The Lindens by Barney Jeffries; Lovely History of a House and Its People

The Lindens by Barney Jeffries; Lovely History of a House and Its People 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Barney Jeffries’ The Lindens is similar to Edward Rutherfurd’s Epic Historical Fiction novels like Sarum, London, and New York. Like Rutherfurd, Jeffries covers a large cast of characters for an extensive period of time in a specific location. This book covers approximately 150 years of a house in Marshmead, England called The Lindens.

The Lindens was built in 1885 by rising businessman Arnold Cann for his family. The various characters that live there are an eclectic group of people over the years who have their own rich and captivating stories to tell. There's Tessa Hobson, a highly intelligent milkmaid with an advantageous marriage, Henry Cook, a WWII evacuee who acquires a love of birds, Irene Cotter who is contemplating leaving her abusive marriage, Arthur and Eleanor Aldridge, a hippie couple who weigh their next steps after their successful children's book series comes to an end, The Blakes, a multigenerational family that has an eventful Christmas season with plenty of emotional baggage, Veronika Lambert, a Slovakian immigrant who is faced with xenophobic neighbors, and Marsha Wood, whose investigation into The Lindens and its residents brings all of the various characters together.

Like any good Historical Fiction novel about a particular space, Jeffries personifies The Lindens so that the house becomes a character in its own right, in fact the central character. Its solid brick exterior, gabled windows, and bay windows suggest a stable protectorate for those who live there. The four bedrooms, indoor bathroom, two smaller servant rooms, drawing room, cellar, lawn, walled garden, stables, coach house, and orchard reveal The Lindens as a home of tremendous wealth but restraint in showing it off. The various touches that are added over the years such as the row of lime trees, the pond, built-in swimming pool, fountain gardens, and additions give the home different traits and characteristics that are found within each family and over the generations. 

In general The Lindens is a house that can very quickly become a home. It is beautiful, stately, charming, steady, ornate, proud, imposing, warm, and inviting. It holds the various memories, voices, personalities, behaviors, triumphs, tragedies, loves, and losses of the people who lived there.

Besides capturing The Lindens’ many facets and changes, Jeffries also captures the various characters’ individualities and complexities. A truly insurmountable and impressive feat considering the large cast that covers hundreds of years of English history. There are many well written characters from different backgrounds, goals, personality traits, experiences, and memories that surround the book. Jeffries created a memorable ensemble.

Tessa Hobson starts the book out strong. She is a dairy maid from a lower class family, but instantly shows her vast intelligence that is beyond what most people think of her. She captures the eye of The Lindens’ heir, Roger Cann, as he reads Romantic poetry out loud. Tessa is amused that it appears he is reading out loud to the cows. This gesture becomes a running gag between the couple as they joke that they met when “Roger read Keats to the cows.” This moment of literary connection leads to others as Tessa reveals her own literary interests from Thomas Hardy, to the Romantics are as vast as Roger’s.

Tessa however isn’t just verbally intelligent, she reveals herself to be brilliant in numbers by keeping track of her family finances and tallying the gallons of milk that are collected and distributed. She also has an entrepreneurial mind as she has plans to modernize the Cann’s dairy farm and far reaching goals to see those plans through. It’s no surprise that Roger’s father, Arnold recruits Tessa as the farm’s manager and bucks tradition by putting a woman in charge of a growing business that ends up a success.

The importance of knowledge and learning is spread throughout the centuries as the characters receive opportunities to learn new things, express that knowledge in different ways, and pass that knowledge to others. One of those characters is Henry Cook, a boy from London taken in as an evacuee by Tessa in her old age. Henry gains a love of nature as he explores the gardens, the trees, the orchards, and especially the birds. Tessa and Henry bond through their bird watching trips where he learns to identify the various bird species that surround The Lindens.

This love of nature continues throughout Henry’s life as he becomes a respected ornithologist who writes a series of books about birds in England. In old age, he revisits the Lindens with his family and cries tears of joy as he locates the current avian inhabitants of the estate, no doubt descendants of the birds that he knew when he was a boy. He also passes this knowledge and love of nature to the young people that accompany him like his grandson, Laurence Wood, Laurence’s wife, Aleesha, and Aleesha’s sister, Marsha.

Besides knowledge, The Lindens becomes a therapeutic location that helps its residents and visitors explore their creativity and individuality. Arthur and Eleanor Aldridge wrote and illustrated The Brixton Bunnies, a series of satirical children’s books that also appeal to adults. They received plenty of inspiration, fame, wealth, and made their voices and opinions heard through these books. But they landed in a rut and felt the series ran its course. Buying the Lindens gives Arthur some much needed inspiration for his next project: a series of serio-comic stories and novels about life in the country. 

However, creativity and the results of that creativity can be all-consuming. The Aldridges were once united in working on The Brixton Bunnies as a duo, but since moving to The Lindens, their lives veer away from each other. Eleanor is enamored with this country home and continues to illustrate adaptations of children’s classics. Despite writing about the country, Arthur is interested in expanding his writing interests and his horizons. He wants to travel, see new places, and meet new people, including other women. Not surprisingly, these differences become insurmountable and the couple realize that their marriage has to come to an end which results in trauma for their son, Felix. He goes through a series of problems in his life including addiction, depression, constant relocation, and frequent job dissatisfaction before he returns to The Lindens to find a peace of mind and his own creativity and voice. 

The Lindens is a location of coming and going and is different things to different people. For Irene Cotter and her son, Eric, the house is a beautiful prison that stands as a symbol of their captivity by an abusive husband and father. The only way that they can achieve any freedom is to leave it. For Veronika Lambert, The Lindens is a symbol of freedom as she flees her troubled home country to a place of security and comfort. 

The Lindens is also a place of nostalgia among and is a place to come back to and relive a carefree innocent childhood. One of the best chapters that illustrate this is when the family of Julia and Glen Blake are reunited for the winter holidays. The parents and their three children come to terms with their adult struggles and conflicts while retaining those youthful memories, competitions, arguments, and family ties. The oldest daughter, Alex, has a high powered white collar career but is consumed with loneliness, envy, and alcoholism. Their only son, Robin and his wife, Kelly are at odds because of their different parenting styles towards their infant twins. Meanwhile Ruthie, the youngest, is concerned whether her family will accept her girlfriend, Marsha.

It’s worth noting that the majority of people who receive the house are not direct immediate descendants or heirs. It isn't primarily a home that is passed from parent to child. Nephews inherit from aunts and uncles. In-laws receive it instead of blood relatives. Mostly, families purchase the home from previous tenants. Most of the characters are not related by blood, nor do they arrive or leave the Lindens with the comfort of a wide ancestry which tell them that this space is and will always be theirs by birth. Instead they are united by their connections to the house and to each other. 

The various characters are drawn together by an investigation conducted by Marsha. Her curiosity about this place and its inhabitants opens a wide circle among them. Some purchase The Lindens from others. Some marry or become romantically involved with members of the other families. Visitors return to this beautiful house that once held their pasts. Even those who are long deceased are shouted out by current inhabitants visiting their graves or recognizing their contributions to the house. 

It’s a wide circle that is centered around this one space that meant so many things to so many people. The people that dwelled within, the characteristics and traits that were included, the memories and connections that are formed, the history, its current life, and the future generations are what turns this house into a home.

House of Grace by Patricia M. Osborne; Finding Grace and Strength Through Adversity and Change

 House of Grace by Patricia M. Osborne; Finding Grace and Strength Through Adversity and Change

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum in this review but I can't make any promises. Please read at your own discretion. 

One thing that can be said about the life of Grace Granville, the protagonist of Patricia M Osborne’s Historical Fiction novel, House of Grace is that it certainly wasn't dull and conflict free. This is a novel starring a captivating woman and is full of passion, ambition, change, economic rises and falls, love lost and won, triumph and tragedies, and deep emotional pain and joy. 

Grace begins the book as a 16 year old schoolgirl at an affluent boarding school in Brighton. She loves it because she can escape from her abusive, domineering, entitled, and wealthy parents, hang out with her best friend Katy Gilmore, and design and create clothing as she aspires to be a fashion designer. While visiting Katy’s family, she is drawn to Katy's cousin, Jack, a coal miner. After she is unable to continue her education or pursue a career in fashion, Grace considers marrying Jack to her parent's protests, threats to cut her off, and forced courtship with a more prestigious suitable man. To get out of this situation, she makes a reckless decision that draws her away from her parents and into Jack’s arms and life.

