JaneAJones tries to keep track...

Hi all,
I was pretty much AWOL all last year, but I'd like to keep a record of what I'm reading, have read, so here I am. I hope to engage a bit more and be engaged.

JANUARY BOOKS
1. Isabel Allende, Ines of My Soul, trans. Margaret Sayers Peden, Chilean, historical novel, KINDLE, 2008: 1/2
2. Qiu Xiaolong, A Loyal Character Dancer, Chinese-American, detective novel, 2002:
Marilynne Robinson, Jack, American, novel, KINDLE, 2020: abandoned
3. Lauren Groff, Matrix, American, historical novel, KINDLE, 2021: 1/2
4. Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus, Australian, fiction, 1995: 1/2

FEBRUARY BOOKS
5. Ken Bugul, The Abandoned Baobab, trans. Marjolijn de Jager, Senegalese, fictional memoir, 1982,1981:
6. Nekesa Afia, Dead, Dead, Girls, American, African-American, historical mystery, KINDLE, 2021:
7. Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer,American, African-American, historial novel, magical realism, KINDLE, 2020:
8. Edwige Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory, American, Haitian, novel, KINDLE, 1994:

MARCH BOOKS
9. Daniel L. Schafer, Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner, American, biography/history, rev. and expanded ed. 2018: 1/2
10. Karen Brooks, The Good Wife of Bath, Australian, historical novel, KINDLE, 2022:

APRIL BOOKS
11. Louise Erdrich, The Sentence, American, Native American, novel, KINDLE, 2021:
12. Seth Kantner, Ordinary Wolves, American, novel, KINDLE, 2004: 1/2
13. Margaret Atwood, "My Evil Mother," Canadian, short story, KINDLE, 2022:
14. Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping, British, novel, KINDLE, 2004:

MAY BOOKS
15. Lilja Sigurdardottir, Betrayal, trans. Quentin Bates, Icelandic, mystery novel, KINDLE, 2018,2020: 1/2
16. Pat Barker, The Women of Troy, British, novel, myth revisioned, KINDLE, 2021:
17. Luanne G. Smith, Tne Vine Witch, American, historical fantasy novel, KINDLE, 2019: 1/2
18.Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Midwife to the Fairies: New and Selected Stories, Irish, short stories, 2003:
19. V.S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas, Trinidadian/British, novel, KINDLE, 1961:

JUNE BOOKS
20. Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, Australian, historical novel (Nazi Germany), KINDLE, 2007: 1/2
21. Robin Oliveira, I Always Loved You, American, historical/biographical novel (Impressionists), KINDLE, 2015:
22. Tove Jansson, The Listener, Finnish-Swedish, short stories, 1971; trans. Thomas Teal, 2014:

JULY BOOKS
23. Delia Owens Where the Crawdads Sing, American, novel, KINDLE, 2018:
24. Colm Toibin, The Master, Irish, historical/biographhical novel (Henry James), 2005, re-read:
25. Lori McMullen, Among the Beautiful Beasts, American, Historical/biographical novel (Marjory Stoneman Douglas), KINDLE, 2021: 1/2
25. Jesmyn Ward, "Mother Swamp", American, short story, KINDLE 2022:

SEPTEMBER and OCTOBER BOOKS
26. Margaret Atwood, The Door: Poems, Canadian, poetry collection, 2007:1/2
27. Ludmila Petrushevskaya, The Once Lived a Woman who tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby, Russian, Trans. Keith Gessen and Anna Summers, scary fairy tales, 2009:
28. Alice Munro, Dear Life, Canadian, stories/memoirs, 2012:
29. Robert Temple, The Strange Courtship of Kathleen O'Dwyer, American, historical novel, 2022:
30. Imogen Edwards-Jones, The Witches of St. Petersburg: A Novel American, historical/bographical novel (Princesses Milica and Anastasis of Montenegro and the Romanovs), KINDLE, 2018:1/2
30. L. Frank Baum, Animal Fairy Tales, American, fairy tales/fables:
31. Chris Bohjalian, Hour of the Witch: A Novel, American, historical novel, KINDLE, 2021:

NOVEMBER BOOKS

32. Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words, Australian, historical, KINDLE, 2020: 1/2
novel

Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus

The Transit of Venus is a book about the passion of love -- young love, middle-aged love, shared love, unrequited love, carnal love, disappointed love, disillusioned love, fulfilled love. It has been praised as multi-layered and mysterious.

