Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Burial Rites

by

Hannah Kent

As soon as I finished this novel I wanted to stop and write the review right away while I still felt the weight of it.  It is the story of a woman condemned to be executed for the murder of the man she worked for.  Burial Rites takes place in the early 1800s in Iceland.  It is a dark story but the historical accuracy is spot on.  I really enjoyed the descriptions of the care of the animals, the housekeeping tasks of the women, the descriptions of harvest, and the clear picture it gave of the way every bit of an animal was used at slaughter.  This book will stay with me and those that don't read it are missing out.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information.  And follow the link below to a YouTube video where the author discusses the book.  

Click HERE for the video.  

 

Later by Stephen King

 

Later 

by

Stephen King 

I was snuggled down in a cabin near Red River Gorge, Kentucky this week when I finished up Later by Stephen King.  It is a book about a kid who can see dead people.  Eventually one of the dead people does haunt him.   Although it is scary, it is also hilarious.  The protagonist is a very quirky kid and he is just a hoot. I never thought I would belly laugh my way through a Stephen King novel but this one was really funny.  I was entertained and would really recommend it for this time of year. It is suitable for younger readers too.   Please click on the authors name and book title above to follow the links to more information.  And click on the link below to watch a video of the author talking about his book.  

VIDEO.  

Six Years by Harlan Coben

Six Years

by

Harlan Coben 

A complete switch from my normal genre of historical fiction, I flew through Harlan Coben's novel Six Years.  In keeping with his other books, it is mystery genre.  It is also a love story.  As with most mystery books I had a good deal of the ending figured out early on.  But, to this author's credit, I did not put it all together till the  reveal at the end.  I will say the ending to the romance part of the story was a bit trite and I did not feel it was realistic.  But it was a happy ending.  It was a book that sucked me in and kept me reading.  I will definitely read more of this author when I want a historical fiction break and I also want to check out some of  his television series. Be sure to click on the author's name and book title above for more information and the link to the video below to watch the author introduce this novel.  

VIDEO.  

 

At The Edge Of The Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

At The Edge Of The Orchard

by

Tracy Chevalier

Although I enjoyed the premise of this book as it related to the giant sequoias in California and the apple orchards in New England and frontier Ohio, I did not enjoy the descriptions of abuse surrounding the frontier family in the novel.  Sadie Goodenough was a mean woman who was an alcoholic.  She was abusive to her children and to her husband.   James Goodenough was a tragic figure.  Although he had some redeeming qualities,  he also beat his wife and children.  The home they were trying to salvage from the swamps of Northeast Ohio was not a safe refuge.  Neither parent were characters that I could begin to like.   The author does salvage the book by making their son Robert and their daughter Martha very likable characters.  And, as mentioned at the beginning of this review,  the trees made the book something very special.  I am not sure I would recommend the book to others but I did enjoy sections of it.  Please click on the book title and the author's name above to follow the links to more information.  And click on the link below to watch three videos of interesting topics related to the book.  

Click HERE to learn about sequoias. 

Click HERE to learn about the apples cherished by the Goodenough family.  

Click HERE to learn about Johnny Appleseed and the source of Sadie Goodenough's addiction.  

 

A Secret History Of Witches by Louisa Morgan

 

A Secret History Of Witches

by

Louisa Morgan

In keeping with the Halloween season I chose to read this book A Secret History Of Witches by Louisa Morgan.  It is a book about a family linage and a way of life passed down from mother to daughter through several generations.  The time frame of the story begins in the early 1800s and proceeds through the end of WWII.   I would classify this book as historical fantasy.  And I did not feel like it stereotyped the Romani people or the more nomadic Romani people known as gypsies because there were examples in the novel of Romani people who were not fans of fortune telling or casting spells.  I enjoyed the book and it held my interest.  It was not a hard read.  The parts where people were pursued by witch hunters and people held prejudices against groups of women were tragic.  The description of mother/daughter relationships and loyalties were heartwarming at times and pulled at my heartstrings at other times.   I recommend this book as a good choice for the halloween season.  Please click on the book title and author's name above for more information.  And follow the link below for the historical context of the last few chapters of the book.  

VIDEO

The Fifth Of March by Ann Rinaldi

 

The Fifth Of March

by

Ann Rinaldi

 

The Boston Massacre is taught in every American classroom that is studying the American Revolution.  This novel by Ann Rinaldi is the story of the Boston Massacre told through the eyes of a teenaged girl who is an indentured servant for John and Abigail Adams.  The Fifth Of March demonstrates how friendships and family relationships are strained as citizens line up on each side of the issues if that time.  People chose to stay British Americans or become Plain American. This book is a Young Adult novel.  It would be a great book to read aloud as a family, especially if traveling to the eastern part of the United States to visit the various revolutionary historic sites.  It would be an excellent book for a student to do a book report on who is studying the revolutionary war in their classes.  In many ways it is a coming of age story.  The protagonist, Rachel Marsh, grows up a great deal during the novel.  She learns to think of others and not only of herself.  It doesn't have a typical happy ending.  Many things are still not resolved at the end of the book.  It is an easy read and one that every American citizen should read.  It was written in 1993 so was not available when I was in school.  I am glad that I have read it now.  Please click on the book title above to follow the links to more information.  And click on the link below to watch a video.  