The book is divided into two parts and the tone changes dramatically to reflect that shift. The first part is a romantic drama with some lighthearted moments as Grace demonstrates how out of her element that she sometimes is in a middle to working class environment. The second part is more of a family tragedy as Grace is faced with various struggles and heartbreak.

Grace goes through great changes that alter her mindset and test her will. For example, while visiting Katy and Jack’s family, she has a hard time getting used to servants and employers talking to each other on a friendly basis and using first names. She also recognizes some of her own snobbishness after she carelessly mocks Jack and his friend’s old clothing before they are introduced. She is never intentionally cruel but realizes that her sheltered insulated upbringing did not give her much of an opportunity to interact with different people or provide her with the tools to earn a living with little money. 

Grace sees something greater with Katy and Jack’s family than she had with her own. In her past, Grace had a family that withheld affection and parents who treated her and her sister like commodities to be educated and then married off. With the Gilmores, she sees a natural warmth and kindness, a family that she would like to be a part of instead of her own. This culminates in a dramatic moment when Grace is disowned and disinherited by her birth family and she is taken in by the Gilmores. She is now among people who might be inferior to her parents in class and social status, but are superior to them in love and kindness.

One of the strongest themes in this book is change and whether a person can adjust and adapt to them. Adaptability is one of Grace’s strongest gifts. She has to reinvent herself a number of times throughout the book and survive change and hardship. 

In the second half of the book, Grace is at her lowest point emotionally. She suffers a devastating loss that changes her circumstances forever and is faced with a cruel choice. It is a difficult time of intense grief made worse by this heart wrenching choice. However, Grace somehow manages to find her inner strength and resources to not only survive but thrive and succeed. 

House of Grace is the kind of novel that alternates between sadness and happiness. It can make a Reader cry on one page then make them applaud on the next. Like its main character, this book is truly a work of grace. 

Murder Makes Waves (Jack and Frances Mysteries) by Carmen Radtke; Charming Couple In Murder Mystery On The High Seas

 

Murder Makes Waves (Jack and Frances Mysteries) by Carmen Radtke; Charming Couple In  Murder Mystery On The High Seas

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Frances Palmer and Jack Sullivan are the current heirs to those crime solving duo of lovers of the past like Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, The Thin Man’s Nick and Nora Charles, Moonlighting’s David Addison and Maddie Hayes, Hart to Hart’s Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, Bones’ Temperance Brennan and Seely Booth, Castle’s Richard Castle and Kate Beckett, and Miss Scarlet and The Duke’s Eliza Scarlet and William “Duke” Wellington (some have argued Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson). Jack and Frances are the stars of Carmen Radtke’s Jack and Frances Mysteries and its current volume, Murder Makes Waves. 

Jack is a nightclub owner and WWI veteran in 1931, Adelaide, Australia. Frances is the assistant to her uncle, Salvatore “Sal” Bernardo, a magician and vaudevillian. The engaged couple and Uncle Sal are invited to visit Jack's mother in England via SS Empress of the Sea. What should be a peaceful voyage becomes fatal as one of the passengers, Lawrence Vaughn is murdered during a masquerade ball and Evie, a singer and dancer that the couple befriended, is accused of the crime. 

Jack and Frances are certainly the best part of the novel. They sparkle with wit, observation, persistence, and an old world charm that can be found in Historical Cozy Mysteries. They are the types who brilliantly counter each other in personality, temperament, and sleuthing style to make a great team.

Frances is the outgoing, spirited, vivacious one. Her natural charm and empathy allows her to bond instantly with strangers as she does with Evie and various other people on the boat. As a performer, she is able to play certain roles to glean information and ferret out the criminal. 

Frances is from a working class background so many of her observations are based on common sense wisdom and street savviness. She is the kind of woman who thrives in the 1920’s and ‘30’s, a time period that allows women to be free, independent, and outspoken.

Frances is the color flying around in circles, while Jack is the steady pole that keeps them anchored. His staid but paternal demeanor reveals the trust and loyalty that someone in trouble needs, such as when Merryweather, a young steward, is wrongfully accused of theft. His dry wit and observation allows him to notice details like another person's behavior or clues that other people miss. As a nightclub owner, his organizational and leadership skills allow him to put the details together to find a conclusion. 

Jack’s experience as a war veteran acquainted him with the darker aspects of human nature and survival instincts that desperate people form. While he is Conservative in some respects such as wanting marriage and a home, he is open minded enough to accept others points of view, especially in these modern times.

The rest of the characters are a pretty colorful cast. Uncle Sal is a delightful comic relief, a charming, bombastic ham who probably is looking for stage scenery to chew. His romance with Mildred, another passenger, is both humorous and heartwarming.

 While on the ocean liner, the trio meet a stunning array of wealthy dowagers, dim upperclassmen, devious debutantes, and sassy showgirls, characters who would be just as at home in a PG Wodehouse short story as they would in an Agatha Christie novel. 

In fact, Frances herself makes the comparison when she observes Mildred with her nephew Tom. However Mildred is not the shrieking harpy that is Wodehouse's Aunt Agatha. Instead she is a warm, earthy, cool aunt more like Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Dahlia. While Tom has his naive dizzy moments worthy of Wooster, he actually is also quiet and has his own moments of intelligence.

Other characters also have interesting moments. Lawrence starts out as a popular lady's man until his darker, more nefarious deeds are uncovered revealing a narcissistic sociopathic soul underneath. Evie plays the flighty effervescent vivacious flapper but she also shows great vulnerability about her predicament. Other characters have great moments which reveal much about their public personas and inner selves.

Murder Makes Waves is a worthy volume for lovers of Historical Fiction especially set in the 1920’s and 30’s, Cozy Mysteries, and any type of novel with a charming thrill seeking witty and highly romantic duo at the forefront.

Cerberus: The Sheriff, The Gimp, and Queen of The Underworld (Founders Universe) by Chad Miller; Go West Ancient Olympians

Cerberus: The Sheriff, The Gimp, and Queen of The Underworld (Founders Universe) by Chad Miller; Go West Ancient Olympians

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: 

First, I apologize for the derogatory term to describe a person with leg injuries. It is in the title and will only be used in that context. 

What can be more interesting than a retelling of Greek Mythology? How about a retelling of Greek Mythology complete with cowboy hats, six shooters, showdowns, saloons, and lots of gunfights?

That's what you get when you read Cerberus: The Sheriff, The Gimp, and The Queen of The Underworld by Chad Miller. It retells the story of the Ancient Greek pantheon as a Western. It's a unique interpretation that borrows heavily from its original source and is able to turn it around in new and interesting ways.

Ari is a gunslinger who has been disabled and disfigured since birth. He was abandoned as an infant and was raised in isolation by Zeke, a mysterious benefactor. As an adult, Ari has a large killing record and an unquenchable thirst for violence and vengeance against a world that despised and abandoned him since birth. He receives messages from Zeke informing him of the various enemies that he wants Ari to kill. Along the way, he faces opposition from Sheriff Posey and Deputy Leena, the law in the land. Auntie Phyllis controls the brothels, thieves, outlaws, and scallywags in town and has her own vengeance to gain on this mysterious gunslinger/assassin. As Ari’s kill count grows higher, his various enemies are forced to put their heads together to fight their common foe. But once united they may find their common foe is not who they thought.

Cerberus has a lot of fun with the “Olympian Gods and Goddesses Go West” premise. The characters are recognizable not only by their role in a traditional Western but also as members of the Greek Olympian pantheon. For example Herman the gregarious telegraph operator who loves gossip is easily recognizable in his ancient form as Hermes the swift-footed Trickster and messenger god. Who is that beautiful buxom lady emerging from her shell to flirt and spend time with the fellas for a brief time and for money? That’s no lady, that's Annie, the classic hooker with a heart of gold counterpart of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty. Those twins that are consummate warriors, handy with bows and arrows and his dark solitary nature contrasts with her sunny more humanistic personality? They can’t be anyone else but Artemis and Appolonia, outlaws and gender swapped counterparts of Artemis, Goddess of the Moon and Hunt and Apollo God of the Sun and various other attributes including Music, Poetry, and Healing. If you are ill or injured there is no one better to go to than Applius, town doctor since he is the current incarnation of Ascelipus, the God of Healing. 

