Books Set in the United States

One Summer: America 1927, by Bill Bryson (2013)

One Summer: America 1927 is part history, part-gossip about events that shaped America during May through September 1927.  

The book covers the seminal events of the year 1927, starting with a history of aviation and Charles Lindbergh's historic transatlantic flight, Herbert Hoover and his role in recovery following the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927; baseball in its golden age with Babe Ruth; sensational crimes that captured the nation, including Sacco and Vanzetti, Charles Ponzi, and the Sash Weight murder; and the age of talking-pictures.

Reading this book, however, reminded me of how history repeats itself.  Many of the main themes of this book seem to be what out nation is facing today.  The 1920s was not a good time for immigrants and hate groups were common-place.

I enjoyed reading this, but at times felt I was reading a gossip magazine.

4 Stars

Read:  December 18, 2016

Books Set in the United States

The Memory Box, by Eva Lasko Natiello (2014)

2 Stars

Read: December 2, 2016

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

The Pact, by Jodi Picoult (1998)

The Pact is about two teenaged lovers who may or may not have entered into a suicide pact.  The novel opens with the death of young Emily Gold.

Emily Gold and Christopher Harte, whose parents were next-door neighbors and close friends, were born within months of each other.  From infancy, they were best friends.  Emily and Chris have gone from friends to lovers.  While Chris is enchanged by the sex, to Emily it feels almost incestuous.

As the two prepare to graduate from high school and look towards college, Emily begins to feel suicidal.  She tries to convince Chris to join her in death.

In the wee hours of the morning, Emily and Chris plan to carry out their suicide pact.  Emily dies, but Chris survives.  Soon he is charged with her murder.  Much of the book is spent on his arrest and trial.

This was a quick read, but I found it unsatisfying.  We never really see what caused Emily’s depression, although there are some red herrings.  Neither Emily or the parents of the teenagers are well developed.

Read: November 13, 2016

Three Stars 

Books Set in Europe: France and England

The Empress of Ice Cream, by Anthony Capella (2010)

This novel takes place in the courts of the French King Louis XIV and the English King Charles II.

We meet Carlo, an Italian confectioner who specializes in flavored ices.  He was born of a family so poor that his family sold him to the ice maker of the Medici family.  It was there that he learned the secrets of making flavored ices.  He soon mastered the technique and began experimenting with new flavors and creations.  After outwitting his master, he found himself in the court of King Louis XIV, where his creations soon brought him great wealth.

Although he could, and did, have any woman wanted, he was hopelessly in love with Louise de Keroualle (an actual historical figure), who was lady-in-waiting to Henrietta d’Orleans, sister to the English King Charles II.  After Henrietta died, Louise and Carlo are sent to London, ostensibly to comfort the grieving King Charles II, but also to assist in the negotiations between the two countries because Louis needs Charles’ support in the war against the Dutch.

King Charles has his eye on Louise and wants to make her his next mistress.  She, however, tries to keep her virtue.

I found this to be a fascinating look into this period of history, and I learned a lot about the creation of sorbet, and other flavored ices as well as ice cream.

4 Stars

Read: November 9, 2016

Books Set in Europe

Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie (1934)

This is classic Christie.  On a stranded train, headed for Paris from Istanbul, a passenger is found stabbed to death.  There is no way on or off the train, so the murderer must be on train.  The passengers are a diverse group of all walks of life and class, with seemingly no connections or motives.  Fortunately, the Belgian detective Hecule Poirot is also a traveler who will use his deductive reasoning to suss out the real victims.

Read: I first read this book in May 1979.  I reread it on November 1, 2016.

4 Stars 

Books Set in Europe: London, England

The Various Flavors of Coffee, by Anthony Capella (2008)

Read: October 29, 2016

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe and the United States

The Shoemaker's Wife, by Adriana Trigiani (2012)

This book had gotten good reviews, so I was looking forward to reading it.  It was a disappointment to me.  The novel was inspired by the author's grandparents who left the Italian Alps for life in America in the early part of the 1900s.  The main characters, Enza Ravanelli and Ciro Lazzari, met in Italy and emigrated to America separate, where they eventually met up again and married.  They grew up in poverty, and made it in America.  The characters were too goody-goody for me.  Trouble would befall them, but they never seemed to mind.

For some reason, I felt obliged to finish this book.  As a result, it took me forever to read.

2 stars

Read:  October 10, 2016 

Books Set in Europe: Spain

The Last Jew, by Noah Gordon (2000)

I had actually read this book almost exactly 6 years ago, but had forgotten.  The book begins at the time of the Spanish Inquisition and the Jews are either forced out of Spain or forced to convert to New Christians, where their faith is continued to be questioned.  

The novel follows young Yonah, whose older brother was murdered while delivering a valuable silver Christian article, made by his silversmith father, to the local church.  The religious item is lost and the  murder was unsolved.

