A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

This is the true story of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey living on a rubber raft in the Pacific Ocean for 118 days after their 31" yacht sunk from being hit by a breached whale. They were each avid journalers and kept careful details of their experience on the open sea. It's a shocking story just in the fact that they both survived, especially Maurice. Not only were they both starving, having survived on eating raw fish and turtles and drinking questionable "fresh" water collected whenever it happened to rain, but Maurice got really sick with some sort of upper respiratory illness. Even the always-positive, upbeat Maralyn thought he was in the process of dying at one point. Miraculously, he survived the illness.

These are two very unique individuals. Maurice hated his childhood and left home as soon as he could. He never looked back. I'm curious about his childhood experience, but he apparently didn't want to share the details so maybe no one will ever know. I couldn't figure out if he experienced trauma at the hands of his parents, or he was on the autism spectrum and simply didn't bond with them. Maybe both. Maurice was definitely a loner, in every sense of the word. Then there is Maralyn, eight years his junior. She was a free spirit who absolutely did not want to conform to societal expectations. I'm not quite sure what she saw in Maurice, but it could have been his uniqueness that attracted her. They both were completely fine with quitting their jobs to spend their lives (childless) sailing around the world. They were both painstakingly detail-oriented and planned out every single little detail, in writing & diagrams, before they set sail from England in June 1972, headed to New Zealand. The whale hit them on March 4, 1973. They transferred all the supplies they could into their small rubber raft and a small dinghy before their yacht sank.

Maralyn was ever the optimist. She insisted that they play games (she made cards & game pieces out of whatever material she could find, like paper); they dissected every sentence in the two books they happened to save from their yacht, talking about these books endlessly; they both wrote details of their every day life on the raft; they weathered horrible storms; they dealt with raft punctures that they were not able to completely fix so they had to constantly bail water out of their raft so that it didn't sink. Maralyn 100% kept Maurice alive. He would spend his time talking about the ways they could die - should die, while Maralyn looked toward their future and eventual rescue. They tried to flag down seven ships over the course of the 118 days, but their flares were duds and they were just a speck in the ocean to passing ships. They were both near death when a South Korean ship happened to see them.

It's a remarkable story, not only for the survival aspect, but for the tenaciousness of these two unique individuals. As soon as they could, they built another yacht and set sail again after they had recovered physically from their ordeal.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Seek the Traitor's Son by Veronica Roth

I don't read much fantasy, but I really liked this book. I was engaged from the beginning and pretty much read most of the book in one day. Sometimes fantasy series have so many characters that I can't keep track of them all. I didn't have trouble with that in this one. It probably helps that I read most of it in one sitting however. I will definitely need a recap when Book 2, the sequel, comes out next Spring.

That main characters are Elegy Ahn and Theren Forint. Elegy is the second daughter of the Sword of Cedre and the younger sister of the heir, Larke. Elegy is married to Shir. They are both soldiers in the Army. The Sword lives on Cedre Station, which is stationed above Earth. The Sword is similar to a Queen. She doesn't have full power over the Cedrae, but she is influential because her role is military in nature. The Talusar is the enemy of the Cedrae. Theren's mother, Kesia, is Talusar, but she fled Talusar with other self-exiles 20 years previously to seek safe harbor at the Cedre Station. The Cedrae agreed to take in these enemy exiles as long as the exiles promised their firstborn children in service to Cedre.

The Talusar have taken over most of the Earth. Their god is a Fever, which kills everyone it infects. Some of the people come back from the dead though and they come back with special gifts. These gifts include retrocognition (seeing the past), erasing memories, sealing them off, or warping them. A rare few have precognition. Elegy is called to meet with the augurs who have precognition after her mother, the Sword, is told that Elegy is part of a prophecy. Being born the "spare", Elegy is far from happy about being summoned by her mother and even less thrilled about being part of the prophecy that determines that she is the "Hope of Cedre." The prophecy also includes the enemy, Rava Vidar, who is extremely powerful in the Talusar empire and called the Butcher of Calgara. These two are pitted against each other. Whoever succeeds at moving the fulcrum will win control of Earth. As I try to explain all of this in simple terms, I realize it is a complex world, like most fantasy worlds! Ha!

