Book Festival 7/17 at Hayden Cabin

 

 

Margie's Reviews > Otherwise Occupied

 

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Otherwise Occupied
by 

Debbie Boucher (Goodreads Author)

Margie's review

May 27, 2022

it was amazing

bookshelves: friendship, historical-fiction, islands, love-story, world-war-ll, caribbean

Read 2 times. Last read May 9, 2022 to May 27, 2022.

Otherwise Occupied, a work of historical fiction, was an unexpected eye opener, as well as a nostalgic read for me because it strongly reminded me of my mom and her experiences as a nurse during WWII in Costa Rica and Panama.

My mother, an adventurous and spirited young nurse from Medicine Hat, a small town in Alberta, left Canada in the mid-1930s for a job in New York City. When WWII started a few years later she applied for jobs in England and Central America and was hired by a hospital in Costa Rica.

On the morning she was to sail, her taxi was held up in traffic and she arrived late at the dock. Her ship had already sailed and just those few minutes saved her from ending up at the bottom of the Atlantic. The ship on which she was supposed to be a passenger was sunk by a German (U-boat) submarine. My mom had literally "missed the boat." To this day I don't worry about being late.

Because of this and another U-boat incident in Costa Rica where my mom nursed, I knew there was German presence in the Atlantic off the Eastern Seaboard and in the Caribbean during WWII, but didn't realize the heavy impact of it until I read Otherwise Occupied.

The heavy presence of German submarines in the Caribbean and south Atlantic strongly impacted the economies of many Caribbean and South American countries and affected the livelihoods of local populations. The dangers lurking offshore also spread anxiety and fear with the many explosions and bodies washed ashore.

Otherwise Occupied immersed me in the history, culture, language and dialect of Trinidad and Tobago, formerly a British colony (and before British occupation, a colony of many different countries). These topics are seamlessly linked with friendships and an interracial love affair between an American in the Seabees (Navy Construction Battalion) during WWII and a Trinidadian of African, Portuguese and Indian heritage.

The three main characters, Henry Hoffman (Hank), James David McAllister (JD) and Estella da Silva (Stella) form strong friendships as well as a love affair in the 1940s and the story weaves back and forth between the 1940s and the early 1960s.

Henry becomes a professor of historiography at the University of Iowa after WWII and is writing a (non-fiction) book about the military presence of the U.S. in Trinidad during WWII. Through excerpts from his book and the friendships Hank develops, we learn the history and culture of the islands with a concentration on the WWII years.

The three main as well as secondary characters are all relatable and well-drawn. I became particularly fond of Granny, Stella's grandmother, whose sentences are punctuated with the patois of her particular enclave and who always has an herbal remedy on hand for whatever ails you. She is a talented and creative seamstress and is heavily relied upon to create beautiful costumes for local holidays and parades.

Otherwise Occupied addresses many different topics such as:

* The various cultures and religions of the islands, including blending of religions, holidays and cuisine
* Interracial marriage
* History of slavery and agriculture (sugar cane and cacao) replaced by the oil industry
* Natural history and scenery of the islands including a beautiful passage about sea turtles
* WWII and the aforementioned U-boats in the Atlantic and Caribbean
* British in Trinidad and Tobago detailing class structure, racism and exploitation
* American military in Trinidad during WWII detailing infrastructure construction, (mis)behavior of troops and racist attitudes
* Racism and class consciousness between and among different ethnic groups in the islands
* Racism in the south and north in the United States
* London during WWII and the Blitz.

I appreciated the six pages of maps in the front of the book detailing different locations in the book.

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres and I am often inspired to read non-fiction following a well-researched and well-written historical fiction book such as this one. Otherwise Occupied explores the rich history and culture of Trinidad and Tobago combined with an interracial love affair that makes us question our abysmal lack of progress in racist issues today.

My first novel, Back to Normal, is available through Audible.

 

 Mammoth Book Festival, July 18, 2021.  I gave a presentation on turning my novels into audio books.  Happy to be part of a fund raiser for the Southern Mono Historical Society.

