Review: Valentine: A Novel

Valentine: A Novel by Elizabeth Wetmore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is kind of a conglomeration of short stories that are building blocks for the bigger story. A horrible crime is committed in a small, West Texas town, right on the cusp of the big oil boom. There are a number of characters that each tell a piece of the story. It begins with a 14 year old Mexican American girl as she summons her strength and courage to stand up and walk from the truck where she was assaulted for many hours while the young man was liquored up and on an amphetamine high until he passed out leaving her beaten, bleeding, partially naked, and violated.

The questions of a small town and race are at the heart of this book. Who will stand up for the under represented? Who will see them as children and equals? Who will protect the young man who just did something stupid one night? Or who will see that maybe he has this violence in him and may offend again?

The best part about this book is the writing style. It was the details that brought visual pictures to mind. The sounds of the desert or the sounds of the city, the author describes very well but not ad nauseum. Just enough that the reader perks up her other senses and feels more for the characters in the book. I will gladly read anything Elizabeth Wetmore writes.

Thank you to the publisher for an Advanced Reader's Copy in return for an honest review.

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Review: Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow. There are a lot of things going on in this book. The story is significant because one of the protagonists is living in a historical moment that is often ignored - children of the Great Depression were often put into orphanages. The book begins with Frankie, living outside of the orphange, getting ready for work, and feeling proud as she looks over at her sister's bed along with her own. An abalone shell sits nearby. The scene is described by a POV of a ghost who is about the same age as Frankie.

How does one pull together a novel that features children in an orphange, a distant father, a ghost wondering about her own existence and purpose, and fellow ghost she picks up on the way, wearing a top hat and underwear? All I can say is that the ending pulls it all together suddenly, brilliantly, and I closed the book feeling supremely satisfied.

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Review: Nothing to See Here

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good, easy read for an afternoon. Fun concept and the characters are quite enjoyable and fleshed out enough to get the humor.

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Review: Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family

Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom
My rating: 0 of 5 stars



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Review: Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family

Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Keep the tissues close. Based on the author’s accidental experience of taking over an orphanage and becoming a parent to a terminally ill child. Very well written, as usual. I loved the expressions he used to describe the maternal behaviors of his wife; how it came so naturally to her. This is the story about what he learned from Chika.

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Review: Valentine: A Novel

Valentine: A Novel by Elizabeth Wetmore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is kind of a conglomeration of short stories that are building blocks for the bigger story. A horrible crime is committed in a small, West Texas town, right on the cusp of the big oil boom. There are a number of characters that each tell a piece of the story. It begins with a 14 year old Mexican American girl as she summons her strength and courage to stand up and walk from the truck where she was assaulted for many hours while the young man was liquored up and on an amphetamine high until he passed out leaving her beaten, bleeding, partially naked, and violated.

The questions of a small town and race are at the heart of this book. Who will stand up for the under represented? Who will see them as children and equals? Who will protect the young man who just did something stupid one night? Or who will see that maybe he has this violence in him and may offend again?

The best part about this book is the writing style. It was the details that brought visual pictures to mind. The sounds of the desert or the sounds of the city, the author describes very well but not ad nauseum. Just enough that the reader perks up her other senses and feels more for the characters in the book. I will gladly read anything Elizabeth Wetmore writes.

Thank you to the publisher for an Advanced Reader's Copy in return for an honest review.

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Review: A Madness of Sunshine

A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On the rugged West Coast of New Zealand, Golden Cove is more than just a town where people live. The adults are more than neighbors; the children, more than schoolmates.

That is until one fateful summer—and several vanished bodies—shatters the trust holding Golden Cove together. All that’s left are whispers behind closed doors, broken friendships, and a silent agreement not to look back. But they can’t run from the past forever.

Eight years later, a beautiful young woman disappears without a trace, and the residents of Golden Cove wonder if their home shelters something far more dangerous than an unforgiving landscape.

It’s not long before the dark past collides with the haunting present and deadly secrets come to light.

The author is a master at describing the beautiful landscape of this New Zealand village, including a cast of characters one might find in any village with the same circumstances. The very rich and those who work hand to mouth. Sometimes they cross the lines and join together. Sometimes the suspicion falls on the "other."

