December Booknotes

 

 

“Every book is a ride to some place and time other than here and now. Buried in an armchair, reclined on a couch, prostrate on your bed, or glued to your desk, you can go places and travel through time.” - A.A. Patawaran

Three Cozy Mysteries in One Book - just for fun!

Christmas Scarf Murder by Carlene O’Connor (Irish Village Mystery series)

Scarfed Down by Maddie Day (Country Store series)

Death by Christmas Scarf by Peggy Ehrhart (Knit and Nibble Mystery series)

This collection has three cozy Christmas mysteries featuring sweater weather, Christmas trees, copious knitting, and some entertaining crimes. This is a perfect read for lovers of cozy mysteries.

Christmas Scarf Murder takes place in County Cork, Ireland and the murder occurs during a rehearsal for the annual Christmas tractor parade. Siobhán O’Sullivan and her husband, both police officers, must find the murderer and also apprehend the thief who stole from the local nursing home residents. Plus, they manage to complete their Christmas shopping while interviewing people at the Christmas Market! Somehow the mystery is solved in the midst of all the holiday cheer.

Scarfed Down takes place in Southern Indiana. Robbie Jordan and her restaurant employees are trying to figure out daily specials based upon the “Twelve Days of Christmas," when one of their customers dies while knitting – with poisoned yarn! Robbie must prove that her Aunt Adele, who made the yarn, has nothing to do with the death. Some of the dialogue was a little over the top (‘Well, butter my buns and call me biscuit.’), and it made the characters seem like they should have been from the South instead of the Midwest. But it did include some heroic cats so that made up for the dialogue.😼

Death by Christmas Scarf takes place in New Jersey. Pamela and her friend, Bettina, are members of a knitting club. Each member knitted and donated a Christmas scarf to the library fundraising auction. Unfortunately, one of the donated scarves was used to strangle the local “sourpuss.” Pamela and Bettina try to figure out who murdered the woman and exonerate the person who bid on the deadly scarf.

Recipes are included as well as instructions on how to knit a teddy bear.

Non-fiction: History (NOT a cozy mystery!)

Bomboozled: How the U.S. Government Misled Itself and Its People Into Believing They Could Survive A Nuclear Attack by Susan Roy

In the 1950s and 1960s, America’s Civil Defense agency promoted family bomb shelters as a necessary component to preserving life in the likely event of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. This book describes this era of our history through extensive archival photography, nuclear-era memorabilia, and previously unpublished media. The archival material is excellent!

The concept of the Family Fallout Shelter was Cold War paranoia at its “finest,” and it has no more truth behind it than the absurd notion of "duck and cover." However, many American families bought into the idea, investing millions of dollars in home shelters of every conceivable material and design. The New York state legislature actually debated a bill that would have made it mandatory for every family to build a bomb shelter in their yard. 

Well researched, Bomboozled captures the absurdity of how the government tried to convince us that we could survive a nuclear attack with just a simple bomb shelter in our backyards or basements. One of the more absurd ideas was that if there was an attack, a family would have time to dig a hole in their backyard large enough for 4 people. The family would then all crawl into the hole and pull a piece of plywood over the top. Duck and Cover!

(For more nuclear absurdity see “They Thought the War Was on!”)

Young Adult Non-fiction: History/Biography

The Plot to Kill Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Unlikely Hero by Patricia McCormick

This book has short, chronological chapters. Each chapter begins by drawing readers into Bonhoeffer’s personal story and closes with hints indicating his larger historical role. I learned a great deal about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian and Lutheran pastor; his efforts to warn the world about the horrors of Hitler’s Germany; and his conversion from pacifism to would-be assassin in a failed effort to overthrow Hitler.

In this carefully researched work, the author effectively synthesizes complex realities. Most shocking is the documentation of the gradual capitulation of the German Lutheran church to Hitler’s vision of the “Reichskirche,” in which the swastika replaced the cross; the resistance of the Pastors’ Emergency League to speak out against the death camps; and the apathy of European ministers, who refused to “take a stand against Hitler.” 

