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The lead character of the book, Sister Luke (pre-convent name Gabrielle Van Der Mal), finds her faith tested in Africa where she finds herself at odds with headstrong Dr. Fortunati, operator of a remote Congo hospital, with whom she gradually builds respect, and again during World War II, when she is ordered not to take sides. Ultimately, Sister Luke is forced to decide whether to remain in the convent or return to the outside world.

Gabrielle/Sister Luke is stretched between her desire to be faithful to the rule of her congregation and her desire to be a nurse. As a nun she must remove all vestiges of "Gabrielle Van Der Mal" and sublimate herself into the devoted bride of Christ. As a nun there is no room for her personal desires and aspirations. Ultimately, the conflict between her devotion to the Church and the nursing profession, juxtaposed with her passionate Belgian patriotism and her love of her father (killed by Nazi fighter planes while treating wounded) bring her to an impasse, which serves as the dénouement of the novel.

It was soon after the war, while director of the Polish Displaced Persons camp, that Hulme met a Belgian nurse and former nun who would become her lifelong companion. Marie Louise Habet was a volunteer at the project. This story is a slightly fictionalized account of Habets’ life as a nun. Written more in the form of a biography, it follows Sister Luke’s life from entering the convent to her eventual leaving seventeen years later.

It was the movie based on it that first made me aware of the story. I loved the movie, so made a search for the book. I was surprised at how true to the book the movie was.

I’ve read the book several times over the years, and every time I’m drawn into the life of Gabrielle Van Del Mal, who would be known as Sister Luke. Her struggles over the years to be a “perfect” nun, yet a good nurse, too, are compellingly drawn. The story is straight forward and concise, yet the reader is given a full picture of those years. Sister Luke’s story is one of sacrifice, but also one of true grace.

( Mount TBR 2025 Book Links 1-25 )

26. Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris
27. Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill
28. Three Wild Dogs by Markus Zusak
29. Full Throttle by Joe Hill
30. Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next #2) by Jasper Fforde
31. Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
32. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
33. Pearly Everlasting by Tammy Armstrong
34. The Women of Troy (Women of Troy #2) by Pat Barker
35. The Conjurers by Marilyn Harris
36. The Regulators by Richard Bachman (Pseudonym), Stephen King
37. Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn
38. The Nun's Story by Kathryn Hulme

Nun's Story, The

JUL – Sunrise, Deepen, Story, Sweet, Resort, Good, Left, Ever

The Nun’s Story by Kathryn Hulme

John Lennon and Paul McCartney knew each other for twenty-three years, from 1957 to 1980. This book is the myth-shattering biography of a relationship that changed the cultural history of the world.

The Beatles shook the world to its core in the 1960’s and, to this day, remain an active ingredient in our cultural bloodstream, as new generations fall in love with their songs and their story. At the heart of this phenomenon lies the dynamic between John and Paul. Few other musical partnerships have been rooted in such a deep, intense and complicated personal relationship.

John and Paul’s relationship was defined by its complexity: compulsive, tender and tempestuous; full of longing, riven by jealousy. Like the band, their relationship was always in motion, never in equilibrium for long. John and Paul traces its twists and turns and reveals how these shifts manifested themselves in the music. Yoko Ono remarked on the resemblance of their friendship to a romantic relationship and suggested that at some point that’s what John wanted it to be. The two of them shared a private language, rooted in the stories, comedy and songs they both loved as teenagers, and later, in the lyrics of Beatles songs.

In John and Paul, acclaimed writer on human psychology and creativity Ian Leslie traces the shared journey of these men before, during and after The Beatles, offering us both a new look at two of the greatest icons in music history, and rich insights into the nature of creativity, collaboration, and human intimacy.

I remember when the Beatles first made a splash in the States; I was in the 5th grade and my friends and I were soon caught up in the whirlwind of their music. But by the time of their breakup I was already turning to other music (mainly Motown,) though I still listened to their older songs. Once in awhile I’d hear of some of the crazier things that were going on (mainly by John and Yoko,) I really didn’t know why they broke up. There was talk that it was Yoko’s fault, but that’s mostly what it was. Talk.

The years went by and from time to time one or the other would put out a song that I really liked. There was a bit of melancholy attached to them, because I still thought of them as the Beatles. Then John died.

This book does so much to fill the gap of that time, to finally make known what was going on with these two men. I love how the author delves into their music, bringing to light the intricacies involved in their writing and the hidden meanings behind many of their songs.

It’s a somber book, mostly because you know how it’s going to end. But I’m really glad I read it. It really was a love story.

John & Paul

A beautiful, lyrical exploration of the places where nature is flourishing in our absence.

