The Doll House

 The Barbizon is a famous building in New York that, starting in the 1920's, housed females. The building had a rooftop terrace. The basement had a swimming pool. Second floor held a cafeteria. Now it is mostly condos with a few apartments. Both men and women can reside there. This is where Fiona Davis decided to write her novel called The Doll House. The story starts out in 1952. Each floor has a different employer. One floor is for a secretarial school. One floor is for a modeling agency. One floor is for musicians. When Darby arrives from rural Ohio, she is assigned a room with the models even though she is headed for secretarial school. The models convince her to go to a theater show. They leave her with one of the young men that they know is a predatory jerkwad. She comes back upset with her clothes torn and her knees bloodied.  One of the maids in the Barbizon helps her out. Esme is Puerto Rican. Esme explains to Darby how the pecking order works in this complex. They become friends and confidants. Darby adjusts to life in New York City. She is not enjoying secretarial school. Secretarial school was her mother's idea. Esme talks her into attending a jazz club where she moonlights as a hat check girl. Esme even talks Darby to perform with her on stage as a back up singer. This is one story line in the book. The other story line is in modern times. A journalist, Rose, lives in the Barbizon with her fiancee. Rose hears stories about the old days in this historic hotel so she goes digging for information. This fascinating story is told, chapter by chapter, one timeline at a time.

 

 

All The Colors Of The Dark

Chris Witacker is the author of All The Colors In The Dark. This is a literary crime drama set mostly in a small town in Missouri. Patch and Saint are the main characters. Patch is a teen aged boy with only one eye. He is also an artist. Saint lives next door with her grandmother and raises bees. One weekend morning Patch saves a girl named Misty from being abducted by an older man. Misty is the teen aged daughter of the wealthiest family in town. What follows from that is a series of child abductions. Circumstances completely change the trajectories of Patch's and Saint's lives. The story starts in 1975 and spans decades. This book had 261 chapters. Some were very short. I thought the characters were well portrayed.

 

  

Regal Fritillary

 On Friday 7 of us gathered at the Weaver Dunes Nature Conservancy location to collect wild flower seeds. We had to drive to another spot. The four women rode in the conservancy's Ford F150. Dang, it is hard for me to get into the back seat of a Ford F150 but I managed. I collected thimble weed seeds in a milk jug attached to my carabiner. When we were coming close to the end of our 3 hour shift the seeds were close to the top of the milk jug. Every time I opened the jug to put more seeds in the prairie wind would take an equal amount out. I saw half a dozen regal fritillary butterflies. These orange and black butterflies are scarce and threatened but they are plentiful on this prairie.

 

 

The Twenty-Ninth Day

Alex Messenger is the author of The Twenty-Ninth Day. This is a coming of age story about a 17 year old young man. Alex is an adventurous who embarks on a canoe trip with 5 other young men through the Canadian wilderness. They take three canoes and three bear barrels of food. They paddle through rivers with harrowing rapids and large lakes. The scenery was gorgeous. Along they way they catch trout and grayling and fry them up for meals. Some of the meals sounded delicious. On the 29th day of their adventure, while alone exploring an ancient indigenous site, Alex is attacked by a grizzly. He has a severe puncture wound to his right groin. He has scratches on his back, his ear. Two of the tips of his toes are missing. Over the next six days his friends take care of him. They have a first aid kit with limited supplies. They have a satellite phone where they get medical advice. This book was riveting and exciting to read.

 

  

Paper Girl

Beth Macy is the author of Paper Girl: A Memoir Of Home And Family In A Fractured America. Beth grew up in Urbana, Ohio. She was the youngest of five children. Her father was an alcoholic. Her mother worked hard to support the family. Beth had a job delivering newspapers in the early morning. She did well in school. She got a degree in journalism with the help of a Pell grant. She married and had two kids and lived on the east coast. Starting in 2020 she returned to Urbana to help care for her ailing mother. She noticed the town had changed. The town no longer had a newspaper. The was no cohesiveness. Social supports were falling away. High school graduation rates had plummeted. More and more parents resorted to home schooling or religious charter schools. Some of the town members got deep into QAnon and conspiracy theories. Former friends couldn't talk to each other anymore because of the political divide. The author tells the story by interviewing a couple of high school students who are struggling with homelessness and family addictions. I thought it was a very interesting story.

 

  

My Lobotomy

My Lobotomy is a biography written by Howard Dully with the assistance of a journalist. Howard grew up in California. His mother died of cancer when he was six years old. For a time his father and brother lived with other family members. Later his father married a woman named Lou who also had a son. Howard was a normal boy. He was big for his age. For unknown reasons Lou took a deep dislike to him and everything he did. He was punished more strictly. He was denied things his brothers got. His father was working four jobs and was never home much. She kept taking Howard to psychiatrists and they kept telling her nothing was wrong. Then she found Dr. Walter Freeman. Dr. Freeman thought he was being helpful but he wasn't. After four electro shock treatments Dr. Freeman lobotimized Howard. He inserted ice picks into his eyes until they were two and a half inches into his brain and then he twirled them. Lou thought he would be a vegetable but he wasn't. He recovered. Lou said if Howard's father didn't get rid of him she would get a divorce. Howard's father had him enter an institution for handicapped children. Howard's grandmother wanted to adopt him but his father wouldn't allow it. By the time he turned twenty and was released from the institution he had no diploma, no job skills, and didn't know how to write a check. He was homeless for a time. Then he started stealing from pawn shops by writing bad checks. He spent his twenties in and out of jail. He spent his 30's as an alcoholic. When he was forty he met Barbara and started to put his life together. When Howard turned 50 a pair of journalists were planning to do a radio show on NPR about Dr. Freeman. Howard helped with the interviews. He got to read the deceased doctor's notes about him and the other patients he lobotomized. He was eventually thrown out of all hospitals and the medical profession. This was a very interesting book to read.

 

 

My Year Of Rest And Relaxation

Ottessa Moshfegh is the author of the 2018 novel called My Year Of Rest And Relaxation. This is a darkly comedic novel about a young, beautiful, wealthy college graduate who wants to take time off work to rest. She can use her trust funds to pay her expenses. Both of her parents have recently passed away. She lives in Manhattan in a building with a doorman. She quits her job at an art gallery. She finds a psychiatrist with unusual methods. This psychiatrist throws drugs at her willy nilly. She gets ambien, vicodin, Xanas, Risperidol, anti-anxiety, anti-psychotic, and sleeping pills. One of them has a side effect where she leaves the building and goes shopping so she is careful about that one. The only glitch is that her college friend, Reva, keeps coming to visit. Reva is jealous of her wealth and beauty. Her visits are sometimes pleasant and other times annoying. I think it's crazy that a young woman in the prime of her life wants to sleep her life away to reset her life. One summer day Reva calls again and her call is not answered. Soon after that 9/11 happens. Reva is at work at the World Trade Centers and she looses her life.