VIDEO

  .  

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

 

Hester

by

Laurie Lico Albanese

Most of us read The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne when we were in school.  I did, years ago, and have forgotten a lot of the story.   In the novel, Hester, by Laurie Lico Albanese,  Hawthorne's story is retold from the perspective of the woman he portrayed wearing the big red letter "A".  A young bride immigrant from Scotland settles in Salem, Massachusetts in the early 1800s.  Not long after their arrival her husband goes back out to sea leaving her alone in her new home.  Isobel Gamble is a seamstress who is especially gifted in the art of Tambour embroidery.  The book flashes back to the 1600s and scenes of the Salem witch trials and the persecution of witches in Scotland and then returns to the main story. It had me at page one.  Don't miss out on this novel.  It is a great October read.  Click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video at the link below.  

Video. 

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

 

The Whistling Season

by

Ivan Doig

Set in Montana in 1910, The Whistling Season is a story of the one room school house.  The novel actually begins in the 1950s during the beginnings of school consolidation.  The superintendent of Montana schools reminisces about his education in a one room school house.  Ivan Doig wrote this book in 2006 and does a good job of capturing life during that time and in that place.  It is the kind of book I would have snuggled up with my kids and read, one chapter at a time, when they were upper elementary aged and could easily be required reading for high school aged students.  Ivan Doig's sentence structure is a little challenging but I easily got accustomed to it and slid into the rhythm of the sentences.  There were words scattered throughout that I did not know.  I read it on my kindle so highlighted these new words as I read for the dictionary meaning to pop up. This is not an exciting, sit on the edge of your seat book.  It is a get comfortable and relax kind of book.  Click on the  book title above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video about the author at the link that follows.  

Watch the video here.  

The Seven Sisters

by

Lucinda Riley

I was complaining to my brother that the wait list for this book was very long on Libby and he graciously sent me a copy in my kindle for my birthday so I was able to read it this week.  It had caught my eye because its premise sounded interesting to me.  It is based on a fictional family of sisters whose adoptive father names them after  the seven sisters constellation.  At the onset of the book the father passes away but leaves each daughter information about their biological parents.  This is a book series where every book covers one of the sister's search for her origins.  The book is a dual timeline novel.  One timeline being the eldest sister looking for her mother and father and the other timeline being the 1920s during her great grandmother's lifetime.  Most of the book takes place in Brazil and tells the story of the coffee plantations and the building of the statue of Christ, which is considered one of the seven modern wonders of the world and is on a mountain top over looking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Two primary love stories also are weaved throughout the novel.  I am now on the wait list on Libby for the second novel in this series.  This book was one that I stayed up late at night reading.  I enjoyed it very much.  Please watch both videos at the links below and click on the book title and author's name above to follow additional links to more information.  

Statue info

Coffee barons info

 

My Name Is

Mary Sutter

by

Robin Oliveira

We got home from vacation and I came down with mild cold symptoms so it was a good excuse to stay curled up with a book.  Therefore  I finished My Name Is Mary Sutter quicker than I normally would have.  This novel is set during the Civil War and is about a young woman who has aspirations to be a surgeon at a time that women were not welcome in medical schools.  She is able to utilize the great need of medical personal during the war to obtain experience and achieve her goals.  She starts in housekeeping at the worst facility in Washington DC and works her way up from there.  The book really explains the horrible conditions soldiers had to endure at the onset of the war when they needed medical care and highlights some progress that was made.  Much of the progress in medical facilities and care occurred after the war was over as a result of the need the Civil War exposed.  Things were really dirty because germs had not been discovered.  Soldiers were drinking out of the same water sources they went to the bathroom and bathed in.  Disease killed more of them than bullets or cannon balls did.  Robin Oliveira did a lot of detailed research in writing this book.  Besides battles and disease there is family dynamics and romance.  The character of Mary Sutter is a very determined and strong willed woman.  The book held my interest and I highly recommend it.  Please watch the video that follows and click on the links above for more information.  

Click Here To Watch The Video.

