The Baker's Daughter, by Sarah McCoy

THE BAKER’S DAUGHTER
Sarah McCoy
Crown Publishers
January 2012,
$23.00, Hardcover
304 pages, 978-0307460189.








In 1944, Elsie Schmidt accompanies a German officer to an official Nazi party given on Christmas Eve in Garmisch, Germany during World War II. Elsie, a baker’s daughter is a bundle of nerves yet lighthearted as her date, Herr Josef Hubb arrives. Many surprises greet Elsie at the party. She is accosted by drunk and vile officer with lascivious intentions. Fortunately she is saved when a young boy who had just finished singing for the Germans interrupts the crime. The boy’s name is Tobias, a Jew. Also during the evening Josef stuns Elsie with a marriage proposal and presents her with an exquisite engagement ring. Josef will have to wait for Elsie’s answer. She becomes suspicious and curious when she discovers some barely visible Hebrew letters nearly etched away on the inside band. She has heard stories about camps and confiscation of property, but would Josef be involved? Later in the evening she is surprised again when Tobias arrives at her back door, he has escaped. With no time to spare, Elsie decides to hide the boy, even though the risk of death at the hands of the ruthless Gestapo is chilling.

Reba Adams is a journalist for a local magazine in El Paso, Texas, in 2007. Her assignment is to research and write about ways various cultures celebrate Christmas. She attempts to interview the elderly woman who owns Elsie’s German Bakery with little success. Finally after meeting Elsie’s daughter Jane at the bakery, she is introduced to the feisty, outspoken, hard working Elsie. Ironically, Reba wears the engagement ring her boyfriend Riki gave her around her neck, still unable to commit to marriage. Riki works for the Border Patrol along the Texas/Mexican border, assigned to capture and return of illegal aliens.

Sarah McCoy has written and expansive, multi-generational family history that is intricately complex. The result is a deep and satisfying story that involves a clever strategy of interconnected lives. Many parallels between characters over time and place become apparent. The reader is pulled across the decades with this writer’s clever craft as you follow Elsie at age seventeen in 1944, to Elsie’s life in Texas at seventy-nine. Family secrets, courage, love and forgiveness are themes that resonate throughout this richly well written novel with boundless depth that will pull the reader forward.

On a personal note: I was a captive reader unable to put it down, reluctant to see this story end.
Thanks to the author for a welcomed legacy from Elsie’s bakery: a warm encore. This will be a top pick for Bookworm’s Dinner in 2012.


Wisteria Leigh
Sunday, April 1, 2012

Disclosure: This book was won in a giveaway through Read It Forward. Many thanks.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].

Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall

Blue Asylum
Kathy Hepinstall
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012),
$24.00, Kindle $15.50
Hardcover, 288 pages, 0547712073





Iris Dunleavy is the wife of a souther plantation owner. She is duped into the belief that her husband’s slave labor would be temporary, a “necessary evil”. However, she is a vociferous and recalcitrant partner in the marriage, an image contrary to proper behavior in Southern society. When she witnesses the brutal treatment of a young slave, she is unable to stand the torture. She throws herself in front of the bloodied youth to prevent further lashes of the whip. This does not bode well with her husband and he reprimands her. Later, when she helps a group of slaves to escape, her husband is infuriated and convinces a Virginia judge to declare her insane. She is sent to Sanibel Asylum, to be rehabilitated into a more compliant wife, cooperative and gentile.

While there, she meets many patients, some insane others questionable. Her friendship with her doctor’s son is sweet and helps her to manage the long days. Iris knows she does not belong at Sanibel and refuses to cooperate. and provides a constant challenge to her doctor and staff. Considered a modern, state of the art facility, Iris is not convinced. When she suffers an inhumane water therapy treatment given to uncontrollable patients she seethes with anger.While there she meets a Civil War soldier who suffers flashbacks and fits that are only soothed by the color blue. Iris falls in love with Ambrose and begins to think about a different future.

Kathy Hepinstall is brilliant with characterization and her novel offers a memorable cast. My favorite person is an older woman inmate who suffers from an unusual eating disorder. While this novel is intensely serious and provides a setting that is the dark reality common at institutions of this time period, Hepinstall manages to relieve the readers with short respites of humor. Without giving away too much, a much anticipated meal of lamb becomes a disappointment to all, except the doctor’s son. Hysterical moment with hysteria at Sanibel.

This was my first experience reading anything by Kathy Hepinstall, however after reading Blue Asylum I will have to catch up. She certainly captured my interest as Blue Asylum kept my Kindle in constant use. Anyone interested in the rights of women, and the social inequities that was prevalent during the late 19th century will embrace this with zeal. Kathy Hepinstall has a fluid style, a natural cadence to her writing with an intriguing plot.
Fabulous historical fiction that will satisfy anyone interested in the social reform movement of this time period and the freedom and rights of all. A novel deserving much praise.

Wisteria Leigh
Saturday, March 31, 2012

Disclosure: This kindle edition was made available at no charge to me via Net Galley at www.netgalley.com


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].

Review: ROBIN: LADY OF LEGEND by R.M. ArceJaeger

 

ROBIN: LADY OF LEGEND, (The Untold Adventures of the Girl Who Became Robin Hood)

R.M. ArceJaeger

Amazon Kindle Edition, ASIN-B006SFN4GI

Platypus Press, (505KB)

January 2012.

Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous retell of the classic story Robin Hood, but this time the role of Robin Hood is a girl. Robin is the recalcitrant, headstrong daughter of Lord Robert of Locksley.  She has no recollection of a warm loving father.  She has little contact with him, he is distant and reclusive, preferring to ignore his two daughters.  Then one day she is summoned to meet with her father. With cautious trepidation she arrives in his study.

He begins by stating the obvious, that it is her birthday. However, he is unable to recall that she is eighteen, not seventeen, and Robin politely corrects him. Without delay her father announces he has a surprise for her that he will reveal at her birthday feast. During the celebration she accepts a dance with a man who introduces himself as Phillip. He roughly pulls her close with arrogance and Robin is revolted by his acrid breath and demeanor. Once the music stops, Robin is further repelled when he kisses her on the lips. Some time later, her father announces her birthday surprise. It is the engagement of his daughter Robin to Phillip Darniel, the Sherriff of Nottingham. Robin is loath to accept Phillip, and is shocked with disbelief.

It is this situation that leads to her plan.  She will never agree to this marriage. With skill, determination and cunning Robin of Locksley, expert archer, transforms herself into a young boy.

R.M. ArceJaeger crafts the retelling of the classic Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest with the substitution of Robin, a women heroine.   She honors the classic by keeping the original characters, but the adventures are more complicated with a woman leading her band of outlaws.  I for one am delighted that this Robin gives young girls a role model that isn't dressed as the beautiful helpless princess. The story is most suitable for YA audiences and adults due to some mature content. Place is easily envisioned with the author's ability to capture mood and setting with precise descriptive prose.

Honestly, I couldn't put my Kindle down. I read this one in one afternoon at lightening speed. ROBIN LADY OF LEGEND will captivate readers with start to finish action adventure that certainly complements the original.

 Disclaimer: A Kindle Edition of this book was sent digitally for my review. This review is my honest opinion without bias for any reason.

Reference Links: http://rmarcejaeger.com

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].

Disclaimer: A Kindle Edition of this book was sent digitally for my review. This review is my honest opinion without bias for any reason.

 

Read Across America Day at School

We Speak For The Trees!

Here I am (on left in orange) with a colleague as we greeted the students entering the building this morning. 

It was a blast at school today as our community celebrated READING.
Students and staff dressed up as their favorite Dr. Seuss characters. Truffula trees were everywhere...as you can see.

http://www.readacrossamerica.org/

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
Rebecca Skloot
978-1-400005217-2
Crown Publishers, 2010, $26.00
HC, 370 Pages







It was during the 1950’s at John Hopkins Hospital that HeLa cells began to grow. The donor of the cells was unaware that a specimen was taken from her. She was unaware that she had only a short time to live. She was unaware that the future of medicine would owe so much to her. Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920, delivered in a shack, she was the ninth child. Her family farmed tobacco on the same land where her ancestors were slaves.

I recently read, THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS. Although it was published a while ago, I had heard high praise and affirmations everywhere. It has been on top reviewers lists and the blog world has been abuzz. This is a book you will want to read again, or skim back over chapters and passages that were just unimaginable...emotionally gripping. The truth so chilling and bizarre you will find your mouth drop in disbelief.

Rebecca Skloot, is a tenacious and strong-willed writer with compassion and understanding that compliments her drive for success. It is to her credit that she was able to craft such a spellbinding non-fiction account of the life of Henrietta Lacks.

It surprised me that I had no idea who Henrietta Lacks was. It surprised me that her story had never been fully realized. It surprised me that a medical book about cells and bioethics would even interest me. It surprised me as I began this book, that I simply couldn’t put it down. Rebecca Skloot shapes an absorbing story based on intense research sifting through primary documents and her candid and empathetic interviews with Lacks family. Astonishing truths about race relations in the medical field and the unacceptable covert practices that took place are chilling. It is a tribute to the author’s humanity that she so honored Henrietta Lacks’ family and gained their trust and friendship in order to help finally tell the story of the woman who made such a spectacular medical contribution that continues over 60 years beyond her own death.

A look back to this era when it was commonplace to use patients as subjects of experiments, whether African American or other marginalized members of society is still eerie to me-hard to conceptualize. Through our twenty-first century eyes the book reads more like a science fiction novel. I embrace THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, with highest praise. Rebecca Skloot’s story is unnerving non-fiction, a bold accomplishment.

Disclaimer: I purchased the copy of this book. 


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].

Join us for national Boycott Skechers weekend

Join us for national Boycott Skechers weekend

ASPCA | Skechers Super Bowl Ad Promotes Greyhound Racing

ASPCA | Skechers Super Bowl Ad Promotes Greyhound Racing

New from Galt-Greyhound Adoption League of Texas

 
 This was recently produced and published to You Tube by GALT, an adoption organization doing great work in Texas.  I have seen many movies produced about greyhounds and their situations....this one in my opinion is exceptional.  Thanks to GALT and all the adoption groups who give tirelessly to give greyhounds a better life.



Locally, those looking to adopt a greyhound or donate can also go to Greyhound Rescue and Rehabilitation. 


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012]. 

Petition to Stop Ad to Air on Super Bowl Promoting Dog Racing!!!!

Skechers is planning to air an ad during the Super Bowl that advocates greyhound dog racing. Please go to the Grey 2 K site and help stop the cruelty to greyhounds. Help in any way you can. You can start by signing a petition to stop the Super Bowl ad. If you have ever seen a racetrack dog kennel and the horrible conditions these poor hounds must endure, you know what I mean. If not...take a look at this undercover report featured on the Grey 2K website of a kennel in Tucson, AZ.  This is unfortunately very typical of a greyhound's life as a racer.

 

http://www.grey2kusa.org/boycottskechers/

 

Thank you for your interest. 

Here is a recent picture from the holidays of my two boys, Lion and Wizard. They were both adopted by me from the track when their racing life was finished.  

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].

Happy New Year Everyone!

Wishes to all my blogger friends for a GREYT New Year!!!

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].