January 31

Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern Day Slave, An International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together
By Ron Hall and Denver Moore

This is a really sweet, true story of a man who lived as a slave; he was actually a share-cropper (someone who farmed a person's property for the right to live in a shack there) with little formal education, tied to the land until he simply walked away; from there he got into some trouble with the law, finally ending up at a rescue mission in Fort Worth, Texas.  At the mission, he runs into volunteer Deborah Hall and her art dealer husband Ron.  Some unusual relationships are forged and all of their lives changed drastically - for the better - as God gives each one new perspectives and new work to do.  Very good story!

January 30

A Daughter's Tale: The Memoir of Winston and Clementine Churchill's Youngest Child
By Mary Soames

Mary Churchill Soames writes mainly of the war years (1939-1945), but also of her childhood, growing up at Chartwell.  She writes of her father (and all her family) with such warmth that I admire Winston Churchill (considered the greatest Brit of the 20th century) all the more, knowing how little he was loved and regarded by his own father (who had died of syphilis at age 45).  Mary was the last child of Winston and Clementine, born after the death of her sister Marigold.  She served with a gunner's brigade, based mostly in the UK, and often was assigned to accompany her father, who served as Prime Minister through the war.   Like her famous father and grandmother, she also writes well.  After reading of the fascinating but dysfunctional mother of WSC, it's a joy to read his daughter's account.

Mary married Christopher Soames, a military officer and conservative politician in 1947.  She died in 1914 at age 91.

January 29

The Space Between Us
By Thrity Umrigar  

A tale of two women in recent times in Bombay.  Illiterate Bhima, who has lived in the slums her whole life, works for Sera, a recently widowed upper-class woman.  Bhima takes pride in her position as a servant in Sera's lovely apartment that she shares with her pregnant daughter and son-in-law, a place she cleans and polishes.  But although she knows its every corner, she is not allowed to sit on a chair nor eat using the family's dinnerware.  Bhima keeps a box with her own mug and spoon, and when she and Sera take tea together, Bhima squats in the corner of the dining room while Sera sits at the table.  This is not questioned.

Considering their class differences, the women share secrets about their marriages, and truly depend on one another.  Sera helps Bhima's granddaughters with college expenses, what Bhima dreams will lift them out of poverty and prevent Maya from a life of drudgery like her grandmother.  When Maya tells Bhima she is pregnant, all dreams and hopes are dashed.  Once again, her employer helps out; what would they do without Sera and her generous family?

This is a sad story about class and struggle in India that continues today.  Bhima blames her sorry state on lack of eduction.  More than once she was tricked by someone she should not have trusted but didn't know better.  Even this family she loves like her own, a family of status that in turns gives her status; in the end they, too, let her down.

This is a guest posting from Jean Warneke.  Thanks, Sis!

January 28

The Chosen
By Chaim Potok

Set against the backdrop of World War II, this coming-of-age story features two 15-year-old boys who meet at a softball game in their Brooklyn neighborhood.  Reuven's father is a secular scholar.  Danny's is a spiritual leader of a Hasidic tribe.  These two bright teens form an unlikely friendship, but it unfortunately unravels amidst Danny's father's objections to the friendship.    This story centers around religion (at the time of the founding of the nation of Israel), but its themes are universal.  Potok offers an interesting look at the differences between secular and more observant Jews.

This title was featured in a Brooklyn writers book discussion series I co-led with Lauri Burke at the Barrington Public Library.  Each of the writers - Chaim Potok, Pete Hamill, Paule Marshall, Alfred Kazin, and Betty Smith - was an immigrant or the child of an immigrant, and each of their stories reflects the building of bridges to a new world.

January 27

All Souls: A Family Story from Southie
By Michael Patrick MacDonald

Told from the perspective of one of her eleven children, this is the moving true story of a single mom, Helen MacDonald, raising her children (from several different fathers) in a housing project in South Boston.  Michael comes of age in the 1970s as busing and racial riots wreak even more havoc in a neighborhood already rocked by poverty and the crime wave of Whitey Bulger.  Several of Michael's siblings die through violence or drug-related activities.  Amazingly, several of the kids actually attend college and make it out, despite the violence and lack of good parenting.  In one funny episode, Michael and his cousins (from a more middle-class neighborhood) go shopping.  The cousins have a small allowance that they must spend carefully, but Michael has money to burn, as his mother gives him and his siblings from the bounty of her welfare checks.  This is a very good, though tragic, account of survival from the perspective of one of the younger sons who thought Southie was the greatest place in the world.  [Of course, it is now a very desirable neighborhood.  Times change.]

