Review: The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

Overview:

The hilarious and loving sequel to a hilarious and loving classic of travel writing: Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson's valentine to his adopted country of England

In 1995 Bill Bryson got into his car and took a weeks-long farewell motoring trip about England before moving his family back to the United States. The book about that trip, Notes from a Small Island, is uproarious and endlessly endearing, one of the most acute and affectionate portrayals of England in all its glorious eccentricity ever written. Two decades later, he set out again to rediscover that country, and the result is The Road to Little Dribbling. Nothing is funnier than Bill Bryson on the road—prepare for the total joy and multiple episodes of unseemly laughter.

Review:

Once again Bill Bryson proves himself as one of my favorite writers. His descriptions of quaint and not-so-quaint towns throughout Britain paints such vivid pictures. Plus, who wouldn't love Bryson's sense of humor? From concerns about society's march toward total stupidity to his personal struggles at McDonald's, the jokes are clever and relatable. But perhaps where Bryson shines most is in describing the history of each location, his experience, and how time has treated the place. His thoughts on the British rail system are just one example of Bryson's intelligence.

The Road to Little Dribbling is engaging and charming, much like I imagine Bryson to be. Part history lesson, part personal adventure, this book is definitely a love letter to Bryson's adopted land.

Review: Bradstreet Gate by Robin Kirman

Overview:

 

Georgia, Charlie and Alice each arrive at Harvard with hopeful visions of what the future will hold. But when, just before graduation, a classmate is found murdered on campus, they find themselves facing a cruel and unanticipated new reality. Moreover, a charismatic professor who has loomed large in their lives is suspected of the crime. Though his guilt or innocence remains uncertain, the unsettling questions raised by the case force the three friends to take a deeper look at their tangled relationship. Their bond has been defined by the secrets they’ve kept from one another—Charlie’s love and Alice’s envy, Georgia’s mysterious affair—and over the course of the next decade, as they grapple with the challenges of adulthood and witness the unraveling of a teacher's once-charmed life, they must reckon with their own deceits and shortcomings, each desperately in search of answers and the chance to be forgiven.

A relentless, incisive, and keenly intelligent novel about promise, disappointment, and the often tenuous bonds of friendship, Bradstreet Gate is the auspicious debut of a tremendously talented new writer.

 

Review:

 

This book was a little perplexing for me. I found myself really engrossed in the characters, and what I assumed would be a clear solution to the books mystery: what happened to Julie Patel? Of course, reading the book's description, it's really about the intertwined lives of three students and a professor at Harvard; but the death of another student is the backstory that keeps alluding to more. Without a clear resolution to this secondary story, it feels like the book was somehow cut off. I found myself wanting more from each character. It began questioning their motives and who they really were after spending so many pages with them.  I also felt that the jump between college and ten years later was an interesting plot device not fully realized. Somehow the characters lost their depth as they got older.

Bradford Gate was very well written, and I enjoyed the book, I just felt it was missing a few elements to make it an excellent book. I was looking for a big reveal, and the book ended quite quietly.

 

* I received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Legacy of Lost Things by Aida Zilelian

Overview:

Aida Zilelian's breathtaking debut novel, The Legacy of Lost Things, follows three generations of a family of Armenian immigrants living in the United States, as they struggle with one another and against the Old World expectations of their community. When Araxi, the oldest daughter of the desperately unhappy Levon and Tamar, goes missing, the remaining family members are forced to confront their painful histories together, and the role each of them has played in driving Araxi away.

 

Through Araxi and her family, readers are given a unique look at the generational and cultural tensions that both keep families together and tear them apart. Using spare, poignant prose, Zilelian deftly explores the themes of romance, duty, infidelity and guilt. Because of the mature content, this book is intended for adult and young adult audiences.

Review:

 

I was surprised by what a quick read this book was. It was a thoughtful exploration of family told through the eyes of each family member.  The characters had a lot of depth. Their struggles were easily felt, and despite many obstacles you kept rooting for each of them. A really engaging read.

