Miss Julia Stirs Up Trouble

Ross, Ann B.

Fiction

Although “everybody knows that it’s not [her] custom to meddle in other people’s business,” Miss Julia just can’t stand idly by and watch as Hazel Marie tries unsuccessfully to balance two new babies, an invalid cook and an unsavory uncle who has dropped in for what seems destined to be a permanent visit.  Unfortunately, Hazel Marie has never been a successful cook or housewife and her bursting household gradually slides into a state of utter chaos as she does her best to cope.  Miss Julia becomes concerned as she watches Hazel Marie turn into a sloppy mess who is in – as Miss Julia believes – grave danger of losing her husband, Mr. Pickens.  Determined not to let him fall back into his pre-marital ways, Miss Julia sets out to help Hazel Marie by enlisting the other ladies (and a few men) of the community to help her compile a cookbook and give cooking demonstrations to her frazzled friend.  With the help of her ever-faithful Lillian and an old country granny (as well as a little bit of snooping and prying), Miss Julia does her best to save the Pickens marriage and Hazel Marie’s sanity, but will her plan succeed?  Or will all her efforts only stir up more trouble?

Though I usually don’t like recipe-based series books like this one which are often used as filler between the regular books, the strength of this series has always been its characters and that remains true even for this book.  The spotlight of this installment falls primarily on James, Granny Wiggins, Mr. Pickens and Hazel Marie but all of the series regulars have their own moments in the limelight.  Light humor, an entertaining storyline and a few very sweet excerpts (including Mr. Pickens’ defense of Lloyd: “In fact, it’s a good thing we didn’t have a boy.  He’d never be able to measure up to the one we have”) give the book an endearing quality that negates its relative superficiality.  In summary, though it is not the best book in the series, it is a nice addition that whets this fan’s appetite for the next full novel!

Please note – the original post had an excerpt by another reviewer added to the end.  This was a mistake in formatting and I apologize to that reviewer for the accident.

A Tangled Web

Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Fiction

An old jug left in secret legacy by a mischievous and temperamental old aunt: who knew that the inheritance of such a trivial (and undeniably ugly) object could lead to such drastic repercussions!  Shattered friendships, broken hearts, rekindled romance…the Dark and Penhallow families experience them all and more when the clan matriarch, Aunt Becky, dies after her final “levee” during which she blistered each and every one of them with her tongue and started the kettle of emotions boiling with her unusual will and bequests.

Following the funeral, Big Sam and Little Sam, friends for ages, suddenly find that they cannot stand each other’s company…but can they learn to live apart?  Beautiful Gay Penhallow, whose young heart is in raptures over her recent engagement, learns the painful lesson of the meaning of true love, as does Joscelyn Dark, who has spurned her husband for ten long years in order to remain true to her heart’s desire.  Brian Dark and Margaret Penhallow, each longing desperately for love and home, finally find solace for their aching hearts just as do Peter Penhallow and Donna Dark, longtime enemies who suddenly find in each other the lover they’ve been unconsciously searching for.  In the year that follows Aunt Becky’s death, until the day her secret is finally revealed, these and many other lives will be drastically changed.  Just how much damage will the old jug do to this family and will its members survive the change?

This is a charming book set in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved Prince Edward Island.  Its colorful characters, descriptive scenery and interesting plot that employs a mixture of humor, pathos and sweet sentiment make for a comfortable read that leaves behind a pleasant sense of satisfaction at its close.  Though I would certainly recommend that readers new to L.M. Montgomery’s books read her more popular Avonlea books first, this was an enjoyable book and well worth the time spent.

 

Love in a Small Town

Matlock, Curtiss Ann

Fiction

After twenty-five years of marriage, Molly knows that she should feel closer to her husband, Tommy Lee.  They’ve shared more years together than apart, after all, and gone through all the heartaches and trials that are a part of every life.  But somehow along the way, Molly has lost her connection to her husband and, feeling as though he no longer needs or wants her, she flees to the tiny “Aunt Hestie” cottage behind her mother’s home.  There, in the circle of her sisters, Mollie begins to discover exactly who she is and to learn what she wants from life.  She can’t help but wish, though, that Tommy Lee would call her back into his home and his heart.  Has their love truly died?  Is Molly destined to follow in her mother’s divorce-strewn path?  Or can Tommy Lee and Molly learn how, once again, to hold on to each other for dear life, grasping with all the passion and promise that knit them together before?

