Recent Reader Reviews

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but once I got into it I thought it was fantastic. It was a great story about the work behind the scenes to create the first Barbie doll but it also took me down memory lane as I thought about my first Barbie doll. The first doll was sold in March, 1959. I was past playing with baby dolls but that year, my friends and I all HAD to have a Barbie doll. We spent endless hours changing her clothes, combing her hair and making up stories about her life.

Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel Toy company, walked into the board room in 1956 with a doll that she had found in Germany. She wanted to create this doll for America. At first the other members in the meeting were surprised. This wasn't a baby doll like girls were playing with all over the world - this was a woman with real life attributes. They didn't see any way that this doll would be accepted. But Ruth was a strong woman who insisted that they give it a try. She assembled a team to work on the creation of the doll - an engineer who used to work for an aerospace company, clothes designers and engineers started working on what it would take to bring Barbie to the public. This was a totally new design and they ran into a lot of roadblocks but she felt like this was what little girls needed and insisted that they continue to work on the doll. In 1959, the first year of sales, Mattel sold 300,000 Barbie dolls and it became the must-have toy for girls.

I found it so interesting to read about all of the challenges that the team at Mattel faced in bringing the doll to reality. Even after the doll entered the market, there were ups and downs over the years. During the women's movement, the Barbie doll was deemed as bad for teaching young girls the wrong way to handle their futures. Mattel countered by introducing Barbie in many different roles -- as an astronaut, a nurse, a doctor and a pilot to name a few.

Be sure to read the Author's notes at the end of the book. She did significant research on the creation of the Barbie doll at Mattel and she shares a little about the real people in the novel and which characters only existed in her mind. There are also some great pictures of some of the Barbie dolls over the years.

I grew up playing with and collecting Barbie Dolls. I SO wish I had saved them. Vintage Barbie dolls now are worth a ba-zillion dollars, plus they hold so many memories.

Bestselling author, Renee Rosen has written the definite, well-researched book about how the eleven and a half inches tall doll, became a legacy, Let's Cal Her Barbie (Berkley).

In the world of toy dolls in the 50s there were dozens of baby dolls, peeing dolls, whining dolls, dolls of every kind, except a doll that let young girls know they could become anything they wanted to be when she grew up. Enter Ruth Handler, of Mattel who saw the German Bild Lilli doll while travelling in Switzerland and knew this is what the American market needed.

The first Barbie debuted at the New York toy fair in March 1959. Mattel sold 300-thousand Barbies that year and the sales skyrocketed from there. Barbie dolls started being designed and taking jobs in male-oriented fields like an airline pilot, NASCAR driver and going into space. Barbie has been part of the American zeitgeist starting in1960 when she became a tennis player paving the way for Title IX.

Let's Cal Her Barbie is an incredibly interesting story you won't to miss. Who knew there was so much history behind a plastic doll.

I am in awe.

I am in awe of author Isabel Wilkerson and her masterful ability to write this impressive epic account.
I am in awe of this remarkable book. If all history books were written like this one, everyone would read history—and love it.
I am in awe of all those who made the Great Migration—for their courage, fortitude, and ability to envision an unknown future in a strange land that was not particularly welcoming.

The Great Migration had no leader. It was not organized. It just happened. One by one they walked away from their homes. Wilkerson describes it as a "leaderless revolution." Over six decades from about 1916 to 1970, about six million Blacks living in the South left the only place they had ever known for various northern and western cities. Some had relatives or friends who had made the journey ahead of them so that is why they escaped to Cleveland or New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, as opposed to any other city. And an escape it was. Escape from harsh conditions, both economic and physical. The Jim Crow laws ensured no Black could ever truly prosper or reach his or her full potential. Lynchings were commonplace and used to terrify Blacks and keep them in their place. Even though they were no longer enslaved, many felt they still had to leave in secrecy under the cloak of darkness or they would be stopped—perhaps violently.

When all these Blacks started leaving the South, the South didn't notice at first until seemingly overnight no one was left to pick cotton or tend the fields. Huh? Where did they all go?

The most riveting part of this book is the focus on three people who made the great migration, whom Wilkerson selected from among 1,200 people she interviewed:
• Ida Mae Brandon Gladney (migrated in 1937), a pregnant sharecropper's wife with two young children, who fled Mississippi for Chicago.
• George Swanson Starling (migrated in 1945), a hotheaded man who was seeking his own form of justice and skipped out of Eustis, Florida for Harlem, New York hours before angry white men wanted to hang him.
• Robert Joseph Pershing Foster, M.D. (migrated in 1953), a surgeon who was not allowed by Louisiana law to practice in a hospital and so he drove all alone across the country to California in search of a place where he could be a physician.

