Hi bookworms. I hope you are hanging in there. It’s becoming more spring-like here now though early in the week we had a frosty morning that formed a bit of hoarfrost on the trees, which often has a neat effect. And we had several sightings this week of bald eagles on our road. I took a picture of one, which I’ve posted below. He was a big bird — majestic — and he watched me and our dog Willow as we walked quietly past. I think the eagle sat there for an hour or so while he gathered his thoughts, rested, and looked around. We’ve also had a couple flyovers by eagles and their wingspan is quite fantastic. I will keep my eyes peeled for more.
Meanwhile in disturbing book news this past week the U.S. president signed an executive order to eliminate “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” the federal agency (IMLS) that funds libraries and museums with grants and development with its budget of nearly $295 million. So apparently if this happens it will be “catastrophic” for libraries and museums across the country and will likely mean among other things that the availability of shared e-book collections and interlibrary loan services will be decimated. So if you depend on libraries for reading, things just got tougher. Make no mistake, libraries and books are under attack with funding cuts, book bans, and operational development and oversight.
By no coincidence, I received an email this past week from the Houston Public Library, where I reserve e-books and e-audiobooks as a paid nonresident library card holder, telling me they won’t be renewing nonresident memberships anymore due to “changes in library funding and operational needs.” Yikes all the rural users and people who don’t have access to a decent library will be out of luck. I’m beyond my city’s boundary and they don’t allow e-books or e-audiobooks to nonresidents here, so that’s why I sought out a nonresident card from Houston’s library system and it was very helpful for a couple years before this new funding cut, which I plan to call my representative about the need to save IMLS funding. It’s a shame right — along with the banning of books. We need more books to get to people, not less.
In more positive news, here is my library loot in hardback for the week. Though I’m not sure when I’ll have time to get to these since I’m reading three other books (not-pictured) currently. Still they look really good. Have you read any of these?
In other news I see that the National Book Critics Circle announced the winners of its 2024 book awards this past week, giving the top fiction prize to Hisham Matar’s novel My Friends and the top nonfiction prize to Adam Higginbotham’s book Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space. Also deceased Russian dissident Alexei Navalny won in the memoir category for his book Patriot. I’d like to read all three of these at some point and I know several of you have read and liked My Friends, which is about a Libyan exile living in London and his two friends who come together and apart over decades struggling with their loyalties to themselves and their homeland. I started it once and put it down but plan to pick it back up another time.
And now here are a couple reviews of what I finished lately — which were two good reads of historical fiction.
The Riveter by Jack Wang / House of Anansi Press / 392 pages / 2025
3.75 stars. Chinese Canadian Josiah Chang is a strong character who meets Poppy Miller while working in a shipyard in Vancouver, B.C. in 1942. (He uses a rivet gun to put together the metal on cargo ships. Hence the book’s title.) Josiah and Poppy fall hard for one another but her father won’t give his consent for them to marry since Poppy will lose her citizenship if she marries a resident Chinese alien like himself. So after a fight with a guy in the shipyard, Josiah runs off to join the Canadian army thinking that fighting for freedom and against the Nazis might also help him obtain his citizenship and marry Poppy in his homeland. He opts to prove himself further by training with an elite unit as a paratrooper and landing in Normandy during D-Day.
Josiah has some harrowing experiences with his regiment while fighting through France, Holland and Germany … as well as trying to stop a couple atrocities and crimes he sees from happening. And along the way, he becomes a veteran soldier all the while corresponding with Poppy in B.C. who worries for his safety as she continues work at the shipyard.
In some sense The Riveter is much like a traditional WWII story but from a Chinese Canadian perspective where Josiah’s the only one of his race in his regiment, which apparently was historically the case. He endures flak for it but proves his worth and sacrifice time and again. By the time the war winds down, you need to stick with it to see if he survives and if Poppy and Josiah will stay together post-war after so much time apart. Will they even be able to be together? That is the question. There is a little twist near the end that I didn’t foresee and it threw a new hurdle into the mix.
All in all, I learned a bit more about WWII and its paratroops from the Canadian side. The novel is fairly easy to read, but there is a density to the pages that took me a while to get through the book. By the end, it felt like I had journeyed far and wide with Josiah.
Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom / Atria Books / 348 pages / 2023
4 stars. This novel, which I listened to on audio, enlightened me about a real life indigenous girl (Goes First) who grew up in Montana with her Crow parents and tribe in the 1860s and ’70s and ends up marrying at age 16 a white fur trader (Abe Farwell) at a ceremony in Fort Benton, Montana. There, Mary (as her husband calls her) befriends a married Metis woman Jeannie who helps her deal with her new life and learn English.
But then Abe and Mary set off on a long trip to his trading post in Saskatchewan, Canada, where in time they fall for one another. And all goes well there for a season, until they cross paths with a group of drunken traders and hunters who think some natives stole their horses. Abe tells them otherwise and tries to calm them down, but what results is the Cypress Hills Massacre of 1873, which is a brutal attack that kills a number of Nakota Indians. Crow Mary (as she calls herself), armed with two guns, puts herself on the line trying to save some native women from the marauders.
Afterwards a trial arises over what happened that ends up having life-long consequences for Abe and Mary who are called to testify as witnesses. Along the way, the story unveils what life and marriage was like on the frontier for young Crow Mary, who was quite brave and competent handling horses and guns, surviving in the outback, and sleeping in a tepee. Her husband and her were quite close for years and had three children, but things after the trials begin to fray. Mary is one of those figures in history who becomes caught between the native and white worlds, struggling with the collision between the two. I was glad to learn of her life story and this real historical tragic event that she was involved in. I thought the author did a great job putting the reader in her shoes.
That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these books and what did you think?
Both books sound good. Your reviews give a good sense of the stories and characters. Glad you enjoyed them both. I bought My Friends last year but I wasn’t able to get to it. It was also longlisted for the Booker, so I was interested, but this year my reading pace is somewhat slower; I upgraded my reading target in GR, though I don’t think I’ll get to 40-42 like 2 years ago. Have a great reading week, whatever you choose!
BTW, great pic of the eagle! I’m obsessed with raptors. Last fall I had several encounters with hawks and was able to photograph one from fairly close, while another, hunting, would have been a great picture had I had been able to open my camera app in time… 😮 I also saw a bald eagle last fall swooping in the middle of traffic and later perching on a branch by the roadside. I was riveted! It was my first eagle sighting ever!!! Anyway, I think I have a hawk as neighbor; it’s been living on a tree nearby and from time to time it perches on the pointed roof in front of our window. So nice!
I didn’t know such a thing as nonresident library cards existed–so sorry to hear that yours is going away. Yes, things are dire for libraries and so much else right now. I’m hoping much of what is being dismantled will get put back together and stronger.
Coincidently, I also got Fagin from the library but am so impressed in the bio of US Grant that I am reading that I will likely need to return it before I can get to it.
As you know, I loved The River, so hope it resonates for you as well.
Have a good week, and welcome Spring!
I love it when the trees are frosty with ice. It’s such a magical image. And, I absolutely love spotting eagles here in our cove, as well as when we’re on the road in the RV. They are such majestic birds!
Yes, the latest EO to eliminate the IMLS is horrible. This is reminscent of book burning, no? Absolutely disgusting.
It seems like everyone has or is reading The Frozen River. I’ll give it a try sometime, maybe when the hype has died down.
Hope you’re having a good weekend, Susan.
I liked Frozen River although thought it was a bit overhyped.
Have you read about the library on the Vermont/Canada border where people from both countries mix happily? Of course, the president and his people decided to spoil that. https://apnews.com/article/canada-america-library-vermont-quebec-7c4851c705d18e0cc891c3ce085e15e4
These cuts to library funding are dreadful. The library where I work as a substitute once or twice a month has such extensive hours that it is full of nonresidents on evenings and weekends. I suspect many libraries will have to cut acquisitions and staffing. I will say that when working in Adult Reference it is rare I am asked about books per se – I spent my time putting books on hold, helping people with printers and scanners, and booking small meeting rooms. I get asked for book recommendations more frequently in the children’s room (not by children, who mostly want graphic novels) but by their parents.
The software we use sometimes makes it hard to place reserve requests, so I practice by putting new mysteries on hold for my sister. She finds this very annoying but it makes me laugh.
I am so sad to hear that some of the funding for libraries and other culture may fall away. Although to be fair, I don’t understand most of the decisions by the current US administration, so can’t say I am surprised. Do you have access to other libraries? Or how will you get your books going forward?
I was shocked about the cuts being made to libraries and museums. It’s horrific. I’m so sorry that the Houston PL is not renewing nonresident cards. Do we want people to be unable to access information? Do we not want an educated population? Mystifying.
Glad you enjoyed both of these historical fiction books.
I am so upset over the cuts to libraries and museums. We practically live at our library, and it is such a blessing to our community. They are always doing things to help people. It makes me so angry, what is happening.
I’m upset about the library stuff too. I’m a rural resident who gets almost all of my books from the library in a nearby town. I can’t afford to buy books.
I’ve been hearing good things about The Frozen River.
I talked to a local librarian this week. IMLS funds nearly all of their technology purchases and a big chunk of the summer reading program. Our e-books and a new state-wide consortium of libraries (which means that I can get books from many libraries around the state more quickly and easily than through interlibrary loan) both rely on funding from Missouri, which is also under threat.
The hoarfrost is magical, I love the photo. We see eagles sometimes but not as many as I’d like. They are so majestic.
In your library loot I have two of the titles on hold. Gliff and Fagin the Thief. Speaking of library visits and lending, I am horrifed about the changes this administration is making. That’s awful about the Houston library not renewing your account. What about California? Could you get a card there, maybe via your family who live there? At one time I wanted to get a nonresident card from the New York Public Library but had not pursued it.
If it comes down to it, us readers will need to figure out a network to share books. Maybe a group with lists of books they want and books they have and are willing to mail to others.
Say, there are 7 of us wanting to read Title X and it’s agreed the book owner will mail to the first person on the list. Then the next person sends it on after they have read it. Probably too convoluted and expensive to do though.
I think I would like My Friends as you described it. Crow Mary also sounds great. My list grows.
Attacking readers, libraries, and book networks is another example of the intellectual vandalism of our current education-despising government. Like everyone commenting, I feel angry and powerless.
Have a decent week if you can…mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Hi Susan,
This news about the libraries is disturbing. And I am so sorry they are not renewing your non-resident library membership. It’s petty and destructive this budget cutting that’s going on.
Both books sound good. I like historical novels and I had never heard of Crow Mary before. A very strong woman. Hope you have a good week.
I really liked Frozen River a lot. I hope you enjoy the read.
I feel like spring has arrived in SoCal with the poppies, freesias, and ceanothus in bloom.