“Katharine: Annals Of An Immigrant Family 1866-1964”

Chicoan Dave Schlichting traces the lives of his maternal great grandparents, Katharine Deininger and Gottlieb Hinderer, in a compelling narrative that is a model of historical retrieval. Replete with period photographs, genealogical charts, census documents, timelines, maps and meticulous references (with GPS locations), the research never overshadows the stories. 

“Katharine: Annals Of An Immigrant Family 1866-1964” ($25 in large-size paperback from Chico’s Memoir Books) has two parts. The first is dedicated to family beginnings in the “old country” (southwestern Germany), the passage to America aboard the steamer Havel, time in Michigan and Iowa, and their Minnesota arrival in 1898.

The historical account in Part I gives way to family stories in Part II, drawing on interviews with family over five years beginning in 2000. Presentation of the stories is not haphazard; various family units each receive a carefully researched chapter. 

Though readers may not know this family, the historical background throughout the book, giving context to how one group of families lived in bygone times, brings to life Katharine’s legacy. Katharine and Gottlieb were married in Iowa early in 1862 and had seven children. 

In a tribute to Katharine, Schlichting writes that she “found employment working as a domestic for the Hinderer family in Brend, Germany. She soon began a relationship with the Hinderer’s oldest son Gottlieb. In time, their relationship resulted in Katharine’s pregnancy. By itself, this was not uncommon. The norm for couples was to live with either of their parents, have children, and then formally marry once the young man was earning a sufficient income to support his young family.”

Katharine was no wallflower. “When action was required, she took the lead. She tolerated neither fools nor villains.” Through two World Wars and a Great Depression she and her family survived through “resilience” and hard work (especially on the Hinderers’ farm in Minnesota) and the “strength of character” she instilled.

They faced many challenges but there were also lighter moments; the book concludes with an Appendix of family recipes, including Katharine’s Wax Bean Pickles, Spaetzle, and Pfeffer Nuesse (Pepper Nut) Cookies.

The book is a window into the lives of “ordinary” people--who are far from ordinary.

“The Last Commando”

Retired Butte College administrator, West Point grad and retired Army officer Les Jauron writes his novels, he says, “to make people think.” The Chicoan’s latest, “The Last Commando” ($15.99 in paperback from Books.by, tinyurl.com/35f4xxer, also available in e-book format) is alternative history ripped from today’s headlines.

The time is close to the present in our own world. Populist U.S. President and land developer Ronald Richland (known as Ron Rich) yearns to be a dictator. Narcissistic and corrupt, the catch phrase that wins him election is “America Up, Government Down, Jesus In, and Illegals Out.”

Demonstrations rise around the country; Rich waits for an excuse to order martial law. He is easily manipulated in an extraordinary plot by a contingent of moneyed Nazis sequestered in a bunker, “established at the direction of Heinrich Himmler at the end of World War II,” located in Nueva Germania “in a remote part of rural Paraguay.”

It's about to happen: An audacious plot to strike violently at the heart of America and to mount a “false flag” operation to convince Americans that a resurgent leftist Antifa is to blame. With Ron Rich’s complicity, the Fourth Reich would be established.

Enter Chris Cadwalader, a Duke University history professor, and his fourth wife, Stephanie Lee, a novelist with a doctorate in Religion (though not very religious herself). During research in Israel, the two learn of the bunker’s existence. A man named Wolfgang Becker has declared himself the new Führer; his acolyte, someone calling himself Herr Adolph. An unsavory bunch with vast wealth enabling them to buy just about any weapon, or person.

Chris, Stephanie and a small group of friends recognize that the bunker must be infiltrated. So Chris and an associate, the gorgeous and gay Gabriella Stern, are chosen as faux husband and wife (with Stephanie’s consent) and supplied with comprehensive backstories.

As the frightful Nazi plan unreels, Jauron’s description of the machinations are chillingly real, a deadly combination of sex, religion, politics, money. An author’s note warns readers “how current technology can be used to manipulate public opinion”--and politicos. “Character matters,” he writes. Near the end, the unimaginable seems inevitable. Can America survive “modern technologies and self-serving politicians”?

“The Goddess & The Pig”

Travel writer Karen Gilden, born in Chico, attending public school in Willows, lived for a time in southern France. During “a walk in the Val de Dagne, a magical place hidden in far southwest France,” just after her granddaughter was born, a curious little story suddenly made itself known. For a writer of non-fiction, that, she writes me, was a surprise.

“The Goddess & The Pig” (in Amazon Kindle format, independently published) is the story of Boris the Boar, “not a boring bore—not one who talks and talks without saying anything….” Boris “lived in a pen in back of monsieur and madame’s house, in a quiet little village beside a stream.”

That hadn’t always been his home. “He didn’t remember being found in the woods as a tiny piglet” and being “given to madame to raise and butcher (for monsieur thought boar meat tasted very, very good.)” But years pass, and madame becomes attached to Boris, pampering him until, one day, she leaves for a time to visit her sister. And monsieur can hardly wait to delight her with boar sausage when she returns.

Boris escapes and later meets up with a charming young girl who calls him “Pig.” “You are in my home,” she tells him. “I am Diana, goddess of the hunt and the hunted; so named by the Romans who long ago built a temple on this hill.” Her goddess-powers are much reduced, though, because few wild animals are left in the woods. Yet she promises to help Pig.

But, Boris asks, doesn’t she help people like monsieur? Yes, she says, “For hunters must eat. But the hunted must live as well. To keep everything in balance was my job. Now, there is only disarray.”

To restore order, Diana must help Boris find a proper family. With rabbits? Not a match. Badgers? No. Then monsieur appears in the woods, with a rifle, and Boris and Diana have, one might say, an arrow escape. Boris resolves to live by himself. “But everyone needs a family,” Diana tells him.

And it will be so in this charming tale of a wise goddess and a Pig who finds his true home.

“Feel, Don’t Flee: A Therapist’s Guide To Facing Your Emotions”

Hayley Kaplan graduated from Chico State with a Masters in Social Work. A licensed Clinical Social Worker practicing in North Carolina, Kaplan invites readers into a series of (fictional) client-therapist sessions that highlight “typical emotional patterns and challenges many people face,” mostly by not facing them.

“Feel, Don’t Flee: A Therapist’s Guide To Facing Your Emotions” ($14.99 in paperback, independently published; also for Amazon Kindle) offers insightful chapters on “forbidden feelings” (anger, pleasure, fear); “inconvenient feelings” (grief, exhaustion, anxiety); and “unbearable feelings” (remorse, loneliness, betrayal).

“A forbidden feeling,” she writes, “refers to any emotion we suppress because we believe it’s ‘bad’ or shameful.” So “when we attempt to push anger away or bottle it up, we only intensify its impact…. Rather than viewing anger as an emotion to avoid or suppress, it is more helpful to see it as a tool for awareness and self-advocacy.”

Each chapter begins with the therapist’s conversation with a client, followed by a list of misconceptions about the emotion (like “anger emerges out of nowhere”), with examples from the conversation, key takeaways, and “actionable practices.” Since the book is not intended to offer medical advice, the recommended practices often include mindfulness and self-compassion with the caution that professional therapy may be in order.

Helpful perspectives abound. If a person feels that self-care is selfish, a “forbidden pleasure,” Kaplan notes that “Self-care isn’t about ‘me first’ but ‘me too.’ Practicing self-care allows us to recharge so that we can continue caring for others effectively.”

“A crucial aspect of managing anxiety is understanding the difference between what is within our control and what is within our influence” (where “we can take purposeful actions without needing to have everything figured out”).

Those who have been betrayed can feel that they are defined by betrayal. But, Kaplan notes, “Betrayal is an experience, not an identity…. You are not the betrayal; you are someone who has experienced hurt and is actively working to heal, grow, and reclaim your strength.”

The bottom line is that “Instead of viewing emotions as obstacles to avoid, we can see them as vital guides—temporary, instructive, and pointing us toward greater self-awareness.”