The Spectacular

The Spectacular was written by one of my favorite authors, Fiona Davis. I loved her Magnolia Palace and had high expectations for her newest release. It is a thrilling story about love, sacrifice, and the pursuit of dreams, set amidst the glamour and glitz of Radio City Music Hall. It was published on June 13, 2023.

The publisher's summary: 

New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her high school sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they’d have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes—the glamorous precision-dancing troupe—she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer. 

 

Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the “Big Apple Bomber,” who has been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police turn in desperation to Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a local mental hospital who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling. 

As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled in to the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that as much as she’s been training herself to blend in—performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes—if she hopes to catch the bomber, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.

The Spectacular was fantastic! I learned alot about the beginning of the Rockettes and what the dancers lives were like. I never realized how good they were, having to learn new choreography every week while performing four concerts each day for three weeks straight. Then they were off work for a week, unless another dancer couldn't perform and they were called on to substitute. On top of that there were practice sessions several times a day.  When the author wrote about the heroine's physical pain, I felt it. However, all the work made Marion come alive.

Like all of Ms. Davis' books, it is about a famous New York City building: Radio City. I wondered whether the idea of a Rockettes story came before the idea of using Radio City. The Author's Note tells us she picks a building first. Then she looks for a seminal event that occurred there. The story she has given us in The Spectacular is historically accurate. There was a mad bomber who struck the building twice as well as bombing other buildings. A dancer and a psychiatrist put together a profile of the guy and were able to locate him. He then was sentenced to the Creedmoor Hospital mentioned on this book. With do much of the story being true, I am not sure if the book should be categorized as historical fiction. 

The writing was superb.  The pace was fast and the characters memorable. I loved the camaraderie between Marion and the dancers. They were typical young twenty somethings working their first jobs and excited over their futures. Marion's life story was heartwrenching. I felt not only her physical pain but her emotional pain as well. Losing her mother at ten was not easy, especially with a distant father and sister. I think everyone can relate to her stifled family relationships.  The men in the story were typical for the 1930s.  Marion's longtime boyfriend expected her to quit her job before he would even propose marriage.  Her father was overpowering. He expected blind obedience even though Marion and her sister were in their early 20s. 

The Spectacular is a must read for historical fiction fans. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Tiffany Girls

Shelley Noble's 23rd novel, The Tiffany Girls, is a historical fiction account about an unknown group of female artists behind Tiffany’s legendary glassworks. It is the first book of hers that I have read and I loved it. 

The publisher's summary:

It’s 1899, and Manhattan is abuzz. Louis Comfort Tiffany, famous for his stained-glass windows, is planning a unique installation at the Paris World’s Fair, the largest in history. At their fifth-floor studio on Fourth Avenue, the artists of the Women’s Division of the Tiffany Glass Company are already working longer shifts to finish the pieces that Tiffany hopes will prove that he is the world’s finest artist in glass. Known as the “Tiffany Girls,” these women are responsible for much of the design and construction of Tiffany’s extraordinary glassworks, but none receive credit.

Emilie Pascal, daughter of an art forger, has been shunned in Paris art circles after the unmasking of her abusive father. Wanting nothing more than a chance to start a new life, she forges a letter of recommendation in hopes of fulfilling her destiny as an artist in the one place where she will finally be free to live her own life.

Grace Griffith is the best copyist in the studio, spending her days cutting glass into floral borders for Tiffany’s religious stained-glass windows. But none of her coworkers know her secret: she is living a double life as a political cartoonist under the pseudonym of G.L. Griffith—hiding her identity as a woman.

As manager of the women’s division, Clara Driscoll is responsible for keeping everything on schedule and within budget. But in the lead-up to the most important exhibition of her career, not only are her girls becoming increasingly difficult to wrangle, she finds herself obsessed with a new design: a dragonfly lamp that she has no idea will one day become Tiffany’s signature piece.

