Oh What a Slaughter

Author: Larry McMurtry
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2013
Pages: 192
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In Oh What a Slaughter, Larry McMurtry has written a unique, brilliant, and searing history of the bloody massacres that marked — and marred — the settling of the American West in the nineteenth century, and which still provoke immense controversy today.

Here are the true stories of the West's most terrible massacres — Sacramento River, Mountain Meadows, Sand Creek, Marias River, Camp Grant, and Wounded Knee, among others. These massacres involved Americans killing Indians, but also Indians killing Americans, and, in the case of the hugely controversial Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, Mormons slaughtering a party of American settlers, including women and children.

McMurtry's evocative descriptions of these events recall their full horror, and the deep, constant apprehension and dread endured by both pioneers and Indians. By modern standards the death tolls were often small — Custer's famous defeat at Little Big Horn in 1876 was the only encounter to involve more than two hundred dead — yet in the thinly populated West of that time, the violent extinction of a hundred people had a colossal impact on all sides. Though the perpetrators often went unpunished, many guilty and traumatized men felt compelled to tell and retell the horrors they had committed. From letters and diaries, McMurtry has created a moving and swiftly paced narrative, as memorable in its way as such classics as Evan S. Connell's Son of the Morning Star and Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Review: Easy reading, which may come as a surprise given the title. I've seen documentaries or studied most of these incidences, but this was a still a good read. I needed a short book to finish out 2014, and this fit the bill. It won't appeal to everyone, and maybe not even most readers, but if History is your thing, put this on your list.

So That's What They're For

Author: Janet Tamaro
Genre: Breastfeeding, Non-fiction
Publisher: Adams Media Corporation, 1998
Pages: 256
Rating: Highly Recommend (for nursing moms, or those who want to)

Synopsis: A unique, informal, and informative handbook to breastfeeding that will appeal to any mother put off by the medical reference approach taken by other books on the subject, "So That's What They're For!" "addresses the secret fears and stupid questions all women have but are often embarrassed or afraid to talk about."

Review: The best resource for nursing moms, or those who want to nurse. Comprehensive, easy-to-read, and even funny at times. 

I read this prior to the birth of my second child and re-read it as a refresher.

To Sleep with the Angels

Author: David Cowan, John Kuenster
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Dee, Ivan R. Publisher, 1998
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: If burying a child has a special poignancy, the tragedy at a Catholic elementary school in Chicago almost forty years ago was an extraordinary moment of grief. One of the deadliest fires in American history, it took the lives of ninety-two children and three nuns at Our Lady of the Angels School, left many families physically and psychologically scarred for life, and destroyed a close-knit working-class neighborhood. This is the moving story of that fire and its consequences written by two journalists who have been obsessed with the events of that terrible day in December 1958. It is a story of ordinary people caught up in a disaster that shocked the nation. In gripping detail, those who were there—children, teachers, firefighters—describe the fear, desperation, and panic that prevailed in and around the stricken school building on that cold Monday afternoon. But beyond the flames, the story of the fire at Our Lady of the Angels became an enigma whose mystery has deepened with time: its cause was never officially explained despite evidence that it had been intentionally set by a troubled student at the school. The fire led to a complete overhaul of fire safety standards for American schools, but it left a community torn apart by grief and anger, and accusations that the Catholic church and city fathers had shielded the truth. Messrs. Cowan and Kuenster have recreated this tragedy in a powerful narrative with all the elements of a first-rate detective story.

Review: Fantastic and heart-wrenching. This is a story that needs to be told. Fortunately some good came out of this tragedy, and children today are safer because of it. What a horrifying event for all involved.

Lincoln's Gamble

Author: Todd Brewster
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Scribner, 2014
Pages: 368
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: A brilliant, authoritative, and riveting account of the most critical six months in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, when he penned the Emancipation Proclamation and changed the course of the Civil War.

On July 12, 1862, Abraham Lincoln spoke for the first time of his intention to free the slaves. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, doing precisely that. In between, however, was perhaps the most tumultuous six months of his presidency, an episode during which the sixteenth president fought bitterly with his generals, disappointed his cabinet, and sank into painful bouts of clinical depression. Most surprising, the man who would be remembered as “The Great Emancipator” did not hold firm to his belief in emancipation. He agonized over the decision and was wracked by private doubts almost to the moment when he inked the decree that would change a nation.

