The Day The Falls Stood Still

by Cathy Marie Buchanan


This story takes place in Niagara Falls beginning in 1915. The main character is Bess Heath.
Bess is a warm and gentle young lady who loves her family, and is especially close with her sister Isabel. She is a student at Loretto Academy for young ladies, and has a pleasant and genteel life.

Things begin to fall apart for her family early on in this book. The end of the school year is being celebrated at Loretto, and Bess finds that her father and sister have not come to participate in the festivities.
As the ceremony ends she begins to learn just why and what that is going to mean to her.

Tom Cole is introduced soon after, but is not fully explained immediately. He is a fascinating and important character in this story.

Interspersed between chapters are newspaper stories about the area both at that time, and stories from the past. They are fictional, of course but add a lot to the story.

We follow the effects that progress, grief, war and depression have on Bess' family. Each of the characters is given enough background to round them out and make them three dimensional and believable. I found myself caring what happened to these good people.

When I first read the blurbs for this book, I thought it sounded interesting, and it was. It was however, so much more, in a way that is difficult to explain. Perhaps the fact that the setting is one that is so familiar to so many is part of that. The authors gift for drawing the reader into the story is no doubt another.

Recommended.

Here If You Need Me : A True Story

by Kate Braestrup


This book was not quite what I expected. Knowing that Kate Braestrup was a minister, I still expected the book to be about Kate and her life as a single mother with an extraordinary career as minister to the Game Wardens in Maine. And so it was, more or less.

The book is chock full of bible references and quotations. Too full in my opinion. While the book is written in a charming and easy going way, and Kate and her family and friends are portrayed in what you know is a real and even amusing way, the Bible references become intrusive.

I wanted more of Kate! I kept hoping that th next chapter would have more about her experiences in the Maine woods and as a single mom. Clearly she is an amazing and down to earth woman. Obviously her job leads her into difficult and fascinating situation. She uses a self deprecating approach to describing herself in situations that is often endearing.

All too often, what I found was more of the Bible. What I missed in purchasing this book was what became all too obvious in the end, the title is a double entendre. What I took as She would be there if needed by the wardens, and her family was true, but I believe that it also means that God is there for all of us.

Finally, the ending came to quickly. I felt that I was swooped from the middle of her story, to her current life all too quickly. It felt almost as if she woke one morning feeling as if she had done enough writing and and basically wrote that they all live happily ever after.

I am not anti-religion at all, I am just a reader who is somewhat disappointed in a book that I had looked forward to reading.