Thursday, January 30, 2020

February's Reading List



February's Reading List




January was off to a great start! The end of the month was rather rushed but I made all of my scheduled books on time!




Because of the short month, I will probably add a review a day similar to how I did December's reviews rather than bunch many of them together. Hopefully, this will be another fulfilling month.





New Book Alert: Saint X by Alexis Schiatkin




New Book Alert: The Caller: A Demon Within by Jeanne Creviston




New Book Alert: The Surrey Stalker by B.L. Pearce



Weekly Reader: Song for A Lost Kingdom 1 by Stacey Morrell




New Book Alert: Murder in the Multiverse by R.E. McLean




New Book Alert: The Baron and The Enchantress (The Enchantress Book 3) by Paulette Golden




New Book Alert: Off Telegraph: A Novel of Berkeley in the Sixties by Joseph V. Rodricks




New Book Alert: The Unholy by Paul de Blassie




New Book Alert: Spite Fence by Trudy Kirshner




New Book Alert: Lawless Justice by Karina Kantas




New Book Alert: Bullets, Teeth, and Fists 3 Edited by Jason Beech




New Book Alert: Joshua N'Gon: Last Prince of Akebulahn by Anthony Hewit




Classics Corner Birthday Book: The Joy Luck Club by Any Tan (PopSugar Reading Challenge: Book That Takes Place in a country that starts with "C")




Weekly Reader: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book that you meant to read in 2019)




Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Last Tudor (The Plantangenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XIV) by Philippa Gregory




Weekly Reader: The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison (PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book with a title that has more than 20 letters)




Weekly Reader: The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book about a book club)




Classics Corner: Heartburn by Nora Ephron (PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book with a pink cover)




Classics Corner: The Women's Room by Mailyn French (PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book published the month you were born)




As always if you wrote a book that you want reviewed or edited do not hesitate to contact me at




Email: juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Twitter: @JulieSaraPorte1

Facebook: Julie Sara Porter

LinkedIn: Julie Sara Porter


Rates are as follows:

Book Reviews: $10-20.00 (except for previous arrangements with certain groups like BookTasters, Blackthorn Book Tours, and Netgalley. I will also post reviews on Amazon and Goodreads by request at no extra charge)

Editing: $50-100.00

Proofreading: $50-100.00

Author: $100-200.00




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New Book Alert: A Bounty With Strings (Book One in The Bounty Series) by Markus Matthews; Fun Engaging Superhero Novel Delivers A Brilliant Postmodern Team



New Book Alert: A Bounty With Strings (The Bounty Series) by Markus Matthews; Fun Engaging Superhero Novel Delivers A Brilliant Postmodern Team

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Forget Avengers, X Men, and the Justice League. This year the ultimate superhero team is that of Zack Stevens: the former Hamilton Hurricane and his Bounty Hunters.
Markus Matthews's novel, A Bounty With Strings, is a fun and engaging novel that gives us a great plot as well as a brilliant postmodern team of super powerful characters.


Zack is a former superhero once called the Hamilton Hurricane. His ability to control air (including flying) and seeing auras made him a very powerful adversary against villains. Unfortunately, his superhero days are behind him. He is now a bounty hunter going after "Enhanced Individuals" or E.I. (it's no longer PC to call them Monsters) for pay.


While on assignment to catch his latest quarry, Zack gets in the way of a team of four female bounty hunters after the same catch. The team consists of: Stella, an over 100 year old Englishwoman in the body of a child that turns into a Mr. Hyde-like monster, Blue, a blue-skinned alien who can travel long distances through shadows, Bree, a bad tempered werepanther, and Olivia, a dizzy vampire. Initially mistrustful of each other, Zack and the quartet team up to catch the quarry. They then have to pool their resources when they learn that there is a price on Olivia's head from a court of very powerful vampires.


The novel brims with clever touches that play on conventions of super hero fiction. For starters, it's rather refreshing to have a super hero that hails from Hamilton, Ontario Canada. Aside from Wolverine, Canada is not often selected as the setting for such stories. There are some brilliant jokes such as Zack's displeasure at being mistaken for an American ("the gun toting neighbors to the South.") and his adamence that the Reader not mistake Hamilton for Toronto.


There's also some cute incidents where the characters use their superpowers for mundane tasks as well as to defeat enemies. Stella's secret lab has a Food-a-Tron which creates and prepares meals as long as the meals and recipes are described in its system, leaving Blue to use her shadow ability to transport her friends to the grocery store for food and to a blood supplier for Olivia's plasma (which she calls "juice boxes.").

Of course, while chasing super villains, it is always important to fly over Tim Horton's and make a pit stop to get donuts as our heroes do. The quintet act in many ways the way regular people would who suddenly have awesome powers that they can use to go to the store and avoid traffic jams.


Zack and the other bounty hunters are a likeable well-characterized bunch that bounce off each other brilliantly. Zack, the newcomer to the gang, is confused by his new friend's behaviors but he is able to do some strategic thinking to help them out and make plans to face enemies with minimal injuries.

It is also particularly refreshing that romance does not play into the novel. Even though the team consists of one straight man and four women, none of the women become love interests for him. There is also no triangle between friends to gain Zack's affections. Mostly their sexual tension is reduced mostly to jokes and innuendo amongst friends. It's a nice change and reflective of reality that men and women can work together and just be close friends.


The four women also stand out. While young in appearance, Stella is a wise old soul. She has a sometimes cold analytical nature that served as her defense mechanism from a traumatic past from which she still suffers. However, she is a surrogate mother to the others, treating Bree and Olivia like daughters.

Blue gets the least amount of focus since she spends much of the book in a healing coma. But she is an enigmatic figure and loyal friend to the others. There are also hints that she and Stella may be more than friends.


Bree and Olivia make for a brilliant odd couple like team. Bree is a temperamental tomboy while Olivia is a sunny fashionista. Bree is more dour and sardonic while Olivia is cheerful and at times flighty. (One of the best running commentaries in the story is that Olivia contrasts with the typical Goth dark dour vampire by being the most optimistic one in the group.) The two tease and bicker like sisters but their love and protectiveness is never in doubt. This is especially shown when Bree, in her werepanther state, protects Olivia with all of the rage and fury of her were form. It is also shown when Olivia considers taking one for the team and turning herself in to the vampire court. Only Zack can talk her out of sacrificing herself for her close friends and surrogate family.

A Bounty with Strings is the first of a new series. If Zack, Stella, Blue, Bree, and Olivia's next adventure is as well written, fun, and engaging as this one, then it will be a great adventure indeed.

New Book Alert: Shove by Sarah Ciacia; Suspenseful Emotional YA Novel About The Traumatic After Effects of The Accidental Death of a Child



New Book Alert: Shove by Sarah Ciacia; Suspenseful Emotional YA Novel About The Traumatic After Effects of The Accidental Death of a Child

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews



Spoilers: When someone dies after an illness, it's sad but at least it's expected. Plans can be made, possessions can be transferred, and there is a serene sense that at least the person is no longer sick or in pain. When a person dies unexpectedly, it throws everything off kilter and when the deceased is a young person, or worse a child, the after effects are worse.


That's the situation faced by the characters in Sarah Ciacia's novel, Shove. A young boy is suddenly killed by a teenage assailant for no reason except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The horror of the randomness in the boy's death is emotional as many people are affected by his death and the circumstances surrounding it.


At first the only thing on the mind of of Whaly, the narrator, is whether Jude, one of the most popular boys at school likes her. So when she is invited to a party at popular girl, Cora's house,Whaly wants to get a chance to be alone with Jude to find out. She also brings her new friend, Lenore, a socially awkward new kid, to the party so she can make new friends and be part of the group.


The usual teen party hijinks of hooking up, making friends, and underage drinking comes to an abrupt screeching halt, when Kirby, Jude's tag along kid brother, is attacked outside the house where the party is held. Worse, he is attacked by Harlan, a friend of Lenore's older brother, Dustin. Harlan had been making inappropriate comments towards Whaly and lately has been getting more aggressive in his demeanor. At the party, he gets drunk, violent, and poor Kirby ends up being the innocent bystander that gets the worst end. This unexpected violent act which results in Kirby's death changes the book from a happy go lucky unassuming YA novel of teen romance into a tragedy on how people deal with the accidental death of a child.


Many of the characters react differently to Kirby's death and it says a lot about who they are as individuals. Jude is looking for someone to blame and is angry at everyone, including Whaly whom he blames for being the catalyst for Harlan's rage. He closes himself off emotionally from his friends as his family struggles with losing a son and brother.

Harlan becomes even more violent as if in denial over Kirby's death. He claims that he never meant to hurt the boy, and he's probably right. But, he continues to behave like a simmering volcano waiting to explode. Suspense builds when trying to figure out who will be the next recipient of Harlan's unpredictable rage.

Whaly's friend, Cora, proves what a faithless friend she really is. A self-involved popular girl, she doesn't mind playing up the tears in front of a media audience about how the tragedy occurred at her house. However, in private, she can't resist bad mouthing Lenore and Whaly. Lenore, meanwhile, sheds her social awkwardness and shows an underlying strength and resilience, emerging as a true friend to Lenore.


