Book Review: A Perfect Book For Those Chilly Nights Ahead

It's hard to believe it's December already.  I think the extended fall lulled me into a feeling that it would last forever.  But, of course, it didn't, and a cold spell right before Thanksgiving ended all the garden work for the year.  Now it's on to the busy season--decorating, gift-shopping, and all the other activities that make the holidays an enjoyable, but hectic season.  Today is also the last meeting of the year of the Book Review Club, and I wanted to participate this month with a book I really, really enjoyed and think you will, too.  Because it's a busy time, I'll keep this review short.

Detective Constable Sadie Sparrow is on a forced holiday after some trouble handling a case of an abandoned child on her job at the Met.  Retreating to her grandfather's home in Cornwall, she can't let go of the case and continues to mull over what she might have missed.  One day, while on a run, she discovers an abandoned estate.  Sadie is intrigued by the beautiful but overgrown grounds of Loeanneth and becomes even more so when she discovers the reason it was abandoned.  Seventy years earlier, the young son of the Edevanes, the homeowners, disappeared without a clue.  Sadie is drawn to the story and begins investigating, hoping to find the answer to the cold case and provide closure to the remaining family members as well as restore her own self-confidence as an investigator.

Back in London, A.C. Edevane is at work on her latest mystery novel.  At 86, A.C., or Alice as she is known to family and friends, has had a successful career as a novelist and has a reputation for being independent and self-assured.  But she harbors a guilty secret, one that has bothered her for seventy years.

The first snow hit our area on Saturday, November 21.

 Like Morton's other novels, The Lake House jumps back and forth between the present and an earlier time period--in this case, the 1930's--when a young romantic Alice spends her days writing stories and secretly following a young gardener on whom she has a crush.  Loeanneth is an idyllic setting filled with the sights and sounds of a happy family, including the nature-loving father Alice adores, until the happiness is shattered by the loss of her baby brother.  In the present-day setting, Sadie and Alice's paths inevitably cross as Sadie digs deeper into the mystery.

Tiny crabapples make for a study in red and white.

The book jacket describes The Lake House as "multi-layered," and I can think of no better adjective to describe it.  Every character, it seems, has his or her own secret, including Sadie the detective.  Little by little, the secrets are revealed, but it isn't until the very end that all of them come together to provide a very satisfying conclusion.  While the reader begins to suspect what happened to the missing Edevane brother before that time, the whole mystery isn't resolved until the last few pages, including a surprising twist that I wasn't expecting.

Hydrangeas and coneflowers always look so much better with a dollop of snow.

Big thick flakes fell for a few hours, spotting the camera lens.

This is the fourth novel by Kate Morton that I've read, and I've never been disappointed--in fact, this one might be my new favorite.  After reading several crime/detective/spy novels before this, it was nice to read a good mystery without violence or evil villains, but with characters who believe in love, loyalty, and personal sacrifice.

The snow was gone in a few days, but it was magical while it lasted.

If you have a friend who enjoys mysteries, The Lake House would make an ideal Christmas gift.  Better yet, buy or check out a copy for yourself for those long winter nights ahead--you won't be disappointed!

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@Barrie Summy

As with all the books I review here, I received no compensation of any kind for writing this review and usually review only books I enjoy. I was lucky enough to be the first on the waiting list for The Lake House when a new copy arrived at my local library.

Book Review Club: Go Set A Watchman

Anyone who is a fan of To Kill A Mockingbird has by now either read Go Set a Watchman or, after reading reviews of it, has refused to read it.  The early draft of Harper Lee’s classic was supposedly discovered a year ago and has generated all kinds of publicity and hundreds of reviews, mostly negative. In spite of the fact that more has been written about this book than it probably deserves, I can’t help myself—I just have to add my own two cents’ worth.

GSAW is set twenty years after Mockingbird, as an adult Scout, now known as Jean Louise, returns to her hometown of Maycomb, Alabama.  Maycomb will always be home to Jean Louise, and she is drawn to it despite the fact that she still doesn’t quite fit in.  She meets her old friend, Henry Clinton, who finally confesses his love for her and asks her to marry him.  While Jean Louise considers his proposal, she discovers a shocking revelation about her father Atticus, one that forces her to decide whether she wants to ever live in Maycomb again, but more importantly, whether she can be a part of her own family again.

That shocking revelation, as most readers already know, is that Atticus apparently supports the traditional views of segregation prevalent throughout the South in the 1950’s.  The landmark Supreme Court ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education worried those entrenched in the old belief in separate but equal, and groups were organized to mount a resistance to this ruling.  Maycomb was no exception, and to the horror of Jean Louise, Atticus is a member of that group.

Atticus Finch a racist?? Tell me it isn’t so!  The noble man whose integrity shines through To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most beloved heroes in literary fiction, and Gregory Peck’s portrayal of him in the 1962 award-winning film cemented that opinion.  To find out that Watchman shatters that image is one of the main reasons many readers have opted not to read the new book.

'Vanilla Strawberry' Hydrangeas putting out a few new blooms, but most have faded as the season winds down.

I knew as I began reading the book what I was getting into.  Still, as I finished the novel, I felt as if I needed to erase everything I had just read and remember only the Atticus Finch I have known and loved for years.  The theme of discovering your childhood heroes are humans after all could have worked—but with a completely new set of characters.

Hummingbirds are fueling up for their long journey south very soon.

Aside from this major problem, there are other flaws in the book as well.  When Jean Louise confronts her father, he tries to explain his stance, but the conversations between them are so rambling that they don’t resolve anything.  It is as if Harper Lee was trying to come to terms with her own feelings about her father (if it was indeed autobiographical) and simply couldn’t.  Her decision about her father at the end is unsatisfying and unbelievable.  Uncle Jack’s attempts to explain Atticus's position are also rambling.  A lovable character in Mockingbird, Uncle Jack comes across as eccentric, if not downright crazy, in Watchman.  Speaking of characters, the other beloved characters in Mockingbird—Dill, Jem, and Boo Radley (oh, how I missed him!)—don’t even appear in the new novel.  Calpurnia does appear, but her transformation in Watchman is as disturbing as Atticus’s.  Only Aunt Alexandra, of all people, remains somewhat the same character.

The bees are still busy gathering pollen.

So why did I read this book, knowing full well I was going to be disappointed?  Purely out of curiosity--I wanted to see where Lee began her story and how it evolved into my favorite book of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird.  There are parts worth reading--all of them flashbacks as Jean Louise remembers some of the exploits of her youth.  These humorous anecdotes are different from the ones in Mockingbird, but remind the reader of some of those touches of humor, like the scenes when Jem and Scout try to draw out Boo Radley.  But their placement in the book often distracts from the main story.

What Go Set a Watchman really needed was a good editor--oh wait, Lee already had a good editor, and the result was To Kill a Mockingbird!

Enjoying the visiting Monarchs as they begin their fall migration.

There are those who have refused to read Watchman out of principle, thinking that the publishers were motivated by greed.  If so, I am sorry I purchased my own hardback copy.  On the other hand, it is possible that the publicist/agent felt the world deserved to see how Lee's famous story began. Whatever the motivation, I seriously doubt that Harper Lee willingly granted permission to have this very rough rough draft published.

Harper Lee once told a close friend why she never wrote another book after Mockingbird: "I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it again."  It's too bad her publishers didn't respect those wishes.


(Photos are random photos of my late summer garden and have nothing whatsoever to do with this book.  Perhaps I could have tied them in with Miss Maudie and her garden, but alas, Miss Maudie isn't in Watchman either.)

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@Barrie Summy

Disclaimer:  As with all the books I review here, I received no compensation of any kind for this review.  I purchased my own copy of Go Set A Watchman, but I'm not sure it will rest in my bookshelf next to To Kill A Mockingbird.

Of Books, Blooms, and Dogs

It's a busy, busy time.  Weeds are growing as fast as the perennials and need to be pulled, and every flowerbed needs to be mulched.  Plant shopping has begun, and with the warm weather, I've been ignoring the average last frost date of May 15 to get an early start on some of the containers. The back porch is so filled with plant purchases already that no one can go through the back door without tripping over a flat of impatiens or all the Carex that came back with me from Texas.

