Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

Even though I knew that Andrew Carnegie was the first true philanthropist - and I knew that he originated the public library, I still always thought of him as a ruthless businessman. I don't think you can be a successful as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt or Astor without sacrificing something significant, like morality or integrity, or participating in questionable business practices like insider trading. The type of ambition that these men shared leads to some manner of crushing the already downtrodden and poor. I guess I never thought about Andrew Carnegie questioning his own business practices and power-hungry social climbing in the middle of his climb to "tycoon". It was incredibly interesting to me that someone had that type of influence over him. (Presumably, since this is a work of historical fiction.)

Carnegie's family were immigrants to America. I loved how Clara Kelley's story paralleled Andrew's story (on a much lesser scale of course!) Andrew and Clara were both extremely intelligent and resourceful. They read, listened, observed and acted. That makes for a successful person in life. They took advantage of opportunities whenever they presented themselves. I think that Andrew Carnegie could have married a lady's maid in the 1800's and gotten away with it! (Of course him mother would have died of a heart attack!) I thought it was interesting that Andrew's mother, who was intelligent business woman in her own right, didn't see that quality in Clara - or if she did, she didn't appreciate it. Oh how soon people forget where they started in life! She could have embraced Clara in her "new world" instead of trying to hold her to her status as "servant".

I love how Benedict writes about powerfully intelligent women who influence the men in their lives (although the women don't get the credit). I think there are always these unseen and/or unknown people "standing behind" powerful people and influencing their public persona and decisions.

I enjoyed this book and will continue to read what this author contributes.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac

 This is a novel written for young adults (or really middle school age). I'm not sure if there is an "adult" version of this same book. (There is an adult version of Unbroken and a young adult version of Unbroken, which I just found out about, for example.) This is a historical fiction book about the Navajo Marines in World War II and the use of the Navajo language to write messages in code so the enemy could not decipher them.

The book starts with Ned Begay being taken from his family at a young age to be sent to a boarding school. The boarding school tries very hard to wipe the Navajo culture and language from these young children's lives. Pure assimilation into English America is the goal. The children are punished if caught talking in the Navajo language. As World War II starts affecting America, Ned decides he wants to go to war. He is too young to enlist, so he waits as long as possible (with youth impatience) and eventually lies about his age to join the Marines. He is very smart and athletic, so he does well with all the training despite his young age. Or maybe because of it. ;) Anyway, he is recruited as a Code Talker because he is fluent in both the Navajo language and English. 

I always envisioned the Code Talkers working in a top secret room together on some military base. Maybe some of them did. Ned and many of his fellow Code Talkers were actually in the field with the soldiers. Not only did they fight in battles, they had to carry their radios with them which were often heavy and awkward (but were also known to save radio carrier's lives if bullets went into the radio vs the man). They were in the heat of the action. Many of them died in the field. Ned and his various divisions (the men were reassigned often) were fighting the Japanese, who did not follow the Rules of War of other countries. Ned would send messages in the middle of heavy fighting, sharing locations of the Japanese.

The book gets into some specifics about what it was like for the Marines as they were trying to take control of Guam, Iwo Jimo, Okinawa, etc. It did not spare the horror of it all. I wasn't sure how my son was taking it all in and I didn't ask him while he was reading it. After he finished the book he stated that is was the best book he had read this year and that he found out he really likes reading historical fiction books. Wow! Who knew. This made me very happy to hear since it's my favorite genre as well and he really doesn't even like reading. (I hope this changes of course!)

Wendy's Rating: ****

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

I really enjoyed this novel, although I found a lot of it sad. I would say it's charming, but sad. There are two main stories being told. Laura, newly divorced from her unfaithful husband, finds employment with an older man, Anthony Peardew, who is an author and the keeper of lost things. Anthony lost the love of his life, Therese, many years ago. She actually died before they married. She had given him a St. Anthony coin and told him to keep it safe. Well, the day she died, Anthony lost the coin. So, he spends the rest of his life mourning the loss of Therese, mourning the loss of the coin, and collecting other "lost" items that he finds. He keeps each lost item and records when and where he found it. Then, he writes books about the items, imagining the significance of each item while telling their story. As a younger man, his stories are positive and happy. As time goes on, his stories turn dark and unhappy. Anthony lives in the same beautiful home that he lived in with Therese. Therese is still "there" - or at least her presence is. She doesn't really "haunt" the house or anything, she just reminds Anthony & Laura that she is there. Sunshine is a young woman with Down Syndrome who befriends Laura after Anthony dies. She senses things about the lost items that no one else does. She actually knows each item's "story" and will discard them if something bad had happened in association with the item. Then there is the gardener, Freddy, who works at the house. Freddy is gorgeous and kind and around Laura's age, so I guess I don't have to spell out what happens there!

The second story is about Bomber and Eunice. Bomber is a publisher and he hires Eunice to be his assistant. Eunice falls in love with Bomber almost immediately, but Bomber is a gay man. So, you would think that Eunice would eventually move on and find someone else. Nope. She loves Bomber. Period. So she spends her live working for him, loving him, and eventually taking care of him when he gets Alzheimer's, like his father before him. Bomber has a horrendous sister named Portia. I sincerely disliked her. She treats everyone terribly - and then does one incredibly generous thing after Bomber's death. Dogs play a significant role in each of these stories, and Bomber has two dogs that he adored. These dogs did NOT like Portia (for good reason). But, in the end, Portia makes an extremely generous donation to a dog rescue. Didn't see that coming! That was her one redeeming act.

In-between these two stories, there are stories of lost items. I wasn't really sure how the two main stories connected - or even if they did connect (which would have been weird), but in the end, they do. The connection allows for a "happy ending", but I was still sad. Anthony pining for Therese his entire life; Eunice loving someone who can't love her back in the same way; two characters (Bomber & his father) wasting away from Alzheimer's; Portia being a total bitch. These are the things that made me sad. Fortunately, Laura, Freddy & Sunshine bring some happiness in too.

Wendy's Rating: ****