May 31

Wolf Hollow (2016)
By Lauren Wolk

Written from the perspective of a 12-year-old girl, this moving story relates the decisions a child makes (to speak up or not) and the consequences those decisions may have.  Annabelle lives in a rural western Pennsylvania town some time in the late 1940s.  All is quiet and peaceful until a new girl, Betty, moves in with her grandmother and decides to pick on Annabelle.  When Annabelle stands up to Betty's attacks, Annabelle disappears.

Meanwhile a disheveled, disoriented WWI vet named Toby is living in a shack out of town, suffering from (what we now call) PTSD. When more attacks are reported, the townspeople suspect Toby - when in fact it is Betty who has carried them out.  Annabelle seeks more information, but fails to share what she knows.  (Who's going to believe a kid?)

This was a well-written young adult novel and realistic in that it did not have a predictable nor happy ending.

May 30

A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) - Part 1

By Amor Towles

This captivating story begins in Moscow in 1922 when Count Alexander Rostov is tried by a Bolshevik tribunal and found to be an unrepentant nobleman.  Only 30 years old, the Count, accustomed to luxury, is sentenced to house arrest at the Hotel Metropol.  While the hotel still boasts all the amenities (2 restaurants, barbershop, etc) and the Count has a fortune concealed in his furniture, he is still confined to very small quarters while the world around him changes dramatically. Fortunately, the hotel is peopled by colorful guests, including 9-year-old Nina Kulikova, daughter of a Ukrainian bureaucrat living at the hotel.  Nina takes an interest in the Count, sharing tea times and asking him countless questions like, what it takes to be a princess.  The count's responses to Nina's queries provide solid guidelines on how to live in a civilized society, e.g. why to respect one's elders:

"A new generation owes a measure of thanks to every member of the previous generation.  Our elders planted fields and fought in wars, they advanced the arts and sciences, and generally made sacrifices on our behalf".

On another topic, "a princess would be raised to say 'please' when she asked for cake and 'thank you' when she was offered one" - even if she did not request the cake in the first place.

Additionally, the author's description of various dishes (e.g., the Latvian stew on Christmas eve, with "the onions thoroughly caramelized, the pork slowly braised, and the apricots briefly stewed") made my mouth water.

Nearly halfway through (and 8 years into the Count's house arrest at the hotel) the book seems to be a series of vignettes about manners and civility in a world that is quickly losing them.  More to come...

May 29

Country of the Pointed Firs (1927)

By Sarah One Jewett

Regional writer Jewett fondly relates summers spent at Dunnet's Landing on the coast of Maine.  While Dunnet's Landing is a fictional place, it is obviously based on a real town, or perhaps a compilation of towns, that Jewett knew and cherished.  These chapters, first published serially in Atlantic Monthly, recall the people and lifestyle of a coastal Maine of an earlier time.  The narrator (probably Jewett herself) arrives at the home of her landlady, a kindly widow who has offered room and board for the summer.  The narrator grows to love this capable woman, along with the landlady's brother and mother, as they spend time together in conversation, meals, and exploring land and water.   While the narrator initially sought a quiet place where she could write in solitude, it's clear that she also cherishes these new friends in her life.  Published nearly a century ago, the writing and characterizations feel a bit outdated; yet that is part of its appeal as Jewett describes the quiet Maine coast before all the tourists arrived.

May 28: Memorial Day

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education
By Craig Mullaney

Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" ends with the following stanza:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
 Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
 If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
 With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
 And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Craig Mullaney takes his title from the poem in this really well-written story of a West Point cadet's education, first at Bishop Hendricken High School in RI, then at West Point, then in the army's prestigious Ranger School, then as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.  When 9/11 breaks forth during his Oxford years, Craig's fate is sealed and he heads to Afghanistan where his platoon is caught in a firefight with Al Qaeda fighters.  While his short stint is successful, a soldier dies during his watch.  Even though the soldier is not in his unit at the time, it is wrenching to read of Craig's remorse and sense of loss and failure.  This memoir serves as an eye-opening window into what it takes to become a soldier and a leader of men. Craig's personal goals and family experiences are interwoven with the story and, in that sense, becomes an experience most of us can identify with.

