The Widow's Guild

The third book in Anna Castle's Francis Bacon Mystery series opens with Lady Alice Trumpington, "Trumpet," hastily arranging her marriage to the ill and elderly Ralph Gumery, Viscount Surdeval.  Friends Tom Clarady and Ben Whitt are invited to the wedding but Tom gets a special invitation to stay for the wedding night. Trumpet has plans to provide Surdeval with sons but through Tom. However, as much as Tom desires her, he will not sleep with Trumpet. In the morning they find Surdeval dead in his bed with a cross carved into his chest.  Surdeval's nephew enters the bedroom, sees Tom and Trumpet together, accuses them of murder and they are sent to the Tower. Barrister Francis Bacon's aunt, Lady Elizabeth Russell, hires him on behalf of the widow's guild that she runs, the Andromache Society, to defend Trumpet. Bacon soon learns that there are two other victims, all lords who were nominal Catholics and had crosses carved into their chests, and that their private chapels were robbed on the night of their deaths. He must determine why and how these lords were killed and whether the robberies are connected to the deaths.

I am enjoying reading this series with its well developed characters and information on the English legal system. With character Francis Bacon taking the lead in this novel, the reader learns how barristers are educated, the law on widows benefits, the selling of wardships, and who can be tortured for being Catholic.  Trumpet is an interesting character. She occasionally dresses as a male in order to publicly meet with friends Tom Clarady and Ben Whitt. In prior books she dressed as a man in order to attend law school with them. As a woman in Elizabethan England she was prohibited from attending school but almost finished her education before she got caught. I admire her spunk. She doesn't want to be married so she chooses an elderly, rich man as a husband with the plan that he will die soon after the marriage leaving her a wealthy widow who can live however she desires.

The Widow's Guild is a fabulous installment in the Francis Bacon series. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

Death by Disputation

Death by Disputation is the second novel in the Francis Bacon Mystery series by Anna Castle. It is 1587 and Francis Bacon is a fairly new barrister at Gray's Inn when he hires college boy Thomas Claraday to determine who the front man is for the Puritans at Cambridge University. Claraday transfers to Corpus Christi College at Cambridge to finish his bachelor's degree while he conducts his investigation. However, soon after his arrival he finds his tutor Bartholomew Leeds dead, hanging from the roof beam of their sleeping loft. Leeds' apparent suicide is quickly deemed a murder. Claraday then is also tasked with finding Leeds' killer.

As with the first book in the series, Murder by Misrule, the author has followed the mystery formula perfectly. The murder occurred early in the book, in fact on the first page, leaving the remainder of the book for solving the crime. Both the clues and red herrings also began on the first page and continued throughout the story to keep the reader interested. The book is written more like a straight mystery that just happens to occur in medieval times. It is not written in the style of a historical mystery.

Tom Claraday, the main character, gets himself into plenty of scrapes to keep the reader on their toes. He is a likable character who tries to fit in with his classmates all while he conducts an affair with his headmaster's wife, Margaret Eggerley. His initial suspect is Christopher Marlowe, a classmate who was asleep in a drunken stupor in the loft when Tom found the body. Tom cannot figure out whether Marlowe is with or against the Puritans and his suspected homosexuality connects him to Leeds, another suspected homosexual. Francis Bacon is not featured much in this installment of the series. It is really all about Tom, although Tom is required to write Bacon daily with his progress notes on the investigation. This is a little odd given that the series is called a Francis Bacon Mystery.

The historical aspect of the story was written well. The writing was done in contemporary English so the reader can get through the book quickly. The characters and descriptions were definitely Elizabethan and a few Elizabethan words were added to contribute to the mood.

Death by Disputation is an engrossing historical mystery and I highly recommend it.

Bad to the Bone

Bad to the Bone is the third book in a cozy mystery series called the Barkery and Biscuits Mysteries. It is the first one in the series that I have read.

