The Calamity Club

 The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

Meg, 11, lives in an orphanage run by the miserable, sanctimonious Garnett Wylie. Meg's mother, Charlie, had gone to the store one day and never returned, leaving Meg alone for days until the local doctor, Everett Wylie, found her and took her to the orphanage where he believed she would be better off, or at any rate fed and watched over. The Dr. doesn't know that his wife, Garnett, hates Meg - for reasons that will be revealed later - and deliberately mistreats her every chance she gets. 

When Meg is adopted by a well-to-do family, Garnett is furious and works to get her sent back so she can continue her abuse. Meg's adoptive parents are Lucille, a spoiled brat of a mother, and Robert, a kind, affectionate man Meg comes to love. Robert's parents are supporting them financially while he's finishing the novel he's writing, hopeful that it will get published and earn him an income. But Lucille doesn't like the waiting; she wants more - clothes, entertainment, everything - right now and isn't opposed to lying and cheating to get them. Having adopted Meg under false pretenses, their already rocky marriage unravels until it looks like Meg may have to be returned to the orphanage after all.

 In another story line, Birdie, a young woman who has left her impoverished family for a few days to visit her married sister, Francine, is hoping to secure a loan from her well-to-do brother-in-law. Francine works at the orphanage and gets Birdie to help out in the office there, where Birdie and Meg become friends. She ends up staying much longer than first anticipated when it's revealed that Francine's husband has been hiding financial and personal problems for some time. As the pressure on him becomes overwhelming he runs away, taking most of their valuables with him and leaving them destitute. 

 When Francine and her mother-in-law, Mrs. Tartt, in whose home they live, realize the extent of their debts and face losing the house, they decide to earn money by opening a dance club, offering lessons to local college boys. By this point Charlie - Meg's mother - has returned with a tragic story of why she left so suddenly. It was through no choice of her own and her one goal now is to earn enough to find Meg and take her away. Charlie stays at the Tartt's home with Birdie, both of them taking care of Mrs. Tartt and Francine who are unaccustomed to looking after - or waiting on - themselves. 

 At this point the story takes an unlikely turn. The dance club is to be a cover for something much seedier, not to mention illegal. Let's just say Mrs. Tartt's name becomes appropriate to the enterprise. It was hard to take quite seriously the new rather outlandish characters and dialogue, even the fact that they would come up with such a plan at all. But then who knows what a person would do given such extreme circumstances. Desperate times, as they say, require desperate measures. 

The plot is full of twists and turns, a definite page-turner. It's a tome at over 600 pages, but an easy read and those pages flipped by much quicker than anticipated. 

 A good story as long as you don't question too much.  

A Likely Story

 A Likely Story by Leigh McMullan Abramson

A story of a woman who wrote a novel, had it rejected by publishers, and then fell into a lengthy writing slump. Not an uncommon scenario for hopeful writers, but in this case it all plays out in front of a keenly interested public because her father is a successful, world famous author. The press keeps her failure alive as a matter of gossip. 

When her mother dies and she's sorting through her belongings, she comes across a half-finished manuscript. It's good, in fact very good. Should she dare to finish it and pass it off as her own? If it got published maybe it would change the public's  perception of her, and she might finally live up to her father's expectations. 

What she doesn't know is that her father has been keeping a secret, something utterly selfish and cruel he did years ago that changed the course of her life. When that comes to light, it will change everything.

A good story, with a father you'll be happy to hate.  

The Lincoln Highway

 The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

A road-trip story, of sorts. 

Emmett and his little brother, Billy, set out for California to make a new start. Emmett has just been released from a juvenile detention center, their father has died, and the farm he left them is about to be sold by the bank after foreclosure.

Enter Duchess and Wooly, escapee bunkmates of Emmett from the detention center. Just as Emmett and Billy get underway, the other two steal Emmett's car and the long adventure of trying to get it back begins. They meet a number of different people along the way including a Pastor who tries to steal Billy's collection of silver dollars; Ulysses, a boxcar-riding man who protects Billy from the Pastor and is then hunted down for revenge; a group of colourful women who help Duchess in his scheme to delay Emmett; the author of Billy's book of heroic stories; and Sarah, Wooly's patient but frustrated (with good reason) sister.  

The story is great with lots of characters and (mis-) adventures, but my oh my, how it does go on...and on. I became tired of Duchess very quickly. He reminded me of Tom Sawyer with his foolishness getting in everybody's way and serving nobody but himself. But as Huck put up with Tom, Emmett puts up with Duchess...until he doesn't. 

Possible spoiler alert -

Things take a darker turn toward the end when two of the characters lose their lives. You are left to wonder...Who was ultimately responsible for the deaths? Was the ending reasonable? Believable? Will Emmett and Billy get away with no consequences? Should Emmett?