 

*I received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: A Thousand Days in Tuscany

Overview:

American chef Marlena de Blasi and her Venetian husband, Fernando, married rather late in life. In search of the rhythms of country living, the couple moves to a barely renovated former stable in Tuscany with no phone, no central heating, and something resembling a playhouse kitchen. They dwell among two hundred villagers, ancient olive groves, and hot Etruscan springs. In this patch of earth where Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio collide, there is much to feed de Blasi's two passions--food and love. We accompany the couple as they harvest grapes, gather chestnuts, forage for wild mushrooms, and climb trees in the cold of December to pick olives, one by one. Their routines are not that different from those of villagers centuries earlier.

They are befriended by the mesmeric Barlozzo, a self-styled village chieftain. His fascinating stories lead de Blasi more deeply inside the soul of Tuscany. Together they visit sacred festivals and taste just-pressed olive oil, drizzled over roasted country bread, and squash blossoms, battered and deep-fried and sprayed with sea-salted water. In a cauldron set over a wood fire, they braise beans in red wine, and a stew of wild boar simmers overnight in the ashes of their hearth. Barlozzo shares his knowledge of Italian farming traditions, ancient health potions, and artisanal food makers, but he has secrets he doesn't share, and one of them concerns the beautiful Floriana, whose illness teaches Marlena that happiness is truly a choice.

Like the pleasurable tastes and textures of a fine meal, A Thousand Days in Tuscany is as satisfying as it is enticing. The author's own recipes are included.

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Review:

I found this book utterly enchanting. Marlena de Blasi has a way of describing an ordinary day that transports it to anything but ordinary. She captures the beauty in everyday life, and of course her description of life in Tuscany are magical. Every time de Blasi described a meal, I felt I could taste all the flavors coming together; as a result I was often quite hungry while reading. I've used some of her recipes, and the food has been divine. 

Having spent some time living in Italy myself, it was nice to be reminded of the slower way of life. Reading about days spent harvesting olives or baking bread; the daily rituals of breakfast at the bar, made me long to return. de Blasi has such a way with language. She paints such a vivid portrait of her life in Tuscany and the family she creates there.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in food or travel. I cannot wait to read the rest of her books.

Review: A Faraway Smell of Lemon by Rachel Joyce

Overview:

 

It is Christmas Eve. Binny has four hours to make Christmas happen and she couldn't feel less like wishing glad tidings of good will to all men - least of all to Oliver. It is raining, her house is falling apart, the streets are jammed with people and it is all Oliver's fault. Darting into a shop to escape a conversation, Binny finds herself in the sort of place she would never normally visit. But in amongst the shelves is a surprising source of peace.

 

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Review:

 

Joyce has written a sweet and thoughtful short story about making peace with the past. Christmas Eve finds Binny sad, angry and resolved to forego the holiday season altogether. In an effort to avoid a conversation, she ducts into a fancy cleaning shop. Her chance encounter with the young shop girl serves as a turning point for Binny- offering solace and hope.

 

Review: Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson

Overview:

 

In six masterly stories, Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal. “George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine” follows a former warden of a Stasi prison in East Germany who vehemently denies his past, even as pieces of it are delivered in packages to his door. “Nirvana,” which won the prestigious Sunday Times short story prize, portrays a programmer whose wife has a rare disease finding solace in a digital simulacrum of the president of the United States. In “Hurricanes Anonymous”—first included in the Best American Short Stories anthology—a young man searches for the mother of his son in a Louisiana devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And in the unforgettable title story, Johnson returns to his signature subject, North Korea, depicting two defectors from Pyongyang who are trying to adapt to their new lives in Seoul, while one cannot forget the woman he left behind.

Unnerving, riveting, and written with a timeless quality, these stories confirm Johnson as one of America's greatest writers and an indispensable guide to our new century.

