Absolution

Immerse yourself in Vietnam in 1963. There is a marked contrast between the sheltered American compounds and their lives of ease against starving Vietnamese children, the misery of leprosy and napalm victims.  This reads like a memoir and I was hooked instantly.

 

The characters are brought to life quite vividly in McDermott's narrative about American women in Saigon.  The husbands are there in Vietnam, engineers who go to work and leave their wives in a beautiful home, surrounded by servants, luxuries and throwing garden parties.  The naive wives who turn their heads away from suffering and want.

And then you meet Charlene.  A character I didn't like in the beginning but had a very different opinion of by the end. Charlene is one of the wives who followed their husbands to Vietnam but make no mistake, she isn't like the others.

The conversations between Charlene and Tricia were interesting.  Tricia was pliable and willing to go along with Charlene's plans, joined her cabal, her political maneuvering to ultimately do good for the Vietnamese, the lepers, for anyone who needed something.

While Tricia wanted to blend in with the other wives, wanted to be a good wife and help her husband's corporate career, she was introduced to real life by Charlene. 

The book starts with Tricia is telling her story to Charlene's daughter Rainey, some fifty years after they were in Vietnam.  They had gotten in touch again through the sorting of old letters kept over the decades.  But as the narrative went on it seemed like 1963 as the present.

I liked this part, I can relate:

"Long ago went thought the winnowing of things - clothes and books and papers, excess kitchen gadgets, knickknacks, so many souvenirs: the Saigon souvenirs, and the Paris souvenirs, London, Ireland, San Francisco -...."   it was a collection given to Tricia by family and some she'd collected herself. One by one being disposed of. 

Again, I felt like I was reading letters from a memoir.

This is my second book to read along with JoAnn at Gulfside Musing and it was a blast to compare notes as we read along.  Great book for a book club discussion.

Linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon

The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring and The Empty House by Rosamunde Pilcher

Two books - one very good and one surprisingly bad.

The Road to Dalton

This story had me captivated by the poetic and descriptive writing.  My complaint - I wanted the story to continue! The residents of Dalton Maine each have their own stories with chapters devoted to their secrets, fears and loves. 

Trudy and Richard Haskell are central characters and appear in other stories as "supporting cast".  Richard is the town doctor in this small town.  He is good at his profession and very caring but he never wanted to be a doctor.  His father was a doctor and it was expected he'd fill that void when dad retired.  Richard wanted to build bridges.

His wife Trudy is the town librarian and falls in love with her best friend Bev. 

Rose is a lovely young woman who is abused by Tommy, the father of her two children.  She hides her bruises, makes excuses and hopes for a better life. Tommy is piece of work.

Nate and Bridget's story, well I won't give the spoilers on that but the passages about Bridget's train of thought midway through had me captivated. The writing here is so real.

There are many other characters and I very much enjoyed this slice of life in the little town of Dalton.  Looking forward to more by Shannon Bowring. 5 stars. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Empty House

Coming Home and The Shell Seekers set a very high bar for Rosamunde Pilcher novels.  While I didn't expect any of her other work might reach the epic length or sweeping writing style, this book was a disappointment. Honestly, I made myself finish it then scratched my head thinking, WTF.

Virginia Keile is a 27 year old widow.  She is boring, self absorbed and a poor mother.  Not an intentionally cruel mother to her two young children, rather negligent to their needs. Virginia has lost her husband but her young children also experienced loss as they are now without their father.  So what does she do?  She leaves Scotland and heads to Cornwall to stay with a friend of her mother's while pining over "the man who got away" just prior to her marriage.

No please, don't comfort your children.  Keep your head in the clouds and day dream about a rude man who you wished you had married instead.  The ending seemed rushed and unrealistic, as if a deadline had come up and Pilcher thought - better wrap this up and get it to print!

