A Column of Fire

Ken Follett's latest novel takes place primarily in England between 1558 and 1620. The story stretches to Scotland, Paris, Seville, the Caribbean, Cadiz, Geneva and Antwerp.  It is the third book in the author's Kingsbridge series which began with The Pillars of the Earth and continued with World Without End.  The story is not about building as its prequels were. This one concerns the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in England and on the European continent but mostly in England. The two groups viciously battle for political power to make their religion the state religion. Then there are those who favor religious tolerance.

I started the book in August and put it down three times before finishing it yesterday. Its 900 pages did not deter me but some of the characters and their stories did not interest me as much as others. Ned Willard was the main character and the most sympathetic. His family and the Fitzgerald family were the two main families in the book. Ned fell in love with Margery Fitzgerald as a teen but her parents betrothed her to an aristocratic family. He was not a legitimate match for her. Ned ends up working for Princess Elizabeth, later Queen, as a spymaster and his life story is unique. His brother Barney became a sailor, traveled to Spain and the Caribbean. His story did not interest me as much nor did the characters that supported him. Margery's brother, husband and father-in-law were some of the nasty characters who took advantage of the Willards whenever possible. The Fitzgeralds were Catholic and the Willards were Protestant. The French connection provided a lot of political drama and added suspense to the plot.

The plot moved all over the place. It wasn't just the Willards versus the Fitzgeralds. There were many characters to keep track of. I think some were only present for 50 pages. Perhaps there were too many for one book. Do I really need the life story of every one of them? I guess that's why I got bored from time to time. For that reason I can only rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Publish and Perish

Publish and Perish is the the 4th Francis Bacon Mystery. It takes place in 1589 when Francis Bacon is 28. The story concerns a year long war of words between a Puritan pamphleteer Martin Marprelate and several of England's more famous writers of that era. When 2 writers are murdered Lord Burghley asks Francis Bacon to find out who the killer is, a task made difficult by the fact that no one knows the identity of Martin Marprelate. Bacon enlists the assistance of his clerk Tom Clarady to help him solve the crimes.

I have come to love the regular characters in this series. Bacon is still a young barrister here but his intellect is getting noticed by the Crown. Tom Clarady is a lovable character.  He is a witty, 20 year old, bar hopping lady's man. His buddies Tom Nashe and Christopher Marlowe make a great crime solving threesome or just a fun night out at the tavern. They have a female friend Alice Trumpington who they call Trumpet who adds a delicious flavor to this group of friends. She is known to dress as a man so that she can travel the streets of London freely. These four friends are a riot when they get together. Bacon's mother and aunt, both ardent Christian reformers, play a prominent role in this installment of the series. Both are well educated, wealthy widows who basically do whatever they want.

Publish and Perish, and all the earlier books in the series, is written with suspense. Clarady and his pals run into dilemma after dilemma and its not just about solving the crimes. Trumpet needs to marry but also needs to turn away suitors. Clarady is now a ward of the Crown since his father died and has to file a lawsuit in order to obtain his inheritance. Nashe cannot get work. Bacon thinks his cousin might be the killer but wonders if he is just angry that his cousin has received every advantage in life. Both Bacon and Clarady return to the same group of suspects several times. They are stumped with this case and finally decide they must determine who Martin Marprelate is first before determining who killed the writers.

The Marprelate Controversy actually happened. In the author's Afterward she wrote that the Puritans wanted to replace the religious aristocracy of the church with religious democracy. The Crown looked upon that viewpoint as treason but was still never able to figure out Marprelate's identity. Over time 22 people were suggested to be him, but all of them denied it.

5 out of 5 stars!

The Column of Burning Spices

Book two in the Hildegard of Bingen duology was just as riveting as the first. I read both books in one day! The Column of Burning Spices opens in the year 1143 with Hildegard opening a letter from Abbott Bernard of Clairvaux. He has read a chapter on the trinity in a book that she penned and he approves of it.  At this point in her monastic life Hildegard is trying to find a way for her Order to leave St. Disibod's Monastery so that they can live independently from male rule over their lives.  Prior Helenger continues to interfere with her desire to work as a physician and as a writer and has acted more boldly since he expects to succeed the ailing Abbott Kuno. She has been saving money for years to start her own foundation and needs the approval of powerful men in the church such as Abbott Bernard in order to make that goal a reality.

