Beyond The Door Of No Return

David Diop is the author of Beyond The Door Of No Return. The translator is Sam Taylor. The historical fiction novel starts out in Paris in 1806. A botanist, Michael Adanson, lies on his deathbed trying to figure out a way to let his daughter, Aglae, know of his life in Senegal. He once pursued the daughter of a Senegalese leader after she returned from three years of slavery in the United States. He found the daughter, the beautiful woman, and he writes to his daughter about her. The story is told by the Europeans, not the Africans and it reads like an adventure story. I have never read a book anything like this before. I enjoyed the scenery and the botany and the adventure.

Tom Lake

 Ann Patchett wrote Tom Lake in 2023. This is a family novel. Three daughters want to know about their mother's life prior to her marriage to her father. In her earlier years, before she had three daughters. Lara was an actress in a summer theater group in northern Michigan called Tom Lake. She starred in the play, Our Town. The person who played her father in the play went on to become a famous movie star. Their father was the director of the play so he knew both Lara and the famous movie star. The daughters are begging for details as they pick cherries on their farm in Michigan. Patchett is a talented writer and I totally enjoyed this family drama.

The Girl With No Name

 Marina Chapman, with the assistance of ghostwriter Lynne Barrett-Lee, is the author of The Girl With No Name; The Incredible True Story Of A Child Raised by Monkeys. This true story starts at age 4 when a girl in Colombia is kidnapped, taken out to the jungle, and abandoned. She is four years old and wearing a dress and panties. The year is 1954. She cries alone in the forest, hungry and lonely. After a week or so she notices the monkeys foraging for food. She decides to copy their behavior to keep herself from starving. Soon she figures out how to get up into the canopy. Over time the monkeys come to accept her. One monkey cares for her when she gets sick from eating the wrong kind of nuts. He takes her to a waterfall and has her drink water until she vomits up the poisonous nuts. Over time she becomes feral. She forgets how to speak. She walks on all fours. She is a survivor. Now she is married and living in London. Some of the proceeds of her book go to help combat child slavery and human trafficking in Colombia.

Rainy Sunday Afternoon

I completed a couple of manicures today.

 

Crow Mary

 Kathleen Grissom is the author of Crow Mary, a book inspired by a indigenous woman named Goes First who married a white man named Abe Farrell in 1872. At the time she was 16. Since she was from the Crow Tribe and white people called women Mary, she became Crow Mary. Her story, her life, her loves, her successes and her failures make for great reading. Crow Mary lives with her family in Canada and Montana, often traveling great distances to seek a better life. In some ways Abe is a brave and kind man. At other times he is selfish and cruel. Crow Mary is the dependable steady rock of a woman upon whom her children rely. This was a very interesting story. Some parts are very sad. The forward to this incredibly moving story is written by Crow Mary's great granddaughter.

The Motion Picture Teller

 Colin Cotterill is the author of the novel The Motion Picture Teller. This story is set in 1996 and  mostly in Bangkok. Two bachelors hang out together in the evenings. One is a postal worker. One works in a video rental/mini-market. Together they enjoy films together. They watch Thai films and foreign films. They seem to have a great friendship. Through a local man they come across a new (to them) film called Bangkok 2010. Both men love the film and decide to do research on the actors and why the film was never released. As it turns out there is a group of people who do not want the movie released. When the former postal worker figures this out, he starts a new career as a motion picture teller. He describes films in detail and keep the village people entertained for hours. I enjoyed reading this humorous book about the friendship of two men in Bangkok.

One Puzzling Afternoon

 Emily Critchley is the author of One Puzzling Afternoon, a mystery historical fiction novel set in a small town in the British Isles. Edie is 84 now but in the book she is a schoolgirl living with her mother and father in the same house she lives in when she was 84. Her mother tells fortunes which both embarrasses and scares Edie. Sometimes her mother really is able to tell a fortune. Edie becomes friends with one of the wealthy, popular girls at her school. Her friend disappears at age 15. At age 84, Edie is determined to find out what happened to her friend all those years ago. This book was interesting because the narrator, Edie, has dementia. Sometimes she knows she has dementia. Other times she is highly offended when people treat her as forgetful. I thought the book was beautifully written.