I am a huge fan of Rosamunde Pilcher so it would be disingenuous of me to say how much I loved this book, just passing it off as her off her game.  Loved the setting but not the story. 2 stars

⭐⭐

Book "travel" took me to Maine, Cornwall and Scotland this time.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story by Rick Bragg

While I was browsing the nonfiction section at the library I saw this book on the shelf, thought about how long ago Jessica Lynch was rescued from an Iraqi hospital.   Back in 2003 we had tv feed and remember  when breaking news interrupted the broadcast to report the rescue.

The story at the time reported Lynch's fierce fighting, her capture and the dramatic rescue by our elite military forces.  In this book Lynch sets the record straight about how her injuries occurred. She dispelled the stories which called her the "Rambo of the hills of West Virginia" when in fact, she never fired her gun as it jammed.

She was gravely injured by Iraqis and it's amazing she survived at all.

From the book:  "Medical records show what happened in the three hours missing from Jessie‘s memory. Her right arm was shattered between her shoulder and her elbow, a compound fracture, slivers of bone through muscles, nerves and skin, leaving her right hand useless. Her spine was fractured in two places causing nerve damage. This left her unable to control her kidneys and bowels. Her left leg was broken into pieces above and below the knee. Also compound fracture and splintered bone that made a mess of the nerves, and left her without feeling in the limb. "

And yet there was still more damage, both physically and mentally. It wasn't known if she suffered the beatings from rifle butts and kicking before or after she was raped, nor clear why she alone was not killed immediately.  Theory is she was a blonde green eyed female which could be used for propaganda purposes.

At the hospital she was taken care of best they could with the equipment and supplies they possessed.  She wouldn't eat anything but crackers and juice, and only if they opened it in front of her, for fear of being drugged and unable to fight to save her leg.  At one point the doctors wanted to amputate a leg as it was so badly damaged.

Jessica Lynch weighed 76 pounds by the time she was rescued.  Had she been left any longer she would have certainly died, despite the medical attention from kind medical staff.

Lynch did not know the narrative the government released to the news agencies.  

This is a well written book and I'm glad I picked it up.

The March book wrap up

Lovely Spring flowers around our place....

Blink your eye and it's April.  As Gilmour sang  in Time,  "then one day you'll find, ten years have got behind you..."

That's the truth.  Time goes so fast.  Since bringing this site back to life I updated on my February books here. This post is is a roundup of my March books.  Then I'll be on track with some sort of schedule that suits me.

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In March I finished the second book in the Cormac Reilly series by Dervla McTiernan.  I liked the first book, The Ruin, better than this second one - The Scholar. There are a few more to go before I am fully caught up.  If you like police procedurals this would be a good one for you, set in Galway Ireland.

Also read in March:  The Women by Kristin Hannah and Three by Valérie Perrin.

Three:  In 1986 three young children meet in school and become inseparable. They are all ten years of age and come from different home lives. Etienne, Nina and Adrian. They hold hands all the time, they support each other, assist with school work and personal issues. You can't imagine these three ever having a falling out.

The story is told in flashbacks and in great detail. By the time they are ready to graduate school and move on to university in Paris, the relationships are as strong as ever, even if there are a few secrets between the three. Then a fallout. A big one.

In 2017 a car is pulled from the water with a body inside. There is much speculation about a young lady missing for years - could she be in that car? As you go back and forth between time periods, reading about the very descriptive aspects of their lives, I found myself very supportive of some characters and almost despising another. It's a slow read but the last several chapters have revelations I never thought about. Loyalty, betrayal, love and forgiveness are the themes.

You don't know who the narrator is in this book until the end.  Then things fell into place.

This is the second book I have read by Perrin, translated by Hildegard Serle, and I will say I enjoyed Fresh Water for Flowers a bit more. She is an incredible author and I have already preordered her newest - Forgotten on Sunday.

March book travel took me to Vietnam, France, Ireland and California.  That's it for the March round up

 Looking forward to good reading this month.  Hope life is good for you all :-)

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday. and Reader Buzz for Sunday Salon.

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Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin

As I finished Valérie Perrin's novel Three this month, I wanted to transfer my review for Fresh Water for Flowers here.  I  read this one last August so if you've followed me on Goodreads you'll have seen it there. 