Shortly thereafter, the Inquisitors come for the Jews and New Christians.  Yonah's sibling are sent to escape Spain with distant relatives.  His father is killed during a raid on the family home by Frey Bonestruca, a brutal Inquisition.  Yonah is left to fend for himself.  He knows he must leave his home town to escape the Inquisitors.  He adopts the name Ramon Callico and begins his travels throughout Spain.  Although he knows he must pose as a Christian, he privately tries to adhere to the religious of his birth, thus becomes the "last Jew" living in Spain.

Through out his travels, he learns various trades, from working on a ship, doing physical labor, becoming a shepherd, and finally, finding a mentor who teaches him to be a physician.  His mentor knows Yonah/Ramon's true identity, but never betrays him.  Yonah finds a home in a remote town of Spain where he practices medicine.  Frey Bonestruca had been living too rich a live and, as punishment, the Church sent him to the same town where Yonah lived.  Yonah must confront the man he believes killed his father.

Noah Gordon crafted a fascinating history of life in Spain during the 1500s.

Read:  August 31, 2010; September 3, 2016

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New Orleans, Louisiana

Madam: A Novel of New Orleans, by Cari Lynn and Kellie Martin (2014)

This novel takes place just before the turn of last century with the creation of Storyville in New Orleans.  The characters in this novel are real, although some liberties were taken with the timeline of the events.

The novel follows the life of Mary Deubler, a young prostitute working in a rough area of the city called Venus Alley.  She was forced to follow her mother's footsteps into prostitution to support her young brother and his even younger wife.

Sidney Story, a puritanical alderman in the city was the author of an ordinance that created district of the city to be set aside for "vices of the flesh."  This area became known as Storyville, and was where the prostitutes and their johns would not be arrested.

Mary meets up with certain people and transformed herself into the notorious Madam Josie Arlington.  Along the telling of this story we meet other historical figures such as Jelly Roll Morton and the famous Storyville photographer, E.J. Bellocq.

The novel focused primarily on Mary's life before she became the infamous Madam Arlington.

I enjoyed this historical view of New Orleans.

Read:  August 21, 2016

Books Set in Europe

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, by Fredrik Backman (2015)

The author of this book is Swedish.  Maybe something was lost in translation, but I didn't much care for this novel.  The novel follows a young girl named Elsa.  She is 7 years old and has a very vivid imagination.  Her parents are divorced and she lives with her mother and step-father.  Her mother is pregnant with "Halfie."

Elsa was very close to her maternal mother.  Her grandmother is an eccentric old woman in her late 70s.  Her grandmother assisted when the devastating tsunami struck in the Indian Ocean in 2004.  Elsa and her grandmother also are wrapped up in a fantasy world of stories in the Land-of-Almost Awake.

After the grandmother dies, Elsa decides to take the letters that grandmother wrote apologizing to people who had encountered and hurt during her lifetime.  This leads a young girl running about town meeting up with an odd assortment of people.

  

I wanted to like this book, but it just was too much fantasy for me.

2 Stars

Read:  August 19, 2016

Books Set in Europe: Ireland

Cashelmara, by Susan Howatch (1974)

I first read this book in 1978.  I remembered that I liked it and that it was a family/historical saga told in many voices.  When I found an electronic copy of this book, I decided to read it again.

Cashelmara is a historical saga that follows three generations of deSalis family and is told in the voices of several of the characters.  We begin with the elderly widower, Edward DeSalis.  He is an Englishman with landholdings throughout England and a favorite estate in Ireland.  He marries the young Marguerite and brings her back to his homelands, where she encounters his children from his first marriage.  The story then changes to Marguerite, and we see life from her point of view.  The story continues with the marriage of Edward’s eldest son, Patrick, who marries the young and spoiled American Sarah, who was raised in privilege, but whose family was on the verge of bankruptcy.  The young couple quickly run through all their money and are forced to live on the Irish estate of Cashelmara, a favorite resort of the elder deSalis, but seemingly too remote for Patrick and Sarah.  The marriage of Patrick and Sarah was doomed from the start, but neither acknowledges the failure until Sarah encounters Patrick’s nemesis, Maxwell Drummond.  This is a nice thick family drama that also informs the reader about the potato famine of the 1800s.

Read:  April 21, 1978 and July 10, 2016

Books Set in Europe and Australia

The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood, by Mark Kurzem (2007)

4 Stars

Read: June 11, 2015

Books Set in Europe

Dead Wake, by Erik Larson (2015)

3 Stars

Read: June 2, 2016

Books Set in the United States: Virginia

The Kitchen House, by Kathleen Grissom (2010)

4 Stars

Read: May 22, 2016

Books Set in the United States: New Orleans, Louisiana

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, by Sheri Fink (2013)

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital is one of the best books I have read about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in one of the New Orleans Hospitals.  It describes not only the events that took place at Baptist Memorial Hospital in the five days following Hurricane Katrina, but also provides some history of the hospital and medical disasters in general.  The hospital had not effective triage system to care for critically ill patients, hence, they were last on the list for evacuation.  Were some of these patients euthanized before the hospital was finally evacuated?