Some tulips are still blooming in the shade garden, but perennials are quickly filling in.

So who has time to read a book?  Actually I do; it's still the best way to relax before falling asleep and to ensure I'll dream about something other than pulling weeds:)  When I realized it was time once again for the monthly meeting of The Book Review Club, I decided to critique the last book I have read, since it was freshest in my mind; it's also a departure from my usual genre.

Cooper Harrison is a broken man.  A former K-9 officer in Boston, he must take a leave of absence after being injured in an explosion during an arrest.  But the psychological scars are even worse, and he is so traumatized by the death of his beloved partner Argos that he resigns from the force.  Months later, he is offered a job by an old friend from his hometown as an animal control officer.  It's a step down in his career and his childhood home is filled with unhappy memories, but Coop's depression has led him to drinking and with his marriage falling apart, he decides to take the job, but only as a temporary position.


Cooper rents an isolated cabin so that his pacing during the middle of the night when he awakes from his nightmares about Argos won't be noticed by neighbors.  Even during the day, he is haunted by his past as he sees a ghost of a dog on his morning jogs around the lake.  But one day he realizes this is no ghost he is seeing, but a stray dog obviously frightened of humans, and he becomes determined to catch it.  Cooper spends days trying to lure the dog, going well beyond normal measures for an animal control officer.  When he finally is able to capture it, the dog is close to death and Coop's friend the vet recommends a merciful euthanasia.  But Cooper feels he owes it to this dog--and on a deeper level, to the memory of Argos--to do everything he can to save him.  He takes the dog into his home while he heals, but only until he finds his owner.  Finding the owner and the person responsible for cruelly abusing this dog becomes Cooper's mission and ultimately his salvation.

Sophie enjoying the late tulips. I don't think she tiptoes, but she hasn't knocked one over yet.

Obviously I'm a dog lover, but I don't usually read stories that focus on animals.  I still have vivid memories of being devastated by Old Yeller as a child.  When I watched the movie Marley and Me, I cried so hard at the end that I knew I could never read the book.  Other animal stories that have happier endings often seem too sappy or sentimental.  But there was something in the reviews of this bestseller that made me think it was worth reading, and I am glad I did.

Coconut's favorite spot while I garden is in the shade of the old lilac.

The Dog Who Saved Me is anything but sentimental.  Cooper Harrison has no intention of getting too attached to the Labrador who is nothing like his beloved German Shepherd Argos; in fact, he never gives him a name but simply calls him "the yellow dog."  Even though small parts of the book are written from the dog's perspective, they are believable in explaining his instinctive reactions and help to explain how the dog became so frightened of humans.

When Older Daughter asked us to keep Frank, a rescue Pug, I said we already had enough dogs in the house.  But who could resist a face like this??

I enjoyed Susan Wilson's novel because it is much more than just a dog story.  As Cooper climbs out of his depression, he finds himself attracted to a woman with her own need to heal.  He also must deal with his estranged father Bull, a Vietnam vet and recovering alcoholic, and Jimmy, his hardened ex-con brother.  Ultimately, Cooper Harrison finds personal redemption, and yes, the book does have a happy ending.

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@Barrie Summy

And now a few scenes from the garden where spring is rapidly turning into summer:

Just a few days ago, the white crabapple was full of beautiful blooms, 

but most have now blown off with the wind and light rains.

But the lilac is still blooming, providing me with perfumed bouquets indoors.

One of my favorite spring perennials, Brunnera 'Jack Frost,' covered in delicate blue blooms.

You have to look more closely to spot the small blooms of Solomon's Seal.

Tulips are fading fast in the warm temperatures of the past week.  I've noticed that the 'Rosalies,' my namesake tulips in the back,  turn a little deeper in color as the days go by and age beautifully.
Wish I could say the same for me:)

Late-blooming tulips 'Queen of the Night' and Marguerite' compete with the emerging Allium.

Other late tulips in the shade garden complement the Bleeding Heart.  Have you noticed I like pink?



Spring has to be the shortest season here in Illinois--oh, how I wish it would last longer!

As with all the books I review here, I received no compensation of any kind for writing this review.  The Dog Who Saved Me was borrowed from our great local library system.

More Snow and A Book Review

There is a driveway there somewhere.

Looking back through my posts this winter, I noticed I never wrote my usual post on the first snowfall. There is a good reason for that: most of the winter the big snowstorms have passed either to the north or south of us, leaving us with only a few inches of snow at the most.  That is, until the past weekend.  Apparently, Old Man Winter decided we shouldn't feel left out and dumped at least 10 inches of snow here this weekend.  On March 1, for pete's sake, the beginning of meteorological spring!  Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it, and since I can't get in the garden, it's a good time to join in for another meeting of the Book Review Club.  This month's recommendation for an excellent book:  All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

August, 1944:  As American bombers approach the city of Saint-Malo, France, "the last German strongpoint on the Breton coast," 16-year-old Marie-Laure LeBlanc waits on the sixth floor of the tall old house for her uncle to return.  She hears the air raid sirens and knows she should find her way to the cellar, but instead runs her fingers over the model city her father crafted for her and clutches the tiny replica of their house for comfort as she crawls to safety under her bed.  Five streets away, an eighteen-year-old German private, Werner Pfennig, finds himself in the dark cellar of the Hotel of Bees waiting for the bombing to begin.  He hears the anti-aircraft artillery booming above his head but can only think of home and childhood memories.




Flashback 10 years:  The LeBlanc family is cursed, neighbors say, when young Marie-Laure goes blind due to a congenital condition.  Her life becomes one of frustration as her bed with the quilt pulled up to her chin becomes her only refuge.

The despair doesn't last. Marie-Laure is too young and her father is too patient.  There are, he assures her, no such things as curses.  There is luck, maybe, bad or good.  A slight inclination of each day toward success or failure.  But no curses.

Her father helps her to learn Braille, and every evening he works on a miniature scale model of their neighborhood in Paris.  Days are spent at the National Museum of Natural History, where Marie-Laure's father is principal locksmith.  He takes her on his rounds, quizzing her on objects, and in the afternoon he leaves her in the laboratory of an old mollusk expert where Marie is allowed to touch thousands of seashells and learns to identify each by its weight, texture, and curves.

Marie-Laure is an inquisitive child, and her father is determined to help her achieve independence.  When the model of the neighborhood is finished, he asks her to memorize every home, shop, and intersection, then takes her on walks until she can navigate the streets by herself.  The bond between these two is strong, and they live a happy life until the German army approaches Paris, and they must flee to safety at the home of Monsieur LeBlanc's uncle in Saint-Malo.  There Marie learns to travel through a new neighborhood once again and wins the trust of strange Uncle Etienne.  As the war comes closer and closer, they find themselves playing a role in the French Resistance.

Coneflowers stand as sentinels in the garden.

Three hundred miles to the east, young Werner Pfennig grows up in Zollverein, a coal-mining complex outside of Essen, Germany, where the sky is permanently gray, and the landscape is covered with the fine black soot of coal.  He lives in an orphanage where food is hard to come by, and he and his sister Jutta often spend their days scavenging for scraps of food and small "treasures."  One day they find a discarded broken radio, and they take it home where Werner studies it and studies it until he figures out a way to fix it.  The sudden sound of music coming across the airwaves is a miracle, and soon evenings are spent listening to broadcasts from far-off places.

Werner's reputation as a genius with radios grows, and soon townspeople bring him their broken radios to be fixed.  Then a Nazi captain asks him to his home to fix the most magnificent radio Werner has ever seen, and when the radio is repaired, the captain recognizes that Werner is something special and recommends that he be selected to attend a school for exceptional boys where he will learn the latest in science.  Werner is apprehensive about leaving his home and his sister, but at the same time excited to escape his certain fate in the coal mines, the place that claimed the life of his father.  However, the school is actually a training ground where young boys are molded into future Nazi soldiers.  Young Werner sees the cruelty in the training methods of the instructors and tries to protect his sensitive friend Frederick.  But in the end he realizes that he has no choice but to follow directives if he is to survive.

