Heather the Violet Fairy: Rainbow Magic Rainbow Fairies Book #7:

Heather the Violet Fairy: Rainbow Magic Rainbow Fairies Book #7 by Daisy Meadows

The girls are ending their time on Rainspell island. They see a fairy trapped in a painting, but they are in the middle of a carnival. Luckily people are lured away by clowns. They rescue her and bring her to the pot at the end of the rainbow. It seems they are all together and ready to be brought back to fairy land. Alas, Jack Frost is not going to make it easy. They trap him in a bubble, but then realize they need him to have winter, so they trap him in a snow globe to bring him back with them to fairy land. The fairies make it back home, and the girls end their vacation on the island. This is a bit different than the standard rainbow magic tale as it a wraps things up.

Bicycling in Seattle, 1879-1904

Bicycling in Seattle, 1879-1904 by Frank Cameron

This is a short history of the first bicycle boom in Seattle. Seattle missed some of the earlier booms, such as the penny farthings. However, it took big to the late 1800s safety bike boom. There were once dozens of bike shops on second avenue. Multiple velodroms appeared all around the regions. The bicycle advocates also wanted roads to ride on. Hills posed challenges, but there were still various bike routes created. They worked hard to improve existing roads and to build roads to travel on. There was a bicycle toll road started to the south. It was never completed, but did have a viaduct through the mud flats built. Other key routes were improved with cinder trails. (However, they had to make sure animals were kept off.) Alas, the bicycle boom tapered off. Many of these bicycle routes become roads, while building lots encroached on others. Interlaken is one of the few remnants. Just imagine if we still had the network radiating from downtown connecting to other places.

The Long Winter: Little House, Book 6

The Long Winter: Little House, Book 6 by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Father looks at muskrats building a stronger home and suspects that it will be a long, cold Dakota winter. All other animals seem to have fled away. A local Indian says this is a once in 21 year winter. The first storm comes in October. It is cold. People move from shanties to town. Things get colder and worse. The trains cannot get there, despite valiant efforts by the train men.  As soon as they get some track cleared, they get stuck elsewhere. Christmas occurs, but it is in a subdued form. People are resourceful with what they have, but it is not easy. It is extremely difficult to travel in the snow. At one point they see a heard of animals, but one man fires too early, scaring them off.  Eventually some boys make a long trip away to try to bargain with a man that supposedly has wheat. This ends up being enough to make it through the last bit before the trains come.

People in this time were becoming less fully independent and relying more on an integrated economy. How much worse would it be if a bad series of storms separated out a community today for an entire winter?

Fern the Green Fairy

Fern the Green Fairy: Rainbow Fairies Book #4 by Daisy Meadows

Fern is a rainbow fairy stuck in a tree (not a fern), The girls find her and help the fairies against jack frost.

Sky the Blue Fairy: Rainbow Magic Rainbow Fairies Book #5

Sky the Blue Fairy: Rainbow Magic Rainbow Fairies Book #5 by Daisy Meadows

Rachel and Kirsty find Sky frozen as a victim of Jack Frost. They help bring her back and restore her to health. How did this series last for so long?

A Study in Scarlet: A Sherlock Holmes Novel

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

Holmes has great powers of deduction. He tells how he identified a person has coming from Afghanistan by seeing characteristics of his appearance. Holmes also talks about how he can identify characteristics of blood. (thus the study in Scarlet). Then the book goes down to the murder mystery they are looking at. They identify an American, Jefferson Hope,  that poisoned two others in England. It is a long running revenge tale where Jefferson Hope had wanted mary the girl that one of the men had married. The girl died shortly after. It tied into the Danites and the Mormons. (The girl and her adoptive father were the only survivors of an immigrant group. They then ran into Mormons who took them and offered them a place in Salt Lake if they joined the faith. The man did outwardly, but not inwardly. Things came to a head when as the girl became a marriageable woman. She wanted to marry Hope who was outside the faith. They fled rather than give in.

