Mary E. Trimble

So Long, Chester Wheeler by Catherine Ryan Hyde is an uplifting contemporary novel about two very different people who find themselves thrown together in an unwanted relationship. The story begins in Buffalo, New York.

Lewis Madigen, 24, is suddenly laid off from his job as a software developer. As if that isn’t bad enough, his live-in boyfriend has suddenly moved out of their rental house, left the state, and absconded with their joint funds.

Chester Wheeler, Lewis’s wheelchair-bound, cantankerous neighbor, is a constant source of irritation. He hurls homophobic insults to Lewis every chance he gets. Chester has worn through a number of caretakers—no one can stand to be around him. His daughter Ellie is with him at the present time, but now she has a problem. Her out-of-state daughter is about to give birth and Ellie very much wants to be with her. Ellie approaches Lewis with a proposition that he be her father’s temporary caregiver. Lewis certainly doesn’t need the aggravation, but he does need the money. He reluctantly agrees.

Their time together is as bad as Lewis predicted it would be. Chester complains about everything. Nothing Lewis does is right. To make matters even worse, Chester insists that Lewis drive them to Arizona in Chester’s beat-up Winnebago to see his ex-wife for the first time in thirty-two years. Chester is dying of cancer. How can Lewis deny a terminally ill old man his dying wish? Chester’s daughter has offered to pay for the cost of the trip if Lewis would be willing to do it.

On the road, cooped up in the Winnebago, is miserable. The two bicker constantly. But then a glimmer of hope surfaces and what follows is testimony to the value of recognizing another’s viewpoint, and offering and accepting forgiveness.

Catherine Ryan Hyde has done it again. Her scope of understanding the human condition shines through as she tackles the complications of being gay, and the tragedy of nearing the end of life in bitterness and defeat. This story rings true on so many levels: an extremely difficult person nearing life’s end, a vulnerable gay young man, a troubled family that needs mending. So Long, Chester Wheeler, appropriate for teens and adults, is rich in wisdom and tolerance.

Book Review: On Brassard’s Farm

Posted on June 3, 2024 by Mary

On Brassard’s Farm: A Novel by Daniel Hecht is a fast-paced contemporary story that takes place in Vermont’s farm country.

Ann Turner seeks a change from her urban life in Boston. She buys a piece of land, a forested section of a dairy farm owned by the Brassards. She clears enough land to set up a tent in the deep forest. Life in the wilderness is a lot harder than she anticipated. She’s faced with harsh weather, aching loneliness, unsettling encounters with wild animals, and intruding neighbors. To make her life even more difficult, the money she plans to use to purchase the land is suddenly unavailable and she is indentured to the Brassards.

Brassards farm is in deep trouble. Milk prices have gone down, feed and equipment prices risen to the point that it’s hard to make ends meet. The money the Brassards were expecting from Ann is desperately needed. She signs on as a farm hand to pay her debt and learns the hard way what it takes to run a dairy farm. The work is relentless, the hours grueling. She chaffs at the cutting and sarcastic remarks from her stern boss, Diz Brassard, the farm’s matriarch.

Ann finds comfort and understanding from Earnest Kelley, an Oneida Indian, a friend of the Brassards who makes his home on the farm, but works as a tree surgeon. For Ann, Earnest’s wisdom and quiet humor is a balm to an otherwise bleak existence on the farm.

On Brassards’ Farm is not only a good read, but informative about the life of a dairyman. The author, Daniel Hecht , does an amazing job of describing the feelings of a woman. The story is told in first person, vividly showing the struggle and demanding work of farm life, the growth, toughness and resiliency Ann develops, and finally the joy of unexpected love.

Book Review: The Kanyini Game

Posted on May 27, 2024 by Mary

The Kanyini Game by Mary Ann Hayes is an engaging adventure of a young boy and his magic carpet.

Chase, nine, has a big problem. His magic carpet, Mariah, is about to be sold! His family has just discovered the Persian carpet’s worth, but to Chase the carpet means more than money. He and Mariah can fly at the speed of light, explore foreign countries in the dead of night, and see more spectacular sites than most people see in a lifetime.

Once Chase has ingeniously solved that problem, he becomes involved in the 420th Global Magic Carpet Game. This high adventure takes them to Australia where mysteries lurk, along with poisonous spiders, huge snakes, dangerous wild animals, and exotic, but stinky, plants. But all is not well among the carpets and their riders—arguing and unfair competition practices challenge the teams. What is the lesson to be learned from these captivating experiences?

In addition to Chase’s high adventure, The Kanyini Game offers valuable life lessons. The word Kanyini is an Aboriginal sacred principle of unconditional love, linking important areas of responsibility. As Chase’s adventure unfolds, he and his fellow game participants learn these important life lessons.

Mary Ann Hayes has again written a children’s book that will fascinate youngsters of all ages. The Carnelian Game, the first of her paranormal children’s stories, is also an intriguing read. For those children too young to read The Kanyini Game by themselves, it would be a wonderful opportunity for an adult to read to a child. If you like magic, you and the children in your life will be charmed by this enchanting story.

Book Review: A Song of Silence

Posted on May 20, 2024 by Mary

“You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea”
― Sophocles

A Song of Silence: A Gripping Holocaust Novel Inspired by a Heartbreaking True Story, Book 2 of the “World War II Historical Fiction” series by Steve N. Lee is a highly suspenseful novel that takes place in Poland during the World War II Nazi invasion.

Mirek Kozlowski, a well-known children’s author, runs an orphanage of 89 children in a small Polish town that is suddenly overrun by Nazis. Almost overnight their happy existence changes. Townspeople suffer losses of property and livelihood. Serious food shortages affect the health and well-being of the town’s citizens. Mirek strives to keep his orphanage running, but the daily onslaught of atrocities are a constant challenge.

When SS Captain Kruger learns that Mirek Kozlowski is also an author, he is intrigued. Kruger has dreams of becoming a writer and has, in fact, written a manuscript. Maybe Mirek could help polish the book into publication. But in the meantime, Kruger is driven to do his job to meet Nazi goals: destroy Polish culture, segregate the Jews, expand German territory, elevate the Fatherland, and create new world order with ethnic Germans at its center.

Anna-Maria Kisiell quietly brings joy to Mirek’s life. She helps where she can, assists in the kitchen, works with the children. The two find solace in each other, but with all the struggles to merely survive, how can a relationship ever develop?

As the Polish people suffer depravation of jobs and food, all while witnessing senseless killings, some resistance is organized, but any knowledge of this by the authorities leads to harsh punishments. Expressing an opinion can result in a whipping or even death.

But Mirek strongly believes that if good people do nothing, bad people will be empowered to do evil. Based on this belief, he ventures into a scheme to save his children.

A Song of Silence is a stark reminder of what the world was like in the 1940s and the unspeakable suffering at the hands of men who perceived themselves as the “racial elite” of a Nazi future. Steve N. Lee has captured the horror and raw fear instilled in a townspeople who simply wanted to live their lives under their own rule. The novel contains vivid descriptions of evil acts, but told without wallowing in sentimentality. It is history brought to life, a history we must not forget.

Book Review: Crossroads in Casa Corte

Posted on May 13, 2024 by Mary

Crossroads in Casa Corte, a novel by Anne Schroeder, is a haunting story that takes place in a Chihuahua cantina on the eve of el Día de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday honoring dead loved ones and making peace with the eventuality of death by treating it familiarly, without fear and dread.

It’s autumn, 2020. While a storm rages outside, inside a cantina a group of eight men talk about the women they have known. Their tongues are loosened by plenty of pulque (a traditional Mexican fermented alcoholic drink) and cerveza (Mexican beer). The stories told span Zihantanejo, Mexico City, the Arizona border and California. Among the eight men, besides the owner of the cantina, is a potter, a local farmer, an American professor, a salesman, two American cowboys, a priest and a mean-spirited man called Mendoza. Mendoza is known to treat his wife badly, mistreats animals, and has nothing but negative things to say about the other men’s stories. His insults and badgering bring some to blows, others try to ignore him.

I was impressed with Crossroads in Casa Corte and the knowledge the author shares of Mexico and Mexican culture. The realm of experiences as told by the men are at times gritty, sometimes heart-rending, some riddled with guilt, and at times joyful. But through it all, Mendoza’s crude remarks bring the stories down to his level. It’s clear that Anne Schroeder knows the area and its people, knows how to navigate multiple story lines, and above all, knows how to tell a gripping story of change and redemption.

Book Review: The Seeds of Change

Posted on May 6, 2024 by Mary

The Seeds of Change, a novel by Lauraine Snelling is the first book of the “Leah’s Garden Book” series. The story begins in Linksburg, Ohio, 1865.

The Nielsen sisters—Larkspur, Forsythia, Delphinium, and Lilac—named after flowers grown in their late mother’s garden, have a life-changing plan. Their decision is hastened when their younger brother is swindled at a card game by a traveling gambler. The oldest sister, Larkspur, has played poker as a parlor game, and is known to be quite good. She innocently challenges the gambler and wins back her brother’s losses, plus a good deal more. Her winnings however, anger the swindler who threatens revenge. Fearing for Larkspur’s life, their older brother helps his sisters escape.

They buy a wagon and oxen and flee their Ohio community for Independence, Missouri to join a wagon train bound for Oregon. Because four unaccompanied women would draw attention, Larkspur dons a disguise, becoming “Clark” Nielson, an older brother accompanying his three sisters.

As the wagon train makes its way toward Oregon, they meet hardships, and witness tragedies among their fellow travelers. They help where they can, even informally adopting the children of fellow travelers when the mother dies in childbirth and the father dies in an accident.

The sisters decide to end their journey in southern Nebraska where they buy a homestead with a sod house. Their struggles now take a different turn—making a home out of rough land. Some chaste romance takes place between one of the sisters and a widowed doctor.

I enjoyed this first book of the “Leah’s Garden Book” series. I have read other series written by Lauraine Snelling and find her writing exceptional with impressive research, rich land descriptions, and characters full of life. Her work always has strong Christian overtones that to me, add to the story. I never tire of Oregon Trail books, and I particularly enjoyed The Seeds of Change.

Book Review: Bucking the Sun

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Mary

Bucking the Sun, a novel by Ivan Doig (1939 – 2015) is an historical novel of depth that takes place in Montana during the Great Depression era, 1933 to 1938, with brief reflective sojourns to 1991.

The Duff family, father, mother and three adult sons lose their family’s alfalfa farm on the Montana bottomland to the impending Fort Peck Dam. It’s just as well—they were about to lose that year’s crop to grasshoppers anyway. Their oldest son, Owen, was hired as the dam’s fillmaster and was responsible for moving earth and rocks to create Roosevelt’s New Deal project, damming the Missouri River which was, up to that point, the biggest dam site in the world.

Eventually, all the Duff family is employed in the project, and the sons’ wives are employed in businesses associated with the dam’s construction in the thrown-together town of Glasgow and the adjacent community of Fort Peck. The project was huge in scope working year-round in weather extremes such as 61 below zero in February and 114 above zero in July.

As the author skillfully takes us through the engineering marvel of this massive project, we follow the Duff families as they play their various roles in the dam’s construction or its supporting occupations. Doig’s impeccable sense of timing is rich in detail. Each of the Duff men have their own distinct personalities, as do their wives, and as the story progresses, their individual talents emerge.

Much of Doig’s writing takes place in his home state of Montana. He wrote of rural working-class life, and this book captures not only the Montana terrain, but also its attitudes and toughness. I have read three previous books by Doig, all different in scope, and Bucking the Sun is yet another original captivating family drama mixing fact with fiction.

Book Review: Tom Lake

Posted on April 22, 2024 by Mary

Tom Lake, a novel by Ann Patchett is a delightful story about family, love, and growing up. The novel toggles between 2020 Michigan and the 1980s theater company, Tom Lake.

During the 2020s Covid pandemic, Lara and Joe Nelson’s three grown daughters return to the family cherry farm to help with harvest. While picking cherries, the girls beg their mother to tell them about Peter Duke, a now famous actor that Lara both worked with on stage and had a romantic relationship while performing at Tom Lake, a live theater company.

Lara, originally from New Hampshire, finds stage success in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Also in the play is handsome Peter Duke, and the two of them become romantically involved.

Switching back to the cherry farm, Lara’s daughters beg for more of the story. Peter Duke is now a beloved film actor, and they pry details out of their mother about her and Duke’s relationship. Along the way, they learn of others of that time period: Pallace, a black dancer who becomes a good friend of Lara, and Peter Duke’s brother Sebastian. They were a foursome to be reckoned with, each with their special talents and agendas.

I loved Tom Lake. Ann Patchett is an American author who has written several successful award-winning novels. I also enjoyed Bel Canto and will look for more novels written by this prolific author.

Book Review: Better Than Gold

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Mary

Better Than Gold, a novel by Joan Rawlins Husby is the second of the “Monte Cristo Memories” series. The gripping story takes place mostly in the wilds of Alaska, 1898.

In San Francisco, Melinda McCrea makes her way to her bank through crowds of gold-seekers on their way to Alaska. She withdraws the last of her savings to pay for the next semester’s teacher training. After her stop at the bank, she’s accosted by a thief who absconds with her money, plus an unread letter from her fiancé, Quin Chenoweth.

Discouraged that she cannot return to teacher’s training, she and her ward, eight-year-old Evan, who is also her fiancé’s nephew, return to Monte Cristo, a gold-rush town in Washington state. She learns that Quin has taken a new job as a newspaper reporter and is on his way to Alaska’s dangerous Valdez Glacier to report on gold rush seekers. No doubt, he had shared this news with her in his last letter that she hadn’t had a chance to read.

Melinda has a terrifying dream that Quin is in danger. The dream is so urgent, so compelling, that she feels she has no choice but to find him and warn him of impending danger. She boards a ship bound for Alaska, but to her dismay discovers that Evan has stowed aboard. His reason? His uncle Quin had instructed him to take care of Melinda.

They arrive in Valdez, and although she has lived in many gold-rush towns, none of them as rough as this. Melinda finds work to earn enough money to continue her search for her fiancé. Finally, she and Evan set out, bound for Copper River in search of Quin.

What follows is a harrowing venture in dangerously rough terrain and even tougher people. Melinda makes friends, but also an enemy. She relies heavily on her strong Christian faith as she makes her way to find Quin in this vast wilderness.

Joan Rawlins Husby writes with knowledge about Alaska. She lived there for many years, taught school, and with her husband, raised their children in Alaska’s wilderness. Husby is a strong Christian writer with a sense of adventure. I have read other works by this author and heartedly recommend Better Than Gold.

Book Review: Go as a River

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Mary

Go as a River, a novel by Shelly Read is a beautifully written story set in Colorado, 1948 to 1971.

Victoria Nash, 17, runs a family household of troubled men. Her mother died when Victoria was 12, leaving her emotionally distant father, a mean-spirited younger brother, and a bitter, crippled uncle. The family has a successful peach orchard and when Victoria isn’t running the household, she’s working in the orchard.

Wilson Moon, a young man who is mysteriously displaced from his tribal land, is not welcomed in the nearby town of Iola, Colorado. People don’t trust the dark-skinned boy. Victoria and Wilson happened to meet in town, a meeting that will profoundly alter both their lives.

When tragedy strikes, Victoria must make life-changing decisions, choices that will affect all that she loves. She flees to the surrounding mountains where she struggles in the wilderness. As Victoria grapples with the harsh realities that surround her, fighting to regain what she has lost, she grows in strength and wisdom. She strives to flow forward against all obstacles, or as Wilson would say, “go as a river.”

The setting of Victoria’s original home, near the town of Iola, is based on fact. The town and surrounding areas, located in Gunnison County, Colorado were flooded and destroyed in the l960s creation of the Blue Mesa Reservoir, an actuality that affects Victoria’s future.

Go as a River is a gripping story, told with wonderful, vivid detail of raw wilderness. I also appreciated the domestic scenes, making due with what was at hand, painting a realistic picture of the demands of the land to meet the needs of a livelihood. Readers who love the outdoors, and who know the struggles of eking a living from the earth, will especially value this beautifully written novel.