Our Noble Selves by Kate Atkinson – Book

From a Google Image Search – Amazon

Our Noble Selves by Kate Atkinson-Book

Kate Atkinson often writes about the events around World War II as they affected the British and the world. She’s a great writer so even when she tackles something as seemingly yawn-worthy as the 1951 Festival of Britain, as she does in Our Noble Selves, Kate Atkinson manages to pull it off. Throwing in a murder mystery doesn’t hurt. Harry Flynn never fought in the war, but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and spent his war years as a prisoner of war in Asia. Now Harry has been hired to work on the Festival of Britain, an enormous endeavor planned by the Queen to help Britain face forward after a horrific decade.

Flynn, changed by his POW experiences is no longer comfortable with the pursuits of his bachelor days. He wants stability and peace, but he marries a woman who will never offer him either. She has a daughter, Veronica and Veronica has a dog named Mrs. Betty. After they split up Flynn is lost with no goals for a future that makes any sense. Somehow the odd collection of employees in the festival office restores some balance and puts solid ground under his feet. Evans is a Welshman and Badger (a nickname) is from a wealthy family. Boy is fourteen and “mothers” them all (real name, Terrance).  Eventually they are joined by Maud Ogilvie, a calm, rational, and somewhat mysterious older woman who knows how to get things done.

Flynn’s first assignment is to set up a poetry contest with prize money of 1000 pounds. He also is assigned to procure items both obscure and common to fill out the displays in the various venues. Home and Gardens needed lots of attention. Flynn enjoyed the hunt and had an excellent memory for the items on the lists. Today someone might need a stuffed rabbit, tomorrow a certain table or lamp. However, when someone has the bright idea to have a contest to choose a festival cake the consequences are rather unexpected.

It’s all very British, with the idiosyncratic characters echoing people we met in Beatles songs, like Eleanor Rigby, Desmond and Molly Jones, Mr. Kite, Rita and many more. In Atkinson’s book besides Flynn’s office mates, we have the bosses they answer to, Mr. Denholm, Mr. Dangerfield, and coworkers from other festival offices. Denholm and Dangerfield had been Nazi sympathizers before the war. Flynn wondered what they had done in those war years, and his instincts suggest they are still somewhat dodgy.

Our Harry Flynn is popular with the ladies with some kind of mysterious attraction that the men around him don’t understand but are jealous of. Women are always asking Flynn if he would like to meet them for a drink. After his misadventures with Ivy Spears and their short-lived marriage, Flynn is less than enthusiastic, which makes other men even more mystified by the effect Flynn has on woman. He takes the attractive femme fatale Delphine Dubois (she’s French) for a drink. When he wakes up the next day, he remembers nothing. Now Delphine has disappeared. Did she go back to France or meet an untimely end? Harry Flynn is gradually becoming a murder suspect and he’s not sure that he isn’t guilty. Then Ivy leaves Veronica and Mrs. Betty with him while she goes off with her new man.

It’s quite a festival and at the end the toast is to ”Our Noble Selves.” Not all involved turned out to be worthy of the toast.

The French Illusion by John Grisham-Book

From a Google Image Search – Penguin Random House

John Grisham has written many best-selling books exposing bad practices within our justice system. When his characters comprehend the ways in which the law can be twisted to allow lawyers to profit from borderline irregular or even criminal legal practices, brave protagonists come up with creative plans to end the bad behaviors and restore proper justice. The French Illusion is just such a book. Stuart Nash is just such a protagonist.

A man from Algeria, falsely accused of being a terrorist, subjected to torture at Guantanamo, and then released, decides to get revenge. Since his method includes kidnapping, imprisonment, and torture he feels his actions are justified by the way he was treated. He plans to also be paid back with huge cash settlements through collecting millions in ransom. He’s playing a long game, and the US seems unable or unwilling to track him as he operates out of France, kidnapping honeymooners in Paris. The US eventually gets involved because the young men who are kidnapped are either US government or military people.

In a twist, Graham introduces his main character, Stuart, in a separate (very short) book. We are charged $.99 for this eBook, which, although unusual, hardly seems excessive. Stuart Nash, however, does not appear in The French Illusion for some time.

The story has all the classic John Grisham suspense tempered with a soupçon of a sense that justice has gone off the tracks. Relatives of the kidnapped men are told to tell no one about the kidnapping or the ransom. Over a period of three years the same pattern plays out three times. Eventually what has been kept secret is revealed to the FBI and then the CIA. The crime is interesting; how justice is restored is even more interesting. The plan involves Stuart Nash and he is not alone.