Photographs and inset sidebars provide supplementary historical information. Without oversimplifying, this is a lucid history of the rise of Nazi Germany and a dramatic account of one man’s resistance to evil – an excellent book!

Non-fiction: Science and Genealogy

The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine T. Bettinger

This is a thorough and comprehensive guide for understanding all aspects of DNA testing. It discusses the different types of genetic testing including Mitochondrial DNA, Y-Chromosomal, and Autosomal-DNA. It also addresses the methods and advantages of each company's testing and results. Personally, I was most interested in the Ancestry section because that is what I used to better understand my DNA results.

The fact that this book is a second edition signifies that the publisher is interested in keeping abreast of new developments in the field and also keeping track of what options are available for those looking to use genetic testing as a means of better understanding their family history. A big plus are the examples of how DNA testing was used to solve real genealogical puzzles. Tons of information for anyone interested in DNA and genealogy.

Non-fiction: Biography

Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd

At 528 pages this is not a quick read. However, I could not put this book down. Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of my favorite American novels and I am so glad I finally learned about the amazing woman who wrote it!

Born in Alabama in 1891, Zora Neal Hurston moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida, when she was still a toddler. In this close-knit community - the first incorporated all-black town in America - she spent a pleasant childhood, happily taking in the rich language and folk culture of the rural black South. Following her mother’s death, her father swiftly remarried which led to the family's disintegration. Hurston, a young teenager, spent the next decade wandering from menial job to menial job.

Reinventing herself at the age of twenty-six, she entered high school in Baltimore by claiming to be ten years younger. Hurston then went on to attend Howard University and Barnard College. She trained as an anthropologist and traveled throughout the South and the Caribbean collecting folklore, music, games and religious practices. She also participated in the Harlem Renaissance.

In stark contrast to her optimistic youth, by the end of Hurston’s life she wrote that "she had been in sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots". She died, out of print and out of work, in a welfare nursing home in Florida. She was buried in a bright pink dressing gown and fuzzy slippers, laid to rest in an unmarked grave in a segregated cemetery. 

Zora Neale Hurston published four novels, two books of folklore, an autobiography, many short stories, and several articles and plays over a career that spanned more than thirty years. Although she enjoyed some popularity during her lifetime, her greatest acclaim has come posthumously.

The author does an excellent job of portraying Hurston in all her complexity: anthropologist, folklorist, novelist, and playwright. Hurston emerges as a flawed, but gifted woman who lived her life according to her own terms, in the midst of societal constraints that limited her financial resources, but never her autonomy. She was definitely an individualist. 

Non-fiction: Science/Philosophy

The Fate of the Earth by Jonathan Schell

Published in 1982 during the Cold War, this book is composed of three essays. The first describes the physical destruction due to nuclear weapons using first-hand accounts of Hiroshima and Nagsaki bombing victims and American military personnel who witnessed bomb tests. 

The second essay describes the possibility and consequences of a human extinction. Schell argues that the delicate balance in nature will be totally upset following a nuclear exchange leading to extinction of plants, animals and humans. Up until 1945 every war was contained within the risk of the loss of individual lives, but with nuclear bombs the whole of humanity is at risk of extinction. With a nuclear exchange, even if there are survivors of the initial blasts, fires, and radiation, the biosphere will be unfit for human survival. A nuclear exchange puts all life on the planet at ecological peril.

The third essay is entitled “The Choice.” Here Schnell discusses the importance of scientific knowledge and political will. The scientific knowledge that gave rise to nuclear weapons is global and everlasting. This scientific knowledge enables us to build nuclear weapons but it also condemns us to live forever with the threat of nuclear war. Political will decides when to deploy nuclear weapons.

Historically, nations have engaged in war either to expand their geopolitical will or to stop another nation from imposing their geopolitical will upon them. While the threat of war has been used to ensure national sovereignty for centuries, it is clear that a nuclear war has no “winners,” so what is the point of having nuclear weapons?

