tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60830842223551141492024-03-12T02:18:47.826-07:00Book BabeTarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11015131255166542986noreply@blogger.comBlogger1607125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-2137802337461439072024-01-13T16:25:00.000-08:002024-01-13T16:25:14.559-08:00The Lantern's Dance: A Mary Russell Book by Laurie R. King To Open 2024<p><span style="font-size: large;">It may seem that I've been neglecting <i>Flying High Reviews</i> . I'd like to emphasize that this is a blog for strong female protagonists. There actually were no strong female protagonists among the books I read in 2023 in my estimation. I was hoping for one, but no female protagonist in the novels I read last year met my admittedly exacting standards.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <i>The Lantern's Dance </i>got my immediate attention. I was astonished to get an approval of a Laurie R. King novel from Net Galley at the end of last year. I've never had an approval for such an eminent mystery author.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgffjb5RtMh82ICxoPvlc7rC8ZiFJpOjJrUZ2FAFThVjuBDO-F0mdkQx9z5feUlmd136gAQUbkF4hnRvOX0T9dDKrC7XGLJSX1XoSrSG3EMm4pxjJyUbbL6_aaDgbbWCwRODM7_Vfc4HJlXHPEN3LTkbhLoai86aOt36POpWUP9jg9SSY7eHEuMReMlSruo/s346/LanternDanceCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="228" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgffjb5RtMh82ICxoPvlc7rC8ZiFJpOjJrUZ2FAFThVjuBDO-F0mdkQx9z5feUlmd136gAQUbkF4hnRvOX0T9dDKrC7XGLJSX1XoSrSG3EMm4pxjJyUbbL6_aaDgbbWCwRODM7_Vfc4HJlXHPEN3LTkbhLoai86aOt36POpWUP9jg9SSY7eHEuMReMlSruo/s320/LanternDanceCover.jpg" width="211" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Mary Russell is one of my favorite female protagonists. So I was disappointed to see her periodically de-emphasized in favor of characters I hadn't previously encountered. Mary Russell works with Sherlock Holmes. Both Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are fictional characters. Sherlock Holmes was created by Arthur Conan Doyle and Mary Russell was created by Laurie R. King, the author of <i>The Lantern's Dance. </i>It's the 18th book in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> There was a complex web of characters in <i>The Lantern's Dance.</i> I sometimes had to page back to where these characters were introduced to identify who they were. Changes in perspective added to the complexity. There was at least one moment of confusion about the viewpoint character that I recorded in my notes.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There is a reference to Monet's cataracts in this book. This sent me to the Wikipedia article dealing with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet">Claude Monet</a>. I had never focused on Monet because I couldn't recall seeing any of his work in person. I actually had, but I didn't find it memorable. So this is the first time I've looked up Monet and read something about his life. It's tragic for a visual artist to develop cataracts. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There was also a reference to a controversy over whether art should be decorative in <i>The Lantern's Dance. </i>I have a comment in my handwritten notes on this novel dealing with seeing Picasso's "Guernica" in person. "Guernica" had a strong impact on me. In <a href="https://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp">10 Facts About Guernica</a> I learned that Picasso considered this painting to be centrally about fascism. I conclude that for Picasso, art wasn't about being decorative. If art is supposed to be decorative, then "Guernica", one of the most memorable pieces of art I've ever seen, is not art. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Indigo and the Indian revolt against growing it in 1859 is mentioned in <i>The Lantern's Dance. </i>The British had forced Indians to grow indigo instead of a food crop. I found a Wikipedia article about a play called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nil_Darpan">Nil Darpan</a> that deals with the revolt against growing indigo. The play was controversial. James Long, the man<i> </i>who published it in English, was charged with sedition and imprisoned. I found the play in pdf format at <a href="https://archive.org/details/nildarpanorindig00mitriala">Nil Darpan on Internet Archive</a> if you're interested in reading it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The real artist, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Vernet">Horace Vernet</a>, who is often referenced in <i>The Lantern's Dance, </i>had an 1835 self-portrait that Laurie R. King calls Holmesian in her Author's Note. I am including this self-portrait below in a resized format that will fit on the page. I agree that this image of Vernet does resemble the way some might view Sherlock Holmes. Since Laurie R. King is one of them, we must give serious consideration to her view. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here is the self portrait of Vernet in question:<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><img alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Emile_Jean_Horace_Vernet_002.jpg" class="shrinkToFit" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Emile_Jean_Horace_Vernet_002.jpg" width="262" /><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The author notes that 2024 marks 30 years since the first Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes novel , <i>The Beekeeper's Apprentice</i>, appeared. So I would like to wish Laurie R. King a happy anniversary and felicitations on publishing this very labyrinthine mystery.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe8mCCwxtYsSJCVU4TjVFqSqXdzSAIaVInawTYo6sQmrMRqtO38tVQlG9knp4MkJcKJo3rteYSIlRdFAkT8eU2l1UakRhpkMA-rbKCrG1TuubvFrCv0poOfi6S4xoxlfeD-5sFAQbiSNiYU5crtIgvyBktENpfXbaw3gH4j6XVtcMrVELW0YksP9mBKxkI/s400/VenetianMaskBlog.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="366" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe8mCCwxtYsSJCVU4TjVFqSqXdzSAIaVInawTYo6sQmrMRqtO38tVQlG9knp4MkJcKJo3rteYSIlRdFAkT8eU2l1UakRhpkMA-rbKCrG1TuubvFrCv0poOfi6S4xoxlfeD-5sFAQbiSNiYU5crtIgvyBktENpfXbaw3gH4j6XVtcMrVELW0YksP9mBKxkI/s320/VenetianMaskBlog.JPG" width="293" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-36667993369821935602022-12-26T12:48:00.001-08:002022-12-26T13:04:50.646-08:00Back To the Garden: A Standalone Thriller by Laurie R. King<p><span style="font-size: large;">This is the third novel by Laurie R. King that I am reviewing. The other two were <i><a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/12/dreaming-spies-so-how-was-your-trip-to.html">Dreaming Spies</a> </i>and <i><a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2018/07/island-of-mad-by-laurie-r-king.html">Island of the Mad</a> </i>which are books in King's Mary Russell series. The reviews are at the hyperlinked titles. The genre of <i>Back to the Garden </i>may be best described as contemporary/historical thriller, but the historical scenes don't feel very historical to me since they took place during my lifetime. Yet there may be readers of this review who weren't born yet during the 1970's. So whether a period feels historical can be very subjective.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUt26qR91I4Z_oFkgPP4Jcnzm8jAm7gXk_8x9kSZeapyOFHRtP8Zo6Pt8gApMo5X5XY1ugQccwPniqxgrbLLFRUb-yT5eqy5Ic-Hil_ByTojUCUsMJgxp2ZyJJb0gzsQr17GSCL9IrZPyvUPLBQPFLOtpTvGX2JIZZ4PC3as4piFtAa9saF1JoixcyQ/s400/BackToGardenKing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="263" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUt26qR91I4Z_oFkgPP4Jcnzm8jAm7gXk_8x9kSZeapyOFHRtP8Zo6Pt8gApMo5X5XY1ugQccwPniqxgrbLLFRUb-yT5eqy5Ic-Hil_ByTojUCUsMJgxp2ZyJJb0gzsQr17GSCL9IrZPyvUPLBQPFLOtpTvGX2JIZZ4PC3as4piFtAa9saF1JoixcyQ/s320/BackToGardenKing.jpg" width="210" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Bones had been found underneath a three headed triple Goddess statue by a fictional artist named Miriam Gaddo, who is supposed to have worked with the real artist, <a href="https://judychicago.com/about/biography/">Judy Chicago</a> . Gaddo is referred to in the book and the investigating officer has a conversation with her, but she can't be said to be a major character in <i>Back to the Garden</i>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The identification of the bones continues to be an ongoing issue because the lab that is doing the identification is behind in its work. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There are numerous local missing women and it's assumed by law enforcement that the bones may be one of these women. When the bones are finally identified, it really is a shocker. The book changed for me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The story line led us "down the garden path", so to speak. When we find out the truth, the entire focus of <i>Back to the Garden </i>changed. There is a suspenseful climactic scene at the end.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There could conceivably be future books involving Raquel Laing, who was investigating this case, but I was glad to know that Laurie R. King is working on a new novel in the Mary Russell series. I will look forward to it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> <br /></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-71585836961985184662022-12-14T12:48:00.001-08:002022-12-14T13:03:22.722-08:00Crooked Little Pieces Book Two: The Lives of Two Sisters Continue<p><span style="font-size: large;">This is the review of the sequel to <i>Crooked Little Pieces Book One. </i>I posted the review of the first volume <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2022/10/crooked-little-pieces-book-one-in-series.html">here</a> . </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I received this book from the author Sophia Lambton, who is also the publisher. She founded Crepuscular Press in order to release her work.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> I learned that crepuscular means like the twilight. Twilight often refers to when the sun is sinking and the light is fading, but it isn't completely dark yet. It has a liminal status, which is about being betwixt and between. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu5rHs6XHSKjz6TIwE7sRgX8cgZH05gTI4xMzEO8HXyoP70n6iTtsbxKpkc0m5Zaccwmm8OnGZpeeVW9G-ArVGm5RjW5Urk3Xh-x0Ih7c-jCCp0w6HdZ9EnumXjFpeLf3kNxXWAHPFIb6cs6AQzaAwiy5P3F8anmWu0Gci4o8XAHzXKt7V1FY6I_KJvw/s565/the-crooked-little-pieces-volume-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="353" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu5rHs6XHSKjz6TIwE7sRgX8cgZH05gTI4xMzEO8HXyoP70n6iTtsbxKpkc0m5Zaccwmm8OnGZpeeVW9G-ArVGm5RjW5Urk3Xh-x0Ih7c-jCCp0w6HdZ9EnumXjFpeLf3kNxXWAHPFIb6cs6AQzaAwiy5P3F8anmWu0Gci4o8XAHzXKt7V1FY6I_KJvw/w250-h400/the-crooked-little-pieces-volume-2.jpg" width="250" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> The two sisters, Isabel and Anneliese, find themselves in careers which are compatible for them. Although Isabel has a tragic loss and considers her career temporary, Anneliese has incredible good fortune. <br /> Isabel is teaching music at the girls' school that she and her sister attended. One of the students came to England with her mother illegally. The school wants to keep this student safe. Her name is Margot. She speaks German. Isabel is expected to teach her English. In class, Isabel repeated what she said in English in German for Margot. She also arranged to teach her English on Tuesdays and Thursdays during lunch. Isabel revealed that she once spoke German herself, and her sister spoke their father's language, Dutch. To show the similarity of the languages, Isabel had Georgia, who spoke Dutch, speak some Dutch to Margot. Margot understood some Dutch. Isabel asked Georgia to make sure Margot wasn't all alone in school.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Isabel was having the students try to define what is modern in music. She asked if something was modern because Beethoven never composed that sort of music. She also asked if they were living in a darker age because there had been two world wars.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">An old man who was one of Anneliese's patients griped about being picked on for being left handed. (Me-I'm left handed myself and have never been picked on for it. I think that was still happening in my mother's generation, but it stopped in my generation.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">We learn that the girls' school was going to have a new headmaster instead of new headmistress. Isabel was upset that the new headmaster is Jewish. Anneliese is no angel either. She stole transcripts from the library because she didn't have the time to make her own copies of the transcripts.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I assume that the author is showing that the sisters are flawed to humanize them. It seems to me that Isabel can be humanized without offending a segment of the audience. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This
book ends with Benjamin asking Anneliese to accompany him on a
housecall on a nine year old suffering from schizophrenia. We don't
