Fair Maidens: We Came Here to Shine by Susie Orman Schnall

It was an interesting idea to set this novel against the backdrop of the 1939 World's Fair, and to include some of the most famous people in the popular culture of the time in the action, including Johnny Weissmuller (aka Tarzan of the movies), or as subsidiary figures to the story, Billy Rose (the theatrical showman and producer). There are some terrific historical details, such as descriptions of the architecture and events of the fair, such as the visit of King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth (parents of the current Queen of England) and references to political figures including President Roosevelt and Governor Lehman of New York.

The fictional characters bring the book down because they are somewhat unbelievable, and don't quite hold up in the intermixing of historical and plot events. 

Vivi Holden is a young actress, originally from Brooklyn, but beginning to make her way in the movies, who is pulled from a leading role at a Hollywood studio and sent back East to replace real-life actress Eleanor Holm in the Aquacade (an eye popping water ballet that was one of the most popular entertainment events of the fair). That idea is hard to accept. 

Maxine Roth is a college student in the journalism department at New York University (NYU) who is sent to the Fair to work on its daily publication Today at the Fair as a summer intern. We read that she lives with her parents and sisters in an apartment on New York's Upper West Side, in Manhattan. It's confusing for contemporary readers to learn that Maxine worked on a college newspaper called The Heights, without some explanation. Today's NYU is well-known as a fixture of Greenwich Village, but during the time period of the novel, NYU's main campus was located in the University Heights section of The Bronx (in the 1960s, due to financial distress, it was sold and became the location of Bronx Community College). 

The two young women meet and bond, but their exploits both separately and together seem heavy-handed and contrived. I truly enjoyed reading about the fair, and author Susie Orman Schnall has done a wonderful job of capturing its physical aspects and describing some of its exhibits and amusements. Hats off to Schnall for her excellent research.  

Daring Days and Dior Dresses: The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester

One of those "can't put it down" historical novels, even at 462 pages. 

A tale of two heroines, Skye Penrose and Kat Jourdan. The former is profiled from her pre-World War II childhood in Cornwall, England, and then on through the war...and the latter is a highly-educated, respected fashion conservator and the newly-divorced mother of two young girls in Sydney, Australia and also the granddaughter of the beloved, but enigmatic, Margaux Jourdan, who raised her.

Skye becomes a pilot in the WAAF, the Royal Air Force's WAAF, the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, but she is a maverick who is committed to doing all she can for the British war effort no matter the personal cost. She and her sister Liberty were raised by a single mother with many secrets, but in beautiful Cornwall, while still a child, she meets Nicholas, an American boy staying with his aunt, and they form a bond that will resurface in a future adult relationship.

Kat travels to England for professional reasons and visits an empty Cornwall cottage owned by her grandmother and finds closets filled with gorgeous Dior gowns and dresses. What are they doing there and why?

The story of how these two paths twist and turn make for compelling reading, with highly detailed accounts of the war in England, France and Germany, a great deal of which is far from romanticized, though the complicated romantic, family and friendly relationships add a rich and satisfying human element. And, the link to the Dior house of couture, through Christian Dior and his sister Catherine (the Miss Dior of the famous perfume) is truly fascinating, especially for those of us with an interest in fashion.

Highly recommended, to be read preferably with a plate of fresh scones and another of French macarons at hand. Adding a deluxe box of luxurious chocolates would not hurt either!

Hollywood's Most Notorious Hotel: The Castle on Sunset by Shawn Levy

This is a very interesting, well-researched and well-paced book. The subject is the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles, but it is also a commentary on the development of that city, the movie and music industries, and includes many intriguing anecdotes about the hotel's famous residents and guests. 

The hotel was originally built as an apartment house in the late 1920s, and its location made it a bit of a boondoggle, as it was just off what was then the unpaved Sunset Boulevard, but between Hollywood and Beverly Hills, on an unincorporated piece of real estate that wasn't particularly convenient to anything at the time. You could even say it was the Dakota of its time and place, much like the once out-of-the way building in New York.

Over the decades, it became the discreet getaway of the film industry's stars and executives, along with many others in the arts industries. Over time, and with various owners, it became a hotel, more for long-term tenants, though there were transient ones, and accommodations in the form of housekeeping bungalows were gradually added. 

As the fortunes of what became the Sunset Strip waxed and waned, and then waxed again, so did the Chateau. It became much more known to the greater public in the 1980s, when actor and writer John Belushi died of an overdose there, but there were many other famous residents who indulged in excesses of many types but managed to fly under the radar.

The property has also been owned and managed by equally colorful and intriguing businesspeople, and that is another aspect of its story. All in all, the Chateau is probably the most famous hotel that most people, aside from those with an interest in Hollywood and Los Angeles history, have never heard of.

If you have that interest, you will most likely enjoy this book, and learn a lot. The author, Shawn Levy, has created a really fine journalistic work, and resisted the temptation to merely write a tell-all, sensationalist piece. He has framed the story of the hotel against the background of its milieu, and his hard work shines.

All Dancing, All Singing: The Movie Musical! by Jeanine Basinger

The only reason I can't give this marvelous compendium of movie musical history by Jeanine Basinger five stars is its physical presentation. It is nearly 600 pages of marvelous text and remarkable photos, but it is so heavy and awkward that it is literally hard to hold, at least for me. It is basically an encyclopedia of the subject, but the design includes extra-wide margins of white space. Had the text been set wider, or the margins reduced to a more normal size, the book could have been physical lighter with fewer pages. And, considering that the list price for the print book was $45.00, a less expensive format would have made it more accessible.

Despite that, it is still wonderful. The initial tribute to Fred Astaire, for example, is absolutely terrific, and he receives all the accolades he deserves in a later section. The profiles of Al Jolson, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and others are full of details. Ethel Merman comes alive with added dimension and there's a great analysis of why Broadway star Mary Martin never really made it in the movies. Doris Day's career receives much-deserved attention – it's often forgotten that she handled musical, comedic and dramatic roles well. Gene Kelly, too, gets an appropriate five-star treatment, and An American in Paris has an extensive review.

Basinger covers the MGM era and its stars – Judy Garland, a legendary example – with an in-depth discussion. She does not give short shrift to more recent decades either, but devotes a long chapter to them. Barbra Streisand gets her due for Funny Girl, Yentl and her take of A Star Is Born. 

