Tag: Isabel Allende

Two of Four Books I Read in June 2025

This has not been a good reading year for me when it comes to fiction. You may recall that I did not read any novels in April and only read a couple of books in May. There are plenty of wonderful novels out there, I’m just not in a good place mentally right now to concentrate on a plot and enjoy them. The memory problems caused by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are a daily frustration.

Nevertheless, my blog today is about two of the four books I read or attempted to read in the month of June. I will blog about the other two tomorrow.

My Name is Emilia Del Valle, by Isabel Allende

I thought this would be the historical novel that would rescue me from my drought of reading since January 20, but not even Isabel Allende could do that.

Photo of the front cover of My Name is Emilia del Valle, by Isabel Allende
My Name is Emilia Del Valle, by Isabel Allende

I enjoyed the first half of the book, but then I was too distracted by current affairs to concentrate on the war in Chile in the 1890s. I wanted to see if Emilia would locate her biological father in Chile and, if she did, I wanted to see how that meeting took place and if they formed a relationship. (Spoiler alert: After that meeting took place, I began to lose interest in the rest of the plot.”

I cheered Emilia on because she was a female trying to be a writer. I cheered her n when she got a job as a reporter for The Daily Examiner in San Francisco, for that would unheard of for any newspaper in the US in the 19th century.

It was disappointing for me when I lost interest in the story. That’s not a reflection on the writing, for Isabel Allende is a wonderful novelist. Some of her other novels have held me spellbound. I think it just was not the right time for me to read this book.

Please don’t let my comments deter you from reading it.

Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, edited by Michael Lewis, with essays by Michael Lewis, Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell, and W. Kamau Bell

This book pulled at my heartstrings, because in my early adult life I was a public servant. That was what I prepared myself for in six years of college. As is true for most public servants/government employees in the United States, I had little interest in politics.

If that statement sounds strange to you, then you have a misunderstanding of how government in the United States works.

If that statement sounds strange to you, you need to read Who Is Government?

Photo of front cover of Who is Government? edited by Michael Lewis
Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service, edited by Michael Lewis.

This book is a collection of stories about specific unsung heroes who work in our government. None of them wanted fame or fortune. You don’t know their names.

They were just doing their jobs, all the while dodging the arrows being shot at them daily by a general populous who choose to believe and perpetuate the myth that all government employees are incompetent and lazy.

The writers of Who Is Government? beg to differ with that long-standing misconception of government employees.

The essays in this book are about a government employees who did such things as:

  • Figuring out how to make “roofs” in coal mines so they would not collapse – a problem that has killed thousands of coal miners worldwide;
    •  Figuring out an almost flawless way to run the National Cemetery Administration so that the 140,000 veterans and their families are interred annually are treated with the utmost precision and care as well as immaculately maintaining the final resting place for more than 4 million other veterans in our 155 national cemeteries;
    •  Figuring out how to build the future Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope “which will have a panoramic field of vision a hundred times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope” and will perform something called starlight suppression to enable us to see behind and around faraway stars;
    •  Keeping track of every statistic imaginable, which is what the Consumer Price Index actually is – and it doesn’t just happen – it takes lots of government employees measuring things and keeping meticulous records that an individual could never do but all our lives are affected by that number; 
    •  Catching and arresting cyber criminals who are defrauding people or perpetuating pedophilia on the internet and the dark web;
    •  Overseeing and accomplishing the digitalization so far of 300 million of the 13 billion government documents so that every American, regardless of their location, will have access to all the records housed by the National Archives and Records Administration;
    •  Working in the US Department of Justice (I hope Olivia still has a job there!) in the antitrust section because she sees helping to enforce antitrust laws as a way to make sure one person’s American Dream does not “impede on other people’s American Dream”; and
    •  Helping doctors find new treatments for rare deadly diseases. (I sincerely hope Heather still has her job, but I’m not optimistic.)

