Books, September, 2015 – January, 2016

The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain.  Here is a biographical novel about Ernest  Hemmingway’s first wife, Hadley, and their marriage in the 1920s.  Basically, he was a jerk, and she put up with him as long as she could.  It’s gossipy and interesting, but not great.  Not sure why it has been so popular. 

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, by Heidi W. Durrow.  This is a novel about a horrible tragedy in a young girl’s life, which causes her to have to come to terms with her mixed-race heritage.  Very troubling story.

The Sisters Weiss, by Naomi Rogen.  Strict religious adherence is the basis of this novel about two sisters from an ultra-orthodox Jewish family.  One sister rebels and runs away, leaving the younger sister to try and make her way in a family put to shame by the defection.  I enjoyed this book, although it was difficult to recognize and admit that apparently there are still people who have such backward ideas about following their faith.

Nightingales on Call, by Donna Douglas.  In a review, this book, which is fourth in a series, was compared with the Call the Midwife series, source of the PBS video series of the same name.  Sorry to say, Nightingales fell far short.  It turned out to be a light-weight copy, not far above the old nurse series I read as a young girl (can’t remember her name).  This book was more about the love lives of student nurses than about treating patients.  Don’t waste your time. 

A Place Called Community, by Parker Palmer.  I read this Pendle Hill pamphlet for a discussion group at the Quaker Meeting.  I have enjoyed some of Parker Palmer’s work in the past, and this pamphlet did not disappoint.  It is well-thought-out and fairly thorough for such a short piece.  He discusses the meaning of community and the reasons so many people have lost a sense of community.  He then presents ideas for how “true” community can be established and gives the example of Quaker community as a sort of “ideal.”  I am not a Quaker but have been attending Quaker Meeting for nearly 15 years and understand his bias toward that model. 

Song of the Spirits, by Sarah Lark.  This is the second book in the trilogy “In the Land of the Long White Clouds.”  I read the first and third books some time ago, and decided to go back to catch up with the middle one.  I enjoyed all three of the books, but I would recommend reading them in the proper order, as I had to go back after finishing this one to refresh myself on some details in the third.  All three books follow an extended family and the people who are close to them in New Zealand in the late 1800s to the early 1900s.  I recommend all three of these books.

Sail Upon the Land, by Josa Young.  This novel follows the lives of the women in four successive generations of one family, beginning before WWII through 2005.  It is a story of warmth and love and pain and sorrow.  There is a bit of a parallel between two characters that felt real.  I enjoyed this book.

The Memory Weaver, by Jane Kirkpatrick.  As I was reading this book I thought it was “just a novel,” but at the end I discovered that it was about real people and based on their real experiences as told in biographies and journals.  It told a very realistic story of the missionaries and early settlers who traveled west to Oregon in the mid-1800s.   I really liked the book, although I was a little put off by the religious views expressed; guess I shouldn’t have expected anything different from people who were missionaries and an author who wanted to tell about their experiences.  This is a well-written novel, and for people who are religious it is probably exceptional.  Despite that aspect, I enjoyed it.

The Secret Piano:  From Mao’s Labor Camps to Bach’s Goldberg Variations, by Zhu Xiao-Mei.  This is a memoir written by a pianist who grew up in the era of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution.  She was a serious piano student when the Cultural Revolution began.  What happened to her and her friends is beyond terrible as they were brainwashed to believe all artistic endeavors would separate them from the communist principles they were being taught.  Sometimes the book went into music theory a bit more than I was able to follow, but overall I thought it was very well written and would call it an important book. 

Far Horizons, by Kate Hewitt.  Book 1 of “The Emigrants Trilogy.”  Apparently I am not the target audience for this book.  It seemed too simplistic – straightforward and without nuance.  And, it is more of a romance book than I really like.  It is a novel which is based on actual letters written by the author’s ancestors, about emigrating from Scotland to Nova Scotia in the early 1800s.  Not a bad book, just not for me.     

A Light in the Wilderness, by Jane Kirkpatrick.   This is a biographical novel about a young woman who had once been a slave and had been freed by her owner.  It begins before the Civil War in Missouri where she has an opportunity to go to Oregon, which was expected to be given statehood as a free state.  It is an excellent story and tells how difficult it was for a woman in that time, especially a black woman.  I recommend it.   

Better Every Day, by Dorothy J. Wilhelm.  This book is a collection of essays written by a Tacoma woman.  I had read some of her articles in the Olympia newspaper and decided to give her latest book a try.  Some of the entries are pretty good, others not so much, but all very human. 

The Angry Wife, by Pearl S. Buck.  Following the American Civil War, a couple in West Virginia, try to get their lives back on track.  Even though the South had lost the war the wife wanted to live exactly as she had before.  Their property was not significantly damaged by the war, and the husband wanted to get escape from his memories of the death and destruction he had witnessed and move on in the new world they lived in.  The slaves were free, but most continued to live and work on the family estate and be paid a salary.  This book follows them as they regain their wealth but lose each other as his attitude changes and hers does not.  Excellent, as most of Mrs. Buck’s books are. 

The Godforsaken Daughter, by Christina McKenna.  A young Irish woman has lost her father, with whom she had a close relationship, and now she must contend with the demands of her mother, who had never treated her with love.  As a side story, there is a psychiatrist whose wife is missing under mysterious circumstances.  These main characters come together and indirectly help each other through their respective crises.  I liked this one and the seemingly genuine characters.  

The Japanese Lover, by Isabel Allende.  After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, all people of Japanese descent, even those who were American citizens, were rounded up and sent to internment camps.  This novel is a love story about the years-long relationship between a non-Japanese girl and a Japanese-American boy.  It also includes a number of interesting characters and their stories.  I liked the book a lot; it is very gentle and sweet.

Homeland (The Crown Family Saga Book 1), by John Jakes.  I love long, historical novels, and this one is not exception – although I will confess that there was too much detail in some of it.  Jakes seems to want to impart a history lesson on his readers, so he takes many opportunities to include every real person he could as names in the story.  Not as characters, but just as names of people who were involved in the real historical events – boring.  Even so, his characters are very real and have interesting stories.

Sentence of Marriage (Promises to Keep Book 1), by Shayne Parkinson.  This is a novel about a young girl who is treated badly by her wicked stepmother who has no redeeming qualities.  She is also abused by the nurses in a nursing home.  It is an okay book, but I don’t believe I will be reading the two (or is it three) sequels. 

The Violinist of Venice:  A Story of Vivaldi, by Alyssa Palombo.  When I selected this book, I somehow thought it had a kernel of truth about Vivaldi and a possible affair.  However, it isn’t true and is nothing more than an entertaining love story that portrays the lives of rich people of Venice in the early 1700s.  Interesting, but not great.