Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review: The Jilted Countess

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What is this book about?

WWII has completely upended the life of Roza Mészáros, a young Hungarian countess. Her life as a privileged member of Hungarian society is over, and after years of practice and training, Roza’s dream of becoming a ballerina is also over.

Shortly after the war ends, Roza meets Joe, a kind and loving American soldier, and they fall in love. Before he ships back to Minnesota, he proposes to her. It takes her almost two years to run the maze of red tape before she is able to join Joe in America.

When Roza arrives at the train station in St. Paul, Minnesota, Joe isn’t there to meet her. She learns he has married someone else only a few months before her arrival. She is heartbroken, but she is also scared. She has only two weeks to marry or she will be deported back to Hungary, where she would be labeled an American sympathizer by the Soviets who now control Hungary.

Facing the possibility of imprisonment or death at the hands of the Soviets, Roza makes a bold decision. With the help of a popular Minnesota newspaper columnist, Roza advertises for a husband. After meeting a handful of the over one thousand men who proposed to her by letter, she casts her fate with Finn Ericksen, a WWII veteran.

Why did I read this book?

Somewhere I read a brief summary about this book and thought, “Sounds like an interesting story.” But I have a large TBR pile, so I didn’t rush out and buy it. I forgot about the book until I read that one of our local bookstores was hosting a talk with Loretta Ellsworth about the book. I like to hear authors talk about their journeys as writers and why they wrote a particular book, so I went to meet Ellsworth.

Once I learned that The Jilted Countess was based on a true story, I was hooked. Only the very beginning of the book is based on facts: the Countess was jilted, she did advertise for a husband, and she did marry one of the men who responded. Once the couple married, however, they shunned all publicity. Ellsworth tried to find out what happened to the real-life couple, but couldn’t. So, she used her imagination to create a wonderful historical fiction romance novel.

Why did I like this book?

It’s a well-written, character-driven love story that touches the heart without being sappy. It’s sort of a reverse fairy tale — the Countess is in search of a commoner, instead of a prince, who can save her from a perilous fate. She finds one, but will there be a happy ever after?

Wonderfully paced with an engaging plot, the book is a page turner. I stuck my nose in the book on a two-and-a-half-hour road trip to a golf shop where my husband would be fitted for a set of golf clubs. After each chapter or so, I’d close the book for a couple of minutes and say something to him. He likes it when I keep him company on road trips, so I usually don’t read, but I couldn’t resist returning to the pages of Roza’s life.

Once we arrived at the golf shop, my husband signed in for his appointment, and I was free to read without feeling guilty. I asked an employee if they had a small lounge area where I could sit and read while my husband had his fitting, but they didn’t. I wandered around, thinking I’d have to find a place to sit on the floor. But tucked at the end of a small hallway, I found a padded bench in an area that housed golf shoes. I sat and read for the next hour and a half, finishing the book.

At times my eyes welled up with tears, and I had to fish in my purse for a tissue to dab my eyes. A couple of times people wandered into the shoe area, and I’d stop reading and ask if they wanted to use the bench to try on shoes, but thankfully, no one did.

Ellsworth dedicated this novel to a friend of hers who told her to write the story. I’m glad she listened to her friend.

Book Review: Bicentennial Eve: A Wisconsin Novella by Julie A. Jacob, Fresh Water Press, 2026

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Fresh Water Press, Two Rivers, WI, 2026

What is this book about?

It’s 1976, the eve of America’s 200th birthday. As communities across the country prepare to celebrate the Bicentennial, three generations of people living in a small town in southeastern Wisconsin explore what their own personal independence means to each of them.

Seventy-three-year-old Kitty Barrett longs to fulfill a childhood dream, but worries her family will think she’s too old. Kitty’s daughter Claire, in her early 40s, wants more out of life than domestic chores and her ten-hour-a-week job at the library. Claire’s daughters have dreams of their own. Grace is torn between the boy she loves and spending her junior year of college in France, and thirteen-year-old Skye hopes for a romance with a fickle-hearted classmate named Zack. Kitty’s other daughter Vivian, in her early 50s, tentatively rekindles a romance with a high-school sweetheart.

Silently hovering over the eve of their Bicentennial celebration is the memory of Vivian and Claire’s brother, Mike, who was killed during WWII in 1944. As the stories of Kitty’s and her family’s pursuit of happiness unfold, it’s apparent that even though thirty-two years have passed since Mike’s death, the sorrow of his untimely passing has cast a lingering shadow over the lives of Kitty, Claire, and Vivian.

Why did I read this book?

I read Julie Jacob’s collection of essays, Two States of Single: Essays of Love, Family, and Living Solo, and I loved it. After meeting Jacob at the Wisconsin Writers Association Conference in October 2024, I read her collection of essays a second time and loved it again. So, when I learned that her novella had been accepted for publication, I was excited.

Also, I was seventeen years old in 1976, and I remember the anticipation and excitement surrounding the Bicentennial. Although I would be on an adventure in Rome on July 4, 1976, at the time I felt sad about missing the Bicentennial celebration in the States. Reading Jacob’s book gave me a chance to travel back in time to my own southeastern Wisconsin hometown. I could experience the Bicentennial through the eyes and actions of her characters who are ordinary people dealing with the same type of issues that my family, friends, neighbors, and I faced.

