The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes
by Chanel Cleeton
Outstanding Cuban Historical Fiction (2/26/2025)
Three women - three different time periods.
1900 - Eva Fuentes - is asked to go to Harvard in the summer. It is an invitation to immerse herself in American culture. She is from Havana and attempting to write a novel.
1966 - Pilar Castillo, a librarian in Havana, is given that book for safekeeping as its owner flees Havana. Please return it to Eva Fuentes says Zenaida, her neighbor, as she prepares to leave.
2024 - Margo Reynolds is tasked with finding the book, A Time for Forgetting. Danger lurks around every corner. Someone is willing to kill for this book.
I LOVE books about books and Cleeton has outdone herself on this one.
To be published July 1, 2025.
5 stars
Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray
An Eye Opener (9/21/2024)
I have read The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois. I thought it was excellent. When the opportunity to participate in an early reading of Harlem Rhapsody was presented, I jumped at the chance. This book describes the work of Jessie Fauset as poet, literary editor of The Crisis magazine, and paramour of Du Bois. Until reading this book, I had not heard of Fauset and her contributions to The Crisis. I certainly did not think that Du Bois was having an affair with her. In the limited reading I have done about them, I can find no evidence of this liaison. Despite this 'eye opener', I did enjoy the writing and flow of the story and especially Fauset's understanding of Du Bois's 'Souls'.
4 stars
River Sing Me Home
by Eleanor Shearer
A Mother's Love (10/2/2022)
The author clearly states her laudable reason for writing this book:
... to bring to life a story about the Caribbean in the aftermath of slavery - a time and place that is not well known or widely understood.
Rachel is the main character - a mother of many; some sold away from her; some died of fever.
She searches for those sold across the Caribbean in 3 different countries: Barbados, British Guiana, and Trinidad.
This story of a mother's love and her painful search for her daughters is compelling.
The three different locales that it includes made it a must read for a world literature lover such as myself.
Take My Hand
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Reproductive Injustice (9/23/2021)
I love historical fiction and this book rates at the top with the best of them.
Civil Townsend is a black nurse working at the Montgomery (AL) Family Planning Clinic in 1973. She is a dedicated woman and wants to change the world. When she starts out at the Clinic, little does she know how bad that world is.
She finds the federal government meddling in the lives of young black girls and she tries to change what they are doing.
Forty two years later, she is relating her story to Anne her daughter. Civil needs to make peace with what happened and retelling the story will hopefully bring it.
One of the morals of this story is how deeply her acts to change things have affected her.
The book is a compelling read and researched by the author to the nth degree. Extremely well worth the read.
Beasts of a Little Land: A Novel
by Juhea Kim
Korean Historical Fiction-A Page Turner (8/11/2021)
The story takes place in Korea and starts in the mountains in 1917. We move to Pyongyang, currently the capital of North Korea. In that year, North and South Korea were not separated. A train ran between Pyongyang and Seoul.
I love historical fiction because references within encourage me to do research and I learn much. This book is a prime example of one that makes me want to look deeper. The characters seem real and are well described.
I loved what I learned and following the stories of
Jade - a courtesan in training
Silver - her original teacher
Luna - Silver's love child
Jung-Ho - an orphan living in Seoul
Very good and compelling historical fiction.
A Million Things
by Emily Spurr
Hard to Believe... (5/25/2021)
that a ten year old could be this resilient!!
A straight forward story, at least in its time line: 55 days in the life of a 10 year old girl who is left on her own. Her mother has left before but has always come back. Where is she? The reader is left to wonder. Will she ever come back?
It is current day and Rae and her dog, Splinter, are on their own in Southern Australia. Rae has an unusual neighbor in Lettie, a serious hoarder. Lettie calls Rae Kiddo and Rae calls Lettie Goat-o (as in old goat). They forge a friendship helping each other out with their problems.
There is also Oscar and his nosy mother, Lucy, who live down the street. Their interference compounds the relationship of Rae and Lettie.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to meet a strong character. Rae is 10 and 'strength' is her middle name. Lettie has her moments too and turns out to be more complex than you would first imagine.
The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
Sad But True (2/6/2021)
I am reading an early copy of this book. It is about Marion Greener, a light skinned black woman. In order to realize her dreams of a career, she changes her name to Belle LaCosta Greene, and passes herself off as white. She becomes the personal librarian for J. P. Morgan who is building and stocking his own personal library, the Pierpont Morgan Library.
I am reading this book during Black History Month. How ironic to be reading about a woman who feels that the only way to get ahead is to deny her blackness. It is 1903 and she is probably right, but I am saddened by this attitude.
Contrast that with another book I am reading, 42 Today. It is a book describing the activism of Jackie Robinson 45 years later. What a huge difference.
