Rain Breaks No Bones

Thank you to the author, publisher and Novels n Latte FB page.

I am very stingy with my 5 star ratings, but this one deserves it and even more. Bear with my long review, but it's worth it I hope.

Most people know I'm from Scranton, PA, and I knew when I saw the giveaway I had to enter hoping I would win. Even though it's the 3rd of the series I didn't care. I had to read it.

Right from the prologue I started recognizing familiar street names, and store names. (I'm sure that many of the places/streets I don't remember because they were there before I was born since it's set in 1955), and started smiling already. My face might be sore from smiling by the time I finish this book. I've read books with Scranton mentioned and some in a not so show more “nice” way like it's a podunk town which I know it's not.

All of the characters in this book were well-rounded and enjoyed meeting every one of them. People back then who were 50 and 75 (Grace, Violet (mother and daughter) seemed so old. Daisy (Violet's daughter) had a promising career with her own studio, dance, singing lessons, and piano lessons. Sort of a ghost story too with Violet's deceased sister, who died at age 8 when a sparkler set her dress on fire. Violet always blamed herself. She shows up as a ghost in Zethray's (Mamma Z) negro (her word not mine) boarding house who speaks to the dead and a seer. There's a connection with her boarder Johnny and Daisy too. I fell in love with all the characters and don't want to pick a favorite because I loved them all.

So many memories some of these places brought back, one I even forgot about like Grablicks ice cream in West Pittston. It's a walk down memory lane with a lot of nostalgia that's for sure.

The last 30 pages were so harrowing and I was holding my breath to see what was going to happen. I'm a very emotional person. When I read the epilogue, I cried like a baby.

I saw where the author is donating a portion of this book to the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation in honor of her nephew Jimmy. Even though I didn't buy this book and even though I don't know anyone with this disease, I'm grateful for her doing so. I see commercials for Shriner's Hospital a lot and they focus on this a lot and their spokespersons are Alec and the other one is Kaleb and I thought of them when I saw this. show less

On the front cover of this book another author was quoted, saying, "As I turned the final page, I wasn't at all ready to say goodbye to these compassionately imagined, vividly drawn characters." I felt that same way. About halfway through the book I was already dreading when I would finish it. The story drew me in and walked me right through the town, the people and the circumstances. Born in 1954 in a Midwest town that depended upon many factories and mills for its livelihood, I could easily relate to some of the scenes and the people living them.

This book, set in 1955 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is the third in Barbara J. Taylor's Scranton Trilogy. Although it stands alone just fine, now that I've finished it, I want to read the first two books (set in 1913 and the 1930s respectively), and wouldn't mind seeing more in the series (maybe the next set in the 1970s?), to find out what happens with the characters in this book.

The story revolves around three generations of Morgan women - 50-year-old Violet, her mother Grace, and her turning-25-year-old daughter Daisy. Violet and Grace still mourn "Our Daisy," Violet's year-older sister who died back in 1913, in an accident many blamed on Violet. Violet also suffered in the 1930s when she brought younger sister Lily's baby home from an show more unwed mothers' home, pretending it was hers, and losing her long-time boyfriend Stanley in the process.

Daughter Daisy falls in love with a black musician named Johnny, who rents a room from Zethray (thanks to The Green-Book). Zethray can hear the dead when they speak - and "Our Daisy" is speaking to her a lot. Unfortunately, her mother, Ruth, whose 1916 suicide opens the book, does not. Grace also talks to her long-dead husband, Owen. This may all sound unrelated, but Taylor ties together these and other characters beautifully.

The title comes from a Welsh saying that "means a little discomfort never hurt anybody," as explained by Daisy about halfway through the book (page 164). Themes in the book of grief, guilt, and prejudice all cause discomfort. Rain plays a big part in the climax of the book, which is based on a real-life event.

I loved the characters and the setting in the book. The author grew up in Scranton, and although I have never been there, I felt like I had, based on her descriptions. I liked how she made 1955 come alive with references to things such as green stamps. Although I was born a few years after 1955, I remember buying some small appliances with books of trading stamps in the early 1980s.

