Category: Book Review

Book Review: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

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I have read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns which I enjoyed both quite well. Searching in the blog titles you can find the write up for A Thousand Splendid Suns. I have the books for the first two but I borrowed, And The Mountains Echoed, from the library. I found I had a hard time reading this book. My pages would move on my iPad and when I would open it up again and start reading nothing made sense. I would then spin it backwards to find the spot where I left off.

The book starts out in a small village called Maidan Sabz. Another thing I had a problem with were the names of people and towns. This first chapter started in Fall of 1952. The man of the family was called Baba Ayub. He loved his wife and his many children. He was telling the children about div that came to the village and would take away a child, if they looked up… It was quite a story for sure. While writing this now it made me have a thought that this is the way they explain about the young children that come up missing. They have maybe an overabundance of young children and they sell a young one to people who don’t have children. Having this happen is an integral part of the book. The eight-year-old boy was very close to his 3-year-old sister. He was so heart broken and her whole life she had feeling that there was something missing in her life but could never put her finger on it.

There were so many characters in this book, if I would read it again it would be good to write them down so you know which way the story is going. It was not a bad story that would take place in different areas. It was quite confusing It goes from 1952 to 2010 with a lot of story.

I do want to say that I thought once, surely all these people come together and give a meaning to the book, and they do.

This is the first book that I managed to finish for 2026, I am planning to have more and have my next picked out. Oh and it is a real book.

Book Review: The Women by Kristin Hannah

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While we were on vacation in Michigan this past July, I was able to get a book read that was on my shelf. I have heard many comments about how good it was. I don’t know how many of Kristin Hannah’s books that I have read but none disappoint. I enjoy that she researches and speaks to the actual nurses who were in the war. The war that they were told that there were no women in Vietnam. So glad that she took this subject to say yes there were, approximately 10,000.

The story starts out at an affluent home in May of 1966, with Frankie who is 20 and is walking around sad because her brother is going to Vietnam. They have always been close, Frankie and Finley and she was feeling left out. She slipped into her father’s office where there was a wall devoted to their family’s history, it was “The Hero’s Wall”. Her father’s picture was not there as he had been labeled 4-F.Maybe all the hurrah about the heroes wall made Finley want to take up where his father wasn’t able to go or his father pushed it in his way to have one of his children be in uniform to go on the wall. One of Finley’s friend came into the office and were talking about the wall and he wondered why there were no women on the wall. she said it’s the hero’s wall, to honor those in the service of their country. He said that “women can be hero’s too”. Those words change the trajectory of her life.

Frankie had gone to college to be in nursing, and while in high school they had learned how to iron buttonholes and to precisely fold a napkin. Women were supposed to get married, raise children and keep a lovely home.

Well Frankie took her nursing degree to Vietnam and was put immediately to work. she followed her brother to war. She pushed herself in college by increasing her work load and graduated early with honors. She would write to her brother for the next 6 months getting amusing letters back from him telling about he and his fellow sailors aboard the ship.

The war was not portrayed correctly here in the states and America did not have a good view of what it was actually like. They were lied to.

While working in a small hospital after college she checked on a patient who tried to commit suicide. He talked about the nurse that helped him get through while he was at the 12th evac hospital in Vietnam. He had stepped on a bomb and lost his leg. It was a taste of what war was like. After that she had made the decision to volunteer. She wanted her parents to be so proud. She got something totally different.

Frankie went to basic training, flew to Honolulu boarded a jet bound for Vietnam, the lone woman at the front of a line of 257 uniformed soldiers. Women had to travel in their Class-A uniforms: a green jacket, slim skirt, nylons polished black pumps and a flat garrison hat. Beneath it all was a regulation panty girdle to keep her nylon stockings up.

She was met with explosions, red and orange and someone shooting at the plane. It took a couple of times till the plane could land. That was her welcome into Vietnam. The next part of the story is about what Vietnam was like in the evac hospital and how amazingly brave the nurses and doctors. There is so much that you just have to read it.

The last part of the story is when they come home and how they were greeted, by the U.S. and their parents. It explains how they overcame the horrors that they saw, and some were ok and other couldn’t shake it. It would take a long time.

