Books I Read in February 2025 & Hurricane Helene Update

I read three books last month that I want to share with you today. The three are very different from each other, so perhaps at least one of them with pique your interest. I recommend each of them.

After my comments about the books I read, I have my weekly update on Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina. I look forward to the day that I no longer need to report on that September 2024 natural disaster.

I Was Anastasia, by Ariel Lawhon

I was so impressed with Ariel Lawhon’s writing style and writing voice while reading The Frozen River in January, that I requested I Was Anastasia from the public library.

Reading this novel transported me back to the book and movie, Dr. Zhivago.

The Romanov family ruled Russia from 1613 until 1917. In 1918, Bolshevik revolutionaries executed Nicholas II, his wife, and their five children by firing squad. History tells us there were no survivors.

The Anastasia in this novel is the alleged daughter of Czar Nicholas II.

Anastasia’s survival of the Romanov family being executed by a firing squad has remained one of those mysteries of the last 100 years. Is it fact or fiction? Is it what would be called an urban legend today or a conspiracy theory or the truth?

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

I was on the waitlist for this book for so long that I forgot what it was about. It was worth the wait, though, as this 118-page book was a fast read and thought-provoking.

The author is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and is a professor of Environmental Biology at The State University of New York. She pulls on the wisdom in those Potawatomi Nation roots to offer us a path to economies of sharing and reciprocity. Ms. Kimmerer’s premise is that Mother Earth holds all the resources we need.

The problem comes in when people see those resources as commodities instead of gifts. When something is a commodity, the idea of scarcity enters the picture. Scarcity triggers greed. When a resource is valued as a gift, it is treated with respect and is cared for.

The title of the book comes from the Serviceberry, which she calls a “calendar plant.” The author encourages us to adopt the wisdom of earlier times when we enjoyed only the seasonal produce. Referring to the seasonal practices of traditional Indigenous People, she writes, “Eating with the seasons is a way of honoring abundance, by going to meet it when and where it arrives.”

She writes, “We force the food to come to us, at considerable financial and ecological costs, rather than following the practice of taking what has been given to us, each in its own time.”

I must admit that I love the convenience of freezing the blueberries I pick in July so I can enjoy them on my oatmeal and in muffins throughout the winter, but do I really need to have access to watermelon from southern Mexico in January?

Taking the ideas presented in The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer to heart even in small, incremental ways by each of us could have a impact on how we view the gifts of the Earth.

The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness: A Memoir, by Sarah Ramey

Photo of the front cover of The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness, by Sarah Ramey — *The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness*,
by Sarah Ramey

I learned about this book through Ann Patchett on Instagram. Ms. Patchett, in addition to being a well-respected author, owns Parnassus Bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. She and her dog post videos on Instagram highlighting books she wants to publicize.

Little did I know when I requested The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness: A Memoir, by Sarah Ramey from the public library that it was going to in a multitude of ways describe my own health journey!

Ms. Ramey has some health problems I do not have; however, we share the diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. In her book, Ms. Ramey details the physically- and emotionally-painful 14 years it took for her to get a diagnosis. I can identify with her journey, although it did not take me that long to get a diagnosis.

As Ann Patchett did, I recommend this book to everyone.

If you have not personally experienced years of being brushed off by doctors who are ignorant of this or some other mysterious illness, if you have never been told by a doctor that your painful and debilitating symptoms “are all in your head and you need to see a psychiatrist,” consider yourself lucky. Whether you know it or not, you probably know someone who has had such an experience.

Hurricane Helene Update

Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge in western NC: A full five months since Hurricane Helene dumped up to three feet of rain and hurricane-force winds on western North Carolina, on Saturday, March 1, one lane of I-40 in each direction opened with a 35-mph speed limit. The lanes are narrow and they’re separated by a 9-inch wide and 9-inch high median. Tractor-trailer trucks are allowed, but most truck drivers interviewed by a Charlotte TV station said they will avoid that part of the interstate.

Alongside these rebuilt/repaired lanes, the original east-bound side of I-40 will be rebuilt from the Pigeon River up. It is said now that it will take two or three more years to completely rebuild and reopen I-40 in western North Carolina.

As of Saturday, 148 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included 11 US highways, 16 state highways, and 121 state roads. That is an overall decrease of seven in the last week.

Sadly, a number of wildfires have broken out in Polk and Buncombe counties (and maybe others) over the weekend in the areas that have suffered so much from the hurricane damage. It will take years and years for all the trees that were downed by the hurricane to be cleared up. Until then, they lie as dead wood on the forest floors.

