READ THIS BOOK! I just put down Finding Dorothy, and for a child of the 1960s this is a journey into a childhood icon, " an object of uncritical devotion", says the dictionary definition.
What an enjoyable novel, based on the true story of the life of L.Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and his wife Maud and their personal story. Incredible, touching and so well written. Also so much history about the making of the movie, the characters, Judy Garland and MGM and the executives, director, and people behind the scenes. So much fun to read and so emotionally rich.
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." "Follow the yellow brick road.", "I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too." and "Some where over the rainbow..." so many memorable quotes that have become apart of everyday speech.
Elizabeth Letts has done a remarkable job recreating the lives of Maud Gage and L. Frank Baum along with their parents, siblings and children. It was amazing how realistic the book is and how incredible the lives of these people really were.
Maud Gage was the daughter of Matilda Joslyn Gage one of the suffragettes who along with Suzan B Anthony worked for years to help women today have the right to vote. Maud was one of the first women to attend Cornell and face the inequalities of higher learning for women at that time. though her mother wanted so strongly for her to complete her degree, she left to marry Baum and follow him as he traveled across the country with his acting troupe.
When Maud became pregnant with their first child, Frank tried to settle down and take on regular acceptable employment for the time period. Though he worked for many years to support their growing family, he was never really happy with conventional jobs.
Reading the story of their lives and their family trials and tribulations shows how The Wizard of Oz was created in the mind of Baum. It is not just the imagination of an author's mind, it is based on so many of the real life situations the Baum family found themselves working through. It is the optimism that Frank Baum was able to maintain through all the troubles and hardships his family endured. He has left us with a sense of hope and the story has lasted because of the ability to believe the idea that the book carries with it, an incredible message of living a life that is hard, but always looking for the light at the end of the rainbow.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Thursday, April 11, 2019
The Collector's Apprentice
What a wonderful story written by B.A. Shapiro author of The Art Forger. Using her knowledge of art forgery and art work she has painted a colorful plot of intrigue and romance.
Listening to the story from each character's point of view we learn how George Everard woes Paulien Mertens, a young girl from a wealthy Belgium family. When George turns out to be a con man who has taken her and her entire family for everything they owned. Alone, disowned and devastated, Paulien takes on a new persona, Vivienne Gregsby. She sets out to recover her father's losses, prove her innocence and exact revenge on George.
Using her knowledge of art, she gets a job with an American collector, Edward Bradley, and puts her plan into action. Traveling through the Paris social scene, Vivienne becomes friendly with Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas. She becomes involved with Henry Matisse. Living in the United States she and Bradley set up the first Museum of art in Philadelphia and start an art school for people to learn art appreciation. Mixing reality and fiction Shapiro has painted an entertaining work of fiction.
Listening to the story from each character's point of view we learn how George Everard woes Paulien Mertens, a young girl from a wealthy Belgium family. When George turns out to be a con man who has taken her and her entire family for everything they owned. Alone, disowned and devastated, Paulien takes on a new persona, Vivienne Gregsby. She sets out to recover her father's losses, prove her innocence and exact revenge on George.
Using her knowledge of art, she gets a job with an American collector, Edward Bradley, and puts her plan into action. Traveling through the Paris social scene, Vivienne becomes friendly with Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas. She becomes involved with Henry Matisse. Living in the United States she and Bradley set up the first Museum of art in Philadelphia and start an art school for people to learn art appreciation. Mixing reality and fiction Shapiro has painted an entertaining work of fiction.
Sunday, April 7, 2019
The Library of Lost and Found
Author Phaedra Patrick has written a sweet and entertaining novel in The Library of Lost and Found.
This is her second novel after writing The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, which was also a wonderful novel.
In this novel we meet Martha Storm, a spinster in her thirties, who was the sister designated to stay home and care for the aging parents. She gave up her ambitions and dreams of marriage to take of her elderly parents until they died. Her sister Lillian, though she lives nearby, had her husband and two small children to take care of and did not help out too much.
Now Martha is a bit lost. She feels she must keep taking care of others to feel needed. She has taken on everyone else's projects to feel connected and accepted. She begins to wonder what would happen if she said no to people. Would they still like her? Would she still be accepted by them? She is a volunteer in the town library, though she keeps applying for a paid position and keeps getting passed by.
When a book of fairy tales comes into her possession, quite by accident, she begins to question many of the truths she has been living with. Memories of her childhood begin to come back to her. Her parents had told her her favorite grandmother had died many years before, but an inscription from her grandmother, in this book of fairy tales, is dated more recently . Martha goes on a quest to find out the truth and uncovers some very interesting family secrets.