The Personal Librarian is very well written and in the voice of Belle. I think that Benedict has put the exact proper words in her mouth, depicting Belle as a highly educated speaker and thinker.
I recommend this historical fiction book as one that really makes you think.
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie
by Marie Benedict
WOW (11/22/2020)
If you have read any of Agatha Christie's novels, love historical fiction or love a good mystery, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK.
Even if you have not read a Christie, you certainly have heard of her. But how many of you know that she was missing for 11 days in December of 1926? Benedict has surmised a story line behind that disappearance and done a superb job.
The story is written in two time lines. The first: Agatha from about the age of 16 when she meets Archibald Christie, marries him and starts her writing career with The Mysterious Affair at Styles.
The second: the thoughts of Archie Christie as he endures the 11 days during her disappearance.
I received this book from BookBrowse in return for a review. Thank you to BookBrowse and Netgalley. Doing this review was a real pleasure.
Crippen: A Novel of Murder
by John Boyne
True Crime Dramatized (9/29/2020)
John Boyne has taken a true crime event and imaginatively re-created it.
Dr Harley Crippen existed and was married to a shrew, Cora. He was under her thumb constantly. Crippen worked in a homeopathic medicine pharmacy in London. His assistant was Ethel LaNeve. She existed too. They fell in love.
The publisher's book description tells us that Cora Crippen was murdered and her dismembered body found in the cellar at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden.
Crippen and LaNeve have fled to Canada, voyaging on the SS Montrose captained by H. G. Kendall. Kendall suspects two of his passengers to be Crippen and LaNeve (who are cleverly disguised) and informs Scotland Yard. A chase over the sea ensues.
Supporting this story are some interesting characters also travelling on the Montrose.
Piranesi
by Susanna Clarke
Better As It Progressed (8/23/2020)
Piranesi is the name that the Other calls the Narrator. They live in a structure composed of many halls, many of which are inundated by the sea. The halls are 'peopled' by statues that seem to stand for something: a woman carrying a beehive; a dog-fox teaching two squirrels and two satyrs; two children laughing, one of them carrying a flute. Piranesi is quite naive. I found it hard to relate to him.
This book was a slow starter for me. I thought that it was only going to be about statues, floods and an unreliable narrator.
Then the characters started to take shape in my mind and a story developed. I liked the book and would recommend it.
I thank BookBrowse for a free copy of this book. It is a GREAT book for the right audience.
The Darwin Affair
by Tim Mason
Victorian England At Its Scariest (8/22/2020)
London in 1860 is the principal setting of Tim Mason's The Darwin Affair.
I really enjoyed this book about a detective in 1860's London who was tracking a very heinous villain - Artemis Cobb. Artemis had a serious problem with Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Such a serious problem that he vowed to kill anyone who embraced Darwin's ideas, including Queen Victoria!!
"The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason . . . set in Victorian England of the 1860s . . . grabs the reader and tosses him or her into the middle of an assassination attempt of the Royals--Queen Victoria and Prince Albert . . . The plot unfolds in an exciting dash to save Prince Albert, and bring Decimus Cobb . . . easily the most frightening antagonist since Hannibal Lecter . . . to justice."
--New York Journal of Books
Quote from book:
“Man named Cobb.” “Do you think he murdered these women?” “I am afraid I do, sir.” “Good God. Why?” Field sighed and shook his head. “To look into another man’s heart is difficult enough. To read the heart of a monster—if he has one—may not be possible.”
Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey
by Kathleen Rooney
Historical Story that is Touching (7/19/2020)
This a beautifully written story told by a pigeon and a man. The setting is WWI, immediately before, and the period of three years after.
Cher Ami - the pigeon. Trained to be a homer (homing pigeon). Unselfishly donated to help in the war cause as a messenger. Cher Ami is one of the best homers and had won many prizes in competitions before being donated to the war cause. Her voice is fresh and lovable. I fell in love with this bird.
Charles Whittlesey - a lawyer before the war. Trained first as a private and again as an officer at Plattsburgh. Fought in WWI France. He was the commander of The Lost Battalion. The Lost Battalion is the name given to 9 companies of the 77th Division who were isolated for a week in the Argonne Forest in October 1918. His story is touching. I fell in love with Major Whittlesey too.
The story is roughly broken down into three segments: lives of both before the war, the scenes during the war, and the effects on all doughboys and doughpigeons after the war is over. The book starts out as light and fun, but increases in its seriousness as the book progresses. Be prepared for this change in tone.
I was deeply touched by this book, its historic events and the poetic prose Rooney used to describe the events and the thoughts of the two main characters. I will not forget the effect of this book on me for a long time to come.
This is my second Rooney. I read Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and LOVED it.
Next I will have to read some of Rooney's poetry. What a talented gal!!
The Secrets We Kept: A novel
by Lara Prescott
Doctor Zhivago Patrons Revealed (2/17/2020)
The story of how Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak came to be published.
The book, written in Russia, could not be published there. It was banned in the Eastern Bloc due to its critiques of the October Revolution and its so-called subversive nature. But somehow it was spirited out of Russia to Italy, where it was first published. Eventually a copy came to the United States where it was published as well.
And who did this 'spiriting? Women posing as secretaries!! And so appropriate because:
"Secretary: a person entrusted with a secret. From the Latin secretus, secretum. We all typed, but some of us did more. We spoke no word of the work we did after we covered our typewriters each day. Unlike some of the men, we could keep our secrets."
Historically accurate to a large extent, I learned that:
-Pasternak had a mistress, Olga, the real life model for Lara of the novel
-The novel was first published in Italy. At the instigation of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, the manuscript was smuggled to Milan and published in 1957.
-The CIA was instrumental in getting the book out of Russia to be published in the US
-The secretaries had different roles:
Carrier - “If you ask me, women are well suited to be Carriers,” he said. “No one suspects that the pretty girl on the bus is delivering secrets.”
Sparrow - "A female agent employed to seduce people for intelligence purposes"
There are 28 Chapters in this book and each is titled with a description of the character who is featured in that chapter: Olga is first 'The Muse", and progresses through The Rehabilitated Woman, The Emmisary, The Mother, The Postmistress, and The Almost Widow. Each new chapter for that character has previous roles crossed out with the latest description at the bottom.
Chapter 28 about Olga looks like this
CHAPTER 28 The Muse The Rehabilitated Woman The Emissary The Mother The Emissary The Postmistress THE ALMOST WIDOW. In the book, all but the last role are crossed out. A very interesting treatment to allow the reader to follow the character seamlessly through the book.
A very good historical fiction. and a perfect fit for Prescott. Her mother was a big fan of the movie version of Doctor Zhivago. Note that she named her daughter after the heroine.
Swimming Lessons
by Claire Fuller
Swimming Lessons (2/17/2020)
Swimming Lessons - lessons learned while living in a renovated bath house. The family calls it the Swimming Pavilion.
The Family
Gil Coleman - an aging author whose one book, Man of Pleasure, is so raunchy that he will not keep it in the house lest his daughters read it. He LOVES used books, especially those with marginalia and the Pavilion is LOADED with these books.
Ingrid Coleman - missing for 11 years; feared drowned. For the month before she disappeared she wrote letters to Gil. She does not give them to Gil but hides them in his books.
Nan Coleman - oldest daughter.
Quote: "Flora had forgotten her sister’s irritating habit of thinking of everything that anyone might require."
Flora Coleman - youngest daughter.
The story alternates between the family as they live in the England of the present (2004) and the letters written by Ingrid in June of 1992. We learn the characteristics of Ingrid's family and herself through these letters. Each is placed in a book for Gil to find. The book in which they are placed is identified. There are 20 letters in all. That allows the reader to be introduced or reminded of 20 different books.
The story begins in Hadleigh where Gil thinks he sees his wife walking on the street below. He falls from the promenade and is taken to the hospital. The girls come to the Pavilion to take care of him while he is recuperating.
Well told story and the two time lines are clearly identified. Sometimes hard to keep track of the minor characters (Flora's boyfriend, Gil's three friends, and Ingrid's roommate are some of them).
Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover
Not Believable (2/17/2020)
The story of Tara Westover broke my heart and depressed me too. It is hard to believe a family, led by an overzealous father and a compliant mother could be so dysfunctional.
But that is what makes the story. Tara never received any education, either formal or home-schooled, until she was 17. She was quite a success, but almost not. Her roommate at BYU had to tell her to READ the textbook, not just look at the pictures.
Her mother, named LaRee, but called Faye in the book, was and still is, an herbalist and essential oils expert. She has a website called Butterfly Essentials.
The family is described in a mostly uncomplimentary way. In fact, Tara felt compelled to give her less civil family members pseudonyms. I still have not figured out what her father's name is (he is called Gene in the book) and whether he is dead or alive.
Tara is now 33 and relying on her memory, three of her brothers memories and her journal to describe the events in this book. Some of the events were so far fetched. Was poetic license taken?
I can see why people would be taken with this book. Even though my heart bleeds, I still also remain a skeptic.
Cartier's Hope: A Novel
by M. J. Rose
The Curse of the Hope Diamond? (10/31/2019)
This story takes place in the Gilded Age. Women could not vote and were treated as second class citizens in the journalistic world. To make a name for herself, Vera Garland intended to expose the story of the Curse of the Hope Diamond as false. On the way there, love and betrayal take precedence.
I thought the story line unique. Not as much historical fiction as I would have liked. Still good.