 

The Great Trouble

by

Deborah Hopkinson

I have not been reading for enjoyment this year.   I slipped away from my bedtime reading routine and the months flew by with no books enjoyed.  I decided to remedy that and chose an easy book to start.  The Great Trouble by Deborah Hopkinson is the sort of book I would have read to my kids when they were in grade school.  We would call them chapter books.   Or a youngster in the  upper elementary and middle school grades could easily read at this level.  It was a fun quick read.  It also is in my interest area.  It is a historical novel which is my genre and it covers medical history which always appeals to me since I am a retired RN.  The story takes place in London during the 1854 Cholera outbreak.  It explains how it was discovered that the disease was water borne instead of airborne and the process used to determine that.  It would be a great novel to teach kids about the scientific process.  The basic story of Dr John Snow and his work is true but the kids who help him with the scientific process are fiction.  Please take the time to watch the video below and click on the links above to learn more.  

Click here to watch video. 

 

Cardiac Cowboys Podcast

 

Cardiac Cowboys

A Podcast

A friend from my Tai Chi class, who is also a retired nurse, recommended the podcast Cardiac Cowboys to me and I have been recommending it to anyone I know who enjoys podcasts.  For those that prefer reading, it is based on the book of the same name by Dr. Gerald Imber. This podcast was especially interesting to me since I had open heart surgery in May of 2025.  My mitral valve was replaced with a pig valve along with a couple other repairs.  If it had not been for the doctors and patients who are featured in this podcast I would be in heart failure at this time instead of listening to the podcast during my afternoon walks.  This is a very entertaining podcast.  I highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest in medical history.  It is one season and seven episodes long.  I was sorry when I was done listening to it that there were not more episodes.  But there were two television shows mentioned in the series.  One is a movie, which I watched and enjoyed.   The other is a series and I have only watched the first episode but it promises to be a good series.  Below find the trailer for both those television shows and click on the the two parts of the title above to follow links to more information about the podcast.  If you don't listen to this podcast or whatch these shows you are missing out.  

Movie

 

TV Series 

Hawaii by James A Michener

 

Hawaii

by

James A. Michener

The historical fiction novel Hawaii by James A. Michener is a very long book.  It takes a commitment to get through it with only one renewal on Libby (the library ebook app allows one renewal).  But it is very much worth reading.  I had read his book Alaska prior to our trip to Alaska in 2024 and had regretted not reading Hawaii before our trip to Hawaii the year before.  But since I am returning to Hawaii for a shorter trip next month, I decided to not miss the opportunity again.  I was a little disappointed that Michener jumped from when the Polynesians arrived on the islands to when the missionaries arrived.  I would have liked to dig more into the history of the original inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands.  But I have to admit the book was long enough.  The reader will need to look for another book about the earlier history of Hawaii.  The interesting thing about this particular historical novel is that it delves into the race relations of the various ethnic groups on the island.  There were several groups.  The Polynesian people that first arrived are considered Hawaiian.  The missionaries that came in the early to mid 1800s and proceeded to destroy the Hawaiin culture and take over control of the islands for more than one hundred years.  The Chinese, Japanese and Philippine people who were  brought to Hawaii by the descendants of the missionaries to be migrant workers in sugar cane and pineapple fields.  Michener brings into the story health crisis' such as plague and Hansen's disease.  And he weaves in the story the financial fabric that maintained the social hierarchy of the area.  Which used control of the land much like the feudal system in England centuries before.  There is a lot of meat to discuss in this book.  The only short coming I see is that it leaves out  the Hawaiian's history.  Please click on the author's name above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows. 

 

The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini

The Quilter's Apprentice

by

Jennifer Chiaverini

Another book by Jennifer Chiaverini was gifted to me.  This time by my sister in law.  She sent a signed edition of the first book in the Elm Creek Quilter's series: The Quilter's Apprentice.  As with the other book by Jennifer Chiaverini that  I recently read it is a clean cut delightful story of the relationships that women struggle with between family and friends and those that can develop among women who quilt.  This is also the story of the founding of the artist colony that becomes Elm's Creek Quilts which is the basis of the entire series.  The author weaves a story of family history, a story of the history of a home, and the story of a community from immigration, through the Second World War and into the mid 1990s.  I am sure that I will eventually finish this series.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  Although the video features another book in the series, the author also explains the series in general.  

 

The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd

 

The Indigo Girl

by

Natasha Boyd

The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd is a book I really enjoyed about a young teenaged girl who lives in the early 1700s in South Carolina.   She is running her father's plantations while he is fighting the Spanish for the English crown and decides they need a new cash crop.  She chooses to pursue growing and producing indigo even though others say it can be done.  After several false starts she is successful. A true historical figure in South Carolina's history  is really brought to life in this historical novel.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the  links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows.  

Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide 1800-1960 by Eileen Jahnke Trestain

Dating Fabrics

A Color Guide

1800-1960

by

Eileen Jahnke Trestain

Seven weeks ago, when I arrived home to begin my recovery from open heart surgery I found a package had arrived from a friend.  She had enclosed a couple of books.  One was Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide 1800 - 1960 by Eileen Jahnke Trestain.   It is a little over 200 pages and many of those pages are pictures of fabric swatches that represent examples of the various time periods. The author makes it clear how inventions such as the cotton gin and the domestic sewing machine provide earmarks for dating.  And current events, such as the death of Queen Victoria's husband, which loosely coincided with the rise of the number of civil war widows in the United States, influenced the color palates of a generation.   The development of science in relation to making fabric die is one factor to keep in mind when dating fabric.  Since I have had several old family quilts come in to my possession in recent years this is a subject that interests me.  Eileen Trestain has organized this book well and it will be a great reference book for me to utilize.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links for more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

Empire Falls by Charlie Russo

 

Empire Falls

by

Richard Russo

Empire Falls by Richard Russo is a novel that is not terribly long and I checked it out on my kindle app from the library.  The fact that I had to renew it says a lot for how much I felt lukewarm about it while reading it.  I will say it got better at the end.  The chapters that lead up to the school shooting and the chapter where the shooting occurred did hold my interest.  In fact the second half of the book was good.  I understand the first half of the book was spent developing characters.   But somehow it just came off gossipy to me.  I am glad I hung in there though because over all it is a good book.  It is the story of several individuals that live in a small town in Maine where industry has left and very little is left as far as opportunities for those that remain.  There are people who lie, people who have affairs, and people who are just discouraged.  The people in the town are trapped in their lives and they all want things to somehow change for them.  It isn't really my genre.  But over all it is a good book.  It was a best seller and they made a movie out of it.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the link to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

Living The Life Of A Fabric-aholic by Sandy Gervais

 

Living The Life

Of A

Fabric-aholic

by

SANDY GERVAIS

This book is a little short story that is colorfully illustrated and meant to cheer up and poke fun at over spending on fabric.  Some quilters get carried away with their fabric purchases. It is easy to accumulate quite a bit and not realize what all you have.   A couple days after I got home from Cleveland Clinic a package arrived in the mail.  My brother and sister in law had sent it.  Included was a darling hand made pillow case in which the fabric had frogs wearing scrub suits and a Sandy Gervais's book, Living The Life Of A Fabric-aholic.  It took me less than thirty minutes to read the book and was good for several chuckles.  It is a thoughtful gift book to give to your quilter friends.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows.  The video is a bit long but is an interview of the author explaining how she develops her fabric lines.  

Circle of Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini

 

Circle of Quilters

by

Jennifer Chiaverini

When I arrived home from Cleveland Clinic following my open heart mitral valve surgery last week, a package was waiting on me.  A good friend since childhood had sent me a couple of books to read during my convalescence.  One of the books she sent was a novel named Circle of Quilters from a series by Jennifer Chiaverini called the Elm Creek quilts.  While it is a different genre than I normally read, I found it a very refreshing story.  Elm Creek Quilts is a fictional quilt retreat center outside of Pittsburgh where people come and stay and take classes.  Staying several days they gather and chat while they sew.  Ideas are exchanged and it is a popular spot for quilters.  In this particular novel of the series the quilt retreat is losing two staff members and the board is interviewing for their replacement.  The stories of five of the applicants are included in the book with each of the five sections concluding with their interview.  The last chapter reveals who was selected and why.  It was a fun read and a quick read.  I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun book. Please click on the author's name and book title above and enjoy the video that follows.  The video is about another book in the Elm Creek Quilts series but talks some about Chiaverini's writing in general.  

The Stolen Lady by Laura Morelli

 

The Stolen Lady

by

Laura Morelli

I finished reading The Stolen Lady by Laura Morelli late on the 14 of this month in a VRBO in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.  It is now ten days later and I feel well enough to write the book review.  Open heart mitral valve surgery is accompanied by a substantial recovery period.  I am just beginning my convalescence after my 5/15 surgery. The Stolen Lady has three story lines, all of which are good reads.  One of the story lines is the story of Leonardo De Vinci during the time that he was painting Lisa.  I did not realize he was so unreliable.  He ended up leaving the painting to the king of France to hang in the royal bath house upon his death.  Lisa's husband, who hired Leonardo to paint her, never got to own the painting.  Another of the story lines followed the woman who was Lisa's personal maid. It was rooted in the political history of Florence during that time frame and some of the core religious beliefs related to those political powers.  Also included are the details of Lisa's depression which was rooted in her loss of two infants.  Although she did have other children who grew to adulthood, Lisa blamed the rich way her family lived for the loss of the two children which she lost.  Leonardo De Vinci worked hard to draw Lisa out of sadness and did manage to capture her eventual smile.  The third story line of the book takes place during WWII and follows the story of an archivist who works at the Louvre.  She travels with the Mona Lisa and other works of art throughout the war to hide the art in various places of the free zone.  Eventually she ends up working with the resistance.  I enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows.