Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell

21 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by in Biography, Non-fiction, Travel

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The Weston Library Non-Fiction Book Discussion Group enjoyed this book immensely and had a riveting discussion of the book and the impact that Gertrude Bell had on the current state of affairs in Iraq and the Middle East.

Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) traveled the globe several times, but her passion was the desert, where she traveled with only her guns and her servants and a Wedge ware dinner service. Her vast knowledge of the region made her indispensable to the Cairo Intelligence Office of the British government during World War I. She advised the Viceroy of India; then, as an army major, she traveled to the front lines in Mesopotamia. There, she supported the creation of an autonomous Arab nation for Iraq, promoting and manipulating the election of King Faisal to the throne and helping to draw the borders of the fledgling state. Gertrude Bell, vividly told and impeccably researched by Georgina Howell, is a richly compelling portrait of a woman who transcended the restrictions of her class and times, and in so doing, created a remarkable and enduring legacy.

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Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

14 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by in Fiction, Historical Fiction

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Rural Ireland’s recent past is the setting for this novel about a 40-year-old mother of four, Nora Webster, who struggles to adjust emotionally after a fatal illness takes the life of her husband of 20 years.  Burdened by straitened finances, distracted by grief and by turns worried about or detached from her children, she is weighed down by the dullness of her days without her husband.  Nora’s circumstances are not entirely hopeless though as she is capable, independent-minded and supported by well-meaning family and acquaintances.  Her pessimism about the future begins to recede as she permits herself to take pleasure in small moments of happiness. A chance encounter with a local voice teacher leads to a new focus on music as a means to recovery as she crafts a new life on her own.

“Fascinating… Revelatory… More thoughtful than Emma Bovary and less self-destructive, in the end far and away a better parent than the doomed Anna Karenina for all the latter’s dramatic posturing, Nora Webster is easily as memorable as either—and far more believable. To say more would spoil a masterful— and unforgettable—novel.” (Betsy Burton NPR)

“The Ireland of four decades ago is beautifully evoked… Completely absorbing [and] remarkably heart-affecting.” (Booklist (starred review))

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Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own by Kate Bolick

09 Wednesday Sep 2015

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Don’t let the title and cover deceive you: this is a well written, thought-provoking book about much more than the concept of the “spinster” (or unmarried woman). The author uses that subject as a starting point to explore her own life and career along with those of several female authors with New England connections, including Edna St. Vincent Millay and Edith Wharton. This is a great book on its own, as well as a nice introduction to a group of talented writers and their works.

“What’s surprising about Spinster is how, in its charmingly digressive style, the book sets forth a clear vision not just for single women, but for all women: to disregard the reigning views of how women should live, to know their own hearts and to carve out a little space for their dreams.” —New York Times Book Review

 “Spinster is a triumph, a provocative and moving exploration of what it means for a woman to chart her own course.” —Malcolm Gladwell, author of David and Goliath

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The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

02 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Fiction, mystery

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In this thriller by bestselling Japanese novelist Higashino, a distressed single mother has a tough time freeing herself and her daughter from her abusive ex-husband.  Her requests to the police for protection from this deadbeat go unheeded and she attempts to escape him by relocating.  Settling into her new apartment she and her daughter introduce themselves to their next-door neighbor, a lonely math teacher for whom this meeting proves to be tragically fateful.

Veteran police detective matches wits with a brilliant rookie criminal. This character-driven mystery by the prolific Higashino has much to recommend, including a droll Columbo-like sleuth and a great surprise ending. (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))

Winner of Japan’s prestigious Naoki Prize and a bestseller there with more than two million copies sold, this literary psychological thriller is a subtle and shifting murder mystery. It will make readers redefine devotion and trust in an otherwise complete stranger. (Library Journal (starred review))

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Every Father’s Daughter: twenty-four women writers remember their fathers edited by Margaret McMullan

27 Thursday Aug 2015

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The editor who is an author in her own right, has created an anthology of twenty-four writers who remember their fathers.  Alice Munro, Jane Smiley, Ann Hood, Jayne Anne Phillips, Jill McCorkle, Bobbie Ann Mason and Maxine Hong Kingston are among those writing personal essays for this collection.

It is fascinating to read how the fathers, either with their presence or their absence, shaped the lives of these award-winning authors when they were young women and influenced their writing endeavors. The photographs which include a current image of the writer as well as a girlhood picture with her father are particularly poignant.