 

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Review:

 

Fortune Smiles is not at all the short story collection I was expecting. With topics ranging from cancer to the prisons of East Germany,  it's certainly not a lighthearted read. While the topics were sometimes uncomfortable, at least they elicited a response. I found the short story Fortune Smiles, where this collection gets its name, to be the strongest. Dark Meadow was a bit too disturbing, and Nirvana fell a bit flat. Overall, I didn't feel the characters were developed in any way that garnered sympathy or understanding. I wasn't emotionally invested in any of them.

Review: How to Write a Novel by Melanie Sumner

Overview:

In the spirit of Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project comes a hilarious and heartfelt story of an aspiring author trying to rescue her single-mother family by writing the next Great American Novel.

 

Aristotle "Aris" Thibodeau is 12.5 years old and destined for glory. Unfortunately, after her father's death, she finds herself plopped down in Kanuga, Georgia, where she has to manage her mother Diane's floundering love life and dubious commitment to her job as an English professor. Not to mention, co-parenting a little brother who hogs all the therapy money.

Luckily, Aris has a plan. Following the advice laid out Write a Novel in Thirty Days! she sets out to pen a bestseller using her charmingly dysfunctional family as material. If the Mom-character, Diane, would ditch online dating and accept that the perfect man is clearly the handyman/nanny-character, Penn MacGuffin, Aris would have the essential romance for her plot (and a father in her real life). But when a random accident uncovers a dark part of Thibodeau family history, Aris is forced to confront the fact that sometimes in life—as in great literature—things might not work out exactly as planned.

 

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Review:

 

How to Write a Novel chronicles family life as experience (and told) by 12.5 year Aristotle (Aris). Aris, her younger brother Max, and mom Diane, are still working through life after the loss of family patriarch, Joe.  Aris is precocious, funny, and smart.  When she's not co-parenting her little brother, she's hard at work trying to find a suitable match for Diane.

I found this coming of age story at turns heart breaking, hopeful, and funny. This is the perfect book for fans of Marie Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette. I highly recommend How to Write a Novel and can't wait for Melanie Sumner's next work.

Review: At Water's Edge by Sara Gruen

Overview:

In this new novel from the author of Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen again demonstrates her talent for creating spellbinding period pieces. At the Water's Edge is a gripping and poignant love story about a privileged young woman's personal awakening as she experiences the devastations of World War II in a Scottish Highlands village.

Madeline Hyde, a young socialite from Philadelphia, reluctantly follows her husband and their best friend to the tiny village of Drumnadrochit in search of a mythical monster—at the same time that a very real monster, Hitler, wages war against the Allied Forces. What Maddie discovers—about the larger world and about herself—through the unlikely friendships she develops with the villagers, opens her eyes not only to the dark forces that exist around her but to the beauty and surprising possibilities.

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Review:

 

Sara Gruen has again produced a historical fiction novel that is engaging and atmospheric. When three young twenty-somethings leave 1940s Philadelphia in the midst of World War II, in search of the mythical Lochness Monster, they find far more than they bargained for. Fans of Kate Morton or Kate Atkinson,  will enjoy At the Water's Edge.

Review: No Baggage by Clara Bensen

Overview:

 

No Baggage is a memoir that will resonate with adventurers and homebodies alike—it’s at once a romance, a travelogue, and a bright modern take on the age-old questions: how do you find the courage to explore beyond your comfort zone? And can you love someone without the need for commitment, or any expectations for the future?

When Clara Bensen arranged to meet Jeff Wilson on the steps of the Texas State Capitol, after just a few email exchanges on OKCupid, it felt like something big was going to happen. Clara, a sensitive and reclusive personality, is immediately drawn to Jeff’s freewheeling, push-the-envelope nature. Within a few days of knowing one another, they embark on a 21-day travel adventure—from Istanbul to London, with zero luggage, zero reservations, and zero plans. They want to test a simple question: what happens when you welcome the unknown instead of attempting to control it?

Donning a single green dress and a small purse with her toothbrush and credit card, Clara travels through eight countries in three weeks. Along the way, Clara ruminates on the challenges of traveling unencumbered, while realizing when it comes to falling in love, you can never really leave your baggage behind.

