Book Review: The Bunco Club

The Bunco Club. Karen DeWitt. Published by Frame Masters, Ltd., Matteson, IL, 2013, Trade Paperback and e-book, 412 pages.

Reviewed by Brinda Gupta. 

In the tradition of celebrations of female friendships like Steel Magnolias, Karen DeWitt’s The Bunco Club lets us into the world of eight good friends. Though the eight have very different domestic situations and unique struggles, they bond over a shared love of quilting and a beloved monthly Bunco game. DeWitt structures the novel by month, focusing on the woman hosting each month’s game. Through the eight months, we get to know artistic Lettie; single mom Phree; career woman Nedra; Rosa, the mother of a delinquent teenager; anal-retentive Marge; Helen, the mother of a bullied girl; hoarder Beth; and dowdy Nancy. Each section tells about one woman’s career and home life, culminating in the monthly Bunco parties that see the women’s stories weave together.

DeWitt juggles the eight lives well. The challenges faced by the characters vary enough to continually renew the reader’s interest. Some stories are more compelling than others. Lettie, specifically, serves as a narrative device to introduce the novel; after her few chapters, she really only appears to give advice to the others. Helen’s story of helping her bullied daughter may be sadly relatable for many parents, but the stakes didn’t seem high enough to make me care about her.

Some of the stories give great insight into the characters, like Beth’s heart-wrenching attempts to keep from falling apart as her father falls ill and she battles her own hoarding tendencies. I really enjoyed Phree’s story, as her “problem” is unique. I won’t give away what she finds, but her chapters revolve around trying to figure out how to handle a great windfall. Though the other women’s more typical problems—rebellious children, nonexistent love lives—are easy to sympathize with, it’s Phree’s unexpected adventure that shows the author’s creativity. Overall, though, the women’s backstories are well thought out and conveyed.

Framing the action around the group’s monthly get-togethers is an effective way to keep the characters distinct. Learning about friends’ old traditions also serves as great comfort reading, and the author ups the cozy factor by including recipes from the various menus at the back of the book. I actually would have loved it if an additional appendix had explained the rules of Bunco. Knowledge of the game isn’t necessary for enjoying the book, however.

DeWitt’s writing style is clear and accessible. My only complaint is with the abundance of similes used for description. In other parts of the book, DeWitt’s command of description is fantastic, so falling on “dead as a doornail”-type similes seems like a waste. Her straightforward use of adjectives to set up atmosphere demonstrates her skill much more effectively.

Many stories involving friendships have such a wacky cast of characters that it’s impossible to believe that the individuals would be friends in real life. That isn’t a problem at all with The Bunco Club—I believe that these women would choose to spend time together and care about each other. Adult friendships can be as frustrating as they are rewarding, and Karen DeWitt paints a warm, entertaining picture of eight women who drive each other crazy while still helping each other through life.

Book Review: Try Not To Burn

Try Not to Burn. Michael David Matula. Post Mortem Press, Cincinnati, OH, 2012, Trade Paperback and e-book, 252 pages.

Reviewed by Christine Cacciatore.

Had I read the end first, and figured out that the end wasn't really "the end" and there would be sequels I would have insisted on getting them all at one time.  Knowing that I have to wait for the next installment is going to be an exercise in patience.  Hopefully Michael will heed the advice of his readers and get his fingers warmed up to pen the next couple of books in this series.

Try Not to Burn features Brandon Morales.  Brand is a police officer who experiences a life altering event in the very first chapter; actually, the very first page.  Matula’s novel grabs your attention from the very first page and doesn't let it go. 

Brand, is thrust into darkness.  He can't figure out his surroundings. When he becomes aware that his surroundings are actually the afterlife, he meets Jane and Samantha who become his guides and his close friends.  There's a hint of a romance brewing; from checking out his blog it appears that aspect is explored further in the sequel.  That's a good thing, as in this instance it appears it will add an element of depth to his next book.

The characters travel through one horrible experience after another, meeting up with strange and horrifying creatures–none from this earth.  They have to rely on each other for food, knowledge, and protection, as they all discover why they’re there and how to defeat those who would like to see them dead.   

Along the way, Brand learns a lot about himself.  The reader is fed piecemeal about the women he’s traveling with, including why they’re in the same place he is.  The reader learns quite a bit about how they lived their lives and what personal demons they're battling.

Michael's writing is tight. His descriptions are vivid, making even the fastest reader want to slow down and savor every single word.

I’m looking forward to reading more from Matula.  There's great talent here.  I found myself really rooting for Brand to figure things out, all while hoping he would also win the girl.

If you want a real page turner, this is the book for you.  But wait until you have several days to devote to reading because you won't want to put it down until you're finished.

