Book Review: “Saffire,” by Sigmund Brouwer

Genre: historical fiction; Inspirational; intrigue; mystery; humor

Playlist… 

Plot Summary: James Holt has held a lot of jobs in his life: rancher, Rough Rider, Wild West showman, father.  But being hired as an investigator has never been one of them until now.  Arriving in Panama in 1910, he figures he will quickly turn the job down and return to his ranch in the Badlands.  But a young girl who reminds him of his daughter needs his help, and he soon finds himself in the hot mess of political intrigue.  What happened to Saffire’s mother?  What are the canal builders hiding about the recent mysterious deaths?  Who are the masked men behind his torture?  And just why has he been hired in the first place?

My Book Review: I remember enjoying Brouwer’s Accidental Detective mystery series when I was a kid.  I could never get enough of them!  But it’s been my experience that good children’s writers don’t make such good adult ones.  Since this was the first adult book I’d read by him, I wondered how this would prove.

It turns out that I didn’t have a problem with his level of writing.  A lot of the elements of what I loved from the kids’ mysteries were present in Saffire: lots of witty banter, surprising plot twists, hints of romance and lots of danger.  James Holt surely did get a few chuckles out of me.

However, as a mystery novel this escaped me but good.  Even when I concentrated hard, reread and reread what I just reread, I couldn’t get the same connections Holt seemed to be drawing.  The “revealing epilogue” only got me more confused and I still don’t understand what was supposed to have happened.  It sort of felt like Brouwer had had a lot of editing to do, the result being lots of missing links.

There were lots of characters- many of them the same type so that they all ran together, or wait- maybe they were the same ones just playing charades, except I couldn’t remember them from their previous appearance in the story.  The most interesting ones only surfaced two or three times at most and the title character was dropped a third of the way into the story.  T.B. Miskimon (who serves as Holt’s comedic dart board) was almost overused.

This book is published under the Inspirational genre, but there really isn’t more than a sentence to categorize it as such.  Just know it’s a clean read and that’s a plus.  One of my favorite parts was Holt’s tender father-daughter connection with Saffire.  I also liked that the romance wasn’t an overt theme.

I always enjoy learning history in my novels, so it was fascinating reading about the determined American spirit which built the Panama canal, how enormous and innovating the project was.  This was one of the things that made Theodore Roosevelt such a great president.  What new advances could Americans make with the same grit and ardor, I wonder?

If you like dry, sarcastic humor, I think you will like this one.  But if you’re going into it for the intrigue you might be disappointed.

This video the author made is pretty cool!  Check it out if you’re at all curious about T.B. Miskimon… Brouwer makes a remarkable discovery.

 

Book Review: “Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker,” by Jennifer Chiaverini

Genre: historical fiction; Inspirational; Civil War

Playlist…

Plot Summary: Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave woman living in 1860’s Washington DC, is hired by many of the city’s female elite for her superior dressmaking skills.  While serving many congressmen’s wives, as well as Varina Davis, Mrs. Keckley also receives an opportunity to sew for Mrs. Lincoln as her husband prepares to enter the White House.  For the duration of the Civil War, Elizabeth is employed by Mary Lincoln as her personal modiste and she witnesses history in the making first hand.  When tragedy strikes, what will become of the bond of friendship between these two very different women?

My Book Review: Jennifer Chiaverini is known for her fictional “quilt genre” books.  Those haven’t really piqued my interest, but I have a few of her other historical fiction on my TBR.  This is the first I’ve read by her, and I was impressed.  Although it felt a little slow-reading for me at times, I came away from it being glad I learned a lot about the people on whom this story is based.

Elizabeth Keckley was a real person who was born into slavery in 1818.  She was able to buy her and her son’s freedom at the age of 37 and eventually moved to the capitol and established a successful dressmaking business for herself.  This lady was so interesting to learn about.  I would relate more, but it would spoil the book.