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Review:

 

The book chronicles a three-week vacation- where Bensen and maybe-boyfriend Jeff bring nothing but the clothes on their backs. Interspersed are memories of Bensen's nervous-breakdown and how she met Jeff.

 

I found the book to be disjointed. The trip really took backseat to relationship worries that painted Jeff as almost entirely unlikable, and Bensen slightly unbalanced. There was also quite a bit of time spent exploring Bensen's "existential crisis,' which read more like a self-indulgent fissy fit. Rather than garnering sympathy, it all felt very forced and melodramatic. I would have like to learn more about Bensen's travel experiences, and how her grand no baggage experiment played out.

However, all that criticism aside, Bensen is clearly an intelligent and skilled writer. Her research into the scientific and mathematical implications of coincidence or Greek philosophers is stellar. Her thoughts on the nature of being are quite interesting as well.

 

I understand that Bensen and Jeff continue to travel sans baggage. I'll be interested to see how future writing manifests itself.

 

*I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Wind/Pinball by Haruki Murakami

Overview:

The debut short novels--nearly thirty years out of print-- by the internationally acclaimed writer, newly retranslated and in one English-language volume for the first time, with a new introduction by the author.

These first major works of fiction by Haruki Murakami center on two young men--an unnamed narrator and his friend and former roommate, the Rat. Powerful, at times surreal, stories of loneliness, obsession, and eroticism, these novellas bear all the hallmarks of Murakami's later books, giving us a fascinating insight into a great writer's beginnings, and are remarkable works of fiction in their own right. Here too is an exclusive essay by Murakami in which he explores and explains his decision to become a writer. Prequels to the much-beloved classics A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance, these early works are essential reading for Murakami completists and contemporary fiction lovers alike.

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Review:

Haruki Murakami is one of my all-time favorite authors, and his first works Wind/Pinball do not disappoint. It was so interesting to read these early novels knowing the evolution of Murakami's work. With other authors, you can sense when they have hit their stride or passed their peak. Murakami's writing is consistently excellent. His turns of phrase exceptional from his very first novels.

If you've read other Murakami novels- which obviously I recommend- Wind/Pinball will give you a sense of nostalgia. Having just finished these novels, I'd love to re-read Murakami's full collection. I love how much life and atmosphere goes into each novel. Murakami creates such a sense of time and place; it's so tangible. When he describes a 'very good coffee,' my mind immediately conjures the smell and taste of the best coffee I've ever had. If he mentions a record, I recall my introduction to those songs. Even when the limits of reality begin to stretch, I can visualize and relate to the scene. There is a subtlety in Murakami's writing that allows every possibility to exist as reality. 

Review: The Children's Home by Charles Lambert

Overview:

 

For fans of Shirley Jackson, Neil Gaiman, Roald Dahl, and Edward Gorey, a beguiling and disarming debut novel from an award-winning British author about a mysterious group of children who appear to a disfigured recluse and his country doctor—and the startling revelations their behavior evokes.

In a sprawling estate, willfully secluded, lives Morgan Fletcher, the disfigured heir to a fortune of mysterious origins. Morgan spends his days in quiet study, avoiding his reflection in mirrors and the lake at the end of his garden. One day, two children, Moira and David, appear. Morgan takes them in, giving them free reign of the mansion he shares with his housekeeper Engel. Then more children begin to show up.

Dr. Crane, the town physician and Morgan’s lone tether to the outside world, is as taken with the children as Morgan, and begins to spend more time in Morgan’s library. But the children behave strangely. They show a prescient understanding of Morgan’s past, and their bizarre discoveries in the mansion attics grow increasingly disturbing. Every day the children seem to disappear into the hidden rooms of the estate, and perhaps, into the hidden corners of Morgan’s mind.

The Children’s Home is a genre-defying, utterly bewitching masterwork, an inversion of modern fairy tales like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Golden Compass, in which children visit faraway lands to accomplish elusive tasks. Lambert writes from the perspective of the visited, weaving elements of psychological suspense, Jamesian stream of consciousness, and neo-gothic horror, to reveal the inescapable effects of abandonment, isolation, and the grotesque—as well as the glimmers of goodness—buried deep within the soul.

