She Sold Seashells

 I highly recommend this book. It is a small treasure. I ordered it from the @Mini Museum and it arrived in 3 days. It’s beautiful and tells an interesting story. I bought it for a friend who will be having a quiet Christmas. Teachers, seashore science nerds, and simply inquisitive folks will enjoy it…

"She Sold Seashells should be in schools all over the world, and given as a gift to anyone, young or old, who has an interest in Mary, fossils, or palaeontology. It is beautifully illustrated, concisely and logically written, and, above all, it brilliantly conveys the fierce curiosity and wistful sense of injustice that Mary must have felt at being unable to fully join the emerging world of geology. Two hundred years ago, she was ahead of her time. Now, finally, her time has come." ~Geoscientist, The magazine of the Geological Society of London

Embark on a captivating journey into the life of Mary Anning, the groundbreaking paleontologist, with this beautifully-illustrated, hardbound book. "She Sold Seashells ...and dragons: The curious Mary Anning. Re-imagined" by award-winning author Wolfgang Grulke brings Anning's story to life for younger readers through the power of AI-generated, dream-like imagery, photography, classic paleoart, and Ms. Anning's own scientific illustrations.

"An ingenious project to bring Mary Anning to life." ~ Sir David Attenborough, Renowned naturalist and broadcaster.

Available at https://shop.minimuseum.com/products/she-sold-seashells-and-dragons-the-curious-mary-anning-re-imagined

And Amazon.

Kristin Hannah gives us a wonderful historical fiction

 The Women

Publication date February 2024

The short and sweet of my review is that this is now my favorite Kristin Hannah book. 

Yes, contrary to some opinions, there were American women in Vietnam during the fighting; American women fighting for their country as nurses in Vietnam.

I lived through the waiting period of that era with “our boys” (my classmates) as they waited to see when their draft number would be called. I heard of local funerals for boys from my hometown. I met and married a young man who luckily was just a little bit older than I who had already served his country. We worked to build our life together, watched the news each night, and became more and more convinced that we should bring our boys home, but not once do I remember thinking about the women over there. Not once, and I’m sorry.

The strong female characters in The Women are smart, vulnerable, wise-cracking ladies I would love to call my friends. They dodge bullets, run from incoming mortar shells, and run to incoming wounded. They slosh around in rivers of blood and hold the hands of dying young men. 

They then find a place where they can scream and cry and renew their strength to do it all over again. They find solace with each other and with the soldiers within their theatre of existence. 

The great tragedy, however, is the treatment the women received upon their return to the states. We know of the abuse and mistreatment directed to our soldiers, but how many of us have considered the return of the women? 

Kristen Hannah has, and she portrays the ugliness of it beautifully. In ways I never would have considered, the women were told to forget about it, pretend it never happened, and get on with womanly things. Our main character is the perfect vessel to show us the injustices the women who went to Vietnam endured.

Yes, there were women in Vietnam. 

Our women. Our sisters. 

Thank you Kristen Hannah for this much needed education so agonizingly beautifully presented.

Thank you to St Martins Press for offering me this advanced copy to read.

All opinions and thoughts as always are my own.

Go As a River by Shelley Read

In the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado, seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash, the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men, runs the household on her family’s historic peach farm. 

Wilson Moon, a young drifter with a mysterious past, has left his tribal land and is determined to live as he chooses. 

Go As a River by Shelley Reed is ultimately a story of Victoria’s  survival. The fight to survive colors every aspect of her life. She faces the need to survive in the wilderness, in love, and in her livelihood.  The ultimate test, however, comes in the decision she must make for her son. 

Go As a River is historical fiction only because the setting in mid-Twentieth Century Colorado, the peaches, and the apocalyptical events are factual. Veronica’s story and how she survives is fiction at its best. Her way of life, her very home and family are all threatened. She faces these challenges alone making her a remarkable woman finding strength she never knew she had. We follow her life from her teen years to middle age.

Her story is beautifully written with descriptive words and phrases pulling us into each scene. The clash of cultures brings love into her life then takes it away. The Colorado mountains embrace her and threaten her. The Gunnison River gives life and destroys it. There is a touch of mysticism that touches her life as she strives to be the person her strong ancestors would expect her to be.

Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home―where least expected. The novel explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river―gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when obstacles arise. Victoria’s  spirit keeps this book from being heavy and oppressive. 

I enjoyed this book and the unusual story it tells. Giving it four stars, I highly recommend it. If you’ve ever been moved by the majesty of mountains, the serenity of water, or the pleasure of biting into a peach that makes you exclaim, “this is heaven,” then you should read Go As A River.

The book is available at all major outlets, both brick and mortar and online and in many libraries. It has a variety of covers. The one above is my favorite.