These three never knew each other. Their stories are unconnected. But their stories—what life was like for them in the South, why they made the decision to leave, what happened on their treacherous and long journey north or west, and then how they adapted—are fascinating and the stuff of the best novels. Except it's all true.

Bonus: Be sure to read "Notes on Methodology" at the end of the book, which admittedly sounds very academic, but it's fascinating—and even made me cry at the end.

This is a captivating history book—officially, the genre is called narrative nonfiction—that is as riveting and compelling as the best novels. Highly recommended!

The Story Collector is the third novel by Irish author, Evie Gaughan who also writes as Evie Woods. Just before Christmas in 2010, Sarah Harper finally decides to quit her failing marriage but, at the airport, instead of flying to her sister in Boston, she impulsively gets on a plane to Shannon, in Ireland. This late in the day, when she arrives, there’s “no room at the inn” and she ends up in a cozy little cottage in Thornwood.

Still trying to ward off panic attacks after The Big Bad Thing that happened two years earlier, her somewhat ill-advised outdoor run leads to the discovery of the hundred-year-old diary of Anna Butler. Sarah finds it a fascinating read, as does Hazel Sweeney, the granddaughter of her cottage landlord.

Living with her family in a cottage in the County Clare village of Thornwood, eighteen-year-old Anna Butler stays busy with farm chores and lace-making, and wishing that George Hawley, the Lord’s sone at Thornwood Hall, would notice her. They do say “Be careful what you wish for”

When, in late 1910, Harold Griffin-Krauss, a serious Californian student of anthropology turns up needing a go-between for his research into fairy beliefs in the community, Anna is glad to help: it will be a change of scene, quite a number in the village have interesting stories to tell, and perhaps she’ll even share with him her own experience with the Good People.

When Harold is introduced to the Hawley twins, he’s less impressed by them than Anna expects, even though George’s twin, Olivia seems to have taken a liking to Harold. Amongst all the stories Anna and Harold hear, there’s a tragic one about the Hawley twins and their mother, talk of changelings. And there are rumours about George’s behaviour, but he’s such a charming gentleman, surely they can’t be true?

Woods puts a few nice parallels in her dual time line story, and gives her characters wise words and insightful observations. When a couple is grieving: “you end up saying what you think they want to hear. There’s a fear in all of us, that we’ll lose the relationship. But I suppose we end up losing ourselves instead.” However, the characters are not instantly relatable, and the style of the diary is unrealistic. A sweet little novel that will appeal to lovers of fairy folklore.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harper Collins UK/One More Chapter.

If you're a daughter who has lost her mother, this is a must-read. And while much of the focus of this very well-written and intimate memoir is on Korean-American culture and food (lots and lots of food!), the underlying themes of love, guilt, grief, and the often tetchy relationships between mothers and daughters (especially in the teen years) are universal.

Author Michelle Zauner is the only child of a Korean mother and an American/Caucasian father. Her parents lived in several places worldwide during the mid-1980s before landing again in Seoul where Michelle was born. When her father received a job at a truck brokerage company in Eugene, Oregon, the small family immigrated and stayed there. Michelle was a year old. She grew up in this small college town with a mother named Chongmi who fully embraced her Korean heritage, especially the cuisine. As is the case with many daughters, the relationship with her mother was fraught. Michelle wanted to be a rock star--literally. Her mother wanted her to go to college and get married. They bickered. They made up. They loved each other. They hated each other. It's a common story.

But when Michelle's mom was diagnosed with an aggressive form of terminal cancer when Michelle was 25, their world as they knew it falls apart. Michelle, having graduated from Bryn Mawr College (chosen for its far distance from Eugene), was creating a life for herself in Philadelphia as an indie singer, songwriter, and guitarist in a band. But when she received the fateful call, she dropped everything and flew home to Eugene to care for her mother.

And while there are plenty of flashbacks to Michelle's growing-up years, this is primarily a memoir of a devoted daughter caring for her beloved mother in her last months of life. That reversal of roles—the daughter caring for the mother—is so poignant. This tender and transformative memoir is riveting. While much of it is very sad, there is a lot of humor and heart woven throughout as Michelle shares her very personal journey of living, grieving, and healing, including how she worked through her grief with music and Korean food.

And the title? H Mart is an Asian grocery store chain. Whenever Michelle would step foot in the store after her mother died, she would just stand there and cry because it was the food sold in these aisles that would forever tie her to her mother.

“I once read that whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.’ He smiled sadly. ‘I’ve read a lot of good books, so my world has always been full of light.’ Quoted from The Memory Library. I was happy to find this quote as I read the book as I have been blessed with a grandmother and great grandfather who were both lifelong writers (even published!) and fostered and encouraged me to be a lifelong reader, choosing books to mark special milestones in my life. Imagine, someone giving you a special book each birthday, but you never read them until you returned home.

