Tag: Fiction

Can You Forgive Her? Vol. 3

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Trollope, Anthony. Can You Forgive Her? Volume Three. BiblioLife, 2008.

Reason read: to continue the series started in April in honor of Anthony Trollope’s birthday.

Mercifully, Trollope brings the relationships of Alice Vavasor, Lady Glencora Palliser, and Arabella Greenow to somewhat satisfying conclusions. To be sure, Alice waffled through the entire third volume until the very end. No surprise there. Lady Glencora’s husband, Plantagenet Palliser, showed remarkable grace concerning his wife’s indecisions. He knew she was stuck in the marriage for parliamentary duty yet made the best of it. Arabella Greenow was my favorite character throughout Can You Forgive Her? Greenow just didn’t give a damn and continued having relationships with two men. She just couldn’t chose between the two of them. Trollope used these women to poke fun at Victorian society and it worked.

Author fact: Trollope was also a civil servant.

Book trivia: Volume three of Can You Forgive Her? is the final installment.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).

Everyone Kept Quiet So I Did Too

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Djukicin, Aleksandar. Illustrated by Dorde Balmazovic. Everyone Kept Quiet So I Did Too: Tales of a Reluctant Soldier: a Graphic Novel. do-dju, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read interesting books. I think this is my first graphic novel in nonfiction.

Three friends, three very different paths. Each sharing their experiences in the Balkans War between Serbia and Croatia in 1990. It was interesting how each side spun the same events to fit their personal narrative: the main theme being coward versus hero. In reality there are more than two sides of the coin to being a coward. You can be afraid of facing prison for not accepting the draft or you can be afraid to face the war for fear of death. Fear of inflicting violence on another human without understanding why. Such is the senselessness of war. As a graphic novel, it goes without saying that the visual images need to match the intensity of the words. The storyline was made more powerful by the illustrations of Dorde Balmazovic. Most striking was the line of soldiers waiting to go home fading to black.

As an aside, the illustration of the soldiers urinating after liberation made me chuckle.

Music: Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue,” and Toma Zdravkovic.

Stars That Fell

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Short, Gary. Star That Fell: Poems. University of Nevada Press, 2026.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I am starting to read more poetry.

Childhood memories and adult laments weave vivid snapshots in time. The poems of Stars That Fell are autobiographical and fragile in nature. Honest emotion is slowly revealed through sparse words and economical phrases. The pain of losing a mother to cancer. The pain of an abusive father. The pain caused by the death of a brother. Different pains caused by different family members, yet all deep rooted grief all the same. I hope there is catharsis in the telling. I practically wept for the sheer beauty and innocence of the narrator’s voice. There is a raw honesty to Short’s writing so much so that I will be seeking out his previous works.

The a mention of some of the poems:

  • Little Makeweights of Guilt – the destruction of a hive
  • I Lay My Brother Down – a memory of a brother
  • Flying Over Sonny Liston – the great boxing legend’s life in a poem
  • Herida de Amor – Mexico
  • Driving Down Highway 93: Nevada – an inadvertent drive in the desert
  • Brothers Playing Catch on Christmas Day – a family memory
  • Psalm – did he save the goose or not?
  • Gathering – childhood crushes last a lifetime
  • The Stars That Fell – a loss of innocence when confronted with death
  • The Collector – secrets, capturing insects, learning of a mother’s love before dad
  • American Light – test bombs and an innocent hope.
  • What I Believed – coming of age
  • Dust – who knew dust could be so beautiful?
  • Teaching Poetry to Third Graders – the things that matter to children
  • Imperfect History – what do you remember from childhood?
  • George Pascho Miller – the death of a friend
  • White – cancer
  • Sway – a vulnerable moment finding his father in the barn
  • Gentle Blue Sway – a remembering of a fight of his parents.
  • France Blue – abuse and a troubled relationship

Line I loved the most (please keep it in the final publication), “never mind these footprints in front of me…”

Music: “Night Train,” “Herida De Amor,” and Willie Nelson.

Author fact: Gary Short has written other poetry books.

Family Linen

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Smith, Lee. Family Linen. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1983.

Reason read: Family Linen takes place in Virginia. Virginia became a state in the month of June.