Because of this connection to Greek mythology, it’s easy to see where the various plot points are going. When Aunt Phyllis, Queen of the Underworld, has her eyes on Phillip, the handsome young son of Demetrius, a prosperous farmer whose crops feed the town, it's not hard to recognize the parallels between them and Hades, Persephone, and Demeter respectively. It’s also a given that Phillip will be pulled into Phyllis’ service, an irate Demetrius will threaten to burn his crops to the ground if he doesn’t get his son back, and the three will work together on an arrangement where Phillip will work for his father’s farm for part of the year then serve Phyllis’ needs for the other half. 

Just because they are based on mythological characters doesn’t mean that they are bound to the original stories. Sometimes they purposely counter them to distance themselves from what had gone on before. One of the most interesting aspects like that is the working relationship between Sheriff Posey and Deputy Leena, this book’s answer to Poseidon, God of the Seas and Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, War and Handicraft. In mythology the two might be uncle and niece, but they are also frequent rivals vying for patronage to Athens or taking opposite sides during the Trojan War. But in Cerberus, the duo are allies and have a surrogate father daughter relationship. Sure Posey spends a lot of time on his boat in the lake and would rather be fishing. Okay Leena has a tendency to put people, including her boss, off with her know-it-all attitude and high standards. Posey’s laid back paternal demeanor counters with Athena’s more high handed approach to law enforcement making them a great team that compliments one another’s strengths and weaknesses.

So where does Ari fit into all this? Well, he is a composite character. His background of being abandoned at birth, disfigured, and isolated from the rest of the society puts him as a counterpart to Hephaestus, God of Fire, Metalwork, and Craftsmanship, and Blacksmith to the Gods. However instead of living in a secluded hut crafting firearms for the townspeople like his forebear, Ari serves the purpose of another character: Ares, God of War. He is the blade of vengeance that strikes at anyone who is his target. Like the savage brutal aspects of war, Ari doesn’t care who his victim is. He will kill anyone regardless of who they are or what they have done. They are just names, targets to be destroyed at the orders of Zeke (whose remoteness, long term schemes, ulterior motives, and penchant for womanizing echo his mythological doppelganger Zeus).

It’s never stated how or why these characters line up with Greek mythology whether they are descendents who are destined to follow their predecessors, reincarnated spirits, or it's just a coincidence that their paths line up with those who have gone on before. Barring any in-universe explanation the reasonable answer is Miller likes Greek Mythology and westerns and couldn’t decide which to write about so he decided to split the difference. 

One thing is for sure is that unlike their mythological sources, these characters are all too human. That means there are very few supernatural occurrences that can’t be explained away. Zeke’s messages to Ari seem to come out of thin air or are divinely sent but could just as easily be formed by a guy who has many spies, is great at eavesdropping and obtaining information without getting caught, and has an almost inhuman and potentially sociopathic psychological understanding of human nature at its worst. 

That also means that unlike the residents of Mount Olympus and beyond these characters are all too mortal and can die and die they do. The passages describing Ari’s murders are particularly graphic and individualized. They are gruesome and particularly over the top so that the Reader could think that no matter what they did, they certainly didn’t deserve to be a checkmark on someone’s kill list for arbitrary reasons. 

Perhaps the mortality of the characters and the differences and similarities to mythology is the point. Fate and destiny are common themes in mythology and that’s what is being explored in Cerberus. Zeke,as Zeus, positions the characters, particularly Ari, where he wants them and observes them mostly from afar. He uses and toys with them for his own pleasure, amusement, and self-righteous need to settle scores. He treats the other characters like they don’t have any agency of their own and are incapable of living their own lives and making their own decisions. They are programmed to live according to pre-chosen stories and narratives. The moment comes when they realize that they are being played, break their programming, and change the narrative into something else, becoming somebody else. 

 

Keep On Glowing Your Guide to Graceful Empowerment and Unstoppable Glow by Robin Emtage; The Belgian Girls by Kathryn Atwood; Mission: Red Scythe by C.W. James

Keep On Glowing Your Guide to Graceful Empowerment and Unstoppable Glow by Robin Emtage; The Belgian Girls by Kathryn Atwood; Mission: Red Scythe by C.W. James

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Keep On Glowing: Your Guide to Graceful Empowerment and Unstoppable Glow by Robin Emtage 

 Every woman has a fire, power source, inside that is forged by resilience, wisdom, and unstoppable feminine force. Some call this fire a glow. All women have it but not all are aware of it or use it to its fullest potential. Sometimes it fades over time or is buried under years, sometimes decades, of conditioning. It can dim and fade away into nothingness if not nurtured and cared for. Robin Emtage, beauty stylist, holistic glow expert, and founder of Silktage Tropical Inspired Beauty Products, wrote Keep On Glowing: Your Guide to Graceful Empowerment and Unstoppable Glow to help inspire women to discover and retain that glow throughout their lives.

Emtage’s Keep on Glowing Method consists of five pillars: Radiant Mindset, Sacred Self Care, Glow Rituals, Protective Boundaries, and Unapologetic Expression. Emtage describes this method as one that is designed to help readers return to themselves with grace, confidence, and an unstoppable glow.

Each chapter focuses on different concepts like creating a bold mindset for lasting radiance, practicing self-compassion for inner glow, gaining confidence and beauty that blossoms with age, reclaiming inner power, protecting glow in relationships, giving permission to shine, glowing forward and inspire, aging with intention and conscious glowing, using age-defying rituals, crafting a glow that lasts, building momentum through small deadly wins,practicing the art of saying no and creating boundaries, reimagining radiance and recognizing beauty beyond the mirror, building the life that you deserve, designing a life that radiates inside and out, and glowing forward. 

The book features advice and wisdom that is clearly explained with encouraging words. For example “Chapter 2: Be Your Own Best Friend: Self-Compassion for Inner Glow,” has words about “The Foundation of Self-Compassion, “The Glow Killing Inner Critic,” and “The Glow Boosting Power of Self-Talk.” “The Power of Self-Talk” section suggests ways of verbally turning negative self-criticism into positive and encouraging affirmations. For example, instead of saying, “I’m bad at this,” Emtage suggests changing the limiting sentence to “I’m learning and every step makes me better.”

Activities inspire readers to list their concerns, ways that can be improved, and identifying positive attributes. For example “Chapter 3: Embrace Your Radiance: Confidence and Beauty That Blossoms With Age”, includes various rituals, writing exercises, and actions that help guide the inner glow to shine. For example “Radiate Gratitude: Unleashing the Glow of Appreciation”, suggests that readers write down one thing that they like about themselves to remind them that they are worthy of admiration and respect especially from themselves. 

The chapters also include Glow Actions and Affirmations as final takeaways to preserve the inner glow. “Chapter 4: Reclaim Your Feminine Power: Unlocking Your True Glow” includes a Glow Action of writing a letter to oneself declaring a commitment to living fully in their power. They are encouraged to reveal what they will no longer tolerate, what they will say yes to, and to read the letter whenever they feel their light dimming. The Glow Affirmation for this chapter is “I reclaim my glow with every choice, every boundary, and every act of self-love.” 

The Belgian Girls by Kathryn J. Atwood

This is a summary of the review. The full reviews can be found on LitPick.

The Belgian Girls tells two stories. It combines the adventures of two women, a real life figure and a fictional character from the two different World Wars, to tell an intergenerational story of courage, sacrifice, freedom, heroism, and rebellion against oppression. 

The first chronological one is the true story of Gabrielle “Gaby” Petit, a barmaid in pre-WWI Belgium. Infuriated by the presence of German soldiers in her country, she organizes a spy network to pass information and defeat her country’s enemies. The second story, the fictionalized account, is that of Julienne Gobert, newly arrived in Brussels with her widowed father. She hears the story of Gaby Petit and is inspired to also become a spy and Resistance fighter against the Nazis as they devour the country around her. 

The stories perfectly merge together with characters, plot threads, and situations that link the two together. For example both protagonists were recently hit with trauma even before their involvement with the war efforts.The traumas leave these young women feeling unprotected in a changing world that is becoming more complicated but also tests their resilience, independence, and willingness to challenge their surroundings. 

The dual narration of the book shows how important it is to look to the past and learn how to live during tough times. Those tough times bring out the best in both women. Gabrielle, who lived a hard existence, learns to empathize with others and fight for her country. Julienne is pulled from her previous mousy timid nature and is moved by Gaby’s story. She becomes bolder and more courageous during times of danger. Both women are willing to fight and die if they have to.

