Mary E. Trimble

I loved The Lost Shoe, A. K. Brauneis’ exciting novel that takes place in Wyoming Territory in the late 1800’s.

Lifelong friends, Napoleon Nash and his nephew Jackson Kiefer are trying to work themselves out of lives of crime. The Governor of Wyoming Territory has promised them a secret pardon if they can prove themselves worthy of freedom. In exchange, they are required to perform tasks known only by the Governor and a few select people. In the meantime, hefty “dead or alive” bounties still posted make life a challenge.

While stopping in a small town to have their horses shod, the two happen to run into an old friend who invites them to visit his ranch. Against their better judgement, they accept the offer. The heart-warming visit with the rancher and his family makes them realize how much they long for normal lives and they are even more impatient to finish their agreement with the Governor and become free men.

Their world takes a turn for the worse when they are discovered by an ambitious marshall who is unaware of the Governor’s promise of freedom. As their lives spin dangerously out of control, the two must muster up their courage, count on the few friends they have left, and struggle toward an ever-dwindling chance of freedom.

Brauneis writes with authority about conditions that took place in Wyoming in the mid-and late 1880s. The novel’s characters have great love and rapport with their horses, and the author’s own equine knowledge is obvious. The book is written with heart, a quality I greatly admire. Trial scenes in a court of law are particularly compelling.

The Lost Shoe is the first book of The Navarre Link Chronicles: Change of Leads. The author has also written a prequel to the series, Ice.

Book Review: News of the World

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Mary

Paulette Jiles has written a truly exquisite novel, News of the World. The story begins in 1870, Texas. I rarely read a book twice, but I found myself rereading some of my favorite parts in this tender novel.

Captain Jefferson Kidd, a respected man in his seventies and a veteran of two wars, makes his living by traveling through Texas reading to audiences hungry for news. World news, local news, exotic news, he reads any news that takes people from the here and now and fires their imagination with the happenings of elsewhere. He slants his newspaper reading to the taste of his audience at a dime a person. On one of his trips he is approached by an acquaintance, a freighter, who has been commissioned by the Army to return a ten-year old girl, a Kiowa captive, to her family 400 miles away. The freighter cannot leave his business that long, and gives the Captain the $50 gold piece the Army has given him to have the girl returned to her relatives.

Captain Kidd agrees, but with some misgivings. The girl, Johanna, though white with blond hair and blue eyes, acts thoroughly Kiowan. She was six when her captors brutally killed her mother, father and sister. But, surprisingly, she longs for her Kiowa family. She doesn’t remember any English, nor does she have mannerisms of the “civilized.” Captain Kidd sympathizes with the girl who has been torn away from her birth family, and now from her adopted family.

With the $50 gold piece, he purchases a wagon and they begin their journey through unsettled and unforgiving territory, all the while watching for thieves, Indians, the often-corrupt federal army, and always on the lookout for those who would kidnap the girl to sell. He must also watch for her attempts to escape. The two face many dangers and physical hardships traveling across Texas.

As the miles pass, they draw closer to one another. Johanna senses Captain Kidd’s kindness and generous heart, and he worries that his little charge won’t be able to accept yet another drastic change in her life.

News of the World is an outstanding novel. I loved it; a sheer delight to read.

Book Review: The Patchwork Bride

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Mary

The Patchwork Bride, a fun, engaging novel by Sandra Dallas, takes place in the late 1800’s Texas, Colorado, and Kansas.

Ellen and Ben are nearing the end of a loving and exciting life on their ranch. Their favorite granddaughter June arrives, a runaway bride seeking refuge. As Ellen pieces together a quilt made from squares of old fabric rich with memories, she tells June about Nell, a three-time runaway bride.

Nell travels to Texas to find a husband, hopefully a cowboy. She hires on as a cook on a large ranch and meets Buddy. There is an instant attraction, but a misunderstanding mars her happiness. Nell continues to search for a lasting relationship, but finds complications and disappointment.

In between stories Ellen and her granddaughter talk. June is distraught and feels guilty about abruptly leaving her planned wedding. As the grandmother selects pieces for her quilt, the material reminds her of how life is pieced together by memories, some heartbreaking, some fulfilling.

I enjoyed this entertaining and tender novel, and its stories within the story. The author’s references to places and products of the times are historically correct and interesting, as are the language and mannerisms of the period.

Book Review: The Girl Who Wrote in Silk

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Mary

Kelli Estes has written a memorable novel, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, a testament of the endurance of the human spirit.

The story is inspired by true events and the tragic aftermath of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, an immigration law excluding people from the United States based on their Chinese race.

The story toggles between Washington Territory in 1886, and present day Orcas Island, largest of the San Juan Islands, located in northwestern Washington state.

