Review 454: Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners

Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I thought this would be a holiday related book, but it wasn't really. Instead we have a young lesbian couple about to have their first child. The mother, Violet, of the pregnant woman, Cersie, is a control freak. Cersie and Barb delay telling Violet of the pregnancy in order to not overshadow the retirement party for her father. So during a speech Violet hears of the baby and outright faints. In fainting she crashes and into things and ends up with a serious concussion.

Being a control freak and now having neurological issues is the set up for this book, which tries to be so humorous.  I think it was outrageous at times, but I hardly laughed. 

The only Christmas related thing was, well the main event the book started with was just before the holidays. And there is a Christmas letter that Violet writes every year which is peppered throughout the book to show history of their family.  

The book was okay, maybe some people would enjoy the humor more than I did. Perhaps this type of humor works better on screen, I don't know. I found it meh.

Review 453: Open Throat

Open Throat by Henry Hoke
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


This is a short book, I read it easily in one day. It takes the point of view of a mountain lion, who does understand English. He learns the words from hikers and a group of homeless people he lives with. The mountain lion lives in the wilderness area near the Hollywood sign, although he used to live in a different area.

Getting water and food to eat is a struggle. Humans have become interesting to him since he is so hungry, but it didn’t use to be that way.

An interesting take on the modern problems of the city (such as housing costs) and climate change.

I listened to the audiobook, which was well done by the narrator.

Review 452: The Christmas Hirelings

The Christmas Hirelings by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Short Christmas related read.

A novella for the holidays. This is a classic, published originally in 1894 taking place in England. Sir John Penlyon decides that this Christmas some children should be around his lonely huge manor house. So a friend brings three children that were hired to have Christmas for a fortnight on the estate. 

Sir John Penlyon had casted his only daughter out to never accept her as his daughter and definitely not give her any money. She had the audacity to elope and marry beneath her station, which her father would not forgive. Thus, this many years later he is an old man missing children at Christmas.

His friend then brings three children in for the holiday. The youngest which was nicknamed Poppet is so smart and advanced for her young years of four and Sir John and her grow very close in no time. All the children enjoy their time, and gifts at the estate. They go out one day a few days after Christmas to enjoy and play in the snow. The next day Poppet had developed a cold. It gets worse, then even worse, to where they must call in the mother. Of course, the mother is the daughter that was cast out.  At this point Poppet was starting to recover, with her mother there, so Sir John leaves for London for a while. He still does not want to see his daughter, and realized by this point who the children were.

Review 451: Storm

Storm by George R. Stewart
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars


This is a unique novel, in that it follows a storm over the course of twelve days, from it’s birth to death. The storm is a main character – Maria (pronounced like Ma-RYE-a). This is an old book, written in the late 1930s, published in 1941 and it feels old.

Instead of one main character, we see glimpses of various lives and how they deal with the storm.
We see men at their jobs – from road crews, telephone men, airplane dispatchers, to the weather forecasting bureau. The make sure the infrastructure continues to run smoothly, despite the effects of the storm. We start with the weather bureau, the Junior Meteorologist, with his new scientific methods such as using a slide rule. There is the Load Dispatcher who maintains the electric power and water, keeping track of the rising level of water making sure the dams don't overflow.

Many of the men aren’t named, just called by their titles, such as the Chief Service Office who directs the planes, The General Manager overlooking the rail lines. Everyone’s job is very important to keep people out of danger.

We get glimpses of something that happens with the effects later on, such as an owl that accidentally is electrocuted. Later the weakened wire breaks, the linemen are called out to go fix it, with the details provided.

Certainly these jobs are still being done today, but in different ways. Probably with less people with more monitoring done remotely. They had people out there visibly checking the rail lines, the roadways, the waterways, and today I expect there are cameras or other sensing equipment.

Somewhat interesting book even though it was old, and lots of details on meteorological storms and how they could behave. Every storm is unique.

Previously Read George R. Stewart books:

• Earth Abides
• (5 stars) October.2017

 

Review 450: Ripe

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This book takes place in 2020, the early months of the year, with Cassie as our main character. She’s a year in after college graduation working with a tech start-up company. She had to move to San Francisco and found a friend by their mutual dislike of the city.

Cassie’s job and bosses have unreasonable expectations, not only long hours but taking workshops and working on special (illegal) projects on the weekends. As we get close to the pandemic starting the company states they do not believe in working from home.

Then there’s this black hole that follows Cassie since she was little. It’s obviously depression and anxiety, which grows or diminishes according to situations.

We see her interact with friends she doesn't particularly like, a boyfriend who already has a girlfriend, and parents who tell her she can never come back home. No wonder she is depressed. It's not a joyful read, but there is humor, dark satirical humor.