Essays for the Highs and Lows of Life

 

This collection of previously published books is about how you can deal with both the highs and lows of life. These books are not new they have been around for many years and people in all stages of life have found meaning in them.

My favorite was “The Game of Life”. Life is full of curve balls just when things seems to be going well you may have a catastrophe or at least a major stumble. Shin points out that most things are either good or bad depending on how you perceive them. If we see life as more positive than negative it will change how we view our experiences. I found this very helpful.

I highly recommend this book if you’re struggling with the problems of life, but it’s also a good thing to read when life is going well to gain perspective for the future.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for this book.

 

In this addition to the Mike Bowditch Game Warden series, Mike and his fiance Stacey Stevens are celebrating their engagement with his stepfather, his stepfather’s new wife, and Stacey’s parents at his father’s lake front home. The party is interrupted when a crash signals that a boat has hit something in the water. Investigating, Mike and Stacey find a dismembered arm floating in the water and a submerged body. This is the beginning of an investigation that involves a wealthy home owner, his current mistress, and her biker husband.

This is a fast paced thriller. Mike, as usual, finds himself in life threatening circumstances from which he almost miraculously escapes. Stacey is supportive, understanding Mike’s need to solve the crime in spite of the danger. Mike also continues to build his relationship with his step father and his new step mother.

The plot is intricate. It’s hard to guess who the murderer is until the very end, although there are hints along the way. I thoroughly enjoy this series. The atmosphere of the Maine woods is a nice change from the big city or suburbia where most police procedurals are set. Although the book is part of a long series, it’s fairly easy to catch up with the back story. I recommend it for fans of police procedurals.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for this book to review.

Nice neighborhood: Not so Nice People

 

It’s an incredible find, a fixer-upper, but it’s in a beautiful neighborhood just minutes from downtown Washington DC. It’s a stretch for Alexis and Sam, but it’s the chance of a lifetime. It could be their forever home.

Sam and Alexis are young and successful. He’s about to make partner in a law firm. She’s a business consultant. They have one child and another on the way. It seems like a dream come true, and at first it is. They meet the next door neighbors, Teddy and Blair. Teddy seems like a really nice guy and Blair and Alexis hit it off. Then the unthinkable happens. Teddy is found dead on the neighborhood path and the police don’t think it’s an accident.

The novel is not fast paced. It takes place over several years and is told in alternating chapters by Alexis and Blair. The perspectives of the two women are well done and make the ending much more realistic. I can’t say that I liked the main characters. Alexis seemed to have her insecurities close to the surface. Maybe she doesn’t really belong in this wealthy neighborhood. She’s a scholarship kid, raised by a single mother, and her skin color is dark. I couldn’t like Sam at all. He was mean to Alexis when there was no reason to be so hurtful. They went into the house together, but when the repairs mount up, he blames her.

This is a well done plot, but if you’re interested in murder mysteries, this one is more of a character study.

Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for this book.

Building a Life During WWII and After

 

Like many women during WWII, Hazel Francis left Kansas and moved to California to take a job in the aircraft industry. She was good at the mechanical tasks and earned promotions, but in 1946 when the men returned to take the jobs, she found herself unemployed.

With nothing to return to in Kansas Hazel takes a bus to Laguna Beach to look for work. She finds an ad for an artist’s assistant. She lands the job with Hanson Radcliff, a cranky well-know artist. She becomes close to him and learns about the incident that soured his life. Hazel also gets involved with the community and is well liked. One of the people who is important to her is Jimmy the bartender at the Laguna Beach Hotel. They become involved in a romantic relationship. It’s a satisfying life, but Hazel still has dreams of working with airplanes.

Hazel is a good character, independent and adaptable. Although her life changes several times, she adjusts and makes a success of her new opportunities. The historical aspect of the book focuses on how women, who were asked to play significant roles during the war, had to reshape their lives and goals when the men came home. I thought the author did a good job illustrating this transition with Hazel’s challenges.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for this book.

A Puzzle that Draws You In

 

Mike Brink is a famous creator of puzzles. His ability to solve puzzles dates from a head injury that left him with this unusual talent. He suffers from acquired savant syndrome which gave him extraordinary cognitive abilities. Now he is being asked to use his ability to decipher puzzles to help Jess Price a woman accused of murdering her lover while staying in an eerie mansion.

Jess hasn’t spoken since the murder, but she has drawn puzzles. Her therapist believes that solving the latest extremely complex one can aid her recovery. Mike is fascinated not only by the puzzle, which is not an easy one to solve, but by the woman herself.

The book has multiple time lines and narrators. There are creepy mansions, strange porcelain dolls, and mysterious puzzles including the God Puzzle. The book is very well researched. I was fascinated by the amount of detail about puzzles and their construction.

The characters are interesting, but seem mainly to serve the plot. Mike Brink is a good character, but he is prinarily a person with a mission to decode a difficult puzzle. The transition between time lines works well. Although the book is long, it’s hard to put down and can give you a scare along the way. I recommend it if you enjoy Dan Brown type novels.

Thanks to Net Gallery and the publisher for this book.

Slavery and the American Catholic Church

In the 1800s, the Jesuits sold 272 enslaved people to finance their most important mission which became Georgetown University. The author tells the story of these people by following the family of Ann Joice. She was an indentured servant, but when her master destroyed her papers, she became a slave. Some of her descendants like Harry Mahoney helped save lives and the church’s money in the War of 1812, but his descendants, two daughters Anna and Louisa, were sold into slavery. Through the author’s reporting members on the family were able to reconnect and share their story.

I found this story upsetting and difficult to read, but it’s part of the history of what happened to enslaved people and an important book. Although it’s difficult to think of the abuses of slavery as part of the history of the Catholic Church, it’s something that needs to be faced. The morality of slave holding was viewed differently in the 1800s, but it is still hard to understand how the church could preach the Bible and still rip families apart because they were viewed as possessions that could be disposed of.

This is a book that everyone concerned about the history of slavery in the US should read. It is well written and researched. The story is made more poignant because the author followed one family. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for this book.

Desegregation in a Small Southern Town

 

In 1956 twelve black students attended the high school in Clinton Tennessee. Other towns in the country like Little Rock, Arkansas were covered in detail, but the events in Clinton were relatively unknown. Rachael Martin became interested in the Clinton High School’s desegregation when she was a graduate student. She remained interested in the story of the town eventually interviewing over sixty residents as well as the twelves students.

This is a sad and in some ways a brutal story with raciest actions, the KKK, beatings, and burning crosses. The story is filled with action, but for me it was hard to read about relatively normal townspeople becoming a vindictive mob.

I appreciated that the author looked at the events from the standpoint of the townspeople. They weren’t simple hatred filled people. They saw their way of life disappearing and lashed out. It is the history of a very sad time in our country. Martin’s research is outstanding and the story is told so that the average reader can appreciate the scholarship, and also understand the story.

Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for this book.