The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon

 

Title:  The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Author:  John U. Bacon

Narrated by:  Johnny Heller

Publisher: Recorded Books

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 53 minutes

Source: Review copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

What was your favorite nonfiction read for 2025?  The Gales of November by John U. Bacon was one of my favorites.  It arrived at the perfect time for the fiftieth anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  My family recently listened to this audiobook on a trip to visit family over Thanksgiving.  My son got to listen to a talk from the author last week at Michigan Tech.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest most profitable ship on the Great Lakes.  It helped to keep the region economically strong by bringing iron ore from the iron range down to manufacturing centers in Detroit.  On November 10, 1975, a storm of the century blew through causing fifty-foot waves on Lake Superior.  The Edmund Fitzgerald was at the wrong place at the wrong time and sank taking all twenty-nine crew members with her.  No distress signal was sent, and the ship just disappeared.  What exactly sank her has been a mystery for fifty years.  Gordan Lightfoot’s haunting ballad helped to propel this regional mystery to a national tragedy.

My thoughts on this book:

·       This book covered many topics related to the Edmund Fitzgerald and I found it all fascinating.

·       Background information was included such as the hydraulics of the Great Lakes, the history of iron ore and the auto industry, as well as the importance of shipping on the economy. 

·       The construction and funding of the ship was also discussed.  I felt bad that Edmund Fitzgerald sounded like a great guy and now his name will be remembered in history as the sinking of this great ship.

·       As a Michigan Tech grad, I appreciated that the University was brought up, and a professor was interviewed form the Great Lakes Research Center to discuss waves.  A brief overview of Copper Country history included the 1913 Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet.

·       The 1913 storm of the century was detailed for comparison. 

·       There was information about the twenty-nine men on board.  It was nice to know their stories and the impact that their deaths had on those that loved them.  The most amazing story was about Ruth who lost her twenty-two-year-old son, Bruce, on the Edmund Fitzgerald . . . only to find out six months later that she had a grandchild.  Bruce’s girlfriend three months pregnant when he drowned.  They had planned to marry when he got home.

·       The book gives step by step details on what is known to have happened that fateful night.

·       The very interesting story of how Gordon Lightfoot wrote the song and its acceptance by the families was described.  They accepted it because Lightfoot was so sincere and wanted to get it right to honor the lost men and their families.

·       6,000 ships sank in the Great Lakes between 1875 and 1975 which killed an estimated 30,000 sailors.  What was different about this sinking was that it was the last major ship to sink in the Great Lakes.  After its sinking, many changes were made to try to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again. In the last month, we had great waves on the Great Lakes and no ships were out.

·       The audiobook narrator was great.

 

Overall, The Gales of November by John U. Bacon this was a fascinating and detailed look into the tragedy of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

 

Title:  My Friends

Author:  Fredrik Backman

Narrated by:  Marin Ireland

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 13 hours and 22 minutes

Source: Review copy from Simon Audio.  Thank-you!

What is your favorite book featuring friendship?

Louisa is a young orphan and artist with a goal to see one of the most famous paintings in the world, “Of the Sea.”  Many people didn’t notice that there are three kids on a pier in the painting.  After finally getting to see it on display, Louisa meets a man she assumes to be homeless in an alley, but who is the dying artist.  This sets Louisa on the path of learning about how the painting came to be and about the friends on the pier.  Will Louisa finally find “her people?”

My thoughts on this novel:

·       My Friends by Fredrik Backman is one of my favorite reads of 2025.

·       I love Fredrik Backman’s humor and talk about the hard things in life such as child abuse, death from cancer, abandonment, etc.

·       Backman has a way of completing capturing childhood and how much friendships mean to us.

·       The beauty and wonder of art are also themes.

·       Another important theme is how kindness can help others to value themselves.

·       Louisa’s best friend Fish has committed suicide, and she is trying to deal with that as well as finding a pathway out of the foster system.

·       Part of the story is a travel story where two characters travel together, Ted and Louisa, and have an adventure.  Ted tells Louisa stories of the past and the artist as a child.

·       I loved Ted and Louisa’s dynamic together.

·       Marin Ireland is a great audiobook narrator that kept me intrigued.

·       This was a coming-of-age story.

·       The kids in the story from the past were all from the poor side of town and around the age of fourteen.

·       The mystery kept me intrigued.  How get the artist get the paint for his famous picture as a poor fourteen-year-old?  How did he become famous?  What death or event is foreshadowed that takes these kids over the divide from childhood to adulthood? 

·       My Friends is a beautiful story.  It’s hard to explain the beauty of the story as Backman is such a unique and wonderful writer who really writes about the truths of life.

Overall, My Friends by Fredrik Backman is one of the best books of this year.  It’s a beautiful, unique, and ultimately uplifting story about friendship and life.  I highly recommend it.

 

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

 

Title:  The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

Author:  Stephen Graham Jones

Narrated by:  Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland, Owen Teale

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 15 hours and 29 minutes

Source: Purchased from Audible.com

What is the best book you’ve read in 2025?  The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones is one of the best books I’ve read this year or ever. 

In 2012, Etsy discovers her ancestor’s private journal which has been hidden in the walls of a parsonage.  She decided that she will translate and analyze the journal as she works towards tenure at a university.  Inside the journal, she discovers at first the mundane life of a Lutheran pastor in a western town until he writes of the confessions of Good Stab, a native American turned vampire who has sought him out.  She will discover the true meaning of horror is not always the supernatural.

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I went in blind to this novel, and it worked great as I was continually surprised.

·       This was a weird, but brilliant novel.  It’s really a vampire story told through the lens of American history and the annihilation of Native tribes.

·       Reading this novel made the destruction of the buffalo herds so real and so disturbing.

·       It was a powerful book and reckoning on how the tribes were treated in the United States.

·       This was a horror novel, but what is the horror?  Is it a vampire feeding on the people he finds, or he feels are deserving of punishment?   Or of the white people who indiscriminately kill Good Stab’s village by brutally slaughtering old people, women, and children in their winter camp while the man are away hunting.

·       The horror was really brought home when I discovered it was based on the very real Marias Massacre in Montana in 1870 which I had never heard of before.

·       Good Stab’s search for truth, reckoning, and honesty that the natives were killed as they were thought of as less than human, the whites wanted their land, and they enjoyed the killing. . . haunted me.  It’s the truths that are never said out loud.

·       The fact that men massacred people brutally and then went on living their lives as ordinary citizens is disturbing to think about.  I had this same thought after reading All the Light We Cannot See and realizing Nazis that brutally killed and tortured people, could be your plumber.

·       Good Stab’s part of the novel was a revenge narration that reminded me at times of The Count of Monte Cristo.

·       The book detailed Blackfeet culture and gave us an inside look into a world that once existed that we destroyed.

·       This was told as a story within a story withing a story.  Etsy Beaucarne is in the present day reading a diary written in 1912 of her ancestor Arthur “Three Persons” Beaucarne who wrote confession of Good Stab.  I loved, loved, loved the narration of this audiobook and the tone of the narrative.  Arthur Beaucarne sounds like a stuffy old timey pastor while Good Stab sounds like someone just learning English.  Etsy sounds like a modern-day person.  I also enjoyed the sound effect.  It was fascinating to listen to.  My 17 year old son also listened to this audiobook and greatly enjoyed it.

·       As a vampire, Good Stab is able to watch the destruction of his family, tribe, and way of life as an outsider over time.  He also participates at times in part of the destruction as he is not able to stop his thirst and he kills fellow natives.

·       Good Stab was difficult to follow at times as he talked like a person just learning English and he didn’t know the English words for all of the animals (example – “Long Legs,” etc.)  I guessed some for the animals and was not sure about other animals.  It still worked for me.

·       There is a lot of death blood, and horror to both people and animals in this novel.

·       I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

Favorite Quote: “What I am is the Indian who can't die. I'm the worst dream America ever had."

Overall, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones is a beautifully written, complex, haunting, and multilayered story.  It is a masterpiece that I soon won’t forget.  I read a lot of books, and I am always struck by books that are creatively different and that have a message that keeps me thinking.  Buffalo Hunter Hunter was just such a book.

 

The Greatest Gift by Philip van Doren Stern

 

What is a fun or weird gift that you have received in the past?

George Pratt is on a bridge contemplating suicide when a mysterious stranger shows up.  George tells the man his woes and how he wishes he had never been born.  The stranger tells him he has never been born.  George meets with his family members and discovers their lives are worse without him.  Will George come to value his own life?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I reread The Greatest Gift in November for the Back to the Classics Book Club.  We had a good discussion on this story as well as on classic Christmas movies in general.

·       The Greatest Gift is the story that is the basis of the classic Christmas film, It’s a Wonderful Life.  We discussed how in this case, the movie is even better than the original story.  It really took the story and built an unforgettable world.

·       I thought it was funny that in the short story Mary’s fate was to marry a terrible man and have terrible children that mistreat her as does her husband.  In the movie, she is an unmarried librarian.  That doesn’t seem so bad!

·       Philip Van Doren Stern sent his friends and family a Christmas card with a story he had written called “The Greatest Gift.”  The story found its way to a producer at RKO studios, and it eventually became It’s a Wonderful Life.

·       This is a small book.  The first half is the story, and the second half was an afterward by the author’s daughter about how the story came to be and how it became the classic movie.

·       Why are there so many mysterious beings in Christmas stories?  We also read “Markheim” by Robert Louis Stevenson for book blub and a mysterious being also appears in this story.  It’s not explicitly said it’s an angel in either story.

Favorite Quote:

“I understand right enough,” the stranger said slowly. “I just wanted to make sure you did. You had the greatest gift of all conferred upon you—the gift of life, of being a part of this world and taking a part in it. Yet you denied that gift.” As the stranger spoke, the church bell high up on the hill sounded, calling the townspeople to Christmas vespers. Then the downtown church bell started ringing.”

Overall, The Greatest Gift by Philip van Doren Stern is a look into the inspiration behind the Christmas class movie, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com.

Not Exactly Mr. Darcy by Carolyn Miller (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

Have you visited any literary locations?  I have visited many of the Little House on the Prairie locations, but still have a few on my bucket list.  One of my favorite literary locations is Gene Stratton Porter’s Cabin at Wildflower Woods in Rome City, Indiana.  Gene Stratton Porter wrote Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles.  It’s a beautiful and peaceful place.

Olivia “Liv” Bennett is a history teacher in Australia. When her teaching contract is not renewed and is given to another employee, her family decides she is the best person to travel to England and help out her Grandma who is having health problems.  Immediately after she arrives, she has an awkward run in with a gardener at a local estate.  While Liam and Olivia do not have a good first meeting, they get to know each other better when Olivia starts to work at Hartbury Hall to help open it back up to the public.  Will these two learn to look beyond first impressions?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       It was a clean read and a Christian read.

·       It was a cute story with a sweet romance.

·       I loved how it was a modern-day Pride and Prejudice story.

·       The characters were great.  I loved Olivia, Liam, and everyone in the village.

·       Hartbury Hall was the setting of a fictional 2015 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which made it a tourist attraction.  I wanted to see this fake adaptation!

·       This is the first in a new series – The Silver Teapot series.  I am looking forward to the next book in this series and learning more about Olivia’s sisters.

·       I enjoyed the author’s note and am fascinated that Lyme Park (Pemberley in the 1995 adaptation) had no references to the film and that the author’s husband was a gardener there when he was young.  I don’t know why Lyme Park wouldn’t take advantage of being such a famous place in a movie and how fun that the author’s husband was a gardener there.

·       This was an interesting look at how hard it is to maintain and keep up a British great house or large estate.  It impacts the village when it is no longer an employer or tourist attraction.  I liked seeing the renovations of the estate through the story.

·       There were various themes in the story such as second chances, forgiveness, and moving on from the past.

·       The romance tropes were opposites attract, fake identity, and forced proximity.  I enjoy these tropes.

·       This was a cozy read that was perfect for this busy time of year.

Overall, Not Exactly Mr. Darcy by Carolyn Miller is a delightful and fun romance that is a modern-day Pride and Prejudice story. It was a very enjoyable and cozy read.

Book Source:  Thank-you to @carolynmillerauthor @barbourbooks @austenprose for a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. 

Out of the Woods: A Girl, a Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home by Gregg Olsen

 

What true crime story would you like to read more about?

In 2005, the Groene family was murdered in their home in Idaho and the two youngest children, 8-year-old Shasta and 9-year-old Dylan were kidnapped.  Forty-eight days later, Shasta was saved when her kidnapper, Joseph Edward Duncan took her out to eat and the restaurant staff called authorities.  Where had she been during the forty-eight days?  What happened to her brother?  What happened to Shasta in the twenty years since her ordeal?

My thoughts on this book:

·       I remember being fascinated by this case when it happened twenty years ago, but I didn’t know anything about what had happened to Shasta since her rescue.

·       I read this in October for the Brenda Novak book club.  It was a very different type of selection for that book club as it was nonfiction true crime.  The book club had a fascinating interview with the author and is available on Facebook.

·       This is a horrifying true story that was very difficult to read at times.  Poor Shasta had to live it; therefore, I could at least read it and try to understand in order to honor her.

·       The story was told in a nonlinear fashion through Shasta’s eyes and trauma.

·       I was saddened on how adults failed Shasta in life before and after her kidnapping.  Afterwards, her remaining family seemed to care more about the money she had then on actually helping her with her problems.  No one wanted to hear the horror of what had happened to this poor young girl, and she had no one to talk to.

·       How can such evil exist in the world?  The book contained graphic detail of the murder of the Groene family and abuse of Shasta and Dylan.

·       Shasta had children young to try to have a family again.

·       I think everyone wants to believe that victims are rescued and live happily ever after, but this is often not the case.

·       Shasta had problems with drugs, legal troubles, and destructive relationships through her life.

·       As a teen, Shasta was sent for a few years to Vista at Dimple Dell Canyon for “help.”  She was manipulated to get money for the facility, and it did not help her at all.  It was yet another case of someone taking advantage of her.

Overall, Out of the Woods by Gregg Olsen was an important read for Shasta to finally have her story told.  It was also a very hard book to read and even harder knowing that this happened to someone.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

 

Title:  The Diamond Eye

Author:  Kate Quinn

Narrated by:  Saskia Maarleveld

Publisher: HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 51 minutes

Source: Purchased from Audible.com

How many languages can you read in?  I can only fluently read English, but I still remember enough high school Spanish to translate it in books.

Mila Pavlichenko is a young single mother and history student. When WWII reaches Russia, she uses her hobby of sharpshooting to become a renown sniper.  She finds love and horror while fighting for her country, but she may find her most wily enemy yet when she goes on a propaganda tour of the United States and is in the path of a potential presidential assassin.  Will she be able to thwart him?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was the November selection for the Rogue Book Club.  Sadly, I was the only member who read it, so we didn’t have a good discussion.  One of my other book clubs will be reading it soon so I’ll get to finally discuss it.

·       Author Kate Quinn is one of my favorite historical fiction authors.  I love all of her books.

·       It is amazing that Russia had women sharp shooters in WWII.  It’s especially amazing at a time when women in the military are being demeaned in our own country.

·       The novel is told through three point-of-views.  One is Mila in the past as she becomes a sniper. Another is an unknown assassin in 1942 trying to assassinate President Roosevelt.  The third is Eleanor Roosevelt in 1942 in her notes on hosting Mila and the Russian contingent.

·       The audiobook had a great narrator with voices and accents for all the characters.

·       Over halfway through the book, the two timelines caught up with each other.

·       I loved Eleanor.  She was an independent woman with a mind of her own that also helped Mila.

·       I enjoyed the train trip from Ann Arbor to Albion to Kalamazoo.  I was born in Kalamazoo!

·       The Golden Age of Hollywood Easter eggs were a lot of fun.

·       Mila is Ukrainian but considers herself Russian.

·       I was surprised to find out at the end that Mila and most of the characters in this story were real people and that most of the story was true.  I was amazed.  There is a great author’s note at the end describing all of this.

·       The book had a bit of a slow start, but there was much suspense at certain parts of the book especially at the end.

Overall, The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn was a fascinating novel about a famous Russian sharpshooter in WWII.    

Animal Farm by George Orwell

 

What classic have you always meant to read, but you haven’t quite gotten to it yet?

My son Daniel and I read most of Animal Farm by George Orwell together years ago (he was in middle school at the time. He is now a senior in high school.)  For some reason, we never read the last chapter.  I finally finished it up last month.  I had never read this book in my time in K-12 or in college, but I have always heard about it.  Unfortunately, it seems very relevant to the times we live in.

In this classic novella, animals on a farm in England rise up against their cruel master, Mr. Jones, and take over the farm to run it for themselves.  Things seem to go well until a pig named Napoleon and other pigs take over.  They change rules to help themselves and a pig named Squealer has the job to convince the other animals that their memory is faulty, “Comrade Napoleon is always right.”  Will the animals ever find the equality that they seek?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This is a quick read and short book.

·       This story is written in the style of fable.

·       It is a dystopian story. 

·       We read the illustrated classic and liked the drawings in this version.

·       This book is on the banned book list.

·       I loathed Napoleon.

·       The different animals are supposed to represent different people in the history of the USSR.  For example, a pig called Snowball represent Leon Trotsky and is driven off the farm.

·       As the food rations smaller, pigs say that its is better than life under Farmer Jones.  Rules change slowly and no one is sure what is true. 

·       The story shows how a pure idea of freedom that is supposed to benefit all is corrupted by powerful people who take advantage of the uneducated masses to go along with things that do not benefit them.  The eventual dictator/leader turns to capitalism.

·       It seems like this book would be a better high school read rather than a middle school read where you could really dig into the history of the USSR and also current topics.

·       This book seemed heavy handed at times but did get the point across.  I got a lot more out of 1984 by George Orwell. 

Favorite Quote: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.

A Song in the Dark by Kimberley Woodhouse

 

Title:  A Song in the Dark

Author:  Kimberley Woodhouse

Narrated by:  Liz Pearce

Publisher: Recorded Books

Length: Approximately 11 hours and 53 minutes

Source: Thank-you to @kimberleywoodhouse @bethanyhousefiction @austenprose

for the hard copy of this book as a part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. Audiobook was purchased from Audible.com

Do you have a favorite Christmas song?  I love so many Christmas songs.  One favorite is “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

Chaisley Frappier is a prodigy and a blind concert pianist.  In 1938, she travels through Europe.  While becoming Hitler’s favorite pianist, she also helps as many people as she can.  She travels with her best friend Melanie and driver Rick Zimmerman.  Rick is a spy for the British government.  As Rick and Chaisley fall in love, will their secrets drive them apart?

My thoughts on this book:

·       The book has a riveting prologue that explains Chaisley’s blindness and the loss of her parents in WWI.

·       I loved the buildup of Chaisley and Rick’s romance. It was a good slow burn romance.

·       I enjoyed the great friendship between Melanie and Chaisley.

·       This novel is a clean read and is inspirational. 

·       There are many moments of suspense throughout the novel.

·       This book was a good look into Hitler’s atrocities to the handicapped, including the blind.  He forcibly sterilized blind and disabled people to “protect” the “perfect” race.  It was horrifying to event think about. 

·       The cover of this book is beautiful.

·       I loved that Chaisley, and crew were a light during a very dark time in history.

·       There are great discussion questions at the end of the book to use for a book club.

·       Liz Pearce was a good narrator of the audiobook.

·       I read this book back in October.

Overall, A Song in the Dark by Kimberley Woodhouse is a very engaging and inspirational WWII historical fiction novel.