This is a very fast read. Although the plot is fresh, the book seems short and the smaller book that introduces the main character (The Law Student) seems unusual. In the back of your mind you might wonder if Grisham has spent too extravagantly and is now holding us for a bit of ransom. (And you might think twice about planning a honeymoon in Paris.)

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe – Book

From a Google Image Search – Boston Globe Book Review

London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for the Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe is either shocking or not depending on how much you know or suspect about modern cities. The story unfolds like an extended episode of 20/20 (the TV show). This is a nonfiction book which gives you all the known evidence in the case of the death of Zac Brettler who jumps, falls, or is pushed from the fifth floor of an apartment building that faces the Thames River.

London has become home to people who feel they belong because their country of origin was once part of the British Empire. Akbar Shamji is the son of a wealthy man who ended up in Uganda from India and was forced to leave Uganda when the government took a nationalist turn. London is also full of Russian oligarchs who can buy a degree of freedom from Russian oversight. These émigrés live well. Their homes and apartments are located at posh addresses. Drivers take them where they want to go. When a teenager, who doesn’t fit in anywhere, looks around for “cool” role models, he, Zac decides to pretend to be the son of a Russian oligarch. He’s good at it. He adopts the accented English, the mannerisms, and the lifestyle of the role he has chosen. He seems wealthy because he has access to some money held in trust for him until he turned eighteen. 

Zac has worried his family for several years. He comes home rarely and when he does, he drops his new persona. He mentions his friends, especially Akbar, to his parents but he keeps his two lives separate. 

How did Zac end up dead, face down, in the mud at the edge of the Thames? The cameras across the Thames at MI6 show him falling from the fifth-floor outdoor balcony of Verinder Sharma (aka Indian Dave) but the cameras are too far away to see if he was pushed. If the fall was induced by violent threats or mental torment inside the apartment, the cameras would be no help.

It’s an interesting read. In my case I listened to the book on tape which I would recommend. Could London and other cities exercise greater control over émigrés whose wealth is suspect or if the source of their wealth is suspect? Why do Akbar and Verinder seem to have the run of the place when others may be subject to closer attention? Verinder as Indian Dave has a reputation for violence and even for killing perceived enemies. Most people know that Verinder and Indian Dave are the same person. How is it that he is never apprehended? Zac certainly chose the wrong men to befriend, but they seemed like mentors. 

Follow the author as he collects and shows the reader the evidence. Decide what you think happened. What do you think about Zac’s parents? Do parents of problem teens often avoid confrontation to escape their offspring’s anger? Do you think the events that led to Zac’s fall will ever be discovered?

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout-Book

From a Google Image Search – Penguin Random House

The Things We Never Say is not a big blockbuster of a novel. Elizabeth Strout writes about family dynamics, friendships, and how couples relate. Even dramatic events in this novel are discussed in retrospect, or at some emotional distance.

We meet Artie Dam and his wife Evie years after an emotional crisis has calmed, although it will never be forgotten. Their 17-year-old son, Rob, crashed his car and his girlfriend died in the crash. The Morrison’s sued and a bitter court case followed. But the Morrison’s lost and left the area. Years have softened the grief and the guilt, but Artie could see how these events had changed his son. And Artie never mentions some details that did not come up in the trial.

Rob married Francesca, a concert pianist, nine years older. We find him considering a separation, possibly in love with a woman closer to his age. Artie and Evie hold their tongues while all the parties involved work through this.

Artie teaches 11th grade history and loves being a teacher. Our current situation in America sometimes enters the narrative. But Artie is also facing a life crisis of his own. He doesn’t discuss his feelings directly with anyone. Although Artie and Evie often talk about their work, they rarely examine their relationship. The author gives us insight into their thoughts about their relationship though. 

The things we never say create an undercurrent in this novel, totally appropriate to a life lived near the coastal waters of Massachusetts. Couples seem have a harder time talking about thoughts they hoard, perhaps even existential thoughts, and they protect these internal dialogues. This makes partners question their relationship and wonder if it still works. It makes them wonder if they have grown apart.

However, perhaps some private struggles are better left unspoken. Often these struggles resolve by themselves over time. Perhaps if hauled into the daylight they would just test the relationship in unnecessary ways.

