Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing, and Jeffrey Jay Levin for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing, and Jeffrey Jay Levin for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
If you have ever seen the television show The Americans (which is a pretty good show, by the way), then you have the basic premise of Deep Cover. Harkening back to the Cold War era, the Soviet Union developed hundreds of spies to pose as ordinary Americans who could be activated as needed. Once the Soviet Union collapsed, what happened to all of them? They stayed in the United States, had children, and are somewhat merged into society.
I say “somewhat” because there were special schools these spies sent their children to, and those children were trained as sleeper agents to be activated when needed. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, though, nothing much seemed to come of it, until now.
Stephan Beck is a sergeant assigned to Army Intelligence. He stumbles across a recording from Homeland Security that initially seems to be nothing. However, he’s sure there’s more to it. Working on it even after being told no to, he hears musical notes through the static identical to the school song he heard at his girlfriend’s school reunion. The girlfriend, Lisa Jones, works for a genetics lab and is a brilliant scientist.
What follows is some brilliant intrigue, where the bad guys aren’t who the reader would think. Well, most of us wouldn’t. I had an idea but hoped I was wrong. In fact, I kept waiting for the mea culpa that I was sure was going to be there but never came.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing, and Gail Ward Olmstead for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing, and Gail Ward Olmstead for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
When I saw Katharine’s Remarkable Road Trip available to read, I was immediately enchanted. This is the fictionalized account of Katharine Prescott Wormeley making a road trip from her family home in Newport, Rhode Island to her second home in Jackson, New Hampshire. She is 77 years old at the time of this undertaking in 1907, driving an automobile that is not yet all that common. Everyone seems worried about her making the journey alone, but the trip ends up being quite fun for the spunky lady.
The book takes us through her adventure at a time when automobiles only went about 10 miles per hour. This meant multiple stops for Katharine (or Kate) along the way. Nowadays, I can make the trip in about 4 hours, tops, and I have.
The book was a delight all the way through. Katharine ruminates on her life. As a society “old maid” she lived a rather progressive life for her times. She served as a volunteer nurse for the United States Sanitary Commission (which became the Red Cross) on a hospital ship during the Civil War, then as Superintendent of a hospital near her home in Rhode Island. She is also noted for her many translations of French works into English, including the writings of Moliere, Balzac, and others.
Along the way, Katharine meets people who are very interesting and saves a life, twice. She crashes a Vanderbilt Society event (not those Vanderbilts), meets a future movie mogul, and confronts a rival she had for a man’s affection.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Kate Hewitt for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. WhatNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Kate Hewitt for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
Every now and then I find a book that’s so relatable that I just can’t put it down. In the Blink of an Eye was just such a book. The story in some ways is nothing surprising, but the observations here were so on target that I was compelled to finish it just to see how it was resolved in the end.
When I began reading, I sort of groaned. The setting was the near-perfect suburban-rural town of Wetherby, Connecticut. The houses here are expensive, and the first people who are introduced seem near perfect. Eleanor is a stay-at-home Mom who seems too good to be true. She’s involved at school including the classroom and PTA. She is beautiful and has a handsome, seemingly perfect husband as well as two daughters. They eat all the best and healthiest food, much of which she makes herself.
Her best friend is Natalie, who is separated from her husband although she’s not really sure why. She loves her husband a great deal, but one day he said he just couldn’t do it anymore and moved out. It’s been hard on her daughter, Freya. To make matters worse, the friendship between Freya and Eleanor’s daughter, Bella, is not a healthy one, although Natalie doesn’t see it.
Kieran is a new kid in school. He has some behavioral issues that have the school on high alert. His mother, Joanna, is trying to balance everything between working and taking care of her son, as well as her husband, Tim, who suffered a breakdown.
