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Reading wednesday

    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck

    Reading Wednesday

    April 3, 2019
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    Book Review The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck.

    Easy to read, engaging story and irresistible characters, I really loved this story of race and the meaning of family.

    Based in Florida in 1976, a time when racism still ruled in the south, though often hidden away and unspoken.  It was still there and Ora Lee Beckworth, a recently widowed white woman lives her life working against it and shaming those who practice it.

    Ora hires a homeless black man to do yard work for her.  The neighborhood children call him The Pee-can man.  Ora sees something in this lonely man and knows she can help him.  Even Ora’s housekeeper Blanche, a black woman, questions Ora’s decision to hire the Pecan Man.

    The lives of these people are forever changed when the unthinkable happens to Blanche’s youngest daughter Grace.  Justice will not be served however, when this crime is known to have been carried out by the sheriff’s son – a white boy.

    But when the Sherriff’s son turns up dead and The Pecan Man is arrested for murder, the test of wills begins.  Who will tell the whole truth?  Who will sacrifice themselves for those they love? And who will believe, even in 1976, that a black man could be innocent?

    A beautiful and haunting story of sorrow and loss, love and discrimination, regret and friendship.  And the true meaning of family.

    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five stars for The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck

    Read last week’s review of Where the Crawdads Sing

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

    Reading Wednesday

    March 27, 2019
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    Chances are you’ve already read this book.  But if you haven’t you should go do it now.  Clearly it will be a movie before the next Oscars.  I’m torn who I imagine in main character roles.

    Haunting and sad, this is a story of loneliness at the most fundamental level. But it’s also a story of perseverance and survival, love and heartbreak, all while being a murder mystery and alluring narrative of the natural beauty of the marshlands of North Carolina.

    How can it be all these things?  It’s a beautifully written effort by Owens, almost written as a screenplay with vividly created characters that jump off the pages.

    In particular the intelligent and sensitive Kya, who endures a painful childhood and abandonment at age six.  The young girl survives alone in the North Carolina marsh, dubbed the Marsh Girl by the towns people and shunned for her mysterious existence.

    A survivor at heart Kya will endure, grow and find passion, only to become the prime suspect in a town murder mystery.

    Can she endure this ultimate test of survival?

    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five stars for Where the Crawdads Sing

    Read last week’s review of The Tao of Pooh

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Tao of Pooh by Ben Hoff

    March 20, 2019
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    Hoff is a follower of Taoism and in 1982 he wrote The Tao of Pooh as a way to introduce the Eastern belief system to the Western reader.  Using the beloved A.A. Milne characters from the Winnie-the-Pooh series, Hoff tells the simple story of Tao.

    I found this book in our room at the Yoga studio in El Salvador.  I picked it up, and read it easily in a few hours.  Even though the story was published more than 35 years ago, it actually is very timely by today’s standards.  In our current state of egotistical leaders, selfish and fast-paced lives, and sometimes frightening world – looking at the Taoism beliefs through the simple mind of Pooh is brilliant.

    “Hoff uses many of Milne’s characters to symbolize ideas that differ from or accentuate Taoist tenets. Winnie-the-Pooh himself, for example, personifies the principles of wei wu wei, the Taoist concept of “effortless doing,” and pu, the concept of being open to, but unburdened by, experience, and it is also a metaphor for natural human nature. In contrast, characters like Owl and Rabbit over-complicate problems, often over-thinking to the point of confusion, and Eeyore pessimistically complains and frets about existence, unable to just be. Hoff regards Pooh’s simpleminded nature, unsophisticated worldview and instinctive problem-solving methods as conveniently representative of the Taoist philosophical foundation. The book also incorporates translated excerpts from various prominent Taoist texts, from authors such as Laozi and Zhuangzi.” (taken from Wikipedia).

    A simple and easy read for a lazy Sunday in the hammock.

    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Four Stars for the Tao of Pooh by Ben Hoff

    Read last week’s review of The Dovekeepers: A Novel by Alice Hoffman

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Dovekeepers: A Novel by Alice Hoffman

    Reading Wednesday

    March 13, 2019
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    Powerful.  This story is powerful.  These women are powerful. The history is powerful.  The Dovekeepers: A Novel by Alice Hoffman is one of the most powerful books I have read in a very long time.