As the soldier is from Rhode Island, the book spoke of many familiar places.

May 27

What's So Amazing About Grace? (1997)
By Philip Yancey

In our relationships with most other people, we need to earn their love through our actions or words.  Grace, on the other hand, is God's love, which cannot be earned but rather is given to us unconditionally.  Philip Yancey gives many examples of people who, like God, have chosen to forgive rather than judge.  This is a good message for me.   Yancey especially comes down hard on the legalists and those who use religion to assert political agendas.

In a relevant and recent interview, Yancey comments on the evangelical community embracing a president whose personal behavior is so contrary to the words of Jesus.  Yet he reminds us that we should pray for the president.  That's grace.

May 26

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memory in Books (2003)
By Azar Nafizi

Dr Nafizi was raised in Iran, at a time when women were free to attend school, free to work, free to dress as they chose.  After being educated abroad, she returned to Iran, shortly after the Iranian Revolution, and took a position teaching English at Tehran University.  She eventually left her position over her refusal to don the veil.  But she invites her students (all female - men are taught separately) to meet weekly (and secretly) to discuss literature. The students eagerly flock to Dr Nafazi's apartment, where they doff their veils, sip coffee, and discuss the likes of Nabokov, Austin, James, and Fitzgerald (among others).  Meanwhile the Iranian regime becomes more totalitarian as sharia law prevails.  While some intellectual women are arrested or even executed for "prostitution", even little girls are targeted, as the authorities at Azar's daughter's school clip off her fingernails, including her fingertips, for showing up at school wearing nail polish.  The lack of women's rights is really outrageous.  While this book is painful to read, it's important to realize that women in some countries are being treated worse than animals, and that they need the support, prayers, and encouragement of women and men from democratic countries - and let's work to keep our own country a place where women have equal opportunities under the law.  Azar herself left Iran a few years before writing this book and is now a US citizen.

May 25

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies of the Republic

By Joseph Ellis

Ellis, author of several other titles on the founding of the US, looks at critical decisions made by the four chief founders (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison) from 1776-1804.  They were incredibly wise and successful in setting up the new republic.  Some decisions, however, would lead to an inevitable civil war and decimation of Native Americans and their lands - specifically, the failure to address the issue of slavery in both existing states and new/to-be states - and - the failure to protect Indian lands.  Ellis alludes to the omission of providing for women's suffrage as well, but does not delve into the issues or consequences.  Still, these four men - with John Adams being the only New Englander among a troika of "southern planters" - faced a huge task, perhaps chiefly, at least initially, to unify a group of states whose citizens were more loyal to state than to nation.  Ellis goes into considerable detail in describing the war, especially the period at Valley Forge, and the period of setting up the new republic.  This is a good, readable history of the founders and the US Federal period.

May 24

Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women who are Transforming the Arab World (2016)
By Katherine Zoepf

Zoepf is a young reporter covering women's issues in Middle Eastern countries, especially Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.  While it's encouraging to hear that more Arab women now attend universities than men it's still hard to understand why women are blamed for all of men's sexual indiscretions.  One acquaintance of Zoepf went so far as to justify covering her hair so it would not incite pedophilia against a child.  There are beginning to be female women's rights activities but, even so, navigating their way through the mazes of voting rights, driving rights (Saudi Arabia) and, more importantly, laws against honor killing - is complicated by women's adherence to what they see as religious rules, though some of these anti-women laws predate the founding of Islam.  For westerners wishing to intervene, it's helpful to note the complexities of women's adherence to the faith while trying to move more towards an equitable status (in some countries, women are not considered adults and must obtain a guardian's permission to visit friend, work, travel, etc); the guardian would be a father, husband or son age 12 or older.  While Zoepf's experiences may not be universal (these are accounts of her own experiences and observations), this book is nevertheless a helpful - and hopeful - look at women in several Muslim countries.

May 23

Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010
By Charles Murray

I didn't actually finish this book when I read it back in 2012, not because it wasn't interesting reading, but because it was a new book at the time and couldn't be renewed - and I just never got back to it.  The book, however, was cited as a "must-read" by an interviewed author in a recent NY Times Book Review - wish I could remember the interviewed author's name😐 - and the book seemed relevant at the time I read it.  Maybe it is even more relevant today?

