Tag: 20 Books of Summer

Book Review – Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts

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About the Book

Book cover of Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts

Hollywood, 1938: As soon as she learns that MGM is adapting her late husband’s masterpiece, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, for the screen, Maud Gage Baum sets about trying to visit the set. Nineteen years after Frank’s passing, Maud is the only person who can help the producers stay true to the spirit of the book – because she’s the only one left who knows its secrets.

In the young star, Judy, Maud recognizes the yearning that defined her own story, from her rebellious youth as a suffragette’s daughter to her coming of age as one of the first women in the Ivy League, to the hardscrabble prairie years with Frank that inspired his famous work. With the actress under pressure, Maud resolves to protect her – the way she tried to protect the real Dorothy. . .

Format: Paperback (368 pages) Publisher: Quercus
Publication date: 9th January 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Finding Dorothy didn’t unfold in quite the way I expected based on the blurb. True, we get an insight into Maud Baum’s efforts to ensure the film adaptation of her husband’s famous work stays true to the spirit of the book. It’s an effort that involves determination and, on occasions, some sleight of hand. We also see her efforts to protect the young Judy Garland, thrust into the limelight by her ambitious mother. As Maud observes, ‘What must the weight of so much expectation – of men, and their ambitions and desires – feel like on the shoulders of a lonely teenage girl.’ Those who know about Judy Garland’s troubled life will see only too well its origins in her early experiences.

What I wasn’t expecting from the book was for so much of it to be about Maud’s life. I’m not complaining though because I found this absolutely fascinating and very moving in places, especially her relationship with her husband, Frank. They go through some tough times together and it’s often Maud who has to pick up the pieces when Frank’s flights of fancy fail to take off. But it’s the ‘flights of fancy’, unconventional outlook on life and sense of adventure that make Frank the person he is. ‘The hard times were not what she remembered about their life together. It was the moments, incandescent, transcendent […] when she could catch a glimpse of a world beyond. This vision, this second sight, was what Frank Baum had given to Maud.’ And of course, in the end, that’s what Frank gave to the world in the form of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

I loved how the author included little details that eventually find a place in the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – a scarecrow, a blue gingham dress, the name Dorothy. And there is a very moving moment when Maud realises the story Frank is telling their sons about a tin man without a heart is essentially his own story, a man forced to take mundane jobs to pay the bills which don’t give him any fulfilment. We also learn just why Maud is so determined to ‘save’ Judy.

Finding Dorothy is a wonderful blend of fact and fiction, and I can now understand why so many readers have fallen in love with it.

I received a review copy courtesy of Quercus. Finding Dorothy is book 8 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.

In three words: Emotional, engaging, uplifting

About the Author

Author Elizabeth Letts

Elizabeth Letts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse, which won the 2017 PEN Center USA Award Literary Award for research nonfiction, as well as two previous novels, Quality of Care and Family Planning. A former certified nurse-midwife, she also served in the Peace Corps in Morocco. She lives in Southern California and Northern Michigan. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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Book Review – The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite

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About the Book

Book cover of The King's Mother by Annie Garthwaite

1461. Through blood and battle Edward has gained England’s throne – king by right and conquest – eighteen years old and unstoppable. Cecily has piloted his rise to power and stands at his shoulder now, first to claim the title King’s Mother.

But to win a throne is not to keep it and war is come again. As brother betrays brother, and trusted cousins turn treacherous, other mothers rise up to fight for other sons. Cecily must focus her will to defeat every challenge. Wherever they come from. Whatever the cost.

For there can be only one King, and only one King’s Mother.

Format: Hardcover (400 pages) Publisher: Viking
Publication date: 11th July 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Although the book is pitched as a battle between four women – Cecily Neville, Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort and Marguerite of Anjou – to see their sons become of King of England and therefore be in a position to claim for themselves the title of King’s Mother, the book is really Cecily Part 2 as we see events entirely from her point of view.

As in the earlier book, she’s a schemer and a behind-the-scenes fixer whose favourite game is chess and is not averse to creating her own rules in order to win. She frequently finds herself having the task of cleaning up her sons’ messes. For example, suppressing knowledge of her eldest surviving son Edward’s secret ‘marriage’ to a young noblewomen that might, if it was discovered, threaten the legitimacy of future offspring and, in the process, the succession.

When it comes to Cecily’s second son, George, Duke of Clarence, lets just say that if he’d have written his autobiography it probably would have been entitled ‘Spare’ so visceral is his anger at being continually passed over for the wealth and status he believes he deserves. It leads him to make some disastrous decisions having been manipulated by others for their own ends that see him eventually put to death for treason. An habitual drunkard, the manner of his death – possibly at his own request – is said to have been drowning in a butt of Malmsey, although the author gives us a slightly different angle on this.

Cecily’s youngest son, the man who will become Richard III, gets a flattering portrayal. He’s a skilled soldier, able administrator, loving husband and doting father who would surely never dream of doing away with two young princes.

For the first half of the book, although exerting what influence she can, Cecily is pretty much an observer of events. I’ll be honest, I found myself yearning for a little less historical detail, a bit more pace and something that would make me more invested in all the women’s stories. I did get that in the latter part of the book as Cecily jockeys for position with Elizabeth and Margaret Beaufort who, it turns out, is a pretty good chess player herself. Marguerite of Anjou, although having a key role in events, remains rather in the shadows throughout.

Even if I couldn’t be quite as enthusiastic as other readers, The King’s Mother completes the fascinating story of the life of a woman who was at the heart of events during a turbulent period of England’s history.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Viking via NetGalley. The King’s Mother is book 4 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.

In three words: Detailed, fascinating, assured
Try something similar: The Queen’s Rival by Anne O’Brien

About the Author

Author Annie Garthwaite

Annie Garthwaite turned to fiction after a 30-year international business career, fulfilling her lifelong ambition to write an account of Cecily Neville, matriarch of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses and mother of Edward IV and Richard III. Her obsession with Cecily and her family began in school and never left her. Setting off in the world of work, she promised herself that, at age 55, she would give up the day job and write. She did just that, completing her novel while studying for a creative writing MA at the University of Warwick. Cecily, her debut novel, even before it’s publication was named a ‘top pick’ by The Times and Sunday Times. (Photo: Author website)

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