 

Coming Soon—    Cherry Hill Publishing      http://www.CherryHillPublishing.com/Bookstore Click on cover images for audio samples Back to Normal Debbie Boucher, read by Candice Goodman   Set in the Eastern Sierra, Back to Normal introduces the reader to Sue Beauchamp whose lie of twenty years is exposed the night her daughter, Michelle, is injured in an accident. To save Michelle’s life, Sue contacts the biological father, John Sadek, a neighbor, for a transfusion. With her secret exposed, Sue’s life unravels. Her husband, Chris, leaves and takes “his” sons with him. John wants a relationship with a child he’s never been allowed to know, and when Michelle discovers the “truth,” she runs away. As Sue attempts to save her own life, Back to Normal becomes a meditation on truth and lies and the gray area of a love lived in between.     Honorable Mention at Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Awards (Romance)     Debbie Boucher is a retired teacher. Her latest adventure was teaching at the International School of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from 2012 until 2015. Debbie is bilingual and has taught at American schools in Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia, as well as in the public schools at Mammoth Lakes, California. In her spare time, she writes books including the award-winning novels The Aunties, Millennial Fears, and Oblivia. Debbie makes her home in the Sierra Nevada mountains because she loves to ski, hike and play violin with the Eastern Sierra Chamber Orchestra. She is married and has two grown daughters and two granddaughters.​​ Candice Goodman is a voice over artist and actress living in Santa Barbara, CA. She has been acting and singing since she was five years old when she had her first line in Pinocchio the musical, ” Poor Gepetto!” After studying theater at UC Santa Barbara, Candice went on to perform on the New York City off Broadway and Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) comedy stages. In LA, Candice continued to perform improv., sketch comedy, and stand up at The Comedy Central Stage, The Comedy Store, and Flappers Comedy Club, to name a few.  You can hear her voice in audiobooks, commercials, and for product promos all over the world. When Candice is not in the studio, she loves to go to the beach or hike with her two young children, her husband and their Jack Russell terrier, Spottie.  Available in unabridged audio-CD library packaging Cherry Hill Publishing audiobook titles are now available in the MediaSAFE Secure Latch Library Case!   The MediaSAFE Secure Latch Library Case is made of strong injection molded polypropylene to protect the stored discs. The sturdy two-ring inside spine allows the case to accommodate replaceable disc pages. The latch on the front keeps the case securely closed during transportation as well as the library return drop. http://www.CherryHillPublishing.com

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Direct link to Audible for Oblivia

https://www.audible.com/pd/Oblivia-Audiobook/1620799138 

 

Just Released—    Cherry Hill Publishing      http://www.CherryHillPublishing.com/Bookstore Click on cover images for audio samples Oblivia Debbie Boucher, read by Monroe Clark McBride   Oblivia introduces the reader to Dan Mora and Jamie Morgan, Peace Corps volunteers in Bolivia. At a crossroad in their lives, they discover the power of making a difference. Yet when Dan disappears, and Jamie is given the task of finding him, she discovers that nothing is ever as it seems in a country she and Dan have grown to love, a place they call Oblivia.​       Dan Mora, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia, is missing. Will Jamie Morgan find him before it is too late?   Debbie Boucher is a retired teacher. Her latest adventure was teaching at the International School of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from 2012 until 2015. Debbie is bilingual and has taught at American schools in Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia, as well as in the public schools at Mammoth Lakes, California. In her spare time, she writes books including the award-winning novels Back to Normal, Millennial Fears, The Aunties, and Oblivia. Debbie makes her home in the Sierra Nevada mountains because she loves to ski, hike and play violin with the Eastern Sierra Chamber Orchestra. She is married and has two grown daughters and two granddaughters.​​ Monroe Clark McBride’s first recorded book was read for a blind student at his high school in Modesto, California, where he also played disc jockey on the school’s ten-watt radio station. As a young adult, Monroe volunteered his voice for an organization that recorded textbooks and other documents for blind students in the local schools. In later years, he has been the voice for television commercials, trade show videos, and a series of leadership training modules published online. Monroe is the proud father to five and grandfather to nine. He and his wife reside in beautiful southern California.    ~ Also from Debbie and Monroe ~ The Aunties   Deborah's career is at a dead end. After a splashy debut with her first novel, she's languished as a freelancer, her potential unfulfilled. But the death of an elderly aunt provides unexpected source material, as she and her family discover journals and letters that bring to life a colorful and shocking past.   The Aunties is a novel within a novel—the story of Deborah's quest to fictionalize her unexpected legacy. Along the way, she learns more about Marian, her strong-willed grandmother determined to break out of poverty, whose proto-feminism succumbs to the lure of an unwise romance. Her daughters, Deborah's beloved aunties, reap the harvest of their mother's mistake as they travel their own journeys. From Gilded Age America to World War II, from plain farm life to high society, from America's heartland to wild and colorful Brazil, The Aunties is a story of family love and loyalty through adversity. ​   Available in unabridged audio-CD library packaging Cherry Hill Publishing audiobook titles are now available in the MediaSAFE Secure Latch Library Case!   The MediaSAFE Secure Latch Library Case is made of strong injection molded polypropylene to protect the stored discs. The sturdy two-ring inside spine allows the case to accommodate replaceable disc pages. The latch on the front keeps the case securely closed during transportation as well as the library return drop. http://www.CherryHillPublishing.com