Tudor blood, a beheaded sister who was queen, and art history. An interesting book.

SISTERS OF TREASON,  by Jane Fremantle, has as a backdrop a familar story, the short reign of Lady Jane Grey. The book, however, goes a step beyond other historical fiction books and gives us a look at Jane's two sisters, both somewhere in line for the crown. In addition, the court artist figures prominently in thier story.

As usual, with the Tudors, this is a tale of politics, family, love, and loss. We get to know Jane's sisters, Catherine and Mary. Catherine was impulsive and given to making unwise decisions, usually in the name of love. Lady Mary, on the other hand, seems the most suited to any type of high rank but is burdened with a crooked spine and a tiny stature almost as a dwarf.

Both girls have inherited the cursed Tudor blood that puts them, or at least Catherine, in line for the Queen's distrust. Mary excapes by being the Queen's "pet", treated almost as a pet monkey would be treated. She hates it, but endures it.
The girls are under the loving and watchful eye of the court painter Levina Teerlinc. She becomes not just a trusted advisor, but a mother figure to the girls. From Levina's viewpoint, we see life at court from another point of view.

The book covers the reigns of both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Family feuds, royal blood, and religious upheaveal cloud the girls' everyday existance. This is an interesting sideline to the Tudor history and art history of the time. I enjoyed the book.

Jojo Moyes' Ship of Brides....

Let me say it at the very beginning, I wanted something more from the book. I have been urged by numerious friends to read a Jojo Moyes. They are devoted to her as are thousands of other readers. So when his book became available through Netgalley, I jumped at the chance to read it.

I was disappointed. The story of a ship of war brides, based upon historical fact, is an interesting idea. I did not find it presented in an interesting way. The problem for me was that the characters were not fleshed out enough. For about 3/4's of the way through the book, I really didn't care what happened to any of them. Finally, and a reader should not have to wait this long, I began to care, somewhat, about two of the characters, Margaret and Frances. Frances moreso than Margaret for I thought Margaret's outcome was exactly as expected. Frances' outcome posed more suspense.

I feel that I cared more for Frances, for as the novel progressed, she was the character who developed into someone more than the original single diminsion character who was first presented. The others did not. She became real and interesting.  The other main characters did not. There were several secondary characters and they, too, needed more substance.

I enjoy WWII history and was looking forward to this book. It did not live up to hopes.

Carpinello's Writing Pages: Meet YA Author Traci McDonald

Meet YA Author Traci McDonald. She is an inspiritaion for her blindness does not stop her. Read about her and her first book on a fellow blogger's blog: Go to Carpinello's Writing Pages: Meet YA Author Traci McDonald: Carpinello's Writing Pages welcomes author Traci McDonald and her book Burning Bridger . Traci's blindness hasn't kept her down....

Losing St. Christopher: Second book in the Cherokee Triology now available for lovers of Native American history.

Earlier I reviewed David-Michael Harding's first book in his Cherokee Nation history triology, The Cherokee Talisman. The second book, Losing St. Christopher is now available and lovers of Cherokee history, earlly American history, and Native American history should grab a copy as soon as possible. 

In this second book, Totsuwah,  the  shamanof the Cherokee Nation, struggles against the assimilation of his people into the white man's world.  The colonists,  along with Cherokee who are trying to bridge both worlds, see him as a  threat.  When his  visions show him the future, his heart is troubled.  Chancellor, his son, takes a white wife. Totsuwah's fears seem realized. Cultural and family conflicts  erupt when Totsuhwa’s only grandchild is forced onto the Trail of Tears. What follows is heart wrentching as love fights for survival.

Losing St. Christopher will educate readers while entertaining them.This is a story  of culture, inner conflict and the evolution of a nation. With vivid descriptions and engaging characters, I highly recommend this book. It is not an easy read. It is not a quick reak, but it is a powerful read.                  

From the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation comes this: 

“Cherokee Talisman brings to life characters from our history and through a flare for fiction and historical research, Harding tells their story. Cherokees that might be painted by racist misconceptions as blood thirsty savages are humanized by Harding, making them heroes of a very real time. History is written by the victorious, but when almost forgotten historical characters are brought to life they are preserved for the ages, and in this preservation David-Michael Harding has succeeded.” - Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker

Now Available at bookstores and online outlets.

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron...An intriguing title, an intriguing story.

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron

I was captured by this story immediately.  A missing original photograph of a beautiful girl with shaved head and Nazi concentration camp numbers tattooed on her arm provides the backdrop of this story. Why are two people searching for this intriguing painting? One, a wealthy business man from California and the other, an art gallery owner in New York. They both have copies, but they both feel compelled to find the original for very different reasons.

As the story unfolds we learn the identity and story or the international beauty in the photo. She is a non-Jewish Austrian who, like many others, ended up in the Nazi concentration camps. Why is she, once the "Sweetheart of Austria" imprisoned, shorn of her hair, and tattooed? Who painted the photo that was obviously painted years ago. In a camp? Did she survive, or was she a casualty of the camp's gas chambers or firing squad?

Written in alternating sequences between New York/California and Austria/Germany, the story unfolds quickly and beautifully. The descriptions are so well crafted that the reader sees the scenes as the characters did.

This is a love story, both modern and historic. The message comes through loud and clear but without preaching, our gifts are from God and not to be wasted.

I highly recommend this book. I received my advance copy through Netgalley.

Jeff Shaara wins again with The Smoke at Dawn for all Civil War enthusiasts.

Jeff Shaara and the American Civil War. We have come to expect a great adventure and The Smoke at Dawn delivers. In addition to the expected vividly painted battlefield action, Shaara has given us an in depth character study of the major characters in this drama. Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Bragg, Cleburne, Longstreet, Forrest and others come alive as we read their thoughts and learn of their very human foibles.

