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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Powers

    This is a powerful telling of three generations of Yanktonai Dakota Native American Women over multiple generations. Disturbing but also important, like other books about the horrific treatment of Native peoples during the early years of USA expansion. Here is my book review The Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Powers.

    Dolls

    Powers using dolls to tell this story…three dolls that belonged to three different generations of women. Each doll propelling the story forward of the anguish and heartache of these women and their life and loves.

    First we meet Sissy in the early 1960’s as she tries to make her mother love her. Sissy wants to feel secure and safe, but her mother is battling her own demons. Sissy’s doll Ethel might save her life.

    Next we meet Lillian, who has witnessed the unthinkable at the hands of a nun in an Indian School in the 1920’s far from her family she loves. Lillian will lose two people she loves the most, and her doll Mae will try to ease the pain.

    And finally we meet Cora, born in 1888 her life will be upended at the end of the Indian Wars when she is transferred to an Indian School. On arrival her most precious items will be taken from her and burned, including her doll Winona. The spirit of Winona will guide Cora through the tragedies that will come.

    This is a powerful story of the generations of grief and pain that will forever haunt the people who witnessed the massacre of a people at the hands of white run, Christian boarding schools that have still to this day not apologized or provided restitution for the damage and death that was dealt.

    *****Five stars for The Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Powers.

    Thank you for reading my book review The Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Powers. See last week’s book review Happiness Falls by Angie Kim.

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

    Parts of this book I loved, in particular the focus on a family with a disabled child who doesn’t speak. But other parts of it I just didn’t love, in particular the portrayal of police detective as dishonest and a few too many coincidences to keep the plot moving forward. But you will need to decide for yourself. Here is my book review Happiness Falls by Angie Kim.

    Crisis

    The book is placed during the pandemic when Mia and her family are on lockdown in their home. Mia, home from college, and her twin brother John, have returned to the family home where their bi-racial parents (Mom Hannah Korean and Dad Adam Caucasian) live with their disabled brother Eugene. The family has dealt with eleven -year- old Eugene’s severe disability of Angelman Syndrome and Autism. Eurgene does not speak. This is the families biggest crisis to date – the constant care of Eugene. And then there is a little thing called the Pandemic. But what happens next is the biggest crisis of all.

    Missing

    Mia’s father is missing. How long do you wait to call the police when someone is missing? Hindsight is always helpful, but on the day this particular crisis began Mia doesn’t think there is really anything unusual about the fact her father is not home.

    But as the hours and days drag on, clearly this is a major crisis. The last person to see dad Adam was Eugene. But Eugene is unable to communicate. Or is he really? Did Adam know something about communicating with Eugene? Does Eugene’s so called “violent” outbursts mean he is a suspect? Did Eugene attack a police officer or was he trying to communicate?

    Where is Adam?

    The heart of the book is this family and the crisis they are thrust into when Adam does not return home from a day in the park with Eugene. Decisions, or lack of in the first few hours as well as discoveries on Adam’s computer and voice mail will send the family spiraling as they try to understand what has happened to the man they love. Could he possibly have been unfaithful? Disappeared on purpose? Or has he been injured or killed? Where is he?

    This missing person drama is written with an interesting collection of footnotes and multiple genre styles that are unique and propel the reader forward in the story. Kim has a race element and uses the pandemic as part of the plot. As I said before I liked this book, and praise Kim’s research of the subject of Angelman Syndrome. I learned a lot about that. But I just didn’t love the story. Good but not great.

    Four stars for Happiness Falls by Angie Kim.

    Thanks for reading my book review Happiness Falls by Angie Kim. See last week’s book review The Samurais Garden by Gail Tsukiyama.

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Samurai’s Garden: A Novel by Gail Tsukiyama.

    This beautiful, easy to read novel made me choke up at the end. I highly recommend it. Here is my Book Review The Samurai’s Garden: A Novel by Gail Tsukiyama.

    1930’s Japan & China

    Tsukiyama, who herself is part Chinese and part Japanese, creates a beautiful narrative of 1930’s pre-war China and Japan. We are introduced to a 20-year old young Chinese man, who comes home from university to recover from tuberculosis. His family sends him to their summer home in Japan, to get him out of the city and to help him recover near the sea.

    Stephen misses his family, especially his younger sister, but over the course of year he becomes close to Matsu, the caretaker of the families home. Despite the Chinese boy and the Japanese man’s different upbringings, economic status and cultural differences, the two develop a bond. And Stephen learns about Matsu’s secrets, his loyalty and love.

    Matsu will teach Stephen about devotion, and survival in a world that prizes honor more than life itself. As we learn more about past tragedies in Matsu’s life, Stephen both matures and returns to health.

    But when Japan invades China, and World War is mounting, the two friends will say good bye with hopeful hearts to see one another again.

    Book Review The Samurai’s Garden: A Novel by Gail Tsukiyama

    A short and easy to read novel, with an underlying message of tolerance and love, that goes beyond any Chinese or Japanese story I have read before. *****Five stars for The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama.

    See last week’s book review Still Life by Sarah Winman

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Still Life by Sarah Winman

    I loved this book. One of the best novels I’ve read in months. Unforgettable characters and a story of love, family, poetry, art and war. Here is my book review Still Life by Sarah Winman.

    War

    At first I thought this was going to be a WWII story. And though we start in Italy in 1944, when we meet Ulysses and Evelyn, at it’s heart it really isn’t about the war. The war will certainly follow the characters through the story and through the next thirty years, but the real story is about love.

