A Book That Will Touch Your Heart
This made me think of Rill and Fern in Before We Were Yours image courtesy of pixabay.com |
This made me think of Rill and Fern in Before We Were Yours image courtesy of pixabay.com |
The Seat Beside Me (The Steadfast Series Book 1)Check Price
When you fly alone, do you wonder who will be sitting beside you on your trip? I do. So do the characters in The Seat Beside Me. They have made conscious choices leading up to their presence on Flight 1382 to Phoenix. We watch many of their choices as they board and discover their seatmates. We get to know six passengers very well. Sonja is a schemer who tricks her way onto Flight 1382. She wants to be one of the three from her company to attend a corporate conference in Phoenix and hopes her attendance will help her get a promotion. She uses information she overheard to betray her colleague who was supposed to go so that she could take her place. The seat next to her is filled by a handsome black man in a suit, Roscoe Moore, who immediately engages her in conversation.
Henry's job requires him to fly, but flying scares him. He is a Christian and you see him struggle with his fear as he takes his seat. He's not afraid to die, but hates the feeling of being completely out of control of his life while in the air. He sits in the aisle seat on one side of George (below).
George lost his beloved wife seven months ago. He is grieving and is going to Phoenix to commit suicide. He has one daughter. He has left money, a note, and important documents so that she can't miss them after he is gone. George is sitting between a widow in the window seat who won't leave him alone and Henry, who rescues him from her.
Merry has a husband and son. She is going to Phoenix to meet a single girlfriend and escape her family and responsibilities for a few days. Although she loves Lou and Justin and they love her, she is a discontented housewife and her marriage is going through a rough phase. Merry is not at all happy when Lou and Justin surprise her by boarding the plane, and joining her for the trip. No escape.
Anthony is an egotistical plastic surgeon. He is rude to everyone he meets as he prepares to board. He's a man with no real friends and the reader can easily see the reason why. The person who (in his opinion) overfills the seat next to him is an unattractive woman he immediately labels as "white trash." Even her substandard English offends him. She calls him a "rich la-di-da" and lets him know she hates doctors.
Tina is a high school English teacher who hates her job and doesn't like her students much, either. She is also a Christian. She is not happy to be seated next to a teenage girl who reminds her way too much of her students, but as she converses with Gayla she actually begins to like her.
Dora is a reporter who did not want to go to Phoenix. Then her mother called and begged her to come because she needed surgery and didn't want to be alone. So Dora got ready to make the trip. At the last minute her mother called and Dora didn't have to go after all because the doctor said her mother no longer needed the surgery. She is delighted to stay home.
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay |
A Steadfast Surrender (The Steadfast Series Book 2)Check Price
The Ultimatum (The Steadfast Series Book 3)Check Price
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay |
The Widow and the Highlander by Martha Keyes is the first book in the Tales from the Highlands series. After I finished the first book, I immediately wished to move to the second book in the series. It isn't that Keyes didn't wrap up the first novel. She did. It was simply that I wasn't ready to move on from the story.
You know you have found a wonderful series of books when you hate the idea of starting a different book by another author. Unfortunately for me, the second book in Tales from the Highlands has not yet been released.
It is doubtful the I will forget the MacKinnon clan and I have added the The Enemy and Miss Innes (Tales from the Highlands Book 2) to my wishlist so I will know as soon as it is released. I am certain, no matter what else I have started reading, I will move back to this series to continue reading about Catherine and her sister, Elizabeth.
I highly recommend this historical fiction and I am certain I will enjoy the entire series once it is published.
The Widow and the Highlander (Tales from the Highlands Book 1)Check Price
Could this Roman legion be marching to the Seven Sisters? image courtesy of pixabay.com |
I love it when a book makes me laugh! In "A Suitable Arrangement", Martha Keyes created the characters with wit, sass and just enough spunk to really bring them to life. They seemed to step right out of the pages of the book to share their thoughts, conversations and actions in my presence.
I really liked Juliana Godfrey. She held her head high and dared anyone to challenge her simply because she was not born into nobility. I especially liked the way she handled the head housekeeper who was constantly reminding her that she was not worthy of the title "countess". I could almost hear the housekeeper's fit of temper when she discovered her sleeping in an "important" place one morning.
I also liked the way Juliana defended the injured one who she thought was being bullied by his sibling. She did not hesitate to take action and stand in his stead.
