by Anne Rice, 2010
Book “lite” about assassin turned true believer who works for the Angels now. Is sent back to Rome in 1500’s to save a young Jewish scholar and put a ghost to rest. Not much depth to her writing; “fluff.”
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The Help
by Kathryn Stockett, 2009
Another fantastic modern novel! A real page-turner, set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960’s. Three heroes: 1. Miss Skeeter, the young white girl who just graduated from college and wants to be a writer. 2. Aibileen, the black maid who takes care of Mae Mobley, little 2 yr old white girl, and cooks and cleans for Miss Leefolt. 3. Minny, the black maid who has a sassy mouth and many children of her own and an alcoholic, abusive husband.
The demon in this book is Hilly Holbrook who epitomizes the evils of racism. She is the League president and one of Miss Skeeter’s best friends, along with Miss Leefolt (Elizabeth).
Skeeter misses her old maid, Constantine, terribly. She loved her like she was her mother. But she’s mysteriously gone when Skeeter returns from college and Skeeter’s mother only tells her she quit. She gets a job for the Jackson newspaper writing Miss Myrna-household hints. She knows nothing about keeping house so she uses Aibileen for her tips. She keeps asking Aibileen what happened to Constantine but Aibileen won’t tell her. Through it all, Hilly tries to get Skeeter to add a column for separate restrooms in homes to be built for the maids because everyone knows colored people carry all sorts of diseases. Skeeter refuses.
Eventually, she is prompted to write about what she really cares about by a Helen Stein-publisher for Harper and Rowe. Skeeter talks Aibileen into telling her story of what it’s like to be a black maid for white people. Aibileen then convinces Minny to tell her story. Minny works for Celia Foote, a white woman who is from the poor white country folk who meets and marries Johnny Foote – who used to date Hilly. Hilly never got over him.
Celia wants to belong to the League but they never allow her to be a member. She loves Minny and Minny gradually comes to trust her. Minny saves her life when she has a 4th miscarriage. Johnny loves Celia and loves Minny too. Celia can’t cook or clean – she can only garden. It’s a wonderful part of the book.
Eventually, 12 more maids agree to tell their stories. What spurred this was Hilly getting her maid, Yule May, locked up for 4 years in the penitentiary for stealing (a cheap ring that Hilly didn’t like – Yule had asked for a loan for $70 to pay tuition for her twin sons. Hilly refused.)
Much of the book is the suspense of meeting clandestinely with the maids getting the manuscript together and the worry of what would happen if the white people in Jackson realize the book is about them. The book does come out – and everyone in Jackson is reading it, wondering if it’s about them. And Minny’s ending – about the Terrible Awful thing which Minny decided to put in at the end, saves them from Hilly’s wrath. The Terrible Awful was a chocolate custard pie Minny baked for Hilly after Hilly spread lies all over town about Minny so no one would hire her. Minny was Hilly’s mother’s maid. When Hilly put her in a nursing home, then she had to find a new job to feed her 5 kids and drunk abusive husband. Then Hilly tried to get Minny to work for her (which would have put Minny’s friend, Yule May, out of a job) but Minny refused. Hilly had told all the white women in town that Minny was a thief and no one would hire her. That’s when Minny makes the custard pie and brings it over to Miss Walters where Hilly is waiting for the people from the home to come pick her up. Hilly eats two slices and asks Minny what she put in there that makes it so good. Minny put her own shit in the pie! That’s the Terrible Awful. And that’s the end of the book – called Help. Minny knew that when Hilly reads that part of the book, she will tell everyone in town that the book is not about Jackson.
Saves them. Not until after some tense moments before Hilly gets to the end of the book.
The book ends with Skeeter getting a job with Harper and Row – hating to leave the maids – worried sick about them. Aibileen tells her to go – so does MInny.
