Delusion in Death Book Review

J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) is either one of the most prolific writers working today or has a host of ghostwriters working for her. Either way she is selling a ton of books and I read everyone of them. With that statement you know I'm a fan and will not be writing the usual book review, but instead will just recommend any of her books for escapist reading as they pull you in and keep you with her till 'the End.'

Delusion in Death is perhaps a little more fast-paced than usual as Lt. Eve Dallas works almost around the clock with her detective team in 2050 NYC to prevent mass murder via mind blowing chemicals. Her team is made up of returning characters with a couple of those characters getting more exposure this time around. I guess I like her books because of the dialogue. She does it with quips and threats and humor between characters. I don't have to skip over paragraphs and paragraphs of introspection or description that makes me impatient when reading these days.

I would suggest if you're new to Robb's 'Death' series to start with the first in the series, Naked in Death, 1995. It's not mandatory but you'll have a vested interest in the characters and understand more of the insider comments if you do.

The Afterwife Book Review

Sometimes not reading the book cover turns into a pleasant surprise. I had my doubts about Gigi Levangie Grazerat's book in the opening pages but enjoyed the surprise as I finished the book. 

The doubts came as the beginning of the book had the protagonist's husband dying. A deeply loved husband killed in the first few pages is not my idea of escapist reading. However, it paid to stay with it as I did enjoy the book and its unexpected curve into unforeseen territory. I don't want to spoil this for anyone else so let me just say that there is a play on words with the title.  Think Afterlife and you'll have a clue what's ahead.

Grazer has a host of characters that are fun, pathetic, and believable supporting the widow. Her subplots also take side trips that are surprising and entertaining. I even laughed out loud at some of the antics in the book. For something that starts out with a sad premise, she turns it into a book that's both engaging and amusing.

Paris My Sweet Book Review

I've always considered memoirs to be written by older people. Paris My Sweet, A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) does not fall into that category. Amy Thomas lived in Paris for two years in her thirties and shares that experience of loving Paris and all things dessert but eventually returning to her home in New York City.

This isn't a recipe book although she frequently shares how the dessert is made and its inspiration if in New York or Paris. She shares her work experiences, her loneliness and her love of the city that claimed her heart when she first visited during a semester of college. I enjoyed her writing style and living vicariously in Paris through her experiences. I certainly enjoyed reading of the dessert treasures she consumed with verve and passion. If you've ever dreamed of bicycling through ancient streets and architecture, visiting the Louvre whenever you wanted, eating multi-course meals each served with great wine, then you'll enjoy Thomas' adventures in the City of Light and Dark Chocolate.

Paris My Sweet, A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate), Amy Thomas, Sourcebooks Inc,. 2012

The Checklist Manifesto Book Review

I'm becoming more of a list maker all the time. Lists make me more efficient and keep me from forgetting things I really want to accomplish in a day. So finding an online recommendation for The Checklist Manifesto, How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande intrigued me enough to order it from my local library.

It wasn't the consummate way to create and complete to-do lists that I expected, but took off in quite a different direction. The author uses some of the best checklists known to make a case for using them in any arena where safety and efficiency is warranted. We all realize pilots use checklists before flying airplanes. Gawande gives examples of how these checklists save lives. His stories keep the reader's attention on what he's going to say next. The take away from this book is how checklists used in hospitals are preventing mistakes in surgery and elsewhere. If I have to have surgery I want to ask the doctor if he uses such a checklist. Gawande convinced me that, although often times checklists seem to be rote, the times they save lives is worth the effort involved.

Gawande builds his case for checklists with case histories that are page turners and research data that convinces instead of glazing over the eyes of readers. This is a nonfiction book I can recommend.

The Checklist Manifesto How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande, Metropolitan Books, 2009.

Civil War places Platte County woman in Harm's Wayx3

The case of Barbara Greenwood of Platte County during March of 1865 aroused my curiosity as to her final fate. This is her story adapted from Provost Marshall's records. 

