Book Review: Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler

Before Women Had Wings

by 

Connie May Fowler

*This post contains affiliate links

Quote:

" Listen to me, Bird, dreaming is for fools, and I don't ever want to be accused of raising up a little fool."~ Mama(Glory Marie) pg. 45

Started: September 23, 2018

Finished: September 26, 2018

304 pages/paperback

From the cover:

My name is Avocet Abigail Jackson. But because Mama couldn't find anyone who thought Avocet was a fine name for a child, she called me Bird. Which is okay by me. She named both her girl children after birds, her logic being that if we were named for something with wings then maybe we'd be able to fly above the shit in our lives...

My Review:

I have to admit I was intrigued by the cover of this book. I grabbed it and couldn't wait to get reading.

It did not disappoint. It had everything I had hoped it would.

There is struggle from the beginning. Trials and errors made by many. It has innocence of  childhood, yet children seeing and living such things they never should have to.

It is written showing a clear and honest character in "Bird".

The story starts out with Bird vividly recalling the day her daddy walked into the General Store, revolver in hand and threatened to kill himself in front of her mother, sister, and herself.

She was just six-years-old.

From there, the story takes you through her days, living in an abusive home. A drunkard father, a mean tempered mama, a brother that comes and goes, and a sister that loves or hates her depending on the day.

After tragedy hits their home, Mama decides to head south. To take the girls on a journey that will change all of their lives.

While things don't get better, they definitely change.

A new place, new school, and...a new friend.

Miss Zora, befriends Bird, not knowing that Bird has been forbidden from being around her.

Their secret friendship is exactly what Bird, and her family needs.

Will these women ever get their wings?

This is a must read!

Grab your copy here:

Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler

Be sure to let me know what you think of this wonderful book! Leave a comment!

Book review: My Heart Belongs in the Superstition Mountains: Carmela's Quandary

My Heart Belongs in the Superstition Mountains:

Carmela's Quandary

by 

Susan Page Davis

*This post contains affiliate links

Quote:

"I don't understand why some people are so eager to hear about other's troubles." Deputy McKay

 pg. 70

Started: September 8, 2018

Finished: September 21, 2018

paperback 256 pages

From the cover:

A chance for escape takes two unlikely allies on a romantic adventure along a desert trail.

Orphaned at age twelve, Carmela Wade has lived a lie orchestrated by her uncle, pretending to be a survivor of an Indian kidnapping and profiting from telling her made-up story. But as she matures into adulthood, Carmela hates the deceit and longs to be free. On a stagecoach in Arizona Territory, Carmela and her uncle are fellow passengers with US Marshal Freeland McKay and his handcuffed prisoner. The stage is attacked. A chance to make a new life may suddenly be within Carmela's reach...if she can survive the harsh terrain and being handcuffed to an unconscious man.

Journey now to Tuscan, Arizona, and into the Superstition Mountains of 1866, where freedom will come at a high price for two determined individuals.

My Review:

This is the first book I have read in the My Heart Belongs series.

It was a light, easy read. I have to admit it was a big change for me. I've mostly been reading more thriller, dark, and mystery types.

This book was a total switch for me.

Normally, I do enjoy something lighter from time to time. This really was a sweet, innocent, well written, Christian fiction. Which is exactly want it was intended to be.

I can't say it was one that will go into my top 10 list.

I felt after reading the synopsis...that was pretty much it. That was the whole story, minus a few details. It sort of ruined the book for me. 

Everything was pretty much already there. Too predictable, no suspense...at all. I mean, you would think, wild west, captive characters, a stagecoach robbery, a lying uncle and the rugged terrain; there would be some action. I don't know,...just something.

I just felt like the whole book was drug out. A little back and forth with Carmela retelling her story to different characters as they showed up in the book, but nothing new.

And, the romance was too easy. The big, strapping Marshal, the damsel in distress....

Their time apart, hearts longing, and you guessed it...they make their way back together and ride off into the sunset.

Okay, I don't want to sound so harsh. It just wasn't for me.

I will say it was well written into short chapters. It had a few great characters( Mrs. Finney was my favorite). And, the good guys come out on top.

Overall, it was a sweet romance. Just don't be expecting any big wow moments.

