Between Two Fires by Christopher Beuhlman

Someone talked about Between Two Fires on Books Unbound and I got the audiobook, which is narrated by Steve West. 

Hm. Let's talk about this book and work out my feelings on the fly, shall we?

It's 1348. Lucifer and other fallen angels (?) have declared war on Heaven by starting the Black Death on Earth? There are going to be a lot of question marks in this recap. Thomas is an excommunicated knight who stumbles upon a priest and a girl named Delphine who can see angels, dream in premonitions, and whose body is occasionally overtaken by God(?). 

Sometimes I read a book and it makes me think that maybe I'm not a good reader. Maybe I don't truly understand things. This was one of those books. 

Look, this is a genre mashup. I guess I was under the impression it was historical fiction, but it really turned out to be a supernatural/horror/historical fiction combo. I was utterly befuddled by the fallen angel framing because it was whiplash to go from those scenes to ones with Thomas and Delphine trying to find something to eat and stumbling upon dead bodies in barns. 

At about two-thirds of the way through, I literally gave up trying to figure out what was going on and just rolled with it. Oh, there's a demon inhabiting the pope? Sure. There's a demon in the clouds? Fine. Delphine is really Jesus? FINE, IT IS SO. 

I mean. Whatever. Creepy book. Lots of straw hats. 2.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Hucksters of every stripe had tried to profit from the disease, especially in the early days, before they too sickened or grew afraid. (Chapter 18)

I immediately thought of the people hoarding toilet paper at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. 

Thing I looked up:

...Nearly 200 girls in Picardy to be deflowered by the troubadour [there's a name here, but I am not great with French] who was keeping count, if not naming names, in his verses (Chapter 29)

I can't figure out who this is. If I had a paper copy, I could look at the name. Alas, I have only the audio. 

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

straw hat(s) (Chapter 1 x2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 11, Chapter 14, Chapter 16, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 43)

fanning himself with his hat (Chapter 3)

his hat blew off him (Chapter 5)

refined hat (Chapter 9)

hat in his hands (Chapter 9, Chapter 10)

sweating in a hat made from no less than three foxes (Chapter 11)

grumbled from his hat (Chapter 16)

peeked from under the hat (Chapter 16)

replaced the hat (Chapter 16)

took the spoon of ram's horn from his hat (Chapter 20)

mermaid's ribs for a hat (Chapter 22)

wide red hats (Chapter 30)

take his hat (Chapter 30)

not until the hat's off (Chapter 30)

cardinal's hat (Chapter 36)

get your hat (Chapter 37)

cows and mantles and hats of many colors (Chapter 38)

yellow hats (Chapter 38)

removed the hats (Chapter 38)

*******************

Does this sound like something you'd want to read? I'm pretty sure I'm not the audience for this one!

A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan

 A Resistance of Witches is Morgan Ryan's debut novel. 

It's World War II. Lydia Polk is the protege to the Head Mistress at the Royal Academy of London when a Nazi coven infiltrates. Lydia must find a terrible magical grimoire before the Nazis get it. Adventures ensue.  

What a truly delightful book. There's magic! Killing Nazis! Found and nuclear family. Characters who are smart, but sometimes do stupid things because it's war! 

I have some quibbles, but you know what? If it sounds like you might enjoy this book, you probably will. 4/5 stars

Lines of note:

“There are Nazis everywhere. They just go by different names.” (location 2125)

Yeah. Just....yeah. 

She curled and pinned her hair, and fixed her makeup, rouging her cheeks and painting her lips a deep claret red. (location 4680)

This line reminds me of the line from the song "Fancy" - Mama washed and combed and curled my hair and then she painted my eyes and lips. 

To my parents, who showed up to every choir concert and school play, who let me major in theater without complaint or reservation, and who always told me that a real job is fine, but please don’t forget about your writing. I love you. (location 5616)

OH MY GOD I WANT HER PARENTS TO BE MY PARENTS. 

This is a story about mothers. I was unbelievably lucky to be raised by a mother who taught me from the beginning that words have power, and who modeled what it meant to live a creative life. Whatever magic I have, I got it from you. (location 5624)

AND THEN I WAS CRYING AT THE END OF THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

Things I looked up:

Is Clementine Winston Churchill's wife? (location 149) - Yes. That's all. Although this line in her Wikipedia made me snort: her mother Lady Blanche's known infidelity and his suspected infertility makes her paternity uncertain.

Zigeuner (location 1715) - a German word, used by the Nazis to describe Roma, Sinti and Traveller communities. It is thought to derive from a term meaning 'untouchable.' Egads. 

Clearly you don’t mean to include the brujas, or the vedmy, or the ćovaxanǎ. (location 4394) - These are all synonyms for witches in different languages. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

Stay away from the man in the white hat. (location 2664)

wide-brimmed hat (location 3150)

broad-brimmed hat (location 3174)

He tipped his hat to an auburn-haired woman on the corner, waiting for the bus in her sky-blue coat and matching hat, and she nodded back. (location 3715)

Gentlemen clutched their hats to their heads as they rushed past the chestnut trees and scrubby vegetable allotments, and ladies cried out in frustration as the wind tugged at their hair...(location 3959)

****************

Who thinks WWII with witches sounds fun? Who thinks it sounds like it's disrespectful to the true story of the war? 

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

Shoutout to Diane who recommended The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden when I asked for audiobook recommendations.

It is 1917. Laura Iven is a war nurse who has returned home to Halifax after she was injured. Her mother and father are killed in a terrible explosion in the port. Meanwhile, she has received confusing messages about the death of her brother Freddie at the front in Belgium. She arranges to go back to Europe in order to find out what happened to her brother.

Once there, though, Laura starts to hear rumors of a hotelier who plays violin and creates a space for men to forget about their pain and what happened to Freddie becomes less and less clear. 

Listen, I am not  usually a Great War kind of girl. I actually find most war books too repetitive and dark for me. But this one, with its faint whiff of magical realism, female bonds, and the power of family, both found and natural, hit just the right spot for me. Also, the narrators, Michael Crouch, and January LaVoy, had such lyrical voices that I never found myself drifting off, which has become quite a problem for me with audiobooks recently.

Anyway, this was a great rec. Thanks, Diane! 4/5 stars

Line of note:

"Maybe this is hell," he said, only half joking. He supposed in hell it didn't matter if you were Canadian or German. That put the war in perspective... (chapter 4)

There's a lot of foreshadowing in this line. Super interesting. 

Thing I looked up:

Halifax explosion - I linked to it up above because it's such a crucial plot point. With both of her parents killed in this explosion, Laura had nothing left in Halifax, so heading back to the warfront made sense. Without this explosion, would Laura have stayed in Halifax to recuperate from her war injury and care for her parents?

On December 6, 1917, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc and the Norwegian vessel SS Imo collided in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Laden with high explosives, Mont-Blanc caught fire and detonated, devastating the Richmond district of Halifax. At least 1,782 people, largely in Halifax and Dartmouth, were killed by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time. CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE?

