The Evolution of Annabel Craig by Lisa Grunwald

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Readers,

I am not a student of history. Dates and places for the most part do nothing for me. Perhaps that is my problem with historical fiction. To be honest and embarrass myself simultaneously, I was shocked when I learned that World War II ended in 1945. 1945 was not that long ago. Or more specifically, it wasn’t that long before I was born. When I see things about it, I always thought it was so long ago.

With that in mind, do you know what was happening in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925? I would not have had any idea. Nor could I have told you much about it even if I knew the answer.

In her new book, The Evolution of Annabel Craig, Lisa Grunwald tells us the story of Annabel Hayes Craig. Annabel was raised by loving parents who died as part of the Spanish flu epidemic. At 16, Annabel was left on her own in her hometown of Dayton, Tennessee. She finished high school and started working. Then she met George Craig, a lawyer who had moved to Dayton from Knoxville. He was so loving and fun; she was completely in love. They married and things were fine for the first year. Yes, he might have had a few little quirks but doesn’t everyone? When they encountered some setbacks, the relationship hit an iceberg of problems.

It was 1925 and Annabell was in the back of the drugstore in Dayton having a soda and looking at the pictures she had developed when she overheard the big shot men of Dayton at one of the tables planning something. It seems there was a new law, the Butler Act, and they wanted there to be a court case to test the Act and they wanted it in Dayton to reap the publicity and any money that could be involved with the trial. They pulled in the new football coach, who had substituted teaching biology a few times. They told him they would pay any fines he received if he went on trial for teaching evolution. He agreed. So, John Scopes was arrested.

And that was how the Scopes Trial started.

The Butler Act prohibited teaching evolution in schools; only the Bible view was allowed. Dayton was a Bible town. For the most part people in town either went to the Baptist church or the Methodist-Episcopalian church. And they went every Sunday and knew their Bible. Wanting to go against the Butler Act was unacceptable.

The effect of this trial on the town and on Annabel’s life was significant. At the end of the trial, Annabel was only 23 years old, but she had learned more about her husband, town, and herself than most people in the town would ever learn.

Knowing just the absolute minimum about the Scopes Trial, I found it interesting. There was truly an evolution for Annabel. She was an interesting character, and I felt the author supplied historical information that was also interesting.

My only problem with the book was several instances where the author would hint about Annabel’s future life, but that future life was not in the book. I don’t know if she was paving the way for the next book, but I found it distracting.

But I did like the book. I would recommend it both for the story and the historical information. Annabel was a likable character. During her personal trials, I never wanted to yell at her for what she thought or did. She was a well-written character.

 I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book will be published on April 16, 2024.

Thanks for reading.

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Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Reader,

Happy Spring!  I know I am a bit ahead of myself by saying that, but I want to push the season. I want to be warm, work in the yard, and stop wearing 3 shirts at a time. (Give me a break. I seem to run cold.)

Back in February of 2022, I reviewed a book by Allison Pataki. The name of the book was The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post. (https://cecooney.com/?s=Allison+Pataki) I enjoyed the book and when I saw a new book by Allison Pataki, I was eager to read it. I had heard of Marjorie Post when I read the book about her but with the new book, Finding Margaret Fuller, I had never heard of Margaret Fuller.

Margaret Fuller was a real person. Let me stop here and suggest that you not do what I did. I looked up Margaret Fuller and read about her. It was a mistake. It affected my reading of the book. Finding out about her from the book would have been much better. I still enjoyed the book, but it would have been better if I didn’t know the story of her life.

With that as a proviso, let me give you a little bit about Margaret Fuller’s life. Margaret Fuller was a beautiful, educated woman. When the book opens, she meets Ralph Waldo Emerson for the first time.

“The Most Well-Read Woman in America,” he says with a flourish of his long-finger hands, then he sets his gaze back on me.” That’s what they call you if I’m not mistaken?”

“Person,” I reply, my voice quiet but certainly audible.

Emerson tilts his head, eyeing me with a bemused expression. “Pardon?”

“Person,” I state again, this time just slightly louder. “What I’ve been called is ‘the Most Well-Read Person in America.’”

