Seven Perfect Things

by Catherin Ryan Hyde

Really good.  The narrative of this book is presented from the point of view of three characters:  Abby, age 13; her mother, Mary; and Elliot, a recent widower.  Abby and Mary both live in an unhappy home because of Stan (father and husband), who is extremely controlling and abusive in other ways. 

Abby sees a man throw a burlap bag into the river.  When she sees movement in the bag she jumps into the river and retrieves it before it sinks to the bottom.  She finds seven puppies inside.  She takes them to the pound, only to learn that there is no room and they would have to be put down.  She remembers an abandoned cabin not far from her home—a cabin that had been broken into—and takes them there to care for them.  A few days later the owner of the cabin, Elliott, goes there to mourn, only to find that his cabin and shed have been broken into, items were stolen, and there are seven puppies in the shed.  Abby and Elliot meet and develop a friendship.  Abby imagines what it might have been like to have had Elliot as a father.  When Mary and Elliot meet, Abby is even more helpful, but there is her father....  

I really liked Elliot’s even temperament, his perceptiveness, his calm demeanor, and his willingness to help.  I also liked Abby’s maturity. 

There is some confrontation and abuse in this book but no language.

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The Paris Library

by Janet Skeslien Charles

I loved this book.  I read it by default when I didn’t have another book to read after I didn’t want to finish The One Hundred Years....  This is fiction but based on truth about the American Library in Paris and the people who worked there during WWII.  Odile, the main character, was fictional but her story fit around real events and people. 

As the book opens, it’s 1939 and Odile is 20 years old.  She is excited to have been hired to work at the ALP because she loves books, though her father, especially, thinks she should not be working.  Coworkers include Bitsi who is about Odile’s age; the Directress; Boris; and Margaret, an English volunteer who is married with a young daughter and about Odile's age; plus several others.  Odile’s family includes her parents and her twin brother Rémy.   

The other main character is Lily, Odile’s teen neighbor in Montana, in the 1980s.  Odile has lived in Montana since the war but has mostly been excluded—she married a soldier the town thought would marry another girl and Odile keeps to herself.  Lily is curious about her and decides to do a report on France and interviews Odile.  They become friends.

There is so much to love about this book, and so much to be judgmental about, too, and yet it’s always good to look at one’s self before judging others.  People are not perfect.  They make mistakes.  Emotions get in the way of good judgment.  Just a really good book.

Quote

“People are awkward.  Don’t hold it against them.  You never know what’s in their hearts.”    p. 34 end     
 
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The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

by Elizabeth Letts

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  As it opens, 62-year-old Annie Wilkins goes to the hospital with a bout of pneumonia.  While there recovering, her Uncle Waldo is sent to a care home where he dies.  When Annie returns home the doctor tells her to live restfully.  She has a farm to take care of, now without the help of her uncle, and she doesn’t have enough money to pay taxes on the farm to keep it.  She decides to buy a horse and ride to California to fulfill the dream her mother had of visiting the state.  (And she chooses an interesting way to earn money for the horse.)  She buys Tarzan, a Morgan horse, packs up her possessions—at least what she believes she’ll need on the trip—and with her little dog, Dépêche-toi, they set off from Minot, Maine, in November, 1954. 

The book recounts Annie's travels, negotiating highways with her horse, her interactions with those she meets along the way including those who give her shelter and help, and incorporates a bit of history of some of the places she stayed.  Through the book we get an idea of what it was like living in America in the mid-1950s.  One of the themes Letts brings up several times is the change in outlook from the view of a safe America to one of uncertainty about strangers vs. potential acquaintances/neighbors/friends that was happening at that time in America.  (See quotes p. 55 and p. 9.)

Also, books and movie mentioned:  The Last of the Saddle Tramps by Annie Wilkins; November Grass by Judy Van Der Veer; and the movie, “Saddle Tramp.”

