BOOK REVIEW: Raising Hel by Cynthia J. Bogard

Raising Hel by Cynthia J. Bogard is the powerful story of a young woman coming of age in the tumultuous 1970s in Madison, Wisconsin. The site of the University of Wisconsin, Madison was a hotbed of student activism, with particular focus on anti-war demonstrations and the feminist movement.

Hel has escaped from her small farming town and her family’s expectations that a woman’s role is to settle into a life of wifehood and child-raising. But, confused, naive, and with no real vision for her own future, she becomes involved in the anti-war protests and enamored of an older man, a Vietnam veteran, who is addicted to heroin. In short order, they are married, and Hel finds herself just as trapped as she would have been had she stayed in her small town.

It is with the help of two women that she begins to break free. Thorpe is a smart, focused, botany student who seems to have it all together. Iris is a charismatic beauty with a gift for organization who wants to start a feminist magazine. With their friendship and example, Hel begins to find herself. When her husband abandons her, she is free to start over again. Working on the magazine brings her into contact with more strong-minded women eager to grab opportunities that are beginning to open up to them. Hel meets a man who is, in every way, the opposite of her absent husband, who makes her believe in love again. But her road to personal achievement and happiness is threatened when her husband returns.

This is an inspiring story of the hard-won achievements of the women’s movement that can serve as a reminder of how far we have come, and bolster our determination not to go backwards.

BOOK REVIEW: Bigger Than Us by Debbie Burns

Bigger Than Us by Debbie Burns is a heartwarming story of second chances. 

Maddie Trudeau has just lost her husband, Landon, to a motorcycling accident. Her first priority  is seeing her five-year-old twins through the tragedy. But Maddie’s heartbreak is not limited to widowhood. Before his death, Maddie had been on the verge of divorcing him for the chaos he made of their lives.

Unfortunately, the chaos does not end with his death. Maddie still has to deal with her controlling, narcissistic mother-in-law, her own mother’s flower-child behavior, and Noel, her husband’s best friend, a man with whom she’d once been in love, a man who knows all her husband’s secrets and is conflicted about spilling them.

And then, there is Jordan, a younger woman, fighting depression as a single mother with no support network and a baby whose resemblance to Landon is unmistakable.

This is a beautiful novel of grief, compassion, and abiding love.

BOOK REVIEW: A Diary of Love by Maude Hutchins

I’m continuing to read the works of Maude Hutchins, an early twentieth century artist and novelist. Her writings fit in the category of the “nouveau roman,” not my favorite genre, but hers are fascinating and odd. (She was supposedly admired by Anais Nin.)

A Diary of Love, published in 1950, is her second novel. It was almost banned for obscenity, but rescued by the American Civil Liberties Union. It’s tame compared to what we’re used to today, but it does focus on sex and skirts uncomfortable sexual taboos.

The fictional diary is kept by an adolescent girl named Noel. She is an orphan living with an aloof, sad grandfather and an unmarried aunt. The household is also regularly visited by two hypersexualized neighbors and their son, Dominick, who is roughly Noel’s age. A few other characters flit in and out: their strange maid, Frieda, who so desperately wants a child that she has a false pregnancy and then mothers a doll; a randy very young music student; and an omnipresent doctor.

Noel is coming of age, very interested in the mystery of sex, and left to puzzle it out by what she overhears and the glimpses she catches of what goes on around her. Her diary entries are dreamy and confused, and often end with her recording her temperature. In the second part of the book, she has been sent (for three years) to a tuberculosis sanatorium in Arizona. Her life takes on a different pattern as she makes a new family there, one that is immersed in sickness and in sexual desire. In part three, she is discharged home, cured of TB, three years older, and slightly less confused about both sex and love.

This novel, and Hutchins’ others, contain autobiographical tidbits, but it’s a challenge to decipher what they are.

BOOK REVIEW: There Will Be Bodies by Lindsey Davis

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I’ve been following Flavia Albia since she was a young girl in the Falco series by Lindsey Davis. She now has a series of her own. There Will be Bodies is book 13.

Albia has inherited a knack for investigating from her adoptive father, Falco. Her long-suffering husband, Tiberius Manlius, not only allows her this unconventional profession, but encourages her and sometimes helps her. He is a builder (and a magistrate) and has been assigned the task of looking over and cleaning up a property purchased by his wealthy uncle. The property is in the vicinity of Mount Vesuvius, and suffered in the famous volcano eruption 10 years earlier.

Sextus Curvidius, the man who inherited the property and sold it to Tiberius’ uncle, has asked them to see if they can locate his elder brother who lived there but disappeared during the time of the eruption. He is presumed dead, but Sextus would like to provide the proper funeral rites if his body can be located.

