As a Woman: What I Learned about Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy After I Transitioned By: Paula Stone Williams

(The Eastpointe Memorial Library only has this title in the audio format)

Reviewed by Mae

 

    As a Woman is a memoir presented by the transgender pastor Paula Stone Williams; she also narrates the audio version. Paula grew up in a conservative background through the Evangelical church, and was expected to become a pastor based on family tradition. With these familial ties to the church, Paula was able to rise up the ladder, to many prominent positions within the church system. However, this was all before Paula embraced her identity as herself. Paula had spent much of her life her life hidings behind a male identify even though she knew that wasn't a true reflection of her. She also knew from an early age this wasn't a true reflection of her, but felt that she could remain within her assigned gender at birth. It took Paula 60 years to embrace her true self outwardly to the rest of the world. This of course had presented new difficulties within her life as a pastor, her home life with her wife and three children, and that of the female identity. In this memoir Paula retells her story, and reflects on how even though it took six decades to live her truth it was something she ultimately had to do for herself.

     I found this memoir intriguing. Coming to terms with our own identity is a struggle a lot people face. The ability to come out at the age of 60 with her upbringing is a reflection of how times have changed. When Paula was a child, she knew who she really was, but these weren't topics easily discussed in general society let alone the Evangelical Church. These days, regardless on one's personal beliefs, the LGBT+ community has become more visible. I personally recommend this book to anyone, who wants to hear the personal account of an individual in a community that many still struggle to fully understand. My hope is the more people familiarize themselves with LGBT topics, the more understanding we can be as a society.

War Women (Sergeants Sueño and Bascom #15) by Martin Limón (2021)

 

War Women is set in Korea, 20 years after the Korean War. Sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom are members of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the 8^th Army, headquartered outside of Seoul. As the book, narrated by Sergeant Sueño, opens Sueño and Bascom learn that Sergeant Cecil Harvey, the man responsible for the 8^th Army's classified documents, is missing along with one of the documents. The brass haven’t been informed yet and as Harvey (called Strange by the pair) has often been a source of information for the investigators they take it upon themselves to locate him. What they stumble upon is a North Korean spy ring.

In the meantime, Katie Byrd Worthington, a reporter for the Overseas Observer introduced earlier in the series, is back and once again making life difficult for top Army brass. When she is arrested by the Korean National Police for causing a disturbance, Sueño and Bascom are tasked with freeing her and getting her to agree not to publish a photograph she has taken of the 8^th Army’s chief of staff in a rather compromising situation. She agrees and all are happy until her story about the sexual abuse of a female army unit’s members makes the headlines. This time Sueño and Bascom are ordered to take the reporter to wherever the female unit is operating to interview the women. What they find there is very disturbing. The two plot lines run parallel through most of the book and intersect only at the end.

The characters Sueño and Bascom couldn’t be more different and conversations between the pair read like a comedy routine and serve to help relieve the heaviness of the subject matter.

3.86 stars on Goodreads, 4.5 on Amazon

Phantom Evil (Krewe of Hunters #1) by Heather Graham (2011)

 

Heather Graham’s Krewe of Hunters paranormal mystery series is an offshoot of her Harrison Investigations series. Thought the plot lines are much the same, the Harrison series takes place when Adam Harrison, a firm believer in the existence of ghosts, worked in the private sector. These investigators work alone. In Krewe of Hunters (self-named) the investigators work in teams for a special FBI unit run by Harrison. Harrison handpicks the people who work for him; searching the country for individuals he believes has a special skill useful in the investigation of the unexplainable.

Harrison recruits Jackson Crowe, a skeptical veteran of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, to lead a krewe comprised of Angela, a seasoned cop, a nurse, a magician, the cameraman for a paranormal cable series, and a musician. All have them have had experience with the paranormal whether they admit it or not.

The krewe is called to New Orleans to investigate a house once owned by a serial killer. The house is now owned by a popular senator who is convinced ghosts caused his wife to fall to her death from their bedroom balcony. The police have ruled the death a suicide but the Senator is certain ghosts were involved and wants the team to prove it. As in most mysteries, nothing is quite what it seems and the senator might not like what the team discovers.

The book focuses mainly on Jackson and Angela whose relationship develops a little too fast. Little attention is paid to the other krewe members.  They will have to wait until their story is told in subsequent titles.

Currently there are 35 books in the series, several novellas, and seven seasonal titles. Three more titles are scheduled for released in 2022.