Each of the above stories is fascinating. Each one renews my faith in the United State Government and serves as a reminder that ours is a “government if the people, by the people, and for the people” as so eloquently stated by Abraham Lincoln in The Gettysburg Address.

As I stated a few paragraphs ago, the writers of Who Is Government beg to differ with that long-standing misconception of government employees being incompetent and lazy – that misconception that the Trump Administration and the teenagers working for Elon Musk latched onto with all their might and money this year. And thousands of hard-working, knowledgeable, dedicated, non-political government employees lost their careers.

The brain-drain and experience-drain that resulted from the massive firings and layoffs in the US Government and the trickle down through various state and local government programs won’t be recognized or calculated in its entirety for decades.

In many cases, we will never know what we lost. We will never know the cures for cancer or Alzheimer’s Disease that were missed because the researchers that were on the cusp of those discoveries were let go in the name of “government efficiency.”

We won’t be able to ever recover the beauty and plants and animals that have been and will be lost to mining and deforestation in the name of “government efficiency” and “Make America Great Again.”

If I sound bitter, it is because I am. If I sound unforgiving, it is because I am.

Who Is Government? should be required-reading for all Americans – or at least for everyone in Congress and in the Trump Administration. If they read it, they might not be so quick to paint all government employees with that “incompetent, inefficient, and lazy” brush.

I will close by quoting a paragraph in The Cyber Sleuth” essay in Who Is Government? written by Geraldine Brooks. That essay tells how effective Jarod Koopman and his cyber crime team at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have been in catching criminals ranging from bitcoin fraudsters to pedophiles.

This is my favorite paragraph in the book: “The next time a politician or a pundit traduces the IRS, or JD Vance suggests firing half the civil service and putting in ‘our people,’ consider whether a system that filled out its ranks with a new batch of political loyalists every four years would have the expertise of these dedicated lifelong civil servants.”

In 2016, many Trump supporters said, “We need a businessman in the White House.”

I might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I’d like to know what business fires their employees without any consideration of their value or merit every four years just so they can hire all new people. I don’t think that business would last long. That business model makes no sense for a for-profit enterprise and it certainly makes no sense for the United States Government.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of Friday, of the 1,448 roads in North Carolina that were closed due to Hurricane Helene last September, 1,409 were fully open, 39 were closed, 50 had partial access, and one was closed to truck traffic. Eight roads reopened last week.

The statistics posted online by the NC DOT are a little difficult to follow as it is unclear in the chart by geographical divisions which roads are completely closed and which ones of partially closed, etc. Five US highways, three state highways, and 43 state roads are indicated on the chart without explanation of exact closure status.

I-40 is still just one lane in each direction with a 35-mph speed limit, and most the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC is still closed. That road is not included in the DOT chart since it is a federal park-maintained road.

Until my next blog post

Keep reading for pleasure.

Hold your family and friends close.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

And remember the people of Texas where there was devastating flooding in the wee, dark hours of Friday morning. The death toll continues to rise as I write this, and there are still 11 missing from Camp Mystic along the Guadelupe River. From my Hurricane Helene update above, we know they have a long, difficult road ahead.

Janet

The Wide Range of Books I Read in September 2023

Although September gave me 30 days in which to read, I had more books on my list to read than time allowed. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the three novels and the one nonfiction book I managed to squeeze into my schedule.

You Can Run, by Karen Cleveland

You Can Run, by Karen Cleveland

Karen Cleveland is a former CIA analyst. She writes spy thrillers now. You Can Run, like the other books of hers I have read, Need to Know (see my April 2, 2018 blog post: More March 2018 Reading) and The New Neighbor (see my October 10, 2022 blog post: Spy Thriller, WWI Novel, Nonfiction, and Historical Mystery Read Last Month are real page turners. When you read one of her books in bed at night, don’t plan on getting any sleep. You’ll have to read “just one more chapter.”

