Category Archives: social class

Ain’t Nobody’s Fool, by Martha Ackmann****

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Note: I ran this post in January of this year; under the circumstances, I thought I’d run it again.

“People don’t come to see me be me. They come to see me be them.”

Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: the Life and Times of Dolly Parton, by Martha Ackman, is a fine biography of one of America’s most iconic musicians. My thanks go to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

Dolly began singing as a child, first informally, as children do, but she also understood very early on that this would be her life’s work. Most of her family was musically inclined, but she had a greater talent and a greater need to use it. She also had the right personality for the job; though her early years were filled with deprivation—the song “Coat of Many Colors” does actually describe an early childhood experience that marked her—she was also born with a sunny outlook and determination. For example, when she met the love of her life, Carl Dean, just as she was beginning to be heard on the local radio, she told him that though she loved him, she could not become a traditional wife to him. She would not have supper waiting when he finished work. She would not produce a houseful of children. These are the things that would prevent her from realizing her burning ambition. They were a trap. And happily, Carl—a private man that didn’t listen to country music so much as Led Zeppelin—told her that was just fine with him. He wasn’t going to tag along everywhere and be Mr. Dolly Parton, but they would make it work. And they did.

Fans of Dolly’s might have wondered, as I did, whether we would learn more about the rather mysterious Carl when reading this biography. We will not, apart from seeing Dolly’s philosophy where her marriage was concerned. Though in every other respect she has been open and accessible to the public, Dolly has followed her mother’s advice, that she should find just one thing about her life that she would not share with others, but keep for herself. For Dolly, that’s Carl. The man died last year, but she still keeps Carl, and her memories of their sixty years of marriage, to herself. And I don’t see how we can complain.

Whenever I read a galley, I highlight passages that I think might be suitable to include as quotes in my review. In this case, I highlighted 60! I can’t use them all, but this should give the reader a clue as to how readable this lovely biography is, and how saturated with quotes from Dolly, and from those that know and love her. From her early, sometimes tumultuous years working for and with Porter Wagoner, to the actors that she worked with in movies such as 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias, to her own family members, it’s rich. Another fun fact: by doing some of her recordings in Tennessee, and by creating the massive theme park, Dollywood, she has come close to doubling the GDP of the state of Tennessee!

Many people may not be aware of Dolly’s intellect and savvy business skills. I have read so many musical memoirs and biographies of hugely talented, successful musicians that trusted others to take care of their business matters and accounting, only to discover too late that they’d been robbed. Perhaps my favorite anecdote in this biography is where early on, when she was only starting to be recognized, Colonel Parker, the man that ran Elvis’s career and gutted his finances, came to Dolly to express interest in one of her songs. Elvis wanted to sing “Islands in the Stream.” But he told her sweetly, Elvis is accustomed to receiving the publishing rights to any song he performs. And Dolly, also responding sweetly, told him how sorry she was, but she just didn’t believe in parting with her catalog. Many years later, after she and Kenny Rogers had gone more than platinum with that same song, she said that that song alone made her more than enough money to buy Graceland, at least hypothetically!

Serious fans and researchers will do well to augment their knowledge by reading at least one other biography, or Dolly’s own autobiography, My Life. Though author Ackman has a congenial writing style and has read a great deal about her subject, she has apparently never interviewed Parton herself. I combed through the documentation at the end of the book and found that out of the hundreds of end notes, there are just five references to a couple of interviews by the author with friends and family of Dolly’s. Sources for the book’s early chapters are sparse and not well integrated, relying almost exclusively on the autobiography.

Nevertheless, this is a greatly enjoyable read. I played Dolly’s music as I read, and though I am finished with it and am reading other things now, I still carry Dolly around with me.Serious fans and researchers will do well to augment their knowledge by reading at least one other biography, or Dolly’s own autobiography, My Life. Though author Ackman has a congenial writing style and has read a great deal about her subject, she has apparently never interviewed Parton herself. I combed through the documentation at the end of the book and found that out of the hundreds of end notes, there are just five references to a couple of interviews by the author with friends and family of Dolly’s. Sources for the book’s early chapters are sparse and not well integrated, relying almost exclusively on the autobiography.

