Dear Miss Kopp

 

Stewart, Amy. Dear Miss Kopp. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021.

The Kopp Sisters lives took different directions after their training at the camp. Constance works for as the only female agent in the Bureau of Investigation. Norma took her pigeons to France where a new commander does not see their value. Fleurette's dreams of show business took off by joining May Ward's tour which takes them to different army training camps. She does not get along well with the show's star. The entire novel unfolds through letters from the sisters to each other and to and from other acquaintances and associates to the sisters. While I feared the epistolary nature might lessen my enjoyment, I found I loved this one more than the preceding installment. Each sister's separate identity emerged as they pursued things within their own range of interests and talents. I received an advance reader's copy through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

This Side of Murder

Huber, Anna Lee. This Side of Murder. New York: Kensington, 2017.

Verity Kent goes to an English island with some of her husband Sidney's acquaintances from the war. A letter accusing her late husband of treason caused her to go. She discovers the men are hiding something. A coded message is found in a book that belonged to Sidney. The gardener was a man Verity knew well, and his presence adds an interesting twist to the situation. I tolerated this book. The plot was just too convoluted. It reminded me of locked room mysteries, but it was not as well-written as many of those. I received an electronic advance reader's copy from the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day is one of the holidays I remember from childhood. I was always confused because most of my family members still referred to it as Armistice Day.

An armistice was signed November 11, 1918 which put a stop to action in World War I until the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following year. The first celebration of Armistice Day was held in 1919. Congress adopted a resolution in 1926 to make it annual, but it did not become a federal holiday until 1938. Its name was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954. (As I pointed out earlier, many in my family still referred to it as Armistice Day more than a decade later.)

In the early 1970s, they tried to observe it the 4th Sunday of October. I lived in Mississippi which continued to observe it on November 11. Many other states followed suit and soon Congress was forced to return the holiday to the day on which the Armistice was signed.

"Pappaw," my paternal grandfather, was a World War I veteran, fighting in France, where he earned a purple heart.