Tag: Sunday Book Review

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – An American Beauty: A Novel of the Gilded Age by Shana Abe – #historicalfiction

Published on by dgkaye51 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Book Review. Today I’m reviewing a book I enjoyed by author Shana Abe, An American Beauty: A Novel of the Gilded Age. This is the second book I’ve read from this author after reading The Second Mrs. Astor, and I’m sure it won’t be the last as Abe takes us into the story of Arabella (nee) Yarrington and her poor beginnings before being discovered by the wealthy Collis Huntington as she struggled and sacraficed on her rise to riches in the Gilded Age.

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Blurb:

“Abé is an exquisite storyteller.” —Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnolia Palace

The New York Times bestselling author of The Second Mrs. Astor returns with a spellbinding new book perfect for fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age and readers of Marie Benedict, Karen Harper, and Allison Pataki. This sweeping novel of historical fiction is inspired by the true rags-to-riches story of Arabella Huntington—a woman whose great beauty was surpassed only by her exceptional business acumen, grit, and artistic eye, and who defied the constraints of her era to become the wealthiest self-made woman in America.

1867, Richmond, Virginia: Though she wears the same low-cut purple gown that is the uniform of all the girls who work at Worsham’s gambling parlor, Arabella stands apart. It’s not merely her statuesque beauty and practiced charm. Even at seventeen, Arabella possesses an unyielding grit, and a resolve to escape her background of struggle and poverty.
 
Collis Huntington, railroad baron and self-made multimillionaire, is drawn to Arabella from their first meeting. Collis is married and thirty years her senior, yet they are well-matched in temperament, and flirtation rapidly escalates into an affair. With Collis’s help, Arabella eventually moves to New York, posing as a genteel, well-to-do Southern widow. Using Collis’s seed money and her own shrewd investing instincts, she begins to amass a fortune.
 
Their relationship is an open secret, and no one is surprised when Collis marries Arabella after his wife’s death. But “The Four Hundred”—the elite circle that includes the Astors and Vanderbilts—have their rules. Arabella must earn her place in Society—not just through her vast wealth, but with taste, style, and impeccable behavior. There are some who suspect the scandalous truth, and will blackmail her for it. And then there is another threat—an unexpected, impossible romance that will test her ambition, her loyalties, and her heart . . .
 
An American Beauty brings to vivid life the glitter and drama of a captivating chapter in history—and a remarkable woman who lived by her own rules.

“This story of one woman’s ascent offers a fascinating look at the choices she made to become a Gilded Age titan.”— Kirkus Reviews

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My 5 Star Review:

This is the second book I’ve read from Shana Abe and won’t be the last. The Second Mrs. Astor had me turning the pages, and this book written in a similar timeframe was just as engaging.

This is historical fiction at its finest. I will start by saying, I enjoyed the author’s note after the end which shares some lovely tidbits the author researched on the real Arabella and Collis Huntington and how philanthropic they both were – never forgetting their own humble beginnings. This is a grand story of Arabella (nee) Yarrington, a beautiful and clever young girl who has an incredible rags to riches story from working in a gambling parlor for slimey Johnny Worsham, to becoming a mistress to, and finally, marrying the uber wealthy railroad magnate, Collis Huntington, and becoming the richest women in the country. Collis gave her a start with her sharp business ideas, and from that Belle built her own empire, never wanting to go back from whence she came. Belle was a determined and sharp woman. And despite their initial shady introduction to one another, and the fact that Collis was married when they met, and eventually shared a child together, they managed to keep their heads high in society by staying out of gossip papers and not keeping circles with the elites of the gilded age.

Abe takes us into rich descript settings, and well painted characters which draw us into this fascinating historical transformation of one powerful young woman who will stop at nothing to secure her family and herself to change her destiny. And despite the gossip, jealousy, and snootiness of the upper class circles she’s moved up to, Belle manages to overcome whatever is thrown her way.

Arabella is a beautiful and clever seventeen year old, working as a barmaid in the parlor to support her widowed mother and four siblings in Richmond, Virginia. Collis Huntington frequents that parlor and is smitten by Arabella. They begin an affair, and Arabella learns well how she can move Collis to her wants and whims, and has him relocate herself and her family to New York City, where both Arabella and her family have their own rented mansions paid by the wealthy Huntington as Arabella (Belle) reinvents herself.

