"To Siri With Love"

"To Siri With Love" is Judith Newman's story of her family's journey through a son's autism.  Although the topic is serious, the author manages to tell their story with humor making it informative as well as laugh out loud funny at times.  I'm sure my husband is glad that I have finished reading it so I won't disturb his night time reading with, "Hey, let me share this part with you." or my shaking the bed with laughter when he's trying to sleep.  As you might guess, I highly recommend this book!  pazt

"The Good Witch's Destiny - The Secret of the Grey Lady"

Hallmark's "The Good Witch's Destiny - The Secret of the Grey Lady" was next on my list of DVD's to watch but it had to wait until I returned from vacation.

Cassie Nightengale's birthday is coming up and her wish is to have all her family together but her stepdaughter, Lori, discovers a secret about the Grey Lady portrait in the Grey House and is afraid something will happen to Cassie.  Cassie and the Grey Lady shared a birthday and the Grey Lady disappeared right before her birthday.  Everyone is on edge -- including Cassie - will her magic save her this time?   pazt

"Death At Whitewater Church - An Inishowen Mystery"

Andrea Carter is an Irish solicitor who started her practice on the Inishowen Peninsula, County Donegal, where she ran the most northerly solicitor's practice in Ireland before moving to Dublin to practice - that is, until she started writing mysteries.

"Death At Whitewater Church" is her first book but she has written three others in the Inishowen mystery series.  I found this one at my local library but none of the others seem to be available yet in the U.S.!

This story's lead character is Solicitor Benedicta "Ben" O'Keefe and she finds herself embroiled in a mystery when her clients decide to sell a deconsecrated church they own.  When she and the surveyor go to the church, they discover a body wrapped in blankets in the church crypt.  At first it is thought to be the bones of Conor Devitt, a local young man who disappeared six years ago on his wedding day.  However, when tests come back determining it is not Conor, his younger brother is distraught.  Conor left behind a widowed mother as well as a younger brother and sister and no one has heard from him since his disappearance.  If this isn't his body, then where is he and why did he leave his bride at the altar?

"Ben" has a tenuous relationship with Seargeant Tom Molloy who is officially investigating the mystery.  She has secrets from her past that she hasn't shared with him or any of the other locals and secrets have a way of coming out as well as festering and making relationships complicated. 

The unraveling of this local mystery leads to the unraveling of other stories and changes lives.  It's a great story and I can't wait to get my hands on another one of Carter's mysteries!  pazt

"Before We Were Yours"

"Before We Were Yours" is a novel by Lisa Wingate but it is based on stories reported by children who were taken from their families from the 1920's through 1950 by Georgia Tann and the Memphis branch of the Tennessee Children's Home Society with the support and aid of the police and the state government.  Reportedly they were in abusive or neglect situations or single moms or indigent married women were told their children had died and paperwork they were asked to sign was actually relinquishment documents.

Some whole families of indigent children were removed from their families when the parents weren't home and parents efforts to find them or have them returned were in vain.  So...you would think if they were being removed so that their situations would improve, that could be a positive thing.  However, in some cases their situations worsened as survivors told stories of being placed in holding facilities where they were neglected, molested, abused, and treated as objects.

Tann particularly wanted blonde children who she could place with wealthy families in Tennessee or with movie stars, etc. and line her own pockets with profits.  She had "lookouts" in the community who were paid to spot desirable children she could have picked up.

When Tann died of uterine cancer at home in her own bed before her crimes could be prosecuted, she had benefited illegally "to the tune of $1 million (equivalent to roughly $10 million today)".  An expose ran in the newspaper opposite her obituary and her children's home was closed and an investigator appointed.  However, the investigation was blocked by "powerful people with secrets, reputations, and, in some cases, adoptions to preserve."

When Tann died there were still 22 wards in her home but only 2, who adoptive families had rejected, were returned to their birth families.  Her records were not opened to her victims until 1995 and that meant for many birth families, adoptees, or private investigators it was too late for that information to help them reunite.

If you have an interest in reading more about Georgia Tann's actions, Wingate recommends the following books:
"Pricing the Priceless Child:  The Changing Social Value of Children" by Viviana A. Zelizer (1985)
"Babies For Sale:  The Tennessee Children's Home Adoption Scandal" by Linda Tollett Austin (1993)
"Alone in the World:  Orphans and Orphanages in America" by Catherine Reef (2005)
"The Baby Thief:  The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption" by Barbara Bisanta Raymond (2007)  This last book also contains interviews with several of the victims.

Wingate does an excellent job of telling this story by fabricating a birth family with multiple children who are spirited away from their birth family and placed in the children's home where they endured horrific conditions before some of them were adopted.  If this is a topic that interests you, I highly recommend reading "Before We Were Yours."  pazt