I finally mowed the lawn yesterday, sure felt it afterwards. I had to have a nap late in the afternoon. 😪 The weather is warming, but not too hot yet. We're enjoying having the patio doors open, letting a bit of a breeze blow into the family room. Nicolle Wallace is back in the studio for the first time since early last year. It's amazing how much better the show is with people talking face-to-face instead of via Zoom.
In this post, I'll provide the synopsis of a new book by a Canadian author that I received yesterday. I'll also provide my review the book I also finished yesterday and the synopsis of the next book I'll be starting. And then I'll continue with my look at Women Authors I've been enjoying; this time one I read quite religiously early in the 2000's but for some reason have neglected for the past few years. So with that preamble, let's get going!
New Book
"One evening, eight
Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For
the past two years, each of these women, and more than a hundred other
girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by
demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have
learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from
their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their
daughters from future harm.
While the men of the colony are off
in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists
and bring them home, these women—all illiterate, without any knowledge
of the world outside their community and unable even to speak the
language of the country they live in—have very little time to make a
choice: Should they stay in the only world they’ve ever known or should
they dare to escape?
Based on real events and told through the
“minutes” of the women’s all-female symposium, Toews’s masterful novel
uses wry, politically engaged humor to relate this tale of women
claiming their own power to decide."
Just Finished
"This is the 3rd book in the Flashman adventure series. I found this book very disturbing. The premise is that Flashman gets involved in a bit of gambling scandal (for once not his fault) and his father-in-law decides to get him out of the country and puts him on a sailing ship. It turns out the ship is a slavery and Flashman finds himself off the coast of Africa taking on a load of slaves and then heading to America. As he tries to return to England, he will be involved with the Underground Railroad, meet Lincoln and find his life at risk many times. That is the basic story.
The Good - hard to find anything edifying in this story. However, considering the current climate in the US, the denial of systemic racism by the right, the mistreatment of Negroes by the police, Republican governors passing anti-voting laws and denying Critical Race teaching in schools, it's probably not a bad book to be read as it describes the slave trade and treatment of slaves in the harshest possible terms. Even though it's fiction, there are interesting factoids provided at the end of the story. His description of the period is excellent (accurate? well, I can't actually verify it as I'm not quite that old), you can see it in your mind very clearly. The appearance of Abe Lincoln made me feel better, one of the positives in the book.
The Bad - Flashman can't be described as an anti-hero is an unabashed coward who will do anything to ensure his survival. He's a racist, an sexual misogynist. The portrait of the slave trade is dark, scary and very disturbing. The language gave me shudders and left me feeling cold. Flashman's attitude to the slaves and women he encounters is negative and he treats them as objects to be used.
As an adventure, Flashman gets into constant life-threatening situations and somehow manages to get out of them, even if it means stabbing his partners in the back. I will continue with this series, hoping the next one isn't quite so dark. (3 stars)"
Currently Reading
George MacDonald Fraser was my June Focus author but after Flash for Freedom, I decided to move on to my July Author as I've decided I can take Fraser only in small doses, after Flash for Freedom.
"Clive Cussler, the author of sixteen consecutive "New York Times "bestsellers, unleashes a hero for the next millennium in an electrifying new series of unrelenting action and edge-of-your-seat thrills.When Kurt Austin, the leader of a courageous National Underwater & Marine Agency exploration team, rescues beautiful marine archaeologist Nina Kirov off the coast of Morocco, he becomes the next target of Texas industrialist Don Halcon. A madman bent on carving a new nation out of the southwestern United States and Mexico, Halcon's scheme hinges on Nina's recent discovery involving Christopher Columbus, and a priceless pre-Columbian antiquity buried in the battered remains of the sunken Italian luxury liner "Andrea Doria." Only Kurt Austin and his crack NUMA team stand between Halcon and the "Andrea Doria's" silent steel hull -- and if their deadly mission fails, Halcon will ride to power on a wave of death and destruction."
Women Authors I've Enjoyed Reading - Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell is an American crime writer who I discovered in the early 2000's and her Kay Scarpetta forensic crime series led me to other series with a forensic theme to them; Karin Slaughter's Grant County series, Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan series. I read seven of her books and then got caught up in other reading and it's been quite a few years since I tried her Scarpetta series. I may have to start again from the beginning. I'll look at 3 of the books I did read. It was before I started writing book reviews so I'll just provide the synopses and my rating.
Patricia Cornwell
"In From Potter's Field, #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell once again enters the chilling world of Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia and consulting forensic pathologist for the FBI. Upon examining a dead woman found in snowbound Central Park, Scarpetta immediately recognizes the grisly work of Temple Brooks Gault, a bold, brilliant killer from her past. Soon she realizes that Gault's murders are but a violent chain leading up to one ultimate kill: Scarpetta herself. Now she must stay her own fears and keep step with a psychopath who is always one step ahead, both everywhere and nowhere. But even with the help of her FBI and police comrades, Scarpetta knows the endgame is hers alone to play. Having repeatedly plunged into the madness of Gault's mind, Scarpetta must finally descend into his terrifying home in the subway tunnels beneath New York City. And confront the one killer who would not be caught ..." (4 stars)
"A farmhouse destroyed by fire
A body amongst the ruins
Dr
Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for
the federal law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to a farmhouse in
Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she
finds a body which tells a story of a violent and grisly murder.
The
fire has come at the same time as another even more incendiary horror:
Carrie Grethen, a killer who nearly destroyed the lives of Scarpetta and
those closest to her, has escaped from a forensic psychiatric hospital.
Her whereabouts is unknown, but her ultimate destination is not, for
Carrie has begun to communicate with Scarpetta, conveying her deadly -
if cryptic - plans for revenge."
"An intriguing Dr Kay Scarpetta novel which will take Kay an ocean's breadth away from home. The case begins when a cargo ship arriving at Richmond, Virginia's Deep Water Terminal from Belgium is discovered to be transporting a locked, sealed container holding the decomposed remains of a stowaway. The post mortem performed by the Chief Medical Examiner, Kay Scarpetta, initially reveals neither a cause of death nor an identification. But the victim's personal effects and an odd tattoo take Scarpetta on a hunt for information that leads to Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, where she receives critical instructions: go to the Paris morgue to receive secret evidence and then return to Virginia to carry out a mission. It is a mission that could ruin her career. In a story which crosses international borders, BLACK NOTICE puts Dr Kay Scarpetta directly in harm's way and places her and those she holds dear at mortal risk."
The complete listing of Cornwell's books can be found at this link. Enjoy a good book and have a safe weekend. 😷
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