The Women by Kristin Hannah

It was surprising to me that I was able to get both a hardbound and Kindle copy of The Women so easily. They hype around this book for months was so omnipresent that it seemed unlikely that a copy would be available to read. Among my friends, who have read the novel, there were very diverse reactions. Some loved it and others couldn't finish it. I am probably right in the middle of those reactions. 

The main character, Frances Gracie McGrath, aka Frankie, decides to enlist in the armed forces as a nurse to join her brother, Fin, who was a graduate of the Naval Academy and was sent to Viet Nam. She lived with her parents on Coronado Island, CA where they enjoyed a very comfortable, if not lavish, lifestyle. Her father, a staunch male chauvinist, was quite supportive of his son's service. However, with the mantra, "Women can be heroes, too" stuck in her mind, he vehemently opposed his daughter going off to war. The depiction of what the nurses and all the men serving in-country was heart-wrenching, considering what the reaction back in the States was during their service and upon their home-coming. Frankie is thought of as an excellent nurse who becomes a major part of the surgical teams. The trauma that rockets, napalm, and close calls gives the reader pause as to what conditions were like in the jungle. 

As a major component of the novel, Frankie's romantic life is a roller coaster for sure. She has very strong feelings for Jaimie Callahan, a surgeon, who is severely wounded in an enemy attack. Then she falls head over heels in love with Rye Walsh, a friend of her brother's who was also serving. When Jamie and Rye are reported KIA, she is heartbroken and devastated. She is becomes engaged to Dr. Henry Avevedo, a psychiatrist who is working to help those Vets with PTSD, The relationships are filled with pain, trauma, and betrayal. 

When Frankie returns after her two years of active duty, she must deal with the realization that her service was not respected by those who spat at her in the airport or her parents who firmly believed that she should not have enlisted. Her life spirals into one of PTSD, addiction, and depression. The reader shoulders most of that tragedy with her as Hannah describes it in detail. 

Throughout the novel, there is one constant and that is the strong bond between two other nurses, Barbara and Ethel, who are there for Frankie in every crisis. This friendship was so deep and really the theme that impressed this reader the most. Women friends are the most faithful, dependable, devoted. They picked her up, tried  to give advice, but were nonjudgmental. They were in stark contrast to her parents who were so about show and acceptance with their country club friends.

With all the depicted horrors of war and personal crises, The Women really is not what one would call an enjoyable read, but it was enlightening, as far as the "behind the scenes" in Viet Nam. I empathized with Frankie in her PTSD, but not so much in her romantic choices. In some ways, there was the feeling that Hannah was checking off all the boxes to see how many crises a woman could endure. Unfortunately, Frankie McGrath, suffered them all.  

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly

Books that span generations are intriguing to me.  The Last Garden in England was just that type of book. The central character in the novel was the garden in Highbury, England. Although fictitious in the story, Highbury is an actual location out side of London that seems to be the inspiration for the mansion that is depicted within the pages.   

The three sections of the book are the stories of those women who are connected to the garden - Venetia Smith in 1907 whose creativity designed the garden,  Diana Symonds, who inherits the home and is living there during World War II, and Emma Lovell who was hired to restore the gardens in 2021. There were a multitude of characters that became associated with those women. This somewhat was puzzling to the reader because Kelly would use a woman's maiden name at times and it wasn't until about a third of the way into the novel that you could put this together. 

As a characteristic of those generational novels, it becomes part of the mystery to determine how the main players become connected. Kelly does a magnificent job in creating the mystery and then solving it in the end. There is a part of the gardens, The Winter Garden, that is locked with an iron gate. The only way Emma and her crew can work on it is to scale the walls. They do not want to break the lock thereby seemingly breach the work of a previous generation. The mystery of the lost key becomes a central part. Yet another mystery is the name Celeste that is found on one of the original Smith drawings of the garden plans. 

The women in this novel are strong-willed and for the most part trying to discover who they really are and what their place in the world is. When Venetia embarks upon a love affair with the brother of the owner of the garden, Mrs. Melancourt, she finds herself in a position where she must make some very difficult decisions about her life. She becomes a person who socially is well ahead of her generation. 