Arabella’s lifestyle and the coming and going visits by Collis cause a lot of curious gossip. She’s rising up the ranks in her position in society under the guise as ‘the widow Worsham’ so as not to be taken as a mistress riding on the coat tails of Collis Huntington. Nobody yet knows that Belle’s son is also the son of Collis, and the storyline glides nicely along as the secret is kept – until it’s not. While Belle hopes and waits for Collis to become all hers, she is faced with a nagging heart throb after meeting Collis’s nephew, Edward Huntington, who is Collis’s righthand man in his business world.

Collis and Belle share a wonderful life together and as independents from one another. Belle is a strong woman mentally, not easily offended by society, and admittedly very happy with her life. She loves Collis very much and he adores her, and Belle remained faithful to him, grateful for all he has done and given her, smart enough to know that she wouldn’t risk her happy life for fleeting romance.

This story was well researched and beautifully written with wonderful descriptions of cities and homes and decor of the era in the late 1800s. Belle’s homes in New York were neighbors to the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, et al, of the era after the Civil War and old money and real estate was ripe for those who could afford it. The Gilded Age has been mentioned as a time of the reconstruction and industrialization in America between the 1870s and 1890s, a time of great change, great successes and great losses, political corruption, and excess. No doubts the slogan ‘Keeping up with the Jones’s’ was coined back then, actually in 1913 when a comic strip became popular about the times they were living in.

I look forward to reading more from this author.

©DGKaye2024

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – Writing to be Understood: What Works and Why by Anne Janzer #nonfiction

Published on by dgkaye53 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Book Review. I’m happy to share this informative book by Anne Janzer – Writing to be Understood: What Works and Why. The book is geared toward nonfiction writers, which captured my attention. But, I will say that I’m certain it would be as beneficial to fiction writers as well.

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Blurb:

How do great nonfiction writers connect with us so strongly—and what can you learn from them to apply to your own writing?

Writing to Be Understood explores the ways powerful writers explain and inform, including analogies, imagery, humor, story, and more.

The book combines insights from cognitive science with advice from expert practitioners in the fields of psychology, technology, economics, medicine, policy, and more. Each chapter wraps up with practical advice that you can put to work, no matter what you’re writing.

You’ll learn how to:

  • Appeal to your readers’ innate sense of curiosity
  • Connect with audiences that aren’t immediately receptive to your ideas
  • Make abstract ideas understandable and memorable
  • Banish the boring from your work


Whether you’re trying to communicate expertise with a mainstream audience, pitching ideas to your team, or hoping to make an impact with a nonfiction book, dig into Writing to be Understood to reach more people with your words.

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My 5 Star Review:

I found this book had some excellent tips for writers to focus on, zeroing in on what engages a reader in an author’s writing style, how to draw in the reader and keep them engaged using cognitave empathy to grab and maintain a reader’s attention. The author shares the importance of focusing on tone and delivery of information when writing a story, not just the storyline. She goes on to say that good nonfiction reading should have the reader feeling the emotions of story, and as for self-help books or manuals, make the readers easily able to digest information instead of sounding like an instructional. She offers great tools to keep the writing lighter and interesting, with tricks about how not to bore readers, how to cater to and connect with your readers, and learn how to be able to please the majority of our readers – because, as Janzer says: there will always be some readers that can’t be pleased, by offering her methods for connecting with readers, helps to ensure most readers connect with our ’emotional components’.

The author offers snippets from other writers with tips to keep the readers reading, as one stated, we must keep the reader curious enough to continue reading without using ‘unnecessary’ vocabulary terms a reader may be unfamiliar with. Although a reader may not appreciate tedious writing, the importance of keeping readers engaged is with voice, and using analogies to activate sensory processing of emotions, especially with nonfiction readers.

