VICTORIA by Daisy Goodwin...A lovely, enlightening read for British history lovers.

When I received this novel from Netgalley for review purposes, I did not know that it was written by the creator of the PBS/Masterpiece series, Victoria. In fact, I did not know there was a PBS series about Queen Victoria planned. Now, I cannot wait to find the series and make up for my lack of knowledge.

From the books blurb:
"Early one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. 

The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world. Surely she must rely on her mother and her venal advisor, Sir John Conroy, or her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who are all too eager to relieve her of the burdens of power.

The young queen is no puppet, however. She has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be, and the first thing is to choose her name.

"I do not like the name Alexandrina. From now on I wish to be known only by my second name, Victoria.” 

Everyone keeps saying she is destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but Victoria found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously."

Victoria is so well written and engaging that I was unsure of its historical authenticity. That's when I researched the author and learned of her extensive research for the PBS/Masterpiece series. Her work translates beautifully into this novel. 

The characters were so well drawn that there were times I wanted to shake the young queen and times I wanted to shake everyone around her. The dialogue and descriptions were light and easy and moved the story along without effort. 

I was especially curious about her attachment to Lord Melbourne. I knew, of course, that Victoria married Albert, 'the great love of her life,' but Melbourne seemed to forever be in the way of this happening. Perhaps it was all fatherly love and concern and returned the same way to him. Perhaps not, but I was often irritated by both of them and their attachment to each other. But, all was well in the end.

Amanda Foreman sums it up beautifully when she writes, "Victoria is an absolutely captivating novel of youth, love, and the often painful transition from immaturity to adulthood. Daisy Goodwin breathes new life into Victoria's story, and does so with sensitivity, verve, and wit."

Daisy Goodwin, the author, drew from Victoria’s diaries, which she first read as a student at Cambridge University. She has since added extensive research. She is  the author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter as well as creator and writer of the new PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria. She effortlessly brings the young queen richly to life in this novel.

The book's publication date is November 22, 2016 from St. Martin's Press. This will be a wonderful gift for those on your list who enjoy British historical fiction at it's best.  I highly recommend this work.

The Memory of Us... by Camille di Maio offers a different WWII story.

The blurb for the book:

"Julianne Westcott was living the kind of life that other Protestant girls in prewar Liverpool could only dream about: old money, silk ball gowns, and prominent young men lining up to escort her. But when she learns of a blind-and-deaf brother, institutionalized since birth, the illusion of her perfect life and family shatters around her.

While visiting her brother in secret, Julianne meets and befriends Kyle McCarthy, an Irish Catholic groundskeeper studying to become a priest. Caught between her family’s expectations, Kyle’s devotion to the Church, and the intense new feelings that the forbidden courtship has awakened in her, Julianne must make a choice: uphold the life she’s always known or follow the difficult path toward love.

But as war ripples through the world and the Blitz decimates England, a tragic accident forces Julianne to leave everything behind and forge a new life built on lies she’s told to protect the ones she loves. Now, after twenty years of hiding from her past, the truth finds her—will she be brave enough to face it?"

A woman about to commit suicide, a birth, a death, and a priest. Wow! What a combination for the opening of a rewarding novel. A little later add an unknown twin brother hidden away in an institution and WWII. There you have The Memory of Us in a nutshell. But don't stop just knowing that. The book, while not deep in history, while not steeped in thought provoking moments, is still a very good read. 

I received the book from Netgalley for an honest review. It should be available at all major outlets. 

Kobe Manatee....a feast for the eyes and a treat for the ear... for adults and young children alike.

From the book's blurb: 

"Gold Medal, 2016 Readers' Favorite International Book Award in the Children's Educational category

Winner of the 2015 International Book Award in the Children's Educational category

Packed with exciting illustrations and interesting facts, this adventure story will enchant as it creates awareness for the endangered Florida manatee. In late September, Kobee Manatee is on a twelve hundred-mile mission to get back home to Florida from Cape Cod, Massachusetts before the impending cold threatens his life. On his journey, he meets two new friends: Tess the seahorse, who loves to learn, and Pablo the hermit crab, who is in search for a new shell. Will Kobee and his friends make it to Florida in time?"

I love this book. What a great tie-in to the 'real' news of the Florida manatee found at Cape Cod and recently returned, with the help of humans, to Florida. Facts about manatees are presented in side boxes and can be read at the same time as the story, or perhaps, read later as a means of teaching. 

The story is delightful and the full page illustrations are glorious. If you have young children to buy for, consider this book as a delight to the eyes, the ears, and the brain. If you wish to enhance the classroom of a younger age child, consider this the book to do it. 
If you or your children/grandchild like Finding Dora, you will love this.

A Quirky Fannie Flagg: The Whole Town's talking.

The Whole Town's Talking by Fannie Flagg.

From the book's blurb:

"The bestselling author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is at her superb best in this fun-loving, moving novel about what it means to be truly alive.

