The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

image by LibraryThing

Now this one I liked - a lot!

This builds on The Winter Sea and moves the story along. This is the story of Anna, Sophia's daughter.  Anna's life could have been a tragedy - given up at birth by her mother and raised by a neighbor and later sent to live with nuns and finally landing with a new family in Russia.  But it isn't a tragedy - instead it is the story of strength and poise and love.  Anna accepts each stage of her life for what it is and what she can learn from it. That sounds a little ridiculous, I know. But, I really liked her plucky attitude and stamina for a 1720 girl!

This story is told in pieces by Nikola - an English girl with a gift for 'seeing.'  Her connection to Anna is not through written words like Carrie's was - but by touching an object and 'seeing' the history and the events that the object was involved with.  Nikola is a Russian art dealer who was asked to appraise a small carved bird - the firebird. She sees the Tsarina of Russia handing this bird to Anna - but doesn't know who Anna is or how she can prove the object was actually important.

Nikola enlists her friend Rob to help with the process - Rob has a stronger inner eye and together they embark to Russia to discover Anna's story. In the same way that Winter Sea told a double story  - so does The Firebird. As the story of Anna is being told - Nikola and Rob's story is also unfolding.

I liked this book much more. I was very vested in the characters!  There were a couple twists that I didn't quite anticipate that made the end very engaging.  The history was important - but somehow it was easier for me to follow along without really knowing all the details.  Maybe that happened because I cared for Anna more.

I would recommend this one!  It was a fun and quick read.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

This is one of those books I thought I should read.  I wasn't especially enamored with the cover or the concept of the book - people who are part of an ancient text.  But, the story caught me and has held me.  I have found myself talking about this book to several different people.

So - what was it that changed my attitude?

The story is about Hanna, a book restorer (my title, not hers).  She is a rather non-descript woman who has grown up in the very tall and dark shadow of her brain surgeon mother who sort of sucks all the air out of any room she enters.  Hanna has made quite a name for herself in the world of book conservators, but will never measure up to her mom's ideal.  That is the back story.

The real story is of the Haggadah - an ancient Hebrew text used at holy Seder meals.  This book is rediscovered in Sarajevo following the Bosnian war and Hanna has been invited to check it out and rebind it for the next millennia.

Hanna discovers three minute artifacts in the binding - an insect wing, a hair and a blood stain.  This is where the book really launches, because it tells the story of each of those artifacts in real time. So it is really a story inside a story.

What I found the most intriguing was the story of the book itself.  I am not a historian - so the generations of anti-Judiasm woven into this story really took me by surprise.  I know about WWII and how the Jews were treated - I just didn't really understand that this hatred had been part of their lives forever.  So as the Jews are admired for their wisdom and their abilities they are also scorned for their wisdom and their abilities.  AND woven throughout this entire book are stories of Muslims and Christians who have been able to look at the person and not the religion to help save this ancient text.  It really struck me!  We live in a world where we think we have evolved yet we are muddling through the very same problems that existed thousands of years ago!  That doesn't say very much for progress.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in history and in the secret life of a book!

Ahab's Wife: Or the Star-Gazer by Sena Jester Naslund

image from LibraryThing

This book was recommended to me by a seed corn dealer convention!  He told me it was his favorite book.  I was in need of a new one - so I started reading.  It is odd to read a book about characters you sort of know...I have never read Moby Dick, have actually had no desire to attempt it, but even I know who Ahab is and how his life goes.  But, I really liked this book and was drawn in very quickly!

That's because of Una! With a name like Una, you have to be something special.  And she certainly was!

Her life was anything but ordinary - especially for a woman the early 1800s!  She was born in Kentucky, the daughter of a fanatic, bible-thumping father and open -minded mother.  Her first contact with the ocean was living with her aunt, uncle and cousin on the shores of a beautiful lighthouse island in the Atlantic.

And then she was drawn to the sea.

This is one of those big fat books that draw you in.  Una sees the world differently and her descriptions about life and faith and nature are beautiful and thought provoking.  This has made me want to spend more time at the ocean - not on a whaler, but along the shore!

I can't say this was my favorite book - but it was one that I am glad that I read!

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

image from LibraryThing

Joe's life is about to end on a sunny, spring, Sunday afternoon as he quietly pulls sprouts out of the foundation of his family's home.  He is helping his judge father while him mother does a little work at the reservation office.  But, she doesn't come home.  And when she does nothing will ever be the same again.

His mother has been attacked and escaped with her life.  But, she slips into a deep, dark depression as Joe and his father struggle to figure out what happened, who the attacker could be and how to be a 13 year old boy whose very normal life has disappeared.

Erdrich weaves stories of reservation life and loyalties into this narrative - some through the nightime talk of Joe's very ancient grandfather or his reformed stripper aunt.  But mostly we learn the ins and outs of life from Joe and his three friends.  Riding bike, smoking stolen cigarettes, sharing stories and histories all come together to create a world where justice is not expected and history means more than current day.

This story spins and pulls the reader deeply inside the reservation world - deeply inside the psyche of a 13 year old in the summer of 1988.  Another one that I would recommend!