The back cover blurb summarizes the book as follows:  "Veterinary technician Carrie Kennersley, owner of the Barkery and Biscuits Bakery for dogs, is reluctant to sell her recipes to pet food manufacturer VimPets. Jack Loroci, a VimPets representative, assures Carrie that it would be a great opportunity to grow her business. His promising new relationship with Carrie's friend Billi Matlock doesn't hurt his cause. But the budding romance takes a bad turn when Wanda Addler, another VimPets employee, sets her sights on Jack. After threatening to ruin Jack's career if he doesn't give her what she wants, Wanda is found dead. Jack and Billi are put at the top of the suspect list, and Carrie is doggone determined to rescue them from a life behind bars."

My initial impression was that something was lacking in the story but I wasn't sure what it was. The murder occurred early in the story.  The main character/amateur sleuth then had conversations with several people over the space of 100 pages concerning whether she should investigate the murder. I thought that was odd since this is a cozy mystery and the reader knows that the amateur sleuth is going to investigate. It was a waste of 100 pages. Once the investigation began, the amateur sleuth only performed witness interviews in her investigation. Again, I thought that was odd. Usually there is back story written in to the plot as well as research being done by one of the characters and an "aha" moment on the part of the main character. I finally realized that there was only dialogue in this novel. There was no other writing technique used to break up all that dialogue.

In addition, there were no clues pointing to who the killer was interspersed throughout the novel. There were no red herrings used either. The relationships between Carrie and her employees were not written into the story as you would normally see in this type of a cozy so the Barkery and Biscuit Shop connection to the plot was not fully formed. I thought that the final resolution to the murder wasn't plausible. Perhaps it's because of the aforementioned issues but in any event it was not a satisfying resolution of the murder.

The plot summary was interesting but there were too many shortcomings in Bad to the Bone. 2 out of 5 stars.

Book of the Month: October

My favorite book this month is I Was Their American Dream.  It made a huge impact on me and may even end up being my 2019 book of the year.

This book challenged my notions of what the American experience is and should be. I felt a little judgmental toward the author for how she made decisions for her life. I felt that I celebrated her heritage more than she did. I know that these feelings are wrong but that is why this book is so special. The author makes the reader think about what the American Dream is for each person. No person can define that for another and each person's definition seemed to me to be related to how long their family had been in the U.S.  When I consider how my friends view this definition, it is the same as mine.  Please read my review of the book here. I loved it and feel it is an important story to discuss.

There were several other books that were good enough to be book of the month for any month other than October. I read some great books such as Irmina, They called Us Enemy, A Fire Story and The Kinship of Secrets. What is amazing is that all of these books except one is a graphic novel. As the month passed I kept thinking that surely this book will be it, then that book. After reading I Was Their American Dream, I knew no other book would surpass it. 

The Time for Murder is Meow

This cozy mystery is the first installment of a new series featuring former actress and pet shop heiress Crishell McMillan. "Shell" inherited her shop, the Purr N Bark Pet Shop, from her grandmother.

The back cover blurb summarizes the plot as follows: "Crishell 'Shell' McMillan sees the cancellation of her TV series as a blessing in disguise. The former actress can now take over her late aunt's pet shop, the Purr N Bark, and do something she truly loves. While getting the shop ready for reopening, Shell is asked to loan her aunt's Cary Grant posters to the local museum for an exhibit. She finds the prospect exciting-until a Museum board member, who had a long-standing feud with Shell's aunt, votes against it. When she discovers the board member dead in the museum, Shell becomes suspect number one. Can she, her Siamese cat Kahlua, and her new sidekick-her aunt's Persian named Purrday-find the real culprit? If not, her latest career will go up in kitty litter."

The murder to be solved did not occur until page 100 of this 296 page book. For me, that is way too late for a whodunnit to be successful. Also, when a series is about a shop, the shop should be featured in the story. The Purr N Bark Pet Shop was rarely mentioned as it had not opened for business yet. The reader doesn't know what type of series this is going to be when the supposed setting for it has not been introduced. We don't  know the decor, the characters who work there, and how the business is woven into the sleuthing. I think this is a fatal flaw for the series but we shall wait and see what book number two turns out to be when it is published in 2020.  As for the two cats mentioned in the back cover blurb, they were only involved to greet the protagonist when she came home in the evening. I don't know why they were even mentioned in the blurb.

