Mrs. McVinnie’s London Season

Mrs. McVinnie’s London Season by Carla Kelly
Signet, 1990, 224 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

Sea captain William Summers is ordered off the blockade to escort his difficult relations through the London social season and, in desperation, begs his old nanny to return from Scotland and lend some practical common sense to his household.  The nanny is dead, but her young widowed relative-by-marriage of the same name receives the pleading letter and impulsively decides to do it.  Jeannie is practical, outspoken, and frugal, as well as loving, beautiful and generous.  She changes the lives of the children in the family, as well as the young socialite and the captain.  Her denunciation of Beau Brummel himself (there was an elephant and some blue paint involved) leads to the frightening possibility of social ruin for them all.

Dancing with Clara

Dancing with Clara by Mary Balogh
Signet, 1994, 224 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

So what happens to the “villain” after abducting the heiress fails and he still has his insurmountable debts, his addiction to gambling and promiscuity, and desperately needs money?  Freddie Sullivan, a surprisingly kind and thoughtful (and remorseful) wastrel, goes to Bath (where his creditors won’t find him) and proposes marriage to a wealthy young woman of twenty-six.  Clara, a surprisingly sensible and intuitive (and thoughtful) heiress, has been in a wheelchair for twenty years and decides quite rationally that she will never have an opportunity to marry for love and if she must buy a husband with her wealth, then she might as well buy an attractive, charming, and handsome one.  Freddie finds new depths and strengths in his personality, and Clara finds the courage to become less dependent.

Miss Ware’s Refusal

Miss Ware’s Refusal by Marjorie Farrell
Signet, 1990, 224 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

Judith comes to London to keep house for her brother who is beginning his career as a barrister.  She accidentally meets an old school friend, Barbara, who puts her back in contact with Simon, who is just beginning to come to terms with his blindness, a result of a head injury at Waterloo.  As Judith reads for Simon, their relationship becomes something much more and they both learn about acceptance and the courage to start over

A Season for the Heart

A Season for the Heart by Elizabeth Chater
Ivy Books, 1982, 224 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

Miss Melpomene Rand is of a very romantic and imaginative persuasion, quite familiar with literature, and with the intelligence to use her skills.  When she is not courageously trying to rescue those who don’t need it, she is imaginatively thinking up plots for how she might be of use to others, whether they want it or not.  The Earl of Austell not only recognizes her flights of fancy, but is highly entertained and eventually captivated.  He hires her to act as companion to his sister in London, where she has an opportunity to rise far beyond the irritating relatives who threw her out of their home.

Wicked Intentions

Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
Grand Central Publishing, 2010, 382 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

I tried this first volume in the Maiden Lane series, which was highly recommended by readers.  Unfortunately, it is of the modern regency persuasion, where soft core pornography is an essential element.  The plot (Temperance runs a foundling home with her brother in a very seamy part of London and uses her knowledge of the area to assist Lord Caire in finding the murderer of his mistress) is reasonably interesting, if the characters didn’t find it necessary to make out like rabbits at frequent intervals.  I won’t be buying the rest of the series.

The Cassandra Knot

The Cassandra Knot by Rebecca Baldwin
Fawcett, 1980, 219 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

Cassandra is an heiress at the mercy of her mercenary aunt who wants to keep the fortune in the family by pressuring Cassandra to marry her cousin, appropriately nicknamed Dishonorable Devon.  In desperation Cassandra suggests marriage to her childhood friend, who is a duke but absolutely penniless.  At first it looks like a simple marriage of convenience, but when you add in a very questionable mistress, a dangerous jewel thief, and others who have their eyes on both rank and fortune, and the plot thickens.

Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence

Revolutionary Summer:  The Birth of American Independence by Joseph J. Ellis
Knopf, 2013, 240 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

Focusing on the summer of 1776, the author traces events, both political and military, leading up to the Declaration of Independence and into the fall when both sides settled in for a long war.  I learned much more about the battle for New York than I had known before – it was interesting to see Washington fumbling around making egregious mistakes and miraculously escaping to fight another day.  Fortunately for our country, the British, with their unbelievably large transatlantic armada and multiple armies, nevertheless managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Their failure to deliver the decisive destructive blow to the Continental Army before it was even fully formed gave the new nation time to learn how to build an army and fight a war and eventually build a country.  The erratic and ambiguous responses of the colonies were very reminiscent of the Southern states in the Civil War.  Fortunately, General Grant was no General Howe.

Check it out today!

Fatal Flaws: How a Misfolded Protein Baffled Scientists and Changed the Way We Look at the Brain

Fatal Flaws: How a Misfolded Protein Baffled Scientists and Changed the Way We Look at the Brain by Jay Ingram
Yale University Press, 2013, 282 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

This book moves rapidly from cannibalism to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to mad cow disease and on to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and athletes’ brain injuries.  The details about the complex and messy organization of cells and neurons are fascinating, as are the species-specific immunities and odd quirks of pathology.  We are left with more questions than answers, but the progression of science on the bleeding edge is captivating to say the least.

Find it at Jack C. Taylor Library!

Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture

Red Families v. Blue Families:  Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture by Naomi Cahn and June Carbone
Oxford University Press, 2010, 288 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

Our political polarization viewed from the perspective of family creation, development, and support.  The first segment of the book is on demographics, geography and different values, with a focus on the parents’ ages at the first pregnancy.  Then the authors discuss contraception, abortion, adolescence, marriage, and divorce and the different laws which stem from the different political persuasions.  Finally, they make some rather naïve suggestions about what can be done to lessen the polarization and make the culture more family-friendly.  What the authors don’t seem to understand is that the conservative politicians can’t afford to focus on contraception precisely because that would drastically reduce the number of abortions in this country and they rely on high abortion numbers to energize their base (and keep the ignorant from realizing how they are being financially ripped off).  The same could be said for support for working mothers (and fathers) – polarization works well for the politicians and they certainly won’t give it up easily.

Check it out at Fontbonne!

Matched Pairs

Matched Pairs by Elizabeth Mansfield
Jove, 1996, 224 pages
Reviewed by: Sharon McCaslin

Juliet and Tris have been “engaged” by their mothers since their birth, but raised as brother and sister with a mutual determination to avoid marriage to each other.  When Tris finds a girl in London he wants to marry, he schemes with Juliet to help her “catch” Lord Peter Canfield, who has recently moved into the community.   Peter, thinking that Juliet is about to be jilted, tries to help her win back Tris.  Confusion and misunderstanding ensues.