Book Review: Jump…And Your Life Will Appear

Jump…And Your Life Will Appear: An Inch-by-Inch Guide to Making a Major Change, by Nancy Levin

I came across this book when I attended an online writing workshop, where the author was speaking. She was a fairly engaging speaker, although a bit repetitive, so I wondered what her book would be like.

The book is a step by step guide to tackling change in your life.  It actually breaks it down into steps, with each step its own chapter, having questions that you can ask yourself and journal about in order to ready yourself for change.  It speaks about the fact that most of us resist change because of fear; fear of what will happen. fear of the unknown, etc.  To the point that we procrastinate much longer than is healthy or necessary before finally taking the leap.  But that once you embark on the journey of change, you usually find that things improve.  The questions are simple yet applicable ways to encourage the reader to consider all aspects of the change, including what is holding you back.

The downside of the book is that it is repetitive.  The author uses the example of her messy divorce and affair, which she was ashamed and humiliated about when it got brought out into the open.  She stated that the only way to move through it was to finally acknowledge it and accept that the world wouldn’t end if her marriage did.  Unfortunately, it made the book seem like a one trick pony, with her divorce being the only example she gave, over and over again in every chapter.  Surely this is not the only change she has ever endured.  Not to mention, she was vague.  She talked about how awful it was, but then things seemed to miraculously come to a quick conclusion without any sort of hard work on her part.  It was like “Poof!,” she decided to make the change, and then things just sort of worked out.  I’m sure it wasn’t like that, but the vagueness didn’t give the reader a sense that this was really a difficult change.

Ditto with the client examples.  The book contains about a dozen client stories, with a detailed description of the change they were hoping to achieve, and then after they made the decision, things just worked out.  The examples didn’t include any of the work that they undertook to get to where they wanted.  I get that the hardest part of making a change is often just deciding to do it, but if only it were this easy!

In terms of self-help, this one didn’t wow me.

1 star.   

Bloody Falls of the Coppermine

Bloody Falls of the Coppermine: Madness, Murder, and the Collision of Cultures in the Arctic, 1913, by McKay Jenkins

In 1911, the Catholic Church sent a missionary to the remote Arctic region of the Northern Territories of Canada, to try to convert the indigenous people who lived there.  Father Rouviere toiled for a year, setting up a cabin, associating with white fur trappers and explorers, and befriending a few of the inhabitants of the area.  He was kind, pleasant and well liked, and seemed like a good fit for the job, except that he had no real survival skills for a harsh and unforgiving Arctic environment. 

In 1912, Father Leroux joined Father Rouviere.  Witnesses describe Leroux as more authoritarian and combative than Rouviere, and surmised that perhaps that is where the trouble started.  Much of what happened is a mystery.  What is known, is that in 1913, the two priests were making their way back down to their winter cabin after exploring further north near the Coppermine River.  In a tragic twist of fate, the two holy men were murdered by two of the people that they were trying to bring to God. 

In such a remote region, it took a while for the rumors of the murders to reach the nearest fort, but when they did, the Royal North West Mounted Police spearheaded an expedition to investigate.  It took the constables two years to travel to the remote region, find the accused, and transport them to Edmonton for trial.  However, there were no witnesses to the actual crime, and the two men, Sinnisiak and Uluksuk, claimed that they killed the priests in self-defense.  They had not attempted in any way to cover up the crime, admitting to several witnesses after the fact that they had killed Rouviere and Leroux because they were afraid for their own lives.

This book documents the history of white exploration in the area at the beginning of the 20th century, and the tragedy that ensued after the priests made contact with a group of indigenous people who had only begun to see white men a few years before.  Without a common language, communication was nearly impossible and intentions were unknown.  What is known is that after the murders, Sinnisiak and Uluksuk were put on trial by a system they didn’t understand, and judged by men who knew nothing about their culture, for a crime that they didn’t consider to be a crime.