Popular myth would have us believe that Lincoln did not suffer from such indecision, that he did what he did through moral resolve; that he had a commanding belief in equality, in the inevitable victory of right over wrong. He worked on drafts of the document for months, locking it in a drawer in the telegraph room of the War department. Ultimately Lincoln chose to act based on his political instincts and knowledge of the war. It was a great gamble, with the future of the Union, of slavery, and of the presidency itself hanging in the balance.

In this compelling narrative, Todd Brewster focuses on these critical six months to ask: was it through will or by accident, intention or coincidence, personal achievement or historical determinism that he freed the slaves? The clock is always ticking in these pages as Lincoln searches for the right moment to enact his proclamation and simultaneously turn the tide of war. Lincoln’s Gamble portrays the president as an imperfect man with an unshakable determination to save a country he believed in, even as the course of the Civil War remained unknown.

Review: Another challenging read, and I usually love books about the Civil War era. There wasn't much I found compelling in this book, and I'm trying to figure out why. Perhaps, it is too narrow of a time period on which to focus. Or maybe, I've just read too much about Lincoln lately.

This felt like a novel I would have been forced to read in History class in college. Rather than an engrossing narrative, this felt like something for academia. Even non-fiction can draw a reader in, but this kept me on the outside looking in for all 368 pages.

Diagnosing Giants

Author: Philip A. Mackowiak
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2013
Pages: 240
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Could Lincoln have lived? After John Wilkes Booth fired a low-velocity .44 caliber bullet into the back of the president's skull, Lincoln did not perish immediately. Attending doctors cleaned and probed the wound, and actually improved his breathing for a time. Today medical trauma teams help similar victims survive-including Gabby Giffords, whose injury was strikingly like Lincoln's. In Diagnosing Giants, Dr. Philip A. Mackowiak examines the historical record in detail, reconstructing Lincoln's last hours moment by moment to calculate the odds. That leads him to more questions: What if he had lived? What sort of neurological function would he have had? What kind of a Constitutional crisis would have ensued?

Dr. Mackowiak, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, offers a gripping and authoritative account of thirteen patients who took center stage in world history. The result is a new understanding of how the past unfolded, as well as a sweeping survey of the history of medicine. What was the ailment that drove Caligula mad? Why did Stonewall Jackson die after having an arm amputated, when so many other Civil War soldiers survived such operations? As with Lincoln, the author explores the full contest of his subjects' lives and the impact of each case on the course of history, from Tutankhamen, Buddha, and John Paul Jones to Darwin, Lenin, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

When an author illuminates the past with state-of-the-art scientific knowledge, readers pay attention. Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic, about the medical malpractice that killed President James A. Garfield, was a New York Times bestseller. And Dr. Mackowiak's previous book, Post-Mortem: Solving History's Greatest Medical Mysteries, won the attention of periodicals as diverse as the Wall Street Journal and New England Journal of Medicine, which pleaded for a sequel. With Diagnosing Giants, he has written one with impeccable expertise and panache.

Review: I found this to be a challenging read, but in thinking about it, the hardest chapters were those for which I didn't really care about the subject (or patient). I flew through the chapters about Stonewall Jackson and Abraham Lincoln because I find them, and their time period, interesting.

It bothers me that the synopsis talks only of Lincoln because that was one short chapter in a long book.

Written by a medical doctor, Diagnosing Giants, assumes the reader has some familiarity in the medical field as far as terminology and diagnoses go. I got the general gist of whatever ailment or illness killed the patient. The details weren't important to me.

Unless you're in a medical profession, reading this cover-to-cover, probably isn't the best use of time. If one of the patients interests you in general, then you might want to read that particular chapter. Being a history buff wasn't enough for me though. It was hard to rate this book for those reasons. 

An Accidental Woman

Author: Barbara Delinsky
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2014
Pages: 544
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Barbara Delinsky brings back Poppy Blake, from her stunning New York Times bestseller Lake News, in this deeply moving novel of life's second chances and the accidents of fate that can set us free....

Lake Henry, New Hampshire, is buzzing over the annual maple syrup harvest--as well as the shocking revelation that longtime resident Heather Malone has been led away by the FBI, which claims the devoted stepmother and businesswoman fled the scene of a fatal accident in California years before. Poppy Blake, her best friend, is determined to prove Heather's innocence, while facing past mistakes of her own: she has never overcome her guilt from the snowmobile accident that killed her partner and left her paralyzed. Playing an unlikely role in both women's lives is investigative journalist Griffin Hughes, whose attraction to Poppy keeps him coming back to Lake Henry, even though he is secretly responsible for drawing the law closer to Heather. To redeem himself, Griffin sets out to solve the mystery surrounding Heather and becomes the key to freeing Poppy from her own regrets and showing her a rich new future.

