Sonia Purnell

Biography 2019 | 368 pages

You can't read this like a fiction book. There is no skimming! Every single paragraph has an important piece of information in it.  I have returned to reread many a paragraph when my mind wanders.  I am not certain I have ever read a book so deep and intense in its research, and resultant writing.

A Woman of No Importance is a captivating biography that unveils the extraordinary life of Virginia Hall, an American spy during World War II. Purnell skillfully narrates Hall's courage, resilience, and contributions to France, offering a compelling and inspiring story of a woman who utterly defied expectations in a male-dominated field. The book sheds light on a lesser-known hero and provides a gripping account of espionage and bravery.  (This last paragraph written by Chat GPT, edited some by me. Thought I would try an experiment. While factually accurate, it just doesn't sound like my voice, does it?)

Virginia Hall amazes me. She gathered, committed, and outfitted resistors to the Germans. She created safe houses and received secret packages of food, clothing, supplies, and cash for the men and women she recruited. She planned safe routes, actions to sabotage the movement of Germans through blowing up bridges, destruction of roads, etc. She planned and helped resistors escape from jails, prisons, and concentration camps. She learned to "play the piano" of a radio which allowed her to pass on information to her "bosses" in London. Perhaps most important of all, she created and maintained relationships with everyone from royalty to power brokers to brothel owners to clergy which allowed people with certain values and beliefs about peace, freedom, and courage, to direct their energy, do something useful, and in many cases put their lives on the line, saving their beloved country (Virginia's adopted country) of France.  She did all this with no guidance, no mentors, no training, no experience, no advice and counsel.  She relied solely on her wisdom, her own thought processes, her natural skills, her amazing brain, her warmth and care-taking, and her astounding strategy skills.

Some she saved from sure death wrote, "They had enjoyed nearly forty years of freedom since spending a mere couple of months in Virginia's presence in 1944.  But the warrior they called La Madone had shown them hope, comradeship, courage, and the way to be the best version of themselves, and they had never forgotten." (Final page of Chapter Twelve.")

And we don't know her.  She was a hero we should have studied in high school.  She was the first woman to do so much, with so much strength and courage, we should have had a chapter on her in our high school history books.  Just as important, I learned a great deal about the REAL war and what it was truly like to resist losing your freedom to a ruthless invader.  I learned about the real people in the war, not just the politics.

Thank you, Jan Baker, for this recommendation.  Although it is a bit long, I cannot help but recommend this incredibly well researched and intriguing biography to everyone.

January 2024

Richard Adams

Teen Fiction 1972 | 475 pages

What a delightful book and story!  On the very same day we decided to read a classic in book club, there was an article on NPR talking about the new Watership Down:  A Graphic Novel that was just released  earlier in the week.  We chose to read either the graphic novel, or the full original novel, or both.  I read both.

Richard Adams begins this story as a tale for his daughters while on a car journey, but gradually it grows into a life of its own.  The story is about a warren of rabbits, Sandleford,  who leave their home in search of another place to live, in part because of some destruction by humans, and in part because there are no does in the warren, and without does, there will be no kittens, and without kittens, there will be no warren in a few years.

They travel across Watership Down … an area of pasture and relatively flat land in England, in search of a new home and other rabbits.  Fiver, who has extra-sensory powers,  and Hazel, the warren’s wonderful compassionate and creative leader, are among the major rabbit characters, along with Bigwig, Bluebell, Dandelion, Wouldwort and others.  Each has their own special skills.  Each has their own special personality.

Yes, they talk as humans do, often using two primary rabbits languages that Adam created, LaPine and Hedgerow.  And we are privy to all of their delightful conversations!   This anthropomorphizing, along with violence and prejudice, (and, not noticed by many until recently, the total lack of any personality or action among the females in the book, the does) led to this being a controversial book.  Though never banned nationally, some school districts would not allow it on their shelves.  Of course, in a book this long, there are many interesting travels (along the metal road; in something that floated on the water) and many fights with Efrafa, a warren that is dictator-led, aggressive, and not compassionate or kind.  And we learn many rabbit-isms!

Many reviewers and critics say this book is an allegory for WWII and the various leadership styles … Hitler, Eisenhower, Churchill, but please allow me to quote from Adam’s 2005 introduction to a new publication of Watership Down.  “I want to emphasize that Watership Down was never intended to be some sort of allegory or parable.  It is simply the story about rabbits made up and told in the car.” (page xvi).

If your read/reread both versions (and I DO recommend you do so), I would read the novel first and then the graphic novel.  Because the novel is so rich, the graphic novel cannot begin to capture all the action.  It will make more sense and hold more context if you read the graphic novel second.  And, oh, to see the marvelous rabbits and land that the artist Joe Stuphi draws!  Beautiful!

January 2024

Heidi Heilig

Fiction 2016/ 454 pages

Sixteen-year-old Nix is a time traveler, traveling with her father in a pirate ship called the Temptation.  The challenge is, however, they can travel across distance, mystical worlds, and times ... but only if they have a map that can get them there.  Her father is obsessed with getting back to Honolulu in 1868, in time to keep his wife from dying in childbirth with Nix. Nix understands her father's obsession, but also enjoys the simple adventures of going back to China a few centuries ago, or to modern New York City, or going to a fantasy land where fish provide power and light.

