“The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own.”—Aldous Huxley. Sofía Segovia, the bestselling author of The Murmur of Bees, has written another extraordinary historical novel, this time set in Eastern Europe during WWII. Tears of Amber is inspired by actual events—not only by official texts but also by the accounts of two children and their families who traveled enormous distances to survive one of the biggest exoduses in human history. The Nazi Party pushes eastward, reaching the […]
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My Favorite Reads of 2022
I read 106 books in 2022, so narrowing it down to my very favorites was a challenge. The list below comprises my crème de la crème in a great year of reading. You’ll find a variety of genres set in the United States, Mexico, Ghana, Ukraine, China, England, Poland, Austria, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, and Vietnam. Most of these were 5-star reads for me, but one was a 4.5 rounded up to 5. I hope you find something you love! Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid “We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, Carrie Soto is Back. […]
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Great Books About Ireland
I’m 89.2% Scandinavian, but like many of you, I’m a little Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. I make my traditional Beer Braised Corned Beef with Potatoes and Carrots, and Irish Soda Bread. I love a good book about Ireland, too. If you enjoy reading about interesting cultures, maybe you’ll find something to tickle your fancy here. Nonfiction Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. This evocative memoir documents an Irish family’s struggles during the Great Depression. [The best memoir I have ever read.] Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman by Nuala O’Faolain. A woman steps out of the traditional shoes she was always told to fill. The Back of Beyond: […]
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Amy’s December 2022 Picks and Pans
One December not that long ago, I read some terrific books. They were different genres set in different places—Florida, England, Colorado, Maine, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Mexico, Connecticut, and Texas—but most had one thing in common: great writing. Enjoy my reviews; I hope you find something to add to your TBR list! Once Upon a Wardrobe Patti Callahan “No matter your age, may you never, ever grow too old for fairy tales.”—Pattie Callahan, Once Upon a Wardrobe. I couldn’t have loved this book more. It started and ended with a flourish in moving, heartwarming, and magical prose. I loved learning about Jack Lewis’s life (you probably know him as […]
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Once Upon a Wardrobe
“No matter your age, may you never, ever grow too old for fairy tales.” —Patti Callahan, Once Upon a Wardrobe. I couldn’t have loved this book more. It started and ended with a flourish in moving, heartwarming, and magical prose. I loved learning about Jack Lewis’s life (you probably know him as C. S. Lewis) and the imagined inspiration for his classic book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. This novel about faith and hope is utterly enchanting. 5 enthusiastic stars. Megs Devonshire is brilliant with numbers and equations, on a scholarship at Oxford, and dreams of unraveling the mysteries of physics. She prefers the dependability of facts—except […]
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Fellowship Point
Celebrated children’s book author, eighty-year-old spinster, Agnes Lee, has left an indelible mark on the literary world. But her goal to secure her legacy and protect the majestic coastline of Maine’s Fellowship Point really drives her. Now that the next generation is determined to sell the land to a developer, Agnes is adamant about protecting this bird sanctuary by creating a land trust, especially after her third breast cancer diagnosis. However, her path is fraught with obstacles, not the least of which is convincing shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And to make matters worse, one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly Wister. Agnes and Polly are […]
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We Are Not Like Them
Author Jo Piazza teams up with veteran book editor Christine Pride in We Are Not Like Them. Told from alternating perspectives, this novel follows two women, one Black and one White, whose friendship is indelibly altered by a tragic event. Jenny Murphy and Riley Wilson have been inseparable since kindergarten. As adults, they remain as close as sisters, even though their lives have taken divergent paths. Jen, who married young, finally gets pregnant after a series of unsuccessful IVF treatments, and is finally pregnant. Meanwhile, Riley, a budding television journalist, is on the cusp of becoming one of the first Black female anchors of the top news channel in their […]
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A Ballad of Love and Glory Book Review
Reyna Grande’s historical novel about a Mexican army nurse and an Irish soldier during the Mexican-American War is inspired by true events and historical figures. The year is 1846. After the controversial annexation of Texas, the US Army marches south to provoke war with México over the disputed Rio Grande boundary. Ximena Salomé is a gifted Mexican healer who dreams of building a family with the man she loves on the land she calls home. But when Texas Rangers kill her husband, becomes a battlefield nurse, a character immortalized in a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. Meanwhile, John Riley, an Irish immigrant in the Yankee army, is sickened by the […]
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I Know This Much is True Review
“America’s been living on borrowed time all these years, Dominick,” he told me. “Playing the world’s whore, wallowing in our greed. Now we’re going to pay the price.” —Wally Lamb, I Know This Much is True. On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, Thomas Birdsey, a paranoid schizophrenic, entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut, public library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and committed a shocking act of self-mutilation. He prayed to God it was an acceptable sacrifice. Thus begins I Know This Much is True, which follows the parallel lives of Thomas and his identical twin brother, Dominick as the two approach middle age. Narrator Dominick Birdsey […]
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The Seamstress of New Orleans Book Review
The Seamstress of New Orleans is set against the backdrop of the first all-female Mardi Gras krewe at the turn-of-the-century. For those who don’t know what a krewe is (I had no clue), it is a private organization that stages events during Mardi Gras. Here, the event is the leap year ball of Les Mysterieuses, during which women could make advances toward men that would be taboo at other times. The novel brings together two women from unique backgrounds. Upon the sudden disappearance of her husband, pregnant Alice Butterworth leaves Chicago for the more hospitable climes of Louisiana to make a living by providing sewing lessons at an orphanage. […]
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