Some of the only truly feral cattle in the world wander a long-abandoned island off the northernmost tip of Scotland. A variety of wildlife not seen in many lifetimes has rebounded on the irradiated grounds of Chernobyl. A lush forest supports thousands of species that are extinct or endangered everywhere else on earth in the Korean peninsula's narrow DMZ.

Cal Flyn, an investigative journalist, exceptional nature writer, and promising new literary voice visits the eeriest and most desolate places on Earth that due to war, disaster, disease, or economic decay, have been abandoned by humans. What she finds every time is an island of teeming new life: nature has rushed in to fill the void faster and more thoroughly than even the most hopeful projections of scientists.

Islands of Abandonment is a tour through these new ecosystems, in all their glory, as sites of unexpected environmental significance, where the natural world has reasserted its wild power and promise. And while it doesn't let us off the hook for addressing environmental degradation and climate change, it is a case that hope is far from lost, and it is ultimately a story of redemption: the most polluted spots on Earth can be rehabilitated through ecological processes and, in fact, they already are.

I have to admit to being taken aback by the number of these “islands.” I knew about Chernobyl, Detroit, and a few others. But there are a vast number throughout the world that little has been written about. In that, I found the book well worth reading.

But I felt that the “lyrical” was a bit overdone. Sometimes it tended to get in the way of understanding how the area had been degraded, and how it was coming back to life. Overly flowery and sometimes using words that didn’t actually exist, I thought the writing could have been more concise.

What surprised me is, after describing what was happening all over the planet, Flyn appears overly positive in her assessment of how well things will work out. Yes, some of these places are doing well, but some have life only in the most strict sense. Or, as in the case of the Salten Sea, has come and gone over the eons.

Author of the bestselling novel Thinner and four thrillers that have sold millions in an omnibus edition entitled The Bachman Books, the late Richard Bachman has been described as "Stephen King without a conscience." Now he performs an eerie encore with the posthumous release of The Regulators, a harrowing story of a suburban neighborhood in the grip of surreal terror.

It's a summer afternoon in Wentworth, Ohio, and on Poplar Street everything's normal. The paper boy is making his rounds; the Carver kids are bickering at the corner convenience store; a Frisbee is flying on the Reeds' lawn; Gary Soderson is firing up the backyard barbecue. The only thing that doesn't quite fit is the red van idling just up the hill. Soon it will begin to roll, and the killing will begin. A quiet slice of American suburbia is about to turn to toast.

The mayhem rages around a seemingly still point, a darkened house lit fitfully from within by a flickering television screen. Inside, where things haven't been normal for a long time, are Audrey Wyler and the autistic nephew she cares for, eight-year-old Seth Garin. They're fighting their own battle, and its intensity has turned 247 Poplar Street into a prisonhouse.

By the time night falls on Poplar Street, the surviving residents will find themselves in another world, one where anything, no matter how terrible, is possible…and where the regulators are on their way. By what power they have come, how far they will go, and how they can be stopped-these are the desperate questions. The answers are absolutely terrifying.

It’s certainly true that, under the Bachman pseudonym, King’s writing becomes darker. This book is a prime example of that. There are no small number of victims, either by a harrowing death, or through a as just as harrowing life.

The story takes place all within one day, though the reader is given a background of sorts through Audrey Wyler’s journal and by a letter written to her by someone from who she tries to get information. But because it is all happening within the span of one day, the horror is unrelenting. The characters are given almost no breathing room as they try to fight back.

But neither is the reader. It’s one thing after the other, so the story can get a bit mind-numbing at times. Plus, it gives you little time to get to know the characters. There were a few that I felt I was beginning to like, but it never got much further than that.

So, while an entertaining read, it’s not one of my favorite King books. It’s been years since I read it, so it’ll be interesting rereading its linked book, Desperation.

Katsu, Ketchum, King, or Koontz
1. You Like It Darker by Stephen King
2. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
3. The Regulators by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King)

2025 Monthly Motif.jpg

JUL - “Single Day Story”
Read a book that takes place over the course of a single day.

The Regulators by Stephen King

Each year thousands of tourists visit the huge, prehistoric stones, marveling at their awesome size and mystery. Then one group came not to marvel but to resurrect the dark primal magic of Druid horror; to call up the unholy power that had once reigned supreme; to loose its terrifying occult power again on an unsuspecting world. They called themselves The Conjurers.

Harris is a good writer; I truly enjoyed The Portent. But she has the unfortunate habit of often leaving too much unexplained. The characters don’t ask the questions that most people would ask, do things that you can’t help but wonder what the hell they’re thinking.

This is especially true of the main character, Easter Mulraven. Her husband mysteriously disappeared years before. Her parents are dead. Lonely, she starts taking in the young people who wander into the village. She asks nothing about them; seems to be under the spell of one particularly striking young man. But the people of the village want them gone. They won’t really tell her why, other than a rather odd warning “they’re evil.”