WWI pillbox - a type of blockhouse, or concrete dug-in guard-post, often camouflaged, normally equipped with loopholes through which defenders can fire weapons. It is in effect a trench firing step, hardened to protect against small-arms fire and grenades, and raised to improve the field of fire. The modern concrete pillbox originated on the Western Front of World War I by the German army. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

top hat (chapter 2)

tin hat (chapter 4, chapter 12x2)

larger hat (chapter 7)

pass the hat (chapter 7 x2)

flowered hat (chapter 11)

under her hat (chapter 13)

tipping his hat (chapter 15)

covered his face with his hat (chapter 19)

funny hats (author's note)

Do you read a lot of WWI books? Is there another one I should be reading? 

Buddy Read: Kin by Tayari Jones and a GIVEAWAY

Other novels by Tayari Jones:
Silver Sparrow
An American Marriage

One of my 2026 goals was to to do a buddy read and I decided a fun way to do it was to go local. Sarah lives close to me and she posted late in 2025 a list of books she wanted to read in the first quarter of 2026 and one of those book was Kin by Tayari Jones. It just so happened that I also wanted to read Kin, so we met up twice over the last few weeks and talked about it.

Sarah's copy from Book of the Month.

What we have here is the story of two black girls, both without mothers, who grow up in the small town of Honeysuckle, Louisiana. One heads off to college, the other heads off to whorehouses and smoky bars. But their lives remain interconnected as we follow them. 

I was a bit nervous to read this book because I heard it was about mother/daughter and sister relationships and that's a bit of a sore spot for me. But I like Tayari Jones so much that I decided to just go for it. 

Look, this book was so good. The characters are full and interesting and contradictory and make decisions that are both smart and foolish. They do dumb things in the name of love, they suffer from actions taken by others years before they were born, and they make you question what is right and what should cause shame. 

My favorite thing about Tayari Jones is her observational writing and how funny she can be. 

Consider the following:

This was Louisiana in 1941. We were colored. Something was always wrong. (location 184) 

I never did without. I was always tidy and well lotioned. (location 218)

“Don’t ever let no man murder you,” she said. “If you let a man kill you, I will not bring you flower the first.” (location 264)

Bobo had some strange short-dude magic that earned him panties for days. (location 991)

An “I love you” that is out in the world unanswered bedevils a space, like the ghost of a whore in Mississippi. (location 3473)

I used the word “motherfucker,” which wasn’t like me at all. But it’s the sort of word that, if you need it, no other word will do. (location 3856)

...he was as ordinary as a pan of cornbread. (location 4011)

"...He insisted on moving through the world penis-first. Bet he won’t do that again.” (location 4016)

...worked for his in-laws as a mediocre accountant. (location 4804)

I just feel like these are all funny - some in a dark way, but funny nonetheless - and point out real truths that you may or may not have even considered before. How come there are so many short dudes who have such crazy charisma? How do you know by looking at someone that they're a mediocre accountant? I don't know, but Jones captures all of it. 

Anyway, I liked this one so much. It took her seven years to write this book and I understand why. 4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

I felt like a dump truck, chunky and sturdy. (location 390)

LOLOL. I don't know why, but her descriptions of people are hysterical to me. 

Luggage was one of the few hand-me-down items that became a little more dignified due to its wear and tear. (location 606)

Such great observational writing. 

In all these years, she had never said a word that would dirty the wash water. But secrets, apparently, she was good at. There with Miss Jemison, I struggled to decide if secrets and lies were twins, regular sisters, or just cousins. (location 729)

Ha ha. When I get my eyebrows waxed, my stylist always talks about how they should be cousins, not sisters. 

I didn’t even say she had died, because that was something a person did. A person lived; a person died. I said she was dead because that’s forever. That’s what she was. My mother was dead. (location 2950)

Active versus passive, right?

Like you, I always wanted a mother and I guess I have one now. And having a mother involves letting her down, or so it appears. (location 4451)

HA HA HA HA! Ain't that the truth. 

Things I looked up:

cuckabugs (location 388) - tiny, really tight naps on the back of someone's neck. They are very difficult to comb through and are usually shaved off - this might be the first time I've had to cite Urban Dictionary on my site

Maybe he was cute, in a Jackie Wilson kind of way. (location 548) - Jackie Wilson was a singer. He sang "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher."

siddity (location 617 and then repeatedly throughout the book) - Uppity, pretentious, stuck-up, conceited. Acting as if you are better than someone else. To "put on airs." Often preceded by the word "high." - Two for Urban Dictionary in this post alone. 

Jim Walter home (location 870) - Jim Walter Homes were "shell" homes, meaning the company would complete the outside so that the house was watertight, then allow the customer to finish the inside with their own labor. The company would also sell most of the inside materials, including sheetrock, insulation, doors and carpet to the customer and include them in the purchase. The result was very affordable mortgage payments, usually for 20 years. The only requirement from the company was that the customer had owned the land on which the house was constructed, meaning that in the case of foreclosure the company got not only a (potentially never-finished) house but a building lot as well. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, when mortgage rates went as high as 15%, Jim Walter offered 10% financing with no money down.

Dovey Roundtree (location 1764 and 4984) - an African-American civil rights activist, ordained minister, and attorney. Her 1955 victory before the Interstate Commerce Commission in the first bus desegregation case to be brought before the ICC resulted in the only explicit repudiation of the "separate but equal" doctrine in the field of interstate bus transportation by a court or federal administrative body. That case, Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company (64 MCC 769 (1955)), which Dovey Roundtree brought before the ICC with her law partner and mentor Julius Winfield Robertson, was invoked by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy during the 1961 Freedom Riders' campaign in his successful battle to compel the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce its rulings and end Jim Crow laws in public transportation.

Raynelle Jemison is penning this letter on my behalf, because “Uncle Arthur” is bedeviling my wrists. (location 2049) - I don't know? Maybe arthritis? Gout? Urban Dictionary let me down. I suspect arthritis because of the Arth- connection. Anyone know?

Being a motherless child is so bad that they wrote a slavery song about it. (location 3457) - "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" is a traditional African American spiritual dating back to the era of slavery, often expressing deep sorrow and longing for freedom. It has been covered by numerous artists in various genres, including Mahalia Jackson, Eric Clapton, and Odetta, and is often used as a protest song. I am so ignorant about music and art! And birds. And trees. And geography. 

chichi birds (location 3521) - Chickadees? (There's a food truck called Chichi Birds Hot Chicken in San Antonio.)

LeMoyne-Owen (location 3897) - HBCU affiliated with the United Church of Christ and located in Memphis, Tennessee that had a total enrollment of approximately 646 students as of fall 2023

“CP Time.” (location 4485) - Colored People's Time (also abbreviated to CP Time or CPT) is an American expression referring to African Americans as frequently being late. Egads. 