Evidently while out scouting for enemy soldiers one day, Sgt. Cyrus M. Reid, M.S.M, stopped at Mrs.Greenwood’s house with Weston City Marshall Monroe. Sgt. Reid stated Mrs. Greenwood believed he was a rebel and told him that if a bushwhacker (a man named Kirkpatrick) had taken her advice he could have avoided the soldiers who killed him.  Reid testified that she sent her grandsons to warn the guerrillas of Federal troops in the area.

A Robert Lampkin testified that in September of 1864 while he was with scouts posing as Confederates, Mrs. Greenwood had her grandson bring a man in from the brush that had been in a fight against the Union and wanted to go with them (the supposed Confederate scouts.) The man was arrested as a bushwhacker as he had "stolen goods."

During the gathering of statements to determine Mrs. Greenwood's actions, Nathaniel A. Monroe stated that Mrs. Greenwood "is disloyal." He said the Federals had killed James Kirkpatrick (a Confederate soldier) near her farm. He stated she had kept Kirkpatrick hidden and helped him avoid Federal soldiers by sending her grandsons to see if soldiers nearby at Lampton’s were Federals.

Her response to the charge that she had harbored guerrillas was that a man came to her house wanting directions to Liberty. She wanted to get rid of him so gave him directions, but he returned the next morning.  She did admit to begging Federal soldiers not to kill Kirkpatrick on her place but stated she never warned or fed guerrillas.

Her official story ended on April 5, 1865, with a letter from the Provost at Weston requesting that the district provost attend to Greenwood's case as she is “very aged and the confinement is killing her.”  Four days later, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.  I can't help but wonder what happened to Mrs. Greenwood.

Who Are Those People? And What Are They Doing in Your Closet?

A sight that immediately saddens me is finding stacks of family photos for sale in antique stores; discarded because no one had a clue as to who the people were in the photos. So let's get those photos out of your closet, out from under the bed, or out of your digital shoebox...and label them!

I’ve been a Creative Memories consultant for 20 years but long before that I was a scrapbooker. My first camera was a Christmas present from my uncle when I was eleven. My Brownie Instamatic and I took photos of Christmas Day, family, schoolmates and vacations and put them all in a scrapbook. A cheap, black scrapbook that years later I discovered was one of the worst environments in which to put my photos. The acid on the pages eventually caused the pictures to fade. Even worse, I attached the photos to the pages with small, rolled-up pieces of cellophane tape. Yikes! That damage was obvious a few years later when brown spots started appearing on the fronts of the photos where the tape was stuck on the back. All my documentation was on the scrapbook page so when the photos were removed to prevent further damage, there were no names or dates on the photos.

My grandmother had a different method of identifying people in her photos for posterity. She certainly had the right idea, but she wrote on the front of the photos with cheap pens. Within a couple of decades the ink had bled and names became hard to read.  Anything written on the back of the photo bled through to the front, effectively destroying the image.

We both loved our photos and tried to save them to enjoy in the future, but we didn’t realize what we were doing would damage the very things we were trying to save. Luckily, the photo album/scrapbooking/memory-saving industry has found ways to alleviate the problems my grandmother and I had with our photos.

The first, and most important, thing to do with photos after printing is to label them. Label them completely.  Use a photo-safe, soft leaded pencil and write on the backs of photos for documentation. This type of pencil won’t cause indentations to the front of the photo that a sharp, hard instrument will and it will not bleed to the front of the photo.

Doing this could save your photos from the antique malls of the future. And get those strangers out of your closet so you can enjoy your family photos for years to come.

Genealogy Family History Expo in KC July 29-30th

I've never been to one of these but they are held all over the country and I would love to attend.  See details at the link below.

http://www.familyhistoryexpos.com/viewevent.aspx?eid=35

Remember? I did say this blog was about genealogy, too!