The depiction of Mormons does portray some of the more extreme, surly characters. The guys that were murdered actively practiced polygamy and wanted to force people into it. They later left the main church in a schism. It talks about a central leadership but seems to get things wrong. It does however respect it as a general movement and the people are not cruel, but they are tight-knit group. Once in power, the oppressed tend to be like those they fled.

Holmes tends to quickly make deductions. How many of these are really accurate?

The book also includes Speckled Band

In this story, a snake is used to attempt to kill somebody. This ends up backfiring and killing the perpetrator instead.

The Name Drop

The Name Drop by Susan Lee

A Korean-American girl is looking forward to an internship with a big Korean company in New York. She thinks this will allow her to get a good recommendation to get scholarships to go to college. Her family cannot afford the school, but are not poor enough for financial aid. She has a challenge of over-sharing when under stress. When she goes to check in for her flight she goes in on details, which end up with her showing her id with her korean name. In the airport she also notices a dapper Korean guy.

The dapper Korean guy is the teenage son of the CEO of the company. He is going to HQ for a special internship for children of executives. However, his Korean name is the same as the Korean name of the girl. When he checks in, he gets the seat in the back that she was supposed to have, while she gets the first class seat. She ends up being picked up by the chauffeur and taken to the townhome, while he ends up joining the intern group in the cramped apartment and the minimum wage internship.

They eventually meet to discuss the situation and realize that both of them like it. The girl works to achieve with her responsibilities. He likes to be a regular guy.

The interns put together a hackathon for the company. It is a success, perhaps too much. The CEO shows up. He acts nice to the girl and offers her a scholarship, but also fires his father. The boy is in the bad grace of his father but still gets strings pulled to go to UCLA. In the epilogue, they meet again. Will the romance go somewhere.

The book is a light, superificial story of teenageers going through challenging situation. It showcases the masculine, patriarchal culture in Korean business. Is it still this bad? The boy and girl have a "trading places" vibe. It seems the company has a lot of talented people that are not listened to while those in authority are underqualified. 

Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power

Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power by Zachary Karabell

Brown Brothers are conservative bankers. They are willing to invest and take risks, but they do so with their own money. They have been around for over two centuries. Part of their ethos is to not get involved with too many things and work behind the scenes. They are still often involved in the "non-public" part of Wall Street. They exited contriversaral industries (such as cotton produced by slaves) when seeing that it is not the best financial investment. They helped grease international trade by providing letters of credit for those visiting other countries. Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of future US presidents was once a partner. 

The story follows a mostly chronological narrative, though does jump around a bit. Both the history of the firm as well as that of individual people and times are followed. Brown Brothers seem to be exactly what you would expect to think of "bankers" rather than the high-flying wall street types that have become predominant recently. They have relationships and influence without flash.

The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily

The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone

Why do authors write fictional romantic fantasy when the real life is so much better? Joanna I was a middle age queen of Naples. There were various machinations going on with her reign. The Hungarians all wanted a part and set her up with a husband. He was to be a "king in name only" without power to rule. Alas, his family was seeking to gain too much power. Then he mysteriously died. She was blamed even though others were found guilty. She had various other husbands and was pregnant multiple times, but never had a child that lived towards adulthood. Others tried to battle to take the kingdom. She was saved by the papal armies, but ultimately had her downfall by siding with the wrong Pope (against one that was formerly one of her subjects.) She was ultimately imprisoned and likely murdered. The author does a great job of dramatic narrative, making a history that is much more appealing than fictional novels.

Caleb's Story

Caleb's Story by Patricia MacLachlan

It is a cold winter. A family finds an old man. It is grandpa. There is much bitterness towards him. He seemed to abandon the family without writing. He can be surly. Caleb works with him and discovers that he did not know how to read and write and felt guilty about it. He teaches him. Understanding the problem can be the best way to solve it.

What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?

What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? by Jean Fritz, illustrated by Margot Tomes

the book seems to have wandered off before I could get a picture of the cover. It is a short biography of Ben Franklin. It covers the lesser known details to include the achievements and foibles of Franklin. We was the youngest of the youngest and did not want ot be confined by an apprenticeship. He is known for lighting and diplomacy. The audiobook includes too versions, one with age turns and one without.

Pippi Goes on Board

Pippi Goes on Board by Astrid Lindgren, translated by Susan Beard

Pippi continues her wackiness in the second book in Pippi Longstocking series. She is prone to telling exotic yarns. However, she will catch herself and then spin it to the truth, only to make an even more elaborate story. However, many of the seemingly elaborate tales seem to have some truth. She has plenty of gold coins and little regard for money. She goes shopping with her friends and buys candy and toys for all the children in town. She uses strength to throw bullies around and get them to stop their cruel activities. She takes her friends to an island to be "shipwrecked". Am empty bottle is important so they can write a message. They write one, but nobody rescues them, so they go home. Her dad appears near the end. He is the king of an island and comes back. Pippi is at the point of going with him, but at the last minute she decides to stay in town. Her dad throws her a new bag of gold coins before she leaves. The book straddles the realm between real and imaginary with things just believable enough.

Anne of Ingleside

Anne of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery

Anne is now the mother of young children while her husband is a well-respected community doctor. Her children have much of the positive naivety that Anen had as a child. They trust various yarns spun by their classmates often leading to crazy occurrences. One daughter goes to the house of another to tell the mother that she was switched at birth with her daughter because a classmate had said so. The other mother brushes it aside because the girls are a year apart. 

Anne has as few things of her own. She gets very jealous of her husband when they meet up with one of his old girlfriends. She believes that he has forgotten their anniversary and is smitten with this other girl. She later discovers that he had a present for her that arrived late and saw that her forgetting of the anniversary as a nice excuse to delay it. He also thought the old girlfriend was a bore. In another case, Anne tries to play the matchmaker to hook up a couple. Alas, she tries the "contrary" approach. The girl later asks if she can try to get Anne's blessing - they had been engaged before Anne tried.

The book is a primarily a book of positive experiences raising young children. There will be challenges. But the positive style used by Anne's family compares favorably to the bickering and negativity shown by others.

Taking Hold: From Migrant Childhood to Columbia University (The Circuit Book 4)

Taking Hold: From Migrant Childhood to Columbia University (The Circuit Book 4) by Francisco Jiménez

By the time Panchito gets to graduate school at Columbia, his life becomes more typical and less unique to a migrant worker. He does start by sending some money back home, but his family is better able to care for themselves. He is more focussed on academics than the Vietnam-era protests going around Columbia. He finds himself called a "white boy" in Harlem, but also has real estate agents refuse him due to his hispanic last name. He gets married and initially lives with his wife in Staten Island (where she teaches). They later start a family and are able to move closer to Columbia. There are professors that are helpful and supportive as well as those that are not. They start a family and move closer to school. He struggles at first with teaching positions. He eventually completes his dissertation and is able to find a position at his Alma Mater, Santa Clara. It is the story of a hard working grad student who ditches the long distance relationship to marry his sweetheart and work through the challenges as his family back home gradually rises out of poverty.

Autism Out Loud: Life with a Child on the Spectrum, from Diagnosis to Young Adulthood

Autism Out Loud: Life with a Child on the Spectrum, from Diagnosis to Young Adulthood by Kate Swenson, Carrie Cariello, Adrian Wood

Autism feels like an incidental topic for this book. The authors talk about social media gathering and come across os mommy bloggers who happened to have kids with autism. They do go into some of their experiences, but the focus is on the mom, rather than the kid. The autistic child, the dad and the other siblings are bit players in this book of a mom's experience. The autistic child comes across as a challenge to "standard mommyhood" rather than a real person. The writers appear to be very outgoing go-getters who struggle significantly with a child that just does not adhere to social norms. This book will be useful for those ultra-social moms who have children with extreme autism. However, this only covers a small fraction of the cases out there.