The story is told from each of their perspectives, trading off the point of view in each chapter. From this, though, we get some interesting insights on what it’s like being a parent in this day and age. I see my own daughter struggling to be “perfect” under the microscope of social media and all of the pressures that come along with it. In a town such as Wetherby where it seems they are all trying to outdo each other, it’s even worse.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing, and Morris Hoffman for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing, and Morris Hoffman for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
Pinch Hitting was a hard book for me to get through. I’m not exactly sure why. My only thought as to why was that it was very disjointed, shifting around in time and in stories. Pinch Hitting is actually two very different stories that intertwine, and thanks to a great epilogue, I walked away not sure which story was “the real one.”
On one hand, we have the story of Harold Fungo. Harold had an isolated existence, living with his mother until her death in a fire that also left him homeless. He’s taken under the wing of the firemen who arrive to fight the fire. One thing leads to another and he’s soon a janitor at the local Double-A Minor League ballpark. The grounds crew asks him to come try to hit a ball one day, and it’s soon discovered just how great of a hitter Harold is.
On the other hand, we meet Joe Skelton. Joe is an average guy of no particular importance, just living his life in northeast Colorado with his wife, Kathy, and dog, Soot. One day Joe starts sneezing uncontrollably and is soon talking in his sleep, telling the story of Harold Fungo. Kathy writes down what he says since he has no recollection of the story the next morning. They visit a doctor, and although they manage to stop the sneezing, he’s still talking in his sleep. A neurologist in Denver delivers the bad news that Joe has a brain tumor.
The book jumps around between Harold’s story and Joe’s story. The reader is led to believe that we are getting the story of Harold, the minor league sensation as written by Joe as a byproduct of the tumor. Harold never misses a pitch, no matter where it’s thrown. He’s setting records in the minor leagues and grabs the attention of the Cincinnati Reds, who want to bring him up to the major leagues. Harold really doesn’t want to leave the only home he knows and the people he cares about.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Kristi Jones for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Kristi Jones for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
Ghosts of Waikiki is a good mystery novel, perfect for summer reading. It has just about everything it needs for light reading while at the same time keeping me turning the page. Not to mention, the setting in Hawaii is perfect for a mental vacation while reading.
Maya Wong is an unemployed newspaper reporter who lands a job ghostwriting a novel back in Hawaii where she grew up. She hasn’t been back home in some time but has misgivings about reacquainting herself with her old friends, particularly her ex-boyfriend Koa.
The Hamiltons are a powerful and wealthy family on the island. Maya was hired to ghostwrite the biography of Parker Hamilton in hopes that it would help boost his son, Steven, to a career in politics. During one of the days at the Hamilton mansion, the patriarch of the family, Charles Hamilton, is found floating in the pool of what at first appears to be a heart attack.
However, Maya soon seems to be the target of a serial mugger. It’s a little too much of a coincidence for Koa, who is now a police detective. He soon insinuates himself in Maya’s life as he tries to protect her and she resists. Meanwhile, she also comfortably falls into her old life with her friends and family, all the while trying to solve the mystery of what happened to Charles Hamilton.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Kristi Jones for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Kristi Jones for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
Set during World War II, Murder in the Ranks seems to be the first book in a series about Dottie Lincoln, a member of the WAAC forces, and Captain Devlin, an investigator with the Military Police. Dottie is running from her past by joining the WAACs, although that past seems to be catching up with her.
Stationed in Algiers during the North African campaign, Dottie Lincoln and her fellow WAACs have a variety of duties in support of the Army so that more men can be free to fight on the front lines. One part of their “support” includes attending dances to boost morale among the men. Dottie is a squad leader and watches out for the women under her charge. At one of these dances, she spots Ruth having some difficulty with one Private Rivera. Later on, Ruth falls three stories from a balcony of the building to her death, just as a Nazi bombardment is happening. Did Ruth commit suicide? Was she murdered? Was it an accident?