The battlefield drama takes place in and around Chattanooga, Tennessee. There is major fighting on Lookout Mountain, Orchard Nob, Missionary Ridge, and in Chattanooga itself. Collectively known as the Battle of Chattanooga, these various venues provide the Union and Confederate generals the opportunity to lead and mislead their troops in some of the war's decisive fighting.

As the book opens, the Union troops of Rosecrans has just experienced a humiliating defeat at Chicakamauga in norrthern Georgia. The Union retreats to Chattanooga and settles in. A furious Abraham Lincoln replaces Rosecrans with Ulysses S. Grant who immediately begins reinforcing the depleted troops and supplies.

Across the river, Braxton Bragg has settled in to 'wait out' the union, thinking to starve them out. Because Bragg did not persue Rosecrans when he was retreating, many Confederate leaders have lost faith in Bragg's ability to lead and call for his ouster. His friend, Jefferson Davis, refuses to do this. So the 'wait them out and we will have a victory' mentality prevails.

In both camps the mistrust, jealousies, and second guessing runs rampant. Each man, regardless of his level of leadership, is portrayed with all his egocentric thoughts, doubts, and feelings of self-importance. The officers on each side seemed as much at war with each other as with the enemy across the way.

Grant still needs reinforcements and someone he can trust. He sends for Sherman to come in from the west. When Sherman finally arrives with 30,000 men, Grant expects only victories from him.

For days the two armies engage each other in and around Chattanooga. Finally Sherman begins his assult, expecting to run over the Confederate flank he is facing. The Confederate leader, Cleburne, has other ideas and in some of the bloodiest fighting his troops repulse Sherman's advances time and time again. Ultimately the surperior numbers of Sherman's Union troops overwhelm Cleburne's much smaller Confederate troops.

Throughout these bloody days of battle, Braxton Bragg is indecisve, waiting, and making decisions based upon petty jealouslies. In the Union forces, jealousies often overtake the sound decision making.

Before reading the book, I had a general knowledge of the Battle of Chattanooga and knew that the Union was finally victorious, but I had no idea that both sides were plagued with such personality conflicts. These conflicts and the reasons behind them were fascinating.

As always, Shaara has done his research, in great depth, and has managed to take that research and give us a marvelous look at a pivotal battle in the American Civil War.

Civil War buff are going to love this, and we know it leads us to what must surely be Shaara's next book or books...Sherman, Atlanta, and the destruction of Georgia.

Available June 3, 2014. Just in time for Father's Day.

And If I Perish...a remarkable story.

And If I Perish by Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee is the evocative story of trial and tribulation, courage and caring that takes us behind the scenes and behind the lines of WWII battlefields and hospitals. It is the story of the frontline U.S. Army nurses, their joys and triumphs, failures and heartaches.

More than 59,000 nurses volunteered to serve in the army nurses corp. Two hundred seventeen lost their lives. Thousands more were injured. This book is a tribute to each and every one of them. Through hundreds of hours of in-depth research and interviews, the authors introduce us to some women we should all get to know. We meet many of these women in a personal way. We learn why they volunteered, the discrimination they faced, and the unwavering care they gave. Most often without recognition of their efforts.

The young ladies who volunteered had no idea what they were in for. Many arrived at their first duty station with party clothes and giddiness. This was especially true of the very early arrivals in the Pacific Theater. They were not issued real nurses uniforms until much later, just insignia to wear on their collars.

The book begins with the story of a young Georgia farm girl who graduated from Grady Hospital Medical School in Atlanta, then joined the army nurses corp. Her mother was incensed. How could her daughter do that? Only fallen women, social outcasts, would volunteer for that service. How, the mother wondered, could she ever meet her friends in society knowing that they knew her daughter was an army nurse?  This attitude was the prevailing attitude of much of society at the time.

The young lady went on to become an outstanding nurse, a leader, and a POW. She spent two full years as a Japanese prisoner-or-war. He brother and sister joined the military and for the two years she was a POW knew nothing of her whereabouts or if she was even still alive. All three survived and were finally reunited in 1947.

One story tells of the situation when a nurse stationed in Italy visited a civilian hospital and learned that the Germans has destroyed all the civilian medical supplies before they evacuated northward. One three year old girl had to have her foot amputated by the local doctors...without anesthesia. When she learned of this, the army nurse was astounded and offered to do what she could to prevent such a tragedy again. The army often had little, the civilians had less.

Another nurse tells of the mini-hurricane that blew across their evacuation hospital during the middle of an abdominal surgery. The soldier was wrapped in sterile sheets, put in an ambulance and sent to another nearby evac hospital with his abdomen still open. Imagine the scene at the receiving hospital when they removed the sheets. The mini-hurricane completely destroyed the first hospital and camp.

Anurse from the 95th Evacuation Hospital remembers arriving at their new post near Capua, Italy and thinking she had seen the landscape before. Oh, yes. In her high school Latin book. They were setting up their new evac hospital alongside the Appian Way. The nurses set up their two living tents adjacent to the Way. Soon they needed to hang their "unmentionables" out to dry. There they were, women's undies, hanging by the ancient road as U.S. army troops were trucked by on their way north. The cacophony of blaring horns, wolf whistles, and calls of "Hubba-hubba" became so constant that the commanding officers had the tents moved to the rear of the camp.

The book is filled with stories, memories, thought provoking accounts. Some will make you laugh, other will make you cry, and still other will bring on anguished outrage at man's inhumanity to man.

From the early days in the Pacific Theater, through the European campaigns, and into Dachau immediately after it was liberated, American Army nurses were on hand. We need to know of their courage and sacrifice and honor them. This book goes a long way in getting us started. Thank you, Evelyn and Rosemary for this tribute.

I bought my book through Abebooks. It is available online and through your major book outlets.