Why has the US changed over the last 50 years (~1960-2010) from a nation of innovators and law-abiding citizens to a lazy, crime-ridden country on the verge of failure?  [asks the author]  Murray looks at two different sets of criteria in white America during this period:

1) the increasing class structure (isolation of the over-educated elite "class" and the marginalizing of the increasingly poorer "class"), and
2) the 4 conditions necessary to self-govern (vs dictatorship or military/royal led society): honesty, strong work ethic, marriage, religiosity.

Regarding the 4 ideals listed above, the author makes his case that these are the convictions that hold a diverse society together (especially in the face of differences in income and education) but he claims they are crumbling, resulting in greater crime rates, less commitment to work, poor role models for kids.  (The same ideas were echoed in an interview with A T Wall, former long-time director of RI Dept of Corrections, on 9/16/12 [about the same time I was reading this book]).

Considering how divisive our country has become in more recent years - especially on display during the last presidential election - perhaps it's time to finish Charles Murray's book.

May 22

The Chaperone
By Laura Moriarty

Set mostly in 1922, this book does a good job of setting the tone of the era (the jazz age, prohibition, moral code, fashions).  Louise Brooks (the future dancer/movie star) is just 15 years old when she heads to a dance camp in New York City; young Louise needs a chaperone, and Cora Carlisle, a 36-year-old wife and mother has offered to escort her from Kansas to the big city.  Cora has her own agenda for the trip, namely the hope of learning about her birth family.  Cora learns little of her birth circumstances, but grows and changes in all kinds of other ways - as does Louise. This well-written novel features well-drawn characters and touches on issues including sexual abuse, homosexuality, rights of adoptees - but all in a tactful way.

May 21

My Brother, My Enemy

By Madge Harrah

Fourteen-year-old Robert Bradford is caught between 2 worlds: the colonists in Virginia and that of his friends Naokan and Powanah, Susquehannock Indians hated by the colonists, thus the title.  The story takes place in 1676, and Robert returns from a hunting trip to find his family murdered.  At the site, he recognizes an arrow belonging to Naokan, his blood brother.  Robert joins Nathaniel Bacon, whose band was also seeks victory over the Indians.  When Robert leads Bacon's band to find Naokan and his people, Robert learns that Naokan had tried to stop the massacre of the Bradfords and indeed has had his head shaved for having disgraced his tribe by trying to prevent the killing.  But Naokan and his sister have already been captured, also the rest of the story revolves around Robert's efforts to help them escape.  Robert is eventually sentenced to hang for treason (for signing a petition denouncing loyalty to the king) but he is rescued by Naokan at the last minute.  

An author's note confirms the accuracy of this story, accepted as the first attempt by American colonists to gain freedom from England.  Good glossary in back.

This book was the Young Adult Book of the Month back in Feb 1998, and it is a riveting look at early colonial history, but young adult books tend to get weeded from collections and there is only one copy in RI public libraries of this writing.

May 20

In This Mountain

By Jan Karon

Skipping over books 5 and 6 in the Mitford series, In This Mountain finds Father Tim several years into his retirement.  Having spent a few years on Whitecap Island off the NC coast transitioning into retirement, Timothy and Cynthia are happy to return to their beloved Mitford.  Cynthia is having great success in her children's book writing/illustrating career, but Tim, nearing 70, feels unsettled and discontented with his present status.  He neglects his diet and exercise and stops injecting his insulin - with dire results.  Much of the remaining story revolves around Father Tim's recovery.  Meanwhile, the search continues for the missing family members of Dooley Barlow (now studying to be a veterinarian).  

Many familiar characters return, and some minor characters are fleshed out (e.g., barber Joe Ivey and hair stylist Fancy Skinner, jewel thief George Gaynor and bookseller Hope Winchester), while a few new faces surface (e.g., Methodist pastor Millie Tipton).

Through the "years" of getting to know Tim, Cynthia, and the Mitford community, it's easy to see myself and others in these characters.  Their foibles and pitfalls are mine, and their joys and successes are mine to share as well.  Reading these Mitford stores are good for the heart and soul.

