Emma

 

The Colonial Dames are featuring a book by Jane Austen for their September book club.  I had found myself not listening to fiction on audible since the trip to the Galapagos for two reasons:  my life was crazy busy and I had started a book about a murder mystery on the Galapagos that I had liked but wasn't calling to me.  So I decided to read Emma instead.  And pleasant surprise!  It is free at audible. 

The following showed up in my inbox on the same day that I made this decision.  And somehow I decided to go ahead and add all of the information to my blog ahead of actually starting the book. 

We know SO much about Lizzie Bennet, Emma Woodhouse and Fanny Price —and comparatively little about the creator of those heroines, the great Jane Austen. A soon-to-be-auctioned letter from Austen to her sister Cassandra reveals a bit more about the enigmatic and beloved author — her grief after losing her father, gossip about neighbors and how she reacted to the sudden decline in her family’s social status.

When Austen died at 41, Cassandra burned hundreds of the letters her sister sent her. That’s a tough break for Austen scholars, but it also suggests that Cassandra was protecting her sister’s privacy in death. It’s no wonder Austen’s novels feature fierce sisterly love.

Chesapeake

 oh, my gosh....one of those nights when I chose exactly the right book.....

I was a bit tired of the kinds of books that I had been reading.....I wanted a book that was not hard....not too much thinking but still giving me real understanding of a time and a place......I don't know how I was lucky enough to find exactly what my brain needed right now.  I can not say enough good things about what I have read so far.  It starts with Indians before the white man comes to the Chesapeake.....oh, my....the book is worth the price of reading if that is all you read.  This man had an incredible imagination.

I have read about Rosalind who was not pretty which influenced her life....married to a man who had inherited the Steed plantation but was not up to snuff when it came to running the plantation but was lucky to have married a woman who was "up to snuff"....

But now I have read up to the Revolution....and these pages that I have listened to have such an insight into those men who had always been loyal to Great Britain ....traded with the companies ....without any thought of doing anything different became unloyal because of in the example in the book the man who represented the church was TERRIBLE!  He was taking people's land when they couldn't come up with the tithe in tobacco.   He was taking men who were Catholic or Quaker into the court room. And the court room scene he describes has three men being tried for not paying their tithes to the terrible man who represents the church of England....he has taken them into court.  The Steed man is a Catholic and objects to supporting another church.  The second man is a Paxmore and he is a quaker and objects to supporting another church.  The third man is from the swamps....a descendant of the man who was deported many years ago from England instead of having been executed....the surname is  Turlock....the family has lived in the swamp ever since.  And he has no tobacco with which to pay his tithe.  The year was just before the Revolutionary War....and it is easy to read the unhappiness with which the rector is causing in his parish.  He stands for the establishment, but he fills it as a person for whom no one respects nor likes...this was probably happening all over the colonies?  As Steed and Paxmore walk away talking they agree the time has come to build a Schooner....that schooners will be need in the years to come if war is inevitable....neither of these men would want war....but they know the man from the swamps and others like him will indeed want war.

This information is found on my audible book at 31 h 36 min left

Up until this time, they have been building or owning sailing ships for their trade with Great Britain as show below.  Now they will need schooners as shown above for the war with Great Britain.

It has been the pirates who have sailed in the smaller schooners because they are faster and can go places a large ship is unable to go.  The men make the decision that this smaller boat is the kind of ship they are going to need in the upcoming days.

History of the Schooner

With striking similarities to many 17th-century Dutch ship designs, origins of the schooner are believed to be around New England during the early colonial period of the United States. Built for speed and efficiency in coastal sailing, the design of the schooner then led to the development of the famous Clipper ship design. With its origins in the Chesapeake Bay, the Clipper ship design grew in popularity as the descendant of the schooner. 

Schooners and Pirates 

Throughout its early history, the schooner was even known to be the preferred vessel of pirates! Because of their speed and efficiency, schooners were recognized as pirate ships sailing around the Caribbean, often holding more than 60 men at a time. In true pirate ship fashion, many schooners also contained nearly ten guns, with swivel guns included as well.

As Steed starts home after agreeing on the sloop, he is thinking large thoughts about society.  When he thinks large thoughts he thinks in France as he was educated in France....and his thoughts go to Montesquieu....he spent a summer on Montesquieu...and before I go farther I had to google the philosopher....and here is what I read:

What were three of Montesquieu's ideas?

He believed that the administrative powers were divided into the executive, the judicial and the legislative. His writings detailed that the three powers should at once be separate from one another and dependent upon one another. In that way, Montesquieu believed, no power should become stronger than another.