The relationships were fun ... Nix is good friends with a fellow shipmate, Kashmir, who is a master thief.  Nix and her dad Slate have a very loving relationship.

I think conceptually the plot is very clever.  The relationships and the individual characters were well-developed.  However, I think the author misses the mark on the story.  So much more could have been included. We see little of the places they visit and experience no real sense of the cultures.  The author jumps around in time, especially in Hawaii, making it a bit hard to follow.  The story, the context, the various settings, including The Temptation, lack vividness, wonder, fantasy, visual clarity for me.  I could seldom "see" where they are.

The Girl from Everywhere is an easy read.  I can recommend it, but not whole-heartedly.

January 2024

Shelley Blanton-Stroud

Historical Fiction 2020 | 250 pages

Jane has a rough start in life, living impoverished in the Dust Bowl.  She and her parents ride the Okie Trail, Route 66, to Northern California, seeking a life where they may be able to stop living in tents and cardboard homes.  Their house held little, but it did provide protection for Jane's hope chest of books including self-penned notebooks filled with her detailed account of the family's migration to California in the 1930's. Always, she writes.

Jane felt she owed her Momma ... she was the first twin born: the second twin, Benjamin, was still-born. Benjamin became "a spirit, a stream of particles". Jane hadn't cleared the account she felt she owed, though she'd tried in a thousand ways.

One night, Jane's mother and father engage in oft-repeated domestic abuse.  Fists fly.  Momma, heavily pregnant, is knocked to the ground, and Jane hits Daddy with a crowbar.

Jane leaves her physically abusive Daddy and psychologically abusive Momma for San Francisco, and finds the apartment of two women she knows, who feel pity and take her in.  In order to earn her keep, Jane needs to find a job.  At 17, in the Depression, Jane knows she wants to be a copy boy.  She disguises herself as a boy, as she is six-feet tall and has a raspy voice but needs to bind her breasts and buy some wingtips!  This is the only way she can get such a job! And this is the story of her days as a copy boy.  She takes her brother's name and is now known as Benny Hopper.

An unfortunate photograph, unscrupulous photographers and writers, and a discovery that her Daddy is still alive, all add to her (temporary) demise as a copy boy.  Copy Boy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud is an excellent work of historical fiction taking place in Northern California during the Depression. It is a gem of a story about a strong young woman in history.  I enjoyed this historical mystery set during the Depression. I admired Jane’s strength and her commitment to what’s right. Overall, this was a quick and captivating historical read with some added suspense.  Blanton-Stroud’s debut novel is fabulous!  Starting with a gripping first chapter, we are suddenly hooked into Jane’s ruse as she builds her life. The story is well researched with rich detail of depression-era San Francisco and the life of journalist at that time. Quite a fascinating read!  I quite enjoyed it.

This is a fantastic debut ... another great first novel! I recommend it!  Copy Boy was written by a friend of a friend.  Thank you, Jo!

New Year's Eve 2023

Richard Adams

Fiction 2023 | 383 pages

This graphic novel is nothing sort of delightful to hold in your hands and let your eyes gaze on the evolving story.  The art is wonderful, the expressions on rabbit faces are astounding, the mood is consistent and pulls you along.

Unfortunately, I cannot quite tell you the story from reading this graphic novel!  While I read about many different leadership styles and their effectiveness and ineffectiveness and numerous adventures, I can't say which rabbits are victorious and who was eliminated.  There are too many rabbit warrens for me to really get my arms around the nature of each.

Watership Down has been described as an allegory, with the labors of Hazel, Fiver, Dandelion and Bigwig, "mirror[ing] the timeless struggles between tyranny and freedom, reason and blind emotion, and the individual and the corporate state." (Wikipedia).  It is a story about the survival of animals in the wilderness (I love the boat the best!) and it is thought to be a metaphor for World War II.

I loved this one sentence, and when I looked it up, I learned that it is one of numerous famous quotes from Watership Down  “ ‘My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today,’  (page 86) is the phrase the rabbits say over a fallen comrade; notice the enemy becomes one’s heart, because of the pain of loss  Not death.  Death, in other words, is not the enemy.  It is merely terrible.”  (Commentary from unknown source.)

I cannot compare this graphic novel to the actual novel, because it is probably almost 50 years since I read the 1972 book!  I have not decided yet if I will reread the full novel by Richard Adam's before book club meets at the end of January.  However, I do certainly recommend you pick up this gem of a graphic novel in the meantime!

P.s.  I read this book with my iPad and Google by my side, but was 90% through when I learned there actually was a glossary of the rabbits' LaPine language, on pages 378 and 379. This will save you some Google time!

December 2023

Leight Bardugo

Fiction 2019/ 455 page

Galaxy (Alex) Stern has seen Grays all of her life.  "Grays" is a Yale Lethe term for ghosts.  Alex enters Yale, and, in her first year, she becomes "Dante " ... the young novice who will eventually rise to a place of greater power by her senior year ... invited into Yale's secret societies by her extraordinary talent..

