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Reviews by Valerie V. (Pennington, NJ)

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Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own
by Kate Bolick

Spinster (5/2/2016)

Unfortunately, I was turned off to this book after reading the first sentence, "Whom to marry and when will it happen - these two questions define every woman's existence."

While I enjoyed reading about Neith Boyce, Maeve Brennan,Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edna St. Vincent …more

The Railwayman's Wife
by Ashley Hay

Review of The Railwayman's Wife (2/7/2016)

What would happen if you could look at grief through a kaleidoscope? This is the question Australian writer Ashley Hay explores in her novel The Railwayman's Wife. The story takes place in Thirroul, a lush Australian coastal town. World War II is over the soldiers are …more

The Wild Girl
by Kate Forsyth

The Wild Girl (5/16/2015)

For those in love with well-researched historical fiction and sweet romance, reading doesn't get much better than Kate Forsyth's novel, The Wild Girl. Within the pages lies an in-depth look into the life and turbulent times of the Brothers Grimm and the unfolding of a …more

The Art of Baking Blind
by Sarah Vaughan

Recipe for The Art of Baking Blind (3/8/2015)

Sarah Vaughan's novel The Art of Baking Blind is a chef-d'oeuvre! Vaughan takes three varieties of stay-at-home moms, one widower, and a single mom. She folds her female characters along with an assortment of men into one esteemed baking competition. What does she get? One …more

The Snow Child: A Novel
by Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child (1/14/2015)

On the surface, the debut novel, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey reminds me of the popular book series, Little House on the Prairie only set in Alaska during the 1920’s homestead-era instead of the settling into prairie during the 1880’s. The novel takes place near the …more Wolverine River in Alaska during the time the federal government was looking for people to homestead along the territory’s new train route, the Alaska Railroad. Believed by many to be God’s Country, Alaska was considered “the land of milk and honey, moose, caribou, bears….and streams so full of salmon a man could walk across their backs to the other side.”

Ivey is inspired by an actual pamphlet, "Alaska, Our Newest Homeland," that was distributed throughout the Midwest, a campaign that lured about 100 settlers, including the fictional couple in the novel, Jack and Mabel. Both are in their early 50’s. They have decided to leave Pennsylvania to forge a new life in Alaska. Jack is a farmer. His family has owned a farm along the Allegheny River for generations growing mainly apples and hay. He sells his share in the farm partly because Mabel suggested it, partly because it is a dream he always had. They leave Pennsylvania looking for a fresh start in Alaska, chasing a dream that had almost blown away and now that they are going, has a good chance of failure.

Jack brings farming experience, his tools and his doubts to Alaska. Mabel brings her “dishes, pans and as many books as they could hold.” Both bring a cartful of invisible baggage: heartache, sadness, and guilt about their stillborn child, as well as repressed anger and resentment festering in their marriage. When the novel begins the couple barely speaks to each other and Mabel is ready to give up completely and the novel would have ended before it began. Survival is a key theme in the novel; will Mabel and Jack be able to survive in Alaska? Will the marriage survive? Components so vital to a working relationship, and often so elusive, such as honesty, forgivingness, acceptance, and ego are artfully addressed in the novel, not specifically articulated, but woven between the chapters. It’s amazing to me that a comparison can be made between surviving in Alaska and surviving a marriage; but I believe it is. An author has all sorts of choices to make with each new chapter and Ivey consistently seems to be drawn to the theme of marriage, the intimate relationship between two people who can be both so close and so distant, so in love with each other and also so hurt and confused.

When Jack and Mabel share a Thanksgiving meal with the Benson family life begins to change. Ivey writes that “It was as if Mabel had fallen through a hold into another world.“ Mabel sees that though the Benson’s cabin is cluttered with animal skulls, dried wild flowers, and smells strongly of cabbage and sour wild cranberries it is also filled with laughter and love. Stomachs are filled, hearts are warmed and a friendship blooms in the midst of the snowcapped mountains, moonshine and endless meals of moose steaks.

Bur, it is Jack’s first sight of blue and red dashing through the trees that mark the start of the mystery, a beautiful fairytale about a wilderness pixie, a snow child, and the people who come to love her. Questions begin to swirl about the child, where did she come from, where does she live? is she real?

While Ivey’s novel is about life on the frontier and it is excellent retelling of a fairytale, it is so much more. As we read we have to ask ourselves, can Jack and Mable, or any adult for that matter, learn anything about our own lives from a fairytale? (less)

The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps
by Michael Blanding

The Map Thief (1/14/2015)

Many will love this meticulously researched and insightful book by investigative journalist Michael Blanding: rare map collectors, American History buffs and anyone interested in a well written crime story involving the theft of world treasures. Blanding writes about the …more well-known map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley, III, an ordinary guy turned international criminal, based on interviews with him and others years after his trial and subsequent punishment. Blanding wants to know why someone with such extensive knowledge and appreciation of maps would turn into a map thief and does he have any remorse?

I was fascinated by the history of the maps, the history and art of map making, and reading about the lives of the map makers. I poured over the maps included in the book and was captivated by the connections between maps and famous figures from world history including Ptolemy, (creator of the first geography book), Christopher Columbus (he took Ptolemy’s map with him on his first voyage to the New World in 1492), Amerigo Vespucci’s (map maker Martin Waldseemüller chose to name America after Vespucci) , Capt. John Smith (after returning from Jamestown, Smith made a map that coined a now familiar title for the entire region from Maine to Cape Cod: New England) and so many others interesting stories.

Smiley’s fascination with maps began in the rare-books department of B. Altman & Co., a department store in New York City. Readers learn about Smiley’s ascent into the prestigious realm of map dealers, his passion for rare maps, the nature of his personal and professional relationships , the nucleus of his resentments, the pressures of his financial situation, and finally of his betrayal, the theft of almost 100 antique maps. We have enough information to wonder, along with many others, if his punishment was just or too lenient.

To me Blanding’s book is five-star fascinating topic, informative, thoughtfully arranged, a pleasure to read, a book to keep on your shelf for reference for the detailed catalog of maps and one that raises a thought provoking question, while Smiley’s case of meltdown is extreme, is it at all possible that we too can get over our head, in terms of finances, projects, maintaining reputations, desires, passions, etc. and if so, what serious consequences could it lead to in our own lives? (less)

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