

Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly  528 pages

This is the final book in the Lilac Girls or the Woolsey-Ferriday Trilogies

I fell in love with Martha Hall Kelly’s writing when her first book, “Lilac Girls” debuted. The second book, working backwards in time, was “Lost Roses.” And now this, the final story, has come along, which takes place during the American Civil War.

One thing I like about these novels is that they are truly standalones. They are about one family across history and other than the blood connection, there is no mention of the other relatives or protagonists in the other two books. Maybe that’s why author Hall-Kelly wrote them in reverse.

The book is told from three points of view. First is the main protagonist, Georgeanna “Georgy” Woolsey, a great-aunt to “Lilac Girls” Caroline Ferriday. Georgy ultimately becomes a nurse, serving during the Civil War. Hall Kelly takes readers right to the battle front without romanticizing the events or the war. Sometimes it was hard to read. Georgy believes her destiny is to open a nursing school for women.

The second point of view is from Jemma, a slave on the Peeler Plantation. She is brutalized and beaten, often to the breaking point. As life and white people conspire to make her life as hard as possible, Jemma pulls herself up and continues.

The third point of view is from Anne-May Wilson, mistress of the Peeler Plantation. She is meaner than any man could ever be to her slaves. Anne-May is in charge of running the tobacco fields until, and if, her husband and brother, fighting on opposite sides, return home. It’s no wonder that the slaves are constantly running away. Her brutality is legendary.

The story flows well and the characters are well-developed. From reading the Author’s Notes, I learned that most of the research was done through the Woolsey family letters. Georgy had six sisters and one brother. I highly recommend reading that last section as it provides some insight into the Woolsey family.

At first I was confused about the sunflowers; I wasn’t sure what they meant. Sunflowers were used to warn runaway slave of places that weren’t safe. They pop up in the book in several places.

At 528 pages, this is a massive book to undertake. I read it in a little over a week, it was that good. It’s been a couple of weeks since I finished “Sunflower Sisters” and I find myself missing these characters.

“Sunflower Sisters” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

A Sparrow Alone

A Sparrow Alone by Mim Eichmann  311 pages

When the story opens, thirteen-year-old Hannah Owens sits quietly staring at her mother’s face with her two younger siblings. Their dead mother’s face. I was never sure exactly what killed Mother, but it seemed a sort of wasting disease; I’m thinking cancer of some type. Their father is a psalm-singer (very strict Puritan), constantly spewing psalms and working on occasion. He also seemed insane to me.

Author Eichmann sets readers down in 1890s Colorado, where the Owens family lives in horrible, horrible poverty. The family hasn’t eaten much in several days. The doctor’s wife, Mrs. Hughes, arrives, demanding to know what has happened. She rolls up her sleeves and takes charge, making sure Mother is promptly buried.

Mrs. Hughes convinces Pa that he cannot take care of the three children. She takes Hannah with the intention of training her as a house maid. While that seems like a generous thing to do, Mrs. Hughes isn’t the person she appears to be. Soon, she is whipping Hannah, leaving scars that resemble slaves’ backs after beatings.

When Dr. Hughes decides to abandon his wife, Mrs. Hughes throws Hannah and Zuma, the cook, out. The women follow Dr. Hughes to Cripple Creek, Colorado. The doctor is investing heavily in his mistress’s new venture, one that becomes the most famous brothel in Cripple Creek.

Hannah’s life is one of such hardship that it seems that the young woman would not be able to overcome. But Hannah is a fighter, always picking herself up and going on. That is until multi-millionaire Winfield Scott takes a shine to her.

The story is well-researched and gives a truly extraordinary look into just how difficult life was in those days. Much of the story is written in dialect, which always threw me out of the story. One or two times are all a story needs of dialect, and most readers associate that with the character through the rest of the book.

The biggest issue for me, however, is the last chapter. It seemed to come out of left field. It seemed, to me, that Eichmann was tired of writing and wrapped it up neatly. But that can’t be the case because there is a sequel that I want to read. Surely poor Hannah’s life has to get better.

For the two reasons above, “A Sparrow Alone” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

The Show GIrl

The Show Girl by Nicola Harrison  400 pages

Olive McCormick is an extremely ambitious nineteen year old in 1927 with dreams that equal her ambition. She wants to be a “Ziegfeld girl,” no matter what it takes. Her parents are bitterly against her moving to New York from Minnesota. But before she can get her bags packed, an event occurs that sets her plans back, but re-enforces her desires, no matter the cost.