Whaly also has to deal with her emotions flying all over the place. She is grief stricken and guilty over Kirby's death and can't get him out of her mind. She feels separated from her friends when both Jude and Cora reject her in different ways.

She is also suffering from PTSD because of Harlan's aggressiveness. She is fearful and suspicious of everyone. This is particularly felt within her home when Dustin does some construction work around her house. Whaly constantly questions Dustin's motives. Is he in touch with Harlan? Is he coming onto Whaly's divorced mother and does her mother return those feelings? Whaly's behavior is that of most teenagers, constantly worried and angst ridden.


Things take a violent turn in the climax, which shifts friendships and romances. Some characters mature and change while others do not. By the time Shove ends, the characters still mourn but they also accept the changes that have come.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Weekly Reader: To Carry The Horn (The Hounds of Anwn) by Karen Myers; Brilliant Start To Fantasy Series Builds Epic Alternate World of Elves




Weekly Reader: To Carry The Horn (The Hounds of Anwn) by Karen Myers; Brilliant Start To Fantasy Series Builds Epic Alternate World of Elves




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews



Spoilers: Karen Myers's To Carry the Horn is the first book in The Hounds of Anwn a four novel and five short stories series about an alternate elven kingdom that exists alongside modern Virginia. It is a captivating start as it presents a magical world that is unique in the resident's influence from humans and still keeps their toes in their fantasy mythological roots.




George Talbot Traherne is a typical modern man who manages a software company and is a whipper-in for fox hunting trips. While chasing after a pack of dogs, in which he was in charge, George falls off his horse. When he comes to, he finds himself in a part of the woods in which he is unfamiliar with no cell phone reception, strange white dogs, and mysterious unknown riders in period clothing. Worst of all, he stumbles onto a dead body and a stern, but youthful authority figure called Gwyn Anwn who wonders what George is doing on his land.



George learns that he is in an elvish and that he is descended from Gwyn. He also learns that the dead man was Iolo ap Huw, Gwyn's foster son, and huntsman in their annual hunting expedition. They take their Hunts seriously seeing as how it's descended from The Wild Hunt of the god, Cernunnos from Celtic myth and legend. The Hunt determines their legislature as well as political structure so Gwyn stands to lose much if he loses the match. Iolo, their lead hunstman, is now dead under mysterious circumstances. They have no other huntsman declared and George has plenty of experience, so could he please, pretty please, be the next huntsman?




To Carry the Horn serves as our introduction to the elves' world and Myers does this by combining typical fairy lore with the modern world. These elves  hav portals all over the world including in Virginia, because like their human counterparts they traveled from Europe to the Americas (though unlike humans, they cooperated and worked alongside the local Natives.). Elves have had numerous encounters with humans and have even adapted to some of our ways as George realizes when he observes the elvish denizens dressing in Colonial period costumes and displaying electric lights in their homes.




Along with that adaptability comes a willingness to accept change. When George assumes the role of huntsman, he makes a few changes such as promoting lutins, house staff who prove to be good at hunting and handling dogs, on the hunting team and declaring Gwyn's feisty foster daughter, Rhian, as an assistant huntsman, a role she has wanted for some time. One would expect Gwyn to be an old school leader and argue against change. But instead, he shrugs and says it's alright with him. These exchanges show an old world that is willing to accept and even embrace new changes.




Myers plays with fairy lore by having characters dispell misconceptions. As we can figure out with Iolo, elves can die but they are very long lived. While youthful in appearance, Gwyn is revealed to be George's great grandfather and reappears every few years to assume the rule of the nearby human estate of Bellemore's lone heir human, at least in appearance, and using a variety of pseudonyms. The characters scoff at many of the human assumptions such as elves being vulnerable to iron. (They say that started because humans believed that fairies rejected Christianity or human encroachment. On the contrary, they insist, humans have their beliefs and they have theirs.)



Of course no fantasy novel starring elves would be complete without magic and Myers shows us exactly that by making them be an almost every day occurrence in the character's lives. There is a whiff of murder mystery in the air when George and co. investigate Iolo's body to determine the cause of death. You have to hand it to any novel that considers "death by magical means" to be a probable cause. (I don't remember any episode of CSI or Law and Order considering that possibility.)

Travel between sections of the elves' worl as well as between human and elven lands are done in places called ways. Ways can only be activated with certain devices called tokens and only specific characters have knowledge of where these ways are. There are some incidents where George learns that he has more power than he thought when he is capable of knowing the exact locations of the ways around Gwyn's lands, ways in which even he was previously unaware.

Shape shifting is also an important magical skill. It comes in handy when the characters want to follow or avoid someone, as a passage demonstrates where Rhian transforms into an an old woman right in front of an amazed George.

Myers clearly has fun not only describing the process of shape shifting, but the limitations that some have as well. Shape shifters can only change into something that matches their height or weight. Transforming into an animal or the opposite sex is possible but only by the truly powerful. There is also the possibility of getting lost inside the new form and finding it difficult to change back. In one spine tingling moment, George transforms in the presence of Cerridwen, a wise elder and historian, and takes on a more powerful and somewhat terrifying form.


The book isn't just an introduction to this elven world. It is also filled with rich characters that inhabit it. George is an impressive lead as he learns about this world and his new family while accepting his new role as lead huntsman. He is very observant and ks an excellent judge of character, as he shows when he promotes Rhian and others after he recognizes their skills and competence. He is also able to recognize a threat when he sees one and knows how to get rid of it without causing any damage to Gwyn's leadership. He does this by role playing an argument so an enemy spy, who was part of the hunting team, loses his position solely based on George's insistence and no one else. (So if the spy reports back to his employer then it won't be Gwyn, or anyone else, they will come after. Only George.)

There are some moments and discussions that will go over Reader's heads as the characters and narrative uses hunting terms and gets very detailed in descriptions of hunting. However, the Reader understands that George is proving his effectiveness as a good leader. He accepts advice and much needed information from others. He encourages his team to learn combat skills for self-defense and to work alongside each other to practice teamwork. He is also able to adapt and change by keeping what works and changing what doesn't.


Gwyn is also a well written character. He is more cautious and steadier than the big picture thinker that is George. At first, he is somewhat suspicious of George wondering who sent him and what this means for his rule. However, he sees that many of George's ideas make sense and ensures the survival of his people. Gwyn also bears a lot of guilt over the decline in his relationship with his sister, Creiddylad, who has become a bitter rival. One possibility towards Gwyn's acceptance of George is that Gwyn may feel his time is up and perhaps George is a potential leader for not only the hunt but for his part of the elven lands. Gwyn is doing his best to smooth the transition of power and helping George inherit a peacefully evolving kingdom.




To Carry the Horn is a terrific first novel that combines fantasy with the modern world. Hopefully, the rest of The Hounds of Anwn continues to develop this brave new magical world.










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New Book Alert: The Power to Deny: A Woman of the Revolution Novel by Wendy Long Stanley; Powerful Novel About A Woman of the Age of Enlightenment



New Book Alert: The Power to Deny: A Woman of the Revolution Novel by Wendy Long Stanley; Powerful Novel About A Woman of the Age of Enlightenment



By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The 18th Century was a time of Enlightenment where many questioned and fought in revolutions to change their status. Women were no exception. Many feminist authors and philosophers, such as Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft argued for better educational and legal opportunities for women. Recently, I reviewed a biography about such a woman, Elizabeth Craven. One of these women who challenged her role in society was Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson. (1737-1801)

Fergusson was a literary genius and former girlfriend of Benjamin Franklin's son, William. She had a prominent writing career as a poet and translater. One of her most important works was her translation of the French poem, Telemachus. After her mother's death, Fergusson hosted "Attic Evenings"- literary salon gatherings which had the best writers, thinkers, and intellectuals. She did not marry until well into middle age when she wed Henry Hugh Fergusson. They had no children, but Fergusson adopted her niece and nephew. The Fergusson marriage was troubled, particularly after Henry was revealed to be a committed Loyalist. Fergusson stuck to her Patriotic beliefs even after she was accused of passing missives for the British. The Fergussons separated when she learned that her husband impregnated a servant girl. For the rest of her life, Fergusson continued to write poetry and prose until her death in 1801.


Wendy Long Stanley captures this amazing life in her brilliant historical novel, The Power to Deny: A Woman of the Revolution Novel. The 18th century particularly The American Revolution, is seen through the eyes of this vibrant, talented, and intelligent woman.

From the beginning, we already see Elizabeth, called "Betsy" by friends and family, is a highly intelligent forward thinking young lady. While her friends talk about handsome soldiers, colors and styles for gowns, and the latest European fashions, a teenage Elizabeth's eyes glaze other as she thinks about bigger important topics, the ones usually discussed by the men in her life. She is concerned about conflicts with the Native American tribes, whether the Penn family has too much power in her native Pennsylvania, and whether the colonies are being properly represented uner English regulation and legislation.