January 26

The Same Sky
By Amanda Eyre Ward

Immigration law, DACA, deportations - these are topics we hear a lot about in today's news, but here's a story that illustrates what it's like to live in a country that's unsafe, and the risks one takes in the hope of finding refuge in the US.

Two parallel stories move along without any apparent connection.  Alice and Jake are a young couple living in Austin, Texas; they run a popular Texas barbecue restaurant, but feel incomplete, as they are unable to have children.  Carla is a young Honduran girl, living by her wits in Tegucigalpa.  She leaves everything she knows for the chance to be reunited with her mother, who works in a chicken fast-food place in Austin.  The road north leads through Guatemala and Mexico where Carla faces horrible dangers. The author visited shelters in Texas and California, and this book reflects some of her research.

January 25: Robert Burns Birthday

Poems and Songs by Robert Burns
Edited by James Barke

Dover edition, 1991, available
for $3.00 from Amazon (96 pp)

or any collection or works by Scotland's national poet

Burns' birthday is a great time to recognize the author not only of "Auld Lang Syne" but of hundreds of poems and songs written during a short lifetime.

Here's a favorite, written in the Scots vernacular.  

To a Louse (on seeing one on a lady's bonnet at church)

Verse 1
Ha! where ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly,
I canna say but ye strunt rarely
  Owre gauze and lace,
Tho' faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
  On sic a place.

Verse 8
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
   An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
  An' ev'n devotion!

I love Burns's "versified" psalms:

The Ninetieth Psalm Versified

I
O Thou, the first, the greatest friend
Of all the human race!
Whose strong right hand has ever been
Their stay and dwelling place!

2
Before the mountains heaved their heads
Beneath Thy forming hand,
Before this ponderous globe itself
Arose at Thy command;

3
That Power, which raised and still upholds
This universal frame,
From countless, unbeginning time
Was ever still the same.

4
Those mighty periods of years,
Which seem to us so vast,
Appear no more before Thy sight
Than yesterday that's past.

5
Thou give'st the word: Thy creature, man,
Is to existence brought;
Again Thou say'st: 'Ye sons of men,
Return ye into nought!'

6
Thou layest them, with all their cares,
In everlasting sleep;
As with a flood Thou take'st them off
With overwhelming sweep.

7
They flourish like the morning flower
In beauty's pride array'd,
But long ere night, cut down, it lies
All wither'd and decay'd.

January 24

Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty
By John Barry

This book should be required reading for every Rhode Islander.  The first third or so of this biography actually follows the careers of statesmen William Coke and Francis Bacon (both influential in the formation of Roger Williams' ideas) during the reigns of James I and Charles I.  Not until one understands the restrictive policies of the puritans can we realize how revolutionary was Williams' concept of freedom of conscience.  He was a highly religious man who search the scriptures in every case, was one of the few colonists to befriend the Narragansetts and learn their language, and fought hard for freedom (including freedom for slaves), making 3 trips back to England to secure the royal charter that finally settled Rhode Islands's rights to self-government.  We also meet historical figures whose names are now associated with towns (Warwick) and streets (Arnold Avenue, Miantonomi Road, etc.) - but the main reward of reading this fairly lengthy book was to appreciate a truly original thinker, ever just, ever faithful, ever true.

January 23

Lilli de Jong
By Janet Benton

It has only been in the last few decades that women who conceive outside of marriage have not faced ostracism and their children not called bastards.  This would not seem so bad if the child's father received equal condemnation: society's scorn, assignment to a home for unwed fathers, fired from his job, or forced to quit school - but that is not the case today and it was not the case in 1880s Philadelphia.

This novel follows a Quaker woman who has just lost her mother, setting in motion an unhappy set of consequences. Within weeks, Lilli's father marries his cousin, who takes a disliking to his children.  Meanwhile, Lili's brother Peter (who works in their father's furniture shop) and the apprentice Johan decide to head west to try their hand at working in the Pittsburgh steel mills.  Johan and Lilli have just become engaged and he promises to write as soon as they have an address.  Several months elapse and not only is there no news from Johan and Peter but Lili discovers she is expecting Johan's child.  Lilli has already been fired from her position as a teacher in a Quaker school due to her father's indiscretions and, when she begins to show, is ordered out of the house by her stepmother.  Lilli is fortunate to find The Haven, a decent facility for "honorable" unwed mothers.  Lilli comes to know other mothers who are also abandoned by the men in their life but, unlike them, Lilli cannot bear to give up her child for adoption - not only because she quickly bonds with her little daughter, but also because she realizes that most babies adopted out in her day are consigned to "baby farms" (where babies are taken in by paid wet nurses) and they rarely survive infancy.  Lilli struggles to find work to support herself and little Charlotte, finding temporary employment as a wet nurse, but then sinking to desperation and willing to do almost anything to keep her daughter.