May 19

Out to Canaan
By Jan Karon

Book 4 in the series continues with many of the familiar names, and adds a few new characters.  Dooley Barlow, the boy the Kavanaghs have cared for as their own, has returned from school, and they learn more about his four younger siblings and estranged parents.  Mitford has a new retirement home, Hope House, thanks to the generosity of Miss Sadie Baxter, its wealthiest citizen. Pauline Barlow is hired to manage the dining room at Hope House, a significant improvement for Pauline, who has had a hard life, and a step toward being reunited with her children.  Meanwhile a real estate developer wants to buy the Fernbank estate and turn it into a luxury spa, which would certainly change the small-town character of Mitford.  Father Tim himself hints at retiring.

While any one of these books would stand on its own, it's a treat to return to Mitford and its familiar characters, to be encouraged to help one another (as we see over and over again in Mitford), and to be reminded by Father Tim of the prayer that never fails, "thy will be done".

May 18

These High Green Hills
By Jan Karon

Book 3 in the Mitford series find Father Tim and his new wife Cynthia just returned from their honeymoon.  Tim has never been happier and the two relish their time together.  Still, as a long-time bachelor, he finds he must make many adjustments.  His large dog Barnabas can no longer sleep in his room, his recently adopted son Dooley Barlow now has a mother figure in his life and the dynamics of the home are different, Cynthia's decorating style for their home is not what he would have chosen.  Father Tim remains busy with his outreach to his parishioners, as well as others in the town, including another needy teen, Lace Turner, whom he finds digging up ferns (to sell) at Miss Sadie's estate.  One of the funniest stories revolves around his secretary, the ever frustrating Emma Garrett, who gets a computer for the church office.  Surprisingly, she finds she loves all the shortcuts and labor-saving techniques of the computer, and tries to get Father Tim to get with the program, too.  He is less than eager.

Again, the characterizations are wonderful, though this book is not as plot-driven as Light in the Window.

May 17

A Light in the Window
By Jan Karon

In book #2 in the Mitford series, a new neighbor has rented the house next to Father Tim.  Cynthia is a writer of children's books which feature her cat, Violet.   She is single, and around Father Tim's age, but has suffered from a broken relationship (a divorce following a childless marriage).  Although it is clear that Timothy and Cynthia are destined to end up together, life goes on in the small town of Mitford and there is no straight line to the altar.  During their courtship, Father Tim barely tolerates a lengthy visit from his Cousin Meg from "across the pond", he befriends the gruff construction foreman Buck Leeper, and he helps Miss Sadie and Olivia Harper make an important discovery.  Meanwhile he continues to acclimate to becoming a father to young Dooley, the oldest of five children who had been deserted by their parents.

The characters are realistic and their characterizations are warmly presented and developed.

May 16

At Home in Mitford
By Jan Karon

Book 1 in the Mitford series beautifully sets the stage for a series of novels set in a small North Carolina town by introducing the heartwarming (and sometimes cantankerous) characters who populate the fictional town: real people with real problems.

Father Tim Kavanaugh is the 62-year-old priest of the local Episcopal church and he seeks, with the Lord's help, to meet the needs of the many folks who come his way.  While he is a bachelor, he has lots of company, thanks to a large stray dog and a little boy who eventually come to make their home with Father Tim.  He also gets lots of advice from the church secretary Emma Garrett and plenty of good cooking from his young housekeeper, but he finds the advances of a wealthy widowed parishioner a bit more than he can manage.  He maintains warm relationships with the town's other clergymen and the reader can only wish for such a great place to live and raise children - but the author is realistic, too, and there are many people with problems.  Even a small town like Mitford has those who face homelessness and alcoholism.  And Father Tim, a diabetic, is constantly facing the temptations of the sweet desserts that the church ladies bake for their bachelor priest.

I read this novel as an audiobook.  Gifted narrator/actor John McDonough really brings each character to life.

May 15

Emily Goes to Exeter
By Marion Chesney

Call it escapist literature*, but sometimes it's a relief to give one's mind a break from all the bad news and read a book that's fun.  Marion Chesney (pseudonym of the prolific M. C. Beaton) has provided not one but a series of six Traveling Matchmaker novels.