Nantahala National Forest: Perhaps Elon Musk didn’t hear President Trump say in January that he was going to take care of western North Carolina that was ravaged by Hurricane Helene last September. He claimed that President Biden hadn’t helped western North Carolina at all.

Here is an example of how President Trump is helping western North Carolina recover from that natural disaster: Last week 17 federal employees working to continue to clean up the 531,148- acre Nantahala National Forest lost their jobs because some teenaged computer nerds working for Elon Musk are being paid to eliminate the federal work force. I guess rich people and geeks don’t appreciate our national parks and forests – the enjoyment they bring to taxpayers and the tax dollars they generate from the tourists who spend money for lodging, food, and shopping in the surrounding areas.

Nantahala National Forest ranges in elevation from 1,200 feet to 5,800 feet. Recreational activities include whitewater rafting and camping. There are more than 600 miles of trails for hikers, horse-back riders, mountain bikers, and off-highway vehicle riders.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

As of Friday, 12 National Park Service employees stationed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park had lost their jobs. I can’t help but wonder if one or more of them assisted me in some way when I visited the park last summer.

Perhaps the park ranger who led a group of us on a hike to see three remote waterfalls lost her dream job last week. No doubt most, if not all of those 12 people, were still working to clear hiking trails and rebuild foot bridges damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Helene.

Visited by more than 13 million people in 2023, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most-visited US national park. It covers 552,427 acres in NC and TN.

Blue Ridge Parkway

At least one National Park Service employee assigned to the Blue Ridge Parkway lost their job last week. I report on the post-Helene status of the Blue Ridge Parkway almost every week in my blog. How are repairs and the rebuilding of that road and strip of right-of-way supposed to be accomplished with fewer employees than it had before the hurricane?

As I reported on February 17, 2025: “The flooding and wind from Hurricane Helene last September caused 48 landslides in one 38-mile section of the parkway between Asheville and Linville. There are no estimates for when those 38 miles will be completely rebuilt or if all of it can even be rebuilt, but it will not happen in 2025.”

While I’m on the topic of National Park Service cuts… six employees assigned to Cape Hatteras National Seashore lost their jobs last week. The Outer Banks of North Carolina were not damaged by Hurricane Helene, but the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a fragile, beautiful, and wild strip of land that is buffeted by the part of the Atlantic Ocean known as “the Graveyard of the Atlantic” due to its storms and hundreds of shipwrecks.

The Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Cape Hatteras National Seashore are among the most-visited parks in the United States. The statistics I include today are just a few of the some 1,000 national park service employees and 3,400 national forest service employees Elon and Trump are letting go.

You know the National Forest Service slogan: “Only you can prevent forest fires”? It is true today, and apparently only you can put out a fire in a national forest. The employees have been fired in the name of government efficiency.

WNC Nature Center in Asheville will reopen on March 17. The 42-acre park includes the 100-year-old Recreation Park Zoo and the Nature Center which opened in 1977. The center showcases wildlife of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. As western NC slowly reopens to visitors, check out the center’s website (https://wildwnc.org/) and start planning your vacation!

Innovative Bridge Company of Petal, Mississippi has built 40 bridges in seven western NC counties since Hurricane Helene. The company had never done disaster recovery work until the City of Asheville and the NC Department of Transportation reached out to them last October.

The company repurposes flat rail cars and boxcars into foot bridges and vehicular traffic bridges. These temporary emergency bridges will be in place until permanent bridges can be constructed over the next two-to-three years. There are two short videos on the company’s website showing the work they’re doing in western NC.

Precision Grading of Saluda, NC continues to donate his time, materials, and equipment to help individuals at no cost to them. He is doing this through his own money and donations from the public. So far, he has done this hard work for more than 150 days.

The 21^st Century Packhorse Librarian continues to take, organize, and distribute book donations to put books in the homes of people who lost their access to books or income due to the disaster.

Brother Wolf Animal Rescue in Asheville is continuing to work from temporary quarters. After five months of fundraising, the organization is looking for a safe location where they can rebuild.

Until my next blog post

Thank you for reading my blog.

I hope you have a good book to read to take your mind off what happened at the White House on Friday.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

Books Read in January and Hurricane Helene Update

January turned out to be a good reading month for me, and I have much to report on Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina. I’ll jump right in and tell you about some of the books I read.

The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon

My sister recommended that I read this historical novel. Finally, when it was chosen as the January read for the book club we’re in, I checked it out. I immediately fell in love with the way Ariel Lawhon writes.

The novel is set in Maine in the 1700s. The story switches from one decade to another, not necessarily in chronological order. That’s not my favorite way to read a story, but this one worked better for me than others I’ve read.

