I usually don’t post my own writing here but last night, I had a migraine and when those hit, I try to do some deep breathing exercises to keep myself from vomiting or crying with the pain and nausea. My husband has been ill since before Halloween and spent 13 days in the hospital after spending two weeks unable to get out of his recliner. He came home Sunday night and is still so weak, it’s scary to see him. Of course, this all triggered my migraine.
As I lay there doing my deep breathing, I suddenly found myself chanting (inner monologue) Pizza, Pasta, and Spaghettios. As I waited for my meds to kick in, this little story came to me and so I thought I’d share it. So, here it is, my 2:30 am little ditty.
Pizza, Pasta, and Spaghettios
From the moment the door to DiMaggio’s Pizza Parlor opened and she strolled in, he knew he was going to marry her someday. When she walked over to the old fashioned juke box, he thrust his pool cue toward his best friend, the college quarterback, and told him to finish the game.
He took coins from his pocket and asked her what song she wanted to play. From that day forward, they were together and spent many an evening having pizza at DiMaggio’s and playing that song they loved. Their song.
When they both became professionals and paid off their student loans, with their new found financial ability to treat themselves, they experimented with pasta. Carbonara, shrimp scampi on angel hair, penne ala vodka, and clams with linguine. They chose pasta over pizza for a number of years.
When the children came, the fancy pasta took a back seat to spaghettios. They didn’t mind as the kids loved them and they were happy to see them eat a semblance of their favorite Italian cuisine.
When the children were older, DiMaggio’s became a favorite place again as the kids found their love of various flavors of pizza there. Cheese to start and moving on to pepperoni, but as their palates became more sophisticated, they ventured into mushrooms, peppers, and even anchovies on occasion.
With the children grown, married and on their own, he and she returned to their fancy pasta. Carbonara, shrimp scampi on angel hair, penne ala vodka, and clams with linguine.
In his old age, with her gone to heaven, he sometimes ate spaghettios straight from the can over the sink, her favorite song running through his mind. Their song. For eternity.
This book was dropped off in my little free library and it looked intriguing so I took the time to read it and now I can’t decide if I should put it back in my library. Not because it isn’t a good book, because it is entertaining, but the publisher really screwed up this paperback. Imagine reading along, getting to the part where things are being revealed and then, suddenly, on the next page, there is no segue way, but different people in the room than were in conversation the page before. Confused, you look to the top of the page at the page numbers and the book goes from page 278 to page 311. So, you check what chapter you’re on. It’s 48. Then you skip forward to see that the next chapter is 56. So, BIG chunk missing. Vital pages are missing. But you soldier on and get to page 342. Book then reverts to page 311 again and then those pages up to page 342 are in there again. Still nothing on the chapters that were omitted. Wild, huh? There are only 364 pages in the book in its entirety. To say the reader is robbed is putting it mildly. A big chunk of stuff is missing.
I was able to fill in most of the blanks of the story, but was disappointed to not be able to read the whole book. I wonder if all this print run was so screwed up. I’m glad I didn’t spend my money on it as I would have been really much more upset.
As far as the plot, characterization and twists, it was a well-constructed story. The author has a way with words and her prose is easy to read. The tale of Leo and Emma was complex and well-written. I enjoyed the story but am disappointed in the fact that vital pages were missing. I don’t like to downgrade a review due to things beyond the writer’s control, but I can only give this one three stars because her publisher let her (and the reader) down; otherwise, this would have been a solid four from me.
BLURB:
Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she’s told them about herself is a lie. And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer; Emma a well-known marine biologist. When she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best – researching and writing about his wife’s life. But as he starts to unravel the truth, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name isn’t real.When the very darkest moments of Emma’s past finally emerge, she must somehow prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was . . .But first, she must tell him about the other love of her life.
I have been remiss in posting reviews lately. No excuses, just madness in my day job. I wrote a few this weekend, so I am trying to do better.
This was an excellent book. I very much enjoyed it. There are two distinct story lines with two heroines, Audrey and Kate. The stories intersect when the two characters meet at a large estate house that has been turned into a boutique hotel.