Juliana respected the unique cultures and practices of the brothers of
Lochlarren Castle, but after a while, she did suspect they might not be
authentic. I must admit, horse races in the castle would be rather
funny, but a bit hard to believe it to be a normal activity. Still, she was willing
to rise to the challenge.
Juliana Godfrey was very practical. Her mother had died when she was young and her father worked hard to provide for them. His hard work paid off! As a wealthy merchant, he was able to provide Juliana with a hefty dowry which would purchase her a place in society. The right marriage could open more doors for her father and his business, in addition to giving her a title which would require acceptance into the aristocracy.
A marriage to a Scottish Earl that needed money was a suitable arrangement for Juliana. At least she thought it was until she arrived at his castle and was not well received. Clearly, it would take a get deal of the fortitude she learned as a child to survive the Highland Scots. She was determined to adjust and embrace their culture.
______
As his father was dying, Sandy Duncan learned more about the deep debt he was inheriting as the new Earl of Lismore. He also found out that he was no longer considered an acceptable suitor for the woman he had always thought he would marry. Even though the family liked him, once her father discovered he could not bring money to the marriage, he was informed that he would not be considered, even if he did bear a title.
Sandy is also informed that his father has made a marriage arrangement for him that would provide the money Lochlarren Castle, and it's dependents, required. Sandy's days of freedom ended with his father's death. He now had to shoulder the full weight of the Earldom.
When his bride-to-be arrived at the castle 2 days late, he was in no mood to greet her with a hardy welcome. Neither he, nor his brothers or household, stepped outside of the castle to give her a proper welcome. This lack of courtesy set the tone for the minutes, days and weeks that followed.
_______
When an earl needs money to pay ancestral debts, restore his castle and care for family & staff, he marries for wealth instead of equality. However, Sandy Duncan, Earl of Lismore, has met his match!
My Recommendation
The humor in this book gave a wonderful balance to the antagonism between the characters. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
This historical fiction western begins in 1825, when Richard is a young Boston gentleman attending Harvard. He is a talented and bright student studying philosophy. Richard can quote all of the greatest philosophers and he knows what is real and what is right. He is the only son of wealthy businessman Phillip Hamilton. His mother is deceased, having died during childbirth and Richard has essentially been raised by their servant, Jeffry. How is a story set in the city of Boston able to become a historical western? It begins when Phillip decides that it is time for Richard to take some responsibility, ends his financial support for the Harvard education, and sends Richard on a business trip to St. Louis - the edge of the wild frontier.
The Morning River: Sage of the Mountain Sage, Book One: A Classic Historical Western Series
Thank goodness I was on vacation when I started this book (this series of four books)! I read the series across a handful of days; including the one day that I forced myself to finally close my kindle at 3:30 am. I resumed reading immediately after breakfast the following day.
Richard begins his trip west to St. Louis with his father's bag of bank notes. He expects to make the long journey to St. Louis, make the business transaction, and return to Boston.
The chapters take us from Richard's journey to Heals Like A Willow. Her people are the Dukurika (Shoshone), the sheepeaters of the high mountains. She had married her husband, a Ku'chendikani, and lived with their tribe. We meet her as she is burying and mourning her husband and son high on a rocky slope, during a blowing snow. We later learn that she is a very powerful woman, a medicine woman, and breaks some of her People's important traditions and expectations about a woman's role in their society. However, she continues searching for what is real and what is right.
While Phillip is right, and Richard's entire world has been limited to their home, the city, and the university I was immediately concerned that sending Richard on such a journey with such a large amount of money was a very risky idea. During Richard's long journey on the river, he is aloof and stand-offish. He is not impressed by the cities and towns along the way. He looks down his nose at the people he sees in boats, on the riverbanks, and on the farms along the way. Richard was amazed at the river he traveled on but uncomfortable when he stared into the deep forests.
"... he'd watched the forest as it passed, uneasy at what might lurk in those dim shadows. Like a child hearing the ghouls in the winter wind."
During brief conversations with another gentleman, Mr. Eckhart, on the steamboat, we begin to see Richard's thoughts. When Mr. Eckhart observes that Richard may not have the ambition and character needed for frontier life, Richard responds:
"My duty, sir, is to go to Saint Louis, see to some arrangements, and return to Boston with the greatest dispatch. Thereafter, I shall retire to the university and never again endure such bad food... ill company, or the human dregs such as you see floating along on flatboats"
It is a wonder that Richard doesn't make enemies when he repeatedly and snobbishly refers to others as "animals". Oh wait, he does make enemies.
