“ There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.”
—-Golda Meir

​
Blame is a funny thing. We do anything to avoid it at all costs, yet we are desperate to assign it when any issue occurs in our lives. It is difficult to accept that a tragedy occurred for no specific reason, and so we look everywhere until we find someone to make sense of the senseless. It is difficult to accept the randomness of life, because by definition that randomness strips us of control.

Several weeks ago in a small town in New York a husband planned a “surprise”party for his wife. He couldn’t keep the secret, but he did everything he could to make it perfect...and safe. He knew there would be drinking so he rented a bus for the seventeen family members and friends. When the bus broke down right before the big party (randomness), he was able to find a limousine that carried up to eighteen passengers (randomness).

The limo company had recently failed inspection on vehicles it was using, and the driver assigned to this party had often complained to his boss about the dangers he was facing. He refused to take out some vehicles but decided to take this run (randomness).

All should have gone well on this night when a loving husband set out to celebrate his wife’s thirtieth birthday...but it didn’t. One terrible crash took the lives of twenty people...the birthday girl, her three sisters, their three spouses, two brothers, several newlyweds, several sets of young parents, the driver and two random people in the parking lot where the limousine landed after losing control. The only survivors were those who had reasons not to join the party...a fiancé, and a cousin (randomness)...and were communicating via text.

Within hours people were assigning blame, and ultimately they might find someone who was at fault, but several reputations will be destroyed along the way. Family members will go through the misery of “what ifs” as they try to make sense of their loses. The limousine driver’s family will be harassed over something that he might not have been able to control. The rest of us will need to find a reason...something to help us believe that it would never happen to us...we would surely know better.

I have come to believe that in the greater scheme of things we must always take control of and responsibility for our actions, but sometimes control and responsibility are taken out of our hands. By Oxford definition an accident is “An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.” Though you might find someone to lay blame on due to negligence in this instance, the result of their negligence was unexpected and unintentional—-an accident. Punishment will be meted out, and changes will hopefully be made, but neither avoiding or assigning blame will ever make things right.

In a world where natural disasters and utter randomness seem to control much of our lives, we need to be kinder to ourselves and to others because that is something we can control.

I came across a new book by an author I enjoy (randomly) and was not disappointed with his latest offering. The Shotgun Lawyer by Victor Methos is a well written legal thriller that I highly recommend.

As always a complete review of this book follows my blog.

Happy reading,

- Beverly

​Click on the book cover to order the title mentioned in today's blog

Genre: Legal Thriller

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Victor Methos, a lawyer himself, writes about what he knows. His protagonist in Shotgun Lawyer, Peter Game, has a good heart that is buried under a pile of insecurities. Although he comes off as cynical and a bit ethically challenged, we quickly find out that he will go to great lengths for a cause in which he believes. Melissa presents him with just such a cause.

Her seven year old son is gunned down by a semi-automatic during a school shooting at a Salt Lake City elementary school, and she wants the gun manufacturer to pay. Peter is well aware that no one beats the gun lobby and tries to tell her that it is a losing cause. Eventually she convinces him to help her, and the David and Goliath battle begins.

When he realizes his opponent is Brennen Garvin, a brilliant lawyer with a total lack of scruples, his one man office seems laughable and his case impossible. A former fiancé, and a satanist intern/clerk join his team, and the fun begins.

Methos does his usually good job in featuring the “down on his luck” attorney as a credible hero, and the book moves along quickly to a satisfying conclusion. He definitely paints a picture of the horrors of a school shooting, but he does not bury us in more details than is necessary. While I would have enjoyed a bit more character development, this plot driven legal thriller never took the easy way out. This was never going to be an easy win, and the author made it more about the importance of the fight than the big money payout.

Peter Game seems to find himself in this challenge, and I hope Methos brings him back in a future novel.

-Beverly


Publisher - Thomas & Mercer
Date of Publication - ​​​​October 23, 2018

​"Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.”
—-T.S. Eliot

There is no doubt that our country has reached true levels of insanity, and make no mistake, there have been major contributions from both sides of the political spectrum. Each week we face another battle over another subject that has two very distinct points of view. The “far left” and the “far right” see only their side in each issue, and the battles rage on. One side might occasionally win their battle, but to what avail?  We are all losing the war.