This was my first book by Valérie Perrin and I look forward to reading more of her work.  I discovered this author through Goodreads and the Women in Translation project which is celebrated in August.

The description for this book states Violette Sousaint is a caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in France. She lives on the grounds, opening the gates in the morning to receive visitors and funerals, caring for the flower and vegetable gardens, closing the gates at night. 

I like the beginnings of each chapter with a the epitaphs:

His life was a lovely memory, His absence a silent agony.

We lived together in bliss, We rest together in peace.

They'll always be someone missing to make my life smile: you.

The epitaphs seem to "ward off the passage of time.  Death begins when no one can dream of you any longer."

"There are more than a thousand photographs scattered across the cemetery. On the day all of those photos were taken, none of the men, women, childen could have thought that that moment would represent them for all eternity.   It was the day of a birthday, a family meal, a walk in the park, at a wedding...."

Violette is a wonderful character.  The chapters will abruptly switch to another timeline where you'll get more of her back story.  She was thought dead when she was born, roused by a nurse yet unwanted by her mother.  She went through life in foster care, hoping to be adopted and belong.  She never was wanted by any family. When she became of age to work, pouring drinks at a local bar she met her husband. The stunningly gorgeous Phillipe Toussaint singled her out and took her home. He may have been a handsome devil but he is also a scoundral. Once they had a daughter it seemed Violette's life was whole as she had what she always wanted - a family.

The back stories are not only of Violette.  The people interred have stories as well.  The visitors to the graves sit with Violette and pour out their hearts.  It's all entwined how a mourning lover still leaves flowers or tokens on a lover's tomb, only to swept away by the widow when she visits. 

A turning point comes when a policeman named Julian Sole arrives to ask questions about Gabriel Prudent, a man his mother Irene wants to be buried with. This man Prudent is a stranger to him but through his mother's journals, Irene and Gabriel's story unfolds in future chapters. 

The story about Violette's daughter will break your heart. As you read you'll find love, hope, sorrow and grief.

This book was touching, moving slowly but not boring, learning about so many people and their stories then wrapping it up with several revelations I never considered.

Perrin's next novel is titled Three, also translated by Hildegarde Serle.

Review coming up.........

Getting current here on my February books.........

It's been a while since I book blogged...burnt out on the food blogging but books have always pulled me back to the keyboard.  Here are three of my February books. 

Beyond That, the Sea is a book spanning decades.

The working class family Reg and Millie Thompson decide to send their young daughter Beatrix from London to America during WW II.  The girl doesn't want to go but joins other children in relocation, safe from the bombs and destruction.

All the chapters are short and told from different viewpoints.  There is the Thompson family in London and the Gregory family in the U.S.  Nancy and Ethan Gregory have two sons, William and Gerald.  They welcome Beatrix with open arms and she eventually blends into their family, becoming the daughter they never had.

Meanwhile Millie is missing her daughter, feeling like she is missing out on Beatrix's childhood and indeed she is.  Mille and Reg are dealing with war, food shortages, burnt out buildings and hardship.   Bea, as the American family call her, lives with the Gregory family for five years and has many wonderful experiences.

Over the decades the stories are about love, death, disappointment, friendship and hope.  The settings are New York, Boston, Maine and London. 4.5 stars

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When All is Said by Anne Griffin is reflective story of a man's life and the people who meant the most to him.

Eighty-four year old widower Maurice Hannigan reflects on his life as he sits on a barstool, raising a toast to the five people he loved the most and the influences of others (not always positive) who shaped his life. He starts with his brother Tony and sips a stout, moving on to the other dear people in his life with a different whiskey and ale for each.

As he reflects on his regrets, triumphs, grief and revelations you are transported to another time when he was younger. I loved all of this book and true to Irish literature there are very sad moments.

The story unfolds and intertwines with the lives of the rich Dollard family and how they effected each other. Near the end some fairly interesting twists came to light.

The setting is Meath Ireland.

