I guess I was in worse shape in June and early July than I realized. I have stated in at least one blog that I enjoyed the novels I read in June because I hadn’t read a novel since January. I was surprised a couple of weeks ago to find a list of the books I read in May: The Creek, The Crone, and The Crow, by Leah Weiss; The Immigrant and the Outlaw, by Joy Neal Kidney; and The Astral Library, by Kate Quinn. It had slipped my mind that I enjoyed all three of those books in May, so I apologize to the three authors for my memory failure.
After having a very good month of reading in June, I had high hopes for July, but sometimes our reading experiences don’t meet our expectations on all counts. July turned out to be a mixed bag.
The River Knows My Name, by Kelly Mustian
by Kelly Mustian
After reading The Girls in the Stilt House, Kelly Mustian’s debut novel in 2021, I kept hoping she would write another historical novel. She came through for us last year with The River Knows My Name. I finally got around to reading it in July.
As the blurb on Amazon states, it is “a haunting Southern story about memory, family secrets, and fierce and fragile love.” Set in the early 1930s in Mississippi and 1971 in North Carolina and Mississippi, Mustian has woven a story of intrigue, family loss and love, and how one decision can affect generations to come.
Why did Evie appear at Nell’s house when they were young children and Evie never left? What did Evie’s hidden birth certificate reveal?
This is a dual timeline novel, which you know is not my favorite format, but I stayed with it because the characters and the plot drew me in from the beginning. Mustian did a masterful job of telling a complicated story of secrets, the passage of time, “where there’s a will there’s a way” perseverance, the love a mother has for her child, and how family isn’t necessarily based on biology.
I highly recommend The River Knows My Name, and I hope Kelly Mustian will gift historical novel fans with many more novels.
John of John, by Douglas Stuart
After watching an online interview of Douglas Stuart, I eagerly awaited my name reaching the top of the waitlist for John of John at the public library.
I have had the privilege of visiting the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. I have spent some time on the Isle of Lewis and visited the Isle of Harris. They are wild and stark and incredibly beautiful!
John of John, by Douglas Stuart is set on Harris. The author does a great job of giving you the setting. The moon-like starkness, the incessant wind coming off the Atlantic, the sometimes-rough ferry crossing of The Minch – the body of water between the mainland and the Outer Hebrides. The houses, the crofts, the weavers of Harris Tweed (which is also made in cottages on Lewis), the single-track roads, the sheep, the Gaelic native language, and the conservatism of the Free Presbyterian denomination (which is quite different from the Church of Scotland) are all brought to light in this novel.
The setting is almost a character in the book because to give the landscape and climate justice, one has to be immersed in it to truly appreciate the story.
The protagonist is John MacLeod, son of John MacLeod, son of Iain (John in Gaelic), son of Iain MacLeod. Young John has left the island to go to art school. He has gotten caught up in the fast life (life everywhere is “fast” compared to life in the Outer Hebrides) in Edinburgh. His father calls him home to care for his ailing maternal grandmother.
The younger John is not keen on the idea. The life he has lived on the mainland as a gay young man will surely upset his devout Free Presbyterian father to the point that he expects his father will disown him. How long can he keep his homosexuality a secret from his father.
But his father also has a secret.
If you are sensitive to “F-bombs,” you might not enjoy this book. I accepted them as apparently being part of the homosexual scene in which the younger John lived. Not that all homosexuals casually use this language, but it was part of the make up of the younger John – probably as part of his rebellion against the strict religious home in which he had been raised.
I tired of the story after 150 pages. There were other books I wanted to read, so I returned John of John to the public library. Kudos to the author for transporting me to the Outer Hebrides for a few hours.
Roses and Radicals: The Epic Story of How American Women Won the Right to Vote, by Susan Zimet
This book caught my eye when I was at the public library the week of July 4th. It was part of a display the librarians had assembled of books pertaining to the 250th birthday of the United States Declaration of Independence and related patriotic books and history books.
The book prompted me to pause and contemplate the incredible sacrifices the women (and a few men) made throughout the first fourteen decades of our country’s history to work toward the passage of a Constitutional Amendment that would make it unlawful for any state in the union to prohibit anyone from voting based on their sex.
