Book Review: THE PARTY

Title: The Party

Author: Lewis M Penry

Pages: 318

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

DS Jerome Roberts and DC Nicola Wood are called to the scene of a crime. Thirty-six-year-old Sharon Watkins has been found drowned in a garden pond on the night of the 18^th birthday of her son, Alexander. Not only was Sharon bruised and murdered, she had also been raped sometime during that night.

But then there were 42 people present at the party, including 25 men. How will DS Roberts ever identify the killer?

Younger sister Rebecca, brother Paul and mother Jackie are quick to blame Sharon’s partner, Leroy Campbell, former footballer with a troubled past. Jackie thinks that Leroy was cheating on Sharon with his ex-wife, Colette, who along with her 8-year-old son, Orlando, was present at the party. Sharon’s best friend, Beth Pendleton, and Leroy’s friend, Zach Wilson, were also at the party.

The other guests included Alexander’s friends, Emily, Ameera Hussain and Marcus Painter. Marcus has invited a gamer friend of his to the party.

Before long it becomes clear to DS Roberts that the night has been very eventful and that every member of the family is hiding secrets. But which one led to Sharon’s death?

 

The story was well plotted and the description of the English town was good. The police are efficient as they chase leads. With each new lead, it seems as if another person gets added to the suspect list. The book was well written but the errors were annoying. There were many grammatical and proofing errors and typos. Barely was spelt as barley in Chapter 3. One character says that he ‘expected’ his neighbour of being involved in a crime. The right word was suspected.

The punctuation in sentences with direct speech also needed editing. As did the awkward possessives such as “he and Wood’s conversation,” “she and Campbell’s relationship” etc. I was particularly irritated with the use of the phrase, “get off of her.”

But nothing irritated me as much as the repeated use of the phrase, was sat on. Characters don’t seem to sit or stand of their own volition. Each time they “were sat on” or “were stood”. I cringed each time I saw some variation of this phrase.

 

A brief variation from the point of view takes us to the third person point of view of Sharon, beginning a few days before her death, helping us to see the fears and concerns that were uppermost in her mind.

The issue here is that the author should have first let the police figure out who the killer is and how and why the killing happened, then let us see the flashback from Sharon's pov. 

Instead, the author first takes us on the flashback, then makes us watch the police fumble their way to the killer. Once we know how it happened, the police investigation is no longer of interest to us. 

Book Review: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RIPPER OF WHITECHAPEL

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Ripper of Whitechapel

Author: MK Wiseman

Pages: 214

Publisher: Megan Wiseman

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

When you read a new book by an unknown author in the voice of a beloved character, it’s natural to feel some hesitation and a mild sense of alarm at what might ensue but this author has picked up the style so beautifully that you hardly notice any difference between Sherlock Holmes and the Ripper of Whitechapel by MK Wiseman and any of the books written by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The only difference is that instead of Dr Watson being the chronicler, here it is Holmes himself playing that role.

And for good reason too. Dr Watson is now married to Miss Mary Morstan, who was Holmes’ client in The Sign of the Four. The good doctor has now settled in peaceful domesticity with her, while being occupied with managing his practice. Consequently he has had no time to visit his former rooms or his friend, since his marriage. The friendship has also been frayed with Dr Watson’s publication of one of Holmes’ cases, A Study in Scarlet, in the Christmas edition of Beeton’s Chronicle.

The story begins with Charles Warren, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, appealing to Holmes for help. Two women have already died at the hands of a brutal killer, named Jack the Ripper, and now a third body has been found. A message left behind by the killer at the scene of the crime declares, {Five done. Fifteen more and I give myself up.]

The bestiality with which the women are killed and mutilated makes the prospect of more killings even more horrific, and Holmes is anxious to solve the mystery. But this challenge proves to be one of the most difficult challenges of his career, especially since the suspicion falls squarely on his dear friend, Dr Watson.

 

The author has preserved the character of Sherlock Holmes in the universe of 221 Baker Street along with the other characters and setting so beloved around the world. In this book, the author has combined the myth of Sherlock Holmes with serial killings that have been the subject of so much fiction as to seem almost mythical. The book ends with the Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, which is incidentally the first story I read from the canon of Arthur Conan Doyle.

The book consists of the usual cast of characters, including Inspector Lestrade, Mary Watson nee Morstan, and the Baker Street irregulars led by Billy Wiggins.