Lee Smith introduces you to a typical dysfunctional family in America. They all have their quirks, but when the matriarch of the family dies, true colors reveal themselves as a jumble of full personalities with dark secrets. Family Linen has been called a murder mystery. Nettie, seeking help for constant headaches, visits a therapist. Under hypnosis, Nettie remembers an axe murder and her mother was directly involved. Did she wield the axe? Nettie, despite her mother’s passing is determined to solve the crime. Family Linen has also been called a psychological commentary on family dynamics. Throughout the story Smith uses various characters to voice past regrets and future forgiveness. Every character has their own tangled troubles.
As an aside, Nettie left her husband Marvin and later started seeing Millard, a flower shop owner. Nettie said Marvin could make beautiful arrangements. Was that her faux pas about her ex-husband or Smith’s?

Line I liked, “Sybill wishes she had never let Bob step one foot down in her subconscious” (p 43).

Author fact: Lee has her own website here: https://leesmith.com/

Book trivia: Family Linen’s story begins on June 1st, 1983. I started reading Family Linen on June 1st.

Music: “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Beatles, “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” “You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Lucille,” “You’re Ruining My Bad Reputation,” “Tennessee Waltz,” “What a feeling,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Mule Skinner Blues,” “Yellow Rose of Texas,” “Careless Love,” Boy George, “Mr. Sandman,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,” Willie Nelson, Elvis, “Mr. Blue,” Synchronicity, Thriller, Kenny Rogers’ “Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” Nat King Cole’s version of “Ramblin’ Rose,” “Orange Blossom Special,” “The Twelfth of Never,” “Sea Cruise,” Rickie Scaggs, “Shout,” and “Wayward Wind.”

As an aside, I had to laugh when Lee Smith called Willie Nelson “old” in 1985…

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust twice. First in the chapter called “Lines That Linger; Sentences That Stick” (p 140) and again in the chapter “Southern Fried Fiction” (p 205).

Ordinary Wolves

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Kantner, Seth. Ordinary Wolves. Milkweeds, 2004.

Reason read: Colorado’s Wolf Preserve opened in the month of June and while Ordinary Wolves isn’t exactly about wolves, I chose this book to honor the place.

Life can be brutally harsh, especially in the far reaches of the Alaskan tundra. Seth Kantner does not sugarcoat the Alaskan way of life. Violence is a simple reality whether it be hunting animals to stay alive or getting into fights with bullies for being too different or “too white” in Inupiaq country. The violent subject matter often throws cold water on the warmth of Kantner’s writing; for Ordinary Wolves despite the pain is also beautiful and lyrical. Emotions are physical entities: distrust squirted, embarrassment marched and memory pretended. Kantner writes in the language of keen observation and passion. I was seduced by the aromas of the land: coffee and campfire, the forest and snow.
Told in three parts, Ordinary Wolves takes readers from the wilderness landscape of Alaska to the city of Anchorage and back home again from the point of view of Cutuk. Despite being born and raised in Alaska, even at five years of age Cutuk has been aware of his differences: his yellow hair and pointed nose. Abe, his father from “away,” has embarrassed him all of his life. Throughout Cutuk’s childhood he feared his father was not manly enough. Despite living on the barren tundra Abe does not like to hunt; he is not rugged nor outwardly strong. Abe survives as an artist who builds furniture for extra income. Then there are the hints that Abe is not an observant father: the unfulfilled promise of a sleeping bag so that Cutuk doesn’t have to sleep so close to his coming-of-age sister; or realizing his daughter needs glasses. As Cutuk grows older his sense of self expands to a new understanding about the world around him.
Ordinary Wolves is a coming of age story that explores themes of identity, heritage, and belonging.

Favorite line, “I wiped my greasy hands on my pants and climbed up into his words as if they were a long team to pull me away to the land of strength and adultness” (p 11).

Author fact: Kantner was born and raised in Alaska. Ordinary Wolves has the potential to be autobiographical.

Book trivia: One of my all-time favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver, write a review for Ordinary Wolves. It makes perfect sense that someone who can paint portraits of the landscape as well as Kingsolver would write Kantner a beautiful review.

Music: Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark,” Stevie Nicks, “Country Roads,” and Lucinda Williams (one of my favorites).

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Maiden Voyages” (p 158).

Magician’s Wife

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Moore, Brian. The Magician’s Wife. Penguin, 1998.

Reason read: Algeria celebrations its Revolution Day in June.

We begin Magician’s Wife in 1856 France. Emmaline Lambert stands in the shadow of her famous magician husband, Henri Lambert. Her personality dims next to the brilliance of her husband’s growing notoriety as an illusionist and inventor. The crowds are agog over his inexplicable trickery. Emmaline almost becomes a cliche being described as uneasy, nervous, foolish, and unsure; acting with trepidation and panic. But in reality, she is just a lonely woman without intimacy in her marriage. It is all about the choices you make in life. Emmeline admits she married a man she did not love. Upon being summoned to the opulent estate of Napoleon III the Lamberts meet dashing Colonel Charles Deniau. Like tendrils of relentlessly advancing vines of kudzu, the Colonel ensnares Emmeline Lambert’s confidences little by little. France has a mission for Henri: in an effort to increase France’s empire and conquer Algeria, astound the Bedouins of North Africa. Frighten them into submission. Is Emmaline falling in love with Deniau? Will she convince her husband to perform the ultimate illusion for the sake of domination?

Author fact: Moore also wrote The Doctor’s Wife which I am reading for the Challenge. I am sensing a pattern here.

Book trivia: The Magician’s Wife was inspired by true events.

Music: “Marseillaise.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “North American Notes: Algeria” (p 159).

Accidental

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Smith, Ali. The Accidental. Pantheon books, 2005.

Reason read: I have no freaking clue when I am reading this book. I already one book from the Scotland chapter.

Is this a cautionary tale about the dangers of miscommunication, assumption, or dysfunctional family silence? The Smith family, on holiday in Norfolk, England, find a beautiful woman on their doorstep announcing her car has broken down. She soon stays for dinner then stays the night. She learns their names: Eve, a writer on the brink of literary success; Michael, a philandering professor; Magnus, a teenager wrack with guilt over a school prank gone horribly wrong; Astrid, a typical twelve year old girl bored with life; everything is substandard in her eyes. The family learns her name, Amber. No one recognizes her from anywhere. Either the Smith family cannot or will not ask each other what they know about the mysterious stranger. Based on their preconceived opinions about each, other each family member makes a blind assumption. Amber is a friend of Eve’s. Amber is Michael’s next “bit ‘o fluff on the side,” maybe one of his latest students he to shag? Amber is a teacher from Magnus or Astrid’s school. Each family member sees a situation from a completely different point of view and that’s when the lies start. Without confirming anything about Amber, the Smith family starts to let the woman integrate herself into their daily lives until it is too late to extract her.

Author fact: Smith is a Scottish writer. I am also reading Hotel World for the Challenge.

Book trivia: The Accidental” could be a movie. It has a little of everything.

Favorite part of the book: when Smith explains the entire Ah-Ha video for “Take On Me.” She captured every minute of my sister’s favorite song.

Music: Elton John, Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now,” “smooth Operator, Beatles, Barbara Streisand, Chris Montez’s “The More I See You,” Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army,” Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet,” Four Seasons’ “December 1963 (Oh what a Night),” Ray Stevens’ “Misty,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Marianne Faithfull, Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen,” and Mick Jagger.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter “Scotland: More Than Haggis, Kilts, and Ian Rankin” (p 200).

Sea Glass

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Shreve, Anita. Sea Glass. Little, Brown and Company, 2002.

Reason read: June is Small Town Month and Sea Glass takes place in a small town in New Hampshire. Even though I read this years ago I am sticking to my rule: if I don’t remember the plot or major characters I have to reread it.

The backdrop to Sea Glass is 1929 New England, specifically on the coast of New Hampshire. Each chapter reveals the perspective of a different character; like a viewfinder, clicking through their lives one by one. Honora Beecher finds herself in a rundown cottage, married to a typewriter salesman she met at her teller job at a bank. Sexton provides for Honora and she loves him, despite him being a virtually stranger. Little by little, Honora’s world expands as she meets the various residents of her (fictional) seaside town. When the stock market crash of 1929 explodes, true personalities are revealed. Shreve is a magician; making readers change their minds about characters. Vivian starts off as a snob while Sexton is admirable. McDermott appears untrustworthy and untethered to life. As with all Shreve novels, the ending is not Hollywood and yet we keep coming back for more.

Characters:

  • Alan – brother of Honora; went to the McKenzie Boys School
  • Alphonse – 11 years old; one of six children; mother is a widow; works in the Ely Falls mill on the bobbins; father died when he was eight; doesn’t know how to swim; wears his sister’s sweater when it’s cold.
  • Alice Willard – mother of Honora
  • Arnaud Nadeau – father is a mule spinner; wears a sweater once belonging to his mother; millworker
  • Asa Whitlock – hotel guest and friend of Vivian
  • Arthur Willet – maybe makes his millions from a diamond mine
  • Augustin – brother of Alphonse
  • Bernice Radcliffe – sick of raisins
  • Bobby Kellogg – a friend of Vivian’s
  • Camille – sister of Alphonse
  • Cedric Nye – from Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Charles – brother of Honora; went to the McKenzie Boys School
  • Charles – from Syracusa
  • Cyril Whittemore – radio actor
  • Delaney – mill worker
  • Dickie – was engaged; moved to Indianapolis after the stock market crash; works for a shirt company; stayed with a man named Johnny Merrill
  • Dorothy Trafton – acquainted with Vivian
  • Eileen – McDermott’s sister
  • Emma – Charles’ infant daughter; died in the explosion
  • Estelle – a woman back home.
  • Evanthia Blanchette – Alphonse’s mother; works of the same floor as McDermott
  • Evelyn – Charles’ wife
  • Father Riley
  • Floyd Holmes – owns the party house
  • Franco – desk manager
  • Francois Boutet – millworker; short
  • Georgia Porter – from Washington; her father is in politics
  • Gerald – friend of Vivian’s; homosexual
  • Harold Willard – uncle of Honora; went blind in the explosion
  • Harlan Quigley – from New York
  • Harold Hurd – mill boss
  • Honora (Willard) Beecher – newly married to Sexton
  • Ima Thurston – drunk party-goer
  • Jack Hess – store owner; has a sister named Arlene
  • John Sevens – hotel guest
  • Joshua Cutts – lives at the beach all year long
  • Lester Simms – a friend of Vivian’s
  • Louis Desjardin – friend of Aphone’s brothers
  • Madame Derocher – a cook at a boarding house
  • Marguerite – Honora’s aunt; died in childbirth
  • Marie-Therese – sister of Alphonse
  • May – found a lump in her breast and had a mastectomy
  • McAllister – Penderton millworker; drunk
  • McDermott – a twenty year old mill worker who frequents prostitutes and smokes; has an ulcer; father abandoned the family when McDermott was twelve; has a sister Eileen (19); brothers are Eamon (went to Texas) and Michael; had a girlfriend named Evangeline (redheaded weaver) who got pregnant by another man; mother died of a stroke; a little deaf; first name is Quillen but everyone calls him by his last.
  • Mironson – a man from the Trade Workers Union; from New York
  • Nat & Hunt Chadbourne – brothers who invented the ball bearing and are millionaires
  • Natalie Nye – Cedric’s wife
  • O’Reilly – millworker
  • Ouellette – millworker; has eight kids
  • Paul Tsomides – millworker; brother owns a market; injured in a raid
  • Phillip – brother of Honora; went to the McKenzie Boys School
  • Ross – has bad teeth and also works at the mill; married to Rosemary;
  • Sam Coyne – always late for school
  • Sean Rasley – works in the mill as a weaver
  • Seth – Honora’s younger brother; died in the explosion
  • Sexton – newly married to Honora; typewriter salesman; Mr. Fosdick is his boss;
  • Sister Mary Patrick – non at school
  • Schwaner – mill worker
  • Sylvia – hotel guest
  • Teddy Rice – Vivian, in a fit of rage, hit him on the ankle with a tennis racket.
  • Tilly Hatch – a friend of Vivian’s
  • Verna Willet – married to Arthur; wears sapphires instead of diamonds
  • Vivian Burton – smokes; a snob from Boston; 28 years old; birthday is in September; mother left when Vivian was eight; her father and his new wife went to vacation in Italy; has a housekeeper named Mrs. Ellis;
  • William – Honora’s father; died in the explosion

Author fact: Shreve is a New England author.

Book trivia: I didn’t realize Sea Glass is the third installment in a trilogy about Fortune’s Rocks, the fictional New Hampshire town. Pilot’s Wife and Fortune’s Rocks round out the series.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Small-Town Life” (p 203).

Prisoner’s Base

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Stout, Rex. Prisoner’s Base. Bantam Books, 1952.

Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of Stout’s birth month (December).

Prisoner’s Base begins in the month of June…on the exact date I started reading.

A woman invites herself to stay at Nero Wolfe’s townhouse. It is all very mysterious as the woman is well familiar with the layout of the place and its inhabitants, yet she does not seem to care that Wolfe is not fond of women. Nevertheless, she offers to pay $50 a night. Archie, unbeknownst to his employer, takes the woman in. Thus begins Prisoner’s Base and the story of Priscilla Eads. Wolfe callously turns Ms. Eads away deciding not to take a case she doesn’t have. Needed a place to stay is not a mystery or a crime. Hours after her dismissal Ms. E is found murdered. Anger on Archie’s part and guilt on Wolfe’s prompts Wolfe to solve her murder…for Archie’s sake. It turns out to be a complicated case. Ms. Eads had a target on her back. As the primary heir to a towel company, she stood to inherit 90% if she lived to see her thirtieth birthday. She was murdered a week shy. Any number of people stood to gain something by her demise. Was it her ex-husband who claimed he had a right to 50% of her inheritance? Was it the other company shareholders who would gain her shares if she died?

As an aside, one of my favorite moments was when Archie mentioned having apple pie with cheese. One of my favorite things in life is a slice of warm apple pie with a thick slab of cheddar cheese laid purposely on top.

As an aside, Rex Stout is proof that not every character needs to have a full name and backstory (Shreve!), especially if the reader is to never encounter that character again.

Author fact: Rex Stout’s working title for Prisoner’s Base was Dark-Base.

Music (in introduction): “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis.

Book trivia: Introduction to Prisoner’s Base was written by William L. DeAndrea.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Can You Forgive Her? Vol 2

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Trollope, Anthony. Can You Forgive Her? BiblioBazaar, 2008.

Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of Anthony Trollope’s birth month in April.

When we rejoin Alice Vavasor she is still annoyingly waffling between two men, committing to neither. One is her cousin George Vavasor, who seems to only want Alice’s hand in marriage to gain access to her money (which she gives him freely, by the way). But, George wants more. His grandfather is not dying fast enough and needing money for his seat in Parliament grows more and more desperate. When the old man finally dies, George is driven to violence and breaks his sister’s arm.
The other suitor is Mr. John Grey who seems to be if not without fault, has very little.
I was disappointed to find volume two did not move any of the relationships any closer to resolution. Alice was still oscillating between George Vavasor and John Grey to the point where to two men came to blows over the woman.
Lest us not forget Mrs. Greenow. In volume two of Can You Forgive Her? this fickle lady was still refusing Mr. Cheesacre. But, the most beautiful relationship was between Mr. Palliser and his wife. Palliser sacrificed his political career to save his marriage.

Trollope continues to amuse me with his odd character names like Mr. Scuby (pronounced Scrubby) and Cheesacre (pronounce cheese-acre).

Favorite slight: a pettifogging rascal.
Favorite quotes, “The cicatrice began to make itself very visible in his face, and the debonaire manner was fast vanishing” (p 271).

Author fact: Anthony Trollope died on December 2nd, 1882.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).

Naked and the Dead

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Mailer, Norman. Naked and the Dead. Signet Book, 1948.

Reason read: Germany surrendered on May 8th 1945. Read in honor of that historic day.