Why did I like this book?

Jacob’s story writing skills shine in Bicentennial Eve. She writes great scenes, which come to life through well-written descriptions and dialogue delivered by relatable characters with compelling stories. The dilemmas faced by the characters drew me into the novella. Skillfully paced, Jacob weaves tension into her story from beginning to the end. I always wanted to read just one more chapter right up until the end of the book.

I read Bicentennial Eve twice, first in manuscript form then after it was published. It was just as lovely the second time around.

I loved the book for its engaging story. My grand-dog loves the book because it coordinates with her fur! Also, I told her that the book mentions a dog named Honey a few times!

Two Memoirs with a Connection to El Salvador: Solito by Javier Zamora and What You Have Heard Is True by Carolyn Forché

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Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora, 2022

What is this book about?

Javier Zamora tells the story of his emigration from El Salvador in 1999 when he was nine years old.

His parents are living in California. His father left when Javier was two years old, and Javier knows him only through old photos and the stories his relatives share. When Javier was five, his mother left El Salvador to join his father. Four years later they send for Javier to join them. He is excited to finally reunite with his parents, but he is also sad to leave his grandparents, his aunt Mali, and his friends.

Javier’s grandfather, as planned, escorts him from El Salvador through Guatemala then returns home before Javier enters Mexico. After his grandfather leaves, Javier continues his journey north with a small group of people consisting of three men, two women, a girl, and their coyote, who is supposed to escort them into the United States. Javier doesn’t know these people. He feels alone and abandoned, but he thinks about his parents waiting for him. He works at being invisible, silent, and well behaved. He doesn’t want to be seen as a burden. Marcelo, one of the men in their group, has been paid by Javier’s grandfather to look after Javier, but Marcelo mostly ignores him. It is Patricia, who is traveling with her twelve-year-old daughter, and Chino, a young man in his twenties, who look out for Javier, taking care of him as if he were family. Their journey takes much longer than originally planned, and without Patricia and Chino’s help, Javier probably would have died.

Why did I read this book?

I listened to Maya Shankar interview Javier Zamora in her podcast series A Slight Change of Plans. In the episode titled “I Survived the Unsurvivable,” Zamora speaks about his migration from El Salvador to the United States in 1999. He talks about how the experience had a profound impact on him. Zamora is a poet, but he wrote his memoir Solito, in part, to help him process the trauma he experienced in 1999. After listening to Zamora talk about his experience, I went to the library and ordered his book through interlibrary loan.

Why did I like this book?

This memoir is told from the viewpoint of a nine-year-old: Zamora tells what he knew and saw and heard at that time. He does not use his wisdom as an adult to comment about what it all means to him now. There is power in the way he chose to write about his experience. He lets us ponder the meaning and significance of what happened to him. He lets us think about what it means to be compelled to leave your homeland where you are in danger and travel to a land where you are not wanted. As readers we experience the frightening world of Javier’s long and uncertain migration as if we are nine years old and all alone among strangers.

This does not mean Zamora’s writing is simplistic. Even though he writes from the point of view of his nine-year-old self, he uses words, metaphors, and more complex sentences than he would have used if he wrote it when he was nine. Zamora’s mastery of description paints vivid scenes of the countries he travels through and breathes life into the people who accompany him. Solito is beautifully written, often with a lyrical quality.

What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forché, 2019

What is this book about?

In 1978, a man named Leonel Gomez drives from El Salvador to southern California to tell Carolyn Forché the story of his country El Salvador and to explain that he believes civil war will soon engulf the small nation. Gomez and Forché have never met, but Forché recently spent the summer with some of his relatives in Spain, and this is how Gomez knows about her. He has come to ask her to visit El Salvador to bear witness to what is happening in his country. She tells him that she is not a journalist and that there must be more qualified people to do what he is asking. He tells her that it’s not important she be a journalist. He has asked her for two significant reasons: she is a poet and she is an American.

Forché decides to travel to El Salvador and makes a handful of trips to the country between 1978 and 1980. Gomez is an enigma to Forché, as well as to many of his countrymen. But it’s clear that he is intelligent, wily, well read, and passionate about the plight of the poor and disenfranchised in El Salvador. Gomez takes her to see impoverished farmers and laborers, to visit political prisoners, and to meet both ruthless authoritarian leaders and members of the resistance movement. Some of the people Forché meets are Americans. She comes to understand that the United States is complicit in supporting the cruel and corrupt government of El Salvador. Many of the places Forché visits and many of the people she meets are dangerous, but Gomez wants her to take notes and to write about what she experiences. Forché fills journals, recording much of what she sees and hears. She writes poetry based on her experiences, and years later she will use her notes to write her memoir.

Why did I read this book?

Well, I almost didn’t.

I bought Forché’s memoir because she was part of the Rose Warner Reading Series at St. Scholastica in 2026. She read some of her poetry, which was wonderful. I read the first chapter of her book and liked it. She is a wonderful writer, and the story sounded interesting. But I put her book aside because I was already reading two other books, and I forgot about it. A few months later, I decided to donate some of my books to our library, and I added Forché’s memoir to the bag. I felt bad about this because I was giving up on what I believed would be a good book. But my To-Be-Read pile of books is a lofty stack. And I wondered, “Do I really need to read another book about a tragically sad historical event that proves once again how cruel human beings can be to one another in order to amass power and wealth?”