Jenkins’ book is well researched and well written, piecing together the story from Rouviere’s diary, which was found near his body a few years after the murder, as well as statements by Sinnisiak and Uluksuk, other witnesses, and court documents and newspaper accounts of the trial.  It touches on the problem of judging someone by the standard of a culture that is not their own.  It points out the bias of the judge and the judicial system, but also the leniency and mercy shown.

It tells the story of a group of people who had successfully survived in a demanding and harsh environment for over 5,000 years, and what can happen when that equilibrium is disturbed.  It was a interesting, yet heartbreaking story, and one I was surprised I hadn’t heard of before. 

Note: At the beginning of the book, Jenkins addresses his use of the word Eskimo to describe the people involved in his story.  He explains that Inuit has become the preferred name for many Inuit speaking Arctic people of Canada and parts of Greenland.  However, in Alaska and Arctic Siberia, the indigenous people do not speak Inuit, nor refer to themselves as Inuit.  Jenkins says he made the decision to use the historical name Eskimo given the period in which the events took place, and because the documents and newspaper clippings which served as his sources use the term Eskimo.  The Canadian government now refers to the indigenous people of the area as the Kitlinermiut (named for their group’s name for Victoria Island) or the Copper Inuit. 

4 stars.

Book Review: I’m Glad My Mom Died

I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy

I had never heard of Jennette McCurdy, but apparently she began her child acting career in the early 2000s, and is best known as the star of a Nickelodeon TV show.  Now, I’m of the generation that watched Nick at Nite, back when it aired reruns of Leave It To Beaver, Mr. Ed, and the Donna Reed Show.  I didn’t really watch later on when they were doing their own original programming, nor did I have children who would have watched.  So I (breathes a sigh of relief) stayed blissfully in the dark.

 

Unfortunately, since the dawn of Hollywood time, there have been child stars abused by studio executives, producers, directors and worst of all, their parents.  It seems to come with the territory, the parents who will stop at nothing to make their child a star.  Jennette’s mother was one of those…

Jennette grew up with an intact family, but sadly, her dad was kind of useless, and he never stood up to her mother against the inappropriate things that were going on.  She was also home schooled, so outside her nuclear family, Jennette never really had any adults looking out for her best interest.  So, from the age of six, Jennette was pushed into an acting career, with endless lessons in acting, singing and dancing, and auditions for shows.  When she finally broke through, Jennette became the breadwinner for the family, her parents, two brothers and grandparents. 

Jennette’s mother had clear expectations for her and her career, and her treatment of Jennette was abusive.  Not only the long hours on set…  Her mother taught her at the age of eleven how to calorie restrict, so she could stay thin for the camera.  Imagine a mother teaching her own daughter how to be anorexic? Imagine parents expecting their child to pay for their bills, their mortgage, their vehicles, and their groceries.  And even worse, her mother bathed her until we was almost an adult, claiming that Jennette couldn’t be trusted to wash her hair correctly.  During these shower sessions, her mother subjected her to bizarre bodily exams, telling her she was performing cancer screenings.  Jennette grew up with this being “normal.” 

When Jennette was a young adult, her mother’s breast cancer returned and she passed away.  The narcissistic, selfish, abusive matriarch of the family was finally gone.  Years of therapy has helped Jennette come to terms with the mother that she loved, and the mother who also abused her.  The book is a raw, tragic look at the impacts of the abuse, and Jennette’s lack of ability to live a normal life.  She continues to be controlled by bulimia and other impulsive behaviors.  She tells her story candidly, although she has said how difficult it was to tell her story.

What a heartbreaking story, and how terrible to grow up in a family where the death of your own mother is a relief.

3 stars. 

Note: Quiet on Set is a five part documentary released in 2024 that explores allegations of abuse of other child actors at Nickelodeon.  I have not seen it, but I’ve heard it is very good (and by good I mean disturbing).  Although she doesn’t speak much of Nickelodeon directly, some of Jennette’s comments in this book are widely believed to be about Dan Schneider, the abuser named in the documentary. 

