Jonas Jonasson is back with another irresistible adventure, this time set in nineteenth century Sweden.

After his father’s death is caused by the greedy and cunning Count Bielkegren, Algot Olsson is left with nothing to his name, except for a potato field and a homemade still to make liquor. But Algot is smart, ambitious and resourceful, and it’s not long before he masters the lucrative art of distilling spirits. When his schnapps become a sensation, he finds his success once again attracts the envy of the Count, who will do everything in his power to sabotage Algot’s budding business.

Thankfully, however, Algot isn’t alone. With the support of his friend Helmut, a Bavarian printer with a flexible relationship to the truth, and Helmut’s daughter Anna Stina, who is as strong-willed as she is charming, he might just have the creativity and the courage to outsmart the Count’s schemes once and for all … and perhaps there’s even time for romance along the way.

Full of sharp humour, wonderfully absurd twists and memorable characters, Algot, Anna Stina and the Water of Life is an irresistible adventure of friendship, love and ingenuity.

Dear Mr. Jonasson,

This is wonderful. I haven’t had as much fun reading a book in quite a while. Sly, understated humor is my favorite kind and “Algot, Anna Stina, et all” abounds with it. Plus a yummy revenge-best-served-cold plot that challenges readers to notice and remember all the moving parts of the story.

It would be impossible to try and explain the plot any more than the blurb already does. It has layers, it has depths, it has complexities. It has moments of silly absurdity to go with the poignant ones. I also, I think, learned a bit about 1850s Swedish history including why so many Swedes and Norwegians headed across the Atlantic looking for a better life. I can’t pretend to grasp the details about King Oscar and how he became king, though, despite the gallant attempt the book makes to explain it.

Quite a few old sayings apply to the actions in this book. What goes around, comes around. Treat others as you want to be treated. If only the count and his numbskull son remembered any of these. Also, revenge is a dish best served cold and Anna Stina – who has more than hints of feminism, along with several others, knows how to dish it out.

In the end, those who have it coming generally get their just deserts. There are two people who get off lightly given that they are selfish and avaricious at times. However the truly awful receive the set down in life they deserve while one or two others are used as instruments of justice in lieu of their own punishment. Things can get chaotic a few times, there is a subtle romance and the story takes its time getting started but once the ball starts rolling, I had a blast watching the good guys come out on top. A-

~Jayne

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In the sprawling Gothic expanse of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, some secrets refuse to stay buried.
Recently laid off and searching for purpose, Jess reluctantly joins her best friend on a supposedly fun nighttime cemetery tour. Separated from her group by accident, she discovers a bunch of terrified boys and a strange, ancient key. Both lead to Green-Wood’s surprisingly handsome resident arborist, Adam Chervinsky.
Recently widowed, Adam has more to protect than the leafy residents of Green-Wood. His children, still dealing with the loss of their mother, are acting strangely. A haunting is afoot, and Jess seems to know more than she’s letting on. Sparks fly between Jess and Adam—and the unquiet spirits of Green-Wood rise from their century-long slumber.

As Jess and Adam delve deeper into the cemetery’s haunted history, they uncover a Gilded Age curse, a ghostly socialite, and a demonic pact that stretches across generations. What lies hidden in the Green-Wood’s splendid Vanderwilt mausoleum? As the line between the living and the dead blurs, and the shadows of Green-Wood begin to stir with malevolent intent, Jess must confront not only the supernatural forces but a shocking connection to the past if she and Adam truly want to live happily ever after.

CW/TW – child in danger

Dear Ms. Willig, 

I wasn’t quite sure what I’d be getting with this one but it sounded interesting and I was game to give it a go. There’s humor, family issues (his and hers), female friendship, realistic children, an amazing sounding cemetery, and a demon determined to get loose. 

All right, it might sound strange but I think it would be cool to be able to roam this cemetery at will. Not sure I’d want to live there, though. Jess and Adam strike sparks fairly quickly but there are lots of things standing between them getting much closer. Adam’s oldest child, frighteningly intelligent Melinda, seems more okay with it but eleven year old Ben has already lost his mother and doesn’t seem too keen on “losing” his father, too. I think Jess handles all this well but it helps that she doesn’t immediately try and make a move on Adam. In fact, I think he falls first – or at least he admits it sooner. 

Jess has always felt a bit on the outside of relationships. A single child of a single mother who would never tell her who her father is, Jess has been self-sufficient most of her life and only admits to feeling “fine” even if she’s wracked with problems. Her bestie Kimmy, who is delightful, knows Jess well and is also a dab hand at reading research papers and archives when needed. 

Ben has his own relationship issues as even four years later he’s still dealing with the grief of losing his beloved wife following a fight they had. He juggles his job with trying to be the best dad and usually does okay but not always. He does love his job of being head arborist at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. The trees talk to him or at least give off hints to him of how they’re feeling or if they’re worried. No, his wife never believed him but Adam knows they do. 

