Review 398: Without Children

Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother by Peggy O'Donnell Heffington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a close and deep look at why some women have not borne children through history. The book doesn’t cover the entire world, it is focused on the United States, although occasionally other areas are mentioned.

Coverage includes ways that women have prevented having children, such as contraceptives and abortion. Here the history is as up to date as possible, with the ever-changing landscape. As the author states, getting rid of a pregnancy began around the time of children being born, it is nothing new. The legality of it being merely religion and politics.

While there tends to be a stronger lean on why not to have children, there is coverage on women who want to conceive but cannot. And how through the years this has changed in providing more options available to women.

There are a few short biographies of women who have championed not having children, which has always been a bit shocking.

This isn’t the type of book one would read if trying to decide if they should or not have children, unless history helps. This is a book about what has happened in the past and covers the many reasons women are childfree.

Thanks to Basic Books/Seal Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to the audiobook version of the book and the narration was well done.

Thoughts before reading:

There are many reasons why I did not have children, and sometimes have been felt to believe that I am less than because of that. With the world just surpassing another billion mark, the option to not have kids should be seen as a valid and embraced decision.

I'm looking forward to what this book holds forth.

Review 397: A Fugitive in Walden Woods

A Fugitive in Walden Woods by Norman Lock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This short novel is a sort of biography of Henry David Thoreau. Yet it’s told through the lens of a fictional runaway slave, the fugitive, Samuel Long. To escape he had to chop off his hand from his manacles, then made his way north settling in Concord for the duration of the book. Ralph Waldo Emerson gave Samuel a shack on his property to live in, and pays him to look after Thoreau and do odds and ends type jobs.

Weaved in this story are the philosophies and thoughts of the many transcendentalists and writers that were around Concord. We also get Samuel’s story as he relates it to William Lloyd Garrison for his newspaper The Liberator.

There is a lot of fact and history within these pages, but undoubtedly a lot of fiction as well. There isn’t really a plot, or anything moving the story forward except for time and events that follow one after another.

I enjoyed the book, as I did with the other two books of Lock’s American novels series I’ve read.

Review 396: Wild Life

Wild Life by Molly Gloss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Set in the first decade of the 1900s in the rural Pacific Northwest where the primary jobs of men were logging and fishing. Charlotte Bridger Drummond (C.B.D.) is the main character, trying to manage 5 boys and no husband, he either ran off or is dead. Charlotte has the help of Melba to keep the house and manage the children while C.B.D. writes. Her stories and novels bring in income to keep the household going, and presumably Charlotte’s sanity.

The book format is in the way of a diary, although not entirely chronological. Inserted are pieces of stories from C.B.D., snippets of poems or other quotes and the occasional newspaper clipping. These extra bits relate to the journal entry, with the result of it all not being too disruptive. I liked this unusual form for the novel, it provided a closer feel for our heroine that is quite a sharp character. For she does what she wants despite that women don’t or shouldn’t and is a devoted advocate for women being able to do anything a man might.

The action begins when Melba’s granddaughter goes missing in the deep woods, when the father takes the little Harriett with him to the logging camp where he works. Of course, this was a bad decision as logging camps are notoriously dangerous.

Charlotte cannot just stand by and wait for news, as she doesn’t think men will tell the women who wait the truth and full details of what has happened. Rumors are flying around with most saying Harriett was taken by a large hairy beast, what we call bigfoot, or sasquatch, among other names.

I didn’t like this book very much through much of it, Charlotte is a hard person and unlikeable. But it was also the style of writing, although I did like the format. But somewhere near the latter part of the book it changed, and my thoughts softened for the book.

It’s an embarrassment to admit this was given to me over twenty years ago and I finally just now read it. Also, the is the second book I recently read in which this is the case. (Let’s not mention the other gifted books I have lying around unread.) Hard to say how I would have approached this book back when I got it, but happy that I can finally say that yes, I have read it.

Review 395: The Trackers

The Trackers by Charles Frazier
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

The novel had a slow build up to any action and plot. Like other novels by Frazier, the detail here is particular and enhances the story.

Set in the depression of the 1930s, Valentine, or Val has he liked to be called, arrives at the small town of Dawes, Wyoming, a rural town in the West. Working for the Conservation Corps, he’s hired to paint a mural in the post office. The instructions say to portray hope. Val has free room and board with a local rich rancher and his wife, Long and Eve.

Things are going well, until Eve leaves with a Renoir painting of Long’s and the husband suspects she’s left to see her previous husband, whom Eve says is dead. Long has political ambitions and hopes her previous marriage won’t pose any problems, like her being a bigamist. Long pays Val handsomely to cross the country playing detective.

This wasn’t the best book by Frazier, nor the worst either. There were some meditative moments within the book, however I was hoping for a bit more on art and painting, since that is at the center. Overall, I did enjoy reading this.

Thanks to Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

However, I listened to the audiobook version of this book, which was well done.

Review 394: French Dirt

French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France by Richard Goodman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My second 24-hour read in a row, and I enjoyed this one a bit more, a narrative non-fiction book.

