The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County by Claire Swinarski

 

Title:  The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County

Author:  Claire Swinarski

Narrated by:  Alexander Cendese, Alexandra Hunter, Ann Richardson

Publisher: HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 53 minutes

Source: Audiobook from Amazon Music monthly allotment and physical book from the Kewaunee Public Library.  Ebook from NetGalley

What is your favorite book set near where you live?  I would have to say Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder as my favorite book set in Wisconsin, but I loved the local setting and flare of The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County which was set in a fictional community in Wisconsin.

Esther Larson is known for her good cooking as part of the “funeral ladies” in her local church and community.  After falling for an internet scam, she is in danger of losing her home.  Her granddaughter, Iris, decides a great way for Esther to raise money and be able to keep her home would be to put together a cookbook with all their local recipes. 

Cooper has come to Ellerie with his celebrity chef father and half sister for the funeral of his beloved stepmother.  Cooper is suffering from PTSD from being a first responder at a tragedy.  As he gets to know Iris and the community, will Cooper get a second chance?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I read this novel at the start of April as part of the Page-turners Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  The general consensus of our book club was that we enjoyed this novel.  The Wisconsin setting and characters were very relatable.

·       I listened to the audiobook from the recommendation of my friend Carol (the head librarian and leader of our book club).  It was delightful listening to the fun accents of the ladies, although we thought their accents seemed more from Minnesota than Wisconsin.  Cooper, Esther, and Iris are all narrators of different sections of this novel, and they all had their own narrator in the audiobook which worked quite well.

·       Cooper’s PTSD was difficult for everyone to deal with.  It brought about a wonderful heart to heart conversation in the novel between Esther and Iris.  Esther confesses that her husband, Iris’s grandpa, had suffered from PTSD after the war and it made their marriage difficult.

·       I enjoyed the details of family, life, love, and small-town living.  This was a very relatable story.

·       It was funny that the church ladies were mostly Catholic and Lutheran, which is very typical of small-town Wisconsin.

·       I liked that the book hit on difficult topics such as PTSD, internet scammers, alcoholism, family dysfunction, etc., but also how family and friends can pull together to help each other through their difficult times.

Overall, The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County by Claire Swinarski was a good book with a great midwestern flair, characters, and charm.  It was especially delightful to listen to on audiobook.

Suddenly That Summer by Lori Handeland (TLC Book Tours)

 

Do you have any summers that stick out for you in your past?  I definitely do.  2001 was the summer I stayed at college and had a blast.  1988 was a summer we went on a family trip to Washington DC.  I also went to church camp . . . and caught headlice.  I remember both being very hot and dry summers.

In the summer of 1967 in the small Wisconsin city of Willow Creek, two siblings are about to have their lives changed forever.  Billy has enlisted in the Army and finds his world altered by his tour of Vietnam.  His sister Jay has her world changed when one of her three best friends decides she no longer wants to be friends.  A newcomer to their conservative town, Paul, brings anti-war sentiments that don’t match anything that Jay has heard from anyone in her town.  As she starts to receive disturbing drawings from her brother Billy, she starts to wonder, is Vietnam really the just war to end communism that she has been led to believe?

Suddenly That Summer is an intriguing book.  I really liked the alternating chapters telling both Billy and Jay’s points of view.  The harsh realities of the war in Vietnam are juxtaposed against Jay’s summer and her changing views on the war in Vietnam.  I also like how this is visualized on the very nice cover of this book by having the girls with a seemingly happy summer on the top with their shadows being soldiers in Vietnam.

I loved how both Billy and Jay have a coming-of-age journey through the novel as they both try to work through the expectations they have been taught by family and their town, and what the realities are in their ever-changing world.  I really liked the ending of this book.  It also has great questions at the conclusion of the novel and would be a great book to discuss at a book club.

Book Source: Review Copy from author Lori Handeland.   Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the TLC Book Tour. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan

 

Do you have any locally set books that you like to read or shows you like to watch?  Have you ever visited Door County, Wisconsin?

Morgan Carter owns a unique shop called Odds and Ends in Door County Wisconsin.  The shop has mystery books and other strange supernatural items for sale.  Carter is also a cryptozoologist.  She has degrees in zoology and biology and is basically a mythical monster hunter.  She is enlisted by the Washington Island police chief, Jon Flanders, for help.  Two people have recently mysteriously drowned.  Even more mysterious, they were found with giant bite marks on them.  What caused these bite marks?  Will Morgan be able to solve the crime before becoming the next victim?

A Death in Door County is the first book in a new planned Monster Hunter Mystery series.  This is a fun cozy mystery novel.  I loved the setting.  I live in the county south of Door County, Wisconsin.  It was fun to read about the local setting.  The characters were fun as well.  I loved learning more of their backstories throughout the novel. I think my favorite character was Newt the rescue dog.  I loved how he and Morgan went on their swims in the bay. The story kept moving for me and was interesting.  The action picked up at the end of the novel.   I will admit that it reminded me of a Scooby Do mystery at the end.  If you are looking for a cozy mystery where justice is served, this is the novel for you.

A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan was the March Selection for the Rogue (AKA Flicks Book Club).   It was interesting to discuss.

Purchased at The Peninsula Bookman – a wonderful bookstore in Door County, Wisconsin.

Once Upon a December by Amy Reichert

 

Do you like to read books that are set locally?

I was delighted to discover that Once Upon a Christmas is set in Milwaukee.   Astra Noel Snow is a librarian at a branch of the Milwaukee Public Library.  She loves her yearly tradition of joining her best friends at the Milwaukee Christmas Market.  Julemarked is a special street with many wonderful Christmas shops including a bakery that specializes in Kringles.  The Clausen brothers run the shop.  Jack Clausen loves watching Astra come to visit the shop every year.  Jack wants to ask Astra out, but he has a problem.  Julemarked is a magical place that moves around the world through the year, never guaranteed to be back in the same spot.  Every four weeks it’s a new December somewhere else in the world and Julemarked is there.  Once it leaves a location, the people there magically forget about it until it returns.  Will Jack and Astra be able to find a happily ever after?

I liked that Once Upon a December had a very unique premise.  Julemarked was a magical alley.  It all seems wonderful, especially that you are basically immortal, until you realize that to have someone from the outside join that life, you would have to give up everything that you love about your normal life.  Or if you leave Julemarked, you are also leaving the world that you love and immortality.  This makes it an interesting conundrum for dating.

I loved that Astra was a librarian and thought it was interesting learning about her job.  I also, loved all of the Wisconsin and Milwaukee references.  I have lived in Milwaukee in the past and currently live in Northeast Wisconsin.  It was fun to visualize where they were talking about in Milwaukee.  It was also fun that they bake different flavored kringles, which are a Wisconsin traditional pastry.  Does anyone outside of Wisconsin know what they are?

The only part of the book that annoyed me was how much of a door mat Astra was for her ex-husband Trent.  She was still doing his mending and basically allowing him to barge into her home at any time.  I don’t understand why she didn’t change her locks.  I was glad when she finally stood up for herself.

Overall, Once Upon a December was a fun, unique, and delightful Christmas romance. 

Review Copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Death Stalks Door County by Patricia Skalka

Death Stalks Door County was the February pick for the Page Turner’s Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  We had our meeting today at lunch to discuss this book.  We live in Kewaunee County, which is the county south of Door County Wisconsin, where this book takes place.  This is the first book in a series of mysteries featuring detective Dave Cubiak.

Dave Cubiak’s life has fallen apart.  After the death of his wife and daughter, he needs change and a new direction.  He takes a job as an assistant director at Peninsula State Park in Door County.  After a series of murders takes place, Dave is racing against time to find the murderer.  Who has murdered six seemingly random people in and around Peninsula State Park and why?

 I enjoyed reading about the places I’m familiar with in this story.  Cubiak himself was not a very likeable character, but after a while, he started to thaw, and I started to enjoy reading about him more.  I was engaged with the story and wanted to know who the murderer was, but I found the plot to be rather convoluted and unrealistic.  There were a lot of characters in this novel and most were not well developed.  I also was annoyed as the implication in this novel is that you need to have some big city experience to really know what’s going on.  The local sheriff is bumbling and has to be saved by Dave Cubiak the former Chicago detective. The local coroner goes out of his way to make sure Cubiak knows he once lived in the big city but came back to Door County.   Living in an area where we do get a lot of tourists from the big city, I know this is how some people from the city feel, that we are all bumbling hicks, but it was annoying to have that bias so prominent in the book.  Also having grown up in Michigan, the fact that author tries to say Wisconsin is a mitten shape at the start of the book bothered me.  It’s not!

 Favorite Quotes:

“Dutch showed me pictures of them as kids.  Two beautiful little girls on an old tire swing.  Then to end up like that.  How sad the underpinnings of people’s lives.”

 “Cubiak was beginning to realize that beneath the peninsula’s picturesque veneer, streams of animosity rippled fast and deep.”

 Overall, Death Stalks Door County had an interesting setting, but the story fell flat with too many one-dimensional characters and a convoluted plot.

 Book Source:  The Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

Between Earth and Sky by Amanda Skenandore (TLC Book Tour Review and GIVEAWAY!)

Between Earth and Sky is a gripping historical fiction novel that kept me enthralled throughout the novel and left me in tears by the end.  It was a story that will have me thinking about this piece of history far into the future.

Alma Mitchell picks up a newspaper in Philadelphia in 1906 and sees a picture of an old school friend that is now accused of murder.  Asku “Harry” Muskrat has been accused of killing a federal agent on his reservation.  Alma convinces her lawyer husband, Mitchell, to travel to St. Paul to help in the case and determine how to free Asku.

Alma has not discussed her childhood in Wisconsin with her husband in much detail.  She flashes back to memories of her childhood moving to LaCrosse with her family to run the Stover School.  Native American children were taken from their families and sent to the school to be “civilized.”  Alma’s flashbacks have her growing up with the Native American children, trying to make friends and learn their culture, but never really being one of them.

As they turn into teenagers, the differences between them become more apparent.  Asku is very smart and earns a scholarship to Brown, but will he be accepted by the white world once he graduates?  Will he be accepted by his own people if he returns to the reservation?  Why does Alma no longer visit or talk to her parents?  What painful secrets does she have and will her marriage survive?

I was riveted by this novel.  It was a very interesting part of history that I have not read too much about.  Even better was by having the story told by alternating chapters between the “present 1906” and the past “1880s” the action and storyline were kept intense.  I can guess the ending of a lot of books, but this book took me for a spellbinding ride and I had no idea how it would end.  It kept on surprising me.

I enjoyed the characters in this story and how it opened up a dark period of American history.  I had a past student bring this up to me in our chats; how Native American students were sent away to these boarding schools in Wisconsin where they were basically stripped of their heritage. I liked the journey of Alma as she realized that what she had been told as a child that it was better for the Native children to be “civilized” may not have been the truth after all.  I do kind of wish the story could have actually been told by a Native American, but I will leave it to the reader whether they think this was a “white savior” story or not.  I don’t want to ruin the plot.

 I just watched a movie that I loved from my childhood, the old John Wayne movie, McLintock.  I was surprised in there after just reading this book that it had a lot of the same themes.  It was troublesome to my husband and myself to see how Native Americans were treated in cinema as well as what really happened to in real life as well.

Besides the heavy historical themes, I also like that this book took a look at love and marriage.  Can marriage survive when your ideals of what you think your partner is like are shattered?

Favorite Quotes:

 “Those days in the classroom, in the wood shop, marching around the grounds . . . Did you every stop and think what they were doing to us was wrong?’

“Perhaps it was best.  The distance.  There were too many ghosts between them tonight.”

“At Brown I was too Indian to fit in.  When I returned home, I was too like a white man.”

“The adoration she’d seen a million times was gone from his gaze.  Yet in its place was forgiveness.  Acceptance.  A love less perfect but more true.  He squeezed her hand and she returned to her seat.”

Overall, fans of historical fiction will love Between Earth and Sky.  It’s a great story that I’ve been telling everyone about. I’ve read a lot of good books this year and this is one of the best I’ve read.

Just to note, I’ve been a bit slow with posts lately and I apologize. We are moving two blocks away and things are not going as smoothly as we’d like.  We own the house, but the previous owners are still not out yet two weeks later.  We had plans for painting and moving but have had to keep redoing things.  I’m still reading and will be posting as I can!  Work has also been quite hectic as well.

Book Source:  Review Copy as part of the TLC Book Tour.  For more stops on this tour, check out the schedule at this link.

GIVEAWAY

One lucky winner will receive a copy of Between Earth and Sky by Amanda Skenandore. If you would like to win this book, please leave a comment on what interests you about this book. Have you ever read any novels about the Native American experience?  If so, which ones did you enjoy or not enjoy?

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to addresses in the United States.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday May 11th!

Please make sure to check the week of May 14th to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!

The Christmas Tree Ship by Cris Kohl and Joan Forsberg

A legend of the great lakes, the famous Christmas tree ship, the Rouse Simmons sank in Lake Michigan in 1912.    I first heard of this ship when I moved to Kewaunee and my sons checked out a nice “Christmas Tree Ship” children’s book at Christmas.  I thought it would be a happy Christmas story, but as I read the end of the book to the boys I was crying.  You mean Captain Santa does not make it back to his wife and three daughters?  Cue the tears.

The Christmas Tree Ship adult book gives great historical detail about Christmas trees, the use of Christmas tree ships, Captain Herman Schuenemann, the Rouse Simmons, the sinking of the ship, and its rediscovery in the 1970’s.  It also discusses the current Christmas tree ships that keep up the tradition in Chicago.  

I was interested to learn in this book that Christmas tree ships were kind of a nostalgic tradition even in 1912.  Instead of just buying a Christmas tree at a lot or on a sidewalk, it was a family tradition to go down to the Chicago River and select a tree from a schooner, which had become a rare sight on Lake Michigan at this time.  

Another interesting tidbit I learned was that Captain Schuenemann’s business model was to buy old schooners on their last legs and try to stay at least one trip away from their sinking.  In fact, his brother met his end when his Christmas tree ship sank on the way to Chicago.  Captain Schuenemann may have hauled lumber all year, but it was the Christmas tree ship that made the most profit and made it, so they could clear the year with profit.  

Captain Schuenemann had become known as Captain Santa and tried to outrun a storm with his load of Christmas trees from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on his way to Chicago.  Unfortunately, the storm caught him and he lost control of his overloaded ship.  It was last seen flying a distress flag going by Kewaunee (where I live).  The Kewaunee Rescue station called the Two Rivers Rescue station as they had a motor boat (Kewaunee did not) and they risked their lives to help the Rouse Simmons, but never found the ship in their search.  It was not seen again until a diver found in the 1970’s.  Captain Schuenemann’s wife and daughters kept up the tradition for twenty years after his passing, which is extraordinary.

I really liked reading the details in this book, I learned a lot more about Christmas trees, Christmas ships, and the Rouse Simmons.  I found it fascinating.  I thought the layout of the book was very informative and I LOVED all the pictures that were included.  My husband and kids loved looking at this book as well.

Favorite Quotes:

“There are few Great Lakes shipwrecks that have attained “legend” status.  The Griffon, the first shipwreck on the upper Great Lakes, is the most searched for vessel, and the Edmund Fitzgerald, the most famous modern shipwreck and the subject of a popular song, is known worldwide.  Helped by “Captain Santa” the Rouse Simmons was such a source of joy and celebration that her loss affected thousands of people, and the story, even 100 years later, continues to move us.”

“For about 40 years, between the end of the financial crisis of 1873 and the beginning of World War I in 1914, Christmas Tree Ships flourished as a traditional and welcome source of holiday trees for urbanites in prairie ports.”

“But the Great Lakes have one very unique advantage:  they contain the best-preserved shipwrecks in the world!”

Overall, the Christmas Tree Ship is a very informative book about the sinking of the famous ship but it also gives great details about Christmas trees, ships on the Great Lakes, etc.  I highly recommend it!

Book Source:  I purchased an autograph copy from The Peninsula Bookman in Fish Creek Wisconsin.