The language is baroque and upper-class English, more flavored by the 19thc, not really in keeping with the the time period of the 1950s-70s -- though one would be hard put to distinguish one decade from another.

In describing the megaliths at Avebury:
The little charchyard slabs -- child-height, companionable -- among which Caro and Paul had once sauntered became, by contrast with these huge and mighty forms, epemeral leaflets promulgating a forgotten cause. Compared with this scene, all the rest of Creation appeared a flutter of petals and pebbles, a levity in which the most massive tree was insubstantial. The sweet village itself, through which the farthest monoliths were posted, suggested, with its few thatched and slated centuries, a frail masking of reality. Not that the dark boulders supplied, by their outlasting, any triumphant sense of durability in man's intentions. There could be no winning or even mattering here. You have to pit some larger reason than mere living against these rocks: it was your mortality, your very capacity to receive the wound, against their indifference.

Honestly, I found it all rather tedious and somewhat laughable. By the end of the novel, I really didn't care much about any of the characters. Maybe I'm just too old or have read too many much better novels.

Lauren Groff, Matrix

While I found Groff's novel engaging, it really has nothing to do with Marie de France, the purported protagonist. The character Groff creates, half-sister to Henry II (this may be true of Marie), is a virago -- born into a family of Amazon-like women, orphaned and sent to the Angevin court in England, and banished by Eleanor of Aquitaine to a poverty-stricken nunnery, first as prioress and then abbess.

Marie's great literary achievement, her "Lais" are dismissed in a few pages early on in the novel as a series of love-sick poems addressed to Eleanor as a plea to bring her back to court.

Suffice it to say, the prioress/abbess Marie takes the convent in hand, makes it not only thriving but one of the most powerful religious institutions in England, is inspired visions of the Virgin, but writes no more poetry.

Welcome back! :)

Marilynn Robinson, Jack

I got a bit over half way through Robinson's latest Gilead novel and quit. Maybe I'll come back to it sometime.... I admired the other Gilead novels and truly loved Lila.

Set in the 1950s, Jack is a love story of sorts between a two preachers' children: Jack,a white drunken bum and and Della, an attractive young black school teacher. The only things they seem to have in common are their love of poetry and their religious childhoods. Unlike some of the reviewers, I found their night's long conversation in a graveyard the most interesting part of the book. After that, it bogged down in an examination of Jack's ruminations, self-loathing and religious doubts. Just too plodding for me.

Hi Jane! Glad to see you here!

I've read three of Qiu Xiaolong books, but they were pre-LT reads, thus no records or ratings. I wanted to read a crime novel set in China and I didn't really hold the author to the same standards as, say, I would with the American or UK authors. I like to at least try some of them from other nations, if only to see how justice might work. I read one last year from Morocco -- it wasn't that good (mainly because it had some comedy in it) but it was interesting.

Welcome back, Jane. I used to follow you years ago, but then I went AWOL, came back last year, while you were gone, so it's been awhile.

>2 janeajones: The Transit of Venus sounds horrid. Not my cuppa. Have you read anything else by that author?

>3 janeajones: I loved Matrix. However, I am largely unfamiliar with the time period or Marie de France so I didn't have Groff's liberties nagging at me. Even though it is very early, I strongly suspect it will be my favorite of 2022.

>4 AnnieMod: -- Thanks.

>6 avaland: -- Hi Lois. I don't really read a lot of crime fiction, but I actually prefer foreign ones as they're a peek into the cultures. I must admit to also falling for FL crime, just because it's so weird.

>7 labfs39: -- I look forward to catching up with you again.

>8 nancyewhite: -- I'm a medieval nerd, and I really love Marie's poetry (I've taught it numerous times), so Groff's glossing over it rather annoyed me. ;)

>9 janeajones: Ha, I was just writing a review of the lais :)

Hi Jane. Glad to see you back. Are you still in Sarasota? We've settled just up the road a bit from there last year in Indian Rocks Beach. My Florida reading so far has been Tampa Bay Noir and a Carl Hiassen. I do want to get to Peter Mathiessen's trilogy.