Diana Symond is the mistress of Highbury house at a time when it has been overtaken as a hospital for wounded soldiers during the war. Her husband, a prominent doctor, was killed in the fighting and she is left to run the manor, much to the dismay of her sister-in-law, Cynthia who is put in charge of the hospital. She has a little son, Robin, who develops a strong bond with the nephew of Stella Adderton, a cook in the service of Symonds. Also a strong character in the time of Symonds, s Beth Pedley. The three strive to find themselves as the war progresses and tragedy befalls them.

 Emma wishes to be a self-sufficient woman of the 21st century, asserting herself as a different person that what her mother thinks she should be. She has founded her own company and it is through that move that she begins work on restoring the garden for Andrew and Sydney Wilcox. Sydney is the heir to the property and is set on restoring it to its glory. As Emma decides that the garden work is more dear than a glitzy office job, she opens herself up to that permanent lifestyle.

This was just a wonderful read watching the characters develop and change and allowing the reader to immerse oneself in the beauty of the English landscape.  

A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva

A Death in Cornwall is Silva's 24th Gabriel Allon novel and was his 2024 publication. It is one of my favorite series of books and I look forward to a new novel every July. Unfortunately, I am usually 1 July behind. 

Allon, the former head of Israeli intelligence,  has now, in retirement, transitioned to being a full time art restorer working for his wife Chiara in Venice, Italy. They have twins and many times he is responsible for being the parent in charge. However, he still dabbles in international intrigue when it involves something to do with art theft, restoration or forgery. 

Allon has lived in Cornwall off and on during his days as a spy when he wanted to become incognito. It was because of this and his connection to a young detective, Timothy Peel,  that he became involved in the case of a murdered art historian, Charlotte Blake. She had been researching the whereabouts of a Picasso painting at the same time the "Chopper" serial killer was operating in the same area. Was she his/her victim or was there another murderer on the loose?  

The Picasso had belonged to a Jewish family and was confiscated by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In tracing its provenance, he discovers that it is being held in the Geneva Freeport. The reader always learns something in Silva's novels. As it is owned by a shell company, one of the many created by the corrupt law firm of Harris Weber, the machinations expose the length and depth the owners will go to protect the painting and its worth, influence the selection of a new English Prime Minister, and discredit an upstanding journalist. 

As is the case in all of Silva's novels, the plot twists and turns as he reintroduces characters from the past - Christopher Keller, Rene Montjean, Sarah Bancroft, Ana Rolfe, and Ingrid Johanson. It is more of a page turner than some of the Allon novels and still lets the reader travel to many European locations. The descriptions of the group in Monaco were especially interesting. 

The 2025 Allon, An Inside Job, arrived today so I must finish book club books before embarking on that one.  
 

The Book of Lost Names by Kristen Harmel

There are some books that grab you from the first page on. The Book of Lost Names was that kind of book for me. It was intriguing that the central character, Eva Traube Abrams, was a librarian and the opening of the book was set in the Winter Park, FL library in 2005. She sees an article in the New York Times that takes her back six decades to her life in Paris during the war and a book that had special meaning to her. Otto Kühn, a Berlin librarian, was attempting to return books that had been stolen by the Nazis to their rightful owners. Eva knew that she had to immediately fly to Berlin to try to retrieve it. 

The novel then shifts to her time as a young woman studying at the Sorbonne in 1942 when Paris was under siege by the Germans. She lives with her parents when her father, a Jewish typewriter repair person, is kidnapped by the Nazis, leaving she and her mother, Mamusia, alone. They are warned about the danger of staying in Paris and so with the help of a family friend who shows her how to forge papers, they escape to the countryside and the village of Aurignon in free France. They happen upon a boarding house where Madame Barbier takes them in and gives them advise on being safe. Shortly after Eva goes into a bookstore to purchase pens to help her with the writing she needs to do to forge papers for her father's release. She is introduced to Père Clément, a priest who is also secretly forging papers. Eva becomes part of the resistance and meets Rémy, a very handsome man, who is also part of the resistance and devoted to helping others even if it causes him harm and possible death. In Aurignon, Eva also is reacquainted with Joseph Pelletier with whom she had gone to school in Paris. He would be the perfect husband according to her mother, although Eva is not really attracted to him. He insinuates himself into their lives with the pretense for helping them. As Gérard Faucon, his alias, he becomes involved with another talented forger, Geneviève. 