learn anything further.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I would have ended it with the school's change from headmistress to headmaster. It would have seemed more like a stopping point. Ending with an invitation to join a housecall seems rather abrupt.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Despite this second volume's flaws, I'm going to give this book four stars on Goodreads. I'm hoping to like the next book better.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxTzCXMyeJCvId6G38MvrHJIw43GRFdw1y16aFhUR6v4rWBa_sA7fiBqOWRKGXKHTV4DMrERFIknuroN-kBsWQUaJPLCFn07fyUIuaPeJ2KnUMiMoihzIzpGHbKe_uWuLD0QMxQNBC1khifEl-JprdA-h_zTIFIwmG3fBYrVIDHM6FY90FJ33REuN0g/s400/VenetianMaskBlog.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="366" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxTzCXMyeJCvId6G38MvrHJIw43GRFdw1y16aFhUR6v4rWBa_sA7fiBqOWRKGXKHTV4DMrERFIknuroN-kBsWQUaJPLCFn07fyUIuaPeJ2KnUMiMoihzIzpGHbKe_uWuLD0QMxQNBC1khifEl-JprdA-h_zTIFIwmG3fBYrVIDHM6FY90FJ33REuN0g/s320/VenetianMaskBlog.JPG" width="293" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-4060764484065525942022-10-19T12:55:00.000-07:002022-10-19T12:55:01.334-07:00Crooked Little Pieces : Book One in a Series<p> <span style="font-size: large;">I was asked to read Sophia Lambton's novel, <i>Crooked Little Pieces,</i> by the author who had seen my reviews on this blog. This is the first book in a series which explains why it's not as resolved as a standalone novel would be.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIzepQ-Sj271dIEwnhlBfGwzEtsKGTACDXI1tI8uXRVgC7Zq2YViJ8h5swKkTZ392KeRLVwbL4Ks40B_jZk6tqfAFmk70i2iGSYEHwFEvVEURzUg4bMMZORBuOMTA9cgXcmXK2A6s8hwgrGbZahhBTNpPD7IaGOCwaMe1Y1odq_MQqepa5jWjY89pLUw/s475/CrookedCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="301" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIzepQ-Sj271dIEwnhlBfGwzEtsKGTACDXI1tI8uXRVgC7Zq2YViJ8h5swKkTZ392KeRLVwbL4Ks40B_jZk6tqfAFmk70i2iGSYEHwFEvVEURzUg4bMMZORBuOMTA9cgXcmXK2A6s8hwgrGbZahhBTNpPD7IaGOCwaMe1Y1odq_MQqepa5jWjY89pLUw/w254-h400/CrookedCover.jpg" width="254" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The protagonists are the sisters Isabel and Anneliese who were born six days apart. I expected to like Isabel because she is a musician, but the focus wanders away from music. I confess that I found her problematic because I am a feminist. Isabel's perspective is troubling for feminists. In addition, Isabel is antisemitic which I find offensive.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> Anneliese's scholarly view is more to my taste. She is also more confident than Isabel. Isabel is incredibly lucky to have Anneliese as a sister. Anneliese's support is crucial for Isabel at some points in the narrative. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Although the prologue takes place in 1968, the first chapter opens in the 1920's when the girls were six. The novel ends in the WW II era. I expect that the second book will continue with this WWII progression. </span><br /></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-79936233287922272242022-09-30T02:29:00.003-07:002022-10-04T11:25:31.294-07:00Paths For The Divergent<p><span style="font-size: large;">A curandera was mentioned in my recent review of the mystery <i>Shutter </i>which centered on a Navajo woman photographer. (See my review of <i>Shutter</i> <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2022/09/female-navajo-photographer-protagonist.html">here</a> .) I am now reviewing a book in which a curandera is a major point of view character. The title is <i>Witches </i>and the author is Brenda Lozano. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm2Y5rOIBF-2AzVJuZ5Y9u4twKsUqtx1Ht4bvrpCjQxEwSPS6roNsamo9DzzUSD2TrKi5C_m3c5gfe9ZpOtZe7vrcoERgw9py8lPJ5CmOrYSg2HiYvRs_CbUfliXqPU3frxPME_yEqg2nkSudMNy_r451UQQnvlKMBYm1as8nsOjUWMEpORfj0WZF-CQ/s400/WitchesLozanoCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="263" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm2Y5rOIBF-2AzVJuZ5Y9u4twKsUqtx1Ht4bvrpCjQxEwSPS6roNsamo9DzzUSD2TrKi5C_m3c5gfe9ZpOtZe7vrcoERgw9py8lPJ5CmOrYSg2HiYvRs_CbUfliXqPU3frxPME_yEqg2nkSudMNy_r451UQQnvlKMBYm1as8nsOjUWMEpORfj0WZF-CQ/s320/WitchesLozanoCover.jpg" width="210" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> <br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It seems to me that <i>Witches</i> is a somewhat misleading title. Curanderas are more specialized than witches. Witches may perform all sorts of magic. The magic of a curandera is focused on healing. She also practices a particular Mexican tradition of healing that may have similarities to magical healing practices in other cultures, yet there are also important differences. I have never believed in erasing unique aspects that occur in the variety of cultures on our planet. We can then lose wisdom, and are poorer because of it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Wisdom is not the same as what we learn in school. I believe that the characters of <i>Witches </i>demonstrate that this is true. Yet there is value in schooling. Literacy can broaden your knowledge of cultures other than your own. The amazingly gifted healer Feliciana was illiterate. She learned about peoples from outside Mexico when they traveled to meet her. This normally wouldn't have happened to a woman who grew up in Feliciana's village. She would have been quite culturally isolated. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">If the village had been less isolated, another divergent character could have found connections with others who were like her. Paloma was born with the name Gaspar and was raised as a male in a family tradition of men who were curanderos. Curanderos are paranormal healers. Over time Gaspar began to exhibit the female traits that were natural to her. She was attacked for becoming who she was meant to be. In Mexico she was considered a muxe, which is a third gender. She called herself Paloma. Few people in this village could accept Paloma, even though Paloma was the one who taught Feliciana who became a powerful curandera. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">We learn that Feliciana and her sister Francisca first began to eat the hallucinogenic mushrooms that were tools for healing because there wasn't enough food. It's sad that a family that had been healers for generations were so impoverished.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In the next generation of what had been a family of curanderos and curanderas, the divergent one was Leandra. Leandra was a rebel who started fires and was kicked out of schools. She told her sister Zoe that she had gotten married to a girl. She asked Zoe not to tell their parents because she hadn't invited them to the wedding. I suspect her parents wouldn't have come if they had been invited. Leandra doesn't seem to have any awareness of the existence of homophobia. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Professionally, Leandra wanted to be an art photographer whose work is exhibited in galleries. The first time this happened, Leandra had three photos chosen for a group show. Leandra's work attracted the interest of a collector who specialized in Latin American woman artists. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I liked this book dealing with unconventional people very much and decided to give it a B+ which is four stars on Goodreads. </span> <br /></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-20798730098275373422022-09-12T16:45:00.000-07:002022-09-12T16:45:29.626-07:00Female Navajo Photographer Protagonist in a Mystery<p> <span style="font-size: large;">In
order to make sure I would get a mystery read in September, I got one
picked out even before I'd arrived at the halfway point. It was <i>Shutter </i>by
Ramona Emerson. The copy I'm reviewing is a library book. The protagonist is a photographer which isn't all that unusual. I've
reviewed several books with photographer protagonists --
most recently <i>Michael Angelo & the Stone Mistress</i> by Steve Moretti. Yet this is my first female Navajo photographer protagonist. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyrI2DRuSwuwoaeh5yw7AXkvp8j_WDp7OpBtKiKHNQ-6kmXhV-8nVC9sXlzwnQwvNMfWtq3NXboag5qRP31ID6c5vLqdtOeNvONeCvdxaSDHhL-ZIN11jn5ggnLcWl-3GN44-zbXBhs4dsKUt8G_LxSfXezTXS5v9w9DC8RzBJyLRml2W24NGTvgODLg/s400/ShutterCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyrI2DRuSwuwoaeh5yw7AXkvp8j_WDp7OpBtKiKHNQ-6kmXhV-8nVC9sXlzwnQwvNMfWtq3NXboag5qRP31ID6c5vLqdtOeNvONeCvdxaSDHhL-ZIN11jn5ggnLcWl-3GN44-zbXBhs4dsKUt8G_LxSfXezTXS5v9w9DC8RzBJyLRml2W24NGTvgODLg/s320/ShutterCover.jpg" width="214" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As
the book opens, Navajo Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer.
This means that she photographs crime scenes. Yet she also sees spirits
which isn't a trait that would be considered compatible with
professionalism in most work environments. Needless to say, Rita must
be careful not to reveal her paranormal gift to officers in the
Albuquerque PD. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Being
paranormally gifted, isn't the only way that Rita's job is problematic.
I also knew that the Navajo avoid mentioning the dead or even the names
of dead relatives. So it seemed to me that Rita's job was extremely
incompatible with her culture. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The
issue of the Navajo belief that the spirits of the dead (called
"chindi" in mysteries by Tony Hillerman) could contaminate them, arose
when Grandma took Rita to a church where ghosts were lingering. I
wondered why Navajo spirits of the dead would linger if they believed
they were contaminating people that they loved. Her grandfather's
spirit worried that inimical spirits could make Rita crazy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> I
was interested in the fact that Rita's neighbor was evidently a
curandera. Curandismo is a a Mexican healing tradition. She rubbed Rita
with an egg, then she cracked the egg into a glass of water and told
Rita to put the egg in the glass of water under her bed. "Whoever has
their eye on you will let you go," said the curandera. There were also
jars to put in each corner of the room. Rita thought it was
superstition. I think that Rita's lack of belief in the measures that
Rita's neighbor was taking to protect Rita would undermine their
efficacy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><Spoilers--</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Rita
learned Police Lieutenant Garcia was behind most of the local
distribution of meth. This was a major revelation. I wondered if Garcia
did that because Latinos were being discriminated against when it came
to advancement in the police department. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">End spoilers.></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It
was mentioned in this book that Saint Veronica is the patron saint of
photography. Since I had never heard this before, I looked for a
confirming link. I found it at <a href="https://www.shalimarstudios.com/blog/st-veronica-the-patron-saint-of-photography/">St. Veronica</a>
which links to a page about this saint's connection to photography.
Since Rita doesn't seem to be a devout Catholic, I didn't think that St.
Veronica would have been significant for Rita.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There is a positive resolution to the book from a law enforcement perspective. I decided to give <i>Shutter</i> a B+.</span><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-3608530288949148992022-05-08T15:11:00.010-07:002022-05-11T00:30:27.577-07:00Cleopatra's Dagger: A Journalist in New York in 1880<p><span style="font-size: large;">Since the last book I reviewed on this blog also had a journalist protagonist, readers will get the idea that I like journalists. They'd be right.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> I count ten previous reviews of books with journalist protagonists on this blog, and seven more on my other blog. I identify with journalist protagonists because I once wanted to be a reporter. I got no further toward that goal than writing for school newspapers, but that was some time ago. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> I received a copy of <i>Cleopatra's Dagger </i>by Carole Lawrence from a publicist back in January. Many apologies for the delay. I got behind with my reviews this year. With this review, I expect to be caught up.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge28K61LmGcO1iiy-4UF1MbT5KI_ZX-zI5ffBXi6lle24UJNtdPSyLc1871lBI5UILe1LXC2rSCG4V6SxPxGAkav-OqmZ0u2ejcxd9km_UZ7OXHrk8-in4p1vr39qLA5HadvZYmxI174y1OwE636QYdfwojPglyKRo2ahN7ffoI2AsZ2Auh93J_CnBKg/s466/CleoDaggerCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge28K61LmGcO1iiy-4UF1MbT5KI_ZX-zI5ffBXi6lle24UJNtdPSyLc1871lBI5UILe1LXC2rSCG4V6SxPxGAkav-OqmZ0u2ejcxd9km_UZ7OXHrk8-in4p1vr39qLA5HadvZYmxI174y1OwE636QYdfwojPglyKRo2ahN7ffoI2AsZ2Auh93J_CnBKg/s320/CleoDaggerCover.jpg" width="218" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> My reviews are based on voluminous notes from my book journal on every book I read. So I very much related to what the protagonist, Elizabeth, had to say about her process. "The very act of putting her impressions down on paper helped her to understand what she thought and felt."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Elizabeth's editor warned her not to trust the police. He told her about the Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1874 in which the police beat peaceful protestors with clubs. I considered this indicative of the period and what it was like. I am going to reproduce an illustration from the Wikipedia page devoted to this riot below.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBgQmav_IaSpLy7K_LvGyzDRuv7DF37V2OYp5zl_gVUv33QB8IagRxIU9878auFh0njlp5oYHZeZisz0Ed22YqvHoNJivY3nA3qAg_q3uOcWbEpUBktdUawKezBU4vnXy15F7IMJB4ibk_6IamxMjxx8n5OIOnoFcsff-aVMryo552S9InMUzXr6dtbg/s1099/1099px-Tompkins_square_riot_1874.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1099" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBgQmav_IaSpLy7K_LvGyzDRuv7DF37V2OYp5zl_gVUv33QB8IagRxIU9878auFh0njlp5oYHZeZisz0Ed22YqvHoNJivY3nA3qAg_q3uOcWbEpUBktdUawKezBU4vnXy15F7IMJB4ibk_6IamxMjxx8n5OIOnoFcsff-aVMryo552S9InMUzXr6dtbg/w400-h263/1099px-Tompkins_square_riot_1874.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"> Elizabeth's family seemed to be rather well off , belonging to the late 19th century equivalent of the aristocracy of New York. Her father was concerned that being a crime reporter was an improper occupation for his daughter. I really liked Elizabeth's response. "I'm not certain it's a proper occupation for anyone...[but] I am determined it will not be closed to women." </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">According to the blog <a href="https://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2011/04/women-journalists-on-the-front-line-starting-in-the-19th-century/https://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2011/04/women-journalists-on-the-front-line-starting-in-the-19th-century/">Women's Views on News </a>, the 1880 U.S. Census recorded 288 women journalists but that their stories were much like Elizabeth's assignment to report on Mrs. Astor's garden party in this novel. Elizabeth's articles for <i>The New York Herald</i> on killings would have been very atypical for the period. Yet my favorite real woman journalist, Nellie Bly, was also working during this period and she sure wasn't writing about garden parties. See the section in the Wikipedia article on Nellie Bly about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly#Career">her career</a>. I'm glad to see a fictional equivalent of Nellie Bly in this novel. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Elizabeth became a crime reporter when she discovered a body wrapped as a mummy on a walk, and insisted on covering the story. She convinced the detective in charge of the case that if the photo of the body was put on the front page of <i>The New York Herald,</i> they would find someone to identify the corpse more quickly.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When a second body was found in the East River, Elizabeth was summoned to the scene via telegram. Detective Inspector Thomas Byrnes described her jewelry and how she was dressed. Elizabeth said it sounded like this victim was dressed like the Egyptian water goddess, Anuket. There was an ankh on a leather thong hanging on her neck. I'm afraid I couldn't resist adding "Ankh if you love Anuket!" in my notes. One of the policemen who responded recognized this second victim as a prostitute named Mary Mullins.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When the mystery was resolved, it seemed anti-climactic to me. I gave the book a B.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-16360251097230886472022-03-05T23:21:00.000-08:002022-03-05T23:21:36.655-08:00The Choice : A Journalist Heroine in a Jewish Romance<p> <span style="font-size: large;">I haven't been posting much to <i>Flying High Reviews</i> because the strong female protagonists that are my focus in this blog tend to be few and far between. In fact, all the books I've reviewed so far in 2022 were fiction with male protagonists or were non-fiction. So I've reviewed them on my general blog <i>Shomeret: Masked Reviewer </i>or posted about them more briefly on Goodreads. Author Maggie Anton sent me an advance copy of <i>The Choice </i>for review. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjr1ECQup8hc1d2oZi1F3FfPHvNvOKUrztnj58Jqs603yGKdAY5uNSjVzdmfUaky4iH_Ax2nodyo1Coo5yhUctxQxafhsQrk8zFnoN5ZcWBdujghVTS08VMpaGse7C9xzon0nbNjwoN5R4k_bkiLduleudEAN4dHUmahFC2CffElfz26RZHgThs2TCtmw=s475" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="317" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjr1ECQup8hc1d2oZi1F3FfPHvNvOKUrztnj58Jqs603yGKdAY5uNSjVzdmfUaky4iH_Ax2nodyo1Coo5yhUctxQxafhsQrk8zFnoN5ZcWBdujghVTS08VMpaGse7C9xzon0nbNjwoN5R4k_bkiLduleudEAN4dHUmahFC2CffElfz26RZHgThs2TCtmw=s320" width="214" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Choice </i>takes
place in the 1950's. The attitudes were quite different from
contemporary mores. That's why the main female character, Hannah Eisen, was
being scandalous when she removed her gloves in a man's presence.</span> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Back in 2014, I participated in a blog tour for Anton's novel <i>Enchantress. </i>That blog tour post included an interview with the author. <i> </i>It was the last time I reviewed a novel by Maggie Anton on this blog. You can find what I had to say about <i>Enchantress</i> <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/09/rav-hisdas-daughter-enchantress-blog.html">here</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Apparently, Maggie Anton found it necessary to mention in her Author's Note for <i>The Choice</i> that she didn't get permission from the Potok estate. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Chaim Potok's <i>The Chosen</i> is very far in my rear view mirror. </span> So the issue of similarity between the two titles didn't occur to me when I was reading <i>The Choice. </i>I also found more than a hundred and fifty books using <i>The Choice</i> as a title on Goodreads. It's really pretty generic.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The male protagonist, Rabbi Nathan Mandel, discovered that women had been emigrating to what was then Palestine for 900 years. He also learned that 900 years ago women were counted as part of the minimum number for a prayer service (known as a minyan), and that they read aloud from the Torah in synagogues. Since Orthodox Jews like Rabbi Mandel don't currently count women for a minyan or allow women to read aloud from the Torah during a prayer service, this was an amazing discovery for him. I also thought this was an important revelation about the historical status of women within Judaism. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I looked up why women aren't allowed to read aloud from the Torah by the Orthodox, and found <a href="https://www.jewishanswers.org/?p=983">a link to Jewish Answers </a></span><span style="font-size: large;">which said women reading aloud from the Torah implied that there were no men present who were capable of reading aloud from the Torah. It would be a disgrace to the men of that congregation. You see, men are religiously obligated to read from and teach Torah. Women aren't. <br /></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There is discussion of child sexual abuse in the Orthodox community in <i>The Choice. </i>It dealt with someone who was molesting boys in Orthodox Jewish schools. We learn that this wasn't just a current problem. One Lubavitcher Rebbe had been sexually abused by a mentor beginning in his boyhood and continuing long-term until he got married. That rebbe had become a patient of Sigmund Freud to deal with his trauma.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Hannah, who was a journalist, had written an article about a molester at the ultra-Orthodox girls' school which had been suppressed. She showed her article to Nathan telling him that an Orthodox clinical psychologist that they knew, who was faced with all these current sexual abuse victims, would find it interesting. Hannah later wrote an article about the same molester abusing Orthodox boys. Her editor didn't want to publish it, but he did want to circulate it because it included the information about the Jewish clinical psychologist who could help survivors of abuse. He had agreed to have his name mentioned in the article.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The relationship between Hannah and Nathan began with Nathan secretly teaching Talmud to Hannah. Teaching women Talmud wasn't allowed by Jewish law. Nathan compared his teaching her Talmud to the activities of 19th century anti-slavery abolitionists. I thought that this implied that Nathan believed women should be taught Talmud and that one day it would be permitted.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Hannah's mother asked if Nathan and his father had been at the 1949 Peekskill Riots. They had been there. Racists protesting a Paul Robeson concert had started the violent disturbance. I looked up the Peekskill riots and found a Wikipedia article <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peekskill_riots">here</a>. I also found some reminiscences about his 1949 Peekskilll experiences by Howard Fast <a href="https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/peekskill.html">here</a> . They were quite intense. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">An important issue for Hannah and other Orthodox women was filthy poorly maintained mikvahs. These are Jewish ritual bathing facilities. Women were expected to visit mikvahs for purification after menstruation, and before intimacy with their husbands. The condition of many mikvahs contravened their purpose. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">According to this novel, Columbia University accepted money from the Communist Party to establish a chair for Russian Studies. When I did a search on the establishment of Russian Studies at Columbia University, I found a statement from Columbia's Department of Slavonic Languages that the Russian Institute was established at Columbia University due to a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1946. So either <i>The Choice </i>was taking place in an alternate universe, or the novel was very mistaken about the source of funding for the Russian Institute. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I wasn't mistaken in my impression that a relationship between the male and female protagonists was central to <i>The Choice. </i>I will allow readers to find out the specifics of how their relationship grew, and what it became. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-43996490770162772272021-12-12T09:00:00.000-08:002021-12-12T09:00:00.158-08:00Blog Tour: Review of Women of Pearl Island<p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I was asked to review a pre-release version of a novel called <i>The Women of Pearl Island</i> by Polly Crosby and read it in one day. Its release date is December 7, 2021.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPg-MwIYEkUyhzL8uM-g5WP4bAAVfi-7WPu1rNJKSv_80L0vbQQbP5ZBFHYUEZFcoepxWxJs4yfmjRTtfi3L-7XC9LZItZ8E5V_URIFw0Qm6_4ubwTWRoJsKEmVugUVCwjDd0nEtYB8ae3/s400/PearlIslandWomen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPg-MwIYEkUyhzL8uM-g5WP4bAAVfi-7WPu1rNJKSv_80L0vbQQbP5ZBFHYUEZFcoepxWxJs4yfmjRTtfi3L-7XC9LZItZ8E5V_URIFw0Qm6_4ubwTWRoJsKEmVugUVCwjDd0nEtYB8ae3/s320/PearlIslandWomen.jpg" width="214" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span><p><span style="font-size: large;">My
perception was that in this book men made most of the decisions and the
women's futures were determined by them. This included the decisions
of the U.S. military which gave what seemed to be arbitrary orders to
leave the island. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> If
a place is your home, and you don't have much experience of living
anywhere else, I can understand the reluctance to leave. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Another
issue that comes up in this book is corporate misrepresentation.
Companies aren't necessarily actually selling you the product that they
claim to be selling. They might be substituting something else.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I
felt sympathetic toward the character Marianne being told that her
fingers were too fat to play the piano. I was told that my fingers were
too short to play the piano. Apparently, piano players need to have
long thin fingers, and the rest of us aren't supposed to play the
piano. The character Nan didn't follow those rules. She taught
Marianne to play piano regardless of the supposed inappropriateness of
her fingers. Bravo Nan!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Neither
the military nor the corporation that was formed on the island were
portrayed positively, and I respected this novel more for not idealizing
them. Since an island is a microcosm, corporate misdoings take place
on a smaller scale. <i>The Women of Pearl Island </i>was a realistic and well-written book. I was glad to have the opportunity to read it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMG8jvpZVAxlym8PFExVF9MVpBACRr7huYHtsQ40nmzctwQT7X6hyphenhyphenu82jys-na2ZzFaOG4IyN6SsDdWttFH2aTH3J4K0iGvobpwstRi-g3UXeeyhptp9HpeTpu5Lr9G8phPleJO5FlDtNn/s400/VenetianMaskBlog.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="366" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMG8jvpZVAxlym8PFExVF9MVpBACRr7huYHtsQ40nmzctwQT7X6hyphenhyphenu82jys-na2ZzFaOG4IyN6SsDdWttFH2aTH3J4K0iGvobpwstRi-g3UXeeyhptp9HpeTpu5Lr9G8phPleJO5FlDtNn/s320/VenetianMaskBlog.JPG" width="293" /></a></span></div><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-835769cb-7fff-48f7-b22d-08426f331eaa" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-38089983-7fff-03a9-b286-b9f15443026f" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-38089983-7fff-03a9-b286-b9f15443026f" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-38089983-7fff-03a9-b286-b9f15443026f" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.pollycrosby.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Author Website</span></a></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> Photo of Polly Crosby</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLklMdr-xmLZ5BN22pj4m3QFb4NrwDD-I7QIJnrUKPODlV_CT2iPSbvIBuOXMnuMKb1TtdHIMOwcc7IdVC68mgnJD5q-nPsP9wAQmxhjlfU0QqwstW2fXQ2Q1LKbwAVCaMbb7Ym9zrSfit/s2048/Polly+Crosby+Author+Photo+Credit+Matt+Crosby.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2041" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLklMdr-xmLZ5BN22pj4m3QFb4NrwDD-I7QIJnrUKPODlV_CT2iPSbvIBuOXMnuMKb1TtdHIMOwcc7IdVC68mgnJD5q-nPsP9wAQmxhjlfU0QqwstW2fXQ2Q1LKbwAVCaMbb7Ym9zrSfit/s320/Polly+Crosby+Author+Photo+Credit+Matt+Crosby.jpg" width="319" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> Photo Credit: Matt Crosby<br /></span><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-34235662596546198952021-07-31T09:24:00.372-07:002021-07-31T19:19:12.104-07:00Blog Tour: Radar Girls, A Novel of Women in the Air Raid Defense Team During WWII<p> <span style="font-size: large;">I received an advance review copy of <i>Radar Girls </i>by Sara Ackerman<i> </i>from the publisher via Net Galley when I was selected for the blog tour. I prioritized the book and practically inhaled <i>Radar Girls </i>more than a week ahead of my post date. I found it suspenseful, and the inner strength of Daisy, the female protagonist, was very inspiring.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixF-IgP4q-t1kfzsogGbQZN5HyiLPUj6r_9ajksRBWG6fqGYVitW_Ft7MXGPFgSzhHfgx4M8HpEF1ylidPQj08uBJoaIrIq3AWvojGcz_hmpsY9SgxNZhvf3vphDWiuzIyA54xNyyhQwsJ/s400/RadarGirlsCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixF-IgP4q-t1kfzsogGbQZN5HyiLPUj6r_9ajksRBWG6fqGYVitW_Ft7MXGPFgSzhHfgx4M8HpEF1ylidPQj08uBJoaIrIq3AWvojGcz_hmpsY9SgxNZhvf3vphDWiuzIyA54xNyyhQwsJ/w268-h400/RadarGirlsCover.jpg" width="268" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> Many readers might wonder how a novel about WWII could provide any suspense because we all know the results, but we don't know what happens to Daisy and the other characters in <i>Radar Girls</i>. The characters put the drama in historical fiction by involving us with their lives.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">According to the Author's Note, the main source for <i>Radar Girls</i> was a non-fiction book called <i>Shuffleboard Pilots: The History of the Women's Air Raid Defense in Hawai'i 1941-1945</i> by Candace A. Chenoweth and A. Kam Napier. There were numerous incidents from <i>Shuffleboard Pilots</i> included in the novel. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Before Daisy became a member of the Women's Air Raid Defense team, she was a horse trainer following in the footsteps of her deceased father. There was a sub-plot about a valuable missing horse. Moon was a high spirited thoroughbred whose sire had been a race horse. Daisy felt responsible because Moon went missing when she took him riding without permission. </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is also a romance which was a will they/won't they subplot involving Daisy and a man who sets the standard for bravery and integrity very high. This American hero would stand out in any novel. My respect for him only increased over the course</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-size: large;">of the narrative.</span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">I consider <i>Radar Girls</i> an engaging novel that taught me about an aspect of women's participation in WWII that I knew nothing about.</span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <b>SARA ACKERMAN</b> </span><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> <br /></b></span></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHbLp-RS4puMfTQp0QM2E-47URF2az-yS6g-iOk6Nh7b8kZVSdpFXkP-Q7_MK4Jkr5-g2UTsl2yeTayWsJAyBQ4Sy1dgf1MiDDJYzYlvWu6_dhj8BVL7OWNKRIqUBZmWTv9Fm7c7ECvPe/s2048/Sara+Ackerman_Credit+Tracy+Wright-Corvo+CROPPED%25282%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1999" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHbLp-RS4puMfTQp0QM2E-47URF2az-yS6g-iOk6Nh7b8kZVSdpFXkP-Q7_MK4Jkr5-g2UTsl2yeTayWsJAyBQ4Sy1dgf1MiDDJYzYlvWu6_dhj8BVL7OWNKRIqUBZmWTv9Fm7c7ECvPe/s320/Sara+Ackerman_Credit+Tracy+Wright-Corvo+CROPPED%25282%2529.jpg" /> </a></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Photo by Tracey Wright-Corvo <br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></span><br /></span></span></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-6824674a-7fff-4db7-c501-b1240d2d82c5" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-6824674a-7fff-4db7-c501-b1240d2d82c5" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7fdb9fe1-7fff-6ce2-8224-148e344099dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-17ab61cc-7fff-9ebd-48f5-4d39fc9266a8" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-73359384565253426102021-05-16T16:20:00.000-07:002021-05-16T16:20:20.989-07:00The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: Skin Color As A Litmus Test For A Packhorse Librarian<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I recently discovered </span><i>The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek </i>by
Kim Michele Richardson which deals with a Kentucky librarian who
delivers books to people in the hill country riding a pack mule in the
1930's. I love librarians and I'm interested in the hill people, so I checked this novel out of the library. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> I
understand that there are two other books that deal with this topic.