Icy Clematis

How and when will these two very different characters meet?  The novel alternates between the stories of Marie-Laure and Werner and begins with the scenes in 1944 where they are both trapped in Saint-Malo, so you know that it is inevitable their paths will cross at some point.  Waiting for their stories to intersect kept me reading as I wondered what that meeting would be like.

Not little ghosts, but a line of shrubs blanketed in snow.

Over a year ago, I vowed I would not read another book set in Nazi Germany for a long time--the events and atrocities during this time period are just too depressing for me.  But my book club chose this book for our last meeting, so I didn't have much choice, but once I began reading Doerr's beautifully written prose, I was glad I had decided to participate.  The book certainly has some sad scenes and a one particularly cruel character, but does not include graphic violence, fortunately. Some reviewers have called it "surprisingly uplifting," and I agree that is the best way to describe its message.

It is the characters once again, however, who make this book so appealing.  One can't help but admire the curious and optimistic Marie-Laure who overcomes her handicap to "see" what others cannot.  Her enthusiasm for knowledge is infectious, and she changes others for the better.  Werner is also a likeable character, but mostly one feels sorry for him as he is forced into circumstances over which he has no control.  As his comrade Volkheimer says, "what you could be."  In another time and another place, Werner could have become a brilliant scientist. But he does find a way to defy authority and finally follow his morals as he remembers that long-ago voice on the radio:

" Open your eyes," the Frenchman on the radio used to say, "and see what you can with them before they close forever.'"

This is a story of survival and the resiliency of the human spirit and of unlikely heroes who remind us that even in the worst of times there is goodness to be found and people who will rise above to do what is right.

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@Barrie Summy

Disclaimer:  I received no compensation of any kind for this review, and as always, I review only books I like. After noticing how long the waiting list at my library was for this book,  I purchased my own copy of All The Light We Cannot See. 

Book Review Club: Three Books for Gardeners

It's time for another meeting of the Book Review Club, and this month I'm going to depart from the novels I usually write about.  Instead, I am thinking of the gardeners like myself who are tired of looking at gardens of brown mush or those piled high with snowdrifts.  We may not be able to play in the dirt right now, but we can dream about the spring days ahead.  If you are planning to make some changes in your garden this coming season, here are three books to help you get started:

The 20-30 Something Garden Guide by my blogging friend Dee Nash is the perfect book for a beginning gardener.  Designed for a novice with little time to garden, the book covers a multitude of topics from starting seeds indoors to composting to building garden paths.

Dee recommends starting small with container gardens then shows how to build and use raised beds, and finally how to design a larger garden.  Although she focuses primarily on edible plants early in the book, she also includes later sections on ornamentals, especially ones that delight the senses and attract pollinators, and even how to add some artistic touches to the garden.





Here is what I especially like about this book:

•  Concise but thorough explanations of a variety of topics--all you really need to get started gardening!
•  When I pick up a gardening book, I don't want to read a novel.   Besides full-color photos on nearly every page, colorful graphics with lots of headings make it easy to quickly find what you want to read about.  You could learn about the difference--and advantages/disadvantages--of hybrids vs. heirloom plants while brewing your morning cup of coffee, for example.
•  Dee's encouraging tone: "No one is born with a brown thumb, or a green one for that matter.  Gardening is a skill learned by trial and error."  She remembers what it was like to be a busy professional raising small children and focuses on what a young gardener can do in a short amount of time.

That's Dee exploring the garden at Floramagoria in Portland, Oregon, this summer.

I waited to purchase this book until this past summer, knowing I would see Dee at the Garden Bloggers' Fling in Portland and could ask her to sign it.  I fully intended to give it to my daughter, but I think this signed copy may stay in my collection instead.  When my 20-30 something daughters finally get the gardening bug, I will buy them another copy. Here's a little secret: you don't have to be in your 20's or 30's to find this book helpful--I certainly wish I had had it when I started gardening in earnest in my 50's!

Are you tired of mowing that strip of lawn between the sidewalk and the street?  Or maybe pulling weeds from this area all the time?  If so, then Hellstrip Gardening is the book you need for turning this neglected spot, commonly known as a hellstrip, into a lovely garden that welcomes visitors and makes passersby slow down and take notice.

Author Evelyn Hadden explains that curbside plantings are more than just a way of increasing your garden space--though there's nothing wrong with that--or showing off your gardening skills.  They are important, too, to everyone who views them, even as they drive by.  "Natural scenes, even minutely glimpsed in passing, distract us from worry and interrupt negative psychological cycles."

The book includes everything you need to get started from soil preparation to choosing the most suitable plants to dealing with the challenges unique to these areas like foot traffic, animals,  homeowners' association rules, and piles of snow left by snowplows (a big concern here in the Midwest).  Every chapter is filled with colorful photos to inspire you and give you ideas to copy in your own planting.

I had the opportunity of meeting Evelyn in person at the Portland Fling
while touring Timber Press.  I wish I had had my copy of her book with me for her to sign then!

I won a copy of Hellstrip Gardening through a giveaway last summer on the blog Commonweeder--thanks, Pat!  I must admit I felt a little guilty at the time, because living in the country, I don't even have a hellstrip.  I thought about passing it along to someone living in the city or suburbs who would be more likely to use it, until I started reading the book and realized there are ideas and inspiration here for many areas besides the curbside.  I have a small area I call my roadside garden, which even though it isn't right next to the road, is visible to passersby and definitely could use some sprucing up, as well as some other problem areas that would benefit from Evelyn's suggestions. Besides the inspiration, there is a glossary of tough plants, complete with photos, that is a great reference for choosing new plants.  My copy of Hellstrip Gardening is going on my book shelf after all, where I know I will be consulting it often.

For anyone who wants to encourage more pollinators to their garden, Taming Wildflowers by Miriam Goldberger is just the book for you. Goldberger, who with her husband operates Wildflower Farm in Canada, explains in the introduction how her love affair with wildflowers began and later goes on to explain their importance.   "Wildflowers are without exaggeration, the unsung heroes of the planet; they are a powerful force that truly sustains a complex web of interdependent creatures."

This is a beautifully illustrated book that you could enjoy just thumbing through for the visual delight of the photos alone.  (Can you tell that pictures in a gardening book are important to me?)  But the information in the book will draw you in as well: everything from "making babies"--starting wildflowers from seeds and how to transplant them in the garden--to designing with wildflowers, including how to create arrangements and bouquets for a wildflower wedding.

One of my favorite natives, the purple coneflower, is not only pretty and easy to care for,
 but is sure to attract all sorts of pollinators.

The book describes 60 of Goldberger's favorite wildflowers and native grasses, organized by bloom time, especially helpful for planning a garden through the seasons for pollinators.  One chapter is also devoted to her favorite non-native "must-haves."  I was happy to see one of my personal favorites in this list--zinnias, which always attract the butterflies in my garden late in the summer.

Each plant is described with the usual info about height, light requirement, bloom time, etc. But here is the exciting part--besides a colorful photo of each native in bloom, there is a photo of the seedling of this plant.  Do you know how long I have searched for something like this?? I know that I have often dug up wildflowers I planted the year before, just because I mistakenly thought they were weeds.  Taming Wildflowers isn't going to just sit on my nightstand--it is going out to the garden with me this spring!



If I had gotten my act together in time, I would have posted this for the December meeting, because any one of these books would make a great Christmas gift for the gardener on your list.  However, it's not too early to start thinking of next Christmas--or, even better, treat yourself  with one or all of these helpful books!

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@Barrie Summy

Disclaimer:  As usual, I have received no compensation of any kind for these reviews.  And even though I met two of the authors, I was not coerced, nudged, or even hinted to in any way about reviewing their books.  If they weren't all great gardening books, I wouldn't be reviewing them!