But what to do about the weird stuff going on now? Jess discovers something strange and gets Adam involved but Adam’s not quite sure he can trust her or the other person. He maintains that all this weird stuff is smoke and mirrors far past when most people would admit that strange things are afoot – or afloat. In Adam’s defense, the perpetrator of the Weird Stuff is well versed in whispering divisive hints and getting people to believe him.

There is a lot of meandering along during the middle part of the book as everyone experiences the Weird Stuff and mentally deals with it in their own way before arguing about what to do, where to find the needed information, and then conveniently forgets some whispered words of wisdom and a certain object. A few misdirections help carry things along while the romance builds until All Hell Breaks Loose and those involved have to take a stab at getting things straightened out. 

The book maintains a fair balance between the spooky, scary, funny, and romantic elements.  I really enjoy the friendship between Jess and Kimmy and love that Kimmy has her own successful career as well as being well trained on reading archives. Poor Ingrid takes the role of the slightly pompous know-it-all foil. Jess has a lifetime of feeling slightly inadequate to get over while Adam is trying his best to handle his children and their emotional needs as well as the needs of the thousands of trees and plants under his care. 

Still, the number of times that important clues are dropped – almost literally – on the MCs which they then proceed to ignore or forget about until suddenly! “Oh, right, that clue!” had me shaking my head. Yeah, there are reasons for Jess to mope and whine but times I wanted to do a Cher and yell, “Snap out of it.” Even before Someone starts playing with Adam’s mind, he stubbornly refuses to believe the truth despite having logical reasons to believe shoved at him. At least he did until the flaming frogs appeared. I also wish that the demon was not toned down with bits of humor. I wanted him to lean into it and be all bad. 

However I remained invested in the story and characters, loved the female friendship, and the relationships between Adam and his children. These are the reasons to pick this one up and give it a try. B            

~Jayne

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London, 1776

It’s been twelve years since Hannah Dennington looked into the gray eyes of Samuel Ross, their depths as bleak as sadness itself. That childhood memory—the day she accused him of hiding a stolen pocket watch and sent him to appear before Sir John Fielding, the renowned blind London magistrate—still haunts her.

Young Samuel was certain he was bound for the gallows. Instead, the Blind Beak saw a soul worth saving and sent the orphaned pickpocket to serve in the Royal Navy—until a wartime injury returns a grown and changed Samuel to London, and Sir John grants him a trial post as a Bow Street officer. Determined to prove himself, Samuel uses his knowledge of London’s criminal element to apprehend felons.

When highwaymen hold up Hannah’s coach, it is Samuel who comes to her rescue. Almost instantly, he recognizes her as the girl who once betrayed him. But she’s now a woman whose beauty is matched only by her intellect and stubborn independence.

Dear Ms. Bessey,

Years ago I used to read historical romance books from Fawcett Crest and this book reminds me a lot of them although with some inspirational touches. I enjoyed the strong heroine, the noble hero, the crime solving, and may I put in a request for stories featuring Hannah’s sisters?

Twelve years ago, young Hannah Dennington and slightly older Samuel “Sammy” Ross met in a London pawnshop. Hannah thinks she’s doing the law abiding thing when she mentions what Samuel dropped in the store but is horrified when this leads to his arrest for pickpocketing. Convinced she’s sent him to Tyburn to hang, Hannah has nightmares and guilt. But it turns out to be the making of Samuel who ends up in the Navy where he learns from a mentor, rises in rank, and turns his life around.

The two meet again but at first only Samuel realizes their past. When she finds this out, Hannah gets a little bent out of shape but there are reasonable issues why Samuel kept quiet. Now he’s working for the Bow Street Runners and Sir John Fielding hunting for ruthless criminals. When he confesses to Hannah who he is, while they’re working together, Hannah has to face what she did and her feelings about that and Samuel. Will they work out a relationship while they try to avert a robbery?

I had fun reading this book despite the amount of crime and crime prevention going on. Hannah and her sisters are lovely together. I also enjoyed their relationship with their loving father who has some choice words of wisdom for his eldest daughter in addition to appreciating her business acumen. Hannah’s maid Fanny is another character I was happy to see on page. Fanny is smart and quite willing to chaperon Hannah and Samuel since it lets her sit in a corner with her feet up – so to speak. Hannah does tend to cling to social propriety in the face of “not right now, Hannah. Your life might be at stake.” Thankfully Samuel has enough experience with injuries, due to his time in the Navy, to know when cut through this.

The crime solving parts were absorbing and it seemed as if mid Georgian London was the wild west with only the Runners keeping crime at bay. After reading the Author Note I saw that Jealous was a real life Runner’s actual last name. Over the years I’ve watched “Garrow’s Law” and “City of Vice” so I had some grasp of who was who and what was going on in crime solving in this time period and the details here sounded convincing.

The faith aspects of the plot ended up working for me though at first I wasn’t sure especially when Hannah and Sophia discussed Hannah’s nightmares and avoidance of Tyburn due to what she thought she had delivered Samuel to. Hannah seemed more focused on how it affected her rather than the fact that Samuel was probably dead. When the sisters talked more, while discussing the lesson from the sermon delivered in their local church, everything came together. This is how I prefer religion in a book – no preaching at anyone but rather an examination of one’s own beliefs.

Aha, there was an American spy tossed in the mix to bring together two seemingly disparate plot threads before the grand finale at a society ball. Hurrah for Hannah who lends a hand but doesn’t try to fight above her weight. Samuel is, maybe, a bit too perfect but he seems well aware of the jewel he’s won and happy to hand over certain new details of his life for her management. I do wish there was more emotional sizzle, though. As I mentioned above, I hope that there will be books for Sophia and Elinor. Meanwhile I enjoyed this one. B

~Jayne

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I got this from Netgalley totally on impulse – I don’t read horror these days (I did as a teenager), but I recognized the author’s name. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by her but I was under the impression she wrote werewolf romances (it actually looks like she’s written a lot of books across various genres). Anyway, again, it was an impulse mostly driven by the blurb, which sounded really intriguing:

Final Destination meets The Cabin at the End of the World in this supernatural horror from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, in which a series of car accidents traps a group of strangers at a dive bar.

A forested road at night, slick from the pounding rain and eerily illuminated by flashes of lightning. Just before midnight, a car swerves to avoid something—or someone—mysteriously standing in the road, only to slam into a fallen tree instead. In the pitch black, four more cars follow in a pileup no one can seem avoid.

Stumbling out of the wreckage, soaked from the rain and nursing various injuries, five strangers find themselves in a backwoods dive bar, waiting for daybreak and hoping for cell service. But as tensions rise and the storm rages on outside, the occupants of the dive bar start to notice that not everything is as it seems. Time is moving differently, and they quickly learn that going outside—whether to assist another accident victim or to hike for help—is a very bad idea.

There’s something in the woods, something that isn’t natural. Could the figure in the road have been a warning? Or something more sinister? None of this is normal, and they’ll need to work together to figure out what’s happening if they have any hope of surviving through the night.

Ellie is driving home late at night when an unexpected detour and a sudden rainstorm leave her concerned that she’s lost. She drives on – what else can she do, when her GPS has stopped working? A woman appears suddenly in the road and Ellie ends up crashing into a tree that’s fallen across the roadway. She gets out of the car to search for the woman, concerned that she hit her, and wonders how she didn’t see the giant tree in the road.

Henry is also driving home under the same conditions – a detour, a storm, and his truck ends up crashing into Ellie’s car and injuring Ellie. Luckily, Henry is a paramedic, and he tends to her wounds as best he can. Once again, strangely, he did not see Ellie’s car or the tree until it was too late to stop.

Ellie and Henry put their hazard lights on and strike on down the road in search of help. What they find is an unexpected bar nestled in the woods. Rundown looking on the outside, it ends up being unexpectedly nice on the inside. There are two inhabitants: a young and handsome bartender, who turns out to be the owner, and a customer, a woman hunched over the bar with a hoodie drawn up around her face.

Ellie has an uneasy feeling and contrives to see the woman’s face. When she does, her suspicion is confirmed: this is the woman in the road that caused her to crash. Oddly, her clothes are dry though she should be soaked if she was out in the storm. Also, the bartender says that the woman has been at the bar for hours. Then Ellie and Henry notice the puddle of water under her barstool.

At this point, Ellie doesn’t know what’s going on, but her senses are screaming to her that something is not right and she should leave. Henry tries to take a more rational approach, though he is also discomfited.

A young couple travels the same road and ends up crashing into Henry’s truck. The driver, Caleb, is almost able to stop in time but feels as though some force pushes their car into the truck at the last moment. He and his girlfriend, Noemi, make their way to the bar and meet the inhabitants. They specify that the previously crashed cars were dark, which confuses Ellie and Henry; they both turned their hazards on before they left the wreck.

Henry and Ellie decide to venture back out the scene and try to mark the area to avoid further accidents (spoiler: it doesn’t work). Things get even stranger as they lose sight of each other temporarily and seem to be briefly in…different dimensions? Not that far away physically (or at least they shouldn’t be) but unable to find each other or hear each other yell. Henry hears and sees things that remind him of his childhood fear, zombies.

More crashes occur and more characters seek out the bar. It becomes clear as you learn the characters’ backstories that there are connections between these seeming strangers, which of course reinforces the notion that it’s not a coincidence that they have all arrived in this specific place at the same time.

The best part of this book is the characters, especially Ellie and even more especially Henry. Henry is in his 40s, divorced with two daughters in college. He works as a paramedic after too many years getting banged up working construction. Henry is a very tall and large guy, and that combined with his Native American heritage has taught him that people may find him intimidating. He goes out of his way to signal that he’s not a threat. When trying to help Ellie after she’s initially injured, he is hyper-aware that she may hesitate to have a strange man touching her. Henry is a really strong character, almost but never quite too good to be true. I really liked him.