Emily Goes to Exeter is the first in a series about Hannah Pym, a spinster housekeeper who has just inherited a large sum of money from a grateful employer.  She decides to retire and travel the countryside by coach, an unimaginable luxury in her working days.  When her coach becomes snowbound at an inn, she not only manages to get all the passengers working together (against their wills in some cases) to prepare meals, but also creates matches between a lawyer and a widow as well as a traveler named Emily and her ex-fiancee.

These novels are short, and each takes Hannah and a romance-bound young passenger to another destination (e.g., Penelope Goes to Portsmouth, Belinda Goes to Bath, etc).  Watch for lots of fun and a happy ending!

*Escape Literature - Fiction that is designed to take the reader away from real life and provide pleasure, usually with a story that is easy to follow and pleasant to read.  Interpretive Literature, on the other hand, is designed to take the reader deeper into the real world and provoke thought, broadening our awareness of life.

May 14

"Children of the Epidemic"

By Jennifer Egan

New York Times Magazine, May 13, 2018, pp 34-40ff.

Usually I skip right to the NYT Sunday crossword puzzle, but an article in yesterday's magazine about babies born to addicted mothers caught my eye, because the mothers and doctors interviewed were mostly in RI.

Several moms were interviewed for this article, during their pregnancies and after giving birth.  In all cases, the mother was addicted to drugs including heroin and pain killers like Percocet.  The article is not comprehensive in terms of providing a lot of national, or even statewide, statistics on the use of drugs during pregnancy, but it provides a small window into the lives of several women and their experiences with trying to deal with an addiction that could potentially harm their unborn child.  None of the mothers had planned their pregnancies - and certainly none planned to get hooked on strong drugs, but all (at least in this article) wanted to keep their babies and try to get treatments in the hope of producing a healthy child.  The potential risk to newborns is that they might be born with an opioid withdrawal condition known as NAS or neonatal abstinence syndrome.  The good thing is that NAS is treatable, and most babies do not require treatment for long although, as the article warns, long-term effects of NAS (if any) are not known.

All of the women in the article had found support in terms of hospital programs offering methadone or other withdrawal-type drug treatments for mothers as well as monitoring and care for newborns.  Each of the women was also in a relationship with a husband or boyfriend.  A few women had parents who were supportive.  The other piece I'd like to have seen - particularly living in RI - was what kind of community support is available to encourage these young moms and their babies.  The author shared a text message from one mom who wrote that "Too many people dont understand addiction & they are VERY judgmental.  They assume all addicts are horrible human beings, im hoping you are able to open people's minds."


This article can be accessed online.

May 13: Mother's Day!

Every Mother Is a Daughter
By Perri Klass and Sheila Solomon Klass

I heard Perri and Sheila speak at the North American Pym Society Annual Conference, held at Harvard Law School in March 2007.   Both are mothers, both are daughters, both are knitters (the subject of their talk at the Pym meeting), and both are writers.  Perri is also a pediatrician.  And they are both really funny!

Two very gifted writers share their memories; the mom raised in Brooklyn during the Great Depression, and the daughter raised in a New Jersey suburb in the 1960s.  They discuss common mom topics like child rearing, food, work - and they warmly remember husband/father Morton Klass.  Trips to India and Trinidad add interest, but it is the humor and warmth that really shine forth.  I don't know if everyone would find this book of interest, but as a daughter raised in a New Jersey suburb in the 1960s and with a mother raised during the depression, I so identified with this memoir.

May 12

The Glitter and the Gold

By Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan

Ever since we visited Blenheim Palace in 2009, I've been intrigued by Consuelo Vanderbilt.  The only daughter of railroad baron William K Vanderbilt, she was groomed by her mother to be a princess.  Her mother conversed with her in French and forced her to wear a special brace to keep her head erect. As the most eligible young lady of her generation, she was pushed into a loveless marriage by her mother to the cash-strapped Duke of Marlborough.  The Duke received $10M upon their marriage and $2.5M every year thereafter, even in the event of a divorce. Consuelo produced two sons ("an heir and a spare"), but the couple were poorly matched and the marriage did not last.  Consuelo was well-educated, attractive, fashionable, and charitable.  She reached out to her husband's constituents, especially the poor, and founded a hospital to treat casualties of the Great War.  Even after her divorce, she appeared to be loved and respected.  Consuelo eventually met the "gold" in her second husband, Jacques Balsan, whom she first briefly met at age 17 and to whom she was happily married for decades.  The book got bogged down a bit in the accounts of all the Balsans' parties and dinner guests, but Consuelo surely lived an interesting life.