I will write more about the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution in my blog post on August 26 – the 126th anniversary of the ratification of that amendment.
Roses and Radicals is a relatively small book of barely 150 pages, including the bibliography and index. I thought it would be a quick read.
Sprinkled throughout the book are sidebar-like sections within chapters that tell the stories of individual including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anne Marbury Hutchinson, Lucretia Mott, Mary Wollstonecraft, Sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimké, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Victoria Woodhull, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ida B. Wells, and Edith Wilson. A book could be written about each on of them.
Roses and Radicals begins with the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. Elizabeth Cady Stanton accompanied her husband, who was a convention delegate. But her story began when she was five years old and her last brother died. Her father said to her, “Oh my daughter, I wish you were a boy.”
In response to that remark, she was determined to be the son her father had lost. That path served to show her how difficult it would be for a woman to fulfill the burden her father had placed on her because women were so restricted by law and society norms. Fathers held legal rights over daughters and husbands held legal rights over their wives and children.
But, getting back to the anti-slavery convention in 1840… The wives of delegates and the women delegates were not allowed on the main floor. They were relegated to a balcony. The women were so incensed that they began laying plans during the convention. If people from around the world could meet to work for the abolition of the slavery of Africans, the women concluded that they could organize themselves and fight for the rights of women.
The book tells how each of the women I named in an above paragraph worked for the equality of women, women’s rights in the eyes of the law in the United States, and ultimately for women to have the right to vote. It gives little-known details of how women worked behind-the-scenes as well as marching in the streets to secure women the right to vote.
Janet
Too many books. Not enough time. Not enough bookcases. Never take your right to read – or your right to vote — for granted.
Janet's Writing Blog 
Two hits and one miss isn’t bad, all in all.
Wonderful reading list Janet! I truly admire your discipline and dedication to your art as a writer who certainly must read. I hope you are enjoying August. Although most of Europe is boiling hot this summer, here in my corner of the Aegean Sea it is breezy and quite comfortable, but still sunny. All the best!
That’s true. I have found that the books that get the most hype rarely appeal to me. John of John fell into that category. Especially after seeing the author interviewed, I thought it would be a novel I could get into. Not so much. By the way, I’m even slower than usual responding to blog comments this week. It turns out the lightning strike nearby several weeks ago not only fried the modem and computer speakers, it did a partial number on our computer. Hence, it has been limping along ever since. Most of this week, so far, it didn’t work at all. Computer guy spent two hours here this afternoon and left a scan running until 8pm. It appears that last scan was able to repair the problem, but I won’t believe it until it works properly for a few days. It’s been hit and miss for the last week. Fortunately, it worked just long enough Saturday night for me to print a copy of the first draft of my novel manuscript, so I’ve had it to read and start my list of needed revisions this week. It’s an amazingly long list already, so I have plenty of work ahead. I’ve only gotten to page 91 of 287 and I’m on the fourth page of my list of revisions. Being able to print the manuscript has probably saved my sanity this week. I tend to go nuts when I can’t access the computer! Washing machine is working now with no signs of a leak. Of course, the repairman couldn’t even make it leak on Tuesday, no matter how hard he tried. Murphy’s Law. Phone guy came on Tuesday and found the damage the lightning had done to our internet line. One of these days, everything is going to work. I’ve got to believe that! Oh… five does and four fawns in our backyard yesterday at the same time! What a treat! I just can’t get a decent photo through the window screen. If the computer had been working, I probably would have been sitting at the keyboard and missed the wildlife show outside! I hope you’re having a good week and getting to do the things you want to do. If you don’t hear from me for a while, it’s probably due to this computer.