 

My only real complaint is that I was looking forward to the road trip to California story but it begins only as the book ends, the rest of it being about trying to get the trip started. They are delayed, and delayed again, and again, by Duchess' folly and I was as frustrated as Emmett was (maybe more) by all of it. It's an immersive story, good writing, with some wonderful characters (Wooly and Billy are perfect) but that wasn't enough to make me love it. I don't regret the time I invested (it's 576 pages long) because it is a good story, but I am relieved to be done with it.

Funny Farm

 Funny Farm by Laurie Zaleski

The uplifting, heart-wrenching story of a woman (the author's mother) who left an insanely abusive husband to find a safer life for herself and her three children. They moved into a run-down abandoned house in the middle of nowhere and for years endured the harassment of their maniac father who did everything he could to destroy them, yet demanded the kids continue to spend weeks at his - of course - much nicer home. He had money, but once they went back to their mother he not only refused them any support, he actively worked to make their lives almost unbearable. 

Their mother, Annie, made the abandoned house as much of a home as she could and with a soft heart for any creature in need, took in stray animals until the property became a farm of sorts. Daughter Laurie, the author, grew up with her mother's compassion for animals and promised that one day she would buy them a real farm, a home for her and her mother and all the animals they could care for. 

At the end of each chapter is an Animal Tail, a brief story about some of the animals on the Funny Farm, the unusual friendships they form, health problems they've overcome, etc. These can seem a bit disconnected because they don't always relate to what's in the chapter they follow, but they do provide needed comic relief in the midst of a very heavy story.

Today the Funny Farm Rescue and Sanctuary in May's Landing, New Jersey is open to the public on Sundays and Tuesdays. They have over 600 animals and a large group of volunteers to help look after them. Pictures and animal stories can be found on their website at funnyfarmrescue.

The Giver of Stars and Eruption

 The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes

This book got very good reviews that I find a little baffling. 

The story is about the women of Appalachia who went on  horseback into remote areas taking books to people with otherwise no access to them. I've read about these determined librarians before and they have my deepest admiration for the difficult and dangerous job they took on, but in this book the story goes on too long and so becomes tedious. Several pages of a drawn out - and repetitive - courtroom scene left me yawning and wanting to get to the end as quickly as possible.

The main characters were mostly likeable if somewhat flat and predictable, either all good or all bad, and a little over-dramatic.

The dialogue tended toward cliches and the occasional inclusion of modern phrasing felt out of place in the 1930's setting. It went on too long and tried to tackle too many issues, but that's only one opinion. Many, many, others love it so don't let my complaints dissuade you.

Much depends on personal taste and as French author Andre Maurois said:  "In literature, as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others."  

Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson

I was in the mood for a novel that was all plot, something to get lost in for a while and not have to think about deeper meanings and I certainly got that in Eruption. It doesn't say any more than the words you find on the page but it surely does keep you turning those pages.

On the island of Hawaii sits the world's largest volcano and it is about to blow. There are people who take the threat seriously and, of course, those who want to cash in and make a spectacle of it. Small eruptions start things rolling as the scientists and the military look for ways to prevent "the big one" or at least limit the damage it will do. 

Nothing goes as planned, and then there's more bad news: sitting in the path of the impending lava flow is a cave filled with hundreds of barrels of deadly toxic waste. If the contents are released, humanity will be faced with what could be an extinction level event. 

Tense, for sure, and maybe a little unrealistic at times. On the other hand there probably are people who would pull some of the stupid stunts they get up to here, for which they are always very, very sorry a little too late. My one complaint is that they killed off my favourite character, something that happens to me a lot lately in books, movies and tv shows. Why am I always drawn to the characters who won't make it through the story? 

It delivers what it promises - a tense few hours of escapism - and along the way you learn a bit about how volcanoes work. Exactly what I was looking for at the time.

The Jane Austen Recipe Book

 The Jane Austen Recipe Book by Robert Tuesley Anderson

A delightful read from beginning to end. A kind friend brought me this littlle book from France, stamped inside with the Shakespeare and Company logo. I'm not able to travel but a souvenir like this from a thoughtful friend lets me feel I've been a part of their adventure and I am very grateful for it.

As the title says, it is a recipe book, but each recipe comes with a charming story. It may refer to one of Austen's novels, typical meals from that era, or even thoughts on food taken from Jane's own letters to her sister, Cassandra. It's all beautifully written and put together, and the recipes are very tempting.

The book is divided into six sections: Breakfast; Picnics; Nuncheons & Other Light Meals; Dinner; Trash & Sweet Things; and Entertaining: Routs and Balls. 

To tempt you further, here a few of the recipes offered - Stuffed Tomatoes; Strawberry & Lavender Shortcakes; Netherfield White Soup; Cassandra's Lobster & Asparagus; Mrs. Austen's Spinach & Potato Gratin; Charlotte Lucas's Mince Pies; and Champagne Ice. You're bound to find something you want to try. And to make it easier, all of the recipes have been adjusted to accomodate changing times and availability of ingredients. 

For any Austen fan this book will be an inspiration in the kitchen and a joy to read.