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Review: Light Changes Everything

Light Changes Everything by Nancy E. Turner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just love Nancy E. Turner's writing. Her books are well written but her strength is writing a narrative with the protagonist's voice. Like her previous books, this is historical fiction that continues the story of a previous protagonist except this is her niece. I don't know how she comes up with the storylines but they are realistic and very well written.

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Review: Valentine: A Novel

Valentine: A Novel by Elizabeth Wetmore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is kind of a conglomeration of short stories that are building blocks for the bigger story. A horrible crime is committed in a small, West Texas town, right on the cusp of the big oil boom. There are a number of characters that each tell a piece of the story. It begins with a 14 year old Mexican American girl as she summons her strength and courage to stand up and walk from the truck where she was assaulted for many hours while the young man was liquored up and on an amphetamine high until he passed out leaving her beaten, bleeding, partially naked, and violated.

The questions of a small town and race are at the heart of this book. Who will stand up for the under represented? Who will see them as children and equals? Who will protect the young man who just did something stupid one night? Or who will see that maybe he has this violence in him and may offend again?

The best part about this book is the writing style. It was the details that brought visual pictures to mind. The sounds of the desert or the sounds of the city, the author describes very well but not ad nauseum. Just enough that the reader perks up her other senses and feels more for the characters in the book. I will gladly read anything Elizabeth Wetmore writes.

Thank you to the publisher for an Advanced Reader's Copy in return for an honest review.

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Review: Born Survivors

Born Survivors by Wendy Holden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is one of those books that is so meticulously researched and the detail is so realistic, it hurts to read it. I think what struck me the most about these stories and the women besides the fact that they were able to hide their pregnancies for so long, is that they were cadavarous humans we have seen with the dead eyes. Their birth stories are told in one chapter which all occurred near the very end of the war. Just to be clear, that time period was the time that the Third Reich were actively destroying all evidence of their crimes, including the prisoners they had starved, mistreated, dehydrated, and abused. The book follows a timeline for each woman that builds to the complete dehumanization of them by the time they enter Auschwitz. Each woman was greeted with the Angel of Death who asked them, "Are you pregnant?" Each woman answered that they were not.

The title of the book indicates that the babies were born but that, surprisingly, is not the take away for me. It was the complete lack of humanity they were born into. Of course, I can't discount the acts of kindness in the village that nearly made me weep, or the women prisoners that somehow fashioned a layette for one of the babies. But the nations, as a whole, turned a blind eye while the guards and SS were completely sadistic. Each of the children's births were so appalling. Unsanitary is a huge understatement. These mothers held on to the ever elusive hope of a better world for their babies. They did not give up although it would have been easier to do so. Yet that was their strength. It is also completely miraculous that they were not selected time and time again to go "left" which was always death.

Reading this book was all consuming. I can not imagine how the author did all of the research and wrote what she did. Most of all, I can not imagine what these prisoners and all of the others endured, lived and died. There really are no words to truly give this book the description it deserves.

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Review: When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back

When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back by Stephen Singular
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book tells the fascinating story of the Fundamentalist church in Southern Utah under the tyranny of Warren Jeffs. It exposes much of the secrecy of illegal behavior and corrupt powerful men. I struggled with the writing style which was choppy and inconsistent at times. Although much was accurate, as far as I knew from my limited interactions and the changes made under the different prophets (Rulon Jeffs sowed paranoia before Warren), I cringed at the opinions expressed and criticisms of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The author found multiple opportunities to point out that the Salt Lake City based mainstream Church did nothing to curb the Southern Utah church. Which is true. Yet what authority does one church hold over another? FLDS Church is like the Protestant version of the LDS Church. The Pope could not prevent King Henry VIII’s behavior once he broke with the Roman Catholic Church as he didn’t recognize the Pope’s authority. No church has the right to dictate how another church is run. If illegal activity is occurring, law enforcement and the judicial system takes action, not a church. That is the way the Constitution is written.