Elizabeth is a unique person even within her own family. Her sisters, Jane and Ann, have more traditional roles as wives. Elizabeth considers the quiet and domestic, Ann, as her father's favorite because Ann reflects what he believes a woman should be like. Her mother only thinks that Elizabeth's study of poetry and literature as mere ornaments in the ultimate goal towards marriage. Elizabeth's adopted sister, Liza, is supportive but is of a more practical mind that often brings Elizabeth down to earth. Elizabeth however has different ideas: "What called my heart was books and reading and all the words that came to me and asked to be written. I was lifted by great writing: Spenser, Swift, Locke, Johnson. Alas, this wasn't the work for a woman beyond dinner conversation or a turn around the park."


It's no wonder that Elizabeth is captivated by William Franklin. Besides being handsome and charismatic, he is the only person her age with whom she can have a decent intelligent conversation and isn't going to shush her or degrade her opinion because she's a woman. Besides William is just as opinionated as she and his famous father are. Unfortunately, it's this opinionated nature that causes dissension in his and Elizabeth's impending engagement. He publishes humorous articles that criticizes the Penn family and earns the ire of Penn and his supporters-including the Graeme family.

Because of these articles and the fact that Dr. Graeme doesn't like William's father to begin with, William is sent to England and he and Elizabeth have to wait a year to get married. Elizabeth is devestated by the news but continues corresponding with him. That devestation turns to anger when William marries someone else. Elizabeth is naturally furious not just that he broke with her, but that he wasn't honest about it. He married without telling her.


Elizabeth is definitely a woman of high standards. After her sister, Jane, dies and her family takes in her niece and nephew, she can't resist calling their father out for not only being an absent father but for absconding money and leaving his children without any financial support.

Of course those standards play into her marriage with Henry Hugh Fergusson. When she first meets him at one of her Attic Evenings, she at first thinks Henry's a learned intellectual man, someone who is as free spirited as she is. That first impression turns out to become completely false. During the Revolution, Henry manipulates his wife to deliver coded letters even though it causes distrust against her from other Patriots that lasts for years after the war ends. When she learns about his infidelity, Elizabeth severs ties with him and engages in an ultimately successful three year battle to get back her family home, Graeme Park, from Henry after he used his rights as a husband to put it in his name.


Some of the best sections focus on Elizabeth's literary career. After her break with William, Elizabeth accompanies a family friend, Rev. Peters, to England and Scotland, eventually living alone in London when Peters cares for his ailing sister. While in London, she becomes involved in the literary and intellectual circle, befriending notables like Laurence Stern, author of Tristram Shandy, and her former future father in law, Benjamin Franklin.

Even after Elizabeth returns to Philadelphia after her mother's death to assume her role as the female head of the household, she doesn't lose sight of her literary ambitions. She writes and gets some poetry published, including epitaphs for her mother and sisters and a poem called The Dream, encouraging colonists to forgo English goods. She also writes about various medical and scientific breakthroughs, including the discovery of the planet Uranus.

While she is an involved surrogate mother to her niece and nephew, Anny and Johnny, Elizabeth manages to make time for her own interests. Her Attic Evenings, are the center for much political debate, inviting men and women to participate, particularly when such issues as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts are discussed.

Elizabeth's crowning achievement is her translation of Telemachus, an epic French poem about the son of Odysseus. Many paragraphs describes the intense work that she did on the poem by translating the work line by line for over three years. Elizabeth takes pride in adding notes for future Readers and inserting her own poems at the beginning and end. She looks at the end results of Telemachus almost like a mother pleased with the labor and birth of her creation.

This was a woman who throughout her long life knew her own mind and knew how to express it.


The Power to Deny's title comes from advice Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson's mother gives her. She tells her that the only power women have is that of denial, to reject or accept a man's proposal. It is clear from this novel that Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson wielded a lot more power than that.

Monday, January 27, 2020

Classics Corner Birthday Book: The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco; The Alpha Medieval Mystery Focuses On Medieval But Not As Much On Mystery



Classics Corner Birthday Book: Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco; The Alpha Medieval Mystery Focuses On Medieval But Not As Much On Mystery




By Julie Sara Porter




Birthday: January 5 (1932-2016)




Spoilers: The Historical Mystery is a popular genre and within that, the Medieval Mystery even more so. The sub genre is filled with characters like Brother Cadfael, Sister Fidelma, Dame Frevisse, and others who solve murders in a world of feudal lords, religious conflicts, noble ladies, serfs, monks, nuns, Crusades, and plagues.




One of the earliest examples of the Medieval Mystery is Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Since it was one of the first in the sub genre, much care and detail is spent on the time period and the conflicts within. It is a book that is large in Medieval history, but is not the best when it comes to the mystery.




Our detective is one William of Baskerville, a former Inquisitor turned monk wanting a quiet life. He travels with Adso of Melk, a young novice who acts as William's chronicler. The two are on assignment at an Italian monastery where a young illuminator has died. William is assigned to learn the cause of the man's death. Before the investigation is over, six more bodies are added and it becomes clear that there is a dangerous killer on the loose and the monastery is anything but holy.




Eco took great care in researching and writing about the Medieval period so The Name of the Rose is considerably longer than other Medieval Mysteries. Most of the attention is on the monks and how they thrive in this community. They are given various assignments such as herbalist, librarian, cellarer, and so on almost like their own small microcosm of society.

The monastery is beautifully described with it's ornate walls, isolated locations, and icons that many swear date back to Biblical days. (Showing that the tacky tourist souvenir and religious scam artist are not by any means new creations.) The highlight is the labyrinthine structure of the library in which the entire catalog is only known to the head and assistant librarians. The Abbey residents, William, and Adso are even forbidden from reading certain materials. Good luck trying to find them even if they wanted to. The library's structure is filled with twists and turns where a person can get hopelessly lost while searching for information. This is the type of Abbey that will do anything to protect that information.




Religious suspicion and paranoia is the order of the day. Various orders are held under suspicion such as the Franciscans. There are many times when William and the monks debate various philosophies such as whether Jesus Christ forbade laughter. There is much discussion about the End Times and whether the Antichrist is upon them.

Women are looked upon as vessels of sin and there is a passage where the lone female character in the book, an unnamed peasant girl, is tried as a witch and faces execution by burning. Even though Adso believes in the tenets against women, he is guilt stricken over what happened to her. Just as William did during the Inquisition when he felt remorse about torturing and executing human beings for violating how he saw God's laws. This is a world where many are so driven by their own narrow perspective of religion that anything that contradicts it is seen as evil.




While Eco described the Medieval era flawlessly, the mystery aspects fall a bit flat. William is a good detective, a sort of Medieval answer to Sherlock Holmes. At the beginning when he and Adso arrive at the abbey, William impresses the Abbot by using deductive reasoning to determine not only that they are missing a horse, but the horse's name. He also learned the hard way about true justice and that sometimes it goes against the laws of the day, the laws set by people in charge. Sometimes higher justice goes against societal justice and William knows this.




Adso is less interesting through the course of the novel. Mostly he just writes about William's adventures and has some what he believes are religious visions. However, Adso is writing this from the perspective when he is much older and has had more time to meditate on the nature of evil, guilt, and redemption. This encounter opened his eyes to concepts that he never really questioned and now has spent his more mature years doing nothing but questioning and dreading.




Other aspects to the mystery are somewhat flat. Many of the suspects are interchangeable except for two monks who hid their clandestine love affair from judgmental eyes. (and which Adso is aware of his own bisexual leanings) It's hard to tell many of them apart.

The murderer is pretty easy to figure out. Nearly every conversation that he has with William practically screams out his guilt. It takes away the suspense when the killer's identity is that apparent from the word go. In fact this book could just have easily worked as well, or better, as a dramatic historical novel about a young novice entering a monastery and whose personal beliefs contradict with those that he is taught.




The Name of the Rose is brilliant in capturing the the setting, conflict, and structure of the Medieval Era. It is not the best at mystery, but is second to none when it comes to history.



Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Virgin's Lover (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XIII) by Philippa Gregory; Gregory's Look At The Early Years of Good Queen Bess, The Not-So-Virgin Queen



Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Virgin's Lover (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XIII) by Philippa Gregory; Gregory's Look at the Early Years of Good Queen Bess, the Not-So-Virgin Queen




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




PopSugar Reading Challenge: Fiction or Nonfiction Book About The Leader of a Country


Spoilers: Of the protagonists in Philippa Gregory's Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series, none probably had the biggest impact in British and World History more than Queen Elizabeth I. The third longest reigning monarch (only Queen Victoria and the current Queen Elizabeth II have had longer), Elizabeth so affected the era in which she ruled that it was called the Elizabethan Age. As Queen, Elizabeth managed to soothe the religious turmoil led by her sister, Mary I whose Catholic rule involved the arrest and execution of many Protestants and the uncertainty of her father, Henry VIII who switched religions depending on wives. She did this by creating the Church of England which bore many of the same rituals as Catholicism but was Protestant in most of its tenets and beliefs. As for conversion, she insisted that "the crown did not look into men's hearts" and that as long as they payed lip service to the new church, they could believe what they want. The compromise wasn't perfect and later generations still questioned and debated the religious practises but it was what was sorely needed at the time to create some much needed stability.

