Debbie Morrison (Author of Flowers of Heaven)

Debbie rated a book it was amazing Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History by Helen Zoe Veit	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History is an enlightening read. I suggest that any parent who is struggling to get their children to eat at mealtime, or who is tired of making multiple meals to accommodate fussy eaters, wi ...more
May 23, 2026 05:26PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Picky by Helen Zoe Veit. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Picky by Helen Zoe Veit <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Debbie rated a book liked it The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Ruth Reichl is a good writer; one of my favorite books of Reichl’s is her memoir Tender to the Bone in which she describes her childhood and her introduction to cooking via her mother (who couldn’t cook and was a bit ‘out there’). The Paris Novel is ...more
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Debbie is now following Julie and Lauren Albert
May 09, 2026 05:40AM
Debbie rated a book really liked it The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Another stellar novel by Graham Greene, the third I’ve read over the past year. His themes often include religion, and The Power and Glory not only personifies religious themes but also sin and good vs. evil. But I’d classify The Power and Glory more ...more
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Debbie liked Wanda Pedersen's status update Wanda Pedersen is on page 87 of 288 of Excellent Women: Today the preacher was to be Archdeacon Hoccleve, a name that was unknown to me, and I guessed that he would be some old country clergyman who would certainly mumble. But I was completely wrong. He was an elderly man, certainly, but of a handsome and dignified appearance and his voice was strong and dramatic. Nice to see the Archdeacon from Some Tame Gazelle!
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Debbie rated a book it was amazing The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Sea, The Sea, considered one of Iris Murdoch’s finest works, won the Booker Prize in 1978. I found it challenging to get my head around this book. It’s dense and deep, but at times it’s funny with antics of the characters that appear similar to a ...more
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Debbie rated a book really liked it The Lost Steps by Alejo Carpentier	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Lost Steps feels haunting and lonely. Authored by Alejo Carpentier and translated from Spanish, the book frequently reads like a fantasy novel due to how the author uses his protagonist's diary entries to describe his travels through remote, jung ...more
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Debbie rated a book really liked it The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I have, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I cannot help it; I have stuck to my idea of being in a country cottage with a silent listener, h ...more
Feb 22, 2026 11:55AM · like · see review
Debbie rated a book it was amazing Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a remarkable work of fiction. I loved it. Thomas Hardy’s story about Tess, an upstanding but wronged woman from rural poverty, created shock and awe among its readers when first published in 1892. It delivered an engaging ...more
Feb 12, 2026 02:48PM · like · see review

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Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History
by Helen Zoe Veit

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Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History is an enlightening read. I suggest that any parent who is struggling to get their children to eat at mealtime, or who is tired of making multiple meals to accommodate fussy eaters, wi Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History is an enlightening read. I suggest that any parent who is struggling to get their children to eat at mealtime, or who is tired of making multiple meals to accommodate fussy eaters, will find this book helpful and insightful. Helen Veit's writing is approachable. The book was neither wordy nor academic, and Veit guides the reader through the history of eating and food preparation as it relates to children’s diets in the United States, beginning in the eighteenth century and ending today. It’s clear she’s done her research, and I appreciate how Veit shares anecdotes gleaned from her research related to children’s and family eating patterns from regions across the country.

Veit makes her case early in the book that children’s eagerness to eat was a cross-class phenomenon in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, just as pickiness is a cross-class phenomenon now (p. 34). She methodically takes the reader through how we ended up where we are today—with children who will only eat certain foods and refuse or are hesitant to try anything new. Not surprising, the pickiness phenomenon overlaps with the current obesity problem among children in the US. There are several factors that have contributed to the fussy phenomenon, which include government policy; beliefs within various child-rearing and psychology movements (including Freud’s assertions); advances in food packaging and storage capabilities; and marketing practices, all of which have merged to create a culture of picky eaters and, subsequently, parents who are challenged to serve meals that children will eat.

Quite disturbing to read is how food companies over the decades, especially between the 1980s and 1990s, developed sophisticated marketing strategies targeted to children. I remember vividly one of the campaigns she writes about, the “food is fun” marketing push in the 1990s, where food products were promoted similarly to toys and games (p. 142). I remember how I used to buy Quaker hot oat cereal packets for our kids and the year that ‘dino eggs’ were introduced. The 'eggs' were multicoloured (made of God knows what), embedded in the oatmeal, and changed colour when hot water was added. Now I wonder what I was thinking when I bought this stuff. I was as brainwashed as the kids!