 

Book Review: Life on the Mississippi

Life on the Mississippi, by Rinker Buck

I read Rinker Buck’s The Oregon Trail several years ago, so I was intrigued when I saw this audiobook in the Libby app.  Even better, it was available now!  So I got to listening.

Buck sets out to recreate an authentic flatboat journey down the Mississippi River, similar to what the pioneers did in the 1800s.  He finds a boat builder who can build a flatboat per his specifications, and kits it out for a several month journey down the river.  He finds an eclectic group of people to help him on the journey, and sets off, not really knowing how to pilot a flatboat or what the journey will be like.  Of course, he has all the Corps of Engineers maps, showing locks and bridges and what not, but knowing what you have to do is often far different than really doing it.  Despite advice from old-timers that such a journey will result in almost certain death at the hands of innumerable hazards (barges, whirlpools, deadheads in the water), he heads out anyway.  

What follows is a fascinating travelogue and social commentary.  Buck begins on the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh, connects with the Ohio and eventually lands in the Mississippi River.  The title of the book is a bit misleading, as the bulk of the story takes place on the Ohio.  He begins by taking it easy, learning how to pilot the flatboat, which he has named Patience, and how to dock it in the evenings wherever they stop for the night.  He works out the kinks with the engine mount, and learns how to work together with his crew.  His crew does change over the course of the trip, as people come aboard and depart based on their schedules, their interests, chance and their ability to not annoy Buck. 

The reader is provided with lots of descriptions on the scenery of the river.  What it once would have looked like, and what it looks like today after an untold number of manufacturing plants have gone defunct and lie abandoned.  He details the work done to shore up the banks, and to build and maintain locks, in order to make the river a highway for the ships and barges taking their goods up and down the river. 

I appreciated his extensive research and description of the history of settlement in this part of the country.  How flatboats were integral to opening up this area to white settlement, how the pioneers made their journeys down the river 200 years ago, and how the Native Americans were pushed out as a result of this settlement.  He describes the Trail of Tears, where Native Americans were relocated to subpar lands further west, despite having a history of living in peace with white settlers.  The desirable lands were needed for white pioneers, and so they were taken.  He also describes how the flatboat era made the rich fertile lands of these river valleys accessible, and how this created demand for slaves to work the land for their plantation owners. 

He describes his crew mates and the people he meets along the way.  This is my least favorite part of the book.  Buck is obviously very liberal politically, which is fine, but not relevant to the story.  He basically insults every well-meaning and kind person he comes into contact with.  His crew mates’ personality flaws are dissected and put under the microscope, and every citizen in the southern half of the country is painted with Buck’s broad brush as being a backwoods, conservative redneck.  This is despite the fact that he enjoys and appreciates his interactions with most of these people, whom he describes as being kind, helpful, and generous with their time and money. 

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but wish he hadn’t insulted so many of his volunteers, or the people he met along the way.

3 stars. 

Book Review: You: The Story

You: The Story: A Writer’s Guide to Craft Through Memory, by Ruta Sepetys

This book was a recommendation from the library assistant at my local library.  We were talking about a writing workshop during book club, and she mentioned that she thought this book was very inspiring.  So I checked it out and here I am!

Ruta Sepetys breaks down and explains the process of writing into manageable chunks, while also interjecting pieces of her own life story into the book to make it more understandable and memorable.  She discusses voice, developing characters, and building the plot, and vividly explains what it means to do so.  She gives the reader a wide variety of writing prompts, and weaves in examples of different voices, how to build characters who are rich and believable, and how to create a plot that draws the reader in.

She also discusses finding your own style of writing, rather than trying to emulate or copy someone else’s.  Only through finding your own style and voice will you be successful, as the reader will want to read something that feels authentic.  She talks about harvesting your memories to create the story and meaningful plot points; what in your life has stayed with you over time, that you find yourself revisiting in memory.  Are you ready to put those memories onto the page?

Sepetys’ writing is authentic; you feel you get to know her while reading about her tips and tricks for writing a good book.  Her stories are engaging, some cringey, some joyful, some heartbreaking and some laugh out loud funny.  She puts herself on the pages while teaching the reader how to do the same.