Aibileen is let go by Miss Leefolt at the urging of Hilly – not before Hilly accuses her of stealing – but backs down when Aibileen confronts her with all that she knows about Hilly and all the writing she could do in prison. But Aibileen gets to be the new Miss Myrna – Skeeter told her boss that Aibileen is the real Miss Myrna and he agrees to hire her. Poor Mae Mobley cries and cries. So does Aibileen.
And Minny’s husband Leroy gets fired (he works at a plant owned by Holbrook). Leroy tries to kill Minny – she escapes with the 5 kids and calls Aibileen. Aibileen calms her down – Minny will leave Leroy for good. She has a good job for life with Celia and Johnny Foote. She will finally be free from the abuse working for good people who appreciate her.
Fantastic book!
Sleeping Tiger
by Rosamunde Pilcher, 1967
Sweet little romance about 20 yr old English girl (Selina) who goes to a Spanish island in search of her father and finds her true love (George, 37 yrs old) instead. She has to dump her lawyer fiance who is only marrying her for her money and George has to dump his drunk American ex-patriot girlfriend. They end up in love and happily ever after. Lots of wonderful characters and the setting was beautiful–too short, though!
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
by Slavomir Rawicz, 1956 (ghostwritten by Ronald Downingin)
Dad’s book. Slavomir was a young man in Polish Army taken prisoner in 1939 by the Russians. They were convinced he was a spy. They tortured him for months, then took him – actually he had to walk with 4000 other prisoners – after a freezing cold rail journey through Siberia – then walk w/chains through Siberia to Yakutsk. He and six other prisoners escape one night and trek south through Siberian winter – meet up with a young Polish girl – Kristina – continue on their trek through Mongolia, then the Gobi Desert. Kristina dies in the Gobi Desert – her ankles and then her legs swell up and she can’t go on. They are very sad and miss her terribly. Sometimes they go 12 days w/o water in the Gobi. Food is always scarce – days and days without food – eat snakes in the Gobi. They make it to Tibet and villagers and sheepherders are so kind and hospitable to them. Then through Tibet and the Himalayas. They lose 2 more of their companions. One falls to his death in the mountains. The other just died in his sleep – too much strain. Finally they make it over the Himalayas and into India where British soldiers take them in and heal them – takes a long, long time, in hospital. Slavomir goes on to eventually live in England. He trains to be a pilot but the war ends. After Note: 1997 – He married an English lady, had 5 kids, 11 grandchildren, died in 2004. Never heard from his other 4 companions all his life.
The Pickwick Papers
by Charles Dickens, 1837
Finished on the way up to Adam and Danette’s wedding. Fell in love with Charles Dickens again! Wow! Fell in love with Mr. Pickwick – a fine old Gentleman, and Sam, his servant, who says ‘W’ as ‘V’ and ‘V’ as ‘W.” “Wictim, Wery, Vay, Vith, Vot, Vos.”
Sam’s Dad, Mr. Weller, a coachman, married to a widow – calls Sam, “Sammy,” or “Samivel.”
Sam gets Mr. Pickwick out of trouble so many times. Adventures with politics, doctors, lawyers, bad people, good people. Adventures in debtor prison – the Fleet. Adventures in hunting, and sliding (on ice?) and drinking! Experiences with the scoundrels, Jingle and Job Trotter. Experiences with the other Pickwickians – Mr. Winkle, Mr. Snodgrass, and Mr. Tupman. Mr. Pickwick’s lawyer, Perker, a fine man – loves his snuff.
And many irritating women and a few beautiful women. Mary-housemaid – Sam’s love. Arabella Allen – marries Mr. Winkle.
Oh, how I loved this book – adventures, funny! Great stories – the goblins that kidnapped the sexton (gravedigger) – the wild ride in coaches to rescue a beautiful maiden. And his descriptions of Christmas and summer. Everything is a delight! What good men are Pickwick and his Sam. Loved it, loved it, loved it!