Then I read Solito. In his memoir Zamora briefly mentions that his father needed to leave El Salvador because the civil war made it dangerous for him. Zamora also mentions, as a brief aside, that the U.S. funded the corrupt, authoritarian Salvadoran government during the civil war that caused many El Salvadorans to flee horrific violence. Zamora never elaborates about the civil war or the politics of El Salvador. Remember, he tells his story from the point of view of his nine-year-old self, and he was only two when his father left in 1992, the year the civil war officially ended.

But Zamora’s scant reference was enough to pique my curiosity. Thankfully, I hadn’t donated Forché’s book yet. I pulled it out of the bag. When I finished Zamora’s memoir, I began Forché’s. And yes, I did need to read another book about a sad historical event that showed once again how cruel human beings can be to one another. Forché’s story about the El Salvador of 1978 resonates as it reminds us that we need to be better humans, a message that is just as important in today’s world.

Why did I like this book?

Forché, like Zamora, is a wonderful writer. She, too, uses her skills as a poet to create an often lyrical prose as her story reveals the uncertainty and violence of life in El Salvador during the 1970s and 80s. While reading What You Have Heard Is True, I realized I knew nothing about El Salvador, its brutal civil war, and the complicity of the U.S. in helping to perpetuate the atrocities of a violent authoritarian government.

I’m glad I read Carolyn Forché’s memoir. It sits on my bookshelf now, and I have no desire to donate it even though I’ve read it. Maybe several years from now, but it’s hard to get rid of a book that expanded my thinking and educated me about an important but overlooked part of history.

Book Review: The Untold Story of Books: A Writer’s History of Book Publishing by Michael Castleman, July 2024

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Published by The Unamed Press, 2024

Who should read this book?

If you’re a writer with hopes of publishing a book, you should read The Untold Story of Books. You’ll learn something about the business end of publishing, not to be confused with stories about how authors come to have their books published. You’ll understand why it’s difficult to get books (even good ones) published, unless you self-publish. And if you do self-publish or have a book traditionally published, you’ll understand why most books, even good ones, don’t sell many copies.

None of this is meant to discourage you because if you love to write, you’re going to write. And if you love what you’ve written, you’ll probably want to share it with the world. But understanding how the business end of publishing works can be comforting. You’ll learn that rejection isn’t necessarily about your writing; it’s often about things that are very much out of your control. You’ll better understand the maze of business decisions publishers and authors make before and after a book reaches a wooden or digital shelf. (But this isn’t a how-to-market-your-book manual.)

And if you don’t write but love to read, you should read this book because it’s good to know how books have come into the world. Writers and readers alike are bound to have more than a few I-didn’t-know-that moments as they read this book.

Why did I read this book?

I’m a writer and my first collection of short stories, Silent Negotiations, will be published in February 2027 by Cornerstone Press at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. So, when I discovered Castleman’s book, I bought a copy because I thought it would be interesting to understand something about the publishing business. Also, the book has the word history in the title, and I like reading about the history of almost anything.

What is this book about?

Michael Castleman has been a writer for over forty years. He has published nineteen books, most of them nonfiction. Throughout his career he has been fascinated by how the business end of publishing works. In his introduction he states: “When I attended writing conferences, instead of attending the how-to-get-published panels or standing in signing lines for A-list authors, I was among the few quizzing publishers: How do you determine print runs? Why don’t you advertise more? Publishers always expressed surprise: You’re interested in the business side? Few authors they dealt with were, unless it had to do with their royalties” (p. 14).

Castleman divides his book into three sections: The First Book Business, The Second Book Business, and The Third Book Business. In each of these three stages, it is a significant advancement in technology that changes the world of producing and selling books. In the First Book Business, Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type transforms the business of books because they no longer have to be copied by hand. The Industrial Revolution powered by steam engines spurs the Second Book Business by making the printing process much faster. And The Third Book Business rises with the digital age.

In a very readable manner, Castleman discusses what each stage has meant for authors, agents, editors, publishers, printers, distributors, booksellers, and book buyers. He describes the centuries’ old battle by authors and eventually publishers to have good, enforceable copyright laws, which includes today’s struggles with infringement by artificial intelligence. He also compares and contrasts self-publishing and traditional publishing, pointing out the pros and cons of both paths to publishing books.

Castleman’s book clearly delineates the difficulties of becoming a published writer, but he also describes his love of writing and the thrill of being a published author. I found comfort in reading his book even though the writer’s world isn’t always easy. But as my father would’ve said, “Oh well, it is what it is.”

I plan to read this book again shortly before my book comes out because I think it provides a sense of perspective for writers.

Book Review: McGarr and the Legacy of a Woman Scorned by Bartholomew Gill

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McGarr and the Legacy of a Woman Scorned is Bartholomew Gill’s seventh mystery featuring Peter McGarr, a detective chief inspector with the Irish police.

What is this book about?

Peter McGarr and his wife Noreen are on vacation in a part of Ireland filled with sunshine, beautiful sandy beaches, and rich black earth. Peter and Noreen agree there is no other place like it in Ireland. Although, McGarr is a bit bored, as any self-respecting, workaholic detective would be. Then, Fionnuala Walton, who is in her sixties and owns a prestigious horse farm on a large piece of prime real estate, is found murdered, shoved down a flight of stairs.

