The Christmas Heirloom by multiple authors

This is a collection of four Christmas romance novellas by four different authors*. The first is set in the 1700's in England and is about Sarah Gooding who is the hired companion to an older aristocratic woman.  Sarah finds herself falling in love with the woman's grandson, but knows the match is impossible because she, as a hired girl, is below his station as a gentleman.  The old woman, who herself married for love, gives Sarah a brooch that gives her the courage to follow her heart.

In the second, Sarah's granddaughter, Ruth, has inherited the brooch but has to use it for collateral when her husband dies and she doesn't have the money to secure housing for her and her daughter in the frontiers of Texas. As Sarah works to earn enough money to get the broach back, her landlord begins to see what a remarkable woman she is.

The third and fourth novellas also follow the romance of the granddaughter of the previous story's heroine.  The third woman is a sharp shooter in West Virginia, in the 1950's and the fourth is a woman in modern times. Each finds the man of her dreams at Christmas time with the help of the brooch. 

Ok, I read this back in March during all the COVID-19 crisis.  I was super stressed at work and needed total cotton candy escapism to get my mind off of my work troubles for just a few minutes each day.  This set did the trick.  Each of the stories features a Christian heroine, who prays for help and guidance as she makes difficult choices.  It is all super sappy, but was just the right thing for me right then in my life.  This a a great choice for those ladies out there who watch the Hallmark Christmas Specials all during December.  (Has a man ever read this book?  I doubt it.) (2018, 386 p)


*the authors in order
Kristi Anne Hunter
Karen Witemeyer
Sarah Loudin Thomas
Becky Wade

Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker

A family of fox kits sneaks out to hear stories that are supposed to be so scary they will "put the white in their tales."  Six young foxes sit together as the stories begin, but as the heroes of the stories face sickness, familial betrayal, a giant water lizard, and a crazed taxidermist, one fox after another sneaks away to the safety of their own den.  As the storyteller warned at the beginning of her tale, only those who are brave enough to last until the end will find the stories contain, not only terror, but also love.

This book won a Newbery honor medal last year.  It is a unusual book.  You wouldn't think that stories about anthropomorphized foxes could be very intense, but they are.  Heck, I almost sneaked away like the little foxes did after the first couple of stories.  The writing is lovely, and, like I said, very intense.  I am not quite sure what, if anything, the book was meant to accomplish, except maybe to reassure the reader, that, no matter how bad things get, there can still be better times ahead.  That said, I would not give this to any child unless they specifically asked for a scary story.  It could make a sensitive child have bad dreams for weeks, especially if they didn't finish the book.  Especially disturbing is the story about the an knife wielding Beatrix Potter. She puts even Dolores Umbridge to shame. (2019, 314 p)

Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner

Kamet is a slave, but a very powerful slave and a very valuable one as well.  As the chief slave of a Mede prince he directs all his other slaves and takes care of all his accounts and correspondence.  He has access to a good education, a good library, and even makes a little money of his own on the side.  Despite occasional abuse from his master, he is satisfied with his life, and scoffs when an Attolian visitor offers him freedom if he will come with him to Attolia. That all changes when Kamet hears that his master has been killed.  He knows that he will be blamed for the murder so he reluctantly escapes the city with the Attolian.  He doesn't really believe the Attolian, who claims to be a friend of the Attolian King, will really grant him his freedom, but traveling with the huge warrior is safer than traveling alone.  He plans to escape from him at his first chance.  He does not expect that his traveling companion, so different from himself, may slowly become a friend.

 

I don't know if my faithful blog readers know the history of this series.  Ms Turner wrote the first book in 1996.  This is the fifth in the series, and the sixth just barely came out.  So she has basically written the series at the rate of about one book every 4-5 years.  The fact that she has devoted fans who have been patiently following the series for a quarter century attests to how good they are.  I love Turner's books.  They are so clever and subtle in plot and rich in characterization.  Each one deals with relationships of unexpected love and respect. I love that in this one, Costis and Kamet develop a deep bro-love that is not sexual or twisted in any way.  They just become really good and trusted friends because of what they go through together.  I also really like the setting for this series.  It is an alternate BC Southern Europe/Southwest Asia.  Having been a classics major in college I eat it up.  So yay!  Now I have finished this one, I can read the last one in the series that just came out.  I even plan to actually read it ...in print!  Enough said. (336 p. 2017)

The Downstairs Girl by Stacy Lee

 Jo Kuan works as first a shop girl and later a lady's maid during the day, but at night she anonymously writes an advice column for a struggling newspaper.  Little do the owners of the newspaper know that Jo and her "uncle" Old Jen live in an old abolitionist hiding place under the newspaper office. Jo and her guardian are Chinese, but Jo was born in Georgia, and raised by Old Jen, who came to America as a young man to work on the railroad.  Since no one know where they live, they have to keep a low profile or risk losing the only home Jo can remember.  That becomes harder when Jo's advice column becomes popular and controversial.  When she is caught in the act of delivering one of her "anonymous" articles, she has to decide what she is willing to risk to keep having a way to let her real voice be heard.