They are <i>The Giver of Stars </i>by Jojo Moyes and a children's book called <i>Wonderland Creek </i>by
Lynn Austin. I may read them because I am so interested in the way
librarians and hill people are portrayed. I understand that Kim Michele
Richardson lives in Kentucky, and that reviewers have considered her authentic. Since I don't live in Kentucky and have no knowledge of
Kentucky hill life in the 1930's, I can't comment on the book's
authenticity. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk_fwllM613mhQaeY0gwOiYq2dl6yDi_mVp9FUX-Uir1Y-wptF4YaHYH5n3HuBYmMnxfafQo5uhyphenhyphenJbAQyOEG-VhSuq1Aow24Q6JSNNT9XBDIGmJSXOhkd8lJY0LPBaLp2OwrhsHTXBjDlE/s475/40914165._SY475_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="317" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk_fwllM613mhQaeY0gwOiYq2dl6yDi_mVp9FUX-Uir1Y-wptF4YaHYH5n3HuBYmMnxfafQo5uhyphenhyphenJbAQyOEG-VhSuq1Aow24Q6JSNNT9XBDIGmJSXOhkd8lJY0LPBaLp2OwrhsHTXBjDlE/s320/40914165._SY475_.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Female protagonist Cussy had a hereditary medical condition that caused her skin to be blue. This is a real genetic disease called methemoglobinemia. Her father, who also had the same condition, imagined that there was a man in Kentucky who could overlook her blue skin and marry her. This would have to be an unusual man since most people in the area were deeply prejudiced against anyone who was different. Cussy was aware of this problem, and didn't imagine she would ever marry. Besides, she found her life as a Pack Horse Librarian satisfying. She loved delivering reading material to people who had no access to libraries, and finding what they really wanted to read. Yet it's important to note that Cussy only had access to discards which were books that other libraries didn't want or need in their collections. Discards were Cussy's "new" books. <br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Queenie, a black librarian who had also been delivering books in the hills of Kentucky, decided to go to Philadelphia. She wrote to Cussy that there were colored doctors there who would treat her sick grandmother, and colored schools for her children. Cussy thought there were opportunities for blacks in Philadelphia, but not for blues like her. She was probably right. It was unlikely that Philadelphia would be any better for her. There wouldn't be blue doctors there, or schools for blue students. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> For another perspective, I'd like to mention a novel I'd read some time ago dealing with a blue skinned alien who thought himself superior to humans. I reviewed it <a href="https://shomeretmasked.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-blue-african-extraterrestrial.html">here</a> . </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Harriet Hardin, the assistant supervisor at the library center, was a bigoted character that I very much disliked. Yet her favorite book was <i>The Stars Look Down </i>by A.J. Cronin which was a sympathetic portrait of a British mining family in the 1930's. To us this would be historical fiction, but for Harriet and the other characters in this novel, it would have been considered contemporary fiction taking place in the present day. I haven't read any A. J. Cronin, but I suspect I would like <i>The Stars Look Down </i>myself. I have put a hold on it. So we shall see. I noted that this novel was considered similar to <i>The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists </i>by Robert Tressell and put a hold on that one as well.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This book also led me to a highly regarded classic, <i>The Good Earth </i>by Pearl Buck. Cussy was given the sequel, <i>Sons, </i>by a library patron who turned out to be a very pivotal character. I looked up <i>The Good Earth </i>and decided that I should read it. After I finish it, I'll see if I want to read its sequels. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">No review that I've seen of <i>The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek</i> has mentioned medical research as one of the issues brought up in this novel. Doctors wanted samples of Cussy's blood. It seemed to me that the doctors were more interested in benefiting their own careers than Cussy. They gave her a drug that had side effects. Discussing the impact of the drug would be a spoiler, but I consider this racist medical research based on white supremacist ideology. I applaud Kim Michelle Richardson for showing us so vividly that medicine can be racist.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As a feminist, I was struck by Cussy receiving a letter with a Susan B. Anthony stamp and not knowing who that was, or the meaning of "Suffrage for Women" which was written beneath the stamp. I was sad that Cussy had never learned about the women who had struggled for women's suffrage, and I wondered if she had been taught about the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution or its ratification on August 8, 1920. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek </i>made me sit up and take notice of a Kentucky that was unknown to me, and showed me the tough librarians who supplied Kentuckians with books in all times and seasons.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-29665260649388803972021-04-28T20:48:00.002-07:002021-05-07T18:54:55.805-07:00Leaving Coy's Hill: A Novel About Suffragist Lucy Stone<p> </p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> I haven't posted here for a while. This is partly because I was moving in March, but I also hadn't been coming across books with strong female protagonists. I recently got hold of a book about a woman's suffrage leader which was given to me for free by the publisher.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Many
readers may never have heard of Lucy Stone. In my case, I thought that
Sherbrooke's novel showed a different side of Lucy Stone than the one I
knew about. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmg1k32XLUIRyVxu5cebi7V7AZwcvjEkcfJbw1SsuknJHYkq5LGdMe7tg5v2t6xr7Cu5wEMOzQs-ecNalTB6FmOCuZKimLEqydb55fGK8dgdaXLMPd47r2WALo9n1slu_wyid-hwZehoC6/s500/LeavingCoysHillCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmg1k32XLUIRyVxu5cebi7V7AZwcvjEkcfJbw1SsuknJHYkq5LGdMe7tg5v2t6xr7Cu5wEMOzQs-ecNalTB6FmOCuZKimLEqydb55fGK8dgdaXLMPd47r2WALo9n1slu_wyid-hwZehoC6/w266-h400/LeavingCoysHillCover.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br />I
thought of Lucy Stone solely in terms of her puritanical attacks on
divorce and Victoria Woodhull, who is one of my favorite suffragists.
(See what I had to say about Woodhull in my review of <i>Seance in Sepia </i><a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/04/seance-in-sepia-by-michelle-black.html">here</a> , what Karen J. Hicks had to say about her Woodhull book <i>The Coming Woman</i> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6083084222355114149/3023787867058571382">here</a> and my review of the Woodhull novel <i>Madame Presidentess</i> <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2016/09/madame-presidentess-by-nicole-evalina.html">here</a> .) Yet there was a good deal more to Lucy Stone than I had ever imagined. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Lucy started thinking about women's rights as a child when she thought a cousin wasn't being well-treated by her husband. She told a woman friend who wanted to be a minister that the Bible was used to diminish women.Then when she was being paid to speak for the abolition of slavery by the Anti-Slavery Society, she decided that she had to speak out for women as well. When she married Henry Blackwell, she insisted on keeping her own name. At the time, this was revolutionary. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This is a book that take's Lucy Stone's perspective. It shows us where the women's suffrage movement fractured. Although both Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone had husbands, Susan B. Anthony chose to demonize Lucy Stone's marriage as disloyal, but not Elizabeth Cady Stanton's. I have always believed that feminists should respect women's choices. It seems to me that feminist leaders have gone wrong when they turn on each other because of life style differences. Shared goals are the foundation of feminism. Sherbrooke's novel shows that factions are unnecessary, and can have sad consequences. </span><br /></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-34693774087293883802021-02-20T22:26:00.012-08:002022-01-01T13:01:11.094-08:00A Door In The Earth: A Novel in Which an Afghani-American Returns to Afghanistan<p> <span style="font-size: large;">The last time I reviewed a Goodreads giveaway win on this blog was<i> Josephine Baker's Last Dance</i> <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2020/10/josephine-bakers-last-dance.html">here</a></span> . <span style="font-size: large;"><i>A Door Into Earth </i>by Amy Waldman<i> </i>is a 2019 GR giveaway win that I just finished reading. I am still going through the stack of physical GR giveaway books in the order I received them when I have the time to read them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBEMXR3qimynSrUJXNi0CiPg5HCyBfGOOWMn6AD1aOI60LaFK4MAue9fjs3S_Ar7fGOBZ2_AXF-nlxJRp2aPj70CYxbXkvlB-KtypdU6ex3txL-z8hUK1A_2yWBWUeqM6UHfhh_VcYOtgb/s400/DoorInEarthCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="258" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBEMXR3qimynSrUJXNi0CiPg5HCyBfGOOWMn6AD1aOI60LaFK4MAue9fjs3S_Ar7fGOBZ2_AXF-nlxJRp2aPj70CYxbXkvlB-KtypdU6ex3txL-z8hUK1A_2yWBWUeqM6UHfhh_VcYOtgb/w258-h400/DoorInEarthCover.jpg" width="258" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> If you had told me that I was going to read a novel taking place in current day Afghanistan, I wouldn't have believed you. I looked up the status of the war. It's still going on despite the United States signing a peace treaty with the Taliban about a year ago. See <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-afghanistan">recent developments</a></span> . <p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <i>A Door In The Earth</i> isn't primarily about the war. The war does become prominent toward the end of the novel, but this novel centers on an Afghani-American woman in a small Afghan village with an American built women's medical clinic. Parveen Shamsa, who left Afghanistan with her parents when she was two years old, was drawn back to the land of her birth by a memoir called<i> Mother Afghanistan </i>written by a fictional American called Gideon Crane. She was inspired by Crane's reputation as a great humanitarian and wanted to help. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> Unfortunately, sometimes reputations are built on lies. I was reminded of Greg Mortenson who was exposed in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11151351.Three_Cups_of_Deceit_How_Greg_Mortenson__Humanitarian_Hero__Lost_His_Way">Three Cups of Deceit</a> by Jon Krakauer. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Crane was loosely based on Mortenson. I'd say that Amy Waldman's Crane was never the benevolent figure that Parveen imagined he was. I wondered how she could have had so elevated a view of Crane after having read his memoir. He doesn't exactly hide his wrongdoings. It also occurred to me to wonder who in U.S. law enforcement would know if he'd completed his community service in Afghanistan. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Parveen feels "unwitnessed" at first because there's no internet access that will allow her to post about her experiences. I imagined she would have that problem when I first picked up the book.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I finished <i>A Door in the Earth </i>still feeling ambivalent about Parveen. I also found the ending too inconclusive. If I were giving a letter grade to this book, it would be a B- . <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><br /></p><p> <br /></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-83974996992939233182021-01-17T12:50:00.000-08:002021-01-17T12:50:20.466-08:00The Paris Library: A Woman Librarian at the American Library of Paris During WWII<p> <span style="font-size: large;">When a publisher sends me a book in paperback in addition to a digital copy from Net Galley, it's very clear to me that they really want my opinion. Atria Books, which is a division of Simon & Schuster, did that to bring my attention to their book, <i>The Paris Library</i>. I love libraries. There's also tremendous interest in this title, and it's set to release next month<i>. </i> I decided that I needed to read and review it after I finished with the book I was currently reading at the time.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I mainly read the paperback because I prefer print. I only read the Net Galley when I was on public transit. My Kindle is smaller and lighter than a trade paperback. Yet I am traveling less during the pandemic than I once did. So that was a small percentage read in digital format. I finished the book in four days.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipRTJ1OGu0XKbUfW9dWMtn8FXdKazym4K9j7aMYBwACoRQ8kXFnuCKnJeswK3Qzpx4opvva7TgrfXBppzx5Qzr9q0JgPxCe4S9nwQ2jhvDmWrHuBE4HSI0wzM4TTUfXaxBkZ7nX0MXjZFi/s475/ParisLibraryCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipRTJ1OGu0XKbUfW9dWMtn8FXdKazym4K9j7aMYBwACoRQ8kXFnuCKnJeswK3Qzpx4opvva7TgrfXBppzx5Qzr9q0JgPxCe4S9nwQ2jhvDmWrHuBE4HSI0wzM4TTUfXaxBkZ7nX0MXjZFi/s320/ParisLibraryCover.jpg" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> As the book opens Odile Suchet was preparing for an interview at the American Library of Paris (ALP). Odile was qualified because she was a library student who knew English. Though 1/4 of ALP's users were French at the time. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">My feeling is that Odile made serious errors of judgement that hurt people during WWII. She betrayed the trust of several people who were important to her. I considered her an unlikable protagonist, but she tried to make amends by behaving graciously to the 1980's teen protagonist, Lily.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I was interested in ALP, but my negative feelings toward Odile lowered my estimation of <i>The Paris Library</i> as a whole. Perhaps I would have liked a book from the perspective of the American director of ALP, Miss Reeder, much better.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-44594336598457213132020-12-29T09:00:00.091-08:002020-12-29T23:47:09.870-08:00Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder Blog Tour and Review<p> </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY0hRwcop5_VRUCJwBz-jmo2DilySW-cl9D_P2AGeriE2GGE7AFNWmDZbVP7qiO1N-ttSKsJs33evhevVVUWX-FQ0tW7-cTziNVaJAiXxGfN5-vqQQDRRcPD6RJWVVMpMwc7sDOELnVk3z/s2048/Marion+Lane+cover+-+FINAL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1347" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY0hRwcop5_VRUCJwBz-jmo2DilySW-cl9D_P2AGeriE2GGE7AFNWmDZbVP7qiO1N-ttSKsJs33evhevVVUWX-FQ0tW7-cTziNVaJAiXxGfN5-vqQQDRRcPD6RJWVVMpMwc7sDOELnVk3z/s320/Marion+Lane+cover+-+FINAL.jpg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Book Summary:</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span id="freeTextContainer1603639378312843157"><i>Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder</i>
plunges readers into the heart of London, to the secret tunnels that
exist far beneath the city streets. There, a mysterious group of
detectives recruited for Miss Brickett’s Investigations & Inquiries
use their cunning and gadgets to solve crimes that have stumped Scotland
Yard.</span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span id="freeTextContainer1603639378312843157"><span id="freeText1603639378312843157">Late one night in April
1958, a filing assistant for Miss Brickett’s named Michelle White
receives a letter warning her that a heinous act is about to occur. She
goes to investigate but finds the room empty. At the stroke of midnight,
she is murdered by a killer she can’t see—her death the only sign she
wasn’t alone. It becomes chillingly clear that the person responsible
must also work for Miss Brickett’s, making everyone a suspect.</span> </span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span id="freeTextContainer1603639378312843157"><span id="freeText1603639378312843157">Almost unwillingly,
Marion Lane, a first-year Inquirer-in-training, finds herself being
drawn ever deeper into the investigation. When her friend and mentor is
framed for the crime, to clear his name she must sort through the hidden
alliances at Miss Brickett’s and secrets dating back to WWII.
