Contact Marsha Love

tmlove2233@comcast.net

Fourth Monday @ 7 pm

Upcoming Books

March 25, 2024 The Orphanage by Serhiy Zhaden

“The Orphanage is Serhiy Zhadan’s highly acclaimed war novel, depicting life in an unspecified frontline region in the early periods of the war in Donbas. At times reminiscent of a road novel and at others a poetic musing on responsibility amidst conflict, Zhadan’s novel tells the story of ordinary lives during the most dangerous days in Europe’s recent history. Zhadan takes the reader on a three-day journey across the frozen battlegrounds of eastern Ukraine following Pasha, a Ukrainian-language teacher, in his relentless effort to bring his nephew home from an orphanage, or ‘Internat’ – a kind of boarding school without a direct equivalent in English, on the wrong side of the front line.” Ukrainian Institute

April 22, 2024  The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

McBride follows up his hit novel Deacon King Kong (2020) with another boisterous hymn to community, mercy, and karmic justice. It’s June 1972, and the Pennsylvania State Police have some questions concerning a skeleton found at the bottom of an old well in the ramshackle Chicken Hill section of Pottstown that’s been marked for redevelopment. But Hurricane Agnes intervenes by washing away the skeleton and all other physical evidence of a series of extraordinary events that began more than 40 years earlier, when Jewish and African American citizens shared lives, hopes, and heartbreak in that same neighborhood.  Kirkus Reviews

May 27, 2024 The Bill of Obligations: Ten Habits of Good Citizens by Richard Haass

Richard Haass argues that, to solve our climate of division and safeguard our democracy, the very idea of citizenship must be revised and expanded. The Bill of Rights is at the center of our Constitution, yet the most intractable conflicts often emerge from cases that, as former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out, “are not about right versus wrong. They are about right versus right.”

There is a way forward: to place obligations on the same footing as rights. The ten obligations that Haass introduces here reenvision what it means to be an American citizen, to commit to our fellow citizens and counter the growing apathy, anger, and violence that threaten us all.

Through an expert blend of civics, history, and political analysis, this book illuminates how Americans across the political spectrum can rediscover how to contribute to and reshape this country’s future.  PenguinRandomHouse.com

Past Books

February 26, 2024 Dust Child by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

“A well-turned tale of broken families across continents and decades. An American GI, a Vietnamese woman, and an Amerasian man who grew up in an orphanage seek closure decades after the Vietnam War… In this novel Nguyễn writes with an intimate, detailed understanding of Vietnamese women’s treatment during the war and the struggles of Amerasians seeking their parents in the present.” Kirkus Reviews

January 22, 2024 Solito: a Memoir by Javier Zamora

“A personal story of immigration that sheds light on the universal – Solito is an incredibly detailed chronicle of Zamora’s 3,000-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador — where he spent his childhood without his mom and dad, who had already made their way to the U.S. — through Guatemala and Mexico, and eventually across the U.S. border.” National Public Radio Book Review

November 27, 2023 The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune

“A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy – Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches…readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus.” Kirkus Reviews

October 23, 2023 The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

“WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION. Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.”   HarperCollins

September 25, 2023 This summer, our challenge is to read a book of our choice in a genre we don’t normally read.  Each of us will take a turn with the following suggested items about our book.  REMEMBER, we likely already know ABOUT the book, or can get a summary on-line if we are interested.

• Tell us a little bit about the author.
• Why did you pick the book/genre?
• What was a favorite line or something that touched you?
• Would you recommend the book? Why/why not.
• Add your own additional commentary.

Try to limit your mini-review to about four minutes.  After we have all had a chance to do our reviews, we will go around and each person can ask one question of anyone about a review that was presented; Or make a comment about what has been presented. Then we can go around again, as time allows.

