81. Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters

Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters. Jennifer Chiaverini. 2020. 352 pages. [Source: Review copy] [Historical fiction]

First sentence: A whimsical breeze rustled the paper beneath Elizabeth’s pen as she wrote in the garden, but she held the sheet firmly against the table with her left hand and it was not carried aloft. She lifted her pen and waited for the gust to subside rather than risk smearing the ink, and in that momentary pause a light shower of blossoms from the plum tree fell upon her, the table, and the head of her sixteen-year-old grandson Lewis, sprawled in a chaise lounge nearby, so thoroughly engrossed in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days that he did not notice the petals newly adorning his light brown hair. She smiled, tempted to rise and brush the blossoms softly to the ground with her fingertips, but he looked so charming that she decided to leave them be.

Premise/plot: Elizabeth. Frances. Ann. Emilie. These are some of the narrators of Jennifer Chiaverini's newest historical novel. The novel is told in alternating voices--each chapter narrated by one of Mary Todd Lincoln's sisters--and alternating times. The book alternates between the present--1875 moving forward--and the past--starting in 1825. The book centers on Mary Todd (Lincoln) and her mental health and capabilities.

Mary has always, always, always been Mary. Strong-willed. Easily offended. Bearer of grudges. Irresponsible with money. But now that the court has ruled her insane, the sisters each have their own reaction and response. What is best for Mary? Will they help Mary's situation or make it worse if they try to mend bridges and repair relationships now?

My thoughts: I found this a fascinating read. I love, love, love historical fiction. I haven't read much about the Lincolns. Though I do seem to remember having read a young adult novel starring Mary Todd--remember vaguely at least. I don't recall ever having read about her later years after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. So fascinating is about as good a word as any.

I am usually not a big fan of books with multiple narrators--but in this case I didn't mind. Each sister had her own relationship with Mary; each sister had a unique perspective. To only have the perspective of one sister would have been incomplete and inconclusive.

I usually prefer books with a clear chronological narrative--very straightforward. But again in this case I didn't mind. Readers are able to trace the story and arrive at their own conclusions about Mary.

I loved the focus on family and on sisters in particular. Elizabeth, the oldest sister, really went above and beyond to nurture her younger sisters and support them to the best of her ability. I liked all the sisters.

I would definitely recommend this one!

© 2020 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

80. The Places We Sleep

The Places We Sleep. Caroline Brooks DuBois. 2020. 272 pages. [Source: Review copy] [verse novel; coming of age; 9/11]

First sentence: It arrives like a punch to the gut like a shove in the girls’ room like a name I won’t repeat. It arrives like nobody’s business, staring and glaring me down, singling me out in the un-singular mob that ebbs and flows and swells and grows in the freshly painted, de-roached hallways of Henley Middle.

Premise/plot: The Places We Sleep is a coming-of-age novel set during the school year 2001/2002 starring a young girl named Abbey. The novel opens with a few surprises--she gets her first period AND the terrorists attack the Twin Towers in New York City. Her mom rushes away to be with her family. Abbey's Aunt Rose works at the World Trade Center, she has two kids and a husband. They will need all the support they can get as the search begins...and ends...BUT Abbey needs her mom too. The novel is told in VERSE and it covers September through May as the nation--and Abbey--undergo some big changes.

My thoughts: Every one has a story of where they were when they first heard the news, this is Abbey's story. (It is fictional). It chronicles Abbey's life as she processes and absorbs this new world all while balancing the typical changes that come from growing up. It tackles friends, bullies, school, home, discovering yourself, etc.

I was not in middle school when 9/11 happened. I was in college, but I very much remember how shocking and disturbing the news was. Also how it continued to impact lives even months, years later. I would recommend this one.

© 2020 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

79. Better Off Read

Better Off Read. (Bookmobile Mystery #1) Nora Page. 2018. 325 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: In all her seventy-five years, Cleo Watkins had never harmed another human being.

Premise/plot: Cleo Watkins is a librarian without a working library--since the big storm. But while she may lack a traditional library, she does have a bookmobile. She is determined to keep the folks in her town supplied with the books they want and need. Even if she doesn't exactly understand their preferences! Such is the case with one of her cranky patrons who is very obsessed with true crime and books about murder!

The book is set in a small (probably fictional) town in Georgia. It is peopled with all the types you'd expect...including some lovely pets. This cozy mystery has a lovely charm to it.

My thoughts: I definitely liked this one!!! I don't know that I love, love, love it. I would definitely pick up other books in the series if I was at the library--if the library was open. I could easily see myself spending more time with these characters...at some point. But I haven't quite become hooked enough to proclaim it LOVE. It is the first in a cozy mystery series.

© 2020 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

78. Jeannie's Demise: Abortion on Trial in Victorian Ontario

Jeannie's Demise: Abortion on Trial in Victorian Ontario. Ian Radforth. 2020. [October] 258 pages. [Source: Review copy] [adult nonfiction; history]

First sentence: Growing impatient, Lovell took an axe and broke open the box. Inside he found some straw, a white chemise, and the naked body of a young woman. A few hours later, Coroner E.C. Fisher held an inquest nearby at Mrs. Mantle’s Robin Hood Hotel on Dundas Street. Two physicians, who had already performed a post-mortem examination of the body, reported that the deceased was an otherwise robust and healthy woman whose death was caused by a violent abortion. The jury at the inquest concluded that there had been a wilful murder of “an unknown woman” by some “person or persons unknown.”

Premise/plot: Jeannie's Demise is an up-close-and-personal, behind-the-scenes glimpse at abortion on trial in Ontario Canada in 1875. In the summer of that year, Jeannie Gilmour got an abortion and died as a result of complications. That fall and winter her two abortionists--husband and wife--went on trial. This news story was covered widely and broadly. (Though for the record, the two were on trial for murdering Jeannie and not for murdering the unborn child.) The book chronicles the case in great depth giving background and context.

My thoughts: I love a good true crime book occasionally. This one fits into that category nicely enough. It is a detailed accounting of three trials: the first trial being that of the two accused abortionists (abortion was illegal in 1875), the second trial being that of the accused seducer, the third being that of a man accused of helping dispose of the body via a coffin in a wagon. Readers get a glimpse of how the police department worked the case, how the prosecution and defense handled the case, the evidence, the testimonies and witnesses. One also definitely got a glimpse of how the media reacted to the case AND influenced the case. One also saw some statistics.

If the book had kept this a book about the past, it perhaps would have set better with me. One could read about the facts of the case--in the past--without trying to moralize, preach, or reveal a modern AGENDA to the case.
It wasn't until the last page or possibly two that the pro-choice cause is championed and glorified. He leaves readers with a warning that there are some in the United States that want to rob women of their oh-so-human right to have access to abortions.

I think both pro-life and pro-choice readers can agree that illegal abortions can be dangerous and risky to women. But to be fair, in 1875 legal or illegal abortion would have been risky. As was childbirth itself it 1875. There was so much about germs and bacteria and care that doctors, midwives, nurses, the general public did not know that lives were put at risk. Medicine has come a long way since the nineteenth century. 

© 2020 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

77. The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope

The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope. C.W. Grafton. 2020. Poisoned Pen Press. 304 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: My secretary said that there was a Miss Ruth McClure to see me and I said that she could come on in. The girl who stood in the doorway a moment later was small and lovely but she was obviously very unhappy and looked as if she were not sure she wanted to come in after all.

Premise/plot: As adults we don't really have D.E.A.R scheduled into our days, well, most don't. D.E.A.R. if you don't know means Drop Everything And Read. But this vintage mystery should be a must-must-must read for all mystery lovers.

Originally published in 1943, it stars an amateur detective, Gilmore "Gil" Henry, a lawyer. A young woman, Ruth McClure, comes to him--as a lawyer--seeking his services. She has a couple of questions about some stock she has inherited after her father's death. Henry takes the case, and, well a lot more comes with that--than he was expecting! His close encounters with death start piling up!!!! Somebody does not want him helping out Miss McClure. But why?!?!

My thoughts: I loved, loved, loved, loved, LOVED this vintage mystery. It perhaps isn't perfectly perfect. It is very much a product of its time. It was written and published during the second world war. But for adult readers with an appreciation for context that don't find offense at the drop of a hat, I think it would prove a delightful escape.

I love the narrative! I love Gil Henry. It's not often you get pudgy, chubby detectives that are way out of their element but super stubborn. I love the description as well.

As I reached the city limits I turned on the radio and caught a hot swing band with one of these women crooners who sounds as if she has gallstones. It was starting to rain a little and the black-top road was shiny like seals in the circus.

I was about halfway down the steep hill when there was a sharp explosion and the car jumped and twisted under me like a hula dancer. I went down that hill in a wild zigzag, keeping to the road for fifty or seventy-five yards by pressing my hundred and eighty pounds against the wheel and trying to anticipate each move. Then I went into a spin and the last thing I heard was the high whine of the tires skidding sidewise. I ought to be dead. How many times the car turned over I don’t know but when I came to, I was hanging halfway out of the door by the driver’s seat and the car was upright some thirty feet off the road down a slight incline.

I began to get a pretty good idea of what Tim McClure might look like when I tried to put on the suit I found on the bed. It may not have been a zoot suit6 but the way I wore it, it certainly had a drape shape. I rolled up probably eight inches around my ankles and the overlap at my waistline was something to look at. The shoulders of the coat hung down almost to my elbows and, of course, my hands were clear out of sight up the sleeves. No wonder Miss Ruth McClure laughed when she saw me. I was a dead ringer for the smallest of the seven dwarfs and sure enough she called me Dopey.

Every person has some cross to bear. Mine is that I am not shaped like people who are intended to get their clothes in ready-to-wear shops. If clothes are to fit me in the middle, they have to be too long at the ends and if they are to fit me at the ends, they hurt me in the middle.

I didn’t want to take the time to wait while alterations were made so I took a suit which hurt when I buttoned it at the waist. Mr. Silverstein had on a black skull cap and a measuring tape hung around his neck. He patted and smoothed and pulled at things to make them hang right and appeared to approve in every particular although he finally said that maybe it was a little snug. I thought snug was hardly the appropriate word since my belt was almost out of sight and I could tell that I would not want to sit down very often.

I regretted my decision when I crawled in under the wheel of the car. They say when you cut earthworms in two, the halves go about their own business and supply whatever it takes to carry on, but I am no earthworm and I had no faith in my ability to do the same.

I wondered if there was any way to grow a new tooth, remove bruises, reduce thirty pounds or grow eight inches taller in a few minutes, but decided there wasn’t. I thought about buying a new suit and incidentally giving my tortured stomach a rest, but with the other details so accurately reported, I thought it would be a waste of time and money. There wasn’t any water at the newsstand so I took two tablets out of the box and munched them disagreeably as I walked down the street wondering how long it would be before I was on the inside looking out.

People who fix things to eat like to see other people eat them, especially when they are hungry and say so, and I was so hungry it must have been shining out of my eyes for anybody to see.

Well, you can’t stand in one spot forever. Acorns do it and get to be oak trees and leaves grow all over them and by and by they can’t move at all.

© 2020 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews