Not for Monkey Brains

 How many times have I attempted to read The Cloud of Unknowing?  Once, Twice?  I guess three times is a Trinity!  I finished it.  Once I got the hang of it, I found it repetitive.  OK!  I get it!  One needs the mental discipline to focus on God and not let the cares of the world into your thoughts.

Human reason cannot comprehend God, or He wouldn't be, Who He is.  I am reminded of what God told Catherine of Siena.  You are you and I am God.  

If one can settle their monkey brain to quiet, one might feel God loving them.  It is an experience to reach.

Apocalypse

 Here's another Book Review.  This time it's Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille.  John Corey is the detective with his long suffering wife.  He's a smart mouth investigator.  His friend was murdered in an assignment that was meant for him. Corey's partner is his wife.  Both are investigating this crime, in the Adirondacks.  

The bad guys are out to blame Islamis.  This takes place right after 9/11 They hope to accomplish revenge by nuclear bombing American cities, which will force our government to think Islamic terrorists were responsible and go to war.

This is a fast-paced political thriller.  I see that it is part of a series and John Corey is featured in all of them.  If you like sarcastic, sexy heroes.  This is a book for you.

Ba-BOOM!

 Dr. Takashi Nagai was a doctor who studied radiation.  Fate placed him in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped.  Being a sincere Catholic convert, his faith perspective saved him from despair and anger.  His wife was killed instantly, with her rosary melted intwined in her hand.  His children survived but were sick, as he.  

The book, The Bells of Nagasaki, takes us threw that fateful day.  He was working when a blinding light, change of atmosphere, wind--it's hard to describe, threw everyone here and there.  Some people were blown far away--dead.  Dr. Nagai was buried under debris and gradually worked his way out.  Those that survived tended to the wounded.  "The blind leading the blind."  They did what they could.

The most interesting part of the story is Dr. Nagai's eulogy.  The was thankful for the end of the war.  He was thankful for a stop of his country's suicide nationalism.  He thanked God for a new chance.  He thanked God for taking his wife and friends home.  

May we all have his perspective in tragedy.

Crazy Secrets

I'm spending a small fortune on Glenn Cooper Books.  I couldn't find them in my library or the Minuteman Library network, as books.  They were available, however on Hoopla.

With a little help from a librarian friend, I connected and read, Library of the Dead by Glenn Cooper.  As usual lately, life was put on hold, while I read. At first, I thought I was reading a book of short stories.  There seemed to be three stories.  It begins in Medieval times, in a Benedictine monastery.  The next story is the usual degenerate hero that Glenn Cooper has his readers lusting to meet.  This hero is Will, an FBI agent.  Lastly, the reader finds herself in Area 51--UFO land.

Once they all meet, it makes sense.  As usual, the book is a fast-paced thriller.  I think Will is in other books.  If so, I'll keep you updated.

With Help from My Friends

 The Nine by Gwen Strauss is a true story of WWII prison experiences.  The author's great aunt Helene was one of the nine who escaped a German labor camp, near the end of the war. I usually put myself in stories, which is why these nine interested me.  If you were escaping any prison, don't you think the chances of being caught would increase, the more people involved?  Some wag once said that three can keep a secret if two are dead.  This is why I am amazed that nine agreed to try to escape, never mind execute the escape and traipse across Germany. And the first thing I would do, once out, would be to scatter, and definitely not tell each other where you are headed. They did none of this.  They stayed together as a group and would not let anyone fall behind, even when they wanted to.  It worked.

The journey was a ten day walk from the Leipzig labor camp to France.  Imagine what they looked like.  Nine rag-tag women walking along, some still in prison uniform, some barefoot, dirty, smelly, skinny like walking dead.  I'm surprised no one reported them to the Germans.  I'm also surprised that people helped them.  I can see helping one, but nine!!  The people themselves hardly had food, how could they scrounge enough to feed nine! These women weren't Jewish.  They were resistance fighters, from different countries.  They met in prison, helped each other, and agreed to escape together.

The story made me cry.  I am always amazed at the torture humans can inflict on each other.  Death would be preferable. There were heartening moments in the prison camp.  The women told each other their favorite recipes.  They sang songs.  They became a chosen family.