In You Can Run, the protagonist, Jill, works for the CIA. She is being blackmailed. To save the life of her young son, she does something illegal. She spends the rest of the novel looking over her shoulder. Saying she spends the rest of the novel “looking over her shoulder” hardly does the plot justice. One bad thing after another happens, as she and her family and others get pulled deeper into the spiral and they can’t get out. No matter what you do, do not under any circumstances read the “Epilogue” until you have finished reading the entire book, including the last chapter. The “Epilogue” will ruin the story for you. I didn’t see it coming!

The Wind Knows My Name, by Isabel Allende

The Wind Knows My Name, by Isabel Allende

I usually don’t enjoy novels that flip back and forth between protagonists, and when I got to page 67 in the large print edition of The Wind Knows My Name, I was so invested in Samuel Adler that I was quite jolted when a turned the page and found myself reading about a new protagonist.

But… Isabel Allende is a masterful writer, and I was soon just as invested in the little girl who illegally crossed the Rio Grande and into the United States on her father’s tired back. The story of that little girl took me directly to the Mexican-US border of today and the desperation the “illegal aliens” experience in their home countries. How desperate must they be to risk their lives to try to get themselves – or even only their children – into the United States?

And how desperate did Samuel Adler’s mother feel when she put her young son on a train to get him away from the clutches of the Nazis and to relative safety in England?

In The Wind Knows My Name, Isabel Allende weaves compelling stories about these individuals and then makes a connection between the characters. I recommend everything that Isabel Allende writes.

And on top of that, she is a very nice person. She donated an autographed copy of one of her novels to the Friends of the Harrisburg Library for our autographed book sale a decade or so ago.

Falling, by T.J. Newman

Falling, by T.J. Newman

Falling is T.J. Newman’s debut novel, and it’s a good one! My sister read it and recommended it to me and our book club.

I recently read that one of the keys to writing good fiction is to give the protagonist an impossible choice. Falling fits that perfectly. In a nutshell, a commercial airline pilot is forced to decide whether to crash the plane and save his wife and children, or not crash the plane and let his wife and children be murdered.

This novel takes you minute-by-minute through the scenario. There are red herrings and there is a surprise twist. The author is a former flight attendant, so she knows the inside of a commercial jet and protocols well.

What will the pilot decide to do?

According to her “About the Author” page on Goodreads.com, Universal Pictures is making a movie based on the novel.

The Author Estate Handbook: How to Organize Your Affairs and Leave a Legacy, by M.L. Ronn

The Author Estate Handbook: How to Organize Your Affairs and Leave a Legacy, by M.L. Ronn

I mention this book in case other writers out there are interested in its topic. By reading the book, I discovered that I have done some things right but I’ve overlooked other things I need to take care of before I die.

The author explains how an author’s estate is different from everyone else’s estate. As an author, you own “intellectual property.” You own copyrights that will live on for 70 years after your death. If those things are not properly addressed in your will, you are leaving a mess for your heirs.

I’m not just talking about published books here. If you blog, your blog posts are “intellectual property,” so you need to tell your heirs what you want done with your blog when you die.

Each chapter lists specific tasks you need to take care of, if you’re a writer. I highly recommend this book to writers.

Since my last blog post

Our first shipment of author copies of The Aunts in the Kitchen: Southern Family Recipes arrived and the book is now available at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC as well as on Amazon! Plans are being made to have a book event on November 4 at the bookstore! Stay tuned.

I got the new Covid vaccine and am happy to report I had no ill effects. Those people who insist on belittling Covid 19 have obviously not known someone who has died from the virus or been severely sickened by it. I’m growing weary of Covid jokes by the fortunate few who have escaped it or have not known someone who has or is suffering through it. I thought we had gotten beyond the jokes, but I learned differently last week.

Until my next blog post

Have you ordered my American Revolution e-ghost story?  “Ghost of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse: An American Revolutionary War Ghost Story” is available from Amazon, along with my other books: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CH7JCP11/. Don’t let October slip past you without reading my ghost story!