Here are the last few lines:
“Every year he repairs to a large family merrymaking at Mr. Wardle’s; on this, as on all other occasions, he is invariably attended by the faithful Sam, between whom and his master there exists a steady and reciprocal attachment, which nothing but death will sever.”
New Mercies
by Sandra Dallas, 2006 (Author of The Persian Pickle Club)
Pretty good book. Nora Bondurant of Denver gets called to Natchez, Mississippi, because her Aunt Amalia was murdered and she is the sole heir. Turns out the Aunt was really her grandma and she was murdered by Bayard Lott, a white man who loved her all her life, probably raped her, and saw her in bed with her “slave,” Ezra. Nora finds all this out by the end of the book. Everyone thought Bayard was the father of Nora’s dad, but no one knew for sure.
The mansion she inherits is called Avoca and it is in terrible, run-down shape. Nora never even knew she had relatives – her Dad died when he was 25. So, she gets a telegram to come to Natchez and finds all this out.
Nora was recently divorced and her ex-husband died shortly after so she has no ties to Denver except her Mom and Step-Dad, Henry, whom when loves.
We find out 3/4 way through why she divorced David – she caught him in bed with his best friend, Author, and why he died – flew airplane into Lookout Mountain.
This is all set in 1933 which was neat but also caused difficulties – don’t think she did a good job staying “old.”
Nora comes to terms with her love, guilt over David after spending time at Avoca with Aunt Polly and Ezra and also time in the South.
She eventually decides to live in the Billiard House of Avoca and let Avoca crumble.
You don’t find out about Ezra and Amalia’s love until the last pages and no time is spent throughout the book presenting it, building up to it. We find out that contrary to belief, Bayard Lott didn’t kill himself after he shot Amalia – Ezra shot him with the “Captain’s” gun and threw the gun in the river. Bayard’s gun was assumed to be the murder-suicide weapon. It was only the murder weapon.
Kristin Lavransdatter: II, The Mistress of Husaby
by Sigrid Undset, 1925
Not as good as first book – very difficult to understand – almost all of it – entangled politics, difficult to pronounce/remember characters. But – still really good! Norway 1300’s.
Kristin & Erlend are married. He takes her to his manor – Husaby. She starts to make things better there. Has 1st son, Naakkve – almost kills her. She has a ton of guilt over her and Erlend’s premarital sex. She does penance – walks 20 miles barefoot with Naakkve – spends time at a church – then returns. Many years go by (well, maybe only 10) – she has 6 more sons: Naakkve, Bjorgulf, Gaute, twins Skule and Ivar, Munan, and Lavrans. But, she bears a grudge against Erlend all the while. She cannot forgive or forget any wrong he ever did her. Almost destroys them. Finally, she realizes what he means to her after he is arrested for high treason and faces death. He is imprisoned and found guilty. While waiting in prison, Simon, the man Kristin’s father, Lavrans, wanted her to marry but she spurned for Erlend, arranges very difficult meetings that finally get the king to release Erlend. Simon is such a sweet man – he never stopped loving Kristin, yet he is not bitter. He does end up marrying her little sister when she is 15 and they have a daughter and finally a son after 6 years.
Even though so much I couldn’t understand, it’s still a great book!
Her dear father, Lavrans, and her mother, grow old and die in this book. Kristin marvels at the love Lavrans and her mother, Ragnfred, have at the end of their lives – deep, deep love She never saw it while growing up.
Erlend loves, her, adores her, puts up with her bitterness and unforgiving heart and stays true to her until he decides on a whim after many, many years to have a fling with Lady Symiva (not sure, I can’t read my writing). She’s the one who turns him in for treason after he spurns her. Turns out she read some of his letters.
Kristin’s father ends up liking Erlend and respecting him and scolds Kristin for her meanness to Erlend.
None of their 7 sons dies -all are able to make it out of infancy. They are all handsome lads.