May 22, 2023 Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

“This tale evolves around a small graveyard in a small French town, Bourgogne. We meet an array of interesting, nuanced characters, including our main protagonist, Violette. The story of Violette’s life is slowly revealed to us through her own words or through the interconnectedness with the lives of other people: Violette’s difficult childhood, being born with nothing, her tragic marriage to Philippe, her daughter, her life working as a bartender, then as a level crossing keeper and finally her life as a cemetery caretaker.” The Exiled Soul, A Book and Literary Travel Blog

April 24, 2023 Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

“A luminous debut novel about a widow’s unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium—and the truths she finally uncovers about her son’s disappearance 30 years ago…

Charming, compulsively readable, and full of wit, Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a beautiful exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope–a reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.”  Shelby Van Pelt website.

March 27, 2023  Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

“Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a searing and compassionate new novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible injustice done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.”  Penguin-Random House website.

February 27, 2023  The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

“Vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between the traditional and the modern, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel.”  Harper Collins website.

January 23, 2023 The Woman Who Heard Color by Kelly Jones

“Lauren O’Farrell is an “art detective” who made it her mission to retrieve invaluable artworks stolen by the Nazis during the darkest days of World War II. Her quest leads her to the Manhattan apartment of elderly Isabella Fletcher, a woman who lives in the shadow of a terrible history-years ago her mother was rumored to have collaborated with the Nazis.

But as Isabella reveals the events of her mother’s life, Lauren finds herself immersed in an amazing story of courage and secrecy as she discovers the extraordinary truth about a priceless piece of art that may have survived the war and the enduring relationship between a mother and a daughter.”  Penguin/Random House

November 28, 2022 Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Engrossing…studded with wisdom about long-held bonds.” —People, Book of the Week
“Enthralling, masterfully written…rich with social and psychological insights.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A magnificent storytelling feat.” —The Boston Globe

The “utterly engrossing, sweeping” (Time) story of a lifelong friendship between two very different “superbly depicted” (The Wall Street Journal) women with shared histories, divisive loyalties, hidden sorrows, and eighty years of summers on a pristine point of land on the coast of Maine, set across the arc of the 20th century.

October 24, 2022 Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants  by Robin Wall Kimmerer

“Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. In “Braiding Sweetgrass,” she weaves Indigenous wisdom with her scientific training. The book is simultaneously meditative about the abundance of the natural world and bold in its call to action on “climate urgency.” Kimmerer asks readers to honor the Earth’s glories, restore rather than take, and reject an economy and culture rooted in acquiring more. She invites us to learn from plants and other species, nature’s teachers. “If we use a plant respectfully, it will flourish. If we ignore it, it will go away,” she writes.”  (Washington Post)

September 26, 2022 This summer, our challenge is to read a classic of our choice. It could be one we read as a student or one we have always wanted to read. It could even be a children’s classic. Each of us will take a turn with the following suggested items about our book.  REMEMBER, we likely already know ABOUT the book, or can get a summary on-line if we are interested.

• Tell us a little bit about the author.
• Why did you pick the book?
• If you read it before, do you feel differently about it now?
• What was a favorite line or something that touched you?
• Would you recommend the book? Why/why not.
• Add your own additional commentary.

Try to limit your mini-review to about four minutes.  After we have all had a chance to do our reviews, we will go around and each person can ask one question of anyone about a review that was presented; Or make a comment about what has been presented. Then we can go around again, as time allows.

May 23, 2022 Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEEE • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK • The unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost—Great Circle “soars and dips with dizzying flair … an expansive story that covers more than a century and seems to encapsulate the whole wide world” (Boston Globe).

April 25, 2022  The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

“Set in the 1950s, The Lincoln Highway is filled with nostalgia as well as the gentle naïveté and hijinks of those who are young, optimistic, and on a mission. The story follows four boys who set out to travel the country in search of a fresh start: Emmett and Billy want to find their mother who left them when they were young, and Duchess and Woolly are on the hunt for a stashed wad of cash. Sometimes their dreams are aligned but often they are not. In other words, adventure ensues: There’s train hopping and car stealing, and with that comes the inevitability of trouble sparked from both good and bad intentions. Each of these young men is chasing his dreams, but their pasts—whether violent or sad—are never far behind. A remarkable work of storytelling that is a 2021 favorite”. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor

 

March 28, 2022 Anxious People by Fredrick Backman

“From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and “writer of astonishing depth” (The Washington Times) comes a poignant comedy about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.” Fredrick Backman website.

