#7 - The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass

#7
Title:  The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
Author:  Frederick Douglass
Read by:  Richard Allen
Published originally:  1881
CDs/Hours:  17/21.5
Dates:  1/27/16 – 2/23/16
Rating:  B
Genre:  Autobiography

“In Talbott County eastern shore state of Maryland, near Easton the county town, there is a small district of country, thinly populated and remarkable for nothing that I know of more than for the worn out sandy, desert-like appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation of its farms and fences, the indigent and spiritless characters of its inhabitants and the prevalence of ague and fever. “  Thus begins Douglass tale of growing up slave, then free man, then orator and defender of human rights.

This is Douglass’s third autobiography.  In it he goes into greater detail about his life as a slave, his escape to freedom.  I found this an engrossing narrative as Douglass recounts his early years of abuse, his involvement in abolitionist campaigns and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves.  He also discloses his life during and after the Civil War, including his encounters with American presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield.   

#6 - The Castlemaine Murders - Kerry Greenwood

Title:  The Castlemaine Murders
Author:  Kerry Greenwood
Read by:  Stephanie Daniel
Published:  2003
Listened to:  7 CDs/8.25 hours
Dates:  1/28/16 - 2/13/16
Rating:  B
Genre:  Mystery

DD gave this to me from the library (we use the same library system) and she likes the historical stories.  Phryne Fisher is also a PBS series which I haven't really gotten into nor DD for that matter.  Yet Phryne is a flapper and cute as the bee's knees so it's fun seeing her in my imagination as I listened to a tale from the 1920s that solves a mystery that occurred in the 1850s.  Did I say the tale takes place in Melbourne, Australia?  It's a place that DD and I have both visited many years ago.

As the story goes, Phryne and her sister Beth and her faithful maid, Dot, take a trip to an amusement park with Ruth and Jane, Phyrne's two young lady daughters.  In the dusty dark Ghost Train, a mummified bullet--studded corpse falls to the ground in front of them.  Digging to the bottom of this long-standing mystery takes her to the country town of Castlemaine where it soon becomes apparent that some person is trying to muzzle her investigations.  Meanwhile, Phryne's lover Lin Chung has his own mystery to solve.

It took me longer than usual to finish because I kept falling asleep.  The two intertwining stories -- one from the present and one from the past -- also keep me on my toes, not always conducive to sleeping! Another interesting fact is that Castlemaine is an actual town in the state of Victoria and the site of a gold rush during the time of the earlier mystery.  Enjoy!

#5 - Francisco Goya - Ann Waldron

Title:  Francisco Goya
Author:  Ann Waldron
Genre:  Non-fiction 760.92
Rating:  B
Date Published:  1992
Dates Read:  1/23/16 - 1/26/16
Pages:  92

Starving artists tends to describe painters of the era in which Goya was born, 1746, and this was true as this painter began his career as a young man.  A forerunner of the impressionist movement, Goya worked hard, under the tutelage of some other more well-known artists until he gained enough notoriety to become recognized by royalty.  Then his career really took off.  His passion was for the underdog, the horrors of wars that raged between his native Spain and France, the common folk as well as portraits of the royals.  His early works included pantomime and as he matured and produced more and more paintings, his values changed along with his abilities until he gained a scholarship to work for the king.  Some of his work really showed those things that raged in his mind.  This was probably true due to the loss of his wife and his general debilitating health.

#4 - In the Midst of Life - Jennifer Worth

Title:  In the Midst of Life
Author:  Jennifer Worth
Genre:  Non-Fiction - Memoir
Rating:  B
Published:  2010
Dates Read:  12/22/15 - 1/23/16
Pages:  420

Jennifer Worth's real life stories about midwifery and nursing in England inspired the Public Television series, Call the Mid-Wife.   In her latest book, about end-of-life illnesses and decisions regarding dying, Worth gives us a first hand account of nursing people with cancer, dementia, and other terminal diseases.  With grace and straight-forwardness she relates the hardships patients and their families endure when faced with decisions regarding how to deal with these hard issues.  While doctors deal with diagnoses and prescribing medicines, it falls upon the nurse to counsel the dying patient and their family.  Sometimes palliative (ease without curing) care is an option that keeps the patient comfortable and gives the family a sense of peace.  Other times, as Worth describes, people will go to countries where they can end their own lives.

