Review: The Garden of Small Beginnings

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 stars
I only bought this book only because I had a "Cartwheel" coupon from Target that made the purchase a bargain $8. Well worth my literary money.

This is a quaint, witty novel about a woman who is still trying to recover and find balance after the death of her husband. It's about complicated family dynamics and unexpected friends. It's about relationships and overcoming fear. And it's about growth and change -- much like the gardening that anchors the book.

I loved the multiple characters and the sharp, bantering dialogue. It made me want to take a gardening class.

A perfect summer novel.

*Language including the Fbomb


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Review: Dark Matter

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 stars
A family of three goes on a mind-bending, physics-altering, time-warping, metaphysical journey thorough time and space, and the reader is along for the nail-biting ride. Wow!

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Review: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Currently, Pawhuska OK is most famous for Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, and her Mercantile Store, that brings as many tourists/shoppers to this small town as it has residents.

But at the turn of the century, Pawhuska was knows for oil. And lots of it. And it was owned by the Osage Indian tribe.

In riveting and engrossing detail, author David Grann, details the nearly systematic elimination of the Osage by Whites because of money. Nothing else. The Osage had it. The Whites didn't. By means of murder, poison, explosion, anything to get the "headrights" to the Osage's land and mineral rights.

Growing up, my dad use to tell me stories of the Osage and their wealth -- one I remember was that when one of their cars would run out of gas, instead of filling up the tank, they'd discard it and buy a new one...true or tale, who knows...but as a Oklahoman, I had a vague knowledge of the Osage wealth. I had no idea that many attempted to kill them off because of it.

An extraordinary book. One I could easily start over from page one and read straight through again.


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