The Wikipedia entry on Consuelo indicate that this book was actually ghostwritten by Stuart Preston. My copy had several missing pages, but I believe the book ends with WW2, and was first published in 1953.

May 11

The Bookseller of Kabul
By Asne Sierstad

Norwegian journalist Asne Seirstad has won awards for her coverage of war-ravaged regions and here she provides an insider's look into an Afghan family and life in war-torn Afghanistan.  She actually moves into the home of Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul, for several months in 2003.  The home is small (only 4 rooms) and the family is large (two wives, five children, and multiple other relatives), but they open their home to Asne and share their lives.  As a bookseller, Khan has been threatened time and again by the Taliban, who have burned his books, interrogated, and even arrested him.  Seirstad notes that life is awful for women, who must submit to men's authority in everything - but then life in Afghanistan is not a whole lot better for men.  We have read about life in the Taliban in newspapers and in novels (e.g., 1000 Splendid Suns, April 20th) and this book bears out the horrors and hardships, but perhaps what makes this story so unique is that a family was willing to welcome a foreign journalist into their home and hearth - and her ability to share their life.

May 10

Four Queens
By Nancy Goldstone

Imagine a family whose 4 daughters all became queens!  Count Raymond Berenger and Countess Beatrice of Provence are not highly prominent royal figures.  They are married in their early teens and their first children (twin boys) die in infancy.  They then have four daughters in the 1220s; they see that the girls are well educated and cultured.  Like their parents, the girls will have their marriages arranged for them.  

Marguerite marries young Louis of France, who will become Louis IX.  When his domineering mother Blanche dies, Marguerite is able to help her somewhat weak husband; he is the Saint Louis of history and legend, thanks to his leading of Crusades to the Holy Land.  

Eleanor marries Henry, who would become King Henry III of England and who was hoping an alliance with Provence would strengthen his power.  She was also an instrumental advisor to her husband.  This was during the time when English kings were still French speakers.

Sanchia marries Richard, younger brother of King Henry of England. While Richard was considered a capable leader, he was only a younger brother and ended up "King of the Romans" (Germany).

Finally, Beatrice marries Charles of Anjou, a younger brother of King Louis IX, who became King of Sicily.


Of course the geography of western Europe was much different from what it is today, with many smaller kingdoms (e.g., Sicily) now part of a united country.

It was encouraging to read of women (from a single family) who wielded influence over their husbands and kingdoms, especially back in the 13th century.  A chart shows the Count and Countess of Provence's family tree.

May 9

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
By Isabel Wilkerson

Told mainly through the experiences of three northbound migrants, these stories reflect the path "colored" people took to escape the Jim Crow South of the first half of the 20th century.  Ida May and her family left Mississippi for Chicago in 1937; George Starling and his wife left the orange groves of Florida for New York City in 1945; and Dr Robert Foster and his family left Louisiana behind to head west to Los Angeles in 1951.  While life in the north and west had its challenges as well as opportunities, still six million black southerners were willing to make that gamble for a better life. This is a lengthy (over 600 pp), really epic story.  It is very well written and actually reads more like a novel than a documentary, and it's interesting to read about the migration that changed the face of America in my lifetime.

May 8

Where We Belong
By Emily Giffin

While most of my favorite novels are classics or seem to be set during World War II, every now and then I find a sweet story set in the present.

Marion has the perfect life - beautiful, fashionable, successful in her job as a TV producer in New York,  and in a relationship with a successful CEO, - until a secret she'd concealed 18 years ago shakes up her perfect world.  In this wonderful story, an 18-year-old adoptee, Kirby, finds her birth parents, and creates huge changes in many lives.  Heartwarming, affirming, beautifully written.