The story is inspired by Martha Ballard, a real-life midwife in Maine at that time. As Lawhon explains in her author’s notes at the back of the book, she did take creative license in some areas to make it a more manageable story. That said, the book is well-researched and in the author notes Lawhon explains why the book sometimes deviates from the facts. After all,… it is fiction!

The novel includes murder, rape, attempted rape, young love, vengeance, lying, under-handed business dealings, the unique lifestyle along a river that freezes over in winter, and the birth of numerous babies. There is conflict between Martha Ballard and a young, inexperienced physician who moves to the town. There are court cases, and there are judges of questionable character. There is a lot going on in this novel!

As an aspiring novelist, I plan to read The Frozen River again just to study how it is written.

I highly recommend The Frozen River to anyone who likes to read historical fiction set in 18^th century America.

The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali

This novel follows the friendship of two people through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s against the backdrop of what was happening in Iran. Iran went from being under the rule of the Shah to being under the rule of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

For those of you who might not have lived through those three decades… It was under the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that women lost all their rights. The radical Islamic view that women are put on earth for one purpose – to wait on and obey men and bear their children – is what Iran has turned into. They are not to be seen. It wasn’t enough that they had to wear the hijab in public. As of a couple of weeks ago, windows in their homes through which it would be possible for a man to see them were outlawed. Let that sink in!

Back to the novel… In The Lion Women of Tehran, we see two young girls become friends although Ellie is from a privileged family and Homa is from a poor family. Ellie, in fact, defies her mother’s wishes that she not befriend someone from the poor part of town.

Ellie and Homa share their dreams of attending college and becoming professionals in a modern Iran. Homa even aspires to get a law degree and someday be a judge. This is a reasonable aspiration for a girl in Iran at that time. Girls are seeing women have jobs they\ had been excluded from until the somewhat enlightened time of the early 1960s.

The book follows the ups and downs of Ellie and Homa’s friendship and the challenges of the cultural and governmental restrictions on women and free speech.

Spoiler Alert: When the novel comes to an end, one of the two – women now – has escaped to the United States. The aspiring lawyer has been raped in prison for protesting injustice and she reaches out to her now-estranged friend in America to help her get her teenaged daughter out of Iran.

The Lion Women of Tehran had an especially chilling affect on me because I was reading during the first week of Trump’s second administration when we were witnessing what it looks like when a country’s leader daily pushes the limits of the power of the office he or she holds – even in a democracy.

This is the second novel I’ve read by Marjan Kamali. In October 2019, I read The Stationery Shop. (See my November 4, 2019 blog post, A New Favorite Novel? in which I told how impressed I was with Marjan Kamali’s writing.)

How to Stand Up to a Dictator, by Maria Reesa

Photo of the front cover of the book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future, by Maria Reesa — *How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future*, by Maria Reesa

I wish I could take credit for reading I Was Anastasia and How to Stand Up to a Dictator in the same month, but I was at the mercy of the waitlists at the public library. Sometimes things just fall into place through no effort of our own!

After hearing Maria Reesa interviewed on NPR and learning that she had written a book, I immediately got on the waitlist for it at the public library.

Maria Reesa is from The Philippines. She was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her courageous work at a journalist.

In her book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator, Reesa writes from her own experience. She was arrested for reporting the truth – a truth that ex-President Rodrigo Duterte of The Philippines did not want people to know.

Meticulously written, the book points out how in many ways what happens in politics in The Philippines eventually happens in politics in the United States. That was a revelation for me, but the examples she gave painted a compelling picture.

Near the end of the book, Reesa gives the 10-Point Plan to Address the Information Crisis that she and fellow-2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dmitry Muratov presented at the Freedom of Expression Conference, Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway, on September 2, 2022.

In a nutshell, points 1-3 call on transparency and a consideration for human rights by tech companies, right to privacy of citizens to be beefed up, and public condemnation of attacks on journalists.

Points 4 through 9 are directed at the European Union, and point 10 calls on the United Nations to “Create a special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General focused on the Safety of Journalists (SESJ) who would challenge the current status quo and finally raise the cost of crimes against journalists.”

Reesa calls on young people to put their phones down and focus on the people they love. She writes, “You find meaning by choosing where to spend your precious time.” We can all benefit by taking that to heart. She told a high school audience that they can’t find meaning on social media.

She writes about how social media can easily be hijacked by individuals and elected officials with ill intent, and how misinformation spreads like wildfire while fact-checking and retractions never spread as quickly or easily as lies.

Reesa says if the rest of the world wants to know what unbridled social media will do to their country, all they need to do is look at what happened in The Philippines.