Brought together by chance, driven by their desire to be artists in one of the only ways acceptable for women in their time, these “Tiffany Girls” will break the glass ceiling of their era and for working women to come.

This story was told well. I must admit that part of the reason I loved it so much was because I am an artist. The Tiffany Girls were artists as well. I enjoyed reading about how they selected different colors of glass for the sections of the windows that they worked on. We read about Tiffany’s Four Seasons glass windows as well as his Magnolia window. The ladies who were new employees started out as cutters which surprised me. Cutting glass shapes is not easy let alone when you have to follow a drawing of what shapes and colors go where. Some of the advanced artists performed design work for Mr. Tiffany and I have to wonder whether Tiffany created his designs or hired others to dream them up. The Acknowledgments don't tell us this information. Another intriguing part of the story is that Mr. Tiffany housed and paid his female artists the same amount he paid his male employees. Again, the Acknowledgments don't tell us if this is true either.

The characters were drawn well. Grace surprised me the most. I couldn't understand why she wanted to work with Tiffany when she really wanted to pursue journalism. There was a disconnect for me here as art is so different from brainy work. Emilie was the character I couldn't help but root for. Her dream was to work for Tiffany. She planned her life so that this could be accomplished. Emilie had to save to afford the passenger ship from Paris to New York. When Emilie arrived in New York she immediately went to Tiffany’s studio to ask for a job. Of course, she got the job but I thought she was rather plucky to follow her dream so closely with no backup plan. 

This book is a must read. 5 out of 5 stars.

Blood Oranges

Blood Oranges is J. M. Cannon's second novel. She writes crime thrillers and she is a fantastic writer. I was surprised at how complex the plot was given that this is just the author's second book. I loved Blood Oranges immensely.

The publisher's summary:

Money.

Power.

God.

Catherine Cross is the most successful female televangelist in the country. Her congregation in the western suburbs of Orlando one of the wealthiest. She's comfortable and charismatic in front of a camera, but when her youngest daughter goes missing not even she is ready for the media firestorm that follows.

With her mother more concerned about the family's public image than bringing her daughter home, it's up to Emily, the oldest child and black sheep of their christian family, to try to discover the truth.

But when a strange series of deaths on an orange orchard outside of town seems to be connected to her missing sister, the case is turned on its head, and Emily must face the shocking family secrets it took to build her mother's empire.

This book took me on a thrilling ride. I watched closely for any mention of blood oranges  because of the title. There was a little about them mentioned randomly until the final third of the book when it became apparent why they were integral to the story. 

As the summary says, Catherine Cross' daughter went missing. No one knew if her disappearance was related to the other murders but law enforcement believed it was related. I was stunned by Cross's reaction to her favorite child going missing. Since she was a televangelist, her church raised over ten million dollars in just a week. People across the country sent her money for no apparent reason and she refused to return the funds. Not only were the police suspicious but so was oldest daughter Emily.

The story was written from Emily's point of view and she was in most of the scenes. Emily was not loved by her mother which I thought was odd since her mom was a religious figure. I have that expectation that families of faith leaders would be close. Emily loved her sister and was heavily involved in the search for her youngest sister.  

The story is more of a whodunnit than a howdunnit although the how was rather interesting. It has a lightening fast pace and the short chapters created suspense that kept me reading until I had finished the book.

Blood Oranges is a must read. 5 out of 5 stars.

Final Call

Final Call is Alex Lake's eighth psychological thriller. Lake is a British writer who now lives in Maine. The book was published on June 8, 2023. 

The publisher's summary:  

They thought it was a simple flight home. The pilot had other plans…

A moment of calm

Heading home after a conference, the senior leadership of a global corporation relax on their private jet ahead of their Christmas break.

A flash of fear

But their peace is shattered when they realise their jet isn’t taking them home. Instead, it’s heading east—out over the Atlantic Ocean.