Mei Lien, fifteen years old, together with her father and grandmother, are among the many Chinese living in Seattle who are forced to leave the United States. They’re herded onto a ship and told they are being deported to China. Mei Lien overhears a conversation between the ship’s owner and its captain that their “cargo” will not reach China. She tells her father what she heard and, before they reach the ocean, he makes her jump overboard in the hope that she can swim to land. Joseph, a kind, caring man living on Orcas Island rescues her.

In present day, Inara Erickson has just finished school with a degree in International Business and has recently inherited the family’s estate on Orcas Island. Inara’s dream is to renovate the estate into a boutique hotel. While staying at the house, she discovers a loosened stair tread and forces it open. She finds a silk sleeve, intricately embroidered with mysterious scenes and images.

Inara consults a University of Washington expert on China studies and together they unravel the mystery of the sleeve’s origin and the long-ago fate of the Chinese people aboard the ship.

I loved this elegant novel, not only because it takes place in my part of the country, but because of its historical interest. Kelli Estes has woven a spell-binding story about a brutal part of our history while recognizing the love and humanity that binds us all.

Book Review: These is My Words

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Mary

These is My Words: The Dairy of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881 – 1901 by Nancy E. Turner is an exceptional novel of depth and inspiration that takes place in the Arizona Territories.

Sarah Prine is seventeen when her family decides to leave their home to find a better life. Sarah, her mother and father, two older brothers, and two younger brothers set out with a wagon train. Sarah begins a diary and although her grammar lacks refinement, her strength of character shines through.

At one point in their travels, they are escorted by soldiers, led by Captain Jack Elliot, a bigger than life cavalry officer.

The grinding life of living out of a wagon and the endless hardships vividly show the determination of our country’s early settlers. When the family, minus the two who meet untimely deaths, find their place to call home, the hard work really begins.

These is My Words captures the strength of Sarah’s character over a twenty-year period. Sarah does what she needs to do to support and protect her family, with a husband whose duties often call him away from home. Sarah forges ahead in a harsh and unforgiving land, braced by the love of an equally strong, but often absent, husband.

I loved this story that embraces the life of Sarah Prine from adolescent, to young woman, to loving mother as she lives her life through turbulent events, both joyous and tragic. These is My Words is a story I’ll remember.

Book Review: A New Day Rising

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Mary

A New Day Rising by Lauraine Snelling is the second of the Red River of the North Series. I loved this book as much as I did the first. This book continues with the Bjorklund family.

In this novel, Ingeborg Bjorklund, a widow and mother of two young boys, struggles to keep her farm and family together. Living in a soddy on the Dakota Territory prairie in the 1880’s is tough for anyone, but for a woman without a husband, mere existence can be overwhelming.

Family in Norway has written to their timber man son, Haakan, a distant cousin of Ingeborg’s late husband, that Ingeborg desperately needs help. Haakan’s job in the Dakota north woods is a winter occupation, so he sets out to give Ingeborg help with the heavy field work for the planting and harvest seasons, but plans to return to the work he loves in time for winter logging.

Haakan finally arrives, a godsend to Ingeborg. Although she is relieved to have the help, Ingeborg resents having her independence threatened. On the other hand, there is no denying the attraction she begins to feel for him.

In the meantime, another relative, Ingeborg’s late husband’s younger brother, is also encouraged to go to Ingeborg’s aid, and he sets out from Norway. His trip is delayed with one mishap after another, but his expectations never waver, thinking that once he arrives, he will take over his brother’s farm. Who knows, he might acquire his brother’s widow, too.

Misunderstandings, accidents and complications arise, making A New Day Rising a powerful read. Lauraine Snelling does a remarkable job of describing the flat, fertile farmland of the Red River Valley, and its first Norwegian settlers. The Red River of the North is an amazing series. I can hardly wait to read the third novel.

Book Review: My Name is Lucy Barton

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Mary

Elizabeth Strout captures feelings of profound longing, love, and loneliness in this compelling novel.

Hospitalized for nine weeks with what should have been a simple procedure, Lucy Barton reflects on her bleak childhood. At her husband’s request, Lucy’s mother visits with her, sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed, day after day. During the many periods of silence, Lucy recalls feeling cold during much of her early childhood when the family of five lived in her uncle’s garage. She attributes becoming a good student largely because of the extra hours she stayed after school, huddled against the warmth of the radiator doing her homework and reading until the building closed.

Lucy and her parents are not close, and it has been several years since they have spoken. Much of the time now spent with her mother is taken with gossip about people they once knew in Amgash, Illinois. From the conversation, feelings of resentment and longing arise.

Most of the novel takes place in the daily grind of time spent in the hospital. Once she is released, time skips forward to a writing career, her relationship with her husband and two daughters.

My Name is Lucy Barton is a short, absorbing novel that demonstrates the damage a impoverished childhood can do and how these inadequacies shape the future.

Book Review: The Bridge Ladies

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Mary

Betsy Lerner’s memoir is my kind of book: at once hilarious and poignant. I love her writing style, love the conflicting mother-daughter relationship, and especially love the bridge references. You don’t have to be a bridge player to enjoy this book, but as a bridge enthusiast, I found it enhanced the story.

Betsy’s husband responds to a job offer and the family returns to live in Betsy’s home town, New Haven, Connecticut. Betsy has misgivings. She and her widowed mother have never been close. Her mother, now in her eighties, has never approved of Betsy’s choices. Of anything. Betsy’s clothes, makeup (or lack of it), entertainment, her housekeeping, or occupation as a writer. Betsy has always felt she wasn’t up to her mother’s standards and resents her not-so-subtle hints.

Ever since Betsy was a little girl, her mother played bridge with four other Jewish ladies (they always had a stand-by). Sure enough, they’re still at it when Betsy returns to New Haven. Determined to really know these ladies, including her mother, Betsy joins them, as a writer interviews them, and discovers what it means to age, to lose loved ones, yet still go on. Along the way, Betsy learns about herself.

This memoir at times made me laugh out loud, made me more aware of generational differences, and encouraged me to ponder my own senior years. I highly recommend The Bridge Ladies: A Memoir.

Book Review: Becoming

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Mary

Michelle Obama’s Becoming is an extraordinary autobiography of a woman who accomplished impressive feats from modest beginnings.

Growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Chicago’s South Side, Michelle lived with her mother, father, and older brother in a cramped upstairs apartment in her aunt’s house. Although their living quarters were small, her parents saw to it that their lives were rich with experiences that would see the children through to hard-won success.

Although the college counselor at high school told Michelle she “wasn’t Princeton material,” she persisted and, with the encouragement of another teacher, was accepted and graduated from Princeton and later from Harvard Law School.

After Harvard, Michelle worked as an attorney at a large Chicago law firm. While there she met an optimistic, cheerful young black man with a peculiar name: Barack Hussein Obama. Barack was born in Hawaii, the son of a Kenyan father and a white 19-year-old mother.

In the “Becoming Us” section of the book, Michelle discusses marriage with Barack, how he seemed destined for public life and eventually become an Illinois State Senator. While Michelle strove for a stable home life, Barack commuted from Chicago to his senatorial work in Springfield, often spending three days at home and four in Springfield. Later, he became a U.S. Senator and commuted from Chicago to Washington, D.C.

In the meantime, Michelle had changed jobs and was now a university administrator. They had two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and Michelle struggled to balance family, work, and Barack’s fast-moving political career. In the book she speaks of the grueling work of campaigning, and the discomfort of close scrutiny while on public display.

In “Becoming More,” we experience life in the White House with the 44th President of the United States, and the first black person to hold that position. Michelle describes, with good humor and candor, what it’s like to live “above the shop” in a 132-room house, with armed guards present at all times. She talks about traveling with the President in a 20-vehicle armed caravan. As first lady, Michelle strives to make her mark, to make a difference. The author tells her story of eight years in the White House with honesty and good humor.

Becoming is an intriguing autobiography. It’s a worthwhile story, told in exquisite, interesting detail. Michelle Obama isn’t hesitant about naming names, nor does she shirk from sharing her views on political shortcomings, and backs up her statements with provable facts.

Note: Becoming in hardcover format is a hefty volume of 428 pages, and that with small print. This would be a good candidate for an e-reader with adjustable font.

Book Review: The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Mary

The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die by Randall Platt is a gritty, unforgettable novel of triumph over tyranny during the bleak years of World War II and the German occupation of Poland.

Her street name is Arab and she is wise beyond her sixteen years. Abra Goldstein is the oldest daughter of Jewish parents. Arab is estranged from her father, but longs to see her little sister, Ruth. Blond and fair-skinned, Arab passes for German and can speak four languages, though she fears her German has a Polish accent.

Conditions are desperate in Poland. Jews are being rounded up and forced to leave their homes and stay in walled-up ghettos. Desperately needed items are scarce but Arab is expert at stealing and trading black market goods. She knows all the best routes to avoid the goose-stepping Nazis, even though some of those escape routes include going underground. Yes, the sewer. She’s beyond caring how she looks, or smells. Her goal is to get her little sister to safety, out of Poland.

Masquerading as a boy, Arab teams up with carefully selected Polish friends, and even a turncoat German, to plan an escape that has little chance of success. The fact that it’s in the dead of winter doesn’t help, nor does being on a “wanted” list make it easy to maneuver in bombed out Warsaw. And the escapees now include more than just her little sister, they involve numerous children, some of them sick.

The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die takes place from the summer of 1939 to the fall of 1941. It’s an engaging story to remember, to learn what resistance means, and to appreciate the price of freedom.