So you open your thread by thrashing three semi-popular novels. And, with the Matrix, brilliantly. : ) I was hesitant on Matrix before reading your review, but you have me very interested in Marie de France’s Lais.

It’s really nice to see your thread here. I’ve quit fb and miss getting your updates.

>11 arubabookwoman: We are still in Sarasota and probably will be until we die 😉. We seem to be planted here. Have you tried Randy Wayne White ? Good descriptions of Sanibel and environs. Matthiessen is brilliant -- can't recommend him enough.

> 12 What can I say Dan -- getting a bit cynical in my old age.

Welcome back! I was excited to get a copy of Transit of Venus because it's supposed to be very good, but the one time I tried to read it I got to about page 3 and threw it back in the TBR pile. I need to shed some books, so maybe that's one I don't need to keep.

Welcome back, Jane!

For Black History Month, I'm reading 2-3 novels, as well as dipping into the occasional article. Here are two I've recently read.

Toni Morrison is the 20th c. writer I most admire. An article by a young British novelist comments on her influence.
Bernardine Evaristo on Lessons Learned from Toni Morrison: https://lithub.com/bernardine-evaristo-on-lessons-learned-from-toni-morrison/?fb...

I've never read anything by Marlon James, but this interview is immediately sending me to Amazon:
https://bostonreview.net/articles/representation-doesnt-just-mean-heroes-we-need...
My son just commented on my FB post: "James is a helluva writer. A Brief History of Seven Killings will blow your hair back."

I was wrong. I did read James's The Book of Night Women last year and thought it was terrific.

Mostly my February reading was more rewarding than January's -- see #1 for a list of the books. I'll try to catch up on reviews in the next few days.


The Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman by Ken Bugul

Ken Bugul. the protagonist and pseudonym of Mariétou M'Baye, a Senegalese author born in 1947, chronicles her coming of age in the late 1960s and 1970s with flashbacks to her youth at a French school in Dakar and her early childhood in a small Senegalese village. Her somewhat fictionalized chronicle begins with her journey to Brussels, where she has won a scholarship to study: "The North of dreams, the North of illusions, the North of allusions. The frame of reference North, the Promised Land North."

But the book is framed within that childhood village and the family compound shaded by a baobab sprouted from a seed children left behind. A baobab, a compound, and a village eventually abandoned.

Indeed the overarching theme of the book is abandonment -- an abandoned child, an abandoned childhood, an abandoned culture and religion superseded by colonial values, even the abandoned idea of a new kind of life. Ken's sense of displacement is heightened by the drug use and sexual freedom of the era's counter-culture. While the book is revelatory and important, it is often agonizing to read. Not for the faint of heart.

>19 janeajones: noting! And hoping you review the Danticat.

>19 janeajones: This seems an interesting book. Not for me for the moment (I read too many books that are not for the faint of heart in the past weeks, and feel I need something more gentle at the moment), but I'm noting.
Have you read Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe. It's earlier in time, but I wondered how the two resonate.

>21 raton-liseur: I have read Things Fall Apart, but many years ago. Bugul's book is, I think, much more inner-directed psychologically and more European-oriented.

>20 dchaikin: I'm planning to get there -- it has some interesting resonances with Bugul's book.

Dead, Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia

Set in Harlem in the 1920s. this historicalmystery is the first in a proposed series, and I'm sure it's the author's first published book. Frankly, it needs a good editor. A quick read, it's somewhat entertaining and gives the reader a glimpse into the nightlife of the times,but there are glaring holes in the plot and the author sometimes points the reader, not to a red herring, but to warnings that decrease the suspense. The protagonist, Louise "Lovie" Lloyd is a likeable young woman making her way in a dangerous world.

I bought this book on a Kindle 99 cents deal, and if a sequel appears as a similar bargain book, I'll probably pick it up.

>22 janeajones: Thanks for taking the time to answer. more European-oriented sounds intriguing.

I'm looking forward to your Coates review - 6 stars is praise indeed.

>5 janeajones: Interesting that you lost interest in the Robinson book Jack. I felt exactly like that when I read Home, which put me off the rest of the Gilead books.