One of the challenges with autism is that it is a single term applied to a large variety of conditions. The book does acknowledge that there are a number of co-existing conditions (such as ADHD and anxiety). Would it be better to split up autism into a number of unique diagnosis? Some kids have severe developmental and intellectual challenges. Others appear fine, but have social challenges. Lumping everything together just causes confusion. (Perhaps this is why it is becoming more common.) Autistic people tend to be more inward focussed. Even those that appear outwardly social are often less concerned about how others feel. These seems to be the opposite of the LGBT individuals who tend to be very outwardly focussed. They have pride parades and actively advocate for themselves. Autistic people rarely advocate for themselves. Are we missing out on an important part of culture? Were these people significant contributors in families before, but now shoved to the sidelines because they cannot adapt well to the challenges of ever-changing urban society?

Pippi in the South Seas

Pippi in the South Seas by Astrid Lindgren, translated by Gerry Bothmer

A city slicker sees a sign for Villa Villekulla and thinks it must be a house for sale. He wants to buy it and rid it of the children there. Alas, he discovers that Pippi is in fact the owner. Later Pippi's father returns and they get to go on an adventure ot the south seas. They met some friends, but also run into people that want to steal from them. Alas, things never turn out well for thieves with Pippi. In this book most of the community accepts Pippi for her uniqueness, but others in the world are still discovering her charm. It is a fairly good extension, but not as rich as the original.

The Boxcar Children Collection Volume 2: Mystery Ranch, Mike's Mystery, Blue Bay Mystery

The Boxcar Children Collection Volume 2: Mystery Ranch, Mike's Mystery, Blue Bay Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Mystery Ranch - their grandpa has not got along with his sister. The children go to visit her. She takes a liking to the children and decides to leave the ranch to them. There was a friendly guy they saw on the train. He was a uranium prospector who discovered there was Uranium on the land. They set up a mine, while keeping land for the aunt. They also defeat the attempts of others to swindle the ranch from the aunt for cheep.

Mike's Mystery - The kids return a year later to find the ranch is now a big uranium mining operation. One of the swindlers returns to try to damage the ranch and take revenge on Mike who "talks to much". They are able to catch him and get Mike's mom set up in a pie making business.

Blue Bay Mystery - Grandpa takes the kids on a trip on a ship to the south seas. They do their schoolwork on the ship there. they are then dropped off on the island with Grandpa and an experienced man to spend time living and learning there. They discover another boy is on the island. He had been shipwrecked many months ago. He had lived for some time with a sailor who recently disappeared while swimming. (He may have fallen to sharks.) They take the boy back when the are picked up and are able to reunite him with his family.

Throughout the stories, the children are often able to quickly job whether a character is good or evil by looking at them. Is this a skill that has been lost as people attempt not to be prejudiced? It is an interesting line to be drawn. The kids also have a huge amount of optimism and everything seems to turn out well in the end.

Matilda

Matilda by Roald Dahl

As I was recently rereading Matilda, I was amazed at how faithful the movie adaptation is to the book. Most of the major plot elements and themes are present. Matilda is an extremely precocious little girl. Her parents are a used car salesman and a white-trash beauty queen. They could care less for intellectual achievement and actively fight against it. As a toddler, Matilda goes to the library herself to read. At school, the teacher wants her to go to a higher grade, but the headmistress, Trunchbull, will have nothing of that. Trunchbull runs a strict school and uses kid to practice her athletic skills. Matilda discovers she has some magical talent and uses that to help "defeat" Trunchbull and restore Matilda's teacher's rightful inheritance. Things look up from the school perspective. But then Matilda returns home to find her parents moving. (stolen car fraud had caught up with Dad.) The family is more than willing to let Matilda be adopted by her teacher making everyone happier. 

Dahl utilizes his over-the-top humor to tell a compelling story. The events are almost real, but have exaggerated events occur. It is sad when those with intellectual talent are brought down by their families or the educational system. It is great that Matilda could have a happy ending. What about others?

One Last Stop

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

A girl, August, moves to New York City and gets an apartment with roomates and job at a diner. She sees another girl (Jane) on the Q line and is attracted to her. They always seem to ride the same line. They spend some time together. However, when August invites her out, she refuses.

Later August, with the help of her psychic roommate, determines that that girl may is in a weird state. She has been stuck on the train since the 1970s. As they dig further, they help Jane find out more about herself. They discover that she is connected to August's uncle that disappeared nearly a half century ago. They also learn that Jane had saved a diner worker who fell on the tracks and likely got shocked into limbo during a great blackout of the 1970s. They hatch a plan to free her from the realm.