Masterful, clever and deliciously suspenseful, <i>Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder</i> is a fresh take on the Agatha Christie—style locked-room mystery with an exciting new heroine detective at the helm.</span> </span></b></span></p><p><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.9pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.9pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Shomeret's Review</span> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.9pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I agreed to review <i>Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder </i>because it features underground tunnels underneath the city of London. I've been fascinated with urban underground existence ever since I first watched the <i>Beauty & The Beast</i> TV series starring Ron Perlman as the Beast and Linda Hamilton as the Beauty . In that series New York City had an underground secret society beneath its streets. Yet the underground investigative agency that Marion Lane becomes involved with is no utopian community like the one in that version of Beauty and the Beast. In fact, this mystery novel is for lovers of noir.</span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead of the protectiveness of Ron Perlman's Beast, we have a book in which an underground agency employee named Frank was suspected of murder by the investigative agency. Agency apprentice Marion Lane had to clear his name in order to prevent Frank from being confined to an underground cell for the remainder of his life. For me, Marion's loyalty to Frank redeems this book. Yet fans of dark fiction may be pleased by the threatening underground environment in which people got lost or killed.</span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The agency is concealing a terrifying secret that goes back to WWII. That actually wasn't that long ago in terms of the book's chronology since this novel opens in 1958. Unless Marion manages to discover that secret, she will never find out the truth about the murder. It really is a terrible secret. Once I found it out, I wished like Marion, that I didn't know about it. Maybe there should have been a sign on entering the agency's tunnels that said "ABANDON PEACE OF MIND YOU WHO ENTER HERE."</span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Readers who love a dark tale of suspense will be electrified by <i>Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder.</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-9abcdd69-7fff-86d4-8dac-4838038ea5c7" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Author Bio:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">T.A. Willberg was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and holds a </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-9abcdd69-7fff-86d4-8dac-4838038ea5c7" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">chiropractic masters degree from Durban University of Technology.</span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-9abcdd69-7fff-86d4-8dac-4838038ea5c7" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> MARION LANE AND THE MIDNIGHT MURDER is her debut novel and launch</span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-9abcdd69-7fff-86d4-8dac-4838038ea5c7" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> of her detective series. She currently lives in Malta with her partner.</span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0v5_Y6ZoLRJJ3z8AXOJJ2RlIcI7I2s7bG92Nt4zED2ot0F1_eIqEhhb15G7yKWg8rpcqMDeoHlcRWjoImBk1t44VLzsvVcce48UjSSk0GhEtliMQV2J9CkiC56a5GeFOIcCyDRLu6sihk/s1746/TA+Willberg+credit+Wentzil+Olivier.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1746" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0v5_Y6ZoLRJJ3z8AXOJJ2RlIcI7I2s7bG92Nt4zED2ot0F1_eIqEhhb15G7yKWg8rpcqMDeoHlcRWjoImBk1t44VLzsvVcce48UjSSk0GhEtliMQV2J9CkiC56a5GeFOIcCyDRLu6sihk/s320/TA+Willberg+credit+Wentzil+Olivier.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> T.A. Willberg photo by Oliver Wentzil</span><p></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-493dc8c8-7fff-bc54-1bf4-376b0fe720fc" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></p><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><b>MARION LANE AND
THE MIDNIGHT MURDER</b></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><b>Author:
T.A. Willberg</b></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><b>ISBN:
</b></span></span><span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><b><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 0%;">9780778389330</span></b></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a name="_heading=h.gjdgxs"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><b>Publication Date:
12/29/20</b></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><b>Publisher:
Harlequin / Park Row Books</b></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><b>Buy
Links: </b></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9780778389330_marion-lane-and-the-midnight-murder.html"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Harlequin </u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780778389330"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Indiebound</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://bookshop.org/books/marion-lane-and-the-midnight-murder/9780778389330"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Bookshop</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Marion-Lane-Midnight-Murder-Novel/dp/0778389332/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr="><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Amazon</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/marion-lane-and-the-midnight-murder-ta-willberg/1136528440?ean=9780778389330"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Barnes
& Noble </u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=MARION%20LANE#internal=1"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Indigo</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Marion-Lane-Midnight-Murder/T-a-Willberg/9780778389330?id=8068372948374"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Books-A-Million</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.target.com/p/marion-lane-and-the-midnight-murder-by-t-a-willberg-hardcover/-/A-79679198"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Target</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Marion-Lane-and-the-Midnight-Murder-Hardcover-9780778389330/406926005"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Walmart</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-EfHDwAAQBAJ"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Google</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/marion-lane-and-the-midnight-murder/id1491489831?_bbid=14299209&mt=11&id=1491489831"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>iBooks</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781488210280-marion-lane-and-the-midnight-murder"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Libro.Fm</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/marion-lane-and-the-midnight-murder-2"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Kobo</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><b>Author's Social
Links:</b></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://tawillberg.com/"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>Author
Website</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;">Twitter:
</span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/Tess_Amy_"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>@Tess_Amy_</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;">Facebook:
</span></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/tawillberg"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>@tawillberg</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;">Instagram:
</span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/ta_willberg/"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Arial, serif;"><u>@ta_willberg</u></span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; border: medium none; break-after: auto; break-inside: auto; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: 0.1in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; page-break-after: auto; page-break-inside: auto; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>
<br /><br /><p>
</p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-53569862160565575142020-12-08T09:00:00.421-08:002020-12-08T09:00:02.998-08:00The Chelsea Girls: 1950's Women in the Entertainment Industry vs. the McCarthy Era<p><span style="font-size: large;">I have wanted to read books by the author Fiona Davis, but didn't have the time due to all my review commitments. Then publicist Becky O'Dell representing the publisher of Davis' novel, <i>The Chelsea Girls</i>, approached me about reviewing it. She asked me to post my review around December 8th when their new paperback edition would be published. I promised that the review would appear within the vicinity of that date on this blog, <i>Flying High Reviews</i>. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">My co-blogger Tara reviewed <i>The Dollhouse</i> by Fiona Davis and called it "fantabulous" <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2016/05/fionajdavis-delivers-scandal-secrets.html">here </a>when this blog was known as <i>Book Babe. </i>I hoped to follow her example.<i> </i>So I accepted a digital copy of <i>The Chelsea Girls </i>from Dutton Books via Net Galley.<i> </i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Below is the cover of the new edition of <i>The Chelsea Girls</i>. I feel that it authentically depicts the women who are shown in this novel. They were living in the 1950's but were doing their best to avoid being confined by that decade's expectations of women.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic6MgYETy0BDvyzNrfSPm4eOBa6Yx3qRBN9xYRtnuBdwzhHPEnWFQ5gO4AhUJMiydkEwJZ5UzAzzOhWU3cmLSmIiT6RUxANZD3bwvPevVgvskJP2nQgipau0WMDsWMrGQYljsJm9nGNstJ/s400/ChelseaGirlsCover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="266" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic6MgYETy0BDvyzNrfSPm4eOBa6Yx3qRBN9xYRtnuBdwzhHPEnWFQ5gO4AhUJMiydkEwJZ5UzAzzOhWU3cmLSmIiT6RUxANZD3bwvPevVgvskJP2nQgipau0WMDsWMrGQYljsJm9nGNstJ/w266-h400/ChelseaGirlsCover.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Chelsea Girls</i> has a particular focus on the blacklisting of individuals as alleged Communists during the McCarthy Era. I had read non-fiction about this issue as a teenager such as <i>The Strange Case of Alger Hiss</i> by William Allen Jowitt. I knew about the Hollywood Ten, a group of Hollywood writers who were accused of being Communists and called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I have never read any books about women accused of being Communists during this period, but I am now aware that playwright Lillian Hellman had actually been a member of the Communist Party and had been blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. Davis says in her Author's Note that the experience of <i>The Chelsea Girls </i>protagonist Hazel Ripley with HUAC was based on Lillian Hellman's.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Hazel was an actress and a playwright, but hadn't met with much success when she was blacklisted for attending an anti-fascist rally during WWII. Like many of the accused in the McCarthy Era, there had been no real basis for Hazel being labeled a Communist. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Playwright Arthur Miller wrote <i>The Crucible</i> (1953)<i> </i>about women being falsely accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials as an indirect representation of the red-baiting that was going on during the McCarthy Era.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I was inspired by Hazel's courage when she faced HUAC. I also liked the fact that she was vindicated in the end by the respect of her community. History shows us that before the end of the 1950's America had rejected both Communism and McCarthyism. <i>The Chelsea Girls </i>makes me feel optimistic about America's emergence from its current political crisis.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br /></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i> <br /></i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span> <br /></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-69818379313039039452020-12-04T18:07:00.002-08:002020-12-04T18:09:15.219-08:00A Q & A With Art Historian and Historical Novelist Laura Morelli<p> </p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Laura
Morelli's assistant, Jacqueline M. Howard, suggested that I do a
Q&A on Laura Morelli's two 2020 releases. I have posted a review
of <i>The Giant </i>on <i>Shomeret: Masked Reviewer</i> <a href="https://shomeretmasked.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-giant-historical-novel-about.html">here </a>.
This is a book dealing with Michelangelo's David. It's still the most
viewed post of 2020 on that other blog. I also posted a review of <i>The Night Portrait </i>on this blog <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-night-portrait-two-women-in-history.html">here</a> . This second 2020 novel focuses on the creation of Leonardo Da Vinci's <i>Lady With An Ermine</i>
and its later history during WWII. After posting these reviews, I sent
questions to Laura Morelli relating to each of these books. Today she
responded. Because one of these reviews appeared on each of my blogs, I
decided that the Q&A should be posted on both of them. </span></p><header class="norrin-ybar ybar-dark"><div class="ybar-ytheme-default ybar-property-mail _yb_1r2fo _yb_1ys20 _yb_979ui _yb_14ih1 ybar-track-link-views" data-find-rapid="" data-spaceid="" data-testid="" data-version="3.7.359" id="ybar" role="banner"><div class="_yb_1rg8s" id="ybar-inner-wrap"><div class="_yb_1ingg _yb_13enl"><div class="_yb_17der _yb_juvtn"><div class="_yb_176xd _yb_xs530"><div id="mail-search"><div class="D_F en_0 H_74JI p_R" data-test-id="search-box"><div class="D_F W_6D6F s_3z5BY cj_dRA bk_dRA k_w b_0 I_52qC p_R"><div class="react-y-pills k_w D_F ab_C W_1BJksS p_R"><input aria-hidden="true" style="border: 0px none; height: 0px; left: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: currentcolor none 0px; position: relative; width: 0px; z-index: -99999;" tabindex="-1" type="text" /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></header><header class="norrin-ybar ybar-dark"><div class="ybar-ytheme-default ybar-property-mail _yb_1r2fo _yb_1ys20 _yb_979ui _yb_14ih1 ybar-track-link-views" data-find-rapid="" data-spaceid="" data-testid="" data-version="3.7.359" id="ybar" role="banner"><div class="_yb_1rg8s" id="ybar-inner-wrap"><div class="_yb_1ingg _yb_13enl"><div class="_yb_17der _yb_juvtn"><div class="_yb_lixvb" role="toolbar"><div class="_yb_rx914"><a aria-label="Yahoo Home" class="_yb_1okdg" data-rapid_p="34" data-v9y="1" data-ylk="sec:yb_home-mail;slk:mail;itc:0;elm:ln;elmt:featured-icon;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span class="_yb_1jl8j _yb_19i21 _yb_1wvbz"> <br /></span></a></div><div class="_yb_rx914"><a aria-label="Yahoo Home" class="_yb_1okdg" data-rapid_p="34" data-v9y="1" data-ylk="sec:yb_home-mail;slk:mail;itc:0;elm:ln;elmt:featured-icon;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span class="_yb_1jl8j _yb_19i21 _yb_1wvbz"> <span style="font-size: x-large;">The Q&A With Laura Morelli</span><br /></span></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></header><div class="I_52qC D_FY W_6D6F" data-test-id="message-view-body"><div class="msg-body P_wpofO mq_AS" data-test-id="message-view-body-content"><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5"><div><div id="yiv8552241239"><div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yahoo_quoted" id="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yahoo_quoted_7162866236"><div style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div><div id="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><blockquote class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" type="cite"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181yahoo-style-wrap"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><b class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181">Questions Related to The Giant</b><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div></div></div></div></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" type="cite"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181yahoo-style-wrap"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Question 1)
In The Giant Michelangelo tells Jacopo that the Signorina of Florence
wanted him to build a bronze replica of the David. I did a search for
bronze replica of Michelangelo's David and found that the bronze replica
standing in Florence was designed by the architect Guiseppe Poggi in
the 1860's. I discovered that it was part of a much larger project
devoted to Michelangelo called the Piazzale Michelangelo. Wikipedia
says that Florence was doing urban renewal at the time. Can you tell us
something about the art history aspect of Piazzale Michelangelo? <br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">LAURA MORELLI : </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">
In THE GIANT, the bronze replica of the DAVID refers to a sculpture—now
lost—that Michelangelo made for Duke Pierre de Rohan,<span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="text-indent: 36px;"> a French nobleman in the royal circle. De Rohan had been smitten by Donatello’s </span></span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">DAVID</span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="text-indent: 36px;">, which he had seen in Florence in 1494, and he wanted Michelangelo to make a copy of it for him.</span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="text-indent: 36px;"> </span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="text-indent: 36px;">Michelangelo
tried to wave off the commission; he probably thought it insulting to
copy another man’s work, especially when he was on the verge of
finishing his own </span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-style: normal; text-indent: 36px;">DAVID</span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="text-indent: 36px;"> which, in one fell swoop, would make Donatello’s version seem an antiquated oddity. </span></span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;">But Gonfaloniere Soderini pressed Michelangelo to do it.</span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>De
Rohan was a favorite of the French king and an avid art collector;
nobles around Europe showered de Rohan with artistic treasures to gain
favor with the French court.</span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;"> </span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;">The
Florentines, eager to gain the French king’s support in the wake of
their own political upheavals, had already secured seven marble and two
bronze statues for de Rohan.</span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;"> </span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;">Now he was keen to have a copy of Donatello’s </span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">DAVID</span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;"> with the head of Goliath at the youth’s feet.</span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;"> </span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;">Soderini didn’t want to deny him, so he pressed Michelangelo to take on the job.</span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 36px;"> </span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">Michelangelo
reluctantly agreed, and made a drawing that still exists. One year
later the bronze sculpture was cast. Ironically, by the time the
sculpture was completed, the duke de Rohan had already fallen from the
French king’s favor, and the sculpture passed into the hands of
Florimond Robertet, who displayed it in his chateau in Bury. Later it
moved to the castle of Villeroy, then seems to have disappeared forever.