We learn who Artie is through his interactions with those around him–his family, his friends, his students. Will a revelation about his son change everything? Is it better kept private from the wife who has kept it to herself for years? Will it affect his relationship with his son, and what effects will it have? How will it affect the relationship between Artie and Evie? Perhaps some things are better left unsaid. Elizabeth Strout is a master of telling us quiet stories, but her stories have depth. This one is on the short list for a Booker Prize in 2026.

Coming Up Short by Robert Reich – Book

From a Google Image Search – Penguin Random House

Robert Reich’s book Coming Up Short may not call your name like a thriller or a romance would but it’s very readable. The book is a sort of a memoir, but it is also an insider’s view of American politics, law, economics, and personalities over the past 60 years. 

Robert Reich recently turned 80, making him a contemporary of many famous politicians. He knew Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham before they married. He went to school with Clarence Thomas who he describes as rather aloof and unfriendly, or at least self-contained. He served as Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and is intimately familiar with the complexities of our government, the wheeling and dealing, the policy switches as one party gains or loses power and a party with a different ideology takes over, the extent to which our government is awash in money and it’s influences, and how the Supreme Court has allowed money to have even greater influence. 

Robert Reich believes that democracy is the best form of government, that the economy works better when there is greater equality, and that governments should care about the “common good.” Even if you are a conservative and you don’t agree with Reich, it’s important that you hear what this insider has to say. He was there. What he lacks in stature he makes up for in intelligence. 

Today Robert Reich is better known as Professor Reich, although he just recently retired. He learned many things about how our government works and has many thoughts about how it should work, but what also comes across is his love of teaching and his hopes for higher education, that it be more accessible, rather than less accessible. 

Since I am the same age (and the same height, although not as difficult for a female) I lived through these same events as a government outsider. I did not attend an Ivy League school, but SUNY Potsdam offered great courses and professors. I did not know any important people personally but the names and key words in the index are all familiar to me. I eventually became an assistant professor at SUNY, and I understand why Professor Reich loved teaching and why retiring is so difficult. His book resonates. 

Secretary Reich/Professor Reich leaves us with these remarks:

“[I] think I and my generation–including Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George W Bush, Donald Trump, Al Gore, Newt Gingrich and Clarence Thomas–did not make a better world. We failed to stop the bullies. Some of us contributed to the brutality. Others I’ve known and mentioned in these pages have played the long game admirably, but compared to what needed to be done, compared to what could and should have been done, they have also failed.” (pg. 349)

“But the stark reality–as I have traced it in these pages and lived it over the past seventy-eight years–is that the richest and most powerful nation in modern history, the America that emerged victorious from World War II and whose democracy was a beacon for much of the rest of the world, is now coming up short. Trump and Trumpism are consequences, not causes. As I hope I’ve made clear, the causes have been growing for more than forty years. We could have addressed them. We did not.” (pg. 349)

I will say that I don’t place quite as much blame on our past leaders as Professor Reich. I believe many politicians believed that the presence of two opposing political ideologies that had to compromise to govern was a positive force in our democracy. Until recently, perhaps with the advent of the Tea Party, I’m not sure anyone realized how angry conservatives, evangelicals, Catholics, and billionaires were at liberals. I’m not sure we believed in our wildest dreams that Republicans would plan and execute a coup to grab the steering wheel and takeover the government. My reading suggests that many believe that whether the coup succeeds or not depends on the results of the midterm elections in 2026. We fear that whether the election is free and fair or not, the outcome will not reflect the actual votes.

In the end Professor Reich says:

“The responsibility to remedy this–to restore genuine opportunity, strengthen democracy and contain the bullies–now falls to those who come after us.” (pg. 350)

Read the book. It could be existential.

Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll – Book

From a Google Image Search – The Guardian

E. Jean Carroll is, as we used to say, a trip. We know E. Jean because her trial for sexual abuse by Donald Trump in a Bergdorf’s dressing room became the hottest news in town for a while. We got to double whatever our feelings were about the first trial which ended in a victory for E. Jean Carroll, because DJT could not nurse his anger in private. He kept whispering and eventually shouting that he never met E. Jean and that she is “not his type” and tweeting derogatory comments until he got hauled into court again for defamation. In the first trial E. Jean was awarded 5 million dollars and in the second trial she was awarded 83.3 million dollars.

