Thankful for the Written Word 2021

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Its time for my annual reading wrap-up covering titles since last Thanksgiving…be they hardcover or audio through Libby and Hoopla. As some of you know I’m the moderator of a Book Club at church - we meet September through June and I offer the group three titles to choose from at our meetings. I’ll make a note of titles that were from Book Club/BC. I hope you find a few new titles to enjoy!

The Christmas Box: A story about the family you make.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue: BC book. In 1913 Laura Lyons husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library, allowing their family to live in an apartment within the grand building. But headstrong, passionate Laura wants more, and when she takes a leap of faith and applies to the Columbia Journalism School, her world is cracked wide open.

The Christmas Mouse: Mrs. Berry is frightened by a mouse and goes downstairs to sit-out Christmas Eve and is disturbed yet again. This time by a young run-away boy. This lovely tale still enchants me about the best in human nature. I was given this book as a child and I love to reread it every Christmas.

A Christmas Carol: I love Charles Dickens and Ebenezer and how his world is shaken all in one evening never disappoints. I will read again this holiday.

House of Thieves: BC book. In 1886 New York, a respectable architect shouldn’t have any connection to the notorious gang of thieves and killers that rules the underbelly of the city. But when John Cross’s son racks up an unfathomable gambling debt to Kent’s Gents, Cross must pay it back himself. I found this story entertaining.

When it Happens to You: I really enjoyed this debut novel by actress, singer and now author Molly Ringwald it is well written and her characters are fully dimensional in a series of intertwined stories about the challenges, joys and disappointments of adult relationships. Her characters grapple with infertility and infidelity, fame and familial discord. One of my top picks!

The House I Loved: Paris, France: 1860's. Hundreds of houses are being razed, whole neighborhoods reduced to ashes. By order of Emperor Napoleon III, Baron Haussman has set into motion a series of large-scale renovations that will permanently alter the face of old Paris, molding it into a "modern city." Rose Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home until the very end; as others flee, she stakes her claim in the basement of the old house on rue Childebert, ignoring the sounds of change that come closer and closer each day.

White Dresses: A Memoir of Love and Secrets, Mothers and Daughters: - BC book. In this poignant memoir of three generations of women and the white dresses that adorned them Mary Pflum Peterson digs deep after her mother’s sudden death in 2010. In her digging she uncovers at twenty-one, her mother Anne entered a convent, committed to a life of prayer and helping others. But fled the convent almost a decade later. Hoping to find new purpose as a wife and mother, Anne did not get what she envisioned in her life.

The Children: Another title by the enjoyable Ann Leary. Here we have the story of Charlotte who rarely leaves her stepfather’s home Lakeside. Her stepbrothers are welcomed guests even though they own Lakeside since their father’s passing. When Spin brings his fiancé home everyone is intrigued by the beautiful and accomplished Laurel Atwood. As the wedding draws near flaws surface in this family portrait. One of my top picks!

84 Charing Cross Road: Published in 1970, this book brings together twenty years of correspondence between Helene Hanff, a freelance writer living in New York City, and a used-book dealer in London. Through the years, though never meeting they share a winsome, sentimental friendship based on their common love for books. Their relationship, captured so acutely in these letters, is one that will grab your heart and not let go.

The Dutch House: BC book. This Ann Patchett title is wonderful. This book carries with it all the meaning of home and asks what does a building hold of a family when you don’t have either. I originally read the book in March 2020 and then I listened to the audio version read by the wonderful Tom Hanks and I loved hearing it and picking up on things I missed or forgot… if possible it was more impactful than when I read it. One of my top picks!

Educated: Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Where the Crawdads Sing: BC book. It’s a book I could not put down. I love how Kya manages to survive and create a life. I cheered for her and I also felt a bit suspect of some actions she took - and I will happily chat with anyone about where I think the story should have gone… I do think it a well crafted book.

Number the Stars: This title was being read by my son’s class - I wanted to be able to chat with my son about it. Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family.

Open Book: Jessica Simpson the singer and actress tells of growing up in 1980s Texas - being sexually abused, unsuccessfully auditioning for the Mickey Mouse Club before going on to sign a record deal with Columbia, marrying and divorcing Nick Lachey before ending up happily with her current husband Eric Johnson and welcoming three children with him.

The High Tide Club: When ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons Brooke Trappnell to Talisa Island, her 20,000 acre remote barrier island home, Brooke is puzzled. Everybody in the South has heard about the eccentric millionaire mistress of Talisa, but Brooke has never met her. Josephine’s cryptic note says she wants to discuss an important legal matter with attorney Brooke.

The Jane Austen Society: One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy.

