Monthly Archives: November 2018

The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

30 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by in Fiction

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Just released – June 2018!  I can’t wait to tell my mother.  She and I had debated for hours about the meaning of the ending of Umrigar’s first book –  The Space Between Us  –  the story of the deep friendship between two women of very different stations in India.  Written as beautifully as her first book, this new friendship and journey of two women both born without privilege pushes the very boundaries on earth.  No need to read in order – both are powerhouse novels!

“The women at the heart of this novel inhabit the harsh world of the urban Indian poor, and struggle separately and together for dignity and survival. Thrity Umrigar has written a moving human tale that vividly brings to life both the women and the city of Mumbai.”  (Salman Rushdie)

“[The Secrets Between Us] provides an almost “Siddhartha”-esque experience of sharing a character’s spiritual journey, as the plot takes Bhima and Parvati to places where they must question their preconceptions, search their souls and ultimately change.” (Newsday)

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Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

19 Monday Nov 2018

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Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbevilles, and meeting her “cousin” Alec proves to be her downfall. When Angel Clare offers her love and salvation, she must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.

By the time Tess of the d’Urbervilles was published in 1891, Thomas Hardy was well established as a popular novelist with 12 novels and a book of short stories to his credit. This book is considered by many to be his finest work, yet it was his first to be met with critical outrage, due largely to the controversial subject matter. In fact, when his next book, Jude the Obscure, was also assailed as inflammatory, Hardy became so disillusioned that he retired from novel writing, and spent the last 30 years of his life writing poetry.

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American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse

13 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in Non-fiction

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This is a fascinating true story that I had never heard of, even though it only happened a few years ago. A series of over 80 fires spread through Accomack County, Virginia, committed by two arsonists. This book tells their story, as well as the story of how the community and its firefighters dealt with these events.

Washington Post reporter Hesse leads readers on an extended tour of a bizarre five-month crime spree in rural Accomack County, Va.: a series of over 80 arsons, of predominantly abandoned buildings, committed by a local couple. . . . A page-turning story of love gone off the rails. — Publishers Weekly

Hesse enters the compelling narrative with restraint in probing, essayistic analyses. She tells the story of the fires and of the Eastern Shore and the people she got to know there with an earned familiarity that, at the same time, speaks of the unknowability of a vast, rapidly changing nation. — Annie Bostrom (Booklist, starred review)

A captivating narrative about arson, persistent law enforcers, an unlikely romantic relationship, and a courtroom drama. . . . Throughout, the author offers a nuanced portrait of a way of life unknown to most who have never resided on or visited the Eastern Shore. A true-crime saga that works in every respect. — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

05 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in Biographical fiction, Historical Fiction

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What woman could hold her own and be married to Ernest Hemingway?  Meet Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gelhorn, who did become one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century.  I have read both The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun, but McLain’s novel portraying this stormy, passionate marriage is by far the best of the three.

“Wonderfully evocative . . . This is historical fiction at its best, and today’s female readers will be encouraged by Martha, who refuses to be silenced or limited in a time that was harshly repressive for women.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Propulsive . . . highly engaging . . . McLain does an excellent job portraying a woman with dreams who isn’t afraid to make them real, showing [Gellhorn’s] bravery in what was very much a man’s world. Her work around the world . . . is presented in meticulous, hair-raising passages. . . . The book is fueled by her questing spirit, which asks, Why must a woman decide between being a war correspondent and a wife in her husband’s bed?”—The New York Times Book Review

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