What Hildegard doesn't know is that Abbott Kuno wrote the Pope to inquire whether it was appropriate for her to write on matters of faith since the Bible states that women should not be teachers. Before sending a group of messengers to St. Disibod to observe Hildegard, Pope Eugenius asks an assistant "Who is this woman who rises out of the wilderness like a column of smoke from burning spices?" He has also heard from his friend Abbott Bernard of Clairvaux that he has encouraged Hildegard to continue to write and does not know whose opinion to accept, Kuno's or Bernard's? What I would call an unstable part of church history begins here as popes, anti-popes, bishops, and archbishops rise and fall frequently enough to stall Hildegard's plans to obtain a charter for her foundation and convent.

I was enthralled with this series. I didn't know much about Hildegard or the time period before reading the duology. Fortunately the author is well versed in the Middle Ages. This duology may well be my favorite series of the year, such as the Empress of the Bright Moon duology was for me in 2017. It's a series that just grabs your attention from the first pages and while it is historical fiction, it is also written with suspense.  I highly recommend it.

The Greenest Branch

The Greenest Branch is the first book in a duology by P. K. Adams on Germany's first female physician Hildegard of Bingen.  The title is taken from one of the many chants that Hildegard composed "o veridissima virga."

The story begins the night before Hildegard's enclosure to the convent at St. Disibod in the year 1115.  While her parents are following the custom of tithing their tenth child to the church, they are awake all night discussing whether it's the right time. Her mother feels that at age 10 she is too young to leave home for the restricted environment of an anchorite convent. Anchorites stay secluded in one building and never leave.  Hildegard's father seems more concerned with saving money by giving his daughter to a smaller monastery.  Hildegard has only been told that monasteries are places of learning and since she wants an education she is excited about her prospects. When her parents leave her there the next day she is shocked by her fate. She is not allowed to take monastic classes nor is she allowed to use the library.

A few months later Hildegard succumbs to one of her spells, probably migraines, which lands her in the infirmary for two months. Abbott Kuno and Brother Wigbert, a physician trained in Salerno, decide that the rigors of being an anchoress are too harsh for her young years and she is allowed to remain in the infirmary and work as Wigbert's assistant. There she thrives. By asking to be taught Latin and to read medical texts she begins to be educated as a physician in her own right.  However, none of that happens without the constant interference from the prior Helenger. He does not approve of her working in the infirmary, reading anything other than the psalter, or even being let outside the convent.

I loved this novel and learned so much about church history as well as Hildegard herself. I did not know that the Holy Roman Empire and the Church were ruled by different emporers, popes and anti-popes simultaneously or that any of them were German.  Many changes in these offices occurred during our heroine's life that it was dizzying. The author's knowledge of the Middle Ages is incredible and she was able to give the reader her knowledge with an expert blend of narration and dialogue.

I was rather surprised that couples tithed children to the church and I think that surprised me more than how much Hildegard was able to accomplish as a woman for the era that she lived in. Obviously she was a money machine for the monastery. Still, she was doing a man's job in a man's world in the twelfth century.

I only wish I had read this book before. Book number two is on my kindle and I am starting it...now!

The Blue

Nancy Bilyeau's The Blue is her 4th historical fiction novel.  It takes place in England in the 18th century.

London painter Genevieve Planche wants to become a fine artist but cannot find a mentor because she is a female. Her grandfather wants her to move to Derby and paint porcelains in the Derby Porcelain Works as a career.  When Genevieve meets Gabriel Courtenay at a party he makes her an offer that she cannot refuse. She agrees to go to Derby as a spy for him to obtain information on the chemist working there who is known to be creating a brand new blue color. In exchange he will pay for Genevieve to travel to Venice to live and study as a serious artist.

What initially attracted me to this book was the gorgeous cover. Sadly, the author did not include the name of the book cover artist in her acknowledgements. I would love to know who came up with the design.

The background information on the importance of porcelain during this time period was exciting. The two manufacturers mentioned in the story, Derby and Sevres in France, were real companies of the era and were so competitive that at times the story read more like a spy novel than a historical fiction novel. These companies took their security services seriously and the French had a spy group called Le Secret du Roi that reported directly to the King. Employees of the companies were closely watched to ensure that they gave no secrets away and were not spies themselves.

The story is also a romantic one. Genevieve falls in love along the way and since I don't want to be a spoiler, I will say no more.

5 out of 5 stars!

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.