Of course, McGarr is asked by the local police to help with the case, proving once again to the crime-reading fan that a detective should never go on vacation because a dead body is sure to be discovered. (Sometimes you have to love a trope.) McGarr is more than willing to help. He suspects Fionnuala Walton was murdered by one of her sisters, her niece, or one of the Daughertys who own the farm adjacent to Fionnuala’s. An incident that occurred thirty years ago has made the Waltons and Daughertys both allies and adversaries. Fionnuala’s sisters have their own reasons to be angry and bitter about Fionnuala. And the niece is engaged to one of the Daughertys, perhaps shifting her sense of loyalty away from her aunt Fionnuala.

Because the McGarrs aren’t known in this part of Ireland, Peter enlists the help of Noreen by having her rent a room — using her maiden name — in a B & B run by the Daugherty family, whom he considers prime suspects. Noreen, intelligent, quick-thinking, and gutsy, is game. Their vacation is over. The hunt for the killer is on.

Why I liked this book.

Gill has written another moody, suspenseful police detective story. This mystery, like Gill’s others, weaves past events into the present and serves up a twisting plot and an interesting cast of suspects, while DCI McGarr picks apart alibis and uncovers motives until he confronts the killer.

Thoughts about story and character development in Gill’s mystery series . . .

Gill’s seventh McGarr book was published in 1986. I’ve been following a few aspects of Gill’s stories as they develop over time. First, there is McGarr’s drinking. He’s a man who carries a flask and has a bottle in his desk, who can’t enter a pub without having a drink, who accepts a drink while questioning a suspect, and who cozies up with yet another glass at home. For six books, I’ve been wondering if McGarr can keep this up without it impacting his marriage and career. At the beginning of this book, while McGarr and Noreen are on vacation, he has abstained from drinking. Noreen and Peter’s coworkers had begun to worry about his drinking. But as those conversations took place off the page, somewhere between the six and seventh books, we must imagine how those talks went down, which I like.

Noreen has a big role in this book. (So far, in most of the other books, she has remained in the background.) While spying on suspects for Peter, she finds herself attracted to a handsome, flirtatious man who is one of the suspects. She’s twenty years younger than Peter and has begun to wonder if she rushed into marriage with him. He’s a complacent fifty-year-old man who drinks and smokes too much and takes his young wife for granted.

There are still no female detectives in McGarr’s office. There is only Ruthie, who is smart and dedicated, but relegated to her desk. I’m waiting for a female detective. Perhaps in book eight.

[To read my reviews of the first six Peter McGarr mysteries, click here for books one and two, here for book three, here for book four, here for book five, and here for book six.]

Book Reviews: It’s Cold Outside — Are You Looking for Something to Read? Six Books to Consider!

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Below is a list of wonderful books to warm you up on a cold day or night. Curled up under a quilt, I read them while sipping hot tea, hot chocolate, or the occasional cold beer. I loved each of these books. (Listed alphabetically by author’s last name.)

Incident at Twin Lakes Resort by Colleen Alles is a fast-paced, thought-tickling, engaging novella.

It’s Labor Day weekend in Michigan. Cassie, a naive twenty-one-year-old senior in college meets up with her new boyfriend, Ethan, at a rustic lodge on the shores of a sparkling, picturesque lake. They’ve only been dating for a New York minute, but he invites her to be his plus-one for the holiday weekend at a retreat sponsored by the law firm where he works. The firm’s getaways are designed to give employees a chance to bond. Cassie, who is excited to be invited to the retreat, quickly discovers most of Ethan’s coworkers and spouses are jaded by their past experiences at the outings. Her hopes for a romantic weekend with Ethan are dashed by the drunkenness, back-biting, and cynicism of his coworkers, and Ethan’s hot-and-cold behavior. Looking for kindness and connection, Cassie befriends a new mother with an infant and one of Ethan’s male coworkers, who has come to the retreat alone.

I loved this book because while it might read like a placid little story about a disappointing romantic weekend, it has thematic chops. We are asked to think about the choices we make, about what it means to be happy, and about how success is measured. Alles’s choice of Cassie, a naive young woman, to narrate the story is perfect. She is the fish-out-of-water character in this story. She is youthful innocence peering into the world of jaded adulthood.

Incident at Twin Lakes Resort won the Etchings Press novella prize in 2025, and was published by that press at the University of Indianapolis.

33 Place Brugmann, a novel by Alice Austen, takes readers back to 1939. Nazis and fascists, after stripping people of their freedoms and humanity, plunge the world into WWII. As they conquer Europe and send people to death camps, readers can’t help but think of current times and ask themselves, “Can this happen again?”

The story begins in Brussels just before the Nazis invade and occupy Belgium in May 1940. It follows the lives of fourteen residents who live in the apartment building at 33 Place Brugmann. The Raphaëls, a Jewish family of four disappear during the night, along with Mr. Raphaël’s art collection. Masha Balyayeva, a Jewish refugee from Russia, soon leaves for France, where posing as a Christian, she joins the French Resistance. The Everards, DeBaerres, Colonel Warlemont, Miss Hobert, and Sauvins remain at 33 Place Brugmann. War, hunger, and fear reveal the best and worst in the residents. As WWII drags on, Jewish people are arrested and transported, food shortages worsen, and bombs fall. The remaining non-Jewish residents of 33 Place Brugmann still have plenty to fear. Perhaps a neighbor or co-worker will turn them into the Nazis because of something they’ve said or done. Who can they trust? Who might betray them?

I loved this book because of its tightly-woven plot, its beautiful writing, and its richly-drawn characters. My favorite character is Charlotte Sauvin, who is seventeen years old when the story begins. I also loved this book because it accomplishes what excellent historical fiction should always do — make readers reflect on current times and timeless themes while learning about the past.

Recognition for 33 Place Brugmann — A New York Times Editor’s Choice, Shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award

The Book of Ruth, a novel by Jane Hamilton

“Weddings don’t have one thing to do with real life” (p. 143). This one quote says it all and could easily be the tagline for Hamilton’s deeply moving story.

This novel is a literary delight. It’s a bit of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and a bit of John Williams’s Stoner and a whole lot of its own hauntingly told tale. Ruth narrates the story, and through her Hamilton creates an astonishing voice. Readers follow Ruth through her relationship with her mother, May, then with her husband, Ruben, whom everyone calls Ruby. After Ruth marries Ruby, they live with Ruth’s mother, a situation that slowly spirals out of control. May detests Ruby, and after he and Ruth have a baby boy, May belittles Ruby, sabotaging his relationship with his wife and son. May’s, Ruth’s, and Ruby’s relationships are beset by verbal abuse, violent outbursts, drinking, and addiction to pills, personifying the weariness of poverty, grief, and broken dreams.

I loved this book. It’s a sad tale, like a Biblical tragedy. But Hamilton’s beautiful writing, universal themes, and captivating story carry readers through to the end.

In 1988, Hamilton’s novel won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for best first novel. In 1995, it was an Oprah’s Book Club selection.

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida is a warm-hearted novel with a touch of magical realism.

In a group of loosely connected stories, a series of frustrated, anxiety-ridden characters driven by desperation seek help from a mysterious clinic. Some of the characters are deeply distressed about their jobs, others have strained relationships with their families. Some of the characters have trouble at work and home. The clinic is nearly impossible to find, but when they do locate it, they expect to meet a traditional doctor who will provide therapy and dispense medicine to alleviate their symptoms. Instead, they are shocked when the doctor prescribes a cat for a specific length of time, along with instructions for how to care and use their particular cat. To begin with, each of the characters are reluctant to take their cat home, then fail to use their “medicine” as prescribed, causing “side effects” and follow-up visits to the mysterious clinic.

I loved this book because it’s sweet without being saccharine. It avoids predictability, providing twists that I didn’t see coming, and not everything is tied up with a neat little bow. It has touches of humor unique to having been prescribed a cat for what ails one. It was fun to meet the different cats, who all have their own personalities.

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat was a bestseller in Japan, and it has been translated into over two dozen languages.

Rescuing Claire, a novel by Thomas Johnson, transports readers back to college life in the early 1970s, to the days of free love, drugs, the Vietnam War, campus protests, civil rights movements, women’s rights. Johnson nails the chaotic vibe that rippled through college campuses. I was twelve or thirteen years old at the time this novel takes place, old enough to have impressions and memories of the turbulent years of the counter-culture and social revolution, but too young to have participated.

Henry Fitzgerald lives and works in Northern Wisconsin, where he co-owns a lodge with an older couple. His days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are behind him. But on a crisp autumn day, he receives two letters, one from his wife Elizabeth “Airy” Fitzgerald and one from his former college girlfriend Claire Cohen. Henry gives little thought to his wife’s words, but he takes issue with Claire’s letter. It’s been six years since he’s seen Claire. Her letter is friendly and upbeat as she reminisces about their past, but Henry disagrees with her version of their romance. So he takes a step back in time and tells us his story.

Henry is engaged to Airy, an archaeologist, who is often away on a dig somewhere in the world. He falls for Claire, a coed, who has an arrogant boyfriend named Nicky Waller. Henry’s brother, Milton, an attorney in Madison who champions the legal rights of economically and politically disenfranchised people, warns him to steer clear of Claire. Eventually, Claire goes to work for Leonard Lent, a slimebag. Henry decides he must rescue Claire from Leonard’s clutches, so he forms a dangerous liaison with Norman O’Keefe who wants to kill Leonard. Artfully developed, the supporting cast of characters come to life in the book.

Henry isn’t the most reliable narrator, and perhaps he doesn’t outright lie, but he has a skewed view of the facts. He doesn’t always come off well in the telling of his story because he is forthcoming about his faults and honest about some of the stupid stuff he does. He is likable, infuriating, astute, witty, and annoying in turns. But he is never dull.

One of the best things about this book is the first-person narration — I never tired of listening to Henry tell his story.

I See You’ve Called in Dead, a novel by John Kenney, is a funny, bittersweet coming of middle-age story that explores themes of male friendships, life’s disappointments, starting over, and mortality.

