The Dogs of Venice

Author: Steven Rowley
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2025
Pages: 80
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis:  After months of planning a romantic holiday getaway in Venice, Paul is blindsided when his five-year marriage suddenly unravels. Fueled by heartbreak, Paul endeavors to take the trip alone. Soon after arriving in Italy, he notices a small, scruffy, self-assured dog trotting alongside a canal with the confidence he so desperately wants for himself. When their paths cross again, Paul feels compelled to learn how his new four-legged friend thrives on his own. Amid the food, sights, and welcoming people of Venice, Paul's journey culminates in a magical encounter that leads him to feel real connection - to a dog, to a foreign city, and most importantly, to himself.

Review: Steven Rowley is also the author of The Guncle, which I loved. This book was just okay. I wanted a bigger take-away from the novella.

Steven Rowley Novels
The Guncle

The Yellow Wall-Paper

Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: New England Magazine, 1892
Pages: 24
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The Yellow Wallpaper is a valuable piece of American feminist literature that reveals attitudes toward the psychological health of women in the nineteenth century. Diagnosed with "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency" by her physician husband, a woman is confined to an upstairs bedroom. Descending into psychosis at the complete lack of stimulation, she starts obsessing over the room's yellow wallpaper: "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw - not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper - the smell! . . .The only thing I can think of that is like the color of the paper! A yellow smell."

Review: I was looking for a short story to catch up on my reading challenge, but what an interesting find. I tend to avoid short stories as a general rule because I like to dive into characters and plots, but this story kept my attention and had me digging for more information
about it. 

This novel was first printed in a magazine in 1892, and was immediately denounced in the press. There is far more information available on Wikipedia, and I went down the rabbit hole. Wow.

Why wasn't this assigned reading in high school. The discussion and conversations would have been so interesting.

The Museum of Rain

Author: Dave Eggers
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Sweeney's Publishing, 2021
Pages: 44
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Oisin Mahoney is an American Army vet in his 70s who is asked to lead a group of young grand-nieces and grand-nephews on a walk through the hills of California's Central Coast. Walking toward a setting sun, their destination is a place called The Museum of Rain, which may or may not still exist, and whose origin and meaning are elusive to all. 

Review: I liked this little book. It's so short that saying much about it will spoil it, but this is a sweet read.

St. Anthony's Chapel

Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: J. Pohl Associates
Pages: 82
Rating: Recommend

Review: My son attends CCD / Sunday School at Most Holy Name School located near St. Anthony's Chapel. While I've known about chapel and the relics it holds, I hadn't take the time to find it until now. It's a beautiful chapel, and I enjoyed reading its history in this little book that my mom picked up at the gift shop across the street.

The Grown-Up

Author: Gillian Flynn
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Crown/Archetype, 2015
Pages: 64
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: A canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud. On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keep observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to giver her lovely life a drama injection.

However, when the psychic visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan's terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore. Miles, Susan's teenage stepson, doesn't help matters with his disturbing manner and grisly imagination. The three are soon locked in a chilling battle to discover where the evil truly lurks and what, if anything, can be done to escape it.

Review: This is an R-rated book for sexual content, but the story itself was great. The ending slayed me though. Really? That was it? Such is the life of a short story. Enjoyed it.

Killer in the Pool

Author: Tim Zimmermann
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: New World City, Inc., 2016
Pages: 52
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: On February 24, 2010, Tilikum, the largest killer whale at SeaWorld, suddenly dragged Dawn Brancheau, his trainer, into the pool and killed her. Journalist Tim Zimmermann set out to find out why. His riveting account of Tilikum's life and the history of killer whale entertainment at marine parks dives into the world of the ocean's top predator. It chronicles Tilikum's capture and separation from his family and the physical and psychological stress he experienced in marine park pools over some thirty years. It explores Tilikum's involvement in two previous deaths. And it details the inherent risks of using captive killer whales for human entertainment. Ultimately, Zimmermann explains how the life of Tilikum came to mean the death of Dawn Brancheau. 

Review: I read Beneath the Surface about a year ago, and when I saw this was a short e-book available online for free, I decided to give it a try. I visited SeaWorld several times as a child, and it always left such an impression. At one point, I wanted to study marine biology. Not because I wanted to be a trainer, but I just found the animals fascinating. I would go back and forth between the same shows all day long. Fascinating.

There's a sadness now in what I had found so fascinating and enthralling as a child. This book highlights all the negatives to putting these animals in captivity.

The Butler

Author: Wil Haygood
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Atria, 2013
Pages: 93
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: From Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellow Wil Haygood comes a mesmerizing inquiry into the life of Eugene Allen, the butler who ignited a nation's imagination and inspired a major motion picture: Lee Daniels' The Butler, the highly anticipated film that stars six Oscar winners, including Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey (honorary and nominee), Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Redgrave, and Robin Williams; as well as Oscar nominee Terrence Howard, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Alan Rickman, and Liev Schreiber.

With a foreword by the Academy Award nominated director Lee Daniels, The Butler not only explores Allen's life and service to eight American Presidents, from Truman to Reagan, but also includes an essay in the vein of James Baldwin's jewel The Devil Finds Work, that explores the history of black images on celluloid and in Hollywood, and fifty-seven pictures of Eugene Allen, his family, the presidents he served, and the remarkable cast of the movie.

Review: This book was mentioned multiple times in The Residence which piqued my interest. I also talked my husband into watching the movie, which was also very good. I wish there had been more about Allen's life in this book, but for what it is, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Laura's Album

Author: William Anderson
Genre: History
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishing, 1998
Pages: 80
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Though best known as the author of the Little House books, Laura Ingalls Wilder led a full, rich life that spanned almost a century of American history. All through her life Laura saved mementos of her past, including early writings, letters, drawings, and photographs, which have been lovingly preserved in private and public collections across the country.

Now, for the first time ever, these photographs, writings, and memorabilia have been gathered together in one incredible volume by noted Little House historian William Anderson. Each gorgeous page of Laura's Album is a doorway into the private world of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and offers a unique glimpse of what her life was like. Here is the fascinating true story of this remarkable pioneer woman's life as well as an unforgettable tale of our own American past.

Review: I couldn't believe there was a book published about Laura Ingalls Wilder that I hadn't read yet. My interest in her began decades ago when my mom read aloud the Little House books to my sister and I before bed every night. I credit those books with forming my love of history as well.

Ghosts of Gettysburg

Author: Mark Nesbitt
Genre: Supernatural
Publisher: Second Chance Publications, 2012
Pages: 78
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Ghosts of Gettysburg is the first volume in Mark Nesbitt's popular book series. A combination of history and mystery, this volume focuses on the early ghost-lore of Gettysburg. Included are the timeless stories of the woman in white, the surgeons of Old Dorm, the ghosts of Devil's Den, the Blue Boy, and other infamous spectres who wander the Gettysburg battlefield.

Review: Perhaps I didn't make the best decision when I chose this as my bedtime reading, but having been to Gettysburg myself and experiencing "something", I found I couldn't put it down.

Nesbitt presents the facts and leaves interpretation to the reader. To fully grasp the context and stories one must travel to Gettysburg. Having been there several times myself, I highly recommend a visit (or two). I also recommend taking a candlelight walking tour.

By the way, this is not a new series. The first book was originally published in 1991.

Stick Out Your Tongue

Author: Ma Jian
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997
Pages: 93
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Tibet is a land lost in the glare of politics and romanticism, and Ma Jian set out to discover its truths. Stick Out Your Tongue is a revelation: a startlingly vivid portrait of Tibet, both enchanting and horrifying, beautiful and violent, seductive and perverse.

In this profound work of fiction, a Chinese writer whose marriage has fallen apart travels to Tibet. As he wanders through the countryside, he witnesses the sky burial of a Tibetan woman who died during childbirth, shares a tent with a nomad who is walking to a sacred mountain to seek forgiveness for sleeping with his daughter, meets a silversmith who has hung the wind-dried corpse of his lover on the wall of his cave, and hears the story of a young female incarnate lama who died during a Buddhist initiation rite. In the thin air of the high plateau, the divide between dream and reality becomes confused.

When this book was published in Chinese in 1997, the government accused Ma Jian of "harming the fraternal solidarity of the national minorities," and a blanket ban was placed on his future work. With its publication in English, including a new afterword by the author that sets the book in its personal and political context, readers get a rare glimpse of Tibet through Chinese eyes--and a window on the imagination of one of China's foremost writers.

Review: I try to appreciate all kinds of literature, but this was too much for me. After I read it, I had a "what the heck was that" moment, and then tried to research the book hoping to find the Cliff's Notes or something to help me understand the significance.

I did not find much that was useful to understanding this collection of short stories.

In a word. . .disturbing.

"Lift"

Author: Kelly Corrigan
Genre: Mommy/Chick Lit
Publisher: Hyperion, 2010
Pages: 96
My Rating: Highly Recommend

Lift is a must-read for all moms.

Synopsis (book jacket): "No matter when and why this comes to your hands, I want to put down on paper how things started with us." Written as a letter to her children, Kelly Corrigan's Lift is a tender, intimate, and robust portrait of risk and love; a touchstone for anyone who wants to live more fully. In Lift, Corrigan weaves together three true and unforgettable stories of adults willing to experience emotional hazards in exchange for the gratifications of raising children.

Lift takes its name from hang gliding, a pursuit that requires flying directly into rough air, because turbulence saves a glider from "sinking out." For Corrigan, this wisdom—that to fly requires chaotic, sometimes even violent passages—becomes a metaphor for all of life's most meaningful endeavors, particularly the great flight that is parenting. Corrigan serves it up straight—how mundanely and fiercely her children have been loved, how close most lives occasionally come to disaster, and how often we fall short as mothers and fathers. Lift is for everyone who has been caught off guard by the pace and vulnerability of raising children, to remind us that our work is important and our time limited. Like Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea, Lift is a meditation on the complexities of a woman's life, and like Corrigan's memoir, The Middle Place, Lift is boisterous and generous, a book readers can't wait to share.

Review: FANTASTIC. Short, sweet, funny, candid, memorable. . .a must read for all moms.