Picky is a tremendous book—well researched and instructive, as well as a quick read—perfect for busy parents. ...more

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The Paris Novel
by Ruth Reichl

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Ruth Reichl is a good writer; one of my favorite books of Reichl’s is her memoir Tender to the Bone in which she describes her childhood and her introduction to cooking via her mother (who couldn’t cook and was a bit ‘out there’). The Paris Novel is ...more

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The Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene

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Another stellar novel by Graham Greene, the third I’ve read over the past year. His themes often include religion, and The Power and Glory not only personifies religious themes but also sin and good vs. evil. But I’d classify The Power and Glory more Another stellar novel by Graham Greene, the third I’ve read over the past year. His themes often include religion, and The Power and Glory not only personifies religious themes but also sin and good vs. evil. But I’d classify The Power and Glory more as a dystopian novel. It’s set in Mexico in the 1930s with a lone priest, a self-described ‘bad’ priest, on the run from the authorities who are trying to capture and execute him. That’s the dystopian element: the government wants to eliminate all members of the Catholic Church by execution, as well as to eradicate the Bible and other holy literature. Yet there are still practicing Catholics who pray and worship in secret, who shelter and provide refuge for priests and secretly participate in confession and other sacred events. Greene’s story focuses on the sole priest left, a priest who is a sinner by his own admission—who drinks, who fathered a child, and who is often fearful. He’s on the run throughout the novel, and the story follows his interactions and exchanges with the people along the way who provide refuge, shelter, and food as he travels toward a safe city. Some are Catholics and some are not, but it's via the exchanges that carry the story, that provide insight and deeper thought about religion, Catholicism, state vs. church, and oppression.

But what I did learn after some research is that in Mexico during the late 1920s and early 1930s (aligned with the novel’s setting), the Mexican president at the time, Calles, passed a law that aimed to curtail the power of the Catholic Church and its clergy. Apparently there was a history to the law with roots in the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The government’s rationale for doing so was to loosen the church’s grip on citizens experiencing religious ignorance and fanaticism, as they perceived it. The law caused considerable tension between the Catholic Church and the Mexican government, so much so that Mexican Catholic clergy shuttered many of their churches during this time frame as a result. They weren’t executing priests, as in Greene’s novel, but Greene’s story rests on the historical elements of the anti-Catholic government pressuring churches and clergy to cease practicing. Even today, there appears to be distrust between the Mexican government and the Catholic Church and there are elements of anticlericalism.

I enjoy Greene’s writing; his character development is excellent. Some GR reviewers found the story slow and uneventful, but I found the dialogue and exchanges between the characters insightful and thoughtful. In one instance, the priest is sheltered by a Christian brother and sister, who aren’t Catholic but who provide food and friendship, perhaps more than any of the others he encountered on his journey (albeit for an adolescent girl). This exchange between the priest and the sister is interesting:

'You have been good to me, Miss Lehr.'
How odd it seemed at first to be treated as a guest, not as a criminal or a bad priest. These were heretics—it never occurred to them that he was not a good man: they hadn’t the prying insight of fellow Catholics (P 177).

This novel is considered a classic of the twentieth century and one that is worthy of a read today more than ever. ...more

Debbie liked Wanda Pedersen's status update

Wanda Pedersen is on page 87 of 288 of Excellent Women: Today the preacher was to be Archdeacon Hoccleve, a name that was unknown to me, and I guessed that he would be some old country clergyman who would certainly mumble. But I was completely wrong. He was an elderly man, certainly, but of a handsome and dignified appearance and his voice was strong and dramatic.

Nice to see the Archdeacon from Some Tame Gazelle!

