Mary E. Trimble

The Covenant of Water, a novel by Abraham Verghese, is a fascinating story that takes place mostly in Southern India, 1900 to 1977.

Mariamma is only twelve when wed to Appachen, a forty-three-year-old widower. Even though marriage arrangements and its strict stipulations seem strange to the western world, that was the custom in India. In those days, the intended bride and groom normally didn’t even talk to one another beforehand. Her mother claims “The saddest day of a girl’s life is the day of her wedding.” When she arrives in Parambil, land of her husband’s 500 acres, Mariamma is frightened and terribly homesick. However, her husband is a compassionate man who understands his young wife’s fear and doesn’t approach her as a wife until she matures.

Mariamma becomes a loving companion to Appachen’s two-year old son, Jojo. Together Mariamma and Appachen have two more children, Baby Molay and Philipose. Jojo affectionately calls Mariamma Big Ammachi, meaning Big Mother; his father Big Appachen. Throughout her life, Mariamma will experience unimaginable changes, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss. Her faith, love, and strength sustain her family.

Some families have an affliction called “The Condition,” an aversion to bodies of water. Sometimes victims experience dizziness, headaches, and facial weakness. In Appachen’s family, almost every generation will experience a drowning. In Kerala it’s an inconvenient condition because they are surrounded by water. Appachen will go miles out of his way to travel by land rather than take a much shorter route by boat. The Covenant of Water follows three generations of Appachen’s family who suffer from this affliction.

Reading The Covenant of Water was a commitment, but well worth the effort. The novel is an epic of love, faith, and medicine. It’s hardcover 736 pages involve three generations, two continents, and several geographic locations. Author Abraham Verghese, whose parents were born in India, speaks with authority about life and times in India, and as an American physician is knowledgeable about the medical issues presented in the novel. I recommend The Covenant of Water to anyone seeking to learn about India and another way of life, the consequences of love, and sacrifices made so others may live.

Book Review: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Mary

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter: A Novel by Kim Edwards is a fascinating story of familial secrets and the healing power of love.

A Kentucky spring blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. The first baby, a boy, is a normal, healthy baby, but the second child, a girl, has obvious traits of Down syndrome. The babies’ mother, Norah, is heavily sedated and unaware of the second baby’s condition. It was 1964 and not uncommon for babies born with Down’s to be sent to an institution. David makes a split decision, altering several lives forever. Convincing himself that he’s protecting his wife from heartache, he orders the attending nurse to take the baby to a nearby institution, swearing her to secrecy. He tells Norah that the infant died at birth.

The nurse, Caroline Gill, takes the infant to the institution as instructed, but at the last minute cannot leave the baby in that cold, uncaring place. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself.

Over the next quarter of a century, we follow the two families, the doctor, his wife and their healthy son, Paul, and the nurse Caroline with her “adopted” daughter, Phoebe. We feel Doctor David Henry’s guilt, Norah’s sense of “missing something,” their son’s inexplicable yearning. We watch Caroline as she loves and cares for Phoebe, guarding their precious secret.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a well-crafted novel. The author does a realistic job of showing the guilt and anxiety resulting in this hastily-made life-altering decision, and the fierce love parents have for their children, both biological and adopted. I think the author does a good job of showing the mind-set of the time, and how attitudes have changed over the years. I enjoyed this uplifting novel of the healing power of redemptive love.

Book Review: The Bundling Year

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Mary

The Bundling Year: A Non-Traditional Contemporary Amish Romance by Anne Schroeder is book one of three in the series “Field of Promise.” The novel mostly takes place in present-day Ohio.

Amanda Miller, an Oregon college student, faces a life-changing dilemma: stay in college or take the challenge her favorite but recently deceased aunt has offered her. In order to comply with the offer, Amanda must leave school and take residence in her aunt’s Ohio house. But there’s a stipulation that she must live in the house a year before selling. Amanda’s father strenuously objects to her leaving, but her mother, although paralyzed from a car accident, urges her to take the challenge. With very few resources, she packs her few belongings and meager savings and drives to the picturesque Amish region of Ohio. Amanda finds her aunt’s house in dire need of repair, certainly before she can consider selling it.

Amanda views with interest her neighbors’ farm across the road. She notices by their dress that they are Amish, that they don’t drive cars or use tractors—they drive a horse- drawn buggy and plow their fields with draft horses.

Jacob Ruth lives with his strict Amish family across the road from Amanda. He has not yet been baptized, meaning as an adult he has not made a life-long commitment to God. Amish children go to school only for the first few grades, long enough to learn to read and write. So Jacob and his brothers and sisters know “English” ways, but the family is active in the Amish community, and Jacob is expected to be baptized and follow the traditions of his family.

When Amanda asks Jacob about hiring him to make repairs to her house, he eagerly agrees. As they become better acquainted, a mutual attraction turns into a serious bond that forms between them which quickly turns into desire. But can their two very different lifestyles bring lasting happiness?

The Bundling Year was an eye-opener for me. When I served with the Red Cross, I participated in the Kosovo refugee program at Fort Dix, New Jersey, near an Amish community. It seemed strange to me to have horse-drawn buggies mingled with regular traffic, and to see people dressed so differently. But I was busy with Red Cross business and never became acquainted with the Amish or their lifestyle. The Bundling Year gave me an opportunity to see a different way, to watch two worlds collide, and to understand the serious implications of merging two very different cultures. The author does an amazing job of capturing the language and mannerisms of the Amish, and portraying the stark differences between “modern culture” and Amish strict traditional ways. I recommend this excellent novel to teens and adults who would appreciate another viewpoint on life.

Book Review: The Solace of Open Spaces

Posted on December 26, 2023 by Mary

“In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are only consequences.”
Robert G. Ingersoll

The Solace of Open Spaces: Essays by Gretel Ehrilich is a rich collection of essays about life in Wyoming’s ranch country in the 1970s.

Author Gretel Ehrilich has captured the essence of living in a world filled with sheep, cattle, faithful dogs, Wyoming badlands, long winters and tough, weathered people. It’s a place where people were outnumbered by animals, where sagebrush covered 58,000 of the state’s 97,063 square miles.

The author came to Wyoming only for a visit, but then couldn’t convince herself to leave. She worked a variety of jobs, moving thousands of sheep into shearing sheds, helping round up cattle, sorting and branding, finally becoming a rancher herself.

The essays in this book are rich with descriptions of beauty, unbelievably harsh weather with never-ending wind, tough people who will always stop to help a friend, and who have rich kinship to the land. Wyoming cowboys claim that the road to success is not toughness but “toughing it out”—putting up with the discomforts of the weather and land; to just keep on keeping on. Here winters are so severe that it’s hard to know who suffers more—the livestock or the ranchers who feed and care for them. The hardships of winter are often expressed by “froze in,” “froze up,” or “froze out.”

The Solace of Open Spaces reads like a memoir rather than what I think of as essays. Gretel Ehrilich writes about the habits of cattle, sheep, dogs, wild animals, even insects. She explains the world of rodeo, not only as an observer, but the behind-the-scenes business of rodeos. She describes attending a Plains Indian Sundance, a serious ceremony that involves repetitive dancing and fasting to regenerate the power to restore health, vitality, and harmony to the land and tribes. This book is rich in detail, holding nothing back, both good and bad. I highly recommend The Solace of Open Spaces.

Book Review: Seven Perfect Things

Posted on December 18, 2023 by Mary

Seven Perfect Things, a heart-warming novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde, is another example of this author’s ability to stir the heart. This time it’s with seven puppies and a girl who becomes attached to them.

Thirteen year-old Abbie Hubble witnesses a man dumping a wriggling bag into a river near her home in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Out of curiosity, she dives into the river and rescues seven tiny puppies. Now what? She takes them to a local animal shelter who would take them, but unfortunately they are already beyond capacity and would have to euthanize the pups. There is no way Abbie can let that happen.

But Abbie has a big problem. She can’t take the pups to her unhappy home. She gets along well with her mother, but her father is a bully who makes their lives miserable. She remembers seeing what she believed was an abandoned cabin when hiking the hills. She carries the pups all the way up a steep hill to the cabin, only to find it had been broken into and trashed. Still, she could put the pups in a storage shed on the property. Now her life is consumed with how to care for these seven tiny lives.

Elliot Colvin is still reeling from the death of his beloved wife. She had been ill for a long time and has just recently passed away. Elliot, grieving, is at odds with himself, has not yet returned to work, hasn’t found his footing, can’t even imagine how he’ll make it from day to day. Maybe he’d go to his cabin where he used to stay when hunting, get a change of scenery. With his wife’s lingering death, he hadn’t been there for a long time. When he arrives he’s angered by seeing the place trashed and many of his household items stolen. But wait, what is that noise coming from the shed?

Abbie finally has to tell her mother about the pups. She needs money to buy food for them. But they both know better than to tell her father. He not only wouldn’t understand, he wouldn’t allow her to keep them.

When Abbie and Elliot meet, what at first is an awkward encounter develops into a friendship of trust and respect. Abbie knows happiness when she’s with Elliot and wants her mother to both meet Elliot and see her seven pups. The consequences of this meeting has far-reaching affects on the lives of all concerned, including the pups.

Seven Perfect Things is an entertaining, wholesome read with a message. Catherine Ryan Hyde has done it again with this heart-warming story

Book Review: The Carnelian Game

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Mary

The Carnelian Game by Mary Ann Hayes is a fun novel packed with adventure and wonder.

Jake is visiting his grandparents’ beach house for the first time in years. He’s twenty-three now and has fond memories of summers at the beach house. Something, some remote memory, nags at him, but he can’t quite recall what it is.

Desmond (Des), seven, Jake’s little cousin, is also at the beach house with his parents. Des and Jake share the same bedroom and both begin to hear strange noises, a sort of pounding sound. However, they never mention this strangeness to each other, each thinking it is his own imagination. After a few days, Jake must leave to return to work.

Des discovers an old, dusty carpet under the bed where Jake slept. Behold! It’s a magic carpet that actually has a name: Mariah. Des and Mariah are soon launched on exciting, and sometimes scary, adventures.

Before Desmond and his magic carpet Mariah can play the next game, they must first finish an earlier game which ended when Desmond’s cousin, Jake, turned ten and could no longer participate. Des learns the rules from the “captain of the games” with the other carpets and riders. Their goal is to find a hidden treasure chest and the scroll it contains. But not only do they not know where in the world the treasure chest is, they need a special key to open it. Of course, the other magic carpets have the same goals, but unfortunately some of the game participants don’t play fair.

Once that game is finished, they move on to the 417th Global Magic Carpet Game. This game takes Des and Mariah to Egypt in search of a carnelian agate, a gem rich in color that symbolizes energy. It seems the precious gem was stolen from a sphinx, leaving a village destitute.

Highly imaginative, The Carnelian Game is rich with detail of the areas where the games take them, whether it’s South Africa or Egypt. The author’s research is highly impressive which makes the book not only a delightful read, but educational as well. This would be a fun book for kids of all ages, or for an adult to read to a younger child.

Book Review: Goth-Girl to Cowgirl

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Mary

Goth-Girl to Cowgirl, book four in the “Rescue Series” by Heidi M. Thomas is a heart-warming contemporary novel of a troubled teen from New York who finds redemption in the wide-open spaces of the Montana prairie.

New Yorker teen Electra Lucci has suffered the tragic loss of her brother and the subsequent divorce of her parents. She’s become a Goth-girl, wearing white make-up, black-rimmed eyes, black lipstick and fingernails, and spiky hair. When her mother suggests a mother-daughter “bonding” vacation to a Montana dude ranch, Electra balks. But when they arrive, a whole new world opens up to her.

Samantha (Sam) Moser works part-time at a neighboring Montana dude ranch as an instructor, helping guests get to know horses. Sam also works hard on her own ranch, not easy for a single woman. She is dedicated to running a “rescue” ranch, rescuing Thoroughbred horses and using them to help traumatized veterans and troubled teens. She notices this obviously out-of-place girl at the dude ranch, undoubtedly troubled, and invites the girl to her ranch. When Sam takes Electra to see an abandoned horse, the young girl’s heart goes out to the starving animal. She forgets her own troubles and throws her energy into helping this neglected horse. When the mother-daughter vacation ends and they return to New York, Electra realizes she doesn’t fit in there anymore either, and she longs to return to Montana.

Goth-Girl to Cowgirl is written from Electra’s point of view. We see a troubled girl who doesn’t fit in. The author has written a timely book with rich insights to a troubled teen’s heart, and the healing capacity of horses. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves horses, and especially to teens who don’t always understand their own feelings but who yearn to make a difference.

Book Review: Take Me With You

Posted on November 27, 2023 by Mary

Take Me With You by one of my favorite authors, Catherine Ryan Hyde, is a heart-warming novel that reminded me to cherish the moment, to savor it, and to keep it locked in my heart.

August Shroeder, a high school science teacher, is facing life alone. His nineteen-year-old son was killed in an automobile accident, and he’s divorced from his wife. August and his son had planned to go camping at Yellowstone this summer, but now August plans to go alone and take his son’s ashes instead. He’ll be gone the entire summer.

August sets out in his RV but has the misfortune of a breakdown while still in California. A mechanic hauls the rig to his shop and begins the repair. Toward the end of the few days it takes, the mechanic asks a favor of August. Would August take the mechanic’s two sons with him? It’s a strange request, but the man confesses that he’s facing a three-month DUI jail sentence and he has no where else to leave the boys. It’s just the three of them—the boys’ mother is no longer in the picture. The mechanic offers to not charge for the repairs if August could take the boys with him.

The older boy, Seth, 12, is a bright, precocious boy. His little brother, Henry, 7, is timid with a cartoon-mouse voice on the rare occasions when he does speak. August has gotten to know the boys during the last few days because they’ve played with his little Jack Russell terrier. It’s an unusual request, but he reluctantly agrees.

The three of them set out on a joint adventure. They see it all—Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park where, as a science teacher, August could explain the geothermal areas to eager listeners, then on to Arches National Park, the Navajo Nation and finally the Grand Canyon.

The trip ends, but not the bond that has developed between them.

The story skips to eight years later. Another trip has been meticulously planned, another transformative journey that will change their lives forever.

I loved this book. I especially enjoyed the interaction between August and the boys. I delighted in the camping scenes. I’ve camped all my life, starting when I was 10 days old. We now camp with a truck/camper, which is similar to camping with an RV. I often felt as though I was with them seeing the sights and enjoying life on the road. This novel is one of many that I’ve enjoyed by this author. I highly recommend Take Me With You.

Book Review: A Good Man

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Mary

A Good Man, an epic historical novel by Guy Vanderhaeghe, takes place mostly in the western United States shortly after the Sioux victory at Little Bighorn in the late 1800s.

Wesley Case bears the burden of being a big disappointment to his father, a Canadian lumber baron. He joins the North West Mounted Police and while with them experiences a tragedy that will haunt him the rest of his life. He settles in Montana, buys a cattle ranch while serving as a liaison between the United States and Canadian militaries in an effort to contain Native Americans.

Ada Tarr, recently widowed, is Case’s neighbor and teaches school to augment her dwindling finances. Wesley and Ada fall in love, but their romance is threatened by a secret admirer of Ada’s, a man who comes across as a bungling ne’er-do-well, but who actually commits evil acts toward anyone who gets in his way.

While Case works with American and Canadian militaries, he befriends Sitting Bull, a Lakota Sioux warrior. Case sees the humiliation Natives experience, and sympathizes with their betrayal by the whites. He witnesses starvation among the tribes as whites systematically kill the buffalo, either by shooting them or burning fields where they graze. Case sees the mistrust resulting from lies, broken treaties, and the unreasonable demand that Indians live on reservations, giving up their way of life.

A Good Man is an earthy, realistic novel of depth. Vanderhaeghe, a Canadian, paints a stark picture of the plight of Indians and their resulting bitterness. Battle scenes are shown in vivid detail. The author’s extensive research has brought to light the attitudes and realities of the times, a period of mistrust and deceit. I highly recommend this novel to those who yearn for the truth of those violent years.

Book Review: The Book of Longings

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Mary

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd is an inspiring novel of one woman’s bold struggle to realize her own passion and potential. The story is set in the First Century and begins in Sepphoris in the geographic center of lower Galilee.

Ana, 14, is the daughter of a wealthy Roman sympathizer. Although it is against tradition for a woman to read and write, Ana’s father indulges her, even furnishing her with writing materials and books. She is a bright, intelligent girl, but also rebellious and ambitious. Her constant companion is her Aunt Yaltha, a witty, fun woman who encourages Ana to be herself. When her father announces that she must marry an older man, she is horrified. Not only is he repulsive to her, marriage to him would mean the end of her reading and writing. A chance encounter with eighteen-year-old Jesus at the market changes her life.

Contrary to her parents’ wishes, Ana and Jesus marry. They make their home in Nazareth and live in a family compound with his brothers and their mother, Mary. Jesus’ work as a stonemason and woodworker takes him away from home for days at a time. He learns about John the Immerser, a strange man who is baptizing people in the Jordan River. John claims the Kingdom of God is near and is seeking disciples. Jesus realizes he must follow John and become a disciple…without Ana. The prophets have no female disciples. Jesus’ mission is to bring God’s kingdom into the hearts of people.

In the meantime, Ana commits a brazen act that puts her in danger. After Jesus leaves she flees to Alexandria, where startling revelations unfold that put her in threatening circumstances.

As the story unfolds, new thoughts came to my mind, thoughts as how precious our freedoms are, such as our human rights, our right to education, to choose our occupations, and to pursue our choice of religion.

I started this novel with some misgivings. I am a Christian and I wasn’t sure if I wanted the beliefs I’d always held challenged or even altered. I was raised a Baptist, then became a Catholic at age 18, so I had two viewpoints to consider. But here is yet another viewpoint. The Bible doesn’t say that Jesus was ever married, but then it doesn’t say he was single either. I trust and am impressed with Sue Monk Kidd’s impeccable research. I found this story fascinating, for the fictionalized story of Jesus and for the amazing research of attitudes, dress, cosmetics, foods, and class disparities. Many of the facts she presents are substantiated in known history. When the author mentioned John the Immerser, I thought she was giving John the Baptist a fictionalized name, but when I researched it, I learned some Christian traditions used that name for John. Although the story follows the life of Ana, a fictitious character, it coincides with history and the beginnings of Christianity. I’m thankful I read this powerful book.