Thank you, Francis. I’m glad the weather has been good where you are. I keep seeing the wildfires in Spain, France, Scotland, etc. It seems that much of the northern hemisphere is on fire. We’ve had a respite from the 90s for a week of more and a lot of downpours. Most of North Carolina has been under an outdoor burn ban since March, our county still included. I’ve never been near a wildfire, but the pictures are horrifying. The fact that many of the wildfires are set by arsonists is despicable. At least one of the four wildfires in Spokane, Washington was set by an arsonist. More than 700 homes have burned there! I don’t even know what a reasonable punishment is for such a person. Washington State is known as a rainy place, so many wildfires there is truly hard to imagine. Lightning did some damage to my computer in July. It kept limping along even after we replaced the modem and speakers. But God is good: It worked just long enough on Saturday night for me to print a complete copy of the 287-page manuscript of my novel, so I’ve been able to start my first read-through and start making a (long) list of needed revisions. I am so thankful to have had that printed copy to work on this week when the computer wouldn’t do anything. Computer guy here for two hours this afternoon. It’s working again, but time will tell if it is really fixed. Never a dull moment… five does and four fawns in our backyard at the same time yesterday! What a sight! Beautiful! Have a wonderful rest of your week!
Thank you Janet. It is wonderful that you were able to print and edit your manuscript. I am also working on a new novel while I wait on the one I sent to publishing houses last January. I haven’t lost hope that it may be chosen. But in the meantime I haven’t lost hope been working daily and diligently on a new one. I haven’t lost hope not been painting for more than a month now as I am dedicating my time to my writing. I decided that this was the year to bring forth literary efforts. I hope that your weather turns beautiful, as it is in these Aegean parts, hot but still breezy and sunny, no rain and thank God, this year no fires. In Spain and France it has already been a horrible summer for forest fires and many have been arrested for being the cause, perhaps not intentionally but carelessness can also cause much damage. And you are so right, God is great. Hope you are well and satisfied with the editing of your novel because, as you know, that is where the real writing comes in. Best of luck! And may God bless.
I’m so sorry the lightning damaged your internet and your computer. When I’m without my computer because it needs to be repaired or the power is out, I can’t function. I feel as if my hands have been cut off. Kudos on preparing to write the second draft of your novel. That’s progress! Oh, and I’m glad your washing machine isn’t leaking anymore.
Good to hear that you are devoting your time to writing, Francis. I hope that earlier novel of yours will be chosen as you work on your current one. So far, I’m reading around 40 pages of my manuscript each day and making notes of items that need to be rewritten and/or researched more. I have quite a list so far, so there is much work to be done. Much of the manuscript I had not read in a year or so, so it comes across fresh and is making it easier to catch mistakes and typos. This phase is quite different from the rough draft writing stage, and I must say I’m enjoying it. We’re having thunderstorms every couple of days, but the coming week is predicted to be dry with temperatures in the mid-90s again. That’s more typical than the temps in the 80s we’ve had for a week or more. Best of luck with your writing! All the best from North Carolina.
Computer is working… so far. It makes me nervous. I’m covering approximately 40 pages per day in the read-through of my first draft. I must say, I’m enjoying the process. It’s been fun to read parts of the novel that I had not laid eyes on in many months. The words got cold enough that I’m finding lots of errors that I might have overlooked if I’d gotten to this point earlier.
Thank you Janet. And yes, I agree, that stage, re-reading after a certain time gives you a fresh perspective and a creative way to approach the manuscript. Best of luck and I hope you enjoy the process, and find it a way to truly prepare your work for publishing. Our weather here is hot but changes frequently and some days, like today we get fresh breeze, and wind actually from the sea and it is quite refreshing. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead starting tomorrow and many blessings to help you accomplish your task in peace. All the best.
I’m so glad you’re enjoying your manuscript read-though!
You said it Janet, too many good books and not enough time. That third book, Roses and Radicals sounds very interesting to me. Thanks for sharing these reviews. 😋
Thank you, Francis. All the best to you!
Thank you. I approached it with more than a little fear and trepidation!
Glad you enjoyed my thoughts on these books, Debby. I don’t consider myself a book reviewer. Roses and Radicals was chock full of history I knew nothing about.
I love history, so no surprise I gravitated to it. 😊
🙏🏻
You’re welcome. And you were pleasantly surprised by what you read!
I certainly was pleasantly surprised. Too bad she never was mentioned in any of my history textbooks. Probably not mentioned now. The downward spiral continues.
More’s the pity.