We will never know if it bore any resemblance to the colossal DAVID
that was about to take Florence by storm.</span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">The
bronze replica of Michelangelo’s DAVID you refer to in the Piazzale
Michelangelo was part of a 19th-century urban renewal plan in Florence. </span></div><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Question 2) Your
Master Class on The Giant revealed that Michelangelo wanted to do
another giant marble sculpture in which he got to select his own
marble. Are there varieties of marble that are considered more
suitable for sculpture, or did Michelangelo just want more control of
his material?</span><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181yahoo-style-wrap"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">LAURA MORELLI:<br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div></div></div></div><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> </span></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Michelangelo
was intimately familiar with the marble quarries near Carrara, in
Tuscany, where he traveled to select raw materials for his famous </span><i class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Pietà</i><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> and
other sculptures. Every piece of Carrara marble was special and
specific to each project. The block used for Michelangelo’s famous </span><i class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">David</i><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> had languished in the work yard of Florence cathedral for forty years before he tackled it</span><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">. The master wrote that he dreamt of one day carving another colossus like the </span><i class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">David</i><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">—this time using an entire mountain of marble, a kind of Renaissance Mount Rushmore—that would overlook the sea.</span></span><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><blockquote class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" type="cite"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181yahoo-style-wrap"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Question 3) I
read an article about the frequency of earthquakes in Italy during the
21st century and saw various items online about the vulnerability of
Michelangelo's David to earthquakes due to weak ankles that could cause
it to collapse. Has a conservator ever been hired to repair those
ankles? There was also a 2014 proposal that the David be given an
anti-seismic pedestal. Has this ever happened?</span></div></div></div></div></blockquote><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> LAURA MORELLI:<br /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">You can read some of the efforts to make the DAVID earthquake-proof here: <a class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/florence-acts-to-ensure-michelangelos-david-remains-sure-footed-after-recent-earthquakes" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank">https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/florence-acts-to-ensure-michelangelos-david-remains-sure-footed-after-recent-earthquakes</a></span></div><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span><blockquote class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" type="cite"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181yahoo-style-wrap"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Question 4) Will there be a sequel to The Giant devoted to the Sistine Chapel ceiling? <br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div></div></div></div></blockquote> </div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181">LAURA MORELLI:<br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">Not at the moment, but in the future… Who knows? :)</span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span><blockquote class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" type="cite"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181yahoo-style-wrap"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><b class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Questions Related to The Night Portrait</span></b></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><b class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></b></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Question 1) Did
Italian Renaissance artists other than Leonardo Da Vinci use their
fingers for painting? Was Leonardo influenced by someone else who used
this technique or was it a practice that was unique to him?</span></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">LAURA MORELLI: <br /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">I
don’t believe this was unique to Leonardo da Vinci, though much has
been made of Leonardo's fingerprints, which have been discovered on his
paintings and drawings. For example: <a class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/thumbprint-of-leonardo-da-vinci-discovered-on-drawing" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank">https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/thumbprint-of-leonardo-da-vinci-discovered-on-drawing</a> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span><blockquote class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" type="cite"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181yahoo-style-wrap"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Question 2) The
Night Portrait point of view character Dominic wonders how a solvent
cleans a painting without damaging the paint. That's a question that
I'd like answered myself.</span></div></div></div></div></blockquote> </div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"> LAURA MORELLI:<br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">Professional
conservators have many tools in their repertory to deal with things
like this. However, cleaning an old master painting with solvent is
extremely tricky! It's possible to remove overpainting from later
centuries to reveal an artist’s original pigments underneath.</span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span><blockquote class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" type="cite"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181yahoo-style-wrap"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Question 3) Why
did you decide that Lucrezia Crivelli was the sitter for La Belle
Ferroniere and that she resembled Cecilia very closely even though they
were unrelated? There are those that argue that La Belle Ferroniere is a
second portrait of Cecilia. Da Vinci could have created it from his
sketches of Cecilia because she was no longer at Ludivico Sforza's court
and was therefore unavailable. Her unavailability could explain why
the Cecilia in La Belle Ferroniere isn't completely identical to the
Cecilia depicted in Lady With An Ermine. Do you think this is at all
likely?</span></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181">
<p class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">LAURA MORELLI: <br /></span></p><p class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">The
identity of the woman in this beautiful portrait--the so-called<i class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"> Belle Ferronnière--</i>remains contested. We know Leonardo completed the picture during his tenure at the ducal court of Milan. This
portrait bears some things in common with the <i class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181">Lady with the Ermine</i><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-style: normal;">; that’s for certain</span><i class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181">.</i> Many art historians believe the portrait represents Lucrezia Crivelli, who became Ludovico
Sforza’s mistress after Cecilia Gallerani exited the ducal palace. Other scholars
think it represents Beatrice d’Este, Ludovico’s bride who died in childbirth at
21.</span></p></div><blockquote class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" type="cite"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181yahoo-style-wrap"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" dir="ltr"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Question 4) In
the Leonardo's Portraits class that you did for those of us who
pre-ordered The Night Portrait, you said that Raffaelo Sanzie known as
Raphael was influenced by Da Vinci. What aspects of Raphael's painting
style show this influence?</span></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> LAURA MORELLI:<br /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">When
young Raffaello Sanzio arrives in Florence for the first time around
1504, we see him immediately experimenting with the three-quarter pose
familiar to us now in the <i class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181">Mona Lisa</i><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-style: normal;">, as well as other stylistic features of Florentine painting.</span></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;">At
that time, Leonardo da Vinci was considered an accomplished older
master who freely shared his ideas and work with younger painters. I
have no doubt that Raphael studied Leonardo’s work.</span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><span class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-family: Arial;"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></span></div><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /></div><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" /><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181">
<table class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" id="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181the_sig_to_copy" style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: currentcolor; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: solid; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; word-spacing: 0px;"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tr class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><table class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181main_html yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181date__2019_05_13___15_25" style="direction: ltr; max-width: 600px;"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tr class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181main_sig yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181html yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181wisestamp_app" id="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181tp1s" style="margin-bottom: 8px; 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max-width: 0px; width: 113px;" /></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-right-color: rgb(69, 102, 142); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-right: 1px solid rgb(69, 102, 142);"><br /></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="color: #646464; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: initial;"><div class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0px;"><b class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181theme-font yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181text-color">Laura Morelli, Ph.D.</b><br class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" clear="none" />Art Historian | Historical Novelist</div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="margin-top: 5px; width: 470px;"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tr class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="color: #8d8d8d; 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border-radius: 50%; border-style: none; border-width: 0px;" /></a></td><td align="left" class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" href="http://twitter.com/lauramorelliphd" rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank"><img class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdn3tzca2xtljm.cloudfront.net%2Fsocial_icons%2F24px%2Ftwitter.png&t=1607127820&ymreqid=e475437f-ec45-1eb3-1cdd-94000801f600&sig=js38z5ys334bZQQTnlvZbw--~D" style="border-color: currentcolor; border-radius: 50%; border-style: none; border-width: 0px;" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tr class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><br /></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><br /></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;">Thank you, Laura Morelli. I appreciate your insights and your wonderful novels.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181main_html yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181date__2019_05_13___14_35 yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181ui-sortable" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; color: #2f3b4c; direction: ltr; font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.021px; max-width: 600px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" style="font-size: 15.0225px;"></tbody></table><table class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" id="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181the_sig_to_copy" style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: currentcolor; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: solid; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; word-spacing: 0px;"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tr class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><table class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181main_html yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181date__2019_05_13___14_21" style="direction: ltr; max-width: 600px;"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tr class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><table class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" id="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181the_sig_to_copy" style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tr class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><table class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181main_html yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181date__2019_05_13___14_23" style="direction: ltr; max-width: 600px;"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tr class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181main_sig yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181html yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181wisestamp_app" id="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181tp1s" style="margin-bottom: 8px; max-width: 470px; padding-bottom: 10px;"><tbody class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><tr class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181"><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /></span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /><br /></span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td><td class="yiv8552241239ydp2a7bfa46yiv1523223181" colspan="1" rowspan="1"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-68864313021640595232020-10-03T14:51:00.002-07:002020-10-03T15:00:25.552-07:00Josephine Baker's Last Dance: The Story of A 20th Century African American Performer <p><span style="font-size: large;">I won <i>Josephine Baker's Last Dance </i>by Sherry Jones</span> <span style="font-size: large;">about two years ago through Goodreads Giveaways and I recently finished reading it. Yes, I know. I'm a disgrace. It's just that I tend to prioritize blog tours because I need to post on a definite date. Then there's the authors, publishers and publicists who contact me directly about a book asking me to review it within a certain time frame. Having a specific deadline works best for me. Goodreads Giveaways don't even require reviews. I still like to post reviews of those I won from that source when I have the time. The last time I reviewed a Goodreads Giveaway win, it was 2019, and I reviewed it only on Goodreads. That's what I tend to do when the review is going to be relatively short, and I haven't been asked to review the book on a blog.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I've read three novels by Sherry Jones previously. The first two were the books devoted to Mohammed's daughter, Aisha. They were <i>The Jewel of Medina </i>and <i>The Sword of Medina </i>which I reviewed on Goodreads. I participated in the blog tour for Jones' Heloise and Abelard novel, <i>The Sharp Hook of Love. </i>That post appeared on this blog <a href="http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-sharp-hook-of-love-illuminating.html#.VHkgy8kXKSg">here</a> . I didn't expect that it would take this long for a review of a fourth Sherry Jones book to appear.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisoiWtG1jcmZkArcHdtraKG_JaMG-6J2rsTCXWIuUOUrsW_3_PEceoTQ06-MxuCmcy97TSpytqZZkersfE4zoJ2MyJsc8GuVhrPXC-VYtJgHCNDGpbqQPbFErf2jr3qbLMcKMtm5lfhSh2/s475/JosephineBakerLastCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="306" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisoiWtG1jcmZkArcHdtraKG_JaMG-6J2rsTCXWIuUOUrsW_3_PEceoTQ06-MxuCmcy97TSpytqZZkersfE4zoJ2MyJsc8GuVhrPXC-VYtJgHCNDGpbqQPbFErf2jr3qbLMcKMtm5lfhSh2/s320/JosephineBakerLastCover.jpg" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br />I've never read a novel about Josephine Baker. In fact, the only other one that I found online is a graphic novel that can be found on Goodreads <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31305589-josephine-baker">here</a>. So Josephine Baker is an unusual subject for a novel. I had heard of her, and wanted to know more about her life. That's the reason I entered the Goodreads giveaway.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> Although Josephine Baker was born in the U.S., as a Black woman she couldn't be a great star in America during the first half of the 20th century, as she was in Paris. This is why she lived in Paris for almost her entire adult life. The French song that is most associated with her, "J'ai Deux Amours" expressed her affection for her two loves, her country and Paris. As a narrator, Sherry Jones commented that her country didn't love her back. When she was in the U.S. , Josephine had to contend with race prejudice and segregation. She wasn't immune to them because of her success in Paris. She came back to the United States at one point with the purpose of organizing a campaign against segregation. I had no idea that Josephine Baker had briefly been a civil rights activist during the 1950's. I considered that aspect of her life, the biggest revelation in <i>Josephine Baker's Last Dance.