A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

On Living is the second book by Kerry Egan, who is a hospice chaplain and graduate of Harvard Divinity School.  She lives in South Carolina.  This is a very readable, 'unputdownable' book.  For me the first two chapters were slow.  Once the third chapter started, which was the first chapter in which Egan shares one of the stories a former patient told her, I was hooked. On Living is a series of meditations on various themes in the life humanity lives as seen through the lens of counselling and supporting patients who are terminally ill and their families.  Egan often does not meet these people until they know they are in their final months or weeks and have begun hospice care.  Usually the meditation is predicated on the story or stories shared by specific patients.  These stories serve as a gateway to further meditation on a broader theme, such as salvation and change; identity; that there is kindness in the gray areas of life. This is also a ...

The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America's Coldest Cases by Deborah Halber is a non-fiction title that reads like a page turner.  It is gripping and suspenseful, and if you love reading mysteries or true crime, this book is a must read for you.  It's a fairly quick read because it's hard to put down.  It reminds me a lot of Marilyn Johnson's books that looked at the worlds of obituaries , libraries , and archaeology , all of which have been reviewed here on the blog (click the links to read those reviews). Like Johnson, Halber immerses herself in the world of these amateur web sleuths and interviews several big players in the cold case solving field.  She also exposes the drama and competition that happens on the online discussion boards that lead to irreparable rifts between the sleuths and online forums.  In addition to profiling several sleuths who have solved some of the most notorious cold cases and given names to unidentified corpses...

I had previously read a book that explained aspects of life in Austen's and Dickens' England and enjoyed it because--English period drama.  When I saw a review for this book someplace, I thought it was right in my wheelhouse--because English period drama.  The book about life in Austen's England covered English customs and life in the late 1700's to early 1800's.  The Victorian period covers about mid-nineteenth century to early twentieth century.   How To Be A Victorian: A Dawn To Dusk Guide To Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman is about exactly what the title says. Goodman gives an account of a day in the life of the average Victorian.  She covers those living in the early Victorian period and addresses the changes to Victorian life that occurred later in the period.  She also addresses the differences in Victorian life that would exist between the classes as well.  And Goodman also distinguishes between the daily life of men, who worked outside...

I know, I know--I'm either late or early reading this book for Christmas.  However, I'll watch a Christmas movie even if it isn't Christmas time.  I love Hallmark Christmas movies; I've watched Lifetime's Christmas movies (not as good Hallmark's though); I've watched ionTV's Christmas movies.  I guess you could say that Christmas movies is another genre I enjoy almost as much as British period dramas.  Or maybe I like them both equally.  Anyway I don't normally read Christmas themed books.  I have read Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand, a Christmas themed book by an author I love.  My grandmother found The 13th Gift by Joanne Huist Smith in a magazine somewhere back in December.  She read it about the same time as Napkin Notes and enjoyed it more than that one as did I.  I've checked this book out of the library a few times, and because of other readings that got in the way, I only recently got around to reading it. In the aftermath of...

I feel as if I could write a book subtitled "What I've Learned From Reading Too Much" except all my lessons would be culled from Greek mythology, the Babysitters' Club, the lives of British queens, crime mysteries, suspense thrillers and celebrity and entertainment gossip.  I first ran across How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis in an ad in BookPage.  The title sounded intriguing and once I looked it up on Amazon, I was in for reading it.  It reminds me of the literacy autobiography writing assignment that I had in one of my English composition classes in college--except this is the literacy autobiography on steroids. The premise of this book is that the author revisits the seminal texts that she read in her youth by examining the lessons and impressions of the novels that she had upon her first readings when she was younger.  Ellis has then re-read the novels as an adult specifically for the writing of her own book to see if the novels hold up to her original ...

Lives In Ruins is Marilyn Johnson's third book.  It was initially the book that first caught my interest, but since my library had a copy of This Book Is Overdue , I read that one first.  Then we got a copy of The Dead Beat , which I also read.  In the hierarchy of Marilyn Johnson books, Lives In Ruins is at the top with This Book Is Overdue , and The Dead Beat is at the bottom.  For some reason, The Dead Beat just never caught fire for me like the other two did.  In Lives In Ruins (I love the title!), Johnson turns her sights on the field of archaeology and the passionate professionals who work in it.  It is a field about which you have to be passionate to work in it because it is not an easy life, you will never have career stability, and you won't get rich working as an archaeologist (far from it in fact). The book begins at the beginning: at field school where archaeology students go for practical experience in the field on an actual dig. ...

