Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Title: Harbor Me Author: Jacqueline Woodson Publication Info: Listening Library, 2018. Hardback by Nancy Paulson Books, 2018. 192 pages. Source:  Library digital resources My Review:  This was a book that announced from it’s opening line that it would be dealing with issues. That can be off-putting, but in this case, it worked well. A lot of the issues had to do with race, and with being Black in America (another character is dealing with fear of deportation, another hot-button race issue). Part of why it was so powerful, I’m certain, is because the author is African-American, and has had to have “that talk” with her own 10-year-old son. No, not the one we all have to have. The one where you explain why he can’t have a toy gun any more, or wear a hoodie in public, and how to act if the police come near you.  To make it more real, the cast reading the book included that son, as well as either another son or a friend (I couldn’t quite get that clear listening to the fascinating interview

  Title: East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart Author: Susan Butler; read by Anna Fields Publisher: Blackstone Audio, 2009. Originally 1997 by Da Capo Press, 512 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: Amelia Earhart captured the hearts of the nation after becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1928--and her disappearance on an around-the-world flight in 1937 is an enduring mystery. The image we have of Amelia Earhart today--a tousle-haired, androgynous flier clad in shirt, silk scarf, leather jacket, and goggles--is only one of her many personas, most of which have been lost to us over time. Through years of research and interviews with many of the surviving people who knew Amelia, Susan Butler has recreated a remarkably vivid and multifaceted portrait of this enigmatic figure. Listeners will experience Amelia in all her permutations: not just as a pilot but also as an educator, a social worker, a lecturer, a businesswoman

This book is a great addition to my "Hero Month," because there are a whole lot of heroes in here, mostly people just managing to go on in spite of terrible things. Ordinary heroes, you might say. Title: The War I Finally Won Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Read by Jayne Entwistle Publisher: Dial Books, 2017. 389 pages. Audio book by Listening Library Source: Library digital services Publisher's Summary: When Ada’s clubfoot is surgically fixed at last, she knows for certain that she’s not what her mother said she was—damaged, deranged, crippled mentally as well as physically. She’s not a daughter anymore, either. What is she? World War II continues, and Ada and her brother, Jamie, are living with their loving legal guardian, Susan, in a borrowed cottage on the estate of the formidable Lady Thorton—along with Lady Thorton herself and her daughter, Maggie. Life in the crowded cottage is tense enough, and then, quite suddenly, Ruth, a Jewish girl from Germany, mov

I've listened to a couple of books lately that were about the Olympics in the 1920s and 30s, so I'll comment on both of them here. The first was: Title: Fire on the Track: Betty Robinson and the Triumph of the Early Olympic Women Author: Roseanne Montillo Publisher: Random House Audio, 2017. Original published by Crown Publishing Group, 2017. 304 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary:   When Betty Robinson assumed the starting position at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, she was participating in what was only her fourth-ever organized track meet. She crossed the finish line as a gold medalist and the fastest woman in the world. This improbable athletic phenom was an ordinary high school student, discovered running for a train in rural Illinois mere months before her Olympic debut. Amsterdam made her a star. But at the top of her game, her career (and life) almost came to a tragic end when a plane she and her cousin were piloting crashed.

Title: Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the fate of the American Revolution Author: Nathaniel Philbrick; read by Scott Brick Publisher: 2016, Books on Tape. Original by Viking, 2016, 427 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary: In September 1776, the vulnerable Continental Army under an unsure George Washington (who had never commanded a large force in battle) evacuates New York after a devastating defeat by the British Army. Three weeks later, near the Canadian border, one of his favorite generals, Benedict Arnold, miraculously succeeds in postponing the British naval advance down Lake Champlain that might have ended the war. Four years later, as the book ends, Washington has vanquished his demons and Arnold has fled to the enemy after a foiled attempt to surrender the American fortress at West Point to the British. After four years of war, America is forced to realize that the real threat to its liberties might not come from

Title: The Wright Brothers Author: David McCullough. Read by the author. Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio, 2015. First published 2015 by Simon and Schuster. Source:   Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb:  Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright. On December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright’s Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. The Age of Flight had begun. How did they do it? And why? David McCullough tells the extraordinary and truly American story of the two brothers who changed the world. Sons of an itinerant preacher and a mother who died young, Wilbur and Orville Wright grew up in a small side street in Dayton, Ohio, in a house that lacked indoor plumbing and electricity but was filled with books and a l

  Title: The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and their Forgotten World War Author: Richard Rubin; read by Grover Gardner Publisher: Blackstone Audio, 2013. Hardcover by Houghton Mifflen, 2013. 528 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary: In 2003, 85 years after the armistice, it took Richard Rubin months to find just one living American veteran of World War I. But then, he found another. And another. Eventually he managed to find dozens, aged 101 to 113, and interview them. All are gone now. A decade-long odyssey to recover the story of a forgotten generation and their Great War led Rubin across the United States and France, through archives, private collections, and battlefields, literature, propaganda, and even music. But at the center of it all were the last of the last, the men and women he met: a new immigrant, drafted and sent to France, whose life was saved by a horse; a Connecticut Yankee who volunteered and fought in every maj