While Lilli's plight is finally resolved in the end, this novel sheds important light on the options faced by unwed mothers throughout history.  Today, all too many unplanned pregnancies end in abortion.  But for those like Lilli who choose to keep their babies, even if they are unplanned or outside of a relationship, how can we help? For starters, I think I will try to be an encourager. Healthy, happy, well-educated children are in everyone's best interests.

January 22

There is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue her Country's Children
By Melissa Fay Greene

This story about rescuing children is also the story of how the AIDS virus became an epidemic (through infected immunization needles) and how US drug companies profited by selling products developed at public expense back to the tax-paying public, but not to the governments of sub-Saharan Africa because they could not afford to treat their dying patients, including parents and children.  An uplifting story of an Ethiopian widow who found new life in caring for hundred of children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.

January 21

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End  
By Atul Gawande


Gawande, a Boston surgeon, writes a thoughtful book about how we live our lives, up to the end.  He argues for lifestyles that avoid the boredom, loneliness and helplessness that often fill the last days of many elderly or terminally ill individuals.  He describes the ways our bodies "fall apart" either through the wear and tear of aging or through serious illness.  He also laments that fewer doctors are socializing in gerentology than ever before - and that people are living to much older ages - resulting in a graph he terms the rectangularization of survival rather than the triangle of survival (e.g., as many people alive at the older spectrum as at the  younger).  He recommends asking the crucial questions (DNR? Intubate? etc) before the patient is in a position to need them.  Older folks' first priority is not safety (as their children seem to think) but living a worthwhile life - not necessarily living in a place where there's a computer lab or an exercise center or (toward the end) a bed in a shared room where the time they eat, turn off the lights, and go to the bathroom, is dictated by the convenience of staff.  Each situation is different, but by asking the hard questions and the practical questions ("What's most important to you now?" e.g., to die at home, to avoid pain, to live a full life now rather than sacrifice comfort now for chemotherapy/surgery in the hope of prolonging life later), we may make life more meaningful for our loved ones, and ourselves.

I read this book the year before my mother died, and Gawande's ideas and examples of people living independently or living with family (rather than in institutions) made me rethink what I was trying to persuade my mother to do, that is, to live in a facility that would provide safety and social activities.  Mom got her wish, though; she continued to live in her home independently almost until she died (during rehab for a knee replacement).

January 20: The Strand Bookstore

The store at 828 Broadway

Taking a break from book reviewing today to be thankful for bookstores - especially the brick and mortar kind - and recognize their contribution to our lives and knowledge...

Nothing like a bookstore, especially one with a huge selection of used books, to broaden the mind and lighten my spirits.   Wish I'd had a whole day -at least- to devote to The Strand Bookstore in lower Manhattan.  But I had only an hour during a trip to New York City last weekend, so I searched a few old writers of current interest (Robert Burns, Daphne duMaurier) and perused the section on Irish history - plus the wonderful children's department.  I came away with a few slim volumes of poetry and a yearning to get back to visit rare books on the 3rd floor - as well as a deep appreciation for those who value old writers and their works and make them available to us.

This is one of four floors.  Lightweight ladders
are available for climbing to top shelves.

January 19

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo
By Paula Huntley

The war in Bosnia, and later in Kosovo, seems like ancient history, preceded as it was by 9/11 and subsequent wars in the Middle East.  In the fall of 2000, however, the war was fresh news and Paula Huntley accompanies her lawyer husband Ed on a mission to create a new legal system for Kosovo.  Paula quit her job in marketing and sought certification as a TESL instructor in the hope she can do something useful for the Kosovars, who have suffered so much during the period of "ethnic cleansing" of ethnic Albanians by Kosovar Serbs.  Arriving in the capital city of Prishtina, Paula notes in her diary that many of the houses and buildings still lie in ruins, the result of Serb attacks that were only quelled by NATO bombs in the spring of 1999.  Occasional shots and explosions still ring out.  Paula finds a position as an ESL teacher in the Cambridge School, one of many privately owned English language schools.  Her class starts with 9 students, nearly doubling in the next few weeks.  High School students, students in their 20s and 30s, and even a middle-aged physics professor, round out the class.  During the next 8 months, Paula would learn their stories, and record them in her diary: many experiencing the loss of loved ones, homes, and jobs - but all eager to learn.  Early on Paula finds a copy of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, possibly the only copy in the country.  She determines that the language, the book's length, and the story will resonate with her students.  She makes copies for her students and invites them to the first gathering of The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo.  Discussions over Hemingway draw the students even closer together and Paula's life is changed forever.  In her notes, she expresses the hope that her book will somehow help "this poor, struggling non-country".  She adds