>25 AlisonY: I haven't read Home. I must admit, as a long-lapsed Lutheran and confirmed atheist, I have a very limited tolerance for deeply religious themes and explorations.

>26 janeajones: for what it's worth, I really enjoyed Home, more so than Gilead (although I've reread Gilead and not Home - Gilead is more elusive and wants more attention)

>19 janeajones: I read that one in '08, gave it a half star more than you did. I like your review of it!

After reading Cariola's review of The Good Wife of Bath, I immediately downloaded it on my Kindle and am enjoying it as bedtime reading. I'm up to her second husband and driven to reviewing Chaucer's description of her:

A Good Wif was ther of biside Bathe,
But she was som-del deef, and that was scathe.
Of clooth-makyng she hadde swich an haunt
She passed hem of Ypres and of Gaunt.
In al the parisshe wif ne was ther noon
That to the offrynge bifore hire sholde goon;
And if ther dide, certeyn so wrooth was she
That she was out of alle charitee.
Hir coverchiefs ful fyne weren of ground;
I dorste swere they weyeden ten pound
That on a Sonday weren upon hir heed.
Hir hosen weren of fyn scarlet reed,
Ful streite y-teyd, and shoes ful moyste and newe.
Boold was hir face, and fair, and reed of hewe.
She was a worthy womman al hir lyve;
Housbondes at chirche dore she hadde fyve,
Withouten oother compaignye in youthe;
But ther-of nedeth nat to speke as nowthe.
And thries hadde she been at Jérusalem;
She hadde passed many a straunge strem;
At Rome she hadde been, and at Boloigne,
In Galice at Seint Jame, and at Coloigne.
She koude muchel of wandrynge by the weye.
Gat-tothed was she, soothly for to seye.
Upon an amblere esily she sat,
Y-wympled wel, and on hir heed an hat
As brood as is a bokeler or a targe;
A foot-mantel aboute hir hipes large,
And on hire feet a paire of spores sharpe.
In felaweshipe wel koude she laughe and carpe;
Of remedies of love she knew per chauncé,
For she koude of that art the olde daunce.

Now I must go dig out her Prologue where she describes each of her marriages.

>29 janeajones: This is cool, but also tells me i will need a translation. 🙂

The London Review of Books has a great series on four Medieval women, and the segment on "Chaucer’s sexually voracious professional widow, stealth preacher, vivid storyteller and teacher of love," the Wife of Bath, is excellent. All four of them are fun, and definitely worth a listen.

I joined this group last year. It's lovely to meet you! I loved Home and Gilead. I need to read the sequels to the latter. I also loved The Water Dancer - looking forward to your review. Matrix is on my TBR.

Some brief reviews:


The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two-thirds of this book -- through the Wife's first four marriages. Brooks' fleshing out of the the growth and character of the Wife, as well as the other characters, including Chaucer was great fun. However, I think she went astray from Chaucer's intent and spirit with her extreme version of Jankyn. Chaucer's satire, good humor and humanity are lost. The combination of the Wife's Prologue and her Tale focus on the power of "Sovranty/sovereignty" in a relationship between the partners -- the Sovranty that is not the rule of one partner over another, but the recognition by each that the other is an autonomous, independent being.

Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner by Daniel L. Schafer

This biography of Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley covers her life pretty much as the subtitle declares. Captured from the royal Wolof famiy in Senegal as a teenager by the slave trader and Florida plantation owner, Zephanah Kingsley, she becomes his mistress/wife and bears him a number of children. On his death, her son inherits the plantation which she manages with him. The book is an illuminating history of slavery in NW Florida from the early part of the 19th c through the Civil War and of the free back community in Jacksonville during Reconstruction. It provides a glimpse into the history of slavery and gender relations not often seen. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the period and place.

Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner

A bleak, beautiful coming of age tale set in NW Alaska and Anchorage during the last quarter of the 20th c.. I loved reading and savoring this book.

My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood

An amusing short story about a witchy mother, told by her daughter. Available as an ebook and on Audible.

Ooh, some new reviews. Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley sounds fascinating. I think I’ll pass on Brooks Wife of Bath.

>36 janeajones: I missed this one. I wonder if it is in one of her collections.

And missing you! I know, life takes a turn....