Basinger also covers the contemporary resurgence of musicals that have recently appeared – La La Land, The Greatest Showman and the most recent A Star Is Born with the powerhouse voice of Lady Gaga – proving that the movie musical, in new variations, is still alive and kicking. 

As a side note, and something that is too recent to have made it into the book, Netflix's current smash hit series Bridgerton has already inspired plans and songs for a Broadway show (once the pandemic is finally tamed). Once the show is produced, a movie version is sure to follow.

If you are a fan of the musical and the silver screen, this book is for you – but consider the Kindle edition if such a physically weighty tome will overwhelm you.

More Is More: Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

Part love story, but also a social satire of the ultra-connected, ultra-rich of New York, with a twist: the heroine is half Chinese (via her American-born mother) and half WASP (via her father).

Reminiscent of the super-swanky, over-the-top families portrayed in Crazy Rich Asians and its two sequels, in terms of the clothes, jewels and homes, Sex and Vanity goes deeper and further and skewers WASP and Asian society along with the social climbers who aspire to the top. 

There is a good deal of humor, extensive descriptions of couture and designer clothing, the homes and getaway places of the various characters, but Lucie Tang Churchill, the center of the book, comes off as a real young woman with real aspirations, problems and conflicts.

Kevin Kwan brings together inspirations from the work of Tom Wolfe, as in The Bonfire of the Vanities (on general principles), E.M. Forster's A Room with a View (for aspects of the plot line, and certain character names and personalities: Lucy, Charlotte, George and Cecil), and hints of Henry James's 19th century characters (the WASP Americans might be the modern equivalents of James's European gentry, and the Asians are James's brash Americans). The outrageous details, however, are completely Kwan's own, and he is a master of embedding them into the tale.

The novel can be read for its entertainment value, but is also a great coming-of-age story. There is bound to be an even more stupendously lavish movie adaptation than that of Crazy Rich Asians, and won't that be fun?

A Historical Journey: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Absolutely sublime. The book of the title refers to the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illuminated Passover haggadah which is believed to date back to the period of the Inquisition in Spain, and has had various owners over the centuries. It is now in the museum in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

The author has created a fictionalized account of the haggadah's journey through Europe, but incorporates some real life individuals under different names, along with her totally imagined characters as the backstory. The central (completely fictional) character is an Australian, Dr. Hannah Heath, a rare book expert and conservator, who is hired to make repairs to the haggadah to stabilize, rather than restore it.

Hannah's painstaking work becomes a high-level detective story with elements of family strife, romance, history, the modern art world and international politics. The artistic and scientific aspects of Hannah's efforts offer clues to the haggadah's origin and its various owners. We follow its movements through the Inquisition in Spain, to the Jewish ghetto of Venice in the early 17th century, Hapsburg Vienna of the 1890s, the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia, the Bosnian War of the 1990s, and eventually to the present, with side visits to Israel, Australia and Boston.

A great read, fascinating and satisfying! I am totally ready for the movie or Netflix series version, should there be one.

Madam Speaker: Pelosi by Molly Ball

Molly Ball's biography of Nancy Pelosi is packed with detail, but some of it is incredibly silly and distracting: do we really need to read about Seth Moulton's square jaw, or Hakeem Jeffries's "bald pate" and "lilting accent"?

It started off well – I found the chapters describing Pelosi's childhood and rise in the Democratic party very interesting. Later, the sections covering her political process with President George Bush were also a good reminder of the issues of that period. 

I must also say that Ball lays into President Obama with vehemence to the extent that her disapproval of him is palpable. She is highly critical of his stewardship of the economy, and his rescue of the country's finances after the deep hole the Bush administration left behind seems much diminished here. The emphasis seems to be on his conflicts with Pelosi, and while those have already been reported upon, she seems to heighten them to an unbalanced level.

Once we came to the Trump era, it was all too familiar. The incidents she covered have all been examined ad infinitum in the New York Times, Washington Post, on CNN and by other news outlets. Since we are in the closing days of that horrendous presidency and there is hope on the horizon, I really did not want to relive the nightmare of the past four years. I merely wanted to finish the book, and after having invested so much time on it, was not going to drop it, but skipped through quickly. I was happy to come to the end.

Sweet yet Savory: The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg

Such a delight to pick up the characters from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and see what later lives Fannie Flagg created for them...and I can only hope there will be a movie version as wonderful as Fried Green Tomatoes, for which Flagg also wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay.

Flagg moves back and forth in time, with flashbacks to the Depression era of the original book, and key points in time along the way, using the points of view of the various characters to tell the story as it evolves into the present. 

It's a very satisfying story, too, all neatly tied up just as you would like it to be. So refreshing, and just the thing to take you away from your troubles. Highly recommend to savor alongside a pot of your favorite tea and a slice or two of a freshly-baked pie to go with it.

Beyond Hello: Girls on the Line by Aimie K. Runyan

 A compelling, fast-paced work of historical fiction, well-researched, set during World War I. 

Philadelphian Ruby Wagner is in her early 20s and works as a switchboard operator for Pennsylvania Bell, over the objections of her socially conscious mother. The family is newly arrived to the elite suburbs of the Main Line, just beyond the city limits. Ruby is engaged to Nathaniel, the only son of a prestigious family, but while she is cares for him, she is not "in love" and is following the wishes of her parents, her mother in particular, who are pushing her to marry him. Her brother, Francis, is killed during a battle in France, where he was sent with his army battalion.

The Army recruits young women telephone operators to join the Signal Corps in Europe, in order to free up soldiers who are working those jobs when they could be fighting. After a series of skill and other tests, Ruby is selected and, despite her parents' disapproval, she departs for France.

She becomes a supervisor, and then head of the group. The work is challenging, potentially dangerous, and requires the operators to constantly learn new sets of code words to prevent the Germans from learning details of troop movements and offensives. 

Ruby becomes more confident and develops as a leader. She also meets Andrew Carrigan, a medic who aspires to become a doctor, and their fictional story becomes the backdrop to many of the actual events that transpire as the war comes to a close and the Germans surrender.