There are some truly gruesome and terrifying events that take place, but since everyone talks, and thinks, in riddles, it’s hard to figure what exactly is going on. I’m still not totally sure.

Written by a female author
1. The Conjurers by Marilyn Harris

A daring and timely feminist retelling of The Iliad from the perspective of the women of Troy who endured it—an extraordinary follow up to The Silence of the Girls from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Regeneration Trilogy.

Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with the spoils of an endless war—including the women of Troy themselves. They await a fair wind for the Aegean.

It does not come, because the gods are offended. The body of King Priam lies unburied and desecrated, and so the victors remain in suspension, camped in the shadows of the city they destroyed as the coalition that held them together begins to unravel. Old feuds resurface and new suspicions and rivalries begin to fester.

Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles's slave, now belonging to his companion Alcimus, quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can, with Priam's aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.

While perhaps not as exciting as the first book there is still much going on. And though much of this wasn’t in The Iliad, Barker allows us to get to know the characters by giving them this lull in the action. Troy has been defeated, but the Greeks are unable to sail for home due to a wind that constantly blows toward shore.

But, as in the first book, the protagonist is Briseis, given to Achilles as a war prize and now carrying his child. Wed to one of his lieutenants, she is no longer a slave, giving her more latitude in where she goes and what she does. Still, she is not exactly free. Caught between the Greeks and the Trojan women who are now slaves, she creates her own world that is part of both.

I know some readers didn’t care for the lack of action, but I found it a wonderful way to actually get to know the characters. Usually it’s battles I have to skim through, glassy-eyed from one too many deaths (it’s a rare writer who can make them interesting for me.) Here, the days pass slowly, their lives in stasis.

For the women, their homes are gone. They wait to see what will become of them.

A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods.

While on a camping trip, five high-schoolers bound by an oath to always protect one another discover something in the middle of the forest: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend climbs up but does not come back down. Then the staircase disappears. Twenty years later it reappears, and the friends return to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase.

While it’s a really creepy story, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I have some of Wendig’s other books. Maybe because, while I found the story compelling and unputdownable, I think the fact that I didn’t care all that much for the characters sort of ruined things. Not terribly, just enough for me to wish that at least one character had been written more likably.

Yet, at the same time, I’m not sure that would have worked. The four remaining characters are all pretty flawed, with some major issues. In that, it worked that the one character who was basically a nice guy is the one who goes missing, because a lot of the what was going on dealt with those issues. Unfortunately, that’s what made the characters not so likable.

It also seemed that none of them had grown much. One would think that, pushing forty, the characters would have more sense. I had a hard time seeing them as adults, their actions often being that of a teenager.

Having said all that, I still enjoyed the story, because it is a good story. And what was happening really tended to outweigh who it was happening to.

Goodreads 35

In a narrative sown with rural folklore and superstition, Pearly Everlasting is an enchanting woodland Gothic about the triumph of good over evil and the forgotten beauty of the natural world.

New Brunswick, 1934. When a cook in a logging camp finds an orphaned baby bear, he brings it home to his wife, who names the cub Bruno and raises him alongside her newborn daughter, Pearly Everlasting.

During the Great Depression, amidst severe poverty and dangerous work conditions, Pearly’s family and the woodsmen form a close-knit community that embraces the tame, young bear in their camp.

But when a new camp supervisor—who increasingly endangers the lives of the loggers for profit—arrives, he is less accepting of Bruno. When the supervisor is found dead, Bruno is blamed, and soon after is kidnapped and sold to an animal trader. Pearly, now a teenager, has no choice but to find Bruno and sets off on a hazardous solo journey through the forest—her first trip to “the Outside”—to rescue him.

To make her way home again, Pearly will have to tramp more than fifty miles through ice and snow, elude the malevolent spirit of Jack in the Dark and confront the modern-day cruelty of villagers fearful of her family’s way of life. Over those harrowing miles, Pearly will discover what it really means to be family to a bear.

I loved the relationship between Pearly and Bruno, but sometimes the story seemed to meander. But the writing was poetic in its description of their love; it’s the heart of the story.

I think I enjoyed the first part of the book the best, though always in the back of my mine was dreading the kidnapping of Bruno. How will it be done? How will Pearly get him back? Pearly will do anything to get Bruno back, and pretty much does.

Because the only world she’s ever known is the logging camp where she and her family live, her journey away from it is probably more dangerous than for someone who knows the way. It’s just another example of what she will do to get her “brother” back.

Based on a photograph taken in 1903 of a woman nursing her newborn daughter alongside an orphan bear cub.

Hearts in Atlantis, King's newest fiction, is composed of five interconnected, sequential narratives, set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply rooted in the sixties, and each is haunted by the Vietnam War.