Meet General Cumming, arrogant and blundering. Gallagher is only twenty years old with a pregnant wife back home. Look out for Sergeant Croft because he is mean. Red grew up in a mining town. The idea that any man, from any walk of life, can experience the horror of war as equals.
Norman Mailer takes you inside the mind of a solider. The long nights in a foxhole keeping watch and the raging thoughts that go through a soldier’s head: paranoid about the enemy’s location, wondering about his girl back home. The twisted sense of right and wrong: a soldier can be devastated after the torture and killing of an insect, but feel nothing for doing the same to his Japanese enemy. Writing letters back home: being diplomatic about what a soldier could or could not say. Even though they were not sure what they were fighting for, a soldier could not admit that to his family. By stepping back in time before each character became a soldier was a way for Mailer to humanize his characters even further. Some escaped fatherhood by enlisting. Others needed to prove their toughness for fear of seeming too sensitive and weak as little boys.
Mailer’s attention to detail brings his reader right into the jungle fighting. The way water seeps into greased “waterproof” shoes. The way a forty pound pack gets heavier with the weight of water. What they carried and how they carried it. Obviously, Mailer speaks with experience. Heartbreakingly so.

Quotes to quote, “Dalleson was no problem; he even had potentialities for being a good man” (p 65), “In the war you keep on moving” (p 202).

Music: “Pennies From Heaven,” Tchaikovsky, “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” “I Love a Parade, the Beat of a Drum,” “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead, You Rascal,” “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” and “Roll Me Over.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “World War II Fiction” (p 252). Also, from More Book Lust in the chapter called “You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” (p 237).

Trainspotting

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Welsh, Irwin. Trainspotting. W.W. Norton & company, 1993.

Reason read: in the month of May there is a festival in Scotland called the Beltane Festival.

Gritty yet moving. Violent yet tender. Lonely yet loud. Animally human. How can anyone fully explain the phenomenon that is Trainspotting? Once you get the hang of the narrative the characters come alive. All their faults laid bare. They are disgusting and darling all at the same time. Hideous and hilarious. The black humor and absurd situations had me giggling and then glancing around to see if anyone was offended.
In the absence of a plot this is the story of addictions told from the point of view of addicts and the people who circle their periphery. To describe the kind of desperation addiction can create – when trying to find a viable vein, one character resorts to injecting their privates. Revenge is brutal. Sex is raw and callous. No one is really all that likeable until you find yourself thinking of them long after you close the book. A certain kind of magnetism…like a train wreck.

Lines I liked, “Any port in the storm, and its raging in here behind my face” (p 17) and “I wish I hadn’t waited to long to become a human being” (p 262).

Music! So much good music!: George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord,” Dire Straits’ “the Sultans of Swing,” “Billy Don’t Be a Hero,” “Save the Last Dance For Me,” “Rollin’ Down the River,” “The Wanderer,” “Jolene,” Rod Stewart, Rupert Holmes’s “Escape (the Pina Colada Song,” T’Pau “Chin In your Hand,” The Pogues, Claire Grogan’s “Don’t Talk to Me About Love,” Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control,” Lou Reed’s “Heroin,” Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me?” Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” The Smiths’s “There is a Light That Never Goes Out,” Kylie Minogue, The Velvet Underground, Nico, the Clash, Status Quo, John Cale, David Bowie’s “The Golden Years,” Elvis, Wolfe Tones’ “Banna Strand,” the Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues,” Elvis Costello, Simple Minds, James Connolly’s “Boys if the Old Brigade,” “A Scottish Soldier,” Wet, Wet, Wet, “Auld Lang Syne,” Peter Gabriel, Proclaimers’ “Sunshine on a Leash,” U2, Iggy Pop, Frank Zappa, Moon Unit Zappa, “Danny Boy,” “Roses in Picardy,” and a bunch of Neil Diamond’s sings: “Song Sung Blue,” “Forever in Blue Jeans,” “Love on the Rocks,” “Sweet Caroline,” and “Beautiful Noise.”

Pitted

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Cleary, E, M. Pitted. EverWhen Stories, 2026.

Reason: as a member of LibraryThing’s Early Review program I get to read interesting stories. This is one of them.

Mothers have complicated relationships with their daughters. At thirteen, Alice does not understand her mother at all. Left to take care of her younger brother and run the household, Alice resents her mother’s long hours as a surgeon at the hospital. She quietly keeps track of all the times her mother has offended her and looks for ways to even the score. One day she seizes her chance and defiantly eats a peach pit. Everything changes.
Thus begins E.M. Cleary’s short story, Pitted. It is a mere twenty-four pages long but packed with themes of trust and love. Every relationship needs a hero and Alice finds hers in the unlikeliest of places.
You can find more short stories at E.M. Cleary’s website.