Curtiss Ann Matlock spins a sweet, homey tale set in her small town of Valentine, Oklahoma.  Though the majority of the primary characters from the other Valentine books are missing here, what is still present is the warmth and heart that infuses all of her novels.  With her characteristic blend of light humor and Southern charm, Matlock weaves a beautiful story of love after long years of marriage: love that has been beaten down by life but that will, eventually, emerge stronger and more beautiful for its scars.  Matlock’s portrayal of the connection between the Collier sisters adds an interesting dimension to the book, clearly illustrating the power of the sister bond and its meaning in life.  All in all, a wonderful book and worth so much more than the low pricetag on Kindle!!

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder

Fluke, Joanne
Mystery

Excitement is stirring once again in Lake Eden, Minnesota.  Like the other residents, Hannah Swenson is in awe at the Grand Opening of the new condominium complex, once the exclusive Albion Hotel.  Asked to cater for the event, Hannah gets a behind-the-scenes look at the gorgeous new Penthouse and its stunning garden view…only moments before her brother-in-law’s secretary falls from its ledge, apparently having jumped to escape an attacker.  Who could have been brutal enough to leave the bruises on her face and the broken teeth in her mouth?  The victim’s memory is addled (she’s claiming that it was her brother, though she’s an only child) so it’s obviously up to Hannah to solve the mystery.  But when Hannah’s nemesis (and Norman’s former two-time fiancee) winds up dead, Hannah finds herself in hot water as the prime suspect in a murder investigation!  Can she prove her innocence and solve this double mystery before the real killer strikes again?  More importantly for many long-time readers of the series, perhaps, is will Hannah finally decide who owns her heart?  Will it be the dashing Mike with his stunning good looks or the warm and comforting Norman?  Will Hannah finally make a decision????

Unfortunately, though the answer to the first question is a not very surprising “yes,” the answer to the second and third are a disappointing “no.”  Formulaic and predictable, this series has gone on long past its prime.  It keeps its readers hooked with that very important question, but as it deteriorates further and further, even that draw has very little strength.  With characters that are out-of-date and so naive as to be unbelievable, a plot that’s lackluster (with a solution that relies on a poorly explained fact of paternity) and a heroine who’s starting to get a bit irritating with her indecisive and old-fashioned ways, Murder She Baked is turning into a culinary nightmare.  Its worst failing is its characters, who tend to add to the negative stereotype of people who live in small Northern towns like Lake Eden, Minnesota as socially backward and technologically ignorant.  Too, they seem to exist on a diet of pure fat and sugar yet are described as slim and fit (except, of course, for Hannah!)  In addition, they experience miraculous events like remote controlled devices that somehow continue operating in power outtages!  Please, please, Ms. Fluke, put your fans out of our misery and let Hannah hang her apron in one man’s kitchen or another and move on to something new!!  We who have been your fans for so long KNOW you have it in you to turn out material that’s better than this!

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times: Hearts, Souls and Wars in Hungary

Szegedy-Maszak, Marianne
Family Autobiography

This exquisitely beautiful book introduces the reader to the tumultuous period of Hungary’s occupation by Hitler and illustrates its devastating effects on one family and on the love story that was complicated by its uncertainty and upheaval.  With passages that read as if they were lifted from a romance novel (“your presence is the reason the world looks so lovely”) and others from a gory horror story, the story’s poignant dichotomy underscores the all-important truth that love conquers all – hate, prejudice, war, famine and devastating, heartbreaking loss.

The author introduces us to her large family in the current day and then draws the reader back through time to pre-war Hungary, when they enjoyed a privileged, elite life that sheltered them from the growing unrest arising in the rest of Europe.  Composed of men and women who were vital both to the government and to the country’s economy, the Szegedy-Maszak and Kornfeld families enjoyed a privileged status that kept them relatively isolated from the early pain throes of the war and, eventually, provided a means of triumph over their degradating humiliation at the hands of the Nazis and the Hungarian gendarme.  Before that triumph, however, they, too, suffered from the unspeakable crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis, leaving many of them “wounded for life in [their hearts, in their souls]“.  Some were interred in labor camps while others were forced to find several hiding places with friends.  All were victims of the prejudice and hate that stalked Europe.  As their story unfolds, one can’t help but feel sorrow and indignation at the fall of the family from its noble beginnings and the agony they suffered.  By the end of the war, “everything that once was, [was] over.”   Despite the extraordinary difficulties that the war threw into their lives, however, young Hanna and Aladar – and the love that blossomed between them – were able to survive and their story is a lovely one.  The letters they wrote to each other and their memories of the event, though guarded and still veiled by a sheer curtain of privacy that they kept between themselves and their daughter (the author), weave a spellbinding tale that is almost too touching to be real.

With its richly detailed depiction of Hungarian life, culture and politics during the years of the second world war, its emotional account of the family’s journey, its terrible descriptions of the concentration camps and their effect on some of the family and its insightful look into the resulting emotional and psychological changes those experiences wrought, I Kiss Your Hands Many Times is a memoir that is well-deserving of high praise.  My only quibbles with the book would be the smattering of typographical errors that were present (which, granted, were in a reviewer’s uncorrected proof that I received from the publisher and will be fixed before final release) and the few portions of the book where the narrative is weighted down by just a little bit too much political detail.  These faults are minor, however, and can be overlooked because of its overall quality.  Certainly worth five stars!

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World

Goodman, Matthew
Historical Account

When I read the opening pages of this book, I felt sure that my hopes for it were about to be disappointed, for I had expected a fictional account of the famous 1889 race around the world between the two young reporters, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, which it is not. Thankfully, the author’s enticing prose lured me into the book despite my misgivings and I found my persistence triply rewarded, discovering a work that is very much better than anything for which I could have hoped. Beginning with thorough biographical sketches of the two main protagonists, Goodman draws on their different backgrounds to show how life prepared each for the journey that lay ahead of them. From there, he pulls us along on their dual whirlwind journeys around the globe, fleshing out the tale by setting it against a meticulously researched background. We not only see his heroines aboard the steamships that carried them across oceans and the trains that carried them across the ever-expanding American west, but also learn about those very engines and their owners and effects upon the world. Similarly, his passages regarding the plights of the poor and foreign in America at the time of the race, his discussions of the different technologies that allowed Bisland and Bly to take their journeyes, his brief biographies of the personages they met – including Jules Verne and his wife Honorine – and his alluring descriptions of the lands they discovered all combined to provide an absolutely stellar work of history that surpasses anything I’ve read of late. Especially moving is his analysis of the surprising results of the race on both the lives of the victor and the runner-up. Though one initially feels sympathy for one and a grudging admiration for the other, the negative aspects of fame (and, conversely, the positive aspects of its lack) change that picture dramatically. Neither woman could have imagined the remarkable changes wrought in their lives by their epic journeys and I have to wonder if either would have taken the trip had they known.

Stylishly written and highly readable, Eighty Days provides such an abundance of information that forces one to read it slowly, savoring each new morsel. The effort is well-worth it, however, for the reader closes the last page feeling educated and inspired. The book has its lighter points, as well. For example, Goodman shows the amusing differences between the two packing methods of Bly (who took only one bag and one outfit) and Bisland (who took several trunks and several changes of clothes) and also relates several of their more humorous encounters (including a train ride at break-neck speed followed by the total disappearance of the conductor when he stepped out of the engine!) This alternating feeling of brevity, somber fact and technologic data gives a variety of the book that is rare elsewhere.

So much praise might seem over the top, but this book truly is a masterpiece. Though readers of lighter fare may shy away from reading such a dense, detailed account, I would encourage the attempt strongly, for it is a rewarding one in the end. I certainly hope that this author will produce more stellar works like this in the future!

I found many quotes to save, but my favorites among them all are:
“That jar of cold cream, Bly would later admit, “was the bane of my existence.” It was large and bulky and often kept her bag from closing, but she refused to give it up.”

“Another young man told Nellie Bly that he had been traveling constantly since he was nine years old, and had always suppressed the desire to marry because he did not believe he could find a woman who could travel without innumerable trunks. This, Bly thought, was an especially curious requirement for a wife; she had earlier noticed that this young man always dressed impeccably, changing his outfit several times a day, and now she was curious enough to ask how many trunks he carried with him. “Nineteen,” he replied at once, and Bly no longer wondered why he might want to find a wife who traveled light.”

China Bayles’ Book of Days

Albert, Susan Wittig
Daily Journal

So many reviews of this book focus on its tie to Albert’s fictional sleuth and herb shop owner, China Bayles, and forget to mention the wealth of information with which Susan saturates each entry.  If you’ve ever wanted to acquire more than a cook’s basic knowledge of the herbs we use to season and spice our foods, this book is the perfect resource.  From the zodiac associations of herbs to their scientific uses, proven remedies to questionable uses prominent in old wives’ tales, recipes from all over the globe and short blurbs about interesting places to visit and see these herbs in their natural habitats: the abundance of information packed into each daily reading is tantalizing, just like the herbs they describe.  A wonderful companion book to the China Bayles’ series, but so very much more as well!  Highly recommended for all herb-lovers, gardeners and cooks.