</i><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I tried to understand Josephine Baker's orientation toward marriage. On the one hand, she seemed to believe that she ought to marry a man if she was in love with him. This happened a number of times. On the other hand, she didn't want a man to control her life. Husbands and men who aspired to be her husband were likely to try to make decisions for her. One man who wasn't legally married to her actually pulled off a masterful effort to keep Josephine under his thumb that I thought was only possible for husbands. I could only imagine that she was too involved in her career to notice what he had done. I am happy to say that she extricated herself from that adverse situation without the help of a man. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">My only disappointment with this book is that Sherry Jones tantalized me with the idea of Josephine Baker as a pilot, but never gave me any more than two bare mentions of it. I love reading about women in the history of aviation, and in fact woman pilots is a major focus of this blog. So don't tell me that Josephine owned a plane and had flying skills, but never give me even one scene of her flying. I felt deprived. I would have given this book five stars on Goodreads if there had been piloting sequences during the period of Josephine's life when I thought it most likely that this could have happened. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I could have loved <i>Josephine Baker's Last Dance,</i> though I did like what we were given very much. Josephine was really an extraordinary woman with great gifts that have lived on in the history of performing artists. Yet I did want to have more detail about her contributions in other areas. Perhaps another author will one day write that Josephine Baker novel. On that day, I will celebrate.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> <br /></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-3329859534550652392020-09-25T15:33:00.031-07:002020-10-02T21:00:09.508-07:00 The Night Portrait: Two Women in the History of a Da Vinci Painting<p><span style="font-size: medium;">I found out about <i>The Night Portrait </i>by novelist and art historian Laura Morelli, when her assistant asked me to do a Q&A with the author on both of her 2020 historical fiction releases. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The first was <i>The Giant</i>, a novel of Michelangelo's David which I reviewed on <i>Shomeret: Masked Reviewer</i> <a href="https://shomeretmasked.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-giant-historical-novel-about.html">here</a>. That review is so far my most viewed post of 2020 on that other blog.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> I was gifted with a PDF of <i>The Night Portrait</i> well in advance of publication, but was unable to read it because I couldn't adjust the miniscule font on my Kindle e-reader. So I had to wait until my pre-ordered copy arrived from Amazon. I dived into <i>The Night Portrait</i> after I finished and reviewed the title I was reading for a blog tour with a post that had to appear on September 20th. This is why it took me longer to get to this dual period novel dealing with the creation of Leonardo Da Vinci's Lady With An Ermine and its later history during World War II.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Kx4Mqcf0MWJcjF0mjGmRaXMW-xsM59lZEIVR65X7g7ZQV8GVpwoxk1n3UnDucXhD0CfPWkV09hxJ_4lnx0klZJZER16_DTS4KXwlh0aUMiYsly8utNfi8Lo29OlNmV2Agbt0f6JZHz1Q/s400/NightPortraitCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="265" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Kx4Mqcf0MWJcjF0mjGmRaXMW-xsM59lZEIVR65X7g7ZQV8GVpwoxk1n3UnDucXhD0CfPWkV09hxJ_4lnx0klZJZER16_DTS4KXwlh0aUMiYsly8utNfi8Lo29OlNmV2Agbt0f6JZHz1Q/s320/NightPortraitCover.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />The first of the two women protagonists to appear in the narrative is fictional museum art conservator Edith Becker who is introduced to us during 1939 in Munich. The museum staff are poring over the records Edith had created about the great paintings by Old Masters in private hands in Poland. The Nazis were stealing art from every nation in Europe where they had a presence. The Chairman of the Board at the museum where Edith worked was justifying German theft of these paintings with a conspiracy theory about Americans seizing them for Jewish museums in the United States. I have visited Jewish museums. They only contain works by Jewish artists. There's no possibility that you would ever have found a portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci hanging on the wall in a Jewish museum. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I sincerely doubt that Edith took the Jewish Museum conspiracy seriously. She was much more concerned about her life being hijacked. She was being sent to Poland in order to assist with the largest art theft in history. Edith felt that these paintings "had been cast like dice into a game that had spiraled out of her control." This is a direct quote from Laura Morelli's narration. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It seemed to me that the Nazis were taking advantage of Edith's love of art. If a painting was given into her hands, she had to preserve it. She would clean it and ameliorate any damage that had occurred during its travel from the home where it had been kept by its owner. Edith was portrayed as a consummate professional who was inwardly horrified to be conscripted into participation in a criminal enterprise. Yet she wasn't helpless either. Could Edith find a way to disrupt the Nazi plan to own all of Europe's great art? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> The second female protagonist in <i>The Night Portrait </i>is chronologically first because she is the woman that Leonardo Da Vinci painted when Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, commissioned what became known as Lady With An Ermine. She was Cecilia Gallerani, the sixteen year old mistress of Ludovico Sforza. So history remembers Cecilia as a perpetual sixteen year old.</span> <span style="font-size: medium;">Here is a public domain image of the painting from Wikipedia. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7NQz7q4YGY4VirmUk284_L1OTbAktiU4cCAgOxNd6T6S1RHrqfgzjpT6kjkgAmh3qnh1IK4Ngg1jfSutpoXM8k8ROm1VMviQWw0a0ys9m1ZCeufkhsZLNLPn7j0EiOkfQu850AMfF4sN2/s1076/800px-Lady_with_an_Ermine_-_Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7NQz7q4YGY4VirmUk284_L1OTbAktiU4cCAgOxNd6T6S1RHrqfgzjpT6kjkgAmh3qnh1IK4Ngg1jfSutpoXM8k8ROm1VMviQWw0a0ys9m1ZCeufkhsZLNLPn7j0EiOkfQu850AMfF4sN2/w298-h400/800px-Lady_with_an_Ermine_-_Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="298" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>Lady With An Ermine by Leonardo Da Vinci</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Cecilia might not be regarded as a feminist in the modern sense of the word, but she knew what kind of life would make her happy, and it wasn't becoming a nun as her family intended. She wanted to be surrounded by the beautiful things that you would find in a ducal court, and to become a celebrated singer. Ludovico Sforza fell in love with her, and she got everything she wanted. Cecilia had beauty. She was also a musician and a gifted singer. <i>The Night Portrait </i>also tells us what happened to Cecilia after her relationship with Ludovico Sforza was over. I will tell you only that Cecilia Gallerani's life was not a story of victimhood. Cecilia had a strong will, and she was able to charm people.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There were also significant male characters including Leonardo Da Vinci and participants in the Monuments Men. The Monuments Men were officially known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monuments,_Fine_Arts,_and_Archives_program#Restitutions">Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Program</a>. I am linking to its Wikipedia article. They were a military organization run by the Allies of World War II to protect European art and return stolen art. Stolen art was returned to the family that owned it when possible, or to the government of the place of origin.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was most interested in the character of Edith. Her inner conflict between her passion for preserving art, and her opposition to Nazi art theft gave her a fascinating level of complexity. I was reminded of Hanna, the protagonist in <i>The Woman Who Heard Color</i> by Kelly Jones. Hanna was an art dealer who facilitated Nazi art theft. The main difference between Edith and Hanna is that it seemed to me that Hanna was a voluntary collaborator with the Nazis. See my <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/556763223?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1">Goodreads review</a> of <i>The Woman Who Heard Color.</i> I admired Edith, but I thoroughly despised Hanna.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was also interested in finding out more about the life of Da Vinci. I was surprised by Laura Morelli's portrayal of Da Vinci's attitude toward the role of art in his life. I knew that Da Vinci had a great many interests other than art. In <i>The Night Portrait </i>Da Vinci was shown to have priorities that appeared to be far more important to him than being an artist.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The bibliography that Laura Morelli has included shows the depth of her research, but it also provided me with a number of really awesome candidates for further reading on the topics covered in <i>The Night Portrait</i>. Among the volumes that I intend to obtain soon, <i>Women in Italian Renaissance Art: Gender, Representation and Identity </i>by Paola Tinagli<i> </i>might be of particular interest to the readers of this blog.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The Night Portrait</i> combines accuracy with narrative power. Those who love books with moving characters and a plot with impact will want to read it for those aspects along with the compelling history and themes. Laura Morelli seems to have built to a crescendo with her novels of 2020. I anticipate her future fiction with enthusiasm.</span></p>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-77671664869749646032020-07-20T14:38:00.005-07:002020-07-20T15:11:24.442-07:00Sinister Sisterhood: A Crime Thriller With Amazing Women Protecting Animals<div>Publicist Wiley Saichek asked me about reviewing crime thriller <i>Sinister Sisterhood </i>by Jane Badrock when I told him I'd posted my review of <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2020/06/ambush-third-in-series-about-female.html">my last read</a><i> </i>for this blog,<i> Ambush</i>. He said that it would contain the strong women characters that I wanted to see when I read for <i>Flying High Reviews. </i>So I accepted the review copy that he sent me.</div><div><br /></div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPnrYboFVwgckLworMtSRflyZ_osySNiKTECLT13FcoOUALpbIWk23kyuGunpRGBU_bKeBcwRLiRm2cXM-CSR0-15Oh08k_zEe1cwy___31bh-9qyKKHZ6H-RGtorz5yMfJvtyZt2H2qB/s475/SinisterSisterCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="310" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPnrYboFVwgckLworMtSRflyZ_osySNiKTECLT13FcoOUALpbIWk23kyuGunpRGBU_bKeBcwRLiRm2cXM-CSR0-15Oh08k_zEe1cwy___31bh-9qyKKHZ6H-RGtorz5yMfJvtyZt2H2qB/s320/SinisterSisterCover.jpg" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Wiley was definitely on the money when he said that there would be strong women in <i>Sinister Sisterhood</i>. I was very pleased with some of these characters.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Sinister Sisterhood </i>centers on an employment agency named Elle's Belles. Owner Elle Scarlett donates part of her profits to organizations that help animals. She became committed to animals due to the influence of her Aunt Pat who lives near a tiger sanctuary in India and volunteers there. I loved Aunt Pat. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Another favorite of mine was the professional cleaner Chloe May Chopra who could clean absolutely anything. You might call her a ninja cleaner if a ninja had cleaning skills. She also has what might be considered a paranormal power if this were a fantasy novel. Since it isn't, let's say that her intuition is very well developed. Some readers might consider Chloe improbable, but I loved seeing a woman who cleans rooms in hotels becoming a major hero.</div><div><br /></div><div>Elle's Belles wander into dangerous territory. Women are trafficked, and there is a conspiracy to bomb hotels, in addition to their animal activist activities of investigating the hunting of endangered animals and the smuggling of their body parts. Buckle your seat belts, readers. It gets rather wild out there.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet it's also fun. There are some great lines. Author Jane Badrock must have an advanced degree in witty description. During a flashback dealing with the background of the Elle's Belles computer expert we learn that she "took to Chicago the way Al Capone took to tax evasion".</div><div><br /></div><div>If the reference to Al Capone leaves you with the impression that some of these woman characters aren't exactly girl scouts, you'd be right. There are those who skate over the border between the law abiding citizen and the criminal on a regular basis. There are also those whose ideas of ethics are very situational. Badrock likes the idea of her heroines being badass. Her philosophy is that "women can be as capable and as horrible as men". I wouldn't have said that I'd be up for that before I read <i>Sinister Sisterhood</i>, but Badrock made me like it by always being entertaining. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> <br /></div><div><br /></div><div> <br /></div><div><br /></div>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-45796674201161808652020-06-15T00:00:00.002-07:002020-06-16T20:35:34.370-07:00Ambush: The Third in a Series About A Female Marine<div>Publicist Wiley Saichek gifted me with the mystery/thriller <i>Ambush </i>by Barbara Nickless via Amazon. I had not read the previous two books in this series, but I read a Goodreads review that assured me that this book can stand alone. It resolves a major ongoing issue in the female protagonist's life that relates to her military service in the Iraq War, and contains all the background necessary for understanding it. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div> I was interested in the fact that protagonist Sydney Rose Parnell is a Marine. I'm pretty sure that I'd never previously read a novel about a female Marine. I believed that she would definitely be a strong female protagonist. I was also intrigued by Sydney going to Mexico to find an Iraqi child in this book.</div><div><br /></div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsM4kDN5_Ujq5S68i_xY7_hXlfiKSgNM3-MgaIepbkC7UUEBDwywWLM_-1NqIziEobRmsNoXafiehF1AhK5uSoNHi7y0z1hVf-TxHgLBib419YAGKNp1x1XXARHqk3XXlGOkNDj_roMOlo/s475/AmbushNicklessCover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="316" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsM4kDN5_Ujq5S68i_xY7_hXlfiKSgNM3-MgaIepbkC7UUEBDwywWLM_-1NqIziEobRmsNoXafiehF1AhK5uSoNHi7y0z1hVf-TxHgLBib419YAGKNp1x1XXARHqk3XXlGOkNDj_roMOlo/s320/AmbushNicklessCover.jpg" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Regular readers of this blog will notice that the protagonist of the <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-talking-drum-blog-tour-and-review.html">last book I read</a> was also named Sydney. This could be considered a coincidence, but it could also be possible that what was previously an unusual name for a woman is becoming more popular. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The first person perspective of Sydney Parnell is a very intimate one. We are exposed to her doubts and fears, but she never hesitates to act quickly when it's called for. Being a Marine calls for courage. I have always believed that courage isn't really about never being afraid. It's about overcoming those fears. When I first started reading <i>Ambush</i>, I questioned the risks that Sydney took. Yet over the course of the narrative, I recognized that she was smart, resourceful and very well trained. I particularly liked her alternate version of the Marine by-word, Semper Gumby , which Sydney translated as "always flexible". Flexibility allows for quick improvisation of a new plan when the old one isn't working. It increases the odds of surviving dangerous situations.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sydney is no longer in the Marines. She is now a railroad detective. Yet she has a K9 partner in her investigations who is military trained. His name is Clyde, and he is a very good dog. Sydney and Clyde work well together, and have a great bond of affection between them. I enjoyed this aspect of the book.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Ambush </i>isn't a romance, but there is a romantic relationship in this book that I considered emotionally intense. I have loved some romance novels<i> </i>because they had great characters, but none have moved me to tears. I cried when I read about a certain relationship in <i>Ambush</i>. I found it heart rending. This testifies to the power of Barbara Nickless' writing. For me, this was a two handkerchief book when it came to the romance.</div><div><br /></div><div>The case that began with a traumatic experience for Sydney that took place in Iraq was difficult to resolve, and involved a great many murders perpetrated in Iraq, Mexico and the U.S. All the characters were well developed including the individual who was behind all the killings. I was impressed by the characterization, and thought that the resolution was satisfying. I recommend <i>Ambush </i>and its author<i> </i>to fans of mysteries and thrillers. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> <br /></div>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-31905452055360642052020-06-14T00:30:00.020-07:002020-06-14T00:30:03.908-07:00The Talking Drum: Blog Tour and Review<div> <b>Book Summary</b></div><div><br /><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694">It is 1971. The
fictional city of Bellport, Massachusetts, is in decline with an urban
redevelopment project on the horizon expected to transform this dying
factory town into a thriving economic center. This planned
transformation has a profound effect on the residents who live in
Bellport as their own personal transformations take place.</span></b></div><div><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"></span></b><br /><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694">Sydney Stallworth steps
away from her fellowship and law studies at an elite university to