The book, Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll offers her views on what transpired at Bergdorf’s and her very literary descriptions of both trials. E. Jean wasn’t born in Manhattan, but she became everything that certain generations think of when they think of Manhattan. She grew up in Indiana. She started writing when she was twelve. She was not an immediate success. She did win a beauty contest. Once she arrived in NYC, she was in her element, in the literary tradition of Dorothy Parker, the famous wit who met with her Round Table in the Algonquin Hotel. E. Jean mentions “gonzo” journalist, Hunter Thompson in the offhand way we often refer to our heroes. 

“Ask E. Jean” was the name of the column Ms. Carroll wrote in Elle magazine for many years. She drops the names of famous people you have heard of and famous people you have never heard of. She is an original, a unique literary voice of a lost generation. You will want to listen to her book on tape. She reads it herself and it’s not an angry diatribe against injustice, DJT, or the plight of women. It sparkles. She describes the aisle down the center of the courtroom in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse as the “runway.” Her detailed descriptions of the lawyers and the witnesses, and even of people behind the scenes are witty and funny, revealing both the style and character of each key figure. Alina Habba, defense attorney gets E. Jean’s best star treatment.

Ms. Carroll tells us about each outfit she takes to wear in court, who designed it, the shoes that match it, and the accessories, all with appropriate attributions. She describes the outfits of some of the men so she can offer commentary on their character without appearing critical, leaving her readers/listeners to draw their own conclusions about their values. Joseph Tacopina, Trump’s key lawyer in the first trial, also gets her most special treatment.

Bergdorf’s management, when questioned, admitted that the lingerie department on its sixth floor is often empty or nearly empty on a Thursday night and that, for that reason, it is not consistently staffed with a salesperson. He also testified that in 1996 the dressing rooms were not always locked. Clearly, this testimony gave credence to the events as E. Jean described them. She was questioned in detail about why she didn’t report the abuse to the police immediately, but many women do not report such abuse for any number of reasons. The lawyers expressed  shock that she didn’t scream, but not all women scream when in a dangerous situation that seems as if screaming could cause it to escalate, and, besides, who was on the sixth floor of Bergdorf’s to hear her.

This book is packed with the details stored in the memory of a woman with prodigious intelligence and style. She shares the schema stored in the scaffolding of her brain in ways that are both astonishing and amusing. She has an old-style literary sensibility that we may never encounter again except in the literature of the era in which E. Jean Carroll came of age. She was born in 1943, when the golden era of publishing in Manhattan was perhaps past its prime, but still cast a glow over the New York literary scene. 

The fact that E. Jean had been enjoying Trump’s company, the semi-flirting and the playful banter, made his attack and the demeaning nature of it, the fear that it might turn into a physical assault more surprising and shocking, and in the end frightening than if some kind of attack had been clear from the beginning. Whenever women accuse famous men, men who are financially successful, of abuse, there always lurks a suspicion that the woman’s motive is money. There are enough instances where this is true that it allows others to question whether the events happened as described by the victim. The “me too” movement decided the matter once and for all in favor of the woman. At the time these events happened to E. Jean the position of women was far less clear. Perhaps this helps explain why she made her accusations in the twenty-first century rather than the twentieth.

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett-Book

From a Google Image Search

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett may remind you of the movie Risky Business, but her female characters are not teenagers fixing damages to a tchotchke. Their issues are about survival and restoring their agency. Set in the Great Depression, Stockett gives us two parallel story lines that eventually blend into one.

The Great Depression was unkind to everyone, but it was especially unkind to women if they lost a job, or a good stable family life, or their reputation. Kathryn Stockett, who. gave us The Help, likes to write stories where victims win victories, both small and large. She performs this magic again in her story about a group of women at the mercy of a self-righteous woman, powerful men without charitable impulses, and terrible economic times. These women come up with an outrageous and possibly dangerous plan to get the financial security they need to achieve their goals and get out from under the thumbs of their oppressors. Once again, forming an ersatz family operates as a sort of power base.

Meg is a very bright little girl, who is being abused in an orphanage by a woman who believes that women who have children out of wedlock are feeble-minded, that they only produce feeble-minded children, and that, at the very least, they ought to be rendered unable to reproduce. Why did Meg’s mother, who obviously loved her, allow her to end up in the clutches of this hate-filled woman. It’s personal, as you will see.

Two sisters, Frances and Birdie, whose lives become intertwined even though Frances believes she has escaped the low social status of her birth family are unhappily reunited. Their mother and Grandmother are about to lose their home to foreclosure. Birdie comes to borrow money from her lucky sister, only to find that Frances’ situation is not as lucky as Birdie and Frances have been led to believe. Birdie emerges as a person with depth, empathy, and strength. 