 

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Review:

 

Charles Lambert has written a fascinating and engaging  novel. The Children's Home is mystery, history and magical realism rolled into one.  I enjoyed this book a great deal- a fast read. I am still working out all the philosophical and psychological implications in this book. Told through the scope of magical realism, The Children's Home dark underbelly reveals the less flattering side of human nature. I would highly recommend this book for fans of John Connolly and Neil Gaiman.

 

*I received an advanced reader copier in exchange for an honest review.

Review: It Always Rains on Sundays by Roger Johnson

Overview:

Cyn. Cyn, where have you bin?

I’ve been trying to call you all day.

Expect you’re in bed with Kevin the Red,

Where the skies are not cloudy all day.

 

Life is happy for 40-year-old poetry buff and senior librarian Colin Quirke, happily married to Cynthia for thirteen years with two great kids. Not so for Cynthia. Cyn is bored.

 

This all changes when a new, younger couple moves in next door. Eddie and ditsy blonde Avril’s motto is ‘Life is for living!’. Wild parties with loud music are soon followed by girls’ nights out, and life will never be the same on the De Lacey Street cul-de-sac.

 

In the meantime, Eddie is killed in a tragic micro-light plane accident. Cyn consoles Avril by taking her to Miami. Next thing you know, she’s met up with some red-haired American guy called Kevin Ranker (aka 'the home-wrecker').

 

Is divorce on the cards for Cyn and Colin? Consolations, at least. Still, there’s always the lovely Alison at the Poetry Society. Or the new assistant librarian at work, she could be interesting…

 

It Always Rains on Sundays is a laugh-out-loud new novel from BBC prize-winner Roger Johnson. Full of intelligent humour, it is an entertaining read for fans of funny and original fiction.

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Review:

I don't really know what to make of the description I read, the publisher's quotes, and what I actually read. Somehow I cannot reconcile all the information. Narrator Colin Quirke is an utterly unlikeable, out-of-the-loop loser. He lacked emotional depth and apparently any sense of reality. If the novel was meant to be funny, I've certainly missed the humor. The description also paints the picture of a more multi-dimensional story. I wasn't picking up on any of that either. The story just seemed to plod along with no action, climax, or resolution. I had high hopes for It Always Rains on Sundays, so I'm disappointed.

*I received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: A Beginner's Guide to Paradise by Alex Sheshunoff

Overview:

So You Too Can:

- Move to a South Pacific Island
- Wear a Loincloth
- Read a Hundred Books
- Diaper a Baby Monkey
- Build a Bungalow

And Maybe, Just Maybe, Fall in Love! *

* Individual results may vary.

The true story of how a quarter-life crisis led to adventure, freedom, and love on a tiny island in the Pacific.From the author of a lot of emails and several Facebook posts comes A Beginner's Guide to Paradise, a laugh-out-loud, true story that will answer your most pressing escape-from-it-all questions, including:

1. How much, per pound, should you expect to pay a priest to fly you to the outer islands of Yap?
2. Classic slumber party stumper: If you could have just one movie on a remote Pacific island, what would it definitely not be?
3. How do you blend fruity drinks without a blender?
4. Is a free, one-hour class from Home Depot on “Flowerbox Construction” sufficient training to build a house?

From Robinson Crusoe to Survivor, Gilligan's Island to The Beach, people have fantasized about living on a remote tropical island. But when facing a quarter-life crisis, plucky desk slave Alex Sheshunoff actually did it.

While out in Paradise, he learned a lot. About how to make big choices and big changes. About the less-than-idyllic parts of paradise. About tying a loincloth without exposing the tender bits. Now, Alex shares his incredible story and pretty-hard-won wisdom in a book that will surprise you, make you laugh, take you to such unforgettable islands as Yap and Pig, and perhaps inspire your own move to an island with only two letters in its name.