Those books brought reconciliation, hope and a sense of family to the person that was gifted with such a rich library of new books to open doors and avenues that now opened, as each book was picked up and read. This is a book that I am going to cherish for a long time. I have given many books to friends that spoke to me, but oftentimes I believe they were not read, or even kept for a future time to read like I would have hoped. This book has renewed my practice in giving favorite books to others and hoping that the flicker that comes from the book will light their heart and path to greater things.

On further reflection, I am buying a few copies of The Memory Library to gift to others this year. What a wonderful practice to embrace. If you haven't read this book, make time to do so before 2025 slides into April, enjoying the rich story and characters.

"Model Home" by Rivers Solomon takes the standard haunted house novel and gives it a modern, woke twist. Imagine a neurodivergent family facing evil spirits on top of that inconvenience. When three very different siblings turn up at their loathed childhood home to find their parents dead, emotions come up for which they are unprepared. The house becomes the main suspect.

The multiple timelines serve a purpose. Ezri analyzes her childhood compared to the modern child-rearing they must do. Today, her siblings live genderless and explore veganism, allowing the family to examine how their upbringing influenced their contemporary existence. As a character, Ezri lacks direction from their past. A world of hookup apps introduces them to men who take advantage of their low self-esteem.

Goodreads lists this as an "LGBT" novel, and most of the characters qualify, but what stands out is the kind of universal humanity that they show to one another. You do not expect this in the horror genre, but the family drama is convincing and compelling. Novels about perfect people annoy the heck out of me.

Children faced with life after the death of both parents experience a broad spectrum of emotions. These adults know that their mother and father mistreated them and realize that they may never have closure. These elements of family drama make you forget that you are reading horror and allow you to enjoy the individuals. I think we all relate to holding a funeral for someone about whom you had mixed feelings.

When you receive answers, you will think it was right in front of your face the whole time. Since the lack of a specific genre limits cliches, you do not see it coming. Just be prepared for a late climax and empathize with the siblings' eeriness and pronounced wariness.

Bonny Reichert grew up hearing her Holocaust survivor father telling her "Sweetheart, do you hear me? It's okay. It's over and we survived." But what Ms. Reichert comes to understand - through painful discussions with her father, travel back to Poland, and through the excavation of her own anxieties and fears, that physical survival does not necessarily equate with psychic survival.

When a parent survives a horror, how much is transmitted on a deep emotional level to the children? Reichert explores this issue through childhood memories and her adult life, but this is not a book about - or solely about intergenerational trauma. This is also a memoir about the centrality of food in families, in Jewish life, in an immigrant's life. Reichert's lifelong fascination with the creation of food and its ability to nourish runs parallel with her reckoning of her father's life and survival.

She learns "survival is not one thing - one piece of luck or smarts or intuition - but a million smalls ones. This choice not that one. This brave move, that good stranger. Careful here. Reckless there." Keeping with the food metaphor, I gobbled this memoir up in a day and highly recommend it.

This is a beautifully written story of Semiramis, a motherless child who becomes Queen of the Assyrian Empire. Semiramis becomes an orphan, when her mother takes her own life. She is adopted by a shepherd, Simmas, but is mistreated. Eventually Semiramis grows into a young woman and decides to leave the village, before she is forced into marriage.

Semiramis meets Onnes and finds a way for a better life. Onnes is the illegitimate half brother of King Ninus .She quickly marries Onnes. Semiramis convinces Onnes to train her as a warrior. This is unheard of, but she must fight for what she wants.
The writing of this book was breathtaking, with vivid descriptions of time and place.
I was transported to another world.

The characters were well developed. I loved Semiramis love hate relationships with Onnes and King Ninus. There was love, loyalty and betrayal. This book was intriguingly woven with facts and myths. It is a captivating read you won’t be able to put down, Don’t miss it.

Ireland seems to have a disproportionate share of great writers. I joke that they must have superior English and writing classes over there because several of my favorite authors are Irish. And now I just found another.

Niall Williams has written other books before, but Time of the Child, his latest, is my first. The story is about the people who live in a small town in Ireland during the 1960s. Apparently, Williams wrote an earlier book about this same town, so this is a return.

In Time of the Child, the town's doctor, a widower, lives with his oldest daughter, Ronnie. When they take in a baby that someone finds, Ronnie ends up falling in love with the child. But neither Ireland nor the Catholic Church there will allow a single mother to adopt a child. So what to do?

Normally, I dislike writing style that goes on and on about details that do not seem to push the story forward. Yet Williams does that, and I love it. And his sentences are long, too. But none of this feels unnecessary.

So you may want to read an excerpt before you buy Time of the Child. But, truly, this is a five-star read.