With the previous rant expressed, it is important to note that, as the author correctly surmises, both Utah and Arizona governments were slow to investigate and act against a community so shrouded in secrecy but especially did not want to repeat the Short Creek Raid Of ‘53 by the AZ governor. The problems with the way the community ignored the child labor laws, collected food stamps and all kinds of government funding, and whispered child brides were far overdue to be exposed and addressed. Of course, the problem arises that the town straddles two states. How do you prosecute polygamy if a man is only legally married to one wife yet “spiritually” married to 12 others? You really don’t. The same rules that caught members of the mafia apply here. You get them on tax evasion. You also get them on statutory rape. The story of how it was investigated and what lengths they went to is fascinating.

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Review: Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare

Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare by Kris Newby
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is fascinating and terrifying. I had no expectations of the book and I don’t, as far as I know, suffer from a tick-born disease. The premise of the book, told in much greater detail and with personal anecdotes as well as scientific terms, is that ticks are talented carriers of disease. Through meticulous research and hints dropped by a brilliant scientist from the Cold War, the author discovers that anthropods have been weaponized by scientifically altering the ticks and helping them carry two or three diseases, incapacitating an army or people for weeks or months. Imagine using this during WWII. Imagine fighting in Normandy where most of the German army is suffering from the affects of tick-borne illnesses; weak, foggy brained, inflamed joints and brain, gastrointestinal issues, etc.

My own rant: As a native Utahn, I have grown up in the shadow of radioactive fallout from nuclear testing in the Nevada desert. For another terrifying and fascinating read, pick up The Day We Bombed UtahDownwinders have been fighting and dying from cancer since then, at higher rates than National average. Rather than admit fault, our government tried to cover up the dangers of exposure to radioactive fallout. One government veterinarian that studied the sheep burned from the exposure was threatened by his employer the loss of his retirement if he did not claim the sheep did not die from radiation. That fact is not in the book. The veterinarian was my husband’s grandfather.

The number of tick borne diseases increased unnaturally in the 1980’s, particularly in certain geographical areas (but have since spread) much like the increase of cancers downwind from nuclear test sites. The difference, I believe, is that you can’t hide a Mushroom Cloud. The author can not prove her theory of open air tests but has compelling evidence that the scientist knew more than he was willing to share. There is a concerted effort within government agencies to deny long term tick diseases and refusal to put money into research for proper testing or treatment. Perhaps it is an effort to hide the invisible “Mushroom Cloud.” The point is that more can be done before the bodies pile up.

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Review: Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare

Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare by Kris Newby
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is fascinating and terrifying. I had no expectations of the book and I don’t, as far as I know, suffer from a tick-born disease. The premise of the book, told in much greater detail and with personal anecdotes as well as scientific terms, is that ticks are talented carriers of disease. Through meticulous research and hints dropped by a brilliant scientist from the Cold War, the author discovers that anthropodsThe Day We Bombed Utah have been weaponized by scientifically altering the ticks and helping them carry two or three diseases, incapacitating an army or people for weeks or months. Imagine using this during WWII. Imagine fighting in Normandy where most of the German army is suffering from the affects of tick-borne illnesses; weak, foggy brained, inflamed joints and brain, gastrointestinal issues, etc.

My own rant: As a native Utahn, I have grown up in the shadow of radioactive fallout from nuclear testing in the Nevada desert. For another terrifying and fascinating read, pick up The Day We Bombed UtahDownwinders have been fighting and dying from cancer since then, at higher rates than National average. Rather than admit fault, our government tried to cover up the dangers of exposure to radioactive fallout. One government veterinarian that studied the sheep burned from the exposure was threatened by his employer the loss of his retirement if he did not claim the sheep did not die from radiation. That fact is not in the book. The veterinarian was my husband’s grandfather.

The number of tick borne diseases increased unnaturally in the 1980’s, particularly in certain geographical areas (but have since spread) much like the increase of cancers downwind from nuclear test sites. The difference, I believe, is that you can’t hide a Mushroom Cloud. The author can not prove her theory of open air tests but has compelling evidence that the scientist knew more than he was willing to share. There is a concerted effort within government agencies to deny long term tick diseases and refusal to put money into research for proper testing or treatment. Perhaps it is an effort to hide the invisible “Mushroom Cloud.” The point is that more can be done before the bodies pile up.

View all my reviews