Answers: 1) $1.14 2) Gas Attack Training Made Simple 3) Crimp a fork in half and insert middle into power drill 4) No.

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Review:

Having orchestrated my own move to a foreign country, I really enjoy reading about others' experiences. A Beginner's Guide to Paradise follows Alex Sheshunoff's adventure after he leaves his life in New York City for life on a remote Pacific island. I found the story sincere and real, There were plenty of opportunities to over-sell hilarious mishaps or wax poetic about life in paradise. But Sheshunoff doesn't do that. He presents his experience: the funny, the serious, the daring, and the... cheesy?? There were moments when I felt the story dragged a bit. There were quite a number of experiences I wish were explored more fully.

 

All that being said, I thought it was a charming and delightful read, and definitely recommend this book.

 

* I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Recommended: Grimm's Last Fairytale by Haydn Middleton

Overview:

 

with his devoted niece, Auguste, who longs to learn at last the truth about her family. They are accompanied by Kummel, their new and enigmatic manservant. As relations between the three reach a crisis point, vivid flashbacks tell of Jacob's traumas and heartbreaks. Old now, Jacob resists Auguste's attempts to make him take stock of his life, but memories that are repressed have a tendency to reappear in other places, and in other guises.

Throughout Jacob's travels, he is reminded of the folktales he and his brother Wilhelm collected in their Tales for the Young and Old. Most notable is the feverish fairytale of "Sleeping Beauty," which holds a shattered mirror to a life, a country, and a history. The version recounted here is an enchanting tale that goes beyond the marriage of the Prince and Princess, to reveal the surprising truth behind the evil.

In his compelling historical novel, Haydn Middleton re-creates the life story of literature's most famous brothers. It is a history that could almost be a fairytale itself, with its fabulous changes of fortune, tests of duty and honor, arrogant princes, lost loves, and twisted family relationships-all unfolding in a world of dark forests and even darker politics.

Book Review: The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell

Overview:

 

For fans of Liane Moriarty and Jojo Moyes comes a riveting family drama with a dark mystery at its core, from the internationally bestselling author of The House We Grew Up In.

In the early hours of a summer morning, a young woman steps into the path of an oncoming bus. A tragic accident? Or suicide?

At the center of this puzzle is Adrian Wolfe, a successful architect and grief-stricken widower, who, a year after his third wife’s death, begins to investigate the cause. As Adrian looks back on their brief but seemingly happy marriage, disturbing secrets begin to surface. The divorces from his two previous wives had been amicable, or so it seemed; his children, all five of them, were resilient as ever, or so he thought. But something, or someone, must have pushed Maya over the edge…

With psychological nuance that gets into the heart of its characters, The Third Wife is a gripping story about a man seeking the truth behind his seemingly perfect marriage and the broken pieces left behind.

 

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Review:

I am really conflicted about this book. For most of the book, I was convinced it was a simply- and perhaps poorly- executive chick-lit novel. Then I actually got into the suspense of the Third Wife's (Maya) death. I expected a great mystery revealed. Ultimately, I was disappointed by the rather predictable reveal, and offended by the overall disregard for Maya's life, and death.  Maya was the only character with any real depth or complexity. The others were self-involved and lacking any real emotion range.

All that being said, the novel did elicit a response for me (anger, disappoint, frustration with the characters), and to me that is the mark of a good writer. Not every character is meant to be likable, relatable- worth forgiveness or redemption.

Recommended: In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden by Kathleen Cambor

Overview: 

In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden is the story of a bittersweet romance set against the backdrop of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood — a tragedy that cost some 2,200 lives when the South Fork Dam burst on Memorial Day weekend, 1889. The dam was the site of a gentlemen's club that attracted some of the wealthiest industrialists of the day — Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon, and Andrew Carnegie — and served as a summertime idyll for the families of the rich. In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden imagines the lives that were lived, lost, and irreparably changed by a tragedy that could have been averted.

Recommended: The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

Overview:

 

A spellbinding novel, at once sweeping and intimate, from the Booker Prize–winning author of Possession, that spans the Victorian era through the World War I years, and centers around a famous children’s book author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the people she loves.