Nevertheless, this is a greatly enjoyable read. I played Dolly’s music as I read, and though I am finished with it and am reading other things now, I still carry Dolly around with me.

Tough Luck, by Sandra Dallas****

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Tough Luck, a novel by Sandra Dallas, is the story of two almost-orphans, Haidie and her younger brother, Boots, that set out on a journey from Oklahoma to Colorado in search of their father. He’d left to find work some four years prior, planning to either send for them, along with their mother and older brother, Cheet; but Ma has died, and Cheet—the scoundrel—sells the farm, dumps his siblings in an orphanage, and takes off with the money. After escaping the orphanage, which is grim and abusive, Haidie is determined that she and her younger brother will make their way to Colorado and find their father.

My thanks go to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the invitation to read and review. I’m over a full year late in doing so, a fact I’m not proud of, but despite my lateness, I have enjoyed this read, and I believe others that enjoy quality historical fiction will enjoy it as well.

Any author that writes historical fiction in the first person with a child as the protagonist has their work cut out for them. The ones that earn my scorn are those that make their main character so precocious that they speak as if they were an adult. This is, of course, complete nonsense, since brilliant children are still children; I am delighted to say that Dallas doesn’t use this cheap, ineffective device. Haidie is a bright child and most of her decisions are good ones, but she’s no Einstein, and she doesn’t talk like one. Having brother Boots along is important because it provides an opportunity for dialogue.

I do love American history, and so I am also waiting for Dallas to play fast and loose with historical fact. Instead, she is dead accurate, and despite the tall job she’s given herself, sending a couple of children across the plains and into the Rockies without an adult escort in the time before there were highways or readily available maps to follow, she nevertheless makes the story credible. I believe Haidie completely, and I believe the various villains and thieves, as well as the more decent people that she runs across during her journey. The settings are well rendered, too.

Because I fell behind in my reading, I checked out the audio book at my local library. Narrator Mia Hutchinson-Shaw does a fine job in bringing these characters to life.

This is an entertaining read, despite the sorrow and deprivation with which it begins, and I recommend it to those that love the genre.

The Secret Dinner, by Raphael Montes****

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Translated from Portuguese by Zoe Perry

The Secret Dinner, by Brazilian author Raphael Montes, has become an international sensation, and once a friend mentioned it, I had to read it. My thanks go to NetGalley and Celadon Books for the review copy; this book is for sale now.

Our story begins with four main characters. Dante, a student, is the protagonist; it is he that provides the first-person narrative. Then there are his three roommates, all close friends since childhood. Hugo is a chef; Miguel is a hospital intern; and Piglet is a mess, an agoraphobic computer whiz who mostly stays in his room, eating junk food as he invents programs and plays video games. Dante’s family has provided the seed money to get them all into this lovely apartment in the city, but now they all have rent to pay. It’s not easy, but they do it…until they are threatened with eviction for nonpayment. Wait, what? Yes. The roomie in charge of paying the rent has been squandering everyone’s money on a sex worker!

Now they’re in trouble.

Finally, they hatch a plan: they will serve incredible gourmet meals to a select group of extremely wealthy clients. Exclusivity will be the main draw. They use the name “Seagull Meat,” but that’s just a witticism. Seagulls are not what they are serving! They plan to do it only a couple of times, till they raise the rent and the back rent, but they meet with such success, and oh, so much money, that they continue, even once they no longer have to.

I read an eclectic combination of genres, and every now and then, I read a horror novel or an unusually visceral murder mystery. I don’t have the stomach for a lot of it, but I like the occasional dabble.

This story, my friends, is no dabble!

I don’t want to go into a lot of detail here, because the whole thing is better when the element of surprise is honored. However, the gruesome details, which start out humorous, increase and at about the 65% mark, I found I couldn’t take it, so I skipped to the 85% mark, then skimmed until I reached the 90% mark, where I commenced reading the rest. I initially recorded this book as “did not finish,” but I changed it to “read,” since I did in fact read the beginning, end, and most of what is in between. And the ending. The ending!! The ending. The ending is epic, and once again, it’s funny as hell.

Recommended for readers that aren’t squeamish; don’t read the promotional blurb till you’ve read the book.  