Review: I'm used to getting sucked into Barbara Delinsky's novels from the first page, and that just didn't happen with this particular book. I stuck with it because I do like this author, but I don't know that I really ever became immersed in, or a part of, Lake Henry.

It wasn't awful so I feel bad giving it a "Do Not Recommend" rating, but there are so many better stories out there, even by this author.

The Big Burn

Author: Timothy Egan
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010
Pages: 324
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men—college boys, day workers, immigrants from mining camps—to fight the fire. But no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them.

 Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force. Equally dramatic is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by and preserved for every citizen.

Review: Here I go, back into the world of Muir, Pinchot, W. A. Clark, and Roosevelt. It's a fascinating cast of characters centered around preservation and a devastating forest fire. I've read a lot about these men this year, as well as the topic at hand. Every book sheds a little more light on the time and place, as well as the events.

Furthermore, this book was written by Timothy Egan, who also wrote The Worst Hard Time, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Egan takes some time to set up "The Big Burn," too long if I'm being honest and the unlike the fire itself it quickly dies out. This just wasn't the page turner that The Worst Hard Time was. Maybe I've read too many books now about forest fires. 

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy

Author: Karen Abbott
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2014
Pages: 528
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, bestselling author Karen Abbott tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything—their homes, their families, and their very lives—during the Civil War.

Seventeen-year-old Belle Boyd, an avowed rebel with a dangerous temper, shot a Union soldier in her home and became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her considerable charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union private named Frank Thompson, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the war and infiltrating enemy lines, all the while fearing that her past would catch up with her. The beautiful widow Rose O'Neal Greenhow engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians, used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals, and sailed abroad to lobby for the Confederacy, a journey that cost her more than she ever imagined. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring—even placing a former slave inside the Confederate White House—right under the noses of increasingly suspicious rebel detectives.

Abbott's pulse-quickening narrative weaves the adventures of these four forgotten daredevils into the tumultuous landscape of a broken America, evoking a secret world that will surprise even the most avid enthusiasts of Civil War–era history. With a cast of real-life characters, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, Detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoléon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy shines a dramatic new light on these daring—and, until now, unsung—heroines.

Review: Femme Fatale, Civil War style.

This work of non-fiction brings together names that you may have heard individually in other books and sources. 

Abbott weaves together these women's stories as they occurred over the course of four years. It's an interesting format, and she knows just where to stop in the narrative to keep you coming back for more. For example, you read about Belle Boyd's escapade or latest act of espionage and just when you think you're going to find out what happens next, another woman's story picks up.

I found myself wondering what kind of Civil War era woman I would have been.

This novel will dispel the misconception that women are the weaker sex. 

The Gazebo

Author: Kimberly Cates
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Harlequin, 2014
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: When former wild child Deirdre McDaniel clears out her childhood home, she comes face-to-face with a lifetime of memories and failures. Once she'd dreamed of making it big, but her high school pregnancy had changed all that. Now co-owner of a B&B, Deirdre struggles to make up for lost time with her daughter, to overcome the demons of her past and to open her guarded heart to Jake—the new man in her life.

But when long-buried secrets return to haunt her, will Jake accept the truth behind the woman he's come to care about more than he'd thought possible…or will he let old wounds destroy the fragile new love they share?

Review: Happiness is. . .reading page after page hoping the book the gets better. And, it does!! 

In the beginning, the story feels trite. The brooding Alpha male. The strong and independent, yet angry, single mom. Hang in there. The author finds her way about halfway through and it this stays strong through the end. 

The plot and even the characters aren't anything you haven't read before, but there are touching moments. Even I teared up a little.

Twelve Across

Author: Barbara Delinsky
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Severn House Publishers, 1987 (reprint 2013)
Pages: 224
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Garrick Rodenheiser crashed, burned anf found a second chance when he crawled away from the wreckage of his life four years ago. And while he hasn't exactly escaped his past, he's kept it far enough away. Until trouble in the form of a rain-soaked, bleeding woman comes banging on the door of his remote cabin. True, she doesn't look like a reporter. But the word trust simply isn't in Garrick's vocabulary anymore.

