darklingichor

[darklingichor]

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, by Alexander McCall Smith

Book 13 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

The stakes are a bit higher for Mma Ramotswe and company in this book. The younger apprentice at the garage is arrested for being a party in the selling of stolen cars and the matron of the orphan farm is dismissed from her post. Fanwell is frightened and swears he's innocent, Mma Potokwani is devastated. Mma Ramotswe is determined to help her friends. Helping out with this is Mr. Clovis Anderson, a detective from Indiana visiting Botswana. He is something of a super star to Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi because he wrote The Principles of Private Detection, the book Mma Ramotswe learned her trade from and based her business on. Both ladies can quote the book chapter and verse.

Meanwhile, newlyweds Mma Makutsi and Phuti Radiphuiti are building their house. Mma Makutsi is getting used to having the money for the comforts that she couldn't afford before, but is distrustful of the builder that was hired to construct their home. Husband and wife end up having something of a mystery on their hands.

I sort of groaned when I read that we meet Clovis Anderson in this one. I expected it to be a story of "Never meet your heroes" where the man our detectives hold in such high regard is a jackass.

Instead, the opposite is true. Mr. Anderson just happened upon the detective agency and out of professional curiosity, stopped in. He is utterly shocked to find that he is so well known and his book so loved by Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. He is very kind and down to earth and happily helps the two with Mma Potokwani's plight. I really liked this character and would be happy to see him pop up again.

Mma Potokwani's problem arrives in the form of a lovely blessing. This lady who does everything she can to make sure the orphans in her charge are well taken care of and feel loved is pushed out of her post when a member of the orphan farm's board and she disagree about what to do with a large sum of money given to the farm.

Mma Potokwani can be downright pushy and will beg, borrow, and manipulate to make sure the orphans get everything they need and are as happy as possible. To dismiss her from this calling made no sense to anyone, least of all our detectives. The same day that this happens, Fanwell is arrested. After a brief period of shock, the ladies and the Speedy Motors crew get to work.

Fanwell's trial sort of ends up being a comedy with Charlie finding a hilarious, if morally gray way of helping his friend.

The orphan farm and Mma Makutsi 's mystery takes a little longer and a little more patience, but they wrapped up in awesome ways.

I think my very favorite part was when Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi went on a road trip and started speculating how much tea they drink in a week. It's little sideboards like that that make these books feel like the definition of cozy.

#The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection #Alexander McCall Smith #book #books #book blogging 2024

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The complete Peanuts vol. 1, by Charles Schultz

The Peanuts is a happy place for me.

The first Christmas Special I remember watching was It's Christmas, Charlie Brown

I would be a teenager before I realized that I knew two Bible verses, without knowing they were Bible verses. One from the Byrds song Turn Turn Turn, and the other recited by Linus.

All through my childhood, I read the weekly strip in the Sunday paper. I can still whistle "We're The Best of Buddies" from Snoopy Come Home. I love these characters so much

I have read some if the early trips, but I have not read them in order and I have not seen an unabridged collection.

When this one showed up on Kindle Unlimited, I jumped into it.

I enjoyed the early strips, though they are very different in style and tone to what it would turn into later.

The characters are not really the philosophical bunch that I was first introduced to in the late 80's. They can actually be pretty mean. But, that's a part of the joke. The kids can be mean to each other and then literally turn around and forget the whole thing.

I think my favorites were the comics involving toddler Lucy. She's hilarious and you can really see the character she will become in these early stories. Linus and Schroeder were introduced as babies and that was cool because you see Schroeder 's obsession with Beethoven develop, and Linus's nature from the beginning.

I think I will continue to read these complete volumes, just to see things evolve.

#The complete Peanuts vol. 1 #Charles Schultz #book #books #book blogging 2024

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Real American Girls Tell Their Own Stories, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler

I saw a snippet from this book on a tumblr post, where in a girl from the 1800's wrote about dissecting a mouse with another girl.

And how she much preferred this sort of scientific pastime to sewing.

I found that to be interesting so, I got the book. It's small and fairly thin, but it is made up of letters, diary enteries and rememberences from girls raging from the 1790's up to the 1950's.

It was a quick read but I really enjoyed it.

My favorite ones were stories where the girl's response to things wasn't what you would expect.

In one, a girl was being teased by her brother and called him a fool. Her father read a Bible verse that sayed that whoever calls someone a fool would go to hell. The girl asked what kind of hellish punishment would await her if she killed him with a hammer.

Or the teenager who was asked by a boy to sit with him at the movies, and she liked sitting with him because while other girls were dealing with boys who were trying to get fresh, her boy just ate snacks and they were able to watch the movie.

I can totally see having this book in a middle grade history class to give a voice to the past.

#books #book #book blogging 2024 #Real American Girls Tell Their Own Stories #by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler

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Abandoned Prayers; The Amish Wife, by Gregg Olsen

I seem to be on something of a nonfiction kick. I liked Olsen's story telling with If You Tell, so I thought I would give The Amish Wife a try because it was free with my audible membership. I got about five minutes into it and realized that this was a follow up to one of hos earlier books. I can't read things out of order, with the exception of brother Cadfael books, so, I had to stop and read Abandoned Prayers.

The case of Eli Stutzman, his wife Ida and his son Danny is sad and very weird.

Eli was born into an Amish community from an early age it was apparent that there was something off about him. And this wasn't your typical just not right for the Amish life, kind of stuff. He would lie to get attention,

It was thought that he skinned a cat, just to blame some other people for it. He cut himself up and pretended to have been assaulted. Then of course there was the fact that people had a habit of dying around him.

He was in and out of the Amish community in the 70's, one of the times he was in, he married a devout Amish girl named Ida. Ida loved Eli, but he was less than interested in really making a life with her. They had a son Danny, but when the boy was still very young, the barn on their property caught fire, and Ida, pregnant with their second child,died trying to get equipment, or animals out of the blaze (what she was trying to rescue depended on what Eli decided to say at any given time).

Eli told various stories full.of various holes, one of them being that Ida had a weak heart and that, is what ultimately lead her death.

The ME at the time, did a crappy job on Ida's autopsy and went with the heart thing, even though there was really no evidence of it.

Eli then took Danny and left the Amish.

They criss-crossed states so much that I couldn't really keep track, but the time was filled with drugs and sex, all in all not an environment for a kid. There was more thanmone account that suggested that Danny was abused, by his father and used in some of these parties. Which is so disgusting and rage inducing that I feel sick just typing that.