Author Aimie K. Runyan has done an excellent job of researching the real life story of the women who became known as the "Hello Girls", and of conditions confronting the working women of the era. Women did not yet have the vote, and any woman who joined the Army was denied the discharge money and medical benefits that men received when they left the service. This addressed in the Afterword and is a very significant story in itself. 

Mystical Doings: Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

Another lyrical, imaginative, dare I say "magical", book from Alice Hoffman. Ms. Hoffman has a remarkable gift for description – when you read her depictions of 17th century Curacao, or Gravesend, Brooklyn, or onboard a pirate's sailing ship, you feel as though you have been transported – and for character development – her cast of characters are all so vivid, physically and emotionally, that they seem to be alive in the room with you as you read.

This book is a "prequel" to Hoffman's Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic, and covers the earliest story of the Owens family of sorceresses, and naturally, the subject matter lends itself to magical realism, which is a major component in many of Hoffman's works. It also draws on Jewish history, culture and traditions, which were so important to The Dovekeepers, The Marriage of Opposites and The World that We Knew.

Feminism is also an important element, as her characters chafe against the mores of the societies in which they live, where the roles for women are so strictly defined and the women who break them are harshly punished, as in the Salem Witch Trials which figure in this novel.

All together, Magic Lessons makes for compelling reading, and while it is not my absolute favorite of Hoffman's works, I consider it a 4-star book.

Mistress of Movie Fashion: Edith Head's Hollywood by Edith Head and Paddy Calistro

If you love the movies, anecdotes about Hollywood legends, fashion and costume design, you'll enjoy this book of reminisces by Edith Head, the renowned costume designer, with commentary on Head's life by Paddy Calistro.

Edith Head's career stretched over nearly six decades, from the 1920s into the 1970s. She participated in the costume design of hundreds of films, and was nominated for thirty-five Oscars, winning eight over the years. She worked with actors from Mae West, to Bette Davis (who wrote the forward to this book), Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, Paul Newman, Robert Redford and others too numerous to mention. She was closely associated with Alfred Hitchcock and other premier directors.

This book was published in 1983, after her death in 1981 at the age of eighty-three. It includes multiple pages of black and white photos of Head, some of her most memorable costumes, plus images of some of her sketches.

I highly recommend it for all film buffs and those who want to escape to the glamorous world of mid-twentieth century Hollywood.

Lessons of History: As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner

 As Bright as Heaven is a family history novel set in Philadelphia just before and during the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918, and in the following decade. 

The Brights, a family of loving parents, Pauline and Thomas, and their three daughters, Evelyn, Maggie and Willa, move from Quakertown (a farming-focused community about 40 miles to the north) to the city where Thomas will join his bachelor uncle Fred's successful funeral home and mortuary business and the family will move into his large, comfortable house in a prosperous neighborhood. The Brights have recently lost their infant son and brother, Henry, to a heart ailment and this is a chance for them to have a fresh start as they deal with their towering grief.

The Brights gradually adjust to their new life, Thomas learning the scientific and business aspects of the trade, the girls going to their new schools, and Pauline running the home and then taking on a role in the business too, where she is artful in preparing the hair and make-up of the deceased for viewings and burial.

Their lives become intertwined with the Sutcliff family, who have a father and son accounting business that they run from their home across the street. Jamie, the elder son, joins the army and is sent to France to fight. Charlie, the younger son, has a learning disability, but is physically strong and able to work for the Brights doing some heavy work at the funeral home.

Then, the flu makes its entrance, moving through the city, but spreading widely at a parade for Liberty Bonds for the war effort, where 200,000 people gathered closely together in the streets. The result is catastrophic for the entire city, particularly the poor living in rundown areas, and ultimately for the Brights...

The effect of the 1918 pandemic on Philadelphia was widely known, but was more or less forgotten as other historical events took place in the intervening century. Since I was born and raised in Philadelphia, and know of loss in my own family, I have some awareness.

This book was published in 2018, before our current pandemic. The 1918 pandemic is said to have killed 200 million people around the world. A hundred-plus years later, we find ourselves in the same situation. In this country, we should have known better, or rather, our government, which did know what might come, should have done better. Our infected and our deaths are mounting.

The Brights made it through, with losses, but their experiences changed them and everyone in that time period forever. How that unspools makes for compelling, fast-paced reading. 

The author clearly did a great deal of research on the 1918 pandemic, World War I and on Philadelphia. With my personal knowledge of Philadelphia and the area, I noticed an anomaly or two that weren't acknowledged by the author, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the book. The characters were well-drawn and I liked the structure the author employed, moving from the points of view of Pauline, Evelyn, Maggie and Willa. The ends were nicely tied up, and the conclusion worked for me. 

Sobering Lessons: The Guarded Gate by Daniel Okrent

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America were a time of great immigration, with many hundreds of thousands coming from eastern and southern Europe. They were not welcomed by all, including many at the very uppermost echelons of society in Boston and New York. Some turned to the pseudoscience of eugenics to support their prejudices. These proponents of eugenics and the bigotry it typified were generally influential men of great means, some of whom were "scientists" – in fact, many of them had advanced degrees and wrote scholarly books which were later debunked. The author, an acclaimed historian, explores them and their "work" in great detail, and with extensive documentation. 

Highly restrictive laws were passed in the House and Senate in the early 1920s to stop the flood of newcomers. Outrageous quota systems cut the former number of immigrants from Italy, the former Russian Empire, Poland, Greece and many other countries to a tiny fraction of what it once was, while favoring large numbers to immigrate from the British Isles, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, and other northern European countries with so-called "Nordic" peoples. 

The lessons of that period, roughly one hundred years ago, are extremely relevant right now, in a time in which we are fighting pervasive racial inequity and other inequalities, brought to a head by the presidency of Donald Trump, which is thankfully nearing its end. America, as we all know, has a great deal of work to do to correct its path.

As the saying goes, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I might add that those who not read or study continue to encourage ignorance. That might sound obvious, but it is all too true.

 

Parrots, Pugs, and Pixie Dust – A Book about Fashion Designer Judith Leiber by Deborah Blumenthal

A charming picture book for older children (and adults) about the life and work of Judith Leiber, who was truly the mistress of the handbag, or as she was also known, the Queen of Minaudières. Her exquisitely detailed crystal-covered evening bags came in every conceivable shape from animals to food to icons, and were carried by First Ladies, movie stars, opera divas and many others.

