THE DILEMMA OF CHARLOTTE FARROW (OLIVIA NEWPORT)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Baker Publishing Group|January 1, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-8007-2039-1 

 

Charlotte Farrow, maid in the wealthy Banning household on Chicago’s opulent Prairie Avenue, has kept her baby boy a secret from her employers for nearly a year.  But when the woman who has been caring for her son abruptly returns him, Charlotte must decide whether to come clean and face dismissal or keep her secret while the Banning’s decide the child’s fate.  Can she face the truth of her own past and open her heart to a future of her own?  Or will life’s tragedies determine the future for her? 

 

This compelling story set against the glittering backdrop of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition captures the tension between the wealthy class and the hardworking servants who made their lives comfortable.  Author Olivia Newport expertly portrays social classes while creating a story of courage, strength, and tender romance.

 

My Review: 

 

I didn’t enjoy this second novel as much as I did the first which was: “The Pursuit of Lucy Banning”.  I don’t feel it was written nearly as well as the first part and the story wasn’t all that attention holding either.  I was really quite disappointed however, I’m sure someone else will just love it.

 



THE DUCK COMMANDER FAMILY (WILLIE & KORIE ROBERTSON)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Howard Books|October 9, 2012|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-1-4767-0354-1 

 

Faith, Family, Ducks – in that order. 

 

This book gives readers an up-close and personal behind-the-scenes look at the family in the exploding A & E show – Duck Dynasty.  This Louisiana bayou family operates Duck Commander, a booming family business that has made them millions.  You’ll hear all about the Robertson clan from Willie and what it was like growing up in the Robertson household.  You’ll sample some of Willie’s favourite family recipes from Phil, Kay, and even some of his own concoctions; and you’ll get to know the beautiful Robertson women.  You’ll hear from Korie about the joys and hardships of raising a family, running a business, and wrangling the Robertson men while staying fashionable and beautiful inside and out.  Discover more about the family dynamics between brothers’ Willie, Jase, Jep, and parents Phil and Kay.  You’ll even meet a fourth brother who isn’t in the show. 

 

The popularity of Duck Dynasty is skyrocketing, garnering a Wednesday-night top two finish in all of cable.  The book releases in time for season two of the show in October 2012. 

 

My Review: 

 

This was a great read and I learned so much about the Robertson clan that I didn’t know.  The men are all very well educated and no dummies when it comes to business sense.  I was quite surprised to learn that Phil is a very different man today than he was in his earlier years when he and Miss Kay married. 

 

The Robertson’s are a very religious family and base their business decisions and family decisions around God’s teachings.  They feel no matter if they win or lose, it’s because what God has planned for them and manage to take everything in stride. 

 

For anyone who loves to watch Duck Dynasty will also love to read this book.  It’s packed full of information that will blow you away in a lot of places.  I might just read it again so I can remember all the things I learned about this talented and prosperous family.  Now when I watch the show I’ll have a really good understanding of who everyone is and what makes them tick.  Highly recommendable for sure!

 





ANOTHER FORGOTTEN CHILD (CATHY GLASS)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

HarperCollins (UK)|November 5, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-00-74877-9 

 

The social services are looking for a very experienced foster carer to look after Aimee and, when she reads the referral, Cathy understands why: it says that Aimee kicks and bites her mother that her mother is terrified of her, and that in rage Aimee strangled and killed four of their cat’s kittens.  Despite her reservations, Cathy agrees to take on Aimee – there is something about her that reminds Cathy of Jodie (the subject of Damaged and most disturbed child Cathy has cared for), and reading the report instantly tugs at her heart strings.  

 

When she arrives, Aimee is angry.  And she has every right to be.  She has spent the first eight years of her life living with her drug-dependent mother in a flat that the social worker described as “not fit for human habitation.”  There was no heating, no hot water, little food and no furniture.  Aimee is so grateful as she snuggles into her bed at Cathy’s house on the first night that it brings Cathy to tears. 

 

Aimee’s mother is aggressive and she is constantly causing a scene at contact, and makes sweeping allegations against Cathy and her family in front of her daughter as well.  It is a trying time for Cathy, and it makes it difficult for Aimee to settle.  But as Aimee begins to trust Cathy her behaviour improves and she starts to open up.  And the more Cathy learns about Aimee’s life before she came into care the more horrified she becomes. 

 

It’s clear that Aimee should have been rescued much sooner and Cathy promises to stand by her no matter what, but as Aimee’s journey seems to be coming to a happy end, Cathy can’t help but reflect on all the “forgotten children” that are still suffering. 

 

My Review: 

 

This was such a difficult novel to read.  The abuse that eight-year-old, Aimee suffered at the hands of her mother, her many drug addicted boyfriends, and her father was shocking to say the least.  This little girl had seen things, done things, and participated in things that no child should ever, ever have to go through. 

 

Aimee’s mother, Susan, is an extremely aggressive woman and often verbally attacked Cathy who received little help from the supervisor during the contact visits.  This certainly took its toll on poor Cathy.  No one should have to stand there and endure what she did. 

 

Cathy Glass not only has the ability to tell a story that keeps you glued to each page, but she has the patience of a Saint for fostering the children she does.  Aimee was an extreme case but through Cathy’s kind, compassionate, structured, and disciplined home, Aimee began to make huge improvements and for the first time in her life saw how a “real” family should function and how people interacted with each other appropriately. 

 

Once again Cathy Glass has totally blown me away with her story of Aimee and I’m so thankful that there are people like, Cathy who care enough about children like Aimee to take them in and give them some semblance of a normal life.  Kudos to you, Cathy for another well-written book.  Congratulations!

 



TRUE BLUE (DEBORAH ELLIS)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Pajama Press|October 1, 2011|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-9869495-0-0 

 

A person doesn’t have to do anything important to get recognition anymore; it’s enough to know someone who does.  Parasitic fame, Casey was more than just a dependable camp counselor dedicated to her little buddies in Cabin Three.  She was a brilliant student looking forward to a scholarship and a future career in entomology.  Casey wasn’t the kind of girl who would be stuck in a town like Galloway the rest of her life.  She was really going places.  And nobody knew this better than Jess, Casey’s best friend.  So how could a girl like Casey be arrested for the murder of a young camper under her care…Jess believes her friend is innocent and that the real killer will be caught, but in the meantime, she finds herself the reluctant center of attention.  After all, she was also a counselor in Cabin Three.  Jess must know something…right?  Readers will be readily sympathize with Jess, whose life begins to spin out of control.  But award-winning author Deborah Ellis brings much more to the character of her complex and troubled narrator, who may not be entirely reliable.  As the events surrounding the final weeks of August are slowly unveiled, readers will begin to question the very nature of friendship and how one finds the moral courage to be loyal, no matter what the consequences.   

 

My Review: 

 

This is the synopsis from the back cover of the book: 

 

“When Casey is arrested for murder, best friend Jess tries to convince police investigators they’ve made a terrible mistake.  After all, she and Casey were camp counselors together and both responsible for little Stephanie, who disappeared under their watch.  But even though Jess has told the investigators everything she knows, they aren’t satisfied.  She’s getting sick of their questions; even Casey’s lawyer won’t leave her alone.  Jess has to wait for the middle of the night before she can find a little peace, riding her bike aimlessly through the darkened streets of their small town – planning her next move. 

 

In a fresh departure from her novels set in developing countries award-winning author Deborah Ellis brilliantly recreates the inner world of an emotionally confused teen who struggles to find the moral courage to remain loyal to a friend in need.” 

 

I enjoyed this novel, however, I prefer Ms. Ellis’ other books that are more non-fiction.

 



NO ORDINARY DAY (DEBORAH ELLIS)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

Groundwood Books|August 22, 2011|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-55498-108-3 

 

There’s not much that upsets young Valli.  Even though her days are spent picking coal and fighting with her cousins, life in the coal town of Jharia, India, is the only life she knows.  The only sight that fills her with terror are the monsters who live on the other side of the train tracks – the lepers.  Valli and the other children throw stones at them.  No matter how hard her life is, she tells herself, at least she will never be one of them.  The she discovers that she is not living with family after all, that her “aunt” was a stranger who was paid money to take Valli off her own family’s hands.  She decides to leave Jharia…and so begins a series of adventures that takes her to Kolkata, the city of the gods.  It’s not so bad.  Valli find that she really doesn’t need much to live.  She can “borrow” the things she needs and then pass them on to people who need them more than she does.  It helps that though her bare feet become raw wounds as she makes her way around the city, she somehow feels no pain.  But when she happens to meet a doctor on the ghats by the river, Valli learns that she has leprosy.  Despite being given a chance to receive medical care, she cannot bear the thought that she is one of those monsters she has always feared, and she flees, to an uncertain life on the street. 

 

My Review: 

 

Valli lives in Jharia, India and spends her days picking up stray pieces of coal to cash in for money for food.  Coal fires have been burning under the town for nearly one hundred years.  Coal is in the air which comes up through cracks in the earth.  If you’re a man, you work in the mines or the pits, hacking at the coal with pickaxes and shovels.  If you’re a woman, you walk up the narrow steep trails with large heavy baskets of coal on your head.  Children pick up any stray lumps they can find. 

 

Valli has no friends other than her “cousins” and they throw rocks at the lepers who live across the railway tracks.  They think they are monsters who will eat them up.  One day Valli discovers that her “aunt” is not really related to her at all, but merely some woman paid to take Valli off her mother’s hands.  Valli decides to leave Jharia. 

 

She climbs into the back of a coal truck and buries herself beneath the black coal deciding to go wherever the truck takes her.  During one of the two men’s stops, they discovered Valli in the back and took her to a woman they know who was known for taking in stray and abandoned children.  Once the woman was able to wash the layers and layers of black coal off Valli’s body and out of her hair, she soon discovered that Valli had leprosy and kicked her back out onto the street. 

 

Valli found herself in Kolkata, which is the capital city in West Bengal, India which used to be called Calcutta.  She slept on sidewalks, in doorways, in cemetery’s, and other places she could find.  She begged for money for food or tried to impress tourists with a few words in German and English that she had learned.  This was usually enough to garner her a few rupees. 

 

One day she meets Dr. Indra who takes Valli under her wing at her hospital.  She cleans her up and explains to her that she has leprosy but Valli has no intentions on staying in any hospital with other lepers.  After Dr. Indra bandages her raw and oozing feet, Valli returns to the streets where she meets up with some rather interesting adventures, eventually making her way back to Dr. Indra. 

 

This was a beautifully written book that is written without the usual “fear” that we all feel when we even so much as hear the word “leprosy”.  Deborah Ellis was able to explain, in layman’s terms exactly what the disease is, how one contracts it, and what the cure is.  

 

Note:  Leprosy is caused by a bacterium that destroys the nerves in the cooler parts of the body, especially in the hands, feet, skin, and eyes.  It can begin to show itself as white or discoloured patches on the skin.  If it remains untreated, it starts to take feeling out of hands and feet.  People become unable to feel pain, and they can’t tell when they become injured.  Their injuries lead to infection and permanent damage. 

 

Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded diseases in human history.  It is now curable with medications, surgery, and skin grafting.  However, because of its ability to disfigure, it is a disease that has been much feared and misunderstood.  In many communities, people with leprosy are still cast out of mainstream society because the community doesn’t understand that leprosy is hard to get and can be cured. 

 

Kudos go out to Deborah for penning such a beautiful story and for donating all royalties from this book to: The Leprosy Mission of Canada at http://www.leprosy.ca

 



THE DOVEKEEPERS (ALICE HOFFMAN)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Scribner|November 9, 2012 | Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-4516-1748-1 

 

Over five years in the writing, The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman’s most ambitious and mesmerizing novel, a tour de force of imagination and research, set in ancient Israel. 

 

In 70 C.E., nine-hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert.  According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived.  Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path.  Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death.  Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed.  Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and an expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow solider.  Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. 

 

The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege.  All are dovekeepers and all are also keeping secrets about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.  The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman’s masterpiece. 

 

My Review: 

 

I have read a lot of novels about ancient Jerusalem during this era but I must begin this particular review with one word – WOW!!  I was completely entranced with Alice Hoffman’s The Dovekeepers which took place during the Roman siege during the first century abbreviated as C.E. which stands for Common Era.  Common Era refers to the years counting forward from the birth of Jesus.  C.E. has mostly replaced the old use of A.D. in an effort to appease non-theological references and non-believers. The use of Common Era is a more accepted practice now. 

 

The Jewish war was written around 75 C.E. by a man named Flavius Josephus who was a Jewish historian. 

 

Masada was a desert fortress situated at the top of a rock cliff at the western end of the Judean Desert and overlooking the Dead Sea.  Masada is the Hebrew word for fortress. 

 

Hoffman delivers a breathtaking account of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.  In 73 C.E. the Roman Governor Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the Tenth Legion.  The Romans quickly built camps at the base of Masada in preparation to lay siege to it.  They built massive walls and constructed a rampart, then built a huge ramp, moved the battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress. 

 

The story is told through the voices of four different women: Yael, Revka, Aziza and Shirah.  Each of these women had secrets about where they came from, who they are, who their fathers were, and who they love.  Each of the women’s stories bound them together throughout the novel emotionally and symbolically.  The change in each woman’s story flowed effortlessly and leant to the dynamic retelling of this sad and tragic period in history. 

 

The dramatic end to this story will rip your heart out and leave tear-stains on your pages as you turn them.  The title The Dovekeepers has a symbolic meaning throughout the story. 

 

I’ve read a lot of Hoffman’s work and I believe this to be her very best.  I believe this will become a classic in the future and a novel that will be talked about in book groups, people’s living rooms, in the news and will be a bestseller.  I for sure will be touting the merits of this book to anyone and everyone who will listen.  Kudos to you Ms. Hoffman!

 



THE KIND OF LIFE IT'S BEEN: A MEMOIR (LLOYD ROBERTSON)

 

 

Story Description: 

 

HarperCollins Publishers|October 16, 2012|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-1-44340-861-5 

 

For sixty years, Lloyd Robertson lived his dream of working in broadcasting bringing us the major events of the day.  The longest-serving TV news anchor in Canadian history, first on CBC and then on CTV, Robertson remains one of the most accomplished journalists of our time.  His career is truly the story of Canada over the past half century, as he told us about key events like the moon landing, JFK’s assassination, Trudeaumania, Terry Fox’s run, the Montreal Massacre, 9/11, and the royal weddings. 

 

In The Kind of Life It’s Been, Robertson shares the inside story and the insights he has gained over his long career, from breaking into the business in his hometown of Stratford, Ontario, to joining the CBC to his highly public departure for CTV to his career as senior editor of CTV News.  Filled with fascinating and often hilarious anecdotes about Robertson’s career, this book captures the essential tales of our time and is a must for any Canadian interested in the inner workings of a frenetic newsroom. 

 

My Review: 

 

Who doesn’t love Lloyd Robertson?  Lloyd’s memoir will fill you up and leave you feeling satisfied as if you’ve just sat down and finished a long, well-deserved homemade turkey dinner.  No one has been in broadcasting as long as our dear Lloyd and he has the credentials to prove it. 

 

I was somewhat surprised to learn of his mother’s problems and his father’s older age, he certainly didn’t have much of a childhood and I felt he was lonely a lot of the time but always managed to find himself something to do.  He was self-motivated from the word go and it’s not at all surprising he became so very successful. 

 

The Kind of Life It’s Been is a riveting story about a man who truly is Canada’s voice!  Lloyd is a man who is not only known and loved in Canada, but around the world!