Title: Stepping on the Cracks Author: Mary Downing Hahn; read by Rachel Dulude Publisher: Audio-Go, 2013. Original publication 1991 by Clarion Books. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary: Margaret and her best friend Elizabeth both have brothers fighting the war against Hitler; like everyone else they know, they are filled with feelings of patriotism. Margaret and Elizabeth support everything about the war: the troops, the reasons for going to war, even the food rations. After all, this is the good war and the Americans are the good guys. But the girls are also involved in their own personal war at home. Gordy Smith, the worst bully in the sixth grade, teases and torments them, and Margaret is scared to death of him. But when Gordy and his pals Toad and Doug grow bolder than ever, Margaret and Elizabeth come up with a daring plan to get even. That’s when the girls discover a shocking secret about Gordy that turns their lives upside-down and draws them i

Title: The Children of Willesden Lane. Beyond the Kinderstransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival. Author: Mona Golabek; read by Lee Cohen Publisher: Hachette Audio, 2016. Originally by Times Warner, Int., 2007. 288 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary:   With the raw emotion of The Diary of Anne Frank, Mona Golabek's powerful memoir is a poignant story of tragedy and triumph in a time of war. Famed concert pianist Mona Golabek shares the inspirational true story of her mother's escape from pre-World War II Vienna to an orphanage in London--243 Willesden Lane. 'The music will give you strength....it will be your best friend in life.' With these words--the last she would ever hear from her mother--ringing in her ears, young piano prodigy Lisa Jura boarded the Kindertransport and headed for safety. Amidst the dozens of Jewish refugees trying to make their way in war-torn London, Lisa forms indelible friendships, finds romance,

    Title: The Odds of Getting Even Author: Sheila Turnage; read by Lauren Fortgang Publisher: Listening Library, 2015. Original 2015 by Kathy Dawson Books, 352 pages. Source: Library digital resources This is the 3rd mystery in the Tupelo Landing series. I reviewed the first, Three Times Lucky , in March of 2013. The second is The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing , which I read in 2014. Publisher's Summary:   The trial of the century has come to Tupelo Landing, NC. Mo and Dale, aka Desperado Detectives, head to court as star witnesses against Dale's daddy--confessed kidnapper Macon Johnson. Dale's nerves are jangled, but Mo, who doesn't mind getting even with Mr. Macon for hurting her loved ones, looks forward to a slam dunk conviction--if everything goes as expected. Of course nothing goes as expected. Macon Johnson sees to that. In no time flat, Macon's on the run, Tupelo Landing's in lockdown, and Dale's brother's life hangs in the balance. With Harm

    Title: Anne of the Island Author: L.M. Montgomery. Read by Susan O'Malley Publisher: Blackstone Audio, 2001; original published 1915. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary: New adventures lie ahead as Anne Shirley packs her bags, waves good-bye to childhood, and heads for Redmond College. With old friend Prissy Grant waiting in the bustling city of Kingsport and frivolous new pal Philippa Gordon at her side, Anne tucks her memories of rural Avonlea away and discovers life on her own terms, filled with surprises...including a marriage proposal from the worst fellow imaginable, the sale of her very first story, and a tragedy that teaches her a painful lesson. But tears turn to laughter when Anne and her friends move into an old cottage and an ornery black cat steals her heart. Little does Anne know that handsome Gilbert Blythe wants to win her heart, too. Suddenly Anne must decide if she's ready for love...   [Goodreads summary] My Review:  Sinc

  Title: Murder in an Irish Village (Irish Village Mysteries #1) Author: Carlene O'Connor, read by Caroline Lennon Publisher: Dreamscape Media 2016; original hardback by Kensington, 2016. 304 pages. Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Summary: In the small village of Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland, Natalie's Bistro has always been warm and welcoming. Nowadays twenty-two-year-old Siobhan O'Sullivan runs the family bistro named for her mother, along with her five siblings, after the death of their parents in a car crash almost a year ago. It's been a rough year for the O'Sullivans, but it's about to get rougher. One morning, as they're opening the bistro, they discover a man seated at a table with a pair of hot pink barber scissors protruding from his chest. With the local garda suspecting the O'Sullivans, and their business in danger of being shunned. It's up to feisty redheaded Siobhán to solve the crime and save her bel

  Title: The Martian Chronicles Author:  Ray Bradbury; read by Stephen Hoye Publisher: Blackstone Audio, 2009. Original stories published between 1947 and about 1951. Source: Digital library Publisher's Blurb: There were a lot of these to chose from, since there are dozens of editions of the book out. I share here the one that goes with the Blackstone Audio version: In connected, chronological stories, a true grandmaster enthralls, delights, and challenges us with his vision, starkly and stunningly exposing our strength, our weakness, our folly, and our poignant humanity on a strange and breathtaking world where humanity does not belong.  
 My Review:   I think I have to start with Bradbury's own take on the book, from the introduction to the audio book. He describes the stories as not really science fiction, or about Mars, but rather fables or parables, the author's exploration of humanity. Certainly the prose is lush and at times the stories are pointed. In fact, one