Isn’t it fun when people do the impossible? At the very least it is satisfying. Read the book.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion by Beth Brower – Books 1-8

From a Google Image Search – Amazon – Books 1-7

Beth Brower has written a delightful set of short books called The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion which can be enjoyed like a box of chocolates, some bitter and some very sweet indeed. Emma lives in the Victorian Age, and her social standing is high enough to be affected by her behavior, as was the behavior of any woman of means. Emma is hardly a woman of means these days, but she is a homeowner in the quirky, but upscale St. Crispian section of London. Emma lost her mother and her father at the age of 18. She could not become the legal owner of Lapis Lazuli House until turning 21. For three years she was the caretaker for a very cranky relative, Matilde, whose son, Archibald Flat, was installed in her beloved home. Archibald, it turns out, has a passion for morning coats, and a rather nasty disposition, perhaps inherited. He has eaten through most of Emma’s fortune, leaving her to live frugally upon reaching her twenty-first birthday. 

However, Emma is gifted with a disposition that is philosophical, upbeat, undaunted, and magnetic. Emma wants to pursue an academic lifestyle. She wants to read every important book and learn all she can. Sadly, her father left his library to Archibald, who has locked the doors to the library and forbidden her to enter. She has only two books right now, the complete edition of Shakespeare with her father’s notes and drawings and the Bible, although she isn’t particularly religious.

Since Emma arrived at her house slightly before coming-of-age, she is denied access to her own room and sent to the garret. Over time she finds ways to turn the garret rooms into a comfortable and private space. Archibald has had a portion of the house partitioned off as a rental. 

Here is a set of short books, pardon me, a set of addictive short books, featuring our plucky heroine who attracts near disaster and great companions, leaving her skating close to social ruin but exceedingly grateful and well protected. She must contend with her Aunt Eugenia Spencer, who is managing the Seasons of the lovely Arabella, leading to an advantageous engagement to a wealthy husband. Arabella to Emma’s dismay is perfectly willing to marry for status and doesn’t seem to believe in love. Because Emma’s services are required by her aunt to make sure only the best suitors dance or speak with her daughter by blocking unsuitable applicants, Emma is treated to seasonal wardrobes from one of the best dressmakers in London, which is lucky break given her rather impoverished state.

When a talented war photographer, Niall Pierce, rents Lapis Lazuli Minor, and later rents space to make a studio, not only are Emma’s fortunes uplifted, but so is her heart. Emma also has a cook and ally named Agnes, and her servant Parian is coming along nicely. A chance connection sees Emma befriended by the rather strait-laced Duke of Islington, a friendship that gives Emma a certain social cachet. Add in Young Hawkes the ever-disappearing vicar and Emma suddenly feels that she is part of a group of companions who seem to have what she calls “alchemy.” It’s easy to relate to the comfort she finds with these friends because many of us have experienced this happy phenomenon, an ersatz family.

These journals may remind you of the books of the Brontë sisters or of Jane Austen, but Emma is far less supervised than the women in those stories. Books 1-8 are now available, but I hope that Beth Brower will not stop where Book 8 ends. Read at the risk of destroying your schedule, or for using up those days when you are at your leisure. While there is plenty of happiness to be found in Emma’s journals, there is also sadness, poignancy, and heartbreak making outcomes uncertain. Keep writing Brower. These journals are winners.

Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer – Book

From a Google Image Search – Literary Hub

I almost didn’t read Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer. I thought it might be another sexual coming-of-age story. And in a way it was. But if you are in the market for making the transition from youthful folly without arriving at a stodgy adulthood, you can’t do it better than in the company of the Baronessa. Our guy is called Giovedi (Thursday) by the Baronessa. He describes himself as “as inexperienced as an Amish teenager, as carefully reared as a cosseted Pekinese, insufferable, officious, a cable knit sweater over a cable knit heart.” Clearly, he could use a bit of ego boosting.

The Baronessa hires Giovedi as an archivist, to make an inventory of her collections. But when he arrives at the villa tucked away in the Tuscan hills, she keeps diverting him to other tasks. The Villa Coco is old, and it has been awkwardly updated. The sewer backs up and someone must be called in to unclog it. The Baronessa must teach Giovedi to prune the roses. Then it’s time to harvest the olives in a quick hurry. When he reminds her that he is the archivist she says, “the rooms are not ready.” She has a cook, the cook’s husband (who has the job of killing the faina) and she has Gazelle, the driver, all like family to her. Giovedi meets the faina (marten) one night when it tries to enter his bedroom. After that he leaves his window closed. 

