Mary E. Trimble

Salmon Moon: River of No Return, a novel by Julie Weston, is the sixth in the “A Nellie Burns and Moonshine Mystery” series. The story takes place in the 1920s along Idaho’s wild Salmon River, known as The River of No Return.

Nellie Burns hires a scow to rescue her husband of only a few weeks, Sheriff Charlie Azgo. They find him in an old abandon house near the shore of Salmon River. A shootout renders one man killed and Charlie injured. The small gang of criminals escape with stolen money and gold, one in a dory on the river, and another on horseback. There is a third thief, but where he or she has gone is a mystery.

Nellie, Charlie, Janie, a nurse, and Ace, the scow’s sweepman, pursue the criminals along the raging river. With them is Nellie’s faithful Black Lab, Moonshine. Although the scow, a large flatbottom wooden boat with square ends, is the best way to travel the river, it’s rough going and at one point Nellie and Moonshine are swept off in a rush of water. They make it to shore, but surviving in the wilds of Idaho can be daunting. You can’t simply stop a boat in that wild river, and the rest of the party is swept downriver in a rush of water.

Thus begins a frantic search for Nellie, and hot pursuit of the thieves who got away. It’s tricky, traveling by river while pursuing thieves. The Salmon dictates when and where they can go ashore. There are fish in the river and wild game on shore, but do they have the equipment to catch enough to sustain them? The river is cold and it’s tough to stay dry while going through churning waters, navigating rapids, and trying to stay clear of large rocks.

Author Julie Weston is a native of Idaho and has family history of Idahoans dating back to the 1870s. Weston and her husband have rafted many northwest rivers, and can speak with authority about the subject.

Salmon Moon: River of No Return, is the last of the “A Nellie Burns and Moonshine Mystery” series. Each book stands alone, but it’s fun to read them in order: Moonshadows, Basque Moon, Moonscape, Miners’ Moon, Moon Bones, and this latest, Salmon Moon. It’s an exciting series, written with personal knowledge about Idaho, a state known for its scenic landscapes and outdoor recreational opportunities, including its wild rivers.

Book Review: Cutting for Stone

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Mary

Cutting for Stone, a novel by Abraham Verghese is a sweeping family saga that takes place in Ethiopia and the United States beginning in the mid-fifties. The story originates in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at a mission hospital.

Marion, who tells the story, and his twin brother Shiva are born of a secret union between a Carmelite nun and a British surgeon. Seeing the babies’ mother in distress as she labors to give birth, Thomas Stone, father of the twins, steps in, but it’s too late to save the mother.

Hema, a no-nonsense Indian-trained OB-GYN specialist, just arriving from a visit with her parents in India, takes over the birth of the conjoined babies, performing a cesarean section on the deceased mother. The babies are easily separated after birth and are strong, healthy boys.

The father, overwrought with the death of the woman he loved, rushes from the operating room and disappears, not to be heard from for thirty years.

Hema takes over the caring for the twins and considers them her own sons. She marries a fellow Indian, Ghosh, an Internist who also works at the hospital. Ghosh is a wonderful husband and father, full of wisdom and good humor.

Identical twins, Marion and Shiva are inseparable as little children, but as they enter puberty they become quite different. They have a bitter falling-out, and go their separate ways. They are both brilliant and seek professions in the medical field.

The novel is full of medical phrases, techniques, and references, which I found fascinating. Not that I understood most of it, but I appreciate the knowledge and experience behind it. The author, Abraham Verghese, born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is a physician and teaches at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Cutting for Stone is a long family saga, but engaging and memorable with deeply-felt characters. I loved hearing about life in Ethiopia, especially regarding health care. When my husband and I served in West Africa with the Peace Corps in The Gambia, I worked at a 22-bed bush hospital as a records keeper/advisor, so providing medical care with very limited resources was familiar to me.

Reading this novel is a commitment, much like his later novel The Covenant of Water. Though long—the paperback is 677 pages—it was definitely worth my time and effort.

