Wrapping up Women’s History Month with a Mix of Light & fun to Dense & Educational
March of 2024 felt like a short month, even though it obviously contained 31 days. I’m chalking this up to only only reading one girthy book and spending most of my audiobook hours listening to a dense biography. Below is a wrap-up of what I read or listened to this month with short book reviews and some recommendations.
The Light & Fun
I have been on a murder mystery kick lately, and the two audiobooks I listened to at the beginning of March fed my inner detective. I blew through the Ernest Cunningham series (there’s only 2 out so far) by Benjamin Stevenson. Both were fun, easy listens with a witty, clever, likable main character (Ernest) written in the first person. They both take place in Australia, so the choice of Barton Welch as the narrator for the audio is perfection. I enjoyed the first book in the series, Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone, slightly more than the second – Everyone on This Train is a Suspect, however they were both excellent listens. I definitely recommend checking these books out, and I hope we see more of Ernest Cunningham.
4.25 / 5 Stars
Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.
I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that.
Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.
Who was it?
Let’s get started.
EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE
My brother
My stepsister
My wife
My father
My mother
My sister-in-law
My uncle
My stepfather
My aunt
Me
4.0 / 5 Stars
When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.
The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:
the debut writer (me!)
the forensic science writer
the blockbuster writer
the legal thriller writer
the literary writer
the psychological suspense writer
But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.
Of course, we should also know how to commit one.
How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?
The Dense (but Entertaining)
At the end of February, I needed to read about vampires. Specifically, I wanted a spicy vampire book. This mood may have been instigated by playing Baldur’s Gate III. Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire has been on my reading list since last year. What finally sold me on picking this one up was Kristoff’s pitch: “It’s basically what would happen if Interview with a Vampire hooked up with Name of the Wind.”
Right off the bat, I loved the setting. Kristoff builds a lush, grimy, dark and despondent world for the Empire of Elidaen. I really enjoyed the story and characters overall. Kristoff’s over-the-top prose melds with the melodrama of the main character Gabriel. And yes, there is some spice which can be either a content warning or right up your alley. I recommend looking up some of the content warnings for this one if you’re concerned about the spice level. For me, it was almost the correct level – maybe a little underwhelming.
Empire of the Vampire is not a short book at over 700 pages. The pace is kind of slow, but the dialogue and action scenes make up for some of the extended scenes. I stayed engaged with the story the entire time. Once I finished the book, I immediately downloaded the next in the series – Empire of the Damned – another doorstop novel. So, the verdict? Empire of the Vampire was the mood book I was looking for and it was pretty entertaining. Since it is part of an unfinished series, I don’t think that I would recommend it … yet.
3.5 / 5 Stars
From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hand sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs’ sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.
It has been twenty-seven long years since the last sunrise. For nearly three decades, vampires have waged war against humanity; building their eternal empire even as they tear down our own. Now, only a few tiny sparks of light endure in a sea of darkness.
Gabriel de León is a silversaint: a member of a holy brotherhood dedicated to defending realm and church from the creatures of the night. But even the Silver Order could not stem the tide once daylight failed us, and now, only Gabriel remains.
Imprisoned by the very monsters he vowed to destroy, the last silversaint is forced to tell his story. A story of legendary battles and forbidden love, of faith lost and friendships won, of the Wars of the Blood and the Forever King and the quest for humanity’s last remaining hope:
The Holy Grail.
The Educational (but also Dense)
I made a commitment (to myself) this year to read something inspired by Women’s History Month. I honestly waffled between this biography and a story by Ursula K. Le Guin. On the one hand, I am not a non-fiction reader and especially not biographies. On the other, I’ve read some Le Guin in the past. So while Le Guin is a trailblazer in her own right, I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and tackle the biography of Frances Perkins.
Wow.
I had never heard of Frances Perkins before, and the biographer implies that is not uncommon. This woman is a legend and a true example of why women should always been in rooms where decisions are made. Ms. Perkins’ life story, her drive and her accomplishments completely inspired me. This was absolutely the book I needed to listen to right now, at this season in my life.
A small nit-pick on the structure – there were times when biographer jumped around in time depending on the topic which was a little disorienting. There were also quite a few areas with a lot of name dropping which I tended to tune out. I am here to learn about Ms. Perkins!
Susan Ericksen’s narration makes the audiobook an easy listen. I highly recommend this biography of an unsung hero if you have any interest in American history, women’s history, or want to read about an inspiring feminist leader. I am so glad I listened to this biography.
4.5 / 5 Stars
Frances Perkins was named Secretary of Labor by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. As the first female cabinet secretary, she spearheaded the fight to improve the lives of America’s working people while juggling her own complex family responsibilities. Perkins’s ideas became the cornerstones of the most important social welfare and legislation in the nation’s history, including unemployment compensation, child labor laws, and the forty-hour work week.
Arriving in Washington at the height of the Great Depression, Perkins pushed for massive public works projects that created millions of jobs for unemployed workers. She breathed life back into the nation’s labor movement, boosting living standards across the country. As head of the Immigration Service, she fought to bring European refugees to safety in the United States. Her greatest triumph was creating Social Security.
Written with a wit that echoes Frances Perkins’s own, award-winning journalist Kirstin Downey gives us a riveting exploration of how and why Perkins slipped into historical oblivion, and restores Perkins to her proper place in history.
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