The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

 Around 1900 a 12-year-old girl is sent in a boat to meet her new husband, a fairly well-off 42-year-old farmer.  The story follows the girl and her offspring for three generations as they face heartache and find love in a harsh social environment. It also follows two other men, one a surgeon from Glasgow and another, a doctor from India who sets up a leper colony. Both men make good decisions and bad, and have to deal the consequences their decisions bring.  

Full, disclosure, I didn't finish this book.  I got about half the way through and decided I was done. In my defense, the book is 972 pages long, so I actually listened to 15 hours out of 30 before calling it quits.  There were things I liked about the book, but, clearly there were things I didn't like about the book.  The thing I liked was the immersive picture it draws of life in rural India in the 1900's.  The reader and almost see, smell, and taste the world where Big Ammachi lives.  I also liked watching the relationship of Big Ammachi and her husband slowly develop as the frightened 12-year-old girl grows up and wins the heart of the heart-broken widower.  What I didn't like about the book was that I felt like the author was manipulating my emotions.  It was like he was saying, "how can I make this as sad a possible."  (spoiler alert, if you plan to read this book, don't read on)  When the first generation lost their first born son to a tragic accident, it was like, OK, things like that happen, and it was sweet to see how the couple managed to heal.  Then other tragic deaths kept happening and it became apparent that the author was killing off the characters to make the story more symbolic. The married girlfriend of the doctor dies right after they give into their passion and commit adultery.  The toddler son of the second generation dies when he is impaled on the branch of a tree the father had promised his wife to cut down, but couldn't bring himself to cut down all the way.  Then his wife left and the husband became an opium addict, and I thought, "this author is now just messing with me and I don't want to read this anymore."  I am a bit curious to know how the author brings the three different story lines together in the end but not enough to listen to another 15 hours of ritual death and heart-wrenching tragedy.  Maybe I will go read a summary somewhere. (972 p, 2023)

The Queen and the Knave by Sarah Eden

In this latest installment of the Dread Penny Society, the secret is out that Moirin Donnelly is actually the Dread Master. The society has been thrown into chaos due the the cruel attacks of the Tempest. Most have gone into hiding but one by one they have been discovered and kidnapped by the Tempest's thugs. Moirin is forced to team up with a detective from Scotland Yard, Fitzgerald Parkington, to try to track down the Tempest and end her reign of terror. As the two work together, an admiration and then an attraction form between them. But what room is there for romance, when such terrible threats face both the Dread Penny Society and all England?

This has been a fun series, and this one is much like the others, except in this one the stakes are higher.  The feeling of the whole book is more intense as Moirin gets outsmarted over and over again.  The reader gets the idea that the Tempest is a "Moriarty" to Moirin's "Sherlock". By the end you are wondering how she can ever win, but, of course, she does. I liked the book, but I feel a little like Eden weakened Moirin's character a little in order to frame it into a romance.  In the earlier books you wouldn't imagine Moirin leaning on a man for help and support, but in this book she does. I think it is realistic enough, and maybe the reader is finally seeing past Moirin's tough exterior, but I do think Eden could have kept a little more of Moirin's swagger and still make the story and the romance work. That being said, I enjoyed the book a lot and wonder if she is done, or if there will be more stories from the Dread Penny society to come. (2023, 386 p)

Great Courses: Conquest of the Americas by Marshall Eakin

 In 1491 both North and South America were full of thousands of native civilizations.  Some were large like the Mayas and the Incas.  Most were smaller, and ranged from primitive hunter/gather's to agrarian cultures to societies rivaling Western cultures in their achievements.  Then Columbus crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the islands of the Caribbean. Everything started to change, and within two centuries the demographics of the Americas had totally changed.  Professor Eakin discusses this process of the conquering of the Americas by the Europeans in 24 lectures.  His main premise is that there were three groups of people who came together to form what we know now as Americans: the native people, the Europeans, and Africans brought to the Americas as slaves. He talks at length about how each groups played significant roles in the creation of the modern Americas. 

In the past few months I listened to Great Courses lectures on the history of the Middle East, Italy, and now the Americas during the period of the late medieval and early renaissance periods.  I feel like each one helped me fit another piece in place for understanding this time period.  I learned so much from this series that I didn't know before.  For example, I hadn't understood that only 6% of all Africans who served as slaves in the Americas were in what was to become the United States. Most were enslaved in Central and South America to work on plantations and in mines. I had heard that 90% of native peoples died of disease after the Europeans arrived, but I didn't understand that that die-off had already taken place in North America before the Pilgrims arrived. The diseases had spread north from the Spanish colonies of Mexico, and so when Europeans arrived in what was to become the United States, it was mostly an empty land. There was so much I found interesting but this review is already getting too long.  I know the title of this lecture series sounds like a bit of a downer, and it is, a little, but it is fascinating. (12 hrs, 2002)

Friends and Foes by Sarah Eden

 Philip Jonquil, Earl of Lampton is a gentleman who secretly works for the War Department.  One day as he is discussing plans to try to trap a Napoleonic traitor, a woman imposes on him, accusing him of taking her walking stick. Sorrel Kendrick deals with constant pain in her leg and hip ever since she was trampled by a horse two years earlier.  Her injury has dashed all her hopes of marriage and family, so she compensates with her sharp wit and tongue.  Philip and Sorrel end up being invited to the same house party for Christmas, and after another run-in proclaim war on each other.  Their warring devolves into flirting, and then to real attraction.  Just as a happy ending seems a possibility, Philips investigation throws both of them in mortal danger.