Review: Maybe a little cliche and expected, but not bad for escapist reading. Barbara Delinsky is one of my go-to fiction writers.

I sailed through this novel in just a few hours.

Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die

Author: Willie Nelson and Kinky Friedman
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher, 2013
Pages: 192
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: You won't see no sad and teary eyes when I get my wings, and it's my time to fly

Just call my friends and tell them there's a party, come on by
So just roll me up and smoke me when I die

In Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die, Willie Nelson muses about his greatest influences and celebrates the family, friends, and colleagues who have blesses his remarkable journey. Willie riffs on music, wives, Texas, politics, horses, religion, marijuana, children, the environment, poker, hogs, Nashville, karma, and more. He shares the outlaw wisdom he has acquired over eight decades, along with favorite jokes and insights. Rare family pictures, beautiful artwork created by his son Micah Nelson, and lyrics to classic songs punctuate these charming and poignant memories.

At once a road journal and a fitting tribute to America's greatest traveling bard, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die—introduced by Kinky Friedman, another favorite son of Texas—is a deeply personal look into the heart and soul of one of the greatest artists of our time.

Review: I love Willie Nelson's music, but this was a waste. It was rambling, repetitive, and not at all introspective. I'd be embarrassed to publish anything this mediocre, especially when the world knows what a fabulous wordsmith he can be.

Micah Nelson's artwork was the book's only redeeming quality.

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker

Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2013
Pages: 384
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: In a life that spanned nearly a century and witnessed some of the most momentous events in American history, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born a slave. A gifted seamstress, she earned her freedom by the skill of her needle, and won the friendship of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln by her devotion. A sweeping historical novel, Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker illuminates the extraordinary relationship the two women shared, beginning in the hallowed halls of the White House during the trials of the Civil War and enduring almost, but not quite, to the end of Mrs. Lincoln’s days.

Review: Although a work of fiction, Elizabeth Keckley was a real person and confidante to the First Lady.

I can appreciate the research that went into writing this novel, but out of 384 pages, I was bored nearly to tears for about 275 of them.

When the author was writing about Mrs. Keckley, Mrs. Lincoln, and Abraham Lincoln, and nuances of their relationships, the story flowed nicely and was actually interesting. However, she spent far too much time discussing details of the Civil War that only detracted from the story line. Such details are not relevant to this particular story.

Had Chiaverini stayed on task this would have been a more compelling, note-worthy read. Disappointing.

NOTE: Chiaverini also wrote Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule, which I really enjoyed. That novel mentions Elizabeth Keckley, the subject of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker.

Killing Lincoln

Author: Bill O'Reilly
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Holt, Henry, & Company, Inc, 2011
Pages: 336
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history—how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of incredibly bloody battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. One man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased.

In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington, D.C., John Wilkes Booth—charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist—murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater. A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a brilliant but enigmatic New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions—including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt. With an unforgettable cast of characters, vivid historical detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller.

Review: This certainly does read like a thriller. I could not put it down. I expected to like it; I didn't expect it to be one of the best books I've read this year.

I've studied the Civil War, Lincoln's presidency, and reconstruction extensively since high school history class, and then again as a history major in college so the fact that I still found this to be a page turner, even knowing as much as I do about this period and person, speaks to how well the story is told.

The only question that remains is why did I wait so long to read it?

The Templar Legacy

Author: Steve Berry
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing, 2007
Pages: 544
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was–and its true nature could change the modern world.

Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts–and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind.

It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton’s former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who’s far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she’s not alone. Competing for the historic prize–and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses–is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.

Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world–and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees.

Review: I didn't breeze through this, but it was fun, entertaining, a little lot controversial, and a bit enlightening too. This isn't a typical genre for me, but I enjoyed it.

I'd love to see this novel turned into a movie.

NOTE: This is part of the Cotton Malone series, but each book is written to stand on its own so there's no need to read every novel or even to read them in order.

Fudge Cupcake Murder

Author: Joanne Fluke
Genre: Fiction / Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2011
Pages: 320
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Bakery owner Hannah Swensen just can't keep her hands out of the batter when murder stirs things up in Lake Eden, Minnesota, leaving the sheriff dead, a deputy accused, and a killer on the loose. . .