Quotes
“The unexpected could always be a shock, but sometimes it was the expected, the predictable, the resigned acceptance of whatever bad thing was coming your way that could end up dragging you down.”    p. 34  ¶1

“The feeling of deep connection was becoming less common in this postwar period, which, for many Americans, was a time of increasing xenophobia.  In 1952, Congress has passed the McCarran-Walter Act, reinforcing racially based quotas introduced in the 1920s, in part due to anti-Semitic bigotry and fears of communism.  Senator Joseph McCarthy had whipped up the fear of Communist infiltrators with his inflammatory rhetoric.  ‘Man the watchtowers of the nation,’ he scolded.  ‘Be vigilant day and night.’  Being vigilant was generally the opposite of being neighborly.  In a world of connection, bonds of friendship and kinship made every stranger a potential acquaintance.  The world of vigilance suggested the opposite:  every stranger might bring danger.”    p. 55  ¶1

Annie’s favorite poem, attributed to Walter Wintle:
      If you think you are beaten, you are;
      If you think you dare not, you don’t.
      If you’d like to win, but you think you can’t,
      It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
    
      If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost,
      For out in the world we find
      Success begins with a fellow’s will—
      And it’s all in the state of mind.    p. 91

“And isn’t this just how life is anyway?  You could plan, but you couldn’t control much, except your own two feet and which way you chose to point them....  On they trudged, hoping that around some bend they would see a welcoming light.
  “And isn’t that what hope is?  Not a wish, not a specific thing that you pray will be delivered to you, but merely an expectation that whatever dark, sleety side of the road you might find yourself on will not last forever.”    p. 117-118

“The coming of television and mass media to America had an unexpected effect:  it was bringing stories of crime from all over America right to people’s doorsteps.”    p. 119  ¶3

“In the words of Henry Ward Beecher, ‘The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.’”   p. 146  ¶5

“Because that’s the thing about the future.  You can’t get there by imagining.  You can only get there one step at a time, and the hardest part is taking that first step.”    p. 213  ¶2

Annie crossed the mighty mountains and wondered if they were no bigger than molehills.  “Sometimes life is just like that, Annie thought.  You can be so worried about the challenge in front of you that you fail to realize that you’ve been chipping away at it all along.”    p. 222  ¶2

Learn more about and see photos of Annie Wilkins here.

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And I Mean It, Stanley

by Crosby Bonsall

A cute, learn-to-read story about a little girl who, from her side of the fence, tries to persuade Stanley to come over by telling him what she’s building and how wonderful it is and, with a touch of reverse psychology, telling him to stay away because she doesn’t want to talk to or play with him and she just doesn’t care.  Of course she does!  Very cute.

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Little Blue Truck

by Alice Schertle, Illustrated by Jill McElmurry

Adorable!  I loved this little board book, told in rhyme.  Little Blue Truck travels from one place to the other, meeting animals along the way (toad croaks, sheep baaa, cow moos, pig oinks, Blue says Beep, plus plenty of other animals, too.)  A big-shot dump truck comes along ignoring everyone and ends up stuck in the mud.  Blue tries to help it out of the mud and gets stuck, too.  All the animals come to help Blue and they get out.  The dump truck admits, “Now I see a lot depends on a helping hand from a few good friends.”

What a great way to teach children about helping others.

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The Lost and Found Bookshop

by Susan Wiggs

I liked this book except for the end, which I thought was awful.  Natalie Harper’s boyfriend and mother both die in a plane crash when Natalie's boyfriend was flying them both to the celebration of Natalie’s promotion at work.  Her mother was the owner of a bookstore which, Natalie learns, was in great debt.  The shop is in the building owned by her grandfather, Andrew, (and several generations of his family before him) who is in the early stages of dementia. 

Natalie quits her job and takes over the bookstore and the care of her grandfather.  Her mother had already hired Peach Gallagher to make repairs on the building.  Peach is divorced but Natalie doesn’t know it when she is attracted to him.  A lot happens in the book, most of it great except for a few bouts of language and the end, where Natalie asks Peach if he’d like to spend the night.  They’ve kissed once (!!), interacted on business transactions many times, and were at one social event together.  I was so disappointed.  No matter that the rest of the book was wonderful, I would not recommend this book.