You will also find a chapter about the importance of never deleting unused work or parts of a book, and what to do with those bits, for future uses. “When you’re writing nonfiction, you don’t have to mesmerize people with suspense. You might simply frame a moment, a scene, or transformation.” “People remember stories, not data.” In Part Three – How Not to be Boring, Janzer talks about tone and style – voice, style, and tone. As a conversational writer myself, I did enjoy the chapter on Conversational writing. The author broke it down nicely as to what’s involved with conversational writing, such as paragraph and sentence length, and the importance of staying away from using jargon and the importance of using personalized writing and imagery by use of figurative language, metaphors and similes, which spur a pause or curiosity from the reader. Also caveats on choice of metaphors so as not to irritate readers with a misintrepreted choice of metaphor, which may not convey the writer’s initial intention and may also distract a reader when they pause too long to think about what the writer is trying to convey. We’re advised to choose familiar images to project with our metaphors to avoid distraction as can idiomatic expressions, (natural and unscripted thoughts) which can leave a reader visualizing something more problematic.

Metaphors should support work and move the cause forward, and the importance of clarifying a metaphor the general public may not clue into. Imagery touches all the senses. But I think my favorite chapter was #13 – Credibility, Humanity, and Humility, and how Janzer goes deeper into how these three elements are important in nonfiction writing – “Humility disarms the reader and paves the way for deeper connections.” This book reinforced in me what my own readers in general, gratefully, say about my own books, my vulnerability and empathy not written as authority, but from authentic self, not self-absorbed, welcoming in the reader because something about a story made them feel connected as though I was conversing directly to them. An author’s dream audience.

A well written book by Janzer on how to write to keep the reader engaged by connecting with the reader’s brain. The author reminds that stories and anecdotes are an essential part of a nonfiction writer’s arsenal. We will also learn why repitition of key sentences are effective to instill key points that may have been skimmed over, reiterating that repitition is to be used judicially as to not sound repetitive or boring, rather by rephrasing when reiterating to fuel memory.

This book offers some great cognitive tools for a writer’s arsenal. I also found the style the information was delivered in was very engaging, as opposed to feeling more manual-like as many books on writing can appear. The description of this book mentions it talks about how nonfiction writing can connect strongly with readers; but I will say as a writer that any genre of writer can benefit from this well written and straight forward book.

©DGKaye2024

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – Cut and Thirst – #shortstory by Margaret Atwood

Published on by dgkaye63 Comments

Today’s Sunday Book Review is for a short story new release I was offered for my monthly First Reads freebie from Amazon Prime, Cut and Thirst by Margaret Atwood.

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Blurb:

Three women scheme to avenge an old friend in a darkly witty short story about loyalty, ambition, and delicious retribution by Margaret Atwood, the #1 bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Myrna, Leonie, and Chrissy meet every Thursday to sample fine cheeses, to reminisce about their former lives as professors, and lately, to muse about murder. Decades ago, a vicious cabal of male poets contrived—quite publicly and successfully—to undermine the writing career, confidence, and health of their dear friend Fern. Now, after Fern has taken a turn for the worse, her three old friends decide that it’s finally time to strike back—in secret, of course, since Fern is far too gentle to approve of a vendetta. All they need is a plan with suitably Shakespearean drama. But as sweet and satisfying as revenge can be, it’s not always so cut and dried.

My 5 Star Review:

As a fan of Atwood, I enjoy all her stories. In this book of friendships and folly, three old friends and colleagues gather for one of their weekly get-togethers complete with cheeses and gin and tonics, and the topic of conversation becomes the topic of their good friend Fern who suffered from the group of male poets who tried hard to rip her reputation as a writer to shreds some twenty years prior. The conversations mingled between the women reveal undertones of women belittled by the patriarchal society, something that was accepted commonplace before women learned to speak out.

Myrna drifts off into a diatribe explaining to her friends how lucky they were to retire as professors just in time to not be picked apart microscopically by students and peers on social media. I felt the discussions by characters were opining statements from Atwood herself.

Fern’s crime – she didn’t include a publishing colleague’s long story in her short story anthology. She also knew he would become nosey and nitpicky and try to edit his own way and Fern didn’t need the agro of dealing with him. So poor his ego that the ‘old boys club’ teamed up to try to smear Fern’s successful reputation as a romance writer. The ‘cabal’ of nine published over thirty articles in the next year, ridiculing her writing skills.

As Myrna continues her womens lib conversation, Chrissy reminds that the tactics those nine pulled in their writing, back when it happened, would not be tolerated in today’s society, the way they demeaned women in their prose of thoughts. Everyone loves a juicy scandal, and that’s what those men created about Fern, causing Fern to become insecure and fearful to publish. And fearful to answering back in retaliation for years, until she finally publishes a new book and Myrna voices concern of ‘those boys’. Fern says four have apologized since and admitted Vacher started the whole scam.

During one of their weekly get togethers, the three women talk about possible ways to avenge the five of the nine who didn’t apologize to Fern for the havoc they left on her career. They laugh and drink and as writers, begin to discuss various themes and imagined methods of murder plots for the wrongdoers – if they were to commit any.

I loved that the story took place in Toronto, and through her characters, Atwood shared many of her own thoughts of the city – especially the traffic and construction my city is famous for and the disappearing culture that was once so rich.

I also enjoyed the hilarious banter with the women when Chrissy shares what happened after wrongly targeting Stephen after going forth with her revenge plan on one of the nine. Her plan was to pay him a visit and leave him a gift of laced laxative brownies – only to discover she had chosen the wrong man to avenge, as he had already apologized and was now married. Chrissy shares in hilarity what went down with the laced brownies after discovering she shouldn’t be at Stephen’s place. So the women continue on with plan B, knowing well they cannot murder and have had enough of playing with laxatives. They decide the culprit of the clan, Vacher should definitely receive some karmic payback for orchestrating the whole Fern scandal and start with visiting some bookstores and turning the spine around on all the shelves where Vacher’s books were – except they couldn’t find any of his books, they seemed to be out of print and forgotten. Karma was already there and Fern enjoyed this news immensely.

“Cut and thirst.” “First you murder someone and then you need a drink . . .”

©DGKaye2024

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – SFV-1 – Darkness, Book 2 in the #dystopian Trilogy by Terry Tyler

Published on by dgkaye65 Comments

My Sunday Book Review today is for book 2 in Terry Tyler’s exciting dystopian series – SFV-1 Darkness. Admittedly, dystopian isn’t my go-to genre to read, yet, I’m always captivated by Terry Tyler’s books, and after reading book 1 – Infected in this series, I looked forward to reading the rest of the series (something else I don’t typically read, series). And as always, Tyler had me gripped.

Blurb:

‘This isn’t all our lives are going to be. It’s the darkness before the dawn, that’s all.’

The SFV-1 virus leaves its victims with no instinct other than the need to kill – and eat.

Nine months after this strange new disease scorched a path across the world, Norah and her friends are doing their best to survive in rural Cumbria – but another, larger group is on a mission to ‘redistribute the wealth’ by whatever means they deem necessary.

Meanwhile, new arrivals on the Scottish island of John’s Drift seem friendly enough, but Cat’s group hears warning bells from the start…

‘People react to fear in all sorts of ways; a weak individual falls in with the wrong people, and hey presto: basic human decency loses the battle against that dark side you never knew was hiding inside your head.’

Darkness is the second book in the SFV-1 series.

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My 5 Star Review:

This post-apocalyptic series is addictive reading! In this book 2, Darkness, it picks up with the main characters all in their respective hiding places as the mutating SFV-I virus is sweeping the U.K.- except, the action begins at some friends of Norah’s hideaway house when it’s attacked by rogue looters in search of food and life sustaining supplies. Erin and Martin are grilled as to where they are getting their supplies from, and with their lives threatened to tell all, the rogues devised a plan to transport them to Norah’s house where the looters have it on good authority the house is a fully stocked arsenal of food and weapons.

In Book 1, Infected, the people feared being bitten by those who were already bitten and looking for human blood. In this book, the fear remains real, the country is in darkness with no communication within or with the outside world, bitten humans are a threat to all exisiting humans, and with the added fear of the organized looters who are out to steal whatever they can to survive, there is nowhere safe for anyone, and trust has become a rare commodity. Book 1 brings on the killer virus, Book 2 is all about the fallout and survival, human instincts, all since nine months into the dystopian world of Darkness.

Ratt is the one looter gang leader who has secured a hotel hideout where he permits his looting recruits to stay – if they behave and take his orders on their looting jaunts under Ratt’s command. In their looting attacks, they look for people hiding out from the dreaded killer zombies, and demand they share their wealth of whatever they have for survival. They have no choice as it is sheer robbery and if they don’t give up the goods they will be killed.

