BOOK REVIEW: Margery & Me by Maryka Biaggio

Where do you stand on the supernatural, the occult? Did you ever play with a Ouija board as a kid? Ever get a shiver of fear about a ghost nearby, even though you don’t believe in ghosts? What about communication with the dead?

Margery & Me by Maryka Biaggio takes us right to the heart of turn-of-the-20th-century Spiritualism, when séances conducted by mediums were all the rage, and their veracity was hotly debated. This novel tells the story of Margery (Mina) Crandon, a Boston native, who was considered one of the most convincing mediums of her day. Along with her husband, Dr. Roy Crandon, she performed séances for years, subjecting herself to intense scrutiny by scientists, journalists, believers, and unbelievers, who consistently failed to find proof-positive evidence of fraud. Her greatest nemesis was Harry Houdini, who was determined to expose her. (Whether he succeeded or not is the question.)

Biaggio cleverly sidesteps the natural skepticism of readers by having the narrator be Margery’s deceased older brother, Walter. It is Walter’s desire to contact Margery that sets in motion her foray into Spiritualism. He is the one who takes charge during the séances and who supports her against the bullying of her husband and those who would discredit her powers.

It’s a fast-paced read with a sympathetic but imperfect protagonist. And while I remain a skeptic, as long as I was in Margery and Walter’s world, I wanted to believe.

BOOK REVIEW: To Capture a Rebel's Heart by Madelyn Grey

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

To be released on April 23! To Capture a Rebel’s Heart by Madelyn Grey is the first book in a new historical romance series, Heart’s Rebellion.

This novel caught my attention because it is set not in Georgian, Regency, or Victorian England but in Revolutionary War-era New York. The war, with its neighbor-against-neighbor strife and family divisions, makes for an adventure-filled background to the romance and for a nice change of pace for historical romance fans.

Benjamin Hoskins is a young patriot eager to avenge the death of his older brother who was hanged as a rebel and traitor by the British forces. When he learns his brother had been a spy, Benjamin is willing to step into his shoes, even though spying is considered a dishonorable business. His task is to infiltrate the home of a wealthy Tory family, pretend to be a loyalist, and ferret out as much information as he can.

Clara Boyd is the beautiful redheaded middle daughter in that Tory family. Clara has always been the black sheep, and has a reputation for having loose morals, a reputation she plays up in her desperate attempts for attention. Her elder sister is the family favorite, but she is away in Philadelphia where she has met the man she wants to marry, Philip Ashby. When a handsome stranger appears at the Boyds’ home, Clara and her younger sister assume he is Ashby, coming to request their sister’s hand.

Benjamin had a different alias in mind when he came to call on the Boyds, but being mistaken for Ashby works just as well. He is invited to stay with them and gets down to business. The only problem is Miss Clara Boyd, who seems determined to scandalize him with her boldness and frank allusions to sex. His attraction to her makes it difficult to pretend to be her sister’s fiancé. And her guilty attraction to him causes her to run hot and cold.

Clara is a loyalist, and Benjamin a rebel spy. Being on opposite sides of the struggle, they cannot truly confide in or to trust one another. And yet, the attraction between them makes it impossible to keep apart. As he gathers and passes along secret information, the war heats up around them and sparks fly between them. But things really take off when Clara finds out that Benjamin is not who he claims to be. Furious, she agrees to help the British side. And then, Benjamin is captured...

This steamy romance will delight readers of historical romance looking for something a little different.

BOOK REVIEW: Lidie: The Further Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley

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

Lidie: The Further Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley is a follow-up to the 1998 novel, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton. I don’t know why it took so long for book 2 to come out. Does anyone know?

Although I’ve read several of Jane Smiley’s books (my favorites being The Greenlanders and A Thousand Acres) I didn’t read the first Lidie book. Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary to have read that one first to understand or enjoy Lidie.

In pre-Civil War Illinois, Lidie Newton is an independent-minded woman thrown into dependence upon her sisters after the violent death of her husband in Kansas Territory. The novel weaves in the backstory, providing a good sense of what took place in book one. Lidie is mourning her husband and is still traumatized by the events in “Bloody Kansas.” She is a staunch abolitionist, but no one in her family wants to talk about that, which frustrates her.

