The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic by Hazel Gaynor

The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic by Hazel Gaynor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description: Inspired by true events surrounding a group of Irish emigrants who sailed on the maiden voyage of R.M.S Titanic, The Girl Who Came Home is a story of enduring love and forgiveness, spanning seventy years. It is also the story of the world’s most famous ship, whose tragic legacy continues to captivate our hearts and imaginations one hundred years after she sank to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean with such a devastating loss of life. 

In a rural Irish village in April 1912, seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy is anxious about the trip to America. While the thirteen others she will travel with from her Parish anticipate a life of prosperity and opportunity - including her strict Aunt Kathleen who will be her chaperon for the journey - Maggie is distraught to be leaving Séamus, the man she loves with all her heart. As the carts rumble out of the village, she clutches a packet of love letters in her coat pocket and hopes that Séamus will be able to join her in America soon. 

In Southampton, England, Harry Walsh boards Titanic as a Third Class Steward, excited to be working on this magnificent ship. After the final embarkation stop in Ireland, Titanic steams across the Atlantic Ocean. Harry befriends Maggie and her friends from the Irish group; their spirits are high and life on board is much grander than any of them could have ever imagined. Being friendly with Harold Bride, one of the Marconi radio operators, Harry offers to help Maggie send a telegram home to Séamus. But on the evening of April 14th, when Titanic hits an iceberg, Maggie’s message is only partly transmitted, leaving Séamus confused by what he reads. 

As the full scale of the disaster unfolds, luck and love will decide the fate of the Irish emigrants and those whose lives they have touched on board the ship. In unimaginable circumstances, Maggie survives, arriving three days later in New York on the rescue ship Carpathia. She has only the nightdress she is wearing, a small case and a borrowed coat, to her name. She doesn’t speak of Titanic again for seventy years.

In Chicago, 1982, twenty-one year old Grace Butler is stunned to learn that her Great Nana Maggie sailed on Titanic and sets out to write Maggie's story as a way to resurrect her journalism career. When it is published, Grace receives a surprising phone call, starting a chain of events which will reveal the whereabouts of Maggie’s missing love letters and the fate of those she sailed with seventy years ago. But it isn't until a final journey back to Ireland that the full extent of Titanic’s secrets are revealed and Maggie is able to finally make peace with her past.

My thoughts: The tragedy of the Titanic continues to intrigue 100 years after the tragedy. Since I read A Night to Remember and the book by Robert Ballard, the scientist who led the expedition that ultimately found the remnants of the Titanic (two miles from the surface of the ocean), along with seeing the movie with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DeCaprio, my understanding of the events are well enough established. In some ways, it is a retelling of the Titanic movie. A lot of descriptions of the size, luxury, detail, and dissonance in class. In other ways, it offered some new perspectives.

The book is loosely based on a real village in Ireland that lost 11 out of 14 from the ship - a huge loss for such a small village. Some of the experiences are also based on these people's lives. Although historically correct, some of them felt forced. The story didn't flow as easily. It was also somewhat repetitive as the story played out then was repeated in a conversation a few pages later. That's a personal writing style and is not wrong, by any means, I just found I could skim that part without missing anything.

What the story provided that was new and interesting was the AFTER. Most of the books and movies about the Titanic focus on the events leading up to the sinking. The author does a wonderful job of describing the experience of being on the life boat, suffering hypothermia, going into shock with hypothermia and shock from losing loved ones and watching the ship sink, waiting 8 hours for the Carpathia, some falling into unconsciousness or semi-unconsciousness, the rescue, the wait, the hospital stays, the mood at the harbor in New York, etc. It is a much more comprehensive picture of what happened AFTER.

Overall, a good read.

The Divorce Papers: A Novel by Susan Rieger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description: Witty and wonderful, sparkling and sophisticated, this debut romantic comedy brilliantly tells the story of one very messy, very high-profile divorce, and the endearingly cynical young lawyer dragooned into handling it.
 
Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away, Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm’s most important client. After eighteen years of marriage, Mayflower descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant, Golightly’s. She is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane—and she also burns to take him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she’s never handled a divorce case before, but Mia can’t be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It’s her first divorce, too.