When Olive Wellwood’s oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of the new Victoria and Albert Museum—a talented working-class boy who could be a character out of one of Olive’s magical tales—she takes him into the storybook world of her family and friends.

But the joyful bacchanals Olive hosts at her rambling country house—and the separate, private books she writes for each of her seven children—conceal more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined. As these lives—of adults and children alike—unfold, lies are revealed, hearts are broken, and the damaging truth about the Wellwoods slowly emerges. But their personal struggles, their hidden desires, will soon be eclipsed by far greater forces, as the tides turn across Europe and a golden era comes to an end.

Taking us from the cliff-lined shores of England to Paris, Munich, and the trenches of the Somme, The Children’s Book is a deeply affecting story of a singular family, played out against the great, rippling tides of the day. It is a masterly literary achievement by one of our most essential writers.

Review: The Boy Who Granted Dreams by Luca Di Fulvio

Overview:

New York, 1909: Fifteen-year-old Cetta arrives on a freighter with nothing but her infant son Natale: strikingly blond, dark-eyed, and precocious. They've fled the furthest reaches of southern Italy with the dream of a better life in America.
But even in the "Land of the Free," the merciless laws of gangs rule the miserable, poverty-stricken, and crime-filled Lower East Side. Only those with enough strength and conviction survive. As young Natale grows up in the Roaring Twenties, he takes a page from his crippled mother's book and finds he possesses a certain charisma that enables him to charm the dangerous people around him ...
Weaving Natale's unusual life and quest for his one true love against the gritty backdrop of New York's underbelly, Di Fulvio proves yet again that he is a master storyteller as he constructs enticing characters ravaged by circumstance, driven by dreams, and awakened by destiny.

Haunting and luminous, this masterfully written blend of romance, crime, and historical fiction will thrill lovers of turn-of-the-century dramas like "Once Upon a Time in America" and "Gangs of New York."

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Review:

 

The Boy Who Granted Dreams is dazzling. A sweeping novel from the shores of Italy to the gritty streets of the Lower East Side; the bright lights of Broadway to the  Hollywood Hills, readers follow a blonde haired, blue eyed, Italian boy named Christmas. . Di Fulvio takes us through 1920s New York City, Detroit, and the early days of Hollywood. Told from three points of view, this is a story about the American Dream, and the lives built and destroy by that dream. My only criticism would be that the book seemed a bit long in parts. Still, I highly recommend this novel.

Recommended: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Overview:

 

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England’s history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England—until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight.

Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell’s student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear.

Review: The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi

Overview:

 

India, 1986: Mukta, a ten-year-old girl from the lower caste Yellamma cult of temple prostitutes has come of age to fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute. In an attempt to escape this legacy that binds her, Mukta is transported to a foster family in Bombay. There she discovers a friend in the high spirited eight-year-old Tara, the tomboyish daughter of the family, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past. Tara introduces Mukta to a different world—ice cream and sweets, poems and stories, and a friendship the likes of which she has never experienced before. In 1993, Mukta is kidnapped from Tara’s room.

Eleven years later, Tara who blames herself for what happened, embarks on an emotional journey to search for the kidnapped Mukta only to uncover long buried secrets in her own family.

Moving from a remote village in India to the bustling metropolis of Bombay, to Los Angeles and back again, amidst the brutal world of human trafficking, this is a heartbreaking and beautiful portrait of an unlikely friendship—a story of love, betrayal, and redemption—which ultimately withstands the true test of time.

 

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Review:

 

I can't help but compare this novel to The Kite Runner. In some ways it read very much The Kite Runner meets Slum Dog Millionaire. I could not completely escape the parallels of The Kite Runner, however after several characters the story began to stand on its own. Particularly because it sheds light on human trafficking in India. For that reason alone I would recommend this novel. While The Color of Our Sky is a work of fiction, it is a composite of real experiences. I look forward to Trasi's next novel.