It is also my hope that more of us Americans will become involved with the rest of the world.  We need to learn about other people, learn what they think of us, try to understand, even if we don't agree with, their points of view.  Everywhere in the world, I believe, from our own backyards to the middle of the Balkans, there exist people whose needs, and whose generous, responsive hearts, offer even the most ordinary Americans - like me - an opportunity to serve, to connect, to expand our capacity for love.

This book is written entirely in diary entries.  Ms Huntley is neither an author nor a journalist, and her accounts really ring with authenticity and emotion.

That war seems so long ago now, but its aftermath was the subject of a recent Sunday NY Times article.  See World's Eyes on Kosovo Amid Push to Halt War Crimes Court, 1/14/18.

January 18

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

By Katherine Boo

Somehow, despite very difficult circumstances, the residents of Annawadi still manage to have hope.  Journalist Katherine Boo chronicles life in this slum near the Mumbai Airport, where people barely eke out a living, mostly by selling airport garbage to recycling companies.   Though it's a true story, this book reads almost like a Dickens novel, as we meet a cast of colorful characters scrounging for garbage, dealing with dishonest police and politicians, and even trying to get an education.  Families live in connected one-room hovels near a polluted pond where even young children get into the business of trying to earn a few coins. Reminiscent of the movie "Slumdog Millionaire", the community has its own leaders and rules, although the lack of justice is alarming, with few people above accepting bribes or lying. The book's "plot" centers on the false testimony of a handicapped women who immolates herself, then accuses her neighbors of, first, setting her on fire, but then changing her testimony to accuse the neighbors of inciting her to try to take her life.  

With the burgeoning middle class, it's nice though naive to think that these slums are no longer the norm in modern India.  And, actually, by the book's end, it looks like an airport extension project is about to encroach on this particular community, but the reader (at least this reader) gathers that the residents would just find another place to encamp.  

Published over 3 years ago, this book has been an eye opener.   Maybe one day there will be more  young woman like Anju, who aspires to be Annawadi's first college graduate.

Surprisingly, this book was made into a musical, and had a 4-month run at the National Theatre in London, from late 2014 through April 2015.  Despite the tragic subject matter, the characters still evoke a sense of fun and purpose and their beautiful costumes belie their circumstances.

January 17

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

By Jared Diamond

The New York Times Book Review has an author interview section in which the author is asked what one book he or she would recommend the President read.  This book would be one I'd suggest.

Drawing from a number of ancient and more contemporary societies, Jared Diamond synthesizes a list of problems that ultimately led to the demise of a society - mostly problems related to the environment - e.g., too little rainfall, too few trees, too great a population to be supported by existing resources.  But it is our attitudes (mainly passed down from generation to generation and never modified), according to Diamond, that play a significant role in how to deal (or not) with environmental problems.  I came to see partly why Haiti, for example, has been so perpetually bogged down by poverty and misrule, despite decades of intervention and aid.   While the book is depressing because so many societies have already failed (e.g., Easter Island, Greenland's medieval farm society), it's also a wake-up call to do something: write your congressmen, buy food (e.g., fish at Shaw's or Whole Foods) and raw materials (e.g., lumber at Home Depot or Lowe's) at businesses that abide by responsible harvesting guidelines.

January 16

Mary Lincoln's Dressmaker: Elizabeth Keckley's Remarkable Rise from Slave to White House Confidante 
By Becky Rutberg

As an African slave, Lizzie Hobbs suffered through being separated from family members and abuse by a white overseer, but she had a strong, caring mother and she received a rudimentary education including the sewing skills that would provide her livelihood after she bought her freedom.  Lizzie's story is a window into her time on many levels: the experience of a slave gaining freedom, a look at women's fashions of mid-nineteenth century, but also a window into Mary Lincoln's life. As Mrs Lincoln's dressmaker, Lizzie became a friend to a first lady who was temperamental and sharp-tongued but who had suffered great losses.  Sadly, a publisher's indiscretion would lead to the end of that friendship.

