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Reading wednesday

    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell

    July 21, 2021
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    Instructions for a Heat Wave

    Unexpectedly good read about family and the secrets we keep. Here is my book review Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell.

    I just recently read O’Farrell’s spectacular novel Hamnet and I loved every word. So tackling another Maggie O’Farrell seemed like a good idea. This story, though very different from Hamnet, was also well developed and interesting.

    It’s 1976 in London and we find the Riordan family in the middle of a heat wave. Then unexpectedly Gretta Riordan’s recently retired husband goes out for the morning paper and never returns. This event is the catalyst that not only brings three siblings back to the family home, but opens a Pandora’s box of long held family secrets.

    Michael Francis the oldest son who gave up big dreams for his family is now a high school teacher with a crumbling marriage. Monica’s hidden insecurities and skeletons in the closet have created a wide rift between herself and her baby sister Aoife. And Aiofe living in Manhattan is holding her own very big and sad secret.

    This family, full of hidden tragedies, will be rocked to it’s core when they learn the truth about their parents as they search for their missing father. Can it possibly end happily ever after?

    ****Four stars for Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell

    Read last week’s review of Five Quarters of the Orange

    My current read In Pursuit of Memory

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    Instructions for a Heat Wave
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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris

    Reading Wednesday

    July 14, 2021
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    I have never read Harris’ more well-known novel Chocolat, but I think I should now because I truly loved this book. Here is my book review Five Quarters of the Orange by JoAnne Harris.

    France During the War

    The place is a tiny village on the Loire River in France during the German occupation in World War II. This is a place where a terrible tragedy occurs. Who is responsible for this terrible tragedy and how does it change the lives of so many people? This will unfold in the pages of Five Quarters of the Orange.

    Framboise is nine years old the summer of the tragedy. A precocious but naive young girl, whose disdain for her mother leads her to create often cruel ways that put her sensitive mother to bed for days – allowing Framboise and her older siblings to run about the village unsupervised. Framboise summer goal is to catch the mysterious giant Loire River pike called Old Mother, but she unexpectedly finds herself developing a crush on a German soldier.

    The Tragedy

    Framboise mother, Mirabelle Dartigen, is looked on by the villagers as “unusual” and perhaps even a witch for her odd behavior. Mirabelle keeps a scrapbook of recipes that also serves as somewhat of a journal and will play an important role in unraveling the events of that fateful summer.

    The family is run out of the village at the end of the summer, but decades later Framboise returns. She hopes to lead a quiet life and not be recognized as the daughter of Mirabelle Dartigen. But her secret begins to unravel as she runs a small local creperie and her nephew and his wife go to great lengths to get their hands on the infamous recipe book.

    Redemption

    This is a dark story about mothers and daughters. It is a book about being young and naive and living with our mistakes. This is a novel about food, family, and facing the past to have peace in the present. I enjoyed it very much. I hope you enjoyed my book review Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris.

    *****Five stars for Five Quarters of the Orange

    Read last week’s review of The Music of Bees

    My current read About Grace

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

    Reading Wednesday

    July 7, 2021
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    Eileen Garvins debut novel captivated me from the very first page. Here is my book review The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin.

    Life is a rollercoaster even during the best of times. But during the worst of times, it often seems like the hits just keep coming. And that is the case for the three main characters in this beautiful and uplifting novel.

    First we meet Alice, a beekeeper in Hood River Oregon prone to panic attacks. She has endured the loss of her husband, her parents and the orchard she grew up on. She is a loaner who finds interacting with people stressful, and so has created “Alice Island” where she lives a nearly solitary beekeeper life. That is until the day she hits a boy in a wheelchair with her truck.

    Here we meet Jake. A teenage paraplegic, whose bad decision showing off for a girl has put him in a wheelchair for life. His future is bleak as he navigates being stuck in the chair, in his childhood home with his loving but timid mom and bully father, and in a life with few options. That is until Alice nearly runs him over with her truck.

    Then we meet Harry. A twenty-something year old, recently out of jail for playing a role in a crazy prank. Harry is a drift and comes to Hood River to live with his elderly and poverty stricken uncle in a dilapidated trailer in the woods. That is until the uncle passes away and Harry takes a job helping with the bees.

    These three become unlikely friends, and even family, as they each navigate their individual grief and loneliness, together overcoming adversity, harassment, fear, and broken hearts.

    It’s a beautiful story that includes fascinating insight into beekeeping as well as potential environmental chemical issues in today’s society. A great debut novel by local Oregon author. I hope you enjoyed my book review The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin.

    *****Five Stars for The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

    Learn more about beekeeping here.

    See last weeks review of Where the Forest Meets the Stars

    My current read America’s First Daughter

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah

    Reading Wednesday

    June 30, 2021
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    In her debut novel, Vanderah creates a story of life’s most difficult trials, many unimaginable to most of us. But her characters and their difficulties will pull the reader into this story, even when it sometimes feels raw and violent and a bit unbelievable. Here is my book review Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah.

    Jo Teale is an ornithologist trying to finish her Phd after taking two years off to deal with both the death of her mother and her own breast cancer. Determined to get back on track to what she loves after such a heart wrenching couple of years, JoAnna moves to a cabin in the woods to study nesting birds in rural Illinois.