Margaret Fuller’s father was her teacher. He taught her Latin, Greek, and everything he would have taught a son. At the time, daughters were not taught the same as sons. Daughters were educated to be ladies while sons were educated. As a result, Margaret could translate Goethe from German and speak several languages. She was taught to think and analyze what she read and heard.

Margaret Fuller was part of the Transcendentalist movement which started in 1836. She was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. She went on to meet Edgar Allen Poe, George Sand, Fredrick Chopin, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

The story is interesting and timeless. Margaret Fuller’s beliefs are still pertinent these days. She believed in equality. She believed in freedom and respect for all people.

Yes, I recommend this book. I enjoyed reading it. She was an important person in her time and she has been forgotten. Her history is fascinating. BUT DON’T RUIN IT AND READ ABOUT HER BEFORE READING THE BOOK.

I was given a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks for reading!

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The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Reader,

Welcome to March!  A month of madness? That seems to be what it is famous for but this year it has so much more – Spring Forward, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter – a whole cornucopia of spring!  Get out the patent leather shoes! 

Meanwhile, I am sitting here warming my hands on a cup of tea!  It is sometimes hard to overcome the damp, cold here in the Midwest.

I am happy to tell you about this week’s book. It is the fifth book by Jennifer Ryan. No, they are not a series, but all take place in England during World War II. I know I read The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle and I think I read The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir. So, let’s break convention here and tell you that I like these books. Yes, I know that I profess to be sick of historical fiction. And in some ways, I am. But these books are really character-driven. While the historical background is there, these characters are living in the setting, they aren’t there to support the setting.

The Underground Library has three main characters and several supporting characters. Juliet Lansdown has left her parents and hometown to move to the Bethnal Green section of London to work at the library there. She had worked at the library in her hometown and loved it. She has hopes that it will be even better in Bethnal Green. Katie Upwood works at the library for the summer before she goes to the University. She is only allowed to study at the University because so many of the students are off to war, but she is bright and can’t wait to go. Sofie Baumann, is a refugee from Germany. She has come to Bethnal Green to be a domestic worker – the only way she could get out of Germany. She is not in a good situation but the day she comes to the library, she finds friends and support.

Soon into the story, the Germans start bombing London and each night the residents must leave their homes and go to shelter. The Underground soon becomes the shelter of choice. When the library is bombed, the friends gather around and move books to the Underground. Juliet starts some programs that become extremely popular like a time each night for reading aloud and eventually a school.

Our three main characters each face choices they never could have anticipated and despite rocky times, they find that their friendships keep them floating in the sea of hard times.

I was given an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on March 12th.

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Ill-Fated Fortune: A Magical Fortune Cookie Novel by Jennifer Chow

Posted on February 20, 2024 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Reader,

Years ago, I joined an online writers’ group. It was fun and interesting getting to know a few of the writers in the group. Several of them are now published authors. I am not one of them but I have gotten to watch and see how well they have done. It has been a pleasure to support them.

One of the most successful of the group has been Jennifer Chow. She has authored eleven books and is part of an anthology. She has the four cozy mystery series, the Winston Wong Cozies series, the Sassy Cat Mysteries, the L.S. Night Market Mysteries, and her latest, the Magical Fortune Cookie Mysteries. She also has Dragonfly Dreams, which is a YA novel, and The 228 Legacy. Phew! Isn’t that terrific!

Her latest book is out today. Ill-Fated Fortune is the first in the new Magical Fortune Cookie series. In this series, we meet Felicity Jin. Felicity (called Lissa by her best friend, Kelvin) and her mom are bakers. Her mom owns Gold Bakery in Pixie, CA, which is right next to Fresno, CA. Her good friend Kelvin who owns the florist store next to Gold Bakery and Alma Paz owns Paz Illuminations which is on the other side of Gold Bakery.