The main problem that I had with this book was that the conflict between the main character and her adversaries was based on an unrealistic premise.  I can forget the other problems with the book and see this as a stand alone novel. What I cannot do is get interested in a plot that is based on a person being upset that a charity will not allow her to exhibit her vintage movie posters on their premises. Any one who takes offense over something like that has psychologist issues. Unless the author wants to take us on a murderous rage, this plot falls flat.

2 out of 5 stars.

They Called Us Enemy

Former Star Trek actor George Takei wrote this graphic memoir about his family's experience being deported to an internment camp for Japanese Americans in the 1940s. Takei lived in two camps between the ages of four and eight. The story covers the moment the police knocked on his door to pick them up until they were released.

Takei is just four when his father wakes him and his younger brother up and tells them to get dressed quickly and wait for him in the living room. They board a bus, then train to their ultimate destination, the Rohwer Camp in Arkansas.  They initially spend time living in a horse stall at the Santa Anita Racetrack before being herded onto a train eastward to Arkansas. The author actually began kindergarten at Santa Anita. Takei felt it all was an adventure, as did the other kids who were traveling with their families.

The California Attorney General, Earl Warren, decided to follow the popular politics of the day to "lock up the Japs," as a way to become Governor. He succeeded (and later became Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) by stating that the lack of evidence against the Japanese Americans was actually evidence because they were inscrutable. They were "nonassimilable" and therefore "alien enemies."  Note that before the Pearl Harbor attack a person born in Japan could not become an American citizen. These arguments seemed cruel because if an immigrant is prohibited by law from becoming a citizen their hands were tied if a war broke out with their homeland. In the time period between the attack and the beginning of the internment the Japanese Americans were forced to sell their possessions at a a fraction of their value because the U. S. government froze their bank accounts and financial assets.

The family was only allowed to take what they could carry with them to the camp. They were forced to leave behind a two story home in Los Angeles and all of their possessions. They lived at Rohwer until the author's parents were designated "no-nos."  A "no-no" is a person who answered "no" to questions 27 and 28 on a mandatory questionnaire that was distributed to all of the prisoners at the camps. Most of the questions concerned relatives in Japan, criminal records, membership in organizations, foreign investments and magazine reading habits. Question 27 was "are you willing to serve in the armed forces on combat duty," and question 28 was "will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States..." The Japanese were outraged at the loyalty questions, particularly 28. 28 rested on the false premise that they had a racial allegiance to the emporer of Japan. Answering yes to this question meant that they had a loyalty to give up. The Takei family was then sent to one of the other ten internment camps, Tule Lake in Northern California. Tule Lake housed the most disloyal people and had tanks and three barbed wires around the camp to "protect" them.

This story was told well. It alternated between the 1940s and the present time period with the author speaking as a senior citizen about his internment. The detailed black and white drawings were done by Harmony Becker.  She advanced the story with her portraiture of the adults showing their emotions on their faces. With the kids being kids and finding fun everywhere, the seriousness of the internment is shown on the adults' faces and in their postures.

Takei correlates his experience with that of today's migrant children being kept in cages at our southern border. He has said in interviews that he understands how those children feel because he grew up isolated behind barbed wire. When Takei saw the pictures on TV of children being held in cages the old outrage he once felt reemerged. He decided to use a medium for telling his story that most of us first experienced as children-comic books-to help readers see it through the eyes of the child he once was.  I thought this was a brilliant idea.

I learned a few new facts about this part of American history and can see that it was close to being repeated with the Muslim ban and anti-immigration stance we have recently debated nationally. Takei's story is timely.

Highly recommended!

I Was Their American Dream

This graphic memoir by Malaka Gharib is a lovely autobiography covering the author's birth through her recent marriage. Gharib is a first generation American of Filipino Egyptian ancestry whose parents invested their lives in their children in pursuit of the American dream.

