June's Books

How to be an Indian in the Twenty-first Century by Louis V. Clark III (Two Shoes)

Clark grew up on the Oneida Reservation, just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin. His book combines poetry with autobiographical commentary on each of the poems. He reaches through pain with humor, and the poems touch many subjects—fatherhood, love, baseball, discrimination, and his Oneida heritage.

 


Decades of Dirt: murder, mayhem, and mystery edited by MB Dubray and Barbara S. Miller
Archie in the Crosshairs by Robert Goldsborough
Mrs. Pargeter's Public Relations by Simon Brett
Legend of the Christmas Ship by Carl Behrend
Funhome: a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Murder in Exile by Vincent O'Neil
Must Love Dogs: new leash on life by Claire Cook
How to be an Indian in the Twenty-first Century by Louis V. Clark III (Two Shoes)
Murder at the Rocks by Jill Paterson
Underwater Dogs by Seth Casteel
A Little Class in Murder by Carolyn Hart
Shirley, I Jest: a storied life by Cindy Williams
Rose Gold by Walter Mosley
Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King
A Man's Head by Georges Simenon
Christmas Cookies: beautiful and easy by Better Homes & Gardens
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Devil's Breath by G.M. Malliet
The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day
Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen
Aviatrix: first woman pilot for Hughes Airwest by Mary Bush
Heaven is Paved with Oreos by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
March: Book one by John Lewis

Deadly Proof

Deadly Proof by M. Louisa Locke

Nate Dawson, an attorney, is engaged to a widow, Annie Fuller, who owns a boarding house and moonlights part-time as a psychic, Madam Sybil. The Madam dispenses financial advice, which she gleans from reading the financial papers, and she is also a skilled bookkeeper. 

When Joshua Rashers, owner of a printing company, is found dead in his office, his body is discovered by his employee, Mrs. Florence Sullivan. Rashers’  widow, Catherine, accuses Mrs. Sullivan of having designs on her husband, and killing him in a rage of passion because she was going to be fired . Nate Dawson is hired to defend her, but Mrs. Sullivan will not say a word in her defense. She even refuses to see her husband or her ailing mother.

Dawson’s sister Laura is a typesetter, and helps him to investigate the crime. Police aren’t looking beyond Mrs. Sullivan for a culprit. Franklin Griggs, the print shop foreman, says that Florence was a valued employee and would never have been fired. The victim, who had an eye for the ladies and exploited his young female apprentices, also undercut competitors, and was complicit in driving other printing companies out of business.  Orrie Childers, an attractive young employee, is spreading gossip about the suspects.

During the investigation, Laura crosses paths with Seth Timmons, a man she had met before. They had both been teachers, but had taken jobs in the printing business to help make ends meet. They both hoped to attend the University of California, but will the investigation interfere with their plans to study for the entrance exams?

Annie is finding it impossible to plan a wedding amid Nate’s long hours on the case, and not knowing whether their families can travel to attend.

An absolutely enjoyable mystery. The details of life in 1880 San Francisco are woven into the story so that the reader is transported into another time and place. Women struggling to gain entrance to the printing trades, and battling with the shop owners and the unions, lend a rich background to this tale of murder.

May's Books

Checked Out: a dead-end job mystery by Elaine Viets

Helen Hawthorne, a private investigator who works with her husband, goes undercover at a library to search for a valuable painting that was donated to the library. “Muddy Alligators,” a watercolor painting by John Singer Sargent, was tucked inside a book that was among hundreds that was part of the estate of a wealthy local resident. Part of the interest in the painting is that it was believed to have been owned by Clark Gable, who then lost it to the father of local socialite Elizabeth Cateman Kingsley. Helen also investigates the rumors of a ghost haunting the library. The author is the winner of the Anthony and Agatha Awards for mysteries.

 


Inherit the Word by Daryl Wood Gerber
Checked Out: a dead-end job mystery by Elaine Viets
A Crabby Killer by Leighann Dobbs
Weave a Murderous Web by Anne Rothman-Hicks and Ken Hicks
Fortune's Fool by Albert Bell, jr.
Bad to the Bone by Linda O. Johnston
Miss Julia Weathers the Storm by Ann B. Ross
Dead Center by Danielle Girard
Deadly Proof by M. Louisa Locke
A Zen for Murder by Leighann Dobbs
The Murder Pit by Jeff Shelby

My Mother Was Nuts

Penny Marshall, actress and director, pours everything you want to know into her celebrity autobiography. Her mother was a dance instructor who made Penny take lessons for years Penny’s two siblings were her sister Ronny and her brother Garry, who became a producer. She frankly talks about her first marriage and her daughter, and her second marriage to actor and director Rob Reiner. Her role as LaVerne DiFazio on “LaVerne and Shirley” made her a household name, but although she mentions disagreements with co-star Cindy Williams, there was little else said about the program or the other actors on the show. She became interested in directing, and went on to direct “Big” and “A League of Their Own.” Her long term relationship with Art Garfunkel  and her friendship with Carrie Fisher were also included. The book struck a balance between celebrity name dropping (and there were a lot of names) and insider gossip. Marshall doesn’t shy away from unpleasant life circumstances, and gives a seemingly honest story of her life.

April's Books

Rose Wilder Lane was the only child of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband Almanzo. Wilder, of course, is the hugely successful author of the “Little House” books, which spawned a long running television series.  Born in DeSmet, South Dakota, Rose grew up in Missouri and had a successful career as a writer. Although Rose had a rocky relationship with her mother, she wanted to write a book based on her mother’s stories—“Pioneer Girl”—but never published it, although she used bits and pieces in other stories and books.

Rose never talked about her role in rewriting and editing the manuscript that would become the “Little House” series..Was Rose resentful of her mother’s success? Rose was divorced and  had no heirs, although she supported several boys and paid for their schooling, and referred to them as her “adopted” sons. She befriended young Roger Lea MacBride, who became the  1976 Libertarian Party presidential candidate. Rose w as a  supporter Libertarian ideas, such as no taxes and eliminating social welfare programs.

Laura had left the royalties to Rose for her lifetime, and then  royalties were to go to a small Missouri library. The library had to sue MacBride for a share of the estate.

The book used much primary source material from the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. A fascinating look into the story of how the “Little House” books came to be.

 

Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lake and the making of the Little House books by Christine Woodside
Give the Devil His Due by Steve Hockensmith with Lisa Falco
Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty
The Gone Dead Train by Lisa Turner
Seized by Elizabeth Heiter
Pioneer Girl: the annotated autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pamela Smith Hill (editor)
The Makerspace Librarian's Handbook by Ellyssa Kroski (editor)