The Weekenders: Some people stay all summer long on the idyllic island of Belle Isle, North Carolina. Others come only for the weekends-and the mix between the regulars and “the weekenders” can sometimes make the sparks fly. Riley Griggs has a season of good times with friends and family ahead of her on Belle Isle when things take an unexpected turn. While waiting for her husband to arrive on the ferry one Friday afternoon, Riley is confronted by a process server who thrusts papers into her hand. And her husband is nowhere to be found.

The Paris Library: Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family, and the power of literature to bring us together. Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street: A zesty memoir of celebrated writer Helene Hanff’s travels to England where she meets the cherished friends from 84, Charing Cross Road.

The Woman in the Green Dress: After a whirlwind romance, London teashop waitress Fleur Richards can’t wait for her new husband, Hugh, to return from the Great War. But when word of his death arrives on Armistice Day, Fleur learns he has left her a sizable family fortune. Refusing to accept the inheritance, she heads to his beloved home country of Australia in search of the relatives who deserve it more.

Lady Susan: Beautiful, flirtatious, and recently widowed, Lady Susan Vernon seeks an advantageous second marriage for herself, while attempting to push her daughter into a dismal match. A magnificently crafted novel of Regency manners and mores that will delight Austen enthusiasts with its wit and elegant expression.

Untamed: Untamed is both a memoir and a wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children but, one who shows them how to fully live.

Everything I Never Told You: BC book. So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another. This is a tale of grief but, an incredibly well crafted book. I would neither remove or add a thing to it’s pages. The characters - who they are, how they interact with each other and world is pretty perfect. I highly recommend! One of my top picks!

Old Herbaceous: A classic British novel of the garden. Born at the dusk of the Victorian era, Bert Pinnegar, an awkward orphan child with one leg a tad longer than the other, rises from inauspicious schoolboy days spent picking wildflowers and dodging angry farmers to become the legendary head gardener “Old Herbaceous,” the most esteemed flower-show judge in the county and a famed horticultural wizard capable of producing dazzling April strawberries from the greenhouse and the exact morning glories his Lady spies on the French Riviera, “so blue, so blue it positively hurts.” Sprinkled with nuggets of gardening wisdom, Old Herbaceous is a witty comic portrait of the most archetypal—and crotchety—head gardener ever to plant a row of bulbs at a British country house.

The Glass Ocean: BC book. A captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century—two deep in the past, one in the present—to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.

The Lost Apothecary: One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose. In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago.

When Life Gives You Lululemons: Emily Charlton, former assistant to Miranda Priestly, finds herself in CT visiting her dear friend Miriam. While there Emily meets Karolina Hartwell the former face of L’Oreal and now wife of the newly elected senator from New York, Graham, who also has his eye on the presidency. When Karolina is falsely arrested for a DUI—Miriam becomes the link between them. All three women have something to prove.

Big Summer: Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life and asks if she’ll be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless.

The Vacationers: For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. The sunlit island, its mountains and beaches, its tapas and tennis courts, also promise an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan. But all does not go according to plan: over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.

I picked this up at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in August

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune: When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller, she was a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room. Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America: Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City". The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims.

Float Plan: Since the loss of her fiancé, Anna has been shipwrecked by grief—until a reminder goes off about a trip they were supposed to take together. Impulsively, Anna goes to sea in their sailboat alone, intending to complete the voyage. But after a treacherous night’s sail, she realizes she can’t do it by herself and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to help. Much like Anna, Keane is struggling with a very different future than the one he had planned. As romance rises with the tide, they discover that it’s never too late to chart a new course

The Imperfects: The Millers are far from perfect. Estranged siblings Beck, Ashley and Jake find themselves under one roof for the first time in years, forced to confront old resentments and betrayals, when their mysterious, eccentric grandmother, Helen, passes away. But their lives are about to change when they find a secret inheritance hidden among her possessions—the Florentine Diamond, a 137-carat yellow gemstone that went missing from the Austrian Empire a century ago.

We Were Liars: Eighteen-year-old Cady has spent nearly every summer of her life on the private island of Beechwood, near Martha’s Vineyard, along with her family - playing with her cousins, Johnny and Mirren. Everything changes when aunt Carrie brings her boyfriend Ed and his nephew Gat. Gat Cady, Johnny, and Mirren become fast friends, calling themselves “the Liars”. Cady and Gat also fall in love. The summer that Cady is fifteen, she’s involved in an accident that results in a serious head injury. Cady is intensely focused on finding out what happened on the night of her accident - she asks everyone in her family, but they have all been advised not to tell her, and to let her recover the memories on her own. Frustrated but determined, Cady maps out all of the clues to that night and like a detective figures it out. It’s a riveting story filled with love, longing and sadness.

