The Bluebonnet Battle–feuding families
The Bluebonnet Battle
by Carolyn Brown
I expected a romance with conflict between two feuding families. What I got in The Bluebonnet Battle was a very mean-spirited tale. There were clearly two sides. Matilda is an angry woman who excels in manipulating others to get what she wants. The other side is headed up by Liddy who has certainly been wronged but is vindictive and unforgiving. In fact, one of her friends suggests to Liddy that she pray for Matilda explaining that it might not change Matilda but it might take the anger out of Liddy’s heart. Liddy responds with a venomous, disgusting, unkind prayer that causes her adult niece Ruth Ann who acts like a Greek chorus in this book to giggle. It is hard to like any of these characters.
Fortunately, Nick, Matilda’s son, and Amelia, Ruth Ann’s daughter, slowly overcome family hurdles to form a relationship. By the time you get to this point in the story, you will be so tired of how the feud plays out through vegan versus Southern cooking featuring lemon meringue and lemon chess pies, along with who controls the local funeral dinners, that you will be glad for romance in any form. There is actually some motivation revealed for why Matilda is the way she is, but the explanation is too little and too late. The townspeople are closed to outsiders and small-minded. Nick and Amelia develop into nice people, but my favorite of the bunch is Uncle Harry, Matilda’s much older brother; he is the only character I would like to know. If a romance’s plot is character driven, it shouldn’t be replete with bitter characters.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Montlake for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 3/5
Category: General Fiction (Adult), Romance
Notes: 1. Includes recipes.
2. Contains profanity, even in church where the characters immediately, but rather insincerely, ask God’s forgiveness.
3. Several older and presumably wiser characters suggest to Nick and Amelia that the only way to know a person (with the goal of having a good marriage) is to live together first. That is advice that may be popular in some circles, but is one with which I take issue.
4. Perhaps a minor detail to some, but the flowers on the cover are not bluebonnets.
Publication: March 8, 2022—Mountlake
Memorable Lines:
When I heard Matilda was coming back to town, I figured we’d have to weather some storms. I just didn’t think we would have a class-five tornado two days after she arrived.
Compared to this thing between her aunt and Nick’s mother, the Hatfield and McCoy feud looked like a kindergarten playground fight.
Matilda’s whisper went right along with the look in her eyes—so toxic that a hazmat team wouldn’t have come near her.
The Calm after the Storm
In Oklahoma this week we have been having crazy weather with extreme thunderstorms including hail and heavy winds along with hours and hours of tornado watches and warnings. Here are some “after” pictures as we head into some sunny days and unseasonably high temperatures
My favorite shades of my favorite color!
Rains made a pond in a low spot in our backyard bringing in the ducks from a bigger pond to search for earthworms.
Whooshing sounds brought us out into our backyard. Not uncommon in NM, but I hadn’t seen any in OK.
The Enchanted April–looking for happiness
The Enchanted April
by Elizabeth Von Arnim
In an exceptionally rainy and dreary March in England, four strangers decide to get away by sharing the rent on a medieval castle in sunny Italy for the month of April. Lotty Wilkins, who can “see” or visualize people at their best and happiest initiates the effort, recruiting Rose Arbuthnot. Both in their early thirties, they do not have happy marriages. Lady Caroline is a little younger and extremely attractive, but is tired of the superficial cloying of people bewitched by her good looks. The very authoritative Mrs. Fisher in her sixties is still wearing mourning blacks years after her husband’s death and focuses her thoughts and conversations on childhood memories of encounters with famous people, particularly authors. This fictional account relies strongly on character development as these ladies’ situations are examined and they react to each other and to their temporary environment for the month. As I reread the many lines I had highlighted, I found that the writing is indeed exquisite.
The Enchanted April is the kind of book that holds beauty and introspection and gently insists that readers immerse themselves in the deliciousness of a sunny month of flowering plants and enticing foods. There are humorous situations thrown in as Lotty and Rose speak no Italian and the other two ladies don’t want to undertake the bother of dealing with the servants or managing the finances. There are also some surprising plot twists at the end of the tale. If you join the ladies in their Italian castle, your only regret will be saying “Arrivederci” at the end of the stay.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Fiction
Notes: Originally published in 1922.
Publication: July 19, 2005—Project Gutenberg
Memorable Lines:
She wanted to be alone, but not lonely. That was very different; that was something that ached and hurt dreadfully right inside one. It was what one dreaded most…Was it possible that loneliness had nothing to do with circumstances, but only with the way one met them?
“Oh, but in a bitter wind to have nothing on and know there never will be anything on and you going to get colder and colder till at last you die of it—that’s what it was like, living with somebody who didn’t love one.”
In heaven nobody minded any of those done-with things, one didn’t even trouble to forgive and forget, one was much too happy.
Drop Acid–how to lower uric acid values
Drop Acid
by David Perlmutter
with Kristin Loberg
Be prepared when you read Drop Acid for a book that concentrates on a medical theory that attributes many of our medical woes including obesity, diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, premature death, stroke, coronary artery disease, Alzheimer’s and hypertension to high levels of uric acid. In his efforts to convince the reader of his theory, Dr. Perlmutter, a neurologist, spends about half of his book expounding in detail the scientific basis of the principles of his LUV (Lower Uric Values) Diet, a trademarked designator. He spends a further 16% of the book at the end on notes for further reading.
The second part of Drop Acid lays out a plan of action for the reader to follow in lowering uric acid levels in three main areas: food; sleep, exercise, exposure to nature, and timing of meals; followed by fine tuning the process. He concludes with recipes that he developed with Tricia Williams, a food therapist.
I was really excited to read this potentially life-changing book. Unfortunately, my eyes glazed over during the details of the first half, and I failed to be convinced that this is a program I personally want to commit to. Even the recipes are challenging. Although Perlmutter claims substitutes can be made in ingredients, I have to ask why one would suggest recipes that specifically include Castelvetrano olives, za’atar seasoning, Tuscan kale, or dulse flakes.
I apply a healthy dose of skepticism when members of the medical community make a business out of healthcare. Perlmutter, in an effort at full disclosure, shares that he is on the board of directors of a company marketing a device, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to measure and monitor blood glucose, a device he maintains is not necessary for his program but would be very useful. He frequently in the text refers the reader both to that device and to his self-promoting website. He also introduces the website of Tricia Williams where his business is again promoted and ready-to-eat meals following this diet are available for purchase.
I am not a scientist or a medical professional, and I have not tried his program myself. I am reviewing the book for readability and appeal, not evaluating the efficacy of the LUV diet.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Little, Brown & Co. for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 2/5
Category: Health, Mind, and Body
Notes: 1. Perlmutter is the author of a family of five books focused on gluten-free diets. His flagship book for that effort is Grain Brain.
2. Perlmutter ties his Covid wagon to a uric acid star, seemingly willing to accept most of the pandemic deaths as the inevitable result of comorbidities associated with high uric acid rather than admit most could have been avoided with the right therapeutics.
Publication: February 15, 2022—Little, Brown, & Co.
Memorable Lines:
As you will soon learn, long before any symptoms develop, asymptomatic hyperuricemia may well be fomenting an unending, irreversible storm and subtly stoking biological processes that ultimately result in elevated blood sugar and blood pressure, bad cholesterol, excess body fat, and systemic inflammation, which opens the door for any number of chronic degenerative conditions.
Contrary to what Big Corn will tell you, fructose and glucose are not siblings with equal biological effects. Fructose is more like glucose’s evil twin: when you eat glucose, your body uses it to produce energy; but when you eat fructose, it triggers changes in the body that favor the storage of energy in the form of fat.
If elevated uric acid precedes and predicts biological mayhem and future risk for most chronic diseases, then we must start paying attention to this important metabolite.
education pathways 