A journey of terror

And things go from bad to worse when their pilot tells them she is going to crash into the ocean if one of them doesn’t confess to murder…

Final Call is a spellbinding read. The author had my full attention from the first page. After beginning the story I did not notice the passage of time until I had already read half of the book. I finished it in one sitting completely enthralled by all of the suspense that I just lived through in this story. It is simply superb.

The main character is the villain. Stacy Evanston lost her daughter and husband in a fire that destroyed their home. The police thought she also died in the fire but didn't find her body. Her daughter Cherry became deathly ill at school and almost died from sudden onset liver failure. Three other children in her school also got infected from something but they passed away. Stacy believes that the fire was an attempt by someone to silence her from asking questions about what happened to the children. While Stacy is a victim of something, no one really knows what, she sets out to get revenge on whoever killed her daughter. 

I believe the CEO of a food company was a secondary character even though she made up much of the action in the story. The food company was based in Barrow, Maine where the Evanston family had been living. Stacy believes the food company is at fault for the children getting sick but does not know what or how they were involved.

The setting of a flying plane inched up the suspense. There is a limited amount of fuel on the plane so the occupants have to quickly figure out how to survive the flight. This is where the truth is finally revealed and believe me, this was one wild ride.

5 out of 5 stars.

Book of the Month: June

I loved Where Waters Meet. In fact, I read it twice. This family saga is the exquisite story that it is advertised as being. While the story begins in the present day in Toronto, most of the action takes place in the past in China.

The family originated in China. Chunyu, now known as Rain, and her sister Mei lived through three wars there: WWII, the Japanese War and the Civil War between the Nationalists and the Communists. They suffered severe hunger and bombing raids, as did everyone else in China. Rain and Mei's parents died in a bombing of their village East End. The sisters were later captured by Japanese soldiers and forced to be prostitutes. Rain handled it better than Mei who was unable to eat or even get up off her mattress. With her sister's help Mei escaped and joined the communists and fought alongside Mao's warriors. Rain eventually made her way to Hong Kong and then Toronto where she and her daughter lived.

This book captured my heart and I highly recommend it, especially to historical fiction fans.

Book Cover of the Month: June

I love this book cover. It was designed by Richard Ljoenes for publisher W. W. Norton. He is a designer and art director primarily focused on print-based design—book covers and illustrated book interiors. His background also includes advertising and corporate identity. His design and art direction has been awarded and recognized by many organizations and he has worked on over fifty New York Times Bestsellers.

Ljoenes started his career as a traditional advertising sketch-artist with D’Arcy (formerly DMB&B/Clarion) in his native Oslo, Norway. Eventually markers were replaced with a Mac and over the next few years he developed into a driven designer working on many of Norway’s biggest brands. Although thriving at the firm his status as the sole soccer-hating male on the European continent eventually forced his emigration stateside. After attending San Francisco’s Academy of Art he moved to New York, and following a brief period at Sullivan & Co Design, got his first start in publishing with HarperCollins Publishers. During his eleven years there he held numerous roles at several imprints, including Senior Art Director at Regan Books (w/stints in NYC and LA offices), V.P. Senior Art Director at both the Collins imprint, and more recent, the Harper Division. In June 2014 he left HarperCollins for the opportunity of starting on the ground floor of Regan Arts (teaming up once more with his former boss), a newly established Phaidon Global Company, where he served as Creative Director and oversaw all cover and interior design for a range of fiction, non-fiction, and illustrated books. Spring 2017 Ljoenes started his own studio. He now operates out of Boulder, Colorado.

It's exciting to see a young person dedicated to book cover design. We readers have alot to look forward to in the future from Ljoenes.

The Strangler Vine

I selected this book because the title of it's sequel fits the requirements of the Color Coded Reading Challenge. I will be reading The Infadel Stain next month for this challenge. This series by M. J. Carter is a historical thriller series. 

