It is that time of the year. We look at our bookshelves and see shelf upon shelf, filled with books of every genre, color and size.
There are worlds awaiting us, stories of all sorts written upon pages and pages. I often imagine the words just sitting there, quiet, waiting, as if behind a curtain listening for the call to spring forward and start the show. Then you open the book and it comes to life in your hands.
To some, a book is just a book. To me, it is a world of possibilities, of endless adventures, of learning and reaching places we never thought we would. That is how much I love books.
But having the time to read them is sometimes a bit rough. With all the book reviews I do during the year, I tend to give those priority which doesn't leave me much time to go through my own. I am hoping that this year, I do more reading than tv watching, so I'm going to try very hard to spend more time in my books than in front of the television.
I have set myself a goal of 24 books for this year, 2 a month. I don't quite know yet how many review books I'll get in, but I think it shouldn't be a problem, although I am not putting the pressure on myself to finish this goal. If I read them all, great, if I don't, that's fine too.
So, without further ado, let me show you my picks for this year......I don't know which one I'm reading first, because I can't seem to decide. What I'm going to do is put them all in a pile, and number them from 1 to 24, then I'm going to throw all the numbers in a bowl, and start pulling one at a time.
I hope that makes sense. Just think it will help me decide because I can't seem to, they're all so good and I can't wait to read each one, which makes it really hard to pick.
Ok, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and get comfortable, we have a ton of amazing books about to flood our computer screens.
The two princesses of Bamarre couldn't be more different. Princess
Addie is fearful and shy. Her deepest wish is for safety. Princess Meryl
is bold and brave. Her deepest wish is to save the kingdom of Bamarre.
They are sisters, and they mean the world to each other.
Then
disaster strikes, and Addie—terrified and unprepared—sets out on a
perilous quest. In her path are monsters of Bamarre: ogres, specters,
gryphons, and dragons.
Addie must battle them, but time is running out, and the sisters' lives—and Barmarre's fate—hang in the balance.
March by Geraldine Brooks
Acclaimed author Geraldine Brooks gives us the story of the absent
father from Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN - and conjures a world of
brutality, stubborn courage and transcendent love. An idealistic
abolitionist, March has gone as chaplain to serve the Union cause. But
the war tests his faith not only in the Union - which is also capable of
barbarism and racism - but in himself. As he recovers from a near-fatal
illness, March must reassemble and reconnect with his family, who have
no idea of what he has endured. A love story set in a time of
catastrophe, March explores the passions between a man and a woman, the
tenderness of parent and child, and the life-changing power of an
ardently held belief.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth
Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast
paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a
pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of
mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie.
Prayers for sale by Sandra Dallas
Hennie Comfort is eighty-six and has lived in the mountains of Middle
Swan, Colorado since before it was Colorado. Nit Spindle is just
seventeen and newly married. She and her husband have just moved to the
high country in search of work. It's 1936 and the depression has
ravaged the country and Nit and her husband have suffered greatly.
Hennie notices the young woman loitering near the old sign outside of
her house that promises "Prayers For Sale". Hennie doesn't sell
prayers, never has, but there's something about the young woman that
she's drawn to. The harsh conditions of life that each have endured
create an instant bond and an unlikely friendship is formed, one in
which the deepest of hardships are shared and the darkest of secrets are
confessed.
The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
This debut novel is based on the true story of Carrie McGavock. During
the Civil War's Battle of Franklin, a five-hour bloodbath with 9,200
casualties, McGavock's home was turned into a field hospital where four
generals died. For 40 years she tended the private cemetery on her
property where more than 1,000 were laid to rest.
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
One Thousand White Women begins with May Dodd’s journey into an
unknown world. Having been committed to an insane asylum by her
blue-blood family for the crime of loving a man beneath her station, May
finds that her only hope for freedom and redemption is to participate
in a secret government program whereby women from “civilized” society
become the brides of Cheyenne warriors. What follows is a series of
breathtaking adventures—May’s brief, passionate romance with the gallant
young army captain John Bourke; her marriage to the great chief Little
Wolf; and her conflict of being caught between loving two men and
living two completely different lives.
The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick
After escaping from a private sanitarium, Adelaide Blake arrives in Burning Cove, California, desperate to start over.
Working
at an herbal tea shop puts her on the radar of those who frequent the
seaside resort town: Hollywood movers and shakers always in need of
hangover cures and tonics. One such customer is Jake Truett, a recently
widowed businessman in town for a therapeutic rest. But unbeknownst to
Adelaide, his exhaustion is just a cover.
Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore
For nearly a century, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of
La Pradera, the lush estate gardens that enchant guests from around the
world. They’ve also hidden a tragic legacy: if they fall in love too
deeply, their lovers vanish. But then, after generations of vanishings, a
strange boy appears in the gardens.
The boy is a mystery to
Estrella, the Nomeolvides girl who finds him, and to her family, but
he’s even more a mystery to himself; he knows nothing more about who he
is or where he came from than his first name. As Estrella tries to help
Fel piece together his unknown past, La Pradera leads them to secrets as
dangerous as they are magical in this stunning exploration of love,
loss, and family.