Surprisingly, after being home a few years, they were reluctant to tell their stories.  Sometimes, someone would write about it, but relatives weren't interested.  I found this very strange.  But this is why the author, a grandniece, wrote the book. Gwen Strauss did extensive research. There are pictures, notes, acknowledgements, and a bibliography. It is a strong, powerful narrative.

The author's research took her to interview the few remaining women, their relatives and even some of the people they encountered on their trek from the prison to France.  None of these women were happy or even had a good life afterwards.  That damn war ruined everything. However, the story is true and an important part of history to never forget.

 

 

 

 It beats me how people can keep secrets for years, in this case, over sixty years.  Although I realize that I have never suffered trauma, like Eva did in The Book of Lost Names by Hanna Harmel.

The setting is France in WWII.  Eva is Jewish.  When France was first invaded by Germany, there was a section of France that people felt safe, called the Free Zone.  Gradually, that was not so, but in the beginning of the story, we see Eva's father picked up by the Gestapo.  Eva and her mother run to the Free Zone.  Eva's mother proves to be a pain in the a$$.  

The mother wouldn't leave their Paris apartment: what if their father came home and couldn't find them, where are we going, we don't know anyone there, etc.  

Eva worked for the resistance by forging documents.  However, the work was inside a Catholic Church.  The leader was a Catholic priest.  Eva falls in love with a Catholic.

As you can imagine, the mother complained the entire time. Poor Eva was torn between saving Jews and her mother.  Fortunately, the mother lost and Eva continued her work. As the war progressed, their town and the Free Zone wasn't safe.  They had to escape to Switzerland.

The title of the book, The Book of Last Names, comes from Eva's code.  In an old Catholic book, Eva put the true names of the people, whose names she changed in a code.  The ending of book has Eva responding to advertisement, looking for the book's owner.  Eva responds and she is united with the book.

I learned about forging as resistance, in this story.  It saved many lives.

Key Moments

 Marianne Budd is the female priest, who has served as the bishop of Washington DC since 20011, and is no stranger to controversial decisions.  In her homily for the 2025 prayer service for Donal Trump's inauguration, she stressed compassion and mercy toward the marginalized.  This did not sit well with the President and his cabinet.

When I saw that she had written a book on how to be brave, I bought it.  How We Learn to Be Brave, at first seemed to be just a memoir.  More into the book, she tells how other people stepped up, when the time called for it. 

This is a book that highlights how people when faced with certain key moments react: Jesus, Esther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, etc. They seemed to all be willing to take risks.  They didn't give up.  Not that they are always successful, but they persevere.  

We do not choose where we are in the human story,

only how we live in the time we are given.

The Tiger By the Tail

 You name it: fiction, mystery, thriller, war story, romance, political thriller, suspenseful novel.  Up Country by Nelson DeMille is all that, besides being a good story.  The main character is Paul Brenner, a retired Army detective.  He had just retired, when his former commander asked him to solve one more crime.  This is the plot.

During the Vietnam War, a wounded Vietnamese Cong was on the second floor, trying to remain quiet when he witnessed a terrible crime taking place, below him on the first floor, by the Americans.  This building had been bombed and there were gaps in the floor.  This Cong wrote what happened to his brother, also a Vietnamese soldier, who was killed.  The letter was found and kept as a souvenir by an American soldier.  Many years later, the American soldier decided to send the letter to the United Staes Army/Government, for historical value or whatever.  When the letter was translated the government realized that a crime had been committed and wanted the perpetrator punished. That's the assignment Paul Brenner was given and that's all the reader knows and understands, too.

Brenner has the name, and the Vietnamese village the witness came from.  That's all.  Brenner doesn't even know if the witness was still alive. If he's dead, that the end of the assignment.  If he isn't, Brenner needs to get a positive identification of the perpetrator.  

I think I enjoyed this book so much because I was alive and can identify (in a way) with the times.  I was a twenty-something year old, during the war, and was both anti-war, and very busy with career, marriage, and new family, to really understand what soldiers like Paul Brenner were going through.  I know less than a handful of people who were in the war.

