SIX WEEKS IN RENO ~ LUCY H. HEDRIK ~ REVIEW

 

Book for review courtesy of NetGalley ~ HarperCollins Focus

I'm surprised there haven't been more divorce ranch novels as they seem rife with juicy plot possibilities.  Divorces were difficult for either sex to obtain.  Nevada, a state known for being loose with their laws - legal gambling, prostitution and what not - gave women the right to declare residency for six weeks as proof they intended to live apart from their spouses.  Divorce ranches were half resorts, half boarding houses.  The women were given safe, clean, comfortable lodging and meals. Often the ranches had swimming pools and offered excursions into Reno for shopping and gambling.

Lucy Hedrick's novel Six Weeks in Reno offers a glimpse into life at a divorce ranch. Evelyn Henderson remarks of herself "According to gossip columnist Walter Winchell, she is traveling west to get “Reno-vated.”  Evelyn models to earn money because her husband has been unemployed for 20 years. She joins a group of ladies at a divorce ranch to await her day in court.  But one of the ladies may have nefarious intentions.  The story is a bit static, with no real conflict. Hedrik doesn't really give the ladies much backstory, which is important to show divorce has myriad causes.  Evelyn's story is compelling, but the novel falls flat because what little conflict there is shows up late in the story with no real tension in the build up. Despite this Six Weeks in Reno is a unique look into a niche aspect of women's history.

A MAP TO PARADISE ~ SUSAN MEISSNER ~ REVIEW

Book for review courtesy of NetGalley ~ Berkley Publishing Group | 

In Susan Meissner's new novel A Map to Paradise, three women hide from the world In their own unique ways. Melanie Cole is an actress tied to an actor on HUAC'S list of suspected communists. She stays in her Malibu home waiting for a call that she's been cleared and can return to acting. Her maid Eva Kruse tells people she is Polish to hide her German-Russian heritage. A survivor of the gulag, she is terrified to be who she is in the era of the Cold War. June Blankenship is sister-in-law to Melanie's friend and neighbor Elwood, a man who has isolated himself after a tragic auto accident. The women converge when Melody suspects Elwood has disappeared.

This story twists and turns in unique ways, from the arrival of a nephew Melanie never knew existed, to a dark chapter in Eva's past. Each story wraps up in a way that rewards each character. I expected more of a novel detailing HUAC and the effects of the Blacklist ;  instead the novel is more of a celebration of female friendship  (although that friendship evolves from a macabre situation.) A Map to Paradise is a unique glimpse into how getting what you want may produce desperate consequences, but through perseverance one can find a happy ending.

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS

When you are told as a child that a chubby benevolent old man is going to bring you presents for free, you don't question it. You go to bed and in the morning - wish fulfillment galore. But why do we see Santa as we do : 

He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf...

Our modern image of Santa was aided by a poem called A Visit From Saint Nicholas. The first line : "'Twas the night before Christmas" is often quoted as the poem's title.  A Visit From Saint Nicholas was published anonymously in the Troy, New York newspaper The Sentinel on December 23, 1823. By 1837 Clement Clark Moore to credit for writing the poem. Moore was a professor of oriental, Greek and biblical literature at a Theological Seminary in New York city, and became wealthy due to a person off and developing of a largest state of land he had inherited.

New Year's Day had been the main celebratory holiday, with Christmas being a day of pious reflection - not revelry and gift-giving. Gifts were given, but not in the child-centric magical sense we have today. A Visit From Saint Nicholas gave and named Santa's reindeer, but Blitzen maybe a misnomer. Sinterklaas, the Dutch Christmas figure, was one of the models for American Santa. New York City was an Old Dutch city. Giving the reindeer Dutch base names is logical, but Blixem should be paired with Donder, as they are the Dutch terms for thunder and lightning. Santa had never had a jolly robust appearance prior to the poem, and certainly never arrived via chimney. In the poem Santa only fills stockings - gifts piled under trees came from Victorian era traditions instilled by German Prince Albert.  A Visit From Saint Nicholas is cemented in the American Christmas tradition.

SOURCES :

A Visit From St. Nicholas. Wikipedia.

Clement Clarke Moore. Wikipedia.

