In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce

March 24, 2024

In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce

Before Ted Bundy, before John Wayne Gacy, there was Belle Gunness, the infamous Black Widow of LaPorte. As a girl in Norway, Belle was beaten by her lover until she miscarried her unborn child. After emigrating to the U.S., Belle lived with her sister's family in Chicago in the middle of a large community of Norwegian immigrants. Tired of men's cruelty and also tired of being poor, Belle vowed to never be under a man's control again and that she would never again be poor, taking her revenge on the men of the world in a gruesome fashion.

Historical fiction based on the life and crimes of the Black Widow of LaPorte, Indiana, one of the first American serial killers. Her crime spree began in Chicago, then later she moved to a farm in Indiana, where she continued her bloody deeds. I had heard of Belle but didn't really know her story. This was another book for Women's History Month, this time about a truly notorious woman who proved that women can be just as evil as men. 

Belle Gunness and her three foster children

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

February 27, 2021

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

In 1934, in the middle years of drought brought on by soil erosion, with the Great Depression in its fifth year, Elsa Martinelli makes the difficult decision to leave the family farm in Oklahoma and travel to California. Elsa's husband disappeared a few years earlier and Elsa believes he went to California following dreams of easy money. Their son is suffering from dust tuberculosis and the cleaner air in California is supposed to help. 

But California proves not to be the promised land - unable to find cheap housing, reduced to picking crops for low wages, the family is forced to live in a tent city. They experience grinding poverty, prejudice, and a number of other tragedies.

We all enjoy a good tearjerker now and again, but this was just too bleak. Nothing went right for the family and when Elsa finally does stand up for herself, it ends in tragedy. Her daughter Lorada has no absolutely redeeming qualities, and the sick son is a non-entity. The best characters in the book are Elsa's in-laws, Rosa and Tony Martinelli. They take Elsa in when she becomes pregnant with their son's child and her own parents throw her out (Elsa's parents also have no redeeming qualities). They are the first real family and love that Elsa has ever know.

I kept reading, hoping that something good happens or that there will be a happy ending, but it's all just so sad.

I am hit or miss with Kristin Hannah's books. Normally I'm not much into women's fiction, but I loved The Nightingale (which was more like historical women's fiction) and I moderated the book discussion at the library. The Great Alone was more like The Four Winds, bleak and depressing.

That's a dust storm blowing across the Great Plains behind the farm, not a mountain range

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

March 22, 2020

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Flora Poste grew up believing that her family was wealthy, but when her parents died, she discovered that they were deeply in debt and that she had only a small annual income to live on.  Flora decides to contact her relatives and get one of them to take her in.  After receiving a mysterious response from her mother's cousin, she opts to go stay with her Starkadder relatives at Cold Comfort Farm in rural Sussex.  When she arrives, Flora identifies several "projects" that need her attention and she settles in happily to fix things.

Such a fun read - slightly futuristic for the time since it refers to another world war even though it was published in the 1930's, and also a device the author calls a video-phone.  Lot of quirky characters and a happy ending.  This was the third book in my "read 12 classics this year" New Year's resolution.  It was a good choice for reading during the current health crisis.

My family and I are all well during the COVID-19 pandemic, although I am still dealing with my back pain.  I hope any readers are also safe and healthy.  I have been reading a 750 page historical novel and just finished it today.  Review to follow shortly.

Illinois has a shelter-in-place order originally until April 7, extended today until the end of April.  The library remained open until March 21, and Chicago's mayor tried to get the library (and also the city parks) exempted from the "stay at home" order, insisting that the library should be classified as an essential service.  She was actually encouraging the homeless and senior citizens to go to the library, and telling parents to drop their children off at the library while they went to work.  They even had a plan worked out where the reference and clerical staff would have to continue working but the non-essential staff like the administration and departments like cataloging would be allowed to stay home.  Fortunately, Illinois' governor included the library in the shelter-in-place order.  I am the first person to say that libraries are important to their communities but it's not a vital or essential service.