Growing up in Cerritos, California Gharib only knew other immigrant children. It was normal to ask her peers "what are you." Everyone talked about their heritage openly.  It was expected. Her family, however, were stuck in their country of origin, only serving ethnic foods at home and continued to follow the customs of the Philippines where Gharib's mother and siblings emigrated from. Her father was an Egyptian who returned there after divorcing Gharib's mother. Gharib then spent every summer in Egypt and picked up many of the attributes of the Egyptians.

When the author turned 16 she suddenly had a bunch of feelings about white people. She wanted to be white and have everything they had. Since she had not mentioned white people until the midway point, I was taken aback by her statements about them. Where did these ideas come from?  What made her think she had less? I did not think she had less. When it was time for college and a career she chose "white" schools and cities to live in. I was confused as most of the book heralded her ethnic origins. I heralded them along with her. I just didn't understand her choices when she became an adult. They contrasted with what I thought was a love of heritage.

The artwork style is primitive. It looks like a child created the drawings. The story is told well. The reader can feel Gharib's emotions as she tells each part of her life story. In addition, the way that she introduced her many family members was brilliant because it is difficult for readers to remember alot of characters. I had no problem getting to know every member of her extended family and remembering each person's idiosyncrasies. I enjoyed meeting her friends and classmates too.  All of these characters were memorable.

The author ended her book with a lifestyle that is more American than ethnic. I don't know what to think about that. Is it just the norm for first generation Americans to assimilate into society or is Gharib embarrassed by her ethnicity?

I loved this book. It is thought provoking concerning how to handle this thing called the American experience.  It should be required reading for all of us.

Trauma is Really Strange

Steve Haines, whose official bio states that he has worked in the healthcare industry for over 25 years, has written several graphic novels on health topics. In addition to this book on trauma he has addressed other topics such as anxiety and pain. None of these books are regular length graphic novels but rather are 15 to 20 pages long.

The stated goal of the book is to be a non-scary introduction to trauma.  However, I found it either nutty or very scary. Trauma is defined as something that happens to every person. I disagree. The author states that how a person reacts to it depends on how they reacted to the stress of their birth. "It can be a struggle, imprints of fighting, being stuck, disappearing or not getting the right help..." Disassociation is the biggest problem from trauma but since the author provided many examples of trauma that would end up causing dissociation, it seemed like it was the most common problem from trauma.  Again, I disagreed with his assessment and later wondered whether I just was unqualified to have this opinion. Perhaps the book was written for his profession, not the general public.

I googled the author and discovered that he is a chiropractor in Britain. I was shocked. He makes statements in the book that should only be made by a psychiatrist or a psychologist. He is not qualified to write a book on the psychology of trauma.

Another problem that I had with the book had to do with the author's acceptance of evolution. He referred several times to the reptilian part of our brain which is the oldest part of the brain. The brain stem, which controls our instinct, is the reptilian brain. The human brain is the neocortex part of the brain. I completely reject this idea that humans do not have a totally human brain.

When I bought the book I was surprised that it was so short. I hoped that it would at least be informative.  It was anything but informative. I am disappointed with it and rate it -10.  

Japanese Notebooks

Japanese Notebooks:  A Journey to the Empire of Signs is a graphic memoir by Igort, an Italian comics creator, who has traveled to Japan twenty times, lived there for a time and worked in its manga industry for ten years. It's a testament to his life long love affair with Japan. Igort shows how he learned to live and work in Japan, found inspiration from the cultural activities he participated in, as well as how the comics industry operates there.

This is a beautifully illustrated book.  Most of the drawings have been done in color and show the author immersing himself in Japanese culture and life. When he arrives in Tokyo he must adjust to living in the tiny 150 square foot apartment that he was given to live in. He then has a three and a half hour job interview.  Later he realizes that in Japan the interviewee should be the first person to stand up, signaling the end of the interview. In the west it's the opposite.  The Japanese thought that he was trying to negotiate a higher salary by not standing up and ending the interview. In his free time Igort visited Buddhist temples, gardens, tea shops, a sumo wrestling training place, and book stores. He discussed with his Japanese co-workers the samurai code, films, literature and manga, all subjects that he illustrated in his book. Toward the end Igort draws a memorial to several manga masters who have passed away.

