Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

Whistling Past the Graveyard is a great title for Susan Crandall's novel. Starla finds herself walking past a lot of frightening areas when she remembers being told that if you whistle while passing a graveyard it isn't quite as scary. I loved this book from beginning to end and read it within a couple of days. It's definitely going on my favorite list for this year. It would make a great book club read as it covers the racial injustices in the south and reminded me a little of Secret Life of Bees.

From the cover:
In the summer of 1963, nine-year-old spitfire Starla Claudelle runs away from her strict grandmother's Mississippi home. Starla hasn't seen her momma since she was three - that's when Lulu left for Nashville to become a famous singer. Starla's daddy works on an oil rig in the Gulf, so Mamie, with her tsk-tsk sounds and her bitter refrain of "Lord Give me Strength," is the nearest thing to family Starla has. . .  She embarks on a road trip that will change her life forever. She sees for the first time life as it really is - as she reaches for a dream of how it could one day be.

Demise in Denim by Duffy Brown

Duffy Brown is someone I'd like to hang out with. She has a great sense of humor that comes through in her character Reagan Summerside. Demise in Denim is the fourth in the Consignment Shop Mystery Series and reminds me of Stephanie Plum exploits with Southern charm thrown in. This is definitely one for my list of favorites for 2015. Duffy Brown never disappoints.

From the cover:
When Reagan Summerside turned the first floor of her old Victorian home into a consignment shop, she never imagined she'd be harboring a fugitive in her attic. But after a dead man is found in a bathtub and local lawyer Walker Boone is accused of doing the dirty deed, she suddenly has a new houseguest.

Chef Maurice - A Rather Fishy Tale by J.A. Lang

This is the first I've read by J.A. Lang and this novella doesn't disappoint. You can download a free copy from her web site.
Of course any stories set in the Cotswolds are bound to have an English village feel to them and this is no different, although part of the story is set on the coast.
A short story is a great way for an introduction to a new author and I'll definitely look out for more of her series.
You can find a list of her books here

Nora, Nora by Anne Rivers Siddons

Anne Rivers Siddons has a wonderful writing style and draws the reader into her fictional world. In Nora, Nora we are introduced to Peyton who lives with her father and he allows his sister-in-law Augusta to teach his daughter southern ways. At twelve years old, Peyton isn't ready to grow up into a southern woman and it isn't until her cousin Nora arrives that she learns more about the town of Lytton, Georgia and her family than she might perhaps have liked to remain ignorant to.

My thoughts: I liked the story, although at over 400 pages I felt it could have been condensed somewhat. Seeing southern life through the eyes of a twelve year old gives more insight than perhaps from an adult point of view. I did feel the story ended abruptly and didn't go in a direction I had anticipated, I would have preferred that Peyton and her father found a way to mend their relationship without chasing the outside influences that brought them back together emotionally. I won't say more otherwise it will spoil the ending for those who want to read it.

From the cover:
At twelve, Peyton McKenzie isn't ready to share her widowed father with anyone, let alone Nora, her redheaded, cigarette smoking cousin who just rolled into town behind the wheel of a pink Thunderbird. But her father seems to like Nora, and she does make for good  conversation at the Losers Club, and prim Aunt Augusta hates her, which means she can't be all bad. In fact, maybe Nora is just what Quiet Lytton, Georgia needs this summer.

Dead Before Morning by Geraldine Evans

Dead Before Morning by Geraldine Evans is a British police procedural cozy and the first in the Rafferty and Llewellyn series.

I loved the interaction between Rafferty and Llewellyn and the story took many twists and turns with a surprise ending. Be careful though, because I think you can get hooked on these books and there are 12 so far.

From the cover:
Detective Inspector Joe Rafferty has just been promoted. Then he lands the case from Hell, one involving a corpse with no face, no ID,  no clothes, and smashed teeth, found in a place she had no business being: a private psychiatric hospital. Dr Anthony Melville-Briggs, the suave, social-climbing owner, who thinks his money can buy everything, even the police, is another aggravating factor.