>38 avaland: I think it was just published online this year. I've been reading a bit (I'll post recent titles of books read in the last couple of months), but just don't feel moved to write reviews for some reason. Still on FB....

MAY BOOKS
15. Lilja Sigurdardottir, Betrayal, trans. Quentin Bates, Icelandic, mystery novel, KINDLE, 2018,2020: 1/2
16. Pat Barker, The Women of Troy, British, novel, myth revisioned, KINDLE, 2021:
17. Luanne G. Smith, Tne Vine Witch, American, historical fantasy novel, KINDLE, 2019: 1/2
18.Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Midwife to the Fairies: New and Selected Stories, Irish, short stories, 2003:
19. V.S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas, Trinidadian/British, novel, KINDLE, 1961:

>40 janeajones: I had wanted to like A House for Mr. Biswas, the only book I've read by Naipaul, but couldn't manage it. In my review I described it as a depressing tale of a weak man whom I frequently wanted to shake. Have you read anything else by Naipaul?

No this is the only one. I think I tried one or two many years ago, but got nowhere. I was rather fascinated by this one -- both annoyed and sympathetic with the protagonist, but it painted an interesting picture of Trinidadian culture and how one can get caught by one's own and others' expectations. I'm not planning on reading any more Naipul any time soon.

JUNE BOOKS
20. Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, Australian, historical novel (Nazi Germany), KINDLE, 2007: 1/2
21. Robin Oliveira, I Always Loved You, American, historical/biographical novel (Impressionists), KINDLE, 2015:
22. Tove Jansson, The Listener, Finnish-Swedish, short stories, 1971; trans. Thomas Teal, 2014:

Noting Ordinary Wolves - sounds great and has plenty of good reviews.

>38 avaland: Yes, do continue to post the titles, if you can. Nice mix of reading, as always. I'm here far more than I am in FB.

JULY BOOKS
23. Delia Owens Where the Crawdads Sing, American, novel, KINDLE, 2018:
24. Colm Toibin, The Master, Irish, historical/biographhical novel (Henry James), 2005, re-read:
25. Lori McMullen, Among the Beautiful Beasts, American, Historical/biographical novel (Marjory Stoneman Douglas), KINDLE, 2021: 1/2
25. Jesmyn Ward, "Mother Swamp", American, short story, KINDLE 2022:

Glad you're posting Jane. Any recommendations? I was thinking that Toibin might be quite good.

>47 dchaikin: Hi Dan,
As it turns out I had read The Master 10-15 years ago, but didn't remember reading it. Here's my review from then, which pretty much stands, though I think I thought it a bit more ponderous this time through,

I found The Master, Tóibín's biographical novel about Henry James both fascinating and occasionally tedious. Tóibín uses a selective omniscient narrator to get into James's head to seemingly reveal how his reactions, musings and reminiscences informed the crafting of his novels. In actuality, however, what Tóibín has done is used the novels (and undoubtedly biographies and critical studies) to craft his own portrait of James in this novel. Tóibín creates a psychological portrait of James that resembles the kind of psychological portrait of characters created by Henry James himself. If that sounds circular, it is, but it is intriguing.

The action of the novel takes place from 1895-1899 when James was in his fifties. However we learn much about James earlier in his life as he remembers incidents and people from his younger days. The major people with whom James interacts are his siblings, William and Alice; his cousin, Minnie Temple; his friends, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and the novelist, Constance Fenimore Woolson; and the Scandinavian-American sculptor, Hendrik Christian Andersen. But James seems unable to form deeply intimate ties with anyone -- he needs his own space and solitude. Tóibín does not judge the Master -- he seeks to understand him.

As there are many allusions to the more famous of James's novel in this book, it helps to be somewhat familar with his work.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I picked this up because I was thinking of going to see the film.

Well, it's not Green Mansions or Girl of the Limberlost, it kept me reading despite the rather preposterous situation of a 6 year old child, andandoned and living in the wilderness alone. How in the middle of the 20th c. did Social Services not take her into custody?? It's a fast read, but I think I'll skip the film until it streams on TV.