1.  Joe spent the entire war as a dental hygienist, in Japan.

2.  Tom who was a typist in an office, there.

3.  A cribbage partner, who won't talk about it.

4.  A priest who led platoons and had a bounty on his head, as did other platoon leaders.  The witness of the South Vietnamese soldiers, fighting for their homeland, led him to the priesthood.  The soldiers were devout.  

I was not prepared for the descriptions of fighting in Up Country.  I also hesitate to recommend this book to one of my book clubs.  It is gory--too descriptive of the violence perpetrated during war. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I learned, I laughed, I gagged, I cried, I blushed, and I sighed with relief when the crime was exposed.  I'll be thinking about UP Country, for a long time.

Hooked

 Chloe Dalton's Raising Hare is about nurturing a hare. Chloe came across it when it was only a leveret. She brought it home and fell in love with it. She describes every minutia: coloring, noises, eating habits, even it's poop.

About half of it kept my interest. I've never read anything like it. But then it got boring. Dalton became obsessed with detail.

Bumping into Each Other

It's an easy and good read.  

A Female James Bond

 The Traitor by Ava Glass is one in a series of spy stories.  Instead of James Bond, it's Emma Makepeace.  This is my second book written by Ava Glass.  They are both fast paced. In fact, I was so jazzed from reading, one night, that I had a hard time getting to sleep.  

Emma, this time, has to go undercover as a waitress on a private yacht.  The own is a Russian oligarch.  She there because there's a traitor in her branch and she is to keep her eyes and ears open.  Sounds easy, but remember she's on a yacht and off the grid.  IOW, she on her own.

But she's resourceful and after a few heart stoppers, the leak is revealed and Emma gets away, barely.  This is the definition of an action thriller.

Short and Sweet

 The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans is a cute short Christmas story.  I would have made it even shorter by cutting out the beginning explanation.  I'd begin by saying that they moved into the mansion to start new jobs.  But anyway, whatever sins the author committed are forgiven because the story has a happy ending, like all Christmas stories do.  The found letters in the story were not from or to her husband.  I thought they might be to God.  But Mary was writing to her deceased daughter. This sounds like  a sad story but Mary and her daughter are united in the end.  All Christmas novels should be like The Christmas Box.

 Cape Cod is my summer home, although we love Maine, too.  In fact, this year's family vacation is in Denmark, Maine.  Richard Russo's novel, That Old Cape Magic puts the Cape and Maine as settings.  I loved reading and recognizing everything, although regrettably, Silver Lounge isn't there anymore, I do remember it well.

Russo introduces us to Jack's parents, who were constantly vying against each other and criticizing everything.  Later, he copies them unconsciously.  Jack's wife, Joy, had parents who placed family first.  Jack made fun of them.  

The story takes place between two weddings, their daughter's and her friends.  One if on the Cape and the other is in Maine.

Did I tell you that this novel has its humor?  Everyone is a cynic and sarcastic and at times, it's funny. For example, Jack's parents die and have requested that their ashes be scattered on the Cape.  So, for a good year, Jack carries their ashes in the trunk of his car.  One on one side of the trunk, and the other, on the other.  When he finally does scatter them, it's one on the Bay side, and the other on the ocean side.

Jack's mother is in his head, literally.  He can hear her sarcastic comments.  At times, he answers audibly.  But once the ashes are disposed of, the voice is quieter.

The story is OK, but the setting covers a lot of sins.

Hurtful Words

 Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand is a good summer novel.  It's about teen life on Nantucket Island.  A tragic accident ends the life of Penny, a twin.  The story is about how three families deal with this horror.  

Her mother and twin brother, Hobson, reminisce.  Her brother was riding in the passenger seat of the car that crashed.  He saw the look in Penny's face.  Was she trying to kill them all?  In the back seat were Penny's boyfriend, Jake, and friend, Demeter.

If she were intent on suicide, why?  Demeter felt guilty because she said something very upsetting to Penny.  Jake wonders why Penny would kill herself leaving Jake alone.  Hobson had to find out what made Penny suicidal.

