Surviving Savannah

Author: Patti Callahan
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 2021
Pages: 432
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: When Savannah history professor Everly Winthrop is asked to guest-curate a new museum collection focusing on artifacts recovered from the steamship Pulaski, she's shocked. The ship sank after a boiler explosion in 1838, and the wreckage was just discovered, 180 years later. Everly can't resist the opportunity to try to solve some of the mysteries and myths surrounding the devastating night of its sinking.

Everly's research leads her to the astounding history of a family of eleven who boarded the Pulaski together, and the extraordinary stories of two women from this family: a known survivor, Augusta Longstreet, and her niece, Lilly Forsyth, who was never found, along with her child. These aristocratic women were part of Savannah's society, but when the ship exploded, each was faced with difficult and heartbreaking decisions. This is a moving and powerful exploration of what women will do to endure in the face of tragedy, the role fate plays and the myriad ways we survive the surviving.

Review: I could have done without the past/present gimmick again. I did prefer the "past" storyline, but the present could have worked as a stand-alone too. That said, I still gave it 5 stars on goodreads. The attention to historical detail/fact bumped this novel up to the highest rating. Be sure to read the author's note at the end.

One line or phrase that resonated while reading this book, was "surviving the surviving." How many times in our lives do we do this? It gave me a lot to think about it. 

This book also made me want to return to visit Savannah - somewhere I revisited last summer for the first time in 35 years, and certainly one of the prettiest cities in this country.

Also by Patti Callahan Henry:
The Secret Book of Flora Lea, published 2023

Being Elvis: A Lonely Life

Author: Ray Connolly
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 20108
Pages: 416
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Elvis Presley is a giant figure in American popular culture, a man who talen and fame were matched only by his later excesses and tragic. A godlike entity in the history of rock and rool, this twentieth-century icon with a dazzling voice blended gospel and traditionally black rhythm and blues with country to create a completely new kind of music and new way of expressing male sexuality, which simply blew the doors of a staid and repressed 1950s America.

In Being Elvis veteran rock journalist Ray Connolly takes fresh look at the career in the world's most loved singer, placing him, forty years after his death, not exhaustively in the garnish neon lights of Las Vegas but back in the mid-twentieth-century, distinctly southern world. For new and seasoned fans alike, Connolly, who interviewed Elvis in 1969, re-creates a man who sprang from poverty in Tupelo, Mississippi, to unprecendented overnight fame, eclipsing Frank Sinatra and then inspiring the Beatles along the way.

Juxtaposing the music, the songs, and the incendiary live concerts with a
personal life that would later careen wilding out of control, Connolly demonstrates that Elvis' amphetamine use began as early as his touring days of hysteria in the late 1950s, and that the financial needs that drove him in the beginning would return to plague him at the very end. With a narrative informed by interviews over many years with John Lennon, Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Sam Phillips, and Roy Obison, among many others, Connolly creates one of the most nuanced and mature portraits of this cultural phenomenon to date.

What distinguishes Being Elvis beyond the narrative itself is Connolly's more subtle examinations of white poverty, class aspirations, and the prison that is extreme fame. As we reach the end of this poignant account, Elvis's death at forty-tow takes on the hue of a profoundly American tragedy. The creator of an American sound that resonates today, Elvis remains frozen in time, an enduring American icon who could "seamlessly soar into a falsetto of pleading and yearning" and capture an inner emotion, perhaps an eternal yearning, to which all of us can still relate.

Review: This books ends my Elvis reading kick. It was comprehensive, and while I may revisit Elvis in the future, I feel at this point anything I read will be repetitive.

The Lemonade War

 Author: Jacqueline Davies
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: NMH Books, 2009
Pages: 192
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: When Evan Treski finds out that his younger sister is skipping third grade and joining his fourth-grade class, he is not happy. The last thing he wants is Jessie showing him up with her perfect grades, and he definitely doesn't need her help getting his lemonade stand up and running. . .even if the business side of things has got him confused.

Jessie doesn't understand why Evan won't team up with her, but she's got a plan to set up her own lemonade stand to prove her worth. Now if she can just figure out how to attract customers as easily as Evan can, she'll be able to show him what he's missing.

Can these siblings do it all on their own, or will they need each other after all? And will their lemonade war ever end? Brimming with ideas for making money at any business, definitions of business terms, charts, diagrams, and even math problems, this fresh, funny, emotionally charged novelexplores how arguments can escalate beyond anyone's intent - and the unique rivalry (and partnership) that comes with having siblings.

Review: The Lemonade War was a one school / one book project for my kindergartener so I read it aloud to him every night. In some ways, it was beyond him, but he did enjoy it overall, and he loves being read to so it was a win/win. 

My teenage daughters read this when they were in elementary school, and enjoyed it. This is definitely a cute story, and all the things the synopsis says. While some books have appeal at any age, books by Michaela Maccoll comes to mind, and also Wonder, I would say this is definitely a book for children. 

Barnes and Nobles states, "Ages 9-12."