The Third Daughter

I got the recommendation for The Third Daughter by Talia Carner from Renee's Reading Club on Facebook. Coincidentally, Talia Carner is a member. But that's neither here nor there. The historical fiction novel was highly recommended by many in the group and the idea intrigued me. Like "Fiddler on the Roof," which is based on Sholom Alechem's short story, Tevye, the Dairyman, The Third Daughter is based on another short story, The Man from Buenos Aires. 

In the late 1800s, when the pogroms in Eastern Europe were pretty horrific, there was a Jewish-run syndicate, tricking girls to leave Eastern Europe to travel to Buenos Aires to be forced into prostitution. They were effectively enslaved to their pimps and madams. This a a true thing and it went on for years.

The Third Daughter is the story of Batya. She and her father, the dairyman, her mother, and sister had just fled their shtetl when the met Reb Moskowitz, a gentleman who has returned from America to find a decent woman to marry and bring back to America with him. It didn't matter that Batya was just 14. He was going to take Batya with him to America and would marry her at 16. She would live a life of luxury. The parents, desperate, agree. They'd been trying to find a way to get to the father's brother in Pittsburgh, America. Little did they know that the America that Moskowitz was taking Batya to was Buenos Aires and that he was not the man he seemed to be.

The story, pretty gruesome to read at times, was gripping. It's based on an actual syndicate, Zwi Migdal. The entire time Batya is enslaved, she seeks a way to help her parents and sisters get out of Russia, even if it will cost her her happiness. It gives a good depiction of the different ways Jews were viewed in South America at that time.

I gave this novel 4 stars on goodreads.com. 

If You Want to Make God Laugh

I wasn't aware of Bianca Marais' second novel until my re-read of Hum If You Don't Know the Words. That was a wonderful book so I immediately requested If You Want to Make God Laugh from the library as soon as I read about it.

If You Want to Make God Laugh did not disappoint. Another truly wonderful novel. Once again, the setting of the novel is Marais' birthplace, South Africa. It takes place in the early 1990s, just as apartheid is ending. That's more of the backdrop of this novel. It's much more a novel about the lives of the women, the three main characters of the novel, Delilah, Ruth, and Zodwa. Each one is facing really dark days and  all are dealing with their own demons and disappointments. It's a novel about acceptance of life and moving forward. It's also a novel about love and commitment. The novel deals with other things - power, wealth, racism, AIDS, sexuality. But I can't say too much more without spoiling the novel for anyone who might read it.

Just know that I highly recommend this novel - and this author - to anyone.

The Book of Negroes

 Since being "safer at home," I've mostly been reading e-books. So when a neighbor dropped off this book that she thought I might enjoy, I decided to save it for my beach vacation knowing I'd want to read outside... and that my iPad isn't the greatest way to read books out in the sunlight. I'd never heard of the book but was assured by my friend that I'd like it.

Someone Knows My Name is an older historical novel by Lawrence Hill. After reading it, I am surprised that I'd never come across this novel before. It's the story of Aminata, an 11-year old African girl, kidnapped from her homeland by slavers in the mid-1700s. She is marched over many months to coastal Africa from her home further inland where she is put on a slave ship headed towards South Carolina. She started out as a slave on an indigo plantation, eventually gets traded to an administrative type in the indigo industry. She ends up in New York City during the Revolutionary War, and then gets rewarded for her service to the king of England with passage to Nova Scotia and hope for a fresh start. Life continues to be hard and full of prejudice. Meena agrees to join with British abolitionists who are determined to create a colony in Africa, Sierra Leone, which former slaves can become "adventurers" and experience freedom for the first time. 

Meena, feeling like she'd lost everything that was every important to her decides that going to Sierra Leone will be her opportunity to go home. The home that she's longed for since she was first kidnapped many years earlier. Home is not exactly what she imagined, but she and the abolitionists realize the importance of Meena telling the story of her life. That brings her from Africa to England.

This is a sweeping saga in the life of a fictional slave. It was exceptionally told. It wasn't so much a novel about slavery as about the life of this one fictionalized woman. But I was either made aware of things in the history of slavery that I wasn't familiar with or that I'd forgotten all about. I'd highly recommend this novel.

Adequate Yearly Progress

 I can't remember when I first learned about Roxanna Elden's novel, Adequate Yearly Progress, but I immediately waitlisted myself at the library. I wanted to read a book set in a public school. 