Book Review: Connie

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Mary

Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung is an interesting and inspirational read about the first woman to break into the overwhelmingly white, male-dominated television news industry.

In China, Connie’s mother was twelve and her father fourteen when they were engaged. They didn’t know one another and in fact, didn’t meet until five years later on their wedding day. The family eventually moved to Washington D.C. where her father worked at the Chinese Embassy. Connie, their tenth child, was born in America in 1946, the only child in the family born in the United States.

In her early school years, Connie was a quiet, shy girl. In college she morphed from shy and quiet to fearless, ambitious, even driven. At the time, most working women’s occupations were as teachers, nurses, or secretaries. If they did work in media, it was behind the scenes, or in fashion or culinary arts. Connie insisted on working with real news, but had to fight the attitude or belief that there are certain things a woman cannot do or understand. Connie proved that to be untrue. She quickly became a household name when she co-anchored the CBS Evening News. In the following years she also worked at ABC and CNN. right up there with Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, and Peter Jennings. In all her various roles as journalist she worked hard, earned respect, but also at times received harsh criticism, mostly, it seems, criticism that would not have occurred had she been a man.

Connie conducted many interesting interviews, traveled extensively, and was tenacious in pursuit of stories, always demanding excellence of herself. She learned to eat a big breakfast, knowing that it might be the only meal she’d have that day. She talked to some big names, political personalities, and covered scandals such as Watergate.

Connie, a ground-breaker in many respects, has fought to be seriously judged on her work as a journalist, not as a woman. She was often given assignments that a male reporter would not be asked to do, jobs that irked her, but that she fulfilled to the best of her ability. Connie fought the “good ole boy” syndrome—men often flirted, even made inappropriate remarks—things they would never do to a man reporter.

In 1984 Connie married a Caucasian, Maury Povich, a popular talk-show host, and later they adopted a baby boy, Matthew.

Connie, A Memoir is well written, witty, and touching. She often ends a chapter with air-time comments such as, “More to come,” or “Don’t go away,” or “That’s next.” I enjoyed this memoir. The book is witty, personable, and loaded with plenty of sharp insights into the world of TV News.

Book Review: Crow Mary

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Mary

Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom is a deeply moving novel inspired by the real life of Crow Mary, an Indigenous woman in 19th-century North America, with a forward by Nedra Farwell Brown, Crow Mary’s great-granddaughter.

The story begins in 1872 Montana when a sixteen year-old Crow Native woman marries Abe Farwell, a white fur trader. Abe is a well respected man and there is mutual attraction between Abe and Crow Mary. Mary’s Indian name is actually Goes First, but when the Christian minister performs the ceremony, he calls her Mary, as was the practice at the time when a white man married an Indian woman. The new bride goes along with this, but adds “Crow” to her name, thus Crow Mary.

After the marriage ceremony, they set off on the long trip to Farwell’s trading post in Saskatchewan, Canada. Along the way Crow Mary meets Jeannie, and they become close friends. Jeannie, a Métis woman, teaches Mary how to read and write, and many ways of the whites. (A Métis is a person who is part Indian and French or English.) Crow Mary also meets Sam Stiller, a cruel wolf hunter who becomes her lifelong enemy.

The winter trading season is peaceful and Crow Mary and Abe Farwell enjoy their mutual love. Abe confesses to Mary that he can’t tolerate liquor, that once he starts drinking he can’t stop. Crow Mary admires his vow to avoid liquor, and falls deeply in love with her husband, whom she calls Farwell.

At the end of a successful trading season, they plan to return to Montana. On the eve of their impending trip, a group of drunken whiskey traders slaughter forty Nakota people despite Farwell’s efforts to stop them. Crow Mary witnesses the murderers, including Stiller’s part in the slaughter and his involvement in taking five Nakota women back to their fort. She creeps into their fort and saves the women, thus creating bitterness and false accusations among colliding cultures. The results of this event cause lasting repercussions, and ultimately cause Abe Farwell to lapse in his vow to avoid liquor, creating a strain in their relationship.

Crow Mary is a richly detailed story of love, clashing cultures, and historical events that profoundly changed lives. Author Kathleen Grissom shows the plight of Indigenous peoples, and the deplorable methods taken to reeducate them. She also gives credit to those who helped make peace between the cultures. This is a rich read, one that I enjoyed from beginning to end.

Book Review: The Moonshiner’s Daughter

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Mary

The Moonshiner’s Daughter: A Southern Coming-of-Age Saga of Family and Loyalty by Donna Everhart is a novel loaded with authenticity and grit, set in North Carolina, 1960.

Moonshining in the Brushy Mountains of Wilkes County, North Carolina had been a popular occupation for generations, even though it was against the law. The law wasn’t based on dangers to health, it was based on taxes, originally put in place right after the American Revolution to pay off its war debt. Even though illegal, it was common practice. Well-hidden stills dotted the heavily forested hills, and it became a lucrative but dangerous business, dodging revenuers while making their runs on the hilly mountain roads. It was common practice to bury ill-gained money rather than betray their occupation by depositing large amounts of cash in banks.

Jessie Sasser’s family had made moonshine for generations. But she wants no part of it. When she was four and her little brother Merritt two, Jessie had the horrible experience of watching her mother die when her clothes caught fire while she and Jessie’s father made sour mash. Jessie’s father refuses to talk about her mother or what they were doing at the time of her death.

Even though Jessie, now sixteen, and her brother are expected to help in the family business, she deeply resents it. She doesn’t want to be known as a moonshiner’s daughter. She attempts to seek comfort in food and develops an eating disorder, constantly binging, then purging, harboring a distorted vision of her body with feelings of shame and worthlessness. A school nurse tries to help Jessie see what she’s doing to her body and health, but Jessie is in denial. She feels unpopular at school, is a loner, rarely speaks to the other students, and doesn’t care about her appearance.

When an unexpected revelation occurs, Jessie sees her family and her own strengths in a different light, an insight that changes her life.

I found The Moonshiner’s Daughter fascinating. I was soon accustomed to the local dialect: “I reckon I might could do that.” Although the story is believable, I found it hard to relate to Jessie. My school days were filled with friends and total involvement with my school’s extensive music program. But I was vaguely aware of girls who obviously viewed themselves as misfits. After reading this book I wish I had reached out to those girls, shown friendship. I would highly recommend this book to women and teenage girls, not to learn how to make moonshine (though interesting), but to become more aware of how mental attitude affects our health and feelings of well-being. Plus, it’s a riveting, entertaining story.

Book Review: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Posted on November 11, 2024 by Mary

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first of five volumes of autobiography by Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014), with a Foreword by Oprah Winfrey, is a joyous but painful memoir about the early life of a Black woman who was raised in the bigoted South.

Although both her parents were still living (but separated), Maya and her brother Bailey, one year older, were sent to live with their father’s mother in Stamps, Arkansas. The family—grandmother, a crippled uncle, and the two children lived in the back of their grandmother’s small grocery store. Though strict, their grandmother was a powerful influence on Maya, lessons that provided the strength and determination she would need in life.

As a young child Maya was aware of the unfairness Blacks suffered, especially in the South. People who worked in the cotton fields never made decent wages and were always in debt, but many didn’t have the money to relocate. The schools children attended were geared for Black children with the idea that when they graduated their “careers” would be as carpenters, farmers, handymen, masons, maids, cooks and babysitters. Maya was an exceptional student and far ahead of other children in her classes.

For a brief time she stayed with her mother in St. Louis, but that visit ended in tragedy. At a later time, she visited her father in California, but he had no sense of responsibility and Maya narrowly missed catastrophe while with him. Later, she again lived with her mother in St. Louis, attended school, and at the age of 16 had an unwanted pregnancy that changed her life forever.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captured my heart. Things white people take for granted—freedom of where they will live, be educated, get medical care, etc. were denied to Blacks, especially in the South. Many of these issues have improved in recent years, but many prejudices still linger.

Angelou says it best: “The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.” I think every American should read this memoir. It is an honest representation of life in the South even in our lifetime.

Book Review: The Children’s Blizzard

Posted on November 4, 2024 by Mary

The Children’s Blizzard, a novel by Melanie Benjamin, is a well-told story based on actual histories of survivors of the devastating Nebraska Dakota Territory blizzard of 1888.

Following a cold spell, January 12, 1888 was an unusually warm morning. School children were delighted to shed their heavy winter coats. At the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying fast-moving blizzard blew across the plains. Schoolteachers were suddenly faced with life and death decisions: keep the children in school or send them home.

Raina Olson, 16, taught in a rickety one-room school house. She boarded with a family near the little school. The family she lived with was strange. The father showed special, inappropriate attention to her; the overbearing mother in the family hated her life, hated the prairie. Also in the household was Anette, a young servant girl whose mother sold her to the family for a pig and two chickens. The little girl was given too much work for one so young.

Gerda, 15, Raina’s sister, had a secret boyfriend. Her parents wouldn’t have approved of him, but Gerda was in love, even though all he really talked about was going out West, being a cowboy. Gerda was also a teacher and she’d planned to let the children out early on this surprisingly lovely day so she could spend time with her boyfriend.

When the blizzard suddenly struck, Raina was in a quandary. Should she keep the children at school, or take the chance on letting them make their way home? She realized the schoolhouse didn’t have enough fuel to keep warm for long, and when the window blew out she realized she really had no choice.

Gerda had already made her decision to let the children out early. When the storm struck, the children were in immediate danger. Some of them had a distance to walk, most of them in unsuitable clothing for the raging storm they faced.

Life was already hard for these immigrant homesteaders. Most of them had come from Europe, lured by unrealistic promises of wealth to be had in this unclaimed “land of plenty.” The sudden storm added misery to their lives. Countless died, and even though some survived, many were maimed as the result of frozen hands and feet. Some bodies weren’t found until the spring thaw.

The Children’s Blizzard, is a stark reminder of nature’s ferocious strength and the price to be paid for unpreparedness. I tore through this powerful book. Knowing that the story was based on historical events added to the fascination for me. The Author’s Notes were also intriguing and added depth to this story of fiction based on facts.

Book Review: Jackie

Posted on October 28, 2024 by Mary

Jackie, a novel by Dawn Tripp is a fascinating story of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and other important historical figures of the 20th Century. The story is mostly told through Jackie’s point of view.

The novel begins with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963, then flashes back to Jackie’s first introduction to Senator Kennedy, their marriage, their children, and when John became President of the United States. Throughout the book Kennedy is referred to as Jack, the name his family and friends called him.

The story eloquently captures Jackie Kennedy’s imagined thoughts and conversations with family, friends and others. Jackie was an extraordinary person, intelligent, well read, had a keen appreciation of fine art, and was athletic. She came from wealth and she married into wealth, allowing luxury travel and advantages a “normal” person can only dream of. Nevertheless, she maintained high standards and met her obligations with grace and wit.

There were scandals—Jack and other women—but although hurtful, Jackie chose to accept it. Her life was fulfilling, especially with their children, Carolyn and John. She was deeply traumatized when President Kennedy was assassinated, but as the world watched, she carried her heavy burden with dignity.

Jackie had met Aristotle Onassis years before, but as time went on after Jack’s death, they often had dinner together in New York when he was in the States on business. Their friendship blossomed into marriage. They lived in Greece in unimaginable luxury, but it was not a happy union.

Widowed again, Jackie yearned to lead a meaningful life, to contribute. She became an editor at Viking Press, then later at Doubleday, work she found fulfilling.

This review only skims over the story of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The book is so much more with meticulous research and exquisite prose. Although it is a novel, much of the story follows well-known historical events. I was raising a young family when President Kennedy was assassinated, but I clearly remember that awful day and the subsequent chain of events. I watched on television his flag-draped coffin as it was carried on a horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol to lie in state. In my mind I can still see Jackie, stricken with grief, with her young children watching the procession, and little John, only three years old, saluting his father’s coffin.

I loved this novel and recommend it to anyone interested in that era of our country’s history. The book is more than just about Jackie, it delves into America as it was in the sixties and later. It’s a story of love and power, tragedy and reinvention.

Book Review–Roads: Driving America’s Great Highways

Posted on October 21, 2024 by Mary

In Roads: Driving America’s Great Highways, Larry McMurtry crisscrosses our nation’s scenic highways, reminiscing along the way about the places he’s seen, the people he’s met, and sharing stunning landscapes from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Coast.

This memoir was written over a period of time and published in 2001. In most cases McMurtry flew to his destination, rented a car, then drove back to his native Archer City, Texas. He preferred driving north to south toward warmer weather, and east to west toward the big skies. Based on sites he visits, he talks about history, plus interesting stories about writers and the books they have written. On his various routes he mentions familiar names of true characters such as Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, George Custer, William Frederick Cody (Buffalo Bill), Charles Goodnight, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and one of my favorites, Quanah Parker. McMurtry talks of various Native tribes and their conquests and demise. Along his travels he notes the places where the characters in his many books either resided or did their deeds.

Being a Washingtonian, I enjoyed the section in Eastern Washington where McMurtry describes the diverse landscapes. He follows the paths that Lewis and Clark walked, rode, or floated. McMurtry claims Highway 2 has everything—the wildest vistas, the greatest skies, prolific history, the mountain men, famous and infamous Native Americans.

Volunteering with the American Red Cross for twenty years, I’ve driven on many of the highways McMurtry mentions in Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Nevada, California, and Tennessee. The differences between our destinations, however, is that McMurtry traveled to see the sites, but my trips were to deal with disasters. I wish I’d had the leisure to delve into the history that McMurtry shares in this delightful book.

Travelers and history buffs will enjoy Roads: Driving America’s Great Highways. It’s a fascinating read as well as enlightening, both in American history and in McMurtry’s personal history.

Book Review: Enduring Promise

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Mary

Enduring Promise, an engaging novel by Susanna Lane, takes place in Nebraska, 1878.

Bryce Enders has had a varied, hard life. He served in the Civil War, panned for gold, was a train guard, and long ago, worked cattle. Now he’s in search of his younger brother whom he hasn’t seen in years, since Bryce went off to war.

In Ogallala, he asks about his brother Cort and learns that Cort has a ranch, the Double E, within a two-day riding distance. The ride is fraught with near disaster, but when the brothers finally reunite they’re almost strangers, though there is a strong family resemblance. The 20,000-acre ranch is thriving and Bryce is welcomed to sign on, work the ranch with his brother.

While tracking down cattle, Bryce comes across a neighboring run-down ranch house. He sees that all of the buildings are in disrepair. Hannah, the attractive owner, explains that a storm wrecked the house and barn. Then, more recently, Cort’s cattle broke her fence and scattered her livestock and chickens. Bryce and the other hands repair the damage. In digging a little further, Bryce learns that Hannah’s abusive husband is seldom around. He has a bad reputation and is gone for long periods of time.

As Bryce helps to restore order on Hannah’s ranch, they can’t deny their attraction to one another. However, Hannah takes her wedding vows seriously and resists acknowledging her strong feelings toward Bryce. Even though Bryce restrains himself, he is determined to free Hannah from vows that apparently mean nothing to her husband. Bryce’s determination to free Hannah could back-fire, putting himself and her in terrible danger.

Enduring Promise, the second of the “Promise” series, is a fast-paced novel packed with action and strong characters. The author effectively captures the attitudes of the time period with gripping scenes and well-defined characters. It is a worthy sequel to Imperfect Promise, the first book of the series.