Two other books on Elizabeth Keckley have been published more recently: 

Mrs Lincoln's Dressmaker: The Unlikely Friendship of Elizabeth Keckley and Mary Todd Lincoln by Lynda Jones (2009)

Mrs Lincoln's Dressmaker, a novel by Jennifer Chiaverini (2013)

but Rutberg's book, a young adult biography, was the first.

January 15: Martin Luther King Day

Elizabeth and Hazel
By David Margolick

60 years ago, Little Rock's Central High School was integrated by court order.  Nine black students selected for their good scholastic records would be the first to attend the school.  They would enter the school as a group, for moral support, but Elizabeth Eckford never got the message.  Instead, she bravely walked alone toward the school entrance in a new outfit her mother had sewed.  As she made her way along the sidewalk, she was jeered by racists and hecklers and - while she retained her dignity - she was afraid to actually enter the school alone when the 2000 national guardsmen standing by did nothing to stop the demonstrators.  The hecklers' attitude is famously illustrated by the menacing look of Hazel Bryan in Will Counts' iconic photo.  Despite continued heckling and aggression, the nine black students graduate from high school and move away from Little Rock.  Only Elizabeth, despite earning a college degree and serving in the army, has returned to the city that was the site of so much pain - and there she remains.  Hazel, on the other hand, did not finish high school, instead choosing to marry and raise a family.

Having never intended to become a symbol of hate, Hazel later tracks down Elizabeth and calls her to apologize; Elizabeth accepts her apology.  Time goes on, with Elizabeth back in her childhood house, living off (mental) disability payments and bearing two sons, while Hazel raises her family, gets involved with volunteering, becoming especially close to a black unwed mother whom she is helping.  Elizabeth and Hazel, now in their 50's, are brought face to face for the first time to mark the 35th anniversary of LRCHS integration.  Hazel follows up the meeting by inviting Elizabeth to a public garden.  More speaking engagements follow, and more social gatherings.  A friendship is born, and Elizabeth feels confident enough to accept her first job in 20 years.  The black community criticizes Elizabeth for accepting Hazel's apology, and Elizabeth becomes convinced it's a sham apology and starts to rebuff Hazel.  After many refusals, Hazel (who is already tired of the constant cruel remarks she still receives as a result of the photo) gives up on the relationship.  Both women have left the door open - but as of the book's publication (2012), they had not spoken in years. :(

This story is, by turns, tragic - hopeful - sad. This first step at integration (hard to believe that southern schools were actually separated along racial lines in MY lifetime) was painful, and those first nine students were courageous but some paid a price for being the first brave souls to enter a school where, while qualified, they were not welcome.  Let us pray that our country will overcome divisions of race - so arbitrary and so meaningless.

January 14

The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers
By Harry Bernstein

Harry Bernstein's tender memoir recounts his impoverished growing up years in an English mill town in the early 1900s.  His family struggled not only with poverty (he recalls his mother's efforts to earn income by collecting bruised fruits at the fruit vendor's and carefully carving out the brown spots to resell to her neighbors) but also with an erratic and often drunk father, who hurriedly left the house each night with one arm in a coat sleeve but the other sleeve always dangling.

Along Harry's street, Orthodox Jews lived on one side while Gentiles resided on the other.  The two sides never socialized with one another; nor did their children walk to school together - almost as though a wall were built down the middle.  Prejudice and religion (though not the kind of religion that is expressed by love and mercy) affected all relationships in this neighborhood where everyone knew one another.  As England gets involved in the first World War, however, the residents start to work together and to communicate.  Tentative friendships blossom.  The war ends, but all too soon the animosity returns and everyone is the poorer for it.

Harry's beloved older sister, Lily, is a very bright student but is made to leave school to work in her father's tailor shop.  In the midst of all of the intolerance, Lily and her across-the-street Christian neighbor Arthur fall in love, and a small ray of hope appears.  Yes, love can overcome prejudice, but the young couple would face a hard road ahead with little support.

The amazing thing about Harry is that he started this memoir at age 93, and then went on to write two more books!

I'm glad that Harry finally got round to writing this story.  Prejudice and fear can rob us of so much richness and joy that we miss by not getting to know someone who looks (worships, speaks a language, comes from a place) different from us.