Her book made me feel inspired to pick up again on writing the book I started working on several years ago.  Maybe I can finally make some more progress on it!

As a side note, I’ve never read any of Sepetys’ novels, but now I want to!

5 stars.

Book Review: The Eighty-Dollar Champion

The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, The Horse That Inspired a Nation, by Elizabeth Letts

In 1956 Harry deLeyer was teaching riding lessons at a prestigious girl’s boarding school on Long Island.  He went to an auction in February of that year, looking for a calm, quiet lesson horse.  Car trouble made him late for the auction, and by the time he arrived the only horses left were being loaded onto a slaughterhouse truck.  Instead of giving up, Harry peeked through the slats of the truck, and was greeted by a gray horse’s sweet, calm eyes.

Harry asked the driver to unload the horse, and offered $80 for him, if the driver would deliver him to his farm near the slaughterhouse.  The driver agreed, and the rest, as they say, was history.

Harry’s children took an instant liking to the big gray gelding, and named him Snowman.  The girls at the school loved him too, and Harry could put even the most timid students on him because he was so gentle.  Eventually, a neighbor came along looking for a horse for his son, and Snowman seemed to fit the bill.  Harry couldn’t pass up a chance to double his money, and sold Snowman for $160.

However, Snowman loved Harry, and was having none of it.  He wasn’t going to be sold!  He kept showing up back at Harry’s and it took several days before Harry realized that he was jumping several large fences in order to get across the fields and back to the farm.  It was at that point that Harry recognized that he had misjudged Snowman.  He bought him back from the neighbor and began training him to be a show jumper.

Two years later, Harry entered his first Open Jumper classes with Snowman, and soon was dominating the field, holding his own against purebred Thoroughbreds worth tens of thousands of dollars and ridden by professionals.  The public noticed too, and Snowman quickly became a fan favorite for his calm demeanor and incredible skill, jumping fences as high as 7 feet, 2 inches.

Elizabeth Letts tells the story of this remarkable horse and his kind, caring owner, following Harry from his childhood in the Netherlands, his immigration to the United States after World War II, and his career in horse training and teaching.  She tells the story of Snowman, a grade gelding of unknown origin, who came to Harry’s farm injured and overworked, and the bond they forged.

But most of all, she tells the story about their incredible partnership, and how Snowman was rescued from slaughter to become the nation’s greatest show jumper.  His story was an inspiration to many, a true fairy tale, so much that he earned the nickname, The Cinderella Horse.

This book was well researched and well-written, and I found myself rooting for Snowman and Harry along with the rest of his fans.  Who doesn’t love an underdog story!

4 stars.

Book Review: The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream

The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer, by Dean Jobb

Everybody has heard of Jack the Ripper.  But who has heard of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream?  I hadn’t!

Dr. Cream was a Scottish-Canadian serial killer, born in 1850 and executed for his crimes in 1892.  He was a weird dude, smart enough to commit his murders without being suspected, but either too narcissistic or stupid to keep from calling attention to himself after the fact.

Ultimately Dr. Cream murdered 10 people with strychnine in the United States and England, and is strongly suspected of murdering other women, including his wife in Canada.  He mainly targeted prostitutes, and often after they needed his assistance in obtaining an illegal abortion.  Beyond that, his motives are largely unknown, although money seems to have played a role in a some of them.  Bizarrely, he sent letters after his murders attempting to blackmail prominent men, which ironically led police back to Dr. Cream even in cases where murder was not suspected.  He was digging his own grave.

The case is fascinating.  Unfortunately, the writing was not.  I appreciate Dean Jobb’s attempts to tell the story, but there is obviously only so much that can be gleaned from historical records and media accounts.  I felt like his writing style was repetitive, and the book could have been about half the length that it was.  It was also a little confusing to follow all of Dr. Cream’s moves around three different countries.  I listened to the audiobook so the confusion might have been alleviated somewhat by visual cues and chapter organization, but it was a detraction for me.