Girls Burn Brighter
by Shobha Rao
Sad but True (3/8/2019)
Two girls in India become friends. They hope that if they can depend on each other that each can rise above the poverty and discrimination. In this story it does not happen. The girls are wrenched from each other and both endure horrible mistreatment.
I am hoping that the above description can be used as a warning and not be considered a spoiler.
The girls, Poornima and Savitha, are both very good and ALL the men are VERY bad.
The book is well written and has many poignant phrases. No woman in this book is treated well. And the harmful behaviour towards them shows.
"And it was when Poornima saw this gaze, this indifference, that she understood: the girl had lost her sense of light. But it wasn’t an outside light they’d lost a sense of, Poornima realized. It was an interior one."
I cannot say that I enjoyed this book. I CAN say that for a debut effort it was quite good. I did finish and plan to make lots of comments on Bookbrowse, from which I received a free copy.
But I can't recommend it to just anyone. The potential reader has to have a thick skin that can protect against all this sadness and cruelty.
Remember Me Like This
by Bret Anthony Johnston
Surprising Family Saga (1/22/2019)
Bret Anthony Johnston is the Creative Writing Director at Harvard. I am not surprised, as this, his debut novel, is a very creatively crafted offering: plot and characters both.
A young boy, Justin Campbell, is missing. This book examines the feelings of the family while he is missing and after he is found. Some heady stuff here.
It is hard to dislike any of the characters, despite the fact they are flawed. Most important they are searching for the truth during and even after Justin is found. We hear the story from many voices, even though, ironically, never from Justin himself. Interesting approach by this author and makes one consider why he did this. I too was continually impressed with the non-judgmental love the parents, grandfather and brother showed.
The story takes place in Corpus Christi, TX, Johnston's home town. Eric, the father, is a teacher. Laura, the mother, is a volunteer at the local dolphin rescue. Griff, the younger brother is an avid skate boarder.
There is an incident that involves the coping of a swimming pool at the old, abandoned Teepee Motel. This is where Griff skates his board. I mention this because coping has a double meaning, the edge of a pool which one grabs to emerge from the pool AND the ability to withstand a challenge. Johnston admits he did not even see that coming. Johnston says in an interview published at the end of the book:
"But in the book, according to certain readers, the word “coping” takes on a more nuanced definition. It’s a word I’ve heard all my life as a skater—coping, coping, coping—but the novel was almost done before I started hearing that piece of language as it would apply to Griff and Justin and their family. Who knew? Not me. I couldn’t have planned something like that. I wouldn’t want to. I’d rather wait for the book to surprise me, to change the way I view—and hear—the life around me."
If you read this book, please do not skip this interview. It is a pleasure to read entirely on its own.
I felt totally engaged with the characters as I read and experienced this book. As a result, I recommend it to all readers who enjoy a family saga ingeniously rendered.
5 stars
A Ladder to the Sky: A Novel
by John Boyne
There is NOTHING (10/11/2018)
A Ladder to the Sky is filled with distasteful characters. Two especially stand out: Maurice Swift, who keeps saying he has no imagination, steals ideas from others so that his books become best sellers/award winners. There are at least three ways he has done this in his life. He uses people in all kinds of ingenious ways.
His sister-in-law has her own agenda too. She wants to divorce her husband and have sole and unfettered custody of their two children. Wait til you see what SHE concocts.
The book itself reads almost like short stories. Yes, there is continuity amongst them, but huge chunks of time are skipped. I found this a good vehicle and way to write. I appreciated that Boyne wanted to skip the small stuff and let us know what was and had happened.
I was totally and emotionally engaged throughout the whole book. I have not read a book this good in quite some time.
One idea that I will attempt to paraphrase is especially noteworthy. "An author can have a beautiful way with words and phrasing, but it the plot is boring, the book will go nowhere".
This book, not boring at all, is definitely going somewhere.
Listen to the Marriage
by John Jay Osborn
Too Obtuse for Me (6/10/2018)
I am sad to have to provide this review as BookBrowse usually picks such good books that I like, but here goes:
I am quoting a lovely reading friend 's review when I start this review.
"Yikes....it takes a saint to read "Listen To A Marriage"....or a masochist.....not sure which.......NAILS ON A CHALKBOARD grueling patience!!!"
I am not a saint, or a masochist, or do I have the patience. I would only fully read this book if it was the last novel on earth. (as it was I read the first 100 pages and skimmed the last 100).
First, the book is misnamed. It should be called Talk About a Marriage... and talk, and talk, and talk. This book is mostly one big, long, confusing conversation.
There is absolutely nothing to like about the three characters: immature, whining are two adjectives that come to mind. Even the psychologist and her methods are very suspect to me. Now that does not always bother me but even the writing does not save this book.
There might be some lessons to learn from this 'story' about how to make a marriage better, but I am unable to understand them, if they are there.
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