February 28, 2022 The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

“Louise Erdrich’s latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store’s most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls’ Day, but she simply won’t leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading “with murderous attention,” must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.”  Barnes & Noble

January 24, 2022 Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour

“Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.”  Clarion * Mariner

November 22, 2021 Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

“Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to…
The Thursday Murder Club

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.” – Goodreads.com

October 25, 2021  Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan

“Alyan’s riveting novel, set in America and the Middle East, brims with overlapping memories of secrets, betrayals, and loyalties within a seemingly assimilated Syrian Lebanese American family…Painful and joyous, sad and funny—impossible to put down.” – Kirkus Reviews

September 27, 2021  A Promised Land by Barack Obama

“As a work of political literature A Promised Land is impressive. Obama is a gifted writer. He can turn a phrase, tell a story and break down an argument. As he goes down the policy rabbit hole he manages to keep the reader engaged without condescension. ” – Gary Younge, The Guardian

May 24, 2021 The Warmth of Other Suns:  The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson.

“The Warmth of Other Suns is a brilliant and stirring epic, the first book to cover the full half-century of the Great Migration… Wilkerson combines impressive research…with great narrative and literary power. Ms. Wilkerson does for the Great Migration what John Steinbeck did for the Okies in his fiction masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath; she humanizes history, giving it emotional and psychological depth.”—John Stauffer, Wall Street Journal

April 26, 2021 Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

*A New York Times Best Seller*
*One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year*
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year “Of all the stories that argue and speculate about Shakespeare’s life… here is a novel … so gorgeously written that it transports you.” —The Boston Globe

In 1580’s England, during the Black Plague a young Latin tutor falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman in this “exceptional historical novel” (The New Yorker) and best-selling winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever. A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, and whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down–a magnificent leap forward from one of our most gifted novelists.  Bookshop.org

March 29, 2021  Deacon King Kong by James McBride

Oprah Book Club Pick; New York Times Best Seller

From the author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird and the bestselling modern classic The Color of Water, comes one of the most celebrated novels of the year.

In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range.

The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself.  James McBride’s website.

 

February 22, 2021  The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.  Chloe Benjamin’s website.

January 25, 2021 The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

In Elizabeth Strout’s fluid and compassionate new novel, “The Burgess Boys,” her first book since the Pulitzer Prize-­winning “Olive Kitteridge,” the connections among Jim Burgess and his younger twin brother and sister, Bob and Susan, are central to the story. That the ­marriages of these adult siblings are either over or in a rocky state is kept in the background of a narrative primarily concerned with the affinities and enmities played out among these three during a family crisis… New York Times, Book Review

October 26, 2020 The Overstory by Richard Powers

The Overstory, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.  Richard Powers website.

November 23, 2020 The Honey Bus by Meredith May

Bees became a guiding force in May’s life, teaching her about family and community, loyalty and survival and the unequivocal relationship between a mother and her child. Part memoir, part beekeeping odyssey, The Honey Bus is an unforgettable story about finding home in the most unusual of places, and how a tiny, little-understood insect could save a life.  Goodreads.