The novel is consumed with the work the forgers accomplished in providing documents for persons to escape to Switzerland, especially orphans. It becomes a page-turner, when the group is compromised by someone who is leaking information to the Germans. Tragic deaths occur as they are uncovered. The reader has some comfort in knowing that Eva survives at least until 2005.

With the themes of resilience, bravery, love and kindness The Book of Lost Names provides the reader with a few hours of inspired writing. The characters are well-developed and exhibit the full range of human emotions. It is engaging and captures the reader from the get-go. One of the gems that portray the horrors of the Holocaust. 

 

 

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Having read Gone Girl by Flynn, one should expect more than the run of the mill murder mystery. Sharp Objects is a triple murder mystery that is also a psychological thriller with so many other themes thrown in. It is disturbing, exciting, thought provoking, and a page-turner.

Camille Preaker is a journalist for a small Chicago newspaper who is assigned to report on a double murder in her hometown of Wind Gap. Her editor, Frank Curry, thought she would have some insight into what was happening in that village and would give her an opportunity to go back home for a bit. Two young girls were brutally murdered within a couple of weeks of each other and there were only a few leads as to who the perpetrator was. Curry was unaware of the cold relationship Camille had with her mother and her step-father, Alan. Her family life was dysfunctional to say the least. She had been born to her young mother, Adora, and never knew her father. Her sister Marian had died at a young age and then another sister, Amma, born when she was a teenager and 13 when the story commences. 

Adora inherited her family's hog farm and was independently wealthy. She suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy for the way she needed to be in control and garner attention from the townspeople. Her sheer indifference to Camille made it difficult for her to return home. Likewise, how so many people and the town itself hadn't changed hearkened a time from which Camille had escaped. She meets Richard Willis who is in town to help with the murder investigation and the tow become close as they work to solve the murders. Upon discovering that Camille was a cutter and had scars over her body, he removed himself from her company, but not after helping to solve the mystery. 

Amma is a central character to the case and transforms from the perfect daughter playing with her dollhouse and dolls, when Adora is around, to a vile drug-dealing, and promiscuous teenager when away from home. Camille tries to reconcile their relationship, but it is difficult. 

As the facts about the murders become clearer, so does Camille's internal struggles and the horrible truth that emerges. The character development is one of Flynn's hallmark written qualities. From beginning to end the novel will keep you on the edge of your seat as you deal with the psychological struggles, the reactions and personalities of the townspeople, and the familial relationships. 
 

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

This novel immediately grabs the reader with the sudden death of a young author as another author friend looks on. Athena Liu was a trending Asian author whose death gave June Hayward, aka Juniper Song, the opportunity to steal Liu's manuscript and embellish the story of the contributions of Chinese Laborers during World War I. 

June convinces her publisher and the reading world that she is the author of the book and assumes the persona of an Asian woman to make it more convincing. The book, The Last Front, becomes a NYT Best Seller and June reaps all the rewards of editing the book in which she skews the actions of the white people in the book to make them more sympathetic. She fears that if she tells the real story she may alienate those white readers on whom books depend for success. 

With the success of the book, attention is drawn to the origin of the manuscript. June finds herself defending her authorship as well as struggling with her inner sense of morality. She endures criticism from social media that haunts her, even as her publishers stand behind her. To thwart this she undertakes the publishing of another book, the premise of which also comes from Liu's notebooks.


The fact that she may be a white woman writing about the experiences of Asians is a platform for racism. Kuang's point comes across with satiric vitriol of the publishing world as she is an Asian writing a white woman's story. 

This was a gripping novel with depth beyond the stories of June and Juniper. The lecture by R.F. Kuang was erudite as she explained the role the publishing world has played in racism, diversity, and cultural appropriateness.

April 28, 2025  - R.F. Kuang

April 28, 2025  - R.F. Kuang

April 28, 2025  - R.F. Kuang signing my book

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

It is difficult to really put a label on this book. Yes, it is a dystopian novel set sometime in the future, but it is also a story of compassion, fortitude, love and hope. In the beginning the reader is introduced to Rainy and his wife, Lark, who live near the shore of Lake Superior. Rainy plays the bass guitar in a small band and Rainy is the owner of a bookstore. They often rent out a small part of their home to travelers or those who are trying to flee from the wealthy who are increasingly making life more difficult for the laborers. The latest boarder is a young man, Kellan. Kellan warns Rainy that a many named Werryck is evil and that he should run when he arrives. It is a bit mysterious warning, but one that sets the tone for the novel

As the plot moves forward, after her birthday party, Lark is murdered, their house ransacked and Rainy is beside himself with grief. He realizes that among the crowd, Werryck was the old man who was asking him questions. He flees the town on his small boat, Flower, just in the nick of time. He believes that he can track down Lark and so he sets off on Lake Superior with its rough seas and dangers to find her. It is and Orpeheus and Eurydice like adventure for sure. 

 Along the way as he docks in various towns, he meets strangers willing to help him and some who are down-right mean spirited. He finds Sol, a girl trying to escape her nasty uncle, King Richard, hiding in the boat as he leaves the dock. He protects her and they sail together trying to make it to Canada. After a storm they find their small boat shipwrecked next to Werryck's large cruiser - a medicine ship. Rainy spends many nights in a cell with little to eat or drink, but remains hopeful that he will persevere. 

I Cheerfully Refuse touches on so many of the issues of the world in which we live: climate change, the rule by the wealthy who pay no attention to civil liberty, medical inequalities where the poor are not treated,  It was a bleak time and many of the citizens turned to Willow, a drug that induced a peaceful suicide as they tried to get to a "better" place. The writing is eloquent and descriptive. Rainy is a strong narrator and the reader witnesses his desperation and hope as he seeks to find Lark and a community for himself. 

Enger was a soft-spoken speaker who gave pertinent background to the novel as he related its development during the pandemic and the life experiences that contributed to the plot of the novel.

Leif Enger - 7 April 2025

Leif Enger - 7 April 2025

Leif Enger - 7 April 2025

 

James by Percival Everett

As the novel that has been perched at the top of the New York Times reading list for weeks on end, James has been on my TBR shelf since its publication. As part of the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures Ten Evenings series and also a selection for the Gables Book Club, it was time to move from TBR to Reading.

What an incredible novel Percival Everett has crafted. James is the re-imagination of Mark Twain’s Hucleberry Finn told from the point of view of Jim, Huck’s runaway slave companion. Jim is a husband to Sadie and father to Lizzie and is well respected among the other slave s to Judge Thatcher and Miss Watson because he can read and write. When he learns that he is going to be sold and shipped to New Orleans, he runs away. Huck is being abused by his alcoholic father and fakes his death and likewise runs away. The two meet up serendipitously on an island and from there the adventures begin as they encounter a couple of con artists, a minstrel group who appear with black face, One of that group, Norman, has been passing escapes with Jim. The two concoct a plan for Norman to sell Jim and help him escape and sell him over and over again. The owner of a mill, Old Mr. Henderson, buys Jim, and he escapes with another slave, Sammy, whom he witnesses being raped.

The adventures are harrowing, the cruelty and violence are disturbing, but it is history told through fiction. It is difficult to pinpoint what is the most outstanding feature of this novel. It is remarkable for the point of view and language from which Jim relates it. It is told in the first person by Jim who is trying to define what freedom is and how it can be gained outside enslavement. Everett uses a code switching technique, that Everett ini his lecture, sometime questions. When talking to superiors, he uses the “slave filter” and when he is talking with those on equal ground, uses an erudite proper language. He steals a leather notebook where he records his thoughts and where he develops a sense of self. Words are important to him.  During his lecture he read a part of the novel where James was instructing children on the way to talk to the enslavers 

The children said together, “And the better they feel, the safer we are.” “February, translate that.” “Da mo’ betta dey feels, da mo’ safer we be.”

Throughout James the overlying motive for his actions to to get back to Hannibal to free his family and move to where they can enjoy their life. It is what keeps him going. He came to the realization that if he didn’t have them in his life, freedom was meaningless.

Sadness, irony, humor, the myth of racial identity and so many other attributes come together to make this a book for all ages. It should be taught along its companion, Huckleberry Finn in all English curricula. I am not sure that would happen in Florida, After all, as Everett said, “Reading is subversive.”

