The House is on Fire

Title:  The House is on Fire

Author:  Rachel Beanland

Publication Information:  Simon & Schuster. 2023. 384 pages.

ISBN:  1982186143 / 978-1982186142

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Sally Campbell's shoes are fashionable but extremely flimsy."

Favorite Quote:  "But now he realizes that all any of these documents are is words, and not even very mysterious words. Words like free and rights and liberty. How can it be that so few words, scratched on a a piece of letter paper, are what's separating Sara and him from a life of freedom?"

On December 26, 1811, during a performance at a theater in Richmond, Virginia, a candle chandelier was raised with the flames still lit. The lit flame touched a scene piece, starting a fire. The entire theater burned down. Seventy two people - 54 women and 18 men died. At least 6 were black or multiracial. It was the largest loss of life in a disaster in the country's history at the time.

This book creates a fictional story with historical figures and this fire. The author's note states, "I ultimately chose to center my story on the lives of four people who experienced the first firsthand and were, in one way or another, forever changed by it. The characters of Gilbert, Jack, Sally, and Cecily are all based on real people who lived and breathed, although we know considerable more bout some of them than others."

Gilbert Hunt is a slave. He becomes a hero in the fire saving the lives of many. Through his eyes, we see the history of slavery and atrocities of that, even as he is deemed a hero.

Jack is young stagehand. In the story, he is the one to raise the chandelier. Through his eyes, we see the how people look to manipulate the truth about the fire to suit their own purposes regardless of who suffers because of those lies. His reckoning is whether he will stand for the truth regardless of the danger that presents to him.

Sally is a young widow, who shows courage during and after fire. She is responsible saving many lives and for forcing a reckoning of what a disproportionate number of women died as compared to men. "Well, weren't we promised that if we married well, we would be taken care of? That our futures would be secure? Where is the security in a husband who would sooner climb over you than help you to your feet?" Per the author's note, "family legend places Patrick Henry's daughter, sally Henry Campbell, in the theater the night of the fire."

Cecily is an enslaved young woman, who accompanies her mistress to the theater. She survives the fire and then sees the opportunity that survival presents. It may be her one chance to escape the abuse she has suffered all her life. But at what price?

Through these four perspectives, the author weaves a compelling story of a preventable disaster, its aftermath, its heroes, and its villains. It also paints a vivid picture of a time and place - slavery, the role of women, the role of artists and performers, and the city itself.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Last Carolina Girl

Title:  The Last Carolina Girl

Author:  Meagan Church

Publication Information:  Sourcebooks. 2023. 320 pages.

ISBN:  172827804X / 978-1728278049

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "The last time Daddy and I stood at the ocean's edge together, there had been a storm most of the day."

Favorite Quote:  "Let 'em teach me what they can, but don't go forgetting who I am."

A small piece of the book description - "set in 1935 against the very real backdrop of a recently formed state eugenics board" - speaks to the history behind this book. Eugenics was a horrific practice by which the individuals with power and control to make fertility decisions. Women who were seen as somehow inferior - by race, by disability, by illness, by economic status, by any measure deemed appropriate by the decision makers - were sterilized to prevent them from bearing children that would carry that inferior trait forward. Often these women had no idea what was being done. Often these "women" were mere children.  

Take My Hand by Dolan Perkins-Valdez tells a story of eugenics as recently as the 1970s in Alabama. That story is based on an actual historic court case. This book takes us back to 1935 in North Carolina. Leah Payne is 14 years old.

Through the course of this story, these are the tragic lessons that Leah learns:

• "Home looked different to each of us."
• "I soon learned to stop listening when I figured out my voice didn't matter."
• "I guess that's the thing about coming home; it's not the home that's changed, it's the person coming back who has."
• "Forgiveness and forgetting are two different things, and I can't say with certainty that I've done either one particularly well."

Leah's story is based on the history of eugenics. Surprisingly, this history and its aftermath for Leah is only a small part of the story. Much of the story is told about what leads up to that point. Leah's life surrounded by the love of her father, friendship, and home. The loss of her father. The loss of home and all she has ever know. The servitude. The secrets of that servitude. In that heartbreak are moments of love and friendship among children who do not embody the adult world and love by instinct.

The ending of the book somehow does not feel real. It packages everything. Having read a little bit of the history of the time and place, most "real" stories likely would not have ended that way. Part of me is left wondering if that was to be the end, then why did everything in between even take place?

The drama of the book title was one of the things that drew me to the book. However, having now read it, the meaning of the title is unclear. What is the "last" about Leah's story? Sadly, it was not the last case of an orphan lost and wrong by society and those who should care for them. Sadly, it was not the last case of eugenics.

Leah's story is a sad one. How could you not empathize with the plight of this child! The horrific history of eugenics in our nation is an important one to remember. For that, I am glad to have read the book.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Recipe for Disaster

Title:  Recipe for Disaster: 40 Superstar Stories of Sustenance and Survival

Author:  Alison Riley

Publication Information:  Chronicle Books. 2023. 176 pages.

ISBN:  1797212826 / 978-1797212821

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "While I am quite fluent in disasters, when it comes to cooking I am a person who needs a recipe."

Favorite Quote:  "Food is integral to our emotional lives, but while we plan, choose, and prepare special things when we revel and commemorate, on those days when there is less to celebrate, we still have to eat."

From the book description:  "This book reminds us of the value of our experiences, good and bad, and their capacity to bring levity and purpose to the moments we need them most. Recipe for Disaster was conceived through the deeply held belief that there is humor, liberation, and universal truth to be found through the exchange of these stories."

Food memories is an idea that resonates with most people. Memories of both joyful times, sad ones, and, as this book's title suggests, disastrous ones is one we can all relate to. Mom's soup when I was sick as a child. The fallback, easy, comfort meal I make when I am tired. The meal we look forward to after coming home from a vacation having indulged. The birthday dinner my child asked for.

Food - the thought, the smell, the taste - can conjure memories. Of people. Of a time. Of a place. Of who we were at that time and place. Comfort food gets its name for a very obvious reason. The dictionary defines comfort food as "food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being."

This book includes forty stories by forty contributors of food memories. The theme, as the title points out, is disaster. With humor and the perspective of hindsight, the contributors share their stories. The contributors include Samantha Irby, Alice Waters, Bowen Yang, Michael W. Twitty, Cey Adams, Chelsea Peretti, Simon Doonan, Meshell Ndegeocello, Brian Lehrer, Gabrielle Hamilton, Becca Blackwell, Jacqueline Woodson, Sarah Silverman, Raul Lopez, Thundercat, and more. Some names I am familiar with, and some not.

The titles of the stories - Under the Sea, A Mess for a Moment, A Soft Spot, Staples, to name a few - do not tell me much about what "disaster" may be the heart of the story. Some do give a nod to the food - pizza, soup, potatoes, beans, etc. Each is only a couple of pages long. The book is easy to pick up and put down. As with most book of this nature, some stories resonate with me more than others. Each reader will find some perhaps that speak to them.

Each story is accompanied by a recipe - some basic and some more complex. The book is not as much about the recipes as the stories. Nevertheless, the recipes are included.

An interesting, relatable premise that leads to an interesting collection. My favorite part, though, may be that cover which made me smile and pick up the book in the first place.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.