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Friday Book Whimsy: Don’t Know Much About History

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My blog audience knows by now that I love mysteries. At the end of the year, if I look at the list of books I have read, more than half are probably mysteries. And the ones that aren’t often will have a mystery element to them. Like who is the crazy woman in the attic in Jane Eyre?

But the other genre of books that I love is historical fiction. I love to learn about history via a fictional story. I wish, for example, that I had read the whole series of Henry VIII books by Philippa Gregory prior to our visit to England in 1993. That trip took place more than 20 years after I studied World History, and I thought “Henry VIII” was a song by Herman and the Hermits.

I have given some thought to the best historical novels I have read in the past couple of years, and I’m not ready to commit that the following are the five best historical novels I’ve ever read. But they are five really good novels from which I learned a lot about an historical event.

So, in no order…..

other bolelyn (2)Moloka’i by Alan Brennert is the story of a young Hawaiian girl who contracts leprosy and is sent to a leper colony on the island of Moloka’i. I know the plot sounds depressing, but it simply wasn’t. It was a heartwarming story about love. I learned that the island of Moloka’i actually did have a leper colony located on it, and it was where Father (Saint) Damian worked with lepers for years in the 1800s before he, himself, died of leprosy. It was wonderful to learn about this amazing man, though he certainly wasn’t the focus of the story but only a bit player. Moloka’i is one of my favorite books of all time.

other bolelyn (1)The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory was the first book I ever read by this author. The book was riveting, and got me hooked on reading all of the books about Henry’s bevy of wives and mistresses. The Other Boleyn Girl tells the story of Anne, Mary, and George Boleyn and their strange relationship through the eyes of Mary, who was Henry’s first Boleyn love and led to the infamous and unfortunate relationship with her sister Anne. Seemingly decently researched and definitely well-written.

orphan trainOrphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is an excellent story about an event in history I knew absolutely nothing about. Apparently in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, orphans from the East Coast were sent by train to the Midwest where they would be adopted by families to work on the farms or in the businesses. Orphan Train is the story of one of these orphans, now an elderly woman, who befriends a young orphan girl, tied by their backgrounds. Good writing, but mostly just an interesting story.

true sistersTrue Sisters by Sandra Dallas, is the story of four Morman women who move from their homes in Iowa City (one coming from as far away as England) across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains to Salt Lake City, on foot, pushing handcarts carrying all of their worldly goods. You can only imagine the obstacles they faced. Again, while I knew that Mormans moved from Iowa and Illinois to Salt Lake City, this particular mode of transportation was new to me. A beautiful story of friendship by one of my favorite authors (and not just because she lives in Denver!).

aviatorThe Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin is the story of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the wife of Charles Lindbergh. Though the story is about Anne, the reader learns a lot about aviation and about the famous Charles Lindbergh (who, in my mind, was half cray-cray). The story of the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby is particularly well-told and interesting.

Oh, what the heck, for good measure…..

inventionThe Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is the story of Sarah Grimke and her sister Angelina, feminists before anyone even remotely conceived of the word. But it is also the story of slavery as told in a secondary storyline about a fictional slave girl. The writing is beautiful and the story was amazing – both glorious and horrifying. A wonderful read.

And there you have it folks, six historical novels that should be on your bookshelf or in your electronic reader.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Life Intended

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searchKate and Patrick are blissful newlyweds. One morning Patrick tells Kate that he has something important to talk to her about that evening. Unfortunately, he is killed in a random accident that day. (It happens in the first three pages of the book, and it’s the gist of the story, so I’m not giving away a secret.) Kate is inconsolable over losing her husband whom she loves so much. Randomly, she doesn’t seem to give one single thought to what he was going to tell her that evening.

Fast forward 12 years, and our Kate is getting ready to marry Dan, perfect husband material. She should be delighted, but isn’t. She just can’t get over the death of Patrick. It doesn’t help that she begins having weirdly realistic dreams about her life with Patrick as though he hadn’t died. In the dreams, she has a happy life that includes a hard-of-hearing daughter. From that moment on, the reader must begin suspending reality. Kate knows things because she sees them in her dreams.