Daufuskie Island (location 4473) - a remote, bridgeless South Carolina sea island between Savannah and Hilton Head, accessible only by boat (ferries, water taxis). Renowned for its Gullah history, pristine beaches, and laid-back culture, it is navigated primarily by golf cart. The Gullah (or Gullah Geechee) are descendants of enslaved Africans from West and Central Africa who developed a unique, preserved culture in the coastal Lowcountry and Sea Islands of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Due to historic geographic isolation, they retained strong African traditions in their language, foodways, arts, and spiritual practices.

mighty Zambezi hurling over a cliff (location 4945) - The Zambezi is Africa's fourth-longest river (approx. 2,700 km), flowing from northwestern Zambia through Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique into the Indian Ocean. The Zambezi is known for the spectacular Victoria Falls

Hat mentions (why hats?):

Mr. Daniel held his stingy-brim hat in his hand. (location 554)

My aunt was fashionable in a baby-pink suit and netted pillbox hat. (location 1110)

He took off his hat, revealing an angry red line above his brows. (location 1175)

half-moon hat with a little silk flower perched over her ear (location 1232)

He shook his head and removed his hat (location 1695)

Now Bobo put his hat over his heart. (location 1697)

He sometimes tipped an imaginary hat and said, “Mademoiselle Mouse.” (location 2099)

He removed the leather hat. (location 2605)

felt hat to protect my hairdo (location 2719)

My mama swapped mine for a felt hat and a pair of gloves. (location 2838)

"...That’s why you will never see me with a hat on my head. I don’t care if it’s a funeral. Fuck a hat.” (location 2838)

The sidewalk was littered with playing cards, causing a lady in a brown hat to take clumsy steps to avoid touching them with her suede shoe. (location 3196)

 flat-topped hats with gold braid over the brim (location 4500)

*******************

THE GIVEAWAY!!

Sarah and I met at a small town about halfway between our homes last weekend to talk about the book and go shopping at adorable shops. One of the places we went was to a bookstore. And this bookstore was having an event where you could buy a wrapped book with a description on it and decorate it with fun add-ons for an incredibly reasonable price. It's a fun blind date with a book sort of thing.

Imagine our glee. 

And the giveaway is this lovely package. 

Genre: Contemporary/Family Secrets
Age: Adult
Teaser: Fame, identity, and hidden history collide in unexpected ways. 

If you want a chance to win this beauty, fill out this Google Form by May 6. I just ask for your name and email with a bonus, non-required question for you to guess the title of the book. I actually don't know the title of the book and will not ever know unless the winner tells me. 

I'll email and announce the winner on May 8 and ship it out as soon as I can. I'll happily ship internationally, as well, so non-US folks can enter, as well. 

*******************

Do you like Tayari Jones as much as I do? What do you think the secret book is based on that description? 

The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne

Sarah of the Sarah's Bookshelves podcast picked The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne on her podcast in the Spring Preview episode. Then she had the authors on an episode (episode 222). I ordered it from my library and it came in right away, so I must have been one of the first people to get it because the release date was April 7.

This book, told in a mixed media format, is a fictional oral history of The Midnight Show, a late-night sketch comedy show in the early 1980s. Madeline Cohen is a freelance author for The Rolling Stone who wants to write a cover story about the mysterious death of Lillian Martin, a comedian who rose to fame on the first seasons of The Midnight Show. We read mostly Madeline's interviews, but we also get press clips, emails, and transcripts. 

I've never watched a single episode of SNL and I was riveted by this book. It's really just an exploration of a creative workplace in the 1980s, filled with sexism, drug use, toxic relationships, and found family. Could I have done without the endless talk of drug use? Probably, but the book didn't glamorize it in any way, so it gets a pass from me. 

Much like in Good People, one of my favorite conceits is that none of the interviewees are not reliable narrators. It is so fun when the authors put two contradictory retellings of the same event right next to each other. The characters are complex and you start to figure out really quickly who is always telling the story to put themselves in the best light, who is tell the story to put Lillian in the best light, and who doesn't give a shit about any of it. Much like Her Many Faces, the book is centered on a woman, but we don't hear from Lillian herself outside of a handful of journal entries and everyone has a different perspective on who Lillian was and what her priorities were. It depends on who is talking if you think she's an introvert, a junkie, a super star, a victim, a beloved friend, or a thief. It's absolutely fascinating.

(Okay, fine. I saw the twist coming, but I actually like to think it's because I'm a good reader who was putting together all the clues that the good authors laid out for me. Or maybe it was too obvious. Regardless, what happened to Lillian to cause her death was not really the point of the book any more than listening to the Doughboys is about their restaurant reviews.)

Anyway, if this sounds like something you'd be into, you should read it! 4.5/5 stars

Line of note:

I will remind you once more that Wally Winters was a beloved star. We were three young women in 1980 who barely had our feet in the door, and the second you complain, that's all you are. You become the problem, not him. We were expendable, and we knew it. (page 109)

I loved the sections about overt sexism in the workplace. I mean, it's so complicated, isn't it, when you're a minority? 

Things I looked up:

Viola Spolin (page 15) - an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life. Her book Improvisation for the Theater, which published these techniques, includes her philosophy and her teaching and coaching methods, and is considered the "bible of improvisational theater." 

commedia dell'arte (page 15) - translates to "comedy of professional artists," is a form of popular theatre that flourished throughout Europe, particularly in Italy and France, from the 16th through the 18th centuries. It is characterized by masked stock characters, improvised performances based on pre-established plot outlines (scenarios), and a focus on physical comedy

Cantinflas (page 15) - a Mexican comedian, actor, and filmmaker. He is considered to have been the most widely accomplished Mexican comedian and is well known throughout Latin America and Spain

Radio Rochela (page 15) - a Venezuelan television sketch comedy and variety show, created by Argentine producer Tito Martinez Del Box

montsuki (page 94) - formal Japanese kimono adorned with one to five family crests, signifying the highest level of formality

opera seria (page 128) - Italian musical genre that dominated European stages from the 1710s to the 1770s. It is characterized by noble, historical, or mythological themes, featuring dramatic plots centered on virtue and duty. 

opera buffa (page 128) - genre of comic opera originating in Naples in the mid-18th century. It developed from the intermezzi, or interludes, performed between the acts of serious operas. Opera buffa plots center on two groups of characters: a comic group of male and female personages and a pair (or more) of lovers.

Jean-Michel Basquiat (page 162) - an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the neo-expressionism movement.

Basquiat's drawing of art critic Rene Ricard, Untitled (Axe/Rene) (1984)

Hat mentions (why hats?):

business hat (page 25)

floppy hat (page 64)

You know that expression "all hat, no cattle"? (page 65)

old hat (page 103)

there's one more hat mention on page 328, but I'm not going to write it because it's a spoiler

*****************

How about these lovely epistolary novels I've been reading lately? Do you have a favorite in the genre? 

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

Young-sook is a young Korean girl living on the island of Jeju. Jeju is a matrifocal society, where women are in charge of finances and the direction of the family. Young-sook is the daughter of the chief of the divers, women who dive deep into the sea to feed their families. Mi-ja is Young-sook's best friend, but they are from different families and backgrounds and soon those differences will tear them apart. We follow these women through World War II, through the Korean War, and way into the present when the atrocities they witnessed are finally acknowledged. 

Here's the thing. I hate the flash forwarding thing. I was invested in these women in the past and hated every time we moved forward to present time. It was fascinating to hear about how the women learned to dive and how knowledge flowed from one generation to the next. I was very invested in hearing about how much everyone hated the Japanese and then hated the Americans. The historical details were woven in to the story seamlessly. It is another example of how world events do eventually come to change the day to day lives of average people.

It was heartbreaking to hear about how such a stable society was undermined by events and factors entirely outside of their control. It was depressing to read about war crimes and acts of violence against civilians knowing that there weren't really any consequences. 

But man did I hate the modern day scenes. It was like being yanked of a perfectly good dream to have to empty the clothes washer. 