We’ve heard about Antietam, Gettysburg, the Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment, the fall of Richmond and John Wilkes Booth.  But this is told from a friend of the First Lady’s point of view which makes the story unique.  The most interesting part for me was the time related after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.  I had no idea what happened to Mrs. Lincoln after the White House years.  It was fascinating, but if you’re hoping this story ends in a grand fashion with fireworks you would be wrong.  In some ways, it was heartbreaking.

In this story, we learn the kindness of a true friend in Keckley.  She was a fashionable, dignified, self-educated woman with common sense and whom Mrs. Lincoln needed and turned to in times of trouble.  Sometimes, Elizabeth could be too over-giving in a codependent sort of way.  Mary Lincoln wasn’t the easiest person to get along with.  But reading of Keckley’s love and loyalty was beautiful.

I was thinking about our modern era of social media.  How easily one’s text can be misconstrued and before you know it there is a facebook battle or twitter backlash.  We think our troubles are unique to our time, but in reading Mrs. Keckley’s story we find that is not true.  How does she handle the media outrage against her?  As a heroine– with perseverance, honesty, and right living despite not everything being made just this side of heaven.

If we think we have a terrible time of it in politics, it is maybe slightly comforting to learn that nothing new is under the sun.  Lincoln was not elected by the majority of the population, and many Republicans tried to run against him during his second presidential campaign.  Many “friends” deserted them and the news was full of criticism, slander and lies.  But the country made it through, and history remembers Abraham Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents.

I think Chiaverini was pretty methodical in her historical research.  I felt like the characters leapt off the page and it’s been fun to look up their photographs and feel like I know them.  If you are a history buff, I think you will appreciate this one.

PS- As you can tell from my review of Lincoln here, it is one of my favorites.  I was interested to know that Elizabeth puts in a cameo appearance as Mrs. Lincoln’s attendant in some key scenes!

The video below sums up her life in brief, but does contain spoilers:

I also recommend…

 

Book Review: “The End of Law,” by Therese Down

Genre: historical fiction

Playlist…

Plot Summary: Three people living in Germany during the 1930-1940’s must make decisions that will affect the others’ lives forever.

My Book Review: Most books set during the Holocaust are from the “good guys’” points of views—the victims, the good Germans, Jews, resistance fighters, etc.  I wanted to read a book that was from an ordinary German citizen’s perspective.

It was clear from the first chapter that this book would not be drawing me in deeply emotionally.  The characters felt held at a distance, the main character Hedda does not fit your typical heroine mold, and large chunks of time was passed over fairly quickly.  However, I found it a quick read and my interest was held more on a need-to-know basis than on invested feelings.  This may have been a mercy because I’m not sure I could have handled the content otherwise.

I appreciated that this story focused on an aspect of the Nazi regime that is not told as often as others, and that is the euthanizing of precious lives of disabled and mentally ill citizens, many of whom were young children and infants.  As mad and deranged as you may know the Nazis to have been, there is probably much worse you didn’t know and this book tells of the sad history and fate of so many.

I’m always reading books (particularly fiction) to see how they parallel the world and situations I live in.  Many don’t believe anything like Nazi Germany could happen today.  Either that or they go to the other extreme to flippantly call anyone they dislike with a Nazi.  Let’s look at some of the things the Nazis did.  They determined some persons worth less than others because they lacked ‘the perfect body.’  If a person’s health was in a certain undesirable way to the State, they ordered that person done away with.  Hundreds of infants were killed (on the basis of race, health or disability).  Germany ignored their own laws in order to permit this treatment of people.  Therefore, the title: The End of Law.

This child was killed in the euthanasia program. His name was Richard Jenne.

Does any of this sound chillingly contemporary?  If it doesn’t, why not?  If it does, what will you and I do personally?  That is the biggest takeaway a person could glean from this book.  The characters Karl Mueller and Walter Gunther made a lot of terrible choices and contributed to feeding their country’s killing machine.  Yet one allowed God to penetrate his conscience and at a point in time decided enough was enough and started by saving one life.  The other continued to harden his soul until he could no longer feel anything and he became despicable even to his superiors who gave him his bloody orders.

