The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes *****

The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes is set in Berlin (1933), Paris (1936), and New York City (1944). In 1933, author Althea James was invited to Berlin by Joseph Goebbels as a guest of the Nazi party. She met Hannah Brecht who is a member of the Nazi Resistance. In 1944, Vivian Childs worked for the Armed Service Editions (ASE) program which ships books to soldiers. Senator Taft wanted to censor the popular ASE program to hurt Roosevelt’s bid for a fourth presidential term. The book follows the relationships of these three women and their fight against censorship--Nazi book burning and Taft. A potent amalgamation of strong women and the love of books.

Other important characters include:

Adam Brecht, brother of Hannah and resistance fighter. He was captured by the Nazis (1933) and executed (1936). His capture leads to the estrangement of Hannah and Althea.

Deveraux Charles, a movie star who is friends with Hannah and Goebbels (1933, 1936).

Librarian of Burned Books (1944). Works at the Brooklyn Jewish Center in the American Library of Nazi-Banned Books.

The book includes important historical events:

The Reichstag Fire (February 27, 1933)

Bebelplatz Book Burning (May 10, 1933)

D-Day (June 6, 1944)

In addition to censorship, the book explores the question of how Germany allowed Hitler to come to power. There was fear of Communists and Jews, the promise of a better life, but primarily small steps that didn’t frighten anyone and incredulousness. “Most people who paid attention to politics in those days expected him to fade into obscurity, his madness burning bright but then snuffing out quickly.”

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Murder After Hours by Jeanie Wolfe *****

In Murder After Hours, Jeanie Wolfe’s debut novel, Robin Ingals owns Majestic Mountain Vacation Rentals in Starry Hill. Everything is going well until her new secretary, Letitia Ruiz, invites her to the Gem Theater where an amateur group is rehearsing a musical. During Letitia’s first number, she is murdered. This amateur troupe is revealed to be dangerous and deceitful. While Robin investigates the murder, the suspect list and body count rise. It doesn’t help that she is an outsider in this small town and her life is in jeopardy.

Robin is recovering from her divorce and is not eager to start another relationship. Instead, she looks for a companion at Fur Get Me Not Animal Shelter. She rescues Lucky Housecat and her four kittens after stocking up at Licks ‘N Kisses with Nuts N’ Mice kitty food, Whisker Love cat food, and Purdy Paws Kitten and Cat Food.

Robin partners with her landscaper who is studying Criminal Justice in college. Even with her cats, she still feels attracted to Lee.

Between murderous actors, Lucky Housecat, and her attractive landscaper, Robin is busy, and the pages almost turn themselves.

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Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand *****

The Summer of ’69 saw the United States in turmoil. Nixon, Vietnam, Chappaquiddick, Antiwar protests. Civil Rights. Women’s lib. On the positive side, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Matriarch Exalta Nichols hosted her daughter and granddaughters at the ancestral summer home in Nantucket. Kate Nichols Foley Levin was worried about her son Tiger Foley, drafted and deployed to Vietnam. Blair Foley Whalen was in her third trimester and regretted being married to MIT Astrophysicist Angus Whelan. Kirby Foley, a junior at Simmons College, regretted her choices in men. Jessie Levin, 13, was beginning puberty. Five strong women overcome the challenges facing them.

MAIN CHARACTERS

*Jessie Levin, Messie, 13 (b. 1956)

Tiger Foley, 19 (b. 1950), drafted, in Vietnam

*Kirby Foley, 21 (b. 1948), junior at Simmons

*Blair Foley, 24 (b. 1945), pregnant with twins, married to Angus Whalen

Angus Whalen, MIT professor, crazy

Joey Whalen, younger brother, NYC, advertising

*Kate Levin, mother, 48 (b. 1921)

David Levin, lawyer

Lieutenant Foley, Kate’s first husband, fought in Korea, PTSD death.

*Nonny, Mrs. Pennington (Exalta) Nichols, matriarch, 75 (b. 1894)

This is not a good novel for men who are often insensitive, narcissistic, abusive, and unfaithful.

The book features extensive drinking and smoking, also racism, antisemitism, and classism.

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An Immense World by Ed Yong *****

An Immense World by Ed Yong explores the myriad senses. Aristotle recognized five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling. Animals have these senses but… Jumping spiders have eight eyes. Elephants can hear rumbles that humans cannot. Insects taste with their feet. The star-nosed mole feels with its nose. And mosquitoes can smell carbon dioxide. Beyond those senses, there are others for pain, heat, vibrations, echoes, electricity, and magnetic fields. Over 300 pages of wonderous creatures and the miracles of evolution.

“Philosophers have long pitied the goldfish in its bowl, unaware of what lies beyond, but our senses create a bowl around us too—one that we generally fail to penetrate.”

“For example, the OR7D4 gene creates a receptor that responds to androstenone, the chemical behind the stench of sweaty socks and body odor. To most people, it’s repulsive. But to a lucky few who inherit a slightly different version of OR7D4, androstenone smells like vanilla.”

“I ask Streets if [manta shrimp are] hard to train. “Oh my god,” she says, shaking her head slightly. They’re not motivated by food, because they don’t need to eat very often. They seem to lose interest very easily, so she can only test them once a day. “I swear to god they know what the task is but they’re just spiteful,” Streets says.

“Selka [the sea otter] had also been slowly unscrewing the nuts that held the table legs in place. One day, Sarah Strobel, a sensory biologist who had been working with the otter, found the entire platform tilting on its side. Selka was swimming around cradling a dislodged table leg, having stuffed the accompanying nuts and bolts down the drain.”

“He then offered the [octopus] a black-lidded jar containing a tasty crab. He hoped that she would unscrew the lid and extract the crab—a party trick that many octopuses are capable of, and that’s often offered as evidence for their intelligence. Qualia had unscrewed many jars in her time, but Grasso warned the audience that she may instead “decide to have a little pout and hang out in the corner.” Sure enough, that’s what she did.”

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Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen ****

Now in book 8 of the Royal Spyness series, Queens of Hearts by Rhys Bowen has given up all pretense of spying. In this installment, Lady Georgiana Rannoch is accompanying her famous actress mother, Claire Daniels, across the Atlantic on the luxury ship, the Berengaria. Her boyfriend Darcy O’Mara is on board looking for a jewel thief in the employ of Scotland Yard. Georgie sees someone go overboard, but no one is missing. When movie mogul Cy Goldman is murdered, Georgie solves the mystery of the murder and the jewel thief. Set in 1934.

Our main character, Georgie, is thirty-fifth in line to the throne, but otherwise penniless. Before she can board the ship, her Mummy must buy her new clothes. On board the Berengaria, they meet Cy Goldman, the impresario of Golden Pictures, and film star Stella Brightwell. Cy wants Claire to star in his next pictures, but Mummy is set on a quickie Reno divorce and an immediate return to her rich fiancé Max in Germany.

When she learns that a Reno divorce takes six weeks, everyone ends up in Beverly Hills, and ultimately, at Cy’s castle overlooking the Pacific Ocean, called Alhambra Two. Also at the castle are Darcy; Belinda Warburton-Stoke, a friend of Georgie; Queenie, Georgie’s cut-price maid; Charlie Chaplin; Craig Hart, the romantic male lead of the movie (also gay); Ronnie, Cy’s assistant; Cy’s wife who doesn’t live with him and never visits California; a gossip columnist accompanying Mrs. Goldman; and Algie Broxley-Foggett, a clumsy school chum of Darcy.

More than halfway through the book, Cy is discovered murdered.

“I wouldn’t know. Personally I’d rather stay in England and be poor. I don’t like the sound of the way things are going in Germany.” (1934)

“And you know what we used to say on the stage? If you can’t be good, be careful, and if you can’t be careful put a sixpence between your knees.” And [Claire Daniels] laughed.

“[Reno] is certainly not Monte Carlo,” Mummy said, coughing in the smoke-laden atmosphere as we walked between craps tables and penny slot machines. … “I never believed I could feel so homesick and so far away.”

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