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8702257026

You’ll Love it Here, by Natalie Sue****

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You’ll Love it Here is a wry, strangely intimate novel by Canadian author Natalie Sue. My thanks go to NetGalley and William Morrow for the review copy. This book will be available to the public August 11, 2026.

Mona is a workaholic. She has no private life; she has no time for one. She’s putting in an intolerable number of hours every week to build herself a strong position in the firm that employs her; she also needs the money. She’s earning money for herself, but also to pay off her mother’s debts. Is it any wonder, then, that her only friends are her work buddies?

Meanwhile, she’s living in an older building gone slightly to seed, and she dislikes it so much that she refuses to add any personal touches. No pictures on the wall; no cute curtains. After all, her main goal is to get out of here and into somewhere more impressive. And maybe that’s why she has never bothered to learn her neighbors’ names. Instead, she identifies them by their habits, and by her own impressions of them. So while she knows no one’s name except that of the owner, she does know them as Fighting Couple, Old White Perve, Weird Girl Beside Me, etc.

Then one day, the unthinkable happens. Mona snaps during a meeting with her most important client. She thinks something unforgivably snarky, then realizes she’s said it out loud. There’s no walking it back, either. Her boss kindly suggests she take six weeks of bereavement leave, as her father has recently died. She’d prefer not to, but it’s not actually a suggestion, it’s an order. And so Mona is spinning her wheels a little, crazed from the lack of work and routine, when she is offered a chance to do some work for the landlord in return for a better apartment in a better building. Sweet! Say no more; Mona is in.

I’m not telling you where it goes from there, only that it’s captivating. Sometimes I find myself reading a galley from duty, but this book is sheer pleasure. In fact, had it not been for a technical distraction (editor? Hello?) I would have rated this book five stars.

If you need a light but absorbing feel good book, then look no further. This is a great story to take on vacation, or even just bury yourself in over the course of a weekend. You’ll come out happier at the end.

Killer Vibes, by Jack Friday*****

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Peter Key is an ambition-free stoner dude living in a pal’s garage until he pushes a boundary or two and gets tossed out on his butt. His parents are gone, his sister’s had it with him, and he has nowhere to turn. That is, until the uncle he barely knew dies and leaves him a whole lotta assets, a whole lotta debts, and a whole lotta questions. This remarkable debut novel by Jack Friday is one of the best parts of my summer, and you want it in yours, too. Trust me.

My thanks go to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the invitation to read and review. This kick-ass mystery is for sale today!

Peter’s late uncle lived in Austin, and since Peter is now homeless and Uncle Forrest has left him a house, that’s where he goes. The house is a mess, and his uncle was past due on the mortgage. Everyone, whether in real estate or not, pressures him to sell. Do it now, before it’s too late! But Peter digs in his heels. He’s never owned a house before, and his late uncle’s demise has left him with too many questions, one of which is, given Forrest’s credentials in daredevil racing, how was it that he *suddenly* lost control of his car and tumbled over a cliff to his demise?

This book is fast-paced, at times hilarious, and at other times incredibly intense, like a true thriller ought to be. In the course of things, he tries to hire a detective that worked for Forrest; the detective counters that he will only take the job if Peter comes on board to work for him. Peter resists at first, but the thing is, he’s a natural. A young man that has never had, or even wanted, a marketable skill beyond peddling drugs has found his calling. And of course, he’s also made powerful enemies, a fact that bothers him hardly at all.

I was lucky enough to have access to both the digital and audio galleys, and though I begin with the digital, the audio is so well done that it becomes my go-to. Narrator Max Meyers does such a splendid job that he makes a great read even better. In fact, I used this book to make myself do some dreaded yard work, because I found that I didn’t want to stop slaving away in the July sun when I knew it meant turning off the book once I came back in the house. This doesn’t happen often!

This novel is captioned “Peter Key Mystery Series #1,” which is great news because it means there will be more, and when the next one becomes available, needless to say, I’m in.

Don’t miss it.

Murder at the Spirit Lounge*****

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I would follow Jess Kidd anywhere! Murder at the Spirit Lounge is her sixth release in the U.S., and the second book in the Nora Breen series. My thanks go to NetGalley and Atria Books for the invitation to read and review; this engaging little mystery will be available to the North American public on June 16, 2026.