I found The Life Intended, by Kristin Harmel, to be enjoyably readable, even if unrealistic. The main character, Kate, begins learning sign language as a result of her dreams so that she will be able to understand her daughter in future dreams. Through her ASL classes, she meets Andrew, who works with the Deaf community, especially young people. Kate begins to help him out through her occupation as a music therapist. Life unfolds….

Despite the decidedly odd premise of the story, I enjoyed this book I liked learning about the Deaf community, about sign language, and about music therapy. I enjoyed Harmel’s character development and liked the characters I was supposed to like and disliked the ones I should. I got a bit tired of Kate’s mooning over Patrick after 12 years. (I don’t think grief has a time period, but seriously, moooooooning). Still, the author was aptly able to depict the nature of Kate and Patrick’s relationship in just a few pages, and that is impressive.

Though some of the events that happened at the end were predictable, I was caught by surprise at others.

I definitely would pick up another of Harmel’s books based on The Life Intended.

Buy The Life Intended from Amazon here.

Buy The Life Intended from Barnes and Noble here.

Buy The Life Intended from Tattered Cover here.

Buy The Life Intended from Changing Hands here.

Friday Book Whimsy: A Spool of Blue Thread

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imgresAnne Tyler’s books, like the television program Seinfeld, are generally stories about nothing. To be more specific, they aren’t plot driven, but instead, are more about how the characters respond to something and/or to each other. And the gift is in her beautiful writing.

I think Tyler is one of those authors that you either like or you don’t. Nothing in between. And she has her good novels and her less good novels. I can’t say I’ve ever read one that I heartily disliked.

I think A Spool of Blue Thread, however, purportedly Ms. Tyler’s last novel (she has written 20 to date), is one of her better stories. I can’t relate a plot, really, because I’m not kidding when I tell you that there most often isn’t a plot as such. But I had strong feelings, positive and negative, for the characters in the book.

As with most of Tyler’s novels, A Spool of Blue Thread (and don’t you love that title?) takes place in Baltimore. She tells us about the fairly normal Whitshank family, but as you examine them further, you see the cracks and the gaps. Nothing earth shattering. No ax murderers. But the complicated people that all families include.

It is also the story of a house. A big house built by the father of our Mr. Whitshank. The younger Mr. Whitshank is a very likeable and patient man who struggles with the foibles of his quirky wife, his difficult eldest son, and his relentless aging. If you consider a house to have human qualities, this particular house has seen its share of laughter and crying. It was designed and built with love by a not particularly loveable man.

The best thing about Tyler’s stories is the tenderness in which she presents the characters. You can love them or hate them, but they are never presented unkindly.

Somewhere around the middle of the book, the story jumps back in time to give us a picture of Mr. Whitshank’s parents, and it felt sort of unexpected and confusing. Still, in the end, it gave us a good picture of not only his parents, but the Whitshank family members with whom we are familiar from the first part of the book. Because of Tyler’s lovely writing, it works.

If you want to get lost in what feels like a nice summer evening, pick up Tyler’s last novel. In fact, pick up any one of her novels.

Buy A Spool of Blue Thread from Amazon here.

Buy A Spool of Blue Thread from Barnes and Noble here.

Buy A Spool of Blue Thread from Tattered Cover here.

But A Spool of Blue Thread from Changing Hands here.

Friday Book Whimsy: I Am Pilgrim

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imgresI am a big fan of mysteries. I even like a good suspense thriller – you know, the kind where it seems like an old English manor house is haunted but you find out in the last few pages that it isn’t, but that it was only the lord of the manor’s crazy wife locked in the attic.

But the one kind of mystery/thriller that I avoid like the Black Plague is one in which the book’s synopsis includes the phrase American intelligence operative. They scare me too much. I find them to almost always be confusing and unrealistic. Jack Reacher? Nope. Mitch Rapp? No, thank you. Scott Horvath? I’d rather not.

But as I perused books last year, I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes kept coming up. One reviewer called the book “unputdownable.” Wow. That is compelling praise.

So I bought the book for Bill because he is a big fan of Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp, and Scott Horvath. Big. Fan.

He devoured the book and gave it high praise. Five out of five.

So I finally acquiesced and read the book.