It is interesting that in the last period romance I read, A Beautiful Disguise, the woman overdresses and acts like a fashionista to cover up her role as a detective, but in this one it is the gentleman who dresses as a fop to cover up his investigative work. This book reminded me a lot, in concept, of The Scarlet Pimpernel. They are even set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Era. Of course, this one is not destined to be a timeless classic, but I enjoyed it well enough. The banter between Sorrel and Philip is entertaining, and I respected the fact that Sorrel is disabled, but still the love interest.  Good job being inclusive, Ms Eden.  This is the first in the series focusing on the Jonquil brothers, of which there are seven. I will probably end up reading more in the series. (269 p. 2012)

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

 A man awakens in the middle of a burned out patch in a meadow.   He doesn't know his name or where he is. He makes his way to a small peasant village and is captured by some of its residents. He finds pages from a damaged book and soon discovers that he has traveled to this land from another dimension. His memories of his past return slowly, and events in the small Medieval town become more complicated until he has to decide whether to try to return back to his own dimension or stay to help the privative people he is quickly becoming attached to.

This is one of Sanderson's few stand-alone books and was one of the four surprise books he wrote during the COVID pandemic.  One of Sanderson's great strengths is world building.  He always seems to find and interesting and novel settings and premises for his stories.  It was interesting to have the POV character slowly remember his past life and to see how his memories affected his opinion of himself.  One of the main conflicts in the book is the clash between modern society and primitive society. Despite all the technological advances of a future age, John, the main character, has not had a happy life, while the residents of the new dimension daily struggle just to stay alive, but seem to be happier.  This summary makes the book sound really serious, but there is plenty and humor and satire to be found.   I can see why so many of my family members enjoy Brandon Sanderson's books. (2023, 384 p)

A Beautiful Disguise by Roseanna M. White

 Lady Marigold Fairfax and her brother, Yates, had an unusual upbringing in Edwardian England.  Their father loved amusements and supported a band of circus performers at their extensive estate.  His extravagant tastes in entertainment left Marigold and Yates financially bankrupt at his death, so used the acrobatic and performance skills they learned growing up to become secretive private investigators for the wealthy. Sir Merritt Livingstone works for the War Office and is investigating a leak in their organization that is giving Germany sensitive information. When a prolonged battle with pneumonia makes it hard for him to continue his investigation he hires "The Imposters"--the Fairfax's agency-- to help him. The investigation leads Livingston to Marigold's village, but Livingston doesn't know that the Fairfax siblings are "The Imposters". Can Marigold protect her identity, and her heart, while helping Livingston catch the spy?

The premise for this book, English aristocrats who are trained as circus performers, was a bit of a stretch.  It was an interesting premise, but I kept feeling like I had to suspend disbelief to make it work in my mind.  Still, I enjoyed the book.  I don't think there has been a single Roseanna White book I haven't liked.  I like that her characters rarely act stupidly.  I appreciate that she can come up with conflicts in a relationship that need to be resolved that don't result from repeated miscommunication.  I think to many of these clean romance writers depend on miscommunication too much to add the conflict in the relationship, and it is kind of the easy way out.  Coming up with a plot that involves real conflict that has to be resolved is trickier and White usually pulls it off brilliantly. (2023, 368 p) 

The Servant by James Hunter

 Mr. Hunter has couched his approach to leadership in a long, rather stilted story of a troubled businessman who attends a retreat at a monastery and, in a group session with five other stock characters, figures out the real road to happiness and success. His theory is based on principles found in the New Testament, specifically in Paul's chapter about charity.  He painstaking shows how living with charity toward both family and co-workers will improve leadership skills. 

I'm sorry,  I probably could have come up with a more positive summary than that.  I actually thought the James Hunter's ideas about being a servant leader where spot on.  In an introduction Hunter explains how happy and amazed he is that his parable has been so successful and well recognized in the business world.  If that is true, he has done a good work in the world. It is a good leadership handbook, but, alas, it is terrible literature. It was super painful to listen to. The conversations between the characters are totally unnatural and stilted. Different characters spontaneously spout quotes from a huge variety of sources, complete with accurate reference, and make wise and witty comments.  The characters, themselves, are paper cutouts: the hardnosed sergeant, the compassionate nurse, the world weary school principal, the cheery priest and the jaded businessman.  I would have enjoyed the book so much more if Hunter had just talked, straight out, about Servant Leadership, rather than trying to couch it in a totally fake story. Sigh. Still, I am not sorry I listened to it.  It gave me food for thought and some ideas about what I want to accomplish as the Management Round Table Vice Chair next year. (1998, 178 p.)