The Moonlight Runner

 I learned a lot of facts about the relationship between Ireland and England by reading The Moonlight Runner written by Karen Robards. This historical fiction novel starts out in Ireland in 1918. The Great War and the Spanish flu have taken a toll on Ireland. Rynn Carmichael is a nurse working with wounded veterans at a country estate in Ireland. Some locals are fighting British rule. The Brits aren't having any of it. Every time the Irish try to enforce their right to be a separate country the British react with punitive measures. I knew India and Kenya struggled to be free of British rule but I never knew the Irish had it this bad. The Irish tried to be reasonable but being reasonable didn't work. Previous to this book I had thought of Winston Churchill as a mostly likeable character. I did not knew he called in a mercenary militia called the "Black and Tans" to inflict pain and suffering on Irish people who ended up having zero civil rights. Only when the Irish leaders took the facts to other countries who stood up the the Brits did they finally agree to negotiate. I will have to look for more historical fiction novels written by this talented author.

 

 

Too Bright To Hear Too Loud To See

 I read an incredible story about a man with bi-polar disease called Too Bright To Hear Too Loud To See. The author is Juliann Gary. At the end of the book I was surprised to see that she was female because the whole book is from the male perspective. Having this mental illness herself she writes a true story. The story is about a fictional character named Greyson Todd. Greyson is a Hollywood studio executive who has spent years covering up his mental illness. Eventually he abandons his wife and daughter and travels around the world displaying all of his symptoms. He goes from South America to Africa to Asia. After ten years he ends up in a psychiatric institution in New York City. Here he undergoes electric shock treatments. He comes to enjoy being strapped down, medicated and treated. At his worst he heard bees buzzing in his head and glass shards in his veins and arteries. This dramatic story helped me learn more about what it is like to have a mental illness.

 

 

 

 

Far And Away

 Far and Away was written by Amy Poeppel. I listened to the audio book which took about 12 hours. In this story a woman who lives in Dallas impulsively decides to switch homes with a woman from Berlin. The woman in Dallas is named Lucy. Lucy has a boy who is a high school senior and twin tweens who are girls. Jack, the high school senior, gets in trouble in high school and gets expelled. Neighborhood families disapprove of Jack and are taking it out on the family by vandalizing their home. Greta, who lives in Berlin with her orthopedic surgeon, Otto, is completely taken by surprise when Otto announces they will spend the summer in Dallas. This humorous story about two very different families switching homes for the summer kept me completely entertained.

 

 

The Calamity Club

 I was lucky to get a hold of a bestselling book. I loved Kathryn Stockett's book The Help. I also loved The Calamity Club. The story is set in Oxford, Mississippi during the great depression. Times are hard for everybody. Birdie is taking care of her mother and grandmother at home. She is sent to her sister's house in a bigger city to ask for funds to save the family farm. Birdie seems to get along with her sister's mother in law when  her sister can't. No one in the family knows that they are out of money too. Birdie helps her sister at a local orphanage run by one of the most evil characters you will ever read about. This is a great story written by a great author.

 

 

If I Could Turn Back Time

 In my high school we had one student of Japanese descent. I didn't know her well. We talked once in a while. One day she told me that the United States government put her family in a detention camp.

 I said, "No."

She said, "Yes."

I said I never heard about that in history class. We left it at that.

If I could turn back time I would change my response. The person who I am now, who knows more now, would have said, "The government put your family in a detention camp? How terrible for you and your family. I would love to learn more about that. Can we get together and I can ask you more questions?"

 

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Replaceable You

 Mary Roach is a medical/humor writer and one of my favorites. She wrote Stiff, Bonk, Gulp, Grunt, Fuzz and others. This time I read Replaceable You: Adventures In Human Anatomy.  Having had a few parts replaced myself (lenses, hips) I felt weird reading about myself. She travels to a burn  unit where they use frog skin to cover burns. She travels to China to explore genetically modified pigs to replace human parts. She writes about amputee replacements. Through her work she gets to sit in on surgeries and autopsies and other interesting places that the general public doesn't get to visit. Her book is very entertaining and informative.

 

 

The Fox And I

Catherine Raven has a PhD in biology. She worked as a National Park ranger in Washington and Montana. She bought a small isolated cabin in Montana. She taught classes remotely and also at Yellowstone National Park. One day she noticed a mangy looking fox hanging around her cabin. She thought garlic would cure the mange so she started feeding the fox raw eggs and garlic in half an egg shell. She and the fox developed a relationship. She read books to the fox. She used her relationship with the fox in her classes. She wrote the book The Fox and I. I enjoyed the book but I think the same story could have been told in half as many pages.