In the midst of living in a brain-washed culture, some individuals dared to not believe in what was going on.  But I had never considered how lonely and agonizing this must have been for them.  You couldn’t trust anybody; how could you bounce ideas off of another rational person when you didn’t know who was rational and who wasn’t?  It was basically efficient crazy-making.  And if you could hold onto your beliefs, what could you do with them?  Can what may seem like a one-person army make any difference?  The real-life hero Albert Goering makes a fictional appearance in part of the story (see the documentary “Goering’s Last Secret”).  I marveled at how one person making a public stand against craziness and death could have such a huge impact.  You never know how one’s actions may inspire another to think and then also act, like a domino effect  I only pray I can be faithful in my world.

I left the book wishing I could have cared more about the characters but I was glad to have learned some history and I would like to learn more about some of the things presented.  I really encourage you not to pass over this book just because “you aren’t into Holocaust tales”.  The point is not entertainment, but to remember and learn and be wisely responsible in today’s world. I don’t ever want to be the type of person that passively let a Fourth Reich happen.

 

 

Movie Review: “The Way Back”

Based on the book, “The Long Walk,” by Slavomir Rawicz

Version: 2010; starring Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrel, Mark Strong

Genre: adventure; based on true story; survival

Plot Summary: [from IMDb:] “Siberian gulag escapees travel 4,000 miles by foot to freedom in India.”

My Review: I read this riveting account of a handful of men who escaped a labor camp in Siberia during WWII and lived to tell about it.  It was a great book, which I recommend.  I was glad to find it on film, although they changed the name and gave it a seeming misnomer (as they don’t ‘go back’).

I was surprised to see some familiar faces and the acting talent helped to elevate the movie experience.  That’s good, because I was smirking a little over some of the details—men with open coat collars in the middle of a Siberian winter storm, moss so conveniently growing on the northside of trees in Siberia…  The accents were incomprehensible a lot of the time and I felt like I was straining to hear what they were saying.  They really needed better articulation which has been a growing complaint over the last several years over modern movie trends.

Apart from these issues, I thought Ed Harris and Jim Sturgess were great in their roles as the leaders (tough and softhearted, respectively).  Even Colin Farrel made a great selfish ‘bad guy’, and a very young Saoirse Ronan doing a Russian accent with a sneaky Irish lilt.  From fighting off wolves and catching and roasting snakes, to sweltering under the desert sun, this band of survivors endured over a year of hard travel by foot to reach freedom.  The most touching parts were played between the American (Harris) and the sweet Irena (Ronan) the men encounter on their travels.

At first I thought this would be a movie I’d need to read, but after a few early scenes they switch to English (?) but it might have been better if they’d left the subtitles on. If there were swear words, I couldn’t make them out most of the time but there were some snatches of graphic, hand drawn pornography passed around at the camp.

Some parts were changed from the original story, for example how the group escaped their camp to begin with (a Russian commander’s wife helped them in reality).  I also believe the ending was changed, as I don’t think the author ever made it back to Poland.  If I remember correctly, he eventually settled in England after the war.  But the main core of the story was kept in tact.

If you can suspend some disbelief over storytelling hiccups, I could recommend this movie (though definitely not for children).

 

Movie Review: “Papillon”

Based on the book by Henri Charriere.

Version: 1973; starring Steve McQueen; Duston Hoffman

Genre: adventure; survival; based on true story.

Plot Summary: In the 1930’s, two convicted criminals are sentenced to life imprisonment and arrive in the French penal colony of Guiana where they soon forge an enduring friendship through the many years, adventures, and tortures to follow.

My Review: Disclaimer*: I have not read the original book, so this review will not by comparing it to that novel.  Only as a story in and of itself, totally unrelated to the book.  

This was a story I did not know I needed to know about.  I had never heard of the book, or of the movie, and it was not until writing this review that I learned of a new remake starring Charlie Hunnam in McQueen’s role.  There’s always some room for tales of imprisonment and escape in my strange soul, so when I happened across this older movie it did not wait long on my watch list.

This is nearly a three hour film.  The pace is slow and mostly quiet, as to be expected when your hero spends 5+ years in solitary confinement.  Don’t worry, it’s not as painstaking to watch as it sounds!  Henri Charriere, wrongly accused (as far as we trust our main character’s POV) of murder spends all of his time from the very first minute scheming his way out of captivity.  We, the viewers, are right along with him each step of the way.  The time and detail it takes for these real life persons to plan an escape which their very life and sanity depend on is suspenseful and has us glued to the story instead of watching the clock.  Our emotions are invested into the very human characters we watch who try so hard to live.

If you’re looking for a clean flick, this isn’t going to be for you.  Death, starvation, and madness are the order of the day.  Men are killed as a matter of course, and sometimes there is quite grisly detail.  In an atmosphere such as this, it would be unrealistic for the script not to include swear words.  So of course, that factors liberally into the movie as well. One prison guard has a hankering after one of the prisoners and wants to sexually abuse him.  The prisoner appears to go along with it for a time, but only as a means of eventual escape.  It is common for the inmates to smuggle their belongings in places where the sun doesn’t shine.  If I remember correctly, there may have been a brief scene of backside (prison context) nudity.  What actually bothered me more than that was an island setting in which all the tribeswomen wore nothing at all and we see full frontal nudity.

Despite all of this, I came away doing a lot of thinking about this movie.  The thing that stood out the most to me was comparing the two main characters: Henry Charriere (or, “Papillon”) and his friend Louis Dega who was sent to Guiana for forgery.  Their friendship is begun for survival’s sake.  Papillon can easily handle himself in any situation, with quick wits to boot but not much clout among other prisoners or guards.  Dega on the other hand, is physically undersized with round glasses that couldn’t possibly get any thicker which produces a wrong-end-of-the-magnifying-glass-effect when we look at him.  However, his secret weapon is literally the stash of cash he sits on and he is able to bribe for opportunities.  In one of the most touching parts of the story, Papillon risks his life to protect Dega when he is being beaten.  This action lands him longlasting consequences.  It brings Dega to tears to think that an innocent man would be willing to put his life in jeopardy for him, who is justly convicted of his crime.  It made me think of Jesus, the innocent lamb who was slain for us, the real sinners.  It was an eloquent portrait of biblical truth.

Eventually, through many trials and hardships, the two men are brought together once again where they have to face a decision: remain in captivity, or attempt escape (quite possibly ending in death or worse, recapture).  It is rather pitiful the situation they are in, yet in some ways it could have been worse.  Will Papillon be content to live the remainder of his years on Devil’s Island where he could live in comparative peace?  Or will he convince Dega to risk the dangers of escape and perhaps be able to attain true freedom once again?

SPOILER ALERT:  Papillon never once abandons his idea of the pursuit of freedom.  I believe giving up his busy mind over this matter would have consigned him to insanity.  Dega on the other hand, was never strong of body or mind.  He found a little piece of joy right where he was and made it into his own.  He had nothing left to go back to.  Was one view right and the other wrong?  I don’t think so.  Two different temperaments, different personalities, with different limitations.   Each did what they could with what they had and what they were made for.  This, of course, is taking the question of guilt out of the equation.  END OF SPOILER.

I know this film will not be for everyone.  But I found some redeeming aspects of it that I encourage anyone so inclined to give it a try.  I am looking forward to seeing a newer version, but Steve McQueen was very good in his role, and Dustin Hoffman provided some comic relief.

 

2018 ATC Seneca Awards

Like audio dramas?  Audio Theatre Central has announced the nominees for the 2018 Seneca Awards, which recognizes the best in the audio drama production industry.  Winners will be announced in July.  As a plus, these are all family friendly stories, so they can be enjoyed on those long summer vacation road trips!  There are so many exciting things happening in the audio world.  I’m really looking forward to The Adventum!  Posts to as many trailers as I can find are below:

Operation Mosul (The Brinkman Adventures)

The Treasure of the Secret Cove (Lamplighter Theatre)

The Adventum, Vol. 1

Black Rock (The Shadow Remake)

Escape from the Eagle’s Nest (Lamplighter Theatre)

Come and See

Heirloom Audio Productions have also come out with St. Bartholomew’s Eve and For the Temple, but unfortunately I could not find trailers for those.  And Lamplighter Theatre’s quality seems to be improving every year!