Quiet Strength
by Tony Dungy, 2007
Insider’s look at the NFL and Coach Tony Dungy, a very Christian man. He put God first and his faith never waivered, despite getting fired by the Bucs in 2002 after he turned the team around over years starting in 1996. And his oldest son’s suicide on Dec. 22, 2005. He won the Super Bowl in 2007 with the Indianapolis Colts.
The Yearling
by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Pulitzer Prize Winner, 1939
BEAUTIFUL BOOK!! The Baxter’s, Penny (Dad), Ma, Jody-son, live in a clearing on high ground in Florida. They farm and raise or hunt all their food. Tote water from the sink hole. Nearest neighbors are the Forrester’s, typical moonshiners. They are bothered by a bear – Ol’ Slewfoot – who kills their stock in the middle of the night. Jody is lonely, adopts a fawn, it grows up, eats their crops, and must be shot. This about kills Jody, he runs away, almost starves to death, comes home a man.
Incredible descriptions of hunts (Jody and his Dad finally get Ol’ Slewfoot one Christmas day), fishing, nature (flowers, birds, streams, forests), people (his ma; his Dad, Penny; The Forrester’s, esp. Lem, Fodderwing, Buck; Doc; Grandma Huho; Oliver; etc.)
We grow up with Jody. What a beautiful, wonderful book!!!
Last few sentences:
“Flag – He did not believe he should ever again love anything, man or woman or his own child, as he had loved the yearling. He would be lonely all his life. But a man took it for his share and went on.
“In the beginning of his sleep, he cried out, “Flag!”
“It was not his own voice that called. It was a boy’s voice. Somewhere beyond the sinkhole, past the magnolias, under the live oaks, a boy and a yearling ran side by side, and were gone forever.”
Perelandra
by C.S. Lewis, 1943
(2nd in the Space Trilogy)
Ransom is taken to Perelandra (Venus). It is a land of floating islands, friendly beasts, bubble trees, and yellow gourds delicious beyond belief. The Bubble trees refresh you better than a cool shower on a hot day. The Yellow gourds, which grow on trees, taste so good–they are filled with a delicious liquid. The land is spongy and soft. The nights are dark but warm and the days are beautiful and filled with yellow light. If it rains, it is warm and you can go to a special place where the trees shelter you. It’s Paradise.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 2008
Recommended by Christie Leighton, finished 7-10-10 camping up at Chambers Lake, gorging myself on Gorp, pringles, cheese and crackers and wine!
By Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, Annie Barrows. Annie finished the book when Mary Ann’s health prohibited her from doing so, August 2008.
What a LOVE STORY!! Guernsey is a Channel Island occupied by the Germans in WWII. Amelia has a pig roast illegally and invites fellow islanders. They get caught on the way home. Elizabeth makes up a story that they have a literary society and asks if they’d like to join. Thus starts the amazing tale of Islanders come together during German occupation. Elizabeth befriends a German officer. They have a child, Kit. German officer, Christian Hellman, is killed over Italy, I think. Elizabeth is taken away from them while they were amidst the occupation, because she was helping a young adolescent Todt slave worker who was almost dead. The islanders didn’t know she was dead until they got a letter from Remy Giraud, who was with her until her execution in camp Ravensbruck. A guard was beating a poor menstruating girl and Eliz. grabbed the rod and started beating the guard. They took her out the next day, had her walk in a row of poplars, she knelt down and they shot her in the back of the head.
None of this you discover until Juliet Ashton, a young English writer, gets a letter from Dawsey because he got her book by Charles Lamb and wanted to know if there were any other books by Charles Lamb. It’s all a series of letters from Dawsey and other Islanders to Juliet and back and between Juliet and her publisher Sidney Stark and her best friend, his sister, Sophie. It keeps you en-rapt until the end – after Juliet moves to the island, jilts Mark Reynolds, falls in love with Dawsey, adopts Kit, and finally professes her love to Dawsey and asks him to marry her and he says yes.