Lidie is pulled from her grief by the antics of her niece, Annie, a grown woman who is still treated as a child and is laden with chores, but who is also independent-minded. She has a secret plan of escape. She wants to be an actress. While acting in a local holiday play, she attracts the attention of an Englishman who wants to be a producer back in England. Although this part seems a bit farfetched, this Englishman arranges for Annie and her chaperone, Lidie, to travel in luxury to Liverpool. He pays all their expenses. I kept waiting for something sinister to happen, but the guy is on the level. He takes them into his home where they meet his wife and daughter. Annie is an honored guest, while Lidie is seen as a servant, Annie’s maid.

In fact, Lidie likes being treated as a servant because it allows her a good deal more freedom. She gets along well (very well) with the other servants and also makes new acquaintances in Liverpool.

Her adventures here are fairly tame, as opposed to what reportedly took place in book one. But she does heal and she has the chance to re-evaluate what her next steps should be. The ending is a surprise, and seems a nice set-up for a book three.

BOOK REVIEW: Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

I read Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore for a book club. It’s a gripping (and enraging) account of the young women exposed to radium in their occupation of painting luminescent dials for watches and military equipment. After its discovery, radium was considered a miracle drug, touted for everything from a cure for gout to an aphrodisiac to a beauty treatment. But its most exciting property was that it glowed.

Women were entering the work force in large numbers in the WWI era, and working in the dial painting factory was considered a plum job. Women were uniquely suited to painting the tiny numbers on the dials. There was no protective equipment, despite the radioactivity of the radium-containing paint, because the dangers were not recognized (or not acknowledged.) And worse, the women were taught that the best way to bring the delicate paint brushes to a precise point was to wet them between their lips. And so for months, even years, these women ingested minute but cumulative doses of radium day after day after day.

And then, usually after a couple of years had passed, often when they were no longer working for the company, they began presenting to dentists and physicians with a mysterious array of symptoms, commonly including disintegration of their jaw bones, loss of teeth (and pieces of bone), hemorrhage,  purulent eruptions, and bone pain. Eventually, it became clear that they were suffering from radium poisoning. A deadly and incurable disease. But the men owning the companies and the higher ups who were all getting rich, denied the possibility and refused any concessions to the women. Instead, they fired troublemakers. They called the women hysterical and insinuated there was nothing wrong with them. And when the women banded together in lawsuits, mostly to get settlements to pay for medical care (they were all essentially bankrupted by job loss and medical bills) the response of the companies was to stall and appeal, hoping the women would die and the suits would be dismissed. (They also declared bankruptcy, reorganized, and reopened elsewhere.)

It’s an important book. And while it’s true that studying these brave women advanced medical science, and that in the aftermath, important industrial safety measures were passed, the most vivid scenes in the book are of the horrific pain and suffering experience by these women, and the callousness and greed of corporate men.

BOOK REVIEW: Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes

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

Langston Hughes is an author on my should-read list, so I was glad of the nudge provided by Netgalley to read the novel Not Without Laughter. First published in 1930, it is being re-released by Union Square & Co. with an introduction by the poet Jasmine Mans.

The novel is semi-autobiographical: a coming-of-age story of a young Black man, Sandy, growing up in Kansas. Sandy is primarily reared by his grandmother, Hager, who was once enslaved. She is a deeply religious woman who refuses to hate, despite the injustices she sees in the world. She works hard as a laundress. And she has big hopes for Sandy.

Also in the family are Hager’s three grown daughters. The eldest, Tempy, has married well and is financially comfortable. However, she feels superior to the rest of her family and rarely comes home. The middle daughter, Annjee, is Sandy’s mother. She’s another hard-working woman, in service to a white family, but her focus is on her much-absent husband, Jimboy, not on her son. She works long hours, and when she’s home, she’s tired and depressed over Jimboy. He’s got itchy feet, never able to hold a job for long and constantly on the move looking for something better. And finally, the youngest daughter, Harriett, is a good-time girl. She wants better for herself. She is fiercely aware of racial injustice. And she doesn’t want to get trapped in the drudgery that rules the lives of her sisters and mother. She runs off to join a carnival. She resorts for a while to prostitution. But she finally finds her stride as a Blues singer.