    The peaceful, idyllic life, combined with hard work, is just the therapy Jo needs, until a tiny pajama clad and barefoot little girl shows up claiming to be from another planet. She calls herself Ursa.

    Jo can’t shake the little girl, who comes back each day, and so she begins to research missing children, calls the sheriff and enlists the help of her reclusive and mysterious neighbor Gabe. But slowly Gabe and Jo begin to realize what a special child Ursa is, brilliant in fact, and the three begin to live happily together after a few weeks… neglecting the missing child websites.

    Until a very violent act, dangerous perpetrators and the truth catch up with Ursa and her newly adopted friends. Who will survive the battery of gunfire and can this story possibly have a happy ending? I hope you enjoyed by book review Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah.

    ****Four stars for Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah

    Read last week’s review of The Lions of Fifth Avenue

    My current read The Music of Bees

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

    Reading Wednesday

    June 23, 2021
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    My second time reading Fiona Davis. Several years ago I read The Dollhouse, like The Lions of Fifth Avenue a historical novel based in New York City. The Lions of Fifth Avenue also is similar in that it runs two parallel timelines; New York in 1913 and New York in 1993. Here is my book review The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis.

    Two protagonists share the spotlight in this novel. Laura Lyon, wife of the New York Public Library superintendent in 1913, and Sadie Donovan, her granddaughter. Sadie is a curator at the New York Public Library in 1993.

    Sadie knows little about her grandmother, only that later in her life she became a well-known writer whose works have recently come back into fashion. Much of Laura’s life has been hidden from Sadie and she doesn’t know that Laura was part of a radical, all female club in Greenwich Village – a place for women’s rights, suffrage, birth control and lesbians. A place where women felt comfortable to be themselves – and Laura found her purpose and love of her life.

    When rare books begin disappearing from the high-security research library, Sadie becomes a suspect and she has to work fast to clear her name. With the help of a local detective, Sadie will embark on a dangerous game of cat and mouse to save the library, her reputation and learn the long hidden truth and tragedy of her own family tree. I hope you enjoyed my book review The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis.

    ****Four stars for The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

    Read last week’s review of Hamnet

    My current read The Wife Upstairs

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

    Reading Wednesday

    June 16, 2021
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    This book. Lovely. One of my top reads of the year. Unexpectedly beautiful twist on an old story. Here is my book review Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

    So little is known about the real life of William Shakespeare. Many before have tried to piece it together. But here is a story, so honest and sincere, so loving and beautiful, you can’t help but want it to be the truth.

    Maggie O’Farrell’s talent brings us this fictional tale of England in the 1580’s, when plague envelopes the nation. And yet, a wild bewitching young girl, captures the heart of a Latin tutor who is tormented by his father – and true love blooms.

    Never once in this book is the Latin tutor referred to as Shakespeare, but throughout the book we know. We know when the Latin tutor becomes more than a glove makers son…more than a husband of a gifted healer and nature nymph…more than a father of three. He becomes a respected and wealthy playwright and actor, but at a cost to family and marriage.

    It’s well documented that Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, died at a young age. And it is this telling of that tragedy that O’Farrell turns the misfortune around, explaining in such beautiful prose how the torment of a father leads to one of the greatest works of literature of all time – Hamlet.

    This book was lyrical…like reading poetry. I loved it from the very first page and did not want it to end. I highly recommend it. I hope you enjoyed my book review Hamnet by Maggie O’Farell.

    *****Five stars for Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

    Read last week’s review of The Elephant of Belfast

    My current read Where the Forest Meets the Sky

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

    June 2, 2021
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    This is the third novel by Kate Quinn that I have enjoyed. Last summer I read both The Alice Network and The Huntress. Quinn is known for her historical fiction, focusing on female heroines during World War II. The Rose Code follows that same pattern. Here is my Book Review The Rose Code by Kate Quinn.

    The code breakers of Bletchley Park played a critical role for the the allies during WWII. Hidden in plain site in the the unassuming area of Buckinghamshire about an hour outside of London, the code breakers, mostly women, took an oath of secrecy. Their important work would remain secret well into the 21st century.

    Quinn uses real characters who were code breakers to mold the fictional characters in The Rose Code. The main characters in this novel are three women, from three very different backgrounds who are thrown together in the war effort, each playing an important role in the successful outcome of the war. The three women; Mab, Osla and Beth form a deep bond, only to be challenged by secrecy, love, death, espionage, family ties and most of all the oath they swore to uphold for life.

    Curiously for me, one of the main characters in this book is Prince Phillip, the late husband of Queen Elizabeth. Coincidentally I started this book on the day Prince Phillip died in April. I learned through this book that Phillip was seriously involved in real life with a women named Osla, prior to his engagement to Princess Elizabeth. Quinn uses this storyline in her book and it makes for an interesting history piece.

    I enjoyed this book and Quinn’s talent for story telling, combining fact and fiction. She is a genius at historical fiction and opens our eyes once again to the important role women played in taking Hitler down.

    *****Five Stars for The Rose Code by Kate Quinn.

    Read last week’s review of West with Giraffes

    My current read The Wife Upstairs

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    See our top performing Book Review pin here Klara and the Sun

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