Dottie doesn’t accept the initial ruling of Ruth’s death as a suicide. Captain Devlin convinces his boss to allow him to investigate the case for 3 days. After that, the case will be ruled a suicide or an accident. There are plenty of suspects, but little evidence. Plus, the truth about Ruth’s past threatens to come back and derail the investigation, while also providing another possible suspect.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, EmblaBooks, and Marius Gabriel for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. WNote: Thank you to NetGalley, EmblaBooks, and Marius Gabriel for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
Told in a series of flashbacks from 1968 to World War II, The German Daughter raises questions on many levels. From the standpoint of someone who is adopted herself, I have to say that it hit the mark in many ways when it comes to questions of identity and the disorientation one feels when they are displaced in this world. However, there were other parts of the book that made me quite uncomfortable. Maybe that’,s the point? Maybe I’m supposed to feel that way? I’m not sure.
In England in 1968, Agnes, who is a war orphan who was raised by her grandfather whom she calls “Barbar,” learns her life is not what it seems. Rather than being the daughter of Barbar’s son and his wife who were killed in a German bombing raid, she finds part of a letter following his death which seems to indicate he brought her home from Norway as a baby during the war.
This sends Agnes on a hunt for who she really is. She uncovers a dark secret of the Nazi breeding program to create a perfect Aryan race as well as learning she has a full sister a few years older who is currently in East Germany. Karolina did not have the opportunities Agnes did and is currently under the thumb of the Stasi who intend to use her as a prostitute for the state to spy on rich and politically connected men.
I found it easy to like both Agnes and Karolina and to root for them, despite the very different way they were raised. They are forever linked by biology, and also the lonely, isolated lives they lead. The problem I had was with their biological parents and the way they were presented. Both were Nazis and true believers in Hitler and fascism, not just going along to get along while they were in power. Both are also still alive. While their mother, Liv’s, worst crime was believing in fascism and volunteering to help breed the Master Race, their father, Ulrich, was a member of the S.S. He somehow managed to survive a death sentence for crimes during the war.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Dey Street Books, and Rick Jervis for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalleyNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Dey Street Books, and Rick Jervis for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
I was about a third of the way through The Devil Behind the Badge when I had to call my daughter-in-law who grew up in Laredo, Texas, and ask her if it was as bad as this book was making it seem. We all know that drugs are a problem everywhere, but this was making it seem like drugs and prostitution were openly ignored by local law enforcement. She assured me it was not that bad and it was a rather nice city.
The Devil Behind the Badge tells the story of a series of killings in a twelve-day period in 2018 targeting sex workers in Laredo. The perpetrator was a Border Patrol supervisor whose mental deterioration seemed to go unnoticed by those he worked with. Rick Jervis reported on the killings, manhunt, and trial for USA Today and through that coverage and additional interviews has crafted a thrilling story to read. It took me a bit to get into it. That first third of the book set the scene for what was going to happen for the most part, and the book got much better from there.
I read a review that was critical of the author for how he portrayed Juan David Ortiz, the man who murdered four sex workers in a twelve-day period. All I can say is that person must not have read the book. Jervis is fair in that he paints Ortiz as guilty, but also gives background of what might have led him to this point. Ortiz served his country as a Navy Corpsman in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was on the front lines of the Iraq invasion, and as a medic saw a lot of the worst part of the war. He came back from there still wanting to serve his country. Part of his motivation for joining the Border Patrol was to help the migrants who were crossing the border.
How did he go from that to a serial killer? You’ll have to read the book.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and Dean Butler for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and Dean Butler for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
I grew up a huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” book series. I was a more tepid fan of the television series, as there was little that connected it to the actual books, other than the name of the characters. I still enjoyed it to a certain degree and have read the memoirs of several of the series’ stars.
Dean Butler joined the cast about midway through its run as Almanzo Wilder. In real life, Laura was 15 when she first began seeing the man she would marry who was ten years her senior. This presented a bit of a problem, even in the 1970s for Butler and the cast of Little House. What helped was Butler’s good nature and a bit of naivete that bled through to the role of Almanzo.