I did not enjoy the Ken Burns documentary on the Vietnam War, or reading a book in college about it. It is all so sad as this book is too. It was a really good book and eye opening and needs to be read and I hope you do.

Book Review: Home Front by Kristin Hannah

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Setting is Washington State in April of 2005. The book starts out with Jolene Zarkades and it is her 41st birthday. The backdrop is the Olympic Mountains and Liberty Bay. She has two girls, five year old Lulu and twelve year old Betsy and husband, Michael who is an attorney. Jolene enjoys running in the mornings, is a very organized person for her family and is a helicopter pilot for The Guard. She enlisted in the army when she was 18 years old and had qualified to flight school helicopter-pilot training.

She had a mother and father who drank and fought and eventually died when she was 17 years old. She did not know what she wanted to do after graduation and decided to enlist in the army. She met her best friend Tami when she was 18 and their love for flying brought them together and they had a strong, bonded friendship. They lived next to each other, got pregnant at the same time with their first child and they went from the army to the Guard when marriage and motherhood made active duty difficult. Twice a week they would go together to practice flying the Black Hawk helicopter, each taking turns at the helm.

Earlier in the morning, when she had gotten back from her run she was getting the girls ready for school and asked where their dad was, he already left. Since it was her birthday it was disappointing that he hadn’t stuck around to at least wish her happy birthday, oh well he probably has something special planned for tonight. She always likes his strong work ethic and seems to make excuses for him.

She deals with 12 year old Betsy’s trying to fit in with the cool crowd and not thinking that her mom is neat, like many twelve year olds. She has a wonderful mother in law who owns a garden store and is very helpful. Michael is in practice with his father but he passed away unexpectedly and is having a hard time dealing with it.

Jolene and Michael speak later in the day and apologized for forgetting her birthday and she said it’s fine as long as we are together. He said he would be home by eight and she said they could have a quiet meal together. He didn’t get home until midnight.

He was having thoughts about what is ahead, what his life could have been if a different path had been taken. Things were becoming rocky at home. Michael has never looked upon the Guard as important, something she really loved. Her daughter doesn’t want her to come to school in her flight uniform. She has asked Michael to come to a birthday party that the group is having for her and he doesn’t want to because they are “her” friends and he has nothing in common with them. Eventually as Michael thinks about his life, he decides that he needs to tell Jolene that he doesn’t love her anymore.

Michael is also taking on a case where a 25 year old murdered his wife. His wife that he adored and they were planning on starting a family. This young man was a model person, had never gotten in trouble and everyone loved him. He had been in Iraq though.

Jolene and Tami got the calls that they were being deployed. She had to break it to the girls, to Michael and her mother in law. Most met the information with disdain. Jolene spent the next weeks preparing the family to take care of themselves. Making a notebook with all the information that she could think of down to what meal to prepare for what day. Her heart is broken over her broken marriage but her sense of duty is strong and she has to do this.

The book goes on and tells the story of what goes on in Iraq and describes what the days are like. She tries to not let them know how bad it is and always tells them that she is not in the fighting, but she is.

The coming of Michael preparing and researching his upcoming court case makes him realize so much. He also has to be there for his girls which took him awhile to realize and to get it together. Then, a horrible accident happened during a flight in Iraq. He and Jolene had limited contact while she was over there and he never told her anything before she left. He was very selfish and wasn’t proud of her and didn’t try to understand. Her problem was that she didn’t depend on him and always was controlling. Both were at fault and had to learn hard lessons.

I whole heartedly recommend this book. It helps the reader understand what being in a war is like, getting injured and the long road to recovery along with the family side of it too.

Book Review: The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader

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Right out of the shoot, I want to say I loved this book. It addressed so many different aspects of life in 1967. The Vietnam War, friendship, abortion, death, drugs, race, family relationship and secrets.

Iowa, 1967 BettyKay is heading for nursing school because in that era women only become teachers, nurses or wives and mothers. She comes from a farming community where the sons are expected to stay home and help with the family farm and her boyfriend does that. He drives her to school in the family truck and supports her decision whole heartedly and promises to talk to her every Sunday.

Kitty is her roommate with a southern accent. She has style and sarcasm, and it takes BettyKay awhile to get used to her and to have a friendship with her that will last 50 years. Kittys own background story is very interesting and so different from BettyKays.