As if that isn’t enough, his Ma, Kitty Rafferty, has another little problem for him: she wants him to get his distant cousin out of the cells in time for his wedding. Against his better judgement, Rafferty promises to do his best to get his cousin sprung, though he is careful not to give a time-scale for the Great Escape.

Struggling, with no solution in sight, it is only when he is reminded of his forgotten promise and goes to see his jail-bird cousin, that Rafferty begins to put the case to bed.

You can download a free copy here

The Orchard Fire by Shena Mackay

The Orchard Fire by Shena Mackay is set in 1950s London and Kent and is a delightful childhood story. But, as shown on the cover description, some parts were creepy, especially Mr. Greenridge's unwanted attentions to a young girl, and Ruby's home life was cringeworthy.

From the cover:
When Percy and Betty Harlency abandon their seedy Streatham pub for the Copper Kettle Tearoom in Kent, life for their daughter, April, changes dramatically. She is befriended by the wonderfully dangerous Ruby, whose red hair and brutal home life emphasize her love of fire, and by the creepy but, immaculately dressed Mr. Greenridge, who likes to follow her around the village mingling the innocent with the sinister and laced with the tragic and the bizarre, this is a rare evocation of a 1950s childhood. 

Duane's Depressed by Larry McMurtry

Although I'd seen The Last Picture Show I'd never read any of Larry McMurtry's books, but spotted Duane's Depressed (the final volume of The Last Picture Show series) at a Friends of the Library sale.

The fictional setting of Thalia is based on Larry McMurtry's home town of Archer City. I didn't remember the characters of The Last Picture Show and so they were all new to me, but I didn't find it necessary to read the other books in the series first.

From the cover:
McMurtry brings the Thalia saga to an end with Duane confronting depression in the midst of plenty. Surrounded by his children, who all seem to be going through life crises involving sex, drugs and violence, his wife, Karla, who is wrestling with her own demons; and friends like Sonny, who seem to be dying, Duane can't seem to make sense of life anymore, and shocks his loves ones and the local countryside by giving up his pickup truck to go on foot . . .

My thoughts:
If you've ever lived in Texas you would instantly recognize each of the characters who seem to be resident in most small Texas towns. It was easy for me to picture the landscape around Duane's cabin. I loved the interaction with each of the characters and although Duane was trying to get away from everyone, he still drifted back to familiar friendships and family, while also trying to sever ties. Larry McMurtry's writing draws the reader in. Duane's Depression is going on my list of favorite reads for this year.

Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris

I came across Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris at a Friends of the Library book sale.  It's a well woven story where lives are crossed during the post-Depression years, loved ones lose each other.  And with a backdrop of World War II, also touched on are the injustices of Japanese internment.

From the cover:
Unbeknownst to Belle, Martha would steadfastly continue to look for her lost child for thirty years. As Belle searches for her future in her past, and as her mother and stepbrother search for Belle, we move through the drama that was life in America. Lost and Found is a dramatic, absorbing story of love, acceptance, and belonging. But most of all, it is the story of persistence of the human heart to find its way back home.

The Magician's Lie by Greer MacAllister

The Magician's Lie by Greer MacAllister is set in the 1900s and opens with the death of a male thought to be at the hands of a female magician.

The story reminded me a little of Water for Elephants in a world of travelling entertainment. Greer MacAllister is a gifted writer and keeps the reader intrigued throughout the book. While most of the story is fiction, Ms. MacAllister did research the life of Adelaide Herrmann and inserted her as a character. The Iroquois Theater Fire was unfortunately a disaster where over 600 people died. In a world of magic, males dominated the field and a female magician was unusual for that time. I enjoyed the story and will be adding The Magician's Lie to my list of favorite reads for 2015. This would make a good book club read and a reading book guide can be found at the end of the novel.

From the cover:
The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her incredible trick of sawing a man in half onstage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden's husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear. But when Virgil happens upon the fleeing magician and takes her into custody, she has a different story to tell.