With apologies to the reviewer from Booklist, it was indeed unputdownable. It was also unsleepable-at-night-after-you’ve-read-itable.

I Am Pilgrim is a murder mystery wrapped in an issue of national security. Connected but not the same. Having two stories in one book makes for good reading.

Pilgrim, who has answered to a number of names in his life and job, was an American operative who worked for an intelligence agency that oversees the CIA – sort of follows up and “handles” errors they may have made. He has retired, but, in helping the NYC police as sort of a hobby, he stumbles into what appears to be a simple murder mystery. It becomes clear to Pilgrim quickly, however, that the murderer was extraordinarily thorough. What’s more, the killer clearly followed the rules as written by Pilgrim himself in a book he published about criminal investigations after he retired.

At the same time, we meet a young Saudi Muslim who watches his father get beheaded because of perceived disloyalty to the Saudi royalty. He vows to destroy the United States because of what he sees as its allegiance to Saudi Arabia, and has devised an almost perfect plan with which to accomplish his goal.

The story plays out slowly, and Hayes leads the reader to nerve-wracking suspension. The author, a screenwriter by profession, tells the story of these two men in a back-and-forth style, and the reader sits at the edge of his or her seat and watches the horror unfold. It is up to Pilgrim to save the nation. And it is a race to the finish.

You hear talk about books that you simply can’t put down. I Am Pilgrim was a book I couldn’t put down. Despite its length (over 600 pages), the chapters were short and I just kept thinking “I have to know what happens next.”

As I read the reviews once I had finished the book, I was amused to read one viewer’s complaint that Hayes’ “science” was unreliable. Thank God for that, I thought to myself. Otherwise it would be an instruction manual for destroying the world.

I Am Pilgrim is definitely not for everyone. But I must admit I found it an absorbing story, and I am eagerly awaiting Hayes’ next novel.

Buy I Am Pilgrim from Amazon here.

Buy I Am Pilgrim from Barnes and Noble here.

Buy I Am Pilgrim from Tattered Cover here.

Buy I Am Pilgrim from Changing Hands here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Book Whimsy: Home is Where My People Are

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searchSophie Hudson writes about what she knows best – her family and friends, her spirituality, and her southern roots.

And in Home is Where My People Are: The Roads That Lead Us to Where We Belong, her second book, Hudson takes us along on her journey from childhood to being a grown up, including all of the bumps along the way. At times, I laughed out loud. At other times, I cried at a particularly poignant story. The book is eminently readable.

As in her first book, A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet, this book is a series of short tales about her life, a life that is probably not a lot more interesting than ours, but a helluva lot funnier because of Hudson’s clever perspective.

Hudson’s objective, or at least what I perceive as her objective, is to illustrate how our friends and family impact us in ways we don’t even realize at the time. Home is not just four walls that keep you warm and dry; it is the people who make you feel loved and teach you how to be a kind and productive adult just from knowing them. It is your family. But it is also your friends and your neighbors and your priests or ministers and your teachers.

As many of us did, Hudson struggled some in figuring out her relationship with God, and the people she met throughout her life have led her to a point where she is comfortable. The book, frankly, focuses a lot on her strong love of God, so if this isn’t your cup of tea, don’t bother reading it. She, however, doesn’t preach. She simply tells her story.

We met and came to love her family in her first book, and love them even more after her second. We see a side of her that is both unexpected and familiar. Hudson’s writing is so darn funny that you wish she was your best friend so that you could call her up and tell her about this funny book you just read.

I think that’s the sign of a good writer.

Buy Home is Where My People Are from Amazon here.

Buy Home is Where My People from Barnes and Noble here.

Buy Home is Where My People from Tattered Cover here.

Buy Home is Where My People from Changing Hands here.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Violets of March

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searchI love the title of this book – the first novel written by Sarah Jio, who has gone on to write six or seven more novels. And I have already admitted to frequently being drawn into a book simply by its cover or title.

The Violets of March is the story of Emily, newly divorced and trying to recover from this unexpected life change. Years back, she authored one bestselling novel, and has been unable to write another since. To once again find her equilibrium, she decides to spend the month of March visiting her beloved Aunt Bee on Bainbridge Island, across the sound from Seattle, where she had spent many happy summers.