The stories of Gabrielle Petit and Julienne Gobert remind us that one of the best ways to survive tough times of war, violence, tyranny, death, oppression, and poverty is to look to the past and how others lived during them, adapted to their surroundings, fought against them, and became heroes. Perhaps in doing so they can become heroes in the present.

Mission: Red Scythe (A James Vagus Thriller) by C.W. James

This is a summary of the review. The full review is on LitPick.

This book combines the flashy colorful adventures of a Ian Fleming James Bond novel with the duplicitous realistic tension of a John LeCarre novel.

In 1965, orphaned James Vagus is given an interesting offer. John Smith represents MIS-X the mysterious benefactor of James’ education. Smith notes James’ youth, good looks, amiable but reserved personality, and affinity for languages. MIS-X is looking for young recruits to go to places where the youth hang out like concerts, colleges, and class trips and gather information unobtrusively. In other words they are looking for teen spies. James is the perfect potential spy. He accepts the proposal, is given a partner Dakota Walker, and receives his first major assignment. He is to trail Otto Stradt, a corrupt businessman with ties to Eastern Europe. This assignment leads James and Dakota straight to a conspiracy involving scientists studying the potential of killer biology and the governments who will pay top dollar for such research. 

 James and Dakota are spies with all of the gorgeous locations, beautiful people, and cool toys and gadgets but also have an awareness that the governments that one works for can’t always be trusted, that agents can be quickly betrayed, and murder is never far away.

There is a seedy underside to this seemingly glamorous world, a seedy underside that young adults in their late teens and whose brains haven’t been fully developed are being thrown into. 

There is a constant awareness of death and betrayal that surrounds the characters. Even the characters that are on each other’s side may not be completely trustworthy as these young characters are encouraged to do everything they can lie, steal, have affairs, break laws, and murder to please their country and allies. There are moments that if the characters don’t expect betrayal from the presumed good guys, the reader might.

The only real true honest bond is that between James and Dakota. There are moments when one is captured, the other is willing to go through extremes to rescue them even if they risk blowing their cover. In this world of dishonesty, corruption, secrets, and murder the most honest moment is when the two partners acknowledge not only their friendship but also their brotherhood.

Silver Echoes: A Gold Digger Novel by Rebecca Rosenberg; The Adventures of Baby Doe Tabor’s Wild Thrill Seeking Daughter

 Silver Echoes: A Gold Digger Novel by Rebecca Rosenberg; The Adventures of Baby Doe Tabor’s Wild Thrill Seeking Daughter 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: When I read about Rose Mary Echo Silver Dollar Tabor (1889-1925) on Wikipedia and in the epilogue in Rebecca Rosenberg’s Historical Fiction novel, Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor, I knew that she would be an interesting person to read about. I was not wrong.

Of course that is to be expected. Rosenberg's Historical Fiction novels are about remarkable outstanding and highly interesting women and her latest, Silver Echoes: A Gold Digger Novel is no exception. Two novels, Champagne Widows and Madame Pommery, were about Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin and Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Melin Pommery respectively entrepreneurs and vintners who made the French wine industry what it is today. Her previous book, Gold Digger was about Elizabeth McCourt “Baby Doe” Tabor and her rise from mine owner and worker to Denver socialite and her fall after Horace Tabor, her politician husband, died and the Panic of 1893 wiped out her family fortune.

This time Baby Doe’s younger daughter, Silver Dollar takes the lead and she is every bit her mother's daughter in her desire to stand out and her ability to draw controversy and scandal like a magnet. 

The novel covers about twenty years and alternates between Silver Dollar and Baby Doe’s points of view. Silver Dollar's perspective is set in the 1910’s-20’s as she embarks on an entertainment career, unpredictable romances with dangerous men, and potentially undiagnosed mental illness. Baby Doe's is set in 1932 after Silver Dollar’s death is reported. Baby Doe is trying to get her Matchless Mine running again while giving background information on a biopic about her and her late husband.

As with many Historical Fiction novels, we get not only the main story of the protagonist’s life but the impact that their lives had on those who outlived and learned from them. In this case, both mother and daughter are well written formidable presences with captivating stories that draw in the Readers.

If Baby Doe embodies the spirit of the Gilded Age with her self-made entrepreneurship, sudden glamorous affluence, and the ability to talk tough while dressing classy, then Silver Dollar embodies the Roaring 20’s with her effervescent joie de vivre, her constant mobility, and modern independent spirit.

Silver Dollar begins her journey as a bit player for a photoplay company to support herself and her mother after Horace dies, they are left destitute by the Economic Panic, and their older daughter and sister, Lily abandons them. While her work is for survival and she sends money to her mother, Silver Dollar is not unaware what it could mean for her so she creates lavish stunts like the Slide of Life, to be noticed and recognized. This is where she slides, rather than walks, across a high wire over a large lake.

This opening gives us a taste of the setting and Silver Dollar’s character. This is when movies were in their infancy, not every home had a radio so people found entertainment wherever they could. That often included people going to great extremes to get the audience’s attention. Remember this was the time when Harry Houdini wowed audiences with his escape attempts. When vaudeville houses dotted even small towns so people could pay a few cents to see singers, dancers, jugglers, acrobats, comedians, animal trainers. Many of the vaudevillians would move on to long and successful careers on film, radio, and television. It's the right time for someone bold, daring, and thirsting for adventure and recognition like Silver Dollar.

While Slide of Life gives her the much needed praise and notoriety, it doesn't last. An envious colleague frames her for theft and she is sexually assaulted by a long time family friend so she goes on the run. This happens a lot in the book. She finds some semblance of fame, excitement, and wealth. A place and position that can give her prominence and stability. Then, something happens that causes her to end that and leave for her next adventure.

She becomes an actress, dancer, singer, animal tamer among others and meets an array of film stars, mobsters, and other celebrities of the early 20th century. It's a dizzying colorful ride, but it can't be accused of being boring.

Eventually Silver Dollar finds fame as a tiger tamer. Her interactions with the tigers consist of patience, trust, strength, courage, and determination. It makes sense that someone who is wild and reckless would tame animals as wild and reckless as she is. She sees kindred spirits in her tigers and they see a human that loves and understands them while being a dominant and authority figure. 

There is a darker edge to this novel that is found within Silver Dollar herself. While she gives off a fearless personality, inwardly she is insecure, uncertain, and is always questioning herself. She has moments of doubt, reason, and conscience that put a stop to more dangerous and violent actions. However there is a darker side to her personality, literally.

In the Afterward, Rosenberg stated that there is some evidence, albeit circumstantial and never outright acknowledged, that Silver Dollar had Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Rosenberg took that theory to its fullest fruition by giving Silver Dollar an alter, Echo LaVode, which was a name that the real Silver Dollar sometimes used during her professional career.

Echo is the darker aspect of Silver Dollar’s extroverted nature. She has no fail safes, reservations, or blockers that impair her actions. She acts without thinking and when she is in charge she puts herself and Silver into dangerous situations like drinking, taking drugs, visiting speakeasies, and flirting with dangerous men who are violent and unpredictable. Since Echo parties at night and Silver Dollar works during the day, Silver Dollar herself gets little sleep. Therefore, her body goes through physical changes that weaken her host and leaves the alter to be in control more times than she should. This control leaves Silver Dollar helpless and vulnerable, a victim of Echo’s unpredictable tendencies.

However, Echo occasionally shows a softer side. She emerges when Silver Dollar needs physical protection. She is horrified when she witnesses African-Americans being lynched by KKK members suggesting that there are actions that are abhorrent even to her. She is also clever enough that if Silver Dollar can't think of an escape plan, she can. Even though Echo is an alternate personality, she is every bit as multifaceted as her host.

Silver Dollar’s story is one of instability, going from place to place, and living fast and hard. It's about using life to take as much as you can. By contrast, Baby Doe's story is about being sedentary, restoring home and professions to their former glory, and becoming the holder of wonderful and painful memories. 

In 1932, Baby Doe is trying her damnedest to honor Horace's final wish to hold onto the Matchless Mine and living in denial that her daughter has died (She believes that Silver Dollar was sent to a convent). She tells her memories of her Leadville home and family to filmmaker, Carl Erickson who was involved with Silver Dollar and tried to be a steady solid presence in her life.