September 28, 2020 The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN offers up an evocative tale of two best friends whose bonds are both strengthened and tested over decades by forces beyond their control. Set largely on the remote Korean island of Jeju, THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN follows Young-sook and Mi-ja, girls from strikingly different backgrounds who bond over their shared love of the sea. Working in their village’s all-female diving collective, the two friends come of age in a community where gender roles are anything but typical. Here, women are the primary breadwinners, the heads of household in all but name, and yet, as Mi-ja and Young-sook come to realize, there are limits to their control that can prove devastating.  Lisa See website

June 22, 2020 The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Kahn

A complex and provocative story of loss, redemption, and the cost of justice that will linger with readers long after turning the final page.  In her spellbinding debut, Ausma Zehanat Khan has written a complex and provocative story of loss, redemption, and the cost of justice that will linger with readers long after turning the final page.  Goodreads

It is the first novel in the Rachel Ghetty and Esa Khattak series, and is followed by The Language of Secrets (2016), Among the Ruins (2017), A Death in Sarajevo (2017) (novella), A Dangerous Crossing (2018) and A Deadly Divide (2019). The novel follows Canadian detectives as they investigate the death of Christoper Drayton, which transforms into a complex portrayal of war crimes, grief and injustice.  Wikipedia

April 27, 2020 The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

March 23, 2020 The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

A thrilling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been adopted by an American couple.

Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate – the first automobile any of them have seen – and a stranger arrives.

In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See introduced the Yao people to her readers. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change. Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock, rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city.

After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley’s happy home life, she wonders about her origins; and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for generations.

A powerful story about a family, separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond that connects mothers and daughters.  BookBrowse

February 24, 2020 Becoming by Michelle Obama

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States.

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America – the first African-American to serve in that role – she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her – from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it – in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations – and whose story inspires us to do the same.  BookBrowse

January 27, 2020  The Only Woman In the Room by Marie Benedict

One of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen, Hedy Lamarr also designed a secret weapon against Nazi Germany.

In her latest portrayal of a lesser-known woman scientist, Benedict (The Other Einstein, 2016, etc.) spins the tale of Lamarr, born Hedwig Kiesler, from her late teens in Austria through her success in Hollywood. Born to Jewish parents in a posh Vienna neighborhood, Hedy endures her mother’s criticism while following her father’s encouragement to pursue both science and acting. Although she finds early success with the risqué Ecstasy, the film’s nudity haunts her efforts to be taken seriously. Just as she achieves the respect of her peers as a stage actress, Hedy catches the eye of Fritz Mandl, a wealthy, charismatic older man who owns several munitions factories. Rumored to have mistreated his former mistresses and to be in league with the fascist (albeit anti-Nazi) Austrian Christian Social Party, Fritz determines to wine, dine, and wed Hedy. Once married, however, Hedy finds herself virtually imprisoned and often abused by her jealous husband. Yet Hedy proves invaluable to Fritz when she begins to gather secret information from their well-connected, politically ambitious house guests. After all, who would suspect such a beautiful woman of understanding military secrets? Yet as Germany and Italy begin to join forces against Austria, Hedy discovers just how mercenary Fritz can be. A daring escape leads Hedy to America, where she vows never to be under another man’s thumb. Once out of Fritz’s reach, Hedy not only returns to acting, but also embarks on a new career as an inventor. Remembering the sensitive information carelessly revealed at Vienna dinner parties, she develops a brilliant radio-communication device. But will the American Navy accept such a weapon from a woman?  Kirkus Reviews

November 25, 2019  Dear America:  Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called “the most famous undocumented immigrant in America,” tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal call to arms.

“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in…”  Goodreads

October 28, 2019 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman                                      Meet Eleanor Oliphant.  She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she is thinking.  Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.  But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond…  Goodreads

September 23, 2019 Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.                                                        The wildlife scientist Delia Owens has found her voice in Where the Crawdads Sing, a painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature…Owens here surveys the desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to the secret wonders—and dangers—of her private world.  The New York Times Book Review – Marilyn Stasio

