The Secret Book Society

The Secret Book Society,  written by Madeline Martin was a delightful read. 

This was a very entertaining novel. Labeled as historical fiction the reader gets a feel for the plight of women living in London England in the early 1800.  They were considered property and totally controlled by their fathers and then by their husbands. 

This is the story of how a small group of women defied their husbands and found ways to read the novels they so enjoyed.  They developed the strength and fortitude to stand up to their husbands and demand better treatment.  

In this story the husbands are controlling and cruel.  They ban books from their wives in fear that they will gather too much knowledge and possibly become independent or develop hysteria, becoming unhinged.  

We meet this three women in unhappy marriages, Mrs Eleanor Clarke, who is married to Cecil.  She came from a life as a daughter of noble birth whose family had fallen on hard times. He is a merchant looking to show his new wealth, marries her and makes a gratuitous  display of her and the gemstones and dresses he can buy.  She is a prisoner to her husband.  Mrs. Rose Wharton, is an American who fell in love with her husband, Theodore.  Now Theodore's brother who was the earl, but is dying from cancer and Theodore will soon step into that role. Rose has to learn how to behave properly for the society she has married into. Theodore is hard on Rose because he fears his brother.  Then there is Lady Lavinia Cavendish, a young woman, not yet married, whose father is worried she feels things too deeply, and that books only increase her exaggerated emotions. Her father takes away her books because he is afraid she is not marriage material and will end up in the lunatic asylum.

This is what happens to many wives who do not obey their husbands. On the word of an angry, spiteful husband they can be sent off to the asylum for life. 

Lady Duxbury who is a widow, but suffered through two terrible marriages, invites the women for tea, they start the secret book group.  They become friends and their bond helps them build resolve to change their circumstances.  They bolster each other as they decide to take control of their lives and their marriages.

You will enjoy spending a few afternoons reading this book with a cup of tea and biscuits.

The Curse of the Blumenthals

The Curse of the Blumenthals is the story of how a family faced a tragedy and tried to rise from the ashes. Author Phyllis Karas, employed her skills as a journalist to research her family history to expose the facts behind the family lore and try to bring justice to her ancestors.

How many times have you sat around the the holiday table with your many cousins, aunts and uncles and rehashed the family stories that have been passed down through the generations. Each person may remember different parts of the story and over the years the facts get muddled and no one is sure about the actual details. 

Karas comes from a large family that came to America from the Riga which was once part of the former Tsarist Russian empire in the 1890s. The Blumenthal family are Lithuanian Jews.  They settled in Providence Rhode Island.  The family starts with the marriage of Phillip and Rose who had eleven children. Three of the children did not survive childhood, but the eight remaining children lived with their parents on Overhill Road with their parents, as a dedicated Orthodox Jewish family. Those four girls and four boys married and brought into the world eighteen off spring.  This large family all lived in the same neighborhood and celebrated life together.

They also experienced tragedy together when in in 1935 six members of the family were tragically killed in what has come to be known as “The Accident".  Six members of the extended family were visiting a relative in a Hartford Connecticut hospital.  On the drive home their car was hit head on by a drunk driver.  All six passengers were killed in the crash.

It was a devastating blow to the family.  The accident was widely covered in the Providence Journal. Karas suggests that this event changed the family in many ways that may not have even been realized at that moment.

Six months after “The Accident” Ronald Blumenthal was born. He was the only child of brother Barney and his wife Edythe, from Boston. This small family left the larger family unit who stayed on Overhill Road in Providence. Barney opened a liquor store and there were rumors that maybe he was involved with bootleggers. 

Could this selling of liquor during the Prohibition have led to the next family tragedy in the Blumenthal family?  Karas attempts to find the links of the two family events.

Now a growing family, Ronnie, (Ronald) grows up with a bevy of eighteen first cousins. Though two of them died in “The Accident” six months before his birth.  The cousins are a close knit group of kids growing up.  Ronnie is a wild child, not a good student, he loved fast cars, pretty girls and drinking alcohol. In 1954, when he was nineteen years old, Ronnie was committed to Charlestown Prison to begin a life sentence for murder.  The family would refer to this tragedy as “The Incident”.  