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The Sea, the Sea
by Iris Murdoch

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The Sea, The Sea, considered one of Iris Murdoch’s finest works, won the Booker Prize in 1978. I found it challenging to get my head around this book. It’s dense and deep, but at times it’s funny with antics of the characters that appear similar to a The Sea, The Sea, considered one of Iris Murdoch’s finest works, won the Booker Prize in 1978. I found it challenging to get my head around this book. It’s dense and deep, but at times it’s funny with antics of the characters that appear similar to a comedic stage play, showcasing the complexities of human relationships and the absurdities of life. It’s like no other fiction book I’ve read. The protagonist, Charles Arrowy, a successful theater director, retires to the seaside near a remote village outside of London. The novel is written in his voice, as a memoir.

After moving to the village, Charles discovers, by accident, that his long-lost love, his teenage first love, whom he’s been pining after for forty years, happens to live in the same village. Soon after Charles’ arrival, he’s overwhelmed by a steady stream of people from his London theater life, including his cousin James, several former lovers, and a handful of friends. To complicate matters, the adopted eighteen-year-old son of his teenage heartthrob is added to the mix. Murdoch crafts a compelling story of complicated and tumultuous relationships, woven within themes of existentialism, religion, aging, and obsession.

Unlike other novels I’ve read where I either like or dislike the protagonist, inThe Sea, The Sea, I experienced a host of feelings about Charles. At the beginning I liked him; two chapters in, I disliked him; halfway through the novel, after Charles kidnaps his first love and keeps her captive (“for her own good"), I abhorred him, and by the novel's end, I felt empathy and compassion for him. I have never before experienced such a wide range of emotions towards a protagonist. The behaviors of Charles and several other characters made me think quite differently about obsession, specifically how it manifests in people and why. Another concept highlighted by Murdoch is the power dynamics that exist between men and women and how they can be covertly and overtly wielded by each.

What I also enjoyed reading were the (many) descriptions Charles provided of his meals:

I ate and drank slowly as one should (cook fast, eat slowly) and without distractions such as (thank heavens) conversation or reading. Indeed, eating is so pleasant one should even try to suppress thought. Of course reading and thinking are important, but, my God, food is important too.

How fortunate we are to be food-consuming animals. Every meal should be a treat, and one ought to bless every day that brings with it good digestion and the precious gift of hunger.

I’m not clear on the literary purpose that the frequent descriptions of Charles’ meals serve, but maybe it was Murdoch’s aim to reveal Charles’ nature, his hedonistic tendencies. Another thought is that Charles frequently behaves as if he were a god, as someone who knows all and knows what is best for others. Yet, his enjoyment of and need for food clearly demonstrate to the reader, and perhaps to Charles himself, that he is not a god or God but rather on the same level as everyone else, where food is for sustenance and pleasure.

The Sea, The Sea is a tremendous book, truly a classic work of literature. ...more

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The Lost Steps
by Alejo Carpentier

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The Lost Steps feels haunting and lonely. Authored by Alejo Carpentier and translated from Spanish, the book frequently reads like a fantasy novel due to how the author uses his protagonist's diary entries to describe his travels through remote, jung The Lost Steps feels haunting and lonely. Authored by Alejo Carpentier and translated from Spanish, the book frequently reads like a fantasy novel due to how the author uses his protagonist's diary entries to describe his travels through remote, jungle-like areas of South America. This passage is an example:

There were stairways without beginning or end, suspended in the void, and balconies with mullions hanging from a window frame open to the sky. Lily of the valley shone pale through the curtains in vast salons with scratched tiles, and in the corners were the burnished gold of acacias and the flesh-pink of poinsettias and cactuses like candelabra, arms trembling through cross breezes in the hallways as though held by invisible sacristans’ hands (p. 93).

It’s beautiful prose. Carpentier’s style is categorized as ‘magic realism,' a genre that depicts reality yet incorporates magical elements that borrow from fantasy. Carpentier leverages magic realism to highlight the qualities of Spanish American history, geography, and culture in his literary works. Another similar work of fiction is his novel Explosion in a Cathedral, and though a different storyline, the writing is similar, as is the setting (South America). Below is another gorgeous passage:

An entire rampant fauna hinted at its presence, borne of timeless grime and glaucous fermentation under dark waters that smelled sour like mud kneaded with vinegar and carrion, and on its oily surface trod insects for which liquid was solid ground: translucent vermin, pale fleas, bandy-legged flies, and tiny mosquitoes that were little more than a quiver in green luminosity (p. 129).