It’s hard to believe that this man grew up teased and bullied in school, but he did. He was not the sports type, and ended up a part of the AV squad and announcing his high school’s basketball games. This gave him a bit of relief from the teasing. It also connected him to the world of show business, and he soon wanted to try his hand at acting.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and Nancy Warren for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalleNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and Nancy Warren for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
In the first book in the series, Murder at the Paris Fashion House, readers were introduced to Abigail Dixon, an American who moves to Paris in an attempt to escape her past. However, that past followed her to Paris. Although I don’t think it’s necessary to have read Murder at the Paris Fashion House prior to reading Death at Darrington Manor, I do think it helps for some of the background as to why Abigail has dresses designed for her by a Paris designer as well as relationships with several people who appear in this book.
Abigail works at the Paris office of a Chicago newspaper. She’s a journalist, but her editor sees her as only capable of covering women’s issues such as fashion and society. He sends her off to cover the wedding of Reginald Mitchell, the son of a wealthy American automobile manufacturer, to Cressida Wimborne, the daughter of Viscount and Viscountess Wimborne. It’s to be the wedding of the year, and Abigail is tasked with reporting on it.
Enlisting the help of her roommate and friend, Vivian, to act as her ladies maid, Abigail travels to England for the wedding. Upon arrival at Darrington Manor, she is tepidly welcomed by the Wimbornes. The economy has been hard on them, with death duties eating away at the family fortune over the years and the land becoming less and less profitable. Cressida’s marriage to a wealthy American will not solve problems for them, either.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing, and Rebecca J. Sanford for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing, and Rebecca J. Sanford for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
This is one of those books that hit me right in the gut. The author, Rebecca Sandford, doesn’t state that she’s an adoptee. If she isn’t, then somewhere along the lines she had some honest conversations with people who are. Her descriptions of what it’s like to be adopted are spot on.
Argentina in the 1970s was marked by “The Dirty War” where the US Government propped up a military junta as a protection against communism in South America. Political dissidents during this time were silenced by being “disappeared” and for a long time no one knew what became of them.
In this setting, we meet the Ledesma family. Jose is a mild-mannered man, concerned with protecting his wife, Lorena, and young son Matias. One night the junta arrives and grabs Jose and Lorena out of bed. Fortunately, her mother Esme is there at the time so Matias is left in her care. Esme never hears from either of them again.
In New York City in 2005, Rachel Sprague is contacted by a woman who says she can help her find her family. Rachel was allegedly abandoned at birth and adopted by John and Vivian, a couple desperate for a child of their own. Rachel grew up feeling the ghost in the house of the child that John and Vivian wished they’d had, and no answers to be found about why she was abandoned. The woman, Mari, tells Rachel she was actually the daughter of Lorena, born in Argentina.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner Publishing, and Jen Psaki for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalleNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner Publishing, and Jen Psaki for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
Jen Psaki has been involved in politics for quite some time. She’s worked on the ground as a canvasser in Iowa all the way up to White House Press Secretary for Joe Biden. However, while Say More is a book about those years, it’s not a dishy tell-all. It’s more Psaki relating how she learned to be a better communicator.
Psaki takes the reader through various scenarios and possible responses. You might think she hasn’t encountered the same situations people do in everyday life, but she relates how she’s had to have difficult conversations with people she worked with and who employed her and how that works for just about anyone. The sections with the conversations she has with people at work centered around being a working mother are great. She is fortunate, though, to work in an environment that wants their employees to have a work and family balance, rather than a company that expects slavish devotion to the workplace. I honestly thought I was going to hear more about how being a White House Press Secretary took away time from the family, but Psaki was able to make it work better than people employed in the private sector often can.