Karas spends the rest of the book researching the murder of Ora Schonarth, who was strangled and stabbed in her Brookline, Massachusetts apartment. She tries to find a link between cousin Ronnie and the seamstress.  She tries to find a reason for Ronnie’s behavior and a connection back to the first family event that caused so much heart ache for the Blumenthal clan.

The story itself is fascinating and keeps the reader turning the page. Th facts are slim.  Beyond newspaper articles, police reports and interviews from the original timeframe there is not much new information that Karas can gather. There is no smoking gun she reveals.  She interviews those of her fifteen first cousins that she can reach out to. She interviews Ronnie’s ex wife and his son. But in the end, there is only a loose tie between “The Accident" and “The Incident” .  

So this is mostly just a memoir of people who came to America to build a family filled with love and find the America dream.  They found that even a large, loving close-knit family faces tragedy, flaws and heartache.  But I think in the end the lesson is that having a large close family will help you through those difficult times.

The Real Rosalind: The Truth About Rosalind Franklin's DNA Discovery and How It Was Erased

 The Real Rosalind: The Truth About Rosalind Franklin's DNA Discovery and How It Was Erased is a non-fiction account written by Debbie Loren Dunn and Janet S. Fox.

This is a very interesting look at the life of Rosalind Franklin who was among the first to discover that DNA was a double helix. She worked during from 1930 - 1950 in science labs in Paris and London with a variety of colleagues and competitors all racing to be the first to discover and understand DNA.

 She wanted to collaborate and share knowledge but was working in a mostly male dominated environment who were very competitive and not open to working with a woman. She also was determined to work only with proven facts and not rush to an incorrect answer with shoddy research or unverified facts. Another strong woman scientist who should not be forgotten and possible should get her awards posthumously .

This book is written aimed at a young adult audience. It is very scientific in its descriptions.  It is a great learning experience and if you are interested in the science will be fascinating to those readers.

Queen of Poisons

 To round out the weekend I read the newest Robert Thorogood mystery novel, Queen of Poisons.  This is the latest in the Marlow Murder Club series.

Each novel gives the reader a little more information about the main characters, Judith, Becks and Susie.   Judith has a pst she is trying to escape and keep hidden from her friends.  She has to come to an understanding with that past.  Susie has to see that her life is very full and she cannot take on any more projects. Becks is having trouble this time with her mother-in-law, Marian.  Marian has run out of money and wants to move in with Becks, Colin and her kids at the church rectory. Becks will try everything she can think of to entice her mother-in-law to move out.

Again they are invited by the police to help investigate another death.  Susie was at the town council meeting when the mayor took a sip of coffee and fell off his chair dead. Tanika the police detective inspector is called in to solve the case.  She knows that the women will investigate no matter what so she decides to work with them instead of trying to get them stay out of the way.

As Judith and her friends start interviewing suspects they find out everyone has something they are trying to hide.  There are so many red herrings and characters that it becomes a little complicated to keep it all straight. But in the end Judith again ties up all the missing pieces, twists and turns and brings the murderer to justice.

She not only discovers which of the suspects is guilty, she also figures out how they were able to kill the mayor right under the noses of everyone at the meeting.  Another entertaining novel in this series and this time it took me longer to figure out who I thought committed the crime.

Death Coms to Marlow

Death Comes to Marlow is the second book in the new mystery novel series written by Robert Thorogood.  

In book one Judith, Susie and Becks helped the police solve a murder and became the Marlow Murder Club.  Now a year later Judith is invited to a engagement party for a man she does not know.  Sir Peter suggests he is afraid of something bad happening as his reason for the invitation.  Judith shows up at the garden party with her two friends in tow.  Of course there is a death and once again the Marlow Murder Club is ready to investigate.  His young nurse and fiancée, Jenny is there along with Sir Peter's two adult children, Tristram and Rosanna when the catastrophe strikes.  It is up to Judith and her friends to help the police get to the bottom of the crime.

This continues to be an entertaining light mystery series. With many twists and turns, a cast of unusual characters and various reasons they could all be suspects. Judith and her tin of boiled sweets is always ready with a question for a suspect and a suggestion of how the murder could have taken place.