Finally, Schell offered his ideas for a feasible plan to head off nuclear conflict. He suggested two ultimate requirements for survival - global disarmament, both nuclear and conventional, and the invention of political means by which the world can peacefully settle geopolitical issues without reverting to war – decreasing the possibility that nuclear weapons would be used.

As it happened, the end of the Cold War put this issue on the back burner, although nuclear war is still more of a danger than most people realize, either by way of regional warfare, terrorism, or nuclear accident.

An extremely thought-provoking book! Much of his discussion about the ecological and societal effects of a nuclear war is easily transposed onto modern threats to our biosphere from climate change.

Young Adult Non-fiction: History

Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491 by Charles C. Mann

After watching a documentary about "explorer" Hernando de Soto (produced by the Chickasaw Nation) and talking with an archaeologist at the Florida Division of Historical Resources, I realized the usual textbook story of Columbus and the Spanish conquistadors arriving in the Americas to find an unspoiled, barely populated wilderness, was incorrect! Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them.

For example, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city. Mexican cultures created corn in a specialized breeding process that has been called human’s first feat of genetic engineering. All major groups and most geographic zones are covered quite well with special emphasis on the Mayans, Olmecs and the Incas. Mann also discusses the role of disease in the European conquest of the Americas (sadly, too often overlooked!) and the importance of the development of maize.

This book whetted my appetite. Now I want to read the adult version - 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. I’d love to learn more about our fascinating, pre-Columbian Indian history!

Fiction - Horror

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

I read somewhere that this book was recommended by Stephen King. He said, “Several sleepless nights are guaranteed," so I thought I would give it a try.

Slowly and deliberately, the novel creeps through a year-long series of weird events. Set in the post-WWII English countryside, an entire British way of life that focused on social class is fading fast and the Ayres family and their Hundreds Hall are crumbling into decline. A doctor befriends the family and he, too, is drawn into the series of strange, and seemingly, otherworldly catastrophes that befell the family in their deteriorating mansion.

The Little Stranger reads like Henry James’ “Turn of the Screw,” or Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Thick with vivid descriptions of a huge, crumbling mansion, this book oozes with a blend of psychological and supernatural “hauntings.” It is not “scary” like a King novel but rather a story about the possibility of a malevolent spirit causing a family’s demise. While no where near to the disturbing depictions and scenarios a typical King novel offers, The Little Stranger’s “horror” has an insidious nature- slowly building – teasing you to continue reading. I was strung along until the very end. 

 

Oh, what a ride December was - chock-full of great reading! Happy Reading in 2023!

November Booknotes

 

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” ― Alan Bennett

Non-fiction: True Crime and Sociology - Sandy Hook by Elizabeth Williamson

Even before many of the bodies had been identified, online conspiracy theorists, repeatedly encouraged by Alex Jones’ InfoWars, claimed the tragic Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax – a government plot. Driven by ideology or profit, or for no sound reason at all, they insisted it never occurred, or was staged by the federal government as a pretext for seizing Americans’ firearms.

Conspiracists knowingly and recklessly published falsehoods about Sandy Hook on social media. In addition, they advocated for and incited their followers to commit crimes against the victims’ families. These conspiracists tormented the victims’ relatives online, accosted them on the street and at memorial events, ordered parents to exhume their children's’ bodies as they accused them of faking their loved ones’ murders. Some family members were stalked and forced into hiding and one family’s home was hit by a gunshot. The Sandy Hook families, led by the father of the youngest victim, refused to accept this. Sandy Hook is the story of their battle to preserve their loved ones’ legacies even in the face of threats to their own lives.

Based on hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and access to exclusive sources and materials, Sandy Hook is a landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting; the work of Sandy Hook parents who fought to defend themselves; and the truth of their children’s fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists. Every American should read this shocking book.

Non-fiction: History - The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow

This book explores new discoveries on the origins of humanity and civilization. In school I was taught that hunter-gatherers led short brutal lives; that agriculture led to humanity’s ascent; and, finally, governments were a deliverance from darkness and ignorance. Well, this book pretty much turns this whole model on its head.