Elmwood Springs, Missouri, is a small town like any other, but something strange is happening at the cemetery. Still Meadows, as it’s called, is anything but still. Original, profound, The Whole Town’s Talking, a novel in the tradition of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Flagg’s own Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, tells the story of Lordor Nordstrom, his Swedish mail-order bride, Katrina, and their neighbors and descendants as they live, love, die, and carry on in mysterious and surprising ways."

 Lordor Nordstrom, a Swedish farmer with whom I fell in love, builds a farm, a home, a town (Elmwood Springs), and even a cemetery where he and his fellow Elmwood Springers can rest in peace when their time comes. Lordor is respected, even loved by his neighbors. Only problem, he is not married and there is not an eligible bride-to-be in sight. The solution, as advocated by the women of the community is, of course, to order one. So, by mail arrives the bride.  

The book is full of loveable, quirky characters essential to any Fannie Flagg novel. They meet their problems with the fortitude you would expect of a Swedish farm community and with a grain or two of humor when needed. 

The book is set for November publication, and I would suggest this as a wonderful holiday gift for those readers on your list who like wholesome, sweet, and quirky. For Fannie Flagg fans it is a must and a nice change for everyone else. Should be available at all major outlets and online.

ABOUT FANNIE: (This blurb about Fannie neglected to mention that when I was in college, Fannie was my weather girl. Years later I heard her admit that she knew nothing about the weather, so she simply took the weather forecasts used the day before from a community west of us and used that as her forecast. Oh, Fannie, we believed you!)

Fannie Flagg began writing and producing television specials at age nineteen and went on to distinguish herself as an actress and writer in television, films, and the theater. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (which was produced by Universal Pictures as Fried Green Tomatoes), Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!, and Standing in the Rainbow. Flagg's script for Fried Green Tomatoes was nominated for both the Academy and Writers Guild of America Awards and won the highly regarded Scripters Award. Flagg lives in California and in Alabama.

Ann Lowe for Alabama Genealogy

In native Alabamian Ann Lowe’s own words she wanted “to prove that a Negro can become a major dress designer.”

Her great-grandmother was a slave. Her great-grandfather was the owner of the plantation. The child born of their union, Georgia, became Ann Cole Lowe's grandmother, a strong woman who surely influenced her granddaughter. From great-grandmother, to grandmother, and through her mother Ann inherited a talent for design and sewing and a strong determination to prove herself. 

As the sun rose on that 1898 morning of Ann’s birth, no one in the small town of Clayton, Alabama (Barbour County) could have dreamed of the heights she would achieve for she was born a squirming, scrawny, little black girl in the Jim Crow South, but from an early age she recognized her dreams.

Her path would not be easy, and any success she might have was certain to be achieved only with steadfast effort and fortitude on her part. Armed with a great inner strength and natural talent, she rose above all obstacles and forged her own future. 

For any designer, designing the wedding dress to be worn by Jacqueline Bouvier, future First Lady of the United States, for her marriage to John F. Kennedy would be a lifetime achievement. For Ann Lowe, it became a statement. The iconic gown would become the most photographed wedding gown in American history proving that (in Ann’s own words), “a Negro can become a major dress designer.”

When she designed and produced Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding dress, very few knew her name. No one but her staff knew of the disaster that preceded the delivery of that now-historic wedding dress to the home of the bride. Even fewer knew that she was the granddaughter of a former slave.

Even today, few know her story.

Ann modeling her own design.

Ann's grandfather helped build this 1853 Barbour County Courthouse.

Ann designed for the ladies who lived here, the early 1900's Alabama Governor's Mansion.

Ann doing what she loved best, sewing!

 From the Governor's mansion in Alabama, to high society in Tampa, Florida, and then, on to her final destination New York City where she became the favored designer for the ladies of high society--- the Duponts, Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Roosevelts, Lodges, Auchinclosses, and the Bouviers, as in Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. 

Along the way there were husbands, a child, Paris, and even Christian Dior, and the most photographed wedding dress in American history.

I have researched, spoken with the family and written a biography of Ann Cole Lowe's life. Would love to tell you about it, but would probably get kick out of the group even though I see others, one in particular mentioning her books. 
 If you are interested, email me at anncolelowe@gmail.com. I'll send you a link.

I would love to think that Ann's story would now become a Middle School student's history fair project---especially in Alabama!

Ann Lowe 1898-1981: Something to Prove

Several months ago I wrote that my work-in-progress historical fiction had taken on a life of its own and reversed course, thus becoming a biography.  At the time I explained it this way: "Soon it became clear to me that her story, her true, unvarnished story had to be told. It was, at that point told only in bits and pieces and often with the bits inaccurate and  the pieces changing with each retelling. I began my research to clarify things for myself and found myself getting to know a strong woman from a family of strong women.

As I researched, I gave up on the historical fiction for two reasons. First, as I said, her story in itself needs to be told. At times it reads rather like a fairy tale, and at all times is an inspiration. Secondly, I am a white woman, raised in the South. Try as I might I could not convince myself that I could do her justice in fiction. I could not get in her head and speak in her voice. I wanted her to speak for herself. And so she does."

