Aunt Jane of Kentucky - Eliza Calvert Hall

At the end of Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, there were 16 pages full of ads for other fiction of the time. I wrote down the titles and looked to see which ones were available on Gutenberg.org. I was a little surprised how few of them were there. I then made the mistake of asking my daughter (who likes to mess with me) to pick one. Instead of picking one of the more exciting-sounding titles, she picked this one.

Aunt Jane is an elderly woman who tells tales of things she's observed over the course of her life. It's set in the old days of Kentucky, when the women were supposed to do what the men said and cook their meals, etc., so that's reflected in the topics and actions of the characters. People die young, and women are treated like property. To be fair, it wasn't just in the "olden days" that things like that happened. I experienced that in the late 90's when I visited my future husband's family in Kentucky. The "men-folk" ate first, and I felt like I'd travelled back in time.

Anyway, this book contains nine stories. I read about quilts, a woman who stood up to some men, a horse race at the fair, and some other things. What I didn't really read was the last chapter. I skimmed that one since it was literally all about flowers and gardens. I have what I term a "black thumb" where everything I try to grow immediately dies, so if Heaven is all gardens, I'm screwed.

The book made me think of what it would be like to sit down with my grandmother and listen to her tell stories of when she was younger. The problem is, I have no connection with Aunt Jane or the people she's talking about, and while her storytelling was somewhat engaging, I wasn't interested in her stories. I remember doing this with my grandmas, but the main attraction was spending time with them. Don't get me wrong, I loved their stories, but the best part was always just being with them, especially when I got older.

It wasn't all bad, though. Aunt Jane did have some real nuggets of wisdom in there. Two that stood out to me were, "Things is predestined to come to us, honey, but we're jest as free as air to make what we please out of 'em." and my personal favorite, "It's jest as wrong to be too hard on yourself as it is to be too hard on other folks." Aunt Jane may not have been my favorite book in this journey, but I'm still glad I read it.

Two closing thoughts. First, I don't know who chose this cover, but it's terrifying. And second, I'm not letting my daughter choose my books anymore! It was a decent book and pretty well written once you get used to the accent, but in general, I wouldn't want to read something like it again.

I held the sun in my hands - Erika Jacoby (DTB)

It's a long, convoluted story why I decided to choose and read this book, so I'll skip that part and get to the review. The short version is that I saw a video with the author in it, and I was taken by her composure. When I noticed that she'd written her memoirs, I immediately wanted to order it. 

Erika was only a young girl when the Germans invaded Hungary in 1944. Her life was forever changed as she lived through events most of us can't imagine. She was at different camps including Auschwitz and Plaszow, but somehow made it through with her mother.

What I found most interesting was that liberation happened about halfway through the book. It's an often overlooked question. What happened to the people after the camps were liberated? I'm ashamed to say I'd never thought much about it. I couldn't put the book down as I read Erika's story of survival and what she went through trying to create a life after the war.

I read this book in two days, and I highly recommend it. This book was well written and easy to read. I was a bit nervous because I don't normally like to read nonfiction in general, but this was the best book I've read this year. Great Book!

Lady of Seven Emeralds - Clara Wimberly

So, I went a bit nostalgic and got 3 Zebra Gothics off eBay for a little over $10. Once they got here, I read the backs and picked out one to read. I was intrigued by the summary and the extreme expression on this woman's face.

Rebecca sees Ramon standing on the balcony and immediately falls in love with him. Somehow. She's a teacher at the school for the blind, and after a few days she ends up working at Ramon's house as his personal teacher. As time goes by, she's incapable of figuring out what she thinks. One minute she suspects him of something nefarious, and the next she'll love him forever.

I remembered that I have to suspend my notions of reality with these books, but this one stretched them too far. Rebecca annoyed me to the point where I couldn't wait for her to get kidnapped or for something to happen to her. The "hero" was also disappointing. Ramon openly professes that he's possessive...and she's okay with it! Even finds it endearing! Nope.

Pushing past that, it was hard for me to get invested in this book. Disliking a main character always makes it a bit harder, but when both of them are unlikable in a romance, it's a dud. The author turned the one person I did like into one of the villains, so that was another strike. 

I normally enjoy these as a few hours escape and for the cheesy factor. The damsel in distress usually makes me roll my eyes, but I never see them as a reflection of reality. AT ALL. Never have. So, it usually takes a great deal for me to dislike one of these, but this woman was just too much. Bit of a disappointment.

The Lion of the North: A Tale of the Times of Gustavus Adolphus - G.A. Henty

George Alfred Henty isn't someone I would've come across on my own. I actually saw someone mention this book on YouTube when I was watching a Sabaton video. I've been trying to expand my history a bit, and since I don't normally gravitate to nonfiction, this seemed like a happy medium. A fictional adaptation based on historical events? I'll give it a shot. I downloaded a copy of this book from Gutenberg.org.

Malcolm is a Scottish soldier who is fighting on the side of the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War. He goes through an awful lot in the book, and it's quite the adventure. While I'm certain Henty intended for the book to be read by young men (he starts his preface 'my dear lads'), I enjoyed it as a female.