    Love

    I’m not talking a romance novel here. Oh no. The love in this book is about so much more than physical attraction, although there is a lot of that too. The love that comes out of a chance meeting in Italy at the end of the war will surround this novel and it’s fascinating collection of character. Winman expertly guides the reader through all ranges of the emotion from the love of a man and women, the love of a women and women, the love that comes from friends who are closer than family. The decades long epic novel explores the love of art, food, poetry, as well as authors, artists even a parrot.

    Confused? Don’t be. Open your heart to this book, it’s beautiful story, it’s well developed characters and it’s underlying sizzling theme.

    Saga

    Winman takes the reader from 1940’s Tuscany to London and back in this sweeping thirty year portrait of people you will fall in love with, as they fall in love with each other, life and country. It’s a deeply respectful epic of generations thrown together and clinging for dear life. And one parrot.

    Book Review Still Life by Sarah Winman

    *****Five stars for a perfect book that will make you laugh and cry and fill you with wonder. Thanks for reading my book review Still Life by Sarah Winman. See last week’s book review Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

    I have only read one other book by James McBride, that was Deacon King Kong back in 2021. I liked that one. His new book The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store has garnered all kinds of praise. So I had to see what it was all about. Here is my Book Review The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.

    Pay Attention

    McBride is a master of weaving a tale, and so you gotta be on your toes with this novel. In this book you will meet a wildly varied group of characters, each brilliantly developed and lushly described by McBride. We find ourselves on Chicken Hill, a run down neighborhoods of Pottstown Pennsylvania where African Americans and immigrant Jews live and work side by side.

    Margins

    The folks of Chicken Hill manage to get by despite living on the margins of the wider white community who control everything from the water system to the police. Blacks and Jews work the system as best they can, but without each other it doesn’t come together for the people of Chicken Hill.

    Our Story

    Our story focuses on Moshe an immigrant Jew and his beautiful wife Chona an American born Jew. There lives are entwined with Nate, a black worker at Moshe’s theater and Nate’s wife Addie who helps Chona at the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Nate and Addie’s 12 year old nephew Dodo, who is deaf, finds out the “State” is trying to put him in an institution. Trouble ensues as the entire community comes together to silently and conspiratorially help Dodo.

    Meanwhile the white elite of the town, including lecherous Doc Roberts and a local City Council man are creating additional problems for the people of Chicken Hill. This is when the bonds of friendship, love and community will come together. Not everyone will survive, but no one will ever be forgotten in the tight knit community of Chicken Hill, home of the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.

    Thank you for reading my Book Review The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

    *****Five Stars for The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. See last week’s book review After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell.

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell

    I’m a big fan of Maggie O’Farrell, a prolific writer from the United Kingdom. Although most of her work is contemporary fiction, my favorite books of her are her historical fiction including Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait. But this contemporary novel, published in 2000 is a page-turner. Here is my book review After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell.

    The Plot

    Alice has suffered an unimaginable loss. Her heart is broken and so is her will to live. She takes a train to Scotland to visit her sisters, but while in the restroom she witnesses something horrible. But what is it? Whatever it is it’s enough to send her running back to London. But by the next day, Alice lays in a hospital in a coma. Hit by a car, or was it a suicide attempt?

    Interwoven Stories

    Throughout the book O’Farrell jumps around from before Alice was born to present day, focusing separately on characters in Alice’s life. Alice’s mother, father and grandmother each have their own story. Alice’s true love John and John’s father play a crucial role. And then there are others…a mysterious man, a high school boyfriend, her sisters who are nothing like Alice.

    As Alice lays in a coma, her memories of things she knows float in and out, while people in her room also float in and out. Some of these people are talking and Alice can hear them, although she cannot speak. But missing pieces of her life are falling into place as she listens. Alice’s will to live is diminishing.

    A Special Visitor

    It will take a special visitor to reach deep into the coma cocoon Alice is trapped in and pull her out. Will that person come to the hospital?

    After You’d Gone

    O’Farrell has such a way with words that all her books, contemporary or historic, are unforgettable. I hope you enjoyed my book review After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell

    *****Five Stars for After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell. See last week’s book review Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven.

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven

    I wanted to love this book. I really did. It has stellar reviews and is a NY Times best seller. But. I just struggled. Here is my book review Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven.

    The Story

    It’s not the story I didn’t love, it is interesting and a bit like a fairy tale to befriend a wild animal in the way Catherine Raven did. After she finished her PhD in Biology, Raven builds a tiny cottage on a remote piece of land in Montana. She convinces herself it’s a way station while she decides what she want to do with her life. But really, she is isolating from society, her future, and her past which includes a messed up childhood.

    The Fox

    Fox arrives one day, and Catherine realizes the wild animal is coming to see her everyday at the exact same time. And slowly she befriends the fox…but really? Can she befriend a wild animal? Should she? She struggles with what is happening, particularly as a biologist. She avoids telling anyone; friends or her online students. But over a period of time the fox and Catherine become friends.

    The Writing

    Raven’s writing is very analytical, and since I am not a biologist, much of it when over my head. It rambled. Long passages I found tedious and difficult to hold my attention.

    In the end, of course a fox doesn’t live as long a a human, but clearly the fox helped Raven deal with her own emotional trauma, her introvert tendencies and her unclear future. Her future was to write a best seller about a Fox. Well played.

    You may like this book more than I did, but I can only hand it three stars.

    ***Three stars for Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven.

    See last week’s book review March by Geraldine Brooks here.