Richard arrives in St. Louis with plans of finishing this errand for his father then returning to Boston to begin courting the beautiful Laura Templeton. He has written letters to her along the journey.
But there is trouble in St. Louis. Big trouble. Life-threatening and life-changing trouble that irrevocably changes Richards life. If he survives, it is very unlikely that he will ever return to Boston.
Travis Hartman, a rugged frontiersman who is disfigured from a bear attack has partnered with long-time friend Dave Green in a business plan. They are planning an illegal trip up the Missouri River, in a keelboat, to the Upper Yellowstone River to open a trading post. During this time of unrest between the Indian tribes and each other, and the tribes and whites, permits are required to do such a thing. But Dave Green has a dream and a plan.
It is up this river and on the frontier that the lives of Richard and Heals Like A Willow, surrounded by the likes of Hartman and Green, converge. Will they collide and self-destruct or join forces and survive.
This series kept me engrossed. It was not only entertaining but educational (I had no idea how Keelboats were moved upriver) it was also thought-provoking. How do we decide what is right and wrong? And who is right? Who are the animals and who are civilized?
While many descriptions in the book are beautiful (descriptions of the people, the land, the settings) and took me to those places, it was also a time period set during a great deal of violence. There are plenty of "mature" and difficult scenes, words, and themes in this book. However, it was the reality of those times.
If you begin The Morning River, book 1 in the series, and have any inkling that you like the story, I highly recommend buying the next 3 books. I do not recommend jumping into the series somewhere in the middle or end. I wish that these 4 books had been kept in one single book (I read somewhere that the series began as either one or two books - I don't recall which - but had been separated out into 4 somewhere along the way. I would have preferred it to be one volume).
I would like to tell you more about the characters. And about the parts of the story that made me laugh and made me cry. I would like to discuss the "right", the "wrong", and how God does or doesn't work in our lives, based on the story. But telling any of those things would create spoilers and I don't want to do that. I can say that this story and these characters (and the people the characters represent from our history) will be with me for a very long time.
Thank you W. Michael Gear for writing this bit of history in this way.
You can find there series here: The Morning River: Sage of the Mountain Sage, Book One: A Classic Historical Western Series
Set in Ireland in 1918, it tells a fictional story based on the very real world of a midwife working in a Dublin hospital who is assigned to the maternity fever ward. Not much bigger than a closet, this ward is where they quarantine pregnant women who are stricken with influenza.
We meet a young midwife named Julia Powers who finds herself alone on her shift with the responsibility for all of the care of these sick, pregnant women. She is at times aided by one of two women. Firstly, Doctor Kathleen Lynn, who is based on a real historical figure and who is wanted by the Dublin police because she was involved in the 1916 Irish Uprising. Secondly, she is assisted by a young volunteer from an orphanage named Bridie Sweeney who has absolutely no training or education but is quick on her feet and ready to do whatever is required of her.
Included within the story is a peek at the science of the time with regard to the flu and midwifery. It is a visit to the Dublin of the times where they were struggling with not just the flu but the devastation caused by World War I and the 1916 Uprising. Along the way, it also shares a look at some of the Irish societal injustices that existed at the time.
The book is eerily similar to the current world situation even though we have the advantage of modern day science. Amongst other similarities are the facts that some still managed to question the value of wearing masks and others recommended taking weird remedies.
The Pull of the Stars is a page turner, a non-stop story that happens mostly during one long shift in the hospital during which Powers, sometimes aided by Doctor Lynn and/or Bridie, go from crisis to crisis to crisis.
The timing of the writing of this book may have been a bit unfortunate though it was written before the current pandemic. After all, who wants to read a story based on a pandemic when they are living through one? However, the timing was not deliberate. Donoghue started writing the story in 2018 and the manuscript was sent to the publishers in March of 2020.
After possibly a brief moment of hesitation because of the subject matter, the book drew me in and it became interesting to see, as the author says, "the way it mirrors our current situation." The Guardian says, it is "a beautifully modulated historical novel." I agree.