Finally, Theren, who is the firstborn (only born) to Kesia Forint, is called to serve as Elegy's Knight a year earlier than expected. He is only 20 years old and usually firstborn of the exiles are called to serve at age 21. But, because of the prophecy involving Elegy, he is called to serve as her Knight. Neither Theren or Kesia is happy about this decision made by the Sword.

Things don't go as planned, which is an understatement, and all parties involved suffer the consequences. After the initial unexpected event, the story moves ahead four years and we find out what happens to everyone during those four years through memories of the people involved. Meanwhile, the story moves forward. I really like both Elegy and Theren. Despite their different social statuses, they are both talented fighters and "quitting" is not in their vocabulary. I am looking forward to finishing this story in Spring 2027!

Wendy's Rating: *****

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

I was interested in reading this book because my maternal grandmother lived in a sanitorium for five years with Tuberculosis. Since she was ill, and my grandfather was in the Air Force, my mother had to live in a Boarding House in Colorado for five years of her childhood. (They were from Texas.) I have also spent the last 30+ years working in social services and one thing I never understood was why our service recipients (living in our group homes) had to be tested for TB at their annual physicals when I thought that TB was a thing of the past. I mean, how many people do you know come down with TB these days?

This book was eye-opening for sure. John Green, whose fiction books I really like, does a thorough job of explaining what TB is, how thoughts about it has changed over the century, and why it may never really leave us, unless someone decides to put some money into truly finding a cure for it, or at least a cost-effective treatment. He also explains that it's a systemic problem as well, not just a medical problem.

TB was known as "Consumption" in the early 1900s. In the early days, having TB was romanticized because of the people stricken with it: artists, poets, wealthy white people. People with TB had a certain "look" about them, a result of the illness, that people seemed to admire and almost strive for. Pale complexion, big eyes. I always think of the movie Moulin Rouge starring Nicole Kidman. She was beautiful, but obviously ill. TB is incredibly contagious, which is interesting that the movie doesn't acknowledge that! Then, when TB spread rapidly within other populations because of close quarters brought on by poverty, perceptions of this disease shifted and people started referring to it as a poor man's disease.

What interested me the most about all of this is why this dangerous, contagious disease may never be eradicated, in my life time at least. First of all, the treatment is long: several months of a daily "cocktail" of medications, similar to HIV treatment. Not only considering the cost of this, the steadfastness and consistency for taking this daily cocktail would be difficult for the best of us. I can't even remember to take my cholesterol med daily. Many people don't finish a 7-day antibiotic after they start feeling better, even though they are told the importance of finishing it. What happens when people start and stop taking the TB cocktail is that their body has time to build up a resistance to the cocktail, so then it stops working. 

This is a curable and preventable contagious disease that continues to kill more than a million people each year. I guess my grandmother, who got TB back in the late 1940s-early 1950s, was one of the lucky ones.

Wendy's Rating: ****

I Choose Me by Jennie Garth

I liked this book a lot. More than I thought I would. Although Jennie talks about her childhood, her relationships, and her show business career (how she got her start, etc), this book is more than that. I could really identify with some of things she said about how many of us live our lives: trying to be who we think other people want us to be.

Jennie is honest about her struggles, including bouts of depression that really seemed to take her out of life more than once. What I admire about her is that she would continually pick herself up and explore new ways to understand herself better and forge a new path for herself and her family. She is continually trying to be a better person, a better role model for her daughters, and she refuses to let herself (and her daughters) get too caught up in living the "Hollywood life". She seems to have firm boundaries and she's not shy about telling her daughters "no" if she doesn't like the direction they are headed (ie drinking at age 15 at parties thrown by their friends whose parents are superstars/famous with tons of money.)

Jennie has a strong work ethic, which most likely comes from growing up on a farm. Farming is not for the faint of heart. She actually wanted to dance, but now acknowledges that she would have never made it as a dancer. She was seen at a pageant that her mother encouraged her to enter. She didn't win, but that event propelled her onto a different path - which led to 90210. Once thing I really understand now (after reading so many memoirs) is that just because you hit it big in a TV show or movie, it doesn't mean you have it made. Doors don't just simply open in this line of work. Even stars have to audition, accept constant rejection, and fight for roles they really want. And sometimes it just doesn't happen, so you have to reinvent yourself. Jennie veered off into podcasting and fashion.

Jennie talks about the mistakes she's made and about the importance of forgiving yourself for those mistakes. She talks about relationships. She had two failed marriages, and she nearly got divorced a third time until her and her husband really sat down and talked. She has learned that marriage should not be two people joining to be "one", but two separate people who are each their own person but merge in the middle of shared goals, values, and interests. Jennie is incredibly family-oriented and it's not just "talk" for her. Her family comes first. Always. One other thing she said that I really love is using the phrase, "We'll see." We can't predict what opportunities are going to come our way. We don't know if something bad that happens will turn out good in the end, or vice versa. Instead of worrying about it, simply tell yourself, "We'll see." I love that.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

It's been awhile since I have read a Jodi Picoult book. Years, in fact. This one took me by surprise. Jodi usually writes about controversial topics and this book is about a 29 year old woman, Diana, whose boyfriend, Finn, is in his residency at a hospital in New York. They had planned a trip to the Galapagos (where she believes he will propose to her since she accidently discovered the ring he had bought). This is March of 2020. So, as Covid-19 hits New York, Finn tells Diana that he can't go to the Galapagos because he's required to be at the hospital. He tells her to go on her own since it's an unrefundable trip.

The trip doesn't go as planned. Diana loses her luggage and she is stuck indefinitely on the island after it closes its borders. Internet access is sparce, to say the least. Everything is closed down on the island since tourists are not allowed to be there. She doesn't have a lot of money and has no way to get more; she has no place to stay since the hotel shut down; and she doesn't have any food. Oh, and she doesn't speak the language! Her only communication with Finn is the emails he sends her about how difficult it is to be a doctor trying to save the lives of the infected, who mostly die once they need to be on a ventilator. 

An older woman, "Abuela", gives her a place to stay and makes meals for her from time to time. Abuela's son, Gabriel, gives her fruit & vegetables that he grows on his farm. Gabriel's daughter, Beatriz, is a young troubled teen, who Diana befriends. She falls in with this family, which makes her start rethinking her own life and her life decisions. Why is she in the business of selling art rather than making art herself? She loves Finn, but is their relationship as perfect as she thought it was? Does she want to be in New York or would she rather stay in the Galapagos? "I have always believed we are the architects of our own fates - it's why I so carefully planned my career steps and why Finn and I dreamed in tandem about our future. It's is also why I could blame my mother for choosing her career over me - because it was just that: a decision she made. I have never really subscribed to the mantra that things happen for a reason. Until, maybe, now." At one point, Diana thinks, "Finn has always been my anchor. The problem is that anchors don't just keep you from floating away. Sometimes, they drag you down."

I went into this story blind. I had no idea what it was about. Going in blind is the best way to read this book, so I tried to just give a rough overview of the story, which goes much deeper. I will say that the brain is an amazing organ of the human body - and this book really makes you think. So it's more "Jodi Picoult" than you might think when you first start reading.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Out of the Corner by Jennifer Grey

It was refreshing to read a memoir where there was no sexual abuse involved! Certainly Jennifer had other issues while living in the limelight, but I had almost decided to take a break from reading memoirs because of all the rampant abuse. Jennifer talks about her life with a famous father, Joel Grey of Broadway fame (best known for his appearances in Cabaret), and her actress mother, Jo Wilder, who gave up her career to raise her children and support her husband (who seemed incredibly needy of her attention for someone who ended up being gay.) One thing her parents did for her was to make her wait until she was older before becoming an actress. This doesn't mean she was a goody two-shoes until then though! Probably because of the environment she grew up in, she had no qualms about losing her virginity to someone rather random, smoking pot with her father, trying a variety of drugs & alcohol, and being a longtime cigarette smoker.

One thing I admired about her is the confidence she had in herself, her body, and her looks as she was growing up. She liked that she had a unique appearance who didn't look like anyone else. It was her mother who initially encouraged her to get a nose job, which she put off for quite awhile. Obviously, she pretty much rocketed to fame starring in Dirty Dancing, and shortly before that, being Matthew Broderick's grumpy sister in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Ironically, she struggled to find roles after her nose job. She also had some relationships that ended up not being in her best interest, first with Matthew Broderick (I have a totally different opinion of him now!) and then with Johnny Depp. I know they were all young and shooting up to stardom, but Jennifer definitely got sucked into men behaving badly. When she was done with them though, she was done, which was good.

When she got married and finally had a child at 40 years old, she pretty much dropped out of the limelight to raise her daughter. She said that it's too hard to be partially out and partially in of show business with new people keep coming up the ranks - and existing people all still fighting for roles. I was surprised that when she was offered Dirty Dancing, they auditioned quite a few male dancers for the role of Johnny Castle. She absolutely did not want Patrick Swayze because of some issues they had performing together in Red Dawn. Patrick asked to meet with Jennifer privately and pretty much begged her to give him another chance and apologized for his behavior on Red Dawn. Obviously, they chose Patrick Swayze (thank goodness!) and the rest is history. Another interesting thing about starring in Dirty Dancing is that Jennifer Grey only earned $50,000. Having read several memoirs about movie & TV stars now, it's so surprising that so many stars really don't have that much money - or at least consistently so.

Jennifer & Matthew Broderick were in a serious car accident in Ireland towards the end of their relationship. Jennifer suffered whiplash, which caused her to have significant pain for decades after that. She was reluctant to participate in Dancing With the Stars, but eventually did after undergoing surgery. She ended up winning the Mirror Ball trophy, which is pretty impressive, especially since she was 50 years old and still suffering from chronic pain. I thought this was an interesting read and I learned a few things. I have also watched Dirty Dancing again at least 5 times since finishing this book! :)

Wendy's Rating: ****

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

I've said this before, but romance is not my favorite genre by any means. I did enjoy the first book of this trilogy (Part of Your World series) however, so I decided to continue it. The banter between the two main characters, Briana & Jacob, is engaging and I love their senses of humor. Briana is the best friend of Alexis from the first book, Part of Your World. This story evolves around Briana & Jacob pretending they are dating so that Jacob's family won't look at him with pity in their eyes when he attends the wedding of his brother to Jacob's former long-term girlfriend, Amy. On top of his ex-girlfriend marrying his brother, Jacob also experiences severe social anxiety with people he doesn't know, and certainly when he's forced to be around a lot of people at once. Jacob meets Briana after he transfers to the hospital that Briana works at. They are both doctors. Jacob transfers to a new hospital to get away from Amy & his brother Jeremiah, who both work at the hospital Jacob just left. Lots of medical personnel in this book!

Meanwhile, Briana is going through a divorce. Her husband had fallen in love with Briana's friend and they had been carrying on an affair behind her back for the last two years. Briana is devastated by this betrayal. She already had trust issues since her father left when she was a child and her mother had raised her and her brother, Benny, as a single mother. So, her trust of men was pretty much non-existent at this point. She had no plans to ever fall in love or marry someone ever again. She simply wanted "friends with benefits". Another curveball in her life is that her brother was on dialysis and needed a new kidney, but he had a rare blood type and no one in the family or any of their friends tested could donate to him. So his mental health was suffering greatly and he wasn't taking care of himself. Briana had to force him to move in with her so she could take care of him and he could do dialysis at home with her oversight.

Of course we know what happens next because this is a romance novel. Jacob ends up being a perfect match for Benny and altruistically decides to donate one of his kidney's to him. Jacob falls in love with Briana while they are "pretending" to date. Briana falls in love with Jacob too. This is where they lose me for awhile. Briana drives me completely nuts with her ruminations. She is SO incredibly focused on Jacob still being in love with Amy, that she doesn't see all of the signs that he actually loves HER. She goes on and on and on about her love for Jacob while he loves Amy. But THEN, when Jacob FINALLY tells her that he loves her and not Amy, Briana leaves him anyway because she doesn't trust that he will stay with her forever. Good grief. Obviously I knew how it would all end, but reading through Briana's emotional baggage almost sent me over the edge. Maybe this is why I need to limit my books in this genre. 

Wendy's Rating: ****