New archaeological evidence shows that life in ancient times was pretty darn nice: large cities, sustainable land management, effective community policing, and a good life. In an age that worships the tech-gods and real estate moguls, it is tempting to believe that we are more human than our distant ancestors. As we seek new, sustainable ways to organize our world, we need to understand the full range of ways our ancestors thought and lived. Even today Kalahari foragers, with their two- to four-hour working day, are able to provide for their physical needs just as well as the nine-to-five office or factory worker. So who, exactly, is more human, more civilized? The authors make the case that today we’re living at the nadir – the lowest point - of human civilization.

This is not a quick read. There's a lot to work through here. Many times I had to take a break due to the multitude of minutia and simply process what I had just read. At 700 pages, and at times intellectually exhausting, I nevertheless found The Dawn of Everything fascinating and life-changing. 

Fiction: Mystery - Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

This is a locked-room mystery about a family reunion that leads to murder. After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in her crumbling house on a tiny tidal island off the coast of Cornwall.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. The tide covers the causeway, cutting them off from the rest of the world for eight hours. Then, at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the another family member is found dead … then an hour later, another family member ...

Daisy Darker has all the classic mystery elements: a creepy, inescapable setting: a dysfunctional family dynamic full of secrets and lies: creative murders: and plot twists and turns. If you like Agatha Christie mysteries (And Then There Were None) or the movie Knives Out, you may enjoy Daisy Darker. Not exactly a “cozy” mystery, but I heartily recommend it!

Non-fiction: Autobiography - Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside the Soviet Union: An Autobiography by Robert Robinson with Jonathan Slevin

Robert Robinson (1906-1994) was Jamaican-born and educated as an engineer in Cuba. He moved to Detroit where he was a Ford Motor Company toolmaker. Like many workers, he sought economic security during the Depression and, as a Black man, an escape from racism. In 1930 the Ford Company invited Soviets to visit their Detroit factories as part of a deal to begin manufacturing automobiles in the USSR. Robinson was then recruited to work in the Soviet Union at a higher salary which he needed to help support his mother. As an added incentive, the Soviets told him he would not experience racism in the USSR. So at the age of 23, he signed a one-year contract to work in the Soviet Union, where he spent 44 years after the Soviet government refused to give him an exit visa for return.

Never a Communist, Robinson walked a tightrope while living in the Soviet system which he did not completely accept nor was he accepted by it. He still experienced racism and repression, plus regimentation of all aspects of his life. With great strength of character, Robinson earned another degree in design engineering (in Russian), worked double shifts, and produced designs that greatly improved factory production all while hoping to find a way out of the USSR. Finally, after decades of unsuccessful effort, Robinson "escaped" to the United States via Uganda (of all people, Idi Amin helped him!!). I was riveted by Robinson’s firsthand account of the Stalinist purges, sacrifices of World War II, and economic and political tensions of the Cold War. I found it hard to put down this rare look at Soviet life in the former USSR.

Audiobook - Non-fiction: Law - Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America by Dahlia Lithwick

I loved this book! It reads like a “profiles in courage” about women attorneys working to protect civil rights. Beginning with an acknowledgment of Pauli Murray (who I had never heard of before), I was then introduced to the work of Sally Yates, Stacy Abrams, Becca Heller (who fought the attempted Muslim ban and brought that fight to the airports), and Roberta Kaplan (who sued the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville). There are chapters on Anita Hill and the Kavanagh hearings and much more. While there are some unsavory characters out there in the Federal judicial system, thankfully, not all lawyers are crooks!

The author, Dahlia Lithwick, is a senior editor at Slate and a gifted writer. She provides an inside perspective of the impact of women lawyers fighting for an inclusive democracy. A fascinating read! 

Book Club: International Fiction - The Death of Comrade President by Alain Mabanckou (Translated from French)

Michel, a 13-year-old daydreamer, has his life completely turned upside down when, in March 1977, Congo’s Comrade President Marien Ngouabi is brutally murdered. Because of his mother’s kinship with one of the president’s soldiers, not even naive Michel can remain untouched by this political event.