In Part One, "Low Men in Yellow Coats," eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror.

In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest...and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast.

In "Blind Willie" and "Why We're in Vietnam," two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow -- and as haunted -- as their own lives.

And in "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling," this remarkable book's denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart's desire may await him.

Full of danger, full of suspense, most of all full of heart, Stephen King's new book will take some readers to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely leave.

Like many other readers Low Men in Yellow Coats was my favorite story. I loved the relationship between Bobby and Ted, the older man who moves into the building where Bobby and his mother live, and the slightly supernatural element that plays a huge part in both their lives.

Bobby’s relationship with Carol, his friend, or “girlfriend,” also adds much to the story. It’s their first love, both lovely and heartbreaking.

I enjoyed the book, but I know I would have enjoyed it more if the focus had remained on Bobby Garfield, Carol Gerber, and Ted Brautigan. Instead, three of the stories focus on other people; Hearts in Atlantis, in fact, focuses on people they mostly didn’t know (Carol has a small part in it, but doesn’t really do much.) I never did get what was going on. It was hard to imagine so many boys throwing away their college scholarships over a card game.

Both Blind Willie and Why We’re in Vietnam brings things closer to home, but still don’t have the magic of the first story. Even Heavenly Shades… isn’t all I would have hoped for.

So, basically, the four stars are because of the first story, which would have earned five if it had been a stand-alone. I would have loved more about Bobby, Ted, and Carol; what their lives were, and what they would become.

( Mount TBR 2025 Book Links 1-20 )

21. We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
22. America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by H.W. Brands
23. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
24. The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
25. A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen
26. Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris
27. Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill
28. Three Wild Dogs by Markus Zusak
29. Full Throttle by Joe Hill
30. Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next #2) by Jasper Fforde
31. Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
32. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King

Katsu, Ketchum, King, or Koontz
1. You Like It Darker by Stephen King
2. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King

2025 Monthly Motif.jpg

JUN- “No Biz Like Show Biz”: Read a book in which the character(s) is involved in some aspect of the entertainment industry OR read a book that has been turned into a tv show or movie.

Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King

Hearts In Atlantis: 2001
Director: Scott Hicks
Writers: Stephen King, William Goldman
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis

In Adrian Tchaikovsky's Elder Race, a junior anthropologist on a distant planet must help the locals he has sworn to study to save a planet from an unbeatable foe.

Lynesse is the lowly Fourth Daughter of the queen, and always getting in the way.

But a demon is terrorizing the land, and now she’s an adult (albeit barely) and although she still gets in the way, she understands that the only way to save her people is to invoke the pact between her family and the Elder sorcerer who has inhabited the local tower for as long as her people have lived here (though none in living memory has approached it).

But Elder Nyr isn’t a sorcerer, and he is forbidden to help, for his knowledge of science tells him the threat cannot possibly be a demon…

Tchaikovsky has a habit of writing books in series; unfortunately, that isn’t the case with this one. Add to that its short length, and it’s a bit of a disappointment, because I would love to continue reading about Lynette and Nyr. Both are interesting characters who must learn to cooperate if they stand of chance of overcoming what threatens their land.

You get to know Lynesse from the start; it’s her quest and she has her mind set on what she must do. She goes to ask for help from who she thinks is a sorcerer, unaware that what she sees as magic is the technology of an advanced people. Nyr is not a sorcerer, but because of his situation, it takes a while to get to know him. And just as you are, the story ends.

The story jumps back and forth between their perspectives; for Lynesse it’s magic; for Nyr it’s science. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of world views that makes for an intriguing story.

I know it’s been nine months, but I’ve finally managed to put together a report of sorts on my trip to England. Things did not go as planned.

Sept 4, 2024

My flight from Grand Rapids to O’Hare was probably the best part of my trip over. I got there around 10am and then spent almost a full day at O’Hare, waiting for my flight. Once I was finally seated my seat mate sneezed and hacked her way across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the plane was full so I couldn’t be moved. Or she couldn’t. Anyway, I hoped for the best.

It had been agreed that Anne would pick me up and that we’d head for her brother’s house. I had worn a mask during the trip over and kept it on in the car. I’d met Neil and his wife, Andrea, during a previous trip, and was eager to spend time with them again.

Sept 5, 2024

It was a lovely day, so we decided to do some sightseeing.

Our first stop was the Middle Littleton Tithe Barn, one of the largest and most notable tithe barns in England. It’s rumored that Richard and his men camped in the barn on their way to Bosworth, but there’s no historical evidence to confirm it.

2. Middle Littleton Tithe Barn

From there we drove to Pershore Abbey. Its main claim to fame is its age. Its foundation is alluded to in a charter of King Ethelred of Mercia (675-704 AD.) Fires, storms and an earthquake battered the Abbey, but Henry VIII came the closest to destroying it during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Most of the Abbey was demolished, with only the tower, choir and south transept remaining.