This book tells a compelling story that adds on some lgbt romance. (e.g. making out helps her remember.) It is also firmly rooted in normal society. Though it does borrow some elements from romantic fantasy, it is much better written.

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain

In the afterward, Twain mentions that this evolved as two stories. His initial focus was on two Italian twins. They later became minor characters as the book focuses on Pudd'nhead and Tom Driscoll. 

The book begins with Pudd'nhead. He went to a small town attempting to practice law. However, the people thought a joke he told made him sound stupid, so they declared him a Pudd'nhead and he could never get a law practice.

The story then pivots to Roxy and Tom Driscoll. Roxy is a slave that is 1/16th black. She has a child that is 1/32nd black that is born at the same time as her master's son. They look similar and she raises them together. One day she switches them. Her son ends up being raised as Tom Driscoll, while the master's son is raised as a slave. She is granted her freedom, but loses her savings in a bank failure. Her becomes an entitled man with a gambling problem who has little respect for her. She tries to ask for money from him, but resorts to blackmail to get it. Tom has lost most of his money and has resorted to stealing from townspeople. He often dressed as a woman to carry out the crimes.

Two Italian twins come to room in the town. They become famous in the town. However, they end up in conflict with Tom and his rich Uncle. Later Tom kills his uncle and frames the Italians. It seems a slam dunk case.

Then Pudd'nhead comes back into play and it turns into a crime book. He has collected fingerprints from his time in town. He is able to use this to match the fingerprint of Tom to the murder weapon. Furthermore, he identifies Tom's fingerprint as changing from his birth prints. He reveals that Tom is really the son of a slave.

The two boys switched as infants can now be returned to their true rolls. Alas, it doesn't work out well. Tom had spent his life as a slave and is illiterate. He cannot manage in white society. Meanwhile, black society shuns him since he is white. The slave boy was sentenced to prison. However, he was later restored to the estate as "property" and is sold down river.

The book shows the ludicrousness of long-term decisions based on short-term events. Wilson is forever a "Pudd'nhead" from one comment. "Single drop" race identification is fairly nonsense. With significant intermarriage it does not make sense to focus on single "races". Slavery based on race was destined to fail.

Owls in the Family

Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat

A family in Saskatoon adopts some baby owls. These owls think of themselves more as humans than owls and take a long time to realize that they can fly. There are many funny events that ensure. In one case, Crows and Ducks think they can outnumber the little owl and come to cause ruckus. (This is brought to an end with a gun.) The family eventually must move and they end up finding a new home for the owls. The book is similar to other animal and friendship stories, but owls are fairly unique as bets.

I Like Bugs

I Like Bugs by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by G. Brian Karas, afterward by Leonard S. Marcus

A kid mentions all the ways that he likes bugs. It is s simple story that enables fun illustrations.

Nothing But Trouble

Nothing But Trouble by Fay Robinson, illustrated by Gina Pfleegor

A girl always seems to cause trouble for a boy. Most of the time there is plausible deniability. For example, she tied his shoes together when she was practicing shoe tying. The main story has the girl asking the boy to fetch her ball. He goes through the field to get it. Only when he is very itchy does he realize it was poison ivy. After finally approaching full recovery, she brings him flowers - from poison ivy. What are the motives for a girl this cruel?

The Princess and the Frog: A Surprise Guest

The Princess and the Frog: A Surprise Guest by Natalie Amanda Leece, illustrated by Studio IBOIX and Walt Sturrock

Book is a spin off from a movie based on a book based on a fairy tale. Just about nothing here is related to the original tale. Instead, it is mostly a conflict between a jazz musician alligator and a dog. It is quite bad.

Sacrament

Sacrament by Camma Larsen Zollinger, illustrated by William Kuhre

This book starts with a discussion of friendship. Then it relates friendship to Christ, baptism and the sacrament. The books was well done and does a good job of presenting religious topics without feeling forced.