Percival Everett at Carnegie Music Hall - 24 March 2025

Percival Everett at Carnegie Music Hall - 24 March 2025

Percival Everett at Carnegie Music Hall - 24 March 2025

This is Happiness by Niall Williams

WOW! What a read. Our March Book Club took place on St. Patrick's Day and the hostess chose Niall Williams book, set in Ireland, as an appropriate selection. I have a friend who is an enthusiastic fan of Williams' books so this one had been on my TBR list for a while. I can say now, that I have also joined that group of fans. 

Set in Faha in County Kerry, Ireland This is Happiness is the account of electricity coming to the village in 1958. It is told through the eyes of Noel (Noe) Crowe, now 78 years old as he reflects on the summer when he was 17. After one of the most descriptive and poetic passages in literature about the village and the rain that has been pelleting it for days, the action begins close to Easter when Christy MacMahon, who is supervising the laying of cables to the village, becomes a lodger in Noe's grandparent's (Goady and Ganga) home and shares a room with Noe. 

The reader is brought into the Easter season with the rituals of Spy Wednesday and the remainder of the Holy Week. Noe had been attending seminary, but decided to take a break. Description of the parishioners and the Mass bring the Catholic rites full front. Williams through Noe provides enough of character traits that really entices the reader to learn more about them. 

As the plot develops, the reader discovers that the real reason for his arrival in Faha is to ask forgiveness of the chemist's wife, Annie Mooney Gafney for leaving her at the altar. That plot is really one of three in the novel. Second, Noe has his romantic feelings awaken as he becomes infatuated with all three Troy sisters. Finally, central to Christy's arrival are the lengthy descriptions of the actual installation of electricity from cutting the logs in Finland to getting them installed as poles in Faha.

There are really no words that accurately describe the lyrical prose that permeates this novel. Rarely do I highlight so many sentences and add so many bookmarks to an eBook as I did this novel. Williams writing is an ode to description and the feelings that are derived from the beautiful combination of words that evoke a time and place for a reader. I cannot wait to read his next book, Time of the Child, which I understand is even more poetic and poignant than this novel.

The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany by Gwen Strauss

It was somewhat difficult reading Madness and The Nine at the same time. Both nonfiction and both detailing horrific experiences of two groups of people who were made to endure situations that in many cases would destroy the human spirit.

Strauss tells the story of her great aunt, Hélène Podliasky who was part of the French Resistance during World War II and eight others who were arrested for their actions and sent to Ravensbrück Camp in Germany. During the journey there they became a cohesive group. The others in the group were

Suzanne Maudet (Zaza), Nicole Clarence, Madelon Verstijnen (Lon), Guillemette Daendels (Guigui), Renée Lebon Châtenay (Zinka), Joséphine Bordanava (Josée), Jacqueline Aubéry du Boulley (Jacky), and Yvonne Le Guillou (Mena). While on a death march from the camp, the nine decided to escape. Their journey to freedom is the crux of the book.

Strauss through her research of the time and with the survivors of The Nine, presents a book that is nearly unbelievable as to the heroics of these women. Their 10 day journey is told through the eyes of each woman who has her own chapter in the book. It presents a bit of biography and the roles that they each assumed while on their journey. Their goal was to get to the front and cross into the area that was held by the Allies and especially the Americans. With bloody feet, tattered clothing, and a dearth of food, the reader is brought along on the painful journey with them. They struggle to find safe places to rest and German citizens to trust. At times they played into the stereotypical role of women to advance their cause - helpless and ignorant about war.

Strauss also gives insight into how the Nazis treated the prisoners in the camps, babies snatched from mothers while those mothers were raped, slave labor and starvation. It was painful to read.

The nine women formed such a bond that gave them the strength to have hope and survive. It goes without saying that if they had tried to do this alone, none would have made it. They developed strategies for survival, including trading recipes, one of the more upbeat sections of the book.

The book is so well researched with an abundance of footnotes. At times, I had wished for a more linear account, but understood the rationale for Strauss to write the way she did. Another interesting feature was how the author managed to find the women and/or their surviving family members. It was an intriguing, tho painful read.