Book Review: Through Their Strange Hours

Through Their Strange Hours. Kent McDaniel. Amazon Digital Services, February 14, 2013, 52 pgs. The e-book is $0.99 and available at B&N.com, iBooks, The Kobo Store, Smashwords, and Amazon.

Reviewed by Mike O’Meary.

Storytelling that conveys warmth and humor, and transports you to another time and place.

Through Their Strange Hours by Kent McDaniel is a collection of four interconnected short stories that hang together nicely and give this collection the feeling of a novella. The stories also provide a compellingly realistic portrayal of life in southern Illinois in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a place and time where the biggest challenge was finding ways to ward off apathy and the tedium of everyday life. Accordingly, McDaniel’s characters drop in and out of school, in and out of relationships, and experiment with everything from beer and pot to acid and crystal meth. In such a world, the most innocuous pastime was to grab a six-pack and take a drive with friends on the rural roads between Carbondale (home of Southern Illinois University) and Metropolis (a small town of 6,800 on the Ohio River across from Paducah, KY).

The common denominator in these stories is Joe. We first meet Joe in “At the Edge of Town,” a story about the 10-year-old’s encounter with a local bully. Life seems innocent and wholesome enough at first, as Joe and his best friend, Mike, spend their time pedaling bikes around town and trading baseball cards. Young Joe finally gets his hands on a coveted Mickey Mantle card, but when a local bully steals the card from Joe, the story turns dark. Joe goes to the edge of town to the bully’s home for a confrontation but gets more than he bargains for and comes away with a different outlook.

In “Honoring Mike,” Joe is now a young man – a hippie who opposes the Vietnam War. But, ironically, he is on his way to the funeral of his childhood friend, Mike, who was drafted and then died in the war. Joe is on edge because he knows the only reason Mike went to war was because he was drafted. But now a local reporter and local minister (both of whom were classmates of Mike and Joe) are now trying to cast Mike as a God-fearing patriot who should be seen as a hero/role model for others. Joe knows that Mike was just a regular guy who would have preferred to be at home with his wife and family instead of off at war. In the end, Joe rebels against the hypocrisy of it all, leading to a great final scene.

We also meet Katie in “Honoring Mike,” and Katie figures prominently in the remaining two stories. Katie is a beautiful young woman with Cherokee blood. She is Joe’s first love, and their on-again, off-again relationship has a profound effect on him. In “Through Their Strange Hours,” Joe is now a college student who has joined the Naval Reserve but still experiments with pot and hangs out with people named “Madman,” “Paranoid” and “Mole Man.” Along the way, we learn that Joe has experimented with acid (and is now suffering from flashbacks), and broken up with Katie. He has also attempted suicide and is now seeing a “shrink” and taking multiple medications to battle panic attacks. He’s a bit of a mess – and things only get more complicated when the local Metropolis authorities conduct a pot bust and use scare tactics to get the local kids to rat on each other. Meanwhile, Joe is still holding out hope of a getting back together with Katie. Things don’t look good for Joe, and you wonder if he is going to make it through in one piece.

“Acid Casualties” is the final story in this collection, and it picks up where “Through Their Strange Hours” leaves off. Joe is now rooming with Mole Man, and they have taken in a white cat named Casper who, like Joe, seems to be suffering from flashbacks (the result of a cruel prank by others who gave acid to the cat to see what would happen). Joe nurses Casper back toward normalcy, going so far as to share his anti-anxiety medication with the cat. At the same time, Joe seems to be trying to find his own way back to normalcy. But he’s hanging out with friends who get high and fantasize about forming a “revolutionary cell” and blowing up the local army recruiter’s office with cherry bombs, and he’s still haunted by what might have been with Katie.

The beautiful thing about these stories is that Joe, Katie and the other characters are lovingly presented, flaws and all. You feel for them because, while they sometimes battle with each other, their real battle is with the world around them. It’s an uphill climb, but McDaniel’s storytelling ability pulls you in. There is a sadness to these stories, yet McDaniel also infuses the stories and characters with warmth and humor. In the end, you wish you could sit down on the banks of the Ohio River with these kids, share a six-pack, and just spend the afternoon talking with them. Instead, do the next best thing – read this book and hear their stories. 

Book Review: Fatal Incident

Fatal Incident. Jim Proebstle. Emerald Book Company, Austin, TX, 2011, Hardcover, 377 pages.

Reviewed by Janet Feduska Cole.

The World War II setting for Fatal Incident is one of my favorite historical genres. Without question, those fateful years encompassed a period filled with unspeakable horrors, but they also gave rise to incredible stories of intrigue and courage.  Fatal Incident is one of those stories.

