25 Monday Jan 2016
Veronica Mars is an outcast at her rich California high school after her best friend’s death. While solving mysteries with her private investigator father, she is also determined to figure out who killed her friend. This is a funny, well-written, suspenseful show with great characters and a “film noir” feel.
21 Thursday Jan 2016
I highly recommend this memoir written by Caroline Heller. She describes her parents stories of living in the cosmopolitan city of Prague before Hitler and the devastation World War II brought. Interwoven throughout the book are literature and poetry quotes which sustained her family through their darkest times.
12 Tuesday Jan 2016
Posted in Biography, Non-fiction
In 2009, Gourmet magazine suddenly closes its doors and Ruth faces a world with no job. Part personal narrative, part cookbook, heal with Ruth as she turns to her favorite recipes and foods for the seasons. Beautifully illustrated, the book exudes warmth and cheer. Food therapy at its best!
“Ruth is one of our greatest storytellers today, which you will feel from the moment you open this book and begin to read: No one writes as warmly and engagingly about the all-important intersection of food, life, love, and loss. This book is a lyrical and deeply intimate journey told through recipes, as only Ruth can do.”—Alice Waters
“The dishes are clearly fun and uplifting for Reichl, and the unexpected shift from culinary guru to happy home cook chases her blues away. Reichl reminds readers that getting lost in a recipe can be excellent therapy.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
04 Monday Jan 2016
Posted in Non-fiction
Tags
African Americans, attitudes, public opinion, race discrimination, race relations, United States, whites
The author wrote this book as a letter to his son about what it means to be black in America. His words and ideas are valuable for every American regardless of race or politics. The author not only describes his personal experiences and feelings but also analyzes race in the broader context of American society and history. His powerful insights are the product of a brilliant mind. The audio is read by the author. I haven’t been so moved by a book since reading “A House in the Sky” by Amanda Lindhout.
“The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future . . . Coates offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. . . . This moving, potent testament might have been titled Black Lives Matter.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Ta-Nehisi Coates is the James Baldwin of our era, and this is his cri de coeur. A brilliant thinker at the top of his powers, he has distilled four hundred years of history and his own anguish and wisdom into a prayer for his beloved son and an invocation to the conscience of his country. Between the World and Me is an instant classic and a gift to us all.”—Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns
28 Monday Dec 2015
Posted in Biography, Fiction, Historical Fiction
I recommend Geraldine Brooks titles to anyone who loves historical fiction. She has done it once again! I was swept away into Second Iron Age Israel, most violent of times. This vivid, imaginative account takes one through the tribal battlefields and into the heart of David’s family of 8 wives and 9 children. Inspired by the lost book of Nathan.
14 Monday Dec 2015
Posted in Fiction
Tags
A woman reflects on her life, particularly her relationship with her late sister, who died after driving off a bridge. The novel alternates between past and present, and includes a “novel within a novel” that adds to the mystery surrounding the two sisters’ lives. Margaret Atwood is an acclaimed writer, and this is my favorite of her books that I’ve read.
“Absorbing… expertly rendered… Virtuosic storytelling [is] on display.”–The New York Times
07 Monday Dec 2015
Posted in Biography, History, Non-fiction
This non-fiction account reads like fiction. Eatwell structured the book like a play; instead of chapters she has written acts and scenes so it reads like a farce. I learned that in 19th-century Britain, it wasn’t unheard of for men to lead double lives and have two families and two different names/personalities. Fans of Oscar Wilde will like it!
“A riveting true crime from yesteryear.” (Better Homes & Gardens)
30 Monday Nov 2015
Posted in Fiction
Tags
A small island holds a horse race each year; what makes it so dangerous is that the horses come from the sea. This novel follows two young people, each desperate to win the race. It is an unusual, beautifully written, and magical story.
“Stiefvater’s novel, inspired by Manx, Irish, and Scottish legends of beautiful but deadly fairy horses that emerge from the sea each autumn, begins rivetingly and gets better and better . . . all the way, in fact, to best.”–Horn Book Review, Starred Review
“Masterful…like nothing else out there now.”–Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
23 Monday Nov 2015
Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction
If you are willing to be transported to the jungle-fringed tea plantations of the Cameron Highlands to discover the only Japanese garden in Malaysia, this most gifted writer will unveil another time, a place, two characters who wrestle with unspeakable brutal pasts, and seek the healing solace in the art of gardening. I guarantee this story and this garden will linger in your mind long after you’ve read the last page.
16 Monday Nov 2015
Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction
In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz and her brother were placed in the Hebrew Orphans Home in New York City after a series of tragic family events. The orphanage is noted for its efficient care of over 1000 orphans and its modern medical facilities which include an X-ray machine. Dr. Mildred Solomon, a young radiologist eager to show her knowledge, carries out medical research using several of the orphans as research subjects.
Thirty-five years later in 1954, Rachel is now a nurse in the hospice wing of the Old Hebrews Home where she recognizes her new patient as Dr. Mildred Solomon. Rachel must now choose between forgiveness or revenge.
A fascinating but disturbing work of historical fiction by a new author who bears watching.
“Kim van Alkemade has moxie. In her provocative novel, family is saturated with betrayal, care is interrupted by ambition and desire, and the past is intimately explored, invoking the abandoned child in all of us. Orphan # 8 brims with complicated passions and pitch-perfect historical details. A riveting, memorable debut.” (Catherine Zobal Dent, author of Unfinished Stories of Girls)
“This book is utterly unputdownable. At once atmospheric, disturbing and absolutely engrossing, it poses a host of moral questions; I fully anticipate that it will become popular with book clubs.” (Historical Novels Review)
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