Buddy Stanley has reached his early 40s, and life isn’t going his way. He writes obituaries for a newspaper, a job he once liked but now sees as a sign of failure. It’s the kind of newspaper job up-and-coming journalists might cut their teeth on, but not one they want in perpetuity. Buddy’s marriage ended in divorce two years ago. His ex-wife has moved on with a tall, sophisticated British man, but Buddy has parked his life in a stall of melancholy and regret. Hoping to help him out, one of his friends sets him up on a blind date. When his date finally arrives, it’s to let him know she and her former boyfriend are getting back together. Depressed about his life, Buddy goes home. After a few too many whiskeys, he decides it would be fun to log into his work account and write his own obituary. After having his bit of hilarity, he reaches to delete his fabricated obituary, but in his tipsy state, things go awry, and he accidentally, irretrievably publishes his obituary online. His best friend Tim is concerned about him. His co-worker Tuan is angry and worried at the same time. Howard, his long-time boss and friend, is disappointed. He knows he’ll have to fire Buddy, even though he doesn’t want to. Howard’s bosses and the head of HR are incensed by Buddy’s flagrant disregard for company rules.

I loved this book because as I followed Buddy through his existential death and eventual “rebirth,” I laughed, and cried, and cheered. I also loved the New York-ness of this novel, a place where quirky people do off-beat things and converse in the language of sarcasm.

I See You Called in Dead was an NPR 2025 “Books We Love” selection, a USA Today April Pick, and a 2026 Gotham Book Prize Finalist (winner to be announced March 31, 2026). John Kenney won a Thurber Prize for his novel Truth in Advertising.

Book Review: Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey by Fiona Aitken, the 8th Countess of Carnarvon (Hadder & Sloughton, London, 2013)

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Why did I read this book?

I was in Edinburgh when I started reading Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey. My sister and I stayed at a hotel called The Resident in Edinburgh’s lovely West End. The hotel has a good-sized lobby with a fireplace, comfortable chairs, and several shelves of books along the back wall. Whether fiction or nonfiction, prose or poetry, the books all seemed to have a connection to the United Kingdom. Set a bookshelf in front of me and I can’t help it: I start perusing spines. Because I loved the Masterpiece series Downton Abbey, the title of Fiona Aitken’s book caught my attention. Aitken, married to the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, is the 8th Countess of Carnarvon.

What is this book about?

Aitken’s book covers the lives of Catherine Wendell, an American beauty, and Henry Herbert Porchester, the 6th Earl of Carnarvon, from the early 1920s through the end of WWII. Readers first meet Catherine and Henry, called Porchey by his friends and family, in 1923 in India where he is stationed with his regiment. Married in 1922, they are still honeymooners and very much in love. Unlike many British lords of the era, who have expensive-to-maintain manor houses with expansive grounds, Lord Porchester has married for love, not for a cash infusion to prop up his estate. Although, shortly after becoming the 6th Earl of Carnarvon, Porchey discovers the finances of his estate are in disarray.

Readers follow Catherine and Porchey throughout their marriage, divorce, and post-divorce years against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, the rise of fascism and Hitler, King Edward VIII’s abdication, and WWII. The “Epilogue” summarizes what happened to the key people in this book after WWII.

Why did I like this book?

Fiona Aitken’s book is well written. She tells the story of Catherine and Porchey in a narrative form, combing biography and history in a manner that makes it interesting to read. The book is also well researched because living at Highclere Castle as the 8th Countess of Carnarvon gave Aitken access to the archives at Highclere. Also, her title, family connections, and social status meant she was able to interview people who might not otherwise talk to writers.

While I was in Edinburgh, I only read the first seven chapters. I was busy sightseeing during the day, and because I walked miles everyday, I would fall asleep shortly after crawling into bed. Once I returned to the United States, I checked the book out from the library so I could finish it. I liked Aitken’s book so much that I plan to read her first book, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle (2011). Lady Almina was married to the 5th Earl of Carnarvon who financed archaeology digs in Egypt, which lead to Howard Carter’s discovery of King Tut’s tomb.

Some concluding thoughts . . .

If you’re a Downton Abbey fan, don’t pick up this book expecting a drama like the TV series; although, a lot of dramatic events happen in the book. However, if you’re a history fan, or an Anglophile, or you like learning about how the wealthy lived in a bygone era, especially during those Downton Abbey years, you’ll enjoy Fiona Aitken’s book.

Connections to the royal family —

Having met as teenagers, the 7th Earl of Carnarvon and Queen Elizabeth II were great friends. He served as her racing manager for years until his death in 2001. Queen Elizabeth was godmother to his son, currently the 8th Earl of Carnarvon. When Queen Elizabeth died, the 8th Earl and Countess made the short list and were invited to the private committal service for the Queen. But they didn’t receive an invitation to the coronation of King Charles in 2023. Charles trimmed the guest list from just over 8,000 who had attended his mother’s coronation to just over 2,000. In my lifetime I’ve seen the popularity of the royal family wax and wane. One of the criticisms people have about the royal family is the amount of money it takes to maintain all that pomp and circumstance. I imagine King Charles shortened the guest list for his coronation because he wants his subjects to know that he too can budget his expenses.

If you want to read the 8th Earl’s comments about not receiving an invite, click on the following article that appeared in Tatler, a British magazine: “Earl of Carnarvon, Queen Elizabeth II’s Godson, Praises ‘Excellent’ King Charles Despite Lack of Coronation Invitation.” It’s all very civilized and polite.

Book Review: Ellie’s Pursuit of the Mighty Fitz by Mckenzie Lee Williams and illustrated by Alayna Maria

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Published in hard cover, Williams’s book is durable and easy to wipe clean, making it perfect for young hands.

What is this book about?

It’s the day before spring break at Great Lakes Grade School. All of Ellie’s fifth grade classmates have travel plans. Her best friend, Mike, is going to London with his family to see Big Ben. Ellie worries her friends will return after spring break with wonderful objects and stories for their last fifth-grade show-and-tell, and she will have nothing to share because she isn’t going anywhere. She hopes her father will surprise her with a last-minute trip. But, Ellie’s only surprise is that Grandma Gigi is spending the week because her father has to go on a business trip.

While riding home after school with her father, Ellie hears Gordon Lightfoot’s song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” for the first time. After listening to the song, she has lots of questions about the Fitzgerald. Later she talks to Grandma Gigi about the Fitz and her recently deceased Grandpa Loren, who also sailed the Great Lakes, and even knew some of the sailors from the Fitzgerald. Ellie and her grandma decide to drive from Superior, Wisconsin, to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point in Michigan. They want to see the bronze bell from the Fitzgerald and to learn more about the ship and its sinking. Perhaps Ellie will have something special to share at her last show-and-tell as a fifth grader.

What makes this book special?

Delightfully written by Mckenzie Lee Williams and beautifully illustrated by Alayna Maria, this chapter book will appeal to children ages eight to twelve years old. I really enjoyed this story, and I read it in one evening. Ellie, the main character and narrator, captured my heart. She is enthusiastic, adventurous, curious, and kind. She loves learning and writing in her journal, and if you’re a writer, you’ve got to love a journal-toting character. Told with tenderness and gentle humor, this chapter book explores themes of disappointment, grief, remembrance, and resilience. Young readers will enjoy taking a road trip with Ellie and Grandma Gigi. Along the way they will learn about the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Great Lakes, and the enduring power of love. Now, I want to visit the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point.

A special note about the author, Mckenzie Lee Williams . . .

Mckenzie Lee Williams died in a motorcycle accident in June 2024. She was twenty-three years old, a recent college graduate, and a writer. She was inspired to write Ellie’s Pursuit of the Mighty Fitzgerald when she worked at a bookstore. Customers would inquire about books regarding the Fitz for children, but there was little available. So, Williams decided to write a chapter book. After her death, her mother discovered Williams’s draft of Ellie’s Pursuit. With love and dedication, Williams’s family and friends edited and illustrated her manuscript. Like the bronze bell from the Fitzgerald, Williams’s book is a symbol of spirit, dedication, and love.

I never met Williams but she and I both had work published in the 2024 Nemadji Review at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. I was saddened when I heard about her death. Ellie’s Pursuit of the Mighty Fitzgerald is a lasting tribute to Williams and her talents as a writer.

[Ellie’s Pursuit of the Might Fitz, Mckenzie’s Mommy Publishing, October 2025, is available through Amazon and the National Museum of the Great Lakes.]

Book Reviews from My To-Be-Read Pile

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Haunted by my staggering To-Be-Read pile of books, I’ve been on a bigger reading kick than usual, so I’ve read lots of enjoyable books lately. As I finished each of the books that I review here, I would tell myself I should write a book review. But as soon as I had free time, I hooked up with another book from my T-B-R pile. So, I’m going to write some quick reviews of my recent reads.

Close to a Flame by Colleen Alles (Cornerstone Press, 2025) Colleen Alles is a Michigan writer, which is fitting since I read many of her short stories while visiting my mother in Petoskey, Michigan. Alles’s stories capture the ordinary lives of women as they move through life’s ups and downs. Her stories are often a nod to the importance, strength, and lasting endurance of friendships between women. Six of the stories in her collection follow two characters named Miriam and Jamie. I love how these M & J stories are interspersed throughout the collection. We meet M & J in Alles’s first story “Restoring Notre-Dame” while they are in college. They remain life-long friends. We are treated to their stories as they date, marry, have children, and move into middle age. In Alles’s final story “Christ at Heart’s Door,” Jamie has gone to stay with her aging mother for a week. Miriam is back home, but she’s only a phone call away. Alles’s six M & J stories create a wonderful story arc of their own. Besides the M & J stories, my other favorites were “Loggerhead,” “Cusping,” “Whisper Moment,” and “In Tandem.” These stories connected with me, three of them for their subtle humor and one for its undercurrent of horror. Even though I finished her book over a month ago, many of Alles’s stories have followed me around, especially “Christ at Heart’s Door.” Alles’s book was a well-deserved NIEA Finalist (National Indie Excellence Awards).