Judith Potts creates crossword puzzles for the local paper, and solving murders as if they are a puzzle is her specialty.  Susie is a dog walker by trade and now also a local radio personality.  Becks is the vicar's wife and a mother to two teenagers.  She brings the personal side to the trio.  She knows the citizens of Marlow and also can converse easily with the suspects and the victims making them feel calm and secure to reveal their secrets.

I will just mention also that this series has been made into a television series. I found the books much more in depth than the TV show.  Too many shortcuts are taken with the TV series, which takes away from the plot. Also the characters are so different from the characters I pictured in my head from the reading the books first.

The Lion Women of Tehran

Yeah, I finally read The Lion Women of Tehran, written by Marjan Kamali.

I have missed two in person opportunities to meet Marjan and listen to her speak about her book.  That is disappointing. But I did finally sit down and read the book and I am so glad I did.  This is a powerful, fast moving, intimate look at the life of women living in Tehran during the 1950s through the 70s.  You will not put the book down once you start reading.  You will not be able to wait to make sure the characters you become close to are safe.  

Kamali makes the characters so human and likable you will be invested in their successes and failures.  You will be concerned when they suffer and cheer when they are succeed.

Ellie at the age of seven and her mother are forced to move from the wealthy neighborhood of Terhan to a small home in a poor neighborhood when her father dies unexpectedly.  Her mother always concerned with her standing in society tries to keep Ellie from making friends with Homa, a girl from the neighborhood.  Ellie does not understand her mother's opinions and rebels.  Homa and Ellie will be live long friends. 

When her mother remarries her Uncle he brings them back to the wealthy society that her mother feels comfortable in.  The girls are separated and Ellie is now a popular student in a fancy school.  Homa works hard to pull herself up and attend the same high school and reappears in Ellie's life. Homa is a strong person with a great self image.  She is herself wherever she is.  Ellie is the weaker person, not secure in herself, needing to fit in and follow the crowd.

Though the girls have different dreams in life, they connect and separate many times because their friendship really runs deep.  Life experiences bring them together and tear them apart over and over again.

Against the backdrop of Iran's history we follow Homa and Ellie through college and marriages,,, through the country struggling with political turmoil toward democracy.

This book will bring back all the news stories of the 1970s and 80s, The Iran Hostage Crisis, the Shah leaving Iran in disgrace and the Iran Revolution and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini.  

Ellie now married moves to New York in the 1980s.  She is following the news about Iran from there.  Homa is a part of the women's resistance movement in Iran trying to get women's rights. 

With many twists and unexpected turns this is a fabulous story about the power of friendship, and the tenacity of "Lion Women"fierce, courageous, and brave women.

The Phoenix Pencil Company

 The Phoenix Pencil Company written by Allison King.  I picked this book off the self because it must have something to do with pencils. I enjoy writing and my father and sister use pencils for their artwork. So the book might be interesting, and maybe I could recommend it to one of them.

Ok, so the book is about pencils and a company that makes the pencils. But that is where any connection to real life use of pencils pretty much ends.  So if you suspend your attachment to reality and go along with the premise of the novel this is a romantic story of cousins and their jealousy and connection.  A story of true love and heartbreak.  

Narrated by Monica Tsai , a young woman living in Boston with her grandparents.  She is in college and working with her professor coding a new program that connects strangers online.   Her grandmother, Yun, whose memory is beginning to fade, has lived through two wars in China and spent her youth working with her mother, aunt and cousin, Meng, in a Pencil Factory in China.  But this was not just a pencil factory and the owners had a secret.   They had a special gift that allowed them to see what had been written with the pencil, which was called Reforging..

The pencils were hollow. Whatever was written with the pencil would be saved and if it was brought back to Yun and her family, they could reforge it and know everything that has been written with the pencil.  When the government finds out about this power they are forced into a life of espionage, revealing people's stories to survive.

Monica meets a woman through her new program who brings Yun a pencil to reforge after so many years.  Through this relationship and the memories of Yun we learn the history of and story of Yun and Meng and how they lost touch.

Monica learns about the family secret and reveals a secret of her own. She learns about trust, love and memory.  The book also quietly compares how the reforging of pencils and the technology of the computer to save memories and personal information are similar.