Assistant to the Villain

By: Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Libby audiobook 14 hours

Read by: Em Eldridge

Published: 2023

Genre: Fantasy adventure romance

 

I found this book by looking for available audiobooks in Libby. Book #2 in this series was available, so I looked for book #1. I checked it out and listened. There were things that were intriguing and I was hooked before the book started driving me crazy. Sadly, I pushed through to the end of the book to find out what happened.

 

The reader didn't really do it for me. I sped it up to 1.25x, then 1.3x  because I couldn't stand listening to her. (A friend said she listens to books at 1.8x speed in Audible! I don't like listening to chipmunk-sounding voices, so 1.3 was fast enough.)

 

I liked the line ". . . tragedy did that to a family - isolated them." It seems like such a sad truth. Sometimes when tragedy visits a family or a person, we just don't know how to respond and so we say / do nothing.

 

The more the book went on, the more irritated I was by the overwrought language and emotions. It was a crummy romance novel with too many irritating plot points. "Just kiss and move on!" 

Evangeline (Evie) runs into the Villain (aka Trystan Maverine). Looking up the spelling of his name, I learned that this was a TikTok thing before becoming a book . . . ugh. Literature it is not.

Some of the fantasy elements of the story drew me in, but what good is magic if you can't really use it? Evie's dad's betrayal was the nail in the coffin for me . . . no way do I want to read book two to find out what happens.

Madly, Deeply: the Diaries of Alan Rickman

By: Alan Rickman

Foreward by: Emma Thompson

Libby audiobook 29:28 hours

Read by: Steven Crossley (foreward read by Bonnie Wright, editor's prologue by Alfred Enouch, afterword written and read by Rima Horton, Rickman's wife) 

Published: 2022

Genre: autobiography, memoir

From 1993 to 2016 (when he died), these diary entries are at times like a stream-of-consciousness to-do list and at other times, deeply moving. I wonder what he would think if he knew his private diaries would be published after his passing!

There were SO.many.names. Some of them I recognized; others were unfamiliar. He interacted with a lot of people and seemed to be most impressed with famous musicians. I wonder what it would be like to be written about in someone's diary and have it be published . . . I certainly hope Daniel Radcliffe has read this book!

What is "WAWA?" There were some names and details that flew right over my head. The narrator interjected at points to explain or clarify, but one of the hazards of listening to an audiobook vs. reading the print version is "missing" some of the text. I also want to get the print version to see photos! It must have photos.

Natasha who died in 2009 . . . who was she? Why was she important to Rickman? Ruby . . . just a friend? Seemed like a daughter or niece. 

It made me smile that after Harry Potter #2, he said, "No more Harry Potter!" and then went on to do all the rest that Snape was in.

Iraq War, Bush as "irrelevant," Rumsfeld and Cheney as the real power . . . his political observations for both the UK and the USA were interesting.

I want to watch so many things! Mesmer, Winter Guest, Die Hard 2 and 3 (how does he appear in movies after his character died in the first one?), . . . 

1994 Great Britain, John Smith, what was this about? I just went to Wikipedia to read up. Very interesting . . . and a tragic, untimely death.

He had so many issues with the places he lived - electrical, plumbing, etc. And he traveled SO MUCH! He was constantly flying to Toronto, LA, NYC, South Africa, Dublin, etc. and then back home again. 

<Above published 2.20.2025. Below added 3.02.2025.>

I got the print book from the Hennepin County Library (hardcover 441 pages plus appendix - diary entries from 1974-1982, afterword by his wife Rima Horton, and index).

I got this mainly to look at photographs. There were some and I enjoyed looking at them, but I wish there had been more!

I was stunned by the lovely illustrations in some of his journals! He was a very talented artist. 

I liked the look of his writing, but it's not the easiest to read. I'm glad someone took the time to type it up. Time to return this to the library and move on!

Ghost (Track book 1)

By: Jason Reynolds

Scott County Library hardcover 181 pages

Published: 2016

Genre: YA realistic fiction

My oh my! It's been too long since I read a book by Mr. Reynolds. He is an amazing author! I had gotten a free paperback copy of Patina last summer, but I knew it was book two in a series and I don't like to read books out of order. So I finally just requested this from the library so I could move on with the book sitting on my shelf!

Because this is written for middle school readers, has short chapters and can be considered a "quick read," it's easy to forget the power in his stories.

Castle "Ghost" Cranshaw vividly recalls the night his father pulled a gun on him and his mother. Since then, it has just been the two of them - mom works hard to keep them housed and fed. Ghost has more anger in him than he can deal with and always regrets causing his mom disappointment when the anger comes out.

I loved this book. I even cried!

Page 9: "But I always had this feeling that if I could just get on, I'd be the next LeBron. But I never wanted to be the next . . . whoever the most famous runner is. I never even thought about it."

This made me smile, but also think about how our culture creates heroes out of certain types of people. Nobody knows the name of the firefighter who has saved the most lives . . . but we all know who Kanye West is. (Ghost does go on to figure out that Usain Bolt is the fastest man alive.)

Page 31: "Then I was asleep for ten hours. I'm grumpy when I don't get at least eight. Some people would say I'm grumpy even when I do, but they don't know nothing . . . "

This also made me smile. Sleep is so valuable! I don't often get 8-10 hours of it, but I definitely suffer when I don't get enough.

Page 65: "I could feel the altercation-ness creeping up in my chest like a new kind of lightning. The black was turning red again, and I really wasn't trying to be a repeat offender of the bully beat-down."

Reading this helps me think about students who always seem to be in trouble . . . perhaps they're trying really hard to control their feelings and actions. Perhaps they're dealing with something that would tip me over the edge. How do we teach kids the best way to process deep feelings rather than resorting to violence? (I also like the inventiveness of words like "altercation-ness" - since Ghost has been warned to avoid any more altercations.)

Page 95: ". . . and cases of Worcestershire sauce (war-sess-ter-shyer . . . worst-tester-shier . . . gotta be a world record holder for hardest word) and moved them to the stockroom."

Ghost loves reading the Guinness Book of World Records, so that theme comes up a lot. I completely agree on how hard it is to properly say that word! I call it "W sauce" and Louie laughs at me.

Page 149: ". . . I'd planned on telling her that Coach got them for me, and then hope and pray that she never thanked him. When I think about it now, that was the stupidest idea ever."

I was thankful that Coach figured out what Ghost had done. I was so glad Ghost had not been able to compound the problem with more lying and hiding. The confession in the athletic store was hard, but so very necessary for him as a character. I did love that he was actually trying to protect his mom and not compound her stress - either in terms of financial or parenting. He did some wrong things for understandable reasons.

Page 179: "Sunny cheering, an orange slice in his mouth, the peel like a bright mouthpiece."

That brought back images from childhood! How fun to wear an orange peel as an artificial smile.

The book ended without us knowing the outcome of the race! I don't know if I like that or not. Did Ghost win? Lu? One of the other runners? It's a pretty brilliant way to close the story. This would be a wonderful book club book. I'm ready to read book two!

Heaven

By: Randy Alcorn

Libby audiobook 1 hour

Read by: Randy Alcorn

Published: 2004 (this version 2008)

Genre: Non-fiction, theology

I didn't realize when I requested this that it was a "short" version of a full length book. There was quite a long waiting list for it and I wanted to make sure I read it before I had to return it. In one hour, Alcorn does an overview of his longer complete title.Honestly? I don't plan to read the full book.

As a believer, I don't have some of the questions that he is trying to helpfully answer here. If anything, listening to this made me want to dig into Scripture and read more for myself. I don't especially enjoy (or fully understand) Revelations, but there is a lot there to indicate what our post-human on Earth life will look like. 

As a child, I remember thinking, "I don't want to sing praises to God for 10,000 years!" whenever we sang Amazing Grace. But I'm not a child any more. As much as I love this life I get to live, Heaven with God for eternity sounds much better. 

Good food for thought here.

The Girl in His Shadow

By: Jaima Fixsen and Regina Sirois (united pen name: Audrey Blake)

Libby ebook 35 chapters

Published: 2021

Genre: historical fiction, romance

Set in 1845 London, little Eleanor is the only survivor of the deadly cholera that took the rest of her family. Taken in (as an experiment - she survived cholera, so is she now immune?) by Dr. Horace Croft, she is raised in an unusual household where dead bodies are delivered by grave robbers during the night and scientific specimens litter the house.

Some of the details were fascinating and very evocative of the era. When Dr. Gibson and Miss Nora Beady started flirting over corpses, it just got weird. 

For her to absorb so much medical knowledge while not being allowed to actively participate outside the confines of Dr. Croft's space was frustrating for Nora. The opportunity to study in Italy opens the door to book two.

Chapter 6: "Women, as the morally superior gender, were made for "sweet ordering," for instilling Christian principles in children and comforting weary men after the trials of the day."

Nora was definitely not a typical woman of her time!

Chapter 13: "All men were destined to end up in the grave. It might be best if he waited here until his day came."

This is after Dr. Gibson (Daniel) went off on Dr. Vickery and got drunk at the club. I don't think most of us think about the fact that we're all destined to end up in the grave. . . . 

Chapter 18: "After that he maintained a steady flow of patients and distracted himself enough that he only felt the stab of remorse and humiliation slice through him once an hour or so."

Poor Daniel! It's awful to torment yourself. The distractions helped, but he was still feeling the sting of his demotion and embarrassment. 

Chapter 33: "Passing muster in French and Latin taxed her to her limit. Believing she could muddle through in Italian . . . but human bodies were the same everywhere, and other students would share notes."

I did like Nora's mental quickness and can do attitude. She is a wonderful protagonist. I can't imagine how hard it was for women to pioneer in traditionally male roles with so much criticism and censure.

Chapter 33: " . . . though his color told her he'd not been dead very long. How quickly they lose all trace of themselves."

Nora is looking at the body of Mr. Wilhems, a person she'd known and helped treat during his life. His dead body no longer looks like him. I think of the open casket funerals I've been to, where there is so much makeup slathered on that the person looks more like a dummy or a wax figurine. Death is not pretty.

Author's Note (Fixsen): "The heartbreaking truth is that thinking women were forced by convention to work anonymously or in the shadow of husbands, brothers, and fathers, and not merely in the field of medicine."

Sad truths about the past. And the present, a little bit?

 

Author's Note (Sirois): ". . . but never has one narrow field of study so seduced me. What pathos! What egos! What terrible courage and heartbreaking ignorance!"

 

I love when authors gush over their interests and that fascination leads to research that results in a book.

I'll probably go ahead and read book two. There were two chapters of it at the end of this book. Way to reel me in!

Although I didn't care for the weird romance scenes (over dead bodies - really?) I liked the compassion and curiosity both Nora and Daniel had toward medical science and helping people have better, healthier lives. I was disappointed in Harry but understood why he did what he did. Mrs. Phipps the housekeeper was a wonderful character. 

I also liked the Author's Notes (there were two people and neither was named Audrey!) and the Q&A with the authors. Very interesting.

Jane Eyre

By Charlotte Brönte

Libby ebook . . . 

Published: 1847 (this version 2012)

Genre: gothic fiction, romance (nowadays, we'd call it historical!)

 

I have read this book many, many times, but have not apparently ever blogged about it! I thought I would surely be adding to a previous entry. Alas, I highlighted many passages and words. I really love this book. I love that this version had the preface from "Currer Bell," Brönte's alias when the book was published. 

 

I'll dive right in with my "notes" and then try to figure out why I love this book so darn much!

 

Preface: "Men too often confound them: they should not be confounded: appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ."

 

Her excessive use of colons aside, I like the notion that human doctrines should not be substituted for Christ's redemption. I won't take the time now to dig in to what people in 1847 thought of "Currer Bell" or why Brönte chose this name, but I am a bit curious to know more.

 

Chapter 1:  Of these death-white realms I formed an idea of my own: shadowy, like all the half-comprehended notions that float dim through children's brains, but strangely impressive.

I love how she uses language so expressively and how she also captures the way a child's brain can work. In this scene, Jane is reading Bewick's History of British Birds and the description of the birds' habitat has struck such a powerful image in her mind. Right after this is when her cousin John Reed comes and harasses her.

Chapter 2: I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.

It is so ironic to me that Mrs. Reed was incredibly vile to her niece while her own children were the really awful ones.

Chapter 4: ". . .. I doated on this little toy. . . "

I simply had to look it up. "Doat" is an archaic form of the word "dote." I love (and sometimes dislike) how language changes!

 

Incidental note: the Libby ebook had the chapter numbers in Roman numerals; my print book has the chapter numbers written out fully. I am simply choosing to write the numbers here.

 

Chapter 5: I was now nearly sick from inanition, having taken so little the day before.

I understood, of course, that she was faint from hunger, but I was curious about the word "inanition," especially since Blogger is giving it the little red squiggle line that means it is misspelled. The dictionary recognizes it as a legitimate word meaning "

exhaustion caused by lack of nourishment." Perhaps one reason I like this book so much is because I'm a word nerd and I love her use of the English language!

Chapter 5: " . . . it was "Rasselas;" a name that struck me as strange, and consequently attractive."

The semi-colon after the title . . . why, Charlotte? And now I'm curious to read The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (which is what turned up in a Google search).

Chapter 6: ". . . if I do anything worthy of praise, she gives me my meed liberally."

"Meed" instead of "Mead" caught my attention. Ah! I was in the wrong. "

1. a deserved share or reward.

   "he must extract from her some meed of approbation"

Tip

Similar-sounding words

meed is sometimes confused with mead and mede

Chapter 6: "Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. We are, and must be, one and all, burdened with faults in this world: but the time will soon come when, I trust, we shall put them off in putting off our corruptible bodies; when debasement and sin will fall from us with this cumbrous frame of flesh, and only the spark of the spirit will remain, . . . "

This is one of those places where I simply say "Yes!" Life is far too short to get bogged down in being upset.

Chapter 7: " . . . a double ration of bread - a whole, instead of a half, slice - with the delicious addition of a thin scrape of butter: it was the hebdomadal treat to which we all looked forward from Sabbath to Sabbath."

This reminds me so much of Dickens' poor orphans! To consider an entire slice of bread with a "scrape" of butter as a treat! Once a week! And "hebdomadal" simply means "weekly." I thought for sure it had a more significant meaning! But I needed to look it up, so go Charlotte!

Chapter 8: "Exhausted by emotion, my language was more subdued than it generally was when it developed that sad theme; and mindful of Helen's warnings against the indulgence of resentment, I infused into the narrative far less of gall and wormwood than ordinary. Thus restrained and simplified, it sounded more credible: I felt as I went on that Miss Temple fully believed me."

Oh, Jane. I, too, often fill my storytelling with too much drama and emotion. I'm glad she was exhausted enough to share her story well.

Chapter 8: "Then her soul sat on her lips, and language flowed, from what source I cannot tell."

Jane is listening to Helen Burns and Miss Temple and marveling at her friend's eloquence. I love that phrase "her soul sat on her lips."

Chapter 8: ". . . Cuyp-like groups of cattle . . . "

Again, I love being pushed in my understanding of the English language. "Cuyp" refers to a Dutch painter named Aelbert Cuyp who painted pastoral scenes in the 1600s. There are so many things I'm curious about and so many rabbit trails I can follow!

Chapter 9: "'My Maker and yours, who will never destroy what He created. I rely implicitly on His power, and confide wholly in His goodness: I count the hours till that eventful one arrives which shall restore me to Him, reveal Him to me.'"

Helen is answering Jane's question "Where is God? What is God?" I love Helen's response. She goes on to say:

"I am sure there is a future state; I believe God is good; I can resign my immortal part to Him without any misgiving. God is my father; God is my friend: I love Him; I believe He loves me."

This is a conversation the two girls have while Helen is on her deathbed. 

Chapter 10: "A new servitude! There is something in that," I soliloquised (sic) (mentally, be it understood; I did not talk aloud), "I knew there is, because it does not sound too sweet; it is not like such words as Liberty, Excitement, Enjoyment: delightful sounds truly; but no more than sounds for me; and so hollow and fleeting that it is mere waste of time to listen to them."

Her soliloquizing made me smile. I have so many internal conversations that I sometimes have to tell my brain to be quiet! Jane is contemplating leaving Lowood for a new situation.

Chapter 12: "This, par parenthese, will be thought cool language by persons who entertain solemn doctrines about the angelic nature of children, and the duty of those charged with their education to conceive for them an idolatrous devotion: but I am not writing to flatter parental egotism, to echo cant, or prop up humbug; I am merely telling the truth. I felt a conscientious solicitude for Adele's welfare and progress, and a quiet liking for her little self: just as I cherished towards Mrs. Fairfax a thankfulness for her kindness, and a pleasure in her society proportionate to the tranquil regard she had for me, and the moderation of her mind and character."

I just love the language she uses! The line just before "I am merely telling the truth" just rolls off the tongue. 

Chapter 13: "'Et cela doit signifier,' said she, 'qu'il y aura le dedans un cadeau pour moi, et peut-etre pour vous aussi, mademoiselle. Monsieur a parle de vois: il m'a demande le nom de ma gouvernante, et si elle n'etait pas une petite personne, assez mince et un peu pale. J'ai dit qu'oui: car c'est vrai, n'est-ce pas, mademoiselle?'"

I love that I know enough French to understand Adele's communication! Google translate has improved so much in recent years that I decided to see what nuance I may have missed. Translation: "And that must mean, "she said, 'that there will be a present inside for me, and perhaps for you too, mademoiselle. Monsieur spoke about you: he asked me the name of my governess, and if she was not a small person, quite thin and a little pale. I said yes: because it's true, isn't it, mademoiselle?" I don't know if I'm encouraged or disappointed that I didn't find any new meaning!

 

Chapter  13: "'Sir, you have now given me my 'cadeau;' I am obliged to you: it is the meed teachers most covet - praise of their pupils' progress.'"

 

I love this answer that Jane gives to Mr. Rochester's cross examination of her! Talk about calm under pressure. Adele's impulsiveness and emotion cannot take away from Jane's presence of mind and honest contemplation.

 

Chapter  17: The descriptions of the cleaning of Thornfield . . . I would love to have a team of servants to give my house a thorough cleaning of every bit of my house!

 

Chapter 17: ". . . in case of contumacy."

 

Again, the context clues helped me understand this. It is, however, a word I do not know well. "Stubborn refusal to obey or comply with authority" fits with how I understood it. (Mr. Rochester is talking about "fetching" Jane if she does not come to the drawing room after dinner.)

 

Chapter  17: "'As if loveliness were not the special prerogative of woman - her legitimate appanage and heritage.'"

 

Miss Blanche Ingram is waxing poetic about her thoughts on beauty and the sexes. "Appanage" means "a gift of land, an official position, or money given to the younger children of kings and princes to provide for their maintenance." (Historical) Basically, their inheritance. Whatever, lady.

 

Chapter  17: "'Here then is a Corsair-song. Know that I doat on Corsairs; and for that reason, sing it con spirito."

 

Again, the use of "doat" for "dote" and Blanche Ingram playing Queen Bee.

 

Chapter 18: " . . . pushing her away with some contumelious epithet if she happened to approach her . . . "

 

That Blanche again, being rude to Adele.  "Contumelious" is archaic according to dictionary.com It means "scornful and insulting; insolent."

 

Chapter 20: ". . . again, however, I head him call "Jane!" He had opened feel portal and stood at it, waiting for me." (Sic)

 

I re-read this several times and was confused. (Read it aloud and see what I mean.) In my paperback copy of the book, it reads ". . . again, however, I head him call "Jane!" He had opened the portal and stood at it, waiting for me."It's only one word - feel instead of the - but my distrust of relying on technology and especially AI sharpens in cases like this. That said, sometimes (too often!) I come across errors and typos when I re-read my blog entries. Human failure and tech failure . . . signs of imperfection everywhere.

Chapter 21: "Feeling without judgment is a washy draught indeed; but judgment untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition."

This reminded me so much of the teaching on God's love and God's truth. I'm not sure which quote I'm thinking of (Timothy Keller, John Bevere, . . . ) but here's one I found from Warren Wiersbe: "Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy. God doesn't bless us just to make us happy; He blesses us to make us a blessing." Did I mention how much I like the way Brönte writes?

Chapter 22: "Then I thought of Eliza and Georgiana; I beheld one the cynosure of a ball-room, the other the inmate of a convent cell; and I dwelt on and analysed their separate peculiarities of person and character." 

I love words! "Cynosure" means "a person or thing that is the center of attention and admiration."

Chapter 22: ". . . not to send for a carriage, and come clattering over street and road like a common mortal, but to steal into the vicinage of your home along with twilight, just as if you were a dream or a shade."

"Vicinage" means just like it sounds - vicinity.

Chapter 22: " . . . stopped my cars . . . " (sic)

Of course it is "ears"! My brain really has issues with this.

Chapter 24: "I could not, in those days, see God for His creature: of whom I had made an idol."

Jane is nineteen years old and in love for the first time. She should cut herself some slack! It is too easy for us to idolize people who are most definitely not worth it! Only God deserves all glory and honor.

Chapter 27: ". . . his gripe (sic) was painful, and my overtaxed strength almost exhausted."

Checked the print book - yep. "grip" not "gripe." Where are the editors?! That said, it was nice to have a "print" book for our trip to Florida.

Chapter 28: "We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His omnipresence. I had risen to my knees to pray for Mr. Rochester. Looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty Milky-way. Remembering what it was - what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light - I felt the might and strength of God. Sure was I of His efficiency to save what He had made: convinced I grew that neither earth should perish, nor one of the souls it treasured. I turned my prayer to thanksgiving: the Source of Lie was also the Saviour of spirits. Mr. Rochester was safe; he was God's, and by God would he be guarded. I again nestled to the breast of the hill; and ere long in sleep forgot sorrow."

Jane is homeless and penniless. She has left Thornfield and is searching for what she will do next.

Chapter 28: "I would fain at the moment have become bee or lizard, that I might have found fitting nutriment, permanent shelter here."

"Fain" is listed as archaic. It can be used as either an adverb or an adjective. Here it means with pleasure, gladly.

Chapter 28: "Life, however, was yet in my possession, with all its requirements, and pains, and responsibilities. The burden must be carried; the want provided for; the suffering endured; the responsibility fulfilled."

I love it when life triumphs over defeat!

Chapter 28: "Solitude would be no solitude - rest no rest - while the vulture, hunger, thus sank beak and talons in my side."

Hunger is simply not something that I experience often. And I have never been even remotely close to starvation. This description is powerful.

Chapter 29: "Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised (sic) by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones."

Here, the author is observing Jane's approach to Hannah and setting her straight about some misconceptions she has. I can't help but think of modern day biases and prejudices, though.

Chapter 38: ". . . made fair progress in her studies. As she grew up, a sound English education corrected in a great measure her French defects . . . "

Jane is talking about Adele, but I can't help wonder how French readers view this perspective. It makes me giggle to think about cultural biases. One of the things I like about Jane Eyre is her mixture . . . 

Hmm. I posted this on 2.1.2025 and here I am on 2.12.2025 to add something. Apparently, I posted this before I finished writing it. Or I finished writing it but it didn't save? In any case, I have no idea how I was going to finish that sentence. I found a piece of paper with notes I wanted to record here.

Mr. Reed married the awful Miss Gibson and had John, Eliza, and Georgiana.

Mr. Reed had a sister, Miss Jane Reed. She married Mr. Eyre who was a poor clergyman and her family rejected her for it.

They had little Jane and then died.

Mr. Reed the clergyman had two siblings - a brother and a sister. The brother was John Eyre, a wine merchant in Madeira. The sister married Mr. Rivers and had three children - St. John, Diana, and Mary.

I'm too lazy to make a graphic here, but I found this online:

 Much thanks to the folks at https://jane-eyre.guidesite.co.uk/jane-genealogy for creating this!

 

 

Shelterwood

By: Lisa Wingate

Libby audiobook, print copies from Scott County and Dakota County, 331 pages plus author's note and acknowledements

Read by: Christine Lakin, Jenna Lamia, and Dan Bittner

Published: 2024

Genre: Christian historical fiction

We discussed this at book club on Monday evening. Set in both the early 1900s and 1990, it traveled between young Olive Augusta Radley and park ranger Valerie Boren-Odell. I do have a spoiler alert below, if you've not read the book.

 

Page 19: "She didn't see that Tesco's kindliness is like a poison dripping on your skin. You don't know it's there till it seeps in."

 

Tesco was such a creepy awful character! For eleven year old Olive to see the way he was trying to groom little Nessa was just sad. A child shouldn't have to try to protect another child.

 

Page  43: "I'll let the water people have me. It's better than Tesco."

 

Again, for a child to be okay with facing death by drowning rather than have to return to a "stepfather" who's abusive and frightening is just so sad. This is one of those "nothing new under the sun" things . . . horrible, evil men who use little girls for their own sexual satisfaction is not just a modern day phenomenon.

 

Page  66: "He's a diminutive man in a beige cardigan, plaid polyester pants circa 1975, loafers, and a tweed fedora. With thick bottle-bottom glasses magnifying eyes of a bright amber hew, and a bulbous nose, he looks like a cross between Mr. Magoo and Tom Landry. A library ghost come to life."

This description of Mr. Wouda as he approaches Valerie made me laugh. I also wondered about the author's use of "hew" instead of "hue." What am I missing? The cut of his eyes?

Page 113: "The night and the scene are too beautiful to be wasted hating the people across the room. Hate is a thief that will steal everything and return nothing if you let it."

Valerie is wise in assessing the pointlessness of hating awful people. I'm surprised she could keep it together when the men in the diner were making rude comments to her son because of her job. I'm not good at holding in my vitriol when I'm angry.

Page 113: "Charlie picks that exact moment to surface from finger-sampling his dessert. His thick brown eyelashes fly upward. 'We're getting a puppy?'"

I love this! Little kids and puppies . . . made me smile.

Page 242: "The right thing is hardly ever the easy thing, Val. That was one of the last pieces of advice my dad offered before he died."

Valerie (like Olive) had learned a lot from a positive father figure. I loved that parallel.

Page 250: "That's how strong a tree, or a person, or a family is. Strong as the roots, see? . . . The old shelterwood trees keep the forest safe from the wind and the weather, from too much sun and heat in the summer, too much snow in the winter. They're strong and pull up the water from down deep in the drought times, hold the soil so everything smaller can grow, and all of that comes from the roots of this big ol' tree. The old take care of the young, just like a family."

Olive's dad taught her so much wisdom in her young life. (He died when she was around eight years old?)

Page 270: I'm not quoting anything from this page, but I was so incredibly agitated when Ollie ran into the laundry man in the alley and she was being drawn in by her fear and his tricks. I kept wanting to yell, "Run!" I put a tab here simply because of my visceral fear that she would be taken and hurt.

Page 279: "On the tax rolls it's listed under the name Hazel Rusk, . . . "

When Curtis said this to Valerie, my mind spun into possibilities. I was sure Hazel (Nessa's older sister) had been molested and killed by Tesco. Then I wondered if one of the girls had survived and used her name. Early on in the book, I was sure that the three buried children in the cave were Hazel, Olive, and Nessa. As the book went on, my thoughts about the dead children changed. The author really kept me wondering!

Page 280: "I'll circle back to this uncertainty again and again. Maybe it will always be this hard. To trust. To let anyone in after losing Joel. The people you're close to aren't guaranteed. They can be gone in an instant."

True story. Value the time you have now and the people in your life. Life is short and precious.

Page 301: "Skeedee's been a good friend to me, and he deserves better. Nothing should belong to Tesco Peele, ever."

Olive feels sad for the horse to have to be owned by that awful man! Skeedee had been a good horse (and friend) to her.

Page 313: "Shelterwood is an obscure forestry term for older, larger trees that protect the smaller, younger growth beneath. I know the word. I can quote the definition, but it won't help me build a case."

Valerie is smart and well-educated, but confused. Olive (aged now) goes on to explain the name for Shelterwood (the home the children made) to Valerie and Curtis. I do love when the author "explains" the book's name. Just as the term refers to forestry, in some ways Olive played that role in protecting Nessa. 

Page 313: "But one must never believe what can be read in the history books about powerful men. The wealthy have the privilege of writing their own stories as they like. Tonight I will tell you what is true."

I'm so thankful that in my freshman year of college, Dr. Idzerda had us reading first person accounts - diaries, letters, etc. History is made up of people's stories. We all experience things differently and we tend to interpret history through our own experience. 

Page 317: "'But it is an eternal truth . . . and you young people remember this, if you remember nothing else I say.' The storyteller locks eyes with each of us, one by one. 'Your burden will often become your salvation. It was only for this reason, the burden of a remarkably heavy load of wood, that those two girls from the attic, Ollie and Nessa, were not separated forever the evening Shelterwood was destroyed."

I was going to type more of this paragraph, but the main point here is the idea that your burden can become your salvation. We talked about it at book club. Sometimes what we struggle with helps us become who God wants us to be. For all the female characters in this story, strength grew through adversity.

Page 322: "We don't always get what we seek in places like this. I've been involved in enough court cases to know that justice is not the idealized woman on the statues, blindfolded and draped in flowing robes. She's battered and chipped, and she has picked herself up from a million hard falls, dusted off her scales, and gone back to work."

Justice is a powerful concept. I like the author's description here.

Page 326: "My heartstrings tug, and I want to call my mother and my grandmother, the women who built me - who implanted the idea that whatever path I chose for myself, I could conquer it."

Valerie has a wonderful connection to the women who raised her. Olive's mother succumbed to drugs and alcohol and was simply not able to help Olive become a strong woman. Olive did that on her own, with her dad's teachings to guide her.

 

*** Spoilers ahead***

Page 327: "'I'll never know, but there is only one notation of three girls: Ara, Alma, and Addie Crooms. He wrote beside their names, Killed in a wagon accident, with a question mark. Their burial was the last time he did such terrible work. Perhaps he couldn't stomach it after that.'"

Olive has her dad's journal. This passage solves the mystery of the bones in the cave, but not so much what he had actually done in Mr. rich guy's employ.

Page 333 (Author's Note): "While the Horesthief Trail National Park in the book is fictional, its development, land mass, and historical features mirror those of the Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area . . . "

Makes me want to visit Oklahoma!

 

Page 337: "The guardian had, in total, court-sanctioned control over fifty-one allotment-wealthy children, many of whom he had no means of locating. Kate's department prosecuted the man and sought to regain the children's money and property. In the process, Kate and her small staff exposed a system of graft, greed, and political favors that included not only the guardians themselves, but everyone from local merchants to lawmen and probate court judges. Kate's attempts to put an end to the graft were foiled at every turn, and she was eventually steamrolled by forces more powerful than she could ever have imagined. After her second term, she was drummed out of office, her crusade silenced and left to fade."

Kate Barnard was not a familiar name to me and I love how Wingate used historical fact to enhance her story's intensity. It shouldn't shock and horrify me that people allow greed to be their (im)moral compass. How horrific to "adopt" children merely to steal their resources! A lot of times, reading this book made me think of what I learned when reading Rez Life.

Page 344 (Acknowledgements): "What lucky people we readers are that we live not just one life, but many, and diving into yet another is as easy as opening a book."

This is followed by her extensive bibliography. Wingate really does a lot of research for her books! One of the things I really liked about this book was the portrayal of Valerie's reality as a female park ranger in 1990. I wish we had learned more about her earlier life and what happened to her husband, but perhaps I just wasn't a careful enough reader.