Sandy is influenced by all of these family members. He grows up learning to take jobs wherever he can to help his grandmother and to have some spending money. But he’s also a fine student. He knows that a good education is his best hope of escaping poverty.

It was a little difficult settling into the book. The beginning uses a lot of Black dialect that, in this day and age, is disconcerting to read. But this is less pronounced, or less noticeable, as the book progresses and we are pulled deeper and deeper into Sandy’s life. The novel doesn’t shy away from his confusion and conflicted feelings. It presents the family members compassionately while showing them warts and all. It shows the differing struggles of the Black community in Kansas in that time period, but also brings to life their love and joy. 

BOOK REVIEW: The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur by Scott S. Greenberger

The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur by Scott S. Greenberger is our history/historical fiction book club’s next pick. Presidential biographies are not really my thing, but I’m glad to have read this one. I knew nothing about Arthur. He’s pretty obscure as presidents go. During the Gilded Age, he was James Garfield’s vice president so he became president when Garfield was assassinated.

This biography points out how Arthur was an important cog in the New York State Republican machine, a close underling of Roscoe Conkling. He was chin-deep in the corruption of the times and became a very wealthy man.

The thesis of this biography is that he turned over a new leaf when he became president, turning his back on his old machine cronies and trying to reform the spoils system. This was partly in response to letters written to him by a woman who was a stranger to him, who urged him to redeem his reputation while there was still time.

It’s an interesting picture of the man and his times, but I’m not sure I buy that his late turnaround redeemed him.

BOOK REVIEW: Sixty Seconds by Steven Mayfield

In Sixty Seconds by Steven Mayfield, it is one minute till midnight, Central European Time, one minute till 6:00 PM EST, on the eve of V-E day. In sixty seconds, the war with Hitler’s Germany will be over. But the quiet anticipatory lull one might expect is not there. Instead, that last minute is jam-packed with activity and danger.

Mayfield follows the stories of nine people who are experiencing that final minute, waiting for what will come next. He creates a gripping atmosphere of anticipation for the reader.

Farley is a war correspondent, a famous broadcaster, who is narrating the celebration about to erupt in Times Square. 

Selma is an elderly, mentally unstable widow, whose home is inundated with too many cats to count. She has enlisted Riley, a young man who flunked out of basic training, to carry out an assassination when the clock strikes 6:00 in New York.

Jenny is a 15-year-old girl with a remarkable voice and equally remarkable presence. She has been chosen to sing the national anthem to be broadcast worldwide as the clock ticks down. As she sings, she has to keep her mind from drifting to concern for her older brother, a gunner in the Air Force, who is still overseas and still in danger until the cease-fire takes effect.

Jimmy is Jenny’s brother. Although warned by his commander not to wander off the air field after dark, Jimmy continues a nightly walk to stretch his legs and clear his head. 

Stangl is a Nazi through and through. The one-time commander of a death camp, he is now imprisoned after capture by the Americans. He knows he is destined for execution. He is being interrogated by his captors, one of whom, the translator, had been a prisoner in the camp and had been forced to watch while Stengl repeatedly, brutally, raped his wife.

Antoni is the translator. Gosia is his wife. Gosia is now in New York, waiting for him to be able to join her. She is pregnant and her difficult  labor has begun.

And, finally, Zimmer is a German soldier, a reluctant Nazi, who hopes to survive long enough for the cease-fire to take hold. He’s counting on surrendering to the Americans to avoid capture by the Russians. But the closer he gets to safety, the less safe he becomes.

This tightly plotted novel follows the characters in ten second intervals, bringing them all closer and closer to the war’s end, revealing the interconnections between them. With sixty seconds still to go, the war isn’t over yet, and no one will be safe until it is. Deeply drawn characters, high-stakes tension, and a unique structure make this is an enjoyable WWII read.

BOOK REVIEW: The Air Between Us by Deborah Johnson

The first book for the new year is one that has been on my TBR pile for far too long. The author, Deborah Johnson, taught a class I took...back in 2023!...on writing historical fiction. She’s a great teacher, and I’m annoyed with myself for taking so long to read her work which, of course, I loved!

