Kristin Hannah

Historical Fiction 2024 | 480 pages

The longest wait at the library finally came to an end!  After months of moving up the wait list, I finally received a library copy of the immensely popular The Women.

It was worth the wait.

I thought it was a non-fiction book until I brought it home and discovered it was a novel.  A novel about Frankie McGrath, who, with two weeks experience after nursing school, volunteers to be a nurse in Vietnam, coincidentally on the morning of the same day she and her parents receive notice that her beloved brother Finley was shot down and killed in Vietnam.

Frankie's story is a conglomerate of the women nurses who served in Vietnam, invisible to most people both in-country and back home, except for those soldiers who were injured and medivac-ed into the nurse's care.  This is a page-turning book, but often not an easy read.  It is by no means light and flowery.

The first section is about her experience in Vietnam.  I would not personally call it gruesome, but the realism is heart-breaking.  You will read about the men who are put in body bags and placed on sawhorses for the morgue; about the "expectants" who are not treated because they are expected to die momentarily; about shrapnel and chest wounds and bomb carnage and buddies carrying in their friend, holding his leg in one of their hands.  You will read about napalm, about bombings done by the US of Vietnamese villages, and about helicopters arriving at 2 am and rousing the nurses out of their beds.

And then Frankie comes home, to parents who were so ashamed of her for going to war that they told their friends she was studying in Florence.  You will read about the myriads of people, including Vietnam veterans, who deny her experience because "there were no women in Vietnam."  You will read about her being spit upon. Most important, you will read a lie that she chose to not question for years ... that her job is to "forget."  This was a time before PTSD was recognized by the AMA, and Frankie had no help, recognition, nor validation of nightmares that threw her off her bed, of her screaming, of anger and fear of noises, of her eventual drug addiction and suicide attempt.

Some reviewers did not like that Hannah included Frankie’s love affairs.  I did!  This is normal for an early-20-something woman.  However, Kristin Hannah says in an interview on her website:  "You’ll probably be surprised to hear that the most difficult aspects of this story for me, as the writer, centered on the love story."  I am not surprised at all. She seemed uncomfortable writing about Frankie's love life.  I didn't feel as though she truly saw and could relate to this part of Frankie.  The one aspect that made this clear is Hannah never saw anything good in these liaisons.  They all end in trauma or tragedy, and never just the way relationships typically end ... a growing apart, or development of different awareness.

Yes, for sure, I recommend The Women. If you were alive during the Vietnam war, you will find this book brings up memories for you.  Perhaps, like me, it may remind you of some action you took personally that you are no longer proud of.  It is worth the introspection.  Thank you, Nina, for your recommendation.

October 2024

Emilia Hart

Fiction 2023 | 356 pages

Many reviewers wrote that this book is about misogyny, rape, abuse.  Many wrote that it was about the resilience, strength, independence, and determination of women,  I agree with the latter interpretation.  To pay too much attention to the abusive men makes them more important and, in this novel, diminishes the women.

The women, who lived in 1619 (Altha), in 1942 (Violet), and in 2019 (Kate) are women who took charge of their lives.  These women loved nature and had a special gift for healing that, in Altha's case at least, would label her as a witch.

I loved the interplay of the three women ... each of the 53 chapters was written from the perspective of one the women, and each moved the story forward.  Combining elements of women’s fiction and magical realism, author Emilia Hart expertly weaves the three different threads of this story into a compelling narrative.  It is a creative and engaging debut novel.

Weyward women belong to the wild. And they cannot be tamed…

I recommend this strong novel.  I am looking forward to our discussion in book club tomorrow night.  Thank you, Jan!

October 2024

Nevada Barr

Fiction 2012 | 368 pages

I am probably not the only one amongst us who has read a number of Anna Pigeon books by Nevada Barr.  Ms. Barr's first Pigeon book of 19 was written in 1993.  Anna is a sleuth who solves mysteries in National Parks.  She is a strong and delightful character in beautiful and inspiring settings.

The Rope is the 17th book in the series and is essentially a prequel.  Nevada Barr fans have been asking her to write a book about how Anna Pigeon gets started as a solver of mysteries, and this is her answer.  Anna finds herself working as a seasonal worker in Glen Canyon National Recreational area after the death of her husband, and her desire to stop being a stage manager for off-Broadway plays.  When she arrives, she is pasty, skinny, weak, and uneducated about the wilderness.

When we first meet Anna, she is at the bottom of a deep sandstone hole in the desert in Glen Canyon.  She is completely naked, drugged, molested, and dying of dehydration. The first third of the book is a macabre story about her time trapped in this hole.  I began to wonder if the entire book was going to be set here, in which case it may just have been too gruesome for me to complete reading.  But Anna finds her way out, and, for the rest of the book, searches for the perpetrators who nearly killed her, and did in fact kill a woman named Kay whom Anna finds buried in her hole (which she calls a "jar."). We get to learn about Anna's motivations, proclivities, personality, decision-making, courage, resourcefulness, wisdom, and grief.

This is a marvelous Nevada Barr, with her crisp, tight writing and creative murders.  If you have not read a Nevada Barr, this would be a fine place to start!  If you have read this author, you can pick up The Rope anytime.  Except it is so popular there are wait lists at the libraries!  Yes, I recommend The Rope for your reading pleasure and to feed your imagination.

October 2024

Anna Quindlen  |  Fiction

2024, 304 pages

Too saccharin and shallow for me.

October 2024

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Kevin Fedarko

Nonfiction 2024 | 488 pages

The depth, the intricacies, the anguish, soul-arresting views, moments of great fear, but constantly prodding on, most of the time on foot, though sometimes rappelled by rope.