Book Review Club: The Mockingbird Next Door

To Kill A Mockingbird has been a staple of high school curricula for many years and with good reason; it tops my own list of favorite books and one that I looked forward to sharing with my students every school year.  Published in 1960, the novel received a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and a year later was made into the classic movie starring Gregory Peck, receiving three Oscars.  Since that time it has been translated into more than 40 languages and has sold over 30 million copies.  In surveys asking what one book "every civilized person should read," Mockingbird ranks second only to the Bible.

It's no wonder that such acclaim brought instant fame for its author Harper Lee.  While she granted the many requests for interviews at first, appeared at book signings, and played an active role in the production of the movie, the limelight soon grew too much for her, and she retreated to the privacy of her home.  For the past fifty years, little has been written about Lee that hasn't been told before. When asked for an interview, she usually replied with not just a simple no, but a "Hell, no."

Despite Lee's reputation as a recluse, in 2001 Chicago Tribune reporter Marja Mills set out for Monroeville, Alabama, hoping for an interview with some of its residents, if not Lee herself.  To her surprise, not only did she get an interview, but she soon struck up a friendship with Lee and her sister Alice and began to think about writing not just an article, but a book. After her newspaper article was published, Mills went back to Alabama, renting a house next door to the sisters for the next year and a half.

The result of Mills' surprising friendship with Alice and Nelle Harper Lee is The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee.  The book gives the reader a peek into the Lee home--filled with stacks and stacks of books, as the sisters are avid readers--and a detailed description of their everyday life.  Contrary to her image as a recluse, Nelle (as she is called by her friends) leads an active social life.  She introduces Mills to their friends, and the two go for coffee at McDonald's, feed the ducks, and go fishing at the Lees' favorite fishing hole (location never revealed).  They visit the courthouse made famous by the book and now a museum and popular tourist attraction.
Mills interviews friends who provide insight into the characters and lives of the Lee sisters, and spends many hours recording interviews with Alice Lee, who in her 90's was still practicing law in her father's old law office.

The Mockingbird Next Door, however, is a memoir, and anyone expecting new revelations about Lee's inspiration for her novel or her reasons for dropping out of the limelight will be sorely disappointed.  Friends of the Lees share anecdotes but are very protective of the sisters' privacy.  In the many hours she spent interviewing Nelle Lee, Mills always asked for permission first to record their interviews and if she might include certain comments in her book, usually getting a negative reply.  About the only "juicy" revelation that Mills includes in the book is Nelle's recounting of her strained relationship with Truman Capote, the inspiration for the character Dill in To Kill A Mockingbird, and with whom she collaborated on In Cold Blood, Capote's most famous work.

No mockingbirds here, but the red-bellied woodpecker has returned for the winter.

Why did Harper Lee drop out of public view?  Why did she never write another novel?  These two questions that every fan of Mockingbird has always wanted to know are never really answered in Mills' book, at least not with any new revelation.  Nelle and Alice both confirm that she was overwhelmed by the publicity surrounding the book and then the movie and by the push to write another novel.  As Mills describes the town of Monroeville today with its tourist attractions capitalizing on Mockingbird's fame, including a diner named after Boo Radley, it is easier to understand why Harper Lee withdrew from the limelight.

As for why Lee never wrote another novel, we are only given her sister Alice's explanation: "When you have hit the pinnacle, how would you feel about writing more?  Would you feel like you're competing with yourself?"

Mills' story did not end with the publication of The Mockingbird Next Door.  After the book came out, Harper Lee denounced it, saying, "any book purporting to be with my cooperation is a falsehood." However, her sister Alice defended the book, saying her sister had recently suffered a stroke and likely didn't remember giving Mills permission.  Much has been written about the authenticity of the book, but I tend to believe Alice's statement and that Harper Lee originally did give approval of the book.  Further support is the lack of anything too revealing in the book as well as Mills' apparent respect for the Lees' privacy.

Frank's favorite perch for winter bird-watching

I have to admit I was rather disappointed at first with The Mockingbird Next Door, probably because my expectations were too high.  The book tends to ramble somewhat and is occasionally repetitive, and "the stories that need to be told," according to the sisters, never quite materialize.  Still, once I settled in and realized that there weren't going to be any sensational revelations, I enjoyed the book and spent a leisurely time getting to know Harper Lee and her wit and intelligence in a more informal way. I would recommend this book for anyone who has been as moved by To Kill A Mockingbird as I have. Harper Lee may have written only one novel, but what a novel it was! She will always be an icon to me.

