Reviewed by Bev Scott Kristin Hannah has written a powerful historical novel with contemporary significance. Three members of the Martinelli family leave Texas during the Dust Bowl, which destroyed their farm and threatened their young son’s life. In search of a better life, they grab onto the California dream. Instead of the dream, they struggle […]
Book Review: “The Rose Code” by Kate Quinn
Reviewed by Bev Scott For historical fiction at its best and for a fabulous read, consider The Rose Code. As Britain prepares to fight Nazi Germany, three very different women enter the fray as codebreakers. Working from the mysterious country estate, Bletchley Park they are Osla, a beautiful, vivacious debutante; dominating Mab, a product of […]
Book Review: “The Huntress” by Kate Quinn
Reviewed by Bev Scott In The Huntress, Kate Quinn has interwoven a spellbinding story of three characters. We find disciplined British war correspondent turned Nazi hunter, Ian Graham, with Nina Markova. Nina, a brazen Russian bomber pilot, joins the feared all-female Night Witches. Finally, young Jordan McBride is growing up in Boston shortly after World […]
Book Review: “The Good Ancestor” by Roman Krznaric
Reviewed by Bev Scott We live in a culture of short-term thinking. Such as: When can we stop wearing our masks? When is the next election? When is the next quarterly report? This is the “tyranny of the now,” says Roman Krznaric in his book The Good Ancestor. He argues that to be a “good ancestor,” we need […]
Book Review: “Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
Reviewed by Bev Scott Do we have a class system or a caste system? When I studied sociology in college, I learned that we have a class system, and India has a rigid caste system. And, that the freedom of U.S. democracy gave opportunity for people in the lower class. They could work hard and raise themselves […]
Book Review: “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett
Reviewed by Bev Scott Riveting from beginning to end, The Vanishing Half tells the story of identical twins who grow up in a small southern black community, called Mallard. Mallard is such a small town that it is not even on the map. However, it is a town founded for light-skinned African Americans. After running away together at […]
How Do We Care For Our Elderly?
After writing my novel Sarah’s Secret, inspired by the lives of my paternal grandparents, I recently decided to delve into a treasure trove of old family letters. I found several packets and files of letters that my mother left me. Members on the maternal side of my family had exchanged letters during different eras. I hoped to […]
Book Review: “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo
Reviewed by Bev Scott Bernardine Evaristo writes about the African diaspora in her unique voice. Thus, she wrote this unusual novel about twelve British black women whose lives interconnect. Each chapter intensely portrays one of the women’s life stories. Plus, each chapter also introduces other women who become central characters in future chapters. The characters have […]
Our Divided Country
We are a country divided. Not just between red and blue but within those gross divisions we are divided by demographic labels and caricature stereotypes: rural mid-westerners, suburban women, LatinX men, Black women, young people and seniors, college degree liberals and high school graduate Trumpers, whites and people of color, coastal progressives and fly-over conservatives and many […]
Book Review: “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
Reviewed by Bev Scott I began learning to become an antiracist in the early 1970s. Living in Detroit then, I worked with a black and white team of facilitators. They were conducting antiracism workshops and education in organizations and neighborhoods. The City of Detroit still reeled from the 1967 “Rebellions.” I and other white facilitators immersed […]