An American, the author, and his Dutch girlfriend live in a stone house in a very small village in the south of France for one year. By the time spring arrives he decides to have a garden, despite never growing plants before.

The descriptions of the village, the people and what the author does is fairly straight-forward. This was an okay book, but nothing that stood out as spectacular.

Sounds like a great dream to live for a year in another country as they did. Goodman even admits at times it did feel like a dream, and he does acknowledge this was a privilege. We don't see anything of the author's life before or after that year, and while it does focus on the garden, the people of the village seem to be the main topic.

A gift that I should have read a long time ago. 

Review 393: Hag

Hag by Kathleen Kaufman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book quickly, within 24 hours, although at first I was certain I would not finish, I don't read these types of books. It is somewhat mythological, folklore, with some magic thrown in.

It is a tale of the matriarchal line of women who descended from the Hag (called Cailleach), an ancient witch that lives for seemingly eternity. Living in a rocky cave high on the cliffs that overlook the sea in the Scottish Lowlands. The blood through the daughters gives them powers such as, to call the sea or wind, to see the path of the future. The Hag feels the powers of her daughters, and her many-great-grand-daughters, with inked on their wrist the lines of Ingwaz.

The women are often accused of being witches. Through the years the women are sometimes treated poorly by the villagers living near Glasgow.

We follow Alice Grace Kyles, snippets throughout her life. Even at six she sees her future husband and child. But her small family moves to Colorado Springs, away from the boy.

The book has these two storylines being told, one in italics, the other in modern time. There is a family tree at the back of the book, which helped during the reading. Glad I found that early on, maybe it should have been in the front section.

I found it odd, yet compelling. Good writing.

Review 392: Jamie MacGillivray

Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade's Journey by John Sayles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Begins with the Battle in Culloden and ends with the war between France and England in the New World (later called the French Indian War), with so much in-between.

We follow Jamie MacGillivray of Dunmaglas, and Jenny Ferguson of a crofter's home, just a young woman falsely accused of participating in the Jacobite uprising. Jamie, however, isn't quite so innocent but didn't participate in the battle (arriving late), although his older brother led a charge. The two meet just briefly, Jamie giving Jenny his mother's ring thinking he won't survive, but maybe she could use it when in need at some time.

They both get captured and sent to London prison for hanging, then somehow getting a reprieve on a slave ship to the new world. "Serve 7 years and you'll be free, but go back to England and you'll be hanged." Jenny is also sent on a slave ship, but hers end up liberated by a French privateer vessel and becomes a refugee, a free woman in Martinique. Although free she doesn't know anyone, the language nor has any money. Jenny must work, and is given to a French commander, who oversees the cannons on the island.

This is just barely the beginning. It is a long tale, but I don't think anything could have been cut out. It is well done, although I had somewhat of a trial with the Scottish accents printed on the page. After a while, I got used to it and the reading became easier. We also have a lot of untranslated French. My college French days came in handy, but occasionally had to use a translator to ensure I was getting everything being said.

I really enjoyed the way the ending brought around full-circle to what started in Scotland.



Many thanks to Melville House for sending me an advance review copy.

Review 391: This Bird Has Flown

This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars



This looked like a fun book, I guess it was but it confirmed that this genre is not for me. I was attracted to the book as the author is from the band The Bangles and is about music.

The relationship angst is the part that I don't particularly enjoy in books. This follows the standard pattern. What I did like were the music interludes between chapters and the literary references!

There are some well written sentences, but for me the plot is just not my cup of tea. I'm sure people who enjoy this genre will enjoy this book more than myself.

The audiobook is the way to listen, dual narrators with Hoffs being the main character and all the other voices by a professional narrator. Plus all those musical snippets to begin each chapter. Now that part was fun!


Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Unfortunately, the audiobook was better.

Review 390: Her Lost Words

Her Lost Words: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley by Stephanie Marie Thornton
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

This was a fantastic historical fiction book detailing the lives of two extraordinary women, a mother and daughter both named Mary: Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Godwin Shelley.

The book is told in dual narratives, we see how much their two lives were paralleled. Unfortunately, Wollstonecraft died shortly after giving birth to her daughter, so the younger Mary never knew her mother other than her writings and what very litter her father told her.

Both were accomplished writers at a very young age, and during a time when women were not known to do anything other than marry, have kids and keep house. It was shocking for a woman to have serious thoughts and opinions as it may “overtax their limited brains”.

The book follows the relationships and struggles to live as independent women, while also loving the men in their lives. They both lived scandalous lives as one did not have a child out of wedlock. Yes, times have changed!

These two did much to help change the view that women were capable of much more than previously accounted for.

The author did an excellent job in this biographical fictional novel, and the author’s note where she details what was changed or modified is not to be missed.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

However, I listened to an audiobook copy, thanks to Penguin Random House for an advanced access to the audiobook. With two narrators, one for each Mary, was very well done and a great way to read this book.