As I sit down to finally write about Lan Samantha Chang’s novel All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost, I am thinking that all really is forgotten. This is the story of a very prestigious writing school and it’s enigmatic teacher of poetry and her students. We follow the lives of 2 students in particular, Roman and Bernard. Although Roman gains success and fame from his writing, Bernard lives in poverty until his death, working for decades on a single poem. None…
The Butterfly’s Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe is a beautiful story of self dicovery. Luz Avila follows the path of the monarch butterflies South from her home in Milwaukee to the butterfly sanctuary in Michoacan, Mexico near her grandmother’s hometown, bringing her grandmother home at last, and discovering herself along the way. This is a story of Luz and all the wonderful women she meets along the way-some of them very unexpected. It speaks of the magic of travel and…
The Wife’s Tale is the new book by Lori Lansens, author of The Girls. I loved The Girls. It was such a compelling, well written story. So I was a little disappointed by The Wife’s Tale. It is the story of Mary Gooch, an obese wife in Canada whose husband leaves her on the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary. She finds courage she didn’t know she had, and boards a plane for the first time in her life to…
The Widowers Tale is the new novel by Julia Glass, author of Three Junes. I really liked Three Junes and I wasn’t disappointed with her new novel. It is just the kind of story you can sink your teeth into. Long enough to develop all the characters into people we really get to know and care about. It is the story of Percy Darling, a retired Harvard librarian who lost his wife decades ago in an accident at the pond…
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss is a beautiful and sad novel about elderly writer Leo Gursky. He is at the end of his life and fears becoming invisible. The novel traces his past from a small Polish town that he fled during the Jewish persecution of WWII, and the girl he loved and lost, Alma, who he wrote The History of Love for. He thought the novel lost, but it ended up in South America, translated into Spanish and published…
The Lady Matador’s Hotel is the new novel by Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban. This novel follows the lives of six very different men and women over the course of a week, all staying at or working at a very upscale hotel in an unnamed Central American capital. Some of their stories are dark and violent, corrupt and depressing, echoing the true history of Central America and its violent civil wars. Others are filled with passion and courage and poetry, without…
Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook is another light read perfect for this sunny Spring weather. Nothing to heavy. Cook is the author of Must Love Dogs, which I also liked. Seven Year Switch takes us on Jill Murray’s journey to rediscover herself after being left alone 7 years earlier with a 3 year old daughter, while her husband disappears to Africa taking all their money with him. He has turned up again now that their daughter is 10 and somehow…
Perfect Timing by Jane Mansell is Brit Chick Lit at its best. This was just what I was in the mood for. A really good read, nothing too heavy, just a lot of fun.I have a real soft spot for British writers, so I was easily pleased by this funny romp. Perfect with a cup of tea, or a glass of Cointreau. I had no idea what that was, but it was mentioned in the last 2 British novels I…
It is hard not to fall in love with Daisy, the protaganist of Stacey McGlynn’s new novel Keeping Time. Daisy is 77 years old, living alone in her own home in Liverpool, England. Her husband has passed away a couple of years ago and she is resisting selling her house and moving into a retirement community, as she is being urged to do by her son. Determined to do things on her own, a series of mishaps ensues, involving a…
Ursula, Under is the amazing debut novel by Ingrid Hill. How a single mother of 11 children had time to research and write this book, I will never know. The story starts with 2 1/2 year old Ursula Wong falling down an abandoned mine shaft in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It is the story of Ursula’s parents, Justin and Annie and all their ancestors, both Chinese and Finnish, dating back over 2000 years, whose genes have travelled across continents and through…