The murders are all gruesome but it does not make for squeamish reading because of the language of the late 19^th century in which it is couched.

The deductive clues that Sherlock Holmes used to enthrall us with, over a century before his time, now have a name in police circles: Profiling, and the author uses the word.

Also, in this book, Holmes has had the time and the inclination to call out his own egoism vis-à-vis Dr Watson and to admit the significance of the human element in deduction.

Unfortunately, despite the flourishing literary style, I found that Holmes wasn’t his usual self here. The deductive skills that used to wow us in Doyle’s canon are missing here. The only evidence we see of his deductive skills is how he gauges the height of the Ripper based on the height from the ground at which the writing has been found. A reasoning we first read in Doyle’s work.

The middle of the book is plagued with doubts and fears, and the investigation picks up pace only around the 80 percent mark.

(I read this book through Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.) 

Book Review: The Yellow Ticket

Title: The Yellow Ticket

Author: Jane Marlow

Pages: 300

Publisher: River Grove Books

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was the first story I have read, that was written from the viewpoint of a prostitute.

Set in Russia, we meet Anna Vorontsova in September 1867 in the household of Nikolai O Shelgunov, where she is a servant. Her sole recourse are her few good memories from her childhood back home in Petrovo, before she was taken advantage of by a boy who she thought loved her, and sent away at age 15 to work in the Shelgunov household and hide her disgrace, never more to return home.

Now sexually abused and raped by her master, Anna is fired when her mistress comes to know. The unemployed Anna first seeks employment as a housekeeper, but gives it up when she is told by her employer that her duties include the offering of sexual favours.

Seeking to rid her mind of her horrible situation, she goes out for a walk and is accosted by Officer Shestov who, after a futile attempt at raping her, arrests her for soliciting without having a Yellow Ticket. The Yellow Ticket is the document that legalises prostitution.

She is rescued from jail, thanks to Irina, a prostitute she meets in jail, and gets a job at the brothel of Madam Sophia Mikhailovna. Over the next five years, we are right with Anna as she contracts a venereal disease and loses her place in the brothel, the highs and lows of her life as she services clients. We encounter the loves and friendships of her life and witness her joys and heartbreaks.

Anna fulfils the needs of many clients. But three of these men mean more to her than the others, offering her a semblance of friendship and companionship, and endeavouring to raise her prospects.

Yevgeny Ilyich is a 50-year-old client who teaches her to question, contemplate and think. He opens her mind to the ills that plague the lives of peasants. A nihilist, he dreams of revolution. He believes, [Ideas aren’t allowed in Russia.] But there’s a bit of a nihilist in Anna too, as she strives to save the world, when her own life is tragically in need of saving.

The married banker Abram Abramovich Segalovich makes her piteous circumstances bearable by offering her his love.

The young physically challenged actuary, Peter, teaches Anna how to work with numbers, do complex calculations and keep accounts, paving the way for a career beyond the brothel.

With their help, will Anna make a new life for herself? Or will she end up paying a heavy price for the Yellow Ticket?

 

The story is written in the first person present tense point of view of Anna. The book is a mix of humour, pathos and sorrow in equal measure. We see the bittersweet moments in the lives of Anna and her fellow-prostitutes, the risks and dangers of their work.

The characters all make a place for themselves in our hearts. Besides Anna, we have Madam Sophia, Grisha, the big bouncer who offers security to the brothel, the other girls, including Dunyasha, Dimka, and even Fyedka. All of them are struggling to do their best in a century in which there are so many challenges, and people do what they can to survive. They are all victims of their circumstances, and yet all of them, particularly Anna, defy cliché to emerge as individuals.

Even Sophia Mikhailovna in not reduced to being a madame with a heart of gold. In the end, they all take the decisions they see fitting to meet the circumstances that have been thrust on them.

It is sad to see that nearly every individual in authority seeks to impose upon Anna and take advantage of her. It is the same with the other prostitutes. The difficulties faced by women, already second class citizens, are magnified in the case of the prostitutes who stand at the bottom of society’s ladder, looked down upon by everyone. They are objects of derision and scorn, never able to better their lot.  