The publisher's summary:

India, 1837: William Avery is a young soldier with few prospects except rotting away in campaigns in India; Jeremiah Blake is a secret political agent gone native, a genius at languages and disguises, disenchanted with the whole ethos of British rule, but who cannot resist the challenge of an unresolved mystery. What starts as a wild goose chase for this unlikely pair—trying to track down a missing writer who lifts the lid on Calcutta society—becomes very much more sinister as Blake and Avery get sucked into the mysterious Thuggee cult and its even more ominous suppression.

There are shades of Heart of Darkness, sly references to Conan Doyle, that bring brilliantly to life the India of the 1830s with its urban squalor, glamorous princely courts and bazaars, and the ambiguous presence of the British overlords—the officers of the East India Company—who have their own predatory ambitions beyond London's oversight

There isn't much of a mystery in this novel. I would say it is an atmospheric mystery where the setting is predominant over the action. We mostly read about the customs, sights and sounds of India. While I love India fiction, I also want a story. There is a murder to solve but it takes second place to the setting. 

The novel is described as a historical thriller. It is historical as it takes place in the nineteenth century. However, this is not a thriller. None of this bodes well for my reading and review of The Infadel Stain but since it's already on my Kindle I plan on reading it.

Sea of Greed

I chose Clive Cussler's Sea of Greed for the What's In a Name Challenge. The specific category this was chosen for was one of the deadly sins in the book title. 

The publisher's summary:

After an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico destroys three oil rigs trying to revive a dying field, Kurt Austin and the NUMA Special Projects Team are tapped by the President of the United States to find out what's gone wrong. The trail leads them to a brilliant billionaire in the alternative energy field. Her goal is the end of the oil age; her company has spent billions developing the worlds' most advanced fuel-cell systems. But is she an environmental hero...or a rogue genetic engineer?

The NUMA crew discovers that the oil fields are infected with bacteria that are consuming the oil before it can be pumped out of the earth--a bacteria originally lost decades ago when two submarines vanished in the Mediterranean.

With hired killers on his trail, can Kurt Austin locate a submarine that's remained hidden for more than fifty years? And even if he can, can the biological terror that's been unleashed be stopped?

The story opened with alot of action. Because it has been a long time since I have read a NUMA story, I did not remember who the main characters were. I was further confused in the beginning because the opening chapters were from different points of view. It was hard to follow. Once I understood who was who, the story was fun to read. The pace was extremely fast and more than held my interest.

The plot concerns drilling for oil. I thought it was creative to have a bacteria infect the oil wells. I don't know whether this is something that can actually happen or not but it was interesting to read about. I would imagine it's a real problem since Cussler writes about current issues. 

Aside from my confusion in the beginning, Sea of Greed is a fantastic novel. I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars.

Camilla From Outcast to Queen Consort

Camilla From Outcast to Queen Consort was written by one of my favorite UK news reporters, Angela Levin. It paints a much different portrait of Camilla than that in Tom Bower’s recently updated book Rebel King. Let's see what Levin tells us about her.

The publisher's summary:

For many years, Camilla was portrayed in a poor light, blamed by the public for the break-up of the marriage between Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Initially, Queen Elizabeth refused to see or speak to her, but, since the death of Prince Philip, Camilla had become one of the Queen's closest companions. Her confidence in Camilla and the transformation she had seen in Prince Charles since their wedding resulted in her choosing the first day of her Platinum Jubilee year to tell the world that she wanted Camilla to be Queen Consort, not the demeaning Princess Consort suggested in 2005.

Angela Levin uncovers Camilla’s rocky journey to be accepted by the royal family and how she coped with her brutal portrayal in Netflix's The Crown. The public have witnessed her tremendous contribution to help those in need, especially during COVID. Levin has talked to many of Camilla’s long-term friends, her staff and executives from the numerous charities of which Camilla is patron. She reveals why Camilla concentrates on previously taboo subjects, such as domestic violence and rape. Most of all, Levin tells the story of how Camilla has changed from a fun-loving young woman to one of the senior royals’ hardest workers. She has retained her mischievous sense of humor, becoming a role model for older women and an inspiration for younger ones.