(I was thinking of Before We Were Yours as I was reading this. Why do authors insist on taking a super interesting piece of history and contaminating it with a contemporary storyline that detracts from the rest of the novel?)

Anyway. I learned a lot in this book, but I'm not sure I'd wholeheartedly endorse you reading it. 3/5 stars

Lines of note:

Oh, I understood life and death, but I didn’t yet have a true comprehension of all that could happen between your first and last breaths. (location 2053)

This is such a good line. It's true, right? When I was young, I thought I understood life, but I certainly could not have predicted the twists and turns that make up a person's history.

Things I looked up:

McCune-Reischauer system of romanization (location 52) - a romanization system for the Korean language. It was first published in 1939 by George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer.  Through the Korean War it became the foundation for most current Romanizations of Korean place names. A variant of McCune–Reischauer is currently used as the official system in North Korea. Another variant is currently used for standard romanization library catalogs in North America. On the other hand, South Korea formerly used yet another variant as its official system from 1984 to 2000, but replaced it with the Revised Romanization of Korean in 2000.

Jeju is her home, an island known for Three Abundances: wind, stones, and women. (location 61) - 

Jeju is a big character in this book and I wanted to know more, particularly about its geography.

Jeju Island is South Korea's largest island, covering an area of 1,833.2 km2 (707.8 sq mi), which is 1.83% of the total area of the country. The island lies in the Korea Strait, 82.8 km (51.4 mi) south of the nearest point on the Korean Peninsula. The Jeju people are indigenous to the island, and it has been populated by modern humans since the early Neolithic period. The Jeju language is considered critically endangered by UNESCO. It is also one of the regions of Korea where Shamanism is most intact.

Jeju Island has an oval shape and is 73 km (45 mi) east–west and 31 km (19 mi) north–south, with a gentle slope around Hallasan in the center. The length of the main road is 181 km (112 mi) and the coastline is 258 km (160 mi). O

April Third Incident (4.3 Incident) (location 92) - The Jeju uprising (in South Korea, the Jeju April 3 incident) was an insurrection on Jeju Island, South Korea from April 1948 to May 1949. Egads! Was it an insurrection? What does that language tell us? 

A year prior to its start, residents of Jeju had begun protesting elections scheduled by the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) to be held in the United States-occupied half of Korea, which they believed would entrench the division of the country. A general strike was later organized by the Workers' Party of South Korea (WPSK) from February to March 1948. The WPSK launched an insurgency in April 1948, attacking police and Northwest Youth League members stationed on Jeju who had been mobilized to suppress the protests by force. (eek! this feels gross to be typing and not editorializing. I mean...seems like the police might have shot the first shot, you know?)

 The First Republic of Korea under President Syngman Rhee escalated the suppression of the uprising from August 1948, declaring martial law in November and beginning an "eradication campaign" against rebel forces in the rural areas of Jeju in March 1949, defeating them within two months. This resulting campaign has led to the event being called the Jeju massacre. 

Between 14,000 and 30,000 people (10 percent of Jeju's population) were killed, and 40,000 fled to Japan. Other estimates reach as high as 80,000 dead. Atrocities and war crimes were committed by both sides. (egads, again) 

bulteoks (page 213) - a traditional, open-air, circular stone shelter used by Jeju Island's haenyeo (women divers) to change clothes, warm themselves by a fire, and socialize. Located along the coast, these, sometimes called "bonfire" spots, served as crucial community spaces for resting, sharing diving knowledge, and, historically, enforcing hierarchy within the group

sumbisori (page 351) - the distinct, high-pitched whistling exhale of haenyeo (female divers) in Jeju, South Korea, produced upon surfacing after holding their breath for over a minute in deep dives.

They sank the Kowamaru (location 2240) - ship sunk by a U.S. submarine

There are those who say no one survived the Bukchon massacre. Others say that only one person lived. (location 3359) - Bukchon is the site of the worst indiscriminate mass killing during the Jeju Uprising. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

The wife wears the same polka-dot T-shirt, but otherwise every bit of her skin is protected from the sun by long pants, sleeve guards, gloves, hat, and a cloth mask. (location 70)

his favorite dog-fur hat pulled down over his ears (location 167)

...showed her how to do chores and taught her the songs for grinding millet, knitting horsehair hats, netting anchovies, gathering pig excrement for our fields, and plowing, planting, and pulling weeds... (location 624)

Mi-ja, the Kangs, and I peeled off our coats, scarves, and hats. (location 1272)

One man, wearing a different hat than the other sailors, gestured for us to come closer. (location 1312)

The man with the special hat (location 1315 and 1316)

matching coats, hats, and mittens (location 1355)

bowler hats (location 1802)

small hats pinned to their heads (location 1804)

wearing a skirt, a little jacket, and a hat with a veil that came down over her eyes (location 2019)

a Western-style dress and a hat (location 2481)

big straw hats (location 2515)

*******************

Had you ever heard of the Jeju uprising? How much have you read about the Korean War? Are you as annoyed by the contemporary elements of some historical fiction as I am?

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

First book review of 2026! Let's do this thing!

I read The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo because my husband read a description of it and insisted I would love it.

The first thing we do is meet Snow. 

I exist as either a small canid with thick fur, pointed ears, and neat black feet, or a young woman. Neither are safe forms in a world built by men. (page 2)

FOX PEOPLE!!

We learn that Snow is hunting for the man who paid the man who killed her child for her fur. She takes on the role of a caretaker to an elderly lady as part of her investigation. Meanwhile, in another city, we meet Bao, a man who can tell when people are lying because their words cause buzzing in his lips. He's investigating the death of a courtesan found frozen in the doorway of a restaurant. Then the plotlines slowly converge. We travel from China to Japan (time on a boat pleases me!), meet more foxes, and learn secrets. 

The book started slowly and it took me a hundred pages or so to really get into, but then I spent most of a Saturday curled up on the couch reading it and ignoring my to-do list and the dog nosing me for a walk. I wanted Bao to have a happy ending and I wanted to know all of Snow's secrets. 

There are some big problems. Consider the line where Snow describes herself. There is SO MUCH EXPOSITION in the fox scenes. Snow just can't but tell us everything we need to know instead of letting it come to us naturally in the world. There are also pretty graphic depictions of violence against women which I wasn't prepared for based on the tone of the rest of the novel, but it wasn't unrealistic. I don't know. There's just a part of me that wishes not every book had "normal men" threatening/enacting sexual violence. It gets exhausting. 

It was kind of exciting to read such a genre mashup, though. I put it down as fantasy on my spreadsheet, but it's a mystery novel with some historical fiction elements, too. That's fun. I like that Choo is taking risks and that a publisher took a chance on a book that isn't easily categorized. 