Ellie is in her 30s and has kicked around a lot, never quite landing a job or a relationship that lasted. She has a handful of half-finished degrees. When she was 10, she was saved from being killed in a mass shooting, and the incident has haunted her life. Ellie is strong but she’s lost and I liked her a lot as well.

The secondary characters are all well drawn (well, one of the latecomers to the car-crash-and-bar-scene is a total dick, and a bit more cartoonish of a character). My main criticism of Dive Bar at the End of the Road is that the pacing was a little off for me. The story is compelling for at least the first half, but as the reality of the circumstances the characters are caught up in comes into focus, it loses some potency.

A more minor quibble – I felt that the focus on each of the characters having a hidden fear (for Henry it’s zombies; for another character it’s rabid dogs ala Cujo) was a little cheesy and detracted from the atmosphere of tension and dread.

Overall, though, this was something different for me and made me wonder if I might dip my toes back into horror again. If so, I’ll definitely check out some of Armstrong’s backlist. My grade for Dive Bar at the End of the Road is a straight B.

Best,

Jennie

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One of the best-known classics from beloved Dutch children’s author Annie M.G. Schmidt, The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof spins a charming and whimsical tale of friendship and adventure. Tibble is a timid reporter on the verge of losing his job. He only ever writes about cats, not the hard news his paper wants, and because of this he’s about to be fired.

Minou is a young woman who has moved into Tibble’s flat. She hates dogs, likes rooftops, loves the fishmonger, and happens to have been, until very recently, a cat.

With her feline friends listening out for all the local human news, is Minou the answer to all Tibble’s problems-or just the beginning of them? Together they begin to uncover the real scoops about the local community, exposing secrets that Tibble’s newspaper never dared report!

The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof is a hilarious, charming story of cats, dogs, and learning to dare. Widely celebrated, it has been translated into 32 languages and its film adaptation remains the biggest Dutch children’s movie of all time. This gorgeous, repackaged paperback presents a perfect collectible classics edition for young and old readers alike.

CW/TW – Animal mistreatment though no animals die. More than slight tinges of misogyny.  

Review

The main reason I decided to read this reissue of a 1971 classic Dutch middle grade children’s book is because I enjoyed the 2010 movie that was based on it called “Miss Minoes.” The movie changed a few things but the basic framework of both are the same. 

Minou, a cat, and her sister live near some bioresearch building and Minou ate something out of its dumpster which turns her human. She seeks shelter with a young journalist, who is shy and sucks at seeking out stories, after he saves her. Then through the Cat Press Agency (Minou talking to the cats of the city who can understand human speech and tell her things) she tells him things and he writes stories. But of course there’s a villain who must be stopped and Minou’s changing feelings about staying human vs trying to return to being a cat. 

I can honestly say that the book hasn’t aged well. Over the course of it and mainly associated with the villain, some cats are mistreated (though all live and are mostly fine at the end). The book also has a sort of 1960s/70s Disney vibe. If you’ve ever seen “That Darn Cat” or any of the “Herbie” movies, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s kind of goofy and more innocent with a lot being stated and restated to make sure we get it, though remember the cat harm here. You just accept the weird things and keep going with the plot. 

Maybe it’s the translation from the original Dutch or maybe the dialog is just stilted on its own, but it is. Tibble (who goes by his last name) is hecka judgy of Minou and half the time it seems he believes her and is trying to stop her “cattish” behavior and half the time he’s denying what she’s telling him. But he does accept and use the info the cats tell her without thanking her or paying her. There is a young middle school character who gets involved and spends lots of time with Tibble and Minou without a parent in sight. Times have changed. 

In the book, there are two things mentioned which the villain is involved with and while the book utilizes one way of bringing him down, the movie goes with the other. I’d rather the book have used method two but it is what it is. The way that Minou, Bibi, and the cats work to get evidence against the villain is thought out and achievable for cats and a young girl to do so, there is that. 

Another thing I like is that the cats act like cats. Cats hunt and eat birds, cats disdain most humans, and mother cats are ready to send their offspring out into the world at tender young ages but this is what they actually do IRL. 

The book ends with Tibble and Minou maintaining a working relationship rather than the marriage that occurs in the film. I guess most middle schoolers of the time wouldn’t have batted an eyelid over it – I probably wouldn’t’ve and I think overall the book really does seem aimed at and written for its audience. So, I’m not sure who might like it now as I wonder if it would appeal to adults who didn’t grow up with it or would to today’s pre-teens who might be bothered by the “cats act like cats” stuff or the harm to cats scenes. I think for me, I prefer the movie version which can be borrowed from Hoopla under the title of “Miss Minous.” It’s a bit dopey but it’s cute. 

As for grading the book, I do like aspects such as the Cat Press Agency acting with Minou, the fact that the solution to the villain problem makes sense and is something I can believe that it could be done. The cats do act like cats even if, at times, this might not be what and how humans want to see them acting. The dialog was stilted and, even though sadly I know people can be cruel, I don’t like seeing it in books. I’m going with a B-/C+   

~Jayne

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Step into the soft, cozy world of Stanis, the beloved black cat whose gentle adventures and warm spirit have captured hundreds of thousands of hearts online. In his first book, this charming feline invites you to discover the simple pleasures that make each day feel calmer, sweeter, and more meaningful.

Guided by the tender artwork of owner and illustrator Elisa Colarossi, readers are welcomed into Stanis’s everyday rituals—quiet mornings, homemade treats, rainy-day reading, and peaceful strolls through Rome.

A cozy, illustrated guide to a softer, more mindful life
Tender artwork by Elisa Colarossi
Everyday rituals and simple Italian joys
A perfect gift for cat lovers and cozy souls

Slow down, savor the small things, and live the purrfect life with Stanis.

Review

I had never heard of Stanis the Cat who is an actual cat from Rome who has (through his human) an Instagram account. Stanis is cute and looks cuddly in the bio photo.

The book however is full of wonderful illustrations of Stanis, his girlfriend, his orange cat bestie, and his two bird (a pigeon and a seagull) friends. Stanis enjoys shopping – food, plants and gardening supplies, and vintage stuff are his favorites. Good thing his girlfriend, who loves her sparkly pink handbag, owns a quirky vintage shop!

Stanis has lots of advice about how to slow down, savor life, and spend time with friends. There are also some yummy looking recipes (with both metric and US measurements) that I’d actually like to try. Stanis is a big fan of seasonal veggies, pasta, and apparently he makes a fabulous tomato sauce.

This is a quick book to flip through, abundantly full of illustrations, and I found it soothing if a bit startling at times as RL cats don’t like sweets or citrus flavors but then we’re talking about Instagram-Stanis so, okay. Also I didn’t know that Italians are now getting into celebrating Halloween so there, I learned something. B-

~Jayne

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Decorated war hero Major Charles Mountjoy jerks Tris out of his despair by inspiring feelings of passion Tris had never suspected himself capable of. Almost as terrifying as those feelings for Charles are the signs Charles might return his affection—or, even worse, that Charles sees the man Tristan has been trying so valiantly to hide from the world.

Review.

Dear readers,

First and foremost I wanted to note that the electronic version of this book does appear on KU.  It looks like quite a few of the older m/m books are on KU now, which to me is a good thing.  I bought the paperback in 2011 and just now borrowed the electronic version on KU.  I also like to check both on Goodreads and hear whether I reviewed the book before. For this book I found the review that I wrote for Reviews by Jessewave in 2016 on Goodreads (I put some of my drafts on GR, but not all of them).  I am reposting my review in full below and going to make couple of comments below, because while most of my impressions of the book hold, some of them did not.

Here is my old review reposted from Good reads:

“I liked Finding Zach by this author, but I loved this book and enjoyed every word of it. It is a very well-researched historical as far as I can tell, and has two heroes who are likeable and wonderfully flawed. Moreover both Charles and Tristan — especially Tristan — have real character arcs; they grow and change for the better over the course of the story. (I know it should be a given, but I do not see it in this genre often enough for my taste, so when I do see it I always praise it.)

I also liked that the author made sure that Tristan and Charles found a real passion, something wonderful to do with their time besides being with each other. I do not see that too often in historicals, either, if the protags are representatives of upper classes. We often find gentlemen spending time on their properties, and if they figure out how to take better care of people who serve them, then that is a bonus. Although this may be understandable and historically true, I absolutely loved how the author found something here for them to do, which allowed for them to engage in and be passionate about it as well as bringing them even closer.

Tristan’s wife, Lottie, is the most delightful character. I have seen authors go the marriage of convenience route to make sure that a man looks good in the eyes of society, but this author gave this trope a fresh twist and Lottie truly shines in my opinion. I cannot talk a lot about her character without rather significant spoilers, but I want to quote a paragraph from the only quarrel she and Tristan have on pages of the book, one which I thought was quite amusing:

“You began it,” she said dryly. “Now it’s your turn to say, ‘No, you started it.’ That’s how quarrels go, you know. They quickly devolve into meaningless posturing.”

“Listening to you speak one might think you were educated,” Tristan said.

“Too bad spelling wasn’t part of your education.”

“Oh very good,” she said approvingly. “We’re exchanging personal insults. One would think you had done this before.”

Despite his anger, this struck him as immensely funny, and he broke into unwilling laughter.

There were aspects of our heroes and their emotions that I really liked as well as how they helped each other, such as when Tristan was struggling with his outlook on life and Charles helped him to stand on both feet and realize what he wanted from his own life, and then when Charles needed assistance toward the end, Tristan was there for him. I also liked how whatever Tristan was feeling before Charles came along was not described in modern medical terms.

I also loved how the book successfully avoided what I call the break up for the sake of creating a conflict out of nowhere. I prefer when the characters spend time apart because what is happening around them truly demands it, and here Charles would not have been Charles if he refused to do his duty no matter how much he is tired and dislikes it. And the protags actually did not engage in idiotic quarrel before they needed to spend time apart — oh, this was such a refreshingly delightful story on so many levels!