Post Number 1000! Black as He’s Painted

Marsh, Ngaio
Mystery

Ngaio Marsh is one of the great dames of mystery for two very good reasons: her uncanny ability to create full-bodied portraits of her characters and imbue them with personality and life that rings ever true and her skill with complex, engaging plots that end in satisfying conclusions.  In Black as He’s Painted, both of those aspects of her writing are at displayed at their best.  One of the more delightful of the Alleyn mysteries, the book revolves around the thwarted murder of the Ng’ombwana president, a former schoolmate of Alleyn.  Unwillingly drawn into the investigation of what seems to be the accidental death of the Ng’ombwana ambassador and into the attempt to protect the president against further assassination attempts, Alleyn pieces together the pieces of a puzzle that seems to have at its heart several residents of a small corner of London, the Capricorn Mews.  With the help of the ever-faithful Lieutenant Fox, his supportive wife Troy, Mr. Whipplestone (a former Ng’ombwana diplomat) and his helpful cat, Lucy, Alleyn is finally able to get to the black heart behind the deadly incident.  Through it all, he retains his cool demeanor, even when it means placing his beloved wife in the path of possible danger.  The relationship between the Alleyns is beautifully captured here, as are the underlying themes of race and class.  If you’re looking for a new cozy mystery series, look no farther than Dame Marsh.  And though this book is not her first in the series, it certainly is one of the best and will give you a wonderful taste of her prowess!

Swordfights and Lullabies

Geary, Debora
Fiction, Novel Nibble

Debora allows us a little treat in this “novel morsel,” which gives a brief glimpse of life on Cass’s farewell tour, with Marcus and Morgan in tow.  Cass isn’t finding giving up the spotlight and her roaming ways quite as hard as she thought it would be.  Is that because she’s finally found the stable place she’s unconsciously longed for – in the heart and arms of a warlock who resisted opening his heart to love for so long?  These two partial souls have finally found the whole they’ve been searching for and it’s a warm, healing home for both of them (with a little room to spare for an impish little girl with violet eyes!)

This lovely story warmed my heart but made me sad knowing that it’s the harbinger of the final book in Debora’s Modern Witch series.  However, her promise of a new series peopled with my favorite characters is a wonderful balm to my heart!  I’m sure my readers roll their eyes whenever I review one of Debora’s books, because I can’t help but gush over them and try to describe the way each one melts my heart, but all of them – even the little nibbles like this one – never fail to make me feel warm and wonderful that I just can’t help it!  Thank you, Debora, for this little morsel!

Indigo Dying

Albert, Susan Wittig
Mystery

There’s nothing like a little murder to solve all of a dying town’s problems…

Indigo, Texas is undergoing a revival. Determined to prevent it from fading into memory like so many other tiny Texas towns, the small community of artists that has taken up residence within its old buildings are putting everything into restoring it to its former glory. China and Ruby are both supportive of the town’s revival and looking forward to taking part in its upcoming arts festival and dying workshop. Sadly, all their efforts prove to be for nothing when the town ogre, Casey Ford, announces that he plans to sell the mining rights for the land to a large coal mining operation that has been gradually infringing on its borders. Within a year, the buildings and all the surrounding land will be razed to make way for the large bulldozers that will destroy the landscape and make it uninhabitable for the population – both human and wild – that now thrives within its borders. China’s friend Allie is devastated by the news, knowing that her farm and her livelihood are in jeopardy. But though she’s Casey’s niece, she can do as little to prevent the inevitable as the rest of Indigo’s irate residents. Someone, however, takes matters into their own hands and plays a mean trick on Casey during the festival’s opening days, luring him into a booby trap that he himself set…after making it lethal. But in a town that’s going to benefit from his death and weep no tears over his loss, the suspects are numerous and lips are tightly sealed. No one is going to point fingers when they’re all happy that Casey’s gone. China, though, can’t help but feel that the murderer still needs to be brought to justice and does all she can to assist McQuaid and the sheriff to solve the murder. But, as they usually do, things get quite complicated and the truth may never be uncovered.

With its realistic but still cozy view of small town life in rural Texas, its abundance of interesting facts regarding the use of natural dyes and its satisfying, intricate plot peopled by vividly portrayed characters, this installment in Albert’s popular herbal mysteries series is sure to delight her fans. The subplots – especially the ongoing saga of McQuaid’s ex-wife and China’s continued adjustment to life as a wife and mother – are just as interesting as the main story and make for a nice, well-rounded read that is both entertaining and enlightening. Five stars for China Bayles, as usual!!