As with her portrayal in Gold Digger, Baby Doe hovers between a tough talking frontierswoman and a society matron. She is ready with a shotgun if she feels threatened and when Carl wants to understand her, she takes him to the Matchless Mine. She is ready with a sharp comment and matter of fact nature so Carl knows who's really in charge and he does not dream of making the script too sentimental or frilly. Even in old age and after she has lost nearly everything and everyone important to her, she still is a force to be reckoned with.

The movie's Denver premiere gives Baby Doe some of the glamor that she once had. Gone is the tough gal with a dilapidated mine and a shotgun and instead she is once again a lady in an elegant gown and a central figure in Denver’s social set. Her good carefree days are back at least briefly.

The ending is a bit of wish fulfillment that veers towards speculation and alternate universes. It gives a finality to the mother and daughter's stories and reminds us that these were two strong fascinating women with a bond that was never broken but changed. Mother and daughter learned from and loved each other.

For Those Looking For The Light by Victoria Pen, From Emoji to Empathy: Mastering Customer Service in The Digital Era by Susan Williamson, and The Corsico Conspiracy by Raphael Sone

 For Those Looking For The Light by Victoria Pen, From Emoji to Empathy: Mastering Customer Service in The Digital Era by Susan Williamson, and The Corsico Conspiracy by Raphael Sone

For Those Looking For The Light by Victoria Pen

Victoria Pen’s concrete poetry is filled with deep emotions like depression, grief, nostalgia, worry, but also joy, hope and peace. It dares Readers to empathize and feel what the Speakers are feeling and listen to their voices.

The best poems are: 

“My Dear Child”-A poem in which the Speaker mourns the death or separation of their child. The constant repetition of “I wish I could” recognizes the regret of things that the child could have learned and felt with their parents like warmth and protection but now cannot. It is melancholic and sadness not only for what was lost but what can never be.

“Learning What Home Feels Like”-A poem in which the Speaker weighs many negative feelings towards themselves such as “ugly,” “dim witted,” “awkward,” and “embarrassing.” The twist is that the Speaker accepts those words and takes pride in them. They and their strange interests are what makes them who they are. Anyone who has ever felt self-conscious because of their personality traits, occupation, study path, or interests will understand and even relate.

“I Aspire To Be a Writer”- A poem in which the Speaker addresses their desire to be a writer. Even though they have the drive (and assuming this was Pen’s point of view herself, she also has the talent.), they constantly worry about how to get started, their subject, and publishers. This poem addresses the insecurities and anxieties that creative people have when they work on something. They worry about how their message will be projected,  what will people think of it, or if anyone bothers reading it at all. The important thing in creation is not the doubts but being able to move past them and exploring talent and the process to the fullest.

“The Colorful Leaves”-A nature poem in which the Speaker illustrates their love of autumn. It is filled with visual imagery like the orange, purple, and red leaves and the anxious people worried about snow. The poem talks about the season’s transitional function as not yet cold for winter, not hot for summer, and not thought of as beautiful like spring. It is an in between season but this Speaker recognizes autumn’s own individual beauty and uniqueness.

“Drifting At Sea”-An extended metaphor in which the Speaker compares their life to a sea in which they are just drifting along. The Speaker feels like they are not in control of their life and things are just happening around them. Sometimes they feel that they are deliberately being set up to fail and all that they can do is just wait. It is very similar to Depression and how people who have it often feel disconnected from their lives. Even when they try to improve, they are still met with failure, rejection, and disappointment. They want to move but can't so they remain stuck and floating.

“The Four Walls”-A poem in which the Speaker thinks of their room as a sanctuary by protecting them from abuse but also a prison keeping them from facing that fear and getting away. The Speaker’s room protected them from the monsters, implying that they were abused as a child. As an adult, they realized that remaining hidden in their room was only a temporary reprieve. It took leaving and finding a safe place away from the abuse to really find inner peace.

“If I Were a Flower”-An extended metaphor in which The Speaker compares themselves to a flower. The Speaker asks their lover some difficult questions whether they would take away their beauty or rather their view of themselves, would they leave them, if they would forget about them, or would they leave them for other lovers. The Speaker is very insecure and even though is looked upon as someone of great beauty and emotion, is concerned whether their Lover’s feelings will change.

“The Importance of Boundaries”-A poem that addresses boundaries and The Speaker’s changing feelings towards them. They realized that boundaries aren't the signs of a bad person. They are a sign of limits, that someone can only take so much. There is a metaphor of animals that instinctively run from danger. The Speaker compares themselves to those animals who know to run and they do the same.

“Cultural Cash Out”-This poem addresses the problems of the “greedy culture” where people are cruel, ignorant, care only about making money, and step on those under them. Pen’s poems rarely get political but this one does. It addresses health care denial, the work grind, low pay, and the desire but not the opportunity of moving up. It's a cry of anger at a culture that not only doesn't care if people live or die but profit off of their death and destruction.

“Hope Has A Name of Ivory”-This poem addresses the Speaker’s Faith. The poem personifies Hope in human terms that it has beautiful eyes and gentle hands. Hope’s name is compared to ivory and gold, precious bones and metals that hold great value. It almost reads like a Medieval riddle poem in which Pen drops hints about who Hope’s human form is. The answer becomes obvious by the final stanza and shows the depths of the Speaker’s spiritual devotion and faith.

 From Emoji to Empathy: Mastering Customer Service in The Digital Era by Susan Williamson

In this Digital Age of virtual assistance, self checkout, prepayment, shopping online, and AI Interface, the human element is still important particularly in customer service. Like many other professions, customer service is adapting to modern technology. However, the human element is still a factor. Susan Williamson’s book From Emoji to Empathy: Mastering Customer Service in The Digital Era explores how customer service representatives still need to maintain empathy and interpersonal skills to give customers quality assistance.

One of the key factors in good customer service is emotional intelligence. That includes behaving with empathy and implementing active listening. Empathy allows one to understand what the customer needs and using the right probing questions to fully comprehend the situation and provide for their needs. Active listening is the process in which one summarizes, uses open ended questions, and allows the other person to verbalize their situation and make their own decisions. Emotional Intelligence can be used to pick up emotional cues like active observation, feedback analysis, and validating emotions.

It's important for customer service representatives to design memorable customer experiences and that involves identifying customer personas, mapping their journey, implementing feedback mechanisms, and analyzing trends. These procedures help representatives learn about the different types of people that they need to help, how the customer retains information, when the representative needs to probe and when to leave off, and individual personalities and needs of the various customers. In doing this, they can create  individual personalized experiences for different people and build variety into their busy days. Even personal creative touches like extra services, sales for regulars, or representatives remembering details such as regular customer’s names or birthdays add to a personalized experience that makes customers feel unique and individual.

Of course difficult customers are frequent and can make the customer service job extremely stressful. Williams's book peers into conflicts between representatives and customers. The step-by-step approach includes identifying the root cause, using “I” statements to communicate understanding, brainstorming solutions together, implementing and following through, and seeking feedback for continuous improvement. Things like tone variation, body language, mirroring positive customer behavior, cultural sensitivity regarding nonverbal cues, body language, and paying attention to communication barriers goes a long way to improve interaction. 

The book includes various examples of challenging interactions and describes how a representative should handle them. For example aggressive customers raise their voices, demand action, and use harsh language. The representative must stay calm. A simple phrase like “I understand that this is a frustrating situation. Let's work together to fix it” is helpful. Customers want to be heard so that approach makes them feel heard and validated. They can go from being combative to collaborative.

Technology presents its own issues with representatives integrating it in their work but also maintaining the human connection. Williamson suggests that workers can select the right tools, prioritize user friendliness, ensure integration capabilities, and conduct a cost-benefit analyses. Personal connection can be integrated with technology by making tech work with employees and not replace them, making human oversight an easy seamless process, using feedback loops to stay ahead of customer needs, and creating an emotional impact. 

This book tells customer service representatives that the best way to show good customer service is to increase the human connection while integrating and adapting to modern technology.

The Corsico Conspiracy by Raphael Sone 

While William Shakespeare’s name is practically synonymous with Dramatic Theater, English Literature, and The Elizabethan Era, there is still much about his life that remains a complete mystery. Between his marriage and career as a school teacher in Stratford Upon Avon to the time he began to establish himself as a playwright and actor with Lord Chamberlain’s Men, there is a ten year period in which he was undocumented. What happened during those ten years and what was he doing? He was married though frequently separated from his wife, Anne Hathaway and fathered three children, Susannah, Judith, and Hamnet by her (adding to their tempestuous marriage was that Susannah was born a mere five to six months after their marriage suggesting that Anne’s pregnancy was the reason for it.)

