The mummies in this book, The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis are:
Hathorkare--female Egyptian Pharoah mummy
Charlotte--Egyptologist who tragically loses her daughter
Anne's Mother--selfish woman
The story begins with Charlotte working in Egypt as an archeologist. She falls in love, marries, and has a daughter. Tragedy strikes.
Anne is working to support her mother, who is constantly trying to marry someone rich. Anne gets her dream job, working in fashion.
The scene shifts to Charlotte in New York, working in a museum. Anne is involved in using Charlotte's museum as a backdrop for a fashion show.
A valuable necklace is stolen.
Charlotte goes to Egypt looking for answers. Since Anne was fired, she tags along with Charlotte. The adventure, and mystery, lead the two ladies into a lasting friendship.
Pitch Dark by Paul Doiron is a thriller. The setting is near the border of Canada and Maine. The major character is Maine game warden Mike Bowditch. The story begins with a missing person. People do get lost in the woods, but something doesn't add up. Mike comes across a father bringing up his daughter alone. He's homeschooler her. They're secretive. All too soon, a murder occurs. The father and daughter are on the run. The original lost person is found bound up in a trailer. He's not just a random walker who got lost. He's a bounty hunter looking for the father and daughter.
Soon, the pace is frantic. Mike is after the father and daughter who aim for the Canadian border. What shocked me was that the father threatened to shoot his daughter, when Mike got too close to them. How to stop and capture the man before he shoots her? You'll find out when you read the book. I'm not spoiling it for you.
Have you ever heard of Ambrose Bierce? I guess I'm not as learned as I thought I was, because Ambrose Bierce is famous, and I never heard of him. He was a novelist, poet, short story writer, journalist, as well as serving as a First Lieutenant in the Civil War.
He was born in a log cabin in 1842, . His parents were poor but literary. All 13 of their children learned to read and discuss literature critically. Interesting, the Bierce's 13 children all had names beginning with the letter "A". Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, Ambrose, Arthur, Adelia, and Aurelia. Ambrose himself, left high school at age 15 to work at a small abolitionist newspaper, the Northern Indianan.
His disappearance is what peaked my interest. I was reading Kathleen Norris' book, The Cloister Walk, and she quoted Ambrose Bierce as writing, "You can't stop the wicked from going to Chicago by killing them...", so I googled Ambrose Bierce, and found out that his life and disappearance have been the subject of over 50 novels, short stories, movies, Televison shows, stage plays, and comic books. They portray his interesting life and ending with his mysterious disappearance.
The last he was seen was touring Civil War battlefields. He was age 71 and decided to journal the revolution in Mexico. He passed through Texas and in Juarez he joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer. That's it. In one of his final letters, he wrote,
"Good-bye. If you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it is a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico--ah, that is euthanasia!"
Some other theories:
Bierce deliberately left a notebook but concealed his true whereabouts because he was going to commit suicide.
Some of Pancho Villa's men said he was killed in battle.
Oral tradition in Sierra Mojada, Coahuila, documented by priest James Lienert states that Bierce was executed by firing squad in the town's cemetery.
His ultimate fate is unknown. It's a mystery, like the stories he wrote. His disappearance is one of the most famous vanishing acts in American literary history.
Deacon King Kong by James McBride is hilarious. McBride is so talented. Look at this alliteration:
...that lowdown grizzle-faced stupid son-of-a-bitch snitch, had sat.
She left before he got sanctified and saved.
His descriptions are unique. His characterization is part of the humor. Just that fact that the story begins with an attempted murder and the rest of the story is how the murderer gets away with it. The Deacon is so drunk he wasn't thinking straight. He tried to shoot a drug dealer, not because he was dealing drugs but because he was wasting his pitching talent.
The setting is the project with its characters. No one has a regular name. Everyone is known by a nickname. The Deacon is a real Deacon in his church. King Kong is homemade "moon shine." The Deacon is always sipping on it.
In the background, there is a real drug war going on. There are more humorous personalities that are unique.
I don't know where to begin. I can't describe everything. But I enjoyed it.
For those of you who have not heard, our brother Nghia Vy received an email a few days ago from Immigration. ICE told him he will be deported back to Vietnam. Nghia escaped Vietnam to the US as an asylum seeker after the Vietnamese war.
When he was released from prison 17 years ago the US did not have a treaty with Vietnam, so he was able to stay in the USA. Thanks to the new federal administration, we now have a treaty. Nghia is an amazing brother and friend in our Bethany Community. This is such heartbreaking news for all of us.
Yes, heartbreaking indeed. If we are devastated, imagine how Nghia feels.
"Texas hold 'em", is a polka game, that I am learning to play. As the dealer was dealing, we were talking. She said something important. Something that I've got to tell my granddaughters, whom I teach their faith formation classes to because what this dealer said, applies to the Catholic religion.
The basics are fairly easy to learn. That's true in "Texas hold 'em" and religion. But it takes a lifetime to master it. That's true in both.
Now, to get that through to my granddaughter who thinks that she knows everything because she made her confirmation.
Maggie O'Farrell's latest book, Hamnet, is about William Shakespeare's son, Hamlet. Hamnet died when he was eleven years old, from the plague. But William is in the background. The story is about the grief of Hamnet's mother, Agnes. William is grieving also, but his way of dealing with it is to go away and immerse himself in his plays. It's the mother's grief that we read, we feel, and sympathize with.
This is historical fiction, and we learn how the people lived in the 1500s. Their daily chores, their mores, their politics, their hopes and dreams. We are taken to the beginnings of William and Mary's first encounter. Their courtship, their marriage, and life thereafter. No one put much faith in William's ability to become a good wage earner or succeed in a vocation. His family were glovers. He helped sell the gloves. But on a sales trip to London, he went to a play. The rest is history.
William and Agnes lived in a little apartment, attached to the Shakespeare's house. The entire extended family ate together. The story involves everyone. Agnes first, gives birth to a daughter, named Susanna. A few years later, she gives birth to twins, Judith and Hamnet. The twins love each other, so much so that when Judith becomes sick, Hamnet is distraught. He ends by praying to take her place. If someone is to die, let it be him.
His prayers are answered.
As you can imagine, the family is devastated, especially the mother. She wasn't around when sickness came. She was the last to arrive at the scene. She had been off wool-gathering in the woods. Once, home, she over reacted, if a mother can ever do such a thing, and was so busy tending to Judith, that she didn't, she never, noticed that Hamnet was sick, too. As Judith seemed to revive, Hamnet seemed to decline. Agnes ministrations were too late, he died. From then on, Agnes blamed herself. She was known as a healer. She who could heal others, could not heal her son. Worse, she didn't think he was that sick. She was too late. Too late coming home, too late noticing what was happening, too late administering medicine, and just too late to be of use.
The author writes beautifully. Her descriptions are distinct pictures. She conveys emotions with raw, profound, anguish. It is no wonder that Hamnet won the Women's Fiction Prize for 2020.