That Summer: Daisy Shoemaker can’t sleep. With a thriving cooking business, full schedule of volunteer work, and a beautiful home in the Philadelphia suburbs, she should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful; her husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has lots of acquaintances, but no real friends. Still, Daisy knows she’s got it good. So why is she up all night? While Daisy tries to identify the root of her dissatisfaction, she’s also receiving misdirected emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling, whose email address is just one punctuation mark away from her own. While Daisy’s driving carpools, Diana is chairing meetings. While Daisy’s making dinner, Diana’s making plans to reorganize corporations. Diana’s glamorous, sophisticated, single-lady life is miles away from Daisy’s simpler existence. When an apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends. But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not completely accidental. Who IS this other woman, and what does she want with Daisy?

Talk Bookish To Me: Kara Sullivan’s life is full of love—albeit fictional. As a bestselling romance novelist she’s fine with getting her happily-ever-after between the covers of her books. With Kara’s best friends wedding date fast approaching - what are the odds the groom is friends with her infuriating first love Ryan - and when he appears for the event the sparks fly!

The Particular Charms of Miss Jane Austen: When a time traveling Jane Austen gets stuck in modern-day Bath it's up to avid Janeite Rose Wallace to save her… because she's the only one who knows that Jane exists!

Tiny Little Thing: BC book. In the summer of 1966, Christina Hardcastle—“Tiny” to her illustrious family—stands on the brink of a breathtaking future. Of the three Schuyler sisters, she’s the one raised to marry a man destined for leadership, and with her elegance and impeccable style. At the family estate on Cape Cod, unwelcome visitors appear in Tiny’s perfect life: her volatile sister Pepper, an envelope containing an incriminating photograph and her husband’s cousin and war hero Caspian.

Northern Spy: BC book. A producer at the Belfast bureau of the BBC, Tessa is at work one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground after the Good Friday agreement, but they never really went away, and lately, bomb threats, arms drops, and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the anchor requests the public's help in locating those responsible for this latest raid - a robbery at a gas station - Tessa's sister appears on the screen. Tessa watches in shock as Marian pulls a black mask over her face.

The Midnight Library: Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets? Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; Nora must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place One of my top picks!

In Five Years: Where do you see yourself in five years? When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has an answer ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan. But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.

The Secret Life of Violet Grant: Manhattan, 1964. Vivian Schuyler sister to Christina Hardcastle and newly graduated from Bryn Mawr College, has recently defied the privilege of her storied old Fifth Avenue family to do the unthinkable break into the Mad Men world of razor-stylish Metropolitan magazine. But when she receives a bulky overseas parcel in the mail, the unexpected contents draw her inexorably back into her family’s past, and the hushed-over crime of an aunt she never knew, whose existence has been wiped from the record of history. Currently listening, the book goes between two time periods and while the 1914 feels authentic the 1964 feels more like 1940’s it sounds off to me but, I’m enjoying the story.

The Summer Wives: In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister—all long legs and world-weary bravado, engaged to a wealthy Island scion—is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. Currently listening to and so far liking.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: BC book. Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. She chooses Monique Grant to write her biography but, Monique is far from the obvious choice as an unknown writer - Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her; Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jump-start her career. Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. Currently reading and really like!

I’ve added some delightful books to the permanent collection.

Previous years posts:

You’ll see I primarily read fiction. Sometimes my selections are due to Book Club, many are recommendations and still others are because the cover art is lovely and I wanted to download something to listen to. Books are absolutely entertainment for me. As I said recently it’s not Chekhov and I’m OK with that! I loved that I read or listened to 42 titles since last Thanksgiving and I’m currently enjoying the last 3. People ask how can I read/listen to more than one thing at a time. To me it just comes down to my mood. I love the flexibility that reading and listening affords me.

I’ve also been asked if I ever start a book and decide it’s not for me. Sometimes I’m just not feeling a title and I end up circling back and finishing it at another time. That happened with Empty Mansions and Devil in the White City.

And then there are books I start and simply decide I don’t like. Recently that book was The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. I loved The Nightingale by this author but, I had just slogged by way through Educated and The Great Alone reminded me too much of that book. A lead character who has challenging parents in a remote location…. who has to try make her way. I listened to 1/3 of the audio book and I returned it. I know I’m in the minority but, that’s the beauty of being a reader - you’ll always find another!

You will also see in my sidebar that I’m still reading the Goldfinch. I started the book in June and I continue to read bits here and there - the story is engrossing and I am really enjoying it but, there is so much competing for my time and lately I’ve been listening to titles rather than reading actual books. Listening allows me to be doing something else - cleaning, walking, preparing a meal…. I know this is why the Goldfinch has yet to be finished but, in a weird way I don’t want to listen to the audio version of it. I want to keep the voices of these characters in my head and only hear the ones I create. Eventually I will finish it.

Til next time friends - Happy Reading!

If you have a recommendation - Please leave it in the comments!