Additionally, I enjoyed how while Tristan and Charles constantly are aware that discovery of their relationship could endanger their lives, they found a couple of people close to them who accept them and willing to help them. It does make sense to and heartens me that no matter how homophobic the majority of the population would have been in a past era in one country or another, sometimes close family members or very close friends managed to still accept them.

I should note that there is one tiny sex scene between Tristan and Lottie on their wedding night, but that is it, and by the time Tristan and Charles are together, Tristan is no longer sleeping with Lottie. Their marriage to me was both a usual and an unusual arrangement; unusual because of what Lottie wanted out of it, something I have not seen that often. Also note that while there is some sex in the story between Charlie and Tristan, in comparison to the length of the book, it is not much (three? four scenes? not even sure) and it definitely does not overwhelm the story, which worked for me.

The only little niggle I had with the story was Tristan’s father. I had no problem with him being clueless about how to raise his son and how he finally owned up to it, but I absolutely had a problem with him not realizing how his cruel words affected Tristan. I could not understand how he could not figure out that kindness could have been helpful in raising a child. But this is a small complaint of an otherwise wonderful novel.

Highly recommended.”

PS.  So just a couple of things after I reread the story.  The Insta Love between two characters is real. Of course the author tried to mitigate it by having Tristan and Charles being remotely fascinated by each other from Lottie’s letters, but it was not even them writing to each other. In other words for me it was not mitigated much. Did it bother me much? Not in this story, because I was charmed by both of them too much.

There is crying in the story from both men at different point.  I was looking at some of GR reviews, lamenting the crying. Of course I am aware that at some point in the 19 century the men started to be discouraged from crying in both public and private lives except on very few occasions.  I decided to do very basic (Wikipedia level, although I was not reading the Wikipedia article) research and it appears that it was not that simple. It appears that this shift started to happen in 1830-1840s and our story ends in 1820. I could be wrong, but even if I am, I had no problem with crying, to me it made sense.

I had bigger problem with too many people learning that our main characters started a relationship and all of them being okay with it. Of course one or two people would have made sense, but now I counted more than that. Yes, both men are very much aware of the danger of being discovered, but to me shared the information too carelessly couple of times.  I also now wonder how modern the dialogue was at times.  I would still call it a historical though because it was well researched for the most part and the characters views while at time a bit too modern, still did not feel like fully modern if it makes sense. Last few years I have tried the books that were characterized as historical and did not even come close to this one where research and at least attempt to portray the people as living in the early 19 century was concerned.

Grade: B

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A final request. A hidden past. A hope for the future.

When Faith loses her beloved father, famous TV historian Richard Macintire, she is baffled to receive a final letter which sends her on an intriguing quest across the freezing Yorkshire moors.

To help solve the puzzle, Faith enlists the help of George, Richard’s mysterious but rather handsome Welsh protégé, her best friend Ivy and Ivy’s chaotic labradoodle, Teasel.

As they set off across Yorkshire, hindered by Teasel’s disastrous antics, they begin to unravel Richard’s clues. What they discover makes Faith reconsider the father she idolised and the happy childhood she’d taken for granted. Because, despite being devoted to Faith, Richard had secrets. And if Faith can get to the bottom of them, with George by her side, then a whole new future could open up to her, and even an unexpected romance…

Dear Ms. Lovering,

Well, this is two books in a row with an ending I didn’t see coming. There were times when I got a bit … impatient with Faith and her father’s quest and agreed with her when she wailed “why didn’t he just write it all down instead of sending me on this scavenger hunt?” but when everything finally came together, her reasoning about why dear old dad handled things this way is sound.

Faith is dealing with her grief at her beloved father’s death. She’s always been the meticulous one who dots every i and crosses every t. Her brilliant father was an expert in Anglo-Saxonish languages and churches, and often appeared on TV shows as well as having written several books. Now she’s got a letter he wrote to her directing her to visit several millennia old churches in North Yorkshire and sign the guest books. Her lifelong friend Ivy arranges for George, a Welshman with his own family issues who also knew her father, to take her around. Faith is clueless about the why and slightly irritated at the winter timing but if this is what dad wanted … Only what will she discover and does she really want to know?

My next-door neighbor has a labradoodle. Only she’s a small one but when she’s fired up, she can fly. She does listen and obey though, unlike Teasel who sounds like hell on paws/wheels. Dog lovers will probably be nodding their heads at some of the things Teasel gets into. Teasel, Teasel, Teasel. Oh, and one of my (large) dogs once devoured eight large Snickers bars (so actually not that much chocolate) and lived to bark the tale. Silly me thinking the kitchen countertop would be out of her reach. 

Faith is detail oriented and soon begins to think that her father is trying to convey something to her from beyond the grave. He leaves instructions which she’s fairly sure he realized she’d follow to the letter. Apparently her father knew George – and fairly well – though Faith had never heard of this guy who also knows old English and medieval languages as well as details of Anglo-Saxon church architecture. None of which interested Faith no matter how much her father tried to gently entice her. Pretty soon she’s fed up with this whole thing and ready to quit until her grief is less acute. But Ivy hands over a letter he wrote to her asking her to keep Faith on track. Oh, well back at it then.