A Visit From St. Nicholas. Poets.Org.

FURTHER MEDIA : 

GIVING THANKS FOR FASHION AND TURKEY

Imagine Anna Wintour campaigning President Biden to make the Met Gala a national holiday and you basically have Sarah Josepha Hale. A widowed mother of five children became American ladies' arbiter of taste and style. She wrote to every sitting president until one agreed and turned Thanksgiving into a national holiday. Her career spans 70 years, astonishing when women rarely held paying jobs outside the home. She also wrote a poem EVERYONE knows.

Sarah Josepha Buell, born in 1788, was raised by her parents to believe girls should be educated the same as boys. Sarah became a teacher. In 1813 she married David Hale. The couple had five children. David died in 1822 ; Sarah wore black the rest of her life. 

Sarah and her children moved to Boston in 1828. Sarah was asked to edit Lady's Magazine. The magazine was purchased by another magazine and merged to become Godey's Lady's Book. Godey's Lady's Book was the Vogue of the 1800s. (In the Little House on the Prairie books Caroline Ingalls is psyched one of the church barrels contains an issue of G L B .) 

Sarah Hale published work by women ; the magazine advocated for women's education and offered a column about women in the workforce. G L B was the arbiter of 1800s taste and style. Colored fashion plates were the first thing ladies would see in the magazine, so they would know what was new in fashion up front. Each issue contained sheet music for a recent popular song, and a pattern for some type of garment ladies could sew themselves. Women anywhere in the U. S.

could be au courrant in fashion, food, and home decor.

The magazine was not without controversy. A yearly subscription cost $3 - outrageous for the era. G L B Lost 1/3 of its subscribers for being neutral and  never mentioning the Civil war. But G L B showed women were an economic force. Instead of just offering clothing ideas by season or occasion, they offered clothes for individual activities - a walking suit or riding clothes. Women clamored to purchase any item any item G L B labeled as fashionable.

The magazine published work by leading intellectuals of the day. Poe had one of his earliest stories published in G L B, and the magazine printed work by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving. G L B heralded Queen Victoria as the ideal of feminine morality. The magazine regularly reported on royal life in London. A Christmas issue reprinted an image of the royal family (minus Q. V.'s crown and Prince Albert's mustache) gathered around a decorated Christmas tree. Most Americans had never seen a decorated tree, and so trees with decorations became an American Christmas standard.

Sarah Josepha Hale edited the magazine until her retirement at age 89 in 1877. She edited G L B for 40 years. Astonishing, when most women had difficulty finding writing jobs. Sarah Josepha Hale did more than just work at the magazine. She was instrumental in founding Vassar college. She published a book of poems for children featuring a verse called "Mary's Lamb," which became the tune "Mary Had a Little Lamb."  Thomas Edison spoke the first lines of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" as the first words ever put on a sound recording.

And, if you love turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, thank Sarah Josepha Hale that one day a year is dedicated to those specific delights. Thanksgiving was primarily celebrated in New England (cause, pilgrims) ; the holiday wasn't known at all in the south. Sarah Josepha Hale wrote letters to every President - for 17 years - until Lincoln wrote back. He proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national holiday in an effort to heal a post Civil War nation. And as for the aforementioned menu as the de rigeur dishes of the day? That came from a Sarah Josepha Hale novel. On this day give thanks for Sarah Josepha Hale.

SOURCES :

Sarah Josepha Hale. Wikipedia.

Godey's Lady's Book. Wikipedia.

Maranzani, Barbara. How the ‘Mother of Thanksgiving’ Lobbied Abraham Lincoln to Proclaim the National Holiday. History. 5 October 2023.

FURTHER MEDIA : 

Frey, Holly / Wilson, Tracy V., hosts. "Sarah Josepha Hale" Stuff You Missed In History Class, iheartradio,18 November 2023.