Among the Beautiful Beasts by Lori McMullen

A well written fictional biography of the young Marjory Stoneman. Raised by her maternal grandparents and aunt in Staunton, MA after her mother went mad, she went to Wellsley where she discovered her love of writing. After graduation she made an unfortunate marriage to a con man, Kenneth Douglas, from which she was eventually rescued by her uncle and her father. Moving to Miami, she began working for father at the Miami Herald which he had recently founded, and she falls in love with a young reporter. WW I looms, he goes to war, she goes to Paris to work for the Red Cross, and they both eventually return to Miami where Marjory is faced with the choice of a life with a needy veteran or one of independence.

The best parts of the book were the descriptions of a vibrant, undeveloped Miami,bursting with energy and a mostly untouched, but threatened Everglades. The story was a bit heavy on the romance aspects for my taste (her marriage was real, but the love affair in Miami is probably fictional). I was disappointed the book ended before Stoneman Douglas became effective activist she was.

>50 janeajones: Fictional biography...hmmm. What made you choose this book, if I might ask?

>50 janeajones: if it were nonfiction, I would be ordering now.

>48 janeajones: wonderful review of The Master. Thank you!

>48 janeajones: >52 dchaikin: Tóibín creates a psychological portrait of James that resembles the kind of psychological portrait of characters created by Henry James himself. If that sounds circular, it is, but it is intriguing.

Really liked that insight into the novel, which is one which I would definitely recommend. It also ranks as one of my best finds ever in a vacation house!

>51 avaland: It was about Marjory Stoneman Douglas. I seem to be magnetically drawn to Floridiana 😉

>54 janeajones: Ok, then :-)

>49 janeajones: I never heard of Girl of the Limberlost so now I’m reading it.

>56 dianeham: A classic from my childhood. I think I've read it 4-5 times.

SEPTEMBER and OCTOBER BOOKS
26. Margaret Atwood, The Door: Poems, Canadian, poetry collection, 2007:1/2
27. Ludmila Petrushevskaya, The Once Lived a Woman who tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby, Russian, Trans. Keith Gessen and Anna Summers, scary fairy tales, 2009:
28. Alice Munro, Dear Life, Canadian, stories/memoirs, 2012:
29. Robert Temple, The Strange Courtship of Kathleen O'Dwyer, American, historical novel, 2022:
30. Imogen Edwards-Jones, The Witches of St. Petersburg: A Novel American, historical/bographical novel (Princesses Milica and Anastasis of Montenegro and the Romanovs), 2018:1/2
30. L. Frank Baum, Animal Fairy Tales, American, fairy tales/fables:
31. Chris Bohjalian, Hour of the Witch: A Novel, American, historical novel, 2021:

A couple of reviews pending.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

Set mostly in Oxford during the compiling of the Oxford English Dictionary (1884-1928), The Dictionary of Lost Words is a wonderful tangle of language, sufragettes, WWI soldiers, changing social mores, love and sorrow. Highly recommended for for anyone word-struck.

The Strange Courtship of Kathleen O'Dwyer by Robert Temple

A historical novel set in the Old West, The Strange Courtship of Kathleen O'Dwyer is in no way an American cowboy saga or tale of pioneers. Kathleen O'Dwyer, the daughter of Irish immigrants, becomes a school teacher, determined to escape the fate of wife and mother. She steadily moves west from Boston to Kansas City, and when offered a position in Santa Fe, NM, eagerly joins the trader's wagon-train journey through Texas to New Mexico and eventually into the Rocky Mountains.

This is not the American West. It is 1828, long before the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 when the United States claimed the area. The land belongs to the Comanches, Apaches, Tewa, other Native tribes, and Spanish missionaries and soldiers from Mexico. Mountain men who have roamed and hunted the area trading for pelts, know the territory better than anyone but the Natives. These are the peoples Kathleen encounters and interacts with -- Temple seems to know them well, as he does the landscape. I was particularly struck by the description of the Pueblo in Taos where Kathleen teaches the Tewa children -- perhaps because I have been there, and the landscape has changed little.

There is a definite episodic quality to Kathleen's journey, and it would make a terrific TV mini-series. Take note producers at Netflix and Prime!

Nice reviews, Jane. The Strange Courtship of Kathleen O'Dwyer sounds a lot more fun than the history of the Llano Estacado I read earlier this year.