Overall, I was still glad I read it, as it introduced me to an interesting and disturbing serial killer I hadn’t heard of, but this book could definitely be improved.

2 stars.

2023 Reading Challenge Completed!

In 2023 I set out with a reading goal of 39 books.  If that seems like an odd number, I set my goal to be one book higher than what I read the previous year.  So in 2022, I read 38 books.  This year, I surpassed my goal, with 43 books!  Those 43 books had 16,155 pages.  Not bad!  I have a few other books that I started but haven’t finished, so maybe I’ll wrap those up in the new year! And yes, I read an eclectic mix of books, with literary fiction, thrillers, memoirs and non-fiction history all thrown into the pile.  Plus this year I read some poetry and a book of short stories too!  Do you track your reading?  How many books did you read this year?

1. Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate (342 pages)
2. Black Count, by Tom Reiss (414 pages)
3. Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas, by John Baxter (270 pages)
4. The Reading List, by Sara Nisha Adams (368 pages)
5. Love and Ruin, by Paula McClain (389 pages)
6. Housebreaking, by Colleen Hubbard (368 pages)
7. The “Unholy” Apostles, by James M. Keller (160 pages)
8. Middling Folk, by Linda H. Matthews (384 pages)
9. The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules, by Catherina Ingelman-Sundberg (393 pages)
10. Extreme Prey, by John Sandford (406 pages)
11. Undaunted Courage, by Stephen E. Ambrose (521 pages)
12. An Affectionate Farewell, by Trudy Krisher (32 pages)
13. Bodega, by Su Hwang (96 pages)
14. Long Bright River, by Liz Moore (482 pages)
15. Florence Adler Swims Forever, by Rachel Beanland (309 pages)
16. This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger (450 pages)
17. The Monuments Men, by Robert M. Edsel (473 pages)
18. Mistress of the Art of Death, by Ariana Franklin (400 pages)
19. Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman (228 pages)
20. Women Talking, by Miriam Toews (240 pages)
21. The Teahouse Fire, by Ellis Avery (960 pages)
22. Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead (342 pages)
23. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles (462 pages)
24. Two in the Far North, by Margaret Murie (376 pages)
25. A Death in Vienna, by Daniel Silva (424 pages)
26. Locked On, by Tom Clancy (592 pages)
27. The Colony, by Audrey Magee (384 pages)
28. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V.E. Schwab (448 pages)
29. The Taken Ones, by Jess Lourey (332 pages)
30. What Strange Paradise, by Omar El Akkad (256 pages)
31. The Burning, by Tim Madigan (343 pages)
32. Never Play Dead, by Tomi Lahren (256 pages)
33. The Dressmakers of Auschwitz, by Lucy Adlington (400 pages)
34. Read This and Tell Me What it Says, by A. Manette Ansay (160 pages)
35. Band of Sisters, by Lauren Willig (544 pages)
36. Explorers of the Nile, by Tim Jeal (510 pages)
37. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson (320 pages)
38. The Last Van Gogh, by Alyson Richman (320 pages)
39. Hester, by Laurie Lico Albanese (352 pages)
40. The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah (480 pages)
41. The Haunting of Alma Fielding, by Kate Summerscale (368 pages)
42. Still Life, by Sarah Winman (480 pages)
43. The Overton Window, by Glenn Beck (321 pages)

16,155 pages total.

Book Review: The Haunting of Alma Fielding

The Haunting of Alma Fielding, by Kate Summerscale

I was perusing the books on the Libby app when I saw this one and was intrigued.  The true story of a poltergeist haunting in England in the 1930s, that was researched at the time!  What better way to finally figure out whether ghosts are real?

I checked it out, and eventually learned that I was not going to come any closer to learning whether ghosts are real.  But it took this book a while to get there. 

As it turns out, Alma Fielding was a 34 year old English housewife who began experiencing poltergeist activity in 1938.  Knowing the police would not do anything about it, she decided to turn to the media, and invite other readers to share their stories of the supernatural.  This led Nandor Fodor to Alma; he was a psychical researcher as they were known at the time, and he forged a friendship with Alma for the purpose of studying her and the phenomenon.

