You’re Reading What!? January 26, 2022

           Dear Readers-somehow Tuesday got away from us but here are some of the books we have been reading. This past week was one of reading historical fiction series in anticipation that the next few weeks will have a lot of non-fiction books in the mix.

           Once again, your writer has been re-acquainting themselves with some series so that I can get back into the characters in some of these series or learn the characters in one of these series that is new and hopefully will have a long run.

           First up is an upcoming book, second in a new series that is excellent and hopefully, will have a long run. Lost Graves, written by S.A. Dunphy and published January 24, 2022 by Bookouture. This is a great series set in Ireland and featuring criminal behavioralist Jessie Boyle, DS Seamus Keneally, and genealogist and tech specialist Terri Kehoe. Using Irish myths and legends and with elements of horror mixed in, the crimes in this and the first book in the series are believable and full of twists and turns.

  

 

       

    Next up is the 25^th installment in the Wesley Peterson series, The Stone Chamber written by Kate Ellis and published by Piatkus on August 5, 2021. This series follows Wesly Peterson, a detective inspector who trained initially in archeology. These stories are always interesting as there is generally a historical scene where there is generally an ancient mystery that parallels the current crime with similarities between the two. In this installment in the series, Wesley and the team are left trying to understand several disparate crimes and their connection to a long-closed mental hospital. These books are always interesting and a great read.

 

        

   The third book this week is The Angel in the Glass written by Alys Clare and published by Severn House on October 1, 2018. This is the second in the series following the life of Gabriel Taverner, erstwhile ship’s surgeon and now physician in rural Devon just after the death of Elizabeth I. Ms. Clare is the author of two additional historical fiction/mystery series including the Hawkenlye and Aelf Fen series. The crime in this book is linked to events in the past including the Dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII and a relatively less known period during the rule of his son Edward VI during which zealots further agitated for the destruction of stained-glass windows and statues.  Gabriel and his friends and family are interesting and sympathetic while having to investigate terrible crimes. There is a third and fourth book in the series that I am really looking forward to reading.

Well, dear readers those are just some of the books the crew is reading this week. Please let us know what you are reading!?

Last Living Link

          On Friday May 13, 2016 a number of news outlets ran a story about an Italian woman who appears to be the last known person in the world who was born in the 1800s. Ms. Emma Morano was born on November 29, 1899. She is 4 ½ months younger than the last known American citizen, Susannah Mushatt Jones, who born in the last year of the 19^th century and who died July 6, 2015. Ms. Jones, it should be noted, was the daughter of sharecroppers and the grand-daughter of slaves.

            Why is this story newsworthy and why does it capture people’s imagination? Could it be that people as social creatures really do care about our relational lives. Ms. Morano represents a tangible link to our personal histories. Our own national history is mired in the events of the 19^th century. Anyone who has been following the “Black Lives Matter” movement knows how much the Civil War and Reconstruction continue to color the American psyche.
            For Americans, the events of the 19^th century created the country that we know today even though the outlines of that influence grow hazier every day. For those of us in our middle ages and a bit older, we often had the chance to know someone who was born before 1900. Their world of horse drawn vehicles, no electric lights, no central heat and air, eating foods only when they were in season seems and seemed as incomprehensible as todays’ Millennials’ understanding of a world without computers.
            And yet their personal experiences were often the same as ours. They loved, mourned and tried to make the best lives they could for themselves and their families. So why does this story matter? We are looking at the last living, breathing link to a time that sits heavy on our national psyche and to loved ones whose faces we peer into in faded pictures who gave us our life with their love, sweat, work and tears.