The story is intriguing.  You learn about the secret societies of Yale who perform magic, connect with beings behind the Veil, sometimes make sacrifices, and maintain the long history of these nine underground "fraternities" that all lay claim to some of the most recognizable, professional, and successful business and political leaders (mostly men) in our society since the mid-1800k.

The first two-thirds of this adult fantasy novel quite captured my interest.  it was intriguing to learn how the House of Lethe worked and interacted.  I was quite pleased to witness the suppport and friendship among Yale faculty, staff, and students who are a part of Lethe.  And the magic is delightful!

Long about page 300, Bardugo's first novel in adult fantasy, turns violent.  I began to like it less then, though it certainly shifts when Alex befriends The Bridegroom, who is dead, lives on the other side of the Veil, and who saves Alex a number of times from black magic and angry Grays.

I liked this book quite a bit, though I don't know that affinity will take me far into reading the second and third novels in the trilogy.  The end of this first book did not leave me hanging and compelled to read more. I think Ninth House will intrigue you if you like Yale, or magic, suspense, and intrigue.

December 2023

Caitlin Doughty

Nonfiction 2017 | 248 pages

This is a fascinating account of how different cultures have established different approaches to dealing with dead human bodies.   Interestingly, the people from various cultures, rituals, and processes believe other processes show disrespect. For example, cultures that prefer open cremation, where the family watches a body burn, believe that closed creation, which occurs commonly today, traps the soul in the crematorium, and does nothing to help the family come to terms with the death.  Among some other countries/cultures, we also explore cremation on a raised platform in the small town of Crestone, Colorado; and the FOREST project in Cullowhee North Carolina (Forensic Osteology Research Station) which has developed ways to speed up natural decomposition and facilitates the body returning to soil; and Joshua Tree California, where some renegades took disposal into their own hands.

Yes, Doughty writes about the experiences of her research and what she learned, but for such a topic as this, she does a good job of intersecting humor and lightness.  This is one of those great nonfiction books that teaches you about a topic you had known you were interested in!  And it makes you think about your own demise.

December 2023

Richard Osman

Fiction 2022/ 341 pages

One Thursday afternoon in the seniors' center, a decade-old cold case, the murder of Bethany Waites, leads the Thursday Murder Club to a murder with no body and no answers. A new enemy they call "Viking", wants Elizabeth to kill former KGB chief Viktor, or he will kill her best friend, Joyce.

This third "Thursday Murder Club" adventure ranges from a prison cell with an espresso machine to a luxury penthouse with a swimming pool high in the sky to the Thursday Murder Club meeting room at off hours, during the Jigsaw Puzzle Club.

I agree with some reviewers who call Osman's characters "quirky and fun." They are!  And that is delightful!  There are just too many of them, in too many complex relationships with each other.  Sorry, but I am going to quit Osman and not bother with the fourth book in the series.  I think one problem I had with Bullet is that there isn't a voice that ties the book together. In earlier books in the series, Osman had Joyce writing in her journal, creating a sense of flow and a pair of eyes from which to see the action.  Now, the point of view keeps shifting, from Ron to Pauline to Elizabeth to Ibrahim to Donna to Joyce to Victor to the Viking.  It is more like a disorganized box of Legos rather than Legos together that build a tower to a climax.

I am rating it three hearts because if you are a mystery lover, I think you may like this book.  Many people have!

December 2023

Mabel Seeley

Fiction 1941 | 385 pages

The Library is a restaurant in International Falls, Minnesota.  The walls of the restaurant are lined with shelves filled with books ... and you can take as many as you want when you go there to enjoy lunch or dinner.  This is where I acquired Chuckling Fingers. Yes, the plot summary on the back of the book intrigued me, but it was the title that caused me to place this next to my plate of fresh walleye fingers.

The Chuckling Fingers has a smart protagonist, a complicated plot, and a range of characters.  Published in 1941, this book was delightful to read in part because it was written 80 years ago.  The Heaton family, lumber barons, are together in their estate called "Fiddling Fingers" on Lake Superior, near the town of Grand Marais in Minnesota.   Ann Gray is our protagonist and narrator.  She is a stenographer in her real life, but comes to visit Jacqueline, her very good friend and cousin, when she learns something is seriously wrong.  And she turns into a detective.

"Tricks" keep happening .... Bill's suit develops holes all over, when he and Jacqueline are on their honeymoon.  And then there is a fire in their bed, a shredded bathrobe, a missing piece of blue chalk ... all these tricks and more are perpetrated by the villain, and the tricks soon evolve into murder.

I like this book because it is a real mystery, right from the start, with characters that intertwine, and lots of vexing action, a sense of tension in the writing, and a satisfying denouement.  Seeley was a well-known mystery writer of her time.

I have finished and I still chuckle (no pun intended) at the title.  You will find it refers to the noise made when dangerous waters crash against the finger-shaped rocks on Lake Superior.

I recommend this book ... it is fun and gratifying.

November 2023