After one of his roommates turned up dead, Eli took Danny and fled, the boy was eventually found dead in a corn field in Nebraska. Eli would spin stories, that his son had been sick and passed from illness, that it had been the fault of fumes from a faulty tail pipe on the car they had been driving in.

Eli was convicted of the murder of his roommate, and abandoing his son as his death couldn't be determined.He was sent to prison in 1985. His sentence was for forty years, but he was out in fifteen. He later killed himself. It is thought that he also killed two other men.

Okay, so that's a very truncated version of what the first book is about. The bare facts. And I did that to make a point.

Eli Stutzman was a sick man who killed people, including his own son.

What I didn't say, that Olsen focused on is that Eli was gay. Two of the other men he is suspected of killing were two of his lovers.

Eli would put ads in magazines looking for hook ups, or relationships, charm these men, and then end up manipulating money out of them, or just be abusive. He would then make something up and run.

And he got away with so much stuff because so many of these men were afraid to come forward because of the stigma of being gay in the 70's and 80's.

So why did I leave this out in the above summary? Because, while it is important that Eli was gay and took advantage of and killed men who trusted him, it's important because it highlights just how fearful people were about being outed.

Olsen, however seemingly recounts every single sexual encounter he was told about, often, mentioned over and over how well hung Eli was. He described orgies. All of this over and over again.

There was something in how this was written that felt like it was dehumanizing the men that Eli duped. It read less like an account of how this sick fuck used the fear in the gay community to get his rocks off and abuse people., and more like trying to paint being a gay man as equivalent to being seedy, which is a low move, even for something published in 2002 and set mostly in the 70's and 80's.

Eli Stutzman was a horrible human being, he would have been one even if he hadn't been gay.

In The Amish Wife, the tone was much different, there wasn't a focus on the sex, and the men that Eli hooked up with were given more humanity. This was also a much more personal book.

Many people thought that Eli had killed Ida. He wanted out of the Amish life, he wanted to do whatever he pleased, and he needed money to do it.

He wasn't even subtle, less than twelve hours after a will was drawn up, something most Amish do not do, Ida was dead. Eli was dumb about it, not even giving enough time for the document to be processed.

Olsen spent less time in Eli's head and more time in his own and the personal crusade he picked up trying to get justice for Ida.

I felt that this book was less sensationalized in style and didn't read like a tabloid. Rather it was more about finding the truth.

The differences between these two books made me wonder if, because Abandoned Prayers was one if the author's early books, the publisher told him to punch up the sex element of it to make it more interesting.

He doesn't say so in The Amish Wife, but it's just something to think about.

Justice for Ida could only come from finding the truth since the person who killed her is beyond punishment, but that doesn’t mean that that surch for truth isn't worthwhile.

All in all, these books were interesting, but not the best true crime I have read.

#Book #books #book blogging 2024 #abandoned Prayers #Gregg Olsen

[darklingichor]

One in a Millennial, by Kate Kennedy

This book is a little hard to write about.

I have never listened to Kate Kennedy's podcast Be There in Five, but I plan on looking into it. This book caught my eye because of the title. The author examines the culture and expectations many American millennials have experienced, through the lens of her own life. As such we get stories of her life that bring the reader along on an emotional journey. The book is funny and entertaining and at times, I got choked up

I'm a millennial, four years older than the author. All the ribbing and sometimes down right vitriol that millenals get never really bothered me. I know that I never killed any industries, I don't like avocados, and I never got a participation trophy. That's what's true for me, and you gotta figure any combination of those things are true or not true for a lot of people. You can't reduce an entire generation down to a few memeable things, this is true of all generations.

But, many millennials did experience similar pop culture, the same historical mile markers, and the same shifting of expectations. And because of this, our view of the world can be tinted a certain way. Most of the book is focused on the experience of millennial women in the US, as the author is a millennial woman in the US. But there are several things that, I think,would sound familar to anyone who was a kid and young adult in this time period.

Because this book looks at the time that many people grew up in, it inspires some powerful nostalgia, what's cool is that the author manages to wipe away the rose tint without taking away the pure joy so many of us felt, listening to, watching, or doing the things we loved.

What's funny is that I relate so much to her experiences, even though many of them, I, on the surface, had the opposite thing happen in my life.

The author spends a good amout of time talking about how wh3n she was young she wanted to fit in an be liked. By time I got into Jr. High, I just wanted to be left alone.

This sounds like I wouldn't relate to her at all, but I do, because fundamentally, I think we wanted the same thing: Peace.

She wanted to be liked and be popular because that would make the teenage years easier. I wanted to be left alone for the same reason. Like the author, my home was my safe haven, I could be as weird and as loud about it as I wanted to be. I could watch the History Channel, Wheel of Foutune, and Jeopardy with my grandma and love every second of it. I could blast my Beach Boys, my Time Life hits of the 50's, and not have anyone say anything about it. School was different. I liked the TV and movies of my classmates, for the most part, but music, hobbies and fashion, I couldn't see the appeal. I wasn't athletic, large groups made me grumpy, and by the time my personal fashion taste came around (hippie fashion by way of the late 90's) I was in a private school with a uniform.

So, my way of dealing with stuff in the public school system was to try and blend in to the background.

The author loved pop culture and wanted to be popular. Nothing what soever wrong with that, what made me sad was that she felt like when the winds changed on what was cool, her young self had to change what she loved with it. That sucks! The interesting thing about that is that so much of what was cool for girls was dictated by boys. The boys would say that something sucked now and then things had to change. I felt so bad for younger Kate when she said how much she loved the Spice Girls, but had to give them up when a group of boys tod her and her friends that they weren't in anymore. But who decided that? The corporations whose whole goal is to manipulate people so they can move product, and they target the young first. So, who decides for these kids when things change? The people trying to sell to them.

And yeah, you could say that this is An over reaction to pop music trends, but think back when you first found music that you connected with. Now imagine that you are told that if you like that music that spoke to you, no one will like *you*. You're a kid you're just discovering yourself and maybe puberty is wreaking havoc on you. What do you hear? "You listen to that, you will be alone."

That's devastating!

I was a stubborn kid who just wanted to blend in, I just didn't talk about what music I liked. But if you really want to be liked, then something like that feels like a huge problem with only one solution, adapt or be left out.

