Kaseys Korner

Tea Fit for a Queen

I received this book as a gift from a friend in the United Kingdom.

It's a brilliant little book, full of recipes, photos and history! Perfect for an Anglophile like myself that is always dreaming of high tea, gardens and all things quintessentially English. I loved reading about the various Palaces herein and plan to test out some of the (what looks like) very doable recipes included. Since the US is not on the metric system, converting the ingredients might be the most time consuming aspect to recreating them.

Small book (less than 130 pages) maybe there are better ones available but I'm giving it five stars for the enjoyment I received from the gift and the connection it makes me feel to my English roots.

Demon Copperhead

If ever I start to feel sorry for myself, I'm going to think of this book and Demon Copperfield/Damon Fields. What a hard luck story and yet with all the obstacles he faced, he had been born with gifts (his athleticism and artistic abilities) and that x-factor his counselor (Mr. Armstrong) called "resilience." In the end, those would turn out to be his salvation.

I've never read anything before by Barbara Kingsolver but I can safely say now that I think she's an excellent writer. The style was almost conversational and so realistic to the area, it's impressive. She's either very familiar with that part of the country and/or she did a lot of research. She created a character in Damon that was likable and has the reader in his corner from the very beginning. I felt so invested in his success, I wanted to advise him or help him and found myself saying to the pages "omg, no, no!" every time he made one of those terrible life choices.

I was completely immersed in the book from the start but I confess, by the time I was three quarters finished, I felt strung out. Demon had faced what felt like a lifetime of problems and yet he wasn't even 18 years of age. It seems elitist to type. I realize lives like his are happening every day and they don't have the chances/opportunities that he had. It's a depressing realization and something those of us with the time to write book reviews have never had the misfortune to experience. I don't know how it changes in these pockets of the country where hope seems slim to nonexistent. Demon Copperhead is a book that will stay with me a long time.

4.5 Stars. Those are hard fought, opioid, coal dusted and uninsured stars too, not the shiny kind. I would give it 5 stars but I was left so depressed they felt somewhat deflated.

Four Winds

Hallmark Kristin Hannah ~ strong female protagonist who elicits an ugly cry from the reader at the end. Why am I never prepared for that??

I put this book off for several years because of a review citing animal suffering and I didn't think I was up for that in the throes of a pandemic. Even tho there is animal and human suffering aplenty, I found it more of a testimony of the indomitable human spirit in the face of extreme adversity. I can't imagine enduring the Dust Bowl years and honestly hadn't thought much or read much about them. Now I can't quit thinking about it~ trust KH to bring harsh realities to life with her phenomenal story telling abilities. I imagine if you were someone who'd survived that period in history, you would forever be fearful of a reoccurrence and always be watching the weather.

I didn't immediately have a lot of regard for Elsa but just as her in-laws came to an evolution about her so did I. It's a beautiful story. Educational if you need a brush up on the Dust Bowl era, and touching on societal issues still present today. Unfair wages and practices against migrant workers, this time towards Americans by birth. Besides Elsa's growth as a woman and human being there's also such a realistic portrayal of how family dynamics grow and change. Elsa and Laredo are the ultimate examples of the stages mothers and daughters often cycle thru and hopefully land on in their complicated relationships. Very comprehensive representation of this era in history even covering the environmental issues that contributed to it.

I've decided Kristin Hannah serves up life, not happy endings. Maybe that's why her novels hit so hard? But they also "stick" and that's important too. As tough as the subject matter is, it's written in a very readable and engrossing way. Highly recommend.