Let's Call Her Barbie

Renee Rosen is the author of Let's Call Her Barbie. The book is about a woman named Ruth Handler. Along with her husband she founded a toy company called Mattel. She was an inventor and a business magnate. She excelled in selling. While on a trip to Europe with her son, she came across a doll in Switzerland named Bild Lilli. At the time all the dolls were babies. Bild Lilli was an adult doll with adult features. After that, Ruth's passion was the Barbie doll (named after her daughter). She neglected her children and spent all her waking hours at work. Ruth was the only person who believed Barbie would become a hit toy. Together with another inventor named Jack and several clothing designers they made a fortune on the Barbie doll. Later came the Ken doll (named after her son). She suffered sexual discrimination from bankers and investors along the way. Later, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she stopped paying close attention to what was happening at Mattel. Someone mishandled money and Ruth was charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. She paid her fines. Later she invented a prosthesis for mastectomy patients. I enjoyed reading about such a strong woman. 

 

 

Ms. Mebel Goes Back To The Chopping Block

Jesse Q. Sutanto is the author of Ms. Mebel Goes Back To The Chopping Block. This is a humorous fiction book about an insuppressible Ms. Mebel. Ms. Mebel is a wife and mother living in Indonesia. She and her husband are of Chinese/Indonesian descent. They have a son, a daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren. One day Ms. Mebel's husband comes home from work to announce he is seeking a divorce and is going to marry the cook Ms. Mebel hired to please her husband. Ms. Mebel's whole life was in helping her husband and her son. Now she is lost. Ms. Mebel has no filter. She says things that are rude. She has a tendency to invade personal boundaries. She is concerned what other people in her society will think once she is divorced. At first she copes with the divorce by spending money on designer clothes, shoes and hand bags. Then she copes by signing up for French cooking lessons. She thinks if she can cook French food well enough her husband will take her back. She ends up at a culinary school in rural England. As the weeks pass by the things that were important to her (social standing, designer clothes, her husband) become less important. New things become important such as friendships, good tasting food, and having a skill. When I first started reading this book her character was so over the top I thought the entire book would be silly. By the end of the book I changed my mind and I now think this is a book worth reading. 

 

 

The Night We Lost Him

Laura Dave is the author of the mystery novel called The Night We Lost Him. The story is about a father of three, an ex-husband of three, and the owner of luxury rentals on both the east coast and the west coast. Liam is the father and he kept his three children very separate. When he suddenly dies falling from a cliff outside one of his favorite homes on the California coast, his children try to figure out how he could fall from a property he was very familiar with. The authorities rule his death as accidental but his children don't believe that. The story is narrated in half by Nora, the daughter. The other half is narrated by Liam himself and it is unclear why he kept so many secrets. The book moves a little slow but the character of Nora is completely relatable.  

 

 

The Night We Became Strangers

 I enjoyed reading The Night We Became Strangers by Lorena Hughes in part because it is set in Quito, Ecuador which is a city I have been too. In this story a family radio station decides to put on a radio play much like War Of The Worlds that aired in the United States eleven years earlier. The people in Quito took it seriously. Panic spread throughout the city. Even though various sodas were advertised throughout the broadcast the idea that Martians had landed near Quito was real for many people. When it was over anger set in. People rioted at the radio station and set the building on fire leaving Valeria an orphan. Her uncle sends her to a boarding school outside of the city. When she graduates she tries to find out what happened that night. Her uncle is unwilling to talk about. Her former friend, Matias, and his mother also refuse to talk about it. Valeria does not give up though. This book had a surprise ending and a nice writing style.

 

 

Lake Effect

Lake Effect is a family novel written by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney. The story starts out in Rochester, New York in 1977. Clara is in high school and starting to fall in love with the boy next door. All of her plans fail when her mother decides to leave her father and take off with the man next door. Twenty years later Clara still isn't over her anger and grief. Reputations were ruined but twenty years later none of that matters to anyone besides Clara. This is a story about mothers and daughters, love and grief. 

 

 

Last Night In Brooklyn

Xochitl Gonzalez is the author of Last Night In Brooklyn. This fiction story is about a young woman living in Brooklyn after college. The author describes her job in advertising, drinking at clubs, doing drugs, and DJ's spinning songs. The main character is Alicia. She is drawn into the world of fashion. She is also drawn into the world of a famous fashion designer who lives across the street. The designer's name is La Garza. La Garza throws fabulous parties. La Garza contacts Alicia once she figures out that Alicia's cousin is someone she used to know and who used to support her fashion. The story details Alicia's experiences in the year before Obama was first elected to be president.

 

   

Flammulated Owl

 Last night the Winona bird club had a lecture about flammulated owls. The lecturer is a professor at the U of W in LaCrosse. He spends his time here and in the valleys of northern Idaho. There are no flammulated owls in Minnesota. Occasionally one might get off track and be seen in the black hills of South Dakota but they are a western and southwestern raptor. They are easier to study because they tend to nest in colonies. In a mile long stretch a half mile wide there could be twenty nests if researchers put up nest boxes. They are called flammulated because there is a pattern on their wings that meets on the lower back that looks like flames. Years of research have shown that there are two main factors that point to success in raising young. One is arrival to the breeding area. If you come a week early your brood won't hatch as successfully as if you came a week later. The other factor is the snow pack. Compared to rain, a good snow pack will release the water gradually which leads to more herbs and forbs which in turn leads to more insects in the area. The main food of flammulated owls is insects but they have been known to eat mice or other small birds such as sparrows. I enjoyed hearing about flammulated owls but I also enjoyed hearing about this man's passion and excitement and enthusiasm for his work with them.