Yesterday I finished an enjoyable story about three generations of women living their lives and making a wedding dress their own.
The Grace Kelly Dress: A Novel by Brenda Janowitz
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This should not shock anyone who reads my posts regularly…I read and am recommending another WWII novel:
The Words I Never Wrote: A Novel
by Jane Thynne
This book was featured on my early 2020 reading list.
In our standard dual timeline, it’s 2016 and Juno is looking for a typewriter as a prop for a photo shoot. She finds a Hermes 3000 that the seller says belonged to Cordelia Capel, a famous journalist. The timewriter case contains half of an unpublished novel.
Juno reads the novel which details Cordelia and her sister Irene’s lives before and during WWII, then the novel abruptly ends.
Cordelia works as a journalist in Paris and later for the British intelligence. Irene has married a German (in 1936) and is living in pre-war Berlin married to a highly respected man among the Nazi-party.
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Years ago I stumbled across a column in the New York Times, Modern Love. It’s a weekly submission about some aspect of “love,” how people met, how they broke up, but also other aspects of relationships, having kids, etc. I haven’t kept up with this column fully over the years, but I always thoroughly enjoyed these stories, which came from who I thought were regular people. Well, now I realize they are not necessarily regular people, but more on this later…
Continue readingI get a lot of the books I read from the library (love my library!!) so with our local library being closed for COVID-19, I’ve had to change up my reading routine.
First, I re-read a favorite book and then a couple of other older books I had sitting on my shelf at home, including this WWII novel set in Korea: White Chrysanthemum
I do prefer ” real” books because I spend so much time on screens anyway, but eventually I was driven to my ipad and kindle account to see what I had available there. Luckily I have a couple waiting for me including this new thriller:
You Are Not Alone: A Novel
by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
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I took the opportunity of “COVID-19 shelter in place” to re-read a favorite book that I was feeling called towards again:
Atonement: A Novel
I first read this book in a grad school class, “modern 20th century literature.” I loved that class!! And this book was my favorite of the class. I remember exactly where I was sitting when I finished this book – with my jaw dropped!
Time and experience make for a different experience with the same book.
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Many times during the last few days I have thought to myself, “At least I like to read!”
I’m happy to share my spring reading list in case you need something new to read while we are quarantined and/or sheltering in place, with all of our usual activities and events cancelled.
All these books are new releases this spring, and they have been recommended to me by librarians around the country when I asked for new books that keep the pages turning plus provide some emotional value. Even in these trying times, I do not want fluffy reads. I want to read books that I will think back to over my life because they have added something to it.
Best wishes to you and your families as we all try to stay healthy and ride this out. And remember, at least you like to read!
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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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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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‘MISTRESS OF THE RITZ’ & PARASITE
I haven’t posted about a book for awhile because I’ve haven’t read much since the new year. I’ve been pretty busy with other activities and also took the time to watch all the best picture nominations for the Academy Awards. I was so happy to see Parasite win best picture. If you haven’t seen Parasite (English Subtitled) you can watch on Amazon Prime (click on picture below). Even though I liked all the movies I saw, except Joker which I couldn’t finish, Parasite is the only one I am excited to experience again, and I will soon when I make my husband watch it!!
But I’m logging in today to tell you about the book I’ve been slowly reading since the new year. At first I thought that maybe I wasn’t liking this book so much because I was reading it very slowly. But after fully experiencing it and finding out it was inspired by real people and of course a real place, I am going to recommend it:
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Usually I don’t publish a reading list until “Spring” but I had to put this together NOW because SO MANY intriguing books are being released early in the year.
Here they are, new titles for early 2020 that I’ll be reading. Publishers notes in boxes and click on the title or picture to take you to Amazon. I hope you see something interesting you will read along with me!
American Dirt: A Novel by Jeanine Cummins
Already being hailed as “a Grapes of Wrath for our times” and “a new American classic,” Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers a fresh and compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz.
Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner
Continue readingAn extraordinary memoir of drama, tragedy, and royal secrets by Anne Glenconner–a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. As seen on Netflix’s The Crown.