I'd definitely recommend this book. I have no doubt I can recommend the whole trilogy, too. show less

I enjoyed reading this, and learning new phrases (vaccinated with a Victrola needle!). I'm going to find the first 2 books in the trilogy to learn more about the characters. In this story, we don't see Grace as more than an elderly woman, and Violet is such a tense, inhibited woman that it's hard for me to feel sympathy with her worries. I think one of the main themes of the story was being brave enough to go for your passion. Daisy opens a dance/music studio and meets someone to love. The older generation seems to be just holding on to life, missing their lost choices.
I loved the description of Daisy's synaesthesic response to Johnny's music: "He dug right in, squeezing every drop out of a note, using it up completely. The juice. The show more pulp. A couple of seeds. The zest in the rind for good measure...New musical phrases dovetailed with old melodic lines. Johnny was both playing the song and creating it....switched to a lighter touch, skipping notes like stones across a pond...surged to a dizzying clip...sharps and flats flew off of his fingers, crashed to the floor, and scattered like marbles..Pure. Bright. Clear. Maddeningly honest....a simple glissando, a shiver of descending notes to finish the number, cleanse the palate, reset the heart."
Mickey is a light-hearted imp, who keeps the story from getting too heavy. The part of the book I'm going to want to hold on to is the advice given by Mama in the Epilogue: "Grief will come calling..but if you hold on long enough the sun will shine again...Best to get ahead of him when you can. And when you can't, sit with him a spell. Just, not too long. Set yourself on a hard chair and heed the discomfort when it comes. That's how you find your way back to living."
It was a little hard for me to get an grasp on the era. People were saving green stamps to get luxuries, and putting off buying a stove in better repair. Yet they had money to spend on movies and a new dress for a birthday present. It was after WWII, but no mention of Korean War. I imagine a time when the nation was recovering from decades of hard times & war-enforced rationing, and is just learning to picture a brighter future. Anything could happen!

I was motivated to look up Scranton flooding, found the FEMA Flood Zone Map & see that there are still buildings within Zone A (26% chance of flooding over the life of a 30‐year mortgage) and AE(base floodplain with known elevations), but not so many in Zone A99 (protected by a Federal flood control system--flood gates that have to be put up as needed). Spring St, where the family lived, is west of the Lackawanna and just south of Leggett Creek, which still floods. Then I found where Roaring Brook meets on the east side of Lackawanna, and the Maid-Rite Steak Co. plant just east (they brag "Over 60 years ago...literally built on top of 7 coal mining tunnels". That sounds like it could have been the inspiration for the slaughterhouse mentioned in this story--just about 1/2 mile from the corner of S Washington Av & Lackawanna Av, where Daisy's studio was, down the block from a department store (Boscov's becomes fictionalized Globe). show less

I truly enjoyed reading this book. Even though this is the third book in a trilogy it read as a stand alone book. The book took place in 1955 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The author described in expressive detail how small town life and people were back then. The characters were so well written that you could empathize with how they each dealt with their anger, shame and guilt at the life they were given. I wish that there would be another book written in this series to continue the saga.

I discovered Barbara Taylor's first book on the "Local Authors" display at the late, lamented Library Express bookstore about 5 years ago. And what a find she was. It's hard to imagine that she did not intend originally to carry on the Morgan family's story from where she left them at the end of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, or even after completing All Waiting is Long. Apparently, the characters kept themselves alive in her soul, until she had written this novel, billed as the last in the Scranton Trilogy. (I hope she isn't tired of them yet, because I certainly am not.)

I fell in love with this book! I want the read earlier books in the series. I identified most with Violet. The book is set in 1955 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I loved reading about this time period because the book reminded so many things, like saving green stamps, the advent of the first TV, going fishing with my father.

The characters are very strong. Grace is the grandmother, and she adds do much humor, the daughters, Daisy who died earlier in an accident with a sparkler, Violet who feels guilty of the death of Daisy, Lily who comes more into the story at the end.

Then the men, past and present and dog, the black friend of Grace, and the scenes between blacks and whites all added richness to the book.

Many hot button areas were covered show more and music from the past made me feel that I was back in that time period make my heart yearn for more. show less