Social isolation is terrifying, especially for a kid. I experienced it when they split my 6th grade into "Class A" and "Class B". And rotated us from class room to class room "to prepare" us for the class schedule of Jr. High.

All of my oddball friends (all three of them) ended up B and I ended up in A. It was awful, no one would talk to me, no one would be my partner in assignments. I sat alone at lunch.

All.of these things are really hard on a kid and my grades started to slip.

I eventually begged my teachers to switch me to B. In the singular show of compassion from my town's public school system I ever experienced, they did. And things got better.

So yeah, social pressure is a bitch!

There's a lot more that I related to in the childhood and teen sections of tge book, but I also want to touch on the author's response to all of the things that are put on Millennials.

As I said, I've heard a lot of stuff, and so many of them are said about every generation by the one before it. "Kids these days have no respect. " "They are so entitled and lazy." "They rely too much on technology."

As general statements about millions of people, thesr are bullshit.

People say younger people have no respect when they start questioning things and wanting change, entitlement is accused when they ask for the rights they know they should have, reliance on technology just means that the technology is available like it wasn't before.

So what is it that defined melenials?

The author hits the nail on the head when she says, we were raised for a system that no longer exists.

Our parents told us that if we studied hard , went to college and got a degree we would set ourselves up for a good financial road. This was done in good faith, this was the way the system worked for them and they wanted the best for us. Unfortunately, this system broke down and now so many of us are left with debt, jobs that have nothing to do with our education that don't pay enough and when we figured out ways to make it work we were told we were still doing it wrong.

Can't afford a car so takes the bus "Millennials are so entitled and lazy they expect people to drive them around"

Can't afford to live on your own, so lives with family or roommates "Millennials can't grow up."

Is it any wonder so many of us have the fuck it attitude?

This adittude can and does make for a bit of flexibility when it comes to carrer ideas. And the author went with it. She took her talent for writing and went into marketing, and then took a cool idea and turned it into a bussiness, then took a risk and started a podcast.

She doesn't sugarcoat anything, it was hard.

The parts where I choked up were her accounts of struggling with parenthood. She struggled with whether or not she wanted to be a parent and then once she decided she wanted to be one, she struggled with fertility.

This is another thing that you might not think I would connect with, but I do.

I'm happily childless. I knew I did not want to have kids when I was twelve years old and nothing has changed. But, here's the thing, up until my midthirties, I was told over and over again by other people that I would change my mind.

I got the "selfish" accusation more than once too. Though I knew I didn't want kids, I did go though a period of time where I felt guilty for not wanting them.

The author details in the book her back and forth about what she wanted verses what people told her she should want. And while she doesn't come right out and say it, to me, it came across, that it can be really difficult to figure out your own mind when you have a bunch of people, and society itself buzzing in your ears.

I enjoyed this book a lot, both for the honesty and the nostalgia.

#Book #books #book blogging 2024 #One in a Millennial #Kate Kennedy

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Poyums, by Len Pennie

I found the author of this book while scrolling through Tik Tok where she primarily teaches a word a day in the Scots language (Miss PunnyPennie) I love language and find these videos a lot of fun. Then she started promoting her book.

I've said before, I'm picky about poetry. So much of it sounds pretentious and overly flowery to me. I love Robert Frost, developed a fondness for Wilfred Owen after a college project, but other than that, I can't think of another poet that has made an impact.

I *love* this book. The author 's writing is frank and raw, while still being lyrical and painting word pictures that you not only see, but feel down in your bones. The poems are often painful in the feelings they express, but some are also darkly funny. Many others explore the elements of our culture and how woman must navigate it, still others celebrate love and healing.

A lot of the poems mix the Scots language with English and it is so interesting to read because, personally, I had no trouble understanding what was being said despite the fact that I don't speak Scots.

If you like poetry, go read it. If you don't like poetry, still go read it because it is truly a great read.

#Books #Book #Book Blogging 2024 #Poyums #Len Pennie

[darklingichor]

Call The Midwife; Shadows of the Workhouse; Farewell to the East End, by Jennifer Worth

I have this thing where if everyone is talking about a show, I don't want to watch it. Not because I'm trying to be too cool or anything, but because if I start a show that everyone is watching, I feel like watching it is an assignment like I'm going to be given a pop quiz at any time. It's too much pressure, and it takes the fun out of it. It's the same reason I don't join book clubs. You Tell me I have to read a book in a week and be prepared to discuss it... you just gave me homework. I Don't want to do homework.

So, if I get into shows, it's years after everyone else has finished it and I don't feel the pressure to watch it, or to "push past" annoying plot lines and episodes.

So it was with Call the Midwife. There was a time when it seemed like everyone was talking about it, an although it looked interesting, I waited.

I saw some clips here and there recently and figured I would give it a shot.

I watched the first few episodes and liked them, so I took to the library for the books.

I watched a few more episodes and read the books... now I'll admit, for all that I enjoyed them, I am less interested.

Here's the thing. The show is lovely, the characters are great. The books are good, the author's voice is engaging and the stories captivating. But something is not sitting with me right, maybe I can figure it out by writing about it.

So the bones of it. Nurse and student Midwife Jenny Lee walks into an assignment at Nonntus House, an Anglican convent where all of the sisters are nurses and midwives. They and small group lay women, also nurses,training to be midwives, service the expectant mothers of the East End of London in the 1950's. It's a poor area of the city living in the shadows of WWII and all of the destruction it caused. Pre accessible birth control, the sisters and their live in nurses were very busy.

Each nun and student Midwife are wonderful characters. There isn't one that I fully dislike. Though Nurse Trixie can wear on my nerves, and as wonderfully excentric Sister Monica Joan can be, she's also mean in her pleasantly demented state. Jenny herself... well, I'll get there.

The stories of the patients can be funny, or heartbreaking, often both at the same time.

Times were tough and, going from house to house caring for people, it makes sense that one would see the best and the worst of humanity.

I think what bothers me is the author's adittude. Clearly, Jennifer Worth developed into a good nurse and Midwife, but...

My mom is a nurse and she loves her career. Ever since I was a kid. I have held the belief that if you go into nursing, or doctoring only for the money, you are doing yourself and the people you treat, a disservice.

Don't misunderstand, medical people should be paid and paid well for all that they do, they should not be expected to do it for love alone.