I checked out this book because it is was on Overdrive's "Always Available" list.  When I started listening it, I almost returned it at once because I didn't like the voice actor. I stuck with it and ended up enjoying it pretty much.  Jo is an interesting protagonist.  She is a Chinese American living in the deep south and most people treat her like a colored person, but some do not.  I guess I always thought of the Chinese who ended up in California after the trans-continental railroad was finished, but it makes sense that not all the Chinese immigrants stayed in California.  Lee's writing style is a bit flowery for me.  She uses a lot of short simile's and metaphors to describe stuff.  They are not cliche; in fact, they were quite original, but I did get a little tired of them by the end.  Still, I enjoyed the book and it opened to me a new awareness of the plight of Chinese Americans in the Reconstruction era South.  (376, 2019)

A Lady in Disguise by Sandra Byrd

Miss Gillian Young's mother was an heiress, but became an outcast from society when she decided to become an actress. She married a middle class police detective and they lived very happily until the mother's death.  When her father subsequently dies in a freak accident Gillian is suspicious, and her worry only grows when evidence turns up that her dad was a crooked cop.  As she looks into the allegations she is both pleased and confused by the attentions of two men.  Lord Thomas Lockwood, a man of wealth and title, could have any debutante, so why was he concerning himself in her troubles?  Constable Francis is probably more of her own social class, and the son of her late father's partner, but she doesn't feel any real attraction to him.  As evidence mounts of her father's alleged indiscretions, it is hard for Miss Young to know whom to trust, and where to turn.

After reading the book below (Fighting Words), I felt like I needed something light to read for a little while.  I decided to try a new author of my favorite escapist genre, Christian romance.  I must say I was a little underwhelmed by this one.  It was fine.  The mystery is decent and the romance is OK.  What it lacked was sparkle.  I would liked to have had witty repartee and funny interludes to break up the suspense of the mystery elements.  They just weren't there.  I also think that the portrayal of the relationships and interactions were not very authentic to the time period.  I think I would have liked it better on another week, but this week it just didn't do it for me. (plus, I didn't really like the reader, she read way too slowly, and I thought her accents a little forced) (2017. 376 p)

(I need to make a list of Christian Romance authors and if I liked them or not, so I can find new books in a hurry when I need.  If I do, I will add a link or and entry on this blog.)

Fighting Words by Kimblerly Brubaker Bradley

 When Della and Suki's mom goes to prison for running a meth lab, and the girls , ages 5 and 8, just keep living with their mother's boyfriend, even though he is no blood relation.  When he tries to sexually molest Della, and Suki gets a picture of the act, he gets arrested and Della and Suki are moved to foster care.  Their new foster mother is not particularly affectionate, but she is conscienous and takes care of them.  Della soon starts to settle into their new, life, but Suki is unexplainably angry and volitive. Della can't quite understand why her sister is struggling.  After all, it happened to Della, not Suki... or did it?

Wow, this was a tough one to read.  Brubaker-Bradley doesn't pull any punches as she describes what the girls go through dealing with their pasts of neglect and abuse.  The book is written from the point of view of the 10-year-old, Della.  She is hurt, and damaged, and acts up at at school, but she is also nieve, and ignorant of what her sister went through for years. The voice of Della is pitch purfect.  It feels exactly how a 10-year-old would experience the situation.  The reader is cheering both her and her sister on as they face things no child should have to face.  

As I read the book as a librarian I kept asking myself if the book crossed the line of what I could include in a children's section. The author describes both the "boyfriend's" attempt at raping Della, to the point he pulled down her panties and fondled her genitals, and (spoiler alert) Suki's attempt as suicide by slitting her wrist.  All of the times Suki was raped are only refered to in general terms, like "he hurt her."  In the end I decided to leave it in the "intermediate" section, for grades 4-8.  Is it possible some child will pick it up and be really upset by the content?  Yes.  Is it possible that some adult will be irate because their child was upset?  Yes.  Is is possible it might get into the hands of a child who really needs to know that he/she is not the only one this happened to, and that there is a why out?  Yes!  I am willing to risk the first two senarios, to facilitate the third. (259 p. 2020)

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Ove is a man of few words, and strong opinions.  He was never good at academics, but is a natural at working with his hands and figuring out how physical objects, like motors, and building projects, work.  When the light of his life, his wife, dies, he just keeps going to work, but when he was given early retirement, he figures his life was pretty much over. All that there is left to do is plan his own death with the littlest possible bother to anyone else.  Unfortunely, in Ove's mind, the new neighbors keep interfering.  As he puts off his own moribund plans to help them back up their car or fix a radiator, his old heart gradually finds something in this world to hold on to. 

I had seen this book before, but the title kind of put me off. I knew it had been hugely popular when it came out in 2014, and that they even made a movie of it.  When I mentioned I hadn't read it to my co-workers there was a chorus of people saying, "Oh, you have to read it.  It will make you laugh and cry."  They were absolutely right.  I think it is my new favorite book I have read this year.  I think everyone knows an Ove type person, crusty on the outside, and true blue on the inside.  The writer is brilliant in his characterizations of not only Ove but all the different people in the book.  The book was orginally written in Swedish, but the translater did a brilliant job.  The same author just came out with a new book.  We will see if it lives up to the first. (337 p. 2014)

P.S.  If you are bothered by swearing, you may want to give this one a by.