As Emily settles in, she comes across a diary that introduces her to a mysterious love story from back in the 1940s, featuring an unknown woman named Esther, the diary’s author. She can’t stop reading, and eventually begins to learn that this story has a profound impact on her own life and the lives of those she loves. It explains many things about her life.

The book goes back and forth from Emily’s time on Bainsbridge Island to the 1940s, as Emily begins to put together some of the pieces of her own life.

The book is a romance novel, plain and simple. And there’s not a thing wrong with that. The descriptions of this lush island and the relaxed and friendly people who inhabit it caused me great enjoyment. The story was predictable, but quite frankly, I think part of its predictability was that I might have read the book before – a long time ago. It all sounded so familiar to me.

If you are looking for a pleasant and uncomplicated read, The Violets of March is for you.

Buy The Violets of March from Amazon here.

Buy The Violets of March from Barnes and Noble here.

The Violets of March from Tattered Cover here.

Buy The Violets of March from Changing Hands here.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Girl on the Train

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Nana’s Note: Nanas Whimsies is currently undergoing some site construction changes. As these changes are taking place, I have noticed that some “comments” are vanishing. I assume the Case of the Missing Comments will be solved once my construction is complete. In the meantime, rest assure that I am actually seeing the comments, though they sometimes disappear. More about my web site changes at a later date.

searchI was drawn to the premise of Paula Hawkins’ novel The Girl on the Train even before it became apparent to me that it was going to be one of the Big Reads of 2015. Being a story teller at heart, it is not uncommon for me to observe someone in, say, the grocery checkout line, and create a story about him or her. The story becomes quite real to me, though I generally don’t see the person again and never find out whether or not my story is even remotely true.

The girl on the train is Rachel Watson, an unhappily divorced young woman who commutes daily on the same train to London. During her daily commute, the train passes a row of houses and Rachel observes two people living in one of the houses, an attractive couple she calls Jess and Jason. Rachel begins to invent a story about the two people she observes daily and their supposedly happy life.

Unfortunately, one day as she is passing by the house, she observes “Jess” kissing a strange man. The next day Rachel learns that “Jess” (whose real name, it turns out, is Megan) has gone missing. Thus, Rachel is drawn into the real-life story, as she feels compelled to make sure the police know about the stranger.

The Girl on the Train has a definite Gone Girl vibe to it. The story is narrated from three perspectives, giving the reader the opportunity to see what has happened from different viewpoints. We learn the depths of Rachel’s unhappiness, which lead her to severe alcoholism. (Or does her alcoholism lead her to unhappiness?) Her alcoholism becomes almost a character in the novel, often driving the story.

Megan and her husband (whose name isn’t Jason, but Scott) don’t have the wonderfully carefree life imagined by Rachel, and as the book progresses, we learn Megan’s disturbing story.

The final narrator is Anna, the wife of Rachel’s ex-husband, who seemingly wants nothing more than to have her husband Tom’s alcoholic ex-wife leave them alone with their baby and their life.

When Megan’s body is finally discovered, the story — as told from the different perspectives — unfolds. Creepy as it all was, I couldn’t put the book down.

Hawkins’ debut novel has the readability of that coming from a master storyteller, and I dare you to figure out the murderer very much in advance.

Comparisons to Gone Girl are inevitable, but the ending was more satisfying. I look forward to future books.

Buy The Girl on the Train from Amazon here.

Buy The Girl on the Train from Barnes and Noble here.

Buy The Girl on the Train from Tattered Cover here.

Buy The Girl on the Train from Changing Hands here.

 

Friday Book Whimsy: A Rule Against Murder

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imgresI don’t make a habit of reviewing books that are part of a series. In particular, I wouldn’t normally review a book that is number 4 in the series.

Still, I can’t stop myself from writing a review highly recommending A Rule Against Murder, the fourth in a series by Louise Penny, if for no other reason than to strongly urge mystery lovers who haven’t yet discovered Inspector Gamache to do so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

And I would suggest you not start with number 4, but, just like Maria in The Sound of Music, start at the very beginning; it’s a very good place to start. Pick up Still Life, and begin your journey into the French-speaking part of Canada around Quebec in the little town of Three Pines.