But, it's a hard path. It's physically and mentally exhausting, it seems tailor made to test one's mental health to the limits. This is because people rarely need a doctor or a nurse when things are going fine. Even a routine childbirth is painful, and stressful on mother, baby, and family, anything medical can be this way. And for this reason, patients deserve someone who *wants to do the job*. Only doing it for money( this is in modern context as nursing was not always highly paid) or (as Jenny puts it) because she thought it would be "easier" is a one way ticket to burn out and that is no good for anyone involved. Plus, with only two notable exceptions, people who go into the field when it's not really what they want to do, in my experience, tend to see the patient as a task to be completed rather than a person and that's not right.

Now, that is not to say that someone who went down the medical path when their heart wasn't in it can't change and Jennifer obviously did, but considering that in these books we are seeing her young and inexperienced outside of a hospital setting, her thinly veiled disdain for the way those of the neighborhoods had to live, was annoying.

She often writes that she felt disgust, irritation or anger upon dealing with some people, only to find compassion for them later after she learned their stories. The fact is she should have been feeling compassion for them at the time because they are people.

I work in hospice and yes, there are people who I inwardly groan at when they call, because they are unpleasant to talk to, but you can still feel compassion for someone while feeling a slightly less charitable emotion because this person might be annoying, but *person* is the important part, and they are also a person going through a rough time.

There is also this odd subtext that I'm not sure I am reading too much into, but it bothers me.

There is this odd prejudice toward non-English women, and in these episodes, a habit of what I strongly expect is embellishment.

I first noticed it with the story of Conchita Warren. A Spanish woman who, when Jenny meets her, is having her 24th baby. Her husband had found her in Spain when he was in the army. She was very young. They married when she was 16 (her already having had four of his children).

This is so beyond gross, and fucking criminal, but this couple is held up as a wonderful one because the husband is so devoted. Never mind the fact that neither member of the couple spoke the other's language and used their kids as translators. Think about that. Before their first kid was able to speak in full conversations, they had no way of talking with one another. That is deeply creepy.

Yeah, yeah, I know, different time, blah ah blah, but it's so gross. The show at least pointed out how odd it was. Not so in the book.

Conchita herself is portrayed as possibly not that bright and just smiles and raises kids.

Then there was the story of Mary, the teenager who found herself pregnant and on the streets after coming from Ireland and getting tricked into prostitution. She is also seen as not too bright. Jenny helps her as much as she can, but Mary's baby is taken away and Mary can't handle the grief of it. Later, before the age of 21, Mary is sent to prison for kidnapping a baby girl.

Then we hop to the third book where in there is the tale of Kathleen a girl who literally just got off the boat from Ireland the day before. Heavily pregnant after having "trusted a sailor" she gives birth to triplets (having had one in her sleep) their future is left uncertain and grim. Not much is said of her intelligence but she is so Weirdly cheerful though all of it that I think the reader is suppose to question it.

Also in the third book we had the story of a Scandinavian"ship's woman" aboard a trading ship. Who keeps all of the men on the ship "happy" including her own father.

I'll pause to let you deal with the vomit in your mouth.

This woman is deceibed as fat, her nether parts big enough for big and tall Chummy's hand to slip easily inside. After the birth and falling on the floor, she has to be helped up by two big sailors. This episode is played for laughs and again, the woman is thought to be cheerfully stupid of her plight.

I don't think one of these stories are true. I think Mary's comes the closest because there was a case of a woman from Ireland having lost I think four children the first put up for adoption the others passing away, kidnapping a little girl in the 60's. But the woman was 34, and did it because she feared that her husband would leave her after she lost the last baby. I think Mary's story was crafted with this or something like it in mind.

The story of Conchita Warren can be seen as an allegory for colonization. This young and stupid peasant girl was rescued from a war by a devoted white hero. He loved her so much and she him that it didn’t matter that she was taken from her culture (or her culture taken from her) or even that her benevolent love couldn't speak her language. Look at all the beautiful children they made... their own loving empire. And wasn't it for Conchita's benefit?

Mary's story paired with Kathleen's to me, reads like a laundry list of Irish stereotypes, Mary is seen as emotional, reckless, and without critical thought. So stained by the backwards upbringing with her mother a drunk and her stepfather an abuser, that she was easily tricked into becoming a sex worker. Then we are told, basically, once a hooker, always a hooker and therefore her baby had to be taken away to be brought up by a "good Christian Family". Unable to cope with the loss of a child, sonething we are told that an english woman could handle well, she is seen as amoral and reckless when she kidnapped a baby, needing to be contained

Kathleen by contrast is all at once the victim of the conservitive atmosphere of her family since she can't let her mother know she 's pregnant to the point of running to another country, but so fuzzy on morals that without her family's supervision she got herself into trouble. Then of course there is the sereotype that the Irish have a lot of kids, so many that they can have them in their sleep.

The story of the ship's woman might be less of a condemnation of non English woman, and more a take on the supposed depravity of sailors. Either way, the description of the woman is filled with shaming language and just like the other women, it is implied that she is too ignorant to know she has been abused.

Now, I don't care that she made stuff up, the fact that she made up stuff that is so blatantly prejudice is what soured me on it. Jenny quietly judges all of the poor of the East End, but it is the non English ones that get used for morality tales.

The second book just annoyed me to no end because Jenny is so callous even to people she knows well, until she knows their back stories. Yet, stately, aristocratic Sister Monica Joan is held in awe by Jenny even though she can be down right cruel at times. Yes, Sister Monica Joan is not in her right mind all the time,and yes people can be mean and angry in that state sometimes. But Jenny kept going back to Sister Monica Joan's privileged up bringing and b3cause of that, it leant a feeling that Jenny is very aware of class hierarchy and her place in it. Below Sister Monica Joan, who acts the part (unlike Chummy who is awkward and clumsy) above those she serves.

And anxious Jane so desperate to help the sisters,is seen as an irritant or someone to be made fun of, until Jenny learns of her childhood in the Workhouse. Peggy is tolerable because she cheerfully cleans up Nonntus house (read, she knows her place).

However, Jennifer is a good writer, and knows how a character should be and how a story should go, so characters like Jane and Chummy get Redemption arch, never mind that they didn't need redeeming in the first place. Jane finds love, Chummy proves to everyone that she can keep it together, will happily work with the poor, and be cheerful.

Basically, what I'm getting in the subtext of these books is that they were written by a snob, who knows she's a snob, but feels bad about being one.

And because of that, I came away from these books feeling like I learned a great deal, but also feeling icky.

