Summer Book Suggestions

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Susan Frances Morris

At age 50, happily married, with a successful nursing career and two grown healthy children, Clifton Park resident Susan Frances Morris received a diagnosis shared by one in eight women – breast cancer – but what she discovered after led her down a unique path. The months to come found Morris exploring the connection between risk of breast cancer and adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and long-term stress exposure– all of which she experienced in her formative years. On sale this August is Morris’ memoir, The Sensitive One (On sale 8/24/21, She Writes Press), a story of redemption—of a woman who manages to escape harrowing circumstances and start anew, but it’s also a story of how our legacy lives within us, and how healing from the adverse effects of childhood can truly take a lifetime. Save the Date

VIRTUAL BOOK LAUNCH EVENT

Northshire Books in Saratoga Springs Tuesday, August 24 at 6:00 PM ET While Morris’ story is in part a reflection of the effects of her trauma, it is ultimately an inspiring story of redemption. In other words, The Sensitive One “will open you to the possibilities of a reclaimed life. This is a book that will bring you tears, but good tears, as Morris shows you her path through self-awareness to compassion and forgiveness" (Judy L. Mandel, New York Times bestselling author of Replacement Child). SS

Saratoga Springs resident Monika LaPlante’s story “Home Invasion” is included in Chicken Soup for the Soul’s second humor collection, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Read, Laugh, Repeat. (Available wherever books are sold.) The book consists of 101 laugh-out-loud stories, all true and told by the people who lived through these embarrassing, hilarious, and truly human experiences. LaPlante’s story tells of coming home late one night and hearing her sister’s frightened cries. They think they are being robbed, but there’s a hilarious twist we won’t spoil here. LaPlante and the other contributors who wrote these stories selected four nonprofit organizations they want to support with the royalties from this book. These nonprofits use comedy and clowning to bring laughter to places where it’s most needed—to hospitals, hospice, and other healthcare facilities—helping people of all ages who need a reason to smile—from the patients and their families to the frontline workers who care for them. Monika LaPlante is the owner of The Worker's Club, a boutique coworking space in downtown Saratoga Springs. She is also a Data Manager at Archbold Biological Station, a research field station based in Florida. You can become a member at her coworking space by visiting www.theworkersclubny.com or check her out on social media @theworkersclubny. SS

A BOOK REVIEW

Annandale, WRITTEN BY DONNA BATES, The Early Yearsretired English teacher, volunteer at Yaddo Garden and the Saratoga Room at the library Dr. Hollis Palmer’s new book, Annandale, the Early Years, takes us into the Gilded Age of Saratoga Springs and introduces us to three prominent families and their glorious lifestyles. It shows us how they lived and how they loved, both what it looked like on the surface and what was under the chatter and the silence, broken and deeply disturbing. Harriet Lathrop, sister-in-law to Leland Stanford, one of the richest men in America; a railroad baron and Governor of California. She is a widow and the matriarch of the Lathrop family, fueled by the businesses of her late husband and Stanford’s deep pockets. Her goal in life is to make sure that her daughters “marry well.” Jeannie, Tina, and Aimee, and the men who yearn for them, fill the pages with both love and hate, marriage and divorce, life, and death. Next, The Batchellers, George and Catherine. “She is the one who came into the marriage with money. He is the one who came with political ambition.” They have one daughter, Kate, who enjoys helping her father with his political ambitions, and has “something different about her.” Although their home is in Saratoga, they spend much of their lives in Washington D.C. and Europe. The third family consists of recent widow Anna Davidson and her precocious daughter, Beatrice, who is wise beyond her years and feels no compunction in letting everyone know how right she is. She will grow into her brilliance. Other characters populate the novel, including the titans of Saratoga society, the gold diggers, the con artists, the bitter dowagers, and the earnest servants, as well as the predatory underworld of the city. Dr. Palmer uses the houses (or more correctly, the mansions!) to tell the stories of the Saratoga families who inhabited them, the time-period and the society that they lived in, and the interactions between the contemporaries. The mansions are still there, and when I walk by, I imagine the Lathrops, the Batchellors, and the Davidsons as they lived, worked, thrived, and struggled. I feel like I should wave when I pass. This book is a novel, but it is hard to classify. There is romance, action and adventure, mystery and suspense. There is a fine line between historical fiction and non-fiction. In this novel, it is hard to tell where storytelling begins, and hard facts recede. In fact, I am starting to realize that there are times when truth really is stranger than fiction. I initially thought that the “ax scene” was added for dramatic effect, but then I found out that it was reported in the newspapers of the time. It is hard to imagine that the elite and wealthy Saratoga families were filled as much with tragedy as they were with parties and balls. Dr. Palmer twists the traditional plot structure to move from non-fiction to historical fiction. In the style of Joseph Conrad or Mary Shelley, the novel is a “frame tale,” a story within a story. It’s being told by an old Lady, (a Lady with a capital L), who is relating memories to an unnamed ghostwriter. She is a rascally old broad, given to snide comments and philosophical observations weathered by time and experience. Her nuggets of wisdom, learned over a long life, and with the value of hindsight, enable her to use her sarcastic wit to show us the inner motivations of the characters, not letting any of them get away with a glossy coating or whitewash. I feel like I’ve met her, and I know that she is somewhere in the story herself. A motif of silence keeps popping up throughout the novel, starting with the opening poem by Dr. Palmer’s granddaughter, written at age 10. Silence tries to hide spousal abuse, prejudice, theft, infidelity, rape, and deceit. A broken silence, at times deafening, unnerving and snakelike, is fed by conduct and sharp objects. Outward appearances hide inner secrets until “there is the scream of silence.” When reading history, it is easy to think of the characters as old-fashioned, outdated, and backward compared to our modern society, but these families could be plopped right down into our 21st Century lives, and we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them and the other high-class, low-class, and in-betweens that we see daily in the street or on the news. Annandale shows us human behavior and motivation, goals and longing, strength and weakness …and a glimpse of real life on both sides of the money. Available on Amazon beginning August 12, 2021 SS