 

 

I’m Starting “Top Ten Tuesday”

Hi!  I’m taking a deep breath and doing something completely new on the blog– something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.  I’ve discovered the Top Ten Tuesday topics posts on others’ book review blogs and it appeals to me because of the combination of books + lists!  I wanted to start doing it since the beginning of the new year, but I wasn’t sure how to fit into my schedule because I know I’m not quite dedicated enough to get it out every week and especially not every Tuesday.  Finally I realized the year was going to pass me by if I didn’t just start doing it, so I’m just going to without knowing how I’m going to work this and that’s that.  Just know in advance it won’t be regular so you’ve been warned.

I think I will start off with tomorrow’s topic since I’ll feel like I’m already ahead of the game.  Ha!  And that topic is: PLACES MENTIONED IN BOOKS THAT I’D LIKE TO VISIT.  Ready?  So here we go!

Jane Austen’s world, especially after reading, “Just Jane,” by Nancy Moser.

Inspired from “Matorni’s Vineyard,” by E. Phillips Oppenheim.

James Herriot Land, from All Creatures Great and Small.

A longing to go here in winter, rekindled after reading Susan May Warren’s Mission: Russia books.

I would love to see all that architecture up close and personal; inspired by “The Phantom of the Opera.”

I immediately think of riding elephants in “Around the World in 80 Days.”

Cumbria, particularly Hill Top and all places Beatrix Potter-related.

Africa was never a place I thought I had an interest in until recently after reading King Solomon’s Mines and seeing The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

Louisa May Alcott’s home.

PEI– all the places in L. M. Montgomery’s world.

 

Random Books: Fall’s Hurrahs

And then… 🙂  I went to two more book sales over the weekend and came home with EVEN MORE!

This actually had a bio section on my family name!

I could deal with an easier life.

Because I do have other interests than just books.

There’s this woman I know– always so put together. Sigh… That’s why I bought the Nail book.

This book has interested me ever since I first read about it in BookPage. I would love to see a movie made of it.

I remember first reading this Jacques book all afternoon on a summer’s day in our front yard when I was a kid. This is actually the audiobook, which I got to hear the author’s accent.

Did you know that the first female millionaire in America was black? I can’t read to read this inspiring true story.

 

Book Review: “A Season of Shadows,” by Paul McCusker

Genre: Christian fiction; historical fiction; suspense; intrigue; WWII; espionage

Plot Summary: When the rich, beautiful Julie Harris finds herself a widow during the early days of WWII, she decides she needs to find out the truth about her late husband.  Was their marriage a sham ever since they met?  Was he true to her, or did he live a double life?  The only way she can answer these questions is by going undercover herself, as one of America’s first agents of the war.  Working in London, she gets to know a small circle of people who seem to be her friends.  But who can she really trust?

My Book Review: It’s been a long time since I’ve ever read a book by Paul McCusker.  I remember I loved his Passages series when I was a kid (spin-off novels from Adventures in Odyssey, which McCusker helped create).  What would one of his novels for adults be like?  This one grabbed my attention, as espionage always does!

I found that I enjoyed this suspense story very much. Although I suspected the one character all along, I was never quite sure enough and I kept going on the edge of my seat.  Some great plot twists I didn’t see coming, and different love interests for our beautiful heroine that kept me guessing, too.  🙂

But more than that, I really learned a lot about England (esp. London) during the air raid bombings in 1940. I love fiction books that can teach me about a certain era, and this was definitely one of those.  Everything from what civilian daily life was like, how they coped, their attitude during the most difficult of days, and the everyday heroes of the war such as the emergency volunteers, the doctors and nurses, and the priests.  I even learned some things about Churchill.  To confirm all of this, I ended up watching a documentary on Netflix (“Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny”- narrated by Ben Kingsley) that went over the same timeline during which this book is set and I got to hear and see photographs of the very things “Julie” would have witnessed.  I also watched a brief documentary on the first spy training camp the US set up in Canada, where our heroine also would have been sent to.  It made the book feel all the more real and I know it was well researched.