When I got to the part about the slave trade I almost could not pick the book back up.  But I did and the interactions between the blacks and the whites became an important part of later parts of the book.  Honestly, Michener captured many of the issues that our country faced during the 20th century and continues to face.  This was a great read and I look forward to reading more of James Micheners books in the coming years.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

 I had mixed feelings about this book.  Totally implausible plot.....and an end that had too many syrupy lines.  But I still finished the book and looked forward to turning it on at the end of the day.  There were enough good parts and peeking into the life of someone in a nursing home to keep me entertained.  I listened to this fiction on audible as usual.

Monogamy

Graham and Annie have been married for nearly thirty years. Their seemingly effortless devotion has long been the envy of their circle of friends and acquaintances. By all appearances, they are a golden couple.

Graham is a bookseller, a big, gregarious man with large appetites—curious, eager to please, a lover of life, and the convivial host of frequent, lively parties at his and Annie’s comfortable house in Cambridge. Annie, more reserved and introspective, is a photographer. She is about to have her first gallery show after a six-year lull and is worried that the best years of her career may be behind her. They have two adult children; Lucas, Graham’s son with his first wife, Frieda, works in New York. Annie and Graham’s daughter, Sarah, lives in San Francisco. Though Frieda is an integral part of this far-flung, loving family, Annie feels confident in the knowledge that she is Graham’s last and greatest love.

When Graham suddenly dies—this man whose enormous presence has seemed to dominate their lives together—Annie is lost. What is the point of going on, she wonders, without him?

Then, while she is still mourning Graham intensely, she discovers a ruinous secret, one that will spiral her into darkness and force her to question whether she ever truly knew the man who loved her.

I have just started the book and so far I like it a lot.  

Finished the book last night and I won't yell and scream about it.  But it was a good steady read and easy to put down and pick up.  Not sure above is a perfect description, but it is good enough that I will not take time to say more....except that absolutely this book was NOT about monogamy.  However, I did like the characters and the way they were so entertwined because of Graham.

 

Familia

 This seemed to be an easier read for December.....I will start it tonight.  Here is the synopsis:

What if your most basic beliefs about your life were suddenly revealed to be a lie? In this compelling, emotional novel, two young women are brought together by a genealogy test and a haunting question that shakes their understanding of what family is and who they truly are …

As the fact checker for a popular magazine, Gabby DiMarco believes in absolute, verifiable Truths—until they throw the facts of her own life into question. The genealogy test she took as research for an article has yielded a baffling result: Gabby has a sister—one who’s been desperately trying to find her. Except, as Gabby’s beloved parents would confirm if they were still alive, that’s impossible.

Isabella Ruiz can still picture the face of her baby sister, who disappeared from the streets of San Juan twenty-five years ago. Isabella, an artist, has fought hard for the stable home and loving marriage she has today—yet the longing to find Marianna has never left. At last, she’s found a match, and Gabby has agreed to come to Puerto Rico.

But Gabby, as defensive and cautious as Isabella is impulsive, offers no happy reunion. She insists there’s been a mistake. And Isabella realizes that even if this woman is her sister, she may not want to be.

With nothing—or perhaps so much—in common, Gabby and Isabella set out to find the truth, though it means risking everything they’ve known for an uncertain future—and a past that harbors yet more surprises …

“Familia has it all: An old crime, unsuspecting victims, a genetic mystery that will explode a family. By page 30, I would have walked on coals to finish reading this story.”—

Devil Water

 I started this book and I do like it ....but I think I might choose something else for the month of December.  Here is the synopsis:  

This fiercely beautiful novel tells the true story of Charles Radcliff, a Catholic nobleman who joined the short-lived Jacobite rebellion of 1715, and of his daughter, Jenny, by a secret marriage. Set in the wilds of Northumbria, teeming London, and colonial Virginia—where Jenny eventually settled on the estate of the famous William Byrd of Westover—Jenny’s story reveals one young woman’s loyalty, passion, and courage as she struggles between living in the Old World and the New. This vividly powerful novel, like its predecessor The Winthrop Woman, combines thoroughly documented history with superb storytelling.

So I really do have interest in following the story.  I am going to put it away until after the holidays.

Daisy Jones and the Six

 At one point I wondered what I was doing reading this crazy book and almost quit reading...Who recommended it to me?  But when I finished listening last night I was happy that I had read it.  That was my era.  I liked how the author told the story in the voices of the band.  It is fiction.  But I wished to have listened to their music.

One of the reviews captures my feeling:

• In Daisy Jones & The Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid imagines an oral history of the band’s rise and fall. It’s fictional—though Reid was inspired by Fleetwood Mac and others—but the band and the era are so fully realized you’ll think you’re reading a true story.

  REAL SIMPLE