Faith will have a lot of self discovery on this journey as she learns and reacts to how others saw her father, what he did for them, and that dear old dad had a few secrets. First Faith has to realize that there is a trail for her to follow and then she has to try, with George’s help, to uncover what her father wanted her to find out. It’s sort of like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces and maybe the wrong box cover to go by. 

There is a bit of circling around and back as things get convoluted. Faith wails “why didn’t he just tell me? Why didn’t he just write this out? Why??” and yeah, I agreed with her. Then she whips out what she’s come up with by turning over the pieces and tells George and Ivy who are also WTH? It makes sense. It’s also a lesson that our parents aren’t just our parents and we may have to learn some things about them we never expected to. 

Faith growing up – and there were times when I got frustrated with her seeming “it’s all about ME” thoughts – takes a while but ultimately is handled okay. There is a fair amount of repetition and heading back down trails that Faith and George had covered only to find that they didn’t have all the information to make use of the clues that were there. This got tedious at times. I enjoyed watching Faith and George get to know each other even if their romance was a bit fast. Teasel is delightful but no, I don’t want to take him for a walk. B-

~Jayne      

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Though unknown to most readers, no one made a greater contribution to reading habits in America than Ray Trautman. Trautman looked to reading as a way of exploring the world-and yet, as with many Americans, discovered that with no community library and limited funds finding books was a challenge. This sparked in him a lifelong passion to build libraries and ensure free access to books for all. After working his way through college, Trautman … landed the job of a lifetime: Chief Librarian of the Army.

Many military leaders believed books were an unnecessary distraction for troops, but Trautman relentlessly championed books, believing, like others, that they were key to the fight against totalitarianism and ultimately built the largest and most far-reaching library system in the world. He devised the “Armed Services Editions,” wallet-sized paperbacks and printed miniature magazines for soldiers. Along the way, Trautman fought book bans and book-resistant generals (including Douglas MacArthur), was nearly killed in the Battle of the Bulge and joined forces with librarians and publishers to spread access to reading.

Trautman was credited with distributing nearly a half billion books, magazines, and comic books to troops. When the war ended in 1945, Trautman brought the fight for books home: advocating for rural libraries, building libraries in prisons, campaigning for more books for the visually impaired, and working to develop materials for adults with low reading proficiency so they could improve their literacy skills. A Librarian’s War introduces readers to a man who dedicated his life to instilling a passion for reading and unhindered access to books. Molly Guptill Manning’s book puts Trautman where he deserves to be: at the center of the story.

“WE MUST GET MORE READING MATERIAL TO THE FIGHTING MEN.”  

Dear Molly Guptill Manning, 

A few years ago another one of our reviewers read and reviewed your book “When Books Went to War” and I thought, I’ve got to read that one day. Well, that day hasn’t yet arrived but I decided to start with this book which is a biography of the man mainly responsible for getting books, comics, and periodicals into the hands of desperate servicemen during WWII, Ray Trautman.

The more he read, the more books he wanted to read. If only they were not so hard to find. 

I feel ashamed that I knew nothing about this man. Like many born in the early part of the last century in rural circumstances, Trautman grew up making do and doing for himself. His goal of a college degree required him to work while studying. Then the Great Depression hit and a man with a geology degree had to pivot to working in the CCC where he discovered a passion for getting books into the hands of those who hungered for them but had no access. He also realized that there was a need to help foster literacy for the illiterate but in ways that wouldn’t insult an adult’s intelligence. 

To Trautman’s point about bibliotherapy, one hospitalized Marine said that two years of combat had numbed him; he carried a “dead heart” and “dulled mind” and had no hope for the future. To pass the time, a nurse happened to give him the ASE of ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.’ “I can’t explain the emotional reaction that took place,” the Marine said, but “this heart of mine turned over and became alive again,” and he dared to believe that “maybe a fellow has a fighting chance in this world after all.

When the CCC program ended, Trautman pivoted again and discovered the love of his life, Jane, who loved books, too. Newly married, he decided to apply to Columbia University to get a masters in library science, once again needing to not only work but also scour used bookstores in NYC for rare treasures to resell to those on his booklist to pay for it. Ray had a side hustle going. Watching Europe descend into war, Ray realized that he could wait to see what hit him or try to control his destiny. Signing up for the Army, he applied for the position of Chief Librarian and his skills, knowledge, and experience got him the job. 

American librarians – including Troutman –  felt a duty to fight German censorship by guarding the freedom to read.

But he was a lowly First Lieutenant with little authority or money. So Ray began to do what he did best – push against the current. Luckily he got Eleanor Roosevelt on his side and she pushed her husband. With that behind him, Ray took stock of what was needed, including making sure that the segregated African American soldiers had books and periodicals recommended by Howard University, as well as realizing that book drives were going to be required to get all Army libraries up and running. He also helped draft President Roosevelt’s letter to the troops.  