For Hannah, life seems to be lacking a certain flavor lately. Maybe it's the local sheriff's election that's got her down. For years, Sheriff Grant's been the iron hand in town. But now, Hannah's brother-in-law Bill is giving the old blowhard the fight of his long, dubious career--and Grant's not taking it well, especially once the polls show Bill pulling ahead.

But before anyone can taste victory, things go sour. While Hannah's emptying the trash, she makes a very unappetizing discovery: Sheriff Grant's body in the Dumpster behind the high school where she's teaching her cooking class. And as if that weren't bad enough, the poor man still has fudge frosting on his shirt from one of her cupcakes.

The number one--and only--suspect is Bill, but Hannah's not swallowing it. Plenty of people had reason to hate Sheriff Grant. Soon, Hannah's dishing up scandalous secrets, steaming hot betrayals, and enough intrigue to keep the gossip mill at The Cookie Jar going through several pots of decaf. And the closer Hannah gets to the truth, the closer she gets to smoking out a murderer with a very nasty recipe for silencing people. . .

Review: This was probably the most boring of Hannah Swensen mysteries simply because the author didn't stay on task. And, if Hannah doesn't figure out soon that she's meant to be with Norman, I might give up on this series. A love triangle is only cute for so long.

The Phantom of Fifth Avenue

Author: Meryl Gordon
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2014
Pages: 400
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Born in 1906, Huguette Clark grew up in her family's 121-room Beaux Arts mansion in New York and was one of the leading celebrities of her day. Her father William Andrews Clark, was a copper magnate, the second richest man in American, and not above bribing his way into the Senate. 

Huguette attended the coronation of King George V. And at twenty-two with a personal fortune of $50 million to her name, she married a Princeton man and childhood friend William MacDonald Gower. Two-years later the couple divorced. After a series of failed romances, Huguette began to withdraw from society--first living with her mother in a kind of Grey Gardens isolation then as a modern-day Miss Havisham, spending her days in a vast apartment overlooking Central Park, eating crackers and watching The Flintstones with only servants for company.

All her money and all her real estate could not protect her in her later life from being manipulated by shady hangers-on and hospitals that were only too happy to admit (and bill) a healthy woman. But what happened to Huguette that turned a vivacious, young socialite into a recluse? And what was her life like inside that gilded, copper cage?

Review: Empty Mansions was a fantastic read, and when I saw there was another book published about Huguette Clark I put it on my must-read list. It wasn't until I actually had the book in hand that I realized that the same author wrote Mrs. Astor Regrets, another very good read.

Empty Mansions and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue took different approaches to telling the Huguette Clark story and I can't say that one was better than the other. By reading both, I feel as though I got a more comprehensive look at the life and times of the Clark family.

The Phantom of Fifth Avenue was a fast, satisfying read, and I loved it.

Lemon Meringue Pie Murder

Author: Joanne Fluke
Genre: Fiction / Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The residents of Lake Eden, Minnesota, are planning to paint the town red, white, and blue to celebrate the Fourth of July—but the fireworks are already going off at Hannah Swensen’s bake shop, The Cookie Jar…

Hannah Swensen thought she’d finally discovered the recipe for a perfect life. But her sometime beau Norman Rhodes tosses a surprise ingredient into the mix when he phones to tell her he’s just bought a house from local drugstore clerk Rhonda Scarf—which he plans to tear down in order to build the dream home he and Hannah designed. It seems the plan has been cooking for quite some time, and Hannah’s shocked. Especially since her ring finger is still very much bare…

The good news is that the soon-to-be-torn-down house is full of antiques—and Norman has given Hannah and her mother first dibs. They uncover some gorgeous old furniture, a patchwork quilt…and Rhonda Scarf’s dead body. Not exactly what they were looking for. A little more sleuthing turns up the half-eaten remains of a very special dinner for two—and one of The Cookie Jar’s famous lemon meringue pies. It’s obvious Rhonda was expecting someone for dinner—perhaps one of the men she was secretly dating. Now it’s up to Hannah to turn up the heat—and get busy tracking down clues. Starting in her very own kitchen…

Review: I needed a fast read after pushing through The White Cascade for over two weeks.

This is number 4 in the Hannah Swensen series and by now we should know to expect a light, fun read. The first chapter was great and it was off and running from there. This was my favorite in the series so far.