Quotes

“When she [Natalie] was very small, her mother used to tell her that books were alive in a special way.  Between the covers, characters were living their lives, enacting their dramas, falling in and out of love, finding trouble, working out their problems.  Even sitting closed on a shelf, a book had a life of its own.  When someone opened the book, that was when the magic happened.”    p. 42 ¶ 6

“You’re never alone when you’re reading a book.”    p. 55 ¶4 last sentence

After the funeral of her mother, “Everyone went back to their own lives, their work and their worries, their families and friends.   When they walked into their homes or offices or boarded a plane or train, they returned to the same world they had left.
   “For Natalie, this was not the case.   For her, nothing would ever be the same.  She now knew that the aftermath of acute and sudden grief was different, a horrible realm she’d never explored....   When she stepped into the shop that evening, she felt an emptiness so vast that she almost couldn’t breathe.  Everything had drained out of her. 
“‘It’s exhausting, isn’t it?’ asked Grandy.  ‘A sadness like this.   It’s physically exhausting.’”    p. 57 ¶2-4

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The Last Garden in England

by Julia Kelly

I read this book by default—the other books I ordered from the library hadn’t come in.  I’m glad I read it.  The story was told by/about three different people in different time periods:  Emma, the restorer of the garden owned by Sydney (granddaughter of Diana Symonds) and Andrew, in 2021; Venetia, the creator of the garden, in 1907; and Beth, the “land girl,” in 1944.  Also in Beth’s time are Mrs. Diana Symonds, the owner of the property where the garden was created, and Stella, Diana’s cook.  There are more characters which add to the story and carry it along.  Highbury House is the home where the gardens are being restored—quite a number of them, and Emma is trying to restore them to their original as closely as possible. 

Quote

    “‘Well, your nephew is not alone.  He has you,’ said Mrs. Symonds.
    “‘I don’t know if I’m enough,’ she [Stella] confessed.
    “‘None of us is.  I believe that Father Devlin would say that that’s why we meet so many people in our lives,’ said Mrs. Symonds”    p. 206  ¶6-8

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On Wings of the Morning

by Marie Bostwick

Good.  It’s a slightly complicated story to tell in a few brief sentences....  Morgan is a boy when we meet him in 1933, a boy who loves airplanes and wants to fly.  Time goes by and he becomes a pilot, then joins the service to fly for the Army during WWII. 

Georgia is about the same age when we meet her, a girl who takes care of herself because her mother is off chasing men.  Georgia also loves airplanes and wants to fly.  She also becomes a pilot and a WASP, but only after she marries and becomes a widow. 

Morgan and Georgia eventually meet but it’s not smooth sailing immediately....

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The Second Sister

by Marie Bostwick

Lucy works as a political campaigner, devoting most of her time to her work and little time to herself.  Alice, her sister is almost two years older than her and has a brain injury that makes her seem younger than her 38 years.  Alice wants Lucy to return to their small town in Wisconsin but Lucy wants nothing to do with returning to the town with bad memories.  Then Alice dies and the terms of her will include Lucy spending 8 weeks in their hometown before she can inherit their childhood home.  I enjoyed this book a lot.

Quotes

Chapter 9, beginning on p. 57, offers great insight to our experience of having a loved-one die.  It’s too long to include as a quote.

