Please Welcome Carl Brookins, Guest Book Reviewer, Lemons in the Garden of Love by Ames Sheldon AND Thoughts on the Art of Communication

 

By Ames Sheldon

ISBN: 9781647420482

A 2021 print release from

She Writes Press

Many prologues to novels are inept means of trying to solve structural problems in the story. Here, that is not the case. Author Ames Sheldon has created a sharply tuned, intensely moving and highly relevant novel.

Set in the recent past and on the east coast, Sheldon writes with a keen eye for her setting. And while the novel follows a late Twentieth Century married graduate student named Cassie Lyman and her thesis research, Sheldon has used her settings in careful and evocative ways.

In some ways, Cassie’s journey through the American suffrage movement efforts of the late nineteenth and Twentieth Century, is a model for Cassie’s personal evolution. She’s a bright, hard-working PhD candidate in Women’s History at the university of Minnesota when she comes across a trove of records at Smith College. They chronicle the efforts of her relative, one Kate Easton, to support a local women’s rights organization and move ruling politicians in Massachusetts to pass laws allowing women more autonomy over their own bodies through reasonable methods of birth control.

Cassie’s research and her interactions with family members while attending her younger sister’s wedding, help her to resolve personal problems and open positive future possibilities. The characters in the novel are well-defined, the dialogue is always believable as is the blending of influence on Cassie from the letters and actions of her ancestor with her current situation.

Moving, emotional, well and carefully structured, this historical novel could easily find a place in the libraries of thoughtful women and men, and it should.

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Carl Brookins has agreed to join as an ongoing contributor here at Book Readers Heaven! Hip, Hip, Hooray! As you can see from this fun video, Carl is an author, participating in the Minnesota Crime Wave with books of mystery... His latest is on the top of my TBR fiction stack, so watch for that! In the meantime, Carl will be sending gems of wisdom on all things books...or living in America. Note that the book reviewed, Lemons in the Garden of Love, takes on an important emphasis as, now, we are once again moving backward in the constant battle for women's rights!

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Some random thoughts on the

art of communication.

Words my mother taught me:

Enter

Carl

look listen, learn.

A long time ago, a very long time ago, when I was a child, my mother, a trained, talented musician, encouraged me, her first child, to read.

Read anything, she said. Not that she approved of my reading salacious novels in elementary grades, but I was never restricted to the children’s section of the local library. My father supported my mother, although his job took him away from home a good deal of the summer months. I had interesting trips with dad, like my first taste of beer on the lap of a farm woman in their yard somewhere in north central Minnesota. That’s where I also learned, as a child to steer a car on a winding gravel road.

In my retirement years, I watch a lot of government activities, such as Senate and House hearings. I am struck by the realization that many, if not all Senators, Representatives and those called before the panels to testify, are unable to logically and precisely articulate their questions—or even their comments and responses. I know that most of our representatives from the President on have speech writers to prepare and carefully calculate the probable response to the language of their statements. And then the elected read them. And then, at hearings, they go on and ask unrehearsed questions. And the people they have called to testify try to answer. And logic and real communication, with a cackle, disappears out the door.

It appears that the American English language, one of the most flexible and difficult in the world, is being ignored in our schools in favor of something called job skills. In a not-too-distant previous era, over 90% of the CEOs of the most successful corporations in America had earned a liberal arts degree in college. At the time, that meant subjects like history, humanities, civics, social studies, mathematics, English and similar topics that could be universally applied to almost every situation were emphasized. Does anybody remember that an effective way to learn a language is through reading of history, of social studies, of fiction?

Today, our colleges supply accountants and business majors focused on the profit line. It is clear that in most corporate and government institutions, output is the measure, not the results or improvement of the lives of people. Just look at recent events across our nation. Derailments, radiation leaks into water systems, explosions of dangerous material stockpiles all lead to even greater suspicion of government. Why? Because silence is suspicious.

It is clear today that any event even with the faint potential that threatens the health or wellbeing of a community should be immediately reported, along with assurances of containment. Every moment of silence leads only to suspicion and often to disbursement of falsity. In today’s environment open communication is of paramount importance. Unfortunately, in government and life, open communication is a lost commodity, a lost art. 

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I totally agree with you Carl. Basic education is lacking and your point that businesses want specialized training seems to be a logical answer as to who and how those skills were eliminated. On a broader scope, I've been concerned about something, which has even been named: The Dumbing of America... I think of more books being presented graphically rather than in just words. I quickly say that I am not opposed to graphic novels. I am opposed to their being used in place of normal book format... Then we move on to movies--Dumb and Dumber has been running for ten years... Is it satire? Funny? Or making poor grammar and mistakes the norm...? BTW, I'd never watch the movie, but the following trailer proves I was right in my assessment based upon the title... But, then, I've been accused of not having a sense of humor... which is probably correct. I hate to see people making fun of other people, bullying, calling names, etc...

In any event, with apologies to Carl, I accidentally, in wanting to highlight a paragraph, I accidentally deleted it... It was about the word Woke and Carl was saying something like... don't even get me started...

Some of you may recognize that I also used the word Woke yesterday, claiming I had been woke most of my life. Sooo, I decided to take a little bit of space and provide a look at a dictionary. My understanding of the word was right, it seems... And it certainly has been corrupted by those trying to use it for purely political reasons, in my opinion...

From the Urban Dictionary

Woke

When this term became popularized, initially the meaning of this term was when an individual becomes more aware of social injustice. Or basically, any current affairs related like bias, discrimination, or double-standards.

However, as time passed by, people started using this term recklessly, assigning this term to themselves or someone they knew to boost their confidence and reassure them that they have the moral high grounds and are fighting for a better world. And sometimes even using it as a way to protect themselves from other people's opinion, by considering the 'outsider' as non-woke. While people that are in line with their belief as woke. Meaning that those 'outsiders' have been brainwashed by the society and couldn't see the truth. Thus, filtering everything that the 'outsider' says regardless whether it is rationale or not.

And as of now, the original meaning is slowly fading and instead, is used more often to term someone as hypocritical and think they are the 'enlightened' despite the fact that they are extremely close-minded and are unable to accept other people's criticism or different perspectives. Especially considering the existence of echo chamber (media) that helped them to find other like-minded individuals, thus, further solidifying their 'progressive' opinion. For instance:

"Damn bro, I didn't realize racism is such a major issue in our country! I'm a woke now!"

"I can't believe this. How are they so close-minded? Can't they see just how toxic our society is? The solution is so simple, yet they refused to change! I just don't understand!"

And, by the way, when I tried to find a video on political discussions, they ALL related to transgender! Talk about miscommunication and misinformation... which, as you can see, has absolutely no relationship to "normal" hypocrisy...if there is such a thing... LOL All I know is that the words coming out of Ron DeSantis' mouth was...just...plain...wrong...

And while I'm at it... Hearing a white person say something is "dope" makes me cringe. I read many books by Black authors so I am fairly attuned to the meanings. The original meaning of "dope" was to mean something good... But there is no way to, in my mind, separate it from comparing it to actually taking drugs. The use of a coined word must be used cautiously. I find it ironic that many discriminate against those who are Black while still adopting their words...to appear cool? or to just adopt a word that can be manipulated in meaning?

Words Matter!

Thanks so much to Carl for these two articles! I'm going to enjoy sharing his words in the future! Watch for him!