Penny’s mysteries are gentle, but definitely not cozy mysteries. The townfolk – at least the ones we hear about in every book – are not typical small-town characters. They are complex, sometimes unlikeable, but always interesting. The protagonist, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, might be my favorite detective of all the mysteries I read – and I read a lot. He is smart and logical, kind and gentle, a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple. People who meet him can be lulled into thinking he’s simple, but he most definitely is not.

The first three books in the series had a mystery-within-the-mystery that encouraged you to read the next story to see how and if it’s wrapped up. That mystery is brought to a surprising and satisfying finish at the end of the third book in the series, The Cruelest Month.

While that storyline was tantalizing, the absence of it made A Rule Against Murder a refreshing change. That, and the fact that the first quarter of the book is simply a love story about Inspector Gamache and his marvelous wife Reine-Marie. Their relationship is one of the things I like best about this series, and it permeates this entire book.

Gamache and his wife are taking their annual vacation at the country inn where they had spent their honeymoon many years earlier. Penny’s descriptions about the couple’s sweet and loving relationship make this a love story as well as a mystery.

The Gamaches must share the inn with an extremely unpleasant and odd family, and predictably, murder ensues.

Gamaches team arrive at the inn and begin the process of trying to figure out the identity of the murderer.

Readers are rewarded with Penny’s beautiful descriptions of the location and the marvelous food and service. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that made me so wish I could be there. Well, except for the murder part.

The best thing about this book, and all of the Gamache mysteries, is Gamache himself. Treat yourself to a wonderful read.

Buy A Rule Against Murder from Amazon here.

Buy A Rule Against Murder from Barnes and Noble here.

Buy A Rule Against Murder from Tattered Cover here.

Buy A Rule Against Murder from Changing Hands here.

 

 

Friday Book Whimsy: The Unexpected Waltz

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searchI’m on just about every email subscription list having anything to do with books as I am an avid reader and always on the lookout for something interesting to read next. It was through one of these emails – from publisher Simon & Schuster I think – that The Unexpected Waltz, by Kim Wright came to my attention.

I was immediately drawn to the title and the cover – things I’m embarrassed to admit often draw me to a book. I looked it up on Amazon only to find it only had 33 or 34 reviews. That seemed like a bad omen. Perhaps few had read the book, and perhaps there was a good reason for that. Still, that title and that cover….

I’m happy to say I loved the book. And the dancing wasn’t the least of what I loved about the book, I must admit.

Kelly Wilder’s much-older husband passed away a year ago, and she has spent the past year hiding from life, despite the fact that he left her a fortune. In fact, we learn as the story goes on, that she has spent most of her life doing what she is expected to do and playing it safe. By accident, she stumbles into a dance studio run by a Russian immigrant, and before she knows what is happening, she has signed up for classes.

The dance classes and the people she meets through the classes awaken her to what life has to offer and for all intents and purposes change her life for the better.

I loved the storyline and the characters, but I equally loved the descriptions of the ballroom dances. Being a staunch fan of Dancing With the Stars, it was fun to read the about the dances, the difficulty of the steps, design of the clothing, and the focus required to dance well.

Many moons ago, some people with whom I worked confided in me about their concern for a friend of theirs who had signed up with Arthur Murray to learn to dance. Since he was a single male, they had initially been very supportive. However, what seemed to them as his growing dependence on the classes made them increasingly nervous. I never learned exactly how it all played out, but I thought about it as I read this novel. I can see how learning to dance could equate to learning to take control of your life, and become sort of addicting. Wright presents the potential of becoming addicted to dancing very well.

The novel offers a variety of characters, all loveable and quirky. I liked that the book is about friendship and never really a love story, at least not a typical love story. And I enjoyed seeing Kelly reach her potential at this later stage in her life.

It is really a lovely novel that left me feeling good, and wishing I could learn to dance!

Buy The Unexpected Waltz from Amazon here.

Buy The Unexpected Waltz from Barnes and Noble here.

Buy The Unexpected Waltz from Tattered Cover here.

Buy The Unexpected Waltz from Changing Hands here.