The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon (Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2025) John U. Bacon’s nonfiction book The Gales of November, released in 2025, coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Even though I was sixteen when the Fitzgerald sank, and I waited with thousands of people hoping there would be survivors, I’d never read a book about the Fitzgerald‘s sinking until I read The Gales of November. When it sank, I was living in Milwaukee, where the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, owners of the Fitz, is still located. Two years later I moved near Superior where the Fitz had taken on her last load of taconite a day before her sinking. In the early 1980s, I worked at President’s bar, mentioned several times in Bacon’s book. Over the years, I heard many stories about what might have happened to the Fitz. Some from my great-uncle, others from sailors who sailed the Great Lakes, including a couple of sailors who were on the Arthur M. Anderson the night the Fitz sunk. There were no survivors or captain’s logs to corroborate any of the stories. And while I’d read some articles about the Fitz over the years, I’d never read a book about its sinking. Then I read Cait Z’s blog review about Bacon’s book that stated,“This is excellent! What it isn’t is an exploitation of a disaster.” (Click on the quote to read Cait Z’s review.) I went to my local bookstore that day and bought the book. The Gales of November is everything Cait Z. said it would be. Readers learn about the Great Lakes, shipbuilding, the taconite industry, the life of sailors, the weather, a few other shipwrecks, and the families left behind after the Fitz‘s sinking. Bacon’s book is written with care and respect. I waited fifty years to read a book about the Edmund Fitzgerald and I’m glad I did. First, after fifty years and some underwater exploration, experts have more information about the Fitz‘s sinking. Second, I learned so much about the Great Lakes and the shipping industry. Finally, Bacon’s book — well written and well researched — is excellent. And everyone I’ve talked to who has read it agrees.

Montana Matrimonial News by Candace Simar (North Star Press, 2025) Candace Simar’s most recent novel is a group of connected stories about men and women who have come to live in the Dakota Territory as homesteaders in the 1880s. Simar paints a realistic picture of the harsh and lonely lives homesteaders lead as they farm their homesteads for the five years needed to claim the land as their own. Men and sometimes women advertise in the Montana Matrimonial News for a bride or groom. The novel starts with Digger and his brother George, who have been homesteading their claims for four long years, and they wonder if they have the fortitude to make it through their fifth year. They are desperately lonely and wish to marry. In other chapters we meet widowers and widows, some with children. We meet an unwed mother. We meet a pair of sisters who are homesteading separate claims. We meet two Civil War veterans who drink to quash the horrors of the war. And we meet Dr. Gamla, the thread who ties the stories together. She has a way of knowing who needs her medical services without being told. She offers cures for both the physically and emotionally wounded with her well-known catch phrase, “My cures work if you can stand them.” Candace Simar has written a richly detailed historical novel with vibrant, well-developed, distinctive characters who nearly walk off the pages. Her descriptive writing talents took me back to the 1880s in the Dakota Territory to the days of sod houses, prairie thunderstorms and blizzards, and waving oceans of prairie grasses. Her stories came to life in my head. [Note: I read most of Simar’s novel after receiving my COVID shot, which always makes me feel awful for a couple of days. Having her book to read was a soothing balm, making me forget about my discomfort.]

Beginnings: The Homeward Journey of Donovan Manypenny by Thomas D. Peacock (Holy Cow! Press, 2018) Donovan Manypenny, an Ojibwe from Red Cliff, Wisconsin, has had some tragedy and some joy in his life. He’s had some bad luck and some good luck. Left an orphan by his mother’s death, his grandparents have taken him into their home. They are kind and loving, but when Donovan is ten, first his grandmother dies, then his grandfather. Bad luck and good luck continue to follow Donovan for a brief time, with good luck and joy winning out. But Donovan ends up living over a thousand miles away from his Ojibwe people of Red Cliff. With the first sentence of his story, he tells us, “For over forty years I forgot I was native, Anishinaabe Ojibwe . . . .” In Massachusetts he has been content with his life as a teacher, happy in his marriage, and proud of his daughter. Then his daughter pleads with him to attend a Native American event combining Native storytelling and crafts. Something awakens in Donovan and he begins his homeward journey, taking his time along the way to visit places important to his Ojibwe people. Beautifully written, Thomas Peacock’s slender novel is a quiet, contemplative meditation on the meaning of belonging and family and of coming home to the place you were eventually meant to be.

Book Review: Blooming Hollyhocks: Tales of Joy During Hard Times by Naomi Helen Yaeger

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Naomi Helen Yaeger, in a delightfully engaging biography, tells the story of her mother Janette Yaeger (née Minehart) who grew up in Avoca, Minnesota. Yaeger spent hours interviewing her mother before her mother died. In her book, Yaeger lovingly recounts the stories of Janette and her siblings, parents, and extended family. Most of the book concentrates on Janette’s life from toddlerhood through young adulthood. However, toward the end of the book, Yaeger summarizes the key highlights of Janette’s and her family’s lives as they moved through adulthood. I’m glad Yaeger did this because after reading about the early lives of Janette and her family, I wanted to know what happened to them as adults.

Yaeger’s book invites readers into a bygone era. We learn about the history, culture, and lives of ordinary people who lived through the depression, WWII, and the Korean War. We read about their daily joys, disappointments, and sorrows. Usually, the history we are taught in school focuses on major events and well-known people. But I find the daily lives of people and how they lived while major historical events happened around them fascinating. And I learned a few things that I didn’t know before reading the book.

As I read Blooming Hollyhocks, I laughed and I cried. I felt connected to my own relatives who grew up in the same era as Yaeger’s. And I remembered the stories they had told me, often similar to the stories Janette Yaeger shared with her daughter Naomi. As I finished Yaeger’s book and closed it for the last time, I was already missing the Mineharts, their relatives, and their friends.

[When I attended Naomi Yaeger’s book launch, someone mentioned that Yaeger’s book would make a great present. After finishing her book, I wholeheartedly agree. If you know someone who lived through this time or grew up listening to the stories of relatives who lived through this time, I believe they would enjoy Yaeger’s book as much as I did.]