Alice’s friend Rinda recounts being new in town, looking for inexpensive fabric for the back of a quilt at a quilt shop, and having Alice follow her around “talking a blue streak.”  Rinda was being careful about money, pulled out a bolt of yellow-green fabric that she thought might be okay for backing.  “So Alice sees this stuff and says, ‘That’s the ugliest fabric I ever saw in my life.  Why would you buy that?’  I told her it might be ugly, but it was only two dollars a yard.’
  “Rinda’s eyes crinkled at the corners.  ‘And then Alice puts her hand on my arm and looks at me all serious and says, ‘Rinda, it is possible to pay too little for fabric.’”    p. 193-194

  “‘All these people who piece their tops but hire somebody else to do the finishing. . .  Hmph.  They’re not quilters.  They’re toppers!’ she declared, curling her lip in a way that made it sound almost like a dirty word.”
    p. 254  ¶5

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Once I Was a Pollywog

by Douglas Florian, illustrated by Barbara Bakos

Oh, cute.  A board book with names of  infant animals and adult animals:  piglet/hog, cub/bear, leveret/hare, gosling/goose, etc.





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The Kitchen Front

by Jennifer Ryan

The setting is a small town in England in 1942, and food rationing is a major concern for the women of the time.  There are four main characters, all women, who participate in a cooking contest to become a co-host for a BBC radio program about cooking with rations.  Audrey is a war widow with 3 sons; Lady Gwendoline is her sister, and they are at odds with each other; Zelda is a chef who wasn’t able to find work in London after the restaurant where she worked was bombed; and Nell is a cook’s helper for Mrs. Quince at Lady Gwendoline’s manor.  Different backgrounds, different personalities, different challenges. 

I thought the writing of the first few chapters was a little simplistic but either that changed or I did.  I really enjoyed this book, especially because of it’s focus on women and their roles in a historical setting.  A ration recipe is included at the end of some chapters.

Quotes

“The reliability of the seasons—the formidable character that shaped months, years, lives—it gave Audrey a comfort that surged through her.”    p. 300  ¶6 (end)

“‘I found that contentment—happiness even—comes in all kinds of ways.  Sometimes you shouldn’t wait for things to be perfect.  You just need to enjoy the small things, every little moment that makes you smile....  I also discovered that it’s all right to admit that you can’t do everything, to accept help from friends.’”    p. 313  ¶8

"'Audrey says this is her favorite time of year,’ Zelda said, kicking a few leaves.  ‘It’s the end of the farming year, marking the start of the rest and recuperation over winter, the magic of renewal.  She loves to talk about the seasons, your sister.’”    p. 327  ¶10

“Gwendoline looked at her, hands on hips.  ‘One thing I’ve learned through this is that family is incredibly precious.  Other things may change us, but we start and end life with our family, whether it’s the one we’re born with or one of our own making.  It means that you love and are loved, whoever you are.’  Her eyes glazed over.  ‘And you know you’re not on your own.’”    p. 330  ¶3

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News of the World

by Paulette Jiles

Capt. Kidd travels through towns in Texas taking his newspapers with him, reading interesting bits to audiences at the cost of 10 cents/person.  He is persuaded to take responsibility for returning a 10-year-old ex-Kiowa captive girl to her German aunt and uncle in Texas. 

It was an interesting and tender story, fraught with adventures in the “wild west.”  I enjoyed her imagery—it was beautiful.  A good read.

Quotes

    “Young people could get away with rough clothing but unless the elderly dressed with care they looked like homeless vagabonds and at every reading he must present the appearance of authority and wisdom.”    p. 15  3

    The Captain and Johanna come to a destroyed cabin and went inside.  The Captain vividly imagines what life might have been like.  “....  How they swung the bucket by the handle as they went at an easy walk down the path between the trees, between here and there, between babyhood and adulthood, between innocence and death, that worn path and the lifting of the heart as the horses called out to you, how you knew each by the sound of its voice in the long cool evening after a day of hard work.  Your heart melted sweetly, it slowed, lost its edges.  Horses, horses.  All gone in the burning.”    p. 170  1 (part)

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Wendel's Workshop

by Chris Riddell 

Wendel is a little mouse who creates robots and leaves a mess behind.  The first robot cleans up but doesn’t work so well.  Wendell creates another robot who destroys everything as he cleans up.  Wendel goes back to work to create one more robot.  Cute.