January 13

The Dew Breaker
By Edwidge Danticat

This short novel tells of Haitian immigrants who are connected by tragic circumstances in their home country.  While most of the characters came of age when Haiti was ruled by the wicked Papa Doc Duvalier, we meet them, one at a time, in the present, in their adopted home in New York City - starting with a barber who has put down roots in his neighborhood.  As we are introduced to each one, we come to see and understand their plights and feelings, and we find, in the end, a strong connection.  Probably the most important lesson to learn is that immigrants have escaped a past so threatening and unpredictable that we wonder how they manage (if they do) to put it behind them and try to live normal lives in the land of freedom.

I think this is one of those stories that you should read again, and understand it even better.  Ms Danticat was raised in Haiti.

January 12

While We're Far Apart
By Lynn Austin

Set in Brooklyn during World War 2, this warm-hearted story features a 24-year-old woman, Penny, who offers to care for two children when their widowed father goes off to join the war effort in Europe. Penny's selfless act is actually m motivate day her huge crush on the children's father, and she is sure he will fall in love with her as he sees what a capable woman she is.  The kids do not warm to Penny, however, despite her efforts - but at least she is able to get away from her overbearing parents.  What Penny learns about herself is life changing and liberating and she is able to make a meaningful contribution to the children, to their lonely neighbor (Mr Mendel, a Jewish widower who waits for news of his son, who is trapped in Hungary), and a lonely GI based at the Navy yard.

Why is it that war seems to bring out the best in us?  Last week, we had a "bomb cyclone", a very rare kind of winter snowstorm precipitated by very cold temperatures, warmer water over the ocean, and high winds - and resulting in snowfall of 10-14 inches around RI.  I brought homemade soup to my elderly neighbor and my across-the-street neighbor brought over his snow blower and plowed our driveway.  Perhaps it is only when we are in need - not afraid to be needy - that others feel free to care for us in tangible ways.

January 11

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
By Vicki Myron

This precious story is not just about an amazing cat but also about the librarian who took in a sick little kitten left one cold night in a book-drop.  Vicki's tender care revives the kitten she names Dewey, and he soon becomes a beloved staple at the town library.  The author shares many details from her own life, including some serious health problems, and she paints a vivid picture of life (the characters, the caring) in a  heartland (Iowa) farming community.  Life-affirming story for young adults, book clubs, anyone!

January 10

In the Time of the Butterflies

By Julia Alvarez

This novel is an imagined biography, based on extensive research, of three sisters who were assassinated by thugs working for the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ("El Jefe") back in 1960.

The three sisters, Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa, known as "The Butterflies", were opponents of the regime of the cruel dictator.  They are raised in a loving home and stayed close, even as they married and left their parents' home.  All were mothers of young children.  Patria had earned a law degree, although as a woman, was not permitted to practice.  Each tells her story as a first hand account, starting from their early teenage years.  Maria Teresa's account is in the form of her diary.  We hear of their family life, school years, and the ever more brutal realities of life under Trujillo.  On November 25, 1960, the three sisters were returning, with their driver who was also killed, from a visit to their husbands, all of whom were serving prison terms for supposed crimes against Trujillo's regime.  The three were murdered, along with their driver, in a plot that was meant to look like an accident.  But by that time, everyone knew of the Butterflies and their work, and their deaths may have been the last straw among the crimes that in turn provoked the assassination of the cruel dictator the following year.  

This book reimagines the Butterflies' lives and sheds human light on a tragic time by creating a personal connection with the sisters.  Dede, a fourth sister, was not in the car at the time of the assassination, and we hear her perspective, too, including her story of loss.  This book shares an important message, beautifully told.

January 9

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption
By Laura Hillenbrand

Seven years ago, I read a review of Unbroken in the NY Times Book Review. It sounded like a pretty interesting story, so I decided to listen to the audio version while taking a vacation day from work to sew some gifts for Christmas.  I was so taken by this true story of bravery and sacrifice that I finished the whole thing in a day.

In the mid-1930's Louis Zamperini, the son of immigrants in California, became known as the town troublemaker, but eventually he learned to put his considerable energy into running, becoming a member of his school's track team, and eventually qualifying for the US Olympic track team that competed in Berlin in 1936.  After the United States enters the 2nd World War, however, Louie becomes an airman assigned to the Pacific theatre.  In one harrowing event in 1943, his B-24 is shot down and crashes into the ocean.  This is the beginning of what would be a record 47 days on a raft, and only Louie and the pilot, Phil, survive the 7 long weeks in shark-infested waters before their raft.  Just when the men think relief is on the way, they discover they have washed up on the shore of an island with one of the harshest POW camps in Japan.  The men, especially the steadfast Louis, endure 2 years of harsh conditions under the leadership of a brutal, sadistic camp commander whom he calls "The Bird".  Eventually, the war ends, and Louie is rescued, though near death.  When he returns home, he meets and marries the woman of his dreams, but can't make peace with the ordeal he's been through.  Eventually, Cindy brings him to a Billy Graham crusade where he comes to see that the only way to peace is through forgiving his tormentor and receiving God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.  Louie returns to Japan years later, hoping to locate The Bird and tell him he's forgiven, but The Bird will not face Louie.  Still, it is enough for Louie to know he has released the burden of hate and found peace and forgiveness.  This is an amazing, completely victorious story.

