Saffire--The Building of the Panama Canal

Saffire by Sigmund Brouwer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My father took his first wife on a cruise through the Panama Canal shortly after it opened as his honeymoon gift. She hated it! She also hated their cross country road trip in the '30's. Needless to say the marriage didn't last and he eventually met my Mom who loved trips like these. As a result of both --stories of the honeymoon and the adventuresome spirit of my parents--traveling the Panama Canal has been on my bucket list forever. Still is but this book has given me a bit of a substitute and it may have to suffice.
For you see, though the title of the book refers to a young girl whose mother was accused of stealing jewelry and then running off and disappearing without a trace, the true focus of it is the Panama Canal. We see the extraordinary engineering feat its building was through the James Holt, a cattle rancher from Dakota, around Medora. He is a widower who finds himself in financial straits, so much so that he faces foreclosure on his ranch. His buddy, Theodore Roosevelt, promises him a bank note to pay his outstanding bills if he will just travel to Panama and report there to Col. Goethals, the man in charge of the construction. Holt neither knows why he was chosen nor what is expected of him in Panama, but since he gets the bank note just for hearing Goethals out, he boards a train and heads to New York, leaving his young daughter behind for the duration.
Everything about the trip to Panama from Dakota is described by Holt. His arrival in the Zone and his first encounter with my favorite character, T.B. Miskimon, who is as stiff as the starch in his shirt collar. He is Goethal's right hand man and as such is the perfect foil to the casual humor of the American cowboy, complete with felt hat and boots, that is Holt.
Throughout the story, which takes place over three days, Holt is sort of lost --he hasn't a clue what is going on or what he is supposed to be investigating for Goethals. The reader is lost as well--there are so many characters whose motivations and manipulations and connections are hazy. One thing was clear to me at first meeting Odalis Corillo but since the man's mystery is a plot point and used as a mystery I will not reveal what I knew at first sight.
There are many others to interact with Holt--Saffire, the young girl of the title implores him to help her find out the truth about her mother and Goethals encourages him to investigate that mystery as his cover.
He travels from the American controlled Zone into the heart of Panama City where his new position as a policeman in the Zone has no meaning. His questions get him into a life threatening situation from which he is rescued by Saffire and the lovely Raquel Sandoval, daughter of a prominent Panamanian. He had met her earlier in the company of a young man, her fiancé, Raoul Amador. At the same time, he is introduced to Robert ,a German tourist and Earl Harding, an American journalist. Throughout his investigations his path crosses with them both many times. In addition, there is William Nelson Cromwell, financier involved in the convoluted workings of corporate transfers involving the original Columbian interests prior to the Panamanian Revolution that broke Panama from Columbia. Also, the transfer of French control of the canal construction to the American corporation which was now completing the rail line as well as the locks and dam building taking place to make the connection of Atlantic to Pacific a reality.
Many of the characters in the telling are real historical figures, some of the story is true--the politics and engineering and sabotage --and some of it is not. All of it is fascinating and exciting. The love story is a bit far-fetched and not entirely well developed or necessary, but on the other hand, not terribly distracting or explicit. The first person narration adds an extra touch of immediacy and realism. All in all, a book worth reading, even, perhaps, a second time.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

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Home By Nightfall--The Charles Fellows Do It Again!

Home by Nightfall by Charles Finch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For those of you who have read the Charles Lennox mysteries from the beginning this entry to the series does not disappoint. Charles sister in law has died and he returns to his childhood home to stay with his brother, Edward, for awhile. Finch, the author, does such a good job of developing his characters that the love between the brothers is realistically portrayed as is the area in which they grew up. The townsfolk that they have known forever and those more recently arrived are distinctive in their descriptions and mannerisms. Since this is a mystery series and since Charles the younger brother has become a detective there is of course a series of crimes that need solving. A man's house has been broken into and all that seems to have been taken is a bottle of sherry, although, too there is a strange chalked image of a young girl on his doorstep. In addition, the mayor of the town, not long afterwards, is found in his office brutally stabbed to death and the same image drawn on his office wall in his blood.
Investigating these crimes serves several purposes for the Lennox men--it keeps Charles from getting bored or anxious to return to London where he was immersed with his partners in the investigation of the disappearance of a famous German classical pianist. In addition, since Charles involves Edward in the local investigation it helps to distract him from the loss of his wife, at least temporarily. It also prevents him from dwelling too much on the fact that his two sons are away from home, one in Africa and one on a Naval ship, who knows where. Not only does he miss them but he also is worried for they do not yet know that their mother has died.
In true, Finch fashion, all is resolved by books end--mysteries solved, with the help of Dr OConnell--Lady Jane, Toto, the children and Hughes all make their appearances, too and the reader of the series is happy to have spent time with them all once more.
Though the book is enjoyable in and of itself, if you have not read any of the prior books, in my opinion the series is much more fun, if the reader starts at the beginning with A Beautiful Blue Death. It should also be said that in addition to being an enjoyable read each book is also lovely to look at since each cover is a delightful series of items of the period strewn across appealing colorful backgrounds.