May 7

Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son
By Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez

Despite knowing little about this acting family and being familiar only with the work of Charlie Sheen (the black sheep), I found this a very engaging story - not only for Martin Sheen's (a/k/a Ramon Estevez's) unconventional actor's life, during which he dragged his wife and four kids to every set (whether Rome, the Philippines, Mexico, etc) - but also because of the strong bond between a father and his oldest son.  Their stories aligned nicely and it's clear that each deeply loves and respects the other, even though their paths are different; e.g., Martin, a Roman Catholic, has been married to his wife for over 50 years; Emilio, more a natural philosopher, never married the mother of his two kids.  Father and son used the time of filming Emilio's movie "The Way" (literally, "El Camino" [de Santiago] filmed in their ancestral homeland of Galicia, Spain) as a starting point from which to backtrack.  I watched the film when I had nearly finished the book and it added a helpful dimension.  This book provides a window into the lives of actors; even for those as successful as Sheen and Estevez, the work seems neither glamorous nor easy.  Their story, incorporating so many popular movies and TV programs, also serves as a mirror of American culture over the last half of the 20th century.

May 6

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
By Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

This book opens with the Chinese proverb, "Women hold up half the sky."

NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn have interviewed hundreds of girls and women in the course of their work as journalists and report on stunning gender discrimination including selling women as sex slaves (Cambodia, etc), threatening rape as a tool to control women (Ethiopia, South Africa, etc), disfiguring or killing wives (with acid or kerosene) in order to justify taking a 2nd wife (Pakistan) and killing (or letting die) newborn baby girls (China, Pakistan, India), among other horrible crimes.  But this book is not just about these criminal injustices, but also about ways women have been working together to make a better life for themselves, their children and other women.

Sunitha Krishnan, for example, was a young Indian college graduate, focused on literacy, working to organize poor people in a village when a gang of men opposed her efforts and raped her.  Finding herself the object of discrimination, she decided to focus instead on helping other women stuck in the sex trafficking trade.  Based in Hyderabad, she started rescuing women and girls from brothels, confronted pimps and brothel owners, eventually getting over 1500 (as of the writing of this book in 2009) former prostitutes into rehab and job training programs to help them start new careers.

In Pakistan Mukhtar Mai's little brother Shakur was falsely accused of having sexual relations with a girl (he had actually been raped by male members of a higher-status clan).  As punishment to Shakur's family, Mukhtar was sentenced to be gang-raped by the tribal council.  Instead of committing suicide after this outrageous attack (the usual way for a woman to 'cleanse' her family of shame), Mukhtar got the support of the local imam, reported the crime to the police and, surprisingly, the attackers were arrested and Mukhtar was awarded the equivalent of over $8K in compensation.  Instead of using the money for herself, she opened a school for women.

These are just two of many examples (and both of these women were continuing to face recrimination from men who resented women having rights), but the authors cite many others.  While it is disturbing to read of the mistreatment of women at the hands of evil men, it is encouraging to see that there are a few who have turned their humiliation and rage into something revolutionary.  It is a thoughtfully written account that should motivate all of us to pray and consider what we can do to help women suffering around the globe, and the authors do cite examples of ways Americans can reach out.

May 5

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
By Alexander McCall Smith

This volume is 8th in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and continues the high standards of writing and character development set in the first.  Prolific author McCall Smith brings back his beloved cast of characters: Detective Precious Ramotswe, her mechanic husband J L B Matekoni, and Grace Makutsi (assistant to Mma Ramotswe and who scored a 97% on her exam at the secretarial school).

In this installment, Mma Ramotswe solves a mystery involving a series of patients who have all died in the same hospital bed.  Meanwhile, her husband thinks he would like to solve a case and takes on a client who thinks her husband is cheating on her.  At the same time, Mma Makutsi is thinking she wants a change of career.  Themes of love and forgiveness, ambition and pride are nicely and believable interwoven.  All think they was to be detectives - or something other than their present jobs - and all eventually find satisfaction and redemption.

Alexander McCall Smith is a native of Zimbabwe and worked for a time in Botswana, where this series is set.  He writes with such warmth that it is clear that he loves the nation and people of Botswana.