Meanwhile it’s danger for anyone who goes out, especially to loot for survival, as the zombies are plentiful and one never knows where one may be hiding. One bite from an infected and your fate is sealed. After being bitten, the virus sets in making a person mad with hunger for human flesh, sending them in search of any human. There is no remedy for a bite, for once you’ve been bitten, there is only guarantee zombiedom, and ultimately, death.

Although the author recaps Infected, the first book in this series, I highly urge readers to read the trilogy in order. Book 1 sets the story and characters, which makes the whole series an addictive ride. Anything I’ve read by Tyler makes it a difficult book to put down. I look forward to reading Reset, the final book in this trilogy, in anticipation of how the author finds the way to the end of this apocalyptic nightmare .

©DGKaye2024

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – Lovers at the Museum: A Short Story by Isabel Allende

Published on by dgkaye77 Comments

This short book of only 25 pages was a free read offered to me from First Reads on Amazon. It’s a whimsical and bizarre love story by Isabel Allende – Lovers at the Museum: A Short Story

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Blurb:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wind Knows My Name comes a mesmerizing tale of two passionate souls who share one magical night that defies all rational explanation.

Love, be it wild or tender, often defies logic. In fact, at times, the only rationale behind the instant connection of two souls is plain magic.

Bibiña Aranda, runaway bride, wakes up in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao still wearing her wedding dress, draped in the loving arms of a naked man whose name she doesn’t know. She and the man with no clothes, Indar Zubieta, attempt to explain to the authorities how they got there. It’s a story of love at first sight and experience beyond compare, one that involves a dreamlike journey through the museum.

But the lovers’ transcendent night bears no resemblance to the crude one Detective Larramendi attempts to reconstruct. And no amount of fantastical descriptions can convince the irritated inspector of the truth.

Allende’s dreamy short story has the power to transport readers in any language, leaving them to ponder the wonders of love long after the story’s over.

My 4 Star Review:

This was a very short story of twenty-five pages. It read like a fantasy of one magical night in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain. The circumstances about how these two people who only just met, were surely fantastical because the girl, Bibina, fled her wedding ceremony. In the pouring rain, a complete stranger she made eye contact with whisks her away into the museum for shelter.

The detective who found them both passed out cold and their bodies entwined, shook them awake and questioned them as to how these people were able to get into a locked museum with high tech security systems, undetected. But when taken into the police station and questioned individually, they both described the whole event from their meeting to their instant love attraction to one another with the same details told by both of them. The whole situation is a big mystery for the detective, more concerned about how they got into the museum, while for the lovers, it was one magical night.

This whimsical story has no real beginning or ending – or conclusion; but a brief fantastical interlude of escapism for readers, magical romance for the lovers, and a great mystery to one detective.

©DGKaye2024

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – Julia’s Violinist by Anneli Purchase

Published on by dgkaye82 Comments

Today I’m reviewing a book I’ve been meaning to get to for awhile, but somehow kept getting pushed down the TBR pile – Julia’s Violinist by Anneli Purchase. This is a memoir/novel about the author’s mother’s life after WWII ends, and as a Sudeten German living in the outskirts of the northern Czech Republic border and the Czechs and Russians punishing the innocent Germans after the war ends in relatiation for Germany’s war on humanity. I found it a fascinating read as I typically read historical fiction on the topic of WWII and about how all the persecuted people survived, and not about how the Gemans who endured who were caught up in war’s aftermath.

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Blurb:

The lovely Julia has it all—a seemingly perfect life. The aftermath of WWII changes all that. Widowed and homeless, Julia and her two small children become refugees in their own land. As she tries to rebuild her life, Julia is drawn into a love triangle. New flames or old flames—both can burn and destroy.

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My 5 Star Review:

A fictionalized memoir of the author’s mother’s life in the aftermath of WWII, which left a family struggling to stay together.

In the first part of the book we are in present time – 1949 where Julia is a young widow with two daughters living on the the northern border of the Czech Republic enduring daily retaliations from Germany’s enemies in the aftermath of war. The military wants to rid the Republic of Germans, and these citizens are sent to barracks to work in forced labor to starve and be raped.

Julia, now a widow, and her two young daughters, along with her sister-in-law and parents are re-located to forced labor camp for almost a year until they are loaded onto filthy cattle wagons and transported back to a refugee place in Germany.

