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Historical Fiction – The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

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Historical Fiction - The Great AloneThe Great Alone

By Kristin Hannah

 

I enjoyed reading Kristin Hannah’s “The Great Alone”, her new work of historical fiction. Though it was a departure from her successful World War II novel, “The Nightingale”, that is hardly a criticism. I admire her ability to write something so different and avoid the proverbial rut.

Lessons from Alaska

Set in Alaska in the 1970’s, this novel focuses on a family running away from civilization, places they haven’t been successful. Barely a teenager, Leni, the couple’s daughter, finds herself in a new and wondrous place. Frightened by the increasing violence of her Viet Nam-veteran father’s PTSD and her mother’s inability to change things, Leni takes comfort in learning all the lessons Alaska teaches her in self-reliance.

The young woman finds enduring friendships and learns to reach out to them for help sometimes. She grows up and comes to grip with the most difficult problems in her life. In some cases I felt her lessons were too harsh. In others I thought she lucked out a little too much. But that is life.

Alaska Historical Fiction

The Alaska setting brought a freshness and sense of wonder to this work of historical fiction. Until I read Hannah’s own background story, I supposed this novel to be loosely based on several current popular TV series that are set in our 49th state. (Confession: I only know this because I have watched many episodes myself.) But Kristin Hannah has close personal ties to the area around Homer.

Having traveled to Alaska once myself, I feel she describes the surroundings and atmosphere just right. I loved the Homer area and could imagine myself living there. The Great Alone recreates what it was like in the 1970’s, before the Alaska pipeline and cable TV brought so many more people to the state.

 

 

Van History – THE FURMANATOR

Posted on by July 16, 2018
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Furmanator Wyoming - Van History Van History – The History of My Life

Historically speaking, my Ford Econoline conversion van holds a lot of the history of my life for the last twenty years. I’m not really a car person, but I feel a strong attachment for this good old van.

Purchased new when our old Chevy conversion van died, we didn’t have a lot of options from which to choose. We were only a month away from leaving on a long vacation road trip to the West Coast. A new auto had to contain the power to tow our old 24-foot Coachman trailer over the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada mountains. The only vehicle that met all our needs, this brand-new Econoline practically drove itself into our garage.

Van History – To California and Back

Furmanator Grand Canyon - Van History

Its first big road trip, it drove us dependably through Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and into California. The TV ensured that the kids didn’t have to miss watching “1776” on the 4th of July! The lovely window shades turned it into a dressing room at the beaches we visited. It carried us to the Grand Canyon, Legoland, Disneyland, Hollywood, and then up into the mountains to Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks.

Furmanator Tunnel Tree - Van History

When we turned towards home, we encountered road work in Nevada that stripped the road down to rocks. The van survived okay, but the camper took it badly. My hubby had repairs to do when we made it home after our three week odyssey.

Van History – The Daily Grind

Furmanator Mission Trip - Van History

That same year, the Econoline towed Boy Scout camping supplies on weekends and for summer camp. We made the first of many road trips through the Sandhills to church camp in Burwell with a load of youngsters. It carried teens and equipment on mission trips. Some kids gave it a name – The Furmanator. It dropped off and picked up kids at school each day, one year from three different schools. Then it squired them to music lessons, scouts, and practices.

Van History – Canada and the Northeast

Furmanator Passengers - Van History

Our second year with the van, it took us to the East Coast, through Ontario, Quebec, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York. We soaked up the Revolutionary War vibrations, visited with Pilgrims, and met literary lions.  Again, the Furmanator became our beach dressing room. Tight rotaries while towing a camper provided challenges, as did the traffic signs in French. We made last stops at Niagara Falls and at Chicago to see the dinosaur named Sue and a Star Wars exhibit before heading for home. The camper bore more battle scars, and we sold it.

Van History – The Southeast and Gulf Coast

Furmanator Southeast - Van History

The next year the Furmanator carried just us to the Southeast and the Gulf Coast. Without the camper, we crammed everything into the van – suitcases, pillows, entertainment, food for picnics and snacks. Our three kids were about their maximum height by this point, and they appreciated the foot room. We said “Hi” to Elvis in Memphis (he answered “Thank you very much.”). And we paid our respects to Martin Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta.  Revolutionary War battlegrounds beckoned in South Carolina. We hiked in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, explored Mammoth Cave National Park, swam in the Gulf on the beach in Mississippi, listened to jazz in New Orleans, and searched the swamps in Louisiana.