Kevin and his friend Pete walk the entire Grand Canyon, 750 miles, in a year which includes untold thousands of feet of elevation gain and loss through canyons, crumbling ledges, slot canyon rappels, endless searches for potholes and springs to provide water, blisters, bites, temperatures in the 90’s and 100’s and occasionally way below freezing, and probably thousands of cactus needles embedded in their skin.

He also integrates the culture of the Canyon, specifically educating us about the atrocious relationship between white people and Native American tribes.  Horrific treatment leading to abject poverty (in the spiritual as well as the financial sense of the word ...)

Another wilderness adventure, which many of you know is a passion of mine.  But sometimes women and men who achieve great feats in the wilderness cannot write worth a darn.  Bu Fedarko?  His writing was so beautiful, so exquisite, so engaging, that I consciously slowed my reading to enjoy his words as well as his sentiment.  It takes quite a while to slowly read a 488-page hardcover book.

At times it was challenging to understand his descriptions because words do not adequately describe the magnificence he was witnessing.  And sometimes his maps were a bit hard to follow. But the story ... what a truly amazing journey!  Of course, I could not experience the heavy packs Kevin and Pete carried, the animals they observed, nor the slippery rocks they navigated.

On balance, I heartily recommend this book if you are a lover of the great outdoors and/or our country's most magnificent scenery.  But do not expect to read it in a weekend.  It may take a bit of time; it took me nearly two weeks.  And it was worth every moment.

October 2024

M.C. Beaton

Fiction 2023 | 242 pages

I will not be watching the Agatha Raisin TV show, nor will I go in search of any of the other 34 books in the Agatha Raisin Series.  Dead on Target was enough for me.  A fairly typical British mystery story, Mrs. Raisin retires, moves to Cotswold, and becomes a private detective.  In this book, she solves the mystery of a murder performed with an arrow.  The writing is light, easy reading, not complex.

However, I really don't care for our main character, the divorced Mrs. Raisin.  She has a sharp tongue, is somewhat brutal in her words.  A good heart, granted, but a mean communicator.   And, perhaps even worse, she is obsessed with how she looks.  What other character would take our her compact and fix her lipstick after just having found a murdered body, but before the police arrive?  She also walks in town, and notices how good she looks in her reflection in the shop windows.  Some readers may find this quirky character trait quite enjoyable, sweet, even funny.  I did not like it one bit.

I don't recommend Agatha Raisin to you.

September 2024

Tony Hillerman

Fiction 1988/ 207 pages

It was fun to reread one of Tony Hillerman's 38 books, especially one from his 18-book Navajo Mystery Series featuring Jim Leaphorn and Jim Chee.  A nice revisit and respite.  Lovely descriptions of Ancestral Puebloan pottery, and the landscapes in which they are found, coupled with the search for a missing anthropologist, makes the plot interesting and quite visual.

Truthfully, though, reading this inspires me to read/reread a Nevada Barr book with the character Anna Pigeon.  I have decided to try on The Rope.

Relax and enjoy!

September 2024

Barbara Davis

Fiction 2023 | 425 pages

Thank you, Donna, for suggesting this fun book, The Echo of Old Books. 

Ashlyn is the proprietor of a rare books store and is gifted with psychometric abilities that allow her to read the vibrations of old books and sense their previous owners' feelings. When she picks up an old book, she feels the emotions of the owner(s) of the book. This is a gift most of the time, even though she can’t really tell people about it, because they look at her oddly!  Sometimes it is challenging, especially when the emotions are dark or depressive.

In The Echo of Old Books, Ashlyn finds two books in a box of donated books, that are without an author or a date or a copyright, but with very strong emotions.  What has she discovered?  She finds herself compelled to uncover who the authors are and the circumstances that caused them to write and bind but not publish two books, Regretting Belle and Forever, and Other Lies.  

Belle and Hemi are all we know about the (female and male) authors as the book begins, but we eventually discover who they are to each other, to their extended families, and out in the world.  And how badly they hurt each other.

This book has an interesting premise and is a pure delight to read!

September 2024

Javier Zamora

Memoir 2022/ 381 pages

This is the memoir of 9-year old Javier Zamora's seven-week journey migrating ("illegally") into the United States from El Salvador in the summer of 1999. He was attempting, alone, to get to his parents in San Rafael, California, who migrated five years earlier.  His journey was supposed to take two weeks; it took seven. A mom, daughter, and one of the men "adopted" Javier and the four of them became a "family" who took care of one another for the duration of the crossing from El Salvador through Mexico and into the U S.

The first half of this book is very slow, which reflected the actual speed of his travel.  He would spend many days and nights in "apartmentos" or hotel rooms, waiting for the next coyote or the next connection to continue his journey.  Just over halfway in, the book sped up as Javier's journey sped up, near the US border, and interactions with border agents made it a scary journey for sure.

A reviewer says this, "I am pretty certain I would have preferred this to be an autobiographical novel or an adult memoir reflecting on this childhood journey. I just could not suspend my skepticism that all the extended dialogue and journey details could be captured so accurately 20+ years later."   I think that is an accurate reflection of what I felt.  How could he remember how many water bottles he carried on a particular day, or how the refried beans tasted 20 years ago.  It degraded the credibility a bit.

I kept feeling I "should" read this book (plus it is a book club read) and I was not surprised to find that the majority of the reviews I read used the words "should read" when describing this book.  It IS important to read.  We don't often see true narratives of immigrants making this difficult journey.  It will inform you, teach you, raise your empathy, and inspire you, as you read about kindness, bravery, family (both blood and adopted), determination, and hope.

I could not find the meaning of the title, even after researching it!

So, yes, I recommend this memoir but know it may take you some concentration.  By the way, there is a lot of Spanish in Solito which some people found annoying.  I found it delightful.

August 2024