In a small town in the present day rural south most of the people are doing what
they can to get by. ... Labor Day by Joyce Maynard. A Long Way Down by Nick ...
Hard times
Country Hardball by Steve Weddle In a small town in the present day rural south most of the people are doing what they can to get by. In a series of vivid interconnected stories we see them in moments of crisis. One of the characters is Roy, recently out of jail and trying to turn his life around. While he stays with his grandmother he learns about his family, their past struggles and the choices they made both good and bad. Other families are losing jobs, losing sons to distant wars and losing others to accidents and drugs. With little hope for the future the town has nothing left but its past. Old enmities run deep and there are many scores to settle, and plenty of time to settle them. If you want to know what happens to a community beset by poverty for generations, read this book.
Page Turners February 2014
Mystery series of the month We love this book!
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd When Sarah Grimké turns eleven she is given a slave, a 10 year old girl called Handful but Sarah is already forming the idea that slavery is an evil that must be done away with. Handful is desperate to have a life of her own outside the walls of her owner’s home. They live in Charleston in the early nineteenth century where strict limits are placed on the freedom and beliefs of white women, and where slaves are not allowed to have any hopes of choosing their own destiny. Over the years both women will struggle to gain their freedom. This is a riveting novel that celebrates the early efforts of abolitionists and those who cut themselves off from society for the cause of women’s rights.
Purgatory (2013), The Guards, The Killing of the Tinkers and others, by Ken Bruen Jack Taylor has a drinking problem. On its own it would not get him kicked off the Gardaí, the Irish police force, but when he insults and hits a government official during a traffic stop he steps over the line. Now he is stuck in Galway and has to make a living somehow. He can’t call himself a private eye as his countrymen have a strong dislike of informers of any kind, so he must build a reputation for ‘finding’ things and people. His office is Grogan’s pub. When he not there he is on the back streets of Galway uncovering things that no one wants to know about. These books are vivid and gritty and you can’t put them down until they are finished.
One you might have missed
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Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks What a pleasure it is to settle down with a Bertie Wooster adventure and slip into a world where tea, or a glass of fine wine, is always about to be served by the irreplaceable Jeeves. Problems abound but they usually involve nothing more sinister than being engaged to the wrong girl or the arrival of a dragon in the shape of a fierce aunt. Whatever happens, Jeeves can be depended upon to come up with a solution in the nick of time. Lovers of P. G. Wodehouse’s most loveable character can now have the pleasure of reading an entirely new adventure in this skillfully penned humorous homage.
Life below stairs
Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain…..by Lucy Lethbridge Watching Downton Abbey you might think that a servant’s life in England was not so bad. After all you were clothed, fed, and, if you worked in a large household, lived in pleasant surroundings. But in the majority of houses it was a different story. Millions of young girls slaved from morning to night with chapped hands and aching muscles and then had to sleep on hard beds in chilly attics or in damp corners of underground kitchens. From letters and diaries we learn the true history of this vast army of workers who made the comfortable lifestyles of their employers possible. We also find out what life is like for those working as servants today.
A colorful life
Belle Cora by Phillip Margulies Mrs. Frances Anderson has a story to tell you, and what a story it is. She begins life as Arabella Godwin. When she and her brother Lewis are orphaned in 1838 they are sent to live on a farm in upstate New York with an aunt. There Arabella falls for a local boy, Jeptha Talbot, who will be the love of her life. She will go on to have a child with a notorious gambler, commit murder, change her name countless times and become a rich madam in San Francisco during the gold rush. Then, at the age of thirty three, she vanishes from public life not emerging again until her eighties. This is a turbulent tale of lawless times with a clever and resourceful heroine.
A woman at war
Revolutionary by Alex Myers Deborah is an indentured servant in colonial Massachusetts. She feels constricted by life and decides to run away after fighting off an assault by a local man. Not only does she escape but she transforms herself by cutting her hair, binding her chest and joining the Continental Army. Answering to the name Robert Shurtcliff she endures the horrors of the battlefield and bitter winters under canvas. She excels in her new life and earns the respect of her fellow soldiers but it is only a matter of time before her secret must be discovered. This fascinating novel is based on the true adventures of a brave and exceptional woman.
From the page to the screen
The following books are being made into movies this year. Now is your chance to read them before they show up at the local theaters. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Labor Day by Joyce Maynard A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby Serena by Ron Rash This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper Unbroken: a World War II story of survival, resilience and redemption by Laura Hiillenbrand Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Real lives
The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood by Roger Rosenblatt As he walks the streets of New York one evening Roger Roseblatt recalls how, as a child in the 1950’s, he patrolled the same streets in the imaginary guise of a daring and clever crime fighter. He also talks about writers of detective fiction and their famous creations, such as Sam Spade and Sherlock Holmes. He touches on many things about his life, past and present, funny and sad. Reading this book is like taking a walk with a wise and endlessly entertaining companion. You will learn a lot about Mr. Rosenblatt and about New York City. It will be time well spent.
An odd couple
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker Like thousands of others, Chava and Ahmed arrive in New York City in 1899 and try to make sense of their new lives. But they are not ordinary immigrants. Chava is a golem, a creature made from clay and brought to life through Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies on the ship bringing them from Poland she is set adrift. Ahmed is a jinni, a being made of fire, and has been accidentally released from an old copper flask by a Lower Manhattan tin smith. These two unlikely creatures meet and become companions. They manage to build a circle of acquaintances while hiding their true natures. Such is the skill of the author that we soon care very much about Chava and Ahmed and want them to have a future, together if possible.