Note: Louis published his own story, Devil at My Heels, back in 2003, but it was Hillenbrand's book that really made a sensation.

January 8

Quartet in Autumn
By Barbara Pym

Four lonely people, Edwin, Norman, Letty, and Marcia, are in the "autumn" of their lives, working together in a government office in London.  Although they are polite to one another, none seems to develop any real warmth or relationship for the others - either within or outside of the office. They remain reserved and emotionally distant, cocooned in their idiosyncrasies. Their lives change, however, when the two women retire.  [This is 1970's England, where retirement was mandatory for women at age 60 - they were "made redundant"].  Will any of the individuals climb outside their boxes and reach out to another human being?  Not likely, but Barbara Pym writes tenderly and with restraint of each one.

If you are not familiar with Barbara Pym (1913-1980), it may be because her novels deal with such gentle (and gentile) characters: vicars, church ladies holding jumble sales, and other spinsters and single gentlemen.   Most were written in the 1940's to 1970's.  She is a shrewd observer of human nature and she writes with wry, gentle humor.  There is even a literary society devoted to her writings.

Is there a lonely person out there who needs a friend?

January 7

A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home
By Steve Pemberton

Set mostly in and around New Bedford, an orphaned boy lives through a horrific experience in foster care and finds hope in reading while his social workers miss opportunities to see and report the beatings and abuse to which young Steve is continually subjected.  Steve is an outstanding student who sees college as the way out of his "prison".  When his home situation degenerates even further, a helpful teacher from his high school's upward bound program takes him in for the remaining two years of high school.  As a middle school student, Steve had seen a brochure on Boston College  and dreamed of attending one day.  Eventually, his dream would be fulfilled, and he would be on the road to success.  But he still hasn't solved the mystery of his origins.  Who were his parents - and where did his last name (Klacowicz) come from?  The road he travels and the people he meets along the way are fascinating and Steve (now Pemberton - his father's name) is triumphant - a beautiful story of overcoming the odds.

January 6

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Another World War 2 story, but this one is written as an epistolary novel; that is, the story is told only through letters and telegrams.  Britain's Channel Islands were occupied by the German during the war, and thus subject to similar deprivations (e.g., food shortages and loss of freedom) as France (see January 3).  While there was an actual recipe for potato peel pie (something you'd concoct only when you were down to your last food staples), the Society was created by islanders to cope with the difficulties of the war, and became a place where they could exchange information without arousing suspicion by their German occupiers. There is some actual book discussion - and even a little romance. The letter format keeps the story a little "lighter" than some war stories, but the resourcefulness and endurance of the islanders in the face of hardship still shines through in this story of a little-known location of second world war.

January 5

The Book of Proverbs

By King Solomon and others

This book is one of many in the Bible that offers advice for good living.  What better way to start the new year than with the words of wisdom rendered by King Solomon?  I read this book every new year;  it runs only about 25 pages in my translation of the Bible, but I always glean new words of wisdom.  These proverbs address morality, justice, child-rearing, speech, and many other issues.  Here are a few favorites:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding. 

In all your ways acknowledge him, 

and he will make straight your paths. (ch 3, v 5-6)

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,

when it is in your power to do it. (ch 3, v 27)

The vexation of a fool is known at once,

but the prudent ignores an insult. (ch 12, v16)

Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding,

but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. (ch 14, v 29)

Whoever ignores instruction despises himself,

but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. (ch 15, v 32)

If one gives an answer before he hears,

it is his folly and shame. (ch 18, v 13)

Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth,
or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty. (ch 22, v 16)

By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;
by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. (ch 24, v 3,4)

Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own

is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. (ch 26, v 17)

Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity
than a rich man who is crooked in his ways (ch 28, v 6)

Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor
than he who flatters with his tongue (ch 28, v 23)

I could go on and on, especially as some of these verses have great relevance for our present circumstances.  The Lord surely answered King Solomon's prayer for wisdom (2 Chronicles 1:7-13).