This may have been originally published in 1886, but it was easier to read than I expected. My criticism is the changes in view. Imagine you're taking a pair of binoculars and focusing in on one person, then you zoom out so far they disappear. That happened many times in this book, and I wasn't fond of that. I also didn't follow a lot of that since I'm unfamiliar with German towns. The focus of the book would go from Malcolm to the overall battles and troop movements, and that's where I'd get lost.

I did thoroughly enjoy the parts of the book that dealt with Malcolm and his journey. Henty wrote 122 books and covered a variety of times. I may come back and read more of him in the future. If you need to learn more about this particular period of time, this isn't a bad place to start. Good Book!

Lady Molly of Scotland Yard - Baroness Orczy

After reading The Scarlet Pimpernel, I wanted to read more from this author. I was particularly drawn to this title since it involved a female detective working with Scotland Yard in the early 1900s. I had to download this one off Google since Gutenberg.org didn't have it available for download. I'm not sure why since it was originally published in 1910. This version had some illustrations, and I included one at the bottom from one of my favorite stories.

Included are 11 mysteries that Lady Molly solves. Most of them are the usual, expected whodunits or "how did they do it?," but I found the final story unique. It was a fitting ending for the book, but I won't spoil it. I'll just say that I really liked it.

The stories are narrated by a Watson-like character named Mary. Once she was Lady Molly's maid, but now she's a valuable assistant. Lady Molly herself could have been another Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. She's smart, keeps her methods close to her chest and solves the crime when everyone else is left scratching their heads.

I found each story to be engaging and easy to read. They weren't too long, and the only thing that was slightly annoying was when Mary would say things like, "You recall..." because of course I don't. It didn't bother me much. 

I find it interesting what ends up becoming popular. I compared Lady Molly to a few popular detectives that have numerous movies and TV shows to their name, and I think Lady Molly could've easily had one as well. It's a shame more people don't know about this book, it easily earns a Good Book! review from me.

I liked the way Lady Molly solved this one (The Man in the Iverness Cape)

Except the Dying (Murdoch Mysteries #1) - Maureen Jennings

I waited forever for this book to drop in price. I love the show, and I wanted to see how alike the characters were. I'm going to stop saying that I don't read the book and watch the show/movie, because I've broken my rule too many times. I was just really curious to see how alike the book would be. By the cover, I expected it would be pretty close. BUT...

This book is nothing like the show. The inspector isn't friends with Murdoch, Crabtree has a family, and Drs. Ogden and Grace are nowhere to be seen. Murdoch himself is different in temperament, and apparently he has a mustache. I would say the main difference is the show is more "clean." The book goes into more detail about the dirty side of Toronto that gets glossed over in the show (prostitution, disease, desperation). There is also some language in the book if that bothers you.

The story itself starts out with a dead woman. Someone is removing her clothing and leaving her frozen body naked in the snow. The dead woman turns out to be a maid in a prominent household, and Murdoch has to sift through all the lies to discover who is behind the death.

I was able to separate the story from the show since the two weren't that similar. The book was pretty good and had me guessing until the end. Still a bit confused about one or two things, but it was an enjoyable read. I'm not sure I would read more of these, but it isn't the author's fault. For this type of book, I have to be in the mood for the melancholy. I definitely would stay away if you're reading it only because you're expecting to get more of the show you love. You'll probably be disappointed.  I'll still give it a Good Book! review.

Night Witches - Bruce Myles (DTB)

If you've never heard the term "Night Witches," you aren't alone. Up until a few months ago, I'd never heard of them either. Recently, I was introduced to an incredible band called Sabaton. If you're a fan of rock music and you love history, PLEASE check out this band. The theme of their music is history, and they're really good at it. One of their songs taught me that the Soviet Union had women flying planes in WWII. If you have seven minutes to spare, check out the Sabaton animated music video, Night Witches, on YouTube. If you're still interested after that, Sabaton has a history channel where you can learn even more. Anyway, the song and history videos led me to want to learn more, so I went in search of a book.

I chose this particular book because of the mention of interviews with actual women who served in the regiments. Some of the writing seems fictionalized, but it's mostly things like descriptions of scenery or what the weather would've been like. The few pictures included aren't high quality, but the book was published in 1990, and the pictures are much older than that, so it's understandable.

I am not really a person that enjoys nonfiction books. I normally avoid them like the plague, but I just had to know more about these brave young women. I'm glad I got this book, because I enjoyed it so much. You know ahead of time that some of the women are okay, since the author speaks to them. Others don't make it, and I don't remember being this emotional while reading a book in a long time. I remember telling my girls that I was afraid a particular girl wasn't going to make it, and I was going to be upset. I was right.

I read this book fairly quickly. The chapters were longer than I normally like, but I didn't care at all. The pages flew by, and before I knew it, I'd read the last page. The war was over, and there was nothing left to read. I still feel a strange sense of loss.

My only complaint is that I wanted more. More pictures, more stories, more biographical updates at the end. The book was way too short for me. It wasn't a short book, it's 272 pages, it was just such an interesting and unknown story that I couldn't get enough. It's a story I wish more people knew of. I wish I'd known of it sooner. Great Book!