Here is her chance to change the course of her life and get a second chance at the happiness she thought she lost.
This is her second novel after writing The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, which was also a wonderful novel.
In this novel we meet Martha Storm, a spinster in her thirties, who was the sister designated to stay home and care for the aging parents. She gave up her ambitions and dreams of marriage to take of her elderly parents until they died. Her sister Lillian, though she lives nearby, had her husband and two small children to take care of and did not help out too much.
Now Martha is a bit lost. She feels she must keep taking care of others to feel needed. She has taken on everyone else's projects to feel connected and accepted. She begins to wonder what would happen if she said no to people. Would they still like her? Would she still be accepted by them? She is a volunteer in the town library, though she keeps applying for a paid position and keeps getting passed by.
When a book of fairy tales comes into her possession, quite by accident, she begins to question many of the truths she has been living with. Memories of her childhood begin to come back to her. Her parents had told her her favorite grandmother had died many years before, but an inscription from her grandmother, in this book of fairy tales, is dated more recently . Martha goes on a quest to find out the truth and uncovers some very interesting family secrets.
Here is her chance to change the course of her life and get a second chance at the happiness she thought she lost.
Gateway to the Moon
Follow the journey of the Crypto- Jews as they traveled from Spain to the New World. Starting back in the days of Christopher Columbus commissioning three small ships to sail a different route to the Orient to trade spices and working through the generations who suffered at the hands of the Inquisition.
Author, Mary Morris uses the work of Stanley Hordes, whose career has been based in the study of the history of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico to weave a tale of romance, secrets and family relationships. Young Miguel Torres is living today in Entrada de la Lunda, a fictional town outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a fifteen year old restless boy being brought up as a Catholic. Everyone in the small town seems related in some way and no one ever seems to escape the area. Except his aunt Elena, who went away to New York to be a dancer. She keeps in touch sending postcards from places she travels to but very rarely returns to visit. Miguel's escape is astronomy. He has built his own telescope and he loves to go out and study the constellations.
The book takes us traveling back to the Inquisition and the first family to settle in Entrada, a translator for Columbus, Luis de Torres. Torres is a historical figure who traveled with Columbus on his voyage to discover the New World. Throughout the book there is a mix of real Crypto-Jews and fictional characters created to build the storyline. The variety of characters travel from Spain to places like Portugal, the Philippines, the Canary Islands, and then to Mexico and New Mexico.
There are many family secrets. Each of the families carry on practices that have been passed down through the generations. Lighting candles on Friday nights, eating special foods and not eating other foods. The practices continue though there does not seem to be an explanation for them.
Miguel lives with his mother MG and visits with his father, Roberto, who spray paints cars for a meager living. Everyone seems stuck in this town. Vincent Roybal, who owns the village grocery, has been researching his family tree at the Palace of the Governors history archives for many years. He believes that if he figures out why they settled there, he would understand why very few people ever leave. "Vincent Roybal knows his ancestors came from Spain. He likes to believe that once they were rich aristocrats and that for a reason he cannot conceive they settled in this valley long ago. he knows that they are among the first settlers of the New World. He just doesn't know why they came here. And least of all why they chose a place like Entrada to dwell in when it is so remote from anything that any of them must have known before."
Morris gives us the reasoning behind the modern day story by taking the journey through the generations that brought the settlers to the area. We follow the family tree and see how each the Inquisition followed the Jews until they could live safely in Entrada.
An interesting novel with some historical accuracy and some creative and intriguing character development.
Author, Mary Morris uses the work of Stanley Hordes, whose career has been based in the study of the history of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico to weave a tale of romance, secrets and family relationships. Young Miguel Torres is living today in Entrada de la Lunda, a fictional town outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a fifteen year old restless boy being brought up as a Catholic. Everyone in the small town seems related in some way and no one ever seems to escape the area. Except his aunt Elena, who went away to New York to be a dancer. She keeps in touch sending postcards from places she travels to but very rarely returns to visit. Miguel's escape is astronomy. He has built his own telescope and he loves to go out and study the constellations.
The book takes us traveling back to the Inquisition and the first family to settle in Entrada, a translator for Columbus, Luis de Torres. Torres is a historical figure who traveled with Columbus on his voyage to discover the New World. Throughout the book there is a mix of real Crypto-Jews and fictional characters created to build the storyline. The variety of characters travel from Spain to places like Portugal, the Philippines, the Canary Islands, and then to Mexico and New Mexico.
There are many family secrets. Each of the families carry on practices that have been passed down through the generations. Lighting candles on Friday nights, eating special foods and not eating other foods. The practices continue though there does not seem to be an explanation for them.