In part two, we are taken to the the past – early 30s when Julia met her Michael who played the violin beautifully at weekly choir practice. But, due to hardships during wartime and Michael’s obligations to run the family bakery, it left little time for the star-crossed lovers to see each other. At the same time, handsome Lukas gave Julia plenty of attention, and they eventually got married. But Michael will re-enter Julia’s life again, later in Julia’s journey.

The love stories woven through this engaging story are a mix of the historical brutality with a softening aspect of the love Julia felt for her husbands, and especially her children.

The setting takes us to different time frames – pre war, after war and wartorn life for the Sudetens after losing their homes after the war, a new marriage to Karl, and a move to Canada.The timelines jump around, but the author makes this clear through chapter headings.

Karl has had a difficult life, but is quite handy at finding odd fix-it jobs, and with already losing one wife in a childless marriage, seeks the simplicity of having a wife and children. He eventually meets Julia and becomes an important character in her life. Julia’s relationship with Karl is a comfort for her to finally make a new life, have her own roof over her head, and have more children. Julia is a soft and compassionate character, while Karl is hard-working, he’s very rough around the edges, offering Julia a more comfortable life without the real romance. In the last part of the book, it focuses on the life Julia makes with Karl, but never fulfilling the emptiness of what could have been with Michael is never far from Julia’s thoughts.

Julia remeets her heartthrob Michael. Michael has never forgotten Julia through all the years and never stopped loving her. Michael knows Julia is remarried but makes a brave stance to contact her despite. Their friendship creates a world of jealousy for Karl, and plenty of grief for Julia. I’m not going to get into spoilers here about how this love triangle will play out, but the situation makes it crystal clear how damaging unrequited love can be to the heart, and how the strongest who love deeply can keep temptation at bay, and yet, so easily cave to it at the same time – and the repercussions that follow.

I found this book an addictive read as I was immediately invested in the characters for all their strengths and weaknesses, and whatever it took to survive a horrendous war. Julia’s tender mothering and strength shone through this story despite all the horrible living conditions she endured and the uncertainty of daily living. This is a story of love and loss, compassion, survival, and one selfless, loving woman, Julia.

©DGKaye2024

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah #historical fiction

Published on by dgkaye53 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Book Review. Today I’m reviewing an engaging book by Ann Mah – Jacqueline in Paris. This book is an historical fictional story about the coming-of-age life of Jacqueline Bouvier (not yet Kennedy), and the year she took off before college, spent in post-war Paris.

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Blurb:

“Captivating…Mah channels Kennedy and brings postwar Paris to life with exquisite detail and insight.” — People

From the bestselling author of The Lost Vintage, a rare and dazzling portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier’s college year abroad in postwar Paris, an intimate and electrifying story of love and betrayal, and the coming-of-age of an American icon – before the world knew her as Jackie.

In September 1949 Jacqueline Bouvier arrives in postwar Paris to begin her junior year abroad. She’s twenty years old, socially poised but financially precarious, and all too aware of her mother’s expectations that she make a brilliant match. Before relenting to family pressure, she has one year to herself far away from sleepy Vassar College and the rigid social circles of New York, a year to explore and absorb the luminous beauty of the City of Light. Jacqueline is immediately catapulted into an intoxicating new world of champagne and châteaux, art and avant-garde theater, cafés and jazz clubs. She strikes up a romance with a talented young writer who shares her love of literature and passion for culture – even though her mother would think him most unsuitable.

But beneath the glitter and rush, France is a fragile place still haunted by the Occupation. Jacqueline lives in a rambling apartment with a widowed countess and her daughters, all of whom suffered as part of the French Resistance just a few years before. In the aftermath of World War II, Paris has become a nest of spies, and suspicion, deception, and betrayal lurk around every corner. Jacqueline is stunned to watch the rise of communism – anathema in America, but an active movement in France – never guessing she is witnessing the beginning of the political environment that will shape the rest of her life—and that of her future husband.

Evocative, sensitive, and rich in historic detail, Jacqueline in Paris portrays the origin story of an American icon. Ann Mah brilliantly imagines the intellectual and aesthetic awakening of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, and illuminates how France would prove to be her one true love, and one of the greatest influences on her life. 

My 5 Star Review:

Jacqueline Bouvier goes to Paris for a year to explore and take art history courses for a year before heading home to college, and to escape her domineering mother before she plots Jackie’s life for her. She is enamored by the City of Lights and quite happy to be staying in a war-torn large apartment with a Countess and her daughters, meeting friends in interesting circles and loving the Parisienne life, despite her realizations of the state of what the Occupation had left Paris in. She befriends many new people, both from her accommodation circles and meets up with some bougie and political people and writers, and ultimately finds a rude awakening as to the political status of France. She learns how the threat of communism is looming large in Paris, and of ‘the resistance’ working in dangerous situations to attempt to thwart the stirrings of communism.

Her innocence or perhaps, ignorance of what the war had left for many European countries is revealed when she takes some weekend jaunts with friends to other countries, such as Germany and Vienna. As she witnesses the destruction of these cities and people and concentration camps, she is stunned to her rude awakenings of war.

Jackie polishes her French in Paris while discovering that even though the war had ended four years prior, Paris was still much in a war-torn state and many people were still struggling just to eat.

Mah’s story-telling is exquisite with her rich descriptions that made me feel as though I was there with Jackie, as an honored invisible guest. This fictionalized, yet historical backdrop of France, its architecture, remnants of war – mixed politics – art history, literature, and high society living among the many who still struggled in Paris, was all encompassed in this grand descript telling by Mah. Perhaps Paris is where Jackie really belonged, studying arts and literature, happy, and without tragedy, where she could be herself and be happy.

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©DGKaye2024

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – The Rat in the Python Book 2 – Shopping and Food by Alex Craigie

Published on by dgkaye113 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Book Review. Today I’m reviewing Alex Craigie’s latest release – book 2 in her Rat in the Python series – Shopping and Food and living for baby boomers after WWII.

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Blurb:

If you haven’t heard of a liberty bodice, believe that half-a-crown is something to do with impoverished royalty and never had the experience of slapping a television to stop the grainy black and white picture from rolling, then this series might not be for you. Please give it a go, though – I’ve suspect that most of it will still resonate no matter where you were brought up!

Book 2 looks at shopping and food after the end of WWII and how they’ve changed over the decades. From farthings to Green Shield stamps; from beef dripping sandwiches to Babycham, and beyond.

The Rat in the Python is about Baby Boomers who, in the stability following the Second World War, formed a statistical bulge in the population python. It is a personal snapshot of a time that is as mystifying to my children as the Jurassic Era – and just as unrecognisable.

My intention is to nudge some long-forgotten memories to the surface, test your own recollections and provide information and statistics to put it all in context.

Are you sitting comfortably?
Then I’ll begin…

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My 5 Star Review:

Alex Craigie is taking us back to the 1950s and 60s England in this book 2 in her memoir series of her childhood growing up in a post war U.K. and sharing her recollections and facts of the times in the Boomer era U.K. about diets, food availability and scarcity, and the rise of the refrigerator, which only one third of the population had into the early 70s.

I found this book a fascinating look at the ‘food times’ of post war U.K. With still no refrigeration, microwaves, or anything of its ilk, and food rations, Brits were pretty crafty about what they would eat to get by and how meals were prepared. As the author goes through chapters about food availability, preservation, and her childhood favorites and dislikes, I found this book to be a great informational about the past told with inflections of humor and wonderful images of gadgets of the times, and it was an eye-opener to me as a Canadian child growing up in the sixties with no lack of food choices, colorful refrigerator models, and all the comforts of home while England was just catching up with the modern times as it was re-building from the aftermath of war.

This book made me think about how much we take for granted in our lives without understanding that other parts of the world weren’t as quickly advancing into modern times because of war. It also reminded me of why I thought England was never known for their great food in such an era as I visited London for the first time in the late seventies and wasn’t impressed with food choices – as a North American. But look at the U.K. now with all its famous chefs and multi-cultural food choices. Amazing catching up in the world of food.

At the end of the book, the author offers some quiz questions about foods from different parts of the world, and about foods found in children’s books from the Boomer era. This author never disappoints, whether it’s her nonfiction or gripping fictional novels, Craigie keeps us engaged. This would also be a great book for school curriculum education of the past.

©DGKaye2024