To complicate matters, the twins' mother, Zoe, was in a relationship with Penny's boyfriend's father, Jordan.  Also, Demeter, although only 17 was grossly obese and a functioning alcoholic in trying to cope with her weight situation.

How everyone copes and heals is the story.  It's a page turner.  The reader is rooting for the characters.  It's a nice ending.

A Benedictine Presbyterian

Author Kathleen Norris should have a blog because her book, The Cloister Walk, is a collection of blog posts.  Her chapters may be long or short, mostly short.  They're her thoughts along her spiritual journey.  Although she chooses to be Presbyterian, she also chooses to be a Benedictine Oblate.  She taught at the Benedictine Abbey Schools and went to their abbey, for retreats.

I think this is like the many Franicans, I know.  They are professed Lay Domicans, but they feel attracted to Franciscan spirituality.  It works.

A few of my favorite quotes, from the book:

...poetry, like prayer is a dialogue with the sacred.

Psalm reading becomes a heartbeat.

Poetry's function is not to explain but to offer images and stories that resonate within our lives.

Doubt--the grace of poetic sensibility.

To say or sing the psalms aloud within a community is to recover religion as an oral tradition.

Communal prayer--when you don't feel like it, others pull you along.

Life is a matter of perspective.

What may be most valuable in myths is the depth of psychological truth that they contain.

Good liturgy is a living poem and ceremony is the key.

Ceremony and tradition can be food for the soul,

Grieving involves touch, seeing, listening to stories, and forgiveness.

There is no way to avoid not having your heart broken, when you visit the widow, bring food, tears, hugs, and the three year old looks up at you and says, "My daddy died."  You see and feel what the death of one person does to the world.

Yes, I see what the thoughts of Kathleen Norris does to me.  She is food for the soul.

Life After the Concentration Camp

 At first I thought Grace in the Wilderness, After the Liberation 1945-1948, by Aranka Siegal, was a memoir.  At times, I couldn't figure out what person the book was speaking in. Eventually, I googled the title and deduced that this is a historical fiction novel.it the library book sale.  There were 10 copies of it.  Maybe a book club read it.  The story is about a teenage girl, so maybe a high school class read it.  I bought them all, thinking that I'll give them to my book club.

It is a fairly easy read, for us, but I don't think it would be for teenagers.  Like I said, I wasn't sure who was narrating the story.  Also, there are so many characters, the reader surely who have to write down a list of who's who.  As for emotional impact however, this book can be heart wrenching, at times.  It is an excellent view of life after living through Nazi prison camp.

As a history teacher, I would recommend this book.  As an English teacher, I don't think so.  As a social studies teacher, I would recommend it.  As an adult reader, I would recommend it.  Three out of four is good.

The Truth Comes Out

 Have you ever wished that you had another chance in life?  The major character in The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife does just that.  The author, Anna Johnston has written a funny, heartwarming story.  Everyone will like it.

It begins with Frederick being homeless and coming across a nursing home's outing.  He finds a man dead in his wheelchair.  Fred starts to push him back to the group but trips and falls.  Bernard falls out of wheelchair and into the river and is gone.  Fred is unconscious.  Coincidentally, the two men look alike.  The nursing home staff thinks Fred is Bernard.  He tries to correct their mistake, but no one listens because Bernard had dementia.  Eventually Fred gives up and accepts the fact that he is Bernard--especially when he finds out that Bernard had money.

The new Bernard is an improvement from the real one.  He is kinder, helpful, and very considerate.  He makes life pleasant for everyone, even the nursing home's staff.  Best of all, he reconciles the estrangement between Bernard and his daughter.  

The reader falls in love with this Bernard, too.  However, the truth comes out and read about it yourself. Reconciliation is sweet.

The Schwertler Anabaptists

 The Burning by Linda Castillo taught me about the Amish, specifically a couple of different kinds of Amish.  The groups are under the Anabaptist umbrella.  Then there's the Amish and Mennonites and Hutterites.  There are some Hutterites that are called the Schwertler Anabaptists.  This is the group that Sheriff Kate Burkholder has to deal with. 