Audrey was an English young woman who was living in Berlin in the 1930s. Her mother had been German and her father was English. Her mother passed away when Audrey was young and she spent a lot of time with the neighbor girl where she lived. When her father returned to England, Audrey stayed in Berlin with the Jewish family across the street. The daughter of the house was her best friend. Audrey was a gifted pianist studying her craft and stayed to keep at her studies.
Kate is a young woman in the early part of the 21st century. Her marriage and job ended and she had nowhere to go as the lease was up on the place she and her husband rented while married. Her parents had passed away in a car accident and she was going to be all on her own. She was lucky enough to land a job at the boutique hotel that came with a place for her to live.
The two ladies meet and, after some initial animosity, they form a friendship over a period of time. Slowly, both of their stories come to light.
Audrey was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Nazi party took over Berlin and the Jewish family she lived with had some harrowing times. Audrey refused to abandon them and her own life thereby became fraught with danger.
Kate was also in the wrong place at the wrong time and had her own life changing moments.
Without giving away any spoilers, I have to say the bravery and heroism of Audrey was amazing to read as her story unfolded. The time period she lived in held many dark days and she withstood a lot.
Kate’s story was not as full of life or death circumstances, but she had a rough go at life as well.
How both of these ladies persevered and overcame makes for a great read. This one is high on my list of favorites. I read a lot of stories set in Audrey’s early life time frame and this one ranks high on intrigue and a compelling story line. 5 stars.
BLURB:
Northern England, 2010. After a tragic accident upends her life, Kate Mercer leaves London to work at an old guest house near the Scottish border, where she hopes to find a fresh start and heal from her loss. When she arrives, she begins to unravel the truth about her past, but discovers that the mysterious elderly proprietor is harboring secrets of her own .
Berlin, 1938. Audrey James is weeks away from graduating from a prestigious music school in Berlin, where she’s been living with her best friend, Ilse Kaplan. As war looms, Ilse’s family disappears and high-ranking Nazi officers confiscate the house. In desperation, Audrey becomes their housekeeper while Ilse is forced into hiding in the attic. When a shocking turn of events embroils Audrey in the anti-Hitler movement, she must decide what matters most: protecting those she loves, or sacrificing everything for the greater good.
Inspired by true stories of courageous women and the German resistance during World War II, The Secret History of Audrey James is a captivating novel about the unbreakable bonds of friendship, the sacrifices we make for those we love, and the healing that comes from human connection.
I picked this book up way back in December because I was intrigued by the premise, but I kept passing it up to read other things. When I finally picked it up a couple of weeks ago to dive into it, I was surprised to find that I had actually read another book by the same author that I had enjoyed immensely. The other one was called Code Name: Helene and was also fiction based on a true person (and I thought I had a review of it and can’t find it, but I put the blurb at the end here as I highly recommend it too.
This book, The Frozen River, was based on Martha Ballard, a midwife in the time of the American Revolution and the years following it. Ms. Lawhon came upon her story and the actual lady’s diaries were woven into the premise of the story. Entries were used in each of the chapters which I found to be engrossing. The story is set in 1789.
Ms. Lawton has a gift for beautiful prose. Her work sings. She just makes the characters come alive.
Our heroine midwife has a great marriage and a number of children. She has also experienced the loss of children herself which makes her a compassionate midwife to the women of the community she serves.
The book starts with the discovery of a dead man frozen in the river. The man had previously been accused of rape and was found with bruises on him and marks on his neck. There had also been an altercation between him and others at a dance the evening he died.
Martha Ballard thinks the man was murdered. The new local doctor, who hates the heroine as he thinks she perceives herself as his equal, disagrees with her and says it was an accident. The body is placed in a barn as it is too cold to bury him while the ground is frozen.
There is no shortage of suspects who didn’t like the dead man. The book has our heroine trying to not only solve this mystery, but to try to get justice for the woman who was raped and who is now carrying the child of her rapist.
The story is fraught with tension as well as woven with many passages showing the love and strength of this woman with her family as well as the ladies she helps to bring life into the world.
As in Code Name: Helene, I found myself liking this character very much and rooting for her all the way.
Lots of intrigue both in the story of the rape and murder, but also in the flashbacks to the past of the main character.
Grab a copy of this one if you like family-oriented stories with a dash of mystery and solving crimes. This one is intricate and compelling with a strong heroine who is ready to stand up for women in an age where few did.
BLURB:
Maine, 1789: As a midwife in the town of Hallowell, Martha Ballard knows how to keep a secret. Her neighbors respect her not only for her medical expertise and calm under pressure, but for her discretion in a community governed by rigid Puritan values. So when a man is found under the ice in the Kennebec river, Martha is the first person called to examine the body.
The dead man is Joshua Burgess, recently accused, along with the town judge, Joseph North, of raping the preacher’s wife, Rebecca Foster. The case is set to go to trial in the coming months and Hallowell is churning with rumors. Martha, having tended to Rebecca’s wounds in the aftermath, is both a witness and a confidant of Rebecca’s, and while she feels certain she knows the truth of the night of the assault, she suspects there is more to the murder than meets the eye.
For years, Martha has recounted her every day in a leather-bound journal: deaths and births, the weather, town events, her patients and their treatments. As whispers and prejudices threaten to overflow into something bloodier, and North becomes more desperate to clear his name, Martha’s diary becomes the center of a mystery that risks tearing both her family and her town apart.
In The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon brings to life a brave and compassionate unsung heroine of early American history, who refused to accept anything less than justice on behalf of women no one else would protect.
BLURB for Code Name: Helene
BASED ON THE THRILLING REAL-LIFE STORY OF SOCIALITE SPY NANCY WAKE, comes the newest feat of historical fiction from the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia, featuring the astonishing woman who killed a Nazi with her bare hands and went on to become one of the most decorated women in WWII.
Told in interweaving timelines organized around the four code names Nancy used during the war, Code Name Hélène is a spellbinding and moving story of enduring love, remarkable sacrifice and unfaltering resolve that chronicles the true exploits of a woman who deserves to be a household name. It is 1936 and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris who has bluffed her way into a reporting job for Hearst newspaper when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. No sooner does Henri sweep Nancy off her feet and convince her to become Mrs. Fiocca than the Germans invade France and she takes yet another name: a code name. As LUCIENNE CARLIER Nancy smuggles people and documents across the border. Her success and her remarkable ability to evade capture earns her the nickname THE WHITE MOUSE from the Gestapo. With a five-million-franc bounty on her head, Nancy is forced to escape France and leave Henri behind. When she enters training with the Special Operations Executives in Britain, her new comrades are instructed to call her HÉLÈNE. And finally, with mission in hand, Nancy is airdropped back into France as the deadly MADAM ANDRÉE, where she claims her place as one of the most powerful leaders in the French Resistance, armed with a ferocious wit, her signature red lipstick, and the ability to summon weapons straight from the Allied Forces. But no one can protect Nancy if the enemy finds out these four women are one and the same, and the closer to liberation France gets, the more exposed she–and the people she loves–become.
A beautifully written story that will stay with the reader for a long while.
Several storylines converge in this book over the course of the tale. 1969 Vietnam and 2016 Vietnam are the main settings of the novel.
Two sisters leave their rice farm in the Mekong Delta for Saigon in order to earn money to help their parents out of debt. They become bar girls. Asking American soldiers to buy them drinks in exchange for a percentage of the money they spend. And there are more things at stake than merely drinking with American soldiers.
An American helicopter pilot stationed in Vietnam during the war who is now in his sixties returns to Saigon with his wife in order to help with his PTSD. Some of his friends have made the return trip and it has helped them. He’s keeping a big secret from his wife though and on the first day in the country, his secrets threaten to spill out and endanger his marriage.
A young black Amerasian man named Phong has lived a hard life as what the Vietnamese call a dust child. Seen as the child of the hated Americans, these children are treated abysmally and discriminated against in both education and employment opportunities. He’s desperate to get his family to America. He was abandoned at an orphanage as an infant and eventually lived on the streets of Saigon, raising himself from age twelve. An adult now with a wife and two children, he wants a better life for them.
The author of this book has a wonderful way with words. Her prose is smooth and easy to read. Many of the passages are very moving. The way she ties the various storylines together is well done. I can’t praise this book enough.
The hard issues that still haunt Vietnam as well as veterans from that era are faced with dignity and caring. The Vietnamese women who were used by the GIs for sex and comfort are depicted as three-dimensional and the product of the horrible wartime they lived in. The reader cared about them and their fates as well as the trauma they went through.
The Amerasian character was also someone who the reader could root for. He overcame so much in his life, the reader wanted him to succeed. From the poor child he was to the family man who wanted respect and happiness for his family, he was really a character that spoke to this reader’s heart. None of the circumstances of his birth were his fault, but his whole life was spent paying the price.
As to the American helicopter pilot, he was depicted as worthy of respect in some ways, but in some ways, not. Portrayed realistically in the ways of how the war affected young men, he was someone the reader could feel for in some respects and not in others. The things these soldiers saw and did during their time in the jungle changed them and not for the better.
It was clear the author spent massive amounts of time interviewing people who actually lived these kinds of lives and she did an excellent job making those interviews into a novel that one can enjoy the story, but also learn some things about human nature and resiliency. An important read, in my opinion.
I don’t think I can do justice to this book in this review but I absolutely loved this book. I think it’s one everyone should read. For the lessons in love and forgiveness that are at the heart of this book are something we can all strive for in our lives.
I received this book from Kensington Books in exchange for an unbiased review.
This was a great story. I was pulled in immediately by the premise of the legend of the fox that brings good luck and love to the people who encounter it. The town of Fox Crossing is a pretty cool place to live. Even though this is part of a series, this book can be read as a stand- alone with no problem.
The protagonist of the story, Victoria Michaud, is the owner of a shop with an eclectic offering of used goods. She dresses with abandon and I loved that about her. That she chooses to be her quirky self and doesn’t set any store by anyone who might think she looks odd is refreshing and makes her a unique character. She’s also a giving soul who helps her community in many ways. The relationships she has with her brother, Henry, is great as well. He’s come back to town after moving away after high school. He spent his teen years being bullied by a number of young men of the town due to his weight.
The antagonist, Bowen Gower, is one of those bullies. He is also back in town after having moved away and making a successful career in the city. He’s back to settle his grandfather’s estate. His sister, Tegan, is also on the scene. She’s had a hard life moving from job to job. Her brother was the golden child and she was shunted to the side. Their relationship is fractious at best. The sister is also a unique character, artistic and caring.
The sister of the antagonist and the brother of the protagonist were best friends for a couple of years in high school, each relying on the other to get through some rough times.
The side characters in the book are delightful. The man who owns the bar (named Banana) where the antagonist’s sister works is a particular favorite. I loved his personality and warm, giving, nature.
When Victoria realizes the boy who was the baseball hero who made her brother miserable for years is back in town, she is determined not to engage with him. Except, they both saw the fabled fox at the same time.
Giving no credence to the superstition about the fox, she is doubly determined to ignore the man.
The story unfolds in an enjoyable way. The friendship between the two outcast friends from high school was actually my favorite part of the book. The scenes where they reconnect are particularly enjoyable. They still have great affection for each other and reading their scenes made me smile.
There’s a secondary story about bullying by one young girl to another in the book. In my opinion, the underlying theme of the book is really about bullying and its aftermath and ways to resolve those issues and move past them. The love stories are incidental to that theme and are so well told, it’s a delightful read. This book has something for everyone. Friendship, love and family. I highly recommend it.