However some of his romantic sonnets are addressed to a Dark Lady,which the pale and fair haired Anne was not. Who was this Dark Lady and what was her and William's relationship really like? For that matter, Shakespeare was a country lad with a limited education mostly attributed to reading books and watching plays yet his plays suggest a vast intellect, creative talent, high education, traveling experience. Is it entirely possible that Shakespeare was only given the title of author and someone else actually wrote the plays, but who? Just what was Shakespeare’s relationship with Queen Elizabeth and King James really like? Many of his History plays trace back their family lineage and the lines in the plays often speak of deep respect for the Royals but during a time when religious schisms between the Protestants and Catholics, many of the plays show a more than passing acquaintance with Catholic rituals and beliefs. Also, the plays feature various conspiracies and uprisings against the people in charge. Was Shakespeare vilifying or encouraging the protests?

Historians, scholars and authors have addressed these questions in different ways. One of my favorite series, The Shakespearean Fantasy Series by Sarah A. Hoyt, gives a magical fantastic interpretation to these questions in which Bill encountered fairies on his path to literary immortality. Another possibility is the more realistic but still fascinating Historical Fiction novella, The Corsico Conspiracy by Raphael Sone. 

This interpretation suggests that Shakespeare was a closet Catholic in a predominantly Protestant country and spent time abroad in Southern Europe and Africa where he became involved in political conspiracy, espionage missions where he learned how to be a master of disguise, and romance with Amina Safuwa, a former apprentice nun who was the Dark Lady. Oh yes and his plays were written mostly by Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford who did not want authorship credit. Shakespeare as a Lord Chamberlain's performer and later head was given sole credit. Though Shakespeare was no slouch in writing himself as he composed his own sonnets, the epic poems Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece, and some of the plays himself by combining various sources that he read.

This is a brilliant book that drops some tantalizing theories that fill in the blanks of Shakespeare’s life. It fills them by Sone paying tribute to what would later be known about his life and work while dropping some interesting speculation about the parts that needed filling. His time in Rome, Spain, and particularly Corsico become fruitful in his education both as a spy and the head of an acting company.

 His training consists of adopting disguises and being in character through voice, mannerisms, and body language. One of his colleagues, Victoria is an example of a seasoned actor using their skills in the espionage game. She acts as a courier and go between while taking various forms, most notably as a hunchbacked old woman. Another character, Dr. Lopez has a variety of aliases and identities that he goes by including a final one which no doubt inspired many of Shakespeare's Comedy plays that involve mistaken identity and characters disguising themselves. 

Shakespeare is also given literary works to study that would later be instrumental in his theatrical work such as Hollingshead's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (where the sources for his History plays and many of his tragedies like Macbeth began) and Plutarch’s Lives (where works like Julius Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra originated). We see that many of the survival tools that later made him famous were based on research and observation.

Sone writes Shakespeare as compelling, complex, and contradictory as well the protagonist in a Shakespeare play. He does this by playing various roles to the public, his intimate circle, and to himself. He is a devout Catholic who is appalled by the treatment that his fellow practitioners receive at the hands of Queen Elizabeth, particularly his father who was arrested. He is involved in some pretty daring plots to restore the monarchy to Catholicism. Most notably late in the book he works behind the scenes during the infamous Gunpowder Plot headed by Guy Fawkes but he does not openly defy the monarchy.

 In fact he works so well behind the scenes that while he is under suspicion of conspiratorial ties, he is never arrested for them. There are some pretty tense moments where he comes close such as a performance of Richard II which escalates into a sting operation against conspirators. 

Shakespeare takes a pragmatic approach to rebellion. As the figurehead leader of his company of Players and a central figure in the rebellious espionage ring, he can't afford to give himself away by being openly defiant. If a spy goes down, that's terrible but results in the loss of one person. If he goes down, the whole network and acting company goes down with him.

 He knows when to restrain himself in the presence of superiors especially royalty. In fact, he develops such a good rapport with the Queen that after she is amused by Falstaff, the supporting character from Henry IV and V, she commands that Shakespeare write a Comedy about Falstaff in love resulting in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

As for the other Shakespeare mysteries, they lead to some interesting analysis to Shakespeare’s character. He shows that he is able to write effectively through his poems and sonnets. He also has some creative planning and thinking skills as he comes up with the idea of combining multiple sources to create a new work as he does with Romeo and Juliet combining one story about feuding families with another about separated lovers.

 However, the book suggests that the dubious authorship is born because of mutual insecurities. Shakespeare needs to be seen as the head of Lord Chamberlain's Men but is concerned that his lack of formal education and rural background would be barriers in his writing. De Vere is a nobleman with tremendous talent but is concerned that his acknowledged authorship would be a threat to his status. Plus they are both involved within the Catholic community so they work out a deal. De Vere writes and sends the plays, Shakespeare accepts credit and his troupe produces and performs them. Also their plays contained coded messages and inside references to the Catholic community.

Amina is also compelling even if her appearances shorten as the book continues. She is strong willed and devoted to her causes as much as Shakespeare is but because of her physical appearance in Renaissance England, she doesn't have the luxury of hiding in public the way her lover does. As a result, they spend a large part of the book separated by distance and authority. However, the time that they spend is seen as a meeting between two strong feisty individuals who stand equally to one another. Amina and Shakespeare”s relationship in the book results in some intriguing plot twists that add to the speculation that the book conveys.

The Corsico Conspiracy shows that like his characters Shakespeare knew that the world was a stage so he was ready to play many parts.

Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thompson Carr; A Pleasant Dining Experience With Lovely Characters on The Side

 Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thompson Carr; A Pleasant Dining Experience With Lovely Characters on The Side

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Jodi Thompson Carr’s Lunch Ladies is a tasty delightful treat that pays tribute to the unsung heroes of every school dining experience, the cafeteria workers. Through their cooking, serving, and cleaning up, they make sure that every kid has at least one hot meal a day. Now with Free Lunch programs being held under scrutiny, their role within academic settings is even more important and should be all the more recognized. This book is a lovely pleasant experience of a few weeks spent exploring the inner lives of various characters, particularly three protagonists who work at the Hanley School District’s lunch department in Hanley, Minnesota.

It's almost time for the 4th of July festivities during the Bicentennial of 1976 and the women of the lunch department are preparing for this event while serving daily meals and dealing with their own problems.

Crystal has an unusual hobby. She scours obituaries mentally matching the recently deceased up with the living, therefore creating couples in her imagination. Her active fantasy life and imagination is a distraction from her conflicts with her aging grandmother and troubled niece.

Coralene is happily married to her husband, Jasper. Her simple life is about to become complicated when her wayward nephew, Tanner moves in.

Sheila lives a life of routine, eating at the same places, watching the same shows, and indulging in her independence and predictability. That predictability goes through a severe change when she reunites with a former acquaintance only to find herself falling in love with him.

Lunch Ladies is one of those types of novels that isn't really about anything. Well no, it's about various things like love, separation, family, and death but the focus is not so much about what happens than who is affected by these circumstances. It's a few months in the lives of these characters as they deal with the various shake ups in their lives. There's enough quirky charm and harsh drama to make the Reader like, even love, these characters as they go through these shake ups.

It's the kind of book that has details that are almost too precious to be ignored like character names for example. Coralene and most of the female members of her family have names that are variations of Cora-Cora, Coralene, Coravelle, DeCora, etc.-I would comment some more but the names “Edsel” and “Jean” are frequent on my mother's side of the family, the Riopelles. 

Crystal’s late mother's name was Pearl and she had a twin sister named Ruby. Crystal's grandmother and niece lucked out by being named Leonora and Darcy respectively. (Too bad, Emerald and Sapphire or Diamond and Amethyst would have been pretty.)

There are three sisters on the Bicentennial parade committee nicknamed, Hi, Lo, and Glad. Sheila catches the attraction of a named Tom Downlane (He joked that he's “Tom who lives Down the Lane.”) One of Crystal's obituary projects is named Roger Squirrel. The names reveal the idiosyncrasies of the characters.

