Tag: relationships

Airs Above the Ground

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Stewart, Mary. Airs Above the Ground. William Morrow & Company, Inc. 1965.

Reason read: Vienna’s National Day is in October.

It all begins when an old school chum asks Vanessa March to travel to Vienna as a chaperone for her seventeen year old son. Tim Lacy won’t stop nagging his mother to see his father in Austria. Coincidentally, Vanessa has just spotted her husband of two years on a news broadcast about a circus fire in Vienna. Lewis was supposed to be in Stockholm, Sweden. Curious about the young woman Lewis had his arm around in the newsclip, Vanessa agrees to travel with Tim. Together they make a wonderful pair of liars. Tim told his mother that his father was meeting him in Vienna and Vanessa said she was going to Austria for a planned meet up with her husband. Nothing could have been further from the truth for either of them. Tim and his father fell out of touch some time ago. Vanessa suspects her husband of lying to her, but doesn’t understand why. Neither father nor husband know of Tim and Vanessa’s arrival.
Vienna proves to be an adventure for Tim and Vanessa. Upon finding the circus Vanessa learns of an elderly horse in desperate need of surgery. She happens to be a surgical veterinarian who had given up her career to get married. While befriending several members of the troupe, Vanessa and Tim find themselves in the middle of a mystery. Turns out, the lame horse is a prized Lipizzaner disguised as an old piebald. By the way, readers will get a history of the Lipizzaner Stallions, but not in a didactic way that is dry and boring. Tim’s knowledge of the Lipizzaner culture is beautiful for someone so young. Confessional: I searched for videos demonstrating the Schulen uber der Erde.
Second confessional: I was wary of Sandor Balog from the beginning and I was convinced the muttering parrot would hold the key to solving the case.

As an aside, I had to giggle when Tim mentioned Archie Goodwin being his favorite amateur detective. Since I am hip deep in the Rex Stout canon, it was like having a new friend tell you about their favorite hairdresser who happens to be your best friend.

Those crazy Europeans! I can’t imagine having supper at 11pm.

Favorite lines or moments, “She dimpled at him” (p 57). Charming!

Author fact: Mary Stewart’s photograph makes her look like she is just about ready to hail a waiter for a second cup of coffee.

Book trivia: I have to admit Airs Above the Ground served as a wealth of knowledge for me. I didn’t know what “airs above the ground” meant (it is a move the L stallions perform); I didn’t know you could not walk by a horse that is lying down without it getting to its feet; the use of a car horn is forbidden in Austria unless it is an absolute emergency; there is always one bay in the Lipizzaner show.

Music: Offenbach, Suppe, Strauss, Schubert, the Rosenkavalier, Mendelssohn’s “Hear My Prayer,” and Boccherini.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very simple chapter called “Vienna” (p). Incidentally, this is the first book I am reading for this chapter!

Phineas Finn

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Trollope, Anthony. Phineas Finn: The Irish Member. Gebbe and Company, 1901.

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

I feel like Phineas Finn (all three volumes) covers all the same themes as Can you Forgive Her? The male characters are vying for seats in parliament, the women are looking for financially stable men, and everyone is breaking someone else’s heart, sometimes intentionally. Every story has a hapless, heavy in debt, political wannabe who is unlucky with the women. Enter Irishman Phineas Finn. As a lawyer from Ireland he has political ambitions to be in Parliament. Lady Laura Standish, the object of Phineas Finn’s initial affections marries someone else for the convenience of wealth. Luckily, they remain friends and Laura turns out to be one of Phineas’ biggest champions. Ever the naive romantic, Phineas then turns to Violet Effingham who was supposed to be promised to Laura’s brother. Of course there needs to be a duel over Violet. It solves nothing. In the end Phineas does not win the heart of Laura or Violet. Who he turns to next is amusing and oddly beautiful.
The question remains: what is Trollope’s fascination with scheming women? Why are the female characters always bailing the men out of debt? Lady Laura marries Robert Kennedy so that Laura’s brother’s debts can be paid off.
Other similarities: weird names (Mr. Shortribs?), Trollope steps out from the narrative curtain to voice regrets in the novel, and there is even an accident during a hunt that is very similar to the accident in Can You Forgive Her?

Favorite lines, “There was to be an early dinner out in tents at five, and after dinner men and women were to walk about, or dance or make love, or hay, as suited them” (p 152). Oh those crazy Victorians! Here is another, “I think you will acknowledge that if there be a difference of opinion between you and me as to any question of social intercourse, it will be better that you should consent to adopt my opinion” (p 307).

Author fact: Trollope was just as involved in voter reform as his characters in Phineas Finn.

Book trivia: Phineas Finn contains photogravures/illustrations by C.R. Grant, Victor Perard, Hy. Leonard, and R.B. Morrison.

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

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).

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).

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).

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.

Can you Forgive Her?

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Trollope, Anthony. Can You Forgive Her? Oxford University Press, 1900.

Reason read: Trollope’s birth month. Read in his honor.

Can You Forgive Her? is the first instalment in the Palliser or Parliamentary series and follows three parallel stories about dating and marriage. All the single women in Can You Forgive Her? are in relationships with men of varying repute. This was an era when virtual strangers could tell a person who to marry or how to live one’s life. Antiquated norms made for a humorous read.
And speaking of humor, I was surprised to find there was a little humor sprinkled throughout Can You Forgive Her? Take, for example, the description of the green room being an abomination and ugly with deformed furniture. I could picture the space and found it worth a chuckle. Or, how about this insult? “…false tongued little parasite that she was” (p 413). Beyond humor, even more surprising was the element of violence and danger when George Vavasor is caught in a robbery.
All in all, I found Alice Vavasor to be an annoying character. She was torn between marrying two different fellows and her reasoning for how she treated each of them was irksome. I don’t think I would have made it through all three volumes of Can You Forgive Her? without the occasional narration of Sage Tyrtle from Quirky Nomad. The expressive way she reads is very funny. Too bad she doesn’t read the whole thing!
As an aside, I found the fox hunt scene particularly disturbing.

Natalie connection: when Lady Glencora (?) has the conversation about age and growing old I immediately thought of Natalie. According to Lady G twenty-five years of age seems ancient. On her album, Leave Your Sleep, Natalie revised a poem by Laurence Almatedema which has the line, “When I am getting old at nearly twenty-eight or nine, I’ll buy myself a little orphan girl and bring her up as mine.”

Quotes to quote, “Alice sat silent, not knowing what to say in answer to this charge brought against her, – thinking perhaps, that the questioner would allow his question to pass without an answer” (p 218). Like Alice, I have been in that situation many a time. Here’s two more quotes that I liked, “there can be no guilt in her remembrance” (p 295) and “All is right as a trivet” (p 421). Can someone please explain what that means?

Author fact: Anthony Trollope was born on April 24th, 1815.

Book trivia: Can You Forgive Her? is in the public domain so I listened to a great deal of it on LibVox. It was narrated by a variety of readers. My favorite was the woman who would sigh loudly after each chapter she finished.
For the print trivia – I was amused by the advertisements on the inside cover: Beetham’s Glycerine and Cucumber, Cadbury Cocoa, and Ward Lock and Co.

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

A New Life

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Malamud, Bernard. A New Life. Farrar, Straus and Cuahy, 1961.

Reason read: Malamud passed away in the month of March. Read in his memory.

Moving from New York City to the Pacific Northwest, Seymour Levin has a cringy start to his new life. His boss invites him for dinner on his first night in town. He hasn’t even been to his new residence before Levin has hot soup dropped in his lap, is peed on by his boss’s young son, and is forced to wear his boss’s clothes while his are being cleaned by his boss’s overanxious wife. It is almost as if Pauline and Gerald are holding Levin hostage. Somehow right away you know Levin’s new life on the west coast isn’t going to be all that he dreamed it would be.
Once settle in Cascadia, Levin experiences a lot of firsts: first driver’s license; first ownership of a vehicle; first time out of a big city; first time teaching at the college level; first time confronting a student about cheating; first time confronting a peer about censorship; first time challenging a time-honored text. Throughout all these firsts, Levin is desperate for human companionship. A brush of a female breast at a party and he suddenly he is in love. The wife of his boss takes advantage of his loneliness to treat him as a confessional. Things spiral from there.
Levin’s professional immaturity causes him to get caught up in the political drama of the liberal arts degree and who will be the next head of the department.
All along you are wondering, what kind of life did Levin leave behind in New York? Strange that he didn’t research the area (or the job) before uprooting his entire life. And who is this Leo Duffy guy that everyone says they should not talk about and yet they do?

The more things change…”Also we are worried because he is a foreigner and everybody is touchy on that subject nowadays” (p 78). This was 1961. Nothing has changed.

As an aside, what does Levin mean when he said he killed his choices? Is it like when Natalie said she mercy killed her cravings?
As another aside, I love it when there is a connection between the books I am reading. In New Life there is a heated discussion about student athletes and how their studies take a back seat to sports. The students are more important as athletes than academics. In Last Amateurs by John Feinstein there is a very real commentary about the same controversy.

Quotes to quote, “He was dead set against the destruction of unlived time” (p 59), “The future as new life was no longer predictable” (p 164) and “Out of love he gave her up” (p 251).

Author fact: Malamud write two other books before A New Life.

Book trivia: A New Life has shades of autobiography as Malamud, a Jewish New Yorker, taught in Oregon. Was he trying to escape his past like Seymour Levin?

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Jewish-American Experience” (p 132). Also in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Living High in Cascadia” (p 152).

Devils in the Sugar Shop

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Schaffert, Timothy. Devils in the Sugar Shop. Unbridled Books, 2006.

Reason read: Nebraska becomes a state in the month of March.

Devils in the Sugar Shop takes place in the Old Market district of Omaha, Nebraska, back in a time when smokers were cordoned off in dark lounges with thread-bare carpets and worn exhausted furniture. The “sugar shop” is an adult sex toy shop. Deedee Millwood is it’s top seller and has won a trip to the Bahamas. Reminds me of my aunt, only she sold cars for Toyota and was sent to Mexico several times.
All of the characters are interconnected in various ways. There isn’t much a plot in Devils in the Sugar Shop. With the advent of Valentine’s Day approaching everyone ‘s sense of priority is out of whack. Not much happens in Devils in the Sugar Shop except a lot of gossip and party planning. Everyone is screwing someone else. Deedee is nearly forty and divorced. Her best friend is Ashley Allyson. Deedee and her husband, Zeke, are taking art classes to improve their divorce (how progressive of them). Zeke is messing around with Vivian, also a friend of Ashley Allyson. Ashley’s husband, Troy, works for Mrs. Bloom at the Omaha Street, an alternate news weekly, as an editor and writer. Viviane Daily, an artist of sorts, enjoys day drinking and is receiving obscene pictures from an unknown stalker. Mrs. Bloom is also in the aforementioned art class. Mrs. Bloom used to be a birthday clown, a reverend, an art therapist at a prison, and an organizer of poetry slams for cancer patients. Ashley’s son Leo is gay. Tucker is tallish dwarf and an artist from Mississippi. Peach and Plum are twenty-something year old twins who own a bookstore. Plum is married to Mickey.
Once you get all the characters straight, Devils in the Sugar Shop is a sexy romp set in Omaha, Nebraska (of all places).

Does anyone else find it ironic that Ashley’s first novel was published with a font created by a children’s book author? Keep in mind Ashley writes erotica.

Author fact: while Shaffert wrote a bunch of other books, I am only reading Devils in the Sugar Shop for the Challenge. As an aside, Timothy Schaffert knows his shoe brands.

Book trivia: the cover of Devils in the Sugar Shop is based on a design for a Polish release of an 1968 Italian film. Cool.

Music mentioned: Garth Brooks, Vivaldi’s “Spring,” Jean Stafford, Josephine Baker, Concrete Blonde, Diana Ross, Roy Eldreidge’s “If I Had You,” Red Hot Chili Peppers, Orenda Fink, “King of the Road,” REO Speedwagon, Air Supply, Billie Holiday’s “Everything Happens to Me,” “I Must Have That Man,” and “I Don’t Want to Cry,” Bloodcow, Rufus Wainwright, Elton John, Cher, Mary J. Blige, Chet Baker, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand’s “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “Heart of Glass,” and Tina Turner.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Nebraska: the Big Empty” (p 148).

Downbelow Station

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Cherryh, C.J. Downbelow Station or the Company Wars. Daw Books, 1981.

Reason read: January is another science fiction month.

Confessional: I felt like Cherryh was speaking directly to me when she said she wanted to write a book for readers who love to detect connections between books. Cherryh called Downbelow Station a “novel of interstellar conflict and ambition” as part of the Alliance-Union Universe series. Above all else, it is a human story, a love story even. Cherryh wanted to create a wider universe that would be consistent in a series set in the future a few centuries from now. Her story is populated with tribes of spacefarers and groundlings. We begin Downbelow Station with Book One Earth and Outward between the years 2005 and 2352 but most of the action is nestled comfortably between the years of 2352 and 2353 on a space station orbiting the Downbelow in the Tau Ceti star system. During this time space is not explored by NASA or the like. Private corporations rule the galaxies with their exorbitant wealth. Sound familiar? Old River is angry and the mill is not to be lost. The surviving companies need to plot an attack against the Union or else become refugees and, if that happens, where would they go?
Downbelow Station is packed with action, but as I mentioned earlier, hidden amongst the sci-fi is a human story and maybe a little romance. I appreciated the friendship Damon and Elene extend to Josh Talley, the prisoner who had his memories erased. He becomes the unlikely hero in the story. More human emotion is displayed when Elene Quen goes missing.

Author fact: C.J. Cherryh is Carolyn Janice Cherryh. I loved, loved, loved C.J. Cherryh’s advice at the end of her introduction – go out to where city lights don’t block your view and look up. Interesting fact about Downbelow Station – the stars are in real locations. Another fact – Cherryh worked with multiple cardboard clocks to make the multiple timelines agree.

Book trivia: Downbelow Station won a Hugo award and the story was so popular it was made into a board game.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Space Operas” (p 210).

Natives and Strangers

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Dawkins, Louise. Natives and Strangers. Houghton Mifflin, 1985.

Reason read: Kenya gained independence in December. Read in recognition of that event.

Natives and Strangers examines the human heart through the lens of culture and status in an African landscape. Natives and strangers, whites and blacks, rich and entitled. British colonists and native Africans. Young Marietta Hamilton hasn’t been brought up to be colorblind, but despite her English heritage her friendships are without barriers. Her best friend is the daughter of her mother’s servant. Natives and Strangers tracks Marietta’s coming of age as she navigates her identity through childhood, college, marriage and motherhood. This was a struggle for me to read because I didn’t really care for the characters.
Detractors – Dawkins gets a little didactic by addressing religious differences like Christianity versus Paganism.
Another negative: I have read reviews complaining about how unnaturally the characters speak. Dawkins tells the story of Natives and Strangers mostly through the classic vehicle of monologue and dialogue. For example, Virginia needs to explain to Marietta why she is sending her daughter away to a boarding school. The monologue is mostly historical context and more for the benefit of the reader than for Marietta. Because all characters do this (even the children) Dawkins loses believability and authenticity. All of her characters appear long-winded and unwieldy in their manner of speech and their conversations.

Author fact: Louisa Dawkins is a pen name.

Book trivia: I was warned that the dialogue between characters in Natives and Strangers is not natural.

Music: the Rolling Stones.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Africa: a Reader’s Itinerary” (p 2).

Something Else

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Simko, Lukas. Something Else: Words that Remember, Stories that Awaken. Independent Publicist, 2025.

Reason read: as part of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read books that sometimes move me. This is one of those books.

The fastest review I could write about Something Else is to say it is a memoir about an individual wanting to find true love. Lukas Simko’s story begins when he is a thirty-two year old graduate looking for work. He meets a girl who over time showed all the classic signs of an abuser. She was controlling and manipulative and I found myself wishing he would have seen the signs earlier. Right away I felt Simko is someone who has the potential to fall hard and fast for a romantic relationship. He believes in taking chances and embracing adventure wherever it may take him.
Then there was Macy. She was clear she did not an emotional relationship, but Lukas started to like her more and more “without permission.” Interesting choice of words. This time around Simko noticed the signs of a relationship dying as Macy started to distance herself from him.
Next came Jaya. Lukas felt an instant connection with her for they had a great deal in common and almost seemed to be soul mates. She even took him in as a roommate without really knowing him. Once again Lukas became involved with a woman who did not want to be tied down with anything emotional. To say Jaya was complicated is an understatement. She often sent mixed signals and seemed to be confused about what she really wanted from Simko. One minute she was communicating as if she cared deeply; the next she felt it necessary to block Simko on social media (twice).
In the end, Simko emerged a stronger person. He was able to see the beauty in each failed relationship. As an aside, I think of it as the particle theory. You get what you need from each relationship whether that relationship withstands the test of time or not.

Confessional: I did not understand Ireland’s employment situation. Lukas requested three weeks off under the guise of taking care of a grandmother. Instead, he was rewarded with 3 1/2 months off, but the kicker was he had to go on leave when they told him to. I thought he was working in a remote IT position.
A more personal confessional: Simko went four months without talking to Jaya. Try five years! That’s how long I went without speaking to someone who meant the world to me.

As an aside, I learned a new word, “craic.”

Music: “Misty Mountains” by Leyna Robinson-Stone.

Breakdown, Recovery and the Outdoors

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Bremicker, Christopher G. Breakdown, Recovery and the Outdoors. Running Wild Press, 2025.

Christopher Bremicker tells a believable story about Mike Reynolds, a Vietnam veteran struggling with schizo-affective disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder in equal measure. [As an aside, I met a veteran who refused to call PSTD a “disorder.” He said he was living with posttraumatic stress. Period. It was not a disorder. I have never forgotten his plea for normalcy.] Mike Reynold’s days are filled with self-medicating with alcohol and the outdoors. Alcohol numbed his feelings while homelessness staved off his claustrophobia. Hunting and fishing kept his demons at bay and his days normal. The emotions Mike experienced are so raw and believable that I was grateful for Bremicker’s disclaimer that he did not serve in Vietnam although I suspect there are elements of autobiography in Breakdown to make it so realistic: the relapse after five years of sobriety, for example. In Bremicker’s acknowledgements he mentions alcoholism and mental illness.
Short chapters move Mike’s story along at a fast pace even though it is a relatively simple story: hunting, recovery, relationships. You find yourself rooting for Mike, even if you don’t know him very well.
I noticed Breakdown was a little repetitious here and there (he mentions being proud to be a veteran but hated his appearance a few times).
Only annoyance: Andy, Alan, Anne, Bill Gillette, Bunk Knudson, Cinder, Corky Fowler, Dave, Dick “Smithy” Smith, Dick Anderson, Emma, Grace, Gunderson, Geiger, Gary Nicholson, Hagman, Jake, Jason, Jack, Jim, Jonas, Joanne, Jeff Huchinson, Lewis, Lou Johnson, Lucas, Muhammed, Myron Nelson, Nancy, Penny, Powers, Rob, Ryan, Sam, Santiago, Sheila, Steve, Sasha, Teller, Tim, Vicky, Weaver, Wetzel, Whitman, Willy, and Wade. Did I really need to know all these names? It was like a science fiction novel with a bunch of characters who mean nothing to the plot. Yet, at the same time who knew Mike had a brother named Tim? He didn’t factor into Mike’s recovery at all.

Author fact: the very first words of Breakdown, Recovery and the Outdoors are “I did not serve in Vietnam” (unpaged).

Book trivia: Loose pages make for difficult reading. They kept falling out so I ended up throwing them away after I read them.

Natalie connection: every time Mike or Vicky had a drink I thought of the 10,000 Maniacs song, “Don’t Talk,” a song about being in a relationship with an alcoholic.

Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine

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Campbell, Bebe Moore. Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine.

Reason read: Campbell died in the month of November. Read in her memory.

Who was the first person to say the truth hurts? Never is this more true than within the pages of Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine. The premise of Campbell’s 1950s story could have been ripped from the headlines of yesteryear or buried in the back pages of yesterday’s online paper. Armstrong Todd is a smart fifteen year old who knows a little French. Being from Chicago, he does not realize life in rural Mississippi is racially divided and prejudicial hate runs deep. One slip of the tongue in the direction of a white woman ends up costing him his life. Never mind that it was an accident; the teen was not speaking to Lily. Never mind that the white woman did not understand what Armstrong had actually said in her direction. Suddenly, justice for a black teenager in southern Mississippi becomes a political fire starter around the topic of desegregating schools. Campbell doesn’t contain the perspective to just one side of the color story. Lily, the “offended” (and extremely ignorant) white woman, is a poor young mother with an abusive husband. She only understands debilitating poverty, a screaming newborn, a whiney toddler, and the urgent need to keep on her husband’s good side. She desperately walks a fine line of taking care of her starving family while scrambling for the little pleasures in life like a new tube of ruby red lipstick.
Beyond civil rights Campbell makes interesting connections between the lines of color. Women can be abused, regardless of race. A fist can bruise or split open any color of skin. Along those same lines, Campbell points out that women of any color use sex as a weapon to get what they want. Lila and Delotha are no different when it comes to using their bodies to manipulate their men.
Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine spans generations. Moore guides the pace through political and pop culture cues like which president is in office and what songs are playing on the radio. Occasionally, a historical event will make an appearance like the Kent State University shootings.

Line I liked, “She never danced when her husband was at home” (p 70). I have said it before and I will say it again, domestic abuse is color bland. Abuse is abuse is abuse.

Author fact: I am the same age as Campbell when she died. Can you imagine the stories she would be telling had she lived on?

Book trivia: this could have been a movie.

Setlist: B.B. King, Beatles’ “Yesterday,” Blind Jake’s “Sharpen My Pencil,” the Dells, Dianna Ross, Dinah Washington, Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, James Brown’s “Please, Please, Please,” Loretta Lynn, Louis Jordan, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Muddy Waters, “No Good Man Blues,” “Oh, Mary, Don’t You Weep,” Patsy Cline’s “Blue,” “Rock of Ages,” Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, “We Shall Overcome,” Willie Nelson, and Willie Horton.

Miss Merchant connection: Natalie taught her fans the hymn “Oh, Mary, Don’t You Weep” back in 2000. Hard to believe that was twenty five years ago.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “African American Fiction: She Say” (p 12).