I will check out the others in the series, just to see how they fair. 

Sometimes, it's nice to switch it up with something lighter. 

I would still recommend this book for those I know would enjoy it.

You can easily purchase a slightly used copy of this book,

My Heart Belongs in the Superstition Mountains:Carmela's Quandary

or many of the other, My Heart Belongs books, from my link provided.

Book List of Witches, Magic, and Superstitions

Welcome.
I am finally getting into the Fall season. I wasn't quite ready to welcome all the changes last week.
I was clinging to the last bits of summer. Trying to wrap up all the tasks I was working on. Which included cleaning up my Goodreads account. I had a few books I wanted to put into new categories and ended up making a new "shelf".
I realized I had a few that really didn't fit anywhere, except plain old fiction or my "read" books.
I decided to add a "witches" category/shelf.
I thought, now is the perfect time to share that list here with all of you.
I'm not into gore or horror so much, but I am intrigued by old time witchcraft. As in healers and using mother nature instead of modern day, first world medicines. I also love anything about superstitions, rituals, old wives tales. The sort that make you question what could be. What you've heard or been taught. Maybe even a little chill up your spine. 
Those things, to me are what make a book more of storytelling. A good old fashioned..."Grandma used to say..." kind of story.
If those are the types of books you enjoy or are looking for, then you will love this list!

*post contains affiliate links

Bloodroot by Amy Greene

Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses both the power to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about the legacies- of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss-that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

The New York Times best selling author of the Girl Who Chased The Moon welcomes you to her newest locale: Walls of Water, North Carolina, where the secrets are thicker than the fog from the town's famous waterfalls, and the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to be.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

The women of the Waverley family--whether they like it or not--are heirs to an unusual legacy, one that grows in a fenced plot behind their Queen Anne home on Pendland street in Bascom, North Carolina. There, an apple tree bearing fruit of magical properties looms over a garden filled with herbs and edible flowers that possess the power to affect in curious ways anyone who eats them.

Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

In this irresistible novel, Sarah Addison Allen, author of the New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets- and secret passions-are about to change her life forever.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores colonial Connecticut in 1687. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place.

Dark Witch(#1 Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy) by Nora Roberts

From Nora Roberts comes a trilogy about the land we are drawn to, the family we learn to cherish, and the people we long to love... With indifferent parents, Iona Sheehan grew up craving devotion and acceptance. From her maternal grandmother, she learned where to find both: a land of lush forests, dazzling lakes, and centuries-old legends. Ireland.

Also Books #2 and #3

Shadow Spell

Blood Magick

A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi

Susanna desperately wants to join the circle of girls who meet every week at the parsonage. What she doesn't realize is that the girls are about to set off a torrent of false accusations leading to the imprisonment and execution of countless innocent people. Susanna faces a painful choice.

The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston

Fledgling witch Morgana must defend her love, her home, and her life in this enthralling tale perfect for fans of Discovery of Witches. In her small early nineteenth century Welsh town, there is no one quite like Morgana, who has not spoken since she was a young girl. Her silence is a mystery, as well as her magic.

I hope you all will enjoy these books as much as I did. You can also check out my shelf and any reviews I have done on them.

Goodreads and books about witches

Happy reading and Happy Fall!

Book Review: A High and Hidden Place by Michele Claire Lucas

A High and Hidden Place

by 

Michele Claire Lucas

*This post contains affiliate links

Quote:

"I had a family, a big family, I had a town. I had a best friend. I had a house with a garden. I had a grandfather who was a printer. I had a grandfather who was a bookbinder. Isn't that a wonderful thing to be?"~ Christine pg.202

Started: August 26, 2018

Finished: September 6, 2018

hardback 288 pages

From the cover:

(prologue)

I was brought, at the age of six, to a convent, a cloistered place of asylum from the world that was roiling and thundering and awash in blood. I did not know then, of course, that the whole world was teeming with the motherless, the fatherless, the homeless, the dispossessed. I did not know then that I was an orphan among orphans, one of so many everywhere in the world, made so by events beyond my sight, beyond my awareness, in any case beyond my six-year-old ability to comprehend...I soon enough forgot my mother and the rest of my family. They had disappeared from my sight in a day, and then gradually, with the months and then the years, from my mind and my heart. The angel mothers became my parents, the other orphan girls, who were indeed no angel children after all, became my siblings. It may be difficult to believe, but my childhood, both before and after the terrible day of the fire, was a very happy one. But though I did not know it, I would forevermore be Christine of Oradour, with all that that appellation implied.

My Review:

I absolutely loved this book! I really felt it. It was by far one of the best written, although fiction books that I really believed.

"Fiction by fact" is one of my favorite types of books.

Michele Claire Lucas has done an amazing job of creating the character of one girl who lived through actual events.

While Christine of Oradour is fictional, Oradour-sur-Glane, France is an actual place, where a very heartless massacre occurred.

On June 10, 1944 by order of  Waffen SS officer Adolf Otto Diekmann, all residents, mostly farmers, shopkeepers,  housewives, children, and elderly were summoned to the town square, where they were then separated men from women and children.

The men were corralled into barns while the women and children were sent into the church.

The men were mostly shot in the knees or legs first to keep them from running, and for torture and later the barns were caught on fire. The women were burned alive inside the church.

Read on here for more on the actual events:  Oradour-sur-Glane massacre

The photo was taken some years after the massacre occurred. My understanding is the town was left as is, as a memorial to those lives lost. The village is abandoned.

In the book, Christine Lenoir is a journalist during the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, and is watching the television when Lee Harvey Oswald is shot. The scene and sound on the television trigger memories Christine has long forgotten. While, she has no idea what they mean, she knows that they are very real. She has seen a man killed before. But how? And when?

Her parents died of influenza when she was only six years old and she then lived a quiet, un-tormented childhood inside the convent, raised by peaceful nuns. 

Christine goes back to the convent, the safest place she knows. She doesn't understand the images she sees over and over, but she must find out what they mean.

The Sisters must know something. Is Christine ready for the answers?

Get the book here!

A High and Hidden Place

Don't miss out on this wonderful story!

What to Read Next?!?! Poll Included(Ended!)

Update:

This poll has ended.

Results as follows:

With a whopping 7 votes total. LOL

Yes, 7!(poll fail)

There was a tie for first place!

3 votes- Before Women Had Wings

3 votes-What Alice Forgot

1 vote- The Lost Hours

0 votes- Obedience

I have decided to go with Before Women Had Wings.

Although the poll lasted for a week. The 3 votes for this book were all voted for on day 1.

Therefore, I will consider it the most popular vote.

Thank you to those who voted. I hope you enjoyed.

Happy Reading!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What should I read next?

I wanted to do kind of a fun post. Not only do I need help deciding what I should read next, but I also wanted to have a way to get more readers engaged in my blog/reviews. I thought this would be a neat way to see what books others are reading or recommending. I also included an "other" option! Please, feel free to share a book you suggest. Comment on any that you have read.

(By the way...I'm also testing to see if this poll actually works. I've never done this before.Well, not since Blogger took the easy click gadget away.)

The books I have chosen to add to this poll are completely random. Just 4 that I own and have been sitting on the shelf. 

Snipits for each:

Obedience by Jacqueline Yallop

Set in contemporary and WWII France, this is the story of Sister Bernard: her forbidden love, her uncertain faith, and her guilt-ridden past

The Lost Hours by Karen White

When Piper Mills was twelve, she helped her grandfather bury a box that belonged to her grandmother in the backyard. For twelve years, it remained untouched.

Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler

My name is Avocet Abigail Jackson. But because Mama couldn't find anyone that thought Avocet was a fine name for a child, she called me Bird. Which was okay by me.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with their first child. So, imagine Alice's surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over-she's getting divorced, she has three kids, and she's actually 39 years old.

I think any of these would be a great choice. I hope you will join in and make sure to vote in the poll!
The poll will be up for one week
August 31, 2018- September 7, 2018

What book should I read next?

The Lost Hours by Karen White

Obedience by Jacqueline Yallop

Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Other

Please Specify:

Created with SurveyMaker


Happy Reading!