The characters have little traits and quirks that make them stand out and Readers infer and learn who these people are just by their thoughts and mannerisms. Crystal's obituary reading/matchmaking is certainly very strange but leads to much speculation. Perhaps she is a firm believer in life after death and wants some sign that it's possible. Maybe she is obsessed with death and wants to meet it head on. The strongest possibility is that she is in search of a story. 

Crystal is unable to take any type of charge in her life. She works at a hard job with little recognition or pay. Her mother and aunt died. Her grandmother is losing her faculties. She is at odds with her niece, Darcy who calls her out on her lack of attention to the real world around her. Crystal’s only means of escape are inside the little matchmaking fantasies inside her head. They are the only ways that she can connect and truly feel like she contributed something to someone. Inside her head is where she finds freedom and involvement.

While Crystal’s headspace is where she finds comfort, Coralene looks more outward. She wears loud printed pants suits to be seen as more modern, willing to change but still do her job. She is a very central force within her family and community. She is a warm nucleus that draws others in, particularly Tanner.

Tanner has had a difficult life with his neglectful parents. He can be polite and soft spoken but also carries a lot of anger and resentment. This attitude plus his dubious reputation adds some strife into Coralene 's home, life, and marriage. He has never been close to someone who has natural warmth like Coralene so he doesn't know what to do with it, nor does she know how to react to him. However, Coralene and Tanner are both decent enough people that the love is present even when they are at odds.

Sheila is the oldest of the trio and probably the most regretful. She is a former English teacher who had a previous romance but now has a rigid private life. She goes to the same Denny's every day to the point that she befriends Lexi, the young server. She corrects the girl’s grammar, answers her questions about life and love, and gives her anecdotes from her teaching career. That she has a close intergenerational friendship with someone who would normally be a casual acquaintance shows Sheila’s awareness that her independent life comes with strings like loneliness and emotional instincts that are aching to be filled.

Her late in life romance should be a breath of fresh air, a late flaming roar of passion. Instead it unnerves and confuses her, asking more questions than answers. It forces her to confront her feelings of love and mortality. For a woman whose life became rigid routine and living vicariously through acquaintanceship with others, Sheila can't handle the deep emotional chasms, the countering attachments, and rapid disruptions that this relationship brings to her.

The Hanley setting leads a lot to the book’s characterization. It's a small town where everything, even the seemingly most minor issues become big deals. Everyone is involved with the Bicentennial from designing floats, preparing catering services, planning themes. The changes in the lunch department becomes a source of conflict as Sheila wants to survey students and faculty over the food choices and portions. This book shows that line between networking and annoyance where it's nice to have a support system when one needs help but it can also be suffocating because everyone is in everybody's face and in everybody's way. 

Also while Hanley looks idyllic, that might be on the surface. Some characters like the slow pace and friendly neighbors but others are just used to it. Characters like Crystal and Sheila are so used to their routines, hobbies, and mindsets that they don't have any desire to aspire for something different. Why dream of getting away? There are bills to pay, shows to watch, kids to raise, committees to join, lunches to cook, and obituaries to read. Hanley is a comfort zone that they benignly accept. It's not a bad place, just ordinary, regular, typical, nice, and pleasant.

There is an edge to the book that keeps it from being too copying or schmaltzy. That edge is hinted at in some of the character's subplots though not deeply explored until late in the book. Something terrible happens that jolts the characters out of their complacency and personal conflicts. It seems to come unexpectedly though, it was subtly hinted throughout the book.

 This incident forces the characters to come out of those benign comfort zones that they built around themselves, to make great changes, and to reshape their lives. Like many hard times, the characters’ strength and resilience comes through because of the events around them.

Lunch Ladies is filled with memorable characters and a setting that can be sweet and harsh, funny and tear jerking, vulnerable and strong, charming and realistic, beautiful and tragic. It is a delectable feast of great emotion.

Tangles: A Cold War Love Story and Mystery by Kay Smith-Blum; Uncovering Environmental Destruction and Familial Disruption

 Tangles by Kay Smith-Blum; Uncovering Environmental Destruction and Familial Disruption

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Kay Smith-Blum’s novel, Tangles, tells two separate stories and links them with the theme of something pleasant and beautiful torn apart by greed and gain. One story focuses on the changing environment and the other is that of lovers separated and unable to connect.

Along with the two plots, the book has two narrators separated by almost twenty years. The first is in the 1940’s and features Mary Boone, a secretary. She is trying to survive an abusive marriage during WWII. She works at the new power plant in Hanford, Oregon which is preparing new weapons against the Axis Powers. People around her start getting sick so she investigates the origins of the illnesses despite objections from her employers, the U.S. government, and her husband, Matt who is the plant spokesperson. 

The second narrator is Luke Hinson, a young scientist in the early ‘60’s. His studies are halted when he is diagnosed with a highly suspicious form of thyroid cancer. This diagnosis leads him to his own research into the environment. As Mary and Luke continue their investigations, they find the same solution: the Hanford Nuclear Reservation tainted the environment for twenty years and is slowly killing the environment including its plants, animals, and people. Besides their concerns about the local environment, Mary and Luke share more personal connections. They were once neighbors and despite their huge age gap, the two share a mutual attraction that evolves into friendship and eventually romance with heavy complications.

The duel stories and narrators could have made the book confusing but actually works well. I would argue that it works even better than if we only had one narrator and one time span. In alternating Mary's story with Luke’s we see both the beginning and the end of this story. We see how greedy industrialists first poisoned the environment and then the results of long term illnesses years later. We also see how Mary and Luke’s relationship evolved from being casual acquaintances to Mary eventually becoming the one that got away for Luke. The two narrative halves work together to make the book a complete whole picture of a decaying environment and rocky but meaningful relationship.

This book connects the stories about the environmental investigation and Luke and Mary’s romance in ways that make them interchangeable. They are separate threads that, as the title suggests, are tangled together, affecting each other and the people around them. Neither story could exist without the other, just like neither narrator could finish their story without each other.

Both the natural setting and Luke and Mary’s relationship start out beautiful and become tainted by outside forces. The Oregon setting is filled with trees, woodland, animals, and small towns. Enough progress for people to raise families and find work but not enough to overwhelm and spoil the nature around them, at first. The plant begins the way most industries do, with promises of the future with more jobs and a chance to fight the US’s enemies which were the Axis during WWII then the Soviets during the Cold War. In a community that has plenty of natural resources but is just getting through the Great Depression and facing a war where many men are called up to serve and civilians work in government jobs this offer is tempting. But like any offer that’s too good to be true, they don’t stop to think of the consequences.

The citizens don’t think of what nuclear waste would do to the waters around them, how it would get into the food supply and inside birds, animals, and people. They don’t think about the health risks and illnesses that will shorten life spans or prematurely end lives or that future generations will be affected for years, even decades afterwards. They don’t think that the community that they once held dear and thought would benefit from this plant would break apart because of early deaths, separation, and people moving away from a place that is not only unhealthy but is filled with too many haunting memories. 

It’s not entirely the fault of the citizens for not knowing.They are not told of the consequences. The officials in their usual drive to maintain plausible deniability and keep everything under wraps hide the truth from the residents. Oh that polluted lake? Oh that’s natural. People showing symptoms of cancer? Well have they checked their family history? It certainly has nothing to do with what they eat and drink.

 The officials make sure that the worst news doesn’t get out and they aren’t above threatening doctors to give different diagnoses, changing statistics, threats, coercion, or murder to make everyone believe that everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about. Beating the United State’s enemies is the most important factor and anything else is secondary. The fact that there won’t be any workers at this plant, because they are either ill, dying, or moved on because of the scarcity of resources never occurs to them. The environment and people’s health are destroyed for others’ gains. 

The environment and health aren’t the only things that are destroyed. The bond between Mary and Luke builds and falls apart by outside forces. They relate to each other despite having a tremendous age gap because they are both lonely and suffering. Mary is in an abusive marriage and her parents are dead or dying. Luke’s father has died and he has a loving but sometimes distant relationship with his mother. They both reach turning points in their lives where they have to make serious decisions about their future. At first their bond is simply a friendship between two people that are in similar circumstances and can ask and offer advice based on their personal experiences. 

Now there are many that may question their evolving romance because of their age gap and in many ways, they would be justified in doing so. Their relationship can be seen as grooming and certainly crosses many boundaries. It’s not an easy decision for either character and to their credit both Mary and Luke are concerned about the ramifications and consequences of such a union. It’s not a relationship of passion and unbridled sexuality. It’s more of one of two lost souls that were hurting and at their most vulnerable and most emotionally naked and honest, they came together. It happened and they can’t go back and change it. The only thing that they can do is accept the consequences and live with the results.

Just like with the nature surrounding them, outside forces disrupt any future plans that Luke and Mary have. They are separated in the worst way imagined and the truth is concealed for years. It takes a long time, over a decade of loss and regret before any type of reconciliation or reclamation is made between them. When it finally does happen, there is a restoration of balance but also a wistful longing of what might have been if they had acted sooner and did not hide the truth from each other. 

Perhaps in a strange way just like the Plant officials were keeping the locals ignorant in their goals of fighting foreign enemies and keeping the US safe, Mary and Luke were keeping each other ignorant in the goal of fighting their own enemies and keeping each other safe. In both plots and both narrations, withholding secrets in the name of safety and security ended up becoming the cruelest action of all.

German But Not German by J.C. Berger; The Parallels Between Past and Present

 German But Not German by J.C. Berger; The Parallels Between Past and Present 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: For obvious current Presidential Administration-sized reasons, many people are reading and studying various times of dictatorships, how those under them rebelled and fought the system, the ways and means that the ideals and values that propel such action are spread, and most crucially of all how the dictatorships were overthrown and the important steps to be taken afterwards to rebuild the country and not make the same mistakes of the past and fall under the spell of another dictator.

One of the most obvious examples because it has been shouted out so frequently lately is The Holocaust under the genocidal tyranny of Adolf Hitler. One of the books that illustrates what life was like under that tyranny is J.C. Berger’s German But Not German about a German-Jewish family whose world implodes because of the reign of a former paperhanger and failed art student with a destructive and fatal vision for the continent in which he lived.

Inge Schoenberg is raised in Germany in the 1920’s-’30’s by her frivolous mother, distant father, bickering but charming uncles, and her stern but loving grandparents. Their internal conflicts of changed jobs, school worries, and a frequently absent and eventually estranged wife and mother become minimal as Hitler begins his reign of terror. Many Jewish families are stripped of their rights, detained in mass arrests, forced to obey dehumanizing laws, and are deported somewhere never to be seen again. The Schoenbergs are left with a very important decision, should they remain and stick things out or should they emigrate.

Let's get the elephant in the review out of the way first. Yes, there are a lot of eerie comparisons between what is happening in the book to what is happening right now. Berger not only gives us a deeply personal story about the Holocaust, he expands it by showing how Hitler got his reign started and how it quickly engulfed the entire country, continent of Europe, and threatened to destroy the entire planet. 

Throughout the book, we are given updates about what is going on in a historical context throughout the book. Berger offers not only the historical dry facts, but the perspectives that many had at the time. For example, the publication of Mein Kampf concerned some with the Antisemitic rhetoric but many simply saw it as the ravings of a lunatic, a nobody, someone that no one can or should take seriously. They were wilfully ignorant of what Mein Kampf really was: Hitler's biases for his hatred, goals that he wanted the country to do, and most importantly a master plan of how he wanted the country to accomplish this. It was not the rantings of a madman, it was a cold methodical plan of a hateful person who studied the character of others, knew what buttons to press and what to say to influence them, and a willingness to use other people to carry out those desires. Dare I say it, it was the work of an evil genius that was only recognized as such in hindsight. 

I'm sure many might feel the same about Project 2025, and let's be honest with ourselves, Art of the Deal. Readers didn't take them seriously. They dismissed them. They thought the detractors were exaggerating or part of some conspiracy meant to make the preparers and fans look bad. They didn't want to admit that Art of the Deal point blank explains Trump's behaviors and justifications for his later behavior as a President, someone filled with avarice and heartlessness who only looks at gain for themselves, never apologizes or accepts blame, attacks the critics and accuses others of what he himself is doing, thinks that everything is for sale, and never takes no for an answer. 

These are traits that Trump still inhabits and is often surrounded by Elon Musk and others who also exhibit those traits. We saw and read for ourselves what Trump was really like and instead of seeing Trump as a potential dictator and autocrat, we simply just saw him as an example of 80’s excess. Someone who had power for a time but is now outdated. Others actually took him to be a savvy businessman and thought that his views were admirable. But we didn't see the long term implications that those characteristics that he extolled for business were later used in politics to shape, transform, and change the country to his liking.

Project 2025 was the blueprint for what Trump and his cronies, particularly The Heritage Foundation wanted to accomplish. Many of us read it, recognized it for the plan for dictatorship that it was, and warned people. We highlighted the passages that were particularly problematic and sent messages through social media. We endorsed Harris and other politicians, even Republican ones like Liz Cheney who spoke out against it. We helped people register to vote and made them recognize the importance of voting. We talked about it, warned about it, made videos about it, shared it, and voted against it. 

Unfortunately, we became Cassandra in Greek mythology, gifted with the power of prophecy but unable to make opposing forces listen to or believe us. Most people didn't want to believe it. They told themselves that checks and balances would prevent it. They told themselves that we survived Trump's first term (though not everyone did), so how bad could it be? Maybe some wanted it to happen to gain power for themselves by dehumanizing and criminalizing others. Instead of investigating for themselves, understanding our fears, and working towards keeping it from happening, they chose willful ignorance and the whole country is paying the price. If you don't believe me, then I challenge everyone reading this review to read Project 2025’s manifest for themselves and point by point match their goals and what has already been accomplished. You will see that not only is the Trump Administration following it, it is already looking to exceed the Heritage Foundation's initial expectations. Keep in mind, this is only February, the second full month of the current Administration.

There are other obvious parallels as well. The dehumanization and mass arrests of Jews during the Holocaust can be seen in the dehumanization and mass arrests of immigrants. DOGE’s closures of departments is similar to the Nazi Party reshaping the central German government to make their actions possible without accountability. That also can be parallel to the legislative and judicial branches having a Republican majority to make Executive Orders easier to enforce. Trump chose a Cabinet and advisors that are inexperienced sycophants with criminal and unethical reputations like Hitler chose his inner circle. There are comparisons between the Beer Hall Putsch and January 6 and their aftermaths in which the leaders became convicted felons but served little to no time and still became leaders. Even some parallels between the Reichstag Fire and the Gleiwitz Incident resonate alongside the assassination attempt on Trump. Unfortunately, history runs in cycles and we can either learn from it or make the same mistakes. 

Because of this parallel situation between the past and present, it is very easy for Readers to identify with and understand Inge’s plight. Sure, we may have had familial problems as she did, or other issues related to work or relationships. but they were our individual problems. Under the weight of the traumatic stress of living in a dictatorship, those issues are often cast aside for larger political concerns. 

It is easy to see the confusion, terror, and anxiety when everything around you from schools, to stores, to media, to arts and entertainment sources, to friends and family change to fit the new normal. You don't recognize the world anymore and feel like somehow you landed in some other world. There's a lot of denial and a lack of acceptance clinging to the hope that it will be over soon.

It's also perfectly understandable why it takes so long for Inge and her family to decide to emigrate and for Inge to become proactive in the fight against the Nazis. It's easy to stand on the outside thinking “If it's so bad why don't you just leave.” But then other factors have to be considered like cost, obtaining paperwork and passports, finding employment, living in a new country and getting used to its culture and language, keeping from being stranded in this new place, trying to make new friends, and reuniting with friends and family. They also have to weigh the possibility of whether it's better to remain and fight on the inside, trying to find and retain the values that they once held, even if it means facing prison, institutionalization, sent to a concentration camp, or death. 

Emigration and outright rebellion are not easy decisions to make and this book explores those options. Inge and her family are put through tremendous stress and trauma and some members don't make it. Some have a hard time adjusting to the changing world around them, even when they are safe in another country. They still stand out and have high levels of anxiety and PTSD. Also the older characters are often set in their ways and don't want to adapt. They can only hold onto old times and a nostalgic past while younger characters, like Inge, at least try to find a new path in their current home. In adapting, Inge finds the anger to strike out at those who hurt her family and former country and the courage to serve in the RAF and take a real blow towards those who perverted the world in which she lived.

In reading about the past, Readers can find parallels with the present, recognize the warning signs, learn how to live under such a system, and most importantly become inspired to find ways to fight and rebel against it. I found my way through reading and writing. Now it's time for you to find yours.