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Skylight by Jose Saramango

This is a novel translated from Portuguese by a Nobel Prize winner author. It's a slice of life from the 1950's in a small town, getting into the everyday lives of regular people. There are fractured relationships, secrets, love and deception.

Something I found interesting was the preface explaining about the author and how this novel came to be published after his death. He sent it to a publisher and unbeknowst to him, it was placed in a drawer and forgotten for over 30 years. When the company was moving to a different location the manuscript was discovered.

Imagine 30+ years later getting a call about this manuscript. Saramago immediately went to pick up his typed work, was offered to have to publsihed and he declined. He stated you must respect people and so he wouldn't have it published until after his death.
I rounded up to 4 stars.

One more to go and I'll start my March book stats.  So far, so good :-)

The Women by Kristen Hannah

This was a wonderfully written novel and I am glad I picked this up from the library, even if it was by accident as I meant to cancel the hold.  Having tried two other novels by Hannah which were DNF (Firefly Girls and The Great Alone) I'd decided she wasn't an author I would like to read.  This one hit it out of the park.

It covers so much about the Vietnam war from the outlook of nurse Frances "Frankie" McGraff.  She grew up in California in an affluent family and hadn't encountered hardships in her life.  She was working towards her nursing degree and excelled in her studies, wanted to make a difference. Frankie was naive as she was entrenched in a privileged  society where realties of working class life were never experienced.  All her parents  wanted was for her to get married, have children and be part of the country club group.  Then, when gazing at that wall of heroes in her father's office, her brother's friend asked why there weren't any photos of women there and told her women could be heroes too.

Frankie's brother Finley was about to be deployed to Vietnam and would, one day, earn his place on that "wall of heros," praised for his upcoming military service to Vietnam. Two different standards upheld for sons and daughters.....those will infuriate you when you read how Frankie was treated after her service as a MASH nurse.

I got ahead of myself but that was the beginning.  Frankie was hired as a nurse at a local hospital and despite her excellent skills all they had her do was get water for the patients, empty bedpans and basically be a candy striper.  She ended up joining the Army was sent to Vietnam for a hefty dose of culture and reality shock.

The book is graphic, devastating, tells of the horrific injuries that soldiers - basically teenagers - suffered when they were brought into the MASH unit.  Frankie grew up fast as she experienced what combat nursing entailed, the realities of war and the realization our government didn't share the truth about the war with the public.  They said there weren't any women in Vietman.  They said there were zero casualties for days when Frankie and the other medical personnel saw scores of body bags ready to ship home, held the hands of those who were dying with no expectation of survival.

Returning home, nurses were experiencing PTSD along with the soldiers but they were denied help at the V.A. and support groups because....women weren't in Vietnam. The nurses and the soldiers were treated abominably when they returned home - spit on, called nazis and child killers.  People who had zero idea about the bloody TET offensive, POWs or the hours selfless doctors and nurses worked to save as many boys as they could.

This book is not chick lit - you will read about depression, drug addiction, war and injuries and death sustained.....I am glad I read this one.  It's amazing and near the end, I most certainly had tears in my eyes.

2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge Roundup

 I had signed up for the book challenge at Shelleyrae's site Book'd Out and went for the Nibbler category of six books. 

Here's my round up.

1. Social History - Changing Roles by Dr. Vivien Newman
2. Popular Science - The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are by Libby Copeland
3. Language
4. Medical Memoir - Trauma by Dr. James Cole
5. Climate/ Weather
6. Celebrity - Taste by Stanley Tucci
7. Reference - The Lyrics by Paul McCartney
8. Geography - Stonehenge by Francis Pryor
9. Linked to a Podcast
10. Wild Animals - Aesop's Animals: The Science beyond the Fables by Jo Wimpenny
11. Economics
12. Published in 2022

My favorite book in this reading challenge was The Lyrics by Paul McCartney. I was fortunate enough to have seen McCartney with Wings at a concert in Germany in 1976. It was amazing.  Big fan here!

 Trauma was another one I could recommend for the medical memoir.