Jo, (and please forgive me if this name is not correct as I don’t have my book in front of me) is an African American girl. She walked into the school and of course had people ignoring her and having to sit by herself until BettyKay asked her to sit with her and she eventually rounded out the trio of friends. She decided to go to nursing school and serve in Vietnam so her brother would not be sent to the war. She takes no time off to have fun and plans to graduate early. She keeps her eye on the light at the end of the tunnel so to fulfill her family obligation.

Kitty was just glamorous, and flirtatious but would also sew for others on the floor. She was sewing for Jo in return for her notes from class. There was only one phone on the floor and if Kitty would get a call she would go to the phone and hang up on it without even talking to the person on the other end.

BettyKays boyfriend visits one day, with a uniform on and tells her that he has enlisted to go to Vietnam. She is shocked of course, wondering why he didn’t discuss it with her. He said he didn’t want to be talked out of it and that he leaves the next day. They spend the night together and then in two months she realizes that she is pregnant. This was not a surprise in the book, and you will see it coming but what happens after is very interesting and cements the friendships.

The book moves through the early lives and then the adult lives of the three women and back and forth. It weaves and builds a good story that way. I am going to stop here because I hope you pick up the book and get immersed into their lives.

I will tell you that the reason the book is titled “The Sunshine Girls” is that is what new nursing students are called.

Book Review – The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel

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This author was recommended to me by my friend Nan. I had said that I like history novels and she said that this author writes them, and she liked her very much. I have been getting some of my reads from the library which is so convenient, but I love the feel of real books in my hand. I also like to refer back to them when writing a review, so it hasn’t stopped me from buying actual paperbacks. Many times I purchase used also.

Here is my review:

Setting is Paris 1939, on the verge of WWII.

Two women, who are American but married Frenchmen.

Elise – is an artist, carves wood and paints and her husband is a well-known artist.

Juliette has a family owned small bookstore along with her husband and children.

These two women are both pregnant and due very close together. They meet in the park one day because Elise has an episode and faints. Juliette came over to render some assistance and eventually she gets Elise back to the bookstore and has the doctor come and examine her and then they become fast friends after that. They both have healthy baby girls who are months apart and they grow up like sisters together. Juliette also has two other children who are boys, and she had a daughter earlier who only lived 13 days and it buried in a nearby cemetery where she visits often.

As the war gets closer to their area Elises husband has been meeting with others underground against the Nazi’s and other bad players of WWII. There are times where he is gone for days, and this is a bone of contention between the two of them because she would like him to be home with them. One day he comes to her with papers that have changed her identity and their daughters also. When she examines the papers, she realizes that the daughters’ papers say a totally different name than hers. He has told her that she needs to get away because she has his last and if she and the daughter are captured then they will be killed. They are looking for him. She needs to leave the daughter in Paris with the papers and go hours away from there.

This tore her up and couldn’t imagine leaving her and walking away. There was a woman in their neighborhood who was Jewish and she made arraignments for her two children to be taken somewhere to be cared for and stay, hopefully, safe. She then went herself away also and finding another place that she had stayed for most of the war until someone ratted them out and they were captured and sent to a concentration camp.

Elise left her daughter with her friend Juliette and family to care for like their own. It was not an easy break at all like you can imagine and she found her way to Ambergene, France to find herself caring for children in a farmhouse where children were kept safe from the war. In the Authors notes at the end of the book she visited this area while writing the book and there was an actual place where the children were kept, and I am sure there were many of these places throughout Europe.

In Paris, back in the little bookstore all was relatively safe and quiet until the Renault Plant was bombed because it was making trucks for the Germans who occupied the country. A stray bomb missed its mark and hit the bookstore destroying it and most of the people in it.

The second half of the book focuses on the characters after the war and how their lives changed and what they did to live. Some moved on, others were mentally challenged, and some had still terrible things happen to them.

It took me a chapter get into the book but then it took off for me and I enjoyed it. Be sure to read the authors notes. It is a good historical novel that was released in June 2023.

Book Review – Summer Island by Kristin Hannah

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This novel by Kristin Hannah was an earlier writing, it was copyright in 2001. Her later books are more in depth with a focus on history but nonetheless. it was still an enjoyable read.