The Air Between Us is set in small-town Mississippi in the 1960s. It begins with a 10-year-old Black child emergently bringing a poor White man to the local hospital, a gut-shot hunter, a heavy drinker, who had fallen on his own gun. The hospital is owned by the town’s wealthy White surgeon., Dr. Connelly. It has a separate entrance and separate rooms for Black patients, who are treated by the town’s Black surgeon, Reese Jackson. This particular patient has supposedly been brought in just on time, and the surgery is supposed to have been a success. But shortly afterward, the man unexpectedly dies. This is the mystery at the book’s core.

But the answer to the mystery unfolds quietly in the midst of everything else going on, which has more import than one man’s strange death. Times are changing. The town has always been strictly segregated, but now Federal anti-segregation forces are at work. Surprisingly, it is Dr. Connelly who is fighting the hardest for the townfolk to accept integration of the schools. It’s even more surprising because his powerful father, a State Senator, is fiercely racist and has a weekly column in the newspaper where he spouts nastiness to keep the White folks riled.

The novel is written with multiple viewpoints, delving into the conflicts, relationships, and secrets of the townspeople. It deals with racial prejudice, but also class and gender politics. Violence simmers beneath the surface, catching the tensions of the period. And the ending surprised me.

If you like historical fiction, Southern fiction, or mysteries, this book is highly recommended!

BOOK REVIEW: The Heart of Bennet Hollow by Joanne Bischof DeWitt

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

I thought the premise of this Christian historical romance was interesting, so I was pleased to have the chance to read and review it. The Heart of Bennet Hollow by Joanne Bischof DeWitt is a turn of the 20th century re-imagining of Pride and Prejudice, set in a small coal town in Appalachia. 

Lizzy Bennet is the second daughter of a mining geologist turned farmer. Her town’s economy is dependent on the local coal mine, and its owner is retiring and preparing to sell the mine. One of the bidders is William Blake, a wealthy investor who owns two mines already. He is determined to evaluate the value of the mine pragmatically, but when he meets Lizzy, he needs a new (though still financially justifiable) plan.

It’s a lovely story that echoes the original but takes period-appropriate detours. The conflicts are somewhat muted, which leads to a gentler tale. (For example, Mr. Blake is reserved, but not as prideful or obnoxious as Darcy. The George Wickham character, here called West, is unscrupulous and a liar, but his lies are not as complex and damaging as those of Wickham. And Mrs. Bennet is interested in marrying off her daughters, but is not as flighty as Austen’s Mrs. Bennet.)

It’s a sweet, closed-door read that does a lovely job of placing Austenesque characters in a unique setting.

 

BOOK REVIEW: The Resettlement of Vesta Blonik by Denise Smith Cline

The Resettlement of Vesta Blonik by Denise Smith Cline is a lovely, unputdownable novel of resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship. Set during the Depression Era, it’s the story of two strong-hearted people, bent but not broken by poverty and loss. Vesta Blonik is a thirty-year-old farmer, never married, who lives with her bullying father on a hardscrabble Minnesota plot. Used to hard work and her father’s belittling scolds, she is nevertheless blind-sided when he sells the land and abandons her to a future that looks more and more desperate. Vesta struggles against hopelessness, until she begins receiving letters from a stranger in North Carolina, Gordon Crenshaw, through the machinations of well-intentioned clergymen and Gordon’s not-so-well-intentioned family. It seems Gordon is looking for a wife. Beautifully written and emotionally compelling, this novel will have readers impressed by Vesta’s leap of faith and by the healing power of simple compassion.

Thank you to Regal House for an advance copy of this wonderful novel.

BOOK REVIEW: The Hanging of Ruben Ashford by Lauren Small

The Hanging of Ruben Ashford by Lauren Small is a thoughtful historical mystery set in Baltimore in 1917-18, a place and time that can be seen as defined by Jim Crow laws. The novel fully embraces the historical setting, my favorite kind of historical novel.

Josie Berenson is fascinated by human behavior. Why do people make the choices they make? Although she has a good position in a psychology lab in Boston, running rats through mazes, a chance encounter with Dr. Nell Winters changes both their lives. Nell is physician in Baltimore, and Josie joins her there. They fall in love, and their devotion grows stronger as they face challenges together.

Nell has not joined in the white flight from her Baltimore neighborhood. She is a firm believer in racial equality and will treat both Black and White patients. However, she believes change must come slowly. Josie is more of a crusader. She wants change now.

