H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald is a beautifully written memoir filled with nature writing, history, poetry and much more. It defies all genres and stands alone as a brilliant work of literature. It was written during an intense period of grief after the author lost her father and comes to terms with her own depression through training a goshawk named Mabel. She refers often to TH White, author of The Once and Future King, who also trained a…
The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons is set at a beautiful English country house by the seashore, where 19 year old Elise takes a post as a maid to flee Vienna at the start of WWII. She leaves behind her family and a life of privilege to become a servant in a foreign land. At first lost and lonely, she finds friendship in unexpected places and the beauty of Tyneford House grows on her. Full of historical details, Solomons…
Someone by Alice McDermott is a deceptively simple novel about the life of Marie Commeford, an ordinary girl growing up in pre-Depression era Brooklyn. This is a beautifully written book full of observations of everyday life with all its ups and down. It is a slim novel, and I would have loved even more character depth, but a lovely read nonetheless.
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth is a novel about a young woman Anna, only 38, diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. She is placed in an assisted living facility with older people and one younger man named Luke, only 41, who also has Alzheimer’s. While their memories quickly begin to fade, they find unexpected happiness with each other. A sad, tender and compassionate look at this disease and how it affects families as well. Not as good as Still…
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee is the follow up to To Kill a Mockingbird. Written before Mockingbird, Watchman is set two decades later when Scout is a young woman 26 years old living in NYC and returning to Maycomb, Alabama for a visit. What she finds when she returns home, disturbs her greatly and turns her whole world upside down. Her Father and her fiancee are not the perfect men she always believed them to be and she…
After reading Dinner with Buddha, someone recommended The Dalai Lama’s Cat by David Michie. Told from the cat’s perspective the book is filled with rare insights and bits of wisdom gathered while sitting on the Dalai Lama’s lap or in the windowsill while he entertains famous visitors from around the world. A funny, charming book for cat lovers, Buddhists, or anyone interested in an entertaining read filled with simple life lessons for greater happiness. This is the first in the…
Winter Stroll by Elin Hilderbrand, is set on Nantucket Island at Christmastime where the Quinn family reunites for their yearly ritual. The past year has been full of sorrow because one son is in jail for insider trading and another is missing in action in Afghanistan. However, they come together to celebrate the baptism of the third son’s new baby girl and there is much joy to go around as well. It was somewhat fun to escape into a family’s…
Emma, by Alexander McCall Smith is a modern day retelling of Jane Austin’s classic. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never read the original, so I can’t make a comparison of the two. However, I did enjoy McCall Smith’s novel. Emma is a spoiled, snobbish and rather unlikable young woman living in the English countryside, zipping around in her Mini Cooper and meddling in everyone’s lives. Over the course of one summer, she learns a lot about life and becomes self-reflective…
I’m not sure why I keep reading Elizabeth Strout’s books, but I do. Her latest, My Name is Lucy Barton, is about a woman who lives in New York with her husband and two young daughters and is in the hospital for nine weeks when her mother, who she hasn’t seen or spoken to in years, shows up from her childhood home in Agmash, llinois. The book is made up of Lucy’s reflections on their conversations during this week. Strout’s…
The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig is a novel set in 1920’s London. When Rachel’s mother dies, she returns from her job as a governess in France to discover a picture of her father who she believed died when she was four. He is a famous and respected Earl, while she has lived her life in near poverty. She seeks entrance into society to find out the truth about her family and to seek revenge. It was all a bit…