Natalie connection: I am reminded of Natalie’s song “Tell Yourself” a song about a young thirteen year old girl struggling to come in her own. It’s a tough age to be.

Under the Beetle’s Cellar

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Walker, Mary Willis. Under the Beetle’s Cellar. Crimeline, 1996.

Reason read: Walk was born in the month of May. Read in her honor.

Eleven small children, specifically the first born in each of their families, have been taken hostage by a cult leader convinced the end of the world is coming soon. Samuel Mordecai had buried the children and their school bus driver in a bus in the ground forty five days earlier in an effort to “purify” them. When we join the story the end of the world is in five mere days and FBI negotiators are no closer to a viable rescue. They do not even know where the children are being held. As a last ditch effort, is up to reporter Molly Cates to get inside Mordecai’s head and convince him to release the children. She has interviewed him before. Molly starts with Mordecai’s adoptive grandmother to get a sense of how the woman raised this fanatic cult leader. When Molly learns Mordecai was abandoned at the edge of a high school she sees an opportunity to get further inside his head by finding his birth mother. It is a gamble, but it just might work, but can she do it in time?
Small irritation. Molly meets with a Dr. Asquith who starts off with an accent (ah = I, mah = my) but he loses that accent within one paragraph and pronounces I and my without inflection.
My other small irritation is the use of brand names like Coors, Snackwells, and McDonald’s. If a business were to become obsolete, the story would not hold up and would appear dated. Does everyone know the Snackwell brand?

Author fact: Walker died at 81 years old in 2023.

Book trivia: Under the Beetle’s Cellar is the second Molly Cates thriller. Once again, sigh, I am reading them out of order. Go figure.

Playlist: Cat Stevens’ “Morning Has Broken,” “La Bamba,” Rolling Stones, “The Wheels on the Bus,” Mick Jagger, and “100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”

Confessional: I dated someone in high school who loved Revelations 6:8. He could quote the passage about the pale horse, death and hell and did so all the time.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 117). I have to argue is this really a mystery? We know who kidnapped the children and we know why. The only mystery is will Molly Cates get Samuel Mordecai to free the children?

River Angel

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Ansay, A. Manette. River Angel. William Morrow, 1998,

Reason read: Wisconsin became a state in the month of May.

In the fictional town of Ambient is a tight-knit community. You will get to know Shawn and his son, Gabriel. Shawn’s brother, Fred, wins the prize of caring for Gabriel after Shawn skips town, leaving the chubby ten year old behind. Gabriel’s personality is restricted to the fervor of religion and the preoccupation with food. Fred’s wife, Bethany, is less than thrilled to have another male in the house. She has enough on her hands with her husband’s father, Alfred, and own two boys, Pete and Robert John from different fathers.
Then there is Lorna Pranke, the police chief’s wife. Joe Kimmeldorf, the Mader family: Ruthie, Cherish and Gwendolyn. Father Oblerling, Mr. Shuckel, John Grosshuesch, Maya Paluski, Marty, and Anna Grey Graf and Anna’s husband Bill and daughter Milly.
Ambient is an unsightly rundown town that is unashamed to bare its dirty knickers. But at the heart of is charm is an old legend about a river angel. A boy, supposedly drowned in a river ends up in a barn, looking like a sleeping angel. Anday admits River Angel is more about the community than the legend.

Confessional: I did see a similarity between the town of Ambient and my hometown. Rich people from “away” worm their way into the community and start calling the shots with their money doing all the talking. They buy their way into changing all the rules and the way of life.

The only line I liked, “…she wore red lipstick that stuck like a miracle to the complicated shape of her mouth” (p 13).

Author fact: Ansay also wrote Vinegar Hill which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: I read this book way too fast because none of the characters grew on me.

Music: Stille Nacht,” “Die Kinderlein Kommen,” “Amazing Grace,” and Pink Floyd.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Big Ten Country: the Literary Midwest (Wisconsin) (p 25).