May 4

Wait for Me! Memoirs

By Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire

Deborah, the youngest member of the famous Mitford sisters (see May 3) marries Andrew Cavendish, the younger brother of the heir to the Dukedom of Devonshire, in 1941.  Meanwhile the heir, William, has married Kathleen "Kit" Kennedy.  When William is killed in action during the war, Andrew is in line to become duke and inherit the family estate, Chatsworth.  When the old duke dies, Deborah finds Chatsworth (not used by the last duke and duchess) in disrepair, with huge inheritance debts to be paid.  Not one to sit idly by, she sells works of art to raise funds to keep and update the vast estate.  She works with estate staff to create a profitable garden, farm, stores, and restaurant, and opens her estate to the public.  (A major renovation to the house was completed this year.)

Deborah's story features delightful vignettes from her life: from her fascinating author sisters to her memories of visits with the Churchills, Kennedys, Queen Elizabeth and other royals to the restoration of Chatsworth, now a thriving enterprise.

May 3

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family

By Mary Lovell

These six sisters, starting with Nancy (b 1904) through Deborah (d 2014), along with a brother who died during wartime, were born into a family of minor peerage parents, who moved into progressively smaller homes (from the Redesdale estate [Batsford] to a London rental).  They bonded with many literary (Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman) and political (Hitler, Mosley, Kennedy) figures, and were related to Winston Churchill.  The sisters came of age at the end of WW1 through the start of WW2.  Their individual sympathies lay with Nazism (Unity, who shot herself when Britain declared war on Germany), Fascism (Diana, who left her aristocrat husband to marry Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists), anti-Fascism (Nancy), and communism (Jessica) - resulting in family disagreements that were never resolved.  (Even the parents split over political differences.)  They were a fascinating family, nearly all of the women publishing successful books (most of which were about their family, although one [The American Way of Death by Jessica] was a scathing look at the costs of American funerals.  Despite their success in the literary and social realm, this family appeared to have no moral underpinnings (e.g., they should know that anti-Semitism is unjustifiable and cruel) and could not hold their family together, though the two youngest sisters, Jessica and Deborah (who was the Duchess of Devonshire), did have strong marriages.  While Lord and Lady Redesdale may have been poor role models as parents, they did raise six very different daughters whose fascinating lives reflect much of the history and culture of England and western Europe for nearly 100 years.

May 2

Babbitt
By Sinclair Lewis

When Lauri Burke and I were putting together a library discussion group on novels published during the prohibition, Babbitt (1922) was a logical choice - plus, it was on my reading bucket list.

Set in the imaginary midwestern city of Zenith, this is the story of a businessman, George Babbitt, who strives to "look good", which involves confirming to many social norms.  He appears to be happily married and a devoted father.  While the story was published too early in the prohibition era to feature any of the crime that came to be associated with the manufacture and stealing of alcohol, the story is still firmly set in its time.  For example, George is thinking of getting a new car, the kind "with windows"; he often spends the night on his sleeping porch, a fixture on many early 20th century houses.  He has a successful real estate business, lives in a nice home, entertains, has a live-in maid - but still feels he can't buck the middle class and yearns for greater status.  He eventually experiences a midlife crisis that causes him to question his middle-class values and experiment with a  more rebellious life style. He ultimately returns, however, to his life of conformity, realizing how much he appreciates his wife and family, although he hints at encouraging his son to try to live a more adventurous life.  While the name "Babbitt" has become synonymous with conformity, his story is typically American, and it's easy for the reader to sympathize with George Babbitt.  It's a well-written chronicle of a bygone era.

In 1930, Lewis won the Nobel Prize in literature for this and other works, the first American to win the prize.

May 1

Miss Garnet's Angel
By Salley Vickers

A strait-laced, recently retired teacher is about to make some changes in her quiet life following the unexpected death of her close friend and flatmate, Harriet.  Julia Garnet impulsively decides to spend 6 weeks in Venice.  There, for the first time in her life, she lets herself care for others, even falling in love for the first time.  She also falls in love with the city and its architecture, and is enchanted by the apocryphal story of Tobit and the Angel, told in a series of panels. She has opportunities to reach out to others and make a difference in their lives in her own twilight years and realizes what she's been missing.  So often, it is when we take ourselves outside of our familiar surroundings that we can feel free to serve, to soar, and to really fulfill our calling.