10 WAYS TO BREAK A READING SLUMP

 

As readers we all want nothing more than an uninterrupted few hours and a good book. But sometimes life takes us away from our shelves, or sometimes we get the I -Just - Don't - Wannas. I tend to have reading slumps in February, in anticipation of March and April being Women's History Months, (as my main genres are Feminist Historical Fiction and Feminist Classics.) I slow down in late April and May in anticipation of summer reading June through August. I usually take a reading vacation in September. I slowly get back into my groove in October, and hold steady November December and January. But even in those months I'm at my four to six book norm, sometimes I can't latch onto a book, or I can't find a book that interests me. So I've come up with a few ways to break those slumps : 

1 - TBR jar - this is the easiest way to break a slump : 

Take a jar

Write your TBR choices on slips of paper

Put slips of paper in jar

Shake jar

Extract slip

Read book on that slip 

plus easy, cheap, and cute bookish decor

2 - Book-Genre Mashup / Read-alikes 

Take a book, author, or genre you love, think of a genre you don't really read, then search your choices (for me Jane Austen + horror = Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.)

Or ~ if you love a particular classic, find a modern retelling in your particular genre

OR ~ I have to admit I'm not much of a romance reader, but I don't mind a cleverly crafted rom-com now and then. I know that the 5 main classic literary characters who have inspired just about every female author are Jo March, Lizzie Bennett, Anne Shirley, Catherine Earnshaw, and Jane Eyre - all characters that I admire. I can Google search authors inspired by Little Women and find books with heroines close to Jo March, etc.

3 - Watch the movie first - 

Some readers will say sacrilege, I know. If there is a book you were on the fence about reading, try the movie first. If you spark with the movie, you will probably love the book. This is how I discovered Big Stone Gap, which quickly became a frequent re-watch/re-read

4 - Book Generated Lists

I love books about book stores and libraries and I can find book recommendations easily because those books often have lists of books recommended within the story

TV Show Generated Lists

Re-binge Gilmore Girls (cuz of course, cuz Paris!) Google a list of Rory's books then read one of those books

5 - Book film or television show non - book inspiration

Don Draper often went to the movies to find inspiration (and smoke) If you are a fan of a particular show search a list of movies mentioned in the show then research those films to see if they were based on a literary work. If so read that work or find a similar book in your particular genre. If one of those films peaks your interest (for me it would be the Italian film La Notte), search for books set in the same place, time, or with the same general theme as the film

6 - Author Generated Recommendations

My celebrity crush is Nemo van Devender. He is Ann Patchett's dog. I see him every Tuesday when I watch Ann Patchett list new releases at her bookstore Parnassus books. I see Nemo again every Friday when Anne does her It's New to You videos. But while I'm crushing on Nemo I am also getting book recommendations from one of my favorite authors. Google an author you like to find articles where they've mentioned books and authors they read and have been inspired by. Sometimes authors are very reluctant to talk about themselves and their own work but authors seem to always be eager to discuss the works of other authors. More likely than not if you love an author, you'll love the books and authors that author loves

7 - What I Read Last Roulette

Options within options - write down the  the titles of the last five books you've read on individual slips of paper. Close your eyes and shuffle, then eenie meenie miney mo. Whichever title your finger lands on is the book you use to generate a recommendation.  You can then :

Choose a word from that book title and search for other book titles containing that word

Think of something you loved in the book and search for books with that element - you can also do this with what you didn't like about the book, or what you wish there the novel had more of

(these are just two ideas. You can have a lot of fun coming up with anything else under the umbrella of this idea that can help you choose a book)

8 - Judge a Book by its Cover

Allow yourself $10 or $20, whatever you can afford. Go to a thrift store, used for trade shop, or local library sale, then don't think, don't read flaps or blurbs, just buy. Get as many books as you can for the money you have to spend, and then order them one through how many books you have. Order them any way you like from what you think is prettiest to least prettiest cover, rainbow color order, how far down the hunky cover hero's shirt is unbuttoned - whatever you want your bar to be. Then start with number one. If you don't like that book, DNF it and move on. Even if you only like one book, don't see what you spent as a waste of money because either a local small business, library or charity earned much needed money. Even if you only like one book you may have found a new favorite book or author. You can also do this with little free libraries or checking books out at your local library if money is an issue

9 - E-reader Cleanout

I can get a little greedy when it comes to choosing books to review for Net-galley and sometimes I'm approved for way more books than I can actually read. At least twice a year I look through my Kindle books and weed out what I think I can read quickly for a cursory review, and what I want to read for a more in-depth review.  Sometimes going over what I've chosen in the past reminds me of why I wanted to read the book in the first place

Shelf or TBR Basket Cleanout

I have a full TBR basket and a small stack of books  that I want to read in front of said TBR basket. My library bag sale is in less than one month. This is the biggie - a plastic grocery sack of books cost only $6 and a large shopper-sized bag cost $10. I have broken bags in the past by cramming in so many books. How can I buy new books at the next book sale if my TBR basket is full, especially if I'm in a reading slump? I can go to my book list app, sort books by date added, then pick the five books that I've had on my TBR the longest and just pick a book and start reading

10 - Theme Reading Variations

Think of something you like to look at - flowers, pretty dresses, cake - whatever you think of. Search for books with that item on the cover.  Think of countries or cities you wish to travel to, then find books set in those places or with characters from those places (this option is where T T T lists really come in handy)

Read the Tropes

Even if you don't read romance, you know at least a few of the common romance tropes : grump and sunshine, enemies to lovers etc. Think of a trope you might want to read then try to find any book within your genre that, no matter how loosely, might fit that trope

Time Machine Reading

List out books that you loved as a kid, then find closely related adult versions of those novels

Trigger Phase Reading

Think of buzzwords in book descriptions that always get you excited and find books that have those buzzwords in their description or reviews

Word Association Reading

This booktuber hosts nonfiction November. Each year she chooses a random group of words and challengers readers to read a nonfiction book related to those words. Pick any five random words then say the first title on your TBR that matches each word, and read those books.

Or, like Brick Tambland, declare you love lamp and look around the room you're in then choose a book related to something you see

Books have existed for thousands of years and will, Book Banning be damned, continue to exist for thousands more.  Take the time to analyze how you read - hard copy, e-reader, or audiobook. If you read mostly hard copy or print, try audio. Try switching to another genre. Think of the kind of book you would write if you were an author, then trying to find a similar book.  I chose a theme read for the next 2 months, but I just can't seem to get started on it. I've decided to try the word association method to try and break my slump. The best advice on how to break a reading slump is to not put pressure on yourself.  Reading is a marathon, not a sprint. It is a pleasure activity and if you force yourself to do anything you stop enjoying doing it.  Relax and the reading magic will come to you.

NEVER WERE THERE SUCH DEVOTED SISTERS : THE BOND BETWEEN MERRICAT AND CONSTANCE BLACKWOOD

 

"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am 18 years old and I live with my sister Constance." (421) So begins Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The novel is a story of sisters, bound together by fear - other people's fear of them, and their fear of the wider world. Constance acts as Merricat's caretaker, but by the end of the novel, the sisters roles and perspectives on their lives, will reverse. Even with the horrific events the sisters endure, their bond strengthens.

Merricat ventures out into the world to provide an necessities - library books and food. Constance  "never went past her own garden." (421) Merricat receives harsh treatment from the townspeople. The family, as the town's wealthiest citizens, were never very much liked. The novel hints that there is fear linked to the hatred when children taunt Merricat -

"Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea? 

Oh no, said Merricat, you'll poison me. Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep? 

Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!" (435)

(ask Lizzie Borden about the power of a good rhyme.)

Merricat idolizes Constance. She depends on her for support and survival. Merricat says of Constance "When I was small I thought Constance was a fairy princess. I used to try to draw her picture, with long golden hair and eyes as blue as the crayon could make them, and a bright pink spot on either cheek ; the pictures always surprised me, because she did look like that ; even at the worst time she was pink and white and golden, and nothing had ever seemed to dim the brightness of her. She was the most precious person in my world, always." (438) Constance in turn dotes on Merricat, telling her "I'm always so happy when you come home from the village,  .... partly because you bring home food, of course. But partly because I miss you." (439)  Constance is a nurturing person; she tends to her flower and vegetable gardens and cares for their infirm Uncle Julian. Constance cooks for the family; food is important to her.  The Blackwood sisters are united against the world as a sorority of two.

Yet Constance longs to return to a more open life. When their mother's friend Helen Clarke comes to tea, Constance seems bolstered by Helen's encouragement to live more openly and actively. The idea of frightens Merricat. During the visit Uncle Julian reveals what keeps the sisters homebound and why the town fears them. Constance was suspected of murdering their parents and Uncle Julian's wife. She was thought to have put arsenic in the sugar bowl. Constance added further suspicion to herself by washing the sugar bowl before the police arrived (she claimed there was a spider in the sugar.)  Everything readers learn about Constance to this point contradicts her being a murderer.

Merricat performs rituals as safeguards to protect herself and Constance - burying a box of silver dollars among other things. Constance never shames Merricat for her behavior - in fact, she would sometimes give Merricat a small token to bury. The sisters keep their home clean and organized, trying to keep some semblance of their past. Constance preserves the vegetables she grows, as did the generations of women before, a metaphor for their family preserving their home and place in the community.  

The sisters lives are interrupted by Cousin Charles, who arrives suddenly and makes himself at home by wearing their father's clothes and sleeping in his bed. Charles tends to the girls' needs in the village, displacing Merricat from her responsibility. Constance cooks special food for Charles and agrees that Merricat should cease her rituals. When Merricat takes drastic action to get rid of him, Charles abandons the home. Charles leaves the sisters alone and vulnerable at the worst possible moment. In the aftermath Merricat admits a gruesome truth :  

"I put it in the sugar."

"I know. I knew then." 

"You never used sugar." (543) 

The sisters set about returning their lives to normalcy.  They refuse to admit the outside world, resolute in their existence again as a sorority of two - "Oh Constance." I said, "we are so happy." (559)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jackson, Shirley.  "We Have Always Lived in the Castle." Novels and Stories. The Library of America, 2010, pgs 421-559.

DON'T BUY A TICKET TO HER LOTTERY

 

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality." So wrote author Shirley Jackson in The Haunting of Hill House. Shirley Jackson's reality was one of mental hardship and cruelty inflicted on her by those close to her. She chose to make that her millieu - that it is not monsters human should fear, but ordinary humans. Her works reflected a variety of societal ills and the need for natural separation from society.

Born December 14h, 1916 in San 

Francisco, Shirley Jackson never fit in with other children. She preferred to read or write instead of pursuing friendships. Her mother became pregnant early in her marriage and resented Shirley for taking her focus away from her husband. She berated Shirley for her weight and appearance and for being an outcast. The family moved to New York when she was a senior in high school. After graduation in 1934, Shirley studied journalism at Syracuse. She met her future husband while they both wrote for the school literary magazine, and they married in 1940.

Her husband became a professor at Bennington College in Vermont. He often carried on affairs with his young female students. Shirley and her husband had four children and Shirley balanced her family, being a writer, being a faculty wife and being well read - their home library contained 25,000 books. In 1948 she published her short story The Lottery in the New Yorker. The magazine and Jackson received hate mail, as the story exposed a darker side of humanity. (I read the story for eighth grade 36 years ago and still can't shake it. )

Shirley wrote several novels and short story collections. She based her second book on the Paula Jean Weldon disappearance (still unsolved today.) Jackson's work continued into the 1950s. In 1959's The Haunting of Hill House, four people (a Paranormal Investigator, a wallflower young woman, a Bohemian artist, and a young man) must stay in a haunted house. The four experience supernatural events in the home. The Haunting of Hill House was made into a film in 1963 and 1999, and as a TV series in 2018.

Jackson wrote her final novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle in 1962. Two sisters live alone in a crumbling old mansion.  One sister is suspected of murdering their family. When a long lost relative arrives, the sisters resent the intrusion. Jackson's health began to decline. She developed chronic asthma due to her smoking habit. She faced severe anxiety and agoraphobia exacerbated by her illnesses. Shirley Jackson died in her sleep in 1965 at 48 years old. Jackson was a master in fear and taught the world not to be afraid of  outcasts - instead be afraid of those who cast out.

SOURCES ~

shirleyjackson.org

Shirley Jackson. Wikipedia.

FURTHER MEDIA ~

BOOKS :

The Haunting of Hill House

We Have Always Lived in the Castle