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Martha Doesn't Share and Martha Doesn't Say Sorry

by Samantha Berger, illustrated by Bruce Whatley

Adorable!  It helps that the delightful illustrations so closely follow the story line.  (Of course, it helps that I love otters.) 

These two books are about a little otter who doesn't want to share or say she's sorry.

By the end of the books she learns that doing both will lead to a happier home.




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The Promise Girls

by Marie Bostwick

The book opens with the Promise girls (Joanie, about 16; Meg, about 14; and Avery, about 5) and their mom, Minerva, on the set of a TV talk show.  Minerva explains that she chose three sperm donors of outstanding quality with characteristics she wanted her daughters to have and had in vitro fertilization.  She has groomed her daughters as prodigies, driven them to success, and presented them as exceptional.  Joanie is the pianist; Meg, the artist; and Avery, the writer/story teller. 

Joanie is tired of it all and purposefully flubs the piece on live TV.  Minerva explodes and the daughters are removed from her care.  The story picks up 20 years later with Joanie sewing re-enactment costumes for a living, Meg working as a bookkeeper and secretary for her husband’s business, and Avery working in a coffee shop and sidelining as a mermaid.  They have little contact with Minerva, but lots to learn about their situation, their past, and their parents.

The author says this is one book with which she is completely happy.  Me, too.

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Midnight at the Blackbird Café

by Heather Webber

I loved it.  A little magic, a lot of love and family and friends, heartbreak and healing.  It’s a complicated story line with lots of characters.  Anna Kate Callow’s grandmother, Zee, died and left The Blackbird Café to Anna Kate in her will, but with the stipulation that Anna Kate would stay in Wicklow for several months, at which time the café would be hers.  There’s magic in the pies (people who eat them hear messages of love from those who have died).  At first, Anna Kate doesn’t know what creates the magic.  Her grandmother managed to provide all the guidance she needs.  There are blackbirds who sing at night but only if the pies contain a specific ingredient.  Characters include Jena and Bow who help in the kitchen; Summer and her father Aubin; Gideon, Zee’s attorney who lives next door; Natalie and her parents, Doc and Seelie; and plenty of others.  A second read in a few years wouldn’t go amiss.

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Growing Up

by Russell Baker

This was an entertainingly written book (a Pulitzer Prize winner) about the author’s childhood to young adulthood.  (He was born in 1925.)  He didn’t have an easy childhood but the book wasn’t a pity party, either.

Quotes

“Sitting at her bed side [his mother with Alzheimers], forever out of touch with her, I wondered about my own children, and their children, and children in general, and about the disconnections between children and parents that prevent them from knowing each other.  Children rarely want to know who their parents were before they were parents, and when age finally stirs their curiosity there is no parent left to tell them.  If a parent does lift the curtain a bit, it is often only to stun the young with some exemplary tale of how much harder life was in the old days.”    p. 6  ¶2

“Uncle Charlie gave me my first real education in politics.  From Uncle Charlie I first heard the word “socialism,” a doctrine so evil, he gave me to understand, that it could destroy our country.  America, he told me, had been built with initiative and hard work.  Socialism, he told me, discouraged hard work and destroyed initiative.  And socialism was what Franklin Roosevelt was practicing.  Didn’t I ever look at the newspaper...?  Didn’t I realize that millions of people were being given money by the government for doing no work at all?”
    p. 109  ¶2

“The changeover from knickers to long pants was the ritual recognition that a boy had reached adolescence, or ‘the awkward age,’ as everybody called it.  The ‘teenager,’ like the atomic bomb, was still uninvented, and there were few concessions to adolescence, but the change to long pants was a ritual of recognition.  There was no ceremony about it.  You were taken downtown one day and your escort—my mother in my case—casually said to the suit salesman, ‘Let’s see what you’ve got in long pants.’”     p. 159  ¶7

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Penguin the Magpie. The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family

by Cameron Bloom and Bradley Trevor Grieve

This was a dual story: the author’s wife fell off a second floor balcony, cracked her skull in two places, and broke her spine, thereby becoming paralyzed from the arms down. Soon after that, their sons found a baby magpie and the family chose to nurse it back to health.