Moving between the small-scale worries of everyday life and the grand tragedy of postcolonial politics, The Death of Comrade President is an exploration of the development of the human psyche from young Michel’s perspective. He grows in his understanding of the strength of symbols – especially “white cranes” - that have perpetuated an almost constant national strife. Until, finally, Michel learns how to use the symbol to ensure the safety of his family.

This intriguing book begins as humorous coming-of-age tale; then turns into the political history of communist Congo; and finally ends with a somber ending to Michel’s coming-of-age story. Fortunately, the author recognizes that most people know nothing about communist Congo and has explanations of the players, politics, and history built into the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Non-fiction: Statistics & Social Aspects - Democracy's Data The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them by Dan Bouk

The New York Times put it best in their review, where they called this book "endearingly nerdy" and "deft and surprisingly live." The insights into census data, the historical context of each decade’s rolls, and the general understanding of its production and enumeration procedures are all critical points for genealogists (and amateur genealogists like me) who use these records so heavily.

Democracy's Data demonstrates that there are more to census data than merely statistics. The stories that are told in census records are nuanced and complex, revealing much more than people's names and addresses. I especially appreciated the author’s emphasis on how the questions for the census are generated and the important role, as well as limitations, of the enumerators. There is so much to understand in the details. This book increased my knowledge and will help me to make the most out of my genealogical research into census records –two thumbs up!

Historical Fiction - Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Loving Frank is the story of Frank Lloyd Wright's 1902 – 1911 relationship with Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Frank Lloyd Wright was a famous architect and Mamah was a highly educated woman who was feeling stifled by her loveless marriage. She wanted to discover her own identity and her own mission in life. When Mamah met Frank Lloyd Wright, she found a man who stimulated her intellectually so they made a fateful decision. They left their families which caused a major scandal since they both were still married to their respective spouses.

Mamah risked much to have a life with Frank Lloyd Wright. When she divorced, she lost custody of her children and had limited visitation with them. However, Mamah was finally able to achieve the life that she dreamed was possible … until its shocking end.

This is a good historical novel. While the conversations between the characters are fictionalized, the author listed her sources which include a collection of Mamah’s letters from the Swedish Royal Library. Due to this extensive research, the author is able to tell Frank and Mamah’s story within the social context of pre-WWI America. Loving Frank illustrates the conflict between early 1900’s societal expectations of women and their attempts to fully realize their intellectual potential. 

Non-fiction: History - In the Houses of Their Dead: The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits by Terry Alford

This book attempts to connect the fates of the Lincoln and Booth families through the practice of Spiritualism. However, while there are many historical connections between the two families, Spiritualism isn’t the main connection. There was a lot of jumping back and forth between Lincoln family members, Booth family members, and a host of people connected with both. Yes, both families experienced the deaths of family members and met with mediums to contact the dead, but the book delves more into “who-did-what-when.”

I really wanted to like this book, but, while interesting, it was a bit of a let down. If you want to learn about the Booth family and the theater during the mid-1800’s, this book delivers on that score. If you want to learn about the deaths of Lincoln’s children, this book delivers on that score, too. However, I expected to learn more about Spiritualism’s impact upon these families and I didn’t. Oh well, it was still worth reading since I did learn more about John Wilkes Booth’s family and his childhood.

Non-fiction: Military History - 15 Minutes: General Curtis LeMay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation - Douglas Keeney

Using declassified documents, 15 Minutes walks the reader year-by-year, (1945 - 1968) through the history of Strategic Air Command’s (SAC) transformation into a massive worldwide force primed to launch bombers within 15 minutes of the order. When General LeMay took over the Strategic Air Command in 1948, he found several understaffed B-29 groups left over from WWII, a few dozen primitive atomic bombs, and no coherent strategy. He is credited with building our atomic force during the “cold war” – a time of increasing threat from the USSR. Bitterly opposed to SAC’s diversion to conventional bombing during the Vietnam War, LeMay retired in 1965. (In 1968 LeMay was George Wallace’s running mate!!!!!)