What a wonderful, wonderful book!! Loved every minute of it. Every page, every letter. One of the most interesting characters is Isola Pribby, an islander who makes potions and tonics. Sidney stays with her while visiting Juliet. She is a character!! She finds out Sidney is gay. They develop quite a friendship. He sends her books – Phrenology – study of bumps on head. She reads everyone’s bumps on their heads, including Billy Ree’s, who was on the island to pick up Oscar Wilde’s eight letters written anonymously, signed with his initials only, to Isola. Grandma Pheen and her Duplicitious Bump was extremely large and they foiled her attempt to steal the letters and give them to her trash journalist lover.
Isola is a treasure! As are all the islanders! LOVED this book!!!
Here are the different books the islanders read:
Selected Essays of Elia, by Charles Lamb (Dawsey Adams)
Wuthering Heights (Isola Pribby)
The Pickwick Papers (Amelia Maugery)
Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey, Shirley, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (These are books Juliet mentions to Isola because they are by the Bronte sisters.)
Selections from Shakespeare, also books by Mr. Dickens and Mr. Wordsworth (Eben Ramsey)
Poetry by a Roman named Catullus (Clovis Fossey)
Poetry by Wilfred Owen (Clovis Fossey)
Poetry of William Wordsworth (Clovis Fossey)
The Letters of Seneca (John Booker)
Past and Present by Thomas Carlyle (Will Thisbee)
The Double Comfort Safari Club
by Alexander McCall Smith, 11th #1 Ladies Detective Series, 2010
Phuti Radiphuti has his leg crushed by one of his delivery men who backed his truck into him. He has to have the lower part amputated. His Aunty won’t let Mma Makutsi visit in the hospital but Mma Ramotswe gets that changed and he heals up very fast and is released. His Aunty takes him to her house and again won’t let Grace visit. In the end, Mma Potokwane finds out and roars her way to Aunty’s home with Mma Makutsi and Mma Ramotswe and takes Phuti to the Orphanage happily where Mma Makutsi can see him every night.
Violet Sephotho deceives a young man, Mr. Kereleng, into buying a house and putting it in her name. Then, refusing to marry him, he comes to Mma Ramotswe for help. She goes to her attorney friend who ends up being the one who did the original deed. He had never filed it and had put the wrong address on it. So Mma Ramotswe & Mma Makutsi go to her house saying a new deed will need to be signed and Violet knows Mr. Kereleng won’t sign it and goes berserk, attacking Mma Makutsi.
Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi go north to Maun to safari camps looking for the guide of a Mrs. Grant who left him $3,000 in her will – not knowing the name of the camp except it’s an animal or a bird. They go to Eagle Island Camp first and think they found the guide until he shows them a picture of Mrs. Grant and it’s not the same woman. Mma Ramotswe has another guide, Mighty, take her to another camp, the Lion’s Tail, and finds the real guide – who happens to be marrying the other guide’s sister, and will end up giving him most of the 3000 as a bridal prize.
Pretty good book – not quite as good as Tea Time for the Traditionally Built.
Out of the Silent Planet
by C.S. Lewis, 1938
Marvelous Book! Fantastic Story!
Ransom is kidnapped by Weston and Devine – taken in their spaceship to Malacandra where they were going to turn him over to the Sorns for a human sacrifice, they thought. Ransom escapes and meets up with the Hross – a friendly, large, fur-covered people. He lives with the Hross for awhile – learns their language and ways. Then they go on a hunt to kill a hrnakra – a shark-like creature and Ransom kills the Hrnakra but his friend, Hyoi, is murdered by Weston and Devine.