The Lost Steps, though fantastical, is a story of loneliness, displacement, and man’s search for meaning. The protagonist (the story's narrator) leaves a big city (New York) on a journey to discover ancient musical traditions and instruments. He personifies one who is lost—one who seeks purpose, cultural identity, and a human connection, motivations that make Carpentier’s novel timeless, relevant, and grounding. The theme is relatable; many of us seek cultural identity—what makes us 'x,' e.g., American, Asian, Native American, or European? And what are the cultural traditions that have been forgotten yet make up who we are? It doesn’t appear that the narrator finds what he is looking for in the novel, and by the story’s ending, he’s lost a great deal—friends, cultural grounding, and love. I view the theme of loneliness within The Lost Steps as interleaved with the theme of cultural identity, which some critics describe as alienation.

Another theme, explored in depth and important to mention when discussing themes that personify The Lost Steps, is the contrast between a primitive way of life and a civilized society. The narrator begins his story in the thick of New York City, embedded in none other than the entertainment industry via his wife, yet he ends up living a simple and primitive existence deep within the jungle. The description of the ceaseless rain, the primitive living conditions, and the lack of basic items like writing paper highlights the stark contrasts. In one chapter the narrator is writing a work of music on scraps of paper, and when he runs out, he becomes desperate to find more. His lover cannot understand his obsession with writing; the concept is foreign to her. Hers is a world of doing, of presence, and of verbal interactions.

The Lost Steps is complex and nuanced. A moving and thought-provoking read. ...more

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The Good Soldier
by Ford Madox Ford

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I have, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I cannot help it; I have stuck to my idea of being in a country cottage with a silent listener, h I have, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I cannot help it; I have stuck to my idea of being in a country cottage with a silent listener, hearing between the gusts of the wind and amidst the noises of the distant sea, the story as it comes. And, when one discusses an affair—a long, sad affair—one goes back, one goes forward (p 167).

The quote above embodies the essence of the book, The Good Soldier—it’s a tangled web of characters and events told in a rambling, scattered fashion, which is the author’s intention. Ford was experimenting with a newish literary vehicle called literary impressionism, a style adopted by a handful of authors in the early twentieth century, including Woolf, Conrad, and Proust. The style is similar to that of the impressionist artists of the day, who painted impressions of reality. These authors did the same, where they departed from the traditional modes of narrating events and instead wrote of characters’ fleeting impressions and thoughts via interior monologues. We see this in The Good Soldier; it’s one long interior monologue, and by the end of the story readers are meant to view the narrator, John Dowell, as unreliable, emotionally fragile, and naive.

The Good Soldier is told in the first person, with Dowell taking the reader back and forth in time while describing complicated interactions between two married couples, of which John and his wife are one. The novel was first published in 1915 and is set in England just prior to WWI. The story is depressing, with themes of deception and loneliness, as well as two suicides. It’s sad, which is how the book opens: “This is the saddest story I ever heard” (pg 1), which is a theme repeated throughout.

I did enjoy the references to real places and events in Ford’s story, such as the town of Nauheim, Germany, which references the spa town of Bad Nauheim, where Dowell’s wife frequents due to a feigned bad heart. Ford also references the bank failure of 1907, which affected Dowell’s Philadelphia-based family. It’s in this part of the story, the discussion about Dowell’s family, where Ford weaves in insightful paragraphs about first impressions, which he states are often accurate. Ford also refers to the American town of Waterbury, CT, where Dowell’s wife, Florence, was from, which, in reality, was one of the first cities in the United States with a host of wealthy, genteel families. The references to real places and events ground the story, which is a good juxtaposition to the fragility of the unreliable narrator. Perhaps this is one of the points that Ford was trying to make, that people are unreliable, fragile, and emotionally vulnerable, and it was time (in his opinion) that literature reflected real life.

I found the book difficult to read, but I still enjoyed the story. I appreciated it more when I compared it to Virginia Woolf’s writing style. I recently finished Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and I now see how the new writing style developed. The style of descriptive storytelling and straight dialogue was becoming outdated, and writers began to see the need for giving insights into the feelings and motivations of characters through their thoughts. ...more

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy

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Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a remarkable work of fiction. I loved it. Thomas Hardy’s story about Tess, an upstanding but wronged woman from rural poverty, created shock and awe among its readers when first published in 1892. It delivered an engaging Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a remarkable work of fiction. I loved it. Thomas Hardy’s story about Tess, an upstanding but wronged woman from rural poverty, created shock and awe among its readers when first published in 1892. It delivered an engaging narrative that went against 19th-century English values with its portrayal of female sexuality, violence, religious skepticism, and the questioning of the patriarchal system’s role in English society. There’s also a good deal of hypocrisy that plays out among the characters in their discussions about societal values and religion, which is why the story feels current and relevant.

I enjoy Hardy’s writing, which, I gather, mirrored his pessimistic views of the human condition. Hardy was greatly influenced by, and maybe even a follower of, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who was the ultimate pessimist and believed that evil was stronger than good, that life was filled with pain and suffering, and that happiness was but fleeting. These sentiments appear to be the theme in Tess of the D’Urbervilles , where Tess is hounded by evil (Alec D’Urberville), and when she does encounter good, like her love for Angel, she experiences pain, destitution, and eventually death because of it.

Religion also plays a role in Hardy’s book. Belief in God is challenged by Angel, the son of a preacher, who declares himself a pagan as a youth and had once challenged his father’s beliefs by stating that ...it might have resulted far better for mankind if Greece had been the source of the religion of modern civilization, and not Palestine (p. 158). Religious skepticism runs rampant in the book, and even when the protagonist, Alec, appears to have a religious awakening, it is short-lived, and his evil ways return, though Hardy implies they never really left. I feel that Alec’s character reflects the influence Schopenhauer had on Hardy’s writing. Other questions that Hardy puts forth in his text include, does God really exist, and if so, how can he let suffering happen to good people, and finally, what is the purpose of life?

Another theme, which marks this work as an example of early modernism in literature, is Hardy’s portrait of the patriarchal system, which he deliberately appears to undermine by highlighting its hypocrisy. A discussion in chapter thirty between Angel and Tess highlights how the patriarchal system, a system where family names carried significant weight and status, was under threat. Hardy creates a scene to illustrate the phenomenon where Angel, in a conversation with Tess after learning of her noble family roots within the D’Uberville family, says this: I should have been glad to know you to be descended exclusively from the long-suffering, dumb, unrecorded rank and file of the English nation, and not from the self-seeking few who made themselves powerful at the expense of the rest (p. 189). The quote suggests on one hand that Angel was turning against society's values, yet on the other he continues to cajole Tess to adopt the D’Urberville name so that it will make her more 'acceptable' to society and his mother. Brutal! As is this quote Angel makes to Tess, “For your own sake I rejoice in your descent. Society is hopefully snobbish, and this fact of your extraction may make an appreciable difference to its acceptance of you as my wife, after I have made you the well-read woman that I mean to make you (p. 189). This exchange between the two lovers is just one example of Hardy's writings that highlight the hypocrisy of society, of people really, where Angel appears to love Tess but would love her more once he polishes her up and makes her a well-read woman.

I’ve discovered via my research into the genre of literary modernism that Thomas Hardy is considered one of the forerunners of the movement. The movement, later, also included the works of Virginia Woolf, who was a great admirer of Hardy. Woolf wrote numerous essays about Hardy, suggesting that she admired him greatly and had read many, if not most, of his novels and poetry. Hardy’s character development may have been inspiration for Woolf, given Woolf introduced a writing technique of internal monologues of characters labeled as ‘stream of consciousness,’ which gave readers unique insight into her characters’ motivations, thoughts, and actions. She also introduced a technique of shifting perspectives within chapters that kept readers wondering which character was speaking or thinking. The latter was likely her invention, but no doubt it’s Hardy’s themes, such as the challenging of societal norms, the mingling of classes, and religious skepticism, that influenced Woolf and other writers of her era.

I admire Hardy’s writing immensely. His literary works, including my favorite Hardy novel, Far From the Madding Crowd, reflect the depth of his knowledge of philosophy, religion, and art, which make reading Hardy’s books challenging but rewarding. ...more

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	Flowers of Heaven: A Family's Story of Love and Loss on Colpoy's Bay 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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