The Villa Coco may not be what Giovedi bargained for, but it ends up being just what he needs. The Baronessa is ninety-two, but she has goals, secret goals. Giovedi meets her old friend Oscar, her nephew Giacomo-Giacomo, the next door neighbor, Estella, and stuff happens. When there are no guests, the Baronessa will proclaim, “there has been a murder” which means Giovedi will watch a murder mystery on the downstairs TV and the Baronessa will watch on the TV in her bedroom, and they each will try to guess the murderer. The Baronessa insists that Giovedi must learn Italian. He suspects she’s up to something, but what?

Italians do not all have the hang ups about their sexuality that Americans do. Some brave souls go where their feelings take them, and the Baronessa and her friends do not expect every romance to be permanent – another life lesson for Giovedi. This novel is so much fun and may make your life views a bit looser and more adventurous. She is certainly one of those “originals” you run into in romance novels. However, this is not a romance novel. It is a love story though. See if you can guess what the Baronessa is up to and who Pullman is? If you are not too strait-laced you should find that this book is immensely enjoyable.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

From a Google Image Search – LA Times

The topic of “tradwives” is trending which makes Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke very timely indeed. Conservatives are upset that Americans are having too few children. They’re upset that men are feeling challenged by women seeking fame and fortune. Right-wingers believe that men are being left feeling emasculated, and angry. The rest of us are upset that so many men are unwilling to entertain the idea of evolving to a mental state in which they can enjoy sharing power with women. The answer is, supposedly, to return to an earlier time when men were dominant and women submissive, when men “brought home the bacon” and women were “barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen”. 

Natalie Heller, born in rural Idaho, a Christian girl with unbending ideas about life, morality, and the immoral behavior of modern women, accepts a scholarship to Harvard as if enlightenment will win out over culture shock. Her judgmental signals alienate roommates and dorm mates who then punish her with isolation. When Natalie attracts the son of a wealthy politician, she decides that she’ll show them all, so she leaves school to get married. However, Caleb Mills turns out to be spoiled and aimless. For a while they live with his parents. Eventually Natalie takes the wheel and talks Caleb’s father, Doug, into buying them a farm and bankrolling them. Doug agrees but his support has financial limits. Five million dollars sounds like a fortune, but Caleb has no concept of what things cost. He has an image of what a farm should be like, so he buys big equipment he doesn’t need, milk cows he can’t care for properly, and farm workers to do all the farm work. He decides that he will only grow vegetables which Natalie knows will not produce the income needed to keep up with the costs of having this farm.

Natalie, facing the end of Doug’s financial support and Caleb’s rather dreamy approach to life, decides to become a “tradwife” in an online podcast. Natalie’s mom advised her “to remember to be kind.” Although this sounds like the typical advice to women, “smile, honey”, in Natalie’s case it is simply good advice. Natalie is not kind. We see her thoughts because the author lets us in on them. She judges her followers, she judges her husband, and she has no intention of being an actual “tradwife,” although she does produce plenty of offspring (Clementine, Stetson, Samuel, Jessa, Junebug, Mary, Maeve, Noah and Abel). She has two kitchens, one without modern appliances, and around a corner in an adjacent room she has all the appliances found in modern kitchens and laundry rooms. She mistakenly hires a producer for her Instagram posts who learns all her secrets and sees the two nannies Natalie has hired to keep her children from being a burden and from being neglected by a mom who has no interest in being a mom. Natalie is, to say the least, as inauthentic as most of us would suspect a modern “tradwife” to be.

The author transports Natalie and Caleb back to 1855, to a time when life required women to occupy traditional roles. Even in this setting, Natalie avoids reality by imagining a kidnapping situation and with the help of a way moms dealt with the realities of being a tradwife in the 50s, “mother’s little helper.” (pills, drugs, alcohol)

It takes a while to put together the 1855 chapters and the present-day chapter, to see how they connect, to decide if time travel is involved. It leads to a truly surprising ending. Burke has written a book that will make you think deep thoughts about the changing roles of men and women, about parenting, about authenticity, love and kindness, and about social media’s ability to prevaricate, to present the unrealistic as real. Interesting subject, interesting book.