While Leiber lived a long life, she had known the poverty and tragedies that came with being Jewish in World War II Hungary. At the end of the war, however, she met a young American serviceman and the two married. She joined him on his return to the United States and they lived a long life together, dying at home just hours apart, after a marriage that lasted 72 years.

Examples of Leiber's handbags can be found today in museum collections around the world – or you can buy one, if you can afford it. Meanwhile, you can enjoy this delightful book and inspire a child with Leiber's story.

The Eternity and the Unlikeliness of Love: Find Me by André Aciman

An incredibly beautiful novel, full of the lyrical writing and exquisite descriptions that make Aciman's work so vivid. Each character is as completely rendered as in a Sargent portrait and every setting is as detailed as a Church landscape, though in Rome, Paris and New York. Even something as ordinary as the purchase of fish in a market takes on a special beauty.

The novel examines the nature of love and its complexities. The relationships explored are both romantic and familial. A young woman and an older man fall in love as the result of a chance meeting, and the woman cares for the everyday needs of her dying father, a younger man and older man create their own bond of love, and the young man, now older is reunited with the love of his youth. The stories are complex and interlocking, yet simple...they are about the power of love and how it fulfills us individually and in our relationships.

Smart Women in the Kitchen: Women on Food by Charlotte Druckman

Definitely a mixed bag of material, some really interesting, like the account of the rivalry between legendary restaurant critics Mimi Sheraton and Gael Greene, and an interview with Racheal Ray, but so much rather boring navel gazing and kvetching when Charlotte Druckman asks women working in the food world various questions and they give their responses.

The design of the book is troublesome. It's a paperback, but big and heavy, printed on a thick stock and with lots of space that could be better used to reduce the size of the book. I literally had a hard time holding it for more than an hour.

Definitely worth reading if you skip what you find less than appealing, and if you can prop the book on a cookbook stand and read it at a table so you don't have to hold it.

Escape Artist Remembered: The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski

I love magic, but not circus clowns. Jugglers like Penn Gillette and intellectual yet physical comics like Bill Irwin fascinate me. And then there's Houdini...

I've always been intrigued by Harry Houdini and thought this would be a great opportunity to finally learn more about him, but this book was just not what I was expecting – I wanted to read a well-researched and somewhat serious biography, but this was a disjointed, and often fawning sort of tribute. I didn't find the insight into Houdini's life or why he became such a phenomenon to be adequately explored.

I was game though, and gave it my attention, as there were some interesting tidbits. It all fell apart however, when the author suddenly turned to contemporary magician David Copperfield and examined him and his career. Eventually the narrative returned to Houdini, but all in all, it was a very odd book that could have been saved (maybe) by a good editor.

Visiting Another World: Donna Parker Takes a Giant Step by Marcia Martin

To take a break from serious reading, the pandemic, and now the murder of George Floyd and its aftermath, I decided to revisit the Donna Parker series of my late girlhood, hoping for a little comfort, and to see how the books held up, after buying a complete set of them from a member of my book society.

It's interesting to take another look at books that portray a particular middle-class teenaged world of the early 1960s. The series is set in a small town two hours from New York City, and everyone is white and has non-ethnic names. In this, the final book of seven, Donna Parker is fourteen going on fifteen and making the transition from junior high to high school. Her mother is a stay-at-home mom, her dad brings home the bacon, and there is a younger brother, Jimmy, who appears to be at play with his pals much of the time. A twist at the end brings him more into focus…

Looking past those clichés, the book is written with sensitivity and addresses what remain the concerns of teenagers: the ups and downs of friendships, conflicts with parents and the search for self-knowledge and the establishment of personal values in the advance toward maturity.

Fifty years or more later, things are very different. It’s not likely that books for tween girls would be so narrow in terms of showing ethnicities, races, religions and sexual preference, but like many older works, we must view the Donna Parker books in the context of their time, rather than judging them by current standards. As such, they are clear windows into the past, and something to learn from.

What I really wonder about is the backstory of the author, Marcia Martin. Goodreads has this information about her:

"Pen name of Marcia Lauter Obrasky Levin.

A popular children's book author, creator of the Donna Parker series, 22 books for beginning readers, and some of the first enrichment textbooks in the "New Mathematics". She was born and raised in Philadelphia, and lived in Rye, New York for 56 years."

Martin was Jewish. Did she feel she couldn’t write books under her more ethnic-sounding name? Did someone suggest she change it so she would be more successful? Perhaps she merely wanted to maintain her privacy. We will most likely never know. Here are her obituaries from The Jewish Exponent, Philadelphia’s venerable Jewish newspaper, https://www.jewishexponent.com/2013/0... and the New York Times https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nyt....

Modern Tragedy: the Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

This novel is beautifully written, and painfully sad. It vividly conveys the horrors of the Syrian Civil War, still raging now, and the plight of its refugees, and people from other war-town countries, as they seek to find asylum. The descriptions of pre-war Aleppo feel like photographs of a place we will never be able to visit, because it has been mercilessly destroyed, and all of its beauty and life is gone forever.

As I read it, and followed the saga of Nuri, a beekeeper, and his wife, Afra, a painter, I was fascinated and then ashamed of the way Syria and its citizens have been largely forgotten by so many, including our own leadership in the United States. Sadly though, the story of Syria, an ancient civilization with many centers of learning and art, is not unique. What's happening there has happened over and over again through the course of history, in the Middle East, in Africa and in Europe.

Despite all the sadness and privations of Nuri and Afra's experience, there are also moments of beauty and hopefulness that remind us that we should not give up on humanity, and that there is still goodness and kindness to encourage us to go forward, whatever our personal trials may be. Christy Lefteri's novel is compelling and lyrical reading.

Another Dimension of Lincoln: We Called Him Father Abraham – Lincoln and American Jewry

A fascinating look at Abraham Lincoln, mainly told through the writings of the eminent Jewish leaders and rabbis of his day, some of whom knew him, and the eulogies and sermons delivered in synagogues upon his death and at commemorative occasions.