January 4

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
By J. D. Vance

This memoir recounts the upbringing of a young man from the "hillbilly" culture of western Kentucky.  Vance gives a window into the mindset and social history of a people who toiled for years in some of the toughest jobs (coal mining and small farming) before being recruited by the truckload to work in blue collar industries in Ohio, where they made good wages and aspired to middle-class living.  When these industries faltered and became the rust belt, many folks faltered along with their work, resisting the chance to learn new skills, preferring to blame the government and often turning to drugs and alcohol.  J.D.'s mother was probably somewhat exceptional, having had at least five husbands and a slew of live-in boyfriends, leaving J.D. and his sister in a state of constant upheaval.  Thankfully, J.D. moves in with his grandmother "Mamaw" for the last three years of high school, and he thrives, while also discovering that not all families live like his, with the constant fighting and uncertainty.  After high school, J.D. joins the Marines, goes on to college, then to law school.  I found this book very helpful in gaining some measure of understanding of the political divide of 2016-17, having been written with the authenticity of someone who was raised inside of the rust belt culture.

January 3

The Nightingale
By Kristin Hannah

I'm a big fan of WW2 stories (my dad served as a Navy pilot in the war), and this well-written novel probably offers the best insight of any into the reality of life in occupied France.  Two sisters struggle on the French homefront as Nazi soldiers take over their town and even billet in their home.  Vianne tries to maintain a normal home life for her young daughter as she teaches school in the village and awaits letters from her soldier husband.  Her younger sister Isabelle joins the resistance, accepting a dangerous assignment of leading downed pilots to escape across the mountains into Spain (I have read that her character is based on an actual person, Andree de Jongh, but have not seen the documentation on that).  This story refers to the constant food shortages, the blackout curtains that shrouded each house at night, and the constant fear - especially for a family housing a German soldier - really gives a sense of the horrors of war, off the battlefield.  Like most of their compatriots, neither sister lost hope, and each serves as an inspiring example of how to live through hard times.

January 2

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War
by Madeline Albright

Albright served as Secretary of State during the Clinton administration, but it's clear she learned important lessons and gained invaluable experience as a little girl in Europe during the years leading up to, during, and immediately following the second World War.  Born in Prague in 1937, Madeline was raised in a family that valued freedom and democracy.  She spent much of her early years in London, where her journalist father served the Czech government in exile.  After the war, her family was posted to Belgrade, where her father served as ambassador to Yugoslavia.  When a Soviet takeover seemed imminent, Joseph Korbel was able to secure political refugee status and (luckily for us) moved his young family to the US.

Some of the most disturbing events were Hitler's "concern" for the German Czechs living in the Sudetenland (border regions near Germany) and his justification for invading the area to "protect" them - chillingly like Putin's advances into eastern Ukraine - and Madeline's description of life in the model camp Terezin, where many of her Jewish relatives perished.  Highly recommended reading for those who do not want to see history's mistakes repeated and any who are interested in Eastern European history, especially around King Wenceslaus, Jan Hus (a church reformer who predated Luther by over a century but who, unlike Luther, was executed for his  "heretical" beliefs), and the dividing of the European states.

January 1 - Happy New Year!

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

By Daniel James Brown

I had the privilege of working with Marshall Gillette, an 88-year-old WW2 veteran who served with me as a tour guide at the Newport mansions.  Marshall was raised on an island in the Mississippi River; he and his siblings had to row to the mainland to attend schools, see the doctor, shop, or just about anything else that did not revolve around their island farm.  When I asked him what life was like, he said, "Read The Boys in the Boat."

Out of the depths of the Great Depression come nine young men, undergrads at the University of Washington, who set out to qualify for the university rowing team - then go on to win the gold medal at the 1936 olympics.  The story is told mostly through the experience of oarsman Joe Rantz, who survives a childhood of great hardship, including the early death of his mother.  As a result, young Joe grows up pretty much on his own, supporting himself from a young age, putting himself through college, and developing the self-discipline needed to become an effective member of a team.  The author stresses the rigor seeming to affect every muscle of the body, the demanding practice schedule, often in inclement weather, and the importance of working as a team.  He also highly credits the coach (Al Ulbrickson) and the designer of the boats (George Pocock) as essential elements in the team's success.  The Washington oarsmen successfully take on skilled teams on both coasts (including Univ of California and Princeton) to represent the United States in Berlin.  But their crowning moment comes when they defeat Hitler's well-financed and storied German team in Berlin.