Van History – Lewis and Clark

Furmanator Lemhi Pass - Van History

We asked a lot of the Furmanator the following summer, treading in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, starting in Omaha and ending up on the coast in Washington and Oregon. We didn’t ask the van to drive in the Missouri or Columbia Rivers, but many miles of barely existing roads lay behind us by the end of that trip. As our kids said, “Lewis and Clark took the long way and they were lost a lot.”

We heard elk bugling near our camp in Lemhi Pass where we gazed at the Bitterroot Mountains with an apprehension similar to Lewis and Clark. Would the Furmanator and our borrowed pop-up camper make it down the one-lane dirt road and back up the next mountain? Our horsepower wasn’t as edible as theirs was, nor did we have to resort to eating tallow candles. And luckily, we had a large gas tank that saw us through to the next available sign of civilization.

Van History – All Over the Middle

Furmanator Tetons - Van History

In later years we wandered around Texas, played in Colorado, explored New Mexico, took a number of trips to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, had some fun in the Black Hills, camped in Glacier National Park, went to the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde, and traveled to the East Coast to visit our 49th state, Delaware. Sometimes we stayed in motels, sometimes we camped in a tent, sometimes we camped in the Furmanator.

Furmanator Glacier - Van Histroy

Furmanator Arch - Van History

Van History – Woe Is Me

Furmanator 4 Corners - Van History

The Furmanator acted a little more persnickety. The radiator sprang a leak in Rapid City. Wheel bearings (that supposedly had been repacked before we left) fried and stranded us at Four Corners. Literally the middle of nowhere. The alternator faded in New Jersey. Over-heated wheel bearings or brake parts blew up a front tire in Yellowstone and then again in Douglas, Wyoming on the same trip (after being repaired).

Furmanator New Jersey - Van HistoryFurmanator Wyoming Trouble - Van History

We learned a few things through all this:

  1. Some repair places aren’t worth spit!
  2. We don’t know how to tell the difference between repairs and prep done well and those bound to fail.
  3. It’s kind of fun to ride inside the Furmanator on top of a tow truck trailer.
  4. It’s not so much fun to ride inside a tow truck.
  5. Cell phones are a marvelous invention.
  6. Maybe it’s about time to go vehicle shopping.

When my husband retired at the end of 2017, we were forced to think about what that meant. The one thing we knew we wanted was to keep on traveling. And once we decided that we wanted a camper again, we knew that meant a new towing vehicle. An almost twenty year old van with over 216,000 miles isn’t up to that job anymore.

Van History – Family History

Furmanator College - Van History

Silly and sentimental, but I can’t say goodbye to the Furmanator without a few tears. I watched my children grow from elementary school through high school in that vehicle. We packed all their belongings to different college campuses and back again in that van. We moved them into apartments and ferried wedding presents in the big green Econoline. Last year we took our one-year-old granddaughter on her first vacation to Yellowstone in the Furmanator.

Family and friends. Memories made together. Some great, some not so great. Here’s hoping the history made in our new vehicle will be as interesting and sweet as the history we made with the Furmanator.

 

 

 

MYSTERY – Solved and Unsolved

Posted on by April 7, 2018
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Mystery???

 

I love a good mystery. Doesn’t everyone? Ever since I “discovered” Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden I have been a mystery fan.

Mystery

Back in those days, when I spent whole summers reading nothing else, I was obsessed with finding real mysteries wherever I looked. I recall riding bikes with a friend out on the gravel road to the cemetery, stopping along the way to search for clues in the ditches, roadside, and, of course, in the cemetery.

Mystery

We found beer cans, pop bottle lids, candy wrappers, an occasional shoe or car muffler. We tried to build mysteries around these things. Somewhat unsuccessfully. Whose car was making a lot of noise lately? Which high school boys were most likely responsible for throwing the beer cans out their car window? How many females in our town wore a size 7 shoe, and who was missing one?