The ending was exciting and the book picked up the pace towards the end. Are you interested in Chinese folklore? The relationship between China and Japan in the early twentieth century? Fox people? Give it a try. 4/5 stars

Lines of note:

Revenge is a terrible dish to consume. It eats one from the inside out, no matter what the say about it being best served cold. As the Chinese saying goes, "When a gentleman takes his vengeance, ten years is not too late." But you and I know that chilled food inevitably leads to an upset stomach. (page 117)

Hope, of course, is the most painful thing in the universe. Clinging to a thin strand is the most agonizing way to live. (page 170-171)

Things I looked up:

drowning of the child emperor Antoku at the Battle of Dan-no-Ura (page 129)

Antoku - Emperor Antoku (1178 – 1185) was the 81st emperor of Japan. His reign spanned the years from 1180 through 1185. His death marked the end of the Heian period and the beginning of the Kamakura period

Battle of Dan-no-Ura  - During Antoku's reign, the Imperial House of Japan was involved in a bitter struggle between warring clans. Minamoto no Yoritomo with his cousin Minamoto no Yoshinaka, led a force from the Minamoto clan against the Taira, who controlled the emperor. During the climactic sea Battle of Dan-no-Ura in April 1185, Antoku's grandmother Taira no Tokiko took him and plunged with him into the water in the Shimonoseki Straits, drowning the child emperor rather than allowing him to be captured by the opposing forces.

Hat mentions (why hats?):

..wearing a straw coat worn by peasants to keep off the rain and a bamboo hat. (page 68)

She indicated a hat hanging on a peg in the hallway. (page 207)

The Manchu bannermen on the train wear hats trimmed with otter fur and thick quilted jackets. (page 216)

The police arrived wearing smart uniforms and uncomfortable-looking hats. (page 257)

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Does your spouse ever recommend books for you? Do you wish you could shapechange into a particular animal?

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen was the December pick for my IRL book club.

Let's just start with some cover analysis, shall we?

Doesn't this look like a delightful cozy fantasy about a woman and her magical garden? Isn't that what the title and color scheme makes you think? 

You would be wrong. This book is filled with violence against women and was incredibly disturbing. 

Book club results: One person did not get further than ten pages in, one person thought it was an empowering look at how we can save ourselves, one person (me) was super bothered by the depictions of violence in the book and could not get over the time the husband locked the wife in the basement, one person attempted valiantly to figure out how the magic in the garden worked. So 25% success rate?

(I think the garden is like a dog. I don't control Hannah really. If she wanted to bite someone, she could. If she wanted to smother someone to death, she could. But Hannah doesn't usually do those things - USUALLY - because she wants me and Dr. BB to be happy and that would not make us happy. So sometimes she's erratic and naughty, but generally she reads our moods and does things to make us happy. That's the garden magic. It's really a dog. But that's my reading on it.)

Harriet lives alone in Sunnyside, her London home, after her father disappeared months ago. Her mother is dead, her only friend has moved away, and all that keeps Harriet company is her garden. Well, about that garden. It's wild and crazy and Harriet has to tend to it or it will completely overtake her house. But then there's this inspector coming around and suggesting Harriet had something to do with her father's disappearance. And this charming young man comes around to court her. SPOILER: HE IS NOT CHARMING. 

Anyway. Read at your own peril. 3/5 stars

Things I looked up:

Ellen Terry (page 84) - an English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; she was born into a family of actors and began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and toured throughout the British provinces in her teens

Henry Pickering (page 167) - English portrait painter in the 1700s

Hat mentions (why hats?):
round hat (page 11, 276)
tipped his hat (page 18, 82, 282)
tipping his hat (page 33)
below his hat (page 47)
tied on her hat (page 59)
top hat (page 69, 141)
did not wear a hat (page 121)
brim of his hat (page 123)
took his hat off his head (page 149)
tugged firmly at his hat (page 152)
under his hat (page 166)
took off his hat (page 72)
funny hat (page 169)
picked up his hat (page 181)
coat and hat (page 191)
wore no hat (page 201)
beneath his hat (page 229)
fetch our hats (page 281)

*******************

Are you sensitive about violence against women? Would this cover make you think it would be a big role in this book?

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

I read News of the World by Paulette Jiles in a last minute effort to get the book that features an unlikely friendship prompt of the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. Little did I know that this book would be such a perfect fit for me.

Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is a drifter. In the aftermath of his time in the military in the War of 1812 and the Civil War, he wanders from town to town reading the news. Captain, a former printer who is now widowed, knows that his life could be more, but he keeps on going. It was crazy to think of all things that this man had seen in his life. 

In Wichita Falls, Captain is offered a fifty-dollar gold piece to deliver a ten-year-old girl, Johanna, to her relatives in San Antonio. The catch is that four years earlier this little girl had been kidnapped by the Kiowa after killing her parents and sister. The Kiowa had raised her and she doesn't remember her family, her language, or even how to hold a fork. She is constantly trying to run away, but Captain is patient and they slowly make their way south. 

I was unaware of the phenomenon of child captives in the frontier. Children who were captured by Native Americans assimilated into the culture and didn't adjust well when they were returned to their biological families. From the author's note:

They always wished to return to their adoptive families, even when they had been with their Indian families for less than a year. This was true for both the Anglo, German-Anglo, and Mexican children taken. (page 211)

Johanna and Captain made such a delightful pair. I was so pleased with them and wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. I am not really a western reader, but between this and the gloriousness of Lonesome Dove, maybe I should read more westerns. Also, SO MANY HATS. 4/5 stars

Lines of note:

Laughter is good for the soul and all your interior works. (page 176)

Things I looked up:

polar exploration ship Hansa (page 2) - embarked from Bremen, Germany on June 15, 1869, with the east coast of Greenland as their destination. Two ships made the journey: Captain Karl Koldewey’s Germania, a screw steamer of 140 tons, and the Hansa, commanded by Captain P.F.A. Hegemann. Only one ship returned. The Hansa was crushed in polar ice after being separated from the Germania, but her crew disembarked and survived for six months, drifting more than 1,000 miles on an ice floe. Eventually, they reached the Moravian mission station of Friedriksthal, to the west of Cape Farewell, in early June 1870. 

Cynthia Parker (page 124) - a woman who had been kidnapped around age nine by a Comanche band during the Fort Parker massacre in 1836, where several of her relatives were killed. She was taken with several of her family members, including her younger brother John Richard Parker. Parker was taken into the tribe, eventually having three children with a chief. Twenty-four years later she was relocated and taken captive by Texas Rangers, aged approximately 33, and unwillingly forced to separate from her sons and conform to European-American society.

Temple Friend (page 124) - Lee Temple Friend was kidnapped during what became know as the Legion Valley Massacre in Llano, Texas when he was just eight years old. He was returned to his parents in El Dorado, Kansas when he was twelve, but he did not readapt well and he died in their care a few years later.

galluses (page 132) - During the nineteenth century, suspenders were sometimes called galluses.

Lola Montez (page 138) - an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria 

Isn't it crazy how people can be an household name and then within 150 years, no one has ever heard of them?!

Hat mentions (why hats?):
held their hats (page 2, 90)
lifted his hat (page 4)
took off his hat (page 6, 100, 165, 182, 185, 204)
It was black, like his frock coat and vest and his trousers and his hat and his blunt boots. (page 10)
traveling hat (page 15, 134)
good black hat (page 15, 74)
hat can (page 15)
shadow of their hats (page 29)
old field hat (page 32, 51, 157)
tossed their heads and their hats (page 33)
He put his hat over his face (page 39)
settled his hat more firmly (page 42)
blew off people's hats (page 48)
grasping his hat brim (page 50)
walked by with his hat (page 53)
silk hat (page 61)
lifted his hat (page 70, 134 x 2, 139)
pancake hat(s) (page 90, 156)
put on his hat (page 91)
put on his own hat (page 92)
touch(ed) his hat (page 93, 161x2, 162)
removed his hat (page 93)
crown of a hat (page 107)
under his hat (page 107)
jerked off his hat (page 117)
shabby hats (page 126)
wavy brim of his old hat (page 127)
hat with a very tall crown (page 130)
straw hats (page 132)
hat brim (page 148)
broad-brimmed hats (page 159)
sat his hat lower (page 162)
none of their hats seemed to fit (page 165)
replaced his hat (page 166)
lifted their hats (page 200)
his hat shading his face (page 203)
his hat between her two hands (page 206)
Heah is you hat. (page 206)

****************

Do you regularly read westerns? Do you have a favorite? 