The time period is the late 1940s. We join Nora, a former nun who left the convent in order to find the whereabouts of the young nun that she mentored, and who had then left the order and disappeared. Her mission accomplished, Nora is still living in the rooming house, a cheap place that has terrible food and a grouchy proprietor, in a little seaside village called Gore-On-Sea. Nora left the convent with very little money and few possessions, and now she has even less money. In search of work, she finds a position at the local newspaper, working for an editor named Miss Hartigan:

Nora, having braved the smell of damp and mice to climb the narrow stairs of the Herald offices, finds the editor hunched over her ancient typewriter like a toad with a fly. Surrounded by empty booze bottles, stacks of back-copies. She turns a bull’s eye on Nora, who is reminded, curiously, of her former mother superior at High Dallow monastery. Perhaps it’s the same air of combative ruthlessness. Neither woman, in Nora’s estimation, would suffer fools gladly.

But Breen is soon sidetracked by a murder that occurs during a séance at the Spirit Lounge, and the medium is the victim—that is, the first victim. Since Nora has trained and worked as a nurse during her earlier life, she is summoned to the scene, and soon we’re off on another investigation. Inspector Rideout, the local man in charge of law enforcement, appears to be on the killer’s list, and as he and Nora have formed a warm friendship, she cannot allow that to happen!

Jess Kidd’s voice shines through here, and I love it. I would have liked to see more of the wit she’s displayed in some of her other novels, because she’s made me laugh out loud, but instead, we see greater depth of character development, and that’s crucial, particularly in a series. I wholeheartedly recommend this book, and this series, to those that love the genre. It can certainly be read as a stand-alone mystery, but once you’ve done that, you’ll want to scoop up the first as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8433245382

Returns and Exchanges, by Kayla Rae Whitaker*****

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Kayla Rae Whitaker is the author of The Animators, her 2017 debut which remains one of my favorites after 13 years and over a thousand reviews. Now she has returned with Returns and Exchanges, a more complex, ambitious novel, yet written with the same mastery of the language and the heart. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the review copy; this book is for sale now.

Our story is set in Kentucky and begins on Christmas Eve in 1979. We have a hardworking family that owns and runs a good-sized store; think of something like a mom-and-pop version of Target. The Baker-Taylor store is hopping on Christmas Eve. The owners, Fred Taylor and Fran Taylor, nee Baker, are frazzled but satisfied. The two older sons are working registers; the two little kids are playing in the stockroom. They close up, clean up, and leave to celebrate the holiday.

During the recession of the 1980s they do well; theirs is an unpretentious business that bargain hunters love. As they succeed, they expand, and soon Fred is full of himself, trying to fit in with the local movers and shakers. He joins a rightwing fraternal organization and lives to impress. Fran, on the other hand, is doing most of the work. She knows what money is coming in, what’s going out; which stores are doing well, which are struggling. She is not trying to impress anyone, but falls hard for an employee named Wendy.

Nobody expected this!

And so the beginning of the book focuses primarily on Fran, and I begin to see her as the protagonist, but this is one of those epic family tales, and so as time moves forward, we begin to see different points of view. The elder sons begin to hate the business. It prevents the children from having social lives, and Fred is hard to please. Josiah, the eldest, decides to leave for college, and Baker-Taylor stores don’t loom large in his future plans. Sam, the second youngest, is an artist, and he suffers from mental health issues that Fred cannot accept. Fred thinks Sam is weak, and he doesn’t make the family or the business look good in the public eye. The two young children, Benny and Birdie, grow up largely cared for by others, because their parents are always working (or with Wendy.)

In many ways, it’s like watching a traffic accident in slow motion. I’m leaning forward, as if I might climb into the book itself and shout warnings.

The nearest thing we have to an objective observer is Fran’s brother-in-law, Jack. Jack is gay, but he keeps it quiet and hidden, and so does his loving, understanding wife. He catches onto the changes occurring within the family, including between Fran and Wendy. He tells Josiah privately,

Were your father to find out, God help us, it might break him. But it also might do something else…he’s running with a different crowd now. It’s made him a little rougher. But that’s not my big concern. It’s the board. It’s the shareholders. People who see all the fun family commercials. Do I have to elaborate on what could happen to her if folks caught wind of this?