At small or isolated posts where the Army did not keep books or libraries, soldiers took matters into their own hands. One soldier in 1918 appealed to the Newark Public Library. ‘Can’t you send us something to read? We are .. lonesome,” he pleaded. The Newark Public Library felt duty – bound to mail a box with books, cigarettes, and candy. Within days, a heartfelt felt reply was received. “Thanks for the box. If you ever did good to any body you did it to me, but please  don’t bother to send the eats. Use all the space for books. Books are what we want.”  

Sifting through the (sometimes) dreck that they got given to them, Ray saw that he needed NYC publishers on his side as well as a way to cut through the barriers that some Army brass put in his way. First he engineered a way to get periodicals to servicemen in smaller formats – and probably saved The New Yorker from bankruptcy by including it – then turned to books. The troops wanted new releases as well as what they wanted to read rather than what the highbrow publishers thought the service men should read. He also asked for reduced rate subscriptions and in one case, when Time wasn’t willing to play ball, Trautman turned to Newsweek who quickly agreed. Having a degree of control over the Army’s paper allotment gave him more clout.  

It was episodes like this, still early in Trautman’s Army library career, that molded his approach to being outranked or underestimated. According to Trautman’s son, Eric, whenever his father faced resistance from powerful figures, he adopted the mentality, “I can’t make them do anything, but I can make them wish they did.”

Ray and his staff also had to fight morality police and a law passed before the 1944 election requiring that there be no politics in any book that might influence the election. When this went public, the outraged servicemen and the public wrote letters about the Nazi totalitarian control they were fighting against and how they didn’t want their own government pulling this shit on them. Okay, not the actual words used but this is the gist. 

Primitive living conditions were the norm. Under these circumstances, books were a rare luxury and even men who had never cracked a spine at home were willing to “read for lack of anything else to do,” as one GI told Trautman.

And during the Battle of the Bulge, Ray got caught up in the battle after he ran into a mixed squad of men running from the Germans. As the senior officer (actually I think only officer), Ray, the Army’s chief librarian, took charge and managed the situation, getting the men organized enough to fight back, radio the German position, and then evacuated.   

He explained that the “very few magazines” his men had received had an “inestimable value,” and as “dog- eared, torn and tattered as they are, they nevertheless are priceless and kept in constant circulation until they become practically unrecognizable.”

The numbers of books, comics, and periodicals that ended up being sent overseas is mind blowing. And still the men wanted more. The ASEs with their thin paper might last through several readings if back behind the lines but with front line troops, especially during the winter of 1944, they maybe got two reads. The troops treated them like gold though and there were waiting lists. Men who had rarely if ever read books before the war were a captive and often bored audience who needed something to take their minds off the place and the anxiety of their lives and were willing to read anything. Ray encountered one man who approached him and asked if there was anything new that this Plato guy had written as he really enjoyed this book. Part of Ray’s argument to get magazines and publishers on board was that this would be creating a whole new audience and demand for their products – something born out by skyrocketing subscriptions, book purchases, and library use in post war years.   

Another soldier wrote that he and his fellow soldiers had quickly “become book readers, traders, hoarders.” A sailor marveled, “[I’d] bet dollars to G.I. Spam that half the men ..never cracked a book before,” and yet now they couldn’t last a day without reading one. The ASEs were praised from all fronts for their portability, popular titles, and wide selection of genres. The main refrain was “keep ‘em comin’.

Post war Ray wasn’t content to just sit on his laurels but dove into other jobs including teaching at Columbia, shaping up post war Army libraries, and improving access to books in remote and rural areas that couldn’t sustain a library. And then he turned his attention to the disenfranchised readers in prisons, those with low literacy skills, and disabled and blind readers. If that isn’t enough, he got mad at the high prices being charged for tax preparation by a company in his local mall, did what was needed to get certified and then filled out returns for people for free. What a legend. 

He believed that books were a way to democratize opportunity, and he could do his part by improving literacy and access to libraries.

Ray Trautman seemed like one of those people whose life experiences molded him in just the right way at the right time for the job at hand. Yet he also had a solid core of decency and drive to help others – mainly through books. There might have been many obstacles in his way over the course of his life but he found ways to overcome these and thrive through his own initiative while helping millions. B+  

~Jayne

  TO MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES EXPEDITIONARY FORCES: You are a soldier of the United States Army. You have embarked for distant places where the war is being fought. Upon the outcome depends the freedom of your lives: the freedom of the lives of those you love— your fellow- citizens— your people. Never were the enemies of freedom more tyrannical, more arrogant, more brutal. Yours is a God- fearing, proud, courageous people, which, throughout its history, has put its freedom under God before all other purposes. We who stay at home have our duties to perform— duties owed in many parts to you. You will be supported by the whole force and power of this Nation. The victory you win will be a victory of all the people— common to them all. You bear with you the hope, the confidence, the gratitude and the prayers of your family, fellow- citizens, and your President—

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