This is our book club book for June.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

I am not usually big on memoirs or autobiographies. They bug me because they often jump around and have that "I'm so important it doesn't matter that my writing is pathetic - you'll still read it anyway" attitude. But, this one was different. Maybe because Rhoda is already a writer and an editor - her PHD in poetry or writing or literary research of something like that gives her a pretty strong pedigree. Or maybe it's because her story is the memoir of pieces of my own history - I'm a Mennonite too. But, not a Russian descended, California raised, conservative, former General Conference Mennonite. To most of you that is just splitting hairs - but to this Old Mennonite, mid-western raised, German Mennonite - it's still a difference.

I really enjoyed this book. I guess I haven't said that yet. There is something deeply funny about irreverently poking fun at the heritage we all grew up with - no dancing, funny clothes, odd foods and a work ethic that simply never stops. There is also something interesting about reading the history of a woman who turned her back on the Mennonite world and chose a path to academia rather than Mennonite community connections, acts of service in the church and occupations that fit in the Menno framework. It is interesting that in all her expostulating about the benefits of turning her back - she certainly spends a lot of time noticing what is good about being a Mennonite. (Oh yeah - and she uses some really big words here and there)

So - how does this appeal to those of you who aren't Mennos? If you have lived near, worked with or been married to a menno you will probably understand a lot of what is being said. But, remember - all their weird foods are not ours. My family didn't grow up with such a love of cabbage! Thank goodness!!!

My recommendation...
This is a story of a 40 something woman on the wrong side of a marriage and a career who returns to her family to reconnect after a devastating car accident. She happens to be Mennonite. But, I think all of us in that time frame appreciate what it means to turn around and re-prioritize our lives! Her stories about camping with her family, her mom's odd conversation connections and the way the addition of in-laws both benefits and destroys a family are excellent and ring true no matter what your religious affiliation is.

Oh My Stars! By Lorna Landvik

image from LibraryThing

Another Landvik gem. I love her quirky characters and her northern settings. The people ring true because they are like the people that we know...

Here is a story of a woman who has had all the hardship life has to offer before she is 16 - her mother ran off, her father abused her and neglected her, she was dreadfully poor and only had a tree to love. Then life started to improve - she got a factory job in a thread factory, made friends and began to see life differently -but on her 16th birthday her life changed...she lost an arm in a accident, her ears filled with the buzzing of bees and there didn't seem to be a reason to continue on...

So, Violet boards a bus to San Francisco to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Then life starts to throw her a rope...there is a bus crash and she is rescued by two unusual musicians - Kjel (prounced Shell) the most amazing looking blond North Dakota has to offer and Austin the blackest of all black men with the largest vocabulary of smooth and high talk. That crash and rescue change the course of Violet's life.

Austin and Kjel are musicians and they invite Violet to join them on a whim. They begin an amazing band called the "Pearltones." They start a tour with Austin's brother Dallas through the small towns changing their lives and the lives of those who hear them play through a very memorable summer.

In typical Landvik fashion nothing seems to go like they planned. But, life continues. Also in Landvik fashion, this book covers Violet's life from childhood through her old age with many stops and starts and curves and twists in between. It is filled with music and beauty and characters that I wish I could meet!

The title is from Kjel - each morning he greets the world with "oh my stars!" a prayer and a song to the beauty of the heavens and world that was created around him!

I loved this!

The Friday Night Knitting Club

image from LibraryThing

It's been a while since I've been into a book. This was a great book to lose myself in! When I started reading this I thought I had it all figured out. Self-suffecient Georgia - single mom, business owner, beautiful and focused. She doesn't really need anyone. But, there is a big hole in her heart created by James the absent father of her wonderful daughter Dakota. Georgia plays it safe and carefully creates a place where she is in control of everything...

Georgia has an amazing mentor named Anita. She met her on a park bench in Central Park when she was pregnant and sad and scared and knitting. With Anita's encouragement she began knitting for hire, opened a successful knitting store in New York City instead of running home to her parents in Pennsylvania. She surrounded herself with interesting friends - but she was always the one in control, always the one they went to.

So, I expected James to come back break her heart and leave her to depend on the other women of the knitting group...

But, things didn't go that way. Kathy - the best friend turned back-stabbing, college spot stealing Cat - shows up and wants to make up with Georgia.

Slowly that happens. Very slowly

Then something awful happens that made me sob and sob!! And I'm not telling you anything!
Just read the book!!

The Diplomat's Wife by Pam Jenoff

image from LibraryThing

Well - this just proves that summer is actually here! It's the first evening of summer vacation, it's 11:23 and I've finished my first book. I didn't start it tonight - it just so happened I finished it tonight!

This book was such a pleasant surprise. I loved the Kommadant's Girl. So, I picked up this one in the book store. I read the back and it sounded amazingly familiar - I figured it would be a repeat of the Kommadant and wasn't all that intrigued...until I started reading it!