Anna is a mix of naivete and worldly wisdom. She understands her limitations and her humour is self-deprecating. Beneath the light tone of the book, there is an overwhelming note of sadness at the soul-crushing drudgery of the sexual act stripped of emotion and love, exposed to sexual diseases and the fear of pregnancy. Anna tells herself, Nice women do this. To survive. She wants to save money and go back home to her village.

The language is sometimes not in keeping with what one might expect of a work of historical fiction. Words like ‘upchucks’ for vomiting and other North American slang stood out in the setting. But it lent the narrative a light touch, reminding us not to judge the lives of these women too harshly. 

Another thing I liked was how the author set to root this work of historical fiction by dropping some true names such as author Dostoevsky and satirist Mikhail Saltykov Shchedrin.

The author does an incredible job of evoking the period. The abysmal condition of medicine then, the absence of condoms, mercury being administered as a medicine against sexual diseases of any kind.

Minor quibbles: Anna, being uneducated, tells us that she cannot understand big words. But at one time, she uses the word, renegade, with the right meaning.

 

(I read this book through NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley) 

Book Review: THE SIGN OF DEATH: A VICTORIAN BOOK CLUB MYSTERY

Title: The Sign of Death: A Victorian Book Club Mystery (A Victorian Book Club Mystery #2) 

Author: Callie Hutton

Pages: 322

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

The Sign of Death, set in January 1891 in Bath, England, is the second part in a series.

William Viscount Washington has enough to worry about. His mother, who has made it her business to see him married, is planning to move into his palatial home. To make matters worse, he had been suspecting that James Harding, who handled his financial affairs, was guilty of some irregularities in handling his money. And now he is dead.

Somebody pushed a drunk James into the river. It’s not hard to believe James capable of theft and villainy, but William knows that James was a staunch teetotaller and would never consume a drop of alcohol. Could another of his clients have done him in?

Matters come to a head, when the police, constables Carson and Marsh, suspect William of having murdered James. William needs to find the real killer or face the prospect of being sent to jail or, worse, strung by the neck himself.

William’s best friend, Lady Amy Lovell, is a young society woman who is also secretly a well-known murder mystery author, ED Burton. She is excited at the thought of attempting to solve the mystery and anxious to clear William of blame.

But will the two succeed in proving William’s innocence or will they meet with foul play themselves?

 

What I liked was the fact that the author didn’t feel compelled to endow Amy with external beauty. We are told that Amy fills out her clothes. Nor is William the kind to hold her weight against her.

Since both William and Amy are readers and members of a book club, we are treated to references to AC Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books and the stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

Unlike Sherlock Holmes who enjoys something of a cult status with the police, detectives Carson and Marsh don’t appreciate the meddling on the part of William, particularly as he is a member of the nobility and ranks high on their list of suspects. Both main characters are also great advocates of women’s rights at a time when such views were not the norm. In fact, Mr Colbert, a member of the book club, mentions that women are good only wiping children’s noses and gossiping. It is not an uncommon view, which is why women authors then received greater traction if they wrote under a male pseudonym.

 

All the characters are very likeable, even the ones playing bit roles, such as Amy’s Aunt Margaret, and the members of the book club.

The character of Amy, in particular, was sweet. She has a tendency to put on weight, but has a positive body image. She is feisty and unafraid, an equal partner with William in the murder investigation. Also, at a time when women didn’t have their own careers or business interests, Amy is a successful best-selling author of mystery fiction. A woman holding her own in a man’s world.

There is a charming sub-plot about ED Burton being required to show up as a special guest at a book fair. The dilemma of how to handle this situation plagues Amy, given that anonymity was the only condition when Amy’s father gave his consent to let her publish her books.

 

The banter between William and Amy was sweet and clever; it was good to see a fictional relationship based on friendship and mutual respect.

 

Lady Amy’s full name is given to us the fourth time it is mentioned, not the first. Also, there were times when the transition between paragraphs was too abrupt.

The language isn’t always appropriate to the time. Aunt Margaret describes James Harding as an “arse.” It felt odd to see the word, axe, spelt the American way as ‘ax.’ At another point, Amy asks William’s mother if she would like a tisane, a herb tea. The word itself emerged from the French language in the 1930s.

Other than these errors, I found this work cozy mystery a good read. 

(I read this book through NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley) 

Book Review: THE WRONG TWIN

Title: The Wrong Twin

Author: Lorna Dounaeva

Pages: 296

Publisher: Inkubator Books

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Mel is returning home to England. Her marriage of 20 years with husband Peter in Australia has broken down and she intends to file for divorce. The marriage has succumbed to lack of effort on the part of both. Also, Peter’s patronizing attitude and his know-it-all behaviour has begun to grate on her nerves and she wants out.

But home, she realizes, is different. With the death of their parents seven years ago, twin sister Abbie, is all she has, but her sister, once outgoing, friendly and fashionable, is now hostile, with completely different TV viewing and eating habits and a whole new personality. Then there is a strange man who breaks into the house when Mel is alone and follows her around town. 

It appears that Mel’s happy homecoming is crumbling around her. Soon she finds out that she has far more to worry about than Peter’s behaviour and Abbie’s odd moodiness.

The title of the book was perfect. The book cleverly brings out the old nature versus nurture debate.

The Prologue lets us in on the murder of a girl, and the manner in which her body is disposed of, never to be found again.

The narrative brings scenes to life. The descriptions bring to us just the right mix of action and setting to guide us along.

The author doesn’t let Mel think about her marriage much. This lack of information caused me to think, at first, that Mel had made a hasty decision, but once Peter arrived on the scene, we see what she finds troubling about his attitude, and it causes us to warm slightly more towards her. We see a display of his attitude when he tells the security guard at a hotel where he is staying, “I’ll deal with her.”

For nearly three-fifths of the book, I neither liked nor disliked Mel. I felt indifferent towards her. There was just too much information about her work, the shopping she did for the house and other by-the-way stuff. It was only when the pace of the novel picked up that I felt the slightest feeling of concern towards her.

The pace of the novel was slow, with not much happening. The only thing that the author drives on relentlessly about is a game known as The Artful Assassin whose bugs Mel, a game developer, is trying hard to fix.

I rarely give up on a book and so I plodded on. The reward came at the 69 percent mark, which is way too late. Most readers don’t have that kind of patience.

What made the action sweeter was that it was on the lines of something that I had suspected all along. But the manner in which it was executed still took me by surprise. The mystery, though late to come by, was a good one. The unexpected twist at the end of the book left me wanting more. I hope the author will write a Book 2 to let us in on what happens next.

The bugs in The Artful Assassin haven’t been fixed yet. And perhaps that marriage could do with some fixing too.

 (I read this book through NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley) 

Book Review: SOMEBODY OUT THERE

Title: Somebody Out There

Author: Kevin Lynch

Pages: 257

Publisher: Inkubator Books

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

If there’s ever been a Prologue to pull me straight in, this was it. It set an eerie tone that reminded me of Psycho.

Ben and Deborah Higgins move to the Irish countryside from Dublin along with their kids, teenage Molly and 12-year-old Jack, and their dog, Harry, for a fresh start. Deborah is an award winning crime reporter, and the family has made the move to escape the repercussions of her work, with a gang she reported on threatening violence. They hope to put the fears of the past behind them and start afresh.

The house they have moved into used to belong to a woman who died in it. Her mentally unstable younger son Jeremiah, who claims to hear the voice of his mother in his mind, resents them for living in his house.

They find themselves unwelcome in the town, with butcher Pat Doyle, pub owner Mossy Hennigan being openly unfriendly. Dave Breen, an upstanding town man, who handles the accounts of most of the establishments, is the only one who shows the Higgins any kind of welcome. 

Pretty soon, strange things begin to happen to them. Two of their chickens get their heads cut off. Then their dog is killed brutally. With each case of harassment, they find themselves increasingly alone, with the Gardai (Irish police) refusing to take them seriously. The trouble causes a rift within the family, with Deborah and Molly, in particular, resenting Ben for not cutting his losses and moving away.

Ben is determined to find out who is trying to drive him off his property. Will he discover it in time or will he lose his family and his sanity in the process?

The story is written in the third person past tense point of view of Ben. Interspersed between the main narrative relating to the Higgins family are short chapters written in the second person. These are the thoughts of Jeremiah, and they are characterized with the feeling of an intense and unhealthy devotion of a son for his mother.

The desolation of the countryside is described very well and the pacing is good.

The dialogue in the past perfect tense sounded unnatural. Some sentences were rather awkward. Dave Breen put down…whatever product he was holding. The vagueness makes no sense. In another chapter, we are told that Ben had been really shook.