Many, many wonderful photos accompanied by words.  At the end is an essay by the author and one by his wife, who writes directly to others who have dealt with a spinal cord injury.

Quotes

“You don’t have to be superhuman to survive the bad times and you can’t always be at your best.   But even when things look their worst, you can still feel positive about the future.  Being optimistic is simply a choice made possible by being creative and proactive.  The means to achieving the breakthrough you need may be a lot closer than you think."     p. 146

“A happy ending begins with having faith in your own story, and looking for ways to create joy for yourself and others.  Time and time again Penguin showed us what a difference it can make just by giving our family and friends a reason to smile when they see us.”      p. 149

“Most importantly, Penguin taught us that helping others feel better is the easiest and best way to help yourself feel better."      p. 162

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At Home on Ladybug Farm

by Donna Ball

Three retired women, Lindsey, Bridget, and Cici, purchased an old mansion which they are trying to restore.  One is a teacher-turned-painter and foster mom; one is a realtor who should have been a baker; and the other’s strength is carpentry/building.  Lori, one of their daughters lives with them, and Noah, the 15-year-old foster son.  It’s a story of family, challenges, and growing to independence.  There’s some humor similar to that in Eat Cake.  There are a few chapters that flash back to earlier times.  I enjoyed it.

Quotes

“‘Always observe the amenities,’ her Grandma Addie had told her.  ‘No matter how low life knocks you, you can hold your head up high if you observe the amenities.’
  “... Now, as a mature young bride and mother-to-be, she understood exactly what the amenities were, and how important it was to observe them. The amenities were gestures of civility performed in this big, often very uncivilized world, small acts of kindness to let others know that their lives were noticed, and their presence valued.”    p. 179  paragraph 1

“‘Motherhood isn’t something that just happens to you,’ Cici said.  ‘It’s a choice you make every day, to put someone else’s happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you’re not sure what the right thing is . . . and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong.’”    p. 255  paragraph 4

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The Gown. A Novel of the Royal Wedding

by Jennifer Robson

This book was much less about the royal wedding than about two of the seamstresses who embroidered the dress and the shop where they worked. The story takes place beginning in 1947. Ann has no living relatives except her widowed sister-in-law, Milly, with whom she lives until Milly moves to Canada. Miriam has moved to London from France and is seeking employment in an embroidery house. The two work together, with other young ladies. I thought it was good.

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The Lake House

by Kate Morton 

This is another book that takes place in different time periods with different characters, the exception being Alice.  It was a slow start for me when it began with Alice, age 16, written like a 16-year-old.  It improved from there and by the time I met a few of the other characters, including Alice at age 86, I loved it. 

The story tells of a midsummer party in 1933 at the isolated Lake House, when Alice’s 18-month-old brother, Theo, was taken.  In 2003, Sadie Sparrow, an investigator, on leave, visits her grandfather, Bertie, in Cornwall.  While running she happens upon the Lake House, learns its story from her grandfather and his friend, and, being an investigator, begins to search for Theo.  There are plenty of twists and turns, many people who could have abducted Theo, but Sadie eventually learns the truth with the help of Alice and her sister.

Quotes

(I love this quote, possibly because I was raised this way.)  Narrator speaking of Alice’s thoughts as an adult:  “Why as it that so much of the paraphernalia left over from the war made it seem as if it had been polite or quaint or mannerly, when in fact it had been fierce and deadly?  People had been different back then, more stoical.  There was far less talk of one’s emotions.  People were taught from childhood not to cry when they were hurt, to be good losers, not to acknowledge fears.  Even Nanny Rose, who was sweetness personified, would have frowned to see tears when she poured iodine onto scrapes and scratches.  Children were expected to face their fate when it came for them.  Very useful skills, as it turned out, during wartime; indeed, as they were in life.”    p. 228 ¶2

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