A Bell for Adano by John Hersey

I picked up A Bell for Adano by John Hersey at a Friends of the Library event (a bargain at 10 cents). I hadn't heard of the author but most of you know, anything about Italy I usually grab. This was an interesting story about a small town in Italy during the time when the Americans arrived in Italy in 1944 during WWII.  Unlike the movie of the same name with it's foreboding music, A Bell for Adano is a humorous look at a village governed by an Italian-American immigrant from the U.S. Army. For the story, John Hersey used events surrounding the village of Licata in Sicily and Major Joppolo (the Allied Military Government Occupied Territory Officer) is fashioned from Major Frank Toscani whose similarities to Major Joppolo leave no doubt that he is the major character. However, Mr. Hersey added a little fiction which Major Toscani was not happy with. In the novel, Major Joppolo had an affair while in Adano. After sending Major Toscani an advance copy of A Bell for Adano, Major Toscani sued the author for libel, a case that was settled over dinner (or so the story goes).  John Hersey won the 1945 Pulitzer prize for A Bell for Adano.

The novel follows many events that happened during the war and after Nazi occupation. The people of the village were upset that the Fascists (Mussolini) had taken their 700 year old bell to be melted down for a cannon. They were left with a few small church bells and the town crier to alert emergencies and events. Major Joppolo immediately takes on the problems of the village, working toward getting everyone fed and to locate a bell that would replace the one that had been taken. He worked with the navy to allow fishing boats launched which had previously not been allowed. They marked out areas where they could fish without concern the fishermen would encounter mines. The people had lived through a decade of fascist rule followed by WWII and until Major Joppolo stepped in to organize them, they were despondent with little hope.

This one will be going on my list of favorites for this year.

Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler

I was surprised to find that Calling Me Home was a debut novel by Julie Kibler, not only is the story well written,
the prose keeps the reader enthralled. But be warned, you will need to keep a box of tissues handy, especially nearing the end of the novel. Some of the story came to mind for Ms. Kibler, when she discovered some of her family's past which obviously adds to the heart-wrenching story of two people in love of different races.

This book is going on my list of favorites for this year.

From the cover:
Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser, Dorrie Curtis. It's a big one. Isabelle wants Dorrie to drop everything and driver her from her home in Texas to a funeral near Cincinnati. With no clear explanation why.
Dorrie, a black single mom fleeing problems of her own, wonders if she can unlock the mysteries of Isabelle's guarded past. She hardly hesitates before agreeing to Isabelle's request, never imagining it will be a journey that changes both their lives.

This would make a great book club read. Suggested discussion questions here.

The Love Charm of Bombs by Lara Feigel

The Love Charm of Bombs by Lara Feigel follows the lives of authors in the midst of the London bombing who found the war exhilarating in a hedonistic way. Henry Yorke (whose nom de plume was Henry Green), Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Hilde Spiel, and Rose Macaulay lived in both fear and apprehension during WWII when bombers covered the skies of London some dropping as many as 1,000 incendiary bombs. Ms. Feigel gleaned information from letters, newspapers, magazine articles, and quotes from the authors' books and journals. Many authors used their experiences to write novels:
Life Among the English
The Last September (this is also a movie)
Troubles from the Point of an Anglo-Irish Family
Ministry of Fear
Caught
Their relief at dodging the bombs (although many, like Rose Maccauley, lost a home and treasured books and letters as a result) gave them a "live for today" attitude and many took lovers.
By March 1941 over 33,000 civilians were killed in air raids.

My thoughts:
At over 400 pages, I found the book to be tedious in places. I also found it difficult to follow the many affairs.  I did appreciate the research into London during the war and it's difficult to comprehend living through the nightly bombardments. The London air raids were thought to exacerbate Virginia Woolf's nervous breakdowns leading to her suicide. I was also surprised to learn that Ireland remained neutral and Winston Churchill blamed Ireland for the loss of many ships that had to return to England for refueling when they were not able to refuel on the coast of Ireland. The brave Irish soldiers who chose to fight with Britain were blacklisted when they returned home. 