She forged alliances with other countries but was bold enough to stand for battle with her soldiers when war was declared. One of Elizabeth's most famous moments is when she faced the Spanish Armada in full armor proudly declaring that she "may have the feeble body of a woman but had the heart and stomach of a king and a king of England."

She commissioned people like Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake to go on sea voyages and explore other countries, thereby opening better trade routes and making London an important thriving city in the world market. She was also a strong patron of the arts supporting artists and writers like Edmund Spencer, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare giving her era great cultural significance.

Elizabeth affected an air of intelligence, poise, and confidence that many admired and was called various names like "Gloriana," "Good Queen Bess," and "The Virgin Queen." She did all of this, ruled her country for over 40 years, without a husband.


However, the Elizabeth that we meet in The Virgin's Lover is not the bold confident epoch making leader from history. She isn't even the brazen flirtatious self-centered princess that was last encountered in The Queen's Fool. Instead, she is someone who projects an image of self assured leadership but inside is quaking with fear, uncertainty, and deep emotion.


From the moment the bells ring to announce Mary's death and Elizabeth's reign, Elizabeth knows that she has to prove herself. She has to add to a treasury that has been depleted by funds used by the vacated Prince Phillip for the disastrous War for Calais. She has to maintain broken alliances with not only other countries but within her own as Protestants and Catholics have turned against each other. She also has to lead the Privy Council who since the last female leader proved to be a huge disappointment are not too willing to be led by another woman. All Elizabeth sees are fears and challenges towards her right to ascend the throne.


Two other characters hear the bells and have their own emotional connections to them. Robert Dudley hears them and sees his chance for love and advancement. A childhood friend of Elizabeth's, Robert has grown to become Elizabeth's Master of the Horse, strongest confidant, and secret lover. He knows that Elizabeth would be overwhelmed by her new role and will need a shoulder to cry on. Robert's shoulder will be conveniently there when she needs it. The ever ambitious Dudley also sees a chance for his family to retrieve much of the wealth and prestige that they once had under King Edward but lost under Queen Mary. Robert longs for a chance to be accepted into Elizabeth's Privy Council as well as her bed and who knows maybe king.


Unfortunately, Robert has a very specific reason that prevents him from openly courting Elizabeth: his wife, Amy. Amy Dudley hears the bells announcing Elizabeth as Queen and reacts with loathing, disgust, and the certain fear that her husband will leave her. Unlike her husband who lives to be center stage, Amy is content to remain in the country of Norfolk at her estate and away from palace life. She wants Robert to remain with her. However, she knows that Robert is going off to be with Elizabeth and there is nothing that she can do about it but seethe with hatred towards the Queen.


Robert's influence on Elizabeth begins during her coronation. Despite the tight budget, Robert wants to make it a coronation to remember. He arranges the various details such as the gown Elizabeth will wear, the stops that she will make, and the alleged "spontaneous" outpourings of praise such as a peasant shouting for God to bless her. There has never been a more rehearsed bit of spontaneity.

From the coronation, it's clear that Robert wants to make Elizabeth the center of attention and in turn himself. He is in love with Elizabeth and they have some romantic moments together such as when they lie in bed and declare themselves husband and wife in God's eyes. But Robert is also arrogant, conceited, and always on the lookout in his own self interest. He creates rivalries within the Council, particularly with Elizabeth's chief advisor, William "Spirit" Cecil. Robert can't resist lording any victory over Cecil such as when Elizabeth gives him the Order of the Garter.

But every victory makes Robert greedy for another. While Robert loves Elizabeth, it is also clear that he also loves power. If Elizabeth were just a peasant woman or a minor courtier, Robert would quickly bed and then discard her. He loves Elizabeth's beauty, intelligence, and personality, but he also loves her crown. And it is entirely possible that it's the crown he loves more.


Robert's hold on Elizabeth is great, partly because of her own uncertainty in her role. Elizabeth's nervousness makes sense when we take her upbringing into consideration. She was the third choice for the role and sometimes not even that. Once her brother was born, she was dismissed for being a girl and once her sister was restored to the family line, dismissed for being the second girl. She had been bastardized and many questioned her paternity. She lost her mother at three and was distant from her stepmothers except Kateryn Parr, her last one. She did not have the royal training nor the assumption that she would ascend the throne until Mary did not produce heirs. She barely lived at the palace, a fact made painfully clear when she enters for the first time, unsure about where to go. Whereas Robert who had lived there expertly guides her as though he already sees himself as king consort.

Every major test seems to show Elizabeth looking around and asking, "How am I doing?"


When she was princess everyone thought that Elizabeth's most important duty would be to have an advantageous marriage, something that she doesn't mind playing as Queen. Several times she offers her hand to Europe's Most Eligible Royal Bachelors in acceptance for alliances. Many of her advisers especially Cecil pester her about which man she should marry believing that Elizabeth could never possibly lead on her own.

On the contrary, the debacle about her marriage ends up being the moment that Elizabeth is able to come into her own as a leader. She courts various royals such as Prince Erik of Sweden, the Earl of Arran of Scotland, and even her former brother-in-law, Prince Phillip of Spain. She claims to consider marriage just long enough for an alliance to form, but then withdraws it once the alliance is officially secured. It becomes a clever force of diplomacy that Elizabeth grows into.


Meanwhile, Robert hypocritically stews in jealousy over Elizabeth's various marriage proposals conveniently forgetting about his wife nestled in the country. To her credit while Gregory writes Amy as sometimes a clingy jealous bitch, she also makes her sympathetic partly because Robert is such an arrogant piece of work. Instead of placing blame entirely with either one, it becomes clear that their marriage is one of complete incompatibility. This is evident in the passages when Amy looks for a country home and believes that Robert's interests match her own. She selects a small home in the heart of the country far away from palace life. Not surprising to anyone but Amy, Robert dismisses the house as a hovel and doesn't even stay a day.


Amy and Robert are so different that it's hard to understand why they got married in the first place. We are told that they were in love when they were wed and Amy still continues to be obsessed with him, putting friendships, her relationship with her bitter stepmother, and her own health at risk. Perhaps their marriage is a good reason for Elizabeth not to marry. She doesn't want to be that dependent on a man. Elizabeth sees who she could be if she married not just Robert but anyone else.

Amy clings to her Catholic faith as a balm to soothe her ache from her loveless marriage but also because the priest tells her what she wants to hear. He agrees with her opinion that Elizabeth is a whore and that Robert can never divorce her. When Robert tells Amy that he wants a divorce, she refused citing the Catholic prohibition against it. The Dudley marriage is one that has made both miserable and cannot end, as many observe, until one or the other is dead.

As she did with the Princes in the Tower, Gregory offers another potential solution to History's Mysteries. This one is "Who Killed Amy Dudley?" What is known is that Amy Dudley tumbled down a flight of steps, breaking her neck and killing her instantly. What is also known is that despite the opportunity, Robert Dudley did not marry Elizabeth. Instead their relationship cooled and Robert ultimately married Elizabeth's second cousin, Lettice Knolleys who bore a strong resemblance to the Queen. Elizabeth had other lovers including Robert's stepson, the Earl of Essex but when she died she had her last letter from Robert by her side.

The Virgin's Lover offers a possible answer to this mystery that also answers why the pair broke up. It takes into consideration Robert's ambitious interest in the throne and Elizabeth's unwillingness to surrender her hard won leadership over to anyone especially to someone who shows signs of making decisions on his own without consulting her though she is Queen. Robert wants the throne and for Elizabeth to give up her independence. Those are things that she cannot and will not surrender even for him. This leads to not only Amy's death but the inevitable end of their relationship.

The Virgin's Lover gives us an inside look at the early years of one of the most famous female monarchs in history to show us the woman underneath that reputation as well as the love that shaped her and the actions that led to the making of a great Queen.

Weekly Reader: Losing Gemma by Katy Gardner; The Ever Changing Nature Between The Reader and The Book



Weekly Reader: Losing Gemma by Katy Gardner; The Ever Changing Nature Between The Reader and The Book

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book featuring a protagonist in their 20's.


Spoilers (I can't stress this enough, BIG HUGE SPOILERS): I have a unique relationship with the novel, Losing Gemma by Katy Gardner. It was among the first books that I reviewed for the University of Missouri-St. Louis student newspaper, The Current and therefore one of the first books in which I reviewed for publication.

I still have the original review copy.

Because I read it so long ago at the age of 23-24, I was the same age as the deutragonists and felt like a contemporary. I was captivated by the adventures of Esther Waring and Gemma Harding, two college-age Englishwomen who long to flee from their lives in rural Stevenage and go backpacking in India. Like them, I was fascinated with the idea of international travel and often read enviously about students who worked abroad and participated in programs like Semester at Sea. I covered the concerts, lectures, and exhibits offered by UMSL's International Studies and longed to see these other countries for myself. Sure, I visited Italy and Greece in 1999 with Jefferson College's Educational Travel Group. Sure, I was an Air Force brat who lived in Germany and traveled cross country through the United States three times with my family, but I was thirsty for more.

That travel bug consumed me so much that when I first read Losing Gemma, I focused on the travel. I was captivated by how Gardner described every street, every forest, and every train station in India picturing the captivating setting in my head. I snorted with laughter as Esther and Gemma broke several basic traveler rules such as leaving their documents inside a locker and telling a total stranger about their travel plans instead of family members or the Embassy like all of the guidebooks and travel magazines tell you. I attributed that to the haste of travel and foolish naivety that Esther admits.

I understood the characters particularly the shy bookish Gemma being carried along by Esther, her more adventurous friend. I was Gemma, nervous and uncertain, but I wanted to be more like the bold active Esther. I wanted to be the girl who walked through Europe for a year, worked at various jobs to pay my way, and visited the places tourists never saw.

I was enchanted by the magical realism in which the duo and their eccentric new friend, Coral may have encounter a spiritual vision during their visit to Agun Mazir, a Muslim shrine. Then five years after her original trip to India, a more weathered sedate Esther, no longer the once brash intrepid traveler, returns and receives what could only be described as an experience akin to Enlightenment in learning the real purpose of her original journey. Looking for a spiritual identity and "comparison shopping" between faiths, this aspect of the book fascinated me as well.


Well that was almost 20 years ago. It is now 2020 and I am 42. I understand now that travel is not really what the book is about. Losing Gemma is still a good book, sort of. The aspects are still there: the travel, the spiritual journey, and interesting characters. Gemma and Esther are still there making the same mistakes and learning the same lessons. They didn't change.

What changed was me. I'm not the same college girl that I was when I reviewed the novel for the first time at The Current. I am no longer a contemporary. I am almost 20 years older than they are and now think of them like younger sisters or, dare I say it, daughters. I shake my head and roll my eyes in cynicism and irritation at the troubles that they endure, mostly that they bring on themselves because of their own thoughtless actions, reckless behavior, and egocentrisms. Their tour becomes less like a fulfilled goal and more like a journey of arrogance and assumption.


Admittedly, Esther realizes this herself. After all the opening paragraph explains, "This is the story of me and Gemma and how I lost her." Many times Esther calls herself out on her arrogance such as when Gemma wants to give money to a homeless girl and Esther warns her about that causing a decline in the country's economy citing an anthropology paper that she wrote in which she received an A. Five years later, when Esther returns to India, she sees homeless children and thinks of her youthful snobbery with shame.

She recalls the many locals who warn them not to go to Agun Mazir, which Esther slights as they go. Esther even pays no attention to her own common sense and instincts when after a fight, Esther leaves Gemma alone with Coral and then returns to find both girls gone and a body near the shrine.

Even the suggestion to go to Agun Mazir is one of recklessness. Instead of going to the usual touristy spots like the Taj Mahal or the beaches of Goa, Esther throws the travel book into the air and they will visit wherever the pages land on. Esther even admits, "I could have stopped it. I could have flipped a few pages and changed everything but in total ignorance. I let the book fly."


That is Esther's behavior throughout the book. She is youthful arrogance incarnate, the attitude one has in their early 20's fully grown but still immature. We read a few books, went to college, latched onto a cause and now we know everything about it. Come on, we've all been there. We knew everything and by the Gods, we expected the world to sit up and pay attention. Then, we got annoyed when it didn't.

There is nothing wrong with that passion and arrogance. It's there for a reason. It helps you understand the world and enables you to become an active participant in it.
There is also nothing wrong with backpacking travel. It helps open your eyes to another part of the world that you never would have seen.
Sometimes, those experiences can be channeled into activism or a career that inspires, leads, and learns about the ways to change the world. But that change must also come from within as well, understanding your role in the world and becoming more understanding of those around you.

That change never comes within Esther or rather it does, but too late. Instead of being a fully formed character, she is a symbol of that youthful energy: part of the world but not really understanding, accepting, or becoming involved in it. Instead she believes that visiting some out of the way local place, far from the tourist crowd for a few days, makes her a true citizen of the world. When all it does is just makes her another tourist.


Coral also becomes a symbol as well. She is a person who unlike Esther is more experienced about visiting India but she only accepts her superficial view of it. When we first meet her, she is running across the streets of Delhi, high, and we later learn that she stole Gemma's money belt. After befriending Esther and Gemma, Coral invites them to smoke marijuana and blathers on about "transbutation", "and letting your pranic energy" flow as someone who studies them without understanding what they mean. As they enter Agun Mazir, Coral wears fancy costumes and goes on about the spiritual energy within fire. She isn't interested in spirituality so much as she is interested in something new and different, something that shocks people. She is less like a budding guru and more like an excited kid playing dress up or a daredevil looking for the ultimate thrill.

Esther is right when she describes Coral as "getting off on Exotica" as is Gemma who at first is fascinated with Coral but then become irritated with "her elaborate costumes, frantic postures, tangled up bizarre thoughts, and foolish f#$@&d up fantasies about India." Coral becomes a stereotype and that's who she is supposed to be. If Esther is a symbol of the young tourist who studies a place or an ideal without really engaging with it, Coral is a symbol of the white tourist who is swept up into their own vision of what a place or experience is supposed to be like, perhaps seen through the lens of Hollywood films or books written by tourists. She really isn't interested in India because she is looking for Enlightenment or a sense of belonging. She is interested in India because it's cool and daring. She participates in rituals for the wrong reasons and she ends up paying the price for her assumption that she knows what she is doing.

Unlike the other two, Gemma is the most well rounded character. She is also a symbol of the soul who is sincerely looking for acceptance and belonging. However, there is a darkness in her journey as well as her final destination that cheapens that acceptance and makes one wonder how sincere she really is.

Esther often refers to Gemma in derogatory terms. She criticizes her friend's full figure, naivety, bookishness, and neediness. Esther empathizes with Gemma's sad childhood in which her father ran off with another woman and her depressed mother ignored her. Esther pities the young woman who was once the scholarly hope of their school but got stoned and failed her A Levels. Gemma was then rejected by universities so instead she stayed home and read all day while Esther got a Bachelor's in Anthropology from University of Sussex. Esther feels sorry for Gemma as she dates men out of her league including her latest, Steve, who is so far out of Gemma's league that Esther steals him. While Esther has grown to be annoyed by Gemma, in respect to their old friendship she remains her friend.

Once we enter Gemma's thoughts, we see that she's not as needy as she appears. She inwardly bad-mouths Esther and is full aware of Esther's romance with Steve. She laughs about how after months of hinting, she convinced Steve to get her a promise ring and manipulated Esther into inviting her to come to India. She is a sharper and stronger person than Esther gives her credit for and she is at first content to remain that way, carried along and inwardly snide but outwardly complacent.

When Gemma and Esther arrive in India, Gemma sees people like Zack, a guru whom she describes as "(her) angel." People who live without fear, she feels the sense of belonging that she always needed. Gemma's narration changes the focus from being a novel about a foolish and arrogant woman (Esther) who loses her best friend because of her foolishness and arrogance and instead becomes a novel about a lost and hopeless woman (Gemma) achieving maturity at the end of a spiritual journey. When Esther encounters Gemma five years later as the co-leader of a Buddhist ashram, stronger, braver, and better than she was, it should be a moment of triumph that she has achieved Enlightenment and is in a higher level spiritually. But is it a truly happy ending and is she really a better person?


First off there is Gemma's account of how she, Esther, and Coral parted ways. Her escape involves much deception and violence. She never feels remorse for any of it, considering it part of a higher plan. She also bears some responsibility for cutting ties off from friends and family without a word, considering those attachments as superficial. Third, she also hasn't changed much in her subtle manipulation. When she mentions that Zack runs the ashram, she can't resist adding that she lets him think he runs it.

Gemma is still an interesting character, but not a truly changed one. She is interested in what India did for her, and how it got her away from her family and moved her to becoming a leader in her own right. However, she hasn't truly let go of her personal attachments nor of her ego believing that the journey is all about her. She could come through her initial ego and become a better more enlightened leader. However, the darker possibility is that she sees the ashram followers as an extension of herself and that she has the makings of a cult with herself as the Goddess figure.


Losing Gemma is all about being in ones 20's and only half understanding the world and taking from it only what fits for you. It is about experimenting and finding one's path in life. It is about that arrogance of believing you know everything and assuming you are always right, and the shame when you learn that you are not. Above all it is about being in ones 30's and 40's and understanding that youth within oneself, laughing or crying about it, and accepting it as an inevitable part of growing into the person you were.


42 year old me accepts 23 year olds Gemma, Esther, and Julie. That being said, 42 year old me still wants to travel someday.








Weekly Reader: Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella; Cute Chick Lit With A Fascinating Ghost and Standard Protagonist




Weekly Reader: Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella; Cute Chick Lit With A Fascinating Ghost and Standard Protagonist

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book that has "20" or "Twenty" in the title


Spoilers: There are many Chick Lit stories in which the protagonist, usually a lovelorn woman stuck in a dead end job, receives magical assistance from a unique advisor whether it's a genie, a fairy, the ghost of a beloved movie star, or in the case of Sophie Kinsella's Twenties Girl, a deceased relative. The problem with most of these novels is that the unique advisor is so well written and fascinating that they end up being the best part of the book. The rest including the modern protagonist pale in comparison and the parts without them seem like filler.


Unfortunately, Twenties Girl firmly fits the rule rather than the exception. It tells the story of a young Londoner who is visited by the ghost of her deceased great aunt and makes all of the inevitable mistakes in romance, work, and friendships before learning the proverbial lesson and helping the ghost move on.


Lara Lington is having a rough time lately. She went into partnership with her friend, Nora, to become a corporate headhunter until Nora abandoned her. Lara's boyfriend, Josh, broke up with her and she is convinced that he still loves her. She feels intimidated by her famous Uncle Bill ("Yes the Bill Lington," Lara insists) who runs a successful chain of coffee shops and is peddling his Two Little Coins Seminars in which he offers the keys to success in which anyone can start, like him, with two little coins and a big dream.


Lara is already pretty miserable and when she is told that her 105 year old Great Aunt Sadie Lancaster has died and she has to attend the funeral. The funeral has a darkly comic tone as it is clear that no one had much contact with Great Aunt Sadie, nor was very close to her so no one particularly wants to be at her funeral. Lara's parents are there to assuage their guilt over not visiting her at her retirement home. Uncle Bill and his wife, Aunt Trudy are there to promote Bill's caring family man persona. Their daughter, Lara's cousin, Diamante to promote her fashion label and so Bill can pay for her charity boob job. (She's getting a boob job and then giving an interview afterwords-"half the proceeds of the interview go to charity.") Lara's sister, Tonya (Tonya and Lara? Hmm, someone loved Dr. Zhivago enough to name two sisters out of the female leads) is there to point out other people's miseries. Lara is practically dragged there by her parents when she would rather sit at home and try to save her flagging business and moan and whine about Josh.

The funeral is bound to be a brief, dull, impersonal one when Lara has an encounter that makes it less dull and way more personal. A dark haired woman in a lime green flapper dress appears only to Lara and bemoans about not having her favorite necklace. The woman is the ghost of Lara's Great Aunt Sadie, but as she looked when she was 23: a devil may care exuberant flapper. At first Lara doubts her imagination and mind, but after she finally comes to terms that Sadie is real and a ghost, she and Sadie strike a deal. Sadie needs her favorite necklace because when she wore it she "felt special." Lara needs help fixing the problems in her life. Lara will look for Sadie's necklace if Sadie helps Lara with her career and lovelife.


The novel sparkles whenever Sadie enters the scene. Kinsella did a great job of capturing the style of a prototypical flapper. She describes the fringe and bejeweled A-line dresses, short bob cuts, and the deco accessories perfectly. She also brilliantly recalls the slang such as "barney mugging" for sex, "gaspers" for cigarettes, and so on. Sadie is a blithe spirit who lives for the moment even after her moments have passed.


Sadie's backstory is revealed throughout the book and interests the Reader with the small doses that they receive. Sadie lived with conservative parents dismayed by her free spirited lifestyle and a brother who was killed in WWI. She had a best friend, Bunty, with whom Sadie shared hi-jinks like stealing cars, dancing to jazz, and getting in plenty of trouble. She also had a lover, Stephen, who was a dedicated artist and painted landscapes and nude portraits of Sadie. Her parents caught them and Stephen was sent away while Sadie was forced into a catastrophic and short lived marriage. Kinsella showed that despite her family's original perception of Sadie as "a million year old nobody," Sadie was an interesting person who lived an interesting life. Unfortunately, Kinsella did that so well that this Reader wonders why there weren't any flashbacks of Sadie's life or the book didn't take place exclusively in the 1920's and focus on Sadie.


Unfortunately, Sadie is merely a supporting character to a less developed protagonist. Lara does not have Sadie's spunk or ability to get past situations. In fact most of the time, she comes across as immature and whiny. After Josh breaks up with her, Lara constantly insists that they will still be together. She leaves voice mail messages and follows him. She has Sadie use some new found possession abilities to find out what were the reasons for their breakup and she acts according to those reasons. This is supposed to make Lara seem adorable but instead comes across as shrill and stalkerish.

She has some allegedly cute moments with a new love interest but they are mostly repetitive and follow the standard plotline of people saying and assuming the wrong thing just to add complications that we've read and seen many times. Sadie is the most interesting part of the book and it shows.


Lara only comes into her own twice in the novel. The first is when her former friend, Nora returns and tries to poach a client that Lara did most of the work on. Lara tells her off about abandoning her and lying about her experience in headhunting. Lara manages to start her own business with Sadie's help in finding clients and Lara's outlook on comparing to matchmaking, matching people with the perfect job.


The second time comes after Lara learns the truth about Sadie's necklace and what her true legacy was. Once she learns this, she wants to make right by Sadie and honor her the way she deserves. She calls out the person who robbed her of her legacy and stole her necklace to remove all traces of the robbery. She also creates a memorial for Sadie that is the perfect send off. A 1920's dress code is given and people laugh and drink champagne with a guzzle and a cry of "Tally-ho!" Just the way Sadie wanted.


Twenties Girl does provide a good theme of our family history and heritage being a part of us one that Lara finally understands. It's a good theme with Sadie as a memorable character to reveal it. But hidden inside a typical chick Lit novel with the typical feather brained lead, it doesn't stand a ghost of a chance.




New Book Alert: Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Crimes by Tony Knighton; Dark, Sharp, and Sinister Stories of Philadelphia's Criminal Classes



New Book Alert: Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Cruelties by Tony Knighton; Dark, Sinister, and Sharp Stories of Philadelphia's Criminal Class

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: Crime stories narrated by detectives are an enjoyable read but crime stories narrated by criminals are even more so. Instead of solving the crime, the stories concentrate on constructing the crime and their efforts to either abscond with the loot or avoid the law.


Tony Knighton's anthology, Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Crimes presents several stories of Philadelphia's less law abiding citizens. Some are funny, some are suspenseful. But all are fascinating looks at the dark side of human nature and how far desperate people will go to get their needs met.


Among the best stories are:


"Happy Hour"- This is a hilarious and moving story about a petty thief trying to avoid his many enemies. Bobby, a recovering alcoholic, can't resist making off with a fancy discarded coat in the dead of winter. The good news is the coat conveniently has thousands of unmarked bills enough to pay off Bobby's debts. The bad news is the coat belonged to one of a group of hired killers as he learns from the cell phone that they also left behind.

The plot moves along briskly as Bobby jumps from one place to another from his apartment, to the home of a drug dealer, to an A.A. Meeting and runs into fresh complications. There are some plot holes abound such as when Bobby has a clear chance to purchase a train ticket out of town, he doesn't take it and some tense moments such as when he hears that one of his neighbors was killed by his pursuers. Eventually, things take a darker turn when Bobby's desperation to avoid this situation turns deadly.


"The Road Trip"- In The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey's character, Verbal Kint, describes real will as doing what the other guy won't do. This brief gruesome story illustrates this concept of one killer out doing another.

The Narrator is already a piece of nasty work. He is in the country breaking into a house and killing the only resident. He stops to get fuel and supplies in one of those lonely diners that you know is going to lead to trouble. A diner customer encounters the Narrator. In a plot twist worthy of Stephen King, the new guy proves to be a real cut up. It is a sinister short story that builds on the suspense and lowers it with an effective Karmic twist on the hapless Narrator.


"Sunrise"-This one is definitely the outlier of the anthology. It deals with crime but it is set in the future where Philadelphia has been ruined by war and climate change. A father struggles to get his ailing son to a hospital before sunrise when the daylight could be potentially fatal.

The story shows how familial love and sacrifice can cause people to do desperate things. The Reader's sympathies are entirely with the father as he protects his son in this dystopian setting. He commits a few crimes in the story, but his motive for protecting and healing his son are never in doubt. Not to mention, the setting leaves enough interest for Knighton to continue writing other works set in this eco-unfriendly environment.


"The Session"-This story reflects the inside of a psychopath, one who hides his true deadly intentions beneath a cover of respectability no matter how thin that cover is. Harold, a convict, is in session with Donna, a court appointed psychiatrist, for a conditional release.

The story is entertaining in an eerie darkly comic way as Harold alternates between what he tells the psychiatrist and what he really thinks. Harold verbally compliments a former psychiatrist by saying that the doctor "helped (him) a lot." However, he mentally calls the psychiatrist "a fat drunk fastly approaching senility."

The plot leads to sinister creepy implications when Harold's request is granted and he can't resist an oh so subtle peek at Donna's address. The story is open ended but one can't help but fear about the potentially dangerous effects that will occur after Harold's release.


"As Long As You Can"-Instead of murder, this story concerns itself with con games and what happens when criminals try to outdo each other with brains rather than physical force.

Hank works at a call center where he convinces lonely seniors that he's their long lost grandson who's in a bad spot and could they send him a few thousand dollars to get out of it. Most of the story consists of Hank's explanation over how this scheme works and how he got involved. It's clever in a scoundrelous way as various hurdles are covered from avoiding Caller I.D. to how the cons take notes of the right terms and names. (You don't want to slip and call someone "Grandma" when she was always referred to as "Nana.") The call center is treated ironically like any typical law abiding profession as the workers sit in their cubicles and boast about their sales.