Ransom is supposed to go to Oyarsa, an eldil had spoken to Hyoi before the hunt, but Ransom insisted on the hunt so after Hyoi is killed, he starts the trek to Oyarsa. He climbs to a Sorn, Augray, who carries him the rest of the way to Meldilorn. There, Ransom speaks to Oyarsa. And then the bent ones, Weston and Devine, are brought to Oyarsa. He interviews Weston – finds out his plan – kill everyone on Malacandra so humans can take over. Banishes he and Weston. Ransom decides to go to Earth with them rather than live on Malacandra. They barely make it home – first thing he asks for when he leaves the space-ship, “A pint of bitter.”
The earth is the silent planet because it is ruled by the evil one. Malacandra has 3 peoples – hnau – the Hrossa – who fish and farm – the Sorns – who are the thinkers – and the pfifltrigs – who mine gold (sun’s blood – what Devine was after) and make beautiful objects. They all live in peace – no crime, murder, hate, envy. They have eldils among them – strong spirit beings they can see, but Ransom could only sense by changes in the light – Oyarsa was the head eldil.
Space travel – beautiful descriptions of a heavenly, healing light which Ransom drank up while on the spaceship – not cold and dark like we think of space. One side of ship was light – the other was night.
“There was an endless night on one side of the ship and an endless day on the other: each was marvellous and he moved from the one to the other at his will, delighted.”
On the light side: “…through depth after depth of tranquillity far above the reach of night, he felt his body and mind daily rubbed and scoured and filled with new vitality.”
Also, beautiful descriptions of Malacandra – bright blue waters that were warm. Purple trees, rose pink clouds that were solid actually and greenish spires/mountains of ice.
Mostly what Ransom realized was that there was nothing to fear on Malacandra. Weston and Devine never could get to that point. Their minds/hearts were darkened by our bent earth.
Fantastic Tale!
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2009
Great book! LOVED this one!! Mma Ramotswe solves the mystery of why the soccer team, the Kalahari Swoopers, are losing all of their games. Actually, her foster son, Puso, figured it out – it was that the owner, Mr. Molofololo, kept changing things and their shoes were uncomfortable so they couldn’t play their best football any more. Mr. Molofololo thought there was a traitor on the team but it turned out to be him and his insistence on them wearing these new shoes!
Also, Violet Sephotho goes to work for Phuti Radiphuti’s Double Comfort Furniture Shop, selling beds. Her idea is to steal him away from Grace. She sells many beds. Mma Ramotswe decides to have Charlie go buy a bed. He plays interested but then says he has to think about it and she propositions him – if you buy this bed, I’ll help you try it out. Charlie tells Phuti – not knowing it was Phuti – and he fires Violet on the sot. She is a wicked woman!
And Mma Ramotswe’s little white van dies – she is so very sad. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni buys her a beautiful blue van. She still misses her little white van and she and Fanwell drive to the junkyard to get it back but it was already sold.
One very poignant part was Mma Ramotswe’s worry and love for Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni on the day he goes to help a friend in his garage in Lobatse.
“She waved back from the window, and suddenly, inexplicably, felt an urge to rush out into the yard to speak to him before he left, to tell him something…She gave his hand a squeeze. “I wanted to thank you,” she said. He was puzzled “For what? Thank me for what?” “For everything you’ve given me, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.”
“He looked away. He was not one for displays of emotion; he never had been, but it made his heart swell to be thanked by this woman who stood for so much in his eyes; who stood for kindness and generosity and understanding; for a country of which he was so proud; who stood for Africa and all the love that Africa contained.”
BEAUTIFUL BOOK!! LOVED IT!!
Tinkers
by Paul Harding, 2009
Finished as fast as I could – like abstract art – all over the place, written like his notes of nature while on acid. It did have a main story in between the “trips.”
A man is dying of cancer – laying in his living room – memories of his father, an epilectic, who left them because his wife was going to have him committed. He was a loving, gentle, creative man who sold pans, brushes, soap, etc. on his wagon over the dirt roads of Maine. He never made much money. He thought his wife loved him but she was a cold-hearted woman – couldn’t stand him or their 5 kids. He moved one night to Philadelphia – sold his horse and wagon, started as a bag boy, met a wonderful woman who loved him, married him, and helped him in his seizures-took him to a good doctor and his seizures all but stopped. In 1953, he went to visit his grown-up son.