The White Cascade

Author: Gary Krist
Genre: Non-fiction / History
Publisher: Holt, Henry & Company, Inc., 2008
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In February 1910, a monstrous, record-breaking blizzard hit the Northwest. Nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned. For days, an army of the Great Northern Railroad's most dedicated men worked to rescue the trains, but just when escape seemed possible, the unthinkable occurred--a colossal avalanche tumbled down, sweeping the trains over the steep slope and down the mountainside. Centered on the astonishing spectacle of our nation's deadliest avalanche, The White Cascade is the masterfully told story of a never-before-documented tragedy.

Review: I cannot express how happy I was to delve back into disaster non-fiction. It's morbid I know, but there's just something about it that interests me. I think perhaps it's the element of chance. One seemingly insignificant decision is the difference between life or death. 

The power of nature and the power of the human spirit are also quite fascinating.

This was the first I had ever heard of this avalanche, and I have to say I wasn't wowed by this account. The bones were there, but the author failed to bring the reader onto the snow-covered mountainside and into a train. In the best disaster non-fiction readers feels as if they are a part of the action, actually living it, and the experience stays with them, haunts them even, long after the book concludes.

Where was the editor? Background information is always a plus in novels such as these, but I can't help but think Krist gave us too much practical information about railroading in general and didn't move the story along fast enough. The last chapter was fantastic, thought provoking.

Long story short, this isn't a bad read if you're interested in this particular disaster. However, if you want great disaster non-fiction because you want to be drawn in, there are numerous other options. For example:

The Hinckley Firestorm 
Iroquois Theatre Fire 
Texas School Explosion
Boston Molasses Flood

Mrs. Astor Regrets

Author: Meryl Gordon
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: "The fate of Brooke Astor, the endearing philanthropist with the storied name, has generated worldwide headlines since her grandson Philip sued his father in 2006, alleging mistreatment of Brooke. And, shortly after her death in 2007, Anthony Marshall, Mrs. Astor's only child, was indicted on charges of looting her estate. Rarely has there been a story with such an appealing heroine, conjuring up a world so nearly forgotten: a realm of lavish wealth and secrets of the sort that have engaged Americans from the era of Edith Wharton to the more recent days of Truman Capote and Vanity Fair." Meryl Gordon has interviewed not only the elite of Brooke Astor's social circle but also the large staff who cosseted and cared for Mrs. Astor during her declining years. The result is the behind-the-headlines story of the Astor empire's unraveling, filled with never-before-reported scenes. This powerful, poignant saga takes the reader inside the gilded gales of an American dynasty, laying bare three generations of longing and missed opportunities. Even in this territory of privilege, no riches can put things right once they've been torn asunder. Here is an American epic of the bonds of money, morality, and social position.

Review: I really enjoyed this. The very rich always make for very interesting reading.

The author successfully avoided taking sides, and stuck to the facts of Brooke Astor's life and her eventual decline. As for my own thoughts...While it's true Tony Marshall is not a likeable person, one has to remember is the product of his upbringing. I feel bad for all of them. Having an outrageous amount of wealth will never be a burden I have to bear :-)

The Taste of Apple Seeds

Author: Katharina Hagena
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2014
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: When Iris unexpectedly inherits her grandmother's house in the country, she also inherits the painful memories that live there. Iris gives herself a one-week stay at the old house, after which she'll make a decision: keep it or sell it. The choice is not so simple, though, for her grandmother's cottage is an enchanting place, where currant jam tastes of tears, sparks fly from fingertips, love's embrace makes apple trees blossom, and the darkest family secrets never stay buried. . . .

Review: I just never know how to feel about a book when it's been translated into English, but this one sounded good enough to try.

You know, I liked it. I wasn't in love with it, nor do I feel this is an absolute must-read, but I liked it.

Iris' cousin's fate is woven mysteriously throughout the novel and the reader learns a little more with every passing chapter. I won't spoil the ending, but the last chapter makes reading this all worthwhile.

Blueberry Muffin Murder

Author: Joanne Fluke
Genre: Fiction / Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2011
Pages: 320
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Preparations are underway for Lake Eden, Minnesota's annual Winter Carnival—and Hannah Swensen is set to bake up a storm at her popular shop, The Cookie Jar. Too bad the honor of creating the official Winter Carnival cake went to famous lifestyle maven Connie Mac—a half-baked idea, in Hannah's opinion. She suspects Connie Mac is a lot like the confections she whips up on her cable TV cooking show—sweet, light, and scrumptious-looking, but likely to leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

Hannah's suspicions are confirmed when Connie Mac's limo rolls into town. Turns out America's "Cooking Sweetheart" is bossy, bad-tempered, and downright domineering. Things finally boil over when Hannah arrives at The Cookie Jar to find the Winter Carnival cake burnt to a crisp—and Connie Mac lying dead in her pantry, struck down while eating one of Hannah's famous blueberry muffins.