Miguel lives with his mother MG and visits with his father, Roberto, who spray paints cars for a meager living. Everyone seems stuck in this town. Vincent Roybal, who owns the village grocery, has been researching his family tree at the Palace of the Governors history archives for many years. He believes that if he figures out why they settled there, he would understand why very few people ever leave. "Vincent Roybal knows his ancestors came from Spain. He likes to believe that once they were rich aristocrats and that for a reason he cannot conceive they settled in this valley long ago. he knows that they are among the first settlers of the New World. He just doesn't know why they came here. And least of all why they chose a place like Entrada to dwell in when it is so remote from anything that any of them must have known before."
Morris gives us the reasoning behind the modern day story by taking the journey through the generations that brought the settlers to the area. We follow the family tree and see how each the Inquisition followed the Jews until they could live safely in Entrada.
An interesting novel with some historical accuracy and some creative and intriguing character development.
Monday, April 1, 2019
Remarkable Creatures
Written by Tracy Chevalier, Remarkable Creatures turned out to be an incredible book. I admit I started this book just because I was supposed to read it for a book discussion group. Not wanting to show up for another month not having read the book, I started in. At first I thought the book was boring. The premise was interesting but I did not see where it was going and it seemed dull. But as you realize that the story line is not the most important thing about this book, this plot line becomes more and more incredible.
Remarkable Creatures is a book about the relationship between Mary Anning, who along with her brother hunt along the cliffs on the south coast of England and find fossils and the remaining bones of animals that have been extinct for hundreds of years. They are uneducated and this being the 1800s are not even sure of what they are finding. They sell them as curios to tourists to keep themselves and their mother fed.
This is also the story of Elizabeth Philpot, a cranky, cantankerous, spinster who along with her sisters has moved to the Lyme Regis after the death of her parents. She and her sisters live together, traveling to London in the summer, so as not to be a burden on their married brother and his family. Elizabeth is interested in science and fossils and meets Mary out on the cliffs. They form a fast friendship despite a difference in age. They are more knowledgable about the fossils than most of the men who come to the area looking to purchase their fossils.
Most remarkable about this novel to me was how these women are collecting fossils and fragments of animals they have not even heard of. This is a time in history when we have not yet realized how the world was created. This a a very religious area, where the church and the theory of G-d creating the world with what is listed in the Bible and no other animals is the standard belief system. This is all happening before Charles Darwin brings out his ideas of evolution and origins of species. The information that Mary is discovering is controvercial at this time. How could there be an animal that is now extinct? Why would G-d create an animal only to let it die out? G-d did not make mistakes.
It is remarkable the fossils they collected. It is remarkable that especially Mary did not really get the credit she deserved . At age 12 she discovered the first complete specimen of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile about 200 million years old. Without fancy tools, she was able to pull out these animals almost intact. She was able to clean them and put them together correctly.
In the end remarkably, Mary and Elizabeth, stay close through landslides, arguments and jealousy and help each other grow stronger and more educated about fossils and life.
Remarkable Creatures is a book about the relationship between Mary Anning, who along with her brother hunt along the cliffs on the south coast of England and find fossils and the remaining bones of animals that have been extinct for hundreds of years. They are uneducated and this being the 1800s are not even sure of what they are finding. They sell them as curios to tourists to keep themselves and their mother fed.
This is also the story of Elizabeth Philpot, a cranky, cantankerous, spinster who along with her sisters has moved to the Lyme Regis after the death of her parents. She and her sisters live together, traveling to London in the summer, so as not to be a burden on their married brother and his family. Elizabeth is interested in science and fossils and meets Mary out on the cliffs. They form a fast friendship despite a difference in age. They are more knowledgable about the fossils than most of the men who come to the area looking to purchase their fossils.
Most remarkable about this novel to me was how these women are collecting fossils and fragments of animals they have not even heard of. This is a time in history when we have not yet realized how the world was created. This a a very religious area, where the church and the theory of G-d creating the world with what is listed in the Bible and no other animals is the standard belief system. This is all happening before Charles Darwin brings out his ideas of evolution and origins of species. The information that Mary is discovering is controvercial at this time. How could there be an animal that is now extinct? Why would G-d create an animal only to let it die out? G-d did not make mistakes.
It is remarkable the fossils they collected. It is remarkable that especially Mary did not really get the credit she deserved . At age 12 she discovered the first complete specimen of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile about 200 million years old. Without fancy tools, she was able to pull out these animals almost intact. She was able to clean them and put them together correctly.
In the end remarkably, Mary and Elizabeth, stay close through landslides, arguments and jealousy and help each other grow stronger and more educated about fossils and life.
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