Today is publication day for what I hope is a tribute to this, (if the term had been used during her lifetime) leading African American female in the world of fashion. She was born in a rural, poor area of the Black Belt South during the years of Jim Crow. On the morning that she entered the world as a tiny, squirming little black girl in her native state of Alabama very few took notice. Odds were against her, but she had but she had two things in her favor. Talent and determination. Of the two there is no questioning her talent, but personally, I think it was her determination, her eye on the prize, that made Ann Lowe a success.

Ann developed her talent, passed down from the strong women of her family who came before her, and used that talent along with her determination to reach her dream. Along the way she accepted challenges as stepping stones to, as she explained to Mike Douglas on national television, "prove that a Negro can become a major dress designer."

And prove it she did. From the Governor's mansion in Alabama, to high society in Tampa, Florida, and then, on to her final destination New York City where she became the favored designer for the ladies of high society--- the Duponts, Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Roosevelts, Lodges, Auchinclosses, and the Bouviers, as in Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Along the way there were husbands, a child, Paris, and even Christian Dior, and the most photographed wedding dress in American history.

On this day of publication, I hope many will read Ann's story. Get to know her and the behind the scenes events that shaped so many of her designs. As the ladies who knew her then think back on Ann, they have nothing but praise for her. I think you will also as you read and realize that she lived in turbulent times in American history, from the years of Jim Crow, through the depression and WWII, into the Civil Rights Movement and into the age of flight and television.

She should be better known, but she is not. As one of her debutants said to me earlier this year, "Ann was a lovely, gentle lady. Had she been designing today, she would be considered one of the great designers. Her time in history was against her."

I hope I can change the unknown part and introduce Ann Cole Lowe to an appreciative audience. As an educator I hope teachers will see Ann's story as an example to share with those students who often feel trapped by home, circumstances, distance, and society. I want them to learn from Ann that determination and a willingness to work toward your dream, can help anyone succeed. I believe the book can serve as a research resource for many; authors, students, etc.

I hope all enjoy Ann's story. There are two print versions for I first wrote the book with black and white historical photos and color photos of her designs. The outcome, labeled as a Special Color Photo Edition, will be cost prohibitive for many, especially for teachers who want more than one copy in their classroom. Therefore, I converted all the photos to black and white for a second version. While not as colorful, it still tells Ann's story and shows her work. In both versions, there is a link to a pinterest board that I made showing all of Ann's designs in color and historical photos from her lifetime. For anyone reading the black and white version, they should go to that site to view the photos in color. Also available on Kindle.

Below are the two full book covers, front and back. See what you think. Would love to hear from you about Ann and this project.

 https://www.amazon.com/Something-Prove-Biography-Forgotten-Photographs/dp/1532981333/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471822350&sr=1-1&keywords=Something+to+Prove+black+and+white

https://www.amazon.com/Something-Prove-Biography-Americas-Forgotten/dp/1532909306/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471822121&sr=1-2&keywords=Something+to+Prove

The Kindle edition is https://www.amazon.com/Something-Prove-Biography-Americas-Forgotten/dp/1532909306/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471822121&sr=1-2&keywords=Something+to+Prove

WOW! At God's Mercy captured me within three pages...

                                             At God's Mercy by L.L. Fine. 

I had never heard of this author before ordering a sample for my Kindle. The moment I finished reading the sample, I ordered the book and continued my impassioned reading. I love it when I am drawn in immediately and that does not happen often. At God's Mercy had me immediately.

The author is a man. I mention this because I believe a female author would have embellished actions and feeling while Mr. Fine cuts to the core of the matter. He presents events, feelings, and actions with a rapid fire simplicity. It moves the story along quickly and efficiently. I didn't miss the flowery embellishments.

The book's editor, Julie Phelps, put it like this.  "This exceptionally well-devised book is immediately engaging and absorbing, introducing a heart-breaking mystery within the first few sentences. The story of At God's Mercy is all the more disturbing because there is a certain plausibility about it - who's to say such things didn't happen in war-torn Europe? Some of the events in this novel - Helena's story, as well as that of Kristzha - moved me to tears, something even real life can't usually achieve..."

The first mystery: twin boys are abandoned by their mother in Poland at the end of WWII. The twins are rescued and end up in the United States where they are adopted by different families. They grow up geographically close to each other, but with no knowledge that they have a twin just across town.

Within the first few pages they learn of this and immediate meet. It was a startling meeting...for both brothers. The are 52 years old and one is a Jewish Rabbi and the other a Catholic Priest.  Oh, my. So many ways this story could proceed. I love the avenue the author chose, and it was that choice that led to the meat of the story, the adventure, the conflicts and the answers to questions.

Again from the editor..."Many sharp contrasts are drawn between characters, events and behaviours. Strong emotions govern the events and deeds while prejudice presents itself in many forms, all the while tempered with kindness and love.  The amazingly strong and well-drawn characters are human and have very human flaws, making them both credible and vulnerable."

Even though there are construction flaws, transitions are sometimes missing and as are words to help clarify events for the reader, there are still many beautifully constructed thoughts and ideas. I highly recommend this book. It was a rare find for me. Thank you Mr. Fine.

I purchased my ebook online and have been recommending it since the moment I closed the back cover.