Debut novelist Susan Rieger doesn’t leave a word out of place in this hilarious and expertly crafted debut that shines with the power and pleasure of storytelling. Told through personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, and legal papers, this playful reinvention of the epistolary form races along with humor and heartache, exploring the complicated family dynamic that results when marriage fails. For Sophie, the whole affair sparks a hard look at her own relationships—not only with her parents, but with colleagues, friends, lovers, and most importantly, herself. Much like Where’d You Go, Bernadette, The Divorce Papers will have you laughing aloud and thanking the literature gods for this incredible, fresh new voice in fiction.

My thoughts: This book is marketed as humorous and romantic. There was some of that but not much. The truth is that literary and movie references were distracting as we're the side stories of Sophie's personal love life. What I found of most value in this book is the main story which could have been aptly named "The Anatomy if a Divorce." Sophie is rooted into a divorce case which causes bad blood within the firm. The details of the political landscape added to the meat of the story.

The real story is the divorce itself and the rules of how letters treat other lawyers. It's a divorces and the couple live in a no fault state which is explained. The book breaks the intricacies of a divorce down into terms that can be understood and I will never look at the process the same. It's not cut and dried. Even if he is guilty of infidelity or she is, it's still a process.

The reader is spared the details of a custody battle, for the most part. Much too often a couple uses their children as leverage to gain more money because that's what it all comes down to. There is still the give and take off terms of child support which gives the reader a glimpse of the legal ramifications and the games lawyers play, but it could have been worse. The child does suffer, even if the split is amicable.

This should be required reading for anybody contemplating a divorce. I thought it was a well portrayed anatomy of how a divorced works.

Power to Become by David Bednar

Power to Become by David A. Bednar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the third book in a series of books exploring the Savior's Atonement and how we apply it to ourselves. The first book was LEARNING. The second was ACTING. The third is BECOMING. It is not enough to merely believe or act but by being actively engaged in becoming perfected and becoming God's sons and daughters, it becomes an intrinsic part of who we are.

This is not a nice little book with pat platitudes that make us feel more spiritual. This is a book that the reader can fully engage. Purposely written with wide margins for personal notes, the author and publisher collaborated on a new format for delving deeper. At the end of every chapter are questions to explore and plenty of space to write thoughts and impressions. Additionally, the reader can scan the QR code or type in a web address that directs the reader to the publisher's site and watch videos that Elder Bednar and his wife discuss with a group these pertinent ideas.

My favorite chapter gave me a promise of personal peace. Drawing on scriptures, conference talks, and other discourses, Elder Bednar gently led me to a convincing stance that I can, through my Savior, enjoy the blessing of personal peace as I walk on the path of "becoming."

When choosing to study this book, prepare for a journey. Prepare for the incremental steps of becoming.

View all my reviews

Power to Become by David A. Bednar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the third book in a series of books exploring the Savior's Atonement and how we apply it to ourselves. The first book was LEARNING. The second was ACTING. The third is BECOMING. It is not enough to merely believe or act but by being actively engaged in becoming perfected and becoming God's sons and daughters, it becomes an intrinsic part of who we are.

This is not a nice little book with pat platitudes that make us feel more spiritual. This is a book that the reader can fully engage. Purposely written with wide margins for personal notes, the author and publisher collaborated on a new format for delving deeper. At the end of every chapter are questions to explore and plenty of space to write thoughts and impressions. Additionally, the reader can scan the QR code or type in a web address that directs the reader to the publisher's site and watch videos that Elder Bednar and his wife discuss with a group these pertinent ideas.

My favorite chapter gave me a promise of personal peace. Drawing on scriptures, conference talks, and other discourses, Elder Bednar gently led me to a convincing stance that I can, through my Savior, enjoy the blessing of personal peace as I walk on the path of "becoming."

When choosing to study this book, prepare for a journey. Prepare for the incremental steps of becoming.