Camilla is both an extraordinary love story and a fascinating portrait of an increasingly confident Queen Consort in waiting. It is an essential read for anyone wanting a greater insight into the royal family.

Tom Bower gave us a picture of Camilla as lazy. Angela Levin tells us she is hard working and nice to everyone she meets. However, Levin admits that Camilla did not begin to work hard until she married Charles. Both of them had a big lifestyle adjustment to make after the marriage. As I approached the halfway point in the book I wondered whether it was just a puff piece. Camilla can do no wrong in the author's eyes. Yet Levin has a reputation in the UK as a fabulous journalist. It doesn't really matter much to me because I began to get bored while reading. Levin accounted for every outing her subject had, the clothes and jewels she wore and that people were surprised that Camilla was nice. It was too much repetition. Factor in that I only read the book as a compliment to the one I recently read on the life of Charles and that I don't like Camilla much. 

I was surprised that Camilla has a huge fear of being jeered in public. It shouldn't have been that surprising given the public abuse she endured for many years from Diana fans. She is still on edge when she is out in public. While I watched the coronation I thought to myself that she looked afraid when she was crowned and wondered if she thought about usurping the throne from Diana. We all know karma is the baddest bitch we know. With the information we get from the book it is likely that Camilla actually had those thoughts.

While I love seeing the author on UK news stations, her book was not very enlightening. I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars.

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh Sadness Will Last Forever is a graphic biography written by Francesco Barilli and illustrated by Sakka. It was published in Italy in 2019. In March 2023 Comixology Originals published it in English. The comic was written as an intense and uninterrupted dialogue between Vincent Van Gogh and his madness. From his relationship with his brother Theo to his famous quarrel with Gauguin, resulting in the partial self-mutilation of his ear, to the extreme act of self-harm that led to his death.

I didn't know much about Van Gogh's life story before reading this comic. The writing was crisp and the illustrations were very French with an attractive French script font. With just 129 pages, it is an easy and fast read. There was a 70/30 split between dialogue and narration. A few times I needed the narration in order to figure out what was happening. All in all this was a fantastic biography of Van Gogh. I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

The Way of the Wicked

The Way of the Wicked is the second book in the Hope Street Church Mysteries by Ellery Adams. I loved the first book The Path of the Crooked. The amateur sleuth in the series is Cooper Lee who has an interesting job. She repairs copy machines. I love that the sleuth is a woman doing what is typically a man's job.

The publisher's summary:

Cooper Lee and her friends in the Hope Street Bible study group have just volunteered for a local charity, delivering much-needed food and cheer to shut-ins in their community. It seems like the perfect way for the group to do good, and to Cooper it offers the welcome opportunity to get out of the house and spend more time with her new boyfriend, Nathan. But when one of the charity’s recipients is murdered, the police have no choice but to single out the church group and their fellow volunteers as the prime suspects.

Determined to make sure no evil deed goes unpunished, Cooper and her friends decide to discreetly interrogate each volunteer in their search for the killer, even if it means putting themselves at risk in the process. And as serving the needy becomes more treacherous than any of them could have imagined, they just might discover that the road to murder is paved with good intentions.

The beginning of the book was slow because it took a long time for the murder to occur. The reader was introduced to several new characters and the Bible study group members became involved in delivering food to the elderly. The first fourth of the story was basically dialogue among them and not much happened. The action picked up and by the midpoint in the story the pace became fast.

The romance between Cooper and fellow Bible study group member Nathan heated up in this installment of the series. They are not yet a couple but both realize that they have feelings for each other. Also, there was religious material in the book as the study group met several times to study the life of the Biblical Joseph from Genesis. They saw a connection between the way Joseph's brothers treated him to the way the seniors were treated by volunteers of the charity that delivered meals on wheels. By the end of the story three seniors died in similar circumstances.