Tiberius and Albia are warned, and warn their crew, that there will be bodies, given that the estate is partly buried in volcanic ash.

Bodies are found. But, suspiciously, they don’t seem to be merely victims of the volcano. Foul play is Albia’s diagnosis. She just needs to prove it and found out who did it.

Using her trademark snark and brazenly marching into danger, Albia wracks up suspects, clues, and possible witnesses, but can’t quite choose which of the potential scenarios is the right one until she gathers all the suspects together to try out her theories. 

Although I love this series, this was one of my least favorites. Maybe Albia’s cynical/soft-hearted voice is growing stale for me. Or maybe I wish Tiberius was a more interesting partner. Or maybe the plot required a few too many coincidences. Still, the mystery is wrapped up in a satisfying conclusion. And I’m sure I’ll come back for book 14.

BOOK REVIEW: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

It was time to read another classic, so I picked the Pulitzer Prize winner, The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, first published in 1927.

The blurb on my 2004 copy, taken from the foreword, calls it “As close to perfect a moral fable as we are ever likely to get in American literarure.”

So, what is it about? It’s about the 5 victims of a (fictional) bridge collapse in Peru in 1714. The rope bridge had been there for so long it was considered indestructible. So when it broke, there were those who considered it an Act of God. The collapse was witnessed by the local Franciscan, Brother Juniper, who decided it would be a perfect test for his theory that with careful study, one could interpret God’s plan. There is no such thing as an accident. There was a reason that these five people had been on the bridge that day. These five and no others.

Brother Juniper then spends six years compiling the information in the next few chapters, the life stories of the victims. The writing is beautiful. Their stories are moving and sad. Brother Juniper’s ultimate fate is surprising. And the conclusion seems to be the opposite of what he’d hoped to prove. In the end, it is the Abbess in the town who draws her own conclusion: the only thing that lasts, that has any meaning, is love.

It’s a short book, but not a quick read. Recommended for when you’re in the mood for something reflective.

BOOK REVIEW: The Trick of the Treasure by Mary Lancaster

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Constance Silver and Solomon Grey are at it again in The Trick of the Treasure, Book 4 of Mary Lancaster’s new Victorian mystery series. 

Constance is the owner of high-priced brothel and safe place for disadvantaged women. Solomon is a hugely successful self-made businessman. And they have fallen in love.

They are also the detectives running the Silver and Grey Agency. Their latest assignment is finding a treasure that has gone missing from the safe room of an adventurer, Barnabas Lloyd. Lloyd is addicted to treasure hunting, to the point that he has nearly bankrupted his family. This treasure, literally discovered on a deserted island with the help of an old map, is desperately needed to pay off creditors and keep the family afloat. The family consists of a grown son who accompanied Barnabas on this latest trip, a sixteen-year-old daughter who is discovering suitors,  a twelve-year-old daughter who is wiser than her older siblings, and a wife who finds life more enjoyable when her husband is away than when he is home. There is also Barnabas’ spinster sister, who is ignored at home but finds her joy in charitable endeavors.

The treasure was unloaded from the ship, inspected by customs officers, then carried to the Lloyds’ home, where it was locked in an interior room with no windows and only one door. The next morning, when Barnabas went to show the treasure to his youngest daughter, the treasure chest was empty.

Someone stole it. But who? And how?

Constance and Solomon dive into the mystery with their usual conscientious flair. Along the way, they begin to question whether the danger of investigative work is worth it. Although each is willing to risk their own life, it’s different watching a loved one do so.

This is another intriguing, well-plotted historical mystery. The romance between the two leads is progressing apace. I recommend this series highly – but strongly suggest you start with book 1.

BOOK REVIEW: Measure of Devotion by Nell Joslin

Measure of Devotion by Nell Joslin is a poignant story of a mother’s determined love set against the backdrop of the Civil War.

Susannah and Jacob Shelburne are South Carolina farmers with Union and abolitionist sympathies. However, their son, Francis, is a heart-and-soul Confederate, who joined the army as soon as he turned 18. There is a good deal of quiet family dysfunction in the Shelburne home, but when a telegram arrives reporting that Francis has been severely wounded in Tennessee, Susannah sets off to find him and tend to him.

The novel follows Susannah on her journey and also takes the reader back in time to see her past and the forces that shaped her. Her inner strength allows her to overcome the difficulties of travel and the hardships of caring for her wounded son in war-torn Tennessee. When the Confederates lose the Battle of Lookout Mountain and retreat, Francis becomes a prisoner of war. Susannah must use every resource she can to win him a parole he does not want.

This is a beautifully written, moving novel that does not shy away from the devastation of war.