This is the story of Marta - the Kommadant's killer. The story begins from the moment she drops over on the bridge after seeing Emma off to a safe future. Marta is captured and tortured by the Gestapo hoping for information about the resistance. She is eventually rescued by Paul, an American who is liberating the Nazi prison where she is kept.

They have a whirlwind romance and Paul proposes. Marta travels to London before Paul to meet up with the aunt of a fellow refugee. But, Paul never shows up - killed in a plane crash on the way to London. Devastated, Marta marries Simon, a diplomat she met on the boat ride to London.

That's about all I can tell you...except Marta does a covert mission back to Germany and meets up with Emma and finds out what really happened to Jacob and just whose baby Emma was carrying at the end of Kommandant.

She also meets up with....

You will just have to read it. This is another great story by Jenoff. There are just enough twists and turns to keep you involved, yet it's predictible enough to be comfortable. And true love prevails! Yippee! :)

The Life and Time of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

image from LibraryThing

This was a really fun read! Bryson's writing is witty and laugh out loud funny. This is the rather exaggerated story of his growing up years - in Des Moines - in the 50s. He believes he has come to this planet to save it from morons as the Thunderbolt Kid... able to reduce imbeciles to a pile of smoldering ashes by his amazing glance.

The book weaves Bryson's life into the tale of the long forgotten Des Moines of the 50s - sharing the history and good will of the times with the deep ironies that it was. What other decade had such awful toys, such a joy of blowing things up yet had the year voted cheerfulest year (1957)???

He doesn't necessarily long for the good old days, rather he seems to understand that he was privileged to be a part of something that could never happen again. The granduer of old movie houses, the innocence of a unracist school and growing up amid scores and hordes of kids - all out doors without an adult in the vicinity!

Bryson doesn't sentamentalize the 50s as much as he just shares the good and the bad.

His closing chapter - looking back at why society has felt the need to destroy the old rather than revitalizing and connecting it with the possibilities of the new is a point to ponder.

This is the second Bryson book I've read - A Walk in the Woods - is his hilarious story of hiking the Appalachian Trail!

On a side note - the guys dad grew up in Winfield!!! Small world???

This gets a hearty recommendation!!

Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart

image from LibraryThing

Our December/January book club book.

This is a World War II story about two naive University of Iowa girls and their decision to move to New York City for the summer. They were led to believe there were easy to find and lucrative jobs for dependable Iowans. Instead, they find loads of girls for every opening in all the posh stores.

On a whim they decide to try Tiffany's. They are surprised to be hired as the first two girls on the sales floor. But, they aren't selling - they are pages earning $20/week. Hardly enough to pay for the rent of their two room flat, bus and subway fare and a little left for food. But, the adventure of living in the City makes the lack of money unimportant.

They meet more than one famous person - from a gangster with Marjorie's last name to Marlene Dietrich. They are also in the midst of NYC when a plane hits the Empire State Building and in Times Square with 2 million other excited New Yorkers when the end of the war is announced.

Marjorie discovers love, friendship and excitement. As well as a deep appreciation for her roots back in Iowa.

This was a fun and fast read. Although it reminded me again that memoirs aren't my favorite. I'd rather read a novel based on this summer!

I wish I had read this before our trip to NYC this summer. It would have been fun to find some of the places she mentioned. We did find New Yorkers to be every bit as friendly and supportive as Marjorie did! Maybe some things don't change.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

This was one of those books I just couldn't put down. It's a historical epic about the building of a massive cathedral in 1100 England.

The book follows four different characters and their families as they cross paths over many years. It opens with a disturbing hanging and a curse called down by a distraught woman....

From there it follows the path of Tom Builder and his family as they travel on foot from town to town looking for work as a stone cutter and builder. Times are difficult and the family experiences terrible tragedy when Tom's wife Agnes dies. But, their luck seems to change as they happen into Kingsbridge the same day the wooden roof of the old tumble down church burns down. The church is completely destoryed and Tom helps Father Phillip, the head monk of the small village, decide what to do to begin to solve the church's problem. So begins the building of the most amazing chuch rural England has ever seen.

Follett makes the reader appreciate the intricate detail and incredible work that the ancient builders experienced when creating their masterpieces. I'm not a builder, but I enjoyed the description of the hand labor that was required.

This incredible creation of beauty is surrounded by the squalor of the living conditions of many peasants of the day. The dicotome ( great word, right) of these two lives comes into play as Aliana enters the tale. She is the spoiled daughter of an Earl who loses his position when his castle is overtaken by William, a bully and a thug. This is allowed because of the political times. As William comes to claim the castle he also claims Aliana for his own by brutally raping her. Aliana and her brother Richard are penniless and lost. Yet, Aliana is resourceful and devises a way to regain some of their wealth by gathering the wool of the local farmers and taking it to market. Only to find that the sellers will not deal fairly with a young girl. Enter Father Phillip, he becomes the go between for the wool. And both Aliana and the Prior at Kingsbridge become very wealthy.

All of that takes about the first 100 pages of a 900+ page book.

It is so worth it!! I was enthralled from beginning to end! This is one I would gladly recommend for those who want to be lost in another time and life. It made me appreciate my hot shower, warm food and privacy!!