15 Minutes also reveals alarming numbers of lost nuclear bombs, disastrous atmospheric tests, and nuclear war near-misses. This is a detailed, often squirm-inducing account which ends in an anticlimax in 1968 with SAC dwindling to a minor adjunct to America’s swelling ballistic missile arsenal. The most enlightening bit of history, for me, was what happened to Texas Tower 4 (ADC ID: TT-4) during Hurricane Donna! 15 Minutes is an interesting, tense, and harrowing read!

October Booknotes

  

October reading, what a treat!

Non-Fiction - The Unseen Body: A Doctor's Journey Through the Hidden Wonders of Human Anatomy by Jonathan Reisman

Dr. Reisman combines human anatomy with travel stories and nature metaphors to explain the complex, beautiful ecosystem of the human body. Each chapter explores an organ or bodily fluid intertwined with stories from the author’s years as a doctor and his adventure travels and ends with some kind of life lesson. I particularly enjoyed the patient stories tied into each chapter. I did NOT particularly enjoy his strange urge to eat the (animals’) organs he discusses (I am a vegetarian).

This is a quirky, multi-faceted look at the human body. Dr. Reisman doesn’t try to explain all the functions, parts and diseases of, say, the heart. Instead he describes the situation of the heart in the body and what its challenges are. It may seem counter-intuitive, but describing the body by means of metaphor makes it less abstract.

If you prefer learning about your body without a lot of scientific terminology or if you already have a grasp of human anatomy and enjoy a literary approach, you will appreciate “The Unseen Body”. Plus the author appears to be a generous and thoughtful physician, the kind of primary care physician I’d like to have.

Fiction: Mystery -Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indriðason (Translated from Icelandic) 

Indriðason is my absolute favorite Icelandic author!! I love all his books. In this one, the 8^th in the Inspector Erlendur series, Erlendur explores an obvious suicide and the disappearance of two unrelated young people thirty years ago. There are no raging maniacs with axes, no serial killers, and no serious threats to the people of Reykjavik – and, thankfully, Indriðason’s style is NOT like Stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series!

“Hypothermia” isn't a flash-bang police procedural. Instead we follow Erlunder's thoughtful process as he tracks down seemingly unconnected threads and deals with his dysfunctional family life. All of Indriðason’s books have great character development and original subject matter tied to Icelandic myth and culture – that is why he is one of my favorite authors!

Fiction: Mystery - The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene (1962 edition)

"Nancy Drew" and "Ned Nickerson"

During Christmas break when I was in the 6^th Grade, I read 12 Nancy Drew books, each one TWICE! This month I reread “The Clue in the Diary” in preparation for a Halloween party – I was going dressed as “Nancy Drew.” If you note the cover of this edition, Nancy is wearing a simple dark blue skirt and light blue sweater. All I needed was a blonde wig. Voila!

Actually, Nancy Drew was as good as I remember it! Nancy and her friends, George and Bess, are driving home from a carnival when they come across a house fire. They stop to see if someone needs to be rescued when Nancy notices a man running away. She chases him but he gets away. Then she finds a red diary he has dropped – the first clue! Except it is written in Swedish. Ned Nickerson (conveniently) has also stopped at the house fire and moves Nancy’s car away from the inferno, they meet and the rest is ... a typical Nancy Drew mystery!

In this mystery, Nancy manages to meet a young man who calls her five times in one day, finds a Swedish baker in her little town to translate the diary, frees a wrongfully accused man, helps a family in need and, of course, solves the mystery. Classic Nancy Drew, far-fetched but fun!