Josie joins the clinical practice of Dr. Adolf Meyer (a real person) at the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins. He is also interested in human behavior, and often consults in unusual psychiatric cases. Josie’s job is to dig deeper, not only interviewing patients, but their loved ones, neighbors, servants, etc.

While some of her methods are not exactly ethical (like bullying a servant into betraying details she is not supposed to reveal, without considering that the lack of discretion might get the poor girl fired) Josie is effective.

The mystery is set in motion when a young White teacher at a home for “feeble-minded children” is found murdered in a stable. Her head has been bashed in. A Black employee of the school, Ruben Ashford, is found holding a bloody hammer, standing over the body, blood on his clothes. According to the lawyer who has presented the case to Dr. Meyer, there are two witnesses to the murder and Ruben has confessed. Yet the lawyer doesn’t quite believe in his client’s guilt because there is no motive. Dr. Meyer assigns Josie the task of investigating the murder, not to find the culprit, that’s pretty clear, but to find out why he did it.

As Josie begins her investigation, she is confronted with the reality of the racial divide in Baltimore, which seems much greater than what she was accustomed to in Boston. As Josie struggles to understand Ruben Ashford, Nell fights the Spanish Flu epidemic that is decimating the inhabitants of the city. 

The novel puts on display the injustices of the day, the horrors of the epidemic, and the challenges two women face loving one another. 

BOOK REVIEW: The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club is another winner. I read The Rose Code for one book club, and now The Briar Club for another. It’s a fast-paced, can’t-put-it-down read.

The plot focuses around two murdered corpses found in a women’s boarding house in Washington D.C. in 1954. Initially, the discovery is narrated by the house. It’s gimmicky, but it works. The police are there investigating, and the house lets us know that the murderer is still in the building.

Each chapter then focuses on a different character, all boarders in the house. It goes back 4 years and works its way to the time of the murder. The central protagonist is a mysterious woman named Grace March. Before her arrival, the residents had been strangers, each with their own problems, dreams, and secrets. With her gracious and kind friendliness, Grace becomes a confidante and supporter of each. The women become a found family. But while Grace gets to know them, and brings them together, nobody really knows her.

The blossoming relationships grabbed me, and the murder mystery pulled me along. And of course, the historical tidbits kept it fascinating.

BOOK REVIEW: Purely Academic by Stringfellow Barr

If you enjoy satirical novels about the world of academia, you won’t go wrong with Purely Academic by Stringfellow Barr. (How’s that for an author name?) Although first published in 1958, it feels surprisingly contemporary. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The novel largely focuses on Dr. Schneider, chairman of the history department, but other characters also share their views: the pompous but effective university president who’s seeking a bigger, better job; the chairman of the economics department, a schmoozer who vacuums up all the funding for his own department and who wants to succeed the president; the schmoozer’s very young, beautiful, charming wife who is bored with their marriage; the president’s Machiavellian secretary, the power behind the throne; a high-living member of a large philanthropic board, who may be the most clear-sighted of all, and others.

Although the jockeying for power, the politicking, the complaints about low salaries and unteachable students are timeless, the novel is written in an older style. It starts fairly slow as Barr maneuvers all the characters into place for the finale. He also head-hops, making the prose a bit clunky. But once you settle into the read, the style becomes less noticeable. What stands out is the irony. This novel is clever.

The characters are all unpleasant in their own way. Even Schneider, who you can’t help but root for, has some fairly large character flaws. And yet, I was entranced. Once the stage is set, the president gets the call to move up to a large state school. Then things start happening fast. 

Stringfellow Barr was a history teacher himself, who moved on to administration as a college president, and then to president of a research foundation. So it seems this book is written from the voice of experience. 

This is another old novel found in the library, but it’s available on kindle or used copies can also be found. If you’d like to see the academic world lampooned, give it a try. 

BOOK REVIEW: Seeds of the Pomegranate by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

 I received this e-galley for free from Edelweiss. That did not influence this review.

Seeds of the Pomegranate by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels (releasing on September 2) is a propulsive historical novel set in early 20th century Sicily and New York. (I could not put this one down!)