The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries is Marilyn Johnson's first book.  It is the second book by Marilyn Johnson that I have read and reviewed here on the blog.  I previously read and reviewed This Book Is Overdue .  Her research for The Dead Beat and the interesting obituaries of librarians that she found led her to the subject of her follow up book, which was This Book Is Overdue . This book was a little slow to start, but it sucked me in around the part about how the New York Times dealt with 9/11 and its resultant obituaries or "portraits" as the paper dubbed its articles about the myriad missing but not yet confirmed dead.  Indeed this particular section was rather poignant.  Johnson is a fan of obituaries--she reads obits from several newspapers, including some from Great Britain.  She has even attended an international obituarists conference, an eclectic gathering of both obituary writers and the fans...

I was looking up a book about genealogy on Amazon a while ago, and as those things often do, that book led to another book led to this one, I think.  Or something like that.  I requested Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into A Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg through ILL.  I know that I always say that non-fiction and I don't get along, but lately that seems to be all that I'm reading.  And honestly stories like this that essentially are some sort of genealogical scavenger hunt or detective story tend to suck me in.  I like them because I have an interest in genealogy and have become by my own family's historian and keeper of the family tree--and anyone who has done any long term genealogical research knows that every family tree has its share of mysteries. This story begins with the roundabout revelation of a decades old family secret.  At a meeting with her doctor and social worker, Luxenberg's mother, Beth, casually mentions a sister.  This informatio...

A couple of reviews ago, I mentioned that there was a book I was reading that was taking forever and a day to finish.  Well, this is that book.  I finally finished it, and even though it felt like it went on and on (and on), I'm glad I finished reading it.  I feel I really learned a lot.  And now this review may go on forever and a day because I have a lot to say.  I believe I first learned of this book when I read a review about it in Time magazine or Book Page or some place like that.  It's a fascinating and interesting read. When I was a young girl I read a lot more non-fiction than I do now.  I read a lot of Greek mythology, fairy tales, and books about queens and royalty.  I remember there was book about Joan of Arc that I borrowed from my library (and which is still in the collection here!).  This fascination with royal history and the customs, traditions, and history that go along with it has carried over into my adulthood. ...

Napkin Notes by Garth Callaghan is a book that my grandmother ran across in one of her magazines back in December.  But before she could give me the title, she lost the list.  Then she found it again sometime in January.  So the library got a copy, and I passed it along to my grandmother so she could read it, and then she returned it to me, and I ended up reading it before I returned it to the library.  My grandmother and I both had the same reaction to the book, which I will share later in the review. When his daughter was young, Garth Callaghan began including napkin notes in the school lunches he packed for her every day.  At first the notes were thrown in sporadically, but when he realized how much his daughter looked forward to them, the notes became a constant and essential component of her lunches.  The notes were a means for father to connect with daughter in the midst of the school day during the school year when his time with her was limited ...

I know it's been a while since I posted a review.  I was reading a book, and it took forever and a day.  Okay, really it took most of February, but I finally finished it, and that review is forthcoming.  I was flipping through my notebook, and I found the notes for this book review that I'd forgotten about and hadn't posted yet.  So here it is! I saw an ad for this book in Smithsonian magazine, and I thought, hmmm.  That sounds interesting.  The library now has a copy of The Smithsonian First Ladies Collection , and if you have an interest in presidential history, women's history, or fashion history, I recommend you check out this book.  You won't regret it. The book contains a brief history of the collection as well as an overview that includes photos of selected items in the collection, such as gowns, jewelry, china, and other memorabilia, including photo copies of the invitations for two weddings that took place in the White House.  Phot...

Changing The Way We Die: Compassionate End-Of-Life Care And The Hospice Movement was written by journalists, Fran Smith and Sheila Himmel.  The two women also write a blog of the same title for the magazine Psychology Today .  After vastly different experiences in the end of life care received by each author's respective father, they decided to explore hospice as a movement and a service.  The book itself is divided into several sections that explore different aspects of the movement. The first section explores the history of hospice both as a movement and a service provided for the dying and their families and caregivers.  This section recounts how the movement took hold in mid-twentieth century America as well as the differences between hospice in America and hospice in England where the first hospice in that country provided the spring board for its sister movement in the U.S.  It also addresses the challenges and struggles of the early movement to gain...

The Roosevelt Women is a book that I've been working on for a while, and then I set it aside to read Winter Street , and then I came back to finish it.  It's a long book with long chapters, but it was interesting to me because it focuses on the women of this historic clan while most attention falls on the most famous Roosevelt men who went on to become presidents: Theodore and Franklin. The book includes a family tree mapping out the relations of the Roosevelt family as well as chapters that focus on selected women.  The story begins with the improbably, soap opera-like origins of the union of the parents of Theodore Roosevelt in a chapter that details the life, influence and place in the family of his mother, Martha.  You really have to read it to get it and understand it.  It's a love story that even today would raise eyebrows.  The author points to Martha's marriage into the family and the enormous energy and indomitable life force that she brought to th...

Lately I've been on a run of non-fiction--this is unusual for me because (and I know I say this every time I review a non-fiction book) non-fiction and I generally don't get along.  Every once in a while though, I find a non-fiction book that sticks and I read it AND I finish it.   Nine Years Under: Coming of Age In An Inner-City Funeral Home is Sheri Booker's first book... well, actually it isn't because during the course of the book she talks a little about how she's published a collection of poetry.  But this is her first prose book.  I saw this title come up in the New Titles list in the online catalog, and since I'd recently come across a review for another memoir set in a funeral home and added it to my reading list, I thought I'd request Nine Years Under and read it. This is a quick and easy read and Booker's writing style is easily accessible.  There are a few quibbles--for example, there are a few passages in which the chronology and/or th...

I Work At A Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories From the Stacks is the first book from Gina Sheridan who maintains a tumblr by the same title.  Sheridan is a librarian in Missouri who started writing down stories of the memorable encounters she had with the patrons of her library.  She then started sharing these stories on her tumblr which is where librarians and library workers from all over the country and the world found her and starting submitting their own crazy stories to her site.  This book is a collection of those stories. Sheridan's stories consist mostly of snippets of memorable conversations with various colorful library patrons.  These stories range from the bizarre to the frustrating to the heartwarming as the book closes with a chapter of stories of patrons who shared their gratitude and appreciation of the local library and its hard working staff. As a library aide, I could certainly relate to many of the stories Sheridan shares in t...

I was between books, and it wasn't looking good for finding a new one that would keep my attention.  However, I recently saw this one on the new books list for the library, and it sounded interesting--the family history element combined with the two world wars grabbed my attention.  At its heart, The Family is an in-depth study of the author's mother's paternal ancestry.  It begins with Laskin's great-great-grandfather in an area of Eastern Europe called the Pale where Russia required its Jewish citizens to live and traces the families of his great-great-grandfather's children and grandchildren through the years.  It is a riveting, at times heartbreaking, read. Laskin opens the story of his Kaganovich/Cohen ancestors in the late nineteenth century in the old country in an area of Eastern Europe that was Russia at the start of the book then became Poland and Lithuania before becoming Russia again and so on.  It is here that his Jewish ancestors made a comfor...

Every time I post a review for a non-fiction book, I always remind ya'll how I don't read non-fiction because non-fiction books rarely keep my attention long enough for me to finish them.  Every once in a while I find a non-fiction book that keeps my attention and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan is one of those books.  It is also a book that I learned a lot from--so it has at least those two things going for it: it kept my attention both writing and content wise AND I learned a lot.  That's always a good thing. Zealot is an examination and analysis of the historical Jesus through the lens of his Jewish identity and within the context of the culture, politics and geography of his time period.  This is an insightful, interesting, spellbinding, fascinating read.  A scholar of religions, Aslan relies on his own translations of the original Greek and Hebrew of Biblical passages to illuminate the texts in his examination of the cont...