May 20, 2019, Educated by Tara Westover.                                                                                          Tara Westover wasn’t your garden variety college student. When the Holocaust was mentioned in a history class, she didn’t know what it was (no, really). That’s because she didn’t see the inside of a classroom until the age of seventeen. Public education was one of the many things her religious fanatic father was dubious of, believing it a means for the government to brainwash its gullible citizens, and her mother wasn’t diligent on the homeschooling front. If it wasn’t for a brother who managed to extricate himself from their isolated—and often dangerous–world, Westover might still be in rural Idaho, trying to survive her survivalist upbringing. It’s a miraculous story she tells in her memoir Educated. For those of us who took our educations for granted, who occasionally fell asleep in large lecture halls (and inconveniently small ones), it’s hard to grasp the level of grit—not to mention intellect—required to pull off what Westover did. But eventually earning a PhD from Cambridge University may have been the easy part, at least compared to what she had to sacrifice to attain it. The courage it took to make that sacrifice was the truest indicator of how far she’d come, and how much she’d learned. Educated is an inspiring reminder that knowledge is, indeed, power. –Erin Kodicek, Amazon Book Review

April 22, 2019, Origin by Dan Brown.                                                                                        “Origin asks the questions Where do we come from? Where are we going? They are questions about humanity–but they could just as easily be questions about Robert Langdon.  The Mickey Mouse watch-wearing, claustrophobic, always-near-trouble symbology professor is back in Dan Brown’s latest book. And just like he was in his original exploits (Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code), Dr. Langdon is once again wrapped up in a global-scale event that could have massive ramifications on the world’s religions. As he does in all his novels, Brown[‘s] extensive research on art, architecture, and history informs every page.”
—Entertainment Weekly

March 25, 2019, Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman.                                                                            On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland. Each woman was determined to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe in less than eighty days. The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors’ lives forever.  “In a stunning feat of narrative nonfiction, Matthew Goodman brings the nineteenth century to life, tracing the history of two intrepid journalists as they tackled two male-dominated fields—world travel and journalism—in an era of incredible momentum. Jules Verne, train and ship travel, and international snapshots are included as Goodman laces biography with history in a book that has something for everyone.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

February 25, 2019, discussing The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.
“THE SNOW CHILD is a vivid story of isolation and hope on the Alaska frontier, a narrative of struggle with the elements and the elemental conflict between one’s inner demons and dreams, and the miracle of human connection and community in a spectacular, dangerous world. You will not soon forget this story of learning to accept the gifts that fate and love can bring.” ―Robert Morgan, author of Gap Creek

January 28, 2019, discussing Varina by Charles Frazier.  Her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects the secure life of a Mississippi landowner. Davis instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history—culpable regardless of her intentions.
The Confederacy falling, her marriage in tatters, and the country divided, Varina and her children escape Richmond and travel south on their own, now fugitives with “bounties on their heads, an entire nation in pursuit.”
Intimate in its detailed observations of one woman’s tragic life and epic in its scope and power, Varina is a novel of an American war and its aftermath. Ultimately, the book is a portrait of a woman who comes to realize that complicity carries consequences.

November 26, 2018, discussing The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford.  As uplifting as the tale of Scrooge itself, this is the story of how one writer and one book revived the signal holiday of the Western world.  With warmth, wit, and an infusion of Christmas cheer, Les Standiford whisks us back to Victorian England, its most beloved storyteller, and the birth of the Christmas we know best. The Man Who Invented Christmas is a rich and satisfying read for Scrooges and sentimentalists alike.

October 22, 2018, discussing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  Few creatures of horror have seized readers’ imaginations and held them for so long as the anguished monster of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The story of Victor Frankenstein’s terrible creation and the havoc it caused has enthralled generations of readers and inspired countless writers of horror and suspense. Considering the novel’s enduring success, it is remarkable that it began merely as a whim of Lord Byron’s.

September 24, 2018, discussing the classic Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.  “For U.S. readers, the prize catch in The Catcher in the Rye may well be Novelist Salinger himself,” TIME’s original 1951 review of the book posited. “He can understand an adolescent mind without displaying one.” Time staff.