View all my reviews

The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Two sisters, Jazz and Olivia, barely out of childhood are dealing with the aftermath of their mother's death. Jazz is the older of the two. She wants to be strong, contrary, and reasonable. Hope is a word that does not exist in her vocabulary. She is pragmatic to the point of cynicism. She refuses to experience emotion. It serves no purpose. Neither do dreams, for that matter. So when her sister, Olivia, begins to walk to a place where she believes she will find the answers to her mother's afflictions and the ending to her mother's unfinished book, Jazz is exasperated.

Olivia is a dreamer. Completely unconventional, she also suffers (?) from a neurological condition known as Synesthesia. I wish I would have known that word when I read a book by Amy Bender about sadness in a lemon cake. Olivia's wires get crossed and she experiences sensory input differently than others. Letters and numbers represent different things to her. The number 5 is wet sand. The letter A is always red. Her mother smells like sunshine. The lights in the bogs look like hope. The Moon Sisters is lush and literary, a feast for senses because of Olivia but the other characters exhibit a little bit of this imagery, as well. Just not like Olivia who kisses a boy and tastes tomorrow. Olivia's senses are also used to compensate for a new condition that leaves her legally blind because she stared at the sun and burned her retina.

Told in alternating voices of Olivia and Jazz, the girls take a small, supposed one night trip to another part of West Virginia. Interspersed between the chapters are letters that their mother had written to her own father, giving the reader a glimpse of the heartbreak she lived when her father cut her out of his life when she was 21. Also revealed within the letters are hopes and dreams she has. She is more like Olivia minus the Synesthesia and, although painted at first as probably manic depressive, she also possesses a deep love and commitment to her family.

Along the way the girls meet a few characters. Notably, a train hopper who calls himself Hobbes. Olivia sees Hobbs in a different way than Jazz, of course. Even if she had her vision completely intact, Olivia's vision is often much more clear than others. She can hear jagged holes in voices or hollowness in a word or step. She can also see hurt, love, depth in touch or any other sense. Jazz is literal. She sees a boy with tattoos all over his face and neck and immediately makes her judgment. Hobbs is as broken as the girls, perhaps more so, yet all parties gain insights and different ways to see throughout their interaction.

The last main character is Red Grass, another train hopper. He is older and always prepared. There is something about Red Grass that nobody seems to trust and the truth of him is one of the better surprises of the book.

The book is layered with symbolism and the insights gained can be likened to whichever diverse character the reader identifies most with, although each character is endearing in one way or another. Each character is dealing with deep emotion, perceptions of painful events, and figuring out how to either heal or deal.

Wonderful book that I'd suggest for a book club with the warning that there is the occasional swearing that might be offensive to some. I loved the book.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg Mckeown

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg Mckeown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is exactly what I needed to read at exactly the right moment. As I have felt my life spiralling out of control, this is the book I picked up. The author gleans from the best and most successful people and their philosophy and supports his stance that, with a proper personal mission statement, SMART goals, and a willingness to simplify and change our perspective, we can prioritize and live, work, play a more meaningful life. His philosophy is one that supports greater joy with family, less clutter and better use of time in all aspects.

My favorite and most meaningful truism that I gained is that if we don't clearly make boundaries, someone else will make them for us. He gave the example of an executive who was asked to come on a Saturday for a meeting. He told his supervisor he would not come since that is his designated family day. The supervisor returned after discussing it with the other peers who agreed to come instead on Sunday. This executive felt the pressure to conform yet again declined by explaining that Sunday was his day to worship God. He gained respect for his personal time and values. Although not expressly stated, I discovered that when I have not set clear boundaries and give the extra mile consistently, I've set the norm. Boundaries, purpose and goals are essential to a fulfilling life in every aspect.

This book encompasses all that is taught in books by successful leaders like Stephen Covey, Clay Christensen, Henry Eyering, to name a few. It was what I needed.

Panic by Lauren Oliver

Panic by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description: Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

My thoughts: Panic is a game played by the graduated seniors. It's a dangerous game but the winner wins big bucks. Apparently, there are side bets and payouts to gamblers and the judges. The players are challenged to complete tasks that are semi-controlled by the judges but the outcome is always uncertain. Oh. And the judges are not known by anybody but each other.

