Truths I Never Told You

Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer 352 pages

Be sure to have a hanky near when you sent off on this emotional journey through two women’s fight with postpartum depression. Book clubs will want to add this novel to their reading list, especially anyone who is a fan of Jodi Picoult, Kristen Hannah and Sarah Jio.

Beth Walsh has a six-month-old son. She and her husband have tried for years to have this child.  She expected the exhaustion and sleep deprivation, but the one thing she cannot reconcile is her lack of maternal instincts and feelings. It’s not that Beth doesn’t love Noah, she’s just not all that into him. Her heart doesn’t melt she looks at him, and sometimes she forgets all about him. She keeps delaying returning to work in the hopes that those motherly instincts kick in.

Part of Beth’s problem is that she has nowhere to turn. Her mother, who died when she was two, isn’t there to help her. Her sister makes mothering seems like the most natural thing on earth; she can’t reveal what’s really happening to Ruthie. She’s struggling alone, and her husband doesn’t see it.

That is part of Beth’s emotional baggage. At the same time, her father must be admitted to a nursing home due to dementia. Since Beth isn’t working and her three siblings are, she takes on the task of clearing out their childhood home.

She finds the attic door locked and must call a locksmith to let her in. What she finds inside turns her world completely upside down: it’s full to the rafters with her father’s paintings and trash. As she begins to clean, she discovers a note attached to a canvas.  A note written in her mother’s handwriting. This sets her off on new journey to find each note that goes with the canvases.

Interspersed with Beth’s narrative is what appears to be the notes, that were indeed written by her mother, Grace, in 1957. This was a little unclear if its was notes or a journal entry, but they were hard to read.  Grace was also suffering from deep postpartum depression.

As the novel progresses, Beth becomes obsessed with her mother, the notes, and trying to figure out exactly what happened to her.  It’s not helpful that Beth’s father cannot remember.

Author Rimmer takes reads on a dark journey to one family’s secrets and dark pasts. I can’t wait for someone I know to read this so we can chat about it.   “Truths I Never Told You” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Haunting Paris

Haunting Paris by Mamta Chaudhry    288 pages

I was drawn to this novel because of the evocative cover. The photo begs readers to pick it up.  At first I thought it would be about World War II, and in some ways it is, as part of it takes place in 1942. But that part of the story is minor. The major part of the story takes place in 1989.

There are two main characters. First is Sylvie. She is mourning the death of her 30-plus year partner, Julien. As his desk is being moved, a letter falls out that sends Sylvie on a journey to discover what happened to his sister and one of her children who died at Auschwitz. They were caught up in the roundup of Paris's Jews who were then imprisoned in the Vel d'hiver in 1942. But the letter is rarely mentioned in the first half of the book. Instead readers are confronted with a long-drawn out background of Julien and Sylvie’s life together, the American couple who rent half of the apartment, others who live in the building and a rather stranger relationship with Julien’s wife and their children.

The second character is Julien’s ghost. He wanders the Paris streets, never really far from Sylvie. He can see and hear everything that is going on, but he is unable to intercede. I found his sections also too long and drawn out.

It would be different if the tension rose as readers watch Sylvie navigate the world of grief, but it plods along at roo slow a pace.  And that’s why “Haunting Paris” received 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Ever Faithful

 

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett      352 pages

 Former park ranger Karen Barnett has given historical fiction readers a wonderful series in her stand-alone novels set in America’s National Parks. Almost like a Ken Burns for readers! We get the history, the beauty and wonderful tales about characters that feel oh so real.

In this, her third novel, she takes us to Yellowstone National Park in 1933. The Great Depression has hit America hard, and the National Parks are no exception. Visitors to the park are few, causing the management not to open certain lodgings and other services. It’s almost a double whammy to park employees.

The protagonist is a young adult, Elsie Brookes, who has grown up in the parks. She desperately wants to go to college and become a teacher. She has been working as maid in the park’s hotels, but after four years, she still hasn’t saved enough. 

I chuckled at the nicknames the park’s employees gave to position, terms like pillow pushers, savages, pack rats, gear jammers, etc.  And I like the way Barnett let the reader know what each nickname represented without overtly doing so.

Poor Elsie. She is facing another summer with little hope of saving enough money for college. However, FDR’s New Deal comes to the rescue without officials realizing it. The year is 1933 and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is sending a group of men to help work in the park, looking for bug-infested copses, culling trees and all around manual labor. For most, this is the first time they have ever seen this much wilderness. Elsie is offered a second job as a teacher to the men who are coming, and she jumps at the opportunity.

Enter Nate Webber. The Brooklyn-ite shows promise. He is a hard worker and a born leader. But he has a secret that he will protect at all costs. When Elsie uncovers that secret, she vows to do everything she can to protect that secret, it makes for some dynamite reading. 

I give “Ever Faithful” 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Women Talking

Women Talking by Miriam Toews   216 pages

Told through the "minutes" taken in secret meetings, this story tells of how eight Mennonite women make the biggest decision of their lives.  For the past two years, each of these women and more than 100 other girls in their colony have been repeatedly violated in the night by "demons coming to punish them for their sins." In reality, there were no demons. Men from their colony were drugging and assaulting them.  And now, these women are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm. The question is: should they stay in the only world they've ever known or dare to leave?

This story is based on real events and is a powerful, moving novel.  Admittedly, I found it hard to read at times because I found it difficult to get over what had happened to these women and girls. It's a slow read because of the way it's written and because I think there's a lot to contemplate in this story.  I very much appreciate that the author took these events and gave a voice, even though it was through fiction, to these women. The different perspectives of the women are what give this story a lot of weight and even though they can be difficult to understand or identify with, and this is not an easy read, I think it's an important story. 

Ike and Kay

Ike and Kay by James MacManus   327 pages

History is no stranger to men, and women, having affairs. Sometimes it becomes common knowledge (I’m thinking particularly of JFK here), and sometimes it stays closeted in the past. History has left two memoirs by Kay Summersby (from the mid 1970s), that leave no doubt that she and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower fell deeply in love during his time in England, North Africa, and France.

It all began in England, where Eisenhower was sent in May 1942 on a fact-finding mission. Kay Summersby was an ambulance driver reassigned to become Ike’s driver. It was her job to chauffer him to and from wherever he needed to go.

They took an immediate liking to each other. As time passed, the two became closer. When Ike had to go to North Africa, he insisted that Kay come along as his driver. In fact, he insisted that she go wherever he went: lunches with Churchill, meetings with Roosevelt, or drinks with other generals under his command. They spent quiet evenings alone playing bridge. She bought him a puppy and found him a cottage so he could rest more easily than in hotel.

Ike even went so far as to have Kay granted American citizenship and had plans to bring her to the States after the war. But there was one large hole in his grand plans: his wife, Mamie. When Army officials learn of his plans to divorce, they step in, knowing that great things lie ahead for the man who led the Allies to victory over the Nazis/

Historic fiction writer (most of the time, he does have a couple of contemporary novels under his belt) James MacManus has taken an historic footnote and created an atmospheric, compelling novel that was almost impossible to put down, even though readers know how it ends.  The novel did get off to a slow start for about the first 50 or so pages, but don’t get discouraged. It’s worth the read.  “Ike and Kay,” which receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Flashback Four: The Titanic Mission

Flashback Four:  The Titanic Mission  by Dan Gutman       Audiobook:  4 hours, 34 mins     Hardback Book:  240 pages     

A fun story regarding four 6th graders who time travel back to the night the Titanic sank in order to get  a photo of the ship going down for an eccentric billionairess/ technology savant.    There are so many things that happen and I could picture all the adventures the kids like I was watching it on a screen in my head.   There are times when they get a little annoying and you think o.k. kids would do grating things like that and say things off the cuff that would rankle adults.   Sometimes they lean toward the unethical but all in all it was a good story and it is almost like you are running a race with them hoping they make it back before the ship goes down.   The ending was a total surprise.   This book is part of a series so I am definetly going to have to read all of them to hear more of their adventure.    A good story so good the characters actually made me side against them at times.

A Harvest of Thorns

A Harvest of Thorns by Corban Addison.    368 pages.

In Bangladesh, a garment factory burns to the ground, claiming the lives of hundreds of workers, mostly young women and girls. One photograph, captured by a bystander, is an image seared into minds around the world: a teenage girl lying in the dirt, her body broken and over her mouth a mask of fabric bearing the label of one of America's largest retailers, Presto.

At Presto's headquarters in Virginia, Cameron Alexander, the company's general counsel, watches the media coverage, wondering if the damage can be contained. When he launches an investigation into the disaster, he uncovers much more than he imagined.  A year later, in Washington, Josh Griswold, a prize-winning journalist who's down on his luck, receives an anonymous summons from a corporate whistleblower who offers him confidential information about the fire and about Presto, itself.  When he begins to build a case against Presto, it's not just to provoke a revolution of conscience in Presto's boardroom, but to transform the fashion industry across the globe.

While the Presto Corporation is not real, an actual fire did occur on November 24, 2012 in the Tazreen Fashions factory in Bangladesh which killed 117 workers and injured over 200 more.  The author based his book on all of the research that he did, and that definitely lends a very real feel to this book.  I found it to be fascinating, filled with details, interesting characters and a steady pace.  I wasn't sure what was going to happen by the end of the book, which kept me turning the pages.

It's definitely a sobering read, and the fact that the author includes several pages at the conclusion of the book that give information about the 2012 fire, as well as corporate practices, underlines the fact that this is a fiction book based soundly in facts.  The author also includes information on how to learn more about supply chains and corporate responsibility, which I appreciated.

this is a photo from the 2012 fire