Raising Positive Kids by Zig Ziglar

I found Zig Ziglar's book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World at a YMCA book sale. Although the book is a bit outdated (he recommends watching the Cosby Show as a good traditional family value show) he has lots of advice for raising positive kids.
His kids jump in at the end of the book with things that could have been done differently and things he and his wife did right.
They didn't like their parents saying "no" and not giving a reason. They felt decisions to relocate did not take into account how it affected the children (he admits some moves could have been avoided). Financial difficulties were glossed over which caused worry for the children when they didn't understand if what they had overheard meant they would lose everything.
On the positive side, they appreciated being taught right from wrong, that their parents did not use improper language. They were taught courteous responses and to respect their elders and take personal responsibility.
Above all, Zig Ziglar tells parents to be aware of the example they are setting for children. Telling children to lie for them (asking them to say you are not at home when someone calls when you are) will teach the children to lie to their parents.
There's lots of good advice for raising children to be positive adults and learn how to be successful.

Revival by Stephen King

Revival is the first novel I've read by Stephen King (I was assured by my book club that it wasn't scary).

Jamie Morton meets a new minister, Reverend Charles Jacobs, when he is just six years old. The shadow of the minister falls over him as he is playing and that shadow follows him for the next fifty years. Jamie learns to play a guitar, joins a rock group and becomes addicted to heroin. It's the "cure" for his addiction that links him again to the Reverend who is dabbling with electricity that he feels can heal. But the "treatments" have many side effects that come to light many years later for not only Jamie, but many people whose paths have crossed with his.

Stephen King is an amazing writer and keeps the reader enthralled throughout his books.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

From the cover:
Alice Howard is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she's a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life - and her relationship with her family and the world forever.

Lisa Genova is a talented writer and her book Still Alice, which follows the story of Alice Howard who has early onset Alzheimer's disease, is both a difficult and compelling read. There was a lot of information thrown in that I had not known about Alzheimer's. Alice had assumed the mental confusion, disorientation and memory lapses were symptoms of menopause and not dementia.
The test Alice was given at the beginning of her visit with her doctor was:
Remember the address: John Black, 42 West Street, Brighton (he would ask her to recall this later)
How old are you?
What's today's date?
What season is it?
Where are we right now?

Later she was asked:
To draw a clock and show hands pointing to a specific time.
What day of the week is it?
When were you  born?
Who is the president of the United States?

These are all simple questions, but Alice struggles with many of the requests, especially drawing a clock (she puts all the hour numbers on one side of the circle.)

My thoughts:
I'm not sure I would have picked this book up if it hadn't been chosen as a book club read. I tend to read for enjoyment and the book brought out a lot of emotions (I would put it on the same level as Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook). But once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. It's a raw look, through Alice's eyes, into both her life that is disintegrating and how her family copes. I'm adding it to my list of favorites for this year.

Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

I was intrigued by some of the quotes I have read by Mark Twain of his travels abroad and found that many of them came from Innocents Abroad which is free for Kindle on the Amazon web site. Unfortunately it didn't include any of the pictures listed in the book, but you can view them here. The 1867 "cruise" was offered for $1,250, visiting Europe, North Africa and the Holy Land with over-land and pleasure excursions in between. It seems the boat had very few amenities, but did carry a printing press for newsletters. If you are looking for a politically correct travel-log this is not it. Mark Twain describes both the sights and people beautifully but often with remarks that would be stricken from present day conversation.  The title is a giveaway as to the content. The book follows the sometimes blundering tours of American tourists who know little of the lands they were visiting unless they had seen a picture here and there (the days before television and the internet). But through their eyes you get a glimpse into how each port looked to someone with no pre-conceived notions. Mark Twain is a very observant traveler and rather than a dry account, he intersperses his experience and those of his fellow travelers with humor and awe.