Worth recalls people like her grandfather who died before modern medicine and how families drew around and allowed dying to happen naturally without heroic measures to save their lives.  Modern medicine has progressed to where things like CPR have successfully brought people back to life in cases of near drownings, electrocution and the like.  For this we are thankful.

This comprehensive book is a must for the nursing student or lay person who want to understand options about end-of-life decisions.

Footnote:  While Worth's information about end-of-life directives and resource material is geared for the United Kingdom, similar information may also be available in the United States.

#3 - The Interruption of Everything - Terry McMillan

Title:  The Interruption of Everything
Author:  Terry McMillan
Read by:  Desiree Taylor
Genre:  Fiction
Rating:  B
Published:  2005
Dates Listened to: 1/4/16 - 1/22/16
CDs/Hours:  10/11:49

As the book opens we find Marilyn in a bathroom stall at work contemplating her current life.  Before the book is over with if you're like me you'll see yourself in many of her 44 year old situations -- a husband who is having a mid-life crisis; her mother whose memory is failing; her younger sister who spends more time finding her next fix than with her two four and seven year old children; her live-in mother-in-law who has a boyfriend and may be moving out.  Like many of us, Marilyn has put her life on hold as she helped raise the kids and now as an empty-nester, sees so many possibilities that she'd like to pursue -- a masters degree in design, a body that needs to shape up and just generally wanting to feel better about herself.  She's such a positive, motivated and strong person in how she handles each complication in her life that you'll be rooting for her as you learn how she deals with The Interruption of Everything.

#2 - At the Mountains of Madness - H. P. Lovecraft

Title:  At the Mountains of Madness
Author:  H. P. Lovecraft
Read by:  William Roberts
Genre:  Science Fiction
Rating:  B
Published:  1936
Dates Listened to:  1/10/16 - 1/21/16
CDs/Hours:  4/5

This is a book recommended by Jeopardy winner, Tom Nissley, who wrote A Reader's Book of Days.  In his book Nissley suggests a few books for each month of the year and provides a brief summary.  "As the southern summer opens up the South Pole for exploration, a scientific expedition led by professors Dyer and Lake discovers behind a range of unknown Antarctic mountains a vast, dead, and ancient city, one of the most evil and benighted of Lovecraft's inhuman horrors." 

The story is spooky and not for everyone.  It's told from a first person point of view and is strictly narrative.  I hung onto all the nefarious words Lovecraft used to describe the mountains, the city, the inhuman encounters.  So if you want your spine to tingle and your toes to curl, enjoy!

#1 - The Dressmaker - Kate Alcott

#1          

Title: The Dressmaker

Author:   Kate Alcott
Read by:  Susan Duerden

Genre:  Fiction

Rating:  B

Published:  2012 

Dates:  12/31/15 – 1/10/16

Cds/Hrs:  9/11

Kate Alcott – my new most favorite author – has done it again.  This time it is April, 1912 and Titanic is leaving Cherbourg, France, one of the first stops on her maiden voyage.  Tess, an aspiring seamstress, can’t believe her luck when famous designer Lady Duff Gordon hires her.  On board, Tess proves herself as a competent seamstress and rubs shoulders with the rich and famous.  Her bed is in steerage yet her time is spent on the upper decks answering the beck and call of Lady Duff Gordon, as her personal maid. 

On the fourth night of the voyage, disaster strikes in the form of an iceberg and Titanic sinks.  Tess is one of the last to escape into a fully loaded lifeboat.  Many others including Cosmo and Lucille Duff Gordon also survive yet at the alleged expense of people in the water clambering to get aboard their less than full lifeboat.

Once the survivors are picked up by Carpathia and arrive at New York, an immediate investigation is started.  Not only are the circumstances surrounding the lack of lifeboats, dangerously high speed of the vessel through the ice-floes questioned but also the business of not picking up victims stranded in the frigid waters of the North Sea.

Not only do we get the full flavor of what it’s like to be aboard the unsinkable ship we also view the court room scenes where the proceedings reveal the truth of what really happened that night.

I have a vested interest in this event since my mother’s ship, the Saturnia, was also on the sea at the same time as Titanic.  She and her three older sisters were bound for St. John, New Brunswick, Canada to meet their father in Vancouver, British Columbia.  In my research of this event I have read Canadian newspaper clippings from that tragic day, April 15, 2015, in support of what was being reported.  I treasure the research done on various aspects of this tragedy.   And Alcott’s book is among those treasures.