When Adequate Yearly Progress popped up in my queue as school districts were debating with teachers and other public officials about how to reopen - this month in the South and next month in most other places - I wasn't really sure if this was the time to read a book set in a school in the pre-covid days. Finally decided to just go ahead and read it, even knowing that all the while I'd be thinking about the safety of in-person learning right now.

Covid aside, it was a light, easy read about the challenges faced by several of the teachers and the back-clawing of administrators in a high school in an under-served community of Texas. I think under-served was the term that one of the teachers finally decides to use.

The teachers in the novel are a mix of experienced and novice teachers. Lena, the English teacher, is a poet, really trying to get to her students. Hernan is a confident biology teacher who struggles outside of school. Maybelline is the data driven math teacher. Kaytee is the new teacher, part of a "Teach for America" type program, blogging about her classroom experiences but biding time until she can go on to law school. Then there's Coach Ray because what would a story about a high school in Texas be without a football coach. And then there is a new principal, assistant principal and superintendent, all in various stages of wanting to shake things up.

As a retired teacher, it brought me back. Much of what the teachers dealt with was so realistically portrayed. Meetings, pep rallies, interactions with students, the meeting of standards, dealing with administration. Keeping data! These teachers had to balance their personal and professional lives. It was a true portrayal of what can, at times, be a thankless career.

I'm not sure if I'd recommend this novel for everyone. I wouldn't recommend it to my teacher friends now who are dealing with the struggles of the pandemic. But it is a book that a teacher, maybe not right in the thick of things, should really enjoy.

Mrs. Lincoln’s Sisters

I am a huge Jennifer Chiaverini fan. I loved her quilting books. I enjoyed Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker. But this one, Mrs. Lincoln’s Sisters, just left me flat. The novel itself was about Mary Todd Lincoln’s mental state growing up, as a young woman, as a new bride, as a mother, as First Lady, but there was nothing that made me care about Mrs. Lincoln or any of her many siblings. I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever did. Compared to other Chiaverini novels, this one was slow going. I can’t recommend this book. 

Blogging on my iPad

Me figuring out what to do next!

I realized the other day that I had a problem. I have an old MacBook and an even old desktop PC. I was trying to design a custom notebook on a website and the editing tools did not work on either computer. Chatting with “Beth” on that website, I was told that Google Chrome was the best browser for the task. I have a buggy version on my PC that wasn’t helpful and I don’t have room on my MacBook for Chrome. I ended up installing Chrome on my not-quite-as-old iPad. Then I had the problem with Blogger yesterday. 

It must be time for a new computer!

New MacBook? New PC? Until I realized I’d installed Chrome on my iPad. And here I am. A computer purchase will come soon, I suspect. But until then, I’m be here. 

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

I'm in a Facebook group called Renee's Reading Club and everyone there has been raving about Robert Dugoni's The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell. It comes up all the time when someone is asking for a nice, good novel. Easy to read during a pandemic. A feel good novel.

I liked the book. It was easy to read. It was a good distraction from what's going on around us. The end left me with a feel good feeling. But did I love it? No. I merely liked it, although I really liked Dugoni's writing style. Would I recommend this novel? Sure. Why not?

Samuel Hill, a small town ophthalmologist, was born with an eye condition, ocular albinism, which gives his eyes a red color. When he started primary school, the kids called him "Devil Boy" which led to him being called Sam Hell. His mother always claimed that he had extraordinary eyes because he was going to have an extraordinary life.

It was Sam's two best friends, Ernie and Mickie, who helped him get through those primary school days and beyond. This is really a novel about friendship. What we need our friends for and how we give back. I was envious of the close friendships that Sam was able to maintain for so many years.

I'm hoping this won't be my last post for who knows how long. I'm having trouble with the new format of blogger. Once the "legacy" format goes away, unless they really fix the new format, I won't be able to post. Blogger says I'll be able to use the old format for another two weeks. And I'm sure I'll finish a few more books before then. In the meantime, this is frustrating. Follow me on Facebook if you can't follow me here.

I love the quiz show, Jeopardy

If you're not a fan of the syndicated tv quiz show, Jeopardy!, than don't even bother reading this memoir of host, Alex Trebek. This book is not for you. But if you are a fan, The Answer is...: Reflections on My Life is an interesting insight into the guy you've probably been watching on television for years and years and years.

There's nothing earth shattering in this collection of memories. Trebek comes across as a really nice guy who more or less lucked into a great gig which lead to a lovely life. He acknowledges that, too.