  Title: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire, A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival Author: Peter Stark; read by Michael Kramer Publisher: Harper Audio 2014; original by Ecco, 2014, 336 pages. Source: Library digital services Publisher's Blurb: In 1810, John Jacob Astor sent out two advance parties to settle the wild, unclaimed western coast of North America. More than half of his men died violent deaths. The others survived starvation, madness, and greed to shape the destiny of a continent. At a time when the edge of American settlement barely reached beyond the Appalachian Mountains, two visionaries, President Thomas Jefferson and millionaire John Jacob Astor, foresaw that one day the Pacific would dominate world trade as much as the Atlantic did in their day. Just two years after the Lewis and Clark expedition concluded in 1806, Jefferson and Astor turned their sights westward once again. Thus began one of history's dramatic

Title: Dragons at Crumbling Castle and Other Tales Author: Terry Pratchett, read by Julian Rhind-Tutt Publisher: Listening Library 2015. Hardcover by Clarion, 2014 (337 pages). Source: Library digital resources Publisher's Blurb: Dragons have invaded Crumbling Castle, and all of King Arthur's knights are either on holiday or visiting their grannies. It's a disaster!   Luckily, there's a spare suit of armour and a very small boy called Ralph who's willing to fill it. Together with Fortnight the Friday knight and Fossfiddle the wizard, Ralph sets out to defeat the fearsome fire-breathers.   But there's a teeny weeny surprise in store...   Fourteen fantastically funny stories from master storyteller Sir Terry Pratchett, full of time travel and tortoises, monsters and mayhem!   My Review: I wasn't quite sure if I was going to be disappointed, because these were among Pratchett's earliest published stories, and you know how that can go. I needn't

Title: The Green Glass Sea Author: Ellen Klages. Read by Julie Dretzin Publisher: Original hardback Viking Books for Young Readers, 2006 (324 pages). Audio by Recorded Books, 2007. Source: Library (digital resources) Publisher's Summary:  It's 1943, and eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is en route to New Mexico to live with her mathematician father. Soon she arrives at a town that, officially, doesn't exist. It is called Los Alamos, and it is abuzz with activity, as scientists and mathematicians from all over America and Europe work on the biggest secret of all--"the gadget." None of them--not J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project; not the mathematicians and scientists; and least of all, Dewey--know how much "the gadget" is about to change their lives. [Note: I'm not sure where the summary on Goodreads came from, but probably not the publisher--it is poorly written and has spelling errors! Don't let this put you off.]

Title: Paperboy Author: Vince Vawter; read by Lincoln Hoppe Publisher: Random House/Listening Library, 2013. 240 pages in hardcover. Source: Library (digital resources) Publisher's Summary: An 11-year-old boy living in Memphis in 1959 throws the meanest fastball in town, but talking is a whole different ball game. He can barely say a word without stuttering, not even his own name. So when he takes over his best friend's paper route for the month of July, he knows he'll be forced to communicate with the different customers, including a housewife who drinks too much and a retired merchant marine who seems to know just about everything. My Review: Paperboy is a good story, though at times it feels like it's taking on too much--coming of age and stuttering might be enough without the segregation issues. But that's the life the lead character gets (and, I gather from the Author's Note at the end, the life the author got), and the story doesn't try to reso

Title: The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail Author: Richard Peck; read by James McCourt Publisher: Listening Library,  2013; originally Dial Books, 2013 (240 pages). Source: Library (digital resources) Summary:  He's the smallest mouse in the Mews at Buckingham Palace, and he's an orphan without even a name. Aunt Marigold, the head mouse seamstress, raises him and sends him to the Mouse Mews Academy, but she won't tell him his name. Soon "Mouse Minor," as the other mice at the academy dub him, is on the run from bullies and looking for his identity. His quest takes him into the palace on the eve of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and he survives a lot of adventures by just a whisker before finding himself--in more ways than one--in the presence of the queen of the mice. My Review: I have yet to find any tale by Richard Peck anything less than delightful. This one is no exception. With a dry sense of humor and some asides that are aimed at the adults but won

  Title: The Boy on the Porch Author: Sharon Creech; read by Heather Henderson Publisher: Harper Audio, 2013. (Hardcover 160 pages) Source:  Library (digital media) Publisher's Summary: When John and Marta found the boy on the porch, they were curious, naturally, as to why he was there and they hadn't expected him to stay, not at first, but he did stay, day after day, until it seemed as if he belonged, running and smiling and laughing his silent laugh, tapping and patting on every surface as he made his music, and painting with water, with paint, with mud those swirly swirls and swings and trees... I'll add: the book is set in an unspecified time and place, but it is very rural, and the general feel is maybe 1950s, with cars and trucks around, but not many telephones, and a more casual attitude toward fostering than we have today. My Review: This is a poignant little story, written in an unusual but effective style. It's heartwarming to watch a family forged out o