Mimi Inglese is an extraordinarily talented young artist whose rise is cut short by tuberculosis infection. At least, that is what she believes and what her family wants to believe. Her father is struggling and failing to keep the estate he inherited profitable. He decides, with the “help” of a wealthy friend, Vito Cascioferro, to move his family to New York and start over by opening a store. What he doesn’t admit, to himself or to Mimi, is that Vito has little interest in the store. Or in him. Vito has been following Mimi’s artistic education and plans to make use of her skills as an engraver in his counterfeiting business.

Readers will sympathize with Mimi’s plight as she is dragged deeper and deeper into the mob’s increasingly competitive and violent dealings in New York. Although presented with opportunities to escape, family obligations keep holding her back. 

The beautiful prose and complex family dynamics combine with an omnipresent sense of menace that kept me turning pages, anxious to see what would come next. Highly recommended!

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: 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.

BOOK REVIEW: This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Many years ago, I bought a set of four F. Scott Fitzgerald novels, and they sat for a long time on my bookshelf. I eventually re-read The Great Gatsby, which I’d first read in school. In 2016, I decided to read Tender is the Night, which I enjoyed more than Gatsby. But it took me nine more years to pull This Side of Paradise from the shelf.

This is Fitzgerald’s first novel and definitely not his best. There is beautiful language, of course. And he plays around with structure, dividing the protagonist’s life into parts, subdivided into chapters, and then into scenes reading like anecdotes. One of these scenes is even written like a movie script. It’s interesting, but makes the read choppy.

It’s said to be semi-autobiographical. The protagonist is Amory Blaine, an upper middle-class boy growing up in pre-WWI America. He attends private school in the east and adapts to its demands. He’s intelligent, but not as intelligent as he thinks he is. He decides he wants to go to Princeton, and he does.

At Princeton, he looks around at who are the most socially successful of his classmates and imitates them. After a rocky start, his popularity rises, until he fails a math exam and has to resign from the Princetonian, a position that had given him credibility. Then he starts moving with a different crowd, and forms a couple of friendships that more or less last through the rest of the book. His best friend is a poet, and Amory also has a literary side. The book is sprinkled with poetry written by various characters.

There is a very brief interlude where he goes off to war. 

He has a series of love affairs, none of which last, for various reasons. His parents die. A priest that he was very friendly with and considered something of a mentor died. He doesn’t work– he lives off the income from his parents’ investments. And then they fail and he goes broke.

Throughout, he’s egotistical and unlikeable. I read the book with as much emotional investment as the summary I’ve given. I’m glad I read it, since it’s been gathering dust on my shelf. But at the end of the novel, I was left feeling who cares?

It reminded me a little of Catcher in the Rye and a little of Maurice. If you want to read an angsty male coming-of-age story, I’d recommend Maurice. If you want to read a Fitzgerald novel besides Gatsby, I recommend Tender is the Night.

BOOK REVIEW: susan, linda, nina and cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli

Our book group will be meeting next week to discuss susan, linda, nina & cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli. The book uses mini-biographies of Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg, and Cokie Roberts to tell the story of the birth and growth of National Public Radio. It incorporates references to or anecdotes about newsworthy events of the 60's thru the 2000's, providing historical context. And it serves as a reminder of just how unequal the playing field was just 50-60 years ago. White men ruled simply by virtue of being white men. The women (not only these four) who insinuated themselves into newsroom spaces and worked to break through the glass ceiling are inspirational. And it’s disturbing to think that the achievements of not so long ago can be forgotten, dismissed, or rolled back.

The message of the book is important and it is good to pay homage to these “Founding Mothers of NPR.” However the book is not as focused on the four women in the title as I might have liked. It veered off quite a bit into the contributions of the various men (NPR presidents, board members, hosts and cohosts, etc) who were also involved in the founding of NPR. At times, the narrative seemed to lose focus as it veered from anecdote to anecdote.

Still, it’s a great pick for a book club with both male and female members, all of an age to remember some of the events and who may have been NPR listeners at a time when these women were at the top of their game. It should yield great discussion.

BOOK REVIEW: Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University by Michael T. Benson

Something completely different!