My first Jeopardy! memories are early ones. I lived across the street from my elementary school and my mom worked as a substitute teacher at my school so I was able to walk home for lunch every day. Mom, my brother and I would watch Jeopardy! while eating our lunch, before heading back to school. It was the first run of the quiz show (from 1964 to 1978). Art Fleming was the host. Trebek eludes to fans like me in his chapter entitled The Answer Is... COMFORT.

"A lot of young kids at home and college students would watch the show on their lunch breaks. They grew up with it. So when we brought it back in 1984, they were nostalgic for it. And then they raised their own kids on the show." 

Apparently the show came back for 6 months in 1978. I was in college and only vaguely remembering thinking that it was back, but I would have rarely had time to watch then. I might not have even been in the United States for part of that time. Then, Alex Trebek brought the show back in 1984. And I was an immediate fan. And yes, I did raise my own kids on the show.

Another two quotes from the book:

"The show has become part of the fabric of American life. People say to me, 'My mother doesn't want us to call her from seven to seven thirty when Jeopardy! is on.' Or 'We have dinner with you every night.'"

"At some point - and it occurred slowly over the years - we made the transition from just being an enjoyable quiz show to being part of your daily life. There's something ritualistic about it. It's special but not in a big way."

So true. I knew not to call my parents when they were watching Jeopardy! and my kids (mostly) knew not to call me when it was on here. When I was with my parents, we'd watch it together. When my dad was in the hospital and then in rehab during the final 5 months of his life, he and I (sometimes with my brother, sometimes with my son) would watch Jeopardy. Dad was sharp until the end. My husband and I watched it every night we're home.

I've traveled close to where Trebek grew up in Sudbury, Ontario, so I could picture some of what he was talking about. And I was able to make some other little connections, too. Trebek writes about listening to far away radio stations on his little Philco radio. I had a transistor radio when I was little and I'd get to spin the dial, trying to see which radio station from far away I can pick up. It was always easier to pick up those distant stations late at night.

The book was just very recently written so Trebek is able to talk about his illness and about the coronovirus pandemic and the intersection of the two.

"With the coronavirus, we can't go out to eat, we can't go out to public places, even the park next door has limited its use. There aren't that many things available for us to do. Here I am wanting to enjoy what might be the last of my days, and what, I'm supposed to just stay at home and sit in a chair and stare into space?"

I did read online somewhere that both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (which I was a bigger fan when it first came on TV) have started their productions back up again. They were put on hold suddenly in late March. We watched all the new Jeopardy! shows and then just randomly watched some of the shows they were replaying. I look forward to new episodes. And I look forward to seeing Alex Trebek again. I sadly realize that he is at the end of his life. I hope he's able to host the quiz show as long as he comfortably can. Then... who will be the new host? Betty White? Really? Ha ha.

The Book of Lost Names

Even though The Book of Lost Friends was slow to get into, in the end, I really enjoyed Lisa Wingate's newest historical fiction novel. Wingate is the author of Before We Were Yours, another historical fiction novel that I really enjoyed reading.

I bet if you asked most people what this book is about, they'd tell you it's about Reconstruction and the post-Civil War years. And that is what it's about. "The Book of Lost Friends" is a book that former slave, Hannie, and Juneau Jane, illegitimate daughter of Hannie's former master, keep to hopefully help former slaves reconnect with their families. "Lost Friends" was an actual advertisement published in Southern newspapers after the Civil War and read by preachers at Southern churches. Lavinia, Juneau Jane's legitimate sister, and Juneau Jane are looking for word about their father, mostly to protect their inheritances. At first Hannie follows them to make sure that her sharecropping contract is protected, but gradually she is led to search for her family that had been sold away over 10 years earlier.

The parallel story is about Benny, a brand new English teacher who has been sent to Augustine in rural Louisiana for her first few years of teaching in order to get student loan forgiveness. Many of Benny's student come to school hungry, when they're able to come to school. She yearns to find a way to connect to these students. Although Benny's upbringing was much different, she sees a part of herself and her teen years in many of her students making her want to connect even more. When Benny meets some old-timers from Augustine, she becomes interested in their stories. And realizes that perhaps her students should be hearing those stories rather than reading books like Animal Farm.

Benny's story was the story that I connected to. I really wanted her plan to reach these kids to succeed. I found that story more engaging than the 1875 storyline, but I also wish that there was more backstory to Benny's tale.

I think you really have to be a serious historical fiction fan to like this sometimes slow-moving book, but I did enjoy it and would recommend it to some.