Book Review: The Wives of Los Alamos

“We’re moving to the desert,” their physicist husbands told them. Explanations were thin on the ground, but still the young wives said goodbye to friends, offered vague reasons to parents they would not be permitted to see again for years, and they traveled--from cities and university towns, and from as far away as Europe--to the stark New Mexico outpost that was their new home. Some of them were pregnant and most had children in tow, and they would raise their young families in unfinished houses surrounded by barbed wire, where the water ran cold when it ran at all. Their clothes were all wrong, their heels were too high, and they were not prepared for the harsh turn into isolation and military secrecy that their lives had taken. Even less were they prepared for the horrendous truth of their husbands’ mysterious “project” when it was a secret no longer.

 The Wives of Los Alamos is the mesmerizing fictional account of how the wives adapted, survived and thrived—or not—in a largely unknown episode of  the second World War. Fans of Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic will enjoy the choral nature of TaraShea Nesbit’s narrative.  Delivered in the first person plural voice it is as much poetry as it is prose, and it speaks eloquently to the shared experience of women in a community born of hardship and fueled by determination. 

--Helene

  

The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman is a beautifully crafted story of love, loss, forgiveness, and redemption.

In December 1918, Tom Sherbourne signs on as an Australian lighthouse keeper. He is looking for isolation after spending four years on the Western Front. His first permanent assignment is on a small island at the southwestern tip of Australia called Janus Rock. His only contact with the outside world is the seasonal supply boat. He only gets shore leave every other year. Janus Rock is the perfect place to hide away from the world and from the past. Remarkably, while on a shore leave he meets a young beautiful woman who is willing to share his life on Janus Rock. They live happily cocooned in their isolation until a series of miscarriages brings unbearable sadness into their lives. Two weeks after the stillbirth of their son a miracle happens. A small boat drifts up to the island. The young man in the boat is dead, however a tiny baby girl is very much alive. Isabel believes this baby is a gift from God sent to replace the son she just lost. Isabel tells Tom that the baby's mother must have drowned, and she convinces Tom that they should keep the baby. He reluctantly agrees, but only because he sees how this little girl has brought joy into his wife's bleak existence. He falsifies the lighthouse documents to indicate that Isabel has given birth earlier than expected. Then their plan begins to unravel.

The Light Between Oceans is on my personal "favorite books" list. I highly recommend this remarkable award winning debut novel.

~Gilby G

Angel of Death

This is a book about an assassin nun.

Oh, yes, you read that right.

Assassin. Nun.

That's the character at the heart of the romantic, complex, and action-packed novel Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers. Ismae had a fairly bad early life. Born in 15th century Brittany (a tiny European country, now part of France) to an abusive father and a mother who never wanted her, she was married very young to an equally abusive husband. When she ran away, she discovered the convent of Saint Mortain, where nuns live in service to their patron saint and, by the way, also learn the arts of murder. That's because Saint Mortain is the new name for the old god of death, and he helpfully marks the people that he wants his nuns to kill.

The Dovekeepers

My co-workers got very tired of hearing about Alice Hoffman's historical novel The Dovekeepers. Before reading this book, I knew virtually nothing about what happened at Masada. As I read The Dovekeepers, I became more and more interested in Masada which resulted in researching the topic. I then felt compelled to tell the story to whomever would listen to me.

The story begins in 70 C.E. when a group of Jewish rebels commanded by Eleazar Ben Ya'ir take refuge from the Romans in a desert fortress built on sheer cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea. Jerusalem has fallen. Refugees travel to Masada from throughout the region to find shelter. Ironically, Masada was built by Herod as a place of retreat during frequent revolts against Rome by Jewish rebels.

Alice Hoffman used the writing of Josephus and archaeological findings to recreate this place. She tells the

Little Century: High Desert Drama

I'm not wild for westerns and cowboys are not my weakness. But that said, the adventures of Esther Chambers, Chicago schoolgirl turned homesteader heroine in Anna Keesey's Little Century, kept me turning pages.

Untethered and aimless after the death of her mother, Esther bravely pulls up stakes and lights out for Oregon's high desert country in search of family. The family in question is her distant cousin, a cattle rancher named Pick. Pick quickly convinces tenderfoot Esther to homestead Half-a-Mind, an abandoned claim adjacent to his own spread--even though she's a city girl who's never ridden a horse, and is not, strictly speaking, old enough to file a claim. No matter. Esther is nothing if not plucky, and if she proves up her claim in five years, Pick will buy the land from her. In the meantime he's counting on her presence to help keep out the sheepmen and preserve Half-a-Mind's good cattle-grazing land.

Well, everyone knows that cattlemen and sheepmen are sworn enemies, and Esther soon finds herself in the middle of a full-blown range war. This book has all the elements of a classic western: harsh wilderness, an arid, desolate landscape, outlaws, outcasts and privately-administered justice. Plus, the town of Little Century  has enough quirky characters--including the eccentric newspaper editor, the nosy postmistress, and a somewhat shady lady--to keep you happily occupied between confrontations. There's a romantic angle as well. Two of them, in fact, as Esther finds herself pursued by both a cattleman and a sheepman, guaranteeing that the course of true love does not run smooth.

Keesey teaches creative writing at Linfield College in Oregon; this is her first novel, but hopefully not her last. Fans of historical fiction will find it a tightly plotted, wonderfully descriptive evocation of the turn of the last century, and mighty fine reading.
-Helene

A Lifetime in the Making...

A few weeks ago, a blog reader approached me and told me he loved a book I recommended, and he had one I should read. He described it to me, and it sounded up my alley, so I picked it up and gave it a try.

Lately I've been turning over the concept of "predestined love" and it seems I am involuntarily reading a spate of books that explore this idea. However, The Little Book by Selden Edwards is much more than a love story. A book that took thirty years to write, it spans ninety-one years with a grandiose historical setting, taking on pivotal historical moments, family relationships, time travel, and love.

Historical Fiction Turnaround

     After about the fifth novel I've totally enjoyed in the historical fiction genre, I realize that I have to stop saying I don't like historical fiction.  I guess I never wanted to feel like I was reading to learn about a time period, rather that I was just reading a good story.  But good historical fiction gives you both (and it's not a bad thing to learn about a particular time period). 
    With all of that baggage out of the way, I really enjoyed Ellen Baker's novel I Gave My Heart to Know This.  You get a little bit of Rosie the Riveter, a little bit of keeping the home fires burning during World War II, a little bit of Wisconsin farm life, a little bit of California dreaming and a whole lot of family secrets.  A wonderful story with well developed characters that might also convince you to give the historical fiction genre a try if you've stayed away before.  I'm a fan now!

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