celebrating books & the literary lifestyle

Category: New! (Page 4 of 12)

These are the newest books I’ve recommended.

‘DEAR EDWARD’

At the end of 2019 I used one of my favorite Twitter hashtags – #AskALibrarian – to ask for new book recommendations with these qualities:

– a page turner

– book you can’t stop thinking about

– book that added something to your life

One of the recommendations I received – Dear Edward: A Novel by Ann Napolitano – was being released in 2020 so I immediately added it to my early 2020 release reading list.

And I’m posting today to say that YES, this is a book worth reading that met my qualifications above.

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MY THOUGHTS ON ‘AMERICAN DIRT’

I put American Dirt on my early 2020 reading list before I knew of any controversy and because it was promoted as “The Grapes of Wrath for our times.”

And the controversy, which I do understand, doesn’t change the fact that, for me, American Dirt was a great read. Meaning that I could have been accused of ignoring everyone and anything else while I finished it over this past weekend. The last novels I remember being so consuming are This Tender Land and Where the Crawdads Sing. So for me, this novel is in good company based on the personal experience I had reading it.

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‘THE LIGHTEST OBJECT IN THE UNIVERSE’

I added The Lightest Object in the Universe: A Novel to my fall reading list because I liked the idea of a apocalyptic novel with hope.

A debut novel by Kimi Eiselle, it tells the story of two people who were beginning to fall in love when the $hit hits the fan. The power grid in the United States is down, and they can’t communicate (or do most anything the same way they used to). So one starts walking across the country to find the other.

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‘A WARNING’

Following his or her shocking, bombshell essay in the New York Times last year, an anonymous senior official in the Trump administration has gone into more detail in this new book: A Warning.

Our first question is: Who is writing this book? After reading it, I cannot tell you who it is though I expect we will know soon enough, surely this person will come clean and claim some fame sometime in the next 1 – 5 years when we have a new president.

I can tell you that the author is a lifelong republican. He or she is deeply trusted in the administration. He or she sees Trump on a daily basis, when he emerges each morning from his “prime tweeting hour.” He or she began to question loyalty to the President after John McCain’s death and what he or she saw as the President’s “spite” towards a dead man. He or she has a great interest in history. This person claims to have stayed in the administration to try and guide the president’s impulses as best as one can. However, this author wants Donald Trump voted out of office in November of 2020 and has written this book to help that cause.

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‘THIS TENDER LAND’

Only a couple times a year (if I’m lucky) do I read a book that is nearly perfect to me like This Tender Land: A Novel by William Kent Kreuger.

By perfect (to me) I mean that every day I am thinking “All I want to do is read this book.” Also it has to provide artistic value (more on this below) and hit me emotionally.

This book is set in 1932 Minnesota when four kids flee a horrible home for orphaned Native American children and set off in a canoe towards the Mississippi River. Their intended destination is St. Louis, and along the way they meet other adrift Americans and lost souls, some good and some bad, but most are, as in real life, complicated. It is written as a memoir, from an older man looking back on this astounding, hazardous adventure.

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THE LIEUTENANT’S NURSE

I’m excited to tell you about yet another new work of WWII historical fiction, The Lieutenant’s Nurse by Sara Ackerman.

Previously I have recommended lots of this genre set in Germany, Poland, England, and France, but this is the first book I’ve read since From Here to Eternity that is set in Hawaii, right before and during the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

On November 28, 1941, Eva Cassidy travels to Hawaii aboard the SS Lurline to start a post as an Army Core nurse and meet her likely fiancé who is stationed there. But when she meets the dashing Lt. Clark Spencer on the ship and learns that the United States may be closer to war than she feared, her future becomes more complicated.

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YOU’LL WANT TO DRINK CHAMPAGNE AFTER READING ‘THE WINEMAKERS WIFE’

I’ve read so much WWII historical fiction, but I’m always looking for something new in this genre that gives me an additional perspective. This new book by Kristin Harmel, an author I’ve previously enjoyed, is set in the Champagne region of France during German occupation:

The Winemaker’s Wife

Mixing past and present, love and betrayal, this is the story of two couples who run a winery and another that run a restaurant, each making different choices to survive while serving the Germans.

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‘MEET ME IN MONACO’

I want to recommend new historical fiction about an American actress who married the Prince of Monaco. It was delightful:

Meet Me in Monaco: A Novel of Grace Kelly’s Royal Wedding by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Grace Kelly is attending the Cannes Film Festival in 1955 when she first meets Prince Rainer of Monaco. This story covers their awkward first meeting and builds to the royal wedding that captured the world’s attention while intertwining a secondary story about “normal” people who meet because of Kelly’s visit to Cannes.

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‘THE GOWN’ – FOR FANS OF “THE CROWN”

I have read so much WWII historical fiction it’s nice to come across more post-WWII historical fiction. Recently I have read a couple of novels set during this time period in New York but just yesterday I finished The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding by Jennifer Robson. I want to thank Aunt Jean for the recommendation; her book club was reading it!

As the title suggests, this book is set in 1947 as Great Britain anticipates the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth) to Lieutenant Phillip Mountbatten.

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