5 Dogs Book Blog

Review by Elleanore G Vance Content Warning: This book contains situations of sexual assault, sexual shaming, sexual abuse of a minor, parental abuse of a minor, racial slurs, abortion, alcoholism, and drunk driving. Bear this in mind should you pick up a copy from your local library Beginning in a New England "Indian summer", we are introduced to the isolated community of Peyton Place. Its school teachers, drunks, merchants, business moguls and its one doctor. There are three nuclei to this story, and they are all interconnected.  They are "widow" Constance MacKenzie, her daughter Allison, and Allison's school friend, Selina Cross. Each woman's story and arc is different, yet they weave and intersect with each other and the larger story of the town. Constance Mackenzie owns Thrifty Threads, a discount clothing store. Her reputation in town is solid as a block of ice, but all that could melt away if anyone found out the truth about her and Allison's pas...

Review by Elleanore G. Vance Killashandra Ree has trained at the conservatory for years. The Maestro has told her that with her natural ability of Perfect Pitch, all she needs is time and training to be a starring soloist.  Except now, a decade of hard work and dedication later, he is telling her that there is a defect in her voice. She will only ever be a chorus member. Her life's ambitions are dashed in an instant. She is far to passionate to be a member of the chorus, so she packs her bags and heads to the spaceport While trying to decide what she wants to do with the rest of her life in the spaceport bar (where else does one contemplate life's big questions?) She meets a man from Ballybran. Well, okay. He's not "from" there. No one is "from" Ballybran, he works there as a crystal singer. They hit it off and he talks Killashandra into showing him around.  They have a fun time for a few days, maybe a month, and then he announces that he needs to ret...

A review by Elleanore G Vance In my younger days, Mrs Frisby called out to me from a stack of books my high-school library was culling. I had permission from the librarian to take as many as I wanted; and I did! ( I crammed my locker full every day, and packed them all home stuffed in my backpack over the next several weeks until the charity shop came to pick up the ones I had yet to get to. I still mourn those stories lost to time) I read it that summer, as we crossed Lake Michigan aboard the S.S. Badger.  I have read it several times since then, and each time something different stands out to me. I say this as a warning who might choose to read this as a bedtime book with the children in your life. Mrs. Jonathan Frisby is a field mouse, a recent widow and mother of three. Mrs. Frisby is adjusting to her widow-hood, when Timothy, her youngest, falls ill late in the winter. As he fails to improve, with Spring fast approaching, Mrs. Frisby seeks help from a friend of her husband. ...

A review by Elleanore G. Vance I wanted a springtime book and my hubby told me that Jerusalem Maiden will fit the bill. Specifically, I would get Springtime in Paris. That was the only thing he was right about. Our story follows young Esther, a child of eleven or so, a Jewess in an orthodox community in British  Palestine, where Israel would be in a few short decades. She longs to be an artist and has lessons with a woman who lives nearby; but she knows that it is an aspiration she can never attain. Aside from the whole no Graven Images thing, she and every girl in her community is groomed to accept being a child bride whose highest calling is to be a brood mare. Esther's destiny, and all of the Jewish girls' destiny is to be fruitful that the Messiah may be born.  This is what is referred to as being a Jerusalem Maiden. No matter where Esther turns, she has no real choice. Esther is torn her whole life between the life she must conduct herself in for her community, and the...