This son is the one who is dying of cancer – and as he dies, he remembers his father. This son, George, was a tinkerer – clock repairer, loved all his clocks. Set in 1900’s (early).
The Miracle at Speedy Motors
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2008
Not the best Ladies Detective book. Mma Makutsi & Phuti Radiphuti buy a bed – velvet heart headboard. It doesn’t fit into Mma Makutsi’s house when they delivered it the next day, so she has them leave it outside. The rainy season starts and ruins it. She buys a cheap replacement – lies to Phuti and then tells the truth eventually.
Mma Ramotswe has to find the family of a lady. She does through Mma Potokwane – the orphan director – but ends up being incorrect but that’s okay because they end up glad they are not related (brother & sister but now can be husband/wife).
Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni listens to a doctor who tells him his daughter Motholeli could walk again. He takes her to a clinic in Johannesburg, spends 25,000 (Mma Ramotswe finds out how much, and rather than let him mortgage the garage, she secretly sells about 6 of her prize cattle), but alas, it doesn’t work and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni cries. Motholeli is fine and happy though.
Lastly, Mma Ramotswe is getting anonymous threatening letters at the garage. Mr. Polopetsi delivers one to her so she suspects him. Charlie sees who drops them off and tells Mma Ramotswe it’s a woman. It ends up being Violet Sephotho, the glamour girl in Mma Makutsi’s secretarial class.
Last Paragraph: “But one had to be careful, Mma Ramotswe herself: one should not ask for too many things in this life, especially when one already had so much.” (that is what I wrote, but I don’t think that is correct.)
Lorna Doone
by R.D. Blackmore, 1869
LOVED THIS BOOK! Wonderful hero of heroes, John Ridd, falls in love with Lorna Doone, even though her people killed his father. He rescues her from the wicked Doone’s and she is restored as Lady Lorna Dugal, because the Doone’s had kidnapped her and killed her parents and brother. John loves her even though he is a farmer and she a lady. She loves him and forsakes her title and money to come back to the farm and marry John. It is their wedding. They have just said, “I will,” and John is ready to kiss her. A shot rings out and his Lorna falls into his arms. He knows who did it – jumps on his horse, chases him and kills him – Carver Doone – the wickedest Doone of them all.
But, amazingly, Ruth Huckabuck, the young lady John would have married if not for Lorna, realized Lorna was not dead, and nurses her back to full health. Then she nurses John (who Carver managed to shoot before John killed him) back to health and they live happily ever after.
Beautiful, Beautiful book! Many characters (Tom Faggus and his horse, Winnie; sisters, Annie and Lizzie; beloved mother; Jeremy Stickles, King’s officer; Uncle Ben (Reuben) and his granddaughter, Ruth Huckabuck; Gwenny Carfax, the little maid of Lorna; John Fry, John’s lazy worker full of character). Beautiful descriptions of nature – meadows, farms, flowers, rivers, ocean – and people. Great adventure story and love story. Good conquers evil. Good is so very good – evil is so very evil, but nothing graphic. LOVED IT!!!