#Jennifer Worth #Call the Midwife Trillogy #book #books #book blogging 2024

[darklingichor]

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, by Alexander McCall Smith

I liked this one, but at first I thought it was going to go in a very different direction.

Our main case is that of a farmer with a lot of cattle, some of which were mutilated. This is a grievous crime both because of the cruelty to the animals and because cattle is a major way of measuring wealth.

Mma Ramotswe must figure out who did this and finds in the course of her investigation, that the list of suspects isn't short because her client is a jerk.

There is trouble at Speedy Motors because Charlie's antics seem to have gone too far this time and he may have a couple of mouths he is responsible to feed.

Mma Ramotswe is still pining over her tiny white van, which was replaced a couple of books back, but now seems to be haunting the town.

Mma Makutsi's wedding is fast approaching and preparations are being made.

I'll be honest, I was annoyed, at first, by the Charlie story line. It just seems so out of place, for these stories to have Charlie be a dead beat dad in the making. But the story did turn it around and Charlie seems to have grown up a fair amount.

The main case was interesting, I like it when Mma Ramotswe has to deal with an unlikable client, she has such a way about her that she is always honest, but has the way with words to make it sound perfectly polite even when she is dealing with someone she would rather not.

The van plot is just silly and delightful.

Mma Makutsi is starting to remind me of Lucy Riccardo. She's forever getting herself in to ridiculous situations and is always afraid to tell Puthi. The difference is that unlike Ricky, Puthi just shrugs and says oh well anytime Mma Makutsi ends up accidentally ruining something.

The pair finally get married and I loved their wedding, it was sweet and without drama.

#Book #books #book blogging 2024 #Alexander McCall Smith #The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party

[darklingichor]

Lightning, by Dean Koontz

I readthis one years ago, and decided to revisit it to see if it annoyed me like Life Expencitcy and Odd Thomas did.

This one is a little hard to summarize because it's one that anything can sort of be a spoiler.

The follows Laura Shane from her birth in the 1950's to being nearly forty by the end.

Laura doesn't have an easy life, but it would have been so much harder if not for a mysterious guardian that seems to be watching over her.

Who is this guardian? How does he seem to know when Laura will need him? Why couldn't certain awful events been avoided?

This is one of the few Koontz books that still holds up for me, I wasn't nearly as annoyed as I was by my Odd Thomas re-reads.

The characters have depth, flaws, and quirks. The story is all at once complex without being annoying and simple without being pandering. It looks and the comedy and tradagy of life, plays with the concepts of fate and free will.

I feel that the writing allows for the reader to get lost in the story. I only counted a couple of times when the narrative starts ranting at the reader, and only one of them feels like a puzzle piece shoved in the wrong space.

I do wish that the point of Laura's beauty weren't made over and over again. It is tied to her virtues and in some ways it is almost implied that by being beautiful, the universe found it necessary to keep throwing shit at her, just to balance it out.

I also found the extended and repeated threats of child abuse that Laura faced, nauseating. I get what Koontz was trying to do, trying to point out the rough circumstances that Laura and other kids found themselves in, and the institutional problem of adults employeed by the system not listening to the children they are in charge of. But it got to a point where the creepiness, and the disturbing danger were made very clear. After that point, some of the details, and the time spent on a certain character felt gratuitous. It wasn't only that it was gross, it was gross and monotonous.

Other than that, this is one of Koontz's better books.

#Book #books #dean koontz #lightening #book blogging 2024

[darklingichor]

The Double Comfort Safari Club, By Alexander McCall Smith

Not sure how long this one is going to be, I'm fighting off a cold.

In this one, Mma Ramotswe must help a wife who thinks that her husband is cheating and also find a guide from a safari tour as a former traveler has left him money in her will. The latter case is interesting because as much of an impression that the guise made on the lady, shee didn't remember his name or the name of the camp. So Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi need to do a bit of investigating.

Mma Makutsi 's rival rears her head again to cause trouble to others and Mma Ramotswe shuts it down, neatly.

Mma Makutsi has some drama on the home front as her fiance Phuti has an accident at work and there is something of a struggle between Mma Makutsi and one of Phuti's aunts over who should be taking care of him as he recovers.

As usual the story is delightful to read and Mma Ramotswe is the most Evan keeled detective ever. If I had one complaint it's that there seems to be a lot of drama surrounding getting Mma Makutsi and Phuiti to the alter. While I like that it doesn't come from inside the couple as a sweeter pair you won't find, it gets annoying that everyone seems to want to put a roadblock up. Makes me wish that elopement was possible in the Botswana culture! Get these two to the equivalent of Vegas and shut everyone up!

Other than that, I thought this one was one of the stronger books

#Book #books #The Double Comfort Safari Club #Alexander McCall Smith #book blogging 2024

[darklingichor]

If You Tell, by Gregg Olsen

True crime revolving around the murders of Kathy Larado, Shane Watson, and Ron Woodworth between the Years of 1994 and the early 2000's, commited by Shelly and Dave Knotek.

This book doesn’t take the Ann Rule approach to crime. The author doesn't spend a lot of time trying to figure out why Shelly Knotek, the woman behind the deaths of these three people, is the way she is. In fact, she is not the center of the story. The author really focuses on the stories of the three Knotek sisters, who lived through the horrific abuse and came out on the other side and were instrumental in bringing their mother and father to justice.

I found this to be a refreshing take. I understand wanting to know the why's behind madness, and Shelly likely has something in her past that helped the twisted wiring in her brain to manifest this evil, but I don’t care. Spending more time examining the why, in this case, I feel gives this person more consideration than she deserves.

Shelly Knotek abused her daughters while also abusing her nephew, Shane, who the family took in. These kids were tormented and made to suffer in ways that no one should ever suffer, let alone at the hands of someone who is suppose to love and protect them. Kathy was Shelly's best friend and moved in with the family when Shelly was pregnant with her youngest daughter. Soon, Kathy was the focus of the abuse and she was also used to keep the others in the house in line. She made teenage Shane carryout sadistic punishments on Kathy, while Shelly herself shouted instructions. When the abuse finally lead to Kathy's death, Shelly assured her family, that if anyone ever found out, all of the family would be in jail. Or, alternatively, she would blame Shane.

Shane, however, disappeared not long after Kathy died. It was discovered years later that Dave Knotek, under pressure from Shelly, had killed Shane so he wouldn't go to the police about the murder.