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@Barrie Summy

Disclaimer:  I received no compensation of any kind for this review, and as always, I review only books I like.  I purchased my own copy of The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee to read for my book club, and I want to thank my friend for recommending it.

Book Review Club: V. I. is Back!

"Oh." The syllable is a soft cry of ecstasy.  She has never seen colors like those on the floor, red running into orange, yellow, green.  The purple is so rich, like grape juice, she wants to jump into it.  When she runs over to look, the colors disappear.  Her mouth rounds with bafflement: she thought Frau Herschel had painted the rainbow on the floor . . . In later years, Martina remembers none of [the rest of this experience].  She remembers only the rainbow on the floor, and the discovery that the cut glass in the nursery windows created it.

A little girl's discovery of prisms in 1913 Vienna seems like an odd way for the latest V. I. Warshawski novel to begin, since the tough-talking, persistent P.I. usually is embroiled in some kind of corruption in Chicago while solving a case.  But when she receives a call from her long-time friend Dr. Lotty Herschel to help a patient of hers in distress,  Vic soon finds herself in an investigation that involves almost as much research in the University library as in skirmishes with various bad guys.

Judy Binder, a hopeless drug addict, is not only Lotty's patient, but she is also the daughter of someone Lotty knew as a child refugee in London during WWII, so she feels especially duty-bound to help her.  Judy's desperate phone call that someone is trying to kill her leads Vic to a meth house downstate where she discovers a rotting corpse in a cornfield but no sign of Judy.

With few clues to help her, Vic goes to the home of Judy's mother, Kitty, a strange and paranoid woman, who like Lotty, escaped the Holocaust years ago.  There Vic discovers that Judy's son Martin is also missing, and Kitty hires her to find him.  Martin's mother and grandmother may have problems, but it turns out that he is also the great-grandson of Martina, a brilliant physicist forced to work on top-secret research on the atomic bomb by the Nazis.  Martin has inherited her gift for science.

What starts out as a hunt for two missing persons turns into a complex case for Vic, as she goes up against low-life drug dealers, the CEO of a major technology firm, and even Homeland Security. How a meth house, the Nazis' work on an atomic bomb, and research into cutting-edge technology today all relate to a single crime sounds implausible, but Paretsky ties all the subplots together in a logical and satisfying ending.

V.I. Warshawski has been around for 30 years, and I hope she's around for many, many more.  Unlike Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone--of whom I'm also a fan--who has been stuck in the 1980's for a whole series, V. I. has aged with time.  Now in her 50's, she may be a little slower and take longer to heal from the injuries she always seems to receive in her investigations, but she can still hold her own with anyone who tries to confront her.

I somehow managed to escape taking a single physics course during my school days, an omission I really don't care to remedy.  But despite my ignorance on this subject, the important role physics plays in Critical Mass didn't distract or confuse me in the least.  Paretsky has obviously done her research, but doesn't expect either Warshawski or the reader to understand complex scientific principles.  Rather, she presents Martina's and Martin's desire to understand the "harmonies" in nature and knowing how all the pieces fit together in a way that is makes us admire them.  I imagine that their fascination with natural laws isn't really that different from a gardener's or naturalist's fascination with a bee enjoying pollen.

I've read all the books in the Warshawski series, and I have to say that Sara Paretsky just gets better and better.  The plots have become more complex and deal with some timely issues.  V. I. may have mellowed a bit over the years, but she's still the best female P. I. in fiction today

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@Barrie Summy

Disclaimer:  I received no compensation of any kind for this review, and as always, I review only books I like.  I bought my own copy of Critical Mass, but being frugal I waited impatiently until it came out in paperback.

Note:  The photos here have nothing to do with this post; they are just a few pictures I like that I've taken recently.  For more photos of fall color in my area, see my previous post.