The Factory Girls of Lark Lane by Pam Howes
1940, Liverpool: Alice Turner and her best friend, Millie Markham,
work for the war effort at Rootes munitions factory, making shell caps
and Halifax bombers. Alice’s sweetheart Terry is home from the front for
a brief period of leave. She’s been in love with him since school, and
the women are excitedly planning a whirlwind wedding.
But the
honeymoon is soon over. Terry must go back to the dangers of
Nazi-occupied France, and the ever-present air raid sirens quickly bring
Alice back down to earth. When a terrible explosion at the factory
leads to a tragic death, Millie receives devastating news, and a loved
one is announced missing in action, the heartbreak of war is suddenly
all too real.
Alice must believe Terry will make it home to keep
up her strength. Her mother and Millie need all her support, and morale
at the factory is at an all-time low.
Can Alice and Millie help one another make it through these dark times, even as the war stretches on with no sign of an ending?
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with
her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not
before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's
apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris,
May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is
asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through
her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of
long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds
herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term
in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's
past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate
her marriage and her life.
Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris
2 CHILDREN FOR SALE
The sign is a last resort.
It sits on a farmhouse porch in 1931, but could be found anywhere in an
era of breadlines, bank runs and broken dreams. It could have been
written by any mother facing impossible choices.
For struggling
reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his
family’s dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for
publication. But when it leads to his big break, the consequences are
more devastating than he ever imagined.
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She
arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a
few clothes and a single book -- a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She
is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On
her twenty-first birthday they tell her the truth, and with her sense of
self shattered and with very little to go on, "Nell" sets out on a
journey to England to try to trace her story, to find her real
identity.
Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast
and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until
her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell's death
that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. At Cliff Cottage, on
the grounds of Blackhurst Manor, Cassandra discovers the forgotten
garden of the book's title and is able to unlock the secrets of the
beautiful book of fairy tales.
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated
village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine
and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year
of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease
and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers
turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the
strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of
illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of
catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."
Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history.
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at
the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s
world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September
1939—and then sets its sights on France.
An ocean away from
Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth
disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the
underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes
and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.
For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a
government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life.
Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm
of Nazi secrets and power.
The lives of these three women are
set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent
to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their
stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland—as
Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has
forgotten.
Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris
Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how
beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners,
Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals
survival.
When the war is over and the camp is liberated,
freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for
sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she
really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka,
who was send to Auschwitz when she was still a child?
In
Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar,
including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she meets a
kind female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to
the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal
conditions.
Confronting death and terror daily, Cilka discovers a
strength she never knew she had. And when she begins to tentatively
form bonds and relationships in this harsh, new reality, Cilka finds
that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her
heart for love.
From child to woman, from woman to healer,
Cilka's journey illuminates the resilience of the human spirit—and the
will we have to survive.
October Song by Beverly Lewis
From newlyweds Katie and Dan living in the shadow of the shunning, to Rachel and Philip embracing parenthood even as
he acclimates to Amish life as an outsider... From the courtship of
Lydia Cottrell and her betrothed, Levi King, to Sarah Cain, now a wife
and mother struggling to bridge her own life with that of the People...
October Song is overflowing with the simpler things of life that make a
Lewis novel an unforgettable journey into the depths of the human heart.
The King's Witch by Tracy Borman
England, 1603. Nursing Queen Elizabeth through her last days,
court healer Frances Gorges dreams of her parents’ country estate, where
she first learned to use the medicinal secrets of flowers and herbs.
Frances is happy to stay at home when King James of Scotland succeeds to
the throne of England. His court may be shockingly decadent, but his
intolerant Puritanism sees witchcraft in many of the old
customs—punishable by death.
When her ambitious uncle sends Frances
back to the royal palace as a nanny to the princess, she is a ready
target for the twisted scheming of the Privy Seal, Lord Cecil. As a dark
campaign to destroy both King and Parliament gains momentum, Frances is
surrounded by danger. She finding happiness only with the King’s
precocious daughter, and with Tom Wintour, the one courtier she feels
she can trust. But even he has secrets to hide…
The Sugar Camp Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
As the nation moves toward civil war, one resident of Creek's Crossing,
Pennsylvania, has her life irrevocably changed. Dorothea Granger is
asked by her uncle, shortly before his violent death, to stitch an
unusual quilt. When she learns that the quilt contains hidden clues for
the Underground Railroad, Dorothea makes a brave decision. She will put
her own life at risk to continue the work that cost her uncle his life.
The Party Crasher by Sophie Kinsella
It’s been over two years since Effie’s beloved parents got divorced,
destroying the image of the happy, loving childhood she thought she had.
Since then, she’s become estranged from her father and embarked on a
feud with his hot (and much younger) girlfriend, Krista. And now, more
earth-shattering news: Greenoaks, the rambling Victorian country house
Effie called home her whole life, has been sold.
When Krista
decides to throw a grand “house cooling” party, Effie is originally left
off the guest list—and then receives a last-minute “anti-invitation”
(maybe it’s because she called Krista a gold-digger, but Krista totally
deserved it, and it was mostly a joke anyway). Effie declines, but then
remembers a beloved childhood treasure is still hidden in the house.
Her only chance to retrieve it is to break into Greenoaks while everyone
is busy celebrating. As Effie sneaks around the house, hiding under
tables and peeping through trapdoors, she realizes the secrets Greenoaks
holds aren’t just in the dusty passageways and hidden attics she grew
up exploring. Watching how her sister, brother, and dad behave when they
think no one is looking, Effie overhears conversations, makes
discoveries, and begins to see her family in a new light. Then she runs
into Joe—the love of her life, who long ago broke her heart, and who’s
still as handsome and funny as ever—and even more truths emerge.
But
will Effie act on these revelations? Will she stay hidden or step out
into the party and take her place with her family? And truthfully, what
did she really come back to Greenoaks for? Over the course of one
blowout party, Effie realizes that she must be honest with herself and
confront her past before she’ll ever be able to face her future.
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver
An invitation for every woman who feels she isn't godly enough... isn't
loving enough... isn't doing enough. The life of a woman today isn't
really all that different from that of Mary and Martha in the New
Testament. Like Mary, you long to sit at the Lord's feet... but the
daily demands of a busy world just won't leave you alone. Like Martha,
you love Jesus and really want to serve him... yet you struggle with
weariness, resentment, and feelings of inadequacy.
Then comes
Jesus, right into the midst of your busy Mary/Martha life-and he extends
the same invitation he issued long ago to the two sisters of Bethany.
Tenderly he invites you to choose "the better part"-a joyful life of
"living-room" intimacy with him that flows naturally into "kitchen
service" for him.
How can you make that choice? With her fresh
approach to the familiar Bible story and its creative, practical
strategies, Joanna shows how all of us -Marys and Marthas alike- can
draw closer to our Lord, deepening our devotion, strengthening our
service, and doing both with less stress and greater joy.
The Pioneers by David McCullough
McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and
Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned
architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in
American science. “With clarity and incisiveness, [McCullough] details
the experience of a brave and broad-minded band of people who crossed
raging rivers, chopped down forests, plowed miles of land, suffered
incalculable hardships, and braved a lonely frontier to forge a new
American ideal” (The Providence Journal).
The Children of the Stars by Mario Escobar
August 1942. Jacob and Moses Stein, two young Jewish
brothers, are staying with their aunt in Paris amid the Nazi occupation.
The boys’ parents, well-known German playwrights, have left the
brothers in their aunt’s care until they can find safe harbor for their
family. But before the Steins can reunite, a great and terrifying
roundup occurs. The French gendarmes, under Nazi order, arrest the boys
and take them to the Vélodrome d’Hiver—a massive, bleak structure in
Paris where thousands of France’s Jews are being forcibly detained.
Jacob
and Moses know they must flee in order to survive, but they only have a
set of letters sent from the South of France to guide them to their
parents. Danger lurks around every corner as the boys, with nothing but
each other, trek across the occupied country. Along their remarkable
journey, they meet strangers and brave souls who put themselves at risk
to protect the children—some of whom pay the ultimate price for helping
these young refugees of war.
Tidelands by Philippa Gregory
A country at war
A king beheaded
A woman with a dangerous secret
On
Midsummer’s Eve, Alinor waits in the church graveyard, hoping to
encounter the ghost of her missing husband and thus confirm his death.
Until she can, she is neither maiden nor wife nor widow, living in a
perilous limbo. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run. She
shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marshy landscape of the
Tidelands, not knowing she is leading a spy and an enemy into her life.
England
is in the grip of a bloody civil war that reaches into the most remote
parts of the kingdom. Alinor’s suspicious neighbors are watching each
other for any sign that someone might be disloyal to the new parliament,
and Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her as a woman who doesn’t
follow the rules. They have always whispered about the sinister power
of Alinor’s beauty, but the secrets they don’t know about her and James
are far more damning. This is the time of witch-mania, and if the
villagers discover the truth, they could take matters into their own
hands.
Wideacre by Philippa Gregory
Beatrice Lacey, as strong-minded as she is beautiful, refuses to conform
to the social customs of her time. Destined to lose her heritage and
beloved Wideacre estate once she is wed, Beatrice will use any means
necessary to protect her ancestral name. Seduction, betrayal, even
murder—Beatrice’s passion is without apology or conscience. “She is a
Lacey of Wideacre,” her father warns, “and whatever she does, however
she behaves, will always be fitting.” Yet even as Beatrice’s scheming
seems about to yield her dream, she is haunted by the one living person
who knows the extent of her plans...and her capacity for evil.
As I was typing up this post, and adding in the summary for each book, I got even more excited. I also noticed there seems to be a bit of a pattern or theme going this year, most of the books are historical fiction and are either set in early England, or Civil War time in America. I don't think I will get bored with any, or find one or two boring.....but, you never know.
Do you have a reading list for 2022? Is is something you usually do, or will you give it a try this year?
Oh and before I forget, I WILL be reading the Bible again from the beginning. So there's that going on as well, I think I have a lot to keep me busy and away from the TV.