I have an interest in the early history of Johns Hopkins University and Hospital (which will be on display in my forthcoming historical novel, Till Taught by Pain, to be published by Regal House in November, 2025). I’m also interested in early U.S. university presidents (such as Robert M. Hutchins, a character in my work-in-progress). So I knew I had to read this biography of the first president of Johns Hopkins, who helped build the university, medical school, and hospital from scratch. The author gave a talk at our local library, which made me even more determined. However, it took two long car rides back and forth to my sister’s house for Thanksgiving before I finally moved it to the top of my TBR pile and read it.

Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University by Michael T. Benson is an interesting account of Gilman’s life. It centers on his work, without touching upon his private life except to mention that he was married, widowered, remarried, and had two daughters. 

Born in 1831, Gilman devoted his life to the study of education, utilizing (as a young man) a position as an attaché to the ambassador to Russia to tour Europe and Russia and investigate universities there. His interest always seemed to lie more with administration than with teaching. He returned to various positions at Yale before being hired as the president of the University of California as it was getting started. (There is an analysis of the Morrill Act, the government program of land grants for education purposes; both Yale and the University of California made use of such grants.) Although Gilman accomplished a good deal in California, it wasn’t a great fit. (Disgruntled faculty members caused some problems.)

Back in the east, in Baltimore, the Trustees of the board administering the bequests of railroad tycoon Johns Hopkins were tasked with founding a new university. They took their responsibility seriously. Interviewing other educators and university presidents provided the unanimous recommendation of Gilman to head up this new endeavor. Gilman was promised almost complete control over building a true research-oriented university from the ground up. It was an opportunity he couldn’t resist.

This new biography delves into the nitty-gritty of Gilman’s process, the vision he had and the men he hired to bring his vision to life. It goes beyond the founding of Johns Hopkins. Gilman had his finger in many pies, all related to education.

It’s not an adventure-filled story, or even one rife with conflict, but it does bring notice back to the life of this remarkable man. It also shows the reader something of the state of higher education in the mid-to-late eighteen hundreds and the central role of Johns Hopkins University as a premier example of what academic research could become in the U.S.

BOOK REVIEW: The Women by Kristin Hannah

I finally read The Women by Kristin Hannah, an homage to the women who served in Vietnam. It reads fairly quickly despite its length.

It’s 1966, and Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a sheltered, innocent California girl, a “good girl,” whose parents’ plans for her are marriage, motherhood, country clubs, and maybe some volunteer work. She has an older brother, and is devoted to him. In keeping with the family expectations, he volunteers to go to Vietnam. Missing him, and wanting to get the same respect from her father that her brother gets, she signs up to be an army nurse. Her parents aren’t proud; they’re horrified.

Frankie is 20 years old and, although she has a nursing degree, she has no experience to speak of. When she arrives in Vietnam, it is to a baptism by fire. Fortunately, with the support and camaraderie of the staff there, especially two fellow nurses, she learns quickly and is soon a superbly competent surgical trauma nurse.

The harsh realities of life (and death) in Vietnam are fully explored, and are contrasted starkly with goings-on back home that Frankie learns about in letters from her mother. In country, Frankie falls in love, enjoys occasional respites with colleagues, learns to smoke and drink, and makes lifelong friends. But she also experiences the trauma and horrors of Vietnam. They are not spared the bombings and, if they venture away from camp, the threat of snipers or ambush. This part of the novel is like M*A*S*H, but in Vietnam, not Korea, seen through women’s eyes, not men’s, and without the humor.

The first part was a wrenching read, but captivating.

At the halfway mark, Frankie’s tour is done and she ships home. She arrives to a U.S.A. that has grown vehemently anti-war and anti-soldier. Her parents won’t speak of the war. It is made very clear to her that she should be ashamed of having been there. And when she reaches out for help for what we would now recognize as PTSD, she is told over and over that there were no women in Vietnam and that she doesn’t deserve resources reserved for combat veterans.

The second half of the book reads as a history lesson, as Frankie is traumatized again and again, suffering everything that nurses and returning veterans are known to have suffered and then some, until it began to feel like a checklist that needed to be completed. The plot twists were a bit too predictable. And the concluding chapters felt too preachy – even though I agree with the sermon that was preached.

So overall, I have mixed feelings about this book. The first half was riveting. The second half seemed to have an important message, but the plotting felt a bit contrived as it worked to deliver that message.