Hank tries to outdo the others by calling his marks off the clock and asking for extra money. He is the type of crook that thinks he is so clever and can't be caught. His cockiness makes his downfall even better as he is outsmarted by a mark that is more than aware of the con and plays it better than him.


Tony Knighton's anthology may show that crime doesn't always pay. But it is always enjoyable to read.

New Book Alert: Warrior Won by Meryl Davids Landau; An Enlightening Novel About Overcoming Stress With Yoga


New Book Alert: Warrior Won by Meryl Davids Landau; An Enlightening Novel About Overcoming Stress With Yoga




By Julie Sara Porter

PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book with a pun in the title (Warrior I)



Spoilers: In Meryl Davids Landau's previous novel, Downward Dog Upward Fog, Lorna Crawford discovered the key to dealing with the stress of an unfulfilled job and an emotionally abusive mother through Yoga. In the follow up, Warrior Won, Lorna uses Yoga to deal with a mostly positive but no less hectic life.


Lorna's life is miles above where she was before. She has a good job promoting an app which specializes in health screening for early signs of melanoma. She is happily married to Don, who is just as dedicated to Yoga as she is. She is the mother of Lilah, an energetic toddler, and is expecting another whom she and Don have nicknamed Deuxie. She has a close circle of female friends who encourage her Spiritual practice while implementing their own. As for her mother, well, she's working on that.


Lorna receives help from her Yoga sessions which help her feel more centered as she deals with an albeit satisfying but still complicated life. Negative stress returns to Lorna's life when she faints one day. Concerned what that could mean for Deuxie or herself, Lorna goes in for tests. She learns some distressing news that causes her to despair for the future of her unborn child and challenges her need to be centered in her life.

Warrior Won is essentially a manual on how to practice Yoga and implement meditation which admittedly has an interesting protagonist to guide the Reader through the process.

A very helpful facet to Lorna's character is that she demonstrates that centering is an ongoing process. Sure, she has coping mechanisms with her practises, friends, and family. But sometimes those mechanisms can only work so well when it comes to unexpected bad news or ongoing problems that leave long lasting scars.


Lorna's still-fractured relationship with her mother remains a bone of contention in her life. When she and her mother encounter each other, Lorna has to bite her lip to keep from answering back. However, she still feels like the little girl who had to endure the constant criticism and favoritism shown towards her sister.

In one passage, Lorna tries a meditative exercise in which she described her mother using positive affirmations in alphabetical order. She stops at F realizing that she can't think of anything else. Her mother's emotional abuse is still a hard thing for Lorna to recover.


Lorna also relies on Yoga and meditation in dealing with the unexpected particularly Deuxie's condition. It is truly heart tugging when Lorna and Don let the full impact of Deuxie's illness and impending short life sink in. They struggle with their practice, but realize that they can enjoy the time that they will have with their future son.

The book is filled with advice on how one can start their own Yoga practises. Landau (and Lorna) describe step by step the various poses such as Eagle (standing on one foot, arms crossed) and the Warrior (standing up, legs spread out, and arms extended). Not only the poses are described clearly but so are the benefits one gets from doing them such as a clear head, a calm demeanor, and a strength to handle the situations in life.


Other facets appear in Warrior Won. Lorna, Don, and Lilah have family Yoga sessions and meditations in which they set intentions and goals. Lorna's friends give her a Blessingway, a shower that focuses on the mother as well as the baby. Lorna and Don go to a retreat that combines Eastern and Western spiritual practises so well that Lorna reconciles with the Catholic faith that her mother once forced upon her. Books written by the likes of Eckhart Tolle, Esther and Jerry Hicks, Corrie ten Book, Teresa of Avila and others are recommended. These suggestions not only provide spiritual enlightenment for the characters but for the Readers as well.


Warrior Won is the perfect novel to help anyone begin their practice or who are well into their own and need a little encouragement to continue.

New Book Alert: Sympathetic People by Donna Baier Stein; Moving Emotional Stories Reveal Various Hidden Chambers of the Human Heart





New Book Alert: Sympathetic People by Donna Baier Stein; Moving Emotional Stories Reveal Various Hidden Chambers of the Human Heart




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book that you meant to read in 2019


Spoilers: Donna Baier Stein's anthology Sympathetic People is filled with love stories, but not love in the traditional sense. There are romances but the stories also involve love between friends, family members, or parents and children. Stein's writing explores love in many forms.

However, they should not be mistaken for happy ending stories where love conquers all. Instead the character's emotions often compel them to do reckless, obsessive, and sometimes hurtful things in the name of love or what they perceive as love. In fact, many of the stories feature conflicts between the character's individuality and personal needs against those of the objects of their affection.

Sympathetic People explores the depth of emotion found in the human heart and how love and hate can be the two strongest most similar emotions.

All of the stories are moving, emotional, and character driven. The best are the following:


Versions-This story explains where the title of the anthology comes from in a haunting opening paragraph that summarizes the theme carried out in each story. It says, "We are all sympathetic people. Individually or two by two. None of us has ever resisted a midnight call from a witch-held friend, sat while a pearl-haired senior stood in the aisle of a bus, or shoplifted anything but books and that was many years ago."

This story focuses on that concept of being sympathetic and caring to people even at the cost of one's own personal happiness. The Narrator is in her second comfortable marriage when she learns that her husband's first wife is coming to town and needs help finding a place to live.

The Narrator's internal conflict focuses on how people see others in different stages in their lives and how those perspectives shape how we always think of that person. The Narrator thinks of herself as the version that her first husband saw: the free spirited artist living below her means. She then remembers how her current husband sees her: as a wealthy matron flipping through catalogs and selecting furniture for her upscale home. Her kindness towards Nina is a way of reconciling the woman that she was in that desperate situation and the woman she is with the resources that she can use to help.

The Secret of Snakes-This story provides the Reader with a venomous racer snake as a symbol of the decline of a marriage. Arlene is snake sitting for her son while he is away at camp. Meanwhile, Arlene has to watch as her husband practically flaunts his affair with a younger assistant and Arlene contemplates an affair
of her own.

The racer snake becomes a symbol of Arlene's repression. As long as she is following the instructions, Arlene has control over the snake just as she does with her marriage. Unfortunately, human (and snake) nature can not always be bound by rules. In one violent encounter with the racer, Arlene's repression ends and she gives into the rage and passion that she kept hidden.


In Heraklion- An SNL sketch features a parody commercial in which people are encouraged to visit Italy but the pitch people remind you that the trip won't make you feel comfortable with your body. It won't give you marriage counseling and you may go hiking but the vacation to Italy will not turn you into a person who likes hiking. In other words, a vacation might be fun and relaxing, but you are still the same person and sometimes the problems and perception that you have follow you on your trip.

In her story, "In Heraklion", Stein gives us beautiful evocative description of Crete's sunny beaches, historic ruins, and locals who cater to tourists. However, she also gives us two women who are visiting Crete as one of them is recovering from a doomed relationship with a married man.

It's an interesting dichotomy comparing the pleasant setting with the confused and neurotic characters that inhabit it. The story suggests that emotions can't be denied and worries and frustrations will remain no matter how beautiful the scenery is.


Hindsight- This story carries irony in which a woman recalls a long friendship that she and her husband had with another couple that ended in betrayal and hurt feelings.

The friendship between the two couples is described with various small moments such as the two women getting to know one another while their husbands worked on their dissertations or an Independence Day party where the friends lit sparklers before all hell broke loose. The Reader also sees how the changing times of the 1960's-'70's affected the marriages as the Narrator's husband published his Civil War book and became absorbed in work and her friend, Jessie, became involved in feminist politics. Seeing the decline in Jessie's marriage, the Narrator does everything that she can to hold onto her husband.

Years later, the Narrator reflects on the choices that she, Jessie, and their husbands made and how they all ended up in the same place. In one final ironic twist, it becomes clear to the Reader, though maybe not to the Narrator, that her memories of Jessie are clearer and more pronounced that those of her husband and that she might miss Jessie more than she is willing to admit.


The Jewel Box- I must admit as a native St. Louisian, I get a delight whenever my city is mentioned and this is no exception. One of the reasons I love this story is because it shouts out to one of my favorite places: Forest Park, a place with many wonderful attractions. One is The Jewel Box. The Jewel Box is a greenhouse filled with the loveliest flowers. It is not very well known and doesn't receive near as much local attention as Forest Park's other attractions or the larger Missouri Botanical Gardens on Shaw Blvd. However, The Jewel Box is a sight to behold and one to remember.

This is the memory that Sarah tries to give to her ailing grandmother, Nini. As Nini lays in the hospital, Sarah fills her with childhood memories particularly the trip the duo took to St. Louis from Kansas City.

Sarah describes The Jewel Box exquisitely in beautiful terms such as "There were tropical trees, waterfalls, and fountains, and below us, golden pheasants and flamingos flashed among the bushes and streams. In the trees, there were scarlet Ibis. A touch pool with turtles and crayfish." Her descriptions of The Jewel Box create an image of a fairyland of childhood nostalgia that Sarah longs to reach with her grandmother. She wants Nini to hold onto the young woman that she was, but also wants to recapture the child that Sarah was if only through words.

Lovers #1-5 or Why I Hate Kenny Rogers-A first person narrator can make or break a short story and this case, surely makes it. A woman describes her past romantic relationships in an attempt to explain what happened last Sunday when she had sex for the first time in five years since her divorce.

The Narrator has a frank, rambling, funny way of describing her former lovers such as #1 who she refers to "as the first man (she) really fell in love with who turned out to be gay and killed himself." She uses that distinction in the strangest places such as when she describes him then suddenly remembered, oh yeah, he used to wear white tennis shoes. (As though his sexuality, suicide, and the white tennis shoes were somehow linked.)

A woman being so honest about her past sexual history might come across as victimized or provocative, but this woman's narration allows her to come across as blunt, world weary, and self-depreciating with a sardonic sense of humor that is aware of her shortcomings. She is aware that she is reducing these men to numbers instead of names, but she cautions that she doesn't hate these men, or any men for that matter. They were very nice, "but sometimes there's a gut reaction (she has) that can feel like hate, or the neighbor of it, like it did last Sunday."

As the Narrator recounts the various lovers over the years, she recalls how much she changed in her interactions about what she received from them and they got from her: #1: a sexless innocent friendship, #2: a quick passionate sexually charged fling, #3: a relationship based on intellectual quality and ideals, #4: an intense affair with a married man, and #5: the one she married that she considered her true love and not a fantasy but was rocked by personality disorders. They changed as she aged, her lovers representing herself in different stages of life.

The subtitle comes from an NPR interview where country/pop singer Kenny Rogers talked about his six previous marriages and said that he loved all of his wives. He also spoke of his politics and how he befriended Presidents on both sides of the political spectrum saying "that he loves concepts more than people." The Narrator fumes that she hates that attitude about certain men, but can't ignore how similar she is to Roger's words. Rogers reflects the worst things about herself and she knows it too. She too loves the concept of true love more than the men. She is aware that she has been in a cycle and that is hard for her to break free.

However, her encounter last Sunday with Randy, (not #6, significantly he has a name), suggests that she is ready to get past her rocky romantic past and finally have a lasting committed relationship.
Y
Sympathetic People is a beautiful anthology that causes the Reader to look inside the human heart. Some of what they find might be painful, some pleasing, but always memorable.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

New Book Alert: The Voyage of Gethsarade: Book Two of the Everwood Chronicles by M.G. Claybrook; A Cynical Hard-Edged Take for Adults Disguised As Cute Children's Book



New Book Alert: The Voyage of Gethsarade: Book Two of the Everwood Chronicles by M.G.Claybrook; A Cynical Hard-Edged Tale of Heroism For Adults Disguised As Cute Children's Book

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews



Spoilers: On the surface, M.G. Claybrook's book, The Voyage of Gethsarade looks like a children's book. The cover features bright adorable creatures in vibrant colors. The plot involves cute little squirrels, pirate rats, buried treasure, and adventure on the high seas.


However, if the Reader looks closer, they will find a book that is written for adults similar to Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Animal Farm, Watership Down, or Maus. Adult Readers will find a hard edged cynical satire of heroism, fame, and the lengths some will go to for money and to make their names heard disguised as a cute adventure story about talking squirrels.


The story begins with Sangareth, a flying squirrel/sea captain who has a reputation as a daring adventuror and hero. He is travelling with his crew, his wife, Alya, and his and Alya's infant son. He is journaling a mysterious message when the ship is overrun by pirats, rats that are pirates (get it?), led by the sinister Barrogan Black. Alya manages to get the little one safely away on a lifeboat before the ship is overrun and she and Sangareth are drowned trying to escape. Meanwhile, their squirrel pup is pulled ashore by Lady Ridroga, a kindly elderly ground squirrel who raises the pup as her own and names him Gethsarade.


Years later, Gethsarade is a struggling musician who writes and performs songs about a legendary figure of his own creation called Vincent Poppaldi. As he flees from creditors, town roughs, and a non-paying boss, Gethsarade stows away on a ship that happens to have pirats and of course the pirats are led by Barrogan Black. (The narrative questions this contrived coincidence so the Reader doesn't have to.)

Gethsarade fights his captivity with the help of Gyr and Tiburtine, a pair of stage magicians/con artists. He spins the fiction that he is Vincent Poppaldi, leader of the Free Army now in exile. So his new friends believe him to be Vincent, a hero, and help him escape from the pirat's prison.

After the pirats are removed from the ship, Gethsarade and the boys find a journal which speaks of a place called Hesperia where squirrels can fly and there is an ultimate treasure as well as a prophecised hero who will save Hesperia from danger. Well, there are three broke squirrels with nothing to do, a new ship, and little cash so on they go to Hesperia.


There is a sense of humor to this book that adults will get but kids won't. Gethsarade's beloved guitar's name, Lucinda, will go over kid's heads but music savvy adults will acknowledge the tribute to B.B. King's special lady, Lucille. One character exclaims "Great Grendel's Cabbages!" and Tiburt boasts that he kissed a squirrel and "(he) liked it." (I apologize for the Katy Perry earworm. You have no idea how much I am paying for it.)

This is also a book that isn't afraid to throw out salty language or hint without subtlety what pirates like to do to their female captives. It cannot be stressed enough how adult this book is despite the juvenile exterior.


The biggest commentary is on heroism and the reputation that comes with it. An ongoing line from one of Gethsarade's Vincent songs is repeated: "All righteous revolutions always begin the same way-by not being paid." Suggesting that despite the ideals and vilifying and heroification of the people involved, these struggles are based on the basic needs for money. In war and revolution, no one is innocent because everyone wants the same things.


That is the prevailing attitude found in The Voyage of Gethsarade. The line between heroism and villainy is seriously blurred. No one is particularly guilty, because no one is particularly innocent. The only difference is how bloodthirsty and murderous characters will get to achieve their means.

When Gethsarade, Gyr, and Tiburt encounter other prisoners, they argue whether to set them free or sell them to slavery. Later Barrogan Black uses this conversation to manipulate the former prisoners to join him. He lets mistrust grow which had already been planted by the actions of Gethsarade and his friends.


Things become more complicated when Gethsarade and the others reach Hesperia. This may seem like "the typical outsider is mistaken for hero of legend and becomes hero for real" plot seen in such works as The Three Amigos and Galaxy Quest. However, the behavior of the Hesperians calls that plot into question. For one thing, there are questions if there even was a legend or a hero to speak of. Gethsarade is mistaken for Sangareth by the Hesperians and is hailed as a hero by many. However, the comments made by some including the Great Father Tadwick, the leader of Hesperia and his daughter, Amalie suggest that Sangareth was not as heroic as he seemed.

Further complicating things is that if Gethsarade is not who he pretends to be, and neither was Sangareth, then neither is anyone else. This confession is revealed later when Gethsarade comes clean about his real identity throwing over his previous presumed monikers of Vincent Poppaldi and Sangareth. After he confesses, it is revealed that Tiburt, the Great Father, and Amalie are hiding secrets as well. The book turns into a den of cons who strive to outdo each other and need to admit the truth before they are worthy to recognize treasure when they see it.


While honesty becomes an important plot point, there is also value in the legend as well as recognizing one's worth and identity. This is realized in a bizarre philosophical conversation that Gethsarade has with a lonely shark. The shark does not realize what he is until Gethsarade tells him. He even asks how can he know he's a shark unless someone calls him one? Likewise, how can anyone know that they are a hero, unless someone calls them one?

There are many times that the narration calls this theme forward. The first person narrator, who is revealed at the end of the book, chronicles Gethsarade's adventure well aware that he must separate reality from legend. In the opening reveals how when he met Gethsarade, he believed his stories about being the leader of the Free Army and then spends the rest of the book dissecting the legend that the narrator believed. However, the final chapter presents two alternate endings: one where treasure is found, heroes are honored, lovers are united, and more adventures lay just beyond the horizon. The other ending is less cozy, darker, more violent, and not as tidy. The narrator asks the Reader which ending they want to believe?

There is value in honesty and knowing heroes weren't perfect. That often they made decisions that weren't planned and made by luck, coincidence, or by fast talking. Sometimes they were looking out for their own basic needs or selfishness that they were like us.

However, the legends are necessary too. They are a part of our cultures, but they also represent the people that we want to be. These stories are spread not necessarily because they are the world, but they reflect the world as we want it to be. We want to believe that the hero will defeat the villain in a one on one battle, even when we know that he won't or that the hero is equally as conniving as the villain. Gethsarade realizes this when he reconciles his real self with the legend that he and others created and the Narrator realizes this when he chronicles both truth and legend, leaving the resolution up to the Reader.


Like any children's book for adults, The Voyage of Gethsarade, asks difficult questions of the Reader underneath the cheerful facade of a book with talking animals. It challenges the traditional children's takes of heroes and villains, but asks why we need them in the first place.