More Complex Mystery

Mystery

As I aged out of Nancy Drew, classics replaced mysteries as my preferred reading. But the mysteries persisted. Who is the crazy person living in Mr. Rochester’s attic? How many secrets are there in The Scarlet Letter?

History Mystery

As I matured, I grew more and more passionate about history. I realize that history is full of mysteries. Research helps uncover not just events that happened long ago. It sheds light on the people who participated in those events, along with their desires and motives. How did they live? What were they trying to accomplish?

Mystery

We know that Edward IV’s two young sons vanished from the Tower of London, but it was a mystery for many years if and how they died, and is still debatable who was responsible. Did Richard III kill his nephews?  Shakespeare immortalized that version. Or was it done through Margaret Beaufort to put forward her son Henry Tudor (who became Henry VII) as heir to the English throne? Or maybe it was Richard’s wife to ensure the succession would come down that line? It is still a mystery waiting to be solved.

Mystery

 

Mystery Historical Fiction

Classics and my love of history led me to reading historical fiction, and even there, I’ve found mysteries. A paleontologist dug up dinosaur fossils in Centennial by James Michener and solved a murder from an earlier century.

Mystery

I’m a fan of historical fiction mysteries. I love the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters with his medieval monk sleuth. C. J. Sansom has Matthew Shardlake as a Tudor era detective. Right down my alley! Elizabeth Peters amuses me with Amelia Peabody and her Egyptian archeologist adventures in the Valley of the Kings.

Mystery

 

Mystery Fiction

Nancy Drew has even reappeared in my life. Of course, now she looks like National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon in Nevada Barr’s works. Or Dr. Kay Scarpetta in Patricia Cornwell’s forensics. Or Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan. Or maybe even madcap Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich’s novels.

Mystery

Contemporary mysteries, with their flawed but admirable solvers draw me into their worlds, too. James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux is at the top of this list. Sheriff Walt Longmire and Game Warden Joe Pickett, characters created by Craig Johnson and C. J. Box, respectively, fall into this category. They appeal to me with their Wyoming locales in the Big Horn Mountains. Tony Hillerman, P. D. James, Louise Penny, Elizabeth George, Aaron Elkins, and so many more, right back to Sherlock Holmes, tempt me to spend time with them.

Mystery

Why are mysteries so popular? I believe it is because they all appeal to the human desire for justice and to our natural curiosity. In the real world, we usually find out who has been killed, and maybe the cause of death. But the other questions are less surely answered. “Whodunit”, how did they do it, and why did they do it, are not always answered to our satisfaction in true life.

Mystery

But remember, some crimes take a hundred years to come to light, when a paleontologist digs up human bones along with a dinosaur fossil…

 

What’s On Your Bookshelf? Reflections of Yourself

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What does my bookshelf say about me?  I read an article in the Omaha World Herald a few weeks ago that spoke of how a book collection reflects the person who owns it.

Do I need more science fiction and mystery in this bookshelf?

My Bookshelf

I walked through my house, pouring over the titles on each bookshelf. My eclectic collection reflects a lot of disparate interests. Two double-wide, seven-feet-tall shelves line my family room. Two four-shelf cases grace my living room. Three tall shelf units (the type you can buy at Shopko) line my basement family room. Other shelves hold kids’ books. And all are full, even though I cull them annually for our church garage sale.

Is this enough Plains history and science?

My Bookshelf

The first and easiest thing my bookshelves say is that I probably own too many books! I may be a book hoarder. At the very least, I have trouble parting with books I have loved, books with beautiful bindings, books about my favorite subjects, books I want to read again, and books I mean to read soon. Books fill each bookshelf fairly well, and I find it more difficult every year to fill a box for the rummage sale.

I could use more world and English literature in this bookshelf…

My Bookshelf

My shelves also tell of my background working in libraries and bookstores. Being the daughter of a librarian, my books are shelved by genre, author, or time frame, of course. Two of the basement bookshelf units contain science fiction/fantasy, while one contains mysteries. The living room units are full of historical nonfiction and science. The shelves in my family room are divided into world literature and English literature on the north, while American literature and fiction overflow on the south.

I can never get enough American historical novels…

My Bookshelf

How old was I when I first read of Elizabeth and Darcy? Who was that professor who helped me see the inner beauty of Wordsworth’s poems? How much better would my term paper about Thomas Jefferson be if I wrote it today? What interesting worlds can be created by authors who let go of the world as we know it? Don’t I need another book about Lewis and Clark? What’s the newest National Park adventure by Nevada Barr? When will Sheriff Longmire run into Joe Pickett?

Anyone for some historical nonfiction?

My Bookshelf

The books on my bookshelf follow my own footsteps through life. Thornton W. Burgess, The Boxcar Children, Louisa May Alcott, Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, and Anne of Green Gables were my childhood friends. I graduated to Bronte, Austen, Elswyth Thane, Mary Stewart, Neville Shute, and A. J. Cronin. Then I found Michener. Oh, the glory of Michener – start at the very beginning and leave nothing out!

Don’t judge me for my affinity for children’s books!

My Bookshelf

I favor all books about King Arthur, many novels about the Tudors, early American history – fiction and nonfiction, Nebraska and western history and fiction, science fiction and fantasy, mysteries, and religious fiction. With the recent explosion of young adult fiction, I find myself drawn to them for fantasy page turners when I don’t have much time. But I am apt to choose almost any genre, depending on my mood.

I guess my bookshelf collection proves that it’s not so important what I’m reading as it is that I am reading! And I am a book hoarder.

 

 

Favorite 1900s Historical Fiction – Montana 1948 – Larry Watson –

Posted on by February 21, 2018
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Montana 1948

by Larry Watson

Montana 1948 - 1900s historical fiction

 

 

       Historical fiction brings a sense of time and place to its readers.  Good historical fiction also offers insight into the people living in that time and place, and their similarities to us.  I found Montana 1948 to be a great work of 1900s historical fiction.

        Larry Watson crafts this compact story of events in a twelve-year-old boy’s life without a single spare word.  He evokes a picture of life in a small town in Montana following World War II.  People ride horses into town, but most inhabitants drive pickups.  Some mothers stay at home, but some work at jobs around town.  Sioux citizens struggle against prejudice and dismissal, except when they compete exceptionally in sports.

The Adults

        The story in this 1900s historical fiction focuses on the relationships between the adults in his life and how they have evolved.  His father, the County Sheriff, dislikes his job and wishes he could be the lawyer he was trained to be, as does his wife.  But David’s grandfather has retired from the sheriff job and has bequeathed it to his son.  He expects his son to hold the position off and on for the rest of his life.

        David’s uncle has been a golden boy all his life – a great athlete, a war hero, his father’s favorite, and now a doctor in the small town.  But there are stories about him among the Sioux.

        Marie Little Soldier, the family’s housekeeper, has taken care of David since he was quite young.  Then Marie catches pneumonia and dies, which sets into motion a series of events that change all of them forever.

The Dilemma

        Young David loves his parents, grandparents, uncle and aunt, and his Sioux caregiver.  But the adults act in ways that make him reassess them as individuals.  He questions their actions, reactions, and inactions, and tries to figure out his own place in the events that swirl around Marie Little Soldier.  Adulthood claims him.

        I loved this book – so readable and so relatable!  We all know people who only find their courage when hard-pressed.  Some people, despite all the advantages they’ve always received, have used their positions for ill purposes.  In America (and in most places), some groups of people have been mistreated and have to fight for every good thing in their lives.  And all of us have been young folks who have to learn these truths for the first time.

 

5/5 stars

 

1700s Historical Fiction-Written in My Own Heart’s Blood

Posted on by February 21, 2018
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1700s historical fiction - gabaldon

Written In My Own Heart’s Blood

By Diana Gabaldon

 

        I love historical fiction.  I love historical fiction about the American Revolution.  And I love historical fiction by Diana Gabaldon in her Outlander series.  But I somewhat reluctantly love this work of historical fiction that meets all three of the above criteria.  Let me tell you why.

Historical Fiction

        All of the novels of the Outlander series qualify as historical fiction.  But they have the unique addition of the characters’ ability to time travel through supernatural means.  Each traveler must figure out the limits and rules that apply to this ability.  This adds the hint of danger to each trip.  Gabaldon weaves a tangled web of interrelationships between the 1700’s and the 1900’s.  Willing and unwilling time travel through standing stones in the Scottish Highlands complicates many lives.

American Revolution

        In this eighth volume of the Outlander series, the author brings us further into the American Revolution.  Jamie and Claire have grown into middle age, together and apart.  Claire has been living in the British-occupied city of Philadelphia.  But that’s about to change with the king’s army hightailing it towards New York City.

1700s historical fiction - monmouth battlefield

        Gabaldon has done her research well and presents the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey pretty accurately.  I just visited that site last year, so I loved how well I could feel the heat and the ebb and flow of an important day in our nation’s history.  The one where Washington earned the love and respect of his troops.

Outlander Series

        Diana Gabaldon writes beautiful prose and tells absorbing stories.  She has sustained her Outlander books over many years and through many characters.  They face situations with grace, ingenuity, and craftiness (especially the villains).  I’ve followed them through the Jacobite risings in Scotland, witch burnings, French court intrigues, hangings, prisons, colonial life in the Appalachians, and now traveling with Washington’s army during the American Revolution.

        They never lack for plot.  But in this book, I felt that there were too many characters, with too many things going on.  Having been several years since I read the seventh book in the series, I found it difficult to pick up all the threads left hanging at the end of that one.  I had to keep reminding myself who they were and what their parts in the various plots were.

Two Instead of One?

        By the time I finished reading this novel, I thought it could easily have been two separate books.  Maybe it should have been.  Claire and Jamie, along with their relatives and friends in North America, had many plots and subplots.  They also had to make a lot of history.  Their daughter, Brianna, and her husband, Roger, faced their own trials and dangers in Scotland, both 18th and 20th centuries.

        But both groups existed in continuations of plots begun in the previous book.  Plots that I, at least in some cases, didn’t remember.  So I felt that Gabaldon should have spent a little more time encapsulating the loose ends.  This might have caused the need for two books instead of one.

        I still recommend this book to all who want to follow the further adventures of these marvelous characters.  But if reading it over, I might skip chapters and read the two plot lines separately till they come together again.  Juggling all the players at once was difficult for both the writer and the reader.

 

BCE Historical Fiction – Love Amid the Ashes

Posted on by February 21, 2018
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BCE historical fiction - love amid the ashes

 

Love Amid the Ashes

By Mesu Andrews

 

BCE Historical Fiction – Job and Dinah?

         This BCE historical fiction tells the Biblical story of Job by combining his tale with that of Dinah from Genesis.  The author researched and found a somewhat obscure apocryphal source proposing a relationship between Job and Jacob’s daughter as well as a relationship between Esau and Job.  Andrews cited her sources, but I’m not sure that I was convinced.  But this is a work of fiction, so poetic license probably covers such an ancient time period!

 Tough times for women

        On the surface this book moved along in its narrative without a lot of bumps. Dinah hasn’t had an easy life since her rape experience.  Her relatives all blame her for the revenge she caused them to take.  They treat her like damaged goods and are glad to get rid of her when the chance appears.  Dinah finds a new life when Jacob sends her away to be wed to one of Job’s children.

        When she arrives at Job’s residence, things happen quickly.  Her intended groom dies before she has the chance to meet him.  Because she is a trained healer, Dinah helps Job with the physical suffering he endures.  He gives her the spiritual sustenance that she needs.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry

        Several things bothered me as I read this novel.  The author inserts tears into almost every scene.  And not just in scenes where God reveals new sufferings for Job.  It got so irritating that I groaned each time any character showed tears, which was a lot.  It also became tedious that all the women “giggled” all the time.  They rarely laughed or chuckled or snickered or chortled.  Just giggled, sometimes in the same scene with tears.

        Another thing that I didn’t like about this book was its tendency to name drop.  The author wove the two characters’ stories together, but it felt forced when they all ended up in Egypt with Joseph.

        I have read a lot better Biblical historical fiction – novels that dove deeper into character, motive, plot, and theology.  This one was just a little too simplistic.

 

2/5 Stars

Historical Nonfiction – The Blood of Avalon – King Arthur –

Posted on by June 25, 2017
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The Blood of Avalon – The Secret History of the Grail Dynasty from King Arthur to Prince William By Adrian Gilbert –   Adrian Gilbert believes that he can trace the ancestry of England’s Prince William back to King Arthur … Continue reading →