Arrowsmith
by Sinclair Lewis, Pulitzer Prize winner, 1925
Martin Arrowsmith comes from Elk Mills in the state of Winnemac. Goes to medical school in early 1900’s. Falls in love with research with Dr. Gottlieb. Marries Leora, a wonderful girl who adores him. They move to her hometown, Wheatsylvania (North Dakota) but can’t get on with the locals, including her family. They get a job in Nautilus, Ohio. He works for Doctor Pickerbaugh, who runs the Public Health Dept. and writes little poems. Martin falls in lust with Orchid, his oldest daughter. She moves away with Dad to Washington. He becomes director and gets run out of town for doing the right thing (burning old tenements, shutting down a dairy). Moves to Chicago and works for surgeons. Then leaves to go to McGurk Institute in NYC with Gottlieb. He gets to research. Goes to Caribbean Island to fight the plague with his “phage.” Loses Leora to plague while he was in another part of the island. Returns to NYC and marries millionaire, Joyce. Tries to make a go of it but can’t stand the social life of the rich. Moves to the woods of Vermont to do research with his friend, Terry. Pure research. Hmm…strange book – SATIRE – SOCIAL CRITICISM – negative – he dislikes everyone for their hypocrisy, greed, stupidity, etc., except Dr. Gottlieb, Leora, friend Terry.
The Man from Beijing
by Henning Mankell, 2010
Rich, powerful Chinese man (Ya Ru) takes revenge on 19 Swedish people living in a remote village in Sweden. Their ancestor was cruel and brutal to his Chinese ancestor, San, on the railroad, and then again back in China at a Christian mission. Story of revenge taken way too far. Birgitta Roslin, Swedish judge, ends up figuring it out just by accident-finding where the red ribbon found in the snow came from (Chinese restaurant), asking questions of the Chinese waitress, which took her to a hotel and the owner ended up providing her a picture of a Chinese man who stayed there the night of the massacre.
Very interesting, especially the first half. Took you to Sweden, America, in the late 1800s, building the railroad, China in the late 1800s and modern-day, then Africa, London. The modern-day Chinese plan was to ship millions of their peasants to Africa (Zimbabwe & Mozambique) to farm in Africa-keep them from revolting in China.
Very, very interesting book – strong female characters – the Swedish judge, Birgitta Roslin, and the beautiful Chinese woman, Hong Qiu. She was Ya Ru’s sister. He ends up murdering her in Africa because she was against his corruption.
Death in Kenya
by M.M. Kaye, 1958
Great mystery set in Kenya right after the Mau Mau revolt. Flamingo, the estate owned by Aunt Em, in Kenya. Her niece, Victoria, comes to live there. First, Alice is murdered, the wife of Em’s grandson, Eden. Then, Kamau disappears, then Gilly Markham is murdered. Then an attempt on Victoria. It was Aunt Em. She didn’t want to lose her beloved Flamingo–wanted Eden to marry Victoria, his first love. Author’s Note: “Few people nowadays will remember the Mau Mau terrorist rising in Kenya, and millions more will never even have heard of it. But it was an unpleasant business while it lasted. I happened to be in Kenya towards the end of that period, because my husband’s regiment had been sent there to deal with ‘The Emergency’–which was the white settlers’ name for it. And despite some hair-raising moments, I can truthfully say that I enjoyed every minute of my stay in that marvellous and exciting country.”
“The idea for this story came into my mind one evening when I was standing on our verandah in the dusk, and I heard birds calling down in the papyrus swamp that fringed the shores of Lake Naivasha…”
Wayne talked about a song by Warren Zevon, “Leave My Monkey Alone,” that mentions Mau Mau. He wiki’d it and only 23 whites dies, but many Africans died.
Another quote from the book – Drew Stratton – the hero – is answering Victoria, when she says, “But it is their country.’ “Whose?” demanded drew, without turning his head.
‘The – the Africans.’
‘Which Africans? All this that you see here, the Rift and most of what is known as the White Highlands, belonged, if it belonged to anyone, to the Masai. But it is the Kikuyu who claim the land, though they never owned a foot of it–and would have been speared if they’d set a foot on it! The place was a no-man’s-land when Delamere first came here, and the fact that cattle and sheep can now be raised here is entirely due to him and men like him. And even they didn’t just grab the land. The handful of Masai then inhabiting it voluntarily exchanged it for the enormous territory that tribe now holds.’
One more M.M. Kaye book to read, “Shadow of the Moon.” Done with all her wonderful mysteries.