Ron Woodworth suffered a fate similar to Kathy after befriending Shelly.

The abuse of her daughters never stopped completely while they lived with Shelly, but when there was another person in the house, it was less.

Near the end if the book, Shelly is decribed as being like a cult leader. And that is pretty apt in my view.

She ruled her family with fear, and employed cult like tactics to keep them in line. Alternating between loving and torment, taking things away, limiting or withholding food, sleep, clothing, employing punishments and wrapping them in a guise of "helping". She made an environment where everyone was afraid to talk, and afraid to leave. There were times that her daughters thought she had physic powers, because she always seem to know when someone "transgressed".

Her husband Dave was all at once involved in what was going on, and in complete denial of it. I found him to be the most confusing player in this whole thing. He insists that anything bad that happened was unintentional, that Shelly wouldn't hurt anyone, yet he told the author in detail how he burned the bodies of Kathy and Shane, and how he buried Ron's body on the property. In some ways he's also a victim... but in others... I mean, no one can be in this deep of denial can they?

The sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori had to navigate their mother's abuse and manipulation to maintain their relationships with each other. Often, Shelly would try to pit them against each other, prevent them from talking with each other. Maybe this was simply another one of Shelly's power plays, but I wonder if, also on some level, she knew that the three of them united would be her downfall.

I think a lot of people might read this book and wonder how no one ever caught on that something fucked up was going on.

After all, the kids would go to school unwashed. Shelly once slapped Nikki in full view of the school bus driver, Shelly would make Kathy, and later, Ron, do yard work with little to no clothing. Kathy and Shane's remains were burned on the family's property. All of this taking place in a city of less than three thousand people. Raymond, Washington.

However, I kind of get how this went unseen.

I grew up in Raymond from the age of six until I was nineteen. In fact, when this story broke, I think I'd been out of Raymond for a year or less. And when I saw a news anchor reporting in front of Case's Pond (a local summer hang out I spent my childhood calling Casey's Pond) I was shocked, but not surprised.

I didn't know any of the Knoteks, I think Nikki may have gone to Raymond High, but graduated while I was still in grade school. Sami and Tori both went to Valley (from what I have heard from friends who went there,and what is said in the book). Which was Raymond High's rival.

But, here's the thing, this town, I think, happened to be the perfect place for Shelly to get away with this like she did.

In the book, the author decribed the culture of the town as having high walls. That is a good way to look at it.

Raymond is not a town people go to without either need or connection. This was my experience:

My family consisted of my mom and my grandparents. My grandpa worked for Weyerhaeuser logging, and they transfered him to Raymond when I was six, so we moved. Everyone else that lived there had family that had always lived there. And if you didn't have those family ties, you were always going to be on the outside. A little dismissed, slightly ignored. There was always this odd feeling that I have a hard time articulating... that there was just an element of the local culture that I would never be in on - not necessarily something nefarious or horrible - just something I wasn't meant to *get*.

This can be an uncomfortable feeling, but I can also see how it might work to someone's advantage if their mind was bent a certain way.

Shelly married a local, but she was not a local, and that taken with the fact that, apparently everyone knew she was nuts meant that she was avoided. Kinda easy to get away with shit when you don't want anyone to know you and the feeling is mutual.

Add to it that Raymond is a poor town. Yeah, there are a few well off families, but for the most part a lot of people are trying to get by. This means that kids showing up unwashed or hungry, or in worn out clothes unfortunately, was not abnormal, when I was a kid. It didn't nessarily mean that there was anything wrong at home, other than money was tight. I mean, if your water is turned off and you're a week away from payday, what are you going to do? It's horrible that your kid is going to be picked on, or is going to have to depend on the school's free breakfast and lunch programs, but, what else can be done? I don't know if every kid this happened with was checked in on by teachers and such, my guess would be no. Teacher burn out was a big problem.

The Knotek girls also knew how to cover things up, because they had to, which leads into the last thing that made this town an ideal place for Shelly's maddess.

When I lived there, there was a lot of... mistrust? Of authority. The feeling I got growing up there, is that many things that might go wrong in a family, should be handled within the family. It was less of "turn a blind eye" than it was "I'm sure it is being taken care of". So, I can see how if someone saw something strange, their response might be "Well, we all know that family is weird" or, "That is none of my bussiness". Look, I knew a lot of good people in Raymond, but I also had a creepy neighbor or two, and everyone knew which houses to avoid.

When it comes to the cops, I don't know why there was mistrust. I don't know if there was just a feeling of nothing will be done because this cop is related to so and so who is inlaws with that guy, so don't even bother, or if there was just a lack of confidence in law enforcement 's ablity, but anytime someone mentioned calling the cops, the general feeling I got was "yeah, right, see how that goes".

All of this means that, combined with the effort that Shelly put forth to keep things hidden, meant that, things in fact, stayed hidden.

This was a weird reading experience for me because when it was said that a member of the family went to the laundromat, or the post office, the McDonald's I know these places. My family used that laundromat when our washer and dryer busted, I loved that post office when I was a kid, two of my best friends worked at that McDonald's through high school. When it was decribed that Shelly spent a fair amout of time in the mall in Aberdeen, so did I. I was there every couple of weekends. It made the story just that much more eerie.

I'm glad that Shelly and Dave Knotek were brought to justice, but I am unbelievably angry and frustrated by the laws that allowed for both of them to be out of prison right now. Eighteen years, that's how long Shelly served for torturing two people to death and being complicit in the murder of a third. What about the years and years of child abuse?

The law is fucked up, is what I'm saying.

To end things on a bit of a lighter note. I'm a little disappointed that the author went for low hanging fruit when describing the weather and landscape in Raymond. "Soggy and gray", really? I mean, yes, both of those things are true. With an average of eight feet of rain a year, and the sky being overcast more often then not. Things are decidedly damp and washed out.

But I feel like there could have been better adjectives to set the scene. "Rain soaked, the only shine coming from the wet black top of the narrow roads". "Overcast and quiet, the most prominent sound being the crackle of car tires on wet streets, and occasionally the rumble of a loaded logging truck heading up or down the 101." This is just the perspective I would have given standing outside the Dairy Queen.

Later, he does describe things as muted but beautiful. That I would agree with.