4. Pershore Abbey

From there we drove back to Worcester, where we made time to visit its cathedral.

While some form of the Cathedral has been in place since 680AD, the present building was begun in 1084. It’s a magnificent building, whose major claims to fame are the tombs of King John, and Prince Arthur Tudor, Henry VII’s eldest son who died at the age of sixteen at Ludlow Castle.

24. Another view of King John

The River Severn runs behind the cathedral, which stands on a cliff on the left bank. It’s a lovely spot. Lots of swans!

38. Swans outside Worcester Cathedral

Sept 6, 2024

Left for Middleham. It was evening by the time we got there, so we checked in at the Priory and then walked over for a creme tea at the Middleham cafe.

The next day it rained all day, so we stayed in. Mostly watched tv, until dinner time when we went down the street to the Richard III Inn. Their food is usually excellent, but my appetite wasn’t what it normally is. By the time we got back to the Priory I was feeling a bit under the weather.

Felt pretty good when I woke up, so we went down for breakfast. That’s when it hit. I barely made it back to the room, where I collapsed on the bed. The proprietress had a covid test kit, which she kindly gave to us. It was positive. Luckily, Anne had had covid just a few months before, so was still immune. I slept most of the day and that night.

Sept 9, 2024

I was still feeling low, not bad, just not great. So no visiting Middleham Castle or York; no heading up to Hexham and Hadrian’s Wall. Instead we decided to drive back to London.

Apparently, having had the covid vaccine, I had a mild case of it. For the next week I either slept or we watched movies. It wasn’t a terrible time; Anne is always fun to hang out with. And we both love horror movies, so there was A Knock at the Cabin, and all three Quiet Place movies. A little different was Wicked Little Letters. I loved it, though certainly wasn’t what I’d had in mind!

Sept 17, 2024

I tested negative! And since I was feeling pretty good, we decided to try for a short day out. I’m not what you’d call a Tudor fan, but I’d always wanted to see Hever Castle, where Anne Boleyn grew up. We met up with Chris, another good friend, and spent a few hours roaming the grounds and the castle.

59. Hever Castle

It’s not as big as I thought it would be, but the grounds are spectacular. I bought an Anne Boleyn bear, but not an Henry VIII.

55. Chris and Gilda in the Dahlia garden

55. Chris and Gilda in the Dahlia garden

Sept 18, 2024

We headed into town, stopping first at the Jewel Tower. THere’s not much left of it, but it was still interesting. At one time or another it’s been a Tudor storeroom, a House of Lords record archive, and the National Weights and Measures office.

I’d been to Westminster Cathedral before, but it’s so huge, there’s always something to see. So many outstanding people are buried there that have nothing to do with royalty.

64. Charles Darwin tomb at Westminster

Of course, there are those, too.

70. Edward I Tomb

We only stayed a couple of hours. Though I felt fine, I still tired easily. So back to Anne’s for another movie. Later I packed up for my trip home.

Sept 19, 2024

It’s lucky that I hadn’t had a worse case of covid, because getting home was a nightmare. They changed my seat on the plane (from aisle to a middle seat,) which wasn’t terrible, but I’d payed for the aisle seat (I was later able to get a refund.) The flight was okay, but O’Hare was a mess.

Customs was its usually trial. I think it took over an hour to get through (as opposed to at Heathrow where it took 10 minutes.) Then I had to get my bags, go through security again, then take a bus from the terminal where we landed to where my gate for home was. AThe line for that was another half hour, at least. Of course the bus dropped us off on the other end of the terminal, so I had to hoof it all the way to my gate. I managed to get there with twenty minutes to spare.

I’m hoping to go back next year. Of course that all depends on what’s going on with the Orange tyrant and his minions. By then they may be pulling citizens aside and not allowing them back in. I don’t know, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing as long as BA flew me back to England.

If resourceful, fearless literary detective Thursday Next thought she could avoid the spotlight after her heroic escapades in the pages of Jane Eyre, she was sorely mistaken.

Her adventures as a renowned Special Operative in literary detection have left Thursday Next yearning for a rest. But when the love of her life is eradicated by the corrupt multinational Goliath Corporation, Thursday must bite the bullet and moonlight as a Prose Resource Operative in the secret world of Jurisfiction, the police force inside the books. There she is apprenticed to Miss Havisham, the famous man-hater from Dicken's Great Expectations, who teaches her to book-jump like a pro. If she retrieves a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of Poe's "The Raven," she thinks Goliath might return her lost love, Landen. But her latest mission is endlessly complicated. Not only are there side trips into the works of Kafka and Austen, and even Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Flopsy Bunnies, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth.