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
This story starts out in Belgium in WWI. The heroine, Adele, is a nurse in an army hospital. These women were called Bluebirds because of their uniforms of light blue and white. Adele has been there for a while and has been able to keep her distance from the injured men she helps treat. The nurses are encouraged not to become personally involved with the patients and Adele works hard to not get attached..
Then a tunneler named Jeremy is brought in wounded severely and requiring a lot of care. These tunnelers were vital to the war effort and spent all their time underground setting explosives to aid their comrades who were fighting above ground. Jerry’s brother, John is also a tunneler and saves Jerry from an explosion by the enemy and makes sure his brother is brought to the hospital. The nurse assigned to Jerry is Adele.
At first, due to his injuries, Jerry can’t talk. Adele spends time with him reading to him and chatting. They draw close, but eventually, Jerry heals and heads back to the front and they lose contact.
Both Jerry and Adele are Canadian and from the same general area of Ontario. When Jerry returns home with his brother, he tries to find Adele but is unsuccessful and fears she died in Belgium. Adele is likewise sure Jerry didn’t survive.
The story follows each of them as they rebuild their lives. This part of the book seemed to drag a bit. Honestly, a lot of the story was slow moving and it took me many days to get through that middle part.
The action eventually picked up after the two of them found their niches in the world. Adele went to work for a local doctor. Jerry and his brother entered the dangerous line of work of running illegal alcohol to the United States during prohibition. This was when the book picked up the pace.
Run-ins with a former friend turned enemy brought a sense of urgency to the plot and this reader enjoyed the new quicker pace of the tale.
It was obvious the author delved deep into research of the era, including the nursing corps of Canada in WWI, the tunnelers of that war and the prohibition era dangers to the smugglers and competitors in the business. There were a lot of intriguing parts such as the various ways the rum-runners got their liquor across the border to sell it, including all the ways they hid bottles in the automobiles. It was also interesting to learn about the way the restaurants in Canada offered free liquor if the patron ordered food as a way to get around the laws in place. This reader wasn’t familiar with Canada’s laws during prohibition, so a lot of the information was new. The author was deft at sliding in the historical details without making the story read like a history lesson.
Overall, the book was good and well-developed. Parts were slow, but I enjoyed the characters and the real history of the times being artfully inserted. I’d recommend this one. 4 stars.
Banished to the dower house by her stepson who believes she is after his fortune, the Dowager Duchess of Whittington lives a lonely existence during her year of mourning. Missing her husband and forbidden by the new duke to travel to London and stay in the ducal residence, twenty-two year old Hannah Otto despairs of ever getting out of the countryside.
Bored and somewhat annoyed at the restrictions placed on her, Hannah makes plans to visit a friend in London shortly before her mourning period is over.
Before Hannah has a chance to finalize those plans, her butler notifies her of a man in her courtyard. A bleeding, unconscious man slumped over the back of a fine steed. Feeling sorry for him yet glad for some excitement, Hannah has him brought inside.
But when he appears to be a French spy, she realizes the enormity of what she’s done.
In the last week, I’ve had a lot of sadness in my life. It’s weird how it comes in spurts like that. It started with the death of the man who rented office space from me. He’s been ill for a while so even though we all knew he was not doing well, it was a bit of a shock to hear that he passed away in his sleep during the day on last Friday. His family has decided to have his services in the town where he grew up instead of here where he lived for over thirty years. This saddens me as he was a big part of the community here and they are robbing us of the chance to say goodbye.
In the last day, I learned that a friend’s son was killed when a car backed over him. He was only seven. I’m utterly shattered for my friend and her family. I know how much they adored that little boy and I can’t wrap my head around such a devastating loss. I don’t know how they’re going to make it from day to day with this hole in their lives. There’s nothing I can say or do to make it better. I wish there was.
Death really puts things in perspective. I know I let things bother me and I get hurt easily but as I think about these people -both too young to go- being gone and no longer able to enjoy time with family and friends, I find myself hoping that the life I lead in the time I have left is one such that my family and friends will be as bereft as I am at the loss of these two. I endeavor to be as good a person as they both were.
Ramblings of a Writer 