The author wrote so lovingly about Japan that it captivated me too.  He makes the reader want to jump on a plane and visit the country at length. If that's not possible, there is this armchair traveler book called Japanese Notebooks.

Highly recommended!

Irmina

Irmina is the author's grandmother. She found a group of diaries and letters belonging to her late grandmother and pieced together this history, then created a graphic memoir of her grandmother's life.  The author was surprised to find how she changed radically from someone who asked many questions to a person who looked the other way. I was unaware of where this memoir would take me when I picked it up and was disturbed by the decisions Irmina made in her life. However, I did feel that she had no good choices to make until I read the Afterward concerning the Nazi experience for ordinary Germans.

In the opening of the book Irmina has just arrived in London from her native Germany to attend a school for foreign language secretaries. She excels at school but is aloof at the parties that she is invited to.  At one party she meets a black man from Barbados, Howard Green, who is  attending Oxford University. They become good friends and spend every possible moment together, despite the ugly looks they receive in public.  Howard is used to dealing with discrimination but Irmina is not.  However, Irmina herself has to deal with discrimination as her fellow students call her a Nazi in class and her English hosts call the Germans animals when discussing the war. Irmina is determined to stay in London after finishing school as that is where there are more opportunities for working women. When her family can no longer send her money she decides that she must return to Germany.

The only job Irmina can find in Germany is through a family friend.  She lands a job at the Ministry of War. She thinks that she can get a transfer to the London office but when that falls through Irmina marries Gregor Meinrich and has a child. Her husband is an architect who works for Goebbels but several years after their marriage Gregor tells Irmina that he is an SS Officer. Irmina is bored and wants to get a job but is told that they must present a united front so that Gregor can advance in his job. She agrees as Gregor is on the verge of getting a big contract from Goebbels. The contract never materializes and Gregor is gone from home often on SS duties. As architecture takes a back seat to the war, Gregor takes a military post to the eastern front where he is killed.

When I finished reading this book I felt sad for Irmina. She was never happy with her life. It seemed that she was always at the point of receiving something great in life but then having it disappear before  her eyes. While after the war she had a long career in school administration, the author does not show that she was happy with it.  Irmina was shown as someone that students were afraid of.  Her reunion with Howard at the conclusion of the book was unfulfilling for her.  He had moved on with his life but had not. It was sad.

The Afterward written by Dr. Alexander Korb explained Irmina's life. She made the same decisions German women of that era made.  She changed in the same way ordinary Germans changed as the Nazis came to power and then took over the country.  I had to reread the book after finishing the Afterward as I had missed many clues into Irmina's psyche.

Dr. Korb explained that the subject of the coexistence of terror and living everyday life, such as Irmina had to deal with, is still being examined today.  The Nazi's concept of Volksgemeinschaft, a promise of a better society for the common good, was not accepted by society at large.  Irmina did not feel obligated to make any sacrifices for what is supposed to be the common good as she only contributed to the "voluntary" Winter Relief when it was deducted from her paycheck.  She repeatedly asked close friends what Volksgemeinschaft could do for her.  In contrast, she was deemed to be an ethnic comrade who belonged in Germany by providing proof of her ancestry in order to get the job in the Ministry of War.  She didn't think twice about it.  The fact that she had no empathy for those who were persecuted by the regime actually facilitated her path into German society.  She never questioned the regime and accepted its benefits without reflection.  She attempted to position herself and her family to their best advantage although she did not participate in the enrichment of herself at the expense of the deported and murdered Jews.  Dr. Korb felt that this decision of hers was not due to her inner distance from events but due more to her social background, not wanting to lower herself to the level of the street.  I thought that this was an interesting comment as throughout the book Irmina had this inner distance from events that she did not like.