Truer words were never spoken.

But the most critical aspect of this story, with all of its moving parts, is the way the characters are built. I feel as if I know them all deeply. Fred is the least developed character here, but I know that’s because not that much inward development happens when you’re shallow and not as smart as the rest of the family. And hopefully, that statement reveals how effective the alchemy is here: I’m not thinking about what Whitaker does with the characters. I’m thinking of the characters themselves, as if I might walk around the corner and bump into one of them.

Of course I won’t tell you how it ends, but it feels right to me, strangely satisfying.

For those that love epic family stories with deep, layered characters, this book is highly recommended. It’s one of the year’s best.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8028043777

Road Trip, by Mary Kay Andrews***-****

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3.5 stars rounded upwards.

Road Trip is a new spring romcom novel by prolific author Mary Kay Andrews. My thanks go to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public June 2, 2026.

The premise is that two sisters must bury their late mother and deal with her estate. Maeve is the good girl who put her life on hold to care for their mother during her final illness; Therese is an actor, and hasn’t even called home for a good long time. The sisters have become estranged over the years, but now they are back in the home they grew up in. Their mother left behind a painting that she says was done by a famous artist, and should be worth a great deal, but to establish its origin and its worth, they must go on a road trip in Ireland together. In fact, neither of them gets a dime if they don’t! She’s left them very little but the painting itself and some travel money. They aren’t happy about it, but they go.

The first half of this story just about wore me to bits. It seemed formulaic, and I felt like my IQ became lower with every tiresome page. The effect was heightened by the narrator, Kathleen McInerney, whose high-pitched little girl voice grated on me. I reminded myself that I’ve encountered this narrator before while reading the same author, and I eventually got used to her voice, and so I soldiered on, vowing to finish this thing, write my review, and stay away from this author in the future unless I was reading her Christmas novels, which always please me. I promised myself that next time, I’d only use the digital review copy, thereby bypassing the narrator.

But then a funny thing happened in the second half. Gradually I found myself warming to the story—and yes, I became more acclimated to the narrator as well. By the seventy percent mark, I was actively looking forward to it. And this is the reason why I have rounded my rating upwards; I would much rather have a book start out a bit slow and build to something bigger, than to have it start out like gangbusters and then fizzle later on.

I suspect that the author’s faithful readers will like this book just as much as her others; for those not previously initiated, you may enjoy this if you need something on the light and breezy side. It is to those readers that I recommend this story.

True Crime, by Patricia Cornwell*****

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Legendary mystery writer Patricia Cornwell didn’t intend to write a memoir, but when someone decided to put her life’s story on television, she realized that if she didn’t write it, they’d make it up as they went. What began as a treatment for television writers to use as a guide morphed into a full-length book, and this is a perfect example of what an overachiever Cornwell has become.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

Cornwell grew up in Miami, but moved with her mother to Montreat, North Carolina following her parents’ separation when she was five years old. It’s a miracle that anyone whose childhood was so riddled with trauma could grow up and pass for normal, let alone accomplish the things that she has done. First, her father had a breakdown, kidnapped her and her brothers, and then tried to hand them off—permanently—to his law partner. Her mother was a hot mess most of the time, and so there were periods when there was no food prepared, and she and her brothers made do by scrounging raw hamburger out of the freezer and eating it raw! Then there was the time her mom went into a fugue state and began systematically burning all of the children’s clothing—and there was no money to replace it with. Neglected children are often a lightning rod that attracts bad actors, and so the local security cop began molesting her—up until he was caught by her older brother, who put a stop to it. And the list goes on.

Nobody walks away from such experiences unscarred, but since Cornell—who was then Patsy Daniels—was a good kid, she internalized all of it, aided by a dreadful first grade teacher that told her that her constant talking in class was probably why her father had left! (As a teacher, this reviewer wants to find that person and have her license pulled, although she is probably gone from this earth by now.) Patsy gained control of her life—sort of—by developing eating disorders. She was hospitalized, but medical science actually didn’t know what to do about anorexia or bulimia, and after months in the institution with no improvement whatever, she gave up and went home. The problem vanished many years later when other aspects of her life changed.

Her love of writing and her feverish work ethic are what has made her such a success (along with great intelligence, though she doesn’t say as much.) She rode with cops and served as a volunteer in order to gain insights into that world; she went to Quantico and studied profiling; and of course, worked in the medical examiner’s office so that she could legitimately view autopsies, which are of course not open to the public. Anything she needed to learn, she found a way to do, leaving no stone unturned. She was aided and mentored by what seems to me an unlikely cast of friends and surrogate parents, including Senator Orin Hatch, Ruth and Billy Graham (mostly Ruth,) and President H.W. Bush.

The thing I appreciate about this memoir, apart from its outstanding prose and organization, is Cornwell’s willingness to disclose personal information. Sometimes, when someone is deeply private but finds herself writing a memoir anyway, she will stay on the surface and give up as little of herself as possible. Such memoirs are frustrating to read and for those that pay money for the privilege, a bit of a cheat. But once Cornwell decided to do this thing, she really did it right. And while, on the one hand, there’s a certain amount of namedropping and braggadocio, even that aspect of it is interesting; given everything she went through to arrive at the station she’s gained in life, one can hardly begrudge her.

For those that love her books, and also for those that simply enjoy a well written memoir, this book is highly recommended.

Opera Wars, by Caitlin Vincent****

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Caitlin Vincent is a former opera singer and company owner, and so she’s in a good position to talk about its controversies. This compact little book carries a wealth of information for the interested layman. My thanks go to NetGalley and Scribner for the review copy; this book is for sale now.

Much of the book discusses, as advertised, the controversies surrounding opera. How much license can its companies, directors, etc. take with the original versions of the most canonical of operas? What if, instead of taking place in the expected setting, one was to stage the opera in outer space, or in a future world, or, or, or…? There’s no law that says it can’t be done, and sometimes it is. Yet those that take such liberties have to face the ravening hoards that take exception to such variations.

What about the new operas that aren’t famous yet? Remember, every opera was new at one point.

But the greatest controversy of all is that of race. Is it acceptable for a Caucasian singer to play Madame Butterfly, for example? Opera has long been the bastion of white musicians, and though there’s been a bit of progress, the number of performers of color is still quite small. So, if this part should be sung by an Asian woman, must she be Japanese, or Japanese-American? What if a Filipino woman wants the part and can sing it well? And then the other question: may performers of color play parts that traditionally go to white singers? A Japanese-American soprano is quoted as saying that while she is grateful for the number of times she’s been cast in that opera, at some point in her life she’d like to play a role other than Madame Butterfly!

At the tender age of 18, this reviewer wanted to become an opera singer; after less than two years in college I changed my mind. Reading this book made me thank my lucky stars that I did. Vincent explains exactly what is required of anyone that wants to pursue the dream, and though others had told me that it’s a difficult road made still more difficult when one doesn’t have financial backing or the right contacts, I had no idea just how grueling the path can be. I might have taken to the bath with a package of shiny razor blades had I gone down that road! Constant rejection; sexual harassment, even in the Me-Too era; poverty; lack of sleep from working day jobs, rehearsing and training, auditioning, and preparing to perform, should one be cast in even a tiny role are but a few of the demands this life exacts. Plane tickets to audition; plane tickets to reach the performance venue, sometimes overseas; suitable clothes for auditions; costly vocal coaching; these are among the expenses the performers are expected to meet, in addition to the ordinary expenses of room and board, transportation, and utilities.

And yet, are the artists exploited? Vincent points out that most opera companies operate on a shoestring, with the less famous ones closing at alarming rates. It’s not that someone at the top is leaching off the members of the company; in most cases, nobody is making much money. While a few principal artists are well paid and well known, those are the rare exceptions.

The narrative flows beautifully, and the hard facts are broken up with occasional humorous anecdotes.

Those interested in the world of opera but lacking much knowledge will benefit from the wealth of information packed into a relatively brief space here; the book is just over 300 pages, but nearly 40% of that is endnotes! I recommend this little gem to all that are curious.