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

I have no idea how I started reading An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, but I'm pretty sure that I didn't know when I downloaded the audiobook read by Grover Gardner that it was more than 38 hours long. But, hey, if you're trying to read big books, I guess 38 hours is what you get. 

This book is insane. It's as if the author had no idea what genre he wanted to write in, so he wrote in all of them.

Clyde Griffiths grows up poor in Kansas City as the son of religious fanatics. He takes a job as a bellboy at a fancy hotel and is introduced to girls, drinking, and gambling. After a terrible accident in which a young girl dies, Clyde runs away to Chicago. While working as a bellhop there, he meets his father's brother who is a wealthy owner of a factory in Lycurgus, New York. His uncle offers him a job and Clyde is off to Lycurgus.

Clyde is not supposed to date any young women at the factory, but he gets involved with a woman named Roberta anyway. He also starts seeing a wealthy socialite named Sondra. Roberta gets pregnant, Clyde plots her murder so he can live a foot loose and fancy free life with Sondra and when Roberta drowns, Clyde is arrested and tried for her murder. 

YOU GUYS. What is this? Is it a coming-of-age novel? A murder mystery?  A romance novel with a love triangle? A character study of man going insane? Is it a legal thriller? 

I don't know what it is because I just referred to it as the toxic masculinity book that criticizes capitalism. I didn't love this book, but I was riveted by what would happen in the next chapter. What else could Dreiser possibly find to write about. 

Apparently this book was based on true events. According to Wikipedia:

Dreiser based the book on a notorious criminal case. On July 11, 1906, resort owners found an overturned boat and the body of Grace Brown at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Chester Gillette was put on trial, and convicted of killing Brown, though he claimed that her death was a suicide. Gillette was executed by electric chair on March 30, 1908. The murder trial drew international attention when Brown's love letters to Gillette were read in court. Dreiser saved newspaper clippings about the case for several years before writing his novel, during which he studied the case closely. He based Clyde Griffiths on Chester Gillette, deliberately giving him the same initials.

I don't know. I don't think I'd recommend it, to be honest. 3/5 stars

*****************

While I listened to the audiobook, the page numbers will be from this version on the Internet Archive. 

Lines of note:

And immediately after breakfast joining a long procession that day after day at this hour made for the mills across the river. For just outside her own door she invariably met with a company of factory girls and women, boys and men, of the same relative ages, to say nothing of many old and weary-looking women who looked more like wraiths than human beings, who had issued from the various streets and houses of this vicinity.  (page 258)

Pre-COVID cities were like this, right? Just long lines of people heading it to work. I liked the imagery. 

But if she questioned him in regard to these things now, would he not get angry and lie to her still more? For after all she could not help thinking that apart from his love for her she had no real claim on him. But she could not possibly imagine that he could change so quickly. (page 389)

Oh, so much symbolism in this passage! Also, isn't it interesting how quickly you can change from love to hate (or disinterest in this case). 

Things I looked up:

orchestrelle (multiple times on pages 292 and 293) -  A type of mechanical organ, specifically a player organ, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed to imitate the sound of an orchestra through the use of paper music rolls and a system of reeds and bellows

tergiversation (page 480) - the act of evading a clear or direct answer or position, often through ambiguity or deception

Hat mentions (why hats?): I counted 137 hats in this book! Hats were a main plot point. That's 50 more hats than in Gone With the Wind. I'll only give you multiples. 

felt hat (page 15, 87, 201, 298, 597, 871)

hat and coat (page 220, 232, 266, 523, 538, 586, 588 x 2, 589)

small brown hat (page 265, 510)

the same little round brown hat (page 277)

coat and hat (page 281, 538 x 2)

To match this pleasing little costume, she planned to add a chic little gray silk hat — poke-shaped, with pink or scarlet cherries nestled up under the trim, together with a neat little blue serge traveling suit, which, with brown shoes and a brown hat, would make her as smart as any bride. (page 468)

straw hat (page 475, 498, 511, 512 x 2, 515, 519 x 2, 533, 538 x 2, 539, 544, 545, 550, 552, 575, 588, 589 x 2, 590, 614 x 4, 615 x 6, 618, 630 x 2, 666, 697, 705, 706, 754, 778)

two hats (page 630 x 2, 633, 635, 645, 651, 652, 656, 666, 695, 746)

*****************

Have you ever read An American Tragedy? Watched the movie A Place in the Sun starring starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters that is based on it? 

Kate & Frida by Kim Fay

I adored Love & Saffron from Kim Fay, so when I saw she had a new book out, Kate & Frida, I immediately ordered it. 

As in Love & Saffron, this is an epistolary novel. Frida Rodriguez is an aspiring war journalist living in Paris in the 1990s. She writes to a Seattle bookstore hoping to find a book and begins a correspondence with Kate Fair, a bookseller with ambitions to become an author. What follows is a peek into their developing friendship, a reminder of just how awful even what I think of as the pleasant Bill Clinton 1990s was, and a lot of book talk.

There are some mean criticisms of this book on Goodreads. But I loved it. There are some hard bits - one of the characters is a war journalist - but since I'm in my leaning into cozy fiction phase of my reading life, I have to say that this book checked all the boxes for me. The characters were believable and showed growth, the historical references (when I had to write "historical fiction" under the category for this book on my spreadsheet, I almost wept since the 1990s hardly seems like "history," but here we are) made sense based on our characters, and there is a callback to Love & Saffron, which tickled me. 4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Friends from school say I should do TV news because I have such a big personality but I think it's the words that will last. (page 13)

I think this is true. We don't really know who Shakespeare was, let alone what he looked or sounded like, but we do know the words. 

...there's an essence of the era of fountain pens about him. (page 57)

This made me laugh and read it out loud to my husband. Dr. BB definitely has the era of fountain pens about him. 

He thinks so much more than the average human being. I'm pretty much an average human being. (page 70)

This! This is my whole life. 

"...there's no shame in walking away from a war. There is more than one way to make a difference in the world." (page 129)

I thought this was powerful. We all do what we can do in this world. 

Sometimes I look up from a book a hours have passed, and I haven't thought about Bumpa once. He can't escape his situation. Am I a terrible person for escaping? (page 137)

This hit too hard for me right now. 

We owe it to people who are suffering to savor everything good and beautiful we have in our lives. Not that we should deny bad things or turn our backs on them. But if suffering is contagious, then why isn't joy? Which virus do we want to spread? We don't help someone who's miserable by being miserable - we only add to the world's misery. (page184)

Maybe this is too preachy? But maybe I needed to hear it. 