Next thing Hannah knows, the police have declared The Cookie Jar's kitchen crime scene off-limits. She's a baker without an oven—and the Carnival is right around the corner. Hannah's only alternative is to cook up a plan to save her business—by finding the killer herself. . .

Review: Blueberry Muffin Murder was what I've come to expect from this series. It's just a fun, light read.

I've been known to finish books in this series within hours. This one took all month. It's no different than any of the others, but Spring has arrived. That means I've been spending more time outside, or Spring cleaning when I'm inside. Bottom line, I just haven't been reading. My poor blog.

The Great Degeneration

Author: Niall Ferguson
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2013
Pages: 192
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: What causes rich countries to lose their way? Symptoms of decline are all around us today: slowing growth, crushing debts, increasing inequality, aging populations, antisocial behavior. But what exactly has gone wrong? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues in The Great Degeneration, is that our institutions—the intricate frameworks within which a society can flourish or fail—are degenerating. With characteristic verve and historical insight, Ferguson analyzes the causes of this stagnation and its profound consequences for the future of the West. The Great Degeneration is an incisive indictment of an era of negligence and complacency—and to arrest the breakdown of our civilization, Ferguson warns, will take heroic leadership and radical reform.

Review: I had a hard time staying focused. I just cannot seem to get into economics or finance and that's unfortunate since those fields affect all of us on basic levels.

That said, as a whole this was more interesting than I expecting; the banking crisis explained, the benefits of deregulation, and the obvious stagnation of the US economy. 

The last chapter, The Degeneration of Civil Society, was most interesting. Ferguson discusses the decline in civil participation citing Facebook as one reason people are no longer as involved in their communities. They maintain contact with old friends and neighbors instead of getting out there and meeting new ones.

Volunteerism has also declined as people move away from focusing on what is good for public and focus more on what is good for themselves. This idea has precipitated throughout American culture.

Charitable donations have decreased steadily since the late 1970s, and it's the baby boomers who are donating the most. This doesn't bode well for the future.

Ferguson does have a solution of the civil degeneration, education reform. He believes, and I agree, that a healthy mix of both private and public schools would create positive competition. Allowing parents to choose where their children attend empowers families. Maybe it's because I have school age children (in a private school), but this certainly resonated with me.

Somerset

Author: Leila Meacham
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2014
Pages: 610
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: One hundred fifty years of Roses' Tolivers, Warwicks, and DuMonts! We begin in the antebellum South on Plantation Alley in South Carolina, where Silas Toliver, deprived of his inheritance, joins up with his best friend Jeremy Warwick to plan a wagon train expedition to the "black waxy" promise of a new territory called Texas. Slavery, westward expansion, abolition, the Civil War, love, marriage, friendship, tragedy and triumph-all the ingredients (and much more) that made so many love Roses so much-are here in abundance.

Review: I absolutely loved Roses and was waiting for a sequel. A prequel will do.

This isn't a book you read, this is a book you climb right into and live. Meacham is a gifted storyteller and nobody weaves a better family saga in the historical fiction genre.

Somewhere in France

Author: Jennifer Robson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher, 2013
Pages: 400
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In the dark and dangerous days of World War I, a daring young woman will risk her life to find her destiny.

Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford wants to travel the world, pursue a career, and marry for love. But in 1914, the stifling restrictions of aristocratic British society and her mother’s rigid expectations forbid Lilly from following her heart. When war breaks out, the spirited young woman seizes her chance for independence. Defying her parents, she moves to London and eventually becomes an ambulance driver in the newly formed Women's Army Auxiliary Corps—an exciting and treacherous job that takes her close to the Western Front.

Assigned to a field hospital in France, Lilly is reunited with Robert Fraser, her dear brother Edward’s best friend. The handsome Scottish surgeon has always encouraged Lilly's dreams. She doesn't care that Robbie grew up in poverty—she yearns for their friendly affection to become something more. Lilly is the most beautiful—and forbidden—woman Robbie has ever known. Fearful for her life, he's determined to keep her safe, even if it means breaking her heart.

In a world divided by class and filled with uncertainty and death, can their hope for love survive...or will it become another casualty of this tragic war?

Review: This was a sweet love story with historical accuracy. The author knew her characters and they stayed true to themselves. Consider it fluff, with substance. Somewhere in France  is an enjoyable read.

My only criticism is that when a novel is set in England, or France, distances should probably be given in terms of kilometers rather than miles. Can we say Editing 101?

Dear Abigail

Author: Diane Jacobs
Genre: History / Biography
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2014
Pages: 528
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Much has been written about the enduring marriage of President John Adams and his wife, Abigail. But few know of the equally strong bond Abigail shared with her sisters, Mary Cranch and Elizabeth Shaw Peabody, accomplished women in their own right. Now acclaimed biographer Diane Jacobs reveals their moving story, which unfolds against the stunning backdrop of America in its transformative colonial years.
 
Abigail, Mary, and Elizabeth Smith grew up in Weymouth, Massachusetts, the close-knit daughters of a minister and his wife. When the sisters moved away from one another, they relied on near-constant letters—from what John Adams called their “elegant pen”—to buoy them through pregnancies, illnesses, grief, political upheaval, and, for Abigail, life in the White House. Infusing her writing with rich historical perspective and detail, Jacobs offers fascinating insight into these progressive women’s lives: oldest sister Mary, who became de facto mayor of her small village; youngest sister Betsy, an aspiring writer who, along with her husband, founded the second coeducational school in the United States; and middle child Abigail, who years before becoming First Lady ran the family farm while her husband served in the Continental Congress, first in Philadelphia, and was then sent to France and England, where she joined him at last.
 
This engaging narrative traces the sisters’ lives from their childhood sibling rivalries to their eyewitness roles during the American Revolution and their adulthood as outspoken wives and mothers. They were women ahead of their time who believed in intellectual and educational equality between the sexes. Drawing from newly discovered correspondence, never-before-published diaries, and archival research, Dear Abigail is a fascinating front-row seat to history—and to the lives of three exceptional women who were influential during a time when our nation’s democracy was just taking hold.

Review: I really enjoyed this book which was surprising because I had expected the tedium that Book of Ages was. Diane Jacobs brought the Adams sisters to life though, which in fairness was probably easier to do since more is known of them. Not only that Abigail Adams led an interesting life. She wasn't just a wife and mother in a time when being a wife and mother was all that was really expected of women.

This book ties in quite nicely with The Hemingses of Monticello, because Abigail Adams is mentioned a few times in that novel. Early on, the Adamses were good friends of Thomas Jefferson's, meeting and boarding his daughter and Sally Hemings when the two girls arrived in England prior to joining Jefferson in France. This is never mentioned in Dear Abigail. Eventually John Adams and Thomas Jefferson came to have different opinions on the role of government and their relationship became strained.

Also interesting in this novel was the mention of the Barbary pirates and Tripoli. This was the subject of one whole chapter in Miracles and Massacres. I would have read the few paragraphs in this book without much note because the pirates and Tripoli was merely mentioned, not discussed. 

Washington's battles for New York are also mentioned, though not discussed. This ties in Washington's Secret Six. 

I plan to read more novels set in the 18th century. It was a fascinating time.

The Wives of Los Alamos

Author: TaraShea Nesbit
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2014
Pages: 240
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Their average age was twenty-five. They came from Berkeley, Cambridge, Paris, London, Chicago—and arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret, including what their husbands were doing at the lab. They lived in barely finished houses with P.O. box addresses in a town wreathed with barbed wire, all for the benefit of a project that didn’t exist as far as the public knew. Though they were strangers, they joined together—adapting to a landscape as fierce as it was absorbing, full of the banalities of everyday life and the drama of scientific discovery.

And while the bomb was being invented, babies were born, friendships were forged, children grew up, and Los Alamos gradually transformed from an abandoned school on a hill into a real community: one that was strained by the words they couldn’t say out loud, the letters they couldn’t send home, the freedom they didn’t have. But the end of the war would bring even bigger challenges to the people of Los Alamos, as the scientists and their families struggled with the burden of their contribution to the most destructive force in the history of mankind.

The Wives of Los Alamos is a novel that sheds light onto one of the strangest and most monumental research projects in modern history. It's a testament to a remarkable group of women who carved out a life for themselves, in spite of the chaos of the war and the shroud of intense secrecy.

Review: I loved everything about this book, the author's writing style and the story itself. This was an extremely fast, thoroughly entertaining read.