Where the Forest Meets the Stars

 

Where the Forest Meets the Stars    By Glendy Vanderah

This is a beautiful and sad mystery, with some magical elements sprinkled throughout.  A young girl appears suddenly at the remote cabin of a women who is doing field research on birds.  The young girl is barefoot and appears to have bruises all over. She is very secretive when asked what she is doing there and why she is away from home, telling the college student, Jo, that she has fallen from the stars and comes from an alien planet, also telling her she has inhabited the body of young dead girl, and brings a dog with her.
Jo is not buying this at first, and tries to find out what horrible home life this child has come from and who isn't reporting her missing. She calls local authorities, checks websites, but, she soon becomes too entranced by the little girl, Ursa, to care and slowly stops trying solve her mystery. The child has told Jo she is here to witness 5 miracles then will return back to her home planet.  Jo and her neighbor Gabe soon let Usra into their lives and their hearts, as their own sad histories come up and they watch the miracles unfold. They follow the little girl's story to it's full conclusion no matter what truths they finally find at the end.

I found myself wishing this story was more fantasy and more magical, the reality of  life sometimes is so hard and sad, and it would be much easier to explain away life's struggles with far fetched tales. It was a page turning mystery though, and I was fully invested in the story of the sad little girl and the two adults who are caring for her.  With tones of depression, domestic violence, death, cancer, adultery and many other horrible scenarios, be aware it will trigger some emotion in you. But, the emotion may just be hope, at the end of it all, and believing in something bigger then yourself.

The Poison Eaters

The Poison Eaters by Gail Jarrow

Today most people know what goes into the food they eat, and the medicine they take. And you can always look on the label at the list of ingredients. This hasn’t always been the case. Before food and drug regulations were put into place there was no way of knowing if what you were eating from those cans and boxes was really actually what it claimed to be. Foods marketed as “pure” and “natural” could have harmful chemicals, dyes, and even human and animal waste because the factories they were made in were completely unsanitary! Medicine marketed for children could contain narcotics such as cocaine, morphine, opium, and THC. Sounds crazy right? No mother in their right mind would give those things to their child. Well, unfortunately, mothers and fathers weren’t aware of what the ingredients were or what that even meant. All they could do was trust what the bottle said, same with their food too.

Full of photographs and ads from the 19th and early 20th century, this book tells the story of Harvy Wiley, a farm boy who went on to become a doctor and a chemist. He noticed that the preservatives and additives in foods were toxic and that many “quack medicines” were causing more harm than help. He fought for years to put health and safety regulations into place. He would test these products in his laboratory, noting their harmful effects. Eventually he enlisted a group of brave young men who willingly partook of these poisons to prove the harm they were causing. The group that soon became known as the Poison Eaters.

My favorite thing about this book was all of the vintage advertisements and newspaper clippings. It's awesome to see all of the unbelievable products you’re reading about. It’s crazy to think that many of these drugs even existed, now knowing what the ingredients are. At the end of the book there is also an index of different youtube videos to watch about different topics covered in the book.

The Turn of the Key

 The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

A young lady, Rowan Caine, answers an ad to be a live in nanny. Set in the Scottish Highlands in a secluded "smart" home with all the modern conveniences. The story unfolds as Rowan writes to a lawyer to convince him to take her case. The case is the murder of a child that was in her care. Her first day on the job she was left with the children alone for weeks. The house, with its technology or possible ghost, drove her to near insanity and the children's behavior was less then model...

I read this book while staying at home to avoid Covid-19. I'm not a fan of scary things and when Rowan would retire to her bed, that is when the craziness would happen, mainly hearing footsteps above her go creak, creak, creak and her room was on the top floor. It was a little creepy at home all alone. Ruth Ware likes to put twists in her books and this one had a good one that kept me reading it, but the ending seemed incomplete and disappointing. Overall a good read if you like mystery and suspense.