support husband Malachi’s dream of opening a business in the heart of
the black community of his hometown, Bellport.</span></span></b></div><div><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"></span></span></b><br /><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694">For Omar Bassari, an
immigrant from Senegal, Bellport is where he will establish his drumming
career and the launching pad from which he will spread African culture
across the world, while trying to hold onto his marriage.</span></span></span></b></div><div><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"></span><br /><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694">Della Tolliver has built
a fragile sanctuary in Bellport for herself, boyfriend Kwamé Rodriguez,
and daughter Jasmine, a troubled child prone to nightmares and
outbursts.</span></span></span></b></div><div><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"></span></span></span></b><br /><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694">Tensions rise as the
demolition date moves closer, plans for gentrification are laid out, and
the pace of suspicious fires picks up. The residents find themselves at
odds with a political system manipulating their lives and question the
future of their relationships.</span></span></span></span></b></div><div><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><br /></span></span></span></span></b></div><div><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdoiSCV9O5nFsHx6C3F9ISVB7USofHZ5BjfkeJyy8brT35kITVuSnkJOmZMCC9dG2R4gN9j-0dWqBqUlZZtXmXZPx4VrywFltzBx-FqCKlDBT0EVZsXB-ZH9fOIMYFzzXRGwVsIh4w_Eu/s900/Lisa+Braxton_The+Talking+Drum.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdoiSCV9O5nFsHx6C3F9ISVB7USofHZ5BjfkeJyy8brT35kITVuSnkJOmZMCC9dG2R4gN9j-0dWqBqUlZZtXmXZPx4VrywFltzBx-FqCKlDBT0EVZsXB-ZH9fOIMYFzzXRGwVsIh4w_Eu/w266-h400/Lisa+Braxton_The+Talking+Drum.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br /></span></span></span></span><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"></span></span></span></span></b></div><div><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><br /></span></span></span></span></b></div><div><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"></span></span></span></span><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"></span></span></span></span><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"> </span></span></span></span></b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><u>REVIEW</u></span></span></span></span><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"> <br /></span></span></span></span></b></div><div><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><br /></span></span></span></span></b></div><div><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694">Publicist Laura Marie asked me to join this blog tour for <i>The Talking Drum</i>, the debut novel of Lisa Braxton. I accepted the free review copy that she supplied because I was interested in the issues involving race, class, immigration and urban culture conflict that Braxton raises.<br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div>The summary may lead readers to believe that female protagonist Sydney Stallworth is a character who solely plays a support role to others. It's true that she's supportive, but I thought she genuinely believed in her husband's business. The potential of The Talking Drum to become a center for African American culture was important to her. Yet she also pursued her own goals as well by becoming a local journalist. If it weren't for her dedication in following the protests of the African immigrants in Petite Africa against the "urban redevelopment" that would shatter their lives, the truth about the fires in that neighborhood might never have been discovered. I admired Sydney. Because she cared so deeply, I felt that she inspired everyone around her to follow their own dreams.</div><div><br /></div><div>Della Tolliver is an example of someone who clearly benefited from the presence of Sydney in her life, though Della would never have believed it at the outset. When we first meet Della, she's a very unhappy woman. I didn't like her very much at that point, but she improves her life over the course of the narrative with Sydney's help.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just as in real life, there is no permanent victory against the forces of "urban re-development" in <i>The Talking Drum.</i> Let us hope that there will always be those like Lisa Braxton who will lift up the voices of the marginalized communities that could be impacted before it's too late.<br /></div><div><br /><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"></span></span></span></span><b><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"><span id="freeText6947082353518955694"></span></span></span></span></b></div><div><b></b><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> <b>Lisa Braxton <br /></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJjmFpou5zhLbwEffVPA8HR3uJeuwlDVi4yil7tAjfmif6nab9bxszflqfKV4qhK05kLXYWFzblTrmt3QLbXxCOwNNFVmxZCih_w3N8dvXrw9SQAJ2L5hMKOm5Z91D-D-PEjeoUTkZYUbB/s2696/Lisa+Braxton_hi+res.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2696" data-original-width="1800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJjmFpou5zhLbwEffVPA8HR3uJeuwlDVi4yil7tAjfmif6nab9bxszflqfKV4qhK05kLXYWFzblTrmt3QLbXxCOwNNFVmxZCih_w3N8dvXrw9SQAJ2L5hMKOm5Z91D-D-PEjeoUTkZYUbB/s320/Lisa+Braxton_hi+res.jpg" /></a></div> <br /></div><div><u>Lisa Braxton Bio</u> <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>
<span id="freeTextauthor19923317">Lisa Braxton is an
Emmy-nominated former television journalist, an essayist, short story
writer, and novelist. She is a fellow of the Kimbilio Fiction Writers
Program and was a finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom
Creative Writing Competition. She is the former president of the Boston
Chapter of the Women’s National Book Association. Her stories and essays
have been published in anthologies, magazines, and literary journals
including Vermont Literary Review, Black Lives Have Always Mattered,
Chicken Soup for the Soul, Northwestern University Magazine and The Book
of Hope. She received Honorable Mention in Writer’s Digest magazine’s
84th and 86th annual writing contests in the inspirational essay
category and was a finalist for the “Still I Rise” grant for Black Women
Writers. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in mass media from
Hampton University, her Master of Science degree in journalism from
Northwestern University, and her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative
writing from Southern New Hampshire University. She lives in the Boston,
Massachusetts area.</span>
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<b></b>Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-60680459238594200112020-05-25T22:31:00.000-07:002020-05-25T23:58:29.229-07:00Hello Summer--Contemporary Woman Journalist Investigates Congressman's DeathI've never read mysteries by either Mary Kay Andrews or Kathy Hogan Trochek. Mary Kay Andrews is a pseudonym for Trochek. Her Goodreads profile says that she established the pen name for books that would be more Southern oriented. Trochek lives in Atlanta, Georgia.<br />
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I was approached by publicist Meg Walker with a review request for <i>Hello, Summer</i>, the most recent Mary Kay Andrews novel. The female journalist protagonist was what drew my interest. I appreciated that Trochek had been a journalist herself before beginning her career as a novelist. This meant that I could expect an authentic portrayal of the protagonist. The author gave her protagonist her own journalistic background. They both had worked at <a href="https://www.ajc.com/">The Atlanta Journal-Constitution</a>. I think that these shared circumstances increases the reader's confidence in the book's realism.<br />
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On this blog, I recently reviewed a book dealing with the real historical journalist, Nellie Bly <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-girl-puzzle-very-humanized-nellie.html">here</a> but I also reviewed <i>The Suffragette Scandal</i>, a romance by Courtney Milan in which the heroine was a fictional historical journalist <a href="https://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-suffragette-scandal-some-of-best.html">here</a>.<br />
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Journalists play an important role in society. So I like to highlight them. That's why I decided to accept the review request. I received two print copies from the exceedingly generous publisher, St. Martin's Press. My review is below.<br />
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From a mystery perspective, readers will need to be patient. There is a great deal of development of the characters and their relationships before the case gets going. The mystery does get solved though the resolution isn't conventional.<br />
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Although there is a romance element in this novel, it doesn't dominate the plot. I read a review on Goodreads that complained that there was too little romance and too much politics. I personally liked the balance of all the various aspects in <i>Hello, Summer</i> within the narrative. <br />
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Readers of this blog will want to know that there were two wonderful woman characters in this novel in addition to protagonist Conley Hawkins.<br />
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My personal favorite was her grandmother's housekeeper, Winnie. Her strength in the face of environmental injustice impressed me tremendously. I would have loved a novel in which Winnie was the protagonist in which we got to see her entire history as she experienced it. I suppose it would have been an environmental thriller.<br />
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Conley's eccentric grandmother was incredibly supportive of Conley's insistence on investigating stories regardless of who they offended. She had inherited the ownership of a local newspaper, and it was she who upheld its journalistic standards. <br />
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Conley brought valuable experience to her family's newspaper, <i>The Silver Bay Beacon</i>, from her work at <i>The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.</i> She had reason to believe that the risks she was taking could make <i>The Silver Bay Beacon </i>more successful despite her sister's skepticism.<br />
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I'm hoping that there will be another novel taking place in Silver Bay in which we get to see whether Conley's strategy paid off in the long run. Do local print newspapers have a future? I'd like to think that they do.<br />
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<br />Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-77418475884268007082020-03-15T15:02:00.002-07:002021-03-20T20:21:15.481-07:00The Mazarinette and the Musketeer-- Lesbian Swordswomen in Historical Adventure NoveletteThis is a review of a book I read at the end of February and didn't have a chance to review in that short month. <br />
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So I came to a point when I really wanted ESCAPISM. The news was terrifying, and the last book I read was so dispiriting that I didn't want to promote it by putting my review on a blog. Fortunately, I had recently downloaded a free book from the author's website that was just the thing I needed. It was <i>The Mazarinette and the Musketeer</i> by Heather Rose Jones. Jones says on her website that she wrote it in response to a challenge to create a musketeer story containing only female characters. I just love sword wielding women. <br />
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As a fan of Alexandre Dumas' musketeer novels, I already figured out that the Mazarinette must be one of the seven actual nieces of a real historical personage, the powerful minister of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, Cardinal Mazarin. See their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazarinettes">Wikipedia article</a> for further information. Jones says in her historical notes that the Mazarinettes really did wear the uniforms of their uncle's musketeers. The Mazarinette in this novelette was Hortense Mancini. I have copied a public domain painting of Hortense from her own Wikipedia article below.<br />
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There were other real women among the characters in <i>The Mazarinette and the Musketeer. </i>It does seem likely that Anne Lennard, Countess of Sussex, did have a lesbian relationship with Hortense Mancini as portrayed in Jones' tale. Julie d'Aubigny, who appears in <i>The Mazarinette and the Musketeer </i>as a teenager, was the subject of a number of fictional accounts about her during her lifetime. It's difficult to know what's true and what isn't. She was supposed to have traveled with her fencing master doing sword fighting exhibitions. Finally, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphra_Behn">Aphra Behn</a> was the first woman to have earned her living writing plays. She also really was a spy for King Charles II of England as shown by Jones in this novelette. She's one of my favorite historical personages and I find it impossible to pass up a book that contains her as a character.<br />
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<i>The Mazarinette and the Musketeer </i>was as entertaining as I expected with lots of sword fights and women disguised as men. I thought that the female characters were all delightful. This is my idea of a fun read.Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6083084222355114149.post-65454468731213574532020-03-14T15:01:00.000-07:002020-03-14T16:19:22.666-07:00The Girl Puzzle: A Very Humanized Nellie BlyWhen the Goodreads group Historical Fictionistas decided to allow authors that are active members of the group to nominate their own novels for the March Book of the Month, it had been some time since they had last allowed author members to do this. The normal rule of the group is that authors can't nominate their own books. This is a common rule among Goodreads groups.<br />
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I was delighted when Kate Braithwaite nominated her Nellie Bly novel, <i>The Girl Puzzle.</i> I quickly seconded the nomination, and it won. I had already purchased it on Amazon a while back, but hadn't had an opportunity to get to it. It's nice to be able to read more historical fiction with strong woman protagonists during Women's History Month. This means I can provide more reviews than usual for <i>Flying High Reviews.</i><br />
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I had actually read a novel focusing on patients at the asylum where journalist Nellie Bly did a ten day undercover investigation pretending to have amnesia in 1887. That book was <i>A Different Kind of Angel</i> by Paulette Mahurin. It was the best historical fiction that I read in 2018 and I reviewed it <a href="https://shomeretmasked.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-different-kind-of-angel-false.html">here</a>. <br />
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The asylum was located on what was then called Blackwell's Island which is in New York's East River. It was re-named Roosevelt Island in 1973. If you're interested in more information about the island's history, see its Wikipedia article <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Island">here</a>.<br />
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In comparing the two books I've read dealing with this late 19th century asylum, I feel that Mahurin's novel was very different in its orientation toward the patients. The fictional protagonist in <i>A Different Kind of Angel</i> was a refugee who was committed to that institution for not being able to speak English. She clearly didn't belong there. She encountered other patients who were also unjustly consigned to the asylum. This protagonist brought definitions of "sanity" into question. In <i>The Girl Puzzle, </i>Nellie Bly thought that a couple of patients didn't belong there, but the behavior of one patient and the history of the other caused Nellie to doubt her judgment. So it was unclear whether any of these women were committed without justification. It seemed to me that Braithwaite was coming down on the side of compassionate Dr. Ingram who said it was "a complicated issue". This positively portrayed asylum staff member commented to Nellie that patients could appear sane when they weren't.<br />
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It's important for me to add that all the rest of the asylum staff other than Dr. Ingram were portrayed by Braithwaite as either extremely abusive, or arrogant and uncaring. In her author's note called "Fact and Fiction in <i>The Girl Puzzle</i>" she reveals that the staff shown in her novel are all real individuals given their actual names, and that their behavior toward the patients is based on fact. There was a grand jury investigation of this institution after the Nellie Bly exposé <i class="mw_t_it"></i>, and this too is in the public record.<br />
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Another aspect of <i>The Girl Puzzle </i>that makes it dis-similar to <i>A Different Kind of Angel</i> is that it's dual period. There is a narrator in Braithwaite's book who was Nellie Bly's secretary toward the end of her life. This narrative displays the elderly Nellie Bly as having poor judgment. Nellie Bly's secretary admired her employer for her courage and past achievements, but she acknowledged that this feminist heroine had flaws. In the 1887 narrative, Nellie Bly herself experienced moments of angst in which she wondered if she had taken too great a risk when she accepted her undercover assignment.<br />
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I would consider Braithwaite's approach to her protagonist realistic. She shows us a Nellie Bly who is strong when the situation calls for it, but is also very human. This makes <i>The Girl Puzzle</i> vastly superior to a Nellie Bly mystery that I DNFed because she never doubted herself , and kept on repeating the same errors. Mystery fans call such characters TSTL (Too Stupid To Live). That's why I recommend this novel by Braithwaite to readers who want believable female protagonists.<br />
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<i> </i> Shomerethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919485153478095104noreply@blogger.com0