someone

I have been reading the excellent Know Your Place: Essays on the Working Class By The Working Class (Dead Ink Press) and finished reading it tonight. Why would a middle-class American (is that still a thing?) be reading essays about being working class in Great Britain? Many reasons, not least of which is that it is excellent --pretty sure I mentioned that.

One of the essays, a piece called "Glass Windows and Glass Ceilings" by a writer called Wally Jiagoo, struck me. All of the essays struck me, but Mr. Jiagoo's essay struck me on a personal level and ended on a note that spoke very powerfully about the way things are going in the world -- and miracle of miracles, offers a solution.

Mr. Jiagoo has worked as a Housing Benefit Officer in South London and also as a screenwriter, and his essay captures both worlds well with spot-on dialogue and insight. As a screenwriter from a working class background, he experiences the frustration of being someone who has "quite the knack for writing orrrdinary people" (code for someone who has difficulty networking and finding work because everyone else in that world seems to already know everyone else through family or school connections). As a Housing Benefit Officer, he is responsible for delivering benefit caps to frustrated people from behind a glass window "for [his] protection".

The world Mr. Jiagoo writes about --and the world we live in --is full of gatekeepers. You can come in, but you can't. We can help you, but you, we can't.

At some point, we gatekeepers (and I include myself in this group) need to realize that the gates are there. They are very real, and they are built of strong stuff. Why are they there? Tradition? Legal mumbo jumbo? Our own comfort? Fear? Who knows? But they are most definitely there, and we keep them tightly shut.

Mr. Jiagoo's solution: "It's not within our remit that we help ..., so we've just accepted that we can't ...but we can."

It is incumbent on all of us to remember: sometimes, we are that someone who should do something. We can grumble about how unfair things are, or we can begin to do something about it --one person at a time, one situation at a time, one day at a time. It might not be in our remit, but those of us who understand how the gate works need to guide and support those who don't as they navigate its complexities. It is a very lonely place to be, on the outside of a gate looking in.

"See," Mr. Jiagoo says, "in the world I'm trying to enter, I'm waiting on someone to let me pass. But in this world ...I'm that someone." 

We each have places in our lives where we can be that someone. Look for those gates.

deadly scandal by kate parker: a review

Full disclosure: the author is my mother. 

Further full disclosure: I don't care --I'll be honest with this review. That's the way we roll in our family.

DESCRIPTION:

"A carefree young Londoner in the 1930s has her life turned upside down when her husband is killed. She takes a job at a large daily newspaper and finds herself not only investigating her husband's murder, but also getting embroiled in perilous European politics."

REVIEW:

Deadly Scandal is the first in a series. Mrs. Olivia Denis, aged 25, is recently widowed. Her husband, Reggie, has committed suicide --or has he? By the first chapter, two features that make this book an excellent read have been established: 1) plot --there are masterful twists & turns and I was tempted to classify Deadly Scandal as a thriller, even though technically, I think it's a romantic mystery; and 2) character --Olivia Denis is a terrifically smart main character, and the other characters are well-rounded.

The time period and political situation (pre-World War II London) described are full of intrigue and uncertainty, which provide for page-turning drama. The Nazis are on the rise in Germany but have yet to invade other countries. We (as readers) know how it turns out, but the characters in the book have no idea. A story of espionage and questionable loyalties unfolds with surprises around every turn --I wouldn't have seen Chapter 6 coming, for example, if my Dad hadn't spoiled it for me (thanks, Dad ...). Olivia Denis is uncertain about everything and everyone, except for her one certainty: her husband did not kill himself. The book follows her on her search for the truth about her husband's death. She's good company in a complicated world.

There's a dry wit to the book as well. It's not all drama and romance and intrigue. Thank goodness. I'll be honest: I prefer my books with humor, and this has it, although it's not laugh out loud funny. A lot of the wit comes through Olivia's take on the happenings and people she meets along the way. She's a very practical heroine and good fun.

I would recommend Deadly Scandal, even if my mother hadn't written it. I might not have read it in the first place because it's not typically a genre I choose, to be honest, but I'm glad I did. I enjoyed it thoroughly. If you like political intrigue and history with a touch of glamour and romance, then this is the book for you. 



AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:

Uh, my mother.  

Besides that, "Growing up in a family of mystery readers, Kate Parker read Agatha Christie while her classmates read Dick and Jane. To this day, she can't see a routine place or event without cloaking it in mystery, complete with a dead body. Kate is fascinated with brooding historic buildings in Great Britain and Europe and the people who once inhabited them. This led her to create characters from other times to live, commit crimes, and seek justice in these beautiful old towns. She began writing to allow the cozy thrillers lurking in her brain to have their own existence. The Victorian Bookshop Mysteries are her first published novels, now being joined by the Deadly series of pre-WW II mysteries."

Deadly Scandal and its sequel, the newly-released Deadly Wedding (which I haven't read yet, but I will) are available online in both paperback and ebook.

book of birds by l.m. bryski: a review

DESCRIPTION

"In post-war Canada during the late 1940s, Elly McGuinty and her younger sister, Dot, are newly orphaned. The girls are sent to live with their grandparents in a small prairie town. Still grieving the loss of her parents, Elly chafes at the responsibility of helping care for Dot and struggles to find a place for herself in her new life. When a travelling circus comes to town, Elly’s desire for new experiences leads her, Dot, and new friend Stammer - a shy boy mocked for his halting voice - down a path where lives are altered forever."

REVIEW 

I have asked the author for permission to use quotations from the book in order to review Book of Birds. The book description (above) is a wonderful introduction to the content of its pages, but to really appreciate how well written this book is, and to get at how authentically Bryski captures the voice of a pre-teen girl (the book's narrator, Elly) as she experiences her life, you have to see her words.

A brief passage on being forced to wear a dress, for example, shows off the humor found throughout the book:

"Dresses itch. They ride up and make me worry I’m exposing my underpants. They don’t let your legs move the way they’re supposed to. And people always want to talk about them. Oh, you look so nice. Why don’t you dress like this every day? Then they complain that I roll my eyes. I don’t see how Dot can stand them. The dresses, that is. Or maybe people. I have a hard time with both."

Another short passage shows off Bryski's ability to inhabit Elly's more serious thoughts about everyday occurrences without feeling overly literary or showy:

"No matter how hard it is to see kid tears, grown-up tears are worse to watch. The walls they break through are that much thicker, so the damage that caused them must be disaster indeed."

There are many more examples of Bryski's talent, but I have to prevent myself from quoting the entire book because she'd probably like to sell a few. She has an engaging writing style that makes for a very easy read, but it still contains profound, thoughtful little gems throughout.  Humor mixes easily with the serious in this little slice of life from the Canadian prairie.

In addition to the quality of the writing, the story itself is also engaging, with twists and turns and mystery. It is a whodunit with literary leanings. Book of Birds tackles some serious topics, but does it in a way that draws the reader into the narrative. The characters, even the minor ones, are thorough and complex. In short, it is a very, very satisfying read and is now available on Amazon. Please read and enjoy. You'll be glad you did.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

L. M. (Lisa) Bryski, MD, is Canadian, convenient since her home is somewhere in Canada. She could reside most anywhere though, as she spends considerable time living in her own head. Lisa is a real doctor, but doesn’t play one on TV. She gets to wear a lab coat at work, and she likes to fix emergencies, not cause them.

Lisa has many proclivities, including a love of pancakes and all things breakfast. She enjoys reading and writing, and is very proud of her pronunciation of difficult words. Her humor is horrible, her punctuation abysmal, but she always finds a way to end her sentences with a period piece.

The Book of Birds is Lisa’s first novel. The narrative is a 1940s coming of age story inspired by many childhood visits to Saskatchewan, a love of ornithology and the Marx Brothers movie, ‘At the Circus’. Somehow in Lisa’s oddball mind, it all came together in the form of a book. Lisa’s novel tells of Elly and her sister Dot, newly orphaned girls who move to a small prairie town to live with their grandparents. Elly’s struggles to fit in lead both girls into danger. The consequences are unfortunate, and hopefully well worth the money to read about.

You can find L. M. Bryski on Twitter as @LMBryski. She also has a website, www.lmbryski.com, and can be reached by email, lmbryski.writer@gmail.com.  Enquiries about the author may also be made through Moran Press.