I've a few titles to share this month that are rather unique to each other . . . so something for everyone!
George - Frieda Hughes
Poet and painter Frieda Hughes is one very unique and amazing woman, as she proves in this absolutely precious memoir about the six months during which she rescued, raised, and fell in love with an abandoned baby magpie at her country home in Wales. Her time was meant to be spent renovating her newly-purchased old broken down estate and turning the one-acre plot of land into wandering gardens, ponds and landscapes, while also painting and writing her weekly poetry column for the "London Times." I'm so glad Frieda journaled nearly every day from the time she saved little George as a wee baby bird, fallen from the nest during a horrible storm, and witnessed his entry into being a full-fledged bird . . . feeding him and caring for him in the cage she housed him in her kitchen, with her elderly dogs in on the picture.
Good Night Irene - Luis Albert Urrea
I am drawn to historical fiction that features the brave women who risked — and sometimes gave — their lives to fighting the enemy overseas as resistance fighters, nurses, Red Cross volunteers, and doing espionage work. Using his mother's own WWII Red Cross service as the backdrop, Urrea has written a heartwarming - and - heart-wrenching story about a young woman who, fleeing an abusive fiance in NYC, signs up with the Red Cross after D-Day. Passing the entry test, she joins the Allied forces into an elite group of women who drive into the frontline in military vehicles called Clubmobiles. These women are given the arduous and life-threatening task of driving outfitted busses that are equipped to make coffee and donuts, driving from one dangerous war-torn front and villages to the next, while at the same time providing a taste of home and a sense of cheer to soldiers as they head into battle. These women were heroes in every sense of the word and Urrea does an impeccable job with his craft telling their story.
The Life Impossible - Matt Haig This is one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. If hope and wonder, and a bit of magical mystery, can be achieved by one single good thought and deed, this story is the place to find it. The beauty of the island of Ibiza in Spain is the enchanted background for a tale about new beginnings and the power of mind over matter, full of sentences to be savored. This is Matt Haig, author of the bestseller "The Midnight Library," at his finest.
How to Read a Book - Monica Wood
A gripping story in which three people, unlikely to cross each other's paths, cross each other's paths. Despite painful circumstances and feeling lonely and lost to the world, the three characters carry a light within themselves and wind up, thank goodness, connecting. Books are at the center of the story and books are what brings them together. If you're in search of a heartwarming story that works at grabbing your attention, look no further. I'm grateful for having discovered this treasure of a read.
A Kid From Marlboro Road - Ed Burns
I so enjoyed reading this book . . . not only because it's a well-wriiten book, but also having Ed Burns' voice in my head as I was reading his story was pretty cool! "A Kid From Marlboro Road" is the actor/filmmaker's first novel, based on his childhood memories of his Irish American upbringing in the Bronx and Long Island in the late 1970s. Burns' sense of humor and his flair for storytelling shine throughout, making this novel, told through the voice of a 12-year old narrator, a joy to spend time with.
Mina's Matchbox - Yoko Ogawa
For much the first 1/3rd of this novel I felt the need to turn each page delicately, so as not to interrupt the peacefulness within the pages. When 12-year old Tomoko is sent to live with her mother's sister's family for a year, she becomes besotted by her aunt's beguiling handsome husband and the magnificent mansion that is their home. The dignified aunt is an enigma to Tomoko, as is her German great-aunt, and, especially her curious ailing 13-year old cousin, Mina, who is at the center of the family's be-all-and-end-all. The story is rather like a special keepsake box, as Mina begins to reveal to her cousin the secret stories she writes in the teenyist-tiny handwriting that she hides in little square matchboxes under her bed. The matchboxes are a mystery and the stories are so rich in imagination and clarity, Tomoko realizes she is indeed living in a very special place.
The Blue Hour - Paula Hawkins
A brilliantly devised novel that builds and builds and builds with surprises, unraveling into a juicy page-turning story of intrigue and psychological suspense. As she demonstrated in her debut bestseller, "The Girl on the Train" and follow-up "A Slow Fire Burning," Paula Hawkins has yet again shown her talent at creating a really good head-scratching what-is-really-going-on-here story that is full of secrets and lies and people you think you understand but come to realize that monsters come in all shapes and sizes.
The Librarianist- Patrick deWitt
Meet Bob Comet, a quiet and unassuming man who decides as a young boy that his calling is to be a librarian when he grows up. For years, after being dumped by his wife who ran off with Bob's handsome charismatic best friend, Bob has lived a life of solitude, dedicated to his chosen profession, and since retired. On one of his daily morning walks he notices a lost elderly woman in his corner market and walks her back to the senior facility where she lives. Being an introvert himself, he is curious about the socially-dysfunctional people he meets in the center. To fill the emptiness in his life since retirement, Bob uncharacteristically signs up as a volunteer in the facility, where his painful life story becomes revealed amongst this new community of odd, yet, like him, ordinary people. DeWitt has created an interesting character with a surprising life story — definitely worth discovering.
A Place to Hide - Ronald H. Balson
National Jewish Book Award winner Ron Balson’s "A Place to Hide" is a Holocaust novel of fearless heroism and the resistance leading up to and during WWII. Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan, a young man leaves his wealthy fiance and secure life in the political world of Washington, DC for a job with the US State Department in Amsterdam. He quickly learns his job to process European citizen's visa applications to escape to America is not possible and beyond heartbreaking, as Hitler moves into Poland and then Holland . . . and then . . . the war begins. How Teddy Hartigan, forced to face the inevitable, how he endures, and how he eventually joins the Resistance, makes this novel an important lesson in how we cannot allow history to repeat itself.
Taste in Music - Luke Pyenson & Alex Bleeker
What a compelling and delectable subject: the food fed to musicians on tour! Anecdotes from a number of indie bands and musicians reveal what goes on behind-the-scene before and after the show, something that doesn't ever cross concert-goers' minds. In many ways, this book is a national and international travelogue, with food . . . and the people who make and serve it . . . being center-stage and a crucial part of how the tour goes. Black and white photos complete the picture in this really clever book that musicians and music lovers alike will surely enjoy. I myself wouldn't mind going on the road with some of these bands, after reading how well they eat and are treated!
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