In 2012, Reesa cofounded a digital only news website in the Philippines called Rappler. Rappler has exposed corruption and manipulation in government and in technology companies.

She warns, “the Philippines is ground zero for the terrible effects that social media can have on a nation’s institutions, its culture, and the minds of its populace. Every development that happens in my country eventually happens in the rest of the world – if not tomorrow, then a year or two later.”

She goes on to say, “This book is my attempt to show you that the absence of rule of law in the virtual world is devastating.” She warns us, “Don’t become a Monster to Fight a Monster. Embrace Your Fear.”

Blogging for Authors, by Barb Drozdowich

Reading this book made me aware of some ways I’m falling down on the job when it comes to my blog. The author says that an author’s blog is “… by far the most important method of communicating with your readers.” She also says, “… you want readers to be able to Google the genre they read and find your site in a search.”

Since I write local history and historical fiction, there’s a slim-to-none chance someone will find my blog by typing either of those topics in a search engine. Just for fun, I tried.

I have tried to blog about historical events to convey my lifelong foundation in the study of history and my ability to do historical research. I’ve blogged about the craft of writing as I continue to learn more about it every day. I hope I’ve been successful, but now I might need to consider how to express how those things are converging in my effort to write my first historical novel. Stay tuned!

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, 171 roads in North Carolina are still closed due to Hurricane Helene, including Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line, but that’s a decrease of 12 since the Friday before. That count consists of one interstate, 12 US, 19 state highways, and 139 state roads. There is no estimate for when the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina will be fully reopened.

WLOS in Asheville reported that the Biltmore Estate donated at least 40 hotel rooms of furniture to the Habitat for Humanity Restore to resell. All proceeds from items sold at a Habitat for Humanity Restore, of course, funds new home construction.

WLOS is also reporting a new partnership in Haywood County between Mountain Project and Habitat for Humanity as others to build 10 homes specifically for families impacted by Hurricane Helene.

Verizon has partnered with ForgiveCo, a public benefit corporation, to pay off $10 million in debts owed by 6,500 people in the 39 North Carolina counties impacted by Hurricane Helene. A Verizon spokesperson said the company thought they needed to do more than restore customers’ telephone service. The debt forgiveness recipients were randomly selected.

The newspaper in Boone, The Watauga Democrat, reported that NC Gov. Josh Stein announced a joint $30 million small business grant program with Dogwood Health Trust to support small businesses affected by Hurricane Helene.

Businesses with annual revenue up to $2.5 million are eligible for grants up to $50,000 from the Western North Carolina Small Business Initiative Grant Program. Dogwood Health Trust, a private foundation, created the Western North Carolina Small Business Initiative last fall in response to the Hurricane Helene disaster.

Businesses in the 28 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians covered by President Biden’s federal disaster declaration or in Dogwood Health Trust’s 18-county footprint and that meet revenue requirements are eligible to apply for a grant.

Governor Stein announced that the State of North Carolina is awarding $3 million to Baptists on Mission and $3 million to Habitat for Humanity NC for their housing repair initiatives in the western part of the state.

Photo of a man using a power saw to cut a piece of lumber — Photo by Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash

The Boone newspaper reported stated: “In the wake of Helene, impacted businesses lost $13 billion in revenue. These grants will help businesses make payroll, pay operating expenses, and stabilize the local economy as tourism slowly ramps up again.”

The work of Brother Wolf Animal Rescue and The 21^st Century Packhorse Librarian continue and will appreciate your support for the foreseeable future.

Jake Jarvis of Precision Grading in Saluda continues to work in the area every day free-of-charge with his heavy earth-moving equipment. He has built bridges, reconstructed driveways and private roads, and excavated places for homes to be rebuilt.

It is said that no good deed goes unpunished. After doing what he thought was due diligence, Mr. Jarvis was scammed out of $77,000 he paid for a bulldozer in Texas. He wanted a larger bulldozer so he could help more people. A friend of his has set up a GiveSendGo fundraiser to help Mr. Jarvis replace the money he pulled out of savings for the bulldozer which never was delivered.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, I highly recommend The Frozen River. If you are concerned about the role of social media in our world and particularly in our politics, I highly recommend How to Stand Up to a Dictator.

It has been a tough week since last Monday’s blog post. The airplane and helicopter collision in Washington, DC; the Medivac plane crash in Philadelphia; wildfires in some of the Hurricane Helene-ravaged parts of western North Carolina;….

Remember the people of Ukraine and all the places where people are suffering through no fault of their own.

Janet

Janet's Writing Blog

Tag: Ariel Lawhon

Books I Read in February 2025 & Hurricane Helene Update

Janet's Writing Blog

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