There is beauty in the rain making the bright green of the grass and the darker green of the evergreens be that much more saturated. The dark red of the cherry tree leaves against a grey sky and during a storm, drawing just a bit more attention to the purple in the rolling clouds. And in late afternoon, the clouds seem to break,the sun turns the air gold, catching the drips of rain left on the plants, and the sky is blue and white, and gray edging toward orange and pink. It can be truly lovely.

All of this is to say, no matter the ugliness that was brought to this town by the likes of Shelly and Dave Knotek, the weather, the landscape, and many of the people will make beauty out of the grey, and will shine when the clouds move.

#Book #books #book blogging 2024 #If You Tell #Gregg Olsen

[darklingichor]

Quiet, by Susan Cain

This one has been on my audible wishlist for a while.

This is a pretty deep dive into being introverted and how so much in the western culture, especially the US is geared toward extroversion.

I feel like this is shifting somewhat now, (the book was published in 2012) but most stuff is not built for the quiet types.

This is a facunating read, looking at culture, scientific studies, and bringing them together to make for a very thoughtful analysis of these personality types.

What is weird is that a lot of this book is the author assuring the reader that nothing is wrong with being an introvert. I never felt like there was something wrong with me. It probably helps that I was raised in a house of introverted people. My most cherished memories are sitting on the couch with my mom, both of us with a book while my grandma crocheted and grandpa played solitary in the kitchen. Or sitting and listening to grandpa playing his guitar.

Course, school was a different kettle of fish, but even there, I didn't think there was anything wrong with me because I was just like everyone I lived with. I was lucky this way.

There were a lot of interesting insights on this book that got me to thinking.

There is, of course the whole nature vs nurture debate which comes down squarely in the both category, which is to be expected.

If there was one thing I learned in my years studying the social sciences, is that a lot of stuff is a mix of both, because we are not computers executing codes that were programed in. Our codes are able to be influenced by outside stimuli. Experience triggers chemicals that activate certain things that are programed , while leaving others that we may be prone to alone. And then there are some things that are just hard coded in and they will Manifest regardless, other times, outside stimuli just rewires stuff. And to what extent this happens and what triggers what, is different for every person and every trait, or quirk, or whatever a person has. There are infinite combinations for everything.

What I found interesting is that western culture has been valuing one personality trait over another for a very long time.

And it wasn't always extroversion that took the lead.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that before the the turn of the 20th century quiet was more prized. You see it in novels, it's the composed girl, the stoic gentleman, the quiet fortitude that is valued. But - even then not too much. Look at Pride and Prejudice. Kitty and Lydia are more outgoing than their sisters, and are seen as silly, the quieter Jane is seen as more of an ideal. At least that's how I've interpreted it from the movie adaptations (I still *cannot* make it through that damned book).

It was after the turn of the 20th century that a more outgoing nature began to be considered a more advantageous trait.

What I find so weird is that as with the nature vs nurture thing, systems work best when things are in balance. So why does culture seem to either favor one or another?

As frustrated as I get with the idea that I should talk when there's nothing to say, or that I should go to parties when I hate them, I can just imagine what it must have been like for an extroverted person in a time when it was the socially acceptable thing to suppress part of your nature. It must have been exhausting.

The later part of the book points out something else that I honestly never thought of. Many introverts craft extroverted personas to make it through various situations. Hate small talk? Yeah, but it is the ball bearings of social interaction, so you deal. You would rather take time considering something but someone is breathing down your neck? Chose fast and hope. Don't want to talk during a meeting, infact know that the meeting is going to drain you? Deep breath baby, you gotta do it, and you need to interact.

Cain points out that everyone can behave outside of their personality type if it means enough to them. I know this to be true. Get me started on certain subjects and I will hold conversations and debate until the cows come home. My battery will likely be depleted, but I will feel *good*.

But, it is also pointed out that, doing this too long without a break, *or* faking it too much, and it can lead to burn out.

I work as a receptionist, and general office drone in a hospice agency. I answer phones and I have to be friendly, warm, polite, open patient and, if need be - commanding and/or softly confrontational. On top of this I have to work with our field staff, management and marketing which can sometimes feel like working with toddlers... who need naps. And I do this forty hours a week.

Now, consider that in my off time, I don't want to talk on the phone unless I have known you more than ten years, I would rather peel my own skin off than have a confrontation, will (and have) hidden from my neighbors to avoid small talk, and will simply work around it if someone failed to do something I needed to get done.

The only time I don't feel like I am putting on one hell of a show at work is when I am doing the quiet part of my job (faxes, paperwork, etc.) Or when I am actually speaking to a patient or family member. I like to help people and sure, they might start off with commentary about the weather, but they are calling because they have a question or need something. I am happy to try and help them find an answer, get them to a nurse, or even just talk with them a little because they need an ear.

But the rest of the time, I am faking an outgoing persona, I knew it was wearing on me, But when this book talks about problems with the immune system, and migraines, and moods... I suddenly realized that this might be one reason why I have been feeling so off kilter and somewhat adrift.

Cain points out that if you are doing a job that is not suited to your personality trait, you can figure out a way to do them that won't drain you. Much of her advice sort of assumes that one is doing something one likes doing, and the advice is good. Need to contribute to a meeting? Practice some talking points ahead of time. Need to mix at a party? Have a set time that you circulate, and then it's okay to find yourself a small group to talk with, or leave if you need to.

Things like that. There isn't a lot of advice for when you're not doing your job for love, but because you need, like, food and stuff.

But, I bet I can figure something out.

All in all, if you want a cultural look at introversion and how we have streaths all our own, this is a good read.

#Quiet #Susan Cain #book #books #book blogging 2024

[darklingichor]

Interior, Chinatown, by Charles Yu

I liked this one a lot, though it did remind me just how little straight satire I have actually read.

The story follows Willis Wu an American of Asian discent who is always looking for his next role. He is stuck, however. He has internalized how American culture treats people who look like him. He has always wanted to be KUNG FU GUY, he is not KUNG FU GUY. he's Asian guy in the background, generic Asian man. Even his goal of KUNG FU GUY has a ceiling. He has no illusions of ever having top billing, or even a name. Only the legendary get those roles, and his kung fu is B+ on a good day.

But while he is going for these roles, his life in Chinatown is happening. Money's tight, his parents are getting older. His parents who had been forced to embody their various roles typecasting them though life, had always wanted more for him. But what more can there be? Everyone knows that you can only go so far. Willis lives his roles, but there is always this niggling idea, does he have to? Can't he change it? But then what would he do? How do you even live outside these roles?

The book is told in second person, which, I have not liked in the past, but it fits it so well because the book is written in the form of a script and you're really supposed to see the world through Willis's eyes. It's difficult to seperate the "roles" from real life, I think this is by design. It's really a commentary on the way people of Asian decent are treated, in Hollywood and in general in the US. Yu, uses the structure of series tv and placement of historical statues to make the point.

As satrical as it is, the characters are well developed and and the story is funny and touching. I very much enjoyed it.

#Interior Chinatown #Charles Yu #book #books #book blogging 2024

[darklingichor]

Broken (In the Best Possible Way), by Jenny Lawson

I wrote about this one in 2021, I think, but I've been struggling a lot with my anxiety and depression lately and Lawson's books make me feel a bit better because I can relate, her writing makes me laugh, and cry when I need to.

There are the hilarious stories about social interactions that I feel in my bones. The best ones are the "What kind of introvert are you?" Quiz, the interactions with her editor, and the" weird things socially awkward people say" tweets she and her followers shared. I love those so much! The other funny essays are fantastic, those just stood out to me.

The darker or just more somber essays are touching, or sad, or inspiring, or just real and all are beautiful. Basically, this book is just what I need when my brain is being more of a jerk than normal.

#Broken (In the Best Possible Way) #Jenny Lawson #book #books #book blogging 2024

[darklingichor]

Solutions and other problems, by Allie Broch

This is the follow up to Hyperbole and a Half

And it was amazing! All at once funny, sad and thoughtful, I very much enjoyed it.

The stories range from being a weird kid, to loss to the absurdities in life. I think the title is perfect because so many of the stories involve trying to find solutions only for the solutions to lead to more problems.

I think my favorites story, funny wise is the ine about the guy in the grocery store. As a whole, the best one was the chapter on her sister and her sister's childhood best friend.

I hope to see more books from this author in the future.

#Solutions and other problems #Allie Broch #book #books #book blogging 2024

[darklingichor]

Once More Fom the Beginning, by Wendy Bertsch

I wish I liked this one more than I did. The way it was billed was a retelling of the old testament from the perspective of the women. This seems like a good premise for a chuckle or two. However, what it is is basically a sumerizatuon of the old testament with modern language showing all the men to be dicks and maybe a headshake or an eye roll from the women every now and again.

I mean, if I wanted to read the Old Testament, I would have, nothing was added to it by having everyone talking like they're 20 somethings in the western world. I mean, there was no humor, unless the humor was supposed to *be* the fact that they were talking like that and the woman stood around rolling their eyes.

I felt like this book really wanted to be like The Twisted Tales of Shakespeare where the humor comes from puns and playing with context and sentence structure.

It wasn't. Look, The Old Testement can read like a bonkers game of mad libs if you look at it right, and nothing was stopping the author from playing with the madness.

There could have been stories about how while the men were yelling and stabbing and talking to burning bushes, the women were behind the scenes trying to orchestrate a different plan and maybe the differences in their plan and the men's plan accounts for why some stuff doesn't make sense.

Or, maybe play with the stories a little.

Like:

The tower of Babel was just supposed to be a multilevel market place, designed to save space. They got it up pretty high, but people started arguing about branding and store fonts and whether one person should collect the rent or perhaps they should figure out a different solution, and then one day, during a particularly contentious discussion about who could actually own the space at the bottom (First for foot traffic) and who could be at the top (tourist spot, clearly) when Benjamin the fine foods merchent was arguing that he should have the top spot because people would be hungry by time they got there; while Jemima the goat merchant was insisting he should be at the top, because, the goats will end up there anyway ("I mean, c'mon Ben, you've met a goat!"). And while Ben was making the case that just because a goat could climb to the top doesn't mean they should ("Having everyone *below* goats? It's an open concept plan Jem, that could only end badly").

And all the shareholders put in their two cents, no one was watching when, running late Oppidiah, owner of the perposed ice cream and paint mixing emporium ( There were health concerns here which is why he was on thin ice as it was) tied his donkey to one of the support struts and ran inside. Now, the donkey was annoyed because the entire way Oppi was singing 1000 skins of wine on the wall and as migraine inducing as that song was, the jerk stopped at two. TWO! The least he could have done was finish! So, the donkey disregarded his tether and decided he was just going to leave the irritating little man behind. He began to walk away. Now, this was long before building inspectors and structural integrity rules. The whole structure creaked if someone sneezed too hard, if we're honest. So, it didn't take much for the support to pop free and send the whole thing tumbling down.

The reason that everyone ended up speaking different languages because everyone was pissed off at everyone else. Yeah Oppi tied the donkey up, but whose idea was it to allow for anyone to just walk up and mess with a building under construction? Why wasn't there a fence? Talk to Mickiel, the fence builder who wanted to be on three! Well, no one was paying him for labor and materials to assist in construction. Who was in charge if contracts? Oh don't even talk to Abrial, he's the one who brought in Oppi to begin with! All of them left in a huff, and refused to speak with each other ever again, they each taught their families a code with which they could talk shit about the others right in front of them and eventually each family became mutually unintelligable to each other. Also,this is why we call a donkey and ass, because that animal was a, in fact, an ass.

See? Just be a little silly. Instead, this book was just boring.

#Once More Fom the Beginning #Wendy Bertsch #book #books #book blogging 2024

[darklingichor]

Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, by D.E. Stevenson

Happy New Year and welcome to year five of me rambling about books!

This one is going to be sort of short because, while this book is lovely, it sort of needs to be read to be appreciated.

The only comparison I can really make is to Bridget Jones, but it's not like that at all except that our main character Hester Christie keeps a journal and documents her daily life and observations.

Hester is the wife of Tim Christie, an officer in an English regiment some time before the second world War. They have two young children, Bryan and Betty and a small household staff. Hester gets a journal and begins to write in it. She writes about her busy days running things, her difficuties with her children's governess, the closeness of the Regiment.

Things are starting to change though, not only is her son about to go to boarding school, but Tim gets transfered to Scotland, meaning that the family must leave the friends that they have made.

The change isn't easy, but Hester manages, all the while keeping her journal up to date with the day to day and her reactions to it.

Those reactions are usually cheerful or dryly funny. It becomes clear pretty early on that Hester has a wonderful imagination and a good heart.

This book is not action packed, it's something you read less to get to the end and more for the journey.

#books #book #book blogging 2024 #mrs. tim of the regiment #D.E. Stevenson