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Paper Castles--Poor Little Rich Girl :(

Paper Castles by Terri Lee
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In trying to cover too many struggles in the life of the " heroine " or anyway , main character, Savannah Palmerton, the author produced a book in which everything is very superficial. The paper castles of the title refers to the homes of the rich ( castles ) which from the outside looking in house happy families, well-adjusted and loving. But, it can be assumed from the travails of this pampered, protected almost 40 year old, they actually are made not of sturdy brick but rather of fragile paper. They hide lies and secrets and scandals and sadness. None of which seemed particularly surprising to me. The fact that all of this is hidden rather than aired in public also is not a surprise but, in this day and age of public self-revelation, may be perceived as unhealthy if not downright shameful in itself.
The time of the story is the 60's, 1963 to be precise. I graduated from college then at 20, so Savannah might have been an older sister or cousin. In my family we would have known she was an alcoholic and pill popper with an adulterous husband. We would not have bandied it about either but someone would have been urging her to pull herself together and get a life. Other than enrolling in a Community College art course she doesn't appear to do anything with herself. She doesn't take care of the house, she has a housekeeper/nanny/surrogate mother for that. She doesn't appear to have too much to do with her kids and she sure doesn't do much about standing up for herself in her marriage. She's kind of a shallow basket case with whom I could not relate.
I did stick with the book, though, hoping that the point was that she would become stronger and say enough is enough and become more than a one dimensional character--but alas, it did not happen. Her husband is gotten rid of fairly easily--as a plot point--and it sets the tenor for the rest of the book. Mental illness seems to run in the family, but does it? And if it exists at all in the family, how was it handled? At the end of the book it seems finding a new man, going to the ocean and dropping alcohol and pills takes care of everything.
While there were several " I didn't see that coming" moments in the story which kept me pushing on, there was just no meat on the bones. Everything, dalliances, mental illness, alienation from family members, alcoholism--all glossed over and superficial. Fortunately, it was a fast read or I would have tossed it aside.
I must admit, the personal thank you note from the author was a first and touched me but though Terri Lee sounds like a nice lady, not sure I'll seek out any other of her books. This was a GoodReads Giveaway in exchange for an unbiased review.

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Hearts West--Mail Order Brides on the Frontier

Hearts West: True Stories of Mail-Order Brides on the Frontier by Chris Enss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As I read this little book the jingle " you don't have to be lonely at Farmers only dot com" began to play in my mind. This led me to think about Christian Mingle and other on-line dating services and also took me back to personals in the classified section of the newspaper. Are they still there, I wondered, so went in search of today's copy of our local paper--nope, no personals ads anymore. Things change so much is such a short time, I thought, and yet, other things do not.
There continues to be that longing for a special someone in our life and the methods of finding the person may change but the human desire for companionship does not. In Hearts West the primary people longing for someone were the many young and not so young men who made their way to the wide open spaces of the American West, some rushing for gold after the 1849 discovery at Sutter's Mill, or in the Pacific Northwest working in lumber or fishing industries, some ranching in Idaho and the Dakotas or even others in the Midwest who farming. These found themselves in an almost all male environment and before too long they found they wanted wives to share the building of their homes and lives.
Some groups in the West gathered money together and sent emissaries back East to advertise for young women to move to the West and marry. Others merely sent advertisements to papers in the East asking for women to correspond with them with the idea of eventual marriage. For their parts, young women who found themselves in the unenviable position of spinster or orphan or widow responded to the call and packing a bag set out alone or in groups to meet men with whom they may have exchanged a few letters and a picture or two. Many arrived and within hours became the wives of these men.
In this little book, we read short entries of the people who organized the search for the women, and others of the couples who met, married and then made it for decades or managed for, in one case, an hour. All of the stories are interesting, some incredibly sad, others remarkably uplifting, all awe-inspiring in the strength and bravery of the women involved There is a section of actual ads submitted by the men seeking wives, but also ads submitted by women seeking a husband. In a short ad the personalities of the seekers come through--some obviously witty, lighthearted and others more serious and dour. Some, as one man, not interested in Irish women, others, as one woman desiring a Catholic gentleman. It is interesting to see with what bravado or modesty they describe themselves--age, height, weight, hair and eye color, financial status, hope for a compatible mate.
It would seem, then as now, the seeking of a partner required taking a risk of failure but hope, then as now, springs eternal and for some, then as now, there is success and happy ever after.



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Brownie Wise Was Certainly The Life of All Tupperware Parties!

