One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them is a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured vet returning from Afghanistan, a septuagenarian business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. And then, tragically, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor. Edward’s story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place for himself in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a piece of him has been left in the […]
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The Nature of Fragile Things – Book Review
I normally take notes while I am reading an advance reader copy (ARC) to help facilitate my review. Susan Meissner’s historical novel, The Nature of Fragile Things, though, was so wonderful I didn’t want the interruption. Here’s a quick synopsis: Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and moves to San Francisco. She quickly adjusts to her new life and develops a deep affection for Kat, her new stepdaughter, but something about her husband isn’t quite right. Then one spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a chain of events. […]
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GREENLIGHTS- Book Review
The sooner we become less impressed with our life, our accomplishments, our career, our relationships, the prospects in front of us—the sooner we become less impressed and more involved with these things—the sooner we get better at them. We must be more than just happy to be here. Matthew McConaughey I read Greenlights in a day, not because I’m a particularly fast reader, but because it is short, and I also listened to the audiobook as I was cleaning the house (and it needed a lot of help). Because I write memoir, I also read it to see trends in the market, and this one was a pleasant […]
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Courage My Love – Book Review
Rome, 1943 Synopsis Lucia Colombo has had her doubts about fascism for years, but as a single mother in an increasingly unstable country, politics are for other people—she needs to focus on keeping herself and her son alive. Then the Italian government falls and the German occupation begins, and suddenly, Lucia finds that complacency is no longer an option. Francesca Gallo has always been aware of injustice and suffering. A polio survivor who lost her father when he was arrested for his anti-fascist politics, she came to Rome with her fiancé to start a new life. But when the Germans invade and the Nazis take her fiancé, Francesca decides she […]
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The Children’s Blizzard – Book Review
Now that our long Minnesota winter has finally ended (knock on wood), I think it’s safe to post this review. My mom grew up on a farm in North Dakota during the Great Depression. I remember her telling me what life was like without central heat, boots without high-tech insulation, and woolen mittens that froze stiff with the cold. Imagine trudging out in the middle of the night in -30-degree temperatures to use the outhouse and then having to wipe yourself with pages of the Sears catalog. I remember her telling me about terrifying blizzards that struck the flat landscape. One of the most epic blizzards in American history came […]
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5-Star Reads from 2020
I read some great books in 2020 (and some duds if I’m being honest). These were my favorites. There’s something here for just about everybody. (I’m a professional reader, author, and librarian, in case my opinion matters). The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical, but after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes […]
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A Hidden Life
Last fall I watched a gorgeous movie titled A Hidden Life about Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer and devout Catholic who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. Franz, his wife, Fani, and their three young daughters lived outside the small village of St. Radegund and were important members of the tight-knit rural community. In 1943, he and other able-bodied were called up to fight for Germany. When recruiters asked him to swear an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler, Jägerstätter refused and was arrested and taken to prison in Linz where the most “dangerous” prisoners were housed. His family was ostracized and belittled by their friends […]
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Ebook Downloads Trending Up
Hi friends! I haven’t sent out a newsletter in years, so I decided it was about time. Since my last edition, I have published several more books and redesigned my website. Please check it out at amyhagberg.com. My blog features book reviews among other things, and you’ll receive a copy of the newsletter when I post a new one, usually once or twice a month. The year 2020 was one for the record books on so many levels. As an author and librarian, I noticed firsthand the impact COVID-19 had on the book business. Publishers stopped acquiring books, and consumers stopped buying them. Most libraries were shuttered for months, […]
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Genghis: Birth of an Empire
Courage cannot be left like bones in a bag. It must be brought out and shown the light again and again, growing stronger each time. If you think it will keep for the times you need it, you are wrong. It is like any other part of your strength. If you ignore it, the bag will be empty when you need it most. Ruthless. Intelligent. Murderous. Ingenious. Brutal. Intense. Courageous. Formidable. Charismatic. These powerful words describe one of the most powerful conquerors of all time: Genghis Khan. At the time of his death, Genghis Khan had united all Mongolian tribes, conquered the land mass extending from Beijing to the Caspian […]
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