Beyond this insanity, however, if we all stop and take a breath, there lies compromise and the peaceful existence that we all desire. Unfortunately, our strong beliefs on a subject often color the way it appears to us and makes opposing viewpoints seem terrifyingly radical. To Democrats, for example, the acceptance of a Supreme Court Justice who allegedly abused women, formerly spent weekends in a drunken haze, and blatantly lied under oath, is the beginning of the end of our civilized nation. As a relatively liberal minded person, my politics put me strongly on the side of removing Kavanaugh’s nomination. How, I wondered, could Republicans make excuses for this man? How could they say that what happened has no bearing on his ability as a judge?

Then I remembered the Democrats’ viewpoint (and the Rebublicans’ response) in 1998, when Bill Clinton faced impeachment for similar charges. Women accused him of sexual harassment, attempted rape and more, and the Republicans were horrified. They believed he was unfit for office and wanted him removed. Democrats saw things differently then. I remember saying that while his affair with Lewinsky was immoral and frankly disgusting, it was between the president and his wife and to impeach him was a political reach. After all, wasn’t he doing an admirable job as President?

My moral compass, like those of my fellow Democrats (and Republicans of today) was being driven by my political leanings. Bill Clinton was following an agenda I believed in, and I didn’t want anything to stand in the way of the rights I believed he was gaining for our country. I wasn’t an evil person and I certainly didn’t support the abuse of women. I knew that our President, someone who needed to be a role model to young and old alike, fell very short of those criteria. I just overlooked the bad for political expediency...and because I liked the guy.

Does that make my utter disdain for Brett Kavanaugh an exercise in hypocrisy? Maybe...just a little. I would like to say that maybe I see things more clearly now, but I am probably just kidding myself. I desperately don’t want a Supreme Court that will turn back the rights we have worked so hard to achieve, and that will always cloud my thoughts, but I will begrudgingly admit that it is difficult to be impartial when my beliefs are at stake.

So, I believe we must take heart in T.S. Elliot’s quote and together find the other side of despair. We can have strong beliefs about something without hating those who believe differently. Cutting off relationships, “unfriending” friends, and ruining family dinners will not strengthen our positions. Rather, listening to those whose ideas seem alien, realizing the commonality in our differences, and remembering that in the end we are all fighting for what we believe is right, might help us to find a compromise instead of tear ourselves apart from within the very walls (figurative) we have built to protect ourselves. Our country has lived through political rifts before, and we will live through this, but let’s make it to the other side with as few casualties as possible.

Interestingly enough, the legal thriller that I reviewed this week, Keeping Secrets by Deborah Hawkins has a subplot involving a nominee for the Supreme Court whose past gets in her way. This timely book kept me going until the end.

As always a complete review of this book follows my blog.

Happy reading,

- Beverly

​Click on the book cover to order the title mentioned in today's blog

Genre: Legal Thriller

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Deborah Hawkins made me love her characters early on in Keeping Secrets, and I continued to be invested in a positive outcome until I turned the last page. There are several protagonists, and Hawkins gives them each their moments in the sun as she features different ones in each chapter.

The story centers around the life and imminent death of Professor Edward Wynne Carter, III, who has spent over thirty years on Virginia’s death row for the murder of his pregnant wife, Anne. Ed insists his love for Anne would have never allowed him to kill her, and Attorney Brendon Murphy has kept him alive until now, but an execution date looms ahead.

Ed’s son, Wynne, is an Attorney and his father’s biggest champion, and is doing everything in his power to save his father as well. Wynne's fiancé, Claire, is willing to give up her big wedding and concentrate on helping the Carters prove Ed’s innocence, but complications arise.

McKenzie Fitzgerald, just out of law school when Anne was murdered, interviewed a key alibi witness, forgot to turn on the tape recorder, and covers up her mistake at Ed’s expense. Now she is fighting for a seat on the Supreme Court and realizes if she brings out the truth to save Ed, she will lose the nomination.