May 21, 2018, discussing A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Amor Towles skillfully transports us to The Metropol, the famed Moscow hotel where movie stars and Russian royalty hobnob, where Bolsheviks plot revolutions and intellectuals discuss the merits of contemporary Russian writers, where spies spy, thieves thieve and the danger of twentieth century Russia lurks outside its marbled walls. It’s also where wealthy Count Alexander Rostov lives under house arrest for a poem deemed incendiary by the Bolsheviks, and meets Nina. Nina is a precocious and wide-eyed young girl who holds the keys to the entire hotel, wonders what it means to be a princess, and will irrevocably change his life. Despite being confined to the hallway of the hotel, the Count lives an absorbing, adventure-filled existence, filled with capers, conspiracies and culture. Alexander Rostov is a character for the ages–like Kay Thompson’s Eloise and Wes Anderson’s M. Gustav, he is unflinchingly (and hilariously for readers) devoted to his station, even when forced to wait tables, play hide and seek with a young girl, or confront communism. Towles magnificently conjures the grandeur of the Russian hotel and the vibrancy of the characters that call it home. –Al Woodworth, The Amazon Book Review

April 23, 2018, discussing The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry.  Set in England at the end of the 19th century, the story is about the return of a mythical beast that’s menacing the local villages. An atheist, Darwinist, progressive widow comes down to the Blackwater Estuary, determined to find out what this monster is — and while she’s there, she meets a man of the cloth who is determined to protect his flock from the hysteria and the terror that surround them.

March 26, 2018, discussing The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald.  The charming story of friendship, small town romance, and so much more.  A story that connects two friends over their love of books.  Sara Lindqvist travels from Sweden to meet and spend two months with pen pal Amy Harris in Broken Wheel, Iowa.

February 26, 2018, discussing America’s First Daughter by Stepanie Dray and Laura Kamoie.  In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, this New York Times bestseller tells the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph—a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.

January 22, 2018, discussing Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He’s about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you’ve ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie’s just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he’s just like them, despite appearances?

November 27, 2017, discussing The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World.  Two spiritual giants, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu explore the nature of true joy and confront each of the obstacles to joy.

October 23, 2017, discussing Thunderstruck by Erik Larson.  The book, a New York Times best seller, is the saga of how the lives of Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless and Britain’s second most famous murderer, Harvey Crippen intersected during one of the greatest criminal chases of all times.

September 24, 2017, discussing The Road to Character by David Brooks.  A look at how our culture has, in the author’s view, lost sight of the value of humility–defined as the opposite of self-preoccupation–and why only an engaged inner life can yield true meaning and fulfillment.

May 22, 2017, discussing Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. Summary: the outrageously funny debut novel about three super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting, and scheming that occurs when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season.

April 24, 2017, discussing The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly. Summary: In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old Callie Vee Tate is instructed to be a lady by her mother, learns about love from the older three of her six brothers, and studies the natural world with her grandfather, the latter of which leads to an important discovery.

March 27, 2017, discussing Commonwealth by Ann Patchett. Summary: A story that follows the repercussions from a chance encounter between Beverly Keating and Albert “Bert” Cousins that sees the end of both of their marriages and influences the lives of their families for years to come. The novel spans nearly 50 years and three generations of both families through major events and the seemingly mundane day-to-day that make up a life.

February 27, 2017, discussing The Orchardist: a Novel by Amanda Coplin. Summary: At the turn of the 20th century in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest, a gentle solitary orchardist, Talmadge, tends to apples and apricots. Then two feral, pregnant girls and armed gunmen set Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect but to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.

January 23, 2017, discussing Under a Flaming Sky: the great Hinckley firestorm of 1894 by Daniel Brown. Summary: Author Daniel Brown has woven together numerous survivors’ stories, historical sources, and interviews with forest fire experts in a gripping narrative that tells the fascinating story of one of North America’s most devastating fires and how it changed the nation.

November 28, 2016, discussed The Art of Racing in the Rain: a Novel by Garth Stein. Summary: Told through the thoughts of the family dog, the novel follows the affecting tale of Denny, a widower attempting to become a race-car champion even as he cares for his precious daughter and their beloved pet.

October 24, 2016, discussed Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker: a Novel by Jennifer Chiaverini. Summary: Presents a fictionalized account of the friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and her dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave.