The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 1 by Beth Brower

This journal begins in March 1883 in London, England. Emma M. Lion returns to her hometown of St. Crispian's and to her home, Lapis Lazuli House. Unfortunately, upon her return, she is relegated to the top floor of the home (the 5th floor) instead of the 3rd floor which is where her former bedroom suite was located. Since Emma's father died when she was still a minor, he left his estate in the hands of Cousin Archibald, who was supposed to manage it until Emma turned 21 years old. Not a good idea. Cousin Archibald despises Emma and does not welcome her home. Emma has spent the last three years taking care of an ailing woman and hasn't been paid for her service yet. When she asks for her earned wages - and her allowance that her father left her - Archibald says no. He accuses her of stealing the woman's silver and said she won't get her wages until she returns the silver, which of course she didn't steal.

Emma finds herself in an impossible situation. She is also told that she will be a companion to Arabella during the upcoming Season. Arabella needs to find a husband and Emma will accompany her to every single ball. I guess Emma will be her "wing-woman". Ha! After a trip to the bank, Emma finds out that Archibald has misused all of her money and she will be left penniless in one year unless she sells her home. This she will not do.

I had a difficult time getting into the rhythm of this book. In fact, I took a break to look at some reviews to see why it is so highly rated. A lot of people mentioned that Vol 1 simply sets the scene and that Emma and her story start to really suck you in somewhere between Vol 2 - Vol 5, depending on the reviewer. I guess I will read at least Vol 2 and decide whether to continue or not after that. It did get more interesting and funnier the more I read, and it's a very short book. So, I will keep an open mind for now.

Wendy's Rating: ***

Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon & Harlan Coben

I am a huge fan of Harlan Coben as an author and Reese Witherspoon as an actress, but this was a strange partnership for me. I definitely wonder how these two came together to write a book. I have to believe that it was Reese's concept put into Harlan's words because I recognized some of the same ideas, words, phrases that Harlan uses in other books. Anyway, I did enjoy the ride.

Maggie McCabe is an Army surgeon, specializing in reconstructive and trauma surgery (think cleft palate surgeries on children in war-torn countries) but also trained in cardiothoracic surgery like her husband, Marc, and their partner and best friend, Trace Parker. They are all incredibly intelligent and talented - and beautiful of course. While Maggie loves performing surgeries, Trace focuses on product development of medical equipment (like the THUMPR7) that can be used to save more lives. Marc loves the surgery side as well, but works closely with Trace on the medical equipment. The three of them create WorldCures Alliance, a charity specializing in providing medical services for the most impoverished. 

One of their missions goes wrong when Marc is murdered while performing a surgery that he refuses to stop even though he knows his life is in danger. Maggie's life falls into a tailspin (she loses her medical license), Trace goes missing, and Marc's dad, "Porkchop", becomes the only person in Maggie's life that she trusts besides her sister Sharon. Porkchop is a biker with substantial connections to all sorts of people. Her sister works in AI and creates a very sophisticated griefbot for Maggie, trying to bring her comfort after her loss of Marc.

So, with her life in shambles, Maggie is offered a lucrative but top secret job. If she accepts the job, she will be paid a ton of money and her sister's debts will also be paid off. Maggie accepts the job. The assignment is to perform surgery on a very, very wealthy Russian, Oleg Ragoravich. After Maggie completes a facial reconstruction surgery on Oleg, and puts breast implants in his young, beautiful companion, Nadia, things go crazy. She sincerely doesn't know who to trust. She has to escape the Russian mansion after she completes the surgeries because she is told that she will be killed. While fleeing, she gets caught by Oleg's men, but then is rescued by a man named Charles Lockwood.

Soon she is flying off to Dubai to perform another surgery (set up by Charles Lockwood) so that she can try to find out what happened to Trace. Trace was last known to be in Dubai. There are suggestions presented to her that Trace is alive; that Marc could be alive; that both are running because of getting caught up in illegal activities associated with their WorldCures Alliance. Porkchop and his connections definitely help Maggie out of some tight situations, but everyone is keeping secrets. It's an adventure with a few twists thrown in along the way.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Devout by David Archuleta

I watched Season 7 of American Idol and even went to their American Idol tour when they came to Minneapolis. I don't actually remember who I voted for between David Archuleta and David Cook but I remember I loved them both, despite the differences in their voices and song choices. Now that I have read David's story, I am even more impressed with his success - and his inherent kindness toward others. It's remarkable that he could make it to the Top 2 despite what he was going through internally and what was happening behind the scenes. His father was such an awful "stage dad" that he was kicked out. David was the only contestant who needed a parent on site due to his age. (He auditioned at 16 and he was 17 during the live shows.) David was emotionally abused by his father before, during, and after the show. On top of all that, David was struggling with his faith, being a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his growing unease with, and confusion about, his own sexuality.

David's struggle with his father's treatment of him; the abuse of his older sister by a trusted family friend; the false accusation by a family member of his dad abusing David's sisters; his parents' struggling marriage; his search for a wife despite having feelings for men; his endless battle against his own sexuality; his deep disappointment with the Mormon church leaders who consistently refused to talk to David or acknowledge that people are born differently; the internal rage he eventually experiences; and his refusal to succumb to thoughts of suicide show how truly strong he is. His trauma history is so significant and yet he is slowly working through it all and coming out the other side of it. He is truly a wonderful human being. I have a whole new respect for him.

After I finished the audiobook - and listened to the three songs included at the end of the book - I decided to go back and watch his performances on American Idol. It's awesome that YouTube has David Archuleta's entire season connected so that it just moves from one video to the next, from his audition to the Season 7 finale. Of course he had so many performances that it took me several hours to watch them all! I enjoyed doing this so much. He has an amazing voice and he was so incredibly kind to everyone. More than anything, I want him to find lasting happiness. I am so glad I decided to take this stroll down memory lane. It's just more proof that we don't know the life that other people are living, so we need to treat others with kindness and grace.

Wendy's Rating: ****

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: ****