I didn't see the similarity to Hunger Games. It didn't even occur to me until after I had read the book then read some of the reviews. Attrition by death is not the objective. Actually, death is not supposed to happen although the challenges are pretty dangerous and death is a likely outcome.

Those who participate, choose to do so. Each participant has a different reason for being part of Panic. There is also a couple of side stories that are interesting and add depth to the story itself. A little love story or two. Language is not excessive but "f" bombs are included. Friendships spring up and Heather has some unexpected turns of events that change her outcome.

I liked it better than any of the other books I've read by this author. As an added bonus, it is a book that stands alone. No series or trilogy. Yay!

The Enchanted: A NovelThe Enchanted: A Novel by Rene Denfeld

The Enchanted: A Novel by Rene Denfeld

A wondrous and redemptive debut novel, set in a stark world where evil and magic coincide, The Enchanted combines the empathy and lyricism of Alice Sebold with the dark, imaginative power of Stephen King.

"This is an enchanted place. Others don't see it, but I do."

The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries magical visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs, with the devastating violence of prison life.

Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest, and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners' pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honor and corruption-ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own.

Beautiful and transcendent, The Enchanted reminds us of how our humanity connects us all, and how beauty and love exist even amidst the most nightmarish reality.

My thoughts: I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about this book. It has been highly rated and I definitely understand the reasoning. It is flawless in prose and execution (play on words, people). I will admit that I didn't really know what it was about. Now I know yet it is so incredibly unique in not only the story and plot but also the careful telling of the story.

The book is about a prison. It is not unlike other prisons in the country, although I don't know where the prison is located. At complete odds is the lyrical and playful prose with the stark realities of prison life. Additionally, the author easily changes between points of view. There is only one first person point of view and it is of a prisoner on death row. The added element is that he is, by all accounts, criminally insane. His survival depends on the worlds he creates inside his head. Some of it is beautiful and magical. Some of it is frightening. Some of it is simply his way to describe the irritants inside his head. Deep within the walls and floors of the prison are different creatures. The horses running cause the earth to shake and quake. This event often coincides with an execution.

There is a fallen priest who comforts and prays with the condemned man before death. There is also a lady who works for attorneys and she tries to find ways to spare the condemned execution. The warden is a man who works hard to keep the world safe by keeping in the prisoners. He also has to protect the prisoners from each other. It's a tricky balancing act. These are main characters yet nameless. They are complex, neither all good nor all bad. They have different parts to themselves they try to keep separate from their world of work.

There is a stark parallelism between two of the characters that seem to have shared very similar childhood experiences. The difference is that one of them became a cold-blooded murderer while the other did not.

Although the prose is lyrical and the world is enchanted for each of the characters in their own ways, the subject matter is stark, bleak, and difficult to read. It is a surprisingly non-depressing book yet it pulls no punches. Fine details of the baser activities of the criminals (both in and out of prison) are left alone. That is not to say those activities are not mentioned or described enough for the reader to understand.

My thoughts on the book are at odds with one another. Stark, dark, evil of prison life vs. an enchanted world created within the minds of the characters in one way or another with a writing style that almost dances through your head. About prison. I can't quite accommodate both in the same thoughts.

Hidden by Catherine McKenzie and how to read it now for FREE!

To see inside Hidden click here.

To read it before it comes out on April 1st:

HIDDEN is a Kindle First pick, which means you can read it now before its official release next month!

How? Well, if you're an Amazon Prime Member you can download HIDDEN to your Kindle (or Kindle app) at no cost for all of March if you choose it as your monthly Kindle First selection, a month earlier than its scheduled release date of April 1st. And if you're not an Amazon Prime member, you can purchase it for $1.99 if you sign up for Kindle First.

Description: When a married man suffers a sudden fatal accident, two women are shattered—his wife and someone else's—and past secrets, desires and regrets are brought to light

While walking home from work one evening, Jeff Manning is struck by a car and killed. Not one but two women fall to pieces at the news: his wife, Claire, and his co-worker Tish. Reeling from her loss, Claire must comfort her grieving son and contend with funeral arrangements, well-meaning family members and the arrival of Jeff’s estranged brother—her ex-boyfriend—Tim.

