Wrap Up of then 2024 What's In a Name Challenge

Six Books are all that participants are required to read for this challenge. You get to choose books from the following categories. 

double letters:  The Blue Monsoon by Dimyanti Bissau

an  NFL team: The Raven's Widow by Adrienne Dillard

a virtue:  Oath and Honor by Elizabeth Cheney

a shape:  The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan

footwear:  The Body in the Boot:  Patrick Walsh

a natural disaster:  The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough

Favorite Book:  The Body in the Boot 

Second Favorite Book:  The Blue Monsoon

Least Favorite Book:  The Johnstown Flood 

The Johnstown Flood

The Johnstown Flood was published in 1987. While I love anything David McCullough has written, I skipped this one at the time of publication because it sounded too serious. I wasn't sure that I would enjoy a book on the history of a flood. The What's in a Name Challenge convinced me to read it. I needed to read a book for the category of a natural disaster. The Johnstown Flood is a story of one of America’s great disasters, a preventable tragedy of Gilded Age America.

The publisher's summary:

At the end of the nineteenth century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation’s burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.

Graced by David McCullough’s remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing, classic portrait of life in nineteenth-century America, of overweening confidence, of energy, and of tragedy. It also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.

OMG this book was boring. As I mentioned above I was not sure if I would like a book about a flood. However, every review that I read gave glowing remarks. I skipped many pages in the first third of the book. All I read here was descriptions of buildings and nature. There was no human story. As the flood began to happen the book became much more interesting. 

The City of Johnstown received funds from all over the country in order to rebuild. Private citizens as well as businesses mailed money. Just as people today donate monies to aid natural disaster victims, the citizens of the U. S. acted similarly in 1889. It must be part of the human spirit to provide assistance when it is necessary. Likewise, there was a fair amount of travelers to Johnstown to see what was left of the town and reporters published false reports about the disaster just as they do today. Preachers can't help themselves from preaching hellfire. Gossip prevails as people never change. 

There are photos at the back of the book of Johnstown both before and after the flood. It is easy to see how the coastline changed following the disaster but also that the construction of homes close to the water was a bad idea. Similarly, in the 1990s the Mississippi River flooded coastal Illinois and homes built in the flood zone were destroyed. I never understood why people bought these homes in the first place. They disregarded the physicality of the area just to have a waterfront home for a few years. 

I had to skip alot of pages to finish this book. I am rating it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle

I have wanted to read The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle for awhile now. The What's in a Name Challenge gave me the impetus to get a copy. The book meets the challenge requirements for the shape category and it was fantastic. The story concerns three women who lift the spirits of home-front brides in wartime Britain. Cloth rationing had left the brides with zero opportunity for getting a wedding dress so this group of friends begin asking for old gowns that they could mend for new brides. This story is based on a true event.

The publisher's summary:

After renowned fashion designer Cressida Westcott loses both her home and her design house in the London Blitz, she has nowhere to go but the family manor house she fled decades ago. Praying that her niece and nephew will be more hospitable than her brother had been, she arrives with nothing but the clothes she stands in, at a loss as to how to rebuild her business while staying in a quaint country village.

Her niece, Violet Westcott, is thrilled that her famous aunt is coming to stay—the village has been interminably dull with all the men off fighting. But just as Cressida arrives, so does Violet’s conscription letter. It couldn’t have come at a worse time; how will she ever find a suitably aristocratic husband if she has to spend her days wearing a frumpy uniform and doing war work?

Meanwhile, the local vicar’s daughter, Grace Carlisle, is trying in vain to repair her mother’s gown, her only chance of a white wedding. When Cressida Westcott appears at the local Sewing Circle meeting, Grace asks for her help—but Cressida has much more to teach the ladies than just simple sewing skills.

Before long, Cressida’s spirit and ambition galvanizes the village group into action, and they find themselves mending wedding dresses not only for local brides, but for brides across the country. And as the women dedicate themselves to helping others celebrate love, they might even manage to find it for themselves.

I loved this novel! It is a heartwarming WWII story about how the women left behind coped with shortages and rationing. The focus of the story is the challenging shortages of clothes during the war. The story had an alternating point of view. There are chapters told from Grace, Cresdida and Violet’s perspective. Each woman grew exponentially during the war with Cressida’s encouragement that they find their own path. At that time in the world women did what they were told by their fathers. Their happiness wasn't considered in choosing a husband.

Grace, Violet and Cressida each had romantic interests. While it may have been predictable who they ultimately ended up with, I wondered about the thought process each character would have to go through in order to ascertain what they really wanted in life. As a seamstress myself, I love that as they grew in sewing skills they grew in confidence to make changes in their lives. Actually making those changes was difficult. Their predicament was whether to choose a different path than the men in their life dictated. It was exciting to read how Grace, Violet and Cressida grew in confidence to demand the life of their choosing.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Raven's Widow

The Raven's Widow is a historical biography of Jane Boleyn. Her sister-in-law was Anne Boleyn who became Henry VIII's wife. It was published in September 2022. I selected the book for the What's in a Name Challenge under the NFL Team category.

The publisher's summary: 

Jane Parker never dreamed her marriage into the Boleyn family would raise her star to such dizzying heights. Before long, she finds herself as trusted servant and confidante to her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn—King Henry VIII’s second queen. On a gorgeous spring day, that golden era is cut short by the swing of a sword. Jane is unmoored by the tragic death of her husband, George, and the loss sets her on a reckless path leading to her own imprisonment in the Tower of London. Surrounded by the remnants of her former life, Jane must come to terms with her actions. In the Tower, she will face up to who she really is and how everything went so wrong.

This was such a compelling story! I did not know much about Jane Boleyn before reading this story. The author, Adrienne Dillard, added articles before it began and at the end giving the historical record concerning her. Basically, not much is known about Jane. There has been false information published about her in the past 20 years which Dillard corrects. That said, she has created a Jane Parker Boleyn character as a sympathetic as well as a dramatic figure. 

In this novel, (SPOILER ALERT) Jane stays true to her convictions. She continues to serve Queen Catherine while her sister-in-law Anne is flirting with Henry. After Catherine is removed from the palace Jane's husband, George Boleyn, convinces her to support Anne. Family ties are important not only to Jane but also to the rest of the Boleyn family. Jane continues to support Anne even after she is arrested and placed in the Tower of London. Jane escapes the death penalty while her sister-in-law and George are executed on the same day. Jane is assigned to serve the next queen Katherine Howard. 5 years later she must decide whether to save her life or tell the truth about Katherine. Jane does both but is sentenced to death anyway even though no one believes that she is guilty of treason. 

I liked this Jane. She was honest to a fault. Dillard did a fine job presenting her as this sympathetic character. Although the only real facts about Jane are that she married and cohabited with George for their ten year marriage, I like that Dillard wrote a novel correcting the historical record of Jane as a power hungry woman who hated her husband.

5 out of 5 stars. 

The Body in the Boot

The Body in the Boot was published in 2015 and is the first book in the Mac Maguire Mysteries by Patrick Walsh. I picked it for the What's in a Name Challenge under the footwear category.

The story follows Mac Maguire who had been the head of a London Murder Squad six months before the story began. He was a policeman renowned for his skill in solving the most difficult cases. Now a private detective and, after bereavement and pain, he doubts himself and is no longer sure if he has the will or the energy to make a success of his new career. His first case comes by chance as a mother’s grief sends him into a town’s red light district to find out how her daughter died. Lo and behold after a day in the morgue the coroner discovers that the daughter is still alive but in a deep hibernation sleep. Mac soon finds himself working with a team of local police detectives who are hot on the trail of a cold-blooded serial killer. Mac has to dig deep and rediscover all his talents in order to solve the case of The Body in the Boot.

When I began reading this novel, my expectations were low but only because I have never heard of the author or the book. I was sorely wrong! The story was one of the most exciting I have read in awhile. The tension was taut with twists galore as one dead body after another kept piling up.

There are 13 installments of this series to date and I am going to read them all. Author Patrick Walsh's character Mac Maguire is based on himself. Walsh suffers from chronic back pain and he wrote this trait into his character. I, too, suffer from chronic back pain and could relate to how Mac dealt with pain on the job. He was frequently laying down for an hour just as I do. I love that this character has a mobility disability. Walsh also writes the DI Biddie O'Sullivan mystery series. He lives in Birmingham, England where Mac Maguire also resides.

5 out of 5 stars.

Oath and Honor

I don't typically read political books. Liz Cheney's memoir Oath and Honor is an exception. It is a gripping first-hand account of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection from inside the halls of Congress. While I am familiar with her efforts on behalf of the January 6 Congressional Committee, I wondered whether there would be any new information in the book.

The publisher's summary:

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol.   Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face.

 

I should say up front for transparency's sake that I do not like Donald Trump. Never have, never will. This book is quite insightful on what happened in Washington DC both before, during and after January 6. While I kept myself up to date on news stories during this time period, the author has given new information about what happened on that day inside the congressional chambers. I will not be a spoiler here. Aside from these tidbits most of the information was not new to me. I followed the House January 6 Committee work diligently. However, the book will be a great reference for future generations of Americans who will not have lived through this part of our history.

3 out of 5 stars.

The Blue Monsoon

The Blue Monsoon is the second book in the Mumbai Blue crime thriller series. In this installment of the series Senior Inspector Arnav Singh Rajput has to find a serial killer who leaves his victims spreadeagle and castrated at the entrance to Hindu temples with their faces cut beyond recognition. Drawn into their flesh are symbols of a tantra cult. He also must deal with friction within the caste system. His own associate will not investigate premises that are owned by lower castes. While the victims are from different castes so are the suspects and none of them want to be associated with each other. A video of the first murder is uploaded onto the account of a Bollywood social media influencer and millions of people had viewed it before her social media accounts were suspended. The desecration of this body at a Hindu place of worship puts the city on edge and divides Arnav’s priorities: stopping a fanatic from killing again and caring for his wife who’s struggling through a challenging pregnancy. If you’ve read the first book in the series, The Blue Bar, you will remember that Arnav Singh Rajput married his wife Tara, after she became paralyzed.

The setting was the weather. The story takes place during the monsoon season and the rain is mentioned on almost every page. I never knew much about monsoons but have learned that they are rain showers where the flood waters can reach up to a person's knees. It is impossible to remain dry when you walk from a car to inside a building and the characters' clothes stayed damp all day with mud splattered all over them. Of course, this makes keeping a crime scene dry near impossible. However, Arnav and his fellow inspectors had no problems reading the crime scenes. The monsoon atmosphere takes the reader to Mumbai in July and I could almost feel my arthritis kicking in when I read about the characters always being damp from coming inside from the rain.

I love the main character Arnav. He seems to be a realistic guy. Arnav's relationship with his wife and daughter resemble families we all know. While he has a good relationship with both, he feels the usual aggravation from them that all couples must deal with. Arnav makes mistakes but doesn't become angry when they happen and he always admits making mistakes when he is called on the carpet. When he gets caught speaking white lies, he always admits doing so and you think that these admissions will result in a change in the plot. Instead, after the admission of guilt, Arnav takes the plot somewhere else.  I also love that he chose an outspoken woman as his wife. Tara continues to push all his buttons even though she is totally dependent on him for care and support.

Mystery lovers who have not read the series yet should begin with the first book, The Blue Bar.  I was just as good as this one and I highly recommend it.  5 out of 5 stars. 

2024 What’s In A Name Challenge

I am excited that the What’s in a Name Reading Challenge is on again for 2024. In years past, this challenge was hosted by Charlie at The Worm Hole. Andrea at the Carolina Book Nook blog took over in 2019 and will host the challenge again.

Challenge Rules:

1)     The challenge runs from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. You can sign up any time, but only count books that you read between those dates.

2)     Read a book in any format (hard copy, ebook, audio) with a title that fits into each category.

3)     Don’t use the same book for more than one category.

4)     Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed, it’s encouraged!

5)     You can choose your books as you go or make a list ahead of time.

6)     Sign up using the Mr Linky on the challenge post.

7)     In 2024, choose 6 books that have titles that contain:

Double letters

An NFL team

A natural disaster

A virtue

A shape

Footwear

This challenge has been going on 17 years already! It's exciting to participate again.