August 2022 Book Club Notes

Hi everyone, first off our September reminder!

 Our September gathering will be the third Friday in September, instead of the second, due to a library staff training day occurring on the second Friday.

So to reiterate, we’ll be meeting on Friday, September 16 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. in the Conference Room.

Our September Read is: Hell of a Book: A Novel by Jason Mott, print copies can be picked up at the Circulation Desk at any time.

Now, on to the August Read overview and club members reading recommendations!

August Read: A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

A Slow Fire Burning is a thriller featuring a cast of characters that all live in the same area of London, near the Themes River. The novel has several subplots.

The characters can be split into five groups:

1. Daniel Sutherland, a man in his mid-twenties the son of a single mother, Angela Sutherland, who died several weeks before the story opens. Daniel is a poor graphic artist, who lives on a rundown riverboat next to a middle aged “Mrs. Kravitz” type figure, a woman names Miriam Lewis.

2. Carla & Theo Myerson, Carla is the sister of Daniel’s mother Angela making Carla and Theo Daniel’s aunt and uncle. During the novel readers learn that Theo is a published author who has received several threatening messages regarding his breakthrough novel, which was based in part on Miriam Lewis’s memoir; that Carla and Theo had a son named Benjamin, who died when he was a toddler, fifteen years before; and that Benjamin died falling from a second floor doorway was staying with his Aunt Angela and Cousin Daniel.

3. Miriam Lewis, a middle-age woman, who can be socially awkward, was abducted as a youth back in the 1980s, which is the focus of one of the novels’ subplots, and who lives on a riverboat moored next to Daniel’s riverboat.

4. Laura Kilbridge, a socially awkward young woman who has a history of socially unacceptable behavior, who works at a local laundromat, had a brief relationship with Daniel, suffered a traumatic brain injury as a child and has two unsupportive parents. Laura has been assisting Irene Barnes, an eighty-year-old widow and book lover, who has recently had some mobility issues, in getting her groceries. And Irene, in turn, has offers some small support to Laura who has had insufficient support from her family in her challenged life.

5. Irene Barnes, a lonely widow and a big reader, a friend of Daniel’s late mother Angela, a friend of Laura and the one who figures out who really murdered Daniel and why; and who also tapes the killer’s confession.  

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The book paints an accessible portrait of its colorful cast characters, and their backstories, however, for the sake of brevity, I’m just going to hit the high points.

As the book opens, it is early morning on the Thames, and Miriam has noticed that the door to Daniel’s riverboat is still ajar, as it was the previous evening and goes to investigate. She finds that Daniel has been murdered and calls the police.

The police investigate Daniel’s murder interviewing Miriam, Laura, Carla and Theo. They arrest Laura, the most obvious suspect, release her, and later in the novel after interrogating her again, they arrest her when they discover she wasn’t completely truthful during her initial interview.

The author goes on to relay the story of Laura and Carla in more depth. Readers learn that Laura was hit by a car when she was a child; that the man driving the car was having an affair with her mother and that her mother choose to take care of the needs of herself and her lover, before her child. Laura’s parents divorced after her accident. Her mother married her lover and her father remarried to a woman who already had children and favored her children over Laura. Laura’s parents were not supportive, to say the least. And Laura has struggled to keep a job and simply get through her life, day by day.

Readers further learn that sisters Carla and Angel were close when they were much younger and that both sisters had children. Angela had Daniel and Carla and Theo had a son named Ben. There was an age difference between the boys, and when Daniel was in his early teens and Ben was toddler Carla and Theo left Ben with Angela and Daniel and went on a trip. Much later in the book readers discover, through the description of Daniel’s drawings, that while the couple was gone Daniel discovered his mother in bed with her lover and became very angry; he turned his anger on his toddler cousin Benjamin and purposely opened the door on the second floor luring his cousin out of it with a toy; the toddler fell to his death.

Readers additionally learn Miriam Lewis backstory; how she and her friend were abducted as a teenagers, in the 1980s. She was able to escape but her friend died and the man who abducted the girls, Jeremy O’Brien was never found, although the police did find a part a foot that they believed belong to him.

In the end,  it is revealed that Daniel was murdered by his Aunt Carla, who looked at his private drawings, which showed a angry teenage Daniel luring his toddler cousin out the second-floor door with a toy; and watching as he fell to his death. The story, as shown by the drawings, makes it appear Daniel murdered Benjamin. The other big reveal is that Jeremy O’Brien, the man who abducted Miriam Lewis when she was a teenager, not only survived his frantic dash away from the area and the police in the aftermath of the abduction, but he also read Theo’s novel, plagiarized from Miriam’s unpublished memoir and that he was the one sending the threatening messages to Theo. And at the end of the book a newspaper article indicates that Mr. O’Brien’s body was found submerged on a riverboat on the Thames which implies that Miriam, perhaps with the help of Theo, murdered Jeremy.

So that in a nutshell is an overview of A Slow Fire Burning; which was liked by book club members as a light summer thriller, featuring multiple points of view.

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What Book Club Members Are Reading (and recommending!)

The Finlay Donovan Series by Elle Cosimano (So far there are two books in the series)

1. Is Killing It (2021): Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

Fast-paced, deliciously witty, and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moment, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a brilliant new series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.

2. Knocks ‘Em Dead (2022): Finlay Donovan is—once again—struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she’s dealt with lately is that of her daughter’s pet goldfish.

On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently. Whatever else Steven may be, he’s a good father, but saving him will send her down a rabbit hole of hit-women disguised as soccer moms, and a little bit more involvement with the Russian mob than she’d like.

Meanwhile, Vero’s keeping secrets, and Detective Nick Anthony seems determined to get back into her life. He may be a hot cop, but Finlay’s first priority is preventing her family from sleeping with the fishes… and if that means bending a few laws then so be it.

With her next book’s deadline looming and an ex-husband to keep alive, Finlay is quickly coming to the end of her rope. She can only hope there isn’t a noose at the end of it…

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How To Cook A Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher: Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table.

M. F. K. Fisher knew that the last thing hungry people needed were hints on cutting back and making do. Instead, she gives her readers license to dream, to experiment, to construct adventurous and delicious meals as a bulwark against a dreary, meager present. Her fine prose provides reason in itself to draw our chairs close to the hearth; we can still enjoy her company and her exhortations to celebrate life by eating well.

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Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum Mystery Series;

Book one is: One For The Money: Meet Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie’s opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey.

She’s a product of the “burg,” a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.

Out of work and out of money, Stephanie blackmails her bail-bondsman cousin Vinnie into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, el-primo bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook. Her first assignment: nail Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a charge of murder one. Morelli’s the inamorato who charmed Stephanie out of her virginity at age sixteen. There’s still powerful chemistry between them, so the chase should be interesting…and could also be extremely dangerous.

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The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarden

Winner of the Julia Child Book Award

A James Beard Book Award Finalist

When Jeffrey Steingarten was appointed food critic for Vogue, he systematically set out to overcome his distaste for such things as kimchi, lard, Greek cuisine, and blue food. He succeeded at all but the last: Steingarten is “fairly sure that God meant the color blue mainly for food that has gone bad.” In this impassioned, mouth-watering, and outrageously funny book, Steingarten devotes the same Zen-like discipline and gluttonous curiosity to practically everything that anyone anywhere has ever called “dinner.”

Follow Steingarten as he jets off to sample choucroute in Alsace, hand-massaged beef in Japan, and the mother of all ice creams in Sicily. Sweat with him as he tries to re-create the perfect sourdough, bottle his own mineral water, and drop excess poundage at a luxury spa. Join him as he mounts a heroic–and hilarious–defense of salt, sugar, and fat (though he has some nice things to say about Olestra). Stuffed with offbeat erudition and recipes so good they ought to be illegal, The Man Who Ate Everything is a gift for anyone who loves food.

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Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

A #1 New York Times bestseller, Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year, and soon to be a major motion picture, this unforgettable novel of love and strength in the face of war has enthralled a generation.

With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France—a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

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The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor–the Truth and the Turmoil by Tina Brown

“Never again” became Queen Elizabeth II’s mantra shortly after Princess Diana’s tragic death. More specif­ically, there could never be “another Diana”—a mem­ber of the family whose global popularity upstaged, outshone, and posed an existential threat to the Brit­ish monarchy.

Picking up where Tina Brown’s masterful The Diana Chronicles left off, The Palace Papers reveals how the royal family reinvented itself after the trau­matic years when Diana’s blazing celebrity ripped through the House of Windsor like a comet.

Brown takes readers on a tour de force journey through the scandals, love affairs, power plays, and betrayals that have buffeted the monarchy over the last twenty-five years. We see the Queen’s stoic re­solve after the passing of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother, and Prince Philip, her partner for seven decades, and how she triumphs in her Jubilee years even as family troubles rage around her. Brown explores Prince Charles’s determination to make Camilla Parker Bowles his wife, the tension between William and Harry on “different paths,” the ascend­ance of Kate Middleton, the downfall of Prince An­drew, and Harry and Meghan’s stunning decision to step back as senior royals. Despite the fragile monar­chy’s best efforts, “never again” seems fast approaching.

Tina Brown has been observing and chronicling the British monarchy for three decades, and her sweeping account is full of powerful revelations, newly reported details, and searing insight gleaned from remarkable access to royal insiders. Stylish, witty, and erudite, The Palace Papers will irrevoca­bly change how the world perceives and under­stands the royal family.

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Sacred Bridge by Anne Hillerman:

The seventh book in the Leephorn, Chee & Manuelito series.

Sergeant Jim Chee’s vacation to beautiful Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell has a deeper purpose. He’s on a quest to unravel a sacred mystery his mentor, the Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, stumbled across decades earlier.

Chee’s journey takes a deadly turn when, after a prayerful visit to the sacred Rainbow Bridge, he spots a body floating in the lake. The dead man, a Navajo with a passion for the canyon’s ancient rock art, lived a life filled with many secrets. Discovering why he died and who was responsible involves Chee in an investigation that puts his own life at risk.

Back in Shiprock, Officer Bernadette Manuelito is driving home when she witnesses an expensive sedan purposely kill a hitchhiker. The search to find the killer leads her to uncover a dangerous chain of interconnected revelations involving a Navajo Nation cannabis enterprise.

But the evil that is unleashed jeopardizes her mother and sister Darleen, and puts Bernie in the deadliest situation of her law enforcement career.

Readers’ Note: Anne is the daughter of Tony Hillerman, who wrote eighteen novel featuring Leephorn and Chee. Anne added a new character, Bernadette Manuelito and is continuing the series.

Also of note, for TV fans, AMC+ has debut a critically acclaimed TV series, Dark Winds (2022-) based on the books, starring  Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn, Kiowa Gordon as Jim Chee and Jessica Matten as Bernadette Manuletio.

The first book in the original, Tony Hillerman series, is The Blessing Way (1971).

And first book in Anne’s continuation series is The Spider Woman’s Daughter (2008).

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Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

The beloved memoir of self-discovery set against the spectacular Tuscan countryside that inspired the major motion picture starring Diane Lane—now in a twentieth-anniversary edition featuring a new afterword

“This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy, loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it’s so delicious, read it first yourself.”—USA Today

For more Frances Mayes, including a tour of her now iconic Cortona home, Bramasole, watch PBS’s Dream of Italy: Tuscan Sun Special!

More than twenty years ago, Frances Mayes—widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—introduced readers to a wondrous new world when she bought and restored an abandoned Tuscan villa called Bramasole. Under the Tuscan Sun inspired generations to embark on their own journeys—whether that be flying to a foreign country in search of themselves, savoring one of the book’s dozens of delicious seasonal recipes, or simply being transported by Mayes’s signature evocative, sensory language. Now with a new afterword from Frances Mayes, the twentieth-anniversary edition of Under the Tuscan Sun revisits the book’s most popular characters.

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Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial by Corban Addison: The once idyllic coastal plain of North Carolina is home to a close-knit, rural community that for more than a generation has battled the polluting practices of large-scale farming taking place in its own backyard. After years of frustration and futility, an impassioned cadre of local residents, led by a team of intrepid and dedicated lawyers, filed a lawsuit against one of the world’s most powerful companies—and, miraculously, they won.

As vivid and fast-paced as a thriller, Wastelands takes us into the heart of a legal battle over the future of America’s farmland and into the lives of the people who found the courage to fight.

There is Elsie Herring, the most outspoken of the neighbors, who has endured racial slurs and the threat of a restraining order to tell the story of the waste raining down on her rooftop from the hog operation next door. There is Don Webb, a larger-than-life hog farmer turned grassroots crusader, and Rick Dove, a riverkeeper and erstwhile military judge who has pioneered the use of aerial photography to document the scale of the pollution. There is Woodell McGowan, a quiet man whose quest to redeem his family’s ancestral land encourages him to become a better neighbor, and Dr. Steve Wing, a groundbreaking epidemiologist whose work on the health effects of hog waste exposure translates the neighbors’ stories into the argot of science. And there is Tom Butler, an environmental savant and hog industry insider whose whistleblowing testimony electrifies the jury.

Fighting alongside them in the courtroom is Mona Lisa Wallace, who broke the gender barrier in her small southern town and built a storied legal career out of vanquishing corporate giants, and Mike Kaeske, whose trial skills are second to none.

With journalistic rigor and a novelist’s instinct for story, Corban Addison’s Wastelands captures the inspiring struggle to bring a modern-day monopoly to its knees, to force a once-invincible corporation to change, and to preserve the rights—and restore the heritage—of a long-suffering community.

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Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle: It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

“Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”

A tesseract (in case the reader doesn’t know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L’Engle’s unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg’s father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.

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Have a great day everyone,

Linda

Hi everyone, just a reminder the next Southeast Steuben County Library Adult Book Club gathering is next Friday, August 12, 2022 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

As usual, we’ll be meeting in the Conference Room at the library.

Print copies of the August read, the thriller A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins, can be picked up at the Circulation Desk at any time.

And looking forward to September; our September read is the National Book Award Winner for 2021, Hell of a Book: A Novel by Jason Mott.

Also of note, our September book club meeting will be on Friday, September 9 and we will be meeting in the Conference Room as usual. However, just a heads up – the rest of the library will be closed as the staff has CPR training in the morning – so I will meet you at the door and let you in – but rest assured we will still be meeting!

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And here is the info on the July book club gathering; an overview of the July Read, followed by other reads recommended by book club members.

Have a great day,

Linda

Overview of our July Read: The Ballad of Laurel Springs by Janet Beard

The story begins in 2019 with young Grace then moves back to 1907–1908 with Pearl, Grace’s four times great grandmother and the first Polly’s sister. The first Polly having died mysteriously in the 1890s.

Beard breaks the story down into nine sections that follow women living in the same region, and who are connected to each other by kinship or marriage. The author inserts portions of folk ballads into each story to complement the stories and tie the book together.

Introduction: Present Day (2019): In the introduction readers meet middle school student Grace, her stepmother, stepfather and stepmother’s sister, the first two of whom are unnamed in the narrative. The author sets the stage of the book by introducing Grace who is working on a family tree as a school project, and then readers are whisked back to the past to meet her 5th great grandmother Pearl Whaley.

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The Wife of Usher’s Well (1907-1908)

In The Wife of Usher’s Well we are introduced to Pearl, her husband Abel a blacksmith, Pearl and Abel’s children including Timmy & Esta, and Violet a friend of Pearl’s late sister Polly, who is thought strange because she isn’t pretty and is book educated. Additional characters include Miss Elizabeth Munroe & Miss Margaret Ames, missionaries, who have come to town to set up a regional school.

In Pearl’s story we learn that the first Polly’s boyfriend Will was suspected of murdering her when her body was found in Mitchell’s Creek, that Will Reid subsequently left town, joined the navy and was later convicted and hung after murdering his wife. His young son Charlie was sent back to Tate Valley for his parents to raise. Pearl notes that Violet’s parents died when she was young, she moved to the valley with a trunk full of books to read and that her book learning lead her to became the local school teacher. Violet was a bit different than the typical valley girl of the time and was thus suspect, some residents even said they believed she practiced witchcraft. Munroe and Ames are revealed to be supporters of temperance; and Munroe isn’t pleased to see the booze running when she attends a local shindig with Violet. One day Pearl sees Violet and Elizabeth in a compromising situation and she isn’t pleased – and wants nothing to do with either women – but they are called in for Elizabeth’s expertise when a new pregnancy gone wrong impacts Pearl. After that Elizabeth leaves town, Miss Ames finishes setting up the school; and subsequently, Violet too leaves town. Years later Pearl is shopping in town with her grown daughter and finds Violet working in a clothing shop. Note: Elizabeth was collecting murder ballads and other rare songs which compliments the insertion of folk song lyrics into each chapter of the book.

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The Wayfaring Stranger (1925):

Our next story follows Miriam, Pearl’s daughter-in-law, who is married to Pearl’s son Jake and living in Douglasville. Jake, previously a carefree youth and recently married husband who seemed to love his wife, went off to fight in World War I in the era 1917-1919 and didn’t return for 8 years even though the war ended in 1919. Out of the blue, Jake returns home in 1925; when Miriam’s and her friend Evelyn Lacy; are enjoying companionship after a shared dinner; and Jake simply appears at the door and walks right in to resume his role as husband and head of the household. This despite the fact that while Jake was gone Miriam, who had been living with her father in the family home, inherited her family’s home and took in sewing to make ends meet, thus becoming the head of the household herself.

Jake decides to move back up into the mountain valley and open a filling station with his brother Tim. And he simply tells Miriam they are going to do this – Jake feels the service station will be lucrative because there is talk of a national park being built in the area. Despite the poor way she was treated, Miriam stays with Jake and decides, as her mother-in-law Pearl advises her, to start a family so she’ll have something of her own to focus on.

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Careless Love Blues (1937)

In this story, readers follow Frieda, Miriam’s Stepdaughter as it is revealed that Miriam’s husband Jake had three children with another woman, a black women which was a big deal in the 1930s, who lived in nearby Benton’s Cove. The three children are Ramona, Mickey and Frieda lived with their mother on her family’s farm until her unexpected death at a young age.

Frieda had a carefree youth playing in the woods and on the farm, but at a certain age began to be aware that she was a “bastard” since her parent’s hadn’t married and she didn’t know who her father was. After her mother’s death, local property including the family’s farm was being bought up by the government for the national park under development, via Eminent domain; when one day Frieda was at home with her brother, and Jake came to the house inquiring if there is anything he can do to help them out in the aftermath of their mother’s death. Jake even offered Mickey a job. Mickey wants nothing to do with Jake, but does tell Frieda that he thinks Jake is their father. Frieda’s boyfriend/fiancé, a young man named Eugene Raymond is introduced. Frieda then goes to see Jake and has, to say the least an interesting and one-sided conversation with him – but after their conversation she decides her fiancé Raymond can work for Jake at the filling station, in place of her brother Raymond, and that should bring a steady income into Frieda and Raymond’s household; and that does indeed turn out to be the case. 

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Devil’s Dream (1942-1962)

Devil’s Dream follows Polly, Frieda’s half-sister and Miriam and Jake’s daughter, offering the strange love story of the second Polly and Jeremiah Carter who were briefly lovers when they were  young; and who became lovers again when Jeremiah came home for his father’s funeral. Readers learn that as a youth Polly loved nature and went out to Laurel Spring all the time which is where she encountered Jeremiah. After their brief youthful encounter, Jeremiah moved away and Polly married Zach. Many years later, Zach returns to town to bury his father and he and Frieda have a brief unplanned and unexpected affair. Subsequently,  in fear of being found out by her husband, Frieda confesses the encounter to her husband, but turns the truth on its head, stammering out that instead of the encounter being consensual, that Jeremiah took advantage of her.  Zach and his friend Mac then hunt Jeremiah down and kill him. And Polly tells her half grown daughters Sarah and Abby, while putting them to bed, to stay away from the evil place that is Laurel Springs.

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Little Sparrow (1974–1975):

The story Little Sparrow focuses on the second Polly & Zach’s daughter Sarah. We find that the second Polly and Zach had four children Elijah a solider, Davy a truck driver, Abby who was already married with children of her own when the story opens, and Sarah who is at home for the summer, taking a break, before heading to Chicago to complete a graduate degree. Her father Zach died young, only age 53, of cancer. And the second Polly didn’t know what to do with herself after Zach died. During the story, we also follow Sarah and her boyfriend Bob, who discover that they will soon be parents.

Polly is struggling to both find a new way to live, in the aftermath of Zach’s death, and to figure out whether or not to sell the farm; land being a hot property in the area at the time. She dismissed most of the offers but did listen respectfully to her late husband’s friend Mac who told her she should make sure she gets a good price for the farm, and he would buy it from her and farm it if he had the money, which he doesn’t.

Meanwhile at nearby Blackberry Acers, Hippies are establishing a commune that includes Marie, Joy, Sunshine and Freddy. Freddy takes a shine to Polly, pays plenty of attention to her and almost convinces her to sell her farm to him; when Sarah lets her mother and Bob know she is pregnant. Bob proposes and they discuss changing their plans to move to Chicago and instead attending college and getting jobs closer to home. Then second Polly says she has decided to let Mac have the farm as he can farm it, bringing in some income, and the family can stay in the house while Bob & Sarah work on their schooling/careers. Polly also promises to help take care of the new baby, a girl named Carrie. 

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The Knoxville Girl (1985–1993)

In the Knoxville Girl, Carrie, Sarah & Bob’s daughter and second Polly and Zach’s granddaughter, gives us her take how she has been formed as a person based upon where she was raised; and she is revealed to be the most introspective woman in the book. She is a thinker who notes of her personal story: “I want to say that the accident to where I was born in not important to me in any fundamental way, but I know that isn’t true. I was as formed by the place where I grew up as by my parents, my genetic predispositions, or anything else, most certainly in the way I saw the world and what I knew to be my place in it. Is it like that for everyone? Probably not. Some places are more resonant than others. Or more distinctive. Or more escapable.”

Carrie also notes: “You can take the girl out of the hollow, but you can’t take the hollow out of the girl.”

Additionally of note, Carrie was a big fan of the murder ballads her grandmother, the second Polly, sang to her as a youth. In this story we discover that Polly, like Zach before her, died young; she was only in her fifties when she died; when Carrie was 8. But nevertheless the folk songs she sang made an impression on her granddaughter.  In this story we discover that Carrie’s mother Sarah got her degree at a local college, instead of going to Chicago to attend university; that Bob left her and moved to Chicago to pursue his career on his own; and that she wound up teaching at the local school, never leaving valley to live elsewhere. Also of note is that when Carrie’s grandmother, the second Polly died, the farm was sold – her mother never got any money from the sale even though it was supposed to be split between her and her siblings, and Sarah and Carrie moved into a two story apartment building in town.

Carrie was singing the song The Knoxville Girl when she was 10 and was overheard by Devon, another girl who lived in the building and they became friends. Both girls get involved, to varying degrees, with a young man named James; who it transpires is possibly the father of Devon’s first/second child and who tried to date Carrie, but who wasn’t reliable enough to pull it off – which was good for Carrie.

The story ends with a pregnant Devon dying in a car crash after going to see James about her second baby, Devon’s mother joining AA, finding God and raising Lydia who it seems got off to a good start. And an unmarried Carrie pursing a successful career in New York City.

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Power in the Blood (2011–2013):

With Power in the Blood, we follow Lydia, Carrie’s goddaughter and Devon’s daughter. She grew up, married Finn and had a daughter name Grace. Lydia was just starting her teaching career and had, to say the least unwisely, engaged in an affair with an 18-year-old just graduated student named Alex. After Lydia and Alex’s affair is revealed to her husband Finn, readers learn that Alex came to the family home and was shot to death by an enraged Finn. Finn subsequently, got a slap on the wrist prison sentence, was out of prison in short order and got custody of their daughter Grace. Lydia, despite not being the one who committed the murder was ostracized; which repeats a theme woven throughout the book, of women in American society, traditionally a patriarchal society, being subservient to men and having fewer rights than men.

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Original Polly’s Story (1891):

And at the very end of the book the author finally reveals the original Polly’s story. Polly being Lydia’s great, great, great, great aunt. In a nutshell, Polly was unmarried and pregnant; and when she told her boyfriend the news, instead of proposing to her, he murder her.

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General Consensus: Most of our book club members liked the book; although it was noted that all the stories, save Carrie’s and Frieda’s stories, are quite dark. The women did not have easy lives and most of them were taken advantage of by men and had little recourse, other than to simply keep living and dealing with the cards life dealt them.

It was felt that the lyrics to the Murder Ballads inserted into each chapter did not greatly enhance the book; but that perhaps if an audio recording was included with the book, so readers could hear the ballads and not simply read the lyrics than that might have made the songs have a deeper impact.

It was also agreed that the character development was quite good and that the song lyrics weren’t needed to advance the plot.

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Recommended Reads*

Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard:

In the bestselling tradition of Hidden Figures and The Wives of Los Alamos, comes this riveting novel of the everyday people who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II.

“What you see here, what you hear here, what you do here, let it stay here.”

In November 1944, eighteen-year-old June Walker boards an unmarked bus, destined for a city that doesn’t officially exist. Oak Ridge, Tennessee has sprung up in a matter of months—a town of trailers and segregated houses, 24-hour cafeterias, and constant security checks. There, June joins hundreds of other young girls operating massive machines whose purpose is never explained. They know they are helping to win the war, but must ask no questions and reveal nothing to outsiders.

The girls spend their evenings socializing and flirting with soldiers, scientists, and workmen at dances and movies, bowling alleys and canteens. June longs to know more about their top-secret assignment and begins an affair with Sam Cantor, the young Jewish physicist from New York who oversees the lab where she works and understands the end goal only too well, while her beautiful roommate Cici is on her own mission: to find a wealthy husband and escape her sharecropper roots. Across town, African-American construction worker Joe Brewer knows nothing of the government’s plans, only that his new job pays enough to make it worth leaving his family behind, at least for now. But a breach in security will intertwine his fate with June’s search for answers.

When the bombing of Hiroshima brings the truth about Oak Ridge into devastating focus, June must confront her ideals about loyalty, patriotism, and war itself.

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The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson:

“A powerful portrait of the courageous women who fought against ignorance, misogyny, and racial prejudice.” —William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author of This Tender Land and Lightning Strike

The new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek!

Bestselling historical fiction author Kim Michele Richardson is back with the perfect book club read following Honey Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome book woman, who must fight for her own independence with the help of the women who guide her and the books that set her free.

In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned, Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.

Picking up her mother’s old packhorse library route, Honey begins to deliver books to the remote hollers of Appalachia. Honey is looking to prove that she doesn’t need anyone telling her how to survive. But the route can be treacherous, and some folks aren’t as keen to let a woman pave her own way.

If Honey wants to bring the freedom books provide to the families who need it most, she’s going to have to fight for her place, and along the way, learn that the extraordinary women who run the hills and hollers can make all the difference in the world.

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Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury:

Ray Bradbury’s moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. Dandelion Wine stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author’s most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small-town summer in 1928.

Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole wide world that lies beyond the city limits. It is a pair of brand-new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather’s renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley’s bell on a hazy afternoon. It is yesteryear and tomorrow blended into an unforgettable always. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.

Come and savor Ray Bradbury’s priceless distillation of all that is eternal about boyhood and summer

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Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles:

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

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Good Graces by Lesley Kagen:

Whistling in the Dark—a national bestseller—captivated readers with the story of ten-year-old Sally O’Malley and her sister, Troo, during Milwaukee’s summer of 1959. Now it’s one year later, and Sally, who made a deathbed promise to her daddy to keep Troo safe, is having a hard time honoring her vow. Her sister is growing increasingly rebellious amid a string of home burglaries, the escape from reform school of a nemesis, and the mysterious disappearance of an orphan—events that have the entire neighborhood on edge. And in that tense, hot summer, Sally will have to ground her flights of imagination, and barter her waning innocence, in order to sort the truths from the lies to protect her sister and herself

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John Irving novels: I don’t recall a specific novel being mentioned, so here is a link to his Fantastic Fiction page where you can find an overview of all his books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/i/john-irving/

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Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles: The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York.

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles’s third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. 

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Reverend Mother Mysteries by Cora Harrison:

The first book in the series is:

A Shameful Murder: Ireland, 1923. The country has been torn apart by the War of Independence and is now in the throes of sectarian violence and severe flooding. But Mother Aquinas knows that not all floods cleanse the deeds of humanity . . . When a body washes up at her convent chapel dressed in evening finery, she immediately suspects foul play. The overstretched police force may be ready to dismiss the case as accidental drowning, but strangulation marks on the girl’s throat tell a grimmer story. Mother Aquinas wants justice for the girl – and won’t let a murderer slip away unpunished under the cover of war.

And the eight book in the series was also thoroughly enjoyed; it is:

Murder in An Orchard Cemetery: The peaceful atmosphere of the Reverend Mother’s annual retreat is shattered by sudden, violent death in this gripping historical mystery. 1920s. Cork, Ireland. The Reverend Mother regrets the bishop’s decision to invite the five candidates for the position of Alderman of the City Council to join them for their annual retreat. Constantly accosted by ambitious, would-be politicians hoping to secure the bishop’s backing, she’s finding the week-long sojourn at the convent of the Sisters of Charity anything but peaceful. What she doesn’t expect to encounter however is sudden, violent death. When a body is discovered in the convent’s apple orchard cemetery, blown to pieces by a makeshift bomb, it is assumed the IRA are responsible. But does the killer lie closer to home? Was one of the candidates so desperate to win the election they turned to murder? Does someone have a hidden agenda? Once again, the Reverend Mother must call on her renowned investigative skills to unearth the shocking truth. 

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Rules of Civility by Amor Towles: From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and A Gentleman in Moscow, a “sharply stylish” (Boston Globe) book about a young woman in post-Depression era New York who suddenly finds herself thrust into high society—now with over one million readers worldwide

On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society—where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.

With its sparkling depiction of New York’s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and critics alike.

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Stranger Insider by Lisa Unger: When former journalist Rain Winter was twelve years old, she narrowly escaped an abduction while walking to a friend’s house. The abductor was eventually found and sent to prison, but years later was released. Then someone delivered real justice—and killed him in cold blood.

Now Rain is living the perfect suburban life, spending her days as a stay-at-home mom. But when another criminal who escaped justice is found dead, Rain is unexpectedly drawn into the case, forced to revisit memories she’s worked hard to leave behind. Is there a vigilante at work? Who is the next target? Why can’t Rain just let it go?

Introducing one of the most compelling and original killers in crime fiction today, Lisa Unger takes readers deep inside the minds of both perpetrator and victim, blurring the lines between right and wrong, crime and justice, and showing that sometimes even good people are drawn to do evil things.

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Whistling In The Dark by Lesley Kagen: Funny, wise and uplifting, Whistling in the Dark is the story of two tough and endearing little girls…and of a time not so long ago, when life was not as innocent as it appeared.

It was the summer on Vliet Street when we all started locking our doors…

Sally O’Malley made a promise to her daddy before he died. She swore she’d look after her sister, Troo. Keep her safe. But like her Granny always said-actions speak louder than words. Now, during the summer of 1959, the girls’ mother is hospitalized, their stepfather has abandoned them for a six pack, and their big sister, Nell, is too busy making out with her boyfriend to notice that Sally and Troo are on the Loose. And so is a murderer and molester.

Highly imaginative Sally is pretty sure of two things. Who the killer is. And that she’s next on his list. Now she has no choice but to protect herself and Troo as best she can, relying on her own courage and the kindness of her neighbors.

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*Overviews are from the respective publishers, unless otherwise specified