Life of the Party: The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built, and Lost, a Tupperware Party Empire by Bob Kealing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Originally written in 2008 with the focus on Tupperware and the company that manufactured it, this new revised edition has as its focus Brownie Wise, Miss Tupperware of the '50's. Those of us of a certain age have attended Tupperware parties, played the games, won little prizes, viewed the demonstration of the products and walked home with our new plastic kitchenware. Some of us even signed up to hostess a party of our own with the promise of hostess gifts and bonuses. Brownie Wise was the brains behind this money making concept--the home demonstration party. Well, the party part anyway. Stanley Home Products for whom she worked first after her divorce had used the concept of door to door selling which included a home demonstration, but Brownie added the idea of the salesperson gathering several customers together in one place and presenting product in a snack filled, game playing setting in a friend's home.
Her sales acumen and drive, headquartered in Florida, where Mr Tupper chose to locate the sales party branch makes for an incredible story. In five short years she and her teams across the country moved the plastic bowl manufactured in Massachusetts into almost every American kitchen and turned the company into a multi-million dollar enterprise. In the process, she also moved herself into the limelight as the first woman ever to grace the cover of Business Week. She rose to greater prominence in American business than any woman before her--vice president in charge of sales of a major corporation--and she took an incredible number of women with her as demonstators, dealers, distributors and money earners allowing them and their families to advance their economic strength.
Unfortunately, Mr Tupper,the brains behind the Tupperware items and President of the company, for reasons that are really unclear, decided that Brownie Wise was getting too much attention and, perhaps, was forgetting her place as his employee. At any rate, in 1959 he fired her and erased all evidence of her existence in the annals of the company. He also divorced his wife of 20+ years, sold the company to Rexall drugs, gave up his US citizenship and moved to an island in the Caribbean--go figure.
An incredible story of a five year flash of success for two very different people which is a fast and interesting read.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review

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Black Diamonds--A Real Story of Aristocrats Rather Than the Romance of Downton Abbey

Black Diamonds: The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England by Catherine Bailey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As can be seen from the year and a half it took to read this book, it is neither engrossing nor exciting a story. It is, however, a dual tale--the story of the Earls Fitzwilliam family through several generations and the story of the British coal industry and its miners. The two are intrinsically entwined since it was through the back breaking work of miners who started in the pits at the ages of 10-11 that the luxury and jet setting the Fitzwilliams enjoyed was supported.
Reading of the poverty and living conditions of these families juxtaposed with the impossible affluence of the mines owners was heartbreaking. Oh, there were instances of care on the part of the Fitzwilliams that were taken that other mining families did not perform but none the less the goal was profit and not much profit sharing.
Throughout the family's history stood another character, which, in many ways was more imposing than any of the human characters whose stories were told and that was Wentworth House. It stood silently as the years passed, through WW I, through miners' strikes, through WW II and into the period when at last the miners' unions rose, the Labour Party won the election and the mines were nationalized. It began as a shining monument, large and gilded, filled with priceless works of art and furnishings, surrounded by miles of parkland and formal gardens-- one of many Fitzwilliam properties but the one that was most treasured by them--a paean to their glory and dominion over the surrounding countryside of miners' villages and coal pits. It ended as a dark island, closed to all but the recluse who now owns it, surrounded by open pit devastation. There are no more Earls Fitzwilliam, and though the house still stands, there is no more glory.
The sadness that I felt for the lives of the miners and their conditions did not overwhelm me at the demise of the aristocrats who ruled them, yet, at the end, somehow there was an emptiness matched by the emptiness of Wentworth.
There is none of the Downton Abbey romance in this true story.

This was a GoodReads giveaway in exchange for review. View all my reviews

Black Diamonds--A Real Story of Aristocrats Rather Than the Romance of Downton Abbey

Black Diamonds: The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England by Catherine Bailey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As can be seen from the year and a half it took to read this book, it is neither engrossing nor exciting a story. It is, however, a dual tale--the story of the Earls Fitzwilliam family through several generations and the story of the British coal industry and its miners. The two are intrinsically entwined since it was through the back breaking work of miners who started in the pits at the ages of 10-11 that the luxury and jet setting the Fitzwilliams enjoyed was supported.
Reading of the poverty and living conditions of these families juxtaposed with the impossible affluence of the mines owners was heartbreaking. Oh, there were instances of care on the part of the Fitzwilliams that were taken that other mining families did not perform but none the less the goal was profit and not much profit sharing.
Throughout the family's history stood another character, which, in many ways was more imposing than any of the human characters whose stories were told and that was Wentworth House. It stood silently as the years passed, through WW I, through miners' strikes, through WW II and into the period when at last the miners' unions rose, the Labour Party won the election and the mines were nationalized. It began as a shining monument, large and gilded, filled with priceless works of art and furnishings, surrounded by miles of parkland and formal gardens-- one of many Fitzwilliam properties but the one that was most treasured by them--a paean to their glory and dominion over the surrounding countryside of miners' villages and coal pits. It ended as a dark island, closed to all but the recluse who now owns it, surrounded by open pit devastation. There are no more Earls Fitzwilliam, and though the house still stands, there is no more glory.
The sadness that I felt for the lives of the miners and their conditions did not overwhelm me at the demise of the aristocrats who ruled them, yet, at the end, somehow there was an emptiness matched by the emptiness of Wentworth.
There is none of the Downton Abbey romance in this true story.

This was a GoodReads giveaway in exchange for review. View all my reviews