This book explores the issues, both legal and political, regarding the treatment of patients and the medical staff in the handling of patients during such a this hurricane disaster.  The first part of this book describes the five days surrounding Hurricane Katrina, from August 28 through September 1, 2015 when the hospital was operating under disastrous conditions ~ the hospital had lost power, its back-up generators were inadequate, and the lower floors became flooded.  Evacuation of patients took a long time, and decisions were made to evacuate the most ambulatory patients first.  Critically ill patients were given morphine, ostensibly to provide them with comfort to ease their pain, but were these injections lethal doses designed to hasten the death of patients the medical staff could not survive?

The second part of the book focuses on the legal and political aspects of the hospital’s response to the hurricane disaster.  The hospital was run by an out-of-state health care company that seemed to have little understanding of what was actually occurring in New Orleans following Katrina.  Some of the medical staff were horrified to think that some patients were deliberately euthanized.  As a result, the Louisiana Attorney General initiated an investigation, which focused on Dr. Anna Pou and two intensive care nurses.  Charges were ultimately dropped.  The questions, however, persist.

I found this book to be very well written and felt the author provided a balanced view one whether or not these critically patients were euthanized.  The author’s well researched investigation provides the reader with sufficient evidence to allow the reader to decide whether or not the patients were euthanized.

5 Stars

Read: May 15, 2016

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

Keeping Faith, by Jodi Picoult (1999)

Read: April 28, 2016

3.5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: California

Trail of Broken Wings, by Sejal Badani (2015)

This novel follows three sisters and their mother who come together after their father has fallen into a coma and is in the hospital.  Each of the women carries a terrible secret.  After emigrating to the United States with his wife and two daughters, the third daughter, Sonya is born.  From her earliest memories, Sonya was told that she was not wanted and should have been aborted.  The father becomes increasingly more abusive to his family.  His abuse, however, is never addressed and all the women in the family put forth a face to the public of a perfect family.  The oldest daughter, Marin, enters into an arranged marriage but has build a successful career where she carefully controls everyone  in her life.  Trisha, the middle daughter, seems to have the perfect life with a loving husband, but refused to have a child for fear she will become like her father.  Sonya pushes everyone away from her.  This novel tells of the aftermath of abuse.  It was wonderfully written.

5 Stars

Read: April 21, 2016

Books Set in Asia: China

The Valley of Amazement, by Amy Tan (2013)

3 Stars

Read April 20, 2016

Books Set in the United States: Louisiana

Familiar Evil, by Rannah Gray (2015)

Read: April 20, 2016

2 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Massachusetts

The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent (2008)

4 Stars

Read: March 25, 2016

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

The Death of the USS Thresher: The Story Behind History’s Deadliest Submarine Disaster, by Norman Polmar (2004)

As a young child, I lived in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area.  I was in second grade when a new girl joined our class.  Then as suddenly as she appeared, she was gone; her family moved away.  Her father had been on the Thresher.  It is one of my earliest memories of a news event.  I was too young to fully appreciate the significance of the sinking of the Thresher, but because of my classmate, I often think of the event.

The USS Thresher was a new class of nuclear-powered submarines.  It was build during the Cold War era and the Thresher was to be a new killer submarine, specifically designed to seek and destroy Soviet submarines.  Construction on the submarine began in 1958 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.  It was originally launched in 1960 and formally commissioned in August 1961.  After some trial operations in 1961 and 1962, the submarine underwent a major overhaul that took several months from 1962 to 1963.

In early April 1963, the submarine was ready again for deep-diving tests.  On April 1963, during deep sea dives off the New England coast, the Thresher lost contact with its rescue ship, the Skylark.  The last garbled communication may have indicated some minor problems, followed by eerie sounds that were compared to a ship collapsing.  The Thresher was officially lost at sea.  Aboard the submarine were 129 crew members and shipyard personnel, making the sinking of the Thresher the first nuclear submarine disaster and the deadliest to date.

An inquiry was conducted to determine the cause of the disaster.  The formal briefing, issued in June 1963 concluded that, based on current information, it was impossible to determine the cause of the event.  Subsequent investigation have led to various theories of the cause, but the actual cause will never be known.

Although the book did not go into detail about the lives of the 129 aboard the submarine, I cried when I got to the part where the families were informed of the disaster.

This book goes into detail about the construction of submarines, but is a quick read. 

3 Stars

Read: March 19, 2016