There’s a lot of swearing, with almost everyone, except Jack, swearing freely. I was put off by this aspect.

Since the PoV is Ben’s, we don’t really feel close to Deborah. The little that we see of her makes her feel distant towards her. She was totally unsupportive towards Ben, refusing to understand him at all.

Jack was really sweet, but Molly came across as insensitive. Even when she was deliberately rude and disrespectful to her father, neither parent called her out on her behaviour.

The Gardai were completely lame and useless; their whole attitude needed work.

The ending was wrapped up too soon, without being at all satisfying.

Ben was the only characters that came across as real. I could form no connection with any of the others, except for Jeremiah. I would have liked to see more of him. 

I guessed the identity of the culprit early on; it wasn’t difficult.

My biggest grouse is with the blurb at the back of the book. It was totally misleading. It tells us that Deborah doesn’t scare easily and that she starts to dig for the truth. It was odd that the author set her up as an award-winning reporter and then she did nothing for her family.

As it plays out in the book, Deborah shows none of the feistiness we expect from a crime reporter. It’s Ben who stands up for his family. Deborah is quite ready to compromise. 

(I read this book through NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley) 

Book Review: THE PREACHER'S BRIDE

Title: The Preacher's Bride (Hearts of Faith series) 

Author: Jody Hedlund

Pages: 387

Publisher: Bethany House Publishers

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Elizabeth Whitbread’s heart is filled with compassion towards the poor infant, crying lustily to be fed and comforted, now that the mother who gave birth to him, Mary Costin, is dead. Elizabeth longs to comfort him, but Mrs Grew, a formidable woman married to town alderman and church elder, has already given him up as a lost cause.

When the vicar suggests that Elizabeth be appointed as housekeeper and caregiver to preacher, tinker and widower John Costin’s household of four kids, including 8-year-old blind Mary, and three younger ones, John is unwilling to have a stranger supplant herself into her family. Elizabeth herself has three months before her betrothed, Samuel Muddle, comes to claim her as his wife in marriage.

But then he sees the need of his children and how good Elizabeth is to them, and his heart slowly thaws towards her.

But their troubles are only just beginning. Mrs Grew is a formidable opponent, unwilling to disregard what she sees as Elizabeth’s presumptuous behaviour. Meanwhile, there are many who resent John Costin for his popularity, and many Royalists who despise him for turning his back on the traditional church in favour of the simpler worship that Puritanism espouses.

Will these Royalists stand by and watch a mere tinker preach the faith? How far will they go to dissuade him from his life’s purpose?

 

The first challenge in the lives of Elizabeth Whitbread and John Costin is domestic in nature. The three-week-old Costin baby will die soon if he does not receive milk or comfort but Mrs Grew, having tried and failed to feed him with a bottle, won’t let another try in order to save face. This sets the stage for confrontation between her and Elizabeth.

But there are other dangers too. Darker forces gathering together, willing to do whatever it takes to put a tinker in his place.

The book is set in Bedford, England, in 1659. Along the way, we get a sense of the setting, and the narrow-minded beliefs that put the religion and lineage of a potential wet nurse over the needs of the crying babe. It is period characterized by the lack of the conveniences we take for granted, large families with an ever-growing number of children to compensate for high child mortality. Elizabeth herself is the second of seven daughters; the family has lost their only son.

It is also a time when girls can aspire to nothing more than the care of home and hearth, no matter what their qualities may be.

The author also gives us an understanding of the workhouses and orphanages then, the rampant cruelty practiced there, the political situation in terms of religious tolerance and dissent between the Anglican Churchh and the Puritan congregation.

These historical events come alive for us as do the socioeconomic realities of the time. It is a crime to be a beggar, and virtually any crime can merit the punishment of a pillory.

Growing up in India, we learned virtually nothing of the history of England, and even less about Oliver Cromwell. But reading the book helped me realise the parallels to the situation in India where women were not permitted to learn to read and write and the lower classes were denied the right to learn the Scriptures too. In India, the high-class Brahmin men denied the low-caste and all women the right to study scripture in order to preserve their power.

I enjoyed the banter between Elizabeth and her sister, Catherine. The language and choice of words throughout the narrative are pitch perfect. The writing is beautiful, with tender emotions described with a touch of finesse.

The author gives us a strong sense of the feistiness of the heroine, her desire to do the right thing, unfettered by the rules and restrictions that regulate life in her small community. Although unable to read and write, Elizabeth is able to think and reason. She is quick on the uptake and is faithful, honest and hardworking.

Of course, both the main characters have their faults. Neither John nor Elizabeth are paragons of excellence. They are both prone to sin and error.

I wasn’t too charmed by Costin though. At one point, he thinks about Elizabeth in these words, She needed someone who could keep her sharp as well as in her place and Samuel Muddle was not that man. The unsaid implication that women need to be kept in their place is presumptuous. Ironically, he himself fights against the Royalists who oppose his preaching, stating that he is an uneducated tinker who ought to understand his place and not preach the Word of God.

I didn’t know until I read the author’s note at the end that the book is based on the true story of John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, and his wife, Elizabeth.

 

The title, with the words, The Preacher’s Bride, conjured up images of a soppy romance. I’m so glad the book wasn’t like that at all.

Given the fact that we are dealing with characters who follow the Puritanical way of life, even the descriptions of married passion are understated and implied. 

 

As a work of Christian fiction, the message of trusting God and of Christ’s unfathomable love for the least among us is beautifully brought out.

Book Review: MOMS DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ

Title: Moms Don't Have Time to Read

Editor: Zibby Owens

Pages: 292

Publisher: Skyhorse

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

This quarantine anthology brings us the experiences of a number of literary voices as they reveal to us the things that moms, and parents, don’t have time for. Drawing connections between the pandemic and our lives as mothers and families, binding us all together.

The pandemic has upended all our lives. As we all struggle to make sense of what is happening, we turn to one another to share the best of what this pandemic has taught us. These writers, from diverse genres, experiences and backgrounds, have let us peek into their lives to see their inspirations, their voices laced with insight, humour and sensitivity. They tell us what they are doing to cope and keep themselves sane.

As essays, they aren’t all phenomenal, but they bear witness to the time and the challenges it has thrown upon us. And they remind us that everyone has something compelling to say. All have something significant to say about things they have learned while parenting during the pandemic. Some of the authors have given me book recommendations – some for reading, some for re-reading. Some of those recommendations include Dead Man Walking by Sr Helen Prejean, Essential Wisdom For Getting Through A Storm by Thich Nhat Hanh, and books by Margaret Atwood.

 

The book emerged from Zibby Owens’ podcast, Moms don’t have time to read books, which took on a life of its own. The book has 58 essays by 54 writers, all divided into sections listing the things that moms don’t have time to do, namely, Read, Work out, Eat, Have Sex and Breathe. All the things that we once took for granted that the mere act of having kids put out of our reach. The Breathe section includes the general stuff of life, the miscellaneous bits.

 

The ones that stood out for me were Dystopian Fiction Is Made for This Moment by Reema Zaman as also What My Father Taught Me by Elliot Ackerman. I loved Reema’s quote, “The lens of storytelling is like sunglasses. Without story, my eyes burn from the glare of the world.”

 

It Was Never About the Dough by Sonali Dev was the one that hit the right notes for me from a cultural standpoint.

Phyllis Grant’s In Provence, Soothed by Goat Yogurt, had not one familiar ingredient or food, yet it felt soothing to read all the same.

Lessons from my Origami Failures by Nicole C Kear was an essay that might have been my story. Like the writer, I don’t have a crafty bone in my body.

The ones that touched me were Suzanne Falter’s After My Daughter Died, My Son Took Up Rock Climbing. When life shakes you to the core and you’re reduced to rubble, the things you value most become abundantly clear. Suddenly there is no holding back from what you love, just as there is no more wasting time on things that hardly matter. Life gets pulled into a shift clear order that you can’t un-see.

Lauren Braun Costello’s There Are No Plans To Make, So Why Not Plan Meals tells us We are now living in uncharted territory, collectively in isolation from one another yet miraculously connected through technology.

These Days, I’m Running to Stay Sane by Sara Shepherd was an essay that echoed many of my own sentiments. Only in my case, it is reading and praying that help me to stay sane. 

In Japan, A Mother And Son Find New Balance by Janice Kaplan, says, You never stop being a parent, but the trick is to know when your child has stopped being a child.

 

 

The book ends with short accounts of authors, all of them parents with children, describing their home writing setup in the pandemic. 

(I read this book through NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley)