I first selected this book because of the title. With so many to choose from, it’s probably just as good a reason as any. then there is the fact that it’s published by McSweeney’s. If you are unfamiliar with McSweeney’s, it’s run by Dave Eggers and publishes authors with a rather quirky, unique styles. It’s a nice departure sometimes.
It was slow going at first for me with All My Puny Sorrows (AMPS), but once I made it through the first quarter of the book I was hooked. It’s heartbreaking, quick-paced and intelligent. The style has a cadence that takes a little getting used to. Author Miriam Toews doesn’t use quotation marks and has dialogue flow through paragraphs - unusual, but easy enough. It seems to suit her characters and their emotional states.
Read moreIf you haven’t played bookstore roulette, I highly recommend it! The rules are simple: walk around the bookstore until you find a book that catches your eye. Don’t read the back of the book, grab it off the shelf and see what you get. This is exactly how I found this gem of a book titled I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith. The plain green cover sat on the shelf right next to my favorite author, Betty Smith, of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Read moreThe Nightingale is a beautifully written account of WWII France - a broken family, German occupation and survival. This is my first time reading Kristin Hannah’s work, and I was more than pleased. From the beginning, it was difficult to put this book down.
The epic opens with this wonderful line - “In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are”. Sisters Vianne and Isabelle have lived very different lives - one with love and comfort, the other alone and impetuous. Each gets caught up in their own stories of survival when the Germans march in to occupy France. The book follows these sisters and their different paths in a tale that describes the women’s war, heartbreaking loss and the will to live.
Read moreThis Lucie Whitehouse novel, “Before We Met” takes the reader to London and New York, through a mystery of a husband’s unknown past. Protagonist Hannah is blissfully in love with Mark, but a missed flight home to London propels Hannah to look into the reasons behind it. One clue uncovers another - each one more confusing than the last, until she is forced to piece together the truth.
Read moreWhat a surprising delight “City of Thieves” was to read. Not that I expected David Benioff’s novel to be bad, but I did not expect to enjoy it in so many ways. This 258-page book is set in 1942 war-torn Leningrad, where the residents fear the German siege, their own forces and each other. It’s a dangerous place for a 17-year-old boy who reluctantly finds himself with a new best friend on an impossible mission for a Soviet colonel.
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