Things I looked up:

Martha Gellhorn (page 3) - Hemingway's third wife and an author in her own right. 

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (page 3) - a 1987 Booker Prize winning novel which spans the time before, during and after World War II

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (page 19) - Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia is a travel book written by Dame Rebecca West, published in 1941 in two volumes. The book is over 1,100 pages in modern editions and gives an account of Balkan history and ethnography during West's six-week trip to Yugoslavia in 1937.

aebleskiver (page 30) - spherical Danish snacks made from fried batter

Pinky Tuscadero (page 50) - the name of the character on Happy Days who was Fonz's girlfriend

Czeslaw Milosz (page 75) - a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. He primarily wrote his poetry in Polish. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. 

Zabranjeno Pusenje (page 116) - a Bosnian rock band formed in Sarajevo in 1980. The group's musical style primarily consists of a distinctive garage rock sound with folk influences, often featuring innovative production and complex storytelling.

Nasiha Kapidzic- Hadzic (page 116) - a Bosnian children's author and poet. Her first children's book, Maskenbal u šumi, was published in 1962. She has won awards for her works, and after death her house was declared a national monument, she was memorialized as a stamp. 

The Shipping News (page 187) - a 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by American author E. Annie Proulx  

Melanie Rae Thon (page 207) - an American fiction writer known for work that moves beyond and between genres, exploring diversity, permeability, and interdependence from a multitude of human and more-than-human perspectives

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

I pretended to tip a hat...(page 43)

We saw the Tiny Hat Orchestra at the Backstage after dinner one night...(page 61)

****************

What are your feelings on epistolary novels? Do you have fond memories of the 1990s or are you happy to be in 2025? 

The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray

The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray was our book club pick for April. In this book, we follow three timelines of women who lived at Chateau Lafayette - during the French Revolution and both World Wars. 

Look, this was long (565 pages!) and I did not care for it. The three voices were basically indistinguishable from one another. Because of the alternating storylines, as soon as you got into the groove, you'd switch time periods. I did learn a lot about the French Revolution, which was interesting, I guess.

Book club take was similar. The other people there listened on audio, which actually helped because each POV had a different narrator. One person actually started listening to one timeline at a time and then switched to the other timeline so there were fewer jumps from one storyline to another which I thought was a super genius idea. 

2.5/5 stars - I would have DNFed this if it had not been for book club

Lines of note:

"There are millions dying - if we stopped to grieve, we should never stop." (page 352)

"After Bastille Day, you wanted to tell me what life is. Well, let me tell you. It's hard. We lose people we love. Our dreams fall to shit. Then we die. It happens to everyone. But at least we can go down fighting." (page 503)

Things I looked up:

Maginot Line (page 14) - named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Nazi Germany and force them to move around the fortifications

Beast of Gévaudan (page 36) - the historic name associated with a man-eating animal or animals that terrorized the former province of Gévaudan (consisting of the modern-day department of Lozère and part of Haute-Loire), in the Margeride Mountains of south-central France between 1764 and 1767

corvée (page 97) - a form of unpaid forced labor that is intermittent in nature, lasting for limited periods of time, typically only a certain number of days' work each year

tympanum (page 209) - is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, door or window, which is bounded by a lintel and an arch

Riom Trial (page 263 and elsewhere) - an attempt by the Vichy France regime, headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, to prove that the leaders of the French Third Republic (1870–1940) had been responsible for France's defeat by Germany in 1940

Gurkha (page 325) - soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of North India

sepoy (page 325) -  term denoting professional Indian infantryman

Hat mentions (why hats?): 45 hats in this book! I'll just share with you the repeats. 

new hat (page 45, 80, 82, 165, 231, 355, 542)

my hat (page 83, 250, 374, 396, 397, x2 on page 398)

big hats (x2 on page 115)

Straw Hat Trimmers' Union (x2 on page 449)

Here Be Dragons (Welsh Princes #1) by Sharon Kay Penman

I have no idea how I heard about this book. I think it was a podcast? But I can't figure out what podcast it was. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I thought this book was about the War of the Roses, but with dragons? I mean, I was WRONG, but I think that's what I thought. Here Be Dragons is the first in Sharon Kay Penman's Welsh Princes trilogy. There are no dragons here. This is straight historical fiction. 

Wales is a divided country in the thirteenth century. And there's the pesky English king always trying to garner territory for England by invading Wales. In this doorstop of a book (700 pages! tiny font!), we follow Prince Llewelyn as he forges a truce with the English king by marrying the king's illegitimate daughter Joanna. Does it take 200 pages to get to our main characters even meeting? Yes, yes, it does. Does that mean that this book had a slow start? Yes, yes, it does. Did I forgive that slow start when I had to start covering my eyes every few pages because something else terrible was going to happen? Yes, yes, I did. 

I don't know if I can recommend this book wholeheartedly because it does take 200 pages before the real action starts. BUT! If you like Ken Follett and his world of historical fiction that reads like a soap opera, I think you'll find this scratches the same itch. I was so invested in Llewelyn and Joanna and I was so upset when they started to get old because I KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.

Reader, I might read the other books in the trilogy. Even though they are also both over 500 pages long.  4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Llewelyn followed Joanna to the window, where the light was better. Although his outdoor sight was still eagle-keen, as he moved into his late forties he was becomingly increasingly farsighted. Knowing that, and knowing, too, that he was somewhat sensitive about it, Joanna elected to read Isabelle's letter aloud. (page 529)

I feel personally attacked about my eyesight. 

"Fretting about time's passing will now slow it down one whit." (page 689)

Right. I must remind myself that growing old is a privilege. 

Things I looked up:

corrody (page 86) - a lifetime allowance of food and clothing, and often shelter and care, granted by an abbey, monastery, or other religious house. While rarely granted in the modern era, corrodies were common in the Middle Ages

plight troth (page 120 and elsewhere) - to make a promise of marriage

alaunt hound (page 214 and elsewhere) - an extinct type of dog which came in different forms with the original possibly having existed in North Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe from ancient times. This type of dog may have been developed by the Alans, and was renowned primarily for its quality as a large-game catch dog, and as a war dog and guard dog. 

distraint (page 451) - the seizure of someone's property to obtain payment of rent or other money owed, especially in common law countries

suzeraity (page 476) - includes the rights and obligations of a person, state, or other polity which controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state but allows the tributary state internal autonomy

lazar house (page 572) - leper colony

malmsey (page 644) - type of wine

Hat mentions:

None

Dragon mentions (I remained convinced until roughly page 500 that dragons would suddenly appear):

The pages were bringing in the subtlety, a spun-sugar creation sculptured to resemble a flame-breathing dragon. (page 374)

"Are there dragons in England, then?"
So it was not elephants at all; it was England. "There have been reports of English dragons, but I've never met anyone who actually saw one, Davydd," (page 473)

As a point of interest, the title of this book has its roots in the common practice of medieval cartographers; when a mapmaker had drawn upon all of his geographical knowledge, he would neatly letter across the void beyond: Here be dragons. I found the symbolism hard to resist, given how very little the English of the thirteenth century knew of Wales and the Welsh. Then, too, the national emblem of Wales is a winged red dragon, much like those heraldic dragons once emblazoned upon the banners of her princes. (page 704)

*****************

Would you read an entire trilogy about wars in Wales a thousand years ago? 

Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom

I read Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom mostly based on Birchie's recommendation. 

In 1872, sixteen-year-old Goes First, a Crow girl, marries a white fur trader named Abe Farwell after her Crow betrothed is killed during a hunt. Their marriage is mostly happy, with Abe appreciating his wife's ability to live on the land, hunt, and be a cool cucumber in trade negotiations. He renames her Mary and they travel doing trading things. Abe's goal is to have a ranch and he's trading during boom times to earn that money.  And this is their story. It's filled with battles and bravery and lots of drunk people and descriptions of really disgusting sounding food.

I was riveted by this book. What was going to happen next? Where were they going to go? How many times would someone take off their hat to wipe their brow? Would there be more justice in Canada than in the United States?

This story is based on true events and I was super interested in the author's note about how she was uncomfortable writing this book as a white woman, but how she really embedded herself in the research. I was happy to read about how she had reached out to the family of the real Goes First, as well as other indigenous experts and leaders. Thumbs up to this page turner. 

Line of note:
"Oh, Goes First," she said, "men are all the same. Tell them every day that they are the biggest and strongest and best provider, and they will seldom come home with a second wife." (page 61)

I have started telling my husband he is the biggest, strongest, and best provider. He told me that it doesn't come off as very sincere and that he would not bring his second wife home anyway.

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

44 hats! It's no Gone With the Wind, but it's a lot of hats. Here are the repeaters.

leather hat (page 49, 72, 205)

removed his hat (page 56, 131, 182, 200)

black hat (page 110, 337)

Strikes the Hat - the name of a character (page 264 x 2, 265 x 4, 266 x1, 290 x2, 292)

****************

How would you feel about someone bringing home a second spouse? Honestly, if she wasn't a pill, I might like the help! Does she have dog and/or cat training experience?

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Part III of the review)

 Part I here and Part II here. 

Okay, so let's get real about some of the criticisms of the book. I've tried to remain mostly spoiler free in these reviews. but I'm going to talk about plot points in this post. 

There are a number of legitimate criticisms of the book. The first is obviously its portrayal of black people, frequently describing them as non-human, stupid, or incapable. There are lines in the book about how all the slaves at Tara (Scarlett's family plantation) and Twelve Oakes (Ashley's family plantation) were happy. The use of the n-word abounds. The treatment of Prissy and Mammy, even after they were freed, is abhorrent. 

I think this is all fair criticism. I also think it's an important artifact of its time. I am not dismissing the racism of the book. This was how Mitchell was writing about the 1860s in the 1930s. The novel is Scarlett's perspective and Scarlett is a very imperfect character and only really concerned herself with things for her own comfort and perspective. To her, all the stereotypes of black people may have seemed true, although how she could think black people were stupid when Mammy was in her life is puzzling. But that's the point, isn't it? Scarlett is not reflective about other people at all. She even admits in the end chapters that she never understood Rhett or Ashley. If she never stopped to really think about the most important men in her life, why would she bother to think about things like slavery? Scarlett literally thought the Civil War was not a big deal at the beginning of the novel. 

So, yes, there's racism. I think it's important to read books that show us that side of American history. It's important to hear and see it and think about how things are different and how things are the same. If you are a sensitive reader, this might not be the book for you. 

Another big criticism is the glorification of white supremacy and the romanticism of the Confederacy. It's not a Confederate soldier who nearly rapes Scarlett - it's a Yankee. It's not the Confederate soldiers who use Tara as a way station after the war that causes such money issues for Scarlett - it's the Yankees. The Confederates may have lost the war, but they were in the right.

In the context of the book, though, of course that's what Scarlett thought. She doesn't read books, she doesn't care about current events, and she's solely influenced by the people around her. If they all think this, why wouldn't she? Why would anyone expect any different? Also, as J pointed out in a comment on this post, Scarlett sees through some of it. She thinks the war is wrong, people are dying for principles, and that the cause is not worth the effects of the war on everyone from soldiers to civilians. 

For people who say this is Confederate propaganda, I have to say that they must be reading a different book than I am. It actually seems like an anti-war book to me full stop. There is definitely a feeling of romanticizing the plantation life in the antebellum period, particularly early on in the novel, but if you read the entire book and still feel that way, that says more about you and your own values than it does about the words in the book, full of descriptions of the terrible impacts of war on soldiers and civilians alike, property destruction, and ruin of community and that's before you get into the chaos and fear of the post-war period. 

Okay, let's move on to the Ku Klux Klan. Scarlett is vehemently against the organization because she thinks it's unnecessarily dangerous. She thinks that KKK members are fools. Her second husband kept his membership a secret from her (as did Melanie, Ashley, and India) because he knew she wouldn't approve. I actually read the book as vehemently anti-KKK and was surprised to see that  a criticism of the book was that it supported the KKK. Sure, Scarlett wasn't against it because she cared about black people, but she wasn't for it. I actually think it's to the book's credit that it addressed the KKK in this way. It would have read like Mitchell was nervous to address it head on if she'd left it out.

Yes, Mitchell was writing to encourage people to feel sympathy for the Confederacy. That still has impacts today. But if you read the book, as a truly thinking person, while you may feel badly for some of the characters, they're also all pretty terrible, so I didn't feel terrible for any of them. *shrug* Your mileage may vary on that. 

I feel a bit that I am going to come off as a Confederate sympathizer with this review. I am not. I don't actually think the book makes it seem like the Confederates were the good guys. I think a lot of the strongest defenders of slavery come from characters were are absolute idiots - in Chapter 57, Scarlett and Ashley have a quarrel over using convict labor at the sawmill and this happens:

“I’m not afraid of what people say as long as I am right. And I have never felt that convict labor was right.” [This is Ashley.]
“But why — ”  [This is Scarlett.]
“I can’t make money from the enforced labor and misery of others.”
“But you owned slaves!”
“They weren’t miserable..."

Scarlett is a selfish insufferable human who thinks using convict labor is better than using freed slaves for stereotypical reasons and Ashley says his slaves weren't miserable. But Ashley's an idiot. He is a member of the KKK. I don't actually read this passage as saying slavery was good. *shrug* It's all in your lens, I guess. (I do read it as convict labor is okay, which is wrong on another level, but Scarlett is portrayed as willing to do just about anything to make money, so I take that with a grain of salt.)

Let's talk about Margaret Mitchell. She was born in 1900, decades after the end of the Civil War. She was a journalist and Gone with the Wind is her one and only novel. Imagine writing ONE book and it's THIS ONE. Her grandfathers were both in the Confederate Army and didn't learn that the Confederates didn't win the Civil War until she was ten. She heard stories about the Civil War from family members growing up. One of her mentors was Thomas Dixon, Jr., a charming (/s) man who supported eugenics and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. I've no doubt that Margaret Mitchell would not be a good hang and that she did intend for this book to be read as indeed romanticizing the Confederate cause. But the author's intention is not always how the reader interprets and that's the case for me while I was reading this book. 

Anyway. This book is a masterpiece. It raises so many interesting questions (most especially how does Mitchell write characters who are so terrible and yet so compelling) on so many topics and I find it remarkable, especially considering that it was a debut novel. Feel free to come at me in the comments. What do I have wrong here?