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore follows a fictional character, Lucien Lessard, who lives with his family in a boulangerie surrounded by the Paris streets of  Montmartre. Along with baking bread, Lucien has a passion for painting which is encouraged by the many painters who had studios in the area. Among his friends are Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Camille Pissarro. The story opens with the death of Vincent Van Gogh. While much of the book is fictional, there are many intriguing factoids (be sure to read the Afterword). One such fact is that ultramarine blue was very expensive if the painter used the natural powder from crushed lapis lazuli gemstones. Another tidbit was that Whistler, while scraping and using white lead paint in Symphony in White, developed lead poisoning. Although I enjoyed the interaction between the painters, the book was very odd/strange. The supernatural aspects of the Colorman and Bleu I found confusing.

From the cover:
In July 1890, Vincent Van Gogh went into a cornfield and shot himself. Or did he? Why would an artist at the height of his creative powers take his life . . . and then walk a mile to a doctor's house? Who was the crooked little "color man" Vincent claimed was stalking him? and why had Vincent recently become terrified of a certain shade of blue?
These questions confront baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard and bon vivant Henri Toulouse-Lautrec as they seek the truth of their friend's untimely death, a quest that will lead them on a surreal odyssey through later 19th-century Paris.

You can read the first few chapters here

One Nation by Ben Carson

I'm continuing my quest to find out more about candidates involved in our next election. I read Ben Carson's book Gifted Hands many years ago and have been intrigued by his success, moving from a Detroit neighborhood in a family with a single mother who could not read, to one of the top neurosurgeons in the country.
I came across One Nation at our local library. As with the people who influenced America as a new country, Ben Carson uses wisdom of the bible to make decisions, but he is quick to point out that although there are divisions between those who believe in God and those who are atheists we should respect each other and try to find common ground. He wants to find a way to unify our country and to return to the U.S. Constitution as the dominant document of government rather than having a pendulum that swings dramatically to the right or to the left. He wishes that people would vote for a candidate rather than a particular party - choose someone with a clear vision.

"Unless the majority of Americans awaken from their complacency and recognize the threat to their fundamental individual liberties imposed by continued expansion of the federal government, nothing will save us from the fate of all pinnacle nations that have preceded us, those that tolerated political and moral corruption while ignoring fiscal irresponsibility."

He also encourages us to look at the picture from another person's point of view, forget political correctness and talk to people who are of different races, religions, or lifestyles.

Mill Girl by Sue Reid

Mill Girl by Sue Reid is part of the My Story collection of children's young reader books.

A Victorian Girl's Diary
1842 - 1843
In Spring 1842 Eliza is shocked when she is sent to work in the Manchester cotton mills - the noisy suffocating mills. The work is backbreaking and dangerous and when she sees friends' lives wrecked by poverty, sickness and unrest, Eliza realizes she must fight to escape the fate of a mill girl.

Set in Manchester, England, Mill Girl gives an account of life for children as young as 9 working in spinning mills inhaling fluff from the thread and working beneath machines where they were dangerously close to heavy machinery constantly moving. Unrest among the workers in appalling conditions prompted many to join a Chartist Movement. Cheap cotton material was in demand and with the invention of James Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny workers could spin as much as 8 people could in their homes. Other inventions brought about the Industrial Revolution.

Tiffany Girl by Deeanne Gist

Tiffany Girl by Deanne Gist is an interesting look into the girls Louis Comfort Tiffany hired to work on his exhibition at the 1893 World's Fair. Although the main character, Flossie is fictitious, many of the characters are based on people involved with Mr. Tiffany's enterprises. You can see pictures of the chapel built for the fair here

Deeanne Gist (and her sister) studied letters and documents to develop a story peppered with facts about life for the Tiffany Girls and in particular struggles for women at the end of the nineteenth century. Flossie refers to herself as a New Woman. One who is willing to discontinue passing her wages to her father (which he gambled away) and moving from her home to a boarding house.