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Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf

21 Friday Aug 2015

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The author, once again, in this his last novel, returns to the fictional small town of Holt, Colorado, the setting for all of his fiction (Plainsong, Eventide, and Benediction).  

Haruf, who passed away in November 2014, has written a bittersweet but buoyant novel about a widow and a widower who find each other and in the process find an antidote to loneliness.

Despite the author’s spare style, Haruf packs as much action, character development and emotion in 179 pages as many authors do in books twice or three times as long.

The review in Library Journal states that “this novel resonates beyond the pages … don’t miss this exceptional work from a literary voice now stilled.”

“A fine and poignant novel that demonstrates that our desire to love and to be loved does not dissolve with age. . . . The story speeds along, almost as if it’s a page-turning mystery.” —Joseph Peschel, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

12 Wednesday Aug 2015

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I liked the size of this book – 320 pages.  David McCullough is two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and many of his books are 700 pages plus.  This was just right for me.  I was swept away to Dayton, Ohio, middle America town life and industry, in a time before any of the big wars.  Just how could two unknown, modest bicycle mechanics solve the mystery of flight, leave their sheltered small town household, and walk upon the world stage to prove it?   This was such a rivetingl, painless way to experience history that  I am ready to move up to Mornings on Horseback at 445 pages!

“An outstanding saga of the lives of two men who left such a giant footprint on our modern age.” (Booklist (starred review))

“[An] enjoyable, fast-paced tale. . . . A fun, fast ride.” (The Economist)

“A story of timeless importance, told with uncommon empathy and fluency. . . . A story, well told, about what might be the most astonishing feat mankind has ever accomplished. . . . The Wright Brothers soars.” (Daniel Okrent, The New York Times Book Review)

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The Daylight Marriage by Heidi Pitlor

07 Friday Aug 2015

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In this mystery set in the Boston area, the author explores the dysfunctional marriage of tall beautiful Hannah and her distracted climate scientist husband, Lovell.

When Hannah doesn’t return home one day, the family unit starts to crumble. Their children find solace elsewhere – Janine, the teenage daughter with the couple next door and Ethan with his He-Man toys. Lovell immerses himself in his work and courts the media in his effort to find his missing wife.

The many references to local spots, South Boston, Carson Beach, MIT, Martha’s Vineyard, will keep the reader turning pages in this psychological thriller which is similar to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.

“Pitlor brings forth the emotions that surge beneath the surface with the precision and power of a conductor . . . This powerful analysis of how dreams become nightmares will make readers want to hold their loved ones close.” —Booklist, starred review

 “Likely to linger in the reader’s mind . . . a perfect microscope with which to examine the inexhaustible fascinations of marriage, and as Pitlor flashes between the day of Hannah’s disappearance and Lovell’s uneasy consideration of their past resentments, she finds a nice voice — thoughtful, lyrical, unforced.” —New York Times Book Review

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H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

29 Wednesday Jul 2015

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Suddenly Helen’s world caves. She is numb with grief.  Not a stranger to the world of falconry, Helen has raised small birds of prey.  But to honor her deep loss, she raises the stakes.  She decides to immerse herself in the training of a goshawk  – one of the fiercest and largest birds of prey.  Enter a world most of us know little about.  An extraordinary execution of nature writing and memoir that will have you sitting on the edge of your chair and holding your breath!

“To read Helen Macdonald’s new memoir is to have every cell of your body awake and alive.” —Robin Young, Here and Now

“In this profoundly inquiring and wholly enrapturing memoir, Macdonald exquisitely and unforgettably entwines misery and astonishment, elegy and natural history, human and hawk.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

“Breathtaking . . . Helen Macdonald renders an indelible impression of a raptor’s fierce essence—and her own—with words that mimic feathers, so impossibly pretty we don’t notice their astonishing engineering.” —Vicki Constantine Croke, New York Times Book Review (cover review)

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The Children Act: a novel by Ian McEwan

13 Monday Jul 2015

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Right from page one, this male author has a rare sensitivity to his women characters.  A female English judge is faced with some difficult cases and portrayed with much compassion.

“Irrefutably creative … With his trademark style, which is a tranquil mix of exacting word choice and easily flowing sentences, McEwan once again observes with depth and wisdom the universal truth in the uncommon situation.”
—Booklist, starred review

“A short, concise, strong novel in which a judge’s ruling decides the fate of a teenage boy in ways she never intended or imagined … it’s a book that begins with the briskness of a legal brief written by a brilliant mind, and concludes with a gracefulness found in the work of few other writers.”
—Meg Wolitzer, NPR

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