“Ghost of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse: An American Revolutionary War Ghost Story,” by Janet Morrison

Have you ordered The Aunts in the Kitchen: Southern Family Recipes? I think it would be a wonderful present for a friend’s birthday or other special occasion, but it’s impossible for me to be objective. If you’re in the Charlotte area, it’s available at Second Look Books, 4519 School House Commons in Harrisburg. If not, you can find it at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJLKFDPR/.

The Aunts in the Kitchen: Southern Family Recipes, by Janet Morrison and Marie Morrison

Don’t forget to subscribe to my e-newsletter at https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com and receive a free downloadable copy of my southern historical short story, “Slip Sliding Away.”

Make time for your friends and family.

Remember the people of Ukraine and Israel. Terrorism cannot be tolerated.

Janet

Three Books Read in February 2022

If you’ve been following my blog lately, you know February was not an easy month for me. Various events cut into my reading time, but today I’m writing about the books I read during that short month of 28 days. They represent three different genres. That’s appropriate because my reading interests are all over the place.

Violeta, by Isabel Allende

Violeta, by Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende is becoming one of my favorite novelists. I listened to her latest novels, Violeta, on CD and thoroughly enjoyed it. I listened to the English translation of the Spanish original.

Violeta is written in the form of a letter to Violeta’s adult grandson and follows Violeta from her birth in 1920 during the Influenza Pandemic to the end of her life during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Born into a wealthy family, her father loses everything in the Great Depression which hits South America a little later than in the United States and Europe. The family loses their house and must move out into the hinterlands where they must adapt to life without luxuries such as electricity.

Woven into this story is a character who comes into Violeta’s life at an early age to serve as her English governess; however, it turns out the woman isn’t from England and isn’t at all what Violeta’s parents are expecting.

This is a delightful novel. Violeta would be a good Isabel Allende book for you to start with, if you’ve never read one of her novels. If you’ve read her other books, you know what a treat this one will be.

Our North Carolina Heritage, compiled by Charlotte Ivey Hastings, 1960

This book is well off the beaten path and one you probably can’t find. Just by happenstance, I purchased a copy dirt cheap at a public library used book sale several years ago. I added it to my to-be-read shelves and forgot about it.

I saw it on my bookshelf in February and decided to read it. It isn’t a history book that one can totally rely on for accuracy because it is a compilation of oral history stories. Many of them were written by junior high students.

However… (and that’s a huge HOWEVER), I found lots of little gems of North Carolina history in it that I’ve never seen or heard elsewhere. They are the bits of history that never made it into the history books but offer someone like me a jumping off point to do additional research.

One thing I was particularly glad to find was that the book gave information about a number of women and their bravery and contributions to the patriot cause in the American Revolution. Women have generally been omitted from the history books.

Here’s an example of something I don’t recall hearing or reading elsewhere: By the end of the 18th century, Jewish peddlers in North Carolina traded for eggs since they couldn’t easily come by Kosher meat.

The book reminds me of the series of local history books compiled in the 1960s by Mrs. Mabel Rumple Blume’s North Carolina history students at Harrisburg School in Harrisburg, NC. Every year for five or so years, Mrs. Blume’s students were sent out into the then rural Cabarrus County to interview the oldest residents to capture local history. The students won statewide first-place honors year after year for their books which covered general history, mail delivery and post offices, and grist mills. Much of that history would have been lost forever if not for Mrs. Blume and her students.

With that work in mind, I very much appreciated the contents of Our North Carolina Heritage. It made me sad that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library system had made the decision several years ago to weed the book from its collection and sell it for pennies. Sometimes people are put in positions of decision-making who don’t appreciate the true value of what they have.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, by Steven Pressfield

This nonfiction book was recommended by Jane Friedman in her January 11, 2022 article, “To Everyone Who Wants Me to Read Their Writing and Tell Them What to Do.” Here’s the link: (To Everyone Who Wants Me to Read Their Writing and Tell Them What to Do | Jane Friedman Ms. Friedman has never steered me wrong, so I checked it out of the public library.