I’m a huge fan of the show Ghost Hunters on the Syfy Channel (formerly the Sci-Fi Channel, but that’s another discussion). The subject of the paranormI’m a huge fan of the show Ghost Hunters on the Syfy Channel (formerly the Sci-Fi Channel, but that’s another discussion). The subject of the paranormal fascinates me, and although I believe there’s plenty we don’t understand about life energy and what happens after we die, I’m also a bit skeptical. That’s one of the reasons Ghost Hunters has appealed so much to me.
Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson are the founders of T.A.P.S. – The Atlantic Paranormal Society who are the focus of the television show. They have also co-authored a couple of books with the help of Michael Jan Friedman. If the name sounds familiar, you’re probably a science fiction fan. Friedman has written numerous science-fiction books and I recognized the name from many Star Trek novels.
Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from the Atlantic Paranormal Society is the first of the books. The book is made up of cases that have been investigated by T.A.P.S. over the years, both before and after the television show began airing. In this book, I would say the cases are about half and half. For fans of the show, it will feel a bit repetitive. Although there is more depth given to the cases that were aired on television, and in some cases, there’s also more information and evidence as to what happened at a particular location, it just had the feeling of something I’d seen before.
The remainder of the cases, however, are retold in such a way as to give the reader an overview of what happened. I can’t say there’s anything here that will convince skeptics. You either believe that there is something beyond this world that we don’t understand or you don’t and short of a ghost sitting down on the couch next to you, if you don’t believe you will reason away just about any evidence anyone presents.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Chris Stein for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGallNote: Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Chris Stein for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
After reading Debbie Harry’s memoir Face It, when I saw Chris Stein’s memoir available on NetGalley, I simply had to read it. There are no great reveals here that weren’t covered in Debbie’s memoir, but Chris seems to have a better memory of happenings during the punk scene in New York City.
Chris was a City boy, having been raised there by parents who were once part of the Communist Party. His youth would seem to be completely alien to how we parent today, with a lot of freedom to venture out and figure things out for himself. He tells his story in a stream-of-consciousness style, with the memories flowing as he remembers them. I was actually surprised he was able to remember so much and in such detail. I don’t think I could have done it, and I didn’t have the drug issues he did.
The punk scene in New York was unique, and the band Blondie came out of that. However, they were not known necessarily as a punk band. Chris shows how they grew out of the scene, surrounded by so many punk icons and playing at CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City. I loved all the details about The Ramones, having grown up in the late 1970s and 1980s and been a fan of theirs. David Johanssen and the New York Dolls figure prominently as does David Bowie. Chris and Debbie were also part of Andy Warhol’s Manhattan scene.
He’s honest about the drug use and abuse that cost him so much, almost including his life. It started with pot but grew into just about every drug available throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He doesn’t get into the whys of his drug abuse; it was just something they did. He wasn’t trying to escape, or if it was a means of escape he doesn’t admit it. For much of the ten years prior to Blondie finally hitting it big, Chris and Debbie lived in abject poverty in a Manhattan that doesn’t exist anymore. The buildings they resided in have been gentrified and cleaned up. I don’t know that this new Manhattan can produce characters like Chris details here. It’s become much more like the suburbia I grew up in in many ways, with much higher prices.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow Publishing, and Bridget Collins for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be postedNote: Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow Publishing, and Bridget Collins for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
Imagine having the ability to block out all the extraneous sounds that bother us in life. No more cars honking, dogs barking, or sirens blasting in the middle of the night. For those of us who are light sleepers, it sounds like a dream. For someone who discovered how to do this, it could mean a fortune.
The Silence Factory shifts back and forth between a secluded Greek island in the 1820s and the latter part of the century in a small town in England. In the 1820s, James Ashmore-Percy and his wife, Sophia, travel to the Greek Island in search of an elusive spider described to him in letters from a friend. At first, Sophia has trouble adjusting to the primitive conditions, but later finds a place with the women of the village. James is frustrated by his inability to find the specimens he was told about. He’s unkind to Sophia in many ways and typical of an emotionally abusive husband.
Many years later, Henry Latimer is still mourning his late wife when Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy wanders into the shop his father-in-law owns. Sir Edward is looking for a cure for his daughter’s deafness. Henry, an audiologist, agrees to visit the estate and see if he can help the child to hear. Once there, he learns the town of Telverton is home to Sir Edward’s factory which weaves a magical silk born from the spiders brought back by his great Uncle many decades before. Henry falls under the spell of the silk and Sir Edward.
I came across Triss Stein quite by accident, and read a book that was in the middle of her Erica Donato mysteries. I decided I needed to go back to thI came across Triss Stein quite by accident, and read a book that was in the middle of her Erica Donato mysteries. I decided I needed to go back to the beginning and read as much as I could of the series. It’s not that I was lost reading that book, but I liked the characters and setting enough to get to know them better
Erica Donato is a young widow with a daughter, Chris. Erica works part-time at a local museum and is getting her Ph.D. in history. They are renovating their home in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn when they find a skeleton in the wall. Is it from when the home was built? Or was it more recent? Was the person murdered?
Chris, especially, is curious to find out who it was and what happened to them. Erica also starts digging, and they soon find themselves in danger from those who want to keep their secrets buried.
Brooklyn Bones does a marvelous job with the Brooklyn setting. I really got a feel for a neighborhood that was changing and evolving, as what was old was becoming new again, and in the process revealing its secrets. The author introduces us to the neighborhood and its characters through this mystery, as Erica talks to them to try to figure out who the skeleton belongs to.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Bookoutre, and Kate Hewitt for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Bookoutre, and Kate Hewitt for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
This is the second book in Kate Hewitt’s Emerald Sisters series about four girls who meet on the SS St. Louis, trying to escape the Nazis in Germany. The ship was well-known for the fact that it was turned away from so many places with a complement of passengers who were Jews trying to escape the Holocaust. In the first book, The Girl on the Boat, we met all four girls but only followed the story of Sophie as she was able to disembark before the ship headed back to Europe and carve out a life for herself in the United States.
This second book follows Rosa. She was leaving Germany with her parents. Her father was a wealthy doctor in Germany and used to being the center of attention. Still, when the Nazis took over their home, even he was forced to leave the country. When the SS St. Louis is turned away from Cuba, Rosa and her parents don’t know where they will end up. Eventually, they are allowed to enter England.
Arriving in London, they are given an apartment in a Jewish neighborhood, which is a big step down from what they are used to. The Jewish refugee agency that found the place for them will only pay the first month’s rent, and there will be another family residing with them eventually. Her father goes to try to see what became of the money he was allowed to send out of the country and finds out it has disappeared.
Rosa seems to be the only one in her family with a grip on reality as she finds work in a coffee shop washing dishes. Her mother sits in a chair by the window, while her father pontificates to other refugees and considers learning English and sitting again for medical exams beneath him. Rosa also begins attending English classes, and that is where she meets Peter, a fellow refugee who was maimed by the Nazis at one of the camps.
However, Rosa is carrying a guilty secret. That secret could threaten everything of the life she has in London. Rosa wonders if she confessed the secret to her friends from the ship and if they would even like her anymore. She is afraid to admit the truth to Peter or anyone. Yet, secrets from the past have a way of coming back to haunt people.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Barbour Publishing, and Denise Weimer for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGaNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Barbour Publishing, and Denise Weimer for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
Taking a largely overlooked event at the end of the Civil War, author Denise Weimer has managed to craft a compelling story of personal sacrifice and building bridges in the face of unimaginable loss.
Lily Livingston lost everything in the War; her parents, her home, and her twin brother. She and a younger brother now live with her aunt and uncle and help them run the inn they own on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River.
Cade Palmer is a Union soldier just trying to get home after having been imprisoned at Andersonville. He was an Army surgeon captured during the war along with his childhood friend, James. The two are being brought back to Ohio to be mustered out of the service on board the Sultana. While they are traveling upriver, there is an explosion. Cade and James manage to get off of the doomed vessel after being severely burned.