The Nonfiction Reader Challenge is hosted by Shelleyrae at Book'd Out.  Check out the sign up post and info HERE.  It's never too late to join in on a reading challenge in my opinion!

The Lost Family by Libby Copeland and Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

 

The Lost Family was an interesting nonfiction book about DNA testing.  Through spitting into a tube and sending your sample to Ancestry or 23andMe some people have found surprises in their family lines.

Some are welcomed into a family they never knew. With others, they've been met with mistrust as the "new family" think they’re interested in money or have ulterior motives. That’s quite a disappointment for somebody that feels like they have suddenly found their biological family.

This book also addresses the genetic testing with markers for health reasons, 23andMe may lead to discoveries you'd wish you’d never uncovered. If you find out you have a genetic marker for Alzheimers do you tell your children so they know something to look for? It would hang like a guillotine over my neck the rest of my life so I don't want to know.

Another book I found very interesting on the same subject is Dani Shapiro's nonfiction Inheritance.  Check out the review HERE on my previous book blog. I immediately thought about this book when I was reading The Lost Family.

And with that I will segue to Dani Shapiro's latest book, a work of fiction titled Signal Fires.  This kept me reading constantly. I finished this in two days. 

You know how some authors can describe characters so will you have a very vivid mental image of what they look like? Well not only does the author describe them so you can picture them, she builds the flesh and emotion around them.  You can visualize the mannerisms, witness their anxiety and know when they were uncomfortable or when they’re getting ready to explode and anger. She brings them to life.

There is a young boy who is a genius level with an interest in the the stars.  He can't seem to connect with his classmates or his father. He will become an astrophysicist but he experiences loneliness growing up. The connections of all the characters -signal fires -link the young boy, the doctor and his family who live across the street, a car accident which takes a life, everything is connected. As I said, couldn't put this down and would recommend to a fan of Dani Shapiro.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this advanced reader copy.  The publication date is October 18, 2022 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing. Genre: General Fiction, Literary Fiction.

Sharing The Lost family with Shellyrae at Book'd Out for the 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge (Category: Popular Science). Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

The Maze by Nelson DeMille

 

I have enjoyed many of DeMille's novels and remember liking the character John Corey. He's a combination of Jack Reacher and Detective Frank Mackey (Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French) with a heavy side of sarcasm.

That said, I enjoyed the first two John Corey novels Plum Island and The Lion's Game much more than this one. The macho stuff was way over the top and I found myself ready to skim to get to the mystery. If you haven't read any of this series before please don't start with this one as you need background and character development.

Basic plot is about murdered prostitutes and how Corey gets involved - again. He investigates dirty cops and has a teenaged inner dialogue about women (Ugh), mental scenarios where he is as agile and badass as he was in his youth.  If you aren't a John Corey fan already I'd give it a pass. Plum Island was great so you could make the exception there!

Publication date October 11, 2022 by Scribner.  Genre: General Fiction Adult, Mystery and Thrillers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.  I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.

The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields

My introduction to Helen Fields' books were through the D.I. Callanach series and I was instantly hooked.  If you like police procedurals and mysteries which are gritty and bold, this is your author.

The Last Girl to Die is a stand alone novel with charcaters you'd not be familar with if you were a fan of the aforementioned series. This one is a page turner. 

The setting is Mull, a small island off the coast of Scotland. Our main character is Sadie Levesque, a Canadian private investigator hired by the Clark family to find their missing daughter. The Clarks are from California and when 17 year old Adriana suddenly disappears, they seek help from outside the community.  The local townspeople are close knit and outsiders aren't welcomed with open arms. The police chief isn't helpful and tells the parents she's probably off partying in Glasgow.

Sadie doggedly pursues her investigation despite the hostile environment and lack of cooperation / info sharing from the police. Secrets are uncovered about the Clark family and a few locals,  violence is threatened and carried out and the ending - just wow. I was so astounded how this ended. I went back a chapter to reread it. If Fields comes out with any new books I will purchase them.  

Publication date September 1, 2022 by Avon Books U.K.  Genre: General Fiction Adult.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.  I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.