With Tish’s co-workers in the dark about her connection to Jeff outside the workplace, she volunteers to attend the funeral on the company’s behalf, but only she knows the true risk of inserting herself into the wreckage of Jeff’s life. Told through the three voices of Jeff, Tish and Claire, Hidden explores the complexity of relationships, our personal choices and the responsibilities we have to the ones we love.

“Catherine McKenzie’s latest book may be her finest. HIDDEN explores the intersecting lives of a man, his wife, and a woman who may or may not be his mistress. Imaginatively constructed, filled with nail-biting tension and gracefully written, HIDDEN is a winner.” — Sarah Pekkanen, author of These Girls and Skipping a Beat

“What I love about this deft, intimate novel is that here are no angels or demons here, just adults—husbands, wives, mothers, fathers—leading complex, messy, very human lives. They all struggle to weigh desire against obligation, what they want against what is right. I found myself in the impossible, wonderful position of rooting for all of them—and of missing them when the book was over.” — Marisa de los Santos, author of Belong to Me and Love Walked In

“Using distinct narrative voices, Catherine McKenzie has crafted a compelling novel that kept me turning pages at a breakneck speed. Heartbreakingly honest and real, Hidden is a wonderfully relatable tale.” — Tracey Garvis Graves, New York Times bestselling author of On The Island

My thoughts: I love Catherine McKenzie. I started reading her books with Spin. It was funny, intelligent, and oddly insightful. Soon I found Arranged and then Forgotten. The books were growing more complex in terms of relationships and insightfulness. If you know me, you know that I love a really good book on complex, female relationships but absolutely love an author that writes in humor that makes me laugh out loud. That is the way of Catherine McKenzie. What she may or may not know is that if we lived closer, we'd be best friends. 

An observation. Not everybody is a good writer. Not every good writer writes a good book. I'm even stunned to read emails from professionals at work with Master's degrees in education who can not write. In thinking more on that fact, I realize that my gift of writing did not come with my education in educational psychology. It came from my childhood habit of keeping a journal and writing in it all through the angst of my adolescence and beyond. Because there I could be who I truly am and I could also articulate what I couldn't articulate verbally because of a neurological stutter. So I'm not a strong public speaker so I compensate with writing. Although they make me speak publicly for work so maybe I will become stronger. *Snort* I won't.

So here's the last point I want to make on Catherine McKenzie and her talent and gift of writing. She is an extremely intelligent and educated woman who also happens to practice law. I've noticed an occasional character that has some law training in her books but this is not the emphasis. The emphasis is articulating thoughts, relationships, and feelings through her words. So. She is, most likely, a gifted public speaker as well as a writer who can take those feelings we haven't quite articulated to ourselves and turn them into something nearly tangible without comfortably choosing a lawyer niche. I find that incredibly talented.

So this book is a completely different angle than any of her other books. The story is written first person, in three different voices. Jeff continues to narrate even though he died. He tells reader of the past. He explains how he and Tish meet. How he and Tish meet again. He tells about Claire. About how he hesitated to move on expanding their relationship because she used to date her brother. Jeff gives the insights that only Jeff can give. But he doesn't reveal how important either Claire or Tish are to him. Only that they are significant to him. We are wondering until the very end (which is revealed) how important Tish was to him and whether or not he had an affair with her. 

The beauty of the story is the complexity of the characters. Tish is not a vixen. She doesn't have a horrible husband. Jeff is not looking for a relationship outside his marriage. Claire is good but she questions if she may have planted seeds of doubt in Jeff's mind. They are all very human and fragile in their states of grief and relations. The way the author phrased certain ideas and experiences were finally too much for me. I got out my yellow highlighter (I did mention that I'm an educator, didn't I?) and the last quarter of the book is now filled with yellow.

*Disclaimer* I read the Canadian version last summer. There may be changes in the text like taking out a Canadian "Aye." I can't actually remember any Canadian terms but I thought I should write a disclaimer in case I missed something.

I loved it. I love all of Catherine McKenzie's books. I'll let you know when I stop loving her books. But her style delves into the complexity of relationships that most can relate. Excellent writing style, voice, story, and general conveyance of the book.