Lily’s uncle, Thad, and others living in Mound City hear the explosion and attempt to rescue as many as they can from the water. Lily and her brother, Jacob, are only supposed to be there to assist. However, when she hears cries coming from the water, she feels she must help, and ends up pulling James and Cade from the water.
As Cade heals from his wounds at the Inn, Lily and Cade bond. However, her sweetheart, a Confederate partisan, is on his way home. As things are breaking down at the end of the War, some men haven’t given up the battle, yet. Lily is afraid her inaction possibly resulted in men being killed, while Cade struggles with his own place in the world, especially since his hand was shattered. All the while, threats seem to loom around them.
I can commiserate with author and WFAN radio personality Evan Roberts. About 20 years prior to the beginning of his run scoring Mets baseball, I was pI can commiserate with author and WFAN radio personality Evan Roberts. About 20 years prior to the beginning of his run scoring Mets baseball, I was pretty much the same. I’d gone to the sporting department of our local TSS Department Store and bought books used to score baseball games. Unfortunately, unlike Roberts, my father didn’t have season tickets to the Mets, and we attended only about once a month or so. Add into that a time when there was usually only one television in the house, and my days (and nights) of scoring baseball were sporadic. All of those books were tossed by my parents years ago as well.
However, Roberts’ weren’t, and here he has assembled a narrative of Mets baseball over the last 30 years. It’s an era when I was still a fan, not living far from him, but was interrupted by working and raising a family. Soccer games and dance recitals took precedent over attending baseball games. However, reading this book brought a lot of that time back to me, particularly in the late 1990s and early 2000s when I quite enjoyed watching Mike Piazza as a Mets player.
Of course, the freakin’ Yankees would take advantage of it, led by the Captain of being a pain in my ass, Derek Jeter…
Roberts chose 81 games from his scorebook collection to highlight. Some of them are personal favorites of his, that have no real bearing on fans’ memories of the game but are a narrative to his life. Others are memorable games for Mets fans, particularly once they began getting to the post-season with a bit of regularity during the Piazza era.
He’s reprinted the pages from those scorebooks for each of the games he chose, along with a narrative of what he remembers from the game. The early pages are a child’s scrawl, while he gets more sophisticated and neater as time goes on. One complaint I have is that his print is quite small, and it’s difficult to make out even the players’ names, even reading the book on my computer where the reproduced pages are pretty large. I do like the style of his scorebook over the one I used to use way back in the 1970s when I used to score the games off of radio and television. It lends itself to more detail about the game itself and once you understand how to score a game, you’d have no problem reading these, except for his tiny print.
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf Publishing, and Kevin Baker for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalleyNote: Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf Publishing, and Kevin Baker for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
Baseball is intrinsic with New York. Not just professional baseball, but the baseball that was once-upon-a-time “town ball” that was played by kids anywhere they could find room to hit a ball and run. Although we treat baseball like a sport of rural areas, it was actually played where people could gather together and have enough players to form these teams, mostly in cities and towns. There was no city where this was truer than New York City.
Kevin Baker wrote a book that intertwines the politics of New York City with the history of baseball, showing readers how they influenced each other. He traces it back before baseball was a professional sport to the numerous clubs that were associated with different groups in the city. In particular, it was New York City’s Tammany Hall that controlled the City for much of the early days of professional baseball, and controlled what teams were allowed to play there. This book runs from the mid-19th century until just before Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Baker has researched some incredible detail about those early years of baseball and put together a history like no other. It was a new experience for me, reading about how the political machine in New York City helped shape professional baseball as we know it today. It helped shut out many of the other leagues that tried to rival the American League and National League that we know of today. It also controlled what teams were allowed to play in the city, keeping the (then) New York Giants in quite a privileged position. It’s also what eventually pushed the team that would be known as the Yankees out of Manhattan to playing in the outer borough of the Bronx.
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