It starts out in Seattle Washington with a woman talk show host named Nora who gives moral advice to callers. She is well known and loved and very successful. She has two daughters and is divorced. She left her husband with the two daughters and did not contact them for a long time. She had a short relationship with a man and racy photos were taken to emerge years later when she became a well known radio personality.

Ruby, is one of the daughters, who has held a grudge against her mother for 10 years. She would return gifts and letters unopened. She felt great rage toward her and it did not help her personally. She was a funny person and wanted to be a comedian. There was a boyfriend that she lived with but after five years he walked out on her. Her manager worked hard for her but it wasn’t working out either. The money was short, the boyfriend helped with the rent but that was gone and she was very down.

The other sisters name is Caroline and she has kept a relationship up with her mother. It is never an easy relationship but still a relationship. She is married with children and appears to have a successful marriage on the surface, but that story will emerge eventually.

The story of the father/husband does emerge later in the story too but this is a story of pain, anger, discussion, forgiveness, discovery and love.

When the man came out and was blackmailing Nora for a million dollars about the racy pictures that were taken years before. Her audience were so disappointed and were turning their backs on her. She drank too much one night and had a serious accident.

Ruby was the only person who had the time (since she was out of work at the moment) to get Nora to their summer island for recuperation. Nora wanted to go there so no one would find her.

For Ruby, this brought back so many memories of playmates who were two brothers and she had not kept in touch with them either. Sadly, the one brother was dying of cancer and the other had taken over the family business of book publishing. He was not married and had one sexual encounter after another but always seemed to be seeking something.

This is where everyone will converge along with their stories and I am leaving it for you to read the book. Once again I enjoyed this novel by Kristin Hannah.

Book Review: Wild by Kristin Hannah

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This is my fourth and last book for January. It was such a good book, I could not put it down and it caught my attention from the first page. So here goes the review and I hope you decide to read it too.

The players:

Julia Cates – A psychiatrist in Los Angeles

The Zuniga’s – parents of a child who took a gun to school, shot and killed 4 classmates, Julia Cates was the psychiatrist of the child.

Girl – lives in the Olympic National Forest in a cave with wolves.

Ellen Barton – the Police Chief in Rain Valley, Washington

Peanut, Cal and Earl – Both work for Ellen Barton

Dr. Max Cerrasin – Doctor in Rain Valley

The towns people of Rain Valley

Setting: Los Angeles, Rain Valley and the Olympic National Forest

The first page of the book has Julie Cates driving to courthouse in Los Angeles. She had been named a defendant in a lawsuit. One of her patients took a gun to school and killed four other young adults. It had been covered for a year by the reporters and today is when the judge will determine is Julia Cates should remain a defendant in the case.

The next chapter is in Rain Valley and a young girl has been found up in a tree in the park holding a wolf pup. No one knows where she came from, she doesn’t talk, just stares and will not come down. Ellen Barton, the police chief gets there and tries to decide what to do and how to get them down. She finally got some food, and that worked. The girl got down with the wolf pup and sniffed the air like litter mates and then dived into the food tearing at it and eating. The chief had a net and tossed it over the two and they went crazy trying to get out. Then someone shot a tranquilizer into the wolf and he went to sleep. Then the girl got tranquilized too so the two of them could be moved to safe areas.

Next chapter, Julia is trying to get her life back after the lawsuit but everyone has canceled their appointments with her. Ellen Barton is trying to figure out how to find the parents of this little girl. Eventually, trying to get the girl to communicate with them they decided to call Julia back to help them. She has not been to her home town for years. Ellen also lives in the house they grew up in and Julia has trepidation about all of this. But she has nothing better to do and she is very qualified to handle this kind of case.

There is alot of mystery in this book that really keeps you wondering. Who is the little girl, how did she get there, why are there scars on her ankles or a deep wound on her shoulder. How long has she lived in the forest with the wolves? Mostly, who are her parents and they should be wanting her back? The town has taken her under their wings. She is their child now. The book is also interesting with the many different twists and stories that come out with the main characters. It of course doesn’t turn out like you may consider like it should.

As like Kristin Hannah’s books you always need to keep a box of tissues nearby.

Book Review – A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

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This is the third book that I have read in January. This book was very good, interesting, historical but left me very sad.

