Two great reads from 2023 begin my 2024.

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Welcome to 2024 and a new year that means new beginnings. Many people make resolutions, and reading goals are a popular project for readers. Websites like Goodreads encourage people to set a goal for the number of books read, and you can find Reading Challenges with prompts for the different types of books to read- i.e.- Books Set in a Foreign Country, Books That Begin With a Different Letter of the Alphabet From A-Z, Books With A Flower on the Cover- you get the idea.

That can be a fun project and a way to connect with other readers, as well as a way to expand your reading choices and get out of your comfort zone.

I began 2024 with a goal to read one fiction and one nonfiction book from 2023 that was critically acclaimed. For the fiction book, I chose Amanda Peters The Berry Pickers. It tells the story of Ruthie, a four year-old Indigenous girl who disappears from a Maine orchard where her family works every harvest. 

Ruthie was sitting on a rock eating a sandwich with her older brother and then she was gone. Her family- mother, father, three older brothers and one older sister- was distraught and searched for her for weeks with no success.

The family returns to their home on Nova Scotia but they are never the same. Her mother insists that Ruthie is alive somewhere. Her brother Joe, the last one to see her before she disappeared, spirals out of control feeling guilty that he left her alone.

The family’s story is interspersed with the story of Norma, the only daughter of a couple who struggled for years trying to have a baby before Norma came along. Norma’s mother refuses to let Norma out of her sight except for school, and Norma comes to feel stifled by her lonely life.

The Berry Pickers is a beautifully written debut novel, with characters the reader cares deeply about. We feel their pain and sadness and although you know where the story is going, it is the journey that keeps you reading this wonderful book. I give it my highest recommendation. Fans of Jacqueline Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean will like this one.

Rachel Maddow’s nonfiction Prequel- An American Fight Against Fascism takes the reader back to WWII. In the run-up to WWII, Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party decide that the key to winning the war in Europe is to keep the United States out of the war. 

Many Americans were reluctant to get involved another world war far from our shores, particularly wary after the loss of life in WWI. The Nazis used that reticence to their advantage, and they stoked the divisions in American life to accomplish their goal.

The Germans used money to influence Congressmen, religious leaders, and other influential people to achieve their goal. The Nazi Party had many members in the United States, even filling Madison Square Garden with an event.

(If you read Susan Elia MacNeal’s fascinating novel Mother Daughter Traitor Spy you will be familiar with the popularity of the the Nazi Party in Los Angeles at this time.)

Maddow lays out in meticulously researched detail how the German government used antisemitic feelings in the United States to turn people against President Roosevelt and members of his government.

One of the most interesting parts of the book shows how the Germans used the franking program to spread their propaganda to the American people. Congresspeople are allowed to send mail for free to their constituents, and everything that gets read into the Congressional Record (like speeches made on the House floor) is eligible to be mailed for free.

The German government hired people to write speeches for certain Congresspeople who would then read those speeches verbatim, get them into the Congressional Record, and then mailed across the country. It was actually a direct mailing advertising company owner who figured out this scheme and blew the whistle on them.

Prequel reads like a fictional thriller yet it is reality. It’s got a suspiciously timed deadly plane crash, a trial that is part Marx Brothers movie, and an intrepid reporter who gets directly involved in the story. It resonates with current events and I’m not sure if that is frightening or reassuring.

For podcast fans, Maddow’s podcast Ultra is the companion to Prequel and also very well done. I give Prequel my highest recommendation as well. History fans will love it.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters- A+

Published by Catapult

Hardcover, $27, 306 pages

Prequel by Rachel Maddow- A+

Published by Crown

Hardcover, $ 32, 382 pages