Non-Fiction: History - American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago by Dominic A. Pacyga

This is the second book I have read by Pacyga about Polish immigrants and their descendants in Chicago as part of my genealogy studies. In this book, he follows Polish immigrants from the Civil War era until today, focusing on how three major waves of immigrants, refugees, and fortune seekers shaped and then redefined Polish-Americans. Pacyga also traces the movement of Polish immigrants from the peasantry to the middle class and from urban working-class districts dominated by major industries to suburbia. He depicts a people who are deeply connected to their ancestral home and, at the same time, fiercely proud of Chicago. My mother, while half Swedish, was living evidence of Pacyga’s words, “While we were Americans, we also considered ourselves to be Poles. In that strange Chicago ethnic way, there was no real difference between the two.”

Fiction: Mystery - Murder Being Once Done by Ruth Rendell

Written by one of my English favorite authors, this is the 7^th in the Inspector Wexford series. In this book, Inspector Wexford is attempting to recuperate from a mild stroke he suffered as a result of, according to his doctor, overwork and overindulgence. He has been put on a 1,000 calorie-per-day diet and urged to put all thoughts of police work and stress out of his life for at least 30 days. The doctor’s orders leave Wexford depressed and bored.

So he and his wife go to stay with his nephew and his wife in London. However, his nephew is also an Inspector who is trying to solve the case of a young woman murdered in a cemetery mausoleum. Wexford is asked to be an “advisor” on the case and he willingly obliges.

No one has come forward to claim the dead woman as a family member, friend, or neighbor. The police aren't even sure of her real name. This is a complex case and more than once Wexford is totally mistaken and follows the wrong trail entirely. It's also a typical Inspector Wexford mystery in that there is no evil mastermind, no unmotivated villain, only people acting in character who end up doing terrible things. As always, Rendell's novel is infused with a great sense of humor and humanity. An excellent read!

Book Club: International Fiction - Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek (Syria, translated from Arabic)

This is a strange, sad novel about a young girl, Rima, in the middle of the war in Syria. She doesn’t speak (but can sing the Qur'an), she walks compulsively (OCD?), and narrates her story in a strange and disjointed way. Because of her walking compulsion, Rima is tied to window bars while inside and to her mother’s or brother’s wrist while outside.

One day while on a bus with her mother in Damascus, a soldier opens fire and her mother is killed. Rima, wounded, is taken to a military hospital and then her brother leads her to the besieged area of Ghouta. There, she survives a bombing and a chemical attack. She is left alone and tied to window bars in a cellar. There, between bombings, and unable to escape, Rima writes her story.

As the story continues, we can see her hopes fray as she descends into further desperation surrounded by loss and destruction. Her “planet” melds the magical with the tragic to create a truly harrowing story of war’s brutality.

Fiction - Cold Earth by Sarah Moss

A team of six archaeologists and researchers from the United States, England and Scotland are searching for traces of a lost Norse settlement at an isolated site in Greenland. There are no roads and the only way in, or out, is by air. Meanwhile there is a pandemic of some sort going on in the rest of the world (this book was published in 2009, ten years before COVID!)

Creepy things happen and some of the characters begin to see and hear ghosts. Are they the spirits of the long-dead Norse who do not like their graves being disturbed? Equally scary is the fact that the internet suddenly stops connecting and the satellite phone doesn’t work – is this a result of the pandemic? The researchers gradually lose contact with the outside world and with their families at home. In response, they each write what may be their last letter.

This is a survival tale and a ghost story all in one. It blends Norse history with a believable near future (for 2009). By incorporating a pandemic into the plot, Moss was ahead of her time on that count! Even without the pandemic element, this was a tense, atmospheric novel. I read this book in two sittings, I was completely enthralled. However the ending was a definite let down. Still, it was an engaging, satisfying and worthwhile read.

Audiobook Fiction: Mystery - After the Fire by Henning Mankell – (Translated from Swedish) *Famous for his Kurt Wallander mysteries, this novel was written in 2014 and is his last book. Mankell died from lung cancer in 2015

In a Swedish archipelago, an elderly man, Fredrik, awakens on his small, private island to find his house ablaze. He escapes his cherished home, built by his grandfather, wearing two left boots and loses everything. Who set his house on fire?

