Happy Mother's Day

 

The Other Side Of Disappearing

 I was drawn to the cover of the book The Other Side Of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn.  The story revolves around two sisters. Jess is a hairstylist who has been taking care of her sister, Tegan, since their mother left the family to take off with a con-man. Jess is overprotective. She hovers over Tegan to an extreme level. To protect her sister from heart break Jess conceals infrequent correspondence from their mother. Tegan, about to head off to college, goes behind Jess' back. Tegan finds the five postcards and poses as Jess to ask a reporter to find her mother. The night before Tegan is to leave on a cross country trip with the reporters Jess finds out about the scheme. The trip is life changing for Tegan and for Jess. Despite all of Jess' hesitation and skepticism, the trip turns out to be a good thing for both sisters. 

Fresh Water For Flowers

 A horrible mother-in-law is an appalling character in the novel Fresh Water For Flowers by Valerie Perrin. The book was translated into English from French by Hildegarde Serle. This moth-in-law spoils her son. She thinks no one is good enough for boy. When he takes up with Violette they get a job as a railroad crossing. Their job is to lower the boards so cars can't run into the train. Violette does all the work because he is lazy. When Violette has a baby the mother-in-law doesn't like the name of the child so she calls her Catherine instead. She thinks Violette isn't taking good care of the girl. She encourages her son to marry Violette to prevent Violette from leaving her son and taking the girl away from them. When the girl is 7 the grandparents take her on vacation. The girl makes friends with another girl. The grandparents want the girls to go to a rural camp for a week together. During the night at the first day at camp a fire breaks out in the kitchen and three girls die including Violette's daughter. The school blames the 3 girls for leaving their bedroom and making hot cocoa and leaving the pot burning on the stove. After the death Violette leaves her husband and gets a job at a cemetery taking care of the graves, assisting with burials, and selling flowers. One day she meets a police officer who researches what really happened to start the fire. The fire was not the fault of the girls. I never saw this ending coming. This was a great story to read.

 

 

Lady Tan's Circle Of Women

 Lisa See is the author of Lady Tan's Circle Of Women. This book takes place during Lady Tan's life in China during the 14th and 15th century. Chinese medicine is typically conducted by men and by men behind a curtain. The male doctors are not allowed to look at or touch the women. Lady Tan's grandmother and grandfathers are doctors and she is learning from them. After her mother died from an infected bound foot and her father goes to another town to work for the government, she is in her grandparent's care until her marriage at age 15. Her grandmother made sure that Lady Tan made a friend with the midwife's daughter. The two girls form a life long friendship. The descriptions of the foot binding are horrific to read. The toes are folded back to the heel and bound with strips of cloth. As the bones eventually break the feet are so deformed it hurts to walk. This is so barbaric but without bound feet a woman will not be able to get a good marriage. Even more barbaric to read about Lady Tan binding the feet of her 3 girls. At age 50 Lady Tan writes a book about 40 or so common illnesses or women's issues and how to resolve them with herbs and teas and foods. Actually a Chinese woman wrote this book and it is available to read in English and Chinese. In the story Lady Tan goes to Beijing to attend the birth of the Empress. There is a true story about the Emperor of Japan punish a midwife who was attending the Empress for giving birth to her own child within sight of the Empress. She was flogged. If Lady Tan was there is fiction. Times were tough in China. Gender roles were strictly enforced. Some people managed to lead happy lives but not all.

 

 

A Fever In The Heartland

I just finished reading a long and tragic book called A Fever In The Heartland: The Klu Klux Klan's Plot To Take Over America And The Woman Who Stopped Them. This history book was heartbreaking to read. Why was there so much hate in the 1920's? The KKK hates people of color, Jews, and Catholics as well as southern Europeans. Most of the story takes place in Indiana. I never realized how much the KKK was in northern states. D.C. Stephenson was a con man who moved to Indiana. He could be charming and influential but he was a liar and a cheat. Somehow he got to the top of the KKK organization. He skimmed money off the top. All the police were members of the KKK. Most of the judges were in the klan. City leaders and the governor was in the KKK. Stephenson was also an alcoholic. When he got into certain moods he would beat women by striking them, pulling out hair, and by biting their bodies. There was a woman named  Madge Oberholtzer who wanted his help with a child nutrition program. He agrees because he thinks he can make money on it by having her write a school textbook about nutrition which he would then sell to the schools.  Madge, who is 28, is popular and well known in her community. One night Stepphenson gets in a mood and he basically kidnaps her at gunpoint, forces her to drink tainted alcohol, beats her, rapes her, bites her. He keeps her in a hotel room. She wants to leave. When an arm guard takes her shopping at a drug store she takes some poisonous pills. He denies her any medical treatment so, in despair, she takes some of the pills. Eventually her broken body is brought back to the house where she lives with her parents. A doctor is called and treats her wounds. The toxins in her body are shutting down her kidneys. Before she dies she, with the help of a lawyer, makes a statement explaining how Stephenson hurt her. The attorney brings it to the judge to make an indictment. The judge is a member of the KKK. He finds another judge. He wants the police to arrest him and they won't do it. Eventually he finds one officer who will arrest him. At the jail Stephenson is given cigars and whiskey and full meals. The trial is held in a small farming community. Those twelve farmers are the heroes in this story. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. The the Governor doesn't help Stephenson he gets his revenge by exposing all the corruption and all the politicians that were bought off. In the end, Stephenson's goal was to be elected to the US Senate and to run for President. After finishing the book I researched the KKK in Minnesota and there were several klans. Hate is so corrosive.

 

 

Three Wishes

The Australian author, Liane Moriarty, wrote Three Wishes. This is a family drama about female triplets celebrating their 33th birthday. They are loud and boisterous at the restaurant. Their names are Lyn, Cat and Gemma and they are equally beautiful. When asked how they felt about being a triplet, one says it's great, one says it's not good, and the third says it didn't matter to her. The novel covers their 33rd year. The writing was witty and hilarious. 

 

 

The Book Swap

 Tessa Bickers is the author of The Book Swap, a contemporary novel. Erin is in her mid twenties. Her good friend has just died of cancer and she is a mess emotionally. Her friend who died gave her a poem which she treasures and keeps in her book To Kill A Mockingbird. This book is all marked up with her comments and observations in the margins. In the process of moving she accidentally puts that book in one of the free little libraries. When she realizes what she has done she goes back to the free little library repeatedly. One day she finds her book with her treasured poem intact. Another person has written in a different color ink his comments and observations. He asks her to read Great Expectations. They correspond for months via great books. When they finally meet Erin learns that he was the boy who totally humiliated her in high school.  Erin has a long history of not forgiving people. This book was a light read, not great but good.