The book is divided into the following three parts: “Resistance ~ Defining the Enemy;” “Combating Resistance ~ Turning Pro;” and “Beyond Resistance ~ The Higher Realm.”

Part One explains that, “Resistance is the enemy within” when we attempt to do something worthwhile. Mr. Pressfield wrote that the rule of thumb for resistance is, “The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.” We fear that inner resistance, but once we “Master that fear… we conquer resistance.”

Mr. Pressfield wrote that resistance is often manifested in the form of procrastination, which can become a habit.

In Part Two, Mr. Pressfield wrote that an artist must stop thinking of himself as an amateur and start seeing himself as a professional. He wrote, “A professional does not take failure (or success) personally.”

He also wrote, “A professional recognizes her limitations. She gets an agent, she gets a lawyer, she gets an accountant. She knows she can only be a professional at one thing.”

In Part Three, Mr. Pressfield wrote that we just do it. We do it every day. It’s work, and we do it. He also cautions artists from thinking of themselves in a hierarchy. In other words, art of all types is not a competition.

Since my last blog post

Every day has brought horrifying images of the suffering and destruction in Ukraine.

I’m disappointed that I didn’t receive an acknowledgement for some research advice I sought for the writing of my novel, but I won’t let that slow me down any longer. That’s life.

I got back to work on a project that relates to my church. I started it 20 years ago and it’s been on the back burner now for 15 years. I’ve been inventorying my unfinished projects lately. It’s overwhelming. I need to complete some, even if doing so cuts into my writing and reading time.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. I’m reading an interesting book about 1816 – known as “The Year Without a Summer.”

May the world continue to condemn Vladimir Putin for his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Janet

Reading and Writing in February 2018

In my January 8, 2018 blog post (2018 Reading, Writing, & Living Plans) I expressed a need to be accountable to my blog readers. In order to do that, I said I’d set monthly writing goals. I gave you an embarrassing writing progress report in my February 5, 2018 blog post (Reading and Writing in January 2018). February was productive, but not in word count.

My goal was to write 6,000 words in the rewrite of my novel in February. That just didn’t happen, but I nearly finished the character profiles and settled on the location and the theme. That might not sound like much, but it wasn’t easy. More on that later.

Writing Goal for March:  Finish writing the scenic plot outline

My reading in February

Although I read six books in February, my “want to read” list had a net gain of ­­16. Like I wrote on February 5, this trend is unsustainable. With so many good books being written, though, I don’t know how to reduce my list. In my younger adult days I didn’t make time to read fiction, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

The Salt House, by Lisa Duffy

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The Salt House, by Lisa Duffy

This was Ms. Duffy’s debut novel. It was published in 2017 and was recommended by my friend, Karen. Set in Maine, The Salt House follows each member of a grieving family the summer after the toddler in the family died unexpectedly. Each chapter is written from the point-of-view of a different family member. The father, the mother, and the two surviving daughters each handle their grief in their own way in this well-written novel. Grief can pull a family apart or pull them closer together. It can even erupt in violence.

The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn

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The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn

This debut novel by A.J. Finn hit the bestseller lists and hasn’t slowed down in popularity. This psychological thriller will keep you guessing. It will even make you doubt what you think you see, think you hear, and think you know. In the process, it is a study in agoraphobia.

The Hope Chest, by Viola Shipman

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The Hope Chest, by Viola Shipman

This is a novel about a woman with ALS and the items in her hope chest – items collected as far back as early childhood. Ill now with a terminal illness, she looks at each item and remembers what each one means and why she kept it. This was the book read by the Rocky River Readers Club in February.

Incidentally, The Hope Chest was written by Wade Rouse who adopted the pen name “Viola Shipman” to honor the memory of his grandmother.