Olive met Flo Ziegfeld once and told her if she was ever in New York to come see him, that she was talented. It took a while, but she finally made it. After she bullies her way into his office, she is stunned that he has no memory of her or her talents. But Olive is tough; she shakes off his rejection and works even harder. Her work pays off, as soon she is a “Ziegfeld girl” in the Ziegfeld Follies, wearing the amazing headdresses that are the show’s trademark.

 Olive makes friends with several of the other girls, and they become a click---partying around Manhattan until the wee small hours of the morning. When her parents come to see her perform, they are disgusted by what she is doing. To their eyes, it’s immoral and disgusting. Olive is happy and won’t let her parents’ influence her, but her father disowns her. Olive does stay in irregular contact with her mother, but only when she is almost at the end of her rope.

Ziegfeld moves Olive from the Follies to a lesser known show, Midnight Frolics. Olive is dismayed at that turn of events but continues to work hard. Soon she is the toast of Manhattan. Then Olive meets Archie Carmichael and falls in love, head over heels in love. As her love deepens, she realizes that some of the decisions that she made in the past were bad decisions, but nothing can change the past. Or can it?

I really enjoyed reading about Olive’s days as a “Ziegfeld girl.” The late 1920s seem to be such a fun time to be young. Another part that I really like was what we call today glamping. Ziegfeld sends Olive and some of the girls to entertain at some of the wealthy’s camps in the Adirondacks. The campers have all the modern conveniences of the day. Imagine wearing evening gowns to dinner in the middle of the forest! 

“The Show Girl” is a fun read and receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Revolt of the Public

The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium by Martin Gurri, 425 pages

In The Revolt of the Public, analyst Martin Gurri considers the possibilities and dangers that the information age presents to established institutions and ways of life.  The technological changes of the last few decades, he observes, have greatly facilitated the emergence of informal networks, energized by a passionate involvement with specific issues, out of a generally disinterested mass populace.  These have collided with technocratic institutions which have inherited their organization from the industrial age, their size and complexity justified by modernist utopian promises which are no longer rationally believed but are still emotionally expected.  It is precisely in this gap - between what we know to be the limits of expertise and what we believe we are owed - that the aroused public finds its angry home.  The negativity of postmodern protest, then - the inability of activist networks to advance positive solutions to the systemic problems they identify - is not just the result of their own lack of hierarchy, but an inescapable feature of the crisis of late modernity.  The danger, Gurri believes, is that the accelerating erosion of institutional authority is transforming the gap into a chasm, making the prospect of a wholesale rejection of democratic pluralism correspondingly more attractive to dissidents on both the left and the right.

Beyond Gurri's method and presentation, there is little here that would surprise anyone who has read, for example, MacIntyre, Postman, or Lasch.  That Gurri, deliberately or not, seems unaware of this is, on the whole, more a blessing than a defect, allowing him to approach the current crisis along his own path and therefore providing all that much more support when his conclusions overlap with those of deeper thinkers. It also gives him space to suggest his own solutions, as nebulous as those might be.  It helps, too, that his presentation is excellent, and will doubtless appeal to many reluctant to try older, more substantive works.

The Poacher's Son

 

The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron 324 pp.

The Poacher's Son is the first book in a series that was recommended by someone in our Mystery Lover's Book Club.  It is about a man who is a game warden in Maine.  Game wardens in Maine have the same training and abilities to arrest people as police officers and sheriffs/deputies do.  They go through similar training.  Part of the story is about trapping a bear that has a taste for pork.  The other part is about Mike Bowditch (the main character) trying to clear his father's name when he is accused of killing two people: a man from a paper company and a police officer.  Mike wants to help with the investigation but cannot since he is too close to the crime (since it involves his father).  He involves himself anyway and puts his position as a game warden on the line as a result.  Another character in the story is a former game warden (who inspired Mike to become one) who flies a water plane.  Both of them get in a little over their heads by the end.

I enjoyed the story.  It was very easy to read.  The characterizations of the main characters were very good, but some of the female characters were not as well fleshed out.  I thought much of the conversation between male characters felt true.  

SLPL August totals

 This month: 3 people read 43 books for a total of 9467 pages--3 of them with bonuses (either a city in the title or ending in the letter "y".)  

Shirley was the super reader again with 29 point (including two bonuses) logged.  

Congratulations, Shirley!