Some drawbacks to the book are that some readers may find it predictable. Sometimes I wanted it to be a tad more cloak and daggerish, but that’s probably just me being unrealistic!  I did find it somewhat unbelievable that Julie would run off to be an agent to spy against the very people her husband supposedly sympathized with, so soon after his death.  That part just didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

But I still enjoyed it, and stayed up late nights trying to finish it in time to send it back to the library. Those are the good ones, aren’t they?  So, if you’re up for burning the midnight oil, I think you’ll like this one!

I also recommend…

 

 

 

Characters Series: Heroines in the Worst of Times

When I was a kid, I wished that I could do something really BIG and dramatic that would save the day.  I think that I still do have this desire, and I think it is a common one.  We humans want to know that our lives have a purpose and meaning.  It’s all very well to talk about character when things in life are going so nicely.  Of course, character is needed in everyday life.  But it’s so much harder when you’re in the midst of scary events. 

We’re usually not aware of these kinds of heroines until we put them in the context of history.  The real-life heroines are the most admirable, for they show us that it is possible to have integrity for real and that it’s not just for fiction.  One of my personal favorites ever since I was little has been Queen Esther—Persian queen (Jewish commoner) in disguise!  Even though she was in the prime of life and could easily talk herself out of it, she felt a duty to go to the king on behalf of her people because she could do something. 

One our favorite Lord of the Rings quotes goes something like this: 

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. 

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”  

Thinking of history not that long past, there are the character role models of Diet Eman and Corrie ten Boom.  They were also both women in the prime of life who did what they could while their country was occupied by the Nazi regime.  I cannot think of anything more terrifying than facing a concentration camp, yet that is what they risked experiencing (and did experience) because of their belief that all people matter.  What heart, what courage these women modeled!  Come to think of it, why else do heroes do what they do, other than because of their value for human life and freedom?  In the moment of their action, they put aside their safety and sometimes very lives for the treasuring of another. 

I have never read the book, but I recently watched the movie The Help for the first time.  This story is full of women in a particular place (deep Southern America) in a particular time (violently racial 1960’s).  Some did what was popular and easy in the community—letting others bully them as to their personal decisions and relationships.  Others saw their neighbors as human beings with souls.  And still others decided to take a stand, to say ‘enough is enough’, and try to help each other in the middle of what was impossible conditions.  They were scared; they were hesitant at first or said no at the beginning, because they were risking so much.  But each decided that their friends and family were more important than their present fear and took the step forward that eventually became fruitful.  No longer ‘Strange Fruit.’ 

Sometimes heroines will never see the fruit of their labors.  In Tangled Ashes (Michele Phoenix), Marie is a seventeen-year-old girl living in an obscure village in France during WWII.  She is just an ordinary teenager, but living in extraordinary times.  She is forced to serve in a nearby manor house where strange and secretive things are taking place under the German occupation.  She “hears nothing, she sees nothing”– until she is forced to face the facts that her best friend is pregnant with an enemy soldier.  Suddenly, she cannot live for her preservation alone.  She has a tiny, innocent life to look after and it ends up costing her dearly.  But her love puts others first, and she has to trust that her courageous actions are more important in the long run. 

What becomes of the people we have influence over?  Maybe we will never know.  Or maybe their lives will touch others in a great, wide ripple effect that never stops.  All we can do is strive to pass on a heritage that will be life-giving and honoring for others.  And maybe this idea is not relegated to the big, grandiose acts of queens, but starts with the everyday little yeses and considerations in this world. 

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2: 3,4)