I'll Take Your Questions Now

 As I was reading Stephanie Grisham's memoir I'll Take Your Questions Now - What I Saw at the Trump White House (#1,262) I couldn't quite figure out what Ms. Grisham's point was in writing this book: revenge? self-justification? guilt? money?  Maybe a blend of all of the above?

Did I learn anything new from this book?  Not really.  Just that Melania Trump sleeps a lot and can't be bothered with anything that doesn't directly forward her own interests.  Apparently, Donald Trump is just as mercurial and angry as he has been portrayed by the mainstream media, despite Ms. Grisham's claim that they don't give him credit for all the good work he's done.

Power and money.  That's all anyone in Trump world cares about.  I'm sorry the sale of this electronic copy contributed to Ms. Grisham's pockets.

A Most Agreeable Murder

I had been saving Julia Seales' debut novel A Most Agreeable Murder (#1,261) as a special treat.  Reader, I was most disagreeably disappointed.  It promised a Regency romance style murder mystery with an enticing cover.  The contents, sad to say, did not quite measure up.

I think Ms. Seales tried too hard.  The results came across as "cutsie" rather than tongue in cheek with "fainties" and "squelchies" in a fairytale setting.  A younger sister as an unidentified werewolf?  The only weather in the village was rain and violent hailstorms?  A proper young lady whose sole ambition was to solve murders?  The parents as caricatures of the senior Bennetts?  It was all a bit much for my taste.

It might be perfect for some readers, but I am not one.

The Paranormal Ranger

I read Stanley Milford Jr.'s book The Paranormal Ranger - A Navajo Investigator's Search for the Unexplained (#1,260) with a great deal of interest.  Acting as a law enforcement officer, Milford and his partner were assigned to investigate incidents and complaints in the Navajo Nation which could not be explained by normal methods.

Being raised by a Navajo father in the summers and receiving a traditional Western education where he lived with his mother enabled Milford to embrace both sides of his cultural heritage including the acceptance of a spirit world.  He writes about the Navajo creation myth and its influence to explain some of the uncanny things he came across.  That is really the part of the book I found most interesting.  It built on bits and pieces I have learned about the Navajo way of life from the popular Tony and Anne Hillerman novels.

Some of what I read surprised me - I knew about witches and Skinwalkers, but I had not realized that Big Foot and UFO sightings were not uncommon in this part of the world.  Since Stanley Milford Jr. had had a number of these experiences himself, it put him in a position to respond to similar sightings across the vast Navajo Nation and take these occurrences seriously.  He was in a unique position to make these people reporting odd things feel heard and seen.

It's a thoughtful presentation of one man's experiences with the unknown from a culturally different perspective.  Definitely worth a read with an open mind.

The Third Wife of Faraday House

I picked up B.R. Myers' novel The Third Wife of Faraday House (#1,259) because of its jaunty cover.  What I found inside was a fun Gothic novel set in Nova Scotia just after the conclusion of the War of 1812.  

Emeline Fitzpatrick's only asset is her beauty.  Her guardians have raised her to make the most of her looks, because she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.  So when she disgraces herself with a dashing Naval officer at a ball in Halifax, she is given a choice: be sent to a convent as a nun,or marry a sea captain with a large estate in need of a third wife.  Emeline chooses Captain Faraday.

The problem is, when she arrives at his isolated island, she finds that his second wife is still alive!  She's dying, but what is Emeline supposed to do in the meantime?  Things go bump in the night, mysterious accidents happen, a handsome reverend is there to administer last rites, and her husband-to-be is hardly the man of her dreams.  Apparently the only person she can trust is Georgina, whom she is there to replace...

 I did enjoy Third Wife despite its plethora of anachronisms.  I found I didn't mind them in a book whose purpose was to entertain not enlighten.  In fact, I made a game out of picking out as many as I could find as I read along.  It's a fun read, just in time for Halloween.

The Palace - From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court

Having fond memories of visiting Hampton Court Palace back in the 1970s, I was interested to see The Palace - From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court (#1,258) appear on my monthly library Recommended Reads list.  Naturally, I checked it out and spent some entertaining hours perusing its pages.

Gareth Russell's book skips through the different monarchs, condensing factual events and emphasizing the juicier bits of gossip about the people (of all different social classes) who lived at Hampton Court at some time, or participated in events there which reverberate to the present day.  Despite having read a fair amount of British history, I still learned a surprising amount of information which was quite new to me.  Probably anyone who has even a passing interest in Henry VIII and his messy marriages knows about Katherine Howard's desperate bid to reach him at Hampton before her execution - hence one of the "ghostly" legends.  But more importantly, it was at Hampton Court that the King James version of the Bible was put into motion through meetings held in chambers which no longer exist, thanks to renovations.  From the trivial to the profound, you will find it here in Mr. Russell's book.

I did read this book with two bookmarks: one to mark my place in the chapters, and one to mark the chapter's corresponding footnotes as I read.  There's enough information in the footnotes to make it worthwhile to review them.

It's an interesting concept to present history through the building where it took place (although it did wander quite far from Hampton Court at times!).  If you're an Anglophile, you'll probably love it, even though it does lean more towards the Tudors & Stuarts than the Bridgerton era Hanoverians.

The Conspiracy to End America

Interesting that Stuart Stevens, a long-time Republican political consultant has come down so strongly on the side of the Democrats for the upcoming election.  He, like a coalition of frankly not enough Republicans, is of the opinion that not only Donald Trump, but also the mainstream Republican Party are firmly set on their path to destroy democracy in America and replace it with an autocracy similar to those  in Hungary and Russia.  He lays out his theory and his proofs in The Conspiracy to End America (#1,257).

Since this book was published in 2023, a number of things that he predicted have already come to pass - questioning the integrity of elections while making it harder for non-Republicans to vote, re-shaping the judiciary in the image of the right-wing Federalist Society, and the surprising people who actually stormed the Capitol.  They're not who you might have imagined.  All this, and he didn't even have a chance to read or comment on Project 2025!

Stuart Stevens thinks everyone should read his book before the upcoming election.  He's right. 

A Woman of Pleasure

A Woman of Pleasure (#1,256) is the first English translation (by Juliet Winters Carpenter) of award-winning Japanese writer Kiyoko Murata's work.  It's not for the faint of heart.

Aoi Ichi is the daughter of a diving family from the island of Iwo Jima.  She admires her mother and older sister who both free dive to earn a meager living, far outearning her fisherman father.  She is surprised to find herself bundled aboard a ferry to a port near Nagasaki one day in 1903.  She and other girls her own age is collected there by the agent of Shinonome House, a grand house of pleasure in the licensed district.  There her life completely changes when she learns that she has been sold to the house and must work off the debt incurred by payment to her father.  She is lucky.  She has been deemed worthy of training as a higher-class courtesan.

Since the house does cater to a wealthier clientele, all the girls are also trained how to read and write, how to arrange flowers and how to dance, sing and play instruments.  But much of their time is also spent in learning the physical arts of how to best please their customers and earn a loyal following.  If they can rise to the top, they may be able to free themselves from their financial burdens and aspire even to marriage.  If not, their debt mounts at the brothel.  If they cannot pay at the end of their contract, they will be turned out and forced to work in one of the unlicensed "hells".

How Aoi Ichi manages her life, bears her training and somehow finds some small joys makes for a brutal, but worthwhile story with unforgettable characters.