Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

If you enjoyed reading Girl With A Pearl Earring then you will enjoy this book as well I think. Why? Because the author is one and the same.

Tracy Chevalier researches her true characters in this novel as well as the time in which it is set. You begin to see everything she sees because Tracy writes vividly of the scenery and the people.

It is specifically about two women who really existed. Two women who changed the thinking of men who thought they knew all there was to know. But who realized that these women were indeed more knowledgeable even though one came from an uneducated background.

One women older than the other. How their lives enhanced one another. How their knowledge fed each other's hunger for the remarkable creatures they found who were not of this century or era. Were these creatures really alive at one time before they became encased in the layers of earth that preserved them for all time? What catastrophe occurred which embalmed them in stone?

If you are an archaeology buff then I think you will enjoy this true to history novel as you vicariously go on the beach digs with these two women.



Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

Another Bookclub book.


First of all ... don't you like the title? I do. It makes you peaceful and a bit hungry at the same time.


I enjoyed this book choice. It's about a women who becomes defined by one painting. Is that all that she is?


Read the book to find out and make sure you don't leave any crumbs in your bed!



Munster's Case: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery by Hakan Nesser

As usual, I picked this one off the shelf at my Goodwill. And, as usual, it was the cover that stabbed me. (Pun intended).


I had never read a book by this author plus I was in the mood for a murder mystery. So, why not?


This was not an Agatha Christie type of story. It was dryer. But it was well written and I assure you that it wasn't the butler in the pantry with the knife. But a knife was used and it was used over and over and over. What a mess!


So "who done it"? You'll have to read it to find out. No, it wasn't that person and no, it wasn't that one either. You'll have to read it through to the end to find out.


Watch your back!



The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Do you want to enter a world that you have never seen before? That you may think that you would never have been able to imagine on your own?


Then enter the magical and mysterious world of the Night Circus.


As you can surmise the circus is only open at night. Not only that, but it will appear and disappear when you least expect it. Out in a field beyond the town. Lit up by a central fire. Telling time by a unique clock.


The performers within the tents are not like any that you will ever see in a circus. Get your special ticket and enter into the minds of those that dreamed it into existence. It's enigmatic.


I picked this one up at my Goodwill. The cover caught my attention as well as the title. I wasn't disappointed but was confused at times. That's all I'm going to say except ...


Abracadabra!



Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

This book was a pick for my neighborhood book club. I am ashamed I had not read it before!


I could not put this story down and recently, when I was going through some of my daughter's high school notebooks, I saw that she had read this book. It was surprising to me that it was one of the books her class had read since I always thought that some of the classics that I was supposed to read were boring. Like what I call, 'The Tale of Two Boring Cities'. I also had read other classics last summer that I had not read, thinking I should, and found them to be just as boring. But I know that this book, if it had been one of the required readings while I was in high school, would have been enjoyed. But of course I was in high school during the time of the beginning of integration. Perhaps this book would not have sat well with our parents. To stir things up. We couldn't have that, right?


But when my children were in the same high school that I went to, it was different. It was filled with children from all backgrounds and nationalities. It had become a Magnet High School and populated with different cultural backgrounds. It was grand to see the friends that my daughters brought home.


So, about this book, get it. Read it. Enjoy.

The Bolter by Frances Osborne

I could not put this book down. I found it on the Goodwill shelf and the spine of the paper cover caught my attention first. It looked old and yellowed with B&W photos as well. I took it off the shelf and looked at the front cover and saw what you are seeing above. Then I really wanted to read it. I immediately took it to the check out counter and bought it for less than two dollars.

Yesterday was a cloudy day that was cool/warm enough to have the screen doors open in my sitting room. I basically decided to take a staycation and curl up on the couch and read and read and read. Finally finished the book this morning and am sorry to have to say good-bye to it.

The book was written by Frances Osborne whose great-grandmother was Idina Sackville. Idina lived her own life in her own way, being married and divorced five times! She loved Africa and ended up building her home there called Clouds. It sounds wonderful. Idina stripped away any boundaries or mores at the time and had so many sexual encounters that there aren't the pages to fill them. She married men who also, but being British nobility, if you kept it discreet, then nobody said anything.

Idina wasn't discreet.

I think you may find this true story as fascinating and as enthralling as I did. Make sure you devote a staycation to its read.





Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs

Just Breathe is a book that would be a good Summer Read. After all it is set near water.

I think the cover is misleading as this is not a story about a very young girl at the beach but rather about a married woman who has tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant. Over and over. About her marriage that falls apart and about how she begins to put it back together again with the help of her family and so forth. If I tell you the whole story then you won't have to read it, right?

So it's got humor but it's not all rose colored glasses. It's real. We all have our ups and downs, don't we? If not then you just haven't lived long enough yet.

As usual I grabbed this off the Goodwill shelf. 

ME: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn

What a delight to read! Ms. Hepburn writes as she speaks and therefore you get to "see" her as she talks you through the stories of her life. Included amongst the pages are photographs which are always a delight. Especially the big two page spread of her and Spencer. You can see the love.

I enjoyed this book immensely and didn't want to put it down. She was truly a new woman in her day and age. She lived her life as she wanted and acknowledges her selfishness except when it came to S.T.

Wouldn't it have been lovely to be her friend? I think so.



(A Goodwill shelf find)

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

This book should be read by all. It was hard for me to put it down but it was fun to pick back up. It is a novel about two sisters who endeavored to change the way their generation looked at slavery and women.




It is set in Charleston, South Carolina, where these two sisters really lived and grew up when slavery was de rigueur. You may know them ... Sarah and Angelina Grimke.




You will vicariously grow up with them as well as Sarah's personal maid which she was given on her birthday. Her maid was called Hetty, or Handful by her Mauma, (and yes I spelled that correctly). As these girls mature they are the generation that realizes that slavery should be stopped within their parents world where slavery is the norm and expected.




How will these young women challenge the system in order to right a terrible wrong?


At the end of the book the author goes into more detail about the true dealings these women went through and I am sure you will be enlightened by their true stories put into a historical fiction. I wanted to read on but alas must go to the library or the internet to look up more about these sisters who gave up so much for their cause.


I can thank my neighborhood Book Club leader who picked this one out for our group to read.

The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry

This book was a good read once you got past the slowness in the beginning. It does make you think about what may be the secrets passed down through the office of the Presidency that we as mere mortals will never know.


Do we know all that the Founding Fathers wanted for our United States? Is there possible paperwork hidden in places that would reveal all their purposes? One such myth may surround our revered Abe Lincoln. A myth that if known could transform what we as a nation can be allowed to do which would destroy all we know.


Read on and find out what Steve Berry's well known characters Cassiopea Vitt and Cotton Malone have to do in order to keep the secret or let it be known.


What would you do?

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Do you have a trip you have to take and you need a good book to keep you company on the plane or in your hotel room between meetings or you just want to take a staycation on your couch with a fuzzy blanket over your legs?


Then pick this page turner up wherever you can get it. Of course you know where I got this one, right? That's correct. Goodwill.


Make sure you have food around you as well because you are not going to want to put it down to grab a bite from the fridge, or even take a bathroom break, or even answer your cell phone. Why? Because you have just entered Jean Kwok's semi-autobiography about growing up in America with English not being your first language. You will live with her and her mother as they try to navigate their new world. Understanding how others live from hand to mouth day in and day out but with an unswerving determination to succeed is inspiring.


Kudos to you, Jean.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

I really don't think I need to even comment about this book as you all may have seen the movie. I did not see the movie but I read the book and don't want to muck up my own imagination by seeing the movie. Does that make any sense? I am sure that it was a fabulous rendition of the book but sense I have my own mental image of the characters, the train, the scenery, the homes, the park, etc. I just want to stay within those confines.


That said ...


this book was definitely a page turner. It's dark. But not all books can be Mary Poppins.



Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I remember the first time I saw a book about Tarzan written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was a paperback with a drawing of Tarzan, half clothed, on the cover. It was laying on my mother's night stand and I thought as a child, "My mother is reading something wild! Something about a half naked man right here in her bedroom. How can that be?"

I asked her about it and why she liked it and she told me all about it and about the author and I realized it was more then my little brain thought. Later when a movie came out about Tarzan, we saw it together and she and my twin sister had a code word we could say to one another ... "Ray-zore" or we would just put our head down and lift the other person's hand to the top of our head so that they would have to pat it and while they did we'd go "oooh oooh" imitating a quiet ape sound. If you saw "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, 1984" you would understand.

As my mother was dying I lifted her frail hand up to the top of my head and patted it for her on my hair and did the little ape sound hoping she knew what I meant. That I loved her and I would miss her and that we were and would forever be connected.

This little book I picked up somewhere ages ago and it sat on my bookshelf for ages as well. I the embossed letters on the red cover. The "Z" especially. They don't seem to make them like this anymore. It's a work of art. Then inside the cover are beautiful drawings of Tarzan. I have another Tarzan book on my shelf waiting for me to peruse. Of course when I read them I think of my mother and how she opened my eyes to many books.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

 The year is 1940.

The setting is a small town on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.


War is raging in Europe.


And that's the scene set for you to enter with female characters being the main subjects. One is the postmistress of this small town called Franklin. She tries to keep everything in order and moving in proper sequence so that the mail is delivered professionally. But can she keep any back from being delivered so that others won't be hurt? It's not proper but can she do it? Is it for the best? Can she hold her little section of the world together while the rest is falling apart?


Then there's the overseas female voice that comes over the radio at night that tells of the bombings, the faces, the voices recorded, the lives lost in front of her eyes. A letter handed to her to deliver to someone if he is dead. Does she finally have to deliver it? In person? What should she do?


How are lives affected back home in Cape Cod while families wait for their loved ones to return home whole or lost forever to them.


I think you may like this read. It's not fast paced but neither is a small town.


Of course, I bought this at my wonderful Goodwill where I can find all kinds of genres.


As Martha Stewart used to say, "It's a good thing".