The matter of whether ordinary Germans were aware of the genocide of Jews is easy to answer.  Dr. Korb explains that every German citizen could know that it was happening.  This was a matter of having knowledge and suppressing knowledge.  The deportation of the Jews was visible.  When German citizens stated after the war that they did not know what was going on, it was an attempt to not be held accountable.  Hundreds of thousands of Germans in occupied territories in the east came in contact with the mass murder and there were widespread rumors about the Jewish genocide.  It was well known that when Jews were deported that they would not be returning. Irmina, who once shopped in a Jewish department store, shopped elsewhere and threatened to report a relative for discussing the gassing of the Jews.  She basically strengthened the Nazi propaganda by threatening her relative.

Irmina's life was tragic. Of course, not as tragic as others during this era.  The author was courageous to write about her grandmother's life. I doubt that I would publicly air the family skeletons. She did a fabulous job in telling this story and the Afterward was essential in explaining Irmina's decisions.

Irmina is a must read!

Drawn to Berlin

Drawn to Berlin is Ali Fitzgerald's memoir of teaching comic workshops in refugee shelters in Germany during 2015 and 2016. She is an American living in Berlin and many of the refugees are from Syria.  They have come to Europe in huge numbers seeking asylum. The story takes place at The Bubble, a refugee center in northern Berlin.

The refugees featured in the book surprisingly did not draw violent images from their former lives in Syria.  Instead they chose friendly subjects such as flowers and ships. Her discussions with them were different, though.  They were painfully sad. All had left loved ones behind and could not get in touch with them. Without the right papers, the German government will not allow them to obtain housing or jobs so they were stuck in the shelters unable to move forward for months or even years. While the Germans were welcoming initially, nationalism begins to rise in response to their fear of losing their culture.

The story is told in black and white  drawings.  They are not done in a style that I like but the since the story had depth it didn't bother me that much.

The historical connection between today and immigrants from 100 years ago as well as between Germany today and a century ago was interesting. A century ago Jewish refugees from pogroms in Russia came to Germany and had trouble getting settled. Also, a font that the Nazis used when writing their propaganda, called fraktur, had a renaissance after the Syrian refugees arrived. This font was never supposed to be used again after the end of World War II but nationalism has caused it to reappear. The author discussed several other connections between the present and the past that were fascinating.

Drawn to Berlin tells an important story in history.  While I had read news stories about these refugees in Germany, I never read anything from the refugees' perspective.  The author did a great job of presenting their story.

Lady Killer, Volume 1

I laughed hard while reading this dark comedy about a female serial killer.  Josie Schuller works as a killer for a syndicate and is the perfect homemaker at night. She is gorgeous and dresses well so no one suspects what she is up to.

The story opens with her as an Avon lady,  killing her client after offering her a lipstick. Then she gets a job in a nightclub, the Kitty Cat Lounge, where she dresses up as a cat to get close to a man her boss wants dead. She seems to love knives and messes which is not what you expect from a female killer.  Page after page Josie accepts jobs from her superior, a handsome man named Peck, and completes them within a day, all while looking picture perfect in her dream dresses.

There is a mystery to the story at the halfway point but I don't want to be a spoiler.  I understand that there are sequels to this book.  I will be looking for them because I loved this graphic novel. The author came up with a fresh, new idea with this female serial killer who kills like a man but enjoys domestic bliss.  It is worth a look for those readers who enjoy comics.

The Burning Chambers

The Burning Chambers takes place in France in the mid to late 1500s.  It is the first book in a trilogy about the Huguenot diaspora.  The plot concerns a disputed inheritance and a stolen religious relic, the Shroud of Antioch. The main characters are Marguerite "Minou" Joubert, the Catholic daughter of a bookseller, and Piet Reydon, a Huguenot soldier, who fall in love with each other.

This 575 page book seemed to drag on and on.  There were endless descriptions of the scenery, homes, inns, shops and clothing.  While I was interested in what was written, the plot was so slow that I did lose interest over time which is why it took me one month to finish this book.   The fact that I could summarize the plot in one sentence in the above paragraph is telling.  Not much happened here.  The premise for this trilogy is fascinating.  The how-to of the writing needs work.  A little less explanation and more action would be better.

If you like reading about atmosphere, this book is for you.  The author gives a fascinating description of the atmosphere of this period in French history.  However, if a book has no action, it's a little boring.