The women in the Jin family have a gift for baking. Well, they have for generations but it seems to have stopped with Lissa. She cannot bake at all. Their store specializes in two kinds of baked goods, pineapple buns, and egg tarts. Their customers can’t get enough of them. At 28, Lissa thinks the gift has passed her by. Until one day she and Kelvin go to lunch at a new Chinese restaurant. They feel that the food is terrible and then they try the fortune cookies. Lissa feels inspired and goes home and makes fortune cookies and they are terrific! She comes in to try at work again the next day and they are still terrific. She starts making them and selling them in the bakery. And then it came to putting fortunes in the cookies. She added some handwritten generic messages and sent the cookies out to the front of the store. Late the first afternoon, an Asian man came in and wanted to try her new fortune cookie. She needed to bake one for him as there weren’t any left in the store. The man talked to her mom while she made the cookie but he didn’t seem very pleasant. She forgot to put a message in his cookie but was going to give it to him without but when he was taking the cookie from her, he scratched her and she felt this overwhelming need to write a fortune for him. She actually even felt dizzy with the need to write out his fortune. She wrote out the fortune and gave it to him. He looked at it, made a face, and left. Lissa had no idea what she had written down as his fortune. They locked the door after he left, cleaned up the kitchen and store, took out the garbage, and went home.

The next morning, they got to work and there were police cars in the cul-de-sac by the store. It turns out there was a body in the dumpster behind the store and Lissa ended up being a suspect in the murder.

During the story, Lissa feels that she needs to find the murderer and clear her name but also find out more about her new “superpower” of baking fortune cookies and writing fortunes.

I found the book enjoyable. The characters were fun and the book moved at a good pace. Lissa’s youth made it interesting and her relationship with Kelvin was good for the story. While it is part of the new Magical Fortune Cookie series, I would say that the “mystical” part of the book was not heavy-handed and was just fun. I would suggest that you read Ill-Fated Fortune.

I was given a copy of this book so that I would give an unbiased review.

Thanks for reading!

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A Smoking Bun by Ellie Alexander

Posted on February 19, 2024 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Readers,

Do you use your local library very much? I will admit that there were times in my life when I didn’t. I don’t think that I appreciated everything that libraries can do for a community. When I moved eight years ago, one of the first places that I headed was the local library. They had a book group that met one time a month in the afternoon and I decided that I should try it. (By the way, I decided that for anything thing new I tried I needed to go to at least three meetings to decide if the activity was right for me. An arbitrary decision but it worked out to be a good choice.)

The first meeting that I went to was to discuss Alice Hoffman’s A Marriage of Opposites. It was a great book with lots of different things to talk about. Apparently, I was not the only one who enjoyed the book. The meeting was very well attended and there was lots of discussion. I won’t go into it now but there are comments from that discussion that I can still remember, mostly because they were so amazing. I told everyone about the things that went on in that meeting. I couldn’t wait to go back. Now, there have not been any sessions to rival that one since, but I always enjoy going. One of the other regular attendees and I have only agreed on two books in the last 3 or 4 years. And our agreement was that we felt neutral about those two books. It always makes for a good session when there are varied opinions about a book.

Today’s book is A Smoking Bun by Ellie Alexander. The book’s publication date is tomorrow. The book takes place in Ashland, Oregan, the home of Jules Capshaw, who is a baker who owns Torte, the local bakery. The town is home to Mount A, which is home to a ski resort. The book revolves around the murder of Fritz who had been annoying the ski patrol, the resort owner, and just about anyone who encountered him. He seemed to be a know-it-all who didn’t care or listen to rules. His body was discovered during the “Downhill Dummy” event, a special event that the whole town and many visitors attend. The ski resort owner was quick to point out someone she thought was the murderer and the police and ski patrol captured him.

But was he really the murderer? What was Fritz doing on the mountain? With Jules busy because her husband’s family from Spain was visiting, she didn’t think she had time to look for a killer, but she couldn’t keep away from it. Besides, when the police chief is dating your mother, you might be able to get some insights.

It seems that this is book 19 in the series of books subtitled, A Bakeshop Mystery. I had no idea. I did think when reading the book that it was not the first in the series (because so much was mentioned of things from the past.) I would never have dreamed it was the 19th. I think it can be read without the others in the series but it was obvious there were some things from the past that I didn’t know.

Because I was given the book to give an honest review, I would pass on this book. I did finish it, so it wasn’t awful, but I found all of the descriptions long. The bakery had a lot of employees and they each did different things, and I just didn’t care that much. It didn’t add to the story. It seemed that there was a lot of extraneous information.

Having said that, I might try the first book and see if it is better. It could be that #19 was just a dog in the series. The first book is Meet Your Baker.

Thanks for reading!

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