While the book is dense with information, excerpts from the original writings, and supportive material, it is completely readable and paints a portrait of the man from an uncommon viewpoint. It thoroughly supports the idea that Lincoln was a beloved friend of the Jewish people, as well as a man of great intellect, wisdom, humor and compassion.

The book is scholarly, but totally accessible. Students of Lincoln, especially Jewish ones, will find a lot to learn.

Delicious! SaltFatAcidHeat by Samin Nosrat

Absolutely delightful reading, and a joy to look at too. Whether you are already a reasonably good cook, or a beginner, this book will give you, pardon the expression, a lot to chew on.

Samin Nosrat is a veteran chef who first learned to cook at home with her Persian mother, and then went on to master professional techniques and food knowledge under the tutelage of Alice Waters at the famous Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.

She divides the cooking process into a discussion of four key elements, as indicated by the book's title: salt, fat, acid and heat. When the first three are administered appropriately, and then the right kind and amount of heat is applied, good food results.

Nosrat makes cooking a kind of joyous expedition, from selecting the right raw foods, learning how to combine and season them, and then how to prepare them. This is not a conventional compilation of recipes, though there are many included along with down-to-earth and often amusing instructions for acquiring and mastering cooking techniques.

The other wonderful thing about Nosrat's book is the wealth of colorful illustrations and charts by Wendy MacNaughton. There are a number of fold out charts: for example The World of Flavor simply and clearly shows the continents, the countries, and the seasoning combinations which Nosrat has explained are representative of their cuisines. Looking at Uruguay and Argentina, the seasonings listed are parsley, oregano, chilies and paprika. Sure enough, just the other day I made a batch of Argentinean chicken empañadas using a Bon Appétit recipe which called for parsley, a generous quantity of oregano and a copious amount of paprika (along with lots of multi-colored peppers and onions).

Nosrat and McNaughton, working together, have produced a non-intimidating, totally unstuffy approach to cooking – and eating – well. Just about anyone who can read can learn to cook from this book, and enjoy it!

Just a quick mention: Netflix has produced a four-part series on Nosrat's book that takes her to Italy, Japan, Mexico and California on culinary adventures. It is high on my list of things to watch. Meanwhile, the UK's Guardian newspaper has a great interview with her: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019... .

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Gang of Four – March Sisters: On Life, Death and Little Women by Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado and Jane Smiley

Four sisters, four writers – with the segments going in age order from Meg on down to Amy. The corresponding authors are Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado and Jane Smiley. Each essay is as different as were the four March sisters, and each is satisfying to some degree, or not.

Kate Bolick, author of Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own, and an accomplished journalist, writes about the episode in which Meg goes off for a visit with prosperous friends, but feels insecure and self-conscious about her modest circumstances. Having no suitable clothes of her own and craving the beauty and glamour the right gown will give her, she is lent a dress, shoes, and attends a dance looking quite unlike herself. Laurie sees her in her finery and clearly disapproves. Meg is quite stung and embarrassed by the criticism but gets through the evening champagne in hand.

Bolick relates a similar event early in her working life in which she too is lent a glamorous dress for a special event. She is accompanied by a critical male colleague who makes her feel even more uncomfortable, and the evening changes the balance in their relationship. Years later she looks back and makes peace with her younger self. How we see ourselves, and our unease with how we fit in is a source of great anxiety for many women, and it is often played out in our obsession with having the right clothes.  It's a good essay, and the analogy is solid. 

Zhang, a prize-winning poet and essayist, tackles Jo. Zhang immigrated to the United States as a young child. She aspired to be a writer who is a bold, brave girl, as opposed to a woman, because she perceived the role of women as dutiful, subservient and lacking independence. Zhang's parents wanted her to pursue a profession that would make her successful, but in a safe way – not as a writer. Zhang resisted reading Little Women, because she imagined the March girls as delicate flowers, but when she finally read the book later on as a pre-teen with ideas about romance and femininity, she was offended by Jo's behavior. Zhang was critical of Jo's non-traditional behavior much like the way Zhang's mother criticized her for wanting to pursue writing career.

We all know the passage in which Jo seeks help from her mother, Marmee, in controlling her temper when Marmee confides her own anger. Zhang had also observed her own mother's hidden anger over her thwarted ambitions – in public settings, her mother was a model of generosity, solicitousness and kindness, but in the privacy of home she lashed out at her husband and daughter.

Zhang examines Jo's character throughout the book and has researched the Alcott family. There are many known parallels between them and the Marches of Little Women, and she reveals some further information about the Alcotts and draws some of her own conclusions about them. She also shares more about her own family relationships now that she is a grown woman, but she concludes that she is uncertain of them, as well as her view of Jo and about Little Women. Perhaps in time, with age, she will look upon it all with the greater clarity of distance and maturity. 

Carmen Maria Machado is an acclaimed essayist and critic who writes about Beth's illness and decline, but also about her own illnesses in childhood and forward. In fact, much of her essay is more about her own life discoveries, but against the background of Little Women and the Alcott family.

Lizzie was the real-life Alcott sister who died young, passing away at twenty-two after several years of illness. There was great grief in the family, as would have been expected. Having not had the opportunity to create accomplishments like her sisters Louisa or May (the model for Amy), perhaps there was not so much to say about her, other than that she was kind and gentle, "a dear". Her counterpart, Beth, is much the same, though in Little Women, her music is strongly presented as her gift. She is perhaps the most difficult to portray as she is the most enigmatic. But, there is too much emphasis on the essay's author, rather than on the character of Beth.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley wraps it up with her essay about Amy. Through the decades, she was often looked upon as the least appealing of the sisters, the spoiled youngest daughter who burns Jo's novel, and ultimately captures the heart of Laurie. Most readers idolized Jo, the center of the book, and who is the most like Louisa May Alcott herself.

Smiley tells us that she grew to like Amy the best, and I have to agree. Amy has a talent for art and the ambition to pursue it. Unlike Jo, she is pragmatic, and practical in going about getting what she wants. She finds a balance. She becomes the companion to rich Aunt March, and accompanies her to Europe, where she can also get the art training she craves and absorbs the lessons of a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Amy also recognizes that she lives in the man's world of her day, and that her options for independence are limited. Happily, she and Laurie fall in love, and she also continues to pursue her art.

Perhaps it is Smiley's more removed view of the book (she is by far the oldest of the four essayists), and that she is focused on Amy's character rather than on her own, or it could be the fluidity of her writing, but I found her section to be both the most interesting and illuminating. It is by far the most satisfying of the essays.

Immigrant Family Saga: Odessa, Odessa by Barbara Artson

First impressions should not be discounted: a familiar image appears in this book, facing the copyright page. The caption reads "Immigrants Arriving in New York City, 1987 Engraving". That immediately gave me pause because it obviously should have read 1887. I looked it up and found the image for sale: http://www.eonimages.com/media/dcea0dac-3eae-11e0-b7ed-db06f6888e9e-immigrants-eye-statue-of-liberty-on-way-into-new-york-harbor. It is probably available on other sites too for those who may be interested. Such an obvious error should have been caught by the editors or the author and was a clue to the rest of the editorial organization of this book.

This novel about an immigrant Jewish family has many elements – human interest, history and an overlarge dose of psychology, the last not surprising because the author is a retired psychoanalyst. The neuroses of the major characters are analyzed prominently in the book and that detracts from the impact of its emotional pull and adds too much of a clinical aspect.

The other problem with this book is the lack of editing. It doesn't flow in a natural way. It's not necessary for a novel to be told in chronological order, but this one jumps around constantly from time to time, from place to place and from character to character. That may be the reason the chapters are named and dated.

Characters tend to appear, then fade, then possibly return. For example, we read early on about Marya, the youngest daughter of the original immigrant generation. She is born nearly deaf and consequently does not learn to speak beyond unintelligible sounds. When she arrives in New York at school age with her mother, Henya, she is kept from registering because of her disability. For the most part, she recedes from the story, then reappears years later as a young woman who is actually able to hear a limited amount of language and also holds down a job. She more or less disappears again, and much later on we read about her death and how all those years, she took care of herself and amassed a substantial (for the time) amount of savings. Wouldn't it have been interesting to have had more of a story about how all that occurred?

Despite all of these shortcomings, I decided to stick with the book because I was interested in a lot of the historical and social details of the time periods it covered. In that respect, the book is very rich and appealing. It's not enough to overcome the issues that caused me to give it just two stars, but at least I learned a few new details about the plight of Jews in Czarist Russia that caused my own ancestors to immigrate.

Mott Street Mystery: China Trade by S.J. Rozan

So much fun to come across a series that is completely new to you and then discover that the author has already written more than ten books. Since I really enjoyed China Trade by S.J. Rozan, I have great expectations for the subsequent titles.

China Trade is set in early '90s Manhattan, mainly in Chinatown, and features Lydia Chin, a young Chinese-American detective and her partner Bill Smith, who is decidedly not Chinese. Some rare antique porcelains have been stolen from a small neighborhood museum and Lydia is called in to investigate. The theft investigation moves quickly from Chinatown to the Upper East Side and Upper West Side and back downtown again. An intricate story with great ethnic atmospheric details quickly draws the reader into the story, which comes to a satisfying conclusion and drops a few hints for what may come in future installments.

The descriptions of Chinatown and the depictions of Lydia's mother, her brother Tim, and her friends are so spot on. Whether Lydia is on Mott Street, in a neighborhood restaurant grabbing a quick bowl of noodles, or taking her shoes off at the door of the apartment where she lives with her mother, you get a persuasive depiction of the culture. It adds so much truth and immediacy to the story (even though this book is twenty-five years old) that you are eager to know more.

Perhaps a Chinese-American reader might feel differently, but I was certainly convinced that the author must be at least partly of Chinese background since the details were much what one might expect from known Chinese-American writers like Amy Tan or Lisa See. S.J. Rozan is most definitely not of Chinese heritage, and I would love to know what her research for this book entailed. After reviewing her website and reading her Wikipedia entry, that remains a mystery of its own, which just makes her writing all the more intriguing. Rozan's latest book was release in July, 2019, and her most recent blog post was just a few weeks ago, so it is great to know that she is still actively writing. More to look forward to...yay!

Worlds Apart: The Sisters Weiss by Naomi Ragen

Naomi Ragen is an acclaimed American-Israeli author of many novels. According to Wikipedia, she practices Judaism according to the Modern Orthodox perspective and her writing focuses on the issues concerning the treatment and role of women in the Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) and Hasidic communities.

For those who are not familiar, and just in the most general of terms, Modern Orthodoxy combines observing traditional Jewish practices with secular learning, arts and humanities, equal opportunity for men and women and being self-supporting. In contrast, the Ultra-Orthodox are strict observers and interpreters of Judaism, and do not accept many aspects of secular life or contemporary social norms. Hasidic groups are part of the Ultra-Orthodox world, but have their own very specific sub-practices, and are generally rooted by the location of their European origins and by the teachings of each group's leader or founder.

There are many interpretations, degrees and types of practice in Judaism, just as there are many Christian denominations and movements.

In this novel, a large Ultra-Orthodox family in Brooklyn includes two young sisters. Rose, the older, is an outlier and eventually breaks away from the family to follow her interest in becoming a professional photographer. Pearl, the younger sister, idealized Rose, but after her departure takes the opposite route, becoming even more pious and traditional. Because of Rose's choice they are separated for decades, meanwhile marrying and becoming parents.

Eventually, conflict and resolution occur when Rivka, Pearl's daughter, runs away and seeks out Rose and her daughter Hannah for help. Ragen tells the story from the points of view of all the major female characters and includes many details of Ultra-Orthodox religious life (many of which were unfamiliar to me). While some of the plot points are not at all surprising, they are beautifully executed.

The book is very satisfying, and a fast-paced read. There is a glossary of Yiddish and Hebrew words following the text. As a novel first published in January, 2012, it makes an interesting counterpoint to Unorthodox, a memoir published in February, 2012 by Deborah Feldman, who left the Hasidic world in real life. Unorthodox was recently adapted into a multi-part Netflix series which is running now to great acclaim.

Today, as I write this, is the eve of Passover, when the First Seder would traditionally occur. Considering that we are in the height of a terrible pandemic in which we must observe social distancing to stop the spread of COVID-19, coronavirus, many Seders will not occur, or will be held virtually, using modern technology. My hope is that this plague will soon end and next year will be very different.