Over the next several months, the activity increased to include glassware and other household objects, jewelry and other items, even small live animals, manifesting themselves, flying across the room and appearing in her clothing.  Jewelry disappeared from stores Alma visited, and appeared later in her purse or pockets.  But was it a ghost or was Alma just a talented showman?  Fodor came to believe that Alma’s past trauma, as well as her husband’s experience in World War I, were also having an effect on her and impacting the poltergeist activity.

Alma was a sport though, and agreed to appear at seances, subject herself to various experiments, and allow nude searches and specifically fitted garments to prevent any ability to fake the manifestation of objects.  However, the original investigation, and this book, never truly settled the question of whether the haunting was real or an elaborate hoax, and at the end I was no closer to learning the truth.  It seems I have to be satisfied with a maybe.

The book had a lot of interesting parts, and I was interested in the information on seances and the increasing in “hauntings” during the period after the wars.  But it often felt like simply a list of the objects that Alma manifested, and the experiments they subjected her to, rather than a more engaging story of her experience. 

Unfortunately, an audiobook narrator with a horribly monotonous tone made the audio version of the book somewhat painful to get through, but he was remarkably successful in lulling me to sleeping when I listened in bed at the end of the day.

I really wanted to like this book, but sadly, it ended up being a dud for me.

2 stars.

Book Review: Explorers of the Nile

Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure, by Tim Jeal

I downloaded this book from the library a few years ago, because it looked interesting, but only recently listened to it. 

Explorers of the Nile is a very thoroughly researched and comprehensive book about the famous explorers who embarked on missions in Africa to seek out the source of the Nile River and map its river basin and watershed in the 1800s.  They traveled into the interior of Africa, a remote and dangerous country with no roads, no vehicles, and little in medication to treat injuries and tropical diseases.  These men and women were, quite frankly, badasses.  Jeal details the expeditions of Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, James Augustus Grant, Samuel Baker, Florence von Sass, David Livingstone, and Henry Morton Stanley, and documents their discoveries in the quest to find the source of the Nile.

The book is comprehensive; going into great detail about the routes these men take, the strengths and weaknesses of their expeditions and their men, as well as the complicated relationships they developed with Arab slave traders in the region, various African tribes, and even their relationships with each other.  Their work is dangerous, from concerns about attacks from tribes, and diseases as they travel through incredibly rough terrain trying to follow what we now know is the world’s longest river.

Before they could even get started, each of these expeditions had to secure funding, collect supplies, procure boats and porters to carry gear, and find ways to communicate with the people they would encounter along the way.  Of course, these are alpha males for the most part, with the egos that go along with it, and they are often in direct competition with each other.  As a result, they backstab and talk badly about each other, and try to convince their sponsors that they are somehow better than the next guy… 

Jeal documents all of this, using letters and records from the Royal Geographic Society (who funded many of these expeditions), with a detail that can be overwhelming.  There is so much detail, and so much information, that the reader gets lost in the minutia (at least this reader did). 

The last few sections of the book detail contemporary issues in Africa in the areas that were explored in the 1800s.  Jeal discusses the consequences and repercussions of opening up the Nile River basin to traders, missionaries and European colonies.  The effects are still with us, as arbitrary borders do not necessarily coincide with the geographical borders of kingdoms and cultural groups that existed before they were colonized.  Uganda and Sudan have become independent nations, but have dealt with civil war, genocide and the continued exploitation of resources.  This section of the book was really interesting, but seemed a bit disjointed and tacked onto the book as an afterthought. 

 I really enjoyed parts of the book, but felt that other sections got bogged down with too much detail.  It didn’t help that the narrator spoke in a monotone, and was not engaging.  Despite being a topic that was really interesting, I had to slog through this one and considered quitting.  I was glad I was finished, but I felt that the excessive detail prevented me from learning more.

2 stars.