Fighting to Win:  Samurai Techniques For Your Work and Life, by David J. Rogers           

fighting-to-win-amazon
Fighting to Win: Samurai Techniques For Your Work and Life, by David J. Rogers

This book was instrumental in getting me back to work on my novel. I wrote an entire blog post about it on February 19, 2018 (Using Samurai Techniques in Writing), so I won’t repeat my thoughts on the book here. Please read that earlier blog post, though, and see if it sounds like this book could help you.

In the Midst of Winter, by Isabel Allende

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In the Midst of Winter, by Isabel Allende

I gave In the Midst of Winter, by Isabel Allende, five stars in my review on Goodreads.com. In the Midst of Winter weaves together the lives of strangers. Each of the protagonists have unfortunate backgrounds. They discover common ground and form a bond while getting deeper and deeper in covering up a murder.

Ms. Allende did a brilliant job gradually bringing in backstory that included revolution in Chile, human trafficking in the USA, the horrors many Latinos face as they desperately try to cross into the USA, and life in the shadows for people who have come to the USA illegally.

Many others on Goodreads.com have given this novel three stars, saying they were disappointed with it. Maybe it’s the history buff in me that prompted me to give it five stars.

In his November 21, 2017 review in The Washington Post, (https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/its-a-snowy-day-in-brooklyn-and-theres-love-in-the-air–and-a-body-in-the-trunk/2017/11/21/bb8643d0-cda2-11e7-81bc-c55a220c8cbe_story.html?utm_term=.3b398baedf24) Ron Charles wrote the following:

“The emotional range of Isabel Allende’s new novel is stretched so wide that it’s a miracle the book’s spine doesn’t break. We’re used to dark comedies, the ironic mingling of humor and despair, but In the Midst of Winter is a light tragedy, an off-kilter mix of sweetness and bleakness held together only by Allende’s dulcet voice.”

In the Midst of Winter was translated from Spanish to English by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson.

The Taster, by V.S. Alexander

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The Taster, by V.S. Alexander

I read V.S. Alexander’s debut novel, The Magdalen Girls last March and got my name on the wait list at the public library for his second book, The Taster, as soon as it appeared “on order” on the electronic card catalog. (See my April 1, 2017 blog post, The Authors I Read in March, if you want to read my thoughts on The Magdalen Girls.)

As with Alexander’s first novel, I had to keep reminding myself that The Taster was a work of fiction. Alexander writes so convincingly that I felt as if I were reading an eyewitness account.

The Taster is the story of a young woman in need of a job and living in Hitler’s Germany. The job she got was not a job she wanted. She was selected to be a food and drink taster for Adolph Hitler. Hitler was mortified of being poisoned, so all his food and drink had to be tasted in advance by a replaceable woman. If a taster died, she could be replaced. Hitler, of course, did not see himself as replaceable.

Since my last blog post

I have received helpful feedback from friends in Australia, Scotland, and Belgium after they read my February 26, 2018 post, Hook in Charles Frazier’s Nightwoods. Thank you, Chris, Iain, and Beth!

Chris Andrews immediately recognized my blunder in summing up the theme of my work-in-progress, The Spanish Coin, in one word. Thank you Chris, for pulling me out of the ditch and putting me back on track!

Thank you, Ann, for signing up for my planned future newsletters.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. I’m reading The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah and Four Short Stories: In Need of Assistance, Saving the Unicorn, Faerie Blues, and Trophy Hunting, by Chris Andrews. This is a collection of four sci-fi short stories by my Australian writer friend. For those of us in the USA, Chris’s e-book is available on Amazon.com.

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Four Short Stories: In Need of Assistance, Saving the Unicorn, Faerie Blues, and Trophy Hunting — by Chris Andrews

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The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah

If you are a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

If you have not yet signed up for my planned future author newsletters, please take a minute to fill out the form below. I promise my newsletters will be few and far between and your email address will not be used by anyone but me. Thanks!

Janet

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