As with many other works of historical fiction, the Fatal Incident tale is rooted in both fact and fiction. This account focuses more on human relationships than on historical incidents. It describes in vivid detail the toll the war takes on two young brothers—based on real-life characters—who love flying above all else. The reader first experiences their carefree and adventurous lives as young men. The war years stand in sharp contrast. One shares the uncertainty, loneliness, and isolation of Nick and his young wife, Martha. Their painful separation is a result of Nick being stationed in Alaska, while Martha is enduring her first pregnancy in Minnesota without him.

Our hero, Nick Morgan, in his zeal to serve his country, converts from being a commercial airline pilot to flying military cargo planes, transporting equipment and troops through bitter and sometimes unchartered areas of Alaska. His courage, intelligence, and skill make him a pilot in demand, resulting in assignments to the most dangerous missions. One such assignment involves taking a high-ranking general and a renowned physicist over barren Alaskan flats while they ponder the feasibility of using the area to test the newly developed atomic bomb.

His skills are so impressive that the general requests for Nick to pilot the plane for a repeat mission. This time, in addition to the general and his entourage, the plane transports troops on their way home for a brief leave.

Unbeknownst to the US military, their Alaskan bases have been infiltrated by Russian operatives. Russia, nervous about the US’s forces being in such close proximity to the homeland, and the rumors of the US having successfully built an atom bomb, are relying on their strategically-placed operatives as well as the recruitment of disillusioned American soldiers to gather intelligence

The insecurities of one nation combined with the perceived aggressiveness of another have tragic consequences for our young hero during this final mission.

Although I did not consider this book to be a page turner (my description for a book that I can’t put down until I’ve sucked every detail from it), I found it to be a compelling, poignant, and well-written read. Unlike entirely fictional mysteries that often have satisfying conclusions, the ending to this saga, based on real-life events, remains a mystery to the families involved, as well as to the reader.

In addition to the author’s meticulous and detailed narration of unfolding events, I loved the references to Wonder Lake and the stark and incredible beauty of the Alaskan wilderness. Having hiked in the rugged Alaskan backcountry and canoed in some of the beautiful Alaskan Lakes, I felt these areas spring to life. Fatal Incident is a poignant and enriching tale of events that take place in one of the most remote areas of our country during a dramatic historical period.

Book Review: Mollie's War: The Letters of a World War II WAC in Europe

Mollie’s War: The Letters of a World War II WAC in Europe. Mollie Weinstein Schaffer and Cyndee Schaffer. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010, 273 pgs.

Reviewed by Kristina Winters 

Mollie’s War, by Mollie Weinstein Schaffer and Cyndee Schaffer, is an illustrative collection of letters that bear witness to one woman’s recruitment and overseas deployment throughout her time in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War II.  The book, taking place from 1943 to 1945, is based on Mollie’s communication between family and friends during her enlistment, which allows the reader to travel with Mollie from basic training, all the way to events following the reorganization of Europe after VE Day. Mollie’s orders carry her throughout London, Paris, and Frankfurt at the height of the Second World War, revealing the peril and hardship faced both by enlisted personnel and their loved ones back home. She cultivates viable relationships throughout the story, lending to the enduring human element that persists in times of warfare.

This book highlights the less examined perspective of the Second World War by accenting the day-to-day experiences of enlisted women, focusing on their valuable contribution to the war effort.  Although the number of enlisted women has inevitably increased in modern times, the inclusion of women in zones of warfare is still a matter of debate to this day. Similarly, experiences like that of Mollie came amid a time of fierce opposition to women in uniform, often leading to fear that a surplus of women in the military would challenge the personal notions of femininity, brand them as easier targets to become POWs, and would lead to more men being driven from safe jobs to combat zones due to women’s inability to fight on the front lines. However, the Women’s Army Corps was often praised by military personnel for their contributions, with leaders such as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower emphasizing women’s immense competence, ability, and fortitude in times of war.

Many books that focus on the women’s effort during World War II highlight the shifting paradigm of authority on the home front, with women taking highly skilled positions in fields previously male-dominated, and proving to be more than capable of managing a wide variety of tasks and challenges. Later focal points are indicative of the difficult adjustment women faced with changing culture, and how expectations and gender roles quickly transformed with the ending war and men’s re-integration into both the workforce and society. Mollie’s War provides an exclusive perspective of the war abroad, often relating tales of misconstrued notions on the part of family and friends back home, attributable to the need to maintain secrecy on the part of deployed enlisted personnel abroad. We are challenged to review our notions of the woman soldier as we read Mollie’s lasting exasperation with the global perception of women’s roles in the military, and as we sympathize with her frustration at the end of her deployment.

Mollie’s War presents an essential, first-hand perspective of one enlisted woman’s life during World War II, and I found it to be an enjoyable and informative journey highlighting women’s underscored contribution to efforts of war and peace. Developing historical context for both the genesis and development of discourse on that topic is prime motivation to read this book.