The characters in the book: Mariam – the illegitimate daughter of the housekeeper of a wealthy man who owned a cinema and was involved in other businesses.

Nana-Mariam’s mother

Jalil – Mariam’s father

The setting was Herat, Afghanistan, when Mariam was five years old.

When Nana was pregnant, she could not be the housekeeper anymore and Jalil had a small house built for her far away from the town, across the field and stream. It had a table and two chairs. Boards for clay pots, a cast-iron stove with wood was outside for winter. A chicken coop, with a fence and a few sheep.

Nana would tell her stories with a labored tone and it was like a heavy burden to bare. Nana would have episodes which were called a jinn. It sounded like epilepsy to me. Jalil had three wives and nine legitimate children and he would come to visit Mariam once a week on Thursdays and she adored him. Once a month he would send up supplies and Nana would be horrible to Jalil’s boys who brought the supplies.

Mariam spent her first 14 years in this little house without going anywhere else. When she was fourteen she wanted to explore, go to town, go to the movies. She tried to talk her father into taking her, he couldn’t though. He had made an empty promise to her and she had made her way into town. She walked around and found his home and sat outside the gates all night. They tried to get her to go home, she would, they brought her food and a blanket, but her father would not go out to her. The next day they convinced her to go home and the driver took her, when they got back to the little house Nana had hung herself.

Mariam had to go then and live at Jalil’s home. It was short-lived and the wives had found someone for Mariam to marry. A 40 year old shoemaker who had a wife who died and also a child who drowned. They needed to get her out of their home. Jalil would not stop it no matter how much Mariam begged him.

The husband is named Rasheed. He was good to her for a while. When she would become pregnant she would always lose the baby. It happened through the years and as each happened he would become meaner, hit her, call her names.

She was kept in the house and could only go out with him covered in a Hijab.It was a time in Afganistan where women could go to school, work, wear makeup, nice clothing, read books. Mariam was stuck with a mean husband and stuck inside a house working. Everything she did he complained, one time he said her rice was dry and made her chew pebbles and her teeth broke and he told her good, that what it is like eating your rice.

This story is broken up in chapters, then in parts. Part 2 starts out with people in their neighborhood. It is 1987 in Kabul. It starts with nine year old Laila and her good friend Tariq. He has an artificial leg and is two years older. This tells the story of their families and right before the war with Russia starts. Eventually the bombs will start falling and killing people and hitting houses.

Part 3 starts with Rasheed taking care of Laila, her home was bombed and her parents were inside. It was all gone, they had been getting ready to leave and sorting things to sell so Laila had been outside. She was not in good shape but eventually she recovered and Rasheed got the idea that she could become his second wife. Tariq and his family had already left but before they did he and Laila had sex for a goodbye. She had realized that she was pregnant and Laila knew she would have a hard time without a husband. She said yes to him and consummated the marriage quickly so he would think the baby was Rasheeds. She was treated like the queen and Mariam was even worse, by this time Mariam was 35 years old. Eventually they becomae friends especially when the baby really took to Mariam.

After the war involving Russia ended then the Taliban came in and they are horrible. They had all the rules that women could not do. They had only one hospital that treated women with no running water. Women could never be out alone and always had to wear a hijab or they were beaten. Laila and Mariam tried to leave but were caught and brought back home to Rasheed. There was hell to pay for that.

The story goes on with sadness and drought and I am going to leave it here. You will have to read it to know what happens to all the characters. What makes me so sad is I know that the Taliban are back in power now and it is back to the bad way it was before for women.

Book Review – In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

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With my friend we send books that we like back to each other. Recently I received this book and the title perplexed me, especially when I got into the book. In the end it was good and the sign of a good book is trying to find the time while doing anything to read it.

So we have Dannie the female in the lead. From the first page on she is a very regimented person who lives by numbers. She counts to twenty-five before she opens her eyes. It’s a calming technique. Thirty-six, thats how long it takes her to get ready for work, that’s how long it takes to walk to work. She lives in New York City, and it would go on. She lives with her boyfriend David. Today Dannie has an interview with a top law firm, one she has focused on for quite a long time. That night they go out to dinner and have some drinks when they get home she puts on comfy clothes sits on the couch and falls asleep immediately. When she wakes up she is in a completely different apartment. She wonders if she has been kidnapped and then a man comes into the room. He seems to know her but she doesn’t know him, she looks down at what she was wearing and it is a dress she owns but didn’t have on the night before. They were going to change their clothes and he shows familiarity about the drawer that he opens and she realizes that he lives here with her. She takes off to the bathroom and trys to figure out what she is going to do, she needs to find out his name and decides to look in his wallet. Aaron Gregory, 33 years old. She goes out, looks him over and realizes that he is quite handsome. Further on in the chapter it becomes very erotic. Next chapter, she wakes up and David is back in the apartment. She is very confused. She tries to find out who he is in her dream. Dannie had gotten her dream job and 4.5 years go by. She had gotten engaged but they never found the time in four and a half years to get married.

Bella is Dannies best friend and she has parents who are wealthy and she has unlimited money. She usually has many boyfriends through the years. They last 2 to 4 months and then move on. She travels and owns an art gallery. Dannie is meeting her for lunch and Bella starts to tell her about her new boyfriend, Greg. She wants Dannie and David to meet him because he is “different than the others” and go out to dinner. Dannie agrees and when they get to the restaurant Dannie is shocked to realize he is the man in her dream four and a half years ago!

I have set the scene and don’t want to ruin the rest of the book for you if you decide to read it. I hope I gave you enough to pique your interest. I did like it and it took a while to understand the title. It’s not a long book, 251 pages, easy to read and quick. It has topics and questions for a book club in the back and it has a very nice ending though sad. I know that doesn’t seem like it should go together.

Book Review – The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

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I have decided that Kristin Hannah is one of my very favorite authors. Her books call to my interests, history, romance, drama and family, I have read The Great Alone, The Nightingale, Night Road, this one, The Four Winds and I have watched the series made out of Firefly Lane. There are so many more to read and I look forward to each one.

This book starts in the early 1920’s in Texas. In the beginning of the book the farmers in Texas had great crop weather year after year and the wealth and abundance was high. Then the 1930’s came along and rain dried up everything and the dust storms started. They were not able to grow anything, the water dried up, the animals were dying from lack of food and water. The dust storms would just blow in sometimes for days. People would become ill from ingesting the dust into their lungs and stomach.

This was the time of Franklin Deleno Roosevelt and the New Deal but the dust bowl was slow to get recognition to get help. Finally, when a government official from the Conservation Corp. who had been touring the Great Plains, spoke with the farmers he met with resistance. Farmers are very proud and do not want to receive assistance from the government. Also what they were told was that they were part of the reason that caused the dust bowl. That did not go over well, of course. By getting rid of the natural prairie grasses and turning the land into farmland then essentially nothing growing on it the dry topsoil would blow and blow. I remember from my reading of Laura Ingalls Wilder this was mentioned when they lived in Kansas and farming was so hard much earlier. The government wanted the farmers to turn their land back into prairie grasses again and the farmers would be subsidized for this. It was slow to catch on and people started to move to the west coast like California and Oregon with the promise of jobs.

The 25 year old female character in the beginning of the book was named Elsa. Her family was very wealthy and contributed much to the community. Elsa had been unwell when she was young, and the family treated her as if she was still sick and really didn’t think or let her be part of the family. She wasn’t listened to, wasn’t asked to be part of the fun of the family. She spent much time in her room, read a lot and did needlework. She was also made to feel she was ugly and no one would want to be married to her. One day she went to the store and found some red material. She decided to make a dress out of it and went out on the town. She met a young handsome man and one thing led to another and she became pregnant. The family found out who the young man was, took her to their house and dumped her off because she has shamed her family. This is really when Elsa’s life became interesting, and this family became everything to her.

She came to love the farm, learned things, worked hard, wanted to be a good wife and fell in love with her in-laws. She ended up having a little girl, then a boy and another child that passed away. Her husband couldn’t stand the sadness of the dust bowl and left the family, and they were of course, devastated.

Eventually Elsa had to make her way away from the prairie and took her two children to California. To drive hundreds of miles with so many others, across the desert to find a better life. Of course, it is never as good as they think it is going to be but Elsa and the kids learn and become strong and meet others who are in the same boat. These people who once had been wealthy but lost everything. I will leave it here, pick up this book, it is very good to find out how Elsa and her family survive.