This was a charming story and I enjoyed it. I would have liked to see the murders occur in the first or second chapter so that the rest of the story could be about solving the crime. 3 out of 5 stars.

The Middle Ages

Eleanor Janega is the author of this graphic history of the medieval era. She has done a fantastic job of portraying this 1,000 year era with all its complexities. 

The publisher's summary: 

The Middle Ages: A Graphic History busts the myth of the ‘Dark Ages’, shedding light on the medieval period’s present-day relevance in a unique illustrated style. This history takes us through the rise and fall of empires, papacies, caliphates and kingdoms; through the violence and death of the Crusades, Viking raids, the Hundred Years War and the Plague; to the curious practices of monks, martyrs and iconoclasts. We’ll see how the foundations of the modern West were established, influencing our art, cultures, religious practices and ways of thinking. And we’ll explore the lives of those seen as ‘Other’ – women, Jews, homosexuals, lepers, sex workers and heretics. Join historian Eleanor Janega and illustrator Neil Max Emmanuel on a romp across continents and kingdoms as we discover the Middle Ages to be a time of huge change, inquiry and development – not unlike our own.

This month I have read 3 books on the Middle Ages. This graphic novel is the best of them. It gives the reader an accurate and comprehensive overview of the era in an easy to understand way. The comedy from this format helps the reader remember details. I love it!  The book is not a graphic novel in the usual sense but rather a book with funny memes on most pages that match the writing. While it is Eurocentric the author has included the contributions of other regions on the globe to Europe. It has the feel of a young adult book which I don't think it is. The illustrator Neil Emmanuel, though, is a well known children's book illustrator. While the book cover is colorful, all of the drawings are in black and white. The writing is casual. The author surprisingly refers to one pope as a dude. 

I loved this mini history of the Middle Ages. I would recommend it to both adults and young adults. 5 out of 5 stars.

Rebel King

Rebel King: The Making of a Monarch was originally published under the title Rebel Prince in 2018. Tom Bower updated his biography of King Charles III and I found it to be quite revealing about why his son Harry behaves the way he does. It's a matter of like father like son. Please note that my review contains spoilers. 

The publisher's summary: 

King Charles III faces many challenges as he succeeds his mother to the throne. Despite his hard work and genuine concern for the disadvantaged, King Charles III has struggled in the past to overcome his unpopularity. After Diana’s death, his approval rating crashed to four per cent and has been only rescued by his marriage to Camilla.

In unearthing many secrets and dramas surrounding King Charles, Bower’s book, relies on the testimony from over 120 people employed or welcomed into the inner sanctum. The result is a book which uniquely probes the character and court of Charles that no one, until now, has seen. It offers an unrivalled and intimate look at King Charles, his many years as heir and how a monarch was made.

What struck me the most was how similar Prince Harry's behavior is to Charles' behavior. The public seems to believe that Harry is an aberration in the royal family. He's not. Charles has behaved the same way his entire life. Charles has never had to pay for his mistakes whether they be personal or professional. Charles has also had his fair share of sex scandals although they have been mostly covered up. Charles is no different than his brother Andrew in that he associated with a pedophile and met women through that association. However, Charles knew to keep his mouth shut and let the coutiers handle it. Andrew didn't. 

Tom Bower wrote that Charles suffers from depression and that his grandmother, the Queen Mother, helped him deal with it. The depression began in early childhood when his parents were away on royal tours. I presume there is an abandonment issue here. How could there not be? I was also surprised to learn that Charles had a plan to make Camilla his wife from the day of his divorce from Princess Diana. Many of his coutiers actions in this vain were nullified by continual newspaper accounts of Charles' misbehavior. 

This book is an eye opening account of Charles' life with names, dates and details of every significant event in his life. My expectations for the book were low but I found it to be enlightening. 4 out of 5 stars.