Eventually we find out but the mystery is not in the forefront of this story. Instead we learn about the people in the life of a 70-year old man. Many of the characters come off as selfish and not very likable. In particular, Fredirk’s daughter, Louise, was very snarky and just down right mean, but I kept reading anyway. It includes numerous vignettes from Fredrik’s past that have no particular connection to the mystery but the memories are important to him. Moving slowly, it seems that the mystery is secondary to Fredrik’s ruminations on aging, loss, love, and death.

“After the Fire” is quite different from Mankell’s other mysteries. The focus of this book is on approaching old age and death - as I imagine Mankell must have done as he faced his own mortality while writing this reflective mystery. I'm glad I read it.

Non-Fiction: Holocaust Memoir - I Was A Doctor In Auschwitz by Gisella Perl

In under 200 pages, this book tells the heartbreaking, disturbing, and unimaginable truth of life inside the Nazi death camps as experienced by a prisoner, Dr. Gisella Perl. Dr. Perl was a Hungarian Jew, gynecologist and one of the first women, in 1948, to share her Holocaust experience in English. Her memoir is remarkable and provides poignant and heartbreaking insight into the lives of women at Nazi death camps. Her story is told in vignettes, each chapter telling a different story. *Perl's memoir was one of at least eight similar accounts by female prisoners, corroborated by the testimonies of other women.

She is best known for temporarily saving the lives of hundreds of women by aborting their pregnancies, as pregnant women were often beaten and killed or used by Dr. Josef Mengele for vivisections. If she hadn't performed the abortions (without any medical equipment nor medicine), both the mother and the baby would die at the brutal hands of Dr. Mengele, who conducted heinous medical experiments on fetuses and babies. Perl's memoir goes into great detail into her role in that regard, describing how regretful and disgusted she was by the conditions she had to work in, by the fates of the women she treated.

“I Was A Doctor in Auschwitz” is a first-person account of a different side of Nazi death camps that people don't often hear about: the forgotten world of women and their health. Definitely an enlightening read.

*In 1951 Dr. Perl became an American citizen. She began work as a gynecologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, starting as the only female physician in labor and delivery, and becoming a specialist in infertility treatment. Perl was also the sole author or coauthor of nine papers on vaginal infections published between 1955 and 1972. Perl was later reunited with her daughter, Gabriella Krauss Blattman, whom she managed to hide during the war. In 1979, both moved to live in Herzliya, Israel. Perl died in Israel on December 16, 1988, at the age of 81.

Audiobook Non-Fiction: History - Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It by Julia Keller

I expected this book to be a biography but instead it is a general history of America in the second half of the 19th century. This history is told within the context of Richard Gatling and the invention of his famous Gatling Gun.

“Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel” is wide-ranging social history about the man and his times, the application of patent law, the rise of industrialization, the internal workings of weapons procurement by the American military establishment, and the role of military technology in the expansion of our American “empire.”

Overall, it’s a good read, especially for people interested in the constant intertwining of technology, society, and war.

Audiobook Fiction - The Midcoast by Adam White 

Andrew, an English teacher, moves his family back to his small Maine hometown and finds that the town’s lobster man, Ed Thatch - a high-school dropout - is now the town’s wealthiest man. How did that happen? Soon he unravels the dark truth behind Ed’s wealth. This is mystery, a crime drama and a family saga all rolled into one.

“The Midcoast” moves backward and forward in time from various points of view, which was occasionally a bit confusing, but I couldn’t stop listening! It is character driven with an enthralling, atmospheric narrative and has somewhat ambiguous ending. But even the ending works. I heartily recommend this book.

Audiobook Fiction - Murder at the Lighthouse by Frances Evesham

I try to read a “cozy” mystery once a month as a break from “serious” reading. So when I saw “Murder at the Lighthouse” was the first in a series and set in England, I borrowed it upon sight.

While my excitement and expectations were high, I was soon let down. There were way too many leaps in logic, it made no sense other than giving the main character something to do. Plus, the other characters were unconvincing and the setting nondescript. On a positive note, it was short.

Well, another month of reading is on the horizon with another opportunity to find a “cozy” mystery I truly like!