Audiobook Mini Reviews: Crime, Suspense, and Mystery

I'm super excited to get these audiobook reviews finally done!
I know y'all have been waiting patiently and I really appreciate it!
For the most part, I can get these audios "read" much faster than actual books, so I decided to try and do a round-up 3.
These are the three that fell into the category of crime, suspense, and mystery.
I'm hoping to have a theme similar with each set of mini reviews I do.
That may mean larger gaps between reviews, depending on what I read and how I can categorize them. Just bear with me.

*This post contains affiliate links.

1. The Life We Bury~ Allen Eskens

(Detective Max Rupert #1)

mystery/fiction/thriller

College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing suspect. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Iverson is a Vietnam veteran- and a convicted murderer.

My Review:

This book had so much going for it. Joe has enough of his own issues going on, home life, a dysfunctional mother, college, an autistic brother, a crush on his neighbor. The last thing he needs is a murder mystery to solve. Yet, that is exactly where this story takes us.

Joe wonders how this respected veteran with his loyal friend and stories of heroism can be convicted of such a violent crime.

Joe, with the help from his girl neighbor, are determined to find the truth. Will it be too late?

A must read.

2. Adam~ Ted Dekker

Christian fiction, mystery, horror, thriller

FBI Behavioral psychologist Daniel Clark has been made famous by his arguments that religion is one of society's greatest antagonists. What Daniel doesn't know is that his obsessive pursuit of a serial killer known only as "Eve" will end in his own death at Eve's hand. Twenty minutes later, Daniel is resuscitated, only to be haunted by those twenty missing minutes of life.

My Review:

Dekker! (swoon)

I truly do love all of his books. I love his writing style and how he combines his Christianity and beliefs into real scenarios. Real stories that will not only grip you from the beginning but also give you tons of food for thought.

Adam is a twisted mix of obsession, pursuit, capture, release, mind altering, abuse, trauma, consequences, and beliefs. It truly has a little something for everyone.

For myself, this books real question...the real "take-away" is; Which is better or right. Facing our demons and finding release to heal. Or hiding them, hoping they go away from fear of what happens when they are revealed?

3. Harvest~ Tess Gerritsen

mystery, thriller, crime, suspense

Medical resident Dr. Abby Matteo is elated when the elite cardiac transplant team at Boston's Bayside Hospital taps her as a potential recruit. But faced with a tormenting life-and-death decision, Abby helps direct a crash victim's harvested heart to a dying teenager -- instead of a wealthy older woman who was supposed to receive it. The repercussions leave Abby shaken and plagued with self-doubt.

My Review:

I fell in love with Gerritsen's writings through her Rizzoli and Isles series. I have continued to enjoy many more of her books.

Harvest is a stand alone book. It was such a great book without the commitment of getting sucked into another series.(I just don't have time at the moment).

This story very much could be true. I'm sure it has happened to some degree, somewhere. Greed is everywhere and the fight to live only fuels that. What would you be willing to pay to save a loved one?

Would you be willing to look the other way in order to save one of your own?...For the right price.

Dive into this twisted mystery and find out how it plays out.

I just checked the website, Thriftbooks,  This Link Here! All three of these books are now available in copies for $3.79 and up depending on condition!

Go, buy the book!

Seriously, you can also join their amazing awards program and earn points towards FREE books!

Book List: Memoirs and Biographies of Child Abuse

Sometimes, reality is scarier than fiction.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone had a magical, care-free childhood?

Memories filled with loving families, summer vacations, and holiday traditions.

Unfortunately, that isn't the case for far too many.

This article here quotes: "Approximately 3 million cases of child abuse and neglect involving 5.5 million children are reported each year."

That is absolutely tragic! Can you imagine how many go unreported???

Fortunately, there are so so many survivors that have come forward. To raise awareness, to tell their stories, and to help those in situations who are too scared to speak up.

I always find these stories so heartbreaking, yet the victims courage is empowering. Even if you aren't a victim yourself. It gives us some glimpse of hope that we can do better, as a society. As humans!

I have read several books

focusing on many forms of abuse. To me the most heart wrenching are always the ones about children. They are usually born into these situations with no defenses and most times, they aren't aware that what is happening is wrong, or bad. It is the only thing they know until they are shown or learn different.