Reading this book now is different than it might have been before, for sure. NPR says, "The fourth wall of fiction is broken here. The pandemic spreads out beyond the pages into whatever rooms we are quarantined in."
Do I recommend The Pull of the Stars? Yes, I do. I highly recommend it. It is a fast moving account of life in a maternity fever ward with parallels to the current world situation. Anyone who enjoys historical fiction, has an interest in Ireland and/or midwifery will enjoy this book.
I think NPR gives another good reason to pick up this book when they say that that Donoghue has "given us our first pandemic caregiver novel - an engrossing and inadvertently topical story about health care workers inside small rooms fighting to preserve life."
I say, don't miss it. Order your copy from Amazon now by clicking right here.
Have you ever read a book that makes it hard to start another book because you have a hard time moving on from the characters that you just finished reading about? Or a book that was so good that you read it at least one more time? The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel is one of those books for me. I have started reading it for a second time. This novel, inspired by historical programs and people, includes issues of remote Appalachian living in the 1930s, literacy, poverty, spinsterhood, and the impact of having a different skin color. This is the personal story of one woman's life. A woman who is both astonishingly brave and who is as uncertain as most of the rest of us.
Historical Fiction Review on ReviewThisReviews.com |
I was hooked from the opening paragraph:
"The librarian and her mule spotted it at the same time. The creature's ears shot up, and it came to a stop so sudden its front hooves skidded out, the pannier slipping off, spilling out the librarian's books. An eddy of dirt and debris lifted, stinging the woman's eyes. The mule struggled to look upward, backward, anywhere other than at the thing in front of it." -- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Cussy Mary Carter lived with her father in their one-room log house in Troublesome Creek, Kentucky. Her mother had passed away and her father was desperate to find a husband for his grown daughter. While his goal of her being a respectful woman and safe as someone's wife, it did not fit with her chosen career of librarian. A pack horse librarian to be exact.
From 1935 to 1943, The Pack Horse Library Project ran through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) (part of President Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The WPA focused on work relief programs). Librarians were hired to circulate books to families on their routes. The routes were up to 18 - 20 miles per day and the librarians rode these routes on horseback. The routes were often rugged and dangerous but the librarians were determined.
Cussy Mary was devoted to the families along her route. All of her families. Those who were avid readers as well as hesitant readers. She was often the only outside contact families would have for long periods of time. She was a hero to these families.
She was also a pariah. Cussy Mary was one of Kentucky's Blue People. I had never heard of this family group who (partly due to geographical region and partly genetic) had noticeably blue skin. Superstitious people in the region blamed the blue people for bad things that happened. These people were shunned, ignored, or abused. The opening of this story includes a victim of a hanging.
When testing and a possible "cure" for Cussy Mary's colored skin is offered she finds that fitting in may or may not be as easy as the doctor would lead her to believe. She has some difficult decisions to make.
From the Author:
After the end of the novel, Kim Michele Richardson includes very interesting information in her Author's Notes. She writes:
"I've modified one historical date in the story so I could include relevant information about medical aspects and discoveries"
In other words, The Pack Horse Project was not ongoing when the "cure" for Cussy Mary's blue skin was discovered.
At times, when I notice that an author adjusted factual information in order to create a more interesting story I am a bit disappointed. But in this case, I was not bothered. In fact, I was very interested by the information about the causes and cure of the congenital disease. I am still amazed that prior to this book, I had never heard of either the Pack Horse Project librarians or the Blue Fugates of Kentucky and the things they experienced in their daily lives.
Other Recommendations:
The ReviewThis! contributors clearly love to read. Click our Book Reviews tab at the top of this page to see all our collective book reviews.
A few other historic fiction reviews I have written are: Galway Bay (a must-read that begins in Ireland during the potato famine), Chesapeake (a James Michener tale that is set on the Chesapeake Bay and spans 400 years), and Nickel's Luck (a cast of fictional characters living in the real town of Indianola, Texas in the 1800s. Indianola is no more and I bawled learning the history of that town and it's people).
Book Review: Caroline: Little House, Revisited. |
"Caroline is a marriage of fact and Laura Ingalls Wilder's fiction. I have knowingly departed from Wilder's version of the events only where the historical record stands in contradiction to her stories"Caroline: Little House, Revisited was a beautiful story and one of those books that I will read again later - just as I read Little House on the Prairie over and over.
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