An excommunicated Amish man is found burned at the stake.  Specifically, he is found to have been burned alive, like the martyrs described in the book the Martyrs' Mirror.  Kate, in trying to solve the crime has a hard time getting information.  The Amish are a closed mouth group.  They don't talk about each other, even to Kate, who was brought up Amish.  

Once it is found that the victim died according to a ritual, she looks into the different Anabaptists' groups and learns about the Schwertlers.  The Anabaptists are pacifists, but a group of Hutterites believe in taking justice into their own hands.

Schwertler Anabaptists, like Balthasar Hubmaier, believed in the legitimacy of government and the use of force for just causes, distinguishing them from the more pacifist Stäbler Anabaptists. They supported the idea that Christians could take up arms if ordered by the government to defend the innocent and uphold justice.

AI can be helpful. 

 Kate confronts the group and is almost martyred, herself.  I am leaving a lot out.  Believe me.  You must read the story.  The book is plot driven and fast paced.  Kate survives by the skin of her teeth.  She must because Police Chief Kate Burkholder is a series by Linda Castillo and The Burning is # 16. It stands alone however, because this is the first book I've read, in the series.  I certainly will be reading more.

Good Shepherd to the World

 If you had ever asked me what role papal diplomacy plays in international politics, I would have said, "none."  I never gave it a thought.  However, thinking about it, I would still respond with "none."  Why would a political entity pay attention to a religious entity?  

Out of respect, a political entity might listen, or pretend to listen, but what affect would religion have on a political situation?  Both Pope Francis, and now, Leo XIV, have urged peace in the war-torn countries of Ukraine and Gaza.  Their pleas are ignored. So what use is papal diplomacy?

After reading The Cross and the Flag by Father John Tanyi Nouah Lebui, I am reconsidering my opinion. Father John Tanyi is my parish priest.  He wrote The Cross and the Flag. He has taught in universities and is a scholar of international relations and diplomacy.

The first reason to reconsider is that the Catholic religion is the world's largest religion.  Many if not most countries have Catholics in them.  They pay attention to their pope.  Church teachings affect their followers, and their followers vote and act in other ways that affect their actions. 

Think of the example of Poland in 1970's food riots, the overthrowing of their government, and the Solidarity movement.  Think of the anti-abortion movement in the USA.  

But not all countries have a majority of Catholics.  Still.  The papacy is an important moral voice.  The pope has spoken to the UN.  Encyclicals are read and studied.  Even if a political entity doesn't follow papal teachings, it would hear and feel international criticism.  In today's globalized and internet news alerted world, opinions matter.  What sets what the pope says apart, is the fact, that it has no agenda, outside of what's best for humanity.  The pope is a moral voice--a conscience.

Now if you asked me what role papal diplomacy plays in international politics, I'd say that it plays a necessary and important part.  In fact, if you want to know what was going on in any country, anywhere, forget asking that countries' politicians.  Ask the parish priests.  The priests know their people.  Their bishops know their priests.  And their pope knows both.  A shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep know their shepherd.  

A Gothic Mystery

Wake of Malice by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson is a mystery that called me by name.  The story had everything I like.  The setting is Ireland, around the turn of the twentieth century. There are gypsies, priests, vampires, romance, curses, demons, and my favorite exorcist, the friar, Father Thomas Edmund Gilroy.

The story begins with journalists Hugh Buckley and Freddie Jones assigned to go to write what's happening in an Irish Village.  A priest has been accused of stealing money. He is the second to be murdred.

When Hugh and Freddy arrive, the priest is accused of murder of the man he allegedly stole from. Other murders follow, in ritual, macabre manners, suggesting demonic activity.

One odd boy is accused.  Some gypsies are locked up.  The daughter of one of the victims, is suspected.

Our hero, Father Thomas Edmund is almost murdered, but he was found before he died, by Hugh.

What I enjoy about these mysteries is they're not creepy.  There's evil but it's not drawn out to creep you out.  Besides, Father Thomas Edmund always wins.  You can't figure out who's doing the murders and is the evil one, until it's time. Wake of Malice is easy to read and enjoy.