This list is only the beginning of so many books in a horrific genre of...

Memoirs and Biographies of Child Abuse

* This post contains affiliate links. If you follow a link and make a purchase I will receive commission at no extra charge to you.

1. Sickened- Julie Gregory (several)

2. A Child Called "IT"- Dave Pelzer (and his series) (several)

3. The Glass Castle- Jeannette Walls (several)

4. Pieces of My Mother- Melissa Cistaro (3 copies)

5. Mommy Dearest- Christina Crawford (out of stock)

6. Broken- Shy Keenan (1 copy)

7. Hope's Boy: A Memoir- Andrew Bridge (several)

8. House Rules- Rachel Santag (2 copies)

9. Running With Scissors- Augusten Burroughs (several)

10. Living With Evil- Cynthia Owen (1 copy)

11. Damaged: The Heartbreaking true story of a forgotten child-Cathy Glass (several)

12. Another Forgotten Child- Cathy Glass (several)

13. Street Kid-Judy Westwater (several)

I have listed beside each title the numbers of copies that are currently available at Thriftbooks at the time this post was published.

If you would like to follow the link below

Shop now for thousands of quality used biographies & memoirs books starting at under $4 I love this site and have used them for years.
They always have a huge variety in any genre I am looking for.
Several of my other posts show my loyalty to them...even before I became an affiliate.

I hope you enjoy this list and always check back for more lists, reviews, TBRs and much more!
Happy reading!

"Family is supposed to be our safe haven. Very often, it's the place we find the deepest heartbreak."

Iyanla Vanzant

Book Review: Wonderfully Dysfunctional

Wonderfully Dysfunctional,

it must be genetic

by 

Buffi Neal

Quote: "To be dysfunctional, you have to not function as a family. We function great as a family." ~ Randi pg. 92

Started: June 22, 2018

Finished: June 30, 2018

paperback~ 198 pages

From the cover:

Buffi's mother refused to wear a bra and her father refused to leave his first wife. Her brother slept in a kitchen cabinet, her sister was kidnapped by her grandmother, and the rest of the family had an uncontrollable urge to laugh at funerals. Buffi always knew her family was unusual, but she was lucky enough to have escaped that gene. Or was she? In a nursing home, seated next to her dying grandmother, Buffi looked around at her family and realized she fit right in; no bra, dirty sneakers and a new ex husband. Maybe it really is genetic- maybe she never had a chance. Buffi began a journey to find normal, but found herself instead.

My Review:

This book had me hooked from page one!

I absolutely loved it from cover to cover.

Buffi Neal is unashamedly honest and quirky. That is my kind of girl!

She now embraces her odd, unusual...dysfunctional family.

Aren't we all somewhat dysfunctional?

I think that is what drew me in, and why I loved it so much. Through out her life she was fighting,...running from what was, in her own mind, "not normal".

Through ups, downs, ins, outs, and life...she realizes she is, has become, exactly what she thought was dysfunctional. What wasn't the norm. And is now accepting of that, and of herself.

The book is written in clips/chapters of memories and events of her life. It has everything most families have.

Buffi Neal shows us that no matter what strange things or people you share DNA with, we all have the same concept that our family is the odd one, the dysfunctional one, the strange one.

Guess what? That makes us all the same. Just filled with different people and places.

Does that make dysfunctional...normal? Who know?

We all have the eccentric aunt, the criminal uncle, the hermit grandpa, the hoarding friend, the crazy cousin, the weird sister, the forgetful grandma, the annoying brother, the dangerous nephew...

They are all among each of us, maybe, somewhere?

Buffi has opened up Pandora's box into her own family and now embraces who she is. Who she shares her genes with. Even if we don't agree with them or desire to be like them. They are a part of who we are. Genetics are no joke.

I liked that each chapter starts with a quote. There are several great ones!

"While people may never change, the way you see them often does."

"Which is stronger: the physical will to live or the mental will to die?"

"People have both good and bad in them; you can choose to see either."

This book, for me, was one where I had a lot of those moments where I kept catching myself laughing out loud or thinking, Oh, I know where she's coming from! I love a book where I can connect with the author or the story. this definitely was one of those books! It will stick with me...probably when I am thinking of something...odd about my own family.

I hope you've enjoyed my review and that you will give this book a read, if you haven't.

Audiobook Mini Reviews and other book business

Where are all my book reviews?
I know I haven't done one in a bit, but I promise there are more to come soon.
I definitely have been reading a ton and endlessly trying to get my To Be Read list shortened, rather than continuously growing!
It's a real challenge not to add 4 or 5 books every time I'm logged onto my GOODREADS account.
I've also been obsessed with Thriftbooks.com lately. They've changed up there rewards program and not only do you get free shipping; now you also earn points with each purchase towards a free book!
I know! I know, so cool!
I've also recently added The Libby App to my phone. This is the sister app for Overdrive(amazing also). It has 10,000+ books to choose from...for FREE!
I only use it for audio books, but they do have ebooks available. I'm so much of a paper, ink and bindings kind of girl but I recently realized how far behind I am on my challenge for the year, sooo I'm a sorta-cheater and using audiobooks to play catch up. That is one of the reasons that my reviews have been lacking. I just don't feel the same when it is an audio. I mean, I have gotten some good books, but they don't make me want to write like the actual books do.
Does that sound weird?
It is also hard to get my quotes, notes, etc that I normally add into my book reviews.
I don't want these books to get pushed completely aside or forgotten.  I am going to give this a try and see where and how it goes.
Here is my first...

Audiobook mini reviews:

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
An English nurse brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle-a girl said to have survived without food for months-soon finds herself fighting to save the child's life.

I started this book solely because I read ROOM years ago and fell in love with it!
The Wonder pretty much crushed my love for Donoghue.
Sadly it was not what I had expected. It was very drawn out and repetitive. I felt like the characters were annoying with all the half secrets and a lot of the tale was just not believable.
I wasn't impressed. Also the audio made it into a 12 1/2 hour long book.

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead. 

Ms. Donoghue can redeem herself quite well! I have to say I enjoyed this book much, much more. The narrator~.Khristine Hvam was perfect for this book. She had just the right twang and spunk to make the characters come to life. I would even say, if they made this into a mini movie; I would buy it!
Who doesn't love a good western struggle story?

Matched(Matched #1) and Crossed(Matched #2) by Ally Condie
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe.
So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. 

Okay, now I don't know any of the actual legalities of plagiarism but if there ever was a case...these books scream it!
The Giver, The 100, Taken just to name a few.
I'm all for a great dystopian read but when you take three amazing ones and try to cram them into a new series,....you get Matched!
Nope, not for me.

Well, I hope this keeps you reading until I get more to write.
Always happy reading!
Do you prefer book, ebook, audio?
Please share which you like best and why!

Book Review: Augusta, Gone

Augusta, Gone

by

Martha Tod Dudman

Quote: "She's only fifteen. You have to remember that. She's just a kid."~ Martha(Mom) pg. 62

Started: June 7, 2018

Finished: June 14, 2018

paperback 256 pages

From the cover:

True, she had stopped coming down for breakfast. Stayed up in her room, ran out the door late for school, missed the bus and had to have a ride. But, you think, well, that's how they are, aren't they, teenagers? And you try to remember how you were, but you were different, and the times were different and it was so long ago. And she's suddenly so angry at you, but then, another time, she's just the same. She's just your little girl. You sit with her and you talk about something, or you go shopping for school clothes and everything seems all right. And you forget how you stood in her room and how the center of your stomach felt so cold. When you found the cigarette. When you found the blue pipe. When you found the little bag, she said it was aspirin.

My Review:

*spoiler-ish* information

This book was a hard one for me to get through. Not because of Augusta, or even all her crazy rebellious acts or her cussing or her scary path she was taking.

The worst part for me was absolutely....MARTHA!

Seriously, this woman, this mother was the whack job, not her daughter.

I can't even say she was blindsided or naive. She knew!

She knew and saw and heard and STILL never really got it! Or never cared to take any responsibility.

I won't go so far as to say she was 100% responsible for her own daughter's chosen path, but she sure as Hell saw it coming, witnessed enough to know, made up every excuse, and completely ignored every opportunity at early intervention.

There are several quotes and thoughts from Martha herself where she saw things, heard things, assumed and either never mentioned them to Augusta, or waited until it was too far gone for those first little things to even be relevant.

Several conversations:

"You can't come get me. I'm not coming home!"~ Augusta

"I'm not. Can I have the phone number?"~ Martha

WHAT??? She's your daughter! 

(Oh, ok honey. Mommy will just sit on my thumbs while you run around town all night... Call me!)

And, my quote I posted above.

She is 15! You are telling a girl who has just told you that she is a 19/20-year-old college dropout, that you know YOUR daughter is hanging around with in a "party house" that SHE, SHE needs to remember your daughter is just a kid!

Wow, Lady! Wow! #motheroftheyear

I haven't even gotten to the stuff that really ground my nerves about "mom"!

She has got to be the most selfish, me, me, me person I have read about.

All she keeps going on and on about is her damn hikes! Up the mountain, down the mountain!

Maybe she should have spent that time, oh, I don't know, focusing on BOTH her kids.

Yup, that's right. There is a son. Younger even than fifteen-year-old Augusta.

He's pretty much a non-existent participant in the book(I had to go back and find his name in the book. I couldn't even remember him), which seems to be his role in real life.

He's probably 13 or 14 when the book starts and nope, mom not there. He's just cruising town, doing his own thing too. He's only mentioned briefly and makes his big appearance...when he gets in trouble and suspended from school.

Way to show her how to get attention, Jack!

Martha also has this very arrogant or maybe snobbish attitude. She is constantly judging others by their appearance.

Augusta gets a bad spider bite while at camp, and Martha actually makes several comments throughout the book about her daughter's "ruined face."

When she meets Rose, Augusta's favorite teacher/adviser, Martha says "As I expected, really fat."

And later when they have a dance,

"I hope no one has to dance with her, she is enormous!"

There was another line, I can't find, where she makes a remark about a boy's appearance. I can't quote it, but I got the impression, based on one glimpse of him and his attire, he wasn't the type for her daughter.

She just made me feel like everyone was less than her, and she was so above anything going on around her.

This whole book was about her. Not her daughter or the struggles THEY went through.

It was about her divorce, her working, her time to hike, her hiding things from co-workers, even her damn boyfriend that she was really just keeping around to have someone to call at 2 or 3am when she couldn't sleep. It was all about how everyone and everything was such an inconvenience to her life or the life that she wanted.

Boo, you Martha! 

While, I did complete this book, I will not be recommending it to anyone, unless they want to read a book about a self-centered mother and all her woes.

Click below if you'd like this book.

Augusta, Gone by Martha Tod Dudman

Book Review: Daughters of the Witching Hill

Daughters of the Witching Hill

By Mary Sharratt

Quote: "No, indeed. No one will let you. They'll come banging on your door at all hours, calling on you for this and that. Just be careful, love. It's a gift you've been given, but even gifts don't come for nothing. You might have to pay more than you bargained." ~Anne Whittle(Chattox) pg. 43

Started: May 17, 2018

Finished: May 24, 2018

paperback/333pages

From the Cover:

In Daughters of the Witching Hill, Mary Sharratt brings history to life in a vivid and wrenching novel of strong women, family, and betrayel inspired by the 1612 Pendle witch trials.

  Bess southerns, an impoverished widow, lives with her children in a crumbling old tower in Pendle Forest. Drawing on Catholic ritual, medicinal herbs, and guidance from her spirit-friend Tibb, Bess heals the sick and foretells the future in exchange for food and drink. As she ages, she instructs her best friend, Anne, and her granddaughter, Alizon, in her craft. Though Anne ultimately turns to dark magic, Alizon intends to use her craft for good. But when a peddler suffers a stroke after exchanging harsh words with Alizon, a local magistrate tricks her into accusing her family and neighbors of witchcraft. Suspicion and paranoia reach frenzied heights as friends and loved ones turn on one another and the novel draws to an inevitable conclusion.

My Review:

There is so much I want to say about this book!

This story is listed as a historical fiction but it is based off the actual lives, events and trials of  the Lancashire/Pendle Forest witches of 1612.

I honestly had not heard anything about the hunts or trials in England to this extent. 

While most of us, including myself, are very aware of the Salem witch trials, this was definitely an intriguing new find for myself.

Bess Southerns, known as Old Demdike was known to be a widowed cunning woman. A healer, who earned her living healing and blessing animals and people. After King James I took the throne, many people began to fear woman like Demdike.

They were not only becoming informed that these such people were "working for the devil" but it was also put into law that if any participated in "witchcraft" or knew of anyone doing so and did not come forward would also be punished.

Fear, belief, ignorance, being misinformed, and most likely poverty all started a  chaotic panic in the beginnings of a Witch Hunt.

Everyone became suspicious of each other. Friend, neighbor, even families.

It became a very real game of either being found guilty yourself, or give a name of someone else suspected of witchcraft to save yourself.

That is exactly what happens in Daughters of the Witching Hill.

 Bess teaches her long time friend, Anne(Chattox) her craft with the understanding and trust that Anne will not only keep this to herself but also, that she only intends to use it as protection and for good not evil or revenge.

That doesn't last long. For Anne has plans of her own that aren't exactly "Christian like".

Bess has also taught her granddaughter, Alizon. Bess's daughter had no interest in becoming a cunning woman and her husband(John Devise) is the poster picture for those paranoid and afraid of the craft.

John constantly thinks Chattox has cursed him, is cursing him, or is planning on cursing him.

This story is full of daily struggles, day to day lives. Families, friends, foes.

There is love, hurt, healing, poverty, suffering, perseverance, and prayer.

There are herbs, clay figures, and buried cat skulls too.

While this book is fiction, it is written in a  wonderful way to get you into the minds of how they lived, what they would have felt and done. I love that it shows how the times were and the way people reacted to what was going on around them.

I definitely would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Witch trials, history, or England.

Again, while it is a fiction it was extremely educational and informative.

5 STARS!

Here are a few links I have gathered to pique your interest!

THIS BOOK: Daughters of the Witching Hill

Historic UK: Pendle Witches

Pendle Witches: WIKI

BBC: Witch's cottage found??

Coming Soon: Book Reviews

Coming Soon:

Hello readers

I wanted to get a post out and let everyone know that I am trying to get caught up on all my books, blogs, reading, and reviews.

I have been getting some awesome books over at THRIFTBOOKS. As usual, my wonderful, go to book site.

I'm really hooked on the whole spend $20 and get free shipping! It doesn't even matter if you order 6 different books from 6 different sellers. It is still free shipping. An that never happens.

(FYI:I'm having stupid technical difficulties with my ancient desktop, it keeps glitching/freezing)

I'm trying to go back and make sure everything appears as should be, but if I skip a letter or double a word...just ignore it...please?

Here are the books I have lined up, hoping to get read, reviewed and typed up within the week or next.

Augusta, Gone by Martha Tod Dudman

I am currently reading.

So far, I am kind of annoyed at "mom". I'm just not connecting with her yet...

Wonderfully Dysfunctional:It Must Be Genetic by Buffi Neal

I haven't read this one yet. I love a good memoir. I'm truly a sucker for any book that tells someone's story, so I am super stoked to jump into this one!

A High and Hidden Place by Michele Claire Lucas

This one is a fiction novel based loosely on real events. Someone's story and...WWII 

Need I say more? 

Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt

Loved it!

This book is actually based on facts. It was told wonderfully.

Witches, family, facts, and even comes with references to actual court docs and other material to learn more about the actual people involved!

Bad Girls of the Bible(#1) by Liz Curtis Higgs

This is a book that has been sitting in my To Be Read list since somewhere back around 2012.

I had been looking for a copy for a long time and then I honestly just forgot about it.

I haven't read it yet, and only found out that is is #1 in a series after finally purchasing it on Thriftbooks about two weeks ago. I hate to start any series without knowing that all the books are available but I think I may go ahead with it just to get it off of my waiting list.

Wildthorn by Jane Eagland

I really want to read this one. Victorian era woman sent to an asylum(Wildthorn Hall)!

Yup, I'm intrigued! I love anything historical, medical...telling of the times sort of book.

So here is my list of what's to come...

Have you read any of these books?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Any new recommendations?

Make sure to check back soon.

Happy reading!