Alexander McCall Smith must be the most prolific writer alive, he seems to pop out a new book every few months. One of his latest, The Forever Girl, is set in the Cayman Islands, then Scotland, England, Austalia, and Singapore; we get a look into the lives of wealthy expats raising their children in exotic locations. The story centers around Clover and her lifelong love for James, a boy she grew up with, but never dated. Although different from his…
The Mermaid Garden by Santa Montefiore is written in two narratives, one set in Tuscany and the other in a small coastal village in England. For most of the novel, the reader is wondering how these two stories relate to each other. The setting is beautiful, the characters interesting, the writing is good, and I was enjoying the story and the mystery, all the way until the end of the book.Montefiore ruined her own wonderful tale by giving it such…
The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty is a wonderful novel that I didnt want to end. Evelyn Bucknow is a young girl growing up in Kansas, without many opportunities, but with a lot of courage, wit and honesty. She is caught between her very religious grandmother, who she loves dearly, and her science teacher, who she greatly admitres. She navigates her own way through adolescence, as her young mother is at home with her developmentally delayed baby brother and…
When the Emperor was Divine is a sparse, elegant little novel by Julie Otsuka that packs a big emotional punch. Otsuka tells of one Japanese family from Berkeley, Ca that is relocated during WWII. Otsuka’s writing is flawless. She evokes the feelings and experiences of the family as they move through the night by train to their internment camp in the Utah desert where they spend the next 3 1/2 years. Through simple details and images the broader picture unfolds,…
Night of Many Dreams by Gail Tsukiyama is about two Chinese sisters growing up in Hong Kong during WWII. During the Japanese occupation they move to Macao, then return to Hong Kong after the war. Emma continually dreams of traveling to far away places, while beautiful Joan expects to get married and enter into high society. While things don’t work out exactly as planned, they always have their family to return to. Tsukiyama is one of my favorite writes, I…
Isabel Wolff‘s love of vintage clothing is apparent in her novel A Vintage Affair. The protagonist, Phoebe Swift opens a vintage clothing shop in London, then meets all sorts of interesting people who come in to shop or sell their old clothes. Each piece of clothing tells a story, and Phoebe quickly gets caught up in the story of a little blue coat belonging to Mrs. Bell, an elderly Frenchwoman who is dying. As Mrs. Bell’s story unfolds, so does…
All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion is the latest by Fannie Flag, author of Fried Green Tomatoes. Flag is a wonderful story teller, and here she tells the true story of the WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) who flew during WWII and have been mostly forgotten about. We meet the Jurdabralinski family from Wisconsin of four girls and one boy, who all but one become pilots during WWII. One of the girls has a baby that is given up for…
Telling the Bees, by Peggy Hesketh is a beautifully written novel, full of fascinating facts about bees. I wanted to like this novel more than I did, but in the end I found it mostly depressing. The protagonist, Albert Honig, now in his 80’s, looks back on his long and quiet life as a beekeeper, living in the same house he grew up in. Next door is his best friend Claire who he has fallen out of touch with in…
Dust is the debut novel by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. Owuor was born and raised in Kenya, where this novel is set. It begins with the death of Moses Odidi Oganda, gunned down by police in the streets of Nairobi. His father brings his body home and his sister Ajany returns home from Brazil after many years away. His mother, full of grief and anger, disappears. This is the story of a troubled family and their troubled country. Owuor’s writing creates…
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara is a deeply disturbing novel about what happens when western culture collides with an isolated culture on a remote Micronesian island. Most disturbing is that it is very loosely based on a true story. I had no sympathy for the narrator, Dr. Norton Perina who visits the island and finds that people seem to live for greatly extended lives by ingesting the meat of a rare turtle. Yanagihara presents the reader with…