Doesn't Quite Add Up: Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini

A novel about Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, an interesting, highly intelligent real life heroine, an early female mathematician, who happens to be the daughter of the famous poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, seems like a good idea. An eighteenth-century upper-class life among Dukes, Earls, with a presentation to Queen Victoria, friendships and acquaintanceships with the leading intellectuals of the day, including Charles Dickens, Mary Somerville and Charles Darwin, seems as though it would be fascinating. And with an acclaimed author, the historical novelist Jennifer Chiaverini, writing the tale, it seems as though all the elements are there for a compelling read.

Even with all that going for it, the book somehow falls flat. It starts with a lengthy prologue that describes Ada's mother's ill-fated romance and marriage to Lord Byron. From then on, the story is Ada's, from her earliest childhood to her untimely early death. It takes over four hundred pages to accomplish that. It is extremely slow-moving, and more than a little repetitious, in that the same points are made over and over again.

I generally enjoy a novel with a lot of description, and if there are elements of the setting which with I am familiar (in this case the English Midlands), it adds to the appeal. In this case, though, I got tired of reading all about the decoration of Ada's and her families' homes, her gowns, and the unpleasant exchanges between her and mother. I think the book could have been trimmed down, more quickly paced, and the more dramatic sequences not separated so much by the extensive detail. It was more like reading a very lengthy personal diary, rather than a novel. If that was the intention, it succeeded, but it was hard to stay interested, even though I really wanted to.

I respect what must have been monumental research, and as a result I would like to read more about the work of Ada Lovelace, but in a non-fiction format.

A Separate Peace: Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

One of my absolute favorite books OF ALL TIME! I originally read it back in 2001, around the time of our visit to Arches National Park, which is just outside of Moab, Utah. Abbey's book is about his stint as a park ranger there before the park was "discovered" by hordes of tourists, and it's truly a wonder. If you are not already enchanted by the great parks of the desert Southwest, or haven't had the opportunity to visit them, you will be enthralled by his account. It might just be the perfect antidote to our collective anxiety in this time of pandemic, and the perfect escape to the natural, elemental world.

Abbey, by the way, was a student of the great Wallace Stegner, whose masterpiece, Angle of Repose, is a classic of the American West, and is also a worthy and compelling read for these troubled times.

As She Said: Vanity Fair's Women on Women

A compilation of profiles of women written by female contributors to Vanity Fair magazine, going back to the 1980s. Many of the pieces are outstanding, a few, well, not so much to my taste. The subjects are household names and icons – everyone from Audrey Hepburn to Whoopi Goldberg to Emily Post and Julia Child – as are, mostly to a lesser degree, the writers, including outstanding journalists like Gail Sheehy, Leslie Bennets and Marie Brenner, and a few who write as guest contributors.

I particularly enjoyed the piece on Audrey Hepburn, written by Amy Fine Collins, which described her rise as both an actress and a woman of unique style. The profile of Michelle Phillips, by Sheila Weller, gave wonderful insights into the folk and pop music scene of the 60s and 70s. I learned a great deal about Emily Post, as written by Laura Jacobs, and how she impacted so much beyond America's social mores. Those articles have a timeless feeling about them and need no explanatory notes or references.

Others, written at a certain moment of history, serve as background to what these women accomplished in later years – Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem are the perfect examples.

The benefit of a collection like this is that you can skip past anybody that you are not interested in without missing anything – I read them all, but it's completely unnecessary. You can cherry pick as you like.

My one overall criticism to this collection is that the pieces are arranged by "types", "The Comedians", "The Renegades", and so forth. I would have preferred to read them in the chronological order in which they were originally published, as that would have made the book also function more effectively as a social history, which it very much is. The odd concession to this is the final grouping, "In Their Own Words", which is the section afforded to the non-journalists writing in 2017 and 2018. The outstanding piece among those, for me, was by Lucy McBath, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018. She is truly an inspiration, and what we saw of her in sound bites on TV during that race, is so much less than the sum total of who she is. I'm hoping to hear more from her in both our national conversation, and hopefully, on the printed page.

No End to the Rainbow: Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts

A wonderful book that's hard to put down.

Author Elizabeth Letts has novelized the life of Maud Gage Baum, the wife of L. Frank Baum, the writer of The Wizard of Oz, but even quick research will reveal that the book is squarely based on fact. Several of her relatives, including Baum himself, her mother, a leading feminist of her time, and her sister Julia are major characters in the book. Many incidents in Maud Baum's life are faithfully recounted.

Maud Baum was a consultant to MGM during the filming of The Wizard of Oz, and the book moves back and forth in time through earlier periods of Maud's life to that time. The depictions of Maud's inner life and her interactions with Frank Baum and her relatives, and then with Judy Garland, the other actors, Yip Harburg, the lyricist of Over the Rainbow, and others, are where the novelization comes in. Whatever imaginings Elizabeth Letts has created make Maud all the more multi-dimensional and compelling as a character.

For those of us who have delighted for decades in The Wizard of Oz, the later Oz books and the movie, this novel is a warm, loving tribute to their contributions to American culture, and a great read about how they came to pass. Highly recommend!

Pourquois? The Cheffe: A Cook's Novel by Marie NDiaye

Was it because it was badly translated from the French, or was it simply the writing style? I can't decide...but I was utterly disappointed by this novel. I read about ten pages, and thought I must be missing something, or that maybe it was a baffling prologue, but I continued a bit farther. Then I tried leafing through the book to see if there was anything that grabbed me. Sadly, the answer is no.

The book is written from the point of view of a long-time would-be lover of a renowned French female chef. It read as cold and impersonal, yet fawning. Very odd.

There are far too many compelling books out there on which I would rather spend my time. This one is going right back to the library.

She Reigns Supreme: Queen Meryl by Erin Carlson

A fun, if fairly slight, biography of the great Meryl Streep. After a brief discussion of her early life, it mainly chronicles her history as an actor with an account of her roles, along with some personal detail and references to her political activism.

There are wonderful pen and ink sketches of her in character proceeding each chapter.

The author is reverential, to say the least, but the book is entertaining and a quick read.

Despair in the Center of America: Heart of Junk by Luke Geddes

The synopsis says that this a comic novel, but I found it very dark...almost dystopian. To me it was a comment on the despair of Trump's America out in the so-called "heartland".

The book is set in a failing antiques center in Wichita, Kansas. The last hope of the owner to salvage his finances, his relationships with his wife and daughter, and the disappointments of his life is the possibility of the attention he believes the center will receive when a pair of cable TV antique pickers come to film a segment for their show.

A number of the booth holders are hoping to revive their businesses with the sales they think will follow. Each of these is eccentric in his or her own way, and more than a little sad.

At the same time, a young girl in the community has gone missing, and there is an all-out effort going on to find her.

How this all unfolds is the story told here. I'm not quite sure why I stuck with this tale, as I did not come away with good thoughts. I'll be interested to see what other reviewers say.

A World Apart: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Wonderful. Lyrical. Haunting. I could hardly put this book down.

A young white girl, barely old enough to go to school, is gradually abandoned by her family members, and is left to fend for herself in an isolated shack outside a tiny town in the marshlands along the the North Carolina coast, circa the early 1950s.

Catherine, called by her nickname, Kya, was the youngest child of a couple whose lives were a struggle. They descended into poverty and despair resulting from what much later became known as PTSD, and alcoholism, violence and depression drove away the older children, their mother, and the next to youngest child, leaving Kya alone with her father, who after some periods of relative calm, eventually disappeared.

Kya had a deep love of her surroundings and the wildlife that resided there. She had learned some skills from her mother, father and Jodie, her last brother to leave, and with her native intelligence and her father's boat, she made her way. She remained reclusive and wild, but over time she formed a close bond with Jumpin', the African-American man who ran a small business selling gas and basic provisions to shrimpers and other boaters, and his wife, Mabel. A few others in the town were aware of her situation and helped her in their quiet way, but never letting on – like the truant officer who brought her to school for one day, but left her alone after she ran away from the taunts of her classmates. They called her Marsh Girl and made cruel comments about her, as children do.

Tate was a young boy who had been a friend of Jodie, became aware of Kya living on her own, and gradually won her trust. He too, had a deep appreciation of marshlands, its birds and water life. As time went on, he taught her to read and brought her small gifts, like a rare feather for her collection, but later her first bakery-made birthday cake after finding out the date through the town records.

Kya grew into a beautiful teenager, and on one of her visits to town for supplies, caught the eye of Chase, the town's golden boy – the richest, most popular and most athletic big fish in a very small pond. It's not hard to guess that this ultimately would not end well...but what follows is not entirely the usual trajectory of events, and this is the story you must read for yourself.

Author Delia Owens is wildlife scientist and the author of non-fiction books in her field, making her well-prepared to present the milieu of her first novel. It is truly an extraordinary book, and the only question I have is what she might produce next. Bravo, Ms. Owens for this amazing fiction debut.

Not It for Me: The It Girls by Karen Harper

I thought this book would be "right up my alley", as my dad used to say. The two real-life subjects, sisters Lucile Sutherland (later Lady Duff-Gordon), and Elinor Sutherland Glyn, were very interesting women. In the early 20th century, Lucile became a renowned couturier to the rich and famous, and Elinor an early romance novelist and later a Hollywood screenwriter.

There was way too much fanciful-sounding bodice-ripping interspersed into the historical material for my taste. Famous names were tantalizingly dropped everywhere, but they sometimes led nowhere or were not accurate, the most notable being Margaret Brown – "call me Molly". Brown was known as Maggie, not Molly, though she was later heralded as "the unsinkable Molly Brown".

All in all, quite a disappointment.

Spoken and Unspoken – The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine

Laurel and Daphne Wolfe are identical twins who are fascinated with words and grammar. Born in the 1950s, they grow up in a comfortable home in suburban Larchmont, NY, and while they are inseparable, and each other's closest friend, they are jealous and competitive.

Their mother, Sally, and father, Arthur, are a bit overwhelmed by their closeness, their secretiveness, and their quirky fixation on language. With Don and Paula, Arthur's brother and his wife, and their son Brian, the family is very insular.

One day Arthur brings home an immense dictionary, Webster's Second, and a special stand to hold it. It becomes a fascination, and much later, a weapon that tears the twins apart.

Laurel and Daphne come of age in the Reagan era, also the age of AIDS, in an un-gentrified New York, with all its grit, full of character, and characters. They share a walk-up apartment in the then-dangerous East Village, find jobs, and then husbands. Their relationship begins to unravel once Laurel and her husband have a child, but it ebbs and flows. Meanwhile, the husbands become the best of friends, despite the tensions between the sisters.

Through it all, Sally serves as the third major voice in the story, and a uniting thread. As the decades pass, and changes in the family occur, her point of view becomes cleverly dominant, which leads to a surprising, but satisfying resolution.

Stars Everywhere: Design for Dying by Renee Patrick

Almost a four-star, but it starts a little slowly for that. This debut mystery novel is set in 1930s Hollywood, and features Edith Head, the famous costume designer as a principal character. Lillian Frost, a transplant from New York, works in the lingerie department of an expensive speciality store, but aspired to a movie career, which she has determined is not for her.

The plot spins around the murder of Ruby Carroll, a beautiful and conniving young woman, whom Lillian knows from her former rooming house, and who was once her best friend...

There are lots of twists and turns, a possible Hungarian princess, a South American polo-playing playboy, a gangster, several detectives, and lots of stars of the time make brief entrances into the story. It's fun. Handled well, it could turn into a light and airy period movie with lots of cameo appearances.

All Things Greek – Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. I enjoyed Mary Norris's first book, Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, much more.

I found this one somewhat slow going, and almost abandoned it. It did get more interesting as it went on, as she described her quest, obsession actually, to learn Greek. Her travel descriptions were perhaps the most appealing parts of the book, since I had also made a trip to Greece in my younger days. Some of her adventures there were remarkably like my own, especially her encounters with Greek men, who seemed to think that any young American woman was fair game for their aggressive pick-up moves.

Her accounts of the evolution of the language were certainly interesting, yet somehow, as a reader who loves language and linguistics, and is a bit of a grammar nerd, I felt more as though I was looking in, and less like I was involved. Maybe it was the pacing – a few more "aha" moments would have helped the book along.

I must say I love the cover design with its lovely mosaic. Very appropriate.