    I actually know very little about the history of Israel, Jerusalem and the legend of Masada – the last stronghold of the Jews during the Roman siege in 73 AD.  After reading this novel however, I am so intrigued to learn more about the plight of these people – a struggle that has continued for thousands of years.

    A beautifully written tale weaving fact and fiction together, Hoffman creates four remarkable women who lead the reader through this turbulent, magical, bloody, faithful and powerful period of history.  Each of these powerful women bring a different strength, different background, different loss and different love to Masada.  The author uses Biblical history and the historical chronicle by Flavius Josephus, a Jewish rebel leader captured by the Romans.  Through her meticulous research she captures the magic of the era and creates these characters, developing the story through their lives, as they each find themselves in Masada by different paths. Each women carries with her secrets and strengths that come to play in the final days of the bloody siege that will ultimately take the lives of more than 1000 men, women and children, and change the course of history.

    Who survives in this amazing fictional tale of a real-life event?  You must read The Dovekeepers to find out.  Read it today.  A fascinating and powerful novel.

    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five Stars for the The Dovekeepers: A Novel by Alice Hoffman

    Read last week’s review of Twenty-Five Years in Provence

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Varina by Charles Frazier

    Reading Wednesday

    September 11, 2018
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    Book Review Varina by Charles Frazier

    You may not know her name, but her story is incredible.  Varina Davis, the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis endured a remarkable and tumultuous life not of her choosing.  I loved this book by Charles Frazier.

    Frazier, author of one of my all time favorite books Cold Mountain, has an incredible talent to bring the Civil War into a human story.  Like Cold Mountain, Varina tells the story of those who may not have been on the battlefields, but who were fighting the war in their own way.  The story of just trying to survive.

    Varina, a young women with little prospects, finds herself pushed into a marriage with the significantly older Jefferson Davis, who continues to mourn the loss of his first wife and true love.

    Despite their tumultuous marriage their family grows and Davis, as we know, eventually accepts the Presidency of the Confederacy states when the Civil War begins.

    Varina, is left mostly on her own, to raise the children during the horrible war of the states.  She is one of the most intelligent, courageous and amazing female survivors I have had the pleasure to read about.  The loss of people she loves, particularly her children, brings her to the brink and yet she endures.  Her courage during her flight with her small children from Richmond at the end of the war is remarkable. It however, does not end happily.

    Varina is an important American historical figure, who is little known and rarely written about.  I loved the story, particularly because it shines a light on an American women, whose story has been lost in the glut of Civil War stories about men and soldiers.  She deserves to be remembered in history for her courage, her life’s tragedy, and her life’s realization that complicity carries consequences.

    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five Stars for Varina.

    Read last weeks review of The Wife Between Us here.

    This blog contains affiliate links and we may be compensated if you make a purchase.  All money earned goes back to the maintenance of this blog.  Thank you.

     

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Station Eleven

    Reading Wednesday

    April 25, 2018
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    Book Review Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

    I loved this book. I had added this book to my list ages ago, finding it on a must read 2017 list. But it took forever for it to show up available on Kindle and I had forgotten about it.

    But wow. Worth the wait. One of my favorite reads so far this year.  Another book I expect to see become a movie.  But read the book – don’t wait for the movie.

    Mandel creates a cast of likeable characters with a variety of interests and histories including a wide range of ages, talents, abilities, ethnicities, genders and economic backgrounds. These characters unwillingly become entwined when the entire earth is subject to a pandemic flu.  The flu ends the world as we know it and kills 99% of the population.

    Whoa say what?  And I loved this book?  I truly did.  Frightening because it’s very believable, captivating because you feel for the characters, frightening because it’s plausible, well-written with an interesting and well thought out plot development and oh did I mention Frightening??

    My husband read this book and also loved it.  The funny thing is if I had been told the plot of this book I may not have read it.  But I am really glad I did. A perfect mix of sci-fi, drama, mystery and suspense.

    Go read Station Eleven! Five Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

    See last week’s review of Little Fires Everywhere.

    This post includes affiliate links and I may be compensated if you purchase this book.  Any money earned will go back to the maintenance and upkeep of this blog.  Thank you.  

     

     

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