As with the first book in the series, I felt there were perhaps a few too many plot lines to keep straight. Actually, there seemed to be even more with this book, which is probably why I didn’t enjoy it as much. I think the 400 pages would have done better at 350. Maybe even 300, because I found myself jumping ahead, skipping paragraphs, not at all concerned at what I might be missing. Turns out, usually I didn’t miss a thing.

Thursday jumps from book to book, trying to retrieve Hades from Poe’s The Raven, trying to outwit the Goliath Corporation, as well as staying one step ahead of her own people, all the while hoping to keep the Earth from ending in a covering of pink sludge. Oh, and trying to get her husband back, keep her flat, and watch out for her dodo and the bird’s egg. All while being pregnant, herself. That’s an awfully lot to keep straight. Or, unfortunately, to stay interested in. And I’m sure I’ve left out some things.

I’m pretty sure I won’t be reading the third book. Just the thought of reading another book like this one is exhausting!

JUN – Great, Wander, Child, Mine, Book, Watch, Heart, Save

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

A little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in “Faun.” A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in “Late Returns.” In “By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain,” two young friends stumble on the corpse of a plesiosaur at the water’s edge, a discovery that forces them to confront the inescapable truth of their own mortality . . . and other horrors that lurk in the water’s shivery depths. And tension shimmers in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert as a faceless trucker finds himself caught in a sinister dance with a tribe of motorcycle outlaws in “Throttle,” co-written with Stephen King.

I’m not normally one for short stories, but I do so enjoy Hill’s writing. And there were some in this collection that I enjoyed immensely. Throttle, which is the only story that doesn’t have a supernatural or sci-fi slant, is really quite good, but I enjoyed the stories that did wander off into strange avenues. Dark Carousel, Faun, and especially Late Return are favorites when it came to the supernatural, but it was the sci-fi story,You Are Released, that was my favorite.

Of course there were those that I didn’t care for, some not at all, mostly those whose endings were a bit too dark for me; YMMV on that.

Still, I felt the book leaned enough into the worth reading column. Maybe because many of the stories are quite long, sort of pushing out into novella territory, that I was able to overlook the stories that I wasn’t all that crazy about.

In this poignant, funny, and disarmingly honest memoir, one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book Thief, tells of his family’s adoption of three troublesome rescue dogs—a charming and courageous love story about making even the most incorrigible of animals family.

There’s a madman dog beside me, and the hounds of memory ahead of us . . . It’s love and beasts and wild mistakes, and regret, but never to change things.

What happens when the Zusak family opens their home to three big, wild, street-hardened dogs—Reuben, more wolf than hound; Archer, blond, beautiful, destructive; and the rancorously smiling Frosty, who walks like a rolling thunderstorm?

The answer can only be chaos: There are street fights, park fights, public shamings, property damages, injuries, hospital visits, wellness checks, pure comedy, shocking tragedy, and carnage that must be read to be believed.

There is a reckoning of shortcomings and failure, a strengthening of will, but most important of all, an explosion of love—and the joy and recognition of family.

Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth) is a tender, motley, and exquisitely written memoir about the human need for both connection and disorder, a love letter to the animals who bring hilarity and beauty—but also the visceral truth of the natural world—straight to our doors and into our lives and change us forever.

If you’ve ever owned a dog that wasn’t quite perfect, that had issues that you struggled to overcome, a dog you loved, anyway, then this is the book for you. The author brings his dogs to life with every challenge met, but not always won, with every illness that you’re sure will be the end, but magically isn’t. Until it is.

Even though I was reading about someone else’s dogs, I couldn’t help but think of my own, some gone decades, others only a few years. They all were right there with me, as I’m sure Zusak’s still are with him. We love them so much, yet know that we will lose them much too soon.

I laughed at some of the situations that Zusak found himself in with Reuben and Archer. Cried when the inevitable happened. He now has Frosty, but admits that the kind of love that comes with years isn’t there yet. But he knows it will be someday. I know that feeling; that’s what a dog, or a cat, bring to their people. As is so evident in this book, no matter the pain at the end, they’re more than worth it.

A collection of four chilling novels, ingeniously wrought gems of terror from the brilliantly imaginative, Joe Hill

Snapshot is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself threatened by “The Phoenician,” a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap.

A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero’s island of roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own in Aloft.

On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails—splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. Rain explores this escalating apocalyptic event, as the deluge of nails spreads out across the country and around the world.

In Loaded, a mall security guard in a coastal Florida town courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun rights movement. But under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. When an out-of-control summer blaze approaches the town, he will reach for the gun again and embark on one last day of reckoning.

I’m loving Joe Hill’s work almost as much as his father’s (which he probably hates hearing.) I’ll read anything he writes. Haven’t been disappointed yet. Certainly not with this collection. I especially like that they’re more novellas than short stories. And while they tend to veer more toward science fiction, they all have touches of horror.

As I see them:

Snapshot: Creepy and horrifying, yet bittersweet, too, as the protagonist finds love in the most unexpected place. I was hoping for a different ending, but things don’t always work out the way we want. No matter my feelings about it, it made sense.

Loaded: Watching as, step by step, the inevitable happens. Terrifying how likely something like this could happen. Actually, may have already happened. I hated the ending, though.

Aloft: A unique story, more sci-fi than horror. I loved how the young man works out as to what’s going on, and how to deal with it.

Rain: Another more sci-fi than horror, though horrifying enough. I loved the main protagonist; she could definitely take care of herself, though a little help is always welcome. Didn’t see the ending to this one coming. I think it was my favorite story of the four.

On Christmas Eve, 1930, in America's dust bowl, a young woman delivers her baby alone. Plain, warmhearted Martha Drusso takes the downy-haired infant she names Belle to raise as her own, along with another orphan in her care, a little boy named R.C.

But when Belle is three, her stepbrother mistakenly puts her on a train bound for Los Angeles, then leaves to get her a treat. The train takes off, and Belle is pitched into a child's worst nightmare: a series of orphanages and foster homes. When she is adopted into a loving Japanese-American family, it seems Belle's troubles are over -- until World War II breaks out. Never defeated, Belle is adopted again, and her beautiful singing voice ultimately leads her to Hollywood, and to love and marriage.

All the while, Martha and R.C. steadfastly continue to search for Belle. For thirty years they believe that the persistence of their hearts will bring their little family together again . . . .

"The power and integrity of Harris's prose turn this novel into something valuable." -- Atlanta Journal & Constitution

The book has a lot going for it. An intriguing plot, some interesting characters, and the background of a changing America.

Martha and R. C. are especially appealing. Their lives are often hard, but they manage to overcome adversity and carry on. They enjoy what they have, yet always in the background is Belle, the lost child.

Unfortunately, that’s where things go off the rails. Belle is too perfect. She’s beautiful, and has a voice like an angel. She’s brilliant, but her naivety, which I suppose is supposed to show the pureness of her heart, can be a bit much sometimes. She overlooks, and I guess the reader is supposed to, too, the manipulative and insensitive nature of her boyfriend’s father. What would happen next was pretty obvious. And kind of creepy.

I think the book could have done without the last ten years. At that point the story started to get redundant, as they almost find each other, their paths almost crossing.

The ending left me wondering if there was going to be more to Belle and R.C.’s relationship. Not sure how I would have felt about that.

MAY – Lost, City, Wind, Hide, Lie, Fan, Room, Clear

Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris
⁠

How do you start over after the end of the world?

Six years after a global pandemic wiped out most of the planet’s population, the survivors are rebuilding the country, split between self-governing cities, hippie communes and wasteland gangs.

In post-apocalyptic San Francisco, former pop star Moira has created a new identity to finally escape her past—until her domineering father launches a sweeping public search to track her down. Desperate for a fresh start herself, jaded event planner Krista navigates the world on behalf of those too traumatized to go outside, determined to help everyone move on—even if they don’t want to. Rob survived the catastrophe with his daughter, Sunny, but lost his wife. When strict government rules threaten to separate parent and child, Rob needs to prove himself worthy in the city’s eyes by connecting with people again.

Krista, Moira, Rob and Sunny are brought together by circumstance, and their lives begin to twine together. But when reports of another outbreak throw the fragile society into panic, the friends are forced to finally face everything that came before—and everything they still stand to lose.

Because sometimes having one person is enough to keep the world going.

This is a truly different take on what goes on after a global pandemic; probably not since Alas, Babylon, has a book focused so much on, not how people got there, but where do they go from here. Yes, the pandemic is important, since it set the stage for what was to come. But people lives must go on.

All four characters are well drawn, though Sunny probably not as much as the grownups, since there is less history to draw from. Yet, at the same time, she is very much in the center of what is going on with the three people within her orbit. So while Sunny’s character changes very little, Krista’s, Moira’s, and Rob’s certainly do. All three must face the mistakes of their pasts, and deal with them within the difficult surroundings of a world vastly changed. How they do so shows their growth as individuals. Even more importantly, it shows that, just maybe, there will still be a future for them.

A powerful and fierce reimagining of the earliest Roman legend: the twins, Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of history’s greatest empire, and the woman whose sacrifice made it all possible.

The names Romulus and Remus may be immortalized in map and stone and chronicle, but their mother exists only as a preface to her sons’ journey, the princess turned oath-breaking priestess, condemned to death alongside her children.

But she did not die; she survived. And so does her story. Beautiful, royal, rich: Rhea has it all—until her father loses his kingdom in a treacherous coup, and she is sent to the order of the Vestal Virgins to ensure she will never produce an heir.

Except when mortals scheme, gods laugh.

Rhea becomes pregnant, and human society turns against her. Abandoned, ostracized, and facing the gravest punishment, Rhea forges a dangerous deal with the divine, one that will forever change the trajectory of her life…and her beloved land.

To save her sons and reclaim their birthright, Rhea must summon nature’s mightiest force – a mother’s love – and fight. All roads may lead to Rome, but they began with Rhea Silvia.

The story aligns quite closely to the mythology, but this is Rhea Silvia’s story and she is very much front and center. Who she was, her life before her father’s kingdom was taken from him. And how she managed to survive afterwards makes for a compelling story. She makes some huge mistakes, but ultimately finds a way forward. Her sons are her world, and she does everything she can to insure their survival.

But there were others in her life; her cousin, Antho, is probably the most important. I loved their relationship, more like sisters than cousins. Unlike so many others in Rhea’s life, she manages to survive. There is Rhea’s father, who disappoints her so many times, yet she clings to her memories of their time together when she was a child. And, of course, the gods.

I’m so looking forward to reading more by this author.

Goodreads 25

A young woman wins the role of a lifetime in a film about a legendary heroine — but the real drama is behind the scenes in this sumptuous historical epic from the author of Mexican Gothic.

1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times.

So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.

Two actresses, both determined to make it to the top in Golden Age Hollywood—a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue—make for a sizzling combination.

But this is the tale of three women, for it is also the story of the princess Salome herself, consumed with desire for the fiery prophet who foretells the doom of her stepfather, Herod: a woman torn between the decree of duty and the yearning of her heart.

Before the curtain comes down, there will be tears and tragedy aplenty in this sexy Technicolor saga.

The book is slow to start, as we’re introduced to the main characters. There’s Vera, who has lucked into a prime role. Nancy, who probably isn’t as talented as she thinks she is. And then there’s Salome, whose story is intertwined with that of the actress who’s portraying her. There’s also the men in their lives, who don’t come across as strongly as the women do. Their roles are very much second string.

This is definitely a step away from Moreno-Garcia’s usual work; there’s not a touch of the mystical, and the only horror is the way some of the characters are willing to do anything in order to get ahead. I have to say, I missed the unworldliness that usually permeates her books.

It wasn’t until near the end that the pace picks up; enough to make up for the rest of the book. The tragedy of their lives comes full circle with Salome’s. No one walks away unscathed.

MAY: “Virtual Book Club” - Read a book from a celebrity/influencer book club list, an organization’s book club list, your library’s book club lists, or a book club you’re a part of.

Good Morning America Book Club
The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this remarkable book about the man who rose from nothing to create the modern presidency. Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson's election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad. To tell the saga of Jackson's presidency, acclaimed author Jon Meacham goes inside the Jackson White House. Drawing on newly discovered family letters and papers, he details the human drama-the family, the women, and the inner circle of advisers- that shaped Jackson's private world through years of storm and victory.

One of our most significant yet dimly recalled presidents, Jackson was a battle-hardened warrior, the founder of the Democratic Party, and the architect of the presidency as we know it. His story is one of violence, sex, courage, and tragedy. With his powerful persona, his evident bravery, and his mystical connection to the people, Jackson moved the White House from the periphery of government to the center of national action, articulating a vision of change that challenged entrenched interests to heed the popular will - or face his formidable wrath. The greatest of the presidents who have followed Jackson in the White House-from Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to FDR to Truman-have found inspiration in his example, and virtue in his vision.

Jackson was the most contradictory of men. The architect of the removal of Indians from their native lands, he was warmly sentimental and risked everything to give more power to ordinary citizens. He was, in short, a lot like his country: alternately kind and vicious, brilliant and blind; and a man who fought a lifelong war to keep the republic safe-no matter what it took.

I’ve never been a Jackson fan. His policies would bring about the Trail of Tears, and while he is credited for holding back the southern states’ attempt at codifying their right to secede, he agreed with their right to have slaves. So while dealing with the symptom, he was unwilling to confront the “national sin.” I thought to read this book in order to get a better understanding of the man. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the book for that.

The book basically covers Jackson’s years as president, so what molded his character is left a mystery. The first sixty years of his life are covered in the first fifty pages of the book; even his service during the war of 1812 is glossed over. I wished I’d noticed the small lettering at the bottom of the cover, Andrew Jackson in the White House before I started it.

What I did learn about Jackson didn’t really warm me to him. He comes across as rather selfish, expecting his family (a nephew and the nephew’s wife,) to see to his concerns before their own. For me, his bad qualities far outweighed his good ones.

The book itself is well written. While I don’t agree with Meacham’s assessment of Jackson, I do appreciate his writing.