Memories of the Lost --Barbara O'Neal

 ASIN: B0CQ8AQZJ16

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (July 30,2024)

Language: English

Also available in print

Sibling Fiction/Friendship Fiction/Sisters Fiction

5 Stars

 

Every Barbara O’Neal book I read is better than the one I read before. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the late Maeve Binchy so my comparison may be way off base, but in my mind, O’Neal is Binchy reincarnated. At least, I enjoy O’Neal’s books as much as I did Binchy’s.

 

This story, about a young lady, an artist, Tillie Morrisey who was a single child to her single mom, discovers, once her mother dies, and she’s cleaning out Mom’s house her own death certificate as a young child. 

 

As if that’s not bad enough, just a few days prior, she goes to an art gallery to support her best friend who has his first showing, and while there all but falls into a painting by an unknown artist and is helped by a handsome stranger. 

 

So, we have a mystery, several mysteries. Why did Tillie find her death certificate? She was very much alive and had not been in a fire when she was a child. At least, she didn’t remember it. Who is the handsome Aussie who has entered her life? When she contacts the artist who painted the picture she tried to fall into, she finds out it’s in England.

 

Busy, getting paintings finished and together for her up-coming show, she finds she is getting lost in her paintings and when she returns, she has no memory of painting the changes, but those who have seen them think they might be her best yet.

 

She decides to take a few days to visit England, see if she can find the house in the original painting and instead, she finds the most marvelous answers to all of her mysteries. It’s so nice to read a HEA book where no one dies, where no one resorts to violence. And I really do enjoy a good story, and a Happy Ever After ending.

The Book of Delights --by Ross Gay

 Publisher: Algonquin Books; First Edition (February 12, 2019)

Language: English

Hardcover: 288 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1616207922

Essays (mini), Memoir

5 Stars

 

A friend informed me I really needed to read this book. Since I’d read a couple of Gay’s poems, and as I walked through the bookstore, and this book just happened to fall off a shelf into my hands, I figured it was a sign. I bought the book.

 

There are 102 essayettes, as Gay calls them, in the book. I call them mini essays—some are as short as one paragraph, taking less than half a page, a few are longer, but most are three pages or less. The book is 5” x 7.5” and easy to read. 

 

Gay spent a year writing about things that brought him delight—everything from the taste and texture of a food to sunlight falling through leaves; flowers in a statue’s hand (one of Hoagy Carmichael) to meeting people. This book is a total delight to read. I originally thought I’d read just one or two a night. I finished it in a week. I do most of my reading at night, after I go to bed, and I read this book after I’d read other books, because I knew I’d drift off to sleep with something fun and, well, delightful, to be contemplating as I fell asleep.

 

This a book you will not only enjoy reading, you will enjoy buying copies to give away to friends, or even a stranger you recognize on your commute. 

I Ain't Afraid --by Diane Helentjaris

 Publisher: Alkira Publishing, 1^st edition (Augus 16, 2024

Language: English

Paperback: 316 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1922329707

Biography: Nonfiction

5 Stars

 

Having never heard of Lulu Bell Parr, I found myself unable to put the book down until I finished it. I think she may have out-calamitied Calamity Jane! This woman wasn’t afraid of anything but not having a job! And what a series of jobs she had! And the fact that she died after I was born, and still hadn’t heard of her amazed me because I read anything I could find, even newspapers, about the wild west. Wow! What a life she led. 

 

The photos in the book added a great deal to help visualize who she was. Thank you, Ms. Helentjaris for running away from home as a youngster to take a nap in the graveyard, and really, thank you for coming home, growing up, and writing this book. Thank you for all the research you did, and for bringing all the people back to life!

 

This is not a dry history of date, happening and more of the same. This story reads like a well-done novel—but it isn’t. It’s real. And check out her boots on the cover. I wish I could give it more stars, but 5 is the highest I can go.

Dearly --poems by Margaret Atwood

 Publisher: Ecco (November 2,2021

Language: English

Paperback: 144 pages

ISBN: 978-63032507

5 Stars

 

 

I love Margaret Atwood’s poetry. Oh, maybe not every poem in a book, but I do not dislike any poems by her that I’ve read, and I have, and have read, all her poetry books. 

 

Ms Atwood’s poetry resonates with me, perhaps because we are of an age. I think, should we ever meet, we’d find we have our senses of humor in common.

 

The first poem is “Late Poems” and she had me with her opening lines, “These are the late poems. / Most poems are late / of course: too late,” This first section is about life, and what happens when that life ages, be it feline or blizzard.

 

“Health Class (1953)” had me laughing until I hurt. OMG, I could so relate to that poem. “Girls, girls, girls, girls, girls! / Simmer down! / This is not a three-ring circus!” Oh, but surely it was. What girl who suffered that class wasn’t positive she knew more than Teacher? There is an ode to “Frida Kahlo, San Miguel, Ash Wednesday” to be followed in a couple of pages by the 8 part poem, “Songs for Murdered Sisters.” 

 

There are pages of thought-provoking loveliness in this book, poems I read, stopped, read again, stopped again, and eventually turned the page. I have a love/hate relationship with the last poem, “Blackberries” for it conjured up memories of picking blackberries with my grandma who I miss terribly, and love so much. Good memories, of us picking the self-same fruits. And the lovely last lines, “Some berries occur in sun, / but they are smaller. / It’s as I always told you: / the best ones grow in shadow.”

 

Margaret Atwood is truly a national treasure in Canada. I find many delights in the fact Canada shares her with we in the south.

Death Interrupted: How Modern Medicine is Complicating the Way We Die --by Blair Bigham, MD

 Publisher: The Walrus Books (September 20, 2022)

Language: English

Paperback: 304 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1487008543

5 Stars

 

This is a fascinating read. I had a hard time putting it down. I do most of my reading horizontal in my bed, and I’d read until my eyes burned. This is memoir of an MD who is taking on all the hard topics families, doctors, and patients face in the ER, ICU, office, and home. 

 

I remember when pronouncement of death meant your heart stopped. Then, with transfer of organs, it became when the brain died. Then with all the technology, who knows? We can be kept alive, hooked to wires, tubes, and intubation for an indefinite period of time. But do we want to live like that? If you haven’t left the proper paperwork, your family may insist. The Courts may insist you be kept alive even if you wish to be declared “dead dead.” It takes work to die on your terms, find out how, and set the plans for all to read and respect.

 

One of the things that, for me, made this book so fascinating, is Dr. Bigham admits when he is/was wrong, and what is doing to change. In other words, the doctor is admitting he is human v. so many doctors who consider themselves God.

 

If you are dying, have close friends and family who are dying, or may someday die, I heartedly recommend this book. One of the best of the genre of death and dying I’ve yet to read.

Before Your Memory Fades (Book 3 of Before the Coffee Gets Cold) --by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

 Publisher: Hanover Square Press (November 15, 2022

Language: English

Hardcover: 320 pages (small book)

ISBN-13: 978-1335429285

Stars: 5+

 

This is the third in a series. The first thing I think all who have never read any of this series needs to know is that all books stand alone. If you read them out of order, it’s alright. There might be a couple references in passing you don’t get, but not to worry.

 

There is a second coffee house in Japan that offers time travel, with the same rules, it I the Donna Donna in Hakodate, a town on Hokkaido Island, north of Tokyo. Some of the people who work at the Finucli Finucla have come to the Donna Donna to cover for the owner who is out of the country.

 

Again, there are four independent stories that are expertly tied together at the end. These are great bedtime stories for the adult kids. Guaranteed not to give you nightmares ;-) As Mikey used to say when finished with his bowl of cereal, Try it. You’ll like it. 

Knowing When --by Mark Fleisher

 Publisher: Mercury HeartLink (March 7, 2023)

Language: English

Paperback: 56 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1949652260

Stars: 5

 

 

This my third book of poetry by Mark Fleisher, the first two being Incidental Moments and Intersections. One of the reasons I dearly love the poetry of this man is his unabashed willingness to include his wife. For her help and support, but mostly just because he’s in love with her.

 

This is a chapbook of about 26 poems, beginning with “The Mystery Of It All” which begins, “Like bards and troubadours / of days long past / we roam the countryside /” Right there, I knew I would like this book. And like the bards of old, Fleisher takes us through the countryside of life, death, and all that makes us human.

 

“Bittersweet Christmas” brought tears. Even now, I’m not sure exactly how it ends, and I’ve read it several times, “Her eyes could not contain / tears that welled and a few / slowly rolled down her checks /”.  The title poem, “Knowing When”is the penultimate poem of the collection, which this reviewer thinks is too short, by several poems (possibly not yet written). This poem gives us all a tutorial on when to walk off the stage. It us up to us to recognize it.

 

I eagerly await the next book. Mr. Fleisher writes narrative poetry, stories in stanzas, stories and stanzas that will melt your heart, bring a tear or two, or a laugh or three. Knowing When is delightful.