The story, with so many roads to follow, is an easy one to get involved in, and I never felt lost. Hawkins style pulls us into the mind and heart of each of her characters, and the story itself, loosely based on the truth, is a fascinating read. Although the end felt a wee bit too contrived for my taste, I enjoyed the book enough to overlook that small issue.

-Beverly


Publisher - Amazon Digital Services LLC
Date of Publication - ​​​August 30,2018

“ I love being married. It is so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
—-Rita Rudner


Arthur and I recently celebrated our anniversary, and it started me thinking about love, marriage and the way things have changed through the years. As a young child, I envisioned myself going to college, working in a career I loved, and being a wife and mother. It seemed a simple path, and I was determined to “have it all.” I feel it was a somehow easier time . Unfortunately, women didn’t have as many choices then, but we also had far less fear of commitment.

In the 1960’s, over 70% of the adults in our country were married, while in 2011 barely 50% of adults had tied the knot, according to a Pew Research Institute report presented that year. The numbers continue to dwindle, as gen-xers and millennials concentrate on their careers and their individual lives before finding their soulmates.  Unfortunately, the older they get the more set in their ways they become.

Arthur and I were children when we met (16), children when we started dating (18), and though we didn’t think so , children when we married (22). We grew up together and never felt we were giving up anything of ourselves. People say that marriage takes a great deal of work, and I suppose it does, but for me it has always seemed easy. A labor of love, if you will. Don’t get me wrong, we have had our tough times, but it was always our togetherness that pulled me through them. I never resented compromise.

It is rare to completely get your way in marriage, but then it is rare to completely get your way in any aspect of life. The art of compromise can serve us well as we try to navigate the various roads we take. If I get my way a little less it is well worth it, because at the end of the day—-every day—-Arthur has my back, and I have his.

I realize that life evolves, and we must evolve as well. I know that one doesn’t need a marriage license to share a life, and one doesn’t need to share a life to be happy. There are advantages to eating when one wants, sleeping when one wants and being totally alone when one wants. There are advantages to not having to share one’s things and having the ability to leave a relationship when it stops being fun.  The right marriage, however, with the right person is worth all of the little inconveniences along the way. When I hear Arthur’s key in the lock, and after all these years my heart still beats a little faster, I am glad that I chose the road that at this time might be less taken.

To celebrate our years together we are taking a vacation next week. We will be enjoying the southern hospitality (and yummy cooking) of Savannah, Georgia. Since we will not be in town, I will not be adding a blog/review next week but will return the week after fully rested and ready to write.

This week I am reaching out to the mommys and daddys in my audience with What If Everybody Said That? by Ellen Javernick (author) Colleen Madden (illustrator). This children’s book on the importance of basic kindness might be the perfect book for those who seem to have forgotten those basic childhood lessons.

As always a complete review of this book follows my blog.

Happy reading,

- Beverly

​Click on the book cover to order the title mentioned in today's blog

​Genre: Children's Book

​​​​Click book cover for Amazon.com

Kindness seems to be in short supply now, and as always we must look to the children to bring us a future filled with kindness. Every few months I review a children’s book for the mommys and daddys who join me at madderlyreview.com, and What If Everybody Said That? by Ellen Javernick (author) Colleen Madden (illustrator) was too apropos of the time to pass.

In this book we see children doing and saying what children quite often do and say, but the author shows the reader exactly how much his/her words can hurt another person. If we lie,  make fun of others or don’t allow them to join our group of friends, we are inflicting unnecessary pain. The main theme of Javernick’s book is to think before we speak, realize the power of our words, and use them wisely.

I found the story-line simple and important, and it seemed to capture many moments that children face. The illustrations were